Match 1, vs. Grixis Harmless Pact - Win 2-0
This deck is actually really gross if it hits its curve. But as long as we can stop the kill spells and reserve something in-hand to kill Demonic Pact or Harmless Offering, all is well. We don't even really need to be attacking (at least not in this guy's build, he wasn't running any creatures)-- just hold on to enough cards that Pact can't make you discard more than you have and force them to to die by their own Pact. Summary Dismissal is hilarious here.
Match 2, vs. Bant Company - Loss 0-2
Game 1, I was absolutely mana flooded and drew nothing useful.
Game 2, I was absolutely mana screwed and drew 2 Avacyns, but never got past 4 mana.
Match 3, vs. Green-White Tokens - Win 2-1
Do not let them build Nissa or Hangarback Walker up. Dear god, do not. Unsubstantiate the latter and beat down the former. Otherwise it wasn't too bad, but when he started stacking Avacyns, I was pretty annoyed.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar is such a mean card. It is ALWAYS awful against us, but rarely ever feels good when I play it. I may drop her entirely.
Reflector Mage may be better placed in the sideboard. He's fantastic, sure, but only in matchups where we face big creature threats. He's useless against small threats, and can't attack in the air.
Ojutai's Command just feels like WAY too costly of a spell to hold mana open for and always just feels like an act of desperation that always comes up short. I don't know how I feel about it. May sideboard?
Always Watching ALWAYS feels good. It makes Mausoleum Wanderer more of a threat, lets us swing indiscriminately and allows us to block/sac Selfless Spirit and it's just amazing. I want to run a full playset.
Unsubstantiate only felt bad when they were able to re-cast the same spell right away. Otherwise, it's amazing. Also want to run 4.
Essence Flux also felt pretty great as advanced tech. If you know all the flicker tricks it's capable of, it's easily one of the most versatile cards in the deck, short of Unsubstantiate. Block and flicker to fizzle an attack. Flicker to fizzle a spell. Flicker to trigger Mausoleum Wanderer or Nebelgast Herald. Flicker to abuse ETB effects, especially reusing Spell Queller and Reflector Mage. Flicker on Archangel Avacyn's transform effect to activate her board-nuke and bring her back to her untransformed form, protecting your creatures. And so on. Very good card.
I have never needed to use Eerie Interlude. Will probably drop it.
Hallowed Moonlight is just too situational to be worth it, it feels, when we could just as easily counter the spell in other ways. It just never felt that good to have, even against Bant Company and GW Tokens.
I'm really beginning to think Imprisoned in the Moon should be mandatory sideboard tech for us, as is Summary Dismissal. The former can wreak so much havoc on their strategy when thrown on to their most important creature or planeswalker (I haven't had a use for it on land just yet), and the latter, while expensive, is a literal "counter EVERYTHING" spell. It's as expensive as O-command and less versatile, but keep in mind it can counter EVERYTHING-- spells AND abilities-- on the stack.
As much as I love aggressive control, I think I may start leaning toward a more draw-go style of control. Don't let your opponent resolve ANYTHING good, and just ping away with fliers. I don't know if I like Hoogland's build though. I'll mess with my deck and see what I come up with.
Always Watching is definitely a 4-of mainstay in the deck though. Being able to attack and defend while playing control is golden.
Kytheon was fun but seemed disappointing. I had no problem flipping him, but it seemed merely okay. Against comtrol it's a nice defense against board wipes. Against big creatures it's nice to give a Queller indestructible so it can block. Against small guys its nice to have a 4/4 attacker. But in general it seemed to just die quickly.
But I didn't have Always Watching. I think that might up the aggro game.
In place of Hallowed Moonlight I highly recommend Dispel. 1 mana to beat Coco or Drom Command or a counterspell (but not queller) is a good plan against the coco deck.
Eerie interlude I want to side against Gx midrange. Plan is to get a Nebelgast and a bunch of spirits on board. Then after blocking, exile everything, return eot, and tap everything they own.
Ojutai Command I still like, at least in some matches.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
An advice when you are constructing guys: don't sell yourself a card. Don't go and imagine the best case scenario forgetting that it may not work like that because you have an opponent across the board. I made the mistake of imagine all of my spirits with flash to play a draw-go style, but time after time my rattlechains was a removal eater, sometimes even letting my bait alive. Not that affects its pliability though. But we have to think in the best case scenario as well as the worst scenario. Take Bygone Bishop for example, it an be a source of constant card advantage, you may get a creature back with ojutai's command and draw a card and also get a clue, just great. But in my testing Bygone Bishop has been a 2/3 flier with no impact on the board before it gets removed as he don't have an ETB effect.
I've been testing but it's pretty tricky to get to a final list. Many spirits do more than one thing, and there's a package of counters and abilities to tap creatures, also some have flash and some may get flash eventually, so the scenarios are pretty unpredictable. Tempo might work with creatures + a package of removal and Unsubstantiate, but it's lacking efficient card draw. Aggro is the most difficult one imo because our creatures are awful blockers and we're not as fast as humans, so if we're behind on board, or miss a land drop or we're on the draw, the aggro plan has a very hard time recovering. A friend of mine is running 4 Always watching and it's worging for him, Mausoleum gets way bigger and turns into a 3/3 flying mana leak, and Queller and Avacyn get really scary. I'm running a more control orientated list (i'll post it when i get home), running the core creatures plus nebelgast herald, thraben inspector + bygone bishop for card draw, and Avacyn as finisher. I can consistently get 4-6 damage thru from turns 3 to 6, and that almost always enough. I'm seriously considering running negate on board since the biggest threats to the deck are instants and planeswalkers.
Anyways, i think there's no unique way to play the deck, every player must find the list that makes him more comfortable with his playstile and that's the beauty of the deck, it's incredibly versatile and fun to play.
I have found avacyn very underwhelming and I haven't watched a match where she wasn't a win more condition. The indestructible and flash is the only reason I even find her remotely useful. Anyone have different experiences with her? I hover between negate as a 2 of mainboard or side. I think I am gonna run scatter to the winds mainboard with unsubstantiate then sub out unsub for more specific removal.
Just like Anafenza, it's not worth it unless you're going all-in with all three things, plus pump spells, etc. But you lose out a lot in tempo and control playing that way.
I've been pondering what to do once rotation hits and we lose Ojutai's command. Given how things are that might be the time we splash for a third color, which I'm thinking may be red or black at this point.
considering that kaladesh will be full of 1/1 flying thopters tokens, which will be a very efficient way of blocking our ghosts (btw, ghosts go through things, they should be unblockable, such a flavour fail), the colour that gets the inevitable "tokens nerf" card, will be the colour we need to splash.
Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
On a sunny note, I did try swapping in some Always Watching into the deck and it made a world of difference for the more creature heavy variant. The only game I've lost so far was to a bad hand and my opponent getting Bruzela or whatever out, thus completely locking down our deck outside of Avacyn. I didn't see one spellqueller in my entire deck show up in my hand, which didn't help things much.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Tested against werewolves.
My opponent wasn't happy.
They can't fly.
They can barely flip & if they DO flip, something can tap it down.
They can't prepare for Dec in stone.
They hate getting their plainswalker countered.
Do not let them resolve a waxing moon.
It gives ALL of their creatures trample.
Selfless spirit is an all star.
I was able to run on fumes (3 lands) and win.
I've been running this build I put together. I'd say it's kind of a long range tempo variant. The plays are more oriented to calculation than brute force or advantage, which is why I'm not running things like Always Watching or Collected Company, at least for now. The green splash does a great job as fixing mana, as well as adding card advantage, delirium, and an edge in the sideboard. The deck can be slower as it runs less creatures and a delirium package, but the tempo can last longer and the sideboard I feel can shut down faster decks with permeating mass as an option and flyer hate that I think deserves slots against the various angels/spirits running around standard.
Tamiyo is the ideal tempo card. Beyond the staple spirits, Topplegeist is a house with delirium, and Bygone Bishop gives gas. I used to run Stasis Snare and Unsubstantiate(I think they are better in specific matchups), but I prefer counters and am testing Planar Outburst in the main. I think Grapple with the Past is very underrated right now(or simply outclassed by CoCo), as instant speed deck churn as well as pseudo anticipate. It helps delirium and fill the grave for more grapple, crop sigil, and command targets. Late game it's practically a creature tutor. With a rattlechains in play it can feel like I'm running 6 reanimation spells. The card selection in the deck I think can be powerful, as I can grab the correct responses at instant speed if necessary.
Matchup-wise it needs more testing. I was able to beat the mirror consistently, and post sideboard blanked an aggro deck. So far I've split with Bant but like I said haven't played enough.
I don't hate where you're going with this.
Grapple has proven itself on the PT.
It's a really good alternative to Ojutai's Command.
I like Gather the Pack as well (spell mastery on it is great).
Permeating Mass would be great in there as a sort of removal especially with Rattlechains on the field.
Vessel of nascency MIGHT be better than crop sigil because you don't need delirium to use it, but I see where crop sigil thrives.
Maybe consider pulse of murasa to help stay alive and get key creatures on deck.
I think this can improve in September.
Um, you can't splash mana fixing! You need green to get mana fixed, and with only 10 green lands you run a high risk of failing to be able to play green in the first 5 turns. I would change the lands around to get 14 green sources and go from there. If I did go Bant, my choice is Duskwatch Recruiter and Collected Company, unless you find a specific metagame reason to vary.
So delirium decks are on the ascendancy at the pro-tour. It may be time to side in the secret tech: Day's Undoing! If you aggressively cast all your cards, you can round out by turn 5 eliminating all the stuff accumulated in their grave, and refill your hand. Back that up with Unsubstantiate or Negate (you will draw 7, so probably have one) for whatever they cast, and next round you'll be golden to dump 3 more creatures on the field.
If zombie reanimation is a threat (Prized Amalgam), Hallowed Moonlight. If Kozilek's Return is the issue, Selfless Spirit, AVacyn, or Eerie Interlude work.
What are the general thoughts on Fortune's Favor and Lunar Force? They seem pretty interesting. Though Lunar Force seems a little difficult to use since you can't choose to not sacrifice it-- it must be used.
EDIT: Also, what about Convolute over Clash of Wills or the 1UU absolute counters? It's basically a more expensive and awkward Mana Leak, but more importantly, it costs only one blue over two and is more mana-efficient than Clash of Wills is.
What are the general thoughts on Fortune's Favor and Lunar Force? They seem pretty interesting. Though Lunar Force seems a little difficult to use since you can't choose to not sacrifice it-- it must be used.
EDIT: Also, what about Convolute over Clash of Wills or the 1UU absolute counters? It's basically a more expensive and awkward Mana Leak, but more importantly, it costs only one blue over two and is more mana-efficient than Clash of Wills is.
Scatter to the winds is a hard counter as well 3 mana
I know, that's what I was referring to-- that and Void Shatter. I just noticed that there were a handful of games where I was getting screwed out of blue sources and could not cast that or Scatter to the Winds when I needed them due to the double blue cost. Convolute may as well be a hard counter in most cases (just like Mana Leak most often is in other formats because opponents either do not have 3 mana to pay or don't want to), so it felt like a fair tradeoff.
EDIT: I think this is what I'll be working with at FNM tonight:
I don't know for sure how I feel about it, but I think running a more draw-go tempo control style with lots of counterspells to throw their tempo way off may help quite a bit-- and Always Watching means very big and constant damage once it lands. Essence Flux and Unsubstantiate are ridiculously versatile-- especially since they can be used to recur our own ETB things as well. I'm not a huge fan of O-Command, so I dropped down to 1MB/1SB. Imprisoned in the Moon will get a chance as well in the SB. Planar Outburst is a new addition for extra-aggro matchups since I'll be running less aggressively. Selfless Spirit can be used to negate it on my own creatures. Running a mixture of counterspells as an experiment to see which ones feel the best, but I know Unsubstantiate and Scatter to the Winds are solid additions.
All in all, however, everything in the deck except for Always Watching can be used as a counter to something else in some form, which was my main goal-- to have everything be disruptive in some way.
Main: Mausoleum Wanderer - Can be used as a counter to instants and sorceries Rattlechains - Can be used as a flash counter to spot removal, making a spirit hexproof Selfless Spirit - Can be used as a counter to removal/boardwipes that are not Grasp of Darkness or Languish, and can protect me from my own Archangel Avacyn flips or Planar Outbursts Nebelgast Herald - Can be used as a pre-emptive counter to attacks or blocks, as well as any other spirit cast after it Spell Queller - Can be used to stop (note, it does not say "counter", so it can counter things that say that they cannot be "countered") any spell 4 CMC or less, including Languish Archangel Avacyn - Can be used to negate spot removal, block damage, and boardwipes that are not Languish (and she herself is safe from Languish if Always Watching is out)
Unsubstantiate - Can be used as a tempo bounce to any spell (and note that it doesn't say "counter"), and can be used to bounce creatures, including our own Essence Flux - Can be used to fizzle target spells (also not a "counter"), negate attacks after blocking, abuse ETB triggers, flicker Avacyn on flip to protect our creatures and allow a second flip Scatter to the Winds - Can be used as a hard counter, and if truly necessary, animate a land with haste Ojutai's Command - Can be used as a versatile but expensive creature counter, bring back Mausoleum Wanderer, Rattlechains, or Selfless Spirit (and use their disruptions again), gain life, or draw a card Clash of Wills - Can be used to counter any spell, but pray you have enough mana open for it to be worthwhile Convolute - Can be used as a less-absolute counter than Scatter to the Winds, but has the upside of not needing double blue mana open
Side: Reflector Mage - Can be used to remove creatures for extended periods of time and keep new ones from being cast with the same name; can be recurred with Essence Flux or Unsubstantiate Negate - Can be used as a fast hard counter against more spell-based decks Stasis Snare - Can be used to remove an annoying creature at instant speed Declaration in Stone - Can be used to remove creatures, especially if they have more than one of the same name Planar Outburst - Can be used as emergency removal; Selfless Spirit can keep your creatures safe from it (or use Essence Flux on Avacyn if she's out) Summary Dismissal - Can be used as an absolute hard counter to absolutely anything. This includes "when you cast" abilities, Planeswalker abilities, Demonic Pact's game-ending ability, and so on. Expensive, so stays in SB for now. Imprisoned in the Moon - Can be used to make a creature, planeswalker, or land completely useless.
I highly recommend at least two Imprisoned in the moon. A singleton wont stop the GB delirium decks I've been running into lately. To be frank, though, GB delirium is basically a bunch of kill spells with creatures that just happen to get better late game when the graveyard gets filled. I'm usually just flying over most of their death touch creatures, and flicker + counter spells gives them a migraine.
Private Mod Note
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I highly recommend at least two Imprisoned in the moon. A singleton wont stop the GB delirium decks I've been running into lately. To be frank, though, GB delirium is basically a bunch of kill spells with creatures that just happen to get better late game when the graveyard gets filled. I'm usually just flying over most of their death touch creatures, and flicker + counter spells gives them a migraine.
Is this mainly to stop Lili? Also does wonders against ramp.
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Standard: UB Control
Modern: UWR Control
EDH: Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Phelddagrif
Glissa, the Traitor
Rosheen Meanderer
I highly recommend at least two Imprisoned in the moon. A singleton wont stop the GB delirium decks I've been running into lately. To be frank, though, GB delirium is basically a bunch of kill spells with creatures that just happen to get better late game when the graveyard gets filled. I'm usually just flying over most of their death touch creatures, and flicker + counter spells gives them a migraine.
Is this mainly to stop Lili? Also does wonders against ramp.
Yeah because they run so many liliana that even if you get one I've ran into situations where thanks to their card draw they just grab the next before we can close the game with fliers. Haven't had too many problems with Nixilis, though. You'd think a hard counter of the multitude of spell queller would be enough, but sometimes they still slip through the cracks. That -2/-1 ability is pretty nasty.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
So listen, this deck is pretty damned amazing. I did not go undefeated, but that wasn't because of the deck itself, just extreme bad luck. I'll explain later, but do not take me going 3-2 as if this was a bad setup, because it felt fantastic.
I did make a small tweak to the deck before starting, however, dropping 2 counterspells for Declaration in Stone.
Match 1: vs. Green Eldrazi Ramp, win 2-0
Not much to say about this one. The kid told me he was playing an older deck with some small tweaks, but the deck's big weakness is flying. Unfortunately for him, everything I have flies. I won both rounds in less than 10 minutes.
Match 2: vs. RG Vampires/Goblins/Prowess, loss 1-2
Game 1: Won with little issue.
Game 2: Loss - Made the stupid mistake of keeping a 1-mana hand. Did not get to play anything, because for 6 turns, I drew no lands. Feels really bad.
Game 3: Loss - I was on curve, but he could just pump out creatures faster than I could stop them and I just didn't get any counterspells when I needed them. So he got me, but it was very, very close.
Match 3: vs. Black Eldrazi Control, win 2-0
Tempo control reigns supreme. It was a pretty easy win.
Match 4: vs. BG Seasons Past, loss 1-2
Game 1: Loss - Drew a no-land hand, mulliganed to 6 with a 4-mana hand. Not amazing, but I figured it was a safe bet. Nope. Drew NOTHING but land for about 8 turns. Felt AWFUL.
Game 2: Win - The god hand. Played creatures and counters with perfect flow.
Game 3: Loss - Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is such a miserable card to face. I had a good board state going (but few counterspells outside of the Quellers I had already cast), but he Naturalized my Always Watching... twice... and Languished the entire board. He then used Seasons Past to get everything back. I really wish I had Day's Undoing here.
Match 5: vs. RB Vampires, win 2-0
Game 1: Win - Furyblade Vampire and Stromkirk Occultist are really annoying. Remove or counter them at any costs.
Game 2: Win - I sideboarded in Planar Outburst to try to stop his board state, but it didn't really matter. I needed to play defensively, but once I got Always Watching out, the game was over.
Notes:
- This deck felt WAY better than the last one. All but one of my bad games were pretty much the typical bad luck mana flood/mana screw situations (the other was where I couldn't stop Languish and Seasons Past went off, ugh). But for everything else, the tempo and control were on point and I'm really happy with the results. I really would like some source of card draw though-- that DIDN'T feel very good.
- There's so much interaction in this setup. Even when I felt like I was in a hopeless situation, I figured out some really nasty combos that saved me. There was one game where I stopped a Languish by using Essence Flux on one of my spirits with 2 Mausoleum Wanderers on the board, and I sacrificed both of them to stop it (forcing him to pay 2 mana twice to cast it and he couldn't), saving the other creatures I had on the board. Didn't like losing those, but it was worth it.
- People really hate Spell Queller. It's funny.
- I never bothered to flip Avacyn when she came out. She felt much more valuable to just swing with Vigilance than to lose it. May drop one and put in an Elder Deep-Fiend-- but I do wonder what I'd even sacrifice to cast it. I sure don't want to lose a Spell Queller to it.
- Once again, Always Watching was the game-ending MVP. Unsubstantiate and Essence Flux were always useful too. Definitely going to keep running playsets of Always Watching and Unsubstantiate.
- I'm partially considering dropping 1 mana down to 22, but part of me thinks that's also a really dumb idea just because I'm irritated over the matches where I was mana flooded.
- Dropping Reflector Mage to the sideboard felt okay. There were some cases that I wished I had him, but they were uncommon as I was already countering, tapping, or bouncing bigger threats away.
For consideration:
- What can we use to get some card advantage going on? Against decks like Seasons Past and Vampires, it feels like I'm struggling to keep up with them while they're drowning in cards.
- Lunar Force: good or bad idea? I like the psychological effect it has-- the opponent knows their next spell will surely be countered, so it forces them to waste something on it while you have another counter ready in your hand.
- Invocation of Saint Traft: good or bad idea? It seems like a disgusting tempo play, but anything that wears it is going to be an instant removal magnet. So if you were to play it, have counters in stock.
- Day's Undoing seems like a worthwhile addition if Delirium and Seasons Past are going to be a thing.
- Definitely want to drop a Stasis Snare (or both) for more Imprisoned in the Moon. There's a reason why I was only running one-- I only had one.
- I really want to test this against Bant Company and BG Delirium. I never did get matched up with someone running it. It was cool to play against some of the homebrews I saw, but they're not a very good example of the meta.
So yes, to answer your questions: run more than one Imprisoned in the Moon. I boarded it in in game 3 against Seasons Past, and managed to pull it, but when faced with the choice between putting it on Nissa or Kalitas, it went on Kalitas. I absolutely HATE Kalitas. I wished I had more. I think I'd be happy to run 3 in the sideboard. But for today, I only had one.
I think this is surely the concept I'll keep for Game Day-- just with some minor tweaks along the way. I hope I get to face Bant Company and Delirium if I can get in to play this Wednesday.
I was running:
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4 Spell Queller
4 Nebelgast Herald
3 Reflector Mage
2 Archangel Avacyn
3 Essence Flux
2 Unsubstantiate
2 Ojutai's Command
3 Always Watching
Land (23)
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
8 Island
7 Plains
2 Scatter to the Winds
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Eerie Interlude
2 Borrowed Grace
2 Summary Dismissal
1 Unsubstantiate
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Essence Flux
1 Hallowed Moonlight
1 Stasis Snare
Match 1, vs. Grixis Harmless Pact - Win 2-0
This deck is actually really gross if it hits its curve. But as long as we can stop the kill spells and reserve something in-hand to kill Demonic Pact or Harmless Offering, all is well. We don't even really need to be attacking (at least not in this guy's build, he wasn't running any creatures)-- just hold on to enough cards that Pact can't make you discard more than you have and force them to to die by their own Pact. Summary Dismissal is hilarious here.
Match 2, vs. Bant Company - Loss 0-2
Game 1, I was absolutely mana flooded and drew nothing useful.
Game 2, I was absolutely mana screwed and drew 2 Avacyns, but never got past 4 mana.
Match 3, vs. Green-White Tokens - Win 2-1
Do not let them build Nissa or Hangarback Walker up. Dear god, do not. Unsubstantiate the latter and beat down the former. Otherwise it wasn't too bad, but when he started stacking Avacyns, I was pretty annoyed.
Notes about my deck:
As much as I love aggressive control, I think I may start leaning toward a more draw-go style of control. Don't let your opponent resolve ANYTHING good, and just ping away with fliers. I don't know if I like Hoogland's build though. I'll mess with my deck and see what I come up with.
Always Watching is definitely a 4-of mainstay in the deck though. Being able to attack and defend while playing control is golden.
EDIT: Someone piloted what was basically my original Midrange setup to a 5-0: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/453447#paper
Man, the choices are so hard to make. This deck is so versatile that it's always hard to decide what is the best form to play it in.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
Kytheon was fun but seemed disappointing. I had no problem flipping him, but it seemed merely okay. Against comtrol it's a nice defense against board wipes. Against big creatures it's nice to give a Queller indestructible so it can block. Against small guys its nice to have a 4/4 attacker. But in general it seemed to just die quickly.
But I didn't have Always Watching. I think that might up the aggro game.
In place of Hallowed Moonlight I highly recommend Dispel. 1 mana to beat Coco or Drom Command or a counterspell (but not queller) is a good plan against the coco deck.
Eerie interlude I want to side against Gx midrange. Plan is to get a Nebelgast and a bunch of spirits on board. Then after blocking, exile everything, return eot, and tap everything they own.
Ojutai Command I still like, at least in some matches.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
I've been testing but it's pretty tricky to get to a final list. Many spirits do more than one thing, and there's a package of counters and abilities to tap creatures, also some have flash and some may get flash eventually, so the scenarios are pretty unpredictable. Tempo might work with creatures + a package of removal and Unsubstantiate, but it's lacking efficient card draw. Aggro is the most difficult one imo because our creatures are awful blockers and we're not as fast as humans, so if we're behind on board, or miss a land drop or we're on the draw, the aggro plan has a very hard time recovering. A friend of mine is running 4 Always watching and it's worging for him, Mausoleum gets way bigger and turns into a 3/3 flying mana leak, and Queller and Avacyn get really scary. I'm running a more control orientated list (i'll post it when i get home), running the core creatures plus nebelgast herald, thraben inspector + bygone bishop for card draw, and Avacyn as finisher. I can consistently get 4-6 damage thru from turns 3 to 6, and that almost always enough. I'm seriously considering running negate on board since the biggest threats to the deck are instants and planeswalkers.
Anyways, i think there's no unique way to play the deck, every player must find the list that makes him more comfortable with his playstile and that's the beauty of the deck, it's incredibly versatile and fun to play.
4x Topplegeist
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
4x Rattlechains
4x Selfless Spirit
2x Dimensional Infiltrator
4x Spell Queller
4x Nebelgast Herald
4x Always Watching
Land (23)
7x Island
8x Plains
4x Port Town
4x Prairie Stream
Instant (7)
3x Essence Flux
2x Negate
2x Unsubstantiate
3x Declaration in Stone
2x Dimensional Infiltrator
2x Dispel
2x Eerie Interlude
2x Negate
2x Ojutai's Command
2x Scatter to the Winds
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
considering that kaladesh will be full of 1/1 flying thopters tokens, which will be a very efficient way of blocking our ghosts (btw, ghosts go through things, they should be unblockable, such a flavour fail), the colour that gets the inevitable "tokens nerf" card, will be the colour we need to splash.
Black has an history of getting such cards ( ilness in the ranks, virulent plague...)
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
My opponent wasn't happy.
They can't fly.
They can barely flip & if they DO flip, something can tap it down.
They can't prepare for Dec in stone.
They hate getting their plainswalker countered.
Do not let them resolve a waxing moon.
It gives ALL of their creatures trample.
Selfless spirit is an all star.
I was able to run on fumes (3 lands) and win.
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
4x Rattlechains
4x Spell Queller
3x Selfless Spirit
3x Topplegeist
2x Bygone Bishop
Instants
4x Grapple with the Past
2x Clash of Wills
2x Ojutai's Command
1x Planar Outburst
2x Tamiyo, Field Researcher
3x Traverse the Ulvenwald
2x Crop Sigil
Land
3x Yavimaya Coast
3x Fortified Village
2x Prairie Stream
2x Port Town
1x Lumbering Falls
3x Forest
5x Plains
5x Island
I've been running this build I put together. I'd say it's kind of a long range tempo variant. The plays are more oriented to calculation than brute force or advantage, which is why I'm not running things like Always Watching or Collected Company, at least for now. The green splash does a great job as fixing mana, as well as adding card advantage, delirium, and an edge in the sideboard. The deck can be slower as it runs less creatures and a delirium package, but the tempo can last longer and the sideboard I feel can shut down faster decks with permeating mass as an option and flyer hate that I think deserves slots against the various angels/spirits running around standard.
Tamiyo is the ideal tempo card. Beyond the staple spirits, Topplegeist is a house with delirium, and Bygone Bishop gives gas. I used to run Stasis Snare and Unsubstantiate(I think they are better in specific matchups), but I prefer counters and am testing Planar Outburst in the main. I think Grapple with the Past is very underrated right now(or simply outclassed by CoCo), as instant speed deck churn as well as pseudo anticipate. It helps delirium and fill the grave for more grapple, crop sigil, and command targets. Late game it's practically a creature tutor. With a rattlechains in play it can feel like I'm running 6 reanimation spells. The card selection in the deck I think can be powerful, as I can grab the correct responses at instant speed if necessary.
Matchup-wise it needs more testing. I was able to beat the mirror consistently, and post sideboard blanked an aggro deck. So far I've split with Bant but like I said haven't played enough.
I don't hate where you're going with this.
Grapple has proven itself on the PT.
It's a really good alternative to Ojutai's Command.
I like Gather the Pack as well (spell mastery on it is great).
Permeating Mass would be great in there as a sort of removal especially with Rattlechains on the field.
Vessel of nascency MIGHT be better than crop sigil because you don't need delirium to use it, but I see where crop sigil thrives.
Maybe consider pulse of murasa to help stay alive and get key creatures on deck.
I think this can improve in September.
I hope but I don't think we will see another broken spirit...
We just need decent support cards with bant colors.
So delirium decks are on the ascendancy at the pro-tour. It may be time to side in the secret tech: Day's Undoing! If you aggressively cast all your cards, you can round out by turn 5 eliminating all the stuff accumulated in their grave, and refill your hand. Back that up with Unsubstantiate or Negate (you will draw 7, so probably have one) for whatever they cast, and next round you'll be golden to dump 3 more creatures on the field.
If zombie reanimation is a threat (Prized Amalgam), Hallowed Moonlight. If Kozilek's Return is the issue, Selfless Spirit, AVacyn, or Eerie Interlude work.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
What are the general thoughts on Fortune's Favor and Lunar Force? They seem pretty interesting. Though Lunar Force seems a little difficult to use since you can't choose to not sacrifice it-- it must be used.
EDIT: Also, what about Convolute over Clash of Wills or the 1UU absolute counters? It's basically a more expensive and awkward Mana Leak, but more importantly, it costs only one blue over two and is more mana-efficient than Clash of Wills is.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
Scatter to the winds is a hard counter as well 3 mana
EDIT: I think this is what I'll be working with at FNM tonight:
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
3 Nebelgast Herald
4 Spell Queller
2 Archangel Avacyn
Spells (16)
4 Unsubstantiate
4 Always Watching
3 Essence Flux
2 Scatter to the Winds
1 Ojutai's Command
1 Clash of Wills
1 Convolute
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
8 Island
7 Plains
3 Reflector Mage
2 Stasis Snare
2 Negate
2 Planar Outburst
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Summary Dismissal
1 Imprisoned in the Moon
1 Ojutai's Command
I don't know for sure how I feel about it, but I think running a more draw-go tempo control style with lots of counterspells to throw their tempo way off may help quite a bit-- and Always Watching means very big and constant damage once it lands. Essence Flux and Unsubstantiate are ridiculously versatile-- especially since they can be used to recur our own ETB things as well. I'm not a huge fan of O-Command, so I dropped down to 1MB/1SB. Imprisoned in the Moon will get a chance as well in the SB. Planar Outburst is a new addition for extra-aggro matchups since I'll be running less aggressively. Selfless Spirit can be used to negate it on my own creatures. Running a mixture of counterspells as an experiment to see which ones feel the best, but I know Unsubstantiate and Scatter to the Winds are solid additions.
All in all, however, everything in the deck except for Always Watching can be used as a counter to something else in some form, which was my main goal-- to have everything be disruptive in some way.
Main:
Mausoleum Wanderer - Can be used as a counter to instants and sorceries
Rattlechains - Can be used as a flash counter to spot removal, making a spirit hexproof
Selfless Spirit - Can be used as a counter to removal/boardwipes that are not Grasp of Darkness or Languish, and can protect me from my own Archangel Avacyn flips or Planar Outbursts
Nebelgast Herald - Can be used as a pre-emptive counter to attacks or blocks, as well as any other spirit cast after it
Spell Queller - Can be used to stop (note, it does not say "counter", so it can counter things that say that they cannot be "countered") any spell 4 CMC or less, including Languish
Archangel Avacyn - Can be used to negate spot removal, block damage, and boardwipes that are not Languish (and she herself is safe from Languish if Always Watching is out)
Unsubstantiate - Can be used as a tempo bounce to any spell (and note that it doesn't say "counter"), and can be used to bounce creatures, including our own
Essence Flux - Can be used to fizzle target spells (also not a "counter"), negate attacks after blocking, abuse ETB triggers, flicker Avacyn on flip to protect our creatures and allow a second flip
Scatter to the Winds - Can be used as a hard counter, and if truly necessary, animate a land with haste
Ojutai's Command - Can be used as a versatile but expensive creature counter, bring back Mausoleum Wanderer, Rattlechains, or Selfless Spirit (and use their disruptions again), gain life, or draw a card
Clash of Wills - Can be used to counter any spell, but pray you have enough mana open for it to be worthwhile
Convolute - Can be used as a less-absolute counter than Scatter to the Winds, but has the upside of not needing double blue mana open
Side:
Reflector Mage - Can be used to remove creatures for extended periods of time and keep new ones from being cast with the same name; can be recurred with Essence Flux or Unsubstantiate
Negate - Can be used as a fast hard counter against more spell-based decks
Stasis Snare - Can be used to remove an annoying creature at instant speed
Declaration in Stone - Can be used to remove creatures, especially if they have more than one of the same name
Planar Outburst - Can be used as emergency removal; Selfless Spirit can keep your creatures safe from it (or use Essence Flux on Avacyn if she's out)
Summary Dismissal - Can be used as an absolute hard counter to absolutely anything. This includes "when you cast" abilities, Planeswalker abilities, Demonic Pact's game-ending ability, and so on. Expensive, so stays in SB for now.
Imprisoned in the Moon - Can be used to make a creature, planeswalker, or land completely useless.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Is this mainly to stop Lili? Also does wonders against ramp.
Modern: UWR Control
EDH: Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Phelddagrif
Glissa, the Traitor
Rosheen Meanderer
RIP Jimmy foREVer
Yeah because they run so many liliana that even if you get one I've ran into situations where thanks to their card draw they just grab the next before we can close the game with fliers. Haven't had too many problems with Nixilis, though. You'd think a hard counter of the multitude of spell queller would be enough, but sometimes they still slip through the cracks. That -2/-1 ability is pretty nasty.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
So listen, this deck is pretty damned amazing. I did not go undefeated, but that wasn't because of the deck itself, just extreme bad luck. I'll explain later, but do not take me going 3-2 as if this was a bad setup, because it felt fantastic.
I did make a small tweak to the deck before starting, however, dropping 2 counterspells for Declaration in Stone.
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Rattlechains
4 Selfless Spirit
3 Nebelgast Herald
4 Spell Queller
2 Archangel Avacyn
Spells (16)
4 Unsubstantiate
4 Always Watching
3 Essence Flux
2 Scatter to the Winds
2 Declaration in Stone
1 Ojutai's Command
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
8 Island
7 Plains
3 Reflector Mage
2 Stasis Snare
2 Negate
2 Planar Outburst
2 Summary Dismissal
1 Convolute
1 Void Shatter
1 Imprisoned in the Moon
1 Ojutai's Command
FNM 8/5/16: 3 wins, 2 losses
Match 1: vs. Green Eldrazi Ramp, win 2-0
Not much to say about this one. The kid told me he was playing an older deck with some small tweaks, but the deck's big weakness is flying. Unfortunately for him, everything I have flies. I won both rounds in less than 10 minutes.
Match 2: vs. RG Vampires/Goblins/Prowess, loss 1-2
Game 1: Won with little issue.
Game 2: Loss - Made the stupid mistake of keeping a 1-mana hand. Did not get to play anything, because for 6 turns, I drew no lands. Feels really bad.
Game 3: Loss - I was on curve, but he could just pump out creatures faster than I could stop them and I just didn't get any counterspells when I needed them. So he got me, but it was very, very close.
Match 3: vs. Black Eldrazi Control, win 2-0
Tempo control reigns supreme. It was a pretty easy win.
Match 4: vs. BG Seasons Past, loss 1-2
Game 1: Loss - Drew a no-land hand, mulliganed to 6 with a 4-mana hand. Not amazing, but I figured it was a safe bet. Nope. Drew NOTHING but land for about 8 turns. Felt AWFUL.
Game 2: Win - The god hand. Played creatures and counters with perfect flow.
Game 3: Loss - Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is such a miserable card to face. I had a good board state going (but few counterspells outside of the Quellers I had already cast), but he Naturalized my Always Watching... twice... and Languished the entire board. He then used Seasons Past to get everything back. I really wish I had Day's Undoing here.
Match 5: vs. RB Vampires, win 2-0
Game 1: Win - Furyblade Vampire and Stromkirk Occultist are really annoying. Remove or counter them at any costs.
Game 2: Win - I sideboarded in Planar Outburst to try to stop his board state, but it didn't really matter. I needed to play defensively, but once I got Always Watching out, the game was over.
Notes:
- This deck felt WAY better than the last one. All but one of my bad games were pretty much the typical bad luck mana flood/mana screw situations (the other was where I couldn't stop Languish and Seasons Past went off, ugh). But for everything else, the tempo and control were on point and I'm really happy with the results. I really would like some source of card draw though-- that DIDN'T feel very good.
- There's so much interaction in this setup. Even when I felt like I was in a hopeless situation, I figured out some really nasty combos that saved me. There was one game where I stopped a Languish by using Essence Flux on one of my spirits with 2 Mausoleum Wanderers on the board, and I sacrificed both of them to stop it (forcing him to pay 2 mana twice to cast it and he couldn't), saving the other creatures I had on the board. Didn't like losing those, but it was worth it.
- People really hate Spell Queller. It's funny.
- I never bothered to flip Avacyn when she came out. She felt much more valuable to just swing with Vigilance than to lose it. May drop one and put in an Elder Deep-Fiend-- but I do wonder what I'd even sacrifice to cast it. I sure don't want to lose a Spell Queller to it.
- Once again, Always Watching was the game-ending MVP. Unsubstantiate and Essence Flux were always useful too. Definitely going to keep running playsets of Always Watching and Unsubstantiate.
- I'm partially considering dropping 1 mana down to 22, but part of me thinks that's also a really dumb idea just because I'm irritated over the matches where I was mana flooded.
- Dropping Reflector Mage to the sideboard felt okay. There were some cases that I wished I had him, but they were uncommon as I was already countering, tapping, or bouncing bigger threats away.
For consideration:
- What can we use to get some card advantage going on? Against decks like Seasons Past and Vampires, it feels like I'm struggling to keep up with them while they're drowning in cards.
- Lunar Force: good or bad idea? I like the psychological effect it has-- the opponent knows their next spell will surely be countered, so it forces them to waste something on it while you have another counter ready in your hand.
- Invocation of Saint Traft: good or bad idea? It seems like a disgusting tempo play, but anything that wears it is going to be an instant removal magnet. So if you were to play it, have counters in stock.
- Day's Undoing seems like a worthwhile addition if Delirium and Seasons Past are going to be a thing.
- Definitely want to drop a Stasis Snare (or both) for more Imprisoned in the Moon. There's a reason why I was only running one-- I only had one.
- I really want to test this against Bant Company and BG Delirium. I never did get matched up with someone running it. It was cool to play against some of the homebrews I saw, but they're not a very good example of the meta.
So yes, to answer your questions: run more than one Imprisoned in the Moon. I boarded it in in game 3 against Seasons Past, and managed to pull it, but when faced with the choice between putting it on Nissa or Kalitas, it went on Kalitas. I absolutely HATE Kalitas. I wished I had more. I think I'd be happy to run 3 in the sideboard. But for today, I only had one.
I think this is surely the concept I'll keep for Game Day-- just with some minor tweaks along the way. I hope I get to face Bant Company and Delirium if I can get in to play this Wednesday.
WB Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim | WBR Queen Marchesa | WUBR Breya, Etherium Shaper
Modern:
/ Death and Taxes | W/ Soul Sisters | Spirits | U Faeries | Tempered Steel Affinity
Plussing for card draw with a backup bounce seems to fit in with the gameplan fairly well...