Thats not what we want. I want my first 14 land drops, and serum visions doesn't really do that.
1 sunken ruin
3 spell snare
Well Serum Visions does help you finding Lands because you get another draw and a scry 2! And it helps you to mitigate flooding which is a risk at 25/26 Lands AND beside the fetchlands it also enables T2 Logic Knot!
I also don't like the 4 collonade and 4 Serum Visions Lists because all those hidden and not hidden Mana costs prevent you from interacting early.
That's why I play 3 collonade and 2 Serum Visions with 25 Lands
Everybody Plays as many spellsnare as he thinks is usefull. For me it's 2 snares. Enough to ocassionally have one in the Starthand and to flash it back in the right matchups, but few enough to not have multiple stuck in your Hand as Dead cards.
Why do you play sunken ruins? You have no double Black costig cards in your Deck and you will rarely need it.
Having 2 Ghost quarters and 2 Filterlands can make starting hands quite akward from time to time.
Serum visions lets you choose between good spells, bad spells, and lands, but esper basically just wants all of those cards and it will work the rest out later.
sums it up nicely. If 80% of the time Serum visions results in you leaving both cards on top, then you're basically playing U - draw a card. For a true control deck, card quantity tends to be better than card quality.
Sunken ruins isn't for casting BB, it can filter B -> UU for Cryptic command. Usually, this is only going to be useful off basic swamp/godless shrine, and is worse than a checkland some percentage of the time, but I think it's really down to preference.
Could you please let me know if you have any feedback on my list ?
Also how is the bant eldrazi and tron MUs ?
Mana leak and Remand don't make sense as 1-ofs. If you're going to play one of a particular card, it should be a win condition that you don't want to draw multiples of, or something that if you have it in your opening hand you can build a game plan around that an opponent isn't going to expect. Mana leak is also a terrible topdeck in the late game. Remand isn't that much better.
Quick writeup for a modern friendly league, using basically the same list (Hoogland's), with -1 Fatal Push (total of 2), and +1 Spell Snare (total of 2). Overall went 2-3
R1: Merfolk
G1: He has T1 Vial on the draw. Chains together a bunch of silvergills and just chips me down over a few turns.
G2: T1 vial on the draw again. This time I have more removal and he has less silvergills. I manage to stabilize and force him into topdeck.
G3: He has vial on T3, but spreading seas take out my white sources. He drops Master of Waves with cursecatcher backup so I can't cryptic it. I can't play the Verdict to clear the board
Feel like this went as well as it could have, and this is one of our tougher matchups since they have uncounterable and instant speed threats from Vial, as well as mana denial.
R2: Cheri0s
G1: He has 3 2 drop creatrues. I have 2 spell snares and snapcaster. Close out the game quick with Secure for 3
G2: He's stuck on 1 land for a long time. By the time he drops his second land I have more than enough gas. Eventually shred his hand with 4 back to back Esper charms.
This matchup is almost impossible to lose if you keep a decent enough hand. Certainly made spell snares look really good :). I think I should have kept the 2 Negates and sided out all 4 cryptics. We have more than enough ways to deal with the creatures, and they bring in some cheap disruption spells like silence, so having negates seem better than cryptics. The halos were to name grapeshot.
R3: Ad Nauseum
G1: Suspends a T1 bloom that I can't counter. Unfortunately I have a path and rev in my hand that are basically dead, with only the one counter. He's able to resolve Ad Nauseum with Pact backup and win.
G2: I thoughtsieze to see Angel's Grace x2, SSG, boseiju, fetch, lightning storm, sleight of hand. I consider taking the lightning storm here to force a win with lab maniac, but this seems like a bad line of play. I opt instead to take the Sleight of Hand to slow him down. Few turns later I play collective brutality to see Angel's grace x3, lightning storm, SSG, spoils of the vault. Easy take of spoils here. I lose this game a few turns down when I fail to counter an Angel's grace, which was followed up by a Boseiju'd Ad Nauseum, and lose.
Not sure if I ended up boarding in the Runed Halos. I don't think it's enough to shut down only 1/2 of their wincons, since they end up drawing the whole deck so how they win doesn't actually matter. Seems like this is a pretty poor matchup for us G1, and even G2 isn't so great. I definitely misplayed in G2 though, but since he had 3 angel's graces, I would probably have lost to one of the next ones since I was low on countermagic.
R4: Dredge
G1: He has a pretty absurd draw, putting down 3 bloodghasts and 2 prized amalgams by T3. I don't draw the land for T4 verdict, but I don't think that would have been enough.
G2: Slower start. I have a chance to Surgical Life from the Loam on T2, but I wait for a better target. Seems poor to use it on Dredge's enables rather than their win conditions. I then have a chance to tag a bloodghast. I save it for now since there's only 1, but I feel like Bloodghast is probably their best card against us, so it was probably correct to remove it there. He ends up with a board of 2x ghast and 3x amalgam which I verdict. I surgical the ghast on my end step after he tries to return them with a fetch. However, Narcomeba next turn brings back the amalgams. I drop a Runed Halo on Amalgam to protect myself. I make a mistake here and tap out for an Esper charm, giving him an opportunity later to Nature's claim my Runed Halo, and I die next turn.
I'm not sure how best to sideboard here, seems like most of our deck is pretty bad against them without something like RIP. I feel like I mainly lost G2 due to the error of not protecting my Runed Halo. Should have expected the enchantment hate by opponent because we're in white for Rest in Peace
R5: Jeskai Control
G1: We play draw go for a long time. Eventually he is first to make a move by trying to play Ajani with 3 mana up. I tank for a while since I could cryptic, but if he has a negate or remand it's really bad for me. I could also let it resolve and try to STW on the next turn, but that also loses to any countermagic. Eventually I decide to cryptic, and it resolves. At some point I strip his hand with Charm Charm Snap Charm, land a STW for 5 and proceed to beat him down over the next few turns.
G2: I thoughtsieze T1 to see 2x Snap, Helix, Crumble, Fetch. I'm not afraid of Crumble since I have a negate. I think taking snap here is easy. At some point he plays a Relic, which I negate since I have logic knot in my hand and a snap. He then attempts to play his snap, likely targeting serum visions. I'm able to logic knot that, leaving him with 2 cards. On my main I tag the last 2 cards with Esper charm, discarding Crumble and a Path. He draws a land to activate his Colonnade, but I have a push for it (This was a pretty big mistake on his part tbh). At this point I'm stuck on 4 lands so we play draw go while I find some more. At some point I initiate a fight over Collective brutality, and I am able to discard his Sphinx's revelation. I proceed to whittle away at him with colonnades and soldiers.
I think siding out the Rev was probably a mistake. In my last report it was suggested to take out Cryptics against Grixis. Felt uneasy doing this, but maybe that's correct after all, I didn't seem to miss them. I didn't see any Geists from the opponent, but I was aware of that. I maybe should have brought in the Halos for colonnades and bolts instead of the surgicals. Still not sure how to sideboard in control matchups, but the games feel very in our favor regardless.
I definitely played the affinity match horribly, and didn't spend my mana efficiently. I was trying to hold up countermagic for a long time since he was keeping so many cards in hand that I thought he was waiting to play out a big threat. This is mainly just my inexperience with the format. Looks I'm way overeveluating Cryptic here as well, but I just like casting the card
Personally I prefer crumble over quarter + extraction since it's one card not two. In both cases the number of each is low, so you can't just shape your game around it, but they end up being more incidental, and something you can shape your game around if you have it in your opening hand. The problem with the latter is it's 2 cards vs 1, so it's less likely you draw them. Also, with esper charm we're more likely to randomly discard some land into the GY, so surgical I think is still good even without any on board land destruction.
I do agree about Snares, I think 1 is the wrong number. I think I will take the sugestion to go from 3 push 1 snare to 2 push 2 snare.
Hey all! I played this deck for the first time tonight using the list that was linked earlier in Jeff Hoogland's article. Overall went 2-2, but felt very good about the deck. The losses I felt were mostly due to my own misplays in the matchups than anything lacking.
R1 - RG Valakut
G1 - Played it slow, countered everything except the ramp. Used Secure the Wastes for 3 tokens early to put some pressure, got Angered. I Esper charmed away the rest of his hand, then flash backed STW next turn. Win with beats.
In: Crumble to Dust x2, Runed Halo x3, Thoughtsieze x2, negate x1
Out: Verdict x3, fatal Push x3, snare x1 (should probably have kept this in), path x1.
G2 - He kept a risky hand without green, I'm able to T4 Crumble his Valakut. He concedes.
Overall feels like this matchup is fairly favored for us. They can ramp up to a lot of mana, but since we rely on hard counters, and their threats are pretty expensive and sorcery speed, the matcup feels straightforward.
R2 - Affinity
G1 - This was a rough game that I think a better pilot would have won. The only real threat he played was a Steel Overseer, but 2 vault skirges and manlands pinged me down slowly. Only removal I had was 1 path, eventually died to double galvanic blast on the end step.
G2 ended up being stuck on 3. Was able to path the first few threats, but he resolved a cranial plating that got a hit in and I never drew the 4th land to verdict or cryptic.
Not sure I sideboarded correctly in this Matchup, or played it well at all. It feels like we should have enough answers, but might just not have drawn enough of them. I should probably have been more aggressive in G1 and not get pinged so much by 1/1's, but the deck overall feels pretty weak to small fliers.
G3 - RG Prison?
G1 - Lose on the draw to T2 stone rain on a colonnade into T3 blood moon into T4 stone rain my basic island. Not much to do there
In: Thoughtsieze x2, Negate x1, Something else I forget.
Out: Path x2 (Only threat I saw G1 was stormbreath, and ramping him seemed less than ideal), Cryptic x2
G2 - He gets stuck on 2, gets a Scooze out T3. I elect not to path to keep him off lands. Eventually Thoughtsieze to see: Baloth, Arbor elf, utopia sprawl, inferno titan, blood moon. I have an esper charm in hand, so I do a really dumb thing and take the sprawl. I definitely should have taken the blood moon here. He plays it next turn, I float mana to esper charm. However, eventually lose both charms to Scooze before I path it, which really hurts me later as I start running out of gas to answer threats. Eventually he draws into enough threats while I draw blanks. I drew a bit bad, but I felt like I made a lot of small incorrect decisions here.
R4 - Grixis Control
G1 - I felt pretty good at all stages of the game. We play draw go for a while. Eventually he gets a snap. I play STW end of turn for 3 soldiers. I path his Tasigur. Opponent activates Tasigur and taps out. I use this opening to flashback STW for 3 again with a snap. I'm able to hit him for 10 next turn with a colonnade, putting him to 4. He explosive engineers away the tokens, but I'm able to close out the game in the next few turns with colonnade by forcing a fight on an EOT revelation.
In: Surgical x2, Negate x1
Out: Fatal Push x3 (this could have been a mistake, but the only targets were really snaps. Probably should have kept some number in for Creeping Tar Pit though)
G2 - He leads with an early snapcaster on T2 to beat down. It does end up doing 12 points of damage over the course of the game, however I just continue to make land drops and keep my hand full. He uses some Kholaghan's to shock + discard. I let all these resolve. At some point I Esper charm him down to 1 card, and then Path the snap (I had been holding path for a while in case Tasigur, but I was already on 7 so I couldn't let the snapcaster keep beating). He ends up suspending an AV, but I fight over it when it comes off suspend and I'm sitting comfy with 5 cards to 1. I start beating in with Colonnade and close out the game before a second AV comes off suspend.
This game was a useful demonstration of how much better we play the control game than other blue decks. In both games I was able to grind it out effectively. I never felt pressured to counter any AV since we were both sitting at 7 cards for most of the game. In G2, I fought over the AV when I was already way up in resources and he was down to very few cards.
Overall, I like the current configuration of the deck. Not sure how I feel about Crumble to Dust, but I'm going to stick with the list for a few more weeks to see how it feels. I liked STW a lot in the matchups I played it. I don't think WSZ would have been as effective, but I understand they fulfill different roles. STW for 3 always feels like a very strong midgame play all the time, and the snapcaster synergy is quite effective. I don't feel like we need the more powerful finisher in WSZ, I'd rather have the better flexibility and ability to put down a clock as early as T4 in slower matchups.
Anyway, I'd love to hear some thoughts about sideboarding in the matchups, especially against Affinity. Look forward to playing this more next week
I really like the renegade maps, they are like replacement islands that help you cast reverse engineer on turn 2 or 3, or draw you more cards when you paradox. Every time I play them I asked myself "was this better than an island?" sometimes they weren't, but usually they were. 18 lands + 4 maps is a lot of land though.
For a while I had Gonti's in the deck, but I almost never wanted to use it (or whir into it), but did sometimes get mana screwed, so I replaced it with an island.
I really like the gearhulk in the deck, being able to whir into him to recur a paradoxical outcome or an engulf the shore is very powerful.
I tried the merchant's dockhand, but he seemed like he would only do work against slow decks. I decided he was more of a sideboard card. I replaced him with an island, I brought him in when my friend took his fatal pushes out.
I had an inventor's fair, but my friend's deck plays a lot of beefy creatures and there were actually games where having 1 less island put his creatures out of range of my engulf the shore. Plus missing turn 3 whirs sucks.
The biggest toss-up for me is anticipate versus glint-nest crane. The crane has the potential to whiff (which feels terrible) - but does dig one deeper and provides a blocker (that can also draw another card if it lives around for a paradoxical outcome). Anticipate on the other hand is an instant so you can keep (or threaten) counterspells. Mathwise the odds of whiffing are about 32% with 20 artifacts - too high, I think.
I plan on trying the deck out against a broader field tomorrow.
The problem with renegade map though is that while the average case is better than an island, the worst case is much, much worse than an island. With a deck so low on lands, it's critical you hit your early land drops. Against any fast deck, getting to 4 is crucial because it opens engulf. The times when you die because a topdeck map wasn't a topdeck island are much worse than when a topdeck island could have been a map. This is a subtle cost that you won't notice until you grind out 100's of games and really pay attention to when the map is good vs bad. With 12 0-cost artifacts, you really don't need the extra inspire help, especially since you only have the 1 statuary.
I totally missed that gearhulk can be tutored with whir... maybe there's something there as a 1-of. I've found myself in situations where I'm just barely stabilized but digging for any draw spell to be able to win, and being able to use Whir there as well as an out seems powerful.
The problem I have with crane is that the card that it's drawing you is often non-relevant. Even if he hit an artifact every time, I think I would still play anticipate. The cards that you generally are digging for are either lands, or spells, not artifacts. When you're in control of the game, whether you cast a crane or anticipate isn't likely to matter. But when you're behind, you need anticipate to dig for the crucial engulf to stabilize, or paradoxical outcome to win.
I think a combo deck that relies around a single card to win the game is always going to be weak to control. If you enjoy the deck, just keep playing and accept that you're going to have a rough matchup here and there. Of course, if your meta is filled with control decks, you may need to play a different deck if you care much about winning
As for tools against control. I don't think the Bastion Inventor plan is very good. Unless you're improvising it out on turn 2, it's rarely going to be a fast enough clock. Transformational sideboards are great if you can leverage the rest of the deck to support it, but the beatdown plan just isn't supported by the remaining cards in the deck. Sure, it will work out well in some games, but I think with extended testing you'll find it doesn't hold up.
I think if you're set on fighting control, Hope of Ghirapur is the way to go. It is able to improvise if needed, and can be fetched with Whir, so it fits seamlessly into the deck. It's a tricky card to play though, since it's tempting to try to keep it until you're ready to combo in a turn, but I think it may be more correct to use it to generate incremental value and resolve your draw spells so you can find another one. At some point I might try the full 4 copies.
Also, in G1 against control you have to remember a lot of their deck is probably creature removal, and they likely don't have a way to deal with a resolved Reservoir. Whir is important here, since it lets you start a fight on their end step, and you can set up a turn where they simply don't have enough mana to counter all your spells, and allow you to combo in one turn.
Hey all! I've been brewing with Reservoir for quite a while now and played through a few games with it recently on MTGO. My version isn't the straight U version, but it's getting fairly close. Here's the list:
Sram - When he's good, he's good, but the mana base is quite awkward, to the point that he might not actually be worth it. You sacrifice mana consistency for combo consistency. Making land drops are very important.
Baral's Expertise - This card is very very underrated. I think all builds should be playing at least 2 copies. The fact that you can use it to stall aggro but is also a way to generate 4 'storm' on a combo turn, in addition to then being able to play almost any other spell in the deck for free, makes it extremely flexible, and that flexibility is great. It's definitely better in Sram builds than mono U, since there it can be card draw, combo, and/or removal depending on what you need at the time. Running Baral's also makes Inspiring Statuary very important to the deck, since improvising it is one of the most broken things the deck can do.
Inspiring Statuary - Speaking of... I think Inspiring Statuary may be the most important card in the deck, but the catch is that it's so bad in multiples that it's difficult to run a full set. Luckily we have Whir, which makes up the remaining count so that I can fetch up the missing piece when needed. To me, this deck is a two card combo: Once you assemble both Statuary and Reservoir, you are almost guaranteed to win the next turn with a decent number of cards in hand. Generally I find myself Whirring this out first so that I can enable the rest of my hand to either draw through my entire deck, or Baral's into Reservoir into drop a bunch of cards. 2 feels like the correct number.
Glimmer of Genius - Glimmer plays a similar role to anticipate. If I could, I'd probably run 6 anticipate, so Glimmer here is to fill slots 5-6 for that. Very good once Statuary is out.
Engulf the Shore - I think Engulf fights for the same slots as Baral's for the main board, and lately, while Engulf has been powerful, in most situations Baral's is just as good. Coming down a turn earlier is important though, so this split feels good to me. It get better with more Ornithopters in mono U.
Crush of Tentacles - I like this as a sideboard card very much. In fact, I think there should probably be another 1-2 copies there. It is a house G2/3 against any deck based around permanents, but I don't think you need it G1. I'd much rather have Engulf a turn earlier, or Baral's instead.
Ornithopter - Even though it doesn't draw off Sram, I think the deck needs at least 10 0-mana artifacts. It also is great at chump blocking with Paradoxical (or without).
Metallic Rebuke - I think this should not be in the mainboard. Yes, it means our G1 against control looks bad. Then our G2/3 looks just as bad, but I don't think it's worth the percentages you lose against any other deck. I've never been happy with Rebuke G1 against any deck. It's easy to think of it as Mana Leak for U, but with so much improvise already, you get pretty stretched on mana, especially against fast decks. You simply don't have the time to keep Rebuke up.
You hit the nail on the head for the uses of Runed Halo. Notably it's not the best against AdNaus and blue Scapeshift. It is how we win the valakut match up along with matchups against linear decks with a minimal number of threats. Think bogles, infect, dredge, etc. Notably, mage can't stop valakut triggers.
The bigger issue with Meddling Mage is it dies to normal removal unlike Runed Halo. I have no desire to say mage is inferior to it, but removal tends to be more rampant in modern due to it being more of a creature format than legacy. I mean all the big combo decks minus ad nauseam and valakut use creatures as combo pieces.
All I can really say is test and see. I can't say one way or the other due to having never cast a meddling mage in modern.
Valakut seems like a very big weakness of Mage now that I think about it. One other thing that I didn't think of is that Runed Halo can be both proactive and reactive, whereas Meddling Mage can only be played proactively, meaning sometimes you end up hitting the wrong card. It's also interesting looking at NeoThinker's list of cards to name, there are definitely some decks where Mage might be better, for example being able to name Ad Nauseum, but I think for Modern, Runed Halo may be the strictly better sideboard card (unless you have some very weird local meta). I think I will have to fork out the money for them in the end. Maybe I'll do a 1-2 MM/RH split for now or something.
Hi Esper players! I've been on a break from Modern for a while since Twin was banned, but after seeing an Esper control deck do well it has reinvigorated my interest in the format. Esper Charm has been a favorite card of mine for a long time, and I'm excited to get a chance to play them again in a competitive list!
I had a question for the more experienced players about Runed Halo. I see it in a lot of sideboards, but because of the price spike recently I'm not sure I want to pick them up. How important to the overall SB strategy is the card? I haven't played Modern in quite some time, but I imagine the reason it's there is to be able to name cards for linear decks that rely on 1-2 cards to win (I'm thinking AdNauseum, Scapeshift). In what matchups are these brought in? Also, how effective is Meddling Mage as a substitute? I play Legacy, and Miracles often brings in Meddling Mage to act as Disruption + Clock against combo decks, and to me Meddling Mage could fill a similar role in Esper. The obvious weakness however is any creature specific removal, and anti-synergy with wraths, but depending on the matchups where Runed Halo is brought in, it may be irrelevant, and perhaps the body is even a potential upside. Is it crazy to consider Meddling Mage over Runed Halo?
Unlike infect's manlands, affinity's manlands are much less threatening since they end up most of the time being 1/1's unless there's something like a ravager or overseer out, but that still leaves them weak to kolaghan's and terminates, so it's not worth taking a turn off to shut off a couple of creatures (which they also have to keep sinking mana to use). Blood moon should almost be a game winning play when it comes down, and against affinity it slows them down only marginally. I would leave in Tasigur and not side in blood moon.
Hopefully you can help me. What makes this Twin version "better" than the other ones? When would you play Grixis Twin instead of UR or Temur? What are the pros and cons? Thanks for help
You get some "upgrades" from the regular twin lists, for example instead of roast/harvest pyre, we have terminate. You also get cards like Tasigur, Kolaghan's Command, and discard as options, which improves the matchups against some decks. These tend to be the most common differences. The cons are of course the mana base, which is slightly less consistent, slightly more painful, and slightly worse to blood moon. Variants that use flip-Jace will also tend to play more proactively at sorcery speed rather than reactive. The most general way to summarize it is that Grixis is the closest to control when compared to the other Twin variants.
If they dont have a Blight Herder, they dont have tokens. If there is a Blight Herder you are right...thats crap but without him they only have one creature maybe Ulamog or maybe Sower. In that situations it wouldnt be that bad
Grixis already has Terminate to answer the fatties (if the cast triggers haven't ended the game already, which tends to be more problematic than the creature itself).
What are your guys opinions on thoughtseize against burn? Running 2 IOK in the board, but they are pretty bad against Tron...I've seen mixed opinions on TS against burn. I plan to go to a large event where I would expect a decent amount of both...thoughts?
Most of the lists you see out there (and my preference as well) is not to have IoK in the SB. I think if you have slots in the SB for discard, it should be for thoughtseize. You would never bring it in against burn, but I don't think the drawback of not having discard in against burn (which is very minor by the way. Discard isn't always good against them since you want to be spending your mana as efficiently as possible, and discard is negative on tempo) outweighs the number of matchups where thoughtseize is better.
Against Zoo, it won't be able to hit Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape, so you'll end up relying mostly on spot removal in that matchup, which might be okay. In a pinch you could flash in an Exarch to get in that last point of damage.
The evaluation against Merfolk is interesting, since I think I'd much rather have the 3 damage sweeper in case they ever get 2 Lords out, or are threatening a 2nd lord through Aether vial. I don't think the ability to take out master of waves is enough of an incentive to drop that damage. It will be interesting though when you get into a situation where they have 1 lord and an active vial, since you can respond to a vial activation.
Overwhelming Denial seems pretty underwhelming on paper. It feels like dispel is just better here, but it does seem better against opposing dispels. A scenario that was mentioned was that at 6 mana you can drop twin, and that forces them to have 2 counters that can target twin rather than just one with dispel backup. Seems like too much of a corner case though to make the UU requirement, and how bad it is as your first spell. The fact that it plays nicely at 4 mana with Tapper -> untap your own land -> counter anything -> untap combo seems also pretty relevant, but it feels like Remand is almost as good in any of those situations.
Kozilek's Return is more interesting to me because it adds a third player to the pyro vs anger debate, and each definitely has it's own merits. The cool part with Kozilek is the ability to hit affinity/infect's manlands, and also etched champion, which is probably the most problematic card in the matchup. It doesn't look quite good enough (though it's close), since the main draw of pyro is that it comes down a full turn earlier, and anger's exile clause and the extra damage can matter in a lot of matchups. Perhaps the three will be interchangeable depending on the meta.
I think this:
sums it up nicely. If 80% of the time Serum visions results in you leaving both cards on top, then you're basically playing U - draw a card. For a true control deck, card quantity tends to be better than card quality.
Sunken ruins isn't for casting BB, it can filter B -> UU for Cryptic command. Usually, this is only going to be useful off basic swamp/godless shrine, and is worse than a checkland some percentage of the time, but I think it's really down to preference.
Mana leak and Remand don't make sense as 1-ofs. If you're going to play one of a particular card, it should be a win condition that you don't want to draw multiples of, or something that if you have it in your opening hand you can build a game plan around that an opponent isn't going to expect. Mana leak is also a terrible topdeck in the late game. Remand isn't that much better.
R1: Merfolk
G1: He has T1 Vial on the draw. Chains together a bunch of silvergills and just chips me down over a few turns.
G2: T1 vial on the draw again. This time I have more removal and he has less silvergills. I manage to stabilize and force him into topdeck.
G3: He has vial on T3, but spreading seas take out my white sources. He drops Master of Waves with cursecatcher backup so I can't cryptic it. I can't play the Verdict to clear the board
In: Blessed Alliance x2, Runed Halo x3, Collective Brutality x1
Out: Negate x2, Cryptic Command x4
Feel like this went as well as it could have, and this is one of our tougher matchups since they have uncounterable and instant speed threats from Vial, as well as mana denial.
R2: Cheri0s
G1: He has 3 2 drop creatrues. I have 2 spell snares and snapcaster. Close out the game quick with Secure for 3
G2: He's stuck on 1 land for a long time. By the time he drops his second land I have more than enough gas. Eventually shred his hand with 4 back to back Esper charms.
In: Thoughtseize x2, Surgical Extraction x2, Runed Halo x3
Out: Supreme Verdict x3, Cryptic Command x2, Negate x2
This matchup is almost impossible to lose if you keep a decent enough hand. Certainly made spell snares look really good :). I think I should have kept the 2 Negates and sided out all 4 cryptics. We have more than enough ways to deal with the creatures, and they bring in some cheap disruption spells like silence, so having negates seem better than cryptics. The halos were to name grapeshot.
R3: Ad Nauseum
G1: Suspends a T1 bloom that I can't counter. Unfortunately I have a path and rev in my hand that are basically dead, with only the one counter. He's able to resolve Ad Nauseum with Pact backup and win.
G2: I thoughtsieze to see Angel's Grace x2, SSG, boseiju, fetch, lightning storm, sleight of hand. I consider taking the lightning storm here to force a win with lab maniac, but this seems like a bad line of play. I opt instead to take the Sleight of Hand to slow him down. Few turns later I play collective brutality to see Angel's grace x3, lightning storm, SSG, spoils of the vault. Easy take of spoils here. I lose this game a few turns down when I fail to counter an Angel's grace, which was followed up by a Boseiju'd Ad Nauseum, and lose.
In: Thoughtsieze x2, Surgical Extraction x2, Collective Brutality x1, Stony Silence x2, Negate x1, Runed Halo x1?
Out: Verdict x3, Path x4, Fatal Push x2
Not sure if I ended up boarding in the Runed Halos. I don't think it's enough to shut down only 1/2 of their wincons, since they end up drawing the whole deck so how they win doesn't actually matter. Seems like this is a pretty poor matchup for us G1, and even G2 isn't so great. I definitely misplayed in G2 though, but since he had 3 angel's graces, I would probably have lost to one of the next ones since I was low on countermagic.
R4: Dredge
G1: He has a pretty absurd draw, putting down 3 bloodghasts and 2 prized amalgams by T3. I don't draw the land for T4 verdict, but I don't think that would have been enough.
G2: Slower start. I have a chance to Surgical Life from the Loam on T2, but I wait for a better target. Seems poor to use it on Dredge's enables rather than their win conditions. I then have a chance to tag a bloodghast. I save it for now since there's only 1, but I feel like Bloodghast is probably their best card against us, so it was probably correct to remove it there. He ends up with a board of 2x ghast and 3x amalgam which I verdict. I surgical the ghast on my end step after he tries to return them with a fetch. However, Narcomeba next turn brings back the amalgams. I drop a Runed Halo on Amalgam to protect myself. I make a mistake here and tap out for an Esper charm, giving him an opportunity later to Nature's claim my Runed Halo, and I die next turn.
In: Surgical x2, Runed Halo x3, Negate x1
Out: Spell Snare x2, Path to Exile x2, Cryptic Command x2?
I'm not sure how best to sideboard here, seems like most of our deck is pretty bad against them without something like RIP. I feel like I mainly lost G2 due to the error of not protecting my Runed Halo. Should have expected the enchantment hate by opponent because we're in white for Rest in Peace
R5: Jeskai Control
G1: We play draw go for a long time. Eventually he is first to make a move by trying to play Ajani with 3 mana up. I tank for a while since I could cryptic, but if he has a negate or remand it's really bad for me. I could also let it resolve and try to STW on the next turn, but that also loses to any countermagic. Eventually I decide to cryptic, and it resolves. At some point I strip his hand with Charm Charm Snap Charm, land a STW for 5 and proceed to beat him down over the next few turns.
G2: I thoughtsieze T1 to see 2x Snap, Helix, Crumble, Fetch. I'm not afraid of Crumble since I have a negate. I think taking snap here is easy. At some point he plays a Relic, which I negate since I have logic knot in my hand and a snap. He then attempts to play his snap, likely targeting serum visions. I'm able to logic knot that, leaving him with 2 cards. On my main I tag the last 2 cards with Esper charm, discarding Crumble and a Path. He draws a land to activate his Colonnade, but I have a push for it (This was a pretty big mistake on his part tbh). At this point I'm stuck on 4 lands so we play draw go while I find some more. At some point I initiate a fight over Collective brutality, and I am able to discard his Sphinx's revelation. I proceed to whittle away at him with colonnades and soldiers.
In: Negate x1, Thoughtsieze x2, Surgical x2, Blessed Alliance x2, Collective Brutality x1
Out: Path x2, Cryptic x4, Sphinx's Rev x1, Supreme Verdict x1
I think siding out the Rev was probably a mistake. In my last report it was suggested to take out Cryptics against Grixis. Felt uneasy doing this, but maybe that's correct after all, I didn't seem to miss them. I didn't see any Geists from the opponent, but I was aware of that. I maybe should have brought in the Halos for colonnades and bolts instead of the surgicals. Still not sure how to sideboard in control matchups, but the games feel very in our favor regardless.
I definitely played the affinity match horribly, and didn't spend my mana efficiently. I was trying to hold up countermagic for a long time since he was keeping so many cards in hand that I thought he was waiting to play out a big threat. This is mainly just my inexperience with the format. Looks I'm way overeveluating Cryptic here as well, but I just like casting the card
Personally I prefer crumble over quarter + extraction since it's one card not two. In both cases the number of each is low, so you can't just shape your game around it, but they end up being more incidental, and something you can shape your game around if you have it in your opening hand. The problem with the latter is it's 2 cards vs 1, so it's less likely you draw them. Also, with esper charm we're more likely to randomly discard some land into the GY, so surgical I think is still good even without any on board land destruction.
I do agree about Snares, I think 1 is the wrong number. I think I will take the sugestion to go from 3 push 1 snare to 2 push 2 snare.
R1 - RG Valakut
G1 - Played it slow, countered everything except the ramp. Used Secure the Wastes for 3 tokens early to put some pressure, got Angered. I Esper charmed away the rest of his hand, then flash backed STW next turn. Win with beats.
In: Crumble to Dust x2, Runed Halo x3, Thoughtsieze x2, negate x1
Out: Verdict x3, fatal Push x3, snare x1 (should probably have kept this in), path x1.
G2 - He kept a risky hand without green, I'm able to T4 Crumble his Valakut. He concedes.
Overall feels like this matchup is fairly favored for us. They can ramp up to a lot of mana, but since we rely on hard counters, and their threats are pretty expensive and sorcery speed, the matcup feels straightforward.
R2 - Affinity
G1 - This was a rough game that I think a better pilot would have won. The only real threat he played was a Steel Overseer, but 2 vault skirges and manlands pinged me down slowly. Only removal I had was 1 path, eventually died to double galvanic blast on the end step.
In: Collective Brutality x1, stony silence x2, crumble to dust x2?
Out : Cryptic x2, esper charm x1, think Twice x1, sphinx's revelation x1
G2 ended up being stuck on 3. Was able to path the first few threats, but he resolved a cranial plating that got a hit in and I never drew the 4th land to verdict or cryptic.
Not sure I sideboarded correctly in this Matchup, or played it well at all. It feels like we should have enough answers, but might just not have drawn enough of them. I should probably have been more aggressive in G1 and not get pinged so much by 1/1's, but the deck overall feels pretty weak to small fliers.
G3 - RG Prison?
G1 - Lose on the draw to T2 stone rain on a colonnade into T3 blood moon into T4 stone rain my basic island. Not much to do there
In: Thoughtsieze x2, Negate x1, Something else I forget.
Out: Path x2 (Only threat I saw G1 was stormbreath, and ramping him seemed less than ideal), Cryptic x2
G2 - He gets stuck on 2, gets a Scooze out T3. I elect not to path to keep him off lands. Eventually Thoughtsieze to see: Baloth, Arbor elf, utopia sprawl, inferno titan, blood moon. I have an esper charm in hand, so I do a really dumb thing and take the sprawl. I definitely should have taken the blood moon here. He plays it next turn, I float mana to esper charm. However, eventually lose both charms to Scooze before I path it, which really hurts me later as I start running out of gas to answer threats. Eventually he draws into enough threats while I draw blanks. I drew a bit bad, but I felt like I made a lot of small incorrect decisions here.
R4 - Grixis Control
G1 - I felt pretty good at all stages of the game. We play draw go for a while. Eventually he gets a snap. I play STW end of turn for 3 soldiers. I path his Tasigur. Opponent activates Tasigur and taps out. I use this opening to flashback STW for 3 again with a snap. I'm able to hit him for 10 next turn with a colonnade, putting him to 4. He explosive engineers away the tokens, but I'm able to close out the game in the next few turns with colonnade by forcing a fight on an EOT revelation.
In: Surgical x2, Negate x1
Out: Fatal Push x3 (this could have been a mistake, but the only targets were really snaps. Probably should have kept some number in for Creeping Tar Pit though)
G2 - He leads with an early snapcaster on T2 to beat down. It does end up doing 12 points of damage over the course of the game, however I just continue to make land drops and keep my hand full. He uses some Kholaghan's to shock + discard. I let all these resolve. At some point I Esper charm him down to 1 card, and then Path the snap (I had been holding path for a while in case Tasigur, but I was already on 7 so I couldn't let the snapcaster keep beating). He ends up suspending an AV, but I fight over it when it comes off suspend and I'm sitting comfy with 5 cards to 1. I start beating in with Colonnade and close out the game before a second AV comes off suspend.
This game was a useful demonstration of how much better we play the control game than other blue decks. In both games I was able to grind it out effectively. I never felt pressured to counter any AV since we were both sitting at 7 cards for most of the game. In G2, I fought over the AV when I was already way up in resources and he was down to very few cards.
Overall, I like the current configuration of the deck. Not sure how I feel about Crumble to Dust, but I'm going to stick with the list for a few more weeks to see how it feels. I liked STW a lot in the matchups I played it. I don't think WSZ would have been as effective, but I understand they fulfill different roles. STW for 3 always feels like a very strong midgame play all the time, and the snapcaster synergy is quite effective. I don't feel like we need the more powerful finisher in WSZ, I'd rather have the better flexibility and ability to put down a clock as early as T4 in slower matchups.
Anyway, I'd love to hear some thoughts about sideboarding in the matchups, especially against Affinity. Look forward to playing this more next week
The problem with renegade map though is that while the average case is better than an island, the worst case is much, much worse than an island. With a deck so low on lands, it's critical you hit your early land drops. Against any fast deck, getting to 4 is crucial because it opens engulf. The times when you die because a topdeck map wasn't a topdeck island are much worse than when a topdeck island could have been a map. This is a subtle cost that you won't notice until you grind out 100's of games and really pay attention to when the map is good vs bad. With 12 0-cost artifacts, you really don't need the extra inspire help, especially since you only have the 1 statuary.
I totally missed that gearhulk can be tutored with whir... maybe there's something there as a 1-of. I've found myself in situations where I'm just barely stabilized but digging for any draw spell to be able to win, and being able to use Whir there as well as an out seems powerful.
The problem I have with crane is that the card that it's drawing you is often non-relevant. Even if he hit an artifact every time, I think I would still play anticipate. The cards that you generally are digging for are either lands, or spells, not artifacts. When you're in control of the game, whether you cast a crane or anticipate isn't likely to matter. But when you're behind, you need anticipate to dig for the crucial engulf to stabilize, or paradoxical outcome to win.
As for tools against control. I don't think the Bastion Inventor plan is very good. Unless you're improvising it out on turn 2, it's rarely going to be a fast enough clock. Transformational sideboards are great if you can leverage the rest of the deck to support it, but the beatdown plan just isn't supported by the remaining cards in the deck. Sure, it will work out well in some games, but I think with extended testing you'll find it doesn't hold up.
I think if you're set on fighting control, Hope of Ghirapur is the way to go. It is able to improvise if needed, and can be fetched with Whir, so it fits seamlessly into the deck. It's a tricky card to play though, since it's tempting to try to keep it until you're ready to combo in a turn, but I think it may be more correct to use it to generate incremental value and resolve your draw spells so you can find another one. At some point I might try the full 4 copies.
Also, in G1 against control you have to remember a lot of their deck is probably creature removal, and they likely don't have a way to deal with a resolved Reservoir. Whir is important here, since it lets you start a fight on their end step, and you can set up a turn where they simply don't have enough mana to counter all your spells, and allow you to combo in one turn.
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
Spells
4 Reverse Engineer
4 Anticipate
4 Paradoxical Outcome
2 Baral's Expertise
2 Glimmer of Genius
2 Whir of Invention
2 Engulf the Shore
4 Bone Saw
4 Cathar's Shield
2 Ornithopter
2 Inspiring Statuary
3 Aetherflux Reservoir
Land
4 Port Town
4 Prairie Stream
13 Island
2 Crush of Tentacles
2 Hope of Ghirapur
3 Authority of the Consuls
4 Negate
2 Engulf the Shore
2 Metallic Rebuke
Here are my thoughts on a couple of key cards
Sram - When he's good, he's good, but the mana base is quite awkward, to the point that he might not actually be worth it. You sacrifice mana consistency for combo consistency. Making land drops are very important.
Baral's Expertise - This card is very very underrated. I think all builds should be playing at least 2 copies. The fact that you can use it to stall aggro but is also a way to generate 4 'storm' on a combo turn, in addition to then being able to play almost any other spell in the deck for free, makes it extremely flexible, and that flexibility is great. It's definitely better in Sram builds than mono U, since there it can be card draw, combo, and/or removal depending on what you need at the time. Running Baral's also makes Inspiring Statuary very important to the deck, since improvising it is one of the most broken things the deck can do.
Inspiring Statuary - Speaking of... I think Inspiring Statuary may be the most important card in the deck, but the catch is that it's so bad in multiples that it's difficult to run a full set. Luckily we have Whir, which makes up the remaining count so that I can fetch up the missing piece when needed. To me, this deck is a two card combo: Once you assemble both Statuary and Reservoir, you are almost guaranteed to win the next turn with a decent number of cards in hand. Generally I find myself Whirring this out first so that I can enable the rest of my hand to either draw through my entire deck, or Baral's into Reservoir into drop a bunch of cards. 2 feels like the correct number.
Glimmer of Genius - Glimmer plays a similar role to anticipate. If I could, I'd probably run 6 anticipate, so Glimmer here is to fill slots 5-6 for that. Very good once Statuary is out.
Engulf the Shore - I think Engulf fights for the same slots as Baral's for the main board, and lately, while Engulf has been powerful, in most situations Baral's is just as good. Coming down a turn earlier is important though, so this split feels good to me. It get better with more Ornithopters in mono U.
Crush of Tentacles - I like this as a sideboard card very much. In fact, I think there should probably be another 1-2 copies there. It is a house G2/3 against any deck based around permanents, but I don't think you need it G1. I'd much rather have Engulf a turn earlier, or Baral's instead.
Ornithopter - Even though it doesn't draw off Sram, I think the deck needs at least 10 0-mana artifacts. It also is great at chump blocking with Paradoxical (or without).
Metallic Rebuke - I think this should not be in the mainboard. Yes, it means our G1 against control looks bad. Then our G2/3 looks just as bad, but I don't think it's worth the percentages you lose against any other deck. I've never been happy with Rebuke G1 against any deck. It's easy to think of it as Mana Leak for U, but with so much improvise already, you get pretty stretched on mana, especially against fast decks. You simply don't have the time to keep Rebuke up.
Valakut seems like a very big weakness of Mage now that I think about it. One other thing that I didn't think of is that Runed Halo can be both proactive and reactive, whereas Meddling Mage can only be played proactively, meaning sometimes you end up hitting the wrong card. It's also interesting looking at NeoThinker's list of cards to name, there are definitely some decks where Mage might be better, for example being able to name Ad Nauseum, but I think for Modern, Runed Halo may be the strictly better sideboard card (unless you have some very weird local meta). I think I will have to fork out the money for them in the end. Maybe I'll do a 1-2 MM/RH split for now or something.
I had a question for the more experienced players about Runed Halo. I see it in a lot of sideboards, but because of the price spike recently I'm not sure I want to pick them up. How important to the overall SB strategy is the card? I haven't played Modern in quite some time, but I imagine the reason it's there is to be able to name cards for linear decks that rely on 1-2 cards to win (I'm thinking AdNauseum, Scapeshift). In what matchups are these brought in? Also, how effective is Meddling Mage as a substitute? I play Legacy, and Miracles often brings in Meddling Mage to act as Disruption + Clock against combo decks, and to me Meddling Mage could fill a similar role in Esper. The obvious weakness however is any creature specific removal, and anti-synergy with wraths, but depending on the matchups where Runed Halo is brought in, it may be irrelevant, and perhaps the body is even a potential upside. Is it crazy to consider Meddling Mage over Runed Halo?
Thanks in advance for the input
Grixis already has Terminate to answer the fatties (if the cast triggers haven't ended the game already, which tends to be more problematic than the creature itself).
Against Zoo, it won't be able to hit Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape, so you'll end up relying mostly on spot removal in that matchup, which might be okay. In a pinch you could flash in an Exarch to get in that last point of damage.
The evaluation against Merfolk is interesting, since I think I'd much rather have the 3 damage sweeper in case they ever get 2 Lords out, or are threatening a 2nd lord through Aether vial. I don't think the ability to take out master of waves is enough of an incentive to drop that damage. It will be interesting though when you get into a situation where they have 1 lord and an active vial, since you can respond to a vial activation.
Overwhelming Denial seems pretty underwhelming on paper. It feels like dispel is just better here, but it does seem better against opposing dispels. A scenario that was mentioned was that at 6 mana you can drop twin, and that forces them to have 2 counters that can target twin rather than just one with dispel backup. Seems like too much of a corner case though to make the UU requirement, and how bad it is as your first spell. The fact that it plays nicely at 4 mana with Tapper -> untap your own land -> counter anything -> untap combo seems also pretty relevant, but it feels like Remand is almost as good in any of those situations.
Kozilek's Return is more interesting to me because it adds a third player to the pyro vs anger debate, and each definitely has it's own merits. The cool part with Kozilek is the ability to hit affinity/infect's manlands, and also etched champion, which is probably the most problematic card in the matchup. It doesn't look quite good enough (though it's close), since the main draw of pyro is that it comes down a full turn earlier, and anger's exile clause and the extra damage can matter in a lot of matchups. Perhaps the three will be interchangeable depending on the meta.