Wow. A Browbeat x2 at instant speed. That's a fun card- Risk Factor. Not sure how powerful because it's a situational card, but it's a really cool card. I bet Dzung is happy to see this one!
Apparently Risk Factor is quite a card. Its blowing up pre-release and some are trying it in U/R / Jeskai Shells.
we were doing quite well against other fair/thoughtseize decks with search for azcanta until they released BBE for doing time on DRS's behest... and we are now pretty much back to square one against the #1 fair deck of choice which is Jund. JTMS doesn't equalize the field for us because its a 4 drop in a deck that prefers to curve at 3 cc. JTMS is certainly powerful but its not as good as BBE. However, JTMS does allow us to run away with a win if we manage to get ahead when we resolve him. My experience is JTMS AND Vapor Snags win you games.
regardless, the power of our deck(s) cannot be taken for granted. we have game against majority of the popular decks in the metagame... we are simply waiting for a new card to let us break out from our under represented bracket!
Jund will be definately sticking around. It is making Grixis DS very punishing to play and Bloodbraid Elf is forcing mediocre control players to make bad decisions.
Abrupt Decay, another control player's nightmare is also making a comeback with the deck.
Traverse DS is now the default DS deck to play because it grinds way better in a control match up. There has been lots of talk about what to do when BBE resolves (counter BBE or counter Cascade). I am kind of pleased that JTMS and BBE are forcing players to learn how to interact with cards in a meaningful way. Sometimes I feel that the older magic cards were a lot more technical then the new ones because of this.
I feel that BBE slants our match up against them slightly in their favor because they attack the board a lot more now. It would take a lot of tight playing to wiggle past this match up. Against Jund in G2 and G3, you definately want to counterspell BBE and Surgical Extraction it from their deck as it is the single card that generates the most value against us.
JTMS rewards proactive decks more than durdly ones. If you attack the board and is slightly ahead or on equal boardstate, JTMS will pull you away with an Unsummon. Spell Queller is also bad now as Abrupt Decay and L.Bolt have a heavier presence now. This puts more emphasis on Geist and Snapcaster to keep the board tidy before landing JTMS to seal the game.
I don't think Delver and JMTS is a thing. Their deck building requirements counter-act against each other. JTMS benefits our tempo builds more and he needs a lot of protection when he lands, so building a board with Young Pyromancer in the early turns with counter magic in your grip when you resolve JTMS might be a thing moving forward.
I am currently playing Saheeli Evo Combo now and having a blast. Punished a lot of durdly or indecisive players as the deck can go full on beatdown with a combo back up plan. 80% of my games I won with just value creatures beating down. I only go for combo when I sense a board state stall coming or against another combo deck.
EDIT: bad grammar becoz not enuff coffee and added one more spoiler.
i always felt that Disrupting Shoal and Ancestral Visions belong in the same deck. The card disadvantage of Shoal is cripping to the player. AV mitigates this greatly. However, you most likely have to dedicate 6 slots for the 2 DS: 4 AV mix and would have to reevaluate if you still want to run other cantrips like Opt (most likely not). Serum Visions will still see a full set of but in the past I have seen decks run 2 - 3 Serum Visions for more mid game spells like Cryptic Command alongside Sphinx Revelation and Supreme Verdict.... however those type of decks are more in tune of full out Control then Tempo decks like ours.
not really pleased that JTMS got unbanned. i was not playing but observing my friends play when he was legal in Standard back then and that type of deck is oppressive and encourages people to quit magic. if anything, having 3 "karn" type of decks (lantern, tron and jtms decks) in modern is bad. it makes people quite magic. maybe that is what wotc is trying to do.... sabotage modern so people will go play domineria standard. i am not trying to be melodramaic or am wearing the tinfoil hat here but ever since the spinter twin reprint in mm2 before it getting banned, unbanning and rebanning of GGT and eldrazi winter incidents, i have a lot less faith of wotc and their "well intentions". it reeks of another attempt at money grabbing as jtms is getting another reprint.
i foresee people trying all sorts of jtms decks the next 3 months. from the already ultra durdly grindy archetypes like Grixis/Jeskai control to fringe but more passive aggressive Bant control (turn 3 jtms off noble hierach with voice of resurgence in play and reflector mage in hand). Traverse and Grixis Shadow decks will have the best tools to deal with the general field. Traverse Shadow decks might want to play 1-2 copies of BBE but its hard to do so as that deck doesn't like cards that high CMC.
i do not know if our archetype will do as well as now in the post jtms unban metagame. i already mentioned on twitter that jtms is format warping and kills off a lot of other decks, many that are fringe and very fun to play with and against. i do hope i am wrong.
and yeah... miracles WILL BE A THING in modern. all the pieces are finally there. Search for Azcanta is the TOP for modern and it will never get banned because its a more intelligent design then Top. if you ever face up with a Search of Azcanta (flipped or unflipped... flipped is a nail in the coffin for you) in play and a resolved JMTS, just scoop because you are not going to beat that lock.
Is everyone hibernating? I forgot to do the matchup of the week this Monday so I guess it's as good as time as any. I think given the pro tour meta the natural matchup of the week should be 5-color humans
Game 1- There are a few problem cards in their deck, but the matchup is extremely winnable. I'm not sure how favored we actually are, but I do feel like I have a good game one matchup. The fact that we have bolt, helix, path, vapor snag, and even echoing truth can give us enough time to deal them damage and burn them out. They do have a couple problem cards in Cavern of Souls, Meddling Mage, and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. In addition, it can be a kick in the pants when a Reflector Mage bounces two flipped delvers (happened to me). All in all I think the matchup is fairly even in game one and the play/draw goes a long way.
Sideboard- We have very good options in EE, Anger, Izzet Staticaster, Bedlam Reveler, sweepers, abrade, etc.
Post sideboard I think the matchup becomes favored for us. I haven't had too much problem against them, but it is a fun matchup to play and is skill intensive. What do you all think?
@Curdbros: my carpal tunnel is acting up again so typing is a bit of a pain (using 4th finger on my right hand to type now lols) hence not commenting much lately.
5C Humans (I call it Hearthstone Deck) is clearly the deck to beat as the reprinting of Aether Vial in IMA has made the deck really accessible to players. This and the quality of humans as a tribe has surpassed other tribes like Merfolk and Slivers.
As long as we have enough removal and gas in our hand to keep our handsize healthy, we can out last the deck. 5C humans play out of the hand, it doesn't play out directly out of the library. It doesn't run Collective Company (yet) which will give it more velocity when that happens. The deck runs mainly the following card as disruption:
Kitesail Freebooter
Meddling Mage
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Reflector Mage
all 4 of them are worthy Surgical Extraction targets. I put Meddling Mage on top of that list, with Thalia and Reflector Mage next in line. Try not to have Thalia's Lieutenant resolve or it will put Mantis Rider and Reflector Mage out of bolt range and allow stuff to get ridiculously huge after the Exhalted triggers off Noble Hierarch.
Its a winnable match up which has its banana skin moments. Just sequence well and remove key cards. G1 will be tough but things will be better post sidebopard when you have sweepers but watch out for Selfless Spirit(s), Grafdigger's Cage and the occasional Dire fleet Daredevil.
Played some games against Grixis Cruel Control last night. Games felt very 50/50. Would have probably done better if I had Geist in my deck. Some noticable plays I had was Remand or Vapor Snag a turn 2/3 Tasigur and then Snapcaster Mage Remand or Vapor Snag it again later in the game. Opponent's deck had too much removal for me to mount a real board presence to push damage through. The few games I won is because he ran out of removal and/or didn't have the right counterspell to answer my threats.
Hi guys, what's up? Has everyone gone into hibernation?
This morning I played a very interesting match against Affinity so I decided to share the third game here.
First game my opponent kept a bad hand and I won pretty easily. Second game he got me with a turn 2 Blood Moon -_-
(That's the reason why I fetch for a basic Island in case you're wondering...) You can click here to watch the third game.
This game was very close! Attacking with Delver on turn 7 might have been a mistake since it left me without board presence but I wanted him to loose a creature AND a land by blocking. Well, enough spoilers, just watch the video
(I didn't realize that sound is being recorded too, so I recommend muting the video if you don't want to hear me coughing)
Cool game!!!
Haven't had time to meet up with friends or travel down to the store(s) for games lately. Playing Gwent or Hearthstone at home seems more convenient for me atm.
Hail Jeskaites, and greetings from planet Mardu. Just a quick hypothetical, on the subject of possible unbans in the near future. Bloodbraid is all the chatter at the moment, but should wizards release stoneforge mystic into the modern pool instead (having never had her chance and wotc's desire to strengthen white's presence being my rationale) would Jeskai Geist, Tempo, and/or Prowess be interested in finding room for her? The mystic package is a powerful thing without any need for synergy in-deck, but there is an opportunity cost to the 6 card (minimum) slots dedicated to misty's and equipments, neither of which can be snapped back or grabbed by azcanta. Thoughts? Or even better... hypothetical deck lists?
I love popping in here, y'all are always so upbeat and friendly. Maybe thats a jeskai thing. Not that my folk are mean, but when your wedge's underlying philosophy is "kill anything that moves, and some things that dont", your people tend to be a bit... brutal. Taker easy.
SFM requires the player to sacrifice deck space for it to tutor. May it be one of the Swords, Batterskull or something else, it actually dilutes the card pool. SFM would most likely help the hyper durdly decks like U/W control and Celestial Cannonade decks imho. The more aggressive Jeskai decks would find SFM not very rewarding as it will just be feeding the Grixis/Rakdos decks with Kolaghan Command blowouts.
FWIW, I cannot even tutor Smuggler's Copter with SFM and for my build, its just a non starter. The only card I want to play SFM with is Umezawa's Jitte and that is banned in Modern.
@StevomatUWR: Dire Fleet Daredevil is probably the best card in Rivals of Ixalan. I would snap bought myself a playset if it had flying instead of first strike. I think it is a good card in Modern and possibly be able to make it into Legecy. I think in most of our decks, it makes for a great 5th reverse Snapcaster Mage. Borrowing your opponent's best instant/sorcery (and then exiling it) is really good.
there are 3 g/w coco decks in modern. one is the Knight of the Reliquary / Ghost Quarter lock variant, the other 2 are counters company variants with splash abzan or bant.
i played all 3 variants before so i can try to offer some insight!
counters company: yes keep them off Devoted Druid. watch out for Rhonas the Indomitable and Tireless Tracker. when they cannot get the combo off, they will go for the beatdown plan. its very tricky to play against a learned coco player. they will bait your removal/counterspell with a combo piece (they can always get it back with Eternal Witness) before trying to resolve a Chord of Calling or Collected Company. Bant variant will have Spell Queller, Meddling Mage and Vendilion Clique. as mentioned, if the coco player feels that you have a slow start, they will go for an aggressive beatdown strategy while holding coco/chord in hand to race you / force you to commit / keep you off balance. this game has a tendency of going long and at times, end as a draw.
@Curdbros: i think the red snapcaster is a missing piece from Jund Death Shadow. i am not totally sure how it will pan out but it is also a human so it will naturally make its way into the 5C humans deck eventually. with aether vial, its basically a free snapcaster and because of the unrestricted mana cost, it can almost cast any spell it wants.
A minor personal rant if you'll allow me here, Chalice is a lock piece, same as bridge, stony silence, rest in peace etc. There's no reason to call for something like a ban for such a card. It's not oppressive, it's just... annoying. And I say that as a person that has both played it extensively (in Tezzerator) and faced it many times in the past months playing my delver list, I even lost to it just yesterday. It's beatable, as every lock piece/hate card is. Same as tron, you should have a positive match up against it. Your deck is fast and has cheap interaction, that's the recipe for beating big mana decks.
It's fine to don't like/hate certain cards or even archetypes -I absolutely loathe storm and I wouldn't mind if it didn't exist- but saying those cards/archetypes need to be banned or should never have been printed is absurd. None of it is dominating, none of it is blatantly broken, they're just different ways to play Magic. Hell, at the last SCG tournament there was 1 E-Tron and 1 Storm deck in the top 32. The way Modern is at the moment, we need unbans, more toys to experiment with, not restrict anything.
It's not personally directed at you NM_DPS, just I've seen this sentiment a lot and it annoys me.
As for the PT, my personal bet would be that the top 3 decks -by numbers, not performance- will be Storm, GDS and either E-Tron or Titanshift. (Also chalice is legal in Legacy, it's restricted in Vintage, and so is Mentor fyi)
No worries MrTzoulis! As CurdBros said, we are all familar with each other here and have a certain understanding with each other. =)
My POV about high profile decks/cards is mainly from a game designer/background stance. Oppressive cards like Chalice of the Void and Ensnaring Bridge stifles design space in non rotating formats. The Tron engine by itself will always be an issue in Modern because it is the most efficient mana ramp engine, seconded possibly by Elves. However, Elves as an archetype is easier to interact with. Tron is also an oppressive deck because it has the power to warp an entire format just to deal with it which results in crappy decks that lose to everything else (remember Eldrazi Winter?).
I think one thing doomsayers fail to bring about to this particular discussion is its actually a sincere warning to people who are thinking of buying into an expensive deck like Tron. It already got hit with a slap on the wrist with the banning of Eye of Ugin. We know at this point that WotC will never ban the pay off cards but some part of the engine. It may be Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map or even something as innocent as Chromatic Star but its just a temporary measure because some time down the line, they will print another card which will go straight into the deck again (and hence the cycle continues).
Since it isn't deck related I have added my ban talk in a spoiler. I forget who said that we need more spoilers, but I think they are exactly right. I am guilty of the long quote in the past. I will use more spoiler tags in the future.
Personal rants are always welcome here as long as they don't jack the original idea. I am not the kind of OP that likes to warn people about going off topic for a bit. We are all fairly acquainted by now (on this thread) so I thinks it's healthy to share opinions. If anyone is opposed to that let me know. I personally always say to each their own in their opinions on what should or shouldn't be banned. It doesn't bother me when someone says they think a card should banned because that's their personal opinion. With that said, I personally do believe that there should be reasoning for any opinion. WOTZ has shown in the past that it seems that one reason is not enough.
Let's take simian spirit guide for example. I have long thought this card would be banned because it does nothing but degenerate things and is "free" mana which they have shown a preference to ban in the past. However, that is not enough on it's own to warrant a ban. The card has to actually start having results and harming play on a substantial level to warrant a ban. People who play ad nauseum would say it's not oppressive by any means but those who get turn one Blood Mooned out of a game would say that guide needs to go (or Blood Moon but that's a entirely different argument but also hasn't warranted a ban yet). I hate the card blood moon and would love for it to be banned, but I have to remember that some people enjoy playing Moon lock decks so we don't want to spoil their fun either. Everyone's opinion is there own and there are cards like Chalice of the Void and Blood Moon that are no fun to play against and cause feel bad moments, but for now they are a necessary evil and they haven't really warped modern significantly and therefore don't warrant a ban in my opinion. Some will disagree that that's totally fine. If either or both were banned I wouldn't be upset in the slightest, but I would be surprised.
On the pro tour I am going to go out on a limb and make a prediction that Temur Scapeshift will actually make a comeback possibly with the madcap experiment combo. I think the top 8 will include multiple scapeshift decks, a storm deck, a UR Control Moon deck, a delver deck ( I have to keep the faith), BG Tron, Lantern Control, and a GWx Company deck. That would be my prediction with the biggest "suprise" of the weekend being how many players played UR blood moon control decks with madcap experiment and/or through the breach.
Back to the deck
I am currently working on getting the deck back to being a good game one deck. I got a little carried away with making the deck good against a lot of matchups and lost some of the consistency. I will get back to you all after FNM and let you know how it went.
Apparently Risk Factor is quite a card. Its blowing up pre-release and some are trying it in U/R / Jeskai Shells.
I think it has space in our decks as a 1 or 2 of.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
regardless, the power of our deck(s) cannot be taken for granted. we have game against majority of the popular decks in the metagame... we are simply waiting for a new card to let us break out from our under represented bracket!
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
another thing about wizards is they tend to play off spells... and its hard to balance spells in tribal cards in the same deck.
cool card though!
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
i guess Colonnade is great for late game grind to tie in with Cryptic Command and Snapcaster Mage.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
Abrupt Decay, another control player's nightmare is also making a comeback with the deck.
Traverse DS is now the default DS deck to play because it grinds way better in a control match up. There has been lots of talk about what to do when BBE resolves (counter BBE or counter Cascade). I am kind of pleased that JTMS and BBE are forcing players to learn how to interact with cards in a meaningful way. Sometimes I feel that the older magic cards were a lot more technical then the new ones because of this.
I feel that BBE slants our match up against them slightly in their favor because they attack the board a lot more now. It would take a lot of tight playing to wiggle past this match up. Against Jund in G2 and G3, you definately want to counterspell BBE and Surgical Extraction it from their deck as it is the single card that generates the most value against us.
JTMS rewards proactive decks more than durdly ones. If you attack the board and is slightly ahead or on equal boardstate, JTMS will pull you away with an Unsummon. Spell Queller is also bad now as Abrupt Decay and L.Bolt have a heavier presence now. This puts more emphasis on Geist and Snapcaster to keep the board tidy before landing JTMS to seal the game.
I don't think Delver and JMTS is a thing. Their deck building requirements counter-act against each other. JTMS benefits our tempo builds more and he needs a lot of protection when he lands, so building a board with Young Pyromancer in the early turns with counter magic in your grip when you resolve JTMS might be a thing moving forward.
EDIT: bad grammar becoz not enuff coffee and added one more spoiler.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
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i foresee people trying all sorts of jtms decks the next 3 months. from the already ultra durdly grindy archetypes like Grixis/Jeskai control to fringe but more passive aggressive Bant control (turn 3 jtms off noble hierach with voice of resurgence in play and reflector mage in hand). Traverse and Grixis Shadow decks will have the best tools to deal with the general field. Traverse Shadow decks might want to play 1-2 copies of BBE but its hard to do so as that deck doesn't like cards that high CMC.
i do not know if our archetype will do as well as now in the post jtms unban metagame. i already mentioned on twitter that jtms is format warping and kills off a lot of other decks, many that are fringe and very fun to play with and against. i do hope i am wrong.
and yeah... miracles WILL BE A THING in modern. all the pieces are finally there. Search for Azcanta is the TOP for modern and it will never get banned because its a more intelligent design then Top. if you ever face up with a Search of Azcanta (flipped or unflipped... flipped is a nail in the coffin for you) in play and a resolved JMTS, just scoop because you are not going to beat that lock.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
@Curdbros: my carpal tunnel is acting up again so typing is a bit of a pain (using 4th finger on my right hand to type now lols) hence not commenting much lately.
5C Humans (I call it Hearthstone Deck) is clearly the deck to beat as the reprinting of Aether Vial in IMA has made the deck really accessible to players. This and the quality of humans as a tribe has surpassed other tribes like Merfolk and Slivers.
As long as we have enough removal and gas in our hand to keep our handsize healthy, we can out last the deck. 5C humans play out of the hand, it doesn't play out directly out of the library. It doesn't run Collective Company (yet) which will give it more velocity when that happens. The deck runs mainly the following card as disruption:
Kitesail Freebooter
Meddling Mage
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Reflector Mage
all 4 of them are worthy Surgical Extraction targets. I put Meddling Mage on top of that list, with Thalia and Reflector Mage next in line. Try not to have Thalia's Lieutenant resolve or it will put Mantis Rider and Reflector Mage out of bolt range and allow stuff to get ridiculously huge after the Exhalted triggers off Noble Hierarch.
Its a winnable match up which has its banana skin moments. Just sequence well and remove key cards. G1 will be tough but things will be better post sidebopard when you have sweepers but watch out for Selfless Spirit(s), Grafdigger's Cage and the occasional Dire fleet Daredevil.
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
Cool game!!!
Haven't had time to meet up with friends or travel down to the store(s) for games lately. Playing Gwent or Hearthstone at home seems more convenient for me atm.
SFM requires the player to sacrifice deck space for it to tutor. May it be one of the Swords, Batterskull or something else, it actually dilutes the card pool. SFM would most likely help the hyper durdly decks like U/W control and Celestial Cannonade decks imho. The more aggressive Jeskai decks would find SFM not very rewarding as it will just be feeding the Grixis/Rakdos decks with Kolaghan Command blowouts.
FWIW, I cannot even tutor Smuggler's Copter with SFM and for my build, its just a non starter. The only card I want to play SFM with is Umezawa's Jitte and that is banned in Modern.
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i played all 3 variants before so i can try to offer some insight!
counters company: yes keep them off Devoted Druid. watch out for Rhonas the Indomitable and Tireless Tracker. when they cannot get the combo off, they will go for the beatdown plan. its very tricky to play against a learned coco player. they will bait your removal/counterspell with a combo piece (they can always get it back with Eternal Witness) before trying to resolve a Chord of Calling or Collected Company. Bant variant will have Spell Queller, Meddling Mage and Vendilion Clique. as mentioned, if the coco player feels that you have a slow start, they will go for an aggressive beatdown strategy while holding coco/chord in hand to race you / force you to commit / keep you off balance. this game has a tendency of going long and at times, end as a draw.
g/w "value town": its a LD deck with KoR as finisher. Ramunap Excavator and Crucible of Worlds are the lock cards. Aven Mindcensor is to punish greedy decks. Knight of the Reliquary is usually the win condition but watch out for Tireless Tracker, its a value engine that should be removed or countered in the early game. Courser of Kruphix can block your guys all day so you need to burn/hit for the skies to race.
all 3 decks run Voice of Resurgence (always) and Kitchen Finks (usually). so Path of Exile wisely and watch your timing.
i think the match ups are slightly flavorable to us in g2/g3 with g1 being even chances. however, g2/g3 will be even more tricky as these decks have a large pool of sideboard cards to choose from. from Eidolon of Rhetoric, Selfless Spirit, Ethersworn Canonist, Unified Will to Glen Elendra Archmage to keep you guessing.
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No worries MrTzoulis! As CurdBros said, we are all familar with each other here and have a certain understanding with each other. =)
I think one thing doomsayers fail to bring about to this particular discussion is its actually a sincere warning to people who are thinking of buying into an expensive deck like Tron. It already got hit with a slap on the wrist with the banning of Eye of Ugin. We know at this point that WotC will never ban the pay off cards but some part of the engine. It may be Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map or even something as innocent as Chromatic Star but its just a temporary measure because some time down the line, they will print another card which will go straight into the deck again (and hence the cycle continues).
Looking forward to your battle rep!
Have a good weekend everyone!
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