Land (25)
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4x
Celestial Colonnade
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4x
Field of Ruin
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4x
Flooded Strand
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2x
Glacial Fortress
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3x
Hallowed Fountain
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5x
Island
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1x
Marsh Flats
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2x
Plains
Creature (6)
Instant (13)
Sorcery (7)
Planeswalker (4)
Enchantment (5)
Sideboard
Enchantment (5)
Sorcery (2)
Instant (6)
Artifact (2)
Maybeboard
Creature (2)
Instant (3)
Hello everyone, I started playing UW control as a budget deck a few months ago, and have since then decided to invest into the deck and turn it into the deck I want it to be. I feel that it strength comes from it's ability to continually control the board through removal and card draw and bringing back said spells with Snapcasters.
MY META PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING! (THIS REFERS TO THE PAPER WORLD)
Here's what's been there: Shadow Zoo, Infect, Bogles, Ad Nauseum, Restore Balance, Affinity, Jund, Mono-Black Midrange, Mono-Black Zombies, Mono-Green Elves, GB Elves, Wall Combo, Abzan, Mono-black sacrifice, Standard Naya Humans, Lantern Control, Hatebears, Esper Tokens, Kiki Toolbox, Thopter Sword. Typically one person per deck.
I'm also really looking for sideboard suggestions against this meta, and any help people can give me towards doing it.
My local playgroup has started bouncing around to different stores and so sometimes meta changes happen (Dredge, Tron, Free win Red) happen at some stores we play at, just not our usual one.
DISCLAIMER
The decklist will change as I continue to playtest, the changes will be made later to this description.
MAINBOARD:
Path to Exile: The most efficient removal spell in modern, Path can deal with a threat as small as Dark Confidant, to something as large as Primeval Titan, it's also a staple in all UW control builds, gotta play 4.
Detention Sphere: D-Sphere is a roided-up Oblivion Ring that can hit an army of Tarmogoyfs or an annoying Liliana of the Veil, playing 1 due to it's usage within the meta.
Rune Snag: While many look at Rune snag and see it as a worse Mana Leak, In playing the deck I've seen it save me tons of times. The reason is because it's a great spell to play on turns 3-5, just like leak. but unlike leak, you actually get utility out of it later in the game when both players have plent of mana, and you make that Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger cost 6 more mana, a lot more then they were expecting to pay. (Currently seeing if mana leak is better now in the current meta.)
Cryptic Command: One of the best control cards ever printed for Modern, Cryptic allows tons of options and is a very versatile spell in general.
Serum Visions: now the main draw engine of the deck, serum visions is a great cantrip that secures our draws and removes dead cards. You really have to play 4.
Spell Snare: Spell Snare hits tons of cards in Modern, and is great against my local meta.
Supreme Verdict: An uncounterable wrath is a great way to deal with a nasty board state.
Wrath of God: Besides tron, Elves has been a pretty bad matchup, as the deck can be very fast and without disruption we can fold. Being able to wrath through Ezuri, Renegade Leader can often be very necessary.
Vendilion Clique: An aggressive and evasive 3/1 flyer that comes with hand disruption can be very annoying.
Snapcaster Mage: Why would you only allow yourself to cast spells once? Snappy makes a lot of plays possible in this deck and is just a great card overall.
Celestial Colonnade: One of the deck's main win conditions, Colonnade is a land creature that provides us with a powerful clock once we've stabilized and have control.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: Elspeth often finishes games by herself as the constant 1/1 spamming plus a possible anthem usually ends the game.
Negate: played as a one of in the main, negate catches most people off guard when they realize that a Collected Company or Chord of Calling has been hard countered.
Gideon Jura: Another win-con, Gideon can effectively give us a fog if we need to, but also serves as a 6/6 body if we can close the game quick.
Geist of Saint Traft: There are plenty of decks in the format that try to just get you out of the game ASAP by using turn 3 Karns, and comboing off with Ad Nausseum, 4 Geists supply the pressure where it is needed and act as another finisher.
Flooded Strand: A fetchland that provides mana fixing and deck thinning.
Marsh Flats: I have a playset from my Abzan deck, and I don't want to spend a bunch of money to buy a Scalding Tarn, my only off color fetch, does most of what it needs to.
Field of Ruin: A way to deal with everything from Inkmoth Nexus to Boseiju, Who Shelters All, field of ruin stops our opponent's lands from being problems.
Glacial Fortress: Helps our mana situation.
Hallowed Fountain: Shocklands help mana fixing.
Island and Plains: We've got plenty of basics to get through blood moon.
SIDEBOARD:
Engineered Explosives: Decks like Bogles and Lantern control can be very annoying, E.E. ensures that those decks don't become problems.
Dispel: Dispel is a hard counter to fight the combo and control decks in the meta. Also good when countering cards like Chord of Calling and Collected Company.
Negate: Good against the combo and noncreature based builds.
Spellskite: A hate card for everything from Shadow Zoo to Boggles, Spellskite is great against any decks that try to do combat tricks to pull of quick kills.
Stony Silence: Hate for decks like affinity, Lantern Control, tron, Restore Balance, and prevents Ad Naus from getting a quick kill.
Surgical Extraction: Used to take the combo pieces out of decks if they have been put into the graveyard.
Rest in Peace: Dredge & Graveyard Destroyer, we only run 1 becuase we'd like to keep our yard if possible.
Timely Reinforcements: This is the flex slot in the board, in paper I use it because most of my meta is aggro. However online (and at other stores) I cut one and use a Crucible of Worlds because there's so much tron out there.
Disenchant: Gets rid of cards like Phyrexian Unlife, Thopter Foundry, Ghostly Prison, etc. and is reccurable with snapcasters.
Wrath of God: Since I moved 4 geists to the mainboard, I decided that I should swap 1 for a wrath, which comes in for matchups like Elves and Affinity.
If anyone has any feedback as to how I could do this this would be most helpful, thanks so much!
MATCHUPS ONLINE
The good matchups for this deck are the aggro and midrange decks, as the ammount of board control and counters is usually substantial enough.
The Fair matchups are the control and combo decks, as it is usually a grindy game that we can usually be alright in.
The poor matchups to this deck are tron, naya burn (specifically), and lantern control, thankfully lantern is pretty much out of the picture, but tron and burn are not, since tron is currently in the top 3 decks, online games can be extrmely frustrating as we sometimes just don't have any real outs to it. Burn is extremely difficult because we just don't have a huge amount of fast lifegain and they can effectively counter our wraths thanks to Boros Charm.I've lost more paper games due to players taking their sweet time and trying to time me out then anything else.
Thankfully, neither tron nor burn is played at my lgs, so I think I'm fine.
If you like this deck feel free to check out my profile @ Sargeras for an archive of budget lists and brews.
ONLINE TESTING
Below is a log of games I've played with this deck, it will be continuously updated as I play.
THE 2017 UPDATE:
I'd like to thank everyone who has upvoted my deck, as the fact that this deck went from having -45 upvotes to where it is now is amazing. I'm glad so many of you enjoy this deck!
THE 2018 UPDATE
I've been a pilot of this deck for a while now, and since Tron has become even more popular online, I've decided to finally add Spreading Seas to my deck. I'm a little hesitant to see what I could do with Jace, the Mind Sculptor since he might just get rebanned again (he also might not be good in this particular shell, but I'm not buying him anyway with his price at the moment)
The description will be updated as I do testing.
Suggestions
Updates Add
This deck has kept a win percentage around 60% (same as most t1 decks) and I'm very happy with it.
Win record so far 131-80-3 (for games)
Win record so far 61-27-3 (for matches)
GW Hatebears 0-2
Game 1: I kept a hand that had double visions in it, and scryed many a land to the bottom, only to draw more. Even after a wrath my opponent's board was resilient enough that they won anyway.
Game 2: After an early wrath I thought I had it, but after double Gaddock Teeg and many finks and voices, I ran out of action and lost the match.
Bloodbraid Jund 2-0
Game 1: I was excited to see Jund come back in modern, as it used to be one of my favorite decks. The game was really grind with Bloodbraid hitting Lilli's, but I ended up winning with Giests beats oddly enough.
Game 2: More anti-GB cards fro the side made Lilli's easy to beat out, I was impressed that even with discard my control shell put up the fight and won with little Gideon and Collonade beats.
GR Tron 2-1
Game 1: I had a couple Giests and some counters, but without any land destruction, I was powerless to a naturally drawn turn 3 tron, I was able to grind out for a while, counter and giest beating, but too many wurmcoils stood against me, and I fell.
Game 2: This game was a treat, I played visions into Spreading Seas which really helped swing the lands against my opponent. I was able to win through the crucible of worlds engine, and countering everything my opponent played. I won with Giest beats.
Game 3: Spreading Seas made this game a breeze. I was able to crush my opponent's mana to the point where they were forced to play fair magic, and I was able to easily stop my opponent with counters and won with Elspeth.
Affinity 2-0
Game 1: Grindy, but after a wrath I stabilized and won with Collonade beats.
Game 2: Stony silence and removal for aether grid locked down the opponent, and I won with Gideon beats.
GR Tron 1-2
Game 1: I kept a hand good against basically every deck in modern, except tron, to which my opponent promtly played the turn 3 Karn and destroyed me.
Game 2: I was able to use Field of Ruin to keep tron off until I got my Crucible, which tore through my opponent's deck and I won with Giest beats.
Game 3: A grindy game, my land destruction was cut off by the new Blood Sun, and I was unable to counter it, making my opponent able to top-deck their way to my oblivion.
2018 Rebooted
8-Whack 2-0
Game 1: Aggro is the best matchup, and decks like this one that strong creatures together fall to Wrath of God with ease.
Game 2: Game 1 but with Timely Reinforcements buying oodles upon oodles of time.
Eldrazi Tron 2-1
Game 1: Its been a while since I came back to this deck, and I wasn't disappointed, I was able to use counters and removal and successfully prevent him from getting tron. This was a bread and butter game once Elspeth hit the board.
Game 2: I had stony silence and spell snare in my opening hand, and for a while this game was a cakewalk. The problem was I started out with few lands and my opponent wasn't doing much. By the time I had anything I was staring down multiple uncounterable eldrazi, and the game just didn't work out.
Game 3: A rollercoaster between my opponent and I, I drew the better hand and kept countering and Giest beats worked well on a board he couldn't do much on. But it was tough, I had to play a second Gideon after he exiled my first one with an Ugin to pull out the win.
Sultai Control 2-0
Game 1: This deck was very interesting, it was very spicy and I liked it but felt that it was just a bad version of Grixis death's shadow. Counters and path to exile are very good against these decks,
Game 2: More stuff to kill shadows and snapcasters to counter.
Mono-Red Burn 2-0
Game 1: My opponent had a fast hand, and I had no real lifegain. I stabilized around 4 life, and managed to carry the game through with an elspeth powered by counters.
Game 2: Spellskites and Timely Reinforcements made the game swing clearly in my favor. I won with Gideon beats.
GB Tron 2-0
Game 1: Drawing multiple quarters gave me some time to build the board, but my opponent assembled tron anyway. However, he eventually ran out of threats after meeting my counters, and conceded to giest beats.
Game 2: I got him stuck with a bunch of cards crippled by Stony Silence and won with Gideon.
naya burn 2-0
Game 1: My opponent had a decent draw, but giest beats, correct removal and counter timing made this matchup a breeze.
Game 2: My opponent paid for a Rune Snag which allowed me to cast timely and stabilize. Giest beats and counters made the game a breeze, on top of my opponent drawing lots of lands.
Naya Burn 0-2
Game 1: My opponent had an all star hand of 3 goblin guides and boros charms. I got stuck on lands and didn't draw any real outs.
Game 2: I screwed up on my sideboarding, and i lost because I didn't put in certain cards I should have.
Eggs 2-1
Game 1: I had no countermagic in hand, but had Giest and answerts to creatures. Unfortunately I never drew any counters at all and my opponent combod off.
Game 2: Stony silence turn 2 and he scooped.
Game 3: Counters with giest support proved to be too much for my opponent.
Grishoalbrand 2-0
Game 1: Counters and path to exile worked very well against this deck, as it cant really deal with the amount of disruption this deck has.
Game 2: Graveyard hate does a lot to this deck, as does adding in more counters.
Amulet Titan 0-2
Game 1: My opponent had 3 amulets and i had no counterspells for what came afterward, he combod off on turn 3 with a Pact of Negation to protect his titan.
Game 2: Mulled to 5 with a one lander after 2 zero landers. I only drew 3 lands in 5 turns, and my opponent did not, he killed me turn 6 with a titan combo.
GR Tron 2-0
Game 1: My opponent had a slower draw, and I had Giest turn 3. Ghost Quarter and Giest beats made this game a breeze. I'm very pleased with the Giest move,
Game 2: My opponent had natural turn 3 tron, but not the cards to make it unstoppable, as I countered his karn and eventually got down both Gideon and Elspeth and won with them.
Naya Burn 2-1
Game 1: My opponent drew a Boros Charm
at the right time, and burned me out.
Game 2: I drew a timely and a spellskite, which made it hard for my opponent to get to me, I manged to slow him down so I could get out a Gideon and won.
Game 3: My opponent got stuck on a one-lander, and didn't draw any more till turn 5, after I already had a spellskite. However I didn't draw a finisher, so the game took a little while, but I ended up winning.
Eldrazi Tron 2-0
Game 1: This game was intense as hell, it flipped back and forth but I drew double Gideon and that proved to be enough, won through some well timed wraths and gideon beats.
Game 2: I got very lucky and dodged turn 3 tron, and my opponent didn't draw very well as I had both Gideon and elspeth out and they couldn't do too much at that point. Both games felt great for me but I would say that I drew very well both times.
Grixis Control 1-2
Game 1: This match was a big counterwar for the most part, but I ended up having better ones then my opponent. I won with a giest they couldnt interact with.
Game 2: My opponent drew 3 lightning bolts in their opener, and preceded to draw a god hand of counters and snapcasters with those bolts. There wasn't much I could do.
Game 3: Giest got them down a lot, but they managed to pull through an anger to stop it from killing them. They grinded me out with bolts and snapcasters. It was a close game but they won it.
Temur Creativity 2-1
Game 1: Faced an interesting deck that was similar to the breach deck I've played, although, my opponent didn't hit emrakul every time, which made their deck less consistent, as I pathed an Avacyn and a Worldspine Wurm and won the game with giests.
Game 2: On the draw again, I drew some removal, but I didn't have an answer to my opponent's emrakul as I was a turn too slow.
Game 3: Basically game 1.
UB Mill 2-0
Game 1: Mill was interesting on the draw, and the game did come rather close, but Giest and colonnade made for an easy way to crush my opponent.
Game 2: Boarded out wraths for some interaction, countering and extracting Mesmeric Orb made the matchup a lot easier. I won with a Gideon and some snapcasters.
Bant Company 2-1
Game 1: This was a grindy game, as we were tossing asround threats at the tasble, but after I played a Gideon and Elspeth, I won the game.
Game 2: Lots of good draws on both sides, I lost to a board state of many kitchen finks and voice of resurgence and top-decked lands.
Game 3: Close game for sure, he had me at around 6 life, but I bought my way back with Timely Reinforcements and won with Gideon.
Death's Shadow Jund 2-1
Game 1: Removal and counters are very good against a deck with so few playable lands.
Game 2: Grindy game, my opponent found a lot of their creatures and mana sources, and just outdrew me with a Lilli.
Game 3: We both got stuck on weird mana, but I eventually got down giest and won the game.
Eldrazi Tron 1-2
Game 1: He had turn 2 thought knot, effectively a dream hand, and I didn't.
Game 2: He had a slower draw, which allowed me to set up quite well and destroyed his mana base. He lost to Gideon and Elspeth.
Game 3: Very close game, I lost to the one silver bullet in his deck, Walking Ballista, as I could deal with every other creature in the deck, but removal doesn't work when the ballista has counters higher then your life total.
Eldrazi Tron 2-1
I'm always very happy when this happens.
Game 1: My opponent had Cavern of Souls turn 1, and proceeded to play an ungodly amount of Eldrazi I could not answer, even after a wrath.
Game 2: Chalice on 1 was hard to get through, but once a crypt bounced it, I unreleased my removal upon my opponent.
Game 3: Stony Silence worked well against my opponent's maps and ballistas, I won through 2 Gideons, and Elspeth.
Bogles 2-1
Game 1: I drew no real action, and lost to an uninteractive bogle.
Game 2: Spellskites and EE toasted his deck, after countering some spells he scooped.
Game 3: Basically game 2.
Boros Humans: 2-1
Game 1: A rematch against my friend who built his deck with me, I stablazed turn 4 with a wrath and won with a Gideon.
Game 2: Once 4 boros charms enter the board, this matchup becomes deicy, as he gets wrath counters and just so much dmage for 2 mana. He ended up burning me out as a I drew no lifegain.
Game 3: After you cast Timely Reinforcements twice, any burn-like deck usually stands no chance, I won with a Gideon.
GB Rock 1-2
Game 1: Decks like this usually fall easily to this deck, as counters and boardwipes usually clear all threats. I drew what I needed to kick ass this game.
Game 2: Terrible draw from my deck, I had a good starting hand, but after top-decking 5 lands in a row there wasn't much to talk about. I lost to a Lilli and a reccuring board.
Game 3: Very close game, I lost because my opponent extracted my snags and I was unable to counter a lilli that tore up my hand. It was a very grindy and long game, I lost to the 4th treetop village in my opponents deck after destroying the other 3.
Ad Nauseeum 2-0
Game 1: Having a mainboard Giest turned out to be very useful. I closed out the game quickly.
Game 2: Basically game 1, except with more counterspells.
Boros Burn 1-2
Game 1: I drew no lifegain, and lost to a string of burn spells.
Game 2: Spellskite and Timely Reinforcements made this an easy victory for me.
Game 3: Basically game 1.
Bogles 1-2
Game 1: I drew a blessed alliance, but he played enough threats and auras to where I couldnt keep up with his deck.
Game 2: A spellskite turns out to shut this deck quick, and combining that with a Gideon was game.
Game 3: Mulled to 5 because of 2 zero landers, and proceeded to draw nothing.
Sultai Midrange 2-0
Game 1: Decks like this are great matchups, as we basically do the same thing they are trying to do but better. I easily pulled ahead with a wrath and an Elspeth won the game.
Game 2: Added more wraths. I easily stabilized with counters and won with a Giest.
POST GIEST MOVE
Esper Midrange 2-0
Game 1: Even with my opponent's discard, I was able to easily keep up with his plays, and eventually managed to stick a Gideon and Elspeth, after that the game was pretty much over.
Game 2: I boarded in my giests, and had a wonderful time dealing with his Gurmag Anglers and Tasigurs, all the while swinging for 6 damage a turn.
Eldrazi Tron 1-2
Game 1: Stablized with a wrath and a gideon, managed to counter my way through his walkers and whatnot.
Game 2: Managed to pull turn 3 tron through land destruction, and had a hand full fo reality smashers.
Game 3: I got stuck on lands after blowing up one of his, and I had everything stablized, but was out of counters when a walking ballista appeared. I'm thankful that this deck does not show up at my lgs, otherwise I think I'd have to put in spreading seas.
Eldrazi tron 0-2
Game 1: Gotta say this deck wasn't a ton of fun to play against, my opponent had a turn 1 map and got turn 3 tron, and I didn't draw my quarters until later in the game. I managed to stabilize, but lost to a Walking Ballista that I couldn't stop.
Game 2: My opponent had natural tron, and I drew no land destruction. I got stuck on lands and never drew any real interaction.
Enchantment Toolbox 2-1
Game 1: He used some discard turn 1 to make sure he could safely Luminarch Ascension turn 2. I didn't have much of a followup plan so I lost to angels since I had bad draws.
Game 2: Sided out my creature removal for Geists and more counters, I got down a turn 3 geist and began to beat face with it, managed to get past his pillowfort and won with Geist, a snappy, and a Gideon.
Game 3: Similar to game 2, I won mostly with geist with some counters to back me up.
Skred Red 2-0
Game 1: Counters were huge here, I countered an early Blood Moon and got around his plays, I won with Elspeth.
Game 2: Similarly to game 1, I drew good counters after siding in Negate and Surgical. I Won the long game with Gideon.
BW Tokens 2-0
Game 1: He flooded super hard and I was mana screwed, I eventually got back into the game and won with Elspeth, Gideon, and Jace.
Game 2: With E.E. coming into the board, my opponent was really able to keep up with the amount of boardwipes I had, I won with Gideon.
UW Thopter Foundry 2-0
Game 1: I drew a lot of counters, and eventually went through his blockers and won with collonade beats.
Game 2: Basically game 1 except I had sideboard pieces.
Ad Nauseum 0-1-0
Game 1: He wet through a lot of his deck, and got 2 ad nuaseeums with a pact, and I couldn't counter everything.
Games 2 & 3 Were timed out, declared as a loss.
Mono-Black Midrange 2-0
Game 1: Countered, pathed, and wrathed my way to an elspeth victory.
Game 2: Same as game 1.
GWB Elves 2-1
Game 1: I kept his plays in line with some removal until I wrathed his board and won with Gideon.
Game 2: Kept 2 four drops, an elspeth and a serum visions, and drew nthing but lands, lost turn 3.
Game 3: He was stuck without a mana dork at 6, so i played around his cards until I stabalized with counters and a wrath and won with Gideon.
UR Breach 2-0
Game 1: Counters made this game very easy for me, as this breach player was stuck on little mana much of game 1, won with Elspeth.
Game 2: Swapped out my removal for more counterspells, won with Colonnade beats.
(Post Changes) Bogles 2-0
Game 1: I drew very well, as I started with a Blessed Alliance in hand, managed to draw the other and also got wraths to stabalize, won with Jace and Gideon.
Game 2: Swapped out Spell Snare for Engineered Explosives. Explosives got me around an early bogle, and allowed me to stall until I won with Gideon and Colonnade beats.
Bant Company 1-2
Game 1: Won through wraths and counterspells
Game 2: Geist on turn 3 without any wraths is very annoying, my opponent beat down hard with a geist and 2 hierarchs
Game 3: I had outstanding interaction in the early game, but then proceeded to draw about 5 lands in a row, so that was annoying. Lost to my opponent when they kept drawing pressure due to them also drawing a lot of lands to get around cards like Rune Snag.
GB Tron 1-2 (The online world is becoming very annoying)
Game 1: The tron player had tron, and had an out to my Detention Sphere, wasn't too happy about that.
Game 2: Ghost Quarters plus Geist made a quick win.
Game 3: I never drew any land destruction, and my opponent had turn 3 tron, I tried to fight them off but was unsuccessful.
(Crucible of Worlds has been swapped in for Jace for online play) GB Tron 2-1
Game 1: My opponent had a godhand of tron pieces, and even after using ghost quarter I still couldn't keep up, lost to double Ulamog.
Game 2: My opponent never got tron becuase he mulled to 4 (likely with tron pieces) and I continued to destroy his lands with Ghost Quarter and Crucible of Worlds until he scooped.
Game 3: Gotta say this one was weird, both myself and my opponent were stcuk on 2 lands for the first 5-6 turns, once I ghost quartered a tron piece and surgically extracted it, he conceded.
GU Infect 0-2
Game 1: Had plenty of removal, but I started to draw counters when my opponent began drew their third Inkmoth Nexus and killed me.
Game 2: I had a Spellskite in my opener, but my opponent had a godhand consisting of one land, a hierarch, Twisted Image and some creatures, I didn't stand much of a chance.
Mono-black midrange 2-1
Game 1: Used paths and removal, stabilized post wrath with a Gideon and Elspeth.
Game 2: Kept a six lander with an ancestral and a serum visions, even after scrying away the two lands on top of my deck, I drew 4 more lands, even after visions resolved qnd I got an elspeth it was too late, glad this doesn't happen often.
Game 3: Basically game 1.
GB Elves 2-0
Game 1: Drew removal into wrath, won with colonnade beats
Game 2: Basically game 1.
GB Elves 0-2
Game 1: Drew some counters, but no real removal, I lost due to never drawing a wrath.
Game 2: Was stuck on 3 mana the whole game, not too pleased about that.
5 Color Doran 2-0
Game 1: This deck literally folded to boardwipes, won with Elspeth.
Game 2: Same as Game 1.
Living End 1-2
Game 1: He comboed off and I had no real counters in my hand, fulminator mage kept taking my lands.
Game 2: Turn 2 Rest in Peace shut the deck down, won with a Gideon.
Game 3: I kept a hand with a fetch and 2 quarters with some counters, likely my mistake, but I was at 6. He got a turn 2 fulminator to blow my hallowed fountain, and then lving ended to fulminator up my collonade, and stuck with 2 quarters, I lost.
Mono Black control 1-2
Game 1: I countered my way to victory with an Elspeth ultimate.
Game 2: He got down a Whip of Erebos and started turning out gary after gary. With him having double arena, he was unstoppable.
Game 3: He used all his discard to get counters and then again slammed whip, the game went very downhill from there. I'm considering sticking a leyline or two in my meta.
Mono Red Blitz 2-1
Game 1: I had a few rune snags in my hand, but was unable to snatch his one drops on the draw, I lost due to him comboing off.
Game 2: Blessed Alliance works wonders against this deck, as it gets around their protective spells and makes them unload their hand.
Game 3: I had a few paths, and once his first creatures were gone, I countered the rest and won with snapcaster and Gideon.
GB Tron 2-1
My first victory against Tron with this deck.
Game 1: clique with some quarters worked alright, I thought I was toast after ualmog dropped, but I drew 3 path for the ulamog, world breaker, and Wurmcoil Engine that followed, but visions and rev saved me, I won with Collonade beats.
Game 2: He had turn 3 tron, and I had no actual interaction, lost to a turn 3 karn with an Ulamog.
Game 3: I went super aggressive with a turn 2 snap and turn 3 geist, and won turn 5 thanks to a cryptic on my opponent's world breaker, he made tron turn 5, but it was too late.
Ad Nauseam 2-1
Game 1: He Had the godhand combo with 2 pacts, I drew lots of stuff for the aggro matchups.
Game 2: Switched aggro for full control cards, won through a double dispel on an Ad Nauseam followed by a surgical extraction.
Game 3: Clique saved the day after a turn 2 stony silence slowed him down, won with Clique and Gideon.
UW Death & Taxes 2-0
Game 1: He had a big gain in the early game , but I eventually drew a wrath and then Elspethed my way to victory.
Game 2: Similar to game 1, I stabilized after a wrath and a big rev, and won the game with Elspeth and Gideon.
Mono Green Stompy 1-2
Game 1: Won with Gideon and wraths.
Game 2: Drew very poorly, I only drew a few counters off my draws.
Game 3: Drew 8 lands and 2 Gideons after turn 2 and I drew most of my fetches, can't say this is normal at all.
Boggles 2-1
Game 1: I was able to use a few counters and managed to stay alive thanks to boardwipes, won with Gideon.
Game 2: Brough both of my explosives and a wrath, and got both EE in my opener. This issue was that I handled his first bogle, and then he put down Kor Spiritdancer, which didn't die to my EE on 1, and he made like a 15/15 and I never drew path.
Game 3: Same basic plan, I was able to keep him off creatures with Clique, which I subsequently won with due to him drawing lands and enchantments.
GB Tron 1-2
Game 1: Had an exceptional amount of good draws, and I kept my opponent off tron, won with Collonade beats.
Game 2: He had a godhand and I drew no land destruction, won with World Breaker and Ulamog.
Game 3: He drew all his tron pieces several times, and just won by keeping me off my mana through DOUBLE ULAMOG AND WORLD BREAKER, I eventually could no longer fight back and lost to a Karn and a world breaker.
Sultai Midrange 2-0
Game 1: Counters and wraths were extremely effective.
Game 2: Basically the same as game 1.
GB Tron 1-2
Game 1: Even with a ghost quarter, he still got tron, and beat me down with a karn and an Ugin.
Game 2: He had a slower hand, and I had Geist beating him down, got a solid win.
Game 3: Basically Game 1, tried to grind it out, but still lost, I'm thinking about just making this more like the more midgrangey lists that play finks and resto.
UR Turbo Emrakul 2-0
Game 1: Counters were super good against this deck, as Polymorph gets beat by a lot of the cards we play, Gideon was easily able to pick up the pieces our opponent had left us.
Game 2: Rune Snag proved it's worth (got 3 of em). Being able to stop our opponent quickly is incredibly relevant. Won with Elspeth overrun.
Death's Shadow Aggro 2-0
Game 1: He never really had much of a board state, as I easily killed most of his creatures, Gideon came to save the day.
Game 2: Pretty much the same as Game 1, Faithless Looting just isn't probe.
UR Prowess 2-0
Game 1: My opponent was using Peek as a "probe" replacement, most of the counters I play were very effective against the deck, and Wraths pretty much end the game against these decks.
Game 2: Went similarly to Game 1.
Naya Burn 2-0
I finally beat burn, but I drew really well.
Game 1: Managed to Timely Reinforcements while my opponent was tapped out, I got it back with 3 snapcasters and I had plenty of counters for my opponent's stuff.
Game 2: Got down a spellskite that ate up most of the burn spells that it could, drew decent counters and finished with 2 snapcasters and a Gideon.
Rakdos Moon 1-2
Game 1: Early game discard found most of my counters, he slammed a blood moon when he knew the coast was clear and I lost due to a burnout.
Game 2: Managed to slip through some early game burn, but discard still picked up a lot of our hand. However once Elspeth came down, the game was really easy.
Game 3: I drew horribly, I had to keep a hand with some counters, and he had an out to both of them, when the moon came down, I didn't have a lot to work with, I tried to grind him out but lost to the new Chandra.
Pilla-Pala Combo 2-1
Game 1: Had to mull to 5, I drew a single rune snag and two visions, he had a godhand combo and won.
Game 2: Managed to stick a turn 2 Stony Silence due to his Halimar Depths, he had no outs and scooped.
Game 3: turn 3 geist works wonders, He tried to get enough mana to plays afely around my removal, but I drew double path and win with Geist.
UW Spirits 2-0
Game 1: Stabilized after a verdict (thankfully he was running out his quellers) and won through collonade beats
Game 2: Played similarly to game one, cam real close when he got one of my wraths quellered, but I had another one in my hand and he didn't have the second queller. This matchup seemed rather dicey.
Mono-Black Midrange 2-0
Game 1: Discard found little they didn't want to take, I played wraths and killed most of their creatures.
Game 2: Crushed post wrath with Gideon and Elspeth.
Naya Burn 0-2
Game 1: He won through a flurry of burn spells tacked with a swiftspear and some Eidoloans to make sure I had to pay to play.
Game 2: He had two goblin guides and a Swiftspear, and Boros Charmed my wrath.
Abzan 2-0
Game 1: After an inquisition took a path, i just started countering his plays until I wrathed and then Elspeth won the game for me, I definitely think that Elspeth is the right choice in the current meta.
Game 2: He was stuck on 2 lands for most of the game, so Rune snag was effectively Time Walk, won through collonade beats post wrath.
Affinity 2-0
Game 1: Emptied almost all of his hand turn 1, I think he should have focused on ravager beats more then trying to go wide, got an elspeth down after a wrath, he conceded.
Game 2: Played similarly to game 1, got a solid wrath when I needed it, and closed the game with a Gideon.
(post changes) Eldrazi-Tron 0-2
Game 1: He ran great, started with chlaice on 1 (i was on the draw without a snare) he had multiple reality smashers hitting me and i ran out of wraths quickly, died to an endbringer I had no response to.
Game 2: I ran well, countered his first 3 plays, I was able to work around threats, but I drew no land destruction, even after getting rid of all chalices and thought-knots, I still lost to a batterskull I had no response to.
GW Aggro 2-0
Game 1: Started out with some heavy hitters, but I stabilized post boar wipe.
Game 2: Went about the same as game 1.
Rakdos Aggro 2-0
Game 1: He played some burn with a decent budget creature base, one board wipe pretty much finished him off.
Game 2: Played identically to game 1.
RG Titanshift 0-2
Game 1: Drew 1 counter and used it stop a prime time, lost to a scapeshift with no counters, probably a punt on my part, I have little experiance playing against the deck.
Game 2: Drew no counters besides one negate, which did stop a scapeshift, but alas he had another one in his hand.
Naya Burn 0-2
Game 1: Probably the best nut-draw he could have gotten, and I drew poorly, he burned my face off.
Game 2: I had a decent starting hand, but drew poorly. He had his all-star hand again.
Saproling Tribal 2-0
Game 1: Won with a boardwipe and countering his infinite combo.
Game 2: Conceded
Melira Chord 1-1-0
Game 1: He assembled the combo off a lucky collected company, despite my counters and removal he got the combo quickly.
Game 2: I was able to stop him from obtaining all the pieces, which involved a tiresome process of him trying to lure out my cryptics, till eventually he squezzed out an anafenza. However he'd been drawing action for a while, and proceeded tod raw three lands in a row, i won due to sheer force of both my Elspeths, and a Gideon to finish him off.
Game 3: Declared a draw as we had no time to proceed.
Esper Transcedent 1-2
Gotta say that if you play ConvertedMana on untap, I highly reccomend you just don't play, the guy is a real dick.
Game 1: Lost due to a Gideon while tapped out trying to kill a geist.
Game 2: Opponent was stuck on 3 lands, won by colonnade beats.
Game 3: He drew really well, didn't really really draw anything past my opener till much later.
Boros Burn 2-0
Played against a budget version of Boros burn, the guy made a ton of misplays imo.
Game 1: Lifegain mb is super useful, won through grinding.
Game 2: Basically the same thing.
GR Tron 0-2
Game 1: Found out that it was an eldrazi heavy list, Thought-Knot is very good and finding wraths in our hand, so is Karn. lost due to not being able to stop tron from happening.
Game 2: Tried to stop tron few times, but he managed to finally grind out till he got an kozilek and had ulamog in hand. Tron also feels like a bad matchup as well
Grixis Control 2-0
Game 1: Timely in the mainboard made me very resilient to his deck, I won through countering his ancestral visions and won with by grinding with collonandes after losing Gideon and Elspeth to Dreadbore and Terminate.
Game 2: More counters, less removal, I won by sticking a Gideon and playing around all counterspells with counters. Wiped the board state of Tasi, Olivia Voldaren, and a Pia and Kiran, felt really favored during the match.
Lantern Control 0-2
Game 1: He got down a turn 1 lantern and got rid of my stony silence before I could cast it, won through a bridge and getting rid of my cryptics and silences.
Game 2: He drew a lot of discard and got all of my answers, got a bridge down and got rid of my cryptics. He drew well, and I think lantern control is just a terrible matchup anyway.
GR All-in Shaman 2-1
Game 1: Got a wrat and wiped his board, then put the pressure on for the kill.
Game 2: He got a nut draw and had 17 damage on turn 3.
Game 3: Stabilized after wrath, he played Eyes of the Wisent but I played around it, easy enough against an aggro build where my removal is exceptionally useful.
UB Mill 1-1-0
Game 1: My board is tuned to the general aggro meta, and i didn't draw a lot to pressure him.
Game 2: He was stuck on nothing but four shelldock isles, drew my pressure and won with ease.
Game 3: cut short
Elves 0-2
Game 1: Went to four with 3 zero landers, he won by default, I don't know how it happened.
Game 2: I drew poorly and the guy killed me turn 4.
Free Win Red 2-0
Game 1: I kept him off of blood moon mana and killed his Chandra, then went for the kill with 2 snapcasters and a clique.
Game 2: He stayed at 2 mana the whole game, I went gideon strike mode turn 5 and crushed him.
Elves 2-0
Game 1: He vomited out his hand by turn 3, and I played a timely reinfocements. I wrathed his board the following turn and crushed him afterward as he was in top deck mode and i had resolved a visions.
Game 2: Bascially just like Game 1.
Elves 2-0
Game 1: Found out weird brew of elves that plays Eldrazi Monument and Garruk, won game one through wrath.
Game 2: Same as game 1, won through wrath and collonande.
Feedback I made after this: Swapped out a verdict for a Wrath of God as Ezuri can be very scary if your elf opponent has mana.
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| Date added | 9 years |
| Last updated | 6 years |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 10 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 12 Rares 5 - 3 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.51 |
| Tokens | Angel 4/4 W, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Gideon of the Trials, Soldier 1/1 W |
| Folders | Neue Ideen, favs, Interesting Other Decks, Decks I like, Cool Stuff, decks to check out, Control (Modern/Standard), Modern inspiration, Modern Cool Stuff, Modern Meta |
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