Hey guys! We do have another toy
Kind of a mix with the phantasmal image and seems worse than our new reverend...maybe in bant to give evasion to geist?
Almost as good as a straight 2/2 flyer, with an activated ability that will be rarely relevant (4 mana is a lot) and a HUGE drawback. I'll pass...
I'm with streexgeist on this one, i'm very excited for this. Seems like a no brainer in the sideboard, and i'll definitely give this a shot x2 in the main. Just being a 2cc 2 power flying beater makes this great. I might be wrong and maybe its just for side, but i can't wait to try this out!
Field of ruin and ghost quarter are fine, but the question is how much you are willing to stretch your land base? How much win% do you get off of those compared to the loss% you get from mana screw?
I think on 20 lands you can maybe go for 4 non colored mana producing land but that is kind of greedy (i prefer 3 max). In the past I've tried going with 2x GQ, 2x haunt and 2x cavern of souls, and that made my land base dysfunctional. We have 3, maybe 4 slots available for utility lands, more than that will make us lose to our lands more often than the wins we get off of them. 2 of those slots must be occupied by haunt because it is fantastic, one or two cavern of souls is reasonable because at least it can cast our spirits, but i prefer a single due to it not being useful in most matchups.
Maybe you could try one field of ruin because it transforms into a basic, but that depends on your meta. If you play vs big mana decks all the time then running the 4th utility makes sense, otherwise, not worth it imo.
Hi guys, I just registered so I could post on this thread.
Spell Queller is one of my favorite card and I was trying to find somewhat of a cheap shell to play it and spirits appeared like a godsend lol
So here's my UW list
I haven't found a Kira, great glass-spinner yet so I'm stuck with eidolons MD but I'm eager to try it. SD is still a wip so I'm leaving it blank.
Also I was really cringing without some cantrips so I went for a full set of Opt which left me satisfied.
Do you guys have any advice for a better build? And how do you feel about cantrips in this deck? I've seen really few lists playing them and I can't understand why.
Just a quick tip regarding the land base, you're two colors so you definitely have space for more utility lands. The second moorland haunt is great and won't mess your mana too much. I also think you can add one or two basics. You'll find that often you have the luxury of fetching them and rarely will you need to shock.
I'd go down on the seachrome coasts, two is plenty. Sometimes you want the untapped basic more than the dual etb tapped, so 4x of those is too much imo. With 5-6 basics you'll be practically immune to blood moon, get more untapped lands when you need them and will never run out of stuff to search for with your 8 fetchlands.
How do you feel about nebelgast herald and kira against burn?
Nebelgast i feel is not at its best here, their creatures come too early for it to matter and i'd rather trade my 2 drops with them when i can early on, the burn spells are more dangerous i think.
There is definitely a difference between bant and u/w's matchup vs burn then, because i play vs red decks a lot and lose to them very rarely, although i must admit the games are often close. Another matchup where thalia, guardian of thraben is great, and recently eidolon of rhetoric has helped a lot too.
Based on my experience with the matchup i strongly suggest burrenton forge-tenderx2 in addition to blessed alliance x2 in the sideboard. Forge tender can come down turn one and negate one opposing creature for the rest of the matchup. She can turn the clock on our favor and can be cashed in when needed, a great card overall.
Another little detail about the fetchlands, if we are to play artificer's assistant shuffling our deck is a small disadvantage. Whenever we scry a card to the bottom, we never see the card again. With fetchlands we negate all the scrying our bird provides. Not a huge deal, and if our opponent uses path to exile and/or field of ruin/ghost quarter etc, this doesn't matter, but still it is a small advantage of fetchless mono blue to add to the list and be aware of.
What cards for SB are recommended for Affinity-infested meta ?
I like to bring the trinket mage package with one pithing needle. Gives us more ways to find walking ballista (our best card in the matchup) and often you'll be able to cast what you search for right away if you played a blue mana guy on turn 2, so you likely won't lose tempo. Also a great topdeck at any point in the game.
Thanks! Do you suggest anything to solve for card draw then? I am having fun with the deck but find myself just sort of running out of gas some times.
We have card selection with artificer's assistant and smuggler's copter, God-pharaoh's gift provides board advantage if you get to resolve it. Apart from that, i dunno. Nothing i tried has worked out for me in the card draw department. Try stuff and report back here!
EDIT: by the way i still can't find a copy of the immortal sun so i can try it. With all the teferi decks popping up, in addition to tron, jund,etc, seems like the pw shutdown ability is more relevant now.
Have People tried Padeem, Consul of Innovation in this deck? It seems like a great card to defend key artifacts like loadstone golem, plus its card draw, plus its blue so it taps to Grand Architect, and to top it off it fits with the vedelken theme? I think a 2 of in the main deck isn't a stretch. Also is Search for Azcanta any good? Or is Artificers Assistant good enough filtering and the flip on azcanta is just ehh for us?
I have not tried padeem but it don't think it has a place here. This deck is not designed to be able to cast non-artifact 4cc cards on curve. I'm pretty convinced that everything that costs 4 or more needs to be an artifact otherwise it is unplayable in this deck. There are many ok options if you feel like you need protection. I've added spellskites to the sideboard vs lightning bolt decks, you can also play stuff like scrap trawler, kira, great glass-spinner, welding jar etc.
Search doesn't play into our gameplan at all. We want to play creatures turn two, not durdle with do-nothing cards. The flipped side is useless too, this is not a deck that wants these effect useless it has a body!
My 2/2 split is totally a meta choice, if i were to attend a bigger tournament i'd likely bring back the gasts 3-4 from the side into the main.
For graveyard hate, that depends on your meta. I run one relic of progenitus and one grafdigger's cage in my sideboard and have been happy with it. I found rest in peace screws up my moorland haunt plan vs midrange/control decks, and that land is among our best cards in those matchups. These are also matchups where you want to interact with their graveyard because of snapcaster mage, tarmogoyf, bedlam reveler, lingering souls, etc, so there is a little bit of tension with rip. The artifacts can disrupt the opponent without interfering too much with our best land. Also cage comes in vs collected company/chord of calling decks so thats why i like the 1/1 split.
Now running 2x eidolon main and nebelgast 3-4 in the sideboard, for when i really need them. Not that 4x was bad but as the metagame shifted i feel like i need to be more resilient vs various lightning bolt nonesense, eidolon really helps.
About orbs, i like orbs of warding a little better because there are a bunch of young pyromancer and lingering souls in my meta. Warding also stops storm's alternate plan of empty the warrens, which is pretty nice. Its just that warding has a relevant bonus for one more mana, but witchbane orb is totally fine too.
About the saga it seems very slow, and not being an artifact means you can't accelerate into it, i'm almost always against playing non artifact cards that cost more than 3 mana. I think there are better options for value cards vs control matchups, but feel free to try it if you want.
Myr superion is currently occupying the 2x flex slots, l find they require less of a board state to cast than the big shots like wurmcoil engine or myr battlesphere, but what is optimal in these slots is debatable and can be metagame dependant. God-pharaoh's gift's power also depends on the meta. I guess the deck is adapable with enough non-core space to shape it into your own ideal little machine, providing you stick to the basics.
EDIT: on a more positive note i've been considering the immortal sun myself, and it would make sense if planeswalkers are heavily played (but calling it «the truth» is most likely exagerated).
Have you given it a try? Recently I've been losing often to a combo of Bad luck draws and liliana of the veil! (usually at the same time).
I've been considering Imprisoned in the Moon but the immortal sun seems potentially good enough to run MB.
Also I've been running 2 Mask of Memory and have been happy with the additional card draw. Attached it to a Walking B. and it can draw you a good number of cards and with 8 1/1 fliers in the deck it makes their late game presence a bit more impressive when you are attacking with them. Unclear it is worth the slots long term though.
I haven't tested the immortal sun because it isn't available in any of my store, probably because of brawl i would guess? But yeah it is like i said, if you can make the pw shutdown ability good its probably worth a try, so i'll give it a shot when i can get my hands on a copy
Are you aware that mask of memory works specifically with combat damage? It won't do you any good to equip it on a ballista...
I believe streetMage did test skysovereign, consul flagship. Getting some insight on how it performed would be very helpful.
I'm also considering a 1/1 split with weatherlight if those are any good. Seems like both are a great source of value, but honestly i'm a little scared of the «crew 3», which seems like it could be hard to achieve sometimes when facing pressure and interaction compared to smuggler's copter's crew 1.
Almost as good as a straight 2/2 flyer, with an activated ability that will be rarely relevant (4 mana is a lot) and a HUGE drawback. I'll pass...
I think on 20 lands you can maybe go for 4 non colored mana producing land but that is kind of greedy (i prefer 3 max). In the past I've tried going with 2x GQ, 2x haunt and 2x cavern of souls, and that made my land base dysfunctional. We have 3, maybe 4 slots available for utility lands, more than that will make us lose to our lands more often than the wins we get off of them. 2 of those slots must be occupied by haunt because it is fantastic, one or two cavern of souls is reasonable because at least it can cast our spirits, but i prefer a single due to it not being useful in most matchups.
Maybe you could try one field of ruin because it transforms into a basic, but that depends on your meta. If you play vs big mana decks all the time then running the 4th utility makes sense, otherwise, not worth it imo.
Just a quick tip regarding the land base, you're two colors so you definitely have space for more utility lands. The second moorland haunt is great and won't mess your mana too much. I also think you can add one or two basics. You'll find that often you have the luxury of fetching them and rarely will you need to shock.
I'd go down on the seachrome coasts, two is plenty. Sometimes you want the untapped basic more than the dual etb tapped, so 4x of those is too much imo. With 5-6 basics you'll be practically immune to blood moon, get more untapped lands when you need them and will never run out of stuff to search for with your 8 fetchlands.
Something like:
-2 seachrome coast
+1 plains
+1 moorland haunt
Nebelgast i feel is not at its best here, their creatures come too early for it to matter and i'd rather trade my 2 drops with them when i can early on, the burn spells are more dangerous i think.
Kira is ok vs searing blaze and for protecting spell quellers and vs random grim lavamancers i guess.
Based on my experience with the matchup i strongly suggest burrenton forge-tenderx2 in addition to blessed alliance x2 in the sideboard. Forge tender can come down turn one and negate one opposing creature for the rest of the matchup. She can turn the clock on our favor and can be cashed in when needed, a great card overall.
I like to bring the trinket mage package with one pithing needle. Gives us more ways to find walking ballista (our best card in the matchup) and often you'll be able to cast what you search for right away if you played a blue mana guy on turn 2, so you likely won't lose tempo. Also a great topdeck at any point in the game.
We have card selection with artificer's assistant and smuggler's copter, God-pharaoh's gift provides board advantage if you get to resolve it. Apart from that, i dunno. Nothing i tried has worked out for me in the card draw department. Try stuff and report back here!
EDIT: by the way i still can't find a copy of the immortal sun so i can try it. With all the teferi decks popping up, in addition to tron, jund,etc, seems like the pw shutdown ability is more relevant now.
I have not tried padeem but it don't think it has a place here. This deck is not designed to be able to cast non-artifact 4cc cards on curve. I'm pretty convinced that everything that costs 4 or more needs to be an artifact otherwise it is unplayable in this deck. There are many ok options if you feel like you need protection. I've added spellskites to the sideboard vs lightning bolt decks, you can also play stuff like scrap trawler, kira, great glass-spinner, welding jar etc.
Search doesn't play into our gameplan at all. We want to play creatures turn two, not durdle with do-nothing cards. The flipped side is useless too, this is not a deck that wants these effect useless it has a body!
For graveyard hate, that depends on your meta. I run one relic of progenitus and one grafdigger's cage in my sideboard and have been happy with it. I found rest in peace screws up my moorland haunt plan vs midrange/control decks, and that land is among our best cards in those matchups. These are also matchups where you want to interact with their graveyard because of snapcaster mage, tarmogoyf, bedlam reveler, lingering souls, etc, so there is a little bit of tension with rip. The artifacts can disrupt the opponent without interfering too much with our best land. Also cage comes in vs collected company/chord of calling decks so thats why i like the 1/1 split.
4 path to exile
auras: 2
2 curious obsession
artifacts: 4
4 aether vial
creatures: 28
4 mausoleum wanderer
4 selfless spirit
4 rattlechains
2 thalia, guardian of thraben
2 phantasmal image
4 spell queller
4 drogskol captain
2 nebelgast herald
2 eidolon of rhetoric
4 flooded strand
1 polluted delta
1 misty rainforest
1 windswept heath
1 marsh flats
2 hallowed fountain
2 irrigated farmland
3 plains
3 island
2 seachrome coast
2 moorland haunt
1 kira, great glass-spinner
2 nebelgast herald
2 burrenton forge-tender
1 pithing needle
1 grafdigger's cage
1 relic of progenitus
1 dispel
2 ceremonious rejection
2 blessed alliance
2 detention sphere
Now running 2x eidolon main and nebelgast 3-4 in the sideboard, for when i really need them. Not that 4x was bad but as the metagame shifted i feel like i need to be more resilient vs various lightning bolt nonesense, eidolon really helps.
About the saga it seems very slow, and not being an artifact means you can't accelerate into it, i'm almost always against playing non artifact cards that cost more than 3 mana. I think there are better options for value cards vs control matchups, but feel free to try it if you want.
4 walking ballista
4 artificer's assistant
4 mausoleum wanderer
4 chief engineer
4 etherium sculptor
2 myr superion
4 grand architect
artifacts: 8
4 smuggler's copter
2 throne of the god-pharaoh
2 god-pharaoh's gift
lands: 22
4 blinkmoth nexus
1 academy ruins
1 oboro, palace in the clouds
16 island
1 hangarback walker
1 pithing needle
1 basilisk collar
1 relic of progenitus
1 grafdigger's cage
2 trinket mage
2 spellskite
2 damping sphere
2 orbs of warding
2 echoing truth
Myr superion is currently occupying the 2x flex slots, l find they require less of a board state to cast than the big shots like wurmcoil engine or myr battlesphere, but what is optimal in these slots is debatable and can be metagame dependant. God-pharaoh's gift's power also depends on the meta. I guess the deck is adapable with enough non-core space to shape it into your own ideal little machine, providing you stick to the basics.
I haven't tested the immortal sun because it isn't available in any of my store, probably because of brawl i would guess? But yeah it is like i said, if you can make the pw shutdown ability good its probably worth a try, so i'll give it a shot when i can get my hands on a copy
Are you aware that mask of memory works specifically with combat damage? It won't do you any good to equip it on a ballista...
I'm also considering a 1/1 split with weatherlight if those are any good. Seems like both are a great source of value, but honestly i'm a little scared of the «crew 3», which seems like it could be hard to achieve sometimes when facing pressure and interaction compared to smuggler's copter's crew 1.