Haven't tried settle the wreckage yet, but anything that wrecks bogles is good in my book. I wish Kerrick or Benny's lists would ever get posted on the daily 5-0 decklists. I need to just pick a solid deck and stick with it for awhile instead of changing so many cards all the time.
Ryland has been streaming the last couple days. He plays the deck very well imo. I usually only dislike some of his sideboard decisions, such as no surgical extraction. He always talks through his decision process, which is awesome and he's got a pretty good track record with UW with a recent SCG modern classic win. He got a feature round 1 of the scg modern tournament today too.
Looks like the basically switched out Spreading Seas for Burn Spells and Wall of Omens for Blessed Alliance. I don't really understand the crucible main, especially since they are only running 2 LD lands. I do like moving away from the Spreading Seas, it feels super underwhelming to me recently. The Shadow of Doubt plan hooks the Tron match just as hard while also being relevant against Storm and much better against shift all while being instant speed.
Seems like the kind of deck that would want 1 Ajani Vengeant I could play something like this, I like that it doesn't use a full playset of tarns. Is this in the SCG open? Haven't been able to watch much and I'm out tonight.
Here's my latest list. Will probably try to go for 25 lands with another field of ruin, will see if I get mana screwed out of color.
Went back to the walls, really missed them against reshaper.
Not sure if you guys care but here's how the latest games went.
1st Match - Trondrazi - 2-0
2nd Match - Abzan - 2-0
3rd Match - Infect - 2-1 (Gideon is amazing here but he was using shaper's sanctuary)
4th Match - Trondrazi - 2-0
5th Match - Living End - 2-1 (it's a pretty good match up but they can sometimes get you with multiple land destruction)
Walls really did their job against trondrazi, will probably be keeping them.
Looks good, I will give it a shot because I've been having some bad luck lately. Why do you prefer the 2 cages and 1 RIP, and Pulse of the Fields over Timely? I have been struggling against some of the CoCo combo decks recently especially the Knight retreat and infinite combo ones, so another cage makes sense, but it's so overpriced online... I swear against combo decks they always get nut draws at least 1 game against me and then I probably don't mulligan aggressively enough and just keep hands that are regularly good. I worry about mulling a hand with like 3 lands and turn 1-3 plays to just try to hit a hate card.
Do you have a specific board plan against most decks? I still have a tough time deciding if I should cut Gideons, Jaces and the situational counters against certain decks.
Edit: I guess some of the mid-range decks like Abzan / Jund or random other things like UR Young Pyromancer Blood Moon are some of the ones I'm talking about. The plan for things like storm is pretty straight forward, yet still the most difficult to win.
@kerrick - Second Jace over Gideon 5 eh? Obviously worked out well for you, seems weird to drop Gideon 5 without putting in another actual win condition though. I've been caught up in the hype of the planeswalker rules change and trying to jam extra Gideons I've never even considered dropping any. Ig uess the Jurassic Park quote applies here - I was too preoccupied with whether or not I could that I didn't stop to think if I should.
I was up to 3 Trials and 1 Jura, but to be honest I've never loved Jura, often felt it should be Elspeth. A lot of people are jamming Gideon 4 which I think is a huge mistake. I watched (Holyshamgar) Ryland stream today and just get completely demoralized and demolished with 2 copies of Gideon 4. Normally I like his play and decisions, but I think he's suffering the same 'could we or should we' problem I've been having. He kept stating that Gideon 4 was great and then I watched him lose multiple games because of it.
Going forward, you're happy with 2 Trials, 3 Snaps and 4 Colonnade as your only win conditions? I guess Jace kind of counts too since he can grab something good from opps deck to clock them with. I've recently gone back to 2 Jace as well, but I cut a cryptic for it rather than Gideon. I've found so many 4's to be clunky, and especially cryptic. Cryptic seems it's best once we've already stabilized.
Final question, how do you justify the 2-2 split on cantrips? I'm not criticising, genuinely curious because I can't justify running Opt, even though it plays better with Azcanta. I can't just simply because of how badly we need to dig for verdict most of the time, which means we often need our lands too. I suppose hitting land 5 is less crucial without Jura in the deck.
**Edit @slowgod - try moving off Gideon 4 and back to second Jace, that should help with the Temple Garden decks. I was struggling against them a lot too recently, Jace does so much work there.
Looks good, I will give it a shot because I've been having some bad luck lately. Why do you prefer the 2 cages and 1 RIP, and Pulse of the Fields over Timely? I have been struggling against some of the CoCo combo decks recently especially the Knight retreat and infinite combo ones, so another cage makes sense, but it's so overpriced online... I swear against combo decks they always get nut draws at least 1 game against me and then I probably don't mulligan aggressively enough and just keep hands that are regularly good. I worry about mulling a hand with like 3 lands and turn 1-3 plays to just try to hit a hate card.
Do you have a specific board plan against most decks? I still have a tough time deciding if I should cut Gideons, Jaces and the situational counters against certain decks.
Edit: I guess some of the mid-range decks like Abzan / Jund or random other things like UR Young Pyromancer Blood Moon are some of the ones I'm talking about. The plan for things like storm is pretty straight forward, yet still the most difficult to win.
I prefer cage since the grixis shadow match up is easy already and cage really helps against coco decks. It's such a pain to get coco after a verdict, specially when one of them is a tracker.
Pulse is still in testing but it feels better when playing against skullcrack effects and against valakut, since they sometimes beat you down with baloths and land triggers. I'm also testing it as a way to force opponents to overextend since some decks like fish and coco usually beat you down with a couple of dorks forcing you to wrath early.
I really don't have a specific plan but I can try to help you out. Jund and abzan I usually side very little, usually a verdict and a rip (if they're on abzan). These new ur decks have been a pain, specially after sb when they bring in 4 dispels.
@kerrick - Second Jace over Gideon 5 eh? Obviously worked out well for you, seems weird to drop Gideon 5 without putting in another actual win condition though. I've been caught up in the hype of the planeswalker rules change and trying to jam extra Gideons I've never even considered dropping any. Ig uess the Jurassic Park quote applies here - I was too preoccupied with whether or not I could that I didn't stop to think if I should.
I was up to 3 Trials and 1 Jura, but to be honest I've never loved Jura, often felt it should be Elspeth. A lot of people are jamming Gideon 4 which I think is a huge mistake. I watched (Holyshamgar) Ryland stream today and just get completely demoralized and demolished with 2 copies of Gideon 4. Normally I like his play and decisions, but I think he's suffering the same 'could we or should we' problem I've been having. He kept stating that Gideon 4 was great and then I watched him lose multiple games because of it.
Going forward, you're happy with 2 Trials, 3 Snaps and 4 Colonnade as your only win conditions? I guess Jace kind of counts too since he can grab something good from opps deck to clock them with. I've recently gone back to 2 Jace as well, but I cut a cryptic for it rather than Gideon. I've found so many 4's to be clunky, and especially cryptic. Cryptic seems it's best once we've already stabilized.
Final question, how do you justify the 2-2 split on cantrips? I'm not criticising, genuinely curious because I can't justify running Opt, even though it plays better with Azcanta. I can't just simply because of how badly we need to dig for verdict most of the time, which means we often need our lands too. I suppose hitting land 5 is less crucial without Jura in the deck.
**Edit @slowgod - try moving off Gideon 4 and back to second Jace, that should help with the Temple Garden decks. I was struggling against them a lot too recently, Jace does so much work there.
I tested Ally and I really hated it. It feels completely unnecessary in the deck, it helps against bgx but if you're going that route, elspeth is infinitely better since it also wrecks eldrazi. As for fewer win conditions, it just fits my play style better since i'm way too cautious.
Jura sometimes feels awesome but with the surge of these ur decks, it feels too slow.
Yeah, definitely happy with these as win cons. I may up the land count to 25 to add some fields of ruin and a crucible as another win con though i'm still not sure.
As for the split, serum visions feels better but sometimes I really need to hold leak/path on t2 after a collonade or fortress and these are the times opt is much better.
Thanks guys! I didn't notice that there were only the 2 GoTTs at first either and was thinking you could end up running out of ways to kill your opponent. I could see decks with abrupt decay being an issue, but I suppose you bring in quellers against them? What about switching wall #3 for secure the wastes? I only tested secure a couple times and it felt strong and flexible and also a good snap target in the long game.
I also tend to play extremely cautious, probably gets me killed sometimes when I could go for a kill but instead sit back and do nothing. I also hold on to cryptic command forever sometimes when there are situations that maybe I should just counter a low impact spell and draw, or bounce a land, but I try to get max value out of it.
I played against classic Jund a couple times recently and I kept bringing in all 4 verdicts and then remembered it's really just a control deck without blue and they don't run many threats so I think that's a match where you probably want 0 verdicts actually? Abzan or BG usually run a lot more creatures so 4 verdicts is probably right for those. It's easy to forget that you don't really have to sideboard much sometimes, I was better at light sideboarding in paper where it takes longer to look through your deck and time is limited.
Just played a couple games without Jura, I switched it for Trials #3. I was on 3 trials for a long time, and it was always good. I started switching it around in anticipation and for the walker rules change hype, but now I think I'll go back. Trials is just always good, in pretty much every match and drawing multiples isn't a huge deal breaker because it just buys you so much time to find a verdict, and with the Emblem, extra gideons is nice. I'm not sure I like going below 3 Gideons total because of the mirror match and burn though, so I think 3 should be good.
I'm also going to try 4 Opt again, it plays better with leak and especially azcanta and I also just realized it's value in response to Chalice on 1 from Eldratron. Being able to cryptic bounce chalice on thier eot and cast your Opts seems strong so that you dont have to spend too much mana on your own turn dumping serums. It's probably also better in all the Steam Vents matchups since a lot of the time you want to just cast your snap to start clocking. This also allows to play 3 snaps, which helps fill out the 3 drop slot, even though it isnt technically a 3.
Here's where I'm at - Won a few games in Tournament Practice, but not starting any new leagues until the current leagues end.
Still loving the Gifts Ungiven - I often find myself casting it mainphase and grabbing Wrath, DSphere, Gideon3, snap/PTE. This usually allows me to deal with whats on board, and doesn't eat up my whole turn. In that sense, it's a lot more effective than Rev for 5 because I get the exact type of cards I want, and get to cast them immediatly. And keeping Gifts over rev now with no spells over 4 cmc I'm finally comfortable dropping to 24 lands.
I've been pretty happy with this sideboard as well. I dropped the verdict for a Settle, which has been much better against Temple Garden decks as well as against Geist of Saint traft and gideon decks. I also dropped the lifegain cards for 1cmc counters that work in both burn and against storm. This is actually the happiest I've been with my list in a long time except for the residual tension about Opt vs Serum. Took a long time for the Ixalan cards and rules changes to settle into place for me, but I think this is it.
Hey everyone! Been following the thread recently and enjoying the read! I am a new UW Control player (picked up the deck a few days ago), who's been playing modern for the past two months on MTGO and really enjoy this build thus far as my official deck. There are still upgrades I need to make, but one of my questions in building this deck is in regards to card advantage. Right now, I am using 4x Serum Visons, however what are your thoughts as far as changing them out for Opt or Ancestral Vison?
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Most players will tell you that Serum is the better choice for UW control, and I would tend to agree. Ancestral Vision is not really competing for the same slot as Opt and Serum. Opt and Serum are there to help you set up your draws and find verdict on time, ancestral doesn't do either of those things and Serum is more capable of doing those things. Ancestral competes more for the space of Sphinx Revelation and Search for Azcanta, imo and I think others would agree.
That said, it is perfectly reasonable to play around with the numbers of Serum and Opt, some players choosing to split them 3/2 or 2/2, or go all 4 Opt if they want to play a more Draw-Go game style. The power level difference is close, so I don't think you can go too wrong one way or the other. For card advantage, you generally need to dedicate a minimum of 3-4 slots between Sphinx Rev, Jace, Architect of Thought and/or Search for Azcanta. The only real consensus among players is that Jace is a staple, for that reason I recommend starting with 2 Jace and going from there. Some players dislike Rev because it is a terrible card in the opener, some players dislike Azcanta because it takes awhile to get online. Some others choose to go with 3ish copies of Ancestral Vision over Azcanta or Rev, but that is a less popular stance.
My own take on card advantage includes a 1-of gifts ungiven, though I haven't seen or heard of any other UW control players trying this approach, but it has been working for me.
1) With the full 4 Field of Ruin I felt like I needed 1 more basic land, I'm gonna swap a Fortress for Plains number 3.
Bennyhillz was always a proponent of 3 Plains anyway. Here's what my manabase looks like right now:
4 Colonnade
4 Field of Ruin
5 Island
3 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
2 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
Only 24 lands because I believe that's enough when running 2 Search for Azcanta. Prairie Stream is nice as a fetchable untapped dual leaving basics in my deck. If I were to add a 25th land it would be a 3rd Fortress.
2) As everyone here, I'm not a 100% sure on Visions vs Opt. I'll let you know what feels better for me.
I'm pretty sure about it, for this deck Serum Visions is right. I've played Jeskai Flash and Storm with Opt since it became legal and it's fine in those decks but not a consideration for me in UW.
3) Last but not least, as I want to play a Unified Modern GP, I don't know if Grafdigger's Cage will be available to me (the Affinity player could use it). I guess I'll have to change my sideboard as I expect to face mostly ETron, Affinity, UW Control, Titanshift, Storm and Burn. Not sure if I listed all of them though, insights would be appreciated !
I'm also going to be in Madrid, funnily enough with the opposite problem - my usual GY package in the sideboard is 2 RiP and 2 Surgical Extraction, but my Eldrazi Tron teammate needs the Surgicals so I'm going to have to play Cage instead. (Quite convenient that I don't need Ghost Quarter anymore, hehe.) I'm definitely looking to add 1 or 2 Ceremonious Rejection which I don't normally have in the board. I do NOT expect to play many UW mirror matches, it's incompatible with GDS, Storm and Ad Naus which I all expect to see more of.
I think that is the correct manabase with the exception that I think Prairie Stream is worse than Irrigated Farmland or Mystic Gate, and I'd use 1 GQ if Crucible is in the side.
I'm 100% against Opt in the deck. It's just way too important to find gas in this deck and Opt does a pretty poor job of it.
Just played a couple games without Jura, I switched it for Trials #3. I was on 3 trials for a long time, and it was always good. I started switching it around in anticipation and for the walker rules change hype, but now I think I'll go back. Trials is just always good, in pretty much every match and drawing multiples isn't a huge deal breaker because it just buys you so much time to find a verdict, and with the Emblem, extra gideons is nice. I'm not sure I like going below 3 Gideons total because of the mirror match and burn though, so I think 3 should be good.
Playing 3 Gideon of the Trials is almost assuredly incorrect. It's just too weak when you are behind and if you are on the draw vs any type of Noble Hierarch deck Gideon will just be an expensive fog. Gideon Jura is one of the best cards in the deck, and I don't see any reason why you wouldn't want to play it.
I think Grafdigger, RIP and Surgical can all kind of fill the same spot. Runed Halo is also good in those spots against Storm and Valakut especially. I agree that 3 Gideon of the Trials is probably 1 too many, I don't know what it is, but with just 2 in the deck I never fail to find at least 1 of them per game. On the other hand sometimes when I have all 4 verdicts post board I still can't find one
So Kerrick's recent deck runs really smooth, I screwed up against some weird BG Eldrazi deck that was super heavy on graveyard interaction, but wasn't in game 1 so I didn't bring in RIPs and lost. I also lost to Gaea's Revenge again, and really wished I had a blessed alliance or maybe it's correct to leave a couple verdicts in against scapeshift these days.
Trials isn't at his best against hierarch decks, but he is serviceable there. A lot of times post verdict they will have a lingering elemental or finks and he cleans it up there. I disagree about Jura being one of the best cards in the deck though - against most of our good matchups, he's awesome even if a little slow. But against our bad matchups, he's completely unplayable. 5 Mana 6/6 w/o indestructible is a terrible card against Primeval decks, combo decks and control decks. Trials being 3 Mana is much easier to manage against the fast combo decks and is actually pretty good against slower combo decks like primeval and ad nauseum. As well as being stellar against control. 3 might be too many trials, because of legendary rule, but I don't think that takes away from the fact that Jura is kind of a stinker, and if it didn't have any synergy with trials emblem, it would be even worse. I think Elspeth, Sun's Champion is leagues better than Jura, actually.
I truly believe Trials is the best card in the deck, or maybe tied with verdict, but I don't think this deck would have ever become Tier 1 without Trials.
Trials isn't at his best against hierarch decks, but he is serviceable there. A lot of times post verdict they will have a lingering elemental or finks and he cleans it up there. I disagree about Jura being one of the best cards in the deck though - against most of our good matchups, he's awesome even if a little slow. But against our bad matchups, he's completely unplayable. 5 Mana 6/6 w/o indestructible is a terrible card against Primeval decks, combo decks and control decks. Trials being 3 Mana is much easier to manage against the fast combo decks and is actually pretty good against slower combo decks like primeval and ad nauseum. As well as being stellar against control. 3 might be too many trials, because of legendary rule, but I don't think that takes away from the fact that Jura is kind of a stinker, and if it didn't have any synergy with trials emblem, it would be even worse. I think Elspeth, Sun's Champion is leagues better than Jura, actually.
I truly believe Trials is the best card in the deck, or maybe tied with verdict, but I don't think this deck would have ever become Tier 1 without Trials.
Jura never seems to work out well for me. He is usually a walker that I never attack with for fear of terminate, path etc or a 5 mana removal that acts as a fog and usually rots in my hand against most match ups like storm, scapeshift and control. I'd rather play a fourth verdict or elspeth in that slot.
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2 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Torrential Gearhulk
4 Serum Visions
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Cryptic Command
2 Electrolyze
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Logic Knot
3 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
2 Shadow of Doubt
1 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Celestial Colonnade
1 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Flooded Strand
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Crumble to Dust
2 Dispel
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Negate
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stony Silence
1 Timely Reinforcements
Looks like the basically switched out Spreading Seas for Burn Spells and Wall of Omens for Blessed Alliance. I don't really understand the crucible main, especially since they are only running 2 LD lands. I do like moving away from the Spreading Seas, it feels super underwhelming to me recently. The Shadow of Doubt plan hooks the Tron match just as hard while also being relevant against Storm and much better against shift all while being instant speed.
Ajani seems like a good swap for the crucible in that list, imo.
I'm not sure, I don't play them. The lists on the site were dated for the 15th.
Went back to the walls, really missed them against reshaper.
1 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
5 Island
2 Plains
2 Tectonic Edge
4 Path to Exile
2 Opt
2 Serum Visions
3 Wall of Omens
3 Mana Leak
1 Search for Azcanta
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spreading Seas
2 Gideon of the Trials
2 Detention Sphere
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Cryptic Command
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Logic Knot
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Pulse of the Fields
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Dispel
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Spell Queller
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Grafdigger's Cage
Not sure if you guys care but here's how the latest games went.
1st Match - Trondrazi - 2-0
2nd Match - Abzan - 2-0
3rd Match - Infect - 2-1 (Gideon is amazing here but he was using shaper's sanctuary)
4th Match - Trondrazi - 2-0
5th Match - Living End - 2-1 (it's a pretty good match up but they can sometimes get you with multiple land destruction)
Walls really did their job against trondrazi, will probably be keeping them.
Do you have a specific board plan against most decks? I still have a tough time deciding if I should cut Gideons, Jaces and the situational counters against certain decks.
Edit: I guess some of the mid-range decks like Abzan / Jund or random other things like UR Young Pyromancer Blood Moon are some of the ones I'm talking about. The plan for things like storm is pretty straight forward, yet still the most difficult to win.
I was up to 3 Trials and 1 Jura, but to be honest I've never loved Jura, often felt it should be Elspeth. A lot of people are jamming Gideon 4 which I think is a huge mistake. I watched (Holyshamgar) Ryland stream today and just get completely demoralized and demolished with 2 copies of Gideon 4. Normally I like his play and decisions, but I think he's suffering the same 'could we or should we' problem I've been having. He kept stating that Gideon 4 was great and then I watched him lose multiple games because of it.
Going forward, you're happy with 2 Trials, 3 Snaps and 4 Colonnade as your only win conditions? I guess Jace kind of counts too since he can grab something good from opps deck to clock them with. I've recently gone back to 2 Jace as well, but I cut a cryptic for it rather than Gideon. I've found so many 4's to be clunky, and especially cryptic. Cryptic seems it's best once we've already stabilized.
Final question, how do you justify the 2-2 split on cantrips? I'm not criticising, genuinely curious because I can't justify running Opt, even though it plays better with Azcanta. I can't just simply because of how badly we need to dig for verdict most of the time, which means we often need our lands too. I suppose hitting land 5 is less crucial without Jura in the deck.
**Edit @slowgod - try moving off Gideon 4 and back to second Jace, that should help with the Temple Garden decks. I was struggling against them a lot too recently, Jace does so much work there.
I prefer cage since the grixis shadow match up is easy already and cage really helps against coco decks. It's such a pain to get coco after a verdict, specially when one of them is a tracker.
Pulse is still in testing but it feels better when playing against skullcrack effects and against valakut, since they sometimes beat you down with baloths and land triggers. I'm also testing it as a way to force opponents to overextend since some decks like fish and coco usually beat you down with a couple of dorks forcing you to wrath early.
I really don't have a specific plan but I can try to help you out. Jund and abzan I usually side very little, usually a verdict and a rip (if they're on abzan). These new ur decks have been a pain, specially after sb when they bring in 4 dispels.
I tested Ally and I really hated it. It feels completely unnecessary in the deck, it helps against bgx but if you're going that route, elspeth is infinitely better since it also wrecks eldrazi. As for fewer win conditions, it just fits my play style better since i'm way too cautious.
Jura sometimes feels awesome but with the surge of these ur decks, it feels too slow.
Yeah, definitely happy with these as win cons. I may up the land count to 25 to add some fields of ruin and a crucible as another win con though i'm still not sure.
As for the split, serum visions feels better but sometimes I really need to hold leak/path on t2 after a collonade or fortress and these are the times opt is much better.
I also tend to play extremely cautious, probably gets me killed sometimes when I could go for a kill but instead sit back and do nothing. I also hold on to cryptic command forever sometimes when there are situations that maybe I should just counter a low impact spell and draw, or bounce a land, but I try to get max value out of it.
I played against classic Jund a couple times recently and I kept bringing in all 4 verdicts and then remembered it's really just a control deck without blue and they don't run many threats so I think that's a match where you probably want 0 verdicts actually? Abzan or BG usually run a lot more creatures so 4 verdicts is probably right for those. It's easy to forget that you don't really have to sideboard much sometimes, I was better at light sideboarding in paper where it takes longer to look through your deck and time is limited.
I'm also going to try 4 Opt again, it plays better with leak and especially azcanta and I also just realized it's value in response to Chalice on 1 from Eldratron. Being able to cryptic bounce chalice on thier eot and cast your Opts seems strong so that you dont have to spend too much mana on your own turn dumping serums. It's probably also better in all the Steam Vents matchups since a lot of the time you want to just cast your snap to start clocking. This also allows to play 3 snaps, which helps fill out the 3 drop slot, even though it isnt technically a 3.
Here's where I'm at - Won a few games in Tournament Practice, but not starting any new leagues until the current leagues end.
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers (5)
3 Gideon of the Trials
2 Jace, Architect of thought
Countermagic (6)
3 Mana Leak
1 Negate
2 Cryptic Command
Removal (9)
4 Path to Exile
2 Detention Sphere
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
Card Quality (10)
4 Opt
3 Spreading Seas
2 Search For Azcanta
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Island
3 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Colonnade
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
2 Field of Ruin
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Grafdiggers Cage
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Dispel
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Spell Snare
1 Spreading Seas
1 Settle the Wreckage
Still loving the Gifts Ungiven - I often find myself casting it mainphase and grabbing Wrath, DSphere, Gideon3, snap/PTE. This usually allows me to deal with whats on board, and doesn't eat up my whole turn. In that sense, it's a lot more effective than Rev for 5 because I get the exact type of cards I want, and get to cast them immediatly. And keeping Gifts over rev now with no spells over 4 cmc I'm finally comfortable dropping to 24 lands.
I've been pretty happy with this sideboard as well. I dropped the verdict for a Settle, which has been much better against Temple Garden decks as well as against Geist of Saint traft and gideon decks. I also dropped the lifegain cards for 1cmc counters that work in both burn and against storm. This is actually the happiest I've been with my list in a long time except for the residual tension about Opt vs Serum. Took a long time for the Ixalan cards and rules changes to settle into place for me, but I think this is it.
Cheers.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
Most players will tell you that Serum is the better choice for UW control, and I would tend to agree. Ancestral Vision is not really competing for the same slot as Opt and Serum. Opt and Serum are there to help you set up your draws and find verdict on time, ancestral doesn't do either of those things and Serum is more capable of doing those things. Ancestral competes more for the space of Sphinx Revelation and Search for Azcanta, imo and I think others would agree.
That said, it is perfectly reasonable to play around with the numbers of Serum and Opt, some players choosing to split them 3/2 or 2/2, or go all 4 Opt if they want to play a more Draw-Go game style. The power level difference is close, so I don't think you can go too wrong one way or the other. For card advantage, you generally need to dedicate a minimum of 3-4 slots between Sphinx Rev, Jace, Architect of Thought and/or Search for Azcanta. The only real consensus among players is that Jace is a staple, for that reason I recommend starting with 2 Jace and going from there. Some players dislike Rev because it is a terrible card in the opener, some players dislike Azcanta because it takes awhile to get online. Some others choose to go with 3ish copies of Ancestral Vision over Azcanta or Rev, but that is a less popular stance.
My own take on card advantage includes a 1-of gifts ungiven, though I haven't seen or heard of any other UW control players trying this approach, but it has been working for me.
Cheers and goodluck!
I think that is the correct manabase with the exception that I think Prairie Stream is worse than Irrigated Farmland or Mystic Gate, and I'd use 1 GQ if Crucible is in the side.
I'm 100% against Opt in the deck. It's just way too important to find gas in this deck and Opt does a pretty poor job of it.
Playing 3 Gideon of the Trials is almost assuredly incorrect. It's just too weak when you are behind and if you are on the draw vs any type of Noble Hierarch deck Gideon will just be an expensive fog. Gideon Jura is one of the best cards in the deck, and I don't see any reason why you wouldn't want to play it.
So Kerrick's recent deck runs really smooth, I screwed up against some weird BG Eldrazi deck that was super heavy on graveyard interaction, but wasn't in game 1 so I didn't bring in RIPs and lost. I also lost to Gaea's Revenge again, and really wished I had a blessed alliance or maybe it's correct to leave a couple verdicts in against scapeshift these days.
I truly believe Trials is the best card in the deck, or maybe tied with verdict, but I don't think this deck would have ever become Tier 1 without Trials.
Jura never seems to work out well for me. He is usually a walker that I never attack with for fear of terminate, path etc or a 5 mana removal that acts as a fog and usually rots in my hand against most match ups like storm, scapeshift and control. I'd rather play a fourth verdict or elspeth in that slot.