I am going to test ptremander in the slots fo Monastery Swiftspear to see how it plays. I am still on the fence, but with more copies in my deck it will be easier to see how it works. I will keep you all posted.
Unfortunately I was very unlucky this time.
Before the FNM started I played against Grixis Death Shadow for fun and won pretty clearly.
Then I was paired against the same opponent again in round one and lost 1-2. First game I missed several land drops and during the third game I flooded. My opponent was at 2 life and I had 6 lands including Stronghold in play so almost any topdeck except for a land would have won me the match... and I drew a land.
Second round I played against Mono Red Goblins. Won the first game thanks to Helix + Snap + Helix. Second game I flooded when I was ahead and after drawing 3 lands in a row my opponent was able to kill me. Third game I started with Sacred Foundry and Island in my starting hand. Couldn't find a third land in the top 10 cards of my library!!! Died with 2 Helixes and 1 Anger in hand. That felt so bad. Sometimes I hate this **** game.
Third round I played against Abzan midrange with Rhinos and won easily 2-0 because I drew my PWs and several Paths.
I hate getting mana screwed or flooding out even though I am running 21 lands and 4 Serum Visions and 3 more cantrips. After such games I think "Should I add 2 Faithless Lootings?", but I don't like the card disadvantage. Or "Should I add several copies of Opt or Slight of Hand in addition to my SVs?" But when I try that it always slows down my deck too much for this aggressive meta. I really hope that the new Sphinx with help me with this issue.
Anyways, for comparison and for everyone interested, here are my other two decks which I am running on MTGO:
This is the Dark Jeskai list. I am only missing the Blood Crypt in real cards. As soon as the new Crypt comes out I'll play this version again at FNM. I like the new illustration.
And yesterday I built the list with Chance for Glory from the Hareruya tournament. I made some minor adjustments:
Playing with 6 Planeswalkers feels pretty good. First match online I won 2-1 against Sultai Shadow but it was very close. My opponent countered 3 PWs with Stubborn Denials and I only the last game because I topdecked Explosives to kill his board (Tarmogoyf & Snapcaster). The match was very exciting and fun though.
Edit: I actually played a competitive league with this deck. Ended up 3-2. Won against Dredge, Bant Spirits and Jeskai Control, but lost against UR Phoenix and UW Control. The UR Phoenix deck (pretty new list with Pyromancer Ascension) annihilated me.
I also flooded a bit this FNM, but I ran 19 lands and I was able to smooth it out.
M1 vs Burn 2-1
he got early Edilon out and hurt himself too much while his Goblin guide feed me lands and info on card draws. In the end he got me down to 3 life but he was at 2 life and could not cast any spell.
G2 lost end he had 5 life me 3
G3 steel of godhead on Geist GG
M2 jund briarbear elf 1-2
I flooded and his deck was too quick for me to interact with
close games all came down speed.
M3 merfolk 2-0
He got mana flooded and drew poorly, he Mulliganed 2 times game 1, G2 his slow start gave me geist w/ mantis on godhead. He killed off my guys but I had copys in hand.
here is my list. I would rather go midrange. However, I'm still unsure for the 1Mana slot. I think Delver is not right for my deck. But what do I know. I would be glad to hear your opinion.
Welcome to the forum topic Anuben and welcome to MTGSalvation. Your list is a spicy one. We love spicy lists here. It is a bit more midrange than I play, but there are several other players on here that play similar decks and will be able to help you out. I really can't see much I would change based on theory alone. Maybe the other who play more midrange style decks will be able to help. I will look into the list more and try to build it so I can help you out with any recommendations.
WickedApp- Nice finish. Any time I have more wins than losses I'm happy with that night. Those are some sweet decks to play against. I have never played against that elves list and I haven't seen merfolk in a long time. Merfolk can be very tough given the island walk, but we have enough removal that we are likely favored. Thanks for the write-up
StevomatUWR- Sometimes we just get unlucky. That's part of the reason the game is fun. With that said, I do think you are on the right track with two faithless looting. I am currently running two copies in my deck based on a recommendation by my brother. We noticed in testing that a decent percentage of the games I lost were due to drawing too many lands. In addition looting helps with ptremandor, snapcaster mage, and bedlam reveler. It is technically card disadvantage the first time you play it. If you flash it back you get that card back. Also if if helps one of the cards I listed it also helps. I would highly recommend try several copies. I think I am currently running 2 looting, 4 opt, and 3 serum visions.
That chance for glory list is sick. I haven't been able to build my list yet, but I can't wait to try it out! Keep us posted.
Now onto the Pteramander topic. I tested 3 copies in my deck and while it was good it opened the deck up to graveyard hate too much for my liking. I think a combination of swiftspear and pteramander is the way to go. I ended on three swiftspear and one pteramander. Swiftspear is better earlier and the drake is better later. a 5/5 flier for UU is a great late game creature in a deck with very few lands. I will be going with that combination for a little while. This is part of the reason I added the second faithless looting as well. Here is the list:
I will go over the sideboard later. It hasn't really changed much except for having a second copy of my favorite card ever Geist of Saint Traft. I had to cut the one copy of Boros Charm and 1 copy of Geist of Saint Traft. This hurt a lot to do, but it was correct in the current meta. If/when control starts to grow again I will add the second or even third Geist back into the deck. I will be playing in a 4 round "fake friday night magic" tonight and will let you know what I find. "Fake Friday Night Magic" is a testing session where my group plays their chosen deck against 4 random decks out of 30 decks similar to what you would see at a FNM. It's not the same, but it does give some information.
Also Jordan Boisvert wrote another great delver article with pteramander. I love reading his articles. He is great at building tempo style delver decks. I prefer aggro control, but I learn a lot from his builds. It's worth a look. Here is a link:
It looks like he adopted our strategy of adding Echoing Truth to the mainboard also which is awesome. I'm not saying he got it from us, but it's definitely picking up steam in the delver world. Well done guys!
So finally I am getting around to writting up something, just havent had the time/urge to write, but its due time.
Anyways, there is much to talk about. First off I wanted to show you what I am, or rather what I was working with a few weeks, or days ago.
This was before Pteramander was spoiled. Ater reading the article CurdBros was so kind to post I was very positiv that this card could jsut be what our deck needed. The first attempt on my part, as I wasnt really a fan of Thought Scour. I started off with 2 copies of the lizard and 0 tought scour, just swapping out the 2 figures of destiny and 1 mantis rider, as well as cutting the 2 censor and the one Hieroglyphic illumination for one copy each off serum visions, opt and spell snare. Playing against Grixis shadow and jund, which were the only decks I tested against the lizard came close to transforming in 1 game if I recall correctly, so I upped the lizard count and went with 3-4 thought scours, switching at times, jsut to get a feeling for it.
Although the little flying man got dramatically better it still kind of underperformed in my opinion, so I dont really know what to do right now, either going back to the mantis riders or finally trying some swift spears along with one copy of figure of destiny. Those match ups arent the most represented in the meta game but I play versus interactive decks a lot in my local gamestore and I just havent seen the results I wanted. Pteramander seems less clunky on the card itself, but you often times dont really want to pump mana into it EoT becuase its just getting pushed, dismembered or bolted anyways. All in All I was a little disapointed with how it performed.
After trying out a new style off build or a new card I am often times a little discouraged and question the deck as a whole. And thats when I start to come up with some real spicy stuff and that may jsut happend right now.
I am very curious on what you guys think about the spice I am going to present you guys next.
While playing with looting the card felt extremelly powerful and with another 3 cantrips I lowered the land count to 18 and with 28 spells the delver flip rate felt amazing, like fantastic. Thinking about threats and such besides delver I stumbled upon Pyromancer Ascension. Thought Scour was filling the graveyard regardless and Ascension is a way of cheesing someone out that isnt prepared, as well as giving really good late game potential with cards like lightning helix, serum visions, bolts and snapcasters.
2 copies in the main or sideboard, thats what I havent figured out yet, should be sufficient. If it ends up in the main board and the opponent sees it and we expect grave hate we just board it out and dont really worry about grave hate at all, the question is would crackling drake in these RiP, albeit slower match ups, be a fine card to side in? Probably so. Or would Geist be sufficient?
One last thing, the new dovin is very interesting. We would have to make it work with evasive/aggressive creatures. A list like the one CurdBros is playing would probably be perfect for him. Siding him in versus slower decks could be decent.
Edit: Mazereon speaking. I have no clue why, but my account and all posts I previously made on this thread have been deleted. So here I am born anew lol...
You should try Swiftspears and mutagenic growths/gut shots,but then you're almost to the point of playing UR Phoenix with looting/scours etc. without the phoenixes and thing in the ice (arguably the reason to play the deck).
I haven't posted anything here in like a year. But it seems like it's time for a comeback . There are two things I'd like to comment on. First, Chance for Glory, and second, Pteramander.
Back when Chance for Glory was spoilered I instantly knew that I had to brew something in modern with it. As I am a big fan Geist, it was clear to me that the deck was to be in jeskai colours. The result of my brewing is a Sundial of the Infinite heavy variant that also runs Gideon otT and Remands. It's slow sometimes, but it just feels great attacking with an indestructible Geist while taking extra turns and building up an army of 4/4 flyers. That said, if anyone is interested I can post my personal build. I haven't changed it alot since October, but it should still be fine.
For the Pteramander topic I'd like to take a step back. My iterations of Jeskai Delver/tempo were genereally quite close to CurdBros'. Swiftspears, Delvers, Geists and Snapcaster as Creatures and the rest was basicly disruption, burn and cantrips. While I was happy with that formula for quite a while, the last half year I started doubting my deck. Especially Geist got alot worse imo with the decrease in control decks in modern. In response to my slowly growing frustration I tried various alternative takes on the formerly proven formula, but the results were mostly disappointment and deck that was more and more disconnected from what I wanted it to be.
While playing UR Phoenix for awhile now, I realised how much I missed cantripping alot (went down on cantrips in the past year). This leads us back to Pteramander. When it was spoiled I wanted to play it in my delver deck so bad, but from experience I knew that I couldn't fill my GY fast enough. So my first thought was to try a similar approach to Ur Phoenix lists. Obviously, Manamorphose and Looting are their best way to feed the GY efficiently, but since I really like an interactive counter-burn/tempo playstyle, the potential tempo loss brought by Manamorphose and looting's card disadvantage didn't appeal to me. That said, a small number of Looting is probably fine. I don't think that not being able to run those cards is that much of a problem, since the vast amount of conventional cantrips in UR Phoenix is also one of the reasons why the deck fills its GY so fast.
Tonight I played my first take on Jeskai tempo with Pteromander. I drastically increased the number of 1cmc cantrips (4Opt, 3 Serum Visions & 3 Thoughtscour)in my deck, added 4 copies of Pteramanderand reluctantly removed my 3 Geist of Saint Traft. There were also some other minor changes. Since it's kind of late here in Europe, I'm going to post it tomorrow.
I couldn't play too many games with my current iteration, but it really felt great. Cantripping like a maniac is just the best . One of the matches was against UB mill... I Pteromande just felt like cheating in those two games. G2 I accidentally mulligand my perfectly fine 7 card hand, and then had to mulligan down to 5. "Flipping" Pteromander t2 ended the game very quickly.
I will try to play some more matches the next few days and report to you
Good to hear from you Mazeron. That stinks about your account getting deleted. Glad you are back though. I think Pteramander will get a lot more interest back into delver style decks. It's obviously going to go directly into the phoenix decks with ease. That deck will be pretty darn good. We have to avoid being a worse version of that deck.
I do agree with what many of you have said lately that cantriping is where it's at right now. Faithless Looting works very well with any deck that runs on efficiency and has a lot land count. Having a one land hand is so much easier to keep when you have a first turn cantrip. With that said, my main concern is making sure I am not to open to graveyard hate. Right now I am running 2 Bedlam Reveler, 3-4 Snapcater Mage, and 1 Pteramander. This amount of graveyard reliance is right on the edge of if someone should side in hate. I don't think many opponents will side in graveyard hate, but if they do it's also not too damaging to the gameplan.
As for Pteramander, I have tested it rather heavily. I have found the card to be exactly what we expected it to be. In a deck with a lot of "air" such as Manamorphose, Thought Scour, Gut Shot, etc, the card is very good. I think it will he a shoe in 4 of in the phoenix deck.
I am not a thought scour or manamorphose fan and like to have control over the game a little more. In this case, Pteramander is a great "flex" card. By that I mean it's a great one or two of in the deck. It is similar to Spell Queller in that sense. Queller allows us to add additional distruption while also having an additional threat. I don't want a ton of "bad" disruption in the deck, but it fills the gaps as a one of. Pteramader also fills the gaps a little bit. I think of them as glue cards. It allows us to add another 1 drop threat to the deck that is fine as a play on turn one while also adding an additional late game threat that can finish a game out. I could see cutting a bedlem reveler and running two copies of pteramander. I know a lot of players don't like having 1 or 2 ofs in their deck so if you love this card you will have to build your deck around it.
On the Pyromancer's Ascension topic, I don't have a lot of experience with the card. Based on theory alone it feels like a win more card. However, with the addition of ptremander along side swiftspear, it could be a really awesome 1 or 2 of or even sideboard card. I would assume any time it got online the game would end rather quickly. I don't think anyone has every tried to couple ascension with prowess/"delve" threats so it's uncharted territory. With scour and faithless looting it shouldn't take very long to have ascension on line almost immediately.
Unfortunately, the meta right now means that Geist is not great. I still run one copy because the card is still great in a lot of matches, but with the downswing in control he isn't as necessary. I am also running one copy in the sideboard. Crackling Drake is a great sideboard card or even mainboard card for any deck that relies heavily on the graveyard. It basically nullifies their hate. I really like that idea Mazeron if you go with a scour/faithless looting style build.
Hi Irdna. Good to hear from you. I do thing Pteramander will add a lot of new energy to izzet based spell decks and hopefully delver. We have discussed Chance for Glory a bit, but I haven't found the perfect way to do it yet. I am still working on my jeskai superfriends deck with Chance for Glory and Savor the Moment. Your sundile idea is super spicey and awesome. I can't wait to see it.
I totally agree with you about manamorphose and scour. Looting can be flashed back so I'm ok with it. We are very similar players I think. I just don't like air or the advantage loss some of these cards offer. I like to have a bit more control over my gameplan. That's not to say these cards are bad in any way, they are obviously very good. However, they just don't fit how I like to play.
I'm really happy that your deck is running well. I don't want to sound overly exaggerated, but I really feel like my deck is running more smoothly now than it ever has. With the addition of opt, 1-2 looting, and 1-2 pteramanders the deck really feels very consistent and powerful. I always love when new cards energize a playstyle again.
I was running a waste not Grixis deck for the last month. Yes wrong forum. But the deck ran faithless looting, Pyromancer's ascension, Burning Inquiry , snappy, ect.
I think in a shell that disrupts and fills GY's The winged salamander might work. It can be slow to get the Acsention on line, but hard for your opponent to stop. Add young pyromancer and monetary mentor w/ delver. You can SB out the salmander and acsention any any other card that relies on GY if you choose.
Like all the creatures in the deck I do not see 1 as being the killer at the end but the threat they must answer. Forcing tempo.
This deck's haymakers are Sundial of the Infinite, Geist of Saint Traft and Chance for Glory. Sundial is so good in this build because it serves a double function. The more obvious use of it is to end your extra turn so you don't lose the game. The second way to abuse it involves Geist. Ending your turn while his end of combat trigger is on the stack allows you to keep your Angel tokens indefinitely. Geist isn't only great because of this "commanderesque" synergy. Casting Chance for Glory with Geist out happens to be a very efficient way to kill people as well (given the opponent took some demage already).
Gideon, while not being the most busted card in this deck, adds a whole lot of consistency. On the one hand his emblem gives you another way not to lose the game to your own spells. On the other hand he is a pretty solid threat himself.
The rest of the deck are mainly ways to keep the board clear and slow down your oponent. In my opinion Remand is the counter magic of choice in every deck running Geist, so i play the full playset. Since spot removal isn't an issue normaly, I figured forked bolt was a nice way to help geist connect when the oponent goes wider e.g. with lingering souls.
I must say that I'm quite happy with this brew. I'm always having a blast playing it, and even though it's a tad slow sometimes I think it's pretty reasonable beacause of its solid jeskai interaction package.
@ Irdna; list looks good. I wonder if you really need 4 sundials. Maybe replace 1-2 with draw or cantrips. serum visions faithless looting comes to mind.
@Twanicus: thx for the kudo. The deck isn't super competitive, but you definitely have a chance against most deck in modern. Of course there are some nearly unwinnable matches, but that's true for the majority of modern decks. If you like the cards in the list, want to do some crazy over-the-top stuff with Geist and Chance for Glory and you don't expect it to be super comepetitive, it's sure worth giving it a try.
@WickedApp: Thank you for your input. Trimming one Sundial would be an option for sure. actually, I tested the deck with only 3 Sundials in one of its earlier iterations. I went back to 4 copies since Sundial is such an important enabler for this deck's strategy. However, it's totally possible that a cantrip instead of the fourth Sundial would benefit the deck. It's basicly a trade-off between improving the deck's consistency in "doing its thing" on the one hand and enabling role flexibility on the other hand.
I think I'm going to give playing another cantrip over the fourth Sundial a try sometime soon. The deck has changed quite alot since I last played it with only 3 Sundials, so a reassessment might prove useful.
Hi guys, has anyone already played a few Modern matches with the new cards? How did it go?
I played 3 matches on MTGO yesterday with 2 Sphinx of Foresight in my Jeskai Delver list and won all three (against Grixis Shadow, GB Rock and Naban Wizard Tribal brew). Never got to Scry at the start though. Guess having it as a lucky charm is already enough
The top end of the deck consisting of: 2x Gideon of the Trials, 3x Geist of Saint Traft, 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant and 2 xSphinx of Foresight combined with so much burn/removal is really brutal!
However, most fun I had this weekend was with my Dark Jeskai deck against Eldrazi Aggro (Serum Powder list). My opponent had no Dismember left for Olivia Voldaren. First turn she could attack she became 5/5 and next turn 7/7 and she ended the game.
Won a few more matches with the Sphinx deck. This deck rocks. Actually I haven't lost a single match yet.
Here is a match against UW Control: Game 1 & Game 2
Enjoy
With the KCI ban things are thrown into a flux a little bit. I can't say I am upset to see it go. When Matt Nass said it needed to be banned I assumed that something in the deck would be on the chopping block. My next question is what decks will reign supreme now and how do we adjust.
1. UR Phoenix
My first inclination is the most obvious one that Phoenix will be the deck of choice now. This is actually a fairly good matchup for us from my experience. I have had a very positive win percentage against the deck, especially post board. It's somewhat interactive and wins with creatures. It can have busted starts, but can be beat with a normal gameplan. It doesn't tax the sideboard too much. I don't mind this deck at the top of the meta.
2. The return of the dreaded Lantern Control Deck
This is a prediction that I see possibly coming true. I think of lot of the players that like ironworks also like playing Lantern. It's another deck with a similar style. It's another artifact based combo deck that durdles and is tough to interact with. I have feeling a decent percentage of the ironworks players will possibly port over to Lantern due to the play style similarities and because some of the most expensive cards (mox opal, stirrings, etc) are in both decks so it would be an easy and cost effective transition. I think I hate lantern control more so than ironworks so I hope I am wrong.
3. Burn, burn, burn
Burn will have a good matchup against a lot of the top decks and gets a new toy in Skewer the Critic. I can see this deck actually being the most popular deck in modern soon. For our purposes we have a decent burn matchup (especially if you are running 3-4 helix), but if it becomes the top deck we will need to add additional sideboard help. Deflecting Palm, Celestial Purge, Any lifelink creature, etc are easy things we can do.
That's my level one prediction for the meta, but we will see what happens. I don't think the lack of lantern affects are deck or matchups we will see too much.
After a week or so with Pteramander I have added it to my list as a one of. It's excellent in the late game and is also not to bad if you draw it early. Also, by only having one I don't open up to too much graveyard hate. In decks that play manamorphose, thought scour, faithless looting, etc, it will be a great addition.
Won a few more matches with the Sphinx deck. This deck rocks. Actually I haven't lost a single match yet.
Here is a match against UW Control: Game 1 & Game 2
Enjoy
I love watching these videos. Gideon looked very good and always surprises me in these videos. I may need to give him a chance in my sideboard. I think the sphinx works perfectly in your style of deck. It's not full midrange, it's more of a tempo style deck. It looked really good there. Keep us posted on how it goes. I think a lot of the people on this topic play a deck more similar to yours than mine so it's super helpful to see these videos for a lot of people.
Hi CurdBros,
I am really glad you like these vids.
If it wasn't such a pain to upload them (takes forever with TinyTake) I'd do it more often.
Yesterday I won two more games with the deck. Ready to order 2 copies of foil Sphinx of Foresight now.
I am also happy with the new split of 2x Opt + 3x SV in the deck.
Hello all, Ive been on mtgsalvation for some time. but frequent he jeskai control deck most. I however, havent had much to do there bc no one plays geist anymore and in my opinion jeskai control is the most volatile deck ive ever seen in that it changes radically to suit the meta and new cards coming out. Last year geist was a thing, now its not.
Ive posted here before but it was a deck that was simply not very good and a weak jeskai version of humans before humans was a thing.
Ive been looking for loyal geist players but forgot to return here and check it out more and im glad i finally did. I play and enjoy the geist tempo build with spell queller and play this list below.
The flex spot is mainly the thundermaw hellkite, its good to close out games but its very mana intensive and takes alot of thought to set up.
I used to and still on occasion play a third geist of saint traft and 2 steel of the god head bc the combo is for the most part unbeatable and flashing queller on opponents turn and slapping the steel on it your turn is very viable.
Now as for peek i think its criminally under valued and under played. its a very very good card. I experimented alot with opt and serum visions and a combination of the two and i truly feel 2/2 split of serum visions and peek is optimal at least for my style of deck and play. i hope others here give it a shot since the people here seem to be more like me in that unconventional cards are exciting, and looked at rather than ignored and dismissed as it seems to be the case in other threads.
Anyways, any opinion or feedback is great! and I am glad I have found this thread again and theres still people out here loyal to jeskai and the saint
EDIT: Peek is extremely useful when playing the value creatures like mentor, king, young pyro, and your big boys like sphinx and hellkite as it allows you to see if the coast is clear in your opponents hand and on your opponents turn. Good play is peek and clique at end step if you were holding up mana for cryptic that didnt need to be fired off.
@ cccc : peek seems fine to me. It is not really my style of play, I would rather look at the hand and rip cards away. My love for hymn to tourach was never banned. I guess that's why I like Jeskai Delver because it plays the same way I would play a black deck.
Hello all, Ive been on mtgsalvation for some time. but frequent he jeskai control deck most. I however, havent had much to do there bc no one plays geist anymore and in my opinion jeskai control is the most volatile deck ive ever seen in that it changes radically to suit the meta and new cards coming out. Last year geist was a thing, now its not.
Ive posted here before but it was a deck that was simply not very good and a weak jeskai version of humans before humans was a thing.
Ive been looking for loyal geist players but forgot to return here and check it out more and im glad i finally did. I play and enjoy the geist tempo build with spell queller and play this list below.
The flex spot is mainly the thundermaw hellkite, its good to close out games but its very mana intensive and takes alot of thought to set up.
I used to and still on occasion play a third geist of saint traft and 2 steel of the god head bc the combo is for the most part unbeatable and flashing queller on opponents turn and slapping the steel on it your turn is very viable.
Now as for peek i think its criminally under valued and under played. its a very very good card. I experimented alot with opt and serum visions and a combination of the two and i truly feel 2/2 split of serum visions and peek is optimal at least for my style of deck and play. i hope others here give it a shot since the people here seem to be more like me in that unconventional cards are exciting, and looked at rather than ignored and dismissed as it seems to be the case in other threads.
Anyways, any opinion or feedback is great! and I am glad I have found this thread again and theres still people out here loyal to jeskai and the saint
EDIT: Peek is extremely useful when playing the value creatures like mentor, king, young pyro, and your big boys like sphinx and hellkite as it allows you to see if the coast is clear in your opponents hand and on your opponents turn. Good play is peek and clique at end step if you were holding up mana for cryptic that didnt need to be fired off.
I'm glad to have another Geist player in the chat. Geist of Saint Traft is my favorite card of all time. When it was standard legal all I played was Geist of Saint Traft decks. With all of the removal going around now, Geist is a very good option. I currently run two copies and I think that is a good number with a larger number of cantrips and deck manipulation. Peek is an awesome addition to decks that are very interactive. Our plan changes a lot depending on what the opponent has so I may have to give a copy a try. Maybe run 4 opt, 2 serum visions, and 1 peek. Possibly a 3 opt, 3 serum visions, 1 peek split.
Your deck is definitely on the more controlling end so I don't have a ton of experience with that lately. I ran Jeskai Midrange with Geist for a long time back in the day so I do have some experience. I know there are other fans of Steel of the God head on here. The only problem with it was a lack of a second option, but with queller also in the deck you could definitely easily run a copy.
You have inspired me to give peek another try. Before Opt was reprinted I was running a couple of copies because they worked well with snapcaster mage also at instant speed.
It would be nice to take a card but it being instant and still providing the draw is quite good. And as we know blue excels when it has information especially if youre looking to play a win condition.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern RUAffinityUR GMono Green StompyG CEldrazi TronC URWJeskai GeistWRU WRBoros BurnRW BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
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I went to FNM with my normal Jeskai Tempo list:
Unfortunately I was very unlucky this time.
Before the FNM started I played against Grixis Death Shadow for fun and won pretty clearly.
Then I was paired against the same opponent again in round one and lost 1-2. First game I missed several land drops and during the third game I flooded. My opponent was at 2 life and I had 6 lands including Stronghold in play so almost any topdeck except for a land would have won me the match... and I drew a land.
Second round I played against Mono Red Goblins. Won the first game thanks to Helix + Snap + Helix. Second game I flooded when I was ahead and after drawing 3 lands in a row my opponent was able to kill me. Third game I started with Sacred Foundry and Island in my starting hand. Couldn't find a third land in the top 10 cards of my library!!! Died with 2 Helixes and 1 Anger in hand. That felt so bad. Sometimes I hate this **** game.
Third round I played against Abzan midrange with Rhinos and won easily 2-0 because I drew my PWs and several Paths.
I hate getting mana screwed or flooding out even though I am running 21 lands and 4 Serum Visions and 3 more cantrips. After such games I think "Should I add 2 Faithless Lootings?", but I don't like the card disadvantage. Or "Should I add several copies of Opt or Slight of Hand in addition to my SVs?" But when I try that it always slows down my deck too much for this aggressive meta. I really hope that the new Sphinx with help me with this issue.
Anyways, for comparison and for everyone interested, here are my other two decks which I am running on MTGO:
This is the Dark Jeskai list. I am only missing the Blood Crypt in real cards. As soon as the new Crypt comes out I'll play this version again at FNM. I like the new illustration.
And yesterday I built the list with Chance for Glory from the Hareruya tournament. I made some minor adjustments:
Playing with 6 Planeswalkers feels pretty good. First match online I won 2-1 against Sultai Shadow but it was very close. My opponent countered 3 PWs with Stubborn Denials and I only the last game because I topdecked Explosives to kill his board (Tarmogoyf & Snapcaster). The match was very exciting and fun though.
Edit: I actually played a competitive league with this deck. Ended up 3-2. Won against Dredge, Bant Spirits and Jeskai Control, but lost against UR Phoenix and UW Control. The UR Phoenix deck (pretty new list with Pyromancer Ascension) annihilated me.
I also flooded a bit this FNM, but I ran 19 lands and I was able to smooth it out.
M1 vs Burn 2-1
he got early Edilon out and hurt himself too much while his Goblin guide feed me lands and info on card draws. In the end he got me down to 3 life but he was at 2 life and could not cast any spell.
G2 lost end he had 5 life me 3
G3 steel of godhead on Geist GG
M2 jund briarbear elf 1-2
I flooded and his deck was too quick for me to interact with
close games all came down speed.
M3 merfolk 2-0
He got mana flooded and drew poorly, he Mulliganed 2 times game 1, G2 his slow start gave me geist w/ mantis on godhead. He killed off my guys but I had copys in hand.
here is my list. I would rather go midrange. However, I'm still unsure for the 1Mana slot. I think Delver is not right for my deck. But what do I know. I would be glad to hear your opinion.
1 Arid Mesa
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Celestial Colonnade
3 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Inspiring Vantage
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seachrome Coast
2 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
3 Figure of Destiny
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Restoration Angel
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Spell Queller
1 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalkers
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Spells
1 Cryptic Command
1 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
1 Logic Knot
2 Mana Leak
4 Opt
3 Path to Exile
2 Remand
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
WickedApp- Nice finish. Any time I have more wins than losses I'm happy with that night. Those are some sweet decks to play against. I have never played against that elves list and I haven't seen merfolk in a long time. Merfolk can be very tough given the island walk, but we have enough removal that we are likely favored. Thanks for the write-up
StevomatUWR- Sometimes we just get unlucky. That's part of the reason the game is fun. With that said, I do think you are on the right track with two faithless looting. I am currently running two copies in my deck based on a recommendation by my brother. We noticed in testing that a decent percentage of the games I lost were due to drawing too many lands. In addition looting helps with ptremandor, snapcaster mage, and bedlam reveler. It is technically card disadvantage the first time you play it. If you flash it back you get that card back. Also if if helps one of the cards I listed it also helps. I would highly recommend try several copies. I think I am currently running 2 looting, 4 opt, and 3 serum visions.
That chance for glory list is sick. I haven't been able to build my list yet, but I can't wait to try it out! Keep us posted.
Now onto the Pteramander topic. I tested 3 copies in my deck and while it was good it opened the deck up to graveyard hate too much for my liking. I think a combination of swiftspear and pteramander is the way to go. I ended on three swiftspear and one pteramander. Swiftspear is better earlier and the drake is better later. a 5/5 flier for UU is a great late game creature in a deck with very few lands. I will be going with that combination for a little while. This is part of the reason I added the second faithless looting as well. Here is the list:
3 Monastery Swiftspear
1 Ptermander
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Spell Queller
1 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Bedlam Reveler
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
1 Vapor Snag
1 Echoing Truth
2 Remand
2 Spell Pierce
4 Opt
2 Faithless Looting
3 Serum Visions
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Glacial Fortress
I will go over the sideboard later. It hasn't really changed much except for having a second copy of my favorite card ever Geist of Saint Traft. I had to cut the one copy of Boros Charm and 1 copy of Geist of Saint Traft. This hurt a lot to do, but it was correct in the current meta. If/when control starts to grow again I will add the second or even third Geist back into the deck. I will be playing in a 4 round "fake friday night magic" tonight and will let you know what I find. "Fake Friday Night Magic" is a testing session where my group plays their chosen deck against 4 random decks out of 30 decks similar to what you would see at a FNM. It's not the same, but it does give some information.
Welcome again to Anuben!
http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/126279
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Opt
4 Path to Exile
4 Chart a Course
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Rest in Peace
2 Celestial Purge
3 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Dispel
4 Negate
2 Wear // Tear
Also Jordan Boisvert wrote another great delver article with pteramander. I love reading his articles. He is great at building tempo style delver decks. I prefer aggro control, but I learn a lot from his builds. It's worth a look. Here is a link:
http://www.modernnexus.com/ur-it-rebuilding-delver-salamander-drake/
It looks like he adopted our strategy of adding Echoing Truth to the mainboard also which is awesome. I'm not saying he got it from us, but it's definitely picking up steam in the delver world. Well done guys!
Anyways, there is much to talk about. First off I wanted to show you what I am, or rather what I was working with a few weeks, or days ago.
This was before Pteramander was spoiled. Ater reading the article CurdBros was so kind to post I was very positiv that this card could jsut be what our deck needed. The first attempt on my part, as I wasnt really a fan of Thought Scour. I started off with 2 copies of the lizard and 0 tought scour, just swapping out the 2 figures of destiny and 1 mantis rider, as well as cutting the 2 censor and the one Hieroglyphic illumination for one copy each off serum visions, opt and spell snare. Playing against Grixis shadow and jund, which were the only decks I tested against the lizard came close to transforming in 1 game if I recall correctly, so I upped the lizard count and went with 3-4 thought scours, switching at times, jsut to get a feeling for it.
Although the little flying man got dramatically better it still kind of underperformed in my opinion, so I dont really know what to do right now, either going back to the mantis riders or finally trying some swift spears along with one copy of figure of destiny. Those match ups arent the most represented in the meta game but I play versus interactive decks a lot in my local gamestore and I just havent seen the results I wanted. Pteramander seems less clunky on the card itself, but you often times dont really want to pump mana into it EoT becuase its just getting pushed, dismembered or bolted anyways. All in All I was a little disapointed with how it performed.
After trying out a new style off build or a new card I am often times a little discouraged and question the deck as a whole. And thats when I start to come up with some real spicy stuff and that may jsut happend right now.
I am very curious on what you guys think about the spice I am going to present you guys next.
While playing with looting the card felt extremelly powerful and with another 3 cantrips I lowered the land count to 18 and with 28 spells the delver flip rate felt amazing, like fantastic. Thinking about threats and such besides delver I stumbled upon Pyromancer Ascension. Thought Scour was filling the graveyard regardless and Ascension is a way of cheesing someone out that isnt prepared, as well as giving really good late game potential with cards like lightning helix, serum visions, bolts and snapcasters.
2 copies in the main or sideboard, thats what I havent figured out yet, should be sufficient. If it ends up in the main board and the opponent sees it and we expect grave hate we just board it out and dont really worry about grave hate at all, the question is would crackling drake in these RiP, albeit slower match ups, be a fine card to side in? Probably so. Or would Geist be sufficient?
One last thing, the new dovin is very interesting. We would have to make it work with evasive/aggressive creatures. A list like the one CurdBros is playing would probably be perfect for him. Siding him in versus slower decks could be decent.
Edit: Mazereon speaking. I have no clue why, but my account and all posts I previously made on this thread have been deleted. So here I am born anew lol...
I haven't posted anything here in like a year. But it seems like it's time for a comeback
Back when Chance for Glory was spoilered I instantly knew that I had to brew something in modern with it. As I am a big fan Geist, it was clear to me that the deck was to be in jeskai colours. The result of my brewing is a Sundial of the Infinite heavy variant that also runs Gideon otT and Remands. It's slow sometimes, but it just feels great attacking with an indestructible Geist while taking extra turns and building up an army of 4/4 flyers. That said, if anyone is interested I can post my personal build. I haven't changed it alot since October, but it should still be fine.
For the Pteramander topic I'd like to take a step back. My iterations of Jeskai Delver/tempo were genereally quite close to CurdBros'. Swiftspears, Delvers, Geists and Snapcaster as Creatures and the rest was basicly disruption, burn and cantrips. While I was happy with that formula for quite a while, the last half year I started doubting my deck. Especially Geist got alot worse imo with the decrease in control decks in modern. In response to my slowly growing frustration I tried various alternative takes on the formerly proven formula, but the results were mostly disappointment and deck that was more and more disconnected from what I wanted it to be.
While playing UR Phoenix for awhile now, I realised how much I missed cantripping alot (went down on cantrips in the past year). This leads us back to Pteramander. When it was spoiled I wanted to play it in my delver deck so bad, but from experience I knew that I couldn't fill my GY fast enough. So my first thought was to try a similar approach to Ur Phoenix lists. Obviously, Manamorphose and Looting are their best way to feed the GY efficiently, but since I really like an interactive counter-burn/tempo playstyle, the potential tempo loss brought by Manamorphose and looting's card disadvantage didn't appeal to me. That said, a small number of Looting is probably fine. I don't think that not being able to run those cards is that much of a problem, since the vast amount of conventional cantrips in UR Phoenix is also one of the reasons why the deck fills its GY so fast.
Tonight I played my first take on Jeskai tempo with Pteromander. I drastically increased the number of 1cmc cantrips (4Opt, 3 Serum Visions & 3 Thoughtscour)in my deck, added 4 copies of Pteramanderand reluctantly removed my 3 Geist of Saint Traft. There were also some other minor changes. Since it's kind of late here in Europe, I'm going to post it tomorrow.
I couldn't play too many games with my current iteration, but it really felt great. Cantripping like a maniac is just the best
I will try to play some more matches the next few days and report to you
I do agree with what many of you have said lately that cantriping is where it's at right now. Faithless Looting works very well with any deck that runs on efficiency and has a lot land count. Having a one land hand is so much easier to keep when you have a first turn cantrip. With that said, my main concern is making sure I am not to open to graveyard hate. Right now I am running 2 Bedlam Reveler, 3-4 Snapcater Mage, and 1 Pteramander. This amount of graveyard reliance is right on the edge of if someone should side in hate. I don't think many opponents will side in graveyard hate, but if they do it's also not too damaging to the gameplan.
As for Pteramander, I have tested it rather heavily. I have found the card to be exactly what we expected it to be. In a deck with a lot of "air" such as Manamorphose, Thought Scour, Gut Shot, etc, the card is very good. I think it will he a shoe in 4 of in the phoenix deck.
I am not a thought scour or manamorphose fan and like to have control over the game a little more. In this case, Pteramander is a great "flex" card. By that I mean it's a great one or two of in the deck. It is similar to Spell Queller in that sense. Queller allows us to add additional distruption while also having an additional threat. I don't want a ton of "bad" disruption in the deck, but it fills the gaps as a one of. Pteramader also fills the gaps a little bit. I think of them as glue cards. It allows us to add another 1 drop threat to the deck that is fine as a play on turn one while also adding an additional late game threat that can finish a game out. I could see cutting a bedlem reveler and running two copies of pteramander. I know a lot of players don't like having 1 or 2 ofs in their deck so if you love this card you will have to build your deck around it.
On the Pyromancer's Ascension topic, I don't have a lot of experience with the card. Based on theory alone it feels like a win more card. However, with the addition of ptremander along side swiftspear, it could be a really awesome 1 or 2 of or even sideboard card. I would assume any time it got online the game would end rather quickly. I don't think anyone has every tried to couple ascension with prowess/"delve" threats so it's uncharted territory. With scour and faithless looting it shouldn't take very long to have ascension on line almost immediately.
Unfortunately, the meta right now means that Geist is not great. I still run one copy because the card is still great in a lot of matches, but with the downswing in control he isn't as necessary. I am also running one copy in the sideboard. Crackling Drake is a great sideboard card or even mainboard card for any deck that relies heavily on the graveyard. It basically nullifies their hate. I really like that idea Mazeron if you go with a scour/faithless looting style build.
Hi Irdna. Good to hear from you. I do thing Pteramander will add a lot of new energy to izzet based spell decks and hopefully delver. We have discussed Chance for Glory a bit, but I haven't found the perfect way to do it yet. I am still working on my jeskai superfriends deck with Chance for Glory and Savor the Moment. Your sundile idea is super spicey and awesome. I can't wait to see it.
I totally agree with you about manamorphose and scour. Looting can be flashed back so I'm ok with it. We are very similar players I think. I just don't like air or the advantage loss some of these cards offer. I like to have a bit more control over my gameplan. That's not to say these cards are bad in any way, they are obviously very good. However, they just don't fit how I like to play.
I'm really happy that your deck is running well. I don't want to sound overly exaggerated, but I really feel like my deck is running more smoothly now than it ever has. With the addition of opt, 1-2 looting, and 1-2 pteramanders the deck really feels very consistent and powerful. I always love when new cards energize a playstyle again.
I think in a shell that disrupts and fills GY's The winged salamander might work. It can be slow to get the Acsention on line, but hard for your opponent to stop. Add young pyromancer and monetary mentor w/ delver. You can SB out the salmander and acsention any any other card that relies on GY if you choose.
Like all the creatures in the deck I do not see 1 as being the killer at the end but the threat they must answer. Forcing tempo.
4 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Inspiring Vantage
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
Instants & Sorceries
4 Chance for Glory
4 Remand
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
2 Forked Bolt
3 Opt
Planeswalker
3 Gideon of the Trials
Artifacts
4 Sundial of the Infinite
2 Alpine Moon
3 Abrade
2 Rest in Peace
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Celestial Purge
1 Negate
2 Dispel
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Engineered Explosives
This deck's haymakers are Sundial of the Infinite, Geist of Saint Traft and Chance for Glory. Sundial is so good in this build because it serves a double function. The more obvious use of it is to end your extra turn so you don't lose the game. The second way to abuse it involves Geist. Ending your turn while his end of combat trigger is on the stack allows you to keep your Angel tokens indefinitely. Geist isn't only great because of this "commanderesque" synergy. Casting Chance for Glory with Geist out happens to be a very efficient way to kill people as well (given the opponent took some demage already).
Gideon, while not being the most busted card in this deck, adds a whole lot of consistency. On the one hand his emblem gives you another way not to lose the game to your own spells. On the other hand he is a pretty solid threat himself.
The rest of the deck are mainly ways to keep the board clear and slow down your oponent. In my opinion Remand is the counter magic of choice in every deck running Geist, so i play the full playset. Since spot removal isn't an issue normaly, I figured forked bolt was a nice way to help geist connect when the oponent goes wider e.g. with lingering souls.
I must say that I'm quite happy with this brew. I'm always having a blast playing it, and even though it's a tad slow sometimes I think it's pretty reasonable beacause of its solid jeskai interaction package.
Any thougths?
@WickedApp: Thank you for your input. Trimming one Sundial would be an option for sure. actually, I tested the deck with only 3 Sundials in one of its earlier iterations. I went back to 4 copies since Sundial is such an important enabler for this deck's strategy. However, it's totally possible that a cantrip instead of the fourth Sundial would benefit the deck. It's basicly a trade-off between improving the deck's consistency in "doing its thing" on the one hand and enabling role flexibility on the other hand.
I think I'm going to give playing another cantrip over the fourth Sundial a try sometime soon. The deck has changed quite alot since I last played it with only 3 Sundials, so a reassessment might prove useful.
I played 3 matches on MTGO yesterday with 2 Sphinx of Foresight in my Jeskai Delver list and won all three (against Grixis Shadow, GB Rock and Naban Wizard Tribal brew). Never got to Scry at the start though. Guess having it as a lucky charm is already enough
The top end of the deck consisting of: 2x Gideon of the Trials, 3x Geist of Saint Traft, 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant and 2 xSphinx of Foresight combined with so much burn/removal is really brutal!
However, most fun I had this weekend was with my Dark Jeskai deck against Eldrazi Aggro (Serum Powder list). My opponent had no Dismember left for Olivia Voldaren. First turn she could attack she became 5/5 and next turn 7/7 and she ended the game.
Here is a match against UW Control: Game 1 & Game 2
Enjoy
1. UR Phoenix
My first inclination is the most obvious one that Phoenix will be the deck of choice now. This is actually a fairly good matchup for us from my experience. I have had a very positive win percentage against the deck, especially post board. It's somewhat interactive and wins with creatures. It can have busted starts, but can be beat with a normal gameplan. It doesn't tax the sideboard too much. I don't mind this deck at the top of the meta.
2. The return of the dreaded Lantern Control Deck
This is a prediction that I see possibly coming true. I think of lot of the players that like ironworks also like playing Lantern. It's another deck with a similar style. It's another artifact based combo deck that durdles and is tough to interact with. I have feeling a decent percentage of the ironworks players will possibly port over to Lantern due to the play style similarities and because some of the most expensive cards (mox opal, stirrings, etc) are in both decks so it would be an easy and cost effective transition. I think I hate lantern control more so than ironworks so I hope I am wrong.
3. Burn, burn, burn
Burn will have a good matchup against a lot of the top decks and gets a new toy in Skewer the Critic. I can see this deck actually being the most popular deck in modern soon. For our purposes we have a decent burn matchup (especially if you are running 3-4 helix), but if it becomes the top deck we will need to add additional sideboard help. Deflecting Palm, Celestial Purge, Any lifelink creature, etc are easy things we can do.
That's my level one prediction for the meta, but we will see what happens. I don't think the lack of lantern affects are deck or matchups we will see too much.
After a week or so with Pteramander I have added it to my list as a one of. It's excellent in the late game and is also not to bad if you draw it early. Also, by only having one I don't open up to too much graveyard hate. In decks that play manamorphose, thought scour, faithless looting, etc, it will be a great addition.
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Restoration Angel
3 Vendilion Clique (Spell Queller?)
2 Thundermaw Hellkite (Stormbreath Dragon?)
Pw's:
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Spells:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
3 Electrolyze
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
2 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Celestial Colonnade
2 Field of Ruin
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Spirebluff Canal
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Celestial Purge
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Settle the Wreckage
2 Dispel
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Negate
2 Rest in Peace
1 Wear // Tear
I love watching these videos. Gideon looked very good and always surprises me in these videos. I may need to give him a chance in my sideboard. I think the sphinx works perfectly in your style of deck. It's not full midrange, it's more of a tempo style deck. It looked really good there. Keep us posted on how it goes. I think a lot of the people on this topic play a deck more similar to yours than mine so it's super helpful to see these videos for a lot of people.
I am really glad you like these vids.
If it wasn't such a pain to upload them (takes forever with TinyTake) I'd do it more often.
Yesterday I won two more games with the deck. Ready to order 2 copies of foil Sphinx of Foresight now.
I am also happy with the new split of 2x Opt + 3x SV in the deck.
Ive posted here before but it was a deck that was simply not very good and a weak jeskai version of humans before humans was a thing.
Ive been looking for loyal geist players but forgot to return here and check it out more and im glad i finally did. I play and enjoy the geist tempo build with spell queller and play this list below.
1x vendilion clique
1x thundermaw hellkite
2x geist of saint traft
4x snapcaster mage
4x spell queller
spells
2x peek
2x serum visions
2x spell snare
2x logic knot
2x electrolyze
3x cryptic command
3x lightning helix
4x path to exile
4x lightning bolt
1x spirebluff canal
1x sulfur falls
1x glacial fortress
1x arid mesa
3x scalding tarn
4x flooded strand
1x sacred foundry
2x steam vents
2x hallowed fountain
3x celestial colonnade
3x island
1x mountian
1x plains
The flex spot is mainly the thundermaw hellkite, its good to close out games but its very mana intensive and takes alot of thought to set up.
I used to and still on occasion play a third geist of saint traft and 2 steel of the god head bc the combo is for the most part unbeatable and flashing queller on opponents turn and slapping the steel on it your turn is very viable.
Now as for peek i think its criminally under valued and under played. its a very very good card. I experimented alot with opt and serum visions and a combination of the two and i truly feel 2/2 split of serum visions and peek is optimal at least for my style of deck and play. i hope others here give it a shot since the people here seem to be more like me in that unconventional cards are exciting, and looked at rather than ignored and dismissed as it seems to be the case in other threads.
Anyways, any opinion or feedback is great! and I am glad I have found this thread again and theres still people out here loyal to jeskai and the saint
EDIT: Peek is extremely useful when playing the value creatures like mentor, king, young pyro, and your big boys like sphinx and hellkite as it allows you to see if the coast is clear in your opponents hand and on your opponents turn. Good play is peek and clique at end step if you were holding up mana for cryptic that didnt need to be fired off.
RUAffinityUR
GMono Green StompyG
CEldrazi TronC
URWJeskai GeistWRU
WRBoros BurnRW
BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
I'm glad to have another Geist player in the chat. Geist of Saint Traft is my favorite card of all time. When it was standard legal all I played was Geist of Saint Traft decks. With all of the removal going around now, Geist is a very good option. I currently run two copies and I think that is a good number with a larger number of cantrips and deck manipulation. Peek is an awesome addition to decks that are very interactive. Our plan changes a lot depending on what the opponent has so I may have to give a copy a try. Maybe run 4 opt, 2 serum visions, and 1 peek. Possibly a 3 opt, 3 serum visions, 1 peek split.
Your deck is definitely on the more controlling end so I don't have a ton of experience with that lately. I ran Jeskai Midrange with Geist for a long time back in the day so I do have some experience. I know there are other fans of Steel of the God head on here. The only problem with it was a lack of a second option, but with queller also in the deck you could definitely easily run a copy.
You have inspired me to give peek another try. Before Opt was reprinted I was running a couple of copies because they worked well with snapcaster mage also at instant speed.
RUAffinityUR
GMono Green StompyG
CEldrazi TronC
URWJeskai GeistWRU
WRBoros BurnRW
BRWMardu PyromancerWRB