MTG Salvation

i used to play it but it kinda felt like leyline of sanctity - if you play 1 of them in your deck, it's usually too late by the time you land it.

I think blood baron will be great, gonna throw him in my sideboard as well. Hard to get rid of and the lifegain is huge for us. 5 points of instant damage on a flyer is no joke either though, so tmaw is still a viable option as well. Meta call indeed.

yeah i could see myself boarding out Geist for an Ashiok against creature-heavy decks. too bad his ultimate isn't a game-winner but then again, when do you get to activate an ultimate these days?

Thanks for the input Doom. What's your opinion on planeswalkers in the sideboard? I imagine they're mostly good for the grindy games.

Chandra Pyro / Ajani Vengeant / Elspeth KE / Ashiok / Jace AOT / Gideon Jura come to mind.

Keranos and Tasigur are our only grindy long term options, perhaps a little help from the SB would be nice.

good point. one thing i've been thinking about is the insane amount of sideboard options you get from splashing a fourth color. do we add Fulminator Mage? Terminate? Zealous Persecution? Blood Baron? some of these might not make as much sense but it can be a headache going over all the possibilites.

it was my first time playing this iteration, played UWR Geist quite a bit prior. Keranos main definitely seems like the way to go, it's always scary for your opponent if you stick it. bait out a counterspell, worst case scenario.

what can Abzan do about it though? or do they just bumrush you anyway?

Took UWRb to Monday Night Magic, went 1-2-1 so it wasn't a great first run.

Round 1 Amulet Bloom, he overran me with a titan around turn 4 or 5. Game 2 my Wear / Tear, KCommand and Snapcasters worked overtime to secure a win. Game 3 he went T1 amulet, T2 i fetch + shock myself for a serum visions, pass the turn, he plays a second amulet and deals 17 damage with a god hand. Horrible matchup.

Round 2 Tarmo-Twin, long grindy game of draw-go, i took Game 1 fairly easily in the end, wasn't sure what to board in (advice welcome here) so i grabbed all the anti-Blood Moon stuff i could (Wear/Tear, Celestial Purge) and a Spellskite to stop Twin. Another grindy game, lot of work removing his Goyfs and Huntmasters. I felt favored in the matchup but ended up durdling too much and probably messed up my timing. Lost a few cards trying to get rid of his Snapcaster Twin with a yard full of Cryptics and other horrible stuff. My Keranos kept getting bounced and he Bolted me to death. Game 3 went to time but he took it eventually. Not a Blood Moon in sight throughout but he did tell me he boarded two in afterwards. I feel like this should have been a win.

Round 3 Esper Midrange, some kind of weird build with Monastery Mentors and Tasigurs and a bunch of control magic. Took Game 1 easily. Game 2 Vault of the Archangel kept him alive, my Spreading Seas took care of it eventually but when he activated three goddamn Tec Edges simultaneously that was the beginning of the end for me. We went to time and drew in Game 3. Mindnumbingly long grindy games. Got my only good use of the night out of Crackling Doom when I 2-for-1'd his Sorin + vampire token. Missing my Ghost Quarter.

Round 4 wasn't worth mentioning, kid brought out some homebrew mono B vampire deck, easy 2-0 for me.

Crackling Doom didn't do much for me but I guess it depends on the matchup. Not sure how to sideboard for Twin and i just didn't get lucky on the Amulet matchup. Confident this is a solid list though - not a pushover for anyone. Missing a bit of countermagic, Remand alone ain't cutting it so I might try a Leak or two next time. I need to work on my sideboarding and overall timing game in general, I guess.

In conclusion I have to say Tasigur is amazing and landing a Keranos always feels great (until they bounce it with CC). Better luck next week!

I'm gonna try Spreading Seas in the side in lieu of Ghost Quarter and see how i fare.

The way i see it, it takes out Tron, Bloom, manlands and stalls Burn while netting us a card rather than giving them back a basic and netting nothing.

My current list below, opinions are welcome. I haven't tried it yet and am also still figuring out the local meta as i just moved here so the sideboard is a bit of everything (and the fetchlands are a mess as i still need 3 more Strands). Engineered Explosives has always been an auto 2-of as it's just so versatile and has saved me on several occasions. I've found it's often very hard to recover after a sweeper takes out our creatures, so i feel Boros Charm could be amazing there or just to push those last 4 points through.

Debated for a long time on whether to include the 4th Helix, and what my counter suite should be. I don't think Remand alone is enough as this isn't a pure tempo deck, and Mana Leak is just dead late game. Spell Snare can be a horrible topdeck (the worst in the deck I guess), but it stops so many things I'm always happy to see it in my opening hand. Also thought about going 3 Colonnade / 1 Tar Pit but I don't think there's any room for the latter with such a small black splash and the fact that it dies to a Bolt, KCommand or Electrolyze.

Opinions?

i would definitely say so - i feel like the split into a more proactive tempo version about a year and some months ago was already a pretty significant one (more burn, more remands, including tmaw) and now we're seeing this addition of black with crackling doom and tasigurs into something very different again.

newbie question - why is everyone running Wanderwine Hubs in a mono-blue deck? no PTE in the sideboard either... i don't get it.

If you fail to counter Liliana, Jeskai Charm is the only card that deals with her immediately after her +1. Need I say more?

Agree on Keranos, he feels like such a win-more card by the time you land him. I run Engineered Explosives instead with Batterskull in the sideboard. Not a fan of Remands personally but opinions remain divided there. I run two Cryptics myself and they're the bomb.

And honestly, i'd cut the splicers for a kiki-jiki / wall of omens and 3 electrolyze.

You also probably don't need shadow of doubt in sb, sure it cantrips but its bound to be a dead draw rather than an asset quite often. Great control card, for us though, not so much.

Debtors' Knell

Null Brooch

Squandered Resources

Engineered Explosives is so good, i'm considering running 2 main deck. got rid of my Remands, don't miss them at all. GW Hatebears is still a problem though.

You don't need Serum Visions, it's normally used to dig for specific cards but that's not something we need to do as pretty much every draw is a good one. This deck has so many answers. You also don't really wanna play anything main phase except Geist.