Discussion Forum

the question is do you want to play an aggro deck or a control deck?

I'm no modern player but looking at your list I see a lot of problems that have to do with deck focus.

For instance you only have Kird ape as aggro creature. That means you won't have a consistent tempo strategy. Sometimes you'll have a kird ape, sometimes you won't. On top of that comes the fact that Kird ape becomes worse every turn after the first. As a 1 drop it's ok, as a creature played after turn 1 he isn't all that.
Als if you are not beating down at your opponent do the counterspells really serve a purpose? all they do is slow down both you and your opponent, stretching the game to a point where both players have more resources. Usually that's where a control deck shines and where a tempo or aggro deck fails.

So what do you want your deck to be, a fast aggro deck or a slow controlling deck?

If I were playing control I would focus on slowing down my opponent and clearing the board so I can recover from all the hurt he slings at me before I was ready to respond. I would also shift my colors to UW or possibly UWr.

a combination of playing

- counterspells (Spell Snare + Mana Leak)
- spot removal (Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Condemn)
- sweepers (Supreme Verdict)

Then you add mid game beaters that can swing the game into your favour

- Ranger of Eos can pick up powerful 1 drops and gain you card advantage. One drops like Grim Lavamancer, Jace's Phantasm, ...

- Squadron Hawk can gain you card advantage and give you a powerful beater in combination with equipment. Maybe a Runechanter's Pike or Sword of Fire and Ice.

- Elspeth, Knight-Errant is great means of having both defense and offense deppending on the situation and can work while you keep your mana open to counter stuff.

that's a strategy that can work. It's also a strategy that can deal with the expensive Goyfs and Confidants if you don't have them yourself but need to beat people who do.

Hi Seth!
I'm looking at playing control.
First, I definitely see what you mean by lack of focus. In that case, I'm looking at the following cuts to be done to the deck:
1) Take out 4x Kird Ape and main board 4x Trygon Predator
2) Take out 4x Seal of Fire and main board 1x Spell Snare, 1x Voidslime, 2x Repeal
At mid to late game though, I wouldn't know how the tempo goes. So I have a few questions:
1) UG control usually plays Tarmogoyf. I chose a cheaper alternative in Meloku. Will this work? I'm open to other threat options. :)
2) Do my equipment serve as enough threat, after muddling the tempo of the opponent?
3) What do you think of control options such as Threads of Disloyalty or Vedalken Shackles?
My play style actually matches your recommendation for the Aggro UWr control which makes it tempting to go that way. I'd like to try new things out though that's why I'm persisting with going UG.

I hardly ever play Modern so I can't judge what's good in the current Meta. My strategy however would be if you don't have certain cards don't try to replace them with weaker cards, just play another strategy that is equally strong but requires less of an investment.
Go through sites like http://www.mtgdecks.net/ and just browse various deck types, old decks and new, pick up ideas.

My first Modern tournament (which I won) when Modern just appeared and Green Sun's Zenith was still legal, I played a homebrew Bant aggro deck that used Noble Hierarch, Lotus Cobra and Knight of the Reliquary to ramp into Sovereigns of Lost Alara which fetched me Eldrazi Conscription. The combo was so good that concistently I was hitting them Turn 3 with a 14/13 cobra and I had spell pierce as backup.
Then another tournament I played a Martyr of Sands net deck that was really cheap but so very effective in stopping aggro and gaining absurt card advantage.

The worst deck I've ever played in Modern was UR Delver. I thought it would be simular to what I was used to playing in legacy but it wasn't and I just hated playing the deck.

My point is that I think you need to play something you think makes sense and you have to be willing to work on it. My mistake playing UR Delver was that I tried to modify a legacy strategy that didn't make sense in Modern. It's often not about playing hyped cards, people will flock to certain cards just because everyone else plays them and it's often a good strategy to play something else that they didn't see comming.

Last time I played Bant in legacy, about half a year back, when everyone was crazy about Deathrite Shaman and no one played Noble Hierarch anymore people looked at my deck and laughed. My opponents in the early rounds of the tournaments were like, why are you still playing that old deck, it's bad. Well I won that tournament and it was easy, people just didn't see it comming. That said Bant is a deck I'm very experienced with playing and that's key. Don't ever expect to do better then 3-3-0 at a tournament with a deck you have zero experience playing.

I like Meloku, it's a good control card but you need your entire deck to work around it. It dodges lightning bolts, Abrubt Decay, Liliana of the Veil and can dance all day with the goyf, all staples in modern. But I don't think you need to be playing any creatures early on if Meloku is your late game strategy, unless it's just an alt win. Making sure you can shut down the Top 10 decks in the format early on should be your main focus.

Go this Seth. Will improve my deck. Thanks a lot for your input!