Does anyone have advice for playing the mirror? How do you tell when to go for it? It seems like every time I cast Shift my opponent wins the counter war, and every time my opponent casts Shift...they still win the counter war.
I play Gigadrowse in my sideboard it's fantastic against the mirror, any kind of control deck (UWR, U/B), and against splinter twin decks.
On the draw, Gigadrowse has saved me numerous times against turn 3 upkeep Pestermite tap a land, they attempt to go off on their turn 4, one blue to tap their pestermite in response to spintertwin targeting it.
You have no idea how good it feels to blast Gigadrowse EOT and target all their blue sources. Remember, replicate creates copies of the Gigadrowse and they are added to the stack as individual spells. If they are wasting counterflux at the end of their turn, this is a good thing. Also, remanding the physical copy of Gigadrowse in response to a overloaded counterflux is the lulz. You can then tap the rest of their blue sources in your first main phase, they will probably float mana, then move to your second main phase, their mana pool will empty, then cast scapeshift unimpeded.
There is no counter war, I just don't need you to have lands for this one special turn of mine.
You need to drop the lightning bolts and add the Izzet Charms back in.
This deck is doing bigger and better things at turns 3+
Our turn one plays should involve a turn 1 search for tomorrow or serum vision to focus on turn 3+.
If you are confused about why Izzet charm is so good in this deck let's review all the modes and how they pertain to the modern format.
Mode 1) Turn 3 Karn, Nope, Turn 3 Lilly, Nope, Sphinx Rev for a Billion, Nope, The tail end of a counter war, A greedy chord, Nope, Counter burn spells from the burn deck!
Mode 2) Kill all the x/2's! From Dark Confident to Aven Mindcensor to Steel Overseer to Eidolon of the Great Revel, this mode has your back in dealing with problem creatures.
Mode 3) Dig Dig Dig, the game has gone long and mode 1 & 2 are no longer relevant, time to find the answer, or protect the answer. Sometimes you want Scapeshift in the graveyard. Think, Sin Collector's ETB trigger on the stack, you have snapcaster, scapeshift and Izzet charm in your hand and maybe a land. Cast Izzet charm, mode draw two discard two. We draw land, electrolyze, discard land scapeshift. Cast Electrolyze while Sin Collector's ETB trigger still on the stack, Kill Sin Collector and another x/1, draw from Electrolyze. Reveal, snapcaster, land, and the card drawn from Electrolyze. Possibly kill them next turn with snapcaster, targeting scapeshift. You could also very well loot into snapcaster if he isn't already in your hand. Even if you don't loot into a snapcaster or have him in your hand, having Scapeshift in the yard instead of exiled now makes your snaps in your deck live kills. You can even loot in response to something horrible being cast at the moment, an example might be with 4 mana open someone is trying to resolve a Geist of Saint Traft, ok cool, let's see if we can dig for a remand or a cryptic command (to start chaining tap/draw).
This control deck isn't about card advantage (to a degree), it's about playing lands and crafting a perfect turn. Survival.
Don't let other people tell you Izzet Charm is garbage they just haven't learned how to fully maximize on all of it's potential.
Decks that could bring in slaughter games, you should put in Vendilion Cliques, and Cast it on their draw step the turn they will have four mana available.
I feel Peer through Depths is inferior to Telling Time. The information you reveal with what you are getting is damaging and will cost you games. Also Peer doesn't play well with sideboard creature cards.
You can do neat things with Telling Time and shuffle effects. Also you can hide your win con for the turn you need it, without having to worry about it being taken by hand disruption.
B/G Games can be rough, but more often then not they lack the pressure needed to close the game before you top deck Scapeshift. Obstinate Baloth is a really good card against them, It's not a novelty. It's a real problem for them and it augments how they use Lilana, and even thoughtseize. Just gaining life, using him as a blocker along side of Sakura Tribe Elder to mitigate damage is usually enough to drag the game out to a winning scapeshift.
I went undefeated in the swiss (only gave 1 game to Melira Pod) at a PTQ in Maitland, FL (216 people). I intentionally drew rounds 7 and 8 to make top 8. Lost in top 8 to mana screw (I ain't even mad) to the mirror.
Lightning Storm isn't a permanent, it's a spell on the stack. Trickbind is dead against Ad Nauseam combo.
it's a spell WITH an activated ability.
Yes, it's a spell with an activated ability, however because it's a spell and not a permanent Trickbind's clause of "If a PERMANENT'S ability is countered this way, activated abilities of that permanent can't be played this turn." makes it dead against Ad Nauseam Combo. Sorry for the confusion.
- Don't forget to attack with your colonnades. If you can get a Kiki to stick, using it to copy a colonnade and swinging for 8 while giving you open mana to remand an opponent's spell is disgusting.
I'm pretty sure the colonnade copy comes into play tapped, also I don't believe it comes into play as a creature either.
A card that I wanted to try at least temporarily, if for nothing more than to rule him out as a possible inclusion, is Riddlesmith. The positive with him is he lets you toss useless land draws in exchange for another draw when you need it. I have played some games with him, and he certainly provides a lot of filtering for your draws, but I don't know if his usefulness is too narrow to make him worthwhile. His ability may be completely unnecessary. If somebody wants to just try him and get their impression it would be nice.
I've been thinking about this as well, going off and drawing lands when you really want eggs to pop and get you through the deck. Faithless Looting might be a card to explore.
As a little funny aside. I got accused of netdecking last night on MTGO. A guy raged at me because he said I just googled the deck and built it. I told him he could come here at see who made the thread if he really cares that much. He just got angry and said I was lying. It put a smile on my face to be accused of netdecking a deck I have worked on for nearly a year now.
LOL!
Hey Hasp, been following this deck since I found out about it's existence (I think when Contra 4-0'd a daily it popped up on my radar).
I've been gold fishing with it, I agree with your assessment that SSG takes away from it's consistency and that Mox Opal would find a better home with it.
This way we can bounce stony EOT draw, attempt to go off, or protect our eggs from Relic, bounce it EOT, draw then attempt to go off.
Drawing it wouldn't be so bad while comboing off, we can bounce something for cheap (mox or an egg) and cantrip at minimal mana cost.
It would also provide some defense against aggro, we might just need that extra turn vs affinity and bounce a creature equipped with cranial plating, a gofy, a goblin lord, or a merfolk lord. Or hose an all in infect play, 10/10 glistner elf with no mana up to cast Apostle's Blessing.
I'm going to do some testing and let you know what I find out, I don't MTGO at the moment, however the local community I live in is pretty active in Modern.
Basically I'd like to know other peoples' strategies in dealing with GW aggro once the aggro player is on the play and lays out a mystic on turn 1. You know everything is coming sideways each turn, so what are my best options in a Bg attrition-based deck?
This deck is a menace/very good. I play tested against it, it becomes overbearing with wurm tokens, voice tokens, and from Rootborn Defenses. Charm exiles our big dudes, etc.
Destroy effects just aren't going to be a sure fire way to beat this deck. They could still have another rootborn defenses to save their creatures/tokens from ratchet bomb/gaze of granite.
For this match up, it's not your typical aggro deck. I am splashing blue for Ætherize. In between a couple of watery graves/breeding pools and the Sylvan Caryatid we should be able to cast this reliably at a cost of 3U.
They have 0 answers for this, and it will definitely wipe the board once they swing.
Also since, I am going a very light blue splash, I might test out Far//Away, being a little more expensive devour flesh.
Do you guys have any advice on how to beat UR storm?
Obviously counterflux is a hosejob, however I usually never see them after sideboarding.
Do you counter the digging/hand sculpting early, like the serum visions, slight of hand and peer through depths, then hope you draw good into more counters for when they attempt to go off?
I usually board in 2 counterflux, 2 relic of progentius, and 1 wear and tear.
If we are going with the idea from earlier about adding a single land that makes black, what about Hide // Seek to solve the Emrakul problem? There's way that he's be out as early as turn 2 and when you get him, we get a whole pile of life gain in return. Although, yes, it is bad news bears if it's in their hand already.
Pretty neat card, however I like Mindbreak Trap for that instead.
They will get an extra turn, however at that point you should have more than 4 mana to attempt to counter the next bomb on the extra turn.
I'm going to have to test some on the black splash for slaughter games, uncounterable wreck your combo / rip out half what you are trying to ramp into seems good in theory.
Ah I got ya, probably right. I thought the crucible thing was kind of loose being a 1-of, but then I thought about it, slaughter games would be the same except you'd have to find that black source.
The idea of using 1 card to strip out half of their threats in their deck in one play seems really appealing. 4 x Karn, 3 Wurmcoil 1 Emrakul.
Well I guess with Tron, depending on how close they are to Emrakul mana, strip our Karns, then as the game progresses, flash back with snaps and strip our Emrakul.
VS Twin, just strip out splinter twin enchantment.
Finally completed my deck going to play Thursday at a local modern weekly tourney.
I wanna do something spicy against Twin and Tron.... anyone consider having one blood crypt (fetch black with arid mesa and scalding tarn) and run slaughter games? Seems like a good yolo slam against both decks.
I play Gigadrowse in my sideboard it's fantastic against the mirror, any kind of control deck (UWR, U/B), and against splinter twin decks.
On the draw, Gigadrowse has saved me numerous times against turn 3 upkeep Pestermite tap a land, they attempt to go off on their turn 4, one blue to tap their pestermite in response to spintertwin targeting it.
You have no idea how good it feels to blast Gigadrowse EOT and target all their blue sources. Remember, replicate creates copies of the Gigadrowse and they are added to the stack as individual spells. If they are wasting counterflux at the end of their turn, this is a good thing. Also, remanding the physical copy of Gigadrowse in response to a overloaded counterflux is the lulz. You can then tap the rest of their blue sources in your first main phase, they will probably float mana, then move to your second main phase, their mana pool will empty, then cast scapeshift unimpeded.
There is no counter war, I just don't need you to have lands for this one special turn of mine.
This deck is doing bigger and better things at turns 3+
Our turn one plays should involve a turn 1 search for tomorrow or serum vision to focus on turn 3+.
If you are confused about why Izzet charm is so good in this deck let's review all the modes and how they pertain to the modern format.
Mode 1) Turn 3 Karn, Nope, Turn 3 Lilly, Nope, Sphinx Rev for a Billion, Nope, The tail end of a counter war, A greedy chord, Nope, Counter burn spells from the burn deck!
Mode 2) Kill all the x/2's! From Dark Confident to Aven Mindcensor to Steel Overseer to Eidolon of the Great Revel, this mode has your back in dealing with problem creatures.
Mode 3) Dig Dig Dig, the game has gone long and mode 1 & 2 are no longer relevant, time to find the answer, or protect the answer. Sometimes you want Scapeshift in the graveyard. Think, Sin Collector's ETB trigger on the stack, you have snapcaster, scapeshift and Izzet charm in your hand and maybe a land. Cast Izzet charm, mode draw two discard two. We draw land, electrolyze, discard land scapeshift. Cast Electrolyze while Sin Collector's ETB trigger still on the stack, Kill Sin Collector and another x/1, draw from Electrolyze. Reveal, snapcaster, land, and the card drawn from Electrolyze. Possibly kill them next turn with snapcaster, targeting scapeshift. You could also very well loot into snapcaster if he isn't already in your hand. Even if you don't loot into a snapcaster or have him in your hand, having Scapeshift in the yard instead of exiled now makes your snaps in your deck live kills. You can even loot in response to something horrible being cast at the moment, an example might be with 4 mana open someone is trying to resolve a Geist of Saint Traft, ok cool, let's see if we can dig for a remand or a cryptic command (to start chaining tap/draw).
This control deck isn't about card advantage (to a degree), it's about playing lands and crafting a perfect turn. Survival.
Don't let other people tell you Izzet Charm is garbage they just haven't learned how to fully maximize on all of it's potential.
Decks that could bring in slaughter games, you should put in Vendilion Cliques, and Cast it on their draw step the turn they will have four mana available.
I feel Peer through Depths is inferior to Telling Time. The information you reveal with what you are getting is damaging and will cost you games. Also Peer doesn't play well with sideboard creature cards.
You can do neat things with Telling Time and shuffle effects. Also you can hide your win con for the turn you need it, without having to worry about it being taken by hand disruption.
B/G Games can be rough, but more often then not they lack the pressure needed to close the game before you top deck Scapeshift. Obstinate Baloth is a really good card against them, It's not a novelty. It's a real problem for them and it augments how they use Lilana, and even thoughtseize. Just gaining life, using him as a blocker along side of Sakura Tribe Elder to mitigate damage is usually enough to drag the game out to a winning scapeshift.
I went undefeated in the swiss (only gave 1 game to Melira Pod) at a PTQ in Maitland, FL (216 people). I intentionally drew rounds 7 and 8 to make top 8. Lost in top 8 to mana screw (I ain't even mad) to the mirror.
5th http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/khans-tarkir-ptq-maitland-2014-07-24
Yes, it's a spell with an activated ability, however because it's a spell and not a permanent Trickbind's clause of "If a PERMANENT'S ability is countered this way, activated abilities of that permanent can't be played this turn." makes it dead against Ad Nauseam Combo. Sorry for the confusion.
I'm pretty sure the colonnade copy comes into play tapped, also I don't believe it comes into play as a creature either.
I've been thinking about this as well, going off and drawing lands when you really want eggs to pop and get you through the deck. Faithless Looting might be a card to explore.
LOL!
Hey Hasp, been following this deck since I found out about it's existence (I think when Contra 4-0'd a daily it popped up on my radar).
I've been gold fishing with it, I agree with your assessment that SSG takes away from it's consistency and that Mox Opal would find a better home with it.
With regards to cards like Stony Silence and maybe even Relic of Progenitus the deck might benefit more from like a 4 of Repeal.
This way we can bounce stony EOT draw, attempt to go off, or protect our eggs from Relic, bounce it EOT, draw then attempt to go off.
Drawing it wouldn't be so bad while comboing off, we can bounce something for cheap (mox or an egg) and cantrip at minimal mana cost.
It would also provide some defense against aggro, we might just need that extra turn vs affinity and bounce a creature equipped with cranial plating, a gofy, a goblin lord, or a merfolk lord. Or hose an all in infect play, 10/10 glistner elf with no mana up to cast Apostle's Blessing.
I'm going to do some testing and let you know what I find out, I don't MTGO at the moment, however the local community I live in is pretty active in Modern.
This deck is a menace/very good. I play tested against it, it becomes overbearing with wurm tokens, voice tokens, and from Rootborn Defenses. Charm exiles our big dudes, etc.
Destroy effects just aren't going to be a sure fire way to beat this deck. They could still have another rootborn defenses to save their creatures/tokens from ratchet bomb/gaze of granite.
For this match up, it's not your typical aggro deck. I am splashing blue for Ætherize. In between a couple of watery graves/breeding pools and the
Sylvan Caryatid we should be able to cast this reliably at a cost of 3U.
They have 0 answers for this, and it will definitely wipe the board once they swing.
Also since, I am going a very light blue splash, I might test out Far//Away, being a little more expensive devour flesh.
Obviously counterflux is a hosejob, however I usually never see them after sideboarding.
Do you counter the digging/hand sculpting early, like the serum visions, slight of hand and peer through depths, then hope you draw good into more counters for when they attempt to go off?
I usually board in 2 counterflux, 2 relic of progentius, and 1 wear and tear.
Pretty neat card, however I like Mindbreak Trap for that instead.
They will get an extra turn, however at that point you should have more than 4 mana to attempt to counter the next bomb on the extra turn.
I'm going to have to test some on the black splash for slaughter games, uncounterable wreck your combo / rip out half what you are trying to ramp into seems good in theory.
The idea of using 1 card to strip out half of their threats in their deck in one play seems really appealing. 4 x Karn, 3 Wurmcoil 1 Emrakul.
VS Twin, just strip out splinter twin enchantment.
I wanna do something spicy against Twin and Tron.... anyone consider having one blood crypt (fetch black with arid mesa and scalding tarn) and run slaughter games? Seems like a good yolo slam against both decks.