MTG Salvation

@Shiwei87tan: Actually looks like a Kiki combo control build more than anything. They tend to run Omens and lots of Resto. Not sure if this is considered midrange or control, but I'd likely add a couple Kiki mainboard. Likely cut the Blade Splicers to make room as they are fairly week. Given we have a lot of topend, Batterskull should probably just be in the sideboard. The couple extra slots could be further counters like Spell Snare.

I think the main reason why Keranos is so appealing is that it's both a win-con and a card advantage engine for a long grindy game. The fact that he cannot be destroyed is also pretty big here.

Quote from Celestial_Crusader »

What do you guys think about Thassa, God of the Sea? Scry every turn isn't too shabby, and it's activated ability pairs nicely with Geist, letting him swing without worrying about it getting blocked.

Doesn't do enough unless we can get it active as a creature reliably (which we can't). I'd much rather have Keranos in a spot like that, as it can win on its own.

That combo suits the control style deck. It isn't necessary or really any good added to the aggressive Geist version. Essentially doesn't fit the game plan and makes for some awkward hands. Maybe a consideration for the Sideboard though if you wanted to transistion from the Geist plan. There's some implications in your manabase and spell composition main though, since you'll want to be more of a control shell after siding.

At that rate I'd rather be running Molten Rain. Seas cannot screw an opponent who is already on blue. Also putting them down a mana is an important aspect of its effectiveness.

Quote from Lectrys »

Quote from GreatNateMTG »

I'm not saying it has no place in the deck, but I like anticipate more in decks with a good number of high impact one or two of's. You can make a case that we have a couple like Thundermaw, or Batterskull, but I am thinking more along the lines of finding sweepers, or Sphinx's Rev as an example. This version of UWR Midrange has eschewed selection in favor of redundancy. Think about it, if you Anticipate and see burn spell, burn spell, burn spell, it was effectively a can trip and you got zero value from the selection factor. Now that's not likely to happen of course, I am just illustrating a point that the deck tries to be redundant enough to not need the selection. Twin decks on the other hand value the selection because they can assemble a combo that suddenly wins the game.

Even in seriously redundant decks (like Legacy Thresh variants (which play tons of 4-ofs, ~12 creatures, 4+ removal spells, 8+ counterspells...) and supposedly this deck), I've found that selection-providing cantrips give me cards with significantly higher card quality than plain old cantrips. I typically see something like land-disruption-threat or land-land-disruption/threat whenever I resolve Anticipate in this deck. At least in another URx Midrange deck, I've even flipped 3 lands before, then took the only land that could tap for red mana because I was colour-screwed at the time.

Similarly, I think Anticipate works even in the Midrange build purely for consistency. Hitting the 3rd or 4th land drop. Finding that key removal or burn to close it out. Reloading on Geist after they find a way to answer it, etc.

Also, it comes in handy to make our singleton sideboard cards a lot more relevant, as well as opens us up to some spicy one-of variety in our flexslots, that would otherwise be 2-3-of.

Main issues I have with Serum Visions is:

1. It's a sorcery. So it limits how we interact in the early game.
2. It's a blind draw. The filtering comes from Scry, which can be pretty awkward early with fetches.
3. It's not as effective late in digging to the right answer.

I personally think instant speed is worth the extra 1.

Yeah. I wouldn't go below 24 because we still want to get into the higher mana counts.

I was thinking along the lines of:

24x Land + 3-4x Anticipate

or

25x Land + 2x Anticipate

Either way, likely going to need to cut 1 or 2 spells to make it fit. Going down to 3-of on Helixes or Paths doesn't sound that bad though given the filtering should help us hit what we need.

This has been brought up a couple times.

I think we could probably run 2x Anticipate easily. The control versions of this deck have had a few instances of the card being run as a 2-4-of. I think it's much better than Telling Time.

We can likely cut a land for 2-3 of them. The trouble is that the midrange version of the deck is a lot more intensive on getting early game going, so casting it becomes awkward. However, the fact that its a cheap mini dig through time I think makes it valuable late as well.

Quote from Davidalb »

So I can't play blue because I don't have snapcaster, and I can't play green because I don't have goyfs. Oh well :/

This deck doesn't play cryptic much at the moment, so all good there.

You can play blue decks without Snapcaster. It's a huge card to lose though.

You could try slotting in Young Pyromancer as a more aggressive build.

If you are getting into modern and really like UWR, then assemble the basics and build from there.



Serum Visions can be Gitaxian Probe or Anticipate. Spell snares can be Spell Pierce. You could also cut 2 Angels, a Land, and a Helix and consider putting in 4 Delver of Secrets to go even more aggressive.

But it sounds like you have access to most of this stuff already, and it's just the Snaps and Cryptics that are difficult.

They will have to reprint Snappy at some point, so you can wait or save up a bit of money to get him. He's a great card that's good in Legacy too, so its a good investment.

Maybe they should be in the OK matchups. The Geist version isn't quite as good vs them as the control deck, due to the lack of many cheap mainboard counters as your mentioned. I reckon if they get a quick start on us, it's difficult to stabilize. If they have Guide turn 1, do we fetch shock to bolt it? Do we fetch a mountain and then risk color screw? I don't think it's a good match-up.

Certainly one that gets much better post board if we are packing stuff like Firewalker and Timely.

Quote from Celestial_Crusader »

Glad to hear you did well. This is a silly question, but I am wondering, why do we need 25 lands when Esper Mentor only runs 22 lands? Could we go down to 24 lands?

The Esper decks play stuff like Thought Scour, Serum Visons, Gitaxian Probe, and Anticipate. This is in addition to Remand.

If you count each of the 1-mana cantrips as about 1/2 of a land and your running 8 of the effect (which they do), then 22 isn't actually that much different than 25-26x.

Add the fact that they don't play much above 3CMC (mainly just Mentor, as the rest of the deck is mostly soft counters, discard, and removal).

We play a higher curve generally with more 3 drops and some 4 drops. Though, if you wanted to try UWR with 4x Serum Visions, I think you could cut 1-2 land and go to 23-24x. I think the same could be said about running 3-4x Anticipate.

Trouble with reducing land count with cantrips is that it only makes it more reliable to hit land drops for the first few turns (essentially helps you hit 2-3 lands). If the curve is higher, you still need a decent number of lands.

I agree with Celestial. The loss against Affinity given the sideboard.

I'd probably try to make room in the mainboard for the Batterskull and then find a way to fit in some dedicated hate for the robot menace.

UWR's matchups don't vary all that much. We have a pretty decent game against the field, but not many very good or very bad ones. The deck can be tuned to beat most other decks, but cant be setup to beat everything. IMHO it breaks down along these lines:

Hard Matchups: Tron, Junk, BW Tokens, Burn

Ok Matchups: Infect, Twin, Affinity, Merfolk, Zoo, Martyr Life

Good Matchups: Bloom Titan, Scapeshift, Storm

Discard tends to be pretty bad for us. Tron goes over the top and Burn is pretty relentless. Most of our other Matchups are manageable to good. A lot of the time we will be the underdog game 1 but post sideboard have the advantage.

Concerning the 4/5s. You could run Combust for Twin as it has flexibility vs Seige Rhino. I don't know if Roast is good enough for Modern, but it does kill many commonly sized Tarmogoyfs as well as Rhino, Tasigur, and Angler.

Actually, Lingering Souls is often a bigger problem than the beaters. Path generally does the heavy lifting there. However, Souls makes for a board state we can't effectively answer without a sweeper.

This is part of why I prefer having a transitional game plan in the sideboard (in reality we only really have to have 4 slots in the SB to swap out Geist). Some Matchups the control version of the deck is better positioned. Some Matchups the aggressive half is what you want.

Quote from Petros »

Hi guys,

What do you think about Brimaz, King of Oreskos in 2-3 copies instead of V. Clique/Blade Splicer? He dodges Bolt, Helix, Electrolyze and can take game on it's own. He's great when we're ahead or behind. AND he can be pumped with Shinka!

I like him, and I think there is potential there, but I cannot see cutting any of the other creatures for him. Clique is far and away better and I wouldn't want him over Resto. Perhaps he's better than some of the 5-drops? I dunno, seems like most of our other options are better right now.

His main issue is that he doesn't do anything when he hits the board. He isn't particularly big, so will be outclassed by many of the other ground creatures. He has no evasion, or protection. Lastly, he requires WW.

Perhaps meta specific. If low aggro decks are really popular then he could be good.