After having failed to meet the Established criteria for two consecutive update cycles, UW Midrange has been moved back to Deck Creation. That said, UW Midrange is still very competitive as an archetype, relative to many other decks in Deck Creation. Indeed, in the last ban cycle, it had one of the top 2 most MTGO daily finishes of decks that did not qualify for Established. This qualifies it for sticky status under the new Deck Creation Sticky policy
Hmmm could replace dissipate with dissolve since it let's u scry which is better than exiling a card.
My guess? Graveyard shenanigans. A lot of Modern and Legacy decks use the graveyard as a resource, so it's better to exile certain cards than allowing them to enter the graveyard. Plus many good control decks run a lot of card draw and counters, so scrying isn't necessarily needed in most cases.
So I know there's always room for improvement with every deck that is created. That being said, I made this deck as competitively as possible with Venser, the Sojourner in mind. The idea is for him to use his first +2 ability to keep blinking out Blade Splicer each turn creating an army of 3/3 Golem creatures. An added bonus of this ability is that it combos with Sejiri Refuge, earning you an extra life point per turn. His second, -1 ability allows for all of my creatures to push damage through unimpeded. The rest of the deck is mostly devoted to card draw and counters, although life gain serves as a secondary win condition. Venser's third ability is simply icing on the cake and not too hard to get off.
Edit: Made a few changes to the deck recently. Major overhaul:
-3 Oblivion Ring
-1 Path to Exile
-4 Think Twice
-4 Dissipate
-2 Syncopate
-1 Ghost Quarter
Basically, I've now sacrificed some hard countering and and exiling for more card draw and scrying. Debated on whether I should have 2 Negates vs 2 Void Snares. Ultimately went with Void Snare (I DESPISE any deck with Iona, Shield of Emeria in it). Timely Reinforcements works wonders when you're behind in life, or fighting against aggro and token decks. Threw Detention Sphere in to deal with the likes of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (or any other permanent(s) likely to give me trouble). Blind Obedience hoses down artifact decks making it hard for them to set up and use their set pieces fast enough. Really liking the new build!
To be fair, it was getting a little depressing just watching this thread die...
Yeah, but this deck just really isn't great. It only has one good removal spell (unless if Valorous Stance can become a thing) and there is very little reason to play it when Esper Mentor and WUR Midrange exists (and even those have to struggle for reasons to play them over BGx).
To be fair, it was getting a little depressing just watching this thread die...
Yeah, but this deck just really isn't great. It only has one good removal spell (unless if Valorous Stance can become a thing) and there is very little reason to play it when Esper Mentor and WUR Midrange exists (and even those have to struggle for reasons to play them over BGx).
True, but it's such a cool deck. I'm a sucker for cool etb abilities in decks that abuse them. I hope there's some nuts card printed that brings this deck back from the dead. Esper is getting pretty popular though which I am happy about too though. Monastery Mentor is just bonkers in the right deck.
I am tinkering with a UW Midrange that revolves around monastery mentors, geists and delvers with myth realized, with scmages. I use emerge unscathed, paths, gitaxian probe, remands, and a couple anticipate. Its a fun deck, similar to esper mentor, but I prefer the pro color spell emerge unscathed to protect mentors, and force damage through with geist all while triggering prowess. Delvers apply early damage, and myth realized has been pretty impressive as it can become huge, gives you something to do eot mana sink midgame, and couples with delvers to have eight one drops.
To be fair, it was getting a little depressing just watching this thread die...
Yeah, but this deck just really isn't great. It only has one good removal spell (unless if Valorous Stance can become a thing) and there is very little reason to play it when Esper Mentor and WUR Midrange exists (and even those have to struggle for reasons to play them over BGx).
Actually things are more complex than this.
Tri-color isn't necessarily better than two-colors given the right circumstances (like metagame). Having access to Tectonic Edge, for example, may give you a better matchup against Tron and Amulet Bloom than Esper's. You can also avoid making loops with fetchlands to get the right colors for certain spells, like Esper Charm and Cryptic Command.
I don't know what you mean by "making loops", but there are almost no metas where Tectonic Edge is better than Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Esper Charm or Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, and Electrolyze. Also, Tectonic Edge isn't great against either Tron or Amulet Bloom, since you generally need to stop them before they get to 4 lands.
Also, a midrange approach has inherently more strengths than a draw-go one because the creature-base of Restoration Angel and Wall of Omens is really great against URx strategies (read: Twin) and they also stop Burn creatures, small Tarmogoys, ecc. ecc. Not trying to delve into the discussion about gameplan philosophy, though).
Wall of Omens does basically nothing against Twin. All of their main threats fly.
You are right about having only Path to Exile as a serious spot removal- and with a non-negligible drawback as well, which sucks. Anyways, you can try to shore up this lack by either playing creatures to soak up damage (as said above), some singletons like Dismember/Repeal/Valorous Stance and/or trying to build a version that features Supreme Verdict, which is kinda good against Azban right now if you can handle the classic Liliana problem.
The creatures that soak up damage are terrible (seriously, Wall of Omens does almost nothing against Junk, Twin, Affinity, Grixis Delver or Infect), Repeal isn't any more of a removal spell than Vapor Snag, Valorous Stance is merely decent, Dismember deals you way more damage than you want, and Supreme Verdict just makes this deck a bad Control deck since we are playing creatures and then killing all creatures.
This deck is still fine. It has everything a good Modern deck needs: a strong proactive game plan, a degree of interactivity, and flexibility to play both offensively and defensively. It's a perfectly reasonable choice.
This deck is still fine. It has everything a good Modern deck needs: a strong proactive game plan, a degree of interactivity, and flexibility to play both offensively and defensively. It's a perfectly reasonable choice.
Part of the problem is that it doesn't have any proactive interaction other than Path to Exile, so it really doesn't have those things.
You don't seem to understand a) what "proactive interaction" means, b) what spells go in the deck, and c) how the deck is played. I suggest you read the primer again and watch some videos, because this notion you have here is completely and demonstrably wrong.
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After having failed to meet the Established criteria for two consecutive update cycles, UW Midrange has been moved back to Deck Creation. That said, UW Midrange is still very competitive as an archetype, relative to many other decks in Deck Creation. Indeed, in the last ban cycle, it had one of the top 2 most MTGO daily finishes of decks that did not qualify for Established. This qualifies it for sticky status under the new Deck Creation Sticky policy
1x Dissipate
1x Echoing Truth
1x Faith's Shield
4x Mana Leak
1x Negate
3x Path to Exile
2x Remand
2x Rewind
2x Spell Pierce
1x Sphinx's Revelation
1x Think Twice
1x Vapor Snag
Land (24)
2x Celestial Colonnade
1x Eiganjo Castle
4x Flooded Strand
2x Ghost Quarter
1x Glacial Fortress
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Island
1x Mystic Gate
2x Plains
3x Seachrome Coast
1x Batterskull
Planeswalker (1)
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Creature (14)
4x Blade Splicer
4x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Restoration Angel
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Aven Mindcensor
3x Kitchen Finks
2x Meddling Mage
2x Shadow of Doubt
2x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
2x Supreme Verdict
1x Surgical Extraction
This is the current deck I am running. Gives a lot of problems to the match-ups I have. Let me know what to improve on.
RIP: GWU Midrange (2012-2013) | GWR Ally (2014-2016)
Modern : Huh?
EDH : UBGW Thrasios / Tymna Combo UBGW // GRW Mayael Big Stuff GRW // GU Edric Timewalkers GU
I would probably run Render Silent over both of those.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
My guess? Graveyard shenanigans. A lot of Modern and Legacy decks use the graveyard as a resource, so it's better to exile certain cards than allowing them to enter the graveyard. Plus many good control decks run a lot of card draw and counters, so scrying isn't necessarily needed in most cases.
2 Celestial Colonnade
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Seachrome Coast
2 Sejiri Refuge
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Plains
CREATURES
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Blade Splicer
2 Venser, the Sojourner
OTHER SPELLS
2 Void Snare
4 Azorius Charm
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
3 Path to Exile
1 Elixer of Immortality
1 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Essence Scatter
2 Repeal
1 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Gideon Jura
1 Angel of Serenity
2 Celestial Purge
1 Gainsay
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Blind Obedience
1 Timely Reinforcements
So I know there's always room for improvement with every deck that is created. That being said, I made this deck as competitively as possible with Venser, the Sojourner in mind. The idea is for him to use his first +2 ability to keep blinking out Blade Splicer each turn creating an army of 3/3 Golem creatures. An added bonus of this ability is that it combos with Sejiri Refuge, earning you an extra life point per turn. His second, -1 ability allows for all of my creatures to push damage through unimpeded. The rest of the deck is mostly devoted to card draw and counters, although life gain serves as a secondary win condition. Venser's third ability is simply icing on the cake and not too hard to get off.
Edit: Made a few changes to the deck recently. Major overhaul:
-3 Oblivion Ring
-1 Path to Exile
-4 Think Twice
-4 Dissipate
-2 Syncopate
-1 Ghost Quarter
+1 Tectonic Edge
+4 Serum Visions
+4 Remand
+2 Void Snare
+1 Timely Reinforcements
+1 Blind Obedience
+2 Repeal
Basically, I've now sacrificed some hard countering and and exiling for more card draw and scrying. Debated on whether I should have 2 Negates vs 2 Void Snares. Ultimately went with Void Snare (I DESPISE any deck with Iona, Shield of Emeria in it). Timely Reinforcements works wonders when you're behind in life, or fighting against aggro and token decks. Threw Detention Sphere in to deal with the likes of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (or any other permanent(s) likely to give me trouble). Blind Obedience hoses down artifact decks making it hard for them to set up and use their set pieces fast enough. Really liking the new build!
Creatures:
4 geist
4 snap
2 clique
3 resto
1 Baneslayer
Artifacts:
2 Batterskull
2 Engineered Explosives
Spells:
3 remand
3 mana leak
4 path
3 serum visions
3 dig through time
2 Spell Pierce
2 supreme verdict
2 spell snare
Lands:
1 academy ruins
23 other UW lands, maybe with one ru or rw shock to fetch for Explosives at 3.
I loved the academy ruins, as the card advantage engine of the EE and batterskulls was awesome.
UWRMiraclesRWU
Modern
UWRControlRWU
Standard
Ummm no...
Trade Thread
You do realize that you are responding to a post from 5 months ago right?
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
Yeah, but this deck just really isn't great. It only has one good removal spell (unless if Valorous Stance can become a thing) and there is very little reason to play it when Esper Mentor and WUR Midrange exists (and even those have to struggle for reasons to play them over BGx).
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
True, but it's such a cool deck. I'm a sucker for cool etb abilities in decks that abuse them. I hope there's some nuts card printed that brings this deck back from the dead. Esper is getting pretty popular though which I am happy about too though. Monastery Mentor is just bonkers in the right deck.
Modern
UBR Grixis Control
U Merfolk
Pauper
U Mono U Delver
Ancestral Visions is freed
I don't know what you mean by "making loops", but there are almost no metas where Tectonic Edge is better than Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Esper Charm or Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, and Electrolyze. Also, Tectonic Edge isn't great against either Tron or Amulet Bloom, since you generally need to stop them before they get to 4 lands.
Wall of Omens does basically nothing against Twin. All of their main threats fly.
The creatures that soak up damage are terrible (seriously, Wall of Omens does almost nothing against Junk, Twin, Affinity, Grixis Delver or Infect), Repeal isn't any more of a removal spell than Vapor Snag, Valorous Stance is merely decent, Dismember deals you way more damage than you want, and Supreme Verdict just makes this deck a bad Control deck since we are playing creatures and then killing all creatures.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Part of the problem is that it doesn't have any proactive interaction other than Path to Exile, so it really doesn't have those things.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.