Personally, I don't see the card working towards our game plan, even though it could prove strong.
What about Teferi, Hero of Dominaria? And has anyone tried Reflector Mage since the Bloodbraid Elf unban? Great synergy with Flickerwisp and can trade with the elf. I would like to hear your opinion on Weathered Wayfarer too, a card that seems too little discussed.
It's too bad you misclicked against elves. As using a wrath on that boardstate should have been good enough to push the match to a third game. Which would mean you'd be on the play and therefore favoured. Losing to a rouge deck isn't that bad, one piloted by a pro even more so. Good job, and good luck in the future!
So I'm thinking of shifting two cards in the main. Replacing Kami of False Hope for Gideon Jura and a Ghost Quarter for a Tectonic Edge. My thinking for Gideon is he can slightly improve your burn and combo matchup abiet only if you have a GotT Emblem. Regardless, Gideon is still an arguably better magic card, one that also does not rely on your graveyard. With mid-range, primary Jund being more prevelant in the format, I agree with Tamait and think this desision is correct. As for Technical Edge, it's mainly because varients of Tron running now four basics. You also get some fringe upside when playing against scapeshift or Cryptic Command decks, as it helps to play through countermagic. Switching from GQ to Tec Edge will worsen my match against decks like Infect and Affinity as they will generally never have more than three lands in play before the match is decided. However we are already favoured in those matches anyway.
I'm glad you agree with my thought! Meanwhile, I played again with the deck, finishing | 2 - 2 |
Affinity | 2 - 0 |
It's a really easy matchup, especially post-sideboard. Stony Silence and Sorcerous Spyglass are key, obviously.
Zoo | 1 - 2 |
This too is an easy matchup, but I lost because of my greediness in the first match (keeping the perfect hand against zoo but only with one land and obviously not drawing any) and because he got lucky topdecking a Lightning Bolt at the right time in the third match. The guy admitted it and even offered me a coffee, it was very kind of him!
Bogles | 1 - 2 |
This felt unwinnable without wraths. Even with them, it's hard to pass totem auras and such protections post-sideboard. He even added Seal of Primordium to fight my Detention Sphere.
What I've learned (i like to do this kind of lists every time I play~):
Runed Halo may be a necessary card in the sideboard, to have an angle against decks like scapeshift, ad nauseam and bogles.
Given your advice, I'm getting better at playing with Gideon of the Trials, so I'm keeping him. The synergy with Gideon Jura proved to be strong against a great variety of decks; affinity and aggros in primis.
I found Disenchant to be marginally better than Stony Silence in the sideboard, at least in my case. Against affinity we have already a good matchup and Blood Moon is simply too relevant in my meta to not have an answer. Most cards that ruin our strategy are enchantments or artifacts: Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, Blood Moon, Torpor Orb... cards that Disenchant answer, but Stony Silence cannot. The only doubts I have on this matter are in regard to Tron (bad matchup in general) and the fact that Disenchant cannot be recurred with Sun Titan in case of ineffectiveness.
What kind of Jund did you face? The normal or Shadow Jund? If it's Shadow Jund, I always side in two Devout Lightcaster, she permanently exiles Bob, Liliana, and Death Shadow. Lightcaster also cannot be killed by push, terminate, and kolaghan's command because of the pro black.
Normal Jund. They had nothing special or strange for me to see, at least. I had no idea Devout Lightcaster even existed I will consider that! Problem is that I find my sideboard pretty full already, so I have no idea what I could take out
Here I am with the report: the tournament consisted of four round + top 8, for a total of 25 participants. I went 3 - 1 and made it in the top 8, but then I lost immediately in the first match! Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my result.
I should mention that before going I made some small last-minute-changes to the sideboard, following your advice. To be precise:
Gift Storm | 2 - 1 |
In the first game, he combo'ed off and won. In the second match, I started with two Tormod's Crypt in play and played a Leyline of Sanctity on the fourth turn. He conceded. In the third one, I forced him to use Empty the Warrens instead of Grapeshot by starting with the Leyline and captured all his goblin under a Detention Sphere that I flicker'ed again later when he tried to repeat the process.
Jund | 2 - 1 |
I hate Jund; I find it particularly hard to play against it since every card they play is a threat that need to be answered immediately. Anyway, I was pretty lucky: in the first match he outvalued me with a mix of Bloodbraid Elf, Dark Confidant and Scavenging Ooze. In the second match he was flooded with lands and eventually i activated Emeria, the Sky Ruin. In the third match, I started with a Leyline of Sanctity in play, deprived him of black mana with Spreading Seas and won attacking with a Lone Missionary. His hand was made only of discard spells and Liliana of the Veil, so I got pretty lucky, I admit.
In the top 8, I played again against Jund and lost 1 - 2. The match was no different from the previous one (grindy and hard), but this time the opponent hadn't the same bad luck and cascaded two times in a Liliana.
What I've learned today:
Ojutai's Command is a good and versatile card, with multiple uses, capable of giving you the much-needed breathing room that this deck craves for. I'm starting to question if it's not the case to play it in the main (one copy) instead of the sideboard since I found me loving it when I got to play it (against Jund) and it's almost always viable.
I didn't get to play Gideon Jura in any of my matches, so I'm still testing with him. However, it's a card I sided out frequently.
Gideon of the Trials, by the way, his starting to disappoint me. It's a good card, but I fail to understand where is good and where is not and that has proven to be crucial from time to time. I wonder if another three-drop like a Ghostly Prison, a Blade Splicer or even a Runed Halo wouldn't be better in the same spot. I'm open to other opinions on the matter~
That is all. The tournament was won by the guy who played Tron, who got in the final against a RG Valakut deck.
To the next!
Thanks for the tournament report. Is the guy using Torpor orb someone you play with often? Sideboard cards like Torpor Orb are commonly seen in FNM metas where people are familiar with each other's decks. But you won't really have to worry about it much in large tournaments. Goodluck!
Yes, it's a guy I know and play with often; thanks for the advice, makes perfect sense!
I proceed to share my experience with the deck, hoping to be useful to someone~
Yesterday I got a 2 -2:
JUND | 0 - 2 |
Tough. First game I lost to a Scavenging Ooze and a Liliana of the Veil. Second game I was prepared and I got the match to grind in the late game. Eventually, he topdecked into a Bloodbraid Elf, cascaded into a Lightning Bolt and played the second bolt from the hand for a total of nine damage in a single turn. Despite the result, Sorcerous Spyglass was priceless.
AFFINITY | 1 - 2 |
Thought I could win this, but in the third match he played a totally unexpected Torpor Orb and caught me off guard. I was out of Detention Sphere since i had used them on Blood Moon and Cranial Plating and that granted him the win. Honestly, the matchup didn't feel particularly hard post-sideboard.
NAYA ZOO | 2 - 1 |
After a first fast match, I submerged him in Wall of Omens and Lone Missionary. Easy matchup.
BURN | 2 - 1 |
In the first game, he won fast. In the second and third game, I locked him under Gideon of the Trials and Leyline of Sanctity. Dispel was all the protection I needed against his Disenchant. He almost dragged me into a time loss but was honest enough to concede before the timer got to zero.
After these first weeks of experience I'm doing some small changes to the decklist:
Phantasmal Image: the card didn't do anything for me, in any of the matches I played. Yes, it could copy a Flickerwisp or a key card from my opponent, but I'd rather have a more consistent two drop to face aggro matchup more smoothly. So i'm bringing in the fourth Lone Missionary instead.
Jeskai for the Saheeli-Combo, and Bant for interactions with Renegade Rallier, Eternal Witness, green titan.
I'm pretty interested into see a good bant list and discuss its good/bad point if someone here plays one. I love the color combination, but I am always skeptical about a third splash.
Anyway, this Wednesday at my LGS's modern league didn't go too well: 1 - 3.
PONZA 0 - 2
Here the variance hit me hard. In the first match I used lots of Spreading Seas and Detention Sphere on three of his Arbor Elf and was pretty sure to win, but then he casted Bloodbraid Elf into Beast Within on my Detention Sphere followed by a second BBE into Stone Rain and lately won. In the second match, I've seen only two (nonbasic) lands and he got to Blood Moon early, locking me out of the game.
4 - Color Scapeshift 0 - 2
This felt like a really hard to win matchup. In the first match, he comboed off at the fourth turn, leaving me without answers. In the second match his counter/destruction game was enough to trample over two Leyline of Sanctity, a Dispel and two Disdainful Stroke. Probably I just had a bad sequencing, but it's really hard to imagine how I could have won anyway.
BR Hollow One 2 - 0
This match was pretty easy since he didn't get too much luck. Wall of Omens was an all-star, so were Lone Missionary and Kami of False Hope. Easy matchup to play and win, in my experience, just be defensive.
UG Charge Counter Combo 0 - 2
Never seen this deck before at my LGS, so he caught me off guard. I remembered it vaguely since SaffronOlive played it on Much Abrew months ago (), but I started to play against it too late, losing the first match to the combo. The second match I got stuck on land and that was it.
In conclusion, I felt pretty unlucky, especially with the manabase. Since I hate being stuck on land, I'm considering going up to 25, removing (maybe) the kami. All the other cards in the deck performed pretty well.
In regards to Damping Sphere and Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, I think that the first is gonna worth a try in the sideboard, without a doubt, but the second doesn't convince me too much: attacking early isn't the way the deck usually wins the game, and rarely I've seen my creatures stall against a wall of blockers on the other side of the battlefield. Supreme Verdict into Sun Titan just solve this kind of situation anyway.
I decided to pick up this deck and take it to my LGS in a modern league just yesterday. Since I had no place to start, I used the same list as Fincown with some minor adjustments, as he suggested. I have to thank him because I went 3 - 1 with the deck, but it could have been easily a 4 - 0.
This is the list:
FIRST MATCH:Mono-blue Devotion, 2 - 1
I lost the first game because I had no idea what my opponent was doing. Leyline of Anticipation allowed him to interact with my Flickerwisp triggers in an optimal way, then he played a Master of Waves at the end of my turn and won. I sided in Disdainful Stroke and that card proved to be the MVP of the next two games, that I won easily, thanks to that and Detention Sphere.
SECOND MATCH:Abzan Red, 0 - 2
This is the match I lost to my foolishness. I started on the plan of ruining his lands with Spreading Seas, but I misplayed using a Field of Ruin, allowing him to float green mana with the land targeted, then search for a swamp and cast Abrupt Decay on the aforementioned Spreading Seas, nullifying my plan. He proceeds to cast Liliana of the Veil, clog the board with Lingering Souls and win. The second game was long and grindy, but his topdecks were better than mine (Bloodbraid Elf). Sorcerous Spyglass saved me against a Liliana ultimate and performed pretty well against Scavenging Ooze too.
THIRD MATCH:Mono-blue Living End, 2 - 0
This was pretty easy. Supreme Verdict was the all-star of both matches; Relic of Progenitus wrecked her in the second game. In both games I won attacking with a Flickerwisp, resetting her As Foretold and waiting for the Living End before casting my Sun Titan.
FOURTH MATCH:BR Goblins, 2 - 1
Here the matchup felt pretty strong. In the first game, he couldn't pass over my Wall of Omens and Lone Missionary. In the second game, he launched two Goblin Grenade at my face on the fourth turn: too much damage too quickly. Third game I start with Leyline of Sanctity on the battlefield and Detention Sphere away half of his board on the third turn. Easy win.
Overall the deck felt strong and competitive: the only match I lost was because of me, not because of it. I am very satisfied and I'm gonna take it to the next events too. Thanks, Fincown!
Personally, I don't see the card working towards our game plan, even though it could prove strong.
What about Teferi, Hero of Dominaria? And has anyone tried Reflector Mage since the Bloodbraid Elf unban? Great synergy with Flickerwisp and can trade with the elf. I would like to hear your opinion on Weathered Wayfarer too, a card that seems too little discussed.
I'm glad you agree with my thought! Meanwhile, I played again with the deck, finishing | 2 - 2 |
Affinity | 2 - 0 |
It's a really easy matchup, especially post-sideboard. Stony Silence and Sorcerous Spyglass are key, obviously.
Zoo | 1 - 2 |
This too is an easy matchup, but I lost because of my greediness in the first match (keeping the perfect hand against zoo but only with one land and obviously not drawing any) and because he got lucky topdecking a Lightning Bolt at the right time in the third match. The guy admitted it and even offered me a coffee, it was very kind of him!
Ponza | 2 - 0 |
Hard but fun matches. Spreading Seas is key in the early game, destroying the Utopia Sprawl - Arbor Elf strategy.
Bogles | 1 - 2 |
This felt unwinnable without wraths. Even with them, it's hard to pass totem auras and such protections post-sideboard. He even added Seal of Primordium to fight my Detention Sphere.
What I've learned (i like to do this kind of lists every time I play~):
Normal Jund. They had nothing special or strange for me to see, at least. I had no idea Devout Lightcaster even existed
I should mention that before going I made some small last-minute-changes to the sideboard, following your advice. To be precise:
-1 Disenchant
-1 Blessed Alliance
-1 Settle the Wreckage
+1 Sorcerous Spyglass
+1 Dispel
+1 Ojutai's Command
Jeskai Control | 2 - 0 |
This match was surprisingly easy. All I had to do was wait 'till I had enough mana to play around his counters and save Detention Sphere for Nahiri, the Harbinger. The poor guy only played 4 basics so, in both games, I deprived him of white mana pretty easily. Post sideboard I went for Dispel (to counter counters), Disdainful Stroke and Sorcerous Spyglass (for Nahiri) instead of Supreme Verdict, Gideon Jura, a single Path to Exile and a single Lone Missionary and the matchup became even easier.
Mono Green Tron | 0 - 2 |
Opposed to before, this match felt unwinnable. In the first game, he assembled Tron over a Spreading Seas, a Field of Ruin and a Ghost Quarter, destroying all my enchantments with Oblivion Stone (freeing his lands) and using a moltitude of Ancient Stirrings and Sylvan Scrying. Post sideboard i went for a combo of Stony Silence, Sorcerous Spyglass and Disdainful Stroke, but he sided in Nature's Claim preventively, nullifying all my efforts. I got him to topdeck, but Karn Liberated into Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger was a play simply too strong to beat.
Gift Storm | 2 - 1 |
In the first game, he combo'ed off and won. In the second match, I started with two Tormod's Crypt in play and played a Leyline of Sanctity on the fourth turn. He conceded. In the third one, I forced him to use Empty the Warrens instead of Grapeshot by starting with the Leyline and captured all his goblin under a Detention Sphere that I flicker'ed again later when he tried to repeat the process.
Jund | 2 - 1 |
I hate Jund; I find it particularly hard to play against it since every card they play is a threat that need to be answered immediately. Anyway, I was pretty lucky: in the first match he outvalued me with a mix of Bloodbraid Elf, Dark Confidant and Scavenging Ooze. In the second match he was flooded with lands and eventually i activated Emeria, the Sky Ruin. In the third match, I started with a Leyline of Sanctity in play, deprived him of black mana with Spreading Seas and won attacking with a Lone Missionary. His hand was made only of discard spells and Liliana of the Veil, so I got pretty lucky, I admit.
In the top 8, I played again against Jund and lost 1 - 2. The match was no different from the previous one (grindy and hard), but this time the opponent hadn't the same bad luck and cascaded two times in a Liliana.
What I've learned today:
That is all. The tournament was won by the guy who played Tron, who got in the final against a RG Valakut deck.
To the next!
Yes, it's a guy I know and play with often; thanks for the advice, makes perfect sense!
Yesterday I got a 2 -2:
JUND | 0 - 2 |
Tough. First game I lost to a Scavenging Ooze and a Liliana of the Veil. Second game I was prepared and I got the match to grind in the late game. Eventually, he topdecked into a Bloodbraid Elf, cascaded into a Lightning Bolt and played the second bolt from the hand for a total of nine damage in a single turn. Despite the result, Sorcerous Spyglass was priceless.
AFFINITY | 1 - 2 |
Thought I could win this, but in the third match he played a totally unexpected Torpor Orb and caught me off guard. I was out of Detention Sphere since i had used them on Blood Moon and Cranial Plating and that granted him the win. Honestly, the matchup didn't feel particularly hard post-sideboard.
NAYA ZOO | 2 - 1 |
After a first fast match, I submerged him in Wall of Omens and Lone Missionary. Easy matchup.
BURN | 2 - 1 |
In the first game, he won fast. In the second and third game, I locked him under Gideon of the Trials and Leyline of Sanctity. Dispel was all the protection I needed against his Disenchant. He almost dragged me into a time loss but was honest enough to concede before the timer got to zero.
After these first weeks of experience I'm doing some small changes to the decklist:
So, this is the list I'm playing right now:
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Windswept Heath
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Field of Ruin
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Prairie Stream
6 Plains
1 Island
// Creatures (18)
4 Lone Missionary
4 Wall of Omens
4 Flickerwisp
3 Court Hussar
3 Sun Titan
4 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Gideon of the Trials
3 Detention Sphere
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Gideon Jura
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Dispel
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Disenchant
2 Stony Silence
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Settle the Wreckage
Sunday I'm gonna participate to a big tournament event; wish me luck!
I'm pretty interested into see a good bant list and discuss its good/bad point if someone here plays one. I love the color combination, but I am always skeptical about a third splash.
Anyway, this Wednesday at my LGS's modern league didn't go too well: 1 - 3.
PONZA 0 - 2
Here the variance hit me hard. In the first match I used lots of Spreading Seas and Detention Sphere on three of his Arbor Elf and was pretty sure to win, but then he casted Bloodbraid Elf into Beast Within on my Detention Sphere followed by a second BBE into Stone Rain and lately won. In the second match, I've seen only two (nonbasic) lands and he got to Blood Moon early, locking me out of the game.
4 - Color Scapeshift 0 - 2
This felt like a really hard to win matchup. In the first match, he comboed off at the fourth turn, leaving me without answers. In the second match his counter/destruction game was enough to trample over two Leyline of Sanctity, a Dispel and two Disdainful Stroke. Probably I just had a bad sequencing, but it's really hard to imagine how I could have won anyway.
BR Hollow One 2 - 0
This match was pretty easy since he didn't get too much luck. Wall of Omens was an all-star, so were Lone Missionary and Kami of False Hope. Easy matchup to play and win, in my experience, just be defensive.
UG Charge Counter Combo 0 - 2
Never seen this deck before at my LGS, so he caught me off guard. I remembered it vaguely since SaffronOlive played it on Much Abrew months ago (), but I started to play against it too late, losing the first match to the combo. The second match I got stuck on land and that was it.
In conclusion, I felt pretty unlucky, especially with the manabase. Since I hate being stuck on land, I'm considering going up to 25, removing (maybe) the kami. All the other cards in the deck performed pretty well.
In regards to Damping Sphere and Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, I think that the first is gonna worth a try in the sideboard, without a doubt, but the second doesn't convince me too much: attacking early isn't the way the deck usually wins the game, and rarely I've seen my creatures stall against a wall of blockers on the other side of the battlefield. Supreme Verdict into Sun Titan just solve this kind of situation anyway.
I decided to pick up this deck and take it to my LGS in a modern league just yesterday. Since I had no place to start, I used the same list as Fincown with some minor adjustments, as he suggested. I have to thank him because I went 3 - 1 with the deck, but it could have been easily a 4 - 0.
This is the list:
Mainboard: 60
Creature: 19
1 Kami of False Hope
3 Lone Missionary
4 Wall of Omens
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Flickerwisp
3 Court Hussar
3 Sun Titan
Spells: 17
4 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Gideon of the Trials
3 Detention Sphere
3 Supreme Verdict
Manabase: 24
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Windswept Heath
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Field of Ruin
3 Halllowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Prairie Stream
6 Plains
1 Island
Sideboard: 15
2 Dispel
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Stony Silence
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Settle the Wreckage
FIRST MATCH: Mono-blue Devotion, 2 - 1
I lost the first game because I had no idea what my opponent was doing. Leyline of Anticipation allowed him to interact with my Flickerwisp triggers in an optimal way, then he played a Master of Waves at the end of my turn and won. I sided in Disdainful Stroke and that card proved to be the MVP of the next two games, that I won easily, thanks to that and Detention Sphere.
SECOND MATCH: Abzan Red, 0 - 2
This is the match I lost to my foolishness. I started on the plan of ruining his lands with Spreading Seas, but I misplayed using a Field of Ruin, allowing him to float green mana with the land targeted, then search for a swamp and cast Abrupt Decay on the aforementioned Spreading Seas, nullifying my plan. He proceeds to cast Liliana of the Veil, clog the board with Lingering Souls and win. The second game was long and grindy, but his topdecks were better than mine (Bloodbraid Elf). Sorcerous Spyglass saved me against a Liliana ultimate and performed pretty well against Scavenging Ooze too.
THIRD MATCH: Mono-blue Living End, 2 - 0
This was pretty easy. Supreme Verdict was the all-star of both matches; Relic of Progenitus wrecked her in the second game. In both games I won attacking with a Flickerwisp, resetting her As Foretold and waiting for the Living End before casting my Sun Titan.
FOURTH MATCH: BR Goblins, 2 - 1
Here the matchup felt pretty strong. In the first game, he couldn't pass over my Wall of Omens and Lone Missionary. In the second game, he launched two Goblin Grenade at my face on the fourth turn: too much damage too quickly. Third game I start with Leyline of Sanctity on the battlefield and Detention Sphere away half of his board on the third turn. Easy win.
Overall the deck felt strong and competitive: the only match I lost was because of me, not because of it. I am very satisfied and I'm gonna take it to the next events too. Thanks, Fincown!