When you talk about Isochron Scepter, no one really argues whether or not it is powerful. Having any reusable 1 or 2 CMC instant that's relevant in Modern is usually lights out.
No, the argument is about whether or not the opponent can remove the scepter once it's in play. The scepter actually represents a big gambit. If you resolve a scepter and your opponent can't deal with it you will win almost unopposed. However, if they are able to remove it then it's a huge setback for you in terms of tempo and card advantage.
Since Deathrite Shaman's banning, Jund has fallen to a small fraction of the metagame. This means two of Isochron Scepter's biggest enemies are seeing significantly less play.
Good riddance...for now.
Jund is still a good deck. I think in a couple of months people will remember this and it will have a resurgence in the metagame. Right now, I see an opening. I'm throwing caution to the wind and taking the Isochron Gambit.
Isochron Gambit
The deck packs 22 imprintable instants. There are a lot of choices for instants at 2 or less CMC in a RWU deck. I purposely chose all instants that do at least two things. (Except Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile. They're just too good.) The extra value effects like lose one life, gain 3 life, or draw a card will add up after each use of the scepter or Snapcaster and give the deck flexibility if the game drags on long.
Magma Jet is one notable exception that just didn't make the cut. I felt that two damage wasn't enough and scry 2 wasn't that relevant. I could see the scry being useful if I wanted to run Delver of Secrets instead of Geist of Saint Traft. The problem is Delver also wants Serum Visions and it's a sorcery. It can't be imprinted so it didn't make the cut either.
Not quite good enough.
Geist of Saint Traft offers a hedge to the gambit. If the opponents do have a bunch spot removal capable of killing the scepter then they probably have spot removal for Delver too. The hexproof works wonders when the deck packs 15 removal/bounce spells. Just clear the way and swing with 6 power a couple of times.
The deck plays like a burn deck, but a little slower and more controlling. The first bit of damage comes in slowly as you're spending the first couple of turns clearing the board and setting up a scepter, Geist, or Young Pyromancer. Once you get one of those setup, the damage starts pouring in incredibly fast. My opponents have been shocked by how fast the game will close out compared to the other RWU decks in the metagame.
Secret tech.
This is where Boros Charm really shines. Casting and recasting Boros Charm with Snapcaster puts out an incredible amount of damage very quickly. That's not the only reason Boros Charm is good though. It also "counters" the uncounterable Abrupt Decay or any other spell or effect that destroys the scepter. Making your Geist or Pyromancer army indestructible against a sweeper is a devastating surprise for the opponent too.
There are some other problems besides Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse this deck has...
No. Not these...
...it's the stuff they make other people sideboard.
Most decks don't pack main deck artifact hate. But every sideboard certainly packs something to hate the Affinity decks. The hate for Isochron Scepters is just collateral damage in a cruel metagame. All is not lost though. There are strategies for each match-up. You need to be aware of how your opponent's sideboard works in different match-ups. Here's a brief overview.
The Matchups
B/G/x - As mentioned earlier, the scepters are probably just dead. The best bet is to side them out for 1 Geist and 3 Hibernations. Hibernations work great for clearing the road for the extra Geist that they probably can't touch.
Affinity - Game one is terrible for them. The only time I've lost to Affinity game one is when they are able to get a fast Etched Champion with Cranial Plating. Even then, it has been close because of Lightning Helix's extra life.
The problem here is they usually have 2 Ancient Grudges in the sideboard for mirror matches that come in for the scepters. I say go for it and keep them in. They only have two and they aren't the type of deck that can mulligan aggressively to find them. The Remands aren't very good so side them out and bring in the Wear//Tears and Spellskites. There will be enough removal to tempo them out.
RWU Control - Cryptic Command is their best play against the scepter and it just isn't enough. My hand will often be full of spells because they don't have many relevant fast threats. They keep bouncing and I keep recasting. No big deal.
Sure. Bounce it. See if I care. Your win con is a glacial Celestial Colonnade.
For games two and three you might see one Wear//Tear from them. They have a good amount of removal so Affinity doesn't scare them too much. I don't like Path to Exile in this match-up so take them out for 2 Dispels and 2 Negates.
Splinter Twin - There is just too much cheap main deck instant speed removal for them to have an advantage. Some lists have green for Tarmogoyfs and Scavenging Oozes and those lists almost certainly pack Ancient Grudges. Spellskites are obvious add ins from the sideboard. You'll have to go by feel as to whether or not you could keep the scepters in. Again, I'm more inclined to go for it...
...that is...unless I know they are packing a bunch of removal for them. Sometimes they get lazy and you can tell how many cards they are boarding in. If you blow them out with a scepter in game one, watch how excited they are to grab their sideboard and how many cards they bring in. Make your plan based on their actions.
Birthing Pod - This card is my bane. I remember complaining about it last week too. My list has a lot of spot removal but their creatures are usually two-for-ones that can out grind me. Oh yeah, and these cards.
There's usually only one Harmonic Sliver or Qasali Pridemage in their main deck but it feels like 4 because of Chord of Calling. I need the scepters to gain an advantage on them but they can kill it pretty easily. I have 3 Grafdigger's Cages and 3 Hibernations (they work especially well against the Melira version) and I'm honestly thing about bumping it to 4 cages.
I find it funny that most of my brews work well against most of the metagame but Birthing Pod is my Achilles Heel. Everyone has their Kryptonite. Next week I'll take a look at a brew that fares a little bit better against the Pod decks.
Oh hey! Speaking of next week...do you have The Walking Dead withdrawl? Me too. I'll show you a deck that can hopefully tide you over until the next season starts up again.
This deck is great
ReplyDeleteYou know, I don't quite agree with your game one analysis vs affinity :)
ReplyDeleteI'm running a deck similar to this (except I'm still on the Delver plan instead of Geists). One card I included in my sideboard, specifically for the Tron match-up is Silence. All of its real plays move at sorcery speed, so my thought was, slap it on a Scepter (especially if they haven't seen it yet), and then make them miserable while you close out the game with whatever. Their only real response is Nature's Claim and if you have a Boros Charm ready, they're just cold. I managed the lock in a sixteen-man I was part of today and wanted to know what your thoughts on this card in the SB would be. Is it necessary to hate Tron (and other sorcery-based ramp strategies) in this way? Is it too risky a SB plan, since it relies on a two-card disruptable combo? My experience is good, but also a far cry from statistically significant.
ReplyDeleteDave 'The Junktroller' tried to brew a deck around silence on a stick once, but I think he's too ashamed to talk about it.
DeleteI'll let him respond to this though, haha.
Brian, for this build my plan is to just burn past tron. Wurmcoil's lifelink shouldn't be a problem with the vapor snags and paths. Karns are definitely a problem if they resolve, but we do have remands to delay them. My guess is that negate from the sideboard is just as good as silence, if not better. With negate they have to spend the mana and lose the spell, where as with silence you just stop them for a turn. Their effects would be near similar if imprinted on a scepter.
ReplyDelete