I love my Lilis. Like others are considering, I have my Fatal Pushes in the side right now. This is so I can play slightly more generalized answers game 1, including 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Collective Brutality, 2 Damnations, and 3 Lilis. When I don't have an early combo, she sometimes just wins the game in the meantime.
Could you link to your deck list? It sounds interesting.
Changes to my deck -1 Fatal Push +1 Inquisition of Kozilek -1 Trading Post +1 Damnation
Reasoning behind my swaps:
Fatal push doesn’t help against combo, but inquisition will often slow down aggressive decks, additionally postboard it can snipe hate pieces directed at us. (Information is very valuable, seeing their hand adds to the value of the card.)
Trading post was a card that I desperately wanted to be good, however after some play testing I found it to be too slow for a maindeck slot. Damnation on the other hand is something that is rarely a dead card and is incredibly good in topdeck wars.
Cards that I want to test: Mishra’s Bauble, Serum Visions
After playtesting the deck, I feel that more cantrips and draw fixing allows us to quickly find our answers. In the future I would like to test swapping the fatal pushes for serum visions.
More on the topic of fatal push, does anyone else feel a bit disappointed when they top deck this card? In 80% of situations the ensnaring bridge sort of renders the fatal push useless and even in situations where we might like to remove it(i.e.: Dark confidant) I feel that more velocity for our win conditions helps us transition from a deck playing NOT TO LOSE vs a deck that plays to win.
Losing a game here was entirely my fault, I could have made thopters on my turn but I'm in the habit of using my combo at instant speed. Letting him untap was a mistake. He responded to my thopter triggers on the stack and burned me out. I won games 2 and 3 fairly easily with Padeem and Witchbane orb.
2-0 vs UW Prison
-1 Mox opal -2 Relic of Progenitus -2 Pentad Prism -1 Ratchet Bomb -1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas -1 Thopter Foundry | +1 Padeem +1 Pithing Needle +2 Ashiok +2 Herald of Anguish +1 Countersquall +1 Damnation
Game one I was able to establish a bridge lock and drained the opponent for 24 with a Tezz Ult, seems good.
Game two (Ashiok was the real MVP), my opponent came out swinging with a T1 Pithing Needle on Tezzeret, T2 stony silence. Without the alternate wincons in my sideboard I would have been completely dead in the water. Luckily Ashiok out of the sideboard was not something he was expecting and I was able to mill 2/3 of his deck before he landed a Leyline of Sanctity. I ended up beating him to death with a herald of anguish, holding 5 cards in hand to disable my own bridge.
2-0 vs Little Kid Abzan
Fairly easy games, stacking welding jars was enough to keep my bridge lock safe.
0-2 vs Elves
I drew absolute garbage hands both games, but I feel that this match up could be tricky regardless given how explosive their roll outs can be.
@Troy, In the version of the deck you posted, I might argue that you are giving up the best parts of Tezzerator in exchange for the lesser parts of grixis control.
If you have your heart set on playing control in the UB(R) colors I would have to recommend building grixis control instead.
They have much better access to control tools and gas than your current half artifact half counterspells deck you are building.
I think that the main issue that you'll encounter trying to play the version of the deck you posted is that you have no engines to generate the serious card advantage that control decks need to survive the current modern meta.
(In regards to building a control shell with a low artifact count and less artifact synergy.. I'm not so much questioning if it COULD be done, but I would wonder if given the strengths of the respective decks if it SHOULD be done.)
The decks I faced were 4 color rally humans, Eldrazi Tron, Death's Shadow aggro, and UB zombies.
4 Color Rally Humans (1-2)
Game one vs 4 color rally humans was an easy win(set up the bridge lock, tutor combo.)
I knew that I was in for trouble when he sideboarded 10+ cards.
Games 2 & 3 were him dropping a T2 stony silence followed up by engineered explosives, abrupt decays, pithing needles on Tezzeret, and disenchants.
Oh well, we can't win everything.
UB Zombies (2-0)
Round Two I played against UB zombies using relentless dead and prized amalgam to try and value for the win, however the amount of mainboard grave hate and ensnaring bridge was too much for him to handle.
Game two was a simple combo in hand.. quick and brutal win.
Eldrazi Tron (2-0)
Eldrazi Tron was certainly the most difficult deck to beat, if I had drawn poorly I would have absolutely crumpled under the weight of the reality smashers and though-knot seers.
Game one I ended up locking out his early plays with a T3 bridge and turtled to a Tezz ult finish.
Game two I sided in all my grind pieces, pulled all my grave hate and fatal pushes/collective brutality/inquisitions/. I ended up with a speedy tezzeret using mox opal and pentad with a darksteel citadel.
Darksteel was the real MVP of this game as a 5/5 beater that kept his reality smashers and thought-knot seers on the defensive. I eventually drew into a herald of anguish which put him on a four turn clock. He resolved an Ugin but lost to my man-land beater the next turn.
Death's Shadow Aggro
I really wasn't sure how this matchup would go, but I managed to land a bridge on T3 in game one(top decked 2x jar)and he failed to find answers before the Tezz ult wiped him(he wasted some of his Kolaghan's Commands trying to thin my jar count)
Game 2 was more sketchy because of the surgical extractions that he sided in, but bringing my Heralds,ashioks, damnations + padeem I was able to out value him with well timed removal and card draw.
(I wanted to whir a jester's cap here, but there wasn't a good line.)
All in all, Tezzerator seems good, Eldrazi Tron seems scary, and Death's shadow needs answers to damnation.
If anyone has any thoughts on my deck list please share them, I've currently tuned this deck to dumpster aggro decks such as death's shadow and burn very hard but I feel that the Tron matchup could use some help.
I'm hoping that faithless looting will create enough targets for lavamancer to justify his slots in the deck.
I'll update once I've done some more testing!
Any feedback is appreciated!
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/19-06-18-jDg-br-sligh/?cb=1529383298
Could you link to your deck list? It sounds interesting.
It seems to synergize quite well with ensnaring bridge, and seeing as we are almost always hellbent the +1 doesn't affect us.
I'm still on a pure U/B build and I was curious what the general opinion of this card is.
If I were to play it, I think I would play 3 Tezzeret 2 Lili in the mainboard.
What are your thoughts?
2x Collective Brutality
1x Damnation
4x Darkslick Shores
2x Darksteel Citadel
2x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Fatal Push
2x Flooded Strand
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Inventors' Fair
3x Island
4x Mox Opal
4x Pentad Prism
1x Pithing Needle
4x Polluted Delta
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x River of Tears
1x Swamp
2x Sword of the Meek
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3x Thopter Foundry
2x Watery Grave
2x Welding Jar
4x Whir of Invention
2x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1x Collective Brutality
2x Countersquall
1x Damnation
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Herald of Anguish
1x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1x Pithing Needle
1x Trading Post
1x Trinisphere
1x Witchbane Orb
Reasoning behind my swaps:
Fatal push doesn’t help against combo, but inquisition will often slow down aggressive decks, additionally postboard it can snipe hate pieces directed at us. (Information is very valuable, seeing their hand adds to the value of the card.)
Trading post was a card that I desperately wanted to be good, however after some play testing I found it to be too slow for a maindeck slot. Damnation on the other hand is something that is rarely a dead card and is incredibly good in topdeck wars.
Cards that I want to test: Mishra’s Bauble, Serum Visions
After playtesting the deck, I feel that more cantrips and draw fixing allows us to quickly find our answers. In the future I would like to test swapping the fatal pushes for serum visions.
More on the topic of fatal push, does anyone else feel a bit disappointed when they top deck this card? In 80% of situations the ensnaring bridge sort of renders the fatal push useless and even in situations where we might like to remove it(i.e.: Dark confidant) I feel that more velocity for our win conditions helps us transition from a deck playing NOT TO LOSE vs a deck that plays to win.
Anyways, matchup report from Friday(3-1).
2-1 vs Burn
Losing a game here was entirely my fault, I could have made thopters on my turn but I'm in the habit of using my combo at instant speed. Letting him untap was a mistake. He responded to my thopter triggers on the stack and burned me out. I won games 2 and 3 fairly easily with Padeem and Witchbane orb.
2-0 vs UW Prison
Game one I was able to establish a bridge lock and drained the opponent for 24 with a Tezz Ult, seems good.
Game two (Ashiok was the real MVP), my opponent came out swinging with a T1 Pithing Needle on Tezzeret, T2 stony silence. Without the alternate wincons in my sideboard I would have been completely dead in the water. Luckily Ashiok out of the sideboard was not something he was expecting and I was able to mill 2/3 of his deck before he landed a Leyline of Sanctity. I ended up beating him to death with a herald of anguish, holding 5 cards in hand to disable my own bridge.
2-0 vs Little Kid Abzan
Fairly easy games, stacking welding jars was enough to keep my bridge lock safe.
0-2 vs Elves
I drew absolute garbage hands both games, but I feel that this match up could be tricky regardless given how explosive their roll outs can be.
All in all not a bad night, lots learned.
If you have your heart set on playing control in the UB(R) colors I would have to recommend building grixis control instead.
They have much better access to control tools and gas than your current half artifact half counterspells deck you are building.
Going down the Grixis control route gives you access to ancestral vision, snapcaster mage, Tasigur, the Golden Fang ,Cryptic Command, gurmag angler and many other very dirty control pieces.
I think that the main issue that you'll encounter trying to play the version of the deck you posted is that you have no engines to generate the serious card advantage that control decks need to survive the current modern meta.
(In regards to building a control shell with a low artifact count and less artifact synergy.. I'm not so much questioning if it COULD be done, but I would wonder if given the strengths of the respective decks if it SHOULD be done.)
Just my two cents.
Keep testing and let us know how it goes!
First off, this is the list that I piloted to a 3-1 finish tonight at Monday Night Magic.
2 Collective Brutality
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Darksteel Citadel
2 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Fatal Push
2 Flooded Strand
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Inventors' Fair
3 Island
4 Mox Opal
4 Pentad Prism
1 Pithing Needle
4 Polluted Delta
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 River of Tears
1 Swamp
2 Sword of the Meek
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
3 Thopter Foundry
1 Trading Post
2 Watery Grave
2 Welding Jar
4 Whir of Invention
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Collective Brutality
2 Countersquall
2 Damnation
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Herald of Anguish
1 Jester's Cap
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Pithing Needle
1 Witchbane Orb
The decks I faced were 4 color rally humans, Eldrazi Tron, Death's Shadow aggro, and UB zombies.
4 Color Rally Humans (1-2)
Game one vs 4 color rally humans was an easy win(set up the bridge lock, tutor combo.)
I knew that I was in for trouble when he sideboarded 10+ cards.
Games 2 & 3 were him dropping a T2 stony silence followed up by engineered explosives, abrupt decays, pithing needles on Tezzeret, and disenchants.
Oh well, we can't win everything.
UB Zombies (2-0)
Round Two I played against UB zombies using relentless dead and prized amalgam to try and value for the win, however the amount of mainboard grave hate and ensnaring bridge was too much for him to handle.
Game two was a simple combo in hand.. quick and brutal win.
Eldrazi Tron (2-0)
Eldrazi Tron was certainly the most difficult deck to beat, if I had drawn poorly I would have absolutely crumpled under the weight of the reality smashers and though-knot seers.
Game one I ended up locking out his early plays with a T3 bridge and turtled to a Tezz ult finish.
Game two I sided in all my grind pieces, pulled all my grave hate and fatal pushes/collective brutality/inquisitions/. I ended up with a speedy tezzeret using mox opal and pentad with a darksteel citadel.
Darksteel was the real MVP of this game as a 5/5 beater that kept his reality smashers and thought-knot seers on the defensive. I eventually drew into a herald of anguish which put him on a four turn clock. He resolved an Ugin but lost to my man-land beater the next turn.
Death's Shadow Aggro
I really wasn't sure how this matchup would go, but I managed to land a bridge on T3 in game one(top decked 2x jar)and he failed to find answers before the Tezz ult wiped him(he wasted some of his Kolaghan's Commands trying to thin my jar count)
Game 2 was more sketchy because of the surgical extractions that he sided in, but bringing my Heralds,ashioks, damnations + padeem I was able to out value him with well timed removal and card draw.
(I wanted to whir a jester's cap here, but there wasn't a good line.)
All in all, Tezzerator seems good, Eldrazi Tron seems scary, and Death's shadow needs answers to damnation.
If anyone has any thoughts on my deck list please share them, I've currently tuned this deck to dumpster aggro decks such as death's shadow and burn very hard but I feel that the Tron matchup could use some help.
http://www.hareruyamtg.com/en/k/kD27989S/
1 Academy Ruins
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Darksteel Citadel
2 Drowned Catacomb
1 Inventors' Fair
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Spire of Industry
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Spellskite
4 Fatal Push
2 Go for the Throat
4 Whir of Invention
1 Liar's Pendulum
2 Mishra's Bauble
2 Mox Opal
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Pentad Prism
2 Pithing Needle
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
1 Trading Post
2 Welding Jar
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Herald of Anguish
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
2 Countersquall
2 Damnation
2 Thopter Spy Network
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Jester's Cap
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
How do you guys feel about that jester's cap out of the sideboard?