U/B Control (won in 3 off the Gearhulk in both games) - Answered the combo every time.
Mono-R Aggro (Lost in 3, won off the combo once on like turn 14)
Esper Aggro (Won in 2 - combo both time very late in the games)
R/G Energy (lost 2 - 1)
Mirror Match (Won 2 - 1 neither of us won off the combo, I side boarded it out)
G/W Human (lost in 2) Bad draws and his creatures get too big to fast, Side board slowed them down with Titi and Baral I was able to slow the match down, but I felt dominated.
This is a small pool I know but there are so many answers to the combo it has been hard to pull off, Do you wait until you can cast it all on turn 6 or wait until you have protection from a shock or grasp, I want to play splinter twin so bad again, that I am going to try this some more but I am not fully sold this combo can be competitive.
Mostly my experience as well when running the combo in control. Everyone plays removal and we have zero targets outside of the combo and by the time I had the mana to go for it with protection they were already dead to gearhulks so it saved me A turn from winning. I really think that the best home for it is a midrange shell of some kind, but which one I'm not sure of. I've had a lot of fun and moderate success with an emerge shell with the combo in there to support it and get extra value or close faster. Using saheeli as a surprise 3 mana burn 5 to the face has ended a lot of games for me.
IMO pure UWR control is strictly better than control with 8 really bad cards shoved in. They just don't do much of anything on their own outside of a minor lightning rod for removal/burn which would otherwise just be blank cards. I think we have access to much better ways to win games that do things by themselves without the need for what are essentially blanks without the other piece.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Never thought I'd say this, but I really miss reflector mage. There is a strong lack of good 3 mana creatures with useful ETB effects to flicker with guardian. If mage was a thing this deck would be disgusting, but there aren't many options really. Filigree isn't great to flicker as 2 life is meh and whirler virtuoso is just "fine" and I can't think of any others to flicker for value, thoughts?
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Eldrazi Skyspawner, Pilgrim's Eye? Seems like decent targets for Eldrazi Deep-Fiend, if that's what you like. Especially since Skyspawner is +1 mana, which will make your kills more consistent. There's even dreamland scenario of T3 Skyspawner, T4 Deep-Fiend of Skyspawner, tap all their mana, T5 Combo of Felidar blinking land and scion mana. Your opponent may have at most 1 mana open and you probably tapped out all their red so this is indisruptable unless they have Thalia or Walking Balista.
Hrmm, I do like the idea of sky spawner, but pilgrim's eye isn't impactful enough as I can't utilize it as well as delirium decks can. I've been also messing with a true super friends version and using walkers to abuse the cat when I can't combo off. Here's where I'm at right now.
The deck has many sub themes, many potential "the dream" draws and interactions. Things such as C'thulu emerge, tap you out, flash back kozilek's return. Saheeli plus cat obviously. Barals expertise to clear your board, drop a freebie chandra/nahiri. And believe me when I tell you, barals into a 4cmc walker is such an obscene tempo swing that it's usually enough to win. Not to mention that it highly encourages your opponent to dump into play all that they lost which leaves them 100% wide open for you to combo off the following turn. And if they choose not to redeploy their team then you get to untap with a high loyalty walker with a follow up.
I've tried going all in on the FB return plan with wretched gryfs, but it was too delicate and they weren't great on their own, but having a couple returns is great since tokens seems to be a thing and you will get to a point to cap it off for 5 eventually. Not to mention that plan has no synergy with the combo plan since the eldrazi are on cast triggers so cloning them with saheeli doesn't do much outside of deal 5 to the face. I want as much to work together as possible and I think I'm getting close to where the deck needs to be.
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And on that day, Garfield said unto the world "Go ye forth and durdle!"
Anyone have experience playing this deck vs aggro and/or marvel?
I'm trying to decide what route to go. At the moment I'm play testing an aggro version of the shell, but I do miss control. My fear is playing the combo makes you weaker vs decks that can easily interact with the combo (control and midrange).
I suggest jumping on X-Mage and giving it a whirl, it is where I do a lot of my testing. You may run into the issue of people not conceding even when you have the combo, so you either have to concede yourself or make the tokens and smash face with them. Testing went a lot better yesterday for myself, I feel like the control shell is where you want to be, I did add combustion gear hulk in place of the 4th terrential gearhulk.
So it is obviously nearly an unwinnable g1 in the mirror but against nearly every other deck it simply outvalues in all ways. Insane card draw and Panharmonicon abuse to the maximum. I have been loving this list. Its based on Andrew Jessup's list but Countless Gears Renegade is trash imho and maining 3 Shock is great vs both the mirror and aggro decks.
Once you stick Panharmonicon the game ends. You don't really need combo to win you can use Felidar Guardian and Eldrazi Displacer to just drown your opponent in card advantage. Game 2 you have the choice of going all in on combo with a ton of counter spells. I am surprised andrew didn't include Fragmentize in the side as the deck has no answer to an opposing Authority of the Consuls.
As you can immediately see, there is a LOT going on in this list.
I have seen similar lists pop up recently, however they generally lean too far one way or the other. Sometimes its all saheeli combo and marvel with puzzleknots for energy with no big hits. Other times its 4 ulamogs, a bunch of worldbreakers/other big threats and the saheeli combo thrown in. My problem with these lists is the completely polarizing draws. Sometimes the all-in saheeli list will draw nothing but energy generators and puzzleknots and just flounder around doing nothing, sometimes the marvel-centric list will draw a bunch of big threats it cant cast and just do nothing. I wanted to find a medium between the two that could also just have the backup-backup-backup-backup plan of just beating your opponent to death with small creatures.
There are four main combo's built into the deck. There is the obvious main combo of Saheeli-Felidar. There is the combo of Marvel-Ulamog/Big threat. We have the Whirler Virtuoso/Panharmonicon/Gonti's Aether Heart infinite thopters and extra turn to kill you combo and we also have the accidental Panharmonicon/2x Felidar + permanents combo. This last one functions by infinitely flickering each felidar and one other permanent, whether that be lands for mana to cast your spells or an oath of nissa/refiner to dig your deck etc.
As mentioned above, there is the plan of just playing a midrange game and beating your opponent down. Marvel actually does a fantastic job of accommodating this alongside Panharmonicon, letting us drown our opponent in value or find our combo pieces.
Now, I really suck at writing primers so I wont waffle on and embarrass myself further but if you have any questions regarding a specific card/card choice (Or why X instead of Y) let me know and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
I have had a lot of success with a Control(ish) list that I have been play testing, so I wanted to share it here. I have tried several different shells and variations to try to make the combo work more reliably, and this has been the most successful iteration.
Having Thing in the Ice as an aggro deterrent has proven to be invaluable. The deck has enough instances and sorceries that Thing in the Ice can flip on turn 5 without too much problem, or even turn 4 with a nut draw. It also provides a much needed back-up plan if you are unable to assemble the combo in time. The other All-Star in this deck that I'm not seeing in other versions is Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
Chandra sets up an extremely difficult to deal with scenario where you play her on turn 4, then turn 5 you plus her for mana and play the Cat, blink to untap a land, and now you have mana up to cast Saheeli PLUS 1 land left over for Dispel protection... on TURN 5! Plus Chandra also provides another much needed back-up plan to go along side Thing in the Ice, not to mention she still counts as removal on a stick.
Another All-Star card that I've been testing with is Contingency Plan. Yes - I know its technically card disadvantage, but the ability to set up your next several turns, or just dig for exactly what you need has been priceless in this deck. I cannot understate how impressed I have been with Contingency Plan. It seems terrible in some, or even most decks, but I think this is exactly the kind of deck it belongs in.
I think the best thing this version of the deck has going for it is the unconventional ways it can win. There are fairly common scenario's where things like this can happen (and I have won like this):
Play Thing on turn 2
Sweep the board on turn 3
Play Chandra Turn 4, plus her for mana & play Harnessed Lightning to kill whatever they played after the board wipe
Plus Chandra again on turn 5 and play a couple instances to flip Thing, bounce their creature(s), get in for 7
Next turn, Plus Chandra to 7 and hold Thing back as a blocker to ensure her Ultimate goes off next turn, and just win from there.
The sideboard is the one thing that I'm still unsure of. I have had success with being able to sideboard into a more typical Jeskai Control shell by adding in a couple Nahiri, the Harbingers and a couple Torrential Gearhulks, but I'm still not sure that its really necessary. I really want to find room for another Fumigate and another Fragmentize, plus another Dispel wouldn't be a bad idea to allow for all 4 to go in against heavy control or anything that's disrupting my combo hardcore, but I'm just not sure what else I could drop.
If anyone has any feedback for the maindeck or the sideboard, I would love to hear some suggestions or comments. Thanks!
Basically you play a fair game with your energy core and walkers, force reactions to your initial proactive plays, and then combo off when you have the opening to do so. You'll win most of your games with your surprisingly-efficient beats, planeswalker support, and some well-timed blinks/copies from Guardian/Saheeli rather than actually comboing off, but the threat is always looming.
I don't think I have the sideboard figured out just yet. I know I want Shock in the 75, because it breaks up the combo in the mirror, and because it gives you a cheap way to double-spell in the middle turns against fast aggro decks. I'm leaning on a Skysovereign maindeck and a sideboard Cloudblazer as extra bullets that can help me stabilize. Against control decks, I want to be able to board out some of the combo pieces and play a more robust card advantage game with planeswalkers and Tireless Tracker, and I want to leverage the format's best anti-control energy sink, Bristling Hydra.
This deck is pretty strong. Even your bad matchups can only be so bad when you have the potential to combo kill on turn 4. More importantly, I think the Temur Energy Midrange shell that players like Shaun McLaren championed last season was actually pretty good, but was just a little underpowered compared to what the best decks in the format were doing. In an open field like this one it seems plenty powerful.
So it is obviously nearly an unwinnable g1 in the mirror but against nearly every other deck it simply outvalues in all ways. Insane card draw and Panharmonicon abuse to the maximum. I have been loving this list. Its based on Andrew Jessup's list but Countless Gears Renegade is trash imho and maining 3 Shock is great vs both the mirror and aggro decks.
Once you stick Panharmonicon the game ends. You don't really need combo to win you can use Felidar Guardian and Eldrazi Displacer to just drown your opponent in card advantage. Game 2 you have the choice of going all in on combo with a ton of counter spells. I am surprised andrew didn't include Fragmentize in the side as the deck has no answer to an opposing Authority of the Consuls.
don't forget that with a panharmonicon and 2 guardians you have infinite mana and infinite blinks. with a thraben inspector or cloudblazer also in play you draw your whole deck and play the combo out to win.
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Modern U Merfolk U WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
Okay, little update from my FNM this evening. 3-0 and played a the other guy who was 3-0 after the even and beat him in a one game square off mirror match.
Okay, quick run down, i expected to play against aggro and the mirror. I was, not really let down.
So round one
Mirror 2-0
game one we used all but 8 minutes of the round and i finally one by being very very patient. Finally, i was able to saheeli, copy gearhulk, saheeli, copy gearhulk and push through lethal. FUN!
Game 2. i side out most of the combo, leave a few in, but bring in more negate, and dynavault tower, i smoke him out on turn 5 of turns.
Round 2 Paired down! 2-0- Monoblue something...
Basically, i rolled him. Combo'kilt twice in a row.
Round three, 2-0 temur marvel
Game one, i just stuck to my guns and found an opening to reslove my combo and won. Did alot of baiting with gearhulk and let him kill them. I figured he didnt have main deck negate, so i just let my gearhulks die.
Game 2- i side out radiant flames and bring in 2 negate, opener was saheeli, guardian, 3 lands void shatter and negate...
i countered 2 marvels in a row, and combo killed on turn six while he missed land drops..
We only had 3 rounds, most peopled drafted, since i got paired down rounds 2 and 3, i finished second, to you guessed it, another copy cat deck. He is a known control player in the area, so we decided for fun to play a round off record. Saheeli was a very important card in that matchup, in fact, he almost killed me with it. I got to one life lol. he was out of shocks and made a misplay and i combo killed him for his mistake lol.
Either way, fun night. I didnt drop a game and it felt good. Im not sure how good the deck is, but it was fun none the less. I will say this, i drew exceptionally well tonight, but i also believe i played very very tight.
Went 3-1 with a control list losing only to the mirror. Was surprisingly easy to fight through both authority of the consuls and thalia. The deck is pretty busted. The pros will find an optimal list and break the format and this combo will be banned after the PT. I'm sure of it.
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Modern U Merfolk U WUBRGPeopleGRBUW U Turbo Turns U UB Fae BU WBG Aristocrats GBW
Here is what I am going to try to put together first. It's a low to the ground control deck with the combo in it. It's geared towards getting to and protecting the combo pieces. Any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
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Currently Playing:
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Went 3-1 with a control list losing only to the mirror. Was surprisingly easy to fight through both authority of the consuls and thalia. The deck is pretty busted. The pros will find an optimal list and break the format and this combo will be banned after the PT. I'm sure of it.
Do you have a list you'd be willing to share im getting ready to build this deck I saw it did fairly well at the most recent scg open.
The Commencement was just something I scrounged my sealed pools and just ended up jamming them but never needed it. I am just going to briefly out in details as I didn't really write anything down and it was only a small 28 person event.
R1 BR Eldrazi 2-1
-Game 1 Early Mimic Beats into Dust Stalker.
-Game 2 Marveled an Ulamog.
-Game 3 He gets me low but I stabilized and Combo Cat out.
R2 RW Humans 2-1
-Game 1 He Nerd Ape, Mimic, Double Inspector + Nerd Ape, and shuts me down with Thalia before I go off.
-Game 2 I Combo Cat turn 5 after I sweep his board with a Kozilek's Return and Shocking.
-Game 3 I played early aggression, Shocked Thalia and Combo Cat for the win.
R3 Temur Aetherworks 2-0
-Game 1 Cat Combo turn 4 the turn he plays Marvel but was only at 5 energy.
-Game 2 I kept a Dispel, 2 Negate, Guardian, and 3 land hand. I stopped a Hedron Archive and Chandra and played a Cat blinking a land to Dispel his Harnessed Lightning and then Comboed out.
R4 & R5 Draw into Top 8 and 2 of my other friends made it into the Top 8
R6 Jeskai Saheeli 2-0
-Game 1 Ended up getting paired with one friend and we played the worst game of solitaire to try to find the Combo while I kept whiffing on Marvel but still ended up getting to Combo Cat.
-Game 2 we struggled for lands and just stated at each other while we kept exchanging Saheelis and Guardians. I finally Marveled out an Ulamog after spending 12 energy Marveling into another Marvel into Ulamog.
R7 UB Control 2-1
-Game 1 He fully controls the game and starts beating me down to 5 life. I finally drew a World Breaker to stabilized but ended up not having enough lands to keep up with his kill spells and lost to a third awakened Ruinous Path.
-Game 2 I Dispelled two of his Glimmer of Genius and force his hand to kill my creatures. World Breaker was able to stick onto the board and finish it.
-Game 3 I curved out on all creature aggression while he struggled with getting double colored sources as he only had 1 blue 1 black and 1 colorless lands.
R8 BG Delirium 2-0
-Game 1 This was the other friend that made it and we get to the finals. He started off with early low drops for the aggression while I used Saheeli to scry something relevant. I was able to Marvel out an Ulamog and removed his creatures to seal the deal.
-Game 2 He started out early again with aggression and I played all my energy spells into turn 4 Marvel > Ulamog. He was able to survive two attacks and To the Slaughter the Ulamog since Marvel failed to find a second creature. I rebuilt energy and Marveled another Ulamog to take the win.
I feel like I want Nahiri in the 75 to just keep going at different angles because everyone was being super cautious around the combo but then end up dying to Ulamog. I had a fun day and will probably just jam out some GPTs during this season. Thanks for reading!
I took a pretty stock jeskai control list with 4 pieces each of the combo to the first FNM and went 2-2, which is worse than I expected.
Round 1 was a GW eldrazi landfall build. I lost game 1 to two potent tireless trackers that just out paced my removal eventually. Games 2-3 I had early combo kills. 2-1.
Round 2 was against the mirror and he just had a better tuned 75 for the mirror. I had shocks in my side, where he had them main. He took game 1 and then I lost game 3 to spell queller beats while he just protected it. 1-2.
Round 3 was a UW flash build and it was much closer than it really should have been. I eventually took it 2-1, but this could have easily been a loss if he didn't flood.
Round 4 I lost 1-2 to freaking fevered visions. Once he stuck one I had to dig for nahiri to get it off while getting shredded by dynavolt tower...was not expecting the deck tbh.
I noticed that the SCG Open had two wildly different green versions of the deck. It made me wonder if perhaps BTL was a correct choice for this deck. It would possibly allow going down on the cats and up on situational cards like the expertises (Barals, Yaheeni's) and such stuff. We'd then be playing a toolbox combo.
With such a dismal showing at the FNM, the control list just isn't my speed or flavor. I'm moving towards green and I think this is a good suggestion.
I think bring to light has merit in something like the panharmonicon combo builds. Where you can BTL a 1-2 of panharmonicon and just out value someone from there. I think the cat is just too good with what those decks are looking to do, which is double up on ETB triggers via cat and saheeli by themselves. Blinking an oath of nissa or copying a cloudblazer is just gross. Also with a servant out you can hit that 5 color mark to pull a fumigate if you need it vs aggro.
I dunno, I'm trying all sorts of builds to find one I like. So far green splashes seem pretty good to me. I definateky thing BtL has a place in the 75 for a toolbox style deck.
I would include 2 Shocks to kill Saheeli in the mirror match (maybe for 1 Baral and 1 Void Shatter). Shock is also good against Grim Flayer as long as he is still 2/2 as well as Winding Constrictor.
Well, the problem with this is that Winding Constrictor is a 2/3. Still, Shock is a card I've been satisfied with and a choice I endorse even if it doesn't scale particularly well into the later stages of the game. You can really mitigate that with other spells like Harnessed Lightning, Immolating Glare, and the like.
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Post Ravnica Allegiance Type 2 - WUB Control
States '09: 14th place. Aiming for better next year.
States '10: 12th place. Aiming for better next year.
I think bring to light has merit in something like the panharmonicon combo builds. Where you can BTL a 1-2 of panharmonicon and just out value someone from there.
Unfortunately BTL is creature/instant/sorcery so no Panharmonicon. We'd need the new blue cord for Panharmonicon and that's rather heavy on mana.
Also with a servant out you can hit that 5 color mark to pull a fumigate if you need it vs aggro.
The 5-color mark has a lot of merit with both a 1-off fumigate and a Baral's Expertise where you bounce 3 and play a cat.
I'll tinker with a list and see where I can get with that.
Deep good catch. May still be good with something more tool box feeling. The GUWR saheeli decks could pull off the black mana pretty easily between attune, oath of nissa, servant of the conduit, and prismatic prisim. At that point you could go a little lighter on the combo and just threaten it while you just play the value game.
After SCG COL I think not running 2x fumigate in the 75 is going to be a mistake. GB decks just out grow radiant flames too quickly.
After SCG COL I think not running 2x fumigate in the 75 is going to be a mistake. GB decks just out grow radiant flames too quickly.
Totally agree. I'm running two in the main right now and will add at least one more to the side.
I agree with adding a 3rd in the side. I'm currently running 1 MD and 1 in the side and would have really liked to have a 3rd tonight in my last match; which was against Blue Eldrazi. I didn't have a way to remove the Reality Smashers he kept playing. I took game 1 due to the combo after he got me down to 2 life. Game 2 I ended up mana flooded and didn't draw the combo, Gearhulks or Fumigate. Game 3 I mulled down to 6 and kept the board clear until turn 9 with Radiant Flames, counters and 1 Fumigate; but I never saw the combo, Gearhulks or card draw spells. So playing land go with no way to interact with his Smasher and Thought Knot meant that once he got them both on the board; it was over shortly there after.
It was the 1st time I've played the deck so my biggest challenge will be learning how to sideboard with the deck and how to build the sideboard to help in my local meta.
Psy
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Currently Playing:
Jeskai Control:42-23-5 Elves: 44-31-3 Red-Aggro: 18-9-0 B/G Energy 21-6-0
I played a small FNM last night at a pretty new store, going 3-0.
I should add that I haven't played Standard in about three years, preferring modern over that time. The way they've fixed the set rotation, relatively low cost of entry and chance to play Twin sucked me back in.
R1: bye - I came to play, dammit.
R2: Kind of a weird, unfocused Jeskai Twin deck.
Not really a lot to say about this one. G1 was just a fairly quick combo. G2 I drew removal and Quellers for a long time and even played Saheeli for the Scry to dig. Eventually I got the Cat I needed and ended it.
R3: UB control
G1 His mana development (mix of U and B) gave me what I felt was a reasonable gamble for a T3 Saheeli which paid off. Saheeli did about 12 damage to him and helped me manage draw quality while Harnessed Lightning dealt with his Torrential Gearhulks. He was eventually able to kill Saheeli, but had to do it a Sorcery speed, tapping some of his mana and leaving me with an opening to get another down thanks to a Queller. The Cat followed the same turn.
G2: He mulled to 5 on the play and I opened with two Refiners, meaning that not only did I have threats but I had serious card advantage. I drew into the rest of the refiners (!) over the next four turns and even flickered one with a Cat because 5 bonus cards is better than 4. Not much of a game really, but that's magic. Sometimes you're on the lucky side of that one and sometimes it goes the other way. One thing I did determine from this, however, is that the low low threat density in that deck leaves us with a lot more time than we should have. He wasn't running Kalitas though, relying instead on the four Gearhulks so that needs to be factored in too. I boarded out the Prisms, Fumigates and Cloudchasers for Stasis Snares, Negates and Dispels. I got a lot of value from Snare here as he managed to get a T6 Gearhulk at my EoT but I let him resolve it and flashed in Snare to deal with it.
I was playing a fairly stock list from the four-colour deck that finished 5th last weekend at the SCG open. I dropped the one-of dorks for two MD Fumigates with another in the board.
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Some people like to win MtG matches in the Red Zone. I prefer to win the way God intended: on the stack.
Your deck manages the board and draws a lot of cards. You want to trade off against decks that pressure you with creatures and grind them out with your plethora of card-advantage spells, or sculpt the board so that you can resolve and protect a planeswalker that you can ride to victory. Against decks that can't pressure you effectively, you want to take the offensive where you can, pushing damage through while maintaining a high card count and forcing them to line up specific answers in the right windows to beat you. In either case, given enough time, you will eventually assemble a 2-card combo that wins the game on the spot.
Most of the spells are pretty stock for the 4c Saheeli deck, here's a discussion of the ones that aren't auto-includes in every list.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Does it all. She's frequently a powerful win condition to herself, coming down as early as turn 3 off of Servant of the Conduit. Games where you get to do this on the play are comically straightforward to win. Her mana mode is very useful - you can combo off as early as turn 4 without exposing either half of your combo to sorcery-speed interaction in an ideal scenario, and regardless, the deck draws so many cards that you'll regularly want to use her +1 make RR mode to deploy them quickly enough. She sees play in several of these lists but not all of them - I think it's a mistake to play zero copies of her.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Much more niche walker, definitely not a must-play. He is extremely effective against BG variants; their midgame spells tend to cost a lot of their available mana, which means that Jace can not uncommonly come down, bounce their last creature and be ready to roll from there. He's even solid against aggressive decks once you've stabilized, since you need some kind of way to keep the cards flowing to stay ahead of your opponents. Obviously he's solid against control decks too.
Baral's Expertise
This card is insane against everything but control decks. Fast aggressive decks like Mardu Vehicles will require you to be careful in your early sequencing to maximize its effect, but the reward is well worth it. Clearing out the board, even if just for a turn, and resolving a planeswalker is such a brutal swing against decks like BG, and you will find yourself in scenarios where the board is stalled out a bit but your opponent has an active walker generating advantage and putting you behind. This bounces the blockers out of the way, lets you resolve a Chandra or Saheeli to damage the opposing walker and gives you free rein to attack with your leftover guys to kill the walker, since you bounced anything that could attack your walker on the following turn. In a locked up board where you just need to draw cards, you can play it as an overcosted blink of your Rogue Refiner or Felidar Guardian that also wastes part of your opponent's next turn. Since your own guys generate value on ETB, you can sometimes benefit from bouncing your own stuff.
Aetherworks Marvel
Too expensive and energy-hungry (for a deck not dedicated to making as much energy as possible) to play more than a copy or two, but Marvel is the format's best energy sink and plays very well in a 2-card combo deck that also wants to grind. It turns the "kill from nowhere" angle up to 11 - if your opponents play scared of the combo then this card will put the fear of God into them.
Spell Shrivel
Definitely not the flashiest spell you've ever seen, and a little out of place at first glance, but make no mistake, this card does a lot of work. Because your deck is so grindy and features a 2-card combo kill, you are generally very well-placed to win long games. The exception is when your opponent has something powerful and over the top to throw at you, like Torrential Gearhulk or a big planeswalker, that drastically cuts down the amount of time you have and forces you to get proactive and/or find an answer to the card quickly. Spell Shrivel is easy to leave up once the game gets to those stages and gives you a clean out to those effects so you can keep trucking without fear.
Your deck manages the board and draws a lot of cards. You want to trade off against decks that pressure you with creatures and grind them out with your plethora of card-advantage spells, or sculpt the board so that you can resolve and protect a planeswalker that you can ride to victory. Against decks that can't pressure you effectively, you want to take the offensive where you can, pushing damage through while maintaining a high card count and forcing them to line up specific answers in the right windows to beat you. In either case, given enough time, you will eventually assemble a 2-card combo that wins the game on the spot.
Most of the spells are pretty stock for the 4c Saheeli deck, here's a discussion of the ones that aren't auto-includes in every list.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Does it all. She's frequently a powerful win condition to herself, coming down as early as turn 3 off of Servant of the Conduit. Games where you get to do this on the play are comically straightforward to win. Her mana mode is very useful - you can combo off as early as turn 4 without exposing either half of your combo to sorcery-speed interaction in an ideal scenario, and regardless, the deck draws so many cards that you'll regularly want to use her +1 make RR mode to deploy them quickly enough. She sees play in several of these lists but not all of them - I think it's a mistake to play zero copies of her.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Much more niche walker, definitely not a must-play. He is extremely effective against BG variants; their midgame spells tend to cost a lot of their available mana, which means that Jace can not uncommonly come down, bounce their last creature and be ready to roll from there. He's even solid against aggressive decks once you've stabilized, since you need some kind of way to keep the cards flowing to stay ahead of your opponents. Obviously he's solid against control decks too.
Baral's Expertise
This card is insane against everything but control decks. Fast aggressive decks like Mardu Vehicles will require you to be careful in your early sequencing to maximize its effect, but the reward is well worth it. Clearing out the board, even if just for a turn, and resolving a planeswalker is such a brutal swing against decks like BG, and you will find yourself in scenarios where the board is stalled out a bit but your opponent has an active walker generating advantage and putting you behind. This bounces the blockers out of the way, lets you resolve a Chandra or Saheeli to damage the opposing walker and gives you free rein to attack with your leftover guys to kill the walker, since you bounced anything that could attack your walker on the following turn. In a locked up board where you just need to draw cards, you can play it as an overcosted blink of your Rogue Refiner or Felidar Guardian that also wastes part of your opponent's next turn. Since your own guys generate value on ETB, you can sometimes benefit from bouncing your own stuff.
Aetherworks Marvel
Too expensive and energy-hungry (for a deck not dedicated to making as much energy as possible) to play more than a copy or two, but Marvel is the format's best energy sink and plays very well in a 2-card combo deck that also wants to grind. It turns the "kill from nowhere" angle up to 11 - if your opponents play scared of the combo then this card will put the fear of God into them.
Spell Shrivel
Definitely not the flashiest spell you've ever seen, and a little out of place at first glance, but make no mistake, this card does a lot of work. Because your deck is so grindy and features a 2-card combo kill, you are generally very well-placed to win long games. The exception is when your opponent has something powerful and over the top to throw at you, like Torrential Gearhulk or a big planeswalker, that drastically cuts down the amount of time you have and forces you to get proactive and/or find an answer to the card quickly. Spell Shrivel is easy to leave up once the game gets to those stages and gives you a clean out to those effects so you can keep trucking without fear.
What's the Tireless Tracker for in the SB?
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In my testing going Aetherworks Marvel with Saheeli Rai and Felidar Twin won earlier and won more often and won more reliably.
Here's my Jeskai List and here's my Marvel List. Oh and plz, if you like it, +1 and leave sum luv
Mostly my experience as well when running the combo in control. Everyone plays removal and we have zero targets outside of the combo and by the time I had the mana to go for it with protection they were already dead to gearhulks so it saved me A turn from winning. I really think that the best home for it is a midrange shell of some kind, but which one I'm not sure of. I've had a lot of fun and moderate success with an emerge shell with the combo in there to support it and get extra value or close faster. Using saheeli as a surprise 3 mana burn 5 to the face has ended a lot of games for me.
IMO pure UWR control is strictly better than control with 8 really bad cards shoved in. They just don't do much of anything on their own outside of a minor lightning rod for removal/burn which would otherwise just be blank cards. I think we have access to much better ways to win games that do things by themselves without the need for what are essentially blanks without the other piece.
Hrmm, I do like the idea of sky spawner, but pilgrim's eye isn't impactful enough as I can't utilize it as well as delirium decks can. I've been also messing with a true super friends version and using walkers to abuse the cat when I can't combo off. Here's where I'm at right now.
4 Filigree Familiar
//Creature - Cat Beast (4)
4 Felidar Guardian
//Creature (7)
3 Aether Theorist
4 Elder Deep-Fiend
//Instant (10)
4 Harnessed Lightning
2 Immolating Glare
2 Kozilek's Return
2 Negate
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Dovin Baan
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Saheeli Rai
//Sorcery (2)
2 Baral's Expertise
//Land (25)
4 Aether Hub
2 Inspiring Vantage
5 Island
3 Mountain
3 Plains
3 Port Town
2 Spirebluff Canal
The deck has many sub themes, many potential "the dream" draws and interactions. Things such as C'thulu emerge, tap you out, flash back kozilek's return. Saheeli plus cat obviously. Barals expertise to clear your board, drop a freebie chandra/nahiri. And believe me when I tell you, barals into a 4cmc walker is such an obscene tempo swing that it's usually enough to win. Not to mention that it highly encourages your opponent to dump into play all that they lost which leaves them 100% wide open for you to combo off the following turn. And if they choose not to redeploy their team then you get to untap with a high loyalty walker with a follow up.
I've tried going all in on the FB return plan with wretched gryfs, but it was too delicate and they weren't great on their own, but having a couple returns is great since tokens seems to be a thing and you will get to a point to cap it off for 5 eventually. Not to mention that plan has no synergy with the combo plan since the eldrazi are on cast triggers so cloning them with saheeli doesn't do much outside of deal 5 to the face. I want as much to work together as possible and I think I'm getting close to where the deck needs to be.
I'm trying to decide what route to go. At the moment I'm play testing an aggro version of the shell, but I do miss control. My fear is playing the combo makes you weaker vs decks that can easily interact with the combo (control and midrange).
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Your Marvel Deck link is showing up blank. Deck's not under your name on tappedout, either.
3 Drowner of Hope
2 Pilgrim's Eye
4 Cloudblazer
3 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Felidar Guardian
4 Thraben Inspector
Planeswalkers (4)
4 Saheeli Rai
Enchantments (3)
3 Stasis Snare
Instants: (2)
3 Shock
Artifacts (6)
2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
4 Panharmonicon
Lands (24)
1 Mountain
1 Wastes
3 Island
7 Plains
4 Aether Hub
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Prairie Stream
Sideboard (15)
3 Dispel
4 Negate
1 Shock
3 Authority of the Consuls
2 Filigree Familiar
2 Linvala, the Preserver
This is my week one build
So it is obviously nearly an unwinnable g1 in the mirror but against nearly every other deck it simply outvalues in all ways. Insane card draw and Panharmonicon abuse to the maximum. I have been loving this list. Its based on Andrew Jessup's list but Countless Gears Renegade is trash imho and maining 3 Shock is great vs both the mirror and aggro decks.
Once you stick Panharmonicon the game ends. You don't really need combo to win you can use Felidar Guardian and Eldrazi Displacer to just drown your opponent in card advantage. Game 2 you have the choice of going all in on combo with a ton of counter spells. I am surprised andrew didn't include Fragmentize in the side as the deck has no answer to an opposing Authority of the Consuls.
Fragmentize also hits Aetherflux Reservoir Inspiring Statuary Heart of Kiran etc
4 Aether Hub
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Forest
1 Game Trail
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Spirebluff Canal
//Artifacts
4 Aetherworks Marvel
1 Gonti's Aether Heart
1 Panharmonicon
4 Oath of Nissa
//Instants
4 Harnessed Lightning
//Sorceries
4 Attune with Aether
//Planeswalkers
4 Saheeli Rai
//Creatures
4 Felidar Guardian
4 Rogue Refiner
4 Servant of the Conduit
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Whirler Virtuoso
1 World Breaker
3 Dispel
2 Natural State
2 Negate
1 Panharmonicon
2 Radiant Flames
3 Shock
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 World Breaker
As you can immediately see, there is a LOT going on in this list.
I have seen similar lists pop up recently, however they generally lean too far one way or the other. Sometimes its all saheeli combo and marvel with puzzleknots for energy with no big hits. Other times its 4 ulamogs, a bunch of worldbreakers/other big threats and the saheeli combo thrown in. My problem with these lists is the completely polarizing draws. Sometimes the all-in saheeli list will draw nothing but energy generators and puzzleknots and just flounder around doing nothing, sometimes the marvel-centric list will draw a bunch of big threats it cant cast and just do nothing. I wanted to find a medium between the two that could also just have the backup-backup-backup-backup plan of just beating your opponent to death with small creatures.
There are four main combo's built into the deck. There is the obvious main combo of Saheeli-Felidar. There is the combo of Marvel-Ulamog/Big threat. We have the Whirler Virtuoso/Panharmonicon/Gonti's Aether Heart infinite thopters and extra turn to kill you combo and we also have the accidental Panharmonicon/2x Felidar + permanents combo. This last one functions by infinitely flickering each felidar and one other permanent, whether that be lands for mana to cast your spells or an oath of nissa/refiner to dig your deck etc.
As mentioned above, there is the plan of just playing a midrange game and beating your opponent down. Marvel actually does a fantastic job of accommodating this alongside Panharmonicon, letting us drown our opponent in value or find our combo pieces.
Now, I really suck at writing primers so I wont waffle on and embarrass myself further but if you have any questions regarding a specific card/card choice (Or why X instead of Y) let me know and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
4 Aether Hub
4 Wandering Fumerole
4 Spirebluff Canal
3 Inspiring Vantage
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Needle Spires
3 Islands
1 Mountain
1 Plains
// Creatures
4 Felidar Guardian
3 Thing in the Ice
4 Saheeli Rai
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
// Instants / Sorceries
4 Harnessed Lightning
4 Anticipate
3 Contingency Plan
3 Glimmer of Genius
3 Radiant Flames
2 Disallow
2 Negate
2 Dispel
2 Selfless Spirit
1 Dispel
1 Disallow
1 Negate
2 Stasis Snare
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Fumigate
1 Fragmentize
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Authority of the Consuls
Having Thing in the Ice as an aggro deterrent has proven to be invaluable. The deck has enough instances and sorceries that Thing in the Ice can flip on turn 5 without too much problem, or even turn 4 with a nut draw. It also provides a much needed back-up plan if you are unable to assemble the combo in time. The other All-Star in this deck that I'm not seeing in other versions is Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
Chandra sets up an extremely difficult to deal with scenario where you play her on turn 4, then turn 5 you plus her for mana and play the Cat, blink to untap a land, and now you have mana up to cast Saheeli PLUS 1 land left over for Dispel protection... on TURN 5! Plus Chandra also provides another much needed back-up plan to go along side Thing in the Ice, not to mention she still counts as removal on a stick.
Another All-Star card that I've been testing with is Contingency Plan. Yes - I know its technically card disadvantage, but the ability to set up your next several turns, or just dig for exactly what you need has been priceless in this deck. I cannot understate how impressed I have been with Contingency Plan. It seems terrible in some, or even most decks, but I think this is exactly the kind of deck it belongs in.
I think the best thing this version of the deck has going for it is the unconventional ways it can win. There are fairly common scenario's where things like this can happen (and I have won like this):
Play Thing on turn 2
Sweep the board on turn 3
Play Chandra Turn 4, plus her for mana & play Harnessed Lightning to kill whatever they played after the board wipe
Plus Chandra again on turn 5 and play a couple instances to flip Thing, bounce their creature(s), get in for 7
Next turn, Plus Chandra to 7 and hold Thing back as a blocker to ensure her Ultimate goes off next turn, and just win from there.
The sideboard is the one thing that I'm still unsure of. I have had success with being able to sideboard into a more typical Jeskai Control shell by adding in a couple Nahiri, the Harbingers and a couple Torrential Gearhulks, but I'm still not sure that its really necessary. I really want to find room for another Fumigate and another Fragmentize, plus another Dispel wouldn't be a bad idea to allow for all 4 to go in against heavy control or anything that's disrupting my combo hardcore, but I'm just not sure what else I could drop.
If anyone has any feedback for the maindeck or the sideboard, I would love to hear some suggestions or comments. Thanks!
3 Longtusk Cub
4 Servant of the Conduit
4 Whirler Virtuoso
4 Rogue Refiner
4 Felidar Guardian
Planeswalkers (6)
4 Saheeli Rai
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Artifacts (1)
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
Enchantments (4)
4 Oath of Nissa
4 Attune with Aether
4 Harnessed Lightning
Lands (22)
4 Aether Hub
4 Botanical Sanctum
3 Spirebluff Canal
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Island
1 Plains
2 Natural State
4 Shock
3 Radiant Flames
3 Tireless Tracker
2 Bristling Hydra
1 Cloudblazer
Basically you play a fair game with your energy core and walkers, force reactions to your initial proactive plays, and then combo off when you have the opening to do so. You'll win most of your games with your surprisingly-efficient beats, planeswalker support, and some well-timed blinks/copies from Guardian/Saheeli rather than actually comboing off, but the threat is always looming.
I don't think I have the sideboard figured out just yet. I know I want Shock in the 75, because it breaks up the combo in the mirror, and because it gives you a cheap way to double-spell in the middle turns against fast aggro decks. I'm leaning on a Skysovereign maindeck and a sideboard Cloudblazer as extra bullets that can help me stabilize. Against control decks, I want to be able to board out some of the combo pieces and play a more robust card advantage game with planeswalkers and Tireless Tracker, and I want to leverage the format's best anti-control energy sink, Bristling Hydra.
This deck is pretty strong. Even your bad matchups can only be so bad when you have the potential to combo kill on turn 4. More importantly, I think the Temur Energy Midrange shell that players like Shaun McLaren championed last season was actually pretty good, but was just a little underpowered compared to what the best decks in the format were doing. In an open field like this one it seems plenty powerful.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
don't forget that with a panharmonicon and 2 guardians you have infinite mana and infinite blinks. with a thraben inspector or cloudblazer also in play you draw your whole deck and play the combo out to win.
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
My list.
3x Felidar Guardian
3x Saheeli Rai
2x Radiant Flames
1x Fumiagte
4x harnessed Lightning
3x Shock
2x Immolating Glare
4x Glimmer of genius
3x Void Shatter
1x negate
2x revolutionary Rebuff
2x Dynavault Tower
2x negate
1x Fumigate
1x Torrential Gearhulk
2x Dragonmaster Outcast
3x thing in the ice
2x Consuming sinkhole
2x tears of valakut
Okay, quick run down, i expected to play against aggro and the mirror. I was, not really let down.
So round one
Mirror 2-0
game one we used all but 8 minutes of the round and i finally one by being very very patient. Finally, i was able to saheeli, copy gearhulk, saheeli, copy gearhulk and push through lethal. FUN!
Game 2. i side out most of the combo, leave a few in, but bring in more negate, and dynavault tower, i smoke him out on turn 5 of turns.
Round 2 Paired down! 2-0- Monoblue something...
Basically, i rolled him. Combo'kilt twice in a row.
Round three, 2-0 temur marvel
Game one, i just stuck to my guns and found an opening to reslove my combo and won. Did alot of baiting with gearhulk and let him kill them. I figured he didnt have main deck negate, so i just let my gearhulks die.
Game 2- i side out radiant flames and bring in 2 negate, opener was saheeli, guardian, 3 lands void shatter and negate...
i countered 2 marvels in a row, and combo killed on turn six while he missed land drops..
We only had 3 rounds, most peopled drafted, since i got paired down rounds 2 and 3, i finished second, to you guessed it, another copy cat deck. He is a known control player in the area, so we decided for fun to play a round off record. Saheeli was a very important card in that matchup, in fact, he almost killed me with it. I got to one life lol. he was out of shocks and made a misplay and i combo killed him for his mistake lol.
Either way, fun night. I didnt drop a game and it felt good. Im not sure how good the deck is, but it was fun none the less. I will say this, i drew exceptionally well tonight, but i also believe i played very very tight.
U Merfolk U
WUBRGPeopleGRBUW
U Turbo Turns U
UB Fae BU
WBG Aristocrats GBW
4 Baral, Chief of Compliance
3 Felidar Guardian
Instants (22)
4 Anticipate
3 Blessed Alliance
3 Harnessed Lightning
2 Negate
2 Unsubstantiate
4 Void Shatter
4 Glimmer of Genius
Sorceries (3)
2 Radiant Flames
1 Fumigate
3 Saheeli Rai
Lands (25)
4 Aether Hub
4 Evolving Wilds
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
2 Port Town
3 Prairie Stream
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Wandering Fumarole
3 Authority of the Consuls
2 Dispel
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
3 Torrential Gearhulk
Here is what I am going to try to put together first. It's a low to the ground control deck with the combo in it. It's geared towards getting to and protecting the combo pieces. Any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Do you have a list you'd be willing to share im getting ready to build this deck I saw it did fairly well at the most recent scg open.
4 Botanical Sanctum
3 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
1 Game Trail
1 Island
2 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Spirebluff Canal
4 Harnessed Lightning
4 Attune with Aether
4 Saheeli Rai
4 Felidar Guardian
4 Rogue Refiner
4 Servant of the Conduit
4 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Whirler Virtuoso
2 World Breaker
3 Dispel
2 Natural State
2 Negate
2 Kozilek's Return
3 Shock
3 Commencement of Festivities
The Commencement was just something I scrounged my sealed pools and just ended up jamming them but never needed it. I am just going to briefly out in details as I didn't really write anything down and it was only a small 28 person event.
R1 BR Eldrazi 2-1
-Game 1 Early Mimic Beats into Dust Stalker.
-Game 2 Marveled an Ulamog.
-Game 3 He gets me low but I stabilized and Combo Cat out.
R2 RW Humans 2-1
-Game 1 He Nerd Ape, Mimic, Double Inspector + Nerd Ape, and shuts me down with Thalia before I go off.
-Game 2 I Combo Cat turn 5 after I sweep his board with a Kozilek's Return and Shocking.
-Game 3 I played early aggression, Shocked Thalia and Combo Cat for the win.
R3 Temur Aetherworks 2-0
-Game 1 Cat Combo turn 4 the turn he plays Marvel but was only at 5 energy.
-Game 2 I kept a Dispel, 2 Negate, Guardian, and 3 land hand. I stopped a Hedron Archive and Chandra and played a Cat blinking a land to Dispel his Harnessed Lightning and then Comboed out.
R4 & R5 Draw into Top 8 and 2 of my other friends made it into the Top 8
R6 Jeskai Saheeli 2-0
-Game 1 Ended up getting paired with one friend and we played the worst game of solitaire to try to find the Combo while I kept whiffing on Marvel but still ended up getting to Combo Cat.
-Game 2 we struggled for lands and just stated at each other while we kept exchanging Saheelis and Guardians. I finally Marveled out an Ulamog after spending 12 energy Marveling into another Marvel into Ulamog.
R7 UB Control 2-1
-Game 1 He fully controls the game and starts beating me down to 5 life. I finally drew a World Breaker to stabilized but ended up not having enough lands to keep up with his kill spells and lost to a third awakened Ruinous Path.
-Game 2 I Dispelled two of his Glimmer of Genius and force his hand to kill my creatures. World Breaker was able to stick onto the board and finish it.
-Game 3 I curved out on all creature aggression while he struggled with getting double colored sources as he only had 1 blue 1 black and 1 colorless lands.
R8 BG Delirium 2-0
-Game 1 This was the other friend that made it and we get to the finals. He started off with early low drops for the aggression while I used Saheeli to scry something relevant. I was able to Marvel out an Ulamog and removed his creatures to seal the deal.
-Game 2 He started out early again with aggression and I played all my energy spells into turn 4 Marvel > Ulamog. He was able to survive two attacks and To the Slaughter the Ulamog since Marvel failed to find a second creature. I rebuilt energy and Marveled another Ulamog to take the win.
I feel like I want Nahiri in the 75 to just keep going at different angles because everyone was being super cautious around the combo but then end up dying to Ulamog. I had a fun day and will probably just jam out some GPTs during this season. Thanks for reading!
Round 1 was a GW eldrazi landfall build. I lost game 1 to two potent tireless trackers that just out paced my removal eventually. Games 2-3 I had early combo kills. 2-1.
Round 2 was against the mirror and he just had a better tuned 75 for the mirror. I had shocks in my side, where he had them main. He took game 1 and then I lost game 3 to spell queller beats while he just protected it. 1-2.
Round 3 was a UW flash build and it was much closer than it really should have been. I eventually took it 2-1, but this could have easily been a loss if he didn't flood.
Round 4 I lost 1-2 to freaking fevered visions. Once he stuck one I had to dig for nahiri to get it off while getting shredded by dynavolt tower...was not expecting the deck tbh.
With such a dismal showing at the FNM, the control list just isn't my speed or flavor. I'm moving towards green and I think this is a good suggestion.
I think bring to light has merit in something like the panharmonicon combo builds. Where you can BTL a 1-2 of panharmonicon and just out value someone from there. I think the cat is just too good with what those decks are looking to do, which is double up on ETB triggers via cat and saheeli by themselves. Blinking an oath of nissa or copying a cloudblazer is just gross. Also with a servant out you can hit that 5 color mark to pull a fumigate if you need it vs aggro.
I dunno, I'm trying all sorts of builds to find one I like. So far green splashes seem pretty good to me. I definateky thing BtL has a place in the 75 for a toolbox style deck.
Well, the problem with this is that Winding Constrictor is a 2/3. Still, Shock is a card I've been satisfied with and a choice I endorse even if it doesn't scale particularly well into the later stages of the game. You can really mitigate that with other spells like Harnessed Lightning, Immolating Glare, and the like.
States '09: 14th place. Aiming for better next year.
States '10: 12th place. Aiming for better next year.
Idaho State Champ: 2011
States '12: 5th place.
Deep good catch. May still be good with something more tool box feeling. The GUWR saheeli decks could pull off the black mana pretty easily between attune, oath of nissa, servant of the conduit, and prismatic prisim. At that point you could go a little lighter on the combo and just threaten it while you just play the value game.
After SCG COL I think not running 2x fumigate in the 75 is going to be a mistake. GB decks just out grow radiant flames too quickly.
Totally agree. I'm running two in the main right now and will add at least one more to the side.
I agree with adding a 3rd in the side. I'm currently running 1 MD and 1 in the side and would have really liked to have a 3rd tonight in my last match; which was against Blue Eldrazi. I didn't have a way to remove the Reality Smashers he kept playing. I took game 1 due to the combo after he got me down to 2 life. Game 2 I ended up mana flooded and didn't draw the combo, Gearhulks or Fumigate. Game 3 I mulled down to 6 and kept the board clear until turn 9 with Radiant Flames, counters and 1 Fumigate; but I never saw the combo, Gearhulks or card draw spells. So playing land go with no way to interact with his Smasher and Thought Knot meant that once he got them both on the board; it was over shortly there after.
It was the 1st time I've played the deck so my biggest challenge will be learning how to sideboard with the deck and how to build the sideboard to help in my local meta.
Psy
Jeskai Control:42-23-5
Elves: 44-31-3
Red-Aggro: 18-9-0
B/G Energy 21-6-0
Previous Played:
G/r Ramp:125-72-3 - Bant CoCo:64-24-2 - Jeskai Saheeli: 62-25-4 - Mono Green Eldrazi: 22-11-2
Bant Aggro: 51-27-6 - U/W/g Midrange: 47-24-1 - Bant: 4-3-0
I should add that I haven't played Standard in about three years, preferring modern over that time. The way they've fixed the set rotation, relatively low cost of entry and chance to play Twin sucked me back in.
R1: bye - I came to play, dammit.
R2: Kind of a weird, unfocused Jeskai Twin deck.
Not really a lot to say about this one. G1 was just a fairly quick combo. G2 I drew removal and Quellers for a long time and even played Saheeli for the Scry to dig. Eventually I got the Cat I needed and ended it.
R3: UB control
G1 His mana development (mix of U and B) gave me what I felt was a reasonable gamble for a T3 Saheeli which paid off. Saheeli did about 12 damage to him and helped me manage draw quality while Harnessed Lightning dealt with his Torrential Gearhulks. He was eventually able to kill Saheeli, but had to do it a Sorcery speed, tapping some of his mana and leaving me with an opening to get another down thanks to a Queller. The Cat followed the same turn.
G2: He mulled to 5 on the play and I opened with two Refiners, meaning that not only did I have threats but I had serious card advantage. I drew into the rest of the refiners (!) over the next four turns and even flickered one with a Cat because 5 bonus cards is better than 4. Not much of a game really, but that's magic. Sometimes you're on the lucky side of that one and sometimes it goes the other way. One thing I did determine from this, however, is that the low low threat density in that deck leaves us with a lot more time than we should have. He wasn't running Kalitas though, relying instead on the four Gearhulks so that needs to be factored in too. I boarded out the Prisms, Fumigates and Cloudchasers for Stasis Snares, Negates and Dispels. I got a lot of value from Snare here as he managed to get a T6 Gearhulk at my EoT but I let him resolve it and flashed in Snare to deal with it.
I was playing a fairly stock list from the four-colour deck that finished 5th last weekend at the SCG open. I dropped the one-of dorks for two MD Fumigates with another in the board.
I'm playing the 4c version:
4 Servant of the Conduit
4 Rogue Refiner
4 Felidar Guardian
2 Cloudblazer
Planeswalkers (7)
4 Saheeli Rai
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Artifacts & Enchantments (4)
3 Oath of Nissa
1 Aetherworks Marvel
Spells (13)
4 Attune with Aether
2 Shock
4 Harnessed Lightning
2 Spell Shrivel
1 Baral's Expertise
4 Aether Hub
4 Botanical Sanctum
6 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Island
1 Plains
2 Spirebluff Canal
1 Inspiring Vantage
2 Natural State
2 Shock
1 Negate
3 Radiant Flames
2 Spell Shrivel
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Baral's Expertise
1 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Ajani Unyielding
Your deck manages the board and draws a lot of cards. You want to trade off against decks that pressure you with creatures and grind them out with your plethora of card-advantage spells, or sculpt the board so that you can resolve and protect a planeswalker that you can ride to victory. Against decks that can't pressure you effectively, you want to take the offensive where you can, pushing damage through while maintaining a high card count and forcing them to line up specific answers in the right windows to beat you. In either case, given enough time, you will eventually assemble a 2-card combo that wins the game on the spot.
Most of the spells are pretty stock for the 4c Saheeli deck, here's a discussion of the ones that aren't auto-includes in every list.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Does it all. She's frequently a powerful win condition to herself, coming down as early as turn 3 off of Servant of the Conduit. Games where you get to do this on the play are comically straightforward to win. Her mana mode is very useful - you can combo off as early as turn 4 without exposing either half of your combo to sorcery-speed interaction in an ideal scenario, and regardless, the deck draws so many cards that you'll regularly want to use her +1 make RR mode to deploy them quickly enough. She sees play in several of these lists but not all of them - I think it's a mistake to play zero copies of her.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Much more niche walker, definitely not a must-play. He is extremely effective against BG variants; their midgame spells tend to cost a lot of their available mana, which means that Jace can not uncommonly come down, bounce their last creature and be ready to roll from there. He's even solid against aggressive decks once you've stabilized, since you need some kind of way to keep the cards flowing to stay ahead of your opponents. Obviously he's solid against control decks too.
Baral's Expertise
This card is insane against everything but control decks. Fast aggressive decks like Mardu Vehicles will require you to be careful in your early sequencing to maximize its effect, but the reward is well worth it. Clearing out the board, even if just for a turn, and resolving a planeswalker is such a brutal swing against decks like BG, and you will find yourself in scenarios where the board is stalled out a bit but your opponent has an active walker generating advantage and putting you behind. This bounces the blockers out of the way, lets you resolve a Chandra or Saheeli to damage the opposing walker and gives you free rein to attack with your leftover guys to kill the walker, since you bounced anything that could attack your walker on the following turn. In a locked up board where you just need to draw cards, you can play it as an overcosted blink of your Rogue Refiner or Felidar Guardian that also wastes part of your opponent's next turn. Since your own guys generate value on ETB, you can sometimes benefit from bouncing your own stuff.
Aetherworks Marvel
Too expensive and energy-hungry (for a deck not dedicated to making as much energy as possible) to play more than a copy or two, but Marvel is the format's best energy sink and plays very well in a 2-card combo deck that also wants to grind. It turns the "kill from nowhere" angle up to 11 - if your opponents play scared of the combo then this card will put the fear of God into them.
Spell Shrivel
Definitely not the flashiest spell you've ever seen, and a little out of place at first glance, but make no mistake, this card does a lot of work. Because your deck is so grindy and features a 2-card combo kill, you are generally very well-placed to win long games. The exception is when your opponent has something powerful and over the top to throw at you, like Torrential Gearhulk or a big planeswalker, that drastically cuts down the amount of time you have and forces you to get proactive and/or find an answer to the card quickly. Spell Shrivel is easy to leave up once the game gets to those stages and gives you a clean out to those effects so you can keep trucking without fear.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
What's the Tireless Tracker for in the SB?