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https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-u-58730#paper what do you think of this list?

Quote from rick98511 »

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-u-58730#paper what do you think of this list?

It's spicy but feels like it's in too many directions. If you want eldrazi go in and play 4 tks and 4 temple drop the artificats and lean into threats + countermagic. I believe that version popped up on an scg event once and had an article about it somewhere. Otherwise normal u Tron is prob more consistent but I do like tks in the board.

Quote from Rjawas »

Quote from rick98511 »

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-u-58730#paper what do you think of this list?

It's spicy but feels like it's in too many directions. If you want eldrazi go in and play 4 tks and 4 temple drop the artificats and lean into threats + countermagic. I believe that version popped up on an scg event once and had an article about it somewhere. Otherwise normal u Tron is prob more consistent but I do like tks in the board.

that's kind of what I thought looks interesting I might pick up the pieces to test it out

It is not worth jamming three temples just for three tks and an all is dust. Not finding a blue source early is death and you want academy ruins and a ld land for sure plus your twelve trons - thats fourteen minimum in a 25 land deck - youre at max 11 blue sources, and less if you want gemstone cavern or more ld lands.

So yeah I would say gemstone cavern or field of ruin are going to be better than those temples very often

Vs most decks I'm looking to put down a chalice on 1 asap. If they play white, chalice on to stop path on your wurmcoils. Vs jund, chalice on 1 for the disruption. Chalice on 1 vs burn is a back breaker. I am usually looking to drop a map and follow it with a chalice in most gamez

Hey guys! First time here but long time checking. Playing the mkm series (around 700 players) tomorrow with u tron, after testing many different versions. I expect the same meta than GP prague (aggro/tempo meta with good tier of UW/jeskai)

Here is the list:

Few points:

this is a karn/talisman/solemn build because i feel this mode is the best against aggro. being able to put a wurmcoil or large ballista in the 4th of fifth turn is great on the field.
Chalice (and i've tried without) is too much of a gamestealer to not play 2 for g1. Protecting wurmcoils and karn tokens from path is pretty important. I also personnaly love myr battlesphere against removal.
I cut the oblivion stone for a 3rd ballista because the card is much more versatile (and the fact that the build is more permanent-heavy with the karns and all). I mean ballista is huge against the field and almost never a dead card. On t2 it keeps in check hierarch, steel overseer, thalia, spirits...
I had to cut snapcaster despite loving it because this version is more proactive. I would like to find him a slot in the sideboard because he really shines with the contortions post-board... I guess this build is more about being able to stabilize on turn 5 without tron cause the talisman-less builds suffer from 1 lethal turn pretty often (wurmcoil coming too late...)

About sideboard i love obstructionist because it obviously comes in against storm but is also more than decent against humans (block mantis) spirits or even UW (counter field of ruin trigger); i cut the spreading seas because tron seems less popular in Europe and G1 is decent with the 2 fields of ruin (still have crucible-tec edge package)

Any thougts?

thanks to everyone for all the info gathered on the thread. Really appreciate reading you guys!

I get talismans with karn and solemn, but just generally do people not find them awkward with remand, condescend, chalice, and map? Turn two I want to be doing those things more often than not. Turn three I want to be doing counterspells and thirst for knowledge or playing and cracking a map to get t4 tron.

Is giving up your t2 interaction/map crack really worth it to tap out for four mana cards t3?

I just never felt like going t2 talisman t3 solemn/karn was where I want to be in this format - esp not when im sitting on counterspells in hand that I have now skipped using for two turns :s

I guess I generally see blue Tron as having a superior end game to most decks in the format. If my opponent wants to do nothing on his turn to dodge remand or condescend that's fine. I'm marching my way up to my wurmcoil, slaver, and ugin. What's he marching to - collected company?

I'm way more concerned about tapping out turn two or three and seeing them pull ahead and thus kill me before I reach that juicy end game.

I guess in a deck looking to rocket ahead by four mana just by making land drops the idea of two mana and a card to get ahead by one just seems pretty anemic

Hi everyone. i finished the mkm series paris at 6-2-1 with U tron. 9 swiss rounds for 300 players, I was playing the list posted a few posts above (with a 3rd nimble obstructionist in the board). Very long day and second modern tournament of my life so pretty happy with the result, meta was aggro tempo and many controls as expected (4 UW in top 8).

Won against hollow one (2-1), RB death's shadow (2-1), abzan vizier company (2-0), grixis control (2-0), UW spirits (2-1), mardu pyromancer (2-0). Lost against jeskai (0-2)and UW control,(1-2) drew against storm (1-1).

I feel confident about the list and the deck in the meta right now. My two losses were control decks but I believe those are close to being a good matchup, depending on the opponent's skill and knowledge of our deck. I also won against grixis which is weird because through online testing it seemed like the hardest one... The draw against storm is a little frustrating as I believe i was about to win the last game (2 obstructionist in hand) and he took a lot of time to launch the kill on game 2. Aggro and midrange decks were relatively easy to break G1 with the 3 wurmcoil and ballistas and I really like this position in the meta. Didn't see any hardened scales but this is the only one really scaring me. By the way aetherspouts was amazing against them (certainly better in talisman version). The 2 chalice main / 1 board were extremely important during the day, particularly against death shadow, hollow one and storm. Karns and battlesphere were also very effective and bought a lot of time to the deck. Highlight of the day for me was the 3 nimble obstructionist in the sideboard, got me to kill death shadow on a 2 turn clock , blocked spirit lords, countered snapcaster/fetch/field of ruin/empty the warrens triggers... Nobody expected it and I believe it can break control matches, dodging fields of ruin is HUGE (they spend a turn doing nothing, you stonerain and cantrip..) and sometimes only by providing a clock (they often take out a few removals)
Field of ruin x2 on our side was very nice too. Many popular decks use powerful lands, from azcanta to inkmoth to canopy. Having 2 and 4 maps G1 allows to fight them a lot. One thing i noticed is how postboard games can advantage us if opponents bring to much hate... I feel like stony silence is the only one really "hurts" the deck, and yet you play around it postbrd by taking out talismans and a couple of maps against white decks... I'm always happy when i see an aggro deck casting damping sphere turn 2 since they don't put any pressure. Death shadow flooded with spheres and even leyline of the void. Spirits tempo-ed himself by not being able to cast 2 spells per turn because of his own spheres...
Sideboard tech was pretty simple against aggro, taking out all counters and bringing in dismembers, contortions, aether and explosives depending on the deck.
I'd like to add an emrakul in the board for control MU. Seems like a good gamebreaker since games postboard are always long with them.

About talismans/Solemn/Karn, i won't say they are essential to the deck and as many of you will agree, everyone should choose the style they are comfortable with. But i really liked them during the day as it sometimes pushed into powerful t4 without tron on game 1. Constructs token were reasonably big with chalices and talismans, and i never felt I would have liked a mainboard thought-knot instead (for example).

So I've been a little hot cold with U tron the last 2 weeks. I had records of 3-0 3-0 1-3 0-3. After 2 stinkers I was ready to put it down for a while. Last night I didn't have anything ready to play and I made a cpl tweaks and went 4-0 with it. So maybe I just had some rotten luck but the deck is back in my good graces. Anyways, here's the current list I ran.

9 island
12 ur a lands
1 tolaria west
1 academy ruins
1 buried ruins

3 wurmcoil engine
2 walking ballista
1 mindslaver
1 oblivion stone
2 chalice of the void
1 crucible of worlds
4 expedition map

3 spatial Contortion
2 Ugin, the spirit dragon

1 cyclonic rift
3 repeal
3 remand
4 condecend
2 gifts ungiven
4 thirst for knowledge

SB
2 sphinx of the final word
1 spatial Contortion
1 cyclonic rift
2 chalice of the void
3 spreading seas
1 field of ruin
3 summary dismissal
2 surgical extraction

That's the list I ran out last night. Worked well for the most part. I faced down 3 Mardu pyromencer decks and 1 boros. I will make a cpl more sleight adjustments but it felt like it ran really well all night. Apparently we have a fabulous matchup against mardu cause I was 6-1 against it last night. Builds with and without blood moon in the main. The boros matchup was brutal. Both games I won I as at 2 when I either started to get in with wurmcoil or got the lock on

What is the thinking behind contortions main instead of dismembers? I would think in the abstract you want dismember as it kills more things for less mana, but contortion could be some kind of meta call vs burn and little aggro decks?

The list of creatures that dismember always kills and spatial always doesn't in modern is somewhat short:

Street wraith (technically)
TKS
Gurmag Angler
Hollow One

off the top 50 creatures in modern from MTGGoldfish. Others off the top of my head are reality smasher, tasigur, bedlam reveler, and most things in living end.

Spatial kills everything in humans and spirits (w/o lords), everything in burn, everything in counters company, everything in trad affinity, everything in jund except big goyfs and scoozes, everything in wizards... list goes on.

The 4 life that dismember costs shouldn't be diminished. 4 life is a big deal against decks looking to beat down fast; aka the decks we have the most trouble with. Often trading the 4 life for a creature will buy you time overall, but i'd encourage you to test when the 4 life vs the 1 extra mana matters. Dismembering a vengevine hurts the soul.

I used to be on 2 dismember main... I switched to a 1/1 split, and I've been liking it, although it could go either way. The big delve creatures, hollow ones, and revelers are all threats that we can't easily repeal/deal with in other ways, and killing them is important... just make sure to pack some of both in the 75.

Quote from Merlichouims »

Hi everyone. i finished the mkm series paris at 6-2-1 with U tron. 9 swiss rounds for 300 players

Fantastic performance - for people not versed in swiss standings, this is a win or two off top 8 one, would have needed 7-1-1 at least to make top 8.

Nice concise insight into card choices. Have you played with the Mages before? if Hardened Scales continues to worry you, your build is a bit heavier on the solemn/ballista so could certainly accommodate a Trinket Mage>Explosives and this plays well with your hate package/relics etc as well.

I mean I guess its a meta choice but just a basic math thing too. Boros, 8-wack, spirits, elves, CoCo, affinity combine to be significantly more prevalent than hollow one and eldrazi. Dismember is a fantastic card but if I had been packing that instead of spatial, I would jave been 2-2 instead of 4-0

Hey Sagethyme thanks!
I actually played with the mages for a long time, i'm looking to put back one trinket main cause it's as you pointed out very nice postboard with relics EE and sutff. but I don't know what to cut. Probably 3rd ballista but sometimes being able to drop it on t2 to take care of hierarch/overseer/bridge from below/pyromancer/bob immediately is very nice...

Also i wanted to know your opinions about assassin's trophy against us. I think it will make BGx better and decrease the popularity of mardu (which was an awesome MU for us) but i'm not sure it is that great against us. answer for tron MD is strong but tapping out to path us on turn 2-3 is really not that scary right? Brings us closer to wurmcoil etc... You can even make 2 mana in resp and use the untapped island he made you fetch to cast thirst for example... the problem is this+fulmi+discard post board might be too much, i don't know. Maybe MD crucible will be legitimate if trophy becomes so popular.
What do you guys think?

With a possible surge of BGx decks, could Spell Snare be worth considering? As a 2-of in the side maybe?

If they trophy your land it does not really ramp you, more like field of ruins you.

We are built to function without Tron. I'm usually quite happy when my opponent spends turn three giving me a blue source out of fear (field of ruin). It can sometimes even let me fire off a thirst for knowledge ahead of schedule. I don't see bgx as much worse than Mardu, but if it picks up overall then yes snare gets a lot better. I run two in the side for storm burn and kind

Maybe im just bad, but how do you win against UW control? My LGS is full of them. Normally UW control has always been a good matchup but nowadays they have sooo many card advantage engines that just outdraws you so they always have an answer. Im really at a loss here, maybe Im doing something wrong? You cant get an early tron either and just steamroll them as they have quite a bit of land disrution too and late in the game I also have a hard time in having a mana advantage because of that. I play a fairly normal stock list.

I just dont see the point of the deck if UW control beats you as they are much better against creature decks, and if we cant go over the top against other Control decks... then whats U trons purpose? Except its fun to play Maybe were slightly better against combo...

I have found G1 against UW mirracles I do decent. Post board was a bad MU for me and my local area is filled with it. So I put 2 Sphinx of the final word in my SB. Against any Ux control, if theyvdont have an answer for it the turn you play it, its game over. It sounds a little janky but ive been wrecking UW with it.

On Assasin's Trophy, I honestly think this is great for us. My matchups against Bxx midrange have been fabulous. They aren't fast enough and dont have enough interaction to stop us. Once tron is gping or mid-late game, our cards are better than their cards. Trophy is gonna do jack all to us that they dont already have cards in main that do the same thing to us. But it will cause a resurgence in the Bxx midrange archetype which is all good for us imho.

As for spell pierce, ive been experimenting with that card in the man, SB, and not at all. Truth be told it was a valuable asset time and again. I dont have it going now but after the Monday nights tournament, I really want to get 2 or 3 back in my board. It ia just a matter of what cards to cut

100% agree with bloody on this, dismember kills a lot of things g1 and if you run 1-2 river of tears and 2+ wurmcoils the lifeloss isn't that big of a problem