That's a spicy meatball. I feel like cutting a Mist-cloaked Herald can't be right. I suspect this one goes to show the strength of the Curious Obsession/Dive Down package more than anything else. Still, a 5-0 is a 5-0.
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It's an interesting list. The deck also has 3 Opt not listed there.
I have to say, I absolutely hateNightveil Sprite, Surveil or no Surveil. 1/2 flyer for 2 feels super lackluster quite often, but high-value flying 2 drops are in short supply.
I love Exclusion Mage because getting cards out of the way is good and I love upping our Wizard count, but CMC 3 is a bit tough main deck and can be a bit of a tempo buzz-kill.
Removing any Mist-Cloaked Herald seems like a mistake, an early 1 drop is too important.
Sideboard is not amazing, but I like trying out Selective Snare for Tokens, Knights, and Angels. It is a "Finish Them!" move, not really a tempo move. You don't want to use this unless you are dead next turn or getting their blockers out of the way to finish them off, in which case at Sorcery Speed, I'm not sure it isn't a bit redundant with Sleep, just possibly a little cheaper if you only need to move 1 creature.
Here is what feels like the core of the deck, based on how everyone is reporting their results, which only leaves a few slots.
I like to keep things simple and fill the 12 spots with Nightveil Sprite, Opt, and Spell Pierce. I like the surveil on Nightveil Sprite quite a bit. Even without Curious Obsession, getting multiple swings in over a long game is helpful. It also dodges random Chainwhirlers and Justice Strike, for what it's worth. Warkite Marauder is better if you see a lot of flying blockers. Opt is just as good as Chart a Course at finding that one card I need out of the top two, and the casting cost and instant speed are both a big advantage. Spell Pierce has targets everywhere and is the ultimate tempo play.
Exclusion Mage is great against most aggro decks. It's terrible against Golgari and against control. Classic sideboard card, in my opinion.
I do think it's perfectly reasonable to mix up those twelve spots according to your preferences and your expected meta.
Since all of anyone elses creatures come into play and do something, the best it ever seems to do is block something of equivalent value, after that creature has done whatever it needs to do.
Blocking a Run-away Steam-kin really doesn't solve the problem.
Same with the B or G explore creatures. They have already explored. Block and trade seems the best it can hope for.
Blocking a Chainwhirler seems good, except that if a chainwhirler has entered the battlefield, things are bad.
Doesn't deal with Warboss, unless it is late, and you have mana, and a way to protect it, which I Spoze this deck does in Dive down, but even then there is a 2/2 bonus goblin coming around the side.
Steel leaf & Nullhide & Cupa & Doom Whisperer & Tyrant & Angels and. . . .
Even in the mirror it does very little.
When is Surgemare it good?
Are you really using it to attack?
I am having similar questions about Diamond Mare, but that one does seem a little easier.
Surviving against Burn red, but, what else?
I kinda wanna play 4 of them base, with Zahid.
(Diamond Mare is a joke on Unicorns pooping Rainbows, right?)
It is all over the place, and Surge Mare is nowhere.
Nor is negate, or exclusion mage.
The base deck may have solidified into a cohesive core.
The sideboard is all over the place.
Personally, I like the War-Kites, and the Essence Scatters to be base deck.
I reckon a singleton Mystic Archaeologist base would also be fine. Flooding out with 20-21 land does still happen.
Since all of anyone elses creatures come into play and do something, the best it ever seems to do is block something of equivalent value, after that creature has done whatever it needs to do.
Blocking a Run-away Steam-kin really doesn't solve the problem.
It solves the problem of a 4/4 creature killing you before your flying attack can finish the game. The problem of them comboing with Experimental Frenzy can hopefully be solved by your counter suite. Similarly, the problem of a 4/3 Jadelight Ranger beating us down is neatly solved by the Surge Mare.
We are a deck that gets into race situations quite often. An 0/5 blocker that blanks their biggest attacker can help a lot with the race. In my experience it saves more life than a Diamond Mare, either by blocking a Chainwhirler/Steamkin or by absorbing two burn spells where the Diamond Mare only eats one. I hear stories of people gaining tons of life with multiple Diamond Mares but in my experience a good burn player will not let that happen.
The fact that the 0/5 threatens to get in for 4 if the opponent goes all in is a nice bonus.
You aren't putting Curious Obsession on it unless the opponent is on no creatures (and red removal, which is why the mare is in) or all green creatures. In those situations the loot is nice.
I'm not sure why you mention the Warboss, since the Surge Mare at least threatens to eat it if you have open mana while the Diamond Mare does nothing.
The Surge Mare is indeed bad in several matchups, among them the mirror, which is why it is in the sideboard instead of the main deck.
It solves the problem of a 4/4 creature killing you before your flying attack can finish the game. The problem of them comboing with Experimental Frenzy can hopefully be solved by your counter suite. Similarly, the problem of a 4/3 Jadelight Ranger beating us down is neatly solved by the Surge Mare.
We are a deck that gets into race situations quite often. An 0/5 blocker that blanks their biggest attacker can help a lot with the race. In my experience it saves more life than a Diamond Mare, either by blocking a Chainwhirler/Steamkin or by absorbing two burn spells where the Diamond Mare only eats one. I hear stories of people gaining tons of life with multiple Diamond Mares but in my experience a good burn player will not let that happen.
The fact that the 0/5 threatens to get in for 4 if the opponent goes all in is a nice bonus.
You aren't putting Curious Obsession on it unless the opponent is on no creatures (and red removal, which is why the mare is in) or all green creatures. In those situations the loot is nice.
I'm not sure why you mention the Warboss, since the Surge Mare at least threatens to eat it if you have open mana while the Diamond Mare does nothing.
The Surge Mare is indeed bad in several matchups, among them the mirror, which is why it is in the sideboard instead of the main deck.
But, it doesn't solve the problem of a 4/4 attacking since it costs the same, and the Flame dude can kill the Surge Mare with a shock, or a chainwhirler, or a hastey 1/1. Especially since the counters on the Flame dude can pay for a spell pierce. If you are blocking a Chainwhirler, the chainwhirler has already wiped all but your Djinns & Tricksters, so the game is going BAD.
Bring the Surge Mares in at all seems a really bad idea. Tapping out to pump them, and having it get killed sounds like a hideous tempo swing.
They just seem bad against red.
In a similar way, if they have a 4/3 Jadelight, cool. That is card for card and Blue Tempo has a one mana advantage.
If the Jadelight got 1 land and a counter instead, or the Jadelight got 2 land, the surge mare is really not working out.
A 4/3 Jadelight seems to be the absolute best possible outcome to be blocking, and that is marginal at best.
And that is my point.
If they cast a turn two Steel Leaf, as is their plan, or even a turn 3-4 NullHide Ferrox, tapping out the turn before to cast a Surge Mare looks REALLY BAD. There aint no way you is gunna race that, and if it sucks most of the time against Red & Green. . .Why Play it?
Against a warboss, 'if you have open mana' means you use it to pay for the activation, and they can do as they wish after you spend it. Or, they cast something, you counter, and then they attack. Both suck as they are in control of the situation.
And, since when are they ever going to absorb 2 burn spells?
The only reason to burn it is to get ground pounders through it. Attack, block, burn is only ever going to get 1 burn spell. I spoze you could Dive down, and pump it. Hell you could counterswing with a dive down and 3 activations, take 6, but, Really?
Curious obsession of the Surge Mare, or Diamond Mare is an act of desperation, but, sure.
Wouldn't Obsession just be better on a 2 cost flyer instead?
I mean, any 2 cost flyer seems a better investment than SurgeMare?
Ravenous Chupa is causing me hassles, especially combined with things like Murder, Dead weight and Cast Down.
Deathtouch, (especially from the pirate) is also a very real problem.
Red players playing Shock, Lightning strike, Wiz Lightning, Chainwhirler and Hastey-Gob always seem to have burn available.
Surge Mare does little in the mirror.
Surge mare does little against Angels.
When do you sideboard it in?
.
Also, I think I prefer the Siren Dreamer to sleep.
Except of course if the have a Carnage Tyrant. Which they will
Curious obsession of the Surge Mare, or Diamond Mare is an act of desperation, but, sure.
Wouldn't Obsession just be better on a 2 cost flyer instead?
I mean, any 2 cost flyer seems a better investment than SurgeMare?
Don't remember anyone saying to put Curious Obsession on Surge Mare. If you do end up doing it, it's a rare scenario.
Ok, I read your post and I have a suggestion, instead of writing a lot about what isn't working, post a decklist so we can get a better idea of what to help you with in your particular matchups...
Furthermore, no one is telling you, or for that matter, forcing you to run Surge Mare in the sideboard. I'm not saying this to be harsh. I mean when it comes to your local meta it just may not make sense to have it in there if it just dies or doesn't impact the board when it comes down. Also the card may not fit your playstyle and the way you feel the deck needs to operate. On top of that OP told you that Surge Mare is bad in some matchups which includes the mirror.
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It's short 1 spell, and 2 cards in the sideboard.
.
Again, the main is regular, and the board is scattered.
I like the 2 Warkites, reduced spell pierce, And no SurgeMare
.
Is Chart a Course really better than Anticipate? (instant)
Neither seem needed, or better than another 2 cost flyer.
Is Chart a Course really better than Anticipate? (instant)
Neither seem needed, or better than another 2 cost flyer.
I'd take Chart a Course over Anticipate. Getting 2 cards after attacking at 2 mana is what we are looking to do. If we are trying to make a play on the opponent's end step. We would play Opt.
Nightveil Sprite is an option a lot of the earlier decklists have him in there...some people have decided that it's not good enough.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
@kysg
The issue isn't that we didn't know the deck has legs (opinions of deck supporters on a forum is in no sense definitive and MTGO 5-0 results are just part of the proof) or that a respected player (who is not known for playing decks like this and therefore valued it enough to go outside their favored archetype) played it, which is just gravy, but that it put up a strong showing at a major paper event.
Personally, I expect this Standard format to continue to develop through the Pro Tour.
Look at the two events, where Jeskai Control had a strong showing in both (5 in Top 16 at NY, 3 in Lille), but also the variety and prominence of other decks that made Top 16:
GB Midrange: 2 Top 16 but no Top 8 in NJ, 6 Top 16 with 2 Top 8 in Lille
Boros Angels: 3 Top 16 with 1 Top 8 in NJ, but zero in Lille
Izzet Phoenix: 1 in Top 8 at NJ, 4 Top 16 with 1 Top 8 in Lille
Selesnya Tokens: 2 Top 16, 1 Top 8 in NJ, 1 in Lille
Mono-U Tempo, 2nd place Lille
Frenzy R, 1st place Lille
WG Angels, Top 8 NJ
WG Mid-range, Top 16 NJ
That is not only a lot of variety, but wildly different Top 16 weightings for each deck, and 5 "rogue" (only 1-of in the Top 16, not necessarily less played across both days) decks out of the 8 decks in Top 4 across both events. Only Jeskai Control and Izzet Phoenix were present in the Top 8 of both tournaments.
@kysg
The issue isn't that we didn't know the deck has legs (opinions of deck supporters on a forum is in no sense definitive and MTGO 5-0 results are just part of the proof) or that a respected player (who is not known for playing decks like this and therefore valued it enough to go outside their favored archetype) played it, which is just gravy, but that it put up a strong showing at a major paper event.
Personally, I expect this Standard format to continue to develop through the Pro Tour.
Look at the two events, where Jeskai Control had a strong showing in both (5 in Top 16 at NY, 3 in Lille), but also the variety and prominence of other decks that made Top 16:
GB Midrange: 2 Top 16 but no Top 8 in NJ, 6 Top 16 with 2 Top 8 in Lille
Boros Angels: 3 Top 16 with 1 Top 8 in NJ, but zero in Lille
Izzet Phoenix: 1 in Top 8 at NJ, 4 Top 16 with 1 Top 8 in Lille
Selesnya Tokens: 2 Top 16, 1 Top 8 in NJ, 1 in Lille
Mono-U Tempo, 2nd place Lille
Frenzy R, 1st place Lille
WG Angels, Top 8 NJ
WG Mid-range, Top 16 NJ
That is not only a lot of variety, but wildly different Top 16 weightings for each deck, and 5 "rogue" (only 1-of in the Top 16, not necessarily less played across both days) decks out of the 8 decks in Top 4 across both events. Only Jeskai Control and Izzet Phoenix were present in the Top 8 of both tournaments.
I'm not seeing a whole lot of variety there, but anyways to each his own. The meta will shake everything out as usual.
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No artifacts
No enchantments
No combo
No landkill
No man lands
No life gain
Sorry, where was the variety?
Just efficient POWER cards as far as I can see, (and Izzet, and This Deck).
Black only gets played with green
Blue doesn't see play other than Phoenix & Jeskai, so, no counters outside of Jeskai control.
Very little in the way of 'Boring' creatures. (By this I mean Cast creature, next turn Hit you.)
The Simple aggro stuff seems to be just Angels.
Maybe the WG tokens. Even Red doesn't fit the 'Boring' Profile because of Experiment & Chainwhirler.
* ( I think there may be an effective Pirates/Nicol Bolas deck as well ) *
This format is so small, and even more narrow than normal.
This Blue deck is strong, is playable, and will skyrocket in cost to buy the cards.
Even though they are mostly uncommons.
Purely because all the other decks are so set, and largely self building.
Eg, The best Angels deck will include lots of set cards.
Lyra, Nullhide Ferrox, Doom Whisperer, Chupacabra, Steel leaf, Tyrant.
(I mean, read the Carnage Tyrant's flavour text.)
A couple of Saga, and planeswalkers, and obvious cards to build up to those cards, and that seems to be the vast majority of the format.
Just like this deck is solidifying so quickly down to such a specific list.
* * *
And, my point with Chart a Course vs Anticipate is that this deck really doesn't seem to use Island number 5 at all.
Tempest Djinn is the only way to spend 3 mana, so, what do you care if you draw a land and a spell?
(Sure, Island number 4 is used to protect the Djinn, or double cast 2 drops.)
Island 5 seems bad.
Using the simplest of math, 1/3 of the deck is Islands. One third of 12 is 4. Chart a course on turn 3 on the draw, and that is cards 8,9,10 and then 11 & 12 for the Chart. Draw card 13 on turn 4, and you really don't want to see Island number 5.
Chart a course just seems bad in a deck labelled 'Tempo'.
Tapping out seems more important, because counter-spelling their Steel Leaf or Chainwhirler matters.
I think Opt is already a 4 of, Chart is not in competition with Opt.
Drawing 2x Islands is really not that good, and this deck will have very little to do with the mana, and that will happen 1 in 9.
One in 27 with Anticipate seems a better deal.
Sure, drawing an Island and a spell is better, or two spells, but casting a 2 cost Flier seems much better than either of those two options.
Nightviel already seems to do that filtering, but warkite does SO much more damage.
Warkite often allows other creatures to get through, like the Tricksters.
Warkite also makes the bounce mages much better, which is why they are in Nassif's board.
With all the flying creatures running around in standard these days I'm sold on the Warkite Marauder. For me it takes the Phoenix matchup from unwinnable to merely unfavorable. It's also a big help with Boros/Jeskai angels, which I've been seeing quite a bit lately. Even the mono red decks seem to run as many Rekindling Phoenixes as Chainwhirlers any more.
I'm also liking Sleep over Time of Ice with Carnage Tyrant on the rise.
And, my point with Chart a Course vs Anticipate is that this deck really doesn't seem to use Island number 5 at all.
Tempest Djinn is the only way to spend 3 mana, so, what do you care if you draw a land and a spell?
(Sure, Island number 4 is used to protect the Djinn, or double cast 2 drops.)
Island 5 seems bad.
Using the simplest of math, 1/3 of the deck is Islands. One third of 12 is 4. Chart a course on turn 3 on the draw, and that is cards 8,9,10 and then 11 & 12 for the Chart. Draw card 13 on turn 4, and you really don't want to see Island number 5.
Chart a course just seems bad in a deck labelled 'Tempo'.
Tapping out seems more important, because counter-spelling their Steel Leaf or Chainwhirler matters.
I think Opt is already a 4 of, Chart is not in competition with Opt.
Drawing 2x Islands is really not that good, and this deck will have very little to do with the mana, and that will happen 1 in 9.
One in 27 with Anticipate seems a better deal.
Sure, drawing an Island and a spell is better, or two spells, but casting a 2 cost Flier seems much better than either of those two options.
I'm fairly confident Opt is a 4-of. At best Chart A Course is a 2-of in the deck. From a more base standpoint Anticipate's draw 3 get 1 seems counterproductive even with it's instant speed clause which one would rather use Opt for. At best either card is a 2-of in the deck.
With all the flying creatures running around in standard these days I'm sold on the Warkite Marauder. For me it takes the Phoenix matchup from unwinnable to merely unfavorable. It's also a big help with Boros/Jeskai angels, which I've been seeing quite a bit lately. Even the mono red decks seem to run as many Rekindling Phoenixes as Chainwhirlers any more.
I'm also liking Sleep over Time of Ice with Carnage Tyrant on the rise.
Is this card a 2-of? I know we saw it in earlier decklists taking the split with Nightveil Sprite or are you just cutting sprite completely to add flex slots cards like Sleep. Also thinking about these other sideboards...do you think they have gone into a more toolbox mode with the sideboards?
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"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
No artifacts
No enchantments
No combo
No landkill
No man lands
No life gain
Sorry, where was the variety?
By "variety", I first and foremost mean deck archetypes, not card type, mechanic, or ability/keyword variety. Secondarily, I am referring to the presence of 9 actually different decks out of 32.
Unlike Standard for the past couple of years, which has been "all mid-range, all day" with some aggro and a little control, we see Mid-Range, Control, Aggro and Tempo (tempo has really been absent since Theros Block.) Given that Hybrid is the only other real archetype, and is incredibly uncommon in general, that is variety and in a particularly important way for diversity of game play.
That doesn't mean that mid-range is not still a majority of the decks (Boros Angels, BG, GW Angels, GW Tokens are all a variation on styles of Mid-range), but I think given the power level of creatures and Planeswalkers WotC is committed to for now, that will tend to favor the mid-range archetype. Even so, I don't mind seeing at least 4 different kinds of mid-range decks.
I also expect the format to sort out more post-Pro Tour and settle into a few Tier 1 decks, but it would be interesting if we had some genuinely Tier 2 decks because in the last two blocks you kind of went from Tier 1 to non-competitive really quickly.
Quibbles (not really pertinent to "variety" as such, but I would't say that these have anything to do with variety in a format really.)
Even if we accept the conflation of card types with deck archetypes, I don't understand how you can say there are no enchantments in standard when Seal Away, History of Benalia, Legion's Landing, and Ixalan's Binding are all over the place. Our whole deck wouldn't be a thing without... Curious Obsession.
Combo, which is not an archetype but a win condition that can be had by literally any archetype, is actually infrequent in Standard because of the lack of interaction to stop it when it really is a finisher. The last Combo finisher, the mid-range Eldrazi + Aetherworks Marvel setup, got hit with the ban hammer on Emrakul for good reason.
Artifacts are also not traditionally defining and essential for every format, but are based on the world setting. It just so happens we went through two blocks with very heavy amounts of colorless and artifact spells which were very powerful, so fewer in GoR makes sense. This is even more true for Man-lands, which we won't get because we are getting the shock land/buddy land cycle.
Cheap, efficient, non-symmetrical land destruction is a mechanic MTG moved away from because, well, it isn't fun (and I play LD decks for giggles in multiple formats.) I don't know when the last time you could define a format by that. Besides which, the quite excellent Field of Ruin is still legal, it's just not amazing.
TL/DR
A much better player (that is incredible understatement) saying essentially the same thing.
Is this card a 2-of? I know we saw it in earlier decklists taking the split with Nightveil Sprite or are you just cutting sprite completely to add flex slots cards like Sleep. Also thinking about these other sideboards...do you think they have gone into a more toolbox mode with the sideboards?
My thinking is that I want the main deck to be as consistent as possible. Spell Pierce is a 4-of because (a) it's such a blowout when it works, (b) it at least has targets against every deck out there, and (c) I want to max the chances of a nut draw of obsession + 1 mana protection.
I've been fine with Trickster and Marauder as the only anti-creature measures in the main deck. The only thing they don't deal with is Niv-Mizzet, and if the opponent lives long enough to untap with a Niv-Mizzet in game one I'm willing to just write that game off.
I've haven't been bringing in the Deep Freeze lately, even against the Dracophoenix deck. I think Nassif probably had it right just trying to chain Exclusion Mage against them.
My last two competitive leagues were a 4-1 and a 5-0. Both leagues started off with four straight wins and then a matchup with Jeskai control. I lost the first one 1-2 and won the second 2-1. Apropos to the earlier discussion, the difference in the games was that I brought Surge Mare in out of the sideboard the second time. In game 3 of the 5-0 league a turn 2 Surge Mare looted through my mana flood, found and carried Curious Obsession, and basically valued my opponent out of the game.
Surge Mare tanks a lot of the Jeskai removal package: Deafening Clarion, Justice Strike, Shock. Getting to save your counters for their haymakers is very nice.
For me the sideboard is there to tune the counter suite and, if necessary, tool up for a race. I don't think blue really has silver bullets right now but it has the cards to lean one way or the other and still play with efficiency.
I like the 20/20/20 split, and I like that it's pretty easy to find space to bring in four sideboard cards by trimming on cards that are better in game one than game two (the reliable -2 opt, -2 spell pierce plan).
Can't say for sure, but it seemed like he was on Nassif's list.
Round 1: Mono-U mirror (2-0)
Keep seven: island, island, island, stormtamer, marauder, dive down, obsession
Certainly feels like I'm starting the league off on the right foot.
Opponent keeps six and scries to the bottom.
My T1: play island, stormtamer
Opp T1: island
My T2: draw spell pierce; play obsession on stormtamer, get in and draw wizard's retort
Opp T2: island
My T3: draw island; play island, attack, opp plays trickster, I dive down; draw opt, play marauder
I didn't retort because I wanted to get value out of the dive down, which isn't easy in the mirror. Also if I retort it means I only have one land out and he can play a djinn to block.
It's possible I should have left Retort up, but I wanted to get the Marauder going. Extra beats, and it takes care of any blocker they play.
Opp T3: island, obsession on trickster, attack
Bummer. He did have the mana to retort my retort, but he may not have had the retort at the time.
My T4: draw island; play island, attack, draw pierce; postcombat opt shows obsession, which I draw
I pass with three islands up, life 17-12 my advantage, hand of: island, pierce, pierce, retort, obsession; opponent has 6 cards in hand after drawing
Opp T4: island, attacks; postcombat plays stormtamer
My T5: draw island; play island, obsession on marauder; opponent retorts, I pierce and attack; draw two islands, and pass
Opp T5: island, attack; postcombat chart a course
My T6: draw opt; play island, attack; opponent tricksters, which I retort; draw marauder and herald, postcombat play marauder
Life is now 10-2 me with two island, pierce, opt, herald in hand
Opp T6: island, plays sleep with two mana up; I completely forget stormtamer can counter it and let it go; opponent attacks and plays postcombat marauder; I opt into a marauder
My T7: draw trickster, play marauder and herald and pass (obsessions go away)
Opp T7: scoop
I was fairly happy with how the game went. I could have tried to block the trickster and keep him from drawing cards, but I felt like as long as I was winning the race and achieving card parity it was fine. Lots of stuff can go wrong in the mirror once you start playing defensively. Missing the stormtamer activation was a little embarrassing, but I was far enough ahead by then that it didn't end up mattering.
This matchup tends to be about obsession, djinns, and racing.
Keep seven: island, island, island, scatter, stormtamer, herald, djinn
Another easy keep.
Opponent is also on seven.
Opp T1: island, stormtamer
Uh-oh. I'm naked against an obsession here.
My T1: draw island; play island, herald
Opp T2: island, attacks (yay!)
My T2: draw sleep; play island, attack into very fishy open mana, opp tricksters, I scatter
Opp T3: island, djinn, attacks
My T3: draw island; play island, djinn, attack with herald
Opp T4: island, plays herald, attacks with djinn; I take it to go to 14-18 in life.
My T4: draw trickster, play island, attack with herald; postcombat I play stormtamer
Opp T5: plays island, casts selective snare on djinn (I stormtamer), attacks with herald; I trickster to eat the herald
I'm not sure it's right to keep the siren over the herald there, but I guess he wants to protect his djinn.
Opponent now has Djinn and Stormtamer staring down my Djinn, Herald, and Trickster; opp has one card in hand.
My T5: draw trickster, play island (now have sleep and trickster in hand); herald attacks
My tentative plan is to get him to spend his siren countering my trickster and then sleep him for the win. The herald hit puts him to 16, dead in two hits if all goes to plan.
Opp T6: sleep, attacks; I trickster to eat the siren
My T6: draw retort, attack with trickster (life totals are 9-14)
Opp T7: stormtamer (I counter), obsession on djinn (last card), attacks me to 3 and draws a card
My T7: draw exclusion mage, cast exclusion mage, opp counters, attack with tricksters and herald (3-9)
Opp T8: no plays, no attacks, obsession falls off
My T8: draw island, play island, cast sleep, opp scoops
An interesting game with no obsession on either side. Trickster value proved to be surprisingly important.
Round 2: Jeskai control (2-0)
Keep seven: island, island, island, herald, trickster, djinn, spell pierce
Another fine seven.
Opponent keeps seven.
Opp T1: glacial fortress
My T1: draw island, play island, pass
I'm looking to snipe a turn 2 azcanta. I don't mind giving up a point or two of damage for that.
Opp T2: clifftop retreat
My T2: draw stormtamer; play island, herald
Opp T3: island
My T3: draw retort, attack; opp EOT revitalizes
Opp T4: sulfur falls, I EOT trickster
My T4: draw obsession, play island, stormtamer; opp sabotages, tapping all his red lands; I obsession herald and attack, drawing Marauder
Opp T5: glacial fortress,
My T5: draw island, play island, attack; opp lightning strikes, I retort, he negates, I pierce; I draw spell pierce
Opp T6: sulfur falls, Teferi, I pierce it
My T6: draw retort; attack, draw island, play island, play djinn
Opp T7: explosion for three on herald, I retort, opp scoops
This was the filthiest run of topdecks I've personally experienced in a long time. Also, spell piercing Teferi never gets old.
Surge mare can tank a lot of jeskai's removal, and I like the loot. Otherwise just looking to tune the counter suite.
Keep seven: island, island, retort, negate, stroke, siren, trickster
A little sketchy, but I have cheap creatures and counterspells.
Opp T1: island
My T1: draw djinn; play island, stormtamer; opp opts
Opp T2: sacred foundry untapped
My T2: draw island; play island, attack; opp opts EOT
I think he had Justice Strike here and was holding it up in case of obsession. Both opts have gone to the top.
Opp T3: sulfur falls; I trickster EOT
My T3: draw retort; play island, attack; opp justice strikes trickster EOT and I let it go
Opp T4: steam vents, tapped
My T4: draw island; play island, attack
Life total is 20-13. I have retort, retort, stroke, negate, djinn in hand; opp has five cards
Opp T5: steam vents, tapped
My T5: draw dive down, attack; opp casts seal away EOT, I dive down, opp negates, I let it go
The name of the game is: don't make it easy to resolve Teferi.
Opp T6: search for azcanta; I retort, he sabotages (5 cards in graveyard)
My T6: draw herald, play herald
Opp T7: keeps on top from azcanta and passes
My T7: draw Marauder, attack, cast Marauder, opp sabotages
Opp T8: keeps on top, flips azcanta, casts teferi; I negate; he has one card in hand that apparently is not a negate as Teferi hits the bin
My T8: draw disdainful stroke, attack with herald, cast djinn
I figured it was time to go shields down. He can't azcanta plus teferi. If I just let time go by without pressuring the Azcanta is going to beat me. If his last card is another five mana bomb then I just have to tip my hat and go to game three.
Opp T9: draw, go
My T9: draw island, play island, attack; opp casts seal away, I retort, he uses azcanta to find Chemister's insight.
Life is 20-4, I have two islands up and two disdainful strokes in hand.
Opp T10: azcanta finds lightning strike, opp scoops.
This one got a little scary after he landed the Azcanta, but staying patient on the djinn worked out as my opponent ran himself out of threats before I went shields down. The trick with this matchup is to be conservative with your counterspells.
Round 3: Golgari midrange (2-0)
Keep seven: island, island, island, retort, retort, dive down, obsession
This is so close to the nut hand that I have to keep it. Definitely a hand that can develop poorly, but I choose to believe in the heart of the cards.
Opponent is on seven.
My T1: play island, go
Opp T1: forest, llanowar elves
My T2: draw trickster, play island
Opp T2: I trickster on upkeep to tap the elves; he plays overgrown tomb untapped and seekers' squire (finds a land)
My T3: draw island, obsession on trickster, attack; opp takes it, I draw stormtamer and pass
At this point the plan is to ride the trickster and retorts to victory. I'm fully prepared to use Dive Down as a combat trick. If I had drawn a flying dude I would have taken it slower, but you can't just sit and durdle against Golgari.
Opp T3: casts Jadelight ranger, I retort, he plays memorial to folly
My T4: draw trickster, play island, attack, opp chumps with squire; postcombat I play stormtamer
Opp T4: opp casts chupucabra, I retort; opp plays forest, elves
My T5: draw djinn; attack, opp takes it, I draw island; postcombat I play island, djinn
Life is now 20-11; I have trickster + obsession, stormtamer, and djinn (5/4) in play; opp has two llanowar elves and four lands; I have trickster and dive down in hand
Opp T5: draw, scoops
Merfolk Trickster doesn't look that threatening, but sometimes he does good work in the red zone. It helps when you can back him up with actual factual counterspell. The tapping was pretty big here. A turn two Jadelight Ranger could have changed the whole rhythm of the game.
Keep seven: island, island, obsession, opt, herald, stormtamer, djinn
Certainly can't complain.
Opponent is also on seven.
Opp T1: woodland cemetary
My T1: draw obsession; play island, siren
Opp T2: swamp, cast down on stormtamer
My T2: draw island; play island, herald
Opp T3: plays overgrown tomb, untapped; casts llanowar elves and merfolk branchwalker (binning Vraska's Contempt, never a good sign); I opt, put a djinn to the bottom and draw an island
My T3: draw surge mare; play island, mare, attack with herald
Opp T4: jadelight ranger (binning squire and keeping chups); attacks with elves and branchwalker, mare blocks branchwalker
My T4: draw herald, play island; cast obsession on mare and herald and attack; draw herald, dive down, stormtamer, discard herald; cast stormtamer
Opp T5: casts chups targeting mare, I counter with siren; attacks with branchwalker and ranger
Life total is now 12-14; opp has three lands, elves, branchwalker, jadelight, and chupacabra in play; I have four islands, herald + obsession and mare + obsession
My T5: draw marauder; attack with herald, draw trickster; postcombat cast djinn
Opp T6: forest, eldest reborn; I sacrifice the mare and take a hit from the jadelight
Life is now 8-12.
My T6: draw obsession; cast obsession on herald, attack with the team, draw island + spell pierce; postcombat play island and herald
A chump block with the herald leaves me alive. I have three mana up and trickster, dive down, and spell pierce to stop anything crazy.
Opp T7: draw and scoop.
To me this game illustrates that while Curious Obsession is super awesome, the Tempest Djinn fully deserves top billing in this deck as well. The dude closes out games.
Round 4: Golgari midrange (2-0)
Keep seven: island, island, island, dive down, dive down, herald, marauder
Opponent is on six.
My T1: play island, herald
Opp T1: overgrown tomb, tapped
My T2: draw opt, play island, marauder, attack
Opp T2: forest, branchwalker (binning llanowar elves)
My T3: draw retort, play island, attack for 3
Opp T3: play llanowar, llanowar, attack for 3; I opt EOT and see and keep a retort
My T4: draw djinn, attack for 3
Opp T4: jadelight ranger (I retort it), attack for three
My T5: draw pierce, attack for 3
Life total is now 14-10
Opp T5: seekers' squire (I retort), attack for five
My T6: draw dive down, attack with marauder for 2
Life total is now 9-8.
Opp T6: forest, attack with branchwalker; I block and dive down; postcombat Vivien Reid, I spell pierce
My T7: draw island, play island, attack for three, cast djinn
Opp T7: cast down on djinn, I dive down, opp scoops.
Learning to win this kind of game is what got me from 3-2 and occasional 4-1 finishes to 4-1 and occasional 5-0 finishes. The basic idea is simple: manage the race, don't panic, and don't expose your djinn to removal.
Keep six: island, sleep, retort, opt, essence scatter, obsession
I scry stormtamer to the top. Opponent keeps 7.
Opp T1: forest, llanowar elves
My T1: draw stormtamer; play island, stormtamer
Opp T2: wildgrowth walker, no land drop
My T2: draw essence scatter; play opt, find an island on top, cast obsession on stormtamer and attack, drawing island.
Since my opponent doesn't have black mana, I decide to go ahead and run the obsession out there. His hand is presumably awesome (to keep one land on seven), so I need to try to bury him before he draws lands. Siren will only be exposed for one turn before I have the counter shields up.
Opp T3: woodland cemetary, cast down on the siren, attacks
Opponent was about 30% to hit a black source there. Kind of a bummer, but that's life.
My T3: draw island, play island
Opp T4: Merfolk branchwalker (I essence scatter), attacks
My T4: draw marauder, play island, marauder
Opp T5: seekers' squire (I essence scatter), attacks with walker
Life totals are 15-18. Opponent has two land, elves, and a 1/3 walker. I have four islands and a marauder. He has 4 cards in hand. I have sleep and retort.
Opponent is showing a lot of respect for trickster here. I guess with the mana situation he just can't afford to take even a small chance of losing the elves.
My T5: draw retort, attack
Opp T6: casts wildgrowth walker, attacks with walker
My game plan is to counter the explore creatures. Eventually he should run out.
My T6: draw herald, cast herald, attack with Marauder (14-14)
Opp T7: swamp, attacks with walkers
My T7: draw island, play island, attack; opponent contempts marauder, I let it go (12-15 life totals)
Opp T8: jadelight ranger (I retort), attacks with walkers
My T8: draw opt, opt into curious obsession, obsession on herald and attack; draw djinn
Opp T9: opponent casts find targeting jadelight and squire; I retort it, and he casts down the herald before attacking with his walkers (life total 8-13)
I'd like to protect the herald there but no amount of card draw will let me beat his walkers if he gets three explore triggers.
My T9: draw stormtamer, play djinn and stormtamer (1 mana up)
Opp T10: draw, go
My T10: draw island, play island, attack for 7 (8-6); postcombat cast sleep.
Note that sleep cuts his mana on board down to the three lands by locking down the elves.
Opp T11: cast branchwalker, drawing a forest (8-12).
My T11: draw island, play island, attack for 8 (8-4).
Opponent needs an explore creature in order to kill me. Otherwise he needs to kill the djinn through the stormtamer.
Opp T12: draw, scoop
Wildgrowth Walker is a scary card. In general I find the BG explore package a lot more threatening than the 4-6 drop bomb package.
Round Five: Jeskai Control (2-1)
Keep seven: island, stormtamer, stormtamer, herald, trickster, djinn, opt
A speculative keep. Stormtamer + Herald can be explosive with an obsession, and the opt should help me find lands if needed. Still, a little iffy.
My T1: play island, stormtamer
I like to lead with stormtamer in the dark. If the opponent kills it then it basically did its job of eating a removal spell for the herald.
Opp T1: clifftop retreat
My T2: draw island, play island, stormtamer, herald, attack for one
Analysis: at this point, this hand will never ever beat a deafening clarion. It will also struggle with a long game. Our best chance of winning is to close the game out quickly if the opponent has an awkward draw. Therefore we go all in and hope the opponent doesn't have it.
Opp T2: island
My T3: draw island, play island, attack for three
Opp T3: sulfur falls, go; I opt EOT, bottom a trickster and draw a retort; I also play trickster, which gets syncopated
My T4: draw island, attack for three, play djinn
Opp T4: glacial fortress
My T5: draw spell pierce, attack for seven
Opp T5: sulfur falls, teferi, I spell pierce it, scoops.
As I hoped. Opponent had a clunky draw and mono-blue can punish that kind of thing.
Keep seven: island, island, obsession, herald, dive down, djinn, marauder
A dream seven. I still can't believe I lost this game.
Opp T1: steam vents, tapped
My T1: draw marauder, play island, herald
Opp T2: Azor's gateway
My T2: draw retort, play island, obsession, attack; draw stormtamer
Opp T3: glacial fortress
My T3: draw djinn, attack; opponent casts seal away, I dive down; draw opt; opt into an island and play it; opp uses gateway
Opp T4: sulfur falls, uses gateway, clarions away my board
At this point opponent has 3 cards in hand, and four lands and a gateway in play. I have three islands in play. In hand I have stormtamer, marauder, marauder, djinn, djinn, retort
My T4: draw herald, play stormtamer
Opp T5: revitalize, clifftop retreat, pass
My T5: draw retort, attack, play herald, opponent gateways
Opp T6: steam vents, untapped
My T6: draw island, play island, attack with stormtamer and herald; opponent settles, I let it go because I need the lands; opp gateways
Opp T7: draw-go
My T7: draw island, play island, djinn; opp casts Chemister's Insight and uses gateway
Opp T8: steam vents, tapped
My T8: draw surge mare, attack for 7; opponent seals away, I retort; opponent gateways
Life totals now 20-9.
Opp T9: Opp casts chemister's insight, then flips gateway. Taps for 14 mana and casts Teferi. He responds with Explosion for 6 at my face.
At this point he has two Teferis and a Lyra in hand and I can't keep up.
Azor's Gateway did a lot of work in this one. Scary card.
In retrospect maybe I shouldn't have countered that last Seal Away. The problem is that the only way I could leave two counters up was by leaving the board empty.
Keep seven: island, island, island, island, djinn, surge mare, dive down
Not as good as the last seven, but not terrible.
Opp goes to six and scrys to the bottom.
My T1: island
Opp T1: sacred foundry, tapped
My T2: draw island, play island, surge mare
Opp T2: sulfur falls
My T3: draw island, attack with surge mare, pump; draw island, discard island; opp revitalizes end of turn
Opp T3: sacred foundry, tapped
My T4: draw disdainful stroke, play island, attack with surge mare, pump; draw negate, discard island
Hand is now: island, djinn, dive down, stroke, negate; opp has 6 cards in hand and life is 20-19
Opp T4: glacial fortress
My T5: draw stormtamer, attack and pump; draw retort, discard stormtamer, play island
Opp T5: steam vent, tapped
My T6: draw curious obsession, play on surge mare and attack; draw disdainful stroke, island, discard island
Opp T6: clifftop retreat
My T7: draw herald, attack; draw dive down, trickster, discard trickster; play herald
Opp T7: divination, clifftop retreat
My T8: draw spell pierce, attack with the team; draw surge mare, spell pierce; discard surge mare, then dive down and spell pierce (hand size)
Opp T8: glacial fortress
My T9: draw obsession, attack; opponent settles, I stroke, he expansions on settle, I negate; draw opt, djinn, discard djinn
An island at this point would have made the rest of the game much easier.
Opp T9: plains, star of extinction; I opt, see and island on top and keep it
Hand at this point: retort, stroke, pierce, dive down, obsession, djinn, island; I have 4 land in play, opp has 10 land, with 4 cards in hand; life total is 20-11
My T10: draw marauder, play island, play djinn
Opp T10: steam vents, tapped
My T11: draw island, play island, curious obsession on the djinn, attack for 7; draw marauder
Opp T11: deafening clarion, resolves, deafening clarion, I dive down on djinn, opp shocks djinn, I retort it, opp scoops
He had three land left untapped and I had a spell pierce to cover anything else.
In retrospect I should have been more aggressive about getting the djinn down. I probably could have won earlier without getting the surge mare wiped. Even so, the seven loots from the mare were a big help in stacking my hand so that the djinn could finish the job.
End result, a 5-0 finish to put me in a no doubt short lived tie for the trophy lead.
For those of you curious about the obsession, it hit the board on turn: 2, none, 4, none, 3, 4, none, 2*, none, and 6 (*died after one hit).
In other words, only five of the ten wins featured more than one hit with a Curious Obsession.
On the other hand, the djinn hit the board on turn: none, 3, 6, 8, 5, 5, 7, 9, 4, 10.
So while the djinn wasn't doing all of the work, it did at least show up in 9 out of 10 wins. This is consistent with my general theory of winning with the deck:
Apply early pressure with cheap creatures.
Use counterspells and trickster to manage the race.
Cast Djinn to apply the coup de grace when you can protect it.
If you get good enough pressure with the little guys and counterspells (usually aided by an obsession), then the djinn isn't necessary. And sometimes even if your early pressure is weak, the djinn can bail you out.
I ended up drafting at my LGS last night, another 3-0 for the month and a super sweet Murder promo for the binder!! lol. But now the weeks's limited prep is over, we are on to standard. I ran a bunch of playtesting when I got home and noticed something particularly concerning.
With the influx of UR Arclight, I saw a proverbial boat load of UB Surveil all evening. Now, its possibly I am playing the matchup incorrectly, but I went head to head with it 4 times and went 1-3, and the 1 match win, all ego aside, I felt like I was probably just a more skilled veteran than the opposing mage. If you guys have any insight on this specific matchup, Id love to hear it.
They just simply have too many must counter spells. They are running golden demise MD, rit soot MD, vraska contempt MD, one version has thought erasure MD.
All your guys opinions on my white splash aside, I didnt even have a favorable matchup with Conclave Tribunal and Shalai out of the board. It feels super bad to tribunal 3 demons and still lose.
From what I have heard, UR Arclight doesnt want to see this deck either. So where UR has spiked in popularity and value, I would assume UB surveil takes a higher position in the meta, which could be really bad news for us I think.
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-Stay Frosty
I have to say, I absolutely hate Nightveil Sprite, Surveil or no Surveil. 1/2 flyer for 2 feels super lackluster quite often, but high-value flying 2 drops are in short supply.
I love Exclusion Mage because getting cards out of the way is good and I love upping our Wizard count, but CMC 3 is a bit tough main deck and can be a bit of a tempo buzz-kill.
Removing any Mist-Cloaked Herald seems like a mistake, an early 1 drop is too important.
I would be tempted to drop the Chart a Course and 1 Mage for 1 Herald, 1 Opt, and 1 Nightveil Sprite.
Sideboard is not amazing, but I like trying out Selective Snare for Tokens, Knights, and Angels. It is a "Finish Them!" move, not really a tempo move. You don't want to use this unless you are dead next turn or getting their blockers out of the way to finish them off, in which case at Sorcery Speed, I'm not sure it isn't a bit redundant with Sleep, just possibly a little cheaper if you only need to move 1 creature.
Here is what feels like the core of the deck, based on how everyone is reporting their results, which only leaves a few slots.
20 Island
Creatures 16
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Curious Obsession
4 Opt
4 Dive Down
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
Modern
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
I agree on the core. The 100% common denominator is:
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Curious Obsession
4 Dive Down
4 Wizard's Retort
Then the last 12 spots are:
- 0-1 Island
- 3-4 two mana creature (typically 0-2 Warkite Marauder and 2-4 Nightveil Sprite)
- 2-4 card draw spells (typically 0-4 Opt and 0-2 Chart a Course)
- 2-6 permission spells (0-2 Essence Scatter and 2-4 Spell Pierce)
- 0-2 Exclusion Mage
I like to keep things simple and fill the 12 spots with Nightveil Sprite, Opt, and Spell Pierce. I like the surveil on Nightveil Sprite quite a bit. Even without Curious Obsession, getting multiple swings in over a long game is helpful. It also dodges random Chainwhirlers and Justice Strike, for what it's worth. Warkite Marauder is better if you see a lot of flying blockers. Opt is just as good as Chart a Course at finding that one card I need out of the top two, and the casting cost and instant speed are both a big advantage. Spell Pierce has targets everywhere and is the ultimate tempo play.Exclusion Mage is great against most aggro decks. It's terrible against Golgari and against control. Classic sideboard card, in my opinion.
I do think it's perfectly reasonable to mix up those twelve spots according to your preferences and your expected meta.
Modern
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
Since all of anyone elses creatures come into play and do something, the best it ever seems to do is block something of equivalent value, after that creature has done whatever it needs to do.
Blocking a Run-away Steam-kin really doesn't solve the problem.
Same with the B or G explore creatures. They have already explored. Block and trade seems the best it can hope for.
Blocking a Chainwhirler seems good, except that if a chainwhirler has entered the battlefield, things are bad.
Doesn't deal with Warboss, unless it is late, and you have mana, and a way to protect it, which I Spoze this deck does in Dive down, but even then there is a 2/2 bonus goblin coming around the side.
Steel leaf & Nullhide & Cupa & Doom Whisperer & Tyrant & Angels and. . . .
Even in the mirror it does very little.
When is Surgemare it good?
Are you really using it to attack?
I am having similar questions about Diamond Mare, but that one does seem a little easier.
Surviving against Burn red, but, what else?
I kinda wanna play 4 of them base, with Zahid.
(Diamond Mare is a joke on Unicorns pooping Rainbows, right?)
This is the sideboard last listed above.
4 Diamond Mare
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Blink of an Eye
1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
1 Entrancing Melody
1 Selective Snare
1 Essence Scatter
2 Sleep
2 Metamorphic Alteration
1 Sentinel Totem
It is all over the place, and Surge Mare is nowhere.
Nor is negate, or exclusion mage.
The base deck may have solidified into a cohesive core.
The sideboard is all over the place.
Personally, I like the War-Kites, and the Essence Scatters to be base deck.
I reckon a singleton Mystic Archaeologist base would also be fine. Flooding out with 20-21 land does still happen.
It solves the problem of a 4/4 creature killing you before your flying attack can finish the game. The problem of them comboing with Experimental Frenzy can hopefully be solved by your counter suite. Similarly, the problem of a 4/3 Jadelight Ranger beating us down is neatly solved by the Surge Mare.
We are a deck that gets into race situations quite often. An 0/5 blocker that blanks their biggest attacker can help a lot with the race. In my experience it saves more life than a Diamond Mare, either by blocking a Chainwhirler/Steamkin or by absorbing two burn spells where the Diamond Mare only eats one. I hear stories of people gaining tons of life with multiple Diamond Mares but in my experience a good burn player will not let that happen.
The fact that the 0/5 threatens to get in for 4 if the opponent goes all in is a nice bonus.
You aren't putting Curious Obsession on it unless the opponent is on no creatures (and red removal, which is why the mare is in) or all green creatures. In those situations the loot is nice.
I'm not sure why you mention the Warboss, since the Surge Mare at least threatens to eat it if you have open mana while the Diamond Mare does nothing.
The Surge Mare is indeed bad in several matchups, among them the mirror, which is why it is in the sideboard instead of the main deck.
But, it doesn't solve the problem of a 4/4 attacking since it costs the same, and the Flame dude can kill the Surge Mare with a shock, or a chainwhirler, or a hastey 1/1. Especially since the counters on the Flame dude can pay for a spell pierce. If you are blocking a Chainwhirler, the chainwhirler has already wiped all but your Djinns & Tricksters, so the game is going BAD.
Bring the Surge Mares in at all seems a really bad idea. Tapping out to pump them, and having it get killed sounds like a hideous tempo swing.
They just seem bad against red.
In a similar way, if they have a 4/3 Jadelight, cool. That is card for card and Blue Tempo has a one mana advantage.
If the Jadelight got 1 land and a counter instead, or the Jadelight got 2 land, the surge mare is really not working out.
A 4/3 Jadelight seems to be the absolute best possible outcome to be blocking, and that is marginal at best.
And that is my point.
If they cast a turn two Steel Leaf, as is their plan, or even a turn 3-4 NullHide Ferrox, tapping out the turn before to cast a Surge Mare looks REALLY BAD. There aint no way you is gunna race that, and if it sucks most of the time against Red & Green. . .Why Play it?
Against a warboss, 'if you have open mana' means you use it to pay for the activation, and they can do as they wish after you spend it. Or, they cast something, you counter, and then they attack. Both suck as they are in control of the situation.
And, since when are they ever going to absorb 2 burn spells?
The only reason to burn it is to get ground pounders through it. Attack, block, burn is only ever going to get 1 burn spell. I spoze you could Dive down, and pump it. Hell you could counterswing with a dive down and 3 activations, take 6, but, Really?
Curious obsession of the Surge Mare, or Diamond Mare is an act of desperation, but, sure.
Wouldn't Obsession just be better on a 2 cost flyer instead?
I mean, any 2 cost flyer seems a better investment than SurgeMare?
Ravenous Chupa is causing me hassles, especially combined with things like Murder, Dead weight and Cast Down.
Deathtouch, (especially from the pirate) is also a very real problem.
Red players playing Shock, Lightning strike, Wiz Lightning, Chainwhirler and Hastey-Gob always seem to have burn available.
Surge Mare does little in the mirror.
Surge mare does little against Angels.
When do you sideboard it in?
.
Also, I think I prefer the Siren Dreamer to sleep.
Except of course if the have a Carnage Tyrant. Which they will
We already knew this deck "had legs"...Not sure what your implying. I get that it's Nassif but still...
Don't remember anyone saying to put Curious Obsession on Surge Mare. If you do end up doing it, it's a rare scenario.
Ok, I read your post and I have a suggestion, instead of writing a lot about what isn't working, post a decklist so we can get a better idea of what to help you with in your particular matchups...
Furthermore, no one is telling you, or for that matter, forcing you to run Surge Mare in the sideboard. I'm not saying this to be harsh. I mean when it comes to your local meta it just may not make sense to have it in there if it just dies or doesn't impact the board when it comes down. Also the card may not fit your playstyle and the way you feel the deck needs to operate. On top of that OP told you that Surge Mare is bad in some matchups which includes the mirror.
-Stay Frosty
20 Island
Creatures (18)
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
2 Warkite Marauder
Spells (22)
4 Curious Obsession
2 Chart a Course
4 Dive Down
1 Essence Scatter
2 Spell Pierce
4 Opt
4 Wizard's Retort
1 Sleep
1 Diamond Mare
1 Chemister's Insight
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Negate
1 Entrancing Melody
1 Essence Scatter
1 Selective Snare
4 Exclusion Mage
2 Sleep
1 Sentinel Totem
-Stay Frosty
.
Again, the main is regular, and the board is scattered.
I like the 2 Warkites, reduced spell pierce, And no SurgeMare
.
Is Chart a Course really better than Anticipate? (instant)
Neither seem needed, or better than another 2 cost flyer.
I'd take Chart a Course over Anticipate. Getting 2 cards after attacking at 2 mana is what we are looking to do. If we are trying to make a play on the opponent's end step. We would play Opt.
Nightveil Sprite is an option a lot of the earlier decklists have him in there...some people have decided that it's not good enough.
-Stay Frosty
The issue isn't that we didn't know the deck has legs (opinions of deck supporters on a forum is in no sense definitive and MTGO 5-0 results are just part of the proof) or that a respected player (who is not known for playing decks like this and therefore valued it enough to go outside their favored archetype) played it, which is just gravy, but that it put up a strong showing at a major paper event.
Personally, I expect this Standard format to continue to develop through the Pro Tour.
Look at the two events, where Jeskai Control had a strong showing in both (5 in Top 16 at NY, 3 in Lille), but also the variety and prominence of other decks that made Top 16:
GB Midrange: 2 Top 16 but no Top 8 in NJ, 6 Top 16 with 2 Top 8 in Lille
Boros Angels: 3 Top 16 with 1 Top 8 in NJ, but zero in Lille
Izzet Phoenix: 1 in Top 8 at NJ, 4 Top 16 with 1 Top 8 in Lille
Selesnya Tokens: 2 Top 16, 1 Top 8 in NJ, 1 in Lille
Mono-U Tempo, 2nd place Lille
Frenzy R, 1st place Lille
WG Angels, Top 8 NJ
WG Mid-range, Top 16 NJ
That is not only a lot of variety, but wildly different Top 16 weightings for each deck, and 5 "rogue" (only 1-of in the Top 16, not necessarily less played across both days) decks out of the 8 decks in Top 4 across both events. Only Jeskai Control and Izzet Phoenix were present in the Top 8 of both tournaments.
Modern
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
I'm not seeing a whole lot of variety there, but anyways to each his own. The meta will shake everything out as usual.
-Stay Frosty
No artifacts
No enchantments
No combo
No landkill
No man lands
No life gain
Sorry, where was the variety?
Just efficient POWER cards as far as I can see, (and Izzet, and This Deck).
Black only gets played with green
Blue doesn't see play other than Phoenix & Jeskai, so, no counters outside of Jeskai control.
Very little in the way of 'Boring' creatures. (By this I mean Cast creature, next turn Hit you.)
The Simple aggro stuff seems to be just Angels.
Maybe the WG tokens. Even Red doesn't fit the 'Boring' Profile because of Experiment & Chainwhirler.
* ( I think there may be an effective Pirates/Nicol Bolas deck as well ) *
This format is so small, and even more narrow than normal.
This Blue deck is strong, is playable, and will skyrocket in cost to buy the cards.
Even though they are mostly uncommons.
Purely because all the other decks are so set, and largely self building.
Eg, The best Angels deck will include lots of set cards.
Lyra, Nullhide Ferrox, Doom Whisperer, Chupacabra, Steel leaf, Tyrant.
(I mean, read the Carnage Tyrant's flavour text.)
A couple of Saga, and planeswalkers, and obvious cards to build up to those cards, and that seems to be the vast majority of the format.
Just like this deck is solidifying so quickly down to such a specific list.
* * *
And, my point with Chart a Course vs Anticipate is that this deck really doesn't seem to use Island number 5 at all.
Tempest Djinn is the only way to spend 3 mana, so, what do you care if you draw a land and a spell?
(Sure, Island number 4 is used to protect the Djinn, or double cast 2 drops.)
Island 5 seems bad.
Using the simplest of math, 1/3 of the deck is Islands. One third of 12 is 4. Chart a course on turn 3 on the draw, and that is cards 8,9,10 and then 11 & 12 for the Chart. Draw card 13 on turn 4, and you really don't want to see Island number 5.
Chart a course just seems bad in a deck labelled 'Tempo'.
Tapping out seems more important, because counter-spelling their Steel Leaf or Chainwhirler matters.
I think Opt is already a 4 of, Chart is not in competition with Opt.
Drawing 2x Islands is really not that good, and this deck will have very little to do with the mana, and that will happen 1 in 9.
One in 27 with Anticipate seems a better deal.
Sure, drawing an Island and a spell is better, or two spells, but casting a 2 cost Flier seems much better than either of those two options.
Nightviel already seems to do that filtering, but warkite does SO much more damage.
Warkite often allows other creatures to get through, like the Tricksters.
Warkite also makes the bounce mages much better, which is why they are in Nassif's board.
I'm also liking Sleep over Time of Ice with Carnage Tyrant on the rise.
I'm fairly confident Opt is a 4-of. At best Chart A Course is a 2-of in the deck. From a more base standpoint Anticipate's draw 3 get 1 seems counterproductive even with it's instant speed clause which one would rather use Opt for. At best either card is a 2-of in the deck.
Is this card a 2-of? I know we saw it in earlier decklists taking the split with Nightveil Sprite or are you just cutting sprite completely to add flex slots cards like Sleep. Also thinking about these other sideboards...do you think they have gone into a more toolbox mode with the sideboards?
-Stay Frosty
20 Island
Creatures (18)
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
2 Warkite Marauder
Spells (22)
4 Curious Obsession
2 Chart a Course
4 Dive Down
1 Essence Scatter
2 Spell Pierce
4 Opt
4 Wizard's Retort
1 Sleep
1 Diamond Mare
3 Exclusion Mage
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Entrancing Melody
1 Negate
3 Syncopate
1 Sleep
2 Sentinel Totem
1 Warkite Marauder
-Stay Frosty
Also, because I am still playing with the white splash, conclave tribunal puts a hurting on UR Phoenix.
By "variety", I first and foremost mean deck archetypes, not card type, mechanic, or ability/keyword variety. Secondarily, I am referring to the presence of 9 actually different decks out of 32.
Unlike Standard for the past couple of years, which has been "all mid-range, all day" with some aggro and a little control, we see Mid-Range, Control, Aggro and Tempo (tempo has really been absent since Theros Block.) Given that Hybrid is the only other real archetype, and is incredibly uncommon in general, that is variety and in a particularly important way for diversity of game play.
That doesn't mean that mid-range is not still a majority of the decks (Boros Angels, BG, GW Angels, GW Tokens are all a variation on styles of Mid-range), but I think given the power level of creatures and Planeswalkers WotC is committed to for now, that will tend to favor the mid-range archetype. Even so, I don't mind seeing at least 4 different kinds of mid-range decks.
I also expect the format to sort out more post-Pro Tour and settle into a few Tier 1 decks, but it would be interesting if we had some genuinely Tier 2 decks because in the last two blocks you kind of went from Tier 1 to non-competitive really quickly.
Quibbles (not really pertinent to "variety" as such, but I would't say that these have anything to do with variety in a format really.)
Even if we accept the conflation of card types with deck archetypes, I don't understand how you can say there are no enchantments in standard when Seal Away, History of Benalia, Legion's Landing, and Ixalan's Binding are all over the place. Our whole deck wouldn't be a thing without... Curious Obsession.
Combo, which is not an archetype but a win condition that can be had by literally any archetype, is actually infrequent in Standard because of the lack of interaction to stop it when it really is a finisher. The last Combo finisher, the mid-range Eldrazi + Aetherworks Marvel setup, got hit with the ban hammer on Emrakul for good reason.
Artifacts are also not traditionally defining and essential for every format, but are based on the world setting. It just so happens we went through two blocks with very heavy amounts of colorless and artifact spells which were very powerful, so fewer in GoR makes sense. This is even more true for Man-lands, which we won't get because we are getting the shock land/buddy land cycle.
Cheap, efficient, non-symmetrical land destruction is a mechanic MTG moved away from because, well, it isn't fun (and I play LD decks for giggles in multiple formats.) I don't know when the last time you could define a format by that. Besides which, the quite excellent Field of Ruin is still legal, it's just not amazing.
TL/DR
A much better player (that is incredible understatement) saying essentially the same thing.
Modern
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
I just made a straight swap for Nightveil Sprite:
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Warkite Marauder
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Dive Down
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Opt
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Deep Freeze
3 Exclusion Mage
3 Surge Mare
1 Sleep
My thinking is that I want the main deck to be as consistent as possible. Spell Pierce is a 4-of because (a) it's such a blowout when it works, (b) it at least has targets against every deck out there, and (c) I want to max the chances of a nut draw of obsession + 1 mana protection.
I've been fine with Trickster and Marauder as the only anti-creature measures in the main deck. The only thing they don't deal with is Niv-Mizzet, and if the opponent lives long enough to untap with a Niv-Mizzet in game one I'm willing to just write that game off.
I've haven't been bringing in the Deep Freeze lately, even against the Dracophoenix deck. I think Nassif probably had it right just trying to chain Exclusion Mage against them.
My last two competitive leagues were a 4-1 and a 5-0. Both leagues started off with four straight wins and then a matchup with Jeskai control. I lost the first one 1-2 and won the second 2-1. Apropos to the earlier discussion, the difference in the games was that I brought Surge Mare in out of the sideboard the second time. In game 3 of the 5-0 league a turn 2 Surge Mare looted through my mana flood, found and carried Curious Obsession, and basically valued my opponent out of the game.
Surge Mare tanks a lot of the Jeskai removal package: Deafening Clarion, Justice Strike, Shock. Getting to save your counters for their haymakers is very nice.
For me the sideboard is there to tune the counter suite and, if necessary, tool up for a race. I don't think blue really has silver bullets right now but it has the cards to lean one way or the other and still play with efficiency.
I like the 20/20/20 split, and I like that it's pretty easy to find space to bring in four sideboard cards by trimming on cards that are better in game one than game two (the reliable -2 opt, -2 spell pierce plan).
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Warkite Marauder
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Dive Down
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Opt
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Deep Freeze
3 Exclusion Mage
3 Surge Mare
1 Sleep
Match one: Mono-U Mirror (2-0)
Can't say for sure, but it seemed like he was on Nassif's list.
Round 1: Mono-U mirror (2-0)
Certainly feels like I'm starting the league off on the right foot.
Opponent keeps six and scries to the bottom.
My T1: play island, stormtamer
Opp T1: island
My T2: draw spell pierce; play obsession on stormtamer, get in and draw wizard's retort
Opp T2: island
My T3: draw island; play island, attack, opp plays trickster, I dive down; draw opt, play marauder
I didn't retort because I wanted to get value out of the dive down, which isn't easy in the mirror. Also if I retort it means I only have one land out and he can play a djinn to block.
It's possible I should have left Retort up, but I wanted to get the Marauder going. Extra beats, and it takes care of any blocker they play.
Opp T3: island, obsession on trickster, attack
Bummer. He did have the mana to retort my retort, but he may not have had the retort at the time.
My T4: draw island; play island, attack, draw pierce; postcombat opt shows obsession, which I draw
I pass with three islands up, life 17-12 my advantage, hand of: island, pierce, pierce, retort, obsession; opponent has 6 cards in hand after drawing
Opp T4: island, attacks; postcombat plays stormtamer
My T5: draw island; play island, obsession on marauder; opponent retorts, I pierce and attack; draw two islands, and pass
Opp T5: island, attack; postcombat chart a course
My T6: draw opt; play island, attack; opponent tricksters, which I retort; draw marauder and herald, postcombat play marauder
Life is now 10-2 me with two island, pierce, opt, herald in hand
Opp T6: island, plays sleep with two mana up; I completely forget stormtamer can counter it and let it go; opponent attacks and plays postcombat marauder; I opt into a marauder
My T7: draw trickster, play marauder and herald and pass (obsessions go away)
Opp T7: scoop
I was fairly happy with how the game went. I could have tried to block the trickster and keep him from drawing cards, but I felt like as long as I was winning the race and achieving card parity it was fine. Lots of stuff can go wrong in the mirror once you start playing defensively. Missing the stormtamer activation was a little embarrassing, but I was far enough ahead by then that it didn't end up mattering.
Sideboard: -2 opt, -2 spell pierce, -2 dive down, +3 exclusion mage, +2 essence scatter, +1 sleep
This matchup tends to be about obsession, djinns, and racing.
Another easy keep.
Opponent is also on seven.
Opp T1: island, stormtamer
Uh-oh. I'm naked against an obsession here.
My T1: draw island; play island, herald
Opp T2: island, attacks (yay!)
My T2: draw sleep; play island, attack into very fishy open mana, opp tricksters, I scatter
Opp T3: island, djinn, attacks
My T3: draw island; play island, djinn, attack with herald
Opp T4: island, plays herald, attacks with djinn; I take it to go to 14-18 in life.
My T4: draw trickster, play island, attack with herald; postcombat I play stormtamer
Opp T5: plays island, casts selective snare on djinn (I stormtamer), attacks with herald; I trickster to eat the herald
I'm not sure it's right to keep the siren over the herald there, but I guess he wants to protect his djinn.
Opponent now has Djinn and Stormtamer staring down my Djinn, Herald, and Trickster; opp has one card in hand.
My T5: draw trickster, play island (now have sleep and trickster in hand); herald attacks
My tentative plan is to get him to spend his siren countering my trickster and then sleep him for the win. The herald hit puts him to 16, dead in two hits if all goes to plan.
Opp T6: sleep, attacks; I trickster to eat the siren
My T6: draw retort, attack with trickster (life totals are 9-14)
Opp T7: stormtamer (I counter), obsession on djinn (last card), attacks me to 3 and draws a card
My T7: draw exclusion mage, cast exclusion mage, opp counters, attack with tricksters and herald (3-9)
Opp T8: no plays, no attacks, obsession falls off
My T8: draw island, play island, cast sleep, opp scoops
An interesting game with no obsession on either side. Trickster value proved to be surprisingly important.
Round 2: Jeskai control (2-0)
Another fine seven.
Opponent keeps seven.
Opp T1: glacial fortress
My T1: draw island, play island, pass
I'm looking to snipe a turn 2 azcanta. I don't mind giving up a point or two of damage for that.
Opp T2: clifftop retreat
My T2: draw stormtamer; play island, herald
Opp T3: island
My T3: draw retort, attack; opp EOT revitalizes
Opp T4: sulfur falls, I EOT trickster
My T4: draw obsession, play island, stormtamer; opp sabotages, tapping all his red lands; I obsession herald and attack, drawing Marauder
Opp T5: glacial fortress,
My T5: draw island, play island, attack; opp lightning strikes, I retort, he negates, I pierce; I draw spell pierce
Opp T6: sulfur falls, Teferi, I pierce it
My T6: draw retort; attack, draw island, play island, play djinn
Opp T7: explosion for three on herald, I retort, opp scoops
This was the filthiest run of topdecks I've personally experienced in a long time. Also, spell piercing Teferi never gets old.
Sideboard: -2 spell pierce, -2 opt, -2 marauder, +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 negate
Surge mare can tank a lot of jeskai's removal, and I like the loot. Otherwise just looking to tune the counter suite.
A little sketchy, but I have cheap creatures and counterspells.
Opp T1: island
My T1: draw djinn; play island, stormtamer; opp opts
Opp T2: sacred foundry untapped
My T2: draw island; play island, attack; opp opts EOT
I think he had Justice Strike here and was holding it up in case of obsession. Both opts have gone to the top.
Opp T3: sulfur falls; I trickster EOT
My T3: draw retort; play island, attack; opp justice strikes trickster EOT and I let it go
Opp T4: steam vents, tapped
My T4: draw island; play island, attack
Life total is 20-13. I have retort, retort, stroke, negate, djinn in hand; opp has five cards
Opp T5: steam vents, tapped
My T5: draw dive down, attack; opp casts seal away EOT, I dive down, opp negates, I let it go
The name of the game is: don't make it easy to resolve Teferi.
Opp T6: search for azcanta; I retort, he sabotages (5 cards in graveyard)
My T6: draw herald, play herald
Opp T7: keeps on top from azcanta and passes
My T7: draw Marauder, attack, cast Marauder, opp sabotages
Opp T8: keeps on top, flips azcanta, casts teferi; I negate; he has one card in hand that apparently is not a negate as Teferi hits the bin
My T8: draw disdainful stroke, attack with herald, cast djinn
I figured it was time to go shields down. He can't azcanta plus teferi. If I just let time go by without pressuring the Azcanta is going to beat me. If his last card is another five mana bomb then I just have to tip my hat and go to game three.
Opp T9: draw, go
My T9: draw island, play island, attack; opp casts seal away, I retort, he uses azcanta to find Chemister's insight.
Life is 20-4, I have two islands up and two disdainful strokes in hand.
Opp T10: azcanta finds lightning strike, opp scoops.
This one got a little scary after he landed the Azcanta, but staying patient on the djinn worked out as my opponent ran himself out of threats before I went shields down. The trick with this matchup is to be conservative with your counterspells.
Round 3: Golgari midrange (2-0)
This is so close to the nut hand that I have to keep it. Definitely a hand that can develop poorly, but I choose to believe in the heart of the cards.
Opponent is on seven.
My T1: play island, go
Opp T1: forest, llanowar elves
My T2: draw trickster, play island
Opp T2: I trickster on upkeep to tap the elves; he plays overgrown tomb untapped and seekers' squire (finds a land)
My T3: draw island, obsession on trickster, attack; opp takes it, I draw stormtamer and pass
At this point the plan is to ride the trickster and retorts to victory. I'm fully prepared to use Dive Down as a combat trick. If I had drawn a flying dude I would have taken it slower, but you can't just sit and durdle against Golgari.
Opp T3: casts Jadelight ranger, I retort, he plays memorial to folly
My T4: draw trickster, play island, attack, opp chumps with squire; postcombat I play stormtamer
Opp T4: opp casts chupucabra, I retort; opp plays forest, elves
My T5: draw djinn; attack, opp takes it, I draw island; postcombat I play island, djinn
Life is now 20-11; I have trickster + obsession, stormtamer, and djinn (5/4) in play; opp has two llanowar elves and four lands; I have trickster and dive down in hand
Opp T5: draw, scoops
Merfolk Trickster doesn't look that threatening, but sometimes he does good work in the red zone. It helps when you can back him up with actual factual counterspell. The tapping was pretty big here. A turn two Jadelight Ranger could have changed the whole rhythm of the game.
Sideboard: -2 spell pierce, -2 opt, -2 trickster; +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 essence scatter
Certainly can't complain.
Opponent is also on seven.
Opp T1: woodland cemetary
My T1: draw obsession; play island, siren
Opp T2: swamp, cast down on stormtamer
My T2: draw island; play island, herald
Opp T3: plays overgrown tomb, untapped; casts llanowar elves and merfolk branchwalker (binning Vraska's Contempt, never a good sign); I opt, put a djinn to the bottom and draw an island
My T3: draw surge mare; play island, mare, attack with herald
Opp T4: jadelight ranger (binning squire and keeping chups); attacks with elves and branchwalker, mare blocks branchwalker
My T4: draw herald, play island; cast obsession on mare and herald and attack; draw herald, dive down, stormtamer, discard herald; cast stormtamer
Opp T5: casts chups targeting mare, I counter with siren; attacks with branchwalker and ranger
Life total is now 12-14; opp has three lands, elves, branchwalker, jadelight, and chupacabra in play; I have four islands, herald + obsession and mare + obsession
My T5: draw marauder; attack with herald, draw trickster; postcombat cast djinn
Opp T6: forest, eldest reborn; I sacrifice the mare and take a hit from the jadelight
Life is now 8-12.
My T6: draw obsession; cast obsession on herald, attack with the team, draw island + spell pierce; postcombat play island and herald
A chump block with the herald leaves me alive. I have three mana up and trickster, dive down, and spell pierce to stop anything crazy.
Opp T7: draw and scoop.
To me this game illustrates that while Curious Obsession is super awesome, the Tempest Djinn fully deserves top billing in this deck as well. The dude closes out games.
Round 4: Golgari midrange (2-0)
Opponent is on six.
My T1: play island, herald
Opp T1: overgrown tomb, tapped
My T2: draw opt, play island, marauder, attack
Opp T2: forest, branchwalker (binning llanowar elves)
My T3: draw retort, play island, attack for 3
Opp T3: play llanowar, llanowar, attack for 3; I opt EOT and see and keep a retort
My T4: draw djinn, attack for 3
Opp T4: jadelight ranger (I retort it), attack for three
My T5: draw pierce, attack for 3
Life total is now 14-10
Opp T5: seekers' squire (I retort), attack for five
My T6: draw dive down, attack with marauder for 2
Life total is now 9-8.
Opp T6: forest, attack with branchwalker; I block and dive down; postcombat Vivien Reid, I spell pierce
My T7: draw island, play island, attack for three, cast djinn
Opp T7: cast down on djinn, I dive down, opp scoops.
Learning to win this kind of game is what got me from 3-2 and occasional 4-1 finishes to 4-1 and occasional 5-0 finishes. The basic idea is simple: manage the race, don't panic, and don't expose your djinn to removal.
Sideboard: -3 spell pierce, -2 opt, -2 trickster; +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 essence scatter, +1 sleep
Keep six: island, sleep, retort, opt, essence scatter, obsession
I scry stormtamer to the top. Opponent keeps 7.
Opp T1: forest, llanowar elves
My T1: draw stormtamer; play island, stormtamer
Opp T2: wildgrowth walker, no land drop
My T2: draw essence scatter; play opt, find an island on top, cast obsession on stormtamer and attack, drawing island.
Since my opponent doesn't have black mana, I decide to go ahead and run the obsession out there. His hand is presumably awesome (to keep one land on seven), so I need to try to bury him before he draws lands. Siren will only be exposed for one turn before I have the counter shields up.
Opp T3: woodland cemetary, cast down on the siren, attacks
Opponent was about 30% to hit a black source there. Kind of a bummer, but that's life.
My T3: draw island, play island
Opp T4: Merfolk branchwalker (I essence scatter), attacks
My T4: draw marauder, play island, marauder
Opp T5: seekers' squire (I essence scatter), attacks with walker
Life totals are 15-18. Opponent has two land, elves, and a 1/3 walker. I have four islands and a marauder. He has 4 cards in hand. I have sleep and retort.
Opponent is showing a lot of respect for trickster here. I guess with the mana situation he just can't afford to take even a small chance of losing the elves.
My T5: draw retort, attack
Opp T6: casts wildgrowth walker, attacks with walker
My game plan is to counter the explore creatures. Eventually he should run out.
My T6: draw herald, cast herald, attack with Marauder (14-14)
Opp T7: swamp, attacks with walkers
My T7: draw island, play island, attack; opponent contempts marauder, I let it go (12-15 life totals)
Opp T8: jadelight ranger (I retort), attacks with walkers
My T8: draw opt, opt into curious obsession, obsession on herald and attack; draw djinn
Opp T9: opponent casts find targeting jadelight and squire; I retort it, and he casts down the herald before attacking with his walkers (life total 8-13)
I'd like to protect the herald there but no amount of card draw will let me beat his walkers if he gets three explore triggers.
My T9: draw stormtamer, play djinn and stormtamer (1 mana up)
Opp T10: draw, go
My T10: draw island, play island, attack for 7 (8-6); postcombat cast sleep.
Note that sleep cuts his mana on board down to the three lands by locking down the elves.
Opp T11: cast branchwalker, drawing a forest (8-12).
My T11: draw island, play island, attack for 8 (8-4).
Opponent needs an explore creature in order to kill me. Otherwise he needs to kill the djinn through the stormtamer.
Opp T12: draw, scoop
Wildgrowth Walker is a scary card. In general I find the BG explore package a lot more threatening than the 4-6 drop bomb package.
Round Five: Jeskai Control (2-1)
A speculative keep. Stormtamer + Herald can be explosive with an obsession, and the opt should help me find lands if needed. Still, a little iffy.
My T1: play island, stormtamer
I like to lead with stormtamer in the dark. If the opponent kills it then it basically did its job of eating a removal spell for the herald.
Opp T1: clifftop retreat
My T2: draw island, play island, stormtamer, herald, attack for one
Analysis: at this point, this hand will never ever beat a deafening clarion. It will also struggle with a long game. Our best chance of winning is to close the game out quickly if the opponent has an awkward draw. Therefore we go all in and hope the opponent doesn't have it.
Opp T2: island
My T3: draw island, play island, attack for three
Opp T3: sulfur falls, go; I opt EOT, bottom a trickster and draw a retort; I also play trickster, which gets syncopated
My T4: draw island, attack for three, play djinn
Opp T4: glacial fortress
My T5: draw spell pierce, attack for seven
Opp T5: sulfur falls, teferi, I spell pierce it, scoops.
As I hoped. Opponent had a clunky draw and mono-blue can punish that kind of thing.
Sideboard: -2 trickster, -2 opt, -2 pierce, +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 negate
A dream seven. I still can't believe I lost this game.
Opp T1: steam vents, tapped
My T1: draw marauder, play island, herald
Opp T2: Azor's gateway
My T2: draw retort, play island, obsession, attack; draw stormtamer
Opp T3: glacial fortress
My T3: draw djinn, attack; opponent casts seal away, I dive down; draw opt; opt into an island and play it; opp uses gateway
Opp T4: sulfur falls, uses gateway, clarions away my board
At this point opponent has 3 cards in hand, and four lands and a gateway in play. I have three islands in play. In hand I have stormtamer, marauder, marauder, djinn, djinn, retort
My T4: draw herald, play stormtamer
Opp T5: revitalize, clifftop retreat, pass
My T5: draw retort, attack, play herald, opponent gateways
Opp T6: steam vents, untapped
My T6: draw island, play island, attack with stormtamer and herald; opponent settles, I let it go because I need the lands; opp gateways
Opp T7: draw-go
My T7: draw island, play island, djinn; opp casts Chemister's Insight and uses gateway
Opp T8: steam vents, tapped
My T8: draw surge mare, attack for 7; opponent seals away, I retort; opponent gateways
Life totals now 20-9.
Opp T9: Opp casts chemister's insight, then flips gateway. Taps for 14 mana and casts Teferi. He responds with Explosion for 6 at my face.
At this point he has two Teferis and a Lyra in hand and I can't keep up.
Azor's Gateway did a lot of work in this one. Scary card.
In retrospect maybe I shouldn't have countered that last Seal Away. The problem is that the only way I could leave two counters up was by leaving the board empty.
Not as good as the last seven, but not terrible.
Opp goes to six and scrys to the bottom.
My T1: island
Opp T1: sacred foundry, tapped
My T2: draw island, play island, surge mare
Opp T2: sulfur falls
My T3: draw island, attack with surge mare, pump; draw island, discard island; opp revitalizes end of turn
Opp T3: sacred foundry, tapped
My T4: draw disdainful stroke, play island, attack with surge mare, pump; draw negate, discard island
Hand is now: island, djinn, dive down, stroke, negate; opp has 6 cards in hand and life is 20-19
Opp T4: glacial fortress
My T5: draw stormtamer, attack and pump; draw retort, discard stormtamer, play island
Opp T5: steam vent, tapped
My T6: draw curious obsession, play on surge mare and attack; draw disdainful stroke, island, discard island
Opp T6: clifftop retreat
My T7: draw herald, attack; draw dive down, trickster, discard trickster; play herald
Opp T7: divination, clifftop retreat
My T8: draw spell pierce, attack with the team; draw surge mare, spell pierce; discard surge mare, then dive down and spell pierce (hand size)
Opp T8: glacial fortress
My T9: draw obsession, attack; opponent settles, I stroke, he expansions on settle, I negate; draw opt, djinn, discard djinn
An island at this point would have made the rest of the game much easier.
Opp T9: plains, star of extinction; I opt, see and island on top and keep it
Hand at this point: retort, stroke, pierce, dive down, obsession, djinn, island; I have 4 land in play, opp has 10 land, with 4 cards in hand; life total is 20-11
My T10: draw marauder, play island, play djinn
Opp T10: steam vents, tapped
My T11: draw island, play island, curious obsession on the djinn, attack for 7; draw marauder
Opp T11: deafening clarion, resolves, deafening clarion, I dive down on djinn, opp shocks djinn, I retort it, opp scoops
He had three land left untapped and I had a spell pierce to cover anything else.
In retrospect I should have been more aggressive about getting the djinn down. I probably could have won earlier without getting the surge mare wiped. Even so, the seven loots from the mare were a big help in stacking my hand so that the djinn could finish the job.
End result, a 5-0 finish to put me in a no doubt short lived tie for the trophy lead.
For those of you curious about the obsession, it hit the board on turn: 2, none, 4, none, 3, 4, none, 2*, none, and 6 (*died after one hit).
In other words, only five of the ten wins featured more than one hit with a Curious Obsession.
On the other hand, the djinn hit the board on turn: none, 3, 6, 8, 5, 5, 7, 9, 4, 10.
So while the djinn wasn't doing all of the work, it did at least show up in 9 out of 10 wins. This is consistent with my general theory of winning with the deck:
- Apply early pressure with cheap creatures.
- Use counterspells and trickster to manage the race.
- Cast Djinn to apply the coup de grace when you can protect it.
If you get good enough pressure with the little guys and counterspells (usually aided by an obsession), then the djinn isn't necessary. And sometimes even if your early pressure is weak, the djinn can bail you out.With the influx of UR Arclight, I saw a proverbial boat load of UB Surveil all evening. Now, its possibly I am playing the matchup incorrectly, but I went head to head with it 4 times and went 1-3, and the 1 match win, all ego aside, I felt like I was probably just a more skilled veteran than the opposing mage. If you guys have any insight on this specific matchup, Id love to hear it.
They just simply have too many must counter spells. They are running golden demise MD, rit soot MD, vraska contempt MD, one version has thought erasure MD.
All your guys opinions on my white splash aside, I didnt even have a favorable matchup with Conclave Tribunal and Shalai out of the board. It feels super bad to tribunal 3 demons and still lose.
From what I have heard, UR Arclight doesnt want to see this deck either. So where UR has spiked in popularity and value, I would assume UB surveil takes a higher position in the meta, which could be really bad news for us I think.