MTG Salvation

I was trying the time stop against combo and other control. It was a nice idea but had so so results. The 2nd mind slaver has been really valuable. Tbh on the tec edge, I just need to get a field of ruin lol.

So for the last few weeks I've been doing a lot of tinkering with my version of BlueTron. I've had some things i feel work really well and some that have been sub par and changed. I'm going to play modern tonight and Friday in prep for a PPTQ and here is what I'm going into it with. Let me know what you think.



I am well aware i am running some non typical things but that's what play testing and experimenting is all about. I bumped up the Wurmcoil and Ballista because they keep coming up all star and really put the hurt on aggro. The spell pierce in the main continues to be a great equalizer and helps stabilize the game faster. The supreme will i have liked but I've waffled back and forth between 2 and 3 copies. I did also try some experimenting with steel hellkite. It played well but the permanent destruction never really came into play and he was just a solid beater.

Some observations I've had playing this deck: Although the deck does a lot of nice cantrip, there's almost nothing generating real card advantage. What this deck wouldn't give to have a card like Fact or fiction. I'm not sure if there is a decent solution for that. Maybe i could try running a pair of jace, the mind sculptor. if anyone has tried that id love some input. Also i have a real love hate relationship with the Chalice of the void 2x main. Sometimes it comes up absolutely DOPE, and others it feels like a wasted card.

Ya, I actually have 3 Aetherize in the board for this matchup, plus they are also decent against bridgevine and hallowed one, but it still seems like not enough. I was hoping to not have to rely on a Ugin as a must have to win out. Also I haven't played against it a ton, maybe a couple more matches against it and ill get the feel

So bant spirits continues to be a brutal match for me. Any suggestions or great tech I'm missing?

I wouldn't use gifts in this deck TBH. Thirst for knowledge and oppressive will are more than enough dig ive found. Especially given all the cantrip and deck manipulation. It would take a very specific set of criteria to work effectively

So I brought this to a modern FNM last Friday and went 3-0-1 draw for top and aplit prizes. Beat humans, wizards, and Chord combo. Cord was by far the harder matchup, not that any of those were easy. Every game I play Walking Ballista seems to come up as the big clutch card every time.

After this tournament I decided to make a cpl changes. I took the 1 crucible out of the main. I have yet to have it come up as important. So I took that slot and added a supreme will.

Also made some board changes. I opened up 2 slots to try and add room for 2 Time Stop. Not sure how good this will be but I want to try it. It gets around things that cant be countered and triggers on cast plus adds an RFG variable. Could be too slow and clunky but we will find out.

Definetly the more I play this, as its my only deck for modern, the stronger I feel it is. I rarely smoke anyone and seem to live right on the edge most games, but its rare I don't feel like I'm dictating the game.

After my next tournament ill repost my list and how the changes are working out.

I dont run the solemn. It feels slow and clunky and when I could cast it, I feel like I should have far better expenditures for the mana. I am currently running 2 chalice main and 1 in the board. TBH, the 3rd comes in fromt the board pretty regularly. I briefly have thought about putting the 3rd in the main but I feel like G1 I saccrafice some versatility if I do. I may try some testing with 3 main but right now I think I feel best about 2 main 1 board.

That's all good insight. The bribery and nexus were kind of softball ideas and the input makes sense. I see the value of spatial. The problem I'm running in to is against a bunch of the aggro it isn't enough to kill the mobs, against infect it is a real gamble, and stuff like spirits and humans it is eiyher unusable or a drop in the bucket. Of hate to try and clear 7 spots in the board for various creature removal ish stuff. If like to think the stuff that really needs just that kind of spot removal the counters would be enough to handle but maybe not. This Friday ill test it out with Aetherize of spatial and see how it runs

So I was thinking about a couple cards that could be good in various applications in the board or main and would like some feedback.

Nexus of fate - I feel like this could great in the main as a one or two of. Against Jeski control or any other Uxx control, when they go to do XYZ at the end of your turn, dropping this in response could be a solid game changer. Maybe its too mana intensive or the 2 Blue mana is too big of a draw back, but it looks appealing.

Bribery - As a 1 or 2 of in the board, or 1 main or etc, I could see this card being really good. Against tron, Eldrazi, scapeshift, etc this card could be really good.

aetherize this card I'm giving serious thought too. I ran 4x spatial Contortion and it did very little for me. Almost every scenario I boarded it in, I would have rather had Aetherize. That could just have been the luck of the draw and decks I got, but a good chunk of the aggro/critter type decks I saw, mass non targeting bounce would have been a whole lot better.

These were just some musings I had I wanted to test and thought I'd check in and see if anyone had toyed with them

So i just came back from a 1K modern with 54 players using the decklist i Posted on 728. I went 3-3 but could have pretty easily been 5-1 had this not been my 1st tournament in about 6 years. lack of understanding of the format and meta cost me at least 1 match. Big take away from the day was the 3 Spell Pierce in the main were clutch. Also id agree with the assessment that was made that having a 2nd Crucible of worlds in the board didn't pay dividends. I sided it in for multiple games but it never ended up being a factor.

G1 - Mono Green Tron 2-1 Me. This went about as well as i could expect. Slowed him down turn 1 and 2 and got a chalice of the void online for 1 and kept counter backup for Sylvan Scrying. G2 he just flat out raced me. G3 i had a Natural tron in hand and out put down a turn 3 Wurmcoil engine and followed it up with spreading seas and tectonic edge to keep him off tron and won

G2 - Thopter Foundry 1-2 Him. This one caught me off guard. Unfortunately this is a match i should have 1. Game 1 Raced out a sundering titan and mind slaver and he couldn't rebound from it. Unfortunately both G2 and G3 i got solid control and an early chalice for 0 and for 2 out. both games i could have won easily if i got any kind of creature or win con and the deck wouldn't give it to me either game. This match loss sucked especially hard when he ended up being the 1 seed after 6 rounds

G3 - Bant Spirits 1-2 Him. Good match here but this is a really tough match up for Blue tron it seems. The deck can just come out fast with lots of protection. G1 and G3 he got out fast creatures using flash in response to me doing things and had hex proof and indestructible online to keep them there. I played the best i could but the deck just flat out beat me soundly.

G4 - ScapeShift 2-1 me. This was definitely a good matchup for me. G1 kept a sketchy hand and paid for it but almost stabilized. G2 and G3 i put out a quick slaver and when i took his turn he had a scapeshift in hand both times. Binned all his lands and failure to find and he scooped them up.

G5 - Jeski Control 1-0 him. This was a really tough match but a winnable one. This match in particular i felt like lack of meta knowledge cost me. G1 took almost 45 minutes. couldn't get game 2 done. I think next time i come up against this ill feel a lot better about it.

G6 - BW Control 2-0 Me. Not a lot to say about this one. Got out a fast mind slaver lock G1. G2 i got tron out quickly and put down a big walking ballista followed up with academy ruins to recur it every turn and he just couldn't do anything about it.

All in all i feel i did ok, not having played modern ever or any magic since innistrad was just coming out. I would have 0 concern playing this deck again with maybe 1 or 2 minor changes. I felt like this deck could have easily T8 today. And as far as the spell pierce goes, every opponent commented on how they weren't expecting them and how they kept walking right into them. They are definitely staying in the main for now

The reason for the extra crucible in the board is Crucible/TecEdge has proven to be really an amazing way to keep Gtron down. If you keep them off Tron, they have a very hard time bouncing back. So the 1 in the board is just about increasing % chance of getting it online, and the meta is rich with tron.

The spell pierce is going to be my experiment. The biggest issue I have with this deck is it feels like its a turn behind too often, the spell pierce I'm hoping changes that dynamic. Well see if it works.

As far as Ugin, I just don't have 1 and didn't want to invest any more cash in a deck I'm not sure about lol.

so im jumping right into modern with a 1K tournament tomorrow. Here is the list i am bringing, id love some input before the event. Ive made some changes based on some things ive experienced while testing online.



I put the spell pierce in main cause i felt like fast decks were getting a turn ahead of me too consistently. The supreme will i just like in the deck and felt like it was a pretty easy trade for the talismans and the solemn, which i felt was clunky. tested this last night locally and it seemed to do ok.

Quote from BadMcFadden »

I run 2x spell snare in the board to give another turn 1 play against decks where its valuable. Does a lot of work vs storm/burn and to some extent jund (goyf/bob). Dismember is also a turn 1 play that is occasionally helpful - mainly when you're nuking a dork to slow them down or on the draw hitting their two drop.

After that the idea is to condescend/remand/repeal to slow them down until we turn the corner. If you don't have those cards the decks will certainly pull ahead of you before you can stabilize as you stare down at noninteractive maps/thirsts - but even there you're usually looking to take some damage and dig for tron and ugin/rift/balista/wurmcoil to instantly stabilize.

My experience:

G tron: very hard due to worldbreaker, ulamog, and karn. They get tron faster than we do which turns our condescends into sadness, to say nothing of on cast triggers. I'm not sure this match is winnable without them getting a bad draw and us getting a great one.

Eldrazi: bad match as well, you hope they draw chalices and dismembers and don't draw their cavern too early. You really need your wurmcoil/gearhulk on curve here to have a chance.

Hollow One: haven't played it but seems bad if they open well. As long as we have 2 mana our remand/condescend will stop their enablers and buy us time. Really depends on play v draw and that first turn burning inquiry. A t1 hollow one is very, very bad for us (dismember or cyclonic rift)

Ponza / Land D: If they are on the play and go dork-land D that's rough. As long as we get to 1U so we can remand/condescend/repeal things get a lot better. I have condescend for 1 so many inferno titans! Bloodbraid elf is a bit of a problem since we can't stop both spells generally, but sometimes one of them is a dud like a utopia sprawl or bolt and we just counter the elf.

Ad nauseum: haven't played it, likely depends on their pacts because otherwise our counterspells will keep 3BB spells from resolving pretty handily.

UG tempo: don't even know what this is. I've played vs temur decks with BBE/Jace and they are mostly in our favour as they're just a fair midrange deck that usually has no countermagic and no caverns.

Burn: pre-board almost unwinnable. Post board with contortion, TKS, spell snare and an extra wurmcoil can be reasonable. You need to weather the storm and then chalice on 2 generally speaking.

That's all very good on-site, thx. I'm lookong to actually try this deck next week so we'll see what til can getvout of tweaks.

Another thing I'm thinking of is running a second cyclonic rift in the main and maybe 1 in the board. That or aether burst. I ran into a few games last night where I would Have killed for some bounce that wasn't mana dependant, like the eldrazi match or Gtron match

So i tested this all night online last night. Played G-Tron, Eldrazi, Land D, BR Hallowed, ad nauseam,UG Tempo, Burn, and a rogue battle of wits.

Most of the time it felt like they were getting under me by a turn. Every game I lost I felt I was on the verge of stabilizing and taking control. I'm curious if this is mostly my lack of knowledge of the meta or is fairly typical of this deck.

My biggest problem felt like I have nothing to do turn 1 besides expedition map. No way to slow them down turn 1. So if they're on the play, it felt like I was too far behind the ball once I got some mana online and am trying to play catch up. What I wouldn't give for force spike in this deck

So I could be way off target, but I was looking to put together a reasonably budget friendly version of this deck to just test out on the local scene. The format looks kind of slanted to aggro, so I was thinking I would main 3xSpatial Contortion and 3x O-Stone and put the chalice in the board. Maybe it will be kind of coo coo but I'd like to give it a whirl. Also, on the note of coo coo, I was contemplating putting in 1x Memnarch as an alternative win con. Seems like it would be ok in this deck. Has anyone tested that and found it to be factually trash?