Can you guys educate me on what match ups Runed Halo comes in? Currently testing in on the sideboard but I always wonder when to side it in. Sometimes it's obvious like titanshift and DS but sometimes I wonder if it's worth it against matches like affinity, burn and Bant/trondrazi.
Was going to give a better explanation about Runed Halo but Bloodrabbit_01 explained it all. Important to note that you can't name tokens, only card. This is important so that you don't SB it in against Storm (trying to name Goblin) or Lingering Souls tokens. It is very strong against Valakut as they hardly play outs to it and the outs they play aren't cards they'd want against UW.
EDIT: So not to double post, @Yuzenn84: what were your weakest SB cards and why? What were the strongest in those 15 matches? My MD is exactly the same as yours with Farmland for the Temple, but my SB is a slightly different as I like Spell Queller and Relic and I don't think Surgical Extraction is more valuable than Relic. For reference the only difference in SB is I play 3 Queller, 2 Relic to your 1 Dispel, 2 Surgical, 1 Geist, 1 Timely. Can you give me some input on your SB? Have you played Queller?
Dredge - name amalgalm or whatever is relevant - could be bloodghast or conflagrate
Ad Nauseum - name Lightning storm - together with little Gideon they are going to have some trouble bouncing all your hate permanents - especially with some counters to protect them (they can find a way though).
Counters Company - walking ballista or murderous redcap (i guess this is a bit meh as they have other routes to victory)
Elves - Shaman of the Pact (this is usually how we lose to that deck)
Plenty of random decks like 8-Rack, Skred Red (name stormbreath or snow-covered mountain), Titan (Amulet Titan), and lots more!
Note that runed halo isn't really all that good against elves or counters company.
It is pretty good against decks with weird non-creature permanents, like 8rack, skred, lantern, valakut, etc.
Also great against dredge as you mentioned.
I guess it depends on your sb and what "dead" or less impactful cards you have mainboard. Obviously Runed Halo is much more impactful against hard to answer cards like Valakut, Grapeshot and dredge threats (our three harder matchups).
GR Ponza: seems nearly unwinnable especially game 1. I won a match against my friend who was playing it a couple weeks ago after he said "There's no way I could lose this match" after game 1, but in further testing I have no idea how I could win that match.
UB Mill: Has anyone else been running into this thing? I hope it's not becoming a real deck because it's completely horrible to play against. I almost won a match where I just played 2 snapcasters without flashing back anything and was hitting him for 4 a turn but he still milled me out. As soon as your gideons get discarded you're pretty dead. Resolving a clique or geist is probably the only other option and they mill your entire deck by like turn 6 usually.
Knightfall / whatever this deck is called: Played against it last night, it was such a massive headache. He got game 1 and then game 2 was just a mess of tokens and creatures everywhere, he pathed and GQ'd all my colonnades, rebuilt his board through all my verdicts, ended up not finishing game 2 in time and he won because he got game 1. I almost wonder if Surgical Extraction and or rest in peace would be good in this match up. Seems like surgical on his path and GQ would have been a way to maybe win. Also 4x kitchen finks gained him so much life making it take even longer to ever kill him. I really hate going to turns all the time against decks like this.
edit: Also I haven't had any problems against burn or affinity at all. Sometimes they get game 1 and I usually end up with a really low life total, but then basically get the game on lock after that.
GR Ponza: seems nearly unwinnable especially game 1. I won a match against my friend who was playing it a couple weeks ago after he said "There's no way I could lose this match" after game 1, but in further testing I have no idea how I could win that match.
I can't address the other matchups but I have played against GR Ponza a few times. I'm not 100% certain on the match up yet and I think its tough no matter what plan you make. However, I think the key cards are spreading seas, mana leak, ghost quarter, and verdict. Their utopia sprawl plan is very, very vulnerable to seas and ghost quarter. If they go all-in on utopia sprawl and arbor elf then its fairly simple to blow them out with either card. Mana leak is great because countering their countering their early spells is very very important. This will save your lands and help you play your more powerful spells. In addition, they don't generally run enough lands to turn off leak very quickly, especially if you disrupt their utopia sprawl. Verdict is important to deal with Stormbreath Dragon. That card will kill you quickly and it can't be hit with path or sphere. We also cannot fog it with Gideon.
I also think we ignore their blood moon. Unlike many other decks, we run a lot of basics and can play around it. Especially if we fetch for basics early rather than duals. I'd rather focus on their threats.
As for the board, I'd take out cryptics (forget about getting to UUU) and bring in a fourth sweep and two negates. Be aware some build play Thrun. We'll need either Wrath of God (instead of the fourth verdict), Elspeth, Sun's Champion (to chump), or Blessed Alliance (edict) to beat him.
How do you guys feel about moving to a 5th GQ/Tec Edge? I feel the Mana denial sub-theme is such a huge role player and the Mana is so good that it might be worth a shot. I think it would be pretty easy to jump back from 25 land to 26, just basically tossing it back in. To be fair, I never moved to 25 land, but here's my first attempt:
This is 18 blue sources and 17 white. I usually go by Karsten's math (19u for cryptic, 19w for little Gideon on curve) and he counts cards like Serum Visions, spreading seas and wall of Omens as roughly 0.25 of a source which brings us to 20.5 and 19.5 respectively. That seems like a fine starting place to me. Maybe the Farmland is greedy in this Mana base due to needing a specific colour source on a specific turn, and it could easily be a polluted Delta? What do you guys think?
...I tried several times to play another colorless sources. I like 24 lands -> 4 colorless, and I would threat the additional G-Quarter like the 25^ land. I also like, in this scenario, having a Crucible maindeck to maximize the chances of stripping the opponent off a color.
The crucible main is where this is headed. I want to try out the Mana base in a more stock list (no crucible) just to make sure it's functional for a little while, then going to try out a crucible main.
@BallisticQuill sounds about right, in my testing Logic Knot really needed to be a mana leak, I could only logic for 2 and he had exactly 2 mana, where mana leak would have countered his blood moon or other early spell. I suppose the way I won the match was taking out most of the higher cmc cards for all the counters and clique/geist. I'm really curious if anyone else is running into this UB mill deck still, I've seen it a bunch all of a sudden, but never in any league results.
I like the idea of crucible of worlds in the main, but there's a lot of games and matches where I never end up using any of my ghost quarters / tec edges. After awhile it gets to the point where there's just no point in going after their lands unless of course you need to take care of a gavony, cavern, manland, etc. Spreading seas is really the only card that I end up mana screwing my opponents with usually, maybe I'm not aggressive enough with my GQ and T Edge, but a lot of times I don't want to lose that extra mana. Having crucible in the main would make it a lot easier to be aggressive with the land destruction for sure, but what do you cut? Could going down to 24 lands with crucible in the main work?
@slowgod -Ive cut Big gid in favor of lil gid #3. I feel like 80% of the time i cast big gid lil gid would be just as powerful and Everytime I have big gid in my opener I wish it was lil gid. The ability to emblem also helps a lot in some random matches, like mill.
I also find myself not using GQ and Tec Edge sometimes, and it's usually just in case I topdeck Rev or already had it since the early game. This is one of the reasons why I feel Rev isnt great in the deck, it competes with our LD package. Same goes for 6 Mana elspeth, she is often competing with our lands. Both cards are extremely powerful in the right scenarios, but I eschew elspeth altogether, and I've been looking to replace Rev. Not sure crucible is the right replacement for it, but I haven't tested it yet. Think Twice could be another option, both TT And crucible are card advantage. Crucible is also a wincon though, so it could also replace a Gideon or Jace (although I really think 3 lil gid and 2 Jace is correct).
2nd negate main is suspect in a 4 cryptic command build. That would be any easy cut to make it 60 imo. I understand wanting 4 Cryptics in a build with no Rev. Seems like it would want as many land as possible with the number of 4 drops in the deck. If you try that list out, keep us posted on your results, looks interesting.
I have not really played a whole lot recently, and my presence here has been down a bit. Always interesting to read what other people are playing.
I'm going to update the OP, and would like suggestions if anyone has them.
A couple weeks ago I played a small ~20 player event with UW control, losing in the finals after a 4 round + top4. Matches went Storm 2-0, Affinity 2-0, Scapeshift 2-1, Burn 2-1. Top 4 I beat Grixis Shadow 2-1 before losing the rematch to the scapeshift player 1-2. Super fun deck that is well positioned it seems.
I didn't get on board with md Spreading Seas for a long time, but it's hard to argue with results.
Interesting to hear Supreme Will being a card - I dislike mana leak so much that I refuse to play it over negate. I guess having exactly one in your hand might not be so awful for the digging, but it really looks bad. That card will have to appear in a top32 paper event before I get on board :).
What other cards are people liking in the meta right now? I didn't play runed halo, but that still seems pretty well positioned.
Was going to give a better explanation about Runed Halo but Bloodrabbit_01 explained it all. Important to note that you can't name tokens, only card. This is important so that you don't SB it in against Storm (trying to name Goblin) or Lingering Souls tokens. It is very strong against Valakut as they hardly play outs to it and the outs they play aren't cards they'd want against UW.
EDIT: So not to double post, @Yuzenn84: what were your weakest SB cards and why? What were the strongest in those 15 matches? My MD is exactly the same as yours with Farmland for the Temple, but my SB is a slightly different as I like Spell Queller and Relic and I don't think Surgical Extraction is more valuable than Relic. For reference the only difference in SB is I play 3 Queller, 2 Relic to your 1 Dispel, 2 Surgical, 1 Geist, 1 Timely. Can you give me some input on your SB? Have you played Queller?
The weakest SB cards were Condemn and Surgical but they are SOOO necessary in certain matchups. Surgical just wins some games outright, and Condemn is your 5th path basically and sets Death's Shadow back a lot.
I'm not a huge fan of relic because often your opponent can force a pop and GY clear and then afterwards you are vulnerable to GY stuff. Also I don't always want to remove my stuff from the GY and Surgical allows me to target just what I need to. Certain games I abandon Snappy altogether and go RIP and so that way I don't care. Yes it draws a card but removing an entire threat from their deck is more important than a one time GY pop. Dredge and Living End are already + matchups for us, and RIP and Surgical ensures that they stay off the GY. Also with Surgical people get very comfortable trying to combo off and you can interrupt combos while tapped out where you can't with relic.
I don't like Queller because with all the removal floating around, and our removal suite being somewhat limited you're just better off playing something like Geist or Clique. Yes it can absorb spells but the mana and the fact that it dies to every common removal makes protecting it very difficult. It's great in the mirror I guess but otherwise it's just not my cup of tea. It's not a bad card by any means but this deck very infrequently wins via non land/PW creatures. Gul_Dukat has had some real success with the Queller/Relic plan so its 100% viable I just don't play the deck in that fashion and I was losing left and right cause I'm just not aggressive enough with this shell.
The one thing i've learned is to be patient with the deck. I'm not trying to win fast and I don't risk anything that will get me blown out the other way. I very often will take an attack with Cryptic in hand so I can counter and bounce something instead of just tapping and drawing and then being wide open to whatever the opponent wants to do. Remember this is a permission deck - you determine the tempo and what does and does not resolve or do dmg.
The one thing that I will say is that Benny 5-0'd again and he went Supreme Will over another Jace and I think that's not a bad move. Jace is very hot and cold where sometimes its just the right amount of CA to dig me to an answer but a lot of times it sits in my hands cause I can't afford the complete tap down. Supreme Will can dig farther and also is the counter between Mana Leak and Cryptic. I don't know if I'm going to move in that direction or not but it's a pretty good move.
We are back on top Guys Gz Everyone
@about counter suite: Mana leaks aren't that bad as I thought (it shines in early but can be useful also in late) - However I play them in split with logic knot.
Other strategy question:
What do You think about Gideon ally of zendikar in place of Gideon Jura? I don't like big Giddie beacuse he dies to many more removal spells then indestructible gideons (terminate / gftt / slaughter pact / murderous cut...), also Ally of zendikar is very good in grinding (ofc not that good in defending like Jura but much better against control matchups).
I tested out ally of zendikar and He won me some games, Anybody hang out with him? Your thoughts?
We are back on top Guys Gz Everyone
@about counter suite: Mana leaks aren't that bad as I thought (it shines in early but can be useful also in late) - However I play them in split with logic knot.
Other strategy question:
What do You think about Gideon ally of zendikar in place of Gideon Jura? I don't like big Giddie beacuse he dies to many more removal spells then indestructible gideons (terminate / gftt / slaughter pact / murderous cut...), also Ally of zendikar is very good in grinding (ofc not that good in defending like Jura but much better against control matchups).
I tested out ally of zendikar and He won me some games, Anybody hang out with him? Your thoughts?
Big Gids has an important role as a pseudo-fog that can work multiple turns in a row. I don't think cutting him is necessarily bad, but it's important to realize that he does have a specific role in the deck.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
Death shadow:
In: 1 Runed Halo, 1 Supreme Verdict,3 Relic of Progenitus, 1 Condemn, 1 Elspeth, sun's champion
Out: 1 Negate, 3 Mana Leak, 3 Cryptic Command
Trondrazi:
In: 2 Stony Silence, 1 Runed Halo, 1 Supreme Verdict, 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Out: 3 Mana Leak, 1 Negate, 2 Gideon of the Trials
Not sure if taking the leaks out is the correct choice. It's mostly due to cavern but we have so much land disruption.
Running 3 Negate and 0 Leak means folding to Primeval Titan and Vizier CoCo most of the time. Nobody likes the fact that Leak is dead in the late-game, but you can't actually play only non-creature-counterspells in your list (Cryptic is too slow for this purpose).
I agree the list is a bit weaker to primetime, but I hardly see how coco/chord isn't better answered by negate than mana leak. The deck has a positive matchup against scapeshift/titanshift, so I'm not looking to play some cards that will be dead late. On the other hand, if they hit 7 land and cast scapeshift, that mana leak is embarrassing. Moreover, a resolved titan is easier to deal with than a resolved scapeshift. No, scapeshift is an example matchup where negate > mana leak.
I really do not value the theoretical creature-countering aspect of MAna leak not only because it is a soft counter and dead late, but also because Cavern of Souls/Aether Vial embarrasses the card too readily.
I can't get behind supreme will it's just so underpowered for modern. I bet the dig option is used more than the counter option, but it just still seems so bad. I'd rather just play verdict #4 or in my case I have been going with Snappy #3. I don't think I can cut big Gid either, his +2 is too good, and being 6 power when he attacks lines up great with your other things that do 4 damage for closing games out in a couple turns.
Sideboards:
I'm seeing Runed Halo pop up a bit more again, it seems to fill basically the same roll as surgical extraction in that it protects you from something you otherwise lose against. I'm not sure which one I'd rather play at this point. Surgical is free and you can respond to something instantly, like GQ a valakut and then extract it, or if you run into a reanimator deck it's pretty sweet. This is probably the 1-2 slots I'm not sure about and also whether to even include Elspeth, SC in the 75 anymore.
This is my current deck with Crucible of Worlds in the main and so far I really like it. I played a few more games against the Knightfall deck and crucible helped so much because they are able to dig for and replay their ghost quarters, they are also running the new "Crucible on a Stick" guy. So far it's been pretty good in game 1 vs a lot of decks.
And if they drew Scapeshift instead of Primeval Titan, you lose the game on the spot if Negate is Mana leak instead. If they draw the titan and you have negate, you can still survive and path the titan, tec edge the valakuts, etc.
Scapeshift is a much more dangerous card in the matchup. It is positive without mana leak - at least from my own experience.
EDIT: So not to double post, @Yuzenn84: what were your weakest SB cards and why? What were the strongest in those 15 matches? My MD is exactly the same as yours with Farmland for the Temple, but my SB is a slightly different as I like Spell Queller and Relic and I don't think Surgical Extraction is more valuable than Relic. For reference the only difference in SB is I play 3 Queller, 2 Relic to your 1 Dispel, 2 Surgical, 1 Geist, 1 Timely. Can you give me some input on your SB? Have you played Queller?
Dredge - name amalgalm or whatever is relevant - could be bloodghast or conflagrate
Ad Nauseum - name Lightning storm - together with little Gideon they are going to have some trouble bouncing all your hate permanents - especially with some counters to protect them (they can find a way though).
Counters Company - walking ballista or murderous redcap (i guess this is a bit meh as they have other routes to victory)
Elves - Shaman of the Pact (this is usually how we lose to that deck)
Plenty of random decks like 8-Rack, Skred Red (name stormbreath or snow-covered mountain), Titan (Amulet Titan), and lots more!
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
It is pretty good against decks with weird non-creature permanents, like 8rack, skred, lantern, valakut, etc.
Also great against dredge as you mentioned.
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
GR Ponza: seems nearly unwinnable especially game 1. I won a match against my friend who was playing it a couple weeks ago after he said "There's no way I could lose this match" after game 1, but in further testing I have no idea how I could win that match.
UB Mill: Has anyone else been running into this thing? I hope it's not becoming a real deck because it's completely horrible to play against. I almost won a match where I just played 2 snapcasters without flashing back anything and was hitting him for 4 a turn but he still milled me out. As soon as your gideons get discarded you're pretty dead. Resolving a clique or geist is probably the only other option and they mill your entire deck by like turn 6 usually.
Knightfall / whatever this deck is called: Played against it last night, it was such a massive headache. He got game 1 and then game 2 was just a mess of tokens and creatures everywhere, he pathed and GQ'd all my colonnades, rebuilt his board through all my verdicts, ended up not finishing game 2 in time and he won because he got game 1. I almost wonder if Surgical Extraction and or rest in peace would be good in this match up. Seems like surgical on his path and GQ would have been a way to maybe win. Also 4x kitchen finks gained him so much life making it take even longer to ever kill him. I really hate going to turns all the time against decks like this.
edit: Also I haven't had any problems against burn or affinity at all. Sometimes they get game 1 and I usually end up with a really low life total, but then basically get the game on lock after that.
I can't address the other matchups but I have played against GR Ponza a few times. I'm not 100% certain on the match up yet and I think its tough no matter what plan you make. However, I think the key cards are spreading seas, mana leak, ghost quarter, and verdict. Their utopia sprawl plan is very, very vulnerable to seas and ghost quarter. If they go all-in on utopia sprawl and arbor elf then its fairly simple to blow them out with either card. Mana leak is great because countering their countering their early spells is very very important. This will save your lands and help you play your more powerful spells. In addition, they don't generally run enough lands to turn off leak very quickly, especially if you disrupt their utopia sprawl. Verdict is important to deal with Stormbreath Dragon. That card will kill you quickly and it can't be hit with path or sphere. We also cannot fog it with Gideon.
I also think we ignore their blood moon. Unlike many other decks, we run a lot of basics and can play around it. Especially if we fetch for basics early rather than duals. I'd rather focus on their threats.
As for the board, I'd take out cryptics (forget about getting to UUU) and bring in a fourth sweep and two negates. Be aware some build play Thrun. We'll need either Wrath of God (instead of the fourth verdict), Elspeth, Sun's Champion (to chump), or Blessed Alliance (edict) to beat him.
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
BWTeysa,Orzhov Scion
GWKarametra, God of Harvests
UW Dragonlord Ojutai
R Daretti, Scrap Savant
Modern
GB Tron
UW UW Control
4 Island
3 Plains
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
5 Colourless (3 Tec, 2 GQ)
This is 18 blue sources and 17 white. I usually go by Karsten's math (19u for cryptic, 19w for little Gideon on curve) and he counts cards like Serum Visions, spreading seas and wall of Omens as roughly 0.25 of a source which brings us to 20.5 and 19.5 respectively. That seems like a fine starting place to me. Maybe the Farmland is greedy in this Mana base due to needing a specific colour source on a specific turn, and it could easily be a polluted Delta? What do you guys think?
The crucible main is where this is headed. I want to try out the Mana base in a more stock list (no crucible) just to make sure it's functional for a little while, then going to try out a crucible main.
I like the idea of crucible of worlds in the main, but there's a lot of games and matches where I never end up using any of my ghost quarters / tec edges. After awhile it gets to the point where there's just no point in going after their lands unless of course you need to take care of a gavony, cavern, manland, etc. Spreading seas is really the only card that I end up mana screwing my opponents with usually, maybe I'm not aggressive enough with my GQ and T Edge, but a lot of times I don't want to lose that extra mana. Having crucible in the main would make it a lot easier to be aggressive with the land destruction for sure, but what do you cut? Could going down to 24 lands with crucible in the main work?
I also find myself not using GQ and Tec Edge sometimes, and it's usually just in case I topdeck Rev or already had it since the early game. This is one of the reasons why I feel Rev isnt great in the deck, it competes with our LD package. Same goes for 6 Mana elspeth, she is often competing with our lands. Both cards are extremely powerful in the right scenarios, but I eschew elspeth altogether, and I've been looking to replace Rev. Not sure crucible is the right replacement for it, but I haven't tested it yet. Think Twice could be another option, both TT And crucible are card advantage. Crucible is also a wincon though, so it could also replace a Gideon or Jace (although I really think 3 lil gid and 2 Jace is correct).
I'm going to update the OP, and would like suggestions if anyone has them.
A couple weeks ago I played a small ~20 player event with UW control, losing in the finals after a 4 round + top4. Matches went Storm 2-0, Affinity 2-0, Scapeshift 2-1, Burn 2-1. Top 4 I beat Grixis Shadow 2-1 before losing the rematch to the scapeshift player 1-2. Super fun deck that is well positioned it seems.
I didn't get on board with md Spreading Seas for a long time, but it's hard to argue with results.
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
3 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
2 Plains
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Gideon Jura
4 Serum Visions
4 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Negate
1 Detention Sphere
3 Cryptic Command
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Stony Silence
2 Celestial Purge
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Disenchant
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Summary Dismissal
Interesting to hear Supreme Will being a card - I dislike mana leak so much that I refuse to play it over negate. I guess having exactly one in your hand might not be so awful for the digging, but it really looks bad. That card will have to appear in a top32 paper event before I get on board :).
What other cards are people liking in the meta right now? I didn't play runed halo, but that still seems pretty well positioned.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
The weakest SB cards were Condemn and Surgical but they are SOOO necessary in certain matchups. Surgical just wins some games outright, and Condemn is your 5th path basically and sets Death's Shadow back a lot.
I'm not a huge fan of relic because often your opponent can force a pop and GY clear and then afterwards you are vulnerable to GY stuff. Also I don't always want to remove my stuff from the GY and Surgical allows me to target just what I need to. Certain games I abandon Snappy altogether and go RIP and so that way I don't care. Yes it draws a card but removing an entire threat from their deck is more important than a one time GY pop. Dredge and Living End are already + matchups for us, and RIP and Surgical ensures that they stay off the GY. Also with Surgical people get very comfortable trying to combo off and you can interrupt combos while tapped out where you can't with relic.
I don't like Queller because with all the removal floating around, and our removal suite being somewhat limited you're just better off playing something like Geist or Clique. Yes it can absorb spells but the mana and the fact that it dies to every common removal makes protecting it very difficult. It's great in the mirror I guess but otherwise it's just not my cup of tea. It's not a bad card by any means but this deck very infrequently wins via non land/PW creatures. Gul_Dukat has had some real success with the Queller/Relic plan so its 100% viable I just don't play the deck in that fashion and I was losing left and right cause I'm just not aggressive enough with this shell.
The one thing i've learned is to be patient with the deck. I'm not trying to win fast and I don't risk anything that will get me blown out the other way. I very often will take an attack with Cryptic in hand so I can counter and bounce something instead of just tapping and drawing and then being wide open to whatever the opponent wants to do. Remember this is a permission deck - you determine the tempo and what does and does not resolve or do dmg.
The one thing that I will say is that Benny 5-0'd again and he went Supreme Will over another Jace and I think that's not a bad move. Jace is very hot and cold where sometimes its just the right amount of CA to dig me to an answer but a lot of times it sits in my hands cause I can't afford the complete tap down. Supreme Will can dig farther and also is the counter between Mana Leak and Cryptic. I don't know if I'm going to move in that direction or not but it's a pretty good move.
HEYYY TIER 1!!!
@about counter suite: Mana leaks aren't that bad as I thought (it shines in early but can be useful also in late) - However I play them in split with logic knot.
Other strategy question:
What do You think about Gideon ally of zendikar in place of Gideon Jura? I don't like big Giddie beacuse he dies to many more removal spells then indestructible gideons (terminate / gftt / slaughter pact / murderous cut...), also Ally of zendikar is very good in grinding (ofc not that good in defending like Jura but much better against control matchups).
I tested out ally of zendikar and He won me some games, Anybody hang out with him? Your thoughts?
Big Gids has an important role as a pseudo-fog that can work multiple turns in a row. I don't think cutting him is necessarily bad, but it's important to realize that he does have a specific role in the deck.
Here's my build and sideboard plans, suggestions and tips are greatly welcome.
3 Cryptic Command
2 Detention Sphere
4 Flooded Strand
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Gideon Jura
2 Gideon of the Trials
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmlands
5 Island
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Mana Leak
1 Mystic Gate
1 Negate
4 Path to Exile
2 Plains
4 Serum Visions
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Spreading Seas
3 Supreme Verdict
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Think Twice
2 Wall of Omens
2 Dispel
2 Negate
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Runed Halo
2 Stony Silence
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Death shadow:
In: 1 Runed Halo, 1 Supreme Verdict,3 Relic of Progenitus, 1 Condemn, 1 Elspeth, sun's champion
Out: 1 Negate, 3 Mana Leak, 3 Cryptic Command
Trondrazi:
In: 2 Stony Silence, 1 Runed Halo, 1 Supreme Verdict, 1 Crucible of Worlds, 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Out: 3 Mana Leak, 1 Negate, 2 Gideon of the Trials
Not sure if taking the leaks out is the correct choice. It's mostly due to cavern but we have so much land disruption.
Burn:
Out: 3 Supreme Verdict, 2 Detention Sphere, 2 Jace, Architect of Thought
In: 2 Dispel,2 Negate, 1 Runed Halo, 1 Timely Reinforcements, 1 Vendilion Clique
Mirror:
Out: 4 Path to Exile, 1 Supreme Verdict, 2 Wall of Omens
In: 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion, 1 Vendilion Clique, 2 Negate, 2 Dispel, 1 Relic of Progenitus
Tron:
In: 2 Stony Silence, 1 Crucible of Worlds, 2 Negate, 1 Vendilion Clique
Out: 3 Supreme Verdict, 2 Wall of Omens, 1 Path to Exile
RG Scapeshift:
In: 2 Negate, 1 Crucible of Worlds,1 Runed Halo, 1 Vendilion Clique
Out: 3 Supreme Verdict, 2 Wall of Omens
Affinity:
In: 2 Stony Silence, 1 Supreme Verdict,1 Timely Reinforcements,1 Runed Halo, 1 Vendilion Clique, 1 Timely Reinforcements
Out: 1 Negate, 3 Mana Leak, 2 Wall of Omens, 1 Think Twice
Dredge:
In: 3 Relic of Progenitus, 1 Elspeth, 1 Runed Halo, 1 Timely Reinforcements
Out: 1 Negate, 3 Mana Leak, 2 Spreading Seas
I agree the list is a bit weaker to primetime, but I hardly see how coco/chord isn't better answered by negate than mana leak. The deck has a positive matchup against scapeshift/titanshift, so I'm not looking to play some cards that will be dead late. On the other hand, if they hit 7 land and cast scapeshift, that mana leak is embarrassing. Moreover, a resolved titan is easier to deal with than a resolved scapeshift. No, scapeshift is an example matchup where negate > mana leak.
I really do not value the theoretical creature-countering aspect of MAna leak not only because it is a soft counter and dead late, but also because Cavern of Souls/Aether Vial embarrasses the card too readily.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Sideboards:
I'm seeing Runed Halo pop up a bit more again, it seems to fill basically the same roll as surgical extraction in that it protects you from something you otherwise lose against. I'm not sure which one I'd rather play at this point. Surgical is free and you can respond to something instantly, like GQ a valakut and then extract it, or if you run into a reanimator deck it's pretty sweet. This is probably the 1-2 slots I'm not sure about and also whether to even include Elspeth, SC in the 75 anymore.
This is my current deck with Crucible of Worlds in the main and so far I really like it. I played a few more games against the Knightfall deck and crucible helped so much because they are able to dig for and replay their ghost quarters, they are also running the new "Crucible on a Stick" guy. So far it's been pretty good in game 1 vs a lot of decks.
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
2x Ghost Quarter
2x Glacial Fortress
1x Hallowed Fountain
5x Island
1x Mystic Gate
3x Plains
2x Tectonic Edge
Enchantment (6)
2x Detention Sphere
4x Spreading Seas
Artifact (1)
1x Crucible of Worlds
3x Cryptic Command
3x Mana Leak
1x Negate
4x Path to Exile
1x Sphinx's Revelation
1x Think Twice
Planeswalker (4)
1x Gideon Jura
2x Gideon of the Trials
1x Jace, Architect of Thought
Sorcery (7)
4x Serum Visions
3x Supreme Verdict
Creature (5)
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Wall of Omens
1x Condemn
1x Dispel
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Negate
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Timely Reinforcements
1x Vendilion Clique
2 most uncertain things are whether or not to play a Halo in SB and I might go up to 3 tec edge 1 GQ, but I think this is pretty darn solid how it is.
Grats on Tier 1 everybody!
Scapeshift is a much more dangerous card in the matchup. It is positive without mana leak - at least from my own experience.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG