MTG Salvation

Ok so it's time for me to get some feedback. Ive been on storm for a short time, at least in modern, and I need to solicite some information. Ive had some mixed results. 2-2 at a couple FNMs couple with a 4-0 FNM and 4-1 at a 1k event. That's what ive had the last month. The 2-2 performances seem to be a derived from the fact that I can't beat jund. When i dodge that deck I seem to do fine. I understand that Jund/Abzan is about as bad of a match as it gets for us. That being said it can't be a flat out auto loss. Every game I have against it I feel like im hanging tough, resolving a 5 copy empty etc, and still keep coming up short. I guess the biggest issue is Lilliana is just crushing against us, and bolt is insufficient to remove it from the field. Any tips that can help me turn this into a match that has a better outlook? For refrence here is my deck list

Ya the nodes doesnt jive well with chalice but really its often gonna be used like a 1 off creature kill/time walk. That's gonna buy the turn you need to get behind a bridge or get that wrath off. Late game you just trash it to Nahiri. I'm loving it out of the SB. Its giving exactly what's needed against a big weakness

The nodes can be a super strong board in. Coming down with it T1 or T2 against spirits, affinity, humans, elves etc it's great. Its gonna smoke a critter and half the time work like a time walk, and buying turns for 1 mana with this deck is all value. Late game vs any of those decks and any midrange ish stuff, its a big problem for them. When they're trying to build lethal and dig for an answer to bridge, a node hitting the boatd is all star. TBH, id love to be able to squeeze a 4th in the board. Any match I bring it in, its all value

So, not sure how many people are still into this archetype, but I felt like giving it a try. Took it to a local tourney on Monday and went 3-1. Only loss was death shadow and that was a super freak game where I drew dead for about 10 turns G3. Beat boros tron and bridgevine. Here's the list I ran

3 Leyline of sanctity
4 endearing bridge
4 chalice of the void
4 bloodmoon
4 oblivion ring

4 Nahiri, the harbinger
3 Chandra, torch of defiance
1 emrakul
1 blightseel colosus

4 wrath of god

4 simian spirit guide
3 gemstone caverns
4 aerid mesa
4 sacred foundry
3 rugged prairie
10 plains

SB
3 Porphry nodes
1 leyline of sanctity
4 defense grid
4 pitching needle
3 Boris charm (indestructible mode)


Board cards I'm toying with
Sowing salt
Boil
Magus of the moon
Nevermore

I have found G1 against UW mirracles I do decent. Post board was a bad MU for me and my local area is filled with it. So I put 2 Sphinx of the final word in my SB. Against any Ux control, if theyvdont have an answer for it the turn you play it, its game over. It sounds a little janky but ive been wrecking UW with it.

On Assasin's Trophy, I honestly think this is great for us. My matchups against Bxx midrange have been fabulous. They aren't fast enough and dont have enough interaction to stop us. Once tron is gping or mid-late game, our cards are better than their cards. Trophy is gonna do jack all to us that they dont already have cards in main that do the same thing to us. But it will cause a resurgence in the Bxx midrange archetype which is all good for us imho.

As for spell pierce, ive been experimenting with that card in the man, SB, and not at all. Truth be told it was a valuable asset time and again. I dont have it going now but after the Monday nights tournament, I really want to get 2 or 3 back in my board. It ia just a matter of what cards to cut

I mean I guess its a meta choice but just a basic math thing too. Boros, 8-wack, spirits, elves, CoCo, affinity combine to be significantly more prevalent than hollow one and eldrazi. Dismember is a fantastic card but if I had been packing that instead of spatial, I would jave been 2-2 instead of 4-0

So I've been a little hot cold with U tron the last 2 weeks. I had records of 3-0 3-0 1-3 0-3. After 2 stinkers I was ready to put it down for a while. Last night I didn't have anything ready to play and I made a cpl tweaks and went 4-0 with it. So maybe I just had some rotten luck but the deck is back in my good graces. Anyways, here's the current list I ran.

9 island
12 ur a lands
1 tolaria west
1 academy ruins
1 buried ruins

3 wurmcoil engine
2 walking ballista
1 mindslaver
1 oblivion stone
2 chalice of the void
1 crucible of worlds
4 expedition map

3 spatial Contortion
2 Ugin, the spirit dragon

1 cyclonic rift
3 repeal
3 remand
4 condecend
2 gifts ungiven
4 thirst for knowledge

SB
2 sphinx of the final word
1 spatial Contortion
1 cyclonic rift
2 chalice of the void
3 spreading seas
1 field of ruin
3 summary dismissal
2 surgical extraction

That's the list I ran out last night. Worked well for the most part. I faced down 3 Mardu pyromencer decks and 1 boros. I will make a cpl more sleight adjustments but it felt like it ran really well all night. Apparently we have a fabulous matchup against mardu cause I was 6-1 against it last night. Builds with and without blood moon in the main. The boros matchup was brutal. Both games I won I as at 2 when I either started to get in with wurmcoil or got the lock on

Vs most decks I'm looking to put down a chalice on 1 asap. If they play white, chalice on to stop path on your wurmcoils. Vs jund, chalice on 1 for the disruption. Chalice on 1 vs burn is a back breaker. I am usually looking to drop a map and follow it with a chalice in most gamez

I did finally change the tech edge to a field of ruin and trim to 1 slaver after I moved to gifts lol. That being said I did tuck that 2nd slavery in the board. Most notably because against any combo like storm, ad nauseam, scapeshift, swans(yes I did run into that at a pptq) resolving just 1 slavery is game, so the 2nd slaver in the board still feels warrented.

Ya as far as scion, I'm not enthusiastic about that either. I feel like supreme will would let you see more cards in the end for less mana at instant speed. Admitedly ive done no testing with the scion, but it just doesn't fit with my personal paradigm of blue tron. I see why green tron runs it, they don't have access to other real card draw but blue does. But that's just personal preference

I totally agree about chalice main. I'm on 3 main and I feel pretty good about that. Maybe ill put a 4th in the board, we'll see. I find if for nothing else, even against the decks you said chalice was meh against, chalice on 1 to shut off path to keep wurmcoil online wins games.

Also for UW control, a lot of my matches had gone G1 me, G2 them but takes 40 mins, G3 time and draw. It may seem a little janky, but I'm trying Sphinx of the final word in the board. Against any of the Uxx control decks. They have 4 turns to rip a terminus.

As for karn, I'm not too horny for him in this deck. Karn is great but a lot of the time he feels like 7 mana to exile 1 permenant. Honestly if I was going to invest 7 mana into that kind of effect, all is dust would be better. If I make more slots for plainswalkes, I think id be better off putting in more Ugins

So I ran the aforementioned list and went 3-0. Played against Spirits, GW counter company, and 8-wack. Not necessarily prevelant decks but all hard matches for U-tron. Afterwards ill say maybe 1 or 2 card tweaks are in order but I'm not gonna mix it up afyer not losing. Ill try running it again on Thursday night and see how it rolls out.

I will say this aboit it. Weather I was using gifts to get slavery online, tron online, or just pure value piles, I will say every gift I had either won me the game or clearly was the pivotal point that paved for the win. Also if your gifting for utility, throwing an Ugin in as bait is great, even if your on 3islands and 1 from piece, no one is giving you the ugin, so it narrows their choice to 1 of 3.

The only down side I had was seemingly from going from 9 islands to 8 for the buried ruin, I seemed to feel it. I'm reluctant to bump to 25 lands. Ma6be moving the field of ruin to the board is something ill have to assess

So in order to facilitate a gifts build I'm going to change my build up quite a bit. I agree the changes aren't warranted for a 1 off gifts so I'm going to run 2 or 3. I think it can be versatile enough to warrant it.

Here is the list ill run tonight

3 remand
4 condeacend
3 repeal
4 thirst for knowledge
3 gifts ungiven
1 cyclonic rift
3 chalice of the void
2 oblivion stone
4 expedition map
1 mindslaver
1 crucible of worlds
3 walking ballista
3 wurmcoil engine
1 ugin, the spirit dragon

8 island
12 urza land
1 field of ruin
1 academy ruin
1 buried ruin
1 tolaria west

In order to make the list work I had to trim some control. That's why I bumped the chalice up in the MD to 3. Lots of fast decks, chalice can break their back. That's also why I upped the O-Stone, to give some extra board wipe.

The way I'm trying to manage the deck, you dont have to rely on the gifts, but late game, if you draw it, its guaranteed slavery lock getting the slavery the 2 ruins and crucible. If its early use the gifts to assemble tron pieces or to get board wipe etc.

Ill give it a good rigorous test tonight and report back

So I took my build to a pptq and had reasonavle results. I suffered from the same issue that I garnered control of games but too often struggled to close. I had turned my nose up to the idea before but I think I'm gpomg to try a version of the deck with gifts ungiven. I put it together and am going to test it locally tonight. Gifts when youve got critical mana feels like game over every time

to get back around to the mindslaver, i found myself almost exclusively using the treasure mage to get my 1 off slaver. spending that 3 mana on the mage early game and mid game almost universally prevented me from playing and popping the slaver. so if im going to be using it for 1 card 90% of the time plus, why wouldn't i just use the card itself. i've waffled on the treasure mage a lot and the conclusion i came to is if you're going to play tool box style cards like that, it's not beneficial unless you're going deeper into that deck style of archetype. running a 3 mana tutor as a one of that has 2 or possibly 3 targets, and you take just 1 target a wildly overwhelming percentage of the time is bad math. i have been on 2 slavers for a while and there is no way i would ever bump back down to 1 in this deck