I saw a list running one elder deep-fiend. Wondering if that would be good against aggro decks like w/r or r/b.. or even gb delirium. Upkeep, flash, tap all their lands or ishkanah.
Played at two Standard tournaments (not the most competitive but still) and went 5-1-2 (one ID) with UW Spirits (non-Avacyn, non-Gideon) and I loved the tempo aspect of it. I wrote a short report, feel free to read it. This is the decklist:
I love the spirits deck but in the big tournaments you cant do well with the spirits version.
these are the things that i found to be its downfall
1) The lack of filtering and drawing cards the best thing about the flash deck is the Threban inspector that pays for itself draws you extra card and the Copter allowing you to not miss land drops or get the card you need
in large competitions you cant get lucky every time you need those cards to get you from a bad hand of cards to something that changes the tides.
2) B/G is a deck that dominates the meta, you will face minimum 2 in every standard tournament its possible to deal with 1 lili but 1 resolved lili can be devastating. We dont even need to talk about the spider which basically
just needs to be played and the attacks are halted.
3) Lastly this deck after much testing cant perform when its already behind also it has no big threats
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern UBRWGHumansUBRWG UMerfolkU
Eldrazi Tron Legacy WDeath & TaxesW Pauper RGoblinsR EDH UGMerfolk ComboGU Standard UWApproachWU
Mind posting your list Axman? and any thoughts you have about sideboarding, I'm new to the deck too and am interested in others thoughts.
Below is my deck list. I top 8ed the PPTQ with a 3-1-1 record. I lost only to the mirror in Swiss
(beating RW humans, Grixis Emerge, and BW Delerium).
My loss in the mirror was partially my fault. I +Gideon when I should have emblem. My opponent went double emblem and I couldn't catch up.
In round 1 of top 8 I had to replay the RW player. Was on the play and won easier than during swiss.
In the semi-finals I had to play against BR Aggro. Lost in three very close games. Game 3 my opponent had 12 points of burn spells... and I didn't have enough gas. Kept a somewhat questionable hand (spell queller + 2 Avacyn, + land) and my first five draws were land... land... fragmatize... land ... selfless spirit
To make it worse - my opponent had 12 damage worth of burn spells in hand. Making my two avacyns relatively worthless. Prob should have mulled.
Mind posting your list Axman? and any thoughts you have about sideboarding, I'm new to the deck too and am interested in others thoughts.
Below is my deck list. I top 8ed the PPTQ with a 3-1-1 record. I lost only to the mirror in Swiss
(beating RW humans, Grixis Emerge, and BW Delerium).
My loss in the mirror was partially my fault. I +Gideon when I should have emblem. My opponent went double emblem and I couldn't catch up.
In round 1 of top 8 I had to replay the RW player. Was on the play and won easier than during swiss.
In the semi-finals I had to play against BR Aggro. Lost in three very close games. Game 3 my opponent had 12 points of burn spells... and I didn't have enough gas. Kept a somewhat questionable hand (spell queller + 2 Avacyn, + land) and my first five draws were land... land... fragmatize... land ... selfless spirit
To make it worse - my opponent had 12 damage worth of burn spells in hand. Making my two avacyns relatively worthless. Prob should have mulled.
Have you considered running 2x Thalia, Heretic Cather and removing an Avacyn or two? I have found her to be very beneficial to aggro decks, and some mirror matches. She almost always gets nabbed by a kill spell and which leaves less spells for some of our more precious card drops.
I also run Linvala in the side board against aggro to get me a few more life, and field presence.
Just seems like your sideboard might be better suited for aggro, as you had the toughest time with them.
Mind posting your list Axman? and any thoughts you have about sideboarding, I'm new to the deck too and am interested in others thoughts.
Below is my deck list. I top 8ed the PPTQ with a 3-1-1 record. I lost only to the mirror in Swiss
(beating RW humans, Grixis Emerge, and BW Delerium).
My loss in the mirror was partially my fault. I +Gideon when I should have emblem. My opponent went double emblem and I couldn't catch up.
In round 1 of top 8 I had to replay the RW player. Was on the play and won easier than during swiss.
In the semi-finals I had to play against BR Aggro. Lost in three very close games. Game 3 my opponent had 12 points of burn spells... and I didn't have enough gas. Kept a somewhat questionable hand (spell queller + 2 Avacyn, + land) and my first five draws were land... land... fragmatize... land ... selfless spirit
To make it worse - my opponent had 12 damage worth of burn spells in hand. Making my two avacyns relatively worthless. Prob should have mulled.
Have you considered running 2x Thalia, Heretic Cather and removing an Avacyn or two? I have found her to be very beneficial to aggro decks, and some mirror matches. She almost always gets nabbed by a kill spell and which leaves less spells for some of our more precious card drops.
I also run Linvala in the side board against aggro to get me a few more life, and field presence.
Just seems like your sideboard might be better suited for aggro, as you had the toughest time with them.
The only aggro deck I think I would want Thalia in vs is BR aggro. Otherwise I don't think it's needed to win the aggro matchup (and I would rather have other cards vs GB/mirror).
It was also my first time playing the deck. So mistakes abound.
Mind posting your list Axman? and any thoughts you have about sideboarding, I'm new to the deck too and am interested in others thoughts.
Below is my deck list. I top 8ed the PPTQ with a 3-1-1 record. I lost only to the mirror in Swiss
(beating RW humans, Grixis Emerge, and BW Delerium).
My loss in the mirror was partially my fault. I +Gideon when I should have emblem. My opponent went double emblem and I couldn't catch up.
In round 1 of top 8 I had to replay the RW player. Was on the play and won easier than during swiss.
In the semi-finals I had to play against BR Aggro. Lost in three very close games. Game 3 my opponent had 12 points of burn spells... and I didn't have enough gas. Kept a somewhat questionable hand (spell queller + 2 Avacyn, + land) and my first five draws were land... land... fragmatize... land ... selfless spirit
To make it worse - my opponent had 12 damage worth of burn spells in hand. Making my two avacyns relatively worthless. Prob should have mulled.
Have you considered running 2x Thalia, Heretic Cather and removing an Avacyn or two? I have found her to be very beneficial to aggro decks, and some mirror matches. She almost always gets nabbed by a kill spell and which leaves less spells for some of our more precious card drops.
I also run Linvala in the side board against aggro to get me a few more life, and field presence.
Just seems like your sideboard might be better suited for aggro, as you had the toughest time with them.
The only aggro deck I think I would want Thalia in vs is BR aggro. Otherwise I don't think it's needed to win the aggro matchup (and I would rather have other cards vs GB/mirror).
It was also my first time playing the deck. So mistakes abound.
What other cards do you prefer over Thalia for those match ups?
I have seen Thalia slow down G/B and other decks both by piloting U/W and Piloting G/B as I have/do play both decks.
Mind posting your list Axman? and any thoughts you have about sideboarding, I'm new to the deck too and am interested in others thoughts.
Below is my deck list. I top 8ed the PPTQ with a 3-1-1 record. I lost only to the mirror in Swiss
(beating RW humans, Grixis Emerge, and BW Delerium).
My loss in the mirror was partially my fault. I +Gideon when I should have emblem. My opponent went double emblem and I couldn't catch up.
In round 1 of top 8 I had to replay the RW player. Was on the play and won easier than during swiss.
In the semi-finals I had to play against BR Aggro. Lost in three very close games. Game 3 my opponent had 12 points of burn spells... and I didn't have enough gas. Kept a somewhat questionable hand (spell queller + 2 Avacyn, + land) and my first five draws were land... land... fragmatize... land ... selfless spirit
To make it worse - my opponent had 12 damage worth of burn spells in hand. Making my two avacyns relatively worthless. Prob should have mulled.
Have you considered running 2x Thalia, Heretic Cather and removing an Avacyn or two? I have found her to be very beneficial to aggro decks, and some mirror matches. She almost always gets nabbed by a kill spell and which leaves less spells for some of our more precious card drops.
I also run Linvala in the side board against aggro to get me a few more life, and field presence.
Just seems like your sideboard might be better suited for aggro, as you had the toughest time with them.
The only aggro deck I think I would want Thalia in vs is BR aggro. Otherwise I don't think it's needed to win the aggro matchup (and I would rather have other cards vs GB/mirror).
It was also my first time playing the deck. So mistakes abound.
What other cards do you prefer over Thalia for those match ups?
I have seen Thalia slow down G/B and other decks both by piloting U/W and Piloting G/B as I have/do play both decks.
Revolutionary Rebuff or Fumigate
For the purpose of the PPTQ, I replaced thalia with revolutionary rebuff (instead of sbing it).
I kind of missed Thalia in the aggro matchups... but at the same time not really. I think the only matchup where I'd 100% want it is Mardu Vehicles (which I did not play).
EDIT - I don't know if this is correct, but against the RW human/vehical deck and BR aggro.... I found myself siding out my declaration in stones.
So far I have a pile of cards I am experimenting with, some of them proxies, as I don't have the real ones yet. I have not tried the Rebuff yet as I have been playing mainboard 3x Negates and Statsis Snares, my normal play is to Spell Quell any creatures I dislike and use Negate for anything else.
I saw a list running one elder deep-fiend. Wondering if that would be good against aggro decks like w/r or r/b.. or even gb delirium. Upkeep, flash, tap all their lands or ishkanah.
Tried it. Hated it. Moving on..
I've been pretty happy with Deep-Fiend as a one of.
I disagree about spirits being viable. I got 2nd in a pptq, where i beat 2 GB delirium in swiss, 1 in top8 and narrowly lost to it in finals. to be honest, the spirits plays a bit differently than the standard uw flash that most people play. The wanderer give more tempo than people realize as it essentialy forces them to target it with removal first, or wait a turn so that they can pay the extra mana. Crewing copter with it is basically the same as using thraben. It can even turn into a better beater than thraben since it has evasion and can be pumped. You don't get the clue but it feels about the same considering the tempo advantage it provides. I run 2 mainboard copies of always watching and 0 gideons. Seems off but I just didnt feel gideon that much. 99% of the time it ws just the emblem and always watching is just a better one as it also gives vigilance and costs 1 less. Nebelghast herald plays a key role here as ive been able to tap down spiders and swing in. With always watching, even if you tap 1 spider it often makes blocks much less favorable. While liliana can be a pain, she typically doesn't do much but soak up 4 damage. If i know I'm playing against gb i avoid playing copter on turn 2, flash in a rattlechain to protect the wandrer from her +, then on my turn cast any spirit to swing and kill their liliana. it gets even better if my turn 3 is a selfless and im able to hold up an instant speed wanderer or one of the 2 essence flux.
I was considering Jace against control decks, extra draw power and bounce. To combo with Reflector Mage. Rebuff does not work against Emrakul, it has protection from instants, only Summary Dissmisal works.
Tried it. Hated it. Moving on..
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Topplegeist
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Rattlechains
4 Spell Queller
4 Nebelgast Herald
2 Bygone Bishop
2 Spectral Shepherd
4 Reflector Mage
1 Declaration in Stone
1 Immolating Glare
1 Blessed Alliance
3 Stasis Snare
Lands (22)
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
7 Island
7 Plains
2 Fragmentize
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Skywhaler’s Shot
1 Eerie Interlude
2 Fumigate
1 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Negate
2 Scatter to the Winds
3 Summary Dismissal
these are the things that i found to be its downfall
1) The lack of filtering and drawing cards the best thing about the flash deck is the Threban inspector that pays for itself draws you extra card and the Copter allowing you to not miss land drops or get the card you need
in large competitions you cant get lucky every time you need those cards to get you from a bad hand of cards to something that changes the tides.
2) B/G is a deck that dominates the meta, you will face minimum 2 in every standard tournament its possible to deal with 1 lili but 1 resolved lili can be devastating. We dont even need to talk about the spider which basically
just needs to be played and the attacks are halted.
3) Lastly this deck after much testing cant perform when its already behind also it has no big threats
UBRWGHumansUBRWG
UMerfolkU
Eldrazi Tron
Legacy
WDeath & TaxesW
Pauper
RGoblinsR
EDH
UGMerfolk ComboGU
Standard
UWApproachWU
I recently bought into UW flash from Jeskai Control.
Ended up top8ing a pptq yesterday and loosing in the semi-finals to BR aggro (he did 12 points of damage all in burn spells game 3 0_o).
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Below is my deck list. I top 8ed the PPTQ with a 3-1-1 record. I lost only to the mirror in Swiss
(beating RW humans, Grixis Emerge, and BW Delerium).
My loss in the mirror was partially my fault. I +Gideon when I should have emblem. My opponent went double emblem and I couldn't catch up.
In round 1 of top 8 I had to replay the RW player. Was on the play and won easier than during swiss.
In the semi-finals I had to play against BR Aggro. Lost in three very close games. Game 3 my opponent had 12 points of burn spells... and I didn't have enough gas. Kept a somewhat questionable hand (spell queller + 2 Avacyn, + land) and my first five draws were land... land... fragmatize... land ... selfless spirit
To make it worse - my opponent had 12 damage worth of burn spells in hand. Making my two avacyns relatively worthless. Prob should have mulled.
4x Port Town
4x Prairie Stream
6x Island
10x Plains
Creatures
4x Thraben Inspector
4x Selfless Spirit
4x Reflector Mage
4x Spell Queller
4x Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier
2x Revolutionary Rebuff
4x Smuggler's Copter
4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4x Stasis Snare
1x Declaration in Stone
2x Summary Dismissal
2x Blessed Alliance
2x Spell Shrivel
1x Fumigate
1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
2x Gisela, the Broken Blade // Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
2x Fragmentize
1x Bruna, the Fading Light // Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
1x Linvala, the Preserver
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Have you considered running 2x Thalia, Heretic Cather and removing an Avacyn or two? I have found her to be very beneficial to aggro decks, and some mirror matches. She almost always gets nabbed by a kill spell and which leaves less spells for some of our more precious card drops.
I also run Linvala in the side board against aggro to get me a few more life, and field presence.
Just seems like your sideboard might be better suited for aggro, as you had the toughest time with them.
The only aggro deck I think I would want Thalia in vs is BR aggro. Otherwise I don't think it's needed to win the aggro matchup (and I would rather have other cards vs GB/mirror).
It was also my first time playing the deck. So mistakes abound.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
What other cards do you prefer over Thalia for those match ups?
I have seen Thalia slow down G/B and other decks both by piloting U/W and Piloting G/B as I have/do play both decks.
Revolutionary Rebuff or Fumigate
For the purpose of the PPTQ, I replaced thalia with revolutionary rebuff (instead of sbing it).
I kind of missed Thalia in the aggro matchups... but at the same time not really. I think the only matchup where I'd 100% want it is Mardu Vehicles (which I did not play).
EDIT - I don't know if this is correct, but against the RW human/vehical deck and BR aggro.... I found myself siding out my declaration in stones.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
It's hard for me to sAy, because I literally just started playing a week ago (and I haven't tried Thalia).
I do like rebuffs in the main though.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
I've been pretty happy with Deep-Fiend as a one of.
UR Blue-Red Control
Modern:
UBR Grixis Control
UWR Jeskai Control
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
Back to the drawing board.
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
2 Gisela, the Broken Blade
4 Reflector Mage
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thraben Inspector
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Skywhaler's Shot
4 Smuggler's Copter
3 Stasis Snare
10 Plains
4 Port Town
3 Prairie Stream
1 Westvale Abbey
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Declaration in Stone
1 Dovin Baan
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Immolating Glare
2 Negate
1 Summary Dismissal
2 Void Shatter
I have a few cards set aside as maybes for the sideboard:
Opinions on these? Would you make any changes, I have gone through a few draw cycles and have really liked my opening hands.
One more: Authority of the Consuls is effective against Zombies and against aggro.
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
Thought marvelwork decks were typically good; however, this new breed is very difficult to beat.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
I was considering Jace against control decks, extra draw power and bounce. To combo with Reflector Mage. Rebuff does not work against Emrakul, it has protection from instants, only Summary Dissmisal works.
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'm considering going 24... maybe that's wrong. But I feel like I hated the deck at 25 lands.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Mine is 24 and it seems to run okay so far.
Why did you dislike 25 lands?