I have been running 3x settle and 3x fumigate. I think I'm going to run 2/2/2 now.
You can't just randomly choose to use 2 Slaughter the strong in the deck because you think it will work with the other two wrath effects. The thing is Slaughter is not a turn 3 play, a turn 3 play is farm. Slaughter is on par with Fumigate as a turn 5 or turn 6 play.
The reason is that on turn 3 most decks won't have 4 power worth of creatures, or they will have exactly 4 power in total (2 cubs, 1 snake + 1 cub, 2 earthshaker khenra, etc...) and you will not kill anything at all.
So, the main difference that I see is that a turn 5 Fumigate will gain you some life, but it would not deal with Gods (Hazoret, etc...) but it will clean the board up of all other creatures including whirler virtuoso tokens and other creatures but it would get countered if you tap out.
A turn 5 Slaughter the Strong would deal with indestructible gods (Hazoret, etc...) but it would not clear the board of tokens, or small 2/2 creatures and it will not gain you life, but costing only 3 it means you would have mana left over to have Negate back up so it won't get countered.
Thus the 2 cards have vastly different uses, so I would suggest running main deck Fumigates since they can wipe the board clean and gain you life, you can use Settle the wreckage for Hazoret or other spells, but if you are playing against Energy and you believe they have sideboarded in Negates or other counters then you can board in Slaughter the strong and take out Fumigates.
Having said all this I pre-ordered my playset of Slaughter the strong from Ebay already, and I will also be playtesting 2-3 Baffling Ends maindeck to deal with early creatures before I hit 3 mana and can "farm" them.
The reason I'm running baffling end main deck and not in the sideboard is that I run 3 Champion of wits and 2 Farm/Market main deck also so I can discard this card to one of those cards if my opp doesn't have any creatures or only big creatures then it's still not a dead card due to the ability to discard it.
The control mirror is going to be huge in the coming weeks. I'm considering moving towards bant. The ramp spells certainly give us a good deal of equity in the mirror.
also, don't tell xaltair, but yes.. I will be playing thaumatic compass...
It just depends on how you build the list and personal preference. I usually run 10-12 counters in my Approach list (what can I say, I just like to say 'No'). 3-4 Censor, 3-4 Disallow, and 3-4 Supreme. Sometimes I will swap the Supremes for Essence Scatter. A lot of the Esper list I have seen lean towards Disallow because, after sideboarding, they side out the Approaches and just turn into a U/B control list.
The double blue on turn 3 in either Jeskai or Esper really is not that hard, it helps if you know you are trying to get it and start working towards it on turn 1.
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Modern
Currently Playing UW UW Control/Miracles R Skred Red
Announcement Date: January 15, 2018
Standard:
Attune with Aether is banned.
Rogue Refiner is banned.
Rampaging Ferocidon is banned.
Ramunap Ruins is banned.
I Wizard's just did a reset on Standard. It should be really interesting to see what decks float up to the top now. I think The Scarab God is going to be the powerhouse card now. It is already strong but it is going to be more so now. I have been playing Esper Approach mainly so I could run him in my sideboard and will continue to do so. Maybe even try running straight U/B Control some also.
Private Mod Note
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Modern
Currently Playing UW UW Control/Miracles R Skred Red
Announcement Date: January 15, 2018
Standard:
Attune with Aether is banned.
Rogue Refiner is banned.
Rampaging Ferocidon is banned.
Ramunap Ruins is banned.
I Wizard's just did a reset on Standard. It should be really interesting to see what decks float up to the top now. I think The Scarab God is going to be the powerhouse card now. It is already strong but it is going to be more so now. I have been playing Esper Approach mainly so I could run him in my sideboard and will continue to do so. Maybe even try running straight U/B Control some also.
Wow, what news. We all knew attune will have to go but with refiner gone as well then energy is pretty much neutered.
That takes care of that deck, but so surprised to see ruins and ferocidon gone, especially the Dino only had a couple of months play. This doesn't kill ram red but it does give other decks a chance to beat it mid game now. Lucky I never got to buy any ferocidons.
It is time for control to rise again, we got good counters, three serious wrath effects and a win condition that can only be stopped by counters.
Time for nezahal to be main deck especially ready to face other blue control decks. Good thing I pre ordered my playset already.
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"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
I like the five creature control shell the Esper builds have with three Torrential Gearhulks and two The Scarab God as an alternate win condition. Any UW creatures that would fit nicely into a similar role to replace Scarab if running only UW? I realize they won't be as good as TSG but, I suspect due to my own limitations as a player, I do much better as UW. With two colors it is also a little easier to run with two Scavenger Grounds and two Field of Ruin in Main.
It's the cycling.
There's the dedicated cycling deck but they might be valuing tossing it early to find a land and playing fewer Opt or other mana smoothing.
That first WU deck on goldfish is the dedicated cycler list. There's one further down that runs 4 Glimmer and 1 Hiero.
Scarab God is good vs creature decks. They supply you with creatures in the GY to eat. Control will just exile or counter it.
Regal Caracal is to create a board presence and life gain to catch back up.
Are you going to encounter aggro decks? Merfolk, Monored, Vamps/tokens in your meta? After you board wipe they may start refilling the board so you have to as well. Cat's 3 bodies plus incidental lifelink with blocking hasn't been replaced with anything better vs aggro (IMO) and if you're scarab goding you get to play lots of kittens.
Scarab God is good vs creature decks. They supply you with creatures in the GY to eat. Control will just exile or counter it.
Regal Caracal is to create a board presence and life gain to catch back up.
Are you going to encounter aggro decks? Merfolk, Monored, Vamps/tokens in your meta? After you board wipe they may start refilling the board so you have to as well. Cat's 3 bodies plus incidental lifelink with blocking hasn't been replaced with anything better vs aggro (IMO) and if you're scarab goding you get to play lots of kittens.
Fair. I am currently testing a variant of the deck with the new tutor.
What decks do you bring in the scarab god vs?
Also - with bans, do we need cat anymore in SB?
I usually board out approach in Game 2 and just turn the deck into an Esper Control (UB control with the board wipes). This has worked really well for me. Most of the time opponents don't know what to board out, they have not seen any creatures so they will take out most of their removal. Or do they leave some in case we do bring in dudes? It puts them in a bad spot. Against decks that can board in counters, it is hard to bank on winning by casting Approach. Or at least have a very solid plan B.
Cats are our best answer to aggro decks, that and Sun Champs. With the meta getting faster, I think we will still need them.
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Modern
Currently Playing UW UW Control/Miracles R Skred Red
When my LGS used to fire a lot of people board in Lost Legacy and such ilk to pick out Torrentials or Approach so a full shift to a different win con makes it risky for them to make that call on turn 3 and wreck you.
What decks do you bring in the scarab god vs?
Also - with bans, do we need cat anymore in SB?
I usually board out approach in Game 2 and just turn the deck into an Esper Control (UB control with the board wipes). This has worked really well for me. Most of the time opponents don't know what to board out, they have not seen any creatures so they will take out most of their removal. Or do they leave some in case we do bring in dudes? It puts them in a bad spot. Against decks that can board in counters, it is hard to bank on winning by casting Approach. Or at least have a very solid plan B.
Cats are our best answer to aggro decks, that and Sun Champs. With the meta getting faster, I think we will still need them.
As you know I have been a huge proponent of many creatures coming in from the sideboard so that in the 2nd game you can beat down your opponent while he is busy using Duress and Lost Legacy to try to get the approach out of your hand.
However, lately, I am on the Metallurgic Summonings sideboard which is even harder for opponents to guess because they usually have no answer to enchantments and can't deal with this card after it comes out.
Once I board in the summonings I also exchange the Fumigates for River's Rebuke x2 and Confiscation Coup x2 so those will help to take care of opp's creatures and also give me a fat 6/6 or 5/5 creature token on my side if I got the summonings out.
I run Confiscation Coups in the sideboard because I am running 3 Glimmer of Genius main deck now so I will have some extra energy for the coup when I do cast it.
I’ve been experimenting on mtgo with [card]mastermind’s aquisition[\card]
So far it shows a lot of promis.
A little slow, but when it works well it work very well.
Mastermind's Acquisition is going to be very interesting to see how this is used. Being able to have 3-5 silver bullets in your sideboard that you can tutor up as needed does seem very strong. The first thing that comes to mind is having 1 Approach in your sideboard that you can go get after you have been hit with Lost Legacy or a specific card to counter what your opponent has boarded in. Grabbing any card out of your deck or your sideboard for 4 mana does not sound like a bad deal. I think there will be a lot of games where it is just a dead card but also there are going to be times where it just it just wins you games.
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Modern
Currently Playing UW UW Control/Miracles R Skred Red
Been playing a lot of magic online recently... before the ban of energy decks was going consistently 3-2, 4-1, 3-2 in the standard competitive leagues. After the ban, 50% of the field seem to be playing merfolk decks and i've been getting my ass kicked. 2-3, 1-4, etc. I think we need to add black for fatal push etc. or a lower cost sweeper like bontus etc. or splash red for burn spells, sweltering suns, fiery cannonade, locust god etc.
What do you guys think? I don't think the UW can keep up with the merfolk deck.
Been playing a lot of magic online recently... before the ban of energy decks was going consistently 3-2, 4-1, 3-2 in the standard competitive leagues. After the ban, 50% of the field seem to be playing merfolk decks and i've been getting my ass kicked. 2-3, 1-4, etc. I think we need to add black for fatal push etc. or a lower cost sweeper like bontus etc. or splash red for burn spells, sweltering suns, fiery cannonade, locust god etc.
What do you guys think? I don't think the UW can keep up with the merfolk deck.
UW Drake Haven can keep up with Merfolk. But have you added slaughter the strong to your deck?
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=11439737#post11439737
Reality is only what man allows it to be. Few shape it so that many may accept it.
You can't just randomly choose to use 2 Slaughter the strong in the deck because you think it will work with the other two wrath effects. The thing is Slaughter is not a turn 3 play, a turn 3 play is farm. Slaughter is on par with Fumigate as a turn 5 or turn 6 play.
The reason is that on turn 3 most decks won't have 4 power worth of creatures, or they will have exactly 4 power in total (2 cubs, 1 snake + 1 cub, 2 earthshaker khenra, etc...) and you will not kill anything at all.
So, the main difference that I see is that a turn 5 Fumigate will gain you some life, but it would not deal with Gods (Hazoret, etc...) but it will clean the board up of all other creatures including whirler virtuoso tokens and other creatures but it would get countered if you tap out.
A turn 5 Slaughter the Strong would deal with indestructible gods (Hazoret, etc...) but it would not clear the board of tokens, or small 2/2 creatures and it will not gain you life, but costing only 3 it means you would have mana left over to have Negate back up so it won't get countered.
Thus the 2 cards have vastly different uses, so I would suggest running main deck Fumigates since they can wipe the board clean and gain you life, you can use Settle the wreckage for Hazoret or other spells, but if you are playing against Energy and you believe they have sideboarded in Negates or other counters then you can board in Slaughter the strong and take out Fumigates.
Having said all this I pre-ordered my playset of Slaughter the strong from Ebay already, and I will also be playtesting 2-3 Baffling Ends maindeck to deal with early creatures before I hit 3 mana and can "farm" them.
The reason I'm running baffling end main deck and not in the sideboard is that I run 3 Champion of wits and 2 Farm/Market main deck also so I can discard this card to one of those cards if my opp doesn't have any creatures or only big creatures then it's still not a dead card due to the ability to discard it.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Any reason the Jeskai version runs 4 disallows instead of Supreme Will? Isn't it harder to get 2 blue in a 3 color deck?
Thanks
C Long Live Eldrazi C
also, don't tell xaltair, but yes.. I will be playing thaumatic compass...
The double blue on turn 3 in either Jeskai or Esper really is not that hard, it helps if you know you are trying to get it and start working towards it on turn 1.
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
Standard:
Attune with Aether is banned.
Rogue Refiner is banned.
Rampaging Ferocidon is banned.
Ramunap Ruins is banned.
I Wizard's just did a reset on Standard. It should be really interesting to see what decks float up to the top now. I think The Scarab God is going to be the powerhouse card now. It is already strong but it is going to be more so now. I have been playing Esper Approach mainly so I could run him in my sideboard and will continue to do so. Maybe even try running straight U/B Control some also.
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
UBRWGHumansUBRWG
UMerfolkU
Eldrazi Tron
Legacy
WDeath & TaxesW
Pauper
RGoblinsR
EDH
UGMerfolk ComboGU
Standard
UWApproachWU
Wow, what news. We all knew attune will have to go but with refiner gone as well then energy is pretty much neutered.
That takes care of that deck, but so surprised to see ruins and ferocidon gone, especially the Dino only had a couple of months play. This doesn't kill ram red but it does give other decks a chance to beat it mid game now. Lucky I never got to buy any ferocidons.
It is time for control to rise again, we got good counters, three serious wrath effects and a win condition that can only be stopped by counters.
Time for nezahal to be main deck especially ready to face other blue control decks. Good thing I pre ordered my playset already.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
I wonder why so many of the Black-Blue Control decks run Hieroglyphic Illumination rather than Glimmer of Genius. . .
I like the five creature control shell the Esper builds have with three Torrential Gearhulks and two The Scarab God as an alternate win condition. Any UW creatures that would fit nicely into a similar role to replace Scarab if running only UW? I realize they won't be as good as TSG but, I suspect due to my own limitations as a player, I do much better as UW. With two colors it is also a little easier to run with two Scavenger Grounds and two Field of Ruin in Main.
Thanks!
There's the dedicated cycling deck but they might be valuing tossing it early to find a land and playing fewer Opt or other mana smoothing.
That first WU deck on goldfish is the dedicated cycler list. There's one further down that runs 4 Glimmer and 1 Hiero.
Also - with bans, do we need cat anymore in SB?
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Regal Caracal is to create a board presence and life gain to catch back up.
Are you going to encounter aggro decks? Merfolk, Monored, Vamps/tokens in your meta? After you board wipe they may start refilling the board so you have to as well. Cat's 3 bodies plus incidental lifelink with blocking hasn't been replaced with anything better vs aggro (IMO) and if you're scarab goding you get to play lots of kittens.
Fair. I am currently testing a variant of the deck with the new tutor.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
I usually board out approach in Game 2 and just turn the deck into an Esper Control (UB control with the board wipes). This has worked really well for me. Most of the time opponents don't know what to board out, they have not seen any creatures so they will take out most of their removal. Or do they leave some in case we do bring in dudes? It puts them in a bad spot. Against decks that can board in counters, it is hard to bank on winning by casting Approach. Or at least have a very solid plan B.
Cats are our best answer to aggro decks, that and Sun Champs. With the meta getting faster, I think we will still need them.
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
As you know I have been a huge proponent of many creatures coming in from the sideboard so that in the 2nd game you can beat down your opponent while he is busy using Duress and Lost Legacy to try to get the approach out of your hand.
However, lately, I am on the Metallurgic Summonings sideboard which is even harder for opponents to guess because they usually have no answer to enchantments and can't deal with this card after it comes out.
Once I board in the summonings I also exchange the Fumigates for River's Rebuke x2 and Confiscation Coup x2 so those will help to take care of opp's creatures and also give me a fat 6/6 or 5/5 creature token on my side if I got the summonings out.
I run Confiscation Coups in the sideboard because I am running 3 Glimmer of Genius main deck now so I will have some extra energy for the coup when I do cast it.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
So far it shows a lot of promis.
A little slow, but when it works well it work very well.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Even if you dig out an uncounterable you risk 4 cmc being countered.
Mastermind's Acquisition is going to be very interesting to see how this is used. Being able to have 3-5 silver bullets in your sideboard that you can tutor up as needed does seem very strong. The first thing that comes to mind is having 1 Approach in your sideboard that you can go get after you have been hit with Lost Legacy or a specific card to counter what your opponent has boarded in. Grabbing any card out of your deck or your sideboard for 4 mana does not sound like a bad deal. I think there will be a lot of games where it is just a dead card but also there are going to be times where it just it just wins you games.
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
What do you guys think? I don't think the UW can keep up with the merfolk deck.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
1. Slaughter the Strong
2. Baffling End
Then they have main deck spell pierces.
so by the time i get to turn 4 settle the wreckage mana, they spell pierce it.