I agree with streexgeist about anafenza, i tried it a long time ago. To me the deciding factor was that in most (if not all) games i played her on curve, she did not increase my clock by a turn. Her boost is too late and she herself doesn't fly, making her bad at the role she plays (boosting damage output). Another 2/2 flyer that can attack would just be as good in terms of clocking the opponent. I would play a two drop that allows me to have lethal one turn earlier when cast on curve, (like goldfishing a consistent turn 4 kill instead of turn 5+ currently) but she failed at doing that.
Seems like a worthy addition to the deck. Another consistency tool for a deck that needs it badly. I don't really see a reason not to run this over sage of epityr for those who play the card.
Myth realized ism't even a spirit (i thought it was when you made the suggestion). Don't be deceived by the colors of this deck. We are a creature based tempo deck, jamming a control win con just because we are u/w doesn't make sense.
I tried tallowisp and didn't like it, felt very clunky and slow, i don't think curious obsession changes things. Also wisp never could fetch threads of disloyalty because wizards decided they hate the little candle (because of the wording wisp can only search for enchant creature with exactly «enchant creature» and nothing else in the sentence).
Seems good vs both control and aggro, our deck can break the symmetry with vial and flash stuff.
That How many copies are you running MB?
Kira and auras just don't fit the same shell indeed.
I started with one main one side, a 3/1 split between nebelgast herald, with the 4th herald in the sideboard. I still drew it kind of often, i might go with 2/2 but i'm not sure since multiple aren't needed.
Back from testing, won both monday and tuesday event 3-0, beating grixis control, u/b delver and w/b tokens monday, and u/w control, r/g eldrazi and scrap trawler/KCI eggs tuesday.
Eidolon of rhetoric also had its moments of glory in my testing. A lot of tricks can be done with it. Seems good vs both control and aggro, our deck can break the symmetry with vial and flash stuff. Curious obsession was kind of nice, i'll keep playing the two i have in my main deck. Had to cut kira for it, obviously the card is a nonbo with auras, which is the thing i like the least about the card.
Hi, i've been absent for a while but i'm getting back into modern after a little break, i'm eager to try that curious obsession tech. Also is eidolon of rhetoric worthy of MD now with bbe and all the unfair stuff?
Sadly there hasn't been any new spirit printed in a while, vampire revenant is the only new spirit since shadows block and there are zero spoiled in dominaria (yet)
Still i'm keeping my spirits up, will report once i get enough game with the cute new aura.
How yeah i had the MW-queller trick figured out for quite some time, it is indeed a valuable trick to do.
What really makes tezz and vizier decks a pain is whir/chord can never be quelled. Very annoying. Grafdigger's cage is important here but it does nothing vs whir unfortunately.
Congrats on the tournament! Glad to see you beating nightmare matchup tezz bridge in the finals, pretty epic for a last match! I've always tought lantern/tezz is awful, but like you said they aren't the most popular, thankfully.
Also agree vizier company is hard, i used to lose all the time because they stupidly combo all the time through path because their deck is so redundant.
Scapeshift to me isn't so bad, i won't say it is good, titan is very annoying because it is too big to quell. Strangely i love bringing eidolon of rhetoric vs them, just time warps us on search for tomorrow turns, and double time warps us vs summoner's pact (can't play titan after pacting, then they have to pay for the pact). If you can flash it for value its great!
Thinking about bringing the deck to GP toronto which is coming soon and is at a reasonable distance from my home. I've never been in an actual modern GP, but the registration price just doubled compared to last year's GP here in montreal, so not sure i'll be able to afford, we'll see.
Sold my caverns before the last reprint for value. Their absence hasn't affected my win % at all, and my meta is full of blue based control decks. Still i believe 1x is the right number, drawing two is bad and just one plus two moorland haunt will likely not mess too much with our ability to cast colored spells.
Playing 4cc value spell is a big no for me. Tried it, didn't like it. I came to the conclusion that if you are playing those you are basically playing a bad version of bant coco spirit, because coco is the best 4cc spell for this deck. We need to curve out, which is what every vial decks are best at, so anything more than 2 mana in addition to our 12-ish 3 drops is a big no.
If you are looking for a value spell, i highly recommend chart a course. The card is very efficient for what it does (no way draw 2 can reasonably be worth less than 2 mana). Really great at getting gas, it helps with the issue of running out of spirits, which is, like i've said many times, how we lose most games. Still love my 22 lands mana base, the cycling lands is a great compromise between a safe number of lands and not flooding.
Worth a try. Not taking into account the planeswalker shutdown line, all other abilities seem decent enough to be worth a x1 slot and 6 mana. And the pw hosing seems great vs tron and a bunch of other randomly harder matchups (lili decks, control decks with pw win cons).
I've been trying out chart a course and i like it, even though it is sorcery. Drawing two cards won't get much more efficiant than two mana, so i doubt we can realistically expect something better at what it does.
I'm not against running more than 2 images, the card is better than other available spirit two-drops options.
I'm still convinced 22 lands including 2x cycling lands is the way to go, especially with few cantrips. Yes flooding suck but cycling lands mitigate that and missing land drops early sucks even more.
Anyways random thought of the day: it sucks that good old kamigawa block was such a flop, would be the perfect throwback set for updating the deck
Batterskull has been great, can come down early and can both grind AND is great vs aggro. Lots of value in using extra mana to equip it.
Shackles i haven't drawn a lot. It is supposed to help a bit vs tough creature matchups.
Sideboard is a bit all over the place, i put as many high impact stuff as i could. Torpor orb has been also good vs creature decks. Not sure about trading post because of stony but the value is real. Walker has been a great trinket mage target vs grixis shadow/non path midrange decks, highly recommend one.
I still love pests. They just win me so much games, i still like them better than the bird.
I could write a lot about thalia, because i've been playing her for a looong time in modern, in one deck or another. Long story short, i play her because:
1. no other good spirits for the 2cc, rant, rant...
2. Our spells are about 75% creatures, and the ones we do play are cheap, she has very little drawback.
3. She pairs well with tempo play i believe, by taxing the opponent's resources we get ahead on efficiency. She goes so well with turn one mausoleum wanderer. Spell quellering makes the opponent waste more mana on the spell we exile, possibly preventing the following removal spell to be cast until we untap, and we all know what happens to removal spells when we untap with this deck
4. her first strike ability is suprisingly relevant, it may save you one hit from merfolk, it is ridiculous vs all of burn's creatures (and all the deck to be honest), etc.
Our deck is very interactive. We have path and nebelgast for creatures, thalia covers us vs non-creatures, and is great vs lots of matchups. Decks that play low threat density and lots of spell will have to (try to) kill her on the spot.
Plus she is a pet card of mine, so yeah, whatev, thalia's great!
Seems like a worthy addition to the deck. Another consistency tool for a deck that needs it badly. I don't really see a reason not to run this over sage of epityr for those who play the card.
Well there is no reason in my mind not to play one or the other, they're just great and win games.
I started with one main one side, a 3/1 split between nebelgast herald, with the 4th herald in the sideboard. I still drew it kind of often, i might go with 2/2 but i'm not sure since multiple aren't needed.
Yes (for me at least). If you don't play vial just play bant with CoCo.
Eidolon of rhetoric also had its moments of glory in my testing. A lot of tricks can be done with it. Seems good vs both control and aggro, our deck can break the symmetry with vial and flash stuff. Curious obsession was kind of nice, i'll keep playing the two i have in my main deck. Had to cut kira for it, obviously the card is a nonbo with auras, which is the thing i like the least about the card.
Sadly there hasn't been any new spirit printed in a while, vampire revenant is the only new spirit since shadows block and there are zero spoiled in dominaria (yet)
Still i'm keeping my spirits up, will report once i get enough game with the cute new aura.
What really makes tezz and vizier decks a pain is whir/chord can never be quelled. Very annoying. Grafdigger's cage is important here but it does nothing vs whir unfortunately.
Also agree vizier company is hard, i used to lose all the time because they stupidly combo all the time through path because their deck is so redundant.
Scapeshift to me isn't so bad, i won't say it is good, titan is very annoying because it is too big to quell. Strangely i love bringing eidolon of rhetoric vs them, just time warps us on search for tomorrow turns, and double time warps us vs summoner's pact (can't play titan after pacting, then they have to pay for the pact). If you can flash it for value its great!
Thinking about bringing the deck to GP toronto which is coming soon and is at a reasonable distance from my home. I've never been in an actual modern GP, but the registration price just doubled compared to last year's GP here in montreal, so not sure i'll be able to afford, we'll see.
Playing 4cc value spell is a big no for me. Tried it, didn't like it. I came to the conclusion that if you are playing those you are basically playing a bad version of bant coco spirit, because coco is the best 4cc spell for this deck. We need to curve out, which is what every vial decks are best at, so anything more than 2 mana in addition to our 12-ish 3 drops is a big no.
If you are looking for a value spell, i highly recommend chart a course. The card is very efficient for what it does (no way draw 2 can reasonably be worth less than 2 mana). Really great at getting gas, it helps with the issue of running out of spirits, which is, like i've said many times, how we lose most games. Still love my 22 lands mana base, the cycling lands is a great compromise between a safe number of lands and not flooding.
Worth a try. Not taking into account the planeswalker shutdown line, all other abilities seem decent enough to be worth a x1 slot and 6 mana. And the pw hosing seems great vs tron and a bunch of other randomly harder matchups (lili decks, control decks with pw win cons).
I'll be testing it when it comes out!
I'm not against running more than 2 images, the card is better than other available spirit two-drops options.
I'm still convinced 22 lands including 2x cycling lands is the way to go, especially with few cantrips. Yes flooding suck but cycling lands mitigate that and missing land drops early sucks even more.
Anyways random thought of the day: it sucks that good old kamigawa block was such a flop, would be the perfect throwback set for updating the deck
4 mausoleum wanderer
4 signal pest
4 chief engineer
4 etherium sculptor
4 walking ballista
4 grand architect
2 master of etherium
4 lodestone golem
4 smuggler's copter
1 throne of the god-pharaoh
1 vedalken shackles
1 batterskull
1 god-pharaoh's gift
lands: 22
4 blinkmoth nexus
1 academy ruins
17 island
1 hangarback walker
1 basilisk collar
1 pithing needle
1 relic of progenitus
1 grafdigger's cage
2 trinket mage
2 thorn of amethyst
1 torpor orb
1 trading post
1 mindlock orb
1 orbs of warding
2 echoing truth
Batterskull has been great, can come down early and can both grind AND is great vs aggro. Lots of value in using extra mana to equip it.
Shackles i haven't drawn a lot. It is supposed to help a bit vs tough creature matchups.
Sideboard is a bit all over the place, i put as many high impact stuff as i could. Torpor orb has been also good vs creature decks. Not sure about trading post because of stony but the value is real. Walker has been a great trinket mage target vs grixis shadow/non path midrange decks, highly recommend one.
I still love pests. They just win me so much games, i still like them better than the bird.
1. no other good spirits for the 2cc, rant, rant...
2. Our spells are about 75% creatures, and the ones we do play are cheap, she has very little drawback.
3. She pairs well with tempo play i believe, by taxing the opponent's resources we get ahead on efficiency. She goes so well with turn one mausoleum wanderer. Spell quellering makes the opponent waste more mana on the spell we exile, possibly preventing the following removal spell to be cast until we untap, and we all know what happens to removal spells when we untap with this deck
4. her first strike ability is suprisingly relevant, it may save you one hit from merfolk, it is ridiculous vs all of burn's creatures (and all the deck to be honest), etc.
Our deck is very interactive. We have path and nebelgast for creatures, thalia covers us vs non-creatures, and is great vs lots of matchups. Decks that play low threat density and lots of spell will have to (try to) kill her on the spot.
Plus she is a pet card of mine, so yeah, whatev, thalia's great!