Hmm, Lightning Angel isn't high impact enough, it's just trading one 3/4 for another. Thundermaw is 5 so he's more than I'm looking for here. I'll think about Ajani, both of his abilities keep the way clear and the ultimate beats certain decks in the local meta. Hero of Bladehold sounds great. 4 mana for 7 power, and more if I have something else on the board. Maybe I'll try 1 and 1 for now until I figure out which I would prefer.
So, if anyone has gotten this far in the post... are there any suggestions in place of Restoration Angel? The obvious swap to me is for a dragon but I don't want a 5 mana dragon when Colonnade is already 5, so I would prefer to stick to some sort of high impact 4 drop.
Congratulations for your performance. You've faced some T1 decks, and did pretty well. Mistakes/misplays can happen to anyone (Amulet Bloom in the finals of GP Omaha for instance!) so don't worry to much regarding that.
Answering your request of 3-4CMC threats, try Ajani Vengeant. He's been awesome to me, gaining life or simply win the match with his ultimate. Later online i've faced some decks using Monastery Mentor, and it seems to work very well. It's another card you can test, the tokens with prowess can be menacing (way more than YP).
Hi guys im runnin this list, but i just bought 2x Vendillion Clique and 3x Cryptic Command so i want to change the deck for that, what should i replace for that?
Modern: RW R/W Burn WB B/W TokensXU MonuU Tron // UWX UW Tron R GoblinsW Soul SistersRWG Small ZooWUR WUR Geist/Control/Kiki-Resto Combo/NahiriUR Splinter Twin (90% Japanese)/ Grixis TwinRUB UR Delver / Grixis Delver UR Blue MoonBWU Ad NauseamWDeath and TaxesRUB Grixis ControlUMerfolksX Affinity RGB Living End UR Storm/PiF Combo RGX R/G TRON GWU Bant Eldrazi BW Eldrazi and Taxes RUBGoryos Vengeance UB Faeries Legacy:BRx Renimator Playing right now:Standard: Jeskai Control Modern; GoryosVengeance/UBFaeries/Affinity Legacy: BRx Reanimator Pauper: UR Drake (banned) Commander: Merieke Ri Berit Esper
Hi guys im runnin this list, but i just bought 2x Vendillion Clique and 3x Cryptic Command so i want to change the deck for that, what should i replace for that?
Guys please opinions on japanese cards. Lost a 3/3 creature against Japan celestial colonade. This guy played all creatures and spells in english cards, but some cards in his manabase was japanese. I dont registrated this really ( my brain say its all fine and all english to me lets attack his empty board)...and i am sure it is a Kind of legal cheating. It is not ok, but i know legal. I Hate such people. I never forget colonade normally, but with this Tricks it can happen one time in 3 years and such people take advantage of this
If I am a customer spending premium amount of dollars, I expect a premium service. Jund falls into the category of a premium deck costing more dollars than a majority of the rest of the format. I'm not getting the desired performance ratio per dollars spent out of the Jund deck because WOTC decided to make the format more diverse.
So, if anyone has gotten this far in the post... are there any suggestions in place of Restoration Angel? The obvious swap to me is for a dragon but I don't want a 5 mana dragon when Colonnade is already 5, so I would prefer to stick to some sort of high impact 4 drop.
Congratulations for your performance. You've faced some T1 decks, and did pretty well. Mistakes/misplays can happen to anyone (Amulet Bloom in the finals of GP Omaha for instance!) so don't worry to much regarding that.
Answering your request of 3-4CMC threats, try Ajani Vengeant. He's been awesome to me, gaining life or simply win the match with his ultimate. Later online i've faced some decks using Monastery Mentor, and it seems to work very well. It's another card you can test, the tokens with prowess can be menacing (way more than YP).
Best Regards.
I've been thinking about Ajani Vengeant and I'm going to give him a try. He can come down on turn 4 and clear a path for Geist, he's solid against Burn, and he just helps control the board in general. Plus there's a lot of U Tron running around locally and he's not too bad there either. My main concern is that he's too low pressure which ultimately makes me even more reliant on Geist. I'm also going to give Hero of Bladehold a try, I'm a little more optimistic there but Hero has it's own issues.
Monastery Mentor I've already dismissed, I've been trying to find a home for it, but it's the sort of card that needs a high velocity of spells and we don't really have that. I think that card makes more sense in a list that uses Probe, Visions, and so on.
Hi guys im runnin this list, but i just bought 2x Vendillion Clique and 3x Cryptic Command so i want to change the deck for that, what should i replace for that?
I agree with the above poster with most of the suggestions. 3 Angel's is probably too many since you're adding in more 4 drops. Helix loses value when you're on the counterspell plan, it's a better card when it's killing things so that's another pretty natural cut. 2 5 drops is probably crowding things a bit so I would cut either the dragon or the Batterskull for the third spot.
Where I disagree is the Mana Leak. If you're looking to run 11 counterspells and another 13 removal spells I think you can afford to shave a Path instead. Most 1 drops aren't much of a threat and your plan is to stop things from resolving rather than killing them once they do.
The only other suggestion I have is to maybe try 1 Logic Knot over a Mana Leak. I've liked going that route myself because unlike Leak it's not dead in the late game. As a tradeoff you lose the ability to counter a 1 drop on turn 2 but that's usually only relevant against Zoo and Bogles in my experience. It's also nice that Path doesn't work against them.
Hi guys im runnin this list, but i just bought 2x Vendillion Clique and 3x Cryptic Command so i want to change the deck for that, what should i replace for that?
Could probably cut 1 angel, 1 helix, 1 leak, and move batterskull to the side to accommodate 2 cliques and 2 cryptics
My metagame its full of aggro, 2-3 burn, 1-2 zoo, 1-2 stompy, 1 auras, 1-2 affinitys, etc ...
What you recommend me for that?
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Modern: RW R/W Burn WB B/W TokensXU MonuU Tron // UWX UW Tron R GoblinsW Soul SistersRWG Small ZooWUR WUR Geist/Control/Kiki-Resto Combo/NahiriUR Splinter Twin (90% Japanese)/ Grixis TwinRUB UR Delver / Grixis Delver UR Blue MoonBWU Ad NauseamWDeath and TaxesRUB Grixis ControlUMerfolksX Affinity RGB Living End UR Storm/PiF Combo RGX R/G TRON GWU Bant Eldrazi BW Eldrazi and Taxes RUBGoryos Vengeance UB Faeries Legacy:BRx Renimator Playing right now:Standard: Jeskai Control Modern; GoryosVengeance/UBFaeries/Affinity Legacy: BRx Reanimator Pauper: UR Drake (banned) Commander: Merieke Ri Berit Esper
My metagame its full of aggro, 2-3 burn, 1-2 zoo, 1-2 stompy, 1 auras, 1-2 affinitys, etc ...
What you recommend me for that?
That is not the metagame where you want to be casting Cryptic Command or even Mana Leak. Those are all decks that can go underneath your counterspells which leads you going into turn 3 or 4 with a hand of do nothings against your opponents board. If you want to deal with big undercost creatures or aggressive decks try my list. You give up some points against combo and control (you're not favored in either, though I do seem to beat Scapeshift) but if that's not a big player in your meta, then it's not a problem.
Going through the old games in my lifepad (goes back a couple weeks) I'm
3-0 (6-2) Bogles
4-1 (7-4) Burn
3-1 (6-3) Assorted aggro
1-0 (2-1) Affinity
yes, cryptic may be too heavy costed in aggro meta, but ive seen some control/scapeshift players tapping all creatures and draw/bounce just for buy time to draw supreme veredict or something like that
I remember playin soul sisters against scapeshift and playing 3 cryptics for tapping me and drawn, then got 6-7 lands and win ... cryptic buy him 3 turns for get combo, its a great card
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Modern: RW R/W Burn WB B/W TokensXU MonuU Tron // UWX UW Tron R GoblinsW Soul SistersRWG Small ZooWUR WUR Geist/Control/Kiki-Resto Combo/NahiriUR Splinter Twin (90% Japanese)/ Grixis TwinRUB UR Delver / Grixis Delver UR Blue MoonBWU Ad NauseamWDeath and TaxesRUB Grixis ControlUMerfolksX Affinity RGB Living End UR Storm/PiF Combo RGX R/G TRON GWU Bant Eldrazi BW Eldrazi and Taxes RUBGoryos Vengeance UB Faeries Legacy:BRx Renimator Playing right now:Standard: Jeskai Control Modern; GoryosVengeance/UBFaeries/Affinity Legacy: BRx Reanimator Pauper: UR Drake (banned) Commander: Merieke Ri Berit Esper
Cryptics as a mechanism to buy time in order to get an answer can work, but you're not really drawing to anything in this deck. The tap function works best as a way to clear the path for your Geist to hit for lethal. The control player in me likes always having an out that I can draw to like Verdict but that's not something you're running, the aggro player in me (which I prefer as Geist) prefers to keep the curve lower and focus on making the opponent answer me rather than vice versa. The way to beat aggro right now isn't to accept being the control deck, it's to make your opponent take the slower reactive role which they're ill suited for.
I agree. with that sort of meta, engineered explosives out of the side can give you so many free wins.
Mainboard you probably want to max out on removal. 4 bolt, 4 path, 4 helix. Going up to 3 electrolyze and 3 spell snare could be good as there's a lot of 2 cmc stuff to hit.
I would also keep the restoration angel count at 3.
Guys please opinions on japanese cards. Lost a 3/3 creature against Japan celestial colonade. This guy played all creatures and spells in english cards, but some cards in his manabase was japanese. I dont registrated this really ( my brain say its all fine and all english to me lets attack his empty board)...and i am sure it is a Kind of legal cheating. It is not ok, but i know legal. I Hate such people. I never forget colonade normally, but with this Tricks it can happen one time in 3 years and such people take advantage of this
If I am a customer spending premium amount of dollars, I expect a premium service. Jund falls into the category of a premium deck costing more dollars than a majority of the rest of the format. I'm not getting the desired performance ratio per dollars spent out of the Jund deck because WOTC decided to make the format more diverse.
Hi guys im runnin this list, but i just bought 2x Vendillion Clique and 3x Cryptic Command so i want to change the deck for that, what should i replace for that?
Similar to others above I'd suggest:
-1 Path to Exile
-1 Lightning Helix
-1 Restoration Angel
-1 Batterskull (move to SB)
Your build is pretty good as is vs an aggro/burn meta. You might consider just adding clique by cutting a resto and moving Batterskull and keeping the 4th path and helix. I myself prefer having a more solid late game with cryptic and Sphinx which helps if you do not get the aggressive Geist draw. Partly that is to due with my meta being more combo heavy. My list is posted higher on the previous page for reference (as it's somewhat similar to yours if you add cryptic).
thanks for advices! i will try 2 cryptic now for 1 resto and 1 mana leak until arrive 2 vendillion
my meta its a low-cost aggro based decks, a lot of people are starting playing modern from standart so they play cheap as can
this its bad because all good decks of the LGS cant beat this meta, Burn and Auras are winnin all tournaments which its sad because of WUR Midrange, WUR Control, Junk, Abzan, Titan Bloom, Splinter and some others Tier 1 decks that are in my LGS cant deal vs Burn-Auras-Stompy-Affinity tournament, 3-4 aggro decks every week ... this meta sucks
Im going to anocher LGS for play agianst anothers kinds of decks
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Modern: RW R/W Burn WB B/W TokensXU MonuU Tron // UWX UW Tron R GoblinsW Soul SistersRWG Small ZooWUR WUR Geist/Control/Kiki-Resto Combo/NahiriUR Splinter Twin (90% Japanese)/ Grixis TwinRUB UR Delver / Grixis Delver UR Blue MoonBWU Ad NauseamWDeath and TaxesRUB Grixis ControlUMerfolksX Affinity RGB Living End UR Storm/PiF Combo RGX R/G TRON GWU Bant Eldrazi BW Eldrazi and Taxes RUBGoryos Vengeance UB Faeries Legacy:BRx Renimator Playing right now:Standard: Jeskai Control Modern; GoryosVengeance/UBFaeries/Affinity Legacy: BRx Reanimator Pauper: UR Drake (banned) Commander: Merieke Ri Berit Esper
thanks for advices! i will try 2 cryptic now for 1 resto and 1 mana leak until arrive 2 vendillion
my meta its a low-cost aggro based decks, a lot of people are starting playing modern from standart so they play cheap as can
this its bad because all good decks of the LGS cant beat this meta, Burn and Auras are winnin all tournaments which its sad because of WUR Midrange, WUR Control, Junk, Abzan, Titan Bloom, Splinter and some others Tier 1 decks that are in my LGS cant deal vs Burn-Auras-Stompy-Affinity tournament, 3-4 aggro decks every week ... this meta sucks
Im going to anocher LGS for play agianst anothers kinds of decks
Tiers are relative to the tournament scene they're playing in. If you're playing locally and your tier 1 deck can't win, then it's not tier 1. It can also mean your opponents are picking better decks for the metagame than you are. I was talking about this earlier in the metagame thread. Netdecking is fine for a low time investment way to get a functional deck but you always have to consider the metagame you're playing in. Articles are usually tuned to the previous GP or Open metagame, and sometimes to a future metagame. Local metagames can be and often are very different and being able to recognize the shifts and change from the stock list where necessary proves you're adaptable as a player.
When going against low cost aggro decks for example you probably want to attack their mana (the most common mistake players make especially in budget decks is poor mana). That means not color fixing them with Path (I might consider hedging with Condemn), aggressively using your Tectonic Edges, and if they're not mono red Blood Moon. Like we mentioned earlier Engineered Explosives is a great way to blow up a board of aggressive creatures. The first step to beating them isn't to say this meta sucks or trying to avoid them (avoiding a match is a great way to lose to that match when it matters most, because if they're a good player you'll meet in the finals), it's to respect their kill and look for ways around it.
thanks for advices! i will try 2 cryptic now for 1 resto and 1 mana leak until arrive 2 vendillion
my meta its a low-cost aggro based decks, a lot of people are starting playing modern from standart so they play cheap as can
this its bad because all good decks of the LGS cant beat this meta, Burn and Auras are winnin all tournaments which its sad because of WUR Midrange, WUR Control, Junk, Abzan, Titan Bloom, Splinter and some others Tier 1 decks that are in my LGS cant deal vs Burn-Auras-Stompy-Affinity tournament, 3-4 aggro decks every week ... this meta sucks
Im going to anocher LGS for play agianst anothers kinds of decks
Sideboarding cards like Timely Reinforcements and Anger of The Gods should dramatically improve your matchups post board vs aggressive decks. If bogles is common, then Celestial Flare and Hallowed Burial are also good to consider. You could even consider mainboarding some of these cards if they are pretty much the only matchups you see. Similar to what Azadan mentioned, Engineered Explosives is good card to consider, and very mainboardable since it is versatile and therefore not often a dead card in other matchups. If you run any main it might be worth it to also have an Academy Ruins to buy it back in place of 1x tectonic edge or ghost quarter. Just be mindful that Stoney Silence will turn off your own Explosives.
Kiki does not belong in a deck with Geist. The shell that wants Kiki is fundamentally a control oriented strategy with a combo finish. On the other hand Geist midrange is fundamentally an aggressive deck with tempo/control elements. In otherwords, Geist decks want to deploy their threat early and then keep their opponent off balance long enough to finish them off. While on the other hand, a deck with Kiki wants to establish control early , get value off things like Wall of Omens, and then have access to a combo game winner to close it out quickly.
The Kiki plan resembles more of a Splinter Twin style strategy. In fact, I'd say it's just a worse version of Twin. It's main advantage was that it was unexpected, as prior to it being used UWr was primarily hard control, using colonnades to finish job. People were not expecting and therefore did not play around the combo. The cats out of the bag at this point.
Either way, Thundermaw (or Stormbreath for that matter) fills a different role in a Geist deck. They are a mid/late game finisher. They come in to finish the job after a Geist has pushed through a bit of damage. The main draw to Thundermaw is that he kills lingering souls tokens and taps down flyers, which allows you to swing through with the Dragon as well as Resto and Geist (the angel).
Sideboarding cards like Timely Reinforcements and Anger of The Gods should dramatically improve your matchups post board vs aggressive decks. If bogles is common, then Celestial Flare and Hallowed Burial are also good to consider. You could even consider mainboarding some of these cards if they are pretty much the only matchups you see. Similar to what Azadan mentioned, Engineered Explosives is good card to consider, and very mainboardable since it is versatile and therefore not often a dead card in other matchups. If you run any main it might be worth it to also have an Academy Ruins to buy it back in place of 1x techtonic edge or ghost quarter. Just be mindful that Stoney Silence will turn off your own Explosives.
Yep, I MB 2 Celestial Flare and they are amazing. I started running them for Bogles but they have more applications than that. G1 they kill a Goyf without accelerating your opponent. They kill a Tasigur. They kill an opposing Geist. They kill a Siege Rhino. They kill a Germ. All without turning off your Mana Leaks.
Their big weakness is that WW is a very real cost. For example I would never want to run Flare in the same list as Cryptic, and even cards like Counterflux become really awkward if you're trying to curve out. That said, I have never lost a game to Bogles that I've cast one. Depending on the list, adding the B for Crackling Doom can be less of a cost than the WW is.
Sideboarding cards like Timely Reinforcements and Anger of The Gods should dramatically improve your matchups post board vs aggressive decks. If bogles is common, then Celestial Flare and Hallowed Burial are also good to consider. You could even consider mainboarding some of these cards if they are pretty much the only matchups you see. Similar to what Azadan mentioned, Engineered Explosives is good card to consider, and very mainboardable since it is versatile and therefore not often a dead card in other matchups. If you run any main it might be worth it to also have an Academy Ruins to buy it back in place of 1x techtonic edge or ghost quarter. Just be mindful that Stoney Silence will turn off your own Explosives.
Yep, I MB 2 Celestial Flare and they are amazing. I started running them for Bogles but they have more applications than that. G1 they kill a Goyf without accelerating your opponent. They kill a Tasigur. They kill an opposing Geist. They kill a Siege Rhino. They kill a Germ. All without turning off your Mana Leaks.
Their big weakness is that WW is a very real cost. For example I would never want to run Flare in the same list as Cryptic, and even cards like Counterflux become really awkward if you're trying to curve out. That said, I have never lost a game to Bogles that I've cast one. Depending on the list, adding the B for Crackling Doom can be less of a cost than the WW is.
Unfortunately the card in really bad against Lingering Souls which is a 3-4 of in the lists that run a lot of the cards you named (Goyf, Rhino, Germ, Tasigur). Celestial Flare is a very weak maindeck card and I really couldn't see myself even sideboarding it in a bogles heavy meta, there are just too many cards with much higher power levels than this card.
Does anyone like the new alternative to Cryptic Command - Ojutai's Command? Return Snapcaster or Wall of Omens to battlefield + draw a card? Can't bounce permanents or tap creatures, though, and the counter is only creature spells. Life gain can come in handy against burn/aggro.
Unfortunately the card in really bad against Lingering Souls which is a 3-4 of in the lists that run a lot of the cards you named (Goyf, Rhino, Germ, Tasigur). Celestial Flare is a very weak maindeck card and I really couldn't see myself even sideboarding it in a bogles heavy meta, there are just too many cards with much higher power levels than this card.
It is, but Lingering Souls isn't overwhelmingly popular in every meta. Most local metas do not follow the trends of the professional circuit. Even this past SCG Open didn't follow the meta trends of the PT or GP Vancouver. Every card is bad against something, and one of the jobs when tuning a deck to a particular meta is to look at what cards are good/bad where.
In a meta like blacklotus mentioned playing in it's a very strong main deck card. In others it's not. Personally, I like having versatile removal. I might give Crackling Doom a try next time though... as I mentioned before the WW is quite restrictive.
Does anyone like the new alternative to Cryptic Command - Ojutai's Command? Return Snapcaster or Wall of Omens to battlefield + draw a card? Can't bounce permanents or tap creatures, though, and the counter is only creature spells. Life gain can come in handy against burn/aggro.
I'm having a real hard time seeing why I would ever play this over Cryptic. It's not like we have so many free 4 drop slots that you can play both.
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Congratulations for your performance. You've faced some T1 decks, and did pretty well. Mistakes/misplays can happen to anyone (Amulet Bloom in the finals of GP Omaha for instance!) so don't worry to much regarding that.
Answering your request of 3-4CMC threats, try Ajani Vengeant. He's been awesome to me, gaining life or simply win the match with his ultimate. Later online i've faced some decks using Monastery Mentor, and it seems to work very well. It's another card you can test, the tokens with prowess can be menacing (way more than YP).
Best Regards.
UR TwinLegacy
UWR Miracles4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Restoration Angel
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
3 Remand
3 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
2 Electrolyze
1 Batterskull
Lands
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Tectonic Edge
RW R/W Burn WB B/W TokensXU MonuU Tron // UWX UW Tron
R GoblinsW Soul SistersRWG Small ZooWUR WUR Geist/Control/Kiki-Resto Combo/NahiriUR Splinter Twin (90% Japanese)/ Grixis TwinRUB UR Delver / Grixis Delver UR Blue MoonBWU Ad NauseamWDeath and TaxesRUB Grixis ControlUMerfolksX Affinity RGB Living End UR Storm/PiF Combo RGX R/G TRON GWU Bant Eldrazi BW Eldrazi and Taxes RUBGoryos Vengeance UB Faeries
Legacy:BRx Renimator
Playing right now: Standard: Jeskai Control Modern; GoryosVengeance/UBFaeries/Affinity Legacy: BRx Reanimator Pauper: UR Drake (banned) Commander: Merieke Ri Berit Esper
Could probably cut 1 angel, 1 helix, 1 leak, and move batterskull to the side to accommodate 2 cliques and 2 cryptics
I've been thinking about Ajani Vengeant and I'm going to give him a try. He can come down on turn 4 and clear a path for Geist, he's solid against Burn, and he just helps control the board in general. Plus there's a lot of U Tron running around locally and he's not too bad there either. My main concern is that he's too low pressure which ultimately makes me even more reliant on Geist. I'm also going to give Hero of Bladehold a try, I'm a little more optimistic there but Hero has it's own issues.
Monastery Mentor I've already dismissed, I've been trying to find a home for it, but it's the sort of card that needs a high velocity of spells and we don't really have that. I think that card makes more sense in a list that uses Probe, Visions, and so on.
I agree with the above poster with most of the suggestions. 3 Angel's is probably too many since you're adding in more 4 drops. Helix loses value when you're on the counterspell plan, it's a better card when it's killing things so that's another pretty natural cut. 2 5 drops is probably crowding things a bit so I would cut either the dragon or the Batterskull for the third spot.
Where I disagree is the Mana Leak. If you're looking to run 11 counterspells and another 13 removal spells I think you can afford to shave a Path instead. Most 1 drops aren't much of a threat and your plan is to stop things from resolving rather than killing them once they do.
The only other suggestion I have is to maybe try 1 Logic Knot over a Mana Leak. I've liked going that route myself because unlike Leak it's not dead in the late game. As a tradeoff you lose the ability to counter a 1 drop on turn 2 but that's usually only relevant against Zoo and Bogles in my experience. It's also nice that Path doesn't work against them.
My metagame its full of aggro, 2-3 burn, 1-2 zoo, 1-2 stompy, 1 auras, 1-2 affinitys, etc ...
What you recommend me for that?
RW R/W Burn WB B/W TokensXU MonuU Tron // UWX UW Tron
R GoblinsW Soul SistersRWG Small ZooWUR WUR Geist/Control/Kiki-Resto Combo/NahiriUR Splinter Twin (90% Japanese)/ Grixis TwinRUB UR Delver / Grixis Delver UR Blue MoonBWU Ad NauseamWDeath and TaxesRUB Grixis ControlUMerfolksX Affinity RGB Living End UR Storm/PiF Combo RGX R/G TRON GWU Bant Eldrazi BW Eldrazi and Taxes RUBGoryos Vengeance UB Faeries
Legacy:BRx Renimator
Playing right now: Standard: Jeskai Control Modern; GoryosVengeance/UBFaeries/Affinity Legacy: BRx Reanimator Pauper: UR Drake (banned) Commander: Merieke Ri Berit Esper
That is not the metagame where you want to be casting Cryptic Command or even Mana Leak. Those are all decks that can go underneath your counterspells which leads you going into turn 3 or 4 with a hand of do nothings against your opponents board. If you want to deal with big undercost creatures or aggressive decks try my list. You give up some points against combo and control (you're not favored in either, though I do seem to beat Scapeshift) but if that's not a big player in your meta, then it's not a problem.
Going through the old games in my lifepad (goes back a couple weeks) I'm
3-0 (6-2) Bogles
4-1 (7-4) Burn
3-1 (6-3) Assorted aggro
1-0 (2-1) Affinity
I remember playin soul sisters against scapeshift and playing 3 cryptics for tapping me and drawn, then got 6-7 lands and win ... cryptic buy him 3 turns for get combo, its a great card
RW R/W Burn WB B/W TokensXU MonuU Tron // UWX UW Tron
R GoblinsW Soul SistersRWG Small ZooWUR WUR Geist/Control/Kiki-Resto Combo/NahiriUR Splinter Twin (90% Japanese)/ Grixis TwinRUB UR Delver / Grixis Delver UR Blue MoonBWU Ad NauseamWDeath and TaxesRUB Grixis ControlUMerfolksX Affinity RGB Living End UR Storm/PiF Combo RGX R/G TRON GWU Bant Eldrazi BW Eldrazi and Taxes RUBGoryos Vengeance UB Faeries
Legacy:BRx Renimator
Playing right now: Standard: Jeskai Control Modern; GoryosVengeance/UBFaeries/Affinity Legacy: BRx Reanimator Pauper: UR Drake (banned) Commander: Merieke Ri Berit Esper
Instead of Cryptics you probably want to be using Engineered Explosives.
Mainboard you probably want to max out on removal. 4 bolt, 4 path, 4 helix. Going up to 3 electrolyze and 3 spell snare could be good as there's a lot of 2 cmc stuff to hit.
I would also keep the restoration angel count at 3.
Similar to others above I'd suggest:
-1 Path to Exile
-1 Lightning Helix
-1 Restoration Angel
-1 Batterskull (move to SB)
Your build is pretty good as is vs an aggro/burn meta. You might consider just adding clique by cutting a resto and moving Batterskull and keeping the 4th path and helix. I myself prefer having a more solid late game with cryptic and Sphinx which helps if you do not get the aggressive Geist draw. Partly that is to due with my meta being more combo heavy. My list is posted higher on the previous page for reference (as it's somewhat similar to yours if you add cryptic).
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
my meta its a low-cost aggro based decks, a lot of people are starting playing modern from standart so they play cheap as can
this its bad because all good decks of the LGS cant beat this meta, Burn and Auras are winnin all tournaments which its sad because of WUR Midrange, WUR Control, Junk, Abzan, Titan Bloom, Splinter and some others Tier 1 decks that are in my LGS cant deal vs Burn-Auras-Stompy-Affinity tournament, 3-4 aggro decks every week ... this meta sucks
Im going to anocher LGS for play agianst anothers kinds of decks
RW R/W Burn WB B/W TokensXU MonuU Tron // UWX UW Tron
R GoblinsW Soul SistersRWG Small ZooWUR WUR Geist/Control/Kiki-Resto Combo/NahiriUR Splinter Twin (90% Japanese)/ Grixis TwinRUB UR Delver / Grixis Delver UR Blue MoonBWU Ad NauseamWDeath and TaxesRUB Grixis ControlUMerfolksX Affinity RGB Living End UR Storm/PiF Combo RGX R/G TRON GWU Bant Eldrazi BW Eldrazi and Taxes RUBGoryos Vengeance UB Faeries
Legacy:BRx Renimator
Playing right now: Standard: Jeskai Control Modern; GoryosVengeance/UBFaeries/Affinity Legacy: BRx Reanimator Pauper: UR Drake (banned) Commander: Merieke Ri Berit Esper
WUBR [url=http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/06-04-17-ad-nauseam/]Ad Nauseam WUBR
Tiers are relative to the tournament scene they're playing in. If you're playing locally and your tier 1 deck can't win, then it's not tier 1. It can also mean your opponents are picking better decks for the metagame than you are. I was talking about this earlier in the metagame thread. Netdecking is fine for a low time investment way to get a functional deck but you always have to consider the metagame you're playing in. Articles are usually tuned to the previous GP or Open metagame, and sometimes to a future metagame. Local metagames can be and often are very different and being able to recognize the shifts and change from the stock list where necessary proves you're adaptable as a player.
When going against low cost aggro decks for example you probably want to attack their mana (the most common mistake players make especially in budget decks is poor mana). That means not color fixing them with Path (I might consider hedging with Condemn), aggressively using your Tectonic Edges, and if they're not mono red Blood Moon. Like we mentioned earlier Engineered Explosives is a great way to blow up a board of aggressive creatures. The first step to beating them isn't to say this meta sucks or trying to avoid them (avoiding a match is a great way to lose to that match when it matters most, because if they're a good player you'll meet in the finals), it's to respect their kill and look for ways around it.
Sideboarding cards like Timely Reinforcements and Anger of The Gods should dramatically improve your matchups post board vs aggressive decks. If bogles is common, then Celestial Flare and Hallowed Burial are also good to consider. You could even consider mainboarding some of these cards if they are pretty much the only matchups you see. Similar to what Azadan mentioned, Engineered Explosives is good card to consider, and very mainboardable since it is versatile and therefore not often a dead card in other matchups. If you run any main it might be worth it to also have an Academy Ruins to buy it back in place of 1x tectonic edge or ghost quarter. Just be mindful that Stoney Silence will turn off your own Explosives.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Kiki does not belong in a deck with Geist. The shell that wants Kiki is fundamentally a control oriented strategy with a combo finish. On the other hand Geist midrange is fundamentally an aggressive deck with tempo/control elements. In otherwords, Geist decks want to deploy their threat early and then keep their opponent off balance long enough to finish them off. While on the other hand, a deck with Kiki wants to establish control early , get value off things like Wall of Omens, and then have access to a combo game winner to close it out quickly.
The Kiki plan resembles more of a Splinter Twin style strategy. In fact, I'd say it's just a worse version of Twin. It's main advantage was that it was unexpected, as prior to it being used UWr was primarily hard control, using colonnades to finish job. People were not expecting and therefore did not play around the combo. The cats out of the bag at this point.
Either way, Thundermaw (or Stormbreath for that matter) fills a different role in a Geist deck. They are a mid/late game finisher. They come in to finish the job after a Geist has pushed through a bit of damage. The main draw to Thundermaw is that he kills lingering souls tokens and taps down flyers, which allows you to swing through with the Dragon as well as Resto and Geist (the angel).
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Yep, I MB 2 Celestial Flare and they are amazing. I started running them for Bogles but they have more applications than that. G1 they kill a Goyf without accelerating your opponent. They kill a Tasigur. They kill an opposing Geist. They kill a Siege Rhino. They kill a Germ. All without turning off your Mana Leaks.
Their big weakness is that WW is a very real cost. For example I would never want to run Flare in the same list as Cryptic, and even cards like Counterflux become really awkward if you're trying to curve out. That said, I have never lost a game to Bogles that I've cast one. Depending on the list, adding the B for Crackling Doom can be less of a cost than the WW is.
Unfortunately the card in really bad against Lingering Souls which is a 3-4 of in the lists that run a lot of the cards you named (Goyf, Rhino, Germ, Tasigur). Celestial Flare is a very weak maindeck card and I really couldn't see myself even sideboarding it in a bogles heavy meta, there are just too many cards with much higher power levels than this card.
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
It is, but Lingering Souls isn't overwhelmingly popular in every meta. Most local metas do not follow the trends of the professional circuit. Even this past SCG Open didn't follow the meta trends of the PT or GP Vancouver. Every card is bad against something, and one of the jobs when tuning a deck to a particular meta is to look at what cards are good/bad where.
In a meta like blacklotus mentioned playing in it's a very strong main deck card. In others it's not. Personally, I like having versatile removal. I might give Crackling Doom a try next time though... as I mentioned before the WW is quite restrictive.
I'm having a real hard time seeing why I would ever play this over Cryptic. It's not like we have so many free 4 drop slots that you can play both.