Relatively stock list, looks good. I'd say the most interesting thing is the lack of Ghost Quarter/Tec Edge, and in the inclusion of Desolate Lighthouse. 25 lands also seems a bit much, especially with lighthouse and Visions.
I've been considering cutting the LD land slot for a while. At least in my meta, it isn't really needed.
Relatively stock list, looks good. I'd say the most interesting thing is the lack of Ghost Quarter/Tec Edge, and in the inclusion of Desolate Lighthouse.
Yes, he didn't have a single land destruction effect mainboard or sideboard, yet he managed to beat GR Tron in the quarter and GR Valakut in round 6.
Guys please opinions on japanese cards. Lost a 3/3 creature against Japan celestial colonade. This guy played all creatures and spells in english cards, but some cards in his manabase was japanese. I dont registrated this really ( my brain say its all fine and all english to me lets attack his empty board)...and i am sure it is a Kind of legal cheating. It is not ok, but i know legal. I Hate such people. I never forget colonade normally, but with this Tricks it can happen one time in 3 years and such people take advantage of this
If I am a customer spending premium amount of dollars, I expect a premium service. Jund falls into the category of a premium deck costing more dollars than a majority of the rest of the format. I'm not getting the desired performance ratio per dollars spent out of the Jund deck because WOTC decided to make the format more diverse.
Relatively stock list, looks good. I'd say the most interesting thing is the lack of Ghost Quarter/Tec Edge, and in the inclusion of Desolate Lighthouse.
Yes, he didn't have a single land destruction effect mainboard or sideboard, yet he managed to beat GR Tron in the quarter and GR Valakut in round 6.
Hello! Long time lurker here. Thanks for checking out my list. I was going to write a tournament report on reddit, but got too distracted with other things, so I can answer questions here instead.
From my experience, the way to beat Tron or other ramp strategies is to stall their mana development and burn them out. T3 Geist will also help this. Every time I boarded in Crumble to Dust, it just seemed too slow. Ghost Quarter felt also lacking, for about the same reason. Sure, you can do it early, but stunting your own mana development seemed bad too. I will also mention that a little luck will go a long way.
Against the Valakut player, G1 I Remanded his Farseek two turns in a row, and he also whiffed on Oath of Nissas THREE times! G2, for some reason, he boarded in Pithing Needles, thinking I was on Nahiri. My Geist followed by some counter magic on relevant spells were enough.
Against the Tron opponent in G1, I had an early Geist apply some pressure, but he had an O Stone followed by a Wurmcoil, but nothing else. At one point, I Clique'd him to see 2 Sylvan Scryings while already having like 8 land out. A lot of my stalling was blocking then blinking, or blocking and killing my own creatures. At one point, my opponent has 14 lands in play with the Wurmcoil, and I have a Geist with a Cryptic in hand. My opponent and I were talking a lot, making jokes and whatnot, and I got too casual and forgot to tap down his Wurmcoil before the combat phase. That definitely costed me the game because I was in a position to attack and draw into some burn spells. G2/3 were all about Stony Silence and a flurry of burn spells.
These were my matches for the day:
R1: Grixis Delver (W, 2-0)
R2: Living End (W, 2-0)
R3: Scapeshift (w, 2-0)
R4: Esper Zur (W, 2-0)
R5: Elves (W, 2-1)
R6: R/G Valakut (W, 2-0)
R7: ID
R8: ID
T8: R/G Tron (W, 2-1)
T4: UWR Nahiri (W, 2-1)
T2: Jund (L, 0-2)
I'll be happy to answer any other questions about my tournament. Definitely excited to get to go to an invitational, especially qualifying with a deck I really like.
I'm running Elspeth, Sun's Champion over Keranos right now.
We do have better options than Spellskite. Infect and Burn are very positive MUs already. Better to use your sideboard slots for our bad MUs.
I think you are seriously underestimating how good protection from white is.
Relatively stock list, looks good. I'd say the most interesting thing is the lack of Ghost Quarter/Tec Edge, and in the inclusion of Desolate Lighthouse.
Yes, he didn't have a single land destruction effect mainboard or sideboard, yet he managed to beat GR Tron in the quarter and GR Valakut in round 6.
Hello! Long time lurker here. Thanks for checking out my list. I was going to write a tournament report on reddit, but got too distracted with other things, so I can answer questions here instead.
From my experience, the way to beat Tron or other ramp strategies is to stall their mana development and burn them out. T3 Geist will also help this. Every time I boarded in Crumble to Dust, it just seemed too slow. Ghost Quarter felt also lacking, for about the same reason. Sure, you can do it early, but stunting your own mana development seemed bad too. I will also mention that a little luck will go a long way.
Against the Valakut player, G1 I Remanded his Farseek two turns in a row, and he also whiffed on Oath of Nissas THREE times! G2, for some reason, he boarded in Pithing Needles, thinking I was on Nahiri. My Geist followed by some counter magic on relevant spells were enough.
Against the Tron opponent in G1, I had an early Geist apply some pressure, but he had an O Stone followed by a Wurmcoil, but nothing else. At one point, I Clique'd him to see 2 Sylvan Scryings while already having like 8 land out. A lot of my stalling was blocking then blinking, or blocking and killing my own creatures. At one point, my opponent has 14 lands in play with the Wurmcoil, and I have a Geist with a Cryptic in hand. My opponent and I were talking a lot, making jokes and whatnot, and I got too casual and forgot to tap down his Wurmcoil before the combat phase. That definitely costed me the game because I was in a position to attack and draw into some burn spells. G2/3 were all about Stony Silence and a flurry of burn spells.
These were my matches for the day:
R1: Grixis Delver (W, 2-0)
R2: Living End (W, 2-0)
R3: Scapeshift (w, 2-0)
R4: Esper Zur (W, 2-0)
R5: Elves (W, 2-1)
R6: R/G Valakut (W, 2-0)
R7: ID
R8: ID
T8: R/G Tron (W, 2-1)
T4: UWR Nahiri (W, 2-1)
T2: Jund (L, 0-2)
I'll be happy to answer any other questions about my tournament. Definitely excited to get to go to an invitational, especially qualifying with a deck I really like.
Impressive showdown, congratulations! Living End is a hard matchup too, especially as you don't have any graveyard hate. How did the finals against jund go down?
Relatively stock list, looks good. I'd say the most interesting thing is the lack of Ghost Quarter/Tec Edge, and in the inclusion of Desolate Lighthouse.
Yes, he didn't have a single land destruction effect mainboard or sideboard, yet he managed to beat GR Tron in the quarter and GR Valakut in round 6.
Hello! Long time lurker here. Thanks for checking out my list. I was going to write a tournament report on reddit, but got too distracted with other things, so I can answer questions here instead.
From my experience, the way to beat Tron or other ramp strategies is to stall their mana development and burn them out. T3 Geist will also help this. Every time I boarded in Crumble to Dust, it just seemed too slow. Ghost Quarter felt also lacking, for about the same reason. Sure, you can do it early, but stunting your own mana development seemed bad too. I will also mention that a little luck will go a long way.
Against the Valakut player, G1 I Remanded his Farseek two turns in a row, and he also whiffed on Oath of Nissas THREE times! G2, for some reason, he boarded in Pithing Needles, thinking I was on Nahiri. My Geist followed by some counter magic on relevant spells were enough.
Against the Tron opponent in G1, I had an early Geist apply some pressure, but he had an O Stone followed by a Wurmcoil, but nothing else. At one point, I Clique'd him to see 2 Sylvan Scryings while already having like 8 land out. A lot of my stalling was blocking then blinking, or blocking and killing my own creatures. At one point, my opponent has 14 lands in play with the Wurmcoil, and I have a Geist with a Cryptic in hand. My opponent and I were talking a lot, making jokes and whatnot, and I got too casual and forgot to tap down his Wurmcoil before the combat phase. That definitely costed me the game because I was in a position to attack and draw into some burn spells. G2/3 were all about Stony Silence and a flurry of burn spells.
These were my matches for the day:
R1: Grixis Delver (W, 2-0)
R2: Living End (W, 2-0)
R3: Scapeshift (w, 2-0)
R4: Esper Zur (W, 2-0)
R5: Elves (W, 2-1)
R6: R/G Valakut (W, 2-0)
R7: ID
R8: ID
T8: R/G Tron (W, 2-1)
T4: UWR Nahiri (W, 2-1)
T2: Jund (L, 0-2)
I'll be happy to answer any other questions about my tournament. Definitely excited to get to go to an invitational, especially qualifying with a deck I really like.
Impressive showdown, congratulations! Living End is a hard matchup too, especially as you don't have any graveyard hate. How did the finals against jund go down?
Thanks! Yeah, I never liked graveyard hate like Relic or Rest in Peace for my SB, so basically I just Remand all the Living Ends and try to Bolt them down. Clique goes a long way in that matchup too.
Jund can be a tough matchup. I feel like I have a much better late game, but getting to that point can be difficult. G1 I had to Path his first Confidant (which I hate doing), but didnt have an answer to the 2nd Confidant. He also had Liliana for my Geist, and that was pretty much it. G2 I mulliganed and my opponent did the Jund thing of T1 discard, T2 Goyf, T3 Liliana, T4 Kalitas.
It's possible that it could be a sideboard card, but I don't necessarily see it as mainboardable. And even then, against Tron, maybe we just want Mindcensor at 3 mana?
So the new Thalia looks interesting for us, doesn't it? Blockers enter tapped and Geist can be more effective. Can slow down Tron and combo decks. It's good with flash creatures 'cause you can still untap them. Not saying it will necessarily make the cut though, 'cause Clique and Geist himself compete for that CMC3 creature spot. Maybe it can replace something else.
Hmmm.. problem is it will feel awful when it just eats a bolt, that being said I do think it could have good applications in some matches, I could see it as a possible sideboard card and in the right meta maindeckable.
So the new Thalia looks interesting for us, doesn't it? Blockers enter tapped and Geist can be more effective. Can slow down Tron and combo decks. It's good with flash creatures 'cause you can still untap them. Not saying it will necessarily make the cut though, 'cause Clique and Geist himself compete for that CMC3 creature spot. Maybe it can replace something else.
Midrange decks are supposed to run a few creatures that either derive value or is resistant to removal. Clique, Geist, Restoration angel all meet these requirements but Thalia Heretic does not.
Yeah, Blessed Alliance is deceptively good. Think how useful it can be in a damage race. Has applications vs Burn, Tron, Bogles etc. And the real clincher is that it's versatile AND you can escalate. RE Substantiate, it does have another advantage over remand other than the versatility, which is it gets past uncounterable spells like Counterflux and Supreme Verdict. Also, in a deck like UWr Midrange with Geist, I feel like the ability to bounce a blocker is actually a significant option. Definitely not horrible...
I had a crazy thought this morning. I often feel like knowing what my opponent has in hand can make a massive difference in the lines I take. So.... (Drumroll)... Would I be nuts to throw 4 Gitaxian Probe into the deck and just run 64 without any extra lands? Use it to peek, pay 2 life and essentially it cycles. Provides further fuel for Lavamancer...
I had a crazy thought this morning. I often feel like knowing what my opponent has in hand can make a massive difference in the lines I take. So.... (Drumroll)... Would I be nuts to throw 4 Gitaxian Probe into the deck and just run 64 without any extra lands? Use it to peek, pay 2 life and essentially it cycles. Provides further fuel for Lavamancer...
It wouldn't work exactly like that, just going to 64 without adding any extra lands. The primary reason we run so many lands is to average 3 per starting 7. If you add 4 cards you will be lowering your average starting hand land count. I do understand you will be cycling for "free" but what if that cycle doesn't get you a land that you need?
I feel that you'd be better off running 60 and only 60 cards in your deck. If you want to use the "free" card ability then use it to make your deck more consistent. I do love the idea of knowing what the opponent has. Sometimes I play around with Esper variants to enjoy thoughtseize and inquisition of kozilek which provide huge upside knowing what my opponent is likely to do. I wish WoTC would just print a 1U Counter Target Spell Unless It's Controller Pays 1, You Can Look At Target Player's Hand.
Hey congrats on the solid finish. I am preparing for the GP in Lille in a couple months and I wanted your take on specifically if this Geist list you played to a second place finish was with a specific knowledge of the Metagame in your area. Also I wanted your take on desolate lighthouse and how it performed for you? Was it specifically used because of the sometimes clunky hands with multiple legendary creatures?
Hey congrats on the solid finish. I am preparing for the GP in Lille in a couple months and I wanted your take on specifically if this Geist list you played to a second place finish was with a specific knowledge of the Metagame in your area. Also I wanted your take on desolate lighthouse and how it performed for you? Was it specifically used because of the sometimes clunky hands with multiple legendary creatures?
Hey, thanks a lot! Since the SCG Classics consist of people from all over who didn't Day 2 the main Open, the decklist is pretty stock to what I'm used to playing. I figured that the field would be pretty wide open, and it shows in the matches I played. I know there's a lot of debate between Remand vs Mana Leak. I just prefer Remand since it basically replaces itself even when it's bad. It's the key to winning bad matchups like Tron and Living End. To me, it's not about eliminating the threat, but rather to prolong it while Geist or Angels get in for damage. The SB has all the greatest hits of the UWR pie. Gideon was actually pretty awesome against Grixis opponent, as the planeswalker made a chump blocker every turn vs their Tasigur, then threatened lethal when I was ready. The flex slots are Timely Reinforcements, since I expected more aggressive decks, and Counterflux for the uptick in blue-based control decks. It's also decent against Tron, since you have so many dead cards game 1.
Desolate Lighthouse is a product of me not liking Ghost Quarter in the deck. Again, I fight Tron and other ramp strategies by countering key spells/threats rather than deny their manabase. I always felt that Ghost Quarter stifled your own development, since I'm always hungry for mana to activate a Colonnade or Snapcaster a Cryptic. Lighthouse shines best in the grindy matchups that go late, like Jund and Nahiri Control. You don't always see it, but when you do and it's late in the game, you're thankful to have it.
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I've been considering cutting the LD land slot for a while. At least in my meta, it isn't really needed.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
Yes, he didn't have a single land destruction effect mainboard or sideboard, yet he managed to beat GR Tron in the quarter and GR Valakut in round 6.
UWRUWR Delver/Lynx TempoUWR-------UWRUWR Midrange GeistUWR-------UWRUWR Nahiri ControlUWR-------UWRUWR SaheeliUWR
BGRJund / Jund ShadowBGR-------BGWAbzan / Abzan ShadowBGW
Commander (Leviathan/MTGO): UWGeist of Saint TraftUW
I don't think it's worth it, but I've never tried it. Test it for a while and let us know how it goes?
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
I may, but finding 4 spots has been hard. Still torn on midrange or control Jeskai. Once I get my last 2 tarns I wil start grinding this out more
Hello! Long time lurker here. Thanks for checking out my list. I was going to write a tournament report on reddit, but got too distracted with other things, so I can answer questions here instead.
From my experience, the way to beat Tron or other ramp strategies is to stall their mana development and burn them out. T3 Geist will also help this. Every time I boarded in Crumble to Dust, it just seemed too slow. Ghost Quarter felt also lacking, for about the same reason. Sure, you can do it early, but stunting your own mana development seemed bad too. I will also mention that a little luck will go a long way.
Against the Valakut player, G1 I Remanded his Farseek two turns in a row, and he also whiffed on Oath of Nissas THREE times! G2, for some reason, he boarded in Pithing Needles, thinking I was on Nahiri. My Geist followed by some counter magic on relevant spells were enough.
Against the Tron opponent in G1, I had an early Geist apply some pressure, but he had an O Stone followed by a Wurmcoil, but nothing else. At one point, I Clique'd him to see 2 Sylvan Scryings while already having like 8 land out. A lot of my stalling was blocking then blinking, or blocking and killing my own creatures. At one point, my opponent has 14 lands in play with the Wurmcoil, and I have a Geist with a Cryptic in hand. My opponent and I were talking a lot, making jokes and whatnot, and I got too casual and forgot to tap down his Wurmcoil before the combat phase. That definitely costed me the game because I was in a position to attack and draw into some burn spells. G2/3 were all about Stony Silence and a flurry of burn spells.
These were my matches for the day:
R1: Grixis Delver (W, 2-0)
R2: Living End (W, 2-0)
R3: Scapeshift (w, 2-0)
R4: Esper Zur (W, 2-0)
R5: Elves (W, 2-1)
R6: R/G Valakut (W, 2-0)
R7: ID
R8: ID
T8: R/G Tron (W, 2-1)
T4: UWR Nahiri (W, 2-1)
T2: Jund (L, 0-2)
I'll be happy to answer any other questions about my tournament. Definitely excited to get to go to an invitational, especially qualifying with a deck I really like.
I think you are seriously underestimating how good protection from white is.
In my experience, nothing beats a big ol hasty dragon in the 5 mana slot.
Just a thought
Impressive showdown, congratulations! Living End is a hard matchup too, especially as you don't have any graveyard hate. How did the finals against jund go down?
UWRUWR Delver/Lynx TempoUWR-------UWRUWR Midrange GeistUWR-------UWRUWR Nahiri ControlUWR-------UWRUWR SaheeliUWR
BGRJund / Jund ShadowBGR-------BGWAbzan / Abzan ShadowBGW
Commander (Leviathan/MTGO): UWGeist of Saint TraftUW
Thanks! Yeah, I never liked graveyard hate like Relic or Rest in Peace for my SB, so basically I just Remand all the Living Ends and try to Bolt them down. Clique goes a long way in that matchup too.
Jund can be a tough matchup. I feel like I have a much better late game, but getting to that point can be difficult. G1 I had to Path his first Confidant (which I hate doing), but didnt have an answer to the 2nd Confidant. He also had Liliana for my Geist, and that was pretty much it. G2 I mulliganed and my opponent did the Jund thing of T1 discard, T2 Goyf, T3 Liliana, T4 Kalitas.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
Hmmm.. problem is it will feel awful when it just eats a bolt, that being said I do think it could have good applications in some matches, I could see it as a possible sideboard card and in the right meta maindeckable.
Midrange decks are supposed to run a few creatures that either derive value or is resistant to removal. Clique, Geist, Restoration angel all meet these requirements but Thalia Heretic does not.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
It wouldn't work exactly like that, just going to 64 without adding any extra lands. The primary reason we run so many lands is to average 3 per starting 7. If you add 4 cards you will be lowering your average starting hand land count. I do understand you will be cycling for "free" but what if that cycle doesn't get you a land that you need?
I feel that you'd be better off running 60 and only 60 cards in your deck. If you want to use the "free" card ability then use it to make your deck more consistent. I do love the idea of knowing what the opponent has. Sometimes I play around with Esper variants to enjoy thoughtseize and inquisition of kozilek which provide huge upside knowing what my opponent is likely to do. I wish WoTC would just print a 1U Counter Target Spell Unless It's Controller Pays 1, You Can Look At Target Player's Hand.
Hey, thanks a lot! Since the SCG Classics consist of people from all over who didn't Day 2 the main Open, the decklist is pretty stock to what I'm used to playing. I figured that the field would be pretty wide open, and it shows in the matches I played. I know there's a lot of debate between Remand vs Mana Leak. I just prefer Remand since it basically replaces itself even when it's bad. It's the key to winning bad matchups like Tron and Living End. To me, it's not about eliminating the threat, but rather to prolong it while Geist or Angels get in for damage. The SB has all the greatest hits of the UWR pie. Gideon was actually pretty awesome against Grixis opponent, as the planeswalker made a chump blocker every turn vs their Tasigur, then threatened lethal when I was ready. The flex slots are Timely Reinforcements, since I expected more aggressive decks, and Counterflux for the uptick in blue-based control decks. It's also decent against Tron, since you have so many dead cards game 1.
Desolate Lighthouse is a product of me not liking Ghost Quarter in the deck. Again, I fight Tron and other ramp strategies by countering key spells/threats rather than deny their manabase. I always felt that Ghost Quarter stifled your own development, since I'm always hungry for mana to activate a Colonnade or Snapcaster a Cryptic. Lighthouse shines best in the grindy matchups that go late, like Jund and Nahiri Control. You don't always see it, but when you do and it's late in the game, you're thankful to have it.