^^ I'm Slowgod on MTGO as well and I have not played with field of ruin yet. Updated my deck in my signature, but where would I squeeze in rev or secure the wastes, it's already cutting a lot of corners? Sometimes the life gain from rev is what wins the game for me, more than the cards I draw.
Edit: check out the new link in my signature Sorry I don't know the best way to pull the stream directly off my PC so I just filmed the replay on my phone and put it on youtube.
more edit: Went 4-1 with my 23 land list (no ghost quarter) the 3 opt/3 serum 2 Azcanta feel so smooth, azcanta seriously takes over the long game. Was close to 5-0 but barely lost to a turn 3 blood moon and a pithing needle on my GoTT. I still don't think blood moon is great against us, but when you don't get those basics early it can be. I've been playing against opposing spell quellers a lot lately and I think I'm going to try 2 in my SB somewhere.
So far I've really liked the Quellers in my board. They tend to be good "auto in's" against a bunch of decks if you know a certain card like Spreading Seas just isn't that great against them. It hits a lot of stuff and just buys some time for our bigger threats to take over the board.
I just picked up a 2nd copy of Search for Azcanta It has practically won every game for me after flipping into land mode. I am going to try something like 6 opt/serum and going down to 23 lands, crazy I know, but I still keep flooding to death with 24. Now I'm just not sure if I want to cut Sphinx Rev or not, especially with only 23 lands, but Azcanta has helped me find it multiple times and auto win.
Are you on MTGO, Slowgod? I'd love to watch your games and see how things go if you are. Plus it's nice to talk to someone else about the deck and its possibilities. I really want to just say screw it and pick up a few Azcanta.
@octavarium - Spreading seas has been underwhelming for me as well, I'm waffling between 2-3 main and 1 side. Search for Azcanta is absurd, I can't speak about how much you should pay for them, but it is a very good card. I don't think Slowgod is wrong when he says it's probably the best card in the deck. I think it's close between little Gideon, verdict and Azcanta.
Regarding Opt and land counts. I've slowly worked down to 4 opt 1 Serum visions. My sample is still small (around 20ish games) but I think I'm comfortable saying that Opt is better at this point - not having to worry about fetchlands shuffling away my scry has really toned down my cognitive load which is worth it enough right there imo. I also think dropping Serum could allow us to move to an additional 1-2 fetchlands. With that in mind, it could be correct to move to 4 Opt no Serum but stay at 25 lands.
Interesting. I haven't tested going down on Seas, but I feel like in a lot of match ups I'm always happy to draw one (Affinity, TitanShift, ETron, etc). Also I'll have to just keep an eye on the price of Azcanta and give it a shot when it seems right. Is everyone just running it as a 1-of? I could see two if we wanted to hit it more often, but the deck runs pretty tight on what it needs to keep.
@jayjay Sounds like your deck is pretty stacked for storm! I really do like spell snare and lately for me spreading seas have been kinda underwhelming a lot of times. Against burn you think you can just cut them off mana, but they always seem to have another land, or you are forced to path something and give them one. A lot of decks just have enough mana that SS becomes a 2 mana cantrip that really does nothing because there's no good targets. It's still best against Tron and manlands, but even tron can overcome it or just get enough lands without tron online. I hate deciding to tap out for SS on turn 2 or hold up a counterspell also, might try going down to 2-3 SS for more opt/SOA.
I agree about Narset, but the guy I was playing (it was Gul_Dukat) I think he usually plays UW, only used her + mode the entire match and he had her on turn 4 every time with a ton of lingering souls to protect her. Amulet Titan is probably a good match up if you make sure to play an untapped white source on turn 1 with a path in hand, otherwise you might die! I really didn't think that deck could still turn 2 kill since summer bloom was banned, but I was wrong.
@OctaVariuM Search for Azcanta has been stupidly amazing for me already, probably the best card in the deck right now! It's just so good at filtering away junk and then when it flips you get an extra land right when you need it and being able to impulse anytime is crazy powerful. I'm actually on 3 Opt, 0 Serum and 1 search right now, but who knows what's "right". I decided I like Opt better than Serum because Serum always seems to draw something useless and have the card that will save my life next. It's also nice being able to leave up the option to counterspell or Opt on their end step. I actually want to play 2x Search for Azcantas, but I'm already playing less opt/serum than I know I should and there's nothing else to cut except maybe my mainboard clique which I really like too.
Very interesting! Thanks for your insight. I see you are also on 3 Spreading Seas instead of the default 4. Were you just not finding it good enough in multiples in a match outside of the Burn game you mentioned above?
Do you think it's worth buying Azcanta at the current price (~3.5 tix) and giving it a shot? I can't say I know where it will settle price wise. I think I'm going to try:
Right now at least. See how that goes for me. I don't love not having 2 Fortress but I can't see cutting another basic and being super open to Blood Moon .
So have we come to any sort of consensus on what lists with Opt will look like, or if it's even something we want? Today was the first day where Opt wasn't stupidly expensive on MTGO (where I play) so I finally picked up a play-set. Initial thoughts are that we would want some number of them just as an instant speed way of finding our answers, but naturally digging 1 to 2 deep isn't as good as digging 3 deep. Are people cutting 1 Serum and 1 of something else in order to make it fit as a two-of?
Also, does anyone have any concrete thoughts on going down to 24 lands (keeping Irrigated Farmland since it helps a bit with that)? I've seen a few lists have success with it, but the MTGO shuffler can be a bit of a pain in the rump if you know what I mean :P.
Finally, worth noting that at least on MTGO Search for Azcanta is down to 2.5 tix. Hard to say whether this will be its low point or not, but it's tempting to get a few to test it out. I just have no idea what to cut since the list seems to like everything it plays (outside of Mana Leak which seems to be a necessary evil).
Hey all, so I appreciate the side boarding advice but it's still been a pretty annoying issue for me. I suppose as time goes on I'll learn more. I'm not sure if my board is good or not, but it seems fairly standard after looking at the decks that are getting good results recently.
I know we tend to like it all on the site using our deck function, but I'm lazy and had this done already. I'm finding my matches against Abzan and Eldrazi Tron difficult so far (in my testing today), but that might just be user error.
Hey everyone. So I tried posting this on the Facebook page but no one responded sadly. I was wondering if anyone had tips for side boarding vs the more common match ups we go against? I just recently bought the deck, and I think that's the part I'm struggling with the most. Prior to this I didn't really play modern competitively, mostly just for fun.
By any chance, has someone created a spreadsheet for the community with the typical side boarding plan? I ask because I know some decks like Burn have this available to their pilots, and if we do have one I'd love to take advantage of it.
Thanks a ton! I'll check that out in a few minutes here. And I do think that someone offering up their side boarding plan in a document or even just in a post here would be very helpful to a lot of people looking to pick up the deck. I feel like I have a general understanding of what to bring in based on match ups (but still need help with that), it's more confusing when it comes to taking stuff out.
Hey everyone. So I tried posting this on the Facebook page but no one responded sadly. I was wondering if anyone had tips for side boarding vs the more common match ups we go against? I just recently bought the deck, and I think that's the part I'm struggling with the most. Prior to this I didn't really play modern competitively, mostly just for fun.
By any chance, has someone created a spreadsheet for the community with the typical side boarding plan? I ask because I know some decks like Burn have this available to their pilots, and if we do have one I'd love to take advantage of it.
So, do you guys think I should wait a few weeks before buying my pieces for the deck just in case we find changes we like with the new cards/meta changes? 90% of the cost is Colonnade for me, but if we move away from stuff like Jace I'd rather save the money, ya know?
Also, I've seen a few decks running Shadow of Doubt as a one-of in the main. It seems a lot better in draw-go shells, but it still might be interesting to test since it hits Storm, Chord decks, Tron, etc.
You can always try something like silence or mindbreak trap. Leyline is obviously good too.
Meddling mage is a good ol legacy option, but still playable for us.
Leyline isn't really that great I don't think, since a lot of Storm players side in Empty The Warrens after game 1.
You guys are probably right that I shouldn't just not build the deck due to Storm being difficult, but naturally I'd like to have a better game vs. Storm when it's a large % of the field I see online. I know I can just tinker with my sideboard to make it more effective vs. Storm, but I don't want to hamper my ability to compete vs other decks. Right now I just play in the tournament practice room with a few decks I have built (CoCo Elves, Shrine Burn, etc) but even then it comes up definitely more often than any other deck.
Does anyone have any good ideas of what a sideboard might look like that leans towards fighting Storm while still not sacrificing what the sideboard generally wants?
Yeah, Storm is what worries me the most. I've been reading the thread for a while now since I've been contemplating building UW for a long time. However, it seems like on MTGO (where I play) you run up against a TON of Storm decks (I think due to the cost). I suppose I could always just tailor my sideboard for Storm (and Tron varients, also very popular). Are Rule of Law type cards a worthy inclusion to the sideboard?
So, the other day I thought of maybe doing Jund CoCo Elves. Has anyone else tried this out? I know it makes the mana base kind of crap, but the reason I thought of it initially was Atarka's Command and of course Shaman of the Pack. I've been trying it out on MTGO, and honestly I'd probably need 4x Command instead of 3 (all I have), and some fast lands like Copperline Gorge to get it to run more smoothly, BUT....landing a command can be absolutely back breaking in a lot of games. Most of the time I draw it with the proper mana it reads "RG, You win the game." Naturally this is usually due to establishing a good board state, but that's never been an issue with CoCo Elves.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Adding red also gives access to a few neat sideboard cards, specifically Ancient Grudge.
So, I guess I'm not having as much success as everyone else. I see that the deck has 5-0'd a few times recently on MTGO (where I play), but I can't for the life of me see similar results. Just today alone I've lost matches against Saheli combo, Abzan DS, Jeskai Control, Scapeshift, and Burn. I'm not sure I've even won a match yet.
I'm assuming a lot of this is pilot error, since my list is very similar to all of yours, but right now I'm feeling really weak. I know the deck can do some pretty powerful stuff, and I've done that while goldfishing, but with all of the interactive decks out there (especially post board), I'm finding myself losing a lot more than winning (probably a 20-80 split).
If I can ask the more experienced players here a few questions, I'd be forever grateful for some replies:
1a. What do you like to see in your opening hand to know you have a good running opener?
1b. Conversely, what don't you like to see in your opening hand/what causes you to mulligan? Obviously all land or no land is an auto-mull, but outside of that I'm curious.
2. I know all sideboards are different, but in general what are you removing from your deck to make room for sideboard cards? Assume a lot of your SB cards are non-creatures if that helps.
3. Has there been any consensus on what "version" of the deck has been running better? I've seen GB and Junk versions doing well results wise, and mine is Junk (mostly for the board, but also for Shaman).
4. What are our best match-ups? Our worst? What makes those our best/worst match-ups?
Thanks a ton! I'll read over the title post again and edit this if I find out my questions have already been covered. Cheers!
Hey all! So I'm popping in the thread (as a reader for a while) to ask a question from a non-burn player currently. Right now Eidelon is stupidly expensive on MTGO (where I play), so do you think the deck can function at a tier 1-ish level without it? I'd love to get some feedback and some alternatives if possible. I just can't drop $125+ on 4 cards right now.
So far I've really liked the Quellers in my board. They tend to be good "auto in's" against a bunch of decks if you know a certain card like Spreading Seas just isn't that great against them. It hits a lot of stuff and just buys some time for our bigger threats to take over the board.
Are you on MTGO, Slowgod? I'd love to watch your games and see how things go if you are. Plus it's nice to talk to someone else about the deck and its possibilities. I really want to just say screw it and pick up a few Azcanta.
Interesting. I haven't tested going down on Seas, but I feel like in a lot of match ups I'm always happy to draw one (Affinity, TitanShift, ETron, etc). Also I'll have to just keep an eye on the price of Azcanta and give it a shot when it seems right. Is everyone just running it as a 1-of? I could see two if we wanted to hit it more often, but the deck runs pretty tight on what it needs to keep.
Very interesting! Thanks for your insight. I see you are also on 3 Spreading Seas instead of the default 4. Were you just not finding it good enough in multiples in a match outside of the Burn game you mentioned above?
Do you think it's worth buying Azcanta at the current price (~3.5 tix) and giving it a shot? I can't say I know where it will settle price wise. I think I'm going to try:
-1 Glacial Fortress
-1 Serum Visions
+2 Opt
Right now at least. See how that goes for me. I don't love not having 2 Fortress but I can't see cutting another basic and being super open to Blood Moon .
Also, does anyone have any concrete thoughts on going down to 24 lands (keeping Irrigated Farmland since it helps a bit with that)? I've seen a few lists have success with it, but the MTGO shuffler can be a bit of a pain in the rump if you know what I mean :P.
Finally, worth noting that at least on MTGO Search for Azcanta is down to 2.5 tix. Hard to say whether this will be its low point or not, but it's tempting to get a few to test it out. I just have no idea what to cut since the list seems to like everything it plays (outside of Mana Leak which seems to be a necessary evil).
Here's my list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/26-09-17-Gqq-uw-control/
I know we tend to like it all on the site using our deck function, but I'm lazy and had this done already. I'm finding my matches against Abzan and Eldrazi Tron difficult so far (in my testing today), but that might just be user error.
Thanks a ton! I'll check that out in a few minutes here. And I do think that someone offering up their side boarding plan in a document or even just in a post here would be very helpful to a lot of people looking to pick up the deck. I feel like I have a general understanding of what to bring in based on match ups (but still need help with that), it's more confusing when it comes to taking stuff out.
By any chance, has someone created a spreadsheet for the community with the typical side boarding plan? I ask because I know some decks like Burn have this available to their pilots, and if we do have one I'd love to take advantage of it.
Thanks!
Also, I've seen a few decks running Shadow of Doubt as a one-of in the main. It seems a lot better in draw-go shells, but it still might be interesting to test since it hits Storm, Chord decks, Tron, etc.
Leyline isn't really that great I don't think, since a lot of Storm players side in Empty The Warrens after game 1.
Does anyone have any good ideas of what a sideboard might look like that leans towards fighting Storm while still not sacrificing what the sideboard generally wants?
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Adding red also gives access to a few neat sideboard cards, specifically Ancient Grudge.
I'm assuming a lot of this is pilot error, since my list is very similar to all of yours, but right now I'm feeling really weak. I know the deck can do some pretty powerful stuff, and I've done that while goldfishing, but with all of the interactive decks out there (especially post board), I'm finding myself losing a lot more than winning (probably a 20-80 split).
If I can ask the more experienced players here a few questions, I'd be forever grateful for some replies:
1a. What do you like to see in your opening hand to know you have a good running opener?
1b. Conversely, what don't you like to see in your opening hand/what causes you to mulligan? Obviously all land or no land is an auto-mull, but outside of that I'm curious.
2. I know all sideboards are different, but in general what are you removing from your deck to make room for sideboard cards? Assume a lot of your SB cards are non-creatures if that helps.
3. Has there been any consensus on what "version" of the deck has been running better? I've seen GB and Junk versions doing well results wise, and mine is Junk (mostly for the board, but also for Shaman).
4. What are our best match-ups? Our worst? What makes those our best/worst match-ups?
Thanks a ton! I'll read over the title post again and edit this if I find out my questions have already been covered. Cheers!
Cheers!