I think speculating on card price fluctuations as if you're playing the stock market is, in general, unwise.
An "investment" is something that appreciates value slowly over time, but is almost guaranteed to do so.
Buying up a commodity hoping for a near term "quick flip" is not an investment, it's gambling.
Too high a risk for too little reward, at least for me.
Absolutely mate. The context is, of course, not a quick flip, but more of a long term.
1. Summary: Micro cube focused mostly on good & versatile modern cards to play with my small group (at most 4 people)
2. Type: Modern (Ignoring Banlist)
3. Size: 180
4. Breakdown: 25 /color, 3 /guild, 10 non-land colorless, 15 lands
Design Philosophy
I try to design each single color to be good on its own as much as possible.
Lands are mainly duals with basic land types for each guild except the one with manland. The reason of this is to push green ramp potential (Farseek, Sylvan Ranger). I also include 5 ikoria triple basic lands to push more splashability (small cube, less option in single color).
Notes
1. I purposefully didn't include narrow cards like Goblin Guide which only playable in aggro, because in this small cube, I try to be as versatile as possible. This makes my cube doesn't support aggro too much.
2. I kinda hesitant to include cards like Faithless Looting and Gifts Ungiven right now. Because they push reanimation strategy more compared to contributing their own color goal.
Could someone help clarify Psychic Corrosion for me? If I had a single Howling Mine on the battlefield and it became my turn, does the card draw from Howling Mine put a trigger on the stack for Psychic Corrosion and then my normal draw put another trigger on the stack to cause them to discard 4 cards in total during my draw step? Also, if a card like Brainstorm is cast, my opponent would only discard 2 cards since the wording says "when you draw a card" and not "each card" correct?
I also think 4 cards. Because otherwise, it will be worded as "Whenever you draw one or more cards"
Hi guys, not this archetype player, but stumbled upon this thread and wondering why Lone Missionary instead of Kitchen Finks? Yes it has a downsides (harder to hardcast), but seems better in every other aspect. (I mean, Finks doesn't even get mentioned in the first page)
*Notes about the deck:
0. Geist rocks. Seriously, It's a disgusting card and I will be picking up my foil copies now lol Promo or pack foil hmm....
1. Electrolyze is still good main deck
2. Spell Snare is great maindeck, especially against abzan AND BURN
3. Colonnade beats is legit, and great.
4. Remand wasn't bad. I did get to hit a Tasigur, the golden fang with it. Thinking of just making it a maindeck negate, we will see.
5. Sideboard is meh. I'm not excited about it. I wanna switch things up.
6. Don't underestimate the power of flashing on the end of t2 for Snapcaster mage beats or Queller beats on the end of t3. Snap beats helped me win a LOT tonight.
Blue Moon
G1
He is on the play, just a couple basics and a few serum visions. I kinda figure he is Blue moon, but he is stuttering and not doing anything except he tried to cast a Search for Azcanta and I remand it. I play geist on my t3, and honestly just ride him to victory. If he would have found an anger he prolly would have got me, but i knew he didnt have an answer just by his playstyle and body language. Luck was on my side for that one
- A cryptic, 3 lightning helix, 3 path to exiles, 1 bolt
+ PnK, V clique, 2 Molten Rain, 1 negate, 1 dispel, 1 d stroke, 1 wear
G2
Didnt know he was on through the breach. I run out Snap on t2 to get early beats. He taps out for a Desolate lighthouse and i land a V clique the next turn which gets bolted durin his tunr... HOLY CRAP ITS EMRAKUL The aeons torn, get RID OF THAT!
I run a spell queller out to hit THREE remands by him while still beating, he finally draws a bolt for the snap, and the queller after the 3 remands. He blood moon's, i fight with logic knot and negate which I lose, which is fine cuz it opens up my mana to give me double red for a fatal molten rain... yes..a blood moon actually helped me win the game
Will write more notes tomorrow gang, im pretty sleepy lol
g2
He keeps a greedy hand i find out, 1 bauble, 1 land, 1 thoughtseize, 2 lingering souls, 2 grim flayer. I mull to 6 and keep geist, snap, and a serum visions and 3 lands, all celestial colonnade lolol this game was not nearly as reactive. he takes geist on his thoughtseize, and doesnt do much else. im very off tempo with these colonnades but he's not doing anything anyways lol i get to molten rain his only land, i throw out a spell queller next turn, counter a thoughtseize with a cryptic command cuz i could, and then he finally gets a tasigur to go off and dicards down to hand size to get a lingering souls in the graveyard. I path the tasigur, but the souls are blocking my celestial colonnade from getting through. So i hold back for another spell queller and a v clique. v clique reveals a whooe bunch of crap im not worried about, and soon after he dies from the air assault.
Updated 12-22.. geeze christmas time is busy when you put it alongside a wedding in 2 weeks lol
BURN
I did not take notes down guys. This match up is difficult for me in terms of time reference. I take longer than usual on my turns, just due to the fact that there are some games you dont even want to crack your fetch land lol
I remember game 1 it was super grindy, and i kept a geist in my hand which i probably shouldnt have, in order to be more reactive. But now i know to play that geist. it was super close, i was at 4 and he was at 6, and either one of us were dead on the next turn, he got me first because i was cryptic command flooded and would have killed for spell pierce in this first game lol
2nd game i mull to 6, land geist on 3 and race him. I hit 2 helix, and a snapcaster without having skullcrack so i was out of range in this game for him. Negate and spell queller both saw play here and were good.
3rd game
he mulls to 5. he draws 3 lava spike though lol I throw a snapcaster end of t2, and get my beats started early. do the same thing with my spell queller.
he is stuck on one land for too long and has all cmc 2 in his hand. Variance win is still a win lol
Affinity
g1- annilated everything, i got down to 14. won with colonnade beats
g2- i flooded out pretty bad and he just did affinity things with cranial plating.
g3- he drew too many lands and i hit electrolyze and wear / tear with snapcaster. geist on t3 here raced him pretty well
Umm. DD Foil art is nice as well, but go for WMCQ Promo Foil for the PIMP! HAHA
Question! What does PnK good against? Looking at the stat, it's just like 4 mana creature which can shock (up to) twice? Is it worth it? If you played resto I can understand, but as a singleton? hmm
I was very skeptical of Pia and Kiran Nalaar, it looks underwhelming on face value. TRUST me. This card is GOOD. I brought it in against a LOT of different decks. Just from my recent weeks, Blue moon both times, Abzan, Affinity both times (as the colorless thopters can block an etched champion and take out an attacker with a cranial plating equipped to it for example which i have done), Tron, Bogels, Infect, Jund, Jeskai, some weird Emeria combo deck using Squadron Hawk, i know there is more but i cant remember anymore lol 2 flying attackers/blockers, 3 creatures for the opp to deal with, and the ability to ping any troublesome low toughness creature, it seriously is a FANTASTIC card.
It's going back up to 2 actually in my sideboard, I've even been considering it as a 1 of maindeck actually. I mean hell if i bring in a card in almost every match up...i feel like thats a sign lol
I dont like restoration angel right now, even if they fatal push the pia and k, i still have 2 thopters to play with and that they have to deal with. Resto comes down.. and they kill it... and there is no lingering value. i mean even if you blink a snapcaster which can be good of course, it just seems meh unless you are trying to go a jeskai flash list, resto is going to be lackluster. at least in my opinion
P&K is an ultra value card that has a tendency to over-perform in many scenerios. I played it in my Kiki-Chord deck and it does many neat things in the battlefield. In our Jeskai Shell, it can be simply that, an ultra value creature that is able to perform a variety of roles once it hits the board. You might not have Restoration Angel to take advantage of the tokens, but you can always copy with Saheeli Rai or Vapor Snag P&K
With that much endorsement, PnK should be maindecked right?? Just curious about what u mean by "overperforms"..
*Notes about the deck:
0. Geist rocks. Seriously, It's a disgusting card and I will be picking up my foil copies now lol Promo or pack foil hmm....
1. Electrolyze is still good main deck
2. Spell Snare is great maindeck, especially against abzan AND BURN
3. Colonnade beats is legit, and great.
4. Remand wasn't bad. I did get to hit a Tasigur, the golden fang with it. Thinking of just making it a maindeck negate, we will see.
5. Sideboard is meh. I'm not excited about it. I wanna switch things up.
6. Don't underestimate the power of flashing on the end of t2 for Snapcaster mage beats or Queller beats on the end of t3. Snap beats helped me win a LOT tonight.
Blue Moon
G1
He is on the play, just a couple basics and a few serum visions. I kinda figure he is Blue moon, but he is stuttering and not doing anything except he tried to cast a Search for Azcanta and I remand it. I play geist on my t3, and honestly just ride him to victory. If he would have found an anger he prolly would have got me, but i knew he didnt have an answer just by his playstyle and body language. Luck was on my side for that one
- A cryptic, 3 lightning helix, 3 path to exiles, 1 bolt
+ PnK, V clique, 2 Molten Rain, 1 negate, 1 dispel, 1 d stroke, 1 wear
G2
Didnt know he was on through the breach. I run out Snap on t2 to get early beats. He taps out for a Desolate lighthouse and i land a V clique the next turn which gets bolted durin his tunr... HOLY CRAP ITS EMRAKUL The aeons torn, get RID OF THAT!
I run a spell queller out to hit THREE remands by him while still beating, he finally draws a bolt for the snap, and the queller after the 3 remands. He blood moon's, i fight with logic knot and negate which I lose, which is fine cuz it opens up my mana to give me double red for a fatal molten rain... yes..a blood moon actually helped me win the game
Will write more notes tomorrow gang, im pretty sleepy lol
g2
He keeps a greedy hand i find out, 1 bauble, 1 land, 1 thoughtseize, 2 lingering souls, 2 grim flayer. I mull to 6 and keep geist, snap, and a serum visions and 3 lands, all celestial colonnade lolol this game was not nearly as reactive. he takes geist on his thoughtseize, and doesnt do much else. im very off tempo with these colonnades but he's not doing anything anyways lol i get to molten rain his only land, i throw out a spell queller next turn, counter a thoughtseize with a cryptic command cuz i could, and then he finally gets a tasigur to go off and dicards down to hand size to get a lingering souls in the graveyard. I path the tasigur, but the souls are blocking my celestial colonnade from getting through. So i hold back for another spell queller and a v clique. v clique reveals a whooe bunch of crap im not worried about, and soon after he dies from the air assault.
Updated 12-22.. geeze christmas time is busy when you put it alongside a wedding in 2 weeks lol
BURN
I did not take notes down guys. This match up is difficult for me in terms of time reference. I take longer than usual on my turns, just due to the fact that there are some games you dont even want to crack your fetch land lol
I remember game 1 it was super grindy, and i kept a geist in my hand which i probably shouldnt have, in order to be more reactive. But now i know to play that geist. it was super close, i was at 4 and he was at 6, and either one of us were dead on the next turn, he got me first because i was cryptic command flooded and would have killed for spell pierce in this first game lol
2nd game i mull to 6, land geist on 3 and race him. I hit 2 helix, and a snapcaster without having skullcrack so i was out of range in this game for him. Negate and spell queller both saw play here and were good.
3rd game
he mulls to 5. he draws 3 lava spike though lol I throw a snapcaster end of t2, and get my beats started early. do the same thing with my spell queller.
he is stuck on one land for too long and has all cmc 2 in his hand. Variance win is still a win lol
Affinity
g1- annilated everything, i got down to 14. won with colonnade beats
g2- i flooded out pretty bad and he just did affinity things with cranial plating.
g3- he drew too many lands and i hit electrolyze and wear / tear with snapcaster. geist on t3 here raced him pretty well
Umm. DD Foil art is nice as well, but go for WMCQ Promo Foil for the PIMP! HAHA
Question! What does PnK good against? Looking at the stat, it's just like 4 mana creature which can shock (up to) twice? Is it worth it? If you played resto I can understand, but as a singleton? hmm
On Chandra, Torch of Defiance:: when does she perform well against and under what situation? 4 abilities PW seems cool, but can't find how she make our deck better.
(Especially since I already switched gear from Delver to Midrange-y list feat. Thundermaw Hellkite. So 4 mana PW seems fine.)
Questions:
1. Is Opt or Serum Visions the better cantrip for me?
2. Is Electrolyze best in its flex slot or is something better?
3. I think my board needs work. Opinions and suggestions welcome.
IMHO,
1. Depends on your play style. I have a kinda midrange-ish list, and I play 2-2 of them.
2. Deflecting Palm is also a thing. Fit flex slot as well. Flex slot best filled with mainboard-able sideboard-ish cards which fit your meta.
3. Board also depends on your metagame. It's super relative. I prefer Crumble to Dust over Spreading Seas though.
Hi Moz. It's always good to hear from you . This is definitely more of a midrange list than delver/prowess. With that said, jeskai midrange has been proven to be extremely good with several high finishes lately. I do think the a more aggressive or delver version of jeskai is better suited for a meta full of tron and valakut, but the midrange deck also has game against them.
I agree that Thundermaw Hellkite is superior to Stormbreath Dragon. If you cast a hellkite you typically win that game. In addition, Lingering Souls is a tough card for use to deal with so anything the helps with souls is always good.
I honestly think you should give one or two Search for Azcanta in your sideboard or possibly one main and one side. The card is truly bonkers and is absolutely devastating in any grindy matchup. I would say you could easily play 23 lands in this list and add a search for azcanta. Other than that, I can't really see anything I think needs to be changed for the midrange deck. I would like to see a couple more Serum Visions but there is nothing really to cut except for maybe on Electrolyze.
I know that Great Nate has a lot of thoughts about this style deck and thundermaw hellkite. He could definitely give you some pointers.
Now onto the matchup of the week- I think the matchup definitely needs to be G/B Tron-
Tron is one of the main reasons to chose jeskai delver over jeskai midrange. Midrange has a very tough tron matchup, but can still beat them. Jeskai delver has a far better tron matchup due to it's early clock. Let me know what you think about the Tron matchup.
Overall- I have always found Tron to be a favorable matchup. As long as we can get a clock down fairly early we can control the game and burn them out. They typically take 3-4 turns of searching for their tron peices before doing anything substantial. Once they have tron cards like Remand, Negate and even Spell Pierce can be devastating. In my opinion Remand is the best card in this matchup. Numerous times we will have a decent clock going and the opponent will play a Karn, Liberated or a Oblivion Stone only to have it remanded giving us another turn of damage. Wurmcoil Engine can sway games, however, we have a lot of answers for wurmcoil in Path to Exile, Vapor Snag, and Echoing Truth. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is likely their strongest card against us, but again is a juicy remand target.
Sideboard- Post sideboard is much of the same. We have several very good options against them. Some people prefer land destruction in cards like Molten Rain, Spreading Seas, and/or Blood Moon. These are great options and we have more options to attack from other angles. Stony Silence is superb, Deflecting Palm is great, Negate, and Blessed Alliance are also decent options. Artifact removal is also good in this matchup in small doses. Anti-search affects can also be very good against Tron such as Aven Mindscensor and Shadow of Doubt.
Overall I would say most Tron matchups are fairly favored for jeskai prowess/delver. This is nice because most jeskai decks have a very bad tron matchup.
Hmm, Stony Silence right. I never board it vs tron in though. I think i'll try it. A bit rusty after a while not playing magic haha.
Idk about Deflecting Palm, I'll try to find place for it in this list. I usually I board in 1 more Thundermaw against tron for a bit explosiveness.
LD options such as Molten Rain is interesting to try, plus it's feels nice to destroy opposing land. LOL.
I'll try Azcanta later, and I'll tell you what I think later.
Hi guys, me here again. So, coming from tempo, I decided to try to make to more midrange-y. Fortunately, I think it's quite good (Or at least I liked it)! Basically, trade some explosiveness with more resilient threats and late game powers.
On mana base, I haven't thought about it throughly, but so far so good. Feel Free to giving me suggestions regarding the mana base though.
On Search of Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, I haven't played that yet (never so far lol). But basically, if tempo and control plays it and get positive results with it, why not this midrange-y list use it as well? I believe if I can squeeze it in, it'll shine here, since longer list tend to get more benefit from it.
I only use 6 counterspells, all which able to cycle itself (draw a card). The reason is, I don't want for the game to go too long, even though I'm able to (somewhat), so I need consistently to go through the deck as quickly as possible. In total, I played 13 cards which can draw me a card, and 15 if you count Vendilion Clique as well.
Last but not least, the best thing is, I can play Thundermaw Hellkite in an optimal list in modern! I love that card so much! HAHAHA. But in all seriousness, it gives Jeskai new form of threat that is guaranteed to connect the moment it hit. It's not common as well in modern so everyone tend not to expect that.
He/She then Abrupt Decay my Delver on his turn, and I casted Emerge Unscathed on delver naming black, next of my turn it rebounded, targeting my Young Pyro with black, and attacking ftw.
Feels good man! Normally I can't answer Abrupt Decay, but Emerge Unscathed can be a solution in some situation like this. Nice.
1. Creature outside of the battlefield is not a creature. it's a creature card. So with the additional wording of "control" it certainly the ones in the battlefield.
Absolutely mate. The context is, of course, not a quick flip, but more of a long term.
Basically, I think Orah, Skyclave Hierophant (Buy a Box) is kinda undervalued right now. Graveyard recursion is great, even better a repeatable one.
I know it's lesser CMC each time, but still, I think it has potential to get a significant price increase.
So, I'm thinking about investing / buying some playsets of it (especially the Foil Full Art version).
What do you guys think?
1. Summary: Micro cube focused mostly on good & versatile modern cards to play with my small group (at most 4 people)
2. Type: Modern (Ignoring Banlist)
3. Size: 180
4. Breakdown: 25 /color, 3 /guild, 10 non-land colorless, 15 lands
Design Philosophy
I try to design each single color to be good on its own as much as possible.
1. White: Horizontal Strategy & Sun Titan Recursion
2. Blue: Counter & Card Selection
3. Black: Reanimation & Spot Removal
4. Red: Burn, Haste, Recursion
5. Green: Creature Tutor & Ramp
Lands
Lands are mainly duals with basic land types for each guild except the one with manland. The reason of this is to push green ramp potential (Farseek, Sylvan Ranger). I also include 5 ikoria triple basic lands to push more splashability (small cube, less option in single color).
Notes
1. I purposefully didn't include narrow cards like Goblin Guide which only playable in aggro, because in this small cube, I try to be as versatile as possible. This makes my cube doesn't support aggro too much.
2. I kinda hesitant to include cards like Faithless Looting and Gifts Ungiven right now. Because they push reanimation strategy more compared to contributing their own color goal.
Cube List
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/il2
=====
Suggestions are welcome! Thanks everyone!
I also think 4 cards. Because otherwise, it will be worded as "Whenever you draw one or more cards"
What's the reasoning behind that? Thanks!
With that much endorsement, PnK should be maindecked right?? Just curious about what u mean by "overperforms"..
Umm. DD Foil art is nice as well, but go for WMCQ Promo Foil for the PIMP! HAHA
Question! What does PnK good against? Looking at the stat, it's just like 4 mana creature which can shock (up to) twice? Is it worth it? If you played resto I can understand, but as a singleton? hmm
(Especially since I already switched gear from Delver to Midrange-y list feat. Thundermaw Hellkite. So 4 mana PW seems fine.)
IMHO,
1. Depends on your play style. I have a kinda midrange-ish list, and I play 2-2 of them.
2. Deflecting Palm is also a thing. Fit flex slot as well. Flex slot best filled with mainboard-able sideboard-ish cards which fit your meta.
3. Board also depends on your metagame. It's super relative. I prefer Crumble to Dust over Spreading Seas though.
Hmm, Stony Silence right. I never board it vs tron in though. I think i'll try it. A bit rusty after a while not playing magic haha.
Idk about Deflecting Palm, I'll try to find place for it in this list. I usually I board in 1 more Thundermaw against tron for a bit explosiveness.
LD options such as Molten Rain is interesting to try, plus it's feels nice to destroy opposing land. LOL.
I'll try Azcanta later, and I'll tell you what I think later.
On mana base, I haven't thought about it throughly, but so far so good. Feel Free to giving me suggestions regarding the mana base though.
On Search of Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, I haven't played that yet (never so far lol). But basically, if tempo and control plays it and get positive results with it, why not this midrange-y list use it as well? I believe if I can squeeze it in, it'll shine here, since longer list tend to get more benefit from it.
I only use 6 counterspells, all which able to cycle itself (draw a card). The reason is, I don't want for the game to go too long, even though I'm able to (somewhat), so I need consistently to go through the deck as quickly as possible. In total, I played 13 cards which can draw me a card, and 15 if you count Vendilion Clique as well.
Last but not least, the best thing is, I can play Thundermaw Hellkite in an optimal list in modern! I love that card so much! HAHAHA. But in all seriousness, it gives Jeskai new form of threat that is guaranteed to connect the moment it hit. It's not common as well in modern so everyone tend not to expect that.
Stormbreath Dragon is also an option against Path to Exile, but I think 5/5 and the ability to clear Lingering Souls and shut down blockers is flat out better.
Improvements that I consider is to play more 4-powered creatures so that I can play Stubborn Denial. But I'm not sure what to include. We'll see.
// 13 Creature
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Spell Queller
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Restoration Angel
// 21 Instant
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
3 Lightning Helix
3 Remand
2 Opt
3 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
// 24 Land
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Steam Vents
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Sacred Foundry
1 Arid Mesa
1 Cascade Bluffs
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Desolate Lighthouse
2 Serum Visions
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Batterskull
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Stony Silence
1 Wear // Tear
1 Volcanic Fallout
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Crumble to Dust
Feel free to give comments or anything!
He/She has a non-flying black creature on his board (forgot, I think it's Golgari Thug), while i had Delver of Secrets and Young Pyromancer, and threaten to lethal next turn.
He/She then Abrupt Decay my Delver on his turn, and I casted Emerge Unscathed on delver naming black, next of my turn it rebounded, targeting my Young Pyro with black, and attacking ftw.
Feels good man! Normally I can't answer Abrupt Decay, but Emerge Unscathed can be a solution in some situation like this. Nice.