Very impressed by the Top 4 finish! Would love to see some of his matches! Still, I’m not a fan of the list. I feel like his wins had more to do with his skill level than deck power. No Flickers seems insane given the value they generate and three mortapods is blowing my mind. I don’t want to give up a 3 mana slot for Pilgrims, especially when it goes to your hand and not the battlefield. I do like the creature emphasis on getting emeria quicker. It’s just so hard getting the right balance of control elements with effective creatures plus emeria ramps. The main area we struggle with is the one and two mana slots in regards to this. Wall and Path are huge in our decks but our other options have never been set in stone. I like Knight of the White Orchid as it plays earlier than Pilgrims, is a better chump and land is on battlefield untapped. It just not as consistent obviously. If there was a white or blue creature that searched out a land between 1 and 2 mana, I think it would be an auto-include. Till then, I’m still staying away from those two artifacts lol
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
mortarpod does kill birds, hierarchs, and vizier of remedies from Druid Devastation which is currently a competitive deck. I still have one pod main.. it's sometimes almost useless, and sometimes a hero depending on the deck I'm facing.
what is hard to believe is the playset of pilgrim's eye, and no flicker effects at all in the recent top 4 deck. Although to be fair, I did some googling this morning and found a few not so old reddit posts who say that pilgrim's eye is better than wisp.
knight of orchid. I own a playset of them, but sadly their downfall is their ability is decided by the opponent's action. Some modern decks are content to have only 3 or 4 lands in play, so the conditional fetch of the knight isn't very reliable.
I always liked Mortarpod for all it's neat fringe utility. Other than that it's good against affinity too, and I imagine okay in the early game against Hardened Scales as well.
I’m gonna give 3 Pilgrims/2 Mortapods a try over the weekend. Hopefully will be a pleasant surprise as I haven’t played with either in this build in years lol
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
Just played at FNM tonight and went 3-1 with WU version so gonna give my feedback on the matchups.
First match played against GB rock and won 2-0. Overall had good draws and outgrinded him. Supreme verdict when his board was getting full was key and the "combo" between a turn one thraben inspector and turn 3 soulherder was really something that gave me the game. Always used path to exile on scavaging ooze on sight and it went of well. Brought 2 force of negation from the side to prevent more graveyard hate or planeswalkers that I couldn't respond in time and took out one lone missionary and one thraben inspector. Overall felt like a balanced match-up with the grind being on our side.
Match 2 went against infect in a very close game but lost 2-1.
Game one went along and I managed to kill all of his board except a blinkmoth nexus. Never saw a path or a field of ruin and lost it like that over the course of some turns.
Sideboarded in 2 runed halo, 2force of negation, 1 settle the wreckage 3 dovin's veto.
On game 2 he was going all in for the turn 3 kill with 10 infect on board but force of negation saved me like it was pure divine intervention! My opponent went all in that attack and then a detention sphere on gliestner elf and then a blast zone on one detonation was enough for the win.
Game 3 was in my opinion the best mulligan to 5 my opponent could ever wish for: 1 fetch, 1 noble hierarch, 1 teferi, time ravaler, 1 gliestner elf, 1 blinkmoth nexus. Teferi turn 2 completely shut the option of using my 2 path to exile on blinkmoth nexus and eventually I drew the field of ruin but he top decked another blinkmoth. Overall it sealed the game as I had no answer to teferi protecting it.
Match 3 went against Jund and won 2-1 in a very close game.
Game one won the battle of value just o like match one against Rock. All star here was Gideon Blackblade that applied pressure while providing me with lifelink for other creatures and even exiling a tarmogoyf late in the game that could take over.
Game 2 decided not to sideboard anything in and kept removal heavy hand. Thoughtseize turn one revealed it to my opponent, which played around it and played a liliana of the veil that eventually ultimated (didn't see creatures basically during the match) and the game dragged a bit even after that but dark confidant was in play and it was too much value to keep up.
Game 3 was the roughest and grindiest. Ended up with my opponent doing an assasin's trophy on detention sphere to bring liliana back not realizing he had just gave me the 7 plain for both my emerias in play. It cost him dearly and he never recovered from it. All star in this game besides emeria was crucible of worlds, bringing fetches every turn to thin my deck and keep building to emeria, watcher for tomorrow and soulherder combined (great team!) and giver of runes protecting me from certain death several times by providing me with an undying blocker.
Match 4 was against a fellow emeria player but one using Martyr Proc. Won 2-0 without much trouble even though they were the longest matches (I swinged for 23 in a turn and didn't even take half of his life out!!)
Game one he was mana screwed and I just did my thing and won.
For game 2, Sideboarded in 2 runed halo, 2 rest in peace (which I brought as a panic button to use in case things weren't going my way. Had it from turn 1 in hand but never played it as the game went in my favor. My opponent clearly though the same and brought RIP as well but I was ahead on board and it hurt him very much too). Runed halo on turn 2 preventing his Serra ascendant from killing me was super and wraths at the right time were key to winning a match up which with the card advantage we have, becomes easy if you deal with the greatest threats.
Overall that was it! The list I used is the same one I posted a while back and I felt very good with the deck! The new cards from modern horizons really had a chance to shine and i felt like they were great additions to the deck.
Only change I'm going to make is to put a third force of negation as I think it's crucial against unfair match-ups and taking a dovin's veto out for it doesn't seem like the end of the world ;p
Sounds awesome, good job and congrats on the 3 - 1! One thing I'll recommend though, in the heavy discard / removal matchups it's good practice to cut any Phantasmal Image, Flickerwisp, Soulhearder because those matches usually detiriorate into top decks. Drawing synergistic pieces on an empty board or getting their targets removed / discarded is terrible.
On another note I watched the rest of the MTG Goldfish stream and was happy he had so much fun. Saffron Olive, got lucky in the matchups and individual matches but ended up with a 4 - 1. Even with some questionable sideboarding / lines of play!
Remorseful Cleric seems like best 2-drop to play together with Wall right now with all the GY decks being played.
Being a flying threat is also good against all the ground decks and together with the other flyers the deck becomes quite evasive. Lone Missionary is replaced by Kitchen Finks which is a better creature anyway.
On Thin Ice seems like a decent addition to the deck and I wonder if it is worth playing more than 2x copies of it.
I'm trying out Vesperlark here as it seems to have potential and has 8x targets in the deck with Wall and B.Splicer.
I considered adding cards like Thraben Inspector and Kami of False Hope to support it but eventually decided that it is probably not really worth it and as a result settled on 2x copies of Vesperlark.
Blast Zone seems like a good option for the deck though I'm not sure how needed it is with all the wraths already in the deck.
It could potentially replace Field of Ruin here.
Sideboard: 15
1 - Blast Zone
1 - Burton Forge Tender
3 - Remorseful Cleric
2 - Stony Silence
2 - Damping Sphere
1 - Sorcerous Spyglass
2 - Gideon of the Trials
1 - Ranger-Captain of Eos
2 - Cleansing Nova
So major changes include incorporating an additional three fetchlands. This is to maximize my chance of having two uncracked fetches to trigger Brought Back for turn two. It also means more life loss which means I want to main lifegain i.e Lone Missionary.
Fun cards I want to test beforehand include Mortarpod, Gift of Immorality and Vesperlark. If someone already has experience with the last two, please share.
Sorry about the formatting, I'm typing this from mobile
I still don't have Ranger-Captain of Eos to test as they're quite hyped up thank to "Esper Death's Shadow" (probably) so I'm waiting for the hype to die down before getting them. Kitchen Finks is a decent 3-drop by I would like to see more options for the 3-drop slot (besides Splicer/Wisp).
Maybe Militia Bugler is the card I'm looking for.
Yeah, I could see an entire
new archetype building itself around Vesperlark and doing well.
The hype around RCoE is real and they've only gone up since I first bought them. They'll go back down eventually though.
As for Militia Bugler, I would recommend pulling out your hypergeometric calculator. As, when I first tested it the hit rate was around 40%. So forget about card selection you'll be lucky if he hits.
This is because of three plus power creatures like Flickerwisp and Sun Titan, and your non-creature package.
Blast Zone seems like a good option for the deck though I'm not sure how needed it is with all the wraths already in the deck.
It could potentially replace Field of Ruin here.
when you are playing card for card in a grindy game, every bit of advantage helps. I often play with GDS, and when we're in topdeck mode.. it's always good to topdeck a blast zone for his shadows instead of another land. Although I don't suggest replacing all field of ruin's with blast zone, because FoR has it's uses too.
What I've been thinking of doing recently is sideboarding a Blast Zone. Then you can swap it out for Ghost Quarter if the matchup warrants.
Plus in the games that go long having access to an extra land is very useful as it helps ensure you hit your land drops on time. Never mind it's utility in the format at large.
Black also gives access to another 3-mana PW in Kaya, Orzhov Usurper which can be useful as a SB card and maybe even a maindeck card.
Now we also have Unearth which works as addional reanimation besides Sun Titan in the deck.
I wonder if it is better to have in the deck than something like Lingering Souls.
So as I’m testing, I still don’t like Mortarpod. Pilgrims has been decent enough and makes sure we hit our land drops. I’ve been also trying out Watcher again but have throw in 3 copies of Ephemerate into the build for more value and consistency. It’s a stretch but the overall curve looks great.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
what is hard to believe is the playset of pilgrim's eye, and no flicker effects at all in the recent top 4 deck. Although to be fair, I did some googling this morning and found a few not so old reddit posts who say that pilgrim's eye is better than wisp.
knight of orchid. I own a playset of them, but sadly their downfall is their ability is decided by the opponent's action. Some modern decks are content to have only 3 or 4 lands in play, so the conditional fetch of the knight isn't very reliable.
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
Couldn't see the whole stream but hope to see the replay later!
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
Just played at FNM tonight and went 3-1 with WU version so gonna give my feedback on the matchups.
First match played against GB rock and won 2-0. Overall had good draws and outgrinded him. Supreme verdict when his board was getting full was key and the "combo" between a turn one thraben inspector and turn 3 soulherder was really something that gave me the game. Always used path to exile on scavaging ooze on sight and it went of well. Brought 2 force of negation from the side to prevent more graveyard hate or planeswalkers that I couldn't respond in time and took out one lone missionary and one thraben inspector. Overall felt like a balanced match-up with the grind being on our side.
Match 2 went against infect in a very close game but lost 2-1.
Game one went along and I managed to kill all of his board except a blinkmoth nexus. Never saw a path or a field of ruin and lost it like that over the course of some turns.
Sideboarded in 2 runed halo, 2force of negation, 1 settle the wreckage 3 dovin's veto.
On game 2 he was going all in for the turn 3 kill with 10 infect on board but force of negation saved me like it was pure divine intervention! My opponent went all in that attack and then a detention sphere on gliestner elf and then a blast zone on one detonation was enough for the win.
Game 3 was in my opinion the best mulligan to 5 my opponent could ever wish for: 1 fetch, 1 noble hierarch, 1 teferi, time ravaler, 1 gliestner elf, 1 blinkmoth nexus. Teferi turn 2 completely shut the option of using my 2 path to exile on blinkmoth nexus and eventually I drew the field of ruin but he top decked another blinkmoth. Overall it sealed the game as I had no answer to teferi protecting it.
Match 3 went against Jund and won 2-1 in a very close game.
Game one won the battle of value just o like match one against Rock. All star here was Gideon Blackblade that applied pressure while providing me with lifelink for other creatures and even exiling a tarmogoyf late in the game that could take over.
Game 2 decided not to sideboard anything in and kept removal heavy hand. Thoughtseize turn one revealed it to my opponent, which played around it and played a liliana of the veil that eventually ultimated (didn't see creatures basically during the match) and the game dragged a bit even after that but dark confidant was in play and it was too much value to keep up.
Game 3 was the roughest and grindiest. Ended up with my opponent doing an assasin's trophy on detention sphere to bring liliana back not realizing he had just gave me the 7 plain for both my emerias in play. It cost him dearly and he never recovered from it. All star in this game besides emeria was crucible of worlds, bringing fetches every turn to thin my deck and keep building to emeria, watcher for tomorrow and soulherder combined (great team!) and giver of runes protecting me from certain death several times by providing me with an undying blocker.
Match 4 was against a fellow emeria player but one using Martyr Proc. Won 2-0 without much trouble even though they were the longest matches (I swinged for 23 in a turn and didn't even take half of his life out!!)
Game one he was mana screwed and I just did my thing and won.
For game 2, Sideboarded in 2 runed halo, 2 rest in peace (which I brought as a panic button to use in case things weren't going my way. Had it from turn 1 in hand but never played it as the game went in my favor. My opponent clearly though the same and brought RIP as well but I was ahead on board and it hurt him very much too). Runed halo on turn 2 preventing his Serra ascendant from killing me was super and wraths at the right time were key to winning a match up which with the card advantage we have, becomes easy if you deal with the greatest threats.
Overall that was it! The list I used is the same one I posted a while back and I felt very good with the deck! The new cards from modern horizons really had a chance to shine and i felt like they were great additions to the deck.
Only change I'm going to make is to put a third force of negation as I think it's crucial against unfair match-ups and taking a dovin's veto out for it doesn't seem like the end of the world ;p
On another note I watched the rest of the MTG Goldfish stream and was happy he had so much fun. Saffron Olive, got lucky in the matchups and individual matches but ended up with a 4 - 1. Even with some questionable sideboarding / lines of play!
I haven't played the deck for a while and decided to try the Mono White list again and update it a bit:
4x Wall of Omens
4x Remorseful Cleric
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Blade Splicer
4x Flickerwisp
2x Vesperlark
3x Sun Titan
Planeswalker (2)
2x Gideon of the Trials
2x On Thin Ice
2x Banishing Light
Instant (4)
4x Path to Exile
Sorcery (2)
2 Wrath of God
Land (23)
3x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4x Flagstones of Trokair
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Field of Ruin
10x Snow-Covered Plains
2x Damping Sphere
2x Pithing Needle
2x Banishing Light
2x Runed Halo
2x Wrath of God
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Gideon Jura
Remorseful Cleric seems like best 2-drop to play together with Wall right now with all the GY decks being played.
Being a flying threat is also good against all the ground decks and together with the other flyers the deck becomes quite evasive.
Lone Missionary is replaced by Kitchen Finks which is a better creature anyway.
On Thin Ice seems like a decent addition to the deck and I wonder if it is worth playing more than 2x copies of it.
I'm trying out Vesperlark here as it seems to have potential and has 8x targets in the deck with Wall and B.Splicer.
I considered adding cards like Thraben Inspector and Kami of False Hope to support it but eventually decided that it is probably not really worth it and as a result settled on 2x copies of Vesperlark.
Blast Zone seems like a good option for the deck though I'm not sure how needed it is with all the wraths already in the deck.
It could potentially replace Field of Ruin here.
Winds of Abandon has also over preformed in my own testing too.
Vesperlark is interesting, please let us know how it does!
I think that when I test Brought Back my mono white list will look similar to this build
Mainboard: 60
Creature: 23
1 - Kami of False Hope
4 - Thraben Inspector
3 - Lone Missionary
1 - Remorseful Cleric
4 - Wall of Omens
4 - Flickerwisp
3 - Ranger-Captain of Eos
3 - Sun Titan
Instant//Sorcery: 11
4 - Path to Exile
3 - Brought Back
2 - Winds of Abandon
2 - Wrath of God
Artifact: 1
1 - Crucible of Worlds
Enchantment: 1
1 - On Thin Ice
Manabase: 24
1 - Arid Mesa
1 - Flooded Strand
1 - Marsh Flats
3 - Prismatic Vista
1 - Windswept Heath
4 - Field of Ruin
1 - Ghost Quarter
3 - Emeria, the Sky Ruin
9 - Snow-Covered Plains
Sideboard: 15
1 - Blast Zone
1 - Burton Forge Tender
3 - Remorseful Cleric
2 - Stony Silence
2 - Damping Sphere
1 - Sorcerous Spyglass
2 - Gideon of the Trials
1 - Ranger-Captain of Eos
2 - Cleansing Nova
So major changes include incorporating an additional three fetchlands. This is to maximize my chance of having two uncracked fetches to trigger Brought Back for turn two. It also means more life loss which means I want to main lifegain i.e Lone Missionary.
I'm trying out On Thin Ice to lower my curve. If it doesn't work wonders I'll go back up a Winds of Abandon, Wrath of God, or Gideon Jura.
I'm not sure if Burton-Forge Tender should just be a Cathedral Sanctifier or Martyr of Sands but BFT synergieses well with this Brought Back build.
Fun cards I want to test beforehand include Mortarpod, Gift of Immorality and Vesperlark. If someone already has experience with the last two, please share.
Sorry about the formatting, I'm typing this from mobile
Kitchen Finks is a decent 3-drop by I would like to see more options for the 3-drop slot (besides Splicer/Wisp).
Maybe Militia Bugler is the card I'm looking for.
Vesperlark is probably even better in UW where it gets cards like:
Court Hussar, Phantasmal Image and Deputy of Detention.
I'm not a big fan of Winds of Abandon.
As targeted removal it is worse not only than Path but also than:
On Thin Ice (in Mono White), Declaration in Stone and Seal Away/Journey to Nowhere imho.
And if I wanted another Wrath (that exiles) I'd probably just add Settle the Wreckage which cost less than the "overload" mode and is instant speed.
new archetype building itself around Vesperlark and doing well.
The hype around RCoE is real and they've only gone up since I first bought them. They'll go back down eventually though.
As for Militia Bugler, I would recommend pulling out your hypergeometric calculator. As, when I first tested it the hit rate was around 40%. So forget about card selection you'll be lucky if he hits.
This is because of three plus power creatures like Flickerwisp and Sun Titan, and your non-creature package.
The 2/3 body with Vigilance is nice though.
It could work but you'd have to redesign your deck. Maybe add Thraben Inspector and replace Flickerwisp with Vesperlark? You'll likely need every creature except Sun Titan to be hit off Militia Bugler.
You could work a UW brew using Militia Bugler, Vesperlark, Phantasmal Imagine and utility creatures.
Maybe utilizing Champion of Wits to set up chains with Phantasmal Image?
when you are playing card for card in a grindy game, every bit of advantage helps. I often play with GDS, and when we're in topdeck mode.. it's always good to topdeck a blast zone for his shadows instead of another land. Although I don't suggest replacing all field of ruin's with blast zone, because FoR has it's uses too.
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
Plus in the games that go long having access to an extra land is very useful as it helps ensure you hit your land drops on time. Never mind it's utility in the format at large.
I used to play it with Lingering Souls in the maindeck and using black mostly for SB cards to help against combo decks like:
Tidehollow Sculler and Kambal, Consul of Allocation.
Trial of Ambition is a neat combination with Flickerwisp for a repeatable Cruel Edict and Orzhov Enforcer is a decent blocker that replaces itself.
Plaguecrafter also seems like an interesting option for the deck and there are some other good blink targets like:
Orzhov Pontiff, Sin Collector and Vengeful Rebel.
Black also gives access to another 3-mana PW in Kaya, Orzhov Usurper which can be useful as a SB card and maybe even a maindeck card.
Now we also have Unearth which works as addional reanimation besides Sun Titan in the deck.
I wonder if it is better to have in the deck than something like Lingering Souls.
Black also has decent sac'-outlets like Vampiric Rites and Hidden Stockpile though they might be too slow to do much.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW