I don't find it to be win more at all. When it comes to it being good in our good matchups, that is true, but when you look at decks like Burn, Affinity and Infect, while they are great matchups for us, they're very easy to lose out of nowhere because they can be incredibly explosive, and I think Lavamancer helps us there. It also helps against Elves, which is a tough matchup in my opinion, and in matchups like Jund allowing you to do things like Bolt a Goyf a 5/6 Goyf and then shoot it for 2 with Lavaman and shrink it by what you exile from the yard. Obviously that scenario takes a bit of set up, but it's certainly doable. I think the card has certainly earned it's spot as a 1-of, and you should certainly look into testing it.
I think he's fine against Jund. There's every possibility that they will board out some number of removal spells because they're dead card, and Lavamancer is good when the game goes long. If they kill it, you hardly care.
I lost game 1, at one point attempting to Izzet Charm a Kird Ape (that doesn't work favorably when they have a Stomping Ground in play) which I attribute to my 3 hours of sleep the night before. I took game 2 after a Spreading Seas on his Stomping Ground and burning him out and game 3 I kept a hand of EE, Lavamancer, Path, Path, Helix, Helix, on the draw with a scry. I thought this would be a reasonable keep, given that it's all removal and I'm on the draw, and two of my removal spells are essentially Time Walks. He played Arid Mesa and passed, I played a tapped Colonnade off of my scry. I drew a UR land of some sort (can't recall if it was a Tarn or Steam Vents) and long story short, I attempted to Helix his Bushwhacker and he blew me out with a Tarfire on his own creature.
0-1
Round 2: Walter on Burn
Lost game 1, won game 2 and in game 3 I was sitting at 5 with a Snapcaster in play, one more in my hand, and a graveyard that included a Dispel and a Helix. He played an Eidolon, which I hit with a Wear//Tear and I went to 3, knowing I had Snap+Dispel/Helix as an option to save me from lethal if he had another spell. I untapped, drew another Snapcaster, played a land and passed. He cast another Eidolon and I missed that I had the line of Snap in response, target Helix, let Eidolon resolve and then Helix it so I let it resolve and prayed for a good topdeck, which ended up being a Helix to win the game.
1-1
Round 3: Josh on UG Infect
This is actually one of my friends that I rode to the event with, so we knew each other's lists as we sat down. I don't really remember the details of the match, but I won it in 2.
2-1
Round 4: Tab on Tron
I knew my opponent was on Tron as I had watched his match against one of my other friends the round before. I ran him over with a Geist game 1, and got him all the way down to 1 in game 2 while I peaked at 27. I just needed 1 more Burn spell to get me there, and couldn't find it after his Ulamog milled a bunch of cards. I lost game 3 to just playing too defensively. I died with 2 Geists in my hand and should have most certainly played one of them. My opponent was at 10 life when when ended the game, so I feel as though my not playing a Geist was a huge contributing factor.
2-2
Round 5: Michael on Grishoalbrand
He comboed off in game 1, all because I tried to Electrolyze him. Game two, I killed him with a Grim Lavamancer. Not a joke. Turn 1 Lavamancer got there (probably should have boarded it out, but I didn't have much to bring in.) Game 3 I pressured him with a Geist and he just couldn't really do anything. I countered all of his Trough the Breaches and he resolved a Nourishing Shoal at one point which bought him some time but didn't matter much.
3-2
Round 6: Morgan on Tron
My opponent mulliganed to 5 both games so this match went pretty well.
4-2,16th place.
I've since chosen to cut the Izzet Charm for a third Colonnade, since I think trying to cast Elspeth off of 23 lands seems a bit risky and I don't really even know that I liked 23 lands anyway. The deck felt like the best build I have played in a while, and I don't really know that I should have lost either of the matches that I did, and really only did so due to a couple of moments of poor decision making. The sideboard plan felt good against everything besides Grishoalbrand, but I don't think that deck is worth devoting dedicated slots to.
I played in a weekly Tuesday Night Modern event last night as well with the following changes:
Main: -1 Izzet Charm, +1 Celestial Colonnade
Side: -1 Crumble to Dust, +1 Kozilek's Return (my area has a bit less Tron and a bit more Affinity. I'd play my 2k sideboard in a more open event.)
I went 4-0 and didn't drop a game until Round 4. My rounds were:
Round 1: Justin on Abzan CoCo
Round 2: Dan on Grixis Control (why do people play this deck? It's so bad)
Round 3: Steven on URWb Thopter Gifts
Round 4: Sam on UG Infect (dropped Game 1)
I don't know that I really see the argument behind Distortion Strike helping those matchups. The +1/+0 isn't really relevant and the unblockable is rarely relevant in those matchups. I also disagree that Ad Nauseam is a bad matchup, but that's just splitting hairs really.
Blessed Alliance seems pretty medium, I think it has the problem that you believe Grim Lavamancer has. Spell Queller and Unsubstantiate seem interesting though.
I was going to ask about ancestral vision. I initially included 1 in my 75, but seemed a win more card since we draw well anyway. I played a mardu deck with lili and discard and while I won the match, I wonder if a few ancestral visions would be good to combat the discard effects.
I think Elspeth is enough against the grindy decks. They just can't beat one if it resolves. I'd also rather play something like Keranos or another grindy threat rather than AV to help those matchups.
Thoughtseizes and Inquisitions get sided out form games 2 and 3 because their terrible in grindy matchups. It's also extremely reductionist to make the "they'll just Thoughseize it away" argument because at that point, they can Thoughtseize anything. Your argument for "we need to draw it" is the exact same for Maelstrom Pulse, they play 1, MAYBE 2 in the 75. Fulminator is way easier to beat than people give it credit for. There are plenty of answers to Goyf and Lili to help you bridge the gap to casting your Elspeth, and that matchup is like 50/50 anyway. We don't HAVE to cast Elspeth to win, it's just a good haymaker to have access to.
Is Geist a sacred cow or have we been trying Spell Queller with more of a flash strategy?
I have begun play testing for the GP using Spell Queller instead of Geist.
It's amazing. Spell Queller is the only reason I'm considering going away from Nahiri Jeskai to Jeskai Flash.
Sure. It's a slower clock "in theory"; however, being an evasive body is huge.
Plus the counter element to the card is super effective.
I took a UWR flash variant to a PPTQ and ended up going 3-3. My only losses were Ad Nasium (drew nut game 3), Elves (bad matchup), and Utron (never saw land destruction, he slave-locked me both games).
It wasn't a bad finish given the fact that my deck was the first rough design I threw together the night before. I didn't have any serum visions for example which really hurt.
* Discard spells are NOT terribile in grindy MUs and a good Jund player will NOT board them out;
* I don't know how Goyf, Lily and Fulminator Kolaghan are "easy to beat", need more clarification of that;
* I pointed out Seize and Pulse 'cause you said they can't deal with Elspeth. It's 4 cards vs 1. Plus some Jund players now run Dreadbore in the sideboard because of Nahiri. I'm not saying Elspeth is bad. What I'm saying is she's not enough. Not unbeatable. And I'm not happy where my Jund MU is at. I feel a good Jund pilot has the advantage. We can win, but it's tough and can't really beat their good draws.
* I'm trying out a couple maindeck Dragonlord Ojutai to see how I like them with Minamo and Stronghold;
Discard spells are absolutely abysmal in grindy matchups. They just don't do anything when you're in top deck mode, and the game will certainly get there. I disagree that a good Jund pilot has an advantage, I really do believe that the matchup is 50/50. That isn't to say that they can't have an advantage sometimes. I've played Dragonlord Ojutai previously and it was very medium. The end result didn't really measure up to the cost put into the card.
Is Geist a sacred cow or have we been trying Spell Queller with more of a flash strategy?
I have begun play testing for the GP using Spell Queller instead of Geist.
It's amazing. Spell Queller is the only reason I'm considering going away from Nahiri Jeskai to Jeskai Flash.
Sure. It's a slower clock "in theory"; however, being an evasive body is huge.
Plus the counter element to the card is super effective.
I took a UWR flash variant to a PPTQ and ended up going 3-3. My only losses were Ad Nasium (drew nut game 3), Elves (bad matchup), and Utron (never saw land destruction, he slave-locked me both games).
It wasn't a bad finish given the fact that my deck was the first rough design I threw together the night before. I didn't have any serum visions for example which really hurt.
I can almost guarantee that if you had been playing Geist over Spell Queller against Ad Naus and U Tron, you would have had a much easier time. Geist is one of the most important cards in the Ad Naus matchup because it puts on a ridiculous clock, where as Spell Queller is just too slow. U Tron also has very few ways with dealing with a Geist, and clocking them (just like their RG cousin) is extremely important. Elves is basically a toss up.
Is Geist a sacred cow or have we been trying Spell Queller with more of a flash strategy?
I have begun play testing for the GP using Spell Queller instead of Geist.
It's amazing. Spell Queller is the only reason I'm considering going away from Nahiri Jeskai to Jeskai Flash.
Sure. It's a slower clock "in theory"; however, being an evasive body is huge.
Plus the counter element to the card is super effective.
I took a UWR flash variant to a PPTQ and ended up going 3-3. My only losses were Ad Nasium (drew nut game 3), Elves (bad matchup), and Utron (never saw land destruction, he slave-locked me both games).
It wasn't a bad finish given the fact that my deck was the first rough design I threw together the night before. I didn't have any serum visions for example which really hurt.
I can almost guarantee that if you had been playing Geist over Spell Queller against Ad Naus and U Tron, you would have had a much easier time. Geist is one of the most important cards in the Ad Naus matchup because it puts on a ridiculous clock, where as Spell Queller is just too slow. U Tron also has very few ways with dealing with a Geist, and clocking them (just like their RG cousin) is extremely important. Elves is basically a toss up.
Ad Saseum wasn't a bad matchup. Spell Queller actually helped alot due to being able to nab lotus.
The big problem was I was not playing Serum Visions. So my card draw was rough. Both games I lost I drew one counter or less.
Geist may have helped vs tron... but based on how the games went: I would never have resolved it.
Again not having serum visions to actually find the hate I needed to draw hurt badly.
Someone in my local area won a 22-man Modern tournament with Jeskai Geist on Sunday. 5 rounds Swiss then Top 8, where he beat Abzan in the final.
This was his list:
Creatures (14):
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Restoration Angel
Spells (22):
1 Forked Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Serum Visions
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
2 Remand
4 Lightning Helix
Lands (24):
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Arid Mesa
3 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard (15):
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Celestial Purge
1 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Wear // Tear
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Wrath of God
1 Keranos, God of Storms
It all looks fairly standard apart from the Forked Bolt perhaps?
The thing I'm most interested in is the Rest In Peace // Grafdigger's Cage split. Any opinions on which is better? Is a split good or do I want 2 of one? I figured there's a lot more Library antics at the moment with Nahiri and Company/Chord decks...
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UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
1x Grim Lavamancer
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Vendilion Clique
4x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Restoration Angel
Instants and Sorceries:
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
3x Serum Visions
1x Spell Snare
3x Mana Leak
2x Remand
1x Izzet Charm
4x Lightning Helix
1x Electrolyze
4x Flooded Strand
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Steam Vents
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Island
1x Plains
1x Mountain
2x Celestial Colonnade
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2x Crumble to Dust
2x Spreading Seas
1x Negate
1x Dispel
1x Stony Silence
1x Rest in Peace
1x Celestial Purge
1x Wear//Tear
1x Timely Reinforcements
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Anger of the Gods
Round 1: Josh on Bushwhacker Zoo
I lost game 1, at one point attempting to Izzet Charm a Kird Ape (that doesn't work favorably when they have a Stomping Ground in play) which I attribute to my 3 hours of sleep the night before. I took game 2 after a Spreading Seas on his Stomping Ground and burning him out and game 3 I kept a hand of EE, Lavamancer, Path, Path, Helix, Helix, on the draw with a scry. I thought this would be a reasonable keep, given that it's all removal and I'm on the draw, and two of my removal spells are essentially Time Walks. He played Arid Mesa and passed, I played a tapped Colonnade off of my scry. I drew a UR land of some sort (can't recall if it was a Tarn or Steam Vents) and long story short, I attempted to Helix his Bushwhacker and he blew me out with a Tarfire on his own creature.
0-1
Round 2: Walter on Burn
Lost game 1, won game 2 and in game 3 I was sitting at 5 with a Snapcaster in play, one more in my hand, and a graveyard that included a Dispel and a Helix. He played an Eidolon, which I hit with a Wear//Tear and I went to 3, knowing I had Snap+Dispel/Helix as an option to save me from lethal if he had another spell. I untapped, drew another Snapcaster, played a land and passed. He cast another Eidolon and I missed that I had the line of Snap in response, target Helix, let Eidolon resolve and then Helix it so I let it resolve and prayed for a good topdeck, which ended up being a Helix to win the game.
1-1
Round 3: Josh on UG Infect
This is actually one of my friends that I rode to the event with, so we knew each other's lists as we sat down. I don't really remember the details of the match, but I won it in 2.
2-1
Round 4: Tab on Tron
I knew my opponent was on Tron as I had watched his match against one of my other friends the round before. I ran him over with a Geist game 1, and got him all the way down to 1 in game 2 while I peaked at 27. I just needed 1 more Burn spell to get me there, and couldn't find it after his Ulamog milled a bunch of cards. I lost game 3 to just playing too defensively. I died with 2 Geists in my hand and should have most certainly played one of them. My opponent was at 10 life when when ended the game, so I feel as though my not playing a Geist was a huge contributing factor.
2-2
Round 5: Michael on Grishoalbrand
He comboed off in game 1, all because I tried to Electrolyze him. Game two, I killed him with a Grim Lavamancer. Not a joke. Turn 1 Lavamancer got there (probably should have boarded it out, but I didn't have much to bring in.) Game 3 I pressured him with a Geist and he just couldn't really do anything. I countered all of his Trough the Breaches and he resolved a Nourishing Shoal at one point which bought him some time but didn't matter much.
3-2
Round 6: Morgan on Tron
My opponent mulliganed to 5 both games so this match went pretty well.
4-2,16th place.
I've since chosen to cut the Izzet Charm for a third Colonnade, since I think trying to cast Elspeth off of 23 lands seems a bit risky and I don't really even know that I liked 23 lands anyway. The deck felt like the best build I have played in a while, and I don't really know that I should have lost either of the matches that I did, and really only did so due to a couple of moments of poor decision making. The sideboard plan felt good against everything besides Grishoalbrand, but I don't think that deck is worth devoting dedicated slots to.
I played in a weekly Tuesday Night Modern event last night as well with the following changes:
Main: -1 Izzet Charm, +1 Celestial Colonnade
Side: -1 Crumble to Dust, +1 Kozilek's Return (my area has a bit less Tron and a bit more Affinity. I'd play my 2k sideboard in a more open event.)
I went 4-0 and didn't drop a game until Round 4. My rounds were:
Round 1: Justin on Abzan CoCo
Round 2: Dan on Grixis Control (why do people play this deck? It's so bad)
Round 3: Steven on URWb Thopter Gifts
Round 4: Sam on UG Infect (dropped Game 1)
Deck's great.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=105648
Looks very, very stock - with a split of remand/mana leak, 24 lands, 3 SV..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
Blessed Alliance seems pretty medium, I think it has the problem that you believe Grim Lavamancer has. Spell Queller and Unsubstantiate seem interesting though.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
He doesn't do for the deck what Geist does which is closing speed.
I have begun play testing for the GP using Spell Queller instead of Geist.
It's amazing. Spell Queller is the only reason I'm considering going away from Nahiri Jeskai to Jeskai Flash.
Sure. It's a slower clock "in theory"; however, being an evasive body is huge.
Plus the counter element to the card is super effective.
I took a UWR flash variant to a PPTQ and ended up going 3-3. My only losses were Ad Nasium (drew nut game 3), Elves (bad matchup), and Utron (never saw land destruction, he slave-locked me both games).
It wasn't a bad finish given the fact that my deck was the first rough design I threw together the night before. I didn't have any serum visions for example which really hurt.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Discard spells are absolutely abysmal in grindy matchups. They just don't do anything when you're in top deck mode, and the game will certainly get there. I disagree that a good Jund pilot has an advantage, I really do believe that the matchup is 50/50. That isn't to say that they can't have an advantage sometimes. I've played Dragonlord Ojutai previously and it was very medium. The end result didn't really measure up to the cost put into the card.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
I can almost guarantee that if you had been playing Geist over Spell Queller against Ad Naus and U Tron, you would have had a much easier time. Geist is one of the most important cards in the Ad Naus matchup because it puts on a ridiculous clock, where as Spell Queller is just too slow. U Tron also has very few ways with dealing with a Geist, and clocking them (just like their RG cousin) is extremely important. Elves is basically a toss up.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
Ad Saseum wasn't a bad matchup. Spell Queller actually helped alot due to being able to nab lotus.
The big problem was I was not playing Serum Visions. So my card draw was rough. Both games I lost I drew one counter or less.
Geist may have helped vs tron... but based on how the games went: I would never have resolved it.
Again not having serum visions to actually find the hate I needed to draw hurt badly.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
This was his list:
Creatures (14):
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Restoration Angel
Spells (22):
1 Forked Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
3 Serum Visions
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
2 Remand
4 Lightning Helix
Lands (24):
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Arid Mesa
3 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard (15):
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Celestial Purge
1 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Wear // Tear
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Wrath of God
1 Keranos, God of Storms
It all looks fairly standard apart from the Forked Bolt perhaps?
The thing I'm most interested in is the Rest In Peace // Grafdigger's Cage split. Any opinions on which is better? Is a split good or do I want 2 of one? I figured there's a lot more Library antics at the moment with Nahiri and Company/Chord decks...