ax92, I wonder how often Avacyn died during your testing? I've only tried her in more creature-heavy builds so I'm curious. On the one hand she dodges bolt and Abrupt Decay but with so few other creatures I'd assume your opponent has some kind of removal left by the time you cast her game 1
Among all the AV and SOTM, everyone's stopped talking about TITI, what happened? I was hearing good things about it in testing
Titi is still really strong but it is very awkward to run it in a shell together with AV seeing as they are both such bad topdecks. And 3 cards for 1 mana is still stronger than a 7/8 creature for 2. It's possible to run both titi and AV in a grixis shell as those tend to stay lower on the curve but in UWr it's just very awkward to play both.
I've had success with titi, it just doesn't mix well with thopter sword and is generally unproven so people aren't looking. I still think it's a sweet list.
Among all the AV and SOTM, everyone's stopped talking about TITI, what happened? I was hearing good things about it in testing
Seems like its too hard to make work in these colours.
Seems to help in this deck major problem: closing out games quickly.
That's not a problem, that's a feature. We draw the game longer because we will win lategame. Thing in the Ice hasn't worked so far, which isn't surprising. I'm definitely not going to try it out with any deal of urgency because I just don't think the card is very good. The format has way too much removal to make it work. 'Oh you can protect with counterspells.' Then why not just play the Thopter Sword combo? It's more resilient, and looks like it could work in particular builds.
I've had success with titi, it just doesn't mix well with thopter sword and is generally unproven so people aren't looking. I still think it's a sweet list.
Just saw your list, I quite like it! However just 1 Snare seems dangerous with Thopter Sword being played.
I could see an additional spell snare. The card's stock definitely went up with the bannings and unbannings.
Thing in the Ice is a card that gets killed a lot in this list, but that's fine considering it usually means they have to spend some amount of time or effort getting it off of the board, which is great for us as it gives us another turn or an additional land (in the case of path to exile) to work with later, and is a resource not spent on developing a board position we might not be able to deal with. I'm really in love with the card. Also gives us main board game against some aggro decks, by bouncing all their dudes back to hand. For whatever reason a lot of people on this board aren't too hot on it and would rather ship the old lists that historically haven't done super well but plus AV and/or Thopter Sword. That's a safe option in my eyes and there's probably some wisdom to upgrading the old lists people know well, but I've always been a brewer at heart who tries to innovate even if it goes down an unproven path. I just can't get over the fact that when thing flips, I always win the game, and that when thing doesn't flip, hell, I'm still usually winning the game. Thing isn't a card that can be your sole wincon but he is an absurdly powerful card that demands that my opponents play around him. He only ever comes out against GBx, where the sheer amount of viable removal against him makes him unlikely to impact the game, in which case I'd rather side into a grindy low creature control deck that naturally blanks their removal spells. So yeah, he has his weaknesses but well worth the inclusion in my eyes.
While I'm enjoying the increase in discussion here in the topic, let's not start throwing mud at one another for having an opinion..
What I believe is that there needs to be some sort of change in the construction of the deck that brings it forward. The last years (I haven't played the deck but always tried to follow it's showings) the deck hasn't put up many high level finishes and going forward along the same lines, while proven to be a very decent deck, might not be the way to go.
A cool combo, nice to see more options in the game that do not revolve around broken combos in the first 2 or 3 turns of the game. However, I think this has no place in a UWR Control type of build. We have to devote to much space to the combo (even with Muddle the Mixture) to make this work in our colors. Let Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas have his fun with this combo.
The one card that has taken up so much of the brewing and discussion that we forgot that there is more new stuff around to have fun with. Ancestral Vision has divided the thread in pro and con with valid arguments on both sides. On the plus side, this let's you control the early game with your spells and when you start to run low, this gives you more fuel to start taking the advantage. Draw 3 for U is very strong, but is it worth waiting 4 turns on it.. The card takes 4 whole turns to have an effect, not really a good card to topdeck in the later stages of the game. We can somewhat mitigate this by playing Desolate Lighthouse, but grabbing this of the top when the topdeck matters is deadly..
I think playing Ancestral Vision is rewarded most in a list that has a lot of low mana cost permission and removal options. This always you to get through the early game and once AV resolves, gives you enough cards to answer late game threats will beating down with Colonnades.
The hypetrain was going at full speed for this card, can it live up to the absurd price tag that was pinned on this donkey? Thing in the Ice is very similar to Ancestral Vision, it's a low cost card that sits there for a number of turns doing little work until it suddenly gives you a large advantage. Lists with Thing will probably play more or less creatureless builds, since the card functions as a win-con that rewards you for playing instants and sorceries. A basis of 4 Snapcaster and 4 Thing in the Ice will be my only creatures in the build I will test tomorrow. On the downside, this card also has the problem of being a bad topdeck. A 0/4 late in the game will not do you much good, however I think Desolate Lighthouse deserves a spot in the lists to also mitigate this downside.
Combining both Ancestral Vision and Thing in the Ice seems impossible to me. A 2/2 split feels lacklusters and including 8 bad topdecks in a deck that values all of the cards it plays is not the way to go in my opinion.
Unfortunately I didn't get to open an Archangel Avacyn during the prerelease weekend and I haven't had much thought about a deck with her but a 4/4 flyer for 5 with a lot of upsides can never be bad. I think lists like this would want to run as many flash/instant based cards as possible, to always have mana up to interact with the opponent. Whenever the time is right, drop a flash flyer to start going to town. Decks that play Avacyn will likely play more like a midrange deck, packing threats like Vendilion Clique, Restoration Angel and Archangel Avacyn. Complemented with a set of Snapcaster Mage, permission spells and some burn this will have enough evasive and burn damage to close it out.
We haven't seen lists posted with Avacyn, if anyone is testing let me know!
All in all, I think we have a lot of options going forward. I hope you will pitch in with opinions and deck ideas. I will update this post with my test builds I will try tomorrow. When we come up with a more or less final list I will bring the deck to a large tournament this weekend to see how it plays.
My list is the one under my name I have changed it slightly but this is about my list card for card. I cut chandra for the 4th snaocaster and am right now thinking about moving a Verdict to the side for either a Chandra, Ajani or a Gideon as another either win con or value card. I am leaning towards Chandra so I can Wheel dead cards like late game TiTi
@CryptoSC
My reasons for jeskai was:
- Snap + Bolt interaction, allow removal or straight up counter burn (4 mana deal 6 and get a 2/1 on board at instant speed).
- a draw-go control deck, but unlike esper was not 100% locked into that plan as jeskai control can shift to more counter-burn to turn the corner
- Also some of my favorite cards (lightning helix, electrolyze, cryptic command, resto angel)
- pretty flexible as a deck and card choice amounts i.e. 4x Paths or 3X, etc... unlike some combo decks
- liked that for mostly the same cards I could run giest-midrange
- thought it had the best answers in modern from the W & R color choice (stoney, crumble to dust (used to be sowing salts), supreme verdict, anger of the goods, celestial purge, just the first I could think)
- felt like it was a deck that played a interactive game of mtg (but this is true for grixis and esper too)
There are probably more. But this is what came to my mind first. I also fell in love with modern when I watched the PTs where McLaren and MTG Cup were Shenhar played UWR and loved the gameplay of the deck. Not sure if this was any help.
Of the blue decks Jeskai and Grixis play fairly similar, where you trade resources with your opponent and try and either grind them out or get small advantages and win with whats left over. Esper and UW usually play a little differently, where they control the game up to a point where they resolve a large threat and try and win with it (be it gifts, or sun titan, elspeth, or maybe now thoptor sword). Ultimately I really like trading resources and grinding out advantage which drew me to grixis/jeskai play style. I switch between the two fairly often, the main difference between jeskai and grixis is how great white sideboard cards are. Grixis probably has a better game 1 win rate than jeskai, but things like rule of law, stony silence, wear/wear tear, celestial purge are huge in winning sideboarded games. Grixis also tends to have more polerizing matchups, for example the burn matchup for grixis is very bad. Jeskai doesn't have very many matchups that it just folds to besides tron, which all control decks did(not sure if they still do)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing standard:
RUG:
10-3-4(ID)
Venser UW control:
3-0-1
Overall the deck felt quite powerful and streamlined, except for the part that it couldn't finish games.. I have played a lot of matches almost or into time. Having all the control on the board, opponent on 0 or 1 cards in hand and not having any power to finish the game feels a bit lackluster.
Some comments on the rounds. R1: First round of the day, still sleepy. Get paired to someone I don't know. Found out turn 3 when the Moon hit the table. He managed to go past me by pure power of lands, I only had 2 blue sources and was unable to answer everything he played. Round 2 I was prepared for the moon and fetched accordingly, keeping mana up for a counter + Tear for the moon and finished him with Colonnade and Burns. Izzet Staticaster did a lot of work EoT flashing in to kill Young Pyromancer, untapping and killing all the elementals he made so far. Feels good We didn't have time for a game 3 so called it a draw and scooped it up.
R2: Abzan CoCo, I expected a lot of matches against this deck (it was the 2nd most prevalent deck that day after Jund) but only got paired against it once. The games were fast and easy though. The deck did what it had to do. Turn 1 Visions against non-blue decks is just so good. Countered everything he tried to play, making sure there were never 2 pieces of the combo on the field. Killed him with Colonnade after him going all-in and running into a Cryptic on his final combo piece. Game two he tilted and tried T1, fetch - shock - Thoughtseize, grabbing it back T3 with Witness and playing it again with a fetch - shock - Thougtseize, putting him on 9 life. I Bolt + Helix him in response and show him my hand of land + 2x Snappy. Game was over on T4, fastest Control win ever
R3: Very fast deck with Kiln Fiend and friends + pump spells. Game 1 got stuck on too little red sources to burn everything away and he won with Become Immense. Game 2 I won easily, I now had the proper lands. Game 3 was easy but I failed to grab an out from the top in 3 turns (having outs in 2x Bolt, 3x Helix, 3x Snapcaster, 2x Supreme Verdict and 1 ***). Even with a Goblin Guide on his side grabbing me lands to filter the draws I couldn't topdeck the win.. Salty..
R4: Esper Mentor deck. Game 1 was the longest of the day and by far the most intense and cool game of Magic I ever played. Winner of the game was Desolate Lighthouse, filtering away cards to find what I needed to keep surviving on 1 life against his Colonnade and Lingering Souls. Managed to find enough Helix + Path to go from 1 to 4, back to 2, up to 5, back to 1, up to 4, down to 1 and finally finding double bolt to kill him. Game 2 I managed to win after Visions coming of suspend T5, him spending all his mana to Cryptic Command it and me sticking a Keranos during the main phase. He couldn't remove it and it was game soon after.
R5: People need to be prohibited from bringing this deck to a tournament, what a drag. He did absolutely nothing to threaten me. He only found Martyr over and over. Won G1, lost G2 due to not finding an out to the Proclamation (I didn't even finish the game, just scooped and went to G3, saving time knowing I could win it) and drawed game 3 even though I attacked for 12 + 33 damage in the last two turns, he had 3 life left.. Damn those Martyrs.. Blegh.
R6: Don't want to be reminded of this round. Affinity is a bye for our deck but I lost it due to getting stuck on 2 and 3 lands in games 1 and 3. Got beat down both games by a 2/2 (imagine how long I didn't draw lands).
R7: Didn't feel like playing anymore after that affinity match and got paired vs hatebears.. Joy to the world.. Took both games by winning with only 10 cards in my library, 4x Ghost Quarter in the main (and finding them all) is surpringly good against Colonnade..
Overall the deck performed fine. Had problems with a topdeck AV in one game during the day so I think the downside of that is neglectible. I was able to filter it away with Desolate Lighthouse so no worries. Tectonic Edge did little to nothing, thinking of going with a 2nd Desolate Lighthouse in the main.
Lost rounds were mostly due to me not getting enough lands and sometimes due to not finding something to put pressure on my opponent. Ajani Vengeant felt lackluster and Keranos, God of Storms is solid against control but other than that I'm not sure he deserves a main deck spot. I think I want to try Chandra, Flamecaller in the main, switching out Ajani Vengeant. I never felt like I needed him on turn 4 and he didn't do much for me the entire day.
I've been messing with this build. It's nice chipping away and burning them out. I don't know how well it will do with thopter combo hate floating around but it has been fun and performing well so far.
I'm not dead set on the current counter magic set up. I like remand as long as there are some catch all counters for later on. Counterflux is perfect but awkward with the citadels.
I'm really digging the offense and defense that thopters offer.
For reference, here is the banlist talk rule, although all other Modern and MTGS Forum rules will, of course, also apply:
Only discuss bans in the banlist thread
Users may not post with the primary purpose of discussing, debating, or speculating about the banlist or unbanning/banning cards outside of the Official Current Modern Banlist Discussion thread, which can be found stickied in Modern general. Follow all thread rules when posting there.
Users who post about these topics outside of the thread will be warned/infracted accordingly.
Users may mention bans outside of the banlist thread if the primary purpose is not to discuss, debate, or speculate on the banlist or the banning/unbanning of cards. The primary purpose of the reference must be related to the thread in which the user is posting. For example, saying "Card X is probably getting banned on Monday. Should we swap Card A for Card B in our sideboard?" is okay in a deck thread. Responding to that with "Card X is definitely not getting banned on Monday; it will be Card Y" is a violation of this rule. PM the staff if you have any questions; posts that cross the line will be warned/infracted at the moderators' discretion.
Feel free to reply to this post or PM me if you have any questions! Carry on with your deck development in the new Modern!
I prefer a list closer to this than the ultra controlling versions. You have more game against aggressive decks, and a combo finish so as to deny the plethora of powerful draws from many decks. This might be needed since jeskai isn't the meanest kid on the block when it comes to lategame (even with AV). Thopter and style decks (UX Tron) can still go over the top.
Would love to have that players opinion on the MD AV's. Still not convinced they are maindeck material unless the format slows down even more (which it might do).
23 lands seems ambitious without cantrips to dig for land drops. Especially with triple red for Kiki (Cascade Bluffs help).
-----------------------
Looking at the decks from SCG it looks like Grixis made a generally better showing, especially when paired with AV. Which many people agreed would probably be the case.
Format looking wide open at the moment, so it might take a little to settle before uwr can find the right suite of answers.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
I've found that 1 Serum Visions and 1 Think Twice is where I'd rather be, but I'm playing a control list with a few more creatures than usual (10 total + 1 sideboard). It did alright at the last weekly Modern tournament, where I played against Mardu control, Sultai Delver, Grixis Delver and ID'd with CoCo-Abzan.
This is where I am at right now. Serum Visions over AV in deference to Titi. Will run 3-4 AVs in the sideboard as well as tech to go more controlling.
Haven't been able to test much since I've been busy with school, however if this doesn't work out then I might just continue on with grixis until a better build comes along.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Titi is still really strong but it is very awkward to run it in a shell together with AV seeing as they are both such bad topdecks. And 3 cards for 1 mana is still stronger than a 7/8 creature for 2. It's possible to run both titi and AV in a grixis shell as those tend to stay lower on the curve but in UWr it's just very awkward to play both.
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
These seem like the best colors for it though.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
StandardArena:U/R Drakes
Modern
URStormUR
UBRDeath's ShadowUBR
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Spells (28):
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Helix
2 Cryptic Command
2 Spell Snare
2 Remand
2 Mana Leak
2 Elecrrolyze
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Desolate Lighthouse
2 Stony Silence
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Dispel
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Spellskite
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Wear // Tear
2 Molten Rain
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
Modern:
Death's Shadow Jund
Death's Shadow Grixis
Junk
Legacy:
Grixis Delver
That's not a problem, that's a feature. We draw the game longer because we will win lategame. Thing in the Ice hasn't worked so far, which isn't surprising. I'm definitely not going to try it out with any deal of urgency because I just don't think the card is very good. The format has way too much removal to make it work. 'Oh you can protect with counterspells.' Then why not just play the Thopter Sword combo? It's more resilient, and looks like it could work in particular builds.
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
I could see an additional spell snare. The card's stock definitely went up with the bannings and unbannings.
Thing in the Ice is a card that gets killed a lot in this list, but that's fine considering it usually means they have to spend some amount of time or effort getting it off of the board, which is great for us as it gives us another turn or an additional land (in the case of path to exile) to work with later, and is a resource not spent on developing a board position we might not be able to deal with. I'm really in love with the card. Also gives us main board game against some aggro decks, by bouncing all their dudes back to hand. For whatever reason a lot of people on this board aren't too hot on it and would rather ship the old lists that historically haven't done super well but plus AV and/or Thopter Sword. That's a safe option in my eyes and there's probably some wisdom to upgrading the old lists people know well, but I've always been a brewer at heart who tries to innovate even if it goes down an unproven path. I just can't get over the fact that when thing flips, I always win the game, and that when thing doesn't flip, hell, I'm still usually winning the game. Thing isn't a card that can be your sole wincon but he is an absurdly powerful card that demands that my opponents play around him. He only ever comes out against GBx, where the sheer amount of viable removal against him makes him unlikely to impact the game, in which case I'd rather side into a grindy low creature control deck that naturally blanks their removal spells. So yeah, he has his weaknesses but well worth the inclusion in my eyes.
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
Care to share your list? I'd be interested in knowing what other people are doing with titi.
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
My list is the one under my name I have changed it slightly but this is about my list card for card. I cut chandra for the 4th snaocaster and am right now thinking about moving a Verdict to the side for either a Chandra, Ajani or a Gideon as another either win con or value card. I am leaning towards Chandra so I can Wheel dead cards like late game TiTi
My reasons for jeskai was:
- Snap + Bolt interaction, allow removal or straight up counter burn (4 mana deal 6 and get a 2/1 on board at instant speed).
- a draw-go control deck, but unlike esper was not 100% locked into that plan as jeskai control can shift to more counter-burn to turn the corner
- Also some of my favorite cards (lightning helix, electrolyze, cryptic command, resto angel)
- pretty flexible as a deck and card choice amounts i.e. 4x Paths or 3X, etc... unlike some combo decks
- liked that for mostly the same cards I could run giest-midrange
- thought it had the best answers in modern from the W & R color choice (stoney, crumble to dust (used to be sowing salts), supreme verdict, anger of the goods, celestial purge, just the first I could think)
- felt like it was a deck that played a interactive game of mtg (but this is true for grixis and esper too)
There are probably more. But this is what came to my mind first. I also fell in love with modern when I watched the PTs where McLaren and MTG Cup were Shenhar played UWR and loved the gameplay of the deck. Not sure if this was any help.
RUG:
10-3-4(ID)
Venser UW control:
3-0-1
List got 12th at the SCG Classic.
What do you guys think?
Visit the Typing Test and try!
4 Snapcaster Mage
Instants 23
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Snare
4 Path to Exile
3 Lightning Helix
3 Mana Leak
3 Remand
2 Electrolyze
2 Cryptic Command
Sorceries 6
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Supreme Verdict
Win-Cons 2
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Keranos, God of Storms
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Wrath of God
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Dispel
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Stony Silence
2 Wear//Tear
1 Celestial Purge
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Crumble to Dust
Played 7 rounds against:
R1 - Blue Moon - 1-1
R2 - Abzan CoCo - 2-0
R3 - Kiln Fiend Aggro - 1-2
R4 - Esper Mentor - 2-0
R5 - Martyr Proc - 1-1
R6 - Affinity - 1-2
R7 - GW Hatebears - 2-0
Overall the deck felt quite powerful and streamlined, except for the part that it couldn't finish games.. I have played a lot of matches almost or into time. Having all the control on the board, opponent on 0 or 1 cards in hand and not having any power to finish the game feels a bit lackluster.
Some comments on the rounds.
R1: First round of the day, still sleepy. Get paired to someone I don't know. Found out turn 3 when the Moon hit the table. He managed to go past me by pure power of lands, I only had 2 blue sources and was unable to answer everything he played. Round 2 I was prepared for the moon and fetched accordingly, keeping mana up for a counter + Tear for the moon and finished him with Colonnade and Burns. Izzet Staticaster did a lot of work EoT flashing in to kill Young Pyromancer, untapping and killing all the elementals he made so far. Feels good We didn't have time for a game 3 so called it a draw and scooped it up.
R2: Abzan CoCo, I expected a lot of matches against this deck (it was the 2nd most prevalent deck that day after Jund) but only got paired against it once. The games were fast and easy though. The deck did what it had to do. Turn 1 Visions against non-blue decks is just so good. Countered everything he tried to play, making sure there were never 2 pieces of the combo on the field. Killed him with Colonnade after him going all-in and running into a Cryptic on his final combo piece. Game two he tilted and tried T1, fetch - shock - Thoughtseize, grabbing it back T3 with Witness and playing it again with a fetch - shock - Thougtseize, putting him on 9 life. I Bolt + Helix him in response and show him my hand of land + 2x Snappy. Game was over on T4, fastest Control win ever
R3: Very fast deck with Kiln Fiend and friends + pump spells. Game 1 got stuck on too little red sources to burn everything away and he won with Become Immense. Game 2 I won easily, I now had the proper lands. Game 3 was easy but I failed to grab an out from the top in 3 turns (having outs in 2x Bolt, 3x Helix, 3x Snapcaster, 2x Supreme Verdict and 1 ***). Even with a Goblin Guide on his side grabbing me lands to filter the draws I couldn't topdeck the win.. Salty..
R4: Esper Mentor deck. Game 1 was the longest of the day and by far the most intense and cool game of Magic I ever played. Winner of the game was Desolate Lighthouse, filtering away cards to find what I needed to keep surviving on 1 life against his Colonnade and Lingering Souls. Managed to find enough Helix + Path to go from 1 to 4, back to 2, up to 5, back to 1, up to 4, down to 1 and finally finding double bolt to kill him. Game 2 I managed to win after Visions coming of suspend T5, him spending all his mana to Cryptic Command it and me sticking a Keranos during the main phase. He couldn't remove it and it was game soon after.
R5: People need to be prohibited from bringing this deck to a tournament, what a drag. He did absolutely nothing to threaten me. He only found Martyr over and over. Won G1, lost G2 due to not finding an out to the Proclamation (I didn't even finish the game, just scooped and went to G3, saving time knowing I could win it) and drawed game 3 even though I attacked for 12 + 33 damage in the last two turns, he had 3 life left.. Damn those Martyrs.. Blegh.
R6: Don't want to be reminded of this round. Affinity is a bye for our deck but I lost it due to getting stuck on 2 and 3 lands in games 1 and 3. Got beat down both games by a 2/2 (imagine how long I didn't draw lands).
R7: Didn't feel like playing anymore after that affinity match and got paired vs hatebears.. Joy to the world.. Took both games by winning with only 10 cards in my library, 4x Ghost Quarter in the main (and finding them all) is surpringly good against Colonnade..
Overall the deck performed fine. Had problems with a topdeck AV in one game during the day so I think the downside of that is neglectible. I was able to filter it away with Desolate Lighthouse so no worries. Tectonic Edge did little to nothing, thinking of going with a 2nd Desolate Lighthouse in the main.
Lost rounds were mostly due to me not getting enough lands and sometimes due to not finding something to put pressure on my opponent. Ajani Vengeant felt lackluster and Keranos, God of Storms is solid against control but other than that I'm not sure he deserves a main deck spot. I think I want to try Chandra, Flamecaller in the main, switching out Ajani Vengeant. I never felt like I needed him on turn 4 and he didn't do much for me the entire day.
Jeskai Thopters
3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Path To Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions
4 Remand
2 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Supreme Verdict
3 Detention Sphere
2 Thopter Spy Network
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Island
1 Plains
2 Mountain
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Darksteel Citadel
1 Westvale Abbey
I'm not dead set on the current counter magic set up. I like remand as long as there are some catch all counters for later on. Counterflux is perfect but awkward with the citadels.
I'm really digging the offense and defense that thopters offer.
As per the announcement that has been up since April 4 (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/683941-modern-subforums-after-the-april-4-ban), starting today, April 11, we are returning to our strict enforcement of the banlist discussion rules and other rules in the Modern Forum Rules thread (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/649273-modern-forum-rules-updated-4-3-2016). If you see someone breaking this rule, report it and don't respond: staff will handle it.
For reference, here is the banlist talk rule, although all other Modern and MTGS Forum rules will, of course, also apply:
Only discuss bans in the banlist thread
Users may not post with the primary purpose of discussing, debating, or speculating about the banlist or unbanning/banning cards outside of the Official Current Modern Banlist Discussion thread, which can be found stickied in Modern general. Follow all thread rules when posting there.
Users who post about these topics outside of the thread will be warned/infracted accordingly.
Users may mention bans outside of the banlist thread if the primary purpose is not to discuss, debate, or speculate on the banlist or the banning/unbanning of cards. The primary purpose of the reference must be related to the thread in which the user is posting. For example, saying "Card X is probably getting banned on Monday. Should we swap Card A for Card B in our sideboard?" is okay in a deck thread. Responding to that with "Card X is definitely not getting banned on Monday; it will be Card Y" is a violation of this rule. PM the staff if you have any questions; posts that cross the line will be warned/infracted at the moderators' discretion.
I prefer a list closer to this than the ultra controlling versions. You have more game against aggressive decks, and a combo finish so as to deny the plethora of powerful draws from many decks. This might be needed since jeskai isn't the meanest kid on the block when it comes to lategame (even with AV). Thopter and style decks (UX Tron) can still go over the top.
Would love to have that players opinion on the MD AV's. Still not convinced they are maindeck material unless the format slows down even more (which it might do).
23 lands seems ambitious without cantrips to dig for land drops. Especially with triple red for Kiki (Cascade Bluffs help).
-----------------------
Looking at the decks from SCG it looks like Grixis made a generally better showing, especially when paired with AV. Which many people agreed would probably be the case.
Format looking wide open at the moment, so it might take a little to settle before uwr can find the right suite of answers.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Jace, Vyrn's Prodigy
3 Thing in the Ice
1 Restoration Angel
1 Vendilion Clique
Spells 25
2 Cryptic Command
1 Ojutai's Command
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
2 Lightning Helix
1 Electrolyze
3 Remand
1 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
4 Serum Visions
1 Think Twice
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Wandering Fumarole
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Tectonic Edge
This is where I am at right now. Serum Visions over AV in deference to Titi. Will run 3-4 AVs in the sideboard as well as tech to go more controlling.
Haven't been able to test much since I've been busy with school, however if this doesn't work out then I might just continue on with grixis until a better build comes along.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)