Thalia annoys the dickens out of 2 cmctargeted removal, board wipes (Firespout now costs as much as Wrath of God, Wrath now costs as much as Consume the Meek, Consume the Meek becomes nigh-unplayable), Splinter Twin (costing as much as Kiki-Jiki is a pain), counterspells (Mana Leak is now a worse Cancel), the entire UR Storm archetype, planeswalkers (Liliana 2.0 now costs as much as Ajani V., Elspeth 1.0 now costs as much as Gideon, Gideon now comes down too late), equipment, and more.
Grand Abolisher may hose counterspells, but he won't delay Wraths, and decks that like Abolisher or Thalia can handle counterspells, but don't like Wraths at all.
As the 1-of 4-drop in Jund, he has stiff competition with Thrun, the Last Troll--hexproof bugger.
He might find a home in Twin Pod in the Obstinate Baloth slot, but then again, Obby Baloth does gain you twice the life, walls a bunch more guys, and screws said hand-shredding monstrosity over...
I wouldn't be surprised if I saw him in at least one Top 8 PTQ deck, but I would be surprised if I saw 4 of him in the deck.
I've found that what Runechanter's Pike really likes is Gitaxian Probe. If you can't stick 3+ of that card in your deck (or Thought Scour, I guess) and have an instants/sorceries to cards ratio like RUG Tempo Thresh's, Swords provide the more reliable boost.
I tried Pike in UBR Tempo and hated how unreliable the boost was, especially with Tiago flashing back instants and sorceries.
I just got 0-2 in a daily event, it was a little disheartening
Round 2 I lost to a faeries deck, it seems like they're a tough matchup for us if we don't get the hawks rolling. What concerns me is Round 1, when I lost to what can only be described as Emrakul.dec
Game one was well in hand with elspeth and a bunch of tokens swinging for lethal in one turn, when he EOT uses his knight of the reliquary to grab his fourth (!) windbrisk heights, attacks with three guys, and drops emrakul for gg.
Game two I won with a single land... ascendant, martyr, sac martyr, ascendant, ascendant were just too much.
Game three he accelerated into a turn 4 summoning trap and hit Emrakul for gg.
It worries me that the deck seems to have trouble with even a bad combo deck if we don't have cards specifically designed to hate it.
After reading your post, I tested the Trap match-up for a bit and yes, it's not favourable. That deck can often hit 6 mana by Turn 4 and slam down Baneslayer Angel (not so bad) and Primeval Titan (worse). Their real money cards are Summoning Trap and Emrakul. Swinging with a 6/6 Ascendant, and then them Trapping into Emrakul sucks big-time. The real bad news is that Windbrisk Heights and Mosswort Bridge actually cast Emrakul, giving them another turn. Trap being instant-speed also doesn't give you much opportunity to Wrath or O. Ring Emrakul (but do try to remove Emrakul at all times possible).
I think the only games Martyr Proc have won in testing are ones with very fast starts (Martyr into Ascendant sort of starts) or ones where the opponent never got Emrakul or Primeval Titan.
Ugh...not even LD (Martyr Proc is often slow enough to just let Trap hit 6 mana) and Wrath of God (one Summoning Trap or fatty and Trap is back in the race) entirely fixed the match-up. Ghostly Prison died to Emrakul. Just pray they can't mull into mana accel is all I can really recommend.
Games Teachings does win are probably 15+ turns and often 20+ turns. Aggressively searching for Teachings always results in you having one more Teachings than you used to (if you had one in hand, now you have one in hand and one in the yard, while if you flashed it back, you now have one more to flashback and one in your hand). Casting Teachings 6 times in one game is actually fairly realistic--if you win that game.
If things are going swimmingly for Teachings, it has all the time in the world to win, and will probably start the winning phase when the opponent starts topdecking lands. If things are not going swimmingly for Teachings (usually because of wrong answers/out of draw/etc.), games end faster.
never teaching early for consume the meek or path?
As I said above, you may scramble up the first five however you wish (just try to actually aggressively chain Teachings at EOT). For example, the correct 1st Mystical Teachings tutor against W/x Tokens is actually Consume the Meek/Echoing Decay. Then, hope and pray you can chain the second one into another Teachings and not be forced to chain that one into Negate to counter a planeswalker (though countering planeswalkers is always the correct call--Teachings needs to maintain a board lock so hard, it cannot afford to let a 'walker sit around and wreck the board and possibly the hand--even Grixis Teachings often wastes too much resources dealing with a resolved 'walker and not what the 'walker does).
Agreed. Delver Tempo variants can all be classified as one general archetype with several variations. Fae and Merfolk are fundamentally similar decks, but all 3 of them play out differently and operate with almost an entirely different card pool. Merfolk especially functions differently in that it uses Aether Vial and nearly twice as many creatures as the other 2 styles of "Fish" decks. Delver tries to stick a threat early and control the early game from there, while Fae tries to control the early and midgame and then stick a threat. Merfolk has to jam dudes as fast as possible, and can only offer minor disruption on its way to overwhelming the opponent with lords.
All those decks could be called Aggro-Control, Countersliver (outdated term), or Fish-style decks (also somewhat outdated), tempo, whatever. But they each deserve their own classification.
I personally believe Merfolk is a Countersliver-style deck (swarm field a la White Weenie, disrupt along the way), while Delver.dec is a Thresh-style deck (play 1-2 efficient threats, keep disrupting opponent to victory, really get hit in the nuts if they remove said threat). Note that Merfolk is more "Aggro-Control" while Delver.dec is more "Tempo" (heck, the Legacy version of Delver.dec is called Tempo Thresh).
Fae? Caw-Blade? They're not hard tempo; they're more control. However, Caw-Blade often has to play the tempo game against combo, while the Fae can roflstomp a combo deck all day by flashing in its threats at EOT.
...Yes, I'm starting to sound like the guy I'm quoting.
I've actually found my Teachings chains to turn more into this:
Teachings 1: Tutor for Teachings
Teachings 2: Tutor for Teachings
Teachings 3: Tutor for answer
Teachings 4: Tutor for answer
Teachings 5: Tutor for answer
Teachings 6: Tutor for WSZ
You may mix up the top 5 however you wish, but I've generally found myself casting only one WSZ per game--and for that one WSZ to be lethal.
Against control, don't forget to leave counterspell mana up when you're casting WSZ.
I believe JohnnyHotSauce's deck in the OP of the UR Storm primer I made is the true stock list, with my list being close to a stock list for Pyromancer Ascension-free lists (ditch Muddle the Mixture, add Remand/Desperate Ravings/4th Bolt/Empty the Warrens/etc.). At least, I see JohnnyHotSauce's list (based on Bob Maher's) everywhere in the Modern Dailies.
I've added Gifts Ungiven and Pyromancer's Swath to card choices, though; I've seen both of them often enough and believe they can still be powerful.
I actually think the best reason to run red instead of white is Through the Breach (and a higher Eldrazi count); that card saves your butt if they recovered through the first board wipe/set of removal (and they often did). Breach in Emrakul and you've just wiped the board against a lot of decks.
...Then your opponent has 5 or less life. Trouble is, the only awesome burn spells in Modern are Bolt and Burst Lightning to deal them lethal damage. Often, you can get there by hardcasting your second Eldrazi, but I'm disappointed that I can't efficiently make a burn Gifts pile.
The removal Gifts pile (Bolt, Burst Lightning, Repeal, Flame Slash) is pretty good, and the board wipe Gifts pile (Pyroclasm, Firespout, Engineered Explosives, fourth card) isn't shabby...if we can actually fit EE in a very tight deck. This version of U/X Tron also has no room to build an EE loop pile (and therefore an efficient Mindslaver pile), which is a shame. That Firespout needs green mana to hit fliers has been very annoying, as I can't seem to fit in even a Breeding Pool in this deck's incredibly tight mana base. (I don't want to use Volcanic Fallout because it requires two red mana on Turn 3.)
Breaching Emrakul is awesome against most aggro...except for, funnily enough, W/x Tokens. One Shrine of Loyal Legions often absorbs one Emrakul Annihilator trigger, and then they chump-block Breached Emrakul so we basically do nothing. Actually hardcasting her is key, and Ulamog can keep them off their trumps (small Shrines, planeswalkers, etc.) before he eats a Path.
...In case you couldn't tell, I think I've won all my games with this deck on the back of Eldrazi so far. The Mindslaver is a necessary evil, but I can't seem to efficiently get it online with UR Tron.
Further testing shows that Through the Breach's true strength is against combo (just like last time with RG 12-Post). You'd be surprised how far Remands, Repeals, Bolts, T4Ks to get that stuff, and Breach into any Eldrazi wreck Exarch Twin. Making them sac the majority of their mana base is awesome to keep the pressure on.
When I do my thing, for both SE's & PTQ's I use these criteria:
Caw = 4x Squadron Hawk + Sword(s), no matter what else is in deck. (except Martyr Proc Caw & Hate Caw)
Delver = 4x Delver of Secrets, in any/all colors, no matter what else is in deck. (except Blue Zoo)
If a deck has 4 Delvers, 4 Hawks, and Sword(s), I call it Caw.
U/x/x Control = Teachings, Gifts (except Reanimator), UB Control, UW Control, MUC, including Tempo, etc.
Fae = All Faeries, or All Faeries + Spellskite
Else my meta charts would have about 2 dozen more decks to list, and I'm not that energetic.
To me, this looks like the Legacy version of Bant with obviously worse counterspells and lands--and the Legacy version is very powerful. This deck, like the Legacy version, thrives on the tempo gain of 3-cmc stuff on Turn 2, and those 3-cmc stuff hit like trucks, so I don't think Squadron Hawk is a good fit. In fact, I think Goyf is a better fit to smooth out hands without a mana dork in them and, well, hit like a truck.
What the Swords are really for is turning Noble Hierarch into a threat.
I still have no idea why not as many of you have Lightning Bolt in your decks. BR Vampires is an aggro deck; Bolt should give reach and fry annoying little guys like Delver of Secrets, Steppe Lynx, and Bob.
Grand Abolisher may hose counterspells, but he won't delay Wraths, and decks that like Abolisher or Thalia can handle counterspells, but don't like Wraths at all.
As the 1-of 4-drop in Jund, he has stiff competition with Thrun, the Last Troll--hexproof bugger.
He might find a home in Twin Pod in the Obstinate Baloth slot, but then again, Obby Baloth does gain you twice the life, walls a bunch more guys, and screws said hand-shredding monstrosity over...
I wouldn't be surprised if I saw him in at least one Top 8 PTQ deck, but I would be surprised if I saw 4 of him in the deck.
I tried Pike in UBR Tempo and hated how unreliable the boost was, especially with Tiago flashing back instants and sorceries.
Also, what sort of Tron decks were doing well? UW Tron? UR Tron? Heck, UB Tron?
After reading your post, I tested the Trap match-up for a bit and yes, it's not favourable. That deck can often hit 6 mana by Turn 4 and slam down Baneslayer Angel (not so bad) and Primeval Titan (worse). Their real money cards are Summoning Trap and Emrakul. Swinging with a 6/6 Ascendant, and then them Trapping into Emrakul sucks big-time. The real bad news is that Windbrisk Heights and Mosswort Bridge actually cast Emrakul, giving them another turn. Trap being instant-speed also doesn't give you much opportunity to Wrath or O. Ring Emrakul (but do try to remove Emrakul at all times possible).
I think the only games Martyr Proc have won in testing are ones with very fast starts (Martyr into Ascendant sort of starts) or ones where the opponent never got Emrakul or Primeval Titan.
Ugh...not even LD (Martyr Proc is often slow enough to just let Trap hit 6 mana) and Wrath of God (one Summoning Trap or fatty and Trap is back in the race) entirely fixed the match-up. Ghostly Prison died to Emrakul. Just pray they can't mull into mana accel is all I can really recommend.
If things are going swimmingly for Teachings, it has all the time in the world to win, and will probably start the winning phase when the opponent starts topdecking lands. If things are not going swimmingly for Teachings (usually because of wrong answers/out of draw/etc.), games end faster.
As I said above, you may scramble up the first five however you wish (just try to actually aggressively chain Teachings at EOT). For example, the correct 1st Mystical Teachings tutor against W/x Tokens is actually Consume the Meek/Echoing Decay. Then, hope and pray you can chain the second one into another Teachings and not be forced to chain that one into Negate to counter a planeswalker (though countering planeswalkers is always the correct call--Teachings needs to maintain a board lock so hard, it cannot afford to let a 'walker sit around and wreck the board and possibly the hand--even Grixis Teachings often wastes too much resources dealing with a resolved 'walker and not what the 'walker does).
I personally believe Merfolk is a Countersliver-style deck (swarm field a la White Weenie, disrupt along the way), while Delver.dec is a Thresh-style deck (play 1-2 efficient threats, keep disrupting opponent to victory, really get hit in the nuts if they remove said threat). Note that Merfolk is more "Aggro-Control" while Delver.dec is more "Tempo" (heck, the Legacy version of Delver.dec is called Tempo Thresh).
Fae? Caw-Blade? They're not hard tempo; they're more control. However, Caw-Blade often has to play the tempo game against combo, while the Fae can roflstomp a combo deck all day by flashing in its threats at EOT.
...Yes, I'm starting to sound like the guy I'm quoting.
Teachings 1: Tutor for Teachings
Teachings 2: Tutor for Teachings
Teachings 3: Tutor for answer
Teachings 4: Tutor for answer
Teachings 5: Tutor for answer
Teachings 6: Tutor for WSZ
You may mix up the top 5 however you wish, but I've generally found myself casting only one WSZ per game--and for that one WSZ to be lethal.
Against control, don't forget to leave counterspell mana up when you're casting WSZ.
I've added Gifts Ungiven and Pyromancer's Swath to card choices, though; I've seen both of them often enough and believe they can still be powerful.
I actually think the best reason to run red instead of white is Through the Breach (and a higher Eldrazi count); that card saves your butt if they recovered through the first board wipe/set of removal (and they often did). Breach in Emrakul and you've just wiped the board against a lot of decks.
...Then your opponent has 5 or less life. Trouble is, the only awesome burn spells in Modern are Bolt and Burst Lightning to deal them lethal damage. Often, you can get there by hardcasting your second Eldrazi, but I'm disappointed that I can't efficiently make a burn Gifts pile.
The removal Gifts pile (Bolt, Burst Lightning, Repeal, Flame Slash) is pretty good, and the board wipe Gifts pile (Pyroclasm, Firespout, Engineered Explosives, fourth card) isn't shabby...if we can actually fit EE in a very tight deck. This version of U/X Tron also has no room to build an EE loop pile (and therefore an efficient Mindslaver pile), which is a shame. That Firespout needs green mana to hit fliers has been very annoying, as I can't seem to fit in even a Breeding Pool in this deck's incredibly tight mana base. (I don't want to use Volcanic Fallout because it requires two red mana on Turn 3.)
Breaching Emrakul is awesome against most aggro...except for, funnily enough, W/x Tokens. One Shrine of Loyal Legions often absorbs one Emrakul Annihilator trigger, and then they chump-block Breached Emrakul so we basically do nothing. Actually hardcasting her is key, and Ulamog can keep them off their trumps (small Shrines, planeswalkers, etc.) before he eats a Path.
...In case you couldn't tell, I think I've won all my games with this deck on the back of Eldrazi so far. The Mindslaver is a necessary evil, but I can't seem to efficiently get it online with UR Tron.
Further testing shows that Through the Breach's true strength is against combo (just like last time with RG 12-Post). You'd be surprised how far Remands, Repeals, Bolts, T4Ks to get that stuff, and Breach into any Eldrazi wreck Exarch Twin. Making them sac the majority of their mana base is awesome to keep the pressure on.
A little technicality--if I see a deck with all Faeries except for Snapcaster Mage (and maybe Spellskite), I'd call it Fae, too. If I also see Splinter Twin and/or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-Breaker in the deck, I'd call it Fae Twin.
But yes--decks get really difficult to categorize pretty fast.
Tracker's Instincts would be a good fit as two "creature-based Ponder"s stapled together. If you manage to fit in Knight of the Reliquary as a graveyard hate bear (Bojuka Bog), LD bear (Tectonic Edge), and more, that card bloats her insanely large.
The ultimate toolkit creature is Fauna Shaman. Her card selection is insane.
What the Swords are really for is turning Noble Hierarch into a threat.
I still have no idea why not as many of you have Lightning Bolt in your decks. BR Vampires is an aggro deck; Bolt should give reach and fry annoying little guys like Delver of Secrets, Steppe Lynx, and Bob.