I'm okay with it. The decision to go no Censor was not a card-availability issue, but was rather an intentional choice. That having been said, I'm pretty new to Magic and I'm willing to accept the possibility that I'm wrong.
I think that Censor existing in the metagame is enough. I think the threat of Censor is just as good as actually having Censor. And I don't think that actually having Censor is worth a full card. If my opponents knew there was no Censor in my list at all, that's a different story.
I ve been running your deck from the day i saw your post last last months... (your first page version of approach of the second cat) and im always at the top of the standings here at at local gamestores here in Manila... But.... i adjusted your deck...
-2 pull from tomorrow
+1 search for azcanta
+1 thaumatic compass
Thats why i have 3 main azcanta and 3 main compass.
Thanks for your ideas.
Thanks, this is the latest version of deck which I posted on page 7 but I've posted it below, too.
So, I cut the 2 Kefnets because they did nothing for me at the last tourney so I replaced them with a 4th Sunscourge Champion and 1 Wakening's Sun's Avatar. A lot of people have Negates to try to counter my Fumigates and Settle the Wreckages so a creature board wipe should be good, I didn't get to test it yet since I didn't get to play since last month.
I have also changed the sideboard and put in 2 Sailor of means just to test it out, they are 1/4 so they can block a lot of creatures, they get me 1 extra mana when they come into play and the work well with Bishop of Rebirth since they are 3 to cast.
The Vizier of Deferment is a beast coming out from the sideboard to deal with tokens or remove one of our creatures so we can get the come into play effect again and also acts as a Flash 2/2 blocker that no one expects, it's a greatly underrated card.
The 2 Pull from Tomorow are needed main deck because the Champion of Wits doesn't get you card advantage but just lets you look through more cards and then choose what to discard, so by turn 4-5 I'm almost out of cards and need to cast a pull for tomorrow for 3-4 to refill my hand.
I'm glad you are enjoying playing the deck and it's winning games, I am 100% convinced that Thaumatic Compass simply makes this deck survive more often than it should, and also along with Search for Azcanta they work together as mana ramp, since on turn 6 you can flip search to get 7 lands and at the end of turn flip compass and get 8 lands. I wanted to fit in 3 Thaumatic Compass but I don't know what to take out yet for that.
This is the best U/W control deck that I have ever played or made in my long magic playing history (started back in 1996). The deck is a MASTERPIECE of control/combo. It is a combo deck but it's a ONE card combo, Approach of the second sun and everything else is in the deck to keep you ALIVE long enough to cast this sorcery twice to win the game. After sideboarding and adding in 7-8 creature this deck becomes an aggro/combo deck since I still keep 2 Approaches in the deck.
The reason that this version of the deck works well is because it's running a lot of cheap casting cost cards which are really powerful!!!
At 2 mana cost we are looking at:
4 Essence Scatter
2 Negates
2 Thaumatic Compass
2 Search for Azcanta TEN spells at 2 mana.
So you have a wide variety of choices of something to cast on turn two, or you can stay back and counter something that your opponent does.
At 3 mana casting cost you have:
4 Sunscourge Champion
3 Champion of Wits
2 Supreme Will
2 Disallow
That's ELEVEN spells at 3 mana casting cost.
You can choose to cast one of the creatures and I usualy try to cast the champion of wits first and try to dump other champions in the graveyard, against aggro decks you will want to cast the Sunscourge champion on turn 3 to get a blocker and gain some life. If not you can keep mana back and counter something your opponent will do.
At 4 Casting cost we have:
3 Cast Out
3 Settle the Wreckage
SIX spells at 4 casting cost, out of which 3 can be cycled for just one mana and the other 3 can remove one or more attackers at instant speed.
At 5 casting cost:
3 Fumigate
2 Pull from Tomorrow
I put the pulls here because usually I cast a pull for 3 or sometimes 4 only, I don't need to wait a long time but I want to refill my hand with cards on turn 5 or 6.
There are no 6 casting cost cards.
At 7 casting cost we have 3 Approach of the second sun!
At 8 casting cost we have 1 Wakening Sun's Avatar.
So, the deck runs very low to the ground with a lof of spells at 2 mana or 3 mana casting cost which allows us to cast multiple spells as soon as we reach 5-6 mana available which is really good for a control deck to be able to do.
I can't wait to play this week since I'll finally have time for FNM since 3 weeks ago. I can't wait to test the Wakening Sun's Avatar main deck and also the crazy changes in the sideboard.
Headed to a PPTQ this weekend in Spanish Fort, Alabama. Going to take Esper Approach. I have been doing a lot of testing and found being able to turn it into basically a UB Control deck G2 has worked very well. I miss having Gideon of the Trials but his mana cost is just too hard to add in the deck.
Still on the fence of 4 Essence Scatter or a 2/2 split with Supreme Will or just a 3/3/3/3 split between Censor, Disallow, Essence and Supreme. If I change from the 4 Scatters, I will change the 2 Cancel in the side to Negate.
My sideboard plan is also listed. It is just a guide. I won’t board in that for every game, it will depend on how the previous game went. Sometimes I will only board in a few cards instead of totally changing the deck. But I like to have a plan for the max number of cards I can swap out.
I like Lightning and Abrade better than Push. But I like all the other cards you get with Black, Duress, Vraska'a Contempt, Scarab God, Essence Extraction. That is the main reason I am going with Esper this weekend. And being able to switch to full UB control after sideboard is very appealing to me. This may end up terrible but I have a good feeling about this. Right now I am just trying out a ton of different stuff to see what feels the best.
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Modern
Currently Playing UW UW Control/Miracles R Skred Red
@xaltair - Playing / trying the Vizier of Deferment is a great idea. It indeed deals with annoying tokens rather well and, especially in your deck, it can get value out of your own come in to play effect creatures. Honestly i feel that the Bishop of Rebirth is a bit too much, id rather have a gearhulk, caracal or a different impactful creature, but truth be told that this is purely from a theoretical point of view. I also fear that Sailor of Means will be a tad too slow, you already have great 3 drops. I have the feeling that you should rather find a way to deal with the fast creatures in a different way, a resolved Glint-Sleeve Siphoner will be a major pain for example (when you are on the draw game 2). Keep us updated on the results of next FNM, and I hope the avatar will take a few by surprise :)!
Yeah the Vizier of DEferment won me a few games since the opponent didn't expect it and was looking to negate or spell pierce and when it came out and killed their token they looked very sad.
The Bishop of REbirth is good for grindy games especially against Gifts decks, they must try to kill it because it will attack every turn and return some useful creature for me for free, the card advantage is too much. I only got to play it in one tourney so far but it did quite good for me. I haven't tested Sailor of Means yet, I came up with the idea after the last tourney and thought they would work well to stop early creatures and give me extra mana, and of course they combo with Vizier of Deferment and with the Bishop.
I mean against control decks all my creatures are good because they usually take out creature removal cards since they're not scared of Champion of wits or Sunscourge Champion so they don't expect even more creatures after sideboarding which lets me beat their face in and win the game that way instead of casting Approach, or even beat them until I get to cast approach.
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I like the switch from Hiero's to Pulls. You may want to look at adding in a The Locust God, with Pulls, he gets kinda dumb. Maybe drop one Glorybringer for him.
Have you had any issues with only running 2 Cast Out.
I like the switch from Hiero's to Pulls. You may want to look at adding in a The Locust God, with Pulls, he gets kinda dumb. Maybe drop one Glorybringer for him.
Have you had any issues with only running 2 Cast Out.
Locust God is bad ass in those long games that can materialize vs Temur Energy.
As for Cast Out, I can not think of the last time I actually cast it. Its always getting cycled. But I feel like having the safety is greater than going with out it.
I like Lightning and Abrade better than Push. But I like all the other cards you get with Black, Duress, Vraska'a Contempt, Scarab God, Essence Extraction. That is the main reason I am going with Esper this weekend. And being able to switch to full UB control after sideboard is very appealing to me. This may end up terrible but I have a good feeling about this. Right now I am just trying out a ton of different stuff to see what feels the best.
I found the red splash gives you a somewhat better game against Mono-Red, while the Black splash gives you better game against the rest of the field. The problem is that you are still just fairly unfavored against Mono-Red, so I'm not sure it's the best choice. The Black splash is notably more important in the Mirror, and mostly neutralish against Energy (When compared to the Red splash). I would honestly give the slight edge to Black, for no other reason that there really anything you can do post sideboard to make the red match up favorable, but there is plenty you can do to make other match ups more favorable if you go black.
At the PPQT ended up 4-1 to make top 8. The deck ran very smoothly. Then lost to Ramp Red 2 games in a row, this is a not a bad matchup, I just kept a slow hand G1 then never saw my 3rd land game 2. It happens. Every round seemed to go like this. Game 1, counter/spot remove/board wipe until turn 7, the cast Approach twice. Game 2, die to a very fast start by my opponent. Game 3, drop a The Scarab God, win in 2-3 turns. Siding out Approach and bringing in The Scarab God worked very well. He just wins games.
I think the issues I was having with the mana base before was all me not having enough rep's in. It takes a little while to get the sequencing down. Once I got better at playing my lands in the right order, it has smoothed out quite a bit. Dropping down to 6 cycling lands seemed to help also as did running 26 lands.
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Currently Playing UW UW Control/Miracles R Skred Red
@xaltair - I hope the FNM went great for you. Can't wait to hear the result of it with a creature based version. I also got hold of a few Thaumatic Compass myself and will give it a few test runs this week.
I am sure I will play approach the next FNM event and also at the store championship, still in doubt of esper, jeskai of plain UW. The amount of ramunap red at my local store went to 0 last friday so the UW version is looking very tempting. Vehicles and token went up though, perhaps jeskai is great against those (with Abrade or Fiery Cannonade).
Will give an update later this week of what my game plan for coming friday will be :).
I didn't go to FNM last week because I'm still recovering from a 3 week old cold, so I decided to stay home and rest on that since I had to work on Saturday as well. I plan to go to FNM and rock the deck with the most creatures (for a control deck) this Friday since I feel better and can't wait to play the deck again since last month.
The decklist is the same as the one I posted above on this page so there may be changes after the next FNM but for now it's the same card for card!
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So I've been testing with Regal Caracal against Temur and had some observations to share.
First off - I was hesitant to go to the Regal Caracal plan against Temur because of how badly the card seems to line up against Chandra and Glorybringer. I decided to do it anyway because of how many times I have lose to Temur from Temur hitting Negate on a Settle the Wreckage or a Fumigate.
Some key observations
1) Trading a cat token with a Rogue Refiner is a value dream.
2) Temur is very light on counterspells for Regal Caracal, so typically the card will generate the lord + 2 tokens
3) Forcing a Temur player to cast a Glorybringer on turn 5 or 6 basically leaves them completely vulnerable to a fumigate/settle. As bad as Regal Caracal lines up against Glorybringer, it forces a tap out. I usually see this line of play:
Temur player does not cast Glorybringer on turn 5 to either hold up a negate against settle/fumigate. They will sometimes cast Rogue Refiner to hold up negate while adding to the board
I cast Regal Caracal
Opponent casts Glorybringer, attacking to remove the Regal Caracal
I make my blocks and gain some life
I fumigate (or hit land 6 to Settle with negate backup)
Obviously Chandra is still a problem, and there really is no answer for a Chandra backed up by negate and Whirler with energy.
There will be times you do get to turn 5 Regal into turn 6 Regal, which allows an attack of 10 with lifelink. Temur players recognize this and this is EXACTLY why they are forced to attack/exert a Glorybringer even if it exposes them to a sweeper.
For me, I have been boarding in 2 Torrential Gearhulks, and 3 Regal Caracals (and other cards) for the Temur matchups and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.
So I've been testing with Regal Caracal against Temur and had some observations to share.
First off - I was hesitant to go to the Regal Caracal plan against Temur because of how badly the card seems to line up against Chandra and Glorybringer. I decided to do it anyway because of how many times I have lose to Temur from Temur hitting Negate on a Settle the Wreckage or a Fumigate.
Some key observations
1) Trading a cat token with a Rogue Refiner is a value dream.
2) Temur is very light on counterspells for Regal Caracal, so typically the card will generate the lord + 2 tokens
3) Forcing a Temur player to cast a Glorybringer on turn 5 or 6 basically leaves them completely vulnerable to a fumigate/settle. As bad as Regal Caracal lines up against Glorybringer, it forces a tap out. I usually see this line of play:
Temur player does not cast Glorybringer on turn 5 to either hold up a negate against settle/fumigate. They will sometimes cast Rogue Refiner to hold up negate while adding to the board
I cast Regal Caracal
Opponent casts Glorybringer, attacking to remove the Regal Caracal
I make my blocks and gain some life
I fumigate (or hit land 6 to Settle with negate backup)
Obviously Chandra is still a problem, and there really is no answer for a Chandra backed up by negate and Whirler with energy.
There will be times you do get to turn 5 Regal into turn 6 Regal, which allows an attack of 10 with lifelink. Temur players recognize this and this is EXACTLY why they are forced to attack/exert a Glorybringer even if it exposes them to a sweeper.
For me, I have been boarding in 2 Torrential Gearhulks, and 3 Regal Caracals (and other cards) for the Temur matchups and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.
I finally got the chance to play FNM today after a month away from the LGS. I went 2-1 and played horribly every game but I still came 1st and won one of the stupid foil Tokens and some store credit.
Game 1 - I didn't know what he is doing with all the cycling, I got to 7 lands and cast Approach the first time and he scooped.
Game 2 - Much of the same but he managed to Duress me but didn't get the approach, I started to cast some creatures and also kill his creatures. I also sideboarded in Crook of Condemnation which was there because of Gifts decks but it worked against him. I managed to Approach twice and win easily. As a side note there were no gifts decks in this tournament, go figure.
Round 2 - VS - G/R/B control with Chandra, Liliana, Gonti and Carnage Tyrant - 2-0
Game 1 - He tried to cast Liliana which I countered, he got Chandra through for one turn but I Cast it out the next turn so she didn't do much. He got Gonti out the next turn and took my Champion of Wits and also put my Approach on the bottom of my library since I had cast it once already. Unfortunately for him he didn't have anything to put pressure on me and two turns later I drew Approach again (I run 3 maindeck) and I cast it a second time to win the game.
Game 2 - I have a feeling he sided out Liliana and Chandra for Duress and maybe Carnage Tyrant. He got mana screwed for the first 4 turns and he was stuck on two lands, on my turn 3 I cast Vizier of deferment and started to beat down for two damage every turn. I countered a couple of cards that he tried to cast but before he could get out something to fight me, and before my Vizier could kill him I managed to cast Approach twice to finish the game.
Round 3 - VS - G/U/B Energy - with Hydra, Cub, Snake, Glint sleeve syphoner, the scarab god, etc... - 1-2
Game 1 - I tried to keep his threats down by using settle the wreckage, fumigate and counters. He managed to beat me down but I got to cast Approach and a couple of turns after I drew into the second Approach and cast it again to win the game.
Game 2 - I kept a 5 land hand with Negate and God-pharaoh's gift, and on his first turn he Duressed me and took my Negate. On the next turn, I drew another land and he cast a Cub. I was dead a couple of turns later and it is my fault for keeping such a bad 5 land hand and not mulliganing.
Game 3 - I didn't sideboard correctly and I forgot that he has The Scarab God and I didn't side in my Crook of Condemnation for some reason. He managed to drop creature after creature and then the Scarab God. I did manage to cast a Bishop of Rebirth but on his turn he Vraska's Cotempt it, he then started to make tokens including using my dead Champion of Wits. I couldn't draw any Approaches or ways to deal with his Scarab God and he managed to Duress a key Settle the wreckage from my hand. The next turn I drew another one and cast it when he attacked but he was smart and didn't commit the scarab god to the attack so I exiled a couple of tokens and a Deathgorge Scavenger and he searched his library only to find he was out of basic lands so the settle didn't get him any lands. When he duressed two turns before he noticed I had a wakening sun's avatar in my hand and I was counting on that to kill his scarab god for one turn and hold the board down along with my spires of orazca until I can draw more creatures or some approaches. So, the next turn I put down the 8th land and tapped out happy to cast the Dinosaur only to have him show me an Essence Scatter for it. A couple of turns later I was dead to his Scarab God and a couple of zombie tokens.
So, I should have been 3-0 easily but I played and sideboarded suboptimally, including keeping the 5 land hand in game 2 of the final round. Ironically enough the last round opponent had been paired down in round 2 to the mono black cycling guy that I beat in the first round, and he lost to him. So although he beat me in the last round and we were both 2-1 at the end due to tiebreakers I came in first place and he came in second.
Something that I learned is that Bishop of Rebirth is quite fearsome when I got a couple of Champion of Wits in the graveyard and/or Vizier of Deferment, so it will stay in the sideboard. Wakening Sun's Avater is a beast (technically a dinosaur but you get the point) and although I only drew it once and it was promptly countered if it did resolve it could've won me the game.
These are the changes I have made to the deck after this tourney:
I found that I didn't need to use cast out very often, only cast it once out of all the games, in the other instances I just cycled it. The Avatar is a game changer but because I only had 1 in the deck I didn't get to draw him at all until the last game of the tourney, so I will be playing 2 of him from now on and also no one expects him main deck.
Sideboard looks like this now:
2 Bishop of Rebirth
3 Vizier of Deferment
2 Crook of Condemnation
2 Negate
2 Forsake the Worldly
2 God-Pharaoh's Gift
2 Gideon's Intervention
So, I will be testing Gideon's Intervention again to deal with problematic creatures/planeswalkers or to keep people from trying to counter my stuff. I have also added the 2nd God Pharaoh's Gift since I already have 9 creatures main deck and after sideboarding the rest of them in I will have 14 creatures so it may be worth it to play this artifact as an alternate win condition since nobody expects it.
Anyway, the deck rocks, it would rock more if I played it better and I'm looking forward to next week when I will be able to play at FNM again and see how it goes with the changes made!
@xaltair - I hope the FNM went great for you. Can't wait to hear the result of it with a creature based version. I also got hold of a few Thaumatic Compass myself and will give it a few test runs this week.
I am sure I will play approach the next FNM event and also at the store championship, still in doubt of esper, jeskai of plain UW. The amount of ramunap red at my local store went to 0 last friday so the UW version is looking very tempting. Vehicles and token went up though, perhaps jeskai is great against those (with Abrade or Fiery Cannonade).
Will give an update later this week of what my game plan for coming friday will be :).
I didn't go to FNM last week because I'm still recovering from a 3 week old cold, so I decided to stay home and rest on that since I had to work on Saturday as well. I plan to go to FNM and rock the deck with the most creatures (for a control deck) this Friday since I feel better and can't wait to play the deck again since last month.
The decklist is the same as the one I posted above on this page so there may be changes after the next FNM but for now it's the same card for card!
Hey, I tried your UW deck relatively unchanged at FNM and ended up going 2-2. I'll readily admit I've only been playing for a few months so I'm probably missing a lot of the intricacies of how the deck works but tried to follow your general strategies.
I played a Sultai energy deck and got wrecked because I couldn't get rid of the energy, hydras, and longtusk cubs quickly enough. I had zero problems with a pair of jank decks. Faced a ramunap treasures deck and by the time I got Approach out the first time I was too far gone healthwise and either needed the Approach for the lifegain or didn't have enough board removal or counters to deal with it when I needed them. Now I know a lot of that had to so with my inexperience but I also didn't really see a use for the sideboard in either two meta matchups. Do you have any advice on when the sideboard would be needed and what I would generally want to sideboard out?
@xaltair - I hope the FNM went great for you. Can't wait to hear the result of it with a creature based version. I also got hold of a few Thaumatic Compass myself and will give it a few test runs this week.
I am sure I will play approach the next FNM event and also at the store championship, still in doubt of esper, jeskai of plain UW. The amount of ramunap red at my local store went to 0 last friday so the UW version is looking very tempting. Vehicles and token went up though, perhaps jeskai is great against those (with Abrade or Fiery Cannonade).
Will give an update later this week of what my game plan for coming friday will be :).
I didn't go to FNM last week because I'm still recovering from a 3 week old cold, so I decided to stay home and rest on that since I had to work on Saturday as well. I plan to go to FNM and rock the deck with the most creatures (for a control deck) this Friday since I feel better and can't wait to play the deck again since last month.
The decklist is the same as the one I posted above on this page so there may be changes after the next FNM but for now it's the same card for card!
Hey, I tried your UW deck relatively unchanged at FNM and ended up going 2-2. I'll readily admit I've only been playing for a few months so I'm probably missing a lot of the intricacies of how the deck works but tried to follow your general strategies.
I played a Sultai energy deck and got wrecked because I couldn't get rid of the energy, hydras, and longtusk cubs quickly enough. I had zero problems with a pair of jank decks. Faced a ramunap treasures deck and by the time I got Approach out the first time I was too far gone healthwise and either needed the Approach for the lifegain or didn't have enough board removal or counters to deal with it when I needed them. Now I know a lot of that had to so with my inexperience but I also didn't really see a use for the sideboard in either two meta matchups. Do you have any advice on when the sideboard would be needed and what I would generally want to sideboard out?
Awesome version of approach btw. I love it.
Can you post what decklist you are using or what is the sideboard at least, I am constantly updating the deck even this week I am changing cards around so I do not know which list you are using to play. I am glad you are enjoying this creature heavy control/combo deck.
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Can you post what decklist you are using or what is the sideboard at least, I am constantly updating the deck even this week I am changing cards around so I do not know which list you are using to play. I am glad you are enjoying this creature heavy control/combo deck.
I had to change some things because of availability. But it runs really well. I don't know how much they really affected from what you had designed, but I like how it runs. Are there any big "no-no's" in there? I appreciate any help you can give!
Can you post what decklist you are using or what is the sideboard at least, I am constantly updating the deck even this week I am changing cards around so I do not know which list you are using to play. I am glad you are enjoying this creature heavy control/combo deck.
I had to change some things because of availability. But it runs really well. I don't know how much they really affected from what you had designed, but I like how it runs. Are there any big "no-no's" in there? I appreciate any help you can give!
Aside from that I will go through the card choices that you have made and explain what I think about them.
1. Meandering River - the reason that my deck runs very smoothly is because I only have 4 come into play tapped lands (Irrigated Farmland) and all the other lands come into play untapped and ready to use. So, I would suggest that you get 3 more Irrigated Farmlands instead of these rivers or just play more islands/plains. The reason the farmlands are better is because you can cycle them mid to late game.
2. Desert of the Mindful/True - again they come into play tapped, I tested these and took them out of the deck since you really want to put down untapped lands for the first 5-6 turns of the game. Change these with an island and a plains.
3. Cataclysmic Gearhulk - There is not much reason to run these, the other creatures die and come back due to Eternalize but this guy would just die, also when you cast a 6 mana spell you want to make big changes to the board or win the game and getting a creature and maybe killing another one is just not worth it. That's why I am playing wakening sun's avatar maindeck now because once it comes into play it will take control of the game and usually kill every other creature on the board. They are worth about $1 each so they should be easy to get.
4. Ixalan's Binding - I never tested it but I would probably just run Cast Out over it, since it can cycle and you can cast it as an instant.
5. Primal Amulet - it has no place in this deck, every other card is meant to counter something, kill creatures, draw cards or it is a creature that does something and this card does none of the above. These 2 slots are wasted slots and you really don't want to cast this on turn 4. I suggest getting thaumatic compass because it is one of the KEY cards in this deck and it has helped me win games and survive for much longer than expected, it is also a mana ramp since it flips into a land.
6. Glimmer of Genius - I started with these a few months ago but have cut them out because of the 4 casting cost, and the fact that I don't need energy and have decided to run pull from tomorrow to refill my hand with cards after turn 5 or 6. Glimmer of genius is just too slow and I don't want to have too many cards at the 4 casting cost slot.
Best things you can change would be the lands if you can get a playset of Irrigated Farmlands and also take out the Primal Amulets and put in the Thaumatic Compass because it is an important card in this deck. I would also suggest that you get 2 more settle the wreckage if you can and run 3 of those and 3 fumigates maindeck.
This deck was meant to beat aggro decks even in game one, that's why I am having a full set of 4 Essence Scatters main deck as well as 3 Settle the wreckage/3 Fumigate/2 Cast out as well as running 7 creatures that are 3 casting cost to do some early blocking. After sideboarding you can bring in the Vizier of Deferment and the Bishop of rebirth and take out the disallows and supreme wills. These cards get sideboarded out quite often and replaced with more useful cards since the opponent doesn't know how many counters we play they may try to play around these cards without knowing they are sided out after game 1.
So against energy decks (U/G/R or U/G/B) this is how I sideboard:
OUT:
2 Disallow
2 Supreme Will
2 Search for Azcanta
IN:
2 Visier of deferment
2 Bishop of Rebirth
2 Negate
This way I don't need to go fast but I got more creatures to block them and also I got better counters in running 4 Negates post boarding instead of the other 3 to cast counters.
Against Ramunap Red or other red deck I would sideboard almost the same but I would take out 2 Pull from tomorrow and keep in the 2 Supreme Wills.
I have also seen that God Pharaoh's Gift doesn't work for me so this week I will be testing metallurgic summonings in the sideboard instead of the gift, since it comes out 2 turns earlier and we do run quite a few instants/sorceries main deck but just remember to take out all the Fumigates when you board this in so you don't kill your token.
I will be changing a few cards in the sideboard this week and will be playing a tournament later in the week so I will post my results on here with the changes I have made, mostly to the sideboard not maindeck.
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Awesome, thanks for the help! The store I go to was either out of the cards listed or didn't have the money but I'm definitely going to make these changes asap!
I'm been playing around with this deck for about 2 weeks right now and I been have good success with it. The thing is that its a U/W control variant but without Suns.
Its still a work in progress but I like hows been running. So far I have gone
2-1 Temur Energy
1-1 Ramunap Red
3-0 Control
1-2 4C Energy
1-0 U/W Gift
To be honest the most surprising cards so far has been Jace, Ingenious Mind and Thaumatic Compass. Jace against control has been very good because nobody expects it and I love taking there Torrential and/or Caracal and the extra free draw helps. Thaumatic has been the MVP vs Energy holding up there Cub, God, Hydra etc for a couple turns has been the best. It holds down the fort until I draw what I need. I playing with Cancel right because I don't have disallow yet but it it has been fantastic. Sideboard is what I need help in I don't know what to put in. Spell Pierce is coming out because every time I draw it I have no use for it then and Kefnet I still don't know yet cause I haven't drawn it with I sideboard it in. What you guys suggest and what you guys think of the deck.
I'm been playing around with this deck for about 2 weeks right now and I been have good success with it. The thing is that its a U/W control variant but without Suns.
Its still a work in progress but I like hows been running. So far I have gone
2-1 Temur Energy
1-1 Ramunap Red
3-0 Control
1-2 4C Energy
1-0 U/W Gift
To be honest the most surprising cards so far has been Jace, Ingenious Mind and Thaumatic Compass. Jace against control has been very good because nobody expects it and I love taking there Torrential and/or Caracal and the extra free draw helps. Thaumatic has been the MVP vs Energy holding up there Cub, God, Hydra etc for a couple turns has been the best. It holds down the fort until I draw what I need. I playing with Cancel right because I don't have disallow yet but it it has been fantastic. Sideboard is what I need help in I don't know what to put in. Spell Pierce is coming out because every time I draw it I have no use for it then and Kefnet I still don't know yet cause I haven't drawn it with I sideboard it in. What you guys suggest and what you guys think of the deck.
Thanks for choosing to play kind of a version of my deck but without the Approaches.
Here's my thoughts about it:
First of all I don't like Planeswalkers in general, I stopped playing magic around 2010-2011 when they just came out with planeswalkers and I started playing again this year in April, so I didn't play with any planeswalkers and so I don't want to play with them now. I did play against them obviously and I think they are "win more" type of card and usually don't really affect the board when they come into play. However, if you enjoy playing with them, be my guest!
As for what changes you should make main deck I really believe that 2 Thaumatic Compass is the minimum for this type of deck and even 3 would work since the land is not legendary after it flips so you can have 2 or 3 of them out and basically hold back a couple of creatures every turn. Also, there is no point to have a settle the wreckage in the sideboard, either play it main deck or not all. Supreme will and Censor don't really work with settle the wreckage and it's one reason why I don't play any Censors in my deck at all and only 2 supreme wills.
You should play 4 Essence Scatters in the deck and at least 2-3 Negates main deck, maybe you can take out the 4 Censor and add these instead.
Next is Glimmer of Genius, I don't play any because at 4 casting cost they compete with both Cast out and Settle the wreckage in the deck so it will be almost impossible for you to glimmer on turn 4 as you will want to cast either of the other cards instead. Because of this I decided to run 3 Champion of wits because he is only 3 to cast so he can come out a turn earlier. If you do stay with it then you should play Confiscation Coup in the sideboard to make use of the energy.
I don't think Opt has a role in this deck because it does nothing, and this deck doesn't need to cast anything on turn 1. You have search for azcanta and glimmer to draw cards so you don't need too much extra card draw, also supreme will helps as well.
As for your sideboard:
Negate should be moved to main deck instead of the sideboard, as should the 1 setle the wreckage and 1 scavenger grounds, no reason for them to be in the sideboard. I'm not sure why you have jace's defeat and spell pierce either since you already enough counters main deck. Kefnet has been slow and I tested him for a couple of months and decided to throw him out of the deck.
You should have 2-3 Forsake the worldly against God Pharaoh's gift decks. Crook of Condemnation against same decks or the Scarab God decks and I would recommend vizier of deferment which can exile and opp's attacking creature and give you a 2/2 blocker at instant speed or it can exile your Regal Caracal after it blocks and it can come back and make more tokens. This card has been MVP for me in many match-ups, and of course it can kill a token creature when it comes into play as well.
These are my suggestions for your deck, let me know what you think! I am also testing metallurgic summonings in the sideboard as an alternate win condition.
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"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
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I'm okay with it. The decision to go no Censor was not a card-availability issue, but was rather an intentional choice. That having been said, I'm pretty new to Magic and I'm willing to accept the possibility that I'm wrong.
I think that Censor existing in the metagame is enough. I think the threat of Censor is just as good as actually having Censor. And I don't think that actually having Censor is worth a full card. If my opponents knew there was no Censor in my list at all, that's a different story.
Thanks, this is the latest version of deck which I posted on page 7 but I've posted it below, too.
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
2 Hostile Desert
1 Ipnu Rivulet
1 Shefet Dunes
6 Island
7 Plains
Creatures(8)
1 Wakening Sun's Avatar
4 Sunscourge Champion
3 Champion of Wits
2 Search for Azcanta
3 Cast out
Artifacts(2)
2 Thaumatic Compass
Spells(21)
4 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Supreme Will
2 Disallow
2 Pull from Tomorrow
3 Settle the Wreckage
3 Fumigate
3 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Crook of Condemnation
2 Bishop of Rebirth
3 Vizier of Deferment
2 Forsake the Worldly
2 Negate
2 Sailor of Means
1 Spell Swindle
1 God-Pharaoh's Gift
So, I cut the 2 Kefnets because they did nothing for me at the last tourney so I replaced them with a 4th Sunscourge Champion and 1 Wakening's Sun's Avatar. A lot of people have Negates to try to counter my Fumigates and Settle the Wreckages so a creature board wipe should be good, I didn't get to test it yet since I didn't get to play since last month.
I have also changed the sideboard and put in 2 Sailor of means just to test it out, they are 1/4 so they can block a lot of creatures, they get me 1 extra mana when they come into play and the work well with Bishop of Rebirth since they are 3 to cast.
The Vizier of Deferment is a beast coming out from the sideboard to deal with tokens or remove one of our creatures so we can get the come into play effect again and also acts as a Flash 2/2 blocker that no one expects, it's a greatly underrated card.
The 2 Pull from Tomorow are needed main deck because the Champion of Wits doesn't get you card advantage but just lets you look through more cards and then choose what to discard, so by turn 4-5 I'm almost out of cards and need to cast a pull for tomorrow for 3-4 to refill my hand.
I'm glad you are enjoying playing the deck and it's winning games, I am 100% convinced that Thaumatic Compass simply makes this deck survive more often than it should, and also along with Search for Azcanta they work together as mana ramp, since on turn 6 you can flip search to get 7 lands and at the end of turn flip compass and get 8 lands. I wanted to fit in 3 Thaumatic Compass but I don't know what to take out yet for that.
This is the best U/W control deck that I have ever played or made in my long magic playing history (started back in 1996). The deck is a MASTERPIECE of control/combo. It is a combo deck but it's a ONE card combo, Approach of the second sun and everything else is in the deck to keep you ALIVE long enough to cast this sorcery twice to win the game. After sideboarding and adding in 7-8 creature this deck becomes an aggro/combo deck since I still keep 2 Approaches in the deck.
The reason that this version of the deck works well is because it's running a lot of cheap casting cost cards which are really powerful!!!
At 2 mana cost we are looking at:
4 Essence Scatter
2 Negates
2 Thaumatic Compass
2 Search for Azcanta
TEN spells at 2 mana.
So you have a wide variety of choices of something to cast on turn two, or you can stay back and counter something that your opponent does.
At 3 mana casting cost you have:
4 Sunscourge Champion
3 Champion of Wits
2 Supreme Will
2 Disallow
That's ELEVEN spells at 3 mana casting cost.
You can choose to cast one of the creatures and I usualy try to cast the champion of wits first and try to dump other champions in the graveyard, against aggro decks you will want to cast the Sunscourge champion on turn 3 to get a blocker and gain some life. If not you can keep mana back and counter something your opponent will do.
At 4 Casting cost we have:
3 Cast Out
3 Settle the Wreckage
SIX spells at 4 casting cost, out of which 3 can be cycled for just one mana and the other 3 can remove one or more attackers at instant speed.
At 5 casting cost:
3 Fumigate
2 Pull from Tomorrow
I put the pulls here because usually I cast a pull for 3 or sometimes 4 only, I don't need to wait a long time but I want to refill my hand with cards on turn 5 or 6.
There are no 6 casting cost cards.
At 7 casting cost we have 3 Approach of the second sun!
At 8 casting cost we have 1 Wakening Sun's Avatar.
So, the deck runs very low to the ground with a lof of spells at 2 mana or 3 mana casting cost which allows us to cast multiple spells as soon as we reach 5-6 mana available which is really good for a control deck to be able to do.
I can't wait to play this week since I'll finally have time for FNM since 3 weeks ago. I can't wait to test the Wakening Sun's Avatar main deck and also the crazy changes in the sideboard.
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Mtg Lifestyle
Still on the fence of 4 Essence Scatter or a 2/2 split with Supreme Will or just a 3/3/3/3 split between Censor, Disallow, Essence and Supreme. If I change from the 4 Scatters, I will change the 2 Cancel in the side to Negate.
I would really like to find room for Duress , more Essence Extraction and another Search for Azcanta in the sideboard but don't know what I would cut to make room.
My sideboard plan is also listed. It is just a guide. I won’t board in that for every game, it will depend on how the previous game went. Sometimes I will only board in a few cards instead of totally changing the deck. But I like to have a plan for the max number of cards I can swap out.
Let me know what you guys think.
3 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Torrential Gearhulk
Draw
4 Glimmer of Genius
Counter
4 Censor
4 Disallow
4 Essence Scatter
1 Spell Swindle
Removal
4 Fatal Push
2 Vraska's Contempt
3 Settle the Wreckage
2 Fumigate
2 Search for Azcanta
Land
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Field of Ruin
3 Fetid Pools
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Irrigated Farmland
2 Island
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Cancel
2 Jace's Defeat
2 Regal Caracal
2 The Scarab God
1 Torrential Gearhulk
2 Vraska's Contempt
1 Essence Extraction
1 Settle the Wreckage
2 Forsake the Worldly
1 Fatal Push
2 Censor
3 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Fumigate
Energy In
2 Jace's Defeat
2 Vraska's Contempt
2 The Scarab God
1 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Settle the Wreckage
Ramp Red Out
2 Search for Azcanta
3 Approach of the Second Sun
1 Disallow
1 Spell Swindle
2 Censor
2 Regal Caracal
1 Torrential Gearhulk
2 The Scarab God
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Essence Extraction
2 Vraska's Contempt
Control Out
3 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Fumigate
4 Fatal Push
3 Essence Scatter
1 Censor
1 Torrential Gearhulk
2 The Scarab God
2 Jace's Defeat
2 Cancel
2 Vraska's Contempt
2 Forsake the Worldly
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
Yeah the Vizier of DEferment won me a few games since the opponent didn't expect it and was looking to negate or spell pierce and when it came out and killed their token they looked very sad.
The Bishop of REbirth is good for grindy games especially against Gifts decks, they must try to kill it because it will attack every turn and return some useful creature for me for free, the card advantage is too much. I only got to play it in one tourney so far but it did quite good for me. I haven't tested Sailor of Means yet, I came up with the idea after the last tourney and thought they would work well to stop early creatures and give me extra mana, and of course they combo with Vizier of Deferment and with the Bishop.
I mean against control decks all my creatures are good because they usually take out creature removal cards since they're not scared of Champion of wits or Sunscourge Champion so they don't expect even more creatures after sideboarding which lets me beat their face in and win the game that way instead of casting Approach, or even beat them until I get to cast approach.
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Mtg Lifestyle
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Have you had any issues with only running 2 Cast Out.
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
As for Cast Out, I can not think of the last time I actually cast it. Its always getting cycled. But I feel like having the safety is greater than going with out it.
My updated list:
4 Harnessed lightning
2 Abrade
4 Censor
2 Aether Meltdown
2 Search for Azcanta
3 Disallow
2 Supreme Will
2 Pull from Tomorrow
2 Cast Out
4 Glimmer of Genius
3 Settle the Wreckage
2 Fumigate
3 Approach of the Second Sun
1 Aether Hub
2 Scavenger Grounds
4 Irrigated Farmland
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Island
2 Plains
2 Mountain
3 authority of the consuls
2 Abrade
3 Negate
2 crook of condemnation
2 Torrential Gearhulk
2 GloryBringer
1 The Locust God
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I found the red splash gives you a somewhat better game against Mono-Red, while the Black splash gives you better game against the rest of the field. The problem is that you are still just fairly unfavored against Mono-Red, so I'm not sure it's the best choice. The Black splash is notably more important in the Mirror, and mostly neutralish against Energy (When compared to the Red splash). I would honestly give the slight edge to Black, for no other reason that there really anything you can do post sideboard to make the red match up favorable, but there is plenty you can do to make other match ups more favorable if you go black.
I think the issues I was having with the mana base before was all me not having enough rep's in. It takes a little while to get the sequencing down. Once I got better at playing my lands in the right order, it has smoothed out quite a bit. Dropping down to 6 cycling lands seemed to help also as did running 26 lands.
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
I didn't go to FNM last week because I'm still recovering from a 3 week old cold, so I decided to stay home and rest on that since I had to work on Saturday as well. I plan to go to FNM and rock the deck with the most creatures (for a control deck) this Friday since I feel better and can't wait to play the deck again since last month.
The decklist is the same as the one I posted above on this page so there may be changes after the next FNM but for now it's the same card for card!
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Mtg Lifestyle
First off - I was hesitant to go to the Regal Caracal plan against Temur because of how badly the card seems to line up against Chandra and Glorybringer. I decided to do it anyway because of how many times I have lose to Temur from Temur hitting Negate on a Settle the Wreckage or a Fumigate.
Some key observations
1) Trading a cat token with a Rogue Refiner is a value dream.
2) Temur is very light on counterspells for Regal Caracal, so typically the card will generate the lord + 2 tokens
3) Forcing a Temur player to cast a Glorybringer on turn 5 or 6 basically leaves them completely vulnerable to a fumigate/settle. As bad as Regal Caracal lines up against Glorybringer, it forces a tap out. I usually see this line of play:
Temur player does not cast Glorybringer on turn 5 to either hold up a negate against settle/fumigate. They will sometimes cast Rogue Refiner to hold up negate while adding to the board
I cast Regal Caracal
Opponent casts Glorybringer, attacking to remove the Regal Caracal
I make my blocks and gain some life
I fumigate (or hit land 6 to Settle with negate backup)
Obviously Chandra is still a problem, and there really is no answer for a Chandra backed up by negate and Whirler with energy.
There will be times you do get to turn 5 Regal into turn 6 Regal, which allows an attack of 10 with lifelink. Temur players recognize this and this is EXACTLY why they are forced to attack/exert a Glorybringer even if it exposes them to a sweeper.
For me, I have been boarding in 2 Torrential Gearhulks, and 3 Regal Caracals (and other cards) for the Temur matchups and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I finally got the chance to play FNM today after a month away from the LGS. I went 2-1 and played horribly every game but I still came 1st and won one of the stupid foil Tokens and some store credit.
Here's a quick report:
Round 1 - VS Mono Black cycling - Archfiend of Ifnir.dec - 2-0
Game 1 - I didn't know what he is doing with all the cycling, I got to 7 lands and cast Approach the first time and he scooped.
Game 2 - Much of the same but he managed to Duress me but didn't get the approach, I started to cast some creatures and also kill his creatures. I also sideboarded in Crook of Condemnation which was there because of Gifts decks but it worked against him. I managed to Approach twice and win easily. As a side note there were no gifts decks in this tournament, go figure.
Round 2 - VS - G/R/B control with Chandra, Liliana, Gonti and Carnage Tyrant - 2-0
Game 1 - He tried to cast Liliana which I countered, he got Chandra through for one turn but I Cast it out the next turn so she didn't do much. He got Gonti out the next turn and took my Champion of Wits and also put my Approach on the bottom of my library since I had cast it once already. Unfortunately for him he didn't have anything to put pressure on me and two turns later I drew Approach again (I run 3 maindeck) and I cast it a second time to win the game.
Game 2 - I have a feeling he sided out Liliana and Chandra for Duress and maybe Carnage Tyrant. He got mana screwed for the first 4 turns and he was stuck on two lands, on my turn 3 I cast Vizier of deferment and started to beat down for two damage every turn. I countered a couple of cards that he tried to cast but before he could get out something to fight me, and before my Vizier could kill him I managed to cast Approach twice to finish the game.
Round 3 - VS - G/U/B Energy - with Hydra, Cub, Snake, Glint sleeve syphoner, the scarab god, etc... - 1-2
Game 1 - I tried to keep his threats down by using settle the wreckage, fumigate and counters. He managed to beat me down but I got to cast Approach and a couple of turns after I drew into the second Approach and cast it again to win the game.
Game 2 - I kept a 5 land hand with Negate and God-pharaoh's gift, and on his first turn he Duressed me and took my Negate. On the next turn, I drew another land and he cast a Cub. I was dead a couple of turns later and it is my fault for keeping such a bad 5 land hand and not mulliganing.
Game 3 - I didn't sideboard correctly and I forgot that he has The Scarab God and I didn't side in my Crook of Condemnation for some reason. He managed to drop creature after creature and then the Scarab God. I did manage to cast a Bishop of Rebirth but on his turn he Vraska's Cotempt it, he then started to make tokens including using my dead Champion of Wits. I couldn't draw any Approaches or ways to deal with his Scarab God and he managed to Duress a key Settle the wreckage from my hand. The next turn I drew another one and cast it when he attacked but he was smart and didn't commit the scarab god to the attack so I exiled a couple of tokens and a Deathgorge Scavenger and he searched his library only to find he was out of basic lands so the settle didn't get him any lands. When he duressed two turns before he noticed I had a wakening sun's avatar in my hand and I was counting on that to kill his scarab god for one turn and hold the board down along with my spires of orazca until I can draw more creatures or some approaches. So, the next turn I put down the 8th land and tapped out happy to cast the Dinosaur only to have him show me an Essence Scatter for it. A couple of turns later I was dead to his Scarab God and a couple of zombie tokens.
So, I should have been 3-0 easily but I played and sideboarded suboptimally, including keeping the 5 land hand in game 2 of the final round. Ironically enough the last round opponent had been paired down in round 2 to the mono black cycling guy that I beat in the first round, and he lost to him. So although he beat me in the last round and we were both 2-1 at the end due to tiebreakers I came in first place and he came in second.
Something that I learned is that Bishop of Rebirth is quite fearsome when I got a couple of Champion of Wits in the graveyard and/or Vizier of Deferment, so it will stay in the sideboard. Wakening Sun's Avater is a beast (technically a dinosaur but you get the point) and although I only drew it once and it was promptly countered if it did resolve it could've won me the game.
These are the changes I have made to the deck after this tourney:
Maindeck: OUT 1 Cast Out and IN 1 Wakening Sun's Avatar for a total of 2 Avatars main deck and 2 Cast Outs.
I found that I didn't need to use cast out very often, only cast it once out of all the games, in the other instances I just cycled it. The Avatar is a game changer but because I only had 1 in the deck I didn't get to draw him at all until the last game of the tourney, so I will be playing 2 of him from now on and also no one expects him main deck.
Sideboard looks like this now:
2 Bishop of Rebirth
3 Vizier of Deferment
2 Crook of Condemnation
2 Negate
2 Forsake the Worldly
2 God-Pharaoh's Gift
2 Gideon's Intervention
So, I will be testing Gideon's Intervention again to deal with problematic creatures/planeswalkers or to keep people from trying to counter my stuff. I have also added the 2nd God Pharaoh's Gift since I already have 9 creatures main deck and after sideboarding the rest of them in I will have 14 creatures so it may be worth it to play this artifact as an alternate win condition since nobody expects it.
Anyway, the deck rocks, it would rock more if I played it better and I'm looking forward to next week when I will be able to play at FNM again and see how it goes with the changes made!
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Hey, I tried your UW deck relatively unchanged at FNM and ended up going 2-2. I'll readily admit I've only been playing for a few months so I'm probably missing a lot of the intricacies of how the deck works but tried to follow your general strategies.
I played a Sultai energy deck and got wrecked because I couldn't get rid of the energy, hydras, and longtusk cubs quickly enough. I had zero problems with a pair of jank decks. Faced a ramunap treasures deck and by the time I got Approach out the first time I was too far gone healthwise and either needed the Approach for the lifegain or didn't have enough board removal or counters to deal with it when I needed them. Now I know a lot of that had to so with my inexperience but I also didn't really see a use for the sideboard in either two meta matchups. Do you have any advice on when the sideboard would be needed and what I would generally want to sideboard out?
Awesome version of approach btw. I love it.
Some Gift decks also use Gate to the Afterlife
The better answer to these artifacts is Forsake the Worldly
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Can you post what decklist you are using or what is the sideboard at least, I am constantly updating the deck even this week I am changing cards around so I do not know which list you are using to play. I am glad you are enjoying this creature heavy control/combo deck.
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Mtg Lifestyle
I'm using this one:
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
2 Hostile Desert
1 Ipnu Rivulet
1 Shefet Dunes
6 Island
7 Plains
Creatures(8)
1 Wakening Sun's Avatar
4 Sunscourge Champion
3 Champion of Wits
2 Search for Azcanta
3 Cast out
Artifacts(2)
2 Thaumatic Compass
Spells(21)
4 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Supreme Will
2 Disallow
2 Pull from Tomorrow
3 Settle the Wreckage
3 Fumigate
3 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Crook of Condemnation
2 Bishop of Rebirth
3 Vizier of Deferment
2 Forsake the Worldly
2 Negate
2 Sailor of Means
1 Spell Swindle
1 God-Pharaoh's Gift
But I changed it a bit to:
4 Glacial Fortress
1 Irrigated Farmland
3 Meandering River
2 Hostile Desert
1 Ipnu Rivulet
1 Shefet Dunes
1 Desert of the Mindful
1 Desert of the True
5 Island
6 Plains
Creatures(8)
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
4 Sunscourge Champion
3 Champion of Wits
2 Search for Azcanta
2 Cast out
2 Ixalan's Binding
Artifacts(2)
2 Primal Amulet
Spells(21)
4 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Supreme Will
2 Disallow
2 Glimmer of Genius
1 Settle the Wreckage
4 Fumigate
3 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Crook of Condemnation
2 Bishop of Rebirth
3 Vizier of Deferment
2 Forsake the Worldly
2 Negate
2 Sailor of Means
1 Spell Swindle
1 God-Pharaoh's Gift
I had to change some things because of availability. But it runs really well. I don't know how much they really affected from what you had designed, but I like how it runs. Are there any big "no-no's" in there? I appreciate any help you can give!
Thanks for giving the deck a run, however, it is meant to be played the way I built it because the casting cost of the cards means a lot. Check out this post I made a while ago which explains the casting cost of all the cards in the decks and why I decided on those cards: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/proven-standard/784306-u-w-control-aka-approach-of-the-second-sun-2-0?comment=213
Aside from that I will go through the card choices that you have made and explain what I think about them.
1. Meandering River - the reason that my deck runs very smoothly is because I only have 4 come into play tapped lands (Irrigated Farmland) and all the other lands come into play untapped and ready to use. So, I would suggest that you get 3 more Irrigated Farmlands instead of these rivers or just play more islands/plains. The reason the farmlands are better is because you can cycle them mid to late game.
2. Desert of the Mindful/True - again they come into play tapped, I tested these and took them out of the deck since you really want to put down untapped lands for the first 5-6 turns of the game. Change these with an island and a plains.
3. Cataclysmic Gearhulk - There is not much reason to run these, the other creatures die and come back due to Eternalize but this guy would just die, also when you cast a 6 mana spell you want to make big changes to the board or win the game and getting a creature and maybe killing another one is just not worth it. That's why I am playing wakening sun's avatar maindeck now because once it comes into play it will take control of the game and usually kill every other creature on the board. They are worth about $1 each so they should be easy to get.
4. Ixalan's Binding - I never tested it but I would probably just run Cast Out over it, since it can cycle and you can cast it as an instant.
5. Primal Amulet - it has no place in this deck, every other card is meant to counter something, kill creatures, draw cards or it is a creature that does something and this card does none of the above. These 2 slots are wasted slots and you really don't want to cast this on turn 4. I suggest getting thaumatic compass because it is one of the KEY cards in this deck and it has helped me win games and survive for much longer than expected, it is also a mana ramp since it flips into a land.
6. Glimmer of Genius - I started with these a few months ago but have cut them out because of the 4 casting cost, and the fact that I don't need energy and have decided to run pull from tomorrow to refill my hand with cards after turn 5 or 6. Glimmer of genius is just too slow and I don't want to have too many cards at the 4 casting cost slot.
Best things you can change would be the lands if you can get a playset of Irrigated Farmlands and also take out the Primal Amulets and put in the Thaumatic Compass because it is an important card in this deck. I would also suggest that you get 2 more settle the wreckage if you can and run 3 of those and 3 fumigates maindeck.
This deck was meant to beat aggro decks even in game one, that's why I am having a full set of 4 Essence Scatters main deck as well as 3 Settle the wreckage/3 Fumigate/2 Cast out as well as running 7 creatures that are 3 casting cost to do some early blocking. After sideboarding you can bring in the Vizier of Deferment and the Bishop of rebirth and take out the disallows and supreme wills. These cards get sideboarded out quite often and replaced with more useful cards since the opponent doesn't know how many counters we play they may try to play around these cards without knowing they are sided out after game 1.
So against energy decks (U/G/R or U/G/B) this is how I sideboard:
OUT:
2 Disallow
2 Supreme Will
2 Search for Azcanta
IN:
2 Visier of deferment
2 Bishop of Rebirth
2 Negate
This way I don't need to go fast but I got more creatures to block them and also I got better counters in running 4 Negates post boarding instead of the other 3 to cast counters.
Against Ramunap Red or other red deck I would sideboard almost the same but I would take out 2 Pull from tomorrow and keep in the 2 Supreme Wills.
I have also seen that God Pharaoh's Gift doesn't work for me so this week I will be testing metallurgic summonings in the sideboard instead of the gift, since it comes out 2 turns earlier and we do run quite a few instants/sorceries main deck but just remember to take out all the Fumigates when you board this in so you don't kill your token.
I will be changing a few cards in the sideboard this week and will be playing a tournament later in the week so I will post my results on here with the changes I have made, mostly to the sideboard not maindeck.
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Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
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I'm been playing around with this deck for about 2 weeks right now and I been have good success with it. The thing is that its a U/W control variant but without Suns.
Sunless U/W Control
Lands
1x Field of Ruin
1x Hostile Desert
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Irrigated Farmland
2x Ipnu Rivulet
6x Island
6x Plains
Creatures
2x Torrential Gearhulk
Planeswalker
1x Jace, Ingenious Mind
Artifact
1x Thaumatic Compass
Spells
4x Opt
4x Censor
4x Cast Out
4x Glimmer of Genius
3x Essence Scatter
3x [card]Cancel[card]
3x Settle the Wreckage
3x Fumigate
3x Supreme Will
2x Search for Azcanta
Sideboard
3x Authority of the Consuls
3x Regal Caracal
3x Negate
2x Spell Pierce
1x Settle the Wreckage
1x Jace's Defeat
1x Kefnet the Mindful
1x Scavenger Grounds
Its still a work in progress but I like hows been running. So far I have gone
2-1 Temur Energy
1-1 Ramunap Red
3-0 Control
1-2 4C Energy
1-0 U/W Gift
To be honest the most surprising cards so far has been Jace, Ingenious Mind and Thaumatic Compass. Jace against control has been very good because nobody expects it and I love taking there Torrential and/or Caracal and the extra free draw helps. Thaumatic has been the MVP vs Energy holding up there Cub, God, Hydra etc for a couple turns has been the best. It holds down the fort until I draw what I need. I playing with Cancel right because I don't have disallow yet but it it has been fantastic. Sideboard is what I need help in I don't know what to put in. Spell Pierce is coming out because every time I draw it I have no use for it then and Kefnet I still don't know yet cause I haven't drawn it with I sideboard it in. What you guys suggest and what you guys think of the deck.
Thanks for choosing to play kind of a version of my deck but without the Approaches.
Here's my thoughts about it:
First of all I don't like Planeswalkers in general, I stopped playing magic around 2010-2011 when they just came out with planeswalkers and I started playing again this year in April, so I didn't play with any planeswalkers and so I don't want to play with them now. I did play against them obviously and I think they are "win more" type of card and usually don't really affect the board when they come into play. However, if you enjoy playing with them, be my guest!
As for what changes you should make main deck I really believe that 2 Thaumatic Compass is the minimum for this type of deck and even 3 would work since the land is not legendary after it flips so you can have 2 or 3 of them out and basically hold back a couple of creatures every turn. Also, there is no point to have a settle the wreckage in the sideboard, either play it main deck or not all. Supreme will and Censor don't really work with settle the wreckage and it's one reason why I don't play any Censors in my deck at all and only 2 supreme wills.
You should play 4 Essence Scatters in the deck and at least 2-3 Negates main deck, maybe you can take out the 4 Censor and add these instead.
Next is Glimmer of Genius, I don't play any because at 4 casting cost they compete with both Cast out and Settle the wreckage in the deck so it will be almost impossible for you to glimmer on turn 4 as you will want to cast either of the other cards instead. Because of this I decided to run 3 Champion of wits because he is only 3 to cast so he can come out a turn earlier. If you do stay with it then you should play Confiscation Coup in the sideboard to make use of the energy.
I don't think Opt has a role in this deck because it does nothing, and this deck doesn't need to cast anything on turn 1. You have search for azcanta and glimmer to draw cards so you don't need too much extra card draw, also supreme will helps as well.
As for your sideboard:
Negate should be moved to main deck instead of the sideboard, as should the 1 setle the wreckage and 1 scavenger grounds, no reason for them to be in the sideboard. I'm not sure why you have jace's defeat and spell pierce either since you already enough counters main deck. Kefnet has been slow and I tested him for a couple of months and decided to throw him out of the deck.
You should have 2-3 Forsake the worldly against God Pharaoh's gift decks. Crook of Condemnation against same decks or the Scarab God decks and I would recommend vizier of deferment which can exile and opp's attacking creature and give you a 2/2 blocker at instant speed or it can exile your Regal Caracal after it blocks and it can come back and make more tokens. This card has been MVP for me in many match-ups, and of course it can kill a token creature when it comes into play as well.
These are my suggestions for your deck, let me know what you think! I am also testing metallurgic summonings in the sideboard as an alternate win condition.
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