Not really fitting this Thread since it is not a Mono Green build, but still a nice Approach on the multi-Color variant.
I also think this list is a great example how you can replace Aspect of Hydra with a decent other mechanic, which provides a nice power boost (in this case, the multi-Color mechanic of Boartusk Liege).
Looking at your list, considering Lightning Bolt is the only red card so far, I would definitely disagree cutting Aspect of Hydra!
You still have all the Green creatures necessary, so I think it is still more than worth it.
Of course, if you decide to go on the "full splash" plan, Aspect might be wrong at some point, but so far I can't see any reason for that. All the cards mentioned do not seem to be a reasonable improvement to the deck, in my opinion. Maybe Atarka's Command might be worth the try, but that also does not hurt your devotion plan.
So putting it together, leave the list as it is. Remember Aspect is one of the key reasons why this deck can be competitive, so you would have to find a really great replacement in Red when you cut it.
The only thing to consider of course would be an upgrade in the Manabase, namely Stomping Grounds and Wooded Foothills. This inclusion would also allow you to play Narnam Renegade, of which I am a big fan. But this is of course also a matter of Budget.
Thx for the report. For which records do you use Lead the Stampede and Dungrove Elder from your sideboard. I guess Lead the Stampede is against mass removal?
If yes, how do you like it?
Yes, Lead the Stampede is against any matchup which requires you to load back up resources at any Point. Mass removal in control is a good example here, or any midrange strategies with a lot of spot removal, like Jund, Abzan or Mardu Pyromancer. Dungrove Elder is actually for similar situations, cause it dodges that removal. Not the mass removal, but still hard to deal with.
I have to admit that I cannot a 100% evaluate these 2 Cards, since I didn't draw them in the Tournament and I also haven't been able to use them in a while. They can be Kind of awkward sometimes, since they often require you to tap out, while not adding that much pressure to the board, compared to the Default Options (e.g. Steel Leaf Champion). But in the type of games you Need them, they both allow you to turn the game around.
Dungrove Elder is especially impressive against any decks that use Path to Exile.
So, still some testing to be done, but so far I do not see better Sideboard Options for the grindy matchups than these two.
I would like to share a Tournament experience (5 rounds, ~30 players) with my beloved archetype, which I had at the Weekend. After a little pause I came back to Stompy after my recent Delver Experiments turned out to be quite complicated.
Not a lot new here - I tested the new Instand-Speed fight spell Titanic Brawl, and added Hooting Mandrills as my 6th "3-drop", since I can Support it with 6 Fetches and it cannot be hit by Spell Queller or Fatal Push, AND doesn't trigger Eidolon.
Matchups, in short:
Game 1: 8 Whack, lost 1-2
Not a lot to say here. The games I lost, I lost to direct Burn to face, just after stabilizing the board. Being on the Play is extremely relevant here, because you can Close the board really fast, and the Goblins won't have any good attacks. Renegade as 2/3 on Turn 1, Geist on defence and Baloth were the Key Factors.
But if you don't draw Feed the Clan, you still loose to triple Goblin Grenade.
Game 2: BW Tokens, won 2-0
I managed to draw more threats than my Opponent drew answers, and he never got to assemble a board. So I could just stomp him twice. Of Course, Steel Leaf Champion is the MVP here. After Boarding Rec Sage against his Enchantments and a Little more protection against his Removal was relevant, also playing around a Settle the Wreckage helped.
Game 3: Burn, lost 1-2
Quite a copy of the 8 Whack match, lost both games on the Draw without drawing Feed the clan, and Ooze was too slow. The Searing Blaze / Searing Blood effects are brutal against our deck. The game on the Play was easy, however - especially since my Opponent left Eidolon in.
Still feels like a very Close matchup, which definitely could have gone either way.
Game 4: Mono Red Prison, lost 1-2
That was hard - my Opponent started with Chalice on 1 AND Bridge, and then slowly killed me with Chandra. Really not a lot I could do about it. Game 2 was decided by my removal for Bridge, and I even won through an Anger of the Gods - threat Management is really important against those type of strategies. In Game 3, he had it all - Chalice, Bridge, and even Spellskite for Blocking and Protection.
I guess this matchup is decided Game 1, whether your Opponent starts with the right Piece of hate. If it is Blood Moon, you are ok, if it's Chalice into Bridge, it can get tough really quick.
Game 5: Bant Spirits, won 2-0
That was not really interesting, my oppponent kept medium Hands, missed his land Drops and got overwhelmed twice. Nice match for me, but no significant learnings here.
Not the result I was hoping for (2-3), but in a way, still an ok day. The Matches I lost were quite close, the Matches I won definitely were not.
To the changes, I cannot say a lot because the data set is still small. I drew Mandrills only once, and at a time were it wasn't relevant in any way. I was however quite impressed with the instant fight spell. It simply gives you a lot more Options inside combat, and the +1/+1-Counter clause is actually not that hard to achieve. I will leave it in as a 1-of and see how that feels.
On future tests, I am planning to cut Ooze and the 6th 3-drop from the main, and maybe add 2 more 2-drops to gain a little more tempo. Although my first Impression was negative, I might give Kraul Harpooner a second Chance. In my LGS, Spirits is quite a thing at the Moment, and I am also looking at Crackling Drake here.
No plans to implement a splash Color so far. To me, the deck feels good the way it is.
To the discussion about Dryad Militant, I can a 100% confirm the Card is unbelievably good against Dredge. In testing, I had my Opponent several times concede against a turn 1 Dryad. It basically shuts off that many mechanics inside the deck, that the Opponent is left with just the creature part of the deck, which just isn't that impressive against our board.
How are you guys seeing the Pteramander as a replacement for the Delve-Threats? Or maybe in Addition to them, in a reduced amount?
I will definitely give it a try in my Esper Shell, since I was just thinking about adding 1-2 Tombstalker to the deck, since there is a lot of Phoenix and Spirits in my Meta.
Besides, I think there are a few Points to optimize.
- I guess 20 creatures is a little too much for a Midrange/Control deck, you might want to go down to about 16.
- Dragonlord and Figure of Destiny do absolutely not work with Basic Swamps, so I would cut both. They are fine cards in these Shells, but as soon as you have to fetch Basic Swamps (e.g. against an aggressive deck, to cast Nighthawk), you're going to have a Problem.
- With Bloodghast and Lilianas you should definitely Play 4 Faithless Lootings, which have good synergy with Collective Brutality, which is also a great card.
- Looting also makes the 4 Leylines in your Sideboard much better, because you can discard redundant copies.
- Dreadbore and Kolaghan's Command should also be in this deck. I'd suggest 2 Commands and a single Dreadbore (instead of the 4th Terminate).
- You do not need Skullcrack in this Deck, because you will hardly be the aggressive deck that needs to race, and which looses to Lifegain.
- Please play 4 Lightning Bolts.
- Maybe Manlands can be a consideration here, e.g. Mutavaults or even Lavaclaw Reaches. In a 2-color Manabase there is also the Option of running 1-2 Ghost Quarters/Tectonic Edges/Field of Ruins.
- You could also consider going on the Blood Moon plan, either Mainboard or Sideboard, both is possible.
I hope this might help you in your deckbuilding process. Wish you much success!
Dear Esper Friends, I'd like to awaken this Thread from its long sleep. I came across the Esper combination while brewing a Delver which was supposed to be a Jeskai build, but it simply never felt good. Considering my experiences with Mardu Pyromancer, or to be specific the Poer of Lingering Souls and Discard Spells, I came up with this iteration:
There is still a lot of things under construction here, just to name a few:
- 20 or 19 lands, how many manlands, Shambling Vent?
- Is Geist in the mainboard correct, could be Thalia, Heretic Cathar or more Nimble Obstructionists
- Far // Away instead of Echoing Truth or Spell Snare, in general: How many counterspells?
But at the same time, the Deck feels incredibly powerful, with a decent mix of answers and threats. Especially the Discard/Removal package enables the deck to compete with the fast metagame. Also, the inclusion of Lingering Souls as a threat while being a sorcery makes flipping Delver really easy (27 instants/sorceries) - this was always the problem with the other Delver builds I tested, which ran about 23.
Last but not least, Guilds of Ravnica provided a nice piece of SB tech in Unmoored Ego.
I would love to hear some opinions on this, and maybe you want to give this version a chance.
In my experience, anything regarding non-interactive Combo can be really hard for this deck, because we do not have the Tools to interact with These type of decks, and we are on average a turn slower than decks like burn or Bushwhacker Zoo.
So decks like Grishoalbrand, Counters Company, Infect and Elves are really hard. Storm and Dredge are an exception, Dryad Militant and Scavenging Ooze allow us to interact with the graveyard. Ad Nauseam is also not that bad, because they Need a Little more time to go off.
Quite good Matchups are Midrange Decks, especially Mardu Pyromancer, because our protection spells and Cards like Strangleroot Geist let us push through their removal, and Steel Leaf Champion ignores their chump blockers. Other Aggro variants can be good too, since they are not able to build up a board as big as we can. So if we survive the first waves of decks like Burn, Zoo and maybe Humans, we are able to outclass their creatures and push through their Board with Trample and Aspect.
Control can actually be favorable, our protection spells and the Dryad against Snapcaster really help us out here. Also the Geist, which trades 2 for 1. I've seen multiple Control Players Play Jace on Turn 4 and then die on the next attack. So, Planeswalkers can be a Problem, but more in a way that they give your Opponent a way back into the game while stabilizing. There is no Planeswalker which can handle our whole board at once, and sometimes we are even able to ignore them.
Terminus is actually a Problem, just like Settle the Wreckage. The only Chance here is to Play around it, and to not commit to much material to the board. I guess it's a matter of experience. But These Cards made our matchup definitely harder.
So far, I can't think of that many pitfalls to avoid. Here it would help to see the list you want to start with.
Just as the primer suggests, you should avoid anything above three CMC, which is just too slow. And there are always People suggesting Nykthos and a Devotion plan for the deck, which is simply nonsense for this strategy.
And of Course there is the playstyle which you just have to learn - Sequencing and Role assessment are the Key factors.
I would love to see your first attempt on a list, do you have any ideas so far?
That's some great results and a very detailed Report, thank you for the insights!
I see a pattern which I already saw when Golgari Grave-Troll was legal, which is: Dredge is actually a pretty good matchup for us. Bloodghast can't block, Amalgam Comes into Play tapped, Narcomoeba is just a chump-blocker, and with Dryad and ooze we have quite decent graveyard-interaction in the maindeck.
Since the deck is now on the rise again, can you confirm this based on your tournament? I actually haven't played the matchup in a while.
I am also very interested in the UR Drake/Phoenix matchup, which seems to be the new Thing in Modern - how is that one going?
Thanks for the insights, CurdBros! Looking Forward to hear about the rest of the games, and congrats to your success.
Could you post your list again with the next Report, that would be really interesting.
As I already wrote, I completely agree on Remand, it just hasn't felt right the times I played it. My olution in the place of Remand is still Izzet Charm, and I can't complain.
The 3rd Path to Exile is also a Thing that came to my mind, with so much Dredge and Phoenixes in the Meta. I added the third Path to the Sideboard for these Matchups.
I also replaced my single copy of Mission briefing with a single Echoing Truth, which was pretty impressive so far (almost never a dead card). And regarding the Mana issues with Crackling Drake in Jeskai, I replaced my single Basic Plains with an Inspiring Vantage, which works out quite well so far.
All in all I'm experiencing Progress in my own gameplay from match to match. The deck is quite hard to master, but it provides some really explosive games if you can Pilot it well. Also, Sideboarding is quirte hard, especially changing Win-Conditions.
How has Ral, Izzet Viceroy worked out for you? I also own one copy, but it looked quite clunky with 5 mana for a deck like ours. I can see the Appeal, and with that many cantrips we can easily find our lands, but is the Card worth the effort?
In a delver deck it's normally best to have 24-26 spells to flip the delvers early. It doesn't make a ton of difference via the math, but it feels like it does. 17 creatures is on the high end so you may want to cut one or two creatures and possibly get path to exile into the main.
This is actually a Topic I did not consider so far - I started out with about ~13 creatures and always felt like there weren't enough threats to actually end the game. So going down on the creatures and up on spells sounds perfectly reasonable.
However, I am not sold on Path to Exile in the maindeck so far. More Experience might proof me wrong, but the if the idea is to choke the Opponent on mana for 1-2 turns with Thalia, Path works against that plan. So as you already saw, right now Vapor Snag serves as the Path-replacement.
Another thought process I had while Building this:
In former Posts of this Thread I saw lists trying Bedlam Reveler - as a former Mardu Pyromancer Player I am highly interested in this. But in my Thing/Ascension list it was actually really bad. Since you fill your Hand with cantrips and burn spells, discarding your Hand to Reveler is often not a desirable Option.
For the Delver list, I could imagine a build with Thought Scour and Faithless Looting. This would, by the way, also be a way to see more Cards and find you threats easier while also allowing us to Play more instants/sorceries for Delver.
At least - in theory. Has anyone tried something like this before?
Dear Jeskai Community, I am just coming from the Thread about Jeskai Thing Ascension - and now that I probably can afford to buy a playset of Snapcasters, I'd like to join the Jeskai Delver brood.
There are a few maybe controversial ides in this list which I would really like to have Feedback on.
There is the inclusion of Thalia, which I think might give the deck a tempo Advantage against anything with Big Mana and huge finishers. I also like Obstructionist - an idea I copied from Jeff Hoogland (the list started out as UR Delver).
I am also not a big fan of Serum Visions and prefer Opt. The idea is, that the ability to react during your opponents turn makes up for the lesser Cards you see.
The Flex Slots is also interesting - what are your opinions on Forked Bolt, Abrade, Burst Lightning and Jeskai Charm?
First Tests on XMage were quite promising, although there is a strategic depth in this deck which I am not used to. I would love to hear your opinions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuBKh5Jo690
Not really fitting this Thread since it is not a Mono Green build, but still a nice Approach on the multi-Color variant.
I also think this list is a great example how you can replace Aspect of Hydra with a decent other mechanic, which provides a nice power boost (in this case, the multi-Color mechanic of Boartusk Liege).
You still have all the Green creatures necessary, so I think it is still more than worth it.
Of course, if you decide to go on the "full splash" plan, Aspect might be wrong at some point, but so far I can't see any reason for that. All the cards mentioned do not seem to be a reasonable improvement to the deck, in my opinion. Maybe Atarka's Command might be worth the try, but that also does not hurt your devotion plan.
So putting it together, leave the list as it is. Remember Aspect is one of the key reasons why this deck can be competitive, so you would have to find a really great replacement in Red when you cut it.
The only thing to consider of course would be an upgrade in the Manabase, namely Stomping Grounds and Wooded Foothills. This inclusion would also allow you to play Narnam Renegade, of which I am a big fan. But this is of course also a matter of Budget.
Yes, Lead the Stampede is against any matchup which requires you to load back up resources at any Point. Mass removal in control is a good example here, or any midrange strategies with a lot of spot removal, like Jund, Abzan or Mardu Pyromancer. Dungrove Elder is actually for similar situations, cause it dodges that removal. Not the mass removal, but still hard to deal with.
I have to admit that I cannot a 100% evaluate these 2 Cards, since I didn't draw them in the Tournament and I also haven't been able to use them in a while. They can be Kind of awkward sometimes, since they often require you to tap out, while not adding that much pressure to the board, compared to the Default Options (e.g. Steel Leaf Champion). But in the type of games you Need them, they both allow you to turn the game around.
Dungrove Elder is especially impressive against any decks that use Path to Exile.
So, still some testing to be done, but so far I do not see better Sideboard Options for the grindy matchups than these two.
I started with this list:
11 Forest
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Treetop Village
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
//Enchantments
3 Rancor
//Instants
3 Aspect of Hydra
1 Blossoming Defense
2 Dismember
1 Dissenter's Deliverance
2 Vines of Vastwood
1 Titanic Brawl
4 Experiment One
2 Narnam Renegade
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Kalonian Tusker
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Leatherback Baloth
1 Hooting Mandrills
1 Act of Aggression
2 Damping Sphere
1 Dungrove Elder
2 Feed the Clan
2 Lead the Stampede
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Natural State
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shaper's Sanctuary
1 Unravel the Aether
1 Hunt the Hunter
Not a lot new here - I tested the new Instand-Speed fight spell Titanic Brawl, and added Hooting Mandrills as my 6th "3-drop", since I can Support it with 6 Fetches and it cannot be hit by Spell Queller or Fatal Push, AND doesn't trigger Eidolon.
Matchups, in short:
Game 1: 8 Whack, lost 1-2
Not a lot to say here. The games I lost, I lost to direct Burn to face, just after stabilizing the board. Being on the Play is extremely relevant here, because you can Close the board really fast, and the Goblins won't have any good attacks. Renegade as 2/3 on Turn 1, Geist on defence and Baloth were the Key Factors.
But if you don't draw Feed the Clan, you still loose to triple Goblin Grenade.
Game 2: BW Tokens, won 2-0
I managed to draw more threats than my Opponent drew answers, and he never got to assemble a board. So I could just stomp him twice. Of Course, Steel Leaf Champion is the MVP here. After Boarding Rec Sage against his Enchantments and a Little more protection against his Removal was relevant, also playing around a Settle the Wreckage helped.
Game 3: Burn, lost 1-2
Quite a copy of the 8 Whack match, lost both games on the Draw without drawing Feed the clan, and Ooze was too slow. The Searing Blaze / Searing Blood effects are brutal against our deck. The game on the Play was easy, however - especially since my Opponent left Eidolon in.
Still feels like a very Close matchup, which definitely could have gone either way.
Game 4: Mono Red Prison, lost 1-2
That was hard - my Opponent started with Chalice on 1 AND Bridge, and then slowly killed me with Chandra. Really not a lot I could do about it. Game 2 was decided by my removal for Bridge, and I even won through an Anger of the Gods - threat Management is really important against those type of strategies. In Game 3, he had it all - Chalice, Bridge, and even Spellskite for Blocking and Protection.
I guess this matchup is decided Game 1, whether your Opponent starts with the right Piece of hate. If it is Blood Moon, you are ok, if it's Chalice into Bridge, it can get tough really quick.
Game 5: Bant Spirits, won 2-0
That was not really interesting, my oppponent kept medium Hands, missed his land Drops and got overwhelmed twice. Nice match for me, but no significant learnings here.
Not the result I was hoping for (2-3), but in a way, still an ok day. The Matches I lost were quite close, the Matches I won definitely were not.
To the changes, I cannot say a lot because the data set is still small. I drew Mandrills only once, and at a time were it wasn't relevant in any way. I was however quite impressed with the instant fight spell. It simply gives you a lot more Options inside combat, and the +1/+1-Counter clause is actually not that hard to achieve. I will leave it in as a 1-of and see how that feels.
On future tests, I am planning to cut Ooze and the 6th 3-drop from the main, and maybe add 2 more 2-drops to gain a little more tempo. Although my first Impression was negative, I might give Kraul Harpooner a second Chance. In my LGS, Spirits is quite a thing at the Moment, and I am also looking at Crackling Drake here.
No plans to implement a splash Color so far. To me, the deck feels good the way it is.
To the discussion about Dryad Militant, I can a 100% confirm the Card is unbelievably good against Dredge. In testing, I had my Opponent several times concede against a turn 1 Dryad. It basically shuts off that many mechanics inside the deck, that the Opponent is left with just the creature part of the deck, which just isn't that impressive against our board.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/792987-tempest-djinn-tempo
I actually built something similar for a friend as his start into Modern, it definitely has its Moments.
I will definitely give it a try in my Esper Shell, since I was just thinking about adding 1-2 Tombstalker to the deck, since there is a lot of Phoenix and Spirits in my Meta.
https://www.jeffhoogland.com/decklists/br-midrange/
Besides, I think there are a few Points to optimize.
- I guess 20 creatures is a little too much for a Midrange/Control deck, you might want to go down to about 16.
- Dragonlord and Figure of Destiny do absolutely not work with Basic Swamps, so I would cut both. They are fine cards in these Shells, but as soon as you have to fetch Basic Swamps (e.g. against an aggressive deck, to cast Nighthawk), you're going to have a Problem.
- With Bloodghast and Lilianas you should definitely Play 4 Faithless Lootings, which have good synergy with Collective Brutality, which is also a great card.
- Looting also makes the 4 Leylines in your Sideboard much better, because you can discard redundant copies.
- Dreadbore and Kolaghan's Command should also be in this deck. I'd suggest 2 Commands and a single Dreadbore (instead of the 4th Terminate).
- You do not need Skullcrack in this Deck, because you will hardly be the aggressive deck that needs to race, and which looses to Lifegain.
- Please play 4 Lightning Bolts.
- Maybe Manlands can be a consideration here, e.g. Mutavaults or even Lavaclaw Reaches. In a 2-color Manabase there is also the Option of running 1-2 Ghost Quarters/Tectonic Edges/Field of Ruins.
- You could also consider going on the Blood Moon plan, either Mainboard or Sideboard, both is possible.
I hope this might help you in your deckbuilding process. Wish you much success!
What do we think of this guy?
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
//Instants
1 Echoing Truth
1 Esper Charm
2 Fatal Push
2 Mana Leak
1 Murderous Cut
3 Opt
2 Path to Exile
1 Spell Snare
4 Thought Scour
2 Collective Brutality
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
2 Thoughtseize
//Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Nimble Obstructionist
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Ceremonius Rejection
2 Unmoored Ego
2 Dispel
1 Duress
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Glory-Bound Initiate
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Languish
1 Plaguecrafter
There is still a lot of things under construction here, just to name a few:
- 20 or 19 lands, how many manlands, Shambling Vent?
- Is Geist in the mainboard correct, could be Thalia, Heretic Cathar or more Nimble Obstructionists
- Far // Away instead of Echoing Truth or Spell Snare, in general: How many counterspells?
But at the same time, the Deck feels incredibly powerful, with a decent mix of answers and threats. Especially the Discard/Removal package enables the deck to compete with the fast metagame. Also, the inclusion of Lingering Souls as a threat while being a sorcery makes flipping Delver really easy (27 instants/sorceries) - this was always the problem with the other Delver builds I tested, which ran about 23.
Last but not least, Guilds of Ravnica provided a nice piece of SB tech in Unmoored Ego.
I would love to hear some opinions on this, and maybe you want to give this version a chance.
In my experience, anything regarding non-interactive Combo can be really hard for this deck, because we do not have the Tools to interact with These type of decks, and we are on average a turn slower than decks like burn or Bushwhacker Zoo.
So decks like Grishoalbrand, Counters Company, Infect and Elves are really hard. Storm and Dredge are an exception, Dryad Militant and Scavenging Ooze allow us to interact with the graveyard. Ad Nauseam is also not that bad, because they Need a Little more time to go off.
Quite good Matchups are Midrange Decks, especially Mardu Pyromancer, because our protection spells and Cards like Strangleroot Geist let us push through their removal, and Steel Leaf Champion ignores their chump blockers. Other Aggro variants can be good too, since they are not able to build up a board as big as we can. So if we survive the first waves of decks like Burn, Zoo and maybe Humans, we are able to outclass their creatures and push through their Board with Trample and Aspect.
Control can actually be favorable, our protection spells and the Dryad against Snapcaster really help us out here. Also the Geist, which trades 2 for 1. I've seen multiple Control Players Play Jace on Turn 4 and then die on the next attack. So, Planeswalkers can be a Problem, but more in a way that they give your Opponent a way back into the game while stabilizing. There is no Planeswalker which can handle our whole board at once, and sometimes we are even able to ignore them.
Terminus is actually a Problem, just like Settle the Wreckage. The only Chance here is to Play around it, and to not commit to much material to the board. I guess it's a matter of experience. But These Cards made our matchup definitely harder.
So far, I can't think of that many pitfalls to avoid. Here it would help to see the list you want to start with.
Just as the primer suggests, you should avoid anything above three CMC, which is just too slow. And there are always People suggesting Nykthos and a Devotion plan for the deck, which is simply nonsense for this strategy.
And of Course there is the playstyle which you just have to learn - Sequencing and Role assessment are the Key factors.
I would love to see your first attempt on a list, do you have any ideas so far?
I see a pattern which I already saw when Golgari Grave-Troll was legal, which is: Dredge is actually a pretty good matchup for us. Bloodghast can't block, Amalgam Comes into Play tapped, Narcomoeba is just a chump-blocker, and with Dryad and ooze we have quite decent graveyard-interaction in the maindeck.
Since the deck is now on the rise again, can you confirm this based on your tournament? I actually haven't played the matchup in a while.
I am also very interested in the UR Drake/Phoenix matchup, which seems to be the new Thing in Modern - how is that one going?
Could you post your list again with the next Report, that would be really interesting.
The 3rd Path to Exile is also a Thing that came to my mind, with so much Dredge and Phoenixes in the Meta. I added the third Path to the Sideboard for these Matchups.
I also replaced my single copy of Mission briefing with a single Echoing Truth, which was pretty impressive so far (almost never a dead card). And regarding the Mana issues with Crackling Drake in Jeskai, I replaced my single Basic Plains with an Inspiring Vantage, which works out quite well so far.
All in all I'm experiencing Progress in my own gameplay from match to match. The deck is quite hard to master, but it provides some really explosive games if you can Pilot it well. Also, Sideboarding is quirte hard, especially changing Win-Conditions.
How has Ral, Izzet Viceroy worked out for you? I also own one copy, but it looked quite clunky with 5 mana for a deck like ours. I can see the Appeal, and with that many cantrips we can easily find our lands, but is the Card worth the effort?
This is actually a Topic I did not consider so far - I started out with about ~13 creatures and always felt like there weren't enough threats to actually end the game. So going down on the creatures and up on spells sounds perfectly reasonable.
However, I am not sold on Path to Exile in the maindeck so far. More Experience might proof me wrong, but the if the idea is to choke the Opponent on mana for 1-2 turns with Thalia, Path works against that plan. So as you already saw, right now Vapor Snag serves as the Path-replacement.
Another thought process I had while Building this:
In former Posts of this Thread I saw lists trying Bedlam Reveler - as a former Mardu Pyromancer Player I am highly interested in this. But in my Thing/Ascension list it was actually really bad. Since you fill your Hand with cantrips and burn spells, discarding your Hand to Reveler is often not a desirable Option.
For the Delver list, I could imagine a build with Thought Scour and Faithless Looting. This would, by the way, also be a way to see more Cards and find you threats easier while also allowing us to Play more instants/sorceries for Delver.
At least - in theory. Has anyone tried something like this before?
This is the Iteration I am starting with:
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Inspiring Vantage
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
//Instants
1 Abrade
1 Jeskai Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
2 Mana Leak
4 Opt
2 Remand
1 Spell Snare
3 Vapor Snag
1 Forked Bolt
//Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Figure of Destiny
2 Nimble Obstructionist
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Alpine Moon
1 Aurelia's Fury
2 Dispel
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Negate
2 Path to Exile
1 Surgical Extraction
3 Wear // Tear
There are a few maybe controversial ides in this list which I would really like to have Feedback on.
There is the inclusion of Thalia, which I think might give the deck a tempo Advantage against anything with Big Mana and huge finishers. I also like Obstructionist - an idea I copied from Jeff Hoogland (the list started out as UR Delver).
I am also not a big fan of Serum Visions and prefer Opt. The idea is, that the ability to react during your opponents turn makes up for the lesser Cards you see.
The Flex Slots is also interesting - what are your opinions on Forked Bolt, Abrade, Burst Lightning and Jeskai Charm?
First Tests on XMage were quite promising, although there is a strategic depth in this deck which I am not used to. I would love to hear your opinions.