How much are you usually looking to fire it off for and how many do you suggest running? I'm sure the answers are in this thread somewhere but it takes more time than I've had so far to read all of it.
Before ktk uwr midrange didn't use any Sphinx's Revelation. That was a card for UWR Control and their 26 lands. I know the minimum they would play it (except in extreme situations, for instance to get 1 life to survive) was X=3 but could be more if they were controlling the match.
I would be careful saying things like "you will always want to..." against Scapeshift if they are tapped out from Tribe-Elder and you want to land a Geist it's obviously great, but in many games, especially on the play they just Remand, Cryptic Command you into oblivion. If they have nothing than any strong 3 mana threat would have been fine. In fact Blade Splicer with Angel blinks can end up dealing more damage than a hand with Geist, Angel.
Geist is bad against black decks. It's an unnecessary risk when other creatures are of similar power-level in the match-ups you're mentioning. If Monastery Mentor is on T3 it can outrace Geist easily as a win-con...not like Scapeshift has a ton of maindeck removal. On the topic of Zoo...Zoo barely exists right now and Nacatl has been rarer than a Snow Leopard in modern since it's unbanning. They got bolted into oblivion at the Modern Pro Tour and then were unsleeved, the reason they may show up now is because many are trying 4x Siege Rhino in their zoo lists.
You're only playing Geist against the most common deck when you have one of those conditions? What a waste. You could just jam a creature that scares the heck out of them like Blade Splicer, Geist is a yawn against them.
If you love Geist continue to play him, but you can't say that others can't go in a more intelligent direction.
Geist is bad against any deck that can have blockers. That's not the case of Scapeshift nor Tron. Yes, you can put Monastery Mentor, but they are easily killed (yes, even from Scapeshift, that usually has electrolyze and izzet charm) and for him to have a better clock than Geist you'll need a lot of turns. In top deck mode, Geist is way better than Monastery Mentor, since the following turns you can attack with 6 damage (4 with evasion), while with monastery you'll simply attack with 2 damage, no evasion, and you depend on your draws to make it really useful. Blade Splicer, as far as I think, is the only card that could honestly replace Geist. You need to play a bit more Resto then you would with Geist though to make him better, and even then your opponent could just bolt Splicer in response of Resto ETB trigger (something that wouldn't happen with Geist).
But in a different build, with, for instance, Snapcaster, Blade Splicer and Wall of Omens, 4 Resto would be awesome (and a reason for not playing with Geist). Now, saying that this is a more intelligent direction just makes you loose your argument. You don't know how the meta will be. Geists are bad against GBx and other decks that could drop blockers that we would have difficulty to deal with, but against some others decks (top decks) Geist is plain simple the best threat you can have in this deck. Scapeshift, Tron, UWR Control. Those are decks that had a 8-10% meta share before KtK and have a good matchup vs GBx. I would run Geist if the meta would look like that. There are other matchups where Geist is simply better than any of the other options you provided.
Just to say that defending your argument by saying that your choices are an intelligent direction comparing others is not such a good option and you should avoid it in the future. Noone knows how the new meta will be.
Tron is a 65-35 in their favor and for boggles splash black or pray
I don't agree with Tron matchup being that hard has you say. We already discuss that a few pages ago. If we were UWR Control then i would agree with you, they don't have a clock to put some pressure on Tron. We have, and a huge clock (geist). They don't have that many creatures (usually 3 or 4, emrakul doesn't count because if they played it, you probably already lost unless a cryptic could give you 1 turn extra to win) to block geist, and with PtE we can exile the Wurmcoils removing the big advantage when they die. We can stall them with our pseudo-counters, and keep a clock (like i said, snapcaster turn 2 is not bad) and try to avoid mass removal. So, vs tron, i feel it's and even match.
Boggles is more tricky, we are not favorite vs them, but EE can help (meaning, you don't need black to fight them).
P.S. - What i said regarding Tron also applies to Scapeshift matchup. Both of them have inevitability, so a good clock will help us a lot. Also Cliques are MVP in those matchups.
vs tron and scapeshift, you want to have a clock (for instance, turn 2 snapcaster sometimes helps). vs Junk/GBx in general, i'ld bring keranos/batterskull, relic of progenitus, leyline of sanctity, (if you have) celestial purge and sometimes engineered explosives (for 2 it can hit bob, goyf and ooze). Regarding Thrun, i don't have a plan for him, except keeping the board clear so that if he attacks (4 damage), they'll take 6 from geist and/or chump block with batterskull or with thundermaw hellkite. Eventually win with bolt-snap-bolt + attack with flying colonnade
4 bolts are mandatory, you are right, helix I just run 3 right now. They are not so good against GBx decks (probably the #1 deck in this new meta). PtE i keep 4. GBx is now more Abzan, so between Tarmogoyf, Augmented Oozes and Rhinos, i think we have enough good targets. Besides, with the increase of GBx, Tron may return, so PtE are mandatory vs wurmcoils. Regarding permissions, i just use remand+snare+cryptic. Mana leak i think are more useful in a control build (UWR Control).
In that case, the number of legendary creatures should increase (maybe with brimaz, maybe?).
I think the equipment is cute but I feel it won't help much. Turn 2 equipment to turn 3 geist would be awesome. But if you are behind, it won't help much. It can be tested though.
Actually, is quite hard to have a control role against 8-10 discard spells + 4 lilianas+1. Or they'll rip counterspells from our hand to play lilianas, or they rip our removal and play goyfs/rhinos. If you can't keep your hand protected is very hard to really control the game.
I am thinking about trying some UWR build, what do you guys think about its position postban? Is this deck viable versus Rock?
Rock is probably our new worst matchup in the 1st game. Liliana can kill geist, they have good blockers and the discard is terrible for us. But after board, at least in my list, I bring a lot of cards that could ruin Rock match (Leyline stops their discard and renders their lilianas almost useless - it can still use the +1, but cannot kill geist anymore, neither use her ultimate - relic/rip 'kills' their goyf, and keranos+batterskull are great finishers because they have difficulty to deal with them, i also bring EE/Verdict - EE is a weird choice, but it can kill goyfs+bobs+ooze while keeping our paths to rhino).
But when I said it would make a comeback was to sb lol
Got it, I've never seen Keranos used post khans, and I've been playing Modern only since Khans, so...
Do you think that Chandra, Pyromaster could be viable to get some extra value from Geist (and some card advantage) with a possibly slower metagame?
I don't like her in our build, if i was gonna use a planeswalker, i would choose Elspeth, Knight-Errant or Ajani Vengeant. Elspeth +1 could give +3/+3 to geist and flying so he could attack ignoring possible blockers, and ajani is a finisher (if you go for a more controlling route). Both of them can also protect themselves.
I don't understand 3EE and 3 Leyline, the rest seems pretty ok.
Leyline for jund/junk discard and burn. Batterskull and keranos are good against them, but if they use thoughtseize it's useless. Also lilianas would be a lot weaker.
EE I still have to test. If I go 3EE and 1 verdict, or 2/2.
EE is a way to wrath without killing geist and one of our best weapon against boggles. It can also be used against a lot of things since it destroy everything with that cmc.
URx won't drop, twin will be back, and scapeshift as well. We'll see less delver, but I hope it won't disappear (they got monastery after all...) Keranos is good against GBx because they can't kill him, and it can help us when in top deck. But when I said it would make a comeback was to sb lol
UR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesBefore ktk uwr midrange didn't use any Sphinx's Revelation. That was a card for UWR Control and their 26 lands. I know the minimum they would play it (except in extreme situations, for instance to get 1 life to survive) was X=3 but could be more if they were controlling the match.
UR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesGeist is bad against any deck that can have blockers. That's not the case of Scapeshift nor Tron. Yes, you can put Monastery Mentor, but they are easily killed (yes, even from Scapeshift, that usually has electrolyze and izzet charm) and for him to have a better clock than Geist you'll need a lot of turns. In top deck mode, Geist is way better than Monastery Mentor, since the following turns you can attack with 6 damage (4 with evasion), while with monastery you'll simply attack with 2 damage, no evasion, and you depend on your draws to make it really useful. Blade Splicer, as far as I think, is the only card that could honestly replace Geist. You need to play a bit more Resto then you would with Geist though to make him better, and even then your opponent could just bolt Splicer in response of Resto ETB trigger (something that wouldn't happen with Geist).
But in a different build, with, for instance, Snapcaster, Blade Splicer and Wall of Omens, 4 Resto would be awesome (and a reason for not playing with Geist). Now, saying that this is a more intelligent direction just makes you loose your argument. You don't know how the meta will be. Geists are bad against GBx and other decks that could drop blockers that we would have difficulty to deal with, but against some others decks (top decks) Geist is plain simple the best threat you can have in this deck. Scapeshift, Tron, UWR Control. Those are decks that had a 8-10% meta share before KtK and have a good matchup vs GBx. I would run Geist if the meta would look like that. There are other matchups where Geist is simply better than any of the other options you provided.
Just to say that defending your argument by saying that your choices are an intelligent direction comparing others is not such a good option and you should avoid it in the future. Noone knows how the new meta will be.
UR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesUR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesI don't agree with Tron matchup being that hard has you say. We already discuss that a few pages ago. If we were UWR Control then i would agree with you, they don't have a clock to put some pressure on Tron. We have, and a huge clock (geist). They don't have that many creatures (usually 3 or 4, emrakul doesn't count because if they played it, you probably already lost unless a cryptic could give you 1 turn extra to win) to block geist, and with PtE we can exile the Wurmcoils removing the big advantage when they die. We can stall them with our pseudo-counters, and keep a clock (like i said, snapcaster turn 2 is not bad) and try to avoid mass removal. So, vs tron, i feel it's and even match.
Boggles is more tricky, we are not favorite vs them, but EE can help (meaning, you don't need black to fight them).
P.S. - What i said regarding Tron also applies to Scapeshift matchup. Both of them have inevitability, so a good clock will help us a lot. Also Cliques are MVP in those matchups.
UR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesUR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesUR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesI think the equipment is cute but I feel it won't help much. Turn 2 equipment to turn 3 geist would be awesome. But if you are behind, it won't help much. It can be tested though.
UR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesUR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesRock is probably our new worst matchup in the 1st game. Liliana can kill geist, they have good blockers and the discard is terrible for us. But after board, at least in my list, I bring a lot of cards that could ruin Rock match (Leyline stops their discard and renders their lilianas almost useless - it can still use the +1, but cannot kill geist anymore, neither use her ultimate - relic/rip 'kills' their goyf, and keranos+batterskull are great finishers because they have difficulty to deal with them, i also bring EE/Verdict - EE is a weird choice, but it can kill goyfs+bobs+ooze while keeping our paths to rhino).
UR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesI don't like her in our build, if i was gonna use a planeswalker, i would choose Elspeth, Knight-Errant or Ajani Vengeant. Elspeth +1 could give +3/+3 to geist and flying so he could attack ignoring possible blockers, and ajani is a finisher (if you go for a more controlling route). Both of them can also protect themselves.
UR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesLeyline for jund/junk discard and burn. Batterskull and keranos are good against them, but if they use thoughtseize it's useless. Also lilianas would be a lot weaker.
EE I still have to test. If I go 3EE and 1 verdict, or 2/2.
EE is a way to wrath without killing geist and one of our best weapon against boggles. It can also be used against a lot of things since it destroy everything with that cmc.
UR TwinLegacy
UWR MiraclesUR TwinLegacy
UWR Miracles// Lands
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Tectonic Edge
// Creatures
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Vendilion Clique
// Spells
1 Batterskull
1 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
2 Spell Snare
// Sideboard
SB: 2 Counterflux
SB: 3 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Keranos, God of Storms
SB: 3 Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 Stony Silence
SB: 1 Supreme Verdict
SB: 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
I'm on the phone, so my apologies for the lack of links in the cards. What do you think?
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UWR MiraclesUR TwinLegacy
UWR Miracles