MTG Salvation

Quote from chaos021 »

But why Search for Azcanta? I feel like Narset, Parter of Veils took that card out back to put it down like old yeller.

I like the flexibility of Azcanta : coming on turn 2, scrying to have smoother draws (finding lands) and multiple activations when you have 7 cards in the graveyard. However, you could simply replace the 2 Azcanta for Narset in the list and that would be good too

From a UW/x player perspective, I'm looking at the below and I think :
- Prohibit : nothing to play with.
- Flusterstorm : could be 1 sideboard slot.
- Force of Negation : could be 1 sideboard slot. It's really restrictive and I haven't had any issues against Humans, Tron, BG/x to land my planeswalkers and protecting them. I'm not sure I want more than 2 ever (1 main and 1 side at best). It wont define the format as much as the canopy cycle that is printed in the set. It will be good sometimes, but mostly support cast (especially with the new planeswalkers).

From a Burn player perspective :
- 4 Sunbaked Canyon all the way. We need this so bad

From a Scapeshift player point of view :
- NOTHING.

Quote from ktkenshinx »

Quote from rickster_ »

Tron crushes control. The one time that I did better than 50% vs tron was when I was playing UW with 4x spreading seas, 4x field of ruin, 1x ghost quarter and 2x gideon of the trials. You either suck up the loss to tron or play a different deck.

Against mill, people were playing one eldrazi in the sideboard.

Quote from TomCourtenay »

How do you guys manage the Tron matchup ? I have 3 Field of Ruin in the mainboard as well as 2 Negate, 1 Wear // Tear and 2 Stony Silence in the sideboard. I'm not sure how to sideboard in this matchup : do you think Vendilion Clique would be good ? How about Dispel also (I don't think it would do much). I guess it's all about speed, so I'm tempted to keep the burn spells to race them.

I can attest that Tron is a horrible matchup for Jeskai. In the 2018 MWP analysis I posted (https://mtgmodernmetrics.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/2018-top-deck-performance-review/), I found Gx Tron to be heavily favored against Jeskai Control with an overall MWP of 28.7% and a 95% confidence interval on that MWP of 19.2%-38.2%. The sample size for that was 87 games at the GP and SCG Open levels. It's such a bad matchup that, as rick attests, I might not even try to waste slots at improving it too much. Just let it suck and lean on your better matchups.

Thanks ktkenshinx : that's a net matrix on the metrics web site. Thanks for a valuable input in there !

I've seen that Absorb is going to be Modern legal and I think it could be added to the whole 75. Maybe 1-2 copies and I'm beginning to toy with it. Here's my list :



I've always felt that Timely Reinforcement in the main was great in some matchups, then weak in others. Now with Absorb, I think Absorb can be relevant in almost all the matchups. I guess it's worh trying it, but I feel I'll stick to it. Have you guys tested it out ?

Cheers !

I think Runed Halo is great. I run 1 as a catch-all against combo and it works. It shuts down Scapeshift, it helps preventing Grapeshot in Storm (if you're a control deck, then you ought to have board-sweepers for Empty the Warrens). Against Ad Nauseam, they have to have extra mana to play Echoing Truth. The list goes on.

And against aggro decks, it shores up what's problematic. You see 3 Goblin Guide on the field ? Slam Runed Halo naming those bad boys. Terminus them ? Cryptic, bounce it back to your hand for another problematic threat.

In all, 1 in the side is good I think.

Jace, AV and Valakut are both in the top 3. Sword of the Meek is the weakest of them all for me, close with Bitterblossom. BBE is very good also.

Quote from Don D »

What are the opinions on Chemister's Insight? Could this potentially replace some of the cantrips/draw spells in this deck?

It's cool to see a new mechaninc, but I think we're good with 2 SfA and Ancestral Vision too. Even, we have Glimmer of Genius to have extra card advantage and selection. So I don't dismiss it, but Think Twice is better IMO at 1U and 2U (so 3UU in total) by drawing 2 cards and thus netting 1. Just my 2 cents.

Quote from Graycross »

Quote from TomCourtenay »

There's no need to be rude about being ''ignorant to the current state of the meta and the deck''. It's comment like these that don't encourage people to just share ideas, even if you would disagree.

There is likewise no need to demean the better build by calling it "easy", yet here we are. Sharing ideas is excellent but it should be in a manner that aims to actively improve the deck, not just making irrelevant points about outdated information. This is not a disagreement about anything subjective, this is - as I said - you being ignorant to the state of the deck. This likewise is a huge part of why I take breaks from this forum: There is a huge amount of wasted discussion on ideas that have minimal potential to improve the deck (e.g. Fetches, that Shared Fate thing, Leyline-less). I would much prefer we had some degree of direction as a community such that we might be able to continue to advance the deck (the shared direction being a necessity to compensate for the lack of players if we're to keep up with the rapid deck development of Tron/Humans/Jeskai).

Fetchless is provably the better manabase for the current meta. I'm being honest, not rude, you should try catching up on the years of data you're ignoring if you want to meaningfully contribute to the development of the deck.

I know the data and I'm not ignoring it. I see what wins, I know what gets played. I know fetches and shocks is not the popular choice, but that doesn't make it not viable nor bad. You implying I don't know what is happening with the deck is simply pedantic : I've contributed to this thread very intensively over the last three years. Something not being played doesn't make it unplayable.

I know that fastlands and temples have proven to be very efficient and I loved that version for a year. But, I prefer to play something different and I don't dismiss the quality of the lists we see right now. It's just not my taste and I would suggest in general for any player beginning with the deck to get the feel of it to play with 8 fastlands and 6 temples.

If by any chance you would be kind enough to share your knowledge about how to bring the deck to the next level, please enlighten us with your wisdom because our community needs a meaningful contribution to compensate for years of wasted discussion

Quote from Cody_X »

People are hard on jace, IMO. He's still a fine card to play, and he provides a lot of value if you can keep him in play.

He's fine. But ''if you can keep him in play'' might be the issue. Honeymoon is pretty much over, Teferi took over in several builds. He's still one of the best planeswalker we ever had, for sure. It might just be that we had such great expectations that are now deceived, that's maybe why we feel he's not up to the test.

Windswept Heath is still 14.44 CAD at Face store. Fairly cheap compared to TCG.

For those looking for Jeskai to shine again, Druid combo abusing Giver of Runes and infect abusing Scale Up make Jeskai interesting again. Having a giant ball of spot removal is crucial against those decks and that has always been Jeskai's forte.

The question for me is: is Charm better than Hieroglyphic Illumination? In essence: is the flexibility of having more counters later on better than the flexibility of smoothing out land drops?

Still trying to understand how the new Kaya should be a "great card", by the way.

I would definitely play some amount of Unmoored Ego and three Field of Ruin maindeck, if I were to give Esper another try.

Something like:

Your list is fairly stock, so not much to note. Some pickups:

-that Talisman of Progress seems incredibly random
-I'd run at least one more cmc2 counterspell mainboard (over the talisman probably)
-Your manabase can't reliably cast Anger of the Gods on 3, I don't think you need it to begin with
-sideboard 1-2 Celestial Purge, it's the stones right now
-I'd add either some Cliques or some Quellers in the 75, UWx is always overrepresented at big tournaments

Control is hard to play at big events, you don't get much time for a break so have water and a snack with you. Time is of the essence, so play quickly but clearly. And good luck of course!

Quote from TomCourtenay »

What do you guys think would be the decks in which Baleful Strix would be a great fit ? I think it would give legs to Sultai, UB Control, maybe Esper Control also. It would consolidate Grixis Death's Shadow maybe. Thoughts ?

Cheers !

The UB "Fairy" Control deck. Otherwise Grixis Control/Midrange. There is little to no reason to go BUG or Esper nowadays.

Greetings,
Kathal

I would agree Cindervines isn't what we want right now. If KCI was still around, then I'd probably give a different answer. I think Cindervines is too slow for affinity who's already dumped their entire hand by turn 3. I'd rather instant speed removal for their artifacts for 2cmc and not having to hold up mana starting turn 3. Our other matches where Cindervines is good - Lantern, UW Control, Storm are matches where we are already favoured. I feel like it's a win more card right now. For other matches where it could be helpful (Phoenix, Hollow One style looting decks), I think they're faster and ramp big faster than the card would likely help us. I think in those matches, we're chump blocking or using spot removal instead of pinging for 1 damage. At least that's what my gut says. That being said, I have purchased my playset for the next time infinite mana loop combos become popular.

Hello! Yesterday I played a Modern! I played 3 - 1, but won first place. Because there were 9 people and 4 rounds)

I played this deck:


First match 2-1
VS UW Control. First game I muligan to 5 and lose, but 2 and 3 game I Win.
Side -3 Searing Blaze , - 4 Lightning Helix In to +4 Skullcrack, +1 Exquisite Firecraft, +2 Path to Exile.

Second match 1-2
VS UWR Control. First game I win, 2 game lose (opponent gain 9 life) and I play Path to Exile in to Monastery Swiftspear. Because i keep one land and not top deck land.
3 game I Lose

Third match 2-0
I played VS Tron,
Game 1 opponent muligan to 6
Game 2 opponent mulidan to 6 and, I leep hand with 1 Path to Exile and 1 Wear // Tear, but only one Mountain. But I immediately raised the land, I was lucky.

4 Match 2-1
I played VS RGU Valakut. First Game I win, Game 2 I lose, opponent gain 4 life((( and Game 3 I win. The third game was interesting. Opponent played Stomping Ground for 2 lives, in respons I play Skullcrack and he not gain life ) But if he didn’t play for -2 life, I can not win.

metagame in my club:
1 Tron
1 UWR Control
1 UW Control
1 RGU Valakut
1 Izzet Phoenix
1 UR Storm
1 WB Death and Taxes
1 Burn

Quote from TomCourtenay »

Can someone provide an thorough analysis of the benefits of Skewer the Critics and Light up the Stage ? I've been around since 2014-ish with Mardu Burn, then Boros Burn (splashing green for Destructive Revelry in the sideboard). I feel what we've seen of Burn so far was very strong. At first, the new cards seem shaky and could have some upsides, but provide some downsides too (which make me reluctant to them). Thoughts guys?

Cheers !

In my testing with Skewer the Critics, I was able to cast it for R about 80% of the time. It's very easy for us to enable Spectacle, and that makes it another Lightning Bolt. I think it's an automatic 4-of in Burn now. Rift Bolt as a Spectacle enabler is a good sequence to play into if you can. Don't make the mistake of trying to get a Prowess trigger off of it. If you swing with Swift and connect, just fire it off so you don't get stuck with it.

I do not think that Light Up the Stage is good enough, and I think it's just the next draw card in a line of draw cards that Burn players pick up and drop in their quest to solve the "running out of gas" problem. I think that the most likely outcome with that card is a bad one. A deck is about 1/6 creatures, about 1/2 spells, and about 1/3 lands. If all creatures are live draws, then 2/3 of the deck is live. If they aren't, then 1/2 of the deck is live. The possible outcomes are:

Land-Land (probability 1/9): If I need a spell, I never consider this a good outcome and I consider it a waste of mana. If I'm 1 spell from winning, then I would have already had that spell in hand if I didn't put LUtS in my deck.

Land-Spell (probability 1/3): This amounts to a tax of R on your burn spell and you got a land to go along with it. I doubt the land is likely to be relevant, so I think this outcome is just worse than playing a burn spell.

Land-Creature (probability 1/9): If you cast LUtS late, this is likely very bad. If you draw an Eidolon late, you probably don't want it. If you draw Guide or Swift, it's probably irrelevant because they're outclassed and are just blockers.

Creature-Creature (probability 1/36): Probably not what you're after. Maybe 2 hasters is ok, but you need an empty board for it.

Creature-Spell (probability 1/6): If the creature isn't relevant, this is the same as an R tax.

Spell-Spell (probability 1/4): This is obviously good, except when you draw Rift Bolts or things that get trapped in exile due to lack of mana.

If creatures are always live draws, it's 1/9 dead-dead, 4/9 live-dead, and 4/9 live-live and that implies that 55% of the time is either dead or a tax of R on the burn spell you draw and only 45% of the time is a "good outcome". If creatures are always dead, it's 1/4 dead-dead, 1/2 live-dead, and 1/4 live-live and you're looking at 75% bad outcomes and 25% good outcomes. I think this suggests that it's not worth playing.

Imagine you need it to bail you out of a bad late game situation. If that situation is that you are light on lands, I'd question both how you're enabling Spectacle without enough lands in play and how likely it is that you're even going to win if you draw the lands now. Creatures probably are either dead or not connecting anymore later in the game, so it relies on Rift Bolt or having 2 lands in play. If you're flooding and need spells, there's only a 25% chance of double spell and I'd also question whether it's likely that double spell gets you there.

I've seen people suggest that land-land is good because "it moves them off the top". If you play LUtS and move 2 lands off the top, you've gained a slightly higher probability of drawing a spell on your next draw step because you've changed the denominator. In this sense, LUtS is worth some fraction of a spell here. Had you played a burn spell instead, that burn spell would have been worth 100% of a burn spell. I don't consider moving 2 lands off the top a uniformly positive outcome.

In addition to all of this, it's a bad top deck when you can't Spectacle. I don't think it's worth playing in Burn.

Quote from rickster_ »

Tron crushes control. The one time that I did better than 50% vs tron was when I was playing UW with 4x spreading seas, 4x field of ruin, 1x ghost quarter and 2x gideon of the trials. You either suck up the loss to tron or play a different deck.

Against mill, people were playing one eldrazi in the sideboard.

Quote from TomCourtenay »

How do you guys manage the Tron matchup ? I have 3 Field of Ruin in the mainboard as well as 2 Negate, 1 Wear // Tear and 2 Stony Silence in the sideboard. I'm not sure how to sideboard in this matchup : do you think Vendilion Clique would be good ? How about Dispel also (I don't think it would do much). I guess it's all about speed, so I'm tempted to keep the burn spells to race them.

I can attest that Tron is a horrible matchup for Jeskai. In the 2018 MWP analysis I posted (https://mtgmodernmetrics.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/2018-top-deck-performance-review/), I found Gx Tron to be heavily favored against Jeskai Control with an overall MWP of 28.7% and a 95% confidence interval on that MWP of 19.2%-38.2%. The sample size for that was 87 games at the GP and SCG Open levels. It's such a bad matchup that, as rick attests, I might not even try to waste slots at improving it too much. Just let it suck and lean on your better matchups.

Tron crushes control. The one time that I did better than 50% vs tron was when I was playing UW with 4x spreading seas, 4x field of ruin, 1x ghost quarter and 2x gideon of the trials. You either suck up the loss to tron or play a different deck.

Against mill, people were playing one eldrazi in the sideboard.