MTG Salvation

Is dark confidant so anti-synergic in temur shadow? It's another must-answer threat and can deal some damage. Is it too slow?

Quote from Mikefon »

Is dark confidant so anti-synergic in temur shadow? It's another must-answer threat and can deal some damage. Is it too slow?

You kind of want immediate feedback from a threat if it can't defend itself. I feel it's not something we want to be doing on curve. Our threats need to be actual threats, and DC is not a threat.

Finally ordered some goyfs and I'm sleeving this up in the next few days. Looking forward to doing some testing and getting a good list ready for scg open in Charlotte in June. I think I'm going to start with 2 copies of Curiosity to give the deck a little more card advantage.

Who does the deck fair against midrange decks? I'm thinking about building it.

We do pretty food against midrange thanks to Blood Moon and Huntmaster.

On another note: Im slowly converting to a Narnam Renegade advocate. The creature is good. Really good.

Quote from Kovo »

We do pretty food against midrange thanks to Blood Moon and Huntmaster.

On another note: Im slowly converting to a Narnam Renegade advocate. The creature is good. Really good.

Oh nice, is that in the main?

Quote from Kovo »

We do pretty food against midrange thanks to Blood Moon and Huntmaster.

On another note: Im slowly converting to a Narnam Renegade advocate. The creature is good. Really good.

I'm testing it both in sultai and in temur and I love it. It's basically a removal with leg. And in the worst case scenario it eats a push that otherwise would have been destinated to delver or goyf. No more than 2 copies since I found triggering revolt not always so easy (even if in some cases a 1/2 deathtouch is still valuable)

Yep, 2-of in the main, replacing my Snapcaster and 1 spell snare.

I know Blaze replaced one of his Simic Charms (or the vapor snag split), but I love Simic charm too much to let it go. I win a lot of games off its back. So I had to make the decision. Spell Pierce is still good to fend off turn 3 Lilianas and other on-curve planeswalkers that snare would not hit.

I do miss my snapcaster a bit. Bolt-snap-bolt was useful (or Denial-Snap-Denial). But I cant go below 28 In/So and I like having as close to 30 as possible.

In what matchups do you find Narnam Renegade performs better than Snap, and in which is Snap better?

Renegade seems like a good card, but Snap is so versatile. I feel like it saves me all the time.

It just changes people's attack plans. And I like that. Huntmaster has the same effect. People start counting their spells, and choose how they will play out their turns. It benefits us a lot more with HM on the field, doing nothing but threatening them.

Narnam is the same, but for aggressive decks. It is early pressure. It eats bolt/push/terminate/etc... and even late game it helps stalls by presenting a removal if my opponent attacks. It kills eldrazi, it kills goyfs, it kills tasigurs, and I can keep going. Eve against burn it helps kill pesky swiftspears. I just like its feel so far.

I find we fight too much over our graveyards anyway. Between goyf, mandrills, and snap, those are 3 of our 4 main threats that need a stacked graveyard, and one of them cannibalizes it.

Of course it is less relevant vs combo, tron, and other gofish decks.

I've started testing Renegade vs Snap against DSJ, but it took something like 25 games to get 2 data points. I structured it as needing to 1) draw Snap, and 2) have the game be won or lost due to having Snap instead of Renegade. So far, that has been a rare combination.

So far, when have you preferred Renegade, and when have you preferred Snap?

Snap is better in Combo matchups where I can snap back a denial or bolt to finish off the game asap. Snap can be good against aggro to snap back a bolt. Where snap does not shine is decks where we struggle a lot more, like Eldrazi. Like DS. And Narnam is better there. What I had to asses was if the loss of snap (a 1-of in my build since the beginning) was really a big loss. I guess Ill have to play more to find out. For now, Im not feeling any less confident without snap in the 75.

Anyone up for some Keep or Mull? It's game 2 against Gifts Storm. We lost game 1 to a big Empty the Warrens.

Our opening seven is Wooded Foothills, Delver, Bolt, two Thought Scour and two Denial.

At first, I thought the hand was an easy mull. But then I considered that I had turn 1 Delver, followed by Bolt/Denial/Scour, with three pieces of relevant interaction (Bolt is super live now that they depend on creatures more, and Denial is likely to at least slow them down). It didn't seem likely that I would find a second land soon (didn't plan on proactive Scouring), but I could cast every spell in the hand without it anyways.

I decided to Keep. You can see how it played out here. You can also pause right away to see what was in the deck postboard, if anyone wants to consider that in the decision.

For U, I prefer digging two cards deep and picking one (Slight of Hand) or digging three cards deep, and potentially removing two bad draws (Serum Visions)

Quote from wagawagawali »

I all, I'm new here (coming from DSJ) . Wich is the best deck list for the current meta? I see deck with disrupting shoal, deprive, ulvenwald package... Also, splashing red only for bolt and tarfire isn't suboptimal? Thx for help

Im not a fan of the Traverse build, and the Shoal build has not won me over, yet. The build Blaze and I run have been working really well for us. But I recommend you explore all 3 iterations, and see what fits your play style, and meta, best.

It isn't bad as a cantrip, and could make Disrupting Shoal a bit better, so maybe it could see play as a one or two-of in a cantrip slot that will sometimes counter a spell. I don't think two mana Force Spike that sometimes cycles is better than Mana Leak or Deprive in most situations, so I don't like the card very much. I do, of course, like the reference.

Quote from wagawagawali »

I all, I'm new here (coming from DSJ) . Wich is the best deck list for the current meta? I see deck with disrupting shoal, deprive, ulvenwald package... Also, splashing red only for bolt and tarfire isn't suboptimal? Thx for help

Welcome! Everyone will probably tell you that their deck list is the best one for the current meta. I'm pretty sure that everyone here uses the same agreed upon core, with the only variation being in flex slots. So, the only differences between lists is the amount of percentage points that you get for playing one flex card over another.

For example, I'm loving Traverse the Ulvenwald. It is a pseudo-cantrip, and is a nice hedge against a lot of midrange decks which are pretty popular currently. Many people are playing Sleight of Hand, which is worse against midrange, but probably a bit better at finding removal against aggro. You also don't need a dedicated package. Just running one or two Traverse with a couple of Tarfires makes it trivial to tutor out extra threats (or a game-winning Snapcaster) in the late game.

Disrupting Shoal is mostly here for extra tempo action. You can counter a mana dork or Bogle before playing a land, counter a removal spell while tapped out (this allows you to commit threats and hold up disruption- the real reason to run the card), and eventually can be hard cast. You can run as many or few as you like, but must be able to support it with Blue cards.

Deprive is the main alternative to Mana Leak. It is much better in the late game, but requires you to fetch with it in mind. You'll probably take some extra damage in the process, making it good against matchups in which your life total is mostly irrelevant, and/or you expect the game to last a while. Control decks and Tron sound about right for Deprive. I'd rather have Leak against a bunch of aggro decks, and probably any aggressive midrange deck.

On the Red splash, tempo decks love their reach! You can use Bolt or Tarfire to end a game, or send it at mana dorks to slow down the opponent. Bolt isn't at its best currently, but it is still pretty good. Being able to interact or close a game after the opponent stabilizes is extremely valuable. Check out our sideboards! Red offers so much. Huntmaster, Blood Moon, sweepers that aren't named Engineered Explosives, and artifact hate (Ancient Grudge and Destructive Revelry) are all in my 75 right now.

Blood moon does fit quite nicely in this deck. We play it well because even with it on the field, we can keep up pressure, control plays, and close-out quickly.

Quote from Boaz »

This is the best Blood Moon deck in the modern format, and we all know how much people love to play against Blood Moon

To be fair, the worst Blood Moon games are the ones in which it comes down early, and/or it takes the player a thousand turns to actually win. We can't play it before turn 3, and closing games is basically what we do.

At least, that's how I justify it when I lock someone out of the game!

Quote from wagawagawali »

Maybe a dumb question, but no love for remand and electrolyze?

Remand is bad in this deck. You need to get rid of the menace forever. Hence mana leak and/or Deprive are way better. Electrolyze is a 3 mana spell that doesn't do much on its own. At 3 mana (your top curve) you need to do stronger things or playing cheaper spell to keep mana for the counterspells.
These questions and many other have been discussed a lot. I know it can be long but you'd better read the Primer and as many pages of the thread you can to understand many choices.