Hi WickedApp,
Thanks for sharing the pictures!
The deck looks sweet. The only thing I don't like is the land count.
You're running 12 CMC3-4 cards and only 19 lands. I think the deck needs at least 20 lands.
Btw, there was a Modern tournament last weekend where a Jeskai Geist list with 22 lands made 3rd place! Face to Face Open Vancouver
The list looks close to the some lists we're posting here. Too sad that it was beaten by a Titan deck.
*edit*
Thanks StevomatUWR! That's a great finish in a very large tournament.
I do agree if you have 10+ 3 CMC spells you want to be at the 20+ land count. I have two geist and one spell queller and I run 19 lands (I also have 4 snapcaster mage which is a 3+ drop). I will finally get to get some practice in tonight so I will let you guys know how it goes and possibly get a picture of the deck.
@ ccc, regarding Snapcaster. I only own 2. So I guess that answers your questions, right?
I ran the deck without them, and it ran good, but I found I could not get the last 5 life out of the opponent. Baby Jace is not that strong.
I have trouble with titan and tron & mono green stompy. (but I have trouble with those decks regardless of what deck I am playing) I will have to try more aggressive countering.
@Stevo, I do struggle with mana sometimes but most of the time I can get 3 mana, or stall enough on 1-2 mana. What I really like is that once in a while I can put enough pressure with 1 mana to win the game.
I just found that one of the reason we can get away with running spells in singles and doubles is because of 4 snapcasters. They make up for not having 4 ofs some spells.
Thats was my experience however with a different style deck, so I fan see yours doing better wuth this configuration since its a little lower to the ground than mine.
My method vs titan and Gtron are counter the little spells. Thse decks get tgeir cogs turning with all their little, low impact spells such as sakura triber elder, ancient stirrings, chromatic lanterns etc etc.
Ive seen titan payers keep one landers with a couple of ancient stirrings to win the game. They rely heavily on tribe elder and stirrings. If you can keep those off the field or at least stall them they can't get their gears spinning and youll win.
This is where spell queller comes really in handy and I feel shines brightest in these match ups.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern RUAffinityUR GMono Green StompyG CEldrazi TronC URWJeskai GeistWRU WRBoros BurnRW BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
I play at my LGS, and the most common decks I VS are Burn, Green Stompy, Gtron, E Tron,humans, Merfolk, Boggles.
I find my deck runs closer to a burn style deck that can switch it up enough to confuse my opponents. I am always tinkering with the deck. I added Ionize as a trial. In some match ups geist does all the work in other matches it's mantis Rider. I do not play many counterspells, and remands felt bad late in the game.
I am trying to figure in 2 Sphinx's, and 1 more land.
Hi CurdBros, thanks, but I only posted the link to that tournament's results. I didn't participate.
I live in Germany and I would only travel to Canada to play Magic if there would be a Modern Pro Tour and I'd be qualified.
Besides, the deck is pretty different from what I am usually running. But since it's a pretty aggressive Jeskai deck I wanted to share it here.
I'd love to regularly play in tournaments of that size but unfortunately there aren't any where I live.
I'd need to travel to Italy, Spain, Denmark or Czech Republic to play at Modern GPs or MKM Series events and earn Planeswalker points.
In case you want to know why: We have stupidly strict laws about gambling in Germany that say "The minimum legal age for gambling in Germany is 18. Minors are not allowed to participate in any form of gambling", and if there is prize money then MtG also counts as gambling... -_-
Hi CurdBros, thanks, but I only posted the link to that tournament's results. I didn't participate.
I live in Germany and I would only travel to Canada to play Magic if there would be a Modern Pro Tour and I'd be qualified.
Besides, the deck is pretty different from what I am usually running. But since it's a pretty aggressive Jeskai deck I wanted to share it here.
I'd love to regularly play in tournaments of that size but unfortunately there aren't any where I live.
I'd need to travel to Italy, Spain, Denmark or Czech Republic to play at Modern GPs or MKM Series events and earn Planeswalker points.
In case you want to know why: We have stupidly strict laws about gambling in Germany that say "The minimum legal age for gambling in Germany is 18. Minors are not allowed to participate in any form of gambling", and if there is prize money then MtG also counts as gambling... -_-
Sorry for the confusion. I thought you finished third. I probably should have looked at the deck lists/names before responding. I got too excited 😃. Thanks for posting the results though.
Just in case someone looks at that F2F list and want to put it together, it's missing a card form the main deck. I'm guessing either a land or a 4th Opt.
I just played two matches on MTGO with my Dark Jeskai list and beat Grixis Shadow 2-0 and Atarka Burn 2-0.
To show you all how much fun that deck can be I uploaded the replays from the Burn match.
You can check them here: Game 1 & Game 2
Congrats Mr. Wickard!! It's always awesome to win at FNM. Those are some tough matachups too. Amulet Titan can be super tough. Storm is a decent matchup, but does take some experience to get use to playing against it well. Also Boggles can be super tough. I assume you lost game 1 and won games 2 and 3. Your sideboard has a ton of stuff to deal with Boggles (EE, Wear/Tear, Wrath of God, etc). That's awesome to hear that you went 4-0. Congrats.
New Dovin is awesome in the correct matchups. That's why I think he will be more of a sideboard card. However, like Mr. Tzoulis said, he may be good in a young pyromancer style build or even monastery mentor build.
How have you like Lavinia so far? She seems like a decent catch all. She dies rather easily, but any time we can add a threat to the deck that also acts as a speed bump it's possible we should be playing it.
I saw a list somewhere (I think it 5-0'd a few weeks back) with 4 Young Pyromancers, 4 Monastery Mentors and 4 Arclight Phoenixs. You could shift some numbers and work with 4 Delvers and a couple of Dovins.
Congrats Mr. Wickard!! It's always awesome to win at FNM. Those are some tough matachups too. Amulet Titan can be super tough. Storm is a decent matchup, but does take some experience to get use to playing against it well. Also Boggles can be super tough. I assume you lost game 1 and won games 2 and 3. Your sideboard has a ton of stuff to deal with Boggles (EE, Wear/Tear, Wrath of God, etc). That's awesome to hear that you went 4-0. Congrats.
New Dovin is awesome in the correct matchups. That's why I think he will be more of a sideboard card. However, like Mr. Tzoulis said, he may be good in a young pyromancer style build or even monastery mentor build.
How have you like Lavinia so far? She seems like a decent catch all. She dies rather easily, but any time we can add a threat to the deck that also acts as a speed bump it's possible we should be playing it.
No actually I won first game against amulet. He was starting with 6 card and a descent hand. But my deck go with most fly creatures and I start with 1 delver so not that hard. But if the match going on forever its more favor on he's side. Bogle did I win first round too but it's was so close haha.
Sorry for the confusion. I was talking about the boggles matchup. We can win game one against amulet titan somewhat regularly. However, it is rare to get a game one win against boggles. It's not impossible, but it can be super tough if they get their Daybreak Coronet. The decks you played against make up a wide range of matchups with ramp, combo, aggro, and aggro/como. To go 4-0 against that type of range is tough to do with any deck in modern. That's impressive.
overall some mana troubles. Flooded one game saw 11 lands out of 21 still pulled a win out of it with Helix's. The other match ups went well with aggro flyers winning. In most games I developed fast and coasted to victory.
G1 vs mono Green I got out Geist and aura Steel of the godhead 8 damage +4 lifegain is good.
the other games he developed quick, more creatures than I could answer.
G3 I go stuck on 2 lands and kept geist & Mantis rider, delver, opt, serum visions. My lands entered tapped and my tempo was too slow. by T4 I should have gotten my 3rd land but it was gg by then. In hindsight I should have mulliganed for a more tempo hand, lightning bolts or vapor snags.
{c] gideon, ally of zendikar[/c] felt bad in every game. It did nothing when it entered and did not change board state. I will be dropping him from my 75.
Only thing I changed is to add 1x Kitchen Finks instead of Snappy #4. With 22 targets for my Snappys there were some games when I didn't have good targets during the early game and Kitchen Finks is just awesome in this aggressive meta. WW casting cost is now problem since I fetch that way anyways for my two little Gideons and Elspeth.
Yesterday I went 4-0 at FNM for the second time with the deck and on MTGO I am still at a consistent 75% win rate (in over more than 30 matches).
I have to say: Sphinx is REALLY GOOD in this deck. I can keep so many hands that I couldn't keep without Sphinx, especially hands with only 1 land or even 5 lands. Yesterday during round 3 I played against Blue Moon and during the second game Sphinx and SV helped me to set up double Delver on T2 that flipped T3 with Spell Pierce and Remand backup - that game was over very fast
So I can only recommend to everyone to try this deck. It's really good. At a big tournament, if all Jeskai Control players would choose this deck instead I am sure they'd get even better results.
@MrTzoulis: Thanks
I played against the new Rakdos list (with Light up the Stage and Skewer the Critics) only once on MTGO. I managed to win 2-1.
It still feels like it's an equally good match-up like Boros Burn or Naya Burn. Because of Light up the Stage they need to replace Rift Bolt with cards like Shard Volley and that one can be pretty bad in a deck with 18 lands... It doesn't feel stronger or more effective than Boros Burn.
Out of all the new decks I like playing against the new Vannifar combo deck that managed a few 5-0s in competitive leagues. I always win against them with all my removal and burn spells. However, this Siege Rhino version looks like it's far more difficult to beat with my deck. Let's hope it doesn't gain much popularity.
Slayers' Stronghold is still awesome. It's the only colorless mana source among 21 lands so usually it's not enough to scr*w me. It helps a lot against all the UW and Jeskai Control decks and can also help to win a race against a combo deck or another aggressive deck by adding the final 2 points of damage.
2. Is Slayers' Stronghold really that good? It seems iffy with those color requirements.
It has played fine in my decks. It is more of an additional damage that can speed up a clock. For me it usually lines up with a mantis rider or acts as a late game threat if things go wrong giving a delver or geist haste.
aside from the creature type, the effect is slightly different. with the enchantment it is possible to exile a card permanently (cast ETB, trigger on stack, respond to trigger, bounce shpere, trigger LTB on stack).
Hi everyone. Congrats to Stevomat and WickedApp on the great FNM finishes. I haven't been able to play FNM the last two weeks due to family stuff being scheduled, but I will be back this week to play.
I have added a Sphinx of Foresight as my final flex card so I will let you know how it goes. I am very intrigued to see if it can help set up early delver flips and also add another decent top end option to the deck.
I haven't played Slayer's Stronghold in a few years because my deck has gone a bit more towards the aggro end with only 19 lands. I do remember loving the card in my 22 land deck, but it does have it's downside. I have lost games before because I didn't have the correct mana because of stronghold. I always thought that it won me more games than it lost for me.
On the Deputy of Detention and Detention Sphere topic, I believe the literal only difference is the card type. If you want an additional threat in the deck than Deputy is better. Detention Sphere is far harder to deal with because it's not a creature so I would lean towards the enchantment if I didn't need another creature in the deck or if I wasn't playing a tribal deck like wizards.
I have played against the rakdos burn deck and it felt very good. I was able to win because we have a decent burn matchup, but I do think it's an upgrade. I was surprised just how good Light up the Stage was for the deck. I routinely added two cards. I have not had a chance to play against the Vannifar deck yet. I used to love playing against Pod decks even though it was a tough matchup. I assume our vannifar matchup is a bit better than our old pod matchup was, but I haven't had a chance to play against it yet.
My main concern now is how modern adapts if/when Wizards adopts their "new modern" format on Arena. I assume their big announcement is a new format that basically starts with all of the sets on Arena so WOTC doesn't have to do any additional work getting modern cards onto Arena. I think most people will still play modern and will also play the "new modern", but a few will leave modern for the new format. I'm not sure when the announcement is coming, but they mentioned a big gameplay announcement a month or so ago I believe. It may not be a new modern format, but I am trying to figure out what to play if the announcement is, in fact, new modern. Unfortunately there really isn't much like our deck with new cards without snapcaster, delver, and bolt you basically are forced to play more of an Izzet Drakes style deck to get close to what we do. No matter what the new format is I will be playing the real modern format with my jeskai delver deck.
If you have the room in your board for leyline it's a great card.
On another note, there was a great article by Chas Andres today on Star City (premium side) about the future of the modern format. Because I don't like to write much about an paid article I will only say that he makes a good argument about the decent chance of a modern increase shortly. WOTC has had several hints that a modern only legal set is in the works. This would really jump start modern and raise all of the staples. I really hope that is true and we get Daze. Also this would help offset some of the loss of players to the possible "new modern" format. However, both of those ideas are just theory at this point.
I also think if there is a new modern only set, they will definitely work towards making more "answer" cards which would bode very well for our deck.
I have been thinking alot about this modern only set and I feel its a risky endeavor, one that WoTC will likely tank due to their lack of discipline and foresight. I believe that if not done extremely carefully and precisely this straight to modern product could kill the format.
Why? Two reason that kind of meld into each other, power creep and WoTC’s inability to keep true to their original mission statement.
Let me explain.
Firstly, a direct to modern set will rival all masters sets and in fact will probably be equivalent in success and popularity as the first modern masters set that was released. It will essentially be a modern masters reboot set with a tweak. The tweak? Obviously new cards designed only for modern.
This will be a very fine line they are choosing to go bc one slip could snowball the format into chaos and power creep hell.
Now, this will lead to the second point. What happened with modern masters? The same that happened to the lottery cards (expeditions, inventions, etc.), and plane revisits (ravnica, dominaria etc.)
Ppl loved them so wotc couldnt help but let greed take them over and try to mimic the success of their OG products. For the next 5-6 years we saw a steep decline in quality of masters sets, wallet fatigue set in, and a complete sabotaging of the identity of masters sets concept became immediately obvious. (IE reprint modern staples) Wotc attempted to expand the concept of the set to encapsulate other formats in which they ended up ruining them so much that the sets A. lost appeal and B. lost their identity and ultimately were discontinued.
I predict the same will happen here. It will be very popular, high quality, well made set. WoTC wont be able to stop itself from churning 2, 3, 4 more per year in the coming years and at some point lead to insane amount of power creep as they attempt to keep interests high and possibly even abandoning the concept of the original in order to expand its reach which again ultimately end up with a warped set that has been 100's of times removed from its original purpose. The set has potential to warp modern permanently if WoTC is not careful with their actions following its release. It can leave modern an amalgamation of rushed cards, with insane amount of power, little flavor, and no sense IF they decide to start designing cards only for modern.
This is what wotc has done again and again in their attempt to recapture the success of their orginial ideas and i fear for the modern format as a whole. I am however excited for this set as i would love to see some straight to modern cards or modern only reprints such as daze or even counterspell(which is a high possibility as the only barrier was standard as was said by R&D last year) which would benefit us jeskai players immensely. So that would be awesome but this highlights my point, standard kept the power creep low in modern. With this new set who knows what we'll see in terms of power with some new cards.
this may be off topic but i think its interesting and merits pointing out as we all love modern and I for one would hate to see the format die or warped from what it is today.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern RUAffinityUR GMono Green StompyG CEldrazi TronC URWJeskai GeistWRU WRBoros BurnRW BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
Great post CCC1522. Anything that affects our deck is on topic in my opinion in this forum. A new modern deck fits that definition. I can't refute anything you have said. All of those things could definitely happen. I am a very optimistic person so I hope that if they do make a set that it is great and not to powerful. Also since we play a "good stuff" style deck I think the only way we will get anything like Daze or a new model spell will have to be through this type of set. I am looking forward to this type of set if it's done correctly (which is a big if). Maybe they could do a 250 card set with only like 20-30 new cards of which only 10 or so would be rare/mythic. Only time will tell, but it's a fun time to be a modern player.
Well Im glad its relevant bc I didnt want to run the risk of being off topic and get a strike or something.
Hmmmm, I feel perhaps 250 may be too many cards for a modern only set dont you think? Im feeling like a small 140 card set (not including basic lands) but I am with you that 20-30 new cards and 10 mythics is a really good starting point. If they go too large a set theyd be close to printing whole modern decks I feel like. But im not that knowledgeable on these types of logistics so I am speaking from an uneducated perspective.
*edit*
Thanks StevomatUWR! That's a great finish in a very large tournament.
I do agree if you have 10+ 3 CMC spells you want to be at the 20+ land count. I have two geist and one spell queller and I run 19 lands (I also have 4 snapcaster mage which is a 3+ drop). I will finally get to get some practice in tonight so I will let you guys know how it goes and possibly get a picture of the deck.
I ran the deck without them, and it ran good, but I found I could not get the last 5 life out of the opponent. Baby Jace is not that strong.
I have trouble with titan and tron & mono green stompy. (but I have trouble with those decks regardless of what deck I am playing) I will have to try more aggressive countering.
@Stevo, I do struggle with mana sometimes but most of the time I can get 3 mana, or stall enough on 1-2 mana. What I really like is that once in a while I can put enough pressure with 1 mana to win the game.
I just found that one of the reason we can get away with running spells in singles and doubles is because of 4 snapcasters. They make up for not having 4 ofs some spells.
Thats was my experience however with a different style deck, so I fan see yours doing better wuth this configuration since its a little lower to the ground than mine.
My method vs titan and Gtron are counter the little spells. Thse decks get tgeir cogs turning with all their little, low impact spells such as sakura triber elder, ancient stirrings, chromatic lanterns etc etc.
Ive seen titan payers keep one landers with a couple of ancient stirrings to win the game. They rely heavily on tribe elder and stirrings. If you can keep those off the field or at least stall them they can't get their gears spinning and youll win.
This is where spell queller comes really in handy and I feel shines brightest in these match ups.
RUAffinityUR
GMono Green StompyG
CEldrazi TronC
URWJeskai GeistWRU
WRBoros BurnRW
BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
I find my deck runs closer to a burn style deck that can switch it up enough to confuse my opponents. I am always tinkering with the deck. I added Ionize as a trial. In some match ups geist does all the work in other matches it's mantis Rider. I do not play many counterspells, and remands felt bad late in the game.
I am trying to figure in 2 Sphinx's, and 1 more land.
Hi CurdBros, thanks, but I only posted the link to that tournament's results. I didn't participate.
I live in Germany and I would only travel to Canada to play Magic if there would be a Modern Pro Tour and I'd be qualified.
Besides, the deck is pretty different from what I am usually running. But since it's a pretty aggressive Jeskai deck I wanted to share it here.
I'd love to regularly play in tournaments of that size but unfortunately there aren't any where I live.
I'd need to travel to Italy, Spain, Denmark or Czech Republic to play at Modern GPs or MKM Series events and earn Planeswalker points.
In case you want to know why: We have stupidly strict laws about gambling in Germany that say "The minimum legal age for gambling in Germany is 18. Minors are not allowed to participate in any form of gambling", and if there is prize money then MtG also counts as gambling... -_-
Sorry for the confusion. I thought you finished third. I probably should have looked at the deck lists/names before responding. I got too excited 😃. Thanks for posting the results though.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
To show you all how much fun that deck can be I uploaded the replays from the Burn match.
You can check them here: Game 1 & Game 2
I won my first FNM last day! Yeaah so happy. 3 wins and 1 draw. It's so amazing yeasterday to win your first
So i was up against this.
2-0 Mono Green Stompy
1-1 Storm
2-1 Bogles
2-1 Amulet Titan
I have a question about 3 cmc dorvin is that a good card?
And this is my deck now.
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Spell Queller
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Mantis Rider
Land
2 Island
2 Plains
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Flooded Strand
2 Spirebluff Canal
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Glacial Fortress
4 Remand
1 Logic Knot
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Opt
Sorcery
4 Serum Visions
1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Wear // Tear
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Wrath of God
2 Anger of the Gods
Congrats Mr. Wickard!! It's always awesome to win at FNM. Those are some tough matachups too. Amulet Titan can be super tough. Storm is a decent matchup, but does take some experience to get use to playing against it well. Also Boggles can be super tough. I assume you lost game 1 and won games 2 and 3. Your sideboard has a ton of stuff to deal with Boggles (EE, Wear/Tear, Wrath of God, etc). That's awesome to hear that you went 4-0. Congrats.
New Dovin is awesome in the correct matchups. That's why I think he will be more of a sideboard card. However, like Mr. Tzoulis said, he may be good in a young pyromancer style build or even monastery mentor build.
How have you like Lavinia so far? She seems like a decent catch all. She dies rather easily, but any time we can add a threat to the deck that also acts as a speed bump it's possible we should be playing it.
No actually I won first game against amulet. He was starting with 6 card and a descent hand. But my deck go with most fly creatures and I start with 1 delver so not that hard. But if the match going on forever its more favor on he's side. Bogle did I win first round too but it's was so close haha.
vs
Emerging Ninjas
E Tron (shell)
Jund
Lost to mono Green Stompy 1-2
overall some mana troubles. Flooded one game saw 11 lands out of 21 still pulled a win out of it with Helix's. The other match ups went well with aggro flyers winning. In most games I developed fast and coasted to victory.
G1 vs mono Green I got out Geist and aura Steel of the godhead 8 damage +4 lifegain is good.
the other games he developed quick, more creatures than I could answer.
G3 I go stuck on 2 lands and kept geist & Mantis rider, delver, opt, serum visions. My lands entered tapped and my tempo was too slow. by T4 I should have gotten my 3rd land but it was gg by then. In hindsight I should have mulliganed for a more tempo hand, lightning bolts or vapor snags.
{c] gideon, ally of zendikar[/c] felt bad in every game. It did nothing when it entered and did not change board state. I will be dropping him from my 75.
play test with sphinx is still not conclusive.
I am still playing my Sphinx deck (third week now)
Only thing I changed is to add 1x Kitchen Finks instead of Snappy #4. With 22 targets for my Snappys there were some games when I didn't have good targets during the early game and Kitchen Finks is just awesome in this aggressive meta. WW casting cost is now problem since I fetch that way anyways for my two little Gideons and Elspeth.
Yesterday I went 4-0 at FNM for the second time with the deck and on MTGO I am still at a consistent 75% win rate (in over more than 30 matches).
I have to say: Sphinx is REALLY GOOD in this deck. I can keep so many hands that I couldn't keep without Sphinx, especially hands with only 1 land or even 5 lands. Yesterday during round 3 I played against Blue Moon and during the second game Sphinx and SV helped me to set up double Delver on T2 that flipped T3 with Spell Pierce and Remand backup - that game was over very fast
So I can only recommend to everyone to try this deck. It's really good. At a big tournament, if all Jeskai Control players would choose this deck instead I am sure they'd get even better results.
1. Have you played against the new Rakdos Burn, and if so, how's the matchup?
2. Is Slayers' Stronghold really that good? It seems iffy with those color requirements.
I played against the new Rakdos list (with Light up the Stage and Skewer the Critics) only once on MTGO. I managed to win 2-1.
It still feels like it's an equally good match-up like Boros Burn or Naya Burn. Because of Light up the Stage they need to replace Rift Bolt with cards like Shard Volley and that one can be pretty bad in a deck with 18 lands... It doesn't feel stronger or more effective than Boros Burn.
Out of all the new decks I like playing against the new Vannifar combo deck that managed a few 5-0s in competitive leagues. I always win against them with all my removal and burn spells. However, this Siege Rhino version looks like it's far more difficult to beat with my deck. Let's hope it doesn't gain much popularity.
Slayers' Stronghold is still awesome. It's the only colorless mana source among 21 lands so usually it's not enough to scr*w me. It helps a lot against all the UW and Jeskai Control decks and can also help to win a race against a combo deck or another aggressive deck by adding the final 2 points of damage.
It has played fine in my decks. It is more of an additional damage that can speed up a clock. For me it usually lines up with a mantis rider or acts as a late game threat if things go wrong giving a delver or geist haste.
Question for the rest of you. What is the major difference between these cards?
deputy of detention verses detention sphere
aside from the creature type, the effect is slightly different. with the enchantment it is possible to exile a card permanently (cast ETB, trigger on stack, respond to trigger, bounce shpere, trigger LTB on stack).
I have added a Sphinx of Foresight as my final flex card so I will let you know how it goes. I am very intrigued to see if it can help set up early delver flips and also add another decent top end option to the deck.
I haven't played Slayer's Stronghold in a few years because my deck has gone a bit more towards the aggro end with only 19 lands. I do remember loving the card in my 22 land deck, but it does have it's downside. I have lost games before because I didn't have the correct mana because of stronghold. I always thought that it won me more games than it lost for me.
On the Deputy of Detention and Detention Sphere topic, I believe the literal only difference is the card type. If you want an additional threat in the deck than Deputy is better. Detention Sphere is far harder to deal with because it's not a creature so I would lean towards the enchantment if I didn't need another creature in the deck or if I wasn't playing a tribal deck like wizards.
I have played against the rakdos burn deck and it felt very good. I was able to win because we have a decent burn matchup, but I do think it's an upgrade. I was surprised just how good Light up the Stage was for the deck. I routinely added two cards. I have not had a chance to play against the Vannifar deck yet. I used to love playing against Pod decks even though it was a tough matchup. I assume our vannifar matchup is a bit better than our old pod matchup was, but I haven't had a chance to play against it yet.
My main concern now is how modern adapts if/when Wizards adopts their "new modern" format on Arena. I assume their big announcement is a new format that basically starts with all of the sets on Arena so WOTC doesn't have to do any additional work getting modern cards onto Arena. I think most people will still play modern and will also play the "new modern", but a few will leave modern for the new format. I'm not sure when the announcement is coming, but they mentioned a big gameplay announcement a month or so ago I believe. It may not be a new modern format, but I am trying to figure out what to play if the announcement is, in fact, new modern. Unfortunately there really isn't much like our deck with new cards without snapcaster, delver, and bolt you basically are forced to play more of an Izzet Drakes style deck to get close to what we do. No matter what the new format is I will be playing the real modern format with my jeskai delver deck.
On another note, there was a great article by Chas Andres today on Star City (premium side) about the future of the modern format. Because I don't like to write much about an paid article I will only say that he makes a good argument about the decent chance of a modern increase shortly. WOTC has had several hints that a modern only legal set is in the works. This would really jump start modern and raise all of the staples. I really hope that is true and we get Daze. Also this would help offset some of the loss of players to the possible "new modern" format. However, both of those ideas are just theory at this point.
I also think if there is a new modern only set, they will definitely work towards making more "answer" cards which would bode very well for our deck.
Why? Two reason that kind of meld into each other, power creep and WoTC’s inability to keep true to their original mission statement.
Let me explain.
Firstly, a direct to modern set will rival all masters sets and in fact will probably be equivalent in success and popularity as the first modern masters set that was released. It will essentially be a modern masters reboot set with a tweak. The tweak? Obviously new cards designed only for modern.
This will be a very fine line they are choosing to go bc one slip could snowball the format into chaos and power creep hell.
Now, this will lead to the second point. What happened with modern masters? The same that happened to the lottery cards (expeditions, inventions, etc.), and plane revisits (ravnica, dominaria etc.)
Ppl loved them so wotc couldnt help but let greed take them over and try to mimic the success of their OG products. For the next 5-6 years we saw a steep decline in quality of masters sets, wallet fatigue set in, and a complete sabotaging of the identity of masters sets concept became immediately obvious. (IE reprint modern staples) Wotc attempted to expand the concept of the set to encapsulate other formats in which they ended up ruining them so much that the sets A. lost appeal and B. lost their identity and ultimately were discontinued.
I predict the same will happen here. It will be very popular, high quality, well made set. WoTC wont be able to stop itself from churning 2, 3, 4 more per year in the coming years and at some point lead to insane amount of power creep as they attempt to keep interests high and possibly even abandoning the concept of the original in order to expand its reach which again ultimately end up with a warped set that has been 100's of times removed from its original purpose. The set has potential to warp modern permanently if WoTC is not careful with their actions following its release. It can leave modern an amalgamation of rushed cards, with insane amount of power, little flavor, and no sense IF they decide to start designing cards only for modern.
This is what wotc has done again and again in their attempt to recapture the success of their orginial ideas and i fear for the modern format as a whole. I am however excited for this set as i would love to see some straight to modern cards or modern only reprints such as daze or even counterspell(which is a high possibility as the only barrier was standard as was said by R&D last year) which would benefit us jeskai players immensely. So that would be awesome but this highlights my point, standard kept the power creep low in modern. With this new set who knows what we'll see in terms of power with some new cards.
this may be off topic but i think its interesting and merits pointing out as we all love modern and I for one would hate to see the format die or warped from what it is today.
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Hmmmm, I feel perhaps 250 may be too many cards for a modern only set dont you think? Im feeling like a small 140 card set (not including basic lands) but I am with you that 20-30 new cards and 10 mythics is a really good starting point. If they go too large a set theyd be close to printing whole modern decks I feel like. But im not that knowledgeable on these types of logistics so I am speaking from an uneducated perspective.
RUAffinityUR
GMono Green StompyG
CEldrazi TronC
URWJeskai GeistWRU
WRBoros BurnRW
BRWMardu PyromancerWRB