MTG Salvation

Yeah, my decklist is pretty instant heavy. The Far//Aways are my flex slots. It's been really, really strong vs the R/G monsters list. In fact, it's basically 60-40 against everything non-control, but the lack of Jace's makes the control matchups so much worse than you'd even think. Like, 30-70 in the control mirror. I'm still working on how to shore that up to a manageable level for larger events, but locally 80% of the meta is monsters, devotion/agro, and white-based midrange. For these matchups, monsters in particular, I've had great success with mainboarded celestial flares backed up by quickened board wipes and countermagic, relying on my 16 scry sources and raw card draw over the selection from Jace. I'm not sure if I want thoughtseizes in the board with the black splash, but I don't feel like I could really improve the control matchup without dedicating 7+ slots to it. Scrying a lot helps find answers, but in the control mirror I really can't rely on boardwipes, even planar cleansing, to win the card advantage war against Jace.

With the recent increase in esper-midrangy lists and the increase of G/R monsters and such, has anyone considered cutting out the D spheres and Jace's for more efficient spell-based draw/removal/boardwipes? I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out:

Jace is really bad against G/R, one of our worst matchups. D spheres are also very strained in these matchups because of the large number of planeswalkers and must-answer creatures.

Planar cleansing is generally a nonbo with d sphere and jace, but if you cut both and play quickens and planars, you get most of the benefits of Fated
retribution, while also benefitting from going back to a 1/2 wincon list heavy on the elixir + sphinx's revelation plan. It just seems to me that a list that utilizes more divinations and board wipes and cantrips is going to be better positioned when you expect both thoughtseize AND G/R monsters in large quantity, since the divination heavy lists are typically good at rebuilding from thoughtseize and the like, while the boardwipes lists are stronger against G/R monsters. Not to mention, planar cleansing plays around bestowed boon satyrs and the like. Thoughts?

yes, protection from colored spells does not protect emrakul from oblivion ring, on-board effects, or being enchanted (provided you can somehow enchant emrakul without targeting him with the enchantment on the stack, i.e. via academy rector or Zur the Enchanter

It hurts Miracles a lot more to not be able to fetch into that basic plains they need in response to magus of the moon than it does to fetch your 3rd UW dual land EOT instead of mainphase to avoid the extra 2 damage.

In general, I would argue that it is far more important to have the correct split of fetches than of duals. As long as you can fetch into at least your minimum in-play package of duals, I'm generally OK running a shock or two in my manabase. The same can not be said for fetchlands--you HAVE to be able to hit the appropriate pairs of basics off your fetchlands, and since the majority of your mana base IS fetchlands you can't really skimp on them.

I've seen delver matches end with "turn one wasteland your tundra, surgical extraction it. Turn two, delver. turn three, wasteland your volcanic. turn four, snapcaster mage surgical extraction/force/daze to protect it, GG. Hell, I've seen RUG scoop to turn one wasteland on trop-->surgical trop-->force your force. It's just too backbreaking to have 8/12 of your creatures entirely dead in hand. I've also seen Grixis delver scoop to surgicaled underground seas--same deal, when your only threats are 2 lavamancers, 4 delvers and some burn spells, it's often too difficult to actually win the match considering all the dead cards.

If you actually read the wall of text, this is a very small and not-very-competitive local event, I use it to bring ideas/brews. Believe me, I wouldn't take this list were I to drive up to the star city games center for an FNM, this is what I'm playing at the moment for this small-ish midweek event. And yes, the selesnya player is running boon satyrs and smiters at cmc3, voices/lion's/call the conclave at 2, and the wurm making spell at 4. I hadn't considered going back to azorius charms, that's something I'll have to tinker with; that might give me a good enough game one I can stick with the "game one chain sphinxes for 45 minutes to a few hundred life" plan.

I've considered it, but I'm already running 3x planar cleansing main/1 sideboard, and the only benefit in this matchup is to dodge the "make creatures indestructible/populate" spell, while losing to bestowed boon satyr. I don't think going up to more than 8 boardwipes could ever be correct, and while merciless would probably make sense in a planeswalker/dsphere build, I think the planar cleansings are better here since they prevent getting blown out by boon satyr at least. I've been looking at cyclonic rift and far//away, since both of those turn into actual 1 for 1's against token producing spells and I have the potential 2 for 1 off the away portion. Other than that, I'm just praying for a deathmark reprint in m15 since of all the standard UW noncreatures, there doesn't appear to be a solid answer for selesnya specifically. Oh for the days of hallowed burial and/or terminus.

my intentional design space for this list is almost no on-board permanents. I have the jaces, but I've cut them for this store for two reasons: one, I'm checking whether uncovered clues in a spell-based build is better than divination by a large enough margin to make it worth running multiples, and two because of the playerbase at this store, a planeswalker won't ever net me more than one activation unless I've already got them at zero cards and a full grip myself. Anyway, jace is particularly bad against selesnya aggro, and I specifically am looking for suggestions in the sideboard material department to beat selesnya aggro. Last breath doesn't hit half of their creatures, it's easily the one of the worst cards in the deck against selesnya aggro. Syncopate is good as a tempo counter, but in a matchup where the only relevant threats in the tempo play slot are creatures, I'd rather board in the extra essence scatter and negate for late game efficiency. Sphinx's revelation as a 4 of vs as a 3 of is a preference, most people on the elixir plan run three because the endgame is to chain really, really big ones and shuffle back with elixir, while people on the saito list run four because they're looking to slam a threat to win with and you need to draw one quickly since you're not running elixir.

My problem is selesnya aggro: I'm looking for sideboard suggestions. Not a rebuilding of my mainboard.

So locally there's a small shop that's got a (fairly) casual playerbase, and the owner holds $5 standard 3 nights a week (m/w/FNM) with an OK-ish prize pool. It's basically free packs for me with the overall skill level of the players at the shop, so I've taken to using it as a concept check for deck ideas. To deal with problems at the regular LGS I play at for competitive events, I've been testing a UW list that runs next to no nonland permanents:


Obviously, I'm still on the elixir/chain sphinx's revs plan, but I chose the high-impact singletons route for it, with more game 1 flexibility, and it's an absolute house in the more competitive metagame in the area. However, at this smaller shop I'm playing at on the other nights of the week, while I win most rounds 1/0/0 or 1/0/1, there's one player who is a particularly inept pilot, but he's playing the selesnya "all the control hate" deck. 4 voice of resurgence, lions, advent of the wurm, etc. I've played there four times, met him in the finals all four times, and I've been unable to take a game off of him yet despite his terrible play ability. He has in the same pair of games failed to regenerate experiment one through a quickened planar cleansing when he could easily have done so, overextended recklessly onto the board the turn AFTER I sphinx's rev for 5, and keept one-landers with nothing but three and four-drops. I'm curious if anyone has ideas for a solid post-board plan for beating a fairly stock selesnya aggro with UW if I'm willing to dedicate 10 sideboard slots to it for these midweek standard events?

Both players have equal draws (OP states this) therefore the person to draws first loses. Since in this case, if the draws are equal neither player will ever be able to pressure the other (either it's two demons and one player swings, they trade, or it's an empty board). Because of this, the one who decks first loses.

don't forget counterflux. you counter their elixir, aetherling, and elspeths, and they got nothing.

whoever draws first in this case loses (assuming precisely equal draws) because they'll deck first.

This is what I'm running for my local meta at the moment. I've found that while the card draw from Jace is nice, that I get a lot of free game one wins by having zero mainboard nonland permanents, answering everything with verdict and planar cleansing. My local meta has a good amount of mono black devotion, and I've found that the planar cleansings with quicken make UW just even more of a house game one against them. I've had plenty of matchups against white weenie variants that brought in glare of heresy and pithing needles only to realize for game two that they're essentially dead cards in the matchup. the half of the locals who are the casual crowd all seem to be on some variant of 3 color superfriends, so I've found that the renounce the guilds have been necessary. Psychic spiral is an absolute house in the mirror, hit it in response to a big revelation and it can often win the game, especially if they're digging for their elixir.


Thoughts/comments, especially on the choice to forego the detention spheres and jaces/Elspeth? R/G is not really a thing in my meta at the moment, so I haven't found the need for Elspeth.

I'm a long-time magic player, first time joining this site. I'm a control/prison player at heart, I still sling lands and Armageddon stax at legacy events, and I play one elixir-no-win-con's UW control in standard. And I hate tapping forests if it involves playing creatures.