MTG Salvation

Hello all, and a belated Merry Christmas to you as well, Fluff!

First off, I have missed a lot while in Europe, so I will recap changes to the format as I take the chance to voice quick responses to Plichow, Dean's Finest, and YJBh33ls, respectively:

The field of ruins were solid, and the basic island was also excellent, but I felt the ghost quarter was unnecessary.

I think it has become clear to me over time, Plichow, that access to Ghost Quarter is not absolutely required in the more aggressive versions of the deck, impeding Emeria activation too much if Field of Ruin can cover similar ground without putting you down a land. When things like Kaldra Compleat and Stoneforge Mystic or Ranger-Captain of Eos and Walking Ballista combine to end things swiftly, these cut off draw steps more directly in the late stages of your gameplan. However, I am still adamant that eventual access to Strip Mine is simultaneously a necessary evil and the best lategame possible for the slower builds that cannot turn the corner with offensive options.

an updated 2022 list (non-Yorion and without Solitude/Ephemerate so far, but updated the lists now again with those)

The banning of Yorion, Sky Nomad has simplified many of the dilemmas you mention, Dean's Finest, by simply taking the 80-card options out of our hands, which I tend to see as a good thing overall as including the Companion was a mixed blessing at best, and its removal has certainly improved the 4-colour Omnath pile matchups by first removing a threat from their sequencing and then by forcing their manabases onto a narrower tightrope with fewer redundancies.

would also love to hear peoples thoughts on Stoneforge vs traditional (creature heavy) versions in the current meta.

I am not sure whether the Stoneforge builds are favoured at the moment,YBJh331s, but I can confidently state that access to new Reconfigure options like Cloudsteel Kirin, Lion Sash and even The Reality Chip add a great deal of flexibility to the strategy, and do an excellent job of enhancing the Spirited Companion that these lists should typically be looking to run over Wall of Omens ever since that wonderful new attacking variant has become available. My feeling is that Emeria itself still passively discourages Stoneforge recursion by naturally extending the game to a point where it draws its its Equipment and runs the Kor Shaman out of targets later in the game, conversely giving a passive encouragement to an 0/4 Defender more by gaining access to its focused blocking power immediately on ETB. This means Control variants can better leverage Sweepers in general as a consequence of less investment in their (primarily defensive) board presence, but in my opinion this is only true in contexts where the Aggro and Midrange elements are more common than the Big Mana and Combo portion of the metagame, whereas a faster clock closing out the game rapidly gains back any lost equity against the latter two strategies.

But as I am myself just back from travel, and have been looking to return to casual tournaments with Emeria, my perspective may be skewed since I have moderate success at a 12-person tournament to point to with a clean 2-1 record only losing in the finals, the quick breakdown being a straightforward 2-1 win versus Izzet Murktide confirming my previous comfort level with the pairing, a well-earned 2-1 win versus 4-colour Wrenn and Six/Indomitable Creativity strongly indicating the viability of a new sideboard strategy, and a tough 1-2 loss versus Amulet Titan after failing to note life totals correctly, leading me to back out of an on-board win and therefore miss out on an undefeated evening. Rust is a real concern once again here for me, but most importantly I have some solid strategic improvements to report in the new configuration of my "classic board control" variant resulting in the following list:



I am once again running my trademark undecided 61 cards at the moment due to the recent overperformance of Elspeth Resplendent, who has impressed me enough to be a serious consideration in the maindeck currently, primarily as a way to find (and even ramp to, plus protecting!) Emeria, the Sky Ruin while digging for singletons or sideboard cards and producing the odd "surprise" Teferi, Time Raveler off of only white mana, all in a package that increases lifegain and turns specifically Mortarpod tokens but also more generally any random board presence into marginally upgraded Planeswalker pressure in resource-intensive matchups. The 12 non-Lesson cards in my sideboard, incidentally, have reflected the twin pressures of Elspeth and the Titans to become 100% 3-mana-or less permanents, which helps focus the post-board plans when making substitutions for games 2 and 3, and situationally boosts the "luxury reset" utility of Tef3ri's -3 ability, particularly by re-establishing ETBs once safely out of the "do whatever it takes to survive" early game.

The most notable gains come in the manabase and in the sideboard directly, though, where in the first instance I have cut Raugrin Triome and Raffine's Tower as too unwieldy to be of use in most matchups, much as it pains me to lose out on the lategame power-level upgrades for Prismatic Ending. I am not certain if cutting both is correct on this axis, since the appeal of 4-mana Endings is extremely tempting, but I am confident in stating that I can currently not reliably get to 5-mana Endings against Control opponents fast enough to prevent Teferi, Hero of Dominaria from activating his matchup-defining Ultimate ability. On the other hand, two-mana Endings are very consistent, and the low opportunity cost of adding a third colour with any Triome of choice seems to make 3-mana versions accessible for the lategame in around 60-70% of matches (which is good enough for me when the 1 and 2 mana modes are so strong generally), but at present the 4-mana version of Converge drops to being available below 50% of the time even in my bread-and-butter extended topdecking situations, and the 5-mana version sits at a highly unreliable 30% or less, with that only a factor in the longer games or in conjunction with Crucible of Worlds and Sun Titan powered fetchland recursion - which equates to an almost entirely tapland manabase for the games where I attempt to prioritize maximizing colour diversity in my lands.

This loss of 4 and 5 mana Converge capacity is not a net negative, however, since with the space I am pleased to welcome back Mistveil Plains as a way to recycle my overperforming Lesson sideboard removal package of Introduction to Annihilation and Reduce to Memory. Re-drawing these cards is notably quite valuable against the Control and Prison opponents which most appreciate Converge 4+ on Prismatic Ending, while the Mistveil's return restores my operational confidence against decks featuring infinite lifegain shenanigans. That is not all, however, and I have perhaps left the best for last since a real improvement has come along with the printing of Demolition Field, substantially solidifying my manabase disruption versus the unfair matchups by increasing my absolute "Field of Ruin" count to 5 (though it is also notable that I can now rely on a 3 Ruin and 2 Demolition split to better hedge against corner-case Pithing Needle and Surgical Extraction effects in some matchups). This was a good deal of the reason I got into the winning position against my finals opponent, and definitely helped me take game one against him to even get me into the post-board games in good shape. It is currently crucial to control both the Urza's Saga and the Simic Growth Chamber angles against Amulet Titan, and nothing covers those better than Ghost Quarter effects that do not set turn-by-turn mana development back - preferably activated both early and often. I believe 6 of the effect might be even better, but at that point the plethora of colourless sources begins make for a few too many non-functional hands in the two-colour builds I favour. I will, however, state that Mono-White versions may now have gained a real selling point through their ability to run up to 8 copies of the two "Fields" - an option with huge consequences.

My other real breakthrough comes with the sideboard, where beating unfair strategies has gone from a seriously unpredictable challenge to a legitimately focused - though still difficult to execute - gameplan of delay thanks to a thematic, elegant, and subtle dynamic enabled by multiple copies of Curse of Silence. The improvement touches on all Cascade variants, is currently well-positioned enough against Indomitable Creativity to have won two post-bard games in a row, is flexible enough to pose problems for Tron, and extends to spell-based or Creature-based combo, where the effect of pushing any of these decks two turns higher on the curve translates to two or more real chances at drawing the now-increased manabase disruption which is the most effective strategy when not running countermagic. Losing out on Lion Sash, Blossoming Calm, [EDIT: AND DRANNITH MAGISTRATE] is a pity, but the versatility of these 1-mana enchantments is extremely high against curve-cheating cards as significant compensation. They also streamline decision-making and complement each other surprisingly well in multiples, and include a hidden bonus 2W "cycle" mode when out of danger. Finally, I have not yet had a good chance to examine the Reclamation Sage function of Loran of the Third Path, and she may yet be replaced by a Haywire Mite to hedge against Burn and to keep the substitutions at a low mana cost in a more Emeria-friendly package, but for the moment this is my new configuration of choice.

Speaking of recommendations, the release of Brother's War has also granted us a massive Sideboard silver bullet for those interested in beating Living End by introducing Calamity's Wake to the card pool. (For the sake of completeness, I also think that the following list of white spells from that expansion have possible applications depending on specific builds: Recommission, Recruitment Officer, Lay Down Arms, Tocasia's Welcome, Soul Partition, and Kayla's Command. In the Artifacts, storyline spotlights The Stone Brain and The Stasis Coffin join Platoon Dispenser as new niche options, though the first two are more likely to matter against us by extending the toolboxes of Karn, the Great Creator decks. Finally, in variants splashing Black it is worthwhile to note the presence of Hero of the Dunes and Legions to Ashes as new possibilities, though I will specify that even these are quite unlikely to matter enough unless the build in question is already running multiple Raffine's Tower or some such to legitimately enable stronger funamental options - such as the old powerhouse Necrotic Sliver.) There are also new spoilers currently being released for Phyrexia: All Will be One, so as always I will keep an eye out for any potential new inclusions. Thus far, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines and Soulless Jailer appear to be the only two reasonable inclusions, but are at least intriguing ones.

As an end note, I would very much like to thank everyone for continuing on with this thread when so much of the playerbase seems to have fragmented rather badly in the mass move towards Discord and Twitch. The continuity of this ongoing discussion has not been replicated in my forays onto the Discord, where the communication is heavily biased towards addressing shorter-term surface-level problems and therefore loses out on the considered approach which a historical archive such as this one provides. I may be becoming an old man prematurely at 33 years old, now, but even if that is true I have noticed a distinct "casual and generic" attitude to the Discord servers which are the antithesis of what I hope to enable here - namely a sustained interest in documenting the specifics of evolution during what amounts to a long-running experiment. The undeniable ease of use of these chat platforms seems destined to win out on a large scale for many purposes, but as long as there are still people interested in a focused discussion with easy-to-navigate visuals and a clear timeline built in... Well, suffice it to say that I will thank all of you who choose to post here for your investment in maintaining such a culture, where the juxtaposition of interesting ideas stands a better chance of shining through overall.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year for 2023, then,

-Stéphane Gérard

P.S.: In case it might sway anyone into following me in doing the same, I have myself largely abandoned posting on (and literally even signing into) MTG Discords due to the reasons above, and will be staying with this thread as my primary reference for updates and results as long as I will be able to do so. Discord clearly has its place, but I have found it much more rewarding to contribute here on mtgsalvation. If you find the same is true for you, I would recommend posting a quick message sounding off in support of Fluff's stalwart curation work of this much more useful long-term resource!

Nice spotting, Fluff, deck names are sometimes misleading.

I have been trying to figure out what is going on here, but the problem is that the deck registration website is currently down so I cannot see the full tournament's statistics. Judging by the top 8 alone, then, I can only come to the same conclusion as you - the pilot must have metagamed mostly against people who he beat to keep out of the elimination rounds. I am not a huge fan of this strategy in Modern, or with control, and specifically not with Emeria looking at the sacrifices Diogo had to make (they appear to have left him very vulnerable to the rest of the top 8, and I am not surprised to see that he didn't make it out of the quarterfinals).

As it stands, the list is, to put it mildly, unfocused. Suppression Field is a powerful situational effect, but the conditions for its best use are strongly dictated by a reduced timeframe. I have a good deal of experience with the card from back when I just missed on the top 8 of GP Vancouver with Norin Sisters, while that deck was still viable (AKA before the printings of Wrenn and Six, Liliana, the last Hope, and most significantly Walking Ballista, while the Soul Warden effects could still spell auto-wins against the top tier of the metagame in both Burn and Splinter Twin). Every extra turn beyond the first three that you allow your opponent makes the card dramatically worse, since they will have a chance to crack their fetchlands and play around the tax by making natural land drops, so the effect is supported by shortening the game, which the card itself does not contribute to in the slightest. Emeria, the Sky Ruin does very little on that front either, and in fact rewards the opposite philosophy by passing the turn a minimum of eight times before having a chance to accrue value (barring acceleration).

In addition to this, Diogo was running four Field of Ruin, four Thraben Inspector, three Ranger-Captain of Eos, and a Mistveil Plains, so fully 20% of his deck's plays are negatively affected by the enchantment's symmetrical effect. Seeing as he chose to run FOUR of them, it must must mean that he had a truly single-minded focus on beating some as-yet mysterious strategy with it. It could have helped somewhat against the "Creatures Toolbox", I suppose, but would have been so much of a liability in so many other circumstances that I simply cannot fathom it having been worth it over something even moderately more useful like Sorcerous Spyglass - barring an attempt at specifically trying to stop activated abilities from lands or mana-producing artifacts? In that case I would run Pithing Needle or Phyrexian Revoker instead, unless I needed one draw step to interact with multiple different versions of such activated abilities at once. At this point the reasonable circumstances are starting to become extremely specific now, to the point of near-paranoia against a single rogue decklist, since I cannot think of a popular Modern deck that fits the bill.

What I assume happened before the top 8, then, is that Diogo played against a few fetchland manabases, plus maybe his as-yet-unnamed boogeyman, and happened to have a convenient trump card early a good portion of the time. This might have allowed him the chance to get set up with his synergies, and the power of the shell made up for the relatively poor quality of his average draw steps after that. There are other mysteries, however, the easiest to explain probably being the bluff factor behind specifically four copies of Snow-covered Plains alongside eleven normal ones. Four-of Emeria is also aggressive, but more justifiable in his mono-white shell. His two copies of Runed Halo are easier to take advantage of in mono-white, though, which is even more the case with the two Devout Lightcaster in his sideboard. After that, the singleton Grand Abolisher and Cataclysmic Gearhulk could be either overkill for his mysterious opponent, or more likely pet cards and/or part of favourable combination sequences of various kinds.

The final issue is with the 2-2-2-3 split of three-drops, where Kitchen Finks, Flickerwisp, Generous Gift, and Ranger-Captain of Eos are (quite frankly) fighting haphazardly for space and sequencing in a deck with no relevant library manipulation. If having access to these effects was important, maximizing the best one or two and running singletons of the rest would be a far more coherent solution. The same can be said for the 2-2 split of Wrath of God and Restoration Angel, both of which reward different types of plays, and massively complicate your "topdeck outs" calculations through encouraging sharply contrasting play patterns. With the two copies of Sun Titan there is a more reasonable curve-based argument, but the number of non-overlapping singletons, two-ofs, and three-packs split between the maindeck and sideboard, combined with situational enchantments and internal non-bos would have made mulligan decisions an extraordinarily difficult task. Finally, his graveyard interaction being limited to two Surgical Extraction might provide a clue as to his expected metagame; they are totally insufficient as a plan against any graveyard-based deck, and so such strategies must have been either absent or incredibly unlucky. These appear therefore to be more focus on some strange combo, to my eyes.

That's all I can tell until I get more information on the rest of the metagame, but I am eager to try solving the puzzle again if I do find anything else!

As promised, my thoughts on the Humans matchup:

Humans is one of the bread-and butter pairings for Emeria control in any variant, and this list is no exception. Because of a combination of playing to the board with multiple x-1's, very little haste or evasion, a near-total lack of card advantage, and a manabase reliant on Gold lands and dreams, this is almost as good a matchup as Infect, and ranks alongside the far less popular B/W tokens in terms of decks that I am hoping to be paired against in any round. Wall of Omens is as good as advertised, and Pilgrim's Eye performs at above-average rates to encourage the overextended boardstates that they are so desperate to be caught in. At this point, the sweepers take over, and can lead to blowouts beginning from a minimum of 3-for-1 rates and going all the way to my current record of 14-for-1.

Even given all of this, however, it is not impossible to lose. Virtually their only way to achieve a win is to press their disruption with Meddling Mage, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Kitesail Freebooter, but the diversity of board control Emeria presents is a huge obstacle for this strategy to overcome. Around 25% of the time, the deck's draws will afford them a chance to do this, but the problem they then face is that these disruptive creatures are particularly poor at applying significant pressure, so their best sequence is narrowed to a turn-one play followed by two (or more often three) layers of disruption, which must be capped off by either Thalia's Lieutenant or Mantis Rider to deny Emeria draw steps. The reason for this is that the average card quality for W/u is extremely high, and it is virtually impossible for Humans to achieve an actual lock on the 5 relevant sweeper effects through Detention Sphere, Path to Exile, and Mortarpod. The last of these is particularly frustrating for them, since Stoneforge Mystic can simply put it (or Batterskull, for that matter) into play through a Meddling Mage, and the targeting of the Germ's sacrifice is often all that is required to kill a key Phantasmal image.

Additionally, their primary interactive pieces in Deputy of Detention and Reflector Mage are downright embarrassing in the face of mass removal and ETB creatures, giving W/u supplemental value in the lategame, which then becomes completely backbreaking. From the sideboard Collector Ouphe does virtually nothing, while Sin Collector and Knight of Autumn are slow and weak to Mortarpod at 3 mana, so their most significant upgrade is found in Gaddock Teeg. Unfortunately for them, the card is a Kithkin Advisor, which is almost totally monopolizing on their Cavern of Souls and Unclaimed Territory. This usually leaves them struggling to provide the necessary pressure to follow up, and exposes their manabase even more to Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter. Speaking of which, the basic land count in most Humans lists is sometimes 0, often only 1 or 2, and generally 3 at maximum, so the Jeskai colours needed for the hasty flier that is most important for them to cast post-Wrath of God are highly susceptible to disruption on their Red source.

Nevertheless, the Mantis Rider and Kitesail Freebooter interactions are important enough that Celestial Purge is a desireable effect to have access to post-sideboard. Crucible of Worlds is unnecessary here, and Teferi, Time Raveler is mediocre in wide board states, while a single Batterskull is all that is needed to win. These three cards therefore come out to make room for the Purges and a single Pithing Needle. The Needle is because Humans makes excellent use of Aether Vial in perfect draws, and the primary angle that tribal decks without reach can use to outmaneuver Emeria is by controlling their exposure to play around Wrath effects. Against Humans the only real threat is their ability to play a "flash" game, and Needle is therefore a very effective card to draw in many midgame situations as insurance that can also disrupt, since if they can choose what to commit and when they can sometimes steal games that would be locked up otherwise.

Beyond that logic, a turn-one Vial can sometimes grow Champion of the Parish fast enough on the play that a single Meddling Mage or Kitesail Freebooter can be used to put off a sweeper for the one turn they need to win. Their normal goldfish gets pushed back by half a turn or more for every weak soft-lock creature they play, though, which means this is rarely possible unless they accelerate. Aether Vial counts as acceleration for this purpose, since it can essentially tap for 6 mana or more in their best draws, and so access to more than four pieces of 1-mana interaction is important for the greatest operational threat they can leverage.

One last relevant question is why in normal circumstances only a single copy of this effect is good against them. The answer is because Aether Vial is a poor topdeck, and can be sideboarded out by some opponents. Creature-centric decks are frequently desperate for either pressure or space post-board against Emeria, and they sometimes will conclude that Vial is to be cut, but until this is certain, the Pithing Needle does its job very well. A single card can turn 4 of theirs into completely dead draws unless they choose to slow themselves down again, creating positive strategic dynamics for Emeria. The risk that they might win the staring contest over whether Needle can name Vial profitably leads one copy only being brought in until the presence of their artifact is confirmed, since after the backup target of Horizon Canopy, they may literally have no other activated abilities to prevent.

Hello Fluff!

Thank you, I used some of the credit to get other sideboard cards I might test, notably Cerulean Drake as a poor alternative to Glen Elendra Archmage, but at less than half the cost. Sideboard cards tend to be more effective when cheaper, and this 2-mana flier might prove useful enough to matter.

The way I have built the deck, Jund is good in the same metagames as this version is, and so I make it my first priority to evaluate every card against the matchup whenever I try to add something new. They can win if they know what to prioritize, but it is a reasonably tall order for them, and the play patterns are quite a bit different than against other decks with Hallowed Fountain, so my record is somewhat inflated here because I typically get at least some amount of blind unintentional value from them in the first three or four turns.

On the subject of Seal of Cleansing, I was also under the impression that it was last legal in Nemesis, but then my friend told me that it had been printed in a Modern-legal set. I got a copy of the new-bordered version, just to resolve this question if it came up, but I see now after checking your comment that it was from ETERNAL Masters, not MODERN Masters! I will have to tell the store owner what happened, and it is justice that the only time I have sideboarded it in during a sanctioned match so far was during the loss against the U/W opponent that I mentioned above. I will remove it right away, thank you very much for the catch.

As for humans, I will be happy to post a guide based off of advice I have given previously; it will follow this post directly.

Hello everyone,

I played my version of the deck again in the team trios event, as I mentioned in my previous post. The turnout was quite modest, so only three rounds, but my team was not able to string together wins evenly enough to take it down. For the record, my 75 for the event:




I have nothing truly groundbreaking to report, since my opponents' plans were mostly marred by inconsistency issues, but as an old-school deckbuilder I take pride in the fact that I had seven opening hands, and all were keepable. It is not a consistent plan against anyone to rely on this fact, but I do take satisfaction when I am essentially up a resource for free on my opposition once every three or four games. Here is a quick breakdown of my results:

ROUND 1 (2-1 Elves) (1-0 overall).

ROUND 2 (2-0 Jund) (2-0 overall).

ROUND 3 (2-0 Ballista Combo) (3-0 overall).

For the majority, these are strategies which I have covered elsewhere, and good matchups in general. I missed a line of play against the Elves opponent that I was very disappointed with throwing away an advantage against, but I won the game in question so it was not a telling mistake, and other than that I was satisfied with my level of focus. The sideboard was solid, but I have no news to report there either, other than the fact that the Mindcensors and extra Equipment felt clean when I wanted to bring them in. Their ultimate value is still in question.

If anyone would like a breakdown of any game in specific, please let me know!

Hello everyone!

In preparation for a team trios event, I ran my version of the deck through a 4-round Modern tournament, and went 3-1, losing a very hotly contested game one in the finals.

Round one (2-0, 1-0 overall) saw me paired against a Jeskai control player, where he seemed to draw the wrong series of answers against my sequence of threats at every turn. In game one he was forced to Path to Exile my early Stoneforge Mystic, then he had to Detention Sphere the Batterskull when I cast it a few turns later. In game two, he had to Lightning Bolt my Sun Titan twice using Snapcaster Mage, which my Supreme Verdict mopped up when he tried to press a Geist of Saint Traft through. Emeria, the Sky Ruin was active in game 1, and game 2 his double Rest in Peace sat rather anemically in play as I kept casting threats that it could not completely shut off.

A good matchup, especially given that their basic land count is often low enough to make colours an issue through Field of Ruin in the midgame. Be wary of Remand and Spell Queller tempo plays in these colours, but otherwise it should be smooth sailing.

Round 2 (2-1, 2-0 overall) was against U/R Pyromancer Ascension, also running Aria of Flame in the maindeck. His slow start in our first game gave me hope that my Detention Sphere could buy me the time I needed when I caught an Ascension with it, but the Aria he cast the next turn went uncontested for too long as I struggled to resolve a Court Hussar for an answer through multiple Remand. In the second game, I landed a second-turn Stoneforge Mystic, which was joined by another to find the backup Batterskull to keep on the pressure through his Abrade. Remorseful Cleric then landed to cut off a few outs and apply more beatings, then Teferi, Time Raveler bounced his Ascension to remove his last window of opportunity. In game three, he sideboarded into a creature plan with Crackling Drake, Thing in the Ice, and Pteramander, but Celestial Purge, Path to Exile, and Mortarpod were more than up to the task of keeping those under control while a hardcast Batterskull joined a Remorseful Cleric again.

A dangerous matchup, but much more beatable than typical storm, since this version often had to pass the turn after resolving its enchantments. I am not certain if he should have tried the creature plan, since it seemed to give me more outs, but I believe he was trying not to run into Dovin's Veto.

Round 3 (2-1, 3-0 overall) I played against Dredge, who had very bad luck in game 1 by not hitting any payoffs before turn 4, but still managed a kill by finding all his Creeping Chill a turn after I missed on stabilizing the board against his random assortment of creatures. Game two was a similar affair, but with Batterskull and his twin brother on the table, things went a lot better for me and I avoided the necessity of showing my true sideboard plan by finishing him off with Ghost Quarter and Aven Mindcensor to cut out his green mana for the Ancient Grudge lurking in his graveyard to shut off equipment. This became relevant in game three when a timely Remorseful Cleric cut him off of both his Ox of Agonas before he could Escape them. Wit his draws reduced to smaller Dredge turns by the midgame, things went smoothly from then on out.

Once again, Batterskull was excellent against the Dredge strategy, as long as turn 4 and 5 came around without the threat of lethal damage due to speed bumps and sufficient disruption. Still a few tricky calculations to be made getting to that point, but overall very winnable.

Round 4 (0-1, 3-1 overall) was against 5-colour Niv-Mizzet Bring to Light. This was a very dynamic match-up, and Ghost Quarter plus Field of Ruin played a prominent role in keeping his mana unable to produce all 5 colours for a while, but eventually his Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath forced my Path To Exile to turn on his Bring to Light. Over the course of the next half hour, I fought through all four of those, plus three of his Niv-Mizzet Reborn, a Teferi, Time Raveler, a Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves, and a Wrenn and Six, but in the end his third copy of Uro connected once to turn on double Lightning Helix to the head for lethal damage. I felt that I was winning until the very last turn, and so even with my best effort I had to accept the result when I was told we had only five minutes to finish the match after sideboarding. Of note, I saw no Emeria, the Sky Ruin, no Sun Titan, no Court Hussar, no Crucible of Worlds, and no Teferi, Time Raveler of my own in all of those turns, and the only seven cards left in my deck at that point other than those were two Flooded Strand, one Ghost Quarter, two Path to Exile, one Detention Sphereand one Supreme Verdict, so I am attributing this loss mostly to variance.

A matchup where Emeria's manabase advantage allows for very clear sequencing, I believe this should be a favourable pairing overall. My opponent was extremely deliberate, though, with his turns taking approximately twice as long as mine to play half as many spells, but he was new to the deck or else I would have been more mercenary about guarding against stalling. In a tournament setting, there were three clear points where after I mentioned this to him, I would have had to call over a judge to watch our pace of play.

A fair tournament overall, tying for second place with the Dredge player I had defeated in round 3, and a solid performance both for the deck and for my level of decision-making in real-time. I am looking forward to one more outing on Sunday, especially since I will get to watch Legacy and Pioneer matchups from the B-seat of our table in the team event.

Let me know if you have any questions!

ROUND 1 Bant SnowBlade (1-2 loss) (0-1 overall)

A decisive game 1 victory was guaranteed by an uncontested Emeria, the Sky Ruin, after a few early exchanges.

For game 2, I removed the 5 sweepers for 2 Aven Mindcensor, 2 Pithing Needle, and 1 Specter's Shroud, which felt speculative, but justifiable. An unfortunate missed land drop on turn 4 threatened to let him untap into Jace, the Mind Sculptor +2 uncontested, which I tried to prevent by end-step Mindcensor into main phase Ghost Quarter. He hit a basic Island in the top 4, then did actually untap into Jace. I still had the Mindcensor for pressure, but his next turn was Ice-fang Coatl into Ashiok, Dream Render. Since I missed on land once more, I conceded two turns later to save time.

Game three was close, and ended very frustratingly after I fought back on the draw from massive early pressure due to an early Stoneforge Mystic putting a Batterskull into play, then enabling an Ice-fang Coatl to connect with a Sword of Feast and Famine, which immediately put an Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis in play to follow up. My final board state left me dead to a single piece of interaction after I had stabilized at 2 using Pithing Needle, spot removal, and my own Batterskull (about to attack). He was out of cards, and I had just drawn a Sun Titan with seven land in play and a graveyard full of cantripping blockers, so if I had faded this single draw step I believe I would have swung the board back to a commanding position. Instead, he drew a Jace to -1 bounce my lifelinker, and attacked for lethal.

Several interactive options were available to me over each of multiple turns in the last game, so ultimately I felt reasonable about the matchup. It was relatively even overall, with the threat of Emeria being a major factor beyond that, but Ashiok plus pressure felt like one potential issue going forward. The Specter's Shroud was unimpressive when I drew it, but was still a huge improvement over a four-mana sweeper. I would experiment with other options if I played the match again.

ROUND 2 (Bant Spirits) (2-0 win) (1-1 overall)

In game 1, my hand was two Path to Exile and two Wall of Omens, which allowed me the luxury to accelerate if the blocker was irrelevant. Instead, my 0/4 held back a pair of Unsettled Mariner for an extra two turns before I cast a Path on a Spell Queller that tried to stop my 3-for-1 Wrath of God. Cleaned up easily afterwards.

For game 2, I removed the Crucible of Worlds and a Batterskull for two Pithing Needle to name Aether Vial and Mutavault. He had sideboarded in Worship and Ashiok, Dream Render, which were both in play to force a standoff in which I had Emeria active for 7 turns. I eventually drew a needle to immobilize his Mutavault, and swept the board. My lone Batterskull, tutored up on turn 2, had been enough to ignore the graveyard entirely. I told him after the game that I believe the enchantment, at the very least, was a huge liability for him, and possibly the planeswalker as well, though I wasn't certain on that front. The fact that they were not threats in the early game was more important to me than the time they bought him when the board was in my favour, since I believe Spirits' explosiveness is the key to the matchup.

I never felt remotely close to losing in either game, since I was never caught unprepared by Spell Queller tempo. Aside from random Aether Vial nut draws, the matchup is a very good one for Emeria unless they manage to force a sweeper early into a tempo Queller.

ROUND 3 (Jund) (1-1-1 Draw) (1-1-1 overall)

Game 1 was a typical grind, where an active Emeria, the Sky Ruin eventually overpowered his Wrenn and Six emblem. If Scavenging Ooze had shown up, things might have been different, but a healthy life total gave me plenty of options in the face of recurring Kolaghan's Command.

For game 2 I removed two Detention Sphere and a Settle the Wreckage (the first are liabilities against Assassin's Trophy, the second against Thoughtseize), for 2 Celestial Purge and a speculative Specter's Shroud. I immediately regretted the decision when I drew it instead of a blocker after a Liliana of the Veil ultimate when facing down a typical enemy, a 6/7 Tarmogoyf.

In game 3 I put both Detention Sphere back in, over the Specter's Shroud and a Crucible of Worlds, because Wrenn and Six had gotten very close to an emblem again. His turn 3 Inquisition of Kozilek missed on a hand with two lands, a Supreme Verdict, a Batterskull, and a Sun Titan, then the next turn his Bloodbraid Elf cascaded into a Tireless Tracker after he had already played his fourth land, so I was up an 0-for-1 and a clean 2-for-1 (on the draw) by the time I started casting relevant spells. Card advantage being the name of the game here, I was in a very good position when time was called, and uncharacteristically went for lethal on turns 3 and 5. Unfortunately, his topdecked Fatal Push on my Germ token and Terminate on my Sun Titan forced the draw.

I think this result was just, on the whole, since I had wasted too much time in sideboarding, and had brought in a losing card due to lack of testing. The sequences still often line up favourably for Emeria, although the matchup is not quite as good as it was before the inclusion of Wrenn and Six. I would like a third flexible answer to it and Liliana of the Veil, but one that Abrupt Decay cannot hit, and one that can come in elsewhere. Something like a third Celestial Purge perhaps, but three of those would be too many for my liking.

ROUND 4 (5C Humans) (2-0 win) (2-1-1 overall)

Game 1 was very satisfying, ending with a Meddling Mage naming Path, another Meddling Mage on Supreme Verdict, a Noble Hierarch, a Reflector Mage, a Kitesail Freebooter hiding a D-sphere, a Phantasmal Image copy of which held a Settle the Wreckage, and a Deputy of Detention with two batterskull under it all being swept away by a surprise Mortarpod from Stoneforge Mystic mid-combat, which released my Settle to prompt a concession.

For game 2 I removed a Teferi, Time Raveler, a Crucible of Worlds, and one Batterskull to fit in one Pithing Needle for Aether Vial and the two Celestial Purge. Another complicated board state resolved in my favour when two Stoneforge Mystic activated on his end step to ping away the Gaddock Teeg that was locking down my Wrath of God and Supreme Verdict. His Collector Ouphe was unable to help. At 3 life, I waited for three extra turns before casting Batterskull so that I could make sure I left open the Celestial Purge he had seen from a Kitesail Freebooter while he held onto a single card. After I connected with the lifelinker, he conceded and showed me his Mantis Rider.

This is an even better matchup than Spirits, since very few of their creatures have evasion or flash, but they do make better use of Vial. The layers of Meddling Mage effects can infrequently be problematic through a healthy diversity of answers, but typically only if they have Freebooters to peek (hence the Purges that also hedge against their hasty flier as seen in game 2).

Round 5 (1-1 Draw) (concession) (G/W Heliod/Ballista) (2-2-1 overall)

Game 1 felt dangerous, but well in hand, keeping Path to Exile open the whole game as insurance while using Mortarpod to control the mana creatures and combos (once flashing in the 'Pod with Stoneforge Mystic in response to my opponent removing the first counter from his Spike Feeder, pinging it to take advantage of state-based actions before he could gain infinite life; the same on-board trick held back a 2/2 Ballista in game 2). The Birds of Paradise being gone turned on an easy win for a surprise Batterskull afterwards, since his mana had been killing him slowly with 3 Horizon Canopy and a basic plains.

In game 2 I removed 2 Stoneforge Mystic and 1 Batterskull, plus 1 Teferi, Time Raveler and 1 Crucible of Worlds, to bring in 2 Pithing Needle, 1 Aven Mindcensor, 1 Remorseful Cleric and 1 Aura of Silence. His early combo was thwarted by Mortarpod, so he was on the beatdown plan from turn 4 or so. He had 1 card in hand and 5 land in play when I stabilized. At 3 life with an Aura of Silence in play and time about to be called, I cast a Detention Sphere and destroyed it with the trigger on the stack using the Aura so that I could get both of his Kitchen Finks off of the table without him increasing my clock when I cast the Wrath of God that would then sweep his board clear for my Sun Titan to take over the next turn. Since he was at 9, I was thinking that I wouldn't want him to go to 13 to increase my clock to 3 turns if time was called. This was a catastrophic error, since now with no Sphere of Resistance effect in play he untapped, drew a shockland, and cast the Walking Ballista in his hand for X=3 for the win.

He was a young kid I had met before, excited to be playing in a bigger tournament. Since the second draw would almost certainly knock us both out of the top 8 at this point, I told him so, and asked him if he would be willing to concede. He said "no", so I signed the match slip 2-1 for him and wished him luck. Hugely disappointing game loss on three counts. First and foremost, I gave my opponent an out. I cannot fault them for walking through my kitchen when I opened the door. Second, my clock was not relevant, since I was up a game. Only his was. Third, I was again indecisive with my sideboarding, and would have benefited from testing or theorycrafting ahead of time, which would have given me more time to think through #1 and #2. The match felt tricky, and might warrant a cleaner answer to Heliod, Sun-Crowned. If there is overlap between a white enchantment and a red-green Planeswalker, I would love to hear any ideas! The third Pithing Needle effect might need to come back in as an imperfect solution if not.

ROUND 6 (Dredge) (2-1 Win) (3-2-1 overall)

Game 1 was an interesting one, wherein I came close to stabilizing with a Batterskull, but then unfortunately gave him a second red source for his Ox of Agonas when I used Ghost Quarter to cut him off of his basic Forest for Life from the Loam. With one Mountain in play and another in his graveyard, I was confident he was out of basics unless he had a Swamp. As it turns out, he was only too happy to show me both a Swamp before the extra Mountain still in his deck quoting that "I hate losing value to Path to Exile". I told him I was of a similar mind, and we shared a laugh when I showed him what I meant by using a superfluous Path to get an extra Plains off of my own Germ token when he presented well over lethal damage the turn after his Ox fuelled an enormous dredge for 15.

For game 2 I removed all sweepers other than the Settle the Wreckage, plus one Emeria, the Sky Ruin, one Teferi, Time Raveler, and two Stoneforge Mystic to bring in 3 Remorseful Cleric, 2 Celestial Purge, 1 Lone Missionary, and 1 Lavinia, Azorius renegade. Beginning the second game on the play, I was able to use Lavinia to stop his flashback of a Conflagrate he had played for 0 on turn one to start discarding his dredge cards. While he played fair Magic behind on land drops for two or three turns, my u/w legend chipped in enough damage to make things awkward for him once he finally found a Life from the Loam for no value to put in his bin. This time, Field of Ruin combined with Ghost Quarter to successfully knock him off of green mana as my two copies of Remorseful Cleric had been committed to join the attack instead of exiling his graveyard. Detention Sphere took care of a Golgari Thug he put on the table, and that was enough for the win.

In game 3, I brought back in a Stoneforge Mystic over a Mortarpod, which I like to think may have been the one I drew to put two Batterskull in play. The game was quite back and forth, Conflagrate cleaning up multiple blockers only for Lone Missionary to pull me out of danger, and I eventually found a Celestial Purge to clear his hardcast Stinkweed Imp as a blocker when I ultimately got enough mana to equip the dead Batterskull to a live one for lethal damage.

The match was competitive, and there was tension between going aggressive with accelerating out Batterskull post-board and trying to manage Bloodghast and Narcomoeba with Mortarpod. The incremental damage of these latter two Dredge payoffs add up to very interesting decisions later in the game, but in the end I think I am happy with 5 cards that give me access to each equipment's effect post-board. The configuration may need tweaking though, and I still spent too much time deciding.

ROUND 7 (Dredge) (2-1 Win) (4-2-1 overall)

In game 1 I was able to prove to my own satisfaction that Stoneforge Mystic into Batterskull is a certifiable trump sequence if unanswered in the matchup, grinding out an average-looking mixture of Bloodghast, Narcomoeba, and Prized Amalgam, and then trading with an Ox of Agonas when that eventually showed up as well. Path to Exile did reasonable work, and Detention Sphere was as excellent in pre-board games as it usually is.

This time for game 2 I removed two Mortarpod, and kept in an extra Stoneforge Mystic, just to see if this was sufficient. I wasn't really pleased with the result, since I came up short on a target for Emeria, The Sky Ruin for a loss, and might have appreciated an extra sacrifice outlet. I think this is probably a moot point, however, since the circumstances where Emeria is online AND access to Remorseful Cleric is not certain crop up so rarely. Ox of Agonas being a creature allowed it to Escape through the restrictions of Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, and there was little my hand could do to prevent being run over by the waves of of Bloodghast and Prized Amalgam it unlocked.

In game 3, I put the extra Mortarpod back in over a Crucible of Worlds, and felt much better for it. The lategame Field of Ruin are often excellent without backup already once they have dredged their deck, but if their Life From the Loam is active, it is very difficult for them to be relevant. In this game, after a very rare Mulligan to 5, I learnt to equip any Remorseful Cleric that I intended to pass the turn on with Mortarpod, if possible. My opponent had drawn a Darkblast to force the timing on Cleric to his advantage, but luckily my Settle the Wreckage was able to catch a very good portion of his creatures when he tried to punish my awkward stumbles to fix my own mana. Without being able to find his last Bloodghast, his Amalgams waited in the graveyard long enough that I was able to clear them with the Cleric to seal the game when brought back and backed up with Sun Titan.

Again, the match felt competitive, but with Dredge being at the mercy of how explosive their first two turns are, the battle to dictate strategic play is mostly on the side of Emeria. This is definitely not an easy match to play, but I believe Emeria is favoured, especially if it can win the often competitive game one.

So, in total, I had a final record of four wins, two losses, and a draw. Though I was less than thrilled with my play, I made a little store credit in prizes, and felt very solid about the maindeck and 12 of the 15 sideboard cards. One of the losses was a draw in actual games played, and even that might not have been the case if I had been more efficient with my time. My other draw was a very near escape for my opponent, and again I could have gotten more out of smoother and less indecisive play, particularly in sideboarding, where I may also have thrown away a game. My loss was a tight match, where I gave myself as good a chance as I could have asked for from a massive early deficit, but my opponent's aggressive play to punish my defensive stance deserves the credit for giving them the win.

I did not get to have a true measure of Aven Mindcensor, sadly, and so I will have to keep it in on a provisional basis. The Specter's Shroud had no opportunity to be relevant, and is in a similar boat, but may be replaced by an Angelic Purge or an extra answer to Wrenn and Six. It is an ugly prospect, but if anyone has thoughts on what else Angelic hits cleanly in the format (Starting with Finks, Amalgam, and Heliod, Sun-Crowned from this tournament alone), I would appreciate a collection of cards to look at. If the list gets long enough, I will give it a shot. Ultimately, if this is too poor, I will try out a speculative Forsake The Worldly, which at least gives instant-speed options in addition to covering Gods, even if both modes are inefficient. One other possibility for the sideboard is that the Disenchant could be replaced by a Seal of Cleansing, which I thought was not Modern-legal until someone told me it had been reprinted in Modern Masters. There is a debate to be had here though, and I will be happy to have it if anyone is interested.

Let me know what you all think!

@gerant

nice tourney report. And congrats on being able to tie for first place.

you're really adept at beating jund with this deck.

oh, seal of cleansing?? I think that is not modern legal?

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Hmm, do you play a lot against Humans? We still don't have a guide for that match-up.
If you like, you can write a guide how to play vs. that deck. Will add it to the primer, and write you as the contributor.