Yeah I kind of missed having Esper charm in uw, and thought Esper might actually be friendly for terminus as its way more "draw go" when miracled than verdict.
I really don't like entreat the angels either way. The reliable and flexible secure the wastes works for me as a win condition. It never makes me groan when I draw it on turn two or peel it off a think twice with one mana up.
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Modern
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
Its going to come down to personal opinions, I guess, but I would never play AV in miracles, I've tried it and do not like it.
Maybe its just me, but I don't think 4 field of ruins is required. 2-3 has been fine for me.
On top of that, charm is good against a lot more than big mana decks, coupled with how useful fatal push, and black sideboard options can be.
Whether or not its better is one thing, but this thread has pretty much had the "is it actually better" question for its entire existence.
There is certainly upside to splashing black.
I played against bridgevine twice, humans, mardu pyromancer, jeskai "cheese", green tron, and a mono black vehicles shell (deck was sweet, heard the dude lost his win and in for day 2).
I split the matches against bridgevine, but I won one 2-0 and lost the other 1-2, to the bridgevine player's literal only out being greater gargadon as an uncounterable sack outlet, and he ripped it off the top. This matchup felt very favorable overall, which is good because it was a deck I had specifically in mind for this tournament.
Mardu pyromancer was a clean win--I lost g1 to a blood moon, but otherwise completely smashed him. He took a lot of lines that I think were objectively terrible, and he could have mounted a much better defense, but I still don't think I would've lost either of the SB games even if he had played better.
Green tron did tron things. I got karned out of the game G1, and in G3 I thoughtseized his hand, saw it was a pile of trash with an ancient stirrings, took ancient stirrings, and he ripped stirrings off the top. If he hadn't had that stirrings to dig for the 2nd tron piece, I would've had time to get to cryptic mana for my double cryptic hand before he could get to karn/ugin mana. Such is life. Ban ancient stirrings (or unban preordain).
The jeskai player was super cheesy. G1 he had 2 jace, 2 teferi, a gideon of the trials in his mainboard, with like two cryptics and no other countermagic that I saw. He won a super long and drawn out game one on the back of gideon being a super house against creeping tar pit, so I wasn't able to beat down his teferi after he'd discarded or played all 4 bolts, 3 paths, and 2 helices. game two, he brought in FOUR geist of saint traft, 2 dispels and a negate. he kept in all the burn, and cheesed the g2 win--i had verdicts still in the deck because I expected something like that, but didn't have it in the opener and couldn't find it soon enough. I don't know how this joker was planning to win against the decks that are actually popular, but whatever.
Mono black vehicles was pretty sweet. Dude took game one off of me pretty handily. Unfortunately for him, my sideboard was fairly well suited to turning that around in sideboarded games, and between smashing him g2 and his flood g3 he never really had a chance in the sideboarded games.
The humans matchup was rough. I got game one pretty handily. Game two, I got punished for playing blessed alliance over fatal push, as an uncounterable gaddock teeg blocked my sweepers and I never had a chance to take it off the board. G3, I had a pretty clean sweep turn 4 on the draw, and his turn 5 was to vial in mantis rider and cast two phantasmal images... It's gotta be nice to have perfects every time right? That's how you win in modern apparently.
Overall, I was reasonably happy with how the deck performed. I went 3-4 in matches played, but it could super easily have been 5-2 if a couple of topdecks or hands had broken in my favor the other way. The only wins I had that felt like close calls were against bridgevine, and I think that's a quality of our archetype--when we win, it's almost always very very clean and commanding. I made the right call on mainboard timely reinforcements, and there was a good amount of burn, bridgevine, kci and hollow one at the top tables, but despite my 3-1 start to the day, I just ran into awkward matchups--my 2nd loss was to humans in the x-1 bracket, which was fine, but then I got paired with the jeskai cheese deck to fall to 4-3, with tron to round out my misery for the day.
Having seen the room, I was pretty happy with the list and I probably would've run pretty close to this list if I'd known the meta beforehand. Modern is modern and it's better to be lucky than good.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Maybe I’m missing something, but ‘better lucky than good’ is the usual ‘I had bad answers against their draws’. Maybe it’s just because the building. Maybe.
I guess if we don’t start to be hard on ourselves we’ll never improve this deck. And I think this is the case. I saw so many reports, always stating the same things. If the format is like that, start packing better cards (no one cc cantrips is unreasonable, for example).
You can't pack better cards to eliminate variance. You can have perfect match ups for your game plan and still lose. It is that uncommon. If you're not alright with variance, competitive magic may not be for you.
I played in an IQ about two weeks ago with Esper and got 5th place and was in the feature match twice with a 5-1 and lost my match in the top 8. I was going to write up a detailed report but I'm rather busy with school so I will keep it brief. Feel free to ask me to elaborate on anything.
Round 1: G/W with death and taxes flare 0-2
Game one: Hand of 3 fetches into a turn 2 Aven mindcensor
Game two: Destroyed all my lands
Round 2: Death and Taxes 2-0
Game one: Stabilized at one with Sphinx’s Rev, Snap, Rev
Game two: He mulled to 4, showed me 4 Ghost Quarters then conceded
Round 3: Humans 2-0
Game one: Supreme Verdict into Jace/Teferi to win
Game two: Meddling Mage named Supreme Verdict but I had a Settle the Wreckage in hand. Turn four he played a Mantis Rider as a 5th attacker, I wiped him clean and it was smooth sailing from there.
Round 4: U/B Control 2-0
Game one: Souls was good. Baited out counter magic with an Esper Charm, slammed Teferi, then Jace
Game two: Was about to lock him out of the game with Esper charm into Esper charm but he Surgical Extractioned Esper Charm before I could untap and got the other out of my hand. I ripped Elspeth off the top and won
Round 5: Krark-Clan Ironworks 2-0
Game one: Pathed his Myr Retriever, countered all his Ironworks and beat down with Souls tokens
Game two: Slammed a turn two Stoney Silence. He eventually used Nature’s Claim to get rid of it but the damage was already done. He tried for an Ironworks with a Guttural Response backup, but I had both Cryptic and Logic Knot. I had Teferi and Jace going and then ultimated Teferi, following it up with a Rev for 6 and a Brainstorm from Jace, exiling all of his permanents.
Quarter Finals: Titanshift 1-2
The next match after the one against Vengvine
Some thoughts:
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about opt over think twice. On one hand, it is faster and lets me keep riskier hands but it doesn't have the ability to get milled from Azcanta for value. I might try a split and see how that goes.
I was against Lingering Souls for a very long time because of Esper's former dedication to being fully draw-go, but now that we have Azcanta, Jace and Teferi that is no longer the case. Having a threat that can easily be tossed out against control decks and combo decks while also not being dead in a faster match up has been great.
I've been enjoying the Settle the Wreckage as a one-of in the main. Catching people out in game one and then having them hesitate with attacks in games two and three is fantastic.
This particular event for me didn't feel like a case of the deck being bad. I lost two rounds to opponent having exactly what they needed at the exact correct time--once to opponent who was dead on board drawing their 2-of out, and one of the humans player having a champion/double lieutenant draw into my sweeper, and them having exactly mantis rider/double phantasmal image as their leftovers. IT happens. That's two rounds that were literally "opponent just had perfects. Oh well, it's magic/modern". I wasn't in particular danger at either of those spots. I had cryptic up and baneslayers on the table vs bridgevine. I had 8 life after sweeping humans. their three cards in hand turned into 9 hasty damage. oh well. The matchup that felt the most helpeless was tron, and that's because we really do have a wrong-half-of-deck problem there.
Like, bridgevine felt favorable in the best of 3. Mardu felt very favorable. I think we're heavily favored against random tier three decks and brews because our sideboard is so robust. Humans admittedly is a weaker matchup for my build, but that was a conscious choice, and I'm OK with how that match turned out.
The loss to tron is the kind of loss that's just going to happen--it might be a 60-40 best of three, but that means we still lose almost half our matches there. It is what it is.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Have you guys been testing terminus?
I think UW opt/think twice with terminus is pretty strong right now... it actually is quite reliable, and terminus is just too powerfull (either for making you able to wipe the board and do some proactive threat on the same turn, or for dealing with threats pretty much permanently (no "die" trigger, no GY shaenigans, just a clean board)).
I've been having trouble adjust an esper shell to it.. I mean, if our plan is to use PWs (jace and teferi) to gain advantage and close the game, there's no reason to be draw-go, and, even though I love esper charm, I'm not able to justify it over a cleaner mana base and PW tap out strategy lately...
The control mirrors get worse (at least from how I was used to playing them with esper) - having no real inevitability and no way of discarding. But all other MUs look good, even combo (probably same as esper).
I would love to hear your input.
On a side note, I'll be living on the US for three months as of October. I will be in St Paul/MN. If any of you know a good store there, please let me know! And if by any chance any of the regulars are from the area, I'd love to meet you to play some matches too.
On a side note, I'll be living on the US for three months as of October. I will be in St Paul/MN. If any of you know a good store there, please let me know! And if by any chance any of the regulars are from the area, I'd love to meet you to play some matches too.
Cheers.
I PM'd you a couple of options (I didn't want to bog down this thread with an unrelated conversation).
I've played terminus is every blue deck for the past few months. It seems too important to go without.
I think esper is still quite good, but it is no longer draw-go.
Otherwise, I think most people have by now realized that 4 path, + 0-2 oust/condemn isn't enough spot removal, and are splashing red for a couple copies of bolt/helix in their UW decks. Playing black instead for a few pushes + charms + sideboard stuff still works as well as it always has.
Control mirrors are definitely harder with UW than with esper (since they're even, and we no longer have a huge advantage). UW generally doesn't have a great combo matchup unless rest in peace/stony hoses the deck. (So kci is a fine matchup, but ad naus, storm, etc, are still bad).
I don't feel that we need Terminus : UW is going mostly the Miracles way, but I'm still on the classic Spreading Seas list with somes planeswalkers (2 Jace + 1 Teferi). For Esper, our bread and butter seems to be good against combo, midrange and to some extent big mana decks. We fall short against aggro decks sometimes, but I feel that with Esper, everything is covered in the 75 possibly, be it for FNM or a GP.
Before ixalan was printed (and jace unbanned) I definitely felt like my deck could beat anything, but the meta has shifted, and without terminus, there are a lot of decks that are nearly impossible.
If you think we fall short against aggro sometimes, can I interest you in a 1 mana sweeper? That should help that problem.
Before ixalan was printed (and jace unbanned) I definitely felt like my deck could beat anything, but the meta has shifted, and without terminus, there are a lot of decks that are nearly impossible.
If you think we fall short against aggro sometimes, can I interest you in a 1 mana sweeper? That should help that problem.
The Miracles mechanic seems clunky with Jace only and Opt/Serum. In Legacy, we have Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain and not long ago Sensei's Divining Top. These are real cards to support the Miracles mechanic. From the last months, it seems to work out well in UW, but still I feel it's clunky and if the set up doesn't work, then Terminus is really dead in hand. Settle the Wreckage is maybe the card that interests me the most from UW/x sweepers.
Its somewhat clunky, but thats just how it goes.
On the other hand, I still think settle is terrible. It provides some value, sometimes, but frequently it gets real awkward when opponents cast meddling mage, or freebooter, or other discard spells pre combat. Getting your sweeper beaten like that is often game.
On top of that, we have more spot removal than UW does, so we can play the waiting-until-6mana game better, and most decks won't be too keen to overextend into terminus, so we're not always super punished for getting them stuck in hand.
At the end of the day though, I think there are too many decks where terminus is super important against that its clunkiness is far outweighed.
Well, I guess I'll give it a shot again. I'm really not against it, it's just that for my meta, spot removal and counterspell are really effective. I'm flooded with combo decks, big mana decks and some midrange. The only aggro stuff I see around are Burn and Affinity, which are ok.
I'm not sold however on the 3/2 split Jace/Teferi that UW uses. I think it works with UW, but for us, that might be too many planeswalkers. 2/1 as a split could work I guess. Thoughts ?
So it looks like we have a budget Snapcaster option for those who lurk the thread. In some cases I think this is better than Snapcaster -- it being cast on 2 mana is far better than a random 2/1 body in many cases. It's defensible over Snap in many ways, so other than being budget friendly, I think it's duly powerful as well.
To tie it in with the above discussion, it also sets up miracles.
It's not weak to grave hate (the "choose" wording), it doesn't turn on our opponents' dead removal, it fills our yard for Logic Knot/Azcanta. I could honestly see playing a build with 4 of these.
Could you clarify the choose part not being weak to grave hate? I think I'm missing the difference between "choose" and "target" other than choosing hexproof things.
Edit; I have figured it out. It's less about the word choose and more about making the choice while the spell is resolving.
How this card works: You cast it, then opponent has priority. They can surgical whatever they want, or activate a spellbomb, or whatever. Once they pass priority, you resolve the whole spell, surveiling, then choosing a card. Afterward, active player has priority. If that player is you, you may immediately cast your chosen spell. Your opponent can no longer crack spellbomb/cast surgical on that card, since its now on the stack.
If active player is your opponent, they may activate spellbomb/surgical, but if your chosen card is an instant, you can cast it in response, and there is nothing your opponent can do about that.
Snapcaster mage is different because you have to choose a target as part of the etb trigger, meaning your choice is locked in before either player gets priority.
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I really don't like entreat the angels either way. The reliable and flexible secure the wastes works for me as a win condition. It never makes me groan when I draw it on turn two or peel it off a think twice with one mana up.
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
Maybe its just me, but I don't think 4 field of ruins is required. 2-3 has been fine for me.
On top of that, charm is good against a lot more than big mana decks, coupled with how useful fatal push, and black sideboard options can be.
Whether or not its better is one thing, but this thread has pretty much had the "is it actually better" question for its entire existence.
There is certainly upside to splashing black.
I played this 75:
4 flooded strand
2 hallowed fountain
1 irrigated farmland
1 watery grave
1 godless shrine
4 island
2 plains
1 swamp
3 field of ruin
2 celestial colonnade
1 creeping tar pit
4 path to exile
2 spell snare
3 logic knot
2 snapcaster mage
2 search for azcanta
2 blessed alliance
2 think twice
1 timely reinforcements
4 esper charm
4 cryptic command
3 supreme verdict
1 wrath of god
1 jace, the mind sculptor
1 leyline of sanctity
1 teferi, hero of dominaria
1 white sun's zenith
3 surgical extraction
2 celestial purge
2 baneslayer angel
2 thoughtseize
2 negate
1 runed halo
1 disenchant
1 dispel
1 elspeth, sun's champion
I played against bridgevine twice, humans, mardu pyromancer, jeskai "cheese", green tron, and a mono black vehicles shell (deck was sweet, heard the dude lost his win and in for day 2).
I split the matches against bridgevine, but I won one 2-0 and lost the other 1-2, to the bridgevine player's literal only out being greater gargadon as an uncounterable sack outlet, and he ripped it off the top. This matchup felt very favorable overall, which is good because it was a deck I had specifically in mind for this tournament.
Mardu pyromancer was a clean win--I lost g1 to a blood moon, but otherwise completely smashed him. He took a lot of lines that I think were objectively terrible, and he could have mounted a much better defense, but I still don't think I would've lost either of the SB games even if he had played better.
Green tron did tron things. I got karned out of the game G1, and in G3 I thoughtseized his hand, saw it was a pile of trash with an ancient stirrings, took ancient stirrings, and he ripped stirrings off the top. If he hadn't had that stirrings to dig for the 2nd tron piece, I would've had time to get to cryptic mana for my double cryptic hand before he could get to karn/ugin mana. Such is life. Ban ancient stirrings (or unban preordain).
The jeskai player was super cheesy. G1 he had 2 jace, 2 teferi, a gideon of the trials in his mainboard, with like two cryptics and no other countermagic that I saw. He won a super long and drawn out game one on the back of gideon being a super house against creeping tar pit, so I wasn't able to beat down his teferi after he'd discarded or played all 4 bolts, 3 paths, and 2 helices. game two, he brought in FOUR geist of saint traft, 2 dispels and a negate. he kept in all the burn, and cheesed the g2 win--i had verdicts still in the deck because I expected something like that, but didn't have it in the opener and couldn't find it soon enough. I don't know how this joker was planning to win against the decks that are actually popular, but whatever.
Mono black vehicles was pretty sweet. Dude took game one off of me pretty handily. Unfortunately for him, my sideboard was fairly well suited to turning that around in sideboarded games, and between smashing him g2 and his flood g3 he never really had a chance in the sideboarded games.
The humans matchup was rough. I got game one pretty handily. Game two, I got punished for playing blessed alliance over fatal push, as an uncounterable gaddock teeg blocked my sweepers and I never had a chance to take it off the board. G3, I had a pretty clean sweep turn 4 on the draw, and his turn 5 was to vial in mantis rider and cast two phantasmal images... It's gotta be nice to have perfects every time right? That's how you win in modern apparently.
Overall, I was reasonably happy with how the deck performed. I went 3-4 in matches played, but it could super easily have been 5-2 if a couple of topdecks or hands had broken in my favor the other way. The only wins I had that felt like close calls were against bridgevine, and I think that's a quality of our archetype--when we win, it's almost always very very clean and commanding. I made the right call on mainboard timely reinforcements, and there was a good amount of burn, bridgevine, kci and hollow one at the top tables, but despite my 3-1 start to the day, I just ran into awkward matchups--my 2nd loss was to humans in the x-1 bracket, which was fine, but then I got paired with the jeskai cheese deck to fall to 4-3, with tron to round out my misery for the day.
Having seen the room, I was pretty happy with the list and I probably would've run pretty close to this list if I'd known the meta beforehand. Modern is modern and it's better to be lucky than good.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
You can't pack better cards to eliminate variance. You can have perfect match ups for your game plan and still lose. It is that uncommon. If you're not alright with variance, competitive magic may not be for you.
Is the site not running properly. Stuff is missing and I'm seeing all kinds of code when I submit anything?
4 flooded strand
2 hallowed fountain
2 watery grave
3 island
2 plains
1 swamp
2 field of ruin
4 celestial colonnade
1 glacial fortress
4 path to exile
2 fatal push
4 opt
2 logic knot
3 snapcaster mage
2 search for azcanta
2 lingering souls
4 esper charm
4 cryptic command
2 supreme verdict
1 settle the wreckage
1 jace, the mind sculptor
2 teferi, hero of dominaria
1 white sun's zenith
2 surgical extraction
1 celestial purge
3 thoughtseize
1 negate
1 dispel
1 elspeth, sun's champion
2 stoney silence
1 blessed alliance
1 wrath of god
1 spell queller
1 kambal, consul of allocation
Round 1: G/W with death and taxes flare 0-2
Game one: Hand of 3 fetches into a turn 2 Aven mindcensor
Game two: Destroyed all my lands
Round 2: Death and Taxes 2-0
Game one: Stabilized at one with Sphinx’s Rev, Snap, Rev
Game two: He mulled to 4, showed me 4 Ghost Quarters then conceded
Round 3: Humans 2-0
Game one: Supreme Verdict into Jace/Teferi to win
Game two: Meddling Mage named Supreme Verdict but I had a Settle the Wreckage in hand. Turn four he played a Mantis Rider as a 5th attacker, I wiped him clean and it was smooth sailing from there.
Round 4: U/B Control 2-0
Game one: Souls was good. Baited out counter magic with an Esper Charm, slammed Teferi, then Jace
Game two: Was about to lock him out of the game with Esper charm into Esper charm but he Surgical Extractioned Esper Charm before I could untap and got the other out of my hand. I ripped Elspeth off the top and won
Round 5: Krark-Clan Ironworks 2-0
Game one: Pathed his Myr Retriever, countered all his Ironworks and beat down with Souls tokens
Game two: Slammed a turn two Stoney Silence. He eventually used Nature’s Claim to get rid of it but the damage was already done. He tried for an Ironworks with a Guttural Response backup, but I had both Cryptic and Logic Knot. I had Teferi and Jace going and then ultimated Teferi, following it up with a Rev for 6 and a Brainstorm from Jace, exiling all of his permanents.
Round 6: Vengvine 2-0
See the twitch link. I'm on at 5:35:30
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/298895082
Quarter Finals: Titanshift 1-2
The next match after the one against Vengvine
Some thoughts:
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about opt over think twice. On one hand, it is faster and lets me keep riskier hands but it doesn't have the ability to get milled from Azcanta for value. I might try a split and see how that goes.
I was against Lingering Souls for a very long time because of Esper's former dedication to being fully draw-go, but now that we have Azcanta, Jace and Teferi that is no longer the case. Having a threat that can easily be tossed out against control decks and combo decks while also not being dead in a faster match up has been great.
I've been enjoying the Settle the Wreckage as a one-of in the main. Catching people out in game one and then having them hesitate with attacks in games two and three is fantastic.
Like, bridgevine felt favorable in the best of 3. Mardu felt very favorable. I think we're heavily favored against random tier three decks and brews because our sideboard is so robust. Humans admittedly is a weaker matchup for my build, but that was a conscious choice, and I'm OK with how that match turned out.
The loss to tron is the kind of loss that's just going to happen--it might be a 60-40 best of three, but that means we still lose almost half our matches there. It is what it is.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
I think UW opt/think twice with terminus is pretty strong right now... it actually is quite reliable, and terminus is just too powerfull (either for making you able to wipe the board and do some proactive threat on the same turn, or for dealing with threats pretty much permanently (no "die" trigger, no GY shaenigans, just a clean board)).
I've been having trouble adjust an esper shell to it.. I mean, if our plan is to use PWs (jace and teferi) to gain advantage and close the game, there's no reason to be draw-go, and, even though I love esper charm, I'm not able to justify it over a cleaner mana base and PW tap out strategy lately...
The control mirrors get worse (at least from how I was used to playing them with esper) - having no real inevitability and no way of discarding. But all other MUs look good, even combo (probably same as esper).
I would love to hear your input.
On a side note, I'll be living on the US for three months as of October. I will be in St Paul/MN. If any of you know a good store there, please let me know! And if by any chance any of the regulars are from the area, I'd love to meet you to play some matches too.
Cheers.
I think esper is still quite good, but it is no longer draw-go.
Otherwise, I think most people have by now realized that 4 path, + 0-2 oust/condemn isn't enough spot removal, and are splashing red for a couple copies of bolt/helix in their UW decks. Playing black instead for a few pushes + charms + sideboard stuff still works as well as it always has.
Control mirrors are definitely harder with UW than with esper (since they're even, and we no longer have a huge advantage). UW generally doesn't have a great combo matchup unless rest in peace/stony hoses the deck. (So kci is a fine matchup, but ad naus, storm, etc, are still bad).
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
If you think we fall short against aggro sometimes, can I interest you in a 1 mana sweeper? That should help that problem.
The Miracles mechanic seems clunky with Jace only and Opt/Serum. In Legacy, we have Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain and not long ago Sensei's Divining Top. These are real cards to support the Miracles mechanic. From the last months, it seems to work out well in UW, but still I feel it's clunky and if the set up doesn't work, then Terminus is really dead in hand. Settle the Wreckage is maybe the card that interests me the most from UW/x sweepers.
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
On the other hand, I still think settle is terrible. It provides some value, sometimes, but frequently it gets real awkward when opponents cast meddling mage, or freebooter, or other discard spells pre combat. Getting your sweeper beaten like that is often game.
On top of that, we have more spot removal than UW does, so we can play the waiting-until-6mana game better, and most decks won't be too keen to overextend into terminus, so we're not always super punished for getting them stuck in hand.
At the end of the day though, I think there are too many decks where terminus is super important against that its clunkiness is far outweighed.
I'm not sold however on the 3/2 split Jace/Teferi that UW uses. I think it works with UW, but for us, that might be too many planeswalkers. 2/1 as a split could work I guess. Thoughts ?
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
So it looks like we have a budget Snapcaster option for those who lurk the thread. In some cases I think this is better than Snapcaster -- it being cast on 2 mana is far better than a random 2/1 body in many cases. It's defensible over Snap in many ways, so other than being budget friendly, I think it's duly powerful as well.
To tie it in with the above discussion, it also sets up miracles.
It's not weak to grave hate (the "choose" wording), it doesn't turn on our opponents' dead removal, it fills our yard for Logic Knot/Azcanta. I could honestly see playing a build with 4 of these.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
Edit; I have figured it out. It's less about the word choose and more about making the choice while the spell is resolving.
"Reveal a Dragon"
If active player is your opponent, they may activate spellbomb/surgical, but if your chosen card is an instant, you can cast it in response, and there is nothing your opponent can do about that.
Snapcaster mage is different because you have to choose a target as part of the etb trigger, meaning your choice is locked in before either player gets priority.