I'm curious, what do people think of Ral Zarek as an alternative to Ajani Vengeant? I'm not saying he's better or anything, but could he possibly have potential, maybe for the less controllish and more tempo oriented decks? I can certainly see the pros of playing Ajani, but I think Ral Zarek is deserving of consideration, at least. I think I might try him as a 2-of.
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Currently playing:
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
Hi, I'm thinking of getting into modern and since I like control/tempo and want to play competitive this deck seems pretty ideal.
I was wondering of some of you could tell me more about how the deck plays, I've some concern that I will be finishing most of my games with the game locked-up (or top-decking) and just hitting with Celestial Colonnade every turn, which is not ideally how I want to play or win. Does this happen often?
Some other questions are; how tweak-able do you feel the deck is to different meta-games, what do you really like about it and how much will it cost on average to put it together on modo?
As people said before, i dont know about modo, but IRL its expensive, so i would guess its the same online?
About tweaking, i firmly believe this is one of the most flexible decks, together with jund. The fact that there are 3 versions of the deck (pure control, midrange and tempo) says a lot about its flexibility, all you need to do is swap about 10~12 cards, and you have a totally different deck, and by running white we get access to some of the best SB cards modern has.
On the matter of colonnades, no, it doesnt happen all that often.
The most common win (at least for me) goes something like get 1~2 hits with geist, then burn them to death.
Sometimes the match will get more grindy, and your snapcasters will have to play defense (counters instead of more burn), usually those games will go longer than what we actually want, and for those matches we typically run one or two extra finishers to the colonnades, in the form of Ajani, Batterskull, thundermaw, baneslayer, etc.
What i really like about it is that basically the deck has no bad match ups, has MB answers for almost anything, can play offense and defense without trouble (one of junds greatest merits before elf ban) and, while being a tempo/midrange deck, its not afraid to go into the late game, sure its not what we want, but it doesnt mean we cant play that game, i have my fair share of long wins against control.
But most importantly, i feel the deck rewards tight play and resource managment.
You have a TON of removal, card advantage, some of the best creatures modern has, and one of the best 3 walkers in the format, the other 2 being liliana and elspeth (and we can play elspeth too, if we want)
As people said before, i dont know about modo, but IRL its expensive, so i would guess its the same online?
About tweaking, i firmly believe this is one of the most flexible decks, together with jund. The fact that there are 3 versions of the deck (pure control, midrange and tempo) says a lot about its flexibility, all you need to do is swap about 10~12 cards, and you have a totally different deck, and by running white we get access to some of the best SB cards modern has.
On the matter of colonnades, no, it doesnt happen all that often.
The most common win (at least for me) goes something like get 1~2 hits with geist, then burn them to death.
Sometimes the match will get more grindy, and your snapcasters will have to play defense (counters instead of more burn), usually those games will go longer than what we actually want, and for those matches we typically run one or two extra finishers to the colonnades, in the form of Ajani, Batterskull, thundermaw, baneslayer, etc.
What i really like about it is that basically the deck has no bad match ups, has MB answers for almost anything, can play offense and defense without trouble (one of junds greatest merits before elf ban) and, while being a tempo/midrange deck, its not afraid to go into the late game, sure its not what we want, but it doesnt mean we cant play that game, i have my fair share of long wins against control.
But most importantly, i feel the deck rewards tight play and resource managment.
You have a TON of removal, card advantage, some of the best creatures modern has, and one of the best 3 walkers in the format, the other 2 being liliana and elspeth (and we can play elspeth too, if we want)
Agreed. Versatility and doing your best to get as much value as possible from every play you make is the essence of this deck's playstyle. You don't really have any very bad matchups but neither do you have an overwhelming advantage over most decks. You have a mainboard that can almost handle most things and can play at any pace that you perceive to be advantageous, and you have a flexible sideboard that you can easily customize to fit your meta and can conveniently switch into your main without being too concerned about diluting any synergies.
Hi Guys have this deck lying around since last modern season but wasnt really able to use it that much. My LGS is having a tournament tomorrow and I would like to try out the list below.
Playing only one snare seems too weak immo, if you dont have it in your first 2~3 turns its strenght decreases dramatically.
Also, play 4 geists man, there is absolutely no reason not to, specially with the new legend rule coming into effect in M14.
And if you are playing geist and 3 vendilion, claste seems like a must, stop being so scared of blood moon.
Well, thats my advice.
my tammy / gideon experiment has ended. pushes out game states. i want to just win. new jam: 1x isochron sceptre. i know that UWR basically sprung from sceptre decks. i think it fits here:
has anyone tried out boros reckoner in this deck yet? It seems like with Melira pod, B/G/x junk and especially the mirror match like a good way to trump creature decks. Any player relying on bolt or other burn for removal is gonna have a bad time as well.
no, please.
you always wanna stay stapped t3 unless it's for GoST because he has hexproof. Any dismember, abrupt decay, path to exile etc etc etc can deal with reckoner easily.
Yea, Reckoner quickly loses its relevance outside standard. I thought about him a lot, since the (cheap) creatures that will trade with Goyf are few and far between. He probably has a home in some deck in Modern, but not this one. Path, Decay, Wrath, Verdict, Dismember, Pulse, Helix(kinda-sorta, if they aim Reckoner's ability at your face) all deal with Reckoner without triggering him. In all of those cases(and more probably) he's just a 3/3
I still haven't gotten around to testing Figure of Destiny yet. I wanna go -3 Resto, -2 Leak, +4 Figure, +1 Baneslayer and try that on for size. Resto is probably my favorite card in all of Magic, but to really get value off of her here you need snappy already down and like 6+ mana, at least in my build. I could even make that +3 Figure, +2 Ajani Vengeant to keep the curve down; that way, only my Colonnades cost 5 mana. Idk, if anyone has done some amount of testing with them yet, I would appreciate if you shared your findings
went to a MM draft today. man it's a fun format. anyway, i was lucky enough to pull a Vendillion Clique. so of course i immediately threw it into my board.
he is great. i don't know why i took him out of my decklist (aside from not having one). now i want a second (especially with the upcoming legendary rule changes).
i took out a Sphinx's Revelation to make room for the clique. don't miss the second sphinx--in fact it's better to have it as a one-of. assuming i get another clique, i think the right play is to drop the 2 tamiyo/gideon, and throw in one other card. isochron maybe.
So, I'm not sure how much budget discussion is allowed here, but what is a good replacement for remand? I'm really looking at Azorius Charm, maybe it's not as good as I think it is but it seems to be a crazy tempo card that digs if you need it too. Also, how's Boros charm going in this deck, I know it's gone through a lot of debate too.
I'm looking at running the 4 Geist 4 Snapcaster 2 Resto with my spells looking something like this:
I dont remember each game, but i cant give a brief recount of every match, how it went, what i did wrong and could have done better, what cards shine and which didnt.
R1 Vs Junk
G1 I keep a hand without much burn since i thought he was on tron cause of past tournaments.
Things get ugly quickly with aT1 shaman followed by a turn 2 goyf.
I dont have path, bolt or anything else, so the game goes quick.
SB: +2 rest in peace +1 path to exile + 1 supreme verdict +1 wrath of god
-4 snapcaster -1 remand
G2 things look a lot better for me. I burn every shaman, tough he gets a double kozilek on my geist+rest in peace, and follows up with a thoughtsize on ajani, while playing 2 shamans and a goyf. Brutal.
Still i manage to stay in the game with electrolize+snapcaster electrolize on both shamans, block goyf with tiago and let him overextend with his souls to blow up the field with verdict.
I continue to burn him and hes out of gas, im at 16 with him at 5, and i have a bolt in hand. need any burn or another land for colonnade, and get neither. By the time i have them they no longer matter, since he resolves a batterskull, and its game.
R2 Vs Scapeshift
G1 i go first with a decent hand filled with bolts, helixes, snares and tiago. When he tries to farseek he eats a snare, then again when sakure tribe shows up.
The dmg accumulates quickly with all the burn, and i resolve geist to add more pressure. He scoops shortly after.
SB: -3 path to exile-1 restoration angel-1batterskull+2 counterflux+ 1 sword of war and peace (for pyroclasm on geist, not really sure i was just trying something new here) +2 spellskite
G2 again i keep a strong hand, tough not as strong as the first one. Quick bolts and helixes at EoT give me time for a geist and put pressure on him
He seems to not have the pyroclasm in hand, so i go for the kill. I have a tiago in hand, together with a counterflux for his scapeshift, he tries to go for the primeval titan, remand. He goes for it again, tiago+remand.
I swing with geist leaving him at 2 life, on his turn i show him the counterflux and he scoops.
R3 Vs Jund
G1 I dont remember much, but its a tipical jund game, he grinds me until im out of cards, lili makes short work of geist, and kills me with tokens.
SB +2 rest in peace + 1 supreme verdict +1 wrath of god +2 counterflux
-4 snapcaster-2 remand-
G2 i start with a solid hand, keeping shamans off me for 2/3 turns. When he goes for the goyf, i have rest in peace ready.
Both cemeteries go off, but he gets the worse part. His 2 goyfs are useless, and as i suspected, he sided out his decays. Ajani comes in to keep his board at bay with +1, so his tokens try to stop him however he can but electrolize and bolt handle them easily.
A batterskull ends the game for me.
G3 I reverse my Sb since his decays are coming in again. I focus on his shamans, and leave the goyfs for the wraths. He plays a rachet bomb and starts tapping it, i have an angel, an ajani and a geist, and only one of those will live trough the bomb, so i quickly deploy ajani to stop that.
He again has a lot of trouble to get rid of the walker, and the angel gets trough to his life. When he finally plays his own ajani and blows up the bomb on 4 to kill the angel, the geist is ready to finish the job with 2 tiagos that bring with them electrolize.
R4 Melira Pod
Dont remember too much, but i sided horribly for G2 on this one, just used my 2 rest in peace and the 2 sweepers i think.
Anyways, he comboes both times (the second match is closer, but i lack the burn i need)
BTW, voice and sin collector are a pain, gods.
R5 UW Tron
G1 Too much mana on a T3 tron with him on the play, he counters my only geist and quickly resolves a T3 Karn. I have a T4 ajani, but there is not much he can do, the game goes downhill very quickly for me.
SB: +2 counterflux+3 stony silence+1 wear/tear -2 remand-1 resto angel-1 helix-1 electrolize i think
G2 He starts with a white leyline, which spells trouble for me. My hand is kinda weak if i cant aim my 2 bolts and helix at his face, so i decide to go with a T2 tiago and try to race him with that.
Unsurprisingly, it works. He cant really answer it in a profitable way, and my counters are crippling him.
I have 2 geist in hand, but he is never tapped, so i choose the safe play and go for ajani first, which he lets trough, dunno why tough.
Ajani screws with his blue sources, he tries to path my tiago when he was at 2 life, and i remand twice hoping he doesnt run any more white. He ghost quarters himself to look for another white i suppose, but ends up going for blue instead and remands my remand.
Tiago goes, but with him tapped i resolve a geist, and with ajani at +7, its game.
G3 Its a replay of game 2, he opens white leyline, but this time i can resolve geist on turn 4 with snare back up.
The game goes terribad for him after that with me putting a ton of pressure. Once again, ajani comes in to do his magic on his lands, and he scoops.
R6 Melira Pod
G1 what seems to be a weak hand with a bunch of lands, 3 remand a bolt and a resto quickly turns into gold when i burn his dork, and delay him enough. After that, a 2turn remand on his life-paid Pod, together with a few angel swings seal the deal.
SB: +1 supreme verdict +1 wrath of god +3 stony silence +2 rest in peace +2 counterflux
- 4 snapcaster -1 angel -4 remand
G2 this is the Sb i should have used agaisnt the previous pod.
I start burning his dorks, and by the time he tries start laying his combo pieces, i have a rest in peace ready together with a geist.
He doesnt seem to be able to destroy the enchantment, so he just plays a pod and searches for Thrun.
We are in a stalemate, since i cant attack, and he doesnt have other dudes to sac.
I had enough counters and removal at this point that i made sure he didnt resolve anything, so i was confident and waited it out.
I finally draw a stony silence, and completely close the lock on him.
For the rest of the game i just colonnade him to death.
I ended up 4-2 to come in 16th.
If i had change anything, i would cut the resto angel for a second ajani, or an elspeth, and maybe swap a remand for the 3rd mana leak.
I think i would also change the supreme verdict for another wrath, cut the image and play elspeth/ajani (the one i dont play main) on the Sb.
As always, ajani did a lot of work, he definitely deserves to be a 2 off.
The rest in peace from the SB was even better than i thought it would be, it alone won my games against jund and pod.
Stony silence also did a lot of work against tron and pod, as did the counterfluxes.
I didnt face any uwr mirrors or uwr control , tought there were some i just didnt face them, so for now the sword stays.
First match, Ajani Jund piloted by one of my friends at the LGS. Game 1 I have 3 lands in hand, and I see no more of them while he does what usually Jund does: discards first 2 turns, turn 3 he drops a Tarmo, but the real pain has been a turn 4 Thrun since I had nothing to stop him. Game 2 is a little longer, but again he managed to drop Thrun and I've not seen a Wrath of God (and in all honesty, I've not seen any counter for his other threats, Lightning Helix and Geists. Just 2 Bolts, 2 PtE and 3 Snapcasters + lands).
Second match, Naya aggro. Game 1, I manage to kill everything on the field, but I kept drawing lands (no Celestial Colonnades!) while at last he drop another Knight of the Reliquary on the field followed by another Tarmo. Game 2 has been really short. As I said, Blood Moon on turn 2 for GG.
Also: What about a 2x of Elspeth, Knight-Errant instead of Ajani Vengeant? I think that her +1 (+3/+3 and Flying) makes even a Snapcaster a threat to deal with.
Ajani seems a bit better to me, especially if you're into the tempo plan. You already have efficiente beaters, so Elspeth isn't as good.
Well, it appears you had bad luck, 'cause you've faced good/even matchups. Jund has the edge if it starts with Thoughtseize/IoK to take out your early threats and Blood Moon really destroys this deck. For UWR Midrange I prefer the builds heavily focused on the tempo facet, so no Cryptic, Revelation and other staple Control cards. Don't know about more specific suggestions to give you. =/
Thanks for your suggestions. As you can see from my list above, my plan is to complitely cut Revelation for the full set of Remand and going -1 Cryptic, +1 PtE, so I agree with you since my build is clearly on the tempo plan. I hope to to better with those tweaks. I've really liked Cryptic Command so I still want to have it in the deck, but as a 3x since on the first turns I want to have cheap counters in my hand.
About Isochron Scepter I agree, but I think it won't last so long on the field.
I agree. I have all along stayed away from command and sphinx, and adopted a legacy rug tempo kind of approach to play this deck (this is also mentioned in a standard version of the deck as shown here http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=462457). Truly no spell can blow out for a win, but when played well with a low mana curve, it is often always efficient and the more you play, the more you sharpen your skills with the deck as you time and try to generate as much value as possible from each small spell.
I agree. I have all along stayed away from command and sphinx, and adopted a legacy rug tempo kind of approach to play this deck (this is also mentioned in a standard version of the deck as shown here http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=462457). Truly no spell can blow out for a win, but when played well with a low mana curve, it is often always efficient and the more you play, the more you sharpen your skills with the deck as you time and try to generate as much value as possible from each small spell.
i just can't get away from 2x cryptic. it is such a huge blow out that it almost impossible to avoid. i'm playing revelation as a 1x. i don't like seeing it in my opening hand, but it's usually pretty decent.
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In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
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As people said before, i dont know about modo, but IRL its expensive, so i would guess its the same online?
About tweaking, i firmly believe this is one of the most flexible decks, together with jund. The fact that there are 3 versions of the deck (pure control, midrange and tempo) says a lot about its flexibility, all you need to do is swap about 10~12 cards, and you have a totally different deck, and by running white we get access to some of the best SB cards modern has.
On the matter of colonnades, no, it doesnt happen all that often.
The most common win (at least for me) goes something like get 1~2 hits with geist, then burn them to death.
Sometimes the match will get more grindy, and your snapcasters will have to play defense (counters instead of more burn), usually those games will go longer than what we actually want, and for those matches we typically run one or two extra finishers to the colonnades, in the form of Ajani, Batterskull, thundermaw, baneslayer, etc.
What i really like about it is that basically the deck has no bad match ups, has MB answers for almost anything, can play offense and defense without trouble (one of junds greatest merits before elf ban) and, while being a tempo/midrange deck, its not afraid to go into the late game, sure its not what we want, but it doesnt mean we cant play that game, i have my fair share of long wins against control.
But most importantly, i feel the deck rewards tight play and resource managment.
You have a TON of removal, card advantage, some of the best creatures modern has, and one of the best 3 walkers in the format, the other 2 being liliana and elspeth (and we can play elspeth too, if we want)
Agreed. Versatility and doing your best to get as much value as possible from every play you make is the essence of this deck's playstyle. You don't really have any very bad matchups but neither do you have an overwhelming advantage over most decks. You have a mainboard that can almost handle most things and can play at any pace that you perceive to be advantageous, and you have a flexible sideboard that you can easily customize to fit your meta and can conveniently switch into your main without being too concerned about diluting any synergies.
Modern Esper Midrange
EDH Jenara ETB
Appreciate some constructive criticism
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Restoration Angel
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Planeswalkers - 2
2 Ajani Vengeant
Spells - 22
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Shadow of Doubt
3 Path to Exile
3 Lightning Helix
2 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
2 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Arid Mesa
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Island
1 Mystic Gate
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Wrath of God
2 Wear//Tear
1 Path to Exile
2 Spell Piierce
2 Spellskite
2 Runed Halo
2 Counterflux
2 Faerie Macabre
MODERN :symu::symw: UW Tron :symu::symw:
sorry 4th bolt i already have 4 mb or do you mean a 4th helix?
Also, play 4 geists man, there is absolutely no reason not to, specially with the new legend rule coming into effect in M14.
And if you are playing geist and 3 vendilion, claste seems like a must, stop being so scared of blood moon.
Well, thats my advice.
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
Spells - 23
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
3 Lightning Helix
3 Electrolyze
2 Remand
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
2 Cryptic Command
2 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Isochron Scepter
i'm also considering 1x Batterskull.
Gfast animals slow shildrenG
51-18-4 (retired as of 6-4-11)
Yea, Reckoner quickly loses its relevance outside standard. I thought about him a lot, since the (cheap) creatures that will trade with Goyf are few and far between. He probably has a home in some deck in Modern, but not this one. Path, Decay, Wrath, Verdict, Dismember, Pulse, Helix(kinda-sorta, if they aim Reckoner's ability at your face) all deal with Reckoner without triggering him. In all of those cases(and more probably) he's just a 3/3
I still haven't gotten around to testing Figure of Destiny yet. I wanna go -3 Resto, -2 Leak, +4 Figure, +1 Baneslayer and try that on for size. Resto is probably my favorite card in all of Magic, but to really get value off of her here you need snappy already down and like 6+ mana, at least in my build. I could even make that +3 Figure, +2 Ajani Vengeant to keep the curve down; that way, only my Colonnades cost 5 mana. Idk, if anyone has done some amount of testing with them yet, I would appreciate if you shared your findings
UWRUWR Midrange/GeistRWU
Retired
GWBMelira PodBWG
he is great. i don't know why i took him out of my decklist (aside from not having one). now i want a second (especially with the upcoming legendary rule changes).
i think the right creature base (for me) is:
4 Gost
2 Clique
i took out a Sphinx's Revelation to make room for the clique. don't miss the second sphinx--in fact it's better to have it as a one-of. assuming i get another clique, i think the right play is to drop the 2 tamiyo/gideon, and throw in one other card. isochron maybe.
I'm looking at running the 4 Geist 4 Snapcaster 2 Resto with my spells looking something like this:
4 Path to Exile
4 Azorius Charm
3 Lightning Helix
4 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
Working in Izzet or Boros charms could work too. Are people not running Isochron because of the easy 2 for 1?
http://www.mtgtop8.com
Heres what i played, and how it went:
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Restoration Angel
Artifacts
1 Batterskull
Instant/sorcereries
4 Remand
2 Mana Leak
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
3 Spell Snare
1 Cryptic Command
1 Ajani Vengeant
LANDS
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Scalding tarn
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Steam Vents
1 Eiganjo Castle
3 Arid Mesa
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Path to Exile
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
2 Spellskite
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Phantasmal Image
3 Stony Silence
1 Wear/Tear
2 Counterflux
2 Rest in Peace
I dont remember each game, but i cant give a brief recount of every match, how it went, what i did wrong and could have done better, what cards shine and which didnt.
R1 Vs Junk
G1 I keep a hand without much burn since i thought he was on tron cause of past tournaments.
Things get ugly quickly with aT1 shaman followed by a turn 2 goyf.
I dont have path, bolt or anything else, so the game goes quick.
SB: +2 rest in peace +1 path to exile + 1 supreme verdict +1 wrath of god
-4 snapcaster -1 remand
G2 things look a lot better for me. I burn every shaman, tough he gets a double kozilek on my geist+rest in peace, and follows up with a thoughtsize on ajani, while playing 2 shamans and a goyf. Brutal.
Still i manage to stay in the game with electrolize+snapcaster electrolize on both shamans, block goyf with tiago and let him overextend with his souls to blow up the field with verdict.
I continue to burn him and hes out of gas, im at 16 with him at 5, and i have a bolt in hand. need any burn or another land for colonnade, and get neither. By the time i have them they no longer matter, since he resolves a batterskull, and its game.
R2 Vs Scapeshift
G1 i go first with a decent hand filled with bolts, helixes, snares and tiago. When he tries to farseek he eats a snare, then again when sakure tribe shows up.
The dmg accumulates quickly with all the burn, and i resolve geist to add more pressure. He scoops shortly after.
SB: -3 path to exile-1 restoration angel-1batterskull+2 counterflux+ 1 sword of war and peace (for pyroclasm on geist, not really sure i was just trying something new here) +2 spellskite
G2 again i keep a strong hand, tough not as strong as the first one. Quick bolts and helixes at EoT give me time for a geist and put pressure on him
He seems to not have the pyroclasm in hand, so i go for the kill. I have a tiago in hand, together with a counterflux for his scapeshift, he tries to go for the primeval titan, remand. He goes for it again, tiago+remand.
I swing with geist leaving him at 2 life, on his turn i show him the counterflux and he scoops.
R3 Vs Jund
G1 I dont remember much, but its a tipical jund game, he grinds me until im out of cards, lili makes short work of geist, and kills me with tokens.
SB +2 rest in peace + 1 supreme verdict +1 wrath of god +2 counterflux
-4 snapcaster-2 remand-
G2 i start with a solid hand, keeping shamans off me for 2/3 turns. When he goes for the goyf, i have rest in peace ready.
Both cemeteries go off, but he gets the worse part. His 2 goyfs are useless, and as i suspected, he sided out his decays. Ajani comes in to keep his board at bay with +1, so his tokens try to stop him however he can but electrolize and bolt handle them easily.
A batterskull ends the game for me.
G3 I reverse my Sb since his decays are coming in again. I focus on his shamans, and leave the goyfs for the wraths. He plays a rachet bomb and starts tapping it, i have an angel, an ajani and a geist, and only one of those will live trough the bomb, so i quickly deploy ajani to stop that.
He again has a lot of trouble to get rid of the walker, and the angel gets trough to his life. When he finally plays his own ajani and blows up the bomb on 4 to kill the angel, the geist is ready to finish the job with 2 tiagos that bring with them electrolize.
R4 Melira Pod
Dont remember too much, but i sided horribly for G2 on this one, just used my 2 rest in peace and the 2 sweepers i think.
Anyways, he comboes both times (the second match is closer, but i lack the burn i need)
BTW, voice and sin collector are a pain, gods.
R5 UW Tron
G1 Too much mana on a T3 tron with him on the play, he counters my only geist and quickly resolves a T3 Karn. I have a T4 ajani, but there is not much he can do, the game goes downhill very quickly for me.
SB: +2 counterflux+3 stony silence+1 wear/tear -2 remand-1 resto angel-1 helix-1 electrolize i think
G2 He starts with a white leyline, which spells trouble for me. My hand is kinda weak if i cant aim my 2 bolts and helix at his face, so i decide to go with a T2 tiago and try to race him with that.
Unsurprisingly, it works. He cant really answer it in a profitable way, and my counters are crippling him.
I have 2 geist in hand, but he is never tapped, so i choose the safe play and go for ajani first, which he lets trough, dunno why tough.
Ajani screws with his blue sources, he tries to path my tiago when he was at 2 life, and i remand twice hoping he doesnt run any more white. He ghost quarters himself to look for another white i suppose, but ends up going for blue instead and remands my remand.
Tiago goes, but with him tapped i resolve a geist, and with ajani at +7, its game.
G3 Its a replay of game 2, he opens white leyline, but this time i can resolve geist on turn 4 with snare back up.
The game goes terribad for him after that with me putting a ton of pressure. Once again, ajani comes in to do his magic on his lands, and he scoops.
R6 Melira Pod
G1 what seems to be a weak hand with a bunch of lands, 3 remand a bolt and a resto quickly turns into gold when i burn his dork, and delay him enough. After that, a 2turn remand on his life-paid Pod, together with a few angel swings seal the deal.
SB: +1 supreme verdict +1 wrath of god +3 stony silence +2 rest in peace +2 counterflux
- 4 snapcaster -1 angel -4 remand
G2 this is the Sb i should have used agaisnt the previous pod.
I start burning his dorks, and by the time he tries start laying his combo pieces, i have a rest in peace ready together with a geist.
He doesnt seem to be able to destroy the enchantment, so he just plays a pod and searches for Thrun.
We are in a stalemate, since i cant attack, and he doesnt have other dudes to sac.
I had enough counters and removal at this point that i made sure he didnt resolve anything, so i was confident and waited it out.
I finally draw a stony silence, and completely close the lock on him.
For the rest of the game i just colonnade him to death.
I ended up 4-2 to come in 16th.
If i had change anything, i would cut the resto angel for a second ajani, or an elspeth, and maybe swap a remand for the 3rd mana leak.
I think i would also change the supreme verdict for another wrath, cut the image and play elspeth/ajani (the one i dont play main) on the Sb.
As always, ajani did a lot of work, he definitely deserves to be a 2 off.
The rest in peace from the SB was even better than i thought it would be, it alone won my games against jund and pod.
Stony silence also did a lot of work against tron and pod, as did the counterfluxes.
I didnt face any uwr mirrors or uwr control , tought there were some i just didnt face them, so for now the sword stays.
Well, it was a bit long, but thats it!
Ajani seems a bit better to me, especially if you're into the tempo plan. You already have efficiente beaters, so Elspeth isn't as good.
Well, it appears you had bad luck, 'cause you've faced good/even matchups. Jund has the edge if it starts with Thoughtseize/IoK to take out your early threats and Blood Moon really destroys this deck. For UWR Midrange I prefer the builds heavily focused on the tempo facet, so no Cryptic, Revelation and other staple Control cards. Don't know about more specific suggestions to give you. =/
forces them to have an answer, though, and having 1x iso is a nice option.
I agree. I have all along stayed away from command and sphinx, and adopted a legacy rug tempo kind of approach to play this deck (this is also mentioned in a standard version of the deck as shown here http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=462457). Truly no spell can blow out for a win, but when played well with a low mana curve, it is often always efficient and the more you play, the more you sharpen your skills with the deck as you time and try to generate as much value as possible from each small spell.
Modern Esper Midrange
EDH Jenara ETB
i just can't get away from 2x cryptic. it is such a huge blow out that it almost impossible to avoid. i'm playing revelation as a 1x. i don't like seeing it in my opening hand, but it's usually pretty decent.