Hey all, I just featured Emeria Titan/Saheeli in my latest Under the Microscope series on YouTube. Looking at this thread, the decklist wasn't particularly refined but I think it does a good job showing the deck's strengths and weaknesses overall. We beat Abzan Midrange and Mono U Tron, but lost to UR Gifts Storm.
Why does Burn (or whomever) need a way to deal with greedy manabases anyway? Shocklands already do that for them, basically netting them a free burn spell or two each game if their opponent wants to cast their spells on time. If you mean hate towards Tron/Eldrazi-Tron, then they already do pretty well against Tron and Eldrazi-Tron is a problem but you don't need to hate out every deck that plays 3 colors/nonbasics. As others have mentioned, there are far better ways to introduce land hate that would not only be accessible to a wider variety of decks, but also would warp the format much less. Price of Progress would only decrease format diversity.
EDIT THE THIRD: Look at the Copy Cat record, that tells me that the event had zero respect for combo's, and some people got caught with their pants down.
Or are we going to claim Copy Cat is good?
As the person who actually got 25th place at the recent SCG Modern Open with Jeskai Saheeli, I can assure you that I faced many decks with interaction and still won. If you want to go to the CopyCat thread and read my actual tournament report before making blind assertions, you are free to do so.
Regardless, a deck is only as good as the metagame it is in. If I can go 11-4 in a large tournament with a deck that is hardly played, it means I made the correct meta call for what to play in the tournament. Picking the right deck to play in a tournament is, arguably, more than half the battle in Modern.
You say the event had zero respect for combos, but you just said right before it that hands are ripped apart in the Modern format. So tell me: is your argument that this tournament was a fluke, or maybe combos are much better positioned than you claim them to be?
The meta is really interesting. I top 32'd (11-4, 25th place) with Jeskai Saheeli in the Modern Open this weekend, missing top 16 on breakers as there were a few 11-4s in the Top 16. There were tons of control decks throughout the day, which makes a Jeskai player like me very happy on the inside.
I think Modern is in a good spot and the diversity of archetypes in these events is also great to see, as it makes me hopeful for the future of Modern.
How do you feel about the Death's Shadow matchup? I tried Jeskai Saheeli briefly, but canned it once I felt like the Shadow matchup was too rough (30/70). I actually beat the 2 Jund Death's Shadow (this was a while ago when I tried it), but I felt that I got pretty lucky and when I tested it at home, it got smashed by Shadow. I know Grixis Shadow is different, but it seems like it still would be sub 50%. How do approach this matchup? Or do you play a lot of the same tech as UW Control decks (that do well vs. Shadow now)?
I actually think the Grixis matchup is a little bit difficult due to Stubborn Denial. The DS Jund is much more favorable due to the 100% chance that Path to Exile will resolve if you cast it and it's also easier to hate. A topdecked (or natural) Rest in Peace still nukes Goyf and shuts off Traverse, while Grixis Shadow, once a Delve creature has already come out, is much harder to deal with. The matchup revolves around either: A) burning them out and getting aggressive with Cliques/Snaps/Colonnades etc, or B) sideboarding into mass amounts of sweepers like Supreme Verdict or targeted hate cards like Condemn.
I decided to choose option A, simply because it was a stronger plan against an open field. I played 1 DS Jund during Day 1 and won 2-0 and played 1 DS Grixis during Day 2 and lost 1-2. Grixis Shadow is tough and slightly unfavorable, but definitely not a 30-70 matchup. I think the deck was a good meta call for this weekend. I was able to get a ton of T4 wins against uninteractive decks, while being able to stomp the linear decks like Affinity/Burn and have game against Midrange, Storm, Living End, and even Dredge post-board.
The meta is really interesting. I top 32'd (11-4, 25th place) with Jeskai Saheeli in the Modern Open this weekend, missing top 16 on breakers as there were a few 11-4s in the Top 16. There were tons of control decks throughout the day, which makes a Jeskai player like me very happy on the inside.
I think Modern is in a good spot and the diversity of archetypes in these events is also great to see, as it makes me hopeful for the future of Modern.
Great question. I remember watching an SCG Open stream and Ryan Overturf made an important note that UW Control has very little ways to deal with Delver outside of Path to Exile and Supreme Verdict (and I guess Detention Sphere, but that one is a bit more loose). If they use Path on a Delver, we're up on mana and that's one less Path for our big-butt creatures. They're really important in getting in early damage in order to close out the game with burn spells. So against UW Control, I'm very happy keeping in Delvers.
However, against decks with access to Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push, I tend to take out Delver just because he's a major liability there. I want to blank my opponents removal hard game 2, while trying to play a more controlling game. If you have a grind package in your sideboard, cutting Delvers can be absolutely correct.
I think the problem with Grixis Delver is that right now, you have a LOT of trouble beating: Dredge,Bant and Eldrazi Tron. Those are so huge nowadays that playing Death's Shadow and being all-in proactive is better. As with every blue-reactive deck in Modern, we need some better answers period. If that doesn't happen, Thoughtseize will be the best thing you'll be doing for quite sometime. Being said that, the deck is certainly playable, and your build, which falls more on the control side of Grixis, is the way to go right now in my opinion.
PS:That UW matchup was something else, i'm still not sure how you got there lol.
Thanks! Yeah, I mentioned in the closing statements that I dodged some of Modern's biggest and baddest and that definitely helped in the performance. Still, the decks I faced were all competitive, some being non-linear where you're really tested as a player. Better answers would help a ton, of course!
Yeah, that UW Control game was pretty crazy. I was pretty sure I lost after Detention Sphere, but the nature of UW Control is that it has a lot of answers to what's on the board, but only a few cards like Negate or Cryptic Command to stop things on the stack. Our burn really works overtime in that matchup. Lucky topdecks help too
If you just want a link to the first match, you can click here and go from there.
Lastly, I have a ton of Grixis Delver videos from previous iterations of the deck. They're less relevant to today's meta of Eldrazi and Shadow, but it's worth checking out if you have the time. Thanks all, and please leave any feedback you have for me. I'm always looking to grow as a content creator as well as a player.
Hey guys, just wanted to update you all and give you a sneak preview of my video series. If you guys don't like to be spoiled, please DO NOT click the spoiler below as I will talk about the final record and the decklist! As soon as I'm done editing and uploading, I'll send you guys a link here. Just have to say that it feels really good to be playing Grixis Delver again. Grixis Shadow, while powerful, simply wasn't as strong against topdecks whereas Delver can play the control game really well.
I've played shadow for a few modern nights and I'm coming to the same conclusion. Everyone has shadow on their radar and it really sucks when you pay life and simply don't draw a single shadow! There are times where I play conservatively and it still didn't pan out. Delver offers another threat instead of that case where you play wraith instead to draw cards. I might try Delver in place of Wraith and give that a go.
I tried out Grixis Delver+Shadow a while back and I actually really enjoyed it. I didn't explore it too much, but the threat density was very high which was nice. I can't say if it plays the Delver plan better than straight Delver or the Shadow plan better than straight Shadow, but it is still something worth playing around with. Ryan Overturf really got that build known and it never really took off from there. It could be due to optimality issues and the other builds are simply stronger. Try it out, though, and let me know! Playing Shadow forces you to play 4x Thoughtseize usually, and I didn't want any maindeck discard (outside of Collective Brutality) and didn't miss it at all in any of my games (except maybe the Storm matchup which isn't horrible as it is).
Hey guys, just wanted to update you all and give you a sneak preview of my video series. If you guys don't like to be spoiled, please DO NOT click the spoiler below as I will talk about the final record and the decklist! As soon as I'm done editing and uploading, I'll send you guys a link here. Just have to say that it feels really good to be playing Grixis Delver again. Grixis Shadow, while powerful, simply wasn't as strong against topdecks whereas Delver can play the control game really well.
So, after having to record this Competitive Modern League over 3 days due to real-life stuff, I was able to snag an awesome 5-0 with Grixis Delver! It was my own build, but I did use past 5-0's as inspiration. The deck played very smoothly and consistently, and while I did make a few mistakes here or there, I was able to win most of the time. Misplays are VERY punishing, though, but that is nothing new with Grixis.
My videos also have a "Closing Statements" segment where I talk about things I liked and didn't like. Personally I think the maindeck is basically perfect. 20 lands was where I wanted to be, the counterspell choice felt strong, with the only flex spot really being Countersquall, which I may or may not play again in the future. 4 Fatal Push is where I will stay, even though many people play 3. It's just one of the best removal spells in the format right now and the meta still hasn't adapted to play threats that aren't weak to it. 1-2 MB-SB Collective Brutality is a must, in my opinion.
Only thing I REALLY didn't like was Relic of Progenitus. Slowly after I constructed the deck, I realized Relic shuts off our own graveyard while Nihil Spellbomb is the clearly superior choice in a deck like this. I'm not a fan of Surgical Extraction right now, though. I would probably add a 2nd Vandalblast or 3rd Relic of Progenitus in Relic's place, just to be able to beat GY decks or hate Affinity a little more.
So stay tuned friends! I'll have it all uploaded very soon for your enjoyment!
Hey guys, I'm in the process of recording a Modern Comp League series with Grixis Delver, in an attempt to explore the deck's strengths over Grixis Shadow. It was a deck I played for a while but moved to Grixis Shadow. However, I've found that T1 threats supplemented by T2+ counterspells is actually very strong right now. I'm almost done with the league with very positive results so far and am looking forward to sharing it with you guys!
Let me know if you have any questions about anything. The decklist was personally pre-approved by Shaheen Soorani, so it's definitely something I feel could do well. While the decklist is strong, I, the pilot, didn't always make the optimal plays but we still got a positive record. Overall, definitely something you should all check out if you're new or thinking about trying out the deck competitively. Thanks!
Any thoughts about the new Gideon of the Trials in Geist midrange? It seems like all the modes are relevant. +1 protects itself and helps Geist of Saint Traft attack. 0 can get the beats going, which synergizes with our aggro/burn out plan in some games. He can be hard to remove, with burn spells and Abrupt Decay being the most efficient answers. His last 0 also forces combo decks to answer him before going off, which can help us a lot in the Ad Nauseam matchup and other combo decks.
While it seems underwhelming in terms of Modern playability, I think it'll be a solid 1-of in a Standard control deck. What's nice is that if some type of control deck does develop in the upcoming Standard meta (not Temur Tower, don't think this fits in that shell that well), that you can return cycle lands back to your hand late game to gain some more value. Also can save your manlands from removal, but that's an expensive play and I imagine there's much better things to do with 8+ mana.
TL;DR: Overall underwhelming, but might see some fringe play in Standard if the meta isn't too hostile against classic control.
I rev'd up one of the SCG Top 8 Decklists in a Modern Competitive League. Check it out here: Click me!
Of course, for those that don't want to be spoiled, do not click the spoiler below. However, due to some recording issues, only 3/5 matches got recorded, so I added an extra that features a match of Death's Shadow Grixis, so stay tuned for that at the end!
I wanted to test some of the lists that had shown success in actual tournaments. The list performed very well, with the only loss in the league chalked up to some flooding in the mirror. We were able to take down Lantern Control, Jeskai Saheeli, Abzan Midrange, and Abzan Evolution. The loss, again, was to Grixis Control (with a twist, which you will see if you watch the game)!
Then, at the end, I included one of the matches from my testing with Death's Shadow Grixis. I think it's a cool list, but fragile and less powerful than Jund. I'm not sure counterspells, cantrips, and Delve threats are better than Tarmogoyf and Lili's.
Check it out HERE if you have some time, thanks!
As the person who actually got 25th place at the recent SCG Modern Open with Jeskai Saheeli, I can assure you that I faced many decks with interaction and still won. If you want to go to the CopyCat thread and read my actual tournament report before making blind assertions, you are free to do so.
Regardless, a deck is only as good as the metagame it is in. If I can go 11-4 in a large tournament with a deck that is hardly played, it means I made the correct meta call for what to play in the tournament. Picking the right deck to play in a tournament is, arguably, more than half the battle in Modern.
You say the event had zero respect for combos, but you just said right before it that hands are ripped apart in the Modern format. So tell me: is your argument that this tournament was a fluke, or maybe combos are much better positioned than you claim them to be?
I actually think the Grixis matchup is a little bit difficult due to Stubborn Denial. The DS Jund is much more favorable due to the 100% chance that Path to Exile will resolve if you cast it and it's also easier to hate. A topdecked (or natural) Rest in Peace still nukes Goyf and shuts off Traverse, while Grixis Shadow, once a Delve creature has already come out, is much harder to deal with. The matchup revolves around either: A) burning them out and getting aggressive with Cliques/Snaps/Colonnades etc, or B) sideboarding into mass amounts of sweepers like Supreme Verdict or targeted hate cards like Condemn.
I decided to choose option A, simply because it was a stronger plan against an open field. I played 1 DS Jund during Day 1 and won 2-0 and played 1 DS Grixis during Day 2 and lost 1-2. Grixis Shadow is tough and slightly unfavorable, but definitely not a 30-70 matchup. I think the deck was a good meta call for this weekend. I was able to get a ton of T4 wins against uninteractive decks, while being able to stomp the linear decks like Affinity/Burn and have game against Midrange, Storm, Living End, and even Dredge post-board.
I think Modern is in a good spot and the diversity of archetypes in these events is also great to see, as it makes me hopeful for the future of Modern.
However, against decks with access to Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push, I tend to take out Delver just because he's a major liability there. I want to blank my opponents removal hard game 2, while trying to play a more controlling game. If you have a grind package in your sideboard, cutting Delvers can be absolutely correct.
Thanks! Yeah, I mentioned in the closing statements that I dodged some of Modern's biggest and baddest and that definitely helped in the performance. Still, the decks I faced were all competitive, some being non-linear where you're really tested as a player. Better answers would help a ton, of course!
Yeah, that UW Control game was pretty crazy. I was pretty sure I lost after Detention Sphere, but the nature of UW Control is that it has a lot of answers to what's on the board, but only a few cards like Negate or Cryptic Command to stop things on the stack. Our burn really works overtime in that matchup. Lucky topdecks help too
Grixis Delver Playlist
If you just want a link to the first match, you can click here and go from there.
Lastly, I have a ton of Grixis Delver videos from previous iterations of the deck. They're less relevant to today's meta of Eldrazi and Shadow, but it's worth checking out if you have the time. Thanks all, and please leave any feedback you have for me. I'm always looking to grow as a content creator as well as a player.
I tried out Grixis Delver+Shadow a while back and I actually really enjoyed it. I didn't explore it too much, but the threat density was very high which was nice. I can't say if it plays the Delver plan better than straight Delver or the Shadow plan better than straight Shadow, but it is still something worth playing around with. Ryan Overturf really got that build known and it never really took off from there. It could be due to optimality issues and the other builds are simply stronger. Try it out, though, and let me know! Playing Shadow forces you to play 4x Thoughtseize usually, and I didn't want any maindeck discard (outside of Collective Brutality) and didn't miss it at all in any of my games (except maybe the Storm matchup which isn't horrible as it is).
So, after having to record this Competitive Modern League over 3 days due to real-life stuff, I was able to snag an awesome 5-0 with Grixis Delver! It was my own build, but I did use past 5-0's as inspiration. The deck played very smoothly and consistently, and while I did make a few mistakes here or there, I was able to win most of the time. Misplays are VERY punishing, though, but that is nothing new with Grixis.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
Instants/Sorceries (28):
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fatal Push
2 Terminate
3 Spell Snare
3 Mana Leak
1 Countersquall
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Collective Brutality
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Spirebluff Canal
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
2 Dispel
1 Countersquall
1 Vandalblast
3 Molten Rain
2 Collective Brutality
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Izzet Staticaster
1 Terminate
My videos also have a "Closing Statements" segment where I talk about things I liked and didn't like. Personally I think the maindeck is basically perfect. 20 lands was where I wanted to be, the counterspell choice felt strong, with the only flex spot really being Countersquall, which I may or may not play again in the future. 4 Fatal Push is where I will stay, even though many people play 3. It's just one of the best removal spells in the format right now and the meta still hasn't adapted to play threats that aren't weak to it. 1-2 MB-SB Collective Brutality is a must, in my opinion.
Only thing I REALLY didn't like was Relic of Progenitus. Slowly after I constructed the deck, I realized Relic shuts off our own graveyard while Nihil Spellbomb is the clearly superior choice in a deck like this. I'm not a fan of Surgical Extraction right now, though. I would probably add a 2nd Vandalblast or 3rd Relic of Progenitus in Relic's place, just to be able to beat GY decks or hate Affinity a little more.
UW Control Modern Competitive League Video Series
Let me know if you have any questions about anything. The decklist was personally pre-approved by Shaheen Soorani, so it's definitely something I feel could do well. While the decklist is strong, I, the pilot, didn't always make the optimal plays but we still got a positive record. Overall, definitely something you should all check out if you're new or thinking about trying out the deck competitively. Thanks!
What are your guys' thoughts?
TL;DR: Overall underwhelming, but might see some fringe play in Standard if the meta isn't too hostile against classic control.
Of course, for those that don't want to be spoiled, do not click the spoiler below. However, due to some recording issues, only 3/5 matches got recorded, so I added an extra that features a match of Death's Shadow Grixis, so stay tuned for that at the end!
I wanted to test some of the lists that had shown success in actual tournaments. The list performed very well, with the only loss in the league chalked up to some flooding in the mirror. We were able to take down Lantern Control, Jeskai Saheeli, Abzan Midrange, and Abzan Evolution. The loss, again, was to Grixis Control (with a twist, which you will see if you watch the game)!
Then, at the end, I included one of the matches from my testing with Death's Shadow Grixis. I think it's a cool list, but fragile and less powerful than Jund. I'm not sure counterspells, cantrips, and Delve threats are better than Tarmogoyf and Lili's.