Never tried the black splash before but it does seem interesting!
My only gripe with it is that it transforms out deck from a mainly value deck into a more disruptive deck, and between that and a WB death and taxes or eldrazi and taxes I think that one would be more consistent in those colors.
About some cards you talked about: lingering souls is an amazing card, but for a more beatdown deck as it doesn't bring us any value from it. It is great if you want beaters but I think the edge our deck has over others is the long game grind and value and lingering souls doesn't provide that.
Unearth is also a sweet card but I prefer it in decks with heavy discarding and faithless lotting and stuff because ideally wI anna bring 3cmc creatures in turn 2 and not just use a one time spell for value.
That being said I still think it could be Done, but every time I dipped my feet into other colors like green and red, I always end up coming to the WU version because I feel like it's just so good and consistent by itself :b
But keep posting ideas and something might come of it ;p
Also sorry for not having links but I'm on my phone right now and can't put it
I'd argue that Lingering Souls does exactly what the deck wants to do and helps grind even better with multiple bodies to clogg up the board and force overextending into a sweeper and then rebuilding.
It is also good against discard and to cast into countermagic.
I have to agree, from what I've seen lingering souls usually shows up in decklists that are fair and looking to grind. Think Mardu Pyromancer or Abzan rock.
Although, not being a creature and therefore recurable with Sun Titan or Emeria is a point against it.
Strong disagree on that point. While im intrigued at the prospect of BW emeria, the whole point of the deck is to use both the land and Sun Titan as engines to recur creatures between 1-3 cmc with powerful etb effects that will ultimately answer many of the threats your opponents present. The power of UW lies in having the card draw, uncounterable wraths, and counter magic. BW would be enforced by disruption, life manipulation, and a more resistant graveyard. However, as someone whose built many a deck around Lingering Souls, it’s not furthering our gameplan by clogging up the board. That’s a card that’s wasted on a wrath and can’t be recurred when we could be doing something better. Don’t get me wrong, I love the card and think it’s a must have in most BW builds, but I think if you go that route, why aren’t you just playing BW aristocrats, Control, or tokens? Those builds utilize the card to its optimum potential, IMO. Otherwise, I’d be an interesting splash for sure.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
All I know is that Lingering Souls has very often been one of the best cards in the deck as long as I've played with the deck so not having the synergy with Titan and Emeria isn't really a big deal since the card is so good on its own (it recurs itself ones).
I have no basic swamp here which is risky but 10x black sources with the fetches and shocks seems enough and drawing a swamp is actually really bad so I took it out for the 6th fetchland.
I'm still not sure how to slot in Unearth to this deck besides doing a straight swap with Lingering Souls as they are both non-creature spells with GY value.
An earlier build I played tried to capitalize on all the flyers in the deck with a swords' package of: Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Light and Shadow which was fun but mostly too slow.
I'm also a Mardu Pyromancer player, so know the strength of lingering souls. Well, souls itself it has not much synergy with titan and emeria. But I see that other cards on your deck are still in sync with titan, so I guess that works.
______________________________________
Speaking of souls tokens. What I'm testing are two copies of Geist-Honored Monk, and it's a surprisngly decent creature. 5 power in 3 creaturs even if cast on an empty board. Goes crazy with soulherder. Although I don't often get to get it together with the herder, because the opponent often kills the herder before more tokens can be produced.
@Dennis
All this talk about a black splash has me wanting to try and brew a bit. After thinking on it, my version would most likely be skewed toward disruption and cheap removal in BW. While UW is my preferred build, I wouldn’t mind trying to run this at some point:
Right up front I'll say this list definitely has problems, especially the sideboard because it's total garbage. I only went 3-1 at FNM but that was actually better than I was expecting considering what I was trying. So the idea here is to curve into a Jace on turn 4 with blockers ideally since Jace with protection is pretty good. In fact, Jace performed better than expected in my games, however my manabase doesn't actually support him as well as I'd like so I may add more blue sources. Some other weird card choices are cleric and revoker. Remorseful cleric was great against anyone relying on their graveyard (obviously) but it was also a 2/1 flier for 2 that never gets exiled from a path which means it can always be reanimated. Revoker, theoretically, is pretty great against a lot of decks. For example it shuts off hogaak's sac outlets, it turned off griselbrand vs neoform in round 1, and it was fairly useful vs the walkers that miracles had. I don't know if blue white emeria builds have been running teferi but he's pretty damn good. First of all, his static ability is just stupid good as I'm sure you're all aware and bounce draw is usually pretty good. I even used it on my wall of omens a couple times.
So anyway that's kinda my thought process on this list. Lemme know what you like, what you don't, etc.
And btw my matchups were
Neoform 2-1
UW Miracles 1-2
Temur tempo (hexdrinker, tarmogoyf, the new charm thing, force of negation) 2-1
UR Phoenix 2-0 (he played aria of flame in game one when I had two Flickerwisps in hand lol)
First off, congrats on the 3 - 1 at your FNM and welcome to our thread! I hope you enjoy your stay!
Off the hop, a couple changes I would recommend is that if you have Humans in your local meta you may want to swap out a Supreme Verdict for a Wrath of God. This is to diversify your wrath selection to play around Meddling Mage.
Also, if you're having difficulties hitting double blue for Jace, the Mindsculptor turn four, you may want to cut a basic Plains for a third Hallowed Fountain. You may need to bust out that hyper-geometric calculato too, to find the correct percentage needed for your manabase. I know most lists average 11 blue sources, technically more if you count Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter.
Maindeck Remorseful Cleric is par for the course as maindeck graveyard hate is a necessity nowadays. I don't think I've seen a Phyrexian Revoker outside of mono white builds and definitely not since Sorcerous Spyglass was printed. It is an interesting inclusion and it technically does have an etb that you can abuse with Flickerwisp or Teferi, Time Raveler. Plus it's a creature, which means it's recursive through an Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Most lists tend to favor Detention Sphere to deal with problematic permanents though, it's extra good in our deck because we can reset it with Flickerwisp or recur it with a Sun Titan.
I think people have played Teferi, Time Raveler in sideboards in the sideboard as an ace against opposing control strategies maindeck he should be fine too. It has a lot of cool synergies with the deck which is nice.
I think using planeswalkers instead of Court Hussar and Spreading Seas as your card advantage engines is also interesting. Teferi, Time Raveler and Jace the Mindsculptor are of course objectively more powerful cards, even with their lack synergy with Emeria. That said, they do play around graveyard hate nicely.
I am a little confused as to why your sideboarding Noxious Revival for? Everything else seems decent but I would personally recommend putting the Crucible of Worlds in main deck as hitting land drops every turn is what we want / need to do.
Thanks, that's all great advice. When I create my final sb version I'll post the list again. The revivals were anti surgical tech and disrupt opponent's graveyards too. Also some matchups I just want to revival a jace or something. It's not the strongest card there and it'll likely come out. I did have crucible and a D sphere main previously but they got moved to the sideboard. I'll consider fitting them back into the main. I think I want 2-3 d spheres in the 75 so I'll probably have a couple side. Also for humans I'll probably add the wrath of God as well as possibly the new overload pte in the main/side for humans and other matchups where I need the extra spot removal
I've been playing Winds of Abandon since it was released, in my mono white emeria build and it functions really well as wrath that exiles. This, allowing us another out to a myraid of otherwise tough situations, think boggles or dredge. If you play it, try to hold it with it's overload cost in mind. I'd recommend against using it as a two mana path to exile at sorcery speed unless you absolutely have to.
Usually meaning, removing a combo enabling creature like Devoted Druid, recursive threat like Arclight Phoenix, graveyard disrupting creature like Scavenging Ooze, or any creature that will be likely to deal lethal damage before you can overload it.
Use your best judgement but bear in mind that our opponents will likely have to commit more to the board when playing against us because we play to the board ourselves. This makes all of your sweeper effect much more potent.
Hey guys I hadn't played this deck for a long time but the new teferi gave me a great idea and I just kinda ran with it on Friday, creating this list.
congrats on the good finish. Hmm, so a planeswalker heavy main. Just shows the many directions this deck could take.
I suggest adding a second basic island somewhere, to better support jace. Also when going against opponents who use field of ruin themselves, it's better to have another island that can be fetched.
It seems like a neat list @treesgobark!
I'm quite interested in the 3 Jace, the mind sculptor as it's a card that i've been having a debate with myself oer putting into the deck or not. I'ts clearly super powerful but as it doesn't have the synnergy of the rest of the deck, i just wonder if it's worth the money
How is it performing for you? Could you give me a bit of insight over it's use?
It seems like a neat deck focused more on disruption and a faster clock @D90Dennis14!
My worries are mostly about the disruption creatures and wraths as they usually don't go so well. i prefer for my creatures to do their effect and if they die we have no repercussion. It also means you can't use them as chump blockers wich we often want as a late game deck (even though your version is more proactive).
Also Geralf's Messenger seems a bit heavy on the black, meaning playing him on turn 3 is preety much impossible and even turn 4 requires good fetching and loss of life (as well as a bit of luck). Have you seen more disruptive creatures which arent as mana intensive in black?
If we are talking about my version I usually take out the wraths when I bring in Tidehollow Sculler (and Kambal).
I agree about Geralf's Messenger (in Chantu9Y's draft), you can't realistically splash it in the deck and it isn't even that good here as a mofe offensive version of Kitchen Finks.
I'd strongly suggest against including it (same about Damnation/Kaya's Wrath). Anguished Unmaking isn't too bad but I don't think that it is really worth it over Banishing Light in the deck.
I've mentioned some other black creatures in a previous post:
SB is still a work in progress but thus far, I’m really liking the feel of the deck. Three cards I wasn’t expecting to be as good as they were- Ephemerate, Gideon Blackblade, and Pilgrims Eye. Since playing PE, I’ve hit Emeria consistently while testing. Blackblade has been MVP several times as well. His ability to grant indestructible or lifelink while attacking also can’t be understated. My biggest shock was Ephemerate. Don’t get me wrong, by itself, it’s clearly a dead card, but paired with any creature can be backbreaking. The key to it is the rebound effect and the value it provides. I’ve drawn three cards consistently off of Wall of Omens, gained 16 life off of Missionary, and three lands from PE in a single turn cycle. It’s especially devastating when an opponent tries to remove one of my creatures, only for me to blink it away on their turn, gaining further value. I usually always hold one up just in case of those instances. I don’t think it’s an auto include but worth a spin for those interested.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
Alright I'm gonna try and answer some questions and possibly do a write-up from last night. Went 3-2 sadly but the final round was super duper close vs UR phoenix and it could have easily been 4-1, possibly with some different sideboarding choices. Also let's be honest, losing to Urza combo doesn't count Anyhoo, list first.
Only changes to the mainboard include -2 basics and -1 Delta for +2 Heath and +1 Fountain. I was meaning to put in a Wrath of God instead of a third verdict but I didn't have time to go home between work and magic. This actually smoothed out my blue mana issues fairly nicely, but still a small sample size so we'll see. I never had 4 mana, Jace in hand, and no double blue like I did on Friday. Speaking of Jace, I'm liking him more and more, but more on that later.
As far as the sideboard is concerned, -2 Revival, -1 EE, -1 Timely, +2 Winds, +2 Gift. I only got to use Generous Gift once but it killed a rest in peace so that's nice haha. Generous Gift actually seems like it's really good for our deck. I understand a lot of people play Detention Sphere for the obvious benefits like flickering and such, but what I really wanted was a more permanent answer to problematic permanents, specifically planeswalkers and RIP/Leyline occasionally. In the control mirror you can sit around with a sphere on one of their walkers for basically ever but eventually it's going to get cryptic bounced or Teferi bounced or Teferi tucked or something of the like and then it's going to reset their Narset, or their Teferi is back, whatever the case it's not ideal. Winds of Abandon was actually really nice to have, even though I never got to use the overload cost. Just having access to two more exile effects is great vs matchups like phoenix and goyf decks and such, but the one sided board wipe does seem to be strong since we're getting to 6 mana usually anyway.
Alright, to address some questions/concerns people have, @The Fluff, I've been extremely hesitant to add the second basic island for the reason that 5 non-white-producing lands is already pushing it in a deck that runs lots of early double white costs, and having the one island is awkward enough. If I come across a scenario where I'm thinking "Man, I wish I had a second basic Island right now" I'll let you know though. @Starstorm, Jace has honestly over-performed and impressed me both times I've played the deck. The nice thing about him in this deck is that he's quite a bit more than a brainstorm bot, which don't get me wrong, is nice, but since we're regularly pushing damage, just bouncing their blocker for a couple turns has been pretty good. It came in handy vs neoform when his griselbrand was revoker'd and I needed a way to remove it, as well as vs phoenix to reset Thing, much like Flickerwisp would. His +2 also becomes a bit more relevant in the mid-game than it would in a more draw-go style deck, because if you're in a position where you're the beatdown, Jace can keep them off any answers to your threats. The other thing is that remember that Jace (and Teferi for that matter) can bounce your own creatures. There are always going to be situations where brainstorming may not get you out of a jam, but replaying your Lone Missionary or another creature will. I've yet to use Jace's ult to close out a game with this deck, but I'm sure the time will come eventually. And lastly, I don't think I need to explain why brainstorming is good lol.
Really quick, I'd like to say again that this list is nowhere near complete or tuned or whatever, and if you guys have any ideas, things you like, things you don't, please let me know.
I'm gonna try to make a write-up from memory so here goes:
Round 1 - 5c Allies - 2-0
Opponent is basically playing faster humans with less disruption. Game 1 he hit me super hard but I played a wall and followed it up with Teferi bouncing one of his two creatures. A turn or two later I cast a verdict at instant speed when he goes to combat. Follow up with a titan, game over. Game 2 was pretty much identical except I played turn 3 Teferi and turn 4 verdict at which point he correctly realized he was dead and scooped a couple turns later.
Round 2 - Dredge - 2-1
Game 1 - I keep a hand of lands, Teferi, and verdicts. He vomits his deck into his grave. I concede.
Game 2 - I keep a hand with Remorseful Cleric and Tormod's Crypt. I play a land and pass, he discards some dredgers, next turn I play Crypt and use it, play Cleric, you can guess how the rest went when I eventually played a Sun Titan with Jace on board and Clerics in the grave.
Game 3 - He mulligans down to 4 and I'm sitting on multiple pieces of grave hate. He tries putting stuff in the graveyard and I just keep exiling it, it wasn't much of a game tbh lol
Round 3 - Urza Combo - 0-2
Game 1 - Screw this deck lol, I play cleric on 2 instead of holding up Veto and he plays opal and foundry. If i held up Veto he was going to play a goblin instead. His turn 3 he plays gobbo boi and puts a sword in the yard and makes a token, I exile his grave in response, forgot he has an opal sitting off to the side. I concede.
Game 2 - I keep a hand with stony silence and something else and the stony stayed in my hand all game because it literally did nothing. I lost to double Sai followed by urza. I can't effectively put into words how much I hated living while playing against this deck.
Round 4 - CopyCat - 2-0
Game 1 - He keeps triple path, Saheeli, Felidar Guardian. I keep some aggressive creatures and some lands, he paths stuff, I play a 2 drop on turn 3, holding up veto which he ran saheeli right into and he slowly figured out he was super dead when he found out what my deck does (which is reanimating revoker on saheeli).
Game 2 - Revoker, Gideon, Teferi, and later, Jace. At one point I was able to play a revoker with path up and he bolts revoker and goes for the win, I stop him. This one went on long, but later after Teferi got surgicalled and when I had Gideon and Jace out, the game was kinda over. At one point I chose not to swing with Gideon when he was at 3 (I thought he was at 7 actually), prompting him to say "You chose to just not attack for lethal?" to which I respond, "I have a Jace, I can do whatever I want" and to which someone else says "I mean, he's got a point." Turns out he had a path anyway so my play of just playing Flickerwisp and shutting off his Colonnade turned out to be correct. To be fair, I likely would have done the same no matter his life total, as I'm a super defensive player and this was the first turn I didn't have Teferi protecting Gideon (which is a sick combo btw).
Round 5 - UR Phoenix - 1-2
This is the same Phoenix player who got completely rekt 2-0 last Friday when I flickered his Aria of Flame 3 times in game 1.
Game 1 - I don't really remember what happened, I just know I lost after a fairly long game. Though I do remember him looting away Aria of Flame on turn 2 lol
Game 2 - I just remember this being a super long game where neither of us did anything for like 5 turns each in the middle of the game because I kept exiling all his creatures and we just drew garbage for a while. I think I eventually got to start bouncing Flickerwisp with Teferi and then flickering Teferi every turn, which is pretty sick actually.
Game 3 - He just does Phoenix things and makes two of them on turn 2, I path one. I play a tapland on turn 2, he makes a third phoenix, I draw my third land on turn 4 and never get to 4 mana, but it was still extremely close with me almost stabilizing at 3 life.
Okay that's it. I'll leave you with a closing message: I showed you my deck pls respond
First of all congratulations on the 3-2 as it's still very positive result taking in account the decks you faced :b
About Jace, I think it is worth the shot as long as I start saving some money to buy him so it might take a while my list is a bit different than yours but I think I can slot him somewhere. For example I use my hex parasite main board while you use it in the side, which in hindsight I think that might be more correct given my current meta and in general.
I also like the revokers mainboard as it answers many problems in the format. For a time I ran Sorcerous Spyglass mainboard so I totally get it. But seeing your list that seems very aggressive, the only thing I could suggest would be perhaps considering the change from wall of Omens to watcher for tomorrow. It doesn't get you the card straight away but in my experience it's a great card and the ability to see 4 cards deep can't be understated!
Also between dovin's veto and force of negation. What's your opinion on that one given that you're using them mainboard?
About the sideboard my questions would be mostly regarding celestial purge, the 1 graffdigger's cage instead of other from of removal like rest in peace (as they both affect us) and the crucible in the side vs main (as in, why keep it in the side and when do you bring it in).
The rest seems like a very consistent list and you explained most of it quite well :b
About the debate over the second island, I believe that running only one seems to be the right call as the on y time you might want a second basic island would be if you're playing against ponza and they are stripping you of everything (but honestly, if it comes to that things are probably not in your favor). So getting to 7 plains consistently with only 5 non plains excluding emeria seems good!
The more I think about it the more I think including Ranger Captain of Eos makes more and more sense out of Marino's list. Emeria's poor matchups has always been combo decks (Scapeshift, Ad nauseam, Storm, etc), and Tron and by saccing Ranger on their upkeep it effectively fogs them for a turn, giving us time to ramp. In combination with small Teferi, our game against those decks becomes much stronger. Also with a late game Emeria loop you can effectively lock them out. Although a lot of those decks have been pushed out of the meta, you still run into a lot of them at your LGS.
Against creature matchups its a respectable body that can apply pressure to your opponent, and fetch up road blocks like Kami/Thraben. Not sure if there's any other 1 drops worth playing - thinking Weathered Wayferer/Hex Parasite to test.
Anyways I bit the bullet and bought 4 Rangers - cost me a good $100 CAD but seeing how it's being played a lot in Humans/Shadow, I think it's a worthy investment since I also have Martyr Proc. In the meantime I'm going to dust off the deck and take the stock UW list for a spin, subbing the playset of Spreading Seas/ for 2 small Teferi and 2 Remorseful Cleric at my local modern tournament tomorrow.
@The Fluff, I've been extremely hesitant to add the second basic island for the reason that 5 non-white-producing lands is already pushing it in a deck that runs lots of early double white costs, and having the one island is awkward enough. If I come across a scenario where I'm thinking "Man, I wish I had a second basic Island right now" I'll let you know though.
Ok, fair enough. I guess you had the playset of field of ruin, so it's not easy to cram some more non-white in there.
Anyway, since the thread is more active now. I have started a Tournament Reports section on the primer. At the bottom. It's a section for writeups done by thread posters. I started with your report. And from now on, I will try adding more there as people post experiences on the thread.
My only gripe with it is that it transforms out deck from a mainly value deck into a more disruptive deck, and between that and a WB death and taxes or eldrazi and taxes I think that one would be more consistent in those colors.
About some cards you talked about: lingering souls is an amazing card, but for a more beatdown deck as it doesn't bring us any value from it. It is great if you want beaters but I think the edge our deck has over others is the long game grind and value and lingering souls doesn't provide that.
Unearth is also a sweet card but I prefer it in decks with heavy discarding and faithless lotting and stuff because ideally wI anna bring 3cmc creatures in turn 2 and not just use a one time spell for value.
That being said I still think it could be Done, but every time I dipped my feet into other colors like green and red, I always end up coming to the WU version because I feel like it's just so good and consistent by itself :b
But keep posting ideas and something might come of it ;p
Also sorry for not having links but I'm on my phone right now and can't put it
It is also good against discard and to cast into countermagic.
Although, not being a creature and therefore recurable with Sun Titan or Emeria is a point against it.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
Here is my BW list BTW:
4x Wall of Omens
4x Remorseful Cleric
3x Kitchen Finks
3x Blade Splicer
4x Flickerwisp
3x Sun Titan
Planeswalker (3)
2x Gideon of the Trials
1x Gideon Jura
Enchantment (2)
2x Banishing Light
4x Path to Exile
Sorcery (7)
4x Lingering Souls
2x Wrath of God
Land (23)
3x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4x Marsh Flats
2x Windswept Heath
4x Godless Shrine
3x Field of Ruin
8x Plains
2x Stony Silence
2x Damping Sphere
1x Pithing Needle
1x Banishing Light
1x Wrath of God
4x Tidehollow Sculler
1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1x Trial of Ambition
1x Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
I have no basic swamp here which is risky but 10x black sources with the fetches and shocks seems enough and drawing a swamp is actually really bad so I took it out for the 6th fetchland.
I'm still not sure how to slot in Unearth to this deck besides doing a straight swap with Lingering Souls as they are both non-creature spells with GY value.
An earlier build I played tried to capitalize on all the flyers in the deck with a swords' package of: Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Light and Shadow which was fun but mostly too slow.
I'm also a Mardu Pyromancer player, so know the strength of lingering souls. Well, souls itself it has not much synergy with titan and emeria. But I see that other cards on your deck are still in sync with titan, so I guess that works.
______________________________________
Speaking of souls tokens. What I'm testing are two copies of Geist-Honored Monk, and it's a surprisngly decent creature. 5 power in 3 creaturs even if cast on an empty board. Goes crazy with soulherder. Although I don't often get to get it together with the herder, because the opponent often kills the herder before more tokens can be produced.
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
All this talk about a black splash has me wanting to try and brew a bit. After thinking on it, my version would most likely be skewed toward disruption and cheap removal in BW. While UW is my preferred build, I wouldn’t mind trying to run this at some point:
3 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Lone Missionary
3 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wall of Omens
4 Flickerwisp
3 Geralf's Messenger
3 Sun Titan
1 Gideon Blackblade
1 Gideon of the Trials
3 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
2 Anguished Unmaking
1 Damnation
1 Kaya's Wrath
1 Wrath of God
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Field of Ruin
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
1 Mistveil Plains
6 Plains
1 Swamp
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Prairie Stream
4 Field of Ruin
7 Plains
1 Island
Creatures 19
4 Wall of Omens
4 Flickerwisp
3 Sun Titan
3 Lone Missionary
3 Remorseful Cleric
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Path to Exile
3 Dovin's Veto
Sorceries 3
3 Supreme Verdict
Planeswalkers 7
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
2 Gideon of the Trials
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Damping Sphere
2 Celestial Purge
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Stony Silence
1 Lone Missionary
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Noxious Revival
Right up front I'll say this list definitely has problems, especially the sideboard because it's total garbage. I only went 3-1 at FNM but that was actually better than I was expecting considering what I was trying. So the idea here is to curve into a Jace on turn 4 with blockers ideally since Jace with protection is pretty good. In fact, Jace performed better than expected in my games, however my manabase doesn't actually support him as well as I'd like so I may add more blue sources. Some other weird card choices are cleric and revoker. Remorseful cleric was great against anyone relying on their graveyard (obviously) but it was also a 2/1 flier for 2 that never gets exiled from a path which means it can always be reanimated. Revoker, theoretically, is pretty great against a lot of decks. For example it shuts off hogaak's sac outlets, it turned off griselbrand vs neoform in round 1, and it was fairly useful vs the walkers that miracles had. I don't know if blue white emeria builds have been running teferi but he's pretty damn good. First of all, his static ability is just stupid good as I'm sure you're all aware and bounce draw is usually pretty good. I even used it on my wall of omens a couple times.
So anyway that's kinda my thought process on this list. Lemme know what you like, what you don't, etc.
And btw my matchups were
Neoform 2-1
UW Miracles 1-2
Temur tempo (hexdrinker, tarmogoyf, the new charm thing, force of negation) 2-1
UR Phoenix 2-0 (he played aria of flame in game one when I had two Flickerwisps in hand lol)
Modern
Esper Control
Emeria Titan
EDH
Child of Alara Lands.dec
Paradox Sisay
Legacy
LED Dredge
Dreadstill
Off the hop, a couple changes I would recommend is that if you have Humans in your local meta you may want to swap out a Supreme Verdict for a Wrath of God. This is to diversify your wrath selection to play around Meddling Mage.
Also, if you're having difficulties hitting double blue for Jace, the Mindsculptor turn four, you may want to cut a basic Plains for a third Hallowed Fountain. You may need to bust out that hyper-geometric calculato too, to find the correct percentage needed for your manabase. I know most lists average 11 blue sources, technically more if you count Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter.
Maindeck Remorseful Cleric is par for the course as maindeck graveyard hate is a necessity nowadays. I don't think I've seen a Phyrexian Revoker outside of mono white builds and definitely not since Sorcerous Spyglass was printed. It is an interesting inclusion and it technically does have an etb that you can abuse with Flickerwisp or Teferi, Time Raveler. Plus it's a creature, which means it's recursive through an Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Most lists tend to favor Detention Sphere to deal with problematic permanents though, it's extra good in our deck because we can reset it with Flickerwisp or recur it with a Sun Titan.
I think people have played Teferi, Time Raveler in sideboards in the sideboard as an ace against opposing control strategies maindeck he should be fine too. It has a lot of cool synergies with the deck which is nice.
I think using planeswalkers instead of Court Hussar and Spreading Seas as your card advantage engines is also interesting. Teferi, Time Raveler and Jace the Mindsculptor are of course objectively more powerful cards, even with their lack synergy with Emeria. That said, they do play around graveyard hate nicely.
I am a little confused as to why your sideboarding Noxious Revival for? Everything else seems decent but I would personally recommend putting the Crucible of Worlds in main deck as hitting land drops every turn is what we want / need to do.
Good luck in your next matches!
Modern
Esper Control
Emeria Titan
EDH
Child of Alara Lands.dec
Paradox Sisay
Legacy
LED Dredge
Dreadstill
I've been playing Winds of Abandon since it was released, in my mono white emeria build and it functions really well as wrath that exiles. This, allowing us another out to a myraid of otherwise tough situations, think boggles or dredge. If you play it, try to hold it with it's overload cost in mind. I'd recommend against using it as a two mana path to exile at sorcery speed unless you absolutely have to.
Usually meaning, removing a combo enabling creature like Devoted Druid, recursive threat like Arclight Phoenix, graveyard disrupting creature like Scavenging Ooze, or any creature that will be likely to deal lethal damage before you can overload it.
Use your best judgement but bear in mind that our opponents will likely have to commit more to the board when playing against us because we play to the board ourselves. This makes all of your sweeper effect much more potent.
congrats on the good finish. Hmm, so a planeswalker heavy main. Just shows the many directions this deck could take.
I suggest adding a second basic island somewhere, to better support jace. Also when going against opponents who use field of ruin themselves, it's better to have another island that can be fetched.
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'm quite interested in the 3 Jace, the mind sculptor as it's a card that i've been having a debate with myself oer putting into the deck or not. I'ts clearly super powerful but as it doesn't have the synnergy of the rest of the deck, i just wonder if it's worth the money
How is it performing for you? Could you give me a bit of insight over it's use?
My worries are mostly about the disruption creatures and wraths as they usually don't go so well. i prefer for my creatures to do their effect and if they die we have no repercussion. It also means you can't use them as chump blockers wich we often want as a late game deck (even though your version is more proactive).
Also Geralf's Messenger seems a bit heavy on the black, meaning playing him on turn 3 is preety much impossible and even turn 4 requires good fetching and loss of life (as well as a bit of luck). Have you seen more disruptive creatures which arent as mana intensive in black?
I agree about Geralf's Messenger (in Chantu9Y's draft), you can't realistically splash it in the deck and it isn't even that good here as a mofe offensive version of Kitchen Finks.
I'd strongly suggest against including it (same about Damnation/Kaya's Wrath).
Anguished Unmaking isn't too bad but I don't think that it is really worth it over Banishing Light in the deck.
I've mentioned some other black creatures in a previous post:
3 Lone Missionary
4 Wall of Omens
3 Court Hussar
3 Flickerwisp
2 Pilgrim's Eye
2 Soulherder
3 Sun Titan
1 Gideon Blackblade
1 Gideon of the Trials
3 Ephemerate
4 Path to Exile
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Detention Sphere
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Mistveil Plains
6 Plains
1 Prairie Stream
1 Hex Parasite
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Dovin, Hand of Control
1 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Teferi, Time Raveler
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Dispel
1 Settle the Wreckage
2 Damping Sphere
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
SB is still a work in progress but thus far, I’m really liking the feel of the deck. Three cards I wasn’t expecting to be as good as they were- Ephemerate, Gideon Blackblade, and Pilgrims Eye. Since playing PE, I’ve hit Emeria consistently while testing. Blackblade has been MVP several times as well. His ability to grant indestructible or lifelink while attacking also can’t be understated. My biggest shock was Ephemerate. Don’t get me wrong, by itself, it’s clearly a dead card, but paired with any creature can be backbreaking. The key to it is the rebound effect and the value it provides. I’ve drawn three cards consistently off of Wall of Omens, gained 16 life off of Missionary, and three lands from PE in a single turn cycle. It’s especially devastating when an opponent tries to remove one of my creatures, only for me to blink it away on their turn, gaining further value. I usually always hold one up just in case of those instances. I don’t think it’s an auto include but worth a spin for those interested.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
2 Windswept Heath
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Prairie Stream
4 Field of Ruin
5 Plains
1 Island
Creatures 19
4 Wall of Omens
4 Flickerwisp
3 Sun Titan
3 Lone Missionary
3 Remorseful Cleric
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Path to Exile
3 Dovin's Veto
Sorceries 3
3 Supreme Verdict
Planeswalkers 7
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
2 Gideon of the Trials
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Damping Sphere
2 Celestial Purge
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Stony Silence
1 Lone Missionary
2 Winds of Abandon
2 Generous Gift
Only changes to the mainboard include -2 basics and -1 Delta for +2 Heath and +1 Fountain. I was meaning to put in a Wrath of God instead of a third verdict but I didn't have time to go home between work and magic. This actually smoothed out my blue mana issues fairly nicely, but still a small sample size so we'll see. I never had 4 mana, Jace in hand, and no double blue like I did on Friday. Speaking of Jace, I'm liking him more and more, but more on that later.
As far as the sideboard is concerned, -2 Revival, -1 EE, -1 Timely, +2 Winds, +2 Gift. I only got to use Generous Gift once but it killed a rest in peace so that's nice haha. Generous Gift actually seems like it's really good for our deck. I understand a lot of people play Detention Sphere for the obvious benefits like flickering and such, but what I really wanted was a more permanent answer to problematic permanents, specifically planeswalkers and RIP/Leyline occasionally. In the control mirror you can sit around with a sphere on one of their walkers for basically ever but eventually it's going to get cryptic bounced or Teferi bounced or Teferi tucked or something of the like and then it's going to reset their Narset, or their Teferi is back, whatever the case it's not ideal. Winds of Abandon was actually really nice to have, even though I never got to use the overload cost. Just having access to two more exile effects is great vs matchups like phoenix and goyf decks and such, but the one sided board wipe does seem to be strong since we're getting to 6 mana usually anyway.
Alright, to address some questions/concerns people have, @The Fluff, I've been extremely hesitant to add the second basic island for the reason that 5 non-white-producing lands is already pushing it in a deck that runs lots of early double white costs, and having the one island is awkward enough. If I come across a scenario where I'm thinking "Man, I wish I had a second basic Island right now" I'll let you know though. @Starstorm, Jace has honestly over-performed and impressed me both times I've played the deck. The nice thing about him in this deck is that he's quite a bit more than a brainstorm bot, which don't get me wrong, is nice, but since we're regularly pushing damage, just bouncing their blocker for a couple turns has been pretty good. It came in handy vs neoform when his griselbrand was revoker'd and I needed a way to remove it, as well as vs phoenix to reset Thing, much like Flickerwisp would. His +2 also becomes a bit more relevant in the mid-game than it would in a more draw-go style deck, because if you're in a position where you're the beatdown, Jace can keep them off any answers to your threats. The other thing is that remember that Jace (and Teferi for that matter) can bounce your own creatures. There are always going to be situations where brainstorming may not get you out of a jam, but replaying your Lone Missionary or another creature will. I've yet to use Jace's ult to close out a game with this deck, but I'm sure the time will come eventually. And lastly, I don't think I need to explain why brainstorming is good lol.
Really quick, I'd like to say again that this list is nowhere near complete or tuned or whatever, and if you guys have any ideas, things you like, things you don't, please let me know.
I'm gonna try to make a write-up from memory so here goes:
Round 1 - 5c Allies - 2-0
Opponent is basically playing faster humans with less disruption. Game 1 he hit me super hard but I played a wall and followed it up with Teferi bouncing one of his two creatures. A turn or two later I cast a verdict at instant speed when he goes to combat. Follow up with a titan, game over. Game 2 was pretty much identical except I played turn 3 Teferi and turn 4 verdict at which point he correctly realized he was dead and scooped a couple turns later.
Round 2 - Dredge - 2-1
Game 1 - I keep a hand of lands, Teferi, and verdicts. He vomits his deck into his grave. I concede.
Game 2 - I keep a hand with Remorseful Cleric and Tormod's Crypt. I play a land and pass, he discards some dredgers, next turn I play Crypt and use it, play Cleric, you can guess how the rest went when I eventually played a Sun Titan with Jace on board and Clerics in the grave.
Game 3 - He mulligans down to 4 and I'm sitting on multiple pieces of grave hate. He tries putting stuff in the graveyard and I just keep exiling it, it wasn't much of a game tbh lol
Round 3 - Urza Combo - 0-2
Game 1 - Screw this deck lol, I play cleric on 2 instead of holding up Veto and he plays opal and foundry. If i held up Veto he was going to play a goblin instead. His turn 3 he plays gobbo boi and puts a sword in the yard and makes a token, I exile his grave in response, forgot he has an opal sitting off to the side. I concede.
Game 2 - I keep a hand with stony silence and something else and the stony stayed in my hand all game because it literally did nothing. I lost to double Sai followed by urza. I can't effectively put into words how much I hated living while playing against this deck.
Round 4 - CopyCat - 2-0
Game 1 - He keeps triple path, Saheeli, Felidar Guardian. I keep some aggressive creatures and some lands, he paths stuff, I play a 2 drop on turn 3, holding up veto which he ran saheeli right into and he slowly figured out he was super dead when he found out what my deck does (which is reanimating revoker on saheeli).
Game 2 - Revoker, Gideon, Teferi, and later, Jace. At one point I was able to play a revoker with path up and he bolts revoker and goes for the win, I stop him. This one went on long, but later after Teferi got surgicalled and when I had Gideon and Jace out, the game was kinda over. At one point I chose not to swing with Gideon when he was at 3 (I thought he was at 7 actually), prompting him to say "You chose to just not attack for lethal?" to which I respond, "I have a Jace, I can do whatever I want" and to which someone else says "I mean, he's got a point." Turns out he had a path anyway so my play of just playing Flickerwisp and shutting off his Colonnade turned out to be correct. To be fair, I likely would have done the same no matter his life total, as I'm a super defensive player and this was the first turn I didn't have Teferi protecting Gideon (which is a sick combo btw).
Round 5 - UR Phoenix - 1-2
This is the same Phoenix player who got completely rekt 2-0 last Friday when I flickered his Aria of Flame 3 times in game 1.
Game 1 - I don't really remember what happened, I just know I lost after a fairly long game. Though I do remember him looting away Aria of Flame on turn 2 lol
Game 2 - I just remember this being a super long game where neither of us did anything for like 5 turns each in the middle of the game because I kept exiling all his creatures and we just drew garbage for a while. I think I eventually got to start bouncing Flickerwisp with Teferi and then flickering Teferi every turn, which is pretty sick actually.
Game 3 - He just does Phoenix things and makes two of them on turn 2, I path one. I play a tapland on turn 2, he makes a third phoenix, I draw my third land on turn 4 and never get to 4 mana, but it was still extremely close with me almost stabilizing at 3 life.
Okay that's it. I'll leave you with a closing message: I showed you my deck pls respond
Modern
Esper Control
Emeria Titan
EDH
Child of Alara Lands.dec
Paradox Sisay
Legacy
LED Dredge
Dreadstill
About Jace, I think it is worth the shot as long as I start saving some money to buy him so it might take a while my list is a bit different than yours but I think I can slot him somewhere. For example I use my hex parasite main board while you use it in the side, which in hindsight I think that might be more correct given my current meta and in general.
I also like the revokers mainboard as it answers many problems in the format. For a time I ran Sorcerous Spyglass mainboard so I totally get it. But seeing your list that seems very aggressive, the only thing I could suggest would be perhaps considering the change from wall of Omens to watcher for tomorrow. It doesn't get you the card straight away but in my experience it's a great card and the ability to see 4 cards deep can't be understated!
Also between dovin's veto and force of negation. What's your opinion on that one given that you're using them mainboard?
About the sideboard my questions would be mostly regarding celestial purge, the 1 graffdigger's cage instead of other from of removal like rest in peace (as they both affect us) and the crucible in the side vs main (as in, why keep it in the side and when do you bring it in).
The rest seems like a very consistent list and you explained most of it quite well :b
About the debate over the second island, I believe that running only one seems to be the right call as the on y time you might want a second basic island would be if you're playing against ponza and they are stripping you of everything (but honestly, if it comes to that things are probably not in your favor). So getting to 7 plains consistently with only 5 non plains excluding emeria seems good!
Against creature matchups its a respectable body that can apply pressure to your opponent, and fetch up road blocks like Kami/Thraben. Not sure if there's any other 1 drops worth playing - thinking Weathered Wayferer/Hex Parasite to test.
Anyways I bit the bullet and bought 4 Rangers - cost me a good $100 CAD but seeing how it's being played a lot in Humans/Shadow, I think it's a worthy investment since I also have Martyr Proc. In the meantime I'm going to dust off the deck and take the stock UW list for a spin, subbing the playset of Spreading Seas/ for 2 small Teferi and 2 Remorseful Cleric at my local modern tournament tomorrow.
Ok, fair enough. I guess you had the playset of field of ruin, so it's not easy to cram some more non-white in there.
Anyway, since the thread is more active now. I have started a Tournament Reports section on the primer. At the bottom. It's a section for writeups done by thread posters. I started with your report. And from now on, I will try adding more there as people post experiences on the thread.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/control/757085-azorius-titan-emeria-control#report
Oh, and just in case you don't want your writeup added there. Just tell me, and I'll remove it.
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