My game plan is to bring in 2 Gideon, 2 Dawnbringer Angel, and leave in 2 Suns against UB based decks.
That sounds like how I "approach" the blue matchups. I am not sure though if I want to side out all aproaches and go all in on 4 History of Benalia, 3 Dawnbringer Angel and 2 gearhulks. Sounds like a good plan in theory, plus sideboarding becomes really difficult for your opp in game 3.
What kind of removal do you leave in against other UW decks? Settles and Fumigates definitely come out, right? I leave in some seal away and all Cast outs.
UW flash has a surprise factor because it is relatively new and people are still learning to combat it. It does have its flaws but it is strong. I feel flash should be esper because flashing in deathtouch Gonti is strong as hell. But Flash is in its infancy. Flash IMO trumps straight control but I believe has a disadvantage to approach.
UW control is very consistent but is surely. In the mirrors whoever casts gearhulk first and gets theirs countered usually loses so its a lot of draw go bluff. Will probably come down to Ip mill. Has decent game against approach but struggles against flash pressure. Requires patience and a poker face to play because you want have all answers and will have to bluff.
Approach imo is the best of the three. Fairly consistent gameplan with an win button. Some decks just can't do anything against it as well as you can go approach into approach without fear, and you have SB options on what you want to do when legacy and duress come in. Options are great
TLDR:
None are the strongest per se but requires knowledge of meta and your local scene. For me lots of aggro so I'll play flash so I can insta speed some Lyra and whoop ass. If I was going to a big tourney I would do approach UW or esper without hesitation
Thanks for the answer! I don't really know my new meta yet but I am kind of more drawn to Approach. What do you think about History of Benalia as a sideboard option/plan? What matchups would you bring them in?
Hey guys, this deck looks like a load of fun and I am considering buying into it. Before I do so, I wanna ask 2 questions.
I see three types of UW running around, Control, Approach and Flash (with Raff). What are the main differences between the versions, which one is the best deck in your opinion? I am concerned only having 4 Gearhulks as a win condition in straight control, seems like this deck has trouble closing out the game, I guess this is an advantage of Approach?
What is the reason for including a card like History of Benalia? Is it a special SB tech, because a 4 of seems a lot, almost like a transformational SB plan.
Thanks for helping me out!
Lingering Souls is a pain to fight trough, in any deck for that matter. I've named it several times in the matchup.
I agree. Lingering Souls and Faithless Looting (Mardu Pyro) alone are not a reason to bring in cages though. Izzet Staticaster deals with Pyromancer and Lingering Souls tokens and is a house in the matchup. Cage is loose to bring in as the matchup is very grindy and it doesn't even stop the front half of Lingering Souls. I would never waste a card slot with that card postboard.
I see many lists running Auriok Champion at the moment. I see it's a good (not great or game winning) card against Burn, Hollow One or Death Shadow. People even brought them in against me in the mirror match.
Is the card really worth 2 slots? It seems pretty underwhelming for me but maybe I'm missing something.
If you want to fight the attrition war, isn't Deputy of Acquittals better than Xathrid Necromancer? Necromancer needs Vial on 3 to be played at instant speed, with only effect to replace the removed Human with a 2/2 Zombie Token. If otherwise played at sorcery speed, opponent will just removed it before anything else (again leaving behind a 2/2 Zombie Token). Deputy can always be played at instant speed, Vial or not. And bouncing Humans to play them again means extra triggers. My guess is that people are trying their best to come up with and inventive card to get into the main deck, and the latest they've come up with is Necromancer. Doesn't deserve a slot in the main deck, IMHO. But it's still better than Selfless Spirit. Even then, I'm not fighting sweepers with Necromancer, but with Gaddock Teeg. It also kills Cryptic Command, and the 2/2 body doesn't have to be sacrificed to get the job done.
I think Gaddock Teeg and Necromancer serve different usecases. I use Gaddock Teeg in my UW Control heavy, Tron meta as a replacement for Cage, since it also stops the Coco decks and still prevents Control decks from castings their Supreme Verdict and Tron their Ugin and others. While Necromancer can be brought in against UW and Tron I also like them very much against Jund, Jeskai, Mardu (All the decks with a lot of 1 for 1 removal, where Gaddock is bad).
I haven't tried Deputy yet, it sounds interesting, I might put them into my sideboard for a few leagues
Hey all, I'm quite new to the deck, having only picked it up on MTGO 2 weeks ago as practice for Team Unified Modern GP next week since my regular Traverse Shadow main was feeling badly positioned in the meta.
I just copied Steve Locke's list from GP Phoenix but after a few leagues swapped the Mirran Crusader out of mainboard for Kessig Malcontents (found I was boarding it the Crusader a lot) which coincidently ended up being the same mainboard as the Mocs winner a few days ago.
I've been using Steve's SCG article as a sideboarding guide and found the deck to be fantastic, churning out consistent 3-2 and 4-1's in Comp Leagues despite my inexperience and even a Top 8 finish in the Modern Challenge last week.
The main problem I'm running into is the holes in Steve's sideboarding guide, particularly for some of the harder matchups such as Mardu Pyro, Jeskai Control, Bogles and Dredge.
Keen to get opinions on sideboarding and general playstyle against these decks, I've taken a stab at some stuff myself but have been second-guessing some of my calls.
On mobile atm but will edit this post with the list and sideboarding specifics during work breaks today.
Gifts Storm
-3x Mantis Rider
-1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
-1x Dark Confidant
-1x Mirran Crusader
+2x Sin Collector
+2x Izzet Staticaster
+2x Dismember
(This is one I've had cone back to bite me, Steve argues that most builds are off the PiF plan so Cage isn't worth bringing in but I've lost at least a couple games following that. Admittedly the matchup is very favorable so it's not a huge issue)
Regarding the UR Storm matchup it really shouldn't matter too much since I've yet to lose that matchup. I like to bring in cages for Reflector Mage on the draw since Reflector Mage is weak on Turn 3 if they can go off first on turn 3, then a cage can be very usful.
Let's work on the holes of that Sideboard guide, here is how I would sideboard:
Mardu Pyromancer: Definitely bring in the Staticasters (Best card postboard) and the Rec Sages (Blood Moon & EE). Don't know about the Sin Collectors, they are usually not that good but some lists run Anger of the Gods, Collector is very good against that. I would take out Malcontents and a combination of Meddling and Reflector Mages. Matchup is quite hard, worse than Jund. Best way to beat them is with Mantis Riders and early pressure, postboard Staticasters.
Jeskai Control: In: 2 Sin Collector and 3 Necromancers, Out: Reflector Mages (no target) and 1 Image (Pretty bad on empty board, they 1 for 1) This matchup is horrible, I don't know how to win two games against them honestly, even their bad draws line up pretty good against us. The way to beat them involves early aggression from turn 1 though.
Bogles: In: 1 Mirran Crusader, 2 Rec Sage. Out: 1 Dark Confidant, 2 Image -> Matchup often becomes a race, very important to prevent opponent from casting Daybreak Coronet otherwise the game is basically over unless you can Rec Sage his other Aura. I don't think Bogles is as bad of a matchup as people think. It's close to a 50/50 in my opinion but maybe my sample size is too small.
Dredge: Haven't played against this in a long time but I would sideboard as following: Bringing in Crusader (Pro Black seems good for attacking), Staticaster for pinging down the bloodghasts and Nacrophoeba over and over again. Taking out the Confidant and 2 Reflector Mages. You don't have Cages so the matchup is even worse than it would be otherwise
Hope this helps!
How do people feel about Xathrid Necromancer vs. Selfless Spirit? I've been running one of each but if people are seriously running Necromancer main deck it makes me think maybe I should commit to multiple copies in the board.
This is also something that interests me. I've been running a 1/1 split but lately I've been trying out 2 Selfless Spirits. Clearly in some spots Necromancer is better (Attrition wars against Jund, Death Shadow, Jeskai) and in some spots I prefer Selfless Spirits (Against Tron -> Oblivion Stone, against UW Control's Boardwipes) Selfless Spirits can also really screw combat by flashing it in with a vial. It is also a much better card against Anger of the Gods, where Necromancer does nothing.
I think with all the Jund running around at the moment I will go back to a 1/1 split or even try out more Necromancers, I wouldn't run them maindeck though.
Hey guys, I am pretty new to the deck. Have played a few leagues and I feel like the power level of this deck is above any else in the format. It beats up on the midrange decks which are really popular right now. My one issue I have with the deck is the consistency. Every match I get manascrewed or colorscrewed at least once. When I have the resources to do my thing I seem to win all the time, when I get manascrewed I lose. All the lists play 24 lands, has anyone tried going up to 25 and adding another cycling land?
I don't have a sideboard guide per se. Personally I try to stay flexible. For example, depending on what my opponent's decks first 3 turns are likely to look like, I might be inclined to side out Exemplars on the Draw and side them back in on the Play. As in the latter case, there is a good chance to get the tempo initiative and ride that to victory.
In general, red aggro you want to be control pretty much Play or Draw. Side in your removal and Sweepers. Side out some of your more awkward blockers.
Midrange can be tricky, but we are in general the aggro deck. However, Fumigate is actually still pretty good here, since our threats will wear it much better than theirs and we can setup a big blowout.
Control, we are pretty much always the aggro deck. Some of our removal comes out and Duress, other disruption, and special control killer type threats come in. Just be mindful of a classic control sideboard strategy of bringing in threats like Regal Caracal.
That helps a lot, thanks!
Do you bring in the walkers against Midrange and Control? And do you bring in the Duresses only against Control and Combo, not Midrange, right?
Sideboarding vs RDW: yes, Fumigate or Settle as sweepers. Cast Out or Ixalan's Binding for opposing Hazorets. Any extra Harvesters helps. I would side out of Exemplar and some number or Hearts and Scrounger. Maybe shave a Disintegrate or two if you also have cheaper removal available like Magma Spray.
Scarab God: We are relatively fast, so the game has to drag out for the god to be relevant. That being said, we have access to Cast Out or Ixalan Binding, as mentioned. Both good options to answer Scarab too.
Again, thanks a lot for the answers. I'm willing to give the deck a try online. As one can see I'm pretty inexperienced in Standard right now, is there like a Sideboard Guide which cards you take out in what matchup? The primer above helps, but a Sideboard guide is lacking.
To keep things simple, against Aggro Red we are Control, against all other archetypes we are the aggressor?
Bad matchup is mainly Red Deck Wins. Game 1 in particular. Barring our best starts, we are a bit slower and have a lot of awkward creatures that can’t block, need us to tap a creature, or are 1/1 during our opponent’s turn. Saving grace is Harvester, but Abrade can spoil this trump card for us. After board things get better.
The trade off for this is having good matchups against midrange and control. Our threats are more diverse, require more specific answers, and are recursive. We have unconditional removal that simultaneously advances our Aggro game plan. We also have access to Duress in the sideboard.
Thanks a lot for your answer, that really helps! I see that the Red matchup isn't great which is a bit concerning as Red seems to be the most popular strategy right now. I guess with Fumigate and Settle the Wreckage it gets better. You also take out the small creatures and play a controlling strategy?
One question left, the midrange matchup seems to be good, isn't Scarab God a problem for this deck, it has no way to deal with it? Or is it just fast and disruptive enough that it doesn't need an answer for it?
Thanks a lot for the primer! This helps me getting a nice overview of the deck. I'm thinking of getting into the archetype but barely own any card and don't know if Mardu Vehicles, Hazored or UB Midrange is the right deck for me.
Could someone sum up the good and bad matchups of this Mardu Vehicles deck? Thanks a lot!
You're forgetting about Leyline of Sanctity, doesn't hit one of the best hate cards against us.
As for which to play, they have both won me so many games. Gaea's Revenge was my MVP last night though. I run both in me SB. My question is, where does the new Ixilan dinosaur fit in between those two? Do we give up haste for trample and 1 less mana, or 4/4 regenerate for a 7/6 trample and 2 more mana?
Ah yeah Leyline, I knew I forgot about something^^ Just saw the card for the first time and thought I broke the SB:P Then of course Claim is better. I saw some people discussing about Destructive Revelry which I like as well. The 1 mana more might be worth the 6 damage difference.
Thrun can come down on Turn 3-4, Gaea's Revenge on Turn 5-6 but has haste and doubles the clock (can be double blocked to death though). I think against UW Control, Gaeas Revenge is stronger. With the rise of Jeskai Control/Geist/Queller/whatever, I think it is more important to get a threat/blocker down earlier so I guess I will stick with Thrun for now. Was the clock of Thrun always fast enough? I fear that you could get raced by UW Control if they have Snappies and Colonnade + Stuff.
The new Dinosaur is definitely interesting. I think the trample makes it better than Gaea's Revenge. And it is also cheaper than it. I don't know it could really be the best of the 3, we will have to try it out I guess:) They are all great Silver Bullets against Blue Control and I doubt that you will feel a big difference.
That sounds like how I "approach" the blue matchups. I am not sure though if I want to side out all aproaches and go all in on 4 History of Benalia, 3 Dawnbringer Angel and 2 gearhulks. Sounds like a good plan in theory, plus sideboarding becomes really difficult for your opp in game 3.
What kind of removal do you leave in against other UW decks? Settles and Fumigates definitely come out, right? I leave in some seal away and all Cast outs.
Thanks for the answer! I don't really know my new meta yet but I am kind of more drawn to Approach. What do you think about History of Benalia as a sideboard option/plan? What matchups would you bring them in?
I see three types of UW running around, Control, Approach and Flash (with Raff). What are the main differences between the versions, which one is the best deck in your opinion? I am concerned only having 4 Gearhulks as a win condition in straight control, seems like this deck has trouble closing out the game, I guess this is an advantage of Approach?
What is the reason for including a card like History of Benalia? Is it a special SB tech, because a 4 of seems a lot, almost like a transformational SB plan.
Thanks for helping me out!
I agree. Lingering Souls and Faithless Looting (Mardu Pyro) alone are not a reason to bring in cages though. Izzet Staticaster deals with Pyromancer and Lingering Souls tokens and is a house in the matchup. Cage is loose to bring in as the matchup is very grindy and it doesn't even stop the front half of Lingering Souls. I would never waste a card slot with that card postboard.
Is the card really worth 2 slots? It seems pretty underwhelming for me but maybe I'm missing something.
I think Gaddock Teeg and Necromancer serve different usecases. I use Gaddock Teeg in my UW Control heavy, Tron meta as a replacement for Cage, since it also stops the Coco decks and still prevents Control decks from castings their Supreme Verdict and Tron their Ugin and others. While Necromancer can be brought in against UW and Tron I also like them very much against Jund, Jeskai, Mardu (All the decks with a lot of 1 for 1 removal, where Gaddock is bad).
I haven't tried Deputy yet, it sounds interesting, I might put them into my sideboard for a few leagues
Regarding the UR Storm matchup it really shouldn't matter too much since I've yet to lose that matchup. I like to bring in cages for Reflector Mage on the draw since Reflector Mage is weak on Turn 3 if they can go off first on turn 3, then a cage can be very usful.
Let's work on the holes of that Sideboard guide, here is how I would sideboard:
Mardu Pyromancer: Definitely bring in the Staticasters (Best card postboard) and the Rec Sages (Blood Moon & EE). Don't know about the Sin Collectors, they are usually not that good but some lists run Anger of the Gods, Collector is very good against that. I would take out Malcontents and a combination of Meddling and Reflector Mages. Matchup is quite hard, worse than Jund. Best way to beat them is with Mantis Riders and early pressure, postboard Staticasters.
Jeskai Control: In: 2 Sin Collector and 3 Necromancers, Out: Reflector Mages (no target) and 1 Image (Pretty bad on empty board, they 1 for 1) This matchup is horrible, I don't know how to win two games against them honestly, even their bad draws line up pretty good against us. The way to beat them involves early aggression from turn 1 though.
Bogles: In: 1 Mirran Crusader, 2 Rec Sage. Out: 1 Dark Confidant, 2 Image -> Matchup often becomes a race, very important to prevent opponent from casting Daybreak Coronet otherwise the game is basically over unless you can Rec Sage his other Aura. I don't think Bogles is as bad of a matchup as people think. It's close to a 50/50 in my opinion but maybe my sample size is too small.
Dredge: Haven't played against this in a long time but I would sideboard as following: Bringing in Crusader (Pro Black seems good for attacking), Staticaster for pinging down the bloodghasts and Nacrophoeba over and over again. Taking out the Confidant and 2 Reflector Mages. You don't have Cages so the matchup is even worse than it would be otherwise
Hope this helps!
This is also something that interests me. I've been running a 1/1 split but lately I've been trying out 2 Selfless Spirits. Clearly in some spots Necromancer is better (Attrition wars against Jund, Death Shadow, Jeskai) and in some spots I prefer Selfless Spirits (Against Tron -> Oblivion Stone, against UW Control's Boardwipes) Selfless Spirits can also really screw combat by flashing it in with a vial. It is also a much better card against Anger of the Gods, where Necromancer does nothing.
I think with all the Jund running around at the moment I will go back to a 1/1 split or even try out more Necromancers, I wouldn't run them maindeck though.
That helps a lot, thanks!
Do you bring in the walkers against Midrange and Control? And do you bring in the Duresses only against Control and Combo, not Midrange, right?
Again, thanks a lot for the answers. I'm willing to give the deck a try online. As one can see I'm pretty inexperienced in Standard right now, is there like a Sideboard Guide which cards you take out in what matchup? The primer above helps, but a Sideboard guide is lacking.
To keep things simple, against Aggro Red we are Control, against all other archetypes we are the aggressor?
Thanks a lot for your answer, that really helps! I see that the Red matchup isn't great which is a bit concerning as Red seems to be the most popular strategy right now. I guess with Fumigate and Settle the Wreckage it gets better. You also take out the small creatures and play a controlling strategy?
One question left, the midrange matchup seems to be good, isn't Scarab God a problem for this deck, it has no way to deal with it? Or is it just fast and disruptive enough that it doesn't need an answer for it?
Could someone sum up the good and bad matchups of this Mardu Vehicles deck? Thanks a lot!
Ah yeah Leyline, I knew I forgot about something^^ Just saw the card for the first time and thought I broke the SB:P Then of course Claim is better. I saw some people discussing about Destructive Revelry which I like as well. The 1 mana more might be worth the 6 damage difference.
Thrun can come down on Turn 3-4, Gaea's Revenge on Turn 5-6 but has haste and doubles the clock (can be double blocked to death though). I think against UW Control, Gaeas Revenge is stronger. With the rise of Jeskai Control/Geist/Queller/whatever, I think it is more important to get a threat/blocker down earlier so I guess I will stick with Thrun for now. Was the clock of Thrun always fast enough? I fear that you could get raced by UW Control if they have Snappies and Colonnade + Stuff.
The new Dinosaur is definitely interesting. I think the trample makes it better than Gaea's Revenge. And it is also cheaper than it. I don't know it could really be the best of the 3, we will have to try it out I guess:) They are all great Silver Bullets against Blue Control and I doubt that you will feel a big difference.