I cut Metalspinner's Puzzleknot for it. There are still 16 artifacts in the deck which is just over 1/4 so Crane should hit more often than not. if I cut one, it would probably be for a 3rd Engulf the Shore anyways because that card is just so good against all of the decks with reasonably sized creatures.
I just started testing the list on xmage a little bit last night after just losing all day with a few other decks and I felt that Engulf was often the best card to have so I think having 3 Mainboard is probably the right call. I'm going to drop 1 Oath of Jace for it and see how much different it feels since drawing 3 cards always feels real good and often finds something you need in that moment.
The idea is to cast the Gearhulk, cast a blink from the yard, blink Gearhulk and do it over and over again.
Naturally Reflector Mage and Cloudblazer work well with this. I'm still trying to get a list together once I have the time to work out the numbers. In the meantime, anybody have any thoughts on it?
Voltage, do you have sideboarding recommendations for the deck. In particular, in which matchups do you side Invasive Surgery in?
I like to side them in against black based midrange/control decks. Those decks typically have no way to interact with our game plan apart from discard spells.
I'm sorry guys but i've been working on this thing since flux was spoiled and beating the thopter decks (which is basically all of them) is virtually impossible. That card is just busted in half. In my opinion, the thing is too strong for standard and polarizes it. I think the splash is necessary as blue simply doesn't have the tools to deal with it properly. Sure, engulf is great but you need to get to 4 mana before being essentially dead. I really love this deck, but honestly, it's missing something. I don't know what that something is, but better draw spells could be a start.
I tried splashing for hate cards but...it made the deck a TON worse. And i mean i went from going 4-1 to 0-5 every time. Either you play all in or you play u/w control.
Yeah I feel ya, I'm using a similar list to the OP, and I went 1-3 tonight. Get this, I win in a mirror match of sorts. Def been let down as to how this is playing out for me. With two diff versions I'm 1-6-1 lol
i dont understand what you guys are talking about. the only bad matchups are decks with queller + counterspells and black decks with discards and lost legacy. (kambal is pretty fked up too)
Creature/copter decks are not unfavorable. It's at most a 50/50 match up. chumping with crane on turn 3 and engulfing on 4 easily get's you another 3/4 turns to set up. If you untap with reservoir in play and a few spells, the game is practically over unless you draw multiple lands in a row or they can deal a huge load of damage in 1 turn.
Out of the 8 matches I've done, I went up against 1 aggro deck, 1 resevoir deck and the rest were control decks that I lost to. Counter spells wreck it the most of course
I beat bant humans with copter, rw vehicles, bw control, GB graveyard, jund delerium, and the gr pump spell deck. Each time, the fast aggro starts got me down low, but either engulf or crush stabilized or I was able to gain enough to stay alive until I could get to the point I drew into something to stabilize or Paradoxical to kill them. Any deck with a ton of counters will be difficult and I never had to play against more than just a few. It's weird because a lot of people say they have trouble vs aggro while that seems like the easiest matchup to me. OK, I just played online against UW flash and a Aetherworks Marvel deck that side boarded in a bunch of counters or at least he played 4 in one game. I beat both 2-0 because they never put on enough pressure. And after board, I brought in a bunch of counters too. Playing Paradoxical Outcome as just a draw spell was key as they couldn't keep up with me drawing 5 cards plus getting to rebuy my cantrips.
This is how I approach the Marvel matchup. Game 1, they are faster, but less consistent. Our deck can sometimes beat an Emrakul, but Ulamog is GG and sometimes, they don't find Marvel or they whiff. I'd put our odds game 1 at 40%.
My sideboard plan vs them is -4 Crush, -3 Engulf, -2 Oath of Jace, +4 Ceremonious Rejection, +3 Negate, +2 Dispel.
As you can see, the plan is to stop their Marvel and force through our Reservoir. Oath of Jace is bad vs Emrakul and we want to be able to play things and hold up countermagic so the cheaper spells are better. They will bring in counters as well, but we will have more and have more card draw. Try to play other things first so you can hold anticipate up when they will have 4 mana open so you have a card to play on their end step. Don't be scared to use Paradoxical Outcome as a draw spell as it is OP at drawing cards in our deck.
There was a bant build that had an aggro package out of the board and this plan is worse vs that, but our main deck is good vs aggro so they may not go for it vs us.
Also, if you see Carthatic Reunion, that build has a low land count and relies on sorceries to hit it's lands so I will bring in Invasive Surgery on the play over dispel to snag some free wins by mana screwing them.
If your meta has more marvel and control than aggro, swapping 2 negate into the main for 2 engulfs would be reasonable as well.
Oath of Nissa only goes for lands and Glint-Nest Crane. It doesn't find any of the key cards for the deck and is not a good choice here. My list currently has 4 Prism, 4 Anticipate, and 2 Oath of Jace to help hit lands if you need them. I've played a lot of games and only missed my 4th land drop once. I often find myself not missing one all through the entire game. If it's an issue for you, add the 24th.
Hey, for all you wondering how to deal with Copter, try out Aether Meltdown as a 3 of in the board. It shuts down any creature or vehicle you want, and it's not a dead card after that, because you can bounce it back to your hand on your combo turn for an extra draw. I find it's a great way to slow down aggro because it has flash. Wait for them to crew the copter, then flash it in on the copter, and you basically incapacitated 2 creatures that turn.
I haven't tested it too much yet, but the little I have, I very much like it's performance. Let me know what you think!
Voltage, control has been dominating my local meta. 2 counter spells doesn't feel like enough. I'm wondering if I should go for more of a control type shell possible switch from 3 or 4 Aetherflux resevoir and 2 panharmonion to vice versa
I played vs a control deck yesterday and post sideboard I dominated. +3 Dispel +3 Negate +3 Ceremonious rejection (if they were running void shatter/dynovolt). -4 Crush -2 Engulf -2 Oath -1 Anticipate.
I do have a concern about going vs spirits as holding 3 mana for a counter to queller (if playing void shatter or scatter to the wind in your side) is a pain as it can be shut down by a simple dispel. How about Overwhelming Delial as a counter spell. As you will always be using it to protect a combo piece you will be able to pay surge cost of UU which is cheap and it cannot be countered.
Hey, for all you wondering how to deal with Copter, try out Aether Meltdown as a 3 of in the board. It shuts down any creature or vehicle you want, and it's not a dead card after that, because you can bounce it back to your hand on your combo turn for an extra draw. I find it's a great way to slow down aggro because it has flash. Wait for them to crew the copter, then flash it in on the copter, and you basically incapacitated 2 creatures that turn.
I haven't tested it too much yet, but the little I have, I very much like it's performance. Let me know what you think!
Yeah Aether Meltdown is a great single target removal that deserves a spot in the sideboard. If you can stablize until turn 4/5 then your wipes can easily pick up the slack. I'm still not sure how I feel about the Oath of Jace's but I don't know what I'd replace them with.
UW Flash is one of the more difficult matchups, but is not unbeatable. I've beaten it the two times I played against it, but I also think I just got lucky.
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Standard: Jeskai Control
Modern: UW Spirits
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I just started testing the list on xmage a little bit last night after just losing all day with a few other decks and I felt that Engulf was often the best card to have so I think having 3 Mainboard is probably the right call. I'm going to drop 1 Oath of Jace for it and see how much different it feels since drawing 3 cards always feels real good and often finds something you need in that moment.
Modern: RW Burn
Edit: Duh, thanks!
WUEmeria ControlUW
WUGifts TronUW
RGWNaya BurnWGR
RGTronGR
GUInfectUG
HAffinityH
Modern: UW Spirits
The idea is to cast the Gearhulk, cast a blink from the yard, blink Gearhulk and do it over and over again.
Naturally Reflector Mage and Cloudblazer work well with this. I'm still trying to get a list together once I have the time to work out the numbers. In the meantime, anybody have any thoughts on it?
I like to side them in against black based midrange/control decks. Those decks typically have no way to interact with our game plan apart from discard spells.
Creature/copter decks are not unfavorable. It's at most a 50/50 match up. chumping with crane on turn 3 and engulfing on 4 easily get's you another 3/4 turns to set up. If you untap with reservoir in play and a few spells, the game is practically over unless you draw multiple lands in a row or they can deal a huge load of damage in 1 turn.
WUEmeria ControlUW
WUGifts TronUW
RGWNaya BurnWGR
RGTronGR
GUInfectUG
HAffinityH
Modern: UW Spirits
WUEmeria ControlUW
WUGifts TronUW
RGWNaya BurnWGR
RGTronGR
GUInfectUG
HAffinityH
My sideboard plan vs them is -4 Crush, -3 Engulf, -2 Oath of Jace, +4 Ceremonious Rejection, +3 Negate, +2 Dispel.
As you can see, the plan is to stop their Marvel and force through our Reservoir. Oath of Jace is bad vs Emrakul and we want to be able to play things and hold up countermagic so the cheaper spells are better. They will bring in counters as well, but we will have more and have more card draw. Try to play other things first so you can hold anticipate up when they will have 4 mana open so you have a card to play on their end step. Don't be scared to use Paradoxical Outcome as a draw spell as it is OP at drawing cards in our deck.
There was a bant build that had an aggro package out of the board and this plan is worse vs that, but our main deck is good vs aggro so they may not go for it vs us.
Modern: UW Spirits
If your meta has more marvel and control than aggro, swapping 2 negate into the main for 2 engulfs would be reasonable as well.
Modern: UW Spirits
Modern: UW Spirits
I haven't tested it too much yet, but the little I have, I very much like it's performance. Let me know what you think!
i hit top 8 of regionals with it.
strange situation
I do have a concern about going vs spirits as holding 3 mana for a counter to queller (if playing void shatter or scatter to the wind in your side) is a pain as it can be shut down by a simple dispel. How about Overwhelming Delial as a counter spell. As you will always be using it to protect a combo piece you will be able to pay surge cost of UU which is cheap and it cannot be countered.
Thoughts?
Yeah Aether Meltdown is a great single target removal that deserves a spot in the sideboard. If you can stablize until turn 4/5 then your wipes can easily pick up the slack. I'm still not sure how I feel about the Oath of Jace's but I don't know what I'd replace them with.
Modern: UW Spirits