Can you provide an example of each of the builds you are talking about?
"Draw-Go": McLaren's winning list from 2013 (?): 4 Snapcasters, no other creatures; wins by Snap, Colonnade, burn, and stand-alone planeswalkers (e.g., Ajani Vengeant).
Flash: Shenhar's winning list from 2013 (?): main-deck Vendilion Cliques and Restoration Angels (possibly now Spell Quellers), possibly 1-2 Ajani/etc., but no other sorcery speed threats (card draw/wraths excepted). Kyle Boggemes has piloted a deck that, while it plays a lot of creatures and sorcery speed Blade Splicers, probably fits under this classification (these decks are obviously on a spectrum).
Harbinger: Built around a Nahiri + Emrakul shell, which takes up more of the available top-end of curve (3-4 Nahiri + Emrakul is 4-5 cards with a CMC of 4+), leaving less room for Cryptic, etc., and making it a bit more distinct from the Draw-Go/Flash builds, which have more overlap.
Geist/Midrange: Main-deck sorcery speed threats like Geist of Saint Traft; a bit less controlling and more aggressive.
CopyCat: Built around Saheeli + Felidar Sovereign; still preliminary, but has been including cards like Wall of Omens and Spreading Seas in the main deck for grindy value with Felidar Sovereign.
Obviously most of these decks share a lot of similarity, so I would think it's just a matter of how focused each thread's discussion is intended to be.
Anyone have any experience with the card, particularly against bigger stuff like Goyf, Knight, Eldrazi? Does his + ability do some work to stall and is his - ability worth pairing with a bolt to take out a Thought-Knot Seer?
Ajani is better than Nahiri in a vacuum, and better than Nahiri against attrition decks that don't let us use our Nahiris. If a BGx deck manages to keep 1 creature alive our boy Ajani will put an end to that. He effectively has 2 forms of removal, mana screw with +1, and Armageddon that happens surprisingly often. I think he's still playable. If you run 3 Nahiris an Ajani singleton main sounds good.
In my opinion, Ajani Vengeant fits a bit better with the Draw-Go/Flash style builds that rely on damage to close out games (rather than Emrakul), since he doubles as extra reach (even if expensive) and doesn't require other support cards. In Jeskai Harbinger, I'd be more inclined to play cards that either protect Nahiri (Cryptic, Supreme Verdict, etc.), or just another Nahiri. But do try it and let us know what you think.
Is it fair to say that the meta is simply rough on the deck right now? I feel games where small creatures are available to bolt/helix, the deck is a powerhouse, but when I went up against Toughness 4+, I was suddenly scrambling for Paths or Sweepers, and the deck just doesnt have enough of that kind of disruption, and we all know how counters can work, or work against us.
Only one night of testing under my belt so far, but that was the general though process I had going on. :]
That's exactly why i'm trying different stuff, before bans the meta was pretty focused: When everything is fast like infect, zoo, death shadow, affinity we could have a fair magic game against them, and heck yes even a favorable one! That's because the deck is composed by a good amount of R that usual deal 3 damage for cheap mana. And there you go the double sided blade: when the ban hammer destroy the fast decks it has left a huge space to slower and non interactive decks such as Tron or Eldrazi. And in modern we have not the right element to fight those decks lategame.
Now let's analyze what the last 4-5 years of magic introduced to modern, every time we got stronger creatures: Introducing first Master of waves (blue devotion stuff), then we got Rhinos and tasigurs, of course the Eldrazi (with their atrocious design). Back in innistrad here it is the bane of dredge, the Prized Amalgam, with the abzan new goodies Grim flayer and selfless spirit. The last block get us a bunch of crazy vehicles.
If we compare the same with answers (either counterspells or removal or card advantage) here you go what we get: Anger of the gods, DTT [banned], TC [banned] then nothing until Blessed alliance and fatal push.
Now we can understand with ease that there's a wrong proportion between the increasing power of creatures and the randomly assorted presence of "good" answers. That's the reason why we ended up this low. We're craving for some new good stuff and wizard is denying us to grow.
That's what we can do:
1- run less R removal and increase the white ones (someone suggested condemn)
2- run more counterspell to answer what we can't remove with bolt and helix
If this the case, then why not play a UW control deck? What you described is exactly where I ended up at one point.
Bolt will always be very strong; you can't condemn or path a t1 manadork. That being said there are a ton of decks right now against which bolt and helix are bad, so cutting down on them is not a bad idea. Maybe running Blessed Alliance and cutting Lightning Helix entirely is an idea, as they serve similar functions?
I also agree countermagic is pretty good at the moment, I've been upping my count of cmc2 counters. Now more than ever I wish Counterspell was Modern legal
For a simple reason, even if right now Bolt and helix are suboptimal, they still very powerful since the could go straight to the face if the opponent, an option that straight UW doesn't have. And even right now i'm still winning my games with a combination of Bolt-Snap-Bolt + colonnade (strangely more often than the times i win via emrakul).
I'm not saying to completely cut off red spells. What I'm saying is that when we consider spells we want to have in the main deck, why don't we consider spells that UW plays for this deck? I mean even Wafo-Tapa's Jeskai decks were basically UW decks, that had a Lightning Bolt or two along with a Lightning Helix somewhere in his 75. Otherwise, they look like UW decks.
So some interesting results in my continued testing.
The deck, just like other Uxx decks has a shared issue which I believe is central to reactive U decks since. Twin, how do you manage the game state, control the board, craft your hand, AND keep up counter mana?
I have not read this whole thread yet, but I have a feeling the various answers to those questions is why we have the many takes on not just URW, but Uxx in general.
We all want to play reactive, but Modern puts demands on us to also have either a very real or perceived clock.
You cannot just durdle and expect to won in Modern against an unknown and diverse field.
There is also as noted the very real pressure of undercosted creatures dodging Bolts, yet the burn tempo game is our plan B.
All that said, I'm playing with my main board, gone to 4 bolt, 3 path 2 helix, and added 3 AV, and 4 Giest, as I wanted more ways to apply some pressure that let's me get a Nahiri on the table while providing a very real clock.
That's interesting. I don't hate the idea of four of a legendary that applies some serious pressure, but it seems like it could lead to awkward opening hands. Has that been in an issue so far in your testing?
The problem with replacing some burn spells like Bolt and Helix with more hard removal like Blessed Alliance and Wrath of God is that we now have much weaker game 1's against the non-creature decks of the format since we're trying to be even more durdly since we are packing less burn to close out the game.
The trade-off is that more main deck hard removal is better against bigger stuff, and to be honest, only really Bant Eldrazi comes to mind where this trade-off is preferable. Tarmogoyf who has always dodged Bolt, has been in the format since forever too and we've learnt to deal with it.
Barring Eldrazi's nut draws, we have ways to deal with them, we just have to work a little bit harder than some other control decks. We still have Path, gm_jack suggested Remand which seems excellent when they don't get their Cavern draws (which they don't always do even though we remember the tough times.) Snap/Bolt, Electrolyze/Bolt are non-Path ways that don't lead to card disadvantage on our end. Fatal Push can't even pair up with Snap to take down a bigger dude. Eldrazi still play a lot of stuff that dies to Burn - Matter Reshaper, Eldrazi Displacer, Bird of Paradise, Noble Heirarch and some even play Eldrazi Skyspawner which Electrolyze, yes Electrolyze in this match up absolutely owns. Eldrazi is a great deck because it has all the cheap "must answer" threats that die to Bolt, but they also top out at bigger stuff too which gives them a strong game against control decks which would generally be harder for them since they aren't playing Red.
And with the format apparently "slower" these days, there's more decks like Living End and Tron running about where you're going to wish you had as much burn spells as possible instead of more Blessed Alliance.
I've played all different kinds of control decks and the one thing I envied the most about Jeskai control, was that it had the very best aggro match up out of all the control decks out there which is always going to be important. My favourite removal set up was from Shaun's 2013 UWR deck that had 4 Bolt, 4 Helix, 3 Path. That is the real strength of Jeskai IMO, it has the very best early game removal spells in the format that also can double up as win conditions.
If we were to replace "some" of our Bolts and Helixs with harder removal like BA, I feel this may lead to a sub-optimal set up. Why not play 3 Snaps/1 Gearhulk too? Or 3 Nahiri, 1 Elspeth? In theory, it sounds nice to maybe chop 1 or 2 "Bolts" but it does add up in that you've now lost 6 points of damage to close the game out against Restore Balance or you top-decked a Blessed Alliance instead of that Helix against a hellbent Liliana, or you're curve might be slightly higher and you won't be able to match that turn 1 Guide, Bird like you used to.
It's probably better to just play straight UW or Esper if we want to focus on killing bigger stuff. Those decks are made to excel against bigger creatures due to playing more hard removal spells as they don't have access to bolt. This also makes their game 1's against a divers field much weaker since they have a lot more dead cards than us. Every deck has their strengths and weaknesses, we can't have everything.
I'm personally trying to develop a "Jeskai Black" draw-go deck, including cards such as Esper Charm that can double up as a "removal" spell against the big creature decks like Eldrazi by making them discard 2 creatures on the turn 3/4 mark, while also being great against the combo decks. Charm/Snap/Charm turn 4/5 is sometimes even more brutal than Bolt/Snap/Bolt. That's 4 cards right there, "removed" from the game. I'm basically trying to keep the Mclaren removal package of Bolt, Helix, Path, but am using Esper Charm as a "hard removal" spell by dumping thier hand before they even get a chance to play out their stuff, leaving them to only topdecks to "nut me out." What's cool about Charm is that it's never a dead card in any match up. It just makes in game decisions more difficult, but I think the versatility is worth it.
Made day 2 at GP Vancouver: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/08-09-16-AUk-uwr-nahiri/
Went into day 2 at 6-3. The deck did not perform well enough for me in the last chance trials (I already had byes, just wanted to play for tix). Other than making day 2, my only other success that weekend was going 2-0-1 in the rebound and getting 15 packs. I've gotten sick of playing this deck and having so many bad matchups that I decided to take advantage of my LGS's trade in bonus thing going on and traded my deck in, moving into Eldrazi Tron. It was nice seeing other Jeskai Nahiri players at nearby tables on day 2 but they all had similar records considering how close they were to my seat.
I don't believe Eldrazi TRON plays Cavern of Souls, every time I've played them it's basically just the Tron lands, Temples and some Wastes, maybe a Sanctum or 2 as well. I think BANT Eldrazi is the only Eldrazi deck to run caverns and if we're counting D&T too which I don't think run cavern but Vial is similar anyway.
Sideboarding-wise, between Disenchant and Wear//Tear, which is better? Does the colour issue (Negate, Countersquall as an example) ever come up with Wear side of the card, to consider running Disenchant instead? Or is Wear//Tear just the better card to have in the side?
Well Mystical Teachings is kind of a tutor effect to find those counters but I don't know, it's really good when you have the time to cast it, but otherwise it just adds another 4cmc+ spell to the deck which clunkifies things when you're under the pump. I feel your pain on DTT
Righto, Wear//Tear it is. I'm currently playing 2 Negates in the side but I really, really hate losing to Blood Moon and Land Denial decks and Wear//Tear seems like an uber efficient way to deal with it all game only requiring 1 Plains as well as knocking off turn 1 Utopia Sprawls and random stuff like that which gets my jimmies rustled.
On Ajani Vengeant - I've had a couple games so far testing 1 copy in the main.
First match against a Jeskai Tempo brew featuring Favorable Winds, Mousoleam Wanderer, Spell Queller, Mantis Rider and some taxes cards like Judge's Familiar backed by burn and counters. Lost game 1. Game 2 I stabilised and Ajani Vengeant kept upticking until 8 loyalty and Armageddon'd him for the win. Cool thing to note was Ajani managed to keep the Moorland Haunt on lockdown so he couldn't get any value out of his grave yard. That little touch impressed me. Game 3, I finally stabilised with the help of Ajani's - ability which just was brutal gaining me 3 life and killing his creatures.
Second match against Mono U Tron. Game 1 a turn 4 Ajani Vengeant kept his Urza's Tower on lockdown until about turn 8 or something like that until he drew another Tower. Ajani got Repeald, so I couldn't Armageddon him, but it was a little too late as I had already got the Tron player's life total under 10 with my Snap/Bolt/Helix. Was able to replay Ajani, and minus him for the win. Game 2 was a tight one but a second Wurmcoil Engine and a perfectly timed Condescend saved the day for him when I had a Bolt on the stack with his life total at 3. Game 3, I found an opportunity to land Ajani on turn 6. Kept his Island on lockdown so he couldn't cast double blue spells like Snapcaster Mage/flashback counter. My opponent tried a last ditch Repeal but that was met with a Cryptic Command on my end. Ajani Vengeant Ultimate for the win. Felt good being able to give their Sundering Titan a taste of his own medicine. Interesting to note was the Tron player sided in for a turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity. Not sure if this is new tech or just living life on the edge because #yolo, but I ended up siding in my 2 Wear//Tear which I never ended up drawing but could of been useful against the turn 0 Leyline with my Burn spells it turns off.
Whoever the person was that said Ajani always seems to be able to get to Ultimate, you're right as rain. I don't know what it is, I just seemed to be able to get to Ultimate in both matches I played and if I wasn't Ultimating, I was minusing which was brutal for the opponent to come back from.
So far, in my limited testing I'm a believer, especially the work he did against U Tron where I wouldn't think he'd be of any use.
@ax92 We're generally not beating most combo decks anyway (at least in game 1) so I'm not sure why that's a consideration. I also didn't say we should necessarily add a bunch of Supreme Verdict in the main deck. What I'm asking is why we don't consider more of their (UW) spells for me our main deck where applicable?
Of course, Dig through Time would be great but that's in magical Christmas land now. So what's the point bringing it up?
I'm not on the heavy UW control side. I just don't think soaking up 4 or 5 slots while planning to tap out Main Phase, it even just Tap 4 is where control wants to be.
The deck with Harbinger needs to 1 Serum or AV, or Bolt a Bird, 2 Leak/Remand/Viper, 3 Snap/Bolt or Geist or Clique, 4 Nahiri or Cryptic.
That's my ideal but I want to have some early pressure otherwise it falls apart.
@ax92 We're generally not beating most combo decks anyway (at least in game 1) so I'm not sure why that's a consideration. I also didn't say we should necessarily add a bunch of Supreme Verdict in the main deck. What I'm asking is why we don't consider more of their (UW) spells for me our main deck where applicable?
Of course, Dig through Time would be great but that's in magical Christmas land now. So what's the point bringing it up?
I am a fan of sweepers, I do think 2 main deck sounds about right if you can find the room, but still, finding the room is hard enough when lists are tight. The issue I've found with sweepers (4 mana wraths,) is that if you're not interacting in the early game and taking your licks until turn 4 when you wrath, a lot of damage has been done and you can get blown out by either a burn spell, a CoCo, a selfless spirit or some haste creatures like bushwackers or Mutavaults on the crack back. And if you're going to play a high amount of cheap removal spells in addition to sweepers, it kind of defeats the purpose of sweeping in the first place since you've already picked off their stuff with you spot removal, now paying 4 mana sorcery speed to kill 1, maybe 2 creatures isn't the best use of resources IMO.
The role I now view sweepers as, is more of a sideboard card to deal with predominately wide decks like Elves and Merfolk, which can be beaten by spot removal spells, but sometimes they can get ahead just a bit too quickly so having a couple sweepers handy in the side for those particular match ups is nice. From what I've heard from Merfolk, Engineered Explosives seems to be the sweeper of choice which holds value in nearly any match up.
Sweepers are good against Eldrazi too, but first we have to hope Thought-Knot Seer doesn't take it since we can't respond to his ability on the stack with a sorcery and also against Reality Smasher we are taking 5. I'm thinking Blessed Alliance might be a better choice than 4 mana wraths as a hard removal spell that gets annoying stuff like Geist, Bogles, Reality Smasher in addition to being great vs burn and zoo while being very efficient at 2 mana instant speed.
In regards to Combo decks. I can't say I agree about how it shouldn't be a consideration. Yes, we, and every control deck in the format is a dog to combo game 1. But. Just by virtue of playing Snap/Bolt, we can most definitely take game 1's. Add in 3-4 Helix's and topdecking that burn spell for the win becomes a real scenario. Combo decks aren't always super consistent. Sometimes they have slow draws and Jeskai can punish them better than any other control deck out there. The removal spells 'are' win conditions for Jeskai. I've tested a straight UB Control deck and can tell you how miserable it is playing against Tron game 1 where I have no way to race them. Hitting for 2 a turn off of Snapcaster Mage is pretty dismal. Adding some Bolts into the deck makes a world of difference in these match ups, it really does.
Christmas is over already!? Was wishing Santa would of brought me some of those foil DTTs
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Obviously most of these decks share a lot of similarity, so I would think it's just a matter of how focused each thread's discussion is intended to be.
Spirits
Anyone have any experience with the card, particularly against bigger stuff like Goyf, Knight, Eldrazi? Does his + ability do some work to stall and is his - ability worth pairing with a bolt to take out a Thought-Knot Seer?
Or is he completely outshone by Nahiri, the Harbinger?
UWR Control
Legacy:
W D&T
Only one night of testing under my belt so far, but that was the general though process I had going on. :]
Spirits
Verdict into Main, Anger into Side.
Spirits
If this the case, then why not play a UW control deck? What you described is exactly where I ended up at one point.
I also agree countermagic is pretty good at the moment, I've been upping my count of cmc2 counters. Now more than ever I wish Counterspell was Modern legal
I'm not saying to completely cut off red spells. What I'm saying is that when we consider spells we want to have in the main deck, why don't we consider spells that UW plays for this deck? I mean even Wafo-Tapa's Jeskai decks were basically UW decks, that had a Lightning Bolt or two along with a Lightning Helix somewhere in his 75. Otherwise, they look like UW decks.
For instance, Detention Sphere isn't awful out of the sideboard. More main deck Supreme Verdicts don't seem bad either.
The deck, just like other Uxx decks has a shared issue which I believe is central to reactive U decks since. Twin, how do you manage the game state, control the board, craft your hand, AND keep up counter mana?
I have not read this whole thread yet, but I have a feeling the various answers to those questions is why we have the many takes on not just URW, but Uxx in general.
We all want to play reactive, but Modern puts demands on us to also have either a very real or perceived clock.
You cannot just durdle and expect to won in Modern against an unknown and diverse field.
There is also as noted the very real pressure of undercosted creatures dodging Bolts, yet the burn tempo game is our plan B.
All that said, I'm playing with my main board, gone to 4 bolt, 3 path 2 helix, and added 3 AV, and 4 Giest, as I wanted more ways to apply some pressure that let's me get a Nahiri on the table while providing a very real clock.
Feels OK so far, I'll post up my new 75 later.
Spirits
Games I've landed a turn 3 GoST turn out good so far.
Spirits
The problem with replacing some burn spells like Bolt and Helix with more hard removal like Blessed Alliance and Wrath of God is that we now have much weaker game 1's against the non-creature decks of the format since we're trying to be even more durdly since we are packing less burn to close out the game.
The trade-off is that more main deck hard removal is better against bigger stuff, and to be honest, only really Bant Eldrazi comes to mind where this trade-off is preferable. Tarmogoyf who has always dodged Bolt, has been in the format since forever too and we've learnt to deal with it.
Barring Eldrazi's nut draws, we have ways to deal with them, we just have to work a little bit harder than some other control decks. We still have Path, gm_jack suggested Remand which seems excellent when they don't get their Cavern draws (which they don't always do even though we remember the tough times.) Snap/Bolt, Electrolyze/Bolt are non-Path ways that don't lead to card disadvantage on our end. Fatal Push can't even pair up with Snap to take down a bigger dude. Eldrazi still play a lot of stuff that dies to Burn - Matter Reshaper, Eldrazi Displacer, Bird of Paradise, Noble Heirarch and some even play Eldrazi Skyspawner which Electrolyze, yes Electrolyze in this match up absolutely owns. Eldrazi is a great deck because it has all the cheap "must answer" threats that die to Bolt, but they also top out at bigger stuff too which gives them a strong game against control decks which would generally be harder for them since they aren't playing Red.
And with the format apparently "slower" these days, there's more decks like Living End and Tron running about where you're going to wish you had as much burn spells as possible instead of more Blessed Alliance.
I've played all different kinds of control decks and the one thing I envied the most about Jeskai control, was that it had the very best aggro match up out of all the control decks out there which is always going to be important. My favourite removal set up was from Shaun's 2013 UWR deck that had 4 Bolt, 4 Helix, 3 Path. That is the real strength of Jeskai IMO, it has the very best early game removal spells in the format that also can double up as win conditions.
If we were to replace "some" of our Bolts and Helixs with harder removal like BA, I feel this may lead to a sub-optimal set up. Why not play 3 Snaps/1 Gearhulk too? Or 3 Nahiri, 1 Elspeth? In theory, it sounds nice to maybe chop 1 or 2 "Bolts" but it does add up in that you've now lost 6 points of damage to close the game out against Restore Balance or you top-decked a Blessed Alliance instead of that Helix against a hellbent Liliana, or you're curve might be slightly higher and you won't be able to match that turn 1 Guide, Bird like you used to.
It's probably better to just play straight UW or Esper if we want to focus on killing bigger stuff. Those decks are made to excel against bigger creatures due to playing more hard removal spells as they don't have access to bolt. This also makes their game 1's against a divers field much weaker since they have a lot more dead cards than us. Every deck has their strengths and weaknesses, we can't have everything.
I'm personally trying to develop a "Jeskai Black" draw-go deck, including cards such as Esper Charm that can double up as a "removal" spell against the big creature decks like Eldrazi by making them discard 2 creatures on the turn 3/4 mark, while also being great against the combo decks. Charm/Snap/Charm turn 4/5 is sometimes even more brutal than Bolt/Snap/Bolt. That's 4 cards right there, "removed" from the game. I'm basically trying to keep the Mclaren removal package of Bolt, Helix, Path, but am using Esper Charm as a "hard removal" spell by dumping thier hand before they even get a chance to play out their stuff, leaving them to only topdecks to "nut me out." What's cool about Charm is that it's never a dead card in any match up. It just makes in game decisions more difficult, but I think the versatility is worth it.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/08-09-16-AUk-uwr-nahiri/
Went into day 2 at 6-3. The deck did not perform well enough for me in the last chance trials (I already had byes, just wanted to play for tix). Other than making day 2, my only other success that weekend was going 2-0-1 in the rebound and getting 15 packs. I've gotten sick of playing this deck and having so many bad matchups that I decided to take advantage of my LGS's trade in bonus thing going on and traded my deck in, moving into Eldrazi Tron. It was nice seeing other Jeskai Nahiri players at nearby tables on day 2 but they all had similar records considering how close they were to my seat.
Sideboarding-wise, between Disenchant and Wear//Tear, which is better? Does the colour issue (Negate, Countersquall as an example) ever come up with Wear side of the card, to consider running Disenchant instead? Or is Wear//Tear just the better card to have in the side?
Righto, Wear//Tear it is. I'm currently playing 2 Negates in the side but I really, really hate losing to Blood Moon and Land Denial decks and Wear//Tear seems like an uber efficient way to deal with it all game only requiring 1 Plains as well as knocking off turn 1 Utopia Sprawls and random stuff like that which gets my jimmies rustled.
On Ajani Vengeant - I've had a couple games so far testing 1 copy in the main.
First match against a Jeskai Tempo brew featuring Favorable Winds, Mousoleam Wanderer, Spell Queller, Mantis Rider and some taxes cards like Judge's Familiar backed by burn and counters. Lost game 1. Game 2 I stabilised and Ajani Vengeant kept upticking until 8 loyalty and Armageddon'd him for the win. Cool thing to note was Ajani managed to keep the Moorland Haunt on lockdown so he couldn't get any value out of his grave yard. That little touch impressed me. Game 3, I finally stabilised with the help of Ajani's - ability which just was brutal gaining me 3 life and killing his creatures.
Second match against Mono U Tron. Game 1 a turn 4 Ajani Vengeant kept his Urza's Tower on lockdown until about turn 8 or something like that until he drew another Tower. Ajani got Repeald, so I couldn't Armageddon him, but it was a little too late as I had already got the Tron player's life total under 10 with my Snap/Bolt/Helix. Was able to replay Ajani, and minus him for the win. Game 2 was a tight one but a second Wurmcoil Engine and a perfectly timed Condescend saved the day for him when I had a Bolt on the stack with his life total at 3. Game 3, I found an opportunity to land Ajani on turn 6. Kept his Island on lockdown so he couldn't cast double blue spells like Snapcaster Mage/flashback counter. My opponent tried a last ditch Repeal but that was met with a Cryptic Command on my end. Ajani Vengeant Ultimate for the win. Felt good being able to give their Sundering Titan a taste of his own medicine. Interesting to note was the Tron player sided in for a turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity. Not sure if this is new tech or just living life on the edge because #yolo, but I ended up siding in my 2 Wear//Tear which I never ended up drawing but could of been useful against the turn 0 Leyline with my Burn spells it turns off.
Whoever the person was that said Ajani always seems to be able to get to Ultimate, you're right as rain. I don't know what it is, I just seemed to be able to get to Ultimate in both matches I played and if I wasn't Ultimating, I was minusing which was brutal for the opponent to come back from.
So far, in my limited testing I'm a believer, especially the work he did against U Tron where I wouldn't think he'd be of any use.
Of course, Dig through Time would be great but that's in magical Christmas land now. So what's the point bringing it up?
The deck with Harbinger needs to 1 Serum or AV, or Bolt a Bird, 2 Leak/Remand/Viper, 3 Snap/Bolt or Geist or Clique, 4 Nahiri or Cryptic.
That's my ideal but I want to have some early pressure otherwise it falls apart.
Spirits
I am a fan of sweepers, I do think 2 main deck sounds about right if you can find the room, but still, finding the room is hard enough when lists are tight. The issue I've found with sweepers (4 mana wraths,) is that if you're not interacting in the early game and taking your licks until turn 4 when you wrath, a lot of damage has been done and you can get blown out by either a burn spell, a CoCo, a selfless spirit or some haste creatures like bushwackers or Mutavaults on the crack back. And if you're going to play a high amount of cheap removal spells in addition to sweepers, it kind of defeats the purpose of sweeping in the first place since you've already picked off their stuff with you spot removal, now paying 4 mana sorcery speed to kill 1, maybe 2 creatures isn't the best use of resources IMO.
The role I now view sweepers as, is more of a sideboard card to deal with predominately wide decks like Elves and Merfolk, which can be beaten by spot removal spells, but sometimes they can get ahead just a bit too quickly so having a couple sweepers handy in the side for those particular match ups is nice. From what I've heard from Merfolk, Engineered Explosives seems to be the sweeper of choice which holds value in nearly any match up.
Sweepers are good against Eldrazi too, but first we have to hope Thought-Knot Seer doesn't take it since we can't respond to his ability on the stack with a sorcery and also against Reality Smasher we are taking 5. I'm thinking Blessed Alliance might be a better choice than 4 mana wraths as a hard removal spell that gets annoying stuff like Geist, Bogles, Reality Smasher in addition to being great vs burn and zoo while being very efficient at 2 mana instant speed.
In regards to Combo decks. I can't say I agree about how it shouldn't be a consideration. Yes, we, and every control deck in the format is a dog to combo game 1. But. Just by virtue of playing Snap/Bolt, we can most definitely take game 1's. Add in 3-4 Helix's and topdecking that burn spell for the win becomes a real scenario. Combo decks aren't always super consistent. Sometimes they have slow draws and Jeskai can punish them better than any other control deck out there. The removal spells 'are' win conditions for Jeskai. I've tested a straight UB Control deck and can tell you how miserable it is playing against Tron game 1 where I have no way to race them. Hitting for 2 a turn off of Snapcaster Mage is pretty dismal. Adding some Bolts into the deck makes a world of difference in these match ups, it really does.
Christmas is over already!? Was wishing Santa would of brought me some of those foil DTTs