Jace's +x is retarded good. If you have zero cards when you use it its +7 loyalty and draw 7 cards, and sure it falls off, but if you have 7 cards do you really even need to be drawing more? not to much it almost ALWAYS draws for you. On top of that all of these have ridiculous emblems...
I do think there are some cool enough ideas here though. Elspeth is interesting for sure
Sometimes yes you go to town because of the incredible card advantage of ancient grudge but in my experience the synergy is used most often as a pseudo vindicate.
Not exactly awesome CA considering you're investing two mana and a card as a prerequisite to it doing much at all
As far as the mirror is concerned, delver is kind've like a bad azure mage. Now, if you really wanted to push that angle, you could try boarding into some sort of blue aggro/tempo deck that plays out like fish and maybe try azure mage, snapcaser and delver. I really only see this being effective as a transformational sideboard strategy though. If you make them take out removal, a critical mass of small efficient creatures would decent.
Probably because out of the two, Primal Hunter works with our deck better. We get unconditional 3/3 beast tokens and some pretty sick draw power, which as a control deck we want. We can easily run the removal package that you THINK relentless would give you, and at the same time protect Primal hunter long enough to give us tons of cards.
Also if you need answers for noncreature issues that badly, green is a TERRIBLE color to use as support. Much rather go white. Also forcing double blue for counters, double black for BSZ, and double green for PH or Thrun is also pushing the mana base harder then need be. The same problem unfortunately with splashing into white for answers.
Primal hunter does NOT work better in U/b control. 3 green mana and thrives off of creatures, am I missing something?
Planeswalkers tend to be powerful in U/b control decks, however the best walkers right now aren't in blue, they're in green and white.(though I suppose lilliana is still a contender.)
IF youre going to splash a third color for walkers and a few other spells, the spells in the splashed color should have as light a color requirement as possible. Add that to the versatility that garruk relentless brings and you have your incentive for a green splash over a white one. Beast within is also quite powerful right now since it seems that lands are fairly strong again, and it "answers" just about anything(obviously subpar for creatures).
Meh, if I had to pick a Garruk, it would only be Primal Hunter. He goes nuts with enough backup, which we supply quite a bit of.
Besides aside from Beast within and Naturalize, what do we get that we don't already have?
???
you would pick garruk primal hunter in a creature light, 3 color deck? PH is a strong card to build around, but garruk relentless is an unconditional engine, that plays excellent defense. It also lets you put tremendous pressure on opposing control decks, which is awesome really.
Also, considering how he becomes a repeatable tutor for snapcaster mage with relative ease, and considering how snapcaster is an easy contender for best card in the deck right now, i would say that this ability is pretty damn relevant when analyzing power level.
The green splash also brings good answers to artifact hate which is very good right now, and a few other tools.
All that being said, I'm not really sure how this would play out against wolfrun decks and if it has a big enough impact in that match up.
I also like thrun the last troll and memory's journey as card choices. Having thrun splashed into a U/b control deck must be brutal in the mirror.
This has been discussed before. A number of us (Madding and myself, for sure) run singletons of Exarch and Twin in our sideboards or have in the past. It's fantastic in that you can just blindside your opponents and kill them randomly.
I wonder if a a single research/development could have a place in the maindeck to allow that to be tutored up, or to fetch hate from the sideboard. The slot probably has more valuable contenders, but it could be something to consider nd it would bring a level of versatility with it.
I'm not sure about 4. This deck doesn't have a lot of 1cmc instants outside of maybe a singleton Path and a couple Spell Snare. 4 seems clunky, 3 seems fine since you don't want one in your opening hand unless you've got tons of 1cmc instants/sorceries running around.
It would really have a lot to do with your deck. Playing 4 snapcasters would require you to alter some card choices to cater to it, but turning gifts into a full on tutor is sick. I could also see a configuration where a snapcaster was dropped for a cc
Actually giving it more thought, 4 snapasters is going to be a must(not that i didnt think it should be at 4 previously), but with snapcaster in the deck the raw power level of gifts increases emensely. It draws 2 cards, AND tutors 4, (2 possible snapcaster targets) at instant speed for 4 mana. Now, snapcaster mage is going to be a cryptic command or better a large portion of the time(especially with gifts tutoring), but there will certainly be times where cc or rewind will be a better suited spell for the job.
Rune Snag being maxed out is mostly bcause of its reliance on itself, so in theory you could throw a negate or two in the mix to split with mana leaks, or another 2 cmc counter
My computer has been having a lot of issues lately. Specifically, it keeps crashing, and I had to post the list 3 times before it could stick. Anyways, I've been running 3 Teferis and a Worm Harvest. This should be the complete list:
There is no reason to run Buried Ruin when Academy Ruins is already in the deck. Also, Mimic Vat is generally bad. 3 to play it, 2 to cast Snappy, go through the effort to make him die, and then 3 to make a token every turn. Seems... lackluster.
Ghost Quarter is run because the deck to beat (Zoo) runs little, if any, basic land. So Ghost Quarter becomes strictly better. Also, you can slowly kill off all of your opponent's lands, given enough time, though that's very unlikely.
It seemed like a much weaker endgame than dralnu, but artifact recursion makes it tutorable with gifts. The mana investement is def something to scare you away from it though, like you mentioned.
With life from the loam in the deck, it seems like buried ruin could have a spot. I know academy ruins is already in the deck, but there could be advanteges either way.
And it might be a bad suggestion, but mimic vat could be strong alongside snapcaster mage, and with buried/acedemy ruins its fine in gift piles.
Also is there a reason youre playing ghost quarter and not tectnic edge?
The deck needs a little more in the draw department. I think a couple more cantrips/tutors/draw spells should give it that critical mass. So far, though, I'm very happy with the Remands and Repeals and what they do for the deck's consistency.
I'm not happy with my deck's difficulties in answering some of the larger creatures, but that's what happens when you play red removal spells. I might go with a different color configuration; I'm in the process of listing all the competent removal spells in the format and looking into the kinds of Gifts Piles I want to build the deck around.
I plan to play this deck tomorrow in MTGO events, given that people actually fill up events. (When was the last time a Modern Daily/PE/8man happened?) The bannings will be in effect, but Innistrad will not. I'll worry about fitting in Snapcasters in a week or two when they're available online.
wow Oona's grace and life is so sick. I get that some of the sideboard cards are sick and that cheap removal is nice but it kindve seems like red could be something else in this deck, especially if larger creatures are actually giving you a hard time.
Also to fight control raven's crime seems really good as a 1 of with life from the loam
Chandra's phoenix should be in here, shes basically a burn spell, and is effecient too.
The thing about mana barbs is that its often better when you can force them to cast spells, which makes it good with aggressive CA engines they need to fight to keep up. Garruk relentless looks good with mana barbs.
I also love the curse at 4 when alongside 4 shrine's of burning rage. I Think slagstorm could be higher too, since you arent playing creatures and it burns the face harder than arctrail.
Snapcaster Mage in itself isn't worth splashing 4 Sulfur Falls and Islands for, and 4 Sulfur Falls with 4 Snapcaster leaves you open to having spells in your hand that you can't cast.
Don't mess with your mana base and add 4 Snapcasters. Just...Add four more burn spells?
If you want Snapcasters you should just go U/R counter burn, flashing in a Snapcaster to recast Shock isn't really that great. Being able to re use a Mana Leak or a board sweeper or whatever 1-of answer you have is where it gets its value.
You could probably get away with 2 non red sources to be honest, and just consider the sheer powerleve of snapcaster with a burn spell available. It can provide CA or tempo, and is very aggressive in nature.
Also, as I mentioned you could board into a control shell.
I do think there are some cool enough ideas here though. Elspeth is interesting for sure
Not exactly awesome CA considering you're investing two mana and a card as a prerequisite to it doing much at all
Primal hunter does NOT work better in U/b control. 3 green mana and thrives off of creatures, am I missing something?
Planeswalkers tend to be powerful in U/b control decks, however the best walkers right now aren't in blue, they're in green and white.(though I suppose lilliana is still a contender.)
IF youre going to splash a third color for walkers and a few other spells, the spells in the splashed color should have as light a color requirement as possible. Add that to the versatility that garruk relentless brings and you have your incentive for a green splash over a white one. Beast within is also quite powerful right now since it seems that lands are fairly strong again, and it "answers" just about anything(obviously subpar for creatures).
???
you would pick garruk primal hunter in a creature light, 3 color deck? PH is a strong card to build around, but garruk relentless is an unconditional engine, that plays excellent defense. It also lets you put tremendous pressure on opposing control decks, which is awesome really.
Also, considering how he becomes a repeatable tutor for snapcaster mage with relative ease, and considering how snapcaster is an easy contender for best card in the deck right now, i would say that this ability is pretty damn relevant when analyzing power level.
The green splash also brings good answers to artifact hate which is very good right now, and a few other tools.
All that being said, I'm not really sure how this would play out against wolfrun decks and if it has a big enough impact in that match up.
I also like thrun the last troll and memory's journey as card choices. Having thrun splashed into a U/b control deck must be brutal in the mirror.
It would really have a lot to do with your deck. Playing 4 snapcasters would require you to alter some card choices to cater to it, but turning gifts into a full on tutor is sick. I could also see a configuration where a snapcaster was dropped for a cc
Rune Snag being maxed out is mostly bcause of its reliance on itself, so in theory you could throw a negate or two in the mix to split with mana leaks, or another 2 cmc counter
When you were still in blue i thought about call the skybreaker, but worm harvest is probably better
It seemed like a much weaker endgame than dralnu, but artifact recursion makes it tutorable with gifts. The mana investement is def something to scare you away from it though, like you mentioned.
And it might be a bad suggestion, but mimic vat could be strong alongside snapcaster mage, and with buried/acedemy ruins its fine in gift piles.
Also is there a reason youre playing ghost quarter and not tectnic edge?
wow Oona's grace and life is so sick. I get that some of the sideboard cards are sick and that cheap removal is nice but it kindve seems like red could be something else in this deck, especially if larger creatures are actually giving you a hard time.
Also to fight control raven's crime seems really good as a 1 of with life from the loam
The thing about mana barbs is that its often better when you can force them to cast spells, which makes it good with aggressive CA engines they need to fight to keep up. Garruk relentless looks good with mana barbs.
I also love the curse at 4 when alongside 4 shrine's of burning rage. I Think slagstorm could be higher too, since you arent playing creatures and it burns the face harder than arctrail.
You could probably get away with 2 non red sources to be honest, and just consider the sheer powerleve of snapcaster with a burn spell available. It can provide CA or tempo, and is very aggressive in nature.
Also, as I mentioned you could board into a control shell.