I don't like any of these spells. Negate is probably the best card, but it's just impossible to find space for them + Dispels and Whirs, and I need both of those. The problem with Authority is that most of the control versions play multiple Nahiris in the MD, and they can just, you know, grind you do death if you use too much space on dead cards.
Are you still playing the list in your sig?
Honestly for main deck options vs copy cat it doesn't look good. I think playing 4 main deck rebuke is just your best bet. Engulf only stops the combo for one turn so I'm not sold on it as a solid answer.
There's a reason the meta is filled with copy cat and reservoir is a fringe deck. Copy cat is probably the better deck. We have certain match-ups that are more in our favour and we get to play storm in standard which is a reason on its own. With the improvements I do think that the deck can be competitive now, but playing against another combo deck that has access to two more colours for sideboard options will be difficult. It does not seem like a good match-up.
Have we considered Era of Innovation? It's clunky but it gives you an incentive to drop your eggs when normally they'd be dead cards. Maybe instead of Anticipate?
Era seems super clunky. I don't want to jump through hoops just to draw 3 for 5 mana.
I played this deck at my first FNM in a year and had a blast I think the improvise cards made this deck very powerful.
I was playing a 3/3 split of Reservoir and Whir of Invention. I tried out a 1-of Inspiring Statuary but I really didn't like it. I never wanted to tutor it over a Reservoir. I would be interested in trying the renegade map, especially if I tried the lower land count some of you guys are doing. I played with 23 lands and even then would sometimes miss on critical land drops.
I was playing the mono blue version and definitely need to work on the sideboard. All I had was counter magic and the 4/4 hexproof guy which didn't seem that impactful. I got one swing in with him against control and then a torrential gearhulk blocked the path. Also what do you guys cut from the main deck when you side? I hate taking things away from the combo and it feels so tight.
Side-boarding with the deck is not easy. Just like storm or other combo decks you don't want to dilute your deck. Vs control I side out the shield and some mass bounce spells. Vs aggro I side out counterspells, some bone-saw, and a draw spell here or there.
The deck just got some camera time in the 1st round of the SCG open. The deck didn't seem that tuned but still ended up beating Jessup on GW tokens.
inspiring statuary its the best card in the deck, wouldnt play less than 4 with 4 anticiate and 4 crane to help find it and casting it on curve. it allows you to start comboing off with paradoxical outcome and go below 4 mana with no fear of not being able to cast the reservoir because you can cheat it with barals expertise. it enables a lot of turn 4 and 5 kills
Love this deck but it cannot beat any form of actual control. Especially not Jeskai Saheeli. Have to shelve this one until the Cat is banned. Hell, even UB trashes this. I had the pleasure of experiencing this all day today. I had Ballistas in my SB and the games where I got to cast it on T2 were the only games I won. Card is good.
I haven't lost to control yet, I have beaten CopyCat, Grixis Tower and jeskai counterspells. Idk what list your on, but mainboarding 4 rebukes and siding in Bastion Inventor, Efficient Construction, and negate/dispels help a ton.
I haven't lost to control yet, I have beaten CopyCat, Grixis Tower and jeskai counterspells. Idk what list your on, but mainboarding 4 rebukes and siding in Bastion Inventor, Efficient Construction, and negate/dispels help a ton.
UB was rough for me ... 10 counterspells + 4 gearhulks makes the game very dependent on end of turns...when to fire off a reservoir/whir to force the tap out...it gets very interesting to navigate. Hope and Bastion make the board game much easier.
I don't understand how Efficient Construction helps. it's just another 4-mana sorcery speed win-con with the downside that it csn't be whirred into play EOT.
normal control is beatable, copycat is just impossible to beat. I love the deck but I keep losing all of my tix on leagues. Merchant's Dockhand has been my MVP against control, I highly recommend it if you don't play it already.
I don't understand how Efficient Construction helps. it's just another 4-mana sorcery speed win-con with the downside that it csn't be whirred into play EOT.
normal control is beatable, copycat is just impossible to beat. I love the deck but I keep losing all of my tix on leagues. Merchant's Dockhand has been my MVP against control, I highly recommend it if you don't play it already.
Dockhand is amazing...I have Whir for 1 and control lets it resolve as it's not a reservoir and it helps grind games...Mine usually dies to fatal push or lightning
Construction is a cool win con but I never felt it needed - rather have a 4/4 hexproof that gets in more than 1 attack as some have said. He comes down turn 2/3 sometimes - even turn 4 means attack t5 attack t6 (on the play) attack t7 - they gearhulk in response? sure that means I have my whole turn with them tapped out.
I don't understand how Efficient Construction helps. it's just another 4-mana sorcery speed win-con with the downside that it csn't be whirred into play EOT.
normal control is beatable, copycat is just impossible to beat. I love the deck but I keep losing all of my tix on leagues. Merchant's Dockhand has been my MVP against control, I highly recommend it if you don't play it already.
Dockhand is amazing...I have Whir for 1 and control lets it resolve as it's not a reservoir and it helps grind games...Mine usually dies to fatal push or lightning
Construction is a cool win con but I never felt it needed - rather have a 4/4 hexproof that gets in more than 1 attack as some have said. He comes down turn 2/3 sometimes - even turn 4 means attack t5 attack t6 (on the play) attack t7 - they gearhulk in response? sure that means I have my whole turn with them tapped out.
I've played +10 matches against control and my Dockhand has actually never been killed - current control decks can afford to side out all of their removal against me, so they actually just have no answers to the card (same with Hope of Ghirapur).
I found that 4x Bastion Inventor in SB is OK for me now. Equip it with Cathar's shield means we can survive bigger threat.
Also since I splash B, I ordered 3x of Herald of Anguish for SB to tranform this deck into UB Improvise.
Merchant's Dockhand is meh IMO. I tested it and found that it too slow for 1 or 2 turn at least. maybe need to test more.
I found that 4x Bastion Inventor in SB is OK for me now. Equip it with Cathar's shield means we can survive bigger threat.
Also since I splash B, I ordered 3x of Herald of Anguish for SB to tranform this deck into UB Improvise.
Merchant's Dockhand is meh IMO. I tested it and found that it too slow for 1 or 2 turn at least. maybe need to test more.
just to make sure you understood what I was saying - I only bring the card in against control. Dockhand's role is to invalidate the opponent counterspells while allowing use our mana, ensuring we hit our land drops and more importantly dig for Dispels so we can set up an end of turn play where we overload our opponent's mana and get to resolve an Aetherflux or an Outcome. Double or triple Dispel in hand is a winning position.
I haven't tried it to say how it feels. My matchup against BG counters is amazing and if that ends up being 1/3 of the meta this deck is in a good spot.
Been playing Aetherflux combo since day dot absolutely love it as it's a real blast to play and with the new Aether revolt cards we get a massive boost especially nice is reverse engineer imo this is the card that makes the decktick, here is my take on the combo, I replace Anticipate with Prism as it just does the same thing but adds to our improvise in exchange for the dig and in place of Crush I added a barals expertise and a second inspiring statuary along with third aetherflux reservoir, the sideboard is based on stock sideboards I have seen but I have opted to add several tinker targets for various match ups enjoy
Nightmare Match up I think. Before SB it is easy. But after SB of Flagmentize / Lost Legacy / Decommission and Transgress the Mind.
I completely lose to him.
Herald and Bastion Inventor isn't work. Blighted Fen kill hexproof and Yaheeni Expense kill all my little Thopter.
Sphinx of the Final Word seems great in the sideboard vs Control since you can get it out extremely early with Statuary. Besides that, you should be able to beat control with your cheap counters and Whir when you need it.
Hey all! I've been brewing with Reservoir for quite a while now and played through a few games with it recently on MTGO. My version isn't the straight U version, but it's getting fairly close. Here's the list:
Sram - When he's good, he's good, but the mana base is quite awkward, to the point that he might not actually be worth it. You sacrifice mana consistency for combo consistency. Making land drops are very important.
Baral's Expertise - This card is very very underrated. I think all builds should be playing at least 2 copies. The fact that you can use it to stall aggro but is also a way to generate 4 'storm' on a combo turn, in addition to then being able to play almost any other spell in the deck for free, makes it extremely flexible, and that flexibility is great. It's definitely better in Sram builds than mono U, since there it can be card draw, combo, and/or removal depending on what you need at the time. Running Baral's also makes Inspiring Statuary very important to the deck, since improvising it is one of the most broken things the deck can do.
Inspiring Statuary - Speaking of... I think Inspiring Statuary may be the most important card in the deck, but the catch is that it's so bad in multiples that it's difficult to run a full set. Luckily we have Whir, which makes up the remaining count so that I can fetch up the missing piece when needed. To me, this deck is a two card combo: Once you assemble both Statuary and Reservoir, you are almost guaranteed to win the next turn with a decent number of cards in hand. Generally I find myself Whirring this out first so that I can enable the rest of my hand to either draw through my entire deck, or Baral's into Reservoir into drop a bunch of cards. 2 feels like the correct number.
Glimmer of Genius - Glimmer plays a similar role to anticipate. If I could, I'd probably run 6 anticipate, so Glimmer here is to fill slots 5-6 for that. Very good once Statuary is out.
Engulf the Shore - I think Engulf fights for the same slots as Baral's for the main board, and lately, while Engulf has been powerful, in most situations Baral's is just as good. Coming down a turn earlier is important though, so this split feels good to me. It get better with more Ornithopters in mono U.
Crush of Tentacles - I like this as a sideboard card very much. In fact, I think there should probably be another 1-2 copies there. It is a house G2/3 against any deck based around permanents, but I don't think you need it G1. I'd much rather have Engulf a turn earlier, or Baral's instead.
Ornithopter - Even though it doesn't draw off Sram, I think the deck needs at least 10 0-mana artifacts. It also is great at chump blocking with Paradoxical (or without).
Metallic Rebuke - I think this should not be in the mainboard. Yes, it means our G1 against control looks bad. Then our G2/3 looks just as bad, but I don't think it's worth the percentages you lose against any other deck. I've never been happy with Rebuke G1 against any deck. It's easy to think of it as Mana Leak for U, but with so much improvise already, you get pretty stretched on mana, especially against fast decks. You simply don't have the time to keep Rebuke up.
The problem is that you may get all these cool side board cards in your board against control, at the expense of fighting aggro. There are only so many slots you can allow for both and I guess you are likely to have to make some concessions.
I think that as long as copy cat is a thing, the deck will not be Tier 1. It's pretty damn close though. I do like the idea of siding in the heralds as if they resolve, they are basically unkillable. That might be an avenue worth exploring. You really cannot play the waiting game against control since they will always win the counter wars.
Testing with BW control again. But I change to Mono U
Result is impressive.
Pre-SB 5W 1L / Post-SB W12 L6
3x Metallic Rebuke and 3x Revolutionary Rebuff in 75. And 4x Anticipate is the key to fight against control now.
2x Inventor's Fair is OK. Mainly for 1 life per turn but sometime when it can activate we win.
After testing this deck for a while i can say that it has a good match up against midrange decks, but is poorly position against copy cat control and straight control decks. Which is the best way to improve these match ups? since i want to continue to play this deck since it is very fun to play.
I have found that you almost always win agro and midrange which is good cause that's GW tokens, GB counters, GB delirium and such...Saheeli isn't that bad since it's a race? but a race they can only win if they curve perfect. Depends on the meta game for what you want to include in your 75 and Main...if you see GB counters don't main Rebuke and focus on combo fast. If you see Saheeli a lot, you should probably main Rebuke.
With that said I've been having better luck game 2/3 with adding Negate - I have also fixed my deck around and sometimes you get an extra turn simply by bouncing Saheeli with a Crush ... I have been shifting around 2 different deck list and I'm not 100% sure which is better...it's frustrating because they each do something better...
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Honestly for main deck options vs copy cat it doesn't look good. I think playing 4 main deck rebuke is just your best bet. Engulf only stops the combo for one turn so I'm not sold on it as a solid answer.
There's a reason the meta is filled with copy cat and reservoir is a fringe deck. Copy cat is probably the better deck. We have certain match-ups that are more in our favour and we get to play storm in standard which is a reason on its own. With the improvements I do think that the deck can be competitive now, but playing against another combo deck that has access to two more colours for sideboard options will be difficult. It does not seem like a good match-up.
Era seems super clunky. I don't want to jump through hoops just to draw 3 for 5 mana.
Side-boarding with the deck is not easy. Just like storm or other combo decks you don't want to dilute your deck. Vs control I side out the shield and some mass bounce spells. Vs aggro I side out counterspells, some bone-saw, and a draw spell here or there.
The deck just got some camera time in the 1st round of the SCG open. The deck didn't seem that tuned but still ended up beating Jessup on GW tokens.
Modern: Esper Mentor / UG Infect
Commander: Sidisi, Brood Tyrant / Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
He was playing Baral's Expertise and Inspiring Statuary and a split between Glimmer of Genius and Reverse Engineer. Even had a Hope of Ghirapur in the main. Did not see any Whir of invention
Id that!
Trade with me, h:Alters and EdhFoils:)
Cards I have altered
inspiring statuary its the best card in the deck, wouldnt play less than 4 with 4 anticiate and 4 crane to help find it and casting it on curve. it allows you to start comboing off with paradoxical outcome and go below 4 mana with no fear of not being able to cast the reservoir because you can cheat it with barals expertise. it enables a lot of turn 4 and 5 kills
UB was rough for me ... 10 counterspells + 4 gearhulks makes the game very dependent on end of turns...when to fire off a reservoir/whir to force the tap out...it gets very interesting to navigate. Hope and Bastion make the board game much easier.
normal control is beatable, copycat is just impossible to beat. I love the deck but I keep losing all of my tix on leagues. Merchant's Dockhand has been my MVP against control, I highly recommend it if you don't play it already.
Youtube Channel
Dockhand is amazing...I have Whir for 1 and control lets it resolve as it's not a reservoir and it helps grind games...Mine usually dies to fatal push or lightning
Construction is a cool win con but I never felt it needed - rather have a 4/4 hexproof that gets in more than 1 attack as some have said. He comes down turn 2/3 sometimes - even turn 4 means attack t5 attack t6 (on the play) attack t7 - they gearhulk in response? sure that means I have my whole turn with them tapped out.
I've played +10 matches against control and my Dockhand has actually never been killed - current control decks can afford to side out all of their removal against me, so they actually just have no answers to the card (same with Hope of Ghirapur).
Youtube Channel
Also since I splash B, I ordered 3x of Herald of Anguish for SB to tranform this deck into UB Improvise.
Merchant's Dockhand is meh IMO. I tested it and found that it too slow for 1 or 2 turn at least. maybe need to test more.
just to make sure you understood what I was saying - I only bring the card in against control. Dockhand's role is to invalidate the opponent counterspells while allowing use our mana, ensuring we hit our land drops and more importantly dig for Dispels so we can set up an end of turn play where we overload our opponent's mana and get to resolve an Aetherflux or an Outcome. Double or triple Dispel in hand is a winning position.
Youtube Channel
I think it's just clearly the opposite
Youtube Channel
4 Paradoxical Outcome
4 Bone Saw
4 Cathar's Shield
2 Inspiring Statuary
3 Aetherflux Reservoir
4 Prophetic Prism
3 Engulf the Shore
1 Baral's Expertise
4 Metallic Rebuke
4 Ornithopter
3 Whir of Invention
4 Reverse Engineer
2 Inventors' Fair
18 Island
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
1 Engulf the Shore
1 Gonti's Aether Heart
4 Negate
1 Aligned Hedron Network
4 Bastion Inventor
3 Hope of Ghirapur
Been playing Aetherflux combo since day dot absolutely love it as it's a real blast to play and with the new Aether revolt cards we get a massive boost especially nice is reverse engineer imo this is the card that makes the decktick, here is my take on the combo, I replace Anticipate with Prism as it just does the same thing but adds to our improvise in exchange for the dig and in place of Crush I added a barals expertise and a second inspiring statuary along with third aetherflux reservoir, the sideboard is based on stock sideboards I have seen but I have opted to add several tinker targets for various match ups enjoy
Before SB W 7 L 3 / After SB W3 L 14
Nightmare Match up I think. Before SB it is easy. But after SB of Flagmentize / Lost Legacy / Decommission and Transgress the Mind.
I completely lose to him.
Herald and Bastion Inventor isn't work. Blighted Fen kill hexproof and Yaheeni Expense kill all my little Thopter.
WIll test more TMR.
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
Spells
4 Reverse Engineer
4 Anticipate
4 Paradoxical Outcome
2 Baral's Expertise
2 Glimmer of Genius
2 Whir of Invention
2 Engulf the Shore
4 Bone Saw
4 Cathar's Shield
2 Ornithopter
2 Inspiring Statuary
3 Aetherflux Reservoir
Land
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
13 Island
2 Crush of Tentacles
2 Hope of Ghirapur
3 Authority of the Consuls
4 Negate
2 Engulf the Shore
2 Metallic Rebuke
Here are my thoughts on a couple of key cards
Sram - When he's good, he's good, but the mana base is quite awkward, to the point that he might not actually be worth it. You sacrifice mana consistency for combo consistency. Making land drops are very important.
Baral's Expertise - This card is very very underrated. I think all builds should be playing at least 2 copies. The fact that you can use it to stall aggro but is also a way to generate 4 'storm' on a combo turn, in addition to then being able to play almost any other spell in the deck for free, makes it extremely flexible, and that flexibility is great. It's definitely better in Sram builds than mono U, since there it can be card draw, combo, and/or removal depending on what you need at the time. Running Baral's also makes Inspiring Statuary very important to the deck, since improvising it is one of the most broken things the deck can do.
Inspiring Statuary - Speaking of... I think Inspiring Statuary may be the most important card in the deck, but the catch is that it's so bad in multiples that it's difficult to run a full set. Luckily we have Whir, which makes up the remaining count so that I can fetch up the missing piece when needed. To me, this deck is a two card combo: Once you assemble both Statuary and Reservoir, you are almost guaranteed to win the next turn with a decent number of cards in hand. Generally I find myself Whirring this out first so that I can enable the rest of my hand to either draw through my entire deck, or Baral's into Reservoir into drop a bunch of cards. 2 feels like the correct number.
Glimmer of Genius - Glimmer plays a similar role to anticipate. If I could, I'd probably run 6 anticipate, so Glimmer here is to fill slots 5-6 for that. Very good once Statuary is out.
Engulf the Shore - I think Engulf fights for the same slots as Baral's for the main board, and lately, while Engulf has been powerful, in most situations Baral's is just as good. Coming down a turn earlier is important though, so this split feels good to me. It get better with more Ornithopters in mono U.
Crush of Tentacles - I like this as a sideboard card very much. In fact, I think there should probably be another 1-2 copies there. It is a house G2/3 against any deck based around permanents, but I don't think you need it G1. I'd much rather have Engulf a turn earlier, or Baral's instead.
Ornithopter - Even though it doesn't draw off Sram, I think the deck needs at least 10 0-mana artifacts. It also is great at chump blocking with Paradoxical (or without).
Metallic Rebuke - I think this should not be in the mainboard. Yes, it means our G1 against control looks bad. Then our G2/3 looks just as bad, but I don't think it's worth the percentages you lose against any other deck. I've never been happy with Rebuke G1 against any deck. It's easy to think of it as Mana Leak for U, but with so much improvise already, you get pretty stretched on mana, especially against fast decks. You simply don't have the time to keep Rebuke up.
I think that as long as copy cat is a thing, the deck will not be Tier 1. It's pretty damn close though. I do like the idea of siding in the heralds as if they resolve, they are basically unkillable. That might be an avenue worth exploring. You really cannot play the waiting game against control since they will always win the counter wars.
Result is impressive.
Pre-SB 5W 1L / Post-SB W12 L6
3x Metallic Rebuke and 3x Revolutionary Rebuff in 75. And 4x Anticipate is the key to fight against control now.
2x Inventor's Fair is OK. Mainly for 1 life per turn but sometime when it can activate we win.
I have found that you almost always win agro and midrange which is good cause that's GW tokens, GB counters, GB delirium and such...Saheeli isn't that bad since it's a race? but a race they can only win if they curve perfect. Depends on the meta game for what you want to include in your 75 and Main...if you see GB counters don't main Rebuke and focus on combo fast. If you see Saheeli a lot, you should probably main Rebuke.
With that said I've been having better luck game 2/3 with adding Negate - I have also fixed my deck around and sometimes you get an extra turn simply by bouncing Saheeli with a Crush ... I have been shifting around 2 different deck list and I'm not 100% sure which is better...it's frustrating because they each do something better...