MTG Salvation

Yes, probably. I am reposting the exact list just to make sure I answer your question honestly.
I sort of removed the rest in peace from the sideboard, on sunday, for another verdict and grim lavamancer, as I already wrote. But I made a rollback to the list posted, don't really think we can skip on Graveyard hate, specially with Storm being tier 1 and dredge tier 2. Plus all the grave shenanigans decks like reanimator and stuff.

So, as promised. I went for GP Birmingham modern fanatic package. That is side events only and these were my results.

I was happy to run 0 Stony Silences, I don't feel like I need them at all against affinity. Against RG Tron and Eldrazi Tron I prefer Spreading Seas because it works against both versions of Tron and particularly against RG Tron, Spreading Seas delays them as much as Stony Silence but actually increases our chances of getting the badly needed Geist, Snap, Counters or worse case scenario bolt.

I also decided to completely remove Rest in Peace from the sideboard. So now I am running 2 Supreme Verdict and 1 Grim Lavamancer. If Dredge or other similar degenerate decks are in your meta, I would replace Grim with a second Anger of the Gods or add Relic of Progenitus or some other force of Graveyard Hate instead. This is something I am not 100% sure about just yet.

So, I am back after some time awol from this thread.
My final list, the one I am taking to 6 side events on GP Birmingham, is the following:

After extensive testing here are my results with the list:
I wish I could test alot more, because some matchups simply don't have a big enough sample size to draw any conclusion upon, but still nice to see the deck does fairly well against the general field. Data was collected on *not so legal mtg apps*, local game store FNMs and one PPTQ (in which I went 4-0-0 into top 4, losing on finals due to dumbness of not wanting to mulligan on game 2 and game 3 with crappy hands, being one round ahead already).

I haven't tryed Cryptic Serpent, however I don-t think it's my playstyle to run Though Scours and similar engines. However, does seem like a decent card, considering it dodges both Bolt, Helix and most importantly Fatal Push. While being able to make great blocking and aggression. Too bad it does not have trample or some other way of making it more worthwhile. I see it as a big creature only.

I haven't been able to test as much as I wanted due to university exams and other stuff.
But even tho I found Boros Charm amazing, Electrolyze really does help alot against Abzan Company and Queller against Eldrazi along with the suggested Spreading Seas. So I am running a more standart version of the UWR-Midrange Geist deck. I'll post my results probably next month.

Boros charm is a recent card I've tryed out and I quiet honestly like it.

It protects my geist from sweepers and allows for safer trades. Won me quite a few games tbh (I mean it) and it kills many planeswalkers with ease. The alternatives are not good in this meta Cryptic Command is slow and Restoration Angels haven't been great either.

I also though Boros Charm wouldn't be great either, but my build which worked for years was failing massively, I tryed a few other cards based on lists I saw doing well recently and they didn't work out for me. I tryed one just for fun, upped to two and then I realized I actually wanted to draw that card more often, went I upped to four. Which I admit, might be slightly overkill. However, I don't regret it too much. In a world where you are facing decks with card advantage while running multiple sweepers you can't afford to beat them in the control/grind plan because you will end up losing. If your geist dies to Supreme Verdicts in which are uncounterable and UW is running 3 to 4 right now, if you don't have enough reach it's end of the line for you.

Against the remaining decks your faced with cheap creatures that either kill you fast, in which case you need to be able to race, enter more burn.

Or your facing efficient creatures from decks such has death shadow, that can kill you and control you at the same time, meaning you have a really small window of opportunity of winning the game.

Boros charm helped in all of those departments and I won't cut it. I am having trouble with two particular match ups, in one of them (counter company) truth be told, boros is useless, but I can sideboard it out.

Regarding electrolyze, yes I know it can kill two thoughness creatures, but at that point you are no longer doing two for one which is the main reason to run the card, however, since I can bolt Devoted Druids, I can save electrolyze for Nobles, Witnesses, Viziers and other creepers the deck has. It will also help against Affinity if I do go down on Stony Silences. So the suggestion was pretty good. I might cut on Charm, just one, to up on it, or possibly another card.

In my opinion the true midrange version of geist, is not good right now, in fact, most midrange decks regardless of color are not doing great (jund, wilted abzan and others). I am making an option of sacrificing versatily to make my aggressive gameplan viable as often as possible. Figuring out the right numbers to beat Counters Company will surelly make me an happier person, since Eldrazi Tron should be a hard matchup either ways.

So basically I am looking for input on how to beat CC or boht CC and Eldrazi, without deviating too much from my current build, since it's been particulary ok to good on the remaining matchups.

I am playing a burn oriented version, I really don't want to play Wall of Omens because they force me to tap out on turn 2 and possible fetch untapped shocks. I am closing my first round of tests with the list posted on page 217. Over 46 Matches counting only decks listed in modern sections of MTGSalvation, finishing with 73,91% winrate. Most losses were against the mentioned decks. 33% winrate against Counters Company or similar decks and 25% against Eldrazi.

Definetly didn't like it trying out Ancestral Visions last night, even tho I played very few matches with it, the card just felt too slow for my game plan even when I played it early. Going to replace them with Serum Visions.

Remands helped me find extra burns/lands or occasionally dodging some counters by bouncing my other spells back to my hand. Unfortunatly I do end up sideboarding them out against most matches except Combo decks, which I haven't was paired against all that much.

Following your advice, I am replacing one of them (down to 2) with Electrolyze. It's extra removal against Company decks and it still gives card advantage. Unfortunatly Devoted Druid is still a 0/2 danger, I guess I will have to bolt it and Eletrolyze other creepers.

I removed Celestial Purge, which was helping alot against Deathshadow decks, because it hits every creature of theirs and answer Liliana in any given point in time. Not having faced many Lilianas in this current meta and having charms as a bad alternative for her and considering my current winrate against Grixis Deathshadow is 83% over 6 matches and 100% against all other variations for a total of 9 Deathshadow matches. I guess I can afford to lose that card even tho. But by removing it, I am literally dead against Blood Moon, Ajani Vengeants or Skred red Planeswalkers if I didn't drop a Geist early enough.

I removed Grim Lavamancer of the sideboard and Eidolon of Rhetoric aswell. These two removals along with Celestial Purge, were exchanged with Ceremonious Rejection.

The question now is, since I have 3 Ceremonious Rejection, is it still worth to keep the two stony silences on the sideboard? I mean Tron variants are usually Eldrazi Variants now, that means no O-Stones and all sorts of annoying on activation artifacts, which have been replaced by colorless aggressive creatures and chalice of the void. By doing so, I could re-insert Grim Lavamancer for Affinity/Company decks (even tho I found them slightly antisinergetic with my Snaps since I run only 8 Fetch Lands) along with Shatterstorm or Celestial Purge.

Waiting for more feedback to start statistically testing a round with the new list (below). One month and a half to tune it for GP.

Quote from TappingStones »

Oketra's last mercy

Well boys, this card should absolute tilt for burn! Set it up with counterspell backup when you are at 5-8 life.

Flash it back later = )

It's going to be tilt for me too, I came here to ask for help.
I've have a very decent win rate with my list on not so "competitive" environments, FMN style and such. But I've been losing a lot, and I really mean ALOT against counter company. I used to find Melira and Abzan Company cake walk, but right now, with a build with even more removal I am just folding to all sorts of broken Companies, even when I have average to good hands. Another match-up that is giving me lots of trouble is Colorless Eldrazi Tron. Specially when they have nut hands.

Usually lose the either because I lack some gas in the end to get the last points of damage. Specially WHEN they chain the finks.
I am also getting slightly land secrewed.

So I am thinking of going down 1 remand down to two and 2 resto ration angels down to 0, to add 3 Ancestral Visions, since my only turn 1 play is Bolts and Grim Lavamancer if I sideboard him in.



Thoughts?

I am no expert but I don't think the deck seems all that consistent.

Last thing UWR wants to be doing is tapping out to play creatures that fold to all removal in the format right now, specially if they take time to setup like Monastery Mentor and Glory-Bound Initiate. Tapping out for Geist of Saint Traft is ok because he is a great beater, but the list is it running as two of. I don't know seems like that kind of deck that is great if Plan A works, but sort of folds if it doesn't.

Isochron Scepter is interesting tho, always nice to see that card making some tops.

Rather play Eiganjo Castle, it is almost as good as the one you mentioned Geists' life and there is a small chance that your opponent chump blocks with a small creature hoping to kill him only to end up losing that creature and not killing the Geist of Saint Traft as planned. Does not happen often, specially at more serious tournaments, but it can happen. Sure, fear increases the clock on your opponent more than Eiganjo does, but red provides more clock than black and black makes you shock yourself more often (i.e.: Thoughtseize). But in the end, neither Jeskai nor Esper Geist decks are true tier decks, so I guess everybody does whatever they want to do as long as they enjoy it.

I would like to add something that is very obvious, but I only noticed the "interaction" while play testing today. Boros Charm, apart from being a great Geist life saver and finisher, also kills Liliana of the Veil the turn she enter the field (considering you don't have some counter in hand for her). I wonder about the possibility of going down a singleton Negate in order to add another conditional counter such as Mana Leak so that I am still somewhat efficient at countering Liliana before she comes into play, slightly less efficient at countering Collected Company, but allowing me to hit creatures as well, should the need arise. Specially considering Scapeshift decks and other combos where Negate is really important aren't very popular right now, apart from Storm which is a average to good match-up for Jeskai Geist anyway.

For the moment I am going to leave the list as is.

Esper doesn't pair well with geist in modern, you'll lose a lot of reach that he needs not to mention that man-lands are smaller and your aggro match ups will be worse. That's my opinion, mind that I have nothing against esper, but I tried it before and for me, a UW version would be the best, but unfortunately, red is a must with geist.

Ye seen like that tectonic edge actually seems like a very reasonable choice TappingStones.

I also agree that Tron is sort of a give up match-up, so I might try to run two Tectonic Edge over Ghost Quarter.
But on the other hand I've actually won two games ghost quarting myself for that extra mountain for the last points of burns. My list is also burn oriented like yours but not so much. I have more controlling elements so I have more white/blue lands and some times, not very often I get land screwed against decks that I don't want to shock myself against (I don't run warleaders helix, I run boros charm instead as you might have noticed a few pages back - regarding that list I actually dropped the last Cryptic Command the serum visions for remands like you and two extra charms).

I would really like seeing a UWR Geist build getting a top8 in some GP this year, but it seems it's not meant to be!

I am a geist fan, what can I say, I run it in every format (except legacy, cause nemesis is better :c).

Why do you run Tectonic Edge instead of Ghost Quarter TappingStones? Isn't ghost quarter better in a midrange shell? We don't need many resources for counter wars against control so I guess we can get away destroying their manlands and refuelling them with new ones and tectonic edge is sort of slow against tron. Why do you run electrolyze?

Hello,

I am going to GP Birmingham this summer. It's going to be my first attendance to such a big event. I play magic for many years but I never went beyond local tournaments.

Should I buy the Main event only (base entry) priced at 60£ and play Saturday only, Sunday if I make it day two... And if I don't, participate on some side events on sunday. How much is the entry cost for each constructed side event without the package? The price isn't disclosed on the official website. What format is played on Mega Last Chance Trial?

Or should I just buy a Modern fanatic package instead? (no main event participation)
This something that doesn't bother me, but how many rounds do this tournaments usually have? How many players? Because according to other recent GPs organized by ChannelFireball, there are two of scheduled tournaments a day in which I can enter for free (if I have the package) but they are usually like 4h30m apart, that is barelly enough for 4 rounds. Now that does bother me because it would be transportation, plus +-15£ for "fmns".

(I am not going to birmingham just for GP, I am also going to know the city, that is why this information is important for me)

Against storm like we said the usual counters and some graveyard suffices specially if you manage to slam geists early (which is risky, but in my personal opinion you really dont want to let them snowball resources. Against company decks regardless of their type you can run anger of the gods, if are having trouble with jund then you might change some of this anger of the gods by wrath of god or supreme verdict, but since you have many company decks in your meta, run at least one anger. Against grixis delver I find that pure burn, geist savers, blessed alliance, rest in peace and celestial purge are all mvps. Never really played Monoblack devotion enough to give you an answer. Tron: give up and hope you draw nuts. Lantern is sort of difficult, because we dont have green to run Ancient Grudges and even then its not easy. Run one or two wear and tears and hope to hit them with a Snapcaster mage, assuming they are placed in the GY and they dont make u discard Snap. If you manage to do this with a geist on the field, youll probably be able to bypass the bridges for one or two final attacks, but it is a hard and furstrating match up