TBH I just auto-crammed Wandering Fumarole as a UR dual, a Swiftwater Cliffs. Maybe in 1% of games you might need to animate it to block something to survive. If you're not having colored mana problems with Aether Hub, great.
If Saheeli is the weakest spot in the main and aggro is the worst matchup, it could be replaced by more anti-aggro slots. Maybe Select for Inspection or Consulate Skygate? Aggro has proven itself to be a strong force. Both cards slow early rushes and answer Smuggler's Copter.
How is this strictly better? terrarion does not let you draw a card when it comes into play so its strictly worst than prism or even the black puzzleknot. endless one does not go with the "return your permanents and draw card plan" it's just a dud until combo turn. Only 2 cranes for a deck trying to find a specific artifact to win is also a bad idea. splashing white just for thraben inspector is not even a good idea
This is probably super janky, but it might actually work, the idea is to play a UGx clues deck and have the combo be aetherflux reservoir + graf mole + clues + metalwork colossus in the graveyard, stack metalwork colossus return ability saccing clues in the prosess and netting 3 life per graft mole. Might be slow, but being this early I see no harm tossing out some ideas.
I've been having some success with a version of my first list with -1 Engulf, -1 of each Puzzleknot, +3 Crush of Tentacles. The 4th Engulf and Crush are both in the board so we can adjust depending on how aggressive the opponent is. I'm updating my list.
Looking over some of the comments, these are my thoughts so far. The 0 mana artifacts are essential in the non cost reducing build and I wouldn't run less than 8. They are fantastic both for comboing and surging Crush of Tentacles. Crush of Tentacles also let's you combo off without Outcome if you can last until 8 mana, slam 2 Reservoir, and then cast all of your 0 mana artifacts. I've pulled this off in a match where I just didn't see outcome.
Inventor's Fair has been great, but 2 is the right number. The life gain is nice and will save you occasionally, but it's really there to tutor a reservoir when you need to. Drawing the 2nd is usually poor unless you need to tutor with it.
I just saw this version Kenji Tsumura had posted on Twitter. Contraband Kingpin may not block Copter, but it still does a lot.
This is probably super janky, but it might actually work, the idea is to play a UGx clues deck and have the combo be aetherflux reservoir + graf mole + clues + metalwork colossus in the graveyard, stack metalwork colossus return ability saccing clues in the prosess and netting 3 life per graft mole. Might be slow, but being this early I see no harm tossing out some ideas.
For Reservoir to interact with this gameplan at all, you need a board state where you have X Graf Moles and something like 12/X clues uncracked. If you somehow reach a position to generate that many clues (or Graf moles) uncontested without needing to crack any clues first, you should be able to win the game just through playing Magic.
I think there are numerous avenues this deck can go down, depending on how it wants to execute the combo. And that will of course affect both which artifacts get used and the spells to support them. Caleb's deck is a good example of a deck more all-in style on the combo plan. There are versions that don't run the 0 cost artifacts. In those builds I don't think Paradoxical Outcome or Crush are as good, since they don't take advantage of the free spells. Going forward, I think there are a few other directions the deck could take. While the first part of the Reservoir requires a little building around, it's not entirely necessary. Theoretically, as long as you can pay the 50 life it's possible to win on the spot. I think that there is a turbofog-style build that can be done, as there are 3 different fog effects currently in standard. That would give the deck 12 fog effects if all were run, albeit one of them is partially situational. I'll jot down some theoretical deck lists later for as examples. I can also see a BUG (or Sultai as it's now known as) list with the Contraband Kingpin / Tireless Tracker combo to generate advantage. I also think that if aggro decks are going to be prevalent in the meta going forwards then the red based versions should run some amount of Incendiary Sabotage between the main and/or sb.
So how is this deck beating aggro? smuggler copter aggro based decks in particular. I know my LGS will be full of them and I'd like to hear the salv's ideas on how to beat aggro effectively! ?
I also have been dabbling with a 3-color version, Grixis to be exact. It's the result of converging a lot of brews and threads that I've found around the net. I think 3 colors is fine: between Prism, Hub and Crumbling Vestige I very rarely have color problems. The first 3 or 4 lands will need proper sequencing most of the time, but you get the hang of it quickly.
It is a hybrid of both Reservoir and Colossus decks, mostly because I wanted flexibility. G2-3 people will just sit and destroy your Reservoirs if you rely on them too much, so this deck has a good 3-4 avenues of victory that you can build towards. I also wanted to skew away from the 0-CMC equipment: I tried Caleb's version and while the approach is nice, I felt like it was too all-in. You either have the monster game plan or nothing. Topdecking a Cathar's Shield when you have little going on doesn't advance your board state and I wanted a bit more punch per card. Don't get me wrong, this deck is totally capable of hitting 60+ life, but it's also completely fine chaining 3-4 spells each turn to gain life and buy time until you can dump your entire hand, especially in the midgame when everything costs 1 or 2 mana.
Cards of note beyond the usual suspects: Smuggler's Copter was a bit of a necessary evil, but it helps so much. Sometimes all you have are a bunch of 1/x and your opponent either a) smashes with Copters of his own or b) Durdles around with setup cards. It reduces the Colossus cost, sculpts your hand and can win games on its own if unchecked. If they kill it, that's ok too, one less spell for our cost reducers. We rarely need more than 1 per game though, barring the occasional extra summoning-sick critter coming down and being put to use. Key to the City has also been great: if you manage to chip away at your opponent's life total, one Colossus swing with a key activation can mean game. Again, it reduces Colossus' CMC, lets you dump chaff to advance your game plan, draws you cards and breaks board stalls. I've always been happy to see it, but I think 1 is correct. It's also a great Fair target later on, when you need that last stretch of damage or want to one-shot a walker. I run 4 Herald of Kozilek and 3 Inspectors simply because Inspector doesn't reduce Herald's cost while the opposite is true. Herald also makes Spatial Contortion and Deep Fiend cost less (small advantage, I know, but it's there). Besides, with 2 in play of either type you're already doing fine. The 4 toughness is also a consideration for the Depalas, Toolcrafts, Scroungers and so on that run around. It also survives a single Harnessed Lightning, Spatial Contortion and the first two Galvanic Bombardments.
Flex slots right now are the 3 Familiars (basically pre-boarding for aggro and leveraging Panharmonicon with extra enablers – I'm still trying to figure out if the Pan is worth it in a deck like this), the Puzzleknot / Prism split and little else. Geier-Reach Sanitarium has been meh, I always worry about the card selection for the opponent whenever I use it. I don't know if Sea Gate would do a better job there. Either way, the deck is a blast to play. I love surprising the Bx control / delirium decks with a couple Fevered Visions G2 and 3, they've always won me the game.
At least for my build, bouncing their board over and over again or just gaining huge chunks of life until you can win beats aggro pretty easily. I have a harder time with transgress the mind and counter spells. I haven't dropped a match vs decks that didn't interact with what I was doing since I've switched to the 6 board wipe build. Both Engulf The Shores and Crush of Tentacles can interact with vehicles too making them better options than Fumigate. Returning them to their hand is especially effective vs Prized Amalgam decks.
@Voltage Then your sideboard is geared towards the control/midrange matchups then? Even if the matchups against aggro decks are good I still feel you want something like Select for Inspection to deal with the stupid copter before turn 4.
Copter can only hit twice before you can Engulf at the most. Glint-Nest Crane can also voltron up with all of the equipment or just chump if you're worried about your life total. Giving the 8/8 Octopus Vigilance from Cathar's Shield makes it a must deal with threat that dodges Grasp of Darkness and Harnessed Lightning
So I ran my combo deck tonight and went 0-3-1 had to see how it would play out. Ended up going to time with some controlly decks but lost easily to aggro and midrange. Staying alive is a big deal! I'm tempted to run some more lifegain type cards to midigate damage. A heavier creature package seemed like not so
Good, I'll be goingb from 18 to 16 creatures, maybe some diff puzzelknots? It might make a deference in some the matches I saw. It's a tough call tho, seems like standard is still pretty wide open. Only ran into one copter deck and gotta say it's a real threat, almost want to main board some artifact hate because of that card alone.
So I ran with this at a small event, with -1 crush, +1 engulf because of card availability. My sideboard was 4 Dispel, 2 Negate, 3 Invasive Surgury, 2 Revolutionary Rebuff, 1 Turn Aside, 1 Filigree Familiar. Went 2-2, winning against UW Control and Bant Aggro/Midrange, losing against RW Humans and Jeskai Control.
Aside from getting nut drawn by RW Humans, (don't think there's anything we can do about that unless we sideboard something to disrupt Thalia's Lieutenant -> Hanweir Garrison, but nothing seems satisfactory), the one thing that I complained about all night was Spell Queller. I had Revolutionary Rebuff in my sideboard as an answer, but it doesn't feel satisfactory. Sometimes you can bounce their board and get the spell back from under it, but that doesn't help if they have mana up or if the spell is Paradoxical Outcome or Engulf the Shore in the first place. There's nothing I could find to help us win that counter-fight except Overwhelming Denial, but that feels yuck. Maybe it's better to have than Dispel though, to hedge against Spell Queller.
As far as artifact removal goes, it's mainly Fragmentise so if I felt confident that's what I was facing I'd go with Invasive Surgery/Turn Aside. If it's something like Quarantine Field though, we'd be out of luck. Negate is much safer.
As you can see, it's slower than the all-in version. It's more of a build up your resources version. The Harnessed Lightnings and Incendiary Sabotage are nods to the aggro decks. Vessel of Volatility may seem odd, but can allow for some explosive turns. A turn 2 Aetherflux Reservoir can quickly get out of hand. I actually started out with 21 lands, but funny enough found myself flooding out more often than not. The Cathartic Reunions used to be Anticipates, but I found they just didn't help me churn through the deck as fast. Land wise I've been finding that I like the Aether Hubs less and less. It's still in the early testing stages, so not really a lot to say about it otherwise yet. If anyone want's to sleeve it up I'd love to hear about your results.
Went 6-0-2 with my list tonight. Both draws were intentional in the 5th round of swiss and the finals. Good for 42$ cash prize which is twice what the deck cost I dropped 2 games in the swiss and 1 in the top 8. I beat GB Delirium + Copter twice, RW Vehicles once, Bant Humans once, another BG midrange, and the BG Graveyard deck from the SCG. I went from 4 to 150+ life on turn 6 in one game. A couple other once octopi got there. In one, a Glint-Nest with a shield and 3 bone saws went all the way. I comboed off after 2nd turn transgress taking Reservoir into 3rd turn Lost Legacy for Paradoxical Outcome. Everyone there was talking about it and this has got to be the sickest $20 standard deck ever.
Went 6-0-2 with my list tonight. Both draws were intentional in the 5th round of swiss and the finals. Good for 42$ cash prize which is twice what the deck cost I dropped 2 games in the swiss and 1 in the top 8. I beat GB Delirium + Copter twice, RW Vehicles once, Bant Humans once, another BG midrange, and the BG Graveyard deck from the SCG. I went from 4 to 150+ life on turn 6 in one game. A couple other once octopi got there. In one, a Glint-Nest with a shield and 3 bone saws went all the way. I comboed off after 2nd turn transgress taking Reservoir into 3rd turn Lost Legacy for Paradoxical Outcome. Everyone there was talking about it and this has got to be the sickest $20 standard deck ever.
What's your sideboard like? Was the bant deck playing spell queller, and if so how did you sideboard for it? That's the one card that crushes me the most.
Went 6-0-2 with my list tonight. Both draws were intentional in the 5th round of swiss and the finals. Good for 42$ cash prize which is twice what the deck cost I dropped 2 games in the swiss and 1 in the top 8. I beat GB Delirium + Copter twice, RW Vehicles once, Bant Humans once, another BG midrange, and the BG Graveyard deck from the SCG. I went from 4 to 150+ life on turn 6 in one game. A couple other once octopi got there. In one, a Glint-Nest with a shield and 3 bone saws went all the way. I comboed off after 2nd turn transgress taking Reservoir into 3rd turn Lost Legacy for Paradoxical Outcome. Everyone there was talking about it and this has got to be the sickest $20 standard deck ever.
What's your sideboard like? Was the bant deck playing spell queller, and if so how did you sideboard for it? That's the one card that crushes me the most.
Yeah, curious about this too. I just couldn't do anything against spell queller in FNM. Spell queller + counterspells back up has to be the most annoying match up for the deck. I could beat a lost legacy but when they start chaining quellers I feel so hopeless
It was bant humans with no queller. He did have negates in game 2 and 3 and he got game 2 with an aggressive start into negating my crush, but Crane slowed him down in game 3 and I was able to keep drawing gas and he ran out of counters. That said, the full 4 Crush main and 4 Engulf after board help a lot vs that. Sideboard was
From my own testing, Oath of Jace is really, really good at sculpting the perfect hand to combo off, akin to Brainstorm in legacy. My only problem is that cutting artifacts for it makes Glint-Nest Crane miss quite a bit more. I'm a big fan of it.
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.
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Standard: Jeskai Control
Modern: UW Spirits
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TBH I just auto-crammed Wandering Fumarole as a UR dual, a Swiftwater Cliffs. Maybe in 1% of games you might need to animate it to block something to survive. If you're not having colored mana problems with Aether Hub, great.
If Saheeli is the weakest spot in the main and aggro is the worst matchup, it could be replaced by more anti-aggro slots. Maybe Select for Inspection or Consulate Skygate? Aggro has proven itself to be a strong force. Both cards slow early rushes and answer Smuggler's Copter.
Modern: UW Spirits
He lost 4 rounds after his 2 byes and dropped. Sadly, this deck is great. I'm trying out different builds and they just lose a lot sadly.
Modern: RW Burn
4 Paradoxical Outcome
4 Bone Saw
4 Cathar's Sheild
4 Endless One
4 Terrarion
3 Prophetic Prism
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Anticipate
2 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Crush of Tentacles
2 Inventor's Fair
4 Prairie Stream
4 Port Town
12 Island
3 Select for Inspection
2 Turn Aside
4 Negate
3 Reflector Mage
2 Fumigate
1 Crush of Tentacles
How is this strictly better? terrarion does not let you draw a card when it comes into play so its strictly worst than prism or even the black puzzleknot. endless one does not go with the "return your permanents and draw card plan" it's just a dud until combo turn. Only 2 cranes for a deck trying to find a specific artifact to win is also a bad idea. splashing white just for thraben inspector is not even a good idea
Id that!
Trade with me, h:Alters and EdhFoils:)
Cards I have altered
Modern: UW Spirits
Inventor's Fair has been great, but 2 is the right number. The life gain is nice and will save you occasionally, but it's really there to tutor a reservoir when you need to. Drawing the 2nd is usually poor unless you need to tutor with it.
I just saw this version Kenji Tsumura had posted on Twitter. Contraband Kingpin may not block Copter, but it still does a lot.
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Bone Saw
4 Cathar's Shield
4 Metalspinner's Puzzleknot
4 Prophetic Prism
4 Aetherflux Reservoir
4 Paradoxical Outcome
4 Crush of Tentacles
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Inventors' Fair
8 Island
3 Sunken Hollow
7 Swamp
Modern: UW Spirits
For Reservoir to interact with this gameplan at all, you need a board state where you have X Graf Moles and something like 12/X clues uncracked. If you somehow reach a position to generate that many clues (or Graf moles) uncontested without needing to crack any clues first, you should be able to win the game just through playing Magic.
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.
2 Sanctum of Ugin
3 Sunken Hollow
4 Aether Hub
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
3 Crumbling Vestige
1 Inventors' Fair
5 Island
3 Spirebluff Canal
Creatures (19)
3 Foundry Inspector
4 Herald of Kozilek
3 Contraband Kingpin
3 Metalwork Colossus
3 Glint-Nest Crane
3 Filigree Familiar
3 Paradoxical Outcome
Artifacts (16)
3 Metalspinner's Puzzleknot
1 Key to the City
3 Prophetic Prism
3 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Panharmonicon
3 Smuggler's Copter
2 Hedron Archive
1 Turn Aside
4 Fevered Visions
3 Ceremonious Rejection
3 Spatial Contortion
2 Dispel
2 Elder Deep-Fiend
It is a hybrid of both Reservoir and Colossus decks, mostly because I wanted flexibility. G2-3 people will just sit and destroy your Reservoirs if you rely on them too much, so this deck has a good 3-4 avenues of victory that you can build towards. I also wanted to skew away from the 0-CMC equipment: I tried Caleb's version and while the approach is nice, I felt like it was too all-in. You either have the monster game plan or nothing. Topdecking a Cathar's Shield when you have little going on doesn't advance your board state and I wanted a bit more punch per card. Don't get me wrong, this deck is totally capable of hitting 60+ life, but it's also completely fine chaining 3-4 spells each turn to gain life and buy time until you can dump your entire hand, especially in the midgame when everything costs 1 or 2 mana.
Cards of note beyond the usual suspects: Smuggler's Copter was a bit of a necessary evil, but it helps so much. Sometimes all you have are a bunch of 1/x and your opponent either a) smashes with Copters of his own or b) Durdles around with setup cards. It reduces the Colossus cost, sculpts your hand and can win games on its own if unchecked. If they kill it, that's ok too, one less spell for our cost reducers. We rarely need more than 1 per game though, barring the occasional extra summoning-sick critter coming down and being put to use. Key to the City has also been great: if you manage to chip away at your opponent's life total, one Colossus swing with a key activation can mean game. Again, it reduces Colossus' CMC, lets you dump chaff to advance your game plan, draws you cards and breaks board stalls. I've always been happy to see it, but I think 1 is correct. It's also a great Fair target later on, when you need that last stretch of damage or want to one-shot a walker. I run 4 Herald of Kozilek and 3 Inspectors simply because Inspector doesn't reduce Herald's cost while the opposite is true. Herald also makes Spatial Contortion and Deep Fiend cost less (small advantage, I know, but it's there). Besides, with 2 in play of either type you're already doing fine. The 4 toughness is also a consideration for the Depalas, Toolcrafts, Scroungers and so on that run around. It also survives a single Harnessed Lightning, Spatial Contortion and the first two Galvanic Bombardments.
Flex slots right now are the 3 Familiars (basically pre-boarding for aggro and leveraging Panharmonicon with extra enablers – I'm still trying to figure out if the Pan is worth it in a deck like this), the Puzzleknot / Prism split and little else. Geier-Reach Sanitarium has been meh, I always worry about the card selection for the opponent whenever I use it. I don't know if Sea Gate would do a better job there. Either way, the deck is a blast to play. I love surprising the Bx control / delirium decks with a couple Fevered Visions G2 and 3, they've always won me the game.
Modern
Mono-U Tron
Zombie Loam
Infect
Legacy
Delver
TES
Modern: UW Spirits
Modern: UW Spirits
Good, I'll be goingb from 18 to 16 creatures, maybe some diff puzzelknots? It might make a deference in some the matches I saw. It's a tough call tho, seems like standard is still pretty wide open. Only ran into one copter deck and gotta say it's a real threat, almost want to main board some artifact hate because of that card alone.
So I ran with this at a small event, with -1 crush, +1 engulf because of card availability. My sideboard was 4 Dispel, 2 Negate, 3 Invasive Surgury, 2 Revolutionary Rebuff, 1 Turn Aside, 1 Filigree Familiar. Went 2-2, winning against UW Control and Bant Aggro/Midrange, losing against RW Humans and Jeskai Control.
Aside from getting nut drawn by RW Humans, (don't think there's anything we can do about that unless we sideboard something to disrupt Thalia's Lieutenant -> Hanweir Garrison, but nothing seems satisfactory), the one thing that I complained about all night was Spell Queller. I had Revolutionary Rebuff in my sideboard as an answer, but it doesn't feel satisfactory. Sometimes you can bounce their board and get the spell back from under it, but that doesn't help if they have mana up or if the spell is Paradoxical Outcome or Engulf the Shore in the first place. There's nothing I could find to help us win that counter-fight except Overwhelming Denial, but that feels yuck. Maybe it's better to have than Dispel though, to hedge against Spell Queller.
As far as artifact removal goes, it's mainly Fragmentise so if I felt confident that's what I was facing I'd go with Invasive Surgery/Turn Aside. If it's something like Quarantine Field though, we'd be out of luck. Negate is much safer.
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Aether Hub
3 Mountain
2 Island
1 Forest
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Herald of Kozilek
Artifacts
4 Aetherflux Reservoir
4 Prophetic Prism
4 Metalspinner's Puzzleknot
4 Terrarion
1 Perpetual Timepiece
Enchantments
4 Vessel of Nascency
4 Vessel of Volatility
Instants
3 Harnessed Lightning
1 Incendiary Sabotage
Sorceries
3 Cathartic Reunion
As you can see, it's slower than the all-in version. It's more of a build up your resources version. The Harnessed Lightnings and Incendiary Sabotage are nods to the aggro decks. Vessel of Volatility may seem odd, but can allow for some explosive turns. A turn 2 Aetherflux Reservoir can quickly get out of hand. I actually started out with 21 lands, but funny enough found myself flooding out more often than not. The Cathartic Reunions used to be Anticipates, but I found they just didn't help me churn through the deck as fast. Land wise I've been finding that I like the Aether Hubs less and less. It's still in the early testing stages, so not really a lot to say about it otherwise yet. If anyone want's to sleeve it up I'd love to hear about your results.
Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.
Modern: UW Spirits
What's your sideboard like? Was the bant deck playing spell queller, and if so how did you sideboard for it? That's the one card that crushes me the most.
Yeah, curious about this too. I just couldn't do anything against spell queller in FNM. Spell queller + counterspells back up has to be the most annoying match up for the deck. I could beat a lost legacy but when they start chaining quellers I feel so hopeless
Void Shatter / Scatter to the Winds is something I've considered vs Spell Queller and Cataclysmic Gearhulk.
Modern: UW Spirits
Modern: UW Spirits