Quarantine Field - Long story short, if I ever dropped this for more than two the game was over. This card offers us 'early' removal as well as a phenomenal late game bard wipe. The fact this this allows us to remove Planeswalkers is the biggest perks of playing this over Stasis Snare (which i also tested to much dissatisfaction. I'm not sure how many is too many, but I feel like this deck wants more than one.
I mean, for 8 mana you should probably be winning the game, right?
There are 2 points I haven't seen so far regarding some of the card choices available in this deck.
1: Kiora, Master of the Depths has a deep synergy with Dragonlord Ojutai, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, and Hangarback Walker - by putting cards in they yard Kiora both fuels Jace with her minus, and can untap him to cycle twice for a flip with her plus. Ojutai gets pseudo-vigilance from her plus, making him difficult to remove outside of sweepers (though he matches poorly against Languish), and Hangarback's synergy is obvious.
2: Stasis Snare is basically the only card in our colors that cleanly answers an opposing Hangarback Walker for less than 4 mana, and the only one at instant speed regardless of size. It's anti-synergy with Jace is well noted but given the number of card types among our permanents, Tragic Arrogance isn't a bad sweeper of choice and it does play quite well with Jace.
Paired with Minamo, School at Water's Edge it can be just as resilient on further turns as it is the turn it comes down. It already passes the Lightning Bolt test by having 4 toughness. It nearly always survives it's first turn in play (barring being the only threat against an edict), and kills your opponent while providing card advantage. I don't see any world in which this card isn't 'good enough'.
This is the list I'm playing tonight. Previously I had been running Telling Time in place of Azorius Charm and Serum Visions in place of Thought Scour. Last night I found that if I could hold up spell pierce and a draw spell, I would have won a game, and if I could have cast fetch-thought scour into turn 2 tasigur I would have won another. I feel like the previous version (telling time/serum visions) leans too much on catering to Delver and not enough towards the health of the deck as the whole.
As to the rest of the deck, I've chosen to model it after a list that was posted up by the South Florida Magic group. Originally this was a Geist/Delver shell. The deck in its current form is a powerful, grindy deck that troublesome matchups for some other delver decks, namely Abzan and Twin due to multiple low-cost flexible removal spells. The downside to the deck is, as you can probably tell, the lack of reach.
Monastery Mentor is easily the most powerful enabler in the deck; casting or flashing back Lingering Souls with it in play is easily one of the best feelings in Modern. The downside of that is that Mentor is often a turn 4 or 5 play at the earliest, as dropping it unprotected and getting it removed is awful. At least with an instant up, you can get some form of value out of it, and with the combination of 2 mana counterspells and valorous stance doubling as a protection spell... it's got a powerful set of plays.
I've chosen a disruption suite of Mana Leak and Tec Edge to push decks off-balance; I have also chosen to not run path, so that I can reinforce the power of Mana Leak by stripping mana and not feeding my opponent lands. The problem is this leaves the deck vulnerable to cards like Wurmcoil Engine and Voice of Resurgence; I haven't 100% answered that problem as Vapor Snag is probably the best thing the deck can do to either. I believe that putting the Azorius charms in over the Telling Times gives me another answer to at least Wurmcoil; Voice would still get the token (which we can deal with easily enough) but often we can just change up our gameplan to handle the elk-emental.
Hope you guys like this version. Comments below plz.
My issue with the spark/phoenix combo is that you need to see both to have infinite fodder, casting the spark and pitching the phoenix, returning the spark, casting it to get the phoenix back, discarding the phoenix, etc.
urdjur: Wheel of Fortune is banned. Also I'd like to inquire about your sideboard ideas, especially good wish targets. Right now I'm using Pillar, Anger and Bonfire.
I got absolutely mudstomped on Modern Monday at my local by burn and some R/B deck involving lots of discard and Grim Lavamancer/Shrieking Affliction (like a rakdos version of 8rack). My locals tend to be 8-12 people and are unsanctioned so 15 proxies are allowed, so it's a crapshoot what you'll play against any given week. Any play/sideboard advice as to how to not feel like we just can't win against these types of decks? I'm running kind of a blended version of the standard RUG deck with 4x bolt and 2 izzet charm in the main, side is largely tuned for combo and pod (torpor orb, swerve, nature's claim, spell snare) with some alternate wincons because we have players with extirpate/memoricide effects (batterskull, avenger of zendikar, keranos) and a copy of wheel of the sun and moon because we have a soul sisters player and sometimes I need a 3rd scapeshift for 8+ to kill him.
Hey, just an update. I built RUG Scapeshift and I'm super excited about it. Top 4'd my modern monday local - but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement in the skill department.
Budget: ~200 + trading
Colors: U, R, B, G, W, Artifacts in that order. Will play anything really but have a preference in that order.
Playstyle: Timmy/Spike - I like big swingy effects but prefer to build towards inevitability.
Competition level: My FNM contains BenS semi-regularly, and my store hosts a PTQ every time it's available. I want to be competitive in this environment.
Staples:
* Lands: 1 Arid Mesa, 3 Celestial Colonnade, 1 Grove of the Burnwillows, 1 Horizon Canopy, 4 Inkmoth Nexus, 4 Marsh Flats, 1 Misty Rainforest, 2 Verdant Catacombs, 1 Creeping Tar Pit
* Nonland, nondude: 4 AEther Vial, 4 Ajani Goldmane, 2 Ajani Vengeant, 4 Amulet of Vigor, 4 Birthing Pod, 1 Bridge from Below, 4 Cryptic Command, 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant, 3 Garruk Wildspeaker, 4 Genesis Wave, 3 Inquisition of Kozilek, 3 Jace Beleren, 1 Jace, Memory Adept, 3 Remand, 4 Scapeshift, 1 Sword of Body and Mind, 1 Sword of Feast and Famine, 1 Sword of Fire and Ice, 1 Sword of War and Peace, 4 Thoughtseize
If I'm not playing some combination of U or R, I tend towards Selesnya and Junk. I have a big affinity for Grixis but I don't see any grixis decks that make me happy. I'm not close enough to BG to want to work towards it. I'm in kind of a "wow I can play anything//holy carp I can't play anything" cycle. My locals allow up to 15 proxies for the modern tournaments, so bear that in mind as well. I'm also sitting on a collection with a lot of C/U rarity stuff like bolts, electrolyze, stuff like that. I also had Mono-G NyxWave built for a while but it just seemed very susceptible to disruption.
Don't fret over the minor gods. Likely assumption is that they will require double devotion (i.e. UB god will require devotion to U of X and devotion to B of X to function fully; it is unlikely that separate devotions will trigger different abilities as that's a lot of card text due to an effect that isn't fully keyworded (devotion threshold).
Expect similar format, creature-enchantments that become creatures with devotion online. Unlikely to be 'Walkers except for Xenagos IMO
Hello Everyone
Ive been keeping a close eye on this thread and i like what im seeing .
I was a Standard Jund player last season and ive tried to play it again so far with a lot of difficulty .
I've tried to Run both Jund and The Rock but the only probably is my meta is flooded with Blood Barons.
Esper , B/W, Dega Midrange any solutions besides devour flesh???
Jund has a better chance to kill him but its still a huge problem .
I would love to see your opinions and or Ideas
Thanks
Once he is on board he is pretty much game. You really need to either hit him with thoughtseize the turn before your opponent has mana up for him, or run/protect a big enough scavenging ooze/experiment one. Either choice is fairly poor.
I mean, for 8 mana you should probably be winning the game, right?
There are 2 points I haven't seen so far regarding some of the card choices available in this deck.
1: Kiora, Master of the Depths has a deep synergy with Dragonlord Ojutai, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, and Hangarback Walker - by putting cards in they yard Kiora both fuels Jace with her minus, and can untap him to cycle twice for a flip with her plus. Ojutai gets pseudo-vigilance from her plus, making him difficult to remove outside of sweepers (though he matches poorly against Languish), and Hangarback's synergy is obvious.
2: Stasis Snare is basically the only card in our colors that cleanly answers an opposing Hangarback Walker for less than 4 mana, and the only one at instant speed regardless of size. It's anti-synergy with Jace is well noted but given the number of card types among our permanents, Tragic Arrogance isn't a bad sweeper of choice and it does play quite well with Jace.
Paired with Minamo, School at Water's Edge it can be just as resilient on further turns as it is the turn it comes down. It already passes the Lightning Bolt test by having 4 toughness. It nearly always survives it's first turn in play (barring being the only threat against an edict), and kills your opponent while providing card advantage. I don't see any world in which this card isn't 'good enough'.
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Monastery Mentor
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Spells
4 Mana Leak
2 Cryptic Command
2 Vapor Snag
2 Lingering Souls
2 Murderous Cut
1 Dismember
4 Azorius Charm
4 Thought Scour
2 Remand
2 Valorous Stance
1 Batterskull
Lands
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Watery Grave
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Stony Silence
2 Spell Pierce
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Celestial Purge
1 Negate
1 Far // Away
1 Wrath of God
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
This is the list I'm playing tonight. Previously I had been running Telling Time in place of Azorius Charm and Serum Visions in place of Thought Scour. Last night I found that if I could hold up spell pierce and a draw spell, I would have won a game, and if I could have cast fetch-thought scour into turn 2 tasigur I would have won another. I feel like the previous version (telling time/serum visions) leans too much on catering to Delver and not enough towards the health of the deck as the whole.
As to the rest of the deck, I've chosen to model it after a list that was posted up by the South Florida Magic group. Originally this was a Geist/Delver shell. The deck in its current form is a powerful, grindy deck that troublesome matchups for some other delver decks, namely Abzan and Twin due to multiple low-cost flexible removal spells. The downside to the deck is, as you can probably tell, the lack of reach.
Monastery Mentor is easily the most powerful enabler in the deck; casting or flashing back Lingering Souls with it in play is easily one of the best feelings in Modern. The downside of that is that Mentor is often a turn 4 or 5 play at the earliest, as dropping it unprotected and getting it removed is awful. At least with an instant up, you can get some form of value out of it, and with the combination of 2 mana counterspells and valorous stance doubling as a protection spell... it's got a powerful set of plays.
I've chosen a disruption suite of Mana Leak and Tec Edge to push decks off-balance; I have also chosen to not run path, so that I can reinforce the power of Mana Leak by stripping mana and not feeding my opponent lands. The problem is this leaves the deck vulnerable to cards like Wurmcoil Engine and Voice of Resurgence; I haven't 100% answered that problem as Vapor Snag is probably the best thing the deck can do to either. I believe that putting the Azorius charms in over the Telling Times gives me another answer to at least Wurmcoil; Voice would still get the token (which we can deal with easily enough) but often we can just change up our gameplan to handle the elk-emental.
Hope you guys like this version. Comments below plz.
Capped from this google cache - http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:32_kW_ADx7IJ:magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/level-one/linear-strategies-2014-12-29 magic the gathering valorous stance&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Dual-purpose conditional removal and protection spell. White gets all the goodies.
Colors: U, R, B, G, W, Artifacts in that order. Will play anything really but have a preference in that order.
Playstyle: Timmy/Spike - I like big swingy effects but prefer to build towards inevitability.
Competition level: My FNM contains BenS semi-regularly, and my store hosts a PTQ every time it's available. I want to be competitive in this environment.
Staples:
* Lands: 1 Arid Mesa, 3 Celestial Colonnade, 1 Grove of the Burnwillows, 1 Horizon Canopy, 4 Inkmoth Nexus, 4 Marsh Flats, 1 Misty Rainforest, 2 Verdant Catacombs, 1 Creeping Tar Pit
* Dudes: 4 Aven Mindcensor, 1 Batterskull, 3 Bloodghast, 1 Dark Confidant, 3 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, 4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, 1 Gaddock Teeg, 4 Goblin Guide, 2 Griselbrand, 4 Knight of the Reliquary, 4 Noble Hierarch, 1 Primeval Titan, 3 Serra Ascendant, 4 Snapcaster Mage, 4 Tarmogoyf, 4 Venser, Shaper Savant, 3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
* Nonland, nondude: 4 AEther Vial, 4 Ajani Goldmane, 2 Ajani Vengeant, 4 Amulet of Vigor, 4 Birthing Pod, 1 Bridge from Below, 4 Cryptic Command, 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant, 3 Garruk Wildspeaker, 4 Genesis Wave, 3 Inquisition of Kozilek, 3 Jace Beleren, 1 Jace, Memory Adept, 3 Remand, 4 Scapeshift, 1 Sword of Body and Mind, 1 Sword of Feast and Famine, 1 Sword of Fire and Ice, 1 Sword of War and Peace, 4 Thoughtseize
If I'm not playing some combination of U or R, I tend towards Selesnya and Junk. I have a big affinity for Grixis but I don't see any grixis decks that make me happy. I'm not close enough to BG to want to work towards it. I'm in kind of a "wow I can play anything//holy carp I can't play anything" cycle. My locals allow up to 15 proxies for the modern tournaments, so bear that in mind as well. I'm also sitting on a collection with a lot of C/U rarity stuff like bolts, electrolyze, stuff like that. I also had Mono-G NyxWave built for a while but it just seemed very susceptible to disruption.
Expect similar format, creature-enchantments that become creatures with devotion online. Unlikely to be 'Walkers except for Xenagos IMO
Once he is on board he is pretty much game. You really need to either hit him with thoughtseize the turn before your opponent has mana up for him, or run/protect a big enough scavenging ooze/experiment one. Either choice is fairly poor.
Speaking of nothing, why no deathrite shaman?