On the issue of Ramunap Excavator Vs. UW Control - I reckon the main value (as Davius touched on) is in turning your bouncelands into live draws via re-playing tolaria. Because we of course had our 1st summoners pact countered, so we usually need more. Or more U-pacts against UW. Not so much vs tec-edge as this shouldn't affect us too badly. Not to say that this means that Ramunap is the sideboard of chocie against UW. Moreso that, IF I run ramunup excavator in my sideboard, and I face of aggainst UW control, THEN i would consider bringing it in.
In terms of actual land protection Ramunap might be better against Hatebears (or your local rogue Ponza player).
@Kanister I just finished a match on X-Mage vs UW Control in which I had eventual access to 20 mana but no threats left apart from azusa + slayers stronghold. Yes, I wish I could have hard-cast emrakul at that moment.
Going through that mull decision (the way you thought aboout it Davius) was really interesting actually. I love this deck the more I play it! I've felt that with this deck things come up at the right time VERY often, and if we look at the construction and how many lines we have to our goals it's no surprise. Seeing all those lines will take me some more time i think.
I'd agree with that - My original sideboard was 1x Aanger 2x RIP. Then again, I haven't seen Dredge either LGS's I play at since I started playing modern about 5 months ago.
Add two Vendilion Clique to your SB. They will help you close out games more quickly.
I really like Vendilion Clique but don't own a copy currently (it's next on the trade or buy list). What do you suggest taking out of the sideboard? I can only see replacing the Spell Queller set which are something I'd like to test further out of the SB.
On that note... what do people actually think about Quellers out of the SB? Of course the idea is to encourage g1 opponents to board out removal only to be faced with Queller. It also increases my 'Counterspell' package for games that I think I need extra control. On friday night I found I wanted to board them in almost every single game 2 (it didn't work out against Jeskai Flash.. he had more flash than me and of course Jeskai Flash would rarely board out enough removal to follow the plan I had in mind).
Also, while we're on sideboards... what are the good match-ups to bring in Elspeth, Sun's Champion? UW Control? Eldrazi decks for the -3 and the chumps?
@TomCourtenay I'm not the most experienced Jeskai player but here is my list and the match-ups from FNM... so that's something. Storm I imagine would be tough... when I look at the match-up it makes me want Spell Snare or Dispel in the sideboard. Rest in Peace also slows them down immensely allowing you to put on pressure and find answers. Playing surgical extraction out of the sideboard (like some UW lists do) would also work to some degree and be useful in other match-ups.
I streamlined my list into something more resembling the current stock 'Jeskai Control' lists i'm seeing but incorporated Narset Transcendent and Isochron Scepter and I was pleased with both maindeck inclusions. Went 3-1 with the only loss being against a Jeskai mirror (he was on Jeskai Flash with quellers/cliques/restos and he's a much more experienced Jeskai player than I, so I expected it to be a tough match).
2-0 Vs Jund
1-2 Vs Jeskai Flash
2-0 Vs Living End
2-1 Vs Eldrazi Stompy
Some quick notes about card performance, selection and match-ups
Vs. Jund
Game 1. kept an opening hand with Isochron Scepter and Path to Exile, jammed it turn 2 and he didn't find an answer before turn 6 when I had lethal next turn.
Game 2. won off the back of t2 rest in peace and a t4 narset which found me a 2nd rest in peace via the first +1. From there on out I simply held up answers and ticked up narset till I found a couple of spare burn pieces, then started -2 and looping helixes. At one stage I had a board of Narset on 8 loyalty facing down Liliana of the Veil with 6 loyalty and a Chandra, Torch of Defiance with 5 loyalty, but these were easily dealt with via collonade and -2 from narset over a couple of turns for what was a straightforward win.
Vs. Jeskai Flash
Game 1. Long game but he seemed to time his counterspells and flash creatures better than I did, he seemed to always have me stuck. Probably just experience.
Game 2. Boarded in Geist of Saint Traft, Spell Queller, rest in peace, removed some logic knot and snapcaster. Won off the back of a t3 geist while he only had 1 mana up.
Game 3. Pretty quick, his vendillion clique removed my geist from hand and then he had a resto angel to save it and remove my other geist from hand when I tried to electrolyze it.
The Jeskai mirror is probably the match-up from last night that I could use advice on. It seems playing the slower control Jeskai versus the more aggressive version is difficult as they can just out threat or race you.
Vs. Living End
Game 1. First game I kept up mana in the early turns and then accelerated into answers via Glimmer of Genius. It was a long one as I was trying to be careful not to give him an opportunity to cascade.
Game 2. Rest in Peace made it a long game for him and Geist of Saint Traft did not give him long.
Vs. Eldrazi Stompy
Game 1. Long game in which I blocked numerous Reality Smashers with Torrential Gearhulk and managed to survive a war of attrition against 3x Eternal Scourge using Secure the Wastes blockers. Landed an Isochron Scepter with a Lightning Helix attached in the late game to pull ahead of a stalled board state and win the game. Fun game... when I flashed in Torrential Gearhulk to block and kill a reality smasher he looked gobsmacked and said something along the lines of 'that's not supposed to happen in modern'. Very funny as the standard drafts were going on on the next tables and it was pointed out that I may have gone to the wrong table. A win is a win though... Gearhulk seems good against Eldrazi!
Game 2. I made the mistake of tapping out t3 and getting overrun with a Reality Smasher and Scourges pretty quickly (he also drew Cavern of Souls t3 so even with mana up it would have been hard with no path in hand).
Game 3. Turns out spell-queller is good against eldrazi too!. Had 2x qullers in hand to open and basically used them to time walk him while he attemped to play his t2 scourge and t3 thought-knot, and then giving me the tempo for the win.
This is not a match-up I usually would expect Jeskai to be favoured in. Game 1 was attrition and was pretty much won off of me drawing all singleton copies of Scepter, Gearhulk and Secure the Wastes. Game 2 is how I usually expect things to go and game 3 was a testament to the versatility of Spell Queller.
If anybody has good advice on Jeskai Mirror play it would be ace!. As always I am in no illusion that I am the best player (certainly not the most experienced in Modern) and am always looking for feedback on my play or list!
It sure is an inefficient way to get there if you go from scratch, but I wouldn't be playing the 'tutor and set up the combo' line as the goal, it would merely be;
a) a sideboard card against Land Destruction if ever prevalent in the meta
b) a new line of play after casting a titan
2x Mana Leak
1x Logic Knot
1x Muddle the Mixture or Negate
I've seen Tamada's List and it's offshoots and I like them a lot. I just really like the idea of playing Geist of Saint Traft main-deck and Spell Queller in the side-board to trick the opponent into boarding out spot removal.
Hi all, I have joined a few leagues so far but only managed 4-1 once. Most of the losses were due to bad draws and/or misplay.
PPTQ is coming up this Sunday and I am more of less settled on what seems to be the stock list for now (5-0 on MTGgoldfish). I am also referring to Bobby's sideboard guide, and wondering why do we bring in Dismember against Jeskai control, and not against U/W control? I haven't looked deep into their list, but the killable targets for Dismember for these controls decks are Spell Queller, Celestial Collonade and occasional Gideon. Anyone have faced this matchup with Bobby's sideboarding?
I haven't played against Jeskai with Titan but I also myself play Jeskai Control occasionally. You've hit the nail on the head with the potential Jeskai creature targets for Dismember being Spell Queller and Celestial Colonnade, although I haven't seen Jeskai play Gideon Jura before. There are some other ones; Snapcaster Mage (of course not an ideal target) Vendilion Clique, Restoration Angel, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker are the most commonly found ones but also Felidar Guardian for those on Jeskai-Copy-Cat. Basically Jeskai midrange/control will often play 4 - 12 creatures (plus X colonnade), so spot removal becomes relevant. Jeskai Draw-Go at the moment will, however, only play 3x snapcaster mage and 1x Torrential Gearhulk as MD creatures so Dismember becomes underwhelming against Draw-Go (the other targets being usually Warrior Tokens from Secure the Wastes and Colonnade).
Jeskai decks tend to be 'one big ball of removal', but any creature larger than 3 toughness can invalidate more than 3 quarters of their removal suite of lightning bolt, path to exile, lightning helix, electrolyze. Therefore most of the time boarding OUT sakura tribe scout and boarding IN any creature with 4 or more toughness is a good place to start. Jeskai lists (apart from the Draw-Go) do not play much dedicated card-draw such as Sphinx's Revelation or Glimmer of Genius, so if you can out-threat their 1v1 removal or invalidate it then you should eventually overwhelm.
Life-gain is legitimate against Jeskai, too. Play your Radiant Fountain as much as possible.
Most Jeskai lists I see run 1 wear // tear in the sideboard and apart from that cannot interact with artifacts very heavily, so keep that in mind as well.
I'll continue to consider my list and muck around at FNM a few times and continue to take in any more advice you guys have, thanks Bearscape and TappingStones!
I've modified the list in an attempt to eradicate the 1-of syndrome and to operate on a more 'flash' maindeck plan. Would this operate a little better do you guys reckon?
just put 1 Ramunap Excavator in your sideboard for land destruction hate and this also pairs well with your Ghost Quarter. This gives you the ability to play 4 Ghost Quarters in a turn with 1 Scout and 1 Azusa which will surely cripple most decks.
I really, really love this. I'm going to add Ramunap Excavator to my SB immidiately... we finally have a tutorable out to land destruction! We can tutor Ramunap Excavator and we can tutor Ghost quarter, and we can tutor Azusa, Lost But Seeking. So not only is this a SB Silver bullet against land destruction, but it actually gives us a realistic land hate backup plan out of the sideboard.
Although we can only play 4 Ghost Quarters per turn if we start with 1 Scout on the board and 1 Ghost Quarter in hand (we cannot use Sakura-Tribe Scout to play a land from the graveyard)
Settled on the sideboard now (testing Ramunap Excavator) and am going to use daviusminimus's suggestions as a starting point to tinker with the MD configuration for tomorrow nights FNM; Basically less blue, lean more on relic and explore MD, use the extra land slot from botanical expand the utility slots to 5 (Ghost Quarter, Academy Ruins, Cavern of Souls, Khalini Garden, Radiant Fountain) to give me better game 1's against more of the field. Unfortunately had to forego the 3rd Dismember to fit in the Excavator, so if any of my test or flex spots prove to fall short then that will return.
Ok, let's call it Jeskai Control. I don't mind what you refer to it as. Basically I'm taking influence from U/W Control, Jeskai Midrange to create personally tuned list, and I'm hoping for some feedback on weaknesses / strengths / potential for such a list. Advice on how certain cards in the list are strong/weak in the current format... etc. Feedback on terminology i guess is an incidental bonus.
Hi Guys, just wanted to drop in. I'm relatively new to modern and have played exclusively casual formats for a few years (used to play legacy). I've got all the cards to build Jeskai Flash and Jeskai Draw-Go so am playing around with some builds that I thought I might share! I will mostly be playing weekly paper events and FNM with the list.
This is a Jeskai Draw-Go list with a Midrange influence, and I'm still in the testing and learning phase of this archeatype and format, so any constructive advice is welcome!
The Isochron Scepter / Muddle the Mixture package is a legacy of my last few years of Casual play obviously, I've wanted to see if there is an archeatype in modern that will allow this to be useful and if there is any it is Jeskai Midrange or Jeskai Draw-Go. It also gives us a Main-Deck tutor for any 2cmc hate like Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Blessed Alliance, Disenchant (which is why Disenchant is in the SB instead of Wear // Tear).
Geist of Saint Traft is in the Main-Board to give our win-cons a leg up. By running them main-deck I also hope to make Spell Queller even more potent in games 2 and 3 out of the sideboard by encouraging them to board out spot-removal.
I see a lot of potential for Narset Transcendent in a Midrange or Draw-Go shell... her +1 is repeatable CA, her -2 finally has an shell that can be used regularly for good profit. The regular access to burn spells is I think what pushes her to testable. Any wrath effect can time-walk an opponent looking to dump the rest of his hand the turn after a board wipe. Examples would include;
I am trying to play Draw-Go with faster reversability than the lists i've seen running 3 Snapcaster / 1 Gearhulk / 1 Secure the Wastes / 2 Lightning Bolt as win-cons. I'm trying to achieve this by going up to 3 bolt, 4 Snap, and adding 2 Geist and 1 Isochron Scepter, as well as running both Ajani Vengeant and Narset Transcendent, whos -2 can be used to turn burn to the face with as well as double up on CA.
Hey guys thanks for the advice on SB configuration, I tend to agree with a lot of what you are both saying.
@Zrifts I wouldn't reccomend a split on Kozilek's Return and Pyroclasm (I was doing it to test both cards and it never worked out well), unless you ran 3 sweepers. If one did indeed run 3 sweepers in the SB, a split of 2 pyroclasm / 1 kozilek's return would be what I say would work smoothest. Goal #1 being hitting pyroclasm in the opener and backup plan being stirrings into Kozi's Return. But then we could just run 3 Pyroclasm....
I'd say that you're right about maximising cantrip effectiveness. This and the instant type give Kozi's Return the edge here and I'll probably be running 2x in the SB alongside 3x Dismember, basically the configuration Bobby's List used. I feel that the Dismembers in the SB give us room to play the 3cc sweeper rather than the 2CC one. Without the Dismembers I'd feel uncomfortable not playing Pyroclasm. Cursecatcher is a thing, too.
@Cheese I've been on the edge of putting an Obstinate Baloth back in the board for some time now, I took it out because I hadn't seen a Liliana in a long time and I also was running 3x Primal Command MD so felt no need for lifegain in the SB. But now I have only 1x Primal Command and the Baloth wouldn't hurt since I got shredded by OG Jund last FNM. In regards to Creeping Corrosion, I had it in the board for the longest time when I started playing the deck and loved it against Affinity, Tron, Lantern, and Ironworks Combo, and a host of others. It went out for a while but when Affinity placed so well at Vegas it seemed everybody at the LGS dusted off their Affinity decks and I felt justified putting it in. I do feel comfortable against affinity without it, but raising a few % on one of the most popular T1 decks in my meta while doing the same for a few other tricky match-ups is worth it for me! Nowadays I'm running Academy ruins main board, which makes it even better.
In terms of actual land protection Ramunap might be better against Hatebears (or your local rogue Ponza player).
@Kanister I just finished a match on X-Mage vs UW Control in which I had eventual access to 20 mana but no threats left apart from azusa + slayers stronghold. Yes, I wish I could have hard-cast emrakul at that moment.
I really like Vendilion Clique but don't own a copy currently (it's next on the trade or buy list). What do you suggest taking out of the sideboard? I can only see replacing the Spell Queller set which are something I'd like to test further out of the SB.
On that note... what do people actually think about Quellers out of the SB? Of course the idea is to encourage g1 opponents to board out removal only to be faced with Queller. It also increases my 'Counterspell' package for games that I think I need extra control. On friday night I found I wanted to board them in almost every single game 2 (it didn't work out against Jeskai Flash.. he had more flash than me and of course Jeskai Flash would rarely board out enough removal to follow the plan I had in mind).
Also, while we're on sideboards... what are the good match-ups to bring in Elspeth, Sun's Champion? UW Control? Eldrazi decks for the -3 and the chumps?
I streamlined my list into something more resembling the current stock 'Jeskai Control' lists i'm seeing but incorporated Narset Transcendent and Isochron Scepter and I was pleased with both maindeck inclusions. Went 3-1 with the only loss being against a Jeskai mirror (he was on Jeskai Flash with quellers/cliques/restos and he's a much more experienced Jeskai player than I, so I expected it to be a tough match).
2-0 Vs Jund
1-2 Vs Jeskai Flash
2-0 Vs Living End
2-1 Vs Eldrazi Stompy
4x Path to Exile
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Serum Visions
2x Mana Leak
2x Logic Knot
3x Lightning Helix
1x Isochron Scepter
2x Electrolyze
2x Glimmer of Genius
3x Cryptic Command
2x Supreme Verdict
1x Ajani Vengeant
1x Narset Transcendent
1x Secure the Wastes
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Torrential Gearhulk
1x Desolate Lighthouse
3x Celestial Colonnade
3x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
3x Flodded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Steam Vents
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Spirebluff Canal
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Glacial Fortress
2x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
3x Spell Queller
2x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Spreading Seas
2x Rest in Peace
1x Wear // Tear
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Engineered Explosives
Some quick notes about card performance, selection and match-ups
Vs. Jund
Game 1. kept an opening hand with Isochron Scepter and Path to Exile, jammed it turn 2 and he didn't find an answer before turn 6 when I had lethal next turn.
Game 2. won off the back of t2 rest in peace and a t4 narset which found me a 2nd rest in peace via the first +1. From there on out I simply held up answers and ticked up narset till I found a couple of spare burn pieces, then started -2 and looping helixes. At one stage I had a board of Narset on 8 loyalty facing down Liliana of the Veil with 6 loyalty and a Chandra, Torch of Defiance with 5 loyalty, but these were easily dealt with via collonade and -2 from narset over a couple of turns for what was a straightforward win.
Vs. Jeskai Flash
Game 1. Long game but he seemed to time his counterspells and flash creatures better than I did, he seemed to always have me stuck. Probably just experience.
Game 2. Boarded in Geist of Saint Traft, Spell Queller, rest in peace, removed some logic knot and snapcaster. Won off the back of a t3 geist while he only had 1 mana up.
Game 3. Pretty quick, his vendillion clique removed my geist from hand and then he had a resto angel to save it and remove my other geist from hand when I tried to electrolyze it.
The Jeskai mirror is probably the match-up from last night that I could use advice on. It seems playing the slower control Jeskai versus the more aggressive version is difficult as they can just out threat or race you.
Vs. Living End
Game 1. First game I kept up mana in the early turns and then accelerated into answers via Glimmer of Genius. It was a long one as I was trying to be careful not to give him an opportunity to cascade.
Game 2. Rest in Peace made it a long game for him and Geist of Saint Traft did not give him long.
Vs. Eldrazi Stompy
Game 1. Long game in which I blocked numerous Reality Smashers with Torrential Gearhulk and managed to survive a war of attrition against 3x Eternal Scourge using Secure the Wastes blockers. Landed an Isochron Scepter with a Lightning Helix attached in the late game to pull ahead of a stalled board state and win the game. Fun game... when I flashed in Torrential Gearhulk to block and kill a reality smasher he looked gobsmacked and said something along the lines of 'that's not supposed to happen in modern'. Very funny as the standard drafts were going on on the next tables and it was pointed out that I may have gone to the wrong table. A win is a win though... Gearhulk seems good against Eldrazi!
Game 2. I made the mistake of tapping out t3 and getting overrun with a Reality Smasher and Scourges pretty quickly (he also drew Cavern of Souls t3 so even with mana up it would have been hard with no path in hand).
Game 3. Turns out spell-queller is good against eldrazi too!. Had 2x qullers in hand to open and basically used them to time walk him while he attemped to play his t2 scourge and t3 thought-knot, and then giving me the tempo for the win.
This is not a match-up I usually would expect Jeskai to be favoured in. Game 1 was attrition and was pretty much won off of me drawing all singleton copies of Scepter, Gearhulk and Secure the Wastes. Game 2 is how I usually expect things to go and game 3 was a testament to the versatility of Spell Queller.
If anybody has good advice on Jeskai Mirror play it would be ace!. As always I am in no illusion that I am the best player (certainly not the most experienced in Modern) and am always looking for feedback on my play or list!
It sure is an inefficient way to get there if you go from scratch, but I wouldn't be playing the 'tutor and set up the combo' line as the goal, it would merely be;
a) a sideboard card against Land Destruction if ever prevalent in the meta
b) a new line of play after casting a titan
Also, I would have taken a mulligan also...
Yeah I first was considering a split of;
2x Mana Leak
1x Logic Knot
1x Muddle the Mixture or Negate
I've seen Tamada's List and it's offshoots and I like them a lot. I just really like the idea of playing Geist of Saint Traft main-deck and Spell Queller in the side-board to trick the opponent into boarding out spot removal.
I haven't played against Jeskai with Titan but I also myself play Jeskai Control occasionally. You've hit the nail on the head with the potential Jeskai creature targets for Dismember being Spell Queller and Celestial Colonnade, although I haven't seen Jeskai play Gideon Jura before. There are some other ones; Snapcaster Mage (of course not an ideal target) Vendilion Clique, Restoration Angel, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker are the most commonly found ones but also Felidar Guardian for those on Jeskai-Copy-Cat. Basically Jeskai midrange/control will often play 4 - 12 creatures (plus X colonnade), so spot removal becomes relevant. Jeskai Draw-Go at the moment will, however, only play 3x snapcaster mage and 1x Torrential Gearhulk as MD creatures so Dismember becomes underwhelming against Draw-Go (the other targets being usually Warrior Tokens from Secure the Wastes and Colonnade).
Jeskai decks tend to be 'one big ball of removal', but any creature larger than 3 toughness can invalidate more than 3 quarters of their removal suite of lightning bolt, path to exile, lightning helix, electrolyze. Therefore most of the time boarding OUT sakura tribe scout and boarding IN any creature with 4 or more toughness is a good place to start. Jeskai lists (apart from the Draw-Go) do not play much dedicated card-draw such as Sphinx's Revelation or Glimmer of Genius, so if you can out-threat their 1v1 removal or invalidate it then you should eventually overwhelm.
Life-gain is legitimate against Jeskai, too. Play your Radiant Fountain as much as possible.
Most Jeskai lists I see run 1 wear // tear in the sideboard and apart from that cannot interact with artifacts very heavily, so keep that in mind as well.
4x Path to Exile
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Serum Visions
4x Mana Leak
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Lightning Helix
2x Electrolyze
3x Spell Queller
2x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Cryptic Command
1x Glimmer of Genius
1x Ajani Vengeant
1x Narset Transcendent
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Desolate Lighthouse
3x Celestial Colonnade
3x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
3x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Steam Vents
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Spirebluff Canal
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Glacial Fortress
2x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Dusk // Dawn
1x Blessed Alliance
1x Disenchant
2x Rest in Peace
3x Spreading Seas
1x Anger of the Gods
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Engineered Explosives
I really, really love this. I'm going to add Ramunap Excavator to my SB immidiately... we finally have a tutorable out to land destruction! We can tutor Ramunap Excavator and we can tutor Ghost quarter, and we can tutor Azusa, Lost But Seeking. So not only is this a SB Silver bullet against land destruction, but it actually gives us a realistic land hate backup plan out of the sideboard.
Although we can only play 4 Ghost Quarters per turn if we start with 1 Scout on the board and 1 Ghost Quarter in hand (we cannot use Sakura-Tribe Scout to play a land from the graveyard)
Settled on the sideboard now (testing Ramunap Excavator) and am going to use daviusminimus's suggestions as a starting point to tinker with the MD configuration for tomorrow nights FNM; Basically less blue, lean more on relic and explore MD, use the extra land slot from botanical expand the utility slots to 5 (Ghost Quarter, Academy Ruins, Cavern of Souls, Khalini Garden, Radiant Fountain) to give me better game 1's against more of the field. Unfortunately had to forego the 3rd Dismember to fit in the Excavator, so if any of my test or flex spots prove to fall short then that will return.
Maindeck Changes
IN
+1 Relic of Progenitus
+3 Explore
+1 Ghost Quarter
OUT
-4 Serum Visions
-1 Botanical Sanctum
4x Amulet of Vigor
3x Relic of Progenitus
4x Sakura-Tribe Scout
4x Ancient Stirrings
3x Explore
3x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Primal Command
4x Primeval Titan
4x Summoner's Pact
1x Pact of Negation
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Walking Ballista
1x Academy Ruins
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Khalini Garden
1x Radiant Fountain
3x Tolaria West
1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
1x Slayer's Stronghold
1x Vesuva
1x Boros Garrison
3x Gruul Turf
4x Simic Growth Chamber
4x Gemstone Mine
2x Forest
1x Botanical Sanctum
1x Crumbling Vestige
2x Kozilek's Return
2x Dismember
2x Swan Song
1x Ramunap Excavator
1x Tireless Tracker
1x Obstinate Baloth
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Ruric Thar, The Unbowed
1x Hornet Queen
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Creeping Corrosion
This is a Jeskai Draw-Go list with a Midrange influence, and I'm still in the testing and learning phase of this archeatype and format, so any constructive advice is welcome!
4x Path to Exile
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Serum Visions
3x Spreading Seas
2x Mana Leak
1x Logic Knot
1x Muddle the Mixture
2x Lightning Helix
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Isochron Scepter
2x Electrolyze
2x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Cryptic Command
1x Glimmer of Genius
1x Dusk // Dawn
1x Ajani Vengeant
1x Narset Transcendent
1x Desolate Lighthouse
3x Celestial Colonnade
3x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
3x Flodded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Steam Vents
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Spirebluff Canal
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Glacial Fortress
2x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Negate
1x Blessed Alliance
1x Disenchant
2x Rest in Peace
3x Spell Queller
1x Anger of the Gods
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Engineered Explosives
Unusual main-deck inclusions are Geist of Saint Traft, Isochron Scepter, Dusk // Dawn, Narset Transcendent, and Muddle the Mixture. I also plan on running Spell Queller out of the sideboard.
The Isochron Scepter / Muddle the Mixture package is a legacy of my last few years of Casual play obviously, I've wanted to see if there is an archeatype in modern that will allow this to be useful and if there is any it is Jeskai Midrange or Jeskai Draw-Go. It also gives us a Main-Deck tutor for any 2cmc hate like Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Blessed Alliance, Disenchant (which is why Disenchant is in the SB instead of Wear // Tear).
Geist of Saint Traft is in the Main-Board to give our win-cons a leg up. By running them main-deck I also hope to make Spell Queller even more potent in games 2 and 3 out of the sideboard by encouraging them to board out spot-removal.
I see a lot of potential for Narset Transcendent in a Midrange or Draw-Go shell... her +1 is repeatable CA, her -2 finally has an shell that can be used regularly for good profit. The regular access to burn spells is I think what pushes her to testable. Any wrath effect can time-walk an opponent looking to dump the rest of his hand the turn after a board wipe. Examples would include;
I am trying to play Draw-Go with faster reversability than the lists i've seen running 3 Snapcaster / 1 Gearhulk / 1 Secure the Wastes / 2 Lightning Bolt as win-cons. I'm trying to achieve this by going up to 3 bolt, 4 Snap, and adding 2 Geist and 1 Isochron Scepter, as well as running both Ajani Vengeant and Narset Transcendent, whos -2 can be used to turn burn to the face with as well as double up on CA.
@Zrifts I wouldn't reccomend a split on Kozilek's Return and Pyroclasm (I was doing it to test both cards and it never worked out well), unless you ran 3 sweepers. If one did indeed run 3 sweepers in the SB, a split of 2 pyroclasm / 1 kozilek's return would be what I say would work smoothest. Goal #1 being hitting pyroclasm in the opener and backup plan being stirrings into Kozi's Return. But then we could just run 3 Pyroclasm....
I'd say that you're right about maximising cantrip effectiveness. This and the instant type give Kozi's Return the edge here and I'll probably be running 2x in the SB alongside 3x Dismember, basically the configuration Bobby's List used. I feel that the Dismembers in the SB give us room to play the 3cc sweeper rather than the 2CC one. Without the Dismembers I'd feel uncomfortable not playing Pyroclasm. Cursecatcher is a thing, too.
@Cheese I've been on the edge of putting an Obstinate Baloth back in the board for some time now, I took it out because I hadn't seen a Liliana in a long time and I also was running 3x Primal Command MD so felt no need for lifegain in the SB. But now I have only 1x Primal Command and the Baloth wouldn't hurt since I got shredded by OG Jund last FNM. In regards to Creeping Corrosion, I had it in the board for the longest time when I started playing the deck and loved it against Affinity, Tron, Lantern, and Ironworks Combo, and a host of others. It went out for a while but when Affinity placed so well at Vegas it seemed everybody at the LGS dusted off their Affinity decks and I felt justified putting it in. I do feel comfortable against affinity without it, but raising a few % on one of the most popular T1 decks in my meta while doing the same for a few other tricky match-ups is worth it for me! Nowadays I'm running Academy ruins main board, which makes it even better.