I guess we will have to see.
I think two sites won't work long term.
I guess the quality of the sites will determine what happens.
Mtgs has good general and Modern content, which matters to me. Its Legacy content is nearly unusable, due to the way it is organised, and Legacy also matters to me. I don't really do the rest, rumours aside of course, so the new site has to exceed the current site in those areas in order for me to move. That is easy to do in the cade of the Legacy content, but harder for Modern where the current site is very well organised.
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- drmarkb
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Now this looks like an auto four of. The only thing it does is have tension with grunt. I can see them working together most of the time. Smaller goyfs, less to snap back in zoo and delver, as well as the gifts, storm implications mentioned above. Just super and can still be included in mono white lists.
I found him superb. As a long term lock its great game one, and it can buy a turn vs pod twin nonsense. Good v trons that have gone off with a t3 wormcoil just buying a turn. Great vs tempo c command fae etc players looking to alpha. Often tipped longer affinity matches. Sometimes the ability to search for a fog is back breaking. Modern often comes down to buying a turn.
If they had not made him hybrid they may have given it non creature spell rather than instant-sor only. But to give it to uxx decks with less restriction would be nuts. Delver decks would be nuts with that type of card. The more I look at it the more I feel its there for tolerance for std, to enable them to worry less. I can't see it offering what we want- a one drop that disrupts fifty percent plus of the field or one that has an excellent cip ability or one that offers a near mother of runes or similar.
I believe the problem is game two red sweepers, and pinpoint combusts wiping out our men and it plodding to six mana eventually rather than just t3 tron. And the debate over the deck is partly due to people suggesting the match up is as easy as pod or uw tron. On this subject I would say that revoker and 4 tec edge should not main deck any more, shaving a bit off this match up. I think the meta is heading away from tron anyway- lots of decks running sowing salt type hosers and general awareness plus tempo decks making it a dodgy choice in paper magic.
I would put the crusaders to main with the extra swamp, over a stinger or myr or two. So good vs jund, uwr, red d wins and prob restoration delver. I think cutting the odd pump is fine for a probe or one cc manipulation and draw spell, which smooth the deck. I think probe is essential. Watch out for thalia and spellskite .
Looking at the restoration tempo decks I am seriously considering running board grand abolisher . I have always considered it narrow but it looks worthy of at least a look for board slots. It should help vs fae too- as long as it is not shackled, and right now i would rather have it than extra finks or whatever. Space is so tight in the board, but i really want to look at it. I am already promoting grunt to the main. All my testing suggests he is worth it and these champion lists make me think he is the best option for main deck- at least two copies- after the core of d and t is in place- the arbiter, wisp, and thalia package.
mangara is a bit slow for for today's meta. As drworm says student is a better option than figure and Thalia is an obvious omission. If you run her then o-ring will probably go. Your list lacks threats and has a lot of answers. With the way the meta is heading I would go for main deck jotun grunt . You may want to get more out of your mana base by running horizon canopy even a mono white deck. Plenty of other options about, and most are meta calls - i do not run student for example though its an excellent card and better than figure in this deck-just in general i think your list could run out of gas- o rings do not beat for damage. Like the stonecloakers in todays meta.
I still dont have that much issue with any delver deck. Its a strong deck thats forgiving to play, but most of our men are good vs it, or can be if we bend it. We just have to accept its not easy and not board out too many men for spells. There are no silver bullets for us, no magic board solutions. In answer to your general question yes, its not badly positioned but it is a hard deck to get right play wise- the least forgiving of all the top incremental advantage decks. I dont think the meta will change much till the next mod ptqs start. But I fancy main deck grunts more than ever. And stonecloakers. Just eat those bins and drop turn one vials to miss those leaks and remands.
Ghostly is a general answer that has relevance against say affinity, kiki pod, as well as uwr delver in some builds. Outside of ratchet bomb type effects a specific answer could be a sword from the board? I guess it depends on how many general answers we want vs specific ones. My side always has one or two specifics but mainly good general cards like prison or grunt if it does not make main. How often u see tokens in real paper magic will determine how many slots to use on it. I have no problem playing spells and thalia game two. If she hits she slows them more if she sticks. If she dies she wont hurt us.
Another card to consider sideboard is spellskite .
Flashed in with vial it really hurts their attempts at removing men, especially strong when trying to protect flash flyers. Not much good in other matchups outside of traditional twin and poison combo.
Main deck options that are ok against delver include fiend hunter . It is strong against the delver aspect- requiring reflip once removed. It also can in an emergency remove our man via vial in response to their lightning helix, and then sit there and chump a 4/5 lynx, giving our man back at a cost of a land pop and life to them.
I do run a tec edge and the 4 GQ, but have found that in this matchup the edge is not the strongest- I just need to get the arbiter down to slow down their search, completely stopping it is possible post board as they only run 3 basics and a limited number of shock lands- which makes the prison so hard for them.
Finally our discussions over the grunt have a relevence here- its a very nice bolt proof critter that eats their bin - important regarding moorland haunt and grim lavamancer as well as snappy. It applies a lynx like pressure on them and their deck tends to fill up the bin early if it works and if its not working we are winning.
FWIW I found that the LD package was often enough when combined with the ghostly prison in this match, leaving them floundering, and in the first game the main route to winning seemed to be going first and getting an early vial and using vial tricks- which seemed capable of beating their better hands. I feel my list is weaker against tron but its still very effective vs jund, affinity (better even- again javaliners and board ghostly prisons) whilst still having lots of good anti pod variant stuff. I think the balance can be found.
Yes, its a beast.
Cards that do well vs UWR delver are flash men, as they off the geist there and then if they are not holding removal. Any man is a flash man with vial, but assuming it turns up too late........
options:
stonecloaker gargoyle - especially useful vs snappy
aven mindsensor
and even restoration angel
these kill the Geist if they are temporarily removal light in hand as do the first strikers:
Thalia, guardian of thraben
Blade splicer (well actually his tokens)
and also good:
icatian javalineers as it often draws removal there and then t1/t2 instead of them laying a lynx/delver as it can off the lynx, delver unflipped and any lavamancers they run.
One we all know and love that needs two lots of removal barring PTE before geist can attack safely:
kitchen finks
all this without resorting to geist killing via
phyrexian metamorph
Thats quite a list, and most of these get run in some versions.
So the problem to me is not what men, but the sheer volume of men required vs such a big removal suite, and the tempo the URW deck can run at.
I found that by adding mutavault over edges I presented more obstacles, often finding the card held off the geist after they had burned the rest of the team via snappy flashback. I introduced horizon canopy to introduce more gas and draw more men. I also tweaked my man base to include more of the above men, especially the javalineers [full set] that if get dropped t1 often delays URW board development considerably.
By sideboarding in and resolving ghostly prison the matchup changed for the better significantly- it makes snapcaster mage much worse if they have to tap out main phase, makes their counters worse too, which makes the flash guys much better as well. In short it knackers their tempo, buying a lot of time for incremental advantage. There is a reasonable chance they will not board in spell pierce, and a reasonable chance of ghostly prison hitting resolving.
The match up became much less frightening with time. But I was prepared to sacrifice a lot to improve it- mutavaults don't kill tron pieces, and javalineers don't scare too many decks........
I used to see this from the other side- I ran a modified martyr proc/soul sister deck at a PTQ this year, only losing once in seven. When testing that deck I found multiple stonecloaker gargoyles a pain-they bounce blockers to prevent serra ascendant damage and prevent recusion of graveyard stuff.
Icatian javalineers can off the sisters themselves unless they have honor the pure.
Neither of those two above cards are particularly popular at the moment in D and T, but have seen play.
Stopping the sisters swarming can be done with ghostly prison- a card both players have access to post board.
Other than that - mass removal, perhaps pro white - eg sword of light and shadow or sword of war and peace - none of which are real d and t cards, sadly.
The other thing is if you slow them down you could Mangara them repeatedly, although as most players have found that card is really not good now.