MTG Salvation

Quote from marlboro92 »

Quote from Waerz »

Here's a question: How can I beat you as UW control player? I have a *ton* of trouble with the match up and could use some pointers!
Thanks

Difficult one. depends on the sideboard plan your storm opponent brings. Usually going for the gy is a good call, but sometimes storm can cut that part of the deck entirely, cutting gifts for pieces of the puzzle, and removing noxious and Pif, and you will find yourself with few dead draws. Another option is to attack on the stack, with cheap counter magic aka dispel, or counterflux (the best answer) if youre on jeskai. The issue here is that gigadrowse can make counter magic really bad. Third option would be to bring in something like supreme veredict against EtW.

Best way to defeat storm would be early pressure (V clique) plus a mix of counter magic/ wrath effects/ gy hate (?). Then, some more specific hate cards can be game on the spot, like runned halo, meddling mage or rule of law/ eidolon of rethoric.

Thanks for the reply! I'll link my current list http://i65.tinypic.com/2na08c0.jpg
This isn't the finished list of course, just what I'm currently testing.
I'm on UW splashing green for Glittering Wish. I play mostly like a stock UW list with some extra silver bullets.

It's still a pretty miserable match for me. G1 my plan has been to try and counter as much as I can with my low cmc counters. An early wish can grab with Wheel of Sum and Moon or a Geist as an early threat.
G2 I bring out higher cmc spells (wrath, etc) for my various counters, RiP, and several of the wish threats. Usually leaving Geist and Wheel to be wished for. Celestial Purge comes in too, especially if I suspect a bloodmoon.

There usually isn't a game 3 for me though..

Here's a question: How can I beat you as UW control player? I have a *ton* of trouble with the match up and could use some pointers!
Thanks

Here's a question: How can I beat you as UW control player? I have a *ton* of trouble with the match up and could use some pointers!
Thanks

Here's my current list, I'm going to try adding red for 2 mb Kcommand and 2-3 sb Crumble to Dust, also maybe and Izzet Staticaster.


That's how it sits now. I'm planning on cutting 2 Ghost Quarter and 2 Colonnade for 1 mountain, 1 Sacred Foundry, 1 Polluted Delta, and 1 Steam Vents.
-1 Serum Visions and -1 Cast Out make room for the 2 Kommands.
I'd like to try to get +1 Snappy, +1 Logic Knot, +1 Cryptic main, but the only easy cuts are the Visions..
As for the board, I'll never find the room, but I want to add 2 or 3 Crumble, maaaaybe a Staticaster, I'd love to ad +1 Runed Halo, +1 Clique, +1 Dispel and maybe even some number of Relic of Progenitus, but there's never enough room..

I think you could go as low as 24 fairly easily, depending on the build.

Quote from AtomicEmpire7 »

Also, is fetching and shocking on T1 for Serum Visions advisable?

It really depends on a few factors, namely what you're playing VS and what your hand looks like.
For instance, vs Burn it's probably not a great idea unless you're deaparatly digging for something or want to land it before they drop an Eidolon.
But, vs something slower like another UWx control, it can be fine, or if you've only got 2 lands and a TT in hand, it lets you curve into the TT on 2 for maximum hand dig.
G2 vs certain matches you really need certain answers, so it can be correct there too.

Clique out of the board has definitely been proving itself. I have a funny story that does not prove that point however; I was playing Vs UW earlier today. I absolutely crushed him g1 and was continuing to crush him game 2, he made the control mistake and was playing too aggressively. Anyway, it's turn 57 or something, I have 8 or so soldiers on the field and he's at 5. I know he has a verdict in hand from when I extracted his negates earlier in the game, I also saw that he'd sided out his cryptics for some reason. I Clique him after draw and he has THREE verdicts in hand.. so he verdicts and I cast my second secure at end step.

One thing that I've learned is that Ghost Quarter really keeps our mainland's down, which is unfortunate. I loved pithing needle out of the board for this reason when I was on Abzan. I really wish boards would go up to 20 cards so I could run more answers..

You need the desktop version of the site, then it's super easy. Upper right of the page, click the search drop-down, choose this thread and go nuts.
You can also copy the URL and search Google for it plus your query.

That IS very annoying. There was this stupid Temur list running around my old LGS that always had the t4 stubborn. That being said, I DO think the 4th Wrath effect in the board is fairly critical. I like your arguments for why it should be a verdict, but having just come from Abzan, I happen to know that Thrun is quite often in their boards. He's also mainboard in some of the RG ponza lists, gogari charm is still around sometimes and elves still exists, so I think I'll keep the actual wrath for now.

I feel like souls is better in a tapout control shell. Abzan makes good use of them, but because we're trying to stay away from sorcery speed, they just don't cut it. Secure is nearly just as good as the first half(unless flying matters) for the same mana cost. I've been jamming this deck hard to get reacquainted with it, and I haven't found a match-up yet where I've felt like souls would have been a key card. The other thing too is that we only have 15 slots in our board, which is already super tight.

Here's what I've been running.
Speaking of tight boards, I'd love to squeeze another stony in there somehow, but haven't found the room yet.


I'm excited to keep tuning this thing, it's feeling really good in the current meta.

Just stop replying to each other, it's *****ting up a good thread at this point with ego.

Thoughts on swapping [[Thoughseize]] for [[Collective Brutality]]? It seems like Hoogland was pushing for it a while ago. Maybe I missed where it was discussed here, but it seems like an interesting switch.
Not as good vs Eldrazi or Tron, but adds cards vs burn and the like, and still fine vs other control.

Edit: After reading through some older posts it seems not grabbing walkers and the like makes Brutality not really worth it.

I've been following this thread for the last 10 pages or so. I was on UW and then Esper through Eldrazi winter and the following season. I left the country for 8 months and played mostly Abzan and EDH online, but now I'm getting ready to return home in about a week and I'm very excited to get back into Esper. I've begun practicing a mostly stock list on Xmage, and holy crap guys, we are really well positioned right now it seems.

As for the topic of the last few pages, I have no idea how BA can be a consideration over fatal push. Back when I was playing we had 4 path and 2 condemn just to maximize the 1 mana remove options. The idea that a 2 Mana spell that's only actually better as a 4 Mana spell somehow replaces a 2 Mana spell is insane. By the time we get to 4 Mana, we have better things to be doing. I just don't see it. Sure, run some in the board if you like, but just like cryptic isn't a replacement for negate or snare, BA is NOT a replacement for path or push.

That's a good point about stony, I actually meant explosives, but I guess I brain farted.

Recently the Merfolk decks that I've been seeing online have been running the full set of Spreading Seas and Seas Claim, often main board which really slows them down. Slows us down too, but we're a grindy deck while they're a burst deck.

I've actually been wanting to try playing t1 and t2 uncracked fetch just to keep them off the t2 spreading seas can trip. If they play a lord we can remove it eot, otherwise we blank their t2. I'm not sure it's the ultimate plan, but with the right hand it seems solid.

I can see why you'd run Inversion I guess, but why Haakon? He's okay with discarding to Lili, but how does it help vs merfolk?

By the way, I actually feel like we have a good match with merfolk, between path, push stony and discard I think we put up and pretty good fight.
I feel like souls is still good, since they can clutter up the ground, but souls can get in damage in the air. I like Lili too. The sooner we can empty their hand, the sooner we can cast spells without worrying about counters.
I'll post my list later.