Ugin or bust. The match up is definitely a tough one and I think you really gotta use your life total as a punching bag until you can stabilize the board.
I'd also like to hear more input but personally I bring in removal, GY hate, crucible, and an extra coil / ballista.
I recently switched out my Epiphany for a Supreme Will. I think those two definitely fight for the same spot and that overall Supreme Will is going to give me more flexibility. Having a hard counter is always great, and besides matches where you simply blow the opponent out with a massive Epiphany, you're casting it looking for something specific that your opponent can stop you from having.
Also, Supreme has more synergy with snap / gearhulk
I'm playing GB Tron currently and seem to be struggling against UW Control lately. Any ideas on how I can tackle this matchup?
Been having the same problem... seems that the UW builds are now running up to 4 Field of Ruins and 4 Spreading Seas mainboard. That match up has gone from steamroll to nightmare reallll quick
Yeah that doesn't sound right, 1 Tolaria should be more than enough. Don't forget after all we don't rely on that immediate tron configuration like the green versions do
Also just wanted to throw my list into the stratosphere, I've been super happy with it lately.
Sideboard is full of silver bullets for Trinket Mage which gives so much more incentive to run him imo
2nd Ugin could easily be a Platinum Angel which I cut recently but I haven't missed her at all
Thinking of replacing Epiphany with Supreme Will for a little more interaction. I know Epiphany can be a win-more card, but it's also dug me out of a hole numerous times in drawn out games when you slam it for like 12-15 and just win out of nowhere
I'd love to fit a couple mana rocks into the list for EE but I have no idea what to cut
Picked up a copy of Horizon Canopy @ 30$ just in case the card ends up rebounding. I've noticed there's a pretty crazy demand for them in buy/sell groups that the supply doesn't seem to be keeping up with. Everyone wants them for 25~ but no one is giving them away for that.
Haha you'd have to be trying to lose that matchup but I get what you're saying.
edit: ALso doesn't really answer the question since the MU is extremely favorable and not really one where tec edge is more relevant than other LD options
I also run the 2-1 chalice split. It's hard to justify a third main board but I want a high enough variance with it that I can steal game one when it's relevant.
Can't decide where I stand on the GQ/ Tec Edge / Field split. Ideally I'd love to be 1 GQ mainboard and 1 Field sideboard but as it's been pointed out tec edge is significantly more relevant against scapeshift. Any other MUs where tec edge shines?
Yeah boi ! Been advocating that trinket/treasure split for a while now, and I've been running an almost identical list for about a month now. Glad you're seeing success with it.
Curious about your sideboard in that you don't run any silver bullets for trinket mage such as pithing needle, relic, tormod's, graffdigger, etc. For me, that's always been a big incentive
Loving that troopa list, it's practically an identical mainboard to what I've been running.
People all have different opinions on platinum angel. Personally for me, I cut it recently for a second Ugin. Ugin almost always wins you the game when he lands on the board and I'd just rather be proactive than playing angel and praying nothing happens to it.
Smells like a buyout to me. As you said, 4c humans just had a breakout in modern and there's a lot of hype around it. Add that to the fact that ziggurat only has a few print runs and the conditions seem ripe.
That being said, there's still a few floating on ebay if anyone is sweating to pick them up.
My big problem with chalice has been that without the usual good matchups for it being common I often feel like it just doesn't accomplish that much. Against discard decks especially I find that vs discard heavy hands it usually just gets taken first, and otherwise my opponent are just playing cards that don't get hit by chalice on 1 and by turn 3/4 I would rather be doing other things besides dropping chalice on 2. My meta seems to favor traditional BGx, eldrazi, and other random grindy decks like fae and tokens, with a smattering of control and combo. As metas go it's a pretty favorable one, I just can't seem to shake the feeling that I'm playing too many cards that aren't impactful enough against the decks I see often. I really like the idea of playing spell pierce, and might throw an extra gemstone back in my board.
I've been really resistant to playing leylines because I don't like the idea of having a card in my deck that's unstable after t1. I know there's been other discussion of it on here before. If I am playing against a ton of discard is it worth it?
My playstyle tends to be to play like a draw go control deck first, then tron. Should I be trying to force early tron more against the kinds of decks I'm seeing? I'm also a fan of keeping land heavy hands, which I could see being a source of my discard woes.
I also briefly flirted with Opt, but was underwhelmed.
Thank you so much for your help!
That sounds like a meta ripe for U-Tron to be honest as most of what you listed are good MUs. For a little boost against tokens tho I think you'd do well replacing fabricate with trinket mage and jamming an engineered explosives in there. Also, chalice is pretty strong against BGx decks and stopping discard. If they pick off chalice turn 0 with IoK/thoughtsieze that's fine because we have recursion and we're likely to just bury them in card advantage from what they didn't take instead.
I gotta say I'm super surprised about the amount of people that are against trinket mage and walking ballista, especially when they'd rather play fabricate ? The deck is built around getting card advantage off each spell and trinket does exactly that. It replaces a card in your hand, gives you a 2/2 body, and can either tutor a wincon (ballista), hate (chalice), sweeper (explosives), or mana fixing (map). It also allows you to run a bunch of silver bullets out of the sideboard.
As for mana rocks I love them, but I struggle to find a place in the mainboard to squeeze them in. Already I can't get every spell I want in there and it's not as though the deck every struggles to curve out. That being said I'm up to 2 engineered explosives (1 main, 1 side), and I would loooove some rocks to get it up to CMC 3.
I'd also like to hear more input but personally I bring in removal, GY hate, crucible, and an extra coil / ballista.
2 Supreme Will also looks a little slow in theory, but I haven't test it enough to say that definitively.
Also, Supreme has more synergy with snap / gearhulk
Been having the same problem... seems that the UW builds are now running up to 4 Field of Ruins and 4 Spreading Seas mainboard. That match up has gone from steamroll to nightmare reallll quick
Haha whoops ! Thanks you, fixed that up
Also just wanted to throw my list into the stratosphere, I've been super happy with it lately.
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sundering Titan
1 Treasure Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Walking Ballista
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Insants
4 Condescend
2 Dismember
1 Epiphany at the Drownyard
3 Remand
3 Repeal
4 Thirst for Knowledge
Artifacts
4 Expedition Map
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Oblivion Stone
2 Mindslaver
1 Academy Ruins
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Field of Ruin
6 Island
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
2 River of Tears
1 Tolaria West
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
Planeswalker
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Spreading Seas
2 Dismember
1 Negate
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Tectonic Edge
Couple of notes:
edit: ALso doesn't really answer the question since the MU is extremely favorable and not really one where tec edge is more relevant than other LD options
Can't decide where I stand on the GQ/ Tec Edge / Field split. Ideally I'd love to be 1 GQ mainboard and 1 Field sideboard but as it's been pointed out tec edge is significantly more relevant against scapeshift. Any other MUs where tec edge shines?
Curious about your sideboard in that you don't run any silver bullets for trinket mage such as pithing needle, relic, tormod's, graffdigger, etc. For me, that's always been a big incentive
People all have different opinions on platinum angel. Personally for me, I cut it recently for a second Ugin. Ugin almost always wins you the game when he lands on the board and I'd just rather be proactive than playing angel and praying nothing happens to it.
That being said, there's still a few floating on ebay if anyone is sweating to pick them up.
That sounds like a meta ripe for U-Tron to be honest as most of what you listed are good MUs. For a little boost against tokens tho I think you'd do well replacing fabricate with trinket mage and jamming an engineered explosives in there. Also, chalice is pretty strong against BGx decks and stopping discard. If they pick off chalice turn 0 with IoK/thoughtsieze that's fine because we have recursion and we're likely to just bury them in card advantage from what they didn't take instead.
As for mana rocks I love them, but I struggle to find a place in the mainboard to squeeze them in. Already I can't get every spell I want in there and it's not as though the deck every struggles to curve out. That being said I'm up to 2 engineered explosives (1 main, 1 side), and I would loooove some rocks to get it up to CMC 3.