MTG Salvation

Angels or no angels?

I saw 3 UWR control decks being played- one with Wall of Omens on camera for about 30 seconds, one with Wall and Restoration Angel that the commentators confirmed had Kiki-Jiki (I think that was De Rosa), and one that I didn't see Angels or Walls, but was only on stream for a couple of turns. It was interesting seeing how well the one Blue Moon deck was doing. Several satisfying Electrolyze 3-for-1's on camera.

Quote from icesurfer »

Has a Jeskai control build with Regress been tried? or is Ghost Quarter working better as the choice for big ramp decks? Seems like shell could also use Goblin Dark-Dwellers to work as snap 5-8 if the meta is slowing down. Although I haven't tested what to thin out for both of these to test out.

If you want Snap no. 5-8 surely Restoration Angel is a superior choice?

So I played Ajani when I played the pure control version for the first time...holy crap he is amazing. Absolutely destroyed tron with it and was great against everything else too. First time I cast it and I ultimated it. I only played 1, but want to play 2, just can't find the room. Feel like 4 snap + 1 clique + 2 ajani is too much, don't really have room I don't think (maybe cut clique?).
Also had a lot more fun playing control than kiki control. Having a handful of answers and not random creatures at the wrong time felt awesome. Going to add 2 think twice though. Only had 1 rev and felt like I ran out of gas. Is think twice better than rev right now? Everyone is playing aggro decks, so I don't have time to rev even for 3.

Rev is really for grind games, not really the lifegain. It gets sided out quite a bit, but as a one of, it gets cast for a useful amount more often then not.

Quote from AussieMTG »

Quote from icesurfer »

Has a Jeskai control build with Regress been tried? or is Ghost Quarter working better as the choice for big ramp decks? Seems like shell could also use Goblin Dark-Dwellers to work as snap 5-8 if the meta is slowing down. Although I haven't tested what to thin out for both of these to test out.

If you want Snap no. 5-8 surely Restoration Angel is a superior choice?

Yes it would be superior choice, I was mainly looking at ways of using Regress for land hate on eldrazi or as utility outs for the deck.

Regress is a worse Boomerang. And Boomerang is pretty bad. I'd rather just have a Stone Rain.

Question. Why do decks like Blue Moon play Batterskull but we don't? I'm not really familiar with the card, so I was just wondering if there was any particular reason.

Also, why do we play Angels with just a few Snapcasters as targets?

Butterskull is playble.
Usually we use to play it before Kcommand, but some of us just liked more Keranos who do quite perfectly the job.

Angels...man they're flash! X°D can blink snap or just don't blink at all, just be a 3/4 in EOT.

Even thoungh i usually don't see Angels in Control version. Is More kiki-control/midrange's material, but still solid.
About Wincon, we use Walkers to stall the board, like ajani to block dangerous trheats, elspeth for tokens and wrath.

We're a lot more control then blue moon, if we talk about simply spell.

Of course Blue Moon have the better manabase and, of course, an overwelming land denial.

Choice betwenne moon and us it's just a metacall a guess.
In a full endrazi meta land denial it's quite the thing, but overrall we have better Matchups. Think about affinity, infect, zoo, burn, melfork. We have white who is the best side color and have nice tools like real wraths, PTE, walkers and, of course, the all mighty Helix.
If we can find a way to play at least 50/50 post side with eldrazi processor, we cal really say something in this full aggro meta. ^_*

Regarding Eldrazi and the rise of zoo lately, I definitely want some Supreme Verdict in my 60. We'll have to stall out early and get out our board wipe as soon as we can. Seer of course makes that much harder to consistently do, but they won't always have Seer+Cavern of Souls. And when they don't, our counters can hold them off. Are there any cards that punish colorless cards, kind of like a reverse All is Dust?

I've considered an old classic, Porphyry Nodes. It seems quite good against a lot of decks right now. Going 1-for-1 is never a bad thing, and it even forces them to slow down and maybe skip playing a creature on their turn. What are thoughts on this?

Seeing all these 4+ toughness creatures coming down on turn 2 or 3 makes me want more removal. What options do we have outside of Path?

Hmm, I suppose even the other mode code be good, considering I'm on Kiki Control right now. I might have to try it.

I don't feel like Valorous Stance is very good. If we just want more straight removal, we have some options. Just listing off everything I can think of, Supreme Verdict, Porphyry Nodes, Oust, Judge Unworthy, Detention Sphere, Oblivion Ring, Condemn, Terminus.

Side note: Detention sphere and o ring get around Reality Smasher's discard clause because the target is not chosen on cast.

Valorous Stance is very good when there a lot of high-toughness creatures. It's an easy-to-cast Terminate. So basically, when Valorous Stance is good, Batterskull is bad. At the moment, I think both are not that good. Batterskull is closer to playable than Stance.

the kiki version might be a bit better vs eldrazi than pure control, cause they only have dismember as removal don't they? Then again they have thought-knot seer to break up the combo so idk.

but pure control can have 3 verdicts in the 75, and an elspeth to help with the eldrazi, not sure if it would be enough, but would help. These eldrazi decks are everywhere at the pro tour. Besides the eldrazi deck though, a lot of other matchups in this meta are really good...even tron isn't that bad.

So can we beat a turn 1 play of 2 Eldrazi Mimics -> turn two Thoughtknot, swing for 8? if we are on the play maybe (actually not too bad i guess) but on the draw, man that is dangerous.

I actually find the Turn 1 play of Chalice for 1 a lot scarier (Simian Sprirt Guide enabled), we can play though it but turn off bolt and PtE, our best answers from turn 1.

Quote from sdownie »

the kiki version might be a bit better vs eldrazi than pure control, cause they only have dismember as removal don't they? Then again they have thought-knot seer to break up the combo so idk.

but pure control can have 3 verdicts in the 75, and an elspeth to help with the eldrazi, not sure if it would be enough, but would help. These eldrazi decks are everywhere at the pro tour. Besides the eldrazi deck though, a lot of other matchups in this meta are really good...even tron isn't that bad.

I honestly don’t know what to do against these eldrazi decks, you need to run at least 2 ghost quarter, then I would run spreading seas main deck and perhaps 3 electrolyze hoping to get the mimics. It seems the meta is going to be affinity and eldrazi only until something gets banned.

With the colorless eldrazi deck, nothing has a cast trigger, so counterspells are good against it. Mana Leak is great, Remand is useful to draw into sweepers. I think colorless Eldrazi is only a problem because of Thought-Knot Seer on T2. Burn spells aren't that good against it, but sweepers are, and Ajani sure is. Compared to the cast triggers from Bx Eldrazi, colorless is just better for us. Also, nobody has been playing Ulamog because slow, so that gives us the late game.

Crumble seems very good against Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin, and we can actually survive to that point. Reality Smasher is annoying, since we only have Paths and sweepers for it, so perhaps Valorous Stance is right to sideboard for it.

Quote from Revhrain »

Quote from sdownie »

the kiki version might be a bit better vs eldrazi than pure control, cause they only have dismember as removal don't they? Then again they have thought-knot seer to break up the combo so idk.

but pure control can have 3 verdicts in the 75, and an elspeth to help with the eldrazi, not sure if it would be enough, but would help. These eldrazi decks are everywhere at the pro tour. Besides the eldrazi deck though, a lot of other matchups in this meta are really good...even tron isn't that bad.

I honestly don’t know what to do against these eldrazi decks, you need to run at least 2 ghost quarter, then I would run spreading seas main deck and perhaps 3 electrolyze hoping to get the mimics. It seems the meta is going to be affinity and eldrazi only until something gets banned.

Something like wing shards would be helpful i think its too bad that hasnt been reprinted... celestial flare, immolating flare... runed halo, meddling mage

Council's Judgment should be a modern card.