It's true, it'll be a lot of playtesting in the coming weeks. There are three very meta-different weekly modern gigs within reasonable distance, so I imagine I'll be driving a fair bit before the GP in Sacramento. I'll play a bit with this and report back, to see if it's worth pursing a hybrid variant. If it is, well, hey, new direction. If not, well, then someone was able to prove it so.
I used to play variations of this deck for weekly mini-Modern tourneys at a card shop a few towns over from my home. Best I did was 4-0 with an unoptimized list, but the meta is, shall we say, casual and fun-loving more than anything.
That said, I'm currently mixing lists together to find one fit for my play style to take to GP Sac in January. I've looked at over a dozen lists, and put together the following. I've goldfished about 30 hands so far just this morning, playing out twelve or thirteen turns just to look at what draws and card interactions.
Being a mix between Wafo-Tapa and the traditional Geist Midrange, I'm trying to find a blend between board control in the 75, while still having enough slots dedicated to an aggressive creature focus with countermagic backup. I'm not sold on the permission slots in the main, and the sideboard is still trying to be a catchall for an unknown meta at the GP. If anyone has any insights into this list, please, let me know!
Those of you running Stax elements (i.e. Winter Orb, Rising Waters, Hokori) in your lists, do you find it better to drop them early in the game or later once you've set up?
It seems to vary, depending on factors such as the board state at a given point of the game on your opponents' sides. If they're off to a quick start with Sol Ring and the like, I've found I want to drop an Orb to quickly lock off their colored mana (mana-intensive decks are huge in my meta), and try and work around it myself to pull ahead. Luckily, my curve is so low, and the pieces redundant enough that if I'm not fighting off an early onslaught, it's not hard.
That said, I'd rather wait until I have some amount of mana rocks, and/or a tutor effect (best-case-scenario is Birthing Pod) before I lay down an orb-effect. Even better is a Muse effect to go along with, to further your chances of pulling too far ahead to be effectively dealt with, even by multiple opponents. As Justice said earlier, it's best to cast an orb when your opponents are tapped out; if that's not possible, try to time it so that they have the hardest time reaching their critical colors of mana, and if it's Static Orb, when their creatures are pretty much tapped out. If your opponents aren't ready for this deck, it's quite easy to sweep, as I've found out. If they are, it'll take some decent piloting and decision tree-building to know when the right time to 'combo off' is, but with practice, you'll get a feel for what order to drop your pieces in to sweep the table.
Well, I have a deck list for Derevi I've been tuning for the last two weeks. It's similar to Justice's, though I do play both orbs and Stasis, and no bounce.
Interesting note, I played a multiplayer 3 way against two others in my group, and a 1v1 against a third friend; both times, Derevi was tucked. First time, I cast Stasis while the other two were unwittingly tapped out; I won with Bident of Thassa drawing me five cards during combat with one creature wielding Sword of Feast and Famine, drawing another creature and equipping. I had Loxodon Gatekeeper as well, which proved essential as they played out tapped lands with no untap step. I eventually pushed them both to scooping by repeatedly drawing a creature off of Bident, casting and equipping SoFaF, and sealed it up nicely.
Second game, kept him tapped out with Winter Orb, attrition-ed out his creatures, and killed him with his own Mana Vault.
All on all, Stasis can be a great card. I don't run too many counters, but I need to test more anyway. It is cool, though, that Derevi decidedly isn't instrumental to the deck to win, even when "comboing" with Stasis and Orbs.
Once again, Seesic, your skill with line work is incredible. I love the colors on that Rofellos, and your Coalition Relic is, simply put, absurdly awesome.
Your use of watercolor-esque painting techniques is also a very cool stylistic approach, and I believe you're the only one I know of who does them that way. Was there a method to the madness of choosing that style, or is it something you've always done, Magic-related or not?
Here's one of the better alters I've done recently; the rest are in my sig. Any tips for how to improve the smoothness of paint on cards? It's been a thorn in my side for quite awhile now.
But I'm happy with the rendering on this.
I used to play variations of this deck for weekly mini-Modern tourneys at a card shop a few towns over from my home. Best I did was 4-0 with an unoptimized list, but the meta is, shall we say, casual and fun-loving more than anything.
That said, I'm currently mixing lists together to find one fit for my play style to take to GP Sac in January. I've looked at over a dozen lists, and put together the following. I've goldfished about 30 hands so far just this morning, playing out twelve or thirteen turns just to look at what draws and card interactions.
Being a mix between Wafo-Tapa and the traditional Geist Midrange, I'm trying to find a blend between board control in the 75, while still having enough slots dedicated to an aggressive creature focus with countermagic backup. I'm not sold on the permission slots in the main, and the sideboard is still trying to be a catchall for an unknown meta at the GP. If anyone has any insights into this list, please, let me know!
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Restoration Angel
Spells
2 Cryptic Command
4 Remand
3 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Electrolyze
2 Path to Exile
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Shadow of Doubt
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Celestial Purge
1 Wrath of God
1 Path to Exile
1 Spellskite
2 Negate
2 Sowing Salt
1 Spell Pierce
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Stony Silence
2 Wear / Tear
Also, Galspanic, I know what you mean about the new Commander set. This gave me so many fits, and I'm still not happy with the base coat.
It was a great study in brush skill, though. Wanna go back and do more in this vein.
It seems to vary, depending on factors such as the board state at a given point of the game on your opponents' sides. If they're off to a quick start with Sol Ring and the like, I've found I want to drop an Orb to quickly lock off their colored mana (mana-intensive decks are huge in my meta), and try and work around it myself to pull ahead. Luckily, my curve is so low, and the pieces redundant enough that if I'm not fighting off an early onslaught, it's not hard.
That said, I'd rather wait until I have some amount of mana rocks, and/or a tutor effect (best-case-scenario is Birthing Pod) before I lay down an orb-effect. Even better is a Muse effect to go along with, to further your chances of pulling too far ahead to be effectively dealt with, even by multiple opponents. As Justice said earlier, it's best to cast an orb when your opponents are tapped out; if that's not possible, try to time it so that they have the hardest time reaching their critical colors of mana, and if it's Static Orb, when their creatures are pretty much tapped out. If your opponents aren't ready for this deck, it's quite easy to sweep, as I've found out. If they are, it'll take some decent piloting and decision tree-building to know when the right time to 'combo off' is, but with practice, you'll get a feel for what order to drop your pieces in to sweep the table.
Interesting note, I played a multiplayer 3 way against two others in my group, and a 1v1 against a third friend; both times, Derevi was tucked. First time, I cast Stasis while the other two were unwittingly tapped out; I won with Bident of Thassa drawing me five cards during combat with one creature wielding Sword of Feast and Famine, drawing another creature and equipping. I had Loxodon Gatekeeper as well, which proved essential as they played out tapped lands with no untap step. I eventually pushed them both to scooping by repeatedly drawing a creature off of Bident, casting and equipping SoFaF, and sealed it up nicely.
Second game, kept him tapped out with Winter Orb, attrition-ed out his creatures, and killed him with his own Mana Vault.
All on all, Stasis can be a great card. I don't run too many counters, but I need to test more anyway. It is cool, though, that Derevi decidedly isn't instrumental to the deck to win, even when "comboing" with Stasis and Orbs.
Spoooooky
Your use of watercolor-esque painting techniques is also a very cool stylistic approach, and I believe you're the only one I know of who does them that way. Was there a method to the madness of choosing that style, or is it something you've always done, Magic-related or not?
Here's a few I've done recently for my Damia EDH. I'll have her alter in a bit as well; should be a good one!
This last one is 1/3 for a panorama piece.
Want to get another one and redo it, to see if I can get it closer. Happy with it for now.
Love the colors on the Contamination, and the sky in that Dragon Appeasement is amazing!
Depicting Rafiki from Disney's The Lion King movie.
4x Blood Artist
4x Bloodghast
4x Dreg Mangler
3x Gravecrawler
2x Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
3x Shambling Shell
3x Stinkweed Imp
2x Gnaw to the Bone
4x Nameless Inversion
SORCERIES
4x Life from the Loam
ENCHANTMENTS
4x Bridge from Below
2x Leyline of the Void
ARTIFACTS
2x Blasting Station
3x Dakmor Salvage
2x Marsh Flats
4x Verdant Catacombs
5x Swamp
4x Overgrown Tomb
1x Woodland Cemetery
Trying to be dredge, minus Grave-Trolls...but I like the idea of Haakon, so I threw it in. Deals with Thragtusk, which is huge I think.