MTG Salvation

Here's Larsson's article: https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/my-preparation-for-pro-tour-25th-anniversary-and-u-w-miracles/

I was actually playing the 4 ancestral 4 snap 4 cryptic 4 terminus list, since truckis(Larsson's friend) streamed a modern challenge and got 2nd. I went on a 22-3 winning streak with it in the friendly leagues. But have since cooled down to a 62% win rate (still friendly leagues). I think I won that much because I had some sick miracle draws and I faced a lot of creature decks. But I haven't been drawing those timely terminus as much, and people are playing around it more often (no more 6 for 1s). Also terminus destroys spirits which has now went down in popularity. I've currently switched to the Lax PT list since I wanted to try something different as I wasn't getting 4 to 5 wins as much.

I guess there are two schools of thought. Play a high Variance deck where you hope your draws line up, as modern is linear in nature (so these people advocate the terminus and/or ancestral). Play a consistent 45-50% deck have game versus everything (Nassif, heatchecker) , then increase your win percentage with white sideboard cards.

I think UW is a good deck in general so you are not a bad person for picking either version.

Yes, you are only a bad person if you register non-blue cards.

I generally agree Rickster. And I suppose most determinations will be based on small sample size outcome analysis, i.e., "I drew Terminus right on time, it's great!" Or, "Man, I just ran a league and opened with my Terminus even after three mulligans, and I died before six mana! Play Wraths!" It's hard to know what the "Truth" is, even though ideally we would want to say that one approach is objectively better.

Ergo -- register Snapcaster, Cryptic, Teferi, Jace, and some Ham Sandwiches, and cross your fingers? That may indeed be the "Truth," considering that there is so much variety in UW lists, and it doesn't feel like only one style wins. An annoying Truth, however, and my hindbrain wants to say something better than this.

So Hoogland played a bunch of Approach of the Second Sun decks on stream today, and one variation he played was basically stock UW Control with 2 Approach and Thought Scours instead of Serum Visions. Approach meme aside, the Thought Scours were interesting. It's another instant speed cantrip to let you miracle a Terminus on your opponent's turn if you target your opponent with the mill, it lets you clear a Jace Brainstorm if you don't have a fetch land to shuffle, it lets you flip Azcanta sooner, it feeds your Logic Knots, and it gives Snapcaster another 1 mana cantrip to flash back for value. Thoughts?

How bad are the burn and tempo matches (eg wizards) for miracles?

I ran into wizards for the first time yesterday with miracles and it felt awful. He would just plink me down with bolts and snap beats while I try to setup a terminus for one snapcaster that then gets remanded. Trying to fight bolts with cryptics, delvers with paths, and resolve jace and teferi through remand and mana leak seems very hard. On mt eot he could just fire off a bolt; on his I could fire off an opt... but all my win cons are expensive and sorcery speed so what am I digging for? Ten lands?

I assume burn would be similar if they just slow roll into end of turn bolts and charms, hitting you with lava spikes etc if you try cryptic commanding those :s

BadMcFadden:

Wizards (and UR aggro/control tempo decks in general) are a nightmare matchup, but fortunately they are not super common. It's much harder than Burn since it can fight you on the stack, put a lot of pressure on your life total using flash threats, and close with reach. However, no modern deck beats everything, and it's generally not worth worrying about decks that are less than 5% of the meta.

Burn can be tough, but there are certainly ways to beat it. 2-3 Timely is a solid start, and if Burn is popular in your meta, you can run Kor Firewalker to really put the hammer down. Dispels and Negates are generally applicable and do solid work here. Baneslayer/Lyra is good against other creature matchups, and can beat Burn if you survive that long and have a counter for the Skullcrack when you attack, but she's not as reliable a bullet since Burn can kill you before you untap for your sixth turn. The big difference is that Burn does not have the ability to interact with your spells, and it lacks card advantage and plays off the top of its deck. If you can get ahead on cards with a bit of a life buffer, and they don't peel well, you can get there.

Both of these matchups, as well as Humans, are weaker to Jeskai than UW due to a higher density of cheap removal and especially Snap+Helix, so if that's what you are facing, you may want to go in that direction. One option for UW that I have not tried but thought about, that could be very good against decks with burn spells, is Leyline of Sanctity. Red and U/R generally have no way to get it off the table. You could also try that and see how it goes. If you do, let us know your results!

Thanks! Im not far enough along with the deck to try mucking around too much with the board. Just good to know which matches are just bad. Wizards felt pretty close to unwinnable but im new to the deck so I could have just played it wrong. There are a ludicrous amount of decisions with uw miracles as the top card of your library is usually in play and you have to call when youre tapping down for a planeswalker without knowing their hand (clique notwithstanding).

I think the killer in that game was when I had six lands to his three, went for baneslayer with dispel backup and he hits me with mana leak and then dispels my dispel. Full tilt. That and getting my field of ruin countered by an obstructionist - but that was largely on me for playing bad. Im way too eager to blow fields eot just to use my mana instead of waiting for a relevant land or forcing a manland activation first.

Hi,

sometimes I find some aggro pairings quite difficult. The only cheap removal is path, some lists are oust, what do you think of declaration in stone?

What would a small splash to red, look like to play bolt / helix, is it worth it?

I'm seeing leyline of sanctity in the sideboards, can anyone say if it's worth it? Really vs storm can be pretty good.

Regards,
Javi

Anyone play a singleton Crucible mainboard? If I expect Tron, Valakut and Amulet Titan it seems like it could do a lot of work. It will also generate massive card advantage in a long game against BGx or similar midrange.

Guys, I have been running with Mattia Rizzi's UW deck since the Pro Tour. (3x Terminus, 1x Verdict, 1x Wrath, 4x Ancestral, 4x Cryptic, etc.)

Been pretty well crushing all except for spirits! Back to back PPTQ top 8 losses to Bant Spirits. Anyone have some secret tech for the matchup?

I am thinking maybe Porphyry Nodes. Anyone playing that card lately?

Nodes is pretty playable. Another terminus should obviously help a lot. Baneslayer/lyra are pretty good against them if you're not already playing those.
In general though, I think with terminus our matchup should be ok, and adding the 4th terminus is probably the only change I'd make.
If you really wanted to beat them, I'd add red/black for more spot removal.

Yeah, so far the only games I win against spirits are the ones where I miracle a terminus. So the 4th is definitely going in. I will try adding a copy of nodes to the board too.

I'm glad to see a comeback with Ancestral Vision. It could be my favorite card in the modern pool!

Anyhow, I'm still on a classic list with 4 Spreading Seas, but I've fallen out of flavor with Teferi. Instead, I'm playing 2 Secure the Wastes to help me against aggro matchups and graveyard strategies. Here's what I'm up to so far. My biggest concerns are Affinity and fast combo decks such as Ad Nauseam and Storm :



To disrupt fast combo decks, I'm relying on Vendilion Clique and Dispel / Negate + Surgical Extraction. It's the best so far, but I'm really open to discuss some ideas from you guys !

Any tips on how to SB and play the Titan Shift matchup? I keep getting my you know what handed to me.

Quote from esdawt »

Any tips on how to SB and play the Titan Shift matchup? I keep getting my you know what handed to me.

I guess Negate from the sideboard is good, also Rule of Law and Aven Mindcensor. Having 4 Field of Ruin and 4 Spreading Seas should help!

Without runed halo or leyline, the matchup is pretty unwinnable. You have to defend a lock piece to consistently win.

I saw somebody playing a weird UW Miracle deck. He is playing like 2 Noxious Revival, 4 Thought Scour and 3 Snapcaster Mage to consistently cast Terminus again and again. He is also using a 1-off Crystal Ball to manipulate his library. I guess he is using this in place of the third Jace, the Mindsculptor since it is more difficult to kill.

Noxious Revival is card disadvantage, I don't think that's where we'd want to be. I think the Crystal Ball is too cute, I'd rather just play good cards.

hey figured id pop in and drop the UW list ive been playing for the past couple of weeks. ive prized at the local stores ive gone to (requires > 3-1) 5 out of 7 events. didnt really make any changes sans the sideboard after i landed on my initial list.


sideboard pretty generic. RIPs, stonys, purges, counter magic, and some bombs.

10/10 would play again.

Hey guys! I've been on UW Taking Turns for a while but this deck has started to look sweet!
I recently watched a Channel Fireball video and decided I want to switch to this for a while but I have a couple questions:

A) How good is Timely Reinforcements in the build? Is it worth the one of? I run it as a sideboard option in Taking Turns but that's usually to buy time to combo

B) Why have people moved away from Sphinx's Revelation as a one of?

C) I remember watching a video with Jim Davis and he was saying how in playing control people should run Ancestral Visions as a sideboard option for control and other grindy matchups because it draws you mid game into more answers... Has anyone tried this?

Quote from zcowan »

Hey guys! I've been on UW Taking Turns for a while but this deck has started to look sweet!
I recently watched a Channel Fireball video and decided I want to switch to this for a while but I have a couple questions:

A) How good is Timely Reinforcements in the build? Is it worth the one of? I run it as a sideboard option in Taking Turns but that's usually to buy time to combo

B) Why have people moved away from Sphinx's Revelation as a one of?

C) I remember watching a video with Jim Davis and he was saying how in playing control people should run Ancestral Visions as a sideboard option for control and other grindy matchups because it draws you mid game into more answers... Has anyone tried this?

id say timely is 'good enough', but definitely a flex spot. its just a safety next against the myriad of aggro decks out there, and happens to line up well with the mana costs of your other spells. timely into jace is usually a game winning sequence against someone flooding the board. id consider it better in UW than jeskai. UW's mana means taking a lot less damage, but forms of lifegain have always been useful in control decks.

sphinx's rev is just another piece of card draw that isnt needed anymore. with 2-3 jaces, azcanta, and teferi; the options to bolster your hand size in the mid game are plentiful.

ive seen a bunch of UW lists with a few AV sprinkled in, but its never seemed appealing to me. if a matchup is about grinding, id rather just have another bomb like elspeth. that and a singleton copy of AV in the main never made sense to me; i think id rather just throw in a copy of Glimmer of Genius Gabriel Nasif style. some people swear by it though, so it might be worth trying out. its also noteworthy that ive seen them more recently, which might indicates meta-tech rather than 'this card is part of a stock list'. cant just ignore blue mirrors if they are on the uptick.