With practice Remand can stop a lot of spells as well. For example, they cast a Snapcaster Mage, you let it resolve, they give something flashback and you Remand it, they don't have the mana to recast it so they waste it.
A spell cast with Flashback is exiled if it would enter any other zone - hence Remand removes it from the game and they never get a chance to recast it to begin with.
I really wish people would look into the criteria Wizards maintains for its bans before cluelessly yelling about Bloom taking a hit in every single thread.
I don't think anyone's talking about limiting an archetype, I just said the black splash was too much of a stretch for me - not worth the pain and risk for underwhelming cards such as Crackling Doom.
I've never understood the discussion around Spell Snare, personally. It's always been an auto-include for me, anywhere between 2 and 4. The amount of things it hits in Modern is ridiculous and it remains relevant throughout the game in many matchups. When I topdeck a Spell Snare late game, well tough *****, I can still protect my bomb from Remands or Mana Leaks, keep myself alive on 4 life against Boros Charm, keep that Affinity player off his Cranial Plating insta-kill, counter that Scavenging Ooze that's about to eat my whole graveyard and net the opponent 5 life... Things could be worse. When I topdeck a Mana Leak late game however... well, things couldn't be much worse. At least Remand cycles.
I used to play both UWR and UWRb and the latter was a mess for me. Such a pain with the manabase and even though Kolaghan's Command and Tasigur are great it didn't seem worth it (Crackling Doom was mostly underwhelming). These days I'm on a UW Midrange build and loving it so far. Now if my Geist doesn't stick I can just rely on my Finks and Restos and countermagic to ride it out slowly. In the UWR days losing Geist gave me sweaty palms. On that subject, I could potentially see a spot for Finks in UWR. The mana is a bit awkward but people often don't realize how incredibly good it is and just let it resolve, and then a few turns down I'm up 8 life and beating them to death with a pesky 2/1 that just won't die. UWR needs the lifegain - let's face it, it's the only reason you guys run Helix, arguably the worst card in the deck (Mana Leak is a contender I'd say). My current UW build runs 4 Finks and I would never even consider cutting one, they've helped me pull through in so many games. Naturally if you're running UWRb though, Finks is a no-go.
As far as Cryptic goes, 3 feels like too much for me right now and I'm on UW, with a deck that's skewed more towards control than this one no less. I think that says enough. Having two CCs in your opening 7 is just awful.
Curious to see where this build goes from here, like I already said a bunch of pages back, this deck seems to have a bit of an identity crisis going on with all the countermagic variance and black splashing.
All in all, I think what applies to Geist itself applies to any Geist-centered deck as a whole: when it's good, it's great and games are over in no time. When it's bad, it really sucks and you won't be able to recover. Risky.
This time, I died by 2 pact of negation triggers off of hive mind with one mana short to pay them.
Were the pact copies both on the stack simultaneously? if so, you could have used the second one to counter the first, resulting in you only having to pay 3UU. Bloom is nigh-on unwinnable but knowing these little tricks helps a bit.
Holy moly, thank you for this tidbit. Hahaha!!!
I was playing against Bloom for first place at an FNM and had lethal on him with Colonnade next turn, so he went all-in with the gamble and played two Pacts hoping I wouldn't catch it. Needless to say it paid off - I'm never making that mistake again.
This time, I died by 2 pact of negation triggers off of hive mind with one mana short to pay them.
Were the pact copies both on the stack simultaneously? if so, you could have used the second one to counter the first, resulting in you only having to pay 3UU. Bloom is nigh-on unwinnable but knowing these little tricks helps a bit.
One quick thought about RG Tron and Bloom. We could play Blood Moon ourselves, and then also side in Chromatic Lantern in order to offset it's effect on ourselves.
Sounds like a huge stretch to me.
On the Fulminator Mage: RR is not always an easy cost to have to pay, especially in the UWRb builds.
Not sure why you'd play Brimaz - Geist has hexproof and the rest of your creatures has instant value. I would also try and run a Watery Grave in there somewhere. 3 Electrolyze might be a bit steep - it's a great card but I'd run 1 KCommand in its place.
I just think it's a weird combination with the cryptics and serum visions, it seems like you're going for the long game anyway. If you're looking for a big fast finisher, Tmaw might be better anyway? Unless there's a lot of PTE in your meta, I guess.
Random thought here in general for our deck - how about one or two Vapor Snags main as additional tempo / burn? It's cheap, fast, paves the way for Geist, saves Geist, fizzles Twin, gives us multiple uses out of Snapcaster Mage, saves active Colonnades, takes care of threats, and deals an extra point of damage that 9 out of 10 players won't see coming. The more I think about it, the more sense it seems to make as there's so many uses for it.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
A spell cast with Flashback is exiled if it would enter any other zone - hence Remand removes it from the game and they never get a chance to recast it to begin with.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
I used to play both UWR and UWRb and the latter was a mess for me. Such a pain with the manabase and even though Kolaghan's Command and Tasigur are great it didn't seem worth it (Crackling Doom was mostly underwhelming). These days I'm on a UW Midrange build and loving it so far. Now if my Geist doesn't stick I can just rely on my Finks and Restos and countermagic to ride it out slowly. In the UWR days losing Geist gave me sweaty palms. On that subject, I could potentially see a spot for Finks in UWR. The mana is a bit awkward but people often don't realize how incredibly good it is and just let it resolve, and then a few turns down I'm up 8 life and beating them to death with a pesky 2/1 that just won't die. UWR needs the lifegain - let's face it, it's the only reason you guys run Helix, arguably the worst card in the deck (Mana Leak is a contender I'd say). My current UW build runs 4 Finks and I would never even consider cutting one, they've helped me pull through in so many games. Naturally if you're running UWRb though, Finks is a no-go.
As far as Cryptic goes, 3 feels like too much for me right now and I'm on UW, with a deck that's skewed more towards control than this one no less. I think that says enough. Having two CCs in your opening 7 is just awful.
Curious to see where this build goes from here, like I already said a bunch of pages back, this deck seems to have a bit of an identity crisis going on with all the countermagic variance and black splashing.
All in all, I think what applies to Geist itself applies to any Geist-centered deck as a whole: when it's good, it's great and games are over in no time. When it's bad, it really sucks and you won't be able to recover. Risky.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
I was playing against Bloom for first place at an FNM and had lethal on him with Colonnade next turn, so he went all-in with the gamble and played two Pacts hoping I wouldn't catch it. Needless to say it paid off - I'm never making that mistake again.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Were the pact copies both on the stack simultaneously? if so, you could have used the second one to counter the first, resulting in you only having to pay 3UU. Bloom is nigh-on unwinnable but knowing these little tricks helps a bit.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Sounds like a huge stretch to me.
On the Fulminator Mage: RR is not always an easy cost to have to pay, especially in the UWRb builds.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Good luck!
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Random thought here in general for our deck - how about one or two Vapor Snags main as additional tempo / burn? It's cheap, fast, paves the way for Geist, saves Geist, fizzles Twin, gives us multiple uses out of Snapcaster Mage, saves active Colonnades, takes care of threats, and deals an extra point of damage that 9 out of 10 players won't see coming. The more I think about it, the more sense it seems to make as there's so many uses for it.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki