MTG Salvation

Quote from Potdindt »

I play on Arena and lately I've been running into a lot of Dimir controls, and this seems to have a tough game vs dimir. Has anyone thought about making this a two color deck? Perhaps go Dimir for Pirates and better removal? Any other creatures that play the tempo role well, but in other colors?

There is a Dimir Pirates list floating around that is all right. It's very all in on the little guy tempo beatdown, though, so if you miss a beat you just lose. The basic issue is that there's no replacement for the Tempest Djinn. Nothing else at that casting cost is such a solid blocker or hits nearly as hard.

Also, the upgrade from Merfolk Trickster to actual removal spells isn't as dramatic as you would expect it to be.

The Dimir Control matchup is weird. In my experience if they get their 90th percentile hands (cheap removal into hand disruption into sweepers into disinformation campaign) then they just win. If they flood out then we win. If they have a decent to good but not great hand then we're a little favored. It's scary because they always could have just the right cards to blow us out over the course of the next couple of turns, but they often don't have exactly the right cards to do it.

Took down the local PPTQ today (~40 people) with mono blue. Same list as usual, although 3 Exclusion Mage in the sideboard instead of 2 and a Selective Snare, based solely on card availability. Super fun tournament, I didn't play against the same list twice.

Round one: Selesnya go-wide (2-0)

Game one he was racing with Adanto Vanguard, Benalish Marshal, and Ajani. I had Warkite Marauder into the rare turn three Tempest Djinn. I drew enough chump blockers to stymie his attack while the flyers took him down.

Game two he had two plains and only ever cast Legion's Landing.

Round two: Abzan tokens (1-2)

This opponent had some spice, including Chromatic Lantern to fix his mana. Game one I get an obsession going and win fairly easily. Game two he gets off a big March of the Multitudes that I don't have the counterspell for and is able to buffer his life total. I have a Tempest Djinn that could swing for near lethal as well as a Sleep, but I feared the Settle. I finally drew a Retort and went for it, only to find the opponent had Assassin's Trophy and Seal Away. He also made the Sleep plan moot by casting Lyra the next turn.

Game three I was stuck trying to get home by attacking with the little crew. He stuck a Lyra. Warkite Marauder meant I could still attack, but the life gain on the backswing canceled most of it out. I had one trickster but needed a second in order to tempo him out. I didn't get it.

Round three: Golgari midrange (2-1)

Game one we punted back and forth. I'm doing my thing, hitting for five a turn and drawing an extra card. Opponent had Arguel's blood fast and eventually played Carny T. I carefully read Blood Fast and instead of attacking my opponent down to 3 I put him to exactly five. Opponent looked at me funny and then flipped his blood fast. Oopsie. Could have sworn it said less than five. Opponent casts a Golgari Findbroker and returns the favor by failing to pick up a card from the graveyard. His attack with Carnage Tyrant puts me to exactly one. I knock him down to four after he sacs the Findbroker (only creature in play now Carny T). I play Tempest Djinn. Opponent plays Vivien Reid and goes after the Djinn. I dive it down, locking him out of the game. If he trades Djinn for Tyrant my other guys will kill him, while if he sacs the Tyrant the Djinn will take care of the 6 additional life.

Game two opponent goes elf into elf. We had bonded over our mutual mistakes in the first game, so he was cheerfully exhorting his deck to spit out Carnage Tyrant. Instead he draws and resolves Doom Whisperer, which surveils once and finds Carnage Tyrant for turn 4. Welp.

Game three he has no elves and is on the draw. I do mono blue things and the turn five Doom Whisperer is countered en route to an easy win.

Round four: Grixis control (2-1)

He's basically on Dimir splashing for Nicol Bolas. Game one I mull to six, play Herald, and his Thought Erasure reveals island, island, pierce, pierce, opt. Not great. I fight it out but eventually he gets Nicky B and Dream Eater down for the win. Game two I get out ahead and do mono blue things to him. Game three was interesting. I led with Herald, which he snap Cast Down on his turn. This turned out to be his only instant speed removal. I flashed in Trickster on his EOT, suited it up with Obsession, and protected it the rest of the game.

Round five: Mirror match (2-0)

I had talked with and had been pulling for my opponent between rounds as a fellow member of Team Blue, so we both knew what was up. He was on the Sprite/Exclusion Mage main deck plan. Game one was weird. I just kept drawing one drops. Opponent got down a trickster and an exclusion mage both with Curious Obsession. I had no obsession and was just attacking with more and more evasive 1/1s every turn. I had just enough disruption to keep my opponent from sticking a blocker. At the end of the game he had two attackers against one blocker with me at 5 life and him at 4. He had seven cards in hand. My last card was Dive Down, but I turned out not to need it as he conceded.

Game two was a race between his one drop and trickster and my Warkite and Trickster. No djinns resolved in either game. I eventually manage to trade off tricksters and tilt the race in my favor.

Round six: intentional draw into top 8

Top 8: I'm on the draw in every round as the lower seed.

Quarterfinals: Izzet Phoenix (2-1)

Game one opponent leads with Warlord's Fury and I realize I got paired with my single worst matchup of the top 8 decks. Fortunately I get herald down and obsession into another obsession and keep it protected. Everybody else is able to do just enough to keep his drakes from killing me as the Herald takes it home.

Game two opponent gets a phoenix going. Also a lot of Drakes. I essence scatter one, Deep Freeze into a Dive Down, trade with a Djinn, Deep Freeze Niv Mizzet, and still get killed by drakes.

Game three opponent keeps a speculative two lander with removal but no cantrips. He kills my first guy. I flash in a trickster EOT and suit it up. I keep it protected and also counter his attempts to resolve drakes. The "maybe he stumbles" plan pays off.

Semi-finals: Selesnya go-big (2-0)

I get an obsession going early. I then spell pierce his turn 3 Karn and turn 5 Vivien Reid. It's pretty brutal. Opponent does resolve a Carnage Tyrant. I was out of counters for the Serra's Wings spell, but I was able to cast a Djinn (at 6 power) and Stormtamer. Opponent spends a while doing math before conceding--the On Serra's Wings probably wouldn't have been enough (an attack would trade with Stormtamer and Djinn to allow the obsession beatdown to continue, while staying back would have let me play an island and force the trade with the djinn), so he wanted to keep me in the dark. Game two I again get a quick Obsession going and counter everything relevant.

Finals: Jeskai control (2-1)

Opponent offers me all the prizes in exchange for a concession before I can make the same offer to him. I decline, so we play for the championship of each other (and a PTQ invite).

Game one I drop early creatures into a drumbeat of removal, holding my two obsessions in hand. The big swing happens when opponent cats Teferi into four open mana. I resolve trickster and retort. I untap and draw another obsession, making my whole hand trips obsession. I go ahead and YOLO all three of them onto an attacker and go to town. I get to connect twice before he sweeps the board. I have plenty of cards in hand to rebuild with Djinn + counter backup and that's that.

Game two I wind up with a marauder in play and a bunch of counters. I keep him off his bombs but can't apply enough pressure before he resolved a Niv Mizzet that took over the game.

Game three he mulliganed to five. I kept a very reactive hand of obsession, disdainful stroke, disdainful stroke, retort, and three islands. Fortunately I draw into a trickter on time, flash it in, and start going to work. I counter a lot of stuff and he's eventually forced to scoop it up. In the last two turns I actually countered both halves of a Chemister's Insight. Even after that I ended the game with two unused counterspells and a Deep Freeze in hand. When you get out ahead of people with this deck it just feels unfair.

Quote from koreandog »

Been tweaking this mono blue deck for a friend for quite some time. I haven't played this deck very often (so I don't know what the best builds are), but it's built for a friend who doesn't have time to build a deck. The current meta that we've been encountering is GB Midrange, Izzet Drakes, UB/Grixis Control, and GW/Naya Tokens. I notice that there are a few variations of the deck and I guess I have a few important questions that I wanted advice on please:

The evolution of the deck has more less settled on these cards:


As long as you fill the rest of the deck with cheap blue cards it will at least be ok. I've seen nonsense like Naban get played in winning games. That said, the successful lists fill out the remaining 12 slots as follows:

2-6 Card draw effects: 0-2 Chart a Course and 0-4 Opt.
2-4 Extra countermagic: 0-2 Essence Scatter and 0-4 Spell Pierce.
2-4 Flying two drops: 0-4 Nightveil Sprite and 0-4 Warkite Marauder.
0-3 Tempo plays: 0-1 Sleep and 0-2 Exclusion Mage
0-1 Island (typically the extra island accompanies the exclusion mages and sleep)

As to the specific card choices:

I like the full four Opt. When we are looking for something specific out of our top two cards (a land, a creature, a protection spell), Opt will find that thing as well as Chart a Course does. Opt can be cast off the leftover mana from leaving up counterspells you don't need to cast, and of course is half the mana cost. In other words, Opt is better when you need something specific early and Chart a Course is better when you want to refuel late. I prioritize the early game with this deck, so I like Opt better. Some people play both, which I think is fine in a low-aggro meta.

I like playing Spell Pierce because it gives me the best chance of the one drop -> obsession -> protection start that this deck loves. Hitting a planeswalker or Deafening Clarion with pierce is a huge tempo swing. It also is almost never actually dead. On the other hand, there are matchups where Spell Pierce is a poor card. If you are siding in Essence Scatter all the time then you might as well have some in the main.

I was a big fan of Nightveil Sprite in the flying two drop spot. The surveil is great. You get virtual card advantage without even suiting it up. Unfortunately, it's no good against flying blockers. Half the meta seems to run flying blockers these days. Warkite Marauder letting your team attack through a single blocker is pretty huge. If you're expecting to play against Izzet Phoenix at all I think you really want to max out the marauder before you play other flying two drops.

The tempo cards are good if you're seeing a lot of aggro. I don't like them in the main deck myself, but enough people succeed with them that they can't be all bad. Just comes down to what you expect to play against. In the meta you describe they're only really great against Izzet Phoenix. Sleep is ok against Golgari and Selesnya but you'd really just rather be countering their bombs.

Whisper Agent seems great if the opponent will struggle to block it. Against most decks I think it's just going to be a blocker.

Out of the sideboard, I think you want at least one two drop that buys you time. I'm partial to Surge Mare, but the most common card to fill that role is Diamond Mare. You can probably trim a couple counters--think about the maximum amount of counters you will ever want to bring in and only keep enough counters in the sideboard to support the max counter build that you want (I don't usually go above 10 total). I've never had Metamorphic Alteration really work out for me. It's a little conditional for a sideboard card. Deep Freeze is reliable if unexciting for Niv-Mizzet, and you can usually race Carnage Tyrant.

Most of the time you will see about 13 focused sideboard cards and then one or two cards that present random blowout potential. I'd put Amulet of Safekeeping squarely in that tradition. Other cards to consider for that kind of thing are Selective Snare and Entrancing Melody.

Quote from kysg »

My initial thought is that decks using Opt will not use Chart a course, and decks that do not use Opt take a 2/2 split on Nightveil Sprite and Chart a course but hmmm this pattern is consistent enough though.

I could see Sprite as an Opt substitute.

What we see in those two decks is just a split in approach though.

Joy1: 3 Marauder, 2 Chart a Course, 0 Opt, 0 Sprite
gooroom: 0 Marauder, 2 Chart a Course, 4 Opt, 1 Sprite

Joy1 also has one more Essence Scatter and one more Sleep in the main.

To my eye the Joy1 list looks much more prepared to fight through Angels and Drakes in the main deck. gooroom is set up for more consistency and some non-creature based card draw.

I'm starting to come around on trimming a Spell Pierce or two from the main deck for Sleep or bounce. Both flavors of the Boros menace (angels and weenies) make spell pierce look pretty sad. Although there are some high value targets between History of Benalia and Heroic Reinforcements.

I don't know. The online meta is wild right now. I managed to pick up a 5-0 today, and the gauntlet was:

• Mono-red aggro (2-1)
• Bant turbofog (2-0)
• Selesnya tokens (2-1)
• Izzet phoenix (2-1)
• Boros aggro (2-0)

I can say that Warkite Marauder is very very good against drakes and against almost every deck with white. Almost all Boros decks will have Aurelia, the Selesnya decks pack their playset of Shalai, and the more midrange decks will have their fair share of Resplendent Angel and Lyra. Being able to attack right through a big flying angel is huge.

Quote from zenbitz »

I am still waiting for my Djinns to play this deck, but I would (in the dark obv).

mulligan 5 and 6 landers, and bad 4 landers (no obsession+target or djinn)
keep 2 landers with a creature
keep 1 landers with 3 1-drops, or 2 if they are 1xU creature+opt on the play.... not sure on the draw, probably depends on the whole hand.

It's interesting, because the deck mulligans well if you mulligan into a curious obsession. Otherwise it mulligans poorly. It also draws out of mediocre hands pretty well. Note that it's terrible at drawing you out of bad board states, but I have had a lot of mediocre hands come together very nicely after a few draw steps.

For me, the rule of thumb is something like:

From seven cards:

• Keep two and three land hands
• Keep all but the worst four land hands (double dive down + spell pierce, stuff like that)
• Keep five land hands if they have a djinn
• Keep one land hands if they have one drop + obsession + (protection or opt)

From six cards:

• Keep two, three, and four land hands
• Keep one land hands with an opt
• Keep one land hands with a one drop plus an obsession

I'm a little more willing to mulligan on the play. It might be wrong to keep the one land seven card hands but when they come together it's almost an auto win. I think it helps to play the deck if you have a little bit of a gambler in you.

In other news, mono blue put two 6-2 finishes together in the MOCS:



We see one list cut most of the two drop fliers in favor of Chart a Course. The other ditched Opt completely and was satisfied with just two Chart a Course for card draw.

Exclusion Mage appears in the main deck of both lists.

As seems to happen with every new mono-blue list, there's some creativity from the sideboards: Zahid! Entrancing Melody! Crafty Cutpurse!

No Deep Freeze in either 75. It looks like Joy1's plan for Niv-Mizzet is to tempo out the game with four copies of Exclusion Mage. The gooroom list kind of looks like it's just hoping to dodge Mizzy P.

Quote from kysg »

Anyone tried out Unwind? Or is this too expensive...

I tried it back with Sai and Inspiring Statuary. I think the only deck that would want it is some kind of big blue machine that looks to Unwind a planeswalker and then cast Chemister's Insight. We just don't need that much mana except for counterspells. 99% of the time, when I'm countering multiple non-creature spells in a turn it's because of a counter war. In that scenario Unwind either won't resolve or the untapping will be superfluous.

In metagame news, we are no longer the cheapest 5-0 competitive deck. Keep an eye out for this white weenie-fest: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1433367#paper

I ran into it twice in my last two leagues. If it's at all competitive, I expect it to stick around. I wound up going 1-2, although in one of the matches I goofed in the third game. This is a matchup where you want to trade off your early guys on defense unless you have an obsessed Herald getting in, and just rely on Djinn to anchor things. Their fast starts are really fast (Loxodon on five guys turn three followed by Benalish Marshal turn four is a beating). Since their main strategies are "go wide" and "go wider," if you can get them into a board stall then Sleep gets them pretty good.

Another detailed league report in pursuit of an answer to the question: can we win without Curious Obsession? Answer: yes, but we'd rather not.


Match one: Mono-U Mirror (2-0)

Can't say for sure, but it seemed like he was on Nassif's list.

Round 1: Mono-U mirror (2-0)


I was fairly happy with how the game went. I could have tried to block the trickster and keep him from drawing cards, but I felt like as long as I was winning the race and achieving card parity it was fine. Lots of stuff can go wrong in the mirror once you start playing defensively. Missing the stormtamer activation was a little embarrassing, but I was far enough ahead by then that it didn't end up mattering.

Sideboard: -2 opt, -2 spell pierce, -2 dive down, +3 exclusion mage, +2 essence scatter, +1 sleep

This matchup tends to be about obsession, djinns, and racing.


An interesting game with no obsession on either side. Trickster value proved to be surprisingly important.

Round 2: Jeskai control (2-0)


This was the filthiest run of topdecks I've personally experienced in a long time. Also, spell piercing Teferi never gets old.

Sideboard: -2 spell pierce, -2 opt, -2 marauder, +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 negate

Surge mare can tank a lot of jeskai's removal, and I like the loot. Otherwise just looking to tune the counter suite.


This one got a little scary after he landed the Azcanta, but staying patient on the djinn worked out as my opponent ran himself out of threats before I went shields down. The trick with this matchup is to be conservative with your counterspells.

Round 3: Golgari midrange (2-0)


Merfolk Trickster doesn't look that threatening, but sometimes he does good work in the red zone. It helps when you can back him up with actual factual counterspell. The tapping was pretty big here. A turn two Jadelight Ranger could have changed the whole rhythm of the game.

Sideboard: -2 spell pierce, -2 opt, -2 trickster; +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 essence scatter


To me this game illustrates that while Curious Obsession is super awesome, the Tempest Djinn fully deserves top billing in this deck as well. The dude closes out games.

Round 4: Golgari midrange (2-0)


Learning to win this kind of game is what got me from 3-2 and occasional 4-1 finishes to 4-1 and occasional 5-0 finishes. The basic idea is simple: manage the race, don't panic, and don't expose your djinn to removal.

Sideboard: -3 spell pierce, -2 opt, -2 trickster; +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 essence scatter, +1 sleep


Wildgrowth Walker is a scary card. In general I find the BG explore package a lot more threatening than the 4-6 drop bomb package.

Round Five: Jeskai Control (2-1)


As I hoped. Opponent had a clunky draw and mono-blue can punish that kind of thing.

Sideboard: -2 trickster, -2 opt, -2 pierce, +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 negate


Azor's Gateway did a lot of work in this one. Scary card.

In retrospect maybe I shouldn't have countered that last Seal Away. The problem is that the only way I could leave two counters up was by leaving the board empty.


In retrospect I should have been more aggressive about getting the djinn down. I probably could have won earlier without getting the surge mare wiped. Even so, the seven loots from the mare were a big help in stacking my hand so that the djinn could finish the job.

End result, a 5-0 finish to put me in a no doubt short lived tie for the trophy lead.

For those of you curious about the obsession, it hit the board on turn: 2, none, 4, none, 3, 4, none, 2*, none, and 6 (*died after one hit).

In other words, only five of the ten wins featured more than one hit with a Curious Obsession.

On the other hand, the djinn hit the board on turn: none, 3, 6, 8, 5, 5, 7, 9, 4, 10.

So while the djinn wasn't doing all of the work, it did at least show up in 9 out of 10 wins. This is consistent with my general theory of winning with the deck:

1. Apply early pressure with cheap creatures.
2. Use counterspells and trickster to manage the race.
3. Cast Djinn to apply the coup de grace when you can protect it.

If you get good enough pressure with the little guys and counterspells (usually aided by an obsession), then the djinn isn't necessary. And sometimes even if your early pressure is weak, the djinn can bail you out.

Quote from kysg »

Is this card a 2-of? I know we saw it in earlier decklists taking the split with Nightveil Sprite or are you just cutting sprite completely to add flex slots cards like Sleep. Also thinking about these other sideboards...do you think they have gone into a more toolbox mode with the sideboards?

I just made a straight swap for Nightveil Sprite:


My thinking is that I want the main deck to be as consistent as possible. Spell Pierce is a 4-of because (a) it's such a blowout when it works, (b) it at least has targets against every deck out there, and (c) I want to max the chances of a nut draw of obsession + 1 mana protection.

I've been fine with Trickster and Marauder as the only anti-creature measures in the main deck. The only thing they don't deal with is Niv-Mizzet, and if the opponent lives long enough to untap with a Niv-Mizzet in game one I'm willing to just write that game off.

I've haven't been bringing in the Deep Freeze lately, even against the Dracophoenix deck. I think Nassif probably had it right just trying to chain Exclusion Mage against them.

My last two competitive leagues were a 4-1 and a 5-0. Both leagues started off with four straight wins and then a matchup with Jeskai control. I lost the first one 1-2 and won the second 2-1. Apropos to the earlier discussion, the difference in the games was that I brought Surge Mare in out of the sideboard the second time. In game 3 of the 5-0 league a turn 2 Surge Mare looted through my mana flood, found and carried Curious Obsession, and basically valued my opponent out of the game.

Surge Mare tanks a lot of the Jeskai removal package: Deafening Clarion, Justice Strike, Shock. Getting to save your counters for their haymakers is very nice.

For me the sideboard is there to tune the counter suite and, if necessary, tool up for a race. I don't think blue really has silver bullets right now but it has the cards to lean one way or the other and still play with efficiency.

I like the 20/20/20 split, and I like that it's pretty easy to find space to bring in four sideboard cards by trimming on cards that are better in game one than game two (the reliable -2 opt, -2 spell pierce plan).

Quote from redtwister »

Here is what feels like the core of the deck, based on how everyone is reporting their results, which only leaves a few slots.

coreMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands (20) 20 Island Creatures 16 4 Merfolk Trickster 4 Mist-cloaked Herald 4 Siren Stormtamer 4 Tempest Djinn	Spells 20 4 Curious Obsession 4 Opt 4 Dive Down 4 Spell Pierce 4 Wizard's Retort

I agree on the core. The 100% common denominator is:


Then the last 12 spots are:

• 0-1 Island
• 3-4 two mana creature (typically 0-2 Warkite Marauder and 2-4 Nightveil Sprite)
• 2-4 card draw spells (typically 0-4 Opt and 0-2 Chart a Course)
• 2-6 permission spells (0-2 Essence Scatter and 2-4 Spell Pierce)
• 0-2 Exclusion Mage

I like to keep things simple and fill the 12 spots with Nightveil Sprite, Opt, and Spell Pierce. I like the surveil on Nightveil Sprite quite a bit. Even without Curious Obsession, getting multiple swings in over a long game is helpful. It also dodges random Chainwhirlers and Justice Strike, for what it's worth. Warkite Marauder is better if you see a lot of flying blockers. Opt is just as good as Chart a Course at finding that one card I need out of the top two, and the casting cost and instant speed are both a big advantage. Spell Pierce has targets everywhere and is the ultimate tempo play.

Exclusion Mage is great against most aggro decks. It's terrible against Golgari and against control. Classic sideboard card, in my opinion.

I do think it's perfectly reasonable to mix up those twelve spots according to your preferences and your expected meta.

That's a spicy meatball. I feel like cutting a Mist-cloaked Herald can't be right. I suspect this one goes to show the strength of the Curious Obsession/Dive Down package more than anything else. Still, a 5-0 is a 5-0.

It's not working when I try to make a decklist Im new to this stuff, But I will post my Deck Screenshot

My Deck Is A Little different than these lists, I'm more focused on Playing some threats and tempoing them out until they are dead

Usually I'll play T1 Siren Storm tamer Into Turn 4 Tempest Djinn And Usually I can have enough follow up after that to win the game.

Or I will play T1 Hope Of Ghirapu And Sacrifice It On turn 3 After Swinging Then play a Tempest Djinn And they are unable to kill it on their following turn so it becomes really hard to win from there.

My win percentage has been extremely high with this deck going almost 20 wins and 3 losses. Goblin chainwhirler is an extremely hard card to beat and I lost 2 matches to that card. So I put 4 favorable winds in the sideboard to fight against this

Some games will look like, T1 play 1 drop, T2 chart a course, T3 either more tempo to stall or play a Djinn. And then enough follow up or tempo after that to kill them in the air

Aether swooper really helps getting a Turn 4 Zahid, Djinn of the lamp

Quote from Zasse_G »

I've been observant about lists and all the discussions going on here, decks that pop up now and then and what cards to choose etc, but wanted to show my list in preparation for Saturday tournament

Zasse's Cheeri0sMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands (15) 4 Marsh Flats 4 Windswept Heath 2 Hallowed Fountain 1 Sacred Foundry 2 Seachrome Coast 2 plains Creatures (8) 4 Sram, senior edificer 4 puresteel paladin Cheerios (20) 4 paradise mantle 4 Cathar's Shield 4 Spidersilk Net 4 Accorder's Shield 4 Bone Saw	Other (17) 4 retract 4 mox opal 2 noxious revival 1 grapeshot 1 Paradoxical Outcome 2 swan song 3 serum visions	Sideboard (15) 3 Path to Exile 4 Silence 2 Wear // Tear 2 Paradoxical Outcome 1 Grapeshot 1 Ghirapur Æther Grid 2 Geist of Saint Traft

I think I prefer 1 PO in the main since Hurkyll's recall feels bad if I don't have an engine in hand or on the bf
I believe you can run 2 nox and 2 grapeshot but keep one in the sb, depending on the meta, GS can be great against early to kill swarmed board or annoying creature whereas nox can be great when there's lots of counters and removal. According to the article from modernnexus he recommended one GS anyway. Also I prefer 2 nox to as more versitale, great when opp tapped out or trying to surgical my gs in the gy.

I think it's better to run 2 wear/tear than 2 fragmentize, since it's instant and can be used eot, although it demands 1 more mana. How does other people reason?

I don't know how good Ghirapur Æther Grid could be really, can se it's potential theoretically.
Decided to use Geist instead of Bastion inventor. With puresteel a geared up geist can swing in without problem, against blessed alliance just sac angel.

Many ppl is running 2-3 echoing truth, but why when you instead can use paths and wear//tear, either one or both? Would be great if someone could explain why and when someone would side in truths over the other mentioned 2 spells.

Leyline of Sanctity is a very popular sideboard card, and many people sideboard it in against us just because of grapeshot. If they slap down multiple leylines at the beginning of the game, echoing truth takes care of all of them. Same thing with multiples of Thalia, Chalice, or Eidolon. These cards are usually run as a 4 of and the number of times echoing truth can clear the way of multiples of them is oddly high. I hit a couple Wild Nac's swinging in for lethal the turn before I combo'd off vs G/R Aggro and it allowed me to win straight out. It just answers everything that causes us problems on the board, and can also bounce multiple cheeri0s back if retract decided to hide too deep in the deck.