I like the idea but I think a more Bu approach with more discard and removal and then splash w for conditional cards.
I do like RAngel but I can not justify a 4cmc card for a control deck, Even blade splicer is quite a tough one to use, I would run RA as a 2 of.
GosT Is a house, I think he is the uw goyf of sorts, If we could get that token to stay in play.
VClik is to clunky imo, always felt that it could have a better card in that slot.
I would drop a dismember for 1 more leak.
Hi thank you for your feedback
Indeed, I agree VClique is rather clunky, the 2 blue mana can sometimes be a problem in a 3 color deck, sometimes (strangely more often than most people think) you just find that you are short of a 2nd U source and that is rather frustrating indeed.
I have been tempted to replace Blade Splicers and try other more powerful creatures. But until now, I find myself still turning back to it as one of the most effective 3 drops at the time of speaking, it uses only 1 colored mana (W) and so it is not as clunky as VClique, casting 1 spell to get 2 creatures is a good deal, what's even better is that 1 of them is a 3/3 First Striker. All that at the cost of 2+W, that's good value. On top of that, using Angel to blink the splicer, unless if your opponent has a maelstrom pulse ready, or else he's/she's really going to have a headache against the first strike golem army.
Given the landbase of 24 lands, so far the 4 cost angels are working out fine. The tricks that they have with this deck's creatures can create significant advantage. Alternatively, I am now testing out a version that omits the Angel and ETB creatures for Deathrite Shaman, but without the Angels that would be entirely a differnent deck theme which I think should be discussed in another sub-forum (since this is afterall still the Uxx Control section)
GOST tokens is just lovely, that with the splicer's tokens is starting to tempt me to try playing some "Populate" Spells from RTR.
The countermagic count may go up since the lost of BBE also means countermagic is more useful now. But countermagic is IMO hmph considerably weak in Modern as compared to other formats like Legacy etc. Hence, personally I am positioned away from it, still it is necessary and so I did not totally omit it, the number of countermagic thus is adjustable based on your preference That being said, some bolder and more ambitious countermagic fans may even seek to incorporate Cryptic Command, but I guess for that the mana base may require some adjustments.
So with Gatecrash we got our other 2 guilds the Card that stood out the most was Blind Obedience, this card is amazing in theory, it does something for every match up.
-RDW- makes hasty dude lik ash zealot and Goblin guide less amazing, makes hell spark elemental a dead card. And gives use life gain
-Zoo/Jund- makes all there dude not able to block our traft the first turn they r in play.
-pod/twin- Makes pod a turn slower, all Resto angel/kikki tricks less good and ruins the combo.
-UW(r)- Snapcaster, Resto, & thundermaw only get there affects but can't block or attack the turn they come out. And we get free points of dmg if we go into counter wars.
-tron/eggs- Slows down their Durdling, makes eggs not able to go off.
Think we could find a way to make this main deck wreck face?
Interesting idea Blind obedience is a very interesting new card. For 1+W, you get a lingering effect that asymmetrically taps opponent's artifacts and creatures + it stands as a "gun tower" that "extorts". Truly as you have stated these are possible ways it messes up various matchup opponents, or maybe more like slow them down. It also helps to keep the field open for GOST to attack through fearlessly even if the opponent tries to flash in blockers. But do you think it is a build-around card? Do you have a sample deck list in mind to test it out? It certainly requires some playtesting to practically assess it. Nonetheless it does have it's downside, it doesn't seem to me as a very good top-deck and that could probably be a significant hurdle.
Indeed, especially Spell Snare, it hits so many of Jund's famous (and hmph expensive) 2 drops (Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf etc.)
And the rise of Geist decks having blue may possibly imply an upcoming abundance of countermagic war in Modern as the blue decks clash.
Some storm players are seeking to splash green to access Channel the Suns as a substitute for Seething Song, their success as of now remains questionable and something that we should watch closely as to avoid underestimating their possible revival in a major event (afterall, we wouldn't want to be caught off guard by them, they'd like that best)
Jund:
Some people say Jund may just die off, seriously I really don't think so. Jund has been a goodstuff deck that focused on the high power level/card quality of each independent spell rather than synergy and any "built-around" star cards. And so, the lost of a card or two isn't going to kill it. I have just tested against a version that simply replaced Bloodbraid Elf with Huntmaster of the Fells and I must say it is very very powerful.
The lost of Bloodbraid Elf seem to make countermagic much more viable again, especially if the Jund player replaced it with Huntmaster of the Fells, since countermagic is the best card to stop such ETB creatures and bin it. That being said, this deck, Esper Midrange may possibly take a sudden turn to increase the number of countermagic. What would you think?
Another solid replacement of Bloodbraid Elf is Thrun the Last Troll, countermagic is not going to work against this. The first strike of Blade Splicer tokens help to deal with via combat damage. However, Liliana of the Veil -2 is just perfect against the trolls. With Thrun as an emerging possibility to fill the void in Jund and the uprising of Geist of Saint Traft decks, Liliana of the Veil is very well-positioned in the current metagame.
Storm:
Unlike Jund, Storm relied heavily on the synergy of its cards to build a critical mass on spells leading to a kill. Seething Song though not being the engine, was the most important mana accelerator. The lost of it seems to be compelling most Storm players to play Goblin Electromancer now which contradicts the conventional non-creature characteristic of most storm decks in the history of Magic (not that it didn't see play before, but there were versions that could have easily and entirely not used it before), this however makes our removal spells more alive in this matchup. All in all, Storm was not a favorable matchup, in fact it was unfair and un-interactive (but that is Storm, an unfair deck), glad they are now slowed down (if not killed) giving us a better game 1 matchup against them.
The lost of song is also causing some combo players to flee to embrace other combo decks (the Modern format being unchecked by powerful blue countermagic like Force of Will is a party for combo decks, and combo players have abundant deck options) since their argument is that Storm is weakened to the point that it is just relatively less efficient when compared to other combo decks.
Hard-core loyal Storm players would beg to differ, but will they "brew up a new epic storm" and prove that the present tranquility is just the eye of the storm and temporary? Time will tell. But if they succeed, would it be any surprise they receive another banning (remember Ponder, Preordain, Rites of Flame and now Seething Song?) indeed their unfair plays have proven to have been very costly.
Given the the popularity of removal/burn, I am rather hesitant to play Dark Confidant and Meddling Mage. Disfigure helps against most of the smaller creatures and it has a low mana cost, worth testing with, but if given a choice I'd prefer a more versatile removal. I am not that keen on Zealous Persecution, what do you think about it? Without any equipment to wield, I am less keen on Lingering Souls. Countersquall is an interesting idea, I may want to try it, would you think a 1 to 2-of is even viable mainboard?
I think lilliana is must have in this deck. She destroys uw control if you can get her out early, she also is good vs auras, and most other decks, the -2 is really good right now with all the Gost running around.
Given the current meta and the popularity of geist decks, I am incline to agree. Hmm but would you suggest playing as a 4-of and what would you suggest I take out to add her in?
22 lands has actually been more than enough, and I'm frequently tempted to cut it down to 21 lands, although one of the guys I test with has advised against it.
Glad to know you feel that way, less lands means more business spells. Nice.
I haven't actually tried Mutavault since I don't possess the card and it seems a bit narrow, and I much rather prefer Celestial Collonade and Creeping Tar Pit; especially the fact that Creeping Tar Pit is unblockable
Certainly I favour Tar Pit a lot too :). But the reason why I suggested Mutavault was that it was cheaper to activate it into a man and probably you will often find enough mana to equip it with a sword and perhaps even have open mana left. This is a very advantageous position to be in when you and your opponent are playing a topdecking game But I do notice that putting anymore colorless mana source may hurt your land base too. So for that reason, Mutavaults may be a little too risky indeed.
Ah, the Remand vs Mana Leak debate :P. I agree that Remand is usually found in more tempo-based decks, and even though this deck is more mid-rangy I'm still a Tempo player at heart and that's why Remand is still there. I may end up testing with Mana Leaks though, but the draw effect is just so powerful.
Certainly, the fact that Remand replaces itself is helpful, and our decks (including the conventional UW Midrange) have willingly sacrificed away card draw for more game-impacting cards. Nonetheless, I still hope WOTC releases a better countermagic in future for the Modern format hehe.
Although the mention of Maelstrom Pulse did make me consider the possibility of Detention Sphere.
Haha, indeed I am thinking about the sphere too, but yet again and for this based on my experience from Standard, I am cautious about Abrupt Decay, and the breaking of a sphere is very bad, since the threat returns (unless if they were tokens) it can be very much a game changer that puts us into dire situations. Nonetheless, still worth playtesting with
Most of the times Shizo is just a swamp, but once in a while it makes Geist basically unblockable, virtually guaranteeing 6 points of damage. It basically fulfils a similar purpose to what Eiganjo Castle does/did in American Delver lists.
Interesting, I should try it out
You may be right there, I haven't had much chance to test against Affinity, I'm still trying to decide the best way of sideboarding for them, but I think you underestimate Hurkyl's Recall; you slow them down a turn, you also have the potential to counter relevant spells (Spell Snare stops Cranial Plating as well). And sometimes that extra turn or 2 is all you need.
Haha perhaps, sometimes a turn or 2 is indeed all you need, but sometimes it may not be I'd rather not take any chances. But I guess for your deck you may prefer to destroy artifacts or send them into the GY, making those artifact creatures lunch for your DRS haha. But I have heard that Affinity has been less popular recently, an interesting question, would you envision it coming back up in popularity again? And would you expect to see a significant number of them in your upcoming PTQ?
Another thing, what are your thoughts on Esper Charm and Mortify sideboard, or maybe even mainboard?
I did thought about them, but I prefer to keep my instants/sorcery at most at 2 casting cost, so that it wouldn't be much inconvenience in flashing back them with Tiago.
They both do target enchantments as well. Thus far, I have not struggled much with enchantments. Does your meta have any enchantment heavy decks or have you faced any enchantment that has been heavily played against you and have been giving you headaches?
While looking through some Modern Daily decklists I found this list by Draccon136 who went 3-1 (Modern Daily #4910670 on 01/23/2013)
Deck
Creatures (19)
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Meddling Mage
3 Snapcaster Mage
^
Hi Pand3m0nia thanks for coming by to support this thread and for sharing your decklist. It's been quite quiet here other than my updates and I was starting to worry if this thread may have been in any way unappealing to the audience.
Let's begin by me saying that I can tell that you have put in quite an amount of insight and effort formulating and playtesting your presented decklist. Before I start sharing my thoughts, I must disclaim that I am not really in any position to give you any answers because this is your deck after all, but I would present some questions to try to help out in your thought process in your quest to enhance this decklist, I may also present some of the decisions that I would make if in my position, but they are just my preferences and thus reasonably debatable if you should prefer otherwise
On the Mainboard,
Indeed Deathrite Shaman is truly such a efficient creature that I have questioned myself if I should include, well since this deck already includes Black, why not splash in a little green and voila this shaman comes in. And he is by itself just that versatile and effective. But I have started this thread as a variant that adds black to the conventional UW Midrange and have yet to go so far to explore the 4th color splash yet, nonetheless I do welcome you all to share a 4C variant, and yours truly is interesting, and I should certainly playtest it to understand the finer details.
Overall, having gone without Restoration Angel, Thundermaw Hellkite, Baneslayer Angel etc, I can understand the lower curve, and I must say cheap and good spells are excellent. And that must have been a significant factor justifying your lower land counts as compared to more traditional versions. Just a question, has 22 Lands been sufficiently comfortable for you?
I have always felt that one of the biggest reasons why Lingering Souls was so good in Legacy Esper Stoneblade was because they could wield an Umezza's Jitte, weapons work splendidly with the soul tokens, and I see your fair share of swords incorporated into your main. Jund Midrange was one of the biggest of users of Abrupt Decay, the biggest bane of the swords and some say perhaps the reason for the recent falling popularity of the swords, but Jund recently lost Bloodbraid Elf and their influence in the meta is now shrouded with many questions, but BUG is still strong and Junk may see an uprising and if they significantly play Abrupt Decay, I am quite concern for your swords. Thus, would you be expecting to see Abrupt Decay being heavily played in your upcoming PTQ meta? If so, would you be able to accept your swords being blown up? If yes, way to go, you can fight fearlessly. If not, what can you do either to prevent or recover from it (ie. possible to use Academy Ruins to "repair" the swords)?
About the swords, have you tried out Mutavault, a cheap activation manland capable of bearing a sword makes an opponent with mana leaks in his/her hands scream in his/her head lol.
On the discard spells, how was your experience with Duress? Would it be better for you if they were Thoughtseize? Granted that I understand that Thoughtseize is an expensive card (in terms of money), would you then not prefer just a full set of 4 Inquisition of Korzilek instead. I don't know about your experience with Modern, but I always felt that Duress is better than Inquisition of Korzilek in Legacy, while Inquisition of Korzilek is better than Duress in Modern. The reason being that the Modern format seems more dominated by creature spells (particularly exhibited by creature-based combo decks like Twin, Pod, Infect), and cheap spells we all like in such a non-rotating format.
How has Remand been working out for you? The debate of Remand vs Mana Leak is one that is common in Modern, Correct if I am wrong but I read that some people say that Remand fits in better to a tempo deck, do you agree? And if so, would you think that your plan for this deck is heavily focus on tempo plays? And more interestingly, what are your thoughts on any countermagic alternatives?
How has Spell Pierce and Spell Snare been coming along for you? Personally, as I have explained about the restrictions of Blue Magic in my thread, I would prefer to use more discard or removal in place of soft or narrow countermagic in Modern
That being said, since your deck is splashing in Green, would it be to mana-greedy to consider replacing Spell Pierce and Spell Snare with spells like Abrupt Decay and/Or Maelstrom Pulse. If Spell Pierce and Spell Snare helps to prevent non-land non-creature threats (which creature removal could otherwise not have dealt with) from resolving, wouldn't Abrupt Decay and/Or Maelstrom Pulse be hard (destruction) and less narrow answers to non-land cards inclusive of both creatures and non-creatures.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse is very interesting and one that I have not thought of, could you please share with us on how effective it has been for you?
On the Sideboard,
Aura of Silence: Yes indeed, speed is the biggest question if you get it and could cast it out before Affinity builds their board presence. I would also consider Artifact hate to also help us against the Tron Matchup, against artifacts like Expedition Map and Mindslaver, and I don't know about you but I felt taxing to pay extra mana didn't really help to deter them, neither does a spot destruction on an artifact since they play Academy Ruins. Thus I have personally preferred to lock them down and therefore concluded on Stony Silence as my artifact hate of choice
Hurkyl's Recall: Against Affinity, my apologies but I find Hurkyl's Recall questionable. Affinity is very fast, and they can play things like Memnites, Ornithopters and Mox Opal for free. Ever since their Legacy days till now in Modern, they are notorious for that with a god hand, they can drop their entire hand or reasonably around 75% of their hand out in just 1 turn, therefore I question the effectiveness of returning artifacts back to hand. Afterall, you wouldn't want to bounce all the Affinity's toys back to his/her hand and have him/her drop in all down before you in one turn.
Leyline of Sanctity is a good call, I guess it would also help protect you against Grapeshot (if storm is not killed off by the lost of Seething Song)
GY Hate: Indeed Relic of Progenitus as is Tormod's Crypt is classic GY hate, hmm but when you think about it. could your opponents try to play around it to bait you to blow them out early. This is the risk of these artifacts, but since you play Deathrite Shaman and Snapcaster Mage, I understand your difficulties in trying to include GY hate that are a little bit more thorough And practically speaking, Deathrite Shaman is already a MB GY hate card
Pithing Needle: I thought about it, but passed it for other SB cards (afterall 15 cards isn't too much of a space ) Just like to find out from you, which are the matchups the needle helped you against?
All in all, I can appreciate and praise your efforts in assembling this deck and your playtesting I wish you all the best for your upcoming Modern PTQ. Cheers
^ If you fear geist, the best ways to deal with it are, not letting it resolve, using sacrificial effects, copying or "legend rule" it. UW Midrange has a sizeable arsenal of countermagic to prevent/delay Geist from resolving, sacrificial effects on the other hand mainly belong to Black magic, and we do play our own Geist to help us "legend rule" away theirs. But UWR does play its fair share of countermagic to deter us, therefore it could end up as a countermagic war.
I guess the biggest question going around these days is will Jund die, and evolve into other color combinations, and for UW Midrange players would that warrant any necessary adjustments. Well IMO, I do agree Jund's red was practically for the sake of BBE, it's red spells were often BBE, Lightning bolt and Terminate, both bolt and terminate can easily be substituted by other removal/board control type cards, while BBE was unique and a solid advantage engine, thus from this argument the lost of BBE could justify that Jund players would replace red with other colors and the 2 biggest possibilities now are BUG and Junk (GWB), but would that warrant us making any drastic adjustments? I am quite skeptical about that, since it has been well known that UW midrange has an even matchup against most of the playing field, and it was historically one of the very few "the deck"s to bring into a tournament having an unknown meta (since Modern being a young format presented more meta uncertainties a few months ago), yet preserving a reasonably positive chance. And I am rather skeptical that the changes of color due to this one-card for Jund could drastically turn it into an "unfair" deck (like Tron) which requires us to make significant adjustments like that of incorporating any pre-emptive hate cards.
Conversely, some loyal Jund players may argue that Jund was mainly a power-based deck with each spell independently capable of impacting the game and therefore the deck was not created based on building around any particular card(s), the lost of BBE would therefore not lead to the downfall of Jund, proponents of this line of reasoning would therefore say that BBE could be substituted by something else without killing off the archetype and they could even claim that there's a chance in the future WOTC may release any new B, R, G, BR, RG, BG spell that may be at least just as powerful to fill up this slot if they may find the current card pool insufficient at the moment. If this argument were to be followed, then Jund stays as Jund, and it is rather unlikely that the slight adjustment of one-card would warrant UW midrange to make any drastic adjustments to pre-empt.
Therefore, either way as UW Midrange, I would prefer to adopt a wait-and-see stance and not want to jump-the-gun to make any pre-emptive adjustments that may dilute or weaken the deck. Also, IMO it's safer not to be too hasty to discount Jund from the meta and try to "boost" the deck against the rest of the playing field, because it is still too early underestimate what's left of Jund and our matchups with the rest of the meta really hasn't been bad at all.
UWR's strongest plays against Jund were hitting BBE. Now we have to fight in a more fair manner and can't cause blow-outs. I'm kind of sad about it, especially seeing as Jund was in no way OP.
I believed we stated our reasons to justify what an unfair advantage BBE was, neither would I want to talk about the matchup from the context of splashed variants, though I played other variants, my posts here so far have been and will continue to be from the perspective of strictly just UW Midrange as an expression of my respect to this primer's author.
But all that on BBE is now history. On the perspective of matchups, I sure am looking forward to see how this contender, Jund, evolves and how would it affect UW Midrange if it does.
Hi thank you for your feedback
Indeed, I agree VClique is rather clunky, the 2 blue mana can sometimes be a problem in a 3 color deck, sometimes (strangely more often than most people think) you just find that you are short of a 2nd U source and that is rather frustrating indeed.
I have been tempted to replace Blade Splicers and try other more powerful creatures. But until now, I find myself still turning back to it as one of the most effective 3 drops at the time of speaking, it uses only 1 colored mana (W) and so it is not as clunky as VClique, casting 1 spell to get 2 creatures is a good deal, what's even better is that 1 of them is a 3/3 First Striker. All that at the cost of 2+W, that's good value. On top of that, using Angel to blink the splicer, unless if your opponent has a maelstrom pulse ready, or else he's/she's really going to have a headache against the first strike golem army.
Given the landbase of 24 lands, so far the 4 cost angels are working out fine. The tricks that they have with this deck's creatures can create significant advantage. Alternatively, I am now testing out a version that omits the Angel and ETB creatures for Deathrite Shaman, but without the Angels that would be entirely a differnent deck theme which I think should be discussed in another sub-forum (since this is afterall still the Uxx Control section)
GOST tokens is just lovely, that with the splicer's tokens is starting to tempt me to try playing some "Populate" Spells from RTR.
The countermagic count may go up since the lost of BBE also means countermagic is more useful now. But countermagic is IMO hmph considerably weak in Modern as compared to other formats like Legacy etc. Hence, personally I am positioned away from it, still it is necessary and so I did not totally omit it, the number of countermagic thus is adjustable based on your preference
Interesting idea
(Sidenote: Some images added. Hopefully will put up a nice banner soon)
And the rise of Geist decks having blue may possibly imply an upcoming abundance of countermagic war in Modern as the blue decks clash.
Some storm players are seeking to splash green to access Channel the Suns as a substitute for Seething Song, their success as of now remains questionable and something that we should watch closely as to avoid underestimating their possible revival in a major event (afterall, we wouldn't want to be caught off guard by them, they'd like that best)
Jund:
Some people say Jund may just die off, seriously I really don't think so. Jund has been a goodstuff deck that focused on the high power level/card quality of each independent spell rather than synergy and any "built-around" star cards. And so, the lost of a card or two isn't going to kill it. I have just tested against a version that simply replaced Bloodbraid Elf with Huntmaster of the Fells and I must say it is very very powerful.
The lost of Bloodbraid Elf seem to make countermagic much more viable again, especially if the Jund player replaced it with Huntmaster of the Fells, since countermagic is the best card to stop such ETB creatures and bin it. That being said, this deck, Esper Midrange may possibly take a sudden turn to increase the number of countermagic. What would you think?
Another solid replacement of Bloodbraid Elf is Thrun the Last Troll, countermagic is not going to work against this. The first strike of Blade Splicer tokens help to deal with via combat damage. However, Liliana of the Veil -2 is just perfect against the trolls. With Thrun as an emerging possibility to fill the void in Jund and the uprising of Geist of Saint Traft decks, Liliana of the Veil is very well-positioned in the current metagame.
Storm:
Unlike Jund, Storm relied heavily on the synergy of its cards to build a critical mass on spells leading to a kill. Seething Song though not being the engine, was the most important mana accelerator. The lost of it seems to be compelling most Storm players to play Goblin Electromancer now which contradicts the conventional non-creature characteristic of most storm decks in the history of Magic (not that it didn't see play before, but there were versions that could have easily and entirely not used it before), this however makes our removal spells more alive in this matchup. All in all, Storm was not a favorable matchup, in fact it was unfair and un-interactive (but that is Storm, an unfair deck), glad they are now slowed down (if not killed) giving us a better game 1 matchup against them.
The lost of song is also causing some combo players to flee to embrace other combo decks (the Modern format being unchecked by powerful blue countermagic like Force of Will is a party for combo decks, and combo players have abundant deck options) since their argument is that Storm is weakened to the point that it is just relatively less efficient when compared to other combo decks.
Hard-core loyal Storm players would beg to differ, but will they "brew up a new epic storm" and prove that the present tranquility is just the eye of the storm and temporary? Time will tell. But if they succeed, would it be any surprise they receive another banning (remember Ponder, Preordain, Rites of Flame and now Seething Song?) indeed their unfair plays have proven to have been very costly.
Given the the popularity of removal/burn, I am rather hesitant to play Dark Confidant and Meddling Mage. Disfigure helps against most of the smaller creatures and it has a low mana cost, worth testing with, but if given a choice I'd prefer a more versatile removal. I am not that keen on Zealous Persecution, what do you think about it? Without any equipment to wield, I am less keen on Lingering Souls. Countersquall is an interesting idea, I may want to try it, would you think a 1 to 2-of is even viable mainboard?
Given the current meta and the popularity of geist decks, I am incline to agree. Hmm but would you suggest playing as a 4-of and what would you suggest I take out to add her in?
Certainly I favour Tar Pit a lot too :). But the reason why I suggested Mutavault was that it was cheaper to activate it into a man and probably you will often find enough mana to equip it with a sword and perhaps even have open mana left. This is a very advantageous position to be in when you and your opponent are playing a topdecking game
Certainly, the fact that Remand replaces itself is helpful, and our decks (including the conventional UW Midrange) have willingly sacrificed away card draw for more game-impacting cards. Nonetheless, I still hope WOTC releases a better countermagic in future for the Modern format hehe.
Haha, indeed I am thinking about the sphere too, but yet again and for this based on my experience from Standard, I am cautious about Abrupt Decay, and the breaking of a sphere is very bad, since the threat returns (unless if they were tokens) it can be very much a game changer that puts us into dire situations. Nonetheless, still worth playtesting with
Interesting, I should try it out
Haha perhaps, sometimes a turn or 2 is indeed all you need, but sometimes it may not be
I did thought about them, but I prefer to keep my instants/sorcery at most at 2 casting cost, so that it wouldn't be much inconvenience in flashing back them with Tiago.
They both do target enchantments as well. Thus far, I have not struggled much with enchantments. Does your meta have any enchantment heavy decks or have you faced any enchantment that has been heavily played against you and have been giving you headaches?
Hi Pand3m0nia
Let's begin by me saying that I can tell that you have put in quite an amount of insight and effort formulating and playtesting your presented decklist. Before I start sharing my thoughts, I must disclaim that I am not really in any position to give you any answers because this is your deck after all, but I would present some questions to try to help out in your thought process in your quest to enhance this decklist, I may also present some of the decisions that I would make if in my position, but they are just my preferences and thus reasonably debatable if you should prefer otherwise
On the Mainboard,
Indeed Deathrite Shaman is truly such a efficient creature that I have questioned myself if I should include, well since this deck already includes Black, why not splash in a little green and voila this shaman comes in. And he is by itself just that versatile and effective. But I have started this thread as a variant that adds black to the conventional UW Midrange and have yet to go so far to explore the 4th color splash yet, nonetheless I do welcome you all to share a 4C variant, and yours truly is interesting, and I should certainly playtest it to understand the finer details.
I like the 4 Liliana of the Veils, the rise of UW variants mainboarding Geist of Saint Traft will certainly reward your Lilianas as a good meta call.
Overall, having gone without Restoration Angel, Thundermaw Hellkite, Baneslayer Angel etc, I can understand the lower curve, and I must say cheap and good spells are excellent. And that must have been a significant factor justifying your lower land counts as compared to more traditional versions. Just a question, has 22 Lands been sufficiently comfortable for you?
I have always felt that one of the biggest reasons why Lingering Souls was so good in Legacy Esper Stoneblade was because they could wield an Umezza's Jitte, weapons work splendidly with the soul tokens, and I see your fair share of swords incorporated into your main. Jund Midrange was one of the biggest of users of Abrupt Decay, the biggest bane of the swords and some say perhaps the reason for the recent falling popularity of the swords, but Jund recently lost Bloodbraid Elf and their influence in the meta is now shrouded with many questions, but BUG is still strong and Junk may see an uprising and if they significantly play Abrupt Decay, I am quite concern for your swords. Thus, would you be expecting to see Abrupt Decay being heavily played in your upcoming PTQ meta? If so, would you be able to accept your swords being blown up? If yes, way to go, you can fight fearlessly. If not, what can you do either to prevent or recover from it (ie. possible to use Academy Ruins to "repair" the swords)?
About the swords, have you tried out Mutavault, a cheap activation manland capable of bearing a sword makes an opponent with mana leaks in his/her hands scream in his/her head lol.
On the discard spells, how was your experience with Duress? Would it be better for you if they were Thoughtseize? Granted that I understand that Thoughtseize is an expensive card (in terms of money), would you then not prefer just a full set of 4 Inquisition of Korzilek instead. I don't know about your experience with Modern, but I always felt that Duress is better than Inquisition of Korzilek in Legacy, while Inquisition of Korzilek is better than Duress in Modern. The reason being that the Modern format seems more dominated by creature spells (particularly exhibited by creature-based combo decks like Twin, Pod, Infect), and cheap spells we all like in such a non-rotating format.
How has Remand been working out for you? The debate of Remand vs Mana Leak is one that is common in Modern, Correct if I am wrong
How has Spell Pierce and Spell Snare been coming along for you?
That being said, since your deck is splashing in Green, would it be to mana-greedy to consider replacing Spell Pierce and Spell Snare with spells like Abrupt Decay and/Or Maelstrom Pulse. If Spell Pierce and Spell Snare helps to prevent non-land non-creature threats (which creature removal could otherwise not have dealt with) from resolving, wouldn't Abrupt Decay and/Or Maelstrom Pulse be hard (destruction) and less narrow answers to non-land cards inclusive of both creatures and non-creatures.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse is very interesting and one that I have not thought of, could you please share with us on how effective it has been for you?
On the Sideboard,
Aura of Silence: Yes indeed, speed is the biggest question if you get it and could cast it out before Affinity builds their board presence. I would also consider Artifact hate to also help us against the Tron Matchup, against artifacts like Expedition Map and Mindslaver, and I don't know about you but I felt taxing to pay extra mana didn't really help to deter them, neither does a spot destruction on an artifact since they play Academy Ruins. Thus I have personally preferred to lock them down and therefore concluded on Stony Silence as my artifact hate of choice
Hurkyl's Recall: Against Affinity, my apologies
Leyline of Sanctity is a good call, I guess it would also help protect you against Grapeshot (if storm is not killed off by the lost of Seething Song)
GY Hate: Indeed Relic of Progenitus as is Tormod's Crypt is classic GY hate, hmm but when you think about it. could your opponents try to play around it to bait you to blow them out early. This is the risk of these artifacts, but since you play Deathrite Shaman and Snapcaster Mage, I understand your difficulties in trying to include GY hate that are a little bit more thorough
Pithing Needle: I thought about it, but passed it for other SB cards (afterall 15 cards isn't too much of a space
All in all, I can appreciate and praise your efforts in assembling this deck and your playtesting
I guess the biggest question going around these days is will Jund die, and evolve into other color combinations, and for UW Midrange players would that warrant any necessary adjustments. Well IMO, I do agree Jund's red was practically for the sake of BBE, it's red spells were often BBE, Lightning bolt and Terminate, both bolt and terminate can easily be substituted by other removal/board control type cards, while BBE was unique and a solid advantage engine, thus from this argument the lost of BBE could justify that Jund players would replace red with other colors and the 2 biggest possibilities now are BUG and Junk (GWB), but would that warrant us making any drastic adjustments? I am quite skeptical about that, since it has been well known that UW midrange has an even matchup against most of the playing field, and it was historically one of the very few "the deck"s to bring into a tournament having an unknown meta (since Modern being a young format presented more meta uncertainties a few months ago), yet preserving a reasonably positive chance. And I am rather skeptical that the changes of color due to this one-card for Jund could drastically turn it into an "unfair" deck (like Tron) which requires us to make significant adjustments like that of incorporating any pre-emptive hate cards.
Conversely, some loyal Jund players may argue that Jund was mainly a power-based deck with each spell independently capable of impacting the game and therefore the deck was not created based on building around any particular card(s), the lost of BBE would therefore not lead to the downfall of Jund, proponents of this line of reasoning would therefore say that BBE could be substituted by something else without killing off the archetype and they could even claim that there's a chance in the future WOTC may release any new B, R, G, BR, RG, BG spell that may be at least just as powerful to fill up this slot if they may find the current card pool insufficient at the moment. If this argument were to be followed, then Jund stays as Jund, and it is rather unlikely that the slight adjustment of one-card would warrant UW midrange to make any drastic adjustments to pre-empt.
Therefore, either way as UW Midrange, I would prefer to adopt a wait-and-see stance and not want to jump-the-gun to make any pre-emptive adjustments that may dilute or weaken the deck. Also, IMO it's safer not to be too hasty to discount Jund from the meta and try to "boost" the deck against the rest of the playing field, because it is still too early underestimate what's left of Jund and our matchups with the rest of the meta really hasn't been bad at all.
But all that on BBE is now history. On the perspective of matchups, I sure am looking forward to see how this contender, Jund, evolves