I'm a Twin player trying to find a new home and I'm going to be giving this list a try. I feel it has good game against aggressive decks and fingers-crossed combo for Tron. Haven't been able to test much against Eldrazi, but I feel like the long list of must-kill threats helps. It has a lot of elements of the Twin deck, in the sense that I can attack from several angles depending on board state and game state. No idea if it will ACTUALLY be good, but if the meta gets flooded with non-interactive linear decks, it should be good. I don't know how I feel about Blood Moon in the side. I have two and ran two in Twin, but I don't know how effective it would be in hurting the other deck without also hurting myself. There are definitely slots to move things around.
I'm a Twin player trying to find a new home and I'm going to be giving this list a try. I feel it has good game against aggressive decks and fingers-crossed combo for Tron. Haven't been able to test much against Eldrazi, but I feel like the long list of must-kill threats helps. It has a lot of elements of the Twin deck, in the sense that I can attack from several angles depending on board state and game state. No idea if it will ACTUALLY be good, but if the meta gets flooded with non-interactive linear decks, it should be good. I don't know how I feel about Blood Moon in the side. I have two and ran two in Twin, but I don't know how effective it would be in hurting the other deck without also hurting myself. There are definitely slots to move things around.
Why do you think Jace will work in this deck - its pretty poor with counterspells - id advise against Jace..
It will draw early removal away from later Kikis and works great with Bolt, Helix, and Serum Visions. Already running 4 Snaps, so worst case, it's Snap 5-8. What would replace it?
I'm not sure you have enough spot removal to allow Geist to connect and playing with less than 4x Geist is dicey - id replace Jace with more spot removal and another Geist. I think 4x PtE is mandatory..
Shaun McLaren posted an SCG Premium article with UWr Kiki list, UWr Control list, and UWr Geist Hybrid list in it. Since the Hybrid list really fits best in this thread, I'll go ahead and post it, but if anyone wants me to put of the others, I will.
He didn't post a sideboard with it, but I feel like your standard Geist sideboard could work well with it. Thoughts? I feel like the list wants an Eiganjo Castle (but I just love that card) or it wants to not run the full 4 Geists, since it has other ways to win anyway. Maybe another Ajani and Keranos, and cut the Geists to a 2-of?
Interesting list @JulsSkogs. My biggest question would be, why 3 Wandering Fumarole vs. 2 Celestial Colonnade? Any testing or rationale behind the decision?
Also, -1 Lightning Helix and +1 Electrolyze compared to most lists. And Spell Pierce in the 1-of slot over Spell Snare. If the lack of 4 drops is some sort of concession to a more aggressive meta, I can't imagine losing Lightning Helix in the process is good. Spell Pierce makes sense, especially because cards like Spell Snare can be dead against Bx Eldrazi and Tron, where Spell Pierce is very live.
I too agree that Eiganjo Castle is lacking in the list, but if he plans to cast Cryptic Command on T4, then 20/24 blue sources might be his cutoff point. 19/24 might be wrong, especially if he doesn't run any double-white spells like Elspeth, Knight-Errant.
I could see a Geist Hybrid Control list with a shell like this:
I imagine those are the absolute necessities when building the control version, but I personally think the tempo version might be better suited for the meta. It can be more aggressive against the decks that try to go big (Tron, Bx Eldrazi, other control decks) as well as the decks that get aggressive. The thing I find weird about a control version of Geist is that a big appeal of UWr is its access to cards like Supreme Verdict or Sphinx's Revelation. I do think Shaun McLaren knows what he's talking about most of the time so I imagine what he's saying has some merit to it. Currently, I'm less intrigued by the spell choice and more intrigued by the manabase.
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Interesting list @JulsSkogs. My biggest question would be, why 3 Wandering Fumarole vs. 2 Celestial Colonnade? Any testing or rationale behind the decision?
Also, -1 Lightning Helix and +1 Electrolyze compared to most lists. And Spell Pierce in the 1-of slot over Spell Snare. If the lack of 4 drops is some sort of concession to a more aggressive meta, I can't imagine losing Lightning Helix in the process is good. Spell Pierce makes sense, especially because cards like Spell Snare can be dead against Bx Eldrazi and Tron, where Spell Pierce is very live.
I too agree that Eiganjo Castle is lacking in the list, but if he plans to cast Cryptic Command on T4, then 20/24 blue sources might be his cutoff point. 19/24 might be wrong, especially if he doesn't run any double-white spells like Elspeth, Knight-Errant.
I could see a Geist Hybrid Control list with a shell like this:
I imagine those are the absolute necessities when building the control version, but I personally think the tempo version might be better suited for the meta. It can be more aggressive against the decks that try to go big (Tron, Bx Eldrazi, other control decks) as well as the decks that get aggressive. The thing I find weird about a control version of Geist is that a big appeal of UWr is its access to cards like Supreme Verdict or Sphinx's Revelation. I do think Shaun McLaren knows what he's talking about most of the time so I imagine what he's saying has some merit to it. Currently, I'm less intrigued by the spell choice and more intrigued by the manabase.
HE listed Fumarole as a good way to pressure an opposing Lili, which I agree with. I feel as though the 4 v. 5 animation cost can be pretty big. To me, this list seems to be a UWr Control list with 4 Geist, rather than a Geist list with UWr Control elements, which i thin give reasoning to some of his choices, such as Ajani and Cryptic being his chosen 4 drop. Resto is more of a midrange card, and if it is included in Control lists, it is intended as a 4 drop flash threat, not necessarily a value creature. I'm not sure how I feel about the Helix:Electrolyze split, but I feel as though drawing a card off Electrolyze is important. I still think Castle is a worthwhile inclusion. The lack of Rev is intriguing, though I'm not surprised by not including Verdict, since this list is slightly more creature heavy.
A Jeskai Control list that recently got 1st at an SCG Invitational Qualifier. I think this decklist could be a nice discussion point because it doesn't really resemble a classic control list all that much (no Cryptic Command, Supreme Verdict, or Sphinx's Revelation). It actually just looks like a Geist-less midrange list.
2) Of course, I am still sticking to the Geist plan. With Geist of Saint Traft in mind, I think Ajani Vengeant could easily be replaced with something like Elspeth, Knight-Errant to provide an aggressive outlet Game 1 against decks that gum up the ground.
3) The manabase also shows a 3-1 split with Celestial Colonnade and Wandering Fumarole which seems really cool. Wandering Fumarole, as discussed above, puts a lot more pressure on cards like Liliana of the Veil and also costs 1 less to active which could be useful if you haven't hit your 6th mana yet.
4) Still, with Geist in mind, I think the counterspell suite and removal suite could also be played around with in the list above. Also, in an aggressive meta, I don't think we need more than 1 Vendilion Clique, just because it is really bad against Affinity, Merfolk, Burn, and Zoo all of which seem to be overrepresented in the current meta.
5) I think Remand, even in an aggressive meta, is an all-star, buying us time to actually play our 3-4 drop spells and helping us hit our threats or land drops. I also think Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, and Mana Leak are all great in the current meta too, as is Electrolyze.
Overall, I think the decklist above exemplifies what we need to be doing in our midrange lists. All of our cards need to provide immediate or near-immediate value when they hit the board (Pia and Kiran Nalaar, planeswalkers, Restoration Angel's utility in many situations, Geist of Saint Traft providing pressure and being hard to remove, Lightning Angel hitting for 3 the turn it comes down, etc etc etc).
In my list in my signature, I think I'll be testing the switches below in the current meta:
I think the sideboard in the list above way overcompensates for the Tron/Bx Eldrazi matchups with 3 Crumble to Dust and 2 Blood Moon. Considering the meta seems to be shifting to become more aggressive, I think this is our time to shine, where Tron doesn't make it far enough in the tournament and we can prey on the creature decks. I still think we need some sort of answers to Tron and them in the SB (Molten Rain being aggressive and a tempo play, Crumble to Dust shutting down Tron or Eye of Ugin in Bx Eldrazi, Aven Mindcensor potentially for some search hate).
Overall, we should be dedicating sideboard slots to handling aggressive decks in the form of cheap, interactive counterspells in the form of Dispel, Spell Pierce, and Spell Snare, board sweeps in the form of Engineered Explosives, Anger of the Gods, and even Supreme Verdict. Similarly, utility cards are still going to be great, such as Wear // Tear or Celestial Purge. Izzet Staticaster may be a ridiculous all-star in the current meta because it actually puts x/4's in bolt range while sweeping up the pesky x/1's. I wouldn't leave home without one in the sideboard.
I'll be doing some testing soon and see how it goes. Will definitely come back and let you all know how it goes and I would love feedback and thoughts on the stuff I mentioned above.
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I've been delving into meta reports left and right post the twin bannings to find out how best to attack this new meta. But this new meta, if anything looks to reward the UWR colors. Eldrazi and Tron got a huge boost in potency with their number one threat dissolved. Initially I thought this meant doom for Jeskai. However, early indications are the opposite. To beat Eldrazi and Tron, decks are getting faster then they were before. Decks no longer have fear of tapping out turn 3 and instead are pushing more threats out then before. Infect, Merfolk, Affinity, Delver, and Zoo are on the rise. These are decks that die to lots of removal. 4x bolt, 4x helix, 4x path, x electrolyze, x board wipes, etc is the answer in this open meta as it stops all of the fast decks. Remand, mana leak, and spell pierce hurt decks that go larger than we do. So that means turn 3 geist (which usually is the best possible play for us) is now more possible then ever before.
I was looking at building a list that sped UWR up. Instead of building it as control, building it as burn/aggro with control elements. This meant adding boros charm which is fantastic at finishing off opponents or protecting geist from pyroclasm. Either way (protecting geist or 4 to the face) it deals 4 or more damage the following turn. Boros charm, snap, boros charm is 8 damage to the face. The fact that it kills Liliana after a +1 is gravy.
The problem I have found with boros charm is that it does not impact the board. It does not interact with the early aggression creatures in the least. It does not kill wild nacatl or a merfolk lord or an ornithopter. But it is very good against tron and eldrazi because it can help finish games quickly. Stormchaser Mage would be the best card alongside boros charm. But again, I'm not sure that it fits. I'm not sure it's good enough. I'm in love with the idea of a deck that can out control affinity and infect and out burn eldrazi and tron. That's why I like jeskai. But finding that balance has been difficult so far. That said, Slip Through Space has been a pet idea with a geist of saint traft and prowess deck.
Card ideas:
This is the base of an idea that I have not quite full fleshed out yet. I intend to be faster than Tron/Eldrazi (since controlling them only works so far), and have enough removal to stop aggro.
Stormchaser Mage is an interesting card. I'm not sure how much it will do outside of Standard but Prowess is a powerful mechanic, especially with haste and evasion.
Jeskai is definitely well positioned after the bans. I'm still tweaking my deck which is based around Snapcaster / Monastery Mentor with Bolt / Path / Helix / Electrolyze. The rest of the deck is kind of up in the air but I've been favouring cantrips a lot.
I think Stormchaser Mage is a good card, but I don't know how well it lends itself the the Geist oriented midrange shell, and I think it's more of an aggro card. That being said, I do have my playset, and will be testing out the card
That's what my above she'll is trying to be, but without the 4 drops. Geist is better than mantis rider. Stormchaser dodges bolt with open mana which is the only reason I listed it. This she'll would still be powerful against removal while being very proactive and aggressive. Being blue would allow it to shift with the sideboard into negates and mana leak for control.
Geist is a 3 Turn clock. That is why this could work.
Geist is only a clock if it's unblocked. If it's blocked you need to fire removal to negate that. Mantis Rider also has haste, so you get 3 damage from it the turn you drop it unlike Geist. Geist is generally better, but not always. Mantis Rider is also a much better blocker. The reason Mantis Rider doesn't see play is just because it dies to Bolt but that's not the be all and end all in an aggressive deck. By not needing to use mana to clear the board for Geist you can also just throw burn at their face which is what a deck full of evasion would want to do.
Sometimes geist is just a three mana delayed boros charm to the face. Sometimes that's all I have needed it to be. And while that is certainly the worst it is, it's still not terrible. Especially when you need to deal 20 fast.
That's what my above she'll is trying to be, but without the 4 drops. Geist is better than mantis rider. Stormchaser dodges bolt with open mana which is the only reason I listed it. This she'll would still be powerful against removal while being very proactive and aggressive. Being blue would allow it to shift with the sideboard into negates and mana leak for control.
Geist is a 3 Turn clock. That is why this could work.
I've thought about putting together a list for Stormchaser, but my plan was to include 4 Stormchasers, 4x Riders, and probably 2 Geists. Geist will allow you to grind, but isn't capable of all-out aggro in most cases.
Geist is only a clock if it's unblocked. If it's blocked you need to fire removal to negate that. Mantis Rider also has haste, so you get 3 damage from it the turn you drop it unlike Geist. Geist is generally better, but not always. Mantis Rider is also a much better blocker. The reason Mantis Rider doesn't see play is just because it dies to Bolt but that's not the be all and end all in an aggressive deck. By not needing to use mana to clear the board for Geist you can also just throw burn at their face which is what a deck full of evasion would want to do.
You are correct in stating that Geist is only a clock if he remains unblocked, but that isn't hard to do at all. You'd still be playing Bolts/Helices/Paths in a Stormchaser list, as well as things like Boros Charm which can save your Geist in combat.
I'm beginning to think that the Eldrazi matchup is far more winnable that I/we first thought. At least it has been for me. Molten Rain is just really good against them, especially when paired with Clique/Remand.
I agree about the Eldrazi matchup. It requires critical sideboard cards, but my opponent scooped to an on the play T2 Stony Silence into a T3 Molten Rain on an Eldrazi Temple. I honestly want to up the Molten Rain count to 3 in my sideboard but it is not the most applicable card in other matchups.
Stormchaser Mage is interesting but that is definitely more along the lines of URW aggro, most likely with Delver of Secrets, Monastery Swiftspear, Young Pyromancer if you're feeling frisky, and some amounts of Snapcaster Mage, Geist of Saint Traft, Mantis Rider, and an assortment of other spells to back them up. I do think that it is a different archetype entirely than the midrange plan, though. No 4-drops and no full playset of Geist of Saint Traft, along with the more aggressive creatures, makes the deck play very differently. What I like about UWR Midrange is that we tend to blank a lot of the removal spells our opponents have, especially the burn-based ones.
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I honestly think 3 Molten Rain is fine. It's a good card against A LOT of decks. You can cut burn off of one of their splash colors a lot of the time, Jund and Grixis are both very greedy mana wise, it gets Inkmoth Nexus, obviously the Tron and Eldrazi lands, manlands, etc. I think it's very good, and may just play 3 at Regionals.
Sometimes geist is just a three mana delayed boros charm to the face. Sometimes that's all I have needed it to be. And while that is certainly the worst it is, it's still not terrible. Especially when you need to deal 20 fast.
As much as I love Geist I don't run it often any more. I run mostly spells and 4 Snapcasters and I find Monastery Mentor is a bigger bomb with that. One deck I do use Geist in is Esper Midrange funnily enough but that's because hand hate lets you target their creatures and Shizo, Death's Storehouse is some weird tech I've developed to stop it dying from a Snapcaster getting blinked in.
Why do you think Jace will work in this deck - its pretty poor with counterspells - id advise against Jace..
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Bant Eldrazi
UW Control
U Merfolk
Legacy
Merfolk
UR Delver
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Ajani Vengeant
2 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
1 Spell Pierce
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Arid Mesa
2 Celestial Colonnade
3 Flooded Strand
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Wandering Fumarole
He didn't post a sideboard with it, but I feel like your standard Geist sideboard could work well with it. Thoughts? I feel like the list wants an Eiganjo Castle (but I just love that card) or it wants to not run the full 4 Geists, since it has other ways to win anyway. Maybe another Ajani and Keranos, and cut the Geists to a 2-of?
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
The lack of Restoration Angel or any 4-drop other than Ajani Vengeant is also also interesting. I guess Cryptic Command is his 4-drop of choice. Not to say Ajani Vengeant is bad or anything, but is Restoration Angel really not good in the current meta without Twin?
Also, -1 Lightning Helix and +1 Electrolyze compared to most lists. And Spell Pierce in the 1-of slot over Spell Snare. If the lack of 4 drops is some sort of concession to a more aggressive meta, I can't imagine losing Lightning Helix in the process is good. Spell Pierce makes sense, especially because cards like Spell Snare can be dead against Bx Eldrazi and Tron, where Spell Pierce is very live.
I too agree that Eiganjo Castle is lacking in the list, but if he plans to cast Cryptic Command on T4, then 20/24 blue sources might be his cutoff point. 19/24 might be wrong, especially if he doesn't run any double-white spells like Elspeth, Knight-Errant.
I could see a Geist Hybrid Control list with a shell like this:
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Cryptic Command
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
I imagine those are the absolute necessities when building the control version, but I personally think the tempo version might be better suited for the meta. It can be more aggressive against the decks that try to go big (Tron, Bx Eldrazi, other control decks) as well as the decks that get aggressive. The thing I find weird about a control version of Geist is that a big appeal of UWr is its access to cards like Supreme Verdict or Sphinx's Revelation. I do think Shaun McLaren knows what he's talking about most of the time so I imagine what he's saying has some merit to it. Currently, I'm less intrigued by the spell choice and more intrigued by the manabase.
HE listed Fumarole as a good way to pressure an opposing Lili, which I agree with. I feel as though the 4 v. 5 animation cost can be pretty big. To me, this list seems to be a UWr Control list with 4 Geist, rather than a Geist list with UWr Control elements, which i thin give reasoning to some of his choices, such as Ajani and Cryptic being his chosen 4 drop. Resto is more of a midrange card, and if it is included in Control lists, it is intended as a 4 drop flash threat, not necessarily a value creature. I'm not sure how I feel about the Helix:Electrolyze split, but I feel as though drawing a card off Electrolyze is important. I still think Castle is a worthwhile inclusion. The lack of Rev is intriguing, though I'm not surprised by not including Verdict, since this list is slightly more creature heavy.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
3 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalkers (1):
1 Ajani Vengeant
Lands (25):
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Polluted Delta
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Wandering Fumarole
1 Anticipate
1 Dispel
1 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
4 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
2 Remand
1 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Blood Moon
2 Stony Silence
1 Celestial Purge
2 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Wear
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Crumble to Dust
A Jeskai Control list that recently got 1st at an SCG Invitational Qualifier. I think this decklist could be a nice discussion point because it doesn't really resemble a classic control list all that much (no Cryptic Command, Supreme Verdict, or Sphinx's Revelation). It actually just looks like a Geist-less midrange list.
Some thoughts below:
1) I love the maindeck Pia and Kiran Nalaar in the current meta. According to the most recent SCG Open Modern event, it was filled with Delver, Zoo, Affinity, Merfolk, and Jund. This is not indicative of the entire metagame, but I imagine Pia and Kiran Nalaar can be really useful in the current meta over other 4-drops I've played lately, such as Lightning Angel. Also, with an increase in Pia and Kiran Nalaar, at least 3 Restoration Angel makes a lot of sense, giving Restoration Angel a lot of late-game value with both Snapcaster Mage and Pia and Kiran Nalaar.
2) Of course, I am still sticking to the Geist plan. With Geist of Saint Traft in mind, I think Ajani Vengeant could easily be replaced with something like Elspeth, Knight-Errant to provide an aggressive outlet Game 1 against decks that gum up the ground.
3) The manabase also shows a 3-1 split with Celestial Colonnade and Wandering Fumarole which seems really cool. Wandering Fumarole, as discussed above, puts a lot more pressure on cards like Liliana of the Veil and also costs 1 less to active which could be useful if you haven't hit your 6th mana yet.
4) Still, with Geist in mind, I think the counterspell suite and removal suite could also be played around with in the list above. Also, in an aggressive meta, I don't think we need more than 1 Vendilion Clique, just because it is really bad against Affinity, Merfolk, Burn, and Zoo all of which seem to be overrepresented in the current meta.
5) I think Remand, even in an aggressive meta, is an all-star, buying us time to actually play our 3-4 drop spells and helping us hit our threats or land drops. I also think Spell Pierce, Spell Snare, and Mana Leak are all great in the current meta too, as is Electrolyze.
Overall, I think the decklist above exemplifies what we need to be doing in our midrange lists. All of our cards need to provide immediate or near-immediate value when they hit the board (Pia and Kiran Nalaar, planeswalkers, Restoration Angel's utility in many situations, Geist of Saint Traft providing pressure and being hard to remove, Lightning Angel hitting for 3 the turn it comes down, etc etc etc).
In my list in my signature, I think I'll be testing the switches below in the current meta:
Out:
-2 Lightning Angel
-1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
In:
+2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
+1 Restoration Angel
Similarly, some lands should probably be switched around. I'll be playing around with:
Out:
-2 Celestial Colonnade
In:
+1 Wandering Fumarole
+1 Needle Spires
And it is very possible that I will find Needle Spires to be absolute junk and it will be accordingly replaced with a Celestial Colonnade again or another Wandering Fumarole.
I think the sideboard in the list above way overcompensates for the Tron/Bx Eldrazi matchups with 3 Crumble to Dust and 2 Blood Moon. Considering the meta seems to be shifting to become more aggressive, I think this is our time to shine, where Tron doesn't make it far enough in the tournament and we can prey on the creature decks. I still think we need some sort of answers to Tron and them in the SB (Molten Rain being aggressive and a tempo play, Crumble to Dust shutting down Tron or Eye of Ugin in Bx Eldrazi, Aven Mindcensor potentially for some search hate).
Overall, we should be dedicating sideboard slots to handling aggressive decks in the form of cheap, interactive counterspells in the form of Dispel, Spell Pierce, and Spell Snare, board sweeps in the form of Engineered Explosives, Anger of the Gods, and even Supreme Verdict. Similarly, utility cards are still going to be great, such as Wear // Tear or Celestial Purge. Izzet Staticaster may be a ridiculous all-star in the current meta because it actually puts x/4's in bolt range while sweeping up the pesky x/1's. I wouldn't leave home without one in the sideboard.
I'll be doing some testing soon and see how it goes. Will definitely come back and let you all know how it goes and I would love feedback and thoughts on the stuff I mentioned above.
I was looking at building a list that sped UWR up. Instead of building it as control, building it as burn/aggro with control elements. This meant adding boros charm which is fantastic at finishing off opponents or protecting geist from pyroclasm. Either way (protecting geist or 4 to the face) it deals 4 or more damage the following turn. Boros charm, snap, boros charm is 8 damage to the face. The fact that it kills Liliana after a +1 is gravy.
The problem I have found with boros charm is that it does not impact the board. It does not interact with the early aggression creatures in the least. It does not kill wild nacatl or a merfolk lord or an ornithopter. But it is very good against tron and eldrazi because it can help finish games quickly.
Stormchaser Mage would be the best card alongside boros charm. But again, I'm not sure that it fits. I'm not sure it's good enough. I'm in love with the idea of a deck that can out control affinity and infect and out burn eldrazi and tron. That's why I like jeskai. But finding that balance has been difficult so far. That said, Slip Through Space has been a pet idea with a geist of saint traft and prowess deck.
Card ideas:
delver of secrets
stormchaser mage
geist of saint traft
snapcaster mage
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Helix
Path to Exile
Electrolyze
Boros Charm
Remand
Slip Through Space
Serum Visions
Lingering Souls
Side:
Negate
Spell Pierce
Stony Silence
crumble to dust
engineered explosives
wear // tear
celestial purge
dispel
Painful Truths
Keranos, god of the storms
This is the base of an idea that I have not quite full fleshed out yet. I intend to be faster than Tron/Eldrazi (since controlling them only works so far), and have enough removal to stop aggro.
Thoughts?
Jeskai is definitely well positioned after the bans. I'm still tweaking my deck which is based around Snapcaster / Monastery Mentor with Bolt / Path / Helix / Electrolyze. The rest of the deck is kind of up in the air but I've been favouring cantrips a lot.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
Stormchaser
Mantis Rider
Lightning Angel
Take a stack of Lightning Bolt / Helix type spells and basically be a slightly slower more durable RDW
Geist is a 3 Turn clock. That is why this could work.
I've thought about putting together a list for Stormchaser, but my plan was to include 4 Stormchasers, 4x Riders, and probably 2 Geists. Geist will allow you to grind, but isn't capable of all-out aggro in most cases.
You are correct in stating that Geist is only a clock if he remains unblocked, but that isn't hard to do at all. You'd still be playing Bolts/Helices/Paths in a Stormchaser list, as well as things like Boros Charm which can save your Geist in combat.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
Stormchaser Mage is interesting but that is definitely more along the lines of URW aggro, most likely with Delver of Secrets, Monastery Swiftspear, Young Pyromancer if you're feeling frisky, and some amounts of Snapcaster Mage, Geist of Saint Traft, Mantis Rider, and an assortment of other spells to back them up. I do think that it is a different archetype entirely than the midrange plan, though. No 4-drops and no full playset of Geist of Saint Traft, along with the more aggressive creatures, makes the deck play very differently. What I like about UWR Midrange is that we tend to blank a lot of the removal spells our opponents have, especially the burn-based ones.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
As much as I love Geist I don't run it often any more. I run mostly spells and 4 Snapcasters and I find Monastery Mentor is a bigger bomb with that. One deck I do use Geist in is Esper Midrange funnily enough but that's because hand hate lets you target their creatures and Shizo, Death's Storehouse is some weird tech I've developed to stop it dying from a Snapcaster getting blinked in.
We have Eiganjo Catle and Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep ourselves. Not saying that you're wrong, just making sure to point it out.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control