What is Blue Man Group?
The deck, much like the band it draws its name from, has a lot of blue dudes. Specifially, this deck is built around blue devotion. The goal of the deck is to kill the opponent with damage either by aggroing them out with the small blue creatures or by using Molten-tail Masticore to deal tons of direct damage to the opponent.
Why would someone want to play this deck?
The deck has a lot of fun nuances that allow it to be extremely fun to pilot. The fact that you can spawn 50+ power in one turn is pretty ridiculous. The deck feels somewhere in between merfolk and elves; merfolk because it is blue and has access to some disruption in the form of counterspells, and elves because it has the ability to generate insane amounts of mana. If you like the idea of using one card to get 7 creatures, then being able to draw 10 cards, this may be the deck for you.
What is the core of the deck?
The three cards the deck now centers itself around are Grand Architect, Master of Waves, and Voidmage Prodigy. Grand Architect has the most important role since it provides mana for the artifacts, devotion for Master of Waves, and a buff for all of your creatures. Master of Waves is the main win condition of the deck, since it will sometimes just attack for a bunch of damage due to buffs, or it will allow you to draw your deck through Slate of Ancestry. Voidmage Prodigy provides a lot of board control while you set up your pieces. Considering that many of our low cost cards are wizards, he can sometimes represent 3-5 counterspells. Each of these three cards are very important, though some builds choose to emphasize specific ones: more artifacts to play with Grand Architect, more aggressive creatures to play with Master of Waves, or more wizards to play with Voidmage Prodigy.
Card Choices Creatures 1-drop Creatures Sage of Epityr: This card is one of the most important creatures in the deck. It is basically a Ponder in creature form, but you get to see an additional card with the drawback of no drawing a card and not being able to shuffle your library. He can make a bad hand good, especially if you have enough lands and need to hit creatures or you have enough creatures and need to hit lands. Judge's Familiar: This card plays an important role in the deck as one of the main forms of disruption, though only against instants and sorceries. As a blue creature it helps build devotion while also forcing your opponent to play around it. Cursecatcher: This is a Judge's Familiar that is a wizard, but without flying. It is meta dependent whether flying is better than being a wizard due to synergy with Voidmage Prodigy. Martyr of Frost: This card is very similar to Judge's Familiar except it costs mana, but it can counter anything provided you have enough blue creatures in hand. The key with this card is knowing which matchups you need to be patient with its ability, and which matchups you should ignore it and keep running out creatures. The utility of this card is really determined by your meta. Against a lot of control and combo, it is strong; otherwise it is pretty weak.
2-drop Creatures Omenspeaker: This card has an interesting function in this deck. It is best when used right after Sage of Epityr, since you can then get rid of specific cards that you know you don't want to draw. It also provides one devotion as well as being a reliable blocker against creatures like Goblin Guide. Since this deck has specific cards it wants to draw, this card helps the deck draw what it wants in a timely fashion. Kami of the Crescent Moon: It is basically a Howling Mine that is a blue creature and gives two devotion to blue. It is ideally put into play with Aether Vial, so you can be the first to draw with it, but it is strong for this deck either way. Whenever this deck is the faster deck, this card can help us get the pieces we need to win before other decks can setup their win condition. Against other faster aggro decks, I would recommend siding it out however, especially if they have burn. Voidmage Prodigy: Kai Budde's card is extremely good in this deck. The doulble blue casting cost works great with devotion; the requirement to sacrifice a wizard is not difficult since a lot of the set up creatures are wizards. Being able to turn Sage of Epityr into a counterspell is great against combo and control decks. Even though it has the downside of being on the board, it has the upside of being nearly uncounterable. Spellstutter Sprite: This is surprisingly good in this deck, considering there are no other faeries. It does a good job countering the cheapest removal, and works very well with Voidmage Prodigy, often being a counterspell coming in and a counterspell going out. Also, this deck has a habit of leaving two mana open, so it is very convenient for bluffing lots of effects.
3-drop Creatures Grand Architect: The first of the major players in the deck. This card has three major roles: it is a lord for the deck's creatures, it allows the creatures to tap for artifact mana, and it provides two devotion. And when he comes in multiples, the deck's creatures get huge. Thassa, God of the Sea: This is more of a utility creature, since it provides a nice scry every turn to help grab the pieces you need. However, it is very effective as a 5/5 indestructible creature that can make any creature unblockable. Kira, the Great Glass Spinner: This may be better as a sideboard card, but it is effective at what it does. What it does is make it difficult for your opponent to kill a specific creature. It does nothing against boardwipes, but there are only a few of those that this deck is afraid of.
4-drop Creatures Master of Waves: This card is the MVP of the deck. It allows you to set up massive powerswings by putting a bunch of creatures onto the battlefield. In addition, with the help of Grand Architect, the creatures it generates can tap for a ton of artifact mana. Phyrexian Metamorph: This is the final key to the deck. This creature provides an additional copy of any creature or artifact on the battlefield. It's main job involves copying Master of Waves, but it can also copy anything from Grand Architect to any of the deck's powerful non-legendary artifacts. Since it is an artifact, if Grand Architect is on the battlefield, you can play it by simply tapping two creatures and paying 2 life. This aspect makes it crazy good when Grand Architect and Master of Waves are on the field. Molten-tail Masticore: This is a personal favorite of mine. Since it is an artifact, you can pay for it and activate the abilities by tapping creatures if Grand Architect is on the field. It does require you to discard a card each turn, but given enough mana, it can win games by itself. I like it best as a one-of.
Artifacts Aether Vial: Aether Vial is really good for this deck either turn 1 or turn 2. It allows the deck to play more than one creature per turn, which helps stack devotion even faster. This is the deck's ideal turn one play. After turn 2, though, this card is often a dead card, so it should usually be scryed to the bottom if given the chance. Slate of Ancestry: This is the deck's main form of card advantage. Since Slate is an artifact, you can play and activate it by tapping creatures with Grand Architect. Master of Waves will typically spawn enough creatures for you to draw 10+ cards off one activation. It does require you to discard your hand, but this deck has no problem dumping its hand in the early turns and there is enough redundancy that if you have to discard something important, it is likely that you will draw a second copy of it. Eldrazi Monument: This card provides a nice lord effect as well as making the deck less suceptible to board wipes. It does require us to sacrifice a creature each turn, but once you drop Master of Waves, that requirement becomes nearly irrelevant. A very strong option, though I have personally fallen away from it. Akroma's Memorial: The largest of the mainboard artifacts, this card packs a punch. The most relevant of its abilities is that it provides evasion and haste, which can allow a fresh Master of Waves and family to swing for lethal the turn they come out. A very strong option, though I hav personally fallen away from it (mainly because it and Masticore could win on the same turn).
Other Possible Spell Choices Snapback: Basically a Force of Will unsummon. I like the card because we want to tap out to stay on curve, but this allows us to keep removal open. Great against aggressive decks such as Affinity or Infect, or against combo decks like Pod or Splinter Twin/Kiki-Jiki. Vapor Snag: A very good unsummon variant with the bonus to ping the player. The ping isn't extremely relevant in most cases, but the option to unsummon is great for this deck. Mana Leak/Remand: Not really that great of options for counterspells for this deck. Ideally, the deck would prefer to just use Voidmage Prodigy for its counterspells. Aether Spellbomb: An artifact that can become an unsummon or a cantrip. Much more relevant in the matchups where unsummon is bad. Without Grand Architect, this card is overcosted. But it is fairly well costed with Grand Architect, so it is a decent option.
Lands
I only recommend using 3-4 nonbasic, non-fetch lands. You should run around 15-17 Islands to guarantee that you always have mana for UU. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: This land from Theros provides another bonus for being devoted to blue. It is a backup source of mana in case we don't draw Grand Architect, but it can also use that mana to play creatures. Academy Ruins: I like running this land as a one-of. It can grab back dead Phyrexian Metamorphs as well as the possibility of getting the Mindslaver lock from the sideboard. Scalding Tarns/Misty Rainforest: Ideally, because of Sage of Epityr, you want some method of shuffling your deck. But the downside is that if you try to use Slate of Ancestry to draw your deck, you have less knowledge of what is on the bottom. I personally don't run these anymore, as I found them to be unnecessary, and the damage hurt more than the benefit. Mutavault: Mutavault allows this deck to have a more aggressive gameplan. If that's your style, it would probably be the right choice for you. Minamo, School at Water's Edge: Very good as a one-of since it is better than an island. It can be used to untap Nykthos, Academy Ruins, or Thassa. Note that it will only generate additional mana with Nykthos if you have 5+ devotion. However, since it's only downside is being a non-basic land it is still worth running because of the times it can be a clutch extra Nykthos.
How is the deck supposed to work?
So, kind of like in the original gameplan, you want to start off with a turn one Aether Vial or Sage of Epityr (ideally Aether Vial). If you don't have one of these two cards or Omenspeaker, you should probably mulligan the hand. Turn 2 you want to play as many creatures as possible, minus Kami. Turn 3, I like playing Thassa. If you don't have Thassa, then look to see if you have Voidmage Prodigy and an Aether Vial at two. If you do, then leave the mana open, so you can Aether Vial in Voidmage Prodigy and counter something. If you don't have either Aether Vial or Voidmage Prodigy, then I like playing Grand Architect and Phyrexian Metamorphing it. Turn 4, you usually want to play Master of Waves (and use Aether Vial to put Grand Architect into play if it isn't already in play); ideally here you also want to play and/or activate Slate of Ancestry to draw a bunch of cards and hopefully hit either Eldrazi Monument (so you can win next turn almost guaranteed), Akroma's Memorial (so you can win this turn), Slate of Ancestry (so you can draw more cards and try again), and/or Phyrexian Metamorph (so you can copy Slate of Ancestry or Master of Maves). It is worth noting that you have to draw cards equal to the number of creatures you control, so make sure not to accidently deck yourself with too many creatures. Molten-tail Masticore can provide an alternate win condition at this point if you hit a second slate, since you can play it, tap at least 10 creatures for mana, activate slate to discard your hand, then exile at least 5 creatures from your graveyard for 20 damage before you draw. It is worth noting that in my version of the deck, I prefer to focus on using Slate of Ancestry and Molten-tail Masticore ftw; the main reason I don't like running the other artifacts is because they are difficult to play without Grand Architect. At least these two only cost 4 mana and 4 mana to use their relevant abilities.
So what does the deck look like when built?
Here's my current decklist:
So, with the release of Theros comes Master of Waves. This card really wants a deck that is devoted to blue; if you are, he'll make a bunch of dudes, as long as he stays on the battlefield. Modern gives the deck another blue lord, Grand Architect. He gives 2 devotion to blue, pumps the elementals more (so they won't die if Master of Waves dies) and he can give us a great use for the many tokens off of Master of Waves. (From now on Master of Waves= MoW and Grand Architect=GA.)
So behind MoW and GA, there are several support cards. The main one is Eldrazi Monument. It does everything, from buff your guys to making them indestructible, at the low cost of sacing a dude every turn. Next is Slate of Ancestry. Since MoW allows you to get a bunch of creatures, this card allows you to draw a bunch of cards, though you will have to discard your hand. Since both of these cards are artifacts, GA is great at getting them down early and getting great use out of them. Finally, there is Nyxthos, Srine to Nyx. Since we are already on the devotion to blue plan, this card is great at giving us mana if we fail to draw a GA.
Here's what I've got so far in terms of a decklist:
I've gotten most of the deck together, but I'm not sure of which two-drops I like best and what other support cards I need. If there is a support card that can really help me, I will drop my creature number a bit. I want to have at least 25 creatures though. I feel like I need about 23 lands for the deck to work correctly. I plan to splash white for Sejiri Merfolk and Azorius Guildmage (by splash white I mean play Hallowed fountain and Glacial Fortress.
Honestly, you're probably better off going with a merfolk shell instead of playing janky other small dudes. Merfolk lords do an amazing job of getting your blue devotion up and they're a hell of a lot stronger and more resilient. Cursecatcher > Judge's Familiar Silvergill Adept > Sage of Epityr
Every lord > Sejiri Merfolk
Plus, lords pump your master, still get pumped by your Architect, are fantastic targets for your Phantasmal Image, etc etc.
I'm not saying give up on the Master of Waves idea, I just think you'll be a lot more successful if you fit it in to an already powerful shell instead of playing suboptimal creatures. I realize you're going for the "try and search for the master ASAP" idea but playing such small creatures and not actually drawing extra cards (see the Silvergill vs Sage above) is going to prevent you from surviving / having a big enough impact once you drop your big guys. It ALSO lets you stay one color, which is nice for a ton of reasons.
EDIT:
If you're looking for an example list, I'd maybe do...
Although Im not entirely sure the vials are necessary when you're playing so little permission, they make your bombs uncounterable and allow for so many invaluable combat tricks when you're playing lords.
I'd add the infinite mana combo if your running grand architect and something to do with it, snapcaster mage, academy ruins, and whatever else. go with a utron-ish build, but w/o the lands.
I agree, and I don't want to build a worse version of an already existing deck. I used to play merfolk and I know how many decisions went into picking each card.
That being said, you did bring up a couple of good points about cards that may be worth using in the deck: Cursecatcher + Silvergil Adept and Aether Vial. Since the deck wants to get as much devotion to blue onto the battlefield by turn 4 as possible, Aether Vial seems like a reasonable method of doing so. On the other two, since I already am building partially around a merfolk, then it is worth it to run Silvergill since it is one of the best blue two-drops for this deck. Running Cursecatcher over Judge's Familiar is reasonable enough.
I also thought about a couple of other things. Phyrexian Metamorph is much better for this deck than Phantasmal Image, since I can potentially play it for "free". Another good creature for the deck would be Spined Thopter. If I have Grand Architect out, it pays for itself since it is a blue artifact creature, and it can be used to artificially increase devotion. It also can be an extra 2-drop if necessary. The final card I discovered was Molten-tail Masticore. I've always had a thing for this card, but here he might be really good. His synergy with Grand Architect is amazing and with Slate of Ancestry, you can potentially combo to draw your deck, discard your hand with a second Slate and in response to the draw, tap all your dudes to throw the creatures in your graveyard at the opponent's face. With at least 10 untapped blue creatures and 5 in the graveyard, that's 20 uncounterable damage (outside of Trickbind).
I'd suggest Kira, great glass spinner. She grants 2 devotion and it provides much needed protection for your key cards. Also, with architect it becomes a 3/3 beater.
Also, you could play any big artifact fatty (there are a lot) with architect, it seems you can have access to huge amounts of artifact mana.
This deck seems to increasingly be doing a lot of similar things. Its just aggro based and not combo based. Since you're already running slate and stuff, maybe you could stick pili in there for potential literal infinite mana? Your "combo out" doesnt kill, but if you're playing masticore maybe it could.
So, I haven't posted on this thread in a while. The main reason is because I was doing standard testing and I was working on getting the deck actually built. Well, a couple of days ago I finished building the deck, and I've made some adjustments.
First, let's take a look at the good (allstars) and the bad (benchwarmers). Good
-Aether Vial: This card is crazy good in this deck. It allows us to dump our hand out by turn 4 so we can refill it with Slate of Ancestry. It also allows us to put down deck manipulating creatures before the draw, so that we can draw the cards we need.
-Sage of Epityr: One of the main problems I realized with the deck was that I was running far too many lands. I only really need 1-2 lands in my opening hand if I have this guy because he can find the 1-2 lands that I need. The only downside to him is if the top 4 cards of my library are bad or I put them back in the incorrect order. I added fetches to alleviate the first issue.
-Phyrexian Metamorph: This has so much good utility in this deck, since it can copy opponent's creatures or my best creature (typically Master of Waves), and usually all it requires is for me to tap two creatures and pay a U or 2 life. The fact that it can also copy Slate of Ancestry or Eldrazi Monument is just great.
Bad
-Silvergill Adept: Since there were several merfolk already in the deck, I figured this would work fine. I was wrong. Too often I couldn't cast it because didn't have another merfolk or I wanted to play my cards in a different order. What I realized is that I didn't need the draw, because I want to build into Slate of Ancestry; what I really needed was more library manipulation. So, I tested Omenspeaker over it, and it has been phoenomenl so far. Having 3 toughness has also been great against aggro decks.
-Cursecatcher: Not bad, just since I cut Silvergill Adept, I have no reason to run it over Judge's Familiar.
-Spined Thopter: Being a free creature is irrelevant when you are this bad. Most of the time I would have prefered another 1 or 2-drop or a counterspell.
Here is my updated list. It has been really fun to play with an I would recommend testing it out before you make adjustments:
A couple of quick notes:
- Kami is best if you Aether Vial him in on your upkeep so you get to draw first. I like him here over Silvergill Adept because he gives repeated card draw and he counts for two devotion. He also has 3 toughness so is a little more resilient.
- I cut one of each of my 4-drops only because drawing them early is awkward. The deck doesn't really need Master of Waves to win (unlike the standard deck). It just makes the deck much more efficient. But with the dig, drawing into a Master has not been difficult.
- I tested Kira, but found Eldrazi Monument and Thassa to be better. I like the idea of siding her in against removal heavy decks though.
I'm still working on the sideboard. I'm thinking something like this:
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
I'm not sure how much I like Godhead of Awe. On the plus side, it pumps my 1/0 creature tokens' toughness and it shrinks opposing threats;on the downside, it shrinks the toughness of almost all of my other creatures and it is 5 mana. With my new mana set up, I'm not sure how much I want 5 mana creatures, since the only way I'll probably have the mana for it is using Nykthos. Overall, I think it has potential and is worth testing, but for now I'll pass until I figure out some other cards I can cut.
I know that when people look at this deck, they are probably wondering why I'm not using Grand Architect more. Th main reason is because I used to play a couple of Grand Architect decks, and I know how crippling it can be to not draw GA if you explicitly build around it. This deck builds to use it, but is capable of still working without it. That's the primary reason for not including a lot of the more expensive artifacts. Nykthos has been key to helping the deck play smoothly even when I draw badly.
instead of slate of ancestry for card draw, why not just run bident of thassa... i mean it fits the theme, gives you devotion, and draws lots of cards.
amirite?
Private Mod Note
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
The reason Slate of Ancestry is great in this deck is because all I need to do to play it is tap 2 creatures if I have Grand Architect out, and then I can tap 2 more creatures to draw cards. Bident of Thassa requires me to pay UU, which is a much less expendable resource than artifact mana. Slate of Ancestry also allows for broken plays where you draw 4-5 cards, drop a Master of Waves and another Slate, daw 14-15 cards, drop a Phyrexian Metamorph copying Master of Waves, then drop something like Aakroma's Memorial to swing for game. You don't get that type of explosiveness with Bident.
Don't take this to mean that I don't think Bident might warrent a spot in the deck. I am actually considering Bident of Thassa and Jace Beleren.
So, I did a modern tournament tonight at my LGS. I went 2-1-1 (4 rounds, slow night) and made Top 8. I won the first round of Top 8 and split for $25 store credit. Before the tournament, I made two changes: I cut 1x Enclave Cryptologist for 1x Kira, the Great Glass Spinner in the main and I cut 1x Matyr of Frost for 1x Venser, Shaper Savant. In my sideboard, I replaced the Kira with 1x Mindslaver (which wound up being very important in Top 8).
Round 1 Dredgevine (2-0): Game 1, we both keep slow hands. He winds up hardcasting 2x Vengevine, which put me on a relatively short clock. The turn before he can kill me with a Deathrite Shaman, I draw a Grand Architect, use Slate of Ancestry to draw 5 cards and draw a Master of Waves and a Phyrexian Metamorph. With that I use Aether Vial to put Master of Waves into play and I copy Slae of Ancestry. This time I draw 16 cards; and in those 16 cards I draw an Akroma's Memorial and swing for lethal.
Sideboard: +2x Wurmcoil Engine, -1x Venser,Shaper Savant, -1x Enclave Cryptologist.
Game 2, I play a Wurmcoil Engine turn 3 with Grand Architect. I then use Thassa to make it unblockable for a quick victory.
Round 2 American Delver (0-2): Game 1, I kept a slow hand because I was hoping to draw some of my bombs. I wound up hardcasting Eldrazi Monument when she tapped out for a Geist of Saint Traft. However, I overextended which allowed her to swing back and put me at a low enough life that when she Lightning Helixed me, I was dead on her swing.
Sideboard: +4x Swan Song, -1x Enclave Cryptologist, -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Venser, Shaper Savant
Game 2, I kept a bad hand that never really drew an gas and she killed me with early aggro and Lightning Helixes.
Round 3 Mono-White stuff (2-0): He was clearly new to magic, so this was not much of a challenge. Game 1, I play Grand Architect and Slate of Ancestry turn 3, followed by Master of Waves and 7 tokens turn 4. Slate drew me into a Phyrexian Metamorph and an Akroma's Memorial.
Sideboard: none
Game 2, I didn't start off with everything I needed, but Kami helped me draw into a Master of Waves turn 5 for 7 tokens. Eldrazi Monument the following turn sealed the deal.
Round 4 Scapeshift (Draw): We both could make Top 8 so we decided to draw.
I made Top 8. in seventh place, which meant that I had to play the person who was in second place.
Top 8 Junk Pod (2-1): Game 1, I played Eldrazi Monument with lethal on board, but he managed to combo Spike Feeder with Archangel of Thune the following turn for infinite life. Since he would have eventually found a way of dealing me inifinite damage, I scooped.
Sideboard: +1x Mindslaver, +2x Pithing Needle, -1x Enclave Cryptologist, -1x Kira, the Great Glass Spinner, -1x Venser, Shaper Savant.
Game 2, I get an awkward hand where I have neither Grand Architect o Master of Waves. After he plays Birthing Pod, I Phyrexian Metamorph it to pod an Omenspeaker into a Grand Architect. The next turn he sets himself up to combo out on his next turn. I manage to top deck Mindslaver with 5 blue creatures on the field along with my one-of Academy Ruins to put him in the hard lock. I also had one extra mana to pod my second Omenspeaker into a Master of Waves for a faster kill.
Game 3, I hit one of my nuts hands. It was a creature turn 1 and 2, Grand Architect turn 3, and Master of Waves turn 4. Tapping 3 creatures for Mindslaver followed by two more creatures to Phyrexian Metamorph Master of Waves sealed that game, since I turned around and cracked Mindslaver after that. He did Chord of Calling for a Gaddock Teeg which stopped me from playing Eldrazi Monument, but the damage was already done from Mindslaver.
Top 4 chose to split.
Overall it was a good night. I was able to get some additional testing against other players. In general the deck was okay, but it had several hands that really just didn't do enough unless I drew Master of Waves or Grand Architect. I will probably put Master of Waves back to a 4-of cutting the Kira, the Great Glass Spinner from the main. I might also try Lighthouse Chronolgist over Enclave Cryptologist as a one-of mana dump creature, since it is easier to put one mana into it when I don't have Nykthos, than it was to put the two mana in every time. A 1/3 two drop is also better for my deck than a 0/1 one drop.
I've updated the opening post to make it more clear what the deck is about. Check it out if you are interested. I know some of the card choices may not be ideal, but I am still trying to figure out what are the correct choices for making the deck work best.
Okay, so a report from tonight's Modern tournament and other games. It was exceptionally slow today because of Halloween, but we still had enough for a tournament. It was only three rounds and then a top 4. I went 1-1, got a bye, and missed Top 4, so a pretty sad night for me.
Match 1 Bant Superfriends (0-2): Game 1, I keep an awkward one-land hand because it had Sage of Epityr and Omenspeaker in it; I had no lands in the top 4 so I got screwed on mana for a few turns. I did have a couple of other one-drops so I went ahead and played those. When I finally drew a land, my opponent dropped an Acidic Slime, which put me back at one mana. After that, too many planeswalkers for me to catch up. Game 2, I have a turn 1 Aether Vial. I was able to dump a lot of my hand onto the board by turn 3, including a Grand Architect and a Phyrexian Metamorph copying Grand Architect. I also knew I had an Eldazi Monument on the top of m library with a Master of Waves in hand. But my opponent miracled Terminus, which pretty much wrecked me.
Match 2 Monoblue Control (2-0): Game 1, I curved out well and he didn't draw a lot of spells to interact, so it was a pretty swift victory. Game 2, I had a much slower hand which allowed him to play Talrand and start getting blockers. But I eventually drew into a Slate of Ancestry which refilled my hand and drew me an Akroma's Memorial.
For fun, I played against a couple of the decks that made top 4.
Match Junk Pod (2-0): This is an interesting matchup, because bothe of our decks are trying to "combo" off and have ways of finding our pieces. I won here because I had Matyr of Frost and Aether Vial, which forced him to play around me, while I was able to get setup.
Match U/R Tron (0-1): Tron is a pretty awkward matchup for this deck. If we can be fast and aggressive, we can sometimes get there, but it is a difficult matchup. Utilize Matyr of Frost whenever possible.
Match Junk Midrange (4-2): Pre-board this deck is probably heavily favored, since it is very hard for that deck to interact profitably with swarms of creatures. One of the reasons I like this deck is because there aren't a lot of Modern decks playing mass removal (outside of Pyroclasm and Anger of the Gods). Decks that have to trade one-for-one will have difficulty matching our creatures. Post board, it is a lot more even, since I get Kira and Wurmcoil Engine, but that deck gets Linvala and Torper Orb. Since most of my creatures are used for ETB utility, Torper Orb is really awkward to play against. And Linvala shuts down Grand Architect.
The main reason I haven't posted recently is because I don't have any firm tournament results to report. However, I will be doing a local modern tournament this Thursday, so I should get some results there.
The main things I am currently testing is the necessity of Omenspeaker and what to put in the slot I currently have Venser, Shaper Savant. For the former problem, I have kept Omenspeaker because it has been really good in helping me curve, and there aren't a lot of good two-drop blue creatures; but if I could find a better option, I would probably go for it. For the latter, I am looking at possibly Voidmage Prodigy, since it would give me a pretty solid ability on a UU creature. I wouldn't want too many in the deck, so it should serve nicely as a one- or two-of.
I have done enough testing to get an idea of how some matchups look: Jund: This matchup relies on us drawing Master of Waves. As people playing merfolk have also discovered, MoW is really good in that matchup. In general, our gameplan is problematic enough for Jund decks that we will typically be favored. I've only had the chance to play four matches vs Jund, and I am 3-1.
Splinter Twin: This matchup is a very difficult. This deck is not very well equipped to fight against combo decks. We do have Martyr of Frost as a counterspell and Judge's Familiar to slow them down in finding the combo pieces, but if they have a good enough hand, we will probably lose. This matchup is highly dependen on drawing Aether Vial, Martyr of Frost, and having a fast curve. In the matches I've played vs it, I've gone 1-2.
Affinity: Mainboard this is an interesting matchup. On their good hands, they are faster than us. If they don't win by turn 4, we can probably one-shot them. Post-board, we are much more favored because of Hurkyl's Recall and Wurmcoil. In matches I've played vs it, I've gone 2-0.
BR/ Mono-Red Burn: This is another interesting matchup. The fact that Omenspeaker is a 1/3 has been really relevant in terms of stopping the bleeding vs Goblin Guide. On our good hands, we are quite capable of stalling them long enough for us to draw Master of Waves. Once we play MoW, we should be in the driver's seat for the win. However, 7 bolts to the face is still something that can beat us, so we need to keep hands with a very strong curve. Wurmcoil Engine and Spellskite from the board helps to alleviate this matchup quite a bit, though Scullcrack is still a thing (warning, post board, you should not block with MoW unless you have another lord out. Scullcrack stops the damage prevention from pro-red.) In matches I've played vs it, I've gone 2-2.
RG Tron: This is a bad matchup for this deck. We have very few ways of interacting with their deck. We have to try to just win as quickly as possible. Post-board, we do get Pithing Needle and Spell Pierce, but that isn't always enough in this matchup. The first Pithing Needle should name Karn, the second one should name Oblivion Stone. Eldrazi Monument is key here to stop the blowout from O-Stone. Mindlaver is usually good here, since using their Karn to kill one of their Tron lands can put us n a much better position. In matches I've played vs it, I've gone 1-3.
Merfolk: Unsurpisingly, this is a bad matchup since we can't avoid playing our islands, and Spreading Seas will hit our utility lands. This matchup is really dependent on who goes first and who has an Aether Vial. Post board, we have access to Wurmcoil, which might help a little bit, but I think this is a case where we accept this as a bad matchup, and hope to avoid it.
Mono-white Hatebears: Since we play Ather Vial, the blow up all your lands so you can't do anything strategy isn't that great for them. They do play path to exile, which is a problem for us, but smart playing can give us the advantage. Post board Spellskite and Wurmcoil is really good.
UWR Control: Aether Vial, Judge's Familiar and Eldrazi Monument are the main cards of this matchup. We are weak to early board wipes, but we also play the cards that help us to avoid those board wipes. Just play smart, and we should have the advantage.
Have you considered Leyline of Anticipation? It's two free devotion, you can move it to the bottom with sage if it's in your first few card draws and dropping your lords when they tap out so you're sure to gtet mileage out of them seems good. Plus it gives Master of waves "haste".
The deck is more artifact-centric than devotion-centric. Making just 2 or 3 tokens with master of waves is fine in this deck, we have other wins and we can bounce him to make more (with grand architect out of course).
This deck's strategy is to tax the opponent. We do this with golem, amethyst, certarch, tec edges and crystal shards.
I have no idea if the deck is good, i'll be testing it next week and i'll likely tweak it depending on how it goes.
This will be the version I am going to test out this upcoming week. Before I pick up the cards or look for the cards, I do want some crits and comments about how I should treat each matchup in modern if possible.
Of course, some advice on the deck would be nice too.
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I haven't had much of an opportunity to test the deck recently mostly because of Thanksgiving (my LGS usually runs Modern tournaments on Thursdays). Right now I'm in a pretty rough spot with the deck. Part of it wants to play like a combo deck where you set up Master of Waves as soon as possible; the other part wants to play like a natural aggro deck, where you want to have creatures that are efficient beaters.
The cards that have been working really well have been Aether Vial, Master of Waves, Grand Architect, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Thassa, God of the Sea. That supports a solid core for the deck, but the question becomes what should I do during the first 2-3 turns of the game? How much should this deck plan to interact with the opponent? How do I keep from losing out on card advantage?
I've been checking out the Standard version of the deck, and I think applying some of the elements from that deck may be crucial.
So, I adjusted my deck for the modern tournament at my LGS last night (+1 Thassa, God of he Sea, +2x Voidmage Prodigy, -1x Venser, Shaper Savant, -1x Kira, Great Glass Spinner, -1x Eldrazi Monument). Here's the current list:
With this list I was able to go 2-0-1 to make Top 8 (it is a relatively small modern tournamnet with about 12 people) and then I won the Top 8 round. Top 4 chose to split to get $25 store credit apiece.
Round 1 GB Dredgevine (2-1): Game 1, we each get a relatively slow start, but I am able to recover with a turn 4 Thassa.Eventually I get ahead on board and drop Master of Waves with a Slate of Ancestry. After I drew 11 cards, my opponent scooped.
Sideboard: -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite, +1x Relic of Progenitus.
Game 2, I keep a double Nykthos hand because it has Aether Vial and some one drops. My opponent proceeds to Abrupt Decay my Aether Vial. I do draw a blue source, but I am so far behind at that point that he was able to kill me with ease.
Game 3, my opponent kept a sketchy hand and missed land drops while I drop a turn 3 Thassa, followed by Spellskite. After I get Wurmcoil Engine out, it's over.
Round 2 Doran Midrange (2-1): Game 1, he gets out an early Spellskite and Doran and puts me on a relatively short clock. I did draw a Molten-tail Masticore, but because I didn't have Grand Architect, I didn't have enough mana to make good use of it, so I lost.
Sideboard: -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite, +2x Spell Pierce.
Game 2, he kept a land light hand and got punished. I curved perfectly with a turn 3 Grand Architect, Phyrexian Metamorph (Grand Architect), and turn 4 Master of Waves, Phyrexian Metamorph (Master of Waves).
Game 3, he mulled to 6 and kept another land light hand and I curved well again.
Round 3 Junk Midrange (draw into Top 8). We did decide to play for fun and I won the match 2-0 in additon to splitting even on two extra games. My sideboard in that matchup was -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial, -3x Martyr of Frost; + 1x Kira, Great Glass Spinner, +2x Spell Pierce, + 2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite.
Top 8 Junk Pod (2-0): Game 1, I curve a turn 3 Grand Architect, Phyrexian Metamorph (Grand Architect) into a turn 4 Akroma's Memorial. Two turns later it's over.
Sideboard: -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Pithing Needle.
Game 2, he kills my turn 1 Aether Vial with Decay. I manage to play a turn 3 Thassa, but I am behind on the board. However, I eventually was able to get set up behind Sage of Epityr + Voidmage Prodigy. Eventually I get in enough unblockable Thassa beats to win the game.
Overall it was a great night. Thassa once again proved her merit in the deck. Even though she doesn't necessarily help Grand Architect, she does a great job of putting me in a position to win the game. I think I only lost one game in which I played her. In addition, she's a safer play turn 3 over Grand Architect, since she requires less protection. Playing Thassa turn 3, playing Master of Waves and using Aether Vial for Grand Architect turn 4 is usually the best way of winning. Voidmage Prodigy was a little disappointing, but I feel like the primary problem was that these were bad matchups for that card. Against control, I expect it to do much better.
So, I adjusted my deck for the modern tournament at my LGS last night (+1 Thassa, God of he Sea, +2x Voidmage Prodigy, -1x Venser, Shaper Savant, -1x Kira, Great Glass Spinner, -1x Eldrazi Monument). Here's the current list:
With this list I was able to go 2-0-1 to make Top 8 (it is a relatively small modern tournamnet with about 12 people) and then I won the Top 8 round. Top 4 chose to split to get $25 store credit apiece.
Round 1 GB Dredgevine (2-1): Game 1, we each get a relatively slow start, but I am able to recover with a turn 4 Thassa.Eventually I get ahead on board and drop Master of Waves with a Slate of Ancestry. After I drew 11 cards, my opponent scooped.
Sideboard: -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite, +1x Relic of Progenitus.
Game 2, I keep a double Nykthos hand because it has Aether Vial and some one drops. My opponent proceeds to Abrupt Decay my Aether Vial. I do draw a blue source, but I am so far behind at that point that he was able to kill me with ease.
Game 3, my opponent kept a sketchy hand and missed land drops while I drop a turn 3 Thassa, followed by Spellskite. After I get Wurmcoil Engine out, it's over.
Round 2 Doran Midrange (2-1): Game 1, he gets out an early Spellskite and Doran and puts me on a relatively short clock. I did draw a Molten-tail Masticore, but because I didn't have Grand Architect, I didn't have enough mana to make good use of it, so I lost.
Sideboard: -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite, +2x Spell Pierce.
Game 2, he kept a land light hand and got punished. I curved perfectly with a turn 3 Grand Architect, Phyrexian Metamorph (Grand Architect), and turn 4 Master of Waves, Phyrexian Metamorph (Master of Waves).
Game 3, he mulled to 6 and kept another land light hand and I curved well again.
Round 3 Junk Midrange (draw into Top 8). We did decide to play for fun and I won the match 2-0 in additon to splitting even on two extra games. My sideboard in that matchup was -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial, -3x Martyr of Frost; + 1x Kira, Great Glass Spinner, +2x Spell Pierce, + 2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite.
Top 8 Junk Pod (2-0): Game 1, I curve a turn 3 Grand Architect, Phyrexian Metamorph (Grand Architect) into a turn 4 Akroma's Memorial. Two turns later it's over.
Sideboard: -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Pithing Needle.
Game 2, he kills my turn 1 Aether Vial with Decay. I manage to play a turn 3 Thassa, but I am behind on the board. However, I eventually was able to get set up behind Sage of Epityr + Voidmage Prodigy. Eventually I get in enough unblockable Thassa beats to win the game.
Overall it was a great night. Thassa once again proved her merit in the deck. Even though she doesn't necessarily help Grand Architect, she does a great job of putting me in a position to win the game. I think I only lost one game in which I played her. In addition, she's a safer play turn 3 over Grand Architect, since she requires less protection. Playing Thassa turn 3, playing Master of Waves and using Aether Vial for Grand Architect turn 4 is usually the best way of winning. Voidmage Prodigy was a little disappointing, but I feel like the primary problem was that these were bad matchups for that card. Against control, I expect it to do much better.
I really love the inclusion of voidmage in here. I think it will really show its strength vs control and combo.
With him and Kami costing UU though I kinda feel the number of Nykthos shrine should maybe be cut down for mana consistency. It normally doesn't ram be much mana regardless unless I'm winning.
Crackelburr seems great in this deck, it is both a blue creature and an elemental. We have plenty of blue creature and architect can tap them. With 2 manlands (zendikon/faerie conclave) and architect we can go infinite with crackelburr! Just tap both manlands for blue mana, tap crackelburr with architect, bounce something by untapping both manlands, rinse, repeat. Untapping certarchs is pretty sweet too.
I really love the inclusion of voidmage in here. I think it will really show its strength vs control and combo.
With him and Kami costing UU though I kinda feel the number of Nykthos shrine should maybe be cut down for mana consistency. It normally doesn't ram be much mana regardless unless I'm winning.
That is the primary reason I looked at putting voidmage into the deck. I had tested for a little bit without Sage of Epityr, and I wasn't liking how it was going, so I decided to find some ways of making my scry cards do more work. Voidmage Prodigy seems like the perfect card since my combo matchup seems bad, while my midrange matchup seems favorable. The only thing is that my LGS seems to favor midrange at the moment, so he hasn't been able to put in much work yet.
That is a good point. Ideally I could put either of those creatures into play with Aether Vial, though I know that people are likely to blow up Aether Vial if possible. I generally don't like playing Kami without Vial, since it is a 2-for-1 if they remove it before I draw off of it. But I do see what you are saying, so I may go to just two Nykthos.
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Blue Man Group
What is Blue Man Group?
The deck, much like the band it draws its name from, has a lot of blue dudes. Specifially, this deck is built around blue devotion. The goal of the deck is to kill the opponent with damage either by aggroing them out with the small blue creatures or by using Molten-tail Masticore to deal tons of direct damage to the opponent.
Why would someone want to play this deck?
The deck has a lot of fun nuances that allow it to be extremely fun to pilot. The fact that you can spawn 50+ power in one turn is pretty ridiculous. The deck feels somewhere in between merfolk and elves; merfolk because it is blue and has access to some disruption in the form of counterspells, and elves because it has the ability to generate insane amounts of mana. If you like the idea of using one card to get 7 creatures, then being able to draw 10 cards, this may be the deck for you.
What is the core of the deck?
The three cards the deck now centers itself around are Grand Architect, Master of Waves, and Voidmage Prodigy. Grand Architect has the most important role since it provides mana for the artifacts, devotion for Master of Waves, and a buff for all of your creatures. Master of Waves is the main win condition of the deck, since it will sometimes just attack for a bunch of damage due to buffs, or it will allow you to draw your deck through Slate of Ancestry. Voidmage Prodigy provides a lot of board control while you set up your pieces. Considering that many of our low cost cards are wizards, he can sometimes represent 3-5 counterspells. Each of these three cards are very important, though some builds choose to emphasize specific ones: more artifacts to play with Grand Architect, more aggressive creatures to play with Master of Waves, or more wizards to play with Voidmage Prodigy.
Card Choices
Creatures
1-drop Creatures
Sage of Epityr: This card is one of the most important creatures in the deck. It is basically a Ponder in creature form, but you get to see an additional card with the drawback of no drawing a card and not being able to shuffle your library. He can make a bad hand good, especially if you have enough lands and need to hit creatures or you have enough creatures and need to hit lands.
Judge's Familiar: This card plays an important role in the deck as one of the main forms of disruption, though only against instants and sorceries. As a blue creature it helps build devotion while also forcing your opponent to play around it.
Cursecatcher: This is a Judge's Familiar that is a wizard, but without flying. It is meta dependent whether flying is better than being a wizard due to synergy with Voidmage Prodigy.
Martyr of Frost: This card is very similar to Judge's Familiar except it costs mana, but it can counter anything provided you have enough blue creatures in hand. The key with this card is knowing which matchups you need to be patient with its ability, and which matchups you should ignore it and keep running out creatures. The utility of this card is really determined by your meta. Against a lot of control and combo, it is strong; otherwise it is pretty weak.
2-drop Creatures
Omenspeaker: This card has an interesting function in this deck. It is best when used right after Sage of Epityr, since you can then get rid of specific cards that you know you don't want to draw. It also provides one devotion as well as being a reliable blocker against creatures like Goblin Guide. Since this deck has specific cards it wants to draw, this card helps the deck draw what it wants in a timely fashion.
Kami of the Crescent Moon: It is basically a Howling Mine that is a blue creature and gives two devotion to blue. It is ideally put into play with Aether Vial, so you can be the first to draw with it, but it is strong for this deck either way. Whenever this deck is the faster deck, this card can help us get the pieces we need to win before other decks can setup their win condition. Against other faster aggro decks, I would recommend siding it out however, especially if they have burn.
Voidmage Prodigy: Kai Budde's card is extremely good in this deck. The doulble blue casting cost works great with devotion; the requirement to sacrifice a wizard is not difficult since a lot of the set up creatures are wizards. Being able to turn Sage of Epityr into a counterspell is great against combo and control decks. Even though it has the downside of being on the board, it has the upside of being nearly uncounterable.
Spellstutter Sprite: This is surprisingly good in this deck, considering there are no other faeries. It does a good job countering the cheapest removal, and works very well with Voidmage Prodigy, often being a counterspell coming in and a counterspell going out. Also, this deck has a habit of leaving two mana open, so it is very convenient for bluffing lots of effects.
3-drop Creatures
Grand Architect: The first of the major players in the deck. This card has three major roles: it is a lord for the deck's creatures, it allows the creatures to tap for artifact mana, and it provides two devotion. And when he comes in multiples, the deck's creatures get huge.
Thassa, God of the Sea: This is more of a utility creature, since it provides a nice scry every turn to help grab the pieces you need. However, it is very effective as a 5/5 indestructible creature that can make any creature unblockable.
Kira, the Great Glass Spinner: This may be better as a sideboard card, but it is effective at what it does. What it does is make it difficult for your opponent to kill a specific creature. It does nothing against boardwipes, but there are only a few of those that this deck is afraid of.
4-drop Creatures
Master of Waves: This card is the MVP of the deck. It allows you to set up massive powerswings by putting a bunch of creatures onto the battlefield. In addition, with the help of Grand Architect, the creatures it generates can tap for a ton of artifact mana.
Phyrexian Metamorph: This is the final key to the deck. This creature provides an additional copy of any creature or artifact on the battlefield. It's main job involves copying Master of Waves, but it can also copy anything from Grand Architect to any of the deck's powerful non-legendary artifacts. Since it is an artifact, if Grand Architect is on the battlefield, you can play it by simply tapping two creatures and paying 2 life. This aspect makes it crazy good when Grand Architect and Master of Waves are on the field.
Molten-tail Masticore: This is a personal favorite of mine. Since it is an artifact, you can pay for it and activate the abilities by tapping creatures if Grand Architect is on the field. It does require you to discard a card each turn, but given enough mana, it can win games by itself. I like it best as a one-of.
Artifacts
Aether Vial: Aether Vial is really good for this deck either turn 1 or turn 2. It allows the deck to play more than one creature per turn, which helps stack devotion even faster. This is the deck's ideal turn one play. After turn 2, though, this card is often a dead card, so it should usually be scryed to the bottom if given the chance.
Slate of Ancestry: This is the deck's main form of card advantage. Since Slate is an artifact, you can play and activate it by tapping creatures with Grand Architect. Master of Waves will typically spawn enough creatures for you to draw 10+ cards off one activation. It does require you to discard your hand, but this deck has no problem dumping its hand in the early turns and there is enough redundancy that if you have to discard something important, it is likely that you will draw a second copy of it.
Eldrazi Monument: This card provides a nice lord effect as well as making the deck less suceptible to board wipes. It does require us to sacrifice a creature each turn, but once you drop Master of Waves, that requirement becomes nearly irrelevant. A very strong option, though I have personally fallen away from it.
Akroma's Memorial: The largest of the mainboard artifacts, this card packs a punch. The most relevant of its abilities is that it provides evasion and haste, which can allow a fresh Master of Waves and family to swing for lethal the turn they come out. A very strong option, though I hav personally fallen away from it (mainly because it and Masticore could win on the same turn).
Other Possible Spell Choices
Snapback: Basically a Force of Will unsummon. I like the card because we want to tap out to stay on curve, but this allows us to keep removal open. Great against aggressive decks such as Affinity or Infect, or against combo decks like Pod or Splinter Twin/Kiki-Jiki.
Vapor Snag: A very good unsummon variant with the bonus to ping the player. The ping isn't extremely relevant in most cases, but the option to unsummon is great for this deck.
Mana Leak/Remand: Not really that great of options for counterspells for this deck. Ideally, the deck would prefer to just use Voidmage Prodigy for its counterspells.
Aether Spellbomb: An artifact that can become an unsummon or a cantrip. Much more relevant in the matchups where unsummon is bad. Without Grand Architect, this card is overcosted. But it is fairly well costed with Grand Architect, so it is a decent option.
Lands
I only recommend using 3-4 nonbasic, non-fetch lands. You should run around 15-17 Islands to guarantee that you always have mana for UU.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: This land from Theros provides another bonus for being devoted to blue. It is a backup source of mana in case we don't draw Grand Architect, but it can also use that mana to play creatures.
Academy Ruins: I like running this land as a one-of. It can grab back dead Phyrexian Metamorphs as well as the possibility of getting the Mindslaver lock from the sideboard.
Scalding Tarns/Misty Rainforest: Ideally, because of Sage of Epityr, you want some method of shuffling your deck. But the downside is that if you try to use Slate of Ancestry to draw your deck, you have less knowledge of what is on the bottom. I personally don't run these anymore, as I found them to be unnecessary, and the damage hurt more than the benefit.
Mutavault: Mutavault allows this deck to have a more aggressive gameplan. If that's your style, it would probably be the right choice for you.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge: Very good as a one-of since it is better than an island. It can be used to untap Nykthos, Academy Ruins, or Thassa. Note that it will only generate additional mana with Nykthos if you have 5+ devotion. However, since it's only downside is being a non-basic land it is still worth running because of the times it can be a clutch extra Nykthos.
How is the deck supposed to work?
So, kind of like in the original gameplan, you want to start off with a turn one Aether Vial or Sage of Epityr (ideally Aether Vial). If you don't have one of these two cards or Omenspeaker, you should probably mulligan the hand. Turn 2 you want to play as many creatures as possible, minus Kami. Turn 3, I like playing Thassa. If you don't have Thassa, then look to see if you have Voidmage Prodigy and an Aether Vial at two. If you do, then leave the mana open, so you can Aether Vial in Voidmage Prodigy and counter something. If you don't have either Aether Vial or Voidmage Prodigy, then I like playing Grand Architect and Phyrexian Metamorphing it. Turn 4, you usually want to play Master of Waves (and use Aether Vial to put Grand Architect into play if it isn't already in play); ideally here you also want to play and/or activate Slate of Ancestry to draw a bunch of cards and hopefully hit either Eldrazi Monument (so you can win next turn almost guaranteed), Akroma's Memorial (so you can win this turn), Slate of Ancestry (so you can draw more cards and try again), and/or Phyrexian Metamorph (so you can copy Slate of Ancestry or Master of Maves). It is worth noting that you have to draw cards equal to the number of creatures you control, so make sure not to accidently deck yourself with too many creatures. Molten-tail Masticore can provide an alternate win condition at this point if you hit a second slate, since you can play it, tap at least 10 creatures for mana, activate slate to discard your hand, then exile at least 5 creatures from your graveyard for 20 damage before you draw. It is worth noting that in my version of the deck, I prefer to focus on using Slate of Ancestry and Molten-tail Masticore ftw; the main reason I don't like running the other artifacts is because they are difficult to play without Grand Architect. At least these two only cost 4 mana and 4 mana to use their relevant abilities.
So what does the deck look like when built?
Here's my current decklist:
3x Judge's Familiar
2x Martyr of Frost
4x Sage of Epityr
2x Omenspeaker
4x Voidmage Prodigy
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Grand Architect
2x Thassa, God of the Sea
4x Master of Waves
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Molten-tail Masticore
4x Aether Vial
2x Slate of Ancestry
Other (2)
2x Snapback
Lands (19)
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Academy Ruins
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
15x Island
1x Kira, the Great Glass Spinner
1x Swan Song
2x Spell Pierce
1x Mindslaver
1x Relic of Progenitus
2x Pithing Needle
2x Wurmcoil Engine
3x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Spellskite
2 faerie impostor
4 judge's familiar
4 spellstutter sprite
4 grand architect
2 mistblade shinobi
2 pestermite
1 thassa, god of the sea
1 phyrexian metamorph
2 master of waves
2 lodestone golem
1 venser, shaper savant
2 ninja of the deep hours
4 aether vial
3 thorn of amethyst
2 crystal shard
2 vedalken shackles
lands: 22
4 mutavault
4 tectonic edge
14 island
So behind MoW and GA, there are several support cards. The main one is Eldrazi Monument. It does everything, from buff your guys to making them indestructible, at the low cost of sacing a dude every turn. Next is Slate of Ancestry. Since MoW allows you to get a bunch of creatures, this card allows you to draw a bunch of cards, though you will have to discard your hand. Since both of these cards are artifacts, GA is great at getting them down early and getting great use out of them. Finally, there is Nyxthos, Srine to Nyx. Since we are already on the devotion to blue plan, this card is great at giving us mana if we fail to draw a GA.
Here's what I've got so far in terms of a decklist:
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Sage of Epityr
3x Phantasmal Image
4x Sejiri Merfolk
2x Azorius Guildmage
2x Sygg, River Cutthroat
4x Grand Architect
4x Master of Waves
3x Slate of Ancestry
3x Eldrazi Monument
1x Akroma's Memorial
Lands (23)
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
2x Nyxthos, Shrine to Nyx
15x Island
I've gotten most of the deck together, but I'm not sure of which two-drops I like best and what other support cards I need. If there is a support card that can really help me, I will drop my creature number a bit. I want to have at least 25 creatures though. I feel like I need about 23 lands for the deck to work correctly. I plan to splash white for Sejiri Merfolk and Azorius Guildmage (by splash white I mean play Hallowed fountain and Glacial Fortress.
Cursecatcher > Judge's Familiar
Silvergill Adept > Sage of Epityr
Every lord > Sejiri Merfolk
Plus, lords pump your master, still get pumped by your Architect, are fantastic targets for your Phantasmal Image, etc etc.
I'm not saying give up on the Master of Waves idea, I just think you'll be a lot more successful if you fit it in to an already powerful shell instead of playing suboptimal creatures. I realize you're going for the "try and search for the master ASAP" idea but playing such small creatures and not actually drawing extra cards (see the Silvergill vs Sage above) is going to prevent you from surviving / having a big enough impact once you drop your big guys. It ALSO lets you stay one color, which is nice for a ton of reasons.
EDIT:
If you're looking for an example list, I'd maybe do...
4 Grand Architect
4 Master of Waves
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Cursecatcher
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Slate of Ancestry
2 Eldrazi Monument
4 Aether Vial
Permission (4):
3 Mana Leak
1 Dismember
19 Island
3 Mutavault
Although Im not entirely sure the vials are necessary when you're playing so little permission, they make your bombs uncounterable and allow for so many invaluable combat tricks when you're playing lords.
I'd add the infinite mana combo if your running grand architect and something to do with it, snapcaster mage, academy ruins, and whatever else. go with a utron-ish build, but w/o the lands.
I agree, and I don't want to build a worse version of an already existing deck. I used to play merfolk and I know how many decisions went into picking each card.
That being said, you did bring up a couple of good points about cards that may be worth using in the deck: Cursecatcher + Silvergil Adept and Aether Vial. Since the deck wants to get as much devotion to blue onto the battlefield by turn 4 as possible, Aether Vial seems like a reasonable method of doing so. On the other two, since I already am building partially around a merfolk, then it is worth it to run Silvergill since it is one of the best blue two-drops for this deck. Running Cursecatcher over Judge's Familiar is reasonable enough.
I also thought about a couple of other things. Phyrexian Metamorph is much better for this deck than Phantasmal Image, since I can potentially play it for "free". Another good creature for the deck would be Spined Thopter. If I have Grand Architect out, it pays for itself since it is a blue artifact creature, and it can be used to artificially increase devotion. It also can be an extra 2-drop if necessary. The final card I discovered was Molten-tail Masticore. I've always had a thing for this card, but here he might be really good. His synergy with Grand Architect is amazing and with Slate of Ancestry, you can potentially combo to draw your deck, discard your hand with a second Slate and in response to the draw, tap all your dudes to throw the creatures in your graveyard at the opponent's face. With at least 10 untapped blue creatures and 5 in the graveyard, that's 20 uncounterable damage (outside of Trickbind).
Here's my new version:
4x Cursecatcher
4x Sage of Epityr
4x Silvergil Adept
4x Grand Architect
4x Spined Thopter
4x Master of Waves
4x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Molten-tail Masticore
3x Aether Vial
3x Slate of Ancestry
2x Eldrazi Monument
Lands (22)
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
19x Island
(until I figure out what type of support cards I want to run, I'm just going to go all in on my actual gameplan)
I'd suggest Kira, great glass spinner. She grants 2 devotion and it provides much needed protection for your key cards. Also, with architect it becomes a 3/3 beater.
Also, you could play any big artifact fatty (there are a lot) with architect, it seems you can have access to huge amounts of artifact mana.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=541838
This deck seems to increasingly be doing a lot of similar things. Its just aggro based and not combo based. Since you're already running slate and stuff, maybe you could stick pili in there for potential literal infinite mana? Your "combo out" doesnt kill, but if you're playing masticore maybe it could.
Lords for your 1/0 elementals and
Recursion for Master of Waves
Here's my take on it--
4x Wind Zendikon
4x Nephalia Smuggler
4x Pili Pala
2x Phantasmal Image
3x Zameck Guildmage
3x Adaptive Automaton
4x Grand Architect
4x Master of Waves
3x Murkfiend Liege
3x Eldrazi Monument
4x Gauntlet of Power
Land
4x Breeding Pool
4x Hinterland Harbor
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
6x Island
1x Forest
What do you think?
GModern Belcher
GGreen Deck Wins
3I'm the King
RBlazeTron
Hell this might even open you up to Godhead of Awe. Think of it as +0/+1 on your tokens and neuter their board.
First, let's take a look at the good (allstars) and the bad (benchwarmers).
Good
-Aether Vial: This card is crazy good in this deck. It allows us to dump our hand out by turn 4 so we can refill it with Slate of Ancestry. It also allows us to put down deck manipulating creatures before the draw, so that we can draw the cards we need.
-Sage of Epityr: One of the main problems I realized with the deck was that I was running far too many lands. I only really need 1-2 lands in my opening hand if I have this guy because he can find the 1-2 lands that I need. The only downside to him is if the top 4 cards of my library are bad or I put them back in the incorrect order. I added fetches to alleviate the first issue.
-Phyrexian Metamorph: This has so much good utility in this deck, since it can copy opponent's creatures or my best creature (typically Master of Waves), and usually all it requires is for me to tap two creatures and pay a U or 2 life. The fact that it can also copy Slate of Ancestry or Eldrazi Monument is just great.
Bad
-Silvergill Adept: Since there were several merfolk already in the deck, I figured this would work fine. I was wrong. Too often I couldn't cast it because didn't have another merfolk or I wanted to play my cards in a different order. What I realized is that I didn't need the draw, because I want to build into Slate of Ancestry; what I really needed was more library manipulation. So, I tested Omenspeaker over it, and it has been phoenomenl so far. Having 3 toughness has also been great against aggro decks.
-Cursecatcher: Not bad, just since I cut Silvergill Adept, I have no reason to run it over Judge's Familiar.
-Spined Thopter: Being a free creature is irrelevant when you are this bad. Most of the time I would have prefered another 1 or 2-drop or a counterspell.
Here is my updated list. It has been really fun to play with an I would recommend testing it out before you make adjustments:
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Sage of Epityr
4x Matyr of Frost
2x Enclave Cryptologist
4x Omenspeaker
2x Kami of the Crescent Moon
4x Grand Architect
1x Thassa, God of the Sea
3x Master of Waves
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Molten-tail Masticore
3x Aether Vial
3x Slate of Ancestry
2x Eldrazi Monument
1x Akroma's Memorial
Lands (19)
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Academy Ruins
2x Scalding Tarn
4x Misty Rainforest
9x Island
A couple of quick notes:
- Kami is best if you Aether Vial him in on your upkeep so you get to draw first. I like him here over Silvergill Adept because he gives repeated card draw and he counts for two devotion. He also has 3 toughness so is a little more resilient.
- I cut one of each of my 4-drops only because drawing them early is awkward. The deck doesn't really need Master of Waves to win (unlike the standard deck). It just makes the deck much more efficient. But with the dig, drawing into a Master has not been difficult.
- I tested Kira, but found Eldrazi Monument and Thassa to be better. I like the idea of siding her in against removal heavy decks though.
I'm still working on the sideboard. I'm thinking something like this:
4x Swan Song
2x Kira, the Great Glass Spinner
2x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Relic of Progenitus
3x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Pithing Needle
Nice! Someone mentioned Godhead of Awe, I think it's decent here.
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
I know that when people look at this deck, they are probably wondering why I'm not using Grand Architect more. Th main reason is because I used to play a couple of Grand Architect decks, and I know how crippling it can be to not draw GA if you explicitly build around it. This deck builds to use it, but is capable of still working without it. That's the primary reason for not including a lot of the more expensive artifacts. Nykthos has been key to helping the deck play smoothly even when I draw badly.
amirite?
Don't take this to mean that I don't think Bident might warrent a spot in the deck. I am actually considering Bident of Thassa and Jace Beleren.
Round 1 Dredgevine (2-0): Game 1, we both keep slow hands. He winds up hardcasting 2x Vengevine, which put me on a relatively short clock. The turn before he can kill me with a Deathrite Shaman, I draw a Grand Architect, use Slate of Ancestry to draw 5 cards and draw a Master of Waves and a Phyrexian Metamorph. With that I use Aether Vial to put Master of Waves into play and I copy Slae of Ancestry. This time I draw 16 cards; and in those 16 cards I draw an Akroma's Memorial and swing for lethal.
Sideboard: +2x Wurmcoil Engine, -1x Venser,Shaper Savant, -1x Enclave Cryptologist.
Game 2, I play a Wurmcoil Engine turn 3 with Grand Architect. I then use Thassa to make it unblockable for a quick victory.
Round 2 American Delver (0-2): Game 1, I kept a slow hand because I was hoping to draw some of my bombs. I wound up hardcasting Eldrazi Monument when she tapped out for a Geist of Saint Traft. However, I overextended which allowed her to swing back and put me at a low enough life that when she Lightning Helixed me, I was dead on her swing.
Sideboard: +4x Swan Song, -1x Enclave Cryptologist, -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Venser, Shaper Savant
Game 2, I kept a bad hand that never really drew an gas and she killed me with early aggro and Lightning Helixes.
Round 3 Mono-White stuff (2-0): He was clearly new to magic, so this was not much of a challenge. Game 1, I play Grand Architect and Slate of Ancestry turn 3, followed by Master of Waves and 7 tokens turn 4. Slate drew me into a Phyrexian Metamorph and an Akroma's Memorial.
Sideboard: none
Game 2, I didn't start off with everything I needed, but Kami helped me draw into a Master of Waves turn 5 for 7 tokens. Eldrazi Monument the following turn sealed the deal.
Round 4 Scapeshift (Draw): We both could make Top 8 so we decided to draw.
I made Top 8. in seventh place, which meant that I had to play the person who was in second place.
Top 8 Junk Pod (2-1): Game 1, I played Eldrazi Monument with lethal on board, but he managed to combo Spike Feeder with Archangel of Thune the following turn for infinite life. Since he would have eventually found a way of dealing me inifinite damage, I scooped.
Sideboard: +1x Mindslaver, +2x Pithing Needle, -1x Enclave Cryptologist, -1x Kira, the Great Glass Spinner, -1x Venser, Shaper Savant.
Game 2, I get an awkward hand where I have neither Grand Architect o Master of Waves. After he plays Birthing Pod, I Phyrexian Metamorph it to pod an Omenspeaker into a Grand Architect. The next turn he sets himself up to combo out on his next turn. I manage to top deck Mindslaver with 5 blue creatures on the field along with my one-of Academy Ruins to put him in the hard lock. I also had one extra mana to pod my second Omenspeaker into a Master of Waves for a faster kill.
Game 3, I hit one of my nuts hands. It was a creature turn 1 and 2, Grand Architect turn 3, and Master of Waves turn 4. Tapping 3 creatures for Mindslaver followed by two more creatures to Phyrexian Metamorph Master of Waves sealed that game, since I turned around and cracked Mindslaver after that. He did Chord of Calling for a Gaddock Teeg which stopped me from playing Eldrazi Monument, but the damage was already done from Mindslaver.
Top 4 chose to split.
Overall it was a good night. I was able to get some additional testing against other players. In general the deck was okay, but it had several hands that really just didn't do enough unless I drew Master of Waves or Grand Architect. I will probably put Master of Waves back to a 4-of cutting the Kira, the Great Glass Spinner from the main. I might also try Lighthouse Chronolgist over Enclave Cryptologist as a one-of mana dump creature, since it is easier to put one mana into it when I don't have Nykthos, than it was to put the two mana in every time. A 1/3 two drop is also better for my deck than a 0/1 one drop.
Match 1 Bant Superfriends (0-2): Game 1, I keep an awkward one-land hand because it had Sage of Epityr and Omenspeaker in it; I had no lands in the top 4 so I got screwed on mana for a few turns. I did have a couple of other one-drops so I went ahead and played those. When I finally drew a land, my opponent dropped an Acidic Slime, which put me back at one mana. After that, too many planeswalkers for me to catch up. Game 2, I have a turn 1 Aether Vial. I was able to dump a lot of my hand onto the board by turn 3, including a Grand Architect and a Phyrexian Metamorph copying Grand Architect. I also knew I had an Eldazi Monument on the top of m library with a Master of Waves in hand. But my opponent miracled Terminus, which pretty much wrecked me.
Match 2 Monoblue Control (2-0): Game 1, I curved out well and he didn't draw a lot of spells to interact, so it was a pretty swift victory. Game 2, I had a much slower hand which allowed him to play Talrand and start getting blockers. But I eventually drew into a Slate of Ancestry which refilled my hand and drew me an Akroma's Memorial.
For fun, I played against a couple of the decks that made top 4.
Match Junk Pod (2-0): This is an interesting matchup, because bothe of our decks are trying to "combo" off and have ways of finding our pieces. I won here because I had Matyr of Frost and Aether Vial, which forced him to play around me, while I was able to get setup.
Match U/R Tron (0-1): Tron is a pretty awkward matchup for this deck. If we can be fast and aggressive, we can sometimes get there, but it is a difficult matchup. Utilize Matyr of Frost whenever possible.
Match Junk Midrange (4-2): Pre-board this deck is probably heavily favored, since it is very hard for that deck to interact profitably with swarms of creatures. One of the reasons I like this deck is because there aren't a lot of Modern decks playing mass removal (outside of Pyroclasm and Anger of the Gods). Decks that have to trade one-for-one will have difficulty matching our creatures. Post board, it is a lot more even, since I get Kira and Wurmcoil Engine, but that deck gets Linvala and Torper Orb. Since most of my creatures are used for ETB utility, Torper Orb is really awkward to play against. And Linvala shuts down Grand Architect.
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Sage of Epityr
3x Matyr of Frost
4x Omenspeaker
2x Kami of the Crescent Moon
4x Grand Architect
1x Kira, the Great Glass Spinner
2x Thassa, God of the Sea
4x Master of Waves
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Molten-tail Masticore
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
3x Aether Vial
2x Slate of Ancestry
2x Eldrazi Monument
1x Akroma's Memorial
Lands (19)
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Academy Ruins
15x Island
2x Spellskite
1x Swan Song
2x Spell Pierce
1x Mindslaver
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Pithing Needle
2x Wurmcoil Engine
3x Hurkyl's Recall
The main reason I haven't posted recently is because I don't have any firm tournament results to report. However, I will be doing a local modern tournament this Thursday, so I should get some results there.
The main things I am currently testing is the necessity of Omenspeaker and what to put in the slot I currently have Venser, Shaper Savant. For the former problem, I have kept Omenspeaker because it has been really good in helping me curve, and there aren't a lot of good two-drop blue creatures; but if I could find a better option, I would probably go for it. For the latter, I am looking at possibly Voidmage Prodigy, since it would give me a pretty solid ability on a UU creature. I wouldn't want too many in the deck, so it should serve nicely as a one- or two-of.
I have done enough testing to get an idea of how some matchups look:
Jund: This matchup relies on us drawing Master of Waves. As people playing merfolk have also discovered, MoW is really good in that matchup. In general, our gameplan is problematic enough for Jund decks that we will typically be favored. I've only had the chance to play four matches vs Jund, and I am 3-1.
Splinter Twin: This matchup is a very difficult. This deck is not very well equipped to fight against combo decks. We do have Martyr of Frost as a counterspell and Judge's Familiar to slow them down in finding the combo pieces, but if they have a good enough hand, we will probably lose. This matchup is highly dependen on drawing Aether Vial, Martyr of Frost, and having a fast curve. In the matches I've played vs it, I've gone 1-2.
Affinity: Mainboard this is an interesting matchup. On their good hands, they are faster than us. If they don't win by turn 4, we can probably one-shot them. Post-board, we are much more favored because of Hurkyl's Recall and Wurmcoil. In matches I've played vs it, I've gone 2-0.
BR/ Mono-Red Burn: This is another interesting matchup. The fact that Omenspeaker is a 1/3 has been really relevant in terms of stopping the bleeding vs Goblin Guide. On our good hands, we are quite capable of stalling them long enough for us to draw Master of Waves. Once we play MoW, we should be in the driver's seat for the win. However, 7 bolts to the face is still something that can beat us, so we need to keep hands with a very strong curve. Wurmcoil Engine and Spellskite from the board helps to alleviate this matchup quite a bit, though Scullcrack is still a thing (warning, post board, you should not block with MoW unless you have another lord out. Scullcrack stops the damage prevention from pro-red.) In matches I've played vs it, I've gone 2-2.
RG Tron: This is a bad matchup for this deck. We have very few ways of interacting with their deck. We have to try to just win as quickly as possible. Post-board, we do get Pithing Needle and Spell Pierce, but that isn't always enough in this matchup. The first Pithing Needle should name Karn, the second one should name Oblivion Stone. Eldrazi Monument is key here to stop the blowout from O-Stone. Mindlaver is usually good here, since using their Karn to kill one of their Tron lands can put us n a much better position. In matches I've played vs it, I've gone 1-3.
Merfolk: Unsurpisingly, this is a bad matchup since we can't avoid playing our islands, and Spreading Seas will hit our utility lands. This matchup is really dependent on who goes first and who has an Aether Vial. Post board, we have access to Wurmcoil, which might help a little bit, but I think this is a case where we accept this as a bad matchup, and hope to avoid it.
Mono-white Hatebears: Since we play Ather Vial, the blow up all your lands so you can't do anything strategy isn't that great for them. They do play path to exile, which is a problem for us, but smart playing can give us the advantage. Post board Spellskite and Wurmcoil is really good.
UWR Control: Aether Vial, Judge's Familiar and Eldrazi Monument are the main cards of this matchup. We are weak to early board wipes, but we also play the cards that help us to avoid those board wipes. Just play smart, and we should have the advantage.
4 judge's familiar
2 vedalken certarch
4 etherium sculptor
2 phyrexian revoker
4 grand architect
2 kira, great glass-spinner
2 phyrexian metamorph
4 master of waves
4 lodestone golem
2 thorn of amethyst
4 crystal shard
enchantments: 3
2 wind zendikon
1 bident of thassa
lands: 23
4 darksteel citadel
4 tectonic edge
4 faerie conclave
11 island
edit: judge's familiar added
The deck is more artifact-centric than devotion-centric. Making just 2 or 3 tokens with master of waves is fine in this deck, we have other wins and we can bounce him to make more (with grand architect out of course).
This deck's strategy is to tax the opponent. We do this with golem, amethyst, certarch, tec edges and crystal shards.
I have no idea if the deck is good, i'll be testing it next week and i'll likely tweak it depending on how it goes.
Of course, some advice on the deck would be nice too.
Thanks in advance
2 Cursecatcher
4 Grand Architect
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Judge's Familiar
2 Kami of the Crescent Moon
4 Master of Waves
2 Spellskite
2 Thassa, God of the Sea
3 Jace Beleren
4 AEther Vial
2 Batterskull
1 Bident of Thassa
11 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3 Steam Vents
2 Tectonic Edge
3 Pongify
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3 Vedalken Shackles
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Venser, Shaper Savant
The cards that have been working really well have been Aether Vial, Master of Waves, Grand Architect, Phyrexian Metamorph, and Thassa, God of the Sea. That supports a solid core for the deck, but the question becomes what should I do during the first 2-3 turns of the game? How much should this deck plan to interact with the opponent? How do I keep from losing out on card advantage?
I've been checking out the Standard version of the deck, and I think applying some of the elements from that deck may be crucial.
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Sage of Epityr
3x Matyr of Frost
4x Omenspeaker
2x Kami of the Crescent Moon
4x Grand Architect
2x Voidmage Prodigy
3x Thassa, God of the Sea
4x Master of Waves
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Molten-tail Masticore
3x Aether Vial
2x Slate of Ancestry
1x Eldrazi Monument
1x Akroma's Memorial
Lands (19)
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Academy Ruins
15x Island
2x Spellskite
1x Swan Song
2x Spell Pierce
1x Mindslaver
1x Kira, Great Glass Spinner
1x Relic of Progenitus
2x Pithing Needle
2x Wurmcoil Engine
3x Hurkyl's Recall
With this list I was able to go 2-0-1 to make Top 8 (it is a relatively small modern tournamnet with about 12 people) and then I won the Top 8 round. Top 4 chose to split to get $25 store credit apiece.
Round 1 GB Dredgevine (2-1): Game 1, we each get a relatively slow start, but I am able to recover with a turn 4 Thassa.Eventually I get ahead on board and drop Master of Waves with a Slate of Ancestry. After I drew 11 cards, my opponent scooped.
Sideboard: -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite, +1x Relic of Progenitus.
Game 2, I keep a double Nykthos hand because it has Aether Vial and some one drops. My opponent proceeds to Abrupt Decay my Aether Vial. I do draw a blue source, but I am so far behind at that point that he was able to kill me with ease.
Game 3, my opponent kept a sketchy hand and missed land drops while I drop a turn 3 Thassa, followed by Spellskite. After I get Wurmcoil Engine out, it's over.
Round 2 Doran Midrange (2-1): Game 1, he gets out an early Spellskite and Doran and puts me on a relatively short clock. I did draw a Molten-tail Masticore, but because I didn't have Grand Architect, I didn't have enough mana to make good use of it, so I lost.
Sideboard: -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite, +2x Spell Pierce.
Game 2, he kept a land light hand and got punished. I curved perfectly with a turn 3 Grand Architect, Phyrexian Metamorph (Grand Architect), and turn 4 Master of Waves, Phyrexian Metamorph (Master of Waves).
Game 3, he mulled to 6 and kept another land light hand and I curved well again.
Round 3 Junk Midrange (draw into Top 8). We did decide to play for fun and I won the match 2-0 in additon to splitting even on two extra games. My sideboard in that matchup was -2x Voidmage Prodigy, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial, -3x Martyr of Frost; + 1x Kira, Great Glass Spinner, +2x Spell Pierce, + 2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Spellskite.
Top 8 Junk Pod (2-0): Game 1, I curve a turn 3 Grand Architect, Phyrexian Metamorph (Grand Architect) into a turn 4 Akroma's Memorial. Two turns later it's over.
Sideboard: -2x Kami of the Crescent Moon, -1x Eldrazi Monument, -1x Akroma's Memorial; +2x Wurmcoil Engine, +2x Pithing Needle.
Game 2, he kills my turn 1 Aether Vial with Decay. I manage to play a turn 3 Thassa, but I am behind on the board. However, I eventually was able to get set up behind Sage of Epityr + Voidmage Prodigy. Eventually I get in enough unblockable Thassa beats to win the game.
Overall it was a great night. Thassa once again proved her merit in the deck. Even though she doesn't necessarily help Grand Architect, she does a great job of putting me in a position to win the game. I think I only lost one game in which I played her. In addition, she's a safer play turn 3 over Grand Architect, since she requires less protection. Playing Thassa turn 3, playing Master of Waves and using Aether Vial for Grand Architect turn 4 is usually the best way of winning. Voidmage Prodigy was a little disappointing, but I feel like the primary problem was that these were bad matchups for that card. Against control, I expect it to do much better.
I really love the inclusion of voidmage in here. I think it will really show its strength vs control and combo.
With him and Kami costing UU though I kinda feel the number of Nykthos shrine should maybe be cut down for mana consistency. It normally doesn't ram be much mana regardless unless I'm winning.
4 vedalken certarch
4 etherium sculptor
2 phyrexian revoker
4 grand architect
2 crackelburr
2 kira, great glass-spinner
2 phyrexian metamorph
4 master of waves
4 lodestone golem
4 aether spellbomb
2 thorn of amethyst
enchantments: 3
2 wind zendikon
1 bident of thassa
lands: 23
4 darksteel citadel
4 tectonic edge
4 faerie conclave
11 island
Crackelburr seems great in this deck, it is both a blue creature and an elemental. We have plenty of blue creature and architect can tap them. With 2 manlands (zendikon/faerie conclave) and architect we can go infinite with crackelburr! Just tap both manlands for blue mana, tap crackelburr with architect, bounce something by untapping both manlands, rinse, repeat. Untapping certarchs is pretty sweet too.
I'll do some more testing this next week.
That is the primary reason I looked at putting voidmage into the deck. I had tested for a little bit without Sage of Epityr, and I wasn't liking how it was going, so I decided to find some ways of making my scry cards do more work. Voidmage Prodigy seems like the perfect card since my combo matchup seems bad, while my midrange matchup seems favorable. The only thing is that my LGS seems to favor midrange at the moment, so he hasn't been able to put in much work yet.
That is a good point. Ideally I could put either of those creatures into play with Aether Vial, though I know that people are likely to blow up Aether Vial if possible. I generally don't like playing Kami without Vial, since it is a 2-for-1 if they remove it before I draw off of it. But I do see what you are saying, so I may go to just two Nykthos.