This might be a good place to try a single Familiar's Ruse in the place of one Remand (or other card).
Familiar's Ruse to hard counter something (maybe even stealing one of their creatures with Vedalken Shackles and then just bounce it) > snapcaster mage to flashback Familiar's Ruse which in turn returns your Snapcaster. Seems like reasonable advantage.
Thassa, God of the Sea could be used as a three drop that might fix draws, flip delvers and help to connect with the Ninja. Also fills that 3-drop spot for pitching to Disrupting Shoal.
I like the synergy there. In that case how about running shackles mainboard? It's a tough card to deal with on its own and pitches to shoal.
You are completely clueless if you don't think some Pro's hype decks they build just to sell cards, for ChannelFireball in this case. People in here are talking like this is Woo's secret baby. Let me ask you, if you had a secret deck that you thought was so freaking amazing that it demolishes everything in the format, why would you publish it? If he felt so strongly about it then he would have saved it for the next major event. This is nothing but some cards thrown together in order to sell some Disrupting Shoals.
The deck works but it's not a format killer like some people in here have convinced themselves. People will figure out how to play against it and it will disappear as fast as it came.
i know they hype decks but lets think about it... have you watched their vids on it? Hyping or not, the deck works and they wouldnt play it just to hype it bc if it wasn't any good, noone would wanna buy the cards since the deck sucked, so stop trying to say im clueless bc obviously you know nothing about selling goods. If something is shown not to work, noone will buy. proven fact.
Oops my bad. Forgot it was blue card only. In that case vendilion clique seems perfect here. Good in almost any matchup. It thoughtseizes or it cantripsand has evasion and flash. The 3 slot for shoal is lacking because what happens to this deck when jund plays deathrite turn 2 liliana?? *scoops*
I can only see this deck getting stronger by splashing red. Goblin Guide is almost a strictly better replacement for Phantasmal Bear. A hasty one-drop just seems to synergize way better with Ninja of the Deep Hours than a vanilla 2/2.
Besides Goblin Guide is all but synergic with the Ninja, as you might give them a card before hitting only to have it ninjitsued. I've been thinking about what would a white splash give, and Geist of Saint Traft feels perfect for this deck (it's also a blue 3-drop for Shoal). The problem is what to take out. Soldier of the Pantheon seems good in the place of bear, and Path to Exile would give the deck a huge boost, but Shoals get way weaker once you start diluting your blues. Having Scarslands in that combination is a huge upside though. They seem excellent for a deck like this, save for Cryptics...
I can honestly say this looks like a fun as deck. Yet, I will say this should only be played for casual 1v1. I vsed it and it has very little threats. You can tell what they are trying to pull each and every turn. The reason why this deck is doing well and working is because of one card Gitaxian Probe. A master of magic with that one spell (not to mention using it 8 times in a match) has an easy time against opponents.
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Modern: U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
Remand really isn't all that great in most match ups and it doesn't advance the board. I took out Phantasmal Bear which is abhorrent against Splinter Twin and put in Spellstutter Sprite, which is a great card for Tempo. To counteract the increased CMC, Remand went out for Spell Snare and Spell Pierce.
Sideboard is pretty shaky. I just know that the deck has a great Affinity and Jund match up right now. I think that the deck is still weak to Tron, so I'll be trying to figure out a work around that.
I faced this deck about 3-4 times vs RW lockdown, and 8rack, idk why, but i went 2-0 every time, most likely it was the player but if its losing to meta assassins i have a bad picture of the deck as a whole. From the looks of it, pyroclasm whipes the whole deck considering it only has snag, cryptic, and remand to stop it? Idk maybe its just the players but i don't see this deck going anywhere anytime soon.
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Modern: B 8Rack RX Goblins BG Elves (Attempting) UBW Mill G Stompy UB Tezzerator
Legacy: W Stax
What about playing Threads of Disloyalty instead of Vedalken Shackles in the SB? It would improve the BGx matchups as you can target pretty much all of their creatures and you can pitch it to Disrupting Shoal to counter Liliana.
Shackles completely destroy any control matchup. It's also much better against pod.
Could Judge's Familiar be a replacement for the Phantasmal Bear? It has evasion, so that you'd easier get in with it to use ninjitsu on - and the sac to counter effect might be useful? Or is the 2 power too important? My thoughts were just that a T1 bear is easier for the opponent to get a blocker down for? I haven't played with the deck myself (most of it is in the mail) but I've watched most of the playvideos of it and just go this thought. Anyone care to weigh in?
Could Judge's Familiar be a replacement for the Phantasmal Bear? It has evasion, so that you'd easier get in with it to use ninjitsu on - and the sac to counter effect might be useful? Or is the 2 power too important? My thoughts were just that a T1 bear is easier for the opponent to get a blocker down for? I haven't played with the deck myself (most of it is in the mail) but I've watched most of the playvideos of it and just go this thought. Anyone care to weigh in?
It's a lot about where the Modern Metagame is at the time you are playing. I think Bear for Familiar would be relevant sometimes. But in many matchups two is twice as much damage as one power, so you can kill opponents twice as fast. If they don't have blockers than the Bear is better. If they are mostly playing two toughness guys then Bear is also better since you will usually be happy to use a bear as removal, which also means they won't block the Bear and it gets through. But if you have an aggro Metagame where they will be putting creatures with three or more toughness down then Familiar can do better work.
I like the idea of running 2x Geist of Saint Traft and splashing just a little bit of white to cast those guys, might be worth it. It might also open up some better sideboard cards, but I think I'd be wary of white one drops because of what the mana base would be.
It's a lot about where the Modern Metagame is at the time you are playing. I think Bear for Familiar would be relevant sometimes. But in many matchups two is twice as much damage as one power, so you can kill opponents twice as fast. If they don't have blockers than the Bear is better. If they are mostly playing two toughness guys then Bear is also better since you will usually be happy to use a bear as removal, which also means they won't block the Bear and it gets through. But if you have an aggro Metagame where they will be putting creatures with three or more toughness down then Familiar can do better work.
I like the idea of running 2x Geist of Saint Traft and splashing just a little bit of white to cast those guys, might be worth it. It might also open up some better sideboard cards, but I think I'd be wary of white one drops because of what the mana base would be.
Geist, similar to Goblin Guide, don't work because it makes the mana base just awful. Having to play 8x fetch lands and 2x Shockland is very painful if you're not also running 1 CMC removals like Path to Exile, which doesn't have synergy with the Remand and Disrupting Shoal.
Mono blue is the best version for Disrupting Shoal, and Spellstutter is a best Phantasmal Bear for the deck.
Geist, similar to Goblin Guide, don't work because it makes the mana base just awful. Having to play 8x fetch lands and 2x Shockland is very painful if you're not also running 1 CMC removals like Path to Exile, which doesn't have synergy with the Remand and Disrupting Shoal.
Mono blue is the best version for Disrupting Shoal, and Spellstutter is a best Phantasmal Bear for the deck.
Mono blue has no maindeck way to counter 3 drops with Shoal. While Bear is understandable, I really don't like Ninja. If you have a flipped Delver, you don't need any more support. I would suggest splashing white and replacing Ninja with Geist of Saint Traft and possibly replacing Phantasmal Bear with Deft Duelist. Since both of these can be pitched to Disrupting Shoal, it doesn't seem like there would be much of a problem.
What I am really worried about are the Jund and Tron matchups. Jund has better creatures than this deck. It's card advantage is just as good. It has cheap removal. Its discard is still effective during the late game due to all of the cantriping. This deck seems like it doesn't have a good matchup with it. Tron seems even worse. With maindeck Pyroclasms and the ability to land cards that this deck cannot interact with (Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated), this deck doesn't seem to be able to function against it. The only hope that this deck seems to have against it is to counter Pyroclasm and all of their land searching spells, which seems difficult.
Since these two decks are very big in the current meta, I do not think that this deck will survive without changes.
Adding another color makes Gitaxian Probe worse, which makes your matchup against any deck playing Lightning Bolt worse.
If you end up cutting Probe, you're going to have to add more lands to compensate for lack of cantrips which in turn makes Delver worse.
After some testing, I have come to the same conclusion. However, as is this deck just loses to Tron and doesn't do that well against Jund either. It also doesn't seem all that great against Affinity due to the lack of permanent removal. Considering that that is a third of the current metagame, I am not sure that this works all that well.
Actually I don't think the jund matchup is too difficult if u make the right decisions. Travis addresses the matchup. I like that you can shoal shaman before even playing a land. Vedalken shackles is really good in this matchup because if they use all their abrupt decays and maelstrom pulses on your creatures a resolved shackles is near impossible to deal with. This is where wurmcoil comes in too because that card does a lot of work against jund. Echoing truth is good against lingering souls in the junk/ajani jund games. The tron matchup is pretty tough. Pyroclasm definitely hurts... If your meta is tron heavy you definitely have to sideboard for it. Hurkylls recall is good here and I've actually thought about putting some ghost quarters in the sideboard taking them out for mutavaults. Haven't tested it though
Has anyone considered spell stutter sprite over the bear? I just feel like in this format the bear just isn't good enough. The sprite counters relevant spells like lightning bolt and path, two of the most used removals in modern.. And let's not forget mutavault is a faerie too
I think there is some misunderstanding about how a tempo deck is supposed to play out, which leads to suggestions to cut bear for non one-drops.
You want to clock the opponent as quickly as possible from the get go. You also want to build your deck and play towards magical christmasland scenarios, because tempo decks thrive on that. This is the basis of how tempo decks play out. Just look at the successful delver decks in legacy. They all play towards delver -> force + stifle fetchland.
This is only possible with a good density of one-drops, which allows the magical christmasland play of bear -> ninja with shoal backup. This actually happens a fair number of times, and usually with this advantage few decks can recover.
If you replace bear with another one-drop like familiar, you lose the clock. There is a big difference between a 10-turn clock vs. a 20-turn clock. For a tempo deck every dime and nickel counts.
Goblin guide is the only real contender here I think. Not being pitchable to shoal is pretty big though imo.
I'm thinking of cutting a vapor snag and remand for 2 Vendilion Clique in the main.
Pros:
- Vendillion is another threat (I feel that this deck is a bit short on threats) and a good one too.
- Fills in the 3 CMC spot for Shoal,
- Can help connect Ninja to the board
Cons:
- Brings up the curve just a tiny bit
- 22 cards for delver to flip on instead of 24
What do you all think? anyone try this out already?
Also another 3 CMC option is Psionic Blast. Given don't have to shock ourselves from lands we can afford the 2 life. Also 4 damage goes a long way considering it can take out a valuable creature, resolved planeswalker, or even your opponent.
I feel like Spellstutter Sprite would be really good if we can the whole suite of Faeries behind it-- like Mistbind Clique, Vendilion Clique, Bitterblossom, etc.
Since we aren't playing any other those besides V Clique sideboard, I don't think it's worth it at all.
If I wasn't on a budget that is...
4x Snapcaster mage
1x Vendillion Clique
2x Ninja of the deep hours
2x Invisible Stalker
4x Grand Architect
1x Treasure Mage
1x Trinket Mage
1x Cryptic Command
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Mana Leak
2x Remand
4x Serum Visions
1x Silver-Inlaid Dagger
1x Wurmcoil engine
1x Steel hellkite
17x Island
2x Mutavault
Just cause wormcoil is so boss in the format.
I like the synergy there. In that case how about running shackles mainboard? It's a tough card to deal with on its own and pitches to shoal.
How can u pitch shackle to shoal? lol
i know they hype decks but lets think about it... have you watched their vids on it? Hyping or not, the deck works and they wouldnt play it just to hype it bc if it wasn't any good, noone would wanna buy the cards since the deck sucked, so stop trying to say im clueless bc obviously you know nothing about selling goods. If something is shown not to work, noone will buy. proven fact.
Oops my bad. Forgot it was blue card only. In that case vendilion clique seems perfect here. Good in almost any matchup. It thoughtseizes or it cantripsand has evasion and flash. The 3 slot for shoal is lacking because what happens to this deck when jund plays deathrite turn 2 liliana?? *scoops*
Lightning bolt is just too good to pass up too.
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U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon
4x Cryptic Command
4x Disrupting Shoal
3x Spell Pierce
2x Spell Snare
4x Vapor Snag
Sorcery (7)
3x Gitaxian Probe
4x Serum Visions
4x Delver of Secrets Flip
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Spellstutter Sprite
1x Vendilion Clique
Land (20)
18x Island
2x Mutavault
2x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Dispel
1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Spellskite
3x Spreading Seas
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
2x Threads of Disloyalty
1x Vendilion Clique
Remand really isn't all that great in most match ups and it doesn't advance the board. I took out Phantasmal Bear which is abhorrent against Splinter Twin and put in Spellstutter Sprite, which is a great card for Tempo. To counteract the increased CMC, Remand went out for Spell Snare and Spell Pierce.
Sideboard is pretty shaky. I just know that the deck has a great Affinity and Jund match up right now. I think that the deck is still weak to Tron, so I'll be trying to figure out a work around that.
Modern:
B 8Rack
RX Goblins
BG Elves (Attempting)
UBW Mill
G Stompy
UB Tezzerator
Legacy:
W Stax
Shackles completely destroy any control matchup. It's also much better against pod.
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
It's a lot about where the Modern Metagame is at the time you are playing. I think Bear for Familiar would be relevant sometimes. But in many matchups two is twice as much damage as one power, so you can kill opponents twice as fast. If they don't have blockers than the Bear is better. If they are mostly playing two toughness guys then Bear is also better since you will usually be happy to use a bear as removal, which also means they won't block the Bear and it gets through. But if you have an aggro Metagame where they will be putting creatures with three or more toughness down then Familiar can do better work.
I like the idea of running 2x Geist of Saint Traft and splashing just a little bit of white to cast those guys, might be worth it. It might also open up some better sideboard cards, but I think I'd be wary of white one drops because of what the mana base would be.
Geist, similar to Goblin Guide, don't work because it makes the mana base just awful. Having to play 8x fetch lands and 2x Shockland is very painful if you're not also running 1 CMC removals like Path to Exile, which doesn't have synergy with the Remand and Disrupting Shoal.
Mono blue is the best version for Disrupting Shoal, and Spellstutter is a best Phantasmal Bear for the deck.
Mono blue has no maindeck way to counter 3 drops with Shoal. While Bear is understandable, I really don't like Ninja. If you have a flipped Delver, you don't need any more support. I would suggest splashing white and replacing Ninja with Geist of Saint Traft and possibly replacing Phantasmal Bear with Deft Duelist. Since both of these can be pitched to Disrupting Shoal, it doesn't seem like there would be much of a problem.
What I am really worried about are the Jund and Tron matchups. Jund has better creatures than this deck. It's card advantage is just as good. It has cheap removal. Its discard is still effective during the late game due to all of the cantriping. This deck seems like it doesn't have a good matchup with it. Tron seems even worse. With maindeck Pyroclasms and the ability to land cards that this deck cannot interact with (Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated), this deck doesn't seem to be able to function against it. The only hope that this deck seems to have against it is to counter Pyroclasm and all of their land searching spells, which seems difficult.
Since these two decks are very big in the current meta, I do not think that this deck will survive without changes.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
If you end up cutting Probe, you're going to have to add more lands to compensate for lack of cantrips which in turn makes Delver worse.
After some testing, I have come to the same conclusion. However, as is this deck just loses to Tron and doesn't do that well against Jund either. It also doesn't seem all that great against Affinity due to the lack of permanent removal. Considering that that is a third of the current metagame, I am not sure that this works all that well.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Has anyone considered spell stutter sprite over the bear? I just feel like in this format the bear just isn't good enough. The sprite counters relevant spells like lightning bolt and path, two of the most used removals in modern.. And let's not forget mutavault is a faerie too
You want to clock the opponent as quickly as possible from the get go. You also want to build your deck and play towards magical christmasland scenarios, because tempo decks thrive on that. This is the basis of how tempo decks play out. Just look at the successful delver decks in legacy. They all play towards delver -> force + stifle fetchland.
This is only possible with a good density of one-drops, which allows the magical christmasland play of bear -> ninja with shoal backup. This actually happens a fair number of times, and usually with this advantage few decks can recover.
If you replace bear with another one-drop like familiar, you lose the clock. There is a big difference between a 10-turn clock vs. a 20-turn clock. For a tempo deck every dime and nickel counts.
Goblin guide is the only real contender here I think. Not being pitchable to shoal is pretty big though imo.
Modern: Jund Legacy: RUG Delver EDH: Captain Sisay
Pros:
- Vendillion is another threat (I feel that this deck is a bit short on threats) and a good one too.
- Fills in the 3 CMC spot for Shoal,
- Can help connect Ninja to the board
Cons:
- Brings up the curve just a tiny bit
- 22 cards for delver to flip on instead of 24
What do you all think? anyone try this out already?
Since we aren't playing any other those besides V Clique sideboard, I don't think it's worth it at all.
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)