This time, I died by 2 pact of negation triggers off of hive mind with one mana short to pay them.
Were the pact copies both on the stack simultaneously? if so, you could have used the second one to counter the first, resulting in you only having to pay 3UU. Bloom is nigh-on unwinnable but knowing these little tricks helps a bit.
A great match indeed, sir Silverback23! Will post my tournament report in a while during the Mini GPT we played at.
Regards,
That Dark Jeskai Geist player
Care to share your list?
Sorry for the late reply, guys! Been busy with work lately haha!
So yeah, I got first place in the swiss after 5 rounds of GPT Melbourne here in my country. Proceeded to advance to the semi-finals, only to be eliminated by an Amulet Bloom deck (such a frustrating matchup)
The key here is to drop Geist as soon as possible. Game 1 while I'm on the play, my opponent passed his second turn with only one mana open, leaving the option of t3 Geist and rode him to victory.
G2, changed my play style and became conservative using V. Cliques and try to win at instant speed as long as possible. Didn't drop a Geist aggresively because I knew if it gets countered or they flashed in a deceiver I might lose.
2-0 Win.
Round 2: vs Lantern Control
Matchup: meh, 50-50. Postboard more favorable.
Game one, my opponent secured the lock at 3 life, I didn't scoop because of the possibility of a luck burn draw (one can dream) but he eventually got there and secured the win.
Game two, secured a stony silence turn 2 and won from there. Game 3, I had Keranos, Geist, Tasigur, Resto and Clique in the field but can't attack because of the ensnaring bridge. we are almost out of cards at that point and out of time. In the last turn, topdeck revealed a kolaghan's command and destroyed the bridge, went for an alpha strike and won.
2-1 Win.
Round 3: vs Living End
Matchup: good, if sb is prepared for it. 40-60 in their favor if not.
Game 1 was tough for him, he already had the instant speed cascade spell at turn 3, but chose to pass priority when Clique's trigger happened. Misplay on his part on what might have been his win during that game.
Game 2, it was just not his day, he kept a hand after a mulligan to 3. Nothing much to say here, Clique happened here and there, resto bounced said clique and secured the win.
2-0 Win
Round 4: RG Tron
Matchup: unfavorable, 30-70 in their favor
G1, He had a very nice keep, able to go online at turn 3, with that in mind, I kept bolting and snap bolting him, just enough for my spells to do a lethal damage even if he stabilized at turn 3. Running snapcaster EOT turn two is not actually a bad thing to do in this matchup. Finished the game by throwing 6 bolt effects to his face.
G2 my opponent mulliganed to 5, which made it easier for me to throw spells with ease. Spell Snare caught the green search spell, future searches was halted by the mindcensor and slowly began chipping his life total. He hardcasted a wurmcoil engine (a very favorable sign for us) which got remanded and rode mindcensor to victory.
2-0 Win.
Round 5: vs UWR GEIST! by Silverback 23!
2-1 Loss.
There were a lot of interactions here and there, G1 I won because of turn 4 GST backed up by a spell snare. Game 2, I couldn't find an answer to his colonnade on time which got me. Game 3 was very intense, with DL Ojutai and Keranos on his side, secured the win for him at 1 life!
SB:
In: Elspeth, Keranos, Negate, 2 Dispels, 2 Kitchen Finks (he might have boarded out a number of paths)
Out: 2 Electrolyze, 1 Geist, 1 Helix, 2 Paths, 1 Kolaghan's
TOP 8:
QTRFINALS: vs (Naya?) Burn
match up: Favorable
G1, I opened a hand with 3 Lands, 2 helix, a bold and a snap. Win.
G2: Kitchen Finks is a really good card, plus dispels are key.
2-0 win.
SEMIFINALS: vs AMULET BLOOM
match up: very, very unfavorable.
*I already knew beforehand that this will be my last round in the tourney, this deck is seriously unwinnable for me, especially given my SB*
0-2 Loss.
Game 1: managed to survive 4 titans back to back, only to die due to a pact trigger off of hive mind.
Game 2: Longer game, but eventually same scenario. This time, I died by 2 pact of negation triggers off of hive mind with one mana short to pay them.
Seriously, this deck doesn't seem to run out of gas. Any help? hahaha!
Overall, it was nice performance by an ambitious 4 color deck. Might tweak it more to better prepare for the amulet match up, but in all honesty, I am starting to accept the fact that it is one of our worst match up, even worse than RG tron.
I think the turn 1-2 serum visions is not the way to use the card in our deck. In my case, most lists i've done with this deck (with the help of all of us here in the forums) that didn't use serum visions have usually 2-3 cards in hand by turns 5 onwards. If we commit on the geist plan and remove all threats that can block said geist, we usually trade our resources 1 to 1 with the opponent, and often times we will definitely lose gas. Serum shines at that moment, as it can dig us more gas and help us set 1-2 turns ahead, depending on what gameplan we committed to.
I think that's why there are only 3 serums most in builds of uwr geist (I strongly dislike the full suite in our deck tho, leave it to grixis and twin decks) because serums only complements us by supporting the kind of gameplan we committed to during that game. Case in point, vs burn, you can easily scry down not so useful cards game 1 and find our helices. Postboard games, it can help us find our SB cards with relative ease.
I like serums, even in 4c Geist, its just not usually a turn 1 play, in my humble opinion.
Also. Deflecting Palm is kind of a sweet tech card recently for me, helping me out in one of the harder matchups which are tron variants and bloom titan. test it out guys, you usually board out helices in this matchup either way.
Origins is kind of lackluster to me, I could only see our deck playing Hallowed Moonlight against certain decks but we usually have more general SB options for the decks we are supposed to board it in. What are your thoughts, guys?
Staticaster is for jund when it runs confidant, elves coco where a lot of their dudes are x/1's. Apparently can help in the affinity as well (not much but yeah)
In response (heh) to the UWRb post two pages ago, I came up with a hybrid list that utilizes the fourth color efficiently in most matchups.
First, lets talk about Thunderbreak Regent. It replaces the spot of Restoration Angel in this deck, and I know there's a lot of flame coming at me by saying restoration angel hasnt been good enough. (at least here in my local) Most of the time, casting a 3/4 flyer at instant speed is good, but grixis variants make it less appealing to do it. Yes, it recurs a lot of our cards and create synergy, but it usually becomes a 4 to cast beater that gets dealt with immediately with cards like Terminate and they can still hold up countermagic mana for my next spells. I realized i'm overpaying for the threat without gaining any effective upside (I may be wrong) Enter Thunderbreak. Sorcery Speed is meh for this deck I know, but it provides a huge body enough to make the opponent either respond to it or deal with it as soon as possible. If they went to the latter route and i'd be the dragon already did its job: eat a removal + bolting the opponent, something resto cannot do efffectively recently. That made me test the dragon more and more, and with all the jund/grixis decks floating around, I think he merits more spot than the angel. Again, I may be wrong.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang was the most obvious inclusion when we splash black. Casting him late game gives you enormous gas + recursion. I've been happy everytime I cast him mid to late game, leaving behind gas in the GY for his ability, should he be dealt with immediately with removals, I can already gain value out of his ability at least.
Kolaghan's Command + Snapcaster Mage is nuts, the value it gives to the deck is so good. It provides us MB answers to pesky artifacts, getting back creatures like snapcasters to recur a lot of things again, a thunderbreak regent that's ready to eat a removal + acts as a pseudo bolt again, vendilion clique for even more obnoxious chains, etc. This is a better recursion spell for me than the angel, most of the time Kommand is the glue that holds the deck all together + its a good topdeck vs Jund decks, as we can recur threats we discarded via lili + damaging said lili.
out of the board, I've been testing Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver for quite some time now. I bring him/her vs control decks/combo decks, where in usually they have no effective answers for it once it sticks the board. Vs Twin Variants, I love to return a snapcaster mage for my own use, an exiled tarmogoyf or tasigur in the tri colored variants. Vs Amulet, reanimating the titan can help us find our end games via colonnades or Ghost quarter to further incapacitate the opponent. Ashiok showed promise during the weeks I've tested it, and it earned 2 spots in the board for this matter.
This deck did top 8 a recent GPT last week, so I think it has the legs to stand up against powerful decks such as jund, twin and Coco decks.
and yes, I still go to the traditional UWR colors from time to time, but right now the black splash is sweet and decided to tune it more and more.
Any help or comment is much appreciated! Thank you!
Your list seems good, Nate! I've been wanting to try serum visions for a long time now, but I can't get them here in my area for a reasonable price due to the spikes a few weeks ago. I agree about the GP SG deck's sideboard being a wee bit too random at some point, but hey he got the job done. Anyway, I really think this deck can see a resurgence in this kind of meta. I hope we can collect and combine all our ideas here in this forums to take this deck to the next level.
usually I board in: 2 counterflux, 1 negate, 2 sower, 1 wear, 2 valorous stance but I still feel unprepared/to weak.
What are your experiences?
Be agressive with burns and threats. Try to keep them off of tron mana, it really gets ugly from there. Stony Silence can help stall their eggs, which is nice. Overall it's really tough matchup, giving it 80-20 in their favor preboard, 70-30 postboard also in their favor.
I board in negate, fluxes ans stony silences generally.
That was one of the major considerations i've pondered about using cryptic and heck, even Kiki. If the meta is full of aggro then they're definitely out. I decided to keep them despite of it all was the incredible advantage ee can get out of it. Its not necessarily a core spell, but a consideration.
Stony Silence only delayed the inevitable overwhelming advantage Tron will have against us. This is one of the matchup i'm really concerned against because of how little our chances are with beating it. Any SB suggestions and importnat plays to consider and to discuss? I would like to hear the thoughts of the #teamgeist community. Thank uou in advance!
Kor Firewalker seems like the better choice for be because its incremental advantage, which is crucial in the matchup considering they have skullcrack / atarka's command postboard. Having them casting either in response to a timely is just super awkward for me. I prefer timely in the control version of UWR.
Thundermaw is fine as it is, at least he is able to wipe the board out of lingering souls in a whim. I'm testing Keranos and found it very powerful in the Junk matchup.
The major difference is the inclusion of 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and 2 Cryptic Command MB, which takes me into a more controlling route. Geist of Saint Traft is truly an amazing beater once it sticks, and I believe this deck is built around GST's potential to end the games quickly with the full set of bolts and helices.
Cryptic is more of a swiss army knife for me, whether to counter difficult spells that remand can't deal with effectively, tapping the opposing team for my geist to swing, or bouncing Snapcaster Mage for more recursion. I was very happy with the inclusion of two Cryptics.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker was a dark secret of the deck, it takes only a miser's slot, and it acts as the deck's last resort if we're on the losing end. It doesn't strain the mana base too much because you wouldn't normally cast in on curve, that minding the triple red and double blue requirements in some of our spells (Cliques and Cryptic)is not that difficult with some mana management in our early game plans.
Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep was a card in Greatnate's list that I really liked, as our bolts and helices game 1 are live against x/4 and x/5 creatures, mostly in Abzan/Junk. It's also another red source for Kiki-Jiki in this build.
This deck faced a myriad of decks throughout swiss and top 8 and here are some of the decks I faced:
R1: BW tokens (2-0) win
R2: Infect (2-0) win
R3: Abzan/Junk (2-1) win
R4: UR Twin (2-0) win
R5: GR Tron (2-1) lose
R6: Affinity (2-0) win
-------------------------
Top 8
Quarterfinals: Infect (2-0) win
Semifinals: UR Twin (2-1) lose
In-depth details coming soon! More power to this deck, I believe this deck really has the potential to do some smashing in this modern season. Suggestions are welcome!
Holy moly, thank you for this tidbit. Hahaha!!!
Sorry for the late reply, guys! Been busy with work lately haha!
So yeah, I got first place in the swiss after 5 rounds of GPT Melbourne here in my country. Proceeded to advance to the semi-finals, only to be eliminated by an Amulet Bloom deck (such a frustrating matchup)
Here is my list:
3x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
2x Arid Mesa
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Watery Grave
1x Blood Crypt
2x Sulfur Falls
1x Island
1x Plains
1x Mountain
2x Ghost Quarter
4x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Restoration Angel
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Spells: 21
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
4x Remand
2x Spell Snare
3x Lightning Helix
2x Electrolyze
2x Kolaghan's Command
2x Stony Silence
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Aven Mindcensor
2x Dispel
1x Spellskite
1x Wrath of God
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Negate
1x Wear//Tear
1x Celestial Purge
1x Keranos, God of Storms
Round 1: vs Grixis Twin
Matchup: very favorable
The key here is to drop Geist as soon as possible. Game 1 while I'm on the play, my opponent passed his second turn with only one mana open, leaving the option of t3 Geist and rode him to victory.
SB:
In: Keranos, Dispels, Spellskite, Purge and Negate
Out: 1 Remand, 1 Geist, 2 Tasigurs, 2 Electrolyze
G2, changed my play style and became conservative using V. Cliques and try to win at instant speed as long as possible. Didn't drop a Geist aggresively because I knew if it gets countered or they flashed in a deceiver I might lose.
2-0 Win.
Round 2: vs Lantern Control
Matchup: meh, 50-50. Postboard more favorable.
Game one, my opponent secured the lock at 3 life, I didn't scoop because of the possibility of a luck burn draw (one can dream) but he eventually got there and secured the win.
SB:
In: 2 Stony Silence, Wear//Tear, Negate, Keranos
Out: 1 Remand, 4 Paths
Game two, secured a stony silence turn 2 and won from there. Game 3, I had Keranos, Geist, Tasigur, Resto and Clique in the field but can't attack because of the ensnaring bridge. we are almost out of cards at that point and out of time. In the last turn, topdeck revealed a kolaghan's command and destroyed the bridge, went for an alpha strike and won.
2-1 Win.
Round 3: vs Living End
Matchup: good, if sb is prepared for it. 40-60 in their favor if not.
Game 1 was tough for him, he already had the instant speed cascade spell at turn 3, but chose to pass priority when Clique's trigger happened. Misplay on his part on what might have been his win during that game.
SB:
In: Elspeth, Wrath, Negate, Purge
Out: 2 Snares, 2 Electrolyze
Game 2, it was just not his day, he kept a hand after a mulligan to 3. Nothing much to say here, Clique happened here and there, resto bounced said clique and secured the win.
2-0 Win
Round 4: RG Tron
Matchup: unfavorable, 30-70 in their favor
G1, He had a very nice keep, able to go online at turn 3, with that in mind, I kept bolting and snap bolting him, just enough for my spells to do a lethal damage even if he stabilized at turn 3. Running snapcaster EOT turn two is not actually a bad thing to do in this matchup.
SB:
In: 2 Stony, 2 Avens, 1 Wear/Tear, Negate
Out: 2 Electrolyze, 1 Remand, 1 Helix, 2 Tasigurs
G2 my opponent mulliganed to 5, which made it easier for me to throw spells with ease. Spell Snare caught the green search spell, future searches was halted by the mindcensor and slowly began chipping his life total. He hardcasted a wurmcoil engine (a very favorable sign for us) which got remanded and rode mindcensor to victory.
2-0 Win.
Round 5: vs UWR GEIST! by Silverback 23!
2-1 Loss.
There were a lot of interactions here and there, G1 I won because of turn 4 GST backed up by a spell snare. Game 2, I couldn't find an answer to his colonnade on time which got me. Game 3 was very intense, with DL Ojutai and Keranos on his side, secured the win for him at 1 life!
SB:
In: Elspeth, Keranos, Negate, 2 Dispels, 2 Kitchen Finks (he might have boarded out a number of paths)
Out: 2 Electrolyze, 1 Geist, 1 Helix, 2 Paths, 1 Kolaghan's
TOP 8:
QTRFINALS: vs (Naya?) Burn
match up: Favorable
G1, I opened a hand with 3 Lands, 2 helix, a bold and a snap. Win.
G2: Kitchen Finks is a really good card, plus dispels are key.
2-0 win.
SEMIFINALS: vs AMULET BLOOM
match up: very, very unfavorable.
*I already knew beforehand that this will be my last round in the tourney, this deck is seriously unwinnable for me, especially given my SB*
0-2 Loss.
Game 1: managed to survive 4 titans back to back, only to die due to a pact trigger off of hive mind.
Game 2: Longer game, but eventually same scenario. This time, I died by 2 pact of negation triggers off of hive mind with one mana short to pay them.
Seriously, this deck doesn't seem to run out of gas. Any help? hahaha!
Overall, it was nice performance by an ambitious 4 color deck. Might tweak it more to better prepare for the amulet match up, but in all honesty, I am starting to accept the fact that it is one of our worst match up, even worse than RG tron.
Regards,
That Dark Jeskai Geist player
I think that's why there are only 3 serums most in builds of uwr geist (I strongly dislike the full suite in our deck tho, leave it to grixis and twin decks) because serums only complements us by supporting the kind of gameplan we committed to during that game. Case in point, vs burn, you can easily scry down not so useful cards game 1 and find our helices. Postboard games, it can help us find our SB cards with relative ease.
I like serums, even in 4c Geist, its just not usually a turn 1 play, in my humble opinion.
Also. Deflecting Palm is kind of a sweet tech card recently for me, helping me out in one of the harder matchups which are tron variants and bloom titan.
Origins is kind of lackluster to me, I could only see our deck playing Hallowed Moonlight against certain decks but we usually have more general SB options for the decks we are supposed to board it in. What are your thoughts, guys?
3x Celestial Colonnade
3x Flooded Strand
2x Arid Mesa
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Polluted Delta
2x Steam Vents
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Watery Grave
1x Blood Crypt
1x Ghost Quarter
2x Sulfur Falls
2x Island
1x Plains
1x Mountain
1x Swamp
4x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2x Thunderbreak Regent
Spells: 22
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
3x Remand
2x Mana Leak
4x Lightning Helix
3x Electrolyze
2x Kolaghan's Command
1x Thundermaw Hellkite
1x Keranos, God of Storms
2x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2x Stony Silence
2x Wear/Tear
2x Dispel
1x Negate
2x Kor Firewalker
2x Celestial Purge
In response (heh) to the UWRb post two pages ago, I came up with a hybrid list that utilizes the fourth color efficiently in most matchups.
First, lets talk about Thunderbreak Regent. It replaces the spot of Restoration Angel in this deck, and I know there's a lot of flame coming at me by saying restoration angel hasnt been good enough. (at least here in my local) Most of the time, casting a 3/4 flyer at instant speed is good, but grixis variants make it less appealing to do it. Yes, it recurs a lot of our cards and create synergy, but it usually becomes a 4 to cast beater that gets dealt with immediately with cards like Terminate and they can still hold up countermagic mana for my next spells. I realized i'm overpaying for the threat without gaining any effective upside (I may be wrong) Enter Thunderbreak. Sorcery Speed is meh for this deck I know, but it provides a huge body enough to make the opponent either respond to it or deal with it as soon as possible. If they went to the latter route and i'd be the dragon already did its job: eat a removal + bolting the opponent, something resto cannot do efffectively recently. That made me test the dragon more and more, and with all the jund/grixis decks floating around, I think he merits more spot than the angel. Again, I may be wrong.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang was the most obvious inclusion when we splash black. Casting him late game gives you enormous gas + recursion. I've been happy everytime I cast him mid to late game, leaving behind gas in the GY for his ability, should he be dealt with immediately with removals, I can already gain value out of his ability at least.
Kolaghan's Command + Snapcaster Mage is nuts, the value it gives to the deck is so good. It provides us MB answers to pesky artifacts, getting back creatures like snapcasters to recur a lot of things again, a thunderbreak regent that's ready to eat a removal + acts as a pseudo bolt again, vendilion clique for even more obnoxious chains, etc. This is a better recursion spell for me than the angel, most of the time Kommand is the glue that holds the deck all together + its a good topdeck vs Jund decks, as we can recur threats we discarded via lili + damaging said lili.
out of the board, I've been testing Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver for quite some time now. I bring him/her vs control decks/combo decks, where in usually they have no effective answers for it once it sticks the board. Vs Twin Variants, I love to return a snapcaster mage for my own use, an exiled tarmogoyf or tasigur in the tri colored variants. Vs Amulet, reanimating the titan can help us find our end games via colonnades or Ghost quarter to further incapacitate the opponent. Ashiok showed promise during the weeks I've tested it, and it earned 2 spots in the board for this matter.
This deck did top 8 a recent GPT last week, so I think it has the legs to stand up against powerful decks such as jund, twin and Coco decks.
and yes, I still go to the traditional UWR colors from time to time, but right now the black splash is sweet and decided to tune it more and more.
Any help or comment is much appreciated! Thank you!
Seems like a good list. Thoughts?
Be agressive with burns and threats. Try to keep them off of tron mana, it really gets ugly from there. Stony Silence can help stall their eggs, which is nice. Overall it's really tough matchup, giving it 80-20 in their favor preboard, 70-30 postboard also in their favor.
I board in negate, fluxes ans stony silences generally.
And yes, the teamgeist manabase is super sweet.
Kor Firewalker seems like the better choice for be because its incremental advantage, which is crucial in the matchup considering they have skullcrack / atarka's command postboard. Having them casting either in response to a timely is just super awkward for me. I prefer timely in the control version of UWR.
Thundermaw is fine as it is, at least he is able to wipe the board out of lingering souls in a whim. I'm testing Keranos and found it very powerful in the Junk matchup.
4x Celestial Colonnade
2x Steam Vents
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Sacred Foundry
3x Flooded Strand
3x Scalding Tarn
2x Arid Mesa
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
2x Island
1x Plains
1x Mountain
2x Ghost Quarter
4x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Restoration Angel
2x Vendilion Clique
1x Thundermaw Hellkite
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Spells:(20)
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
4x Remand
4x Lightning Helix
2x Electrolyze
2x Cryptic Command
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Stony Silence
2x Kor Firewalker
2x Valorous Stance
2x Counterflux
2x Wear/Tear
1x Batterskull
1x Negate
1x Celestial Purge
The major difference is the inclusion of 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and 2 Cryptic Command MB, which takes me into a more controlling route. Geist of Saint Traft is truly an amazing beater once it sticks, and I believe this deck is built around GST's potential to end the games quickly with the full set of bolts and helices.
Cryptic is more of a swiss army knife for me, whether to counter difficult spells that remand can't deal with effectively, tapping the opposing team for my geist to swing, or bouncing Snapcaster Mage for more recursion. I was very happy with the inclusion of two Cryptics.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker was a dark secret of the deck, it takes only a miser's slot, and it acts as the deck's last resort if we're on the losing end. It doesn't strain the mana base too much because you wouldn't normally cast in on curve, that minding the triple red and double blue requirements in some of our spells (Cliques and Cryptic)is not that difficult with some mana management in our early game plans.
Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep was a card in Greatnate's list that I really liked, as our bolts and helices game 1 are live against x/4 and x/5 creatures, mostly in Abzan/Junk. It's also another red source for Kiki-Jiki in this build.
This deck faced a myriad of decks throughout swiss and top 8 and here are some of the decks I faced:
R1: BW tokens (2-0) win
R2: Infect (2-0) win
R3: Abzan/Junk (2-1) win
R4: UR Twin (2-0) win
R5: GR Tron (2-1) lose
R6: Affinity (2-0) win
-------------------------
Top 8
Quarterfinals: Infect (2-0) win
Semifinals: UR Twin (2-1) lose
In-depth details coming soon! More power to this deck, I believe this deck really has the potential to do some smashing in this modern season. Suggestions are welcome!