MTG Salvation

I'm starting to think that Aegis of the Gods is possibly needed maindeck, at least in my area, as celestial flare has become a maindeck card in several control decks. My feelings are that some of the explosion of the goldfish may need to be traded for some resilience. Going to test naya with Aegis main as a 3 of. Would like to run this deck at GP Chicago, but feel right now that control is a real bad matchup and saddly seems like control is increasing in popularity.

In both testing and playing in a tcg platinum event, I found voice to just be OK, so I can see not running it. 10 hexproof creatures really is enough, I've only ran into trouble when I get hit with multiple wraths w/o boros charm or ajani's to save my creature. I haven't tested Mistcutter, but Skylasher has been great in all the matchups you'd expect it to be good in.

Looking at this list vs control you end up with 6 ways post board to save your creatures from wrath, and bring in 4 threats that they have to wrath away or just die to it... assuming they don't have any edict effects.

Played in the main event in Cinci on sat, and Control, Burn, and Hexproof were out in larger numbers then I had planned on. I meta'd assuming more RG based decks and ran into a ton of Bw and Esper. If this trend continues I'd keep duress and go back to 4 devour main. I ran a lot better on Sunday in sides after changing my list to be more setup for Bx and Control.

Yeah, the combination of fulminantor and beast within makes things tricky. Played a small modern event, 28 players, ran 2 tormods and 3 rip, won the 1 living end matchup, but the guy never managed to get the spell off. He did make it interesting when he started blowing up lands.

I was wrong about gr tron, got rolled by it both times I saw it, running 3 suppression, 2 stony, and 2 seal in the side. Suppression doesn't do much if they assemble the lands early, best bet was to try and race before they could board wipe. Maybe it should be 3 stony 2 suppression.

Thanks for the tip on sun and moon, hadn't thought about the perpetual cycle it would enable.

My meta has turned all gr tron and living end. I think I've got gr figured out but feel like the living end matchup is bad. Any suggestions would be appreciated. At the moment I'm running a set of sun and moon, looking at chalice, crypt, and maybe rip as additional hate.

Thanks

Any reason to not run sgeist and voice main, and drop ace and smiter completely . Seems like it would open up sideboard slots. And making the mana work for sgeist is easy enough.

Played a gpt with ascended as a two of, and every time I saw it I wished it was something else. I may test it some more but so far I'm not a fan. Smiter, extra sgeist, extra charm, etc all would have been better .

Question about creature count, I've seen lists running from 8 to 16 and am having trouble finding the right number. I've been playing around with my numbers and can't seem to settle on a regular build. Besides the consensus 8, I'm currently testing 2x noble and 2x ledgewalker. It feels threat light, but worry about not having a critical mass of enhancements.

in a more control or tempo build feeling is ok, i'm not convinced it's great in midrange. i've been trying to get that card to work since last block w/delver tempo and have never been super impressed by it

I'm thinking about adding Silverblade Paladin as a 3 of in the main, moving to a main board something like this.


Adding them loses a bit of tempo, but allows for more explosion. Still working on the sideboard, so this one is a bit rough.

Anyway just wanted to get some thoughts on this particular addition.

For full disclosure, I never use a playmat and will replace my sleeves every couple of weeks, or when they look dirty or are gunked up.

I've tried every major brand and keep coming back to ultra pro matte.

The kmc matte don't mash shuffle well. Kmc super have been hit and miss, sometimes they are great, other times they gunk up right away.
Dragon shields while durable also get gunked up and are hard to shuffle after awhile.
I never liked the max protection sleeves, though I did like the texture on the back of the sleeves.

I think it's more about what feels the best for you.

Quote from Stinger1988

I tried FoD and have to say when you have Geist it's awesome and wins games easy but without Geist it's not very good at all.

What do you guys think of mortars?
I'm playing it over spears right now but I'm not sure. It kills angel and the 4/4s and can overload to save the late game sometimes but spear can just burn for the win and hits walkers. I'm really up in the air about this. Almost want to try and fit both.

I've tried mortars and to be honest most of the time I'd rather of had spear. The ability to do 4 damage and occasionally overload were nice, but the instant speed and ability to go to the head of spear seemed better. I really don't like tapping out on my turn to remove creatures as it give the opponent a window. If it went to the head it'd be a good option.

Quote from Kiln Fiend

So what's the creature based Bant match-up like?

I'm thinking of going up to 4 Supreme Verdicts main just to deal with Geist.

I think 2 is fine, we are already running 4 geists of our own worst case we can use one of ours to legend rule, or ideally as you know they have geist use counters to keep it off the board.

Check under UW Aggro there is a thread for this there

Having played this a bit lately with some hit and miss success, more pilot error then deck issues, I feel like 2 more creatures would help. I'm looking at silverblade paladin , dungeon geists, or precinct captain.

Each does something different, the captain gets out for early aggro, and can provide defense against many of the x/2 or less creatures in the format. Silverblade feels more aggressive, bonding it w/any of the other creatures can create a blowout, I like leaving it unbound, and then binding it with the angel token. Dungeion Geists, is a more defensive pick, I already have it in my sideboard, and bring it in pretty often.

Obviously the concern with all three is that they are all x/3 or less and vulnerable to removal. It is possible that I'm looking at this deck as more aggro then it should be, and that being tapped out early is a huge mistake. Any thoughts?