I am back, after a 3 week hiatus from magic, and because I took a trip back to Toronto to visit my family and friends and now I am back home and hyped up for Dominaria.
I've noticed people have already mentioned the auto-include Seal Away which makes perfect sense and it will take over from Baffling End quite nicely. Other people have also mentioned that the format will get much faster, especially for green based and red-based decks, and of course decks that run both colors.
In terms of cards for our deck, I don't think there are that many choices for the main deck, but there could be quite a few more choices for the sideboard.
For the main deck I will be testing Syncopate instead of Essence Scatter. I think that early game it will serve the same purpose but it will be even more beneficial late game since it can counter any spells, not just creature spells.
Aside from Seal Away and Syncopate I don't see many other cards that can make it into the main deck, I know some people will test Teferi as an alternate win condition or control card, but I'm not sure that's really needed in the deck. He can help you a lot but he can't really defend himself very well and even the Ult doesn't guarantee you a win.
Now, the one card that has stood out to me is Fall of the Thran, and you may be asking why do we want to kill lands when our deck depends on a lot of mana. As you may know I am all about transformative sideboard strategies and this card along with some low costing flyers can definitely change our deck in game 2 and 3 in ways the opponents will not be able to deal with.
Back in the day when Catastrophe was legal I used to play that in my control decks, after that I played Obliterate in my R/U control decks.
The reason is very simple, we can wipe the board, then drop a creature on the next turn and counter or bounce our opp's next drop, and the turn after we drop Fall of the Thran and destroy all lands, so the opp has no creatures on the board, or maybe one, and we got 1 creature.
If we have Seal Away in hand then we will be able to deal with the opp's one creature easily, and hopefully, the creature we drop will be Glyph Keeper or Nezahal so we can win before the opp can build up his land base again.
The reason this strategy works even better is due to the flip lands from Ixalan, we already play Search of Azcanta which we can keep as an enchantment and after casting Fall and killing all lands we can flip it and get an extra land, and the same is with Thaumatic Compass which a few of us were playing main deck already. We can use the compass to search for more lands every turn so we can win the mana race for sure.
I will be testing this sideboard strategy which runs creatures and Fall of the thran in the sideboard both against mid-range and other control decks. I know each player will get back 2 lands for the next couple of turns, but if we keep a land in hand it means the turn after casting Fall we can have 3 mana and if we flip search for azcanta we can have 4 mana while opp only has 2 mana, then the turn after we can possibly have 7 mana if we drop another land and put two more into play. Having Seal Away works great since we can take care of almost any creature the opp may have on the board, and of course with 4 land out we will be in settle the wreckage mana as well. Msny decks don't run many basic lands so by that time if we settle the opp may not even have any basic lands left in the library to go and get.
I have looked at other creatures that can be played in this deck but unless they got Hexproof or some kind of evasion from removal spells they all pretty much die to the plethora of direct removal spells in black, and the great burn spells in red so it would be hard to get a creature out and then spend resources to defend it for a couple of turns. That's why I think that Glyph Keeper and Nezahal look like the best creatures to go into this deck now, aside from Torrential Gearhulk of course.
I will be making the necessary changes to the deck, and start testing it after the pre-release when all the cards are legal and then I can post a deck list and results again! I am very excited about Dominaria, to say the leas!
I have to say this is a beautifully designed set and it is so much more nostalgic or even iconic than the Masters 25 set which looked like it was thrown together haphazardly by a bunch of drunken employees.
So, Sunday I played a relatively big tourney with 17 people and 4 rounds. Unfortunately I went 2-2 and came 7th and they only did top 4 going forward so I would've needed a 3-1 record to make top 4.
Here's a quick report:
Round 1 was versus a U/B control deck without The Scarab God so I managed to approach twice both games and won 2-0 rather easily.
Round 2 was versus a U/W/G ramp approach deck which can make zombie tokens to win with but after sideboard, he brings in Nezahal and Regal Caracal. I won game 1 by Approaching twice. Game 2 was won by him on the back of a Nezahal which I couldn't get rid off due to him discarding 3 cards twice to exile it when I tried to kill it. In Game 3 he brought in Carnage Tyrant as well and I risked an Approach for the first time, but the next turn he cast Carnage Tyrant and he already had Nezahal out, I needed to draw another approach in the next turn or a fumigate or something to wipe the board but I didn't so I lost game 3 to Nezahal and Carnage Tyrant. I can't say much, he was a good player and knew exactly what creatures my deck can't deal with.
Round 3 was versus a R/G/U energy deck with phoenix, glorybringer, whirler virtuoso and team and I won both games by casting Approach twice and taking care of his threats on time.
Round 4 was versus R/B aggro which was running Ammit Eternal main, and I lost both games because he got good draws and I didn't draw a single Baffling End both games, I was forced to wait until 4 mana for settle in both games, and in the second game Sunscourge Champion kept me alive for a few rounds, but for some reason I still couldn't draw a baffling end to exile some of his creatures and he beat me down with hazoret, phoenix, khenra etc... it is a very bad match-up because his whole deck was just threats and I just didn't have enough answers.
So, the result was 2-2, I should've beat the Ramp Approach deck but couldn't deal with both Carnage Tyrant and Nezahal on the board at the same time and against the R/B deck there's not much you can do, you need to drop baffling end on turn 2 or 3 to exile something and then you still need to draw creature kill cards to kill something every turn otherwise you are dead. It's like a lottery, if he draws the nuts then you can't win at all pretty much unless you draw a hand of 3 lands and 3 baffling ends and 1 settle, but most likely he would duress first turn or second turn and you'd lose the settle anyways...also him running Ammit Eternal main deck was a surprise and he hit me for 5 for a couple of turns since I couldn't draw the baffling ends.
I will be giving this deck a rest for the next 2-3 weeks or maybe even wait until Dominaria is out in a month and see how the metagame changes with the new cards, I know our deck will be getting some juicy goodies from that set.
Mox amber looks pretty good, you can get a turn 3 hazoret pretty easily in standard, of course you probably can't attack that turn but you can cast more spells turn 4 and hit with hazoret plus other creatures turn 4 for a lot.
Mono red already plays kari zev a two mana legend and maybe they'll play captain lannery storm as well to guarantee a legend in the first 3 turns so you can tap the mox for mana on turn 3 or 4 for sure.
Not like mono red needs to be any faster in standard than it already is.
I like the cut of your jib, kid! The deck looks tight, however, I have some suggestions that may improve it a little bit. I don't usually play this deck but I have played against it every week at FNM or Standard Showdown for the past couple of months.
Maindeck;
I recommend that you move the 2 Champion of Wits to the sideboard and you play the 2 Chandras main deck instead of them. The reason is that Champions are only good against control decks or maybe other midrange decks but they're not what you want to have in your deck against mono red, R/G monsters or even token decks. Against all those decks having Chandra main deck would work much better, at least you can kill a creature the turn she comes into play.
The other change I would suggest is taking out the 1 Arguel's blood fast and play a second Sweltering suns because again if you're playing against aggro decks or mirror match the sweltering suns would be much more useful and the arguel's blood fast is really not a card you want to top deck late game or cast it any time during the mid-late game.
Also, for lands I'd cut 2 Aether hub and 1 Island and play 3 Swamps and 5 mountains instead because you need black mana more than blue mana, and also it's not that good to have too many aether hubs since the only energy provider you have is siphoner and virtuoso. If you were playing 4 Harnessed lightning then it would make sense to play 4 hubs but not with just siphoner/virtuoso.
Sideboard:
Since one of the sweltering suns is moved to the main deck you have 1 empty space and also I think the 3 Duress are more than enough and you don't need to play 4. So instead of these 2 cards you could play 2 more ammit eternals because I think those cards are really good and underrated and they wreck control decks since they hit for a lot.
Obviously, I agree with you and also just to add more info out of the 10 decks only 2 decks are not aggro/beatdown decks, the Ramp deck at number 7 and the U/B control deck at number 4 is the only other control deck. All the other 8 decks are creature beatdown decks which are as we all know much easier to play and win with than straight up control decks.
I have seen many people screw up games even with Grixis decks which are semi control although they run 15-16 creatures which kind of makes them a beatdown deck instead. So, because of this reason most people will not play U/W approach straight up control because it's not easy to pilot and win consistently and you have to make a lot of difficult decisions in every matchup.
It's also the reason why people that did try to play the deck and they lost a few times gave up on it or tried to fit in a 3rd color to improve their so-called matchups with using red for burn or black for removal when the straight up U/W is enough to deal with all the other decks in the format.
I also agree that Dominaria packs some goodies for us and can't wait until the set is out, or at least all the cards are spoiled to discuss some of the possible deck inclusions from the new set just as I did when Ixalan and Rivals came out.
Dominaria looks hella exciting considering the reprints and some of the new cards, can't believe llanowar elves and icy manipulator will be in standard again. The set is more iconic than masters 25 and considering the pack prices probably even a better investment.
Can't wait for it to come out and see what other cards are in it that haven't been spoiled so far.
Until Glint-Sleeve rotates out, Slash is so good. That's midrange's signature turn-2 play (or in the BG or Sultai explore build, Merfolk Branchwalker is pretty common too), and the great thing about Slash on the play is you can let their T2 dude resolve, slash it on T3 attacks, and still have mana up to Essence Scatter their next dude. I'd seen it as sideboard tech in some UW builds, but testing it a bunch in the main convinced me that it's worth a couple mainboard slots. There's a flash enchantment in the next set that has potential (hope that's vague enough to discuss here), but 1-mana instant-speed removal is a good thing.
I tested slash last December and it just didn't cut it, I was playing 3 main deck and I wasn't drawing them in the first 2-3 turns, and basically, after turn 3 they are pretty much useless. The other issue is that while they hit a lot of the mono-red creatures (ahn crop, khenra, bomat, scrapheap scounger etc...) and also Siphoner they don't do much against a lot of the playable green creatures such as jadelight ranger and deathgorge scavenger or thrashing brontodon and with all the green decks running around that's unacceptable.
Due to this situation I have decided to play four Baffling End main deck and so far it has worked great for me, especially against monored or R/B decks since they cannot get rid of it once it hits play and it does take out a lot of their main creatures, it is also good against green decks since it takes out all the aforementioned creatures above since they're all 3 mana casting cost.
On top of that, it hits random 3 casting cost creatures that opponents might play such as kefnet, rhonas, etc...which are all good creatures to get rid off and you can't kill with slash. Of course it's better to baffling end khenras and scrounger rather than just killing them and putting them in the graveyard since they will come back later.
So, the main changes in the deck is playing 2 Torrential Gearhulk which is the first time playing this card, the reason is very simple. I opened one from winning a Standard Showdown pack and then I checked its price and noted they are only about $10 a piece now so I bought the second one to play in this deck. They have been great so far and they're also the reason why I'm playing 1 commit // memory in the deck as well, to take full advantage of the gearhulks.
In case you're wondering why no nezahal in the sideboard it's because I don't need it, I am running all the cheap casting cost creatures which will come out way before Nezahal will and if my opp is playing it then I can deal with it by using cast out, ixalan's binding, settle or fumigate so I don't need my own Nezahal since I can race other control decks with my creatures and beat them that way.
I played in a 34-person PPTQ yesterday, and I'm super stoked to report that I took it down with my current UW Approach build. I'd been testing quite a bit in MTGO leagues (consistently getting 3-2 or 4-1 with one 5-0), and after a number of tweaks, settled on the following list:
If you test the deck enough and learn it inside and out then you can play it to an unbeatable record in matches easily, also everyone has different kinds of options for the sideboard so play whatever works for you.
Again good job with the deck and explaining the matchups, in my opinion, only Red decks are dangerous enough to be able to beat us game 1 and maybe game 2 if they get the nuts draw, but all the other decks should not be a problem including other control decks like UB control or Grixis control. We definitely have the upper hand against those decks in game 1 and if we sideboard correctly even in game 2.
So, I played standard showdown yesterday and went 2-1, I lost the first round to a R/B aggro deck with bomat, khenra, hazoret, phoenix etc...the works. He got fast starts both games and I got come into play tapped lands and high casting cards in my hand and couldn't recover in time.
The second round I beat a mono-black cycle deck without any problems and the third round I beat a U/B control deck with Scarab god and Kefnet as the only win conditions. At one point in game 2 I had his kefnet under a baffling end and his scarab god under a cast out so he just sat there waiting for me to finish him off. I am testing some new cards in the deck and the sideboard because there is a big tourney at my LGS next weekend and I want to do good there.
As I see it the first game against mono-red or R/B is really dependent on what you draw in your opening hands and how the first 4 turns go, if the opp gets the nuts draw you can't win no matter what you draw, if they get a slower draw then you can stabilize and win. In the second game again you have to draw a good hand and hopefully stabilize before the 5th turn...there's no much to it.
In regards to other decks, the way my deck is bumatchuphould have a good match up against every other deck in the format that is slower than mono-red, if anyone is interested I can post my most recent decklist.
Well, what I can suggest is that you don't take out all of your Approaches after you sideboard against any deck, I usually take 1 out and keep the other 2 copies of Approaches in the deck even against aggro decks.
This means that I can win suddenly by casting approach back to back and it shows two different win conditions, using creatures to beat down and also being able to cast approach as usual for the win.
I also don't believe that Regal Caracal is needed anymore since not many people play mono-red aggro and have added another color to the deck, usually black which gives them more ways to kill the cat.
I don't use forsake the worldly either because having Ixalan's binding in the sideboard along with main deck cast outs should be enough in getting rid of enchantments/artifacts and also other problematic cards like planeswalkers.
Pretty interesting, it is much more a tap-out, reactive style deck. But it does look like it can easily handle most anything they can throw at you.
Also interesting is the deck listed right under that one by IwillCRUSHyou. He has put up a lot of 5-0's the last few weeks with U\W Approach.
I noticed that too! I hope I don't play him online!
I saw that his list runs 10 counters and less cast outs and no baffling ends main deck, I think that I prefer that type of deck which has more answers through counters instead of waiting for something to hit the board and then exile it.
Having said that I am running 3 cast out and 3 baffling end main deck with 2 ixalan's binding in the sideboard. I prefer the instant speed and cycling nature of cast out over ixalan's binding but the latter is better if you want to keep cards from hitting the board.
It really depends on your play style and what you are comfortable with, if you expect a lot of aggro decks then the baffling end should be main decked, but if you expect a lot of midrange and control decks then maybe not. It's better to have more counters then.
This set makes me glad that I am only playing standard, and can't wait for Domininaria to come out because it should have exciting new cards and abilities instead of this pile of...that Masters25 is.
The commons and uncommons in this set are the best part about it, they seriously screwed up with the rares and I still feel sorry when I go to the LGS and I notice that Mana Drain is now a $50 card due to the reprinting in Iconic Masters, lucky for the rest of its friends wizards managed not to reprint other playable iconic cards in this set which is both a win and a failure in one!
Funny story from last weekend about Authority against mid-range decks. Was playing against R\G Monsters and had 2 Authorities out. He drops a Rekindling Phoenix. I gain 2. Next turn he swings, I hit it with a Farm // Market. That drops the token. I gain 2. His next turn it re-enters. I gain 2. Next turn, I fumigate. I gain 2 from Authority. Next turn it re-enters again. I gain 2. At that point we were both laughing about it, he knew that game was over so he scooped. It does not always play out like that but most of the time the card simply reads '1 white mana, gain 5-10 life this game' when you are playing mid-range decks. And it gives us a turn 1 play.
Gideon, after I drop an emblem, is a threat that you have to deal with if you want to win the game. Most of the time, this means he will eat 5-10 damage that would have hit me instead. Sometimes I will hold him until I am in good shape, then drop him with counter backup so I can start the 4/4 beatdown plan. Other times I will drop him on 3 and force you to have an answer. Just depends on the game/player. That is what I did against a U/B deck. Game 2, he mulled to 5, then turn 3 missed a land drop. So I dropped Gideon while holding a hand full of counters. 6 turns later it was over, he never resolved anything the rest of the game. What a lot of players don't realize about him, is he is my plan B. If you kill him, I am not that worried. It just means that for the last 2-5 turns I wasn't taking damage and a lot of times, they will overcommit to the board to deal with him, walking into a fumigate. He is not an 'I win' card but he is a card that they must deal with or he will win the game.
I like Summonings, only a few decks can remove it once it hits the board and in a deck with a lot of instance/sorcery spells you will be dropping tokens a ton. I saw several U\B lists that run him as there plan b. My only concern about it is, the same hate cards most decks bring in against us, Duress/Negate, hit that also. Not saying don't run it, just keep that in mind.
I never played Authority in the sideboard because it was played against me when I was playing Ramunap red and I noticed that 1 Authority in play doesn't change the game much, you would need 2 Authorities in play so that the life gain and tapped effect can swing the game in your favor, and running 4 Authorities in the sideboard just to hope to get 2 in your opening hand so you can drop them on turn 1 and turn 2 is just not a viable defense plan most of the time.
That's why I went with the sunscourge champion plan of gaining life and a creature that can block at the same time. I agree that if you get 2 Authorities into play and your life total is not too low then you will probably start to win the game, but if you only get 1 Authority out or you don't get it out until turn 3 or late it is pretty useless.
I also never tested Gideon either but it can be a problem if you get him out early and get an emblem and then you can defend him, but if not then he is not going to do much good at all.
I did test Summonings and they were too slow, or they came out and I didn't have enough instants/sorceries in my hand to make tokens so I also gave up on running them as a plan B win condition and have stuck with running creatures as alternate win conditions.
Good job at the GP and on making day 2 with U/W Approach, it is hard to play in an environment with so much competition but I think this deck can win if the player has enough experience playing the deck, small play mistakes can cost anyone a game or a match.
I am back, after a 3 week hiatus from magic, and because I took a trip back to Toronto to visit my family and friends and now I am back home and hyped up for Dominaria.
I've noticed people have already mentioned the auto-include Seal Away which makes perfect sense and it will take over from Baffling End quite nicely. Other people have also mentioned that the format will get much faster, especially for green based and red-based decks, and of course decks that run both colors.
In terms of cards for our deck, I don't think there are that many choices for the main deck, but there could be quite a few more choices for the sideboard.
For the main deck I will be testing Syncopate instead of Essence Scatter. I think that early game it will serve the same purpose but it will be even more beneficial late game since it can counter any spells, not just creature spells.
Aside from Seal Away and Syncopate I don't see many other cards that can make it into the main deck, I know some people will test Teferi as an alternate win condition or control card, but I'm not sure that's really needed in the deck. He can help you a lot but he can't really defend himself very well and even the Ult doesn't guarantee you a win.
Now, the one card that has stood out to me is Fall of the Thran, and you may be asking why do we want to kill lands when our deck depends on a lot of mana. As you may know I am all about transformative sideboard strategies and this card along with some low costing flyers can definitely change our deck in game 2 and 3 in ways the opponents will not be able to deal with.
Back in the day when Catastrophe was legal I used to play that in my control decks, after that I played Obliterate in my R/U control decks.
The reason is very simple, we can wipe the board, then drop a creature on the next turn and counter or bounce our opp's next drop, and the turn after we drop Fall of the Thran and destroy all lands, so the opp has no creatures on the board, or maybe one, and we got 1 creature.
If we have Seal Away in hand then we will be able to deal with the opp's one creature easily, and hopefully, the creature we drop will be Glyph Keeper or Nezahal so we can win before the opp can build up his land base again.
The reason this strategy works even better is due to the flip lands from Ixalan, we already play Search of Azcanta which we can keep as an enchantment and after casting Fall and killing all lands we can flip it and get an extra land, and the same is with Thaumatic Compass which a few of us were playing main deck already. We can use the compass to search for more lands every turn so we can win the mana race for sure.
I will be testing this sideboard strategy which runs creatures and Fall of the thran in the sideboard both against mid-range and other control decks. I know each player will get back 2 lands for the next couple of turns, but if we keep a land in hand it means the turn after casting Fall we can have 3 mana and if we flip search for azcanta we can have 4 mana while opp only has 2 mana, then the turn after we can possibly have 7 mana if we drop another land and put two more into play. Having Seal Away works great since we can take care of almost any creature the opp may have on the board, and of course with 4 land out we will be in settle the wreckage mana as well. Msny decks don't run many basic lands so by that time if we settle the opp may not even have any basic lands left in the library to go and get.
I have looked at other creatures that can be played in this deck but unless they got Hexproof or some kind of evasion from removal spells they all pretty much die to the plethora of direct removal spells in black, and the great burn spells in red so it would be hard to get a creature out and then spend resources to defend it for a couple of turns. That's why I think that Glyph Keeper and Nezahal look like the best creatures to go into this deck now, aside from Torrential Gearhulk of course.
I will be making the necessary changes to the deck, and start testing it after the pre-release when all the cards are legal and then I can post a deck list and results again! I am very excited about Dominaria, to say the leas!
Here's a quick report:
Round 1 was versus a U/B control deck without The Scarab God so I managed to approach twice both games and won 2-0 rather easily.
Round 2 was versus a U/W/G ramp approach deck which can make zombie tokens to win with but after sideboard, he brings in Nezahal and Regal Caracal. I won game 1 by Approaching twice. Game 2 was won by him on the back of a Nezahal which I couldn't get rid off due to him discarding 3 cards twice to exile it when I tried to kill it. In Game 3 he brought in Carnage Tyrant as well and I risked an Approach for the first time, but the next turn he cast Carnage Tyrant and he already had Nezahal out, I needed to draw another approach in the next turn or a fumigate or something to wipe the board but I didn't so I lost game 3 to Nezahal and Carnage Tyrant. I can't say much, he was a good player and knew exactly what creatures my deck can't deal with.
Round 3 was versus a R/G/U energy deck with phoenix, glorybringer, whirler virtuoso and team and I won both games by casting Approach twice and taking care of his threats on time.
Round 4 was versus R/B aggro which was running Ammit Eternal main, and I lost both games because he got good draws and I didn't draw a single Baffling End both games, I was forced to wait until 4 mana for settle in both games, and in the second game Sunscourge Champion kept me alive for a few rounds, but for some reason I still couldn't draw a baffling end to exile some of his creatures and he beat me down with hazoret, phoenix, khenra etc... it is a very bad match-up because his whole deck was just threats and I just didn't have enough answers.
So, the result was 2-2, I should've beat the Ramp Approach deck but couldn't deal with both Carnage Tyrant and Nezahal on the board at the same time and against the R/B deck there's not much you can do, you need to drop baffling end on turn 2 or 3 to exile something and then you still need to draw creature kill cards to kill something every turn otherwise you are dead. It's like a lottery, if he draws the nuts then you can't win at all pretty much unless you draw a hand of 3 lands and 3 baffling ends and 1 settle, but most likely he would duress first turn or second turn and you'd lose the settle anyways...also him running Ammit Eternal main deck was a surprise and he hit me for 5 for a couple of turns since I couldn't draw the baffling ends.
I will be giving this deck a rest for the next 2-3 weeks or maybe even wait until Dominaria is out in a month and see how the metagame changes with the new cards, I know our deck will be getting some juicy goodies from that set.
Mono red already plays kari zev a two mana legend and maybe they'll play captain lannery storm as well to guarantee a legend in the first 3 turns so you can tap the mox for mana on turn 3 or 4 for sure.
Not like mono red needs to be any faster in standard than it already is.
I like the cut of your jib, kid! The deck looks tight, however, I have some suggestions that may improve it a little bit. I don't usually play this deck but I have played against it every week at FNM or Standard Showdown for the past couple of months.
Maindeck;
I recommend that you move the 2 Champion of Wits to the sideboard and you play the 2 Chandras main deck instead of them. The reason is that Champions are only good against control decks or maybe other midrange decks but they're not what you want to have in your deck against mono red, R/G monsters or even token decks. Against all those decks having Chandra main deck would work much better, at least you can kill a creature the turn she comes into play.
The other change I would suggest is taking out the 1 Arguel's blood fast and play a second Sweltering suns because again if you're playing against aggro decks or mirror match the sweltering suns would be much more useful and the arguel's blood fast is really not a card you want to top deck late game or cast it any time during the mid-late game.
Also, for lands I'd cut 2 Aether hub and 1 Island and play 3 Swamps and 5 mountains instead because you need black mana more than blue mana, and also it's not that good to have too many aether hubs since the only energy provider you have is siphoner and virtuoso. If you were playing 4 Harnessed lightning then it would make sense to play 4 hubs but not with just siphoner/virtuoso.
Sideboard:
Since one of the sweltering suns is moved to the main deck you have 1 empty space and also I think the 3 Duress are more than enough and you don't need to play 4. So instead of these 2 cards you could play 2 more ammit eternals because I think those cards are really good and underrated and they wreck control decks since they hit for a lot.
So the deck would look like this:
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Whirler Virtuoso
4 Rekindling Phoenix
4 Glorybringer
2 The Scarab God
Spells (14)
4 Magma Spray
2 Abrade
2 Cut // Ribbons
2 Sweltering Suns
4 Vraska's Contempt
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Lands (26)
2 Aether Hub
4 Canyon Slough
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Fetid Pools
3 Spirebluff Canal
1 Island
5 Mountain
3 Swamp
2 Chandra's Defeat
3 Duress
4 Ammit Eternal
2 Lost Legacy
2 Hour of Devastation
2 Champion of Wits
As I said, I think the deck looks tight, let me know if you chose to make any of the changes I suggested and how it went if you did!
I have seen many people screw up games even with Grixis decks which are semi control although they run 15-16 creatures which kind of makes them a beatdown deck instead. So, because of this reason most people will not play U/W approach straight up control because it's not easy to pilot and win consistently and you have to make a lot of difficult decisions in every matchup.
It's also the reason why people that did try to play the deck and they lost a few times gave up on it or tried to fit in a 3rd color to improve their so-called matchups with using red for burn or black for removal when the straight up U/W is enough to deal with all the other decks in the format.
I also agree that Dominaria packs some goodies for us and can't wait until the set is out, or at least all the cards are spoiled to discuss some of the possible deck inclusions from the new set just as I did when Ixalan and Rivals came out.
May your sun rise twice in every game!
Can't wait for it to come out and see what other cards are in it that haven't been spoiled so far.
I tested slash last December and it just didn't cut it, I was playing 3 main deck and I wasn't drawing them in the first 2-3 turns, and basically, after turn 3 they are pretty much useless. The other issue is that while they hit a lot of the mono-red creatures (ahn crop, khenra, bomat, scrapheap scounger etc...) and also Siphoner they don't do much against a lot of the playable green creatures such as jadelight ranger and deathgorge scavenger or thrashing brontodon and with all the green decks running around that's unacceptable.
Due to this situation I have decided to play four Baffling End main deck and so far it has worked great for me, especially against monored or R/B decks since they cannot get rid of it once it hits play and it does take out a lot of their main creatures, it is also good against green decks since it takes out all the aforementioned creatures above since they're all 3 mana casting cost.
On top of that, it hits random 3 casting cost creatures that opponents might play such as kefnet, rhonas, etc...which are all good creatures to get rid off and you can't kill with slash. Of course it's better to baffling end khenras and scrounger rather than just killing them and putting them in the graveyard since they will come back later.
Without further ado here is my latest list:
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
1 Arch of Orazca
2 Ipnu Rivulet
1 Field of Ruin
7 Island
6 Plains
Creatures(4)
2 Torrential Gearhulk
2 Champion of Wits
Enchantments(8)
2 Search for Azcanta
2 Cast out
4 Baffling End
1 Thaumatic Compass
Spells(24)
3 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Supreme Will
2 Disallow
1 Commit // Memory
3 Settle the Wreckage
3 Fumigate
3 Approach of the Second Sun
4 Hieroglyphic Illumination
2 Crook of Condemnation
2 Ixalan's Binding
3 Vizier of Deferment
3 Sunscourge Champion
2 Cloudblazer
1 Thaumatic Compass
2 Crested Sunmare
So, the main changes in the deck is playing 2 Torrential Gearhulk which is the first time playing this card, the reason is very simple. I opened one from winning a Standard Showdown pack and then I checked its price and noted they are only about $10 a piece now so I bought the second one to play in this deck. They have been great so far and they're also the reason why I'm playing 1 commit // memory in the deck as well, to take full advantage of the gearhulks.
In case you're wondering why no nezahal in the sideboard it's because I don't need it, I am running all the cheap casting cost creatures which will come out way before Nezahal will and if my opp is playing it then I can deal with it by using cast out, ixalan's binding, settle or fumigate so I don't need my own Nezahal since I can race other control decks with my creatures and beat them that way.
Congrats on the PPTQ win, a very good job with this deck and it proves my point from this post: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/proven-standard/784306-uw-approach?comment=513
If you test the deck enough and learn it inside and out then you can play it to an unbeatable record in matches easily, also everyone has different kinds of options for the sideboard so play whatever works for you.
Again good job with the deck and explaining the matchups, in my opinion, only Red decks are dangerous enough to be able to beat us game 1 and maybe game 2 if they get the nuts draw, but all the other decks should not be a problem including other control decks like UB control or Grixis control. We definitely have the upper hand against those decks in game 1 and if we sideboard correctly even in game 2.
The second round I beat a mono-black cycle deck without any problems and the third round I beat a U/B control deck with Scarab god and Kefnet as the only win conditions. At one point in game 2 I had his kefnet under a baffling end and his scarab god under a cast out so he just sat there waiting for me to finish him off. I am testing some new cards in the deck and the sideboard because there is a big tourney at my LGS next weekend and I want to do good there.
As I see it the first game against mono-red or R/B is really dependent on what you draw in your opening hands and how the first 4 turns go, if the opp gets the nuts draw you can't win no matter what you draw, if they get a slower draw then you can stabilize and win. In the second game again you have to draw a good hand and hopefully stabilize before the 5th turn...there's no much to it.
In regards to other decks, the way my deck is bumatchuphould have a good match up against every other deck in the format that is slower than mono-red, if anyone is interested I can post my most recent decklist.
This means that I can win suddenly by casting approach back to back and it shows two different win conditions, using creatures to beat down and also being able to cast approach as usual for the win.
I also don't believe that Regal Caracal is needed anymore since not many people play mono-red aggro and have added another color to the deck, usually black which gives them more ways to kill the cat.
I don't use forsake the worldly either because having Ixalan's binding in the sideboard along with main deck cast outs should be enough in getting rid of enchantments/artifacts and also other problematic cards like planeswalkers.
I saw that his list runs 10 counters and less cast outs and no baffling ends main deck, I think that I prefer that type of deck which has more answers through counters instead of waiting for something to hit the board and then exile it.
Having said that I am running 3 cast out and 3 baffling end main deck with 2 ixalan's binding in the sideboard. I prefer the instant speed and cycling nature of cast out over ixalan's binding but the latter is better if you want to keep cards from hitting the board.
It really depends on your play style and what you are comfortable with, if you expect a lot of aggro decks then the baffling end should be main decked, but if you expect a lot of midrange and control decks then maybe not. It's better to have more counters then.
The commons and uncommons in this set are the best part about it, they seriously screwed up with the rares and I still feel sorry when I go to the LGS and I notice that Mana Drain is now a $50 card due to the reprinting in Iconic Masters, lucky for the rest of its friends wizards managed not to reprint other playable iconic cards in this set which is both a win and a failure in one!
I never played Authority in the sideboard because it was played against me when I was playing Ramunap red and I noticed that 1 Authority in play doesn't change the game much, you would need 2 Authorities in play so that the life gain and tapped effect can swing the game in your favor, and running 4 Authorities in the sideboard just to hope to get 2 in your opening hand so you can drop them on turn 1 and turn 2 is just not a viable defense plan most of the time.
That's why I went with the sunscourge champion plan of gaining life and a creature that can block at the same time. I agree that if you get 2 Authorities into play and your life total is not too low then you will probably start to win the game, but if you only get 1 Authority out or you don't get it out until turn 3 or late it is pretty useless.
I also never tested Gideon either but it can be a problem if you get him out early and get an emblem and then you can defend him, but if not then he is not going to do much good at all.
I did test Summonings and they were too slow, or they came out and I didn't have enough instants/sorceries in my hand to make tokens so I also gave up on running them as a plan B win condition and have stuck with running creatures as alternate win conditions.
Good job at the GP and on making day 2 with U/W Approach, it is hard to play in an environment with so much competition but I think this deck can win if the player has enough experience playing the deck, small play mistakes can cost anyone a game or a match.