MTG Salvation

So does Teferi + Knowledge pool lock them from ever casting anything other than instants? Or can they still cast sorcery speed stuff if it's during their main phase?

The maindeck relic of progenitus' seem to be the new tech online. Pretty sure I still like the 2 snaps and 1 clique in the main along with 3 or 4 relics. It's a crappy cantrip that makes snap worse, logic knot and Azcanta not worth playing, but it can really wreck a lot of the other decks that you usually lose game 1's to. UW is moving up on the list of % of the meta pretty fast lately.

Never used the blue Gearhulk but seems way too slow, I like V Clique in its place. Cut 1 Stony and 1 Rip or Dispel from the SB and it's GTG. I went down to 24 lands and cut the GQ. I have noticed some Relics showing up in the mainboard, which is probably a pretty good idea right now. 3 Terminus, 1 Settle and 1 Verdict might be better than 4/2.

UW is the best control deck right now pretty much, but it's still easy to get overrun by all the combo and aggro. I would Check Mtggoldfish for ideas. Looks like there's a nice uptick in lists this past week, but a lot of them have fairly different things going on. The latest one running no creatures and 3 relics in the main is strange. The more standard build has 2-3 snaps, 3 Jace, and 2 Teferi. Nobody can seem to decide what the best sweeper, cantrip or counterspell package is, so it's not like Tron or Dredge where every deck is 59-60 exactly the same cards. Makes it more interesting, but also very hard to decide exactly what to play.

The 9th place list from SCG Philly looked pretty good to me. It's got a bit lower curve, only 1 Teferi and 3 snaps. This is similar to what I was having the most luck with. Bummer he was 1 spot shy of top 8 I would have probably had both D-spheres in the main and only 1 Azcanta. I also like 1 Ceremonious Rejection and 1 Disdainful Stroke over 1 of the Ancestral Visions and the D-Sphere. Seems to be heading in the right direction, I think we need better answers for turn 1-3, spell pierce might be good right now. Also consider white Leylines because there are a TON of thoughtseize decks, plus it's always great against burn, ad naus and lots of other stuff. Edit: I bet those 2 Timely in the main did a lot of work over the weekend.

Disrupting Shoal was working amazingly for me, but I gave up and I'm playing Dredge for now. As OP as all the faithless looting decks may be, I think the answer is not to ban it, but make some better control cards for a change. Of course anything really good that get's printed/unbanned will probably go straight into the Phoenix decks too. Been watching some Legacy miracles players stream and THAT is the UW/r deck I want to be playing. Instead of waiting for answers and hoping your opponent has some bad luck, you really get to decide how the game goes most of the time.

Yeah I wasn't sure about RIP, but I recently played against one with a lot of E Witnesses and Finks, but that still doesn't stop the druid/ballista combo.

I've been looking at Legacy lists lately and I just started playing this modern version based off of it and so far it's actually been kind of amazing... I'm using Counterbalance which is countering TONS of stuff even blindly, but I'm able to setup the top card often with jace and serum and even holding opt/hieroglyphic to use the 2nd card to counter. Mentor has been crazy when he starts going off, and disrupting Shoal has also been really awesome so far. Countering turn 1 thoughtseize or tapping out and still having a counter for certain spells.

Edit: Went 3/2 in first league, might need a couple more lands, but it wasn't really a problem except when I got turn 2 blood mooned twice by mono red prison. Still running the same amount of basics as usual though. I beat Shadow, some green ponza/tooth and nail deck and I already forgot what else.

Yeah, my big problem with Coco / combo is eventually running out of answers to the inevitable, so something to close the game out like Angels makes sense. I bring in dispel, surgical and rips usually, but dilutes some of my other answers like counters and snaps. I did start using a Gearhulk and it's been insanely good actually. I was playing against humans and he had Teeg and 2 meddling mages locking me out of pretty much anything, but Gearhulk saved the day. I've been thinking more and more of converting to Legacy and I think I'm gonna do it. Maybe I'll even get lucky and get some stuff that gets reprinted in MH at a discount now.

Oddly enough I keep winning against burn and tron and losing against things like spirits, phoenix, humans, infinite coco combo type decks. And Ad Nauseum, I really hate Ad Naus.

Edit again: I need to have coffee before I post next time... I just noticed it was actually @saltysquid14's deck, lol... anyway. I'm playing fairly similar list although I keep changing a couple cards. How do you sideboard vs Phoenix? I think I end up cutting logic knots, 1 teferi, D sphere, search, and maybe a cryptic or snap for rip/surgical, celestial purge, dispel, angels, but never seems right. Runed Halo might be good against Phoenix too? I might have to try that again. I usually end up losing a really close match. I was on 3 terminus 1 verdict 1 settle, but I'm not sure what's best anymore. I keep going back to this deck cause I like it, but it really feels like you needs to get lucky while your opponent gets unlucky in order to win a lot of the time. We could really use some good updated info on matchups, and hopefully modern horizons will give us some good new cards.

@Ym1r Yeah I tried Mentor in a league and never even got to make a monk token before he was dead or just stuck in my hand.

You could probably just stick a mentor in one of the flex slots and see how it does. I still wonder how good Disrupting Shoal could be right now. I've never tried it, but there are so many 1-2 mana spells it could easily counter for free or 3-4 mana later on. I will probably just get the deck back soon since it's still my favorite to play. A mainboard Surgical Extraction would probably do pretty well right now too.

I really want to try using 4x Disrupting Shoal and a Monastery Mentor or 2. I kind of traded my deck in frustration though... I'm on Tron for the time being, but I already miss UW even though I'm winning a lot more and much faster.

A lot of people being interviewed at the GP were saying Counterspell. It's still not that powerful compared to what all the combo decks are doing. Control decks are looking pretty dead at the big events, and I'm not even sure how much this would save them, but it'd be a great start.

edit: @Ryguyasaurus I don't think it's badly positioned either. I never feel like I have a bad matchup, but a lot of times i'm just trying to survive and end up running out of answers. I think we need more threats than just CC and a couple little snapcaster mages and a clique... or less situational counterspells.

Haven't been doing so great lately, thinking about switching decks for the time being Just noticed a couple interesting lists online though. Looks like some people are having luck with little Gideon again. 14th place list from SCG classic looks good, this other new one on MTGtop8 is really out there. Don't know why Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is in the sideboard.



Honestly I'm about to switch to Tron or Dredge though.

I actually just took the condemn/oust slot out for a serum visions, but maybe I just have too many cantrips now. I do like spell snare and usually play one copy. I've been siding Teferi out vs burn, but Cindervines has got me a couple times so maybe I should keep him in?