I think the meta has to be seriously warped towards some kind of aggro deck to not care about Spreading Sea's and excluding it from the MB. The whole point of this deck is being a tap-out, Land Destruction deck. The LD plans wins games against most decks in the format. Of course, if your meta is 20% Merfolk, then you might not want it, if that's not the case, then i think it's a core card of the UW Control strategy.
Continuing the builds topic, i've found that AV builds like the Gregory Orange are more lean and durdle a little less overrall. AV is terrible late game, but mid-game is okay usually as you do drag the game to the late game. My problem is that i just can't get 2 games out of aggro. I (mostly) always take G2, but then my deck kinda falls apart or i can't manage to draw my sideboard and i die. Burn is very hard since the creatures beat you hard as you don't put bodies in the ground, and then they just finish you off with their inbuilt inveitability. RG Zoo the same. I have to admit though, that most of my testing came from the classic Sphinx's builds like the Soorani,Burkhart,Cheon type. When i ran into issues, i jumped into AV and the card seems like a must-play in any control deck. I think it's that good of an effect to pass up. It plays well with the control theme of surviving until you run them out of resources. Greg Orange's build is terrible against combo though, so something less metcalled to DS might be fine. Still, aggro decks stomp you hard.
Cut/Ribbons seems a little underpowered to be honest. The 4 damage in a world of creatures that have 5 or more power butts AND you can answer most of them via Fatal Push seems dubious. I agree it deserves at least some looks.
On another note, what's the consensus with Blood Moon vs Fulminator/Molten Rain? We already talked this but we didn't came to a conclusion.
Moon seems good at slowing down whereas Mage/Rain seems too slow and not very impactful. I would say that LD is better against combo decks involving lands, and you have to match it with Surgical Extraction to get better results, like Grixis Control SB plan.
Guys, how come UW Control doesn't put up 5-0's in MTGO?. It's something like %2,3 of the meta between all variations, but it doens't seem to perform that well. What's the theory?.
Yeah, after watching your games i noticed that us playing lots of countermagic and them playing so few stack interaction is our way to win that match, just tempo them, because they are bascially un-grindable. I didn't notice you were that lucky, i think you mostly played your outs well, that's kind of encouraging.
Regarding your league, you played against top tiers in all games. The deck performed well it seems. However, the fact that adress not playing against the over-the-top overlords it's something to take into account. Those matches are hard, and i'm not even sure we have the SB tools to beat them.
Keep on the good work. Looking forward to some more Modern content!.
I think the problem with Grixis Delver is that right now, you have a LOT of trouble beating: Dredge,Bant and Eldrazi Tron. Those are so huge nowadays that playing Death's Shadow and being all-in proactive is better. As with every blue-reactive deck in Modern, we need some better answers period. If that doesn't happen, Thoughtseize will be the best thing you'll be doing for quite sometime. Being said that, the deck is certainly playable, and your build, which falls more on the control side of Grixis, is the way to go right now in my opinion.
PS:That UW matchup was something else, i'm still not sure how you got there lol.
With all the deceptions and complete non-sensical management of the game, i think Hour of Devastation will be on the best sets ever. It will bring much needed answers, and finally the game will be more lean towards interaction and powerful policing spells rather than big dumb B/G/W creatures/PW which is what they have been doing so far.
Regarding Modern, i think Death's Shadow won't need a ban, since Hour will warp Modern at the level of Khans of Tarkir for example(but in a Fatal Push way). It will bring a Blue a tool that will make it a solid Tier 1.5-2.
Regarding Banlist, my consequent reaction is that most cards have a grave until the natural power of the format rises so much that the cards seem nothing short of underwpowered in contrast with the format. One could argue that Stoneforge is reaching that level with so much removal and Kolaghan's Command running around, but still then, they are so short-sighted that they won't take such risk, at least now. That's fine by me because in reality, i don't want Stonforge in Modern, neither Jace nor Preordain. I prefer Modern to shape as a completly different format to what Legacy is and future Standard sets are what i'm aiming for.
Finally, i think it's well past time for them to put some Pro's and smart guys taking big decisions. Guys that actually play and feel the same way as the player base. More importantly, guys who can handle making cards and not screwing things up and blowing up the game for everyone.
Agree with this. Also, remember the guy played 3 Condemn in the MB. You can't expect to win a regular GP with that list, you come across Valakut,Nauseam and Storm in the event and you are out because of being so heavily skewed towards the metagame. They knew for a fact that at least 1 member(Most likely Player B) would play Death's Shadow variants.
I'm not digging too much into the Condemn being that good against Shadow.
I'm not disgusted by this changes(Top out of Legacy seems right), although they are basically acknowledging that DS WILL be all over the place in the next GP's Top 8's. There are no indications that there's a good natural predator of Death's Shadow and UW is terrible unless you know you'll play Death's Shadow several times in a given tournament.
All in all, many pro's will be crushing coming GP's with Shadow being the top dog. We know they like formats where there is a 'best deck'...
Do Ceremonious Rejection get there against Bant Eldrazi?. The card is bonkers against Tron and Eldrazi Tron for example, but Cavern seems to make it rather lackluster. Maybe Bant is just a bad matchup and you hope to get there with other cards?.
I know for a fact that LD in this deck is too slow because A)Getting to 3 mana is non-trivial and B)The decks that LD is great(Classic Tron) are more manageable with Discard/Counters+Threat. I wonder why so many of the top performers in MTGO choose Fulminator or Molten rain over the tempo plan.
PS:I'm playing the exact 60 of yours except i choose Rise//Fall over TBR and 2nd Vents over 2nd Crypt. I hate 4 Pushes in this deck at least, and i hate zero Bolts too.
Actually, Mental Misstep is dumb and broken not because it's free, but because it can be played in literally any deck regardless it plays blue or not.
Force Of Will at least has somewhat of a deck building restriction despite being inherently more powerful. Mental Misstep is rightfully banned because it warps the game around it, and because anyone can play it(Titanshift,WB tokens,you name it), it makes some awkward situations where T1 Goblin Guide or Inquisition might end in a 4-spell stack of Missteps which isn't very fun really.
EDIT: Many players flirted with the idea of Misstep regulating the format(including me) but once you imagine a metagame with that crap in it, it just crumbles into the floor and makes you revisit potential counter magic in future Standard sets. Misstep is just not the right way in this format packed with so many game-changing 1-cmc spells.
My predictions for monday are: 1)Unban Stoneforge Mystic, No bans
2)Unban Jace, TMS, No bans
3)Unban Both, No bans
4)No changes
Number 3 and 4 are the most probable in my book. I only brought up Jace because Forsythe said they were going to test him. They might have found they would like him being the flagship for blue so people can stop crying. However, i do think that an unban of both SFM and Jace is more probable if they took that route because white is a struggling colour right now and so is blue. They encourage players to try combinations of this cards that have seen much play in the past, even in Legacy, and on top of that, they avoid people jamming SFM in their Bant Eldrazi and Abzan decks and becoming the guys who saw an upgrade in their already-good arcehtypes. I also like the idea of a big unban to take some attention away from the best deck in Death's Shadow, so at least there is some artificial archetype balancing in the top tiers, whether or not the format can really handle Death's Shadow itself.
Those are the only cards that remain in the banlist that make any sense whatsoever to unban at this particular moment.
I'm finding this no-creature versions very soft to aggro like Burn and Zoo, traditional good matchups.
Thanks in advance!
Ps: i've found the AV versión more powerful and more consistent. Does everyone feel the same?
On another note, what's the consensus with Blood Moon vs Fulminator/Molten Rain? We already talked this but we didn't came to a conclusion.
Moon seems good at slowing down whereas Mage/Rain seems too slow and not very impactful. I would say that LD is better against combo decks involving lands, and you have to match it with Surgical Extraction to get better results, like Grixis Control SB plan.
Regarding your league, you played against top tiers in all games. The deck performed well it seems. However, the fact that adress not playing against the over-the-top overlords it's something to take into account. Those matches are hard, and i'm not even sure we have the SB tools to beat them.
Keep on the good work. Looking forward to some more Modern content!.
I think the problem with Grixis Delver is that right now, you have a LOT of trouble beating: Dredge,Bant and Eldrazi Tron. Those are so huge nowadays that playing Death's Shadow and being all-in proactive is better. As with every blue-reactive deck in Modern, we need some better answers period. If that doesn't happen, Thoughtseize will be the best thing you'll be doing for quite sometime. Being said that, the deck is certainly playable, and your build, which falls more on the control side of Grixis, is the way to go right now in my opinion.
PS:That UW matchup was something else, i'm still not sure how you got there lol.
Regarding Modern, i think Death's Shadow won't need a ban, since Hour will warp Modern at the level of Khans of Tarkir for example(but in a Fatal Push way). It will bring a Blue a tool that will make it a solid Tier 1.5-2.
Regarding Banlist, my consequent reaction is that most cards have a grave until the natural power of the format rises so much that the cards seem nothing short of underwpowered in contrast with the format. One could argue that Stoneforge is reaching that level with so much removal and Kolaghan's Command running around, but still then, they are so short-sighted that they won't take such risk, at least now. That's fine by me because in reality, i don't want Stonforge in Modern, neither Jace nor Preordain. I prefer Modern to shape as a completly different format to what Legacy is and future Standard sets are what i'm aiming for.
Finally, i think it's well past time for them to put some Pro's and smart guys taking big decisions. Guys that actually play and feel the same way as the player base. More importantly, guys who can handle making cards and not screwing things up and blowing up the game for everyone.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/626187#paper
I like the Tolaria West shenanigans going on here. I hope this doesn't make Ancestral Vision a $100 dollar bill though....
I'm not digging too much into the Condemn being that good against Shadow.
All in all, many pro's will be crushing coming GP's with Shadow being the top dog. We know they like formats where there is a 'best deck'...
I know for a fact that LD in this deck is too slow because A)Getting to 3 mana is non-trivial and B)The decks that LD is great(Classic Tron) are more manageable with Discard/Counters+Threat. I wonder why so many of the top performers in MTGO choose Fulminator or Molten rain over the tempo plan.
PS:I'm playing the exact 60 of yours except i choose Rise//Fall over TBR and 2nd Vents over 2nd Crypt. I hate 4 Pushes in this deck at least, and i hate zero Bolts too.
Force Of Will at least has somewhat of a deck building restriction despite being inherently more powerful. Mental Misstep is rightfully banned because it warps the game around it, and because anyone can play it(Titanshift,WB tokens,you name it), it makes some awkward situations where T1 Goblin Guide or Inquisition might end in a 4-spell stack of Missteps which isn't very fun really.
EDIT: Many players flirted with the idea of Misstep regulating the format(including me) but once you imagine a metagame with that crap in it, it just crumbles into the floor and makes you revisit potential counter magic in future Standard sets. Misstep is just not the right way in this format packed with so many game-changing 1-cmc spells.
2)Unban Jace, TMS, No bans
3)Unban Both, No bans
4)No changes
Number 3 and 4 are the most probable in my book. I only brought up Jace because Forsythe said they were going to test him. They might have found they would like him being the flagship for blue so people can stop crying. However, i do think that an unban of both SFM and Jace is more probable if they took that route because white is a struggling colour right now and so is blue. They encourage players to try combinations of this cards that have seen much play in the past, even in Legacy, and on top of that, they avoid people jamming SFM in their Bant Eldrazi and Abzan decks and becoming the guys who saw an upgrade in their already-good arcehtypes. I also like the idea of a big unban to take some attention away from the best deck in Death's Shadow, so at least there is some artificial archetype balancing in the top tiers, whether or not the format can really handle Death's Shadow itself.
Those are the only cards that remain in the banlist that make any sense whatsoever to unban at this particular moment.