MTG Salvation

Absorb has been great for me. I always enjoyed playing 5 wipes... Been changing from Verdict to Settle depending whether Dredge is around or if GDS is around. DSphere is an obligatory 1of, probably a 2of. This would depend if your meta has too many Tron, BGx, UWx.

More recently I've been tempted to cut the mainboard DSphere and a flex slot for 2 mainboard Cliques. Free up some sb space and have a mirror breaker in for g1. I've personally been feeling lackluster in control matchups lately, maybe I just need more experience tho.

Clique is good against Tron and BGx (to pressure Lili) as well, and chumps/trades with other creatures.

Quote from Ryguyasaurus »

Hey All,

Been a follower on here for awhile but don’t post much. Thought I’d share a list for feedback and discussion. I’ve been on this deck forever and have played so many iterations and tried just about everything in flex slots. This is currently what I have settled on.

I don’t play oust (or condemn) and haven’t for awhile. Path plus an extra cheap counter has always felt “good enough” so I don’t need the extra cheap removal.

On that note, I have been playing BA lately over maindeck Timely and it has been great. While it isn’t “spot” removal it has so many applications right now I don’t know if I wouldn’t play it. I’ve noticed it’s power just with simple things like having GDS player gain the life, killing shadow and then having them Sac an angler. Or against affinity having a way to deal with champion that isn’t a board wipe.

Anyway the list,

TheAnnihilator0798's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures:3 2 Snapcaster Mage 1 Vendilion Clique Spells:32 4 Opt 4 Path to Exile 1 Serum Visions 1 Blessed Alliance 1 Logic Knot 1 Mana Leak 2 Negate 1 Search for Azcanta 2 Detention Sphere 4 Cryptic Command 1 Hieroglyphic Illumination 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1 Supreme Verdict 2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria 4 Terminus	Lands:25 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Field of Ruin 4 Flooded Strand 1 Ghost Quarter 2 Glacial Fortress 2 Hallowed Fountain 6 Island 2 Plains	Sideboard:15 1 Spell Queller 1 Baneslayer Angel 1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk 1 Lyra Dawnbringer 2 Dispel 1 Surgical Extraction 1 Celestial Purge 1 Disdainful Stroke 2 Rest in Peace 2 Stony Silence 2 Timely Reinforcements

I think your list looks fine, but it leads me to a few questions for everyone.

Firstly, how many of you are on only 1 Azcanta? I've found it to be essential in finding Terminus on time, and great in mirrors. I play 2.

How do you feel about 1 Absorb? I've been loving it so far, played in a few events and did well (in both UW and UWx).

Why are people still on a mainboard Verdict? I used to play it, but I realised that I'm playing Terminus because Verdict is pretty bad right now. Any thoughts on cutting it or maybe playing a Settle if you want?

How many of you are on mainboard DSpheres, and how many do you play? I like to play 1, but it's been a very long time since I played 2 main.

I've been playing a 1/1 split of Oust/Condemn and it's been fine. I'm thinking about Alliance main as well, since I haven't seen Humans in weeks at my LGS, and we regularly get 20+ people per FNM.

I'm not gonna clog up this thread, but for anyone who's interested, I'm brewing up a Bant Control list with Growth Spiral and Wilderness Reclamation in addition to the usual miracles stuff. So far it seems to have legs.

Bant Draw-Go: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/804451-bant-draw-go-control

Gideon is at his best in certain combo matchups and a number of fair matchups. I find I rarely board him out (because oftentimes a clock is required to games 2/3, but mostly because he's just a good card). Gideon is at his absolute best against Shadow and Infect, given that you can safely tap out or low for him. In other words, decks with low threat counts that are just forced to overcommit into a sweeper. He's also good against decks that rely on manlands to supplement few threats, like Rock and Jund. He used to be amazing vs. the mirror, but that was a time when you could cut your opponent off of white with Seas. More recently, I've found Gideon otT to be pretty bad against control opponents in general (well, the ones that play Path anyways). And obviously he's great against burn, even if he just eats a card and an attack it's usually fine. You win against Burn by small margins sometimes.

As for the combo decks he's good against, the main one is Ad Naus. They literally can't beat a Gid emblem game one, and usually not in G2 either. Otherwise, it's not a great card in combo matchups -- see Storm, KCI, etc. Anything that you wouldn't tap out t3 for a 4/4 platinum angel against, basically.

Then there are a few matchups where he's hit-or-miss against. Things like Humans and Affinity, where sometimes they flood the board super fast and just kill Gideon, but other times you line up counters and answers to isolate their board to one main threat and uptick it with Gideon. In general, I don't like Gideon against these matchups, but he's not always bad in G1 -- and can sometimes take over the game completely after a boardwipe.

Quote from DaveJacinto »

Quote from TheAnnihilator0798 »

Quote from EoTGifts »

It seems that the 3/2 split is pretty much consensus, so I'll just try it myself and see whether it improves things. Maybe the third JTMS then takes the slot of the fourth Terminus, with a couple of cantrips and such we should be able to find them. How many 4 mana wraths do you play? I currently opted für a 1-of Verdict, 4 mana still seems a little clunky, especially against hasty threats (and they are pretty bad against Phoenix).

I don't recommend cutting any Terminus. You're putting them in your deck to cast them consistently, so go all in and play 4. You'll get used to it. The slots I could see cutting from the list you posted before are the 2nd Snare, the Mission Briefing, and the 2nd Negate.

I do run 1 Verdict because it seems pretty standard, but I'm starting to wonder if it's even necessary -- many of the deck we want boardwipes against laugh at Verdict (Dredge, Hollow One, Bridgevine, Bogles with totem armor, etc). Against everyone else, 4 mana wraths actually seem pretty bad. Does anyone else feel similarly? The only decks I can think of that I actually want Verdict against are Humans and Affinity, and Affinity loses pretty hard to Terminus anyways.

Personally, I was running a split of Wrath/Verdict main for a long time to compensate for the fact that I wasn't totally comfortable playing Terminus. Now that I've gotten a decent grasp on how to play with Terminus in the list, I don't feel like I even need the 1 Verdict I currently run.

My account was deleted and so all my posts... I'm unsure if I replied to this or not...

If for some reason you're playing less than 3 JtMS I'd recommend playing 3/2 terminus/4cmc wipes split. From my experience, I had too many clunky hands with terminus and little to no way to remove them from my hand. When I decided to play the 3rd Jace I brought the 4th Terminus in and cut one of my 4cmc wipes. I would never cut a Jace for a Terminus, they need each other, in reality you're only playing Terminus because there's Jace and you only play Jace because you need Terminus.

Now I'm running 4 Terminus and 1 Settle the Wreckage because on my local meta there's a lot of Phoenix and Dredge decks which are better answered with Settle. Since there's a slight resurgence of GDS, I have a Supreme on my sideboard just in case.

I'm not sure it's worth the inconsistency to run 2 Jace 3 Terminus instead of just conceding game 1's vs Dredge and Pheonix and coming in with sideboard tech to swoop games 2 and 3. I mean dedicated hate, like Settles, 4/5 gy hate pieces (Surgical/RIP), 2 Purges or 1 Purge/1 DSphere, etc. That way, you're gaining percentage points in the fairer matchups and playing the sideboard/matchup roulette like everyone else. If you play Terminus with too few ways to put it back on top, then you're setting yourself up to draw it early and lose to having no boardwipe against otherwise good matchups.

I'd much rather pivot to a Gideon otT, and Gideon Ally list with a set of 4 mana wraths, personally.

Otherwise, I 100% agree with your sentiment on the Jace/Terminus dependency.

Quote from EoTGifts »

It seems that the 3/2 split is pretty much consensus, so I'll just try it myself and see whether it improves things. Maybe the third JTMS then takes the slot of the fourth Terminus, with a couple of cantrips and such we should be able to find them. How many 4 mana wraths do you play? I currently opted für a 1-of Verdict, 4 mana still seems a little clunky, especially against hasty threats (and they are pretty bad against Phoenix).

I don't recommend cutting any Terminus. You're putting them in your deck to cast them consistently, so go all in and play 4. You'll get used to it. The slots I could see cutting from the list you posted before are the 2nd Snare, the Mission Briefing, and the 2nd Negate.

I do run 1 Verdict because it seems pretty standard, but I'm starting to wonder if it's even necessary -- many of the deck we want boardwipes against laugh at Verdict (Dredge, Hollow One, Bridgevine, Bogles with totem armor, etc). Against everyone else, 4 mana wraths actually seem pretty bad. Does anyone else feel similarly? The only decks I can think of that I actually want Verdict against are Humans and Affinity, and Affinity loses pretty hard to Terminus anyways.

Personally, I was running a split of Wrath/Verdict main for a long time to compensate for the fact that I wasn't totally comfortable playing Terminus. Now that I've gotten a decent grasp on how to play with Terminus in the list, I don't feel like I even need the 1 Verdict I currently run.

Quote from EoTGifts »

I am glad you had a look. You are mostly right, the meta consists of quite a chunk of G Tron, Valakut and a few control variants (mostly UWx, but also UBx) against which Crucible is the all-star. One thing Mouth of Ronom also does is deal with manlands, which is one of the reasons if not the reason to play 4-5 LD lands, so this slot doesn't miss out on this aspect. Additionally, against aggressive strategies (of which there are some in every meta I guess) it gives some extra outs.

Regarding Entreat this is also my take, stealing some games with a set up Entreat at the end of the opponent's turn, but it's a fringe application which is why I have gone down to a single one. The number of PWs is atm. tailored such that I can assemble the list from my binder, basically. I was thinking of going up to 2 Teferis which would make a 2/2 split. How crucial is the 3rd Jace in your opinion?

I personally wouldn't play fewer than 3 Jaces. I know it's only 1 card, but the impact is definitely noticeable, to the point where I felt like my list with 2 Jaces was too clunky and my list with 3 is fine.

I've been playing 2 Ousts main for a while and I have to admit that I haven't seen humans around much these days. I only play at FNM anyways, so maybe it's not very representative. Anyways, it may be worth it to play Condemn instead, though I'd probably split the 2 Oust into a Condemn and either an Alliance main or a 2nd DSphere.

I will also be playing an Absorb to see how it goes, not sure what the cut is tho.

Funny question. If you guys were to play a build without Terminus, what would it look like? Would you be on Spreading Seas? Mainboard Settles? I've been testing around with the Terminus builds, but I completely abhor Opt and other options, such as Hieroglyphic Illumination, and I've never been particularly impressed by Jace either (even though I own a few copies). I mulligan away Terminus far more often than I miracle it!

I only really play locally, so I figured I can just play what I want. Here's my current list:

Quote from Galerion »

Hi guys

I asked this already in a dedicated thread but didn't get that many responses so I figured I might ask people playing the deck directly. Here is the short version of it. Im a returning player who left shorty after the AV/Sword unbannings but now I want to get into Magic again. I am an online only player and I can either get Jund or UW Control but not both. I have already played both decks in the past so I know what Im getting into.

So how do you guys see UW Control positioned currently and in the foreseeable future? Is it a good time to get into the deck?
And lastly what happened in the last two years? When I left UW/x Control was always kinda there but never really in the spotlight and at the top but that seems to have changed.

I think that, for the moment at least, Jund isn't in a great place (idk why, I don't play it). I personally think that UW has been getting better and better and and it definitely has to do with a few cards in particular: Field of Ruin has been a huge boon to the archetype that people never seem to mention, but it's been a very nice effect to have and playing 4 has been a main draw for me to play UW over having any splash color. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Search for Azcanta have great, and the Jace, the Mind Sculptor unban made miracles both playable and a top contender. But before all of these, there were also some 4 Spreading Seas/4 Field UW lists with Gideon of the Trials and friends that even made tier 1 for a little while, so UW has been pretty good for a while. If you were to buy into UW, I almost guarantee you will have a playable deck in some form, and splashing R or B is pretty easy once you have the core.

Not to hate on Jund, but I feel that its Abzan and BG counterparts aren't on the same level as Jund is (at least until a SFM unban), while both UW and Jeskai are most certainly playable, and Esper is alright but has seen better times. So, competitively, UWx gives you more customization.

How do you guys feel about playing 1 Prairie Stream over the 2nd Hallowed Fountain? I know it's been tried before, but we don't need as many white sources as we did when we played Gid of the Trials and 3/4 wraths.

Colonnade -> Island -> Plains/Island/Field+activate -> fetch Stream seems Ideal.

I feel like Gideon Ally is better than Elspeth KE. I've been playing one main for a while and really liking it.

I'm willing to evolve to Miracles for a lil bit. =D Any tips for those who haven't had a lot of experience with miracles in general from those who have? How often do you hope to "get lucky" -- do you ever play towards it?

Edit: OOH I just noticed a trend -- these lists don't play Spreading Seas. I had come to the conclusion that Seas is worse against this meta, and these lists may indicate that.

I don't know if this will ever be relevant, but for those who find it cool: I found another card like Spreading Seas but it doesn't cantrip (more powerful than Seas tho): Convincing Mirage. Wastes is a basic land type, right? >:) RIP, Wastes don't have a land type but are basic lands, so you can't choose Wastes.

4 Spreading Seas, 4 Sea's Claim, 4 Convincing Mirage, 4 Shadow of Doubt. Hehehe

I always play at least 2 Blessed Alliances in my 75, and I also prefer them mainboard (tho when I switched over to Wall after BBE was unbanned, Alliance got kicked to the board).