What is the correct amount of equipment in this build? Right now I'm running Jitte, Batterskull, Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of Fire and Ice. I think Light and Shadow is better than Feast and Famine. The removal right now in green is usually connected to black in the form of Abrupt Decay and Swords to Plowshares and the occasional Path to Exile. Is the reason for Feast and Famine simply to get through Goyf's and his green friends? Here's the list I'm running right now with my testing being against Enchantress and UWR miracles. Critiques welcome.
Why do you like hand disruption? Thoughtseize is the best one but life loss is very relevant. None of the disruption spells hit everything and they are absolutely dead draws late game. I understand having it in the board but when most of the format is aggro I feel that removal may be better than discard. You may be right I just have a different opinion on the subject.
I think the idea of going heavier white is better right now anyways. I don't feel like hand disruption is the way to go currently so moving heavier white seems ideal at the moment
So with the new sweeper that can't be countered being printed what are thoughts on replacing damnation with it. I think it's good because it can't be remanded by delver players. How many regenerating creatures are floating around in modern anyways?
haha yes they are bad with PtE. I've been running Spell Snare as a 3 of and a singleton Pact of Negation. I run a much more removal heavy build over counters and discard. Add to your list Spell Pierce.
The more I play this deck the more I like Geist of St. Traft MB as a 2 of. I know everyone is going to say that he's weak in the aggro matchup but I don't see it. I've been testing against rg tron, delver, jund and affinity. He dodges removal that would eat up any removal spell everyone is running and he's cheap. Also I'm not running hand disruption at all. What are people's thoughts on running discard or not. I don't miss it at all. Except Esper Charm is good to put Jund in top deck mode and take over from there.
I just started playing modern and have a question about finishers. I feel like through testing I can stall the board until both players are in top deck mode and I eventually get bolted out or something stupid like that. What is the consensus on finishers currently? The games just seem to take way too long and I'm unable to finish them off. I've tested Geist of Saint Traft and he's been pretty good but other than that not a huge fan of White Sun Zenith and Creeping Tarpits as the win cons. Also are there any teaching lists other than the Worlds lists and GP Columbus (i think)?
I'm sure after some testing you should have figured out that geist of st traft is complete garbage against the rg aggro matchup... if anything he goes in against the control mirror.
@neofit- Yes feeling of dread is really good against all the aggro running around. What is your board right now? If you run into control you might have some issues. 3 Feeling of Dread and 5 Sweepers is a lot of dedicated hate towards aggro. Also I don't feel like thought scour is correct. Milling doesn't benefit you at all. No pike and no sun titan. I might try -3 thought scour, +1 think twice, +1 ponder +1 Land for consistency issues.
I'm curious how everyone's zombies matchup is going. Messanger has been giving me fits with any control deck I play.
Dilopez- I would cut noxious revival. I know the idea is to put cast miracles back on top but it is a dead card in a lot of situations and honestly the 2 damage is pretty big. The images should be actual finishers. What are you going to do when playing some of the aggro decks and can only copy say a champion of the parish? It's also a dead card a lot of times as well is what I'm getting at. Consecrated sphinx works in his spot as does frost Titan if you can't get a sphinx. I love entreat when I miracle it so 3 is fine but don't get too upset when you draw it too early since you will have two more coming. Hopefully. I like that you have negate. It's a lot better than mana leak now. I may sound like an idiot here but have you tried main decking timely reinforcements? It's good in the format right now. It allows for a trade with Geist and gets you some life to get out of the red zone. It chumps thrun until they get kessig online and it can get liliana if it needs to. The evolving wilds should be ghost quarters. We can support colorless lands and still not run into color issues. An out to inkmoths is necessary. I can't really comment on temporal mastery though. Personally I'm not a fan. How has it performed for you? Other than that it's a good place to start. Keep testing and let us know how it goes. Hopefully that helped a little.
I'm going to agree with panda farmer and say black adds a lot to this deck. I've been pushing and pushing for u/w to be competitive and it does run hot sometimes. I think this deck needs to be pushed into the tap out version as of now. Counters are too much of a liability and can be stuck sittin in hand. Miracles are too hit or miss. The deck has a solid foundation I'm just not sure right now is a good time (competitively) for the deck to shine. Geist, conscripts, lingering souls. There is a ton of card advantage and blowouts in the other colors for good old doj and Gideon to shine. They're simply outclassed currently.
I like how that list is running no counters main. It always feels awkward not having them but it does seem like a tap out build is better suited for the decks around right now. I'm not a fan of the deck as a whole I think it's trying to do too much at once but I agree feeling of dread is really good. I'm curious about his control matchup. Right now my list is very good against aggro, 50/50 wolf run but pretty much a game loss against control and hope to board into a better build vs control. Has anyone tested fettergeist as a 4 drop? a 3/4 flyer seems ok for 3. The drawback is almost nothing considering we only run 3-4 creatures in the deck. I'm going to be testing tomorrow so I'll repost about this deck tomorrow.
Why isn't anyone mainboarding timely reinforcements? Maybe a 1 or 2 of. If aggro is becoming the deck to beat then timely seems good in my opinion. It gets you up 6 life throws three soldiers under the bus and then day the next turn. Worst case scenario it gains 6 life against aggro. I'll admit it is subpar against control though.
This is what I ran at scg iq glen burnie. I tested your deck the previous fnm and it performed poorly. Maybe I wasn't running it right but I feel like you want to stream line wolf run as much as possible and not durdle with cards like faithless looting alchemists refuge and desolate lighthouse. I also feel like galvanic blast is better than pillar of flame. I understand it pillar exiles but I also know that other than frost titan and the singleton slime(with no gsz) there is no out to inkmoth. Here's my list
The sideboard seemed pretty standard. I went 3-4 which seemed to me pretty poor but I can give some insight and a mini report
rd 1 0-2 Bant Pod
Game 1 He lands t3 Venser. t4 acidic slime and that's game from there.
Game 2 I slagstorm his mana dorks then he sticks diginitary followed by titan and locks me out
rd2 0-2 U/B Zombies
Game 1 He was just too fast I couldn't draw any removal
Game 2 He boards in appetite for brains and casts 2 and pulls two inferno titans. I had the 2-4-6 plan going but he pulled the inferno's and i missed land #6 but by that point I was so far behind it didnt matter
rd 3 2-0 G/W Humans
Game 1 Slagstorm his champion of the parish and tokens. Stick inferno win from there
Game 2 Slagstorm his guys. He lands paladin and hero of bladehold but I land frost titan to lock down hero. Primeval follows followed eventually by a bonfire for 12 and 2 titans hitting him to end it
rd 4 2-0 R/W Humans
Game 1 she plays t1 champion followed by t2 gather. I bonfire for 1 and galv blast t4. She floods I win with inferno
Game 2 she mulligans to 5. Misses some land drops I stick frost titan to keep her off red and land a second and beat down from there
rd 5 0-2 Wolf Run Ramp
Game 1 he won dice roll and played 2-4-6. I do the same with frost titan to lock primeval down. he goes infect route and i galv blast his first nexus followed by inferno. It came down to he went first because i had him down to 2 before he poisoned me to death.
Game 2 he boards in glimmerposts and vorinclex. I mulligan to 6 he 2-4-6's and i don't he follows with gsz for vorinclex and wins with that.
rd 6 0-2 B/R Vamps?
I do not remember this deck at all except it had falkenrath noble, geralf's messanger, gravecrawler and blood artist. I draw 1 galv blast in the round and that didn't save me.
Rd 6 2-1 Wolf Run Ramp
Pretty bad notes at this time. I know I played poorly and still managed to win this round.
Overall I think the deck is fine. Mana is not stretched at all. I think I missed red once that day. Amass the components could be a lot of different things but I felt like it is fine late game when we're out of cards and it is an additional 4 drop with solemn. Bonfire is really good. I don't think it's good in decks like g/r aggro but we can afford the nonmiracle cost which makes it's use much more acceptable in my mind.
The only thing I'm not happy with are the ratchet bombs but that's because I've rarely ran into tokens or liliana. I'm pretty surprised u/w hasn't seen any results yet. I feel like this deck is very good. Not as good as last seasons u/w but good enough to keep up.
Regarding the other comments so far. Snapcaster doesn't seem great as a 4 of to me. Rebuying a DoJ is nice at 6 (if you're still alive) but you need to actually have DoJ in hand t4to get to that point where you can buy it back turn 6 not to mention the card has to be in the grave for snapcaster to target it. He is good there is no arguing but you do not want a hand full of snapcasters and no removal to start with. Is there a reason we are not running haunted fengraf? We were running buried ruin just a little while ago so why not switch it to fengraf to buy back finishers or even snaps? How is Elspeth working for you? Is she better for you then tamiyo? I think elspeth may be better against the aggro matchups but tamiyo shores up the wolf run match up from what i've experienced. I also think that 7 counterspells may be a bit excessive. Cavern of souls is a real card and without a way of neutralizing it your counters aren't as good. I'm not trying to discount counterspells completely because they are still very good against everything not a creature but in this aggro format don't we want to be more proactive? I also think gut shot is big for us. Thalia pushing sweepers down to t5 at the earliest is a big deal if there is no life gain.
I think i'll leave with that. Any suggestions on the replacement card for ratchet bomb? Feeling of Dread or Timely seem like decent options.
I'm curious how everyone's zombies matchup is going. Messanger has been giving me fits with any control deck I play.
3 Frost Titan
2 Inferno Titan
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Rampant Growth
4 Slagstorm
4 Glavanic Blast
3 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Amass the Components
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Copperline Gorge
3 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
5 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Island
The sideboard seemed pretty standard. I went 3-4 which seemed to me pretty poor but I can give some insight and a mini report
rd 1 0-2 Bant Pod
Game 1 He lands t3 Venser. t4 acidic slime and that's game from there.
Game 2 I slagstorm his mana dorks then he sticks diginitary followed by titan and locks me out
rd2 0-2 U/B Zombies
Game 1 He was just too fast I couldn't draw any removal
Game 2 He boards in appetite for brains and casts 2 and pulls two inferno titans. I had the 2-4-6 plan going but he pulled the inferno's and i missed land #6 but by that point I was so far behind it didnt matter
rd 3 2-0 G/W Humans
Game 1 Slagstorm his champion of the parish and tokens. Stick inferno win from there
Game 2 Slagstorm his guys. He lands paladin and hero of bladehold but I land frost titan to lock down hero. Primeval follows followed eventually by a bonfire for 12 and 2 titans hitting him to end it
rd 4 2-0 R/W Humans
Game 1 she plays t1 champion followed by t2 gather. I bonfire for 1 and galv blast t4. She floods I win with inferno
Game 2 she mulligans to 5. Misses some land drops I stick frost titan to keep her off red and land a second and beat down from there
rd 5 0-2 Wolf Run Ramp
Game 1 he won dice roll and played 2-4-6. I do the same with frost titan to lock primeval down. he goes infect route and i galv blast his first nexus followed by inferno. It came down to he went first because i had him down to 2 before he poisoned me to death.
Game 2 he boards in glimmerposts and vorinclex. I mulligan to 6 he 2-4-6's and i don't he follows with gsz for vorinclex and wins with that.
rd 6 0-2 B/R Vamps?
I do not remember this deck at all except it had falkenrath noble, geralf's messanger, gravecrawler and blood artist. I draw 1 galv blast in the round and that didn't save me.
Rd 6 2-1 Wolf Run Ramp
Pretty bad notes at this time. I know I played poorly and still managed to win this round.
Overall I think the deck is fine. Mana is not stretched at all. I think I missed red once that day. Amass the components could be a lot of different things but I felt like it is fine late game when we're out of cards and it is an additional 4 drop with solemn. Bonfire is really good. I don't think it's good in decks like g/r aggro but we can afford the nonmiracle cost which makes it's use much more acceptable in my mind.
2 Gideon Jura
1 Karn Liberated
2 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Ponder
4 Think Twice
3 Day of Judgement
3 Terminus
2 Gut Shot
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Blue Sun Zenith
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
1 Negate
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Haunted Fengraf
7 Islands
6 Plains
The only thing I'm not happy with are the ratchet bombs but that's because I've rarely ran into tokens or liliana. I'm pretty surprised u/w hasn't seen any results yet. I feel like this deck is very good. Not as good as last seasons u/w but good enough to keep up.
Regarding the other comments so far. Snapcaster doesn't seem great as a 4 of to me. Rebuying a DoJ is nice at 6 (if you're still alive) but you need to actually have DoJ in hand t4to get to that point where you can buy it back turn 6 not to mention the card has to be in the grave for snapcaster to target it. He is good there is no arguing but you do not want a hand full of snapcasters and no removal to start with. Is there a reason we are not running haunted fengraf? We were running buried ruin just a little while ago so why not switch it to fengraf to buy back finishers or even snaps? How is Elspeth working for you? Is she better for you then tamiyo? I think elspeth may be better against the aggro matchups but tamiyo shores up the wolf run match up from what i've experienced. I also think that 7 counterspells may be a bit excessive. Cavern of souls is a real card and without a way of neutralizing it your counters aren't as good. I'm not trying to discount counterspells completely because they are still very good against everything not a creature but in this aggro format don't we want to be more proactive? I also think gut shot is big for us. Thalia pushing sweepers down to t5 at the earliest is a big deal if there is no life gain.
I think i'll leave with that. Any suggestions on the replacement card for ratchet bomb? Feeling of Dread or Timely seem like decent options.