Can't wait to put slaver / Crucible back in the main!
Edit: The format potentially slowing down (the way that a lot of the comments I've been reading seem to indicate) might also make the Planar Bridge plan a little more viable as well. I agree with Darksteel, it might simply be too slow, but I won't be bummed if I find it in my packs.
Personally, I'm really glad probe was banned. It was super good against us. Having perfect information against us, and seeing what removal/counters we had was especially back breaking, especially against infect and deathshadow. Not to mention, the life loss of probe is fairly irrelevant against us, so pyromancer decks got a free token and look at our hand.
I really hate the bannings for the format as a whole, but they're pretty okay for us, I think. I suspect the format slows down a little bit, which is exactly what we want. I like that without Dredge, we don't need to play graveyard hate anymore, so I can open up more sideboard flexibility again. I still expect to see Infect, the lack of Probe doesn't kill that deck. I'm also particularly glad that without Dredge, I can play Affinity now (because that stupid Conflagrate just kills Affinity).
Don't count Dredge as dead yet. They may have lost some concistency with the banning of Golgari Grave-troll, but they're definitely not dead. Or at least in my meta they seem pretty lively still.
And on a side note, Wowie! This deck looks fun, and I'm not missing a lots of pieces. Celestial Colonnade and Gifts ungiven are the only pricy pieces I'm missing. Definitely subscribing to this primer for later uses.
I forgot to type up what happened at my weekly so here it is.
For starters, I tried some different things, like Batterskull in the main and more counters in the board. I also had double Ghostly Prison and Timely in the sideboard anticipating more Delver like last week.
Round 1 vs Affinity:
Game one he had a really weak hand that didn't do much. He played a Steel Overseer on turn 2 that I killed and he was just slowly chipping away at me. The couple of points per turn he was doing wasn't enough and I had plenty of time to find Elesh Norn. Game two went similarly, he mulled and had a slow hand that just didn't get there. He used double Galvanic Blast to put me really low, but when I cast Elesh Norn, he scooped. I think he was only playing two Galvanic Blasts and couldn't fight through Elesh Norn.
Record: 1-0
Round 2 vs Elves
Of note, this player was relatively new to Magic and borrowing the deck. He told me he was new and I knew who's deck he was borrowing, but he played in a way I could tell he was new, and this deck is probably a bit of a curveball for new players, plus it's quite favoured for us. Game one I reanimated Elesh Norn on my turn four and that was the game. It really wasn't close, his draw was slow for an Elves draw and Elesh Norn is game against them. In the second game, he was a lot faster and I had Elesh Norn in hand. When I cast Gifts, I couldn't afford to reanimate Iona and didn't have double white for a triple Wrath, so I had to get Timely and Path and try to stall the game out. Thankfully, I was able to stall it long enough between Timely and Ghostly Prison to hard cast the Elesh Norn.
Record: 2-0
Round 3 vs Budget Goblins
This player isn't new, but I know he's relatively new to Modern and hasn't played a lot of Magic recently. Anyway, game one his opener was slow, leaving mana up on early turns wasn't good for him. When I resolved Elesh Norn, he conceded. I'm unsure if he had Bolts or not, Goblins often doesn't play spells. In game two, my hand was much worse and he was much more aggressive. When he resolved double Bushwaker with kicker the game ended. In game three, his draw was more like the first game, and I had good early interaction with Timely trading off dudes. When Iona named red into his three 1/1s, the game was over.
Record: 3-0
Round 4 vs Grixis Delver
Due to being paired down, we had to play it out. Game one he mulled to 5 and that was all she wrote. When I cast Gifts and started looping it, he conceded. He was just so far behind and had no chance to win at that point. In game two, he debated Surigcaling the Gifts or Tron land and went with the Tron land, which made my plan a whole lot harder. The game progressed and he topdecked better than I did, I just simply didn't find cards to interact with, especially being behind on mana due to no Tron access. In game three he Surgical'd Gifts, but I won the topdeck war. I had my Emrakul put on the bottom by his Clique, but after a shuffle effect I drew it a few turns later and ended the game. We were in pretty good shape that game when it went late, but there were certainly some dicey moments. I'm also really glad I boarded out Unburial Rites, even in game two. It wasn't so much that I was scared of Surgical more so that I know it's bad against blue decks playing Mana Leak and Remand, plus Delver often has Countersqualls as well.
Record: 4-0
Of note, the Batterskull was bad. I kept boarding it out and when I drew it, it wasn't that good. It ended up feeling more win-more to me and like it didn't have a big enough impact. I felt it was slow in the first three matchups, and having to wait until 8 mana against Grixis Delver (to play around Kolaghan's Command) is asking for a lot. Wurmcoil might have been better since it interacts with Kolaghan's Command more favourably and dodges Fatal Push. I still don't particularly like either. The rest of the sideboard was good, I was happy to go back to the heavy-hitting creature hate like Timely and Ghostly Prison now that there's not really any Infect. It's unclear if the counters are good or not, but I like some amount against Delver and Ceremonious Rejections are still very good against Affinity.
When I find a list I'm happy with, sure. So far I haven't been particularly happy with the deck, and I think it needs some tweaking as well as the meta needs a chance to calm down.
When I find a list I'm happy with, sure. So far I haven't been particularly happy with the deck, and I think it needs some tweaking as well as the meta needs a chance to calm down.
Agreed, seeing how things shake out is always smart. I guess the best question for any deck is "what do I do best?". What would UW Tron say it does best? Wrath? Draw? Combo?
Testing out the Godless Shrine instead of Watery Grave because double white is often more relevant than double blue
Down to two Flooded Strands because I kept drawing it with no sources left
Only 3 Signet because I think fewer dead cards is better and we have a lot of extra coloured sources with only 10 Tron lands
Repeal in the flex slot, that card can realistically be anything you want it to be
Heavy creature-hate in the sideboard in anticipation of decks like Goblins and Delver. You'd be surprised how good Timely and Ghostly Prison are against Delver.
With no Infect showing up, Condemn is in that 5th removal slot because I think answering bigger things from Eldrazi is more relevant
Disdainful Stroke seems good if people are moving to bigger decks like Eldrazi, Titan Shift, RG Tron, etc.
More counters as a whole because I like counters
Round 1 vs Goblins:
Same guy from last week, same result. Elesh Norn completely blows out his deck and he simply loses the game. With playing a budget version and not being fast enough, he never gets there against me. I'm even potentially at double digits when I resolve Elesh Norn, I remember being at 8 after he sacrificed four Mogg Fanatics. He plays really poorly and also apparently doesn't have a sideboard, so I'm not surprised I consistently beat him. Anyway, there's nothing to say about it, the games are never close and always end after Iona or Elesh Norn from Gifts hits the table.
Record: 1-0
Round 2 vs Titanshift
Game 1 I lead off with Map on the play into second Tron land and fetch Seachrome. I end up drawing the third Tron piece on the fourth turn and tap out resolve Ugin. On his turn he Through the Breaches a Primeval Titan and deals 24 to me. I perhaps should have left Condescend in my hand up instead of casting the Ugin, but I wanted to try to roll high on Ugin rather than draw out the game, because Condescend was the only card in my hand that did anything and he already had one Valakut in play. Game 2 I had turn 2 Signet -> turn 3 Gifts -> turn 4 Iona naming green with Dispel in hand to answer Through the Breach. He actually cast a Summoner's Pact early and didn't combo off that turn, leaving him with little mana on a future turn. Iona ended the game pretty quickly. Game 3 I kept countering his Primeval Titan, casting two Remands and then a Disdainful Stroke on it. However, in that time, I didn't get a chance to do anything myself having to keep answering, and he naturally drew into all four Valakuts. Even though I Ghost Quartered one of them, it wasn't enough, and he domed me for 9 in back to back turns to kill me. I had Iona out naming green at that point (which I did the first turn I had 6 mana up, which I think was turn 7).
Record: 1-1
Round 3 vs Madcap Experiment
If you're unfamiliar with the deck, it revolves around using Madcap Experiment and hitting some large artifact like Blightsteel Colossus or Platinum Empirion. In game one, he basically did nothing until he cast Madcap Experiment which I Remanded. I ended up having Iona on the table on turn 5 with some good draws on the lands, named red, he lost the game very quickly. In game two, I countered the Madcap Experiment and then went for Gifts combo with Sundering Titan, blowing up his Hallowed Fountain, Steam Vents, and Sacred Foundry, leaving him with just an Island. It wasn't close at that point, I'm just so far ahead of him and he scoops it up when he can't answer Sundering Titan.
Record: 2-1
Round 4 vs BW Eldrazi
My opponent commented he built the deck in 10 minutes earlier that day, seems like it shouldn't be that bad for me, and it wasn't. In both games, he really didn't play any of the bigger Eldrazi and simply didn't put enough pressure. My removal was good at interacting with him and stalling out the game long enough. In the first game, he had a Wasteland Strangler that chipped away slowly and later a Liliana. Ugin cleaned both of them up, the Lingering Souls Tokens, and later the game. In game two, he resolved his Liliana really late, late enough that I ended up with a line to Gifts into Tron lands to cast Emrakul before Liliana could ultimate, even after my Colonnade got killed by a non-Path removal spell.
Record: 3-1
Of note, I think a good answer for Titanshift is necessary, I'm unsure if Leyline fits that spot or not because I anticipate stuff like Nature's Claim coming in. Part of the problem with using things like counters to answer is that eventually they just win drawing lands. Fundamentally, the answer to that deck should be a card that prevents us from taking damage from Valakut. Runed Halo could be another example answer, but it still doesn't change that we get beaten by Nature's Claim.
I think I'm definitely going a bit overboard for Delver, but the number fluctuates heavily. Today there were two Delver players, last week there were four. I think more so I just need to go back to doing sideboard calculations on what decks I think I'm going to play against at what percentages and figure out the optimal build.
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As for what UW Tron does best, it flexibly answers a lot of decks. Between Gifts Combo and Emrakul options, it has a reasonable game against the majority of the field. RG Tron is a bad matchup, but a lot of other things are good. Aside from the couple of bad matchups, there's a lot of matchups that feel like you can win them if you play well or draw decently. Like in the past two weeks I played against what, Delver, Affinity, Madcap, BW Eldrazi, Titanshift, Goblins, Elves, and all of them are decks that we have game against. It's very good for an open field meta because of the flexibility it has in general.
I don't like new Emrakul in Modern because the game doesn't end nearly as often from it. The fact it can and will be countered is extremely relevant. I find old Emrakul gets boarded out in most of the fast matchups, making blue matchups the primary reason I want it. It's nice to just be able to say "we're at the late game, it's over". Don't forget that the distribution of card types is very poor in our deck for Emrakul. 4 sorceries, 3 artifacts that I can sacrifice, 4 other creatures, 1 Planeswalker, 3 lands I can sacrifice - it's really not feasible to get lots of different types in the graveyard. You're most likely casting it for around 10 rather than 6 or 7.
How did Emrakul, the Aeons Torn perform for you? How often did you have it on hand and couldn't resolve it? Because that's the experience I had with her. I personally prefer her newer version Emrakul, the Promised End, how do you think about this card? I know it's different to mindslaver, pls dont compare those two cards
Not sure the best purpose is accelerating emrakul out is where he truly shines I personally like how gifts ungiven and emmy 1.0 work together to feldons cain through your deck when you make value gifts piles. Otherwise you can never make good piles as your threats get put in the gy not in your had and you run out of gifts and thirsts....Hope this bad explanation helps
Certainly an added benefit from original Emrakul. You get to make Gifts piles that are Emrakul, Sphinx's Rev, Gifts, and X. As long as you're at 12 or so mana, it makes it impossible for your opponent to give you a pile that's bad for you. They don't want to give you Emrakul because they're scared you can cast it, and X could always be a Tower. When they don't give you Emrakul, it shuffles everything back into the deck to do again. If they give you Sphinx's Rev you can cast it for 9 on their end step. If they give you Gifts, you can just do it again because you presumably still have mana available. So either way, they're giving you a pile that makes it incredibly difficult for them to win. I find quite commonly I do something like chain triple Gifts into a Path, Remand, Condescend, and then my opponent realizes they can't win now that I have all the answers and still have Gifts in hand.
This is kind of the poor man's Eye of Ugin. It does a similar job of closing out games, it's just significantly slower at doing so. At a regular REL event, my opponents usually concede when they see what's going on.
Would love to generate some discussion on walking ballista. After seeing it in an altogether different format (vintage) it has me very interested in its ability to keep planeswalkers in check and just winning if left unchecked......Could be good in a chalice / trinket build where we can tutor for it in multiple ways ,to give the deck a more toolbox feel. I have to be honest anything that we can keep getting back off academy ruins seems like a win win
The two primary Planeswalkers I care about in Modern are Karn and Liliana. I need to cast Ballista for 6 mana or 4 and activate it once in order to answer either of them (this would be Liliana +1 activation on the stack, or Karn -3 trading itself into the Ballista). Karn probably won't even kill itself into it, meaning I'm only possibly answering Liliana. Liliana is very cheap compared to Ballista such that I'm unlikely to actually accomplish my goal. Granted you can draw it later to kind of keep Liliana in check a bit, but it doesn't seem great if your turn is comprised of shooting Liliana a couple of points, it seems like it's difficult to really do much.
It seems like going forward, it'll be bad MB because of increased amounts of Fatal Push. Game 1 it's going to provide opponents with more ways to use dead cards for some minimal value in certain matchups. At four mana, Wraths are just going to be better. Yes, Ballista is really good late game, but the deck already has good late game and the early game is more of a concern. Between Path, Wrath, and Ugin, I don't imagine mana costs where Ballista would be good, and I'd probably rather draw cards instead of uptick this one counter.
I imagine in Vintage they're playing it in Shops, which is a deck that has a lot better access to early colourless mana than us. It's like RG Tron on crack, and we don't even play the full 12 Tron anymore, nor do we play many cards to facilitate Tron.
I am absolutely sure your reasoning is spot on for reasons not to run this card but the only thing I would add is do you see a meta that could exist where having this card could make a difference? Infect seems good at 4 mana(2 counters) being able to go around a vines or only 1 counter and a path ? I guess I like to give a second look at cards which are both threats and answers but your right about push and removal being live and not netting that virtual card advantage anymore. However I'll add it's never for value as we can just shoot damage at the player and rebuy again later with ruins...
I feel like Blessed Alliance is better than that card against Infect. Sure, this can double target to kill any infect creature, but it also gets walled by any two responses, whether it's a Vines, a pump spell, or even Pendelhaven. My bottom line with the card is that 4 mana add a counter is incredibly expensive/slow for Modern. Yeah, flexibility and all, but it simply doesn't do any job particularly well. In aggressive matchups, it might be a 2 mana deal 1 damage, or 4 mana deal 2 damage, which is quite inefficient against decks like Affinity or Burn. In midrange matchups like Jund, Eldrazi, RG Tron, it doesn't do anything. In control matchups like UWR or Grixis Control, you should ideally already be favoured such that this doesn't significantly change the matchup.
I feel like Blessed Alliance is better than that card against Infect. Sure, this can double target to kill any infect creature, but it also gets walled by any two responses, whether it's a Vines, a pump spell, or even Pendelhaven. My bottom line with the card is that 4 mana add a counter is incredibly expensive/slow for Modern. Yeah, flexibility and all, but it simply doesn't do any job particularly well. In aggressive matchups, it might be a 2 mana deal 1 damage, or 4 mana deal 2 damage, which is quite inefficient against decks like Affinity or Burn. In midrange matchups like Jund, Eldrazi, RG Tron, it doesn't do anything. In control matchups like UWR or Grixis Control, you should ideally already be favoured such that this doesn't significantly change the matchup.
Thanks for your reasoning, good explanation working through your reasoning. I guess to keep the ball rolling on and to spark conversation how is Thought knot seer positioned currently, I love how he gives Tron another angle of attack it never had but again maybe not UW maybe mono U or nothing or just SB for now?
I feel like Blessed Alliance is better than that card against Infect. Sure, this can double target to kill any infect creature, but it also gets walled by any two responses, whether it's a Vines, a pump spell, or even Pendelhaven. My bottom line with the card is that 4 mana add a counter is incredibly expensive/slow for Modern. Yeah, flexibility and all, but it simply doesn't do any job particularly well. In aggressive matchups, it might be a 2 mana deal 1 damage, or 4 mana deal 2 damage, which is quite inefficient against decks like Affinity or Burn. In midrange matchups like Jund, Eldrazi, RG Tron, it doesn't do anything. In control matchups like UWR or Grixis Control, you should ideally already be favoured such that this doesn't significantly change the matchup.
Thanks for your reasoning, good explanation working through your reasoning. I guess to keep the ball rolling on and to spark conversation how is Thought knot seer positioned currently, I love how he gives Tron another angle of attack it never had but again maybe not UW maybe mono U or nothing or just SB for now?
I found TKS was particularly effective in matchups like Abzan Company because I could just take key cards out of their deck permanently. It was like a poor man's Thoughtseize. I find it's really good at shutting down decks that need specific cards to win and aren't extremely fast, but other than that, it's mediocre. It's still relatively easy to interact with, especially now that Fatal Push gives people another 1-mana answer to it. I don't much care for the other angle it offers, you're almost never winning from multiple combat steps, the game usually ends from Iona, Elesh Norn, or Emrakul. In all the time I played TKS, I think I won from attacking with it once, maybe twice.
I think TKS is purely a meta decision based on what you're playing against. If you see decks like Infect, Burn, Affinity, it's probably not doing you anything. If instead you see decks like Abzan Company, Lantern, or the mirror, it's going to be very good.
I feel like Blessed Alliance is better than that card against Infect. Sure, this can double target to kill any infect creature, but it also gets walled by any two responses, whether it's a Vines, a pump spell, or even Pendelhaven. My bottom line with the card is that 4 mana add a counter is incredibly expensive/slow for Modern. Yeah, flexibility and all, but it simply doesn't do any job particularly well. In aggressive matchups, it might be a 2 mana deal 1 damage, or 4 mana deal 2 damage, which is quite inefficient against decks like Affinity or Burn. In midrange matchups like Jund, Eldrazi, RG Tron, it doesn't do anything. In control matchups like UWR or Grixis Control, you should ideally already be favoured such that this doesn't significantly change the matchup.
Thanks for your reasoning, good explanation working through your reasoning. I guess to keep the ball rolling on and to spark conversation how is Thought knot seer positioned currently, I love how he gives Tron another angle of attack it never had but again maybe not UW maybe mono U or nothing or just SB for now?
I found TKS was particularly effective in matchups like Abzan Company because I could just take key cards out of their deck permanently. It was like a poor man's Thoughtseize. I find it's really good at shutting down decks that need specific cards to win and aren't extremely fast, but other than that, it's mediocre. It's still relatively easy to interact with, especially now that Fatal Push gives people another 1-mana answer to it. I don't much care for the other angle it offers, you're almost never winning from multiple combat steps, the game usually ends from Iona, Elesh Norn, or Emrakul. In all the time I played TKS, I think I won from attacking with it once, maybe twice.
I think TKS is purely a meta decision based on what you're playing against. If you see decks like Infect, Burn, Affinity, it's probably not doing you anything. If instead you see decks like Abzan Company, Lantern, or the mirror, it's going to be very good.
I agree I always found it to be a bit counter intuitive to play creatures like this and wrath's but I get there could be a meta where that shines....
Also on a side note would something like this be a list you would consider right now
You did say that you weren't real happy with your or any configuration of UW Tron right now. Would you say that because of the erratic metagame it is the power of our cards just lacking too much against deck XYZ?
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Edit: The format potentially slowing down (the way that a lot of the comments I've been reading seem to indicate) might also make the Planar Bridge plan a little more viable as well. I agree with Darksteel, it might simply be too slow, but I won't be bummed if I find it in my packs.
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
And on a side note, Wowie! This deck looks fun, and I'm not missing a lots of pieces. Celestial Colonnade and Gifts ungiven are the only pricy pieces I'm missing. Definitely subscribing to this primer for later uses.
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
For starters, I tried some different things, like Batterskull in the main and more counters in the board. I also had double Ghostly Prison and Timely in the sideboard anticipating more Delver like last week.
Round 1 vs Affinity:
Game one he had a really weak hand that didn't do much. He played a Steel Overseer on turn 2 that I killed and he was just slowly chipping away at me. The couple of points per turn he was doing wasn't enough and I had plenty of time to find Elesh Norn. Game two went similarly, he mulled and had a slow hand that just didn't get there. He used double Galvanic Blast to put me really low, but when I cast Elesh Norn, he scooped. I think he was only playing two Galvanic Blasts and couldn't fight through Elesh Norn.
Record: 1-0
Round 2 vs Elves
Of note, this player was relatively new to Magic and borrowing the deck. He told me he was new and I knew who's deck he was borrowing, but he played in a way I could tell he was new, and this deck is probably a bit of a curveball for new players, plus it's quite favoured for us. Game one I reanimated Elesh Norn on my turn four and that was the game. It really wasn't close, his draw was slow for an Elves draw and Elesh Norn is game against them. In the second game, he was a lot faster and I had Elesh Norn in hand. When I cast Gifts, I couldn't afford to reanimate Iona and didn't have double white for a triple Wrath, so I had to get Timely and Path and try to stall the game out. Thankfully, I was able to stall it long enough between Timely and Ghostly Prison to hard cast the Elesh Norn.
Record: 2-0
Round 3 vs Budget Goblins
This player isn't new, but I know he's relatively new to Modern and hasn't played a lot of Magic recently. Anyway, game one his opener was slow, leaving mana up on early turns wasn't good for him. When I resolved Elesh Norn, he conceded. I'm unsure if he had Bolts or not, Goblins often doesn't play spells. In game two, my hand was much worse and he was much more aggressive. When he resolved double Bushwaker with kicker the game ended. In game three, his draw was more like the first game, and I had good early interaction with Timely trading off dudes. When Iona named red into his three 1/1s, the game was over.
Record: 3-0
Round 4 vs Grixis Delver
Due to being paired down, we had to play it out. Game one he mulled to 5 and that was all she wrote. When I cast Gifts and started looping it, he conceded. He was just so far behind and had no chance to win at that point. In game two, he debated Surigcaling the Gifts or Tron land and went with the Tron land, which made my plan a whole lot harder. The game progressed and he topdecked better than I did, I just simply didn't find cards to interact with, especially being behind on mana due to no Tron access. In game three he Surgical'd Gifts, but I won the topdeck war. I had my Emrakul put on the bottom by his Clique, but after a shuffle effect I drew it a few turns later and ended the game. We were in pretty good shape that game when it went late, but there were certainly some dicey moments. I'm also really glad I boarded out Unburial Rites, even in game two. It wasn't so much that I was scared of Surgical more so that I know it's bad against blue decks playing Mana Leak and Remand, plus Delver often has Countersqualls as well.
Record: 4-0
Of note, the Batterskull was bad. I kept boarding it out and when I drew it, it wasn't that good. It ended up feeling more win-more to me and like it didn't have a big enough impact. I felt it was slow in the first three matchups, and having to wait until 8 mana against Grixis Delver (to play around Kolaghan's Command) is asking for a lot. Wurmcoil might have been better since it interacts with Kolaghan's Command more favourably and dodges Fatal Push. I still don't particularly like either. The rest of the sideboard was good, I was happy to go back to the heavy-hitting creature hate like Timely and Ghostly Prison now that there's not really any Infect. It's unclear if the counters are good or not, but I like some amount against Delver and Ceremonious Rejections are still very good against Affinity.
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
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
Agreed, seeing how things shake out is always smart. I guess the best question for any deck is "what do I do best?". What would UW Tron say it does best? Wrath? Draw? Combo?
4 Urza's Tower
3 Urza's Power Plant
3 Urza's Mine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Snow-covered Island
1 Snow-covered Plains
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Academy Ruins
3 Celestial Colonnade
Creatures: 5
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Emrakul, The Aeons Torn
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Sundering Titan
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Artifacts: 6
3 Azorious Signet
2 Expedition Map
1 Engineered Explosives
Sorceries: 4
1 Unburial Rites
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgment
1 Supreme Verdict
Instants: 20
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Remand
4 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Path To Exile
1 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Condescend
1 Repeal
1 Anticipate
2 Ghostly Prison
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Condemn
Thought process on some stuff in the deck:
Round 1 vs Goblins:
Same guy from last week, same result. Elesh Norn completely blows out his deck and he simply loses the game. With playing a budget version and not being fast enough, he never gets there against me. I'm even potentially at double digits when I resolve Elesh Norn, I remember being at 8 after he sacrificed four Mogg Fanatics. He plays really poorly and also apparently doesn't have a sideboard, so I'm not surprised I consistently beat him. Anyway, there's nothing to say about it, the games are never close and always end after Iona or Elesh Norn from Gifts hits the table.
Record: 1-0
Round 2 vs Titanshift
Game 1 I lead off with Map on the play into second Tron land and fetch Seachrome. I end up drawing the third Tron piece on the fourth turn and tap out resolve Ugin. On his turn he Through the Breaches a Primeval Titan and deals 24 to me. I perhaps should have left Condescend in my hand up instead of casting the Ugin, but I wanted to try to roll high on Ugin rather than draw out the game, because Condescend was the only card in my hand that did anything and he already had one Valakut in play. Game 2 I had turn 2 Signet -> turn 3 Gifts -> turn 4 Iona naming green with Dispel in hand to answer Through the Breach. He actually cast a Summoner's Pact early and didn't combo off that turn, leaving him with little mana on a future turn. Iona ended the game pretty quickly. Game 3 I kept countering his Primeval Titan, casting two Remands and then a Disdainful Stroke on it. However, in that time, I didn't get a chance to do anything myself having to keep answering, and he naturally drew into all four Valakuts. Even though I Ghost Quartered one of them, it wasn't enough, and he domed me for 9 in back to back turns to kill me. I had Iona out naming green at that point (which I did the first turn I had 6 mana up, which I think was turn 7).
Record: 1-1
Round 3 vs Madcap Experiment
If you're unfamiliar with the deck, it revolves around using Madcap Experiment and hitting some large artifact like Blightsteel Colossus or Platinum Empirion. In game one, he basically did nothing until he cast Madcap Experiment which I Remanded. I ended up having Iona on the table on turn 5 with some good draws on the lands, named red, he lost the game very quickly. In game two, I countered the Madcap Experiment and then went for Gifts combo with Sundering Titan, blowing up his Hallowed Fountain, Steam Vents, and Sacred Foundry, leaving him with just an Island. It wasn't close at that point, I'm just so far ahead of him and he scoops it up when he can't answer Sundering Titan.
Record: 2-1
Round 4 vs BW Eldrazi
My opponent commented he built the deck in 10 minutes earlier that day, seems like it shouldn't be that bad for me, and it wasn't. In both games, he really didn't play any of the bigger Eldrazi and simply didn't put enough pressure. My removal was good at interacting with him and stalling out the game long enough. In the first game, he had a Wasteland Strangler that chipped away slowly and later a Liliana. Ugin cleaned both of them up, the Lingering Souls Tokens, and later the game. In game two, he resolved his Liliana really late, late enough that I ended up with a line to Gifts into Tron lands to cast Emrakul before Liliana could ultimate, even after my Colonnade got killed by a non-Path removal spell.
Record: 3-1
Of note, I think a good answer for Titanshift is necessary, I'm unsure if Leyline fits that spot or not because I anticipate stuff like Nature's Claim coming in. Part of the problem with using things like counters to answer is that eventually they just win drawing lands. Fundamentally, the answer to that deck should be a card that prevents us from taking damage from Valakut. Runed Halo could be another example answer, but it still doesn't change that we get beaten by Nature's Claim.
I think I'm definitely going a bit overboard for Delver, but the number fluctuates heavily. Today there were two Delver players, last week there were four. I think more so I just need to go back to doing sideboard calculations on what decks I think I'm going to play against at what percentages and figure out the optimal build.
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As for what UW Tron does best, it flexibly answers a lot of decks. Between Gifts Combo and Emrakul options, it has a reasonable game against the majority of the field. RG Tron is a bad matchup, but a lot of other things are good. Aside from the couple of bad matchups, there's a lot of matchups that feel like you can win them if you play well or draw decently. Like in the past two weeks I played against what, Delver, Affinity, Madcap, BW Eldrazi, Titanshift, Goblins, Elves, and all of them are decks that we have game against. It's very good for an open field meta because of the flexibility it has in general.
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
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
Not sure the best purpose is accelerating emrakul out is where he truly shines I personally like how gifts ungiven and emmy 1.0 work together to feldons cain through your deck when you make value gifts piles. Otherwise you can never make good piles as your threats get put in the gy not in your had and you run out of gifts and thirsts....Hope this bad explanation helps
This is kind of the poor man's Eye of Ugin. It does a similar job of closing out games, it's just significantly slower at doing so. At a regular REL event, my opponents usually concede when they see what's going on.
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
It seems like going forward, it'll be bad MB because of increased amounts of Fatal Push. Game 1 it's going to provide opponents with more ways to use dead cards for some minimal value in certain matchups. At four mana, Wraths are just going to be better. Yes, Ballista is really good late game, but the deck already has good late game and the early game is more of a concern. Between Path, Wrath, and Ugin, I don't imagine mana costs where Ballista would be good, and I'd probably rather draw cards instead of uptick this one counter.
I imagine in Vintage they're playing it in Shops, which is a deck that has a lot better access to early colourless mana than us. It's like RG Tron on crack, and we don't even play the full 12 Tron anymore, nor do we play many cards to facilitate Tron.
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
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
Thanks for your reasoning, good explanation working through your reasoning. I guess to keep the ball rolling on and to spark conversation how is Thought knot seer positioned currently, I love how he gives Tron another angle of attack it never had but again maybe not UW maybe mono U or nothing or just SB for now?
I think TKS is purely a meta decision based on what you're playing against. If you see decks like Infect, Burn, Affinity, it's probably not doing you anything. If instead you see decks like Abzan Company, Lantern, or the mirror, it's going to be very good.
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
I agree I always found it to be a bit counter intuitive to play creatures like this and wrath's but I get there could be a meta where that shines....
Also on a side note would something like this be a list you would consider right now
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/478945#paper
You did say that you weren't real happy with your or any configuration of UW Tron right now. Would you say that because of the erratic metagame it is the power of our cards just lacking too much against deck XYZ?