Just posted a $200 budget Mono-U video. I got to try out Tempest Djinn in the sideboard and was impressed. Of course, it's no Thing in the Ice and certainly can't deal with a swarm of creatures, but being able to block effectively the turn it comes down (often discouraging the opponent from attacking at all) and being able to attack without casting a bunch of spells first are substantial upsides. It also justifies the budget manabase that includes 22 basic Islands, which is great when first getting into the deck.
Nice, your list looks sweet! I feel like you have a lot of colorless sources for a deck with Gigadrowse, Cryptic Command, and Boomerang, but I suppose that Field of Ruin is basically an Island when you need it to be. And Twisted Image is some amazing tech for if those 0/Xs start picking up meta share. Thanks for the reminder about that card!
I have won more thanks to Field of Ruin than I have lost because of the lack of colored sources, but it happens
@Rasselas, Got the list from a guy that top 8 an open sometime recently, don’t rememeber the name. thought it looked awesome, and I had most of the cards already. Switched howling mine for search for azcanta. Sideboard is all my own concoction, with the help of these forums and my own experience.
Your list looks sweet! I feel like 4 colorless sources is a little on the high side for a deck that has Gigadrowse and Cryptic. Personally I'd swap out Inkmoth for a basic Island (unless your meta has tons of Soul Sisters or infinite life) because I think the advantage you get from one extra copy of Gigadrowse is often more helpful than the advantage you get from having an Infect land available. How are Spreading Seas and Devastation Tide out of the sideboard? Those are the cards that strike me as not commonly played, and I'm curious if they're working well for you.
It is a rare occasion where I flood with my colorless lands. It has happened though. I’ve won more games through my utility lands then lost from not having blue sources. Sometimes the turns run out, shorter clock, flying and ability to ignore life gain shenanigans on inkmoth is sometimes just needed. 4 colorless sources feel perfect. No gq, I can’t afford to sac my own land. FoR seems slow. Spreading seas is cheaper and draws a card. It’s worked well for me when used. Haven’t used it a ton. Devastation tide I haven’t been able to use much. It bought me a turn against dredge one game, and loaded their hand for a conflag the next. I was dead that game anyways. It’s a tough match. Looking to answers for decks that load the board fast like spirits, humans, hardened scales, green devotion, etc. when they outpace my gigadrowse it feels like a decent option.
Thanks for the info you two. Really appreciate hearing lots of experiences and opinions!
FNM at the lgs. 29 players. 4-1 for 3rd place with mono U Turns.
Round 1 1-2 Hardened scales affinity.
Closer then I expected. G1 I couldn’t find answers, and worker, scales, worker, Ravager, ballista did me in. G2 answers flowed and I won. Learned that if you cryptic command to tap team and bounce creature, and they sac targeted creature, tap portion fizzles as well. Good to know. G3 was really close, and I felt like I was ready to pull it out. I got a few turns going with a ratchet bomb on 2, ready to blow up his board of 2 Ravagers, overseer, hardened scales, and mox. Ran out of gas, he sacs everything to the ravagers, takes me to 5. I cryptic bounce his ravAgers, and drew turds until th ravager came back and killed me.
R2 2-0 RU prowess deck
I saw some swiftspears and a RU flying, haste, prowess wizard with electrolyze, opt and forked bolts. Other then that gigadrowse and exhaustion kept him from playing much before going off.
R3 2-1 Green devotion, tooth and nail
G1 He played a couple enchantments in a land, cast a spell, cryptic command, counter, bounce enchanted land. He tried to beat me down with BTE. G2 think I never got a dictate this game, he eventually got enough on board to tooth and nail me. G3 was like G1.
R4 mono B devotion
G1 he played a couple gifted aetherborn, I played some gigadrowse and exhaustion, take some turns. G2 he was stuck on 1 lands for a few turns, and he watched me take a bunch.
R5 UW control
G1 and 2 were pretty much the same. I put search for azcanta down t2, followed by some draw go for a few turns. I gigadrowse his lands during his end step when I’m ready to go off. He was playing on his phone the whole time, salty he didn’t get to play magic. Bro, you are playing straight control, how are you going to say anything?
Deck was great. Still trying to get reps and see as many match ups as I can, shape my sideboard. Maybe it’s time to finally get mtgo, for the experience.
Thanks for the report! Glad to hear you're finding success with the deck. Hardened Scales seems like a tough matchup, though. I really haven't found a good solution to it yet. Even cards like Hurkyl's Recall don't seem to do enough against them.
Your sideboard seems solid to me. Obviously, it depends on what the meta you're playing in looks like, but it seems like you have your bases covered. Lots of anti-aggro in Timely, (kind of) EE, Thing, Terminus, some graveyard interaction, and some stack interaction in Spell Pierce. Personally I prefer Negate over Spell Pierce, since in Modern it's common for players to build up more mana than they need (for example, Ad Nauseam, Scapeshift, and Amulet Titan all have ways to get tons of mana), but it's certainly a lot more difficult to hold up two mana for Negate than just one for Spell Pierce.
@Rasselas, Got the list from a guy that top 8 an open sometime recently, don’t rememeber the name. thought it looked awesome, and I had most of the cards already. Switched howling mine for search for azcanta. Sideboard is all my own concoction, with the help of these forums and my own experience.
Your list looks sweet! I feel like 4 colorless sources is a little on the high side for a deck that has Gigadrowse and Cryptic. Personally I'd swap out Inkmoth for a basic Island (unless your meta has tons of Soul Sisters or infinite life) because I think the advantage you get from one extra copy of Gigadrowse is often more helpful than the advantage you get from having an Infect land available. How are Spreading Seas and Devastation Tide out of the sideboard? Those are the cards that strike me as not commonly played, and I'm curious if they're working well for you.
Also, I just posted a Blue-Black Turns video! It's pretty much my list from GP Hartford 2018 with one sideboard card swapped.
Just watched the video yesterday, and it was awesome as always! I really like how you talk out your paths to winning.. That's something that i've tried to get into the practice of doing. It is so easy to just draw seven cards and play, but if you know what you're working towards you make better decisions!
I will say that you definitely make the deck look easy..
Would love to hear your thoughts Daniel or even see a video potentially about Sultai Reclamation and how to improve the deck from where it currently is. The deck plays a lot like Taking Turns from my experience so far, so you would probably find it easy to pick up and play
Thanks for the support! Thinking through your possible options is a really important part of becoming a better Magic player in general (and also a better person, but I digress). I think I need to work on the actual execution part, as you can tell by my several incorrect inputs that caused me to pass the turn a few times. I'm working on the whole multitasking thing! Anyway, Sultai Reclamation looks really sweet. As they're currently built, they're definitely more control-y than current Turns builds, and from what I've watched of the deck, it leans on Creeping Tar Pit and Snapcaster Mage to actually win. I'll probably make a video of it in the future, but I'd really like to get some reps in to feel comfortable casting Mystical Teachings first. Knowing your options with tutors can be really difficult!
Took me a while, but I took this list (only missing foil Jace, Time Warp, Exhaustion and Chalice/Surgical in foil) to a 7-1 (+2 ID's) finish in side events at GP Straatsburg. Also finished 3-1 in my last FNM. Ended up with 4 boxes for my troubles
My wins:
Tron (2x) (number of Karns commandeered: 1)
Dredge (2x)
Titan (Exhaustion!)
Lantern
Burn (got lucky)
U/R Living End with As Foretold (Chalice on 0)
B/G Elves
Eldrazi Tron
My losses:
Merfolk and Esper Tempo(Aether Vial + Queller, Deputy of Detention, Kitesail Freebooter...)
Also beat the living crap out of U/W Control and U/R Phoenix in casual games.
The current meta has some good vibes going on for Taking Turns. Humans and Spirits being pushed out by U/R Phoenix and Dredge, who have way worse interaction and need to (mostly) attack to win is very favorable. The rise of Death's Shadow and burn are less ideal, as is the decline of U/W Control.
I also keep my faith in Mono-U for now. It is consistent, has Field of Ruin and hardly loses to itself (and almost foil). I often find 1 dismember to be enough to make a difference and I get lucky enough to have a shot in the worse match ups.
I would consider 1 twisting image if Thing in the Ice, Hierarch and Spellskite show up (even) more often. It is a modest common, so should be easy to test. Next stop: MKM Ghent in april.
Nice, your list looks sweet! I feel like you have a lot of colorless sources for a deck with Gigadrowse, Cryptic Command, and Boomerang, but I suppose that Field of Ruin is basically an Island when you need it to be. And Twisted Image is some amazing tech for if those 0/Xs start picking up meta share. Thanks for the reminder about that card!
Never had issues with running out of cards, always have plenty of draw. I am considering shifting the 3x Snapcaster Mage to 3x Mission Briefing for the dig as well as being able to use the Ancestral Visions a second time. The win condition of Snappies has been great though and being able to block in addition to the flashback has been extremely beneficial.
I play a mono blue version of the deck (not frequently enough because of work :frown::frown: ) and took it to a side event at the MagicFest Strasbourg last weekend.
I played 2-1 in 3 rounds of Swiss and went against Merfolk (0-2), UW Midrange (2-1) and Burn (2-1). Thanks to 2 maindeck Radiant Fountain and 4 SB Dragon's claw I didn't fear the Burn matchup too much. As it turned out the event was overrun by Burn
Here's my decklist and along with a small report (here).
How is the Phoenix Matchup for you guys? I haven't played against them so far with Turns.
Thanks for posting your decklist and report. Looks sweet! How have the Spreading Seas been? I can see them being strong in the right meta, but I'm not sure if many places have that meta right now. The Phonex matchup has been pretty close to even for me, but a lot of my losses have been due to my own misplays. They don't have a lot of countermagic game 1 (usually 0 - 2 Izzet Charm as the only counters), so you can do things like hold up Cryptic Command with relatively little fear of it being countered. In my experience, if the opponent has a very fast start (like turn 3 flipped Thing in the Ice, or turn 2 two Phoenixes), then the game is incredibly difficult. When their starts are much slower (turn 3 single Phoenix, or you kill their Thing in the Ice), it can be hard for them to kill you before you go off.
Thanks for reply!
I agree with you, Spreading Seas didn't feel very good this time around. It excels if there's a lot of Big Mana decks and 3-color decks. I plan to replace it with Remand, bounce spells or maybe I splash a color for removal like (bolt, push or path). All cards I consider to replace Spreading Seas with are instants (or sorceries), which is also nice for the post board Thing in the Ices.
Round 1 I played my friend and his mono green devotion superfriends home brew deck. Won 2-0.
Round 2 was eldrazi stompy. Won 2-1.
Round 3 we decided to split, we were the only 2 2-0. Not sure what he was playing, he left quick after collecting his winnings. There was a Temur scapeshift, monoblack devotion, and Abzan decks at the event
Thanks you three for the replies! Always good to get more perspectives
Played in a saturday event at the LGS. 8 people showed. I experimented with removing a snap and the 4th remand for 2 boomerang main.
Round 1 2-0 vs RUG scapeshift
Round 2 0-2 vs Bant spirits. 3 aether vials turns 1 and 2 led to disaster. Round 2 i got a few turns going, but couldnt get any extra draw to build anything.
2 dredge decks, 2 burn decks, 2 spirits, scapeshift and my mono U turns made up the line up
Boomerangs were ok, cyclonic rift may be better for the early/late game potential. 2nd snap out feels wrong, but didnt seem to hurt. Just trying to shore up the early game weakness. Spirits was rough. Brought in 2 devastation tide, and a ratchet bomb from the side. Didnt see any of them. Maybe another ratchet bomb would help?
My intuition is that Ratchet Bomb is too slow (cast it on T2, tick it up T2, T3, blow it up X=2 on T4 or X=3 on T5), but I'm not sure. Interaction is definitely necessary, and it might be among the best you can do in mono-U.
Thanks JPoJhonson, after seeing your code, I realized its similarities to the export function of my saved decks, so this was pretty easy!
Like I said, this is mostly just a fusion of Wong's and Stein's lists, but the changes I made are the addition of Minamo, School at Water's Edge in the main (over a basic) and exchanging the Howling Mine with Search for Azcanta, which is a bit risky I think, but I really want to try out, if it works out well. So feedback on my changes and the Lightning Axe in the Sideboard would be nice! Other Sideboard-Options I'm thinking of: Entrancing Melody or even one or two white cards such as RIP.
@JetterBetter: I think Grafdigger's Cage should be fine in those matchups (storm often uses Gifts Ungiven to win, and without all the Flashback, they will probably have a hard time gathering enough resources to get lethal) while also randomly hating on other decks like Creatures Toolbox.
Hey @TheRematcher! Your list looks solid to me. Minamo is a reasonable choice in many metas, since it's mostly better than an Island, but it does make the deck weaker to nonbasic hate like Fulminator Mage or Blood Moon. Just something to be aware of! For Howling Mine versus Azcanta, I prefer Howling Mine because this deck needs card quantity more than card quality, so just drawing more cards is what I'd rather be doing. However, it's still a good idea to try out new things, especially if Howling Mine's downside is particularly bad in your meta (decks like Burn, Infect, Elves, and Dredge are way better when a Mine is in play). One change I'd recommend making is replacing the Hallowed Fountain with Watery Grave because of Surgical Extraction in the sideboard. Unlike the fetchland split which doesn't really matter, paying or not paying 2 life for Surgical can make a huge difference in close games against Dredge or Phoenix. Another thing to consider is more interaction with the stack - a card like Negate, Logic Knot, or Delay - but that's very meta dependent so it's not necessary by any means. I'd also advise against adding white cards like Rest in Peace unless you massively change the manabase. Frank Karsten's article recommends 13 white sources to consistently cast a 1W card like Rest in Peace or Stony Silence, and having 5 fetchlands plus a Hallowed Fountain just won't cut it.
While the scry mode of azcanta is very nice, I usually like it flipping in to an extra land. It helps power into the lands needed to chain turns, or be able to multi spell and try and gain advantages, or dig for the clutch answer. Flipping it is sometimes a chore, we don’t load up the graveyard a ton, and temporal and PTW get exiled on cast, along with snap targets. And it is a “May” flip, so it can stay in search mode
I haven’t looked back since taking the howling mines out. Dictate+Jace+Azcanta to go with remands and cryptic seems to usually have me where I need to be without gassing my opponent up.
I like your take on Search for Azcanta. It really isn't a Howling Mine, but it does have a lot of upsides that Mine doesn't. I suppose they're pretty different cards and it isn't necessarily right to compare them directly.
Also, I just posted a Blue-Black Turns video! It's pretty much my list from GP Hartford 2018 with one sideboard card swapped.
Congrats on the recent 5-0! I like that you tested out the Chalice in the SB. How was it for you and when siding them in how many of your own 1 drops did you cut when doing so?
Good luck at the GP next weekend (I think I recall you saying you will be there). I will be taking turns in Calgary next month.
Thanks! So far Chalice has been underwhelming for me, but I'm not sure if that's just a MODO meta thing. I usually side out 2-3 cantrips when boarding it in if I expected to put Chalice on 1. Thanks for the support, hope to see you at Calgary!
@timewalkin haven’t played the deck much competitively yet, so It’s coming together. Spellskites are theoretically for infect and burn matchups. My problem seems to be I never want to sideboard anything out. Or not a problem, the deck usually runs well when playing against my friends.
That makes a lot more sense. Spellskite seems like a good option in those matchups. Based on your deck, I think Remand is a good candidate to board out, especially against decks like Burn or Infect that have a lot of very cheap spells they can just replay after the Remand.
Played at Friday modern last night and ended up going 2-1.
Matchups:
0-2 UR Phoenix
Deck just didn't deliver. That and my opponent having 3 flipped delvers to begin his third turn in the second match and this one hurt. I mulliganed poorly.
2-0 Affinity
Exhaustion into cryptic into snap exhaustion stalled him out in both games.
2-0 Storm
G1 a Disrupting Shoal on Past in Flames when I was tapped out won. G2 a Disrupting Shoal on a mana reducer won the game. a Gemstone cavern in this game also ramped me to 5 at a critical moment to win after he attempted to combo out for value to set up for the win the following turn. Came in clutch both games
I'll try the deck with an almost identical build again in two weeks when they have modern again. It was a blast to play.
Thanks for the report! I'm kind of curious about As Foretold builds, since I don't see those very often anymore. As Foretold solves the problem of mana, but not of cards like Dictate of Kruphix. Do you often find yourself running out of cards in hand? Or do Azcanta and Jace solve that problem? Also, I like the Disrupting Shoal with 7 cantrips! Seems like they work nicely together.
Hello everyone! Just wanted to touch base on a few different things..
In my free time this past week I have been experimenting a lot with the idea of Simic Turns and how to best go about building it.
I've watched a ton of videos and Twitch streams of Sultai Reclamation
The current list I've been toying with for reference:
Now obviously this is super rough around the edges, and needs more work..
So game one would be more control based (winning with Snapcaster beatdowns similar to the Sultan decks) - and then post sideboard you side in the value creatures like Tireless Tracker and Hydroid Krasis.
I'm interested to see what comes of Taking Turns now that Wilderness Reclamation has proven it's strength in Modern
This seems like a great starting point, but I agree it's rough around the edges. Does Wilderness Reclamation deserve to be a 4-of? It's not intuitive to me exactly how important it is to the deck. Also, I think 4x Field of Ruin is way too many if you're running cards like Growth Spiral that can't be cast off it. You should also get a Mikokoro in there, since it doubles as a wincon when you're untapping with it repeatedly and casting Nexus of Fate. I also don't know how I feel about Peer Through Depths not getting Wilderness Reclamation. Again, I just don't know how crucial Wilderness Reclamation is to the deck, but if it's as important as Dictate is to stock Turns builds, then you should probably run a different cantrip. Thanks for posting, I'm really curious to see how your list evolves!
My mono U build went 2-0-1 at the LGS Sunday modern event. Only 8 players, but I had fun, my opponents, not so much. 3 rounds, only me and 1 other guy were 2-0, so we drew and split. I took out 1 spreading seas, 1 Spellskite, and 2 negate from the sb for 2 boomerang, and 2 devastation tide. Still don’t ever sideboard much
Congrats and thanks for the quick report! What did you play against and what decks did you see at the event?
I also want to look into experimenting with Simic, but I'm definitely nowhere near ready to take a Simic list to a big tournament.
Yeah.. don't think enough testing has been done with green for it to be effective. I imagine you would have to change a lot of things to make it feel right.
One of my big questions for you was your gameplan when you play against spirits/burn in particular. I have been going to FNMs on and off and with repeated play testing against both, it seems awful. Do you have any tips?
Oh and quick side note - I just went to my LGS and my friend was saying that he came up and met you at the GP and played a few matches? Said he learned a lot from watching you!
Wish they would add coverage back, miss seeing you try to shuffle your deck haha
For Spirits, you need to interact. Mausoleum Wanderer is pretty much a kill-on-sight card, and after that, just try to manage their board by slowing their clock just enough for you to go off. You can often afford to not cast a spell into Spell Queller, and can even play around it when you're on the play by casting Dictate at their draw step before they play their third land. Be aware that Gigadrowse kills every Phantasmal Image it targets! Burn is an even more difficult matchup. Spend your Snapcaster Mages as Ambush Vipers and block whenever possible (though blocking Monastery Swiftspear sucks) because you're just trying to keep your life total high, not trying to grind value out of every card. If you're splashing red for Lightning Bolt, you can sometimes take advantage of your opponent's Eidolon hurting themself by turning the corner with a few Bolts and Snapcaster beats. I also generally avoid casting my Mine effects until the turn I'm about to go off in that matchup, because just jamming Howling Mine on turn 2 or Dictate on 3 is usually a recipe for disaster. Both of those matchups are tough, but they're both winnable!
I play a mono blue version of the deck (not frequently enough because of work :frown::frown: ) and took it to a side event at the MagicFest Strasbourg last weekend.
I played 2-1 in 3 rounds of Swiss and went against Merfolk (0-2), UW Midrange (2-1) and Burn (2-1). Thanks to 2 maindeck Radiant Fountain and 4 SB Dragon's claw I didn't fear the Burn matchup too much. As it turned out the event was overrun by Burn
Here's my decklist and along with a small report (here).
How is the Phoenix Matchup for you guys? I haven't played against them so far with Turns.
Thanks for posting your decklist and report. Looks sweet! How have the Spreading Seas been? I can see them being strong in the right meta, but I'm not sure if many places have that meta right now. The Phonex matchup has been pretty close to even for me, but a lot of my losses have been due to my own misplays. They don't have a lot of countermagic game 1 (usually 0 - 2 Izzet Charm as the only counters), so you can do things like hold up Cryptic Command with relatively little fear of it being countered. In my experience, if the opponent has a very fast start (like turn 3 flipped Thing in the Ice, or turn 2 two Phoenixes), then the game is incredibly difficult. When their starts are much slower (turn 3 single Phoenix, or you kill their Thing in the Ice), it can be hard for them to kill you before you go off.
Thanks for posting! Your mono-U list looks solid. I don't fully understand what the Spellskites out of the board are for though. Protecting Dictate? If protecting your Mine effect is the goal, it's probably better to just add Howling Mine or Font of Mythos. That way, if you draw your sideboard card but not your Dictate, you still get a benefit out of it.
Congrats to pignorton! The list seems a little rough around the edges at first glance to me. 4 Breeding Pool looks like too many to me, as does 4 Search for Azcanta. Having your green sources be Forests is pretty important for Utopia Sprawl, though, so maybe that manabase is necessary? The lack of Mikokoro (which doubles as a wincon when infinite looping with Nexus) is strange. It also seems weird to use Thought Scour over Opt as a cantrip when the main upside is deck thinning for Nexus, in contrast to other decks that use Thought Scour for things like binning Arclight Phoenix or feeding Gurmag Anglers. But still, this deck is full of cool ideas, like lots of mana ramp, and Haze of Pollen! Congrats to pignorton for doing so well with the deck!
So awesome! Congratulations Dan! If we could only duplicate you 3 or 4 times maybe this deck would be considered Tier 1 haha
I've been super busy lately (just got my nursing license and start working next week!) so I haven't had too much time for magic lately but I plan on working on the forum again. Lots of changes to add as Simic Turns and Bant are getting a lot more love!
I plan on playing this weekend at a small PPTQ at our local shop with UR. Eventually I want to start experimenting with growth spiral and whatnot and maybe try that Wilderness Teachings deck
Just figured i'd update everyone!
Thanks! As Mat helped prove, our deck really has what it takes to compete. The two of us were both playing in the feature match area in round 15 for our win-and-in for top 8, and what a crazy world it would be if we had both won our matches to put 2 copies of UR Turns into the top 8! I think that would have convinced quite a few people to give it a try! Good luck with your personal life - I have a few friends in nursing and know it can be challenging and stressful, but as I understand it's also very rewarding. And good luck in your PPTQ! I also want to look into experimenting with Simic, but I'm definitely nowhere near ready to take a Simic list to a big tournament.
I think the deck is competitive: need only more player with it in big tournament.
Good Job again Daniel!
Thanks! I'm actually really glad that Mat did so well with the deck too! It gives some reassurance that it's not just one maniac taking the deck to a bunch of GPs and getting lucky every once in a while, it's a deck that has the power level to compete at large tournaments. Hopefully this inspires other Taking Turns players to try the deck at a big event!
Congrats to you both! I was hesitant to play this deck with all the burn hype without chalice. But I thought chalice would disrupt the bolt strat to much (Mat proved me wrong!).
While I never like to "meta game" modern I was expecting burn in high numbers. Modern being as it is maybe I should have just ran it out there (with chalice).
If I can make Calgary I will take turns.
Grand Prix are extremely open and hard to metagame for. There were 1318 competitors at GP Toronto, and even if 10% of them were on Burn (132 players on the same deck? That's insane!), you'd play against Burn on average 1.5 times out of 15 matches. It's just not worth metagaming against a single deck when the field is as diverse as it is in Modern.
A user on reddit, trainowns, just posted a Simic turns list featuring Wilderness Reclamation and Nexus of Fate! Post on /r/TurnsMTG, on /r/Spikes, and decklist on MTG Goldfish.
It's somewhat different from a traditional Turns list, leaning more on Pull from Tomorrow rather than Howling Mine effects to really draw through your deck. Very interesting brew!
The league went really poorly. I made a few misplays and we had some pretty bad luck in some of our draws. Probably the worst part though is that our sideboard was pretty poorly positioned for the matchups we got! I hope to make another UW Turns deck in the future to better show off what it can do.
I have one more trick that came up several times during the league, which is playing around your opponent's Cryptic Command with Dictate of Kruphix. Normally, we just flash in Dictate at our opponent's end step once we have 3 mana available. However, if we're on the draw and suspect that the opponent has Cryptic Command in hand, this turns out very poorly for us because they'll have Cryptic Command online by then. The opponent can counter the Dictate and bounce one of our lands, putting us very far behind. To play around this, you can cast Dictate during the opponent's draw step. The opponent will only have 3 mana available at that point, and they won't draw an extra card off Dictate that turn because the beginning of the draw step already happened. The opponent will still have options with their Cryptic, but those options are much worse than counter-bounce. Do note that this play is vulnerable to 2-mana counterspells like Logic Knot or Mana Leak, and also vulnerable to Detention Spehere. Still, it's a good trick to know about!
@Timewalkinonsunshine, just finished watching your video last night! You were so incredibly lucky with that Gemstone Caverns lol! I couldn't believe it
So as I mentioned on your video - I think I may take a break from Jeskai after only going 5-3 (then dropped) at Starcity Worcester this weekend
I had a lot of really strong games and from them I think I would make the following changes
I think I would switch to 3 Path, 2 Bolt. My reasoning was that unlike a solid UR build where the 4x bolt are intended to just win quicker.. I found that bolt wasn't really that important to my gameplan and having a clean answer to any creature in the form of Path was more important..
I would definitely get rid of Geist of Saint Traft in the sidebaord as it did nothing for me (like you mentioned in the video, it is just a 2/2 that can be blocked)... That being said I lost to him in two rounds back to back and was so mad that I didn't have an answer lol - I did like Vendilion Clique though however. It kind of ran away with the game a few times because I was able to take their only creature removal interaction and then attack them down quickly... Potential considerations for replacing Geist would be: A second vendilion clique, just doing 2x Crackling drake and dropping Vendilion Clique altogether, or Young Pyromancer
Definitely would change the land base, running more basics and then possibly Prairie Stream, and more buddy lands.. Was also considering running no fetches similar to storm however that would make the idea of a "perfect mana base" a lot more difficult
These are just of my ranting opinions from playing..! Definitely felt more like a control deck that can just spiral out of control into a combo then a straight Taking Turns build.. I would do UR but I feel like against creature decks you just watch them put ten creatures down and pray you can Anger of the Gods in time lol
All of those things seem reasonable. Hope you enjoy your next deck!
A 3 Path - 2 Bolt split seems reasonable, though it's making me wonder at what point is it just better to play straight up UW and have a better manabase.
I definitely imagined Geist of Saint Traft being way better than it was in practice. That's why we playtest though, gotta learn somehow!
I think if you're going straight-up UW, it becomes much easier to make a manabase that's not very painful.
I have a few minor nitpicks about the rules section in the primer. I'll include references to the comprehensive rules because I like rules.
This is important because when drawing multiple cards a turn with Dictate or Howling Mine, you would reveal the first card separate and have the opportunity to cast it BEFORE drawing the remaining cards.
This is only true if you want it to be. There's a lot to unpack here, so I'm going to go through everything step-by-step. First of all, everything I'm about to talk about takes place in the draw step.
Both Howling Mine and Dictate of Kruphix have triggered abilities that trigger "At the beginning of each player's draw step", which means those abilities will go on the stack and resolve during the draw step.
The first card that you will draw in your draw step is the "card for turn". See rules 504.1 and 504.2: "First, the active player draws a card. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack." and "Second, the active player gets priority. (See rule 116, “Timing and Priority.”)".
The key here is that triggered abilities will go onto the stack after you've drawn your card for turn. See rule 603.3: "Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority...".
If the card you've drawn for turn has Miracle, then you have multiple triggers trying to go on the stack at the same time (the Miracle trigger and the Dictate/Howling Mine trigger(s)). Because you have multiple triggers to put on the stack, you choose the order. See rule 603.3b: "If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities they control on the stack in any order they choose...".
If you choose to put the Miracle trigger on the bottom of the stack, then the Dictate/Howling Mine trigger(s) will resolve before the Miracle. You will draw your Dictate/Howling Mine card(s) before casting the Miracle card.
If you choose to put the Miracle trigger on the top of the stack, then you will cast the Miracle card before drawing the Dictate/Howling Mine cards.
Typically, it's strategically better to draw cards before casting the Miracle card because you can draw into Commandeer or a counterspell that can protect the Miracle card. However, if you expect that your opponent will do something like target you with Vendilion Clique in response to the Miracle trigger while you don't have access to interaction, it's better to put the Miracle trigger on the top of the stack so that your opponent will look at fewer cards with Vendilion Clique and have less information.
Now for the super pedantic one:
Logic Knot tries to resolve, but is countered on resolution because it no longer has a legal target, and it's removed from the stack
This used to be true, but with the Dominaria rules update, the spell is not considered to be "countered". It still goes to the graveyard without having any effect, aka "fizzles". The difference doesn't matter in the context of Modern because the only card that cares about this rules change, Multani's Presence, is not Modern legal. Still, I like spreading accurate information!
I also have a suggestion: Tips & Tricks! There are a few things that are good candidates for a Tips & Tricks section that you mention briefly in some parts of the primer, but I think it's good to have a compilation. Here's a few things that would be right at home there:
Because Dictate of Kruphix triggers at draw step, you can flash it in at your upkeep and draw an extra card in that same turn. This is especially useful when you know you will Miracle a Temporal Mastery and have 5 or more mana available at your upkeep.
You can tap your own Howling Mine (among the other permanents you tap) with Gigadrowse at your opponent's upkeep to prevent your opponent from drawing a card for Howling Mine.
You can target multiple Phantasmal Images with Gigadrowse to kill them all.
You can resolve the copies of Gigadrowse through a Chalice of the Void on 1. (This is in the section on Gigadrowse already but deserves a mention)
You can use Commandeer on most counterspells and have them target Commandeer and they will fizzle. This means that you won't have to, for example, pay the mana at upkeep on Pact of Negation. Note that you cannot use Commandeer in this way on counterspells that can't target Commandeer, such as Spell Snare or Warping Wail.
You can use Commandeer as an expensive Force of Will for many noncreature spells, such as Collected Company or Postmortem Lunge. Note that this won't work for symmetric effects like Blood Moon, Chalice of the Void, or Living End.
You can use Jace's -1 ability or Cryptic Command to bounce your own Snapcaster Mage and continue your Time Walk chain. Just make sure that you don't run into a removal spell for Snapcaster Mage in response to your bounce!
There's a bunch more cool and non-obvious things, but the other ones I can think of right now are pretty specific to my build (such as using Surgical Extraction on your own instant or sorcery to pump a Crackling Drake). Anyway, great job on the primer! I really appreciate your hard work and I'm sure many other time walkers do too.
For the UR turns, will Magmatic Insight be good as serum #5~8 or even as a mine replacement? UR turns seems to be more tempo than combo and having more cards earlier seems to be better. Or is it on par with AV and thus not needed for the deck?
Magmatic Insight is not as good as the other cantrip options like Opt or Sleight of Hand. Because red is a splash, it is far more difficult to have red mana in the early turns (when you want to be cantripping) than blue mana. It also doesn't necessarily help you hit land drops when you need them. I know I've kept my fair share of two land hands hoping for a third land drop to Dictate, and Magmatic Insight isn't great in that spot. Magmatic Insight is also nowhere close to a Mine replacement. Magmatic Insight is card neutral, while Howling Mine is card positive by your second turn with it on the battlefield and continues to be card positive as you combo off.
I would add a 23rd land to the deck. Land drops are really important to hit, especially in a deck playing cards costing 5+ mana, and I've found 23 to be the sweet spot. If you add a UW land like Glacial Fortress, this also puts you at 11 white mana sources, which I would say is the bare minimum you should play to consistently cast cards like Stony Silence. Frank Karsten's article recommends 13 white sources to cast a 1W spell like Stony Silence and 16 to cast a 2WW spell like Supreme Verdict (I'm assuming that blue is a freebie there). While 16 is a lot and you can kind of get away with skimping there because you have Serum Visions and Dictates to see more cards by turn 4, I'd still recommend at the very least going to 11 white sources, and even that is kind of low for Supreme Verdict. The easiest candidate here to cut is Spell Pierce, but it's up to you how that card feels in testing.
I don't like the lack of Thing in the Ice in the sideboard. TitI is one of the best ways to slow down an aggro opponent and also close out the game. I'd recommend at least 2 over the Vendilion Clique and Celestial Purge. I'm not really sure what Celestial Purge is meant to hit here, but I feel like there are better options.
Good luck, I hope the double splash works out for you!
Congrats on the finish, and thanks for posting! Dragonmaster Outcast is quite the spicy inclusion. I'd like to offer a dissenting opinion about this though:
Blood moon was great every time. It can be awkward with your gigadrowse and mikikoro but it puts the opp way behind.
I admit that I only tested Blood Moon out briefly, but for me it was extremely terrible. My opponents often had enough basics to operate on (just 1 or 2 was fine for them), so I couldn't actually color screw them, and the negative interaction with Gigadrowse, Cryptic Command, and Snapcaster (its not easy to get 2UUUU for Snap-Cryptic) was worse than the impact it had on my opponents, in my opinion. One example is this match against Grishoalbrand. While not the best example, here is Blood Moon immediately eating a Nature's Claim against Scapeshift in a sideboard game because that's a card they're bringing in against us anyway. Last example is getting killed through a Blood Moon by Pyromancer Ascension storm while we were shields down because we only had two Islands and a Cryptic in hand. I fully admit that I haven't played it much other than this, but this experience is still enough that I have huge doubts about how effective Blood Moon really is.
I cried and cried to wizards for an instant speed rampant growth. Merry Xmas! Draw is better than search anyway.
Why even run dictate when there's stuff like opt, remand, cryptic, and this. Those are all nice instant speed cantrips for temporal mastery. Which Jace can enable very quickly if you get unlucky.
Just a stupid amount of draw. It's only a rough draft but it's been decent. Leaving up fog Mana for Jace on turn 4 while leaving up counter Mana leading up to it is a strong effect to go off on turn 5 while having disruption. And when I say go off I mean take 3 turns in a row with a bunch of scry and draw
I can't tell if the "Why even run dictate" was rhetorical or not, but I'll assume it wasn't. The reason for Dictate is to draw a card not once, but every time you take an extra turn. In a deck with this many Time Walks, you need to be doing something productive on those extra turns, otherwise you're just casting expensive Explores. I suppose that having a Planeswalker like Nissa or Jace fills that role, but Planeswalkers tend to die a lot more easily than Enchantments. In this particular build, you'd probably rather spend turn 3 holding up either Remand or Dictate, rather than on your turn choosing between Nissa and Remand.
As for a green splash in general, it looks reasonably powerful, but with the same weakness as mono-blue: you just don't have good interaction for things on board. If the opponent resolves something like Thalia, or Mausoleum Wanderer, or Meddling Mage, there's just not a lot you can do about it. In particular, the counterspells in Remand and Cryptic Command line up particularly poorly against decks running both Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial. Splashing red or black or white lets you solve that issue with Bolt or Push or Path, but green gives you no such interaction. I definitely think it's worth testing out, and it's really cool that Growth Spiral lets you go off a turn earlier, but overall I think it's unlikely that a green splash will prove to be more powerful than any other splash.
Figured I'd post my current status on Jeskai turns! I'm loving it so far. It plays the same as UR in the first game but has the strength of white after side boarding..
If you don't mind @Timewalkinonsunshine.. how does this land base look?
This manabase looks pretty good, but I have a few suggestions. I'd recommend another UW source (perhaps Glacial Fortress) as a 23rd land, both to up the white source count to 11 and to up the total number of lands to 23. As-is, the manabase has 11 red sources (7 fetches, 2 Steam Vents, 1 Temple of Epiphany, 1 Sulfur Falls) and 10 white sources (7 fetches, 1 Hallowed Fountain, 1 Prairie Stream, 1 Glacial Fortress). As discussed before, 11 is an ideal target to aim for to cast your Rest in Peace and Stony Silence on time in this deck, which is why I think one more UW source is ideal.
This is something easy to miss but pretty important: Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Flooded Strand are all better than Arid Mesa in this deck. This is because all of your fetchable lands are blue, so any blue fetchland gets all your fetchable lands (basic Island, Hallowed Fountain, Prairie Stream, Steam Vents), but Arid Mesa does not get basic Island! A better split might be 2 Scalding Tarn, 1 Misty Rainforest, 2 Polluted Delta, 2 Flooded Strand.
Unrelated to the other discussions, I posted a new UR Turns video! This is the list I played at GP Portland, where I finished at an extremely disappointing 4-3 drop. At the GP, I definitely attribute at least two of my losses to my own misplays, while the third was mostly some rough draws. It's unfortunate to make match-losing mistakes at a high-level tournament, but that's all part of being human. I'm hoping to play something very similar at GP Oakland in a few weeks with much tighter play!
Thanks for the info you two. Really appreciate hearing lots of experiences and opinions!
Thanks for the report! Glad to hear you're finding success with the deck. Hardened Scales seems like a tough matchup, though. I really haven't found a good solution to it yet. Even cards like Hurkyl's Recall don't seem to do enough against them.
Your list looks sweet! I feel like 4 colorless sources is a little on the high side for a deck that has Gigadrowse and Cryptic. Personally I'd swap out Inkmoth for a basic Island (unless your meta has tons of Soul Sisters or infinite life) because I think the advantage you get from one extra copy of Gigadrowse is often more helpful than the advantage you get from having an Infect land available. How are Spreading Seas and Devastation Tide out of the sideboard? Those are the cards that strike me as not commonly played, and I'm curious if they're working well for you.
Thanks for the support! Thinking through your possible options is a really important part of becoming a better Magic player in general (and also a better person, but I digress). I think I need to work on the actual execution part, as you can tell by my several incorrect inputs that caused me to pass the turn a few times. I'm working on the whole multitasking thing! Anyway, Sultai Reclamation looks really sweet. As they're currently built, they're definitely more control-y than current Turns builds, and from what I've watched of the deck, it leans on Creeping Tar Pit and Snapcaster Mage to actually win. I'll probably make a video of it in the future, but I'd really like to get some reps in to feel comfortable casting Mystical Teachings first. Knowing your options with tutors can be really difficult!
Nice, your list looks sweet! I feel like you have a lot of colorless sources for a deck with Gigadrowse, Cryptic Command, and Boomerang, but I suppose that Field of Ruin is basically an Island when you need it to be. And Twisted Image is some amazing tech for if those 0/Xs start picking up meta share. Thanks for the reminder about that card!
My intuition is that Ratchet Bomb is too slow (cast it on T2, tick it up T2, T3, blow it up X=2 on T4 or X=3 on T5), but I'm not sure. Interaction is definitely necessary, and it might be among the best you can do in mono-U.
Hey @TheRematcher! Your list looks solid to me. Minamo is a reasonable choice in many metas, since it's mostly better than an Island, but it does make the deck weaker to nonbasic hate like Fulminator Mage or Blood Moon. Just something to be aware of! For Howling Mine versus Azcanta, I prefer Howling Mine because this deck needs card quantity more than card quality, so just drawing more cards is what I'd rather be doing. However, it's still a good idea to try out new things, especially if Howling Mine's downside is particularly bad in your meta (decks like Burn, Infect, Elves, and Dredge are way better when a Mine is in play). One change I'd recommend making is replacing the Hallowed Fountain with Watery Grave because of Surgical Extraction in the sideboard. Unlike the fetchland split which doesn't really matter, paying or not paying 2 life for Surgical can make a huge difference in close games against Dredge or Phoenix. Another thing to consider is more interaction with the stack - a card like Negate, Logic Knot, or Delay - but that's very meta dependent so it's not necessary by any means. I'd also advise against adding white cards like Rest in Peace unless you massively change the manabase. Frank Karsten's article recommends 13 white sources to consistently cast a 1W card like Rest in Peace or Stony Silence, and having 5 fetchlands plus a Hallowed Fountain just won't cut it.
I like your take on Search for Azcanta. It really isn't a Howling Mine, but it does have a lot of upsides that Mine doesn't. I suppose they're pretty different cards and it isn't necessarily right to compare them directly.
Also, I just posted a Blue-Black Turns video! It's pretty much my list from GP Hartford 2018 with one sideboard card swapped.
That makes a lot more sense. Spellskite seems like a good option in those matchups. Based on your deck, I think Remand is a good candidate to board out, especially against decks like Burn or Infect that have a lot of very cheap spells they can just replay after the Remand.Thanks for the report! I'm kind of curious about As Foretold builds, since I don't see those very often anymore. As Foretold solves the problem of mana, but not of cards like Dictate of Kruphix. Do you often find yourself running out of cards in hand? Or do Azcanta and Jace solve that problem? Also, I like the Disrupting Shoal with 7 cantrips! Seems like they work nicely together.
This seems like a great starting point, but I agree it's rough around the edges. Does Wilderness Reclamation deserve to be a 4-of? It's not intuitive to me exactly how important it is to the deck. Also, I think 4x Field of Ruin is way too many if you're running cards like Growth Spiral that can't be cast off it. You should also get a Mikokoro in there, since it doubles as a wincon when you're untapping with it repeatedly and casting Nexus of Fate. I also don't know how I feel about Peer Through Depths not getting Wilderness Reclamation. Again, I just don't know how crucial Wilderness Reclamation is to the deck, but if it's as important as Dictate is to stock Turns builds, then you should probably run a different cantrip. Thanks for posting, I'm really curious to see how your list evolves!
Congrats and thanks for the quick report! What did you play against and what decks did you see at the event?
Thanks for posting your decklist and report. Looks sweet! How have the Spreading Seas been? I can see them being strong in the right meta, but I'm not sure if many places have that meta right now. The Phonex matchup has been pretty close to even for me, but a lot of my losses have been due to my own misplays. They don't have a lot of countermagic game 1 (usually 0 - 2 Izzet Charm as the only counters), so you can do things like hold up Cryptic Command with relatively little fear of it being countered. In my experience, if the opponent has a very fast start (like turn 3 flipped Thing in the Ice, or turn 2 two Phoenixes), then the game is incredibly difficult. When their starts are much slower (turn 3 single Phoenix, or you kill their Thing in the Ice), it can be hard for them to kill you before you go off.
Thanks for posting! Your mono-U list looks solid. I don't fully understand what the Spellskites out of the board are for though. Protecting Dictate? If protecting your Mine effect is the goal, it's probably better to just add Howling Mine or Font of Mythos. That way, if you draw your sideboard card but not your Dictate, you still get a benefit out of it.
The other thing that I wanted to talk about is Simic lists! pignorton recently 5-0'd a league with a Simic Wilderness Reclamation Nexus of Fate list:
3 Jace Beleren
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Instant (19)
4 Cryptic Command
4 Haze of Pollen
3 Hieroglyphic Illumination
4 Nexus of Fate
4 Thought Scour
Enchantment (16)
4 Fertile Ground
4 Search for Azcanta
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wilderness Reclamation
4 Breeding Pool
4 Forest
4 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Dispel
3 Nature's Claim
3 Negate
4 Obstinate Baloth
2 Relic of Progenitus
Thanks! I'm actually really glad that Mat did so well with the deck too! It gives some reassurance that it's not just one maniac taking the deck to a bunch of GPs and getting lucky every once in a while, it's a deck that has the power level to compete at large tournaments. Hopefully this inspires other Taking Turns players to try the deck at a big event!
Grand Prix are extremely open and hard to metagame for. There were 1318 competitors at GP Toronto, and even if 10% of them were on Burn (132 players on the same deck? That's insane!), you'd play against Burn on average 1.5 times out of 15 matches. It's just not worth metagaming against a single deck when the field is as diverse as it is in Modern.
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Commandeer
1 Negate
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Gelectrode
1 Crackling Drake
3 Thing in the Ice
Also shoutout to Mat Stein who also finished 12-3 on UR Turns. Our deck is doing great!
A user on reddit, trainowns, just posted a Simic turns list featuring Wilderness Reclamation and Nexus of Fate! Post on /r/TurnsMTG, on /r/Spikes, and decklist on MTG Goldfish.
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Gigadrowse
3 Serum Visions
4 Growth Spiral
4 Pull from Tomorrow
4 Remand
2 Exhaustion
3 Cryptic Command
4 Nexus of Fate
1 Search for Azcanta
2 Dictate of Kruphix
4 Wilderness Reclamation
2 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
2 Gemstone Caverns
4 Hinterland Harbor
8 Island
2 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Damping Sphere
1 Echoing Truth
3 Thing in the Ice
4 Leyline of Sanctity
I have a few minor nitpicks about the rules section in the primer. I'll include references to the comprehensive rules because I like rules.This is only true if you want it to be. There's a lot to unpack here, so I'm going to go through everything step-by-step. First of all, everything I'm about to talk about takes place in the draw step.
- Both Howling Mine and Dictate of Kruphix have triggered abilities that trigger "At the beginning of each player's draw step", which means those abilities will go on the stack and resolve during the draw step.
- The first card that you will draw in your draw step is the "card for turn". See rules 504.1 and 504.2: "First, the active player draws a card. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack." and "Second, the active player gets priority. (See rule 116, “Timing and Priority.”)".
- The key here is that triggered abilities will go onto the stack after you've drawn your card for turn. See rule 603.3: "Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority...".
- If the card you've drawn for turn has Miracle, then you have multiple triggers trying to go on the stack at the same time (the Miracle trigger and the Dictate/Howling Mine trigger(s)). Because you have multiple triggers to put on the stack, you choose the order. See rule 603.3b: "If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities they control on the stack in any order they choose...".
- If you choose to put the Miracle trigger on the bottom of the stack, then the Dictate/Howling Mine trigger(s) will resolve before the Miracle. You will draw your Dictate/Howling Mine card(s) before casting the Miracle card.
- If you choose to put the Miracle trigger on the top of the stack, then you will cast the Miracle card before drawing the Dictate/Howling Mine cards.
Typically, it's strategically better to draw cards before casting the Miracle card because you can draw into Commandeer or a counterspell that can protect the Miracle card. However, if you expect that your opponent will do something like target you with Vendilion Clique in response to the Miracle trigger while you don't have access to interaction, it's better to put the Miracle trigger on the top of the stack so that your opponent will look at fewer cards with Vendilion Clique and have less information.Now for the super pedantic one:
This used to be true, but with the Dominaria rules update, the spell is not considered to be "countered". It still goes to the graveyard without having any effect, aka "fizzles". The difference doesn't matter in the context of Modern because the only card that cares about this rules change, Multani's Presence, is not Modern legal. Still, I like spreading accurate information!
I also have a suggestion: Tips & Tricks! There are a few things that are good candidates for a Tips & Tricks section that you mention briefly in some parts of the primer, but I think it's good to have a compilation. Here's a few things that would be right at home there:
- Because Dictate of Kruphix triggers at draw step, you can flash it in at your upkeep and draw an extra card in that same turn. This is especially useful when you know you will Miracle a Temporal Mastery and have 5 or more mana available at your upkeep.
- You can tap your own Howling Mine (among the other permanents you tap) with Gigadrowse at your opponent's upkeep to prevent your opponent from drawing a card for Howling Mine.
- You can target multiple Phantasmal Images with Gigadrowse to kill them all.
- You can resolve the copies of Gigadrowse through a Chalice of the Void on 1. (This is in the section on Gigadrowse already but deserves a mention)
- You can use Commandeer on most counterspells and have them target Commandeer and they will fizzle. This means that you won't have to, for example, pay the mana at upkeep on Pact of Negation. Note that you cannot use Commandeer in this way on counterspells that can't target Commandeer, such as Spell Snare or Warping Wail.
- You can use Commandeer as an expensive Force of Will for many noncreature spells, such as Collected Company or Postmortem Lunge. Note that this won't work for symmetric effects like Blood Moon, Chalice of the Void, or Living End.
- You can use Jace's -1 ability or Cryptic Command to bounce your own Snapcaster Mage and continue your Time Walk chain. Just make sure that you don't run into a removal spell for Snapcaster Mage in response to your bounce!
There's a bunch more cool and non-obvious things, but the other ones I can think of right now are pretty specific to my build (such as using Surgical Extraction on your own instant or sorcery to pump a Crackling Drake). Anyway, great job on the primer! I really appreciate your hard work and I'm sure many other time walkers do too.Just posted a Jeskai Taking Turns video. I'm pretty happy with the way the deck played out!
I would add a 23rd land to the deck. Land drops are really important to hit, especially in a deck playing cards costing 5+ mana, and I've found 23 to be the sweet spot. If you add a UW land like Glacial Fortress, this also puts you at 11 white mana sources, which I would say is the bare minimum you should play to consistently cast cards like Stony Silence. Frank Karsten's article recommends 13 white sources to cast a 1W spell like Stony Silence and 16 to cast a 2WW spell like Supreme Verdict (I'm assuming that blue is a freebie there). While 16 is a lot and you can kind of get away with skimping there because you have Serum Visions and Dictates to see more cards by turn 4, I'd still recommend at the very least going to 11 white sources, and even that is kind of low for Supreme Verdict. The easiest candidate here to cut is Spell Pierce, but it's up to you how that card feels in testing.
I don't like the lack of Thing in the Ice in the sideboard. TitI is one of the best ways to slow down an aggro opponent and also close out the game. I'd recommend at least 2 over the Vendilion Clique and Celestial Purge. I'm not really sure what Celestial Purge is meant to hit here, but I feel like there are better options.
Good luck, I hope the double splash works out for you!
I can't tell if the "Why even run dictate" was rhetorical or not, but I'll assume it wasn't. The reason for Dictate is to draw a card not once, but every time you take an extra turn. In a deck with this many Time Walks, you need to be doing something productive on those extra turns, otherwise you're just casting expensive Explores. I suppose that having a Planeswalker like Nissa or Jace fills that role, but Planeswalkers tend to die a lot more easily than Enchantments. In this particular build, you'd probably rather spend turn 3 holding up either Remand or Dictate, rather than on your turn choosing between Nissa and Remand.
As for a green splash in general, it looks reasonably powerful, but with the same weakness as mono-blue: you just don't have good interaction for things on board. If the opponent resolves something like Thalia, or Mausoleum Wanderer, or Meddling Mage, there's just not a lot you can do about it. In particular, the counterspells in Remand and Cryptic Command line up particularly poorly against decks running both Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial. Splashing red or black or white lets you solve that issue with Bolt or Push or Path, but green gives you no such interaction. I definitely think it's worth testing out, and it's really cool that Growth Spiral lets you go off a turn earlier, but overall I think it's unlikely that a green splash will prove to be more powerful than any other splash.
This manabase looks pretty good, but I have a few suggestions. I'd recommend another UW source (perhaps Glacial Fortress) as a 23rd land, both to up the white source count to 11 and to up the total number of lands to 23. As-is, the manabase has 11 red sources (7 fetches, 2 Steam Vents, 1 Temple of Epiphany, 1 Sulfur Falls) and 10 white sources (7 fetches, 1 Hallowed Fountain, 1 Prairie Stream, 1 Glacial Fortress). As discussed before, 11 is an ideal target to aim for to cast your Rest in Peace and Stony Silence on time in this deck, which is why I think one more UW source is ideal.
This is something easy to miss but pretty important: Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, and Flooded Strand are all better than Arid Mesa in this deck. This is because all of your fetchable lands are blue, so any blue fetchland gets all your fetchable lands (basic Island, Hallowed Fountain, Prairie Stream, Steam Vents), but Arid Mesa does not get basic Island! A better split might be 2 Scalding Tarn, 1 Misty Rainforest, 2 Polluted Delta, 2 Flooded Strand.
Unrelated to the other discussions, I posted a new UR Turns video! This is the list I played at GP Portland, where I finished at an extremely disappointing 4-3 drop. At the GP, I definitely attribute at least two of my losses to my own misplays, while the third was mostly some rough draws. It's unfortunate to make match-losing mistakes at a high-level tournament, but that's all part of being human. I'm hoping to play something very similar at GP Oakland in a few weeks with much tighter play!