I played my first competitive rel event (SCG IQ 69 players) with U tron in a while after taking a break.
I played a list very close to barrin's posted 5-0 with differences being 3/1 chalice split instead of 1/3 and spatials instead of warping wail
because of the meta I was expecting.
The tournament did not go well, finished 3-3 drop. The losses were to infect, no surprise, and two u/w control decks. I was a bit surprised by the control
decks because I didnt get a game off either and it didnt feel exactly close despite the chalices and it historically being a good matchup. They were playing
dovin's veto which looked good and I didnt draw the greatest but I'm can't help but feel maybe this version isn't as well positioned in the matchup as other versions. The low counters numbers is rough here and tapping out for a karn when they can play a jace or tefferi and kill your tokens is rough.
I havn't played a lot with this list, just one event, so I cant say for sure but I wanted to know what people who have played this version have felt about that matchup.
For completeness, wins were against two g/w company decks and g-tron (chalice is a good card lol).
I had tried builds with high numbers of chalice and 2-3 karn and I found that while you do smash U/W with them, chalice is too weak against humans,dredge, other aether vial decks, ect which means you are extremely matchup dependendent g1 and you will lose a lot of game 1s to the chalice. Even in the matchups where is it good like tron and burn it doesnt win the game right out I find. Burn has about half 1 drops and half two drops and can draw the right half, tron can get natural tron ect. Nezahal, Primal Tide does win the U/W matchup right out. By the time you cast it you often have double blue because they have probably field of ruined you as well and it only takes up one slot in the board as chalice in order to be effective needs 2 slots in the 75 or more.
I havn't tested with Hieroglyphic Illumination but they both see two cards when you are digging for an answer or a threat which is what you do most of the time but opt does it on the one mana side and Illumination only sees 1 on the one mana side. If i were playing challice I would like Illumination more, I dont think you can play 7 one drops in a high challice list but I'm not playing that card. Being able to counter something on t3 and opt feels really strong.
For graveyard hate I think some surgical should be in every list as I find its the best way to beat g-tron, tutor a Field of Ruin or Tectonic Edge and surgical is usually GG. I don't bring in any gy hate vs the b/g/x decks, those are pretty good matchups anyway. I like to bring in dismembers, thought-knot, maybe spatial or crucible depending on what I see and that usually wins a lot of the time.
So after a little bit of a break from the deck I'm back to playing in order to test for GP Atlanta. I'm only 3 leagues in with this version but so far I have two 4-1s and a 3-2. I like this list a lot and it feels pretty solid against the current field.
For the main deck, my version differs from most in that I'm playing myr battlesphere, opt, and spatial. The sphere is much better than wurm #2 in a lot of matchups now such as humans and any white deck. Wurmcoil is still strong against some decks but I have been far and away liking the 1-1 split right now. Also plat angel is back in the main thanks to aggro picking up again. Opt main is the other large change. I had tried it out before as a 4 of and wasnt impressed but now with only 3 it somehow feels much better, allowing you to setup tron easier and find those good one of inclusions. Spatial in the main is a concession to how the aggro creature decks are doing and it frees up sb slots.
In the sb my list differs significantly from what I see most often. I have a full 4 slots devoted to graveyard hate bc I believe dredge to be extremely scary with its new tools. The surgicals also come in vs tron and combo but crypt is more backbreaking and faster I find. Plus can recure it with ruins and tutor it with t-west. I see most people play relic or grafdiggers cage but i think these are a bit slow. Also I play aetherize for the go wide aggro decks like humans and dredge. This card is very strong and I think you should consider it. Thought-knot is another card I dont see much of and I'm confused as to why bc it is excellent against control, tron, and burn (some of the most popular decks in the format right now). Nezehal is my concession to U/W and cryptic command decks in general. You get to 7 mana cast it and win the game everytime. I think its worth 1 slot for a hard shutdown card against a really popular strategy even if the matchup is slightly favored.
Anyway this is the list I am most likely taking to the GP with maybe some minor tweaks here and there. Let me know what you think of my card choices, I have a reason for every inclusion and have considered pretty much any possible card you can play at one point and can explain why I decided against including it in this version. As always U-tron is a deck you can tune to beat what you want to beat and I think the most popular decks at the gp will be dredge, U/W control, humans, G-tron and so thats what I'm tuning against.
It's spicy but feels like it's in too many directions. If you want eldrazi go in and play 4 tks and 4 temple drop the artificats and lean into threats + countermagic. I believe that version popped up on an scg event once and had an article about it somewhere. Otherwise normal u Tron is prob more consistent but I do like tks in the board.
So I got top 8 at a pptq recently with U-tron of course. Played a list that had a 60 close to one of shok's with main deck crucible, 2 dismembers being the standouts. In the side I played 2 tks as the large difference. Went 7 round swiss. Lost round 1 to hollow one, then beat jeskai control x2, humans, g-tron, esper polymorph (ikr) to draw into the top 8. Lost round 1 of top 8 to two nutty dredge hands so what can you do. I will be playing another pptq the weekend following this and then another the next weekend if I dont win. Deck feels strong right now but maybe surgical isnt enough in the board and I might go back to playing tormod's crypt. I'm not streaming currently because I switched jobs and moved cities but I might start again in october or something keep an eye out. If you have an questions about the list I can answer them but I felt the changes were little but I could post the results. Btw I feel as if we have the same talks about the same cards over and over so I you are new and have a card question check out pierakors faq first that talks about a lot of the choices. It's a bit dated but I see people bring up chalice, talismans, solemn, ect again and again. They have pros and cons and most are covered here http://magicgatheringstrat.com/2015/09/mono-u-tron-faq/
Maybe you should start thinkIng with your own head, instead of focusing on what most people do ^^
There is a massive difference between putting up a result with a list from an unknown local tournament and 5-0/4-1 multiple times on mtgo and all of it streamed. I'm not discounting the work you put in but people follow what shok does because he backs the list up with results against a known field of players. It's hard to justify some of the changes without meaningful results against a known base of competition. Shok is also the one posting 90% of these finishes which is why the deck doesnt move too much until he adopts it.
I managed to finish in 64th place for the open and I'm happy with that although I wanted better. For the decklist check two posts up, I don't feel it's needed to repost it. Here I'll do a breakdown for the 15 rounds I played but I won't go too into the match specifics instead I'll general matchup advice, maybe one or two interesting points so that this post isn't super long and it will be more helpful.
Round 1: Eldrazi Tron 2-1 This matchup is favored for us, plan is to stick a wurm and counter their stuff while stopping the 1 or 2 ulamogs. Bring in the bigger removal and threats, take out the non-tron ramp and repeals and chalice
Round 2: 1-2 Affinity This matchup is bad but not the worst by far. Ballista is the MVP here and its hard to lose with it. Bring in all the removal, the mass bounce, cut a slaver, a titan, the solemn, the talismans and everything else you think is too slow
Round 3: 0-2 Humans This matchup is pretty 50/50 depending on their draw. I mulled to 5 both games so not much to say. Go up removal take out as much counter magic as you can starting with remands and then getting condescend and cut the slow ramp.
Round 4: 1-1 Affinity Somehow managed to draw with affinity. Opp was pretty new to the deck and playing super slow, g3 I had an angel and chalice on 1 but couldn't assemble slaver lock in time. Same sb advice as above
Round 5: 2-0 G-tron Was feeling pretty down here as my start was bad but came back with a win in a tough matchup. Bring in the land hate and try to do everything possible to surgically a tron piece. Its the best way to win post-board. Idk how you win g1 just get lucky I guess
Round 6: 2-1 U/W Control A good matchup for once! Just save your counters for when they play something that actually matters, or you are resolving a threat. Try and bait them with non game ending threats first and save your salvers/titans for when it is most likely to land. Go up counter magic go down removal, although I keep 1 dismember in. Take out non-tron ramp.
Round 7: 2-0 Sultai Delver Opp played basically sultai control, found out they had delvers after the match. See u/w control same plan
Round 8: 2-0 Ad nauseum Also an excellent matchup, counter their combo ez. Chalice on 0 is key here to stop pact go up counter magic down slow ramp and big threats
Round 9: 2-0 R/G Eldrazi A pretty good matchup sb and plan is the same as eldrazi tron in round 1.
I won't do the day 2 matches as there wasn't much to talk about as my performance was poor (2-4) and it didnt reflect how the matchups normally go. For the record I beat Hollow One, lost to Elves, Blue moon,U/B Faeries, and G/W Value but lots of mulligans and some poor play on my part. One of the wins was a bye as well.
Overall thoughts on the list/event: I mostly enjoyed the main deck except for a couple of things. Chalice didn't feel good in the main and I'm not sure it belongs there, it's pretty slow on the draw and I think it could be better to just be another ballista or something. For the side, I dont know if 2 spell pierces is needed and spreading seas is always questionable. TKS was great and comes in a lot of matches. I will be doing some experimenting on stream with some different ideas I have. For the tournament I'm really unhappy with my day 2 record and know I could have done better but 64th isnt bad and it does cash so overall it's ok. If you have any questions about the list, a matchup, or whatever ask and I'll answer it. As a reminder I stream at twtich.tv/rjawa so follow me there and you will get a better insight into the deck.
Finished 6-2-1 after day one of the SCG Open today which is good enough to make the day 2 cut. Had a rough start but managed to get 5 wins in a row in order to stay alive. Prob the lone U-tron player on day two so hoping to win some matches and get the deck on the map. Expect a full write up here after the event and I'll talk about it on stream too. In case you cant wait, here is a link to the 75 I played: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1163423#paper
Round 1: G/R Scapeshift (2-1) This matchup is favored if they draw threats and hard if they only draw ramp ironically, lost the game because they were on the play and had t3 tireless tracker with fetchland and simian spirit guide to pay for condescend.
Round 2: Mardu Pyromancer (2-1) This matchup is pretty easy, just stick a wurmcoil and it's hard to lose
Round 3: U/R Thing in the Ice Control (1-2) Not sure how I managed to lose what should be a favored matchup, opp had t2 thing in the ice all 3 games and I didnt have the counters for it. I think I should have brought in all the dismembers in g2 (I did for g3) but I wasnt sure how all in on thing they were, turns out it was their only wincon that I saw. In g3 opp had every 1 mana counter from dispel to ceremonious to spell pierce so I couldn't get the thing of the table and died.
Round 4: G/B Tron (2-0) This is a difficult matchup so 2-0 was surprising, managed to stall just enough in g1 to slaver lock quickly. In game 2 I surgical extracted a tron land on t3 and then countered my way to victory. Surgical tron is the primary way to win this matchup post-board, I try to set it up as fast as possible.
Round 5: Burn (1-2) Almost got this one but the menace had a fast start in game 3 and I didnt, what can you do. Tks out of the board helps in this matchup.
Round 6: Elves (2-0) Elves is a good matchup from my experience, they are not super fast and most of their stuff is able to be dealt with. Chalice on 1 and wraths are mvp here.
Round 7: KCI (1-2) This one was a heartbreaker. Playing for top 16 and a bunch of treasure chests. G1 I kept a hand with no counters in the dark and opp goldfished. G2 all the counters and easy win. G3 opp played t3 scrap trawler, I dismembered and then surgicalled it. Looking at decklist opp only has the one emmy as an out. Next turn I tap out of tks (no counters in hand anyway) I take some cantrip artifact and opp has two KCIs. They managed to dig enough to draw the one emmy which is lethal as im at 14 from the dismember surgical play. KCI is normally a great matchup as your counters are excellent but alas didnt draw many of them in g3, or the whole tournament for that matter.
Post tournament notes: My 60 is the same as shoks right now and it feels very solid. I was playing 2 karn instead of the one chalice in the main but challice main has been pretty good and helps thirst. Wouldnt change anything about the main. The sideboard is where my list differs. I'm playing 2 Thought-knots which are excellent in a lot of hard matchups including burn and g-tron but also good vs any control, ponza,scapeshift, and others. I like where the sideboard is for now but I'm still not 100% sold on things like spreading seas. I will be taking this list, maybe 1 or two sb changes, to the SCG Open in Atlanta next week so wish me luck. Also I stream now on https://www.twitch.tv/rjawa I'm going to try and get a regular schedule going. For now it is tuesday/thursday at 8pm EST and Saturday at 11am EST + any extra time I want to but this could change on a week by week thing. Also I will be making a youtube channel soon but I need to pick a name as RJawa is taken, if you have ideas let me know. I want to share knowledge on how to play this fun and rewarding deck.
I’ve been playing u-tron for a while now but have a sideboarding question. So I side out maps it seems in a lot of matchups, mainly the aggro decks but also against some white control or midrange decks. Anyone else do this? Usually it’s 2 maps out for aggro and 1-2 maps for control. I feel tron doesn’t matter in those matchups and map is a bad topdeck, what do you all think?
So a couple of things. First welcome to the best deck in modern if you devote the effort to learning it. The important thing to remember is this thread is old, those original lists are from 2013-2015 and shok created the deck around 2011. Modern was a completely different place and they should be looked at as such. 4 treasure mages hasnt been popular since those times, mainly because the prevalence of jund has slipped, right now two slots are used for your 3 mana 2/2 tutor body. Currently there are two "camps" of blue tron. One (shok, myself, others) is on the trinket mage package where you run 1 treasure mage, 1 trinket mage and your targets are chalice,ee,and walking ballista in the main. The other is more traditional and runs two treasure mages (pie, others).
Some run maindeck dismember as a hedge for eldrazi but it depends on your meta, main deck spatial contortion is also ok if you expect humans, affinity, or fast aggro or neither and just use ballista.
A lot of lists run 1 snap (pie, shok, myself, others) its strong in a lot of matchups but isnt super necessary or a key piece of the deck, that would be slaver.
As for lists, look for recent lists, because the deck is old your going to find stuff that really out of date and for different moderns. Shok and pie stream on twitch pretty regularly, and pie has a youtube where he posts his games (its under pierakorMTGO). Also check mtggoldfish for some of shoks lists in the modern challenge he top 8's fairly regularly or random 5-0s when wizards posts them. The thing about blue tron, and why a lot of people love it, is once you have the core (slaver, wurmcoil, condescend, thirst, remand, repeal) the rest is all flex mostly. Blue tron is one of the most flexible decks in modern which is why you see a lot of one-ofs in lists. As for sideboard its 15 flex cards, everyone has a unique sideboard. Popular options include surgical, h. recall, dismember, spatial contortion, grafdiggers cage, chalice of the void, engineered explosives, ect. It just depends on what is in your meta or what you care about and what your main looks like. For example if I am running trinket mage i might put tormod's crypt or relic in my board.
Lastly, the board is pretty active so ask away and someone will answer.
Both people that are really supporting the opt plan have the chalices in the board. We arnt cutting them completely we are moving one from the main to the side. Its not a "i cant afford the cards" thing, its a i've now played three comp leagues with two 4-1 and a 5-0 finish and NuBlkAu has had similar results. Did you read the posts? We have chalices in the side and thats where they are good. If chalice is good against 40% of the field then it shouldnt be a main deck card. I want my main to cover the 60% first and then bring in the hate for that other 40% post board.
Search for azcanta is too slow and this is a deck that really doesnt like to tap out unless it wins the game. Which is why opt is so excellent, you keep up your mana and dig for the combo or whatever.
I think with the opts you dont need the trinket mages to find the sb hate now. I'm liking the 2 treasure mage main which allows you to go pretty hard on slaver g1 when interaction is very minimal, and then opt gets you too the chalice/ee/other hate post board. Currently my list has the same main as NuBlkAu with a trade of snap for his second wurm. My Sb is: 2 chailce, 1 ee, 1 tormod's crypt, 1 trinisphere, 1 aetherize, 3 spatial, 2 dismember, 2 spreading seas, 1 wurmcoil, 1 walking balista. So as you can see the opts weren't "budget concerns" they were just better imo.
I have two chalices in the board right now. Usually when they come in some number of maps are coming out to lower your one drops. So its probably 5 one drops post board with opt and chalice. In the rare chance you have chalice on one and draw an op, which often against chalice matchups it could be on 2 (burn) or zero (ad naus, affinity on play), it just gets pitched to thirst. Its the same as map with chalice, doesnt come up very often and isnt really a big deal for the power level you're getting g1 and in non chalice matchups.
Opt is the real deal. Just took NuBIkAu's list with some sb changes and a sub of wurmcoil for snap in the main to a 5-0 and 4-1 finish in mtgo leagues. Opt has felt very strong and as said before gives the deck a lot more consistency. Its not like anticipate, the cheaper cost i find to be often relevant.Its not like serum because you can leave open remand or condescend and if you dont need to then opt. T4 opt and scry into thirst is one of my favorite. The best thing that happened was I put a gemstone cavern into play on the draw and got to opt on my turn 0. But overall opt is great in the opener, great in the midgame, and great as an empty handed top deck.
I played a list very close to barrin's posted 5-0 with differences being 3/1 chalice split instead of 1/3 and spatials instead of warping wail
because of the meta I was expecting.
The tournament did not go well, finished 3-3 drop. The losses were to infect, no surprise, and two u/w control decks. I was a bit surprised by the control
decks because I didnt get a game off either and it didnt feel exactly close despite the chalices and it historically being a good matchup. They were playing
dovin's veto which looked good and I didnt draw the greatest but I'm can't help but feel maybe this version isn't as well positioned in the matchup as other versions. The low counters numbers is rough here and tapping out for a karn when they can play a jace or tefferi and kill your tokens is rough.
I havn't played a lot with this list, just one event, so I cant say for sure but I wanted to know what people who have played this version have felt about that matchup.
For completeness, wins were against two g/w company decks and g-tron (chalice is a good card lol).
I havn't tested with Hieroglyphic Illumination but they both see two cards when you are digging for an answer or a threat which is what you do most of the time but opt does it on the one mana side and Illumination only sees 1 on the one mana side. If i were playing challice I would like Illumination more, I dont think you can play 7 one drops in a high challice list but I'm not playing that card. Being able to counter something on t3 and opt feels really strong.
For graveyard hate I think some surgical should be in every list as I find its the best way to beat g-tron, tutor a Field of Ruin or Tectonic Edge and surgical is usually GG. I don't bring in any gy hate vs the b/g/x decks, those are pretty good matchups anyway. I like to bring in dismembers, thought-knot, maybe spatial or crucible depending on what I see and that usually wins a lot of the time.
2 Walking Ballista
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Treasure Mage
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Platinum Angel
Instants
2 Spatial Contortion
3 Repeal
1 Cyclonic Rift
3 Opt
1 Dismember
4 Condescend
3 Remand
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Mindslaver
1 Oblivion Stone
Planeswalkers
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Lands
1 Field of Ruin
4 Urza's Mine
2 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
2 Urza's Power Plant
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Academy Ruins
1 Tectonic Edge
7 Island
1 Tolaria West
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Dismember
2 Spreading Seas
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Aetherize
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Spatial Contortion
2 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
For the main deck, my version differs from most in that I'm playing myr battlesphere, opt, and spatial. The sphere is much better than wurm #2 in a lot of matchups now such as humans and any white deck. Wurmcoil is still strong against some decks but I have been far and away liking the 1-1 split right now. Also plat angel is back in the main thanks to aggro picking up again. Opt main is the other large change. I had tried it out before as a 4 of and wasnt impressed but now with only 3 it somehow feels much better, allowing you to setup tron easier and find those good one of inclusions. Spatial in the main is a concession to how the aggro creature decks are doing and it frees up sb slots.
In the sb my list differs significantly from what I see most often. I have a full 4 slots devoted to graveyard hate bc I believe dredge to be extremely scary with its new tools. The surgicals also come in vs tron and combo but crypt is more backbreaking and faster I find. Plus can recure it with ruins and tutor it with t-west. I see most people play relic or grafdiggers cage but i think these are a bit slow. Also I play aetherize for the go wide aggro decks like humans and dredge. This card is very strong and I think you should consider it. Thought-knot is another card I dont see much of and I'm confused as to why bc it is excellent against control, tron, and burn (some of the most popular decks in the format right now). Nezehal is my concession to U/W and cryptic command decks in general. You get to 7 mana cast it and win the game everytime. I think its worth 1 slot for a hard shutdown card against a really popular strategy even if the matchup is slightly favored.
Anyway this is the list I am most likely taking to the GP with maybe some minor tweaks here and there. Let me know what you think of my card choices, I have a reason for every inclusion and have considered pretty much any possible card you can play at one point and can explain why I decided against including it in this version. As always U-tron is a deck you can tune to beat what you want to beat and I think the most popular decks at the gp will be dredge, U/W control, humans, G-tron and so thats what I'm tuning against.
It's spicy but feels like it's in too many directions. If you want eldrazi go in and play 4 tks and 4 temple drop the artificats and lean into threats + countermagic. I believe that version popped up on an scg event once and had an article about it somewhere. Otherwise normal u Tron is prob more consistent but I do like tks in the board.
There is a massive difference between putting up a result with a list from an unknown local tournament and 5-0/4-1 multiple times on mtgo and all of it streamed. I'm not discounting the work you put in but people follow what shok does because he backs the list up with results against a known field of players. It's hard to justify some of the changes without meaningful results against a known base of competition. Shok is also the one posting 90% of these finishes which is why the deck doesnt move too much until he adopts it.
Round 1: Eldrazi Tron 2-1 This matchup is favored for us, plan is to stick a wurm and counter their stuff while stopping the 1 or 2 ulamogs. Bring in the bigger removal and threats, take out the non-tron ramp and repeals and chalice
Round 2: 1-2 Affinity This matchup is bad but not the worst by far. Ballista is the MVP here and its hard to lose with it. Bring in all the removal, the mass bounce, cut a slaver, a titan, the solemn, the talismans and everything else you think is too slow
Round 3: 0-2 Humans This matchup is pretty 50/50 depending on their draw. I mulled to 5 both games so not much to say. Go up removal take out as much counter magic as you can starting with remands and then getting condescend and cut the slow ramp.
Round 4: 1-1 Affinity Somehow managed to draw with affinity. Opp was pretty new to the deck and playing super slow, g3 I had an angel and chalice on 1 but couldn't assemble slaver lock in time. Same sb advice as above
Round 5: 2-0 G-tron Was feeling pretty down here as my start was bad but came back with a win in a tough matchup. Bring in the land hate and try to do everything possible to surgically a tron piece. Its the best way to win post-board. Idk how you win g1 just get lucky I guess
Round 6: 2-1 U/W Control A good matchup for once! Just save your counters for when they play something that actually matters, or you are resolving a threat. Try and bait them with non game ending threats first and save your salvers/titans for when it is most likely to land. Go up counter magic go down removal, although I keep 1 dismember in. Take out non-tron ramp.
Round 7: 2-0 Sultai Delver Opp played basically sultai control, found out they had delvers after the match. See u/w control same plan
Round 8: 2-0 Ad nauseum Also an excellent matchup, counter their combo ez. Chalice on 0 is key here to stop pact go up counter magic down slow ramp and big threats
Round 9: 2-0 R/G Eldrazi A pretty good matchup sb and plan is the same as eldrazi tron in round 1.
I won't do the day 2 matches as there wasn't much to talk about as my performance was poor (2-4) and it didnt reflect how the matchups normally go. For the record I beat Hollow One, lost to Elves, Blue moon,U/B Faeries, and G/W Value but lots of mulligans and some poor play on my part. One of the wins was a bye as well.
Overall thoughts on the list/event: I mostly enjoyed the main deck except for a couple of things. Chalice didn't feel good in the main and I'm not sure it belongs there, it's pretty slow on the draw and I think it could be better to just be another ballista or something. For the side, I dont know if 2 spell pierces is needed and spreading seas is always questionable. TKS was great and comes in a lot of matches. I will be doing some experimenting on stream with some different ideas I have. For the tournament I'm really unhappy with my day 2 record and know I could have done better but 64th isnt bad and it does cash so overall it's ok. If you have any questions about the list, a matchup, or whatever ask and I'll answer it. As a reminder I stream at twtich.tv/rjawa so follow me there and you will get a better insight into the deck.
Round 1: G/R Scapeshift (2-1) This matchup is favored if they draw threats and hard if they only draw ramp ironically, lost the game because they were on the play and had t3 tireless tracker with fetchland and simian spirit guide to pay for condescend.
Round 2: Mardu Pyromancer (2-1) This matchup is pretty easy, just stick a wurmcoil and it's hard to lose
Round 3: U/R Thing in the Ice Control (1-2) Not sure how I managed to lose what should be a favored matchup, opp had t2 thing in the ice all 3 games and I didnt have the counters for it. I think I should have brought in all the dismembers in g2 (I did for g3) but I wasnt sure how all in on thing they were, turns out it was their only wincon that I saw. In g3 opp had every 1 mana counter from dispel to ceremonious to spell pierce so I couldn't get the thing of the table and died.
Round 4: G/B Tron (2-0) This is a difficult matchup so 2-0 was surprising, managed to stall just enough in g1 to slaver lock quickly. In game 2 I surgical extracted a tron land on t3 and then countered my way to victory. Surgical tron is the primary way to win this matchup post-board, I try to set it up as fast as possible.
Round 5: Burn (1-2) Almost got this one but the menace had a fast start in game 3 and I didnt, what can you do. Tks out of the board helps in this matchup.
Round 6: Elves (2-0) Elves is a good matchup from my experience, they are not super fast and most of their stuff is able to be dealt with. Chalice on 1 and wraths are mvp here.
Round 7: KCI (1-2) This one was a heartbreaker. Playing for top 16 and a bunch of treasure chests. G1 I kept a hand with no counters in the dark and opp goldfished. G2 all the counters and easy win. G3 opp played t3 scrap trawler, I dismembered and then surgicalled it. Looking at decklist opp only has the one emmy as an out. Next turn I tap out of tks (no counters in hand anyway) I take some cantrip artifact and opp has two KCIs. They managed to dig enough to draw the one emmy which is lethal as im at 14 from the dismember surgical play. KCI is normally a great matchup as your counters are excellent but alas didnt draw many of them in g3, or the whole tournament for that matter.
Post tournament notes: My 60 is the same as shoks right now and it feels very solid. I was playing 2 karn instead of the one chalice in the main but challice main has been pretty good and helps thirst. Wouldnt change anything about the main. The sideboard is where my list differs. I'm playing 2 Thought-knots which are excellent in a lot of hard matchups including burn and g-tron but also good vs any control, ponza,scapeshift, and others. I like where the sideboard is for now but I'm still not 100% sold on things like spreading seas. I will be taking this list, maybe 1 or two sb changes, to the SCG Open in Atlanta next week so wish me luck. Also I stream now on https://www.twitch.tv/rjawa I'm going to try and get a regular schedule going. For now it is tuesday/thursday at 8pm EST and Saturday at 11am EST + any extra time I want to but this could change on a week by week thing. Also I will be making a youtube channel soon but I need to pick a name as RJawa is taken, if you have ideas let me know. I want to share knowledge on how to play this fun and rewarding deck.
Some run maindeck dismember as a hedge for eldrazi but it depends on your meta, main deck spatial contortion is also ok if you expect humans, affinity, or fast aggro or neither and just use ballista.
A lot of lists run 1 snap (pie, shok, myself, others) its strong in a lot of matchups but isnt super necessary or a key piece of the deck, that would be slaver.
As for lists, look for recent lists, because the deck is old your going to find stuff that really out of date and for different moderns. Shok and pie stream on twitch pretty regularly, and pie has a youtube where he posts his games (its under pierakorMTGO). Also check mtggoldfish for some of shoks lists in the modern challenge he top 8's fairly regularly or random 5-0s when wizards posts them. The thing about blue tron, and why a lot of people love it, is once you have the core (slaver, wurmcoil, condescend, thirst, remand, repeal) the rest is all flex mostly. Blue tron is one of the most flexible decks in modern which is why you see a lot of one-ofs in lists. As for sideboard its 15 flex cards, everyone has a unique sideboard. Popular options include surgical, h. recall, dismember, spatial contortion, grafdiggers cage, chalice of the void, engineered explosives, ect. It just depends on what is in your meta or what you care about and what your main looks like. For example if I am running trinket mage i might put tormod's crypt or relic in my board.
Lastly, the board is pretty active so ask away and someone will answer.
Search for azcanta is too slow and this is a deck that really doesnt like to tap out unless it wins the game. Which is why opt is so excellent, you keep up your mana and dig for the combo or whatever.
I think with the opts you dont need the trinket mages to find the sb hate now. I'm liking the 2 treasure mage main which allows you to go pretty hard on slaver g1 when interaction is very minimal, and then opt gets you too the chalice/ee/other hate post board. Currently my list has the same main as NuBlkAu with a trade of snap for his second wurm. My Sb is: 2 chailce, 1 ee, 1 tormod's crypt, 1 trinisphere, 1 aetherize, 3 spatial, 2 dismember, 2 spreading seas, 1 wurmcoil, 1 walking balista. So as you can see the opts weren't "budget concerns" they were just better imo.