I run 3 Cast outs and 1 Binding main. This combination seems to work well. Gives me the instant speed or cycling of cast out but I still have a silver bullet against threats I don't want to deal with repeatedly. If I have room, I will run 1 bindings in the sideboard also.
Looks like UW is making a comeback over the 3 color list. With results like Athelas, W/U APPROACH by Beau Innis and W/U APPROACH by Maxwell Dresslar in Dallas, seems like Baffling End may just be the card the deck needed to run just UW. I know it makes the mana base some much easier.
Also, a 1 of Slaughter the Strong so far has been really strong, I don't want to run more than one but most of the time I am really happy to draw it. Nice to be able to do a board wipe and keep a counter back on turn 5.
Went 4-0 last night with jeskai, and was paying particular attention to the mana base. I will definitely be switching back to UW, but mostly due to the ability to add colorless lands. I didn't get enough out of harness lightnings and the few sideboard cards to justify the red splash, so the utility of the extra colorless lands would be more valuable to me.
Went 4-0 last night with jeskai, and was paying particular attention to the mana base. I will definitely be switching back to UW, but mostly due to the ability to add colorless lands. I didn't get enough out of harness lightnings and the few sideboard cards to justify the red splash, so the utility of the extra colorless lands would be more valuable to me.
Fantastic result, it's great to have another person prove that three color Approach can and does win tourneys. Although no surprise. Three color Approach has been putting up great results since its inception at the Pro Tour Ixalan with a top 8 finish.
Edit: notably, I did run a one of confiscation coup as a way to use that excess energy and it overperformed all night. I stole a scarab God and was able to activate it with aether hubs.
Managed to finish a measly 13th out of 40-41 Players
Game 1: (2-1) W vs Mono Red (no ramunap)
Game 2: (2-1) W vs Mono Red (Again)
Game 3: (1-2) L vs Sultai Control
Game 4: (2-0) W vs UW Approach Mirror
Game 5: (1-2) L vs Mono Red
Game 6: (1-2) L vs UB Midrange
It was definitely very powerful against the control decks. I think it's probably a pretty greedy card to play in a metagame where Abrade is so popular and it's too slow to be very impactful against any of the aggressive creature decks.
My comment is exclusively negative towards vehicles in general.
I dislike the mechanic, non-summoning sickness crewing is crap.
Heart of Kiran happens to be the last worst one left.
My comment is exclusively negative towards vehicles in general.
I dislike the mechanic, non-summoning sickness crewing is crap.
Heart of Kiran happens to be the last worst one left.
Yeah, they made the crewing more expensive in the latest sets and that's why the newer vehicles are not seeing much play outside of limited. But heart of kiran is 3 to crew so it's not easy to do, since the deck needs to play 3 power creatures. The problem is that at 2 mana cost HofK can drop on the second turn and unless you got a censor or negate you can't counter it and once it hits the board you pretty much have to wait for a cast out in the first game to deal with it, or try to counter and kill all the creatures instead.
I'm a huge fan of conqueror's galleon but the 4 crew cost is too much, at 3 it would be a lot more playable but I am still trying to fit it into some deck because I like the card design and I think the land part is quite strong, but it's just so hard to get it online.
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Yeah, they made the crewing more expensive in the latest sets and that's why the newer vehicles are not seeing much play outside of limited. But heart of kiran is 3 to crew so it's not easy to do, since the deck needs to play 3 power creatures.
Its not hard at all for the Mardu deck to crew HofK when it plays 12 three power creatures at the 2cmc slot.
Got beat by a whole lotta duress cards. What's best to sideboard in during game 2 and 3 against black or UB Control?
Was thinking about a creature heavy sideboard
Currently have.
4 Regal Caracal
2 Sunscourge Champion
2 Negate
2 Jaces Defeat
3 Authority of the Consuls
1 Kefnet
1 Hour of Revelation
Thinking of adding.
Vizier of Many Faces
Cataclysmic Gearhulk - Replace Fumigates
I think Gideon of the Trials is a good option against UB control. The low CMC allows you to roll it out early and neutralize attackers. They usually board in some amount of creature hate anticipating our SB plan. I've tried Kefnet, but it can be tough turning on his attacks/blocks. Also, against anything with white, he's a great Baffling End target.
Brief anecdote: was playing an updated UW list in a MTGO league against a midrange-y UB deck (Kitesail Freebooter, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, The Scarab God, Gifted Aetherborn).
Game 1, easy win with double Approach.
Game 2, he gets in a Lost Legacy searching for Approach and whiffs (I boarded them out for Torrential Gearhulks). LOLs all around. I punt this one hard. He had resolved a Gonti, Lord of Luxury, taking I knows not what. He resolves the Scarab God. At his upkeep, he casts my Torrential Gearhulk from exile--I thought that he had used the Scarab God's ability to return a TG to the battlefield, so I pass priority with Essence Scatter in hand. Likely wasn't outcome determinative--he had enough mana to zombify the TG if I had countered it--but still, you really have to look at those little boxes to see what's happening on MTGO...
Game 3, I board the Approaches back in, board out the gearhulks, and bring in 3x Gideon of the Trials. An early Freebooter shows him my hand, which has 2 Approaches in it. More LOLs, and when he Lost Legacys me the next turn naming Approach, I get to draw 2 cards (nice bonus). He asks "is Gideon your only Wincon now?" to which I respond, "Ipnu Rivulet :-)" I ended up milling him out for the win (not before I got a frowny face and gg from him).
Notes:
Spires of Orazca plus Gideon does a ton of work to keep you alive (neutralize one dude, Spire the other).
Field of Ruin is a thing, and you really have to think about how to sequence your power lands. Do you want to keep your Spires of Orazca, Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, Arch of Orazca, Ipnu Rivulet, or Scavenger Ground (I have access to all of these in my current build, and I run 2x FoR). Each matchup will be different, but you really have to be thoughtful. I often hold back my FoRs to not give my opponent the information, but I'm sure they do too. In my G3 above, my opponent FoR'd one of my Spires early (and a second one late), but I think he wishes he had kept one for Azcanta.
Baffling End is an incredible card against Grixis and UB (and I think maybe just an incredible card period). May as well read "Exile target Champion of Wits." Hitting freebooters and siphoners is a nice bonus.
I have decided to cut down to two colors, blue white. However due to the abilities lands, this deck has become more of a 3 color deck in all of its own. I have come to a few important conclusions on the blue white approach list
1. Nezahal is a must. this card has single handedly won me so many games. His card drawing ability is insane when paired with max handsize.
example, my opponent was on two cards, i had settle, settle in hand. he casts varaska and minus 3. he doesn't realize i drew a card off that and i pitch settle settle baffling in order to keep nezahal.
here is him realizing he messed up in the chat box
as you can see he was fairly devastated.
and one last "Nezahal is bae" picture. Here my opponent was on bant approach, which i thought would be an easy match since he doesn't play counters for anything in my deck. game one i swiftly win off double approach as he is stuck on mana. however game 2 i realize i can't counter all of his ramp while holding on to counter spells for his approaches and a has to happen at some point counter war.
he winds up casting an approach that i counter, giving myself a turn to resolve nezahal without fear of dying. he sticks around the entire game drawing me cards until i find my field of ruins in order to blow up his maze of ith land and go benny beat down on his ass.
we wind up going 5-0 in this league very easily. last round is against mono red which is a close one but authorities is huge out of the board.
all right, that was point one, nezahal is real. on to my other point.
2. baffling end is the removal spell we needed to go two color.
this card allows us to get away from moment of craving and fatal push, allowing us to run a more consistent "3" color deck. like I said earlier, the colorless ability lands are very good and i've put them all to use so far against opponents. scavenging ground is great to whiff a gearhulk or scarab god trigger, field of ruins gets rid of flip lands, and arch draws us cards in the late game. all necessary abilties that are super usefull to our deck. as well as still being consistent at have 2 lands untapped on turn two.
3. i see a lot of people boarding out approach against black based decks. In my testing however, as i do bring in other win conditions, i personally believe that its correct to leave some number in, atleast one. sometimes if they don't have it, that inevitability is key.
I have a fairly big team event this weekend, so I'll let you know if I'm enough to carry my team in standard. As always people it's great to see your lists and results! the discussions in this form are amazing and lead to lots of improvement in others efforts, so i hope this keeps continuing. Until next time, may you sling countless approaches
oh and for those of you wondering how this league went that spurred this post
1. U/B Control 2-0 (1-0) Can't beat nezahal
2. Sultai Energy 2-0 (2-0) Can't beat approach
3. Bant Approach 2-0 (3-0) Described this enough
4. Grixis Energy 2-0 (4-0) This deck can't beat us in general/our best matchup
5. Mono Red 2-1 (5-0) He got stuck on two lands game one, we mulled game 2, and game 3 we got stuck on lands but rode authority of the consulsvto victory
Absolutely agree with you about Baffling End and Nezahal. Both those cards have been FANTASTIC for me. That's an interesting strategy of leaving in 1/2 approaches vs black-based deck. I'll try that and report how it goes for me.
1 nezahal primal tide
2 forsake the worldy
2 crook of condemnation
3 vizier of deferment
2 vizer of many faces
4 regal caracal
1 jaces defeat
This deck encounters decks like
vs Uw gpg (2-1)
vs Ur enigma (2-1)
vs Sultai constrictor (2-1)
vs Ub control (2-0)
vs Grixis control (2-0)
vs Mono green stompy (2-0)
vs Ug merfolk (2-1)
vs Uw approach (2-1)
I went 4-0 back to back weeks...
I think my trump cards here are thaumatic compass and azor the law... because majority of my games they both give me a chance of winning.
Also i like nezahal from the sideboard against control/counter deck.
On my second game i used to blink azor the lawbringer with vizier of deferment.
So far i love this deck even without glimmer or pull or illuminations and baffling ends and also cast out.
@xaltair... can u give me your new updated or latest deck list.. thanks.
Looks like UW is making a comeback over the 3 color list. With results like Athelas, W/U APPROACH by Beau Innis and W/U APPROACH by Maxwell Dresslar in Dallas, seems like Baffling End may just be the card the deck needed to run just UW. I know it makes the mana base some much easier.
Also, a 1 of Slaughter the Strong so far has been really strong, I don't want to run more than one but most of the time I am really happy to draw it. Nice to be able to do a board wipe and keep a counter back on turn 5.
Modern
Currently Playing
UW UW Control/Miracles
R Skred Red
Retired
BU Faeries
RGW Naya Burn
BW B/W Tokens
Will run this at the local tourney this weekend and will post the results here.
Thanks
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.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I haven't really changed it from this list:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/863333#paper
Edit: notably, I did run a one of confiscation coup as a way to use that excess energy and it overperformed all night. I stole a scarab God and was able to activate it with aether hubs.
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.
Click the link I posted
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.
Round 1: L vs Grixis Control
Round 2: W vs Grixis Control
Round 3: W vs R/G Dinosaurs
Round 4: W vs UB Control
Round 5: W vs UW Auras
4 Cast Out
4 Censor
3 Approach
3 Fumigate
3 Settle The Wreckage
3 Glimmer of Genius
3 Supreme Will
2 Search for Azcanta
2 Azor's Gateway
2 Baffling End
2 Disallow
1 Essence Scatter
1 Pull from Tomorrow
1 Ixalan's Binding
1 Torrential Gearhulk
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
7 Island
7 Plains
2 Field of Ruin
1 Arch of Orazca
Sidedeck:15
4 Regal Caracal
4 Negate
4 Authority of the Consuls
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
1 Baffling End
1 Ixalan's Binding
Managed to finish a measly 13th out of 40-41 Players
Game 1: (2-1) W vs Mono Red (no ramunap)
Game 2: (2-1) W vs Mono Red (Again)
Game 3: (1-2) L vs Sultai Control
Game 4: (2-0) W vs UW Approach Mirror
Game 5: (1-2) L vs Mono Red
Game 6: (1-2) L vs UB Midrange
3 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Fumigate
Enchantments
2 Cast Out
2 Search for Azcanta
Instants
4 Opt
4 Censor
2 Essence Scatter
3 Disallow
4 Settle the Wreckage
3 Glimmer of Genius
3 Supreme will
3 Torrential Gearhulk
Lands
4 Irrigated Farmland
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Ipnu Rivulet
2 Scavenger Grounds
1 Arch of Ozarca
1 Field of Ruin
1 Kefnet The Mindful
3 Regal Caracal
3 Authority of the Consuls
2 Negate
1 Hour of Revelation
2 Jaces Defeat
2 Sunscourge Champion
1 Ixalans Binding
How is Azors Gateway? you think its a useful addition to the deck? Thanks
Heart of Kiran... such a great idea.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I dislike the mechanic, non-summoning sickness crewing is crap.
Heart of Kiran happens to be the last worst one left.
Yeah, they made the crewing more expensive in the latest sets and that's why the newer vehicles are not seeing much play outside of limited. But heart of kiran is 3 to crew so it's not easy to do, since the deck needs to play 3 power creatures. The problem is that at 2 mana cost HofK can drop on the second turn and unless you got a censor or negate you can't counter it and once it hits the board you pretty much have to wait for a cast out in the first game to deal with it, or try to counter and kill all the creatures instead.
I'm a huge fan of conqueror's galleon but the 4 crew cost is too much, at 3 it would be a lot more playable but I am still trying to fit it into some deck because I like the card design and I think the land part is quite strong, but it's just so hard to get it online.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Was thinking about a creature heavy sideboard
Currently have.
4 Regal Caracal
2 Sunscourge Champion
2 Negate
2 Jaces Defeat
3 Authority of the Consuls
1 Kefnet
1 Hour of Revelation
Thinking of adding.
Vizier of Many Faces
Cataclysmic Gearhulk - Replace Fumigates
Its not hard at all for the Mardu deck to crew HofK when it plays 12 three power creatures at the 2cmc slot.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I think Gideon of the Trials is a good option against UB control. The low CMC allows you to roll it out early and neutralize attackers. They usually board in some amount of creature hate anticipating our SB plan. I've tried Kefnet, but it can be tough turning on his attacks/blocks. Also, against anything with white, he's a great Baffling End target.
Brief anecdote: was playing an updated UW list in a MTGO league against a midrange-y UB deck (Kitesail Freebooter, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, The Scarab God, Gifted Aetherborn).
Game 1, easy win with double Approach.
Game 2, he gets in a Lost Legacy searching for Approach and whiffs (I boarded them out for Torrential Gearhulks). LOLs all around. I punt this one hard. He had resolved a Gonti, Lord of Luxury, taking I knows not what. He resolves the Scarab God. At his upkeep, he casts my Torrential Gearhulk from exile--I thought that he had used the Scarab God's ability to return a TG to the battlefield, so I pass priority with Essence Scatter in hand. Likely wasn't outcome determinative--he had enough mana to zombify the TG if I had countered it--but still, you really have to look at those little boxes to see what's happening on MTGO...
Game 3, I board the Approaches back in, board out the gearhulks, and bring in 3x Gideon of the Trials. An early Freebooter shows him my hand, which has 2 Approaches in it. More LOLs, and when he Lost Legacys me the next turn naming Approach, I get to draw 2 cards (nice bonus). He asks "is Gideon your only Wincon now?" to which I respond, "Ipnu Rivulet :-)" I ended up milling him out for the win (not before I got a frowny face and gg from him).
Notes:
1 Field of Ruin
2 Scavenger Grounds
2 Ipnu Rivulet
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
4 Island
6 Plains
2 Island
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
1 Gideon of the Trials
1 Arch of Orazca
4 Glimmer of Genius
1 Hieroglyphic Illumination
3 Censor
3 Baffling End
2 Essence Scatter
4 Disallow
4 Settle the Wreckage
2 Fumigate
4 Cast Out
2 Search for Azcanta
1 Baffling End
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
4 Negate
3 Authority of the Consuls
2 Forsake the World
I have decided to cut down to two colors, blue white. However due to the abilities lands, this deck has become more of a 3 color deck in all of its own. I have come to a few important conclusions on the blue white approach list
1. Nezahal is a must. this card has single handedly won me so many games. His card drawing ability is insane when paired with max handsize.
example, my opponent was on two cards, i had settle, settle in hand. he casts varaska and minus 3. he doesn't realize i drew a card off that and i pitch settle settle baffling in order to keep nezahal.
here is him realizing he messed up in the chat box
as you can see he was fairly devastated.
and one last "Nezahal is bae" picture. Here my opponent was on bant approach, which i thought would be an easy match since he doesn't play counters for anything in my deck. game one i swiftly win off double approach as he is stuck on mana. however game 2 i realize i can't counter all of his ramp while holding on to counter spells for his approaches and a has to happen at some point counter war.
he winds up casting an approach that i counter, giving myself a turn to resolve nezahal without fear of dying. he sticks around the entire game drawing me cards until i find my field of ruins in order to blow up his maze of ith land and go benny beat down on his ass.
we wind up going 5-0 in this league very easily. last round is against mono red which is a close one but authorities is huge out of the board.
all right, that was point one, nezahal is real. on to my other point.
2. baffling end is the removal spell we needed to go two color.
this card allows us to get away from moment of craving and fatal push, allowing us to run a more consistent "3" color deck. like I said earlier, the colorless ability lands are very good and i've put them all to use so far against opponents. scavenging ground is great to whiff a gearhulk or scarab god trigger, field of ruins gets rid of flip lands, and arch draws us cards in the late game. all necessary abilties that are super usefull to our deck. as well as still being consistent at have 2 lands untapped on turn two.
3. i see a lot of people boarding out approach against black based decks. In my testing however, as i do bring in other win conditions, i personally believe that its correct to leave some number in, atleast one. sometimes if they don't have it, that inevitability is key.
I have a fairly big team event this weekend, so I'll let you know if I'm enough to carry my team in standard. As always people it's great to see your lists and results! the discussions in this form are amazing and lead to lots of improvement in others efforts, so i hope this keeps continuing. Until next time, may you sling countless approaches
oh and for those of you wondering how this league went that spurred this post
1. U/B Control 2-0 (1-0) Can't beat nezahal
2. Sultai Energy 2-0 (2-0) Can't beat approach
3. Bant Approach 2-0 (3-0) Described this enough
4. Grixis Energy 2-0 (4-0) This deck can't beat us in general/our best matchup
5. Mono Red 2-1 (5-0) He got stuck on two lands game one, we mulled game 2, and game 3 we got stuck on lands but rode authority of the consulsvto victory
Thanks,
the cow
Congratulations on your 5-0 Record
You think Nezahal is better than Gearhulks?
Whats the reason for no Gearhulks?
Thanks
Like what do you remove against certain decks, etc
If I am up against blue or black based decks, my sideboard plan is to bring in one or two Nezahal and two T-hulks.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Ive been doing back to back 1st place with my uw approach list at our local game store.
Here is my list.
Main (60)
4 champ of wits
4 sunscorged champ
1 azor the lawbringer
1 wakening suns avatar
3 search for azcanta
3 thaumatic compass
3 approach of the 2nd sun
3 settle the wreckage
3 fumigate
2 negate
2 supreme will
2 disallow
4 essence scatter
2 hostile desert
1 shefet dunes
4 glacial
4 irrigated
6 islands
8 plains
Side:
1 nezahal primal tide
2 forsake the worldy
2 crook of condemnation
3 vizier of deferment
2 vizer of many faces
4 regal caracal
1 jaces defeat
This deck encounters decks like
vs Uw gpg (2-1)
vs Ur enigma (2-1)
vs Sultai constrictor (2-1)
vs Ub control (2-0)
vs Grixis control (2-0)
vs Mono green stompy (2-0)
vs Ug merfolk (2-1)
vs Uw approach (2-1)
I went 4-0 back to back weeks...
I think my trump cards here are thaumatic compass and azor the law... because majority of my games they both give me a chance of winning.
Also i like nezahal from the sideboard against control/counter deck.
On my second game i used to blink azor the lawbringer with vizier of deferment.
So far i love this deck even without glimmer or pull or illuminations and baffling ends and also cast out.
@xaltair... can u give me your new updated or latest deck list.. thanks.