This deck is HUGE at my LGS, there were 4 of them in my last FNM. A very good player plays it and has been 4-0 for weeks now. What beats it? What deck would you hate to see on the other side of the table?
I've tried bridge fairly extensively in xmage and 9 times out of 10 it just rotted in my hand while I cast creatures with ETB effects. Also drawing Emrakul felt pretty bad. The few times I was able to cast bridge it felt like a win-more card. I was putting them in my relic slot but I think I'm back to relics. Glad they are working out for some people, and I agree that the card deserved to be tested, but I wasn't impressed enough to keep them in.
I went 0-3 with the mono blue version tonight at FNM. Feelsbadman!
Round 1 RW Vehicles: I just couldn't keep up with damage. I was dead by the time aetherflux came out.
Round 2 BW Vehicles: Same thing but I drew basically nothing but islands both games. I think i could have won this matchup but I punted and did some math wrong letting me die when I didn't need to...
Round 3 UW TITI Counterspells? : This guy was maindeck running spell quellers and every counterspell in the book. Even after boarding in 6 counterspells it wasn't nearly enough.
What I can say though is I had fun! I play modern pretty competitively so it was fun seeing people's faces when you drop a bone saw. I'll probably give it another run next week before shelving it.
Upon further thought, Spark seems unreliable since you have to cast it right away. Not sure it's actually better than Expedite. The problem is, when you decide to cast the card, you either want it to be removal or want it to cantrip, but you have no control over which it will optimally do.
This is the list I've had the most success with on xmage so far, and I've tried all of them in this thread. I made some changes. -4 Wandering Fumarole (doesn't really fit in this deck) + 4 Aether Hub, - 1 Hedron Archive + 1 Crush of Tenticles.
Agro is a hard matchup with our only viable blockers being Fil Familiar and Glint Crane as I don't want to lose the enablers (though Herald holds his own). Saheeli is super fragile and to be honest hasn't made much of an impact on my games other than being a target dummy. I can see HOW she could be super nice in the deck but I haven't had it work that way.
I want radiant flames to work but it kills our enablers in the process. Has anyone tried the creature lists vs the 0 cost artifact deck? Pros and cons?
Edit: I used the MTGGoldfish 0 cost artifact list and it sucks balls. The lists in this thread are much better.
Thanks for the reply. So if you were to get a hand with unlife, ad naus, a cantrip but no rocks you'd keep? (these are what I get the most for w/e reason). Feels really slow but I've been keeping these hands and hoping to fire them off with just land mana.
Hey DarXlayer I've climbed from a 1300 to 1500+ ranking on xmage with your list. Seems really nice. Glad to be done with those *****ty Endless Ones. Thanks.
In which case, we have a very fun deck that just happens to not even be tier 2, unless we switch to more permission-heavy builds.
I've been playing this deck for months now at my competitive FNM. I've never broken more than 2-0, and it's usually closer to 1-3, 1-2-1. I have many modern decks and this is by far the most fun to play for me, it just never wins. I hate to hang it up but I think I'll just play it in kitchen table games for now.
Round 1 RW Vehicles: I just couldn't keep up with damage. I was dead by the time aetherflux came out.
Round 2 BW Vehicles: Same thing but I drew basically nothing but islands both games. I think i could have won this matchup but I punted and did some math wrong letting me die when I didn't need to...
Round 3 UW TITI Counterspells? : This guy was maindeck running spell quellers and every counterspell in the book. Even after boarding in 6 counterspells it wasn't nearly enough.
What I can say though is I had fun! I play modern pretty competitively so it was fun seeing people's faces when you drop a bone saw. I'll probably give it another run next week before shelving it.
Thanks for all the help in the thread
Edit: Duh, thanks!
Having actually played it I can say tell you that it's a dumpster fire of a deck.
This is the list I've had the most success with on xmage so far, and I've tried all of them in this thread. I made some changes. -4 Wandering Fumarole (doesn't really fit in this deck) + 4 Aether Hub, - 1 Hedron Archive + 1 Crush of Tenticles.
Agro is a hard matchup with our only viable blockers being Fil Familiar and Glint Crane as I don't want to lose the enablers (though Herald holds his own). Saheeli is super fragile and to be honest hasn't made much of an impact on my games other than being a target dummy. I can see HOW she could be super nice in the deck but I haven't had it work that way.
Next I'll try Karsten's list posted here
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/20-standard-brews-with-kaladesh-1-10/
Blue-Green storm, but it really feels like yall are onto something with the r/b list. I'll report back later
Edit: Yours is better. Herald is a great blocker and our spells are free with the enablers out.
Edit: I used the MTGGoldfish 0 cost artifact list and it sucks balls. The lists in this thread are much better.
My guess is mull for Lotus Bloom or Pentad plus combo pieces / cantrips.
I don't think my luck is good enough for the deck.
I've been playing this deck for months now at my competitive FNM. I've never broken more than 2-0, and it's usually closer to 1-3, 1-2-1. I have many modern decks and this is by far the most fun to play for me, it just never wins. I hate to hang it up but I think I'll just play it in kitchen table games for now.