Funky Brewster: Delirium and Fever with the New Standard

Hello everybody and welcome to another installment in the Funky Brewster series! Eldritch Moon is finally out and my brewing senses are tingling like Spiderman drowning in a vat of cocaine-filled 5-hour Energy drink. I’m aching to try and bust out those Take Inventories, Eldritch Evolutions, Demonic Pacts, and Elder Deep-Fiends!  So, what are we going to do?! I can’t hear you! Of course I can’t, because I’m way all over here behind the screen! And talking to you from the past! Technically you are reading Past Chris! So, are you ready? I can’t hear… Ok, enough of that. Let’s get started!

Do you remember when back in the day, people used to play Accumulated Knowledge? And people still do so today. Right now, as I write this, someone is drawing 3-4 cards with Accumulated at the end of someone else’s turn. Maybe not in Standard, Modern, or Legacy, but they are in Pauper. Now, with Take Inventory, we might be able to do the same in Standard and Modern.

As we speak, I’ve only tried one deck with the card and it’s some Blue/Red Controllish/Burnish no-counters sort of thing that tries to use Fevered Visions as a win-condition/Howling Mine thingy. It should be said as a disclaimer that when I brew, I always try to go all-in on my strategy to see which cards pull their weight and which one do not. This initial built is a great example of how the initial stages look like for me:

UR Inventory-Burn

2 Scour the Laboratory
3 Collective Defiance
4 Incendiary Flow
4 Take Inventory
4 Epiphany at the Drownyard
4 Galvanic Bombardment
4 Unsubstantiate
4 Fiery Temper
4 Lightning Axe
4 Fevered Visions

2 Wandering Fumarole
4 Highland Lake
4 Shivan Reef
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Island
5 Mountain

I haven’t fully tested the deck, and much less in an actual Standard environment, though the core of the deck seems to be a pretty great starting point. The Lightning Axes, the Epiphanies, Tempers, Bombardments, Visions, and even the Collective Defiance all played very well. The cards that simply didn’t work in this style of deck was Unsubstantiate and Scour the Laboratory. The former is definitely a strong card and I’m sure it will see play in Standard, however, this is not the place for it. Unsubstantiate belongs in a blue-based aggressive deck that can take advantage of the tempo swing Unsubstantiate provides a little better. For instance, in a Blue/Red or Blue/White deck with either Flash Spirits (like Tomoharu Saitou’s UR Flyers list) or in a Spirit deck. Maybe Unsubstantiate is the card that puts Stormchaser Mage back on the map.

Scour the Laboratory is a sick card and I can’t wait until someone finds a way to reliably cast it for 4 mana at the end of an opponent’s turn, which is something this deck can’t do. It was usually EOT draw three, something that in most circumstances would be great, incredible even… if this were Odyssey Block Constructed in 2002. Perhaps Standard in 2003. These days, I’m 100% Scour the Laboratory should be Chandra, Flamecaller (obviously!). Here we start cutting back on the “all-in” and start adding cards that actually support the strategy and add more power to the deck.

The current build tries to burn everything in its path and kill with Fevered Visions and any left-over burn spells you have. Usually when the opponent is around 9 to 11 life points. Chandra gives you a legitimate plan to look forward to other than taking opponents to the “Grindhouse.” Umm… That could be a cool name for the deck, actually… UR Grindhouse. Yup, love it. 

Anyway, I’m sure I don’t have to talk about how much of a beast Chandra is. She’s pretty much proven her worth during the last few months as she’s been in Naya Walker decks, GW decks that can only cast her with Oath of Nissas (bunch of greedy bastards), in Grixis Control decks, Ramp, and pretty much any Midrange/Late-game deck that sports Red. Let’s talk about the newer cards like Collective Defiance.

In this deck, Collective Defiance feels at home. Every mode is useful and relevant. Three damage to an opponent can hit Planeswalkers or be part of the burn plan. The four damage to a creature will kill pre-6 lands Sylvan Advocates, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghets, Archangel Avacyns, Gisela, the Broken Blades, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, and so on. Finally, its “Windfall” ability was actually useful. Turns out, when you are drawing copious amounts of cards per turn, you will eventually find your land gluts. Defiance allows you to throw all those lands into the bin and draw a fresh hand, similar to what Chandra would do with her -0 ability. Going forward, Defiance will either continue being a 3-of or possibly go down to two. Regardless, it won’t be getting the shaft any time soon.

Along the lines of burn, we have Galvanic Bombardment and Incendiary Flow joining the, admittedly, anemic burn-cast of Standard. Incendiary Flow is arguably missing piece to making Red-dedicated strategies viable again. It is the card that can make this deck, UR Flyers, Red-aggro, or even RG Aggro decks worth playing. I know, I know—it is no Incinerate, or even Searing Spear—yet it is a Volcanic Hammer that gives you the reach you need to kill Planeswalkers, or to give your little Red or Green men the space they need to rumble into the Red Zone. It is the card that will enable you to close out games when opponents manage to stifle your on-board offense.

In fact, a R/X Dragon deck that has access to Hanweir Garrison, Hanweir Battlements, Draconic Roar, and Incendiary Flow is bound to be quite competitive. The Battlements alone is a very powerful card which I forsee being played even in Eldrazi decks in the future. Giving Thought-Knot Seers and Drowner of Hopes haste could prove to be very strong. Even in the UR Eldrazi Control decks that came out recently. Haste to your Ulamog? I don’t know, if you ask me, I’d be getting a set of Battlements.

Galvanic Bombardment is a special case. If Bombardment is going to see play in this Standard environment, it will be in a deck that can place a copy or two quickly into the graveyard, either by milling or drawing plenty of cards (like this UR Grindhouse, perhaps?) per game. This card can get out of hand quite fast potentially killing Bruna’s just for one mana(!!). Where Bombardment goes, maybe Take Inventory will go as well. Will that deck want Pore over the Pages? Will this card make Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy playable again? Do we want a Black or are there strong Green cards that can support Bombardment/Inventory strategies? If so, could that deck play Traverse the Ulvenwald? Gnarlwood Dryad and Moldgraf Scavenger could be part of a RUG Delirium deck reminiscent of Threshold decks of old that played Nimble Mongoose? Could Noose Constrictor be a legitimate Standard playable Wild Mongrel? 

This are the kind of things that constantly cross my mind. So, many possibilities in very little time, but I digress (you can count on me trying to build these decks). On a final note, with Spirits making such a big splash, Galvanic Bombardment already seems to be a strong player in this format. That, and it is a great card against very low to the ground decks like White Weenie.

The last card I’d like to talk about is Ephipany at the Drownyard. When it was first spoiled, it was highly regarded as the second coming of Fact or Fiction. Needless to say, it was a huge flop. To the point where I got my playset a few days ago for 40 cents each. Now, with the advent of all these graveyard-matter cards (e.g Take Inventory and Galvanic Bombardment), I believe Epiphany may have found new hope in Standard. Epiphany has been instrumental to how this deck plays out. It is the card that sets up your Inventories and Bombardments. It might be the card to enable Delirium much faster while providing a modicum of card advantage. Most cards associated with Delirium require you to discard cards and mill yourself resulting in card disadvantage or just plain minimum return. Epiphany of the Drownyard at least guarantees that you get ahead by +1 or +2 cards and fill your graveyard with goodies. Sometimes they will throw Inventories in the ‘yard and you can play the other one in hand and draw two to three cards for just two mana.

Remember that RUG deck I was just raving about? Epiphany could be a center piece in the deck. You know what? Let’s write a decklist, right now. Off the top of my head?

2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
4 Moldgraf Scavenger

4 Noose Constrictor

3 Arlinn Kord 

1 Incendiary Flow
2 Fiery Temper
3 Unsubstantiate
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Epiphany at the Drownyard

4 Galvanic Bombardment
4 Take Inventory

1 Game Trail

1 Wandering Fumarole
2 Island
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Shivan Reef
3 Mountain
3 Lumbering Falls
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Forest
3 Cinder Glade

Seems alright as a starting point. Well, this isn’t exactly off the top of my head. As soon as I wrote the “top of my head” list, I liked it so much I decided to actually try it out. This is a very, very rough sketch of the list. Needs a lot of tuning and testing. Only managed to get in one match with it and it was against Mono Blue Prison. Let’s be honest here, that’s not much of a match when testing, but I did manage to go 2-0. First game I beat him down with this weird assortment of dudes with Unsubstantiate keeping the opponent off-balance, and then they got decked in Game 2. 

A couple of things to note: Gnarlwood Dryad is phenomenal. It’s a one mana guy that can hand out a beating and can trade with anything at whichever stage of the game. I’m so impressed with this little critter that I’m considering trying it in a Bant Delirium deck with Ojutai’s Command. Secondly, aside from being a Dryad, it is also a Horror which means my opponent’s Thing in the Ice, wasn’t even a legitimate back-up plan as the Thing’s flip side only returns non-Horror creatures. Gnarlwood is quite a beast (well, Horror) and I hope it can find a good home in this format or even in Modern. A 1/1 that turns into a 3/3 that can trade up with anything should be a real consideration, even if the format is full of Lightning Bolts. I do miss Nimble Mongoose. 

Another card that pulled a lot of weight was Noose Constrictor: The little boa that could. I underestimated how nice it felt to be able to attack into Sylvan Advocates, Things in the Ice, and even 6/6 Awoken Lands, without nary a fear. That is a common theme in this deck. Its creatures are tiny, but they can trade up at a moment’s notice. Not to mention that it has Reach. Reach is incredibly relevant at this point in time as it means you can kill all of the Spirits and even, possibly, kill Gisela, the Broken Blades, Archangel Avacyn, and so on.

I keep saying “trade up,” so for those who don’t know, “trading up” means that your creatures can effectively “suicide” into bigger creatures and actually take them down. You can fearlessly attack into that 6/6 and discard 4 irrelevant cards (like extra lands) to the Noose Constrictor and trade. You can attack into Sylvan Advocate and they can’t block—you’ll just discard a card and make the Boa a 3/3, end of story.

The most questionable card in the deck is Moldgraf Scavenger. If I can get to Delirium around turn 3 or 4, Scavenger can be absurdly strong. Noose Constrictor helps there, and Epiphany at the Drownyard, yet the deck is still missing some… umm… oomph. Maybe it’s the colors. My brother was suggesting to go on a Jund plan with Grim Flayer replacing the Moldgraf. Flayer is clearly the better card of the two and has a better interaction with Arlinn Kord because of the Trample. Will definitely test, I’m just going to miss having the Blue. I like Blue.

Moving on, Traverse the Ulvenwald feels like it will finally find a home in these decks, the question is what kind of creatures do you want to have access to once Delirium is online. For the first draft, I started out with Goblin Dark-Dwellers, to have a little more late-game strength. There’s the potential of Traversing for a Dark-Dwellers, play it to flashback the Traverse, and search up the second one. That said, I believe we can do better. Perhaps there are more impactful creatures out there, or diversify our threat base by adding a bunch of one-ofs that can be relevant at any stage of the game. We can even play Grapple with the Past to get them back and fill the graveyard in the process. I’m even considering putting Oath of Chandras and Ghostly Wings to have another card type for Delirium.

As it stands, the deck should be more focused on the Delirium side of it, instead of trying to have some sort of Madness component. Fiery Temper feels clunky in this deck, so we might be better served by replacing them with Oaths. Although they interact well with Noose Constrictor and it’s burn to the face, it might not be as necessary. Or we can simply up the number of Incendiary Flows. Having enchantments, though would certainly go a long way to making the Delirium plan slightly more efficient.

Kind of love how the article suddenly became about RUG Delirium. The potential is there. It feels like we have the cards to make the deck work. All we need now is to work out the specifics. Do we want to be Jund, or is RUG a good color combination for the deck? Alinn Kord is pretty much the main reason for playing with Red. I feel she makes your creatures a force to reckon with. But, we could just as well play Bant where we have access to Dromoka’s Command, Ojutai’s Command, and even Tamiyo, Field Researcher. Even though, Tamiyo won’t put on a bad ass damage race, she will definitely threaten to generate a handsome amount of card advantage. Whether they block your dudes or not, you’ll be drawing cards. This prospect has me heavily leaning on Bant for now. I wonder how it would look like:

2 Gisela, the Broken Blade
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
4 Noose Constrictor

4 Tamiyo, Field Researcher

2 Ojutai’s Command
2 Declaration in Stone
3 Ghostly Wings
4 Dromoka’s Command
4 Epiphany at the Drownyard
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald

Here’s what it could look like sans the lands. At this moment in time, I can’t seem to figure out how the mana base will look like, however the deck looks promising enough that I will surely be spending more time on this. Expect another article on Standard (perhaps even a Modern version) Delirium later this week or the next. The idea seems to be dragging me into a dark forest of possibilities… luring me into a pitfall of card advantage and 0-3 tournament results (hey, could happen).

Alright people, that’s it for today! Keep those brewing hats on and enjoy Eldritch Moon. This set will provide the shake up Standard desperately needed. The first SCG Open already happened this last weekend and though we mostly saw Bant Company decks come out of the woodwork, this is only the beginning for the new Standard. There’ll also be a Standard Pro Tour next week, so we’ll see what the Pros will come up with by then. I’m sure the format won’t be only Company decks duking it out. Get ready, for it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

As always, if you like what you see, like, comment, and share! I’m always up for new ideas and whether it be for an article or decks or what-have-you. So, come out, speak up, and let’s have a conversation!

Yours truly,
Chris

MTGO: Hamngs

Twitter: Hamngs

XMage: Hamngs

Twitch: Hamnggs

POST-CREDIT DECKLIST!

MEOW MIX OFFERINGS

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

2 Chandra, Flamecaller

3 Harmless Offering

3 Duress

4 Take Inventory

4 Demonic Pact

4 Anticipate

4 Galvanic Bombardment

4 Nagging Thoughts

4 Languish

1 Choked Estuary

1 Foreboding Ruins

2 Mountain

2 Swamp

2 Wandering Fumarole

4 Island

4 Evolving Wilds

4 Sunken Hollow

4 Smoldering Marsh

Saints and Sinners - WMCQ Report Part II

Welcome back everyone to another blogpost on Petals of Insight and part two of my WMCQ report. Last time, we left off at the final list that I ran for my WMCQ, but how did I get there? I did mention that I initially tried to blend the Nahiri Control lists with Jeskai Flash, and that, in itself, was quite a failure. There was just no way to have the amount of removal, creatures, draw, and Planeswalkers that I wanted. For example, if I wanted more Nahiri, the Harbingers, I would have to cut Ancestral Vision or Lightning Helixes, or some of the creatures.

If Vision left, my Midrange/Control match ups, like Jund, would suffer as I wouldn’t be able to grind them out as efficiently, and overpower them in the later stages of the game. If Lightning Helix left, I would be giving up percentage points against Aggro decks, especially of the Little Zoo variety. Going down to three Geist of Saint Trafts or taking out Serum Visions, consistency and card velocity. I would see Geist—the most important card in the deck—less often, ergo, I wouldn’t be able to close out games as efficiently, therefore, less wins. No Serum means I would see some cards less often as well, not to mention I’d have less control over what I can draw over the course of a game.

There was no clear cut way of building this deck. The following decklists are the first couple of rough drafts.

Jes-Geist Nahiri v1.0

1 Restoration Angel

2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers

4 Snapcaster Mage

4 Geist of Saint Traft

 

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

3 Nahiri, the Harbinger

1 Anger of the Gods

1 Cryptic Command

3 Ancestral Visions

4 Path to Exile

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Lightning Helix

4 Serum Visions

1 Mountain

1 Sulfur Falls

2 Steam Vents

1 Sacred Foundry

2 Plains

2 Arid Mesa

2 Hallowed Fountain

1 Celestial Colonnade

2 Ghost Quarter

3 Scalding Tarn

3 Island

4 Flooded Strand

Jes-Geist Nahiri v1.5

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

3 Restoration Angel

4 Snapcaster Mage

3 Geist of Saint Traft

4 Nahiri, the Harbinger

1 Supreme Verdict

2 Mana Leak

1 Remand

2 Spell Snare

1 Electrolyze

4 Path to Exile

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Lightning Helix

4 Serum Visions

 

1 Mountain

1 Sulfur Falls

2 Steam Vents

1 Sacred Foundry

2 Plains

1 Arid Mesa

2 Hallowed Fountain

2 Celestial Colonnade

2 Ghost Quarter

3 Scalding Tarn

3 Island

4 Flooded Strand

Jes-Geist Nahiri v2.0

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

3 Restoration Angel

1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers

4 Snapcaster Mage

3 Geist of Saint Traft

4 Nahiri, the Harbinger

1 Remand

2 Lightning Helix

2 Mana Leak

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Serum Visions

3 Ancestral Visions

1 Electrolyze

4 Path to Exile

1 Mountain

1 Sulfur Falls

2 Steam Vents

1 Sacred Foundry

2 Plains

1 Arid Mesa

2 Hallowed Fountain

1 Celestial Colonnade

2 Ghost Quarter

3 Scalding Tarn

3 Island

4 Flooded Strand

The first list is beyond rough. It was mostly slanted towards an anti-creature strategy with four Helixes and MD wraths. I knew my Metagame was going to be full of Aggro decks of all kinds, ranging from the aforementioned Zoo decks to Infect, Affinity, Elves, and maybe even Bogles, hence decided to start here. I ran this list by a new friend I made while testing on XMage after he saw one of the earlier versions and suggested to put back the counters, and add Emrakul to the creature base. You see, being heavily anti-creature meant I wasn’t going to be able to interact with Combo and Control decks all that effectively, and I knew that, so my sideboard had around 1-2 Dispells and around 3 Negates along with a few other kinds of disruption (Rest in Peace for Living End/Dredge, Aven Mindcensor for Chord of Calling/Scapeshift, etc.). Testing confirmed my friend’s suspicions, I needed countermagic.

To make way for the counters, I needed to cut the Wrath effects which didn’t even make sense to have them in the deck if I was trying to have Geist as a legitimate win-condition. Having Wrath kind of gets in the way of that, right? Like, duh! Remember, though, Nahiri was supposed to be the main win-con. In the same vain, my friend suggested having Emrakul so that Nahiri could ultimate into something other than some Dark-Dweller or Geist. Sensible advice, but in practice, a different story. I won’t lie, it’s pretty badass to ultimate Nahiri, get Emrakul, attack, and then Flash in Restoration Angel to blink the Emrakul. Emrakul comes back untapped and will stick around after the turn ends. It can be quite devastating (if not just win more). I know, because I was at the receiving end of that by a Kiki-Chord player. GG, sir. As for me, I never managed to pull it off. I kept drawing the one Emrakul in very inopportune moments, or Nahiri never got to a point where I could ultimate—Geist kept winning the games for me.

Considering that was the case, maybe the deck should focus more on the Geist itself and less on trying to have both win conditions. That’s when I decided to strip the Nahiri side of the deck and concentrate in getting the Geist into the Red Zone safely. One way to do that was to play many Restoration Angels, however that was proving to be inefficient. Against most decks, Restoration Angel is just a 3/4 flyer. Against other decks, it meant that Geist was dealing four guaranteed damage and coming back for more next turn. A lot of the time, Restoration Angel was unimpressive, yet necessary, therefore she had to go from three, to two, and then down to one. Cutting the Angels meant more space, how do I fill in that space? I wanted another card that could help Geist do its job. And maybe not just help Geist, but also have other applications. At that moment, I went back to the old Zoo deck I played to a 2nd place at a Modern PPTQ last year and borrowed a piece of technology that helped me win through board stalls: Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

She was perfect for the role. She turned Geist of Saint Traft into a 5/5 Flying Hexproof. Meaning that Geist was dealing upwards to 9 damage per turn. In Modern? That’s basically a two-turn clock. Insanely hard to race. And if there weren’t any Geists, there were Snapcasters to turn into 5/4 Flyers, Celestial Colonnades to turn into 7/7s, Dark-Dwellers and Restoration Angels, or she would simply sit back pooping tokens until I could get into a situation where 4/4 tokens would win the game as well. She was the missing piece. Jes-Geist Midrange was starting to shape up:

Jes- Geist Midrange Shell

2 Restoration Angel

1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers

4 Geist of Saint Traft

4 Snapcaster Mage

2 Elspeth, Knight Errant

2 Nahiri, the Harbinger

3 Lightning Helix

4 Path to Exile

4 Serum Visions

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Electrolyze

3 Ancestral Visions

The mana base was mostly kept intact, yet here I was still trying to figure out what counters to put in and how many. I knew I wanted some number of Remands, Spell Snares, and Mana Leak, but didn’t know how many. Additionally, by this point, I had grown very fond of Goblin Dark-Dwellers as it was a big creature that let you double up on Helixes, Paths, and especially Ancestral Recall. I can’t begin to tell you how good playing Dwellers into Ancestral Vision is. Moreover, Dark-Dwellers trades with Thought-Knot Seer if need be, has evasion, and survives most forms of damage-based removal (Bolt, Kolaghan’s Command, Lightning Helix, Anger of the Gods, etc.). All of these things combined, plus the fact that it has four power, meant that it could effectively pressure Planeswalkers and beat almost anything in combat. Blue Moon adopted Dark-Dwellers as its own and, honestly? Maybe Jeskai decks should as well.

I’m not going to pretend that Jeskai was always the “chosen one.” I may have been… slightly unfaithful to it in testing. While Jeskai was leading the charge, I was also testing a Vial-less Bant Geist deck on the side. It, too, was performing very well for me, relying on pretty much the same creatures, removal, card draw, and disruption. I was so impressed with Geist, that it made me wonder… what if I had two Geists? I mean, isn’t Thrun a pretty great card, too? Geist and Thrun working together in perfect harmony. Take a look.

Bant Geist v1.0

1 Thrun, The Last Troll

2 Restoration Angel

3 Tarmogoyf

4 Geist of Saint Traft

4 Snapaster Mage

2 Elspeth, Knigth-Errant

2 Spell Snare

2 Remand

3 Bant Charm

3 Vapor Snag

3 Mana Leak

4 Serum Visions

4 Path to Exile

1 Temple Garden

1 Forest

1 Celestial Colonnade

2 Plains

2 Hallowed Fountain

2 Breeding Pool

2 Tectonic Edge

2 Windswept Heath

4 Flooded Strand

4 Misty Rainforest

3 Island

I was extremely close to playing this at the tournament. Would it had been a better choice? Hard to say yet. This one forwent the Ancestral Vision thinking that between Goyfs, Thruns, and Elspeths would be enough to beat down on the Midrange decks and Control decks in the format. To tell you the truth? It was pretty spot on. Bant Geist has not lost a match against Nahiri Control or Jund, if I recall correctly. My main issue with Bant Geist was that Tarmogoyf was just not pulling its weight, and Restoration Angel is still better as a one-of. Until I find a better replacement for both, I’ll be keeping this deck on the sidelines. As it stands, however, this deck has a lot of potential. Since there’s a Modern PPTQ in August and one more Modern WMCQ in September, it is certainly possible that I will go back to retooling the deck and see if I can get it to where I feel it is nearly perfect.

After that, I got to my current list. Here it is again:

Jes-Geist Midrange v2.0

1 Restoration Angel

1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers

4 Geist of Saint Traft

4 Snapcaster Mage

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

1 Nahiri, the Harbinger

 

1 Electrolyze

2 Remand

2 Spell Snare

2 Lightning Helix

3 Ancestral Vision

3 Mana Leak

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Path to Exile

4 Serum Visions

1 Celestial Colonnade

1 Mountain

1 Sulfur Falls

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Arid Mesa

2 Steam Vents

2 Hallowed Fountain

2 Tectonic Edge

2 Plains

3 Island

3 Scalding Tarn

4 Flooded Strand

It was previously mentioned that I did go 3-3, let me disclose, however, that it wasn’t the deck itself. It was in part some play mistakes and sideboard. After spending two weeks testing, I went into week #3 wanting to relax—and so I did. I watched movies, caught up on some sleep, worked, and watched some MTG videos here and there. The deck was incredibly solid, maybe not perfect, but it felt very close to it. Even after going 3-3, the deck still feels near-perfect. 

The sideboard, though, was just a wreck. I couldn’t figure out how to get around some match ups like Dredge, Scapeshift, and random decks like Elves, and what-not. Modern is such an open format, that it is extremely hard to have sideboard game against most decks. In fact, for most of the week, one of the deck I was looking to beat (and I meant consistently beat) was Bant Eldrazi. For some reason, I kept thinking of Control cards that could remove Reality Smashers without having to discard, and ways to get around Cavern of Souls, which made nearly 10% of my deck unplayable. It was until the night before the tournament that I realized I shouldn’t be going more Controlling against them, it was the other way around: I needed to race. The plan was to get a turn 3 Geist, followed by a turn 4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant and smash them down (totally worked, by the way).

By Sunday, however, I still had no sideboard worth its salt yet. It’s Thursday after the tournament and I still don’t have a sideboard worthy of a first place. I ended up with this: 

SB –

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

1 Detention Sphere

1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers

1 Dispel

1 Wear/Tear

1 Rest in Peace

1 Spellskite

1 Timely Reinforcement

2 Aven Mindcensor

2 Negate

3 Spreading Seas

Best cards in the sideboard? Spreading Seas, Dark-Dwellers, Negate, Dispel, Timely Reinforcements, and Elspeth. Everything else was all right to decent. Mindcensor was probably the worst of the bunch. I was expecting to face Scapeshift and Chord decks, and the decks were there, I was just lucky enough to dodge them. All in all, I’m not 100% sure how the final version of the deck plays against these decks. Hopefully, by August or September I should have a better idea of how the match ups work. On paper, the match seems to be on my favor, but it is very easy for me to not draw the cards that make the analysis more like fact than conjecture. Finally, is the Mindcensor necessary? Maybe not.

What I’m definitely sure of is that I need two or three Timely Reinforcements for the Zoo match ups. Perhaps a second Spellskite for its usefulness versus Ad Nauseam, Affinity, Infect, Burn, Bogles, even Scapeshift. Additionally, I could potentially replace the Rest in Peace for a Grafdigger’s Cage, and have it come in for the Chord and Dredge match ups. Even though Rest in Peace is great to board in against Living End and Dredge, I already have the former covered with Remands, Mana Leaks, and Negates. Secondly, Dredge isn’t even very popular; at that point, I might as well play Grafdigger’s that hits, not just Dredge, but Chord/Company decks. Moreover, Dredge still brings in Enchantment/Artifact hate, which hits whichever piece of hate I bring in. The match up itself is uncomfortable, yet unpopular enough that I can afford to hedge a bit. Is it a mistake? Probably.

Modern is at a very good spot, right now as it is so open, but makes preparing for tournaments hard. First you need to find a deck you are comfortable with. Then, you have to make sure that deck can exploit a hole in the Metagame. After you’ve found your deck, you have to tailor the main deck to attack and defend from what decks are generally doing by taking advantage of the deck’s flex slots. Once that’s done, comes the sideboard. Modern is full of very swingy sideboard cards. They are usually the go-tos, for instance, Choke. Expect a billion Blue decks vulnerable to Choke? Jam 2-3 into the sideboard. Expect a ton of graveyard reliant decks? Another shoe-in. Affinity? Bring in the Ancient Grudges or Kolaghan’s Commands. And so forth. That’s the nature of the format. However, always remember that as vast as the Metagame is, so is Modern’s card pool. It’s not all about the swingy sideboard cards, but also putting cards that allow you to attack match ups a little differently. Bringing in Elspeth against the Eldrazi decks follows that exact line of thought. 

In hindsight, I think it would have worked well in the Jund match up. For some reason I didn’t think Elspeth would be good in that match up, so I sided her out, and then paid for it with a loss. That was my first loss in the tournament. It went to game three. I managed to stabilized somewhat until my opponent played a Thrun, the Last Troll. Remember when I said that card was good? Well… Yeah. If I had kept the Elspeths in, it was very possible for me to keep the Thrun from hitting me, in turn giving me enough time to draw into Geists and Dark-Dwellers, or any other way to get a board presence that could take to the skies with Elspeth’s second ability and finish the game in short order. Definitely underestimated Elspeth’s strength against Jund.

I’m not going to get in too specific with how each match up went, mostly because I have terrible memory and don’t remember the specifics. I can say that I beat Blue Moon, some weird Mono Black deck, Bant Eldrazi; and lost to RW Land Destruction, Little Zoo, and Jund.

And that, kids, is how I got to Jes-Geist Midrange (It needs a better name, I know). It was a long and grueling process that I will gladly continue doing for every tournament. The next Modern tournament is in August 28th, expect me to be playing since August 1st. Especially since we already had Eldritch Moon come out this past weekend, meaning that the format won’t be changing much from here on. Speaking of which, Eldritch Moon was a pretty fun set to play. Looking forward to drafting it and see which cards make it to Modern and if Standard changes… if at all. 

For the last half of 2016, Collected Company and Dromoka’s Command decks have been at the forefront of the Standard Metagame. With some of the cards coming in from Eldritch Moon, it’s possible that these decks will only get stronger. That said, I do love to brew and there are some interesting cards looking back at me asking me if I’ll be experimenting with them. Eldritch Evolution is just begging me to flash it back with Goblin Dark-Dwellers, for instance. Spell Queller, Collected Company, and Tamiyo seem to all want to work together in the same deck. Will it be a Bant Goodstuff deck or a legitimate Spirit Company deck? We’ll see. We’ll see.

I guess that’s it for today, folks! If you enjoyed the article please give it a like, comment, and share. Support the blog and my tireless ramblings with a little feedback. Any questions you have or want to have a discussion, don’t hesitate, I’m all ears! Thank you for reading!

Yours truly,

Chris

MTGO: Hamngs

Twitter: Hamngs

XMage: Hamngs

Twitch: Hamnggs

PS: Shout out to all of the people that pitched in with the creation of Jes-Geist Midrange: Obed Acevedo, Edward Flippen III, Exol Rodriguez, and Ismael Ramos. Thank you for the support and your patience! And shout out to the tournament organizer at ISD Gaming for running a smooth show and giving away pizza. 

PPS: I admit the article was written rather hastily, I'll be editing it as soon as I get some time and internet. 

Jes-Geist The Inquisitor - WMCQ Report Part I

Hello everybody and welcome to another blogpost on Petals of Insight. I know, I know, it’s been another long while since I last published anything, but I’m back due to popular demand! And by “popular demand” I mean, like three of you have asked me if I’m still writing and wanted to read more... *ahem* So, here I am!

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of this article, I have to say that I think I’ve discovered what one of

my real passions in Magic is. It’s not just brewing and playing; it’s playing with a purpose: practicing, testing, getting ready for tournaments. Before the WMCQ this last Sunday, I spent the previous three weeks living and breathing XMage.* I would wake up anywhere between 10am-11am, play on XMage until 4-5pm, go to work, and then log back in at 10pm for another marathon until 2am. I did this for two weeks, that’s nearly 80 hours of game play. I had never done this in my life and honestly? I noticed the difference. I noticed that I was making better decisions. I noticed that I was predicting what my opponents were going to do much better. Most importantly, I was able to notice various chinks in Modern’s armor. Although I went 3-3 at the WMCQ, it was not due to lack of practice, but we’ll get to that in a moment. Point is, these marathons will be something I do more often and for you aspiring Pros, I suggest you do it as well.

As a disclaimer: yeah, I may have spent 80 plus hours practicing online, however, that doesn’t mean I didn’t find time for a social life. I went to the movies, went to friends' houses, birthday parties, hung out with ladies, and followed through with other responsibilities. What I’m saying is, there is time for everything, and there is no excuse to not practice. Be honest with yourself. Do you want to win? Then find a way to make it work.

*For those who don’t know, XMage is basically a free version of Magic Online. Which means you don’t have to shell out money to play. Just install, connect, and play. All the cards are already in the database and the developers provide everything in the form of updates. Although free, keep in mind that the program is not without its problems and bugs, so be patient.

With that out of the way, my WMCQ! Alright, despite all the practice, I did go 3 and 3. I am not too proud of that, though it was so much better than the last couple of tournaments where I went 1-3 and 0-3 respectively, which are easily my worst performances in ages. I felt terrible. I felt like I had forgotten how to play this game completely. That needed to change. Thus, I got to XMage and began preparations for this second WMCQ. This meant working on my favorite format: Modern. If you know anything about me is that I do enjoy brewing, and for this tournament, it was no exception.

The first week was spent trying out a bunch of different ideas. None of which panned out and, unfortunately, have been erased from my hard drive… they were that bad. I tried an Omniscience Combo deck that would try to discard it with Faithless Looting and put it back into play with Obzedat’s Aid. When that didn’t work, due to high volume of graveyard hate, I tried a version with Fist of Suns. That version was much better. The problem was that Blood Moon wrecked you. Something fierce. Absurdly so. Wait, how did the deck work you ask? Well, like this!

Once you got Omniscience in play, you would cast Conflux or Glittering Wish for a Conflux. With the Conflux, you tutor for Petals of Insight (Eh, eh!) and try to Grapeshot/Release the Ants them for the win. You could also look for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and win with that. Not to mention that with Fist of Suns, Emrakul would only cost WUBRG to cast, and simple win by hard casting it. It was fun… just not good enough. It was back to the drawing board.

Another deck I tried was a new take on Affinity. From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to play a deck that was or could be aggressive in Modern, because, as it stands, you simply can’t afford to give decks too much time. I naturally turned to Affinity as it is essentially one of the premiere Aggro decks in the format (aside from Zoo). In addition to that, it is a deck that can potentially change roles if the deck is built correctly, meaning it could get a little defensive against other Aggro decks, or pack decent disruption for Combo decks. What was turning off from the deck was the abundance of Artifact hate, especially main deck Kolaghan’s Command from Jund and Grixis decks. This meant that I needed to do some research.

After doing some digging around the net and the Wizards.com Coverage Archives, I found a Japanese Affinity deck that got 2^nd place at a Grand Prix two years ago.* The deck was good, maybe even great. The deck was trading some of its speed for resilience—staying power—and it was working. Admittedly, 14 lands was way too low a land count which screwed a lot with your openers and had you keeping one-landers hoping to get lucky with Mox Opals and Springleaf Drums. I did try 15-16 lands, which helped, however, I kept having problems with Jund. It was hard to keep up with “Bolt your Ornithopter,” “Terminate your Goyf,” “Kolaghan’s Command Signal Pest and Plating.” I had a lot of games where that sequence was impossible to recover from. Post-boarded games were even more of a hassle as some brought in Damnations and Anger of the Gods. Maybe Stony Silence couldn’t wreck me anymore, but removal heavy decks were still hard to overcome. 

*http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpkob14/deck-tech-yuusei-gotous-no-affinity-2014-08-23

I must confess: I did go a little crazy brewing with Affinity. I kept heading down that rabbit hole,

wondering how far I could push Affinity’s multicolor mana base. I tried Dromoka’s Command in the sideboard for Anger of the Gods, general Burn Spells, and a way to grow Arcbound Ravager and Tarmogoyf (there's story about "Commanding Robots" somewhere, maybe could be an article later on). I tried Meddling Mages for Combo decks and for naming general hate cards like Stony Silence. Did it work? Sort of. The greed was real, though, and the colorless side of the mana base really made things difficult. I will say this, I played against Mono-Blue Tron, played Meddling Mage naming Thirst for Knowledge and my opponent did nothing for the rest of the game. Apparently, Thirst for Knowledge is very important to them. Against another opponent playing Naya Planeswalkers, he played a turn 3-4 Stony Silence, and I still beat him down with Goyfs and Meddling Mages. That was gratifying, but don’t play the deck. Don’t bother.

Next on the list was Aggro Loam. I always like the idea of playing Aggro Loam and devoted half the first week to making it work. I tried various versions of Aggro Loam, from the traditional Jund-colored Loam, a nuttier version with The Gitrog Monster, Oracle of Mul Daya, and Crucible of Worlds, and even Abzan-flavored Loam with Knight of the Reliquary and Lingering Souls. I tried it all. For this one, I did keep my two decklists:

Jund Loam

4 Tarmogoyf

1 Dreadbore
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Maelstrom Pulse 

2 Abrupt Decay
2 Raven’s Crime
3 Terminate
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Life from the Loam
4 Seismic Assault
4 Faithless Looting

1 Forest
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Hissing Quagmire
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Raging Ravine
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Graven Cairns
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Verdant Catacombs

SB –

1 Dismember
1 Flame Jab
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Darkblast
2 Nature’s Claim
2 Thoughtseize
2 Dark Heart of the Wood
3 Anger of the Gods

Abzan Loam

3 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Knight of the Reliquary

1 Dismember
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Raven’s Crime
4 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls 

4 Life from the Loam

1 Fetid Heath
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Treetop Village
1 Shambling Vent
1 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Marsh Flats
3 Windswept Heath
3 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacomb

SB –

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Dark Heart of the Wood
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Thoughtseize
2 Damnation
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Stony Silence

This is what they looked like before getting scrapped. The sideboards need a lot of work, I know. I’m not going to lie, I loved both decks, and for nearly a week, I really believed I was going to be playing either version of Loam. I mean, Life from the Loam is such a powerful engine card, it was really hard to pass up the opportunity to play it. Being able to recur Raven’s Crime and Ghost Quarters was great, and in the case of Jund Loam, Seismic Assault was absurd. Loaming into three lands is 6 points of damage for just two mana. 

Which one did I like better? Maybe Abzan Loam. Knights were good, Lingering Souls was insane, and the removal is much better than it is for Jund as you get Path to Exile. In the end, you still lack Seismic Assault which is the entire point of playing Loam. Before you ask, I did try a 4-color version. It employed the best of both worlds: Assaults, Souls, Crimes, Pulses, etc. The mana base was just hard to get right. By turn three or four, you need to be able to make RRR for Assault, more than one Black to play Raven’s Crime multiple times, green for Life from the Loam, and a white for Lingering Souls. You also need some basics to play around Blood Moon without them compromising the overall curve.

Therefore, it was out of the question. The mana alone prevented the deck from taking off as it could. The consistency wasn’t there, and without that, Aggro would easily rush over you, while decks like Tron would simply capitalize on the stumble. It just wasn’t worth it. All in all, either deck is worth trying out, if anyone feels like they can tune them and make it work, feel free to try, I’m all ears. However, by that point, it was time to move on.

Enter Aether Vial and Shouta Yasooka’s RUG Vial deck.** Back in 2012, Shota showcased this little number by getting 2^nd place at the World Championships. The deck was tricky, fun, and full of interesting interactions, most notably Vialing Snapcaster Mages and Eternal Witnesses to get back Cryptic Commands, removal, draw spells, among other things. While the deck is quite solid as is, I wondered what would happen if I played White instead of Red. This meant that I’d be bringing back Path to Exiles instead of Bolts and had access to Bant Charm. Bant Charm would be double teaming Cryptic Command in the disruption department as extra removal, anti-Instant technology against Chord of Calling, Collected Company, Ad Nauseam, etc, and could destroy Cranial Platings, Crucible of Worlds, or other random artifacts in game one. Furthermore, I figured  Vialing in Geist of Saint Traft could be pretty powerful, so in it went Mr. Saint Traft. Here’s what I was working with:

**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7cEGMRblDo 

Bant Vial

1 Restoration Angel
2 Eternal Witness
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Snapcaster Mage

1 Bant Charm
2 Spell Snare
2 Remand
2 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Mana Leak
3 Serum Visions
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
4 Cryptic Command

1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
2 Flooded Grove
2 Razorverge Thicket
3 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Island

SB –

1 Dispel
1 Bant Charm
2 Negate
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
3 Timely Reinforcements

The deck is fun to play and pretty competitive as well. That said, it still felt like something was missing. Hyper-aggressive decks were a bit of a problem, and maybe with a better sideboard this deck could do some real damage. As I typed the sideboard, I switched Kitchen Finks for Timely Reinforcements. Without testing it much more, I’m not sure which one is better. Timely is one of your best cards against Little Zoo and Burn, and whilst Kitchen Finks is great too, they aren’t as effect. However, Finks are better for the Midrangy-er/Control match ups like Jund and Nahiri Control. The other problem the deck had was keeping Tron from getting too crazy.

Playing this deck, though, was like… some sort of epiphany. I saw how good Geist of Saint Traft was right now. Even if I couldn’t stop Tron completely, I could Remand a Karn, Negate an Ugin, with a Geist in play and have a completely legitimate race. I could end of turn Vial a Geist against Eldrazi, Path something, Cryptic Command their guys, and get in with the Hexproofer and win that way. It was mostly the same play pattern against almost every deck. Even against Jund, Vial would let me get around Liliana, end of turn Geist and kill her with the Geist’s angelic companion.

Even though Aether Vial performed well, I thought I could do better. And if I could do better with Vial, I could do better with Geist. As a result, I turned to Jeskai. I knew very early on that I didn’t want to play Nahiri Control. I saw many of its matches, not to mention played against quite a few of them online, and noticed that the deck did a whole lot of nothing a whole lot of the time. I was largely unimpressed and underwhelmed. Curiously, many of these decks played Geist of Saint Traft in the sideboard, presumably because these players saw crazy good the card is against the mirror match among other match ups. It turns you “whole lot of nothing” plan into a “I can actually race people now” plan. That’s what I wanted. I wanted Geist in the main.

I liked the Bolts, the Helixes, the Paths, the Serum Visions, and the Ancestral Vision. I wasn’t a fan of the countermagic, so I tried versions without them, but had to put them back in as a concession to uninteractive decks like Ad Nauseam, Tron, Living End, and so on. I tried to blend in the Jeskai Flash decks with Nahiri Control and slowly ended up with a kind of Midrange Jeskai deck that wasn’t Flash-y or Nahiri-ish. After a lot of trial and error, 20 million drafts (more like 10-ish drafts), and a lot of discussion with three close friends, I landed on this list:

Jes-Geist Midrange

1 Restoration Angel
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger

1 Electrolyze
2 Lightning Helix
2 Spell Snare 

2 Remand
3 Mana Leak
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Serum Visions
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt

1 Mountain
1 Arid Mesa
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Celestial Colonnade
2 Steam Vents
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Plains
3 Island
3 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand

SB –

1 Wear/Tear
1 Dispel
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Detention Sphere
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Rest in Peace
1 Spellskite
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Negate
3 Spreading Seas

You know, that’s a lot to take on for one day, I think I gonna stop here. So, stay tuned for part II where I will be talking about how I got to this list a little more in-depth and the tournament itself!

And yes, that sideboard is kinda terrible.

Yours truly,
Chris

MTGO: Hamngs
Twitter: Hamngs
XMage: Hamngs
Twitch: Hamnggs

Bonus Decklist!

Commanding Robots Lite Edition

1 Memnite

2 Master of Etherium
3 Etched Champion
4 Ornithopter
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
4 Tarmogoyf

2 Thoughtcast
3 Dispatch
4 Cranial Plating
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Mox Opal

1 Island

1 Plains

2 City of Brass

2 Inkmoth Nexus

3 Blinkmoth Nexus

4 Darksteel Citadel

4 Glimmervoid

SB -

2 Spellskite

3 Thoughtseize

3 Hurkyl's Recall

3 Dromoka's Command

4 Meddling Mage