MTG Salvation

I see you are playing negate in the main in both builds and 3 spell snares, How are you liking the negates in the main? What about the spell snare in the side? I have thought about using both, i have two negates in my sb currently but haven't been sold on that in the main nor snare in the side. I can see upside to snare, such as countering goyfs, bobs. I guess i'm wondering what match ups its strong in vs just having cards like chalice, spell pierce or other things of the like.

I can't put it to myself to cut mindslaver. I will go down to one when i get another wurmcoil engine to keep the threat density the same. Its super strong when it lands or decent discard fodder for thirst. i can't cut it, locking people out of the game is too fun.

Jund though is defintely not as good as a matchup as it used to be. I think its closer to 60-40 in favor of us rather than 70-30 like I felt it used to be. Bbe sped up the deck a little bit. Them being able to cascade into basically any good card in their deck does hurt us a lot. But I still think as long as you counter the fulminators and try to keep the board empty or in favor of your side, you should still be able to win the match. I did get creamed by it last time I played against jund by it was game 1 kept a two lander and never saw any after that.. he didn't kill me till like turn 8 too. feelsbadman. but games 2 i mulled to four (zero lands in the 5,6, and 7). kept a 1 lander and died pretty fast.

1. Basically what the other two said. Push and kommand are played more now than ever. One them kills a germ but not a wurmcoil. Also wurmcoil is basically 3 bodies unless it gets pathed.

2. I took out gemstone caverns and haven't looked back yet. I just run a second field of ruin in it's place.

3. Snap is strong as an ambush viper. Stronger as snap dismember or snap spatial. Really strong when you have two blue which is often for me atleast. Games are real long or stupid short. But having snap remand or repeal or thirst is amazing. If I had the money for a second snap, like some people are playing, I would get it. I have definitely won games with 2/1 beats

I play two Walking Ballista main and one Hangarback Walker in the side. I love hangarback for the midrange matchup. My roommate plays mardu pyromancer and its insane vs them, just like ballista. I love the card.

EE for zero or one comes up a lot more than you think. even as a one of it has helped steal me more than a couple games. I like Oboro but i'm seriously just considering the 3rd river of tears. The jank way of getting double blue in one turn with it does come up but very rarely

The deck definitely requires some reps and knowledge of the format but I started with a budget version and had some success. The chalices and Karn are not needed. Ugin is a card I would definitely try to squeeze into the budget. I play one of him and it's just fine. There are a ton of great players and influencers in this forum, shoktroopa, pie, and bloody. I feel like the deck is pretty decently positioned. The only tier 1 matchup I truly fear is humans. But like most control lists you are rewarded for playing well and punished hard for playing poorly. Having the Tron part of the deck helps a lot too.

Thanks guys that's about how I felt too on both answers. He probably only felt okay because I basically had already won the game when he did resolve. I do hardly counter moon anymore, only when I don't have an actual island for a blue source. I'll play solemn again for now but I might consider just playing another spatial or the 4th remand instead.

Another Tournament report, I'm going to try to do this often unless you guys really dont' want me too haha.I went 2-1 which is fine. We have a lot really good players that only play tier 1 or a smaller amoutn of people playing budget/brew decks. It was a very small turn out of 6 people. I expect the rest of the summer. It is a college town and most of the people at this lgs are students.



Changed up the list a little bit, I moved my 2nd Wurmcoil Engine to the main and added a 2nd Walking Ballista. -1 Trinket Mage and -1 Sundering Titan. I was thinking about trying out Karn, Scion of Urza and was talking about it before Saturday Night Modern. My friend let me borrow one, so I subbed out Solemn Simulacrum. I figured these are probably in the same spot of the deck.

Round 1 Ponza 0-2
Game One: I mulled to five kept a 2 lander with a condescend and 2 thirsts. I never cast the thirst. Thats about how the game went haha.
SB: IN - 2 Spatial Contortion, 1 Chalice of the Void, 1 Spreading seas. OUT - 2 Expedition Map, -1 Remand, -1 Mind Slaver. I don't know why I didn't board in my All is Dust, I guess I figured I wouldn't get that far. I shouldn't have brought in the 2nd chalice as even on the play I can't cast it till turn 2 and they get there one drop by then.

Game two: kept a decent 7 and managed to fend off the first couple molten rains. Played Karn on turn 5 with counter spell back up. He drew a couple cards and then I did some fancy stuff to try to kill a bbe. After the snap and bbe died.. he beat me down with an arbor elf after resolving a bloodmoon. I drew zero counters spells after the first two condescends and died after he resolved an Inferno Titan.

Rounds 2 and 3: Lantern 2-0 both rounds
Game One: This matchup feels extremely favored for us. Both rounds I resolved platinum angel after EE for 1 destroying everything.
SB: IN - 1 Chalice of the Void, 2 Surgical Extraction, 2 Negate, 1 Sorcerous Spyglass. OUT - 2 Wurmcoil Engine, 1 Remand, 1 Expedition Map, -1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon , -1 Dismember
Game Two: Repeat game one.

Question(s) though:
1. I see further back a lot of people are beating ponza 2-0 multiple times. What is the secret or what cards should I be focusing on having in my opener?
2. How do you all feel about Karn, Scion of Urza? He definitly felt okay but i think it might be better to just have another piece of interation or something more proactive.

How is everyone liking damping sphere? i've thought about picking up 1-2 of them to aid me in the tron matchup. we surprisingly have no storm players at my lgs (used to have 3). I guess I could also see it having a small edge against ad naus?

Tournament Report Time!
Played Saturday Night Magic at my lgs last week at went 3-0!



Round 1: BW Tokens

Game 1: I kept a pretty medium hand with 2 tron lands a blue source and multiple counter spells. He was playing a kind of slower version with LoTV and an okay amount of hand disruption. Platinum Angel kept me alive at -8 and prayed he didn't have a path. Played wurmcoil and the stablized at 2. I won off the back of Ugin and a well timed Mindslaver to play Lilly and -2 target himself.

Side: IN- 2 Negate, 1 Wurmcoil, 1 All is Dust. OUT - 1 Map, 1 Sundering Titan, 1 Dismember, 1 MindSlaver

Game 2: Game Two looked pretty similar. Ugin slammed on turn 5 pretty much won the game on the spot.
1-0

Round 2: Ad Nauseum

Game 1: I know the guy well and he pretty only plays this deck. I joked about having a chalice on t1 game 1 and it happened. I played it on zero my turn one ( on the draw). I played mindslaver on turn 6 with 4 mana up but decided to hold up remand instead of cracking it. He had the mana to go off and I allowed him to do so. I remanded his lightning storm and he was 2 lands short of killing me and scooped em up.

Side: IN - 1 Chalice, 2 Negate, 1 Spyglass. OUT - 1 Sundering Titan, 2 Map, 1 Mind Slaver

Game 2: On the draw again, I mulled to 6 and then scried a chalice to the top. Played it on turn 1 again and the game looked very similar.
2-0

Note: He misplayed pretty hard both games and probably should have won game 2 but it happens.

Round 3: RG Tron
Game 1: I played next to him the game before so I knew he was on this and kept a decent hand against him. I countered all of his threat and then landed a mindslaver and cracked it on turn 6. He scooped when i cracked the slaver. He was dead regardless though as I had the academy ruins in my hand to avoid it being Ulamog-ed.

IN: 1 Chalice, 1 Surgical, 1 Negate, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Spyglass. OUT: 1 Remand, 2 Map, 1 Sundering Titan, 1 Mind Slaver, 1 Dismember

Game 2: This was a great game. We went back and forth with cantrips and me countering thought-knot seers. I field of ruined him and then he played blood sun. I spreading seas-ed him twice before he drew o-stone and I was found without a counter spell. He blew up the world after saving his bloodsun with the fate counter. He then was able to cast Ulamog and I scooped em up. Life totals haven't changed yet even though two games were over haha.

Game 3: He has yet to see a chalice and didn't think to play around it and he had kept a hand with 1 land and 6 one-mana cantrips. My turn two I played chalice on 1. Turn 3 I played treasure mage to get wurmcoil. He proceeded to discard the next several turns and I missed land drops. got him to 8 with treasure mage before seeing a 3rd tron land on my side. He ended the game with 2 lands and one of them being an island. I felt kind of bad but a win is a win.
3-0

Cards I felt that I could change:
sundering titan. - although this card feels great in a meta with lots of GDS and Jund my meta at this lgs has one of each and a whole bunch of other decks it does nothing against. I will probably replace with a 2nd walking ballista or put my sideboard wurmcoil in the main and figure out something else fun for the sideboard.

Cards I love:
Hangarback walker - although I didn't use it this tournament. My roommates played Mardu Pyromancer and 8-rack and we have multiple 8 rack players in the meta. This card always feels gas when ever I play it. Its great in the midrange matchup and is a great threat to sac to smallpox or Lilly -2.

@eletriceye the normal minimum has been 2 for a bit but a lot of people are moving up it being 3 or even the full playset. I personally play one main and one side but I've been considering going to two main and one side.

Okay glad other people are having problems with DnT. My roommate and two other people at my lgs have it. Luckily for me it's not their only deck. I mean, I have definitely punted against them, giving me the feel bads, however it feels like I only win when I have the nuts.

Yeah I don't think sundering titan in the side is a great idea. He kind of wrecks 3 color decks with the fetch shock mana base. I was considering the second snap but the 2nd wurmcoil helps so much in the aggro matchups. I'll definitely consider the 3rd chalice but it will take me a while to get the funds haha, rip college student wallet. I've also considered a spatial contortion or dismember in the main. I just don't know what to remove for it. I do appreciate the feed back though.

I think Jace decks will actually be pretty decent match ups for us, as we traditionally have good match ups agianst durdle control decks.

This has been the version of the deck i've been jamming since picking it back up after getting Dredge. I have 3x lantern control players in my meta, 3x flavors of Death and Taxes, some Counter's Company, 3x 8-Rack Players, 1x Ad Nauseum, 1x humans player, 3x burn players, 1x Eldrazi tron, 1x Gw Tron, 1x Naya Kiki, 1x KCI combo, a couple storm players, and other various Brews*. The majority of our Control players have either sold the deck or are looking too, we did have UW and Jeskai tempo but I don't know how often play it. I've been trying to tailor my sideboard for my meta but I've been wanting to start going to bigger tournaments like SCG modern opens and Modern GPs, with Jace and BBE being freed next Monday, do you guys see any changes I could make to my list that would help give me an edge?

*Many people own multiple decks and play a different one every week, we normally have 8-16 people for modern.
**note i've definitely been thinking about going to 3 repeals and 3 remands, I also picked up 2 Sorcerous Spyglass and have 2 Pithing Needle already in my potential sideboard binder

I don't see how people here lose to DS, I'm 15-0 so far against all variants, counter delve spells, sundering titan is a house against them too. wurmcoil engine blocks ds and delve threats efficiently, a resolved chalice on one and not letting them resolve k-command basically wins the game. Penza is basically an auto-lose. you can have hope but main deck blood moon and 4-8 ld spells basically ends us, they can also play their big threats faster than us all while destroying our lands. Burn i find to be a tough but winnable matchup, chalice is our real powerhouse here, along with chalice on one and wurmcoil engine.