Stephan, very good card but in my opinion it helps like veil of summer and other leyline of sanctity for another period of competitive modern. I mean, i'm not playing full competitive at the moment because i just play on untap / xmage dont have time to do some tournaments, so i don't realise exactly how the new powers decks works, but i taking a look and keeping an eye on mtg top 8. So i'm quite sur that the metagame has change since modern horizon 2 and midnight hunt and i'm not convinced on the utility of that good card at the moment
I will not go deep into analysis for that list, I'll just mention two important things in my opinion : every creatures attacks & 95% of my lands are plains or conduct to a plain
Hey Stephane, it was wonderful to meet you in Calgary! Congratulations on how well you played and I'm glad we got to talk, even if it was only a little. I'm sorry that I had to catch a flight and didn't get a chance to play a game against you, but I would absolutely love to next time I see you!
What follows will be quite an extensive post on four Face to Face events on two separate weekends, and I hope that the effort can prompt you to share your own experiences - I saw you in some fairly epic matches yourself; congratulations on your final win against the Jund Sagavan player!
When it comes to my own results, I will begin by saying that I was quite pleased with my progress in light of these 100-plus attendance number tournaments, and I am confident that my version of Emeria is still a viable choice at the moment. I had two win-and-ins for top 8 out of four seven-round Swiss events, and I did not post a negative record in any of these. My personal play was relatively consistent, and my time trouble issues have diminished slightly, so I feel that if I can continue facing strong opposition in larger tournaments I will be able to tighten up considerably. On to the breakdowns, then!
In the first tournament, I played the following list:
I was trying out a configuration with 4 Solitude for the first time, and though my Sun Titans have suffered as a result, the Elemental has been useful enough that I have reluctantly cut the final copies of Path to Exile from my deck for the set. Their inclusion also provided additional impetus to reduce my non-White spell count, leading to both the second sideboard copy of Reduce to Memory, and the loss of Court Hussar. The first of these ended up being less relevant than the second, and while I was able to regain a sideboard slot later on I am still sorely missing the selection of the 1/3's ETB ability in post-board games. With that said, on to the results:
Round 1 lost 1-2 to Hammer Time, where I was paired against an excellent player who went on to make the top 4, and the matchup still felt extremely competitive. I take this as a very good sign, and in terms of strategy I would say that outside of their pure aggression giving them free wins, the matchup boils down to, essentially, whether Field of Ruin can efficiently deal with Urza's Saga. Hushbringer is sometimes a real punisher as well, so be aware of sequencing around it, but Sweepers give a very good shot at clearing it up profitably unless its tempo edge is turned into a tellingly awkward sequence on our end. In sideboarding, I had removed an Emeria, a Crucible, two Tef3ri, and a Stonecloaker for the Aura, the Seal, the Cathar, the Absence, and the Chalice.
Round 2 I lost 0-2 to Eldrazi Tron. This was an unfortunate immediate second loss which I was never able to gain traction in. I lost the die roll and was trounced by Karn, the Great Creator grabbing Liquimetal Coating, then Mulligans left me unable to stall his Thought-Knot Seer into double Reality Smasher draw long enough to get anything online. In the doomed second game, I had removed the Stonecloaker, a Tef3ri, and an Emeria to put in the Absence, the Commando, and the Aura.
Round 3 I won 2-0 against Grixis Shadow to keep me alive for prizing on a 5-2 record. The maindeck Stonecloaker was a huge asset here in shutting off both Delirium and Recursion for Kroxa and Lurrus plus Kolaghan's Command, and though it has since been removed I would not be averse to running it again. The games were tense and complex, with many details mattering on both sides, though I would say that Dress Down is the most important card in the matchup, and would advise mainphasing Solitude whenever possible to avoid blowouts. Otherwise, the matchup is quite straightforward, and the Crucible plus an Explosives and a Verdict made way for two Soul-Guide Lantern and a Chalice of the Void.
For Round 4 I won 2-0 against Jund. Stonecloaker came up again quite tellingly against Wrenn and Six as well as Dragon's Rage Channeler in game 1, and made him unable to Escape Kroxa for a comfortable win. In game two, however, I still removed the Stonecloaker, the Explosives, and the Crucible to play to the board better against discard effects and K-Command by bringing in Fateful Absence plus two Lantern.
In Round 5 I got my revenge with a 2-0 victory against another Eldrazi Tron player. His draws were the more typical half-and-half games this strategy tends to offer, and the defensive focus of Emeria paid off when I could ignore his Chalices to set up Lessons with Professor of Symbology. Game 2 was closer, but Crucible plus Field of Ruin had me nearly bulletproof by turn six or so, with my sideboard strategy being the same as above.
In round 6 I bested a Titania/Zuran Orb combo deck 2-1. The maindeck Engineered Explosives (a hedge against Crashing Footfalls on the weekend) was instrumental in stopping lethal damage on multiple occasions, and also dealt with his Orb to prevent future combos. In sideboarding, I removed my Crucible, the Stonecloaker, and an Emeria to make the space for two Lantern and a Fateful Absence as more efficient answers to Wrenn and Six and Titania, Protector of Argoth.
In round 7, I conceded to Amulet Titan rather than knock us both out of prizes since time was called for what would have been a 1-1-0 draw as we were shuffling up for game 3. This felt like a very difficult matchup in any event, and I am much less comfortable against the present versions of the deck - the current evolutions mean that they have come around to being very bad pairings once again. For the record, my sideboarding was as follows: removing the Stonecloaker, a Tef3ri, an Emeria, and two Verdict gave me the space to bring in the Absence, the Chalice, the Commando, the Aura, and the Seal, though I am quite hesitant to say if this is correct. There is a great deal of tension in dealing with "wide" Construct boardstates versus Karn openers and Titan combos at this time.
***I therefore went 4-3, with a 4-2-1 unofficial result. For the second tournament, I swapped the extra sideboard Reduce to Memory that had not seemed necessary for an ultimately non-factor Tormod's Crypt as an extra hedge versus several graveyard decks and Living End strategies I had seen. The resulting Solitude plays were still consistent enough without the extra "Professor tutoring a replacement white spell" line that I have now returned to this minimal 3-Lesson package.
In round 1 I lost 1-2 against a very strong Omnath Taking Turns opponent (who eventually fell short on a win-and in for the top 8 himself), where I again had excellent results with the maindeck Stonecloaker to best his active Wrenn and Six and Time Warp or Ephemerate loops with Eternal Witness. Unfortunately, he drew a fourth and final copy of Misty Rainforest on a critical turn in game 3 to make enough mana to push a freshly-cast Omnath, Locus of Creation to combo off, and was able to take the match. I had removed an Emeria, an Explosives, and a Verdict for two Lanterns and the Absence.
In round 2 I defeated a throwback Lantern Control player 2-0. This matchup, a very fun one in years gone by, has now become highly favourable with the new flexibility of Professor of Symbology. Post-board, I removed my three Verdicts to bring in the Aura, the Seal, and the Commando.
Round 3 was another 2-0 victory against Orzhov Smallpox. This was quite close in game 1, but Prismatic Ending eventually exiled all of his 3-mana Planeswalker threats. Game two was an absolute nailbiter, where I had recycled my early Blossoming Calm with Mistveil Plains and was furiously shuffling, thinning, and drawing cards with Wall of Omens and Teferi, Time Raveler in order to find it again as his Kaya, Orzhov Usurper resolved and began to exile enough cards to set up a lethal ultimate ability. I was luckily able to find it in time, and its resolution left me easily able to clean up once his graveyard control was mopped up by a Shadowspear on a Cathar Commando through his Lingering Souls tokens as blockers. I had removed my Verdicts and the Explosives for the Calm, the Spear, a Remorseful Cleric, and the Commando. As a note, it is in these kinds of situations that I miss Court Hussar selection the most: this sequence was very much a gamble to rely on off of cantrips alone, whereas with a recurrable Anticipate body as card selection peeling past undesireable cards the chances of re-drawing a singleton become much higher as the game develops.
In round 4 I lost 0-2 to Boros Burn, both being very tight games. I am not certain if the matchup is currently bad enough for Lone Missionary to come back into the mix, but I definitely would have appreciated it here. As it was in the match, I drew no sideboard cards, and my lifegain was limited to an Environmental Sciences in game one that only gained me a solitary point of life overall since I had led on a turn-one fetchland. My game-winning Solitude on end-step to remove his Eidolon and attack in game two was met by a Skullcrack, and that was that. I had removed my Verdicts, the Crucible, the Explosives, a Tef3ri and an Emeria to bring in the Calm, the Shadowspear, the Chalice, an Absence, the Remorseful Cleric, the Commando, and the Magistrate (though I now believe I may have been mistaken to trim on Teferi).
Playing for prizes once again, I then won round 5 2-0 against a Kuldotha Rebirth/Goblin Bushwhacker Boros Blitz deck. Game one was the best magic I played that day, sequencing and blocking to trade with minute care against his explosive on-the-play start of Rebirth into Devastating Summons with a follow-up Venerated Loxodon, and putting myself to 1 on life support thanks to an Environmental Sciences in order to draw my 1-outer Explosives to clear a meticulously crafted board of Tokens and Memnites only on his side. I managed to dodge the follow-up haste threats, and resolved a Solitude to stabilize and win. For game two, I removed an Emeria, a Crucible, and the Stonecloaker for my Chalice, the Shadowspear, and the Magistrate, the first of which which was enough to take the win when it resolved with 1 counter after an early flurry of trades culminating in a sweeper.
In round 6 I defeated a Mono-Red Prison opponent 2-1 in an epic match that mostly revolved around Professor of Symbology on my side. His Ramunap Ruins often being a strategic concern for stabilizing around Goblin Rabblemaster and Seasoned Pyromancer, I mostly elected not to remove his Blood Moon effects with Prismatic Ending, and even chose to Fateful Absence my own Sun Titan after blockers were declared in order not to remove his chump-blocking Magus of the Moon, following up with another similar attack on the next turn for the match win in game 3. I had removed my Verdicts and Explosives plus two Tef3ri for a Commando, a Cleric, a Magistrate, a Shadowspear, a Seal, and an Aura.
In round 7 I defeated a Hammer Time opponent 2-0 to lock up prizes, after a few scary moments in both games where I had to interact with early combo multiple times in each. Ultimately, a resolved Chalice on 1 locked up the final boardstate in my favour. I had removed an Emeria, a Stonecloaker, and a Crucible plus two Tef3ri for the Chalice, the Absence, the Commando, the Seal, and the Aura.
***This second tournament thus ended with a clean 5-2 and a 17th place finish. In tournament #3, I ran the same list, however with the second Ghost Quarter replaced by an Idyllic Grange for added versatility - thank you for the reminder, Toshenko - and the maindeck Stonecloaker removed to run Wrath of God again. The sideboard lost the unimpressive Crypt and fit in a Containment Priest in its place.
In round 1 I won 2-1 against Lantern Control once again, this time after dropping game one to Discard clearing the way for the lethal Karn, the Great Creator/Liquimetal Coating combo. Sideboarding was similar to the previous tournament, removing sweepers to bring in pressure and utility on recursion-ready permanents.
In round 2 I lost 0-2 to a Mardu Lurrus/Unearth deck which caught me for exact lethal the turn before I was to turn the corner with Solitude both games. My game one hand on the draw proved weak to his Tourach, Dread Cantor after a Mulligan. I then removed my Crucible and an Explosives for two copies of the excellent Soul-Guide Lantern, and felt strong in my plays, only losing to a Bolt after having stabilised the board and activated Emeria following am extremely rare triple Mulligan on the play, so I believe my continued confidence in the matchup is well warranted.
In round 3 I drew 1-1-1 in turns against an Amulet Titan player as we were both still live for top 8 following an epic 45-minute game two in which his final Primeval Titan only searched up a single land on ETB. I wish to dwell on this for a moment, as I take it as a badge of pride: I somehow conspired to make it through to the other side of the deck against Amulet Titan in a game. They had put 100% of their threats on the table at some point, searched out all 32 of their lands, resolved almost all of their Urza's Saga triggers, and I managed to slog through the whole mess the fair way in order to win the game. The matchup still feels terrible, but this one game win counted for a dozen matches' worth of triumph in my mind. Once upon a time, when the world was young and full of mystery, I had ground a mountain down to so much rubble.
In round 4 I won 2-0 against a Jeskai Ragavan player. This was a refreshingly straightforward matchup, where Mortarpod was its usual all-star self agaisnt the titular Pirate monkey. I sideboarded minimally, a Crucible for an Absence, and Wall of Omens did what it does best until sweepers showed up to clear the board. His Prismatic Ending and Teferi, Time Raveler proved much less impressive than mine, giving me a clear edge.
Round 5 was a 2-0 victory against Hammer Time, where I never felt much in the way of pressure in game 1. He had kept a hand of turn-2 double Hammer kill hinging on a turn-one Sigarda's Aid to enable Ornithopter and Memnite with two lands, which ended up weak to my turn-1 Prismatic Ending on the draw. The remainder of the game he was a little too slow to pressure me effectively. For game two, I removed my Crucible and an Emeria plus three Tef3ri to bring in Aura, Seal, Commando, Chalice, and Absence, and picked apart his early Inkmoth kill with a Solitude before mopping up with Disenchant effects and a Wrath.
In round 6 I defeated an Omnath/Yorion four-colour value pile 2-0 on the back of Field of Ruin supported eventually by Crucible of Worlds and Sun Titan, additionally led into by Tef3ri and Solitude both games. There are definitely very difficult draws to beat here, but the sheer pressure on their manabase from their own spells makes the matchup boil down to whether Ghost Quarter effects are relevant or not extremely early in the game. If they are value plus by turn five or so, I feel strong. If they are met by a Wrenn and Six or supported by an Omnath before then, things are much more difficult (though still likely competitive for many turns if Emeria can get active). One major anti-synergy was uncovered in this game, however, where a spate of Prismatic Endings on his side had exiled two of my Mortarpod. With these gone, my Emeria forced me to reanimate the Containment Priest that had earlier exiled an Eternal Witness being targeted by Ephemerate, which eventually turned my 2/2 into a weapon for him when he began using Fury to kill my Wall of Omens and Pilgrim's Eye. Emeria was then obligated to target these as the only creatures in my graveyard, essentially leading to backdoor exile-based removal for him off of my own card and progressively costing me more recursion targets as long as my Priest was still in play.
In round 7 I took a very unfortunate 0-2 loss against a Kaheera, the Orphanguard U/W Control player to knock me out of the top 8 (and, it later became apparent, out of prizes entirely). I say unfortunate because in game 1 the only creature I drew was a Solitude, which managed to kill TWO Teferi, Hero of Dominaria through his Supreme Verdicts, but when my Emeria, the Sky Ruin had been active for six turns and I had not found any additional pressure, he was never in any danger and I died a miserable death to his Hall of Storm Giants once he found a Solitude of his own to exile mine. His deck was very interesting, with a new manabase in which only one of his lands (a Triome) could NOT come in untapped to cast Counterspell on turn two if required, and splashing up to five colours with shocklands for his Prismatic Ending, plus extra red sources for several copies of Fire // Ice. Fortunately (or unfortunately in the case), I had showed him so little resistance in game one that he did not even bother sideboarding against Emeria for what he assumed was simply a singleton value card, and I had the opportunity for a much better showing in game two. Alas, I Mulliganed thrice for a total lack of mana for the second time of the day, and my resource-light hand was completely and easily undone by two pieces of countermagic. When his Hall began attacking while I was still on four lands, having drawn multiple Titans, the tournament ended for me with a whimper rather than a bang.
***The third tournament was then a 4-2-1 record for 33rd place out of 127. Based off of the awkward performance of Containment Priest, I switched it for a Glen Elendra Archmage in the fourth and final tournament. It had been meant as a foil to some of the faster Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Undying draws, but if I wanted to gain access to this effect in the future I would look to include Hallowed Moonlight in its place instead. Besides not enabling the disaster scenario of vacuum-cleaning my graveyard of creatures as of the point when Emeria begins putting its mandatory trigger on the stack, the Instant can also catch tokens, and is equipped with the most powerful three words in Magic.
With the previous day's tournament ultimately having been won by a copy of the following deck, I was overjoyed in round 1 to win a straightforward 2-1 against B/R Ragavan. The second game was a blowout victory when his Tourach, Dread Cantor (quite possibly the strongest card in the matchup) hit the sweeper which would have answered it, plus the basic Island to cast any other potential copies of said sweepers off the top, while being immune to the Wall of Omens in play and the Solitude in my hand. In game three, however, Introduction to Annihilation proved a valuable asset in that particular fight - especially with Tef3ri to hold the card up at Instant-speed. Minimal sideboarding here involved removing Engineered Explosives and Crucible of Worlds to put in two Soul-Guide Lantern as interaction for Delirium and recursion of all sorts which could also "store" extra cards in play.
Round 2 was another game against Amulet Titan which I lost 0-2. I made a mistake which might have cost me game one, electing to try to keep my Tef3ri around by killing a Titan and a Dryad of the Ilysian Grove with a sweeper on my turn to shut off Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, and he untapped to play a second and a third Amulet of Vigor to turn his newfound Simic Growth Chamber into Tolaria west plus the mana to transmute for a Summoners' Pact and cast the Titan he found off of it for the lethal 20-point swing. Had I simply allowed my Tef3ri to die by activating the plus, then passing into his dryad/Titan/Valakut board, I could have cast the Verdict in combat before attackers in order to cover all lethal threats that turn. Game two was much closer, with an army of Urza's Saga Constructs coming in and distracting my Solitude from his Dryad just in order to stay alive, which then allowed the Enchantment Creature to plink in the last 6 damage with a Bonceland and a Valakut. I had cut an Emeria, three Tef3ri, and a Pilgrim's Eye in order to bring in the Commando, the Seal, the Aura, the Absence and the Chalice. This matchup is a real headache against good pilots, leading me to begin wondering as of this round whether there might need to be more in the sideboard against it in the future.
Round 3 was a very satisfying 2-1 victory against Boros Burn, where I won both post-board games on the back of my day's oddball sideboard choice of Glen Elendra Archmage. Game 1 was a straightforward loss to a turn one Lava Spike followed by a series of different Bolts of many descriptions. With no creatures at all for me to block, even an Environmental Sciences could not keep me alive long enough to attack with a Solitude. Game two had my pair of Wall of Omens lock him under his own double Eidolon of the Great Revel after my Archmage attacked once and then had him take eight damage to deal me zero off of his Suspended Rift Bolt and follow-up Skewer the Critics, leaving him at three life and unable to rid himself of his board while I played lands towards Emeria. Game three the Archmage more literally traded its unpersisted half cleanly with an Eidolon and then protected my lifelinking Solitude plus Idyllic Grange attack from Skullcrack, Searing Blaze, or Deflecting Palm to lock up the match while my Chalice of the Void on 1 held back the rest of his plays.
Round 4 was a strong 2-1 victory against B/R Ragavan again, this time over the previous day's champion. His modification to add a second basic Swamp to his maindeck from the day before caught me off-balance, as I had tried to use information from his published decklist to keep him from casting Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger (and eventually Tourach) with a Ghost Quarter in game two. With the extra Basic, he secured a punishing Escape on the play, and since I was down a land I was then unable to cast my follow-up Solitude to stabilize before he forced me to discard it. Game three went much more according to plan, however, with sideboarding as above and no surprises to speak of - Wall of Omens and Tef3ri did the rest of the damage and an eventual Soul-guide Lantern prevented any chance at Lurrus of the Dream-Den or Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger in the midgame.
Round 5 was a brutal 1-2 loss to Mono-Green Tron, with some extra tragedy thrown in. I was run over by a quick Urza land connection in game 1 when I inexplicably played the wrong land (a Prairie Stream when I had assumed I already had two Basic Plains) to be able to [EDIT: CAST SOLITUDE TO] clean out the Karn Liberated that activated down loyalty to exile a blue source, leaving me wondering what might have happened after I secured the Crucible lock in game 2 on the play, and then lost an agonizingly imbalanced game 3 on the draw after a snap-keep on seven cards from my opponent, who had another turn 3 Karn. Having sideboarded out my four sweepers, an Emeria, and two Tef3ri to fit in the Chalice, the Aura, the Seal, the Commando, the Absence, the Shadowspear, and the Archmage, I had only one card in my deck to prevent turn 3 Tron on the draw, so due to my game 1 misplay I didn't feel more unlucky than usual until the extra salt in the wound when (after having effectively knocked me out of the top 8) my opponent heard a crunching sound as he picked up his bag to leave the table. Peering into the satchel, he asked me if I was missing any cards. A quick count revealed that I had indeed managed to drop the lone Ghost Quarter (my only out to prevent the Karn from the final game) off the side of the table for him to have just mangled when he shifted his chair to get up. Ghost Quarters are not so rare, however that one had been part of my playset from all the way back in Dissension, and I felt a deep wave of loss wash over me on holding its twisted husk in my hands. This was slightly mollified when a very kind bystander (Chris, he said his name was) handed me a Commander-series replacement for the obviously no longer tournament-legal wreck in front of me. If you ever read this; thank you, Chris!
Playing to hold on to my record for prizes, round 6 was unfortunately another concession after a probable 1-1-1 draw versus B/G Yawgmoth in the hands of a fellow Saskatooner. I thought it was fairly clear that I had played the better between the two of us, and asked him if he would concede, but his board was likely good enough to threaten his combo at least once more over the next few turns, so when he refused I conceded instead and wished him luck in the final round. I had taken out an Emeria, the Crucible, and an Explosives for the two Lanterns and the Absence. This matchup is very difficult to assess, and is highly draw-dependent, but the fact of having no way to prevent or control Yawgmoth's card draw through anything other than removal makes me very confident that the matchup is a bad one in the hands of a competent pilot - though Graveyard interaction plus a Sweeper does lead to the odd competitive game at times.
The final round was a 2-1 revenge win over the same Kaheera U/W from the previous day's Round 7, in the hands of a teammate of my final round's opponent from the day before playing 73 of this new 75. Game one was a back and forth affair that he managed to take down, and after removing my sweepers for the Archmage, the Absence, the Commando, and the Remorseful Cleric I had sideboarded in, I ended game two with those four cards plus the Engineered Explosives he had not seen in game 1 in my hand, and disciplined myself not to cast them as of turn six when I realized I was in a good enough position to beat him - in what ultimately became an extremely drawn-out win by decking on my part - by showing him only maindeck cards. This meant that game three was to be a romp as my Explosives destroyed his Spreading Seas, my Commando snuck in to pressure his life total before he untapped from an end-step Archmage's Charm, my Cleric removed his Memory Deluges for value, my Absence killed his tapout Teferi, Hero of Dominaria before he could represent mana for his Counterspell, and my Archmage caused him all sorts of problems. Vindication!
***My final result was therefore another 4-3 showing in 40th place or so, with a 4-2-1 unofficially once again. I would call this a highly consistent set of results, and am looking forward to continuing to play the deck. In the interim between now and the next large tournament worth going to, I will work on the sideboard (possibly by putting Damping Sphere and/or Void Mirror back in to fight the unfair "Big Mana" decks).
Overall, I felt that I had played middling-well in the majority of my games, had gotten a little more unlucky than usual (particularly in the last tournament), and had played against strong opposition, meaning that I am quite happy with my level of play throughout these events. My list has become sharper, and my comfort level with Solitude has increased, and my opinion of Professor of Symbology has continued to steadily improve. My manabase has become a tiny bit cleaner for Emeria as of the provisory inclusion of Idyllic Grange - which has not yet hurt me much and has therefore offered extra lines of play at very little cost (other than the reduction of numbers on Ghost Quarter) - and my maindeck options feel cohesive. My sideboard is still not quite right, I feel, but I have gotten a satisfying amount of coverage from 13 or so of its 15 current options, so I am very hopeful that I am on the road to finding a satisfying mix soon.
If anyone would like clarification on anything in this massive data-dump, please do not hesitate to ask!
Hey Stephane!
I won't be posting the small interactions in my games because I simply cannot remember everything the way that you do (and also because I'm on Martyr not Emeria, even if i do have 2 mainboard Emeria).
One thing that stuck out to me when we were speaking at the event, and that is now clarified for me, is that matchup with your containment priest exiling your creatures.
Emeria itself is a May trigger, so you declare a target, but don't have to return anything. Sounds to me like you were playing it as a Must!
All in all though, it was very impressive then, and still impressive now
Edit: I think i think in a more scattered sort of way... Also i really appreciated your wise words on the efficacy of a sideboard crucible of worlds
I feel very, very foolish right at this moment. You are, on closer inspection, absolutely correct - Emeria, the Sky Ruin contains a "may" in its text box. I have no earthly idea how I could have played so long with the card and never made the realization. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
In other news, feel free to share anything you can remember about your matchups, your feelings about the metagame, and any [EDIT: CARD INTERACTIONS] you are keen on at the moment - every bit of context from an Emeria-adjacent gameplan may help someone make a difficult decision in this relatively unknown strategy!
I am glad you thought I had played well, and I wish you the best of luck with your sideboarding in the future. It was a pleasure speaking with you.
You have my most sincere thanks for the highly unexpected RTFC refresher course,
Hello all. Lot's of great info in this thread, Thank you to all contributers!
I am playing a mono W list. Full disclosure, I am aware the UW version is superior. I enjoy the challenges that building mono colored decks bring. I am interested in building the most consistent and competitive W list possible. Here is my current list.
Some notes -
Typical Emeria game plan of block and hold on long enough to overwhelm with Emeria late game.
I run the full 4 of Emeria, I want to try and activate it every game. Ambitious Farmhand and Solemn Simulacrum are in the deck to ensure that happens. Also always a target for land destruction so it is nice to have multiples. I have not had major problems running 4.
Flickerwisp gets pinged easily these days but does work at getting rid of urza and rhino tokens, as well as tokens left behind from Skyclave Apparition. It still seems to be a valuable asset.
My main concern is, should I be playing Ranger-Captain instead of Solemn Simulacrum in the main board? It would free up side board slots, and 4 mana is a lot these days. I do appreciate the ramp and consistency of hitting landrops for Emeria that it brings, but again 4 mana is a lot.
Ranger-Captain provides card advantage and an out to situations mono W generally can't cope with. I like my current plan to side them in as needed, but I can't shake the feeling there is probably something better I could be doing in Solemn Simulacrum'slot.
Good luck on your mono-white build, the ease of turning on Emeria, the Sky Ruin is one big advantage to the shell, and I do think that you have done a good job compensating for the lack of Prismatic Ending by choosing to include the much more synergistic Skyclave Apparition and Path to Exile. If you are truly seeking "the most competitive and consistent Mono-W version, however, I do think that Solitude is an extraordinarily powerful effect to have access to. I had a bias against the card and its exile clause, but successive versions of my list progressively increased its presence from a trial singleton to its present full playset.
As an initial note, please do note the options available to you for showing cards/decklists in the icons in the gray area above where you type - they are a wonderful feature of this site, and greatly benefit discussions by providing context to refresh others who may have forgotten the card text or effects. I tend to use them more heavily than most as a courtesy to lurkers and casual drop-throughs, however it is common practice to at the very least upload the initial decklist you are working from in a viewable fashion so that people can efficiently take note of the details you are bringing to the table (so to speak).
Back to your decklist now, then: your mileage may vary, but I have found the following things to be generally true:
1) Multiple Sun Titan tend to run into each other much more than expected since our gameplan is mostly curve-based (as opposed to Combo, Aggro, or Ramp decks which can get away with redundant copies of what amount to disposable effects), and without any filtering or ways to use excess early copies to survive in some fashion, I would not recommend the full four unless you are very confident your early game is robust enough.
2) 4 Emeria, the Sky Ruin suffer from a similar dynamic (at least in the 60-card versions; more on which later), and also prevent each other from coming online some amount. you say that you have not had problems running your four copies (likely some of this is due to your solid Ghost Quarter count). I believe you, however since the goal is to have eight lands in play amounting to a full third of your total listed lands, you will of necessity have drawn at least seven extra cards from your natural draw steps before needing to "find" a copy unless you plan to accelerate the endgame by ramping (also dealt with in a subsequent point).
3) The Mono-White version of this deck is, however, in my opinion the best able to take advantage of the strongest Companion available to the colours in Yorion, Sky Nomad, and your sideboard configuration including many copies of a smaller range of effects is moreover in the ideal arrangement for the post-board troubles the 80-card lists find themselves in when it comes to finding the desired alternates. The "key" effects of the deck in Titan and Emeria can therefore be run as full playsets much more easily when his restriction is taken into account.
4) Strategically, without the cheaper symmetrical sweepers, not only does the matchup against Aggro become substantially more difficult to stabilize against with this strategy, but the total amount of possible recursion decreases significantly as well. Your specific list has no sacrifice outlets or creatures which put themselves in the graveyard, so your Titans and Emerias will be highly likely (or nearly certain, against some Combo or Control opponents) to have no relevant targets to return.
5) Solemn Simulacrum is a wonderful effect for the deck, and in my estimation one of the very few Ramp options available to us, however I have not found it to be an easy inclusion when slots become tight. I will take this as the opportunity to answer your final question by stating my belief that Ranger-Captain of Eos would be far more likely to matter in the specific list you posted, particularly given some of the reasons above.
That will be all for now, and I will wish you luck tinkering with your build until you have something new you would like to address, though if you I will point you to my efforts on page 76 to recommend a Mono-White shell (updated to include your Ambitious Farmhand, of course), and to combine it with something like the shell I tried out on page 81 of this thread.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on any of these fronts!
Thank you for the reply and insight, it is appreciated.I edited my original post, I didn't notice the formatting options at first.
Those are all great points, and I have been torn on the Sun Titan issue for sometime now. I like running 4 because most games, I want to play one turn 5 or 6 if possible. The first usually gets countered or exiled. Unholy Heat is prevalent as well. Running 3 to me feels like running 2 in practice. I definitely need to playtest more.
With all the removal this list runs, I normally live long enough to overload a Winds of Abandon to stabilize, but not always. I strayed away from the symmetrical 4 mana traditional sweepers because I found myself not wanting to off my Skyclave Apparition and leave my opponent up a token.
Recursion hasn't been as consistent as I would like, but the list usually gets there with blocking. It is a relatively creature heavy meta right now which helps. I do miss the symmetrical Wraths for this reason most of all.
I think you are correct in that Solitude needs to be in the list. I also agree that Yorion,Sky Nomad is probably the best direction for the strategy in Mono W. Playing an 80 card deck just irks me though, admittedly just personal bias. I have experimented with it in a Mono W shell running a Stoneforge Mystic package, I eventually moved on from it though. I will dust it off and give it another go, this is the feedback I was looking for thank you!
It hurts to part with Solemn Simulacrum, it really is sneaky powerful in a deck like this, but I am leaning on Ranger-Captain of Eos being more effective as well. I also think the extra side board slots are worth it.
I will continue to experiment and review the lists you mentioned, again I appreciate the feedback thank you!
You are most welcome, I hope the advice is of service.
Staying away from the 4-mana sweepers is a choice you can certainly make, I hope it works out well for you. My own aversion to giving value on the token from Skyclave Apparition has led me to cut it from my own lists in favour of enabling Wrath of God analogues, but I have had a very high opinion of 4-mana board control as a means to recoup lost tempo in the early game since as far back as Standard with this deck, so please do let me know how the opposite experiment works out for you in case this has been a significant blind spot for me. The overlap between Apparition and Prismatic Ending has been great enough that the latter is my removal of choice for noncreature permanents these days, but it is so far weaker in Mono-White as to be nearly out of the question for you, and at any rate the drawback of never hitting things such as Omnath, Locus of Creation and Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a real issue that has often needed to be dealt with alternatively via Lessons in my build.
On the recursion front, I know what you mean when you say you "get there on blocking", however I would additionally caution you that this makes cards such as Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void higher-impact as midgame plays against you, while more savvy opponents will avoid attacking into trades entirely before they can present lethal damage if they see you are setting up a Titan or Emeria. All this leads me to recommend extra ways to place permanents in your graveyard so that you are not cut off at the pass by the very players you are most likely to need to best in order to win tournaments (and I do acknowledge that adding Ranger-Captain of Eos does fulfill this function somewhat).
Sadly, the options in White and Colourless are a little limited by their past and current colour philosophies, even if that has gradually begun to encompass a little more utility for us in their more esoteric respective design spaces lately. Though there are often better things to do with it, Professor of Symbology can sometimes do the job with his Rummage mode on the Learn mechanic, but if you do end up playing Stoneforge Mystic (or if you wish to follow my admittedly unpopular lead on multiples of the card) Mortarpod has been an extraordinarily versatile tool for me and I will endorse it with all the anecdotal evidence you could ever want if it interests you. Otherwise, do your own research on what feels good to you, and try to explore new territory if you find something that seems to fit the bill - this thread lives and dies on such consensus as we can come to based off of what amounts to practical experimentation!
Having said this, I will let you digest things for a while; I have tried to cover a large amount in a very short space in these last two posts, but I am aware that adding too much will compromise your vision by making things too granular and bringing in too many of my biases. You should have plenty to go from already, so I will try to hold off on piling anything else on until you ask for more input, report new results, or post a new decklist here.
What should I look for to build as a sideboard? What tech is it missing? I'm getting the vibe I should be running Field of Ruin instead of Ghost Quarter?
Thanks in advance, I think I want to try a modern event with it soon.
hi, and welcome to the thread. Always nice to see a new person here.
would be helpful if you post your actual deck here, so people could more easily give suggestions.
anyway, I checked the link, and that article has a guide for fighting Splinter Twin.. that article is quite outdated. If you have time, please take a look at the primer at the first page of this thread. It's updated with info from Stephan and Starstorm - they are the posters in this thread who actively played this deck in tournaments last year. Their deck lists are included in the primer.
Hey all, just checkin in to see how everyone is doing. Hope the holidays treated you well, and that the new year isn't too harsh.
I thought it would be fun to do a little bit of brewing with some of the new Neon-Kamigawa cards. Specifically Touch the Spirit Realm (and to a lesser extent, March of Otherworldly light). My line of thinking for Touch being a worthy include was that Ephemerate was a strong card (but didn't necessarily synergize well with our deck, meaning mainly Emeria, the sky ruin and Sun Titan. Touch the Spirit Realm allows us to flicker (read: Uncounterable) our creatures in a similar manner to ephemerate, with the drawback of not immediately returning to the battlefield. If we target a Sun Titan with the channel ability, we can return the Touch the Spirit Realm to the battlefield upon returning, which was something I was excited to try.
I think I built it in haste, or at least I started with it with a clear head but as I got to the sideboard I just started throwing stuff in so I could start a Modern league
I ended up 3-2, but I think I have proven the concept. My matches were:
Against UW Urza affinity, Flickerwisp and Solitude really overperformed. I won G1 due to getting an early Kaldra into play, then racing a Thought Monitor with shadowspear on it. I mostly achieved this by Having Flickerwisp bounce Construct tokens, then used a Touch the spirit realm to recycle my flickerwisp, and then untapped with a sun titan bringing back the Touch, and then having emeria active to bring back an earlier solitude.
I brought in my 3 Fracturing Gust and 2 Path to exiles. I took out 4 spreading seas and a lion sash. Upon reflection I think I should have kept in my spreading seas in some number to tag floating Urza's Sagas.
G2 I lost to a double nettlecyst draw, where I had removal for one thought monitor with nettle on it, but not two. I actually Channeled a touch the spirit realm here to flicker a construct token with a Shadowspear equipped just to flat out remove the token.
In g3 I started with fracturing gust in hand, and so played a patient game until getting it off on t5, and slamming sun titan t6 to force a concession.
Against hardened scales, Flickerwisp, Solitude and prismatic ending overperformed. It seems that vs urza's saga, flickerwisp is pretty good. It can be a little awkward, as your opponent often gets a hit in with their construct before you get a chance to remove it with Fwisp, but its fairly clean (albeit not equal in card advantage to the Saga itself, it helps you claw back).
G1 was fairly easy, as my opponent had a large hangarback walker that I could just cleanly remove with Fwisp after I used a prismatic ending on their Ozolith.
I brought in the 3 fracturing gusts and 2 path to exiles, taking out 1 lion sash, 1 mortarpod, 1 stoneforge, 1 thraben inspector, and 1 pilgrim's eye. Just a little trimming.
G2 I Had fracturing gusts, so all i had to do was maneuver into a position where I could remove any hangarbacks before wiping the board. I was a little stuck on land, so I had to channel a few Touch the spirit realms on my singular Fwisp to keep bouncing their Urza's saga until their end step, or i would have been overrun. Eventually I got to 5 lands, and cast a Fracturing Gust, then untapped and played a yorion as a massive wall. A few turns later I had emeria active with a solitude in the graveyard and my opponent saw the writing on the wall.
Against Amulet Titan, I won g1 with a quick kaldra. I had turn 2 SFM, turn 3 prismatic ending an Amulet of Vigor + SFM activation, then t4 I had a flickerwisp to bounce my kaldra post-combat in order to defend well against a Primeval titan. My opponent scooped it up a little early here, I think, as they were at 10 life so had two turns left, but they had to pay for a summoner's pact and it wasn't looking great for them.
I brought in 2 path to exile, 1 fracturing gust, and took out 1 pilgrim's eye, 1 lion sash, 1 mortarpod.
Game 2, my opponent managed get into a good position where they had 2 Dryads, and got a bunch of lands into play with a Cultivator Colossus. I had a solitude for one dryad (to turn off valakut triggers), but because they had 2 I lost to valakut and a hasty colossus.
In game 3, My opponent started with 2 amulet of vigors and a dryad. I prismatic ending'd one Amulet and put kaldra into play off a t2 SFM. They made 7 mana and cast a Turntimber Symbiosis, finding another Dryad. I took this to mean that they didn't have a primeval titan or another payoff, so instead of prismatic ending the remaining amulet I played a Teferi and bounced one of the dryads, Leaving them with a valakut, a forest, a dryad, and an amulet in play (with a bounceland in hand).
They topdecked a primeval titan with exact mana to cast it, gave it haste and got valakut active and took me down in one turn (using Hanweir battlements as their haste enabler of choice).
Match 4 against RUG Glimpse of Tomorrow was basically a coin toss, as I knew that my only out was teferi (I really didn't build the deck with combo in mind).
Game 1, I landed the turn 3 teferi while on the play, then protected it while I closed the game with various creatures. Their deck was built in a way that I saw Omniscience and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker? Very scary.
I didn't bring anything in.
Game 2 I had the turn 3 teferi, but they had the mystical dispute and then untapped to cascade, hitting 2 Nicol Bolas and an Omniscience.
Game 3 I had the turn 3 teferi, but they had a dispute. They cascaded on the next turn but hit 3 lands. I think my only chance here was them missing. I eventually played another teferi that they couldn't answer and that was pretty much it.
VS Burn.
In g1 I had batterskull fairly early, as they didn't kill my turn 2 SFM. They had a skullcrack for the first combat but no pressure to back it up.
I brought in my 3 auriok champions and cut 1 teferi, 1 mortarpod, 1 pilgrim's eye.
In g2 I kept a fair hand but was horribly stuck on land, and couldn't really get out from under a Roil enchantment right away, and after getting a batterskull token pathed, I lost to a lethal spell off the top.
In g3 I kept a very loose hand of Teferi, batterskull, Solitude, and 4 lands, and just lost before I could do anything. I needed more discipline there, definitely.
In summary, I think that there is a lot of untapped strength in Touch the Spirit Realm. I will continue to test it, but I was thinking I could ask for a few tips to iron out the decklist before moving forward. I know that in the past Stephane had said that Flickerwisp was pretty terrible, and in general I would agree, but I think that with all the large construct tokens floating around it definitely has more potential to be unlocked.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on the list, or manabase, and especially sideboard, and i'll update and do more testing.
Cheers!
Brad
*EDIT*
I played two more leagues with this list and felt generally outclassed back to the drawing board!
Happy to see Emeria putting up some results on Modo (Yorion version no less). It's appeared a couple times on the League 5-0 dumps and even two 11th places in the Challenge which is super impressive. I've been playing more meta decks recently but some of the key takeaways I'm seeing are:
1. Addition of ephemerate and Esper Sentinel
2. Cutting lands down to 29-30
3. 0 path, 0 prismatic ending in lieu of 4 March of otherwordly light
4. A lot of white fetches in the mana base
5. Return of flickerwisp
2 Ephemerate
3 Fateful Absence
Sorcery 8
4 Devastating Mastery
4 Prismatic Ending
Creatures 34
2 Deputy of Detention
2 Soulherder
4 Solitude
3 Mulldrifter
4 Watcher for Tomorrow
3 Professor of symbology
4 Ambitious Farmhand
4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Niambi, Esteemed Speaker
2 Angel of Invention
2 Sun Titan
2 Idyllic Grange
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Raugrin Triome
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Field of Ruin
7 Plains
1 Island
4 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
2 Environmental sciences
1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist
1 Containment Priest
1 Drannith Magistrate
1 Embereth Shieldbreaker
1 Dawnbringer Cleric
1 Hushbringer
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Remorseful Cleric
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
1 Sanctifier en-Vec
I will not go deep into analysis for that list, I'll just mention two important things in my opinion : every creatures attacks & 95% of my lands are plains or conduct to a plain
because postimages image hosting site went down, the pics on the primer disappeared. Have now re-uploaded most of them.
banner, history, card choices, match-ups, and tournament reports are restored.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
But i try timeless dragon at the moment and i'm quite satisfied by the result
I try angel of invention too
- Brad
What follows will be quite an extensive post on four Face to Face events on two separate weekends, and I hope that the effort can prompt you to share your own experiences - I saw you in some fairly epic matches yourself; congratulations on your final win against the Jund Sagavan player!
When it comes to my own results, I will begin by saying that I was quite pleased with my progress in light of these 100-plus attendance number tournaments, and I am confident that my version of Emeria is still a viable choice at the moment. I had two win-and-ins for top 8 out of four seven-round Swiss events, and I did not post a negative record in any of these. My personal play was relatively consistent, and my time trouble issues have diminished slightly, so I feel that if I can continue facing strong opposition in larger tournaments I will be able to tighten up considerably. On to the breakdowns, then!
In the first tournament, I played the following list:
7 Plains
4 Flooded strand
4 Field of Ruin
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Island
1 Raugrin Triome
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Prismatic Ending
4 Wall of Omens
4 Professor of Symbology
3 Mortarpod
4 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Stonecloaker
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Solitude
3 Sun Titan
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Drannith Magistrate
1 Dawnbringer Cleric
1 Fateful Absence
1 Cathar Commando
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Aura of Silence
2 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Blossoming Calm
1 Environmental Sciences
2 Reduce to Memory
1 Introduction to Annihilation
I was trying out a configuration with 4 Solitude for the first time, and though my Sun Titans have suffered as a result, the Elemental has been useful enough that I have reluctantly cut the final copies of Path to Exile from my deck for the set. Their inclusion also provided additional impetus to reduce my non-White spell count, leading to both the second sideboard copy of Reduce to Memory, and the loss of Court Hussar. The first of these ended up being less relevant than the second, and while I was able to regain a sideboard slot later on I am still sorely missing the selection of the 1/3's ETB ability in post-board games. With that said, on to the results:
Round 1 lost 1-2 to Hammer Time, where I was paired against an excellent player who went on to make the top 4, and the matchup still felt extremely competitive. I take this as a very good sign, and in terms of strategy I would say that outside of their pure aggression giving them free wins, the matchup boils down to, essentially, whether Field of Ruin can efficiently deal with Urza's Saga. Hushbringer is sometimes a real punisher as well, so be aware of sequencing around it, but Sweepers give a very good shot at clearing it up profitably unless its tempo edge is turned into a tellingly awkward sequence on our end. In sideboarding, I had removed an Emeria, a Crucible, two Tef3ri, and a Stonecloaker for the Aura, the Seal, the Cathar, the Absence, and the Chalice.
Round 2 I lost 0-2 to Eldrazi Tron. This was an unfortunate immediate second loss which I was never able to gain traction in. I lost the die roll and was trounced by Karn, the Great Creator grabbing Liquimetal Coating, then Mulligans left me unable to stall his Thought-Knot Seer into double Reality Smasher draw long enough to get anything online. In the doomed second game, I had removed the Stonecloaker, a Tef3ri, and an Emeria to put in the Absence, the Commando, and the Aura.
Round 3 I won 2-0 against Grixis Shadow to keep me alive for prizing on a 5-2 record. The maindeck Stonecloaker was a huge asset here in shutting off both Delirium and Recursion for Kroxa and Lurrus plus Kolaghan's Command, and though it has since been removed I would not be averse to running it again. The games were tense and complex, with many details mattering on both sides, though I would say that Dress Down is the most important card in the matchup, and would advise mainphasing Solitude whenever possible to avoid blowouts. Otherwise, the matchup is quite straightforward, and the Crucible plus an Explosives and a Verdict made way for two Soul-Guide Lantern and a Chalice of the Void.
For Round 4 I won 2-0 against Jund. Stonecloaker came up again quite tellingly against Wrenn and Six as well as Dragon's Rage Channeler in game 1, and made him unable to Escape Kroxa for a comfortable win. In game two, however, I still removed the Stonecloaker, the Explosives, and the Crucible to play to the board better against discard effects and K-Command by bringing in Fateful Absence plus two Lantern.
In Round 5 I got my revenge with a 2-0 victory against another Eldrazi Tron player. His draws were the more typical half-and-half games this strategy tends to offer, and the defensive focus of Emeria paid off when I could ignore his Chalices to set up Lessons with Professor of Symbology. Game 2 was closer, but Crucible plus Field of Ruin had me nearly bulletproof by turn six or so, with my sideboard strategy being the same as above.
In round 6 I bested a Titania/Zuran Orb combo deck 2-1. The maindeck Engineered Explosives (a hedge against Crashing Footfalls on the weekend) was instrumental in stopping lethal damage on multiple occasions, and also dealt with his Orb to prevent future combos. In sideboarding, I removed my Crucible, the Stonecloaker, and an Emeria to make the space for two Lantern and a Fateful Absence as more efficient answers to Wrenn and Six and Titania, Protector of Argoth.
In round 7, I conceded to Amulet Titan rather than knock us both out of prizes since time was called for what would have been a 1-1-0 draw as we were shuffling up for game 3. This felt like a very difficult matchup in any event, and I am much less comfortable against the present versions of the deck - the current evolutions mean that they have come around to being very bad pairings once again. For the record, my sideboarding was as follows: removing the Stonecloaker, a Tef3ri, an Emeria, and two Verdict gave me the space to bring in the Absence, the Chalice, the Commando, the Aura, and the Seal, though I am quite hesitant to say if this is correct. There is a great deal of tension in dealing with "wide" Construct boardstates versus Karn openers and Titan combos at this time.
***I therefore went 4-3, with a 4-2-1 unofficial result. For the second tournament, I swapped the extra sideboard Reduce to Memory that had not seemed necessary for an ultimately non-factor Tormod's Crypt as an extra hedge versus several graveyard decks and Living End strategies I had seen. The resulting Solitude plays were still consistent enough without the extra "Professor tutoring a replacement white spell" line that I have now returned to this minimal 3-Lesson package.
In round 1 I lost 1-2 against a very strong Omnath Taking Turns opponent (who eventually fell short on a win-and in for the top 8 himself), where I again had excellent results with the maindeck Stonecloaker to best his active Wrenn and Six and Time Warp or Ephemerate loops with Eternal Witness. Unfortunately, he drew a fourth and final copy of Misty Rainforest on a critical turn in game 3 to make enough mana to push a freshly-cast Omnath, Locus of Creation to combo off, and was able to take the match. I had removed an Emeria, an Explosives, and a Verdict for two Lanterns and the Absence.
In round 2 I defeated a throwback Lantern Control player 2-0. This matchup, a very fun one in years gone by, has now become highly favourable with the new flexibility of Professor of Symbology. Post-board, I removed my three Verdicts to bring in the Aura, the Seal, and the Commando.
Round 3 was another 2-0 victory against Orzhov Smallpox. This was quite close in game 1, but Prismatic Ending eventually exiled all of his 3-mana Planeswalker threats. Game two was an absolute nailbiter, where I had recycled my early Blossoming Calm with Mistveil Plains and was furiously shuffling, thinning, and drawing cards with Wall of Omens and Teferi, Time Raveler in order to find it again as his Kaya, Orzhov Usurper resolved and began to exile enough cards to set up a lethal ultimate ability. I was luckily able to find it in time, and its resolution left me easily able to clean up once his graveyard control was mopped up by a Shadowspear on a Cathar Commando through his Lingering Souls tokens as blockers. I had removed my Verdicts and the Explosives for the Calm, the Spear, a Remorseful Cleric, and the Commando. As a note, it is in these kinds of situations that I miss Court Hussar selection the most: this sequence was very much a gamble to rely on off of cantrips alone, whereas with a recurrable Anticipate body as card selection peeling past undesireable cards the chances of re-drawing a singleton become much higher as the game develops.
In round 4 I lost 0-2 to Boros Burn, both being very tight games. I am not certain if the matchup is currently bad enough for Lone Missionary to come back into the mix, but I definitely would have appreciated it here. As it was in the match, I drew no sideboard cards, and my lifegain was limited to an Environmental Sciences in game one that only gained me a solitary point of life overall since I had led on a turn-one fetchland. My game-winning Solitude on end-step to remove his Eidolon and attack in game two was met by a Skullcrack, and that was that. I had removed my Verdicts, the Crucible, the Explosives, a Tef3ri and an Emeria to bring in the Calm, the Shadowspear, the Chalice, an Absence, the Remorseful Cleric, the Commando, and the Magistrate (though I now believe I may have been mistaken to trim on Teferi).
Playing for prizes once again, I then won round 5 2-0 against a Kuldotha Rebirth/Goblin Bushwhacker Boros Blitz deck. Game one was the best magic I played that day, sequencing and blocking to trade with minute care against his explosive on-the-play start of Rebirth into Devastating Summons with a follow-up Venerated Loxodon, and putting myself to 1 on life support thanks to an Environmental Sciences in order to draw my 1-outer Explosives to clear a meticulously crafted board of Tokens and Memnites only on his side. I managed to dodge the follow-up haste threats, and resolved a Solitude to stabilize and win. For game two, I removed an Emeria, a Crucible, and the Stonecloaker for my Chalice, the Shadowspear, and the Magistrate, the first of which which was enough to take the win when it resolved with 1 counter after an early flurry of trades culminating in a sweeper.
In round 6 I defeated a Mono-Red Prison opponent 2-1 in an epic match that mostly revolved around Professor of Symbology on my side. His Ramunap Ruins often being a strategic concern for stabilizing around Goblin Rabblemaster and Seasoned Pyromancer, I mostly elected not to remove his Blood Moon effects with Prismatic Ending, and even chose to Fateful Absence my own Sun Titan after blockers were declared in order not to remove his chump-blocking Magus of the Moon, following up with another similar attack on the next turn for the match win in game 3. I had removed my Verdicts and Explosives plus two Tef3ri for a Commando, a Cleric, a Magistrate, a Shadowspear, a Seal, and an Aura.
In round 7 I defeated a Hammer Time opponent 2-0 to lock up prizes, after a few scary moments in both games where I had to interact with early combo multiple times in each. Ultimately, a resolved Chalice on 1 locked up the final boardstate in my favour. I had removed an Emeria, a Stonecloaker, and a Crucible plus two Tef3ri for the Chalice, the Absence, the Commando, the Seal, and the Aura.
***This second tournament thus ended with a clean 5-2 and a 17th place finish. In tournament #3, I ran the same list, however with the second Ghost Quarter replaced by an Idyllic Grange for added versatility - thank you for the reminder, Toshenko - and the maindeck Stonecloaker removed to run Wrath of God again. The sideboard lost the unimpressive Crypt and fit in a Containment Priest in its place.
In round 1 I won 2-1 against Lantern Control once again, this time after dropping game one to Discard clearing the way for the lethal Karn, the Great Creator/Liquimetal Coating combo. Sideboarding was similar to the previous tournament, removing sweepers to bring in pressure and utility on recursion-ready permanents.
In round 2 I lost 0-2 to a Mardu Lurrus/Unearth deck which caught me for exact lethal the turn before I was to turn the corner with Solitude both games. My game one hand on the draw proved weak to his Tourach, Dread Cantor after a Mulligan. I then removed my Crucible and an Explosives for two copies of the excellent Soul-Guide Lantern, and felt strong in my plays, only losing to a Bolt after having stabilised the board and activated Emeria following am extremely rare triple Mulligan on the play, so I believe my continued confidence in the matchup is well warranted.
In round 3 I drew 1-1-1 in turns against an Amulet Titan player as we were both still live for top 8 following an epic 45-minute game two in which his final Primeval Titan only searched up a single land on ETB. I wish to dwell on this for a moment, as I take it as a badge of pride: I somehow conspired to make it through to the other side of the deck against Amulet Titan in a game. They had put 100% of their threats on the table at some point, searched out all 32 of their lands, resolved almost all of their Urza's Saga triggers, and I managed to slog through the whole mess the fair way in order to win the game. The matchup still feels terrible, but this one game win counted for a dozen matches' worth of triumph in my mind. Once upon a time, when the world was young and full of mystery, I had ground a mountain down to so much rubble.
In round 4 I won 2-0 against a Jeskai Ragavan player. This was a refreshingly straightforward matchup, where Mortarpod was its usual all-star self agaisnt the titular Pirate monkey. I sideboarded minimally, a Crucible for an Absence, and Wall of Omens did what it does best until sweepers showed up to clear the board. His Prismatic Ending and Teferi, Time Raveler proved much less impressive than mine, giving me a clear edge.
Round 5 was a 2-0 victory against Hammer Time, where I never felt much in the way of pressure in game 1. He had kept a hand of turn-2 double Hammer kill hinging on a turn-one Sigarda's Aid to enable Ornithopter and Memnite with two lands, which ended up weak to my turn-1 Prismatic Ending on the draw. The remainder of the game he was a little too slow to pressure me effectively. For game two, I removed my Crucible and an Emeria plus three Tef3ri to bring in Aura, Seal, Commando, Chalice, and Absence, and picked apart his early Inkmoth kill with a Solitude before mopping up with Disenchant effects and a Wrath.
In round 6 I defeated an Omnath/Yorion four-colour value pile 2-0 on the back of Field of Ruin supported eventually by Crucible of Worlds and Sun Titan, additionally led into by Tef3ri and Solitude both games. There are definitely very difficult draws to beat here, but the sheer pressure on their manabase from their own spells makes the matchup boil down to whether Ghost Quarter effects are relevant or not extremely early in the game. If they are value plus by turn five or so, I feel strong. If they are met by a Wrenn and Six or supported by an Omnath before then, things are much more difficult (though still likely competitive for many turns if Emeria can get active). One major anti-synergy was uncovered in this game, however, where a spate of Prismatic Endings on his side had exiled two of my Mortarpod. With these gone, my Emeria forced me to reanimate the Containment Priest that had earlier exiled an Eternal Witness being targeted by Ephemerate, which eventually turned my 2/2 into a weapon for him when he began using Fury to kill my Wall of Omens and Pilgrim's Eye. Emeria was then obligated to target these as the only creatures in my graveyard, essentially leading to backdoor exile-based removal for him off of my own card and progressively costing me more recursion targets as long as my Priest was still in play.
In round 7 I took a very unfortunate 0-2 loss against a Kaheera, the Orphanguard U/W Control player to knock me out of the top 8 (and, it later became apparent, out of prizes entirely). I say unfortunate because in game 1 the only creature I drew was a Solitude, which managed to kill TWO Teferi, Hero of Dominaria through his Supreme Verdicts, but when my Emeria, the Sky Ruin had been active for six turns and I had not found any additional pressure, he was never in any danger and I died a miserable death to his Hall of Storm Giants once he found a Solitude of his own to exile mine. His deck was very interesting, with a new manabase in which only one of his lands (a Triome) could NOT come in untapped to cast Counterspell on turn two if required, and splashing up to five colours with shocklands for his Prismatic Ending, plus extra red sources for several copies of Fire // Ice. Fortunately (or unfortunately in the case), I had showed him so little resistance in game one that he did not even bother sideboarding against Emeria for what he assumed was simply a singleton value card, and I had the opportunity for a much better showing in game two. Alas, I Mulliganed thrice for a total lack of mana for the second time of the day, and my resource-light hand was completely and easily undone by two pieces of countermagic. When his Hall began attacking while I was still on four lands, having drawn multiple Titans, the tournament ended for me with a whimper rather than a bang.
***The third tournament was then a 4-2-1 record for 33rd place out of 127. Based off of the awkward performance of Containment Priest, I switched it for a Glen Elendra Archmage in the fourth and final tournament. It had been meant as a foil to some of the faster Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Undying draws, but if I wanted to gain access to this effect in the future I would look to include Hallowed Moonlight in its place instead. Besides not enabling the disaster scenario of vacuum-cleaning my graveyard of creatures as of the point when Emeria begins putting its mandatory trigger on the stack, the Instant can also catch tokens, and is equipped with the most powerful three words in Magic.
With the previous day's tournament ultimately having been won by a copy of the following deck, I was overjoyed in round 1 to win a straightforward 2-1 against B/R Ragavan. The second game was a blowout victory when his Tourach, Dread Cantor (quite possibly the strongest card in the matchup) hit the sweeper which would have answered it, plus the basic Island to cast any other potential copies of said sweepers off the top, while being immune to the Wall of Omens in play and the Solitude in my hand. In game three, however, Introduction to Annihilation proved a valuable asset in that particular fight - especially with Tef3ri to hold the card up at Instant-speed. Minimal sideboarding here involved removing Engineered Explosives and Crucible of Worlds to put in two Soul-Guide Lantern as interaction for Delirium and recursion of all sorts which could also "store" extra cards in play.
Round 2 was another game against Amulet Titan which I lost 0-2. I made a mistake which might have cost me game one, electing to try to keep my Tef3ri around by killing a Titan and a Dryad of the Ilysian Grove with a sweeper on my turn to shut off Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, and he untapped to play a second and a third Amulet of Vigor to turn his newfound Simic Growth Chamber into Tolaria west plus the mana to transmute for a Summoners' Pact and cast the Titan he found off of it for the lethal 20-point swing. Had I simply allowed my Tef3ri to die by activating the plus, then passing into his dryad/Titan/Valakut board, I could have cast the Verdict in combat before attackers in order to cover all lethal threats that turn. Game two was much closer, with an army of Urza's Saga Constructs coming in and distracting my Solitude from his Dryad just in order to stay alive, which then allowed the Enchantment Creature to plink in the last 6 damage with a Bonceland and a Valakut. I had cut an Emeria, three Tef3ri, and a Pilgrim's Eye in order to bring in the Commando, the Seal, the Aura, the Absence and the Chalice. This matchup is a real headache against good pilots, leading me to begin wondering as of this round whether there might need to be more in the sideboard against it in the future.
Round 3 was a very satisfying 2-1 victory against Boros Burn, where I won both post-board games on the back of my day's oddball sideboard choice of Glen Elendra Archmage. Game 1 was a straightforward loss to a turn one Lava Spike followed by a series of different Bolts of many descriptions. With no creatures at all for me to block, even an Environmental Sciences could not keep me alive long enough to attack with a Solitude. Game two had my pair of Wall of Omens lock him under his own double Eidolon of the Great Revel after my Archmage attacked once and then had him take eight damage to deal me zero off of his Suspended Rift Bolt and follow-up Skewer the Critics, leaving him at three life and unable to rid himself of his board while I played lands towards Emeria. Game three the Archmage more literally traded its unpersisted half cleanly with an Eidolon and then protected my lifelinking Solitude plus Idyllic Grange attack from Skullcrack, Searing Blaze, or Deflecting Palm to lock up the match while my Chalice of the Void on 1 held back the rest of his plays.
Round 4 was a strong 2-1 victory against B/R Ragavan again, this time over the previous day's champion. His modification to add a second basic Swamp to his maindeck from the day before caught me off-balance, as I had tried to use information from his published decklist to keep him from casting Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger (and eventually Tourach) with a Ghost Quarter in game two. With the extra Basic, he secured a punishing Escape on the play, and since I was down a land I was then unable to cast my follow-up Solitude to stabilize before he forced me to discard it. Game three went much more according to plan, however, with sideboarding as above and no surprises to speak of - Wall of Omens and Tef3ri did the rest of the damage and an eventual Soul-guide Lantern prevented any chance at Lurrus of the Dream-Den or Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger in the midgame.
Round 5 was a brutal 1-2 loss to Mono-Green Tron, with some extra tragedy thrown in. I was run over by a quick Urza land connection in game 1 when I inexplicably played the wrong land (a Prairie Stream when I had assumed I already had two Basic Plains) to be able to [EDIT: CAST SOLITUDE TO] clean out the Karn Liberated that activated down loyalty to exile a blue source, leaving me wondering what might have happened after I secured the Crucible lock in game 2 on the play, and then lost an agonizingly imbalanced game 3 on the draw after a snap-keep on seven cards from my opponent, who had another turn 3 Karn. Having sideboarded out my four sweepers, an Emeria, and two Tef3ri to fit in the Chalice, the Aura, the Seal, the Commando, the Absence, the Shadowspear, and the Archmage, I had only one card in my deck to prevent turn 3 Tron on the draw, so due to my game 1 misplay I didn't feel more unlucky than usual until the extra salt in the wound when (after having effectively knocked me out of the top 8) my opponent heard a crunching sound as he picked up his bag to leave the table. Peering into the satchel, he asked me if I was missing any cards. A quick count revealed that I had indeed managed to drop the lone Ghost Quarter (my only out to prevent the Karn from the final game) off the side of the table for him to have just mangled when he shifted his chair to get up. Ghost Quarters are not so rare, however that one had been part of my playset from all the way back in Dissension, and I felt a deep wave of loss wash over me on holding its twisted husk in my hands. This was slightly mollified when a very kind bystander (Chris, he said his name was) handed me a Commander-series replacement for the obviously no longer tournament-legal wreck in front of me. If you ever read this; thank you, Chris!
Playing to hold on to my record for prizes, round 6 was unfortunately another concession after a probable 1-1-1 draw versus B/G Yawgmoth in the hands of a fellow Saskatooner. I thought it was fairly clear that I had played the better between the two of us, and asked him if he would concede, but his board was likely good enough to threaten his combo at least once more over the next few turns, so when he refused I conceded instead and wished him luck in the final round. I had taken out an Emeria, the Crucible, and an Explosives for the two Lanterns and the Absence. This matchup is very difficult to assess, and is highly draw-dependent, but the fact of having no way to prevent or control Yawgmoth's card draw through anything other than removal makes me very confident that the matchup is a bad one in the hands of a competent pilot - though Graveyard interaction plus a Sweeper does lead to the odd competitive game at times.
The final round was a 2-1 revenge win over the same Kaheera U/W from the previous day's Round 7, in the hands of a teammate of my final round's opponent from the day before playing 73 of this new 75. Game one was a back and forth affair that he managed to take down, and after removing my sweepers for the Archmage, the Absence, the Commando, and the Remorseful Cleric I had sideboarded in, I ended game two with those four cards plus the Engineered Explosives he had not seen in game 1 in my hand, and disciplined myself not to cast them as of turn six when I realized I was in a good enough position to beat him - in what ultimately became an extremely drawn-out win by decking on my part - by showing him only maindeck cards. This meant that game three was to be a romp as my Explosives destroyed his Spreading Seas, my Commando snuck in to pressure his life total before he untapped from an end-step Archmage's Charm, my Cleric removed his Memory Deluges for value, my Absence killed his tapout Teferi, Hero of Dominaria before he could represent mana for his Counterspell, and my Archmage caused him all sorts of problems. Vindication!
***My final result was therefore another 4-3 showing in 40th place or so, with a 4-2-1 unofficially once again. I would call this a highly consistent set of results, and am looking forward to continuing to play the deck. In the interim between now and the next large tournament worth going to, I will work on the sideboard (possibly by putting Damping Sphere and/or Void Mirror back in to fight the unfair "Big Mana" decks).
Overall, I felt that I had played middling-well in the majority of my games, had gotten a little more unlucky than usual (particularly in the last tournament), and had played against strong opposition, meaning that I am quite happy with my level of play throughout these events. My list has become sharper, and my comfort level with Solitude has increased, and my opinion of Professor of Symbology has continued to steadily improve. My manabase has become a tiny bit cleaner for Emeria as of the provisory inclusion of Idyllic Grange - which has not yet hurt me much and has therefore offered extra lines of play at very little cost (other than the reduction of numbers on Ghost Quarter) - and my maindeck options feel cohesive. My sideboard is still not quite right, I feel, but I have gotten a satisfying amount of coverage from 13 or so of its 15 current options, so I am very hopeful that I am on the road to finding a satisfying mix soon.
If anyone would like clarification on anything in this massive data-dump, please do not hesitate to ask!
Hoping this finds you all well,
-Stéphane Gérard
I won't be posting the small interactions in my games because I simply cannot remember everything the way that you do (and also because I'm on Martyr not Emeria, even if i do have 2 mainboard Emeria).
One thing that stuck out to me when we were speaking at the event, and that is now clarified for me, is that matchup with your containment priest exiling your creatures.
Emeria itself is a May trigger, so you declare a target, but don't have to return anything. Sounds to me like you were playing it as a Must!
All in all though, it was very impressive then, and still impressive now
Edit: I think i think in a more scattered sort of way... Also i really appreciated your wise words on the efficacy of a sideboard crucible of worlds
I feel very, very foolish right at this moment. You are, on closer inspection, absolutely correct - Emeria, the Sky Ruin contains a "may" in its text box. I have no earthly idea how I could have played so long with the card and never made the realization. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
In other news, feel free to share anything you can remember about your matchups, your feelings about the metagame, and any [EDIT: CARD INTERACTIONS] you are keen on at the moment - every bit of context from an Emeria-adjacent gameplan may help someone make a difficult decision in this relatively unknown strategy!
I am glad you thought I had played well, and I wish you the best of luck with your sideboarding in the future. It was a pleasure speaking with you.
You have my most sincere thanks for the highly unexpected RTFC refresher course,
-Stéphane Gérard
I am playing a mono W list. Full disclosure, I am aware the UW version is superior. I enjoy the challenges that building mono colored decks bring. I am interested in building the most consistent and competitive W list possible. Here is my current list.
4 Flickerwisp
4 Skyclave Apparition
4 Sun Titan
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Wall of Omens
4 Winds of Abandon
4 Path to Exile
4 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Field of Ruin
2 Ghost Quarter
14 Plains
3 Ranger-Captain of Eos
3 Heliod's Intervention
3 Soul-Guide Lantern
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Drannith Magistrate
Some notes -
Typical Emeria game plan of block and hold on long enough to overwhelm with Emeria late game.
I run the full 4 of Emeria, I want to try and activate it every game. Ambitious Farmhand and Solemn Simulacrum are in the deck to ensure that happens. Also always a target for land destruction so it is nice to have multiples. I have not had major problems running 4.
Flickerwisp gets pinged easily these days but does work at getting rid of urza and rhino tokens, as well as tokens left behind from Skyclave Apparition. It still seems to be a valuable asset.
My main concern is, should I be playing Ranger-Captain instead of Solemn Simulacrum in the main board? It would free up side board slots, and 4 mana is a lot these days. I do appreciate the ramp and consistency of hitting landrops for Emeria that it brings, but again 4 mana is a lot.
Ranger-Captain provides card advantage and an out to situations mono W generally can't cope with. I like my current plan to side them in as needed, but I can't shake the feeling there is probably something better I could be doing in Solemn Simulacrum'slot.
Any feedback is appreciated!
Good luck on your mono-white build, the ease of turning on Emeria, the Sky Ruin is one big advantage to the shell, and I do think that you have done a good job compensating for the lack of Prismatic Ending by choosing to include the much more synergistic Skyclave Apparition and Path to Exile. If you are truly seeking "the most competitive and consistent Mono-W version, however, I do think that Solitude is an extraordinarily powerful effect to have access to. I had a bias against the card and its exile clause, but successive versions of my list progressively increased its presence from a trial singleton to its present full playset.
As an initial note, please do note the options available to you for showing cards/decklists in the icons in the gray area above where you type - they are a wonderful feature of this site, and greatly benefit discussions by providing context to refresh others who may have forgotten the card text or effects. I tend to use them more heavily than most as a courtesy to lurkers and casual drop-throughs, however it is common practice to at the very least upload the initial decklist you are working from in a viewable fashion so that people can efficiently take note of the details you are bringing to the table (so to speak).
Back to your decklist now, then: your mileage may vary, but I have found the following things to be generally true:
1) Multiple Sun Titan tend to run into each other much more than expected since our gameplan is mostly curve-based (as opposed to Combo, Aggro, or Ramp decks which can get away with redundant copies of what amount to disposable effects), and without any filtering or ways to use excess early copies to survive in some fashion, I would not recommend the full four unless you are very confident your early game is robust enough.
2) 4 Emeria, the Sky Ruin suffer from a similar dynamic (at least in the 60-card versions; more on which later), and also prevent each other from coming online some amount. you say that you have not had problems running your four copies (likely some of this is due to your solid Ghost Quarter count). I believe you, however since the goal is to have eight lands in play amounting to a full third of your total listed lands, you will of necessity have drawn at least seven extra cards from your natural draw steps before needing to "find" a copy unless you plan to accelerate the endgame by ramping (also dealt with in a subsequent point).
3) The Mono-White version of this deck is, however, in my opinion the best able to take advantage of the strongest Companion available to the colours in Yorion, Sky Nomad, and your sideboard configuration including many copies of a smaller range of effects is moreover in the ideal arrangement for the post-board troubles the 80-card lists find themselves in when it comes to finding the desired alternates. The "key" effects of the deck in Titan and Emeria can therefore be run as full playsets much more easily when his restriction is taken into account.
4) Strategically, without the cheaper symmetrical sweepers, not only does the matchup against Aggro become substantially more difficult to stabilize against with this strategy, but the total amount of possible recursion decreases significantly as well. Your specific list has no sacrifice outlets or creatures which put themselves in the graveyard, so your Titans and Emerias will be highly likely (or nearly certain, against some Combo or Control opponents) to have no relevant targets to return.
5) Solemn Simulacrum is a wonderful effect for the deck, and in my estimation one of the very few Ramp options available to us, however I have not found it to be an easy inclusion when slots become tight. I will take this as the opportunity to answer your final question by stating my belief that Ranger-Captain of Eos would be far more likely to matter in the specific list you posted, particularly given some of the reasons above.
That will be all for now, and I will wish you luck tinkering with your build until you have something new you would like to address, though if you I will point you to my efforts on page 76 to recommend a Mono-White shell (updated to include your Ambitious Farmhand, of course), and to combine it with something like the shell I tried out on page 81 of this thread.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on any of these fronts!
-Stéphane Gérard
Thank you for the reply and insight, it is appreciated.I edited my original post, I didn't notice the formatting options at first.
Those are all great points, and I have been torn on the Sun Titan issue for sometime now. I like running 4 because most games, I want to play one turn 5 or 6 if possible. The first usually gets countered or exiled. Unholy Heat is prevalent as well. Running 3 to me feels like running 2 in practice. I definitely need to playtest more.
With all the removal this list runs, I normally live long enough to overload a Winds of Abandon to stabilize, but not always. I strayed away from the symmetrical 4 mana traditional sweepers because I found myself not wanting to off my Skyclave Apparition and leave my opponent up a token.
Recursion hasn't been as consistent as I would like, but the list usually gets there with blocking. It is a relatively creature heavy meta right now which helps. I do miss the symmetrical Wraths for this reason most of all.
I think you are correct in that Solitude needs to be in the list. I also agree that Yorion,Sky Nomad is probably the best direction for the strategy in Mono W. Playing an 80 card deck just irks me though, admittedly just personal bias. I have experimented with it in a Mono W shell running a Stoneforge Mystic package, I eventually moved on from it though. I will dust it off and give it another go, this is the feedback I was looking for thank you!
It hurts to part with Solemn Simulacrum, it really is sneaky powerful in a deck like this, but I am leaning on Ranger-Captain of Eos being more effective as well. I also think the extra side board slots are worth it.
I will continue to experiment and review the lists you mentioned, again I appreciate the feedback thank you!
You are most welcome, I hope the advice is of service.
Staying away from the 4-mana sweepers is a choice you can certainly make, I hope it works out well for you. My own aversion to giving value on the token from Skyclave Apparition has led me to cut it from my own lists in favour of enabling Wrath of God analogues, but I have had a very high opinion of 4-mana board control as a means to recoup lost tempo in the early game since as far back as Standard with this deck, so please do let me know how the opposite experiment works out for you in case this has been a significant blind spot for me. The overlap between Apparition and Prismatic Ending has been great enough that the latter is my removal of choice for noncreature permanents these days, but it is so far weaker in Mono-White as to be nearly out of the question for you, and at any rate the drawback of never hitting things such as Omnath, Locus of Creation and Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a real issue that has often needed to be dealt with alternatively via Lessons in my build.
On the recursion front, I know what you mean when you say you "get there on blocking", however I would additionally caution you that this makes cards such as Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void higher-impact as midgame plays against you, while more savvy opponents will avoid attacking into trades entirely before they can present lethal damage if they see you are setting up a Titan or Emeria. All this leads me to recommend extra ways to place permanents in your graveyard so that you are not cut off at the pass by the very players you are most likely to need to best in order to win tournaments (and I do acknowledge that adding Ranger-Captain of Eos does fulfill this function somewhat).
Sadly, the options in White and Colourless are a little limited by their past and current colour philosophies, even if that has gradually begun to encompass a little more utility for us in their more esoteric respective design spaces lately. Though there are often better things to do with it, Professor of Symbology can sometimes do the job with his Rummage mode on the Learn mechanic, but if you do end up playing Stoneforge Mystic (or if you wish to follow my admittedly unpopular lead on multiples of the card) Mortarpod has been an extraordinarily versatile tool for me and I will endorse it with all the anecdotal evidence you could ever want if it interests you. Otherwise, do your own research on what feels good to you, and try to explore new territory if you find something that seems to fit the bill - this thread lives and dies on such consensus as we can come to based off of what amounts to practical experimentation!
Having said this, I will let you digest things for a while; I have tried to cover a large amount in a very short space in these last two posts, but I am aware that adding too much will compromise your vision by making things too granular and bringing in too many of my biases. You should have plenty to go from already, so I will try to hold off on piling anything else on until you ask for more input, report new results, or post a new decklist here.
Good luck with your build!
-Stéphane Gérard
back now.
_________________
primer update:
banner and all other images on the thread restored,
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/much-abrew-about-nothing-modern-uw-emeria
1 Prairie Stream
4 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island
4 Wall of Omens
4 Sun Titan
3 Pilgrim's Eye
3 Lone Missionary
4 Flickerwisp
3 Court Hussar
2 Ojutai's Command
4 Path to Exile
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Negate
2 Detention Sphere
2 Mortarpod
2 Aether Spellbomb
What should I look for to build as a sideboard? What tech is it missing? I'm getting the vibe I should be running Field of Ruin instead of Ghost Quarter?
Thanks in advance, I think I want to try a modern event with it soon.
(Edited to put in list)
would be helpful if you post your actual deck here, so people could more easily give suggestions.
anyway, I checked the link, and that article has a guide for fighting Splinter Twin.. that article is quite outdated. If you have time, please take a look at the primer at the first page of this thread. It's updated with info from Stephan and Starstorm - they are the posters in this thread who actively played this deck in tournaments last year. Their deck lists are included in the primer.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
I thought it would be fun to do a little bit of brewing with some of the new Neon-Kamigawa cards. Specifically Touch the Spirit Realm (and to a lesser extent, March of Otherworldly light). My line of thinking for Touch being a worthy include was that Ephemerate was a strong card (but didn't necessarily synergize well with our deck, meaning mainly Emeria, the sky ruin and Sun Titan.
Touch the Spirit Realm allows us to flicker (read: Uncounterable) our creatures in a similar manner to ephemerate, with the drawback of not immediately returning to the battlefield. If we target a Sun Titan with the channel ability, we can return the Touch the Spirit Realm to the battlefield upon returning, which was something I was excited to try.
My initial draft for this decklist was this:
3 Sun titan
4 wall of omens
4 spreading seas
4 stoneforge mystic
1 kaldra compleat
1 batterskull
1 mortarpod
1 lion sash
3 thraben inspector
4 flickerwisp
4 teferi, time raveler
4 touch the spirit realm
4 solitude
4 prismatic ending
2 march of otherworldly light
3 Pilgrim's eye
3 Emeria, the sky ruin
4 flooded strand
2 arid mesa
2 windswept heath
4 field of ruin
1 mistveil plains
4 hallowed fountain
1 Raugrin triome
1 prairie stream
1 island
10 plains
3 fracturing gust
4 relic of progenitus
3 auriok champion
2 path to exile
1 Kozilek, butcher of truth
1 emrakul, the promised end
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
I think I built it in haste, or at least I started with it with a clear head but as I got to the sideboard I just started throwing stuff in so I could start a Modern league
I ended up 3-2, but I think I have proven the concept. My matches were:
2-1 UW Urza Affinity,
2-0 GW Hardened Scales *L*
1-2 Amulet Titan
2-1 RUG Glimpse of Tomorrow
1-2 RW Burn *L*
Against UW Urza affinity, Flickerwisp and Solitude really overperformed. I won G1 due to getting an early Kaldra into play, then racing a Thought Monitor with shadowspear on it. I mostly achieved this by Having Flickerwisp bounce Construct tokens, then used a Touch the spirit realm to recycle my flickerwisp, and then untapped with a sun titan bringing back the Touch, and then having emeria active to bring back an earlier solitude.
I brought in my 3 Fracturing Gust and 2 Path to exiles. I took out 4 spreading seas and a lion sash. Upon reflection I think I should have kept in my spreading seas in some number to tag floating Urza's Sagas.
G2 I lost to a double nettlecyst draw, where I had removal for one thought monitor with nettle on it, but not two. I actually Channeled a touch the spirit realm here to flicker a construct token with a Shadowspear equipped just to flat out remove the token.
In g3 I started with fracturing gust in hand, and so played a patient game until getting it off on t5, and slamming sun titan t6 to force a concession.
Against hardened scales, Flickerwisp, Solitude and prismatic ending overperformed. It seems that vs urza's saga, flickerwisp is pretty good. It can be a little awkward, as your opponent often gets a hit in with their construct before you get a chance to remove it with Fwisp, but its fairly clean (albeit not equal in card advantage to the Saga itself, it helps you claw back).
G1 was fairly easy, as my opponent had a large hangarback walker that I could just cleanly remove with Fwisp after I used a prismatic ending on their Ozolith.
I brought in the 3 fracturing gusts and 2 path to exiles, taking out 1 lion sash, 1 mortarpod, 1 stoneforge, 1 thraben inspector, and 1 pilgrim's eye. Just a little trimming.
G2 I Had fracturing gusts, so all i had to do was maneuver into a position where I could remove any hangarbacks before wiping the board. I was a little stuck on land, so I had to channel a few Touch the spirit realms on my singular Fwisp to keep bouncing their Urza's saga until their end step, or i would have been overrun. Eventually I got to 5 lands, and cast a Fracturing Gust, then untapped and played a yorion as a massive wall. A few turns later I had emeria active with a solitude in the graveyard and my opponent saw the writing on the wall.
Against Amulet Titan, I won g1 with a quick kaldra. I had turn 2 SFM, turn 3 prismatic ending an Amulet of Vigor + SFM activation, then t4 I had a flickerwisp to bounce my kaldra post-combat in order to defend well against a Primeval titan. My opponent scooped it up a little early here, I think, as they were at 10 life so had two turns left, but they had to pay for a summoner's pact and it wasn't looking great for them.
I brought in 2 path to exile, 1 fracturing gust, and took out 1 pilgrim's eye, 1 lion sash, 1 mortarpod.
Game 2, my opponent managed get into a good position where they had 2 Dryads, and got a bunch of lands into play with a Cultivator Colossus. I had a solitude for one dryad (to turn off valakut triggers), but because they had 2 I lost to valakut and a hasty colossus.
In game 3, My opponent started with 2 amulet of vigors and a dryad. I prismatic ending'd one Amulet and put kaldra into play off a t2 SFM. They made 7 mana and cast a Turntimber Symbiosis, finding another Dryad. I took this to mean that they didn't have a primeval titan or another payoff, so instead of prismatic ending the remaining amulet I played a Teferi and bounced one of the dryads, Leaving them with a valakut, a forest, a dryad, and an amulet in play (with a bounceland in hand).
They topdecked a primeval titan with exact mana to cast it, gave it haste and got valakut active and took me down in one turn (using Hanweir battlements as their haste enabler of choice).
Match 4 against RUG Glimpse of Tomorrow was basically a coin toss, as I knew that my only out was teferi (I really didn't build the deck with combo in mind).
Game 1, I landed the turn 3 teferi while on the play, then protected it while I closed the game with various creatures. Their deck was built in a way that I saw Omniscience and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker? Very scary.
I didn't bring anything in.
Game 2 I had the turn 3 teferi, but they had the mystical dispute and then untapped to cascade, hitting 2 Nicol Bolas and an Omniscience.
Game 3 I had the turn 3 teferi, but they had a dispute. They cascaded on the next turn but hit 3 lands. I think my only chance here was them missing. I eventually played another teferi that they couldn't answer and that was pretty much it.
VS Burn.
In g1 I had batterskull fairly early, as they didn't kill my turn 2 SFM. They had a skullcrack for the first combat but no pressure to back it up.
I brought in my 3 auriok champions and cut 1 teferi, 1 mortarpod, 1 pilgrim's eye.
In g2 I kept a fair hand but was horribly stuck on land, and couldn't really get out from under a Roil enchantment right away, and after getting a batterskull token pathed, I lost to a lethal spell off the top.
In g3 I kept a very loose hand of Teferi, batterskull, Solitude, and 4 lands, and just lost before I could do anything. I needed more discipline there, definitely.
In summary, I think that there is a lot of untapped strength in Touch the Spirit Realm. I will continue to test it, but I was thinking I could ask for a few tips to iron out the decklist before moving forward. I know that in the past Stephane had said that Flickerwisp was pretty terrible, and in general I would agree, but I think that with all the large construct tokens floating around it definitely has more potential to be unlocked.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on the list, or manabase, and especially sideboard, and i'll update and do more testing.
Cheers!
Brad
*EDIT*
I played two more leagues with this list and felt generally outclassed back to the drawing board!
Plichow's report added to tournament reports section of the primer.
Table of Contents - > Tournament Reports.
thanks for your contribution Plichow. Glad to see people still play this deck.
I'm not here everyday, but I do check back every once in awhile to see if there's new content for the primer.
hmm, and some new Kamigawa cards do look like they can be tested for our deck.
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
1. Addition of ephemerate and Esper Sentinel
2. Cutting lands down to 29-30
3. 0 path, 0 prismatic ending in lieu of 4 March of otherwordly light
4. A lot of white fetches in the mana base
5. Return of flickerwisp
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4722677#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4721854#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4711721#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4711726#paper
Lurrus is now banned in modern. Removed it from Card Choices Choices section. Also removed Plichow's Lurrus emeria from Decklist section.
____________
@coffeeortea
thanks for letting me know about those. Nice to see the deck getting improved and being able to do 5-0.
added The Rake and Dani's list to the Top 8's and 5-0's section of the primer.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread