MTG Salvation

I'm planning to test 4 Meddling Mage instead of 4 Spreading Seas in the sideboard for Eldrazi matchup. I've tried 4 Spreading Seas in the SB and 2 Rejection, while it delay them for a few turns, they usually get out of the soft land lock eventually.

Meddling Mage is like pseudo Chalice of the Void, naming TKS and Reality Smashers. I will be pretty happy if my Eldrazi opponent will PTE/Dismember my Mage early game, giving way to Spell Queller to stick permanently as their list usually run 3-4 spot removals. And if were able to untap and protect the Mage with counterspells/Queller, that means that no TKS and Smasher will hit the board.

Quote from ebrosef »

What do people think of Archangel Avacyn in the 4x list?

After testing, Archangel Avacyn was pretty bad. I felt myself wanting a Resto Angel in almost every situation that I drew Avacyn.

I do have another card that actually exceeded my expectations though - Glory-Bound Initiate. When I first saw this card pop up it was in the Top 8 of GP Kobe in a UWb midrange, and my first though was "this has to be a typo." This card looks atrocious for modern at first glance. However, I think it actually has legs in a Jeskai Flash list. It has great synergy with Resto Angel and Slayers' Stronghold. I've been testing it out in a list similar to Kyle Boggemes' Jeskai Flash list in place of Blade Splicer. Here's the list I'm trying:



What I've liked about Glory-Bound Initiate so far is that is serves as a cheap intermediate between Geist and Blade Splicer. It is good against aggressive decks but it also provides a decent clock. Geist is better against blue decks and Blade Splicer is better against GBx, but those matches are closer to 50/50 to start with. The nicest part by far is that it doesn't require any build-around for it to operate and survive most combat. Resto and Slayer's Stronghold are just nice stand-alone synergy. At it's worst, it eats a piece of removal that would have gone to a Spell Queller. I've been pleasantly surprised by it so far. I could maybe even see myself going up to 4, but I like where my spell suite is at right now.

Two jeskai decks made top 8 in the MKM series Prague modern event (~300 participants) yesterday, where one was jeskai geist (top 4) and one was jeskai saheeli (top 8)

http://series.magiccardmarket.eu/coverage-mkm-series-prague-2017-modern/

Geist list runs 4 cryptic Commands and only 9 creatures, including a Dragonlord Ojutai:

So, I am back after some time awol from this thread.
My final list, the one I am taking to 6 side events on GP Birmingham, is the following:

After extensive testing here are my results with the list:
I wish I could test alot more, because some matchups simply don't have a big enough sample size to draw any conclusion upon, but still nice to see the deck does fairly well against the general field. Data was collected on *not so legal mtg apps*, local game store FNMs and one PPTQ (in which I went 4-0-0 into top 4, losing on finals due to dumbness of not wanting to mulligan on game 2 and game 3 with crappy hands, being one round ahead already).

Quote from TheAller »

Quote from toroks »

Two jeskai decks made top 8 in the MKM series Prague modern event (~300 participants) yesterday, where one was jeskai geist (top 4) and one was jeskai saheeli (top 8)

http://series.magiccardmarket.eu/coverage-mkm-series-prague-2017-modern/

Geist list runs 4 cryptic Commands and only 9 creatures, including a Dragonlord Ojutai:

toroks's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creature 9: 4 Snapcaster Mage 4 Geist of Saint Traft 1 Dragonlord Ojutai Instant/Sorcery 27: 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Path to Exile 4 Serum Visions 1 Spell Snare 2 Logic Knot 2 Mana Leak 1 Negate 3 Lightning Helix 2 Electrolyze 4 Cryptic Command	Land 24: 3 Celestial Colonnade 2 Sulfur Falls 4 Flooded Strand 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Steam Vents 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Sacred Foundry 2 Island 1 Mountain 1 Plains 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Desolate Lighthouse

A Jeskai Geist list made it to the top 8 of the trial event on friday as well (about 100 participants).

I attended the event as well and I played a Jeskai list with Geist and Spell Queller. I was a 5-3 drop but the deck felt pretty good and I just ran into a few bad MUs (Ad Nauseam, RG Ponza and the Todd Stevens CoCo list with mana denial). It seems like it's time to play Geist again.

Yeah, pretty interesting the list from the trial event too, with 4 maindeck Spreading Seas, maindeck Dispel and only 9 creatures:

Francisco Esteban – Jeskai Aggrocontrol

Big weekend for jeskai midrange and geist fans! Jonathan Rosum top 8'ed SCG Modern Open Syracuse with 917 players and ended 3rd-4th place, while Michael Deidolori made 21st place. Rosum won 2-1 against grixis death's shadow in the quarterfinals, but lost 0-2 to Eldrazi Tron in the semi.

Jonathan Rosum's list:





Michael Deidolori's list:

I actually played nearly Rossum's exact 75 in a PPTQ yesterday. I'll do a writeup later.

Quote from TheAller »

On the other hand, I can't say I like Deidolori's list. It obviously worked well for him.

You don't like Cavern of Souls naming spirit or wizard? Neither do I

I enjoy playing UWx decks and mostly have been playing UW recently. However, closing games out is an issue and UWR appeals for this reason. The problem as I see it is, as always, is TRON. It doesn't surprise me at all that the UWR Geist list went down 0-2 to E-Tron in the finals last weekend. What is the answer here - more Ceremonious Rejection and even Disdainful Stroke (hedge against Valakut as well)? Perhaps some Runed Halo - which covers off on these two currently big meta decks.. Also Chalice on 1 is pretty rough - so perhaps 2x Explosives in the 75? UWR is pretty vunerable to Moon - is another good reason to pack Explosives and perhaps Celestial Purge.

I've recently been testing the list below:


//Mana
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Sulfur Falls (I'm not sure why some lists prefer Canal - I prefer my 4th land to come in untapped for Cryptic etc)
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain

(No room for GQ - I think its too greedy to have a colourless source?)

//Creatures - Shaving on Queller and Geist could be wrong?
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Spell Queller
3 Geist of Saint Traft

//Counters
4 Cryptic Command
2 Mana Leak
1 Logic Knot (I dont want too many GY dependent cards - ppl inevitably bring in GY hate when the see snaps)

//Removal
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Electrolyze
1 Engineered Explosives (better in the sb? - I like to have an out to permanents that cant be dealt with otherwise)

//Other
4 Serum Visions

//Sideboard
SB: 2 Runed Halo (Valakut, TKS, Grapeshot)
SB: 2 Ceremonious Rejection (E-Tron, Tron, Affinity, Lantern)
SB: 1 Disdainful Stroke (Valakut, E-Tron, Tron, CoCo, Chord, Control mirror)
SB: 1 Negate
SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction (Mostly for Storm and Dredge - most oversideboarded card - don't bring it in willy-nilly)
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives (Im not playing stony silence - so this is a utility card for Affinity while being useful elsewhere - Chalice on 1, Moon with island/plains in play - wrath effect at times, shadow decks)
SB: 1 Celestial Purge (Lilliana, Moon, Shadow)
SB: 1 Blessed Alliance (additional life gain for burn, Shadow decks, Thrun!)
SB: 1 Supreme Verdict
SB: 1 Vendilion Clique (Valakut, Storm, combo in general..)

Have been MIA for a long time, but figured I'd post since I have been running pretty well on MTGO. 2 competitive league 5-0's in the past few days. Here's the list:



Overall it performs very well with tight play against most of the current meta. @IslandsAreBroken: The matchup with 2 Ceremonious Rejection vs. Tron and E-Tron becomes manageable. Still not favorable, of course. Geist provides the fast clock you need vs Tron, and my general strategy against E-Tron is to try outracing with just enough tempo to keep them off balance just long enough to just barely get to 20 damage with Geist/Burn/Snaps/Colonnades.

The truly bad matchups are Dredge and Titan Shift. Not seeing so much Dredge these days, though. Maybe Titan Shift isn't actually supposed to be that bad--Runed Halo/land destruction probably helps, but I haven't generally been a big fan of those.

Specific card choices:

Wrath effects: 2 Supreme Verdict + 2 Anger. Everyone seems on board with Supreme Verdict, but I like Anger against all of the Abzan CoCo decks that have been popping up. Potentially they also help vs Dredge, but that's such a bad matchup I've given up on it. It was a budget decision at first not to have EE, but I think Supreme Verdict is much better since it can be used against Eldrazi and can take out Tasigur/Gurmag Angler.

No GY hate: I gave up on beating Dredge. I don't think it's worth the sideboard slots.

3 Ancestral Vision: It is amazing in all of the midrange mirrors. It actually isn't even bad against Burn and some of the other aggro decks that lose steam after turns 4-5. Sure, it gets stuck in hands at times, but it's worth that risk imo. It's also great in matchups where you have tons of dead cards and would just like to dig toward sideboard hate.

Celestial Purge + Wear//Tear: Very flexible answers. This deck is incredibly weak to Blood Moon, and both are good outs to that. (So are the 3 Islands.)

2 Stony Silence: Comes in vs. E-Tron, Affinity, Lantern control, Ad Nauseam. I love it, but I'm higher on it than most.

Counterspell suite--1 Negate + 2 Spell Snare + 2 Mana Leak + 1 Logic Knot + 4 Cryptic main/2 Dispel + 2 Ceremonious Rejection SB. I have tinkered with these numbers for a long time. I haven't been irritated at all with the current breakdown, which is the first time in months (or maybe years) that I've felt that way. I like having a critical mass of 1-2 mana counters. The 1 mana counters are especially important for preserving tempo. I have really loved the 4 Cryptic version of this deck. You can really span the full range of aggro-control to pure control. I only play one Logic Knot because it was putting me in too many awkward spots where I couldn't have UU on turn 2 (especially without fetch-shocking) and with GY hate cards. It's hard to have enough of a graveyard to play multiples in one game, but sometimes you can Snap one back.

Creature selection (or lack thereof)--4 Snaps + 4 Geists. I used to play 2 Cliques/2 Restos, but Fatal Push makes those very bad right now. Geist is still a necessary fast clock against all the decks that you can't just play full on control against. The burn spells go with that plan fine. I have not liked Spell Queller a lot: it's too slow as a clock to play just as a 2/3 flyer, and it puts me in too many awkward spots with wrath effects. Also dies to every popular removal spell in the format. I do often board out some number (or all) of the Geists in sideboarding when I decide to transform to a full control plan.

Blessed Alliance--listen to GreatNate's video about that card. I agree with him completely. Too one-dimensional for an aggro-control deck.

4 Serum Visions--I've seen the light finally. With this more controlling version, 4 Serum Visions works very well.

Lands: 24, including 5 basics and no colorless sources. I think I got the exact numbers from a Frank Karsten article a month ago. Was playing 23 before. Getting mana screwed or color screwed are two perfect ways to guarantee a loss with this deck. Better to have all the lands and mitigate flood with Serum Visions/cantrips as the game goes later. You also have mana sinks in the Colonnades and Snap + Cryptics late game. I used to lose many more games to mana screw/color screw than flood, and this setup really avoids all of those problems. I'd swap one Sulfur Falls for a Canal. I do that in my paper deck, but the difference wasn't worth me shelling out the tix for a Canal online.

Quote from IslandsAreBroken »

I enjoy playing UWx decks and mostly have been playing UW recently. However, closing games out is an issue and UWR appeals for this reason. The problem as I see it is, as always, is TRON. It doesn't surprise me at all that the UWR Geist list went down 0-2 to E-Tron in the finals last weekend. What is the answer here - more Ceremonious Rejection and even Disdainful Stroke (hedge against Valakut as well)? Perhaps some Runed Halo - which covers off on these two currently big meta decks.. Also Chalice on 1 is pretty rough - so perhaps 2x Explosives in the 75? UWR is pretty vunerable to Moon - is another good reason to pack Explosives and perhaps Celestial Purge.

I've recently been testing the list below:


//Mana
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Sulfur Falls (I'm not sure why some lists prefer Canal - I prefer my 4th land to come in untapped for Cryptic etc)
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain

(No room for GQ - I think its too greedy to have a colourless source?)

//Creatures - Shaving on Queller and Geist could be wrong?
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Spell Queller
3 Geist of Saint Traft

//Counters
4 Cryptic Command
2 Mana Leak
1 Logic Knot (I dont want too many GY dependent cards - ppl inevitably bring in GY hate when the see snaps)

//Removal
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Electrolyze
1 Engineered Explosives (better in the sb? - I like to have an out to permanents that cant be dealt with otherwise)

//Other
4 Serum Visions

//Sideboard
SB: 2 Runed Halo (Valakut, TKS, Grapeshot)
SB: 2 Ceremonious Rejection (E-Tron, Tron, Affinity, Lantern)
SB: 1 Disdainful Stroke (Valakut, E-Tron, Tron, CoCo, Chord, Control mirror)
SB: 1 Negate
SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction (Mostly for Storm and Dredge - most oversideboarded card - don't bring it in willy-nilly)
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives (Im not playing stony silence - so this is a utility card for Affinity while being useful elsewhere - Chalice on 1, Moon with island/plains in play - wrath effect at times, shadow decks)
SB: 1 Celestial Purge (Lilliana, Moon, Shadow)
SB: 1 Blessed Alliance (additional life gain for burn, Shadow decks, Thrun!)
SB: 1 Supreme Verdict
SB: 1 Vendilion Clique (Valakut, Storm, combo in general..)

I have considered playing an Engineered explosives in the main. I noticed Jean Sato played 1 in his list that made top 8 in GP Sao Paulo:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/730062#paper
It will be poor in some matchups, but may be flexible enough, and frees up a sideboard slot. Detention Sphere is more flexible, and can catch Tron/E-Tron's big plays (like planeswalkers and smashers without having to discard), as well as multiple Death's shadows, Finks, Goyfs, Lingering souls etc. so it's also worth considering imo. Oblivion stone, All is dust and abrupt decay/maelstrom pulse can be a setback for it, though.

I still dont understand the Canal - sulfur falls has been great for me. I dont think Stony is necessary against Affinity as we have such a great matchup (maybe its worth it for Tron...

I feel pretty naked without an extra life gain card for Burn (maybe if you are on 4x helix you dont need it). So i've gone with alliance - as it also gives you an extra removal card for decks that dodge bolt (ie. Shadow) plus it gives you a out to Etched Champion and even Thrun.

Maybe i'm biased with EE - but the card does so much as a "swiss-knife" utility card that I cant leave it out of the deck - as toroks noted - a top 8 GP list has them in and even 1 maindeck.. Its mostly there as a hoser to Affinity and tribal decks but the amount of times its hit randomly annoying cards like Bitterblossom, Moon, weird enchantments/artifacts (ie. solemnity, 8-rack stuff, lantern stuff), goblin tokens etc is a lot..

In regards to GY hate - its not necessarily in there to fight Dredge - its really in there for decks like Storm - where we can beat them with a mix of gy hate, early pressure and Runed Halo (naming Grapesho; also cards like EE and Verdict cleanup goblin tokens) - i've had a decent amount of success against storm in testing thus far. Similarly Valakut decks aren't terrible - runed halo really is a good card..


In regards to sweepers - is Anger really worth it? Our CoCo matchup is really, really good - indeed this is the matchup I want to play every round (and Affinity) - I def lean towards Verdict for E-Tron and Shadow..

Finally - ive been debating on Big Elspeth - potentiallygood in "control" mirrors and def good against the seeming resurgence of rock decks - but currently I cant find a slot..

Canal is really nice because it gives you painless untapped mana in your first few turns when you really need it. Sulfur Falls is great later, but it's usually slightly less important that your mana comes into play untapped them.

Burn has been a fine matchup from my experience. Lots of counters and removal spells with enough lifegain in 3 Helixes. Then the Geist lands and clocks them pretty fast.

EE is fine. It's currently competing with the Wear // Tear, 2x Supreme Verdict, and 2x Anger of the Gods in my list. Budget decision online. Meta call. I could see it coming in instead of Anger or Wear // Tear.

The GY hate isn't necessary against Storm, I've found. It is definitely good there, though. The meta percentage overall that's Dredge + Storm is still pretty small, so these GY hate cards are still pretty narrow. Against other decks where GY hate may come in, I prefer to just take my chances with active Snapcasters.

Runed Halo does seem like a great card, and I think I will try it out. Seems fantastic vs. a lot of otherwise bad matchups while still providing utility in other ones.

I do think Anger's worth it--CoCo is a fine matchup, but Anger puts it over the top. Same goes for any heavy creature based deck. It also gives us some game vs. Dredge. I could see it going either way, though--not married to it. I do play 2x Supreme Verdict in my list, too.

I'm off big Elspeth these days. Only really great vs. Death's shadow and ETron amongst the popular decks. It's pretty slow, though, and Grixis Shadow can counter it if you try to cast it on curve. I prefer 3x AV as my grindy cards.

So, as promised. I went for GP Birmingham modern fanatic package. That is side events only and these were my results.

I was happy to run 0 Stony Silences, I don't feel like I need them at all against affinity. Against RG Tron and Eldrazi Tron I prefer Spreading Seas because it works against both versions of Tron and particularly against RG Tron, Spreading Seas delays them as much as Stony Silence but actually increases our chances of getting the badly needed Geist, Snap, Counters or worse case scenario bolt.

I also decided to completely remove Rest in Peace from the sideboard. So now I am running 2 Supreme Verdict and 1 Grim Lavamancer. If Dredge or other similar degenerate decks are in your meta, I would replace Grim with a second Anger of the Gods or add Relic of Progenitus or some other force of Graveyard Hate instead. This is something I am not 100% sure about just yet.

Played in a 1k at Channel Fireball. 44ish players for 6 rounds of swiss to cut to top 8. Unfortunately, I dropped after losing rounds two and three.

Here's the List I played:



Round 1 vs Mardu Nahiri Combo W 2-0
I never showed a Geist in game 1 and I won with burn to the face. Game 2 I won with Geist + Colonnade for a big swing. My opponent drew too many lands in both games which helped.

Round 2 vs Mono G Tron L 1-2
I won game 1 on the draw by playing a turn 2 Snap for beats and burn to the face. Cast Out on a Wurmcoil and the maindeck Negate stopped Ugin from bringing him back. Game two he got Tron online quickly and it wasn't a game. Game three I had a keepable seven but mulliganed for a more aggressive start. I was rewarded by a turn three Geist on the play but after the first atack he walled me with a Thragtusk. I had Negate up but didn't have an answer for Thragtusk. He eventually got an Ulamog down and all I had were lands.

Round 3 vs Abzan Vizier Combo L 0-2
Lost each game on turn 4 to the combo after stopping it on my endstep the turn before.

The deck played well as usual. Going to run it back this weekend for a PPTQ but I'm going to replace the Thundermaw with the fourth Spell Queller. Considering keeping Thundermaw in the SB though. Cast Out worked well as a fun-of, same with Dispel.

Quote from FranciscoK »

So, as promised. I went for GP Birmingham modern fanatic package. That is side events only and these were my results.

Friday Modern I "Double Up":
Elves 2-1
Jund 0-2
Monoblue Grand Architect 2-0
Eldrazi Tron 2-1

Friday Modern II
Grixis Death Shadow 2-0
UB Control 2-0
Abzan Midrange 2-1
Esper Reanimator 0-2

Saturday Modern I "Double Up"
Elves 0-2
Kuldotha Goblins 2-0
Elves 2-0
UW Control ID

Saturday Modern II
BW Tokens 2-1
Death & Taxes 2-1
Bant Spirits 0-2
Grixis Death Shadow 1-2 (I mulled to five game two and to four three, after winning game one and almost winning game two if I hadn't screwed my block)

Sunday was a particularly bad day, full of no lander hands and really bad mulligans pretty much like the above game, specially on the second tournament... :'(

Sunday Modern I "Double Up"
Ad Nauseam 2-1 (Could have been 2-0, but I conceded round 1 knowing my opponent had failed his own combo, as he resolved Ad Nauseam before casting Angel's Grace and he was on pretty low health already)
Affinity 2-0
Ad Nauseam 1-2
Jund 2-0

Sunday Modern II
RG Titanshift 2-1
GW Goodstuff 1-2 (The new list that runs crucible of worlds on a creature)
Burn 0-2 (Literally mulled two 4 both games, with no landers - not even joking, this was one of my best match ups according to my excel data records)
Jeskai Nahiri 2-1

I was happy to run 0 Stony Silences, I don't feel like I need them at all against affinity. Against RG Tron and Eldrazi Tron I prefer Spreading Seas because it works against both versions of Tron and particularly against RG Tron, Spreading Seas delays them as much as Stony Silence but actually increases our chances of getting the badly needed Geist, Snap, Counters or worse case scenario bolt.

I also decided to completely remove Rest in Peace from the sideboard. So now I am running 2 Supreme Verdict and 1 Grim Lavamancer. If Dredge or other similar degenerate decks are in your meta, I would replace Grim with a second Anger of the Gods or add Relic of Progenitus or some other force of Graveyard Hate instead. This is something I am not 100% sure about just yet.

You played the Ancestral Vision-list you posted a page back?

No I played the list I posted. Haven't had a chance to test the Ancestral list much lately.

Quote from ChannelBowlingBall »

No I played the list I posted. Haven't had a chance to test the Ancestral list much lately.

The question was for FranciscoK (quote). Sorry about the confusion.

Yes, probably. I am reposting the exact list just to make sure I answer your question honestly.
I sort of removed the rest in peace from the sideboard, on sunday, for another verdict and grim lavamancer, as I already wrote. But I made a rollback to the list posted, don't really think we can skip on Graveyard hate, specially with Storm being tier 1 and dredge tier 2. Plus all the grave shenanigans decks like reanimator and stuff.

Hey guys, I am an avid Ux player with heavy control roots. I wanted a deck that still had the instant speed interaction of Control, but I figured that playing something that had more creatures than Snappy would be good for me as a player. (I also just like Flash)

That being said, I brewed up a Flash list that I think could compete in the current meta.



This is a first take on the deck, and the sideboard could also use some work. Thanks!