I think simply put, matchups in modern are imbalanced.
A hyper linear deck like prebanning infect, for example, tended to utterly crush its good matchups. It was like 80%+ to win those. Its bad matchups, on the other hand, tended towards 55%~60% against it. Jeskai, grixis, and jund, for example, on paper look incredibly favored, having a pile of removal, and ways to end the game reasonably quickly. In actuality, it only took a very small stumble to just lose against infect. It wasn't enough to have the answers in your deck, you had to have them in your hand, consistently, and quickly, every game.
For control/midrange, on the other hand, the matchups basically look like the opposite. Tron, eldrazi, valakut, etc, are miserable for jeskai. You can win occasionally, usually off crumble to dusts, or verdicts, as well as good other draws, but that only happened 20% of the time. On the other hand, your good matchups you still lost to a good 35%~40% of the time.
On top of that, because of how diverse modern is, and how many glaring holes there are in the suite of answers we have available, its often impossible to effectively configure your mainboard to make up for those bad matchups without losing more points in your favorable matchups than you're getting.
This is kind of exaggerated/simplified, the numbers aren't based on data, but the idea stands.
Because it let you get away from atleast some of the problems that plague control, namely always being on the backfoot in a format that heavily punishes that, and being able to aggressively threaten wins.
The issue with this now is that timely reinforcements is pretty mediocre, and its probably worse now than it was back then. Anger is definitely worse than it used to be, but part of the appeal of playing the deck like that was that those cards made curving out into nahiri much safer, and much more powerful.
Lingering souls can do this relatively well, but anger still feels very lackluster.
That being said, I'm not really sure if thats the best way to build the deck, but no version I've tried yet has really made me feel like I've stumbled across what I'm looking for.
Logic Knot is perhaps the way to go? Right now when i play i feel like we drastically need counters more than spot removals.
I've been barking up this tree for a while now. The counter magic we have isn't good. Even if we were to get good ole' Counterspell, I still think we need something more. Something that has the utility of Disallow or Insidious Will at a cheaper rate. Cryptic Command is great, but the game could be out of reach before I ever get to see one. Not to mention, when I'm not playing a Draw-Go deck, I'm not relying on them to save me on turn 4 and beyond.
Honest question: What do you guys think changed since the Tier 1 days of Nahiri? Looking at the metagame around the time Peter Ingram popularized the list, there really hasn't been any real shakeup other than dredge. Dredge was of course an awful matchup for us, but now that bleeding has been stemmed, the meta looks very similar to how it was then.
Ah but there has been a change. Outside of Eldrazi Winter, we haven't seen so many big mana decks and other non-aggro, non-midrange (some of them just don't classify as combo to me) lists. Not to mention, this deck is very susceptible to combo. That doesn't leave a lot of good matchups for this deck in a blind 2-day tournament. At least none that are wildly popular now. Jund is going through a similar issue, but I think it's less painful there because we can still affect an opponent's hand to force an issue or make it a non-issue. Jeskai can't do that at all. Not to mention, the speed of the format got incrementally faster right up to the end of Modern season. I mean we watched Brad Carpenter kill someone on turn 2 more than once on camera. If it weren't for the bans, I'm pretty sure Jeskai Nahiri would still be bad. Right now, it's just mediocre. I've actually had more success with an old-school Jeskai Draw-Go build than I have with Nahiri Jeskai, and it's far more consistent.
Honest question: What do you guys think changed since the Tier 1 days of Nahiri? Looking at the metagame around the time Peter Ingram popularized the list, there really hasn't been any real shakeup other than dredge. Dredge was of course an awful matchup for us, but now that bleeding has been stemmed, the meta looks very similar to how it was then.
Ah but there has been a change. Outside of Eldrazi Winter, we haven't seen so many big mana decks and other non-aggro, non-midrange (some of them just don't classify as combo to me) lists. Not to mention, this deck is very susceptible to combo. That doesn't leave a lot of good matchups for this deck in a blind 2-day tournament. At least none that are wildly popular now. Jund is going through a similar issue, but I think it's less painful there because we can still affect an opponent's hand to force an issue or make it a non-issue. Jeskai can't do that at all. Not to mention, the speed of the format got incrementally faster right up to the end of Modern season. I mean we watched Brad Carpenter kill someone on turn 2 more than once on camera. If it weren't for the bans, I'm pretty sure Jeskai Nahiri would still be bad. Right now, it's just mediocre. I've actually had more success with an old-school Jeskai Draw-Go build than I have with Nahiri Jeskai, and it's far more consistent.
I think this is a good point. Against a traditional aggro / midrange deck, Nahiri is quite good. -2 to exile + some extra removal, then start +2ing. Or just +2 from the outset when the board is clear. I don't really buy into the "Tapping out on turn 4 is death in Modern" argument, at least not literally, but I do think that perhaps Nahiri's abilities are just not as strong now as they once were. And while it's not that you always 'just die' after casting Nahiri, casting Nahiri is a large investment of resources, and can lead to a pretty bad loss in tempo if she doesn't more or less win the game after landing (if not immediately, by diverting so much attention that she effectively wins). But if Nahiri doesn't win the game -- e.g., because there are too many Bolt-proof creatures for our Bolts/Helixes to clean up so that she can go to work, or because we're playing against RG Valakut, etc. -- then other options (like casting Spell Queller or Vendilion Clique to disrupt the opponent and chip away for some damage at the same time, without needing to tap out on your own turn) become more attractive, maybe.
I wonder if another part of the problem is that the Nahiri + Emrakul package just leads to too many 'dead draws' when Nahiri herself (or the Nahiri/Bolt/Helix/Path package) isn't well positioned. Between Ancestral Vision, Nahiri, and Emrakul, there are 7-8 potentially dead draws in the deck. If Nahiri sticks on the board, you can filter these away, but if not... then it's a problem. Contrast that to Ingram's original Nahiri list, which only has 5 'dead draws' (as there are no main-deck Ancestral Visions), and 'Jeskai Flash' decks that have almost no dead draws. Anyway, just musing...
If Harbinger is truly a flash in the pan as claimed by some people, or was never really good to begin with, what would be the ideal deck to transition into (assuming we want to retain UWx or URx)? Will it be Esper, Grixis or shift into Jeskai Draw-go?
I think grixis is probably the best or at least most popular version of control at the moment. I base this off of the results on mtggoldfish I never counted but it seems like it pops up more than the others.
A guy whose opinion I respect told me he thinks the straight UW GQ/Tec Edge/crucible deck is the best control version out there.
I'm planning to play next Tuesday, and debating whether to bring (1) a Jeskai Harbinger deck with a few changes (3 Nahiri, 0 AV, 2 Cryptic, 2 Negate), or whether to pull together some sort of tempo/flash build -- either (2) a more tempo/aggro Boggemes-style list with Spell Queller and Blade Splicer, (3) a list with Spell Queller but no Blade Splicer, or (4) a more controlling build with only Snapcasters, Restoration Angels, and Cliques as creature threats.
I'm planning to play next Tuesday, and debating whether to bring (1) a Jeskai Harbinger deck with a few changes (3 Nahiri, 0 AV, 2 Cryptic, 2 Negate), or whether to pull together some sort of tempo/flash build -- either (2) a more tempo/aggro Boggemes-style list with Spell Queller and Blade Splicer, (3) a list with Spell Queller but no Blade Splicer, or (4) a more controlling build with only Snapcasters, Restoration Angels, and Cliques as creature threats.
I'm playing your fourth option now. It seems to have the best fit for me personally and my local area. It also has quite a decent amount of versatility. I've learned that Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is the real deal if you want to play it in the main deck of a Flash style deck. My only issue with the all-in flash style is that you'll find that some decks have too great of an advantage against you and you can't swing the control route as much as you would like. There's nothing wrong with that generally speaking. You can't win 'em all, and everyone is bound to have a weak match up. I find it really interesting that in all the iterations I've run through since August, that my main deck isn't so different from what Shahar Shenhar won it all with. Obviously there are a few modifications, such as the addition of Ancestral Vision, which is nuts in that deck, and some other personal modifications. As far as Flash styles go, I have to say I'm not a fan of Blade Splicer. I know it presents a question to opponents who are using single-target removal, but I think the "question" is pretty weak. I found that replacing them with Geist of Saint Traft was just plain better. If I'm going to play something at sorcery speed in a flash deck, it better have a lot of power or some sort of warping effect to the game state.
Anyway, all of that is neither here nor there as far as this thread is concerned. I just felt like Nahiri, the Harbinger and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn were an option of what Jeskai could do. When it turned into all of "this," I thought it might be a mistake. The best part about Jeskai is its versatility. We don't have the "power cards" that we can sleeve up for every tournament and roll out. Much like before, we have to strongly consider every upcoming field and see what we can do against it. I could still be wrong about all of that. Maybe you really have to go all-in on the combo, but then it feels like the slowest combo deck I've ever seen and is hard to force through resistance. I would think Mardu Nahiri is better suited to that position.
Preparing for the GP now, I'm either gonna stick with a very stock Nahiri list, pick up UWr Geist again or just bring good ol' Merfolk as 12lords.dec is just so much less of a hassle to construct than a 3 color interactive deck. Something I tried before with medium success was mainboarding Geist in the Nahiri shell, to be as proactive as possible game 1.
Jeskai Nahiri has shaped into a relatively solid form, for better and for worse. Not much has changed since the ban for us and no new cards have come out as our card quality already is very high; the big change for Jeskai would be either a. a counterspell better than mana leak or b. a new deck that puts the meta upside down. The ban updates were a double edged sword for us; dredge is significantly slower and less prevalent now which is great, but the meta is now very well positioned for tron.
..what unban would you consider helps us most? imo Jace, the Mind Sculptor unban would help us really a lot, but how likely is this to happen at the next announcement? also Preordain could get back now that Gitaxian Probe is gone.
Also, do you guys ever side out the Nahiri package entirely?
..this doesn`t sound like a bad idea at all, since most hate comes to stop Nahiri. but what would you bring in instead to close out game2 in time (and even have time for a game3) ?
Also, do you guys ever side out the Nahiri package entirely?
..this doesn`t sound like a bad idea at all, since most hate comes to stop Nahiri. but what would you bring in instead to close out game2 in time (and even have time for a game3) ?
Siding out the Nahiri + Emrakul package entirely seems almost certainly incorrect. Cutting from 4 to 3 Nahiris makes sense in certain matchups (especially if you are bringing in other threats like Geist of Saint Traft or Vendilion Clique), but if you side out Nahiri + Emrakul entirely, what are you winning the game with? And if you're relying on Colonnade + Snapcaster + etc., why play Nahiri in the first place? Yes, hate might come in, but you can preemptively board in Engineered Explosives (still live against creatures/etc.), Wear//Tear, etc.
I disagree thats its incorrect all of the time.
Against a lot of control/instant speed decks, where tapping out on your own turn is dangerous, siding out nahiri is fine.
Usually these decks don't have many bolt targets, so most of your burn can just go to them.
Of course, nahiri isn't built to win that way to the extent "regular" jeskai is, but its still very doable.
In the mirror, for example, I don't think nahiri is all that strong. Sure, you'll sometimes win with it, but usually its just as much because your opponent would have lost to anything, and not because nahiri itself is all that strong.
I disagree thats its incorrect all of the time.
Against a lot of control/instant speed decks, where tapping out on your own turn is dangerous, siding out nahiri is fine.
Usually these decks don't have many bolt targets, so most of your burn can just go to them.
Of course, nahiri isn't built to win that way to the extent "regular" jeskai is, but its still very doable.
In the mirror, for example, I don't think nahiri is all that strong. Sure, you'll sometimes win with it, but usually its just as much because your opponent would have lost to anything, and not because nahiri itself is all that strong.
Fair point. I was thinking more in line with the quoted idea of siding out Nahiri because of expected 'hate', but yes, if you have the cards to bring into a control mirror / etc., taking out Nahiri seems reasonable. But that's more a strategic choice than being reactive against hate cards.
Yes, I must have glossed over that.
Boarding out nahiri because you expect to see grafdigger's cage (which hits snapcaster mage anyways) or aven mindcensor, or something, is silly.
We can beat those hate pieces. They might not always have them. Its like burn siding out their creatures cuz the opponent has terminates. Sure, you're denying them usage of the kill spells, and you can win without the dudes, but its still silly.
2 Weeks ago
2-1 RG TitanShift
2-0 UW Puresteel Paladin/Artifact Vehicle Draw-*****.dec
2-0 Skred Red
1-1-1 UW Control (Timed out)
This week
2-0 RG Ponza/Walker Super Friends
2-0 Jund
/Dropped to hang out with friends instead
Not sure if it's the town I'm in or the stores I go to...so Idk if the players are straight garbage or whatever...but the deck's been holding up more than just fine for me. As far as my build is concerned, I played the list similar to the one at the Osaka(?) Aether Revolt RPTQ a few months back...which is basically the list everyone else is running. "Unique inclusions" would be Jace Beleren, 1 Mainboard Negate, and 1 Electrolyze. Anger of the Gods didn't seem all that necessary, so it was relegated to the sideboard. 2 Geist of Saint Trafts and 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion in the side as well. Geist put in some serious work in some of the match-ups.
Jund Match-up in a nutshell: Nahiri's -2 is pretty sweet; even if she gets immediately bolted, she's a 2-for-1.
Idk if Nahiri's the bees' knees, but she's been putting in serious work for me. Simply another flavor in a sea of options for Jeskai finishers. If you don't like to tap out for Nahiri, just replace the package with more Restos, maybe reconfigure a few counters here and there. And then have at it...
The variants of Jeskai are more or less the same, honestly. Regardless of the win-con, ultimately the play style doesn't change all that much, so I don't really see all the fuss between the variants (Nahiri, Flash Creatures, and Draw-Go/Gearhulk/1-BombCard). Control is still control in modern. "Bad." I personally like the axis she fights on, so I'm sticking with her.
Been meaning to try out Grixis for some perspective -- once I get all the cards.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
The "fuss," as you put it, is that there some hardliners who believe Nahiri is the only way to do Jeskai in a competitive field. I am not one of them. I doubt, however, that three weeks of match results in a very limited field is going to win hearts and minds.
Just finished gp brisbane with a x-4 record, dropping to blue tron, land stuck vs infect, t2 etched champion when I went second and a t1 grishoalbrand.
A hyper linear deck like prebanning infect, for example, tended to utterly crush its good matchups. It was like 80%+ to win those. Its bad matchups, on the other hand, tended towards 55%~60% against it. Jeskai, grixis, and jund, for example, on paper look incredibly favored, having a pile of removal, and ways to end the game reasonably quickly. In actuality, it only took a very small stumble to just lose against infect. It wasn't enough to have the answers in your deck, you had to have them in your hand, consistently, and quickly, every game.
For control/midrange, on the other hand, the matchups basically look like the opposite. Tron, eldrazi, valakut, etc, are miserable for jeskai. You can win occasionally, usually off crumble to dusts, or verdicts, as well as good other draws, but that only happened 20% of the time. On the other hand, your good matchups you still lost to a good 35%~40% of the time.
On top of that, because of how diverse modern is, and how many glaring holes there are in the suite of answers we have available, its often impossible to effectively configure your mainboard to make up for those bad matchups without losing more points in your favorable matchups than you're getting.
This is kind of exaggerated/simplified, the numbers aren't based on data, but the idea stands.
My original nahiri list looked something like:
4 nahiri
4 snapcaster mage
1 emrakul
3 mana leak
3 remand
2 spell snare
1 dispel
2 timely reinforcements
2 anger of the gods
4 lightning bolt
4 path to exile
2 lightning helix
1 electrolyze
Because it let you get away from atleast some of the problems that plague control, namely always being on the backfoot in a format that heavily punishes that, and being able to aggressively threaten wins.
The issue with this now is that timely reinforcements is pretty mediocre, and its probably worse now than it was back then. Anger is definitely worse than it used to be, but part of the appeal of playing the deck like that was that those cards made curving out into nahiri much safer, and much more powerful.
Lingering souls can do this relatively well, but anger still feels very lackluster.
That being said, I'm not really sure if thats the best way to build the deck, but no version I've tried yet has really made me feel like I've stumbled across what I'm looking for.
I've been barking up this tree for a while now. The counter magic we have isn't good. Even if we were to get good ole' Counterspell, I still think we need something more. Something that has the utility of Disallow or Insidious Will at a cheaper rate. Cryptic Command is great, but the game could be out of reach before I ever get to see one. Not to mention, when I'm not playing a Draw-Go deck, I'm not relying on them to save me on turn 4 and beyond.
Ah but there has been a change. Outside of Eldrazi Winter, we haven't seen so many big mana decks and other non-aggro, non-midrange (some of them just don't classify as combo to me) lists. Not to mention, this deck is very susceptible to combo. That doesn't leave a lot of good matchups for this deck in a blind 2-day tournament. At least none that are wildly popular now. Jund is going through a similar issue, but I think it's less painful there because we can still affect an opponent's hand to force an issue or make it a non-issue. Jeskai can't do that at all. Not to mention, the speed of the format got incrementally faster right up to the end of Modern season. I mean we watched Brad Carpenter kill someone on turn 2 more than once on camera. If it weren't for the bans, I'm pretty sure Jeskai Nahiri would still be bad. Right now, it's just mediocre. I've actually had more success with an old-school Jeskai Draw-Go build than I have with Nahiri Jeskai, and it's far more consistent.
I think this is a good point. Against a traditional aggro / midrange deck, Nahiri is quite good. -2 to exile + some extra removal, then start +2ing. Or just +2 from the outset when the board is clear. I don't really buy into the "Tapping out on turn 4 is death in Modern" argument, at least not literally, but I do think that perhaps Nahiri's abilities are just not as strong now as they once were. And while it's not that you always 'just die' after casting Nahiri, casting Nahiri is a large investment of resources, and can lead to a pretty bad loss in tempo if she doesn't more or less win the game after landing (if not immediately, by diverting so much attention that she effectively wins). But if Nahiri doesn't win the game -- e.g., because there are too many Bolt-proof creatures for our Bolts/Helixes to clean up so that she can go to work, or because we're playing against RG Valakut, etc. -- then other options (like casting Spell Queller or Vendilion Clique to disrupt the opponent and chip away for some damage at the same time, without needing to tap out on your own turn) become more attractive, maybe.
I wonder if another part of the problem is that the Nahiri + Emrakul package just leads to too many 'dead draws' when Nahiri herself (or the Nahiri/Bolt/Helix/Path package) isn't well positioned. Between Ancestral Vision, Nahiri, and Emrakul, there are 7-8 potentially dead draws in the deck. If Nahiri sticks on the board, you can filter these away, but if not... then it's a problem. Contrast that to Ingram's original Nahiri list, which only has 5 'dead draws' (as there are no main-deck Ancestral Visions), and 'Jeskai Flash' decks that have almost no dead draws. Anyway, just musing...
A guy whose opinion I respect told me he thinks the straight UW GQ/Tec Edge/crucible deck is the best control version out there.
I'm playing your fourth option now. It seems to have the best fit for me personally and my local area. It also has quite a decent amount of versatility. I've learned that Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is the real deal if you want to play it in the main deck of a Flash style deck. My only issue with the all-in flash style is that you'll find that some decks have too great of an advantage against you and you can't swing the control route as much as you would like. There's nothing wrong with that generally speaking. You can't win 'em all, and everyone is bound to have a weak match up. I find it really interesting that in all the iterations I've run through since August, that my main deck isn't so different from what Shahar Shenhar won it all with. Obviously there are a few modifications, such as the addition of Ancestral Vision, which is nuts in that deck, and some other personal modifications. As far as Flash styles go, I have to say I'm not a fan of Blade Splicer. I know it presents a question to opponents who are using single-target removal, but I think the "question" is pretty weak. I found that replacing them with Geist of Saint Traft was just plain better. If I'm going to play something at sorcery speed in a flash deck, it better have a lot of power or some sort of warping effect to the game state.
Anyway, all of that is neither here nor there as far as this thread is concerned. I just felt like Nahiri, the Harbinger and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn were an option of what Jeskai could do. When it turned into all of "this," I thought it might be a mistake. The best part about Jeskai is its versatility. We don't have the "power cards" that we can sleeve up for every tournament and roll out. Much like before, we have to strongly consider every upcoming field and see what we can do against it. I could still be wrong about all of that. Maybe you really have to go all-in on the combo, but then it feels like the slowest combo deck I've ever seen and is hard to force through resistance. I would think Mardu Nahiri is better suited to that position.
..this doesn`t sound like a bad idea at all, since most hate comes to stop Nahiri. but what would you bring in instead to close out game2 in time (and even have time for a game3) ?
Siding out the Nahiri + Emrakul package entirely seems almost certainly incorrect. Cutting from 4 to 3 Nahiris makes sense in certain matchups (especially if you are bringing in other threats like Geist of Saint Traft or Vendilion Clique), but if you side out Nahiri + Emrakul entirely, what are you winning the game with? And if you're relying on Colonnade + Snapcaster + etc., why play Nahiri in the first place? Yes, hate might come in, but you can preemptively board in Engineered Explosives (still live against creatures/etc.), Wear//Tear, etc.
Against a lot of control/instant speed decks, where tapping out on your own turn is dangerous, siding out nahiri is fine.
Usually these decks don't have many bolt targets, so most of your burn can just go to them.
Of course, nahiri isn't built to win that way to the extent "regular" jeskai is, but its still very doable.
In the mirror, for example, I don't think nahiri is all that strong. Sure, you'll sometimes win with it, but usually its just as much because your opponent would have lost to anything, and not because nahiri itself is all that strong.
Fair point. I was thinking more in line with the quoted idea of siding out Nahiri because of expected 'hate', but yes, if you have the cards to bring into a control mirror / etc., taking out Nahiri seems reasonable. But that's more a strategic choice than being reactive against hate cards.
Boarding out nahiri because you expect to see grafdigger's cage (which hits snapcaster mage anyways) or aven mindcensor, or something, is silly.
We can beat those hate pieces. They might not always have them. Its like burn siding out their creatures cuz the opponent has terminates. Sure, you're denying them usage of the kill spells, and you can win without the dudes, but its still silly.
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
~4 Weeks ago
2-1 Merfolk
2-0 Eldrazi-Tron
2-0 Jeskai Ascendancy
2-1 Infect
2 Weeks ago
2-1 RG TitanShift
2-0 UW Puresteel Paladin/Artifact Vehicle Draw-*****.dec
2-0 Skred Red
1-1-1 UW Control (Timed out)
This week
2-0 RG Ponza/Walker Super Friends
2-0 Jund
/Dropped to hang out with friends instead
Not sure if it's the town I'm in or the stores I go to...so Idk if the players are straight garbage or whatever...but the deck's been holding up more than just fine for me. As far as my build is concerned, I played the list similar to the one at the Osaka(?) Aether Revolt RPTQ a few months back...which is basically the list everyone else is running. "Unique inclusions" would be Jace Beleren, 1 Mainboard Negate, and 1 Electrolyze. Anger of the Gods didn't seem all that necessary, so it was relegated to the sideboard. 2 Geist of Saint Trafts and 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion in the side as well. Geist put in some serious work in some of the match-ups.
Jund Match-up in a nutshell: Nahiri's -2 is pretty sweet; even if she gets immediately bolted, she's a 2-for-1.
Idk if Nahiri's the bees' knees, but she's been putting in serious work for me. Simply another flavor in a sea of options for Jeskai finishers. If you don't like to tap out for Nahiri, just replace the package with more Restos, maybe reconfigure a few counters here and there. And then have at it...
The variants of Jeskai are more or less the same, honestly. Regardless of the win-con, ultimately the play style doesn't change all that much, so I don't really see all the fuss between the variants (Nahiri, Flash Creatures, and Draw-Go/Gearhulk/1-BombCard). Control is still control in modern. "Bad." I personally like the axis she fights on, so I'm sticking with her.
Been meaning to try out Grixis for some perspective -- once I get all the cards.
Beat 2 burn, affinity, Jund, junk, dredge, 2 valakut, tron.
List I played
1 emrakul the aeons torn
1 vendillion clique
4 snapcaster mage
3 nahiri the harbinger
1 timely reinforcements
1 anger of the gods
1 electrolyze
1 remand
1 logic knot
2 mana leak
2 lightning helix
3 lightning bolt
4 path to exile
4 serum visions
3 ancestral vision
2 spell snare
1 mountain
1 plains
3 island
1 sacred foundry
2 hallowed fountain
2 steam vents
4 flooded strand
3 scalding tarn
1 arid mesa
3 celestial colonnade
2 sulfur falls
1 desolate lighthouse
Side
1 engineered explosives
1 dispel
1 wear / tear
1 negate
1 celestial purge
1 blessed alliance
1 stony silence
1 anger of the gods
1 wrath of God
1 goblin dark dwellers
2 surgical extraction
3 boom / bust
Deck felt real smooth, logic knott, lighthouse and dark dwellers were mvp