It depends on your deck's design. I play UW Midrange Control. Having the option to bounce my own Snap, Omens, Finks, Clique, Resto, etc. for more value, or to protect a creature from my Verdict, is viable. It seems like a SB option, but underwhelming in the main.
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Hi I'm trying to build this deck specifically for my meta. I'm not sure the exact direction to go.
My meta is very fast with multiple infect, affinity, and burn decks. Merfolk and Zoo also show up. There are a couple of chord decks too. There are no Eldrazi and maybe 1 each of UW control and jund.
I don't own JVP and don't have the money to purchase them atm.
It depends on your deck's design. I play UW Midrange Control. Having the option to bounce my own Snap, Omens, Finks, Clique, Resto, etc. for more value, or to protect a creature from my Verdict, is viable. It seems like a SB option, but underwhelming in the main.
I can understand siding it and it does have some utility as you mentioned but as far as these new cards changing the position of U decks in Modern as I was at least hoping well I'm very disappointed.
It depends on your deck's design. I play UW Midrange Control. Having the option to bounce my own Snap, Omens, Finks, Clique, Resto, etc. for more value, or to protect a creature from my Verdict, is viable. It seems like a SB option, but underwhelming in the main.
I can understand siding it and it does have some utility as you mentioned but as far as these new cards changing the position of U decks in Modern as I was at least hoping well I'm very disappointed.
I agree.
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Coming back to my one true deck after enjoying slinging bolts around for a bit with UWR, I am sleeving up my latest version of UW midrange. I have always wanted to jam counterspells in the main, but after testing this build out I am happy with how it runs. My local meta does have some combo (Ad Nauseum, Storm, Living End and sometimes Scapeshift), but I like having a strong plan in the main with reasonable pressure and stabilizing elements. There is a larger, 40 person event this Saturday that I hope to t8 at least. There's a huge variety of decks in the meta, with Eldrazi and CoCo being under-represented.
I'm quite happy with the build, but welcome any criticism, ideas etc. Some of the choices, like Surgical, are a concession to the meta and harder to beat decks. I would like to have RIP in my side, but it's the love/hate choice - when it's there, I don't need it, and when it isn't, I do. I prefer the catchall flavour of the side, along with being able to shift into a slightly more controlling role with Walkers as win-cons and hide behind wraths and countermagic/removal. I split the Journey to Nowhere and Condemn because I value each and feel we need the "5th PtE" in Condemn vs Infect and the like, whereas Journey is a better answer to most creatures. My biggest challenge so far is deciding on sideboarding vs some decks - against Eldrazi, for example, I currently have: 3x Resto, 1 Snapcaster, 1 Sun Titan OUT, 2x Seas, 1x Wrath, 1x Elspeth and 1x Clique IN. No idea if this is correct, but I think leaning on Wraths is correct and Resto doesn't impact the board enough.
Some cards I am/have considered and haven't decided on yet are:
Pact of Negation or Overwhelming Denial (Thoughts on Denial?)
Runed Halo (don't own any but am interested)
Gut Shot (any fast deck)
Disdainful Stroke (big mana decks)
Mana Leak (moved away from main counterspells)
Relic of Progenitus (I like this card, but I feel as a one of Surgical is stronger in critical m/u's
Coming back to my one true deck after enjoying slinging bolts around for a bit with UWR, I am sleeving up my latest version of UW midrange. I have always wanted to jam counterspells in the main, but after testing this build out I am happy with how it runs. My local meta does have some combo (Ad Nauseum, Storm, Living End and sometimes Scapeshift), but I like having a strong plan in the main with reasonable pressure and stabilizing elements. There is a larger, 40 person event this Saturday that I hope to t8 at least. There's a huge variety of decks in the meta, with Eldrazi and CoCo being under-represented.
I'm quite happy with the build, but welcome any criticism, ideas etc. Some of the choices, like Surgical, are a concession to the meta and harder to beat decks. I would like to have RIP in my side, but it's the love/hate choice - when it's there, I don't need it, and when it isn't, I do. I prefer the catchall flavour of the side, along with being able to shift into a slightly more controlling role with Walkers as win-cons and hide behind wraths and countermagic/removal. I split the Journey to Nowhere and Condemn because I value each and feel we need the "5th PtE" in Condemn vs Infect and the like, whereas Journey is a better answer to most creatures. My biggest challenge so far is deciding on sideboarding vs some decks - against Eldrazi, for example, I currently have: 3x Resto, 1 Snapcaster, 1 Sun Titan OUT, 2x Seas, 1x Wrath, 1x Elspeth and 1x Clique IN. No idea if this is correct, but I think leaning on Wraths is correct and Resto doesn't impact the board enough.
Some cards I am/have considered and haven't decided on yet are:
Pact of Negation or Overwhelming Denial (Thoughts on Denial?)
Runed Halo (don't own any but am interested)
Gut Shot (any fast deck)
Disdainful Stroke (big mana decks)
Mana Leak (moved away from main counterspells)
Relic of Progenitus (I like this card, but I feel as a one of Surgical is stronger in critical m/u's
I dig it. Maybe 1 creature too many, but this is my style. Report back with MU feedback.
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Which creature would you cut? And for what spell? I would most likely consider Snap as the first cut, but I seriously like the utility of flashing back whatever spell is most useful in the m/u, even if it's just Visions or Cryptic.
I will be doing a proper report - I want to see useful discussion around this archtype. I took some cues from your discussion and lists, and while its not my go to style, I quickly saw the value of having a strong game plan and less reactive spells.
Which creature would you cut? And for what spell? I would most likely consider Snap as the first cut, but I seriously like the utility of flashing back whatever spell is most useful in the m/u, even if it's just Visions or Cryptic.
I will be doing a proper report - I want to see useful discussion around this archtype. I took some cues from your discussion and lists, and while its not my go to style, I quickly saw the value of having a strong game plan and less reactive spells.
I would say no need for Baneslayer in this build. You have plenty life gain and beats already. Baneslayer is a closer and you don't need anymore.
You have
Sun Titan
Gideon
Elspeth
Colonnades x4
Then you have you beaters in Resto, Finks and Clique
The new Jace seems like a possible substitute for Jace, Architect of Thought in the control match-up. It has good card advantage for the +1, good utility in the bounce for replaying creatures and then the ultimate is more of a game winner than Architect, most likely.
However, yes, lackluster cards.
If only Jace cost 4...
If only Epiphany had your and opponents roles swapped...
Hi I'm trying to build this deck specifically for my meta. I'm not sure the exact direction to go.
My meta is very fast with multiple infect, affinity, and burn decks. Merfolk and Zoo also show up. There are a couple of chord decks too. There are no Eldrazi and maybe 1 each of UW control and jund.
I don't own JVP and don't have the money to purchase them atm.
Any help would be great!
You don't really need JVP at all to play this deck but you would love to have Snapcaster of course. Gideon Jura seems good in your aggro meta.
I agree with Epiphany at the Drownyard but Jace seems a great card against fair, midrange and semi-aggro decks. If it only would have costed 4 that would have been ridiculously good but it's not bad right now. With Temple / Eye (I hope) bans, I guess aggro linear decks like Affinity, Infect and Burn will be on top, and that implies that Jund and Abzan will come back. These two suggest something like Company and Chord strategies will be around and so, Control could be playable. I can see a light R splash for 4x Bolts and a couple of counters (in a control shell like mine at least) and one Verdict away for those, since again, Bolt is great against those nonEldrazi decks. Gideon Jura and Elspeth, Sun's Champion will be huge and once the board will be on our control and once it'll get cleaned up, Jace, Unraveler of Secrets seems just fine. Sure, it's a card we don't want when we want to manage and clean the board, but ironically the 5CMC cost is ok for that since it curves greatly with Supreme Verdict. Turn 1 Colonnade into Wall/Jace, VP into counter/Sphere into Verdict into Jace sounds fantastic to me. We just have to see which will be the ban/s for Eldrazi, but I honestly think the new Jace could be good.
Important edit: Obviously I mean for a sideboard slot. It does nothing beside durdling against combo and uninteractive decks and it's slow and suboptimal against aggro and fast decks. The situations in which I see it good enough are the same for Jace AOT.
This Jace fine for as a sideboard option but it doesn't really offer anything special that didn't exist before and as you know U really needed a good boost of some sort but of course it didn't receive it.
I'd like to share some thoughts with you guys for the post Eldrazi era. I think that either Eye or Temple bans will greatly nerf the deck and, accordingly to that, I wanna build my deck and make it more resilient to other decks instead of focusing (although I never focused that much against) Eldrazi stuff. With the tier1 made of Affinity, Infect, Burn and Company, I think a light R splash could make a huge difference between victory and loss. Infect and Affinity are well resilient to PtE and generally wraths are just decent for their manlands, even if we have GQ I'd still like to make those matchups better. So I thought about this build and I'd love to know what do you guys think of it:
The splash is for Bolts, but it makes also better sideboard options. Wear // Tear is a better Disenchant , Keranos is a nearly impossible threat to deal with for any fair deck, in my opinion better than most Planeswalkers, Crumble to Dust does the same, but much better almost always, job that Mindcensor does against Tron, Infect, mirrors, Scapeshift, future one-busted land Eldrazis and more. Engineered Explosives will also be better with three colors (Blood Moon, Choke, Liliana for example among the many possibilities that come in my mind).
I'll try to cut one Verdict main since the only matchup in which I badly need them are Eldrazi, and Bolts help to maintain the board clean even without them and even without ramping our opponents, also making Snapcaster much better.
Ocommand will be OK against aggro and good against Company. Also very good against BGx and generally at worst it generates much value just by drawing-returning any 2CMC creature. Cryptic got cut by 1, as OCommands, since the faster the meta gets, the worse Cryptic becomes.
Negate is going to be good with Infect, Burn, Living End, Tron, BGx and it's also ok against Affinity as well. Definitely MB material to me.
Mana Leak is better than Remand in a control shell, and since Twin's ban, this latter became MUCH worse. That's why I don't want any Remands. Also, Remands are bad in an aggro meta and Twin was definitely their home, while Control doesn't get the same value at all.
Avacyn seems decent to me. I never cared about how flip side honestly, I just see her as a Flash Serra Angel , and that's good enough to me to run her. I considered an opponent killing a Resto to flip her and kill my JVP, but that's a really, REALLY rare scenario since JVP is likely to be flipped in those turns anyway, and even if that happens, a 6/5 flier that bolts my oppo is ok to me anyway. It does the job that Colonnade does without making us tapping out and it can save our other creatures sometimes. But again, what makes her playable is the Flash clause. I don't think you'd play her without that, let's be honest.
Snaps are great in this shell, Clique is kinda meh right now, but they're hardly a dead card and more good than bad in every scenario. Wall gives us cycling and a solid blocker for aggro and Burn. Resto doesn't need presentations.
I chose Gideon Jura as the Planeswalker of choice since Elspeth and him do a similar job. They defend themselves quite good, they present a ton of damage and they kill stuff. I went with Gideon mainly for its cheaper casting, but also because I find him generally more playable. He kills whatever he wants if that's tapped, while Elspeth kills only fatties. The tokens are most to chumpblock, while Gideon can swing the turn after it enters and can be blinked from a PtE or a Terminate. It's also great in an aggro meta and better than Elspeth against combo decks, although they're both terrible in that case but the one extra mana makes Elspeth obviously worse.
The lands are pretty standard, although I'm not sure on how many red sources I'd have to get. Also, I think a future 3/1 or even 2/2 split with GQ/TecEdge will be considerable to think about.
Most important thing: I didn't find space for a Sphinx's Revelation. What do you guys would cut for it? I thought to cut a Wall since I'm very stubborn to cut counterspells. What's your opinion?
I'd love to hear your thoughts about all this. Also, In happy to see UW Control as the most played Tier2 deck finally!
We can play an important role in the future tournaments.
Note: for anyone who watched my last UW list and didn't find the Rev: I forgot to put the Batterskull, that was the extra card I haven't.
I'm going to play a Swiss little tournament tonight at my LGS with that list, I'll keep you updated if my eyes will be still open.
Love it. You have a good handle on the midrange control approach. There's balance at each angle. I'm happy to see that. Would you mind PMing me? I'm prepping for GP Charlotte. I'd like to bounce ideas with you. Are you part of my UWx community on FB yet?
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I'd be concerned trying to run Lightning bolt with only 8 sources of red mana. It looks like you want bolt as an answer to early game threats, yet with only 8 sources for red (including the 5 fetches) it seems unreliable to cast turn 1/2. At least IMHO, red is weakening the deck since the manabase is not enough to support casting it during the early turns where it has the greatest impact.
Doesn't make sense to run Bolt as an early answer to Infect, Bob and such. You have Sunlance. I've been running it for quite a while. It does the same as Bolt in those cases. Whether it's sideboard or maindeck material, it depends entirely on the metagame.
But a "light red splash" only makes sense for sideboard answers, not for Bolt. If you want to run Bolt, you need to play Jeskai.
But if the sideboard answers are Keranos, Wear/Tear and Crumble to Dust, not sure it's even worth it. We already have a better Keranos (Elspeth), the difference between Disenchant and Wear/Tear is irrelevant and a singleton Crumble to Dust won't change much against Tron, where it's usually too slow anyway.
this, a splash is for something like
R: keranos, crumble to dust
B: tasigur, ashiok, sorin (New?), blood baron
G: dont know
but is NOT a splash lightning bolt/inquisition of kozilek/bird of paradise, UW with bolt is jeskai, not UW splash r
Keranos is not unkillable, Celestial Purge sees play in this very deck. I'm not saying Keranos is bad - it's a great finisher for URx.
And you're right, 4 red spells in the main is a light splash. It's just not a sound idea given the 4 spells are all spells that perform best in the first 3 turns when you are not adjusting your manabase sufficiently to reliably cast it. 1 cmc spells are seldom ever used as a light splash simply because they require too much accommodation in the manabase to make it worthwhile.
The difference is minor, and you'll not see it most games. It's just a consistency issue that offers little upside.
Crumble to dust can be said to be slow because it does not answer the most concerning Tron play in the turn 3 karn. Again, it is a great answer outside of that scenario - but spreading seas does most of what you want while maintaining lines of play against the worst case scenario against tron.
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Hello, I have a quick question fellow Moderners. Why is it that no one runs Cryptic Command as a 4-of? I find it one of the best blue cards, and it really adds game to the deck in my opinion (as a 4-of). I always run 4 of them when possible, and with a UW manabase where almost all lands produce blue, it is not an issue here. Is it mainly for versatility issues? In which case Cryptic Command is the definition of versatility itself.
I am brewing a pure UW control deck right now and even though it's in its infant stages (it runs 4x from all Mana Leak, Remand and Cryptic Command, which even I think is too much). I have seen the decklists here more midrangey-oriented, so is this not a good place to discuss this?
Hello, I have a quick question fellow Moderners. Why is it that no one runs Cryptic Command as a 4-of? I find it one of the best blue cards, and it really adds game to the deck in my opinion (as a 4-of). I always run 4 of them when possible, and with a UW manabase where almost all lands produce blue, it is not an issue here. Is it mainly for versatility issues? In which case Cryptic Command is the definition of versatility itself.
I am brewing a pure UW control deck right now and even though it's in its infant stages (it runs 4x from all Mana Leak, Remand and Cryptic Command, which even I think is too much). I have seen the decklists here more midrangey-oriented, so is this not a good place to discuss this?
It's one of the best Blue cards in the format nobody would argue against that but the issue with this card is it's high mana cost. UW Control decks run many high costed spells like Supreme Verdict, Sphinx's Revelation, Restoration Angel and of course Cryptic Command so the issue of having your hand clogging with 4 drops becomes real big. You really need early interaction with your opponents so that's why you see players use couple of Remands, Mana Leaks or increase the number of early drops like Wall of Omens.
This archetype hasn't been "figured out" so you are very welcome to discuss you theory here since a lot of different UW deck lists have been showing up lately.
Successful UW control lists lately have been using condemn and dismember when 4 paths are insufficient to address increased aggro meta conditions. Spreading seas also helps address inkmoth in both affinity and infect which is another point to for it over splashing for crumble to dust.
@ Erian Ignis I completely agree about Cryptic Command. I think that spell is a great reason to play this deck. I've built the mid-range UW control with finks/wall/resto, but I disliked that resto took up a 4drop slot away from cryptic (among other reasons I disliked that build). My solution is a draw-go build with the notable inclusion of Myth Realized as a finisher. Myth has been great, but it is not catching on with other players. If you want a draw-go style UW control to maximize Cryptic, I'd suggest investigating that strategy (I even get to play Serum Visions and 4x Snappy)!
I have my own pet build (more of draw-go than the mid-rangy tapout), and I stick to just the 4 paths and 4 verdicts (with 4 snappy for flashbacks). I'm also running serum visions which is pretty key to finding those answers (and helps run 4xsnappy). My build is notably different from the wall/finks/resto build which I abandoned due to the weak card selection and low power creatures.
Condemn is probably the correct card to use when looking for additional copies of Path for the finks/wall/resto build.
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Thank you all for your kind words! It's been an interesting season for me, brewing so many decks but mostly staying closer to the control side. Now I'm trying UW control (which has been one of my favorites styles ever) and wanted to give it a go now that I recently got ahold of 4 Colonnades.
Hello, I have a quick question fellow Moderners. Why is it that no one runs Cryptic Command as a 4-of? I find it one of the best blue cards, and it really adds game to the deck in my opinion (as a 4-of). I always run 4 of them when possible, and with a UW manabase where almost all lands produce blue, it is not an issue here. Is it mainly for versatility issues? In which case Cryptic Command is the definition of versatility itself.
I am brewing a pure UW control deck right now and even though it's in its infant stages (it runs 4x from all Mana Leak, Remand and Cryptic Command, which even I think is too much). I have seen the decklists here more midrangey-oriented, so is this not a good place to discuss this?
It's one of the best Blue cards in the format nobody would argue against that but the issue with this card is it's high mana cost. UW Control decks run many high costed spells like Supreme Verdict, Sphinx's Revelation, Restoration Angel and of course Cryptic Command so the issue of having your hand clogging with 4 drops becomes real big. You really need early interaction with your opponents so that's why you see players use couple of Remands, Mana Leaks or increase the number of early drops like Wall of Omens.
This archetype hasn't been "figured out" so you are very welcome to discuss you theory here since a lot of different UW deck lists have been showing up lately.
Yes, I agree it can be kinda difficult to have so many 4-drops, but that only means if you get to Turn 4 (which should be achievable by basically what you said, early interaction) the game's practically on the bag. I learned this while playing Scapeshift.
Successful UW control lists lately have been using condemn and dismember when 4 paths are insufficient to address increased aggro meta conditions. Spreading seas also helps address inkmoth in both affinity and infect which is another point to for it over splashing for crumble to dust.
@ Erian Ignis I completely agree about Cryptic Command. I think that spell is a great reason to play this deck. I've built the mid-range UW control with finks/wall/resto, but I disliked that resto took up a 4drop slot away from cryptic (among other reasons I disliked that build). My solution is a draw-go build with the notable inclusion of Myth Realized as a finisher. Myth has been great, but it is not catching on with other players. If you want a draw-go style UW control to maximize Cryptic, I'd suggest investigating that strategy (I even get to play Serum Visions and 4x Snappy)!
Exactly. Draw-go is basically the way I'm going. With little to cast on my own turn and maximizing interaction. I have seen before Myth Realized as a proposed win condition. I'll try to get a couple to test it. For the time being, this is my current build:
Very heavy on the counter side, but I'm trying to find if it is enough to get to the critical Turn 4 and secure a win from there. Restoration Angel is definitely going out, it is lackluster as its only target is Snapcaster, and it takes mana off of Cryptic Command, as the purpose of this deck is to cast Cryptic consistently. I am thinking of 3x Condemn there, which would guarantee more creature interaction. Or what spell do you guys suggest? Maybe Serum visions for a Turn 1 play?
It depends on your deck's design. I play UW Midrange Control. Having the option to bounce my own Snap, Omens, Finks, Clique, Resto, etc. for more value, or to protect a creature from my Verdict, is viable. It seems like a SB option, but underwhelming in the main.
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My meta is very fast with multiple infect, affinity, and burn decks. Merfolk and Zoo also show up. There are a couple of chord decks too. There are no Eldrazi and maybe 1 each of UW control and jund.
I don't own JVP and don't have the money to purchase them atm.
Any help would be great!
I can understand siding it and it does have some utility as you mentioned but as far as these new cards changing the position of U decks in Modern as I was at least hoping well I'm very disappointed.
RBUGrixis ControlUBR
GUSimic MerfolkUG
WUUW ControlUW
RBUGrixis ControlUBR
BUUB MillUB
Colorless Eldrazi Tron
WRBurnRW
GUSimic MerfolkUG
UMono U TurnsU
WGGenesis Wave EnchantressGW
I agree.
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4 Wall of Omens
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Restoration Angel
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Sun Titan
Spells:
4 Path to Exile
1 Condemn
2 Serum Visions
1 Journey to Nowhere
2 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Cryptic Command
1 Gideon Jura
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Mystic Gate
4 Island
3 Plains
2 Spreading Seas
2 Negate
2 Dispel
2 Stony Silence
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Wrath of God
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Disenchant
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Vendilion Clique
I'm quite happy with the build, but welcome any criticism, ideas etc. Some of the choices, like Surgical, are a concession to the meta and harder to beat decks. I would like to have RIP in my side, but it's the love/hate choice - when it's there, I don't need it, and when it isn't, I do. I prefer the catchall flavour of the side, along with being able to shift into a slightly more controlling role with Walkers as win-cons and hide behind wraths and countermagic/removal. I split the Journey to Nowhere and Condemn because I value each and feel we need the "5th PtE" in Condemn vs Infect and the like, whereas Journey is a better answer to most creatures. My biggest challenge so far is deciding on sideboarding vs some decks - against Eldrazi, for example, I currently have: 3x Resto, 1 Snapcaster, 1 Sun Titan OUT, 2x Seas, 1x Wrath, 1x Elspeth and 1x Clique IN. No idea if this is correct, but I think leaning on Wraths is correct and Resto doesn't impact the board enough.
Some cards I am/have considered and haven't decided on yet are:
Pact of Negation or Overwhelming Denial (Thoughts on Denial?)
Runed Halo (don't own any but am interested)
Gut Shot (any fast deck)
Disdainful Stroke (big mana decks)
Mana Leak (moved away from main counterspells)
Relic of Progenitus (I like this card, but I feel as a one of Surgical is stronger in critical m/u's
I dig it. Maybe 1 creature too many, but this is my style. Report back with MU feedback.
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I will be doing a proper report - I want to see useful discussion around this archtype. I took some cues from your discussion and lists, and while its not my go to style, I quickly saw the value of having a strong game plan and less reactive spells.
I would say no need for Baneslayer in this build. You have plenty life gain and beats already. Baneslayer is a closer and you don't need anymore.
You have
Sun Titan
Gideon
Elspeth
Colonnades x4
Then you have you beaters in Resto, Finks and Clique
However, yes, lackluster cards.
If only Jace cost 4...
If only Epiphany had your and opponents roles swapped...
You don't really need JVP at all to play this deck but you would love to have Snapcaster of course. Gideon Jura seems good in your aggro meta.
This Jace fine for as a sideboard option but it doesn't really offer anything special that didn't exist before and as you know U really needed a good boost of some sort but of course it didn't receive it.
RBUGrixis ControlUBR
GUSimic MerfolkUG
WUUW ControlUW
RBUGrixis ControlUBR
BUUB MillUB
Colorless Eldrazi Tron
WRBurnRW
GUSimic MerfolkUG
UMono U TurnsU
WGGenesis Wave EnchantressGW
Love it. You have a good handle on the midrange control approach. There's balance at each angle. I'm happy to see that. Would you mind PMing me? I'm prepping for GP Charlotte. I'd like to bounce ideas with you. Are you part of my UWx community on FB yet?
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KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
this, a splash is for something like
R: keranos, crumble to dust
B: tasigur, ashiok, sorin (New?), blood baron
G: dont know
but is NOT a splash lightning bolt/inquisition of kozilek/bird of paradise, UW with bolt is jeskai, not UW splash r
And you're right, 4 red spells in the main is a light splash. It's just not a sound idea given the 4 spells are all spells that perform best in the first 3 turns when you are not adjusting your manabase sufficiently to reliably cast it. 1 cmc spells are seldom ever used as a light splash simply because they require too much accommodation in the manabase to make it worthwhile.
The difference is minor, and you'll not see it most games. It's just a consistency issue that offers little upside.
Crumble to dust can be said to be slow because it does not answer the most concerning Tron play in the turn 3 karn. Again, it is a great answer outside of that scenario - but spreading seas does most of what you want while maintaining lines of play against the worst case scenario against tron.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
I am brewing a pure UW control deck right now and even though it's in its infant stages (it runs 4x from all Mana Leak, Remand and Cryptic Command, which even I think is too much). I have seen the decklists here more midrangey-oriented, so is this not a good place to discuss this?
It's one of the best Blue cards in the format nobody would argue against that but the issue with this card is it's high mana cost. UW Control decks run many high costed spells like Supreme Verdict, Sphinx's Revelation, Restoration Angel and of course Cryptic Command so the issue of having your hand clogging with 4 drops becomes real big. You really need early interaction with your opponents so that's why you see players use couple of Remands, Mana Leaks or increase the number of early drops like Wall of Omens.
This archetype hasn't been "figured out" so you are very welcome to discuss you theory here since a lot of different UW deck lists have been showing up lately.
RBUGrixis ControlUBR
GUSimic MerfolkUG
WUUW ControlUW
RBUGrixis ControlUBR
BUUB MillUB
Colorless Eldrazi Tron
WRBurnRW
GUSimic MerfolkUG
UMono U TurnsU
WGGenesis Wave EnchantressGW
@ Erian Ignis I completely agree about Cryptic Command. I think that spell is a great reason to play this deck. I've built the mid-range UW control with finks/wall/resto, but I disliked that resto took up a 4drop slot away from cryptic (among other reasons I disliked that build). My solution is a draw-go build with the notable inclusion of Myth Realized as a finisher. Myth has been great, but it is not catching on with other players. If you want a draw-go style UW control to maximize Cryptic, I'd suggest investigating that strategy (I even get to play Serum Visions and 4x Snappy)!
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Condemn is probably the correct card to use when looking for additional copies of Path for the finks/wall/resto build.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Exactly. Draw-go is basically the way I'm going. With little to cast on my own turn and maximizing interaction. I have seen before Myth Realized as a proposed win condition. I'll try to get a couple to test it. For the time being, this is my current build:
1x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Gideon Jura
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Creatures
3x Snapcaster Mage
3x Restoration Angel
Sorceries
4x Supreme Verdict
4x Path to Exile
4x Mana Leak
4x Remand
4x Cryptic Command
1x Sphinx's Revelation
Enchantments
4x Spreading Seas
2x Detention Sphere
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Ghost Quarter
3x Island
1x Plains