MTG Salvation

Unified Will is one of those cards with way more variance than you would think it has. I think you have to pick what you think you will want to counter and choose the best spell. For me, it is Negate, followed up by Mana Leak and then nothing else really. I just don't like Mana Leak vs. Miracles. Deprive and Will can both #$@! at the exact wrong moment.

RE: MODO, the only thing I can say about it is that it punishes a lack of tuning and developing a correct manabase much, much more than RL does because it randomizes much more completely. If you want to really tune your manabase, play dozens/hundreds of games on MODO until you see your mana consistency improve. Also, MODO is secretly tuned to punish LD builds online, like it was designed by a bunch of EDH players. *(That's a joke, btw.)

So, I've been on the standard U/W vial version that's done well on paper (3 thalia, 3 image, mutavault and cavern) and I have a couple questions that I can't fully answer with testing so far:

1). Walking ballista is a serious problem, so do we bring in stony silence vs all decks that run 4 that aren't Bridgevine like Eldrazi Tron?

2). (extention of 1), is it always right to take out vial any time we bring in 2+ stony? Against eldrazi tron, for instance IF we are bringing in stony, it almost feels like vial is a better card, but against affinity, it's obvious that stony is the stone nuts.

3). Sideboarding in general, I thought, I had down until i saw a lot of people taking out drog captain and now I'm not sure when I should be taking out some number of lords.

I know this depends on my exact list and meta etc. but these are the first few questions that came to mind. Thanks.

For your first question, I think the answer is "yes", but not strictly because of ballista. Eldrazi Tron, hardened scales, etc, are decks you want Stony against, but it's because it turns off a critical number of cards. I would not, for example, bring in Stony against GW druid with ballista as a combo piece.

In terms of boarding with captain, I actually do cut them pretty often. Against decks like jund and grixis, it's very possible that your early plays have been answered. Wind Drakes don't win games

4 Vial is to increase your chances of hitting it turn 1. I would run 5 if I could.

Taking out Vial when you bring in Stony is an interesting question. Since Vial contributes to acceleration into the mid-game, it is often still good. I also think that lots of decks play ways to destroy Stony, but if they do, we can become aggressive and switch gears. I think it is about gauging the tempo we need and how to put ourselves in a position to switch gears.

Cool article.

@Red_Night
Your points are correct. There is no doubt that turn 1 Noble into Turn 2 GoST/Queller or Wanderer holding up Rattlechains is very powerful. And CoCo is the better card once 4+ mana is assembled, since a possible 2 for 1 and moving bad cards out of the way is always what we want.

My contention is that Vial on turn 1 is the better card for turns 2-5 because it allows us to double-spell at instant speed from turn 2 and setup a board state in which we can go wide and win turns 5-7 with adequate disruption.

So what about something stupid like Bant with Bugler + CoCo? Are we potentially hitting a 3 for 1 at that point?

I think I agree that bugler is bad. I play him in GW company with devoted druid, and I can say: he's a commitment.

You're essentially taking your whole to generate card selection and a body. Those things matter in a deck that plays chord and needs specific creatures, but spirits would lose a ton of tempo for no real gain.

Not to mention, many spirits (like queller and rattlechains) are weaker if you have to reveal them (and possibly tap out while doing so).

On the other hand, obsession has been great for me. It's surprisingly easy to protect for a turn with rattlechains or queller, even against mid-range decks.

I don't understand echoing truth at all. Why would it be a better removal spell than one that costs half the mana and works permanently?

Truth sees play in hard combo decks as a versatile anti-answer. It is not the card you're looking for to deal with the format's goblin guides, death's shadows, and thought knot seers.

Even the corner-case, christmasland scenario you outlined isn't where truth shines: bridgevine plays a critical mass of free sacrifice effects.

We also have 2 UW Spirits in the 8-0 list

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gppra18/8-0-decklists-grand-prix-prague-2018-2018-08-26

It's nice to see good results in general. I can't wait to next spoilers season hahaha.

PS: I can't see the tool editors to embed kawaii content

U/W Vial won the Modern Open Baltimore

List:

http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/123381

If you guys had to build a budget mana base for this deck, how would you go about it? Im putting the pieces together and want to have something playable while I work on upgrading and optimizing the land. I have 3 caverns, 1 flooded strand, 1 polluted delta, 4 windswept heath and 2 Moorland haunt. Should I round the land count out with some basics and a nimbus maze or try and get a couple shocks? Or is Mutavault pretty essential to the deck? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

If you are playing fetchlands, playing a couple of shocklands is a must. It also depends if you are playing the pure UW version or the Bant version. Either way having acces to horizon canopy is pretty great to avoid flooding a lot. But mutavault and moorland haunt can do the trick if the canopys are too expensive for you, especially in the uw version.

Thanks for the reply, I should have specified, Im building the UW version. I'll grab some Hallowed Fountains for sure but I have a feeling we'll be seeing another cycle of fastlands sooner than later so I'm gona wait on the seachrome coasts.

What do you think are Bant Spirit's worst matchups? I would assume Aggro? I've seen mostly Bant Spirits, but occasionally a UW or 2, do well in the local PPTQ scene, so I was curious. If the matchups that I assume I'll see are present, I may run Bant Spirits myself.

Here's my guesses on potential bad matchups.
1. Burn
2. Bogles
3. Hollow One
4. Elves
5. Potentially any Counters/Bant Company deck

None of these seem too bad. Am I missing something or are there just pretty solid matchups across Modern for this Tempo deck?

Went 4-1 last night with Bant Spirits. Went into the finals undefeated after beating Grixis Dragons, KCI (dumpstered), UW Monument Weenies, Cheeri0s (god bless you modern FNM's). Lost to infect very quickly in the finals.

My list



I usually do a full write up, but since most of the decks were extreme off meta I'm not going to bother unless there are specific requests besides for KCI/infect.

Versus KCI: I knew what this guy was on before the round started. I took out my sideboard cards and lined them up on the side of my playmat and went "LEND ME YOUR STRENGTH!" Game 1 I kept a hand that didn't do a whole lot initially, but had two spell quellers. I played out some early lords, then Queller'd his KCI's two turns in a row and won on the back swing. I brought in my stony, rips, and thalia for game 2 (brought out coco, 2 path, 1 kira, 1 rattlechains) and saw both RIP and Stony. Easy life.

Game 1 versus infect I got a path off on one of his unblockable guys, but he had a second. I took out two random things (probably kira and a company, I think? it was late and my notes broke down at this point) mulled my landless-7 into a 6 with a noble hierarch, land, and thalia. Thalia slowed them a bit, but never saw a path and couldn't interact with his Blighted Agent. I was able to spell queller two of his groundswells, but wasn't fast enough with my backswings to race. At least the round was fast! I think this is a fairly mediocre matchup for bant unless our hand has land + dork + queller + path. And the board has no good answers.

Changes, Kira should be a phantasmal image, and I would probably do at least -1 Rattlechains for a maindeck Remorseful Cleric.

Quote from StreexGeist »

EDIT: is that a spirit on the stairs of the newly spoilered Watery Grave?

WOW, I did'n see that kawaii spirit before, Surveil HYPE!

If you look closely, you can see a lot of possible spirits in the card, and that'd fit with the flavor text

Tron is by far this deck’s worst matchup

I'd agree that Elves is a bit tricky, but found Titanshift to not be all that bad (beat it in back to back rounds this past week at FNM against a pair of solid experienced pilots). Keys seemed to be holding a Queller to pin down a Scapeshift while going just wide enough to apply a clock. Mausoleum Wanderers (especially once buffed by a lord or two) also kept things pretty solidly in check. I went 3-0-1 on the night with a pretty standard UW build, splitting prizes with Merfolk in the finals but losing 2-1 as we played out the match. I got a bit screwed in the third game - pinched on two lands and one vial where he had a pretty extensive board.

I've built the base UW deck and looked briefly at the options a 3rd colors opened. Mostly I've been thinking to add black for:

• Lingering souls (Obvious.)
• Dimir cutpurse (No evasion, but great CA if it starts hitting. Can take opponent by surprise when vial'ed in.)
• Horobi, death's wail (Sideboard against creatures.)

Anyone tried these?

Dimir cutpurse is bad i think, for it to be good you have to dedicate a lot of slots to give it evasion which is useless for the rest of the deck since everything we have flies. And at 3 mana its just terrible on its own.

Horobi is also bad, we don't have ways to abuse it aside from maybe nebelgast herald, the rest of our stuff that targets kills creature anyways so there is no point.

Hi I just want to ask if Promised Kannushi is worth it in this deck? Mechanic is pretty old but allows you to return any spirit from GY in Bant version.