I'm pretty sure that chaplin style control will be a house when Jund leaves with it's double card's (cascade) and counters can actually affect the game more... But one thing I think is overlooked is graveyard reccursion.
I'm gonna gather up some jace's for post rotation but I am wondering what the answers for creatures with gy effects will be when path leaves.
Wow...okay, so after running the Esper Brilliant Emrakul deck through the trenches a bit, I'm thoroughly surprised at how solid it actually is. Some things definitely need to change (like number of spot removal spells, 60 cards, testing See Beyond over Ponder), but overall I'm just blown away by the power and consistency of the deck. Most of the time I don't even need to cast Brilliant Ultimatum to win, and yet if I'm behind I can just drop one, snag a couple planeswalkers, and be immediately right back in the thick of things. It almost feels like a standard variant of some kind of a Mind's Desire Combo/Control deck.
I'm definitely going to be testing this deck a lot more during the coming weeks.
fabiano's list seems really awkward with so many 1-2 off's. would increasing the # of liliana's be a good idea, so you can have a sort of a toolbox?
wats everyone's opinions on borderposts? unlike chalice, the ramp isnt as significant (doesnt let you t3 jace, doj etc), and if its for colorfixing, wouldnt extra tar pits be better?
Hey LC, tudos on the list, and hoping you do well in the Nats.
I was wondering, what made you choose duress over inquisition of kozilek? Is it mainly because of the planeswalker threat in a UW/x mirror?
I've been thinking and discard is great here, but managing early threats that cost 3 or under could stall them and give you a slightly higher advantage, as later on you are holding on to counters to answer their bigger drops. Am I just thinking too much about this? Cheers for any response = )
To be completely honest, Inquisition was the one card spoiled out of RoE that made me initially think, "okay, I'm going UWB" yet it's nearly nowhere to be found in my list today. It...just doesn't quite work as well as you'd think. It's a solid card against Jund, but you really want it to be a Duress against most UW decks. If I had the room to run four of each in the board for each matchup, I would. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Essentially, Inquisition in this meta reads: "Discard target Knight of the Reliquary, Blightning, or Thrinax." That's just a bit too narrow for a MD slot. And Inquisition is a type of card that's a four-of or none-of in the main deck, IMO.
I've been cycling inbetween 2 Inquisition and 2 Celestial Purge in my board and haven't come to a definitive answer. I feel the Inquisitions can work in tandem with Duress, but I'm not quite sure. Purge is a hard card to give up, especially if All in Red starts burning it's way through standard. I'll keep you updated.
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I'm going to test out your list LC but with -3 Cancel +3 Deprive -1 Coup +1 DoJ. Deprive just seems so sick considering I'm modifying the list to have only 1 "X" spell. Hoping for the best...lol
I would stay away from Deprive. It was a card we tested extensively after it was spoiled, and it's drawbacks are greater than its benefits. If you're yearning for a 2CMC counter, just main deck three Negate. Most of the spells you'll be countering are early Blightnings or late removal. The main reason I chose to keep three Cancels was due to the occasional late game Bloodwitch, Siege Gang, or Ranger that I need to counter.
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Wow...okay, so after running the Esper Brilliant Emrakul deck through the trenches a bit, I'm thoroughly surprised at how solid it actually is. Some things definitely need to change (like number of spot removal spells, 60 cards, testing See Beyond over Ponder), but overall I'm just blown away by the power and consistency of the deck. Most of the time I don't even need to cast Brilliant Ultimatum to win, and yet if I'm behind I can just drop one, snag a couple planeswalkers, and be immediately right back in the thick of things. It almost feels like a standard variant of some kind of a Mind's Desire Combo/Control deck.
I'm definitely going to be testing this deck a lot more during the coming weeks.
Brilliant Esper is NOT the one trick pony a lot of people are claiming it to be. It's the real deal and can easily win games without ever seeing an Emrakul or Brilliant Ultimatum. It's a serious deck with all the right tools to compete. As long as people pick it up and try to advance it as the meta evolves, it will stick around.
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I guess I continue to be intrigued by something that can Top8, it must have some merit and Wiley Coyote seeks to put Brilliant Ultimatum up on a pedestal with Cruel Ultimatum.
When Brilliant Ultimatum flips up Emrakul (assuming a 4 and 1 split), you gain 4 cards, a 15/15 Beatstick that is immune to most removal and an Extra Turn (which then leads to a 5th card, untapping at least 7 mana, possibly using a Planeswalker ability and having your opponent lose 6-7 permanents including the blocking creature). Pretty good.
I dig the 1-of Vess; I was playing a few games online recently and had an Esper control player bouncing creatures to my hand with Jace and then forcing me to discard with Vess (when I was topdecking obviously) and it was extremely brutal/annoying!
Your sideboard looks like it would definitely give you the edge in any control matchup.
I'll have to consider whether I'll run something along these lines or stick with UW tapout in the upcoming weeks.
I would like to post an update on my list. I have played with baneslayer angel a bunch and whether it be my play style or the right choice I have switched my BSA in the board to Wall of Denial. It accomplishes increasing teh win percent against jund and RDW both of which were the reason from BSA the only match up I really seeing the lack of BSA hurting is vamps which gets increasingly worse with every change I make to the deck. When it comes down to it You cannot make a deck that beats both Vamps and Jund so lets just hope they both are not popular. Also on the purge vs Flashfreeze debate one reason I don't put the purges main is because then I need to put more freezes in the board and that ultimately results in less slots. The purges are awesome against RDW but if you get ur firewalkers and now the WOD out its game against them anyway.
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Originally Posted by badjuju
As the Last of the Control Players, we are all part of a sacred brotherhood; a band of brothers who would rather die on their knees tapping islands and giving permission than live on our feet cascading into Blightning.
if you were going to use something for that effect, All is Dust is a much easier to cast spell... (7 colorless instead of 3w 3x)
I was going to say something about how if you couldn't produce 3 white sources by T6 you had other problems but I suppose when you factor in chalices you make a good point. You could actually get All is Dust off sooner with an early chalice or two, and colorless is always safer.
Although I think something like All is Dust or Planar Cleansing is too narrow to take a slot. With almost no other application other than against the all-planeswalker decks.
I have been considering Pithing Needle though. It's not a sweep but it will shut down any planeswalker and has other uses from time-to-time.
Yea, I'm also thinking 26 lands is too much for a deck that plays 8 cantrips.
But on a related note, I don't run the Purges instead of the Flashfreezes. And they help you both against RDW/Jund/and Vamps.
Looking at the SB list I currently have it also seems like it ONLY is geared towards agro, in particular r/g agro colors. I am thinking about altering it to look like the following:
4x Flashfreeze
3x Kor Firewalker
3x Celestial Purge
3x Rest of the Weary
2x Luminarch Ascension
I also adjusted the land count. Went down to 22 land + 4 chalice. Added a DoJ, Jace, Spring, and O-Ring. The whole reason the chapin list ran so much land is that it made Treasure Hunt better, and 8 of the lands in that list (4 edges, 4 Hdepths) were lands that had affects.
fabiano's list seems really awkward with so many 1-2 off's. would increasing the # of liliana's be a good idea, so you can have a sort of a toolbox?
wats everyone's opinions on borderposts? unlike chalice, the ramp isnt as significant (doesnt let you t3 jace, doj etc), and if its for colorfixing, wouldnt extra tar pits be better?
also, this seems to be the wrong forum
Its fabiano we are talking about here. He is the master of mising.
Understand, Dredge is not really a Magic: The Gathering deck. When a card is playable in it, it doesn't mean it's a tournament playable card. It means it's playable in whatever crazy fantasy world that Dredge operates in.
I had to play Ben Stark in the top 8 with tap out at scg atlanta and i had watched him play 2 other tapout decks earlier in the tournament and all of them were complete blowouts.
Essentially there are only 2 good cards in the entire deck vs planeswalkers and that is celestial colonnade and o ring. And the planeswalker deck runs their own o rings and spreading seas to deal with these.
If this deck grows in popularity, uw will have to drastically change or it will no longer be viable.
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Honestly, the question I'm most interested in is whether the more valuable manland is Colonnade or Tar Pit. While the Colonnade is a bigger body and flies, the primary point of it seems to be the superior mana-fixing (black being a relative splash to the heavy WU)... but unblockability is pretty huge. Viksnins went with the Tar Pit but Fabiano only has a singleton with a full set of Colonnade. LC's posted decklist isn't running any. Have you tried using any Tar Pits, LC, and what were the results if so?
I've been cycling inbetween 2 Inquisition and 2 Celestial Purge in my board and haven't come to a definitive answer. I feel the Inquisitions can work in tandem with Duress, but I'm not quite sure. Purge is a hard card to give up, especially if All in Red starts burning it's way through standard. I'll keep you updated.
I won't question your wisdom regarding the first paragraph but I think you might be selling Inquisition short here. Inquisition should play nice with Duress even against other control decks. It's obviously not as good (no PWs except SURPRISE JACE BELEREN) but it can still hit their counters (...if they have one in-hand :uhh:). It could even be surprisingly useful against All in Red if you pull one early, being able to peek at their hand and ripping out their most precious card. (Hell's Thunder, Summons or Bushwhacker if they have the combo in-hand, possibly even pre-empt a T1 Guide if on the play with a Swamp/fetchland.)
Regarding AiR in particular, but possibly other quick aggro as well (is there any?), have you considered or tested Perimeter Captain? It's a one-drop if you can throw down a T1 Plains, can't be burned without getting in a block, and is also a good friend to fellow Defender Wall of Omens. You could maybe use a couple, combined with a split of Inquisition/Duress (so the former is available to SB in against cheap aggro), to increase your odds of having a Turn 1 play against AiR. It might even bear consideration over Firewalker, which is obviously superior in a vacuum but competes with the Wall as a two-drop and has a relatively difficult casting cost.
Honestly, the question I'm most interested in is whether the more valuable manland is Colonnade or Tar Pit. While the Colonnade is a bigger body and flies, the primary point of it seems to be the superior mana-fixing (black being a relative splash to the heavy WU)... but unblockability is pretty huge. Viksnins went with the Tar Pit but Fabiano only has a singleton with a full set of Colonnade. LC's posted decklist isn't running any. Have you tried using any Tar Pits, LC, and what were the results if so?
This is something my team and I have discussed for a while. While Colonnade is an auto include in some number, Tar Pit is an interesting manland. I honestly haven't tested it enough to give you a solid answer, mostly because I haven't wanted to slow down my manabase even more. A couple months ago my testing partner was trying to make Grixis Control work again and ran 4 Tar Pits. They were highly annoying cards, which meant they were doing their job.
I won't question your wisdom regarding the first paragraph but I think you might be selling Inquisition short here. Inquisition should play nice with Duress even against other control decks. It's obviously not as good (no PWs except SURPRISE JACE BELEREN) but it can still hit their counters (...if they have one in-hand :uhh:). It could even be surprisingly useful against All in Red if you pull one early, being able to peek at their hand and ripping out their most precious card. (Hell's Thunder, Summons or Bushwhacker if they have the combo in-hand, possibly even pre-empt a T1 Guide if on the play with a Swamp/fetchland.)
I believe that if I'm planning on ripping an early Kargan Dragonlord or something similar, I need to be running 4 Inquisition to ensure I draw one early, otherwise it's a waste if drawn late game when AiR has basically dumped their hand. I simply don't have the room right now to fit in four Inquisition. Duress just has more worth at the moment, especially with everyone switching to Gladiators.
Now this all depends on where the meta shifts. In AiR becomes a big deal, which it may, and Gladiators dies out, I'll need to change some things, which would probably include Inquisitions over Duress.
Regarding AiR in particular, but possibly other quick aggro as well (is there any?), have you considered or tested Perimeter Captain? It's a one-drop if you can throw down a T1 Plains, can't be burned without getting in a block, and is also a good friend to fellow Defender Wall of Omens. You could maybe use a couple, combined with a split of Inquisition/Duress (so the former is available to SB in against cheap aggro), to increase your odds of having a Turn 1 play against AiR. It might even bear consideration over Firewalker, which is obviously superior in a vacuum but competes with the Wall as a two-drop and has a relatively difficult casting cost.
It's something to look into, at the very least. Firewalker seems like the obvious choice here, however. The Captain can be burned down post-attack phase and Firewalker is basically non removable. Firewalker may not gain you as much life but it's a much more reliable board presence.
Hell, I've even thought about Wall of Denial against AiR. Even a marginally pumped Dragonlord can destroy you.
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The Gladiator matchup does seem pretty difficult. It seems like a shutout game if steps aren't taken to fight it. Perhaps more SB cards dedicated to it, Needle, Telemin Performance, All is Dust.
I've been considering going back to the direction of Permission would be good if this becomes the case. Something with more ways to preempt PW with counter magic. Or at least more permission in the board to fight PW.
I'm still torn between which of the 3 versions is best. Chapin, Tapout, or U/W/r.
Is everyone suggesting Planar Cleansing and All is Dust forgetting that UW-Tapout also relies on coloured/nonland permanents to win? You know, basically the same permanents as UWr aside from Ajani Vengeant? It's not a solution to side it in. Pithing Needle is in the same boat, you're shutting off all of your own Planeswalkers as a knee-jerk reaction to them being a Planeswalker deck, which is pointless.
So how do you beat UWr? Side in your negates, a couple of purges, Luminarch Ascension, and O-Rings. Vengeant is the only real threat in the deck, everything else can be handled in the exact same way it's handled in the mirror. That's never been a problem before, so why are people crying about it now? The only reason the tapout lists got stomped by UWr was because they didn't know how to play against it.
Get rid of Vengeant (or hell, their singleton mountain) and you win. Without their mountain, they're playing a sub-par UW list that's got slots devoted to a third, uncastable colour.
I would think Paesine would be an excellent person to ask here, what would you have brought or played differently if you had known about the Planeswalker deck? I know Ajani was a huge factor in the matchup, but were other factors at play making the matchup bad? It seems to me their gameplan is still quite good, and their PW plan is better since they have a higher chance of sticking their PW due to higher concentration. Were their observations from your match or the other Tapout matches you noticed that made the matchup bad? Or could have helped?
I've been looking at the Brilliant Ultimatum version, and I really like it. Now I know it did well in a big tournament, but there are a few things I wonder about it.
1) With just 4 manlands, your chance of having an active one is low. And the deck plays a lot of CITP:Tapped lands, wouldn't they be better off as the M10 U/B dual?
2) The ponders bother me. I need to play the deck more, but it seems that there are a few cards that could do better in that slot, more smothers, more paths, Resounding Wave or maybe Repel the darkness ?
This is something my team and I have discussed for a while. While Colonnade is an auto include in some number, Tar Pit is an interesting manland. I honestly haven't tested it enough to give you a solid answer, mostly because I haven't wanted to slow down my manabase even more. A couple months ago my testing partner was trying to make Grixis Control work again and ran 4 Tar Pits. They were highly annoying cards, which meant they were doing their job.
I believe that if I'm planning on ripping an early Kargan Dragonlord or something similar, I need to be running 4 Inquisition to ensure I draw one early, otherwise it's a waste if drawn late game when AiR has basically dumped their hand. I simply don't have the room right now to fit in four Inquisition. Duress just has more worth at the moment, especially with everyone switching to Gladiators.
Now this all depends on where the meta shifts. In AiR becomes a big deal, which it may, and Gladiators dies out, I'll need to change some things, which would probably include Inquisitions over Duress.
It's something to look into, at the very least. Firewalker seems like the obvious choice here, however. The Captain can be burned down post-attack phase and Firewalker is basically non removable. Firewalker may not gain you as much life but it's a much more reliable board presence.
Hell, I've even thought about Wall of Denial against AiR. Even a marginally pumped Dragonlord can destroy you.
So basically the format is shifting towards Planeswalkers. And the top decks have a solid U/W skeleton. I feel that it really comes down to the splash; (Ajani) or the best draw spell in the format (esper charm) and friends such as (identity crisis).
How do you feel about the U/Wr planeswalker deck? In comparison towards the esper version?
Because ajani is Very powerful, and im tossed up between the two decks. I am almost leaning towards ajani because if the opponent does not have an O-ring or an answer rather quickly he just gets completely out of hand.
I wish i could make things simple and just play 4 color again:p but there are some road blocks in the format.
So basically the format is shifting towards Planeswalkers. And the top decks have a solid U/W skeleton. I feel that it really comes down to the splash; (Ajani) or the best draw spell in the format (esper charm) and friends such as (identity crisis).
How do you feel about the U/Wr planeswalker deck? In comparison towards the esper version?
Because ajani is Very powerful, and im tossed up between the two decks. I am almost leaning towards ajani because if the opponent does not have an O-ring or an answer rather quickly he just gets completely out of hand.
I wish i could make things simple and just play 4 color again:p but there are some road blocks in the format.
Honestly, I haven't tested enough against Laskin's Gladiator deck to comfortably give you an objective opinion. What I do know is that Ajani Vengeant is a pretty large advantage. Very large. It's a house of a PW in this meta. However, I feel the UWb sideboard potential is much greater. Duress just tears apart Gladiators. Bloodwitch is a solid investment on the board that can only be bounced by Jace (Mind Control isn't a permanent answer for UWr with Esper Charm's oft forgotten third ability) which means they aren't drawing cards and they aren't fatesealing. They can sweep it, sure, but that means they're tapping 4-7 mana during their main phase that isn't being spent on dropping another PW.
Overall, I like UWb's post board chances much more than UWr's. However, game one looks like a 50/50 at best.
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Yeah I have since swapped to the brilliant ultimatum version (I knew that foil play set would come in handy!). I too have found the ponders lacking. I just upped the smother and path counts. It works like a charm!
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I'm gonna gather up some jace's for post rotation but I am wondering what the answers for creatures with gy effects will be when path leaves.
If there isn't any good cards, against Vengevine theres Pacifism and/or Narcolepsy
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I'm definitely going to be testing this deck a lot more during the coming weeks.
wats everyone's opinions on borderposts? unlike chalice, the ramp isnt as significant (doesnt let you t3 jace, doj etc), and if its for colorfixing, wouldnt extra tar pits be better?
also, this seems to be the wrong forum
To be completely honest, Inquisition was the one card spoiled out of RoE that made me initially think, "okay, I'm going UWB" yet it's nearly nowhere to be found in my list today. It...just doesn't quite work as well as you'd think. It's a solid card against Jund, but you really want it to be a Duress against most UW decks. If I had the room to run four of each in the board for each matchup, I would. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Essentially, Inquisition in this meta reads: "Discard target Knight of the Reliquary, Blightning, or Thrinax." That's just a bit too narrow for a MD slot. And Inquisition is a type of card that's a four-of or none-of in the main deck, IMO.
I've been cycling inbetween 2 Inquisition and 2 Celestial Purge in my board and haven't come to a definitive answer. I feel the Inquisitions can work in tandem with Duress, but I'm not quite sure. Purge is a hard card to give up, especially if All in Red starts burning it's way through standard. I'll keep you updated.
I would stay away from Deprive. It was a card we tested extensively after it was spoiled, and it's drawbacks are greater than its benefits. If you're yearning for a 2CMC counter, just main deck three Negate. Most of the spells you'll be countering are early Blightnings or late removal. The main reason I chose to keep three Cancels was due to the occasional late game Bloodwitch, Siege Gang, or Ranger that I need to counter.
Brilliant Esper is NOT the one trick pony a lot of people are claiming it to be. It's the real deal and can easily win games without ever seeing an Emrakul or Brilliant Ultimatum. It's a serious deck with all the right tools to compete. As long as people pick it up and try to advance it as the meta evolves, it will stick around.
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if you were going to use something for that effect, All is Dust is a much easier to cast spell... (7 colorless instead of 3w 3x)
When Brilliant Ultimatum flips up Emrakul (assuming a 4 and 1 split), you gain 4 cards, a 15/15 Beatstick that is immune to most removal and an Extra Turn (which then leads to a 5th card, untapping at least 7 mana, possibly using a Planeswalker ability and having your opponent lose 6-7 permanents including the blocking creature). Pretty good.
I dig the 1-of Vess; I was playing a few games online recently and had an Esper control player bouncing creatures to my hand with Jace and then forcing me to discard with Vess (when I was topdecking obviously) and it was extremely brutal/annoying!
Your sideboard looks like it would definitely give you the edge in any control matchup.
I'll have to consider whether I'll run something along these lines or stick with UW tapout in the upcoming weeks.
I was going to say something about how if you couldn't produce 3 white sources by T6 you had other problems but I suppose when you factor in chalices you make a good point. You could actually get All is Dust off sooner with an early chalice or two, and colorless is always safer.
Although I think something like All is Dust or Planar Cleansing is too narrow to take a slot. With almost no other application other than against the all-planeswalker decks.
I have been considering Pithing Needle though. It's not a sweep but it will shut down any planeswalker and has other uses from time-to-time.
But on a related note, I don't run the Purges instead of the Flashfreezes. And they help you both against RDW/Jund/and Vamps.
Looking at the SB list I currently have it also seems like it ONLY is geared towards agro, in particular r/g agro colors. I am thinking about altering it to look like the following:
4x Flashfreeze
3x Kor Firewalker
3x Celestial Purge
3x Rest of the Weary
2x Luminarch Ascension
I also adjusted the land count. Went down to 22 land + 4 chalice. Added a DoJ, Jace, Spring, and O-Ring. The whole reason the chapin list ran so much land is that it made Treasure Hunt better, and 8 of the lands in that list (4 edges, 4 Hdepths) were lands that had affects.
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Essentially there are only 2 good cards in the entire deck vs planeswalkers and that is celestial colonnade and o ring. And the planeswalker deck runs their own o rings and spreading seas to deal with these.
If this deck grows in popularity, uw will have to drastically change or it will no longer be viable.
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I won't question your wisdom regarding the first paragraph but I think you might be selling Inquisition short here. Inquisition should play nice with Duress even against other control decks. It's obviously not as good (no PWs except SURPRISE JACE BELEREN) but it can still hit their counters (...if they have one in-hand :uhh:). It could even be surprisingly useful against All in Red if you pull one early, being able to peek at their hand and ripping out their most precious card. (Hell's Thunder, Summons or Bushwhacker if they have the combo in-hand, possibly even pre-empt a T1 Guide if on the play with a Swamp/fetchland.)
Regarding AiR in particular, but possibly other quick aggro as well (is there any?), have you considered or tested Perimeter Captain? It's a one-drop if you can throw down a T1 Plains, can't be burned without getting in a block, and is also a good friend to fellow Defender Wall of Omens. You could maybe use a couple, combined with a split of Inquisition/Duress (so the former is available to SB in against cheap aggro), to increase your odds of having a Turn 1 play against AiR. It might even bear consideration over Firewalker, which is obviously superior in a vacuum but competes with the Wall as a two-drop and has a relatively difficult casting cost.
This is something my team and I have discussed for a while. While Colonnade is an auto include in some number, Tar Pit is an interesting manland. I honestly haven't tested it enough to give you a solid answer, mostly because I haven't wanted to slow down my manabase even more. A couple months ago my testing partner was trying to make Grixis Control work again and ran 4 Tar Pits. They were highly annoying cards, which meant they were doing their job.
I believe that if I'm planning on ripping an early Kargan Dragonlord or something similar, I need to be running 4 Inquisition to ensure I draw one early, otherwise it's a waste if drawn late game when AiR has basically dumped their hand. I simply don't have the room right now to fit in four Inquisition. Duress just has more worth at the moment, especially with everyone switching to Gladiators.
Now this all depends on where the meta shifts. In AiR becomes a big deal, which it may, and Gladiators dies out, I'll need to change some things, which would probably include Inquisitions over Duress.
It's something to look into, at the very least. Firewalker seems like the obvious choice here, however. The Captain can be burned down post-attack phase and Firewalker is basically non removable. Firewalker may not gain you as much life but it's a much more reliable board presence.
Hell, I've even thought about Wall of Denial against AiR. Even a marginally pumped Dragonlord can destroy you.
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I've been considering going back to the direction of Permission would be good if this becomes the case. Something with more ways to preempt PW with counter magic. Or at least more permission in the board to fight PW.
I'm still torn between which of the 3 versions is best. Chapin, Tapout, or U/W/r.
So how do you beat UWr? Side in your negates, a couple of purges, Luminarch Ascension, and O-Rings. Vengeant is the only real threat in the deck, everything else can be handled in the exact same way it's handled in the mirror. That's never been a problem before, so why are people crying about it now? The only reason the tapout lists got stomped by UWr was because they didn't know how to play against it.
Get rid of Vengeant (or hell, their singleton mountain) and you win. Without their mountain, they're playing a sub-par UW list that's got slots devoted to a third, uncastable colour.
1) With just 4 manlands, your chance of having an active one is low. And the deck plays a lot of CITP:Tapped lands, wouldn't they be better off as the M10 U/B dual?
2) The ponders bother me. I need to play the deck more, but it seems that there are a few cards that could do better in that slot, more smothers, more paths, Resounding Wave or maybe Repel the darkness ?
So basically the format is shifting towards Planeswalkers. And the top decks have a solid U/W skeleton. I feel that it really comes down to the splash; (Ajani) or the best draw spell in the format (esper charm) and friends such as (identity crisis).
How do you feel about the U/Wr planeswalker deck? In comparison towards the esper version?
Because ajani is Very powerful, and im tossed up between the two decks. I am almost leaning towards ajani because if the opponent does not have an O-ring or an answer rather quickly he just gets completely out of hand.
I wish i could make things simple and just play 4 color again:p but there are some road blocks in the format.
Honestly, I haven't tested enough against Laskin's Gladiator deck to comfortably give you an objective opinion. What I do know is that Ajani Vengeant is a pretty large advantage. Very large. It's a house of a PW in this meta. However, I feel the UWb sideboard potential is much greater. Duress just tears apart Gladiators. Bloodwitch is a solid investment on the board that can only be bounced by Jace (Mind Control isn't a permanent answer for UWr with Esper Charm's oft forgotten third ability) which means they aren't drawing cards and they aren't fatesealing. They can sweep it, sure, but that means they're tapping 4-7 mana during their main phase that isn't being spent on dropping another PW.
Overall, I like UWb's post board chances much more than UWr's. However, game one looks like a 50/50 at best.
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