So with Esper Twix what do we even side out against burn? I've done some testing and I kind of suspect meddling mage would be the cut in some number. It just feels like their deck is so redundant it doesn't do enough.
You have to remember even if they remove Meddling Mage, that means it is one less burn card going at you. If can also force awkward plays by your opponent.
I have found that some of the more expensive removal is what I remove, since casting a CMC 3 or 5 on a CMC 1 or 2 creature is not where I want to be.
That's fine and dandy, but how does this deck beat a Tasigur or Olivia Voldaren, barring Path or Cut. Even Siege Rhino looks like a nightmare, and Meddling Mage and Sculler, in my testing ju st get bolted immediately, then your opponent curves out and you have no way of regaining that lost tempo. Cards like Smother and Negate seems like the opposite of what this deck wants, conditional answers that don't actually stop the things that get in your way.
Snap/Path or Cut if you used them early. The deck initially ran 1 Dismember, 1 Go for the Throat in the main > 2 Smother, but Smother was essentially our more narrow Decay. You can also add 2 more spot removals in the side and I'd go with 1 Go for the Throat and 1 more Muderous Cut. You wouldn't need more than that. Olivia is also a 1 of that can be dealt by Gideon or Verdict.
We can also switch up the numbers and go 4 Path, 2 Cut, 1 Smother with 1-2 more spot removals in the side. We have Snaps so we don't have to overload on them; just enough to see them.
I feel like Esper Mentor should really be running some Serum Visions, right? It seems awesome in combination with Thought Scour, as you can either fix what goes into your hand OR fix what goes into your graveyard to be snapped back or delved away. I feel like I want to move Spell Snare to the SB, perhaps? I haven't played the stock list a ton, but I wonder how it would function with a more proactive stock game plan vs. the potentially dead Spell Snare game 1. The sideboard can feature Negate, Spell Snare, or Countersquall as the player sees fit for the meta. I know Spell Snare has a LOT of targets game 1, but Serum Visions can do the job of filling the graveyard with the cantrip, triggering prowess reliably, refilling the hand, and fixing your draw all at the same time. That seems a little more powerful to me.
I've been running this version of Esper hatebears for a long ass time now, like over a year. It's interesting to see someone start using the meddling/sculler package I thought would be the place Esper wanted to be. It's pretty clear that if Esper wants to be a midrange deck like Jund or junk that it needs to have some aolid two drops, just like them. And these are our guys.
Unfortunately, the deck always lacked oomph and was always terrible against other creature decks. I like your enthusiasm for the package. I was very enchanted with it when I brewed it a while ago, but I'm thoroughly convinced after many different versions that it does not have what it takes. Maybe tasigur added something to it, but I just want to warn the masses that it's a giant headache of a deck. Meddling Mage lacks the structure for it to be great. Modern is too creature centric for this kind of deck to be anything other than a pain. Mentor could at least deal with threats by overloading on removal and because mentor allowed you to easily go wide to block and then crack back with a flurry of spells. Esper has a fundamental problem that it's creatures are wholy and entirely outclassed by green's. It always pushes esper and blue generally to either tempo delver or bigger control to go over the top of the green creatures.
I hate to be a downer, but as someone who played this type of deck for a year, I just have a lot of experience with these downfalls. Might be good in this meta, though. It always crushed any kind of deck that didn't rely on beating you with creature bashing.
I've been running this version of Esper hatebears for a long ass time now, like over a year. It's interesting to see someone start using the meddling/sculler package I thought would be the place Esper wanted to be. It's pretty clear that if Esper wants to be a midrange deck like Jund or junk that it needs to have some aolid two drops, just like them. And these are our guys.
Unfortunately, the deck always lacked oomph and was always terrible against other creature decks. I like your enthusiasm for the package. I was very enchanted with it when I brewed it a while ago, but I'm thoroughly convinced after many different versions that it does not have what it takes. Maybe tasigur added something to it, but I just want to warn the masses that it's a giant headache of a deck. Meddling Mage lacks the structure for it to be great. Modern is too creature centric for this kind of deck to be anything other than a pain. Mentor could at least deal with threats by overloading on removal and because mentor allowed you to easily go wide to block and then crack back with a flurry of spells. Esper has a fundamental problem that it's creatures are wholy and entirely outclassed by green's. It always pushes esper and blue generally to either tempo delver or bigger control to go over the top of the green creatures.
I hate to be a downer, but as someone who played this type of deck for a year, I just have a lot of experience with these downfalls. Might be good in this meta, though. It always crushed any kind of deck that didn't rely on beating you with creature bashing.
I truly appreciate your input. Thank you. Your points are valid. They're the reason this deck packs quite a bit of removal (main and board, along with Gideon and Ashiok), 3 Snaps to reuse them, and Planeswalkers like Elspeth, Sorin, Jace, and Gideon to protect us from them. They're a different angle to the deck that apply defense and offense. This deck can turn into a Walker control deck if you need it to be. Elspeth's other role is to turn our hatebears into finishers, making each one a threat at any point of the game.
This isn't a traditional hatebears deck, but the key is to balance the removal/threat ratio. Striking that balance has been a challenge but very rewarding.
Ya elspeth was my finisher of choice. I can actually see the planes walker angle being more fruitful with Gideon and ashiok. Though Gideon seems like the real superstar.
4c Ascendancy: 0-2 (I was 1 turn away from winning both games)
UR Twin: 2-0
UB Faeries: 1-2 (We went to turns and he beat me on turn 4 as he Cryptic Commanded my Go for the Throat on his Mistblind Clique)
Scapeshift: 1-2 (I was 1 turn from winning but he top decked a Scapeshift)
Bloom Titan: 2-0
UB Mill: 2-0
UR Moon: 1-2 (lost to an early Blood Moon)
Naya Burn: 0-2 (Convincing blowout)
The losses were swingy as in if he doesn't win this turn, I win next.
For example:
Vs 4c Ascendancy:
Game 1: I had him at 4 life with a Geist on the field. Beats me with Grapeshot.
Game 2: I had him at 3 life with a Geist on the field. Beats me with Ascendancy triggers on BoP but I redirected his Grapeshot to my Skite.
Vs UB Faeries:
Game 2: He won via an early Bitterblossom, but my game 1 was a blowout.
Game 3: We were won on turns and he had to win on his turn. He swung for game with Mistblind and I snapped in Go for the Throat, but he Cryptic Commanded it. I was sitting on a Meddling Mage.
Vs Scapeshift:
Game 2: After being blown out in G1, he had 1 turn to beat me as I had him at 5 life with Geist on the board. He top decked Scapeshift and won.
Game 3: Same situation, but I had him at 4 life with a Sculler/Elspeth on board, but he top decked a Scapeshift and won.
Vs Blue Moon:
Game 2: He was blown out G1 quickly after a strong disruption sequence, but he won G2 with Blood Moon when he was down to 6. He was taking a beating from Mage, Sculler, and Snap.
Game 3: T3 Blood Moon put me away.
I won 11 games and lost 10. 5 of those losses were wins 1 turn before losing. Frustrating, but that's the game. I did win my first game of each 1-2 loss as well.
Overall, disappointed I didn't at least go 6-3 or 5-4, but it was with a brew, my first GP experience, and the deck performed consistently well.
The deck turned heads and I received several compliments about its overall design, such as that it's better than Esper Mentor and it's an adaptive deck that has very few weak match ups.
There will be those who look at my GP results and think:
"4 and 5? Sucks."
But in actuality, I won 11 games at the tournament. 3 of my 5 losses went to game 3 and I had won G1 of each of them, then losing in G3 a turn right before winning. Frustrating, but that's Magic.
Losing in G3 to a top deck Scapeshift, I threw my hand onto the table in frustration because I had lethal next turn. It was the 3rd time that had happened that day. I even lost G1 and G2 vs 4c Ascendancy that way.
The Scapeshift player responded:
"I'm so sorry man. Lucky rip. Your deck is a *****. I f'n hate Sculler n Geist. And main deck Mage? Never thought I had to Cryptic Mage because she could mess up Scapeshift and you got rid of my Electrolyzes and Snared my Snap. Jesus. Glad its over."
I definitely didn't hang my head this weekend. Twix has a promising future.
Been playing esper mentor for a few months now with good results. 3-1 or 4-0 fnm mostly and a few 2-2 this is the deck version im taking to GP copenhagen, wish me luck
How good would it be to play Bitterblossom instead of Monastery Mentor. I've just never cast Mentor and felt really good about it. I can't get prolonged value out of him to save my life, even with thoughtseize and counterspell protection, btitterblossom seems way harder to interact with in a traditional sense.
4 Bitterblossom and 4 Lingering Souls supported by 24 lands a control-ish shell seems really good, does anyone have experience with this?
cut throat meta, really need meddling mage and some tech. I don't want man lands really. not sold on the walkers. yes counter productive but I usually use lingering souls with lotv.
I played Esper Midrange (Mentor) to a 7-1 finish (only loss was in an early round against Twin where I mulled to 5 in all 3 games, more on this later ) winning a GPT with this list.
My experiences with the deck:
I tested this deck extensively on MTGO dailies. Went 3-1 several times.
Twin felt like a positive matchup, my win rate against Twin in sanctioned events is 70% with the list. Many times, your Lingering Souls will carry you to victory in grindy matchups, and will bait Bolts and Terminates! Then eventually your Mentor will land. Similarly for Grixis Delve(r).
Bad matchups are basically creature swarm strategies like Merfolk, Soul Sisters and Zoo. Affinity is fine though due to Lingering Souls and Affinity.
Tron felt slightly unfavorable, but still ok. I've surprisingly beaten Amulet many times in sanctioned matches too, having about a 55% win rate.
Some reasons behind the changes I made to the other lists you see:
22 lands is very greedy in this deck and 23 feels barely passable. I would have loved to play 24, but couldn't find a way to make it work. That single Ghost Quarter won me a lot of games which would otherwise be unwinnable.
4 Thought Scours felt very clunky to me, and I subbed one out for Thirst for Knowledge. Frequently, your discard spells end up stuck in hand late game and being able to draw 3 and ditch them mid-late game to fuel Delve won me many games, especially post board. Compulsive Research was considered, but this being instant speed is a big deal. It also has a strange effect on opponents as they have no idea if you are on Gifts or some kind of artifact deck as the deck is still under the radar and sometimes board incorrectly.
Like many others I used to play Slaughter Pact maindeck but with the meta the way it is now, I grew increasingly uncomfortable playing this very conditional kill spell that can't kill Tasigurs, Anglers, Bobs, etc. Zealous Persecutions maindeck however has consistently over performed, as either a killer board wipe against Affinity, Infect or even Company and Elves, or as a mega pump spell for your Monks. Zealous Persecution also has a side effect of being a protection spell against Pyroclasms for your Monks.
The counterspells were the most adjustable from week to week. The week I played the GPT was when Blood Moon was in season, even maindeck, so I moved away from my usual Logic Knot maindeck. The 2 main Negates look really strange, but it didn't seem that bad - every single deck in the meta now has something for you to Negate. It also frees up your sideboard.
The deck is quite soft to Blood Moon. Most of my losses to Twin for example are due to them slamming a top decked moon with me drawing non of my fetchlands and with no negate. Thus the 10 fetchlands instead of the usual 8-9.
I didn't like the usual Finks in the sideboard. In many matchups, I'm boarding in Finks against decks that will also pack Moon, and I found myself stuck between strange decisions on whether to fetch to play around Moon, or to fetch to cast a Finks.
Major weaknesses of the deck and my overall experiences:
You are at a huge mercy of your hands. This deck does not mulligan well. Many times you will be stuck on mana in one way or another and there's very little you can do about it. Tasigur is by far the most skill testing card in the deck and deciding what to delve away and when to activate it will make or break many games. Be very patient with your Mentors. The opening to land it will present itself.
Due to not having room to play things like Anticipate/Visions, you will have many games where your answers are mismatched to the threats. My feeling is that this deck presents a great fight against Tier 1 decks, but has a strange weakness to tier 2 decks. In previous GPTs, I felt like my tournament was going well until I made my first loss, then dropping to the lower brackets where the tier 2 decks live.
Moving forward though, I'm not sure if I'm continuing with this deck. This deck seems subject to variance more than many other fair decks, but unlike combo decks which at least have a explosive win if it hits it's killer hands, even with your killer hands, you are still in for a grind. Many matches against Twin for example, although it felt positive, it was always a long long grind and always came close to time. Mentor itself felt really awesome when it goes off, but for the amount of work you need to do to setup sometimes, I could have similarly defended almost any other creature, so it's not entirely obvious to me now after playing the deck for the past few months that Mentor is an irreplaceable card.
1) Why so many lands? Are you compensating for Vault and Quarter? Otherwise I think 21-22 should be enough.
Moreover, Tarpit seems really good - is there a specific reason you only play 2 of them?
2) I wouldn't cut all Slaughter Pacts. They are just too strong, especially with Snapcaster Mage.
3) What about your sideboard? Has it worked out so far? Which choices do you consider important/exchangeable?
As I explained, I found 22 lands very risky and even wanted to go up to
24. This deck only hits its stride at 3 lands, and with so few card selection spells you frequently won't hit your drops. I tested the original list with 4 Tar Pits for about a week before quickly cutting to 2. It's hard enough to hit your timely land drops and dying to Moon, making it worse with a CITP land exacerbates many problems with the deck.
Pacts have been a huge burden in my games as of late. I played them for about 1.5 months, so I know how awesome it feels with Snaps and Mentors. The problem is, it's a 3 mana removal spell and it can't kill Tasigurs and Anglers. Yes you may pay 0 mana now, but the 3 mana you pay later frequently is a huge tempo loss.
The sideboard has been fine. I consider the Snare, Dispel, Canonist, Go for the Throat as somewhat flexible slots, the rest are almost uncuttable.
cut throat meta, really need meddling mage and some tech. I don't want man lands really. not sold on the walkers. yes counter productive but I usually use lingering souls with lotv.
contemplating some kind of bomb that cant be answered very easy.
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Exactly.
'Esper Twix'
2x Celestial Colonnade
3x Darkslick Shores
3x Flooded Strand
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Godless Shrine
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Island
2x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
1x Seachrome Coast
1x Swamp
Planeswalker: 4
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1x Dismember
3x Esper Charm
1x Murderous Cut
2x Negate
4x Path to Exile
1x Smother
Creature: 14
3x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Meddling Mage
2x Restoration Angel
3x Snapcaster Mage
3x Tidehollow Sculler
Sorcery: 6
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Thoughtseize
2x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Gideon Jura
1x Negate
1x Hero's Downfall
1x Ojutai's Command
2x Spellskite
2x Supreme Verdict
2x Kor Firewalker
1x Vendilion Clique
This would be an improvement:
4 Path to Exile
1 Smother
1 Dismember
1 Murderous Cut
1 Hero's Downfall (SB)
I'm not fond of Pact because it doesn't hit Bob, Tasigur, Rhino, Olivia, etc.
We don't Delve too well, so 1 Cut may be as much as we can go.
1 Downfall is clutch vs Junk/Jund for being able to double up as an answer vs Liliana. It's an out vs Karn/Ugin too.
Lastly, if we ever have to call Path to Exile with Mage, we have 4 other spot removals we can use.
Unfortunately, the deck always lacked oomph and was always terrible against other creature decks. I like your enthusiasm for the package. I was very enchanted with it when I brewed it a while ago, but I'm thoroughly convinced after many different versions that it does not have what it takes. Maybe tasigur added something to it, but I just want to warn the masses that it's a giant headache of a deck. Meddling Mage lacks the structure for it to be great. Modern is too creature centric for this kind of deck to be anything other than a pain. Mentor could at least deal with threats by overloading on removal and because mentor allowed you to easily go wide to block and then crack back with a flurry of spells. Esper has a fundamental problem that it's creatures are wholy and entirely outclassed by green's. It always pushes esper and blue generally to either tempo delver or bigger control to go over the top of the green creatures.
I hate to be a downer, but as someone who played this type of deck for a year, I just have a lot of experience with these downfalls. Might be good in this meta, though. It always crushed any kind of deck that didn't rely on beating you with creature bashing.
I truly appreciate your input. Thank you. Your points are valid. They're the reason this deck packs quite a bit of removal (main and board, along with Gideon and Ashiok), 3 Snaps to reuse them, and Planeswalkers like Elspeth, Sorin, Jace, and Gideon to protect us from them. They're a different angle to the deck that apply defense and offense. This deck can turn into a Walker control deck if you need it to be. Elspeth's other role is to turn our hatebears into finishers, making each one a threat at any point of the game.
This isn't a traditional hatebears deck, but the key is to balance the removal/threat ratio. Striking that balance has been a challenge but very rewarding.
Deck: Esper Twix
1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Restoration Angel
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Meddling Mage
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalkers: 2
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Artifacts: 1
1 Engineered Explosives
Spells: 19
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Esper Charm
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
4 Path to Exile
1 Murderous Cut
1 Go for the Throat
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Godless Shrine
3 Darkslick Shores
1 Seachrome Coast
2 Celestial Colonnade
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Gideon Jura
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Spellskite
2 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Engineered Explosives
UR Twin: 2-0
4c Ascendancy: 0-2 (I was 1 turn away from winning both games)
UR Twin: 2-0
UB Faeries: 1-2 (We went to turns and he beat me on turn 4 as he Cryptic Commanded my Go for the Throat on his Mistblind Clique)
Scapeshift: 1-2 (I was 1 turn from winning but he top decked a Scapeshift)
Bloom Titan: 2-0
UB Mill: 2-0
UR Moon: 1-2 (lost to an early Blood Moon)
Naya Burn: 0-2 (Convincing blowout)
The losses were swingy as in if he doesn't win this turn, I win next.
For example:
Vs 4c Ascendancy:
Game 1: I had him at 4 life with a Geist on the field. Beats me with Grapeshot.
Game 2: I had him at 3 life with a Geist on the field. Beats me with Ascendancy triggers on BoP but I redirected his Grapeshot to my Skite.
Vs UB Faeries:
Game 2: He won via an early Bitterblossom, but my game 1 was a blowout.
Game 3: We were won on turns and he had to win on his turn. He swung for game with Mistblind and I snapped in Go for the Throat, but he Cryptic Commanded it. I was sitting on a Meddling Mage.
Vs Scapeshift:
Game 2: After being blown out in G1, he had 1 turn to beat me as I had him at 5 life with Geist on the board. He top decked Scapeshift and won.
Game 3: Same situation, but I had him at 4 life with a Sculler/Elspeth on board, but he top decked a Scapeshift and won.
Vs Blue Moon:
Game 2: He was blown out G1 quickly after a strong disruption sequence, but he won G2 with Blood Moon when he was down to 6. He was taking a beating from Mage, Sculler, and Snap.
Game 3: T3 Blood Moon put me away.
I won 11 games and lost 10. 5 of those losses were wins 1 turn before losing. Frustrating, but that's the game. I did win my first game of each 1-2 loss as well.
Overall, disappointed I didn't at least go 6-3 or 5-4, but it was with a brew, my first GP experience, and the deck performed consistently well.
The deck turned heads and I received several compliments about its overall design, such as that it's better than Esper Mentor and it's an adaptive deck that has very few weak match ups.
There will be those who look at my GP results and think:
"4 and 5? Sucks."
But in actuality, I won 11 games at the tournament. 3 of my 5 losses went to game 3 and I had won G1 of each of them, then losing in G3 a turn right before winning. Frustrating, but that's Magic.
Losing in G3 to a top deck Scapeshift, I threw my hand onto the table in frustration because I had lethal next turn. It was the 3rd time that had happened that day. I even lost G1 and G2 vs 4c Ascendancy that way.
The Scapeshift player responded:
"I'm so sorry man. Lucky rip. Your deck is a *****. I f'n hate Sculler n Geist. And main deck Mage? Never thought I had to Cryptic Mage because she could mess up Scapeshift and you got rid of my Electrolyzes and Snared my Snap. Jesus. Glad its over."
I definitely didn't hang my head this weekend. Twix has a promising future.
How has no counterspells in the mainboard treated you?
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
4 Bitterblossom and 4 Lingering Souls supported by 24 lands a control-ish shell seems really good, does anyone have experience with this?
http://i.imgur.com/passwjM.jpg
curious about your inclusion of Phyrexian Arena. Is this just insurance for the grind fest? What was it like to draw it in faster matches?
Blue lives don't matter in the slightest.
It's in there because I expected Grixis to be out in all flavors. And everywhere Grixis is, Arena is a MONSTER.
2x Celestial Colonnade
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Drowned Catacomb
3x Flooded Strand
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Glacial Fortress
2x Godless Shrine
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Island
2x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
2x Watery Grave
1x Dismember
4x Esper Charm
4x Mana Leak
1x Murderous Cut
4x Path to Exile
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
1x Restoration Angel
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Tidehollow Sculler
3x Wall of Omens
2x Liliana of the Veil
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
cut throat meta, really need meddling mage and some tech. I don't want man lands really. not sold on the walkers. yes counter productive but I usually use lingering souls with lotv.
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Thoughtseize
3 Thought Scour
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
2 Negate
2 Remand
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Lingering Souls
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Murderous Cut
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
2 Marsh Flats
2 Watery Grave
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Dispel
1 Spell Snare
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Flashfreeze
1 Go for the Throat
2 Stony Silence
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Supreme Verdict
My experiences with the deck:
I tested this deck extensively on MTGO dailies. Went 3-1 several times.
Twin felt like a positive matchup, my win rate against Twin in sanctioned events is 70% with the list. Many times, your Lingering Souls will carry you to victory in grindy matchups, and will bait Bolts and Terminates! Then eventually your Mentor will land. Similarly for Grixis Delve(r).
Bad matchups are basically creature swarm strategies like Merfolk, Soul Sisters and Zoo. Affinity is fine though due to Lingering Souls and Affinity.
Tron felt slightly unfavorable, but still ok. I've surprisingly beaten Amulet many times in sanctioned matches too, having about a 55% win rate.
Some reasons behind the changes I made to the other lists you see:
22 lands is very greedy in this deck and 23 feels barely passable. I would have loved to play 24, but couldn't find a way to make it work. That single Ghost Quarter won me a lot of games which would otherwise be unwinnable.
4 Thought Scours felt very clunky to me, and I subbed one out for Thirst for Knowledge. Frequently, your discard spells end up stuck in hand late game and being able to draw 3 and ditch them mid-late game to fuel Delve won me many games, especially post board. Compulsive Research was considered, but this being instant speed is a big deal. It also has a strange effect on opponents as they have no idea if you are on Gifts or some kind of artifact deck as the deck is still under the radar and sometimes board incorrectly.
Like many others I used to play Slaughter Pact maindeck but with the meta the way it is now, I grew increasingly uncomfortable playing this very conditional kill spell that can't kill Tasigurs, Anglers, Bobs, etc. Zealous Persecutions maindeck however has consistently over performed, as either a killer board wipe against Affinity, Infect or even Company and Elves, or as a mega pump spell for your Monks. Zealous Persecution also has a side effect of being a protection spell against Pyroclasms for your Monks.
The counterspells were the most adjustable from week to week. The week I played the GPT was when Blood Moon was in season, even maindeck, so I moved away from my usual Logic Knot maindeck. The 2 main Negates look really strange, but it didn't seem that bad - every single deck in the meta now has something for you to Negate. It also frees up your sideboard.
The deck is quite soft to Blood Moon. Most of my losses to Twin for example are due to them slamming a top decked moon with me drawing non of my fetchlands and with no negate. Thus the 10 fetchlands instead of the usual 8-9.
I didn't like the usual Finks in the sideboard. In many matchups, I'm boarding in Finks against decks that will also pack Moon, and I found myself stuck between strange decisions on whether to fetch to play around Moon, or to fetch to cast a Finks.
Major weaknesses of the deck and my overall experiences:
You are at a huge mercy of your hands. This deck does not mulligan well. Many times you will be stuck on mana in one way or another and there's very little you can do about it. Tasigur is by far the most skill testing card in the deck and deciding what to delve away and when to activate it will make or break many games. Be very patient with your Mentors. The opening to land it will present itself.
Due to not having room to play things like Anticipate/Visions, you will have many games where your answers are mismatched to the threats. My feeling is that this deck presents a great fight against Tier 1 decks, but has a strange weakness to tier 2 decks. In previous GPTs, I felt like my tournament was going well until I made my first loss, then dropping to the lower brackets where the tier 2 decks live.
Moving forward though, I'm not sure if I'm continuing with this deck. This deck seems subject to variance more than many other fair decks, but unlike combo decks which at least have a explosive win if it hits it's killer hands, even with your killer hands, you are still in for a grind. Many matches against Twin for example, although it felt positive, it was always a long long grind and always came close to time. Mentor itself felt really awesome when it goes off, but for the amount of work you need to do to setup sometimes, I could have similarly defended almost any other creature, so it's not entirely obvious to me now after playing the deck for the past few months that Mentor is an irreplaceable card.
Bant | U Tron | GW Hatebears | Death and Taxes | Scapeshift | UW Tron | UW Midrange
As I explained, I found 22 lands very risky and even wanted to go up to
24. This deck only hits its stride at 3 lands, and with so few card selection spells you frequently won't hit your drops. I tested the original list with 4 Tar Pits for about a week before quickly cutting to 2. It's hard enough to hit your timely land drops and dying to Moon, making it worse with a CITP land exacerbates many problems with the deck.
Pacts have been a huge burden in my games as of late. I played them for about 1.5 months, so I know how awesome it feels with Snaps and Mentors. The problem is, it's a 3 mana removal spell and it can't kill Tasigurs and Anglers. Yes you may pay 0 mana now, but the 3 mana you pay later frequently is a huge tempo loss.
The sideboard has been fine. I consider the Snare, Dispel, Canonist, Go for the Throat as somewhat flexible slots, the rest are almost uncuttable.
Bant | U Tron | GW Hatebears | Death and Taxes | Scapeshift | UW Tron | UW Midrange
contemplating some kind of bomb that cant be answered very easy.