I took a fun angle on this too with lots of tokenmaking planes walkers and crusade effects. Combo is plan b more than anything else. Acts as powerful ramp with some dorks out.
List is elsewhere at the moment but looks roughly like:
[Deck]
1 hangarback walker
4 noble hierarch
3 birds of paradise
1 nest invader
1 scavenging ooze
3 steward of solidarity
1 voice of resurgence
3 eternal witness
1 Kahi, minamo historian
3 Nissa, voice of zendikar
2 garruk, wildspeaker
2 Gideon, ally of zendikar
1 Elspeth, sun's champion
4 intruder alarm
4 chord of calling
2 pongify
2 path to exile
1 sprout swarm
I see a bit of talk about Gifts Ungiven here, and I think that is the ticket absolutely, but not quite as executed so far because no one has been using it for its main advantage: You can play more than 1 other creature!
Use it not only to tutor stuff, but also to clean your deck out of creatures to let Storm work! Ignore the natural draw angle (though you can still go for it if you want and hit it 33% of the time), and just rock gifts.
The package with Noxious Revival is also effective at preventing you from drawing Emrakul on the pivotal turn, which should happen about 2-3% of the time and basically lose you the game on the spot unless you can cycle it away without losing too much time.
Play that on 4 into a T5 Possibility Storm - Emrakul.
The beautiful thing about Gifts is that you can use it for value if the combo doesn't look viable due to open blue mana/etc, and just grind out the game with value. (You'll eventually need to stick either Nahiri or PStorm though, so this justifies 1 maindeck Dispel.)
Been rocking this in a Jeskai Nahiri shell and it's fantastic. Very Twin-like feel, except that the tempo game isn't great because our options are still limited.
Gifts also has obvious sideboard sweetness that you can either cut a Snapcaster for the Iona, etc., or just run both and not be too sad if you PStorm into Iona rather than Emralkul. (Presumably you only bring it in if you're sure it's basically as game-ending anyways.)
The thing the deck needs is a mana accelerant. I'm considering testing with Talisman of Progress, as leaving up Dispel/Path T2 seems like a good angle.
The list is far from tuned, as it was inherited (sideboard incl) from my previous Jeskai Nahiri deck, so some things may not be as relevant anymore.
The sideboard Endless One is to get around expected graveyard hate as you can replace Noxious Revival with it to have Gifts always hit a 0-drop while still cleaning the deck out of creatures.
Only 6 matches in, but I'm 5-1 with my only loss coming to 1-2 to Jund with a bad misclick in game 3 that saw me forego fetching an Island with Blood Moon on the stack. Game was likely mine if not as it went on 20 or so turns until he topdecked enough bolts ftw.
Did anyone ever try Ensnaring Bridge in the Trophy Mage version? Making an army of 1/1s behind a bridge is a pretty proven strategy.
3 Trophy Mage
4 Oketra's Monument
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Sword... take your pick.
Then a fourth Mage and a few 3cmc artifact bullets in the SB, like Trinisphere, Crucible of Worlds.. stuff like that?
Also - Scout's Warning? Cheap digging that plays nicely with half of our creatures. Also pairs well with Geist if we'd consider including that in a UW version.
I only tried Scarab God in my first draft of the deck and wasn't that impressed, but I never did manage to 7/10 a Master with it... may be worth trying.
I added a Noxious Gearhulk now that the meta has started to form a little, as it's a solid value card to keep up with Dino decks.
So I've been toying with something similar, but all-in on Marionette Master for the win, and not touching Revel in Riches. It's competitive enough, having gone 9-3 in the last 3 days against primarily tier decks, and I'm not a skilled Standard pilot as I'm an outsider to the format (Modern player normally, but rotation calls.)
I'm using all kind of artifacts that can be sacrificed, not just treasures, and building it as a tap-out control-combo deck.
The neatest thing about it that I don't think too many people have realized yet is that you don't need 5 treasures for the win, you only need 2 or 3 if you also have Tezzeret too, as you can use his -2 to make Marionette Master up to a 9/1 and drain like you mean it.
Deck is for real. Top tier, probably not, but someone with better knowledge of the format can probably take this as a starting point and make a big deal out of it.
Terrarion also nets a mana off KCI, which is relevant.
I've been playing my weird version with Scrap Trawler and loving it. 4 Opals since you get to recur one every time you sac a 1-mana egg. 3 Blooms, 4 reshape, 2 Whir. Currently I switch between Banefire and Ballista as my win con, but I also like Underhanded Designs as a more resilient version of Reckless Fireweaver. Aetherflux Reservoir also sounds very neat, but I think I prefer Ballista as the artifact-based kill (can't whir for it directly, but can recur it from the yard with Scrap Trawler), and neither gets past Leyline, so... personally I think I prefer interaction over life gain, but I can see the case for either.
I've just posted an article to MTGCanada.com with a new spicy build of Eggs. The key four differences are:
1. Yes, it uses Whir. Yes, I've read the discussion about Whir vs. Reshape. Reshape allows for more turn 3 kills, but Whir is just WAY more powerful overall, as you can actually interact for once with instant speed tutors for things like Pithing Needle, etc., and being able to use it at EOT gives us a greatly improved game against decks that interact with us (basically renders Remand useless).
2. Inventor's Fair. I think some people were already running it anyways, but it is wonderful.
3. Speaking of interaction, I replaced Banefire/Grapeshot/Conjurer's Bauble looks with Walking Ballista. Deals 40+ damage just as well, and can be played mid-game to interact with things. You can also Whir for Ballista, and yes, it goes right into the graveyard, but that's okay because....
4. Scrap Trawler. Oh. My. God. This thing is a tutorable Faith's Return. Just think about how this works when you're sacrificing Wellsprings, Stars, and Mox Opals. Resolving one of these while going off makes the whole thing basically bulletproof. And yeah, like I mentioned, if you're in a pinch to get your wincon but might fizzle out on draws anyways, pitch a Ballista into the graveyard with X=0, recur it with Scrap Trawler, play it, and win.
Another sweet thing about Scrap Trawler? Your opponent tries to Shatterstorm you. You have 7-8 artifacts out. Whir for Scrap Trawler.
Anyways, enough babbling, here's the link. I've been winning like crazy with it in the last few days since I worked the kinks out.
I personally think more aggro/tempo is the way to go with the deck right now. Bedlam Reveler is too good not to play. You are also correct about the tron matchup. The tron matchup is a lot easier than it used to be with the more midrange version. I have had a couple people ask how Geist worked in the main and he has actually been great. He is basically part of the second wave of attacks (Geist, Bedlam Reveler, and Snapcaster to some extent). Once they spend their removal on Delver/Swiftspear we can land a Reveler or Geist and end the game. My deck is a little different because I utilize some lesser played cards in Distortion Strike and Unsubstantiate (was playing one Emerge Unscathed, but went to Twisted Image). They help the game one win percentage and then I can side into a tempo deck with specific hate for the opponent post board.
I think Bedlam Reveler will bring the delver archetype back to tier 1 or 2 in modern and I also think that Jeskai is the best shell for Reveler given all of the burn and protection it offers. I do have to run less counter magic than I would like, but with Izzet Charm and Unsubstantiate I can squeeze in 5-6 "counter spells" in total and maintain a very aggressive approach. I prefer Spell Pierce and Remand as my counter spells of choice in the more aggressive versions of the deck, however some do prefer Mana Leak and Spell Snare I wouldn't say that was wrong in any way, just a matter of preference.
A card I would like to hear other player's opinion on is Thought Scour. I have never liked this card and I still can't bring myself to play it in my deck even with Reveler and Snapcaster. I have just always prefered Serum Visions and Gitaxian Probe as my cantrips. I also feel we get 4-6 spells in the graveyard fairly quickly so I don't think thought scour is necessary. How do others feel about Thought Scour?
I'm glad to see the WUR delver activity is booming again and hopefully we will see the deck pop up in some major tournaments shortly!
The deck has been running very well lately.
Thanks for the comments, and I like your take on the deck a lot.
A key difference between our decks is the 4 copies of Young Pyromancer in mine. Relying on YP as your main source of offense, the value of cantrips like Remand shoot through the roof. I would actually love to run Mana Leak instead, but I've found that sticking an early YP and cantripping all day is my version of Geist, in terms of aggro.
There is certainly some awkwardness with that though, as I can't afford to play very many sorcery-speed effects. With the exception of playing an early YP, I seldom ever tap low on my own turn, which makes Geist an awkward inclusion for me.
I think you have 100% the right approach on Reveler, though. Dedicated counters are bad with it, and you're far better off churning through spells to fill up the yard. However consider that this direction pushes you towards the benefits of Thought Scour, which is a card more suited to Grixis lists than Jeskai, because of the Delve bodies you can power out with it. This also complements Prowess creatures arguably better than Jeskai, and Terminate is a major upgrade over Lightning Helix in over 70% of matches if you're leaning more on your creatures for damage than your spells.
I think that's actually going to be my next angle on the deck. Going into black also has a lot of benefits in a meta that is likely to become heavy in Dredge, as it doesn't get any better than Nihil Spellbomb when it comes to matching prowess with grave hate.
Newlamog is definitely annoying, but Tron is a reasonable matchup because of how well we can slow them down otherwise, and how quickly we can kill them due to their lack of early board presence. Remanding it is definitely a low-value play, but it's one of those "you gotta do what you gotta do" moves.
And frankly, Pathing it isn't the best plan in the world either. Game plan vs Tron is aggro. Newlamog doesn't do stink-all vs 5+ pyromancer tokens. Twisted Image is on average better to take out dorks, Wall of Omens/Roots, and the occasional main-board Spellskite, while cantripping. Cantrips are just too good with Snap, Pyro, and Reveler.
If you decide to play it, the shortcut lessons to success are to never cast Young Pyromancer unless you can get a token out of it (even if it's just T2 cast + Git Probe). You can ride a 1/1 token a surprisingly long distance. But T3 w/ Spell Pierce/Dispel is where you really want to me.
Second biggie is that Snapcaster on defense is incredible, particularly with Electrolyze. If you're facing X/4s and X/5s, this is your Plan A route to victory.
Finally, don't be afraid to take some big-body-beats. It's usually worth taking the 4 damage from a Goyf and holding Vapor Snag until EOT, rather than preventing damage with it.
You will also never feel in control of the game, except against things like Affinity and Infect where your game plan is to make them most first. Otherwise you're just barely keeping your opponent off-step and pecking in damage until they're in bolt-snap-bolt range.
Not the more powerful deck I've ever played, but by far the most fun I've had since the 90s.
Overall, very happy with the performance. Used every sideboard card, won the matches I was supposed to win (plus Eldrazi D&T), lost the matches I was supposed to lose, and split the matches I was supposed to be 50/50-ish in. Wouldn't mind the second affinity match back, but sometimes Arcbound Ravager is Arcbound Ravager.
Anyways, I hope this is interesting.
I lost the die roll, but won the deck roll. Bolts versus fish was a very gentle welcome to the event.
I blindly kept an interaction-heavy seven with two lands, and he went down to six and opened with the ideal Island – Aether Vial. Gee, I wonder.
I cast Serum Visions, leave a third land on top and bottom a Remand. He plays a Silvergill Adept which I can’t Helix on my turn with his Vial on 1 (in case of Cursecatcher), so I pass. Thankfully, he ticks the Vial up to two and flashes in a lord while the Adept attacks, and I get to Helix the lord and net a life.
He plays another Adept and passes, and I get to stick a Young Pyromancer with Vapor Snag up to let my Elemental token trade for one of his adepts, despite him vialing in another lord. The game was looking bad for him, and getting the the Path to Exile he pointed at my Pyromancer hit with a Spell Pierce led him to scoop with 13 life still left.
In game two I’m blessed with a similarly interactive hand, and am able to effectively spend my first three turns bolt, helix, snap-bolting his threats to untap on turn four with his board reduced to a Mutavault and a Silvergill Adept and my life total kept high at 15.
My turn four Young Pyromancer quickly ate a Gut Shot, but not before making a token off a Gitaxian Probe. Seeing a hand still ripe with two-mana lords, I cast an Engineered Explosives on two and passed the turn back.
This put us in a favorable lock for the next few turns, as he wouldn’t swing his 2/1 into my 1/1, nor would he take his Vial off two until I cracked the Explosives. I could handle his three-drops and Mutavaults with removal, as I continued to craft my hand, and a low-devotion Master of Waves isn’t something I’m scared of.
Eventually I played another Pyromancer and had enough ammunition to make a small token army, and he was forced to play multiple bodies on defense, giving me enough reason to crack the explosives.
The tables were almost turned with an aggressive sequence though, where he cast a Lord of Atlantis and then flashed in Master of Waves on my end step (and I immediately Pathed the latter), and then next turn cast a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and a vialed in a second Master of Waves on his own turn, making five tokens to equal my own.
I couldn’t actually deal with the second Master without first killing Kira, as despite having two Snapcasters in hand, I only get one shot at Snap-Path in my one-Path deck. I awkwardly couldn’t Helix-Snap-Bolt it because my only remaining land would be a fetch which I’d need to Spell Snare his Negate I’d seen twelve or so turns ago - but I’d just put a Vapor Snag on top of my library as another way to deal with Masters, and I couldn’t afford to shuffle it away.
Had I not thought this through thoroughly, I could have misstepped here and cost myself the game, but thankfully it was early in the day and my wits were still sharp.
I untapped, drew the Snag, used it to hit Kira’s shield, then Helixed her, Snap-Pathed the Master, Spell Snared the Negate, swung to bring him to three, and sat back happily with Snap-Bolt up next turn as he optimistically cast yet another token-making four-drop.
Generally speaking, the more four-plus toughness creatures my opponent has, the worse I am. Make them uncounterable with Aether Vial and Cavern of Souls, and the situation quickly gets worse. Despite him going down to six on the play, I wasn't feeling good about my odds when he curved a Vial into a Tidehollow Sculler, taking my Lightning Helix.
I played a Young Pyromancer, hoping to Electrolyze the Sculler and get my bolt back, but a second Sculler stripped me of that option, and a follow-up pair of Thought-Knot Seers (thankfully one of which I got to Remand for a turn) kept me low on removal.
However I was rich in cantrips, and was able to frustrate his offense enough with chump blockers for the 4/4s that he came in with the 2/2s as well and forced me to trade off my Pyromancer to avoid death. This proved to be a huge mistake, as reclaiming my Electrolyze was the catalyst to a sequence of events where I also got back the helix, Snap-block-helixed one Thought-Knot and survived the other at two life, and quickly took the game back over with a second Pyromancer and a little luck not sending a Reality Smasher my way.
Match two was less dramatic by far. I kept a seven with a Pyro, Spell Snare for his Sculler, a bolt, and several draw spells.
He didn't lead with a vial, and his turn two and three Leonin Arbiters ate removal rather than the Snare, and I effortlessly overwhelmed him with elemental tokens and Vapor Snags to keep the board clear and my Pyro safe from attempted Wasteland Strangler takedowns.
He didn't hit me once, and I took myself down to 14, then back up to 19.
We exchanged sideboard swaps after the match and he showed me that he removed all three Reality Smashers, presumably playing around the countermagic I lightened up on. With eight-plus disruption spells, this seemed like a massive miscalculation. Never do this.
I dread this matchup, but thankfully my opponent has a delightful Southern drawl that somehow eases the suffering. It's a tough match to win in the first place, and it became immediately apparent that he also knew his deck extremely well, as he made a lot of very smart control decisions.
Game one I'm on the draw yet again, and despite a good seven, it's a value blowout in his favour. I try to be the aggressor, but there’s only so much of a board I can develop through Kolaghan’s Command before he plays a T4 Kalitas. I have the Vapor Snag for it, and a Snapcaster and Remand in hand too, but I can only play that game so long. Instead though, he doesn’t replay it, and goes for a Tasigur with mana up instead, which I can only afford to Remand once because of the Kalitas I can’t let resolve. I don’t have enough tokens to swing through the 4/5, and he Cryptic Commands my attempt to take it down on defense with blocks + bolt, and it’s all downhill from there.
Sideboarding here is awkward, because on the play I certainly have a chance at winning aggressively, but I also need to plan for the likelihood of the game going long. For example, I’d like to keep my Spell Pierces to protect an early Pyromancer, but it’s effectively card disadvantage after turn 4-5, outside of picking off a greedy Cryptic Command.
I did manage to come out of the gate hot with a Grim Lavamancer and a Young Pyro that made a few tokens before eating a Terminate, but he stabilized at seven life with enough mana up that I couldn’t just aggressively throw bolts at him. He had resolved two Ancestral Visions, so if I was going to win any counter wars, it would be on efficiency rather than attrition.
After getting him down to four, and sitting at eight myself, I bolted him at the end of his turn, trying to commit his resources to a counter war I thought I might win and see if I could topdeck another point of burn FTW. It was a bit of a longshot, but I was losing soon if I didn’t try.
My hand was bolt, Surgical Extraction, Spell Snare, Dispel, and Gitaxian Probe.
What resulted was the largest stack I’ve ever been involved in while playing Modern.
<ul>
<ul>
<ol>
<li>I bolted him.</li>
<li>He cast Snapcaster Mage, which I let resolve, targeting his Countersquall.</li>
<li>I cast Surgical Extraction, targeting Countersquall, going down to a critical six in doing so.</li>
<li>Before that resolved, he bolted me, which I let resolve and went down to three.</li>
<li>He cast another Snapcaster Mage, which I Spell Snared.</li>
<li>He cast another Snapcaster Mage, which I let resolve, targeting his Lightning Bolt.</li>
<li>He flashed back his second Bolt for lethal, which I dispelled.</li>
</ol>
</ul>
</ul>
Ten spells later, everything else resolved, leaving him with two Snapcasters on the board, at one life, a deck stripped of Countersqualls, and tapped out with a revealed hand of Kolaghan’s Command and Tasigur, and me at three with an empty board and only a Gitaxian Probe in hand. On one hand, I’m now dead if I draw blank, but on the other, him having a board also makes a Vapor Snag lethal.
I untapped and drew a promising Serum Visions, cast it drawing a land and seeing two more, cast the Probe, drawing another, and casting that to draw a Remand and extend the handshake.
The kicker is that early in this game, I had trouble calculating what to do with my Lavamancer - attack for one or shock for two - and naturally there was at least one instance in which attacking was the wrong call. As has been the case in testing with this deck, tight decisions around single points of damage often wind up mattering.
Frankly though, I was okay not going to a third game, as my odds were low, and this was a taxing match.
Yet again, I'm on the draw, but yet again I get to keep a decent seven. Still, a decent seven is little match for a turn two 7/1 Vault Skirge.
To make matters worse, he plays a turn three Ornithopter and Arcbound Ravager which I point a bolt at as soon as he attacks, leaving up a fetch for the emergency Vapor Snag.
If he wanted to maintain decent stats on the swinging Skirge, his choices were nothing, a 4/4 Ravager, or a 3/5 Ornithopter. Given that I looked like a Path-rich deck at this point, he wisely went the Thopter way, and I snagged it and went down to 8 from the Skirge, Snap-bolting it the next turn while he couldn't afford the BB to move the Plating over to a Blinkmoth.
I gradually let him peck me down to five, and tested his one-land hand for Galvanic Blast by fetching myself down to four but with Lightning Helix mana up. It worked like a charm, and I got to Snap-Helix my way back up to six before taking the game over with the Bedlam Reveler that had been weighing my hand down for a long time.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Bedlam Reveler (but thank you for your hard work), 1 Spell Pierce
In: 2 Engineered Explosives, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Twisted Image
Game two was a different affair, as I Vapor Snagged the early 6/1 Vault Skirge again, which he couldn't immediately replay. That was the perfect window for me to stick a Pyromancer and go off with tokens, comfortably taking 4-5 damage per turn from a Signal Pest and some Nexii, and outracing him down to zero on turn six.
As an aside, this was the third consecutive match in which I'd been asked "... what deck are you playing?!?". <i>Ooooooooh</i> that tickles me in a very special way.
I roll a twelve, he rolls a twelve. I roll a ten, he rolls a twelve. That's magic, I guess.
Leading with a tapped Sacred Foundry, I'm misled to believe I'm facing Jeskai Control, but thankfully don't have the Serum Visions to prompt a fetch-shock start. Instead he sticks a turn-two Eidolon of the Great Revel, which I get to fetch a basic and bolt, going down to 17.
I play a Young Pyromancer as a defensive investment, and he follows up with a second Eidolon and a Lava Spike to the dome. I untap, lead with a Lightning Helix, and start enacting Plan A, winning the game at 10 life a few turns later.
He leads with a Monastery Swiftspear and starts chipping away. My early Grim Lavamancer is met with a Searing Blaze, and my 18-land deck is failing exactly how you would expect it to versus a pair of Goblin Guides.
I manage to stabilize the board with an Engineered Explosives and Dispel mana up, but I can't counter the Lava Spike and he outwaits me with his Skullcrack versus my Helix.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 1 Remand
In: 1 Spreading Seas
I'm tempted with just a Steam Vents for land with two bolts and a Burst Lightning, but I can't take that risk. Top two cards are land of course, but so it goes.
Instead I keep a questionable six with two Snapcasters and only a Vapor Snag for removal, but it's playable enough.
He doesn't have any early threats, and I get to Spell Snare a turn two Eidolon, but I'm drawing bolts and so is he, and that doesn't bode well for me. I stick a Snapcaster just to have presence on board and it's quickly met with a predictable Searing Blaze.
I don't damage him once until I double-bolt him on the stack of my own impending death.
I learned an interesting thing from my opponent while discussing sideboards, as he told me that he boarded out a lot of his creatures against me in game three, realizing that he was better suited to trade spells for damage than spells for spells. Pretty clever, <i>for a burn player</i>. *cue arguments*
On the plus side, I improved to four consecutive "What are you playing" comments, so in my own special way I'm 4-1, not 3-2.
Ideally I don't want a third loss, so I'm now faced with the challenge to win four straight. Opening with a Sacred Foundry into a Grim Lavamancer (him, not me) - I'm not entirely sure what I'm up against, but quickly feel a pit in my stomach as the Goblin Guides come out.
Burn is actually a half-decent matchup for me though, so despite my recent loss, I'm confident that I can Helix my way out of this one. Indeed I do, and coast my way to victory on the back of a Snapcaster and my own Lavamancer clearing the way.
Despite what I learned from the last match, there isn't really a different sideboarding angle I can take, so I repeat the same and cross my fingers for success.
I don't draw any way to gain life this time, but a hand with red and blue spells does the trick just as well too sometimes. I luck into my Lavamancer again and control his board at little cost, and get some absurd value off Dispel and Spell Pierce as he tries to go for the Searing Blaze twice.
An Electrolyze goes upstairs because the board is empty, and I bolt-snap-bolt him out of the game in no time, surviving with ten life.
This guy doesn't seem to care what it is I'm playing, so I'm now 4-2 either way you want to look at it.
This deck specializes in efficiently dealing with smaller threats. Tarmogoyfs, Liliana of the Veil, and Kalitas are a bit of a different story, and Scavenging Ooze is no walk in the park either.
It's not the worst matchup in the world, but a third Spell Snare was a contender for the sideboard for this matchup alone, to give you a idea of the challenge. It's certainly possible to tempo Jund out, but it requires some early offense before focusing on interacting, as going 1-for-1 all game is a losing proposal.
Game one delivered as expected. A turn one Inquisition of Kozilek grabbed an Electrolyze, and with my turn two Young Pyromancer getting hit with a Terminate, I was behind early and found it difficult to catch up. Similar to my Eldrazi D&T matchup, I did manage to very effectively use Snapcaster Mage on defense, though, with the block-bolt approach, taking down Kalitas without going down a card. In doing so, I was holding on better than expected.
Eventually, though, I was overrun by Raging Ravines. This was likely going to happen eventually either way, but it's worth noting that I made the massive gaffe here of letting the Ravine get a +1/+1 counter and move itself out of bolt range. I didn't leave up enough mana to flashback a bolt for the first one, and had to rely on Snap-Block-Bolt the turn after instead. The impact of being down the extra 2/1 body was devastating, as the second Ravine also got to grow to 4/4, definitively out of range at that point.
Played correctly, there's a 33% chance I'd turn that game around. Whoops.
Game two started strong for me, as I resolved a Young Pyro on turn two with a follow up Gitaxian Probe for the token. It immediately met its Terminate fate, but that effectively put me ahead a turn, and I'd gotten to see that my opponent only had a third land in hand, so Spreading Seas was about to do some work.
I had the Spell Pierce for Liliana, so I decided to limit his green rather than his black, and was happy to lock down a Raging Ravine at the same time. With Vapor Snags and Remands at the ready, I gave his Tarmogoyf a ride to bounceytown, and slowly chipped away at him until I had him down to five and he'd stabilized the board. I cast Bedlam Reveler into its immediate Terminate-ion, but its effect drew me a bolt, so I was just waiting on another burn spell or a Snapcaster to seal the deal.
And I waited, and I waited as the lands flooded in. His board quickly outsized mine, and he took me down to two after I'd drawn land three turns in a row. I threw my bolt at him to take him to two at his end step because why not, and shrugged as I flipped over my top card: Burst Lightning. Playing with flair achievement unlocked.
Game three was unfortunately far less interesting. I had to mulligan down to six, and had an average-at-best hand greeted with Inquisition-Tarmogoyf-Inquisition-Inquisition.
I stalled the game out a bit with Snapcasters and managed to peck him down to ten, but this was a quick one.
All of my Valakut-based testing had been against Prime Time variants, so I wasn't sure what to expect against the traditional spell-based approach, but this turned out to be a walk in the park. In part, it was because tempoing out Scapeshift and Cryptic Command is easy, but it was made even easier by drawing five Young Pyromancers over the first five turns of both games combined.
Game one I went first against his mull to six and resolved Pyros on turns two and three, and with a glut of Gitaxian Probes at the ready, I managed to get the elusive turn four kill. (Shocked himself for three, three pyro attacks for six, five elemental attacks for five, and a pair of bolts for the final six.)
Noteworthy observation was seeing him play a Prismatic Omen.
Yes, I forgot to bring in my Dispels against a blue control deck. I'm not accustomed to playing eight rounds of Magic, so my head was a bit scrambled at this point. (Note: Don't eat the convention centre food - it doesn't help!)
Thankfully, my opponent decided his best odds were to shave down his countermagic game and focus on getting his lands online as early as possible, as he later showed me he pulled out a pair of Cryptics, among other cards.
I had a slow but keepable start, and did my first four-five points of damage with an attacking Lavamancer while attacking his ramp spells and Prismatic Omen with counters.
I chopped him down to seven with a helix at he end of his turn, putting myself up to 19 and out of range should he survive to make his seventh land drop and Scapeshift me. He wouldn't though, as I had Bolt-Bolt-Burst Lightning up next turn, and got to do the fun Remand-your-own-spell thing against his counter-lethal Negate, recasting my burn for the easy win.
He got his revenge during side events the next day though, where I got stuck on three lands without white (and three helices in hand), and then two lands, as he threw mountains at me without any resistance.
As I mentioned before, I went into this match knowing that odds were reasonable for me to make day two if I won it, so a lot was riding on it and I did my best to pull what remaining mental faculties I had together.
I won the draw and shocked myself to cast a Serum Visions, filling my hand up with bolt effects. I was pretty happy when his first turn was just a land, a Mox Opal, a Springleaf Drum, and a Vault Skirge, as I had blindly crafted a strong anti-affinity start.
The Skirge died immediately, but what I didn't anticipate happening was him following it up with three consecutive Etched Champions. I couldn't turn off Metalcraft, thanks to his other artifacts being noncreature, and my offensive game was hiding elsewhere in my deck, so I quickly died while doing almost nothing.
I don't recall my rationale for sideboading slightly differently this time, but I know I'd become more careful with Probes as the day went on.
Game two can only be described as epic. It was the longest game I'd played against affinity ever, and there were multiple turns where one of us couldn't kill the other because of one <i>something</i> - damage, blocker, or mana.
The beginning didn't go overly well for me, as he had an early Cranial Plating on an Ornithopter, but I was able to Wear // Tear the Plating and keep his board under control... atleast until he drew into back-to-back Etched Champions again, demonstrating the rare scenario in which Remand can matter against Affinity.
I responded with back to back Pyromancer-Snap-Helix-Pyromancer, though, and amassed a defense which was adequate to stop his attacks by having him dead on the crackback if he attacked with anything at all, if I had any playable, even though I couldn't block anything. The trouble was, the same was true in reverse.
His board was two Etched Champions, an Inkmoth Nexus, a Blinkmoth Nexus, a Memnite and an Ornithopter. He was at five. Mine was two Young Pyros, a Snapcaster, and one elemental token, and soon-to-be more. I was at eleven.
My plan was to simply hold back until I could make another pair of tokens, but I'd drawn two consecutive Spell Pierces and had no targets to cast them. I'd have Pierced my own bolt at this point (and paid for it), just for the extra bodies.
Before I could draw something relevant though, I was that interrupted by his one perfect draw: Cranial Plating. With a Springleaf Drum in play, he could equip and deal twelve to send me packing. Except that he only had eight mana available, and would need to activate at least one of his X-Moth Nexii in order to get the required 11 power. So I Spell Pierced it once, and he paid it, and then again, and had him realize that paying for the second and the equip cost would leave him short the mana to make the lands into an artifact for the full pump and would leave me at one, and that actually paying for the Spell Pierce at all would leave him dead thanks to tapping a blocker for the Springleaf (no longer a maybe, thanks to the new elementals). So the late game Spell Pierces somehow mattered, and I got to untap unscathed, now with five elementals.
I drew an Electrolyze, and started doing the math. Any way I sliced it though, I was one off too. I could attack in and get two through, and burn him down to one. I could kill either the Thopter or one of the manlands (the Inkmoth made them both effectively 2/2), get in for three, and have him down to two. Further damage on top would do it, but I didn't want to chance it. Similarly, though, I didn't want to chance another Plating situation, so I needed to cut down his artifact numbers either way, so I attacked with everything. He blocked the Pyros with his Champions, the Snapcaster with the Memnite, and three of the five elementals with the rest.
I needed to cast the Electrolyze before the Pyros died, but I gambled that he'd give me a good opportunity to do so, and he did by pumping the Blinkmoth. In response, I Electrolyzed it for one and him for one, leaving him with only the Champions and the Thopter and at two life, and myself with only four elemental tokens (still one too few), and praying for a bolt on top.
I got a fetch. But at least he was now attacking for a maximum of nine, and was dead if he attacked with anything.
I played the fetch and cracked it to go down to ten at his end of turn, and asked him to topdeck me something nice. It was a bit of a convoluted finish, but it worked out. I drew a Bedlam Reveler, cast it for two, drew two lands and an Engineered Explosives, set it on three, blew it up, and swung through for lethal.
PHEW.
<u>No addition sideboarding for game three</u> (As we had five minutes on the clock and neither of us would survive a draw.)
I was worried about speed on this one, so I happily accepted a hand of seven with two Pyromancers and some cantrips, hoping to go on early offense.
He started, though, and did the thing everyone hates Affinity for: He dumped his entire hand of seven cards on the table, and said go. Land, Mox Opal, Ornithopter, Two Memnites, Springleaf Drum, and Vault Skirge. Thankfully none of these were immediately threatening, but suddenly my Pyromancer plan didn't look so hot.
I drew a timely bolt, and hoped to stifle his life gaining plans at the very least.
But everything fell apart when he topdecks and played an Arcbound Ravager. I bolted the Skirge, knowing I could bluff the Vapor Snag to prevent him from wrecking me with the Ravager.
It worked, but the only problem now is that I needed to hold blue mana up until I could deliver on the promise. He drew another Skirge, and a Plating the turn after it, and my plan fell to pieces. My bluff lasted long enough to take us to turn five or six, but there were still two minutes left in the round when I died with him above thirty.
For those wondering, I managed to finish 5-4 at SCG Syracuse this past weekend. Full writeup will be available on MTGCanada.com tomorrow. I'll come back and post a link. Deck performed well. Pilot performed so-so. Day two required 6-2-1 or better, and I think that's the absolute best I could have hoped for given the matchups I got. (Grixis Control is unbeatable, Jund is hard, Affinity/Burn are coin-flips, the rest are doable, and Merfolk is a walk in the park.)
I think that the issue with running more bolt effects in straight izzet is that most of them are bad.
Lava spike isn't where we want to be, and while shard volley is maybe playable, its still not ideal. Lightning helix just blows them all out of the water.
Being able to close a game out with bolts in grixis control vs jeskai control is night and day, specifically because you have more playable damage, and I think to some extent, here as well.
On the other hand, mana tithe and boros charm are two pretty cool reasons to be in white right now.
Tithe doesn't play the best with path, but if you're all in on swiftspear/guide/delver/etc, its a fairly solid choice.
I really am curious to see how bedlam reveler fairs for you, because I'm still not sold on it in counter-heavy decks, but with only a single copy, you could do worse.
Agreed on Reveler. There are some very awkward moments where I'm holding it and a Remand and I really need the Remand, so I pass the turn and my opponent does nothing. Lesson learned is that if I'm behind on board, I don't have a choice. If I'm ahead though, or at parity, I'm happy to wait until Remand has a good target, blow out the rest of my hand, and then slam the Reveler next turn. It's a very good card, but makes you work for it. I was trying to find room for a second in the board, but decided in the end it was a bad idea.
If you want to beat aggro, you're better off just running more Bolt effects in UR (and maybe reaching into something like Dragon's Claw for the SB) than splashing white for Helix IMO. Good luck tomorrow.
Currently, you might be right. Deck was designed during the Wild Nacatl/Kird Ape surge of this spring, so 3 damage mattered. 3 still matters when it goes upstairs though, so we'll see! Thanks.
So I initially started playing this deck because Zoo/Burn and Infect was everywhere, and Lightning Helix is just incredible against them. Over time, I got good at the deck, and learned how to play it well even as the meta has shifted into a less favourable (but still decent) place. This is really a counter-burn deck, harkening back to the old days of the game, and Lightning Helix is the key piece to helping us win the race.
Regarding problem creatures - as a traditionally control player, I had the same feeling about Goyfs at first, but I've realized over time that I've really underestimated the value of Snapcaster Mage in this deck, as it effectively turns all your burn spells into 5 damage when you're on defense, helping to overcome the card disadvantage of having to deal with Goyf, Tasigur, and Finks. Meanwhile, my preferred method of dealing with these creatures is simply by chumping with elemental tokens. It's certainly possible to get overrun in a multiple-goyf scenario, but the deck is packed with ways of delaying your opponent's beatdown while poking in and praying for decent topdecks (which frankly is almost every draw - it is alarmingly consistent).
You make a good point though, that if you're not going to play Path (which you rightly identified as being best with efficient ground attackers), and lightning helix isn't important in the meta, sticking to UR is certainly a better option. My deck is unique in that it doesn't play Delver , and to be honest in straight UR I don't think I would either (imo it's just not a card without brainstorm). Using my list as an example, Swiftspears would replace the Lavamancer, the Clique, and two Helices, and the remaining two Helices and Path would be replaced by something like Forked Bolt-4th Vapor Snag-Staggershock. I could see cutting the Spell Pierces too.
Anyways, all that said, I'm going to do my best at SCG Syracuse tomorrow to disprove your statement that Jeskai Delver is so bad.
This is a matter of debate, but I'm of the view that Path is tempo-negative. It's a more complex calculation than [cost of thing being killed] - [cost of kill spell] when there's other factors at play. If I Path a Goyf on T2 (a bad idea - at least wait for upkeep, but for the sake of the example), they can untap and cast two more Goyfs. All of a sudden, I've put their ability to play their game further ahead of mine than it already was. That to me is tempo-negative. Path is a good deal on the turn you play it, but bites you in the ass soon thereafter.
For the same reason, I would describe any ramp spells as tempo-positive.
List is elsewhere at the moment but looks roughly like:
[Deck]
1 hangarback walker
4 noble hierarch
3 birds of paradise
1 nest invader
1 scavenging ooze
3 steward of solidarity
1 voice of resurgence
3 eternal witness
1 Kahi, minamo historian
3 Nissa, voice of zendikar
2 garruk, wildspeaker
2 Gideon, ally of zendikar
1 Elspeth, sun's champion
4 intruder alarm
4 chord of calling
2 pongify
2 path to exile
1 sprout swarm
21 lands
Gifts package: Noxious Revival, Snapcaster Mage, Walking Ballista, Hangarback Walker.
Use it not only to tutor stuff, but also to clean your deck out of creatures to let Storm work! Ignore the natural draw angle (though you can still go for it if you want and hit it 33% of the time), and just rock gifts.
The package with Noxious Revival is also effective at preventing you from drawing Emrakul on the pivotal turn, which should happen about 2-3% of the time and basically lose you the game on the spot unless you can cycle it away without losing too much time.
Play that on 4 into a T5 Possibility Storm - Emrakul.
The beautiful thing about Gifts is that you can use it for value if the combo doesn't look viable due to open blue mana/etc, and just grind out the game with value. (You'll eventually need to stick either Nahiri or PStorm though, so this justifies 1 maindeck Dispel.)
Been rocking this in a Jeskai Nahiri shell and it's fantastic. Very Twin-like feel, except that the tempo game isn't great because our options are still limited.
Gifts also has obvious sideboard sweetness that you can either cut a Snapcaster for the Iona, etc., or just run both and not be too sad if you PStorm into Iona rather than Emralkul. (Presumably you only bring it in if you're sure it's basically as game-ending anyways.)
The thing the deck needs is a mana accelerant. I'm considering testing with Talisman of Progress, as leaving up Dispel/Path T2 seems like a good angle.
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Walking Ballista
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Spells:
1 Dispel
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Noxious Revival
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
1 Izzet Charm
1 Lightning Helix
4 Remand
1 Electrolyze
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Possibility Storm
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Desolate Lighthouse
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Snow-Covered Island
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Mountain
3 Celestial Colonnade
1 Arid Mesa
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Spreading Seas
1 Terastodon
1 Izzet Charm
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Unburial Rites
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Dispel
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Celestial Purge
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Wear // Tear
1 Endless One
1 Timely Reinforcements
The list is far from tuned, as it was inherited (sideboard incl) from my previous Jeskai Nahiri deck, so some things may not be as relevant anymore.
The sideboard Endless One is to get around expected graveyard hate as you can replace Noxious Revival with it to have Gifts always hit a 0-drop while still cleaning the deck out of creatures.
Only 6 matches in, but I'm 5-1 with my only loss coming to 1-2 to Jund with a bad misclick in game 3 that saw me forego fetching an Island with Blood Moon on the stack. Game was likely mine if not as it went on 20 or so turns until he topdecked enough bolts ftw.
3 Trophy Mage
4 Oketra's Monument
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Sword... take your pick.
Then a fourth Mage and a few 3cmc artifact bullets in the SB, like Trinisphere, Crucible of Worlds.. stuff like that?
Also - Scout's Warning? Cheap digging that plays nicely with half of our creatures. Also pairs well with Geist if we'd consider including that in a UW version.
I added a Noxious Gearhulk now that the meta has started to form a little, as it's a solid value card to keep up with Dino decks.
I'm 13-3 in testing so far!
I'm using all kind of artifacts that can be sacrificed, not just treasures, and building it as a tap-out control-combo deck.
Check it out:
2 Walking Ballista
4 Sailor of Means
2 Prosperous Pirates
3 Marionette Master
Artifacts:
2 Renegade Map
4 Traveler's Amulet
4 Metalspinner's Puzzleknot
Planeswalker:
4 Tezzeret, the Schemer
Removal:
3 Fatal Push
3 Battle at the Bridge
3 Yahenni's Expertise
1 Search for Azcanta
4 Reverse Engineer
Land:
5 Island
6 Swamp
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Fetid Pools
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Walking Ballista
3 Duress
2 Vraska's Contempt
1 Fatal Push
2 Prosperous Pirates
2 Herald of Anguish
1 Battle at the Bridge
1 Depths of Desire
1 Marionette Master
The neatest thing about it that I don't think too many people have realized yet is that you don't need 5 treasures for the win, you only need 2 or 3 if you also have Tezzeret too, as you can use his -2 to make Marionette Master up to a 9/1 and drain like you mean it.
Deck is for real. Top tier, probably not, but someone with better knowledge of the format can probably take this as a starting point and make a big deal out of it.
I've been playing my weird version with Scrap Trawler and loving it. 4 Opals since you get to recur one every time you sac a 1-mana egg. 3 Blooms, 4 reshape, 2 Whir. Currently I switch between Banefire and Ballista as my win con, but I also like Underhanded Designs as a more resilient version of Reckless Fireweaver. Aetherflux Reservoir also sounds very neat, but I think I prefer Ballista as the artifact-based kill (can't whir for it directly, but can recur it from the yard with Scrap Trawler), and neither gets past Leyline, so... personally I think I prefer interaction over life gain, but I can see the case for either.
I've just posted an article to MTGCanada.com with a new spicy build of Eggs. The key four differences are:
1. Yes, it uses Whir. Yes, I've read the discussion about Whir vs. Reshape. Reshape allows for more turn 3 kills, but Whir is just WAY more powerful overall, as you can actually interact for once with instant speed tutors for things like Pithing Needle, etc., and being able to use it at EOT gives us a greatly improved game against decks that interact with us (basically renders Remand useless).
2. Inventor's Fair. I think some people were already running it anyways, but it is wonderful.
3. Speaking of interaction, I replaced Banefire/Grapeshot/Conjurer's Bauble looks with Walking Ballista. Deals 40+ damage just as well, and can be played mid-game to interact with things. You can also Whir for Ballista, and yes, it goes right into the graveyard, but that's okay because....
4. Scrap Trawler. Oh. My. God. This thing is a tutorable Faith's Return. Just think about how this works when you're sacrificing Wellsprings, Stars, and Mox Opals. Resolving one of these while going off makes the whole thing basically bulletproof. And yeah, like I mentioned, if you're in a pinch to get your wincon but might fizzle out on draws anyways, pitch a Ballista into the graveyard with X=0, recur it with Scrap Trawler, play it, and win.
Another sweet thing about Scrap Trawler? Your opponent tries to Shatterstorm you. You have 7-8 artifacts out. Whir for Scrap Trawler.
Anyways, enough babbling, here's the link. I've been winning like crazy with it in the last few days since I worked the kinks out.
http://www.mtgcanada.com/going-rogue/going-rogue-ballistic-eggs/
Thanks for the comments, and I like your take on the deck a lot.
A key difference between our decks is the 4 copies of Young Pyromancer in mine. Relying on YP as your main source of offense, the value of cantrips like Remand shoot through the roof. I would actually love to run Mana Leak instead, but I've found that sticking an early YP and cantripping all day is my version of Geist, in terms of aggro.
There is certainly some awkwardness with that though, as I can't afford to play very many sorcery-speed effects. With the exception of playing an early YP, I seldom ever tap low on my own turn, which makes Geist an awkward inclusion for me.
I think you have 100% the right approach on Reveler, though. Dedicated counters are bad with it, and you're far better off churning through spells to fill up the yard. However consider that this direction pushes you towards the benefits of Thought Scour, which is a card more suited to Grixis lists than Jeskai, because of the Delve bodies you can power out with it. This also complements Prowess creatures arguably better than Jeskai, and Terminate is a major upgrade over Lightning Helix in over 70% of matches if you're leaning more on your creatures for damage than your spells.
I think that's actually going to be my next angle on the deck. Going into black also has a lot of benefits in a meta that is likely to become heavy in Dredge, as it doesn't get any better than Nihil Spellbomb when it comes to matching prowess with grave hate.
Newlamog is definitely annoying, but Tron is a reasonable matchup because of how well we can slow them down otherwise, and how quickly we can kill them due to their lack of early board presence. Remanding it is definitely a low-value play, but it's one of those "you gotta do what you gotta do" moves.
And frankly, Pathing it isn't the best plan in the world either. Game plan vs Tron is aggro. Newlamog doesn't do stink-all vs 5+ pyromancer tokens.
If you decide to play it, the shortcut lessons to success are to never cast Young Pyromancer unless you can get a token out of it (even if it's just T2 cast + Git Probe). You can ride a 1/1 token a surprisingly long distance. But T3 w/ Spell Pierce/Dispel is where you really want to me.
Second biggie is that Snapcaster on defense is incredible, particularly with Electrolyze. If you're facing X/4s and X/5s, this is your Plan A route to victory.
Finally, don't be afraid to take some big-body-beats. It's usually worth taking the 4 damage from a Goyf and holding Vapor Snag until EOT, rather than preventing damage with it.
You will also never feel in control of the game, except against things like Affinity and Infect where your game plan is to make them most first. Otherwise you're just barely keeping your opponent off-step and pecking in damage until they're in bolt-snap-bolt range.
Not the more powerful deck I've ever played, but by far the most fun I've had since the 90s.
Overall, very happy with the performance. Used every sideboard card, won the matches I was supposed to win (plus Eldrazi D&T), lost the matches I was supposed to lose, and split the matches I was supposed to be 50/50-ish in. Wouldn't mind the second affinity match back, but sometimes Arcbound Ravager is Arcbound Ravager.
Anyways, I hope this is interesting.
I lost the die roll, but won the deck roll. Bolts versus fish was a very gentle welcome to the event.
I blindly kept an interaction-heavy seven with two lands, and he went down to six and opened with the ideal Island – Aether Vial. Gee, I wonder.
I cast Serum Visions, leave a third land on top and bottom a Remand. He plays a Silvergill Adept which I can’t Helix on my turn with his Vial on 1 (in case of Cursecatcher), so I pass. Thankfully, he ticks the Vial up to two and flashes in a lord while the Adept attacks, and I get to Helix the lord and net a life.
He plays another Adept and passes, and I get to stick a Young Pyromancer with Vapor Snag up to let my Elemental token trade for one of his adepts, despite him vialing in another lord. The game was looking bad for him, and getting the the Path to Exile he pointed at my Pyromancer hit with a Spell Pierce led him to scoop with 13 life still left.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
In: 2 Engineered Explosives, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Vendilion Clique
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Spell Pierce
In game two I’m blessed with a similarly interactive hand, and am able to effectively spend my first three turns bolt, helix, snap-bolting his threats to untap on turn four with his board reduced to a Mutavault and a Silvergill Adept and my life total kept high at 15.
My turn four Young Pyromancer quickly ate a Gut Shot, but not before making a token off a Gitaxian Probe. Seeing a hand still ripe with two-mana lords, I cast an Engineered Explosives on two and passed the turn back.
This put us in a favorable lock for the next few turns, as he wouldn’t swing his 2/1 into my 1/1, nor would he take his Vial off two until I cracked the Explosives. I could handle his three-drops and Mutavaults with removal, as I continued to craft my hand, and a low-devotion Master of Waves isn’t something I’m scared of.
Eventually I played another Pyromancer and had enough ammunition to make a small token army, and he was forced to play multiple bodies on defense, giving me enough reason to crack the explosives.
The tables were almost turned with an aggressive sequence though, where he cast a Lord of Atlantis and then flashed in Master of Waves on my end step (and I immediately Pathed the latter), and then next turn cast a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and a vialed in a second Master of Waves on his own turn, making five tokens to equal my own.
I couldn’t actually deal with the second Master without first killing Kira, as despite having two Snapcasters in hand, I only get one shot at Snap-Path in my one-Path deck. I awkwardly couldn’t Helix-Snap-Bolt it because my only remaining land would be a fetch which I’d need to Spell Snare his Negate I’d seen twelve or so turns ago - but I’d just put a Vapor Snag on top of my library as another way to deal with Masters, and I couldn’t afford to shuffle it away.
Had I not thought this through thoroughly, I could have misstepped here and cost myself the game, but thankfully it was early in the day and my wits were still sharp.
I untapped, drew the Snag, used it to hit Kira’s shield, then Helixed her, Snap-Pathed the Master, Spell Snared the Negate, swung to bring him to three, and sat back happily with Snap-Bolt up next turn as he optimistically cast yet another token-making four-drop.
Generally speaking, the more four-plus toughness creatures my opponent has, the worse I am. Make them uncounterable with Aether Vial and Cavern of Souls, and the situation quickly gets worse. Despite him going down to six on the play, I wasn't feeling good about my odds when he curved a Vial into a Tidehollow Sculler, taking my Lightning Helix.
I played a Young Pyromancer, hoping to Electrolyze the Sculler and get my bolt back, but a second Sculler stripped me of that option, and a follow-up pair of Thought-Knot Seers (thankfully one of which I got to Remand for a turn) kept me low on removal.
However I was rich in cantrips, and was able to frustrate his offense enough with chump blockers for the 4/4s that he came in with the 2/2s as well and forced me to trade off my Pyromancer to avoid death. This proved to be a huge mistake, as reclaiming my Electrolyze was the catalyst to a sequence of events where I also got back the helix, Snap-block-helixed one Thought-Knot and survived the other at two life, and quickly took the game back over with a second Pyromancer and a little luck not sending a Reality Smasher my way.
<u>Sideboard</u>:
Out: 2 Spell Pierce, 2 Remand
In: 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Echoing Truth
Match two was less dramatic by far. I kept a seven with a Pyro, Spell Snare for his Sculler, a bolt, and several draw spells.
He didn't lead with a vial, and his turn two and three Leonin Arbiters ate removal rather than the Snare, and I effortlessly overwhelmed him with elemental tokens and Vapor Snags to keep the board clear and my Pyro safe from attempted Wasteland Strangler takedowns.
He didn't hit me once, and I took myself down to 14, then back up to 19.
We exchanged sideboard swaps after the match and he showed me that he removed all three Reality Smashers, presumably playing around the countermagic I lightened up on. With eight-plus disruption spells, this seemed like a massive miscalculation. Never do this.
I dread this matchup, but thankfully my opponent has a delightful Southern drawl that somehow eases the suffering. It's a tough match to win in the first place, and it became immediately apparent that he also knew his deck extremely well, as he made a lot of very smart control decisions.
Game one I'm on the draw yet again, and despite a good seven, it's a value blowout in his favour. I try to be the aggressor, but there’s only so much of a board I can develop through Kolaghan’s Command before he plays a T4 Kalitas. I have the Vapor Snag for it, and a Snapcaster and Remand in hand too, but I can only play that game so long. Instead though, he doesn’t replay it, and goes for a Tasigur with mana up instead, which I can only afford to Remand once because of the Kalitas I can’t let resolve. I don’t have enough tokens to swing through the 4/5, and he Cryptic Commands my attempt to take it down on defense with blocks + bolt, and it’s all downhill from there.
Sideboard:
In: 2 Dispel, 1 Surgical Extraction, 1 Negate, 1 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Vendilion Clique, 1 Celestial Purge
Out: 2 Lightning Helix, 2 Electrolyze, 2 Spell Pierce, 1 Vapor Snag
Sideboarding here is awkward, because on the play I certainly have a chance at winning aggressively, but I also need to plan for the likelihood of the game going long. For example, I’d like to keep my Spell Pierces to protect an early Pyromancer, but it’s effectively card disadvantage after turn 4-5, outside of picking off a greedy Cryptic Command.
I did manage to come out of the gate hot with a Grim Lavamancer and a Young Pyro that made a few tokens before eating a Terminate, but he stabilized at seven life with enough mana up that I couldn’t just aggressively throw bolts at him. He had resolved two Ancestral Visions, so if I was going to win any counter wars, it would be on efficiency rather than attrition.
After getting him down to four, and sitting at eight myself, I bolted him at the end of his turn, trying to commit his resources to a counter war I thought I might win and see if I could topdeck another point of burn FTW. It was a bit of a longshot, but I was losing soon if I didn’t try.
My hand was bolt, Surgical Extraction, Spell Snare, Dispel, and Gitaxian Probe.
What resulted was the largest stack I’ve ever been involved in while playing Modern.
<ul>
<ul>
<ol>
<li>I bolted him.</li>
<li>He cast Snapcaster Mage, which I let resolve, targeting his Countersquall.</li>
<li>I cast Surgical Extraction, targeting Countersquall, going down to a critical six in doing so.</li>
<li>Before that resolved, he bolted me, which I let resolve and went down to three.</li>
<li>He cast another Snapcaster Mage, which I Spell Snared.</li>
<li>He cast another Snapcaster Mage, which I let resolve, targeting his Lightning Bolt.</li>
<li>He flashed back his second Bolt for lethal, which I dispelled.</li>
</ol>
</ul>
</ul>
Ten spells later, everything else resolved, leaving him with two Snapcasters on the board, at one life, a deck stripped of Countersqualls, and tapped out with a revealed hand of Kolaghan’s Command and Tasigur, and me at three with an empty board and only a Gitaxian Probe in hand. On one hand, I’m now dead if I draw blank, but on the other, him having a board also makes a Vapor Snag lethal.
I untapped and drew a promising Serum Visions, cast it drawing a land and seeing two more, cast the Probe, drawing another, and casting that to draw a Remand and extend the handshake.
The kicker is that early in this game, I had trouble calculating what to do with my Lavamancer - attack for one or shock for two - and naturally there was at least one instance in which attacking was the wrong call. As has been the case in testing with this deck, tight decisions around single points of damage often wind up mattering.
Frankly though, I was okay not going to a third game, as my odds were low, and this was a taxing match.
Yet again, I'm on the draw, but yet again I get to keep a decent seven. Still, a decent seven is little match for a turn two 7/1 Vault Skirge.
To make matters worse, he plays a turn three Ornithopter and Arcbound Ravager which I point a bolt at as soon as he attacks, leaving up a fetch for the emergency Vapor Snag.
If he wanted to maintain decent stats on the swinging Skirge, his choices were nothing, a 4/4 Ravager, or a 3/5 Ornithopter. Given that I looked like a Path-rich deck at this point, he wisely went the Thopter way, and I snagged it and went down to 8 from the Skirge, Snap-bolting it the next turn while he couldn't afford the BB to move the Plating over to a Blinkmoth.
I gradually let him peck me down to five, and tested his one-land hand for Galvanic Blast by fetching myself down to four but with Lightning Helix mana up. It worked like a charm, and I got to Snap-Helix my way back up to six before taking the game over with the Bedlam Reveler that had been weighing my hand down for a long time.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Remand, 1 Bedlam Reveler (but thank you for your hard work), 1 Spell Pierce
In: 2 Engineered Explosives, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Twisted Image
Game two was a different affair, as I Vapor Snagged the early 6/1 Vault Skirge again, which he couldn't immediately replay. That was the perfect window for me to stick a Pyromancer and go off with tokens, comfortably taking 4-5 damage per turn from a Signal Pest and some Nexii, and outracing him down to zero on turn six.
As an aside, this was the third consecutive match in which I'd been asked "... what deck are you playing?!?". <i>Ooooooooh</i> that tickles me in a very special way.
I roll a twelve, he rolls a twelve. I roll a ten, he rolls a twelve. That's magic, I guess.
Leading with a tapped Sacred Foundry, I'm misled to believe I'm facing Jeskai Control, but thankfully don't have the Serum Visions to prompt a fetch-shock start. Instead he sticks a turn-two Eidolon of the Great Revel, which I get to fetch a basic and bolt, going down to 17.
I play a Young Pyromancer as a defensive investment, and he follows up with a second Eidolon and a Lava Spike to the dome. I untap, lead with a Lightning Helix, and start enacting Plan A, winning the game at 10 life a few turns later.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Gitaxian Probe, 2 Remand, 1 Vendilion Clique
In: 2 Dispel, 2 Engineered Explosives, 1 Celestial Purge, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Wear // Tear
He leads with a Monastery Swiftspear and starts chipping away. My early Grim Lavamancer is met with a Searing Blaze, and my 18-land deck is failing exactly how you would expect it to versus a pair of Goblin Guides.
I manage to stabilize the board with an Engineered Explosives and Dispel mana up, but I can't counter the Lava Spike and he outwaits me with his Skullcrack versus my Helix.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 1 Remand
In: 1 Spreading Seas
I'm tempted with just a Steam Vents for land with two bolts and a Burst Lightning, but I can't take that risk. Top two cards are land of course, but so it goes.
Instead I keep a questionable six with two Snapcasters and only a Vapor Snag for removal, but it's playable enough.
He doesn't have any early threats, and I get to Spell Snare a turn two Eidolon, but I'm drawing bolts and so is he, and that doesn't bode well for me. I stick a Snapcaster just to have presence on board and it's quickly met with a predictable Searing Blaze.
I don't damage him once until I double-bolt him on the stack of my own impending death.
I learned an interesting thing from my opponent while discussing sideboards, as he told me that he boarded out a lot of his creatures against me in game three, realizing that he was better suited to trade spells for damage than spells for spells. Pretty clever, <i>for a burn player</i>. *cue arguments*
On the plus side, I improved to four consecutive "What are you playing" comments, so in my own special way I'm 4-1, not 3-2.
Ideally I don't want a third loss, so I'm now faced with the challenge to win four straight. Opening with a Sacred Foundry into a Grim Lavamancer (him, not me) - I'm not entirely sure what I'm up against, but quickly feel a pit in my stomach as the Goblin Guides come out.
Burn is actually a half-decent matchup for me though, so despite my recent loss, I'm confident that I can Helix my way out of this one. Indeed I do, and coast my way to victory on the back of a Snapcaster and my own Lavamancer clearing the way.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Gitaxian Probe, 2 Remand, 1 Vendilion Clique
In: 2 Dispel, 2 Engineered Explosives, 1 Celestial Purge, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Wear // Tear
Despite what I learned from the last match, there isn't really a different sideboarding angle I can take, so I repeat the same and cross my fingers for success.
I don't draw any way to gain life this time, but a hand with red and blue spells does the trick just as well too sometimes. I luck into my Lavamancer again and control his board at little cost, and get some absurd value off Dispel and Spell Pierce as he tries to go for the Searing Blaze twice.
An Electrolyze goes upstairs because the board is empty, and I bolt-snap-bolt him out of the game in no time, surviving with ten life.
This guy doesn't seem to care what it is I'm playing, so I'm now 4-2 either way you want to look at it.
This deck specializes in efficiently dealing with smaller threats. Tarmogoyfs, Liliana of the Veil, and Kalitas are a bit of a different story, and Scavenging Ooze is no walk in the park either.
It's not the worst matchup in the world, but a third Spell Snare was a contender for the sideboard for this matchup alone, to give you a idea of the challenge. It's certainly possible to tempo Jund out, but it requires some early offense before focusing on interacting, as going 1-for-1 all game is a losing proposal.
Game one delivered as expected. A turn one Inquisition of Kozilek grabbed an Electrolyze, and with my turn two Young Pyromancer getting hit with a Terminate, I was behind early and found it difficult to catch up. Similar to my Eldrazi D&T matchup, I did manage to very effectively use Snapcaster Mage on defense, though, with the block-bolt approach, taking down Kalitas without going down a card. In doing so, I was holding on better than expected.
Eventually, though, I was overrun by Raging Ravines. This was likely going to happen eventually either way, but it's worth noting that I made the massive gaffe here of letting the Ravine get a +1/+1 counter and move itself out of bolt range. I didn't leave up enough mana to flashback a bolt for the first one, and had to rely on Snap-Block-Bolt the turn after instead. The impact of being down the extra 2/1 body was devastating, as the second Ravine also got to grow to 4/4, definitively out of range at that point.
Played correctly, there's a 33% chance I'd turn that game around. Whoops.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 2 Gitaxian Probe, 1 Lightning Helix, 1 Electrolyze, 1 Spell Pierce
In: 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Celestial Purge, 1 Engineered Explosives, 1 Negate
Game two started strong for me, as I resolved a Young Pyro on turn two with a follow up Gitaxian Probe for the token. It immediately met its Terminate fate, but that effectively put me ahead a turn, and I'd gotten to see that my opponent only had a third land in hand, so Spreading Seas was about to do some work.
I had the Spell Pierce for Liliana, so I decided to limit his green rather than his black, and was happy to lock down a Raging Ravine at the same time. With Vapor Snags and Remands at the ready, I gave his Tarmogoyf a ride to bounceytown, and slowly chipped away at him until I had him down to five and he'd stabilized the board. I cast Bedlam Reveler into its immediate Terminate-ion, but its effect drew me a bolt, so I was just waiting on another burn spell or a Snapcaster to seal the deal.
And I waited, and I waited as the lands flooded in. His board quickly outsized mine, and he took me down to two after I'd drawn land three turns in a row. I threw my bolt at him to take him to two at his end step because why not, and shrugged as I flipped over my top card: Burst Lightning. Playing with flair achievement unlocked.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 1 Gitaxian Probe
In: 1 Spell Pierce
Game three was unfortunately far less interesting. I had to mulligan down to six, and had an average-at-best hand greeted with Inquisition-Tarmogoyf-Inquisition-Inquisition.
I stalled the game out a bit with Snapcasters and managed to peck him down to ten, but this was a quick one.
All of my Valakut-based testing had been against Prime Time variants, so I wasn't sure what to expect against the traditional spell-based approach, but this turned out to be a walk in the park. In part, it was because tempoing out Scapeshift and Cryptic Command is easy, but it was made even easier by drawing five Young Pyromancers over the first five turns of both games combined.
Game one I went first against his mull to six and resolved Pyros on turns two and three, and with a glut of Gitaxian Probes at the ready, I managed to get the elusive turn four kill. (Shocked himself for three, three pyro attacks for six, five elemental attacks for five, and a pair of bolts for the final six.)
Noteworthy observation was seeing him play a Prismatic Omen.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 1 Path to Exile, 1 Electrolyze, 1 Bedlam Reveler, 2 Vapor Snag
In: 1 Vendilion Clique, 1 Negate, 1 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Twisted Image
Yes, I forgot to bring in my Dispels against a blue control deck. I'm not accustomed to playing eight rounds of Magic, so my head was a bit scrambled at this point. (Note: Don't eat the convention centre food - it doesn't help!)
Thankfully, my opponent decided his best odds were to shave down his countermagic game and focus on getting his lands online as early as possible, as he later showed me he pulled out a pair of Cryptics, among other cards.
I had a slow but keepable start, and did my first four-five points of damage with an attacking Lavamancer while attacking his ramp spells and Prismatic Omen with counters.
I chopped him down to seven with a helix at he end of his turn, putting myself up to 19 and out of range should he survive to make his seventh land drop and Scapeshift me. He wouldn't though, as I had Bolt-Bolt-Burst Lightning up next turn, and got to do the fun Remand-your-own-spell thing against his counter-lethal Negate, recasting my burn for the easy win.
He got his revenge during side events the next day though, where I got stuck on three lands without white (and three helices in hand), and then two lands, as he threw mountains at me without any resistance.
As I mentioned before, I went into this match knowing that odds were reasonable for me to make day two if I won it, so a lot was riding on it and I did my best to pull what remaining mental faculties I had together.
I won the draw and shocked myself to cast a Serum Visions, filling my hand up with bolt effects. I was pretty happy when his first turn was just a land, a Mox Opal, a Springleaf Drum, and a Vault Skirge, as I had blindly crafted a strong anti-affinity start.
The Skirge died immediately, but what I didn't anticipate happening was him following it up with three consecutive Etched Champions. I couldn't turn off Metalcraft, thanks to his other artifacts being noncreature, and my offensive game was hiding elsewhere in my deck, so I quickly died while doing almost nothing.
<u>Sideboard:</u>
Out: 4 Remand, 2 Gitaxian Probe
In: 2 Engineered Explosives, 2 Spreading Seas, 1 Wear // Tear, 1 Twisted Image
I don't recall my rationale for sideboading slightly differently this time, but I know I'd become more careful with Probes as the day went on.
Game two can only be described as epic. It was the longest game I'd played against affinity ever, and there were multiple turns where one of us couldn't kill the other because of one <i>something</i> - damage, blocker, or mana.
The beginning didn't go overly well for me, as he had an early Cranial Plating on an Ornithopter, but I was able to Wear // Tear the Plating and keep his board under control... atleast until he drew into back-to-back Etched Champions again, demonstrating the rare scenario in which Remand can matter against Affinity.
I responded with back to back Pyromancer-Snap-Helix-Pyromancer, though, and amassed a defense which was adequate to stop his attacks by having him dead on the crackback if he attacked with anything at all, if I had any playable, even though I couldn't block anything. The trouble was, the same was true in reverse.
His board was two Etched Champions, an Inkmoth Nexus, a Blinkmoth Nexus, a Memnite and an Ornithopter. He was at five. Mine was two Young Pyros, a Snapcaster, and one elemental token, and soon-to-be more. I was at eleven.
My plan was to simply hold back until I could make another pair of tokens, but I'd drawn two consecutive Spell Pierces and had no targets to cast them. I'd have Pierced my own bolt at this point (and paid for it), just for the extra bodies.
Before I could draw something relevant though, I was that interrupted by his one perfect draw: Cranial Plating. With a Springleaf Drum in play, he could equip and deal twelve to send me packing. Except that he only had eight mana available, and would need to activate at least one of his X-Moth Nexii in order to get the required 11 power. So I Spell Pierced it once, and he paid it, and then again, and had him realize that paying for the second and the equip cost would leave him short the mana to make the lands into an artifact for the full pump and would leave me at one, and that actually paying for the Spell Pierce at all would leave him dead thanks to tapping a blocker for the Springleaf (no longer a maybe, thanks to the new elementals). So the late game Spell Pierces somehow mattered, and I got to untap unscathed, now with five elementals.
I drew an Electrolyze, and started doing the math. Any way I sliced it though, I was one off too. I could attack in and get two through, and burn him down to one. I could kill either the Thopter or one of the manlands (the Inkmoth made them both effectively 2/2), get in for three, and have him down to two. Further damage on top would do it, but I didn't want to chance it. Similarly, though, I didn't want to chance another Plating situation, so I needed to cut down his artifact numbers either way, so I attacked with everything. He blocked the Pyros with his Champions, the Snapcaster with the Memnite, and three of the five elementals with the rest.
I needed to cast the Electrolyze before the Pyros died, but I gambled that he'd give me a good opportunity to do so, and he did by pumping the Blinkmoth. In response, I Electrolyzed it for one and him for one, leaving him with only the Champions and the Thopter and at two life, and myself with only four elemental tokens (still one too few), and praying for a bolt on top.
I got a fetch. But at least he was now attacking for a maximum of nine, and was dead if he attacked with anything.
I played the fetch and cracked it to go down to ten at his end of turn, and asked him to topdeck me something nice. It was a bit of a convoluted finish, but it worked out. I drew a Bedlam Reveler, cast it for two, drew two lands and an Engineered Explosives, set it on three, blew it up, and swung through for lethal.
PHEW.
<u>No addition sideboarding for game three</u> (As we had five minutes on the clock and neither of us would survive a draw.)
I was worried about speed on this one, so I happily accepted a hand of seven with two Pyromancers and some cantrips, hoping to go on early offense.
He started, though, and did the thing everyone hates Affinity for: He dumped his entire hand of seven cards on the table, and said go. Land, Mox Opal, Ornithopter, Two Memnites, Springleaf Drum, and Vault Skirge. Thankfully none of these were immediately threatening, but suddenly my Pyromancer plan didn't look so hot.
I drew a timely bolt, and hoped to stifle his life gaining plans at the very least.
But everything fell apart when he topdecks and played an Arcbound Ravager. I bolted the Skirge, knowing I could bluff the Vapor Snag to prevent him from wrecking me with the Ravager.
It worked, but the only problem now is that I needed to hold blue mana up until I could deliver on the promise. He drew another Skirge, and a Plating the turn after it, and my plan fell to pieces. My bluff lasted long enough to take us to turn five or six, but there were still two minutes left in the round when I died with him above thirty.
Not a ton I could have done about that one.
Agreed on Reveler. There are some very awkward moments where I'm holding it and a Remand and I really need the Remand, so I pass the turn and my opponent does nothing. Lesson learned is that if I'm behind on board, I don't have a choice. If I'm ahead though, or at parity, I'm happy to wait until Remand has a good target, blow out the rest of my hand, and then slam the Reveler next turn. It's a very good card, but makes you work for it. I was trying to find room for a second in the board, but decided in the end it was a bad idea.
Currently, you might be right. Deck was designed during the Wild Nacatl/Kird Ape surge of this spring, so 3 damage mattered. 3 still matters when it goes upstairs though, so we'll see! Thanks.
Regarding problem creatures - as a traditionally control player, I had the same feeling about Goyfs at first, but I've realized over time that I've really underestimated the value of Snapcaster Mage in this deck, as it effectively turns all your burn spells into 5 damage when you're on defense, helping to overcome the card disadvantage of having to deal with Goyf, Tasigur, and Finks. Meanwhile, my preferred method of dealing with these creatures is simply by chumping with elemental tokens. It's certainly possible to get overrun in a multiple-goyf scenario, but the deck is packed with ways of delaying your opponent's beatdown while poking in and praying for decent topdecks (which frankly is almost every draw - it is alarmingly consistent).
You make a good point though, that if you're not going to play Path (which you rightly identified as being best with efficient ground attackers), and lightning helix isn't important in the meta, sticking to UR is certainly a better option. My deck is unique in that it doesn't play Delver , and to be honest in straight UR I don't think I would either (imo it's just not a card without brainstorm). Using my list as an example, Swiftspears would replace the Lavamancer, the Clique, and two Helices, and the remaining two Helices and Path would be replaced by something like Forked Bolt-4th Vapor Snag-Staggershock. I could see cutting the Spell Pierces too.
Anyways, all that said, I'm going to do my best at SCG Syracuse tomorrow to disprove your statement that Jeskai Delver is so bad.
For the same reason, I would describe any ramp spells as tempo-positive.