MTG Salvation

Quote from Balles_55 »

Hey guys, I'm a noob with this deck so I have to do some questions to the wise wizards of UW Tron in here. Is necesary play Emrakul, the Aeons Torn? It isn't easy to get 15 mana, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger costs "only" 10 mana. Is worth playing Emrakul over Ulamog? In which situation is better one over the other and they can be played together?

Ulamog tends to be better for RG Tron or Eldrazi Tron decks because they're doing other things. They play cards like Karn, Wurmcoil Engine, Walking Balista, Endbringer, etc. The idea being that by playing more creatures, you can effectively play Ulamog in situations where your opponent ran out of answers, or rely less on Ulamog because you have other things. UW Tron plays so few creatures that the late game win condition tends to matter a lot more. You're often playing Emrakul having never dealt damage or done anything. So for me, I like the idea that it wins the game, even if it costs a bit more mana. Casting Ulamog, blowing up two things, and then having it Path'd is actually a concern because you might just lose the game. Again, other Tron decks like RG and Eldrazi Tron tend to have other things they can use.

They can definitely be played together though, they're both solid cards and a mid-sized threat can be useful to bridge the gap.

I went 4-1 in a Modern event at my LGS last night.

2-0, UW Thopter Foundry
2-0, RW Blood Moon/Walkers
1-2, Grixis Control (4 main deck Fulminator Mage)
2-0, Grixis Death's Shadow
2-0, CoCo Counters

Congrats on the good finish. Interesting tech in Coax from the Blind Eternities. Would it be possible for you to describe situations when you used it or when you would use it?

Recently I've been getting a lot into mtg again and I've been piloting UW tron with a pretty good record. I think this deck is pretty well positioned in my local metagame atm.


Here is a write up for my modern local event that I did tonight:



Round 1 vs. Affinity

Game 1: This guy is usually on Ad nauseum so I'm on the draw and kept a hand with two remands and a condescend. Turns out he is playing affinity tonight and destroys me with a turn2 plating and I have no answers

Game 2: I draw my elesh, I manage to stall with timely,path and Oblivion Ring and hardcast elesh for the win.

Game 3: Easy win where I just get an early gifts into unburial>elesh where he has no ravager.

1-0


Round 2 vs. Death Shadow

Game 1: This guy is good and played at the WMC for our national team and has played at some Grand Prix's. He mulls to 6 and keeps a bit of a slow hand with 2 disruption spells. My hand is loaded with spells that buy me time and I manage to stall until I can Gifts for unburial>Iona on black which closes the game out.

Game 2: Again he has a slow hand and I draw into a hand where I get a natural tron and fetch ruins with map and play a wurmcoil which I could just rebuy if he kills. The Wurmcoil is just winning the game but I Gifts into the rites package just to seal it 120%

2-0

Round 3 vs. Eggs(Trawler KCI)

Game 1: Okay, I've never played against this deck in my life, I counter and remand some things but then he goes off and I die, Now I know how the deck works and how he wins.

Game 2: Still not sure how to sideboard correctly and I bring in negates,artifact removal and TK Seer. I counter everything that matters, resolve TKS to take combo pieces, kill blood moon and resolve mindslaver and win.

Game 3: I feel like I could've won this somehow but he got very lucky. I counter an Ironworks and kill a Trawler. Then I counter a second Trawler and TKS a second Ironworks. He manages to stick a 3rd Trawler after I spend a disenchant on a bloodmoon(not sure if I should've just let it be in play... since I had a signet) he manages to find a 3rd! Ironworks with a glint nest crane that he can't cast the same turn, I have 8 mana and already have rites in GY so I gifts into a pile with TKS, Negate and my missing two tron pieces my thought is that I can not let that Ironworks resolve no matter what so this pile gets me 100% TKS to take the Ironworks, I get the two lands and reanimate TKS to take his 3rd Ironworks. On his turns he then topdecks an ancient stirrings and instantly hits the 4th Ironworks and goes off.

I feel like I slightly missideboarded and possibly made some play errors, but I think this matchup should be very favorite for UW tron

2-1

Round 4 vs. G/R Ponza

Game 1: I lose to a early stone rain, killing my colored mana.

Game 2: I have condescend for things that matter, draw natural tron into TKS and win with counters up.

Game 3: He goes for my lands, Signets save my mana and I manage to cast gifts for Rites>Iona naming red hoping for no Beast within the turn after. Then I just have negate up the rest of the game and kill him with the Iona.


Final Results
3-1



This is the most fun deck I've ever played in mtg but is super hard to pilot 100% correctly, definitely feel like I could've 4-0ed. I really like my current 75 and I'm looking forward to playing more of this deck!



-Palli

Quote from SSerris »

Quote from Magi12 »

Congrats on the good finish. Interesting tech in Coax from the Blind Eternities. Would it be possible for you to describe situations when you used it or when you would use it?

I'm not the original poster, but I guess that card works like "draw target eldrazi from your sideboard" so you can tutor anything from there. Feels like a toolbox card since it lets you get any eldrazi for every situation (TKS, Emrakul...)

This is correct. It gives you some very interesting options for gifts piles, and usually Emrakul cost around 9 or 8 mana.

Hey Guys! Just got back from GP Vegas where I finished the day 4-4 drop. I wasn't sure what the meta would be like, except for a lot of Death's shadow(Unfortunately I was right) and Eldrazi tron so I pretty much kept the deck mostly standard:



Round 1: BW Tokens

Game 1: We both kept seven, and I was on the play. I kept a fairly standard hand, with plant, mine, Shrine, plains, path, gifts, and thirst. Turn 2 he leads with Bitterblossom and just swings in until I manage a natural Titan, followed by giftsing for elesh norn the next turn and he scoops that game.

Game 2: I keep a hand with both gifts and noxious, hwich was good since he leads with a thoughtseize and takes the gifts. He plays a blossom, and I save a counter for his liliana next turn. A couple lingering souls get wrathed and I rites for Elesh and manage to take that game. (2-0)

I've never had a problem with tokens, as long as they don't discard twice in a row then lili it's extremely favorable it seems.

(1 - 0)
Round 2: G/R/B Scapeshift
Game 1: I keep a fairly standard hand again, but it has thirst, lands and a path so I'm feeling good. He leads with a Search and I don't manage to hit a gifts. He starts beating in with a courser, holding back and I have a couple poor draws into rites and S. Rev.. Eventually I manage to clear his board, and gifts into Iona on green. I got him down to 7, but he managed to ramp so much he just kept pinging me with valakut before I could finish him off.

In: 2 Leyline. Out: wrath, day
Game 2: I have a poorer than average hand, no blue source and no gifts just a thirst, but I start with both of my leylines out so I pretty much have to keep it. Eventually I manage to get a sundering titan out and slow him down. I have him at 9, and animate colonnade to go for lethal with Titan but it was a mistake and I played into a push and he got through with I think a prime time to finish me off before I could win. (2 - 2)

These games felt extremely close, and very winnable. There were a few sequencing mistakes which cost me both games, but overall I'm feeling good going into round 3.

(1 - 1)
Round 3: Grixis D. Shadow
Game 1: Fetch, shock, thoughtseize, with a turn two fetch shock tells me he's on shadow, confirmed when he tarfires himself. I gifts on his turn 3 but played into a denial and lost game 1. Not much choice but to go for it, I was dead next turn anyway.
Game 2: I board in 2 Purge, and timely, boarding out Elesh, a wrath, and Titan. He damaged himself down to 12 over a few turns, and I wrathed followed by rites for Iona on black and swept that game.
Game 3: about the same story, He made a misplay and bolted himself instead of bolting me and snap bolting next turn to clear my board, but I manage to gifts for Iona on black again and take the game. (6 - 5)

This was my first time playing against the deck, and it felt scary, but definitely something the deck felt like it should be able to deal with.

(2 - 1)
Round 4: Eldrazi Tron
Game 1: I keep a hand with wrath, path, and gifts. I then follow up to draw into a gifts before his TKS lands turn 3. I gifts for Elesh and shrink his field, followed up by Ugin to ping his few remaining creatures and out value him to end the game.
Game 2: I board out my reanimation, and Iona and Sundering titan. Bringing in Scepters, silence, and elspeth. He gets a faster start but spends time playing relics and chalice letting me build up to another elesh norn, eventually getting a scepter on path and slowly clearing his board, followed by a scepter on remand, basically locking him out of the game. (8 - 5)

Game 1 felt like if I didn't press my advantage then I would have lost, and Ugin is just absolutely amazing. Game 2 I really do think scepters in reanimation out might be the best plan, it just feels so incredibly solid and ridiculous card advantage, since most of my main deck stalling works including the sideboard cards.

(3 - 1)
Round 5: Affinity
My opponent was ten minutes late so I got a free win game 1.
Game 2: He leads with two overseers that I D. Sphere, followed by reanimating elesh for the win fairly quickly.
Not exactly how I want to win, but we take those. (10 - 5)

(4 - 1)
Round 6: Grixis Shadow (Or when things start going poorly)
Game 1: I have a mull to five with a terrible hand, but it has shrine and a tron land so It's not hopeless. But I never draw into a single piece of removal or blue lands and his shadow takes the game easily.
Game 2: Same board as last time, and while I only mull to 6 a poorly sequenced remand leads to me missing the proper sequence to take the game and I go down to Angler and shadow. (10 - 7)
This is about when I started realizing tiredness was setting in, and I was playing a bit sloppy. I oculd've taken it to game three, so it doesn't feel unwinnable, but it's evident why this is one of the best decks in the format right now. Also, Timely reinforcement is terrible in this matchup, definitely not bringing it in for them since lifegain is never turned on against them.

(4 - 2)
Round 7: Guess who's back, Shadow's back. Jund Shadow
Game 1: I open with a thirst, timely, and a remand. But I never see removal and Shadow plus angler closes the game out.
Game 2: I don't remember this one too well, but I manage to wrath his board and counter a shadow, but I don't manage to get there in time. (10 - 9)

(4 - 3)
Round 8: RW Prison
Game 1: I keep a great hand with a gifts and some removal and thirst. He goes turn two Blood moon, turn 3 New gideon, turn 4 Nahiri and there's nothing I can do.
Game 2 I bring in pithing needle, grafdiggers cage, purge, and scepter package. Boarding out my creature removal suite and Titan. I manage to counter his blood moon and manage to rites an Iona on White and swing in for lethal over the next few turns.
Game 3: I open on cage, needle, map and gifts. This plan goes terribly when he leads with a chalice on 1 followed by blood moon. The game goes to turn 6 where I manage to D. Sphere the moon, but forget to crack my fetch to get a basic which ends up costing me when he plays another. I end up playing a signet but a bad gifts seals the game for him ending my day at 11 - 11, and 4 - 4.

The first half of the day went great, but I made too many mistakes at the second half to get to day 2.

Overall, the deck felt great. It had game against almost every deck, with the only game lost that felt unwinnable was against Jund Shadow, otherwise I felt it only lost games due to my own errors or just mulliganing. But for the first time going to a GP it ended up going way better than expected. And I managed to pick up an engineered explosives to slot in going forward, but for now I like how the deck is fitting in the meta.

Before anything, congratulations on having such a good time at GP Vegas, Burning! Your write-up was great to read.

I imagine everyone has been looking at the spoilers for HOD with baited breath for what new toys we might be getting to play with. When the full spoiler comes out, I'm sure there will be more discussion on the set, but right now there were a couple of cards that caught my eye that I wanted to start a conversation on.

The first one was the new sweeper Hour of Revelation. To me, I think this is worth consideration because of two things, it sweeps away any board state we might have while still allowing us to have potential Tron mana advantage the next turn (depending on how we cast it, of course). This cards also only gets better for us in the late game. I think the costing of this card is meant to be prohibitive unless you meet the alternate casting condition, but with Tron 6 mana is still a potential turn 4 wrath effect.

The obvious downside to this card is that WWW can be tricky to achieve in the early game when you're trying to establish your mana presence. On gthe other hand, I don't think it's very likely for us to cast this on turn 4. With natural tron and some aggressive signet casting, I think this is more a possible turn 5 or 6 wrath effect that only gets cheaper in the long game. There's also the dis-synergy with our own non-land permanents, but that's just the cost of playing sweepers. I'll gladly trade two signets for a Death's Shadow or Dredge board state any day.

I also wanted to talk about both Supreme Will and Solemnity. I haven't made up my mind about Supreme Will yet, it seems like it does two things we want in one card, but not as well as the other cards we already have. I think it's a tester for sure, but I'm not sold on it.

Solemnity on the other hand, seems a bonkers sideboard card for any deck playing white. It stops infect, affinity, and Walking Ballista shenanigans right quick for a start, not to mention no more counter tricks with winding constrictor or counter based Abzan lists. I think it's worth a serious look at for the 75.

As always, conversation and discussion is always invited, but I'm pretty jazzed for this set, not just for this deck, but for all the spice they've given us this round.

What's prohibitive on Hour of Revelation is triple white, not the converted mana cost of 6. Our deck simply doesn't play enough sources for this to be feasible. The recommended number to cast it by turn 4 would be to cut Tron entirely. You're far more likely to cast other Wrath effects that are more expensive than you are to get triple white.

Now, the one saving grace to the card is that it destroys a lot of other things, and could potentially be cheap. It's going to function like Oblivion Stone does, but it has certain upsides and downsides to it that you need to consider when deciding to play it.

Supreme Will is hot garbage. I'm not paying for a 3 mana Mana Leak, it's not happening. Sure, some upside in flexibility, but Modern isn't the format for it. I think that card is honestly just bad in every format.

As for Solemnity, it's definitely worth testing. Enough cards in the meta to make it easy to be good.

Hey burninggiraffe! First of all, congrats on your performance in Las Vegas. The list you played looks interesting, mostly because you took the Scepter package to change the angle of the deck, and I've been insisting on playing the it on my local for a while now :p. How do you felt it?

Noxious Revival seems like a pretty good idea to 4-card-gift for specific removal (and drawing it to get a counter or removal to the hand it's not so bad either). Gonna try it out, seems like a good addition.

Would you say Blessed Alliance could do a better work instead of Timely Reinforcements when playing the Scepter on sideboard? Also because I've been struggling when I find Death Shadow deck (is very popular now), and the point that you could kill DS while making your opponent gain life, sacrifice it or even both (also because it can be escalated on the Scepter) makes me wonder! You think it could perform as well as Timely against another aggro decks?

Cheers,

Thanks! Yeah I started playing around with scepter after seeing your list, hoping that silence would shut off the local RG tron player since 99% of their spells are played on their turn, but I couldn't justify to do it main. Then I realized that it did a great job at combatting graveyard hate that people brought in after game 1. So against decks that bring in graveyard interaction, I can board out Rites and use scepter to help stall longer, and while I need to keep playing with the number of silence and scepter, it's felt really good as a sideboard strategy.

Noxious is amazing. Every time I sideboard it out it feels bad, it lets you bring back threats, make gifts piles, react to surgical extraction, it's just fantastic.

I haven't been able to find Blessed Alliances, but in theory it would do good. Sometimes the tokens are invaluable though, and can be a clock with elesh norn, which is why I'm not completely sold on it. Against DS it's way better, but against general aggro I still think Timely has an edge for general use. Against death shadow, I haven't brought in scepter so I don't really know I would need to test that.

Now that Hour of Devastation is spoiled, here's a quick review for us:



Not a fan of this card. I think the fact that it costs triple white is problematic for us. I've advocated in the past for not playing cards like Sphinx's Rev due to colour requirements, then we upped the number of coloured sources to make that more consistent. I think triple white really draws the line, especially if you're trying to justify it by the fact it would only cost 3. I'm much happier playing Oblivion Stone, I think. Maybe if you somehow made a case for it not being an artifact (compared to Oblivion Stone), but it seems like grasping for straws at that point.



I'm not sure about this card but it's at least interesting. A card that says gain 19 is always going to be worth looking at. Is it better than Timely Reinforcements? Probably not. But I could see this really shutting down mono red decks. The biggest issue is that it's awkward to play. Sometimes you're anticipating your opponent having burst damage so you cast it at 9 life and then it isn't the greatest. The value if your opponent is out of cards is really crazy though.



Simply an Infect answer. Since nobody's playing Infect it's bad at the moment, but that's not to say it's always bad. I'm willing to pay 3 mana to completely hose them until a potential sideboard card is drawn. I'm not sure if there are enough other implications for this card to be good.

Looks like the set really didn't have much for us. I don't think that 3 mana counter with two modes is even close to playable.

Now that Hour of Devastation is spoiled, here's a quick review for us:



Not a fan of this card. I think the fact that it costs triple white is problematic for us. I've advocated in the past for not playing cards like Sphinx's Rev due to colour requirements, then we upped the number of coloured sources to make that more consistent. I think triple white really draws the line, especially if you're trying to justify it by the fact it would only cost 3. I'm much happier playing Oblivion Stone, I think. Maybe if you somehow made a case for it not being an artifact (compared to Oblivion Stone), but it seems like grasping for straws at that point.



I'm not sure about this card but it's at least interesting. A card that says gain 19 is always going to be worth looking at. Is it better than Timely Reinforcements? Probably not. But I could see this really shutting down mono red decks. The biggest issue is that it's awkward to play. Sometimes you're anticipating your opponent having burst damage so you cast it at 9 life and then it isn't the greatest. The value if your opponent is out of cards is really crazy though.



Simply an Infect answer. Since nobody's playing Infect it's bad at the moment, but that's not to say it's always bad. I'm willing to pay 3 mana to completely hose them until a potential sideboard card is drawn. I'm not sure if there are enough other implications for this card to be good.

Looks like the set really didn't have much for us. I don't think that 3 mana counter with two modes is even close to playable.

Supreme Will feels like a card that isn't Modern playable to me. The card is basically Anticipate or Mana Leak for one more mana. I find that turn 2 is much more critical for counters, and at three mana I'd rather play Thirst for Knowledge. I don't personally think that the flexibility that card offers makes it significantly better than other cards.

I do think that Irrigated Farmland is fine, cycle lands help prevent flooding and since they can be fetched, there's little downside. It's perfectly fine, probably as a one-of.

Cast Out is actually kind of interesting. It's definitely expensive for the effect and it's an effect we don't really need very frequently. That being said, the fact that it cycles for one means it's really not that bad. Oblivion Ring often ends up very dead but Cast Out just cantrips for one. Still not sold on this card, but I'm sure certain metas might support it. Even though costing 4 seems like a downside, the fact it does dodge Abrupt Decay like you mentioned is significant. Jund is, however, not all that popular in the format right now, so it's hard to say whether killing Liliana and dodging Abrupt Decay are that important.

Not liking the looks of this: Ashes of the Abhorrent! Shuts off Unburial Rites!

Do we think this card sees play over Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage?

Quote from Magi12 »

Not liking the looks of this: Ashes of the Abhorrent! Shuts off Unburial Rites!

Do we think this card sees play over Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage?

Probably not in Modern. I can't imagine very many places where Ashes would be a better choice than RIP if you were going to put either in your SB. It's probably not better than Cage either, since Cage also has value against the green tutors.

I've been jammin' this lately on MODO with pretty good results. If you want to try a slightly different variation on UW Tron, and one that I have felt is better positioned for the current landscape of decks, try this out :

Interesting list. How have the 2 Gideons worked for you with the rest of the deck? I see how they could stall out the game until you can play big things.

Quote from Magi12 »

Interesting list. How have the 2 Gideons worked for you with the rest of the deck? I see how they could stall out the game until you can play big things.

They've worked out pretty well! I was running 1 initially, but was never unhappy to see one. Great against single targets or life totals, makes our wraths better, gives anti-planeswalker tools (Liliana Veil mostly, Karn still sucks), and the emblem is sometimes very relevant.

Other notes :

Running path and chalice in the main together, while seemimgly a nonbo, is allmost always fine since you are the one deciding when to shut off 1-drops. I might try a 2/2 split actually.

I've since cut the Gate for a 4th Collonade. It is just too good despite the citp drawback, and Azorius Signet does Mystic Gate better already.

I wish I could run 5 signets, but one talisman is close enough. We do best when we can gifts or wrath turn 3, and the mana rocks are vital for that.

Condescend is just better than Remand right now. We need to counter spells and keep them down, not just buy a few turns. I also have really loved Supreme Will and Cast Out. Being able to gifts for a guaranteed counter or removal or deep dig spell is key for value piles.

Noxious Revival is great, and comes in when I want to assure I can get my sb 1-of in a gifts pile. Vs other Tron, for example, you take out unburial and iona entirely and turbo gifts for Crucible, GQ, Snapcaster, Revival.

I even tried playing 1 copy of Approach of the 2nd Sun to an amusingly great effect, but lately have used Elspeth as the almost universally better card. Nonetheless, a late-game gifts pile of Approach, Emrakul, Gifts, and Sphinx Rev is pretty saucy.

Time for a review of Ixalan for us:


I don't think it's good enough, but it's worth mentioning. Typically, we don't play Cage because of how it interacts with us. I think a permanent effect that interacts like this might not be so bad. I think there probably aren't enough places where it's good, but maybe I'm wrong. The main deck that comes to mind is Storm, where you basically shut off any graveyard use completely. It's a neat card to consider but that's mostly it, I think.


Seems worse than Timely Reinforcements to me, but cards in our colour with X in the cost are always something to take a second look at. I don't think gaining that much life offsets how much better Timely is early on. Timely already gives you what x=3 (cmc=5) for this card does plus three tokens to chump with. I think the scaling on this card into late isn't useful enough because those matches where it's good don't go late enough, and when it does get to that point, Sphinx's Rev is just better.


I think this card has potential. I like 4 mana wrath effects, and this is somewhat similar. Sure, it has significant drawbacks, but it also exiles, which is relevant in some cases. I think most decks don't play enough basics to make it relevant, and even decks that do often gas out fast enough that you don't care too much. It's also an instant, which I really like. I'm definitely interested in trying out this card.


If you need more cheap removal, this is potentially not bad. Hard to say how good it is and it's probably awful. Still, I think there's enough small creatures in this format that some metas might support this card. I've played sorcery deal 3 for W, so this isn't that far off.


Another X mana spell, I think it's bad but maybe I'm overlookingsomething.


Finally the Opt printing in Modern we've been waiting for. I don't think our deck can make the best use of it but I'd at least cut the Anticipation for this and test it out. Other decks are absolutely going to play this card.

What about Search for Azcanta?? Seems really solid IMO for tbis deck.