MTG Salvation

Good info, the versions I play against also seem to run relics and copters so probably worth fitting stony in somewhere, it seemed pretty good the other day. I took out my Dspheres though which may not be correct since it can also take care of those same threats. What are the best matchups for crucible? Tron / anything that you expect to be a long grindy match? I haven't tested it out yet.

Yeah, he drew the dream hand in game 1, and seas only works on GQ if it's tapped obviously or they just sac it in response. Maybe I've just been unlucky with it seeming ineffective. My SB is pretty standard, and I don't think Geist is good against them at all. I think I just want to bring in crucible, elspeth, clique, condemn and the 4th verdict which means -2 mana leak, 1 logic knot, negate, something else? I'm going to try a disallow in the main which may actually be good against them.
edit: oh yeah and I need to take something out for 2x stony silence...

How do you guy sideboard against Hate Bears / Eldrazi and Taxes? I know mostly what I want to bring in, but not what to bring out... I'm starting to think taking out all the spreading seas along with some of the cheaper cmc counters. I was keeping most of the seas in against the eldrazi version to hit eldrazi temple, but between aether vial and them having 8 ghost quarter / tec edge I think seas is pretty terrible actually.

I made the mistake of lowering my curve in game 2 by taking out big gideon and s cryptic and then ended up winning the game by +1 jace vs his bitterblossom and letting him take 1 damage for 12 turns, but this ended up going too long in game 3 and was a draw. If I had Gideon or Elspeth I could have ulted jace for one of them and ended the game 10 turns earlier. I also didn't have crucible at the time, just bought another one, and that would be great against hate bears obviously.

Edit again: I should note that this guy always gets 2 temples and T2 thought-knot, game 1 he had T2 and 3 thought-knot and vialed some stuff in and I was dead in no time. I felt like I really had to lower my curve as much as possible to not die right away, but then game 2 just went on forever.

You guys are probably right, it seems a little greedy and maybe she should just be a 2nd Jace. My meta is everything, very competitive shops so I play against basically any given tier 1 deck every week. I need to be about as ready for anything as possible. Back to spell snare for a second, I really liked it until I died to a turn 3 natural tron - karn with both of them in my hand when them being negate, mana leak or logic knot would have saved me. But against most decks that aren't tron they have great targets :/

Quote from tlhunter07 »

I play an Elspeth main over the Big Gidi, on the reasoning that she's just so much better than him. I know that big Gideon contributes to GotT emblem, but TBH Elspeth simply outclasses him.

What about running both? and the 2 lil Gideons? overkill you think?

Edit: @YUNGCOOLATTA your 2 plains and deltas are mixed in with instants. If you are playing those 2 extra fetches you definitely want 1 logic knot. I haven't really liked Blessed Alliance too much, especially in the Rev builds, I think I'd rather just have a 2nd Rev. Spell Snare is a card I really like when it's good, but nobody seems to be playing it lately and it's a dead card sometimes. Like Borzi said to me, you probably need a couple more cantrips, otherwise your list looks fairly similar to what I'm going for. Sideboard probably wants 1 Timely and 1 or 2 less purge +1 dispel, spell quellers are a personal choice, I may try 3 of them in mine again sometime soon, probably board them in for the sweepers vs burn and mirror.

Quote from ThisBorzi »

Quote from Slowgod »

Wall of Omens has been pretty meh as well, so I'm considering a new list without the walls and putting Elspeth back in the main, something like (shows list with just 25 lands...)

I think you need more can trips. Bennyhillz was featured in an interesting article (https://www.cardknocklife.com/2017/07/02/modern-uw-control-mtgos-bennyhillz/) where he mentions the importance of them. I think at least going up a think twice would be good, especially if you are going up on the curve rather than down.

Yeah good article, I got it bookmarked as well The 3rd Snap is kind of like a half of a cantrip I guess, but maybe another think twice instead of the 2nd negate. I kind of really want to get a Disallow in the deck too though, and I'd like to know what people think about Elspeth main again. She's usually an auto win if you survive long enough to play her, and going long is kind of the whole game plan of this deck. Only really bad when you die against burn or affinity with her stuck in your hand. I've had a couple games where I have Jace with enough loyalty to ultimate, but no real good targets left in my deck (and my opponents playing hate bears or something) and wishing I had that Elspeth.

I'm off AV after playing with it tonight, it was good sometimes, but also horrible and useless at times and I don't think it's worth 4 spots in the deck anymore. Wall of Omens has been pretty meh as well, so I'm considering a new list without the walls and putting Elspeth back in the main, something like:



I feel like I'm missing an important 1 of in the main...

Hmm, there are zero AV builds on MTGtop8 lately, makes me wonder if I should keep playing it at all. Although most of the lists seem to be just copying what everyone else is doing well with at the moment.

I might try cutting my 2 walls of omens for a blessed alliance and a 24th land, but don't know what I want the 24th land to be... Traded my 3rd seachrome cause I didn't think I would need it, but 2 seachromes and 1 glacial fortress seems wrong. Maybe just island #6? I also have a Clique mainboard which could be a Disallow condemn or even 2nd Blessed Alliance... the more lifegain the better.

Quote from Sword of Feast and Famine »

I think I've perfected the hybrid AV/hills list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-04-17-lxJ-uw-control/

Running super smoothly, curve is great. I know Rabbit is worried about (not) having 13 untapped blue sources, but successful AV versions of the deck (numerous 5-0s, Modern Challenge winners) have a mana base that matches my own. Also added a Purge to the board to make up for not running the second D-Sphere main. The one change I might make is moving Condemn to the board for a 2nd Sphere main (any feedback on that would be appreciated).

I think AV/hills hybrids are increasingly well positioned, given how common the mirror has come to be. At any rate, I enjoy playing with AV, and if I'm giving up one or two percentage points (if that) by not playing Rev/TT instead, so be it. Deck feels great, and I'm winning matches.

I like where this is going... I dunno about prairie stream over seachrome, but probably not a huge difference in the long run. Now there's the question of what about running AV AND a Sphinx Rev in the same deck? crazy I know! There's a PPTQ at the shop near my house today, really wish I coulda gone with this deck, but stupid other stuff to do I've been crushing it lately whenever I play paper magic regardless of what exact version of this deck I'm playing.

Quote from ThisBorzi »

2. I'm not sure if running Lil' Gideon is correct, there were moments where he won me the game, but others where I wished he was just the big version.

Play the 2 lil Gideons along with Jura, cut Elspeth, it's amazing. The emblem + later game big Gideon is super good!

Quote from Sword of Feast and Famine »

Here's my hybrid Ancestral/Hillz list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/03-04-17-lxJ-uw-control/. Any feedback would be appreciated (especially regarding the mana base, but anything really).

I like it, Disallow and Blessed Alliance are 2 cards I really want to test more in my deck. I also think Seachrome is better in AV lists because it comes into play untapped on T1 which is the most important thing.

Me too, it's really just a few less lands and no think twice / sphinx rev for the addition of the AVs. I'm not 100% sure on the clique in the mainboard in my list and I think it would be nice to have at least 1 life-gain card in the main. The walls of omens / little gideons have been too good to not play IMO. Would like to see more people's take on a similar list.

Quote from ThisBorzi »

Based on what people have been saying, the Rev lists are underperforming? Also - perhaps it is correct to start shaving the Spreading Seas, they have underwhelmed me with Gx Tron not being a real thing anymore and they just aren't very powerful against Grixis. We still have our LD lands to disrupt mana bases.

I don't think they are underperforming however I'm going to try a sort of mix of the 2 styles of deck, it seems really good so far. Here's what I'm working with:



I may go to 4 tec edge and cut 2 things from the sideboard for a couple runed halos, probably a timely and the 4th verdict or geist.

So much disagreement! Can we just get counterspell back please? On the other hand did anyone notice that Dragonlord Ojutai list? It's a long shot, but you could play silumgar's scorn along with the dragon!