It depends on the build of jeskai, but if they expect cards like ajani or nahiri, both d sphere and celestial purge are reasonable.
Yup, I've played keranos before. I'm well aware of how good people think it is against GBX.
I'm also well aware of how the card pool and the meta has changed since then.
Don't play keranos.
Any planeswalker is vulnerable in the face of multiple creatures. If only there was some planeswalker that could both wrath the board as well as provide multiple chump blockers every turn, that many people (maybe even us!) has compared to keranos.
As for the game ending in 5 turns or less, maybe. When you include us losing in that, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
I could play wood elemental, and the game would sure as hell be over within 5 turns.
As for removal and threat ratios, I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but post board, midrange decks are going to have a lot more threats.
What tilts midrange and control matchups is not necessarily hard to answer threats. Objectively, yes, threats that are hard to answer are better than ones that are easy to answer here, but threats are not the only game decider.
You can very easily win midrange/control mirrors without geists, ajanis, elspeths, gideons, gearhulks, or keranos. There are other relevant cards in these matchups (ancestral vision? sphinx's revelation?) and other ways to win (lightning bolt?)
For what actually good card you should put in that slot, it depends a lot about what your deck looks like.
If you're playing a "stock" 23 land, 4 snap, 4 queller, 2-3 geist list, I'm usually a fan of either ajani vengeant, 3 mana gideon, or 4 mana gideon. In general, 4 mana gideon is better against GBX, 3 mana gideon is better vs combo (valakut, storm, etc) and ajani is better against eldrazi. There are always exceptions, of course, but I'd look at what your sideboard looks like.
If you have a lot of ceremonious rejections and disdainful strokes, you could probably pass on ajani, for example. If you're playing 3 geists mainboard and some vendilion cliques sideboard, you could probably do without baby gideon.
As for the game ending in 5 turns or less, maybe. When you include us losing in that, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
I could play wood elemental, and the game would sure as hell be over within 5 turns.
no card in that sb slot is going to win you the game when it resolves so of course it's going to involve you losing some of the time.. have you won when running elspeth or gideon 100% of the time? what did you think i was implying?
As for removal and threat ratios, I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but post board, midrange decks are going to have a lot more threats.
What tilts midrange and control matchups is not necessarily hard to answer threats.
gbx is inverse to jeskai... uw vs jeskai is around the same... so you're going to very often get into a state where you're either in topdeck mode or even on cards and boardstate and you need something that warps the board in your favor that blanks a lot of their cards or take multiple cards to get rid of... if you haven't noticed this i'm not sure what game you're playing... what changes the game immensely is the first player who resolves something like a liliana or geist or a pw and then it becomes a matter of whether or not they can deal with it in time....
with geist or pw's... there are very often answers already being played heavily in the other decks... with keranos those answers are much much less... and that's the simple reason why ppl play it...
I agree with theAller here, counterflux is definitely a strong card versus them. Just don't blindly go all-in on it and think about what to do if they do have remand. Gravehate should also severely cripple them and at the least force them to go for Empty the Warrens. I still think the most important skill vs storm is knowing how to deal with Gifts Ungiven
And of course, yes, if they respond with x but you have y they could still have z but that hypothetical goes on forever, you play to the highest percentage but that percentage is never 100% regardless of matchup. Just two days ago I lost to UB rogue tribal with my jeskai flash build
Mindbreak Trap is another Storm killer that used to see more play back when Seething Song was legal. If it gets remanded, it's just to play it again for free.
Counterflux is a strong card, I've gone up to 2 copies in my 75 in the past. It is the nuts against Storm, Ad Nauseum and Grixis Shadow. It strengthens control match-ups too.
I don't remember the last time I lost a game to Storm after playing T2 Rest in Peace followed by T3 Geist of Saint Traft. Outside of this scenario, though, the MU always seems to hang on knife's edge with some key 'break' points that only experience can navigate through. Like mentioned, just holding Counterflux and 4 open mana doesn't mean you can't lose to storm. Not skimping on copies of Dispel in the sideboard helps.
Search for Azcanta is so slow though, I'd only want it in very grindy matchups. Do you think you would mainboard it? I'd earlier think sideboard, but if that's the case I think I'd rather have some bomb planeswalkers
Mindbreak Trap is another Storm killer that used to see more play back when Seething Song was legal. If it gets remanded, it's just to play it again for free.
I don't think they were talking about remanding our counterspell (Counterflux can't even be countered), they were talking about Storm remanding their Grapeshot. Mindbreak Trap doesn't solve that problem at all.
That's true. The ability to recast after remand can still be relevant, though, especially after side when they're trying for the classic medium sized Empty the warrens.
So, finally played this deck again, hadn't played this deck since spring of 2016, my list was nearly identical to Harlans except Restos were in place
Spell Queller really fixed this deck up, the instant flash at 3 cmc while tempoing people out was a boon to this deck. I enjoy its not meant to be a control deck. I've very much learned in magic you have to play to win, not play to not lose. It's really changed my mindset in this game in general.
My list is pretty identical to Harlan. I came to the same conclusion he did, 4 Cryptic Commands in modern is so slow, so clunky, bad in opening hands, and is too reactive. 2 Electrolyze is the right sweet spot, since it's too conditional and one of the first things to cut against non-agro decks.
Anyway, could any of you Jeskai Geist players give me an idea on how you're sideboarding against
Grixis Death Shadow
Jund/Jumk
Counters Company
Eldrazi Tron
Storm
I'm beginning to think boarding out more than 1 Geist is never right
I've been testing a flash build with 4 snap 4 queller 2 clique 2 resto 2 venser as the creature base, it has been an absolute blast to play. I'll post the full list later.
On the other hand, logic knot is letting me down a lot lately, getting shut down by gravehate, making land drops iffy or forcing me to exile things I'd rather flashback later. I might just go back to mana leak.
You do need some creatures to actually have a clock; taking out Geist for more spells like that will leave you unable to close out the game. I run Venser over cryptic because even though cryptic is better in a vacuum you just need some cards to actually kill your opponent with
Logic Knot might just be a stroke of bad luck but gravehate is just very popular now. I'm on 3 now, I could cut down one for a Negate instead
I still really disagree with you on taking out Geist, all you're doing at that point is becoming a bad UW Control deck. Geist doesn't need to live. Ram him in once or twice and let burn and colonnade do the rest.
Even Take Rossums streamed game last week. He was perfectly fine against Todd Stevens deck game 1, he maneuvered it beautifully. Game 2 and 3 he obviously shaved Geist, tapping out for Nahiri with no fast clock and lost badly.
I played the following for-fun 75 at a small 4-round event, 3 wins 1 bye. Elspeth / Gideon sub-theme
Quick Summary, Details Below. I'm pretty sure I hit a very favourable slice of the meta for the list I ran, even though I wasn't trying to do any meta-shifting tech here...
Round 1: Bye
2-0 Vs. Mardu Pyromancer
2-0 Vs. GDS
2-1 Vs. Eldrazi Tron
Mardu Pyromancer is a cool deck, and this guy was playing a version that I really dig, with main-deck Monastery Mentor alongside Young Peezy. I topdecked electrolyzes and verdicts like a champion in game 1, which was complete luck and which I ended on 1 life. Game 2, electrolyze staved off an early Peezy and I jammed a Gideon, AOZ onto the field facing 2 souls tokens and took a hit before catching 4 tokens with Detention Sphere and riding AOZ for the win.
2-0 Vs. GDS
In game I opened with a serum visions scrying verdict to the top. My opponent must have felt confident because he ran out an angler on turn 2 and 2 shadows on turn 3, which all ate the verdict, which he never came back from. In game 2, his turn 1 IOK saw my hand of island, plains, serum visions, path to exile, snapcaster mage, gideon of the trials, and geist of saint traft. He thought about it for a reeallly long time. He took Geist, but after the game he told me he almost took Serum Visions! Little gideon then blanked a Gurmag Angler for 3 turns whilst we traded removal and counters. After a small topdeck war I topdecked Elspeth, Knight-Errant to send my Snapcaster over his fogged Angler for the win.
2-1 Vs. Eldrazi Tron
I drew an opening hand consisting of land, land, land, path, shadow of doubt, little gideon, gideon AOZ. He plays Matter Reshaper early and follows up with an Expedition Map and another Reshaper. I take a hit but am able to Resolve Shadow of Doubt and Path to Exile in response to his map activation which put him off tempo for enough for me to clog the board with gideons and accumulate more removal. Game 2 I really wanted to test out Settle the Wreckage, and drew into it but was already at such a low life total when I did draw it, that I was forced to use it on a 2/2 walking balista before it got out of hand. I still dream of catching a a full curve's worth of Eldrazi with it one day! Game 3 I opened with ceremonious rejection on his Chalice of the Void and then snap-rejection on his TKS on turn 3, followed by Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Gideon did take a hit from a smasher, but survived and took over the game.
Overall the deck felt great, but it did seem as though I was luckily nailing my top-decks. Main-deck shadow of doubt were in place because I felt I might be vulnerable to Storm and Valakut in game 1 of each respective MU, but I didn't face those decks all night. It hit precisely 1 fetch against GDS and 1 map against EldraTron, whenever else I saw it I cycled it. These 2 were my flex slots for the main-deck.
Didn't see Big Momma Elspeth all night despite boarding her in for all 3 MU's
I know this has been discussed before, but I've been messing around with opt in the deck and have found it super powerful. I initially had a 4/4 split and have since gone down to a 4/2 split of opt and visions respectively. I feel that this deck loves playing with open mana and opt allows you to be flexible. Here is a great example of this:
Your hand is Collonade Fetch Opt Bolt Logic Knot and Like a Island and a queller.
With opt you could play a T1 colonnade and the play a fetch on T2 holding up man to either logic Knot something, fetch bolt and opt or just opt. If the opt was a serum visions then the hand becomes much clunkier.
It also makes your snapcaster a better...I'm just kind of shocked that the pros haven't taken a liking to opt yet...just seems like it a card that rewards good play and opens up multiple lines (something that pros often say they look for in a card).
I played against vizier company today, geist was not so great. I'm seriously thinking about monastery mentor in the main since we now have opt. What do you think about it?
Played the deck for the first time in paper and 4-0d tonights FNM pretty handily minus 1 game against Zoo.
The deck feels like a spiritual successor to Splinter Twin without the combo deck. Seriously, Queller is one of the best things to happen to modern in a long time. The card destroys people's tempo with just enough to have bolt snap bolt kill them.
Very impressed with the deck.
Wish we had more players with a sideboard guide on the Ross list though.
Also, in the mirror, my jeskai opponent was on OPT, and I really think that hurt him. I could filter so much better than him and I think it showed, we made our land drops but I felt so in control.
I played against vizier company today, geist was not so great. I'm seriously thinking about monastery mentor in the main since we now have opt. What do you think about it?
Don't do it.
Think of Geist in two ways,
either you have enough removal to clear them for Geist, or you just jam one angel down their throat and burn them out with the rest. I only shave 1 Geist in those creature heavy matchups. Drop Geist late depending on if you expect the combo or company.
I played against vizier company today, geist was not so great. I'm seriously thinking about monastery mentor in the main since we now have opt. What do you think about it?
You are the control against Vizier Company, and you have to play really tight. One mistake can, and often does, lose you the game assuming you don't get crapped on by your deck.
Went 3-0 last night at a free FNM playing against a bunch of suboptimal decks, while my list wasn't optimal either. Got a foil pirate token and two packs, one with a foil Drowned Catacomb.
Round 1 versus Ben on Dictate of Karametra "Tides." Deck was an attempt at modern high tide. Round 1 I spell queller'ed his Early Harvest's and flashed in snapcasters to keep my hand full of counters. I boarded out 4 path to exile, 3 lightning bolt and a helix. Brought in 2 Relic of Progenitus for Time Reversal in case I countered an early Blue Sun's Zenith or something, 2 dispel, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Vendilion Clique, and 1 Wear // Tear. Game 2 I kept a hand that was about land, spell snare, 2 dispel, logic knot, snapcaster, Opt, which, even when drawing lands slowly, relied on using his own Dictate's to make it so I could counter everything. He conceeded, and I let him do his thing unmolested. He still fizzled. Poor Ben.
Round 2 versus Tobi on Budget Burn
Game 1 I kept what I thought was a fine hand, but he got in an early boros charm against me with a swiftspeer and then threw three Exquisite FIrecraft at me while I couldn't cast/didn't have Spell Queller. Boarded out Search for Azcanta and a cryptic, I think, but I forget. One other high CMC spell.
Game 2: Mulled a 1 lander into a 1 lander, but had 2 path to exile, dispel, lightning bolt, opt or so. He had a slow hand, and I kept my spell queller's around for when he tired to firecraft me. The game was fun and grindy all around, but by the time I was at about 9 life he had a rift bolt suspended and a land in hand, while I had a full grip and some action on the table.
Game 3: I had going very fast. I kept a hand that again had Spell Snare (read: counter target boros charm), dispel, and a snapcaster. I think he flooded out, too.
I think in hindsight the Clique was a bad choice.
Round 3: Mike on GW Eldrazi.
I'm surprised this wasn't bant eldrazi. I only saw Thoughtknot, Reality Smasher, and Displacer, and was also running Duskwatch Recruiter and main deck Field of Ruin.
Game 1 Mike mulled to 5, and kept a hand with a Gavony Township and a forest on top, as second turn he dropped a birds of paradise. I played the "bolt the bird" game to try and keep him off white while trying to figure out what he was on. He eventually got a bit of a board as I figured out when it was right to worry about other threats versus kill the Recruiter. Spell Queller'ing his TKS and recurring snapcaster's for paths kept the board clear for my beats to get through. I boarded in wear // tear, verdict, disdainful stroke. Took out spell snare, and serum visions- I think (again, didn't fully write it down).
Game 2: Mike came out guns blazing, turn 1 hierarch, turn 3 TKS, turn 4 Reality Smasher or so. Looks like I never even touched him.
Game 3: Mike seemed to flood out. We fought over Rest in Peace several times, I having to delve away a path to stop the first from resolving to keep the double snapcasters in my hand useful with a Search for Azcanta out didn't really pay off when a second resolved a turn later. But Search kept filtering my draws for burn or removal, and eventually was able to path a thalia, bolt him, snapcaster, my turn bolt, swing for lethal.
Overall Search felt great versus GW Eldrazi when I resolved it game 1 and 3, enabling me to see two cards a turn when it became really important to draw into removal. It either didn't see play or felt dead elsewhere. I'm still not sure what I want for my card draw suite, as I like Opt, but Vision's kept my lands flowing a few times that I otherwise had been buried in trash for a turn or two. 22 lands is by far too few.
I think that's a huge mistake Rick, you're cutting an evasive threat. You really have to be careful with this deck, it's on the edge of being a tempo control deck, cuts like those makes the deck a slower, bad control deck.
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Yup, I've played keranos before. I'm well aware of how good people think it is against GBX.
I'm also well aware of how the card pool and the meta has changed since then.
Don't play keranos.
Any planeswalker is vulnerable in the face of multiple creatures. If only there was some planeswalker that could both wrath the board as well as provide multiple chump blockers every turn, that many people (maybe even us!) has compared to keranos.
As for the game ending in 5 turns or less, maybe. When you include us losing in that, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
I could play wood elemental, and the game would sure as hell be over within 5 turns.
As for removal and threat ratios, I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but post board, midrange decks are going to have a lot more threats.
What tilts midrange and control matchups is not necessarily hard to answer threats. Objectively, yes, threats that are hard to answer are better than ones that are easy to answer here, but threats are not the only game decider.
You can very easily win midrange/control mirrors without geists, ajanis, elspeths, gideons, gearhulks, or keranos. There are other relevant cards in these matchups (ancestral vision? sphinx's revelation?) and other ways to win (lightning bolt?)
For what actually good card you should put in that slot, it depends a lot about what your deck looks like.
If you're playing a "stock" 23 land, 4 snap, 4 queller, 2-3 geist list, I'm usually a fan of either ajani vengeant, 3 mana gideon, or 4 mana gideon. In general, 4 mana gideon is better against GBX, 3 mana gideon is better vs combo (valakut, storm, etc) and ajani is better against eldrazi. There are always exceptions, of course, but I'd look at what your sideboard looks like.
If you have a lot of ceremonious rejections and disdainful strokes, you could probably pass on ajani, for example. If you're playing 3 geists mainboard and some vendilion cliques sideboard, you could probably do without baby gideon.
no card in that sb slot is going to win you the game when it resolves so of course it's going to involve you losing some of the time.. have you won when running elspeth or gideon 100% of the time? what did you think i was implying?
gbx is inverse to jeskai... uw vs jeskai is around the same... so you're going to very often get into a state where you're either in topdeck mode or even on cards and boardstate and you need something that warps the board in your favor that blanks a lot of their cards or take multiple cards to get rid of... if you haven't noticed this i'm not sure what game you're playing... what changes the game immensely is the first player who resolves something like a liliana or geist or a pw and then it becomes a matter of whether or not they can deal with it in time....
with geist or pw's... there are very often answers already being played heavily in the other decks... with keranos those answers are much much less... and that's the simple reason why ppl play it...
And of course, yes, if they respond with x but you have y they could still have z but that hypothetical goes on forever, you play to the highest percentage but that percentage is never 100% regardless of matchup. Just two days ago I lost to UB rogue tribal with my jeskai flash build
UWRUWR Delver/Lynx TempoUWR-------UWRUWR Midrange GeistUWR-------UWRUWR Nahiri ControlUWR-------UWRUWR SaheeliUWR
BGRJund / Jund ShadowBGR-------BGWAbzan / Abzan ShadowBGW
Commander (Leviathan/MTGO): UWGeist of Saint TraftUW
I don't remember the last time I lost a game to Storm after playing T2 Rest in Peace followed by T3 Geist of Saint Traft. Outside of this scenario, though, the MU always seems to hang on knife's edge with some key 'break' points that only experience can navigate through. Like mentioned, just holding Counterflux and 4 open mana doesn't mean you can't lose to storm. Not skimping on copies of Dispel in the sideboard helps.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
That's true. The ability to recast after remand can still be relevant, though, especially after side when they're trying for the classic medium sized Empty the warrens.
UWRUWR Delver/Lynx TempoUWR-------UWRUWR Midrange GeistUWR-------UWRUWR Nahiri ControlUWR-------UWRUWR SaheeliUWR
BGRJund / Jund ShadowBGR-------BGWAbzan / Abzan ShadowBGW
Commander (Leviathan/MTGO): UWGeist of Saint TraftUW
Spell Queller really fixed this deck up, the instant flash at 3 cmc while tempoing people out was a boon to this deck. I enjoy its not meant to be a control deck. I've very much learned in magic you have to play to win, not play to not lose. It's really changed my mindset in this game in general.
My list is pretty identical to Harlan. I came to the same conclusion he did, 4 Cryptic Commands in modern is so slow, so clunky, bad in opening hands, and is too reactive. 2 Electrolyze is the right sweet spot, since it's too conditional and one of the first things to cut against non-agro decks.
Anyway, could any of you Jeskai Geist players give me an idea on how you're sideboarding against
Grixis Death Shadow
Jund/Jumk
Counters Company
Eldrazi Tron
Storm
I'm beginning to think boarding out more than 1 Geist is never right
On the other hand, logic knot is letting me down a lot lately, getting shut down by gravehate, making land drops iffy or forcing me to exile things I'd rather flashback later. I might just go back to mana leak.
Logic Knot might just be a stroke of bad luck but gravehate is just very popular now. I'm on 3 now, I could cut down one for a Negate instead
I still really disagree with you on taking out Geist, all you're doing at that point is becoming a bad UW Control deck. Geist doesn't need to live. Ram him in once or twice and let burn and colonnade do the rest.
Even Take Rossums streamed game last week. He was perfectly fine against Todd Stevens deck game 1, he maneuvered it beautifully. Game 2 and 3 he obviously shaved Geist, tapping out for Nahiri with no fast clock and lost badly.
Quick Summary, Details Below. I'm pretty sure I hit a very favourable slice of the meta for the list I ran, even though I wasn't trying to do any meta-shifting tech here...
Round 1: Bye
2-0 Vs. Mardu Pyromancer
2-0 Vs. GDS
2-1 Vs. Eldrazi Tron
1x Desolate Lighthouse
1x Mystic Gate
3x Celestial Colonnade
3x Flooded Strand
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Steam Vents
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Spirebluff Canal
1x Glacial Fortress
3x Island
1x Plains
1x Mountain
4x Serum Visions
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
3x Lightning Helix
1x Remand
2x Mana Leak
1x Logic Knot
2x Shadow of Doubt
2x Electrolyze
3x Cryptic Command
Sorceries (2)
2x Supreme Verdict
Creatures and Planeswalkers (9)
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Gideon of the Trials
2x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2x Dispel
1x Counterflux
2x Ceremonious Rejection
1x Wear // Tear
2x Rest in Peace
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Detention Sphere
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Round 1: Bye
2-0 Vs. Mardu Pyromancer
Mardu Pyromancer is a cool deck, and this guy was playing a version that I really dig, with main-deck Monastery Mentor alongside Young Peezy. I topdecked electrolyzes and verdicts like a champion in game 1, which was complete luck and which I ended on 1 life. Game 2, electrolyze staved off an early Peezy and I jammed a Gideon, AOZ onto the field facing 2 souls tokens and took a hit before catching 4 tokens with Detention Sphere and riding AOZ for the win.
2-0 Vs. GDS
In game I opened with a serum visions scrying verdict to the top. My opponent must have felt confident because he ran out an angler on turn 2 and 2 shadows on turn 3, which all ate the verdict, which he never came back from. In game 2, his turn 1 IOK saw my hand of island, plains, serum visions, path to exile, snapcaster mage, gideon of the trials, and geist of saint traft. He thought about it for a reeallly long time. He took Geist, but after the game he told me he almost took Serum Visions! Little gideon then blanked a Gurmag Angler for 3 turns whilst we traded removal and counters. After a small topdeck war I topdecked Elspeth, Knight-Errant to send my Snapcaster over his fogged Angler for the win.
2-1 Vs. Eldrazi Tron
I drew an opening hand consisting of land, land, land, path, shadow of doubt, little gideon, gideon AOZ. He plays Matter Reshaper early and follows up with an Expedition Map and another Reshaper. I take a hit but am able to Resolve Shadow of Doubt and Path to Exile in response to his map activation which put him off tempo for enough for me to clog the board with gideons and accumulate more removal. Game 2 I really wanted to test out Settle the Wreckage, and drew into it but was already at such a low life total when I did draw it, that I was forced to use it on a 2/2 walking balista before it got out of hand. I still dream of catching a a full curve's worth of Eldrazi with it one day! Game 3 I opened with ceremonious rejection on his Chalice of the Void and then snap-rejection on his TKS on turn 3, followed by Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Gideon did take a hit from a smasher, but survived and took over the game.
Overall the deck felt great, but it did seem as though I was luckily nailing my top-decks. Main-deck shadow of doubt were in place because I felt I might be vulnerable to Storm and Valakut in game 1 of each respective MU, but I didn't face those decks all night. It hit precisely 1 fetch against GDS and 1 map against EldraTron, whenever else I saw it I cycled it. These 2 were my flex slots for the main-deck.
Didn't see Big Momma Elspeth all night despite boarding her in for all 3 MU's
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Flooded Strand
2x Spirebluff Canal
2x Steam Vents
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Sacred Foundry
3x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
Instants (23)
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
4x Path to Exile
2x Spell Snare
2x Negate
2x Mana Leak
2x Cryptic Command
4x Opt
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Spell Queller
3x Nimble Obstructionist
2x Vendilion Clique
3x Ancestral Vision
1x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Rest in Peace
2x Izzet Staticaster
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Negate
1x Dispel
2x Blessed Alliance
Your hand is Collonade Fetch Opt Bolt Logic Knot and Like a Island and a queller.
With opt you could play a T1 colonnade and the play a fetch on T2 holding up man to either logic Knot something, fetch bolt and opt or just opt. If the opt was a serum visions then the hand becomes much clunkier.
It also makes your snapcaster a better...I'm just kind of shocked that the pros haven't taken a liking to opt yet...just seems like it a card that rewards good play and opens up multiple lines (something that pros often say they look for in a card).
The deck feels like a spiritual successor to Splinter Twin without the combo deck. Seriously, Queller is one of the best things to happen to modern in a long time. The card destroys people's tempo with just enough to have bolt snap bolt kill them.
Very impressed with the deck.
Wish we had more players with a sideboard guide on the Ross list though.
Also, in the mirror, my jeskai opponent was on OPT, and I really think that hurt him. I could filter so much better than him and I think it showed, we made our land drops but I felt so in control.
Don't do it.
Think of Geist in two ways,
either you have enough removal to clear them for Geist, or you just jam one angel down their throat and burn them out with the rest. I only shave 1 Geist in those creature heavy matchups. Drop Geist late depending on if you expect the combo or company.
You are the control against Vizier Company, and you have to play really tight. One mistake can, and often does, lose you the game assuming you don't get crapped on by your deck.
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spell Queller
3 Geist of Saint Traft
Spells 27
3 Cryptic Command
2 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Logic Knot
2 Spell Snare
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Opt
4 Path to Exile
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Celestial Purge
2 Disdainful STroke
1 Wear // Tear
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Supreme Verdict
Round 1 versus Ben on Dictate of Karametra "Tides." Deck was an attempt at modern high tide. Round 1 I spell queller'ed his Early Harvest's and flashed in snapcasters to keep my hand full of counters. I boarded out 4 path to exile, 3 lightning bolt and a helix. Brought in 2 Relic of Progenitus for Time Reversal in case I countered an early Blue Sun's Zenith or something, 2 dispel, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Vendilion Clique, and 1 Wear // Tear. Game 2 I kept a hand that was about land, spell snare, 2 dispel, logic knot, snapcaster, Opt, which, even when drawing lands slowly, relied on using his own Dictate's to make it so I could counter everything. He conceeded, and I let him do his thing unmolested. He still fizzled. Poor Ben.
Round 2 versus Tobi on Budget Burn
Game 1 I kept what I thought was a fine hand, but he got in an early boros charm against me with a swiftspeer and then threw three Exquisite FIrecraft at me while I couldn't cast/didn't have Spell Queller. Boarded out Search for Azcanta and a cryptic, I think, but I forget. One other high CMC spell.
Game 2: Mulled a 1 lander into a 1 lander, but had 2 path to exile, dispel, lightning bolt, opt or so. He had a slow hand, and I kept my spell queller's around for when he tired to firecraft me. The game was fun and grindy all around, but by the time I was at about 9 life he had a rift bolt suspended and a land in hand, while I had a full grip and some action on the table.
Game 3: I had going very fast. I kept a hand that again had Spell Snare (read: counter target boros charm), dispel, and a snapcaster. I think he flooded out, too.
I think in hindsight the Clique was a bad choice.
Round 3: Mike on GW Eldrazi.
I'm surprised this wasn't bant eldrazi. I only saw Thoughtknot, Reality Smasher, and Displacer, and was also running Duskwatch Recruiter and main deck Field of Ruin.
Game 1 Mike mulled to 5, and kept a hand with a Gavony Township and a forest on top, as second turn he dropped a birds of paradise. I played the "bolt the bird" game to try and keep him off white while trying to figure out what he was on. He eventually got a bit of a board as I figured out when it was right to worry about other threats versus kill the Recruiter. Spell Queller'ing his TKS and recurring snapcaster's for paths kept the board clear for my beats to get through. I boarded in wear // tear, verdict, disdainful stroke. Took out spell snare, and serum visions- I think (again, didn't fully write it down).
Game 2: Mike came out guns blazing, turn 1 hierarch, turn 3 TKS, turn 4 Reality Smasher or so. Looks like I never even touched him.
Game 3: Mike seemed to flood out. We fought over Rest in Peace several times, I having to delve away a path to stop the first from resolving to keep the double snapcasters in my hand useful with a Search for Azcanta out didn't really pay off when a second resolved a turn later. But Search kept filtering my draws for burn or removal, and eventually was able to path a thalia, bolt him, snapcaster, my turn bolt, swing for lethal.
Overall Search felt great versus GW Eldrazi when I resolved it game 1 and 3, enabling me to see two cards a turn when it became really important to draw into removal. It either didn't see play or felt dead elsewhere. I'm still not sure what I want for my card draw suite, as I like Opt, but Vision's kept my lands flowing a few times that I otherwise had been buried in trash for a turn or two. 22 lands is by far too few.