This is the deck I'm gonna play (again) when force comes out. 4x Geists cos this time around we can pitch it to force. Hopefully will be tier1!
Setting the goose loose might be a good way to get jeskai on the map again without just being awkward UW control. Humans is a factor though, and Geist has to compete with a LOT of good 3-drops now. Looking at succesful UW Midrange lists and working in bolts from there might be a good starting point.
You can lawyer it all you want that they tEcHnIcAlLy never said it was purely a Modern set, but when we get cards that are clearly designed for commander, people will feel robbed. I've seen plenty of people make the "Commander Horizons" joke, which although I think is way too cynical shows that there are a lot of people who are disappointed in sharing the spotlight. Commander gets their own product every year; those cards aren't even Modern legal AND have brought Legacy cards like True-Name Nemesis, Council's Judgment and Leovold which are design disasters for a 1v1 format. Add to that the two-month silence between the spoilers of Serra/Cabal Therapist and the rest and you fuel false expectations even if you don't set it black on white.
I don't even really want to argue this point because as I said I'm satisfied with the set, but these apparent 5c Commander precon rejects are a blight on an otherwise good product.
EDIT: Leovold and Council's Judgment actually weren;t in commander precons now I think about it, but they were originally in sets designed for multiplayer
UW has been going down on lands since it's lower to the ground. With what you propose, you'd have to go up to 25 again and still would be 3 sources short (before cantrips). You also should probably not be playing Serum Visions right now with how important the mirror is, where Narset and Snap+Opt are big factors for who ends up on top.
On Thin Ice might be better than Winds of Abandon. I like the overload on winds a lot, and I like that it can be flashed back. On top of that, it has synergy with little Tef. But all that cool stuff aside, just being half the cost most likely gives On Thin Ice the edge. My only concern is, again, the manabase, and how many snow basics you would need to run it. However that seems fairly doable; you can treat the snow requirement as any other mana requirement, and for a turn 2 OTI you'd need 13 snow sources (T1 would need 14 but then it has to be a snow plains of course)
If I wanted a manabase that can cast On Thin Ice and Arcmage's Charm consistently, I'd start with something like this
21 U, 15 W and 14 ways to get your snow land. With 4 Opt and 1-2 extra cheap cantrips (I personally have loved 2 Wall of Omens) this gets very close to that sweet sweet 95% confidence interval of casting Arcmage Charm on 3.
Winds of Abandon is being slept on a little, IMO. I think this card is better than Oust, and the overload is relevant. I'm probably cutting Wrath of God and Oust for 2x Winds of Abandon to see how that pans out.
I'm not sure about Archmage's Charm. I'm a big advocate of casting your spells on curve, and I agree with Nassif that if you aim to cast it on turn 4 you should just play more cryptics. Together with how crowded the 3-slot is getting, I see Archmage charm as a 1 or 0-of unless you are willing to cut some Field of Ruins.
Fact or Fiction is one of my favourite cards in magic, but with UW becoming more to the ground and efficient I'm not sure it goes in the deck. I feel it also shares the deckslot of Archmage Charm. I could see running 1, 2 already really seems like pushing it.
Force of Negation clearly is the biggest game changer for UW, mostly because slamming a turn 4 JtMS and being likely to untap with him becomes a more common play. I still don't think you want more than 2, but I could see running a third JtMS in light of FoN.
-kind of met expectations, nothing at first sight that will change Modern forever but a bunch of cool tools for existing decks
-Very happy with Force of Negation but sour about half of the force cycle being awful
-really hope Goblins becomes a real deck, Sling-Gang Lieutenant is going to be relevant I think. Wish we got Ringleader though.
-I don't see any of the other mechanics they pushed taking off in modern (i.e. slivers, snow and astral drift)
-really would have liked to see more interesting reprints, so many cards in the common and uncommon slot that will just fade into obscurity. It could have been nice to have some iconic but most likely not Modern playable cards in the low rarity slots like Jackal Pup.
-biggest failure I still think is how this set was hyped up as THE Modern set. Together with the months of blueballing, discovering we have to share the spotlight with commander product rejects and cute but never intended to be playable callbacks like Ponder Mage is a tad frustrating.
The only thing I hope for, is this same format of forum. Not like Reddit, or other sites, but a nice traditional forum.
Very much thirded,I really want mtgs's successor to be a traditional forum. The nowadays more common formats like reddit and discord just aren't good at holding long, more in-depth discussions with.
The thing with little Teferi is that his floor is very good; Kicked Blink of an Eye with some lifegain is really decent at 3 mana. When he sticks, a surprising amount of decks suffer under his passive
Narset plays a different role, she kind of replaced Search for Azcanta in being really powerful card draw, now with a passive that really punishes some top decks. Again, a card with a good floor (Impulse + gain life) and a devastating ceiling (2 Impulse + opponent's deck doesn't function properly)
With eyes on Modern Horizons I stepped away from the Ignite the Beacon testing since once horizons hits there's plenty different things to try out. My list was posted a few posts back; the mainboard now takes out Ashiok, Elspeth and Ignite the Beacon for 1 big Teferi, 1 little Teferi and 1 Narset. That has felt very strong.
Kess and Nicol Bolas Dragon God excite me for grixis. I feel that if grixis wants to get big again, it needs to take a different avenue than UW does instead of directly competing with UW. Kess and NBDG both fit in a more tap out discard shell that quickly wants to close the game once board control is established.
Kess passes the bolt test, but not the push and path test, so I'd want to run her together with some other creatures, like JVP and tasigur.
I sure as hell hope not, and since they're different rarities I wouldn't expect them to be. I'm hoping for a rare cycle of 3 mana instant speed charms that all cost three of the same colored mana. Something like
The 3-drop slot in UW is getting incredibly highly contested all of a sudden; first there was only really Vendilion Clique and Detention Sphere, now we have narset, little teferi, pact of negation and arcmage charm
UW has been functioning on 18 blue sources for a while now when cryptic actually demands 20, probably because field of ruin can be used to set up an extra blue source for turn 4. This isn't the case for arcmage charm and I'm always of the opinion you should aim to cast your spells on curve.
Perhaps by going to 25 lands again and cutting a basic plains for 2 extra blue sources, arcmage charm can get in; that gives 81.3% chance of casting it on curve before adding cantrips to the equation. With how crowded cmc3 is becoming, I feel that once we have to cut a single field of ruin to validify running charm, there might be better options.
That's every single set ever, though. You either draft or buy singles
Let's just hope there will be a good place to discuss all these changes once the meta forms
Setting the goose loose might be a good way to get jeskai on the map again without just being awkward UW control. Humans is a factor though, and Geist has to compete with a LOT of good 3-drops now. Looking at succesful UW Midrange lists and working in bolts from there might be a good starting point.
You can lawyer it all you want that they tEcHnIcAlLy never said it was purely a Modern set, but when we get cards that are clearly designed for commander, people will feel robbed. I've seen plenty of people make the "Commander Horizons" joke, which although I think is way too cynical shows that there are a lot of people who are disappointed in sharing the spotlight. Commander gets their own product every year; those cards aren't even Modern legal AND have brought Legacy cards like True-Name Nemesis, Council's Judgment and Leovold which are design disasters for a 1v1 format. Add to that the two-month silence between the spoilers of Serra/Cabal Therapist and the rest and you fuel false expectations even if you don't set it black on white.
I don't even really want to argue this point because as I said I'm satisfied with the set, but these apparent 5c Commander precon rejects are a blight on an otherwise good product.
EDIT: Leovold and Council's Judgment actually weren;t in commander precons now I think about it, but they were originally in sets designed for multiplayer
On Thin Ice might be better than Winds of Abandon. I like the overload on winds a lot, and I like that it can be flashed back. On top of that, it has synergy with little Tef. But all that cool stuff aside, just being half the cost most likely gives On Thin Ice the edge. My only concern is, again, the manabase, and how many snow basics you would need to run it. However that seems fairly doable; you can treat the snow requirement as any other mana requirement, and for a turn 2 OTI you'd need 13 snow sources (T1 would need 14 but then it has to be a snow plains of course)
If I wanted a manabase that can cast On Thin Ice and Arcmage's Charm consistently, I'd start with something like this
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
2 Prismatic Vista
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Mystic Gate
7 Snow-Covered Island
21 U, 15 W and 14 ways to get your snow land. With 4 Opt and 1-2 extra cheap cantrips (I personally have loved 2 Wall of Omens) this gets very close to that sweet sweet 95% confidence interval of casting Arcmage Charm on 3.
I'm not sure about Archmage's Charm. I'm a big advocate of casting your spells on curve, and I agree with Nassif that if you aim to cast it on turn 4 you should just play more cryptics. Together with how crowded the 3-slot is getting, I see Archmage charm as a 1 or 0-of unless you are willing to cut some Field of Ruins.
Fact or Fiction is one of my favourite cards in magic, but with UW becoming more to the ground and efficient I'm not sure it goes in the deck. I feel it also shares the deckslot of Archmage Charm. I could see running 1, 2 already really seems like pushing it.
Force of Negation clearly is the biggest game changer for UW, mostly because slamming a turn 4 JtMS and being likely to untap with him becomes a more common play. I still don't think you want more than 2, but I could see running a third JtMS in light of FoN.
-kind of met expectations, nothing at first sight that will change Modern forever but a bunch of cool tools for existing decks
-Very happy with Force of Negation but sour about half of the force cycle being awful
-really hope Goblins becomes a real deck, Sling-Gang Lieutenant is going to be relevant I think. Wish we got Ringleader though.
-I don't see any of the other mechanics they pushed taking off in modern (i.e. slivers, snow and astral drift)
-really would have liked to see more interesting reprints, so many cards in the common and uncommon slot that will just fade into obscurity. It could have been nice to have some iconic but most likely not Modern playable cards in the low rarity slots like Jackal Pup.
-biggest failure I still think is how this set was hyped up as THE Modern set. Together with the months of blueballing, discovering we have to share the spotlight with commander product rejects and cute but never intended to be playable callbacks like Ponder Mage is a tad frustrating.
7/10
Very much thirded,I really want mtgs's successor to be a traditional forum. The nowadays more common formats like reddit and discord just aren't good at holding long, more in-depth discussions with.
Narset plays a different role, she kind of replaced Search for Azcanta in being really powerful card draw, now with a passive that really punishes some top decks. Again, a card with a good floor (Impulse + gain life) and a devastating ceiling (2 Impulse + opponent's deck doesn't function properly)
With eyes on Modern Horizons I stepped away from the Ignite the Beacon testing since once horizons hits there's plenty different things to try out. My list was posted a few posts back; the mainboard now takes out Ashiok, Elspeth and Ignite the Beacon for 1 big Teferi, 1 little Teferi and 1 Narset. That has felt very strong.
Kess passes the bolt test, but not the push and path test, so I'd want to run her together with some other creatures, like JVP and tasigur.
Necromancer's Charm BBB
Cleric's Charm WWW
Pyromancer's Charm RRR
Beastmaster's Charm GGG
Verdant Windstorm (Instant 1G: gain 3 life, Storm) seems like it could see sideboard play. Interesting way to have tech vs both storm and burn.
Still really hoping Arcmage Charm is a cycle
UW has been functioning on 18 blue sources for a while now when cryptic actually demands 20, probably because field of ruin can be used to set up an extra blue source for turn 4. This isn't the case for arcmage charm and I'm always of the opinion you should aim to cast your spells on curve.
Perhaps by going to 25 lands again and cutting a basic plains for 2 extra blue sources, arcmage charm can get in; that gives 81.3% chance of casting it on curve before adding cantrips to the equation. With how crowded cmc3 is becoming, I feel that once we have to cut a single field of ruin to validify running charm, there might be better options.