Now that 4 Mishra's Bauble is the new hot tech, can someone with xp in playing that build give me some guidelines of sequencing with Bauble and Cantrips?.
Thanks in advance!
I'm on the Bauble train. I moved away from GDS to Traverse mainly because the deck feels to be spinning it wheels too much with the cantrips and that is a big risk with how fast modern can be especially that we are damaging ourselves too. The deck can also be prone to flooding even with 18 lands. To solve the flooding we cut lands and replace it with cantrips which again slow us down. This is where Bauble is good since it's free so we can spend our mana casting real spells. Sure it's a delayed cantrip and has no selection by itself but it can serve other utilities in this deck. My favorite is Bauble as a free 1 mana to power out Anglers and Thoughtscouring a Tron piece from the opponent. Eduardo Sajgalik wrote about some cool interactions with Bauble:
Draw Serum Visions top card during their turn (perfect for instants)
With Fetchland + Visions, check top card of Serum Visions before blind drawing (can then keep one card on top if good due to re-draw, unlikely both)
Check own library before Thought Scour (own turn or opp turn - mill them if you need the card immediately)
Check before fetchland (Street Wraith / 1 mana instants)
Check their top card before Thoughtseize / Inquisition
Check their top card before Thought Scour to have the option to fateseal them.
Trigger Revolt for Fatal Push.
Fill the graveyard for delve.
Check their top card before a conditional Stubborn Denial (ie. not a must-counter)
Protect extra card from discard by sacrificing on their turn.
Matches were:
2-0 CoCo Humans
1-2 GR Tron
1-2 Ponza
0-2 ETron
My list was very top heavy with 10 3-drops and it showed in some match ups. The BBE cascade were amazing though. 24 lands was alright for me, never got screwed or flooded. I did made several punts like playing a wrong fetch in anticipation of Blood Moon. The deck felt okay even against the bad match ups (I almost beat GR Tron by triple Fulminating his Power Plants but can't muster enough pressure) it was mostly me being a bad pilot. It was honestly disappointing. I went home and quickly tried Jund Shadow with BBE, thinking my meta is just hostile to Jund. However I didn't want to give up on Jund that quickly especially that BBE is now free and Modern being more about knowing your deck. So I went to another tournament the next day with a more lower to the ground list
Went 1-2 this time:
1-2 Ponza
1-2 ETron
2-0 Vampire Tribal
Ponza and ETron were the same players who beat me the previous day. I feel that I played more tightly now. Won game 1 taking Moon and beating with Goyf. Game 2, he got stuck on two lands but I have no quick clock and he was able to recover with a Moon and and beat me down. Game 3, I kept a hand with no fetch so I know I'm dead to an early Moon. I bolted two Arbor Elf and played a Goyf. He played a Tracker and pass. On my turn I have 4 lands with Termine LoTV and Bob on hand. I pause for a while, should I play LotV and -2 the Tracker or Terminate the tracker and play Bob? Moon is coming next turn and I don't have a basic so I needed to choose and chose the latter I did. He played Moon and Bob never drew me another basic. He proceeded to slam Hazoret, Stormbreath and P&K and Beast Within my Goyf.
Against ETron, he got me with an early Ulamog game 1. I won game 2 with Mages and BBE into Goyf. Game 3, I have slowed him down with 3 Mages blowing up his temples and Tron piece. However I messed the combat math against a Smasher equipped with Collar. I chumped it with Goyf and Bob and forgot that with Deathtouch and Trample he only needed to assign 1 damage each and 3 to my face. I BBE into Goyf next turn with KCommand and LoTV on hand. He only had 4 lands and I'm far ahead going for the beatdown. He Balista me for 2 bringing me to 1 then topdecked another 1 for the kill.
All in all, the deck was okay. It was just me who sucked. I miss the 6th discard main. I don't get to open with discard as much now. against Ponza, I won the games where I play a discard turn 1. I feel so dejected right now and part of me wanted to switch to Blue Moon and try Jace on my next tourney just to have a better chance against Tron and Moon decks which infest my meta. But knowing me, I'll probably go with Jund again and try to improve as a player. Apologies for the long post and thanks to the Jund family here especially Delver, Spsiegel, Ayiluss etc.
BBE does more than generate card advantage. She can do that, yeah, but what she really does is create board advantage. She helps you close the game on her own. After testing Jace, who is a just a pure card advantage engine, I wasn't very excited. He doesn't flip a board state. If you're behind, you're behind. And if you're even, you might still die after playing him because you spend 4 mana not really impacting the board, and if you're ahead, he doesn't shut the door quickly. BBE on the other hand is good at all positions of the game (other than being land screwed).
We need some card in our deck that lets us fight against the fair decks. BBE is the first one we have gotten that lets us just play 3 colors. Which is a way bigger boon than I first realized. The mana consistency alone has won me games that I would have lost if I was still playing 4 color, and getting to play BLOOD MOON in my shadow deck means I don't miss the blue countermagic.
It's possible that my current build isn't what we will actually end up on, but BBE has greatly overperformed for me so far. (And the silky smooth mana)
Apologies if I miss your list, do you play Manamorphose or the Tarfire/Seal package?
Guys I think Reid has his list up! At least I think it's his. 24 lands, 6 lilianas, 2 pulse, no push etc.
OMG, thats incredibly greedy. 10 3 drops and 24 lands only, WITH Blooming Marsh. How is that gonna work?
But I am curious to watch the games and find out.
I posted a similar list awhile back with 24 Lands, 9 3-drops (3 KCommands) no Push. I tried going down to 4 discards to make room for the 25th land and another Pulse, Scooze or LotH, but wanted a 2/2 split of TS and IoK as TS helps against Tron. However, the number of 3-drops hurt with Bob. I actually lost a game with my 2 Bobs revealing BBE and LoTV. This maybe why Reid prefers IoK and moved TS to the SB to mitigate the life loss.
3 Ooze seems a bit much for me since I run 3 KCommands and 2 LotH to recur them but Reid also has no graveyard hate in the SB and Scooze helps with the Bob triggers so it's probably good to have the 3rd copy.
No Twilight Mire just because I don't have one so I run 9 fetches. My sideboard is just tuned for a small meta I frequent with Storm, Bogles, Affinity, Tron, and Elves. Thanks man, appreciate the inputs.
I'm with Spsiegel1987 on the 3 KCommand main. BBE into KCommand loops is insane. I never felt this dirty playing Jund. I also run 5 discard 1 Brutality, 1 LotH. However I have no room for Push anymore. I know I may get punish for it but I'm thoroughly impressed with LotH and 3 KCommands. If i'm playing into a trap, please talk me out of it.
How about cutting 1 Push and 1 Spellbomb for 2 PtE if the meta requires so. I really want the single LtLH and a single artifact main to help enable Delirium and grow Goys. I run 1 EE main as a hedge against Bogles. As for the 3 Souls, I think Reid cut down to 3 as he his list is light on White sources. If you exchange the Treetops for another Vent/Wildwood then it's probably okay.
I definitely can see the merits of this list. I like the fact that it max's out on its best cards, including the 8 discard spells, making it rather consistent. I also thought about ramping up the numbers of my 1cc discard spells, but left this idea for another day. Moreover, dismissing white makes a) the manabase a lot less painful and b) more resilent against blood moon. a) makes Confidant a lot better and probably even dismember viable. However, 4 Field of Ruin is probably what sets our list most appart. E-Tron and Tron were really prevalent. During the rounds I heard someone say tron decks make up to 11% of the field (I did not verify this number). Even though I dont know exactly against which types of decks the above mentioned list was paired, but I can very well imagine that field of ruins was put to good use With tracker field of ruin becomes even stronger. Hissing Quaqmire was probably played due to the fact that produces both colors needed, besides this I can only imagine very view scenarios where quagmire is better than treetop village. I even considered playing village in my abzan list, but dismissed this choice to due my double-gideon sb plan (which kind of demand w/x manlands). I always found quagmire the least impressive manland..
Concerning Lingering Souls: If I wouldn't play PtE I probably wouldn't play lingering souls either. In my opinion you should either play both or none. Splashing just for souls and probably stony silence isn't worth it. Saying this sounds somewhat weird to me because in at least two games Souls was my most wanted card. I am fairly certain that I would have won both of these games if I had found a single copy in my top 30 cards. Yes there are some MU's where souls it at best medicore, but usually I was quite happy to see it all day.. but my experience might be somewhat biased since I was in the drawbracket after round 3. I can very well imagine that souls is better against decks that are more prone to ties... also souls is likely to be the worest card to flip with a confidant. It always makes me sad. The impact of souls is just not worth paying 3 life. Not playing any souls does "mitigate" this risk.
Yes, Tron was 11 % of the metagame and the most played deck type, you can check in on their coverage site.
Quagmire was used to have the black requirements covered yeah. Treetop is miles better, but with 4 Field of Ruin, its hard to fulfill all the black requirements and still play Treetop. I also think Quagmire is in general a weak manland, but its probably the best concerning mana fixing at this point.
Whats the reason you would run Souls only with Path? You said that Souls is the card you wanted most sometimes, doesnt connect to path then. I think Souls just is very good to make opposing Lilis and single target removal bad. Thats why I am very surprized this BG Rock list won, but there must be something to it.
This also brought me to the idea to run the strengths of this Rock list and just make a micro splash for Souls only, to still have that covered. Don't know if it'll work, but then we would have a similar approach to what Reid Duke has made, and I think nobody can say Reid Duke's approaches are bad.
Basically the only fact I am curious about is whether the Field of Ruin package or the Treetop + Grim Flayer package from Reid Duke is better.
Other than mana fixing, Quagmire can stall big creatures from attacking with which BG Rocks lacks efficient removal. A 3/1 or 2/2 split with Treetop would probably be still okay.
Try it. Bloom Moon gives the deck a tinge of unfairness. Playing Jund, I was afraid of this card before but not when we are the one dropping it. Plan your fetches ahead, drop Moon and we still have the superior topdeck. The element of surprise is also on our side since some don't expect a 3-color deck to play BM. Some decks, like Tron, can still function under Moon sure, but Jund still has a pretty fast clock to close the match before they can recover.
23 lands with Moon has been okay so far. I cut a Wooded Foothills for the 2nd LtLH. She is just solid in my meta and is really good against matchups where LotV sucks. However, I now have 11 3-drops MB which maybe not be good. I may follow suit with FlyingDelver and go down to 2 Ravines for another Foothills to help fetch a basic Forest. I love Ravine though so I'm still in the ropes, but in matches where I'm bringing Moon, I'm shutting down Ravine too so that maybe the better course.
My sideboard is still up in the air but mainly tuned for my meta. 2 Explosives maybe a lot but I have some Boggles and it is also a good sweeper against Affinity and other small go-wide creature decks. Haven't drawn Hazoret a lot so she has yet to impress me. Right now she is my flex spot in the SB. I'm not running Finks so my Burn matchup is left to a pair of Brutalities and pray I can get there. Chandra ToD is for UWx and matches where I aim to lock the board with Blood Moon and hope to emblem her for the win.
edit: Two Lilies on the board is just bonkers. Coupled with your removals, it locks the board against creature decks while you rip their hand and threaten with their game-ending ultimates.
SiegeDino, I just switched from Jund to 5c Shadow to Abzan and been trying to build my list similar to yours. Coming from Jund, Bob and LotV are my sacred cows so I wanted no less than the the full set in my mainboard. However, most Junk list I saw cut Bob completely for Flayer and I kind of understand that so I want a split of both. A dilemma: do I want a playset of Lingering Souls MB? If yes, I need to reevaluate which gets cut. Second, most Junk list also do not play artifacts main which makes me question how reliable can we activate delirium for Flayer. From my experience with 5c Shadow, Instant is the hardest to get in the bin to activate delirium if we are against a deck without much creature to target with our removals, but that deck plays a full set of Bauble and Wraiths. I also wanted some Tracker but Siege Rhino feels like the better top end due to its built-in Helix which can also serve as reach.
For my sideboard, I can't skimp on Fulminators as I have some Tron in my meta and I can't expect to dodge them everytime. I don't have Gids ally yet, so I'm testing Sorin which can also help in grindy matchups and break board stalls. For the Burn matchup, should Brutality and Vent/Ooze/Rhino enough to win the matchup? I can't find any room for Finks in my SB. Appreciate any inputs, thanks!
I'm currently testing 12 cantrips with a full set of Chart. Peezy has been good with the high density of spells. The tokens he generates can be fodder to Chart which has also been great in all stages. Late game, when digging for a threat or a burn spell for reach, you can Chart and discard extra fetches or dead counterspells.
Moving forward, I would like to try a list with Spell Queller, replacing YP and/or Geist. I may need to do some adjustments with the mana though as 17 is really shaky for another set of 3-drops. Remand is also a little meh, I'd probably shave one and try Deprive.
I have Affinity, Tron and Ad Naus which is why I pack in Stony Silence. The Rejection and Stroke is for Eldrazi/Scapeshift which is why I also have Spreading Seas as it is really hard to keep up with ETron once they have Cavern. Balista and Hangarback are also very tough for us to deal with.
Great idea with Surgicals and PZ, I'll probably try some in place of a Relic and 1 Wear//Tear.
I feel that 13 threats is too light so I added a Clique and another YP main. Also upped the land to 18. I dropped down Remand to 2 copies and cut Mana Leak entirely. Reason is I wanted more 1cmc counters so I replaced it with 2x Spell Snare, which is not bad against Affinity and Storm and hits Chalice for 1. Rounding up my counterspell is 2x Spell Pierce. I feel that with 17-18 lands it's hard to land a threat or keep the tempo while holding 2cmc counters. I am also testing 2 copies of Chart a Course replacing 1 SV and 1 Opt. It"s easy to play if you have a Delver or a bunch of Tokens.
My changes reduces the chance of Delver flipping but I feel that it's wrong to go all in the Delver plan especially when it's so hard to protect the tempo plan without free and efficient counter spells.
Midrange decks like Jund/Junk is very hard and so is Eldrazi Tron.
Draw Serum Visions top card during their turn (perfect for instants)
With Fetchland + Visions, check top card of Serum Visions before blind drawing (can then keep one card on top if good due to re-draw, unlikely both)
Check own library before Thought Scour (own turn or opp turn - mill them if you need the card immediately)
Check before fetchland (Street Wraith / 1 mana instants)
Check their top card before Thoughtseize / Inquisition
Check their top card before Thought Scour to have the option to fateseal them.
Trigger Revolt for Fatal Push.
Fill the graveyard for delve.
Check their top card before a conditional Stubborn Denial (ie. not a must-counter)
Protect extra card from discard by sacrificing on their turn.
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodtstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
3 Raging Ravine
2 Forest
2 Swamp
14 Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Liliana the last Hope
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Kolaghan's Command
1 Terminate
1 Dreadbore
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
15 Sideboard
4 Fulminator Mage
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdiggers' Cage
1 Back to Nature
1 Golgari Charm
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Collective Brutality
1 Kitchen Finks
Matches were:
2-0 CoCo Humans
1-2 GR Tron
1-2 Ponza
0-2 ETron
My list was very top heavy with 10 3-drops and it showed in some match ups. The BBE cascade were amazing though. 24 lands was alright for me, never got screwed or flooded. I did made several punts like playing a wrong fetch in anticipation of Blood Moon. The deck felt okay even against the bad match ups (I almost beat GR Tron by triple Fulminating his Power Plants but can't muster enough pressure) it was mostly me being a bad pilot. It was honestly disappointing. I went home and quickly tried Jund Shadow with BBE, thinking my meta is just hostile to Jund. However I didn't want to give up on Jund that quickly especially that BBE is now free and Modern being more about knowing your deck. So I went to another tournament the next day with a more lower to the ground list
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
3 Raging Ravine
2 Forest
2 Swamp
15 Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana the last Hope
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Terminate
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
15 Sideboard
4 Fulminator Mage
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdiggers' Cage
1 Back to Nature
1 Golgari Charm
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Collective Brutality
1 Liliana the Last Hope
1-2 Ponza
1-2 ETron
2-0 Vampire Tribal
Ponza and ETron were the same players who beat me the previous day. I feel that I played more tightly now. Won game 1 taking Moon and beating with Goyf. Game 2, he got stuck on two lands but I have no quick clock and he was able to recover with a Moon and and beat me down. Game 3, I kept a hand with no fetch so I know I'm dead to an early Moon. I bolted two Arbor Elf and played a Goyf. He played a Tracker and pass. On my turn I have 4 lands with Termine LoTV and Bob on hand. I pause for a while, should I play LotV and -2 the Tracker or Terminate the tracker and play Bob? Moon is coming next turn and I don't have a basic so I needed to choose and chose the latter I did. He played Moon and Bob never drew me another basic. He proceeded to slam Hazoret, Stormbreath and P&K and Beast Within my Goyf.
Against ETron, he got me with an early Ulamog game 1. I won game 2 with Mages and BBE into Goyf. Game 3, I have slowed him down with 3 Mages blowing up his temples and Tron piece. However I messed the combat math against a Smasher equipped with Collar. I chumped it with Goyf and Bob and forgot that with Deathtouch and Trample he only needed to assign 1 damage each and 3 to my face. I BBE into Goyf next turn with KCommand and LoTV on hand. He only had 4 lands and I'm far ahead going for the beatdown. He Balista me for 2 bringing me to 1 then topdecked another 1 for the kill.
All in all, the deck was okay. It was just me who sucked. I miss the 6th discard main. I don't get to open with discard as much now. against Ponza, I won the games where I play a discard turn 1. I feel so dejected right now and part of me wanted to switch to Blue Moon and try Jace on my next tourney just to have a better chance against Tron and Moon decks which infest my meta. But knowing me, I'll probably go with Jund again and try to improve as a player. Apologies for the long post and thanks to the Jund family here especially Delver, Spsiegel, Ayiluss etc.
3 Ooze seems a bit much for me since I run 3 KCommands and 2 LotH to recur them but Reid also has no graveyard hate in the SB and Scooze helps with the Bob triggers so it's probably good to have the 3rd copy.
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Blooodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
3 Raging Ravine
1 Treetop Village
2 Swamp
1 Forest
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Scavenging Ooze
22 Spells
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Kolaghan's Command
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, The Last Hope
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Anger of the gods
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Liliana, The Last Hope
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Back to Nature
1 Collective Brutality
No Twilight Mire just because I don't have one so I run 9 fetches. My sideboard is just tuned for a small meta I frequent with Storm, Bogles, Affinity, Tron, and Elves. Thanks man, appreciate the inputs.
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
3 Raging Ravine
2 Swamp
2 Forest
13 Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Liliana, The Last Hope
18 Spells
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Fatal Push
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Kolaghan's Command
15 Sideboard
2 Collective Brutality
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Blood Moon
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Hazoret, the Fervent
1 Golgari Charm
1 Anger of the gods
23 lands with Moon has been okay so far. I cut a Wooded Foothills for the 2nd LtLH. She is just solid in my meta and is really good against matchups where LotV sucks. However, I now have 11 3-drops MB which maybe not be good. I may follow suit with FlyingDelver and go down to 2 Ravines for another Foothills to help fetch a basic Forest. I love Ravine though so I'm still in the ropes, but in matches where I'm bringing Moon, I'm shutting down Ravine too so that maybe the better course.
My sideboard is still up in the air but mainly tuned for my meta. 2 Explosives maybe a lot but I have some Boggles and it is also a good sweeper against Affinity and other small go-wide creature decks. Haven't drawn Hazoret a lot so she has yet to impress me. Right now she is my flex spot in the SB. I'm not running Finks so my Burn matchup is left to a pair of Brutalities and pray I can get there. Chandra ToD is for UWx and matches where I aim to lock the board with Blood Moon and hope to emblem her for the win.
edit: Two Lilies on the board is just bonkers. Coupled with your removals, it locks the board against creature decks while you rip their hand and threaten with their game-ending ultimates.
For my sideboard, I can't skimp on Fulminators as I have some Tron in my meta and I can't expect to dodge them everytime. I don't have Gids ally yet, so I'm testing Sorin which can also help in grindy matchups and break board stalls. For the Burn matchup, should Brutality and Vent/Ooze/Rhino enough to win the matchup? I can't find any room for Finks in my SB. Appreciate any inputs, thanks!
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
1 Windswepth Heath
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
2 Shambling Vent
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Forest
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Dark Confidant
3 Grim Flayer
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Siege Rhino
23 Spells
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana the Last Hope
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
3 Lingering Souls
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Collective Brutality
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Golgari Charm
1 Flaying Tendrils
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Spirebluff Canal
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Island
1 Plains
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Young Pyromancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Geist of St Traft
30 Spells
4 Serum Visions
4 Opt
4 Chart a Course
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
2 Boros Charm
2 Spell Pierce
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
Moving forward, I would like to try a list with Spell Queller, replacing YP and/or Geist. I may need to do some adjustments with the mana though as 17 is really shaky for another set of 3-drops. Remand is also a little meh, I'd probably shave one and try Deprive.
Great idea with Surgicals and PZ, I'll probably try some in place of a Relic and 1 Wear//Tear.
I tested a list very similar to yours which is mostly based from Nolan Aguirre http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=116418
I feel that 13 threats is too light so I added a Clique and another YP main. Also upped the land to 18. I dropped down Remand to 2 copies and cut Mana Leak entirely. Reason is I wanted more 1cmc counters so I replaced it with 2x Spell Snare, which is not bad against Affinity and Storm and hits Chalice for 1. Rounding up my counterspell is 2x Spell Pierce. I feel that with 17-18 lands it's hard to land a threat or keep the tempo while holding 2cmc counters. I am also testing 2 copies of Chart a Course replacing 1 SV and 1 Opt. It"s easy to play if you have a Delver or a bunch of Tokens.
My changes reduces the chance of Delver flipping but I feel that it's wrong to go all in the Delver plan especially when it's so hard to protect the tempo plan without free and efficient counter spells.
Midrange decks like Jund/Junk is very hard and so is Eldrazi Tron.
Here's the list I'm playing:
3 Spirebluff Canal
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Island
1 Plains
15 Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Geist of St Traft
1 Vendillion Clique
3 Serum Visions
3 Opt
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
2 Boros Charm
2 Chart a Course
2 Spell Pierce
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
15 Sideboard
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Stony Silence
2 Wear//Tear
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Spreading Seas
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Engineered Explosives