Magic the Gathering

H Y P E

Now is the time when I need to learn about Standard's card pool after rotation and figure my life out.

Speaking of Modern, I got destroyed yesterday at the nearest local GPT I could attend: 2 Pods, 2 Affinity, Burn, and UWr Control (I was running UWr Geist Midrange with a couple of changes, check out the full list at #teamgeist in LegitMTG.com). I was so burned, bummed out and salty that I don't even want to talk about it, but...

I will say this: never be too stubborn to mulligan.

That was 90% of my losses: keeping hands that were strong past turn 4. I don't want Keranos, Batterskull or Restos in my opening hand anymore. :(

Again, this is why I prefer the Control version of UWR over the Geist Midrange because of the situations like those. Meh, you live and learn though.

I'm just happy it's enemy wedges for standard. I was worried that they would do something else because Theros was Mono colored based and it would conflict with the wedges within the same Standard. I'm still happy for enemy wedges though. So hype for UWR, or should we start saying we goin' the Jeskai Way. xD

Haha, I kinda have an opposite philosophy considering that I lost some important matches at tourneys by mulliganing too much. Now I try to never mulligan if I can help it.

And omgomg, so it's true that it'll be enemy shards, SWEET! If I'm not Grixis, then I'm often RUG. I guess I'll be a follower of Temur.

Hatebear - Kill a 2/2 with converted mana cost of 2. It can not be regenerated.

About to go scout my local shops for some mono-green goods. I'm still keeping everything for UWr, I just want a second deck to fiddle around with. The fact that I will not dunk money on Goyfs, Bobs or Opals limits my deck building selection, and I'm not bothering with Legacy any time soon. I was thinking about building a mono-blue jank that wins by dropping the March of Machines + Mycosynth Lattice combo (deletes all lands minus Dryad Arbor, leaves field with lonely 4/4 and 6/6), but mono-green seems more interesting: ramping into a hueg Genesis Wave or Entwining Tooth and Nail. Or Overrun.

As for UWr, I'll be playing the control version this weekend. Gideon, Batterskull, Keranos, Colonnades and a couple Restos as the beatdown. Also gonna try out Condescend in favor of Remand: I'm looking for more permanent ways to answer threats past 3 Leaks, 2 Spell Snares and 2 Cryptics.

I've been into it for about a year now too. I didn't have a decent deck until Journey into Nyx pack, then the 2015 will of masses pack helped to. Those had a lot of good green and white cards.

Lol, "March Madness", as it's called. I remember Travis Woo, one of my favorite deckbuilders, made a deck like that to have some fun with for a while. I'd try it myself one of these days, but only casually,. It seems a bit too gimmicky.
The monoG deck is kinda fun for a while, too. Something about having all your permanents in your deck in play is super satisfying.

I really like Remand, actually, and am not a big fan of Condescend. Cantripping sounds better than scrying most of the time, it's a strong tempo play, it's great against flashback, and besides that, it's usually cheaper. Playing around Condescend sounds easier than Remand.

I'm actually getting started on a Legacy deck. I'll be playing RUG Cascade, basically a midrange deck with 8 cascade creatures (4 Bloodbraid Elf and 4 Shardless Agent) to get lots of random 2-for-1 value, sometimes even more if I cascade into something like Ancestral Visions. In fact, on cockatrice, I went Bloodbraid into Shardless into Ancestral, and my opponent conceded on the spot, rofl. Dat 5-for-1. It even runs the Punishing Fire-Grove of the Burnwillows combo, something I enjoyed seing in action, so I wanted to play a deck with it if I get into Legacy
It's actually relatively cheap, minus the staples: Lands, Forces of Wills, and Tarmogoyfs. However, I can ask some of my friends if I can borrow these if I get the rest done, and even then, I'll probably only be playing it casually. There are some Legacy players I wanted to play with, and won't mind if I proxy up. Obviously, I won't be able to participate in tournaments that way, but whatevers for now. I would like to try some Legacy tourney in the future.



Green-White beatdown is good. There's all sorts of awesome creatures that are bigger than they should be for small amounts of mana. Especially that Sunblade Elf. That is ridiculously good for GW beatdown.

I personally like remand over Condescend because it's a cheap, can-tripping counterspell. Also, one of the cute things you can do with it, is to Remand your own spell while it's on the stack. Trying to Counterflux my Cryptic Command? No worries, I'll remand my own Cryptic, bouncing it back to my own hand and drawing a card. Value town right there.

As for Legacy, I like playing UR Delver, Dredge, or UW Miracles. All of them relatively cheap and have fun interactions with a lot of other decks.

Lol, right, I forgot about the Remand-my-own-spell trick. It happened over and over at the Pro Tour, I remember, and the guy was just up so many cards.

I tried playing miracles, but I don't think I have enough patience to play it, lol. There's too much to think about, I don't think I can handle it. Every time I see someone else play it, they take lines I don't get, but end up working out, while what I was thinking probably would've flopped.
UR Delver's kinda interesting for a while, but since every game plays out similarly, I found it a bit boring. That said, I play UR Delver in Modern since it's relatively cheap compared to other decks in the format. I imagine the same is true about the Legacy variant, which is why I considered it.
I haven't tried Dredge yet, but I always enjoy seeing it in action. Which version of dredge did you play?

My personal favorite decks in Legacy are RUG cascade (which I'm building), UGb Food Chain (a funny Midrange/Combo deck), and MonoU Martyr (some janky monoU deck that's meant to hardcounter a certain metagame). The way they all play out is very interesting, since they attack at different angles then what is usual. They rely more on interesting synergies rather than raw power, and I love me some wacky gimmicks.

Back in the years when I dunked hundreds and hundreds of dollars in boxes and cards, my Legacy deck was Dredge. None of that manaless bullshit: you're not playing Magic, you're playing Dredge. One of the most non-interactive decks with the highest game 1 win rate right there. Once the hate is in, though... if you win, that's what separates good pilots from the bad. And I was bad. >:

But anyway! I struggled the whole day to find the cards for my monoG Devotion, and was almost successful... except the part where I would've paid 800 yen for Utopia Sprawls (close to $8). Each. There's extremely poor supply for the card, I was told, and prices are hiked up like that in 5 different stores... yep, I'm not playing MonoG this week.

So I kept good ole UWr Geist.

Match 1 vs. UR Twin:
-When I saw an opening of Probe and Visions, Twin alarms went off in my head, so I went on the defensive. I aimed a Bolt at his Pestermite and a Path on his Exarch, then dealt with the rest. I didn't draw Geist, and my Snaps didn't last long, so I relied on Keranos and Colonnades to carry the win. Game 2 goes on for a while, and we're both almost topdecking. He's at 6 life and a Pestermite on play, then he casts Twin: he has 2 cards in hand, 4 lands untapped. I have Counterflux, Helix and only enough mana to cast one of them. So I cast Flux, and he reveals a second Twin with no counterspells... sigh. On game 3, we went to extra turns but then he graciously conceded when he went to 4 life. Good guy Twin player!

Match 2 vs. GR Tron:
-He was on the play, so he assembled super fast with the T3 Wurmcoil, which met a Path. After that I had Remand and another Path for the next Wurmcoil, and he was out of gas for a while. I push as hard as I can and put him down to 1, then he's able to hardcast Emrakul... so he swings. I sacrifice 6 permanents and keep Steam Vents in play....... topdeck Bolt FTW! Game 2 though, I keep a hand of Paths and Snaps but he lands Karn... he grinds me out with Blood Moon until he Emrakuls. Game 3 we only had 4 minutes left to extra turns, so we just went to a draw.

Match 3 vs. RUG Delver:
-I never saw a Tarmogoyf once. He was mana-screwed so I didn't Path anything-- I just waited until I could land Resto and Colonnade for the win beats. Game 2 was a damn blue deck standoff, so we went up to like 7 lands before either of us did anything. I had Keranos, Batterskull, Geist and Clique, and I just dropped them one after the other until he had to Combust Clique and that let me use Colonnades ftw. Bolt-Snap-Bolt was the MVP, I swear.

Maybe I'll be able to play MonoG Devo next week... if the cards arrive in time.

Haha, sounds like Modern Affinity sometimes. Godly Game 1's, terribad Game 2's and 3s. It was a reason I couldn't play it, I didn't know how to win the next two games as easily. I know people pack some serious hate for dredge because people hate losing to it. It's sad that they printed Rest in Peace... It kinda destroys the fun.

Wow, Utopia Sprawls really jumped, didn't they? Geez. Hopefully you have fun with that deck when it all comes together. Mind posting up how your list is gonna look once it's done?

How many basics do you run? I love Blood Moon decks because Modern became so greedy with their mana bases, and control is actually sometimes a bad matchup for me if they learned to play 5-7 basics. It seemed like Tron really locked you if he was able to Emrakul you out.

Btw, did you try the Condescends over Remands? How'd that go for you?

I'm still fiddling with the 'correct' numbers of my Mono-G Devotion proxies... I can't decide whether I want 4 Primal Commands or 4 Genesis Waves to focus the deck on, or if I even want to add Tooth and Nail in the mix so I can maindeck Elesh Norn. When I have a more finished list I'll share it.

My basic count is at 2 Islands, 1 Mountain and 1 Plains. I didn't suspect that they would willingly shut down their lands like that so I didn't fetch properly. I had the Wear//Tear in my hand the whole time until I gave it up to Karn.

I haven't tried the Condescends yet. I went ahead and ordered them along with CHEAPER Utopia Sprawls and some other stuff, so I'll let you know later.

I kinda like Genesis Wave more, because you can chain them together when you flip over Eternal Witness, and then just get insane amounts of permanents in play in one turn. Sometimes, just your entire deck if you make enough mana.

That still seems like a bit of a small number, but at least you have enough to efficiently cast blue spells after a Blood Moon. I'd still think you'd want at least 3 basic Islands, if you're running Cryptic Command. It could come up.

Alright, hopefully those Condescends works out for you.

So, I finally clicked on that link.
OMG. That fucking Teferi. OMG. That new Arcanis art. OMG. Wedges (though I already commented on that).

Needless to say, I'm excited.

I played Mana Dredge. More consistent than Manaless Dredge. If I wanted to run a "Mana-less" deck, I would play Goblin Charblecher.

As for Modern, I have been too busy trying to finish my EDH deck to finish rounding out GW Hatebears. Need to get on that though once Modern season rotates due to the fact that the staple cards (Noble Hierarch and Horizon Canopy) will be dropping in price a lot.

Aww, I kinda like Manaless Dredge. It's one of the yolo-iest decks I've ever seen.

I haven't been serious about finding the last 5 cards of my Modern deck: currently UR Delver, even though they're accessible. I need one Sword of Fire and Ice, which is affordable enough, and I need 4 Scalding Tarn, which a friend is willing to loan me since his Modern deck (RWU Super Friends) is not close to done (but is super proxied out).
I don't have the sideboard either, but I don't remember it being at all expensive.

EDIT:
Sheep Aggro for wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!!
That was a sweet way for the Pro Tour to end. I suddenly have some hope for Standard. At the very least, I have some fun toys to play with for three months if I'm up to it, and I'm definitely not going to miss my chance to pair Nyx-Fleece Ram with Archangel of Thune. That was funny as fuck, and just amazing.

EDIT2:
So I finally got some testing in with the Skred Red deck I've wanted to try out. Due to some complications, I haven't been on cockatrice, but instead this place: http://www.untap.in/
Interesting site, it bascially lets you play M:tG on a browser without downloading anything. Small community, but you get games often enough, and there seems to be a variety of decks.
Regardless of this variety, though, they all have greedy manabases... Landing a Blood Moon seems like Game Over against every one I've faced so far. (Darn you saka and your Aether Vial, lol). Someone literally conceded the moment it would've resolved. So, I think I'm gonna go ahead and switch over to this. Especially since it seems relatively cheap.

Here's the list I'm going for. I'm not sure about the sideboard at all, but it's worked out so far:



Sideboard:



Pretty simple. It's just a mono red midrange deck that aims to lock out the opponent with Blood Moon, and have annoying threats to deal with while they are locked down. It seems extremely good against any fair deck, but feels awfully soft to combo decks.

Fuck. I had the chance to play some Modern tonight, but it was at the expense of my time to eat dinner.

Never play hungry! I tilted sooooo hard because I couldn't focus. >:

I equipped my UWr Geist, but I removed 1 Remand, 1 Lightning Helix and 1 Vendilion Clique in favor of 3 Young Pyromancer. Just wanted to try it out and see how it went.

Match 1 vs. Robots:
-He opens up with Citadel and Drum, I burn his first couple creatures but I have no way of dealing with Etched Champion. I lasted long enough to be able to land Keranos and Batterskull one after the other, but before I could swing he finished me off with double Galvanic Blast. Game 2 I make a HUGE mistake and keep a 1-lander with a Bolt, a Path, 2 Snaps, a Helix and the one Clique. I never draw another land... /tilt

Match 2 vs. B/W Tokens
-I had seen this match a few minutes prior so I knew what I was playing into. Game 1 I land Geist and he never draws Lingering Souls, so he has no way to handle the 4/4. I keep the field open with Electrolyze and never let him flip his Hideaway. Game 2 goes to shit fast: Inquisition T1 takes my Spell Snare, Thoughtseize T2 takes my Snapcaster, Procession T3, T4 into that one +1/+1 and vigilance enchantment, then T5 and 6 double Souls. I can't draw Wear//Tear or Engineered Explosives. Game 3 we go to extra turns and he threatens lethal on turn 4/5 so I conceded.

Match 3 vs. B/G Infect
-Game 1 he's way mana-screwed so I start burning him early. Liliana lands like 5 turns too late to make a difference. Game 2 he sided in Phyrexian Crusader, and I had NO WAY of dealing with it because I no longer have Wrath in my sideboard: had bolt, helix and path in my hand but he went double Groundswell for the 1-shot. Game 3 he never landed the Crusader so I was able to come ahead and take the win.

I joined the untap.in site under the username Nels. I don't know how often we can play because timezones, but I'll assemble my decks tomorrow.

Lol, I literally conceded a match in a tournament due to hunger. I decided that I was gonna make top cut anyways, so I let my opponent have the win, and I went to buy dinner while the round went on. I didn't even attempt to play. Worth.

So, were the Pyromancers worth it? I love me any deck with Young Pyromancer, but it seems better in more proactive decks. It's insane in Delver decks, for example. Even though your deck is the Geist version, it still seems passive enough that it might be a bit underwhelming. I could be completely wrong, though. I haven't tried it in a control shell yet, where it theoretically sounds great.

My username on there is the same as on here: BlinkXPoke. I sometimes try to participate in the chat over in the lobby there.

I forgot to mention the part where I had 7 elementals out vs. B/W Tokens. I ended up losing the game to Flying on extra turns but yeah, I was able to land 2 Pyromancers out and grind out the tokens before they died. I feel they were worth it, but equipping them makes me go a lot more aggressive in my playstyle. At that point I might be better off removing Geist and replacing it with Delver...

UR Delver is pretty strong, if not pretty repetitive. I built it cus it was cheap, but it's not the most exciting to play. It's solid, nonetheless.

Not sure if adding White helps though. Seems a bit greedy. Haven't seen a RWU delver list in a long time.