MTG Salvation

Quote from ikariw »

There's a lot i'd like to bring in against DS but am wary about boarding in too many cards.

I'd like to bring in:
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Ethereal Haze
1x Path to Exile
1x Damnation

which is 8 cards and i'm worried could result in too much disruption to finding my combo or enough mana. which of the above would you bring in / leave out?

Thanks in advance

See my post above

By the way, I wouldn't play Damnation over Supreme Verdict, and NEVER against Stubborn Denial.decks

Quote from AmusedGryphon »

Thanks for that guide, Pablo. Using the 5-0 list that was posted a few pages back as guidance, the SB I settled on was:

4x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Echoing Truth
1x Ethereal Haze
1x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Lingering Souls
2x Path to Exile
1x Silence
1x Supreme Verdict
2x Swan Song

Back when Jund was around and heavily played, I played L Souls and Grave Titan in the board, and found myself shaving copies of Unlife for them. Is this similar for the Shadow matchup, or do I just board out Prisms?

Kolaghan's Command = shave some Prisms and/or Lotus. The Jund version runs Abrupt Decay as well, so maybe it is not that bad idea to board out 1 Phyrexian Unlife. But you already know my opinion about this topic

And that's a good SB configuration, seems fine to me. Looking forward to try those Swan Song, though!

Quote from Poit90 »

Hey guys, I somehow managed to win our Rivals of Ixalan PPTQ with Ad Nauseam today. There seems to be some gloom on the position of the deck in the current meta, but drawing well and dodging our worst matchup still seems to work like it did a year ago. If anyone is interested I can post a short writedown, although I will probably not go into much detail as I did not take any notes and was rather tired.

Congratulations man!

Could you post the pairings you faced and your list?

I would like to know which sideboard configuration you chose

Quote from UktabiApeSquad »

Could a five color build be used to abuse bring to light as extra ad nauseums? I love the added utility of fetching some midrangy 1 of bombs out of the side. Sure it lacks the power of flash but combo decks generally like to have extra pieces of their combo. Deck already uses gemstone mines and pentad prisms, getting five colors doesn't seem too hard. This deck has come a long way and is super tight so I doubt it's worth it, but I love what bring to light does for decks that rely on key 4-5 cost spells.

That godhead tech is amazing. makes me want to build ad nauseum right away.

Yes indeed.

In my particular "for fun" build I tend to abuse from Glittering Wish to grab Bring to Light from SB.
I also like to run at least 1x MD:



In my opinion, I think that Glittering Wish is the right card to play as a 4-of rather than Bring to Light, due to its versatility and interaction with those 1x in SB, but this is a personal choice I guess. There are not enough players testing out this deck to have a "stock list".

Give it a try, I promise you that you'll find it very funny to play.

Quote from Zinabi »

Quote from PabloAput »

So, after some Peer Through Depths testing I switched back to 3x Serum Visions MB (instead of 2) in order to get the GY filled for a successful T2 Logic Knot.

I think it's a way too slow for the current metagame, I prefer to have an answer in hand rather than dig for it in the mid-late game. Also, it does not allow you to grab a land, which you usually need in T4 to do Cryptic or Verdict.

Other thing I've noticed is the importance of a lone Negate MB for walkers and other random stuff.

About manabase, I think that optimal configuration of basics is 3 Island 1 Plains 1 Swamp.

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands (26) 4x Flooded Strand 4x Polluted Delta 2x Hallowed Fountain 2x Watery Grave 3x Celestial Colonnade 2x Glacial Fortress 2x Drowned Catacomb 1x Mystic Gate 1x Ghost Quarter 3x Island 1x Plains 1x Swamp	Creatures (2) 2x Snapcaster Mage Spells (32) 1x Negate 2x Mana Leak (I should be playing Spell Snare, but this is meta-dependent) 3x Logic Knot 4x Cryptic Command 4x Esper Charm 3x Think Twice 3x Serum Visions 4x Path to Exile 1x Blessed Alliance 3x Supreme Verdict 2x Sphinx's Revelation 2x Secure the Wastes	Sideboard (15) 2x Condemn 2x Stony Silence 2x Lingering Souls 1x Blessed Alliance 1x Celestial Purge 2x Dispel 1x Engineered Explosives 1x Hallowed Burial / Wrath of God 1x Anguished Unmaking 1x Gideon Jura 1x Elspeth Sun's Champion

Any suggestions?

Maybe too many finishers in SB, though...

Hi PabloAput,

I built your list and played a few matches at my weekly play-testing session down the pub. Against Dredge it seemed like an impossible match up, as other that Path I had no way to interect. Versus Grixis control I couldn't beat Ancestral Visions, as it forced me to either act first in a counter war or let it resolve and leave me well behind on cards. Do you have any experience with these match ups you could share, or would you say these are just match-ups your list is hoping to avoid? Thanks.

Well, Dredge is a well know Nemesis of this deck. I'm considering to play 2x Rest in Peace and 3x Runed Halo in the SB recently, but this is a hard match up anyway.
Hallowed Burial might help here, since is putting back all the creatures to the bottom, but I do need more play-testing. I believe that Snare to Cathartic Reunion is the way to go, and honestly, to counter every dredge enabler. Some guys from this thread have suggested TSZ and Surgical Extraction, but I prefer to put other kind of stuff in my SB, less "against one specific deck".

This very same question came to me when I was playing AdN, and I tried to improve the Infect match up putting some Sudden Shocks and Dispels in my SB, while the only thing I was actually doing was making other 50/50 match ups far worst post-side. So, this is my personal opinion, don't waste too much time trying to improve the Dredge match up by adding cards that only work against that strategy (which seems to be the worst pairing for Esper Control). Don't pray to avoid the match up just play your cards and take your chances. We play white, so there are plenty of SB options against the wide field we are into now. The hardest part about sideboarding is to choose wisely and not based in personal experiences.

Currently I'm focused in the most played decks at my LGS and Magic Online, so my list might not be optimal for your environment. I will be playing the rPTQ this season and I'm debated between two decks with two different play styles (AdN and Esper) that are always slightly changing from week to week. That's why my list are sometimes a bit clunky

About Grixis control, we have our own card-drawing tools, but it is true that AV puts you in a bad spot. Maybe a good approach here is to fill the battlefield with 1/1s from Secure the Wastes, Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Lingering Souls. I don't know, they play Anger of the Gods, but this is sorcery speed, so maybe we can deal with that with more Negates. Their best removal is Lightning Bolt and Terminate, which is 1 card for 1 creature. Also 3 Spell Snares MD sound good against them. We can always paly the 2nd Negate main, though...

You are very welcome! Any kind of feedback is much appreciated. In fact is the only way to improve

I honestly want to see a cool grixis goryo as foretold deck with Electrodominance

Well, seems like UR might get another chance with Electrodominance.
RR cast a 0 mana spell at instant speed for free seems solid, and I've always liked the idea of Faithless looting to dig and possibly play more "bomb" creatures. Grixis already did a couple of interesting things with Goryo's and Kiki-Jikki, this might give it a nice push. Kari-Zev's expertise can give another way of casting 0 CMC cards, and wheel of fate is another way of digging hard to whatever we need.

I know, I know, that's a completely different deck...
Did anybody try changes to the Grixis Goryo AF list that was kind of popular 6 months ago or so?
Wheel of Fate seems like a ton of fun and potentially broken. Of course, the control build goes out the window, it'll be a combo deck.

On the Uw side, I managed to 3-1 at my local shop again, Path and Purge were sooo good I don't see myself going back to Ub anytime soon.

Quote from Togores »

Also most of the things you guys say makes no sense.

I have played hundred of games with nauseam. And I have faced 0 times g1 leyline.

And conflagrate does mores damage and dosnt care about spellskite.

If you want a win con like maniac md. then just play conflagrate. Its more eficient. Lab man is a decent sb card.

Also the maniac kill happens 1/50 games. Wich is not a real reason to play it.

This is why I ultimately am giving up on this sub--it's all new people, no veterans testing. (not that I really suspected anything different). Some of the sideboarding plans you guys talk about are hot garbage and basically the total opposite of what is good, then it's justified with...no good experience that led to that conclusion to begin with.

I played this list last night and easily 4-0'd:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=109301

It's basically go no frills, no spice. Sometimes things don't need to change.

Dear Esper Charm,

I miss you. I've been hanging out with these Jeskai kids lately... first it was Jeskai Wafo-Tapa Draw-Go and these last few days I've taken a shining to Geist. He's alright, but he's got this friend who lingers around all the time and I think that's a bit spooky. And weird.

Don't get me wrong... I like being able to close the game out in a hurry when the opportunity arises. But there's something missing. Something only you can bring.

Sometimes I wake up on turn 3, your name on my lips... I can almost taste those two cards. But then I open my eyes and it's just Electrolyze. She's alright, but she's not you.

You, with your multifaceted modes. You, with your inbuilt enchantment destruction. You, with your late-game draw-step discard. God, I miss you.

But when I'm with you, well... it's not easy. It's never easy with you. You always make me work so hard... But when it doesn't work -- and let's be honest here, it hasn't been working lately -- I feel broken and sad. I'm tired of pity packs. I want justice.

Oh, but to have the days of yore... the days before Death's Shadow was a thing, back when we could counter Splinter Twin and oh how we'd laugh. And the looks we'd get. A small crowd gathered 'round, waiting to see what play we'd counter next.

"Wow, playing Esper in Modern."

"Wow, nice line."

"Wow, that's one classy deck."

Classy. That's you. These Jeskai decks are fast and loose. Cheap and easy. "Bolt-snap-bolt." Easy.

I miss you so much I'm debating splashing black just to try and have you around. Someone mentioned a 4C Teachings deck. I'd try that -- dodging Blood Moons and Fulminator Mages just to have you in my hands once more. I just want it to work. Maybe it's not our time... maybe the ban hammer will come down and change everything. ("Lightning Bolt has been banned. Urza's Tower has been Banned.")

Ha. I can dream. And when I do, I'll dream of you.

Until then,

fasutron

Quote from epdt »

I'm pretty interested in the new card Lost Legacy : It can win the game as early as T2 (with SSG), more reasonably T3 against random decks (combo, mirror, etc), but also it can replace Painful truths in our sideboard to get out of a lili lock by targeting ourselves and exiling all copies of a 4-off (Sleight of Hand comes to mind!) and draw 4 cards, without losing a single life point!

You should re-read Lost Legacy. The targeted player only draws cards equal to the number of cards that were exiled from their hand. So if you target yourself and choose Sleight of Hand but have no Sleights in your hand, then all you did was exile all of them for nothing.

The one of Kataki should be fine based on him running 4 Qasali Pridemage. Not saying more Kataki is a bad thing but right now I happen to be running it as a 1-of along-side 2 Disenchant however the only Affinity list in my area is Tempered Steel so it's a bit slower. I agree on those other points though a mix of Thalia and Ghostly Prison can really slow down Infect to a crawl imo. Spellskite is still nice with Vial I guess.