Last week I played a few games online as usual and most of them went well.
Best match: A 2-1 against GB Tron. My opponent was at 4 with Karn and Wurmcoil Engine in play, I had a Geist in play, Izzet Charm in my graveyard and Snappy in hand. So, I attacked with Geist and after he declared the block with his Wurmcoil Engine I used Snappy+Charm to kill my Geist so that the angel token could deal lethal damage
Friday I went to FNM but it was terrible. I went home with a 0-3 record -_-
(lost against Amulet Bloom, Hollow One and 5C Shadow)
So, today I was tired of my Delvers and built the below in the picture. I always wanted to try Madcap Experiment in UWR and that's what I came up with.
- Delvers out, land count up to 22
- Izzet Charm, Lighthouse & 2x Clique to cycle Emperion stranded in hand
- 2x Emerge + 2x Boros Charm to protect Geist & Emperion
- 1x Sakashima to copy either Geist or Emperion
Played three games so far today and won all three, even against BBE Jund
Best moment today: In a game against Ponza my opponent tried to Molten Rain one of my lands but I had Swerve from SB (also good to protect Emperion) and changed the target to his own enchanted land. Felt so good!
@Mazereon: As you can see in my new build, I also love Spell Pierce, Geist and Lavamancer! These cards are awesome and I basically always use them. You are from Austria? Dann können wir ja auf Deutsch schreiben
Since it's not a UWR Tempo deck but rather a UW control list I've put it in a spoiler.
However, I can only recommend watching this video!
It's very well done, well played and the deck just looks awesome
+my usual 21 lands
(In the flex slot I tried Spell Snare / Mana Tithe / Emerge Unscathed and they are somehow all awesome but I can only use one of them and still don't know which one is best)
It didn't go very well in the new meta. The deck doesn't have a good matchup either against UW Control with Jace or against Jund with BBE.
I was only able to win about 50% of my games which is way lower than before the B&R announcement.
A lot of Jace decks play Lingering Souls which are a nightmare for my deck so I put Staticaster back in my SB.
But the Jace decks aren't that bad, really tough are the BBE decks. BBE into Liliana, Tarmogoyf, K Command or Blightning is devastating. Hand disruption and 3-4 Fulminators in their board make things even worse. -_-
I think I'll go back to a more burn-heavy build, like the one I played at MKM Series in Hamburg, with 3 Boros Charms.
And after I found myself siding out Jace more often then leaving him in I decided to sell my copy for a good price. For me Hazoret for example works much better as my second CMC4 card.
Hi everyone,
I have played a few matches on MTGO since the announcement and I have encountered both BBE & JTMS, even together in Temur decks. Since both Jund and Temur decks are using Tarmogoyfs I think I've seen a lot more of them out there than before. I already adjusted my deck accordingly, taking out Emerge Unscathed & Vapor Snag for Spell Snare and the 4th Path to Exile.
Taking out Emerge really hurts because last week I had an awesome time with that card. I was playing against UG Merfolk and hat already fried a few of my opponent's creatures. I had Geist in play and he had one green Merfolk. I cast Emerge giving Geist protection from green and attack through his blocker. Next turn he casts another green Merfolk. Then, on my upkeep Emerge rebounds and I give Geist protection from red. My opponent asks "Red?" in the chat and when I put Anger of Gods on the stack he conceded.
Since I run Jace as a 1-of I haven't him very often yet. One time just casting him lead to my opponent conceding I was already far ahaed on board at that time though.
@GofyTomcat1:
Your deck looks sweet on paper but I still can't believe that this can actually function with 21 lands. You're playing ten CMC3 cards (including Snappys) and six CMC4 cards. Such a high mana curve without mana dudes or other acceleration usually asks for 23 lands.
I am also running 21 lands but I have nine CMC3 cards and only two CMC4 cards because I often find it hard to get to four lands. Can you ever activate these Colonnades? I am sorry but I am really wondering...
I don't get why all the pro players decide to run the Jeskai Control lists even though our decks are so much better
Yesterday I watched several games live on Twitch and I seriously think that I would have done great against most of these guys. It was interesting to see how many mistakes these pro players make.
It was really impressive to see though how the Mardu Pyromancer deck can take over the game within 1 or 2 turns. I forgot the name of the guy who played it but he's very popular. It was also nice to see Entrancing Melody out of the Madcap Moon deck's SB. Thinking about it, this card is indeed great in the current meta. You can steal/kill a Shadow or steal a 5/5 Champion of the Parish for 3 mana for example.
*Edit: It was Gerry Thompson playing Mardu Pyromancer. Just watched him going 10-4 against 5C Humans. That was the best match I've seen in a long time! Awesome!
Hi guys, what's up? Has everyone gone into hibernation?
This morning I played a very interesting match against Affinity so I decided to share the third game here.
First game my opponent kept a bad hand and I won pretty easily. Second game he got me with a turn 2 Blood Moon -_-
(That's the reason why I fetch for a basic Island in case you're wondering...) You can click here to watch the third game.
This game was very close! Attacking with Delver on turn 7 might have been a mistake since it left me without board presence but I wanted him to loose a creature AND a land by blocking. Well, enough spoilers, just watch the video
(I didn't realize that sound is being recorded too, so I recommend muting the video if you don't want to hear me coughing)
I tested both online this week. Marauder was clunky so I took him out again. Daredevil as a 1-of mainboard has been fun so far.
Had two matches today against Esper Gifts Control and Infect and during the 4 games (won both matches 2-0) I was able to cast Daredevil two times.
Against Esper Gifts Control we both had 6 lands in play, I had a Geist and a Snappy and he had 2 spirit tokens and 4 mana left on my turn. I attacked with Geist & Snappy and he played Push on the angel token and snapped Push back on my Snappy, then he blocked my Geist with both spirits and his Snappy. I let it all happen just to do something funny with my six mana: second main I played my Daredevil and used him to cast Gifts Ungiven from my opponents graveyard (countered it before). I searched up Geist, Snapcaster, Azcanta and Elspeth and he gave me Geist and Snapcaster. Maybe this wasn't the best play but it was fun
Against Infect I was able to cast Might of Old Krosa on my Delver to make it 5/5. He had no creatures left at that point so I was able to fool around but it was fun as well.
Playing against life gain is always annoying. Thragtusk and Obstinate Baloth can make games against Tron and Valakut really hard to win. That's why I wanted to add Skullcrack to my SB but I never managed to make room for it.
My Ponza opponent also played a nasty life gain card! I killed his mana dude with a Bolt and he played Life Goes On... I was pretty shocked.
Had to deal 36 points of damage during our third game.
If you play against Emeria you need to board in all the graveyard hate you have. I was able to surgically extract his Lone Missionaries but that wasn't enough. He gained too much card advantage with Court Hussar (always goes back to the graveyard without W). That's how he found a Negate so that I couldn't Bolt him when he was at 1...
I wanted to add 1 Warkite Marauder main and 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil side but they weren't in my mail this morning.
Last week I used them on MTGO and they're quite fun.
Now I am back home and I have them on my desk but they'll have to wait a while until I can play them
Did someone notice the one card change in my deck?
I switched in a Mana Tithe for my Emerge Unscathed. I really like CMC1 counter spells in this deck but I don't want to play three copies of Spell Pierce so Mana Tithe got a new chance and it was great today!
So, here's how today's tournament went:
Round 1 vs Emeria
Game 1: I was able to deal 25 damage until turn 5 with Delver into Burn into Geist into Elspeth.
Game 2: Had to take a mulligan and then fix my mana with 2 SVs which slowed me down. Still managed to get him down to 1 but then I ran out of gas and at that point he had Flickerwisp + Sun Titan going and I died pretty quick.
Game 3: I drew only burn spells, 2 Bolts, 1 Helix and 1 Boros Charm I believe, but without creatures I couldn't do enough damage since he kept gaining life with Lone Missionary and Flickerwisp. When he had enough mana for his Titans and Emeria it was over. Unlucky start 0-1
Round 2 vs Affinity
Game 1: I had 2 Bolts in my starting hand which took care of a Signal Pest and a Ravager. When he had 3 Mana my opponent first played an Overseer and then a Vault Skirge which I was able to counter with Mana Tithe. On my turn I played Snap+Bolt on his Overseer. He ran out of gas and I started a Geist beatdown. He was able to deal 6 poison with Inkmoth Nexus & Plating. I had to survive his next turn to finish him with Geist and thanks to Azcanta I drew into an answer to his Nexus: my beloved Izzet Charm. Geist then finished him.
Game 2: Grim Lavamancer in my starting hand was great but he played Rest in Peace on turn 2. I drew a Wear//Tear at the right time and fused it to get rid of a Plating and the Rest in Peace (btw, in that case his cards are still exiled while Wear//Tear goes to your graveyard). That was the turning point. After that I flipped a Delver and my Search for Azcanta and overwhelmed him. 1-1
Round 3 vs Ponza
Game 1: Overran my opponent with Geist and Elspeth (she was so good today!) and Mana Tithe saved me because I was able to counter a turn 3 Blood Moon. I was lucky that I was on the play that game.
Game 2: He drew four land destruction spells and destroyed one of my lands for four turns, completely taking me off of blue mana. Inferno Titan came and I died with 6 blue spells in my hand. Not funny.
Game 3: On the play again, this game was awesome and interactive. He exiled my Geist with Anger, my Celestial Purge exiled his Huntmaster, Chandra killed my Delver, Deflecting Palm on his wolf token killed his Chandra, Path exiled his Panglacial Wurm (awesome card I had never seen before), Disdainful Stroke stopped his Inferno Titan and a second flipped Delver, a Snapcaster and two burn spells I found with Azcanta finally killed him. 2-1
Round 4 vs Blue Moon
Last opponent was the only player who stood 3-0 at that point.
(Modern tournament was pretty small. Most Magic players in the store played Rivals of Ixalan draft.)
He played a strange version. From what I saw he was running 3-4 Snapcaster Mages, 3-4 Cryptics, 3-4 Mana Leaks, 3-4 Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Ancestral Visions, Bolts and Electrolyze.
Game 1: We played a slow waiting game the first turns because he always left UU open. I think I got him to tap out with a Snappy EOT and could resolve a Geist on my next turn. It was a pretty long fight but I had Paths for his creatures and won the damage race eventually thanks to my Helixes.
Game 2: Elspeth took this game home. This one went pretty long but when he was at 7 lands he tapped 5 to cast Goblin Dark-Dwellers (getting Electrolyze for free). He held Mana Leak up but I also had a lot of lands in play at that point so I was able to resolve Elspeth by Spell Piercing his Mana Leak. She created a token and the flying token scored 8 points of damage before he bounced Elly with Cryptic. I played her again and he had to waste his resources on her while his life total got smaller and smaller. Boros Charm sealed the deal, dealing the last 4 points of damage. 3-1
All in all I was very happy with my deck. In fact, I have been very happy with it for months now. It was awesome in Hamburg, it works well online, it wins most games at FNMs and today too. If I get the chance to participate in GP Barcelona in June then I'll play this deck there for sure!
I haven't changed a lot during the last two weeks. Just a few cards:
-1 Path
+1 Izzet Charm
Reason: I wanted one more filter/loot card to prevent flooding.
So far it has been good every single game because it's so versatile. At yesterday's FNM I saw the card during three games and used all three modes, countering a Jace, killing a Vizier and ditching two lands
-1 Hazoret
+1 Clique
I wanted to go back up to 2 Cliques main because unfair strategies are popular again and I wanted to have one more way to interrupt them.
Btw, I had 2 Cliques and 2 Geists in my starting hand yesterday against UW Control and guess who won that game
-1 Geist
+1 Elspeth
This decision was really hard because I still think that 4 Geists main are good in my deck but didn't know what else to cut for Elspeth. She is my favorite walker of all times and almost unbeatable together with Geist. Attacking for 12 in the air with Elspeth, Geist and a flipped Delver won me a game against Humans yesterday at FNM.
SB Change
-1 Palm
-1 Verdict
+2 Anger of the Gods
I made this change for my local FNM because we have a BW Tokens player, Elves, Merfolk and now 2 guys playing Humans. Online I am still using my old sidboard.
So, during the last two weeks the deck has been doing quite well. Around 70% win rate on MTGO and 3-1 at yesterday's FNM.
At FNM I beat Creature Toolbox, UW Control and Mono White Humans but I lost against a sweet Mono Black Vampires tribal deck. The loss was kind of ridiculous though since I didn't see a single copy of Bolt or Path during both games (lost 0-2). I didn't drew a single Geist or Anger either. Sometimes that's just how Magic is...
Stronghold won me a game yesterday, Search for Azcanta was a house during two games, but my MVP yesterday was Snapcaster Mage (again).
Next week I might try the following:
-1 Elspeth
-1 Clique
-1 Shinka
-1 Jeskai Charm
+2 Warkite Marauder
+2 Electrolyze
And add 1 Daredevil to my sideboard.
Will tell you how that worked out...
I know, 23 enablers to flip Delver is far too low for many you but I think it's still okay with 4 SVs and Azcanta. Since the creatures have less impact than in a list with 4 copies of Geist I wouldn't want to go below 14. And since so many spells have CMC3+ (11) I don't think this deck would work well with less than 21 lands, so there isn't much to do about the Delver problem (aside from completely cutting him).
Elspeth can help late game by turning Snappys and Daredevils into evasive 5/4 attackers so she seems like a very good fit.
This has nothing to do with the new creatures but what do you guys think about Irrigated Farmland here as a 7th land that can be fetched? I'd fetch it EOT when I have the chance or cycle it late game when I already have enough lands in play. Could help prevent flooding too much...
"Dire Fleet Daredevil"
1R
Human - Pirate
First Strike
When Dire Fleet Daredevil enters the battlefield, exile target instant or sorcery from an opponenty's graveyard. You can cast that card this turn and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color. If that card would be put into a graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
This must be the best card in this whole set for our deck. This card complements our Snapcaster Mages perfectly. They cast burn spells or counters and the Daredevil casts Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Ancient Stirrings, Kolaghan's Command etc.
The problem is that the real casting cost is 3 just like for Snappy, so in my deck I might have to cut other CMC3/4 cards to make room. I want to play 4 Snappys and 2 Daredevils main for sure.
We got a potential sideboard card for fighting the big creatures in Tron etc.
3CMC "if Geist/Mantis Rider got through (what we want anyways)then we now have a copy of their best threat (or an additional copy of one of our own)seems good for those attrition based matchups.
I don't like this card. I'd rather put Sakashima the Impostor in my deck/sideboard if I am worried about Tron/Eldrazi. He costs one more but the upside of being able to copy Geist of Saint Traft is huge.
(Flying
Whenever Warsail Marauder attacks, target creature loses all abilities and has base power and toughness 0/1 until end of turn.)
This guy looks very good though. Not sure if it's fast enough to play creatures without haste/flash/enter-the-battlefield-effects in our deck but evasion is nice and the triggered effect is awesome: can "remove" a creature that could possibly block Geist or help you get rid of a TKS with a Bolt/Helix.
This guy will make the Humans deck really powerful. A shell with 4 Aether Vials is perfect for a creature like this.
Adding an Izzet Charm as card no. 61 is an idea. I will try that out.
Jeskai Ascendancy is an interesting suggestion. I don't think it fits that well in my deck but I'd definitely try it out in GofyTomcat1's deck with 4 Stormchasers. Attacking with them and also being able to use them as 3/5 blockers seems very strong.
Collective Defiance also looks interesting. I like cards that scale and become more powerful the longer the game goes. Unfortunately I couldn't find any good cards with Kicker or Entwine for our decks. Any other ideas for cards that become more useful with more lands in play?
Last question: Does anyone think Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is worth a try in a deck like mine?
Last week I played a few games online as usual and most of them went well.
Best match: A 2-1 against GB Tron. My opponent was at 4 with Karn and Wurmcoil Engine in play, I had a Geist in play, Izzet Charm in my graveyard and Snappy in hand. So, I attacked with Geist and after he declared the block with his Wurmcoil Engine I used Snappy+Charm to kill my Geist so that the angel token could deal lethal damage
Friday I went to FNM but it was terrible. I went home with a 0-3 record -_-
(lost against Amulet Bloom, Hollow One and 5C Shadow)
So, today I was tired of my Delvers and built the below in the picture. I always wanted to try Madcap Experiment in UWR and that's what I came up with.
- Delvers out, land count up to 22
- Izzet Charm, Lighthouse & 2x Clique to cycle Emperion stranded in hand
- 2x Emerge + 2x Boros Charm to protect Geist & Emperion
- 1x Sakashima to copy either Geist or Emperion
Played three games so far today and won all three, even against BBE Jund
Best moment today: In a game against Ponza my opponent tried to Molten Rain one of my lands but I had Swerve from SB (also good to protect Emperion) and changed the target to his own enchanted land. Felt so good!
@Mazereon: As you can see in my new build, I also love Spell Pierce, Geist and Lavamancer! These cards are awesome and I basically always use them. You are from Austria? Dann können wir ja auf Deutsch schreiben
Since it's not a UWR Tempo deck but rather a UW control list I've put it in a spoiler.
However, I can only recommend watching this video!
It's very well done, well played and the deck just looks awesome
I tested with a 1-of JTMS online and at last week's FNM with this:
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Pierce
1 Mana Leak
2 Remand
1 Izzet Charm
1 Spell Snare / 1 Mana Tithe / 1 Emerge Unscathed
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Search for Azcanta
Creatures (12)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalker (2)
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+my usual 21 lands
(In the flex slot I tried Spell Snare / Mana Tithe / Emerge Unscathed and they are somehow all awesome but I can only use one of them and still don't know which one is best)
It didn't go very well in the new meta. The deck doesn't have a good matchup either against UW Control with Jace or against Jund with BBE.
I was only able to win about 50% of my games which is way lower than before the B&R announcement.
A lot of Jace decks play Lingering Souls which are a nightmare for my deck so I put Staticaster back in my SB.
But the Jace decks aren't that bad, really tough are the BBE decks. BBE into Liliana, Tarmogoyf, K Command or Blightning is devastating. Hand disruption and 3-4 Fulminators in their board make things even worse. -_-
I think I'll go back to a more burn-heavy build, like the one I played at MKM Series in Hamburg, with 3 Boros Charms.
And after I found myself siding out Jace more often then leaving him in I decided to sell my copy for a good price. For me Hazoret for example works much better as my second CMC4 card.
I have played a few matches on MTGO since the announcement and I have encountered both BBE & JTMS, even together in Temur decks. Since both Jund and Temur decks are using Tarmogoyfs I think I've seen a lot more of them out there than before. I already adjusted my deck accordingly, taking out Emerge Unscathed & Vapor Snag for Spell Snare and the 4th Path to Exile.
Taking out Emerge really hurts because last week I had an awesome time with that card. I was playing against UG Merfolk and hat already fried a few of my opponent's creatures. I had Geist in play and he had one green Merfolk. I cast Emerge giving Geist protection from green and attack through his blocker. Next turn he casts another green Merfolk. Then, on my upkeep Emerge rebounds and I give Geist protection from red. My opponent asks "Red?" in the chat and when I put Anger of Gods on the stack he conceded.
Since I run Jace as a 1-of I haven't him very often yet. One time just casting him lead to my opponent conceding
@GofyTomcat1:
Your deck looks sweet on paper but I still can't believe that this can actually function with 21 lands. You're playing ten CMC3 cards (including Snappys) and six CMC4 cards. Such a high mana curve without mana dudes or other acceleration usually asks for 23 lands.
I am also running 21 lands but I have nine CMC3 cards and only two CMC4 cards because I often find it hard to get to four lands. Can you ever activate these Colonnades? I am sorry but I am really wondering...
Yesterday I watched several games live on Twitch and I seriously think that I would have done great against most of these guys. It was interesting to see how many mistakes these pro players make.
It was really impressive to see though how the Mardu Pyromancer deck can take over the game within 1 or 2 turns. I forgot the name of the guy who played it but he's very popular. It was also nice to see Entrancing Melody out of the Madcap Moon deck's SB. Thinking about it, this card is indeed great in the current meta. You can steal/kill a Shadow or steal a 5/5 Champion of the Parish for 3 mana for example.
*Edit: It was Gerry Thompson playing Mardu Pyromancer. Just watched him going 10-4 against 5C Humans. That was the best match I've seen in a long time! Awesome!
This morning I played a very interesting match against Affinity so I decided to share the third game here.
First game my opponent kept a bad hand and I won pretty easily. Second game he got me with a turn 2 Blood Moon -_-
(That's the reason why I fetch for a basic Island in case you're wondering...)
You can click here to watch the third game.
This game was very close! Attacking with Delver on turn 7 might have been a mistake since it left me without board presence but I wanted him to loose a creature AND a land by blocking. Well, enough spoilers, just watch the video
(I didn't realize that sound is being recorded too, so I recommend muting the video if you don't want to hear me coughing)
Did you like them?
I tested both online this week. Marauder was clunky so I took him out again. Daredevil as a 1-of mainboard has been fun so far.
Had two matches today against Esper Gifts Control and Infect and during the 4 games (won both matches 2-0) I was able to cast Daredevil two times.
Against Esper Gifts Control we both had 6 lands in play, I had a Geist and a Snappy and he had 2 spirit tokens and 4 mana left on my turn. I attacked with Geist & Snappy and he played Push on the angel token and snapped Push back on my Snappy, then he blocked my Geist with both spirits and his Snappy. I let it all happen just to do something funny with my six mana: second main I played my Daredevil and used him to cast Gifts Ungiven from my opponents graveyard (countered it before). I searched up Geist, Snapcaster, Azcanta and Elspeth and he gave me Geist and Snapcaster. Maybe this wasn't the best play but it was fun
Against Infect I was able to cast Might of Old Krosa on my Delver to make it 5/5. He had no creatures left at that point so I was able to fool around but it was fun as well.
My Ponza opponent also played a nasty life gain card! I killed his mana dude with a Bolt and he played Life Goes On... I was pretty shocked.
Had to deal 36 points of damage during our third game.
If you play against Emeria you need to board in all the graveyard hate you have. I was able to surgically extract his Lone Missionaries but that wasn't enough. He gained too much card advantage with Court Hussar (always goes back to the graveyard without W). That's how he found a Negate so that I couldn't Bolt him when he was at 1...
Today I went to a small Modern tournament with my deck:
2 Arid Mesa
3 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
Instants/Sorceries (24)
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Pierce
1 Mana Leak
2 Remand
1 Izzet Charm
1 Vapor Snag
1 Mana Tithe
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Search for Azcanta
Creatures (13)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalker (1)
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Dispel
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Celestial Purge
2 Stony Silence
1 Deflecting Palm
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Wear/Tear
1 Worship
I wanted to add 1 Warkite Marauder main and 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil side but they weren't in my mail this morning.
Last week I used them on MTGO and they're quite fun.
Now I am back home and I have them on my desk but they'll have to wait a while until I can play them
Did someone notice the one card change in my deck?
I switched in a Mana Tithe for my Emerge Unscathed. I really like CMC1 counter spells in this deck but I don't want to play three copies of Spell Pierce so Mana Tithe got a new chance and it was great today!
So, here's how today's tournament went:
Round 1 vs Emeria
Game 1: I was able to deal 25 damage until turn 5 with Delver into Burn into Geist into Elspeth.
Game 2: Had to take a mulligan and then fix my mana with 2 SVs which slowed me down. Still managed to get him down to 1 but then I ran out of gas and at that point he had Flickerwisp + Sun Titan going and I died pretty quick.
Game 3: I drew only burn spells, 2 Bolts, 1 Helix and 1 Boros Charm I believe, but without creatures I couldn't do enough damage since he kept gaining life with Lone Missionary and Flickerwisp. When he had enough mana for his Titans and Emeria it was over. Unlucky start 0-1
Round 2 vs Affinity
Game 1: I had 2 Bolts in my starting hand which took care of a Signal Pest and a Ravager. When he had 3 Mana my opponent first played an Overseer and then a Vault Skirge which I was able to counter with Mana Tithe.
Game 2: Grim Lavamancer in my starting hand was great but he played Rest in Peace on turn 2. I drew a Wear//Tear at the right time and fused it to get rid of a Plating and the Rest in Peace (btw, in that case his cards are still exiled while Wear//Tear goes to your graveyard). That was the turning point. After that I flipped a Delver and my Search for Azcanta and overwhelmed him. 1-1
Round 3 vs Ponza
Game 1: Overran my opponent with Geist and Elspeth (she was so good today!) and Mana Tithe saved me because I was able to counter a turn 3 Blood Moon. I was lucky that I was on the play that game.
Game 2: He drew four land destruction spells and destroyed one of my lands for four turns, completely taking me off of blue mana. Inferno Titan came and I died with 6 blue spells in my hand. Not funny.
Game 3: On the play again, this game was awesome and interactive. He exiled my Geist with Anger, my Celestial Purge exiled his Huntmaster, Chandra killed my Delver, Deflecting Palm on his wolf token killed his Chandra, Path exiled his Panglacial Wurm (awesome card I had never seen before), Disdainful Stroke stopped his Inferno Titan and a second flipped Delver, a Snapcaster and two burn spells I found with Azcanta finally killed him. 2-1
Round 4 vs Blue Moon
Last opponent was the only player who stood 3-0 at that point.
(Modern tournament was pretty small. Most Magic players in the store played Rivals of Ixalan draft.)
He played a strange version. From what I saw he was running 3-4 Snapcaster Mages, 3-4 Cryptics, 3-4 Mana Leaks, 3-4 Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Ancestral Visions, Bolts and Electrolyze.
Game 1: We played a slow waiting game the first turns because he always left UU open. I think I got him to tap out with a Snappy EOT and could resolve a Geist on my next turn. It was a pretty long fight but I had Paths for his creatures and won the damage race eventually thanks to my Helixes.
Game 2: Elspeth took this game home. This one went pretty long but when he was at 7 lands he tapped 5 to cast Goblin Dark-Dwellers (getting Electrolyze for free). He held Mana Leak up but I also had a lot of lands in play at that point so I was able to resolve Elspeth by Spell Piercing his Mana Leak. She created a token and the flying token scored 8 points of damage before he bounced Elly with Cryptic. I played her again and he had to waste his resources on her while his life total got smaller and smaller. Boros Charm sealed the deal, dealing the last 4 points of damage. 3-1
All in all I was very happy with my deck. In fact, I have been very happy with it for months now. It was awesome in Hamburg, it works well online, it wins most games at FNMs and today too. If I get the chance to participate in GP Barcelona in June then I'll play this deck there for sure!
Since everyone is sharing there updated lists, let me do that too:
2 Arid Mesa
3 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
Instants/Sorceries (24)
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Pierce
1 Mana Leak
2 Remand
1 Izzet Charm
1 Vapor Snag
1 Emerge Unscathed
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
1 Boros Charm
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Search for Azcanta
Creatures (13)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalker (1)
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Dispel
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Celestial Purge
2 Stony Silence
1 Deflecting Palm
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Wear/Tear
1 Worship
I haven't changed a lot during the last two weeks. Just a few cards:
-1 Path
+1 Izzet Charm
Reason: I wanted one more filter/loot card to prevent flooding.
So far it has been good every single game because it's so versatile. At yesterday's FNM I saw the card during three games and used all three modes, countering a Jace, killing a Vizier and ditching two lands
-1 Hazoret
+1 Clique
I wanted to go back up to 2 Cliques main because unfair strategies are popular again and I wanted to have one more way to interrupt them.
Btw, I had 2 Cliques and 2 Geists in my starting hand yesterday against UW Control and guess who won that game
-1 Geist
+1 Elspeth
This decision was really hard because I still think that 4 Geists main are good in my deck but didn't know what else to cut for Elspeth. She is my favorite walker of all times and almost unbeatable together with Geist. Attacking for 12 in the air with Elspeth, Geist and a flipped Delver won me a game against Humans yesterday at FNM.
SB Change
-1 Palm
-1 Verdict
+2 Anger of the Gods
I made this change for my local FNM because we have a BW Tokens player, Elves, Merfolk and now 2 guys playing Humans. Online I am still using my old sidboard.
So, during the last two weeks the deck has been doing quite well. Around 70% win rate on MTGO and 3-1 at yesterday's FNM.
At FNM I beat Creature Toolbox, UW Control and Mono White Humans but I lost against a sweet Mono Black Vampires tribal deck. The loss was kind of ridiculous though since I didn't see a single copy of Bolt or Path during both games (lost 0-2). I didn't drew a single Geist or Anger either. Sometimes that's just how Magic is...
Stronghold won me a game yesterday, Search for Azcanta was a house during two games, but my MVP yesterday was Snapcaster Mage (again).
Next week I might try the following:
-1 Elspeth
-1 Clique
-1 Shinka
-1 Jeskai Charm
+2 Warkite Marauder
+2 Electrolyze
And add 1 Daredevil to my sideboard.
Will tell you how that worked out...
2 Arid Mesa
3 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Inspiring Vantage
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Path to Exile
1 Vapor Snag
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Pierce
1 Mana Leak
2 Remand
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
1 Izzet Charm
1 Boros Charm
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Search for Azcanta
Creatures (14)
4 Delver of Secrets
1 Warsail Marauder
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Dire Fleet Daredevil
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalker (1)
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
I know, 23 enablers to flip Delver is far too low for many you but I think it's still okay with 4 SVs and Azcanta. Since the creatures have less impact than in a list with 4 copies of Geist I wouldn't want to go below 14. And since so many spells have CMC3+ (11) I don't think this deck would work well with less than 21 lands, so there isn't much to do about the Delver problem (aside from completely cutting him).
Elspeth can help late game by turning Snappys and Daredevils into evasive 5/4 attackers so she seems like a very good fit.
This has nothing to do with the new creatures but what do you guys think about Irrigated Farmland here as a 7th land that can be fetched? I'd fetch it EOT when I have the chance or cycle it late game when I already have enough lands in play. Could help prevent flooding too much...
"Dire Fleet Daredevil"
1R
Human - Pirate
First Strike
When Dire Fleet Daredevil enters the battlefield, exile target instant or sorcery from an opponenty's graveyard. You can cast that card this turn and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color. If that card would be put into a graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
This must be the best card in this whole set for our deck. This card complements our Snapcaster Mages perfectly. They cast burn spells or counters and the Daredevil casts Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, Ancient Stirrings, Kolaghan's Command etc.
The problem is that the real casting cost is 3 just like for Snappy, so in my deck I might have to cut other CMC3/4 cards to make room. I want to play 4 Snappys and 2 Daredevils main for sure.
I don't like this card. I'd rather put Sakashima the Impostor in my deck/sideboard if I am worried about Tron/Eldrazi. He costs one more but the upside of being able to copy Geist of Saint Traft is huge.
(Flying
Whenever Warsail Marauder attacks, target creature loses all abilities and has base power and toughness 0/1 until end of turn.)
This guy looks very good though. Not sure if it's fast enough to play creatures without haste/flash/enter-the-battlefield-effects in our deck but evasion is nice and the triggered effect is awesome: can "remove" a creature that could possibly block Geist or help you get rid of a TKS with a Bolt/Helix.
This guy will make the Humans deck really powerful. A shell with 4 Aether Vials is perfect for a creature like this.
4 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Mountain
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
4 Crack the Earth
4 Perilous Research
4 Induced Amnesia
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Bedlam Reveler
Looks like it's a lot of fun to play.
I'd maybe add 2-3 Remands/Spell Pierces and maybe 1-2 more creatures but it's hard to say without testing first.
Jeskai Ascendancy is an interesting suggestion. I don't think it fits that well in my deck but I'd definitely try it out in GofyTomcat1's deck with 4 Stormchasers. Attacking with them and also being able to use them as 3/5 blockers seems very strong.
Collective Defiance also looks interesting. I like cards that scale and become more powerful the longer the game goes. Unfortunately I couldn't find any good cards with Kicker or Entwine for our decks. Any other ideas for cards that become more useful with more lands in play?
Last question: Does anyone think Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is worth a try in a deck like mine?