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.
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