This is such a good post, and it hits in the nail on the head with the "Tron problem".
I feel that the BBE ban was absolutely fantastic since I now see much less Jund while still being a quite popular deck, and I love that I have a good shot at winning against them when in a topdeck war; it's much better to have a Cryptic Command against a topdecked Olivia than a BBE.
Jund is still very powerful, but much more "fair" now.
But I've also noticed an INSANE amount of Tron, mostly in the new Blue from (which in my opinion is much better and annoying), which could be a problem. Getting Mindslavered turn after turn, while having a turn 3 Wurmcoil beat your face, AND getting your Sowing Salts/Molten rains countered is quite disgusting.
So I'm starting to think that the Seething Song ban may have been a mistake, since it keeps Tron decks in check (although we'd have to see about the blue one with counters...), even if I've always HATED storm and its 5 minute turns.
It will be interesting to see how the metagame evolves ^^
PS: I play WUR Geist of Saint Win mostly
Meh, against Wx hatebars blood moon doesn't do much and RIP wrecks, but as always it depends on the match, sometimes you counter it, sometimes no, etc. I was extremely dissappointedby Natural State for some reason, it just seems like it does so little... the 2 points of damage from Revelrly I do notice them though. Huntmaster has always been pretty good though, even if it can be hard to cast.
Just because of this, I honestly recommend packing at least 2 Destructive Revelries plus 1 Grudge or even 3 straight up Revelries... against any W deck which casts RIP it is extremely difficult to kill with 2 mana 0/1's and 6 mana 4/4 (realistically you will never cast Mandrils), and only Delver beats. My 2 cents
I really remember as a Jeskai player years ago how freaking impossible it was to deal with this threat, at least if the opponent kept 1G up most of the time. And it didn't matter how many cards you drew or how much advantage you had, the only options were chumping with Colonnades or Snaps or straight up kill the opp. And it also keeps the pressure on Nahiri, preventing her from ultimating.
I actually also tried Tireless Tracker after being absolutely destroyed by it against an Abzan opponent who drew like 4 cards and got a giant Tracker before I could kill it, and it's been pretty awesome, honestly. I think people here haven't played the card and are just theorycrafting, cause I didn't think it would be good either at first glance. The thing is, if you can tutor for it in a grindy matchup after most resources have been spent and you sandbag a fetchland, it'an absolute MONSTER which will draw you even more fetchlands off the Clues while getting giant, simultaneously burying the opponent in card advantage and killing him.
Here's where I'm at now with RUG Traverse by the way, I'd say it's pretty much 90% refined as I have playtested for around 50 hours and 100+ matches:
Traverse the Krasis
2 Bounding Krasis
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Eternal Witness
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Serum Visions
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Tarfire
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Remand
1 Roast
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Lumbering Falls
1 Dispel
1 Invasive Surgery
1 Negate
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Ghost Quarter
Exactly, please don't deviate from the singleton creature mentaility into "goodstuff creatures" mentality. Tarmogoyf aint a good singleton creature, its a good 4 of but doesnt impact the board in any way, it's just the best beater in the game. Resto and Voice I also dont see them as especially good singletons... Why would to play only 1?? Neither is Siege Rhino.
Again, as for singleton creatures I mean things like Keranos, which impacts the game brutally, has a very special effect but may also be clunky in multiples. Other great examples are Sower of Tempation and Magus of the Moon
Given that there are literally thousands of creatures, I wanted the help of the hive mind to find even more. Here are the ones that I've found so far. They have to provide an inmediate advantage, or be extremely swingy, or instantly solve a problem, etc (i.e, not just good beaters like Delver). I don't include things like reclamation sage either because they are not (usually) maindeckable, even though they are great to tutor for.
I also ask that it be mainly in temur colors, since that's what I've found the most effective as a TtU shell.
Awesome 1-ofs:
1 mana:
2 mana:
3 mana:
4 mana:
5 mana
Thanks for the help in completing this!!
I've always said that the true delver deck and the best one is RUG, and now more than ever. The deck thrives in combo/control metagames although suffers a bit against aggro, but now Traverse the Ulvenwald is also a great addition to increase threat density.
Tarmogoyf backed by cheap countermagic and Mandrils backed by Stubborn Denial will always be good, period.
Then it's more understandable, as it seems like you were playing a more casual brew (as it is normal in a new player) against a tier 2+ very competitive deck. Simply put, BW Eldrazi is probably much more powerful than Cat Warrior Lifegain
I advise slowly buying staples to make ultra competitive tier 1-2 decks so you can actually beat things like Eldrazi
Also, in general, lifegain cards are terrible because they represent card disadvantage and lifegain means almost nothing except against burn... except if they are Lifelink cards like Batterskull because they actually advance your boardstate.
Cheers
At this point, you can completely blow up the opponent by processing the Ancestral Visions, possibly killing something like a Snap, getting a body, and "countering" a future Ancestral Recall at no cost.
BUY YOUR PROCESSORSSS
It is because of the extreme dependence of this deck on just 8 cards, 4 of them which are useless when in multiples, even increasing the mull rate more. So you are basically playing with 52 "useless" cards most of the time (if you get the hyperbole). It is really quite ridiculous how absolutely atrocious this deck is without the sol lands (see the Standard Mono Blue Eldrazi deck, which doesn't hold a candle to Modern's power level). Fortunately though, I think this thread will be dead in a few days, and we can finally move on from on of the worse Modern seasons I remember
I still need to try it much more, but overall I've felt that, indeed, 4 triggers can be quite card to pull off (and as a comparison by the time you get 4 tokens with Pyromancer you are already very ahead). It is true that bolt immunity is very relevant, but the fact that it doesnt hit for 2 and still gets decayed, etc, it's concerning.
As for the transformation itself, I've felt it's very powerful, but even more because you get to return your Snapcasters than anything else, hah. And it can "help" the opponent this way sometimes. The body is amazing though, 7/8 is huuuge.
I think if this thing (pun indended) triggered like Prowess (Baubles included) it would be a top-tier card. As of now, I think I may be playable but I'm not convinced yet.
To be honest, I find an sentence like this downright insulting and fitting of a mod-warning, since it's a 1-liner, makes no sense, and doesn't even explain the resoning behind it.
I really dont know if Traverse will be good or not, but a Serum Visions? A card that lets you tutor for any creature or land in a 60 card deck, versus a card that draws a card and lets you see 2 cards... what in the earth have they in common? Seriously, I want to know.
Demonic Tutor is also a Ponder.
This is where I am right now:
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
1 Thing in the Ice
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Spellskite
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Tarfire
1 Seal of Fire
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Lumbering Falls
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Forest
2 Dispel
1 Invasive Surgery
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
Pretty happy with the Delirium-enabling core, and currently only hesitant on some creature choices. I'm trying several maindeck and sideboard configurations, but I think this is one of the best ones. Will probably evolve depending on the meta, of course
PS: as a footnote, I think people are severy underestimating how hard it is to get Delirium; this is no Goyf since its only counts your GY, and even in a dedicated deck like this, you can get hands like "traverse, creature creature creature, land, sorcery", which may be a mull, or just take a while to set up against a slow opponent.
Basically, when testing, the only card I ever wanted to draw, the card that made me smile when I drew it (or put it on top with Serum Visions), and the card which I didn't mind I had 3 or 4 in hand and in fact made me excited, was Traverse. It's been a while since I felt like this for a card, since even OP ones like Treasure Cruise were quite clunky sometimes, and only truly awesome midgame and when chaining them.
I've found one of the most powerful things the deck can do is consistently flipping Erayo, Soratami Ascendant whenever you want, but without the ever-present problem of drawing several Erayos, drawing them as a topdeck, etc. Here you can go for the flip whenever the opponent is tapped out, or doesnt have anything, or is a combo deck. Another good thing is that although Erayo is not GG on its own, it is when backed with enormous pressure in the form of 6/7 Goyfs.
I've also found that an Exarch + Kiki package is still well worth it, since it occuppies only 2 slots, and the cards can be very useful on their own. They allow you to win in games where you have no business winning. A single Cascade Bluffs to fetch with Traverse is awesome too, to consistenly cast Kiki.
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
1 Thing in the Ice
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Spellskite
1 Eternal Witness
1 Bounding Krasis
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Traverse the Uldenwald
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Tarfire
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Lumbering Falls
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Invasive Surgery
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Ghost Quarter