MTG Salvation

UB Pirates in block can be ok as a flying tempo army i guess. I'm testing (with some friends, only ixalan block) something like this:


A standard version of this deck would be with 4x Fatal Push instead of the 3x Walk the Plank (minus something else) and an update to the mana base and sideboard. Having Dreamcaller Siren filling the place of the god for a more aggressive approach, tapping the opponent's blockers at EOT and swinging for 3 (+ with Favourable Winds) with evasion.
Note: Blight Keeper is only there because it can be a turn-1 creature and activate a turn-2 Raid.

Wow really? The players like the modern meta right now? A meta with something like 60-70% aggro decks? With 5% control decks and another 5% combo decks and the rest midrange decks?
Since the Twin ban that the modern meta is terrible. First with the eldrazi winter, next with this aggro meta that still isn't over. Hmmm... I guess i'll stay away from magic for a while more.

I'm packing 2 angers in sb as well, the only problem is the double red in the cost.

haven't we been saying for ages that both AV and Sotm are a risk to cause a linear backlash?

They unbanned cards that helps interactive decks, and you are worried that it causes a linear backlash? Don't we have that already? Isn't modern (before B&R updates) a linear strategy decks feast?
If it stays the same, then it proves those cards are not enough to change meta, so they shouldn't have been banned in the first place. Also, the meta will be exactly what it is right now: linear strategy decks everywhere.
If the meta changes, then we'll have a more interactive meta: Linear strategies will keep being valid choices, and there is a chance that new interactive deck archtypes would emerge.

when you know that the opponent plays either of those cards, what do you want to play? Jund? Grixis? Delver? hell no, Goblin Guide that's what you want to play, Karn Liberated works too, if not to many people are on the former at least

SotM: Both Grixis and Jund have really good options MB to deal with SotM in the form of the Kolaghan's Command. Also, artifact hate exists in every decent deck, either in MB or SB - you have to deal with affinity anyway. Why are you doomsaying regarding an artifact combo that doesn't work around stony silence exactly? Both cards separated just sucks, the combo is finite, drawing more than one piece is just dead draws.
AV: Grixis could also play AV. Jund has the option to play Painful Truths to keep the steam and Wasteland Strangler IF AV is everywhere in the meta (which i doubt). What's the real problem then?

as for people not caring about Jund (some even seem to be happy that BGx players will now see how it feels like).. that's pure hipocrisy

Jund exists since the begging of modern, like affinity, splinter twin, pod, etc. Those were pillars of modern. Some pillars have been 'destroyed' and that caused some players to be sad because their pet decks have been banned and could say those things. But that's not a reason to worry or be upset about it lol.
What you can't expect is that the Jund archtype continue with 30% meta share that once had and the 50%++ matchup against everything in the field. Is not healthy for the format. When new cards are released, it impacts the format, the meta changes and we have to live with that. An eternal format doesn't mean the meta doesn't change.

Just to finish, I still think Jund will be a good deck, not sure if T1 - but we'll see. Maybe I'm wrong and the unbans were a mistake and will warp the format (i doubt that).
For me personally, meta changes are more than welcome. I haven't played since the twin banning and the eldrazi winter, so I'm very anxious for this new upcoming meta.

Quote from rcwraspy »

It's not just AV that will drop jund's tier. Eldrazi took the smallest nerf possible and will likely become a bit more midrange, pushing jund out of that space since it can't compete with card quality. If AV strategies take off that will just add to it, since discard strategies always suffer when good card draw is in s decent amount of the meta.

It's a combination of things, but AV certainly doesn't help jund.

And even though jund is one of my decks, I'm looking forward to playing uwr again.

And LOL to the person saying jund just wins off landing Lili. Any deck that wins by resolving a 4-of by definition can't be a 50-50 deck, which is what jund is. That viewpoint is just preposterous.

What I've said was that Jund vs Ux Control decks, landing Lili was usually a GG. I didn't refer the rest of the meta.
Ux don't have a clean and easy way to deal with a 4 health planeswalker (outside bolt range) while their hand keeps getting raped by discard spells/abilities.

I don't get what all this fuss is about regarding jund/abzan. Traditional, GBx beats Ux. A 1 mana discard card removing the answers that Ux Decks had in hand, so that GBx could land a threat, was always a huge blow. Liliana usually was GG - it required the Ux player too many resources to deal with her. A Goyf after discard on turn 1 - removing the answer Ux player could have in hand to deal with it - was a nightmare.
And now you are crying because U/x decks may have a chance? It's not even sure that AV will really push Ux control decks to T1. And on top deck, AV is awful, it requires that I wait 4 turns to get some value, while in the table could be a huge goyf. Also, if it really gets to the point where U/x Control decks have a significant meta share (like 4-5%), there is always answers in sideboard (some already referred the Wasteland Strangler). So stop crying, and let's enjoy (what i hope it will be) a meta free of eldrazi dominance.

Hmm, after the recent B&R List, i'll start testing something like this



I'll try to abuse the card advantage, with Kommand+Snap interactions, and GDD+AV. What are your thoughts? A 5 mana sorcery speed creature that can reuse AV/Kommand is where we want to be? Or should we stay in a more flash play-style?

Quote from tweedls »

Quote from Vondrack »

What if you draw vedalken shackles but don't have enough islands on board to use its effect?
What if you draw remands, but you're playing against affinity (or burn) and they already dropped they're hand? Should we remove remands from the deck?
What if we draw spell snares, but our opponent doesn't have any good 2-drop to counter?
What if we draw blood moon, but in our board there's only steam vents and sulfur falls?

Thing in the Ice is probably the best blue card that blue control decks received since Snapcaster Mage. It doesn't need to be played on turn 2 - losing our tempo, like someone said earlier - and it stays there just blocking aggro decks. When it's time, it can be transformed at instant speed, with a wrath effect - one that allows us to re-use our snapcasters/cliques.
If the card is gonna be used? We don't know yet, we need to test it first, but dismissing it already a card that theoretically is "what UR needed" without testing... Let's be more open minded!

vedalken shackles should always have enough islands in this deck, running 9-10 and steam vents counts if you don't have a moon out. Remands can still be live against affinity and burn when they're topdecking, even if targets are sparse, and we board those out. spell snares are good against a vast majority of the meta, the only deck i can think of is living end and restore balance, the card is great against G/B/x and merfolk just to name 2. Once again we should have enough islands on our board, because your fetches aren't always getting steam vents, turn 1-5 you only need 2 red sources and you have a chance of drawing them, also with islands being 1 in 6 cards you draw at least one in a majority of games.

My bad that didn't quoted the original post. This was a reply to gkourou's post:

And if you got Path'd/Decay'd/Terminate'd/Dismembere'd and then keep on fighting and you topdeck it on turn 6 where you re close on losing?
Or if you don't have it in your starting 7 and just topdeck it on turn 5?
What happens then?

The truth is that every card have situations where it doesn't work very well (e.g. Roast against Restoration Angel, remand against affinity/burn, etc...). That doesn't mean that the card is bad and it should be removed from our deck. Dismissing "our" 0/4 just because it could get path'd/decay'd it's the same as dismissing goyf because it gets snare'd... The TitI has a lot of potential, we'll see if it will work good enough to have a spot in our deck. But theoretically (without testing ofc) the card seems really good. I agree that most of the situations it won't be cast on turn 2, but we have time. We don't need to rush it just to transform it, we'll keep casting spells normally (that's what we'ld do) aiming to control the match. Eventually it will transform and leaving a huge threat without "spending mana" on it.

What if you draw vedalken shackles but don't have enough islands on board to use its effect?
What if you draw remands, but you're playing against affinity (or burn) and they already dropped they're hand? Should we remove remands from the deck?
What if we draw spell snares, but our opponent doesn't have any good 2-drop to counter?
What if we draw blood moon, but in our board there's only steam vents and sulfur falls?

Thing in the Ice is probably the best blue card that blue control decks received since Snapcaster Mage. It doesn't need to be played on turn 2 - losing our tempo, like someone said earlier - and it stays there just blocking aggro decks. When it's time, it can be transformed at instant speed, with a wrath effect - one that allows us to re-use our snapcasters/cliques.
If the card is gonna be used? We don't know yet, we need to test it first, but dismissing it already a card that theoretically is "what UR needed" without testing... Let's be more open minded!

It's not just the board wipe, it's a board wipe that could be made at instant speed, leaving a huge threat behind and no blockers on the opponent's side. It's the combination of board wipe leaving a huge threat and a blocker in the early turns that makes this card very good. In theory ofc.

I joined the hype train and pre-order a playset for 28eur... This morning I just watch the "new price" for the playset... 60eur. It seems a lot of people are joining the train lol

exactly
UR delver plays a lot of cheap cantrips, that could flip this as soon as turn 3.

New shadows over innistrad spoiler presented us with Thing in the Ice

What do you think? It could be awesome for our deck, it's a finisher and it can block 3 power creatures all day buying us time. Also, i see some degenerated plays like "It has 2 ice counters, EOT bolt+snap+bolt, flip the creature, return snapcaster to hand (and any possible blockers), and attack with a 7 power creature".

If the match is over on turn 3, t2 is midgame
One of the lands (at least) has to go, probably Eye, but it'll affect Tron as well, so I may see them banning the Temple instead. And i'm hoping Shadows over Innistrad brings some new blue control toys...

More or less. I'll separate it then. First, the reason of twin banning was "for the sake of diversity" - we can see from the top8 of the GPs of the last year that the meta was already diverse (Oklahoma was just an example) - so for me it was just hypocrisy. And second, the truth is Twin was the deck that put on check mindless (uninteractive) creatures based decks - and that is what eldrazi decks basically are. I'm not saying twin would beat eldrazi everytime (i guess that, after the surprise factor had passed, the matchups would be even or favourable to eldrazis), but if there was one deck that could put up a fight against eldrazi, that deck was twin.