Question for GDS players: are you concerned about the JTMS unban? I know I am very late to the party but I am considering taking up GDS but I am unsure with the unbannings. Thanks in advance.
I think I might start testing young pyromancer now with Jace in the format
I also think YP is the right way to go.
The Achilles' heel of GDS was graveyard hate in the recent meta, but with the unbans we're getting a new one: non-Haste Delve creatures, which is why we need different angles of attack. GDS is very threat-light, and vulnerable to the new cards (JtMS can bounce, BBE can bring an attacker or removal alongside her haste).
I've actually been trying Mardu Shadow recently, a hybrid of the recent Mardu Pyromancer couple with a DS packages (with 4 Thoughseizes and Street Wraiths). It seems to work pretty well; you swarm with YP and Lingering Souls, drop big bodies with DS and draw cards with Bedlam Reveler.
Having said that, I actually want to try this with GDS (with 4 main Y.Pyromancers and Bedlam Revelers, completely removing our Delvers). This way, you have multiple paths to victory that can't be shut down with just one counter-strategy.
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BUR Grixis Death's Shadow RBW Mardu Pyromancer GBR Gx Tron
Does anyone have experience with what swapping Delve creatures for YP does to our clock? I like the resilience and threat docersification of going wide, but a big selling point of this deck is being able to go under Big Mana decks after ripping their hand apart. It seems like Peezy would weaken that angle considerably, although the resilience vs. spot removal is a huge help.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
I am currently in the process of preparing for a fairly large local Modern tournament and need some help. The tournament itself is comparable to a PPTQ from my past experience so I expect most people to not bring their casual decks. So for the last few days I tried to figure out what I am most likely to face:
- I think I am more likely to face BBE Jund than JTMS decks. Jace is still an expensive card while BBE is only about 3-5€ and we always had a lot of BG/x players whenever those decks were viable in the meta. I expect a lot of them put Jund back together since they have a lot of experience with the deck and just got a new toy to play with.
- The blue players will either play JTMS decks, meaning UW or UWr control, or have not yet bought Jace and try to play a somewhat faster strategy, for example UR Pyromancer.
- Tron has been on a steady rise the last few months in the area and I expect them to be there in full force trying to beat up on Jund and the blue decks, which is a good strategy to be on in my opinion.
- We also always had a lot of Affinity pilots and I expect them trying to take advantage of the unsettled meta trying to be faster than everyone else. Affinity is good at doing that last time I checked.
tldr; I expect Jund, blue decks with or without JTMS, Tron and Affinity to be most popular.
So where do I go from here? Control decks have been problematic in my experience while Jund is a close matchup. The addition of BBE is likely to shift that in Junds favor in my opinion. The card is strong and gives them an edge in the late game, especially when cascading into Kolaghan's Command or LotV. Tron is manageable as far as I can tell: Ceremonious Rejection, Disdainful Stroke, Thoughtseize and Stubborn Denial paired with a huge Shadow or Delve threat is a plan I like to be on when facing Tron. Affinity on the other hand can be really hard. They are super fast, they can deal an explosive amount of damage and Etched Champion is a beating. We rely on drawing removal and having a fast clock at the same time.
This is my current deck that I ad a fair amount of success:
I want to include a second Bolt in the maindeck since it can kill a Jace after Brainstorm and more easily kill BBE than Fatal Push does. So my first change would be:
-1 Fatal Push
+1 Lightning Bolt
Now on to the SB: I want more cards that are good against Jund, Affinity and blue decks. What immediately came to my mind was Lingering Souls. The card crushes Jund and other Shadow Decks while also chumping Affinity all day long. It threatens JTMS and makes his -1 as well a Path to Exile look silly. For that, I need 4-5 new SB slots. That's a lot. 1 Godless Shrine is necessary for the needed access to white mana and then 3-4 copies of Lingering Souls. I feel like 4 is too many and since we cycle through our deck so fast and can dump them into our graveyard with Thought Scour as well, 3 should be enough. So what do I cut? The first and most obvious cut for me are the Young Pyromancers, since they become irrelevant when playing Lingering Souls. But besides that? I am not really sure what else to cut. Disdainful Stroke is a pet card of mine and I would hate to cut it since it's one of the only answers to Primeval Titan. I thought about cutting 1 LotV since she comes in in the same matchups as the Souls do, not sure though. What do you guys think? And please let me know if you disagree with my assumptions!
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Quote from Mystic-X »
Yikes. The only thing worse than a sexless marriage is a stale metagame at home. When that happens, it's time to sideboard a mistress or two.
Hi all! (apologies first, I'm super tired so hopefully this makes sense)
I just got back from GP Lyon where I managed to finish 33rd and have realized that left us with no decklist from GP lyon so I thought id jump in here and post my list to show that we didn't get completely stomped at the GP haha the disdainful stroke ended up as the 15th card.
Was super happy all weekend with the list and I only lost the rounds where I played badly (round 3 and rounds 9/10 the early rounds of each day), I think humans is still a rough matchup for us and thats my next area to improve on but I went a comfortable 4-0 vs burn in the event.
Had a few interesting games the main one being where I played draw go vs raph levy and managed to sneak out the win thanks to not believing he had a 3rd clique when he faked it draw step (turns out he did have a third in his deck)
Happy to cover any questions on my list (I also tried out shadow of doubt for the GP which after going 5-0 meant it was odd enough for wotc to post it haha SOD is not good)
Moving forward I believe this deck will still be great but will need to be tuned, I also want to try sb a jace haha (turn 4 jace from control is just as scary as any of their other big mana plays vs our delve threats so I think it will be ok)
hey congrats on the finish,
regarding the shadow mu vs control (UW, UWR or UB) how do you play the matchup? I try to discard and take their answers, but it seems like they have too many. Is it better to play draw go until you accumulate discard before playing the threats? I'm struggling with the MU. Our deck is threat light and if they answer it, it could be a few turns before we get another
regarding the shadow mu vs control (UW, UWR or UB) how do you play the matchup? I try to discard and take their answers, but it seems like they have too many. Is it better to play draw go until you accumulate discard before playing the threats? I'm struggling with the MU. Our deck is threat light and if they answer it, it could be a few turns before we get another
This is a tricky one. "Take the answers" is probably a reasonable rule of thumb, but it really depends on your hand. It can be suicidal to just jam your only threat out unprotected, but you can't just sit back. If you try to play their game on even ground then eventually they will just bury you. UWR will just bolt you to death, UW will repeatedly Strip Mine you and planewalker you to death, and Grixis will start looping commands. Jace in all three of these decks just makes the 'sit back and wait' approach even worse.
When you play a discard spell, make sure you evaluate which answers matter. If you have a Tasigur Remand jumps way up. If you have a Liliana Celestial Purge is much more dangerous. If you are going to get Pathed, try to have it happen as soon as possible to get the free Rampant Growth. Accelerating your Snapcasters into flashing back relevant spells can put you on the front foot (Turn three snap plus Thoughtseize, take your removal, play Shadow, etc.). Jaces, Cryptics, and Snapcaster Mages are also generally good targets for discard. They have way more 2-for-1s than you, so turning them into 1-for-1 trades helps a lot. Supreme Verdict is another one to be careful of because Thoughtseize and possibly Collective Brutality are our only answers.
Their cards are much more powerful than ours, but ours are cheaper. They will very rarely be able to cast 5 spells on the first 3 turns, while we do that all the time. It is a very fine tightrope, but you have to balance being aggressive and leveraging your speed and tempo advantages while not opening yourself out to just losing the game on the spot to a single removal spell or sweeper.
Does anyone have experience with what swapping Delve creatures for YP does to our clock? I like the resilience and threat docersification of going wide, but a big selling point of this deck is being able to go under Big Mana decks after ripping their hand apart. It seems like Peezy would weaken that angle considerably, although the resilience vs. spot removal is a huge help.
I tried a few games this way, and I replaced Denials with Mana Leaks as @stonecrowe mentioned. It really does play like Grixis Delver with Shadows and Bedlam Revelers. I felt the deck was slow, which left me wanting a faster way to draw cards and accelerate. I'm not really sure if Grixis is the way to go here - Snapcasters don't play well with Reveler. Mardu seems faster, and has more synergy. I'll keep trying to make either of them work.
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BUR Grixis Death's Shadow RBW Mardu Pyromancer GBR Gx Tron
Were you asking me? If yes, then the answer is no. I've never moved on to Baubles, even in classic GDS. In GDS with Bedlams and YPs, that's a total no-no
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BUR Grixis Death's Shadow RBW Mardu Pyromancer GBR Gx Tron
I have been testing JVP and he isn't bad. He has singlehandedly won games by buying lots of time or by simply outgrinding an opponent. He has some characteristics he has that fit the deck better than snapcaster:
1) As a creature, he fuels delve
2) As a creature, he draws removal
3) As a creature, he filters for threats and lets us discard the cards that aren't relevant in a particular matchup
4) As a planeswalker, he is a lot better defensively than snapcaster
5) As a planeswalker, he has a higher ceiling than snapcaster
6) He is less mana intensive, meaning he has an easier time flashing back kolaghan's command (Kommand back a shadow, play a shadow is only 4 mana instead of 6 with snapcaster) or double casting a spell (e.g. push flashback push, or even better battlerage flashback battlerage for your second threat)
7) He is a threat that can accrue advantage over time, unlike snapcaster whose body is usually too small to gain any advantage off. Because of this, he contributes to a lot more keepable hands (a hand with JVP is much more keepable than one with snapcaster to apply pressure early).
8) He is GREAT against phantasmal image.
He has some downsides compared to snapcaster:
1) He can't beat down
2) He can't flash back at instant speed
3) He is a worse topdeck
4) He is worse at recovering losing board states
5) He does not always provide true card advantage
6) He is bad in multiples
I think he is worth testing. He fits a similar grindy role as snapcaster but is much more proactive, which I think is in line with what the deck wants to be doing - getting ahead on board and pushing that advantage.
I could see going from 4 snaps / 1 Kommand to 3 JVP / 3 Kommand.
I mean, it might be better to run 2 jvp 2 snap, who knows. But they nonbo with each other, and running more jvp opens up the 3 drop slot to allow you to to run more kommand.
Snap is also not "immense value" when it mostly just snaps back push or stubborn denial. Snap is way better in a deck running multiple kommands, cryptics, or bolt.
I mean, it might be better to run 2 jvp 2 snap, who knows. But they nonbo with each other, and running more jvp opens up the 3 drop slot to allow you to to run more k-command.
Snap is also not "immense value" when it mostly just snaps back push or stubborn denial. Snap is way better in a deck running multiple kommands, cryptics, or bolt.
First I feel like the fact that JVP is not played at all in modern would argue against him. Second if don't think that snapcaster mage is "immense value" you might want to change deck. Mostly just flashbacking push and stubborn denial is actually really great and wins you game. Alright I'm done with you
One question : I've seen some lists with 2 lightning bolts in the SB and I was wondering why? Upping the count of spot removals against humans? Getting a faster clock for control matchups where you need to remove all the pushes, the battle rages and dismember ?
I'm not saying snapcaster isn't a powerful card, lol. It's one of the strongest cards in modern and that's obvious. But it's not the card that defines the archetype - just look at Traverse shadow, which has the option to play snapcaster but doesn't, in lieu of cards that synergize with the strategy better such as kommand. We don't reliably get to 3 mana by turn 3, we don't always have a target to snap back, we don't have "big" spells like cryptic or even kommand nowadays to really take advantage of a card like snap in the same way jeskai or UW control does.
If you don't question the default assumptions of everyone else you're just not going to innovate in the deck. For the longest time temur battle rage and dismember were eschewed. And JVP not seeing modern play is not a good argument - it did see modern play and no one could figure out a shell for him because he belongs in a disruptive tap-out blue jund style deck... which fits the description of GDS.
Lightning bolt is a necessary card nowadays and that should be obvious with humans, jtms, and bbe in the format. I think 2 in the 75 is necessary.
By the way guys, I've been reading the last few pages and you guys are freaking the hell out because of the Jace unbanning. Slow down, it's going to be fine.
There's no need to ditch the delve creatures. Jace is 4 mana. With thoughtseize and stubborn denial they can't just slam it down on turn 4 and call it a day. Plus gurmag and Tasigur can easily come down on turn 2 and turn 3 on the play, and turn 2 on the draw safely, plenty of time to do damage and find some protection.
I also see some people wanting to play Jace too. I haven't done much testing but you can't play a 4 mana card without upping the land counts, up to 20 lands probably. Adding 2 Jace and 2 lands now you have to cut 4 cards from an already tight decklist. You can't cut threats, you can't cut stubborn denial and thoughtseize, you can't cut thoughtscour. You can maybe cut 2 Inquisition and some removals, but removals are already so important to win matchups where discard is weaker (all creatures matchups, especially humans and affinity). So you are weakening your tried and true gameplan : Protect the queen.
There's also a point to be made when adding a new card. Does it improve your bad matchups while keeping the other fair? Sure the meta is still up in the air but hey it's modern, people won't change their pet deck so fast and budget is still an issue for a lot of people so you won't see drastic changes for the moment. So what would Jace brings you in the meta we know? Does it helps against tough matchups like Affinity, Humans, UW or Jeskai Control or any decks aggressively attacking the mana base? My guess is that he doesn't, except against control deck where you could really use the extra grind package Jace is packing.
At the very moment, I would just advocate for a split 3/1 Fatal push lightning bolt and just wait and see how decks around you will change.
But Jace is just one part of the problem. The tought of my opponent cascading BEE into blood moon or Liliana of the Veil or K-command is more scary to me than Jace. BBE is also a cheaper cards that people will more easily try, so BBE decks will be on the rise quick. Also, fatal push's stocks are now a tad lower now that 3 CMC creatures are even more valuable with BBE. Lightning bolt might do a come back, in our decklist and in the meta.
All in all I think GDS will still be good going forward. It rewards tight plays and that might be one of the limiting factors for this deck. You need to get good to get the results going and that's tough.
Running some online leagues with my list from lyon I've struggled vs the BBE decks (rg eldrazi and jund mainly, the value that BBE presents is insane), which annoys me about the unbannings I was very happy with my deck and basically had found a deck I was happy to stick with but until we have a settled metagame I'm trying out some jund bbe shadow lists which have felt very good (I have madrid in a few weeks).
perhaps we need to look at GDS with a lingering souls sideboard plan again.
I have been messing around with it the last few days and the main problem that I faced was that the package just takes up so much space. I don't think the manabase can support Godless Shrine in the MB so we're looking at 4-5 slots in the SB. That's basically one third of our sideboard dedicated to Lingering Souls. That space can be used much more efficiently.
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Quote from Mystic-X »
Yikes. The only thing worse than a sexless marriage is a stale metagame at home. When that happens, it's time to sideboard a mistress or two.
I agree with you of how the meta is shifting we still have legs under us, and we are going to need to add bolts to our lists. Probably going to have to go under them.
Running some online leagues with my list from lyon I've struggled vs the BBE decks (rg eldrazi and jund mainly, the value that BBE presents is insane), which annoys me about the unbannings I was very happy with my deck and basically had found a deck I was happy to stick with but until we have a settled metagame I'm trying out some jund bbe shadow lists which have felt very good (I have madrid in a few weeks).
perhaps we need to look at GDS with a lingering souls sideboard plan again.
I have been messing around with it the last few days and the main problem that I faced was that the package just takes up so much space. I don't think the manabase can support Godless Shrine in the MB so we're looking at 4-5 slots in the SB. That's basically one third of our sideboard dedicated to Lingering Souls. That space can be used much more efficiently.
I actually like the idea of an extra land in the sideboard. A lot of the sideboard cards (sweepers, lilianas, staticaster and K-command) are 3 CMC and reaching those 3 lands by turn 3 is key. Adding an extra land goes a long way. I have not found that having those four slots for lingering is a problem yet.
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I also think YP is the right way to go.
The Achilles' heel of GDS was graveyard hate in the recent meta, but with the unbans we're getting a new one: non-Haste Delve creatures, which is why we need different angles of attack. GDS is very threat-light, and vulnerable to the new cards (JtMS can bounce, BBE can bring an attacker or removal alongside her haste).
I've actually been trying Mardu Shadow recently, a hybrid of the recent Mardu Pyromancer couple with a DS packages (with 4 Thoughseizes and Street Wraiths). It seems to work pretty well; you swarm with YP and Lingering Souls, drop big bodies with DS and draw cards with Bedlam Reveler.
Having said that, I actually want to try this with GDS (with 4 main Y.Pyromancers and Bedlam Revelers, completely removing our Delvers). This way, you have multiple paths to victory that can't be shut down with just one counter-strategy.
Grixis Death's Shadow
RBW
Mardu Pyromancer
GBR
Gx Tron
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
To be honest, it sounds kinda like the deck ends up more like a grixis delver list of old, but with delver swapped out for shadow.
Also, thought scour becomes pretty bad with no delve creatures, faithless looting?
- I think I am more likely to face BBE Jund than JTMS decks. Jace is still an expensive card while BBE is only about 3-5€ and we always had a lot of BG/x players whenever those decks were viable in the meta. I expect a lot of them put Jund back together since they have a lot of experience with the deck and just got a new toy to play with.
- The blue players will either play JTMS decks, meaning UW or UWr control, or have not yet bought Jace and try to play a somewhat faster strategy, for example UR Pyromancer.
- Tron has been on a steady rise the last few months in the area and I expect them to be there in full force trying to beat up on Jund and the blue decks, which is a good strategy to be on in my opinion.
- We also always had a lot of Affinity pilots and I expect them trying to take advantage of the unsettled meta trying to be faster than everyone else. Affinity is good at doing that last time I checked.
tldr; I expect Jund, blue decks with or without JTMS, Tron and Affinity to be most popular.
So where do I go from here? Control decks have been problematic in my experience while Jund is a close matchup. The addition of BBE is likely to shift that in Junds favor in my opinion. The card is strong and gives them an edge in the late game, especially when cascading into Kolaghan's Command or LotV. Tron is manageable as far as I can tell: Ceremonious Rejection, Disdainful Stroke, Thoughtseize and Stubborn Denial paired with a huge Shadow or Delve threat is a plan I like to be on when facing Tron. Affinity on the other hand can be really hard. They are super fast, they can deal an explosive amount of damage and Etched Champion is a beating. We rely on drawing removal and having a fast clock at the same time.
This is my current deck that I ad a fair amount of success:
4 Death's Shadow
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
Spells (27)
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Serum Visions
2 Stubborn Denial
3 Fatal Push
4 Opt
4 Thought Scour
4 Thoughtseize
1 Terminate
2 Temur Battle Rage
1 Dismember
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Blood Crypt
2 Watery Grave
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Collective Brutality
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Pyroclasm
2 Young Pyromancer
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Kozilek's Return
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Liliana of the Veil
I want to include a second Bolt in the maindeck since it can kill a Jace after Brainstorm and more easily kill BBE than Fatal Push does. So my first change would be:
-1 Fatal Push
+1 Lightning Bolt
Now on to the SB: I want more cards that are good against Jund, Affinity and blue decks. What immediately came to my mind was Lingering Souls. The card crushes Jund and other Shadow Decks while also chumping Affinity all day long. It threatens JTMS and makes his -1 as well a Path to Exile look silly. For that, I need 4-5 new SB slots. That's a lot. 1 Godless Shrine is necessary for the needed access to white mana and then 3-4 copies of Lingering Souls. I feel like 4 is too many and since we cycle through our deck so fast and can dump them into our graveyard with Thought Scour as well, 3 should be enough. So what do I cut? The first and most obvious cut for me are the Young Pyromancers, since they become irrelevant when playing Lingering Souls. But besides that? I am not really sure what else to cut. Disdainful Stroke is a pet card of mine and I would hate to cut it since it's one of the only answers to Primeval Titan. I thought about cutting 1 LotV since she comes in in the same matchups as the Souls do, not sure though. What do you guys think? And please let me know if you disagree with my assumptions!
hey congrats on the finish,
regarding the shadow mu vs control (UW, UWR or UB) how do you play the matchup? I try to discard and take their answers, but it seems like they have too many. Is it better to play draw go until you accumulate discard before playing the threats? I'm struggling with the MU. Our deck is threat light and if they answer it, it could be a few turns before we get another
This is a tricky one. "Take the answers" is probably a reasonable rule of thumb, but it really depends on your hand. It can be suicidal to just jam your only threat out unprotected, but you can't just sit back. If you try to play their game on even ground then eventually they will just bury you. UWR will just bolt you to death, UW will repeatedly Strip Mine you and planewalker you to death, and Grixis will start looping commands. Jace in all three of these decks just makes the 'sit back and wait' approach even worse.
When you play a discard spell, make sure you evaluate which answers matter. If you have a Tasigur Remand jumps way up. If you have a Liliana Celestial Purge is much more dangerous. If you are going to get Pathed, try to have it happen as soon as possible to get the free Rampant Growth. Accelerating your Snapcasters into flashing back relevant spells can put you on the front foot (Turn three snap plus Thoughtseize, take your removal, play Shadow, etc.). Jaces, Cryptics, and Snapcaster Mages are also generally good targets for discard. They have way more 2-for-1s than you, so turning them into 1-for-1 trades helps a lot. Supreme Verdict is another one to be careful of because Thoughtseize and possibly Collective Brutality are our only answers.
Their cards are much more powerful than ours, but ours are cheaper. They will very rarely be able to cast 5 spells on the first 3 turns, while we do that all the time. It is a very fine tightrope, but you have to balance being aggressive and leveraging your speed and tempo advantages while not opening yourself out to just losing the game on the spot to a single removal spell or sweeper.
I tried a few games this way, and I replaced Denials with Mana Leaks as @stonecrowe mentioned. It really does play like Grixis Delver with Shadows and Bedlam Revelers. I felt the deck was slow, which left me wanting a faster way to draw cards and accelerate. I'm not really sure if Grixis is the way to go here - Snapcasters don't play well with Reveler. Mardu seems faster, and has more synergy. I'll keep trying to make either of them work.
Grixis Death's Shadow
RBW
Mardu Pyromancer
GBR
Gx Tron
Were you asking me? If yes, then the answer is no. I've never moved on to Baubles, even in classic GDS. In GDS with Bedlams and YPs, that's a total no-no
Grixis Death's Shadow
RBW
Mardu Pyromancer
GBR
Gx Tron
1) As a creature, he fuels delve
2) As a creature, he draws removal
3) As a creature, he filters for threats and lets us discard the cards that aren't relevant in a particular matchup
4) As a planeswalker, he is a lot better defensively than snapcaster
5) As a planeswalker, he has a higher ceiling than snapcaster
6) He is less mana intensive, meaning he has an easier time flashing back kolaghan's command (Kommand back a shadow, play a shadow is only 4 mana instead of 6 with snapcaster) or double casting a spell (e.g. push flashback push, or even better battlerage flashback battlerage for your second threat)
7) He is a threat that can accrue advantage over time, unlike snapcaster whose body is usually too small to gain any advantage off. Because of this, he contributes to a lot more keepable hands (a hand with JVP is much more keepable than one with snapcaster to apply pressure early).
8) He is GREAT against phantasmal image.
He has some downsides compared to snapcaster:
1) He can't beat down
2) He can't flash back at instant speed
3) He is a worse topdeck
4) He is worse at recovering losing board states
5) He does not always provide true card advantage
6) He is bad in multiples
I think he is worth testing. He fits a similar grindy role as snapcaster but is much more proactive, which I think is in line with what the deck wants to be doing - getting ahead on board and pushing that advantage.
I could see going from 4 snaps / 1 Kommand to 3 JVP / 3 Kommand.
Anyway, how are peoples resolts post BBE and Jace. Any changes? Has anyone gone to torunaments? What were your results?
Snap is also not "immense value" when it mostly just snaps back push or stubborn denial. Snap is way better in a deck running multiple kommands, cryptics, or bolt.
First I feel like the fact that JVP is not played at all in modern would argue against him. Second if don't think that snapcaster mage is "immense value" you might want to change deck. Mostly just flashbacking push and stubborn denial is actually really great and wins you game. Alright I'm done with you
One question : I've seen some lists with 2 lightning bolts in the SB and I was wondering why? Upping the count of spot removals against humans? Getting a faster clock for control matchups where you need to remove all the pushes, the battle rages and dismember ?
If you don't question the default assumptions of everyone else you're just not going to innovate in the deck. For the longest time temur battle rage and dismember were eschewed. And JVP not seeing modern play is not a good argument - it did see modern play and no one could figure out a shell for him because he belongs in a disruptive tap-out blue jund style deck... which fits the description of GDS.
Lightning bolt is a necessary card nowadays and that should be obvious with humans, jtms, and bbe in the format. I think 2 in the 75 is necessary.
There's no need to ditch the delve creatures. Jace is 4 mana. With thoughtseize and stubborn denial they can't just slam it down on turn 4 and call it a day. Plus gurmag and Tasigur can easily come down on turn 2 and turn 3 on the play, and turn 2 on the draw safely, plenty of time to do damage and find some protection.
I also see some people wanting to play Jace too. I haven't done much testing but you can't play a 4 mana card without upping the land counts, up to 20 lands probably. Adding 2 Jace and 2 lands now you have to cut 4 cards from an already tight decklist. You can't cut threats, you can't cut stubborn denial and thoughtseize, you can't cut thoughtscour. You can maybe cut 2 Inquisition and some removals, but removals are already so important to win matchups where discard is weaker (all creatures matchups, especially humans and affinity). So you are weakening your tried and true gameplan : Protect the queen.
There's also a point to be made when adding a new card. Does it improve your bad matchups while keeping the other fair? Sure the meta is still up in the air but hey it's modern, people won't change their pet deck so fast and budget is still an issue for a lot of people so you won't see drastic changes for the moment. So what would Jace brings you in the meta we know? Does it helps against tough matchups like Affinity, Humans, UW or Jeskai Control or any decks aggressively attacking the mana base? My guess is that he doesn't, except against control deck where you could really use the extra grind package Jace is packing.
At the very moment, I would just advocate for a split 3/1 Fatal push lightning bolt and just wait and see how decks around you will change.
But Jace is just one part of the problem. The tought of my opponent cascading BEE into blood moon or Liliana of the Veil or K-command is more scary to me than Jace. BBE is also a cheaper cards that people will more easily try, so BBE decks will be on the rise quick. Also, fatal push's stocks are now a tad lower now that 3 CMC creatures are even more valuable with BBE. Lightning bolt might do a come back, in our decklist and in the meta.
All in all I think GDS will still be good going forward. It rewards tight plays and that might be one of the limiting factors for this deck. You need to get good to get the results going and that's tough.
I have been messing around with it the last few days and the main problem that I faced was that the package just takes up so much space. I don't think the manabase can support Godless Shrine in the MB so we're looking at 4-5 slots in the SB. That's basically one third of our sideboard dedicated to Lingering Souls. That space can be used much more efficiently.
I actually like the idea of an extra land in the sideboard. A lot of the sideboard cards (sweepers, lilianas, staticaster and K-command) are 3 CMC and reaching those 3 lands by turn 3 is key. Adding an extra land goes a long way. I have not found that having those four slots for lingering is a problem yet.