The only things I'd change is the mana base. 8 shocklands is asking for trouble against other aggressive decks. Also, 7 basics are 4 too many.
Sideboardwise, the latest "tech" I tried before playing the Izzet Phoenix deck, was 2 Thing in the Ice. It demolishes any go-wide deck. I'd try the in place of Solemnities, since they cover more match-ups than them (those you have them for included).Plus your infect and affinity matchup is absurd. Your burn matchup is bad because of your mana base and no spell pierces in the main. Move to a 3-4 shockland, 3 basics, 4-5 fastland mana base and it should be improved. That said, it's a 50-50 match-up imo.
@CurdBros I'm on the reveler train, drakes are bad against fast decks(and oftentimes color requirements can be a pain), while revelers have dual functionality: late game power/grind and card velocity. I'm testing atm 4 swiftspears/4 titi/4 phoenix/3 revelers and so far it's been better. I have 2 drakes in the SB, along with 2 Firemind's Research.
Surgical is epic with snapcasters, but trap is better when you have to remove the whole graveyard (like dredge/bridgevine even phoenix decks) and not one out of a few combo pieces. I'll probably never play trap in a delver/snapcaster deck, but in the izzet deck? Trap all the way.
Now, for the specific match-up of UWR Delver vs Izzet/whatever Phoenix, game one is preeety tough. They have around 10 ways to deal with your creatures (not counting TiTi) that can be used as burn when needed. My advice? Slow the down as much as possible. The most important cards are Manamorphose and looting. (sidenote: looting on T1 is a mistake, it should be done only when 2 phoenixes are getting dumped or are looking for lands.) Casting 3 spells in a turn is trivial, so try to contain TiTi before it flips, preferably sorcery speed. The name of the game is tempo, you wont control them, try to harmstring them, so they need to spend their turns casting cantrips.
Sideboarding against them is weird... With my current sideboard I could side in 2 angers, 1 dispel/1 spell pierce/1 negate, 2 blood moons, 2 drakes and 2 firemind's research. Drakes and research are a must imo. Angers and counters not so much, maybe just the dispel. Blood Moons are good because delver has a preety greedy manabase.
With how i'd sideboard against delver out of the way, now how I'd sideboard against phoenix decks: Surgicals/RiP slows them down, but such interaction is heavily expected and not really detrimental. Path/Purge are awesome, anger is meh at best. At all times try to snipe with counters either looting or manamorphose.
I'll only comment on the trap and the Izzet Phoenix deck (which I've been playing religiously the pas 3 weeks).
Trap is useless as a 1-of, it's like Leyline in that you need 3-4 of them. I'm playing 3 of them in the phoenix deck and it's been nothing short of amazing. It can be faster than rip, and nuking the whole GY is more relevant than taking away 1 piece. I've gotten all my Phoenixes and things extracted and still won because my GY was intact.
As for the Izzet Phoenix matchup, from the Izzet side, I feel it preys on any deck that relies on creatures to win. TiTi, combined with burn and a difficult manabase from the delver side compounds this.
UW control won't play Stoneforge, it plays 5-6 wraths and most lists are tight as is, they won't find room for a do nothing 6-7 card combo. Midrange decks on the other hand, like UWx Midrange, will definitely get a boost, and probably make decks such as UWR Delver lean more on tempo and speed, rather than grindy cards.
As for flipping delver, you should aim for 40-45% enablers, ie 25-28 instant/sorceries. Also, from experience Mentor is too slow and Emerge Unscathed has worked wonders.
For dredge (or other aggro mirrors) you could replace Angers with Deafening Clarions. Haven't really gotten the chance to test them, but it's an idea with dual purposes.
I played an event today, only 12 people but good for 4 rounds. I did a mediocre 2-2, due to a bad misplay against infect in the 3rd game and lost against Abzan/Counters Company to an extremely lucky draw from my opponent in the first game (2 companies, 1 found 2 finks, a 3rd finks, Shalai AND a Chord...) and a mediocre hand in the 2nd that didn't draw any removal and eventually didn't pan out.
I beat a Jeskai Delver mirror, mostly on experience and a because I went first the first game and a 4 Color midrange, with Rhinos etc.
I'm starting to think that the all in package of Mutagenic Growth, the Integrity//Intervention and all the prowess creatures isn't the best build, but I might not give up on it yet.
The one-off Mission Briefing was surprisingly good, in that it filtered away junk and lands and dug me deeper. I'm inclined to keep it as a one-off for now.
Chance for Glory is one of my favorite cards in the deck, but you really need to do some math. It would've won me the game against infect, but I messed up my sequencing and ended up dying (was unlucky not to draw anything through some cantrips, but still I failed). I highly recommend it, it can help push through damage and grants you wins from nowhere.
I decided to put 2 Risk Factors in the SB instead of my main, but I'm considering going 1 main - 1 in the sideboard if I were to go for a less all-in/aggressive play style.
On that note, as some of you discussed above, the format being what it is with so many linear strategies, it might be better to go with Young Pyromancer instead of Growths and the full prowess creatures suite. Sadly I won't be able to properly test such a configuration till next Thursday, if any of you can that'd be great.
So I went to an even (5 rounds) and some things were immediately obvious: Remand was BAD, so was Hazoret. I'd go with 1 Risk Factor instead of 2 (if I even play one).
Now, the outliers: Aurelia was busted, 4/5 vigilant, trampling flyer who mentored my other fliers closed games. Fast. They couldn't chump block her and it. Integrity // Intervention had me pleasantly surprised. The +2/+2 helped me close games in 1 turn coupled with Boros Charm or Mutagenic Growth and its 2nd mode was relevant and lifesaving a few times. I recommend it if you're ever going to play a list similar to mine. Chance for Glory... Well... BOY THAT CARD IS AWESOME. Not only it won me games out of the blue, but I was actively wanting to draw it (mind you I played one during the event because I hadn't gotten my 2nd copy yet).
Overall I went 2-3, losing twice to burn to bad luck (missing 2nd landrop for 6 turns in a row twice in a match, and the 2nd time losing a 3rd game to 3 searing blazes -_- . The 3rd loss was against GDS, where we both just played land drops for the first 7 turns (yeah...) and I was drawing only burn. At one point I say go for it and got hit by 5 Stubborn Denials. I mean... wtf...
In general I thing the 3rd Helix is a must and remands are bad. I also missed some kind of sweeper and/or card that can help me race. I'll try Deafening Clarion since it can be both a sweeper and grant my creature lifelink, and with prowess on most of my creatures the 3 damage won't matter as much. Also, I'd play 2 Aurelias as a top end. Trample and mentor were relevant more often than not.
@Curdbros, I've thought about Experimental Frenzy and I think it'd be really cool addition. I've only tried it in my Saheeli commander deck, but it has overperformed there, so I'd suggest some testing to see if it really helps
Now that release is almost upon us (yay!) I've been thinking of building an incredibly aggressive (and glass cannon-y) list. Don't know how it will fare, but has extremely consistent T4 wins when goldfished and a decent amount of reach. Might need to relegate interaction like Spell Pierce etc. to the SB but I'd be happy to hear comments on the list.
Some cards don't perform well when goldfished, namely Risk Factor and Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice, so I'm just throwing them there for testing. Both provide reach/evasion and in general extra damage, but might go back to Hazoret, the Fervent or do a split of 1/1 on the 4CMC slot. I'm also not sure on the land count, goldfishing around 30ish games hasn't produced extreme results that wouldn't be produced with 19 lands, but it might be a good idea to got to 19.
Sideboard will definitely include Blood Moons, Surgicals, some counters, geists and the usual goodies of the Jeskai clan.
As said before, I appreciate any feedback/ideas and suggestions!
You don't need Field of Ruins against Scapeshift, either version. Or tron for that matter. You're fast and disruptive enough, that it doesn't matter. As for choices, I'm usually playing Blood Moons, or you can try Alpine Moon.
I'm excited for both Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice and a little uncommon called Invert//Invent. The last one can work really good with Swiftspear/Stormchaser (even with Aurelia). I'll definitely build a deck closer to my delver deck when probe was legal. With Mutagenic Growths and the occasional double strike from Boros Charm.
Mission Briefing can also help delver flips, but I suppose this will need more testing.
If it were creatures, yeah, but ANY permanent and INSTANT speed. **** your Jace, Teferi, flipped Azcantas, Tronlands, Valakuts, Karns, Leylines, whatever floats your boat. At the very least it should've been sorcery speed.
Path is the best removal in Modern because it's versatile and nets you (oftentimes) mana advantage when trading with creatures. This does that for every permanent and did I mention that it's at instant speed?
Isnt Standard Red and Blue/White right now? BG sure as heck isnt a Modern powerhouse anymore. This is strong.
Powerhouse or not, instant speed destroy -ANY- permanent, including lands and 4CMC+ permanents, for 2 mana is absurd. I know (fair) BGx has problems in Modern, but such a card is a terrible mistake. I'm going out on a limp and say Deathrite levels of a mistake.
Why are you cutting cryptics against fast decks (Affinity, Hollow one, Humans, Burn), but keep Teferis and/or Azcanta? If anything cryptic fogs/counters and draws a card.
Sideboardwise, the latest "tech" I tried before playing the Izzet Phoenix deck, was 2 Thing in the Ice. It demolishes any go-wide deck. I'd try the in place of Solemnities, since they cover more match-ups than them (those you have them for included).Plus your infect and affinity matchup is absurd. Your burn matchup is bad because of your mana base and no spell pierces in the main. Move to a 3-4 shockland, 3 basics, 4-5 fastland mana base and it should be improved. That said, it's a 50-50 match-up imo.
@CurdBros I'm on the reveler train, drakes are bad against fast decks(and oftentimes color requirements can be a pain), while revelers have dual functionality: late game power/grind and card velocity. I'm testing atm 4 swiftspears/4 titi/4 phoenix/3 revelers and so far it's been better. I have 2 drakes in the SB, along with 2 Firemind's Research.
Surgical is epic with snapcasters, but trap is better when you have to remove the whole graveyard (like dredge/bridgevine even phoenix decks) and not one out of a few combo pieces. I'll probably never play trap in a delver/snapcaster deck, but in the izzet deck? Trap all the way.
Now, for the specific match-up of UWR Delver vs Izzet/whatever Phoenix, game one is preeety tough. They have around 10 ways to deal with your creatures (not counting TiTi) that can be used as burn when needed. My advice? Slow the down as much as possible. The most important cards are Manamorphose and looting. (sidenote: looting on T1 is a mistake, it should be done only when 2 phoenixes are getting dumped or are looking for lands.) Casting 3 spells in a turn is trivial, so try to contain TiTi before it flips, preferably sorcery speed. The name of the game is tempo, you wont control them, try to harmstring them, so they need to spend their turns casting cantrips.
Sideboarding against them is weird... With my current sideboard I could side in 2 angers, 1 dispel/1 spell pierce/1 negate, 2 blood moons, 2 drakes and 2 firemind's research. Drakes and research are a must imo. Angers and counters not so much, maybe just the dispel. Blood Moons are good because delver has a preety greedy manabase.
With how i'd sideboard against delver out of the way, now how I'd sideboard against phoenix decks: Surgicals/RiP slows them down, but such interaction is heavily expected and not really detrimental. Path/Purge are awesome, anger is meh at best. At all times try to snipe with counters either looting or manamorphose.
That's all i could think of at this time
Trap is useless as a 1-of, it's like Leyline in that you need 3-4 of them. I'm playing 3 of them in the phoenix deck and it's been nothing short of amazing. It can be faster than rip, and nuking the whole GY is more relevant than taking away 1 piece. I've gotten all my Phoenixes and things extracted and still won because my GY was intact.
As for the Izzet Phoenix matchup, from the Izzet side, I feel it preys on any deck that relies on creatures to win. TiTi, combined with burn and a difficult manabase from the delver side compounds this.
2x Boros Charm
1x Electrolyze
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
3x Opt
3x Path to Exile
3x Remand
2x Spell Pierce
1x Vapor Snag
Creature (16)
4x Delver of Secrets Flip
3x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Hazoret the Fervent
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
3x Young Pyromancer
4x Flooded Strand
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Island
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
3x Scalding Tarn
1x Seachrome Coast
3x Spirebluff Canal
2x Steam Vents
Sorcery (5)
2x Chart a Course
3x Serum Visions
1x Anger of the Gods
3x Blood Moon
2x Deflecting Palm
1x Dispel
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Mindbreak Trap
1x Rest in Peace
1x Supreme Verdict
2x Surgical Extraction
1x The Locust God
1x Wear / Tear
Ignore the god, I was just testing some silliness
As for flipping delver, you should aim for 40-45% enablers, ie 25-28 instant/sorceries. Also, from experience Mentor is too slow and Emerge Unscathed has worked wonders.
I beat a Jeskai Delver mirror, mostly on experience and a because I went first the first game and a 4 Color midrange, with Rhinos etc.
Revised list is as follows:
4x Flooded Strand
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Inspiring Vantage
2x Island
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
3x Scalding Tarn
1x Seachrome Coast
3x Spirebluff Canal
2x Steam Vents
Instant (22)
2x Boros Charm
2x Chance for Glory
2x Integrity//Intervention
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
1x Mission Briefing
3x Mutagenic Growth
2x Opt
3x Spell Pierce
2x Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4x Delver of Secrets Flip
4x Monastery Swiftspear
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Stormchaser Mage
Sorcery (4)
4x Serum Visions
2x Blood Moon
2x Deafening Clarion
1x Dispel
2x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Izzet Staticaster
2x Risk Factor
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Thing in the Ice
1x Vendilion Clique
I'm starting to think that the all in package of Mutagenic Growth, the Integrity//Intervention and all the prowess creatures isn't the best build, but I might not give up on it yet.
The one-off Mission Briefing was surprisingly good, in that it filtered away junk and lands and dug me deeper. I'm inclined to keep it as a one-off for now.
Chance for Glory is one of my favorite cards in the deck, but you really need to do some math. It would've won me the game against infect, but I messed up my sequencing and ended up dying (was unlucky not to draw anything through some cantrips, but still I failed). I highly recommend it, it can help push through damage and grants you wins from nowhere.
I decided to put 2 Risk Factors in the SB instead of my main, but I'm considering going 1 main - 1 in the sideboard if I were to go for a less all-in/aggressive play style.
On that note, as some of you discussed above, the format being what it is with so many linear strategies, it might be better to go with Young Pyromancer instead of Growths and the full prowess creatures suite. Sadly I won't be able to properly test such a configuration till next Thursday, if any of you can that'd be great.
Now, the outliers: Aurelia was busted, 4/5 vigilant, trampling flyer who mentored my other fliers closed games. Fast. They couldn't chump block her and it. Integrity // Intervention had me pleasantly surprised. The +2/+2 helped me close games in 1 turn coupled with Boros Charm or Mutagenic Growth and its 2nd mode was relevant and lifesaving a few times. I recommend it if you're ever going to play a list similar to mine.
Chance for Glory... Well... BOY THAT CARD IS AWESOME. Not only it won me games out of the blue, but I was actively wanting to draw it (mind you I played one during the event because I hadn't gotten my 2nd copy yet).
Overall I went 2-3, losing twice to burn to bad luck (missing 2nd landrop for 6 turns in a row twice in a match, and the 2nd time losing a 3rd game to 3 searing blazes -_- . The 3rd loss was against GDS, where we both just played land drops for the first 7 turns (yeah...) and I was drawing only burn. At one point I say go for it and got hit by 5 Stubborn Denials. I mean... wtf...
In general I thing the 3rd Helix is a must and remands are bad. I also missed some kind of sweeper and/or card that can help me race. I'll try Deafening Clarion since it can be both a sweeper and grant my creature lifelink, and with prowess on most of my creatures the 3 damage won't matter as much. Also, I'd play 2 Aurelias as a top end. Trample and mentor were relevant more often than not.
@Curdbros, I've thought about Experimental Frenzy and I think it'd be really cool addition. I've only tried it in my Saheeli commander deck, but it has overperformed there, so I'd suggest some testing to see if it really helps
2x Boros Charm
2x Chance for Glory
2x Integrity // Intervention
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Lightning Helix
3x Mutagenic Growth
2x Opt
2x Risk Factor
3x Spell Pierce
2x Unsubstantiate
4x Flooded Strand
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Inspiring Vantage
2x Island
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Seachrome Coast
3x Spirebluff Canal
2x Steam Vents
1x Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Monastery Swiftspear
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Stormchaser Mage
Sorcery (4)
4x Serum Visions
Some cards don't perform well when goldfished, namely Risk Factor and Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice, so I'm just throwing them there for testing. Both provide reach/evasion and in general extra damage, but might go back to Hazoret, the Fervent or do a split of 1/1 on the 4CMC slot. I'm also not sure on the land count, goldfishing around 30ish games hasn't produced extreme results that wouldn't be produced with 19 lands, but it might be a good idea to got to 19.
Sideboard will definitely include Blood Moons, Surgicals, some counters, geists and the usual goodies of the Jeskai clan.
As said before, I appreciate any feedback/ideas and suggestions!
Mission Briefing can also help delver flips, but I suppose this will need more testing.
Path is the best removal in Modern because it's versatile and nets you (oftentimes) mana advantage when trading with creatures. This does that for every permanent and did I mention that it's at instant speed?
Powerhouse or not, instant speed destroy -ANY- permanent, including lands and 4CMC+ permanents, for 2 mana is absurd. I know (fair) BGx has problems in Modern, but such a card is a terrible mistake. I'm going out on a limp and say Deathrite levels of a mistake.