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Mar 7, 2018
published the article Commander decks are as varied as they are numerous. With a such a myriad of options available, it can be tearing to build a deck. Luckily, some of our helpful users have written comprehensive guides in hopes of inspiring others. This week we'd like to highlight one such primer: Kelzam's Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. Give it a read; it might just spark your creativity.Posted in: Primer Highlight: Kelzam's Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
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May 28, 2015
published the article
I like to keep track of my modern decklists and progression of how I am playing them in my blog so I can see changes and track results and such more conveniently.
Its always a work in progress. I enjoy toying with the list.
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Jan 28, 2014
published the article
I am going to start a blog post to sort of keep track of testing and changes to what I want to build as a UW midrange deck. I will be sort of developing this myself but any suggestions or questions are more than welcome.
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Sep 16, 2013
published the article
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards CREATURES (6)
4 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Prognostic Sphinx
SPELLS (29)
2 Blind Obedience
4 Izzet Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Mizzium Mortars
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Counterflux
3 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Steam Augury
2 Warleader's HelixLAND (25)
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Steam Vents
3 Temple of Triumph
4 Mountain
6 IslandSIDEBOARD
2 Wear-Tear
3 Essence Scatter
2 Fiendslayer Paladin
2 Dispel
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Aetherling
3 Chained to the Rocks
This at the moment is still entirely hypothetical but I was looking at it being primarily a UR deck at the time being with a light white splash to support a few really good cards. I am running lighter on my white to be a bit nicer to my landbase all around for the time being. Its mostly sort of a draw / go burn control style of deck with a few finishers and what not.
Let me know what you think. For the time being I will just let this brew stick to my signature.
Things that in my mind that stand out that need some testing on counts being:
Temple of Triumph I like that it gives me access to white and red. Always coming in tapped seems a little problematic still. I don't need that much white mainboard but I could see increasing the counts to support my sideboard a bit better. I don't know where I want to be with this one ideally overall though. I will test and see if more or less is appropriate for now.
Fiendslayer Paladin in the SB, he is heavy white which worries me but he seems like one of the best cards to have vs RDW currently. What worries me is my current white landbase though to support WW in general. It might end up that I need to max out on Temple of Triumph to support running more of these guys or possibly at all... testing will probably show though. I think I want to run 3x of these guys but currently worry about my landbase for white mana to be able to do that.
Blind Obedience it seems nice in theory, but I dont know how much I need to worry about haste offhand going forward. Its really good against haste but if it turns out that there is very little of it, its less impressive. It is also in here as a lifegain option / wincon. I like the idea of running it especially considering how instant speed spell heavy I am currently. Testing will show how this turns out for me though. Running only two maindeck sort of makes me think that they wont be very consistent but I am running them more for the wincon option than for the tapping down option.
Prognostic Sphinx its sort of a bold move trying out this new sphinx. I think it is really strong against opposing aggro decks though as their means to kill creatures tend to be focused into spot removal. It does a good job against burn removal and creatures in general. It is definitely less impressive against control but what I like is that it comes in WAY sooner than AEtherling especially if you are trying to protect it as well. I decided due to this that maindecking some of this sphinx and sideboarding the Aetherling might be preferred but it again depends on how aggro ends up sitting moving forward. I want to test it as it seems like it has a lot of nice options to it. I honestly think that this is being under valued in the standard meta at the moment but time will tell on that I suppose. It obviously isnt very good against counterspells and wraths but it depends on where the meta ends up as far as that goes.
Steam Augury I decided to try out a singleton of this for a while and see how it goes. I like that it is something we can cast a LOT sooner than Sphinx so I am sort of considering where I want to sit on this vs sphinx. I dont think it could ever replace sphinx but I have a lot of times regretted sphinx early on or when they bunch up in hand. This is castable at instant speed FAR sooner than sphinx so I like the idea of some sort of split on them. I will go light on it at the moment and see how testing goes. Obviously its less powerful than Fact or Fiction but I am looking forward to seeing how it plays. -
Jun 19, 2013
published the article Well, I am jumping into some modern play and afraid I am really not being original for this list. As it stands this Sammy Tukemans GP San Diego 2nd place list. I really like it in the first bit of trial that I have had with it though. I plan to sort of use it for a while until I can feel out the meta some. Its been really robust and exciting so far for me though. I absolutely love playing control and I really love my snapcaster mages so it felt like a nice time to transition to playing a little modern.Posted in: [Modern] UWR Flash Control
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Apr 6, 2013
published the article I suppose I should put my list up considering I have been running it for three weeks now and it has taken 1st place in FNM the last two of which weeks both nights in 40+ man FNMs.Posted in: Esper Spirits (Standard)
Psychic Spiral is in my consideration pile for my sideboard -
Dec 31, 2012
published the article
Currently, I have been playing this deck quite a bit and most things are figured out for the most part. The most recent changes was that Augur of Bolas used to be Elvish Visionary. Due to my issues with fast aggro though, I was forced to move to the higher defense Augur. I am running more creatures than I really like for Augur to work however the added defense has been quite big.
Azorius Charm the effects of this charm were slightly prolematic due to the fact that this wasn't a very good answer to a lot of threats. I like it vs fast aggro decks where it mostly just buys me a turn but when you go to use this on a Restoration Angel, Hellrider, Thragtusk, or Geralf's Messenger it just didn't work out as well. My biggest issue with the charm though is that just most of the choices on the charm were mostly not very good ever.
Briarpack Alpha I did a little bit of testing of this guy but I had some issues with the fact that he is really narrow in how he works and usually I just wished he was an angel. He ideally should work defensively vs aggro decks however he is slow to drop and his standard size is right where spear is currently. He felt a little overpriced personally and I really just wished he was Briarhorn.
Collective Blessing I ran this early on as sort of a big push effect that a lot of midrange decks had issues with. In the end I sort of figured out though that the midrange was where this deck was really good and I needed to work on my aggro match ups more so it got cut.
Detention Sphere its a great effect but I found that it seems a bit slow vs aggro at 3 mana and against the midrange decks, they all seem to be packing haste and ETB effects so overall this seems more suited for fighting against tokens than anything. Casting this really screwed with my mana too much for casting counters following it up. In the end I just moved to running Supreme Verdict instead of this.
Dissipate sadly the UU cost to it plagues me. I tried running it for a little but but due to the fact that this list is mostly just draw go, we can afford to use Syncopate for most of the same effect but it can come down sooner and doesn't cost as much blue mana.
Divine Deflection I ran this as a singleton early on but had issues with it against aggro decks. I ended up scrapping it for Righteous Blow later on but if you dont see much fast aggro for some reason its a decent card to turn around combat with.
Elvish Visionary hes fun as he is cheap and replaces himself in hand. I really liked flickering him with Restoration Angels however I ran into some issues that most aggro decks run 2/x creatures currently so he was almost never trading with other creatures. I ended up replacing him with Augur of Bolas who misses a bit and doesn't help me get more lands which I occasionally needed in the early game but it improves my aggro match a lot so its a trade off.
Garruk, Primal Hunter I like what he does but a lot of my creatures are sort of smaller and there is a lot of hastey flyers out there currently as well as having some problems with the fact that he makes me tap out. I love his ability to just drop dudes into play as it can run away with games but in my opinion I need to have stabilized already for the most part to make him work right. Tapping out on my turn just doesn't work that well for this.
Geist of Saint Traft he can be a decent clock but the problem is he is just terrible vs aggro where you just need to stabilize. He could be decent as sideboard tech vs some control decks but I just didn't see enough value from him against the aggro and midrange decks.
Temporal Mastery in theory its cool if you can spin off an extra turn with this. I just saw too many situations where it became a dead card in an opening hand and or a dead card in the first turns. If you get to miracle it on turn three its amazing however it was just too narrow for the most part. It didn't work well with Sphinx's Revelations or the Auger of Bolas either and a lot of the times I found myself feeling like it was a worse Sphinx's Revelation as paying that much mana was very prohibitive.
Banishing Stroke I love that its super cheap removal that stops essentially any threat for a single mana. Unlike Terminus, as long as they have a target its worth hitting the miracle button on.
Cyclonic Rift temp bounce worries me a lot but the option to overload it is tempting... Still I dont know.
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Jan 24, 2012
published the article
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Jan 6, 2012
published the article This decklist would fit within the competitive U/W Humans list however there is no human affiliation any longer so I don't see why they still call it that. Anyways I am getting a list ready to run tonight.Posted in: [Standard] U/W Agro
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards CREATURES (24)
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Gideon's Lawkeeper
2 Grand Abolisher
2 Leonin Relic-Warder
3 Fiend Hunter
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Mirran Crusader
4 Hero of BladeholdSPELLS (12)
2 Dismember
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Mana Leak
3 Oblivion Ring
LAND (24)
4 Glacial Fortress
1 Island
3 Moorland Haunt
12 Plains
4 Seachrome CoastSIDEBOARD (15)
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Dismember
2 Sword of War and Peace
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
2 Day of Judgment
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Grand Abolisher
2 Surgical Extraction
Just to sort of run through sort of what I see in my meta and why I did some of the things I did. We have sort of the following:
U/W Humans: Myself now and one other player. The other player has all of the cards for the list but he still makes a lot of play mistakes that cost him more often than not.
G/W Tokens 2-3 people with this. I havent seen it a lot yet but I know a lot of people have been moving it arround as an option. I will need to S/B for this knowing it is out there and I tried some test games against it which went poorly pre sideboard.
Red Deck Wins 1 person. There are a few U/R varients but I havent really had a problem with this coming from my U/W control list as long as I keep the Timely sideboarded.
Wolf Run Ramp 0-2 I know of at least 3 people who can make this deck but I have only seen one person play it and he didnt like it so as of right now I am not expecting it in my meta but I know it can sort of pop up whenever someone feels like bringing it in. I will sideboard for it once I see it. Until then nobody seems to like running it.
Solar Flare 1-2 there has been one or two people brining this in. One of them has a homebrew that is really really counter heavy so I need to sort of expect some heavy counterspell options against this.
Illusions 0-1 To my knowledge nobody is running it yet. I think there is one person who has been assembling it but he has like 4 other standard decks and I dont know how viable he was looking to make it. If he does get it pieced together I will work on it then.
Tempered Steel 0 I think there was someone looking to make a homebrew but I was honestly the person who used to run this so I am not going to worry about it right now. I dont think I will be seeing it soon.
U/B/x Control U/W is just more popular where I am. I see more U/W or Solar Flare so I will gear for that.
Mono-B Infect 0-3 I havent seen anyone actively running this of late however there have been a few lists in the past so it could pop back up but currently I am not seeing much of it.
U/W/x Blade Decks 0-1 I am mainly the person who was running this but there is one other person who can run this and occasionally does. I know he is currently on a 4c pod list that he has been running though so I wont worry about this at the moment.
U/B Tezzeret one player that I know runs this. It isnt that impressive though and I beat him well with my old U/W control list so I am not going to worry about it too much right now.
Bant Pod one player running a pod deck currently. I know a few others who had mentioned interest though so this could pick up.
U/W/x Control I was the main person here but there was 1-2 other decks that looked sort of similar.
So going forward I am sort of going to concentrate on the control, tokens, and sort of a RDW strategy of sideboarding. This can always change but currently that is sort of what I am facing. -
Nov 30, 2011
published the article Alright well I had been playing a sword control list up until now and I think it is time to move to a more control heavy creature light list. There has been some activity for an extremely creature light list for U/W control that only runs 2-4 snapcaster mages and I think I will give that a shot for now.Posted in: U/W Control (Standard)
Well I guess I need a starting point for it so here goes:
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards CREATURES
3 Snapcaster Mage
COUNTERS
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate
3 Dissipate
Control
4 Day of Judgment
3 Ratchet Bomb
PLANESWALKERS
2 Giddeon Juara
1 Elspeth Tiercel
2 Karn LiberatedDRAW
4 Think Twice
4 Ponder
2 Blue Sun's Zenith
Land
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
8 Island
6 Plains
4 Ghost QuarterSIDEBOARD
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Celestial Purge
2 Dismember
2 Gut Shot
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Flashfreeze
I might have to do a bit of tweaking of my sideboard as I get some testing in but I mostly just stripped someone else's SB for now. -
Nov 21, 2011
published the article Ok the core idea behind this deck is Lead the Stampede. I also have some good card draw / card advantage and control aspects to this deck but everything is creature based.Posted in: U/G Agro Stampede (Standard)
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards CREATURES (31)
4 Bird of Paradise
3 Azure Mage
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Viridian Emissary
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Phantasmal Dragon
4 Acidic Slime
2 Consecrated Sphinx
3 Frost Titan
1 Wurmcoil EngineSPELLS (4)
4 Lead the Stampede
LAND (25)
4 Hinterland Harbor
9 Forest
7 Island
1 Plains
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Moorland HauntSIDEBOARD (15)
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Phyrexian Ingester
3 Spellskite
3 Dismember
2 Nihil Spellbomb
I got the deck together and got it going and it worked quite nicely. Currently I still sort of need to make a sideboard and from what I have noticed some of my large issues would be with token swarm and Elesh Norn. So I will do my best to work that out but any other suggestions would be nice as well... I will see what I can do about getting a SB added to this soon.
The sideboard is still very experimental... I will see what I can do about improving it over time. -
Oct 12, 2011
published the article I revamped mysword control deck to be a lot more controlling. I originally built it sort of as an agro / control but I think I still like where it is going even if it is a lot more controlling than it originally was. Posted in: U/W Sword Control (Standard)
DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Creatures (6)
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Frost Titan
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Gideon Jura
Instants (17)
2 Disperse
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice
3 Dissipate
4 Midnight Haunting
Enchantments (3)
3 Oblivion RingSorceries (3)
3 Day of Judgment
EQUIPMENT (3)
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Batterskull
Land (26)
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Ghost Quarter
6 Island
6 PlainsSIDEBOARD (15)
2 Spellskite
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Dismember
2 Flashfreeze
I have moved the deck to be more control oriented rather than being an agro deck. I wanted to increase the Snapcasters interaction with the deck as well as be able to control the game a bit better. Some of the stuff in my list is me testing things out and trying to figure out how I like running it. I love how this deck has so many ways it could be run.