Chaining torrential gearhulks into surprise blocks/removal or hard counters is too strong of an inevitable plan to pass up imo. Nahiri also just fetches them out that much faster or presents the threat.
My concern with fairgrounds warden and spell queller is that shock becomes live against either walker in color once we minus. I'm not sure how much shock will show up in the meta but it is fairly efficient compared to what we've seen so far. dispel becomes very attractive for the mirror imo as it protects the walkers, wins counter wars, or *****s down their filter spells.
Against BG I think we want to go with sweepers like fumigate and hold the combo until 6 mana. In t sting I have dropped an extra saheeli on T3 just to bait the removal and attack and buy myself an extra turn to stabilize.
shock seems fine for us as it deals with human decks, the new mimic, a bit of things out of BG, UW flashes early beaters, and opposing jeskai walkers during the combo. The field seems target rich enough to warrant it over galvanic bombardment in some games. Also, gearhulk flashing back a shock seems lack luster on the surface but you can gearhulk + shock them and make a block during their end step, then untap saheeli to copy gearhulk and shock them again then swing 10. That's 14 points of damage off an empty board and clear attack from the opponet. Seems good.
Anyone have practice with RB zombies yet? incendiary flow seems important to have access to.
I think, just like in most combo decks, you want to have a solid plan B. Either built in to your deck, or out of the sideboard. Gearhulks are a great main deck option for this. Out of the side, if you are playing a black deck, it would make sense to trim some of the combo and add Gideon, Jace, and even Dovin to switch it up.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: UWR Breach, UWB Esper control
Legacy: UW RiP/Helm, UR Sneak and Show
I don't see R/B Zombies being a thing anymore without Copter
The Zombie deck, with Prized Amalgam will still be a big contender. Friend of mine is playing the deck since months without Copters and having some good amount of success with it. Huge problem for him was only the GB Delirium deck, but we had only in few numbers locally.
I've been on RB zombies with copters myself and losing copters is a far smaller blow to me than it was for the decks I played against. I've had no issues placing 4-0 and 3-1 matches in a very competitive field at my LGS. UW flash I felt favored. Marvel was fine as long as they didn't chain more than 2 ishkanahs, humans maybe stole an occasional game (maybe). There aren't many decks in standard that have the tools to deal with 7+ power at the end step T3 if they are on the draw. I've untapped T4 with burn in hand and over 10 power often enough to know it's got legs.
I think disallow on a haunted dead activation is a huge tempo blow though. Also removal on discard outlets does wonders, however, the deck is resilient. Between temper and unliscensed disentegration I think there's enough to respond to the cat combo if we don't have protection for our pieces.
I agree with @ThirdDegree. UR Twin was probably the best iteration of twin, and it was combo/control. Often they would board out the entire combo and just become a control deck in matchups that justified it. We don't have access to all those toys, but we can still do a pretty solid imitation. Especially with the recent additions to the ban list, I think the combo-control version will be the best here as well.
The question then, is what form of Combo-Control is best? Do we go proactive with lots of stasis snare, fumigate, Declaration in Stone, etc? Do we go reactive with tons of counterspells, etc?
The main research we need to do (aside from our own personal metas that might be different) is what decks will survive the bans, what decks will be made more powerful by them, and what new decks aside from Saheeli Twin should we expect to emerge after AER, and what will be the best route to combat those decks?
I've been testing on Xmage. Originally I was on a Panharmonicon build to maximize the synergy with the combo pieces, but with both Copter and Reflector getting banned, I now feel like control is definitely the way to go.
I agree Torrential Gearhulk is great in the deck, but Cataclysmic Gearhulk does a lot for us too. It punishes go wide strategies, is a 2nd target for Saheeli's ultimate, can be rebought by both combo pieces, and is another threat. This does limit the number of Stasis Snare you can run.
Thraben Inspector is another great card that also lets Guardian get value if not comboing and is good at protecting Saheeli early.
I think control strategy really, really wants Nahiri, the Harbinger. She's great to dig for combo pieces and to tutor if you miss one.
I haven't considered Cataclysmic Gearhulk, but that's definitely an option, I'll give it a go and share initial results tonight.
Long story short I'm running control shell now, similar to the alternative build I posted, but with 4 Towers in the SB to dodge the hate. Still requires tweaking, but results are very promising.
Thoughts on including Spell Queller in this control build? I'm sure it's gonna show up as a counter for the cat/lady in some way.
I don't like Queller - there's so much removal for it that it's just delaying the spell for a turn or two. Also you can't run boardwipes, which I do and like...
I still want to test Cataclysmic Gearhulk, as it might be interesting choice.
Also need to look more closely at the manabase, Evolving Wilds might make sense there to help against flood, which happens to me from time to time, but I like manlands / hubs, so it's hard to tweak...
I will update OP this week, real life got in the way of doing it today...
About Radiant Flames maindeck... I don't know. It might be a good idea, but I would like to see the initial shape of the meta before. If there are a lot of those deck then for sure it's a good idea, but since we're a control we need to adapt to the meta anyway...
I tried Gideon, and he was... Underwhelming. He can be countered with negates, we don't have a good way of protecting him once he's out.
I don't think we want his tokens, and the emblem does not seem so relevant with the Gearhulks and manlands if we go beatdown. So the only thing is the soldier mode. But we have already good ways of going beatdown...
Gideon really doesn't make sense in this deck. He's powerful for standard to be sure, but only in the right shells. For us, I don't know if we want to be tapping out/spending 4 mana for a stall/alternate wincon when we can just flash in gearhulks at eot instead.
I tried Baral, Chief of Compliance , but I wasn't that impressed. The cost reduction does not have that much of an impact, as we usually have a ton of mana. The card draw helps, but I'd rather have a consistent one that helps me dig for combo pieces, than occasional. He also lower number of spells you're running...
Two reasons for Declaration in Stone. Various token decks, that arise in popularity right now and also Metalwork Colossus decks that seem to be raising as well...
Spells (24)
2x Dispel
4x Anticipate
4x Harnessed Lightning
2x Declaration in Stone
2x Blessed Alliance
2x Negate
3x Disallow
3x Glimmer of Genius
2x Radiant Flames
Sideboard (15)
2x Shock
2x Authority of the Consuls
2x Negate
4x Dynavolt Tower
2x Radiant Flames
2x Torrential Gearhulk
1x Descend upon the Sinful
I have been trying Baral in my current iteration, but along Thing in the Ice to try and benefit further from the cost reduction. Most of the times though, I wished I had Glimmer instead.
Baral's Expertise though can get us rid of our opponent's Thalia while dropping Felidar Guardian in play
This probably shouldn't surprise anyone, but an article on the mothership today pretty much put everyone on notice that they are going to be keeping an eye on copycat. They are hopeful that it'll be fragile and unreliable enough to not need a ban, but if it ends up being completely broken, they could ban it.
Focused on going off with Saheeli + Felidar, Felidar + Felidar + Decoction Module, or Whirler + 3 Decoction Module. The Puzzleknot is a bit weak on its own, but I'm rarely unhappy to see it. There may be better options, but it enables both our Rainbow lands, as well as being a solid turn 2 dig to enable going off on turn 4.
Not sure about the Rebuff main or the Baral's expertise in the side. Everything else has been pretty solid. Declarations are new - haven't had enough of a chance to try them out. Any suggestions?
I'm yet to try out the Controlling version. Curious if that works out better.
I've been doing a lot of brewing myself with the combo and I initially focused on the pure UWR control version and attmepted a midrange value version as well. The control version works well as it has a great plan A of late game gearhulk with the combo being just there for value. The midrange version focuses on some value dorks that are great blockers with emerge monsters as it's mid game beat down plan. So far it works only "fine" and it can find the combo rather easily with all the scry action it has. It is FAR from properly tuned, but I'm certain that there is something viable there. Here's the lists I'm durdling with:
I haven't put too much thought into the mana base because there is much work to do on the main and that will have a huge impact on what I run, but so far it's been about as good as the average 3 color list. The deep fiends with filigri familiars has been a pretty solid mid game plan that lets you go from durdle defensive to a 2 turn clock when combined with a fumerole. That puts them on the defensive very fast and you can slip in the combo then when they're dealing with your large monsters. Avacyn slots into this "flash fatty" game plan just as well and when combined with emerging something to flip her makes for a very fast clock. The lone hulk is there to partially make saheeli's -7 impactful since the deck doesn't have a ton of instants that are great to flash back. That along with the high curve makes me not want to have too many of them.
The energy scry creature is there in the anticipate slot because it fuels emerge while still providing card selection, but also as a solid blocker in the early game. Them combined with a familiar makes for an awkward situation for an aggro deck to put up with. You can spend one of your few removal spells to kill off a not so meaningful creature to push through and risk the combo or you attack in and accept a 2 for 1 on your x/3 after I already gained some life. It's cute and quaint, but also effective at slowing their development to give you time to either assemble the combo or start chaining your flash monsters and kill them out of nowhere.
The deep fiends serve not only as a great way to protect the combo by taping them out and letting you guardian into saheeli for the win, but their effectiveness as a threat shouldn't be understated. End of turn tap you out, animate fumerole and hit for 9 is a very scary sequence that every deck has to consider. It also has the mistbind clique effect where you can either tap out their mana on upkeep to cripple their development when cast on turn 4 or potentially eat a creature and prevent them from having a follow up by tapping them out during combat. It is also worth pointing out that the mana short effect is on cast, so if you're using it as protection for the combo against counter magic it doesn't have to resolve to do what you need done. The card on it's own has been so impressive when combined with any cheap value creatures that I really would like to add in the 4th copy and already miss reflector mage.
The glimmers are there because you do go late and you're going to want some raw card advantage in those games where you have to play completely fair. I like having the two as you don't have time early on to cast them and I think this is the correct number. You'll need something to gas up later on and in the early turns you're casting blockers and getting your filter on while playing to the board because you can't really take a full turn off against early aggression.
I want to reiterate that this list isn't close to proper tuning, this is more of a proof of concept. Not only is it good at forcing opponents to adapt to wildly different strategies, it is fun as hell! As is, the list is fairly weak but I don't have a lot of experience building midrange decks so it does need some work. Regardless I'm sure there is a viable list that can be made that focuses on value creatures with a deep fiend mid game plan.
Not a whole lot to say on this one. It's the jeskai control we all know with the combo just shoved in basically. The guardian makes for a great blocker and sometimes blinking a land lets you double spell which makes for a good tempo boost. Also it has the benefit of forcing your opponent to keep and hold up removal which makes them fall very far behind to your control plan. Two angles of attack make for a very tricky game that your opponent has to play right to win, classic splinter twin stuff.
Shock should be valued over Harnessed Lightning if this combo becomes Tier 1.
Playing 1 or 2 Implement of Combustion isn't a huge cost to ping opposing S.Rai's for 1.
Renegade used with Implement of Combustion or Pacification Array could allow for Spire of Industry for the manabase
Putting a few Spell Queller and Fairgrounds Wardens in the SB might be useful.
Not really understanding a few things:
- Your artifact package ... the Implement and Maps seem pretty bad without you having the need for Revolt triggers.
- One Gideon seems out of place, why not all in MB or all in SB?
U/B Control (won in 3 off the Gearhulk in both games) - Answered the combo every time.
Mono-R Aggro (Lost in 3, won off the combo once on like turn 14)
Esper Aggro (Won in 2 - combo both time very late in the games)
R/G Energy (lost 2 - 1)
Mirror Match (Won 2 - 1 neither of us won off the combo, I side boarded it out)
G/W Human (lost in 2) Bad draws and his creatures get too big to fast, Side board slowed them down with Titi and Baral I was able to slow the match down, but I felt dominated.
This is a small pool I know but there are so many answers to the combo it has been hard to pull off, Do you wait until you can cast it all on turn 6 or wait until you have protection from a shock or grasp, I want to play splinter twin so bad again, that I am going to try this some more but I am not fully sold this combo can be competitive.
4 Spell Queller
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
2 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Crackdown Construct
4 Disallow
2 Negate
3 Anticipate
3 Harnessed Lightning
3 Stasis Snare
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Aether Hub
3 Port Town
3 Spirebluff Canal
2 Inspiring Vantage
2 Prairie Stream
5 Island
3 Plains
4 Fevered Visions
3 Fragmentize
2 Fumigate
2 Radiant Flames
2 Dispel
2 Immolating Glare
4x Felidar Guardian
4x Servant of the Conduit
4x Thraben Inspector
3x Aethersphere Harvester
2x Fairgrounds Warden
1x Rogue Refiner
Spells(20)
4x Attune with Aether
4x Oath of Nissa
4x Saheeli Rai
2x Anticipate
2x Declaration in Stone
2x Dispel
1x Revolutionary Rebuff
1x Negate
4x Aether Hub
4x Forest
4x Botanical Sanctum
3x Fortified Village
3x Plains
2x Inspiring Vantage
1x Island
1x Mountain
4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
3x Verdurous Gearhulk
2x Negate
2x Natural State
1x Declaration in Stone
Here is a prototype of a list I brewers. Obviously much different than Jeskai. Going to try to test it.soon
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
Wizards Certified Rules Advisor
My concern with fairgrounds warden and spell queller is that shock becomes live against either walker in color once we minus. I'm not sure how much shock will show up in the meta but it is fairly efficient compared to what we've seen so far. dispel becomes very attractive for the mirror imo as it protects the walkers, wins counter wars, or *****s down their filter spells.
Against BG I think we want to go with sweepers like fumigate and hold the combo until 6 mana. In t sting I have dropped an extra saheeli on T3 just to bait the removal and attack and buy myself an extra turn to stabilize.
shock seems fine for us as it deals with human decks, the new mimic, a bit of things out of BG, UW flashes early beaters, and opposing jeskai walkers during the combo. The field seems target rich enough to warrant it over galvanic bombardment in some games. Also, gearhulk flashing back a shock seems lack luster on the surface but you can gearhulk + shock them and make a block during their end step, then untap saheeli to copy gearhulk and shock them again then swing 10. That's 14 points of damage off an empty board and clear attack from the opponet. Seems good.
Anyone have practice with RB zombies yet? incendiary flow seems important to have access to.
Legacy: UW RiP/Helm, UR Sneak and Show
I've been on RB zombies with copters myself and losing copters is a far smaller blow to me than it was for the decks I played against. I've had no issues placing 4-0 and 3-1 matches in a very competitive field at my LGS. UW flash I felt favored. Marvel was fine as long as they didn't chain more than 2 ishkanahs, humans maybe stole an occasional game (maybe). There aren't many decks in standard that have the tools to deal with 7+ power at the end step T3 if they are on the draw. I've untapped T4 with burn in hand and over 10 power often enough to know it's got legs.
I think disallow on a haunted dead activation is a huge tempo blow though. Also removal on discard outlets does wonders, however, the deck is resilient. Between temper and unliscensed disentegration I think there's enough to respond to the cat combo if we don't have protection for our pieces.
Just food for thought.
The question then, is what form of Combo-Control is best? Do we go proactive with lots of stasis snare, fumigate, Declaration in Stone, etc? Do we go reactive with tons of counterspells, etc?
The main research we need to do (aside from our own personal metas that might be different) is what decks will survive the bans, what decks will be made more powerful by them, and what new decks aside from Saheeli Twin should we expect to emerge after AER, and what will be the best route to combat those decks?
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
I agree Torrential Gearhulk is great in the deck, but Cataclysmic Gearhulk does a lot for us too. It punishes go wide strategies, is a 2nd target for Saheeli's ultimate, can be rebought by both combo pieces, and is another threat. This does limit the number of Stasis Snare you can run.
Thraben Inspector is another great card that also lets Guardian get value if not comboing and is good at protecting Saheeli early.
4 Felidar Guardian
2 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
2 Torrential Gearhulk
4 Saheeli Rai
3 Anticipate
4 Harnessed Lightning
3 Revolutionary Rebuff
1 Oath of Chandra
4 Disallow
2 Stasis Snare
2 Glimmer of Genius
4 Aether Hub
4 Prairie Stream
2 Spirebluff Canal
2 Inspiring Vantage
1 Wandering Fumarole
2 Port Town
2 Island
3 Plains
1 Mountain
Modern: UW Spirits
I haven't considered Cataclysmic Gearhulk, but that's definitely an option, I'll give it a go and share initial results tonight.
Long story short I'm running control shell now, similar to the alternative build I posted, but with 4 Towers in the SB to dodge the hate. Still requires tweaking, but results are very promising.
Modern: UW Spirits
I don't like Queller - there's so much removal for it that it's just delaying the spell for a turn or two. Also you can't run boardwipes, which I do and like...
Here's my current decklist:
4x Aether Hub
2x Port Town
4x Inspiring Vantage
4x Spirebluff Canal
2x Needle Spires
2x Wandering Fumarole
4x Plains
3x Island
1x Mountain
Creatures (6)
4x Felidar Guardian
2x Torrential Gearhulk
3x Saheeli Rai
3x Nahiri, the Harbinger
Spells (22)
2x Dispel
4x Anticipate
4x Harnessed Lightning
2x Declaration in Stone
2x Blessed Alliance
2x Negate
3x Disallow
3x Glimmer of Genius
2x Shock
2x Authority of the Consuls
2x Negate
4x Dynavolt Tower
2x Radiant Flames
2x Torrential Gearhulk
1x Fumigate
Towers are in SB to dodge the hate game 2/3.
I still want to test Cataclysmic Gearhulk, as it might be interesting choice.
Also need to look more closely at the manabase, Evolving Wilds might make sense there to help against flood, which happens to me from time to time, but I like manlands / hubs, so it's hard to tweak...
I will update OP this week, real life got in the way of doing it today...
I tried Gideon, and he was... Underwhelming. He can be countered with negates, we don't have a good way of protecting him once he's out.
I don't think we want his tokens, and the emblem does not seem so relevant with the Gearhulks and manlands if we go beatdown. So the only thing is the soldier mode. But we have already good ways of going beatdown...
Or is there something I did not see?
BG Rock
Modern:
RW Sun & Moon
RBG Dredge
RWG Burn
Legacy:
W Death & Taxes
Lands (26)
4x Aether Hub
2x Port Town
3x Inspiring Vantage
4x Spirebluff Canal
2x Needle Spires
3x Wandering Fumarole
4x Plains
3x Island
1x Mountain
Creatures (7)
3x Felidar Guardian
2x Torrential Gearhulk
2x Baral, Chief of Compliance
Planeswalkers (3)
3x Saheeli Rai
Spells (24)
2x Dispel
4x Anticipate
4x Harnessed Lightning
2x Declaration in Stone
2x Blessed Alliance
2x Negate
3x Disallow
3x Glimmer of Genius
2x Radiant Flames
Sideboard (15)
2x Shock
2x Authority of the Consuls
2x Negate
4x Dynavolt Tower
2x Radiant Flames
2x Torrential Gearhulk
1x Descend upon the Sinful
Two reasons for Declaration in Stone. Various token decks, that arise in popularity right now and also Metalwork Colossus decks that seem to be raising as well...
I have been trying Baral in my current iteration, but along Thing in the Ice to try and benefit further from the cost reduction. Most of the times though, I wished I had Glimmer instead.
Baral's Expertise though can get us rid of our opponent's Thalia while dropping Felidar Guardian in play
Here's the list I've been running - dedicated to combo, with only light control aspects:
4 Saheeli Rai
4 Felidar Guardian
4 Whirler Virtuoso
3 Decoction Module
Dig
4 Anticipate
3 Glimmer of Genius
3 Glassblower's Puzzleknot
Utility
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
3 Unsubstantiate
Counter
2 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Revolutionary Rebuff
2 Radiant Flames
Lands (23)
4 AEther Hub
4 Industry Spire
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Inspiring Vantage
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
3 Authority of the Consuls
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Radant Flames
2 Fragmentize
2 Declaration in Stone
1 Baral's Expertise
Focused on going off with Saheeli + Felidar, Felidar + Felidar + Decoction Module, or Whirler + 3 Decoction Module. The Puzzleknot is a bit weak on its own, but I'm rarely unhappy to see it. There may be better options, but it enables both our Rainbow lands, as well as being a solid turn 2 dig to enable going off on turn 4.
Not sure about the Rebuff main or the Baral's expertise in the side. Everything else has been pretty solid. Declarations are new - haven't had enough of a chance to try them out. Any suggestions?
I'm yet to try out the Controlling version. Curious if that works out better.
Saheelimurge
4 Filigree Familiar
1 Torrential Gearhulk
//Creature - Cat Beast (4)
4 Felidar Guardian
//Creature (8)
3 Aether Theorist
2 Archangel Avacyn
3 Elder Deep-Fiend
//Enchantment (2)
2 Stasis Snare
//Instant (11)
2 Glimmer of Genius
4 Harnessed Lightning
1 Immolating Glare
2 Negate
2 Void Shatter
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Saheeli Rai
//Land (25)
4 Aether Hub
2 Inspiring Vantage
5 Island
1 Mountain
5 Plains
3 Port Town
2 Spirebluff Canal
3 Wandering Fumarole
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Dispel
1 Fumigate
2 Negate
3 Radiant Flames
4 Shock
2 Sphinx of the Final Word
1 Void Shatter
I haven't put too much thought into the mana base because there is much work to do on the main and that will have a huge impact on what I run, but so far it's been about as good as the average 3 color list. The deep fiends with filigri familiars has been a pretty solid mid game plan that lets you go from durdle defensive to a 2 turn clock when combined with a fumerole. That puts them on the defensive very fast and you can slip in the combo then when they're dealing with your large monsters. Avacyn slots into this "flash fatty" game plan just as well and when combined with emerging something to flip her makes for a very fast clock. The lone hulk is there to partially make saheeli's -7 impactful since the deck doesn't have a ton of instants that are great to flash back. That along with the high curve makes me not want to have too many of them.
The energy scry creature is there in the anticipate slot because it fuels emerge while still providing card selection, but also as a solid blocker in the early game. Them combined with a familiar makes for an awkward situation for an aggro deck to put up with. You can spend one of your few removal spells to kill off a not so meaningful creature to push through and risk the combo or you attack in and accept a 2 for 1 on your x/3 after I already gained some life. It's cute and quaint, but also effective at slowing their development to give you time to either assemble the combo or start chaining your flash monsters and kill them out of nowhere.
The deep fiends serve not only as a great way to protect the combo by taping them out and letting you guardian into saheeli for the win, but their effectiveness as a threat shouldn't be understated. End of turn tap you out, animate fumerole and hit for 9 is a very scary sequence that every deck has to consider. It also has the mistbind clique effect where you can either tap out their mana on upkeep to cripple their development when cast on turn 4 or potentially eat a creature and prevent them from having a follow up by tapping them out during combat. It is also worth pointing out that the mana short effect is on cast, so if you're using it as protection for the combo against counter magic it doesn't have to resolve to do what you need done. The card on it's own has been so impressive when combined with any cheap value creatures that I really would like to add in the 4th copy and already miss reflector mage.
The glimmers are there because you do go late and you're going to want some raw card advantage in those games where you have to play completely fair. I like having the two as you don't have time early on to cast them and I think this is the correct number. You'll need something to gas up later on and in the early turns you're casting blockers and getting your filter on while playing to the board because you can't really take a full turn off against early aggression.
I want to reiterate that this list isn't close to proper tuning, this is more of a proof of concept. Not only is it good at forcing opponents to adapt to wildly different strategies, it is fun as hell! As is, the list is fairly weak but I don't have a lot of experience building midrange decks so it does need some work. Regardless I'm sure there is a viable list that can be made that focuses on value creatures with a deep fiend mid game plan.
Classy Control
4 Torrential Gearhulk
//Creature - Cat Beast (4)
4 Felidar Guardian
//Enchantment (1)
1 Quarantine Field
//Instant (18)
3 Anticipate
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Dispel
4 Glimmer of Genius
4 Harnessed Lightning
1 Immolating Glare
2 Negate
2 Void Shatter
4 Saheeli Rai
//Sorcery (3)
1 Fumigate
2 Radiant Flames
//Land (26)
4 Aether Hub
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Inspiring Vantage
5 Island
1 Mountain
5 Plains
2 Port Town
1 Spirebluff Canal
3 Wandering Fumarole
Not a whole lot to say on this one. It's the jeskai control we all know with the combo just shoved in basically. The guardian makes for a great blocker and sometimes blinking a land lets you double spell which makes for a good tempo boost. Also it has the benefit of forcing your opponent to keep and hold up removal which makes them fall very far behind to your control plan. Two angles of attack make for a very tricky game that your opponent has to play right to win, classic splinter twin stuff.
Far better version of the Mid Game Value list.
4 Filigree Familiar
4 Felidar Guardian
3 Aether Theorist
2 Archangel Avacyn
4 Elder Deep-Fiend
2 Whirler Virtuoso
Interaction
2 Stasis Snare
4 Harnessed Lightning
1 Immolating Glare
2 Negate
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Saheeli Rai
Mana Base
4 Aether Hub
3 Inspiring Vantage
5 Island
1 Mountain
5 Plains
3 Port Town
1 Spirebluff Canal
3 Wandering Fumarole
4 Felidar Guardian
3 Torrential Gearhulk
Instant 13
3 Anticipate
3 Harness Lighting
2 Glimmer of Genius
2 Shock
2 Disallow
1 Negate
Planeswalker 6
4 Saheeli Rai
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Sorcery 4
3 Radiant Flames
1 Fumigate
3 Renegade Map
1 Implement of Combustion
1 Pacification Array
Land 25
4 Port Town
3 Aether Hub
3 Inspiring Vantage
1 Spirebluff Canal
5 Island
4 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Wandering Fumarole
1 Stasis Snare
1 Fragmentize
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Linvala, the Preserver
1 Release the Gremlins
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Spell Queller
2 Fairgrounds Warden
2 Negate
2 Dispell
Shock should be valued over Harnessed Lightning if this combo becomes Tier 1.
Playing 1 or 2 Implement of Combustion isn't a huge cost to ping opposing S.Rai's for 1.
Renegade used with Implement of Combustion or Pacification Array could allow for Spire of Industry for the manabase
Putting a few Spell Queller and Fairgrounds Wardens in the SB might be useful.
Not really understanding a few things:
- Your artifact package ... the Implement and Maps seem pretty bad without you having the need for Revolt triggers.
- One Gideon seems out of place, why not all in MB or all in SB?
U/B Control (won in 3 off the Gearhulk in both games) - Answered the combo every time.
Mono-R Aggro (Lost in 3, won off the combo once on like turn 14)
Esper Aggro (Won in 2 - combo both time very late in the games)
R/G Energy (lost 2 - 1)
Mirror Match (Won 2 - 1 neither of us won off the combo, I side boarded it out)
G/W Human (lost in 2) Bad draws and his creatures get too big to fast, Side board slowed them down with Titi and Baral I was able to slow the match down, but I felt dominated.
This is a small pool I know but there are so many answers to the combo it has been hard to pull off, Do you wait until you can cast it all on turn 6 or wait until you have protection from a shock or grasp, I want to play splinter twin so bad again, that I am going to try this some more but I am not fully sold this combo can be competitive.