Remember that we’re a deck that taps out more often than not. Yes, you can tap out for Teferi and then hold up Leak/Knot/Negate (at least by the time the end step rolls around, which does give them a window to resolve things), but the truth is that CMC 2 counter magic is just pretty bad in Modern overall, especially pre-sideboard.
So unless people are planning to build around Teferi with significantly increased numbers of CMC 2 counterspells (which seems unadvisable in general and even worse for straight UW than other Uxx decks), Teferi’s untap mode looks mediocre at best. Too bad the effect is not immediate; at least then you could drop a Wall of Omens or something.
I’m happy to be proven wrong once people start testing him, but for now I’d say that JtMS, Gideon Jura, and Elspeth, Sun’s Champion are all superior choices.
Those are all excellent points, and I have considered most of them. Jace is almost certainly a better choice in a tapout control-style deck.
I plan to start off testing Teferi with 4 x Mana Leak and 2 x Logic Knot. I figure that I can still hold up Mana Leak/Logic Knot for big, non-instant spells after dropping Teferi, and still be able to add loyalty to gain card advantage, unlike Jace. Mana Leak sucks in the late game, but at that point, if I have Teferi ticking up, that probably won't matter much.
I guess we'll see if he just ends up being a worse Jace or Gideon Jura.
Good luck, man, let us know how it goes! In such a shell you might consider running some amount of Oust, Condemn, or even Seal Away, because you sure don’t want to be Pathing anything early with a playset of Leak in the deck.
I don't think that it makes sense to argue that Teferi is only good if you run a lot of counters. The biggest argument in my opinion, is simply the starting loyalty and the fact that he ticks up to gain card advantage, whereas we need to +0 Jace (exposing him to bolt and other threats). Haste creatures are becoming more and more popular, a lot of them kill Jace instantly. As mentioned previously, Teferi is also another out to annoying permanents like blood moon. Simply bouncing creatures like Jace does is not that great these days.
I wasn’t contending that Teferi is only good with a plethora of 2 CMC counters; rather, that the “untap two lands” clause on his +1 suffers from that limitation. Teferi is indeed flexible and at least decent in most situations, but my fear is that his raw power level isn’t high enough to justify the cost or the slot.
People are comparing him with JtMS, but I believe a more instructive comparison is with Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, who has always been interesting to me (but sees no play in Modern). He’s got one higher starting loyalty than Teferi, and IMO his +1 is definitely a superior source of card advantage. Each planeswalker’s ults are basically GG. Teferi’s -3 is definitely stronger than Unraveler’s -2 Unsummon ability, but that also represents another loyalty disadvantage. All things considered, I think there’s very little between these two choices; and if Unraveler has seen no play before or since the JtMS unban, I cant see Teferi being good enough now that JtMS has been freed.
Gideon Jura is still a windmill slam against the aggro decks that people have rightfully noted as troublesome for JtMS. Jura also represents an automatic win (at least G1) in conjunction with Gideon OTT’s emblem against decks like Ad Nauseam and Lantern.
I also feel like there’s some serious underrating of the Mind Sculptor going on here (perhaps the result of the pendulum swinging back as predictions of him ruling the format with an iron fist failed to materialize). Yeah, he’s bad against go-wide decks and hasty creatures. He’s still an incredible card! If you’re forced into playing him early (and you’re not dead on board), don’t be afraid to start Fatesealing. That +2 gets out of hand really quickly, and gaining 5+ life stapled to some topdeck manipulation ain’t bad in a far from ideal situation.
Finally, at the risk of stating the obvious: JtMS only costs 4, and Teferi costs 5. If JtMS is too slow to effect the game and/or too vulnerable to survive against aggro decks, then surely the same applies to Teferi.
I’m open-minded as it regards the Hero of Dominaria, and as has been mentioned already, I’d love to be proved wrong. But for now I just don’t see it.
A little while back—just before the Mind Sculptor and BBE unbans, if memory serves—Pierre Dagen (who was running UWC at the pro tour) said that Field of Ruin shared the title of best card in Modern alongside Thoughtseize. I don’t feel qualified to make such an assessment, but I certainly share Dagen’s positivity about the card. Land destruction that doesn’t set us back on actual land drops (while gaining us a few percentage points against Blood Moon) is an absolute dream come true for this deck.
That said, Ghost Quarter is still good for us, especially if you have Crucible in your 75 and/or face Inkmoth Nexus decks with high frequency. Most people would agree that our deck can support up to five colorless lands, if you want to give a 4/1 Field/GQ split or something similar a shot.
GP Hartford was quite a poor showing for Control in general and UW in particular. Still, I’m not prepared to say that the sky is falling just yet. The meta is still far from settled, and so long as that’s the case, linear decks will shoulder control decks out of some percentage of their former meta share. The best thing we can do for now IMO is stick to a proactive game plan, which means Spreading Seas and Field of Ruin are your friends (maybe even GQ and Crucible as well!).
Went 3-1 at my first local Modern event using this deck. I ran a full 8 Temples, and 3 Leylines main (cutting a Spoils altogether while moving my 3rd Pact and 4th Unlife to the side). These decisions were meta calls anticipating a lot of hand disruption and not much counter magic, and this prediction proved to be accurate.
Round 1 vs Eldrazi Tron:
I opened on Leyline, which was nice, but he opened on Eldrazi Temple into Eldrazi Temple + Chalice on 1 into Ghost Quarter + Reality Smasher, which was much nicer. I had two cantrips and a Grace stranded in hand, and all of my post-Chalice draws were one-drops or lands. G2 I kept a no-Leyline hand of three lands, Sleight, Prism, Unlife, and Ad Nauseam. Unfortunately, his curve once again began with a Chalice on 1, and this time he followed it up with double Thought-Knots. Once more I drew into things I couldn’t play. Not the best start! In both games I fired off an Ad Nauseam for value (G1 once it became clear that I didn’t have a better play, G2 in response to a Thought-Knot), but in both cases I failed to find my outs.
Round 2 vs GW Hatebears: G1 he opened with Dryad Militant into Scooze, aka vanilla beaters for all intents and purposes against us. My T0 Leyline was more or less worthless, but T1 Bloom enabled my T4 kill. G2 he opened with Hierarch into Thalia, Hereric Cathar into more beaters + Gaddock Teeg. Slaughter Pact took care of Teeg on his T4 end step, and with a Bloom coming off Suspend on my T4, I won with Pact’s trigger on the stack.
Round 3 vs Eldrazi Tron: Winning the die roll was nice here; it let me deploy my Prism and Unlife before his T3 Thought-Knot hit the field, which saw my hand of land, Spoils, and Ad Nauseam x2. I won on the following turn. G2 my opponent had the good old Chalice for 1 on his T2, but I had already resolved my lone cantrip. Both of us had clunky progressions, with him playing a pair of small Ballistas while I laid out three Pentad Prisms, stuck on two lands with Unlife and Ad Nauseam in hand. He finally hit enough lands for his big threat, an Endbringer, but it was too slow.
Round 4 vs Burn: My opening hand was absolutely insane for the matchup—Leyline, Unlife, Sleight, Serum, a fastland and two Scrylands—and I won the die roll. Can’t lose, right? Well, I almost did, lol. He went Goblin Guide into double Swiftspear into another Guide, Bolting himself for Prowess triggers and finding Boros Charms to give his dudes double strike, while I dug and dug and dug for an Ad Nauseam to no avail. His final attack put me down to 8 points of Infect, and I had one do-or-die draw step. Topdecked a Spoils, cast it naming Ad Nauseam, and our namesake card was right on top. Cast it and won. G2 I kept a strong hand but one that lacked a Leyline, and it got me over the line. He put me down to three by the end of his T4, I untapped and won.
3-1 in matches and 6-2 in games on the official paper debut, with my only loss coming to a pair of decidedly nutty progressions from the first Eldrazi player. I’m happy with that!
Seal Away
1W
Enchantment
Flash
When Seal Away enters the battlefield, exile target tapped creature an opponent controls until Seal Away leaves the battlefield.
Healing Grace
W
Instant
Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to any target this turn by a source of your choice. You gain 3 life.
Those both seem very playable! They’re probably pretty low key printings in terms of what people will be talking about in the near future, but I like them both for UWC. Oh, and there’s also this guy...
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3WU
Legendary Planeswalker - Teferi
4
+1: Draw a card. At the beginning of the next end step, untap two lands.
-3: Put target nonland permanent into its owner’s library third from the top.
-8: You get an emblem with “Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls.”
He could be quite interesting depending on how our builds shake out after the big meta changes.
Wizard's Retort
1UU
Instant
This spell costs 1 less to cast if you control a Wizard.
Counter target spell.
The condition is almost certainly too much of a stretch for us, but it looks like they’re printing a lot of Wizards in this block, so you never know. T1 Sage of Epityr?
That’s what stood out to me during a quick skim. Looks like there’s some real potential here.
Yep, I winced when he explained why he was cutting the third Plains. Eight basics looks like a lot, so his instinct is completely understandable, but this deck proves to its pilots in a hurry how important that critical mass of basic lands is.
I agree with you: Snare is a maindeck or bust card at heart, but right now the meta is so split between fast, efficient spells and big-mana decks that Snare in the side isn’t unreasonable at all. Along those lines, I’ve had a lot of success running a Flashfreeze in the side, which isn’t a very popular choice, but has proved extremely useful for me thus far.
This would be a time-consuming project, but I wonder what the results would be if we collectively drew up a list of every realistic sideboard option (capped at 40 or 50 cards, let’s say), and went through the tier lists to see which cards could come in for any given matchup. Would we end up with something identical to the usual sideboards, or would cards like Spell Snare and Flashfreeze come in across more matchups than some of the current stalwarts?
Hey all! I recently bought into MTGO, and ended up choosing to build GB Elves over UW Control (my two favorite paper decks) as my online deck of choice. So far, over five friendly Modern leagues (I’m told that the skill level there is the same or
similar to competitive leagues but the decks aren’t as consistently top tier), my record is 18-7, including a 5-0 last night. My list has remained unchanged from the one that’s been serving me well in paper:
Some slight budgetary concessions have been made (1 Cavern instead of 2; Duress over Thoughtseize [though Duress is much nicer against Burn]), but otherwise this is what I’ve been having success with in paper as well. Major findings:
- The maindeck Scooze has been approaching MVP status. I love slamming him on turn 5 or 6 of a grindy match against red-based decks with lots of spot removal and watching him just take over. It’s also great to have some Chordable grave hate against the usual suspects plus newer decks like Hollow One.
- The one-of Throne has been fantastic as well. I had a Lantern player scoop to it on sight, for instance. Beyond that, I seem to win roughly 40% of the time from overwhelming Shaman/Throne drain and 40% of the time from go-wide beats with Shaman/Throne assists (the other 20% coming from Ezuri overruns). Throne as a part of the early progression often makes either of the primary win conditions a turn quicker than they would otherwise be.
- A 2/2 split on Lead/Chord still feels right to me. When the Elf train is chugging along, either will put the nail in the coffin with the way GB plays. When we’re facing disruption, I like having access to both: Chord for instant-speed Ezuri to regen or Scooze to hose the grave or Shaman for lethal; Lead to rebuild post-wipe or just enable a completely degenerate turn with Heritage/Nettle/Dwynen’s synergies.
- Tajuru Preserver has cemented his place in my sideboard. A reasonably costed in-tribe body that blows out Living End, Emrakul, Liliana of the Veil, and some other things I’m likely forgetting is good enough for me. While there are lots of other cards with wider applications, I’ve come to realize that overboarding with this deck can be a real danger, so I’m happy with narrow but powerful selections like Preserver.
Savagegaul - glad to hear of your success! I think you might guess where I'm going with this, (and I'm also curious about 2 specific cards in your list that I wont mention as to bias your respons) but what's been the worse performing/least impressive/most often sided-out card in the main?
Thanks man!
You’re probably curious about the Crucible, and then maybe Rev or Alliance, I’d I had to guess. It’s really hard for me to say that anything at all has been performing poorly. Crucible does come out a fair amount of the time—when I need to be as fast as possible to survive, or when grave hate is going to be a major factor on either side of the table—but it has also been fantastic in certain matchups. The Ponza player, for instance, seemed ready to scoop as soon as it hit the table, and then did so once I resolved a permanent that could close out the game. Field of Ruin has arguably been my most effective card in the 75 thus far, and the value of Field recursion goes without saying. That said, I’m not wedded to Crucible, and will be keeping a close eye on how it plays.
Rev has been unequivocally great in my games. If/when I add the second Search, it won’t be in place of Rev—I’d rather shave a Jace or cut the Crucible. Blessed Alliance may be more of a meta call for me than most, but I love the card. Shadow, Ponza, Skred, Burn, and red-splashing decks with both aggro and burn elements like Pyromancer and Delver are all common opponents for me.
The 61-card hype train rolls on! After going 4-0 on my paper debut a few weeks ago, I decided to run the exact same list back (2x Jace, and one-ofs on Search, Rev, and Crucible as my card advantage slots, plus a maindeck Blessed Alliance—otherwise a stock 25-land list).
Round 1 vs GB Elves:
G1 my opponent won the die roll and proceeded to vomit out his hand. By the end of his T4 he had me at two life with one card in hand. I hit the Verdict and passed; he untapped and played a Lead the Stampede, finding Ezuri, Elvish Archdruid, and a pair of mana dorks. Not good! I untapped and topdecked the land I needed to stay in it. Slammed a Gideon OTT, Mana Leaked his next turn’s play, and then the game was on. I needed almost every trick in the book—both Walls, Rev, Snapcaster, multiple Paths, Jace—but finally I weathered the Elf storm, and found Gideon Jura for the lock.
G2 I brought in Settle the Wreckage, Flashfreeze, and Grafdigger’s Cage. Once more he nearly emptied his hand to bring me to 3 life before my T4 Verdict cleaned things up. Opponent played a land and mana dork to put himself into topdeck mode and passed. I play Colonnade and send it back; he swings, no blocks, and plays the CoCo he topdecked; I Cryptic to counter and draw, going down to two. On my turn I made my sixth land drop, slam a Jace, roll him up, and pass. Opponent topdecks another CoCo and main phases it, but my Mana Leak answers it and he scoops.
Round 2 vs GR Ponza:
Game 1 I seem to have things well in hand, until he drops a T6 Thrun, with regen mana open. Suddenly the Verdict and pair of Paths in my hand don’t look so hot, but the Blessed Alliance in my hand will bail me out, especially since he has no other creatures and is topdecking. Aaaand next turn he pulls a Stormbreath Dragon. Oh well. I take the 8, Verdict away the Drag, and pass with Alliance mana open. Opponent topdecks another Dragon! GG.
For G2 I’ve brought in Flashfreeze, Disdainful Stroke, Settle the Wreckage, Runed Halo, and Vendilion Clique. I keep a fantastic two-lander with Leak, Stroke, Flashfreeze, and 2x Serum Visions. I hit my land drops with help from Visions and counter his early action. I lay down Crucible on T5, holding up Flashfreeze mana, then do the same with Jura on T7, prompting the scoop.
G3 can only be described as the nuts. Opponent played T1 Arbor Elf into T2 Utopia Sprawl and Magus of the Moon. So far I’m not too worried; I play an Island, and then Seas my own Colonnade with two Plains in hand. But then he tosses out a T3 Dragon I can’t answer and swings. T4 Monstrous activation pretty much seals the deal. Ponza’s best progressions seem just about as good as anything in the format.
Round 3 vs Izzet Pyromancer: Not much to say here, it was a casual 2-0 with my opponent mulling to 6 on the draw and then 5 on the play and still not really mustering much of a resistance to my smooth progressions. I was able to use my mana efficiently every turn and hit all of my land drops. When you’re doing that in UW, the wincons will follow.
Round 4 vs Lantern: I wasn’t thrilled about this matchup for obvious reasons, and the deck is piloted by the person I’d consider the top player at the store, but with the discussion from this thread about the shift to a blue splash for Whir of Invention in the back of my mind, I was heartened to see his T1 Botanical Sanctum. He did his thing well enough early on, but the turning point came when I D-Sphered his pair of Codex Shredders, leaving him with only Lanterns on board in terms of lock pieces. I only got in with Colonnade once before he found a Pithing Needle with Stirrings and shut off my manlands. But then Serum Visions found me Jace, who ticked down and found me Gideon OTT, and from there my advantage was too much.
G2, with eight cards dead in the main, I brought in all kinds of stuff: Negate, Ceremonious Rejection, Disenchant, Rest In Peace (more of a nonbo for me than a necessity but still less dead than Path/Verdict/Alliance), Runed Halo, Stony Silence x2, and Clique. My side action did plenty of work—all kinds of counterspell action in the mid game—but what really won me the game was Field of Ruin. My opponent kept a one-lander, and with only one basic in his deck, my T3 Field activation (while holding up Ceremonious) punished him hard. Played more Fields T4 and T5, and instantly shot them off at his next two land drops. His only lock piece was a Pyxis—besides that, he had a hand full of interaction that he couldn’t use for a long time, and by the time he could I was on seven or so lands with a full hand and a Search for Azcanta down. He Decayed the Search, so I laid down a Gideon OTT and made the emblem. His second (and possibly final) Decay took care of Gids, but I followed up with another, then a Rev, which found 2x Stony Silence and 2x Detention Sphere, which I knew would be quite safe. Opponent topdecked a Thoughtseize and scooped after some deliberation.
7-2 in games, 3-1 in matches for the night. 7-1 in overall competitive matches so far. This deck feels like a perfect fit for me, and despite the hundreds of minor decisions that went into the Lantern match at the end of some long rounds, the mental strain didn’t feel as taxing as it did on my debut week.
Thanks for reading, and thanks again to everybody for all the discussion here.
Checking in with a report from my first paper event with this deck! It was a great debut, despite my build being a little bit of a mess: I ended up bringing a 61-card setup (the list I posted a couple pages back with a Crucible tacked on), which, as people here have pointed out, is definitely suboptimal; but I was willing to lose a few percentage points of efficiency to see how everything played. Things got a little worse when I showed up and found out that the dude who was lending me Cryptics for the night (the only cards in here I don’t own yet—waiting on the IM printing), only had two copies. Without any time to really think about it before the tourney kicked off, I threw my Vendilion Clique in the main and added a Disenchant to the side (also suboptimal, but decent in my meta).
Round 1 vs GW Combo Elves:
I was on the play, and kept a four-lander with Serum Visions, Wall of Omens, and Verdict. He had a full board and an empty hand by the end of his T3, which would have been a blowout for me if not for the fact that his opener included a maindeck Selfless Spirit. My Wall plus Jace and Gideon were able to stall for a while as I dug for a Path or D-Sphere for the Spirit, but I never found one and Ezuri overruns got him there. Game 2 he flooded the board similarly, but this time I had an EoT Path for his Spirit into a T4 Verdict and T5 Gideon Jura, who closed the game in a hurry. Game 3 he played a little more cautiously, which worked for me, as I kept an opener that was great in every way besides the lack of a wrath. Mana Leak countered his Archdruid, Dispel countered his CoCo, and Jace kept his dorks at bay while I took over the board. His topdecked Choke made the game last longer than it should have, but once more Jura beats got me over the line. 1-0
Round 2 vs Izzet Delver/Pyromancer:
Game 1 I got an early advantage with Verdict taking down a flipped Delver, a Pyromancer, and three tokens. From there I felt favored, but he burned me down to three life over time, then topdecked a Lightning Bolt on an empty hand. I responded to the Bolt by Revving for 4, and drew Search, Cryptic, Negate, and a land, which put the game on lockdown. Game 2 was crazily long and interactive, with a midgame highlight being my Jura, his Negate, my Negate, his Negate, my Dispel, his Dispel...lol. Later on I resolved a Gideon OTT, ticked him up, and next turn made his emblem, which combined with my card advantage and better topdecks put the game out of reach. 2-0
Round 3 vs RG Ponza:
Game 1 he kept a threat-less hand with a dork, a Blood Moon, and a couple of Stone Rains. My opener of five lands (two fetches, a basic, Field, and Farmland) Serum Visions, and Gideon OTT was well positioned against him. I slammed Gideon on T3, ticked him up, and then swung every turn after that. Besides his Arbor Elf, who chumped Gids at some point, the only other creature he found was a Goblin Dark-Dwellers while at 4 life, for which I had an EoT Path and the lethal swing to follow. Probably the quickest I’ve ever won a game with this deck, lol. Game 2 was a huge blowout for me...I Mana Leaked his T3 Stone Rain, then proceeded to lock him out of red with three straight Spreading Seas. Both Gideons hit the field shortly thereafter, and it was over rather quickly. 3-0
Round 4 vs Dredge:
I prepared myself for an early scoop G1, despite a respectable opening seven in my hand, but my opponent mulled to five on the play, which gave me some hope. Opponent made his first land drop and passed, then went two turns without hitting another land or a play. My progression was T1 Colonnade, T2 Serum and fetch, T3 Serum and pass holding up Mana Leak. His T4 saw him hit a second land drop and cast Cathartic Reunion, which I was crucially able to counter. From there I tried a Spreading Seas lock (didn’t work as he found lands 3 and 4), but Wall of Omens, Gideon OTT, and Jace took over the board and won me the game just as he was starting to really look threatening. Game 2 I kept an okay 4-land opener including a Grafdigger’s Cage. Cage was a huge stumbling block for him, but I flooded out hard, despite aggressively thinning out my deck (prioritizing fetches over Colonnades) and Scrying lands to the bottom whenever possible. He found an Abrupt Decay for my Cage and then went off as I continued to flood.
Game 3 I drew two unkeepable hands and mulled to a very sketchy five of Island, Cage, Celestial Purge, D-Sphere, and Settle the Wreckage, Scrying Gideon Jura to the bottom. Thankfully for me, I hit my land drops right away, and my opponent lacked an early answer for the Cage, so I was able to stabilize and recover from my card disadvantage. The game went on for ages as I hung on to my Settle, able to control the board well enough with Gideon OTT, a pair of Walls, and Paths/Spheres that I was never taking more than a Narcomeba hit on any given attack. The turning point of the game cane when he Decayed my Cage, and I knew I had two turns to find an answer. On the first turn of do or die I minused Jace and found a Search. Next turn I flipped the Search, activated it to find three lands and a Path, then cashed in Jace, at last finding my first Rest In Peace of the series. I immediately slammed it and then Verdicted his massive board. He shifted to a hardcast plan, but I was able to get in with Gideon OTT and a Colonnade while holding up seven mana for Settle, Path, and a counterspell, which got me the win. 4-0
Not bad for the deck’s paper debut, especially considering 61 cards + only two Cryptics + hurried inclusions of Clique main and Disenchant side ( I probably should have just left Clique in the side and played with 60). But I will say that I’ve never been so mentally exhausted after a local Modern event as I was last night. The cognitive load is real when piloting UW, even though some of that is probably due to me being new to the archetype.
Thrilled with the power of this deck, the challenge it presents as a pilot, and the types of matches it leads to. Before last night I was considering shaving a Jace, but he was arguably my MVP on the night, so I think in a couple weeks I’ll run it back exactly as is, 61 cards and all (though hopefully with a third Cryptic by then!).
Sorry for the huge wall of text, but thanks for all of the discussion that helped me nail down the decklist and playstyle before my first tourney, and thanks especially to bennyhillz and HolyShamgar for some great and informative streaming.
- only 22 lands
- 2x Mindcensor, Copter, and Finks in the main
- 1-of Big Thalia in the main
- 4x Kor Firewalker in the side
- Sword of Light and Shadow and Akroma, Angel of Fury (!) as one-ofs in the side
- no Mirran Crusader in the 75
I have to say that I'm a fan. Akroma is a little far out there, but she's surely a nod to UW Control.
1
Good luck, man, let us know how it goes! In such a shell you might consider running some amount of Oust, Condemn, or even Seal Away, because you sure don’t want to be Pathing anything early with a playset of Leak in the deck.
I wasn’t contending that Teferi is only good with a plethora of 2 CMC counters; rather, that the “untap two lands” clause on his +1 suffers from that limitation. Teferi is indeed flexible and at least decent in most situations, but my fear is that his raw power level isn’t high enough to justify the cost or the slot.
People are comparing him with JtMS, but I believe a more instructive comparison is with Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, who has always been interesting to me (but sees no play in Modern). He’s got one higher starting loyalty than Teferi, and IMO his +1 is definitely a superior source of card advantage. Each planeswalker’s ults are basically GG. Teferi’s -3 is definitely stronger than Unraveler’s -2 Unsummon ability, but that also represents another loyalty disadvantage. All things considered, I think there’s very little between these two choices; and if Unraveler has seen no play before or since the JtMS unban, I cant see Teferi being good enough now that JtMS has been freed.
Gideon Jura is still a windmill slam against the aggro decks that people have rightfully noted as troublesome for JtMS. Jura also represents an automatic win (at least G1) in conjunction with Gideon OTT’s emblem against decks like Ad Nauseam and Lantern.
I also feel like there’s some serious underrating of the Mind Sculptor going on here (perhaps the result of the pendulum swinging back as predictions of him ruling the format with an iron fist failed to materialize). Yeah, he’s bad against go-wide decks and hasty creatures. He’s still an incredible card! If you’re forced into playing him early (and you’re not dead on board), don’t be afraid to start Fatesealing. That +2 gets out of hand really quickly, and gaining 5+ life stapled to some topdeck manipulation ain’t bad in a far from ideal situation.
Finally, at the risk of stating the obvious: JtMS only costs 4, and Teferi costs 5. If JtMS is too slow to effect the game and/or too vulnerable to survive against aggro decks, then surely the same applies to Teferi.
I’m open-minded as it regards the Hero of Dominaria, and as has been mentioned already, I’d love to be proved wrong. But for now I just don’t see it.
1
That said, Ghost Quarter is still good for us, especially if you have Crucible in your 75 and/or face Inkmoth Nexus decks with high frequency. Most people would agree that our deck can support up to five colorless lands, if you want to give a 4/1 Field/GQ split or something similar a shot.
GP Hartford was quite a poor showing for Control in general and UW in particular. Still, I’m not prepared to say that the sky is falling just yet. The meta is still far from settled, and so long as that’s the case, linear decks will shoulder control decks out of some percentage of their former meta share. The best thing we can do for now IMO is stick to a proactive game plan, which means Spreading Seas and Field of Ruin are your friends (maybe even GQ and Crucible as well!).
2
Round 1 vs Eldrazi Tron:
I opened on Leyline, which was nice, but he opened on Eldrazi Temple into Eldrazi Temple + Chalice on 1 into Ghost Quarter + Reality Smasher, which was much nicer. I had two cantrips and a Grace stranded in hand, and all of my post-Chalice draws were one-drops or lands. G2 I kept a no-Leyline hand of three lands, Sleight, Prism, Unlife, and Ad Nauseam. Unfortunately, his curve once again began with a Chalice on 1, and this time he followed it up with double Thought-Knots. Once more I drew into things I couldn’t play. Not the best start! In both games I fired off an Ad Nauseam for value (G1 once it became clear that I didn’t have a better play, G2 in response to a Thought-Knot), but in both cases I failed to find my outs.
Round 2 vs GW Hatebears: G1 he opened with Dryad Militant into Scooze, aka vanilla beaters for all intents and purposes against us. My T0 Leyline was more or less worthless, but T1 Bloom enabled my T4 kill. G2 he opened with Hierarch into Thalia, Hereric Cathar into more beaters + Gaddock Teeg. Slaughter Pact took care of Teeg on his T4 end step, and with a Bloom coming off Suspend on my T4, I won with Pact’s trigger on the stack.
Round 3 vs Eldrazi Tron: Winning the die roll was nice here; it let me deploy my Prism and Unlife before his T3 Thought-Knot hit the field, which saw my hand of land, Spoils, and Ad Nauseam x2. I won on the following turn. G2 my opponent had the good old Chalice for 1 on his T2, but I had already resolved my lone cantrip. Both of us had clunky progressions, with him playing a pair of small Ballistas while I laid out three Pentad Prisms, stuck on two lands with Unlife and Ad Nauseam in hand. He finally hit enough lands for his big threat, an Endbringer, but it was too slow.
Round 4 vs Burn: My opening hand was absolutely insane for the matchup—Leyline, Unlife, Sleight, Serum, a fastland and two Scrylands—and I won the die roll. Can’t lose, right? Well, I almost did, lol. He went Goblin Guide into double Swiftspear into another Guide, Bolting himself for Prowess triggers and finding Boros Charms to give his dudes double strike, while I dug and dug and dug for an Ad Nauseam to no avail. His final attack put me down to 8 points of Infect, and I had one do-or-die draw step. Topdecked a Spoils, cast it naming Ad Nauseam, and our namesake card was right on top. Cast it and won. G2 I kept a strong hand but one that lacked a Leyline, and it got me over the line. He put me down to three by the end of his T4, I untapped and won.
3-1 in matches and 6-2 in games on the official paper debut, with my only loss coming to a pair of decidedly nutty progressions from the first Eldrazi player. I’m happy with that!
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Seal Away
1W
Enchantment
Flash
When Seal Away enters the battlefield, exile target tapped creature an opponent controls until Seal Away leaves the battlefield.
Healing Grace
W
Instant
Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to any target this turn by a source of your choice. You gain 3 life.
Those both seem very playable! They’re probably pretty low key printings in terms of what people will be talking about in the near future, but I like them both for UWC. Oh, and there’s also this guy...
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3WU
Legendary Planeswalker - Teferi
4
+1: Draw a card. At the beginning of the next end step, untap two lands.
-3: Put target nonland permanent into its owner’s library third from the top.
-8: You get an emblem with “Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls.”
He could be quite interesting depending on how our builds shake out after the big meta changes.
Wizard's Retort
1UU
Instant
This spell costs 1 less to cast if you control a Wizard.
Counter target spell.
The condition is almost certainly too much of a stretch for us, but it looks like they’re printing a lot of Wizards in this block, so you never know. T1 Sage of Epityr?
That’s what stood out to me during a quick skim. Looks like there’s some real potential here.
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I agree with you: Snare is a maindeck or bust card at heart, but right now the meta is so split between fast, efficient spells and big-mana decks that Snare in the side isn’t unreasonable at all. Along those lines, I’ve had a lot of success running a Flashfreeze in the side, which isn’t a very popular choice, but has proved extremely useful for me thus far.
This would be a time-consuming project, but I wonder what the results would be if we collectively drew up a list of every realistic sideboard option (capped at 40 or 50 cards, let’s say), and went through the tier lists to see which cards could come in for any given matchup. Would we end up with something identical to the usual sideboards, or would cards like Spell Snare and Flashfreeze come in across more matchups than some of the current stalwarts?
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similar to competitive leagues but the decks aren’t as consistently top tier), my record is 18-7, including a 5-0 last night. My list has remained unchanged from the one that’s been serving me well in paper:
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Blooming Marsh
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Pendelhaven
1 Westvale Abbey
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Shaman of the Pack
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
2 Elvish Visionary
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Lead the Stampede
2 Chord of Calling
1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Heroic Intervention
2 Duress
2 Shapers’ Sanctuary
1 Eternal Witness
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Stain the Mind
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Tajuru Preserver
Some slight budgetary concessions have been made (1 Cavern instead of 2; Duress over Thoughtseize [though Duress is much nicer against Burn]), but otherwise this is what I’ve been having success with in paper as well. Major findings:
- The maindeck Scooze has been approaching MVP status. I love slamming him on turn 5 or 6 of a grindy match against red-based decks with lots of spot removal and watching him just take over. It’s also great to have some Chordable grave hate against the usual suspects plus newer decks like Hollow One.
- The one-of Throne has been fantastic as well. I had a Lantern player scoop to it on sight, for instance. Beyond that, I seem to win roughly 40% of the time from overwhelming Shaman/Throne drain and 40% of the time from go-wide beats with Shaman/Throne assists (the other 20% coming from Ezuri overruns). Throne as a part of the early progression often makes either of the primary win conditions a turn quicker than they would otherwise be.
- A 2/2 split on Lead/Chord still feels right to me. When the Elf train is chugging along, either will put the nail in the coffin with the way GB plays. When we’re facing disruption, I like having access to both: Chord for instant-speed Ezuri to regen or Scooze to hose the grave or Shaman for lethal; Lead to rebuild post-wipe or just enable a completely degenerate turn with Heritage/Nettle/Dwynen’s synergies.
- Tajuru Preserver has cemented his place in my sideboard. A reasonably costed in-tribe body that blows out Living End, Emrakul, Liliana of the Veil, and some other things I’m likely forgetting is good enough for me. While there are lots of other cards with wider applications, I’ve come to realize that overboarding with this deck can be a real danger, so I’m happy with narrow but powerful selections like Preserver.
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Thanks man!
You’re probably curious about the Crucible, and then maybe Rev or Alliance, I’d I had to guess. It’s really hard for me to say that anything at all has been performing poorly. Crucible does come out a fair amount of the time—when I need to be as fast as possible to survive, or when grave hate is going to be a major factor on either side of the table—but it has also been fantastic in certain matchups. The Ponza player, for instance, seemed ready to scoop as soon as it hit the table, and then did so once I resolved a permanent that could close out the game. Field of Ruin has arguably been my most effective card in the 75 thus far, and the value of Field recursion goes without saying. That said, I’m not wedded to Crucible, and will be keeping a close eye on how it plays.
Rev has been unequivocally great in my games. If/when I add the second Search, it won’t be in place of Rev—I’d rather shave a Jace or cut the Crucible. Blessed Alliance may be more of a meta call for me than most, but I love the card. Shadow, Ponza, Skred, Burn, and red-splashing decks with both aggro and burn elements like Pyromancer and Delver are all common opponents for me.
1
Round 1 vs GB Elves:
G1 my opponent won the die roll and proceeded to vomit out his hand. By the end of his T4 he had me at two life with one card in hand. I hit the Verdict and passed; he untapped and played a Lead the Stampede, finding Ezuri, Elvish Archdruid, and a pair of mana dorks. Not good! I untapped and topdecked the land I needed to stay in it. Slammed a Gideon OTT, Mana Leaked his next turn’s play, and then the game was on. I needed almost every trick in the book—both Walls, Rev, Snapcaster, multiple Paths, Jace—but finally I weathered the Elf storm, and found Gideon Jura for the lock.
G2 I brought in Settle the Wreckage, Flashfreeze, and Grafdigger’s Cage. Once more he nearly emptied his hand to bring me to 3 life before my T4 Verdict cleaned things up. Opponent played a land and mana dork to put himself into topdeck mode and passed. I play Colonnade and send it back; he swings, no blocks, and plays the CoCo he topdecked; I Cryptic to counter and draw, going down to two. On my turn I made my sixth land drop, slam a Jace, roll him up, and pass. Opponent topdecks another CoCo and main phases it, but my Mana Leak answers it and he scoops.
Round 2 vs GR Ponza:
Game 1 I seem to have things well in hand, until he drops a T6 Thrun, with regen mana open. Suddenly the Verdict and pair of Paths in my hand don’t look so hot, but the Blessed Alliance in my hand will bail me out, especially since he has no other creatures and is topdecking. Aaaand next turn he pulls a Stormbreath Dragon. Oh well. I take the 8, Verdict away the Drag, and pass with Alliance mana open. Opponent topdecks another Dragon! GG.
For G2 I’ve brought in Flashfreeze, Disdainful Stroke, Settle the Wreckage, Runed Halo, and Vendilion Clique. I keep a fantastic two-lander with Leak, Stroke, Flashfreeze, and 2x Serum Visions. I hit my land drops with help from Visions and counter his early action. I lay down Crucible on T5, holding up Flashfreeze mana, then do the same with Jura on T7, prompting the scoop.
G3 can only be described as the nuts. Opponent played T1 Arbor Elf into T2 Utopia Sprawl and Magus of the Moon. So far I’m not too worried; I play an Island, and then Seas my own Colonnade with two Plains in hand. But then he tosses out a T3 Dragon I can’t answer and swings. T4 Monstrous activation pretty much seals the deal. Ponza’s best progressions seem just about as good as anything in the format.
Round 3 vs Izzet Pyromancer: Not much to say here, it was a casual 2-0 with my opponent mulling to 6 on the draw and then 5 on the play and still not really mustering much of a resistance to my smooth progressions. I was able to use my mana efficiently every turn and hit all of my land drops. When you’re doing that in UW, the wincons will follow.
Round 4 vs Lantern: I wasn’t thrilled about this matchup for obvious reasons, and the deck is piloted by the person I’d consider the top player at the store, but with the discussion from this thread about the shift to a blue splash for Whir of Invention in the back of my mind, I was heartened to see his T1 Botanical Sanctum. He did his thing well enough early on, but the turning point came when I D-Sphered his pair of Codex Shredders, leaving him with only Lanterns on board in terms of lock pieces. I only got in with Colonnade once before he found a Pithing Needle with Stirrings and shut off my manlands. But then Serum Visions found me Jace, who ticked down and found me Gideon OTT, and from there my advantage was too much.
G2, with eight cards dead in the main, I brought in all kinds of stuff: Negate, Ceremonious Rejection, Disenchant, Rest In Peace (more of a nonbo for me than a necessity but still less dead than Path/Verdict/Alliance), Runed Halo, Stony Silence x2, and Clique. My side action did plenty of work—all kinds of counterspell action in the mid game—but what really won me the game was Field of Ruin. My opponent kept a one-lander, and with only one basic in his deck, my T3 Field activation (while holding up Ceremonious) punished him hard. Played more Fields T4 and T5, and instantly shot them off at his next two land drops. His only lock piece was a Pyxis—besides that, he had a hand full of interaction that he couldn’t use for a long time, and by the time he could I was on seven or so lands with a full hand and a Search for Azcanta down. He Decayed the Search, so I laid down a Gideon OTT and made the emblem. His second (and possibly final) Decay took care of Gids, but I followed up with another, then a Rev, which found 2x Stony Silence and 2x Detention Sphere, which I knew would be quite safe. Opponent topdecked a Thoughtseize and scooped after some deliberation.
7-2 in games, 3-1 in matches for the night. 7-1 in overall competitive matches so far. This deck feels like a perfect fit for me, and despite the hundreds of minor decisions that went into the Lantern match at the end of some long rounds, the mental strain didn’t feel as taxing as it did on my debut week.
Thanks for reading, and thanks again to everybody for all the discussion here.
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Round 1 vs GW Combo Elves:
I was on the play, and kept a four-lander with Serum Visions, Wall of Omens, and Verdict. He had a full board and an empty hand by the end of his T3, which would have been a blowout for me if not for the fact that his opener included a maindeck Selfless Spirit. My Wall plus Jace and Gideon were able to stall for a while as I dug for a Path or D-Sphere for the Spirit, but I never found one and Ezuri overruns got him there. Game 2 he flooded the board similarly, but this time I had an EoT Path for his Spirit into a T4 Verdict and T5 Gideon Jura, who closed the game in a hurry. Game 3 he played a little more cautiously, which worked for me, as I kept an opener that was great in every way besides the lack of a wrath. Mana Leak countered his Archdruid, Dispel countered his CoCo, and Jace kept his dorks at bay while I took over the board. His topdecked Choke made the game last longer than it should have, but once more Jura beats got me over the line. 1-0
Round 2 vs Izzet Delver/Pyromancer:
Game 1 I got an early advantage with Verdict taking down a flipped Delver, a Pyromancer, and three tokens. From there I felt favored, but he burned me down to three life over time, then topdecked a Lightning Bolt on an empty hand. I responded to the Bolt by Revving for 4, and drew Search, Cryptic, Negate, and a land, which put the game on lockdown. Game 2 was crazily long and interactive, with a midgame highlight being my Jura, his Negate, my Negate, his Negate, my Dispel, his Dispel...lol. Later on I resolved a Gideon OTT, ticked him up, and next turn made his emblem, which combined with my card advantage and better topdecks put the game out of reach. 2-0
Round 3 vs RG Ponza:
Game 1 he kept a threat-less hand with a dork, a Blood Moon, and a couple of Stone Rains. My opener of five lands (two fetches, a basic, Field, and Farmland) Serum Visions, and Gideon OTT was well positioned against him. I slammed Gideon on T3, ticked him up, and then swung every turn after that. Besides his Arbor Elf, who chumped Gids at some point, the only other creature he found was a Goblin Dark-Dwellers while at 4 life, for which I had an EoT Path and the lethal swing to follow. Probably the quickest I’ve ever won a game with this deck, lol. Game 2 was a huge blowout for me...I Mana Leaked his T3 Stone Rain, then proceeded to lock him out of red with three straight Spreading Seas. Both Gideons hit the field shortly thereafter, and it was over rather quickly. 3-0
Round 4 vs Dredge:
I prepared myself for an early scoop G1, despite a respectable opening seven in my hand, but my opponent mulled to five on the play, which gave me some hope. Opponent made his first land drop and passed, then went two turns without hitting another land or a play. My progression was T1 Colonnade, T2 Serum and fetch, T3 Serum and pass holding up Mana Leak. His T4 saw him hit a second land drop and cast Cathartic Reunion, which I was crucially able to counter. From there I tried a Spreading Seas lock (didn’t work as he found lands 3 and 4), but Wall of Omens, Gideon OTT, and Jace took over the board and won me the game just as he was starting to really look threatening. Game 2 I kept an okay 4-land opener including a Grafdigger’s Cage. Cage was a huge stumbling block for him, but I flooded out hard, despite aggressively thinning out my deck (prioritizing fetches over Colonnades) and Scrying lands to the bottom whenever possible. He found an Abrupt Decay for my Cage and then went off as I continued to flood.
Game 3 I drew two unkeepable hands and mulled to a very sketchy five of Island, Cage, Celestial Purge, D-Sphere, and Settle the Wreckage, Scrying Gideon Jura to the bottom. Thankfully for me, I hit my land drops right away, and my opponent lacked an early answer for the Cage, so I was able to stabilize and recover from my card disadvantage. The game went on for ages as I hung on to my Settle, able to control the board well enough with Gideon OTT, a pair of Walls, and Paths/Spheres that I was never taking more than a Narcomeba hit on any given attack. The turning point of the game cane when he Decayed my Cage, and I knew I had two turns to find an answer. On the first turn of do or die I minused Jace and found a Search. Next turn I flipped the Search, activated it to find three lands and a Path, then cashed in Jace, at last finding my first Rest In Peace of the series. I immediately slammed it and then Verdicted his massive board. He shifted to a hardcast plan, but I was able to get in with Gideon OTT and a Colonnade while holding up seven mana for Settle, Path, and a counterspell, which got me the win. 4-0
Not bad for the deck’s paper debut, especially considering 61 cards + only two Cryptics + hurried inclusions of Clique main and Disenchant side ( I probably should have just left Clique in the side and played with 60). But I will say that I’ve never been so mentally exhausted after a local Modern event as I was last night. The cognitive load is real when piloting UW, even though some of that is probably due to me being new to the archetype.
Thrilled with the power of this deck, the challenge it presents as a pilot, and the types of matches it leads to. Before last night I was considering shaving a Jace, but he was arguably my MVP on the night, so I think in a couple weeks I’ll run it back exactly as is, 61 cards and all (though hopefully with a third Cryptic by then!).
Sorry for the huge wall of text, but thanks for all of the discussion that helped me nail down the decklist and playstyle before my first tourney, and thanks especially to bennyhillz and HolyShamgar for some great and informative streaming.
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Of note are the following:
- only 22 lands
- 2x Mindcensor, Copter, and Finks in the main
- 1-of Big Thalia in the main
- 4x Kor Firewalker in the side
- Sword of Light and Shadow and Akroma, Angel of Fury (!) as one-ofs in the side
- no Mirran Crusader in the 75
I have to say that I'm a fan. Akroma is a little far out there, but she's surely a nod to UW Control.