Shaun McLaren played against that deck in one of his video series if you want some inspiration. Granted the deck he ran was running Kiki-Resto over Emrakul(but still 3x Nahiri).
I don't mean to be that guy... but I watched the video. No turn 2/3 blood moon in either game. That's fairly a-typical in a deck that runs 3-4 blood moons (and plenty of non-interactive ways to get it by turn 2).
If the Ponza player draws like that... that is the miracle I was speaking of. His draws were "ok" at best (and painfully abysmal at worst). (never saw a thrun, which is main decked).
Typically Thrun is x2 in Ponza decks (in the main).
Nice work on the top4. I went 2-0-1 to start my pptq this weekend, then just crashed hard losing to both dredge and faeries. The dredge match was much closer than I expected. G1 he just did the usual dredge thing of unloading by turn 2. But game 2, I had to mull to 4, and kept a no lander with path, path, anger, remand. I didn't draw a land until turn 4, and it was a ghost quarter, and then I didn't see a colored source until turn 6. Luckily he had a slower start and didn't get anything going at that point. I was running a copy of surgical extraction in the sideboard and drew in to it fairly early. When my opponent played a land to get back his bloodghast, I was able to surgical it away, and saw that he actually had 2 narcomoebas in hand. This bought me enough time to get a rest in peace online, and then start drawing in to lands. I am now sold on surgical in my side. Definitely recommend running it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: UWR Breach, UWB Esper control
Legacy: UW RiP/Helm, UR Sneak and Show
So I've managed to top4 a pptq this weekend with the list I've posted few pages back. Lost against infect in semis, beat dredge in top8. Overall I really like my decklist, will probably try to squeeze at least 1 timely and 1 celestial purge before GP next weekend.
Cheers,
TFSS
Congrats on a solid finish. Infect is super hard to beat when their draws come together.
How is the Sleight of Hand + 22 Lands working out? Does it feel fluid? By fluid I mean do you often find yourself chopping up your plays (holding up removal/permission) to aggressively dig for what you need?
I'm interested because I just added 2 Sleights to my deck (4 SV + 2 Sleight) while running 23 lands and so far it feels alright. Sleight is...different. The ability to immediately get the card you want is refreshing, obviously not as powerful but still functional.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Guys, what are your opinions about geist in sb right now? Worth the slots?.
Same question about izzet staticaster.
TY
Static caster is a must have without a doubt.
I'm not sure about geist though. I'm down to 1 geist and might change him for a second clique again.
Honestly... I've considered cutting Izzet Staticaster in favor of spreading seas. (currently play x2 crumble to dust).
The match ups in which we bring in izzet caster are already favored typically (excluding tokens). While big mana decks are generally abysmal to play against.
But... I don't know if I want to cut izzet staticaster. :/
Guys, what are your opinions about geist in sb right now? Worth the slots?.
Same question about izzet staticaster.
TY
I've always been a fan of Geist, right now i'm running 2 in side but i agree that they come in only few matches: Tron and mirrors, it's up to the meta. If you're flooded by control and Tron go for it. On the other hand Izzet staticaster is amazing, i side it against Affinity, Company, Infect, tokens and so on. It's super useful as a 1 of in the side.
I've been bringing Geist into a lot more matchups than that. Basically any deck where we have to quickly pressure them or die, and blue mirrors. The big caveat is if they have lots of blockers, I'm typically less willing to bring Geist in and also much more likely to be bringing in sweepers anyway. An incomplete list: Tron, Scapeshift, Burn, mirror, Grixis, Living End (less certain here), Infect, Suicide Zoo, etc. Another pattern here is when cheap interaction is at a premium, Nahiri looks less good so I want to shave a couple and the Emrakul if I can bring in an alternate win condition.
I do agree with Tron, Scapeshift, mirror and Grixis. But i'm not that willing to play Geist and go tap out on turn 3 vs Living End, infect or Suicide Zoo; that leave them all the space to go off. In addition to that Living end don't care about Geist's hexproof, they cascade and get rid of it since we don't play many creatures. I've never tried it vs Burn but it could work there.
Well you don't tap out for Geist in those matchups. You wouldn't tap out for Nahiri in most of those circumstances either. You find a window to resolve it while leaving up interaction safely, which is much easier with a 3 mana spell vs a 4 mana spell. Plus, when you need to close the game quickly, Geist combines with all the burn spells rather nicely to end the game quickly while the burn spells do not accelerate Nahiri's clock.
I realize the downsides vs. Living End, but Nahiri is just so slow against them, and often I feel like I'm just trying to burn them out with bolts here and there. Nahiri doesn't really combine well with that plan, but Geist does. I'm not convinced it's worth bringing in despite the downsides, but it seems worth exploring.
No offense, but I wouldn't cut a card that's great in t1 and t2 matchups, to have one that decent in some t2 matchups. The numbers of Tron and scapeshift are decreasing and living end is not even t2, in the current meta with rising numbers of dredge, living end is merly a brew. On the other side ax92 is right, playing geist against suicide, living end or infect is just plain wrong.
It's not only about tapping out, but also about playing an aditional creature in the matchups where we want our sweepers most.
The biggest problem with UWR is all the random decks you play against in modern. If I knew I was only going to play against tier 1/2 decks all day, I wouldn't consider the Geists in the SB at all. But in any given large modern tournament, I know I'm going to run into a fair amount of random stuff, and against much of it UWR is a dog in the matchup. You have to be able to beat random stuff at a modern GP, for example. I've been playing UWR in testing and at modern weeklies lately and have been crushing. My only bad event has been a larger even - a 1.5K where I when 1-4, losing to living end, infect (on a punt), storm, and skred red. The randomness is killer. Though to be fair I get pretty unlucky vs Skred and didn't bring the geists in there.
The tension with the sweepers and the geists is there, but it's not that big of a deal. Vs. Suizoo, typically one geist hit is all you need to win the game anyway - even through a blocker if you have any amount of burn available. Vs. Infect it's more delicate, but you can sequence your sweepers and geists in such a way that it isn't a problem. You're not looking to slam geist on turn 3 anyway. Vs. burn, I don't think we need the sweepers and would rather have Geist if I had to pick one or the other.
Edit: also add Ad Nauseum to the list of decks where Geist is great out of the SB, and gives you a reasonable chance against an otherwise awful matchup.
It seems like he was super afraid of big-mana decks in the sb. x2 crumble and x2 spreading seas seems excessive.
Spreading seas aren't amazing against big mana decks, but very good against jund.
Eh. We're already favored vs jund. I've never felt like I needed extra sideboard slots dedicated to that matchup.
Most people whom play spreading seas are more concerned about Tron/RG through the breech from my experience.
Spreading Seas is good because it's fairly versatile. Even against decks that aren't tron/breach a lot of them are color intensive and if you can hit one of their fetched shocks/temple with seas you can color screw them for a significant amount of time, against infect you can take them off inkmoth, against grindy decks it takes manlands, even if it is only half-way decent in a matchup it cantrips and can be more gas than cards you want to take out.
I guess. For me, I've ran out of room in the sideboard. This is my sideboard I'm planning on brining to Indi.
Thoughts/feedback wanted. Running one anger main.
It seems like he was super afraid of big-mana decks in the sb. x2 crumble and x2 spreading seas seems excessive.
Spreading seas aren't amazing against big mana decks, but very good against jund.
Eh. We're already favored vs jund. I've never felt like I needed extra sideboard slots dedicated to that matchup.
Most people whom play spreading seas are more concerned about Tron/RG through the breech from my experience.
I've never felt spreading seas was good against Tron and Breach isn't all that much of the meta.
Spreading Seas is good because it's fairly versatile. Even against decks that aren't tron/breach a lot of them are color intensive and if you can hit one of their fetched shocks/temple with seas you can color screw them for a significant amount of time, against infect you can take them off inkmoth, against grindy decks it takes manlands, even if it is only half-way decent in a matchup it cantrips and can be more gas than cards you want to take out.
I guess. For me, I've ran out of room in the sideboard. This is my sideboard I'm planning on brining to Indi.
Thoughts/feedback wanted. Running one anger main.
Spreading Seas is good because it's fairly versatile. Even against decks that aren't tron/breach a lot of them are color intensive and if you can hit one of their fetched shocks/temple with seas you can color screw them for a significant amount of time, against infect you can take them off inkmoth, against grindy decks it takes manlands, even if it is only half-way decent in a matchup it cantrips and can be more gas than cards you want to take out.
I guess. For me, I've ran out of room in the sideboard. This is my sideboard I'm planning on brining to Indi.
Thoughts/feedback wanted. Running one anger main.
Yeah, it looks pretty similar to what I'm bringing this weekend to GP Guangzhou.
I would agree that seas is not "ideal" vs tron. But when paired with crumble to dust and stony silence it probably is good enough to get there.
The problem I had: that's alot of sideboard hated land destruction.
Any changes to the sideboard you'd recommend? My list is slightly different (still on the non nahiri version) but I've found matchups and sideboarding is pretty universally similar.
Also: how afraid are you of the new bant Eldrazi decks that have popped up?
Spreading Seas is good because it's fairly versatile. Even against decks that aren't tron/breach a lot of them are color intensive and if you can hit one of their fetched shocks/temple with seas you can color screw them for a significant amount of time, against infect you can take them off inkmoth, against grindy decks it takes manlands, even if it is only half-way decent in a matchup it cantrips and can be more gas than cards you want to take out.
I guess. For me, I've ran out of room in the sideboard. This is my sideboard I'm planning on brining to Indi.
Thoughts/feedback wanted. Running one anger main.
Yeah, it looks pretty similar to what I'm bringing this weekend to GP Guangzhou.
I would agree that seas is not "ideal" vs tron. But when paired with crumble to dust and stony silence it probably is good enough to get there.
The problem I had: that's alot of sideboard hated land destruction.
Any changes to the sideboard you'd recommend? My list is slightly different (still on the non nahiri version) but I've found matchups and sideboarding is pretty universally similar.
Also: how afraid are you of the new bant Eldrazi decks that have popped up?
Not that afraid. There are a lot of decks in Modern. You can't have a fair match-up against all of them. I don't think it's so bad though. Outside of the busted mana starts you can hang with them. Maybe play against them 0-1 time in a big event.
Spreading Seas is good because it's fairly versatile. Even against decks that aren't tron/breach a lot of them are color intensive and if you can hit one of their fetched shocks/temple with seas you can color screw them for a significant amount of time, against infect you can take them off inkmoth, against grindy decks it takes manlands, even if it is only half-way decent in a matchup it cantrips and can be more gas than cards you want to take out.
I guess. For me, I've ran out of room in the sideboard. This is my sideboard I'm planning on brining to Indi.
Thoughts/feedback wanted. Running one anger main.
Yeah, it looks pretty similar to what I'm bringing this weekend to GP Guangzhou.
I would agree that seas is not "ideal" vs tron. But when paired with crumble to dust and stony silence it probably is good enough to get there.
The problem I had: that's alot of sideboard hated land destruction.
Any changes to the sideboard you'd recommend? My list is slightly different (still on the non nahiri version) but I've found matchups and sideboarding is pretty universally similar.
Also: how afraid are you of the new bant Eldrazi decks that have popped up?
Not that afraid. There are a lot of decks in Modern. You can't have a fair match-up against all of them. I don't think it's so bad though. Outside of the busted mana starts you can hang with them. Maybe play against them 0-1 time in a big event.
Thank you. That's one matchup where Nahiri probably comes into usefulness though xD.
A little nervous for that matchup without Nahiri. But like you said, not a big part of the meta so I won't worry about it.
Is timely reinforcements not worth it vs jund/abzan? don't they have a problem dealing with 3 1/1's?
I've always wondered if negate is worth it vs jund, probably is more so now than previously because they have dreadbore and maelstrom pulse for nahiri?
Also, can probably cut snare vs abzan, if they don't play bob right? Not sure it's worth it for just goyf and ooze.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I don't mean to be that guy... but I watched the video. No turn 2/3 blood moon in either game. That's fairly a-typical in a deck that runs 3-4 blood moons (and plenty of non-interactive ways to get it by turn 2).
If the Ponza player draws like that... that is the miracle I was speaking of. His draws were "ok" at best (and painfully abysmal at worst). (never saw a thrun, which is main decked).
Typically Thrun is x2 in Ponza decks (in the main).
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Legacy: UW RiP/Helm, UR Sneak and Show
Congrats on a solid finish. Infect is super hard to beat when their draws come together.
How is the Sleight of Hand + 22 Lands working out? Does it feel fluid? By fluid I mean do you often find yourself chopping up your plays (holding up removal/permission) to aggressively dig for what you need?
I'm interested because I just added 2 Sleights to my deck (4 SV + 2 Sleight) while running 23 lands and so far it feels alright. Sleight is...different. The ability to immediately get the card you want is refreshing, obviously not as powerful but still functional.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Same question about izzet staticaster.
TY
Death and taxes / UW control
Honestly... I've considered cutting Izzet Staticaster in favor of spreading seas. (currently play x2 crumble to dust).
The match ups in which we bring in izzet caster are already favored typically (excluding tokens). While big mana decks are generally abysmal to play against.
But... I don't know if I want to cut izzet staticaster. :/
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
I've been bringing Geist into a lot more matchups than that. Basically any deck where we have to quickly pressure them or die, and blue mirrors. The big caveat is if they have lots of blockers, I'm typically less willing to bring Geist in and also much more likely to be bringing in sweepers anyway. An incomplete list: Tron, Scapeshift, Burn, mirror, Grixis, Living End (less certain here), Infect, Suicide Zoo, etc. Another pattern here is when cheap interaction is at a premium, Nahiri looks less good so I want to shave a couple and the Emrakul if I can bring in an alternate win condition.
Well you don't tap out for Geist in those matchups. You wouldn't tap out for Nahiri in most of those circumstances either. You find a window to resolve it while leaving up interaction safely, which is much easier with a 3 mana spell vs a 4 mana spell. Plus, when you need to close the game quickly, Geist combines with all the burn spells rather nicely to end the game quickly while the burn spells do not accelerate Nahiri's clock.
I realize the downsides vs. Living End, but Nahiri is just so slow against them, and often I feel like I'm just trying to burn them out with bolts here and there. Nahiri doesn't really combine well with that plan, but Geist does. I'm not convinced it's worth bringing in despite the downsides, but it seems worth exploring.
The biggest problem with UWR is all the random decks you play against in modern. If I knew I was only going to play against tier 1/2 decks all day, I wouldn't consider the Geists in the SB at all. But in any given large modern tournament, I know I'm going to run into a fair amount of random stuff, and against much of it UWR is a dog in the matchup. You have to be able to beat random stuff at a modern GP, for example. I've been playing UWR in testing and at modern weeklies lately and have been crushing. My only bad event has been a larger even - a 1.5K where I when 1-4, losing to living end, infect (on a punt), storm, and skred red. The randomness is killer. Though to be fair I get pretty unlucky vs Skred and didn't bring the geists in there.
The tension with the sweepers and the geists is there, but it's not that big of a deal. Vs. Suizoo, typically one geist hit is all you need to win the game anyway - even through a blocker if you have any amount of burn available. Vs. Infect it's more delicate, but you can sequence your sweepers and geists in such a way that it isn't a problem. You're not looking to slam geist on turn 3 anyway. Vs. burn, I don't think we need the sweepers and would rather have Geist if I had to pick one or the other.
Edit: also add Ad Nauseum to the list of decks where Geist is great out of the SB, and gives you a reasonable chance against an otherwise awful matchup.
Please = )
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
3 Remand
2 Spell Snare
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Serum Visions
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Arid Mesa
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Rest in Peace
2 Spreading Seas
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Crumble to Dust
It seems like he was super afraid of big-mana decks in the sb. x2 crumble and x2 spreading seas seems excessive.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Spreading seas aren't amazing against big mana decks, but very good against jund.
Eh. We're already favored vs jund. I've never felt like I needed extra sideboard slots dedicated to that matchup.
Most people whom play spreading seas are more concerned about Tron/RG through the breech from my experience.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
I guess. For me, I've ran out of room in the sideboard. This is my sideboard I'm planning on brining to Indi.
Thoughts/feedback wanted. Running one anger main.
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Wrath of God
2 negate
2 dispel
1 izzet staticaster
2 crumble to dust
1 timely reinforcements
2 stony silence
1 wear // tear
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
I've never felt spreading seas was good against Tron and Breach isn't all that much of the meta.
Yeah, it looks pretty similar to what I'm bringing this weekend to GP Guangzhou.
I would agree that seas is not "ideal" vs tron. But when paired with crumble to dust and stony silence it probably is good enough to get there.
The problem I had: that's alot of sideboard hated land destruction.
Any changes to the sideboard you'd recommend? My list is slightly different (still on the non nahiri version) but I've found matchups and sideboarding is pretty universally similar.
Also: how afraid are you of the new bant Eldrazi decks that have popped up?
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
Not that afraid. There are a lot of decks in Modern. You can't have a fair match-up against all of them. I don't think it's so bad though. Outside of the busted mana starts you can hang with them. Maybe play against them 0-1 time in a big event.
Thank you. That's one matchup where Nahiri probably comes into usefulness though xD.
A little nervous for that matchup without Nahiri. But like you said, not a big part of the meta so I won't worry about it.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
I have played tons of games and had mixed results. I have taken out Bolts,Angers and Timely, and Vendilion Clique.
I'm not sure on Bolt though. I bring Purge, Keranos, Wear/Tear and Explosives when i don't take Bolts out.
When i do, i also bring Spreading Seas.
What are your thought's on this matchup?.
Thanks.
I've always wondered if negate is worth it vs jund, probably is more so now than previously because they have dreadbore and maelstrom pulse for nahiri?
Also, can probably cut snare vs abzan, if they don't play bob right? Not sure it's worth it for just goyf and ooze.