Interesting build with Rites of Flourishing being both an engine for bouncelands/amulet and a draw for Warps ! However your list has zero way to interact with your opponent and you even help them with Mines and Rites. I don't think this list is viable, but I feel there is something interesting going on.
Thanks! I think interaction is unnecessary in game one. It's a pure combo deck like Storm or Ad Nauseam and can go off on turn four consistently, e.g. T3 Rites of Flourishing bounceland T4 Time Warp
Anyone have advice vs. Eldrazi? I have had some really close matches but game 3 never goes my way. I think I might try the Laboratory Maniac route next time I cross it, Part the Waterveil hasn't been enough to close games for me.
It's clearly very useful against burn, hand disruption, and has corner case applications against Eldrazi and other decks such as Lantern, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseum, etc.
The issue is that your almost 100% committed to running 4 Leylines in your board because you REALLY want to see it in your opening hand.
Now, even with a Leyline in play, you can still lose to all of the decks it's supposed to help against. You just hope that it slows them enough to be able to start chaining turns and you can win.
Too often I found myself mulling past solid 7 and 6 card hands wanting to get a Leyline in play and then regretting it when they just dropped Goblin Guide T1, Eidolon T2, Swiftspear + Atarka's Command T3. Leyline does absolutely nothing against this type of hand.
The matchups pretty awful, so I guess what I'm saying is, as bad as it is - does siding 4 Leylines make it anywhere near favorable? I think not, and so it's just not worth it. Hope to dodge, understand you will almost always lose if you do play it. Increase your ability to hand more diverse threats / decks instead of rather focused cards like Leyline.
Really, this question is "how afraid of Boil / Choke / Blood Moon should I be (and be prepared to fight them with Spectral Shift)?"
With Twin getting banned, I think people are going to probably just lean on the known rather than try anything too fancy - affinity, tron, eldrazi, burn, infect, junk/jund, merfolk and some form of grixis/jeskai mid-range being the only blue decks seeing serious play.
If this holds true, then Choke is really poorly positioned overall, as it does stone nothing to about 80% of the field. Boil is equally poor, but could see 1-2 of's in the sideboard if they expect Grixis / Jeskai and Merfolk in heavier numbers.
Now. Blood Moon is not really too big of an issue for me, because I run 10 basic Island, and all the Time Walk effects have plenty of ways for me to spend the red mana I might have from having a couple of nonbasics in play. I also run 4 Flooded Strand, so I can focus on fetching basic islands early if there's a concern.
The other land destruction effects aren't really a worry. Chances are very slim someone would bring it in against me, even more slim that they cast it (Gigadrowse and Exhaustion sure do buy a lot of time against sorcery speed decks that don't immediately put you under a quick clock)
So - I'm considering moving away from Leylines and Spectral Shift, in favor of a little more utility
Current Sideboard (deck is mono blue main with lands to support white off the board)
Chalice of the void against burn and discard is better imho
Also after sideboard opponents will put in the main as many Little creature they can in order to be fast so here Chalice really shines
What about Death and taxes? It is horrible for the combo version
I think spell snare Counters most of the traits but maybe there is something better
Hi all, I built this deck after facing a version on cockatrice and have been changing it around and having tons of fun. Decided to see if there was a thread on salvation and low and behold here it is. I'm gonna jump right in then since it looks like alot of the changes I ended up making are on the same lines many of you all are doing.
After testing the abysmal aggro/burn matchup I ended up making the shift to UW for the sideboard as well as in an effort to minimize the impact of choke and boil on the mana.
Correct me if i'm wrong but here is how I currently view some of the critical cards.
Exhaustion - Seems to be the best against decks that mainly operate at sorcery speed like affinity, Tron, Jund, and aggro decks.
Gigadrowse - The counterpart of exhaustion while its bad vs aggro decks and sorcery speed decks often worse than just a fog it excels at allowing us to combo off through countermagic and is necessary vs any deck playing remand and friends.
That duo is what I have been using as the baseline disruption package and the best cards against their respective decks that we can have.
Howling Mine | Dictate of Kruphix - I would never play less than 7 since having one out is the minimum to start going off and two-three seems to be the sweet spot to get through your deck for that first time.
# of Time Walks - I am still not quite sure if I want to be at 12 or 13 but currently I have had few problems with 12. I welcome any other experiences people have had with differing amounts.
Part the waterveil - I remember the deck before this card was printed and I truly believe it is what was needed to make it viable. If you are not using this as your primary win condition I would truly like to know why since it is the most efficient card to win out there taking usually three combat steps plus the turns to get up to 9 mana. And acting as a 6 mana warp if needed.
Snapcaster Mage - I also tested out the flip jace in this slot but ultimately he ended up being a win-more card moreso than anything useful in the deck. He just activates your opponents removal early in the game. Early combo he doesn't help the turn you play him since hes not active. Late combo you don't even need his flashback abilities. And he doesn't kill the opponent unless your going infinite anyway. Snap just does everything hes trying to do but for us is way better since it also comes on a body and can easily flash back relevant spells before we begin the combo. Two feels right to me but I could easily see the argument for a third.
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea - I also view this card as absolutely essential since it provides a backup win-condition in the deck as well as providing a sudo mine effect in the grindy matchups. As a side note when I am forced to use it as a wincon I usually just have to get to the point where I have 5+ extra turns "floating" and I explain to the opp how I am going to kill them and that usually does it.
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In general I find the hardest matchups are those where they fight you on the mine effects but once one of those resolves I usually have little problem comboing off shortly after unless I also happen to have dies to aggro in the meantime.
But to be honest with the other decks i've been testing I have only gotten in ~300 games with it so I am very much lacking in play experience against certain archtypes.
I would welcome any and all feedback people have especially in dealing with Jeskai Control and BTL Scapeshift since those are the only two decks i've been losing to in my local meta.
Heya, guys. I played the deck at SCG Atlanta's Modern Classic. I ended up going 5-3, but should have been 6-2. I'll go over what happened in the Tournament Report below. But for now, this is the list I settled on:
This was Michael Arrowsmith, the guy that top 8'd this event. His deck was completely foiled out, including his lands all being expeditions. He is an acquaintance from judging, so I knew that he would either be on Infect or Burn, so I knew I had a rough match.
G1 - T1 Goblin Guide into Swiftspear + Lava Spike was a terrible start for me. He ended up killing me on turn 4.
G2 - Double Eidolon of the Great Revel made me go to 1 to cast Exhaustion. He whiffed on a land, so I had a window to win, but I failed to draw a Time Warp with 2x Mastery + Part the Waterveil left in hand on turn 5.
Out:
4 Howling Mine
2 Gigadrowse
In:
3 Swan Song
3 Commandeer
Round 2 vs. Ad Nauseum (Loss 0-2)
Apparently, this is one of the better Ad Nauseam players, Branden Tanner. After the match, he mentioned missing a recent Grand Prix top 8 with it.
G1 - T1 Lotus Bloom let me know exactly what he was on. T1 Serum Visions, T2 Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions, he sculpted his hand quite well. I landed an EOT Dictate, and hoped. I passed on turn 4 and attempted to gigadrowse his lands in response to Lotus Bloom. He simply floated the mana, let Bloom Resolve, and killed me with Angel's Grace + Ad Nauseam.
G2 - He cast turn 2 Pentad Prism. I cast turn 3 Howling Mine, leaving Swan Song mana open. He untapped, drew 2, and cast Angel's Grace. Sure. He exiled a Simian Spirit Guide, and tapped his 2 lands + Prism counters to cast Ad Nauseam. Swan Song. Pact of Negation. Exile 2 blue cards to cast Commandeer on Ad Nauseam. Pact of Negation #2. Nice handddddddd.
G1 - He mulliganed to five, I believe, and was never able to actually do anything. Gigadrowses in his upkeep and Exhaustions afterwards broke his back early and often. All I really saw was Blood Artist, but that is all I needed to know.
G2 - I cast turn 1 Elixir of Immortality. This matters later. Reasonably long game. He inquisitions me and is CoCo'ing multiple dudes. He gets a CoCo Delayed and he untaps for his turn and looks at the board a few times. He checked my life total 3 times, and instead of attacking first, he began to sac. stuff to Viscera Seer, triggering double Zulaport Cutthroats. In response to a Doomed Traveller trigger, I pop the Elixir, which throws off his math. He shrugs and redoes the math. He nods, and continues to sac dudes, getting me to 9. He then taps everything except Seer to cast Return to the Ranks for like 5. I tap 1 of the 2 lands I control to cast Swan Song. He gets another bird, does the math, and realizes he can knock me to 1. He looks around, and realizes the Seer doesn't have summoning sickness, and tries to attack. My other Gigadrowse taps it down in response. I am able to go off on the following turn.
Out:
4 Exhaustion
1 Temporal Mastery
In:
3 Swan Song
2 Delay
Round 4 vs. Burn (Win 2-2)
G1 - My opponent cracks a turn 1 Windswept Heath. Phew. A GW deck. Nope, he fetches a Stomping Ground and laments the price of Arid Mesa. Goblin Guide, Attack. Uggghhhhhhh. I'm able to chain together a couple of Gigadrowses+Exhaustions, but end up fizzling out without a good draw engine.
G2 - I was able to land and pop a turn 3 Elixir of Immortality (Playing around Skullcrack + Atarka's Command as well.) to have some breathing room. Chaining a couple of Exhaustions was nice, with the 2nd one being accompanied by a Dictate. That's what I was missing round 1. I was able to start going off at 8 life and killed him before he got to take another turn.
G3 - He cast a turn 1...Grim Lavamancer. The worst of Burn's threats. Phew.jpg. I am able to land Jace + Dictate and keep him off of lethal for a while. A nice Swan Song on an Atarka's Command gave him a Bird token to attack with. He got me down to 5 while he fetch + shocked himself down to 8. I start going off, but fizzle after 4 turns. I cast Exhaustion with 7 mana open and pass the turn. He draws, plays a land and casts Lava Spike. I Commandeer it back to him, paying the full 7 mana. He passes back. I draw and whiff on another Warp effect. I realize I'm dead on the swing. I decided to play a land and pass, holding up all of my lands. He draws and thinks I have Cryptic Command, so he casts Lightning Bolt. I Commandeer it back to him, paying 7 mana. He responds with Lightning Helix...I exile 2 blue cards and Commandeer it back to him, killing him. Achievement Unlocked!
Out:
4 Howling Mine
2 Gigadrowse
In:
3 Swan Song
3 Commandeer
Round 5 vs. Storm (Win 3-2)
G1 - Gigadrowse was awesome here, keeping him from going off. I got really lucky on turn 4. He cast Desperate Ravings and ended up discarding Past in Flames, leaving him a mana short from going off. I'm able to gigadrowse + Exhaustion to buy another turn, then went off on turn 6.
G2 - Turn 1 Swan Song on his Pyromancer's Ascension. Turn 2 Delay on his Goblin Electromancer. I tapped him out on turn 5 with a Gigadrowse and went off on my turn.
G1 - Draw, Go for most of it. He allowed a Mine + Dictate to resolve. Gigadrowse at his EoT on turn 5 let me go off on turn 6.
G2 - He flashed in a Snapcaster on T2 and started a Clock. Resto hit the board, and I knew I had to do something quick. He knocked me to 1 and passed. I attempted to gigadrowse his lands. He did not have burn, but he mana leaked 2 of my copies to keep 2 mana up. I untapped, drew, and cast Time Warp. He had Negate. I Commandeer'd his Negate back to Commandeer to counter it. Judge was called to assess the legality of this play. I was told that Commandeer was not a legal target for Negate, and that I could only target Temporal Mastery. I appealed this ruling. The judge was taken aback by this and gave me a sigh, followed by an eye-roll. As she walked away to get the head judge, I informed my opponent that I was also a Judge and actually explained how it worked before the Head Judge came over. Head Judge came over, asked no questions, picked up Commandeer, walked away from the table, back to the other judge, told her almost word-for-word what I had told my opponent, and then returned Commandeer to the table. First judge apologized for her mistake. I showed my opponent 3 Part the Waterveils and 2 Islands and he packed it up.
G1 - I cast T1 Elixir and popped it on turn 2. It was met by T1 Wild Nacatl, T2 Nacatl, Kird Ape. The Ape caught me off guard, as it had been forever since I had seen it. Gigadrowse, Exhaustion, and Cryptic Command kept my life total healthy and I was able to pull off a game 1 win vs. aggro (Wut?)
G2 - Double Goblin Guide was his start. I'm able to gigadrowse and stuff to get a good foothold. I start going off on turn 5, but fizzle after 4 turns. I Serum Visions and cast a Jace Beleren before passing back with Cryptic Command open. At this point, I have 9 lands in play. He goes to combat. I cast Cryptic to tap his Goblin Guides + Draw. He realizes he didn't draw his 2nd card(Dictate). We call judge. Judge explains how things work and the trigger is put on the stack and resolves. I had no problem with that. Back to the game. My opponent points out his Goblin Guide triggers. I reveal the top card of my library. It is Part the Waterveil. My opponent has 1 mana open and is at 16. I have land #10 in hand. That's game, boys...Except...Goblin Guides didn't attack. I tapped them. We realize this and call the judge back over. I am forced to shuffle my library and my opponent was given a Game Rules Violation warning. I take my turn and whiff on a Warp, but I draw Exhaustion. I have to dodge him having Bolt + Bolt to kill me from 5. I pass back. He plays his 2nd land and passes back. I topdeck Part the Waterveil, but miss land #11. I Awaken Part the Waterveil and attack right into a Deflecting Palm, killing myself. If I remembered that the Guides didn't attack, I win this game.
G3 - Goes about the same as G2. I am at 4 and he had just whiffed on 3 cards to draw Boros Charm. I start going off. I am at 12 lands and run out of Warps in my hand. I Serum Visions and see a Time Warp. I'm still looking for more Warps & Part the Waterveil, so I roll my Jace up(To have another draw engine available if I need it) and tap down to 1 mana to cast Dictate. The Jace gave him Boros Charm. There was a Part the Waterveil 2 cards down. If I didn't roll Jace up, I win this game.
Out:
4 Howling Mine
2 Gigadrowse
In:
3 Boomerang
2 Spellskite
(I don't know what I was doing here. I almost never bring in Spellskite{I feel like It's a 1:1 trade with creatures and there are lots of spells that can't be redirected.}, and always bring in Swan Song. I figured Boomerang would keep the dudes in check, but I ended game 3 with 2 Boomerangs in my hand If they were Swan Songs, the match would have turned out differently.)
Round 8 vs. BW Tokens (Win 5-3)
G1 - Opponent was Michael Segal with a deck that I have a hard time believing that I could ever lose to. He drew 0 thoughtseize effects and I was able to go off on turn 5.
G2 - More of the same. I was able to go off on turn 6, tapping down his Ghost Quarter EOT. In the middle of my 3rd extra turn, he stood up and began to angrily pack up his stuff. He then called me a "******* ********", and then went on to say that had called his Legacy deck terrible the last time we played against each other (2.5 years ago.) and that my deck was *****. He angrily signed the slip and sulked off. Looks like the deck did its job!
Out:
3 Exhaustion
In:
3 Commandeer (For Path, maybe? Or Spectral Procession? Maybe even Seize/Inquisition?)
After those 8 rounds + the 4-round modern event I went to at my LGS(3-1, losing to Abzan CoCo), there is absolutely nothing I would change about the Maindeck. In the sideboard, however, I think I would change up the counterspells. I would probably run this instead:
The cool thing about Jace is that if your opponent's only removal is Path to Exile, you're in a great situation. If he sticks around it's huge and getting ramped is more than just fine for this deck.
Private Mod Note
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If you can cast a spell, you're doing well, If you can't, that's okay, too. It usually takes a few turns before you have enough mana to do anything. Meanwhile, you should figure out whether you need to discard (p.11). Then announce the end of your turn, and let your opponent have a go.
How is scapeshift giving you a hard time ? You combo about as fast as they do, even a little bit faster, but have an edge in countermagic wars thanks to gigadrowse.
Same for Jeskai control, it looks like the perfect match up. Just wait until you can protect your warp with gigadrowse and you are good.
I guess I wasnt really clear on how I was having trouble. My main issue in these matchups is that they are playing out almost the same way every time.
Namely, my opponent slows me down by specifically destroying, remanding, or countering the Mine effects I try to play. This means that regardless of being able to gigadrowse their lands down and combo I have to find two gigadrowse to first resolve a Mine and then execute the combo but by then I am usually dead.
In the case of scapeshift even by the time I am ready to gigadrowse he has 2-3 more lands than I do and too many blue sources to get them all.
When its Jeskai its not actually the control deck but a more tempo version where he is also playing geist. If he resolves early geist I can do little since exhaustion is bad during that matchup most of the time so I side it out. Even without that he has enough burn to kill me that way on my end step when its safe for him.
Gigadrowse SHOULD be used a the upkeep on your opponents lands if their deck operate mostly at sorcery speed. The card is not just for tapping creatures or an anti-counter. An usual play is to tap the opponents lands to prevent them from playing then the following turn play Exhaustion, which should give you enough time to go toward your combo.
I needed to be more clear here as well. I find that this use of gigadrowse is pretty average for decks like Hatebears, BW tokens, and other midrange contenders. Its not that I think your wrong to use it like that but most of those decks are packing things like Collected Company, Chord of Calling, Instant Speed Tokens, or even just a burn or pump spell. I find its almost always more productive to just tap down the creatures to make it a fog in actuality rather than get blown out. Either way in those matchups I sideboard most or all of my gigadrowse out if I have other relevant cards in the side.
I've had success with only 7 time walks with 2 snaps and 3 jaces. Really when you go off you dont need to chain turns : against most decks, Exhaustion/Gigadrowse with Cryptic or Remand up is as good as an extra turn (except burn ...).
I'd cut the Elixir, and a 2-3 extra turns for some counterspells and exhaustions.
Interesting, I really hadnt considered a version that was ok passing the turn back over after starting the combo. I'll have to give that a try. Though I would like to keep the elixer in the deck since going actually infinite is the decks backup win condition and I feel its an important part of the strategy.
Though I'm not sure what I counter-spells I would run in place of the extra time walks. I would probably start with one exhaustion and go from there.
Pseudo-walks like Exhaustion, Cryptic and Gigadrowse are super important. Not only do they curve much better, but there will inevitably be times when you have to pass the turn back, even with a couple mine effects.
Private Mod Note
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If you can cast a spell, you're doing well, If you can't, that's okay, too. It usually takes a few turns before you have enough mana to do anything. Meanwhile, you should figure out whether you need to discard (p.11). Then announce the end of your turn, and let your opponent have a go.
To preface, I'm running 4 Spreading Seas, 4 Dictate of Kruphix, and 1 Jace Beleren in my current list.
A friend of mine brought up Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and I think it's got potential as a 1-of. I definitely would not want more than 1, however, I can see many situations 'mid combo' where having a Nykthos that I can tap for 4-6 mana would be a nice boost and a way to enable multiple spells in a turn (ie: Time Warp + play another Dictate, or Walk the Aeons + Cryptic or Gigadrowse to tap down their team in advance of playing a Part the Waterveil and beginning to attack)
It also could enable you to buy back Walk the Aeons another time or two if you've got a Nykthos making 6+ mana
When its Jeskai its not actually the control deck but a more tempo version where he is also playing geist. If he resolves early geist I can do little since exhaustion is bad during that matchup most of the time so I side it out. Even without that he has enough burn to kill me that way on my end step when its safe for him.
As someone who plays both Jeskai Midrange and Taking Turns, the matchup is difficult but most definitely winnable. Don't be afraid to drop a dictate on your own turn if they tap out to burn you on the end of your turn. They get to draw the card first, but they aren't a hyper aggressive deck and are generally constrained by their mana. On that same note, don't be afraid to drop an exhaustion down, even if they have nothing tapped because it stops them from casting stuff at the end of your turn, or forces them to counter.
Aether spellbomb looks really weird in your list. Really think you should try out Boomerang in that slot. Being able to proactively bounce a land turn 2 is surprisingly a thing.
Finally, I just want to say, I've been playing without Cryptic Command and I haven't actually been missing it. It has saved my life a few times against Boggles and Affinity, but I feel a lot of the times that it's just really really slow.
[quote from="Epsilonson »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/developing-competitive-modern/571235-time-walk?comment=1306"]
Aether spellbomb looks really weird in your list. Really think you should try out Boomerang in that slot. Being able to proactively bounce a land turn 2 is surprisingly a thing.
Finally, I just want to say, I've been playing without Cryptic Command and I haven't actually been missing it. It has saved my life a few times against Boggles and Affinity, but I feel a lot of the times that it's just really really slow.
That really resonates with me. Cryptic is not good versus control since its so slow and it is generally a worse exhaustion playing against other decks. I want to keep testing with the spellbomb since it provides a 1 mana answer to creatures I can drop early and if needed cycles mid combo. The versatility is there and so far it has yet to under-perform. But dropping one or both cryptics might be the way to go.
For now i'm going to lose the two cryptics in favor of trying out one boomerang + another exhaustion and see if it plays out better.
I have a ~51% win rate (and climbing) after over 100 XMage matches with the deck. The deck is quite difficult to play and many of my losses are due to me making mistakes. However the deck can consistently win the game or create an insurmountable board position by turn 4. There are some draws that let you go off on turn 3 as well, e.g. with multiple Amulets.
Since last time, I cut 2 Howling Mine for the last Jace and a Kiora and I cut the third Azusa for a Courser of Kruphix. My logic is that Howling Mine is probably the worst card in the fast aggressive matchups and Jace / Kiora provide a similar effect but are relatively good against aggro. The third Azusa seemed to be a bit too much since multiples do nothing. These three additions give the deck a little boost versus aggro while arguably increasing the overall power of the deck. For instance, Courser with Rites or Azusa or both is really busted. The last minor change is a second Tar Pit over the fourth Dimir Aqueduct. This increases our number of keepable 7-card hands to just about 90%.
The sideboard allows for a transformation into a super defensive deck with Spellskite, Courser, and Thragtusk. Against fast aggro I will side out Howling Mine, Rites of Flourishing, Time Warp, and potentially some number of Part the Waterveil for these cards and maybe some Naturalize effects. However against Affinity and Infect I will still go for the combo since big life gain ground pounders are no good. It's important to leave in some number of Part the Waterveil since you still have lots of mana and can be a little thin on ways to win once you can't combo off any more. While I'm not sure that it's the best use of the sideboard, the ability to turn into lifegain value ramp is a pretty cool bonus for a combo deck.
Having this big anti-aggro plan in the board doesn't cost us as much as you'd think since it's relatively difficult to fill the sideboard with things that help us fight through combo hate. That's not because we have bad options but because basically all we need is a Naturalize or two, maybe a bounce spell or Beast Within to deal with a problematic creature. The deck can win through cards like Blood Moon, Thalia, or Rule of Law without removing them from the board! You really only need two of big mana, extra cards, and extra turns to go off and you have redundancy and diversity in each of those categories.
I think the worst matchup is Infect, not close, followed perhaps by BGx.
Whats the consensus on Jace Beleren? Are people still playing him as a card draw engine or is more howling mines better? It's clear he's not the wincon anymore. I actually liked laboratory maniac as the main deck wincon, has anyone experimented with this and what are the problems with that? Thanks.
@Pineappl, I actually find that Part the Waterveil has been my most consistent wincon with me generally only getting through ~60% of my deck before winning versus Lab being a 1 of in the deck and forcing you to get all the way through it without the combo breaking. I prefer to leave Lab-Maniac out of the main so I have more slots for disruption.
Yeah, I dropped jace pretty fast when I realized I didn't need him as the wincon anymore. I currently run 3 mines and 4 dictate.
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea - I also view this card as absolutely essential since it provides a backup win-condition in the deck as well as providing a sudo mine effect in the grindy matchups. As a side note when I am forced to use it as a wincon I usually just have to get to the point where I have 5+ extra turns "floating" and I explain to the opp how I am going to kill them and that usually does it.
Can you explain how Mikokoro is a wincon? You're going to mill them with it? How's that work if it's symmetric to both of you and you've drawn more by taking turns?
@Pineappl, Easy, you take however many turns as cards left in their deck. I posted my list earlier in the thread and I ran the math. If I get through my deck the first time then statistically speaking I am going to get infinite turns with a non-significant chance of failure.
I have only had to do it twice but generally the opponent will conceded when you have 3-5 extra turns "floating" and you explain to them how you intend to win.
EDIT: Also the reason I am running Elixir of Immortality since I only built the deck because of the infinite part.
Whats the consensus on Jace Beleren? Are people still playing him as a card draw engine or is more howling mines better? It's clear he's not the wincon anymore. I actually liked laboratory maniac as the main deck wincon, has anyone experimented with this and what are the problems with that? Thanks.
The problem with Lab maniac is he's a relatively useless draw on his own, while Part the Waterveil can play as either a wincon or a 6 mana warp if need be.
I dropped Jace personally, but I could see some arguments in keeping him in.
Thanks! I think interaction is unnecessary in game one. It's a pure combo deck like Storm or Ad Nauseam and can go off on turn four consistently, e.g. T3 Rites of Flourishing bounceland T4 Time Warp
It's clearly very useful against burn, hand disruption, and has corner case applications against Eldrazi and other decks such as Lantern, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseum, etc.
The issue is that your almost 100% committed to running 4 Leylines in your board because you REALLY want to see it in your opening hand.
Now, even with a Leyline in play, you can still lose to all of the decks it's supposed to help against. You just hope that it slows them enough to be able to start chaining turns and you can win.
Too often I found myself mulling past solid 7 and 6 card hands wanting to get a Leyline in play and then regretting it when they just dropped Goblin Guide T1, Eidolon T2, Swiftspear + Atarka's Command T3. Leyline does absolutely nothing against this type of hand.
The matchups pretty awful, so I guess what I'm saying is, as bad as it is - does siding 4 Leylines make it anywhere near favorable? I think not, and so it's just not worth it. Hope to dodge, understand you will almost always lose if you do play it. Increase your ability to hand more diverse threats / decks instead of rather focused cards like Leyline.
How necessary is Spectral Shift?
Really, this question is "how afraid of Boil / Choke / Blood Moon should I be (and be prepared to fight them with Spectral Shift)?"
With Twin getting banned, I think people are going to probably just lean on the known rather than try anything too fancy - affinity, tron, eldrazi, burn, infect, junk/jund, merfolk and some form of grixis/jeskai mid-range being the only blue decks seeing serious play.
If this holds true, then Choke is really poorly positioned overall, as it does stone nothing to about 80% of the field. Boil is equally poor, but could see 1-2 of's in the sideboard if they expect Grixis / Jeskai and Merfolk in heavier numbers.
Blood Moon is definitely on the rise. As are Crumble to Dust, Fulminator Mage, Molten Rain, etc.
Now. Blood Moon is not really too big of an issue for me, because I run 10 basic Island, and all the Time Walk effects have plenty of ways for me to spend the red mana I might have from having a couple of nonbasics in play. I also run 4 Flooded Strand, so I can focus on fetching basic islands early if there's a concern.
The other land destruction effects aren't really a worry. Chances are very slim someone would bring it in against me, even more slim that they cast it (Gigadrowse and Exhaustion sure do buy a lot of time against sorcery speed decks that don't immediately put you under a quick clock)
So - I'm considering moving away from Leylines and Spectral Shift, in favor of a little more utility
Current Sideboard (deck is mono blue main with lands to support white off the board)
3 Stony Silence
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Negate
2 Spectral Shift
1 Laboratory Maniac
Proposed New Sideboard
3 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Negate
1 Laboratory Maniac
Interested to hear others point of view on this
Also after sideboard opponents will put in the main as many Little creature they can in order to be fast so here Chalice really shines
What about Death and taxes? It is horrible for the combo version
I think spell snare Counters most of the traits but maybe there is something better
URW PillowFort Stasis (costruction)
modern:
U Taking Turns combo
pauper:
UB Servitor Control
xenob8 : you know you are going to have a bad time when opponent starts with snow covered island
URW PillowFort Stasis (costruction)
modern:
U Taking Turns combo
pauper:
UB Servitor Control
xenob8 : you know you are going to have a bad time when opponent starts with snow covered island
After testing the abysmal aggro/burn matchup I ended up making the shift to UW for the sideboard as well as in an effort to minimize the impact of choke and boil on the mana.
3 Howling Mine
4 Dictate of Kruphix
//Walk the Times (12)
4 Time Warp
3 Part the Waterveil
3 Walk the Aeons
2 Temporal Mastery
//Consistency (7)
1 Elixir of Immortality
4 Serum Visions
2 Snapcaster Mage
//Disruption (11)
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Spell Pierce
3 Gigadrowse
2 Remand
2 Exhaustion
2 Cryptic Command
1 Academy Ruins
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Calciform Pools
2 Adarkar Wastes
3 Glacial Fortress
3 Mystic Gate
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
11 Island
1 Spellskite
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Wipe Away
2 Repeal
2 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Timely Reinforcements
Correct me if i'm wrong but here is how I currently view some of the critical cards.
Exhaustion - Seems to be the best against decks that mainly operate at sorcery speed like affinity, Tron, Jund, and aggro decks.
Gigadrowse - The counterpart of exhaustion while its bad vs aggro decks and sorcery speed decks often worse than just a fog it excels at allowing us to combo off through countermagic and is necessary vs any deck playing remand and friends.
That duo is what I have been using as the baseline disruption package and the best cards against their respective decks that we can have.
Howling Mine | Dictate of Kruphix - I would never play less than 7 since having one out is the minimum to start going off and two-three seems to be the sweet spot to get through your deck for that first time.
# of Time Walks - I am still not quite sure if I want to be at 12 or 13 but currently I have had few problems with 12. I welcome any other experiences people have had with differing amounts.
Part the waterveil - I remember the deck before this card was printed and I truly believe it is what was needed to make it viable. If you are not using this as your primary win condition I would truly like to know why since it is the most efficient card to win out there taking usually three combat steps plus the turns to get up to 9 mana. And acting as a 6 mana warp if needed.
Snapcaster Mage - I also tested out the flip jace in this slot but ultimately he ended up being a win-more card moreso than anything useful in the deck. He just activates your opponents removal early in the game. Early combo he doesn't help the turn you play him since hes not active. Late combo you don't even need his flashback abilities. And he doesn't kill the opponent unless your going infinite anyway. Snap just does everything hes trying to do but for us is way better since it also comes on a body and can easily flash back relevant spells before we begin the combo. Two feels right to me but I could easily see the argument for a third.
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea - I also view this card as absolutely essential since it provides a backup win-condition in the deck as well as providing a sudo mine effect in the grindy matchups. As a side note when I am forced to use it as a wincon I usually just have to get to the point where I have 5+ extra turns "floating" and I explain to the opp how I am going to kill them and that usually does it.
-----------------------
In general I find the hardest matchups are those where they fight you on the mine effects but once one of those resolves I usually have little problem comboing off shortly after unless I also happen to have dies to aggro in the meantime.
But to be honest with the other decks i've been testing I have only gotten in ~300 games with it so I am very much lacking in play experience against certain archtypes.
I would welcome any and all feedback people have especially in dealing with Jeskai Control and BTL Scapeshift since those are the only two decks i've been losing to in my local meta.
GUGEdric, Spymaster of Trest - Elfball
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic- Doomsday!
RWUEphara, God of the Polis - Blink + Control
GBGGlissa, the Traitor - Stax & Lands
URGMaelstrom Wanderer - Goodstuff RUG
RGWMayael the Anima - Timmy
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher - The One Hit Wonder
RGWMarath, Will of the Wild - Old-school Enchantress Hate
RWRAurelia, the Warleader - Equipment Aggro
GGGReki, the History of Kamigawa - Legends + Banding
UBRSedris, the Traitor King - Creatures with : Ability
BUBPhenax, God of Deception - Mill
*Sidenote, I specifically excluded infinite combos from all these decks with the exception of Marath and the squirrel nest + Earthcraft combo.
Looking for something Aggressive in modern? Try - BR Aggro
4 Part the Waterveil
4 Time Warp
4 Temporal Mastery
Pseudo Warps
4 Gigadrowse
4 Exhaustion
2 Cryptic Command
4 Howling Mine
4 Dictate of Kruphix
4 Serum Visions
2 Jace Beleren
1 Elixir of Immortality
Lands
23 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
3 Swan Song
3 Commandeer
3 Boomerang
2 Delay
2 Spellskite
1 Wipe Away
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
Round 1 vs. Burn (Loss 0-1)
This was Michael Arrowsmith, the guy that top 8'd this event. His deck was completely foiled out, including his lands all being expeditions. He is an acquaintance from judging, so I knew that he would either be on Infect or Burn, so I knew I had a rough match.
G1 - T1 Goblin Guide into Swiftspear + Lava Spike was a terrible start for me. He ended up killing me on turn 4.
G2 - Double Eidolon of the Great Revel made me go to 1 to cast Exhaustion. He whiffed on a land, so I had a window to win, but I failed to draw a Time Warp with 2x Mastery + Part the Waterveil left in hand on turn 5.
Out:
4 Howling Mine
2 Gigadrowse
In:
3 Swan Song
3 Commandeer
Round 2 vs. Ad Nauseum (Loss 0-2)
Apparently, this is one of the better Ad Nauseam players, Branden Tanner. After the match, he mentioned missing a recent Grand Prix top 8 with it.
G1 - T1 Lotus Bloom let me know exactly what he was on. T1 Serum Visions, T2 Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions, he sculpted his hand quite well. I landed an EOT Dictate, and hoped. I passed on turn 4 and attempted to gigadrowse his lands in response to Lotus Bloom. He simply floated the mana, let Bloom Resolve, and killed me with Angel's Grace + Ad Nauseam.
G2 - He cast turn 2 Pentad Prism. I cast turn 3 Howling Mine, leaving Swan Song mana open. He untapped, drew 2, and cast Angel's Grace. Sure. He exiled a Simian Spirit Guide, and tapped his 2 lands + Prism counters to cast Ad Nauseam. Swan Song. Pact of Negation. Exile 2 blue cards to cast Commandeer on Ad Nauseam. Pact of Negation #2. Nice handddddddd.
Out:
4 Howling Mine
4 Gigadrowse
In:
3 Commandeer
3 Swan Song
1 Wipe Away
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
Round 3 vs. Abzan Return to the Ranks (Win 1-2)
G1 - He mulliganed to five, I believe, and was never able to actually do anything. Gigadrowses in his upkeep and Exhaustions afterwards broke his back early and often. All I really saw was Blood Artist, but that is all I needed to know.
G2 - I cast turn 1 Elixir of Immortality. This matters later. Reasonably long game. He inquisitions me and is CoCo'ing multiple dudes. He gets a CoCo Delayed and he untaps for his turn and looks at the board a few times. He checked my life total 3 times, and instead of attacking first, he began to sac. stuff to Viscera Seer, triggering double Zulaport Cutthroats. In response to a Doomed Traveller trigger, I pop the Elixir, which throws off his math. He shrugs and redoes the math. He nods, and continues to sac dudes, getting me to 9. He then taps everything except Seer to cast Return to the Ranks for like 5. I tap 1 of the 2 lands I control to cast Swan Song. He gets another bird, does the math, and realizes he can knock me to 1. He looks around, and realizes the Seer doesn't have summoning sickness, and tries to attack. My other Gigadrowse taps it down in response. I am able to go off on the following turn.
Out:
4 Exhaustion
1 Temporal Mastery
In:
3 Swan Song
2 Delay
Round 4 vs. Burn (Win 2-2)
G1 - My opponent cracks a turn 1 Windswept Heath. Phew. A GW deck. Nope, he fetches a Stomping Ground and laments the price of Arid Mesa. Goblin Guide, Attack. Uggghhhhhhh. I'm able to chain together a couple of Gigadrowses+Exhaustions, but end up fizzling out without a good draw engine.
G2 - I was able to land and pop a turn 3 Elixir of Immortality (Playing around Skullcrack + Atarka's Command as well.) to have some breathing room. Chaining a couple of Exhaustions was nice, with the 2nd one being accompanied by a Dictate. That's what I was missing round 1. I was able to start going off at 8 life and killed him before he got to take another turn.
G3 - He cast a turn 1...Grim Lavamancer. The worst of Burn's threats. Phew.jpg. I am able to land Jace + Dictate and keep him off of lethal for a while. A nice Swan Song on an Atarka's Command gave him a Bird token to attack with. He got me down to 5 while he fetch + shocked himself down to 8. I start going off, but fizzle after 4 turns. I cast Exhaustion with 7 mana open and pass the turn. He draws, plays a land and casts Lava Spike. I Commandeer it back to him, paying the full 7 mana. He passes back. I draw and whiff on another Warp effect. I realize I'm dead on the swing. I decided to play a land and pass, holding up all of my lands. He draws and thinks I have Cryptic Command, so he casts Lightning Bolt. I Commandeer it back to him, paying 7 mana. He responds with Lightning Helix...I exile 2 blue cards and Commandeer it back to him, killing him. Achievement Unlocked!
Out:
4 Howling Mine
2 Gigadrowse
In:
3 Swan Song
3 Commandeer
Round 5 vs. Storm (Win 3-2)
G1 - Gigadrowse was awesome here, keeping him from going off. I got really lucky on turn 4. He cast Desperate Ravings and ended up discarding Past in Flames, leaving him a mana short from going off. I'm able to gigadrowse + Exhaustion to buy another turn, then went off on turn 6.
G2 - Turn 1 Swan Song on his Pyromancer's Ascension. Turn 2 Delay on his Goblin Electromancer. I tapped him out on turn 5 with a Gigadrowse and went off on my turn.
Out:
4 Howling Mine
4 Exhaustion
1 Cryptic Command
In:
3 Swan Song
2 Delay
3 Boomerang
1 Wipe Away
Round 6 vs. Jeskai Control (Win 4-2)
G1 - Draw, Go for most of it. He allowed a Mine + Dictate to resolve. Gigadrowse at his EoT on turn 5 let me go off on turn 6.
G2 - He flashed in a Snapcaster on T2 and started a Clock. Resto hit the board, and I knew I had to do something quick. He knocked me to 1 and passed. I attempted to gigadrowse his lands. He did not have burn, but he mana leaked 2 of my copies to keep 2 mana up. I untapped, drew, and cast Time Warp. He had Negate. I Commandeer'd his Negate back to Commandeer to counter it. Judge was called to assess the legality of this play. I was told that Commandeer was not a legal target for Negate, and that I could only target Temporal Mastery. I appealed this ruling. The judge was taken aback by this and gave me a sigh, followed by an eye-roll. As she walked away to get the head judge, I informed my opponent that I was also a Judge and actually explained how it worked before the Head Judge came over. Head Judge came over, asked no questions, picked up Commandeer, walked away from the table, back to the other judge, told her almost word-for-word what I had told my opponent, and then returned Commandeer to the table. First judge apologized for her mistake. I showed my opponent 3 Part the Waterveils and 2 Islands and he packed it up.
Out:
4 Exhaustion
2 Jace Beleren
2 Cryptic Command
1 Temporal Mastery
In:
3 Swan Song
3 Commandeer
2 Delay
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
Round 7 vs. Zoo (Loss 4-3)
G1 - I cast T1 Elixir and popped it on turn 2. It was met by T1 Wild Nacatl, T2 Nacatl, Kird Ape. The Ape caught me off guard, as it had been forever since I had seen it. Gigadrowse, Exhaustion, and Cryptic Command kept my life total healthy and I was able to pull off a game 1 win vs. aggro (Wut?)
G2 - Double Goblin Guide was his start. I'm able to gigadrowse and stuff to get a good foothold. I start going off on turn 5, but fizzle after 4 turns. I Serum Visions and cast a Jace Beleren before passing back with Cryptic Command open. At this point, I have 9 lands in play. He goes to combat. I cast Cryptic to tap his Goblin Guides + Draw. He realizes he didn't draw his 2nd card(Dictate). We call judge. Judge explains how things work and the trigger is put on the stack and resolves. I had no problem with that. Back to the game. My opponent points out his Goblin Guide triggers. I reveal the top card of my library. It is Part the Waterveil. My opponent has 1 mana open and is at 16. I have land #10 in hand. That's game, boys...Except...Goblin Guides didn't attack. I tapped them. We realize this and call the judge back over. I am forced to shuffle my library and my opponent was given a Game Rules Violation warning. I take my turn and whiff on a Warp, but I draw Exhaustion. I have to dodge him having Bolt + Bolt to kill me from 5. I pass back. He plays his 2nd land and passes back. I topdeck Part the Waterveil, but miss land #11. I Awaken Part the Waterveil and attack right into a Deflecting Palm, killing myself. If I remembered that the Guides didn't attack, I win this game.
G3 - Goes about the same as G2. I am at 4 and he had just whiffed on 3 cards to draw Boros Charm. I start going off. I am at 12 lands and run out of Warps in my hand. I Serum Visions and see a Time Warp. I'm still looking for more Warps & Part the Waterveil, so I roll my Jace up(To have another draw engine available if I need it) and tap down to 1 mana to cast Dictate. The Jace gave him Boros Charm. There was a Part the Waterveil 2 cards down. If I didn't roll Jace up, I win this game.
Out:
4 Howling Mine
2 Gigadrowse
In:
3 Boomerang
2 Spellskite
(I don't know what I was doing here. I almost never bring in Spellskite{I feel like It's a 1:1 trade with creatures and there are lots of spells that can't be redirected.}, and always bring in Swan Song. I figured Boomerang would keep the dudes in check, but I ended game 3 with 2 Boomerangs in my hand If they were Swan Songs, the match would have turned out differently.)
Round 8 vs. BW Tokens (Win 5-3)
G1 - Opponent was Michael Segal with a deck that I have a hard time believing that I could ever lose to. He drew 0 thoughtseize effects and I was able to go off on turn 5.
G2 - More of the same. I was able to go off on turn 6, tapping down his Ghost Quarter EOT. In the middle of my 3rd extra turn, he stood up and began to angrily pack up his stuff. He then called me a "******* ********", and then went on to say that had called his Legacy deck terrible the last time we played against each other (2.5 years ago.) and that my deck was *****. He angrily signed the slip and sulked off. Looks like the deck did its job!
Out:
3 Exhaustion
In:
3 Commandeer (For Path, maybe? Or Spectral Procession? Maybe even Seize/Inquisition?)
After those 8 rounds + the 4-round modern event I went to at my LGS(3-1, losing to Abzan CoCo), there is absolutely nothing I would change about the Maindeck. In the sideboard, however, I think I would change up the counterspells. I would probably run this instead:
3 Dispel
2 Boomerang
2 Wipe Away
2 Spellskite
1 Swan Song
1 Spell Snare
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
PS. Sphinx's Tutelage is sexy. Milled out Jund tonight after they Slaughter Games'd my Part the Waterveil.
I guess I wasnt really clear on how I was having trouble. My main issue in these matchups is that they are playing out almost the same way every time.
Namely, my opponent slows me down by specifically destroying, remanding, or countering the Mine effects I try to play. This means that regardless of being able to gigadrowse their lands down and combo I have to find two gigadrowse to first resolve a Mine and then execute the combo but by then I am usually dead.
In the case of scapeshift even by the time I am ready to gigadrowse he has 2-3 more lands than I do and too many blue sources to get them all.
When its Jeskai its not actually the control deck but a more tempo version where he is also playing geist. If he resolves early geist I can do little since exhaustion is bad during that matchup most of the time so I side it out. Even without that he has enough burn to kill me that way on my end step when its safe for him.
I needed to be more clear here as well. I find that this use of gigadrowse is pretty average for decks like Hatebears, BW tokens, and other midrange contenders. Its not that I think your wrong to use it like that but most of those decks are packing things like Collected Company, Chord of Calling, Instant Speed Tokens, or even just a burn or pump spell. I find its almost always more productive to just tap down the creatures to make it a fog in actuality rather than get blown out. Either way in those matchups I sideboard most or all of my gigadrowse out if I have other relevant cards in the side.
Interesting, I really hadnt considered a version that was ok passing the turn back over after starting the combo. I'll have to give that a try. Though I would like to keep the elixer in the deck since going actually infinite is the decks backup win condition and I feel its an important part of the strategy.
Though I'm not sure what I counter-spells I would run in place of the extra time walks. I would probably start with one exhaustion and go from there.
GUGEdric, Spymaster of Trest - Elfball
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic- Doomsday!
RWUEphara, God of the Polis - Blink + Control
GBGGlissa, the Traitor - Stax & Lands
URGMaelstrom Wanderer - Goodstuff RUG
RGWMayael the Anima - Timmy
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher - The One Hit Wonder
RGWMarath, Will of the Wild - Old-school Enchantress Hate
RWRAurelia, the Warleader - Equipment Aggro
GGGReki, the History of Kamigawa - Legends + Banding
UBRSedris, the Traitor King - Creatures with : Ability
BUBPhenax, God of Deception - Mill
*Sidenote, I specifically excluded infinite combos from all these decks with the exception of Marath and the squirrel nest + Earthcraft combo.
Looking for something Aggressive in modern? Try - BR Aggro
A friend of mine brought up Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and I think it's got potential as a 1-of. I definitely would not want more than 1, however, I can see many situations 'mid combo' where having a Nykthos that I can tap for 4-6 mana would be a nice boost and a way to enable multiple spells in a turn (ie: Time Warp + play another Dictate, or Walk the Aeons + Cryptic or Gigadrowse to tap down their team in advance of playing a Part the Waterveil and beginning to attack)
It also could enable you to buy back Walk the Aeons another time or two if you've got a Nykthos making 6+ mana
Aether spellbomb looks really weird in your list. Really think you should try out Boomerang in that slot. Being able to proactively bounce a land turn 2 is surprisingly a thing.
Finally, I just want to say, I've been playing without Cryptic Command and I haven't actually been missing it. It has saved my life a few times against Boggles and Affinity, but I feel a lot of the times that it's just really really slow.
Commander
U Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
RG Zilortha, Strength Incarnate
WB Amalia Benavides Aguirre
That really resonates with me. Cryptic is not good versus control since its so slow and it is generally a worse exhaustion playing against other decks. I want to keep testing with the spellbomb since it provides a 1 mana answer to creatures I can drop early and if needed cycles mid combo. The versatility is there and so far it has yet to under-perform. But dropping one or both cryptics might be the way to go.
For now i'm going to lose the two cryptics in favor of trying out one boomerang + another exhaustion and see if it plays out better.
GUGEdric, Spymaster of Trest - Elfball
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic- Doomsday!
RWUEphara, God of the Polis - Blink + Control
GBGGlissa, the Traitor - Stax & Lands
URGMaelstrom Wanderer - Goodstuff RUG
RGWMayael the Anima - Timmy
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher - The One Hit Wonder
RGWMarath, Will of the Wild - Old-school Enchantress Hate
RWRAurelia, the Warleader - Equipment Aggro
GGGReki, the History of Kamigawa - Legends + Banding
UBRSedris, the Traitor King - Creatures with : Ability
BUBPhenax, God of Deception - Mill
*Sidenote, I specifically excluded infinite combos from all these decks with the exception of Marath and the squirrel nest + Earthcraft combo.
Looking for something Aggressive in modern? Try - BR Aggro
4x Amulet of Vigor
2x Howling Mine
Creature
4x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Courser of Kruphix
Planeswalker
1x Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Sorcery
4x Explore
4x Time Warp
4x Part the Waterveil
4x Serum Visions
2x Sleight of Hand
4x Rites of Flourishing
Land
5x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Simic Growth Chamber
3x Dimir Aqueduct
2x Breeding Pool
2x Temple of Mystery
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Forest
4x Thragtusk
3x Courser of Kruphix
3x Spellskite
2x Seal of Primordium
1x Nature's Claim
1x Beast Within
1x Pithing Needle
I have a ~51% win rate (and climbing) after over 100 XMage matches with the deck. The deck is quite difficult to play and many of my losses are due to me making mistakes. However the deck can consistently win the game or create an insurmountable board position by turn 4. There are some draws that let you go off on turn 3 as well, e.g. with multiple Amulets.
Since last time, I cut 2 Howling Mine for the last Jace and a Kiora and I cut the third Azusa for a Courser of Kruphix. My logic is that Howling Mine is probably the worst card in the fast aggressive matchups and Jace / Kiora provide a similar effect but are relatively good against aggro. The third Azusa seemed to be a bit too much since multiples do nothing. These three additions give the deck a little boost versus aggro while arguably increasing the overall power of the deck. For instance, Courser with Rites or Azusa or both is really busted. The last minor change is a second Tar Pit over the fourth Dimir Aqueduct. This increases our number of keepable 7-card hands to just about 90%.
The sideboard allows for a transformation into a super defensive deck with Spellskite, Courser, and Thragtusk. Against fast aggro I will side out Howling Mine, Rites of Flourishing, Time Warp, and potentially some number of Part the Waterveil for these cards and maybe some Naturalize effects. However against Affinity and Infect I will still go for the combo since big life gain ground pounders are no good. It's important to leave in some number of Part the Waterveil since you still have lots of mana and can be a little thin on ways to win once you can't combo off any more. While I'm not sure that it's the best use of the sideboard, the ability to turn into lifegain value ramp is a pretty cool bonus for a combo deck.
Having this big anti-aggro plan in the board doesn't cost us as much as you'd think since it's relatively difficult to fill the sideboard with things that help us fight through combo hate. That's not because we have bad options but because basically all we need is a Naturalize or two, maybe a bounce spell or Beast Within to deal with a problematic creature. The deck can win through cards like Blood Moon, Thalia, or Rule of Law without removing them from the board! You really only need two of big mana, extra cards, and extra turns to go off and you have redundancy and diversity in each of those categories.
I think the worst matchup is Infect, not close, followed perhaps by BGx.
Yeah, I dropped jace pretty fast when I realized I didn't need him as the wincon anymore. I currently run 3 mines and 4 dictate.
GUGEdric, Spymaster of Trest - Elfball
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic- Doomsday!
RWUEphara, God of the Polis - Blink + Control
GBGGlissa, the Traitor - Stax & Lands
URGMaelstrom Wanderer - Goodstuff RUG
RGWMayael the Anima - Timmy
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher - The One Hit Wonder
RGWMarath, Will of the Wild - Old-school Enchantress Hate
RWRAurelia, the Warleader - Equipment Aggro
GGGReki, the History of Kamigawa - Legends + Banding
UBRSedris, the Traitor King - Creatures with : Ability
BUBPhenax, God of Deception - Mill
*Sidenote, I specifically excluded infinite combos from all these decks with the exception of Marath and the squirrel nest + Earthcraft combo.
Looking for something Aggressive in modern? Try - BR Aggro
Can you explain how Mikokoro is a wincon? You're going to mill them with it? How's that work if it's symmetric to both of you and you've drawn more by taking turns?
I have only had to do it twice but generally the opponent will conceded when you have 3-5 extra turns "floating" and you explain to them how you intend to win.
EDIT: Also the reason I am running Elixir of Immortality since I only built the deck because of the infinite part.
GUGEdric, Spymaster of Trest - Elfball
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic- Doomsday!
RWUEphara, God of the Polis - Blink + Control
GBGGlissa, the Traitor - Stax & Lands
URGMaelstrom Wanderer - Goodstuff RUG
RGWMayael the Anima - Timmy
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher - The One Hit Wonder
RGWMarath, Will of the Wild - Old-school Enchantress Hate
RWRAurelia, the Warleader - Equipment Aggro
GGGReki, the History of Kamigawa - Legends + Banding
UBRSedris, the Traitor King - Creatures with : Ability
BUBPhenax, God of Deception - Mill
*Sidenote, I specifically excluded infinite combos from all these decks with the exception of Marath and the squirrel nest + Earthcraft combo.
Looking for something Aggressive in modern? Try - BR Aggro
I dropped Jace personally, but I could see some arguments in keeping him in.
Commander
U Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
RG Zilortha, Strength Incarnate
WB Amalia Benavides Aguirre