Congrats to Daniel if he ever reads this on the awesome finish (it would be great if he paid us a visit to break down his card choices and matchups).
Also, big hello to Feline, so cool that you are joining us here. High Tide was one of my favorite decks back in 1999/2000 and Turns has always felt like a great Modern analog.
My initial thoughts on Daniel's deck, having watched the matches but not actually tested the black splash yet:
-The turns package 4,3,3 is perfect IMO
-The colorless land choices are perfect IMO
-Snapback I can see being great with Snapcaster Mage
-I've tested Censor and it just seems almost strictly worse than Remand in this deck.
-I think he could have won the whole thing if he cut some of the janky cards
SaffronOlive streamed that deck to 4-1 losing only to time. It's pretty janky (lol ensnaring bridge) but it turns out planeswalkers are good I guess. It doesn't draw lots of cards like a traditional turns deck but seasons past can be absurd when you resolve it.
Redirect is pretty flexible, from GBx to Burn or if you think you're going to be fighting counter fights against something like Ad Nauseam. It might be a pet card of mine but I like it for the flexibility. It also works great if you're bringing in TiTi as people often don't side out things like Path and Push when they see you win with Part the Waterveil.
Also I agree Modern is GREAT and this deck is great right now. Affinity being the main aggro deck is excellent for us with Burn a little lower down and Infect way down. We just have to have some resiliency against all the targeted discard running around and I think there are a variety of ways to achieve that.
I made some changes to my list and got a nice 4-1 at FNM last night. I did something I never thought I'd do and completely cut Snapcasters and Cryptics, mainly for the addition of 3 Sleight of Hand. Wow the deck has NEVER felt better. 7 cantrips gives you so much consistency at every stage of the game. They're effectively like drawing 2-3 extra cards for 1 mana every turn because at every stage of the game you're looking for one specific card type, either engines, interaction or extra turns. They allow you to bounce back from having multiple mine effects discarded, Abrupt Decay'd etc. And I never even once came close to fizzling after starting the combo.
The full 4 of Gigadrowse and Exhaustion felt great.
I think I made a mistake in losing to Abzan because I boarded out the Howling Mines in favor of Thing in the Ice. I think the right move is to just jam your deck full of both so they can never run you out of "threat" cards. I did that against Jund and it paid off.
2-0 vs Jeskai Nahiri (easy matchup)
0-2 vs Abzan midrange - Grim Flayer was just absurd in these games. It made it so he never ran out of both discard and Decays/Pulses.
2-0 vs Four Color Saheeli
2-0 vs Jund
2-0 vs Living End (THE BEST matchup)
The thing is that in the standard version (mono U or SB splash), the "interactive" cards are actually just additional Time Walks, cutting down drastically on dead draws mid-combo. People forget that it's quite common to run out of proper "take an extra turn" effects and have to pass back the turn, cobbling together a Time Walk from Cryptic Command + Exhaustion, Gigadrowse + Exhaustion or even something like Cryptic Command + Remand to keep the opponent locked down. Basically, the early game interaction turns into additional Time Walks when you're comboing off. That is the beauty of the design of the deck.
The above list, while fun to mess around with, has a massive amount of cards that do nothing mid-combo, are fragile, and give the opponent massive blowout opportunities against us.
I think the future innovation of this deck, like most decks that have become somewhat established, is going to be in those 2-3 cards that differ between builds, and the sideboard. Also, having good players learn how to play it really well.
I vote nay on the new God, he just does nothing useful until we're already winning unfortunately, and even once he's turned on...meh. I actually can't imagine any card being printed that falls into the "wincon" category that I would be excited about. I'm perfectly with Snappy, Part and Titi to close out the game.
On a side note though, how far we've come since the days of Jayemdae Tome being a busted card draw engine.
I love that list, I agree the mainboard is very close to objectively "correct". It's actually only 2 cards off of mine. But Spreading Seas is becoming very attractive again I must say.
Congrats on the result.
Also, big hello to Feline, so cool that you are joining us here. High Tide was one of my favorite decks back in 1999/2000 and Turns has always felt like a great Modern analog.
My initial thoughts on Daniel's deck, having watched the matches but not actually tested the black splash yet:
-The turns package 4,3,3 is perfect IMO
-The colorless land choices are perfect IMO
-Snapback I can see being great with Snapcaster Mage
-I've tested Censor and it just seems almost strictly worse than Remand in this deck.
-I think he could have won the whole thing if he cut some of the janky cards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aanDYN7LFvU
Also I agree Modern is GREAT and this deck is great right now. Affinity being the main aggro deck is excellent for us with Burn a little lower down and Infect way down. We just have to have some resiliency against all the targeted discard running around and I think there are a variety of ways to achieve that.
The full 4 of Gigadrowse and Exhaustion felt great.
I think I made a mistake in losing to Abzan because I boarded out the Howling Mines in favor of Thing in the Ice. I think the right move is to just jam your deck full of both so they can never run you out of "threat" cards. I did that against Jund and it paid off.
2-0 vs Jeskai Nahiri (easy matchup)
0-2 vs Abzan midrange - Grim Flayer was just absurd in these games. It made it so he never ran out of both discard and Decays/Pulses.
2-0 vs Four Color Saheeli
2-0 vs Jund
2-0 vs Living End (THE BEST matchup)
3x Howling Mine
1x Thing in the Ice
4x Serum Visions
3x Sleight of Hand
4x Remand
4x Exhaustion
4x Gigadrowse
3x Temporal Mastery
4x Time Warp
1x Gemstone Caverns
1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1x Inkmoth Nexus
20x Island
3x Dispel
3x Gut Shot
3x Thing in the Ice
3x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Vendilion Clique
1x Echoing Truth
The sideboard wasn't the best and I really wanted Redirect back so here's what I'm going with going forward:
3x Gut Shot
3x Hurkyl's Recall
3x Redirect
2x Thing in the Ice
1x Vendilion Clique
The above list, while fun to mess around with, has a massive amount of cards that do nothing mid-combo, are fragile, and give the opponent massive blowout opportunities against us.
I think the future innovation of this deck, like most decks that have become somewhat established, is going to be in those 2-3 cards that differ between builds, and the sideboard. Also, having good players learn how to play it really well.
On a side note though, how far we've come since the days of Jayemdae Tome being a busted card draw engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjfSggs83TQ
She talks about maybe playing it at GP San Antonio: http://www.magictheamateuring.com/mta-episode-215-modern-masters-magic-mayhem/
Congrats on the result.