Ulamog is just a big body until he attacks, if he attacks. You don't want to be reanimating him because you really value the exile ability. It's an insanely powerful ability against certain decks, particularly ones that go tall instead of wide. The fact the ability can't easily be interacted with is crazy. Ulamog isn't that good against a deck like Zoo, he dies to Path and they can attack around him and still find ways to kill you. Ideally, your reanimation target makes it very difficult for an opponent to win because they no longer can. We're talking things like Iona naming white against Soul Sisters or Elesh Norn against Infect. Against certain decks, Sundering Titan is insane, and Zoo is one of them. They don't play a ton of lands and aggressively fetch to ensure they have Naya colours on board to pump cards like Wild Nacatl. As a result, you get to blow them out with Sundering Titan, because not only do they not have lands to Path him, but if they do, you eat up the land they played, and can take a Plains from the Path with immunity. Even if you're a fast deck, it becomes hard to win when you have no lands.
I reanimated Sundering titan vs dredge and i see what you mean. On another note Merfolk is an annoying match for me. Bring in two ghostly prison condemn sunlance Ugin Engineered Explosives and a thiRd timely and a pithing needle and this match still feels 60/40 in their favor
So I haven't had Fridays free lately and with my old LGS moving premises to 2 hours drive from me I haven't been playing at all. I had this Friday free however so I decided to try out a store in one of the neighbouring towns about 35 minutes drive. I have mostly been on mono U tron since the printing of Spatial Contortion however after a disappointing showing at the last modern event I played at I felt the need to play something different and fun. On a whim I re-sleeved into a version on UW Gifts Tron the evening before. I can honestly say I missed some of the broken and hilarious things this deck can do when it goes off...
Since I had no idea what the local meta would be like I decided to hedge against Dredge and Affinity, I want to add a Blessed Alliance asap but I don't actually own any copies of it atm... One thing I will note is I found TKS to be quite useful at bridging to the lategame however I found it to be slightly awkward when combined with Wraths compared to how great it is in the mono u versions. I'm unsure if it is the best thing for it's slot right now however I'm also unsure as to what I would replace it with.
Match 1: B/G Eldrazi 1-0-1
The general populace of the store decided to play 30 minute rounds to fit in 4 rounds instead of 3. This is slightly awkward for me playing a control deck giving me less time for sideboarded games but I decided to run with it so I could get a feel for how the store normally was. A friendly man who seemed of the regulars advised me I could expect to play against some weird stuff and he was right. My first round opponent was a teenage boy who seemed like he was not super experienced and his deck was a little underpowered with some of the less played standard legal Eldrazi like Stalking Drone, Dread Defiler, Endless One and Endbringer. I mostly answered his threats with counter magic, Path and Wraths I then reanimated Iona on Black to Shut off his removal and beat him to death with the 7/7 Flying Angel. Game 2 went much the same however it went to time before I could attack for lethal. My opponent seemed to be enjoying himself however I felt a little bad considering the disparity is deck power.
Record 1-0
Match 2: Abzan Red. 2-0
My opponent was playing an Abzan value deck with Siege Rhino and lingering souls and was splashing Red for Ajani Vengeant, Bolt and Sin Prodder. Game 1 my opponent quickly flooded the board with threats. I Thought Knotted T4 to see a hand with Terminate and Path along with some threats. I took the terminate and my opponent untapped pathed my TKS and attacked me down to 10. I tapped the top of my deck and ripped Elesh Norn off the top which I hard cast and watched as my opponent picked up 4 spirit Tokens and 2 Sin Prodders and put them into his yard. Elesh then carried the day. I actually had multiple outs since I had enough mana to cast any of my wraths or to both gifts and unburial an Elesh that turn, not that I told my opponent this until after game 2. Game 2 I cut down on Remands in favour of some more direct interaction in the form of Purge + Condemn. I drew natural Tron and was all setup for a Turn 4 Ugin which would pretty much seal the deal but unfortunately my opponent drew Duress 1 turn before I could cast it. I therefore had to settle for a Timely reinforcements followed by TKS to strip an Ajani from my opponents hand over a Siege Rhino or Kalitas. My opponent played Siege Rhino and pathed My TKS so he could attack in for damage. This gave me a Blue source so I untapped and cast Gifts follwed by reanimating an Elesh Norn and my opponent made sad faces as he realised my 1/1 soldiers had outgrown his Siege Rhino!
Record 2-0
Match 3: Abzan Panharmonicon Whip Consellation 1-0-1
This was a rather spicy brew with Doomwake Giant, Eidolon of Blossoms and Whip of Erebus along with Panharmonicon to double all of his triggers. This match was extremely grindy and we took almost the full 30 minutes on game 1 with my opponent going up to 40 life then back down to 0! He had his 1 of panharmonicon down on Turn 3 off a Sylvan Caryatid and started going nuts with Eidolon of Blossoms. I wrathed his board but he still had a stacked hand. I Thought Knotted him seeing Courser, Doomwake, Doomwake, Whip, Whip as his 5 remaining cards. I decided to take Courser since I didn't really want him smoothing out his draws and I couldn't cut him off either of his other threats anyway. TKS died to Doomwake triggers helped by Panharmonicon while I cast a mindslaver and cracked it the following turn. My opponent drew a banishing light which I cast on his Doomwake which I followed up by pathing his other doomwake and proceeded to look through his library. (One of the more fun interactions of Mindslaver!) My opponent didn't seem best pleased when I informed him I had failed to find a basic however I explained to him I had the option to fail to find any time a card stipulates search a library for X. My opponent contuned to build out his board however Ugin put a stop to this pretty quickly by exiling all the things. I follwed up with reanimating Iona naming White to shut off all of his removal then Tutoring an Academy Ruins with Expedition map to establish the Mindslaver lock as I beat him to death with Iona. We didn't have time for game 2 due to the shortened round time.
Record 3-0
Match 4: Merfolk 0-2
The merfolk matchup isn't one I have played with UW tron before however I have played the matchup with mono u and this cannot possibly be worse than that... Game 1 my opponent had the counterspell for my T3 Wrath and the vapor snag for my blockers to kill me quickly. I flooded out pretty badly this game so I wasn't terribly surprised I lost after the Wrath was countered. Game 2 I wrathed my opponents board after a value gifts for a variety of spot removals. My opponent however top decked an exact sequence of 2x Merfolk Lords to put me in a difficult position of being at 2 life unable to Elesh Norn away his board and being dead to Merfolk + Mutavaults next turn. I actually missed the line in this game and died. I should have cast gifts on his endstep for Elesh + Unburial, untapped played a plains, cast Supreme Verdict then Elesh to stop him playing more threats. This would leave me dead to vapor snag but it was better than what I played in the game.
EDIT: As a sidenote I should probably add I wasn't terribly impressed when in game 2 one of the spectators started advising my opponent of his best lines having walked around the table and seen both of our hands... this included egging my opponent on to animate both of his mutavaults and attack with everything to kill me when my opponent clearly seemed nervous to do so since he clearly thought I had some trick up my sleeve. I knew I was probably loosing the game anyway but I bluntly told the spectator that he shouldn't be offering that kind of advice considering he is in a position where he is able to see both of our hands. I briefly considered calling a judge but decided it honestly wasn't worth the hassle and just let it go...
Record 3-1
Overall I was pretty happy with the deck. The fish matchup feels slightly unfavourable but by no means unwinnable I will have to consider what sideboard cards I could potentially add to help in this matchup if I end up going to this store on a regular basis. 3 felt like a bit much on the Timelys with no Burn players that I observed so I may look to cut down on this card in the future. I may also cut Emrakul from the board since the deck really should be able to win against the grindy decks without this card and it would free up the slot for alternative hate cards or Threats like Sundering Titan.
I reanimated Sundering titan vs dredge and i see what you mean. On another note Merfolk is an annoying match for me. Bring in two ghostly prison condemn sunlance Ugin Engineered Explosives and a thiRd timely and a pithing needle and this match still feels 60/40 in their favor
Timely is really awkward card because they never block in that matchup. You have a 64% chance of drawing at least one of Prison, EE, or Wrath by turn 3, which is really not that bad. There are lots of ways for you to find early interaction. Aether Vial starts suck for you, and there's usually not much you can do about those. Early Paths or Remands really help give you the time you need. I'm not sure it's still 60/40 when you board in a bunch of really good cards.
To be completely honest, i never felt the need for Hurkyl's Recall. I have 3 copies of the card, and still gathering dust. I expect, both due to this deck's weapons and my experience facing such deck (ever since it was standard legal + old extended + modern) as a control playuer to win most of the games against them. I would actually consider more Pithing Needles to help for that Matchup than recall, because at least Needles work in other matchups as well, answers Planweswalkers and shutdown man-lands and such. I would definitely save those two slots.
You are probably right. Old habits do die hard though, my old LGS had a ton of affinity with 2-3 regulars owning the deck so I was pretty much guaranteed to play the matchup at least once in a 3 round event. I'll try cutting them next time I run the deck out. In my laziness when throwing this together I based my sideboard roughly on my old one. On a side note how much hate do we realistically need to be competitive in the dredge matchup?
Wall of Omens is really just a meta choice over Remand, it's better against creature-based decks and worse otherwise. It's unclear to me which is better versus Infect since they both have pros and cons to them.
I'm also unsure about how good TKS is. Maybe it's really good against Eldrazi? I find in a lot of matchups, it's very slow. But I know in matchups like the mirror or Abzan CoCo, hitting important cards can be backbreaking to them.
I've been playing a decent amount recently and I think this deck is actually fairly resilient, the only really glaring issues I am struggling with are:
#1. the abysmal r/g tron match where, as darksteel has suggested, it's really not even worth sideboard slots dedicated to the terrible m/u. Maybe it is I'm not sure. pithing needle hurts them rather badly but even with a needle deployed to stop karn they have numerous other threats. This decks sideboard is way too precious I'm not going to play terestradon I'm just not.
2. This deck is so vulnerable to discard spells it's not even funny. I noticed darksteel and that other posted deck are both running a 2x leyline. Vs discard the damage is typically done in the first couple turns so leyline doesn't really save you unless it's in your opener, 2x only gives you a 1/30 chance pre mulligan to get it out, leyline really seems like the quintessential four of sideboard to me, can I get sone insiGht as to why you're running 2x?
is engineered explosives a must have either mb/sb? trying to save some money but i dont think ratchet bomb is even the answer to replace... maybe spellskite main? suggestions?
hello all. I've created a subreddit so that any and all people who have an interrest in this amazing, underrated, unfair, absurd and an-absolute-blast-to-play deck can centralize discussion about it over at UWTron. Look forward to meeting all of you as you've been amazing at answering my questions thus far.
Darksteel I cannot live with the concept of you not joining us there ! I just like the organized format of Reddit versus the way the scrolling conversations happen in this thread and it's hard to locate older information, tournament results and deck lists.
If Thought-Knot Seer is too slow, then Jester's Cap is the same. There's not enough decks in the format that have 1-of win conditions to worry about.
I don't think that Epiphany at the Drownyard is any better than Gifts Ungiven. Your deck definitely makes a distinction that it is, but you'd much rather the Gifts for the value it gives you with the combo. It's straight up your win condition in certain matchups so it's important to have that.
You also cut all the Signets while going up to 4 Tron lands each and play very few coloured sources as a whole. The odds of you having blue mana on turn 2 is actually only 75%, whereas in my deck I have 13 I believe. In fact, the odds of having blue mana in your opening hand is only 65%, which is absurdly low when you're going to have to mulligan a lot of hands that don't have any. I definitely disagree with cutting them and trying to play something like Gemstone Caverns to cover, it's not good. Gemstone Caverns is explicitly for hyper-fast combo decks that use it to speed up a turn 4 to a turn 3, or a turn 3 to a turn 2, not for a dedicated control deck where card advantage matters.
I feel like above anything, you need to play the deck a little bit and see how it works. It seems like you're just not all that used to the deck from some of the deck decisions you made, and that if you tested it a little bit, you'd realize some of the changes you'll need to make.
Hey everyone! I just went to a LCQ for the Regional qualifier yesterday in Columbus, Ohio, and managed a top 8 with Gifts Tron. It actually ran pretty smoothly having enough control to survivie until you reach the silver bullets for modern's very linear decks right now (Infect, Burn, etc). The board wipes and removal also allow you to just win on card advantage real quickly. I'll post the deck list later with more detailed match results.
How often do you find Detention Sphere interacts badly with Ugin?
On a sidenote I find it weird seeing all of the lists without Mindslaver, personally I doubt I will ever cut it from my 75 since it makes such a unique wincon for a single slot in the deck.
Decks like that have existed, but those are more blue tron with a white splash, where we're a gifts tron deck. Even though the shell is similar, their gameplan is a bit different. Also a lot of his card choices seem questionable to me.
It's certainly a bit different, that's for sure. It looks more like what a Mono Blue Tron would look like if they added white as opposed to a different UW Tron build. Gifts is always a trade-off because it increases the power level of the deck, but adds overall less consistency to it. I'm usually okay with that, but I'm sure certain metas exist where it's better to play for more consistency.
The first thing that comes to mind is playing a lot of basics. They cut all the utility lands to play coloured sources, which isn't necessarily that bad. The deck traditionally has coloured source problems and this is one way to solve it. They get to compliment it with Solemns as well, which are pretty good value creatures (Mono U Tron does well with them).
I'm not sold on the package of Solemn and Elder Deep-Fiend in a deck that doesn't play many cheap creatures. You have 8 creatures you can realistically sacrifice for it, and some of them you don't want to. I can certainly agree the power of sacrificing Solemn is insane, but then, how likely is that one occurrence? Snapcaster and Spellskite seem like things you'd not sacrifice all that often, since Snapcaster fills utility and doesn't generally sit on the board early on, and Spellskite would likely rather stay in play.
I don't think Torrential Gearhulk is awful when complimented with Snapcaster, but that would be if you were playing Gifts. I'm unsure how I feel about it without Gifts because I feel like I'd rather just have a Snapcaster. You're still paying the same amount for spells either way, since you max out at 4 cmc spells. Especially when you cut Gifts, half of the spells you could flash back kill the Greahulk anyway.
I think Thieves' Fortune is comparable to Anticipate, the difference is whether you can attack consistently enough or not. I don't think you will, and I'm not entirely sold on it. If his testing suggested otherwise, which it probably did, then it's probably okay. I always liked having turn 2 plays, and I guess the Shadow of Doubt somewhat helps with that, but I feel like Anticipate would just be better in that slot.
I kind of see some holes in his deck when he opts to play 1 Day and double Wrath, smells to me like he was just copying from existing Gifts versions and missed something. I don't see a good reason to split those when Wrath or Verdict will be better for you, and he's running 5 total Wrath effects. Cutting Gifts and adding in more coloured sources lets you play Cryptic, which is cool. It's still not consistent, it's going to be something like 80-85% likely you cast Cryptic on turn 4, which isn't bad, but isn't the 90% ideal you'd like.
All-in-all, I don't think this deck will work all that well. 1 Path seems like an extremely weird meta call in a format where Infect is perhaps the best deck. You're just going to get rolled by them pretty consistently, even if you have a 1-of Spellskite main. The deck also doesn't play any counters except Summary Dismissal, which seems really strange to me as well. No Remand, Condescend, Negate, Dispel, or Ceremonious Rejection.
Guys, I'm working on comeback version of the uw gifts tron deck. I saw that many players use wall of omens insted of remands (especialy in aggro metas where remand is bad).
My idea is, why not to use painter's servant in place of wall of omens? Ofc it won't fech us a card and dies to bolt - but other then this it's better blocker for small aggros, we can dump it for thirst and we can achive hard lock with Iona (against decks with more then 1-2 colors).
Anyone tested this idea?
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Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
2x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
Planeswalker
1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Artifacts
4x Azorius Signet
2x Expedition Map
1x Mindslaver
Instant
1x Condescend
4x Gifts Ungiven
4x Path to Exile
1x Repeal
3x Remand
4x Thirst for Knowledge
Sorcery
1x Day of Judgment
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Unburial Rites
1x Wrath of God
3x Timely Reinforcements
1x Academy Ruins
3x Celestial Colonnade
3x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
1x Plains
1x Snow-Covered Island
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Urza's Tower
3x Urza's Mine
3x Urza's Power Plant
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Terastodon
1x Jester's Cap
1x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Negate
1x Dispel
1x Celestial Purge
1x Disenchant
1x Condemn
Since I had no idea what the local meta would be like I decided to hedge against Dredge and Affinity, I want to add a Blessed Alliance asap but I don't actually own any copies of it atm... One thing I will note is I found TKS to be quite useful at bridging to the lategame however I found it to be slightly awkward when combined with Wraths compared to how great it is in the mono u versions. I'm unsure if it is the best thing for it's slot right now however I'm also unsure as to what I would replace it with.
Match 1: B/G Eldrazi 1-0-1
The general populace of the store decided to play 30 minute rounds to fit in 4 rounds instead of 3. This is slightly awkward for me playing a control deck giving me less time for sideboarded games but I decided to run with it so I could get a feel for how the store normally was. A friendly man who seemed of the regulars advised me I could expect to play against some weird stuff and he was right. My first round opponent was a teenage boy who seemed like he was not super experienced and his deck was a little underpowered with some of the less played standard legal Eldrazi like Stalking Drone, Dread Defiler, Endless One and Endbringer. I mostly answered his threats with counter magic, Path and Wraths I then reanimated Iona on Black to Shut off his removal and beat him to death with the 7/7 Flying Angel. Game 2 went much the same however it went to time before I could attack for lethal. My opponent seemed to be enjoying himself however I felt a little bad considering the disparity is deck power.
Record 1-0
Match 2: Abzan Red. 2-0
My opponent was playing an Abzan value deck with Siege Rhino and lingering souls and was splashing Red for Ajani Vengeant, Bolt and Sin Prodder. Game 1 my opponent quickly flooded the board with threats. I Thought Knotted T4 to see a hand with Terminate and Path along with some threats. I took the terminate and my opponent untapped pathed my TKS and attacked me down to 10. I tapped the top of my deck and ripped Elesh Norn off the top which I hard cast and watched as my opponent picked up 4 spirit Tokens and 2 Sin Prodders and put them into his yard. Elesh then carried the day. I actually had multiple outs since I had enough mana to cast any of my wraths or to both gifts and unburial an Elesh that turn, not that I told my opponent this until after game 2. Game 2 I cut down on Remands in favour of some more direct interaction in the form of Purge + Condemn. I drew natural Tron and was all setup for a Turn 4 Ugin which would pretty much seal the deal but unfortunately my opponent drew Duress 1 turn before I could cast it. I therefore had to settle for a Timely reinforcements followed by TKS to strip an Ajani from my opponents hand over a Siege Rhino or Kalitas. My opponent played Siege Rhino and pathed My TKS so he could attack in for damage. This gave me a Blue source so I untapped and cast Gifts follwed by reanimating an Elesh Norn and my opponent made sad faces as he realised my 1/1 soldiers had outgrown his Siege Rhino!
Record 2-0
Match 3: Abzan Panharmonicon Whip Consellation 1-0-1
This was a rather spicy brew with Doomwake Giant, Eidolon of Blossoms and Whip of Erebus along with Panharmonicon to double all of his triggers. This match was extremely grindy and we took almost the full 30 minutes on game 1 with my opponent going up to 40 life then back down to 0! He had his 1 of panharmonicon down on Turn 3 off a Sylvan Caryatid and started going nuts with Eidolon of Blossoms. I wrathed his board but he still had a stacked hand. I Thought Knotted him seeing Courser, Doomwake, Doomwake, Whip, Whip as his 5 remaining cards. I decided to take Courser since I didn't really want him smoothing out his draws and I couldn't cut him off either of his other threats anyway. TKS died to Doomwake triggers helped by Panharmonicon while I cast a mindslaver and cracked it the following turn. My opponent drew a banishing light which I cast on his Doomwake which I followed up by pathing his other doomwake and proceeded to look through his library. (One of the more fun interactions of Mindslaver!) My opponent didn't seem best pleased when I informed him I had failed to find a basic however I explained to him I had the option to fail to find any time a card stipulates search a library for X. My opponent contuned to build out his board however Ugin put a stop to this pretty quickly by exiling all the things. I follwed up with reanimating Iona naming White to shut off all of his removal then Tutoring an Academy Ruins with Expedition map to establish the Mindslaver lock as I beat him to death with Iona. We didn't have time for game 2 due to the shortened round time.
Record 3-0
Match 4: Merfolk 0-2
The merfolk matchup isn't one I have played with UW tron before however I have played the matchup with mono u and this cannot possibly be worse than that... Game 1 my opponent had the counterspell for my T3 Wrath and the vapor snag for my blockers to kill me quickly. I flooded out pretty badly this game so I wasn't terribly surprised I lost after the Wrath was countered. Game 2 I wrathed my opponents board after a value gifts for a variety of spot removals. My opponent however top decked an exact sequence of 2x Merfolk Lords to put me in a difficult position of being at 2 life unable to Elesh Norn away his board and being dead to Merfolk + Mutavaults next turn. I actually missed the line in this game and died. I should have cast gifts on his endstep for Elesh + Unburial, untapped played a plains, cast Supreme Verdict then Elesh to stop him playing more threats. This would leave me dead to vapor snag but it was better than what I played in the game.
EDIT: As a sidenote I should probably add I wasn't terribly impressed when in game 2 one of the spectators started advising my opponent of his best lines having walked around the table and seen both of our hands... this included egging my opponent on to animate both of his mutavaults and attack with everything to kill me when my opponent clearly seemed nervous to do so since he clearly thought I had some trick up my sleeve. I knew I was probably loosing the game anyway but I bluntly told the spectator that he shouldn't be offering that kind of advice considering he is in a position where he is able to see both of our hands. I briefly considered calling a judge but decided it honestly wasn't worth the hassle and just let it go...
Record 3-1
Overall I was pretty happy with the deck. The fish matchup feels slightly unfavourable but by no means unwinnable I will have to consider what sideboard cards I could potentially add to help in this matchup if I end up going to this store on a regular basis. 3 felt like a bit much on the Timelys with no Burn players that I observed so I may look to cut down on this card in the future. I may also cut Emrakul from the board since the deck really should be able to win against the grindy decks without this card and it would free up the slot for alternative hate cards or Threats like Sundering Titan.
Timely is really awkward card because they never block in that matchup. You have a 64% chance of drawing at least one of Prison, EE, or Wrath by turn 3, which is really not that bad. There are lots of ways for you to find early interaction. Aether Vial starts suck for you, and there's usually not much you can do about those. Early Paths or Remands really help give you the time you need. I'm not sure it's still 60/40 when you board in a bunch of really good cards.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
You are probably right. Old habits do die hard though, my old LGS had a ton of affinity with 2-3 regulars owning the deck so I was pretty much guaranteed to play the matchup at least once in a 3 round event. I'll try cutting them next time I run the deck out. In my laziness when throwing this together I based my sideboard roughly on my old one. On a side note how much hate do we realistically need to be competitive in the dredge matchup?
I'm also unsure about how good TKS is. Maybe it's really good against Eldrazi? I find in a lot of matchups, it's very slow. But I know in matchups like the mirror or Abzan CoCo, hitting important cards can be backbreaking to them.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
#1. the abysmal r/g tron match where, as darksteel has suggested, it's really not even worth sideboard slots dedicated to the terrible m/u. Maybe it is I'm not sure. pithing needle hurts them rather badly but even with a needle deployed to stop karn they have numerous other threats. This decks sideboard is way too precious I'm not going to play terestradon I'm just not.
2. This deck is so vulnerable to discard spells it's not even funny. I noticed darksteel and that other posted deck are both running a 2x leyline. Vs discard the damage is typically done in the first couple turns so leyline doesn't really save you unless it's in your opener, 2x only gives you a 1/30 chance pre mulligan to get it out, leyline really seems like the quintessential four of sideboard to me, can I get sone insiGht as to why you're running 2x?
Darksteel I cannot live with the concept of you not joining us there ! I just like the organized format of Reddit versus the way the scrolling conversations happen in this thread and it's hard to locate older information, tournament results and deck lists.
I don't think that Epiphany at the Drownyard is any better than Gifts Ungiven. Your deck definitely makes a distinction that it is, but you'd much rather the Gifts for the value it gives you with the combo. It's straight up your win condition in certain matchups so it's important to have that.
You also cut all the Signets while going up to 4 Tron lands each and play very few coloured sources as a whole. The odds of you having blue mana on turn 2 is actually only 75%, whereas in my deck I have 13 I believe. In fact, the odds of having blue mana in your opening hand is only 65%, which is absurdly low when you're going to have to mulligan a lot of hands that don't have any. I definitely disagree with cutting them and trying to play something like Gemstone Caverns to cover, it's not good. Gemstone Caverns is explicitly for hyper-fast combo decks that use it to speed up a turn 4 to a turn 3, or a turn 3 to a turn 2, not for a dedicated control deck where card advantage matters.
I feel like above anything, you need to play the deck a little bit and see how it works. It seems like you're just not all that used to the deck from some of the deck decisions you made, and that if you tested it a little bit, you'd realize some of the changes you'll need to make.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
On a sidenote I find it weird seeing all of the lists without Mindslaver, personally I doubt I will ever cut it from my 75 since it makes such a unique wincon for a single slot in the deck.
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/tronathon/
Check out the UW list at the bottom. Anyone try this kind of thing? Quite different from the usual UW list.
The first thing that comes to mind is playing a lot of basics. They cut all the utility lands to play coloured sources, which isn't necessarily that bad. The deck traditionally has coloured source problems and this is one way to solve it. They get to compliment it with Solemns as well, which are pretty good value creatures (Mono U Tron does well with them).
I'm not sold on the package of Solemn and Elder Deep-Fiend in a deck that doesn't play many cheap creatures. You have 8 creatures you can realistically sacrifice for it, and some of them you don't want to. I can certainly agree the power of sacrificing Solemn is insane, but then, how likely is that one occurrence? Snapcaster and Spellskite seem like things you'd not sacrifice all that often, since Snapcaster fills utility and doesn't generally sit on the board early on, and Spellskite would likely rather stay in play.
I don't think Torrential Gearhulk is awful when complimented with Snapcaster, but that would be if you were playing Gifts. I'm unsure how I feel about it without Gifts because I feel like I'd rather just have a Snapcaster. You're still paying the same amount for spells either way, since you max out at 4 cmc spells. Especially when you cut Gifts, half of the spells you could flash back kill the Greahulk anyway.
I think Thieves' Fortune is comparable to Anticipate, the difference is whether you can attack consistently enough or not. I don't think you will, and I'm not entirely sold on it. If his testing suggested otherwise, which it probably did, then it's probably okay. I always liked having turn 2 plays, and I guess the Shadow of Doubt somewhat helps with that, but I feel like Anticipate would just be better in that slot.
I kind of see some holes in his deck when he opts to play 1 Day and double Wrath, smells to me like he was just copying from existing Gifts versions and missed something. I don't see a good reason to split those when Wrath or Verdict will be better for you, and he's running 5 total Wrath effects. Cutting Gifts and adding in more coloured sources lets you play Cryptic, which is cool. It's still not consistent, it's going to be something like 80-85% likely you cast Cryptic on turn 4, which isn't bad, but isn't the 90% ideal you'd like.
All-in-all, I don't think this deck will work all that well. 1 Path seems like an extremely weird meta call in a format where Infect is perhaps the best deck. You're just going to get rolled by them pretty consistently, even if you have a 1-of Spellskite main. The deck also doesn't play any counters except Summary Dismissal, which seems really strange to me as well. No Remand, Condescend, Negate, Dispel, or Ceremonious Rejection.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
My idea is, why not to use painter's servant in place of wall of omens? Ofc it won't fech us a card and dies to bolt - but other then this it's better blocker for small aggros, we can dump it for thirst and we can achive hard lock with Iona (against decks with more then 1-2 colors).
Anyone tested this idea?