So I have recently gotten back into MTG after a very long break (last played ravnica/timespiral) and i would like to take a stab at modern. I found this UW Gifts Tron deck that did well on MTGO, but i had a few questions on why they chose certain cards.
Gifts Tron
McWinSauce (4-0)
MTGO Modern Daily (4-0) - Week of 6/30/14
Modern
Main Deck:
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Azorius Signet
1 Batterskull
1 Condescend
1 Day of Judgment
1 Detention Sphere
2 Expedition Map
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Path to Exile
3 Remand
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Unburial Rites
1 Wrath of God
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Snow-Covered Island
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
So I have recently gotten back into MTG after a very long break (last played ravnica/timespiral) and i would like to take a stab at modern. I found this UW Gifts Tron deck that did well on MTGO, but i had a few questions on why they chose certain cards.
Gifts Tron
McWinSauce (4-0)
MTGO Modern Daily (4-0) - Week of 6/30/14
Modern
Main Deck:
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Azorius Signet
1 Batterskull
1 Condescend
1 Day of Judgment
1 Detention Sphere
2 Expedition Map
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Path to Exile
3 Remand
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Unburial Rites
1 Wrath of God
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Snow-Covered Island
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
1. Why would you want to have 1 Day of Judgement, 1 Supreme Verdict, and 1 Wrath of God instead of just 3 Wraths?
2. Whats the 1 Snow-covered Island for?
3. Should i get rid of 1 of basic land to play 4 Hallowed Fountains?
4. Why Negate instead of Manaleak?
5. Could I play Shadow of Doubt in my sideboard?
6. What is Grafdigger's Cage, Mindbreak Trap, Prophyr Nodes, and Torpor Orb used for?
First off, yay, UW Tron! Secondly, come visit the new revamped primer I wrote, you can find the link in my sig.
1. The one-ofs work better for Gifts. Specifically when you have 3 Wraths, you can cast Gifts and find one of each, and anything else. You're guaranteed to get a Wrath effect out of it. It's really strong against creature metas like Zoo or Affinity.
2. In Reid's list, the Snow-covered Island functions the same way 3 Wraths does. It allows you to guarantee a basic land from Gifts. I've found there's no real need for it but there's definitely a reason.
3. 4 Fountains is a little excessive. Since people play Path (for cards like Elesh Norn and Wurmcoil), but since they also play Ghost Quarter, you want the basics. More importantly, you want one of each to facilitate when you need one or the other. The Island is typically more important for the deck, but because of Wraths costing WW, you often prioritize the Plains higher.
4. We're not a typical control deck in that we want to grind out a win. We would rather stall the game for 10 turns and then just cast Emrakul. Mana Leak is good at draining their resources, but we don't really care as long as we're not dead. I think Mana Leak is awful in this deck for that reason. Negate happens to be a less flexible card, but it also serves our purposes better. You're unlikely to find decks where it's not relevant so it's generally a much more powerful card. It's also insanely better against Tron mirrors.
5. You could, but I wouldn't. The card costs UU which would be hard for you to cast. If you wanted this effect, I would rather go for Aven Mindcensor. It's easier to cast and also blocks. The draw isn't all that important when you run 4 Remand, 4 Thirst, 4 Gifts (12 draw spells in the MB).
6. Cage is used for opposing graveyard strategies like Storm or us (which is why I don't like it, because it shuts off our Gifts combo), as well as Pod so they can't fetch their deck for creatures. It also happens to be decent against Snapcaster. I tend to prefer Relic instead of Cage since it's less prohibitive against us and we already have a favourable Pod matchup.
Mindbreak Trap is specifically for Storm, as it's a free answer, but it happens to be good against the mirror since it can exile Emrakul.
Porphyry Nodes is good against aggressive creature decks like Zoo and Affinity. I personally haven't found it that great.
Torpor Orb is for Twin and Pod, they win via ETB effects so you completely shut them down; it's simply one of the best sideboard cards in the format.
Again, come visit the primer. Most of these were already answered there but whatever.
1. Why would you want to have 1 Day of Judgement, 1 Supreme Verdict, and 1 Wrath of God instead of just 3 Wraths? so you can gifts for three wraths instead of just one. the dropoff in quality between the three is minimal compared to the upside of virtually having seven by fielding the different ones.
2. Whats the 1 Snow-covered Island for? again, gifts maximization.
3. Should i get rid of 1 of basic land to play 4 Hallowed Fountains? no, you will get blood mooned for real. you don;t play a lot of fetches, so often you'll only at most need to fetch one or two fountains, the rest after that should be basics. You also want to avoid needing to take needless shock damage.
4. Why Negate instead of Manaleak? the deck aims for the long long game where often leak is dead. the deck only folds to removal taking out elesh norn or iona and the only way to go over the top of this deck and win is via...as it turns out non-creature spells. So its better as a hardcounter even though it doesn't hit creatures.
5. Could I play Shadow of Doubt in my sideboard? yeah, play the deck a while and see if you find yourself bringing it in against anything in particular. shadow should see more play, but it might not really be optimal.
6. What is Grafdigger's Cage, Mindbreak Trap, Prophyr Nodes, and Torpor Orb used for? They are used post board to improve bad matchups where you have dead cards in your main.
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McWinSauce (4-0)
MTGO Modern Daily (4-0) - Week of 6/30/14
Modern
Main Deck:
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Azorius Signet
1 Batterskull
1 Condescend
1 Day of Judgment
1 Detention Sphere
2 Expedition Map
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Path to Exile
3 Remand
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Unburial Rites
1 Wrath of God
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Snow-Covered Island
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
Sideboard:
2 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
2 Dispel
3 Ghostly Prison
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Negate
2 Porphyry Nodes
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Torpor Orb
2. Whats the 1 Snow-covered Island for?
3. Should i get rid of 1 of basic land to play 4 Hallowed Fountains?
4. Why Negate instead of Manaleak?
5. Could I play Shadow of Doubt in my sideboard?
6. What is Grafdigger's Cage, Mindbreak Trap, Prophyr Nodes, and Torpor Orb used for?
EDIT: Number two is so Gifts Ungiven can fetch an Island and a SC Island, in case you really need one.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
It's stickied at the top of Deck Creation.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/modern-deck-creation/555214-uw-tron
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
First off, yay, UW Tron! Secondly, come visit the new revamped primer I wrote, you can find the link in my sig.
1. The one-ofs work better for Gifts. Specifically when you have 3 Wraths, you can cast Gifts and find one of each, and anything else. You're guaranteed to get a Wrath effect out of it. It's really strong against creature metas like Zoo or Affinity.
2. In Reid's list, the Snow-covered Island functions the same way 3 Wraths does. It allows you to guarantee a basic land from Gifts. I've found there's no real need for it but there's definitely a reason.
3. 4 Fountains is a little excessive. Since people play Path (for cards like Elesh Norn and Wurmcoil), but since they also play Ghost Quarter, you want the basics. More importantly, you want one of each to facilitate when you need one or the other. The Island is typically more important for the deck, but because of Wraths costing WW, you often prioritize the Plains higher.
4. We're not a typical control deck in that we want to grind out a win. We would rather stall the game for 10 turns and then just cast Emrakul. Mana Leak is good at draining their resources, but we don't really care as long as we're not dead. I think Mana Leak is awful in this deck for that reason. Negate happens to be a less flexible card, but it also serves our purposes better. You're unlikely to find decks where it's not relevant so it's generally a much more powerful card. It's also insanely better against Tron mirrors.
5. You could, but I wouldn't. The card costs UU which would be hard for you to cast. If you wanted this effect, I would rather go for Aven Mindcensor. It's easier to cast and also blocks. The draw isn't all that important when you run 4 Remand, 4 Thirst, 4 Gifts (12 draw spells in the MB).
6. Cage is used for opposing graveyard strategies like Storm or us (which is why I don't like it, because it shuts off our Gifts combo), as well as Pod so they can't fetch their deck for creatures. It also happens to be decent against Snapcaster. I tend to prefer Relic instead of Cage since it's less prohibitive against us and we already have a favourable Pod matchup.
Mindbreak Trap is specifically for Storm, as it's a free answer, but it happens to be good against the mirror since it can exile Emrakul.
Porphyry Nodes is good against aggressive creature decks like Zoo and Affinity. I personally haven't found it that great.
Torpor Orb is for Twin and Pod, they win via ETB effects so you completely shut them down; it's simply one of the best sideboard cards in the format.
Again, come visit the primer. Most of these were already answered there but whatever.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
2. Whats the 1 Snow-covered Island for? again, gifts maximization.
3. Should i get rid of 1 of basic land to play 4 Hallowed Fountains? no, you will get blood mooned for real. you don;t play a lot of fetches, so often you'll only at most need to fetch one or two fountains, the rest after that should be basics. You also want to avoid needing to take needless shock damage.
4. Why Negate instead of Manaleak? the deck aims for the long long game where often leak is dead. the deck only folds to removal taking out elesh norn or iona and the only way to go over the top of this deck and win is via...as it turns out non-creature spells. So its better as a hardcounter even though it doesn't hit creatures.
5. Could I play Shadow of Doubt in my sideboard? yeah, play the deck a while and see if you find yourself bringing it in against anything in particular. shadow should see more play, but it might not really be optimal.
6. What is Grafdigger's Cage, Mindbreak Trap, Prophyr Nodes, and Torpor Orb used for? They are used post board to improve bad matchups where you have dead cards in your main.