I just realized the announcement that Bloodbraid Elf will be banned with effect Feb 2013. This is wonderful news from Wizards I will be making updates to the thread, especially for the Jund Matchup.
Thanks Indeed Rest in Peace would help against some of Jund's creatures. I guess it helps against their Kitchen Finks too. Thanks, I shall incorporate this point into the Matchups section. Nonetheless, I still do find their Bloodbraid Elf a more disturbing problem.
Why play this over UW Midrange?
Well, there is no why, it's really all up to you man. You may feel Blue and White is good enough for you, carry on. You may feel that you want to use the flames of Red magic and chuck those bolts of fire at your opponent's face, by all means, continue. But...
But if like me, you feel that Blue is just not enough to complement White, and Red just ain't good enough to take out many of your opponent's beaters, and thus you decide to turn to the forces of darkness, seek to take control the powers of the Black arts and fuse it with your blue and white magic, then Esper Midrange it is...
(What about Green? I shall leave that for someone else to talk about.)
Why Play this deck?
- You want to play a midrange deck, but you don't have 4 tarmogoyf and 4 Dark Confidant, and hmph pardon me but neither do you wish to sell your butt for them. Or you do not believe that in Modern, "midrange=Jund", "midrange=Jund", "midrange=Jund", "midrange=OH SHUT UPPPP!!!" and you wish you have another option for the midrange path.
- You like to have the vesatility to disrupt your opponents on 3 fronts by using discard, countermagic and removal, instead of the usual 2 ways of removal + countermagic or removal + discard.
- You still like to play at the end of your opponents' turn or anytime during his/her turn at instant speed, while you also like sorceries that let you look at your opponent's hand, take a note and write down his cards, and choose the one that you dislike and bin it.
- You hate your opponent having creatures on board, and enjoy destroying or removing them.
- You like some of your creatures to be able to strike from the sky or are even unblockable.
- you like reusing instants and sorceries from your graveyard.
Why not play this deck?
- You like to combo and hmph play with yourself. You don't like interaction and you believe that your opponent across the table should just be a statue.
- You like to drop an Emrakul on the board.
- You like copying things infinite times.
- You like a rigid, linear and specificly clear-defined strategy.
- You like playing unfair decks.
- You like to flood the board with creatures and play pure, straightfoward aggro.
- You are a pure control-freak, and just like to play very long games whereby you just sit staring at your opponent do things and you are do nothing else except denying everything that he/she does, until he/she just scoops and walks away with feeling so rejected.
Card Choices:
Creatures:
Restoration Angel:
She is the star of this deck, her blink effect has synergy with most of our other creatures (ie. Snapcaster mage, Blade Splicer, Vendilion Clique, and even a combat trick with Geist of Saint Traft). And unless if future cards from MTG either replace or invalidates her usefulness, she shall unquestionably remain a staple in this deck type.
Snapcaster Mage:
The deck obviously lacks draw spells, but Tiago allows us the recursion that still provides us another form of card advantage (reusing binned cards, while not needing to use that from your hand). Likewise a staple.
Geist of Saint Traft:
Often a finisher. It is not unusual for you to win games by sitting and swinging with one Geist of Saint Traft while clearing his path with removal. He is one of the main reasons for the high removal count in this deck which is not unusual since decks like Raka Delver played a high count for their burn/removal package too, our reason like theirs is simply just to clear the path for him.
Hexproof has proven itself a pain to many, and it seems like WOTC is recognising this and thus at the time of this thread's creation, designed hexproof "hate" cards (ie. Glaring Spotlight from Gatecrash). Therefore, moving forward, I am not sure if he may be relatively weaken to a state of being invalid, but that is an issue for then and there, for now his is considered a staple.
Blade Splicer:
It's simple, One spell, two bodies, one of them with 1st strike, that's good value. But both bodies are still within Lightning bolt range. An advantageous card, but not entirely broken. Blinking it with Restoration Angel is just awesome, way to go, first strike golem army. The colorless golem also helps to block Etched Champion of Robots/Affinity.
Kitchen Finks:
I like this guy, he is resilient to destruction type effects. Blink it with Restoration Angel to gain more life and to remove the "persisted" status. I prefer this over Blade Splicer against decks that play burn or destruction based removal like Jund and RDW, but I prefer Blade Splicer against decks that play Path to Exile.
Vendilion Clique:
More hand information and disruption, flash and playing on our opponent's turns is what we like to do. Blink it with Restoration Angel for another time of hand disruption.
Tidehollow Sculler: W+B, and you get to see your opponent's hand and sit on a non-land. He is partial hand disruption on legs. Some argue that eventhough you don't really discard the chosen card, but you delay it's usage and waste a removal/burn from your opponent. Some did rather clear-cut discard that bins the chosen spell. What do you think?
Instants and Sorceries:
Path to Exile:
Takes out Kitchen Finks, and huge creatures. Well it helps to "ramp" the opponent's lands, but one of the ideas of this deck is "What's the point of your opponent having so many lands, if he/she is out of resources."
Dismember:
Particularly for Tarmogoyf since it averages out as a 4/5 or 5/6. It kills a 4/5 goyf, and oh let me block your 5/6 goyf with my Geist of Saint Traft, oh yes I am shrinking your goyf to a 0/1 And as we are playing black mana producing lands, we do not always have to suffer 4 damage from casting each of these, unlike our UW/UWR counterparts.
Smother:
Formats like Legacy and Modern having a large card pool is mainly represented with decks with low mana curves. We all want spells that are cheap and good. And for such creatures, smother takes them out, no matter how big they can become (ie. Da Goyfffff).
Mana Leak:
It's most effective early game but probably ineffective late game. But what other choice do we have, Remand? Hmm I don't think our strategy is dedicated to tempo play. I don't like manaleak, I wish it was a Counterspell, but what can I say, I still need some form of countermagic, it does help to say no to casting planeswalkers, etched champion, equipment, artifacts etc, and sometimes it protects your killing strike. Let's hope for some new countermagic to replace it in future, but for now it's more or less a necessary evil.
Spell snare:
No doubt a lot of good spells in Modern cost 2 mana, but the restriction is still significantly narrow. I'd rather use the space for removal and discard that have better flexibility.
Devour Flesh
At the time of writing, this new card was being released. So the new "Edict" "Swords". 2 casting cost is acceptable, instant speed is right for this deck, the sacrificial effect helps deal with opposing Geist of Saint Traft, but the life gain is questionable, what do you think?
Gonna give this a try.
Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize:
Discard is awesome in modern, and decks like Jund proved it. But why only 4 of them in total? Because we did not get a WB Scar's Land (WOTC PLEASE GIVE US A WB SCARLAND...). You want to cast this very very early game, hopefully turn 1, while it's less effective later in the game, but not getting black source on turn one hurts it. You all may say we have Darkslick Shores, but we have given up a lot of our UB land space to Creeping Tarpit.
This is however not a problem and you can up the discard spell count, if you are playing Celestial Colonade as your manland of choice, and can therefore pack in a set Darkslick Shores.
Planeswalker: Liliana of the Veil:
Yes she can come in here, and helps against the mirror match against opposing geists, but since we lack card draw, I am a little worried about her +1. What do you guys think?
Lands: Creeping Tar Pit:
UW midrange used Celestial Colonade, but I prefer this guy due to the lower activation cost and it being unblockable.
Tectonic Edge/Moorland Haunt???
Adding them to our mana base as a 3 color deck can be rather risky. But if you find that risk acceptable and worth taking, then please by all means add them in.
Vs Jund:
"Even"
This game usually plays out with a lot of 1-for-1 trades and ends up with an empty board on both sides and a topdecking game, this is where if you cannot answer a Bloodbraid Elf, they would be miles ahead of you and you are in big trouble. (IMO WOTC, pleaseeee ban that cheater, Bloodbraid Elf!!! But that's just IMO).
Unless if they have Maelstrom Pulse ready, the Blade Splicer + Restoration Angel shenanigans gives them quite a headache. If you can deny Liliana of the Veil from resolving (that accompanied with our high removal count to clear the way), or waste Liliana of the Veil -2 ability (by perhaps flashing another creature to be sac) there's nothing much they can do about Geist of Saint Traft.
(Note: Bloodbraid Elf is to be banned with effect Feb 2013, this section is pending updates)
VS GW Hatebears
"Even" to "Slightly Favourable"
A deck filled with hate that walk on legs, and for things that walk on legs we have a deck packed with 10 spot removals waiting to meet them. The only problem as usual is that the walkers that are being swarmed out outpaces our removal/disruption, and the classic way they achieve this is by the old Aether Vial (I call it Aether "Vile", oh free creature spells that can be "flashed" in ain't fair, pal...).
Postboard Disenchant or some artifact hate to deal with the "Vile" will help slow them down, Board wipes on the other hand punishes them for overextending.
Vs Affinity/Robots
Game 1 "Slightly not in our favor", Postboard "favorable"
They are fast, very fast, and they swarm like ants, spot removal may not be enough to kill them all one at a time. Galvanic blast and shrapnel blast each packs a bigger punch than the usual lightning bolt. Etched Champion is a pain, but fortunately we have the colorless golem token from Blade Splicer to block it. Postboard bring in your board wipes, stony silence and even Disenchant, and hope you have any of these in your hand and you have the mana available to cast them.
Vs Zoo
"Slight Favorable" to "Even"
So they lost Wild Nacatl, but are they really dead??? I don't think so, perhaps back then they seen too much play then they should and these days they are seeing too little play than they really deserve. They are still fast and very aggressive. Their blue splash gives them access to Geist of Saint Traft and Snapcaster Mage, so what? So with all five colors lands, Tribal Flames + Snapcaster Mage flashback Tribal Flames means 10 damage using a total of only 6 mana, doesn't that scare you???
Our high removal count helps to deal with their creatures, except Geist of Saint Traft, but Inquisition of Korzilek and Geist's Legend Rule helps us against it. They are aggro and very often you are control. The problem as usual is that they spam out creatures in quantities that our spot removal cannot keep up with. Post sideboard sweepers will definitely help, since they lack card draw and therefore are unlikely to recover from a blow out from overextending.
Vs Delver Tempo
"Favorable"
We pack 10 removal spells that deals with everyone of their creatures except Geist of Saint Traft, but we have Geist of Saint Traft too and can "legend rule' to get rid of theirs. Though not listed above in the decklist, playing black also allow us to play Liliana of the Veil (some of you may prefer to have her in your deck, I like her too, but I am worried that this deck does not play any card draw to overcome the loss from her +1) which is a bane to the lonely spirit swordsman. Our discard also hurts them a lot since their curve usually tops at 3, so Inquisition of Korzilek is free to target all their non-land spells. Their burn does not work on all of our creatures and Restoration Angel adds on to this problem for them, but be careful not to let your life total drop too low, or the burn spells can take you out, so be careful not to pay too much life for your black spells and fetch and shock lands.
Vs Tron.
Game 1 "Slightly not in our favor", Postboard "favorable"
I have not tried dueling against UW Tron yet, so that is pending. Against RG Tron, unlike our UW predecessors, we do not maindeck tectonic edge (you can try, but I find that risky for our landbase since we play 3 colors). Game 1 we just have to go on the offense and try to kill them before they assemble the tron lands and bring out their bombs. Game 2, lock them down! Aven mindcensor stops them from searching for their pieces, stony silence locks their artifacts and mindslavers, then give them the beatdown.
Vs Twin Combo
"Favorable"
We mainboard 10 removal spells so creature-based decks, even creature-based combo decks can be like a walk in the park for us, shoot their combo pieces while beating them down. Discard also helps you pluck off their countermagic.
Vs Pod Decks
Pending. Open for you all to share your experience in this matchup.
Vs Storm
Game 1 "Not in our favor", Postboard "favorable" if you have graveyard hate and hard counters ready
Non-interactive at all. Do not let the game drag out too long, on a side note I noticed that good storm players wouldn't try to combo off asap, they would rather take their time to build up many lands and then combo off when they are confident they can end the game or they are pressurized and compelled to take a chance to go off before you kill them off, the reason is that a developed manabase allows them to play around manaleak and remand, and even if they are stopped in their combo, they hope to have enough mana to recover and resume the combo. Game one you can only try to kill them asap or hope their combo fizzle. Game two use graveyard hate to shut down their Past In Flames engine to slow them down and on top of that you must, I repeat you musttt beat them down and keep that pressure on them.
(Note: Seething Song is to be banned with effect Feb 2013, this section is pending updates)
Vs Infect:
"Unfavorable" to "Even"
They are like affinity, very fast and even more explosive. Their "weapons", the pump spells come mainly in the form of instants and sorceries, except for Rancor, and all weapons need a weapon bearer, the body, the creature to be armed with it. Thus, focus your removal and most of disruption on the creatures, and try not to let them have more than one weapon bearer on the board, because "what is the point of the swords when they have no one to wield them". The 1st four to five turns are critical, survive that and you would have enough mana for a postboard board wipe. So again, deny them of their weapon bearers, keep the beatdown on them to win.
Vs eggs.
Pending. Open for you all to share your experience in this matchup.But I fear that it's like storm, but we need artifact hate to lock down this omelette.
Vs RDW/Red Burn:
"Slightly Unfavorable" to "Even"
At the time of writing , RDW has taken a new incarnation with R not being "Red" but is now "Rakdos". Their black splash was to allow them to assimilate the new star, Deathrite Shaman and other black spells that support their game plan like Bump in the Night. The roles in this matchup is obvious, they are aggro, and we are often controlling. They are fast and can kill without attacking with their creatures. Deathrite Shaman is far more deadly here than most of the other archetypes, because his black mana effect further supports RDW's burning plan. All that player burn can quickly bring you down to dangerous levels of life totals, when Deathrite Shaman acts as a repeatable burn that seeks to finish the game. Hence Deathrite Shaman is even more so a higher priority target to kill on sight here than most other decks, yes it's priority is perhaps even higher than Grim Lavamancer. With our high removal count and Blade Splicer wall, we are often not worried allowing Vexing Devil to resolve as a beater on the board.
Game 1 try to deny them card draw from Dark Confidant, be careful of your shocks and fetches in order to do your best to preserve your life points at comfortable levels, hold up and hopefully before they can bring your life total down to the red zone, they have runned out of steam. Blade Splicer two body effect can sometimes be used as a decoy to waste their player/creature burn. Geist of Saint Traft is certainly a fast clock they almost cannot do anything about, Restoration Angel evades their blockers and often takes more than 1 burn spell to take out.
Vs UW/UWR Midrange
I don't wanna start an arguement on which variant of UW Midrange is better, for this matter I respect the player's own choice. The focus here is strictly on the matchup only.
That being said, the key advantages this deck against them that you should bear in mind are:
- "Flash" decks have their "headquarters" in their hand rather than the board. Inquisition of Korzilek, Thoughtseize and discard really hurts that. At the very least, paying 1 black mana for the spell that forces your opponent to pay at least around 2 mana to counter is not a bad deal after all.
- These matchups are often about who can resolve Geist of Saint Traft and protect him (especially from combat). UW and UWR will find it very difficult to deal with yours onboard (aside from the legend rule), at least you have a Liliana of the Veil to deal with theirs.
- Creeping Tar Pit goes online faster and uses less mana than Celestial Colonade, sometimes being faster is all you need to take the game.
Vs Bant Eternal Gifts Control
"Slightly Favorable"
This deck is hardly seeing much play, but still it is a very solid control deck that should probably deserve more play. Life totals really don't matter much in this matchup, having open mana matters more and even more so it's really about who is able to establish the inevitable board presence that takes over the game. Therefore, play very patiently and carefully, because one mistake and you may have lost your silver bullet to winning. Hand information cards like Inquisition of Korzilek, Thoughtseize, Duress are all-stars in this matchup, because this opponent plays a lot of countermagic, with the known hand info you can try to play around the countermagic and resolving a Geist of Saint Traft is a huge advantage against them.
Postboard Liliana and Smothers are not too important here. Replace them with Negate to help against their countermagic and Aven Mindcensor to shut down Gifts Ungiven.
Moving Foward and Hopes for this Thread:
Thank you for your time in reading this thread and for providing any constructive discussions or recommendations I do hope to get some support from you guys, the forum community. And that hopefully moving forward this thread can evolve into a solid primer for Esper Midrange.
I am also in need for help to design a nice banner for this thread, please let me know if you would like to help
That being said, thank you all once again, and hope you all enjoy the Modern format. Cheers
Introduction:
I would not consider this a primer yet, but seek to present a variant of the conventional UW midrange deck that we all know of by introducing a 3rd color, black. Nevertheless, I do hope that moving forward I can have support from you guys, the forum community to help to improve this thread into a primer for this deck type
Hence, this is my latest construction of an Esper Midrange deck for the Modern format. For your constructive discussions and recommendations for any genuine improvements. Thank you.
History and References:
UW Midrange as we all know does not have a very long history, well afterall Modern is still a rather new format, but neither is UW Midrange the new kid on the block or a fluke. It as well as its recent Raka variant has certainly proven themselves as competitive in the format.
With regards to UW midrange, we have had a thread discussing about it for sometime, as referred here.
Recently, a primer was created for UW Midrange, as referred here. Since the owner of the primer has expressed his wish for his primer to stay close to specifically UW, I respect his wishes and present this separate thread to discuss mainly about the Esper variant.
Why Esper? Why add Black?
Because blue is too restrained in modern, and has lost much of its original power that would otherwise have existed in Legacy or even certain periods of Standard.
Throughout the history of MTG, Blue magic has been well known or perhaps even notorious for many reasons, some of which that stands out is its draw spells and countermagic.
But in Modern...
Draw Spells: Brainstorm is irrelevant. Ponder and even Preordain are banned, leaving many of us left to take up subpar draw spells like serum visions etc.
Countermagic: Where is the good old plain and simple Counterspell? Honestly, what is Mana Leak or even Remand compared to it? Counterspell was just plain simple and effective. just counter target spell, no buts, no more, no less.
To compensate for Blue's lost of power, other colors may need to come in to overcome this problem. Some said Red, and thus it has been proven the competitiveness of Raka (WUR) Restoration Midrange. But I say "Black", because:
- Discard is better than countermagic in Modern (feel free to disagree, this is just my opinion), and Jund in its own ways proved it. If countermagic is not good enough, I mind as well see your hand, get information on your game plan, and pluck away from your hand what I don't like.
- Lighting Bolt/Lightning Helix does not suffice to remove Tarmogoyf, Kitchen Fink, Raging Ravine, Deceiver Exarch, Restoration Angel Etc. Dismember does, but you wouldn't want to always pay 4 life to cast each of it. And Smother kills many things even the famous and pricey Tarmogoyf.
- Creeping Tar Pit is effective, but much cheaper in mana cost than Celestial Colonade. And I just like it cheap and good, don't we?
Thanks guys for joining this discussion, it's going good and let's keep it going
Certainly, both angel and elf are strong cards and each have their advantages. Nonetheless, like Rhinne, I still find that the elf has a slight edge over the angel particularly for this matchup because:
- Angel needs something like a setup board state, for example having a splicer/tiago/clique on the board, but as we all know Jund plays a bucket load of removal and burn.
While elf is such a convenient (and in a sense an idiot proof card and a free lunch), it does not require any setup, when you have it, you can cast it to get 2 SPELLS FOR THE PRICE OF 1. Sure it may cascade into a blank spell, but paying 4 mana for a 3/2 haste body alone on an empty board with both players having empty hands before combat is not that bad a deal after all.
- The above point leads to this. Usually I find my UW midrange vs Jund matchup an intensive 1-for-1 trading game until both sides end up with empty boards and playing the top decking game. I don't know about you guys but in a top decking game without any board setup, angel feels like paying the price for 1 spell to get the effect of 1 spell, while a topdeck elf is still a "Get 2 spells for the price of 1" card. Thus, it seems like elf is a better top deck than angel.
- The biggest difference I find between elf and angel, is that elf is "unstoppable" (almost). If I am not wrong, and the if the Jund players I played with were right about the cascade effect, even countermagic cannot stop the cascade effect, yes the manaleak may be able to bin that elf on the stack, but it's cascade will still proceed. However, the angel can be stopped by countermagic and the "blink" effect is stopped as well.
It is this "unstoppable" effect of elf that I find that it has an edge over the angel and is simply exasperating to deal with. I mean sure, we can use a stifle-like card to stifle the cascade effect in addition to countering/removing the hasty elf, but mannnn oh mannnnn that's 2 cards just to deal with 1 lonely elf that was cast with 4 mana. Whereas, a countermagic is all you need to stop a lone angel and its "blink" from resolving.
Certainly I do agree that the matchup vs Jund is around 50-50, but I believe the elf is somewhat like an "arbitrage opportunity in the trading game" that breaks the stalemate and tilts the scale slightly in favor of jund by giving "an efficient and unfair advantage to a fair" (a strong statement IMO but not absolute, it's open for debate) deck like Jund.
And on draw spells yup I do agree, serum vision is imo just disgusting haha. Even in my WUR delver deck, I played Telling Time in place on it. But since this deck is so tight up on space, I guess draws are out its equation for successful play.
1. I have notice that most lists do not play draw spells, which is strangely a little unusual for a deck with blue and a midrange kinda deck. Sometimes I feel that the lack of draw spells takes away the ability to draw my way into some answer from a stale hand, manascrews and floods also become worse, but on the other hand space seems rather tight in this deck and it's quite hard to take out anything to replace with draw spells. How do you guys feel about it?
2. How do you all find the matchup against Jund? So far, I find it rather exasperating, that bloody bloodbraid elf (Just a personal opinion, some may disagree, and I am sorry to say this, but I feel that bloodbraid elf should be banned from modern) is such a cheat, and each of their creatures have a large impact on the gamestate, it's rather tough to come out on top of the trading game against them.
Hi all, I am quite new to EDH and very much like to make a Riku deck. Hopefully, you all can share some insights with me on how I can streamline it
Objective of Deck:
For multiplayer games.
Go infinite. Infinite mana, Infinite haste creatures, Massive fireball effects and go straight for the kill.
"Friendliness" level:
Not meant to be a friendly deck, I like to make this deck to satisfy my desire for comboing off/amassing a huge army to go for the win. I have another friendly deck to play more casual games, but for this deck I hope it to be just an over-the-top killer. Hmph, you can say that I am bored of being Mr Nice-guy hehe.
Constraints:
Budget. Dual lands are out of my reach, zend fetches are now getting very pricey. Shocks are fortunately reprinted/reprinting.
Combos/Synergies:
Honestly, I just simply took the various ideas from various Riku Threads and place them into this deck. All these combos are those which most of you all are familiar with
Riku+____ for infinite mana and spell:
- Palinchron (infinite mana and creature)
- Great Whale (infinite mana and creature)
- Peregrine Drake (infinite mana and creature)
- Frantic Search (infinite mana and cycles through deck to find finishing combo pieces)
- Worldgorger Dragon: Infinite mana and infinite creature ETB triggers. Finish off with: Stroke of Genius, Comet Storm, Fireball type spells, Maelstrom Wanderer, Warstorm Surge.
Infinite mana:
Reiterate + Turnabout
Infinite Draw and Storm:
- Sensei’s Divining Top + Future Sight/Magus of the Future + Etherium Sculptor/Cloud Key: Finish with Mind's Desire. Storm combo which draws your deck.
Tooth and Nail:
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch/Zealous Conscripts: Infinite hasty attackers
- Palinchron + Vorinclex: Infinite Mana (+Warstorm Surge for the kill)
I am still learning out more about these combos, some of which I am uncertain if they work (ie. Riku + Frantic Search), please feel free to highlight any mistakes or any more additional good/infinite combos to me:) After some goldfishing, average turn of killer combos going off is around turn 8, is it considered slow? If so, how can I make it faster?
This deck is fantastic, yet not overpowered. I have just built it and it's my first deck for EDH, and I am loving it Thanks ISBPathfinder for this primer.
Oh yes, I tried out Angel of Serenity in this deck, and I really like it a lot, it fits in the ETB/LTB theme and gives more recursion, it may also force my opponents to use up their graveyard hate (they usually wait for my reveilark or Karmic Guide, but angel may force them to use up the hate early). What do you all think about Angel of Serenity?
I was initially testing Telling Time too, especially when I was trying to get a Miracle Grow Delver Variant to solidify. I tested it out with UR Delver as well, and on 2, I found myself deciding to play Magma Jet to deal with the opposing threat (aggro-heavy metagame for me) and set up my next draw. I might revisit it, though. I mean, having the following options during turn 2 (assuming in hand at the time) could be pretty nice: Mana Leak (or Remand), Magma Jet, Izzet Charm, or Telling Time.
I've been looking at Epic Experiment in Legacy, and I'm getting more and more excited about this card. For a burn-heavy UR Delver, this card could be a kill condition if the deck is set up right.
Indeed, I agree with magma jet too, and certainly I have showed certain preference to play it if I see a lot of aggro decks hanging around. Although it does not draw you a card, it may neg 1 off the opponent and that is goood too haha. Or some times (strangely I do find it quite often on T4 to 5) that 2 damage was all I need to go for the kill after slamming a chunk of bolts and helix at my opponent who has a life total of 10 or so left
Epic Experiment, honestly if you had not mentioned it, I wouldn't thought about it. Sounds like a nice additional shocking kill con, I would test it out too. Do share with us more about your findings about it too ya
Thinking on it, Telling Time might actually be a better option than Serum Visions on anything other than the first turn. I currently run a WUR Delver Aggro list that does pretty well against anything with creatures, though it typically loses the first game to combo unless the combo takes longer than three turns (in which case, Mana Leaks tend to show up and make the game unwinnable for the combo deck). Since Flusterstorm is frustratingly not available in Modern to shutdown combo, it's hard to stop them, though given that it's the hardest matchup, it might actually be the one that should be worked on the most. Given that Telling Time is an instant, it could be interesting to try a Counterbalance deck that uses Isochron Scepter + Telling Time + Counterbalance to hold decks down, but I'm just tossing ideas out. Counterbalance without Top is really rough, though it's probably the only way to balance out the format against combo, ironically enough.
I have tried out telling time too
Well it's quite difficult to compare it to visions (guess we would have an equal proportion in both camps). Personally I prefer telling time, since it is instant, so I can keep my mana open. T1 Delver/lynx, T2 Flip Delver, beat, Mana leak/remand, T3 beat, burn/path, but if during these turns opponent does nothing, telling time on opponent end turn for CA. Feels so good
Also, time allows you to choose which of the 3 top cards to add to hand, while visions forces you to draw off the top then scry, I personally prefer to have the option to choose from what I had dig.
But with visions during these turns, I often feel reluctant to pay 1 blue for it if I have the choice of disruption in my hand but only have just enough mana for the disruption, thus in such a scenario leaving visions quite dead until T4 or so.
But sadly, time costs 1 mana more and sends a card to the bottom, oh well, can't get the best of both. Some people may disagree and prefer visions, others like me might prefer time. But I guess we can all agree that we wish we had brainstorm
Well, there is no why, it's really all up to you man. You may feel Blue and White is good enough for you, carry on. You may feel that you want to use the flames of Red magic and chuck those bolts of fire at your opponent's face, by all means, continue. But...
But if like me, you feel that Blue is just not enough to complement White, and Red just ain't good enough to take out many of your opponent's beaters, and thus you decide to turn to the forces of darkness, seek to take control the powers of the Black arts and fuse it with your blue and white magic, then Esper Midrange it is...
(What about Green? I shall leave that for someone else to talk about.)
Why Play this deck?
- You want to play a midrange deck, but you don't have 4 tarmogoyf and 4 Dark Confidant, and hmph pardon me but neither do you wish to sell your butt for them. Or you do not believe that in Modern, "midrange=Jund", "midrange=Jund", "midrange=Jund", "midrange=OH SHUT UPPPP!!!" and you wish you have another option for the midrange path.
- You like to have the vesatility to disrupt your opponents on 3 fronts by using discard, countermagic and removal, instead of the usual 2 ways of removal + countermagic or removal + discard.
- You still like to play at the end of your opponents' turn or anytime during his/her turn at instant speed, while you also like sorceries that let you look at your opponent's hand, take a note and write down his cards, and choose the one that you dislike and bin it.
- You hate your opponent having creatures on board, and enjoy destroying or removing them.
- You like some of your creatures to be able to strike from the sky or are even unblockable.
- you like reusing instants and sorceries from your graveyard.
Why not play this deck?
- You like to combo and hmph play with yourself. You don't like interaction and you believe that your opponent across the table should just be a statue.
- You like to drop an Emrakul on the board.
- You like copying things infinite times.
- You like a rigid, linear and specificly clear-defined strategy.
- You like playing unfair decks.
- You like to flood the board with creatures and play pure, straightfoward aggro.
- You are a pure control-freak, and just like to play very long games whereby you just sit staring at your opponent do things and you are do nothing else except denying everything that he/she does, until he/she just scoops and walks away with feeling so rejected.
Card Choices:
Creatures:
Restoration Angel:
She is the star of this deck, her blink effect has synergy with most of our other creatures (ie. Snapcaster mage, Blade Splicer, Vendilion Clique, and even a combat trick with Geist of Saint Traft). And unless if future cards from MTG either replace or invalidates her usefulness, she shall unquestionably remain a staple in this deck type.
Snapcaster Mage:
The deck obviously lacks draw spells, but Tiago allows us the recursion that still provides us another form of card advantage (reusing binned cards, while not needing to use that from your hand). Likewise a staple.
Geist of Saint Traft:
Often a finisher. It is not unusual for you to win games by sitting and swinging with one Geist of Saint Traft while clearing his path with removal. He is one of the main reasons for the high removal count in this deck which is not unusual since decks like Raka Delver played a high count for their burn/removal package too, our reason like theirs is simply just to clear the path for him.
Hexproof has proven itself a pain to many, and it seems like WOTC is recognising this and thus at the time of this thread's creation, designed hexproof "hate" cards (ie. Glaring Spotlight from Gatecrash). Therefore, moving forward, I am not sure if he may be relatively weaken to a state of being invalid, but that is an issue for then and there, for now his is considered a staple.
Blade Splicer:
It's simple, One spell, two bodies, one of them with 1st strike, that's good value. But both bodies are still within Lightning bolt range. An advantageous card, but not entirely broken. Blinking it with Restoration Angel is just awesome, way to go, first strike golem army. The colorless golem also helps to block Etched Champion of Robots/Affinity.
Kitchen Finks:
I like this guy, he is resilient to destruction type effects. Blink it with Restoration Angel to gain more life and to remove the "persisted" status. I prefer this over Blade Splicer against decks that play burn or destruction based removal like Jund and RDW, but I prefer Blade Splicer against decks that play Path to Exile.
Vendilion Clique:
More hand information and disruption, flash and playing on our opponent's turns is what we like to do. Blink it with Restoration Angel for another time of hand disruption.
Tidehollow Sculler: W+B, and you get to see your opponent's hand and sit on a non-land. He is partial hand disruption on legs. Some argue that eventhough you don't really discard the chosen card, but you delay it's usage and waste a removal/burn from your opponent. Some did rather clear-cut discard that bins the chosen spell. What do you think?
Instants and Sorceries:
Path to Exile:
Takes out Kitchen Finks, and huge creatures. Well it helps to "ramp" the opponent's lands, but one of the ideas of this deck is "What's the point of your opponent having so many lands, if he/she is out of resources."
Dismember:
Particularly for Tarmogoyf since it averages out as a 4/5 or 5/6. It kills a 4/5 goyf, and oh let me block your 5/6 goyf with my Geist of Saint Traft, oh yes I am shrinking your goyf to a 0/1
Smother:
Formats like Legacy and Modern having a large card pool is mainly represented with decks with low mana curves. We all want spells that are cheap and good. And for such creatures, smother takes them out, no matter how big they can become (ie. Da Goyfffff).
Mana Leak:
It's most effective early game but probably ineffective late game. But what other choice do we have, Remand? Hmm I don't think our strategy is dedicated to tempo play. I don't like manaleak, I wish it was a Counterspell, but what can I say, I still need some form of countermagic, it does help to say no to casting planeswalkers, etched champion, equipment, artifacts etc, and sometimes it protects your killing strike. Let's hope for some new countermagic to replace it in future, but for now it's more or less a necessary evil.
Spell snare:
No doubt a lot of good spells in Modern cost 2 mana, but the restriction is still significantly narrow. I'd rather use the space for removal and discard that have better flexibility.
Devour Flesh
At the time of writing, this new card was being released. So the new "Edict" "Swords". 2 casting cost is acceptable, instant speed is right for this deck, the sacrificial effect helps deal with opposing Geist of Saint Traft, but the life gain is questionable, what do you think?
Gonna give this a try.
Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize:
Discard is awesome in modern, and decks like Jund proved it. But why only 4 of them in total? Because we did not get a WB Scar's Land (WOTC PLEASE GIVE US A WB SCARLAND...). You want to cast this very very early game, hopefully turn 1, while it's less effective later in the game, but not getting black source on turn one hurts it. You all may say we have Darkslick Shores, but we have given up a lot of our UB land space to Creeping Tarpit.
This is however not a problem and you can up the discard spell count, if you are playing Celestial Colonade as your manland of choice, and can therefore pack in a set Darkslick Shores.
Planeswalker:
Liliana of the Veil:
Yes she can come in here, and helps against the mirror match against opposing geists, but since we lack card draw, I am a little worried about her +1. What do you guys think?
Lands:
Creeping Tar Pit:
UW midrange used Celestial Colonade, but I prefer this guy due to the lower activation cost and it being unblockable.
Fairie Conclave:
Another manland, somewhat resembles Jund's Treetop Village, but it's smaller and has evasion
Tectonic Edge/Moorland Haunt???
Adding them to our mana base as a 3 color deck can be rather risky. But if you find that risk acceptable and worth taking, then please by all means add them in.
Seachrome Coast:
Helps to give us early game UW mana. As mentioned earlier, You can replace them for DarkSlick Shores if you are playing Celestial Colonade.
Shock lands, Fetch lands and Basics:
Well, we all need them don't we.
Sideboard:
Supreme Verdict: vs "spam" aggro decks.
rest in peace: gy hate vs Storm's Past in Flames Engine, Loam, Reanimator, Vengevine etc.
Negate: Hard Counter to help vs Storm, Twin, Scapeshift etc.
Stony Silence: Artifact hate vs Tron, Eggs, Affinity/Roboots etc.
Celestial Purge: Vs RDW, Jund, Junk etc.
Disenchant: Post SB Enchantment hate
Aven MindCensor: Vs Tron, stops them from searching
Engineered Explosives: Something like a boardwipe, another choice rather than Supreme Verdict, but it's capable of handling non-creatures.
Matchups:
Vs Jund:
"Even"
This game usually plays out with a lot of 1-for-1 trades and ends up with an empty board on both sides and a topdecking game, this is where if you cannot answer a Bloodbraid Elf, they would be miles ahead of you and you are in big trouble. (IMO WOTC, pleaseeee ban that cheater, Bloodbraid Elf!!! But that's just IMO).
Unless if they have Maelstrom Pulse ready, the Blade Splicer + Restoration Angel shenanigans gives them quite a headache. If you can deny Liliana of the Veil from resolving (that accompanied with our high removal count to clear the way), or waste Liliana of the Veil -2 ability (by perhaps flashing another creature to be sac) there's nothing much they can do about Geist of Saint Traft.
Post Sideboard, Celestial Purge provides additional exile-type removal capable of disposing their Liliana of the Veil. Rest In Peace totally negates Deathrite Shaman. Shrinks Tarmogoyf into an ant, puts those Lingering Souls to rest, and if I am not wrong brings "despair" to Kitchen Finks.
(Note: Bloodbraid Elf is to be banned with effect Feb 2013, this section is pending updates)
VS GW Hatebears
"Even" to "Slightly Favourable"
A deck filled with hate that walk on legs, and for things that walk on legs we have a deck packed with 10 spot removals waiting to meet them. The only problem as usual is that the walkers that are being swarmed out outpaces our removal/disruption, and the classic way they achieve this is by the old Aether Vial (I call it Aether "Vile", oh free creature spells that can be "flashed" in ain't fair, pal...).
Postboard Disenchant or some artifact hate to deal with the "Vile" will help slow them down, Board wipes on the other hand punishes them for overextending.
Vs Affinity/Robots
Game 1 "Slightly not in our favor", Postboard "favorable"
They are fast, very fast, and they swarm like ants, spot removal may not be enough to kill them all one at a time. Galvanic blast and shrapnel blast each packs a bigger punch than the usual lightning bolt. Etched Champion is a pain, but fortunately we have the colorless golem token from Blade Splicer to block it. Postboard bring in your board wipes, stony silence and even Disenchant, and hope you have any of these in your hand and you have the mana available to cast them.
Vs Zoo
"Slight Favorable" to "Even"
So they lost Wild Nacatl, but are they really dead??? I don't think so, perhaps back then they seen too much play then they should and these days they are seeing too little play than they really deserve. They are still fast and very aggressive. Their blue splash gives them access to Geist of Saint Traft and Snapcaster Mage, so what? So with all five colors lands, Tribal Flames + Snapcaster Mage flashback Tribal Flames means 10 damage using a total of only 6 mana, doesn't that scare you???
Our high removal count helps to deal with their creatures, except Geist of Saint Traft, but Inquisition of Korzilek and Geist's Legend Rule helps us against it. They are aggro and very often you are control. The problem as usual is that they spam out creatures in quantities that our spot removal cannot keep up with. Post sideboard sweepers will definitely help, since they lack card draw and therefore are unlikely to recover from a blow out from overextending.
Vs Delver Tempo
"Favorable"
We pack 10 removal spells that deals with everyone of their creatures except Geist of Saint Traft, but we have Geist of Saint Traft too and can "legend rule' to get rid of theirs. Though not listed above in the decklist, playing black also allow us to play Liliana of the Veil (some of you may prefer to have her in your deck, I like her too, but I am worried that this deck does not play any card draw to overcome the loss from her +1) which is a bane to the lonely spirit swordsman. Our discard also hurts them a lot since their curve usually tops at 3, so Inquisition of Korzilek is free to target all their non-land spells. Their burn does not work on all of our creatures and Restoration Angel adds on to this problem for them, but be careful not to let your life total drop too low, or the burn spells can take you out, so be careful not to pay too much life for your black spells and fetch and shock lands.
Vs Tron.
Game 1 "Slightly not in our favor", Postboard "favorable"
I have not tried dueling against UW Tron yet, so that is pending. Against RG Tron, unlike our UW predecessors, we do not maindeck tectonic edge (you can try, but I find that risky for our landbase since we play 3 colors). Game 1 we just have to go on the offense and try to kill them before they assemble the tron lands and bring out their bombs. Game 2, lock them down! Aven mindcensor stops them from searching for their pieces, stony silence locks their artifacts and mindslavers, then give them the beatdown.
Vs Twin Combo
"Favorable"
We mainboard 10 removal spells so creature-based decks, even creature-based combo decks can be like a walk in the park for us, shoot their combo pieces while beating them down. Discard also helps you pluck off their countermagic.
Vs Pod Decks
Pending. Open for you all to share your experience in this matchup.
Vs Storm
Game 1 "Not in our favor", Postboard "favorable" if you have graveyard hate and hard counters ready
Non-interactive at all. Do not let the game drag out too long, on a side note I noticed that good storm players wouldn't try to combo off asap, they would rather take their time to build up many lands and then combo off when they are confident they can end the game or they are pressurized and compelled to take a chance to go off before you kill them off, the reason is that a developed manabase allows them to play around manaleak and remand, and even if they are stopped in their combo, they hope to have enough mana to recover and resume the combo. Game one you can only try to kill them asap or hope their combo fizzle. Game two use graveyard hate to shut down their Past In Flames engine to slow them down and on top of that you must, I repeat you musttt beat them down and keep that pressure on them.
(Note: Seething Song is to be banned with effect Feb 2013, this section is pending updates)
Vs Infect:
"Unfavorable" to "Even"
They are like affinity, very fast and even more explosive. Their "weapons", the pump spells come mainly in the form of instants and sorceries, except for Rancor, and all weapons need a weapon bearer, the body, the creature to be armed with it. Thus, focus your removal and most of disruption on the creatures, and try not to let them have more than one weapon bearer on the board, because "what is the point of the swords when they have no one to wield them". The 1st four to five turns are critical, survive that and you would have enough mana for a postboard board wipe. So again, deny them of their weapon bearers, keep the beatdown on them to win.
Vs eggs.
Pending. Open for you all to share your experience in this matchup.But I fear that it's like storm, but we need artifact hate to lock down this omelette.
Vs RDW/Red Burn:
"Slightly Unfavorable" to "Even"
At the time of writing , RDW has taken a new incarnation with R not being "Red" but is now "Rakdos". Their black splash was to allow them to assimilate the new star, Deathrite Shaman and other black spells that support their game plan like Bump in the Night. The roles in this matchup is obvious, they are aggro, and we are often controlling. They are fast and can kill without attacking with their creatures. Deathrite Shaman is far more deadly here than most of the other archetypes, because his black mana effect further supports RDW's burning plan. All that player burn can quickly bring you down to dangerous levels of life totals, when
Deathrite Shaman acts as a repeatable burn that seeks to finish the game. Hence Deathrite Shaman is even more so a higher priority target to kill on sight here than most other decks, yes it's priority is perhaps even higher than Grim Lavamancer. With our high removal count and Blade Splicer wall, we are often not worried allowing Vexing Devil to resolve as a beater on the board.
Game 1 try to deny them card draw from Dark Confidant, be careful of your shocks and fetches in order to do your best to preserve your life points at comfortable levels, hold up and hopefully before they can bring your life total down to the red zone, they have runned out of steam. Blade Splicer two body effect can sometimes be used as a decoy to waste their player/creature burn. Geist of Saint Traft is certainly a fast clock they almost cannot do anything about, Restoration Angel evades their blockers and often takes more than 1 burn spell to take out.
Game 2 onwards, Rest in Peace trumps Deathrite Shaman and Bump in the Night, Celestial Purge provides additional removal or may be used to replace a few Dismember for you to still have a effective removal while not paying life for it.
Vs UW/UWR Midrange
I don't wanna start an arguement on which variant of UW Midrange is better, for this matter I respect the player's own choice. The focus here is strictly on the matchup only.
That being said, the key advantages this deck against them that you should bear in mind are:
- "Flash" decks have their "headquarters" in their hand rather than the board. Inquisition of Korzilek, Thoughtseize and discard really hurts that. At the very least, paying 1 black mana for the spell that forces your opponent to pay at least around 2 mana to counter is not a bad deal after all.
- These matchups are often about who can resolve Geist of Saint Traft and protect him (especially from combat). UW and UWR will find it very difficult to deal with yours onboard (aside from the legend rule), at least you have a Liliana of the Veil to deal with theirs.
- Creeping Tar Pit goes online faster and uses less mana than Celestial Colonade, sometimes being faster is all you need to take the game.
Vs Bant Eternal Gifts Control
"Slightly Favorable"
This deck is hardly seeing much play, but still it is a very solid control deck that should probably deserve more play. Life totals really don't matter much in this matchup, having open mana matters more and even more so it's really about who is able to establish the inevitable board presence that takes over the game. Therefore, play very patiently and carefully, because one mistake and you may have lost your silver bullet to winning. Hand information cards like Inquisition of Korzilek, Thoughtseize, Duress are all-stars in this matchup, because this opponent plays a lot of countermagic, with the known hand info you can try to play around the countermagic and resolving a Geist of Saint Traft is a huge advantage against them.
Postboard Liliana and Smothers are not too important here. Replace them with Negate to help against their countermagic and Aven Mindcensor to shut down Gifts Ungiven.
Moving Foward and Hopes for this Thread:
Thank you for your time in reading this thread and for providing any constructive discussions or recommendations
I am also in need for help to design a nice banner for this thread, please let me know if you would like to help
That being said, thank you all once again, and hope you all enjoy the Modern format. Cheers
Decklist:
10 Creatures:
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Vendilion Clique
17 Instants
4 Path to Exile
3 Mana Leak
4 Disfigure
2 Go for the throat
2 Geth's Verdict
2 Smother
9 Sorcery
4 Lingering Souls
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
24 Lands:
4 Marsh Flats
4 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Celestial Colonade
1 Vault of the Archangels
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
2 Watery Grave
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Darkslick Shores
2 Seachrome coast
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Negates
2 Stony Silence
2 Celestial Purge
2 Torpor Orb
3 Timely Reinforcements
MB:
18 Creatures:
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Dark Confidant
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Planeswalker
3 Liliana of the Veil
12 Instants
4 Path to Exile
2 Mana Leak
3 Disfigure
2 Go for the throat
1 Smother
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
23 Lands:
4 Marsh Flats
4 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Celestial Colonade
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Watery Grave
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Darkslick Shores
2 Seachrome coast
Introduction:
I would not consider this a primer yet, but seek to present a variant of the conventional UW midrange deck that we all know of by introducing a 3rd color, black. Nevertheless, I do hope that moving forward I can have support from you guys, the forum community to help to improve this thread into a primer for this deck type
Hence, this is my latest construction of an Esper Midrange deck for the Modern format. For your constructive discussions and recommendations for any genuine improvements. Thank you.
History and References:
UW Midrange as we all know does not have a very long history, well afterall Modern is still a rather new format, but neither is UW Midrange the new kid on the block or a fluke. It as well as its recent Raka variant has certainly proven themselves as competitive in the format.
With regards to UW midrange, we have had a thread discussing about it for sometime, as referred here.
Recently, a primer was created for UW Midrange, as referred here. Since the owner of the primer has expressed his wish for his primer to stay close to specifically UW, I respect his wishes and present this separate thread to discuss mainly about the Esper variant.
Why Esper? Why add Black?
Because blue is too restrained in modern, and has lost much of its original power that would otherwise have existed in Legacy or even certain periods of Standard.
Throughout the history of MTG, Blue magic has been well known or perhaps even notorious for many reasons, some of which that stands out is its draw spells and countermagic.
But in Modern...
Draw Spells: Brainstorm is irrelevant. Ponder and even Preordain are banned, leaving many of us left to take up subpar draw spells like serum visions etc.
Countermagic: Where is the good old plain and simple Counterspell? Honestly, what is Mana Leak or even Remand compared to it? Counterspell was just plain simple and effective. just counter target spell, no buts, no more, no less.
To compensate for Blue's lost of power, other colors may need to come in to overcome this problem. Some said Red, and thus it has been proven the competitiveness of Raka (WUR) Restoration Midrange. But I say "Black", because:
- Discard is better than countermagic in Modern (feel free to disagree, this is just my opinion), and Jund in its own ways proved it. If countermagic is not good enough, I mind as well see your hand, get information on your game plan, and pluck away from your hand what I don't like.
- Lighting Bolt/Lightning Helix does not suffice to remove Tarmogoyf, Kitchen Fink, Raging Ravine, Deceiver Exarch, Restoration Angel Etc. Dismember does, but you wouldn't want to always pay 4 life to cast each of it. And Smother kills many things even the famous and pricey Tarmogoyf.
- Creeping Tar Pit is effective, but much cheaper in mana cost than Celestial Colonade. And I just like it cheap and good, don't we?
Certainly, both angel and elf are strong cards and each have their advantages. Nonetheless, like Rhinne, I still find that the elf has a slight edge over the angel particularly for this matchup because:
- Angel needs something like a setup board state, for example having a splicer/tiago/clique on the board, but as we all know Jund plays a bucket load of removal and burn.
While elf is such a convenient (and in a sense an idiot proof card and a free lunch), it does not require any setup, when you have it, you can cast it to get 2 SPELLS FOR THE PRICE OF 1. Sure it may cascade into a blank spell, but paying 4 mana for a 3/2 haste body alone on an empty board with both players having empty hands before combat is not that bad a deal after all.
- The above point leads to this. Usually I find my UW midrange vs Jund matchup an intensive 1-for-1 trading game until both sides end up with empty boards and playing the top decking game. I don't know about you guys but in a top decking game without any board setup, angel feels like paying the price for 1 spell to get the effect of 1 spell, while a topdeck elf is still a "Get 2 spells for the price of 1" card. Thus, it seems like elf is a better top deck than angel.
- The biggest difference I find between elf and angel, is that elf is "unstoppable" (almost). If I am not wrong, and the if the Jund players I played with were right about the cascade effect, even countermagic cannot stop the cascade effect, yes the manaleak may be able to bin that elf on the stack, but it's cascade will still proceed. However, the angel can be stopped by countermagic and the "blink" effect is stopped as well.
It is this "unstoppable" effect of elf that I find that it has an edge over the angel and is simply exasperating to deal with. I mean sure, we can use a stifle-like card to stifle the cascade effect in addition to countering/removing the hasty elf, but mannnn oh mannnnn that's 2 cards just to deal with 1 lonely elf that was cast with 4 mana. Whereas, a countermagic is all you need to stop a lone angel and its "blink" from resolving.
Certainly I do agree that the matchup vs Jund is around 50-50, but I believe the elf is somewhat like an "arbitrage opportunity in the trading game" that breaks the stalemate and tilts the scale slightly in favor of jund by giving "an efficient and unfair advantage to a fair" (a strong statement IMO but not absolute, it's open for debate) deck like Jund.
And on draw spells
1. I have notice that most lists do not play draw spells, which is strangely a little unusual for a deck with blue and a midrange kinda deck. Sometimes I feel that the lack of draw spells takes away the ability to draw my way into some answer from a stale hand, manascrews and floods also become worse, but on the other hand space seems rather tight in this deck and it's quite hard to take out anything to replace with draw spells. How do you guys feel about it?
2. How do you all find the matchup against Jund? So far, I find it rather exasperating, that bloody bloodbraid elf (Just a personal opinion, some may disagree, and I am sorry to say this, but I feel that bloodbraid elf should be banned from modern) is such a cheat, and each of their creatures have a large impact on the gamestate, it's rather tough to come out on top of the trading game against them.
Objective of Deck:
For multiplayer games.
Go infinite. Infinite mana, Infinite haste creatures, Massive fireball effects and go straight for the kill.
"Friendliness" level:
Not meant to be a friendly deck, I like to make this deck to satisfy my desire for comboing off/amassing a huge army to go for the win. I have another friendly deck to play more casual games, but for this deck I hope it to be just an over-the-top killer. Hmph, you can say that I am bored of being Mr Nice-guy hehe.
Constraints:
Budget. Dual lands are out of my reach, zend fetches are now getting very pricey. Shocks are fortunately reprinted/reprinting.
Decklist:
Combos/Synergies:
Honestly, I just simply took the various ideas from various Riku Threads and place them into this deck. All these combos are those which most of you all are familiar with
Riku+____ for infinite mana and spell:
- Palinchron (infinite mana and creature)
- Great Whale (infinite mana and creature)
- Peregrine Drake (infinite mana and creature)
- Frantic Search (infinite mana and cycles through deck to find finishing combo pieces)
- Worldgorger Dragon: Infinite mana and infinite creature ETB triggers.
Finish off with: Stroke of Genius, Comet Storm, Fireball type spells, Maelstrom Wanderer, Warstorm Surge.
Infinite mana:
Reiterate + Turnabout
Infinite Draw and Storm:
- Sensei’s Divining Top + Future Sight/Magus of the Future + Etherium Sculptor/Cloud Key: Finish with Mind's Desire. Storm combo which draws your deck.
Tooth and Nail:
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch/Zealous Conscripts: Infinite hasty attackers
- Palinchron + Vorinclex: Infinite Mana (+Warstorm Surge for the kill)
Twin Combo:
- Splinter Twin + Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch/Zealous Conscripts: Infinite hasty attackers
Infinite Turns:
Time Warp + Eternal Witness + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Crystal Shard
I am still learning out more about these combos, some of which I am uncertain if they work (ie. Riku + Frantic Search), please feel free to highlight any mistakes or any more additional good/infinite combos to me:) After some goldfishing, average turn of killer combos going off is around turn 8, is it considered slow? If so, how can I make it faster?
Oh yes, I tried out Angel of Serenity in this deck, and I really like it a lot, it fits in the ETB/LTB theme and gives more recursion, it may also force my opponents to use up their graveyard hate (they usually wait for my reveilark or Karmic Guide, but angel may force them to use up the hate early). What do you all think about Angel of Serenity?
Epic Experiment, honestly if you had not mentioned it, I wouldn't thought about it. Sounds like a nice additional shocking kill con, I would test it out too. Do share with us more about your findings about it too ya
I have tried out telling time too
Well it's quite difficult to compare it to visions (guess we would have an equal proportion in both camps). Personally I prefer telling time, since it is instant, so I can keep my mana open. T1 Delver/lynx, T2 Flip Delver, beat, Mana leak/remand, T3 beat, burn/path, but if during these turns opponent does nothing, telling time on opponent end turn for CA. Feels so good
Also, time allows you to choose which of the 3 top cards to add to hand, while visions forces you to draw off the top then scry, I personally prefer to have the option to choose from what I had dig.
But with visions during these turns, I often feel reluctant to pay 1 blue for it if I have the choice of disruption in my hand but only have just enough mana for the disruption, thus in such a scenario leaving visions quite dead until T4 or so.
But sadly, time costs 1 mana more and sends a card to the bottom, oh well, can't get the best of both. Some people may disagree and prefer visions, others like me might prefer time. But I guess we can all agree that we wish we had brainstorm