A few apologies, for jumping through the WAR hype for a tourney report and for posting such report for a list that's morphed pretty far enough from Jeskai Tempo... but i started here brewing so thought I'd post it here before getting told to take it elsewhere
My first GP/MF! going 7:0:1 day 1 and 9:4:2 overall with my Jeskai Jank TitI
M1 UW Control 2:1
G1: slug fest, snuck bolts through to 10 life but did not bait enough counters and gave up after teferi resolved
G2: unanswered T2 TitI protected by counters and flipped fast ended the game fast
G3: slug fest again, played almost to time but traded enough counters to get young pyro to stick long enough to beat for the race against this clique
- terrifically interactive game, awesome start to the tourney but already draining
M2 Scapeshift (budget) 2:1
G1: bad matchup for him, counter what needed to be countered an won
G2: thought scapeshift was an instant and lost of being dumb...
G3: fast win with flipped TitI.
- Good kid i played against, hope he sticks to it
M3 Combo Elves 2:0
G1: went down to 2 life but flipping TitI and countering Coco to land 3 times was devastating for him.
G2: anger of the gods + counters + TitI won it against a 2 buy opponent.
- Good interactive games overall, very gracious opponent
M4 Hardened Scales 1:1:1
G1: I folded after bad draw against his T3 arbound + hardened scales + worker. Didn't play a spell so he had no clue what I was playing
G2: with the sided in hate, played a 30+ min slug fest wear//tear (both sides) twice seeing 3 bolts 2 paths, and all my snaps and won it
G3: just no time to finish. Can't tell from board who was up
- good decision to fold G2 fast, that bought me surprise G2 and a full sideboard. Again terrific opponent that made it to Day 2 as well
M5 GW taxes? 2:1
G1: counters + spot removal took it. Trading 1:1 with TitI and late PW
G2: got choked...
G3: was careful about choke and again just took it with anger + more spot removal
- Jank on jank action. Gotta anticipate the
M6 Jeskai Control (more creatures) 2:0
G1: playing with more counters and protecting TitI won it pretty fast
G2: a lot more of cautious game but again, more counters + early geist and later flipped TitI won it
- This was a tempo list with more cliques and resto and giests he didn't find. Pretty cool player (like most jekai guys )
M7 BG Rock 2:0
G1: trading TitI to ass trophies allowed early Ral for the win (main surgical allowed for better planning)
G2: durdly cautious game that was won with very late Jace.
- terrific matchup, i lucked out really since he saw more hand disruption than threats that played well into my cantrips. Top deck game that i won. Great opponent
M8 Lanternless Whir 2:0
G1: remanded, snap remanded, drew a remand and Jace brainstormed into 2 more remands, won swinging with 3 snaps that got TitIed back for more remands. Ensnaring bridge did nothing for him
G2: played 2 min to time. He intentionally/unintentionally (more likely i was just dumb) made obvious only 2 cards in hand so i didn't swing for the win with a clique, he then made the mistake of letting me resolve a bolt through chalice on one but was gracious enough to just end it there after the impulsive shake/not shake.
- bad taste in my mouth during the game that helped me refocus my last game anxiety. Heavy play to win mentality is understandable but we would all do well with a lesson on social etiquette, not that the dude i played against was a dick, just a bit too insistent/intense for comfort.
7:0:1 going into Day 2!
M9 Humans 1:2
G1: cavern ruined the day for me
G2: flipping TitI ruined the day for him
G3: did my best through kitesails and meddling mages but he was the better player through and through. Was the only person so far to ID the jank i was playing half way through G1. Good loss
- Good loss to an obviously better player, one that's a good example of social intelligence. I got hands down beaten up all around
M10 Grixis Death Shadow 0:2
G1: I played like and idiot... playing into stubs i knew he had through surgicals
G2: more dumb ass play and getting baited to bolt a 3/3 death shadow when he had dismembers i knew he had... The dude i played was pretty awesome, I apparently don't know how to play magic...
- Great guy from out of town. Playing for the win but not being dickish Can be done
M11 Martyr Proc 1:1
G1: surgicaled something useless i don't remember but taking his martyr later via snap won it. Very durdly game.
G2: called judge and insisted they stay to check for slow play after the first one just wandered off since there was none. Fair I suppose but just... a bit dickish. He won it T4 into turns through proc.
- these poker face play to win dudes are a bit infuriating to play against... I need to keep it in and learn how to play this to my advantage a bit more.
M12 Bant Spirits 1:2
G1: won pretty straight up with spell piercing vial and resolving Ral early to pathed TitIs and ulting Ral
G2: he took it through 2 vials + me mulling down and not finding answers
G3: good game but wasn't able to protect flipped TitI and got ripped apart by reflector mages and detention sphere on a stick
- Interactive games with good sportmanship even through judge calls by both sides. A very enjoyable mature match that i happened to lose. If only all games are like this
M13 Tron 2:0
G1: TitI flipped fast + counterspells won it through t5 tron backed up but 2 field of ruins
G2: an excercise through not giving up: he nat tron-ed and beat me down to 2 to his 32 life with wurmcoil, but saw no trump cards in 6-7 turns and my geist backed by cryptics won the game....
- Bad loss for him since tron can just not work sometimes...
M14 Temur Reclaimation 2:1
G1: I won with counterspells and TitI not really knowing what's going on even after a surgical
G2: I was taught what was going on getting locked down with relsovled Wild Reclaimation
G3: Fought through 2 resolved reclaimations with early pinging from snaps for nothing tormod's Cryptic
- Another dude that took the games Very seriously... fair but ya, don't think i'll be frequenting the same LGS as him. Just as well though since i really do suck at this game, getting called judge on dumb ass missed triggers
M15 Phoenix 0:2
G1: his TitI beat my TitI with double bolts
G2: I didn't see sideboard cards, he didn't see any phoenixes until we both ran down to sub 20 cards left in the library, but won through pyro ascension and Chandra.
- An exercise in keeping my own frustrations in, the one deck i practices again just not working out. Helped that by this time I was prizing already. Interactive games with a good player though.
Thoughts:
- Lucky all 15 games were different! Luckier still 90% of players i met were not dicks
- hydration + surger is important when playing magic 15+ hours, especially a tempo/controlly deck
- surgical main was awesome. I put them in against phoenix and dredge and didn't see them against phoenix, didn't play against dredge, but they was always useful G1. Not playing super linear decks makes surgical main a multitool that reminded me of git probe.
- never sided in RIP and probably should have... reliance on my snaps needed to be re-evaluated
- loved the draw go reactionary nature of the deck but it's too threat-thin... games I lost were lost to TitIs too late, unprotected TitIs, and the such
- land base is borderline okay... Useful for hiding the white splash but mulling a bit too often to 6 to find good land-speckled hands for my liking
- playing jank did a lot for my 2:1 wins. The opponent not knowing what's going on meant I was trading raw power of meta decks for G1 and G2 favor. The hardened scales' player's face trying to sideboard G2 was pretty priceless. Stopped working so good day 2 when the calibur of the players picked up and can intuitively know how balance G2.
- i need to play more. luck is luck is luck but damn, some of the players i lost to / won against were really really good. The reading of faces and hands, the baiting and fainting... Arena will draw its players but face to face games can't be beat in terms of intricacy.
Local LGS holding a brew-only modern tournament. No Top 8/top 16 lists allowed. Here's the list i'm bringing that's seeing lots of good interaction in testing
Wanted to try a wizards tribal thing using Naban, Dean of Iteration and Adeliz, the cinder wind, but couldn't get it to work consistently (legendaries...). Realizing that the unflipped delver is a wizard brought me back to this old jeskai list, and with some tweaking, it's working out awesome. The game plan is simple; do damage fast with haste/prowess and finish games out with 7 bolts and 2 boros charms, plus Thundermaw to clear the way for any remaining flyers.
Removal is what ruins the day, so I sneaked in 2 clout of the dominus. 5/5 mantis rider with shroud is pretty rage inducing, as are 3/4 prowesss stormchasers. Typical T3 with a stormchaser on the board + clout, bolt, bolt in hand = 12 damage. Also won against living end with a shrouded meddling mage naming living end Only thing to watch out for is to hold clout until they tap out to prevent 2 for 1s
@CurdBros: I like your option 2 better. The 2 quellers will do you good, taking care of un-counter-able spells and dodging non-revolt pushes. Not missing much in the 1 swiftspear and 1 logic knot you took out for it either. Logic knot is a lot more mid-range and controll-y, and post board often is usless in the face of graveyard hate the opponent may bring in against snapcasters.
Super stoked about this Japanese mentor list! Would be awesome to see mentor work well in modern.
Only issue is game one against combo... i run 6 counterspells and 2 quellers in my list and already i find it hard to fight storm and the like. a playset of remands and threats (delver aside) that start at 3 mana won't cut it against things like storm. I suppose that's why there's 2 counterflux in the sideboard, but it's almost just giving up G1.
Sideboarding is the skill i'm working on... Last weekend I went 4:0 and in all 4 matches lost G1 and came back after boarding. I know SBs are meta-specific, but with delver, we really have to plan what goes in and out to maintain delver's flip-ability. That's the single reason i took blood moon out of my sb. In MUs i'd side it in, i'd be trading instants/sorceries for 3 copies and delver never flips after that. Delver really makes SB planning a bit more intricate.
Tried for ages to get mentor working. Ended up playing a legacy deck with 4 mentors as the 2ndary win con (bomberman). In modern there seems to be too few protection or 0-casting cantrips to get value off it if your curve is low. If you play the midrange/control route and can afford to wait to t5+ to drop mentor, you'd rather be playing bigger and badder things (geist, ojutai, etc)... For a while, in a delver/pyromancer/mentor build the mentor performed when the opponent traded removal with delver and young pyro, leaving mentor to stick, but in the end the hexproof geist with evasion worked out better
Just won a small local modern 3-round event with the following list
Humans 2:1
- an odd list playing hanweir garrison instead of kitesail freebooter
- Lost G1 for not having enough removal in hand and lost the race to hanweir tokens
- Remove before things got big was the strategy and G2 and G3 were won pretty smoothly even without seeing SB cards
UG Merfolk 2:1
- neat build but slow. Should've burned him instead of 1for1-ing his creatures and dragged the game to a top-decking loss G1
- G2 milked anger of the gods in starting hand to eventually wipe 4-5 creatures off the map. He scooped after seeing a snapcaster in my hand
- G3 flood on both sides, and with 5-6 mana out and a even board state, it's our advantage.
Eldrazi Tron 2:1
- Lost to natural tron G1
- G2 flew over top of thoughtknots and smashers for the win
- G3 finally saw land disruption SB cards and dragged out the game. Saw 1 Ceremonious Rejection and with 2 snaps stopped him from doing much, and slow bled him for the game.
That list is pretty cool
I basically play that list -2 colonades, -2 counterspells, -2 spell quellers, and +4 delver, +1 search for azcanta +1 boros charm
So far, 50/50 against eldrazi tron and unfair decks
feels like 70/30 against deathshadow and humans
Ran into an Utopian sprawl + arbor elf + blood moon + stormbreath dragon deck. Couldn't do jack all against it. Love that stormbreath dragon. Can't be pushed, bolted, or pathed. Too bad 5 drop a bit hard for us to fit
Did anybody test out Failure // Comply? I tried it as a one of and worked out quite well for tempo. It's not a counter spell so hits cavern of souls' protected drops and things like abrupt decay. The Comply bit then fuels young pyromancer or swiftspears our turn while buying more time. Loved it in the more aggro builds.
So far, beat zoo land destruction, mill (barely though), mono white hatebear, death shadow
Some thoughts:
- Blood moon's crazy and unexpected. Stick one G2 when 1-2 threats are out and it's game over, leaves them guessing G3 too.
- 1 ofs are fun, and all work around the core set of creatures. I want to make this competitive though and am not sure if linear consistency is worth it (getting ready for a 100-200 player local event in Nov)
- love the low creature count with delver. played 23-24 instant/sorceries before and the 27 now makes a big difference
- Feel though i'm caught in the middle. The first 7 cards determine if i play aggro or hella more midrange. Maaybe just go full out linear with lynxes and swiftspears...
Ditto DPS:
Also feel your build is going for all out burn, with what, 85+ damage in burn spells. If that's the game plan (provided you're going for a competitive build), there are better 4-drops than lightning angel; you might not even want to play 4-drops, and as such 22 lands is a bit high. A nut draw against death's shadow can mean you win the game fast though
Played UW midrange/control for a long while and tested out 4 ghost quarter + 3 surgical extensively with tron. It's hard enough in a 2-coloured control deck to dedicate 4 colourless lands that put us one land back + and instant that only disrupts and don't pressure... I'm not confident it'd work for jeskai aggro/midrange. With eldrazi tron the new tron flavour of the day, they'd still ramp up to beaters without tron lands, or get tron when you hit temple. I feel it'd be more useful to use the first three mana to set the board up to race, and hope to hit a Crumble to Dust on the forth land.
@Mazereon: Ditto! Love this deck's flex. I have a 480 binder nearly full with possibilities for jeskai prowess and change it up to suit mood and flavour of the day. Buddies pick up my deck and shake their heads and is aghast at how it wins games. The pilot wins games! this deck just makes the piloting part fun. It's my one modern deck that's personal and competitive all at the same time
Haven't really had a chance against T1 decks yet, but did catch a few casual games with a some standard archetypes.
BGx midrange:
I feel pretty confident with this list even main board. Lingering Souls shields Giest for sac triggers and is a bad target for hand disruption. Copters and the one Reveler further digs out of that hard to deal with disruption . Feel much more advantaged mid-late game when both are more or less top decking. If you are against a sea of them though, i suggest just siding in a ton of hate. 4 leylines of sanctity blanks a lot of their spells/abilities, and you can dig out of them with copters.
Affinity + other creature based aggro:
Feel slightly disadvantaged G1. The downside to the copter list against aggro is T2 copter on the draw leaves our board with at best 1 blocker and most of the time none at all when your opening delver is dead. I miss swiftspears and that second spell snare, and have to rely on trading one for one using burn and path. This is why i sneaked a fatal push in the list; I don't path them into better draws or more mana. But, that didn't help against a BW tokens build i got schooled with either. There's 3 board wipes in explosives and anger of the gods post board, but i feel i need more. Maybe a Pyroclasm or second Anger of the Gods?
Tron + other Ramp / Inevitability builds:
This is where G1 really sucks. Going copter/souls means suffering a big decrease in speed. If i don't hit that T3 Geist or mentor the going gets tough. Played against RG Titan and that hurt too. Tiny 1/1, x/2 creatures don't stand a chance and the 3 paths main are the only useful removal. Post board it gets a little better with land disruption and counterspells, but speed suffers even more.
Unburial Rites / Dredge / Graveyard tech:
Same as the above really, with less to do post board. Only got 2 surgical extractions and counterspells really and no real ways to race. Thinking maybe a banana king or two in the sideboard?
Saheeli Rai is an attempt at being faster, but since recognized she doesn't fit with the only real target in this build being the lone mentor. Took her out already for another Anger of the Gods.
Squeezed 4 rated games on Xmage this weekend (4:0 Woot!). No real T1 decks, but nonetheless interesting. There's the results
Abzan Zoo 2:1
- G1: Gideon and Reveler not hit by 3 Inquisition of Kozilek. Traded removal until I had Gideon + snap on the board and only a Reveller in hand. He folded salty as hell
- SB: (can't remember what i sided, just 1-2 cards)
- G2: I misplayed bad, wanting to throw a bolt and a helix at a 4/5 Tarmogoyf but didn't tap the lands right... I folded with a pinch myself.
- G3: Both of us flooded for 5-6 turns, but i flooded on a one land hand with 3 Delvers, 2 Bolts, and a Path. One Delver eventually flipped while his shambling vent kept him alive. Was able to Path, snap Path, Push, or burn his Goyfs and Scavenging Oozes. A copter then gave me enough advantage to find Burn to end it. Raining salt.
- Upped confidence against Liliana.
Grixis Zoo 2:1
- G1: Lingering Souls flew over a late resolved Tasigur the Golden Fang king to take the long game
- SB: 4th path, out a copter
- G2: Board wipes (his Engineered Explosives) and a Gideon i couldn't stick after losing the counter war did me in
- SB: IN negate, dispel, one extraction. OUT gideon, 1 geist, one fatal push
- G3: saw 2 Fumigator Mages, and 2 anger of the gods (he Snapped one back), locking me out of black and red for a while and kept the board clear. But, some patience with combat and counter wars had us at 14 life vs 1 before he quit.
- Tried one banana king in a previous build.... doesn't fit with the reveler MB and harder on the manabase. If not for my pet card mentor...
Jeskai Burn 2:0
- G1: Close, got burned down to 1. Saw 3 Soulfire Grandmasters and 3 Helixes. One synergy = 9 life point swing!. Was able to bolt and push the masters. He flooded a bit with a Ancestral Vision i couldn't Remand. His bad for going after my life total as oppose to lingering souls tokens that kept pining away. Quit with an empty hand after I landed my one timely reinforcement with 2 spirits on the board and now 7 life to 4
- SB: IN dispel, negate, surgical extraction. OUT gideon, mentor, manaleak
- G2: Flipped a delver protected by dispel. By my T4 I had Delver, Copter, and Geist on the board. He quit.
Jeskai Copycat 2:1
- G1: He combo-ed off protected by counters. Enough said.
- SB: IN 2x spreading seas (i don't know why... had nothing really good against him and thought i can lock him out of white or red), negate, dispel, path, celestial purge, surgical extraction x1 OUT push, reinforcement, gideon, reveller, boros charm, 1x souls, mentor
- G2: 2 remand + leak hand + drawing into 2 snapcasters kept him off landing Felidar Guardian 3 turns in a row. Burn + souls tokens ended it.
- G3: Super drawn out. He misplayed, blocking my Giest with one resolved Cat, allowing me to bolt it. After that, counters and Giest that made short work.
- Making sure there's counterspells available for when he has 5 lands in hand is the key.
Liking this build so far. Tried playing more pushes but the shocklands don't help. That one timely reinforcement is pretty awesome. It's a 4th helix and 4th lingering souls. Copters are pretty amazing, good early and good late. Fav so far is lingering souls... where have you been all my jeskai life! Makes Gideon worth it sometimes for just the emblem.
T2: thing in the ice
T3: saheeli, -2 T1 artifact copying Thing in the Ice, transform and swing
My first GP/MF! going 7:0:1 day 1 and 9:4:2 overall with my Jeskai Jank TitI
5x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
3x Flooded Strand
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
2x Steam Vents
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Sulfu Falls
3x Field of Ruin
Creatures (9)
4x Thing in the Ice
4x Snap Caster Mage
1x Vendillion Clique
4x Opt
4x Serum Visions
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Lightning Helix
1x Abrade
3x Cryptic Command
4x Remand
1x Logic Knot
1x Spell Pierce
1x Spell Snare
2x Surgical Extraction
Others(2)
1x Ral, Izzet Viceroy
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Dispel
2x Ceremonious Rejection
1x Negate
2x Path to Exile
2x Anger of the gods
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Rest in Peace
1x Wear//Tear
1x Stony Silence
1x Young Pyromancer
1x Geist of Saint Traft
M1 UW Control 2:1
G1: slug fest, snuck bolts through to 10 life but did not bait enough counters and gave up after teferi resolved
G2: unanswered T2 TitI protected by counters and flipped fast ended the game fast
G3: slug fest again, played almost to time but traded enough counters to get young pyro to stick long enough to beat for the race against this clique
- terrifically interactive game, awesome start to the tourney but already draining
M2 Scapeshift (budget) 2:1
G1: bad matchup for him, counter what needed to be countered an won
G2: thought scapeshift was an instant and lost of being dumb...
G3: fast win with flipped TitI.
- Good kid i played against, hope he sticks to it
M3 Combo Elves 2:0
G1: went down to 2 life but flipping TitI and countering Coco to land 3 times was devastating for him.
G2: anger of the gods + counters + TitI won it against a 2 buy opponent.
- Good interactive games overall, very gracious opponent
M4 Hardened Scales 1:1:1
G1: I folded after bad draw against his T3 arbound + hardened scales + worker. Didn't play a spell so he had no clue what I was playing
G2: with the sided in hate, played a 30+ min slug fest wear//tear (both sides) twice seeing 3 bolts 2 paths, and all my snaps and won it
G3: just no time to finish. Can't tell from board who was up
- good decision to fold G2 fast, that bought me surprise G2 and a full sideboard. Again terrific opponent that made it to Day 2 as well
M5 GW taxes? 2:1
G1: counters + spot removal took it. Trading 1:1 with TitI and late PW
G2: got choked...
G3: was careful about choke and again just took it with anger + more spot removal
- Jank on jank action. Gotta anticipate the
M6 Jeskai Control (more creatures) 2:0
G1: playing with more counters and protecting TitI won it pretty fast
G2: a lot more of cautious game but again, more counters + early geist and later flipped TitI won it
- This was a tempo list with more cliques and resto and giests he didn't find. Pretty cool player (like most jekai guys
M7 BG Rock 2:0
G1: trading TitI to ass trophies allowed early Ral for the win (main surgical allowed for better planning)
G2: durdly cautious game that was won with very late Jace.
- terrific matchup, i lucked out really since he saw more hand disruption than threats that played well into my cantrips. Top deck game that i won. Great opponent
M8 Lanternless Whir 2:0
G1: remanded, snap remanded, drew a remand and Jace brainstormed into 2 more remands, won swinging with 3 snaps that got TitIed back for more remands. Ensnaring bridge did nothing for him
G2: played 2 min to time. He intentionally/unintentionally (more likely i was just dumb) made obvious only 2 cards in hand so i didn't swing for the win with a clique, he then made the mistake of letting me resolve a bolt through chalice on one but was gracious enough to just end it there after the impulsive shake/not shake.
- bad taste in my mouth during the game that helped me refocus my last game anxiety. Heavy play to win mentality is understandable but we would all do well with a lesson on social etiquette, not that the dude i played against was a dick, just a bit too insistent/intense for comfort.
7:0:1 going into Day 2!
M9 Humans 1:2
G1: cavern ruined the day for me
G2: flipping TitI ruined the day for him
G3: did my best through kitesails and meddling mages but he was the better player through and through. Was the only person so far to ID the jank i was playing half way through G1. Good loss
- Good loss to an obviously better player, one that's a good example of social intelligence. I got hands down beaten up all around
M10 Grixis Death Shadow 0:2
G1: I played like and idiot... playing into stubs i knew he had through surgicals
G2: more dumb ass play and getting baited to bolt a 3/3 death shadow when he had dismembers i knew he had... The dude i played was pretty awesome, I apparently don't know how to play magic...
- Great guy from out of town. Playing for the win but not being dickish Can be done
M11 Martyr Proc 1:1
G1: surgicaled something useless i don't remember but taking his martyr later via snap won it. Very durdly game.
G2: called judge and insisted they stay to check for slow play after the first one just wandered off since there was none. Fair I suppose but just... a bit dickish. He won it T4 into turns through proc.
- these poker face play to win dudes are a bit infuriating to play against... I need to keep it in and learn how to play this to my advantage a bit more.
M12 Bant Spirits 1:2
G1: won pretty straight up with spell piercing vial and resolving Ral early to pathed TitIs and ulting Ral
G2: he took it through 2 vials + me mulling down and not finding answers
G3: good game but wasn't able to protect flipped TitI and got ripped apart by reflector mages and detention sphere on a stick
- Interactive games with good sportmanship even through judge calls by both sides. A very enjoyable mature match that i happened to lose. If only all games are like this
M13 Tron 2:0
G1: TitI flipped fast + counterspells won it through t5 tron backed up but 2 field of ruins
G2: an excercise through not giving up: he nat tron-ed and beat me down to 2 to his 32 life with wurmcoil, but saw no trump cards in 6-7 turns and my geist backed by cryptics won the game....
- Bad loss for him since tron can just not work sometimes...
M14 Temur Reclaimation 2:1
G1: I won with counterspells and TitI not really knowing what's going on even after a surgical
G2: I was taught what was going on getting locked down with relsovled Wild Reclaimation
G3: Fought through 2 resolved reclaimations with early pinging from snaps for nothing tormod's Cryptic
- Another dude that took the games Very seriously... fair but ya, don't think i'll be frequenting the same LGS as him. Just as well though since i really do suck at this game, getting called judge on dumb ass missed triggers
M15 Phoenix 0:2
G1: his TitI beat my TitI with double bolts
G2: I didn't see sideboard cards, he didn't see any phoenixes until we both ran down to sub 20 cards left in the library, but won through pyro ascension and Chandra.
- An exercise in keeping my own frustrations in, the one deck i practices again just not working out. Helped that by this time I was prizing already. Interactive games with a good player though.
Thoughts:
- Lucky all 15 games were different! Luckier still 90% of players i met were not dicks
- hydration + surger is important when playing magic 15+ hours, especially a tempo/controlly deck
- surgical main was awesome. I put them in against phoenix and dredge and didn't see them against phoenix, didn't play against dredge, but they was always useful G1. Not playing super linear decks makes surgical main a multitool that reminded me of git probe.
- never sided in RIP and probably should have... reliance on my snaps needed to be re-evaluated
- loved the draw go reactionary nature of the deck but it's too threat-thin... games I lost were lost to TitIs too late, unprotected TitIs, and the such
- land base is borderline okay... Useful for hiding the white splash but mulling a bit too often to 6 to find good land-speckled hands for my liking
- playing jank did a lot for my 2:1 wins. The opponent not knowing what's going on meant I was trading raw power of meta decks for G1 and G2 favor. The hardened scales' player's face trying to sideboard G2 was pretty priceless. Stopped working so good day 2 when the calibur of the players picked up and can intuitively know how balance G2.
- i need to play more. luck is luck is luck but damn, some of the players i lost to / won against were really really good. The reading of faces and hands, the baiting and fainting... Arena will draw its players but face to face games can't be beat in terms of intricacy.
4 Delver of secrets
3 Snapcaster mage
1 Meddling mage
4 Stormchaser mage
3 Mantis rider
1 Vendilion clique
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
Sorceries (3)
3 Serum visions
Instants (16)
2 Opt
2 Remand
4 Lightning bolt
3 Wizard's lightning
2 Boros charm
3 Path to exile
1 Echoing truth
2 Clout of the dominus
Lands (20)
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Spirebluff Canal
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Seachrome Coast
4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Dispel
1 Negate
2 Ceremonious rejection
1 Surgical extraction
1 Rest in peace
1 Relic of progenitus
1 Stony silence
2 Damping sphere
1 Path to exile
1 Engineered explosive
1 Wear//Tear
1 Elspeth Knight Errand
1 Meddling Mage
Wanted to try a wizards tribal thing using Naban, Dean of Iteration and Adeliz, the cinder wind, but couldn't get it to work consistently (legendaries...). Realizing that the unflipped delver is a wizard brought me back to this old jeskai list, and with some tweaking, it's working out awesome. The game plan is simple; do damage fast with haste/prowess and finish games out with 7 bolts and 2 boros charms, plus Thundermaw to clear the way for any remaining flyers.
Removal is what ruins the day, so I sneaked in 2 clout of the dominus. 5/5 mantis rider with shroud is pretty rage inducing, as are 3/4 prowesss stormchasers. Typical T3 with a stormchaser on the board + clout, bolt, bolt in hand = 12 damage. Also won against living end with a shrouded meddling mage naming living end
Super stoked about this Japanese mentor list! Would be awesome to see mentor work well in modern.
Only issue is game one against combo... i run 6 counterspells and 2 quellers in my list and already i find it hard to fight storm and the like. a playset of remands and threats (delver aside) that start at 3 mana won't cut it against things like storm. I suppose that's why there's 2 counterflux in the sideboard, but it's almost just giving up G1.
Sideboarding is the skill i'm working on... Last weekend I went 4:0 and in all 4 matches lost G1 and came back after boarding. I know SBs are meta-specific, but with delver, we really have to plan what goes in and out to maintain delver's flip-ability. That's the single reason i took blood moon out of my sb. In MUs i'd side it in, i'd be trading instants/sorceries for 3 copies and delver never flips after that. Delver really makes SB planning a bit more intricate.
Just won a small local modern 3-round event with the following list
Humans 2:1
- an odd list playing hanweir garrison instead of kitesail freebooter
- Lost G1 for not having enough removal in hand and lost the race to hanweir tokens
- Remove before things got big was the strategy and G2 and G3 were won pretty smoothly even without seeing SB cards
UG Merfolk 2:1
- neat build but slow. Should've burned him instead of 1for1-ing his creatures and dragged the game to a top-decking loss G1
- G2 milked anger of the gods in starting hand to eventually wipe 4-5 creatures off the map. He scooped after seeing a snapcaster in my hand
- G3 flood on both sides, and with 5-6 mana out and a even board state, it's our advantage.
Eldrazi Tron 2:1
- Lost to natural tron G1
- G2 flew over top of thoughtknots and smashers for the win
- G3 finally saw land disruption SB cards and dragged out the game. Saw 1 Ceremonious Rejection and with 2 snaps stopped him from doing much, and slow bled him for the game.
I basically play that list -2 colonades, -2 counterspells, -2 spell quellers, and +4 delver, +1 search for azcanta +1 boros charm
So far, 50/50 against eldrazi tron and unfair decks
feels like 70/30 against deathshadow and humans
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
3 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Spirebluff Canal
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Sulfur Falls
Sorceries (5)
4 Serum Visions
1 Slip through space
Instants (22)
4 Path to exile
4 lightning bolt
3 lightning helix
2 Boros Charm
1 Emerge unscathed
2 Remand
1 Mana Leak
1 Dispel
1 Spell Snare
1 Echoing Truth
1 Condescend
1 Cryptic Command
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Spellqueller
1 Nimble Obstructionist
1 Vendillion Clique
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Surgical extraction
1 Wear // Tear
1 Dispel
1 Negate
3 Blood Moon
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Celestial Purge
2 stony silence
So far, beat zoo land destruction, mill (barely though), mono white hatebear, death shadow
Some thoughts:
- Blood moon's crazy and unexpected. Stick one G2 when 1-2 threats are out and it's game over, leaves them guessing G3 too.
- 1 ofs are fun, and all work around the core set of creatures. I want to make this competitive though and am not sure if linear consistency is worth it (getting ready for a 100-200 player local event in Nov)
- love the low creature count with delver. played 23-24 instant/sorceries before and the 27 now makes a big difference
- Feel though i'm caught in the middle. The first 7 cards determine if i play aggro or hella more midrange. Maaybe just go full out linear with lynxes and swiftspears...
Any help welcomed
Also feel your build is going for all out burn, with what, 85+ damage in burn spells. If that's the game plan (provided you're going for a competitive build), there are better 4-drops than lightning angel; you might not even want to play 4-drops, and as such 22 lands is a bit high. A nut draw against death's shadow can mean you win the game fast though
@Mazereon: Ditto! Love this deck's flex. I have a 480 binder nearly full with possibilities for jeskai prowess and change it up to suit mood and flavour of the day. Buddies pick up my deck and shake their heads and is aghast at how it wins games. The pilot wins games! this deck just makes the piloting part fun. It's my one modern deck that's personal and competitive all at the same time
BGx midrange:
I feel pretty confident with this list even main board. Lingering Souls shields Giest for sac triggers and is a bad target for hand disruption. Copters and the one Reveler further digs out of that hard to deal with disruption . Feel much more advantaged mid-late game when both are more or less top decking. If you are against a sea of them though, i suggest just siding in a ton of hate. 4 leylines of sanctity blanks a lot of their spells/abilities, and you can dig out of them with copters.
Affinity + other creature based aggro:
Feel slightly disadvantaged G1. The downside to the copter list against aggro is T2 copter on the draw leaves our board with at best 1 blocker and most of the time none at all when your opening delver is dead. I miss swiftspears and that second spell snare, and have to rely on trading one for one using burn and path. This is why i sneaked a fatal push in the list; I don't path them into better draws or more mana. But, that didn't help against a BW tokens build i got schooled with either. There's 3 board wipes in explosives and anger of the gods post board, but i feel i need more. Maybe a Pyroclasm or second Anger of the Gods?
Tron + other Ramp / Inevitability builds:
This is where G1 really sucks. Going copter/souls means suffering a big decrease in speed. If i don't hit that T3 Geist or mentor the going gets tough. Played against RG Titan and that hurt too. Tiny 1/1, x/2 creatures don't stand a chance and the 3 paths main are the only useful removal. Post board it gets a little better with land disruption and counterspells, but speed suffers even more.
Unburial Rites / Dredge / Graveyard tech:
Same as the above really, with less to do post board. Only got 2 surgical extractions and counterspells really and no real ways to race. Thinking maybe a banana king or two in the sideboard?
Saheeli Rai is an attempt at being faster, but since recognized she doesn't fit with the only real target in this build being the lone mentor. Took her out already for another Anger of the Gods.
Abzan Zoo 2:1
- G1: Gideon and Reveler not hit by 3 Inquisition of Kozilek. Traded removal until I had Gideon + snap on the board and only a Reveller in hand. He folded salty as hell
- SB: (can't remember what i sided, just 1-2 cards)
- G2: I misplayed bad, wanting to throw a bolt and a helix at a 4/5 Tarmogoyf but didn't tap the lands right... I folded with a pinch myself.
- G3: Both of us flooded for 5-6 turns, but i flooded on a one land hand with 3 Delvers, 2 Bolts, and a Path. One Delver eventually flipped while his shambling vent kept him alive. Was able to Path, snap Path, Push, or burn his Goyfs and Scavenging Oozes. A copter then gave me enough advantage to find Burn to end it. Raining salt.
- Upped confidence against Liliana.
Grixis Zoo 2:1
- G1: Lingering Souls flew over a late resolved Tasigur the Golden Fang king to take the long game
- SB: 4th path, out a copter
- G2: Board wipes (his Engineered Explosives) and a Gideon i couldn't stick after losing the counter war did me in
- SB: IN negate, dispel, one extraction. OUT gideon, 1 geist, one fatal push
- G3: saw 2 Fumigator Mages, and 2 anger of the gods (he Snapped one back), locking me out of black and red for a while and kept the board clear. But, some patience with combat and counter wars had us at 14 life vs 1 before he quit.
- Tried one banana king in a previous build.... doesn't fit with the reveler MB and harder on the manabase. If not for my pet card mentor...
Jeskai Burn 2:0
- G1: Close, got burned down to 1. Saw 3 Soulfire Grandmasters and 3 Helixes. One synergy = 9 life point swing!. Was able to bolt and push the masters. He flooded a bit with a Ancestral Vision i couldn't Remand. His bad for going after my life total as oppose to lingering souls tokens that kept pining away. Quit with an empty hand after I landed my one timely reinforcement with 2 spirits on the board and now 7 life to 4
- SB: IN dispel, negate, surgical extraction. OUT gideon, mentor, manaleak
- G2: Flipped a delver protected by dispel. By my T4 I had Delver, Copter, and Geist on the board. He quit.
Jeskai Copycat 2:1
- G1: He combo-ed off protected by counters. Enough said.
- SB: IN 2x spreading seas (i don't know why... had nothing really good against him and thought i can lock him out of white or red), negate, dispel, path, celestial purge, surgical extraction x1 OUT push, reinforcement, gideon, reveller, boros charm, 1x souls, mentor
- G2: 2 remand + leak hand + drawing into 2 snapcasters kept him off landing Felidar Guardian 3 turns in a row. Burn + souls tokens ended it.
- G3: Super drawn out. He misplayed, blocking my Giest with one resolved Cat, allowing me to bolt it. After that, counters and Giest that made short work.
- Making sure there's counterspells available for when he has 5 lands in hand is the key.
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Watery Grave
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Spirebluff Canal
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Mountain
Creatures (12)
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Bedlam Reveler
2 Remand
1 Spell Snare
1 Mana Leak
3 Path to Exile
1 Fatal Push
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
Sorceries and others (12)
4 Serum Visions
3 Lingering Souls
3 Smuggler's Copter
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Path to Exile
1 Saheeli Rai
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Spreading Seas
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Swerve
1 Celestial Purge
1 Wear // Tear
1 Shattering Spree
Liking this build so far. Tried playing more pushes but the shocklands don't help. That one timely reinforcement is pretty awesome. It's a 4th helix and 4th lingering souls. Copters are pretty amazing, good early and good late. Fav so far is lingering souls... where have you been all my jeskai life! Makes Gideon worth it sometimes for just the emblem.