So, calcano 23 land is mandatory, because in G2 he need titan play. nice. i once dreamed aboud changing the deck type in sideboard, but never find how to. calcano's make a good deck for my reference.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
Has anyone tried using Amass The Components as a draw spell? I was trying to come up with some sort of card that would make it reasonable to take a non-Miracley drawn Temporal Mastery and shuffle it back into the deck and it's kind of the only Standard legal thing I could come up with. The effect is obviously very good for card advantage but a 4-mana sorcery is going to zap your turn and leave you tapped out during their turn. Also, putting stuff back into your deck into of into your GY can hurt the whole Pike/Snapcaster synergy. Still considering trying it though and was curious if anyone else had.
At four mana, you're sitting on a dead card for several turns. You might never cast it, and even if you do, you're losing card advantage for the bulk of the game while sitting on it. If you have Temporal Mastery in hand, then congratulations -- you have two dead cards. The three cards you get off casting it won't help until T5 at the earliest.
Has anyone tried using Amass The Components as a draw spell? I was trying to come up with some sort of card that would make it reasonable to take a non-Miracley drawn Temporal Mastery and shuffle it back into the deck and it's kind of the only Standard legal thing I could come up with. The effect is obviously very good for card advantage but a 4-mana sorcery is going to zap your turn and leave you tapped out during their turn. Also, putting stuff back into your deck into of into your GY can hurt the whole Pike/Snapcaster synergy. Still considering trying it though and was curious if anyone else had.
I don't think it's really that effective, for a couple reasons. If you're running Pike then you're taking away from a couple relevant points of damage that could help kill or push them into burn range one turn sooner. And if you're running revival why not put the temporal mastery into the graveyard and then why not just place it back on the top of your library instead of hoping to draw it from your deck.
I like the Spikeshot Elders. It seems nuts late game with a pike. Ought to make it a bit more consistant too.
Thunderous Wrath and Temporal Mastery look dodgy to me. Was Faithless Looting mostly to get rid of these? How were they? Personally I would probably cut this package for Incinerate and Snapcasters, though I see you have no probes for t2 snappy
Yea spike shots are really good late game temporal masterys since i posted deck has been taken out and so has wrath for snaps and incinerate
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
Well my first post
Let's get to business. i'm playing U/R at my FNM, and having problems with it. My meta is mostly aggro (eg. today it was 1x tempered steel,3xW/U humans, 2x goblins, 1x U/B homebrew control, 1x esper spirits etc.), there are no WRR, solar flare, or real control decks.
My main deck list is almost identical to Lu Cai's :
I'm open to all suggestions around the deck, but mostly the sideboard to make it suit my meta best. (Note: I don't have access to Bonfire of the Damned, out of my budget atm)
The Devil's Play seems a little out of place. You already have two Bonfire's in there on top of a bunch of other burn, not to mention you're only playing 22 land and a limited number of mountains for the DP flashback. I'd say take them out and up the Vapor Snag count to 4. Or add in some Mana Leak. Otherwise it looks pretty reasonable.
The Devil's Play seems a little out of place. You already have two Bonfire's in there on top of a bunch of other burn, not to mention you're only playing 22 land and a limited number of mountains for the DP flashback. I'd say take them out and up the Vapor Snag count to 4. Or add in some Mana Leak. Otherwise it looks pretty reasonable.
SO what is the optimal build for a u/r deck revolving around rune chanters pike???
you would probably want to consider thought scour as your draw engine alongside ponder and gitaxian probe and consider running stalkers as they are unblockable and can't die to targeted removal
drop hellrider, since your creature is not much. also main deck the noble, really good. 3 is enough
drop traitorous blood for act of treason, personally though.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
I build this version of U/R Delver, it is not tested yet, because of lack of time, so I would be glad to see some suggestions. And yeah, I don´t have money for playset of Snapcasters
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
So this week/end I went 6-0 at a sunday gameday. The count was 42 people, much larger than A) they anticipated and B)normal. So 6 rounds of swiss with 30 store credit, mat and promo on the line. No top 8 due to time constraints(we weren't done till 1230).
Round 1 vs GW humans
~Game 1 Turn 1 she's on the play and drops champion of the parish. I follow with delver. She plays gideons law keeper and swings for 2. I blind flip arc trail and she cant recover from having her board wiped and an unanswerable delver. kills her.
~Game 2 is this horrible nightmare of both of us mulling to 5 and getting color screwed(she has no green and only 1 white source, I have no red) She plays FOUR honor the pures and I literally kill her with a snapcaster I flash in turn 3 for though scour on myself to mill two mountains. It was the most painful win I've ever had. I think she ends up with 2 ghost quarter 3 gavony township and a plains the turn before she dies. But if hero of bladehold ever made it to teh board, that thing would have been crazy(she had 2 in hand). I end teh game with 6 burn spells and chandras pet in hand. 2-0
Not much to note from this round save for how much I love arc trail.
It always feels like a bonfire for me, only cheaper and more reliable. Way more flexible with snapcaster too.
Round 2 was against UW delver.
~Game 1 was delver face off, where he's on the play and his turn 3 geist is met by mana leak. turn 6 he's at 8 and snapcasters a thought scoured vapor snag at my delver(while I don't have mana for leak). On my turn I have the stromkirk noble I played the turn before, swing, then arc trail his face for 2 and kill his snapcaster mage and brimstone volley wins it for me.
~Game 2 he powers out 2 delvers and ponder by turn 2, I don't draw enough removal to get past his leaks then comes geist and I don't draw any clones. Pants. He beats me untouched.
~Game 3 My Nobles Kick it into high gear. Both my early guys get up to 4/4's and he's chumping them with geist just to make more spirits with moorland haunt that can block them. turn 4 I drop double pike and slowly equip them with mana up for the 2 leaks in hand, he never played vapor snag this game and I am thankful. 2-1
I've never had trouble with the UW match up. So many factors have to be against me in order lose. Like say, multiple delvers that all flip right on schedule. But even then I thought I had enough burn to keep up. Game 2 felt more like a fluke than anything.
Round 3 vs infect?
This was a surprise. Quite a few people brought their A game here because of the odds of getting in the top 3 was supposed to be easier. Like there was net decks as far as the eye could see, but UG infect was something I wasn't prepared for. The pilot played it super cool though.
~Game 1 He dropped inkmoth nexus turns 4-5 and waited till I was at 1 card in hand after answering most of his early creatures/punp spells then assaulted me with inkmoth's and runechanters' pikes. Meanwhile, I played the usual turn 1 delver which flipped turn 3. I wasn't messing around with infect and burned every creature that dropped(myr, glistener elf, and blighted agent) with pillar, incinerate, then snap incinerate. It eventually came down to Delver with double pike racing a single inkmoth that kept getting vapor snagged while i'm at 9 poison. I top deck like a pro and snag it twice then snapcaster snag and win. Desolate lighthouse was instrumental in pulling them out of my deck and tossing land. If not for that looting, I would have surly lost.
~Game 2 I have no sb planned for this, I think about putting in the other pillar but don't because I don't need more sorcery speed removal. I board in 4 cards, then look though my deck a few times before taking them out again. I dunno, seemed like the thing to do. This game wen't super smoothly, delver, followed with mana held up for leak. I leak his turn 3 pike and on my turn I set up with ponder to draw leak and have vapor snag+thought scour on my deck. With no red mana I ride a delver to victory. 2-0
Kind of a testimony to the power of delver+blue tempo cards. I was technically mana screwed game 2 but won off a single delver. He truly is a flying wild nacatl.
Round 3 vs UW delver again.
only 3 cards separated this list from the norm. 3 misthollow griffin. the griffin made some cute synergy with thought scour and was funny, but not too great.
~Game 1. It ate an incinerate and the token he wasted his time and mana making ate an arc trail along with his delver. I mean, his turn 1 play was to thoughscour himself. I think he was having too much fun(ha coming from me) trolling his earlier opponents that he was kinda shocked when I was swinging with 9 power over 4 guys and killing him.
~Game 2 was serious business. He didn't talk to me anymore, which made me smile. I assume he boarded out the griffins because I didn't see them at all. I put in 2 surgicals and 2 metamorphs and outted 4 leaks(I didn't think I need them on the draw against this dude). Which didn't matter. The turning point of the game was around turn 7ish after we both had slow starts, but I top delver with a thought scour in hand. I use some extra mana to scour myself, looking for some protection/action I was hoping for a chandra's pheonix, but I ended up dumping some land and drawing a delver. So I played both delvers. He had a geist that he put the turn before and it crashed at me for 6. On my turn miraculously! both my delvers flipped on a ponder. That ponder found me my metamorph and I killed his geist. Then the delvers proceed to take over the game. He actually got so frustrated that when I copied a flipped delver with an image, he played dungeon geists to tap my insect(not to kill the image!!!) a hudge error that got followed up with incinerate on his geist, untap and swing with the team like a beast. He conceded at 4 life. 2-0
Round 4 vs RG aggro
This guy is my friend and we've played this match a million times(approx) I got game 1 in the bag and he knows it. We play for ****s and giggles anyways.
~Game 1 was a flurry of me killing his dorks, countering hellriders and saving incinerate for wolfir avenger. One surprise was a wolfir silverheart. when he GSZ'd for that I was a bit surprised, but he was long dead by my air superiority.
~Game 2 now it got interesting. Act of Aggression Pillar of flame, Phyrexian Metamorph, Lone Revenant, and Ancient Grudge all come in. I dump my counter magic, stromkirk nobles and 1 pike(I didn't know if hed sb in his grudge's or not. So I had to decide weather I should try to bluff or not).
The pike never ended up mattering as i didn't draw it, and he didn't get the 2 grudges that he told me later that he did sb in. At some point, it's huntmaster on the field, with the wolf token. Hellrider drops and no swing. On my side it's a dungeon geists keeping his huntsman tapped with all 6 mana up. I try to activate lighthouse and he incinerates my geist. On my turn I draw my own incinerate with snapcaster arc trail and lone Revenant in hand. So I trail his huntmaster dealing 1 to him and pass. He drops another hell rider and i groan. I don't have another red source, so he swings hard. I maybe should have burn the existing hellrider, but then huntsman would have eventually taken over the game. i dunno. But that swing is followed by another that kills me even though I drop snapcaster block the wolf and to incinerate 1 hellrider and a lone relevant to block the other. I just lose on the swing.
~Game 3
The turn 1 sulfur falls, turn 2 I draw the island I needed turn 1 but now I play delver+stromkirk. turn 3 ponder finding arc trail to hurt his mana dorks and get stromkirk through. turn 4 flip and begin counter swinging. strangleroots don't race fast enough and I win. I just had answers for everything after a while. I just ignored the strangleroots because alone, the two of them were just doing a whole lot of nothing. 2-1
Round 5 vs naya pod(tricky aggro)
~Game 1 There are so many tricks in this deck. podding blade splicer into restoration angel was something I had to watch out for. blade splicer and huntmaster made tokens with get better with gavony township. Tons of weird synergies.
~Game 2 Went about as good as it could for me. cept I did lose a delver by carelessly swinging it into a birds of paradise with slayers stronghold on the field. He never saw pod, I just sat there and burned him out. I didn't fall for teh same tricks, countering strangleroot in case of pod and I burned blade splicers on sight.
~Game 3 I knew if it got grindy that he'd have the upper hand, so this game I stock piled as much burn as I could with a delver and chandra's pet in my opener. they both attacked a few times and eventually got taken out by flashed angels, but I just threw all my burn at his head and getting him from 13 to zero was just a snapcaster on top of my deck. 2-1
Round 6 vs GW ramp?
It was a Wolf run, but more geared for white mass removal and a bunch of plainswalkers inhabited this deck. Namely Gideon and Garruk primal hunter which I'd seen from watching one of his other matches. This was the last round, so no matter how janky his deck appeared, I had to take it seriously, the pilot means everything.
~Game 1 I get Destroyed after mulling to 5. turn 4 prime time drops inkmoth and wolfrun. next turn it attacks with wolf run and pulls some posts, he gains life and kills the pants out of me
~Games 2 and 3 it's not even a contest. I have burn and mana leak for all of his threats and win off the back of delvers/pikes. Seriously this was the fastest round and there's almost nothing to report at this point. My deck just trumped his deck, making a very boring end after playing the guy with naya pod. 2-1
Private Mod Note
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When does lightning bolt kill Emrakul? When your opponent's at three.
Nice list, but how did the duo stromkirks' maindeck work for you? it feels like you'd be better with the extra pillar of flame and something else main deck (eg. more burn), and then side in the noble's (even the full playset) when they're likely to be useful. With only 2 copies they're not going to hit T1 very often and they're not a good late game card (and not really a good card vs anything other than humans anyway).
Also what are your thoughts on ancient grudge vs steel sabotage? I feel like the latter is better more of the time.
Also, even with all the cantrips, 21 land seems bold, have you tried 22 or 23?
Someone in this thread suggested spike shot elder. I put one in my sb and he's been winning games ever sense. I hold him till I have a pike and he's like a shot gun. My new tech vs the UW with angels. Thanks goes out to that person.
Nice list, but how did the duo stromkirks' maindeck work for you? it feels like you'd be better with the extra pillar of flame and something else main deck (eg. more burn), and then side in the noble's (even the full playset) when they're likely to be useful. With only 2 copies they're not going to hit T1 very often and they're not a good late game card (and not really a good card vs anything other than humans anyway).
Also what are your thoughts on ancient grudge vs steel sabotage? I feel like the latter is better more of the time.
Also, even with all the cantrips, 21 land seems bold, have you tried 22 or 23?
On the Nobles:
Stromkirks win games. The reason there was 2 main instead of 3 was simply a meta choice because I saw tons of zombie players [ironically, I never faced any].
To begin with with, originally, it will be 3 stromkirks main. In fact, the current list has 3 main and 2 pillar sb, and will more often than not have that set up. I personally hate pillar of flame. Yes, it has applications where it's needed, and that's why I run it, but no, it's not great for a tempo or burn deck, which is what we are (not to be confused with tempo+aggro like our UW counterpart). Arc trail is 9/10 times GREATLY superior with the only real down side being gravecrawler. but with arc trail and pillar you start to build up your sorcery count and decrease the effectiveness of your counter magic and snapcasters.
On the Ancient grudge:
Honestly, I never even considered steel sabotage because I'd never want to flash it back with snapcaster mage. A lot of my deck/card choices are built around thought scour becoming an ancestral recall for me. Chandra's pet can be brought back and ancient grudge can be flashed back with my lone green source OR snapcaster.
On the land count:
21 seemed like the right number. I only get really screwed once that night and I eventually got there without using any red spells. I got dig and some looting, plus it's the same number of lands I run in my modern UR, and only 1 more than my legacy UR. 20-21 just seems right.
@theLuke: GZ for your gameday and thanks for proving that UR Delver still can be more competitive than people expect it
In my case I still testing because playtesting I was doing it well, but yesterday I played with some friends for real testing and lose every round against UB Zombies (not a competitive one) and against every deck that has counterspells, so I finally decided to add mana leaks to be more tempo.
snip
P.D.: I am thinking of adding a sword main or sideboard, what do you think and which one? Thanks in advance.
On zombies:
A) there's no reason not to have 4 mana leak to compliment your 4 snapcaster. None. Cavern? ignore it. If you threaten with mana leak, then he can only play spells that he casts with that land. Win for you. If he doesn't draw that land? win for you. If he stupidly names vampire and plays a zombie or vice versa win for you.
B) Invisible Stalker seems bad in the zombie match up. Yeah they can't remove it without black sun, but he just makes the race so terrible. I really think he shouldn't be considered for this deck(UR tempo). I just HATE how lack luster he is without a sword/pike.
Private Mod Note
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When does lightning bolt kill Emrakul? When your opponent's at three.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
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My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
The solution is to not run Amass the Components or Temporal Mastery in this deck. You wouldn't run Time Warp in this, would you? Because that would actually be less awkward.
I don't think it's really that effective, for a couple reasons. If you're running Pike then you're taking away from a couple relevant points of damage that could help kill or push them into burn range one turn sooner. And if you're running revival why not put the temporal mastery into the graveyard and then why not just place it back on the top of your library instead of hoping to draw it from your deck.
Yea spike shots are really good late game temporal masterys since i posted deck has been taken out and so has wrath for snaps and incinerate
i want to play this at fnm and gameday, got it built, but i'd like to see what he cuts g2 and 3 to add stuff for
yeah. that's the mystery too. and, no mana leak.
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
Let's get to business. i'm playing U/R at my FNM, and having problems with it. My meta is mostly aggro (eg. today it was 1x tempered steel,3xW/U humans, 2x goblins, 1x U/B homebrew control, 1x esper spirits etc.), there are no WRR, solar flare, or real control decks.
My main deck list is almost identical to Lu Cai's :
Sideboard:
Having problems with Shrine of Burning Rage, explosiveness of tempered steel, as well as Geist of Saint Traft in humans lists.
I'm open to all suggestions around the deck, but mostly the sideboard to make it suit my meta best. (Note: I don't have access to Bonfire of the Damned, out of my budget atm)
1 Desolate Lighthouse
11 Island
6 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Dungeon Geists
2 Invisible Stalker
4 Ponder
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Vapor Snag
2 Devil's Play
2 Thunderous Wrath
2 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Negate
3 Runechanter's Pike
4 Slagstorm
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Vapor Snag
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Frost Titan
Thoughts? I know it's pretty rough.
Solid, thank you.
you would probably want to consider thought scour as your draw engine alongside ponder and gitaxian probe and consider running stalkers as they are unblockable and can't die to targeted removal
creatures 17
delver of secrets x4
merfolk looter x2
stormblood berserker x4
Dungeon Geists x1
hellrider x3
hanweir lancer x3
Instants/ Sorceries - 22
brimstone volley x3
shock x1
think twice x3
vapor snag x4
bonfire of the damned x1
pillar of flame x4
ponder x4
red sun's zenith x2
Land - 21
sulfur falls x2
mountain 10
island x9
SB -15
stromkirk noble x3
shatter x2
nihil spellbomb x3
consecrated sphinx x1
mana leak x3
traitorous blood x3
not around, pike as second wincon.
drop hellrider, since your creature is not much. also main deck the noble, really good. 3 is enough
drop traitorous blood for act of treason, personally though.
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
for a snapcaterless deck, thunderous wrath is good, otherwise, who want to snapcast 5 damage for 7 mana?
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
if your meta is aggro, use grim, otherwise, if it's control (with lot anti-creature) use pike
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
Invisible Stalker is useful if your opponent realizes the fastest way to beat this deck is remove the creatures ASAP.
Standard
WUControlUW
WBGReanimatorGBW
EDH
UBGThe MimeoplasmGBU
URGRikuGRU
Legacy
RGoblinsR
WURMiraclesRUW
Modern
WURMidrangeRUW
Trade Thread:
List:
1 Desolate Lighthouse
10 Island
5 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls
1 Rootbound Craig
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Stromkirk Noble
2 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Dungeon Geists
4 Ponder
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Vapor Snag
4 mana Leak
2 Runechanter's Pike
3 Incinerate
1 brimestone volley
4 Thought Scour
3 Arc Trail
1 Act of Aggression(in my head it was better than zealous because it interacts favorably with snapcaster and pike, this might have been in error).
2 Negate(lulz)
1 Pillar of flame(couldn't fit in main)
2 Phyrexian Metamorph(wish this was main over the image)
2 Stromkirk Noble(hatting on humans)
2 ratchet bomb
1 Lone Revenant(nobody expects him, and it's hilarious late late late game I will replace this slot soon)
2 Surgical Extraction(reanimator and plays nice with snapcaster)
2 Ancient Grudge
Round 1 vs GW humans
~Game 1 Turn 1 she's on the play and drops champion of the parish. I follow with delver. She plays gideons law keeper and swings for 2. I blind flip arc trail and she cant recover from having her board wiped and an unanswerable delver. kills her.
~Game 2 is this horrible nightmare of both of us mulling to 5 and getting color screwed(she has no green and only 1 white source, I have no red) She plays FOUR honor the pures and I literally kill her with a snapcaster I flash in turn 3 for though scour on myself to mill two mountains. It was the most painful win I've ever had. I think she ends up with 2 ghost quarter 3 gavony township and a plains the turn before she dies. But if hero of bladehold ever made it to teh board, that thing would have been crazy(she had 2 in hand). I end teh game with 6 burn spells and chandras pet in hand. 2-0
Not much to note from this round save for how much I love arc trail.
It always feels like a bonfire for me, only cheaper and more reliable. Way more flexible with snapcaster too.
Round 2 was against UW delver.
~Game 1 was delver face off, where he's on the play and his turn 3 geist is met by mana leak. turn 6 he's at 8 and snapcasters a thought scoured vapor snag at my delver(while I don't have mana for leak). On my turn I have the stromkirk noble I played the turn before, swing, then arc trail his face for 2 and kill his snapcaster mage and brimstone volley wins it for me.
~Game 2 he powers out 2 delvers and ponder by turn 2, I don't draw enough removal to get past his leaks then comes geist and I don't draw any clones. Pants. He beats me untouched.
~Game 3 My Nobles Kick it into high gear. Both my early guys get up to 4/4's and he's chumping them with geist just to make more spirits with moorland haunt that can block them. turn 4 I drop double pike and slowly equip them with mana up for the 2 leaks in hand, he never played vapor snag this game and I am thankful. 2-1
I've never had trouble with the UW match up. So many factors have to be against me in order lose. Like say, multiple delvers that all flip right on schedule. But even then I thought I had enough burn to keep up. Game 2 felt more like a fluke than anything.
Round 3 vs infect?
This was a surprise. Quite a few people brought their A game here because of the odds of getting in the top 3 was supposed to be easier. Like there was net decks as far as the eye could see, but UG infect was something I wasn't prepared for. The pilot played it super cool though.
~Game 1 He dropped inkmoth nexus turns 4-5 and waited till I was at 1 card in hand after answering most of his early creatures/punp spells then assaulted me with inkmoth's and runechanters' pikes. Meanwhile, I played the usual turn 1 delver which flipped turn 3. I wasn't messing around with infect and burned every creature that dropped(myr, glistener elf, and blighted agent) with pillar, incinerate, then snap incinerate. It eventually came down to Delver with double pike racing a single inkmoth that kept getting vapor snagged while i'm at 9 poison. I top deck like a pro and snag it twice then snapcaster snag and win. Desolate lighthouse was instrumental in pulling them out of my deck and tossing land. If not for that looting, I would have surly lost.
~Game 2 I have no sb planned for this, I think about putting in the other pillar but don't because I don't need more sorcery speed removal. I board in 4 cards, then look though my deck a few times before taking them out again. I dunno, seemed like the thing to do. This game wen't super smoothly, delver, followed with mana held up for leak. I leak his turn 3 pike and on my turn I set up with ponder to draw leak and have vapor snag+thought scour on my deck. With no red mana I ride a delver to victory. 2-0
Kind of a testimony to the power of delver+blue tempo cards. I was technically mana screwed game 2 but won off a single delver. He truly is a flying wild nacatl.
Round 3 vs UW delver again.
only 3 cards separated this list from the norm. 3 misthollow griffin. the griffin made some cute synergy with thought scour and was funny, but not too great.
~Game 1. It ate an incinerate and the token he wasted his time and mana making ate an arc trail along with his delver. I mean, his turn 1 play was to thoughscour himself. I think he was having too much fun(ha coming from me) trolling his earlier opponents that he was kinda shocked when I was swinging with 9 power over 4 guys and killing him.
~Game 2 was serious business. He didn't talk to me anymore, which made me smile. I assume he boarded out the griffins because I didn't see them at all. I put in 2 surgicals and 2 metamorphs and outted 4 leaks(I didn't think I need them on the draw against this dude). Which didn't matter. The turning point of the game was around turn 7ish after we both had slow starts, but I top delver with a thought scour in hand. I use some extra mana to scour myself, looking for some protection/action I was hoping for a chandra's pheonix, but I ended up dumping some land and drawing a delver. So I played both delvers. He had a geist that he put the turn before and it crashed at me for 6. On my turn miraculously! both my delvers flipped on a ponder. That ponder found me my metamorph and I killed his geist. Then the delvers proceed to take over the game. He actually got so frustrated that when I copied a flipped delver with an image, he played dungeon geists to tap my insect(not to kill the image!!!) a hudge error that got followed up with incinerate on his geist, untap and swing with the team like a beast. He conceded at 4 life. 2-0
Round 4 vs RG aggro
This guy is my friend and we've played this match a million times(approx) I got game 1 in the bag and he knows it. We play for ****s and giggles anyways.
~Game 1 was a flurry of me killing his dorks, countering hellriders and saving incinerate for wolfir avenger. One surprise was a wolfir silverheart. when he GSZ'd for that I was a bit surprised, but he was long dead by my air superiority.
~Game 2 now it got interesting. Act of Aggression Pillar of flame, Phyrexian Metamorph, Lone Revenant, and Ancient Grudge all come in. I dump my counter magic, stromkirk nobles and 1 pike(I didn't know if hed sb in his grudge's or not. So I had to decide weather I should try to bluff or not).
The pike never ended up mattering as i didn't draw it, and he didn't get the 2 grudges that he told me later that he did sb in. At some point, it's huntmaster on the field, with the wolf token. Hellrider drops and no swing. On my side it's a dungeon geists keeping his huntsman tapped with all 6 mana up. I try to activate lighthouse and he incinerates my geist. On my turn I draw my own incinerate with snapcaster arc trail and lone Revenant in hand. So I trail his huntmaster dealing 1 to him and pass. He drops another hell rider and i groan. I don't have another red source, so he swings hard. I maybe should have burn the existing hellrider, but then huntsman would have eventually taken over the game. i dunno. But that swing is followed by another that kills me even though I drop snapcaster block the wolf and to incinerate 1 hellrider and a lone relevant to block the other. I just lose on the swing.
~Game 3
The turn 1 sulfur falls, turn 2 I draw the island I needed turn 1 but now I play delver+stromkirk. turn 3 ponder finding arc trail to hurt his mana dorks and get stromkirk through. turn 4 flip and begin counter swinging. strangleroots don't race fast enough and I win. I just had answers for everything after a while. I just ignored the strangleroots because alone, the two of them were just doing a whole lot of nothing. 2-1
Round 5 vs naya pod(tricky aggro)
~Game 1 There are so many tricks in this deck. podding blade splicer into restoration angel was something I had to watch out for. blade splicer and huntmaster made tokens with get better with gavony township. Tons of weird synergies.
~Game 2 Went about as good as it could for me. cept I did lose a delver by carelessly swinging it into a birds of paradise with slayers stronghold on the field. He never saw pod, I just sat there and burned him out. I didn't fall for teh same tricks, countering strangleroot in case of pod and I burned blade splicers on sight.
~Game 3 I knew if it got grindy that he'd have the upper hand, so this game I stock piled as much burn as I could with a delver and chandra's pet in my opener. they both attacked a few times and eventually got taken out by flashed angels, but I just threw all my burn at his head and getting him from 13 to zero was just a snapcaster on top of my deck. 2-1
Round 6 vs GW ramp?
It was a Wolf run, but more geared for white mass removal and a bunch of plainswalkers inhabited this deck. Namely Gideon and Garruk primal hunter which I'd seen from watching one of his other matches. This was the last round, so no matter how janky his deck appeared, I had to take it seriously, the pilot means everything.
~Game 1 I get Destroyed after mulling to 5. turn 4 prime time drops inkmoth and wolfrun. next turn it attacks with wolf run and pulls some posts, he gains life and kills the pants out of me
~Games 2 and 3 it's not even a contest. I have burn and mana leak for all of his threats and win off the back of delvers/pikes. Seriously this was the fastest round and there's almost nothing to report at this point. My deck just trumped his deck, making a very boring end after playing the guy with naya pod. 2-1
Nice list, but how did the duo stromkirks' maindeck work for you? it feels like you'd be better with the extra pillar of flame and something else main deck (eg. more burn), and then side in the noble's (even the full playset) when they're likely to be useful. With only 2 copies they're not going to hit T1 very often and they're not a good late game card (and not really a good card vs anything other than humans anyway).
Also what are your thoughts on ancient grudge vs steel sabotage? I feel like the latter is better more of the time.
Also, even with all the cantrips, 21 land seems bold, have you tried 22 or 23?
On the Nobles:
Stromkirks win games. The reason there was 2 main instead of 3 was simply a meta choice because I saw tons of zombie players [ironically, I never faced any].
To begin with with, originally, it will be 3 stromkirks main. In fact, the current list has 3 main and 2 pillar sb, and will more often than not have that set up. I personally hate pillar of flame. Yes, it has applications where it's needed, and that's why I run it, but no, it's not great for a tempo or burn deck, which is what we are (not to be confused with tempo+aggro like our UW counterpart). Arc trail is 9/10 times GREATLY superior with the only real down side being gravecrawler. but with arc trail and pillar you start to build up your sorcery count and decrease the effectiveness of your counter magic and snapcasters.
On the Ancient grudge:
Honestly, I never even considered steel sabotage because I'd never want to flash it back with snapcaster mage. A lot of my deck/card choices are built around thought scour becoming an ancestral recall for me. Chandra's pet can be brought back and ancient grudge can be flashed back with my lone green source OR snapcaster.
On the land count:
21 seemed like the right number. I only get really screwed once that night and I eventually got there without using any red spells. I got dig and some looting, plus it's the same number of lands I run in my modern UR, and only 1 more than my legacy UR. 20-21 just seems right.
On zombies:
A) there's no reason not to have 4 mana leak to compliment your 4 snapcaster. None. Cavern? ignore it. If you threaten with mana leak, then he can only play spells that he casts with that land. Win for you. If he doesn't draw that land? win for you. If he stupidly names vampire and plays a zombie or vice versa win for you.
B) Invisible Stalker seems bad in the zombie match up. Yeah they can't remove it without black sun, but he just makes the race so terrible. I really think he shouldn't be considered for this deck(UR tempo). I just HATE how lack luster he is without a sword/pike.
Why not? countering wurmcoil for 2B is better than half destroying it for 2BR, or worst case bounce it with a leak in hand.
I could see grudge if you were going in with a heavier green splash, but with just one green source you're rarely going to get value out of it imo.
i know you mean B as blue, but in mtg, W=white, U=blue, B=black, R=red, and G=green
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube