Dies to Removal

Played this last night, it felt very strong (4-0);

4 Delver of Secrets
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Young Pyromancer

2 Burst Lightning
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Flame Slash
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Pierce
3 Spell Snare
1 Thought Scour
1 Twisted Image

1 Arid Mesa
5 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
2 Mutavault
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents

Sideboard
2 Blood Moon
2 Combust
1 Dispel
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Magma Spray
2 Negate
1 Spellskite
2 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Vandalblast

[deck]
Creatures (14)
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer

Spells (28)
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Burst Lightning
3 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
4 Remand
3 Mana Leak

Lands (18)
4 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Breeding Pool
4 Island
2 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Dispel
2 Magma Spray
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Negate
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Combust
1 Runechanter's Pike
1 Counterflux
[/deck]

At the suggestion of Zem I've tuned my sideboard to be a little more flexible to handle larger events. Specifically, I've added Surgical Extraction and Negate. Thoughts?

Negate is very strong. What's surgical for?

Well, you mentioned rogue graveyard strategies earlier and it got me thinking about packing instant speed grave hate that was easy to cast. It's also not terrible against Snapcaster decks but I'd probably only run one against them.

Not sure much SB consideration should be given to rogue strategies. However, surgical synergizes with YP very well, just like probe. If you want the effect, I'd say maybe cut 1 for your third spell snare.

Yeah, I think one may be good. I'd probably make room for a second Negate since it's a bit more flexible than Spell Snare.

The main GY decks are storm and living end; surgical is against both unless you get pretty lucky. Relic is mostly better.

Help me find space for another Young Pyro please.

Probably cut thought scour or twisted image, as good as they are; also considering switching 1 burst lightning for 1 flame slash.

Cut Twisted Image. It's cute but it's kind of awkward against decks light on creatures or those that have none at all and you're trying to hold up counterspells early instead of playing an early threat.

Great minds.

UR Mighty Wizards are ready for the ptq!

Fuck, I wish Riptide Laboratory was in the format.

Hell, I think all of modern would be better with Onslaught block.

Just give me Cabal Therapy.

[deck]UR Powerful Wizards[/deck]
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Young Pyromancer

Spells
2 Burst Lightning
1 Flame Slash
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Pierce
3 Spell Snare
1 Thought Scour

Lands
1 Arid Mesa
5 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
2 Mutavault
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents

Sideboard
2 Blood Moon
2 Combust
1 Dispel
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Magma Spray
2 Negate
1 Spellskite
2 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Vandalblast[/deck]

Vandalblast might become Relic, dunno.

Deck is an 8/10; deck name is a 10/10.

11/10

But, but...YP is a Shaman!

Riptide laboratory is a fucked up card.

Would break snapcaster in half.

I'm personally going with UR a Wizard Harry on my deck reg sheet.

I'm personally going with UR a Wizard Harry on my deck reg sheet.

Did you get a chance to test?

I've been testing a bit on cockatrice when I can. Gonna have some rigorous testing sessions in paper, and better online testing with DXIEdge soon.

Deck feels really good, the reason I wasn't playing it before is because I played it for so long when Deathrite was legal and there was a lot more BG decks (which was an even worse match up before).

I'm still having some trouble with the uwr matchup, which is weird (blood moon helps a lot, but it feels like all the wins I got were very close to losses, I might just need to accept that). If someone recorded a video of them playing out their strategy successfully vs that deck, that's something I'd love to watch.

What, in your estimation are the key strategic points in the matchup and what are their key spells? How are you boarding?

I hope that I'm not giving the impression that it is a GOOD matchup; because it isn't. Jund / UWR are ~50%; but most everything is favourable.

Also Val was right about the 3rd lavamancer, I was wrong.

I know twoo is not very compettitive and has alot of funky ideas but he was talking of possibly running goblin guides in the delver list. What do you guys think about it. It would give the deck a bit more of an aggressive edge but im not sure if that is the game we want to play with this deck. Or do we?

Guide has two problems, in my estimation:
- is only an aggro card; whereas this deck gains power from being able to switch roles
- loses effectiveness ashamed go on; the other cards all retain or even gain in power as the game progresses.

Guide plays relatively poorly with counter backup too.

Went 6-2 at the PTQ. Lost to a top decked Scapeshift when he had no cards in hand and to UWR when in game 3 I turn three blood mooned him and drew nothing relevant for the rest of the game.

I beat Scapeshift, Jund x2, Affinity x2, RUG Twin played by Wilfy and was overall super happy with the deck; there's still room for improvement though!

Good job, James.

What, in your estimation are the key strategic points in the matchup and what are their key spells? How are you boarding?

I hope that I'm not giving the impression that it is a GOOD matchup; because it isn't. Jund / UWR are 50%; but most everything is favourable.

Also Val was right about the 3rd lavamancer, I was wrong.

I think it's possible that I had gotten the false impression that it's an actual _good_ matchup.

I think the main problem I've had is a low amount of testing, and putting too much stock in the fact that all my wins feel REALLY close against them. A win is a win, regardless of if it was on thin margins.

Congrats on the good showing at the ptq, your field sounds very similar to the one that I expect to see next
weekend.

Are there any changes you're considering for the list? I'm going to sleeve up proxies for every card I want to experiment with so that I can easily switch things around.

I think I want to try cutting the 3rd Young Pyromancer for a Vendilion Clique, a couple other cards I want to try out: Keranos/Batterskull in the side, Turn/Burn or Dismember (though I suppose the inclusion of Grim Lavamancer helps kill most Goyfs), and some number of Swords. Swords seem particularly good for turning the anemic 1/1's that YP often leaves behind into game winning threats.

It feels good to be back to slinging Delvers and Bolts.

Yeah I need to work the SB so that spell density doesn't drop as much after board. I don't think I can justify threads for example; I also think that you're underestimating how aggressive YP tokens are.

As a Burn player, I can attest. You cannot reasonably race a YP$ and his tokens. You'd be a fool to try.

Fwiw YP easily beat Goyf 3-0 in the times they faced off so that was a really good showing.

Yeah, Goyf decks are definitely the matchup where YP shines the most.

I know that YP tokens can get their alone a lot of the time, I just like the idea of a Sword or Keranos/Batterskull because it's good against the two hardest matchups, BGx and UWR, while still being fine elsewhere too (depending on which of the 3 you go for)

I'm not keen on 5 mana spells in modern on 21 land; it was already a little ambitious on 22.

Yeah, that's true. I was leaning towards a sword anyway. Not sure if it's actually needed, though.

How was Vendilion Clique for you when it was in your list?

Despite the cost, I think skull and keranos are worth because of how powerful they are in the matchup that you want them in and because those games go ridiculously long to the point where you WILL get to cast it unless it's one of those rare cases where the game ends quickly.

You also play 12ish spells that day draw a card which results in you hitting land drops at a much better clip.

Clique was really clunky for me. It's quite good against Jund and some of the fringe combo decks; but it's not as good as YP vs Jund; and fringe combo decks are good matchups.

You can maybe justify 1 Keranos. It's just not accurate to say that you always hit your land in a timely fashion; it can be pretty hard tbh.

I guess my point is that it's not strictly wrong to play a five drop, and I'd most likely play keranos myself. You got to be comfortable losing to something and I don't mind losing to mana screw if the payoff is big enough.

I THINK the games are similar enough to the twin v Jund games that I'd be very happy with an indestructible planeswalker.

That I sometimes die with in my hand while stuck on four mana.

I actually really like this attitude/viewpoint.