Yeah cutting Keranos seems reasonable. Question is, what should i play instead? Been thinking to up my Celestial Purge count from 1 to 2 because of Jeskai Harbinger being popular and it work wonders against Jund, which was the main purpose of Keranos anyway.
I think your deck is fine against Jund. I would look for a slot for something like Geist or Clique.
I think a graveyard card is also reasonable going forward but not essential.
I like queller, but I also think it fits best in a Jeskai Delver/tempo style deck. I wouldn't want to overload on them for Nahiri. If you run 2 clique, I could see cutting one for queller.
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I like queller, but I also think it fits best in a Jeskai Delver/tempo style deck. I wouldn't want to overload on them for Nahiri. If you run 2 clique, I could see cutting one for queller.
Fair. I've been experimenting with x4 queller (in both a flash/non-nahiri build and nahiri build).
It works better in a pure draw-go style shell that's for sure. But I've been surprisingly impressed by the card.
The main challenge: due to the merge there really isn't a home for non-nahiri control decks (or less emphasis on Nahiri).
I've also tried cutting angels (for 3 nahiri) and an electrolyze for emmy. Not sure on that though. Thoughts welcomed.
Did anyone also notice how Gerry boards ? Never thought about cutting Emrakul or Nahiri or leaving in AV in those Match Ups. I can see that Gerry might be right, what is your oppinion ?
In general i'm used to cut the 3 AV and 1 CC bringing in 1 Skite, 2 EE and 1 Staticaster. I've never sided Emrakul, but for how the games tend to be against infect it could be a solution, usually we wait until we're safe enough to burn them out and beat with snap/colonnade. When you survive the first 3/4 turns tend to be a fairly easy match for us.
I did this the last time I played Modern at my local store, and it worked quite well - I won games 2 and 3 against Infect with Geist and Bolt/Helix providing a quick clock, backed up by spot removal. But of course, one good result isn't the same thing as it being a good idea in principle...
It's not amazing, but Geist can work. He tends to get a bad wrap for being a bad defender, which is true; however, a blocker tends to be underrated in these match-ups (especially a hexproof one). Case in point, I NEVER had trouble vs. Infect back when I played Jeskai midrange; it felt like a Bye, really. V-Clique, Resto, etc. all serve to gum up the board. They have NO way to remove creatures outside of niche cards like Twisted Image, and they run counters that don't affect creatures. They have to waste pump spells if they ever want to get around blockers. And getting a Geist on-board allows you to switch gears and start racing if the defend-the-queen plan fails.
Creatures aren't as effective against Burn.
I wouldn't go out of my way to board in these in against the two match-ups, but if you can find space then by all means stick him in. And once you're able to find a turn to switch gears and attack with Geist, he'll finish the match real quick.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
I think Geist is a house against burn, I cut the combo package entirely and bring in 3x Geist. You need a clock against burn otherwise they will just top deck enough burn to kill you eventually. Similarly the combo package is cut for infect - you dont need to combo - just remove/counter evertyhing and win with incidental damage from clique, snaps and Geists..
I think Geist is a house against burn, I cut the combo package entirely and bring in 3x Geist. You need a clock against burn otherwise they will just top deck enough burn to kill you eventually. Similarly the combo package is cut for infect - you dont need to combo - just remove/counter evertyhing and win with incidental damage from clique, snaps and Geists..
Hmmm...well I get your reasoning for wanting to bring Geist in, cause you gotta have a plan to end the game sooner rather than later. However I personally never tend to fully board out my Nahiri's. I sometimes shave 1, at most 2.
Can't forget that Nahiri is quite a useful card outside of the ultimate. Even if relatively expensive it she is still a versatile removal spell for various permanents (ex. Eidolon).
I mean how many cards are you bringing in? 3 Geists + 2-3 'things'. So lets just say 6 cards, which is a considerable amount. I'd start by removing my Remands, so thats 2 spots. Then I'd get rid of my Anger, so that's another. Then my AVs, which brings me to 6.
Sounds like you start with the combo, which is Nahiri + Emmy. This means you board out what...1 Remand?
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So, maybe a broader question... Against which decks do we take out the combo (Emrakul and 1-2 Nahiri [not all of them])...?
In general, decks where speed is an issue. Infect, Bushwhacker Zoo, Burn. I don't see the point of having the combo against any of those matchups. They all try to get out the gate faster than you and generally maintain a board presence. Once they're in top deck mode, it doesn't matter how you beat them, it's usually more a matter of finding any of your threats.
I also feel that leaving in Ancestral Vision was a little curious against Infect, especially when I watched that series of matches Gerry T. played. He never wanted it, and I'm pretty sure he never cast it. So why leave it in? Even Remand or Mana Leak would've had better value. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong.
For me personally against Tron and some variations of Scapeshift I keep the combo in.
Since Tron is so troublesome to go toe-to-toe with in the lategame I am pretty much keeping anything proactive that could possibly let me win faster. I usually end up shaving some bolts, helixes, and 1-2 AV to bring in Geist+Counters+Hate. Not having as much burn might seem counter-intuitive to what I just said, however you have to really commit to the burnout plan if you decide to target your opponents face in the early turns (which I don't like).
That aside I think boarding out Emrakul from time to time is completely reasonable. The card is virtually dead for the majority of games. Bring in a less cumbersome creature threat, and just use Nahiri for value.
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Ancestral Vision has been a big point of contention for Jeskai pilots. It's not obvious whether the card belongs in the maindeck, sideboard, as a two of, a three of, or even in the deck at all. After playing Ancestral in many different decks since its unban, I'm starting to agree with Patrick Chapin more and more.
That's why many have decided to move the card to the sideboard, but the issue there is that the deck is seriously missing some card advantage if the only consistent two-for-ones are a playset of Snapcaster in a world where Jund is the best deck. Not to mention, a Control deck with so little card draw is bound to lose games to even aggro decks when the opponent rips two spells in top deck mode while you're staring at two lands.
A compromise I've been testing out is a clean swap of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy over Ancestral Vision in the Gerry T style builds. The switch is definitely not without consequence. Jace, VP turns on the opponent's removal and is rarely going to reach that three-for-one ceiling of Ancestral. However, on the whole Jace fills this void more naturally than Ancestral Vision.
The reason Gerry T opted to go down to only 2 Colonnade was because with Bolts, Paths, Serum Vision, and Ancestral, the deck just has so much to do on T1 that it needs to cut a few tap lands. When it comes to T2 though, the deck lacks anything proactive to do (a similar problem non RUG Twin lists had). Consider that Snapcaster Mage is secretly a three drop, and you start to realize the popular Jeskai lists are glut with one and three mana plays, with a glaring hole at two.
Besides mana efficiency, Jace also offers so much more than raw card draw. While he's not able to do anything with the 6-7 counterspells main, shrinking attackers and flashing back removal or Timely plays perfectly into the plan A of protect Nahiri. The entire deck is built around protecting a planeswalker, not only does Jace compliment that, but as a planeswalker himself it's extremely valuable when your card advantage engine also has a game winning ultimate.
I encourage Jeskai pilots who are also underwhelmed with Ancestral, or those just looking for something new, to try 3-4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in your list and see how it goes. I've been happy with the switch, and I think you will too.
I haven't quite gone all in on the Jace VP plan, however I will say that I have always been impressed by my singleton Jace (I play 3 AV + 1 JVP).
Another cool thing is that you can grab Jace with Nahiri's ultimate, flip him right away, and then the PW won't be returned to your hand since it is technically a different 'object' than the creature side.
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Another cool thing is that you can grab Jace with Nahiri's ultimate, flip him right away, and then the PW won't be returned to your hand since it is technically a different 'object' than the creature side.
I think that is more because the card exiles itself then comes back, regardless of whether or not it transformed.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
Another cool thing is that you can grab Jace with Nahiri's ultimate, flip him right away, and then the PW won't be returned to your hand since it is technically a different 'object' than the creature side.
I think that is more because the card exiles itself then comes back, regardless of whether or not it transformed.
Yeah it is probably for a couple of different reasons. I admit to not having judge level knowledge, however I have done this in sanctioned tournaments before where my opponent checked with the judge and confirmed it works.
It got me out of a pretty sticky situation when I was playing against Lantern Control. Ensnaring Bridge makes Emrakul a no-go, so I had to figure out another way. Fortunately Jace ultimate circumvented all of that. Was a pretty epic game to be honest.
I still think AV has its place as the "best" form of raw card advantage that we could be running, however I think JVP is often overlooked because of the comparisons to Snapcaster Mage. Well to me it isn't either or, and it isn't as if our GY is under heavy use outside of the occasional Snap-back.
Permission sort of stinks with JVP, but we have enough spells that do other things. Even just Serum Visions is good value. In blue mirrors you can also target a counter to help force something through, or preemptively use Cryptic to bounce something.
I think going up to 3-4 might be too much, however I think people would be surprised at how well 1-2 work with the deck.
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I have been underwhelmed by AV in the past, but as of now, i could not imagine my deck without it.
The big thing that happened to me when i moved AV to SB, is that too many times you find yourself out of resources. And not just against attrition decks, also against Burn, Infect, Zoo, Affinity,etc. The mental excerise i made was to look at Mtggoldfish and see all Tier 1 Decks, you´ll notice those are mostly some form of aggro-combo-based Synergy archetypes.
Now the question is: Is AV vital in this matchups? I think no.
But, still, do you prefer having AV in your main deck or not? The upside of suspending it on turn 1 is so huge that i prefer having it, and also rejoy having this amazing grind tech against atrittion decks, which just basically jumps you deck from 50 50 to 60 40.
This is my line of thought and obviously my humble opinion.
Just my way of looking at it:
I'm currently playing visions sideboard, and against slower matchups, I do often find myself running out/low on resources.
The big thing for me, however, is that I'm still winning these games. (In every weekly tourney I've played with nahiri, I've got about a 75% winrate with just about the same 75.)
Nahiri/loothouse being able to churn away dead cards, or being able to force games forward with nahiri/colonnade is often enough for me.
I like having access to the visions, and in that regard sideboard is fine for me. If I expected to see a lot more mirrors/slower decks, then I might be more inclined to mainboard them, but the card is simply not as gamechanging as its made out to be. Its certainly strong, and three more cards isn't nothing, but its not what turns the deck from a pile into a tier 1 deck.
So, maybe a broader question... Against which decks do we take out the combo (Emrakul and 1-2 Nahiri [not all of them])...?
The easy answer is none. You never take out your combo. You can trim Nahiri vs super fast decks, but taking it out seems like a mistake to me.
People will disagree with me on this one but honestly I truely believe what Im saying is correct. This aint Splintertwin but Jeskai Harbinger. Any deck, even infect, zoo, and burn have to use resources on Nahiri if she hits The table that's why she is so powerfull!
Actually they don't. Tron can remove Nahiri with Ugin on turn 4 on the play or just keep an Oblivion Stone on the board at the ready. Infect can just blow you out with man-lands and keep you looking for answers. Zoo and Burn don't have to use all their tools to keep Nahiri down. The only people the Nahiri bait fools are bad players in my experience. If you're the beatdown, you should know that you're the beatdown and act appropriately.
These are my sideboard plans against the top 10 decks;
Jund
-1 lightning helix
-1 anger of the gods
-2 remand
+1 vendilion clique
+1 celestial purge
+1 timely reinforcements
+1 engineered explosives
I cut remand as I feel delaying jund a turn does not end up doing much. Clique comes in as an alternate wincon and helps against Liliana somewhat which I feel is the card to beat. EE isn't that great but helps against random hate and can kill a goyf in a pinch
Affinity
-3 mana leak
-2 remand
-1 timely reinforcements
+1 stony silence
+1 engineered explosives
+1 anger of the gods
+1 wear // tear
+1 izzet staticaster
+1 vendilion clique
Timely comes out as they don't have many relevant ground threats. Clique can trade with a flyer making it better than what I take out but it's not that great
Jeskai Nahiri
-4 path to exile
-1 lightning bolt
-1 anger of the gods
-1 timely reinforcements
-1 supreme verdict
+1 izzet staticaster
+2 geist of saint traft
+1 vendilion clique
+1 celestial purge
+1 dispel
+2 negate
I take out all 4 paths , I don't feel keeping them in just for colonnade is worth it. Staticaster also can make Colonnade boltable and removes the CA of snaps and cliques but is kind of questionable. Supreme Verdict stays in (over staticaster) if I see geist, bringing it in blind seems poor
Infect
-1 mana leak
-2 remand
-1 anger of the gods
-1 timely reinforcements
+1 engineered explosives
+1 izzet staticaster
+1 vendilion clique
+1 dispel
+1 wear // tear
I leave in spell snare as even though it doesn't have many targets, the targets it does have are very relevant and being mana efficient is just very important
RG Tron
-4 lightning bolt
-2 lightning helix
-1 anger of the gods
-1 supreme verdict
-1 timely reinforcements
+2 geist of saint traft
+1 vendilion clique
+1 stony silence
+2 negate
+1 wear // tear
+2 crumble to dust
I completely take out the burn plan; I don't think it's worth it when many tron players bring in more wincons including Thragtusk
Burn
-1 vendilion clique
-2 remand
-1 ancestral vision
-1 supreme verdict
+1 celestial purge
+1 dispel
+2 negate
+1 timely reinforcements
I leave in a lot of cards I don't like, I feel the vision spells are all too slow and I'd prefer to have some more cards versus burn but there's always too little sideboard space
Merfolk
-1 vendilion clique
-3 mana leak
-2 remand
+1 engineered explosives
+1 izzet staticaster
+1 stony silence
+1 wear // tear
+1 anger of the gods
+1 timely reinforcements
I'm not sure whether I want clique or stony silence; I always dislike the nonbo of EE and stony and I don't feel vial is the card to beat as I take out almost all coutnermagic anyways. It's nice versus relic of progenitus though
Abzan Coco
-1 vendilion clique
-2 remand
+1 izzet staticaster
+1 dispel
+1 anger of the gods
I don't have much to bring in here. I'm not sure whether Spell Snare or Remand is better; maybe I should bring in Negate over it as coco and chord are the cards to beat. Engineered Explosives has always been kind of crappy so I don't bring it in
Death's Shadow
-1 vendilion clique
-2 remand
-1 anger of the gods
-1 timely reinforcements
+1 engineered explosives
+1 celestial purge
+1 dispel
+2 geist of saint traft
I have a lot of nearly useless cards against death's shadow so I bring in geist just as a single swing tends to kill them. Spell Snare stays in as even though it has almost no targets it does hit battlerage which is their best card
Bant Eldrazi
-2 remand
-2 spell snare
+1 engineered explosives
+1 vendilion clique
+1 anger of the gods
+1 timely reinforcements
+1 izzet staticaster
bant eldrazi is such a weird deck, it's like midrange but secretly aggro but it comes a turn too late to be aggro? Lots of poor cards against them, Remand stays in even though they have 4 cavern, maybe I could just put in geist instead but that seems lousy as well
Some of your sideboard plans seem really strange to me. Boarding out Mana Leak against Affinity and Infect seems weird. What's Engineered Explosives supposed to do against Jund? As much as you plan to board Timely Reinforcements out, you may as well just leave it in the sideboard or just cut it.
Actually they don't. Tron can remove Nahiri with Ugin on turn 4 on the play or just keep an Oblivion Stone on the board at the ready. Infect can just blow you out with man-lands and keep you looking for answers. Zoo and Burn don't have to use all their tools to keep Nahiri down. The only people the Nahiri bait fools are bad players in my experience. If you're the beatdown, you should know that you're the beatdown and act appropriately.
I don't disagree with your point; when you're the aggressor, you need to figure out which option will win the game (dealing with Nahiri or just smashing face -- sometimes, smashing face and ignoring her is fine).
I will say though, I don't actually mind if they don't "fall for the bait," because this lets me keep Nahiri around longer; she's still a rummager that can dig towards the blowout cards I need (Anger, Snapcaster, Path, etc.). Every turn she lives is an extra card deeper into my deck (and a potential blowout win out of nowhere). It's kind of a win-win either way. The only exception is if my life total hits 0.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
I think your deck is fine against Jund. I would look for a slot for something like Geist or Clique.
I think a graveyard card is also reasonable going forward but not essential.
Legacy: UW RiP/Helm, UR Sneak and Show
Fair. I've been experimenting with x4 queller (in both a flash/non-nahiri build and nahiri build).
It works better in a pure draw-go style shell that's for sure. But I've been surprisingly impressed by the card.
The main challenge: due to the merge there really isn't a home for non-nahiri control decks (or less emphasis on Nahiri).
I've also tried cutting angels (for 3 nahiri) and an electrolyze for emmy. Not sure on that though. Thoughts welcomed.
3x Celestial Colonnade
1x Desolate Lighthouse
4x Flooded Strand
1x Hallowed Fountain
3x Island
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Snow-Covered Mountain
2x Steam Vents
2x Sulfur Falls
2x Electrolyze
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
2x Mana Leak
4x Path to Exile
4x Remand
1x Cryptic Command
4x serum visions
3x Restoration Angel
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Spell Queller
2x Vendilion Clique
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Vintage: NA
I'm still trying to figure out sideboarding, but is it reasonable to bring in Geist of Saint Traft vs. Burn / Infect to try to close out the game quickly when there is an opening? For example, cutting one or two Nahiri, the Harbinger and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn for two Geist of Saint Traft (and other sideboard cards).
I did this the last time I played Modern at my local store, and it worked quite well - I won games 2 and 3 against Infect with Geist and Bolt/Helix providing a quick clock, backed up by spot removal. But of course, one good result isn't the same thing as it being a good idea in principle...
Creatures aren't as effective against Burn.
I wouldn't go out of my way to board in these in against the two match-ups, but if you can find space then by all means stick him in. And once you're able to find a turn to switch gears and attack with Geist, he'll finish the match real quick.
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
Hmmm...well I get your reasoning for wanting to bring Geist in, cause you gotta have a plan to end the game sooner rather than later. However I personally never tend to fully board out my Nahiri's. I sometimes shave 1, at most 2.
Can't forget that Nahiri is quite a useful card outside of the ultimate. Even if relatively expensive it she is still a versatile removal spell for various permanents (ex. Eidolon).
I mean how many cards are you bringing in? 3 Geists + 2-3 'things'. So lets just say 6 cards, which is a considerable amount. I'd start by removing my Remands, so thats 2 spots. Then I'd get rid of my Anger, so that's another. Then my AVs, which brings me to 6.
Sounds like you start with the combo, which is Nahiri + Emmy. This means you board out what...1 Remand?
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)In general, decks where speed is an issue. Infect, Bushwhacker Zoo, Burn. I don't see the point of having the combo against any of those matchups. They all try to get out the gate faster than you and generally maintain a board presence. Once they're in top deck mode, it doesn't matter how you beat them, it's usually more a matter of finding any of your threats.
I also feel that leaving in Ancestral Vision was a little curious against Infect, especially when I watched that series of matches Gerry T. played. He never wanted it, and I'm pretty sure he never cast it. So why leave it in? Even Remand or Mana Leak would've had better value. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong.
Since Tron is so troublesome to go toe-to-toe with in the lategame I am pretty much keeping anything proactive that could possibly let me win faster. I usually end up shaving some bolts, helixes, and 1-2 AV to bring in Geist+Counters+Hate. Not having as much burn might seem counter-intuitive to what I just said, however you have to really commit to the burnout plan if you decide to target your opponents face in the early turns (which I don't like).
That aside I think boarding out Emrakul from time to time is completely reasonable. The card is virtually dead for the majority of games. Bring in a less cumbersome creature threat, and just use Nahiri for value.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)A compromise I've been testing out is a clean swap of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy over Ancestral Vision in the Gerry T style builds. The switch is definitely not without consequence. Jace, VP turns on the opponent's removal and is rarely going to reach that three-for-one ceiling of Ancestral. However, on the whole Jace fills this void more naturally than Ancestral Vision.
The reason Gerry T opted to go down to only 2 Colonnade was because with Bolts, Paths, Serum Vision, and Ancestral, the deck just has so much to do on T1 that it needs to cut a few tap lands. When it comes to T2 though, the deck lacks anything proactive to do (a similar problem non RUG Twin lists had). Consider that Snapcaster Mage is secretly a three drop, and you start to realize the popular Jeskai lists are glut with one and three mana plays, with a glaring hole at two.
Besides mana efficiency, Jace also offers so much more than raw card draw. While he's not able to do anything with the 6-7 counterspells main, shrinking attackers and flashing back removal or Timely plays perfectly into the plan A of protect Nahiri. The entire deck is built around protecting a planeswalker, not only does Jace compliment that, but as a planeswalker himself it's extremely valuable when your card advantage engine also has a game winning ultimate.
I encourage Jeskai pilots who are also underwhelmed with Ancestral, or those just looking for something new, to try 3-4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in your list and see how it goes. I've been happy with the switch, and I think you will too.
Another cool thing is that you can grab Jace with Nahiri's ultimate, flip him right away, and then the PW won't be returned to your hand since it is technically a different 'object' than the creature side.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)I think that is more because the card exiles itself then comes back, regardless of whether or not it transformed.
Yeah it is probably for a couple of different reasons. I admit to not having judge level knowledge, however I have done this in sanctioned tournaments before where my opponent checked with the judge and confirmed it works.
It got me out of a pretty sticky situation when I was playing against Lantern Control. Ensnaring Bridge makes Emrakul a no-go, so I had to figure out another way. Fortunately Jace ultimate circumvented all of that. Was a pretty epic game to be honest.
I still think AV has its place as the "best" form of raw card advantage that we could be running, however I think JVP is often overlooked because of the comparisons to Snapcaster Mage. Well to me it isn't either or, and it isn't as if our GY is under heavy use outside of the occasional Snap-back.
Permission sort of stinks with JVP, but we have enough spells that do other things. Even just Serum Visions is good value. In blue mirrors you can also target a counter to help force something through, or preemptively use Cryptic to bounce something.
I think going up to 3-4 might be too much, however I think people would be surprised at how well 1-2 work with the deck.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)The big thing that happened to me when i moved AV to SB, is that too many times you find yourself out of resources. And not just against attrition decks, also against Burn, Infect, Zoo, Affinity,etc. The mental excerise i made was to look at Mtggoldfish and see all Tier 1 Decks, you´ll notice those are mostly some form of aggro-combo-based Synergy archetypes.
Now the question is: Is AV vital in this matchups? I think no.
But, still, do you prefer having AV in your main deck or not? The upside of suspending it on turn 1 is so huge that i prefer having it, and also rejoy having this amazing grind tech against atrittion decks, which just basically jumps you deck from 50 50 to 60 40.
This is my line of thought and obviously my humble opinion.
I'm currently playing visions sideboard, and against slower matchups, I do often find myself running out/low on resources.
The big thing for me, however, is that I'm still winning these games. (In every weekly tourney I've played with nahiri, I've got about a 75% winrate with just about the same 75.)
Nahiri/loothouse being able to churn away dead cards, or being able to force games forward with nahiri/colonnade is often enough for me.
I like having access to the visions, and in that regard sideboard is fine for me. If I expected to see a lot more mirrors/slower decks, then I might be more inclined to mainboard them, but the card is simply not as gamechanging as its made out to be. Its certainly strong, and three more cards isn't nothing, but its not what turns the deck from a pile into a tier 1 deck.
Actually they don't. Tron can remove Nahiri with Ugin on turn 4 on the play or just keep an Oblivion Stone on the board at the ready. Infect can just blow you out with man-lands and keep you looking for answers. Zoo and Burn don't have to use all their tools to keep Nahiri down. The only people the Nahiri bait fools are bad players in my experience. If you're the beatdown, you should know that you're the beatdown and act appropriately.
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
2 Lightning Helix
2 Spell Snare
2 Remand
4 Serum Visions
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Ancestral Vision
1 Timely Reinforcements
3 Mana Leak
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Flooded Strand
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
3 Arid Mesa
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Negate
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Crumble to Dust
1 Celestial Purge
1 Wear // Tear
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Stony Silence
1 Dispel
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Geist of Saint Traft
These are my sideboard plans against the top 10 decks;
Jund
-1 lightning helix
-1 anger of the gods
-2 remand
+1 vendilion clique
+1 celestial purge
+1 timely reinforcements
+1 engineered explosives
I cut remand as I feel delaying jund a turn does not end up doing much. Clique comes in as an alternate wincon and helps against Liliana somewhat which I feel is the card to beat. EE isn't that great but helps against random hate and can kill a goyf in a pinch
Affinity
-3 mana leak
-2 remand
-1 timely reinforcements
+1 stony silence
+1 engineered explosives
+1 anger of the gods
+1 wear // tear
+1 izzet staticaster
+1 vendilion clique
Timely comes out as they don't have many relevant ground threats. Clique can trade with a flyer making it better than what I take out but it's not that great
Jeskai Nahiri
-4 path to exile
-1 lightning bolt
-1 anger of the gods
-1 timely reinforcements
-1 supreme verdict
+1 izzet staticaster
+2 geist of saint traft
+1 vendilion clique
+1 celestial purge
+1 dispel
+2 negate
I take out all 4 paths , I don't feel keeping them in just for colonnade is worth it. Staticaster also can make Colonnade boltable and removes the CA of snaps and cliques but is kind of questionable. Supreme Verdict stays in (over staticaster) if I see geist, bringing it in blind seems poor
Infect
-1 mana leak
-2 remand
-1 anger of the gods
-1 timely reinforcements
+1 engineered explosives
+1 izzet staticaster
+1 vendilion clique
+1 dispel
+1 wear // tear
I leave in spell snare as even though it doesn't have many targets, the targets it does have are very relevant and being mana efficient is just very important
RG Tron
-4 lightning bolt
-2 lightning helix
-1 anger of the gods
-1 supreme verdict
-1 timely reinforcements
+2 geist of saint traft
+1 vendilion clique
+1 stony silence
+2 negate
+1 wear // tear
+2 crumble to dust
I completely take out the burn plan; I don't think it's worth it when many tron players bring in more wincons including Thragtusk
Burn
-1 vendilion clique
-2 remand
-1 ancestral vision
-1 supreme verdict
+1 celestial purge
+1 dispel
+2 negate
+1 timely reinforcements
I leave in a lot of cards I don't like, I feel the vision spells are all too slow and I'd prefer to have some more cards versus burn but there's always too little sideboard space
Merfolk
-1 vendilion clique
-3 mana leak
-2 remand
+1 engineered explosives
+1 izzet staticaster
+1 stony silence
+1 wear // tear
+1 anger of the gods
+1 timely reinforcements
I'm not sure whether I want clique or stony silence; I always dislike the nonbo of EE and stony and I don't feel vial is the card to beat as I take out almost all coutnermagic anyways. It's nice versus relic of progenitus though
Abzan Coco
-1 vendilion clique
-2 remand
+1 izzet staticaster
+1 dispel
+1 anger of the gods
I don't have much to bring in here. I'm not sure whether Spell Snare or Remand is better; maybe I should bring in Negate over it as coco and chord are the cards to beat. Engineered Explosives has always been kind of crappy so I don't bring it in
Death's Shadow
-1 vendilion clique
-2 remand
-1 anger of the gods
-1 timely reinforcements
+1 engineered explosives
+1 celestial purge
+1 dispel
+2 geist of saint traft
I have a lot of nearly useless cards against death's shadow so I bring in geist just as a single swing tends to kill them. Spell Snare stays in as even though it has almost no targets it does hit battlerage which is their best card
Bant Eldrazi
-2 remand
-2 spell snare
+1 engineered explosives
+1 vendilion clique
+1 anger of the gods
+1 timely reinforcements
+1 izzet staticaster
bant eldrazi is such a weird deck, it's like midrange but secretly aggro but it comes a turn too late to be aggro? Lots of poor cards against them, Remand stays in even though they have 4 cavern, maybe I could just put in geist instead but that seems lousy as well
advice would be greatly appreciated
I don't disagree with your point; when you're the aggressor, you need to figure out which option will win the game (dealing with Nahiri or just smashing face -- sometimes, smashing face and ignoring her is fine).
I will say though, I don't actually mind if they don't "fall for the bait," because this lets me keep Nahiri around longer; she's still a rummager that can dig towards the blowout cards I need (Anger, Snapcaster, Path, etc.). Every turn she lives is an extra card deeper into my deck (and a potential blowout win out of nowhere). It's kind of a win-win either way. The only exception is if my life total hits 0.