I played 8 matches with the version above on MTGO since the new cards became legal and I actually went 1-7! Worst results since I started working on this deck. Very often I got mana scr*wed with my 21 lands so I decided to add two of the new double-faced land cards. With them my spell count is still 39 but I am running 23 lands. I had to choose between Kabira Takedown and Sejiri Shelter. I thought that Shelter might fit the deck better because it's important to protect SFM and the deck already got new removal with Apparition.
Besides the double-faced cards I added SFM no.4 and a third equipment: Maul of the Skyclaves, which has been amazing so far.
I tried a lot of stuff to make my army fly, like Elspeth and Angelic Destiny, but this card does it for two mana at instant speed.
I'll happily continue testing now...
The Jund and DS heavy meta in my LGS made me add 2 Mirran Crusaders main and so far I am happy with them in paper and online.
They carry Swords very well (or the Mask like in the above video). As you can see in the second video the Apparitions are very powerful, just as expected. Especially when they're combined with Broodmoth Didn't even need a Path that game.
At yesterday's FNM I ran the same list without Apparitions. I won 2-1 against Mono G Tron, was grinded out badly 0-2 against Yorion Flicker and then won 2-1 against UR Delver with Titi. MVP against Delver in game 3 was Grand Abolisher! It's awesome to be able to equip Sword of Fire and Ice without having the creature eat a Bolt in response...
This new Skyclave Apparition could be an auto-include in my deck even though it's not a Human.
It catches almost everything in Modern:
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Liliana of the Veil, Klothys, God of Destiny, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Karn, the Great Creator & Ensnaring Bridge, Hardened Scales, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Phyrexian Unlife etc.
FNM didn't go too well.
(But it was fun nonetheless to play again with real cards!)
I played three rounds. Lost round one 0-2 against Grixis Shadow. Mana screwed in the first game, very unlucky in the next, when I drew three of my vials and played Nevermore on DS but my opponent had two Anglers to play. On top of that my opponent's deck was super removal heavy with playsets of Push AND Terminate...
I won 2-0 against UG Uro Field but then I lost again 2-1 against Combo Goblins. One game Thalia, Heretic Cathar bought me enough time to win but one game I got mana screwed again and one game my opponent assembled his combo T3.
Was it different compared to MTGO?
I think the variance is different. In almost 200 matches on MTGO I think I never drew three of my four Vials in a single game.
I often complain about the shuffle algorithm on MTGO and I am sure that you can statistically prove that you are more likely to draw another land card if you keep a starting hand with four or more lands than if you keep a starting hand with 1 or 2 lands. But after FNM I have to say that the algorithm is actually working pretty well.
On August 8th I posted my win rate of 65% in 150 matches. I just checked on MTGO and since then I went 28-15-2 including the FNM, which is still pretty much exactly 65% if you ignore the two draws. So the win rate with this deck stays at 65% in over 190 matches.
The last ten matches I played with the newest version with 22 lands and two Angelic Overseers and I won 8 of these, so this version feels very good so far.
What is ruined Halo used against? Anything in particular or just a loose catch-all?
I think it's a good SB card against Infect, Bogles, Death's Shadow, Grapeshot, and Skelemental.
It's okay against Tarmogoyf, prowess deck threats like Sprite Dragon, Swiftspear, and even Griselbrand.
Unfortunately it's not useful against Titan/Valakut because it's too late when they get to cast Titan or get Valakut triggers. By then they'll usually kill you with Field of the Dead. (Even though I managed to beat Uro Field 2-0 at FNM, fighting my way through 10 zombies in game 2.)
Thank you for your kind words, megatog201, and also for taking a very close look at these replays!
Last couple of days I continued with the same build, ending up 7-3 in the last ten matches with some sweet victories over Sultai Control, Esper Shadow, and Skred Red.
And tomorrow I'm finally gonna play my deck in paper at FNM!
After selling my Jeskai collection last December this will be my first event in my LGS this year.
Over the course of the last ten days I ordered my deck and now I have all the cards, well, almost all of them because the Batterskull got lost in the mail. I hope that I can buy one at my LGS before the FNM starts.
Lands
Main
(Batterskull is going to replace the Mask of Memory)
Side
As always suggestions are welcome
Last week one of my opponents was using Angelic Overseer and that card seems amazing for my deck... if I only could cast it. CMC5 unfortunately is not feasible in a deck that only runs 21 lands
@megatog201: What you said was right. I had changed to much of the core of the deck. Since I went back to 4 Vials and 3 Givers like in the original version everything's running very smooth again
However, of course I am still trying out new things and I found another real sweet card for the deck:
Who spotted it?
Right! Repel the Abominable!
In this version I am running 21 Humans so this card is made for absolute blowouts.
Just won a sweet match on MTGO against the deck Meryn was playing today.
My opponent managed to go up to 30+ life and made a few Angels. With my Sword and protection from Giver I was able to slowly beat him back down to 20. Two attacks with Hero gave me a nice board and he had one turn left to finish me in the air, but I repelled the abominable Angels and won the next turn
Hi all,
last 15 matches went better again with a score of 9-4-2.
I updated the total win percentage in the primer since I finally got to 150 test matches. It's actually at about 65%. Not stellar, but not bad either.
Since I haven't uploaded any games in a while her are two: This is game 1 of a match against the hot new mono white tokens deck. The token deck has no chance against this draw and game 2 is similarly one-sided. Easy 2-0.
This is game 3 of a recent match against Gruul Utopia. After winning game 1 I lost game 2 due a pretty stupid mistake and as you can see in game 3 I could have won but I threw the match away because I wasn't playing concentrated and I didn't really think about how I could actually win the game. Had I searched up the Sword instead of Batterskull I could have dealt 13 damage and won. The summer heat is really getting to me.
I still need to figure out the right mix of CMC2 creatures. There are just too many good one to pick from.
On another note, I found this wonderful card as a third equipment for my SFMs:
It could be really good in the deck since it can be cast without SFM, it can generate real card advantage early, and it helps getting rid of superfluous Vials.
All this combined I'd be most happy with 2 Broodmoth, 1 Resto, 1 Angelic Destiny.
That's exactly what I started testing with yesterday before I read your reply
W&6 and KCommand can really do a number on my deck and 4x Fact or Fiction in Temur Reclamation were generating too much value for me to beat that deck during testing, but most of the time I am loosing because I either get mana flooded or mana screwed. For a few days now MTGO hasn't been kind to me: if I keep a hand with 3-4 lands I always draw 3 more lands until T4 and if I keep a hand with 1 land then I don't see a second until T4 (in both cases the game is lost at that point)... This makes me miss the 2 Charming Princes and their Scry effect.
Since I posted the 9-1 streak last time the deck continued to perform well and I went 6-2 in the following eight matches but then I went on a four day vacation and since I came back I keep loosing: 4-8-1 during the last six days
Only thing I changed since last time is 1 card in my SB: Containment Priest OUT - Immortal Servitude IN
@megatog201: Thanks for posting again. I have to admit that I didn't try Resto but I'll try her now.
The problem is that the CMC4 slot offers the strongest cards for the deck: Broodmoth, Basri's Lieutenant, Hero of Bladehold, Resto, Angelic Destiny or even PWs... but I don't want to use more than four CMC4 cards in the deck. Which combination of cards would you suggest for that slot?
Right after my last post I tweaked the deck again because of the resurgence of URx control decks with Blood Moon.
1 Paladin, 1 Vial and 2 Charming Princes had to go, 2 True Believers came back and 2x Grand Abolisher became the newest addition.
So far I've played ten matches with the new version and I am 9-1 now. It works very well
During future matches I'll check if I wish that I would have drawn a True Believer or Knight of the Holy Nimbus every time I draw a Charming Prince or a Knight of the White Orchid. I like all these cards but I can only play two pairs.
Regarding the mana base:
I think a second Cavern of Souls could definitely replace 1 Plains.
How about going down to 3 Vials and instead add 1 more Sunbaked Canyon as land no. 22... does that make sense? Drawing multiple Vials is always bad and the Canyon is a redraw when I already have enough lands.
Hi Sliv3r, thanks a lot for your feedback
I am running 1x Kytheon in my most recent version and he's REALLY good. Dauntless Bodyguard however was in the original version and always felt lackluster.
Brave the Elements wasn't bad but I cut it again.
My newest addition is 1x Silverblade Paladin. He's so good with a big Champion of the Parish or combined with the Sword of Fire & Ice. I still have to test of two Paladins are too much but one is definitely good.
True Believer is my protection against hand disruption and edicts. It's pretty good but not stellar.
I was testing Mangara (now Silverblade Paladin) to have at least one answer against Bridge or similar hoser cards. In a deck with Vials and Thalias he's better than Oblivion Ring I think. What would you suggest instead?
As finishers/top end I am running 1x Broodmoth and 1x Basri's Lieutenant atm. They are equally good and I think it doesn't matter if you run one of them twice or mix them up. My third CMC4 card atm is Angelic Destiny and this card wins games! Flying can be really important late game and there are several deadly combinations possible with this card.
Please let me know how your FNM went. Good luck!
I am REALLY happy with the changes!
Card draw in mono white? CHECK
Ramp in mono white? CHECK
Played five matches since I made the changes yesterday night and I won all five.
2-0 vs UW Stoneblade
1-0 vs UR Electrobalance (opponent quit the match after game 1)
2-0 vs Mono G Tron
2-0 vs Eldrazi Tron
2-0 vs Bant Yorion Control (Sword of Fire & Ice won both games)
So, once again, thanks Jon!
Besides the double-faced cards I added SFM no.4 and a third equipment: Maul of the Skyclaves, which has been amazing so far.
I tried a lot of stuff to make my army fly, like Elspeth and Angelic Destiny, but this card does it for two mana at instant speed.
I'll happily continue testing now...
I bought 2x Skyclave Apparition this morning and played a match with this version:
You can watch game 1 here
and game 2 here.
The Jund and DS heavy meta in my LGS made me add 2 Mirran Crusaders main and so far I am happy with them in paper and online.
They carry Swords very well (or the Mask like in the above video). As you can see in the second video the Apparitions are very powerful, just as expected. Especially when they're combined with Broodmoth Didn't even need a Path that game.
At yesterday's FNM I ran the same list without Apparitions. I won 2-1 against Mono G Tron, was grinded out badly 0-2 against Yorion Flicker and then won 2-1 against UR Delver with Titi. MVP against Delver in game 3 was Grand Abolisher! It's awesome to be able to equip Sword of Fire and Ice without having the creature eat a Bolt in response...
It catches almost everything in Modern:
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Liliana of the Veil, Klothys, God of Destiny, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Karn, the Great Creator & Ensnaring Bridge, Hardened Scales, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Phyrexian Unlife etc.
(But it was fun nonetheless to play again with real cards!)
I played three rounds. Lost round one 0-2 against Grixis Shadow. Mana screwed in the first game, very unlucky in the next, when I drew three of my vials and played Nevermore on DS but my opponent had two Anglers to play. On top of that my opponent's deck was super removal heavy with playsets of Push AND Terminate...
I won 2-0 against UG Uro Field but then I lost again 2-1 against Combo Goblins. One game Thalia, Heretic Cathar bought me enough time to win but one game I got mana screwed again and one game my opponent assembled his combo T3.
Was it different compared to MTGO?
I think the variance is different. In almost 200 matches on MTGO I think I never drew three of my four Vials in a single game.
I often complain about the shuffle algorithm on MTGO and I am sure that you can statistically prove that you are more likely to draw another land card if you keep a starting hand with four or more lands than if you keep a starting hand with 1 or 2 lands. But after FNM I have to say that the algorithm is actually working pretty well.
On August 8th I posted my win rate of 65% in 150 matches. I just checked on MTGO and since then I went 28-15-2 including the FNM, which is still pretty much exactly 65% if you ignore the two draws. So the win rate with this deck stays at 65% in over 190 matches.
The last ten matches I played with the newest version with 22 lands and two Angelic Overseers and I won 8 of these, so this version feels very good so far.
I think it's a good SB card against Infect, Bogles, Death's Shadow, Grapeshot, and Skelemental.
It's okay against Tarmogoyf, prowess deck threats like Sprite Dragon, Swiftspear, and even Griselbrand.
Unfortunately it's not useful against Titan/Valakut because it's too late when they get to cast Titan or get Valakut triggers. By then they'll usually kill you with Field of the Dead. (Even though I managed to beat Uro Field 2-0 at FNM, fighting my way through 10 zombies in game 2.)
Last couple of days I continued with the same build, ending up 7-3 in the last ten matches with some sweet victories over Sultai Control, Esper Shadow, and Skred Red.
And tomorrow I'm finally gonna play my deck in paper at FNM!
After selling my Jeskai collection last December this will be my first event in my LGS this year.
Over the course of the last ten days I ordered my deck and now I have all the cards, well, almost all of them because the Batterskull got lost in the mail. I hope that I can buy one at my LGS before the FNM starts.
Lands
Main
(Batterskull is going to replace the Mask of Memory)
Side
As always suggestions are welcome
Last week one of my opponents was using Angelic Overseer and that card seems amazing for my deck... if I only could cast it. CMC5 unfortunately is not feasible in a deck that only runs 21 lands
However, of course I am still trying out new things and I found another real sweet card for the deck:
Who spotted it?
Right! Repel the Abominable!
In this version I am running 21 Humans so this card is made for absolute blowouts.
Just won a sweet match on MTGO against the deck Meryn was playing today.
My opponent managed to go up to 30+ life and made a few Angels. With my Sword and protection from Giver I was able to slowly beat him back down to 20. Two attacks with Hero gave me a nice board and he had one turn left to finish me in the air, but I repelled the abominable Angels and won the next turn
last 15 matches went better again with a score of 9-4-2.
I updated the total win percentage in the primer since I finally got to 150 test matches. It's actually at about 65%. Not stellar, but not bad either.
Since I haven't uploaded any games in a while her are two:
This is game 1 of a match against the hot new mono white tokens deck. The token deck has no chance against this draw and game 2 is similarly one-sided. Easy 2-0.
This is game 3 of a recent match against Gruul Utopia. After winning game 1 I lost game 2 due a pretty stupid mistake and as you can see in game 3 I could have won but I threw the match away because I wasn't playing concentrated and I didn't really think about how I could actually win the game. Had I searched up the Sword instead of Batterskull I could have dealt 13 damage and won. The summer heat is really getting to me.
On another note, I found this wonderful card as a third equipment for my SFMs:
It could be really good in the deck since it can be cast without SFM, it can generate real card advantage early, and it helps getting rid of superfluous Vials.
That's exactly what I started testing with yesterday before I read your reply
W&6 and KCommand can really do a number on my deck and 4x Fact or Fiction in Temur Reclamation were generating too much value for me to beat that deck during testing, but most of the time I am loosing because I either get mana flooded or mana screwed. For a few days now MTGO hasn't been kind to me: if I keep a hand with 3-4 lands I always draw 3 more lands until T4 and if I keep a hand with 1 land then I don't see a second until T4 (in both cases the game is lost at that point)... This makes me miss the 2 Charming Princes and their Scry effect.
Only thing I changed since last time is 1 card in my SB: Containment Priest OUT - Immortal Servitude IN
@megatog201: Thanks for posting again. I have to admit that I didn't try Resto but I'll try her now.
The problem is that the CMC4 slot offers the strongest cards for the deck: Broodmoth, Basri's Lieutenant, Hero of Bladehold, Resto, Angelic Destiny or even PWs... but I don't want to use more than four CMC4 cards in the deck. Which combination of cards would you suggest for that slot?
Right after my last post I tweaked the deck again because of the resurgence of URx control decks with Blood Moon.
1 Paladin, 1 Vial and 2 Charming Princes had to go, 2 True Believers came back and 2x Grand Abolisher became the newest addition.
So far I've played ten matches with the new version and I am 9-1 now. It works very well
I think it looks more streamlined now.
During future matches I'll check if I wish that I would have drawn a True Believer or Knight of the Holy Nimbus every time I draw a Charming Prince or a Knight of the White Orchid. I like all these cards but I can only play two pairs.
Regarding the mana base:
I think a second Cavern of Souls could definitely replace 1 Plains.
How about going down to 3 Vials and instead add 1 more Sunbaked Canyon as land no. 22... does that make sense? Drawing multiple Vials is always bad and the Canyon is a redraw when I already have enough lands.
I am running 1x Kytheon in my most recent version and he's REALLY good. Dauntless Bodyguard however was in the original version and always felt lackluster.
Brave the Elements wasn't bad but I cut it again.
My newest addition is 1x Silverblade Paladin. He's so good with a big Champion of the Parish or combined with the Sword of Fire & Ice. I still have to test of two Paladins are too much but one is definitely good.
True Believer is my protection against hand disruption and edicts. It's pretty good but not stellar.
I was testing Mangara (now Silverblade Paladin) to have at least one answer against Bridge or similar hoser cards. In a deck with Vials and Thalias he's better than Oblivion Ring I think. What would you suggest instead?
As finishers/top end I am running 1x Broodmoth and 1x Basri's Lieutenant atm. They are equally good and I think it doesn't matter if you run one of them twice or mix them up. My third CMC4 card atm is Angelic Destiny and this card wins games! Flying can be really important late game and there are several deadly combinations possible with this card.
Please let me know how your FNM went. Good luck!
Card draw in mono white? CHECK
Ramp in mono white? CHECK
Played five matches since I made the changes yesterday night and I won all five.
2-0 vs UW Stoneblade
1-0 vs UR Electrobalance (opponent quit the match after game 1)
2-0 vs Mono G Tron
2-0 vs Eldrazi Tron
2-0 vs Bant Yorion Control (Sword of Fire & Ice won both games)
So, once again, thanks Jon!