MTG Salvation

Interesting list. I have never been a fan of Mana Leak either because I would like to tap out many times too, but cutting them seems very bad to me:

Turn 3 Liliana of the Veil: Your only answer is Detention Sphere which is known to be quite bad against Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse.
Turn 3 Pestermite/Exarch into Splinter Twin: Again, you don't have many answers, just 4 Path to Exile.
RG Tron: You won't be able to counter their threats early enough and Spell Snare is probably the worst card in you deck against them.

By cutting Mana Leak your matchup against Midrange decks should (theoretically) decrease, as the high number of counterspells are the main reason why we they hate playing against straight UW Control. The combo and tempo matchup like Twin and Delver will be very rough due to playing a high amount of clunky sorcery speed removals.

I understand that we have a Sideboard to handle those problems. But BG/x, Pod and Twin being the most powerful/played decks, playing without Mana Leak seems like asking for trouble.

But I'm still very interested in how your matchups against Twin, BG/x and Pod are. How did you like the full package of Wall of Omens?

I dont have much experience with calciform pools, but when watching Nasssif play they were really good. I guess they are better in the almost creature-less versions where you can afford to load them every turn.

I didn't feel like having a horrible matchup against Affinity up to now (playing only preboarded games), I didn't even need to draw Wrath of God. Drawing Wrath usually is a win, as is Shackles. But I'm gonna get some more testing in. I don't like the third Stony Silence because of the obvious bad interaction with Vedalken Shackles. I usually only bring them in against Affinity and Tron. They don't come in against Pod.

This is what I've been playing lately. The mana base works very well (even though it looking horrible on paper) and my focus is on crushing Midrange (Pod, BG) and having decent postboard game against Twin and Scapeshift. Veldalken Shackles is probably the most powerful and underplayed card in modern. Resolving it against many of the tier 1 decks wins you the game within a few turns. The combination of Path, Dismember, Spellskite and Shackles make Twin a solid matchup. My latest change is switching 1 Spreading Seas for 1 Dismember maindeck because of the many Twin decks. People interested in UW Control should give this version a try, it's really solid.

Hi guys

I need your help pretty badly! I'm looking for a deck to play in the upcoming PTQ season. I expect tons of twin and uwr midrange/control.
Budget is no concern. I used to play Faeries ever since Lorwyn came out and I really like that style of play. That and really powerful strategies.
Im not convinced of Faeries anymore though, seems pretty underpowered compared to other tempo strategies.

I'm trying to avoid playing Twin (I don't like it), but if you guys think it's the best choice hands down I would certainly consider playing it.


Thanks for your advice!

So if Prophetic Flamespeaker connects with the Sword, it will trigger twice due to double strike right? Maybe I would switch Sword of Feast and Famine with Sword of Light and Shadow then, unless the protection from green might be more relevant.

Jund always missed a good card advantage engine, but with everybody playing 4 Lightning Bolt its hard to see it stick around for very long. Chandra Pyromancer and Courser of Kruphix dodge those while also being good with Anger of the Gods which is basically your only way to win against Pod. If I were to play him I would definitely up the Ooze number and go with Light and Shadow to return him in grindy games. I would also experiment with 1 or 2 Mutagenic Growth

Has anyone considered playing Darkblast again? The last time I played Jund I lost pretty hard to Affinity. It would handle that while being very good against Pod, Twin and Delver too

After playing with 2 Bloodmoon and 1 Veldalken Shackles in a Tempo Twin Shell (like the one that Dickman and Mackl used at Minneapolis) I decided to give this build a try



It's basically a marriage between Blue Moon and Twin. Shaun McLaren used a similiar approach to his UWR Control, placing the kiki combo into a control shell without throwing off the plan too badly. I cut down on Snapcaster Mage because I play now less cheap draw spells and focus more on control rather than tempo. but it can certainly play the tempo role as well if need be.

Thanks for your effort in explaining your choices Waterd, its very much appreciated. Also thanks to MrENigmas, I've tried your build with 4 Dismember main (cutting 2 rancors), and while it was nice to have against Melira Pod, they were absolutely horror against affinity ^^ I would have loved to have more Rancors in that matchup. It was quite balanced and I won 12 of 20 games (preboard) against Affinity. Regarding the Melira Pod matchup: Today I played like 20 games against it (all pre-board) and didn't win more than 4 games (the pod player is very good), all of which involved him having mulligans to 5 or less or just keeping very loose hands. Dismember was definitely helpful but didn't make a big difference. This might be a to small sample to draw conclusions about the matchup, but with pod boarding in 4 thoughtseizes I'm probably going to have to look for another version because I definitely need to have a shot in the pod matchup

Im going to try the Mono Black Version you just suggested for my meta, which is filled with twin, uwr control, pod and affinity (basically the entire set of tier 1 decks I guess). Do you have an update on your version @Waterd? I'm gonna build it in the next few days and let you guys know how it went. It looks quite promising.

Its nice to see that Infect is doing so well online @Waterd, I was about to give up on it but I guess I'm gonna try the mono green version. My meta has almost no BG decks, but is filled with Twin, UWR, Pod, Affinity and has some decent number of burn. I see you decided to run the full 4 of Spellskites in the Sideboard, I always liked those. May I ask you how you won your <semifinal Match against Melira Pod? Any tips and tricks? As I've said, I have yet to play with the Mono Green Version, but it seems like a very hard matchup.

How about Infect? I know it's not red, but ist explosive like Red tends to be and ist aggro/Combo with a decent matchup against twin

Mono Black Devotion is everywhere, I had 2 byes and of the 7 matches I faced 5 mirrors, really frustrating since ist completly non-interactive

Matt Sperling is on Mono Black Devotion and is 12-0

I'm playing Mono Black and GW is the deck that I don't want to face because the matchup is not in my favour. We have a hard time handling super fast aggro. The worst cards for me are Voice of Resurgence and Ajani, Caller of the Pride

Chaining multiple Lifebane Zombie is a way to get some freewins yes, and it's a two for one, but you got your own 2 for 1 in Voice of Resurgence. If a GW Players gets 2 into play im very hard pressed to win the game. Boon Satyr and Advent of the Wurm are other cards that hurt Mono Black too. Maybe you should just adjust your build to beat Mono Black because it certainly can and will many times.

Bought them now while the price lag lasts (local shops), I think they will very well hold their price tag for the entire t2 season. It's a mythic after all, if a mythic sees play the price will go crazy, and it's very very powerful. If you had any chance to play with it you will see why.

and melira pod took the win

really sad about the lack of video, the written reports are really lacking...

LSV is 3-1 (9points) going into round 5 so I guess he didn't lose to tron but plays it himself? (the one loss is to delver which would make sense)