MTG Salvation

Quote from D90Dennis14 »

Soulherder just seems like a win-more card to me as it doesn't really interact with the opponent, doesn't have an EtB ability/has no immediate impact and isn't a good blocker.

It's a win more card as much as flickerwisp. Yes, the value is not on an EtB trigger, the creature does way more if it sticks on the battlefield. It's one of the cards that has to be answered by the opponent (or it probably wins) which eats one removal spell that could target a sun titan. This on turn 3 increases the performance of the deck.

I've tried 1 of big Teferi and for the most part I wasn't all that excited as he's neither recurrable by Emeria nor Sun Titan. The +1 draws a card every turn with the untap 2 only marginally relevant for Path/Field of ruin mana - we play at Sorcery speed most of the time anyway. I think I prefer Cavalier of Dawn more in that utility slot.

Actually removed wisps from my list, and replaced them all with herders. The blink every turn ability of herder is just too strong to pass up. Anyway, for defense from flying creatures.. I still have remorseful cleric and the one baneslayer that I keep in the main.

a powerful magical christmas land scenario is an overlaoded winds of abandon + a herder. Although, I'm not able to do that yet.

Personally, I'm not that excited about the caves as the horizon lands did the same and never excited me either. Our gameplan is to have lots and lots of plains, so every land I put that's not a plains needs to have a very good function to do it, and drawing a card by sacrificing it when all our deck is already geared towards that doesn't seem optimal.
But let's keep seeing the spoilers to see if our deck gets some much deserved love ;p

Updated the primer. Added soulherder to card choices, and watcher for tomorrow in alternate card choices.

For those of you who have actively been following this thread, you'll know that I originally started playing with a mono white version of emeria and have been flitting back and forth for some time. That in mind, with the release of m19 I've began testing with a mono white build of Emeria Control. Off and on, for about the past week. Right now I'm logged in a friendly league and I have played two matches. One was against Mardu Pyromancer and the other against Humans, both 2 - 0.

A blue white shell was originally constructed to give emeria access to counter magic, card draw, and higher card quality via Supreme Verdict and Detention Sphere. This gave us game against the unfair combo matches, big mana decks and opposing graveyard strategies. What mono white has struggled with in the past has been always been opposing graveyard based synergy decks, most combo decks, and big mana decks, and fringe tokens decks. We also struggled with the lack of card advantage, however I believe most of these issues have been remedied. Between Gideon of the Trials and Remorseful Cleric in the maindeck and Stony Silence, Damping Sphere, and Sorcerous Spyglass in the sideboard you have an actual chance against most combo based decks in the format. Remorseful Cleric and Settle the Wreckage also give you an arguably better match up against graveyard based strategies. Thraben Inspector, Wall of Omens, and Militia Bugler provide the much needed card advantage, allowing mono white access to twelve sources of card draw, which is actually one more than typical azorious builds. Lastly, you gain a few percentage points against Mono Green Tron, because while only having access to 7 - 8 pieces of disruption between Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter is generally lower than our counterparts 7 - 9 with Spreading Seas. The upside is that Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin don't get hit by Oblivion Stone, and mono white is generally more aggressive and therefore able to apply more pressure in conjunction to its disruption, i.e. tempo, this tempo, is what normally allows Emeria of any versions, to close games against Mono Green Tron.

My list currently
Maindeck: 60
Creature: 27
1 Kami of False Hope
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Lone Missionary
3 Remorseful Cleric
4 Wall of Omens
4 Flickerwisp
4 Militia Bugler
3 Sun Titan

Instant // Sorcery: 6
4 Path to Exile
2 Wrath of God

Planeswalker: 3
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Gideon Jura

Manabase: 24
4 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
3 Field of Ruin
4 [c]Flagstones of Trokair
4 Ghost Quarter
9 Plains

Sideboard: 15
1 Kami of False Hope
1 Remorseful Cleric
2 Stony Silence
4 Damping Sphere
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Gideon of the Trials
2 Settle the Wreckage
2 Cleansing Nova

Like I said, I have been playing this build for about a week now and feel like I can draw some conclusions based on my experiences. I feel like this build gains percentage points mostly against aggro and graveyard based strategies, importantly of which include the evasive creature based aggro decks i.e. Spirits, Merfolk, and Dredge. The Mono Green Tron matchup is slightly better, and combo, mainly Storm and KCI are not noticeably different in results but differs slightly in play style. We lose percentage point against opposing control based strategies, not being able to force a Sun Titan or Crucible of Worlds through with counter magic or being able to answer a planeswalker with Detention Sphere hurts. Our Ensnaring Bridge match ups go from incredibly favored to slightly favored, a good emeria player will still usually win by holding up or reanimating Flickerwisp to exile their bridge and deal lethal but we no longer have access Detetion Sphere and I dislike playing Mortarpod. We also go from about 20% - 40% to 5% against Scapeshift and lose percentage points against both Titanshift and Eldrazi Tron as Spreading Sea's and counter magic are no longer available to us.

Cards that I've been impressed with include, Cleansing Nova having access to six total sweepers when needed, post board increases our consistency of drawing one in our opening 7 and mitigates the loss in consistency from not being able to hit one with Court Hussar. Plus the five cmc is oddly relevant when playing against Spell Queller. Kami of False Hope, establishing emeria is much easier to do with this version, usually coming online about a turn to a turn and a half sooner than our azorious counterpart. Because of this Kami of False Hope becomes a hard lock against any all in aggro deck, and you see it much more consistently with Militia Bugler in the deck. Militia Bugler this card while not a Court Hussar, has very relevant stats along with Vigilance, which is a nice defensive keyword. Lastly the pain free manabase, I can not overstate how good it is to not take damage from your lands, it can be extremely relevant in almost any matchup. Not losing to having a basic Island or needing a plains but being unable to fetch is nice too.


Cards that I miss include, Court Hussar, Spreading Sea's, and Detention Sphere what I miss most about these effects is that you were generally able to play through 2 - 3 instances of single instance graveyard hate very easily and still have good targets for Sun Titan. By casting with all blue / colorless mana, or using a Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter on the land enchanted with Spreading Sea's. By comparison, the mono white build is much more vulnerable to graveyard hate but also has much more velocity. Chaining your 1/2 Thraben Inspector into a 2/3 Mitia Bugler into yet another threat a very good way to close a top deck war in the late game. Detention Sphere was also a nice catch all but at least Cleansing Nova does a nice impression from the sideboard.

Closing comments,
I feel like the benefits out way our disadvantages in a lot of situations. I like having a deck that with a pain free manabase that activly works toward emeria with every land drop. Randomly hating out any aggressive or graveyard based strategy while now still having game against most combo decks feels good too. In specific I like having a better Spirits, Tron, and KCI match up is more relevant now than ever before and the trade off isn't as backbreaking as it once was. Overall I'd say this build ranks just slightly below UW in terms of power level, but that the gap is definitely closing fast.

Also, on a sidenote, I think maybe swapping one Militia Bugler for a Restoration Angel could be good. Bugler is amazing but post sideboard I tend to board down to 2 - 3 based on how many creatures I board out. I feel like Restoration Angel would act similarly to Phantasmal Image, while providing a clock and taxing counter magic. The downside of this is that you decrease your total number of potential hits off Bugler from 24 to 23.

Hey there, new here on the forum, but reading this thread for a while now. I'm a big fan of Emeria. Love the game play, and took my deck to a competitive FNM in the Netherlands yesterday. Like to share a report from it. Went 2-2.



Game 1 vs 5 color humans: 0-2
Match 1: took a mulligan for 6, kept a risky 1 land hand, had double wall of omens in hand and was on the draw. Unfortunate didn’t draw any lands after that. He killed me turn 5
Match 2: played T1 Kami of false hope, T2 Wall of Omens and T3 Gideon of the Trails. Took the emblem with Gideon. In the meanwhile he played Meddling Mage on Supreme Verdict (which I had in hand).
He went aggro on Gideon but it took him 4 turns. (With help from Kami for 2 turns in a row (after returning him with Ojutai's command). I felt I controlled the game.
Then my hand was double flickerwisp and supreme verdict with 8 mana on board. I flickered the Meddling Mage and casted Supreme Verdict. Big mistake, I forgot he had Xathrid Necromancer on the table and lost to a zombie swarm. I was to hasty, had to path Xathrid first.

Game 2 vs 5 color humans (again) 2-0
Match 1: played Spreading Seas on both T2 and T3. He thought I played UW control and didn’t expect the Supreme Verdict on T4. Whiped 4 humans. Then started the Ghost Quarter lock. He ran just 2 basic lands. Resulted in a easy win.
Match 2: he had an aggro start. I went to 4 life on turn 4. I tried to survive this fast game. Played a Detention sphere on his (transformed) Mayor of Avabruck. Flickerwisped his big Champion of the Parish. Took the emblem with Gideon of the Trials, and started +1 on his Mantis Rider Eventually slammed a Sun Titan. He tried to kill Gideon for 3 turns. Unsuccesfull. Then scooped it up frustrated as he saw Emeria was about becoming active.

Game 3 vs Grixis Death Shadow 2-0
Match 1: He played Inquisition of Kozilek on my path to exile T1 and saw me having a Supreme Verdict. I played Spreading Seas T2 and Court Hussar T3 (found a Detention Sphere). He played slow, obviously waiting voor the Verdict. Therefore I decided to verdict his only creature (Tasigur, the golden fang). Then he slammed double Death's Shadow (both 9/9). But he was tapped out. I played the Dsphere on them. He ran out of gas, I got Emeria active. That closed the game.
Match 2: a game we both drew a lot of lands. I pathed a fast played Gurmag Angler. Verdicted a Death's Shadow and Snapcaster mage. Had a Sun Titan in hand and found another one. Opponent had a hand full of cards but didn’t have the right removal for the Titans. Game over.

Game 4 vs Bant Knightfall 0-2
Match 1: thought I played regular bant company. But it turned out Bant with the Retreat to Coralhelm and Knight of the Reliquary combo. I wasn’t familiar with the combo. Detention sphered 2 Noble Hierarch and saved my Supreme Verdict for later. Then lost to the combo (a 20/20 knight of the reliquary and a tapped defense).
Match 2: saved my Path for the knight combo. But he found a Scavenging Ooze with Collected Company. Had to path to exile this annoying Emeria-card. And with all the verdicts, dspere’s, path’s and kami’s in my library I felt pretty safe for a possible knight combo. Unfortunate, I didn’t drew any of these. And lost to the combo again.

Overall:
Went 2-2. Happy with the result. My wins were easy, my losses close or unfortunate. Could / should have been 3-1
Surprised with the easy win on Death's Shadow. And 5-color Humans is an easy matchup under normal circumstances.

Deck evaluation:
Gideon of the Trials is an all-star. Really won me a few games. Court hussar is great too. Would never consider to swap with Blade Splicer. The card-draw quality it represents is exactly what this deck needs.
Played with 4x Supreme Verdict. A bit risky maybee, but it felt pretty good after all!

Nice to know. There was another Emeria deck that night. He went 4-0! He played the classic version of Emeria with Pilgrim'sEye, Mortarpod and Aether Spellbomb.
Go Emeria!

So, I made day 2 of Grand Prix Toronto, some of you may have heard of the feature match of Emeria Control vs Burn. For those of you have not https://www.twitch.tv/videos/227979044, That was me against Jon Stern. Some plays looked questionable but were actually thought out. Abeit, I was operating on less than three hours of sleep the night before day two. Anyway...
(G2) - Why not block, and trade, Goblin Guide with Lone Missionary?
I was playing around a second land into Lightning Bolt the second Lone Missionary with Phantasmal Image on the stack
(G2) - Why not shock and cast Gideon of the Trials?
The game was over, my opponent was fishing for information, they had not seen GotT yet, so I concealed it
(G3) - Why Gideon and then why emblem instead of ticking up to prevent Goblin Guide?
I was at five life, I played around Searing Blaze by playing Gideon and Skullcrack by not preventing damage, this line guaranteed that I untapped as long as my opponent did not draw into Lightning Bolt or Lava Spike
(G3) - Why Ghost Quarter end of turn, this line is largely seen as punt. Reviewing the footage, I have to say, that I agree. It was sloppy play and a greedy line, but I did it intentionally. I'll walk you through my thought process. I only saw two sequences. Line 1) I untap hit my fifth land drop and cast a [/c]Court Hussar and hope for one of my five outs in 2 Lone Missionary, 2 Negate or 1 Dispel
Line 2) I Ghost Quarter EoT, hope that my opponent has nothing, I untap hit my fourth land drop, Wall of Omens and Spreading Sea's his other Sacred Foundry hoping to fade a draw step so that I can set up.

In hindsight, the line I took was incorrect, and therefore a punt. I'm punished by Boros Charm, Skullcrack, and Lightning Helix. It was a gamble that I felt that based on the information I was given at the time, was justified. My opponent had a greater probability of hitting a land, a Searing Blaze, a Destructive Revelry, or an Eidolon of the Great Revel then Skull Crack, Boros Charm, or Lightning Helix, especially considering they had just burned a helix to deal with GotT.

This was my thinking, however, looking back at the video, it was still a punt. Instead of GotT on turn four, I should have played Wall, Spreading Sea's. Then cast the Gideon and played another Wall of Omens on turn five. I'm trying to analyse my decisions. I think that, at the time I was unnecessarily playing around Searing Blaze and afraid of a Lightning Bolt in response to the Spreading Sea's on his Sacred Foundry. Doing the math though, I was still dead with that line anyway. If I assumed Lightning Bolt, then Gideon was already useless, I'd have lost an additional two more life from Goblin Guide, putting me to three and dead from any burn spell, should he draw it.

Sharing my Modern Monday experience playing in a rather stacked meta (Face-to-Face Games' flagship store in Montreal). This is my recent 4-0 setup: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jeskai-memeria/?cache=2018-01-25 02:53:51.016502

The tl;dr innovation of the list is integrating Jeskai copycat (Saheeli + Felidar Guardian) into the main at the expense of a 3rd Supreme Verdict, 2 Gideon of the Trails, and filling out some 4-ofs (namely Lone Missionary, Court Hussar and Sun Titan). My rationale was that Saheeli and Sun Titan can *also* combo together; and Saheeli and Felidar are both synergistic with other elements of the deck. The icing on the cake is that Saheeli can be recurred with Titan.

Moreover, in the sideboard, I actually slotted 4 Nahiri + Emrakul as a way to surprise my opponents expecting a very graveyard centric strategy. This proved to be an overwhelming amount of angles for a lot of my opponents to deal with. 8-Rack was particularly blown out by resolving a top-decked Nahiri after GQing his Mutavault; and it also won a sideboarded match against Jund by using Nahiri as bait. Another nice aspect of Nahiri is that her -2 can gun down RiPs. The downside is that she cannot hit Grafdigger's Cage and someone using Relic can play around her; but the point of her inclusion from the sideboard is to surprise players that deeply sided into combating the graveyard when I can also attack from the Nahiri front. To accommodate for Nahiri, I ween off of the Emeria grinding a bit post-sideboard usually by cutting a Titan and then dropping some numbers on other elements to free up 5 slots for it (like a Lone Missionary and a Flickerwisp).

Report
My match-ups were: 8-Rack (2-0), RUG Delver (2-0), Jund (2-1) and Death and Taxes (2-0).

Against 8-Rack, I kept a naturally high-cantripping hand with Walls and Seas. My goal was to dig into and Saheeli and resolve her. From there, it was just +1ing her and filtering until I could establish a combo. Mutavaults had a lot of trouble beating through Wall of Omens. My opener had 2 Spreading Seas and taking him off of Urborg really crippled his tempo. Important: did not have two 8-Rack effects; and Lone Missionary was an all star. I won by naturally dumping Felidar onto a Saheeli that sat there for awhile. No Sun Titan was played that game.

Sideboarded into the Nahiri package + 2 Surgicals. Opponent mulled to 6. Pretty much ran the gamut into Nahiri and +1ing her. When 8-Rack started hitting Nahiri, I switched into Saheeli. I eventually +1'd Saheeli and found a D-Sphere, which I proceeded to draw with the top-decked Wall of Omens and I sphere'd the 8 Rack. Emrakul'd him two turns later.

Against RUG Delver: the first game was just an absolute Emeria grind. D-Sphere played an important role in exiling two Goyfs. Supreme Verdict did a lot of work at clearing up a Huntmaster of the Fells. Pretty much did a lot of stalling with Wall of Omens and Court Hussar. I then casted a Saheeli to bait a counterspell that I had been pegging him on the whole game. This cleared the way for a Sun Titan to bring back Saheeli, copying Titan. This generated an overwhelming amount of value (i.e. I recurred a lot of creatures and established some good old fashioned Flickerwisp shinanigans on the original Sun Titan cast that turn). He died on the following turn.

I boarded in the Nahiri package and the 3rd Verdict. This was a very smart move. Important call was that I fetched a Plains and an Island, pegging him on Blood Moon. Sure enough, he had Blood Moon and could not Flickerwisp. Thankfully, Nahiri's -2 killed Blood Moon. She then ate a Lightning Bolt. Figured then would be a good time to jam a Saheeli and +1 her. Cat was on top. Cat resolved on the next turn. The cat combo was established.

Against Jund: I lost the pre-boarded game to a grind-battle. It was availed on his end by a Bob that I couldn't really find an opening to kill. He had a lot of removal and piloted excellently. With both Lilianna's out, I was grinded down. I was digging for Emeria which would have helped a lot but sadly did not find one. Also would have liked additional land removal to get rid of a Raging Ravine.

Sideboarded Games: Brought in the Nahiri package, 3rd Verdict and the Crypt. Crypt helped out by shrinking Goyfs a couple of points of power. He managed to tag Emrakul with Surgical Extraction when I discarded it with Nahiri, which was kind of sad tbh. I definitely had him worried about potentially comboing because he was working on really stopping Saheelis and cats. Court Hussar eventually dug me into a Titan. The one Titan snowballed into a lot of value which he couldn't overcome. Game 3 was a lot more interesting because he had two Grafdigger's Cages and a Liliana which I was controlling by flickering Detention Sphere between these two options. Liliana's +1 ripping apart my hand was more annoying than Cage so I decided to play the game with the D-Sphere mainly on Liliana (of the Veil). Though I couldn't recur much, I figured that by controlling his threats and continuing to attack with my cats and hussars, I could grind him down. All of my Titans pretty much had removal saved for them so they bit the dust early. Eventually, we came to a stalemate where he had 2 Goyf untapped and I had 2 Hussars and a Cat. He was at 3 and I was at 4. Each goyf had 5 power. I knew the last card in his hand was a land that he flipped off a Bob much earlier in the game that he was holding back to bluff removal. My topdeck was a Cat, which I used to flicker the D-Sphere to flicker it from the Liliana to the Goyfs, removing his blockers. I swung for game before he could top deck something to kill me.

Against D&T: (Note this was the Eldrazi taxes version that has an emphasis on Eldrazi Displacer and splashes black for Tidehollow Sculler). Game 1 was all about Supreme Verdict. When I found that, I cast it to clear out a board which I was stalling with Wall of Omens x2 and a Flickerwisp that was ready to jump under a bus. I followed that up by casting Spreading Seas on his only White source at the time into Saheeli. I dug for cat combo, which I didn't find. He found a white source again eventually; but I drew into a Sun Titan. Saheeli on the board continued to +1 until set up Emeria through a GQ on my Island and a Field of Ruin activation. When I had the Saheeli in hand, I knew what I had to do: Emeria activated bringing back a Flickerwisp targetting his Plains. Then I drew and casted Sun Titan, which brought back a fetch. I cracked the fetch then cast Saheeli #2 from hand. He died to Infinite Sun Titans.

Chose to board in 3 Nahiris (no 4th Nahiri or Emrakul). Just wanted to tag some hate on his end. Unsurprisingly, Verdict is the all-star against D&T because it clears up the Hatebears. I tagged two Aether Vials this game with a Detention Sphere that he didn't know that I ran. This 'curved' (two turns later) into a Verdict and then Nahiri thereafter. Nahiri exiled RiP. I then cast Titan to recur a fetch and a dead Lone Missionary (from after RiP went away). Titan was pathed. I cast Court Hussar to find a second Titan, which stuck around. He died short thereafter.

Summary: Nahiri was an interesting angle that took a lot of people by surprise as both a source of removal, a way to fill the GY and a wincon on her own. It was an interesting port to a Jeskai Emeria list that provided a good stall-breaker. None of my matches went to time this week! The issue is that Nahiri, of course, takes up a lot of slots. The slots that I dropped for Nahiri often entailed a Lone Missionary, a Flickerwisp, a Wall, a Titan and a Saheeli. This resulted in a deck with a lot of 3-ofs. I think if you're gonna run a Nahiri setup post-board, 3 is sufficient given how many combo angles that you have already and the natural ability for the deck to dig for pieces anyway. This lets you keep a Saheeli, which fits naturally with the list. The sideboard still feels like it needs Disenchants despite Nahiri's ability to jankily Revoke Existence things but I was happy with the spice that she brought. I want to try a Runed Halo in the main. I'm a bit sad that I didn't fight a deck to test Disdainful Stroke on.

Hey all, I've managed to get in some testing with Azor, the Lawbringer and have come to a conclusion; he is too expensive and situational for modern. I felt like I needed to jump through hoops when I played him, and the threat of instant speed removal or even counter-magic is all too real. Granted Azor did win me a game against Jeskai control but I was already heavily favored to win. I'd rather have Elspeth, Sun's Champion or even Kami of False Hope. On that note, I did do some minor play-testing with Weathered Wayfarer and found it was still too match-up dependent for the main.

One thing I really want to try is a one of Runed Halo in the main, has anyone else done this to any success? I feel it would help shore up some of our bad match-ups, being; Titan-shift and Storm. A couple more things to note, I have played a few friendly leagues on modo and came to a lackluster 3 - 2 finish each time. The situations where I lost were weird though, I'm all about variance in magic but I lost to the exact same lines in each league. I lost in three when playing against Eldrazi Tron. So I've turned the corner, my opponent is empty handed, they need a top-deck of exactly Walking Ballista that turn before I climb out of reach via Lone Missionary and lock up the game. Well, they've drawn it, each time, it can be very frustrating. One more thing, I'll also be attending Grand-Prix Toronto soon, I'll make sure to share my results! As always any feedback or criticism is appreciated!

Been playing this list on modo to some success, 16-4 total in last 5 friendly leagues. Probably should move to competitive leagues now that I have a bit of a bankroll. Also played this in a 3K to 4-3; felt like I could've done better if it wasn't for some play errors and 1 huge punt.

On card choices:
Thraben Inspectors - I've been having more success and consistency with them - provides an early blocker and lets you churn through your deck faster. Also provides another target for Flickerwisp and Sun Titan. In adding the inspectors I had to trim 2 x Negate, 1 x Lone Missionary and 1 x Court Hussar. I'm not totally sold on having 2 random Negates for some insurance vs. combo. My deck doesn't have a decent clock like the ones with Blade Splicer so having a couple Negates is really just stalling a turn or two from the inevitable i.e. Scapeshift, Ad Nauseam

Gideon of the Trials - more and more impressed as I play with this card, it wins games that I previously could not with the emblem. I had a game vs. UB Mill who had the nut and milled me out T4 but with the emblem up I was able to win the game. It also extends the opponents clock by a couple turns giving you a lot of breathing room. I honestly rarely attack with it for fear of Path/Dismember and honestly I haven't felt much need to attack with him to finish the game on the spot - Emeria has so much inevitability anyway and is greatly favoured in the late game vs almost all decks.

Court Hussar - I'm in the camp that this is a much needed card in the deck. I don't really like the Blade Splicers version as it activates your opponents removal game 1 and also the bodies don't really stack up that well against reasonable sized Goyfs, Tasigur/Angler, Tribal based creature decks

The sideboard I am pretty happy with other than the Eidolon and Meddling Mage. It's pretty much set up to shore up the matchups against combo decks which we are unfavoured game 1. Stony Silence is absolutely necessary against Affinity/Tron/Lantern, can bump up to 3 if your local metagame are heavy on those decks. The counterspells come in vs. combo and control, I actually bring some negates in against Liliana of the Veil decks too. Leyline against hand disruption decks, combo decks and burn is very brutal. Tormod's Crypt for graveyard combo/living end.

Intrepid Hero has been an absolute house against Eldrazi Tron, Death Shadow and I might consider bumping up to two based on metagame. Returnable by Titan and Emeria.

The Eidolon is to respect Storm which I've had trouble with. I concede that it's likely a lopsided matchup though unless I get Leyline up - but once they churn through their whole deck I suspect Leyline is useless anyway. Our lack of disruption and clock and minimal number of counterspell doesn't stack up well.

Meddling Mage has been medium but again I bring it in vs. Combo decks who have little win cons. Anyways the Eidolon/Meddling Mage are the flex slots for me at the moment. Other considerations include Devout Lightcaster, Blessed Alliance, Condemn, Disenchant, Pithing Needle but I think that Runed Halo might be the proper card to put there. I really prefer sideboard cards that can be returned by Titan/Emeria and try to avoid including a lot of instant/sorceries that can't be rebought.

Small tips and tricks on playing the deck:
The deck has a small margin of error in the early game as you are likely to be behind and clawing for survival until you hit your land drops.

1. It's important to maximize your use of Paths - sometimes you can let an opposing creature slide if you already have Verdict. Often times you might need to make a crucial land drop so Pathing your own creature is a perfectly reasonable line also.

2. I typically refrain attacking with Gideon unless its an open board and my opponent has like no cards.

3. Flickerwisp is a really awesome and flexible card. It obviously generates more value on your Inspector/Omens/Hussar/Titans, but there are other uses to him that really disrupt your opponent. Common interactions I've encountered include:
- Resetting your opponent's Aether Vials
- Flicker a land that has Utopia Sprawl on it
- Resetting your opponents Planeswalkers when they're about to ultimate
- Flicker your Meddling Mage to name a new card
- Flicker your Spreading Seas to move to a new target (done it a lot to Valakut/and other utility lands)
- Flicker your Spreading Seas to move to your own land when you get Blood Moon'd and dont have your 1 Island

4. Remember that your ghost quarters can hit your own non-plains to help get to 7 for Emeria so use them sparingly.

5. Know how many basics your opponents deck plays - ghost quarters become strip mines real fast.