[Deck] UW Tempo

[mattavell]

@colo: congrats! Did you find you s/b effective, especially vs. zoo?

Personally, I'm testing a new side, that looks more to the zoo MU (the deck's worst MU, I think):

1 Jotun grunt
2 Enlighted tutor
1 Thorn of amethyst
1 Ethersworn canonist
1 Relic of progenitus
1 Wheel of sun and moon
2 Aura of silence
3 Perimeter captain
3 Submerge

....with the inclusion of the sphinx MD instead of vendilion in the flex slot (I must admit that, despite my initial reluctance, sphinx is better than vendilion in the deck's worst MUs)

With this one above I found myself not only with a major number of early answers vs. zoo (CP), but also with more answers (submerge) vs. big&annoying creatures such as KotR or Terravore in mid-late game (sometimes swords weren't enough, and "submerging" a creature in resp to a fetch or a KotR activation it's awesome!). The storm combo MU is certainly a bit more difficult with less answers in sideboard, but still playable, and I manage to find more zoos than storm combo decks in the new meta

P.s.: another card that I'm going to try for the s/b is Divert (in 2x can take SP's place post-side)...has anyone already tried it?
P.p.s.: sorry for my bad english, but it's a lot that I don't make practice :D

[colo]

Thanks. I think my sideboard would've been effective, though I did not need (or see, for that matter) much of it. I boarded in Forge-Tenders and Sword of Light and Shadow versus Zoo, but won on the back of Jitte both games (the first one preboard, however). I did not board anything versus the Vampire list, but just steamrolled it instead. The first lands-game I won was stolen by a Jotun Grunt off an Aether Vial to solve the Loam problem, whilst in the second game I let Exploration resolve but countered mana bond, and he was out of gas surprisnlgy soon. I did not even board anything against the Threshold list, just focused on getting rid of my opp's manabase, mostly ignoring a pesky 2/3 Tarmogoyf slowly chipping my life totals. I died to Jace's ultimate the game I lost, and nothing from my board could really have prevented that, I think.

[miro]

Played today in 27 ppl tournament with standard list.
Modifications : 3 Vial, 1 Vendilion, +1 Karakas, - 1 Arid Mesa
sb:
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Enlighted Tutor
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Aura of Silence
2 Wing Shards
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Absolute Law

1_round: Imperial Painter
First turn Magus vs Mom. Mom + equiped Morph win this for me.
Second game he muligans to five with no land drop. I played some spells & lands.
2:0
2_round : Enchanterss with L.Wish
Close game one win by equiped Avenger vs one enchantress effect + e.grass
Second game force his Mox, Waste his dual land, play Aura and win by Avenger + Canonist
2:0
3_round : Rock
No pressure from him allowed me to win by 2 x Avenger protected by some FoW/Pierce/Daze
Second game was close, but I stabilized board on 1 life thanks to 2 x unmorphed Seer and proceed to win
2:0
round 4 & 5 : ID

Top 8: UWb Landstill
Tough games. I loose 1-2, one punt involved.

Deck is AWSOME :) and wery well positioned in present meta
Thanks to creators!

P.S. Karakas + Cliques was metagameing against Sneak&Show but I like this configuration.
Absolute Law was wasted slot, prbly should be third Aura / second Needle

[TossUsToLions]

Hey everyone.

I really like how this deck looks, as it plays some of my favorite cards in Magic. I just don't understand why this deck isn't played much. It seems like Merfolk, but with better creatures and better card advantage and better removal. It plays the tempo role better than Folk too. I have a few questions about it though.

How is the matchup against the Rock, Counterbalance, and Merfolk?

Also, why are people not running a full playset of Vials?

[Jay_Gatz]

Its not played as much because it is more difficult to play and less well known than most decks, also tundras are getting harder to come by. Multiple vials are completely useless in this deck so we never want to see more than one.
In my experience rock and countertop are good match-ups as long as you don't play into firespout/deed. The modern merfolk builds with either 16 lords or swords are difficult for me but I built my board accordingly.

[roioned]

Hi I went today in FNM 3-1.I didnt know that there is some FNM....my friend just told me that he want to play some games so i just grab my deck and some of sideboard cards i think the number is 8 cards.I played classic decklist with 2 Vials 2 Sphinx.


ROUND 1:Bant with natural order 2-1

GAME 1:I won dice roll and mull to 6.It was pretty fast games beacuse I drew 3x serra avenger and they crushed him.
GAME 2:I mull to 6 again and kept hand with craps, because i was afraid of 5 cards...so my fault.He had fast jitte and jitte hurts us if we can´t find our jitte.
GAME 3:He mull to 4 and I had a perfect hand with swords,mother,daze......

ROUND 2:Merfolks 1:2

GAME 1:He won dice roll.He drew only creatures, land and Vial.Perfect draw-no need to say anything else.
GAME 2:I have in my 8 card sideboard 3 Condemn- so good for me :)I started with turn 1 mother of runes and it won me this game.My swords/condemns held lords of the table and mother had other creatures under control.When Serra and Jitte arrived it was GG
GAME 3:Mull to 4.....First hand only land wasteland.Second hand no land.Third hand only land wasteland.Does it need anything to say?

ROUND 3: Mono black pox 2:0
GAME 1: He discarded everything I had but I played Jitte and just waited for some creatures.
GAME 2: I mull to 6, but he had slow start.He killed everything I put in play.Again I had Jitte on table but no creatures.Key moment was when i dazed his tombstalker.....I sided in Relic of progenitus because of Nether spirits and Tombstalkers.I sacrificed Relic and after a couple of turns he play Tombstalker with no cards in graveyard and no mana left so I introduced him my Daze and we can shake our hands with my next draw Serra Avenger.

ROUND 4: Affinity with Galvanic Blast 2:0
GAME 1:I mull to 5 and he mull to 6.I started with turn 1 Mother of runes,turn 2 Jitte and turn 3 attack with equipped Mother.He had mana flood so it was pretty easy game.
GAME 2:I had a couple of swords and Aura of Silence and he had 3x Cranial plating and low number of creatures in play so I just remove his Ornithopter and Myr enforcer from play and drop Aura of Silence and it was GG.

I have pretty good feeling about this games except high number of mulligans but still I have no problems to win with less cards.

PS:Sorry for my bad english...

[Ironstickman]

Hi, just one quick question for those with experience with the deck. Why is Serra Avenger played instead of Silver Knight? I mean, pro red and first strike are attributes quite undervalued. With knight you give Goblins a real headache and its a problem for Zoo, while Merfolks will not overcome you unless they have LoA. First strike and pro red seem to work very well with equipment. Avenger on the other side dies easily to every piece of removal in the format, and despite having vigilance, it's a worse defensive creature than knight. Plus if you're playing MoM you can make Knight pseudo-inmortal since it won't get hit by path/swords either.

Thx.

[Koby]

Serra Avenger has evasion, which can't be said about Silver Knight. While it's true that Silver Knight is better against goblins, Serra Avenger is typically better overall against all other decks, particularly Tarmogoyf.

[sclabman]

With Mom, Avenger lets you dominate the combat step, attacking and blocking with impunity. Especially with Jitte out. Silver Knight is either offensive or defensive. Avenger is both.

[Herudaio]

Avenger also flies so let's easily turn on jitte/SoLS etc.
And still block.

Btw what you think of new needle on legs?
And white creature for artifact/enchantment removal?

[Scordata]

@Herudaio:
I've been looking at the new needle, Phyrexian Revoker, but I still think Pithing Needle is better.
Sure, he's a 2/1, but that means hes susceptible to MORE removal in the format, and I really want some more OOMPH for 2 CMC.
Pithing Needle doesn't get sent farming.

The new Qasali O-Ring may be OK with Aether Vial tricks, but as it stands I happen to feel that his inclusion in the Maindeck, or sideboard for that matter, is very narrow. Maybe in a Stax, or CBTop infested meta. And who the hell would want to play in that meta?

BTW, boys and girls, with the way the US's meta is panning out, at least in regards to the SCG 5k's, UW Tempo is extremely well poised at the moment. I think its high time to dust off my Fathom Seers.

[colo]

Being a creature (and an artifact) is both a boon and a liability in UW tempo, I'd say. You can shut down that annoying top after CB+Top have been assembled if you resolved a Vial before that, for instance. Also, Mother of Runes is a nice piece of protection for the lock piece (although it doesn't matter when we're talking about Krosan Grip). Not being able to target fetchlands is also a huge drawback in comparison to needle. I'm quite convinved that it's a strong card though. Might be worth considering for the flex slots.

[(nameless one)]

BTW, boys and girls, with the way the US's meta is panning out, at least in regards to the SCG 5k's, UW Tempo is extremely well poised at the moment. I think its high time to dust off my Fathom Seers.

This,

Zoo hasn't been putting up numbers in the SCG circuit. Its currently infested with board control, Merfolk and Goblins (which I believe are all good matchups). We saw a lot of Elves at the San Jose one but this deck can take care of that deck, right?

[miro]

Played yesterday in small tournament with : 3 Vial, 2 Mangara, +1 Karakas, - 1 Arid Mesa, -1 Wayfarer
sb:
2 Enlighted Tutor
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
3 Aura of Silence
3 Path to Exile
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ghostly Prison

1_round: monoblack aggro with D.Depths
2:0
2_round : dark Zoo (Confidant + sb cards)
2:0
3_round : monored Goblins ( I stabilize in game3 with 2 Moms + Ghostly Prison + Needle on Siege-gang, but failed to draw Avenger before time was called)
1-1-1
4_round : Zoo (both games 2&3 he won with drawing extras from Sylvan Library)
1:2

Mangara :
Win me game one against Zoo when combined with Wasteland cut zoo from green
Removed opposite Jitte in round1

Zoo : Sylvan Library is must counter threat

[Guilan]

Hello there fellow experienced players of UW TEMPO deck!

I've been playing this deck for a bit and I always found it to be quite consistent. My friend, on the other hand, has been recently playing a rogue legacy deck -

Monoblack with Nevinyrral's Disk.

His deck list is rather unique I dare say.

My deck is the optimal standard build, with a few modifications in the SB

2 [MI] Plains (3)
1 [MI] Island (4)
4 [B] Tundra
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [TE] Wasteland
3 [ON] Windswept Heath

// Creatures
4 [CHP] Serra Avenger
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
4 [ON] Weathered Wayfarer
1 [ALA] Knight of the White Orchid
1 [CS] Jotun Grunt
4 [TSP] Fathom Seer
2 Stoneforge Mystiq

// Spells
3 [NE] Daze
2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
4 [IA] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [DS] AEther Vial
3 [IA] Swords to Plowshares
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [CS] Jotun Grunt
SB: 1 [SHM] Wheel of Sun and Moon
SB: 3 [LRW] Burrenton Forge-Tender
SB: 1 [WL] Aura of Silence
SB: 3 [ARE] Enlightened Tutor
SB: 1 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Wing Shards
1 Swords to Plowshares


Here's a brief list of his deck.

Creatures
4 Black Knight (ugh)
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Vampire Nighthawk

Spells
4 Cry of Contrition
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Skeletal Scrying
4 Unearth (cycling)
3 or 4 Smother
2 or 3 Damnation
3 or 4 Cremate

Lands 22 or 23 lands
2 or 3 Spawning Pool
4 Wasteland
Swamps and Fetchlands

His sb consists in

Jittes, Extirpates and Nevinyrral's Disk, Bad Moon, alongside with Lilliana Vess and Sorin Markov. (he always manages to land a lilianna and fetches sorin) =\

I know this may be a silly.dec but the interation between Cry of Contrition and Ravenous Rats, backed up by Unearth is obscene. I have to keep up with creatures especiallly Jotun Grunt if I want to beat him quick. His Black Knight tends to win fights in his favor.

What is a good side besides Sword of Light and Shadow against his deck? Sooner or Later I will be ending up against him in our local tourneys.

I want to add some percentage to win against him since my ratio is 40% in my favor.

[Karhumies]

@ Guilan: seems like these are the most problematic cards of your friend:

Creatures
4 Black Knight (ugh)

Spells
4 Skeletal Scrying
2 or 3 Damnation

sb

... Jittes, Nevinyrral's Disk

Against Black Knight: Jitte counters, Mother of Runes gives Prot. Black to Morphed Fathom Seer-> Knight dies, SB Wing Shards. No additional slots needed IMO.

Sketal Crying and Damnation: These need to be countered, but the opposing discard effects are trying to make it as hard as possible to counter them. If you think "Wrath-effects" are getting popular in your meta (not just this one guy), you may consider running more "hard counters" in your SB and take out some of the "tax counters" after sideboarding. While tax counters combined with light mana denial are normally the heart of the tempo aspect in this deck, they're not very useful if the opponent runs all-basics and attempts to cast Damnation around tax counters. That, and try not to overextend your board position versus a deck which is so light on creatures & runs MD Damnation.

SB Jitte will break your Jitte, so running another equipment in SB (preferably 1-of; can not see why you would need 2 slots) may become feasible. If Prot.Black is powerful in your meta, you can take your pick from Light and Shadow vs. Feast and Famine (the new Prot. BG sword) based on what else there is in the meta.

SB Nevinyrral's Disk: SB E.Tutor-> Pithing Needle seems to do the trick. Has he even got anything to remove an active Needle from the board?

Planeswalkers: See the previous notes about hard counters/prot. black/Pithing Needle. Any combination of those works.

[five]

What do you guys think of Leonin Relic-Warder and Phyrexian Revoker as possible sideboard fodder for U/W Tempo? I like how they can Vialed in @ 2, protected by Mom, and equipped with a Jitte. Those are all advantages over Aura of Silence and Pithing Needle. Aura is better with the Etutor package for sure, but Relic-Warder can be Vialed in at instant speed. Aura is also better against combo, Enchantress, Affinity etc, but it costs one more to cast. So Aura vs. Relic-Warder is debatable, but I can't see any reason to play Needle over Revoker in this deck. The Revoker is almost strictly better for the reasons I mentioned above. The fact that Revoker can't hit lands would be pretty irrelivant in U/W Tempo anyways

[Guilan]

@ Guilan: seems like these are the most problematic cards of your friend:



Against Black Knight: Jitte counters, Mother of Runes gives Prot. Black to Morphed Fathom Seer-> Knight dies, SB Wing Shards. No additional slots needed IMO.

Sketal Crying and Damnation: These need to be countered, but the opposing discard effects are trying to make it as hard as possible to counter them. If you think "Wrath-effects" are getting popular in your meta (not just this one guy), you may consider running more "hard counters" in your SB and take out some of the "tax counters" after sideboarding. While tax counters combined with light mana denial are normally the heart of the tempo aspect in this deck, they're not very useful if the opponent runs all-basics and attempts to cast Damnation around tax counters. That, and try not to overextend your board position versus a deck which is so light on creatures & runs MD Damnation.

SB Jitte will break your Jitte, so running another equipment in SB (preferably 1-of; can not see why you would need 2 slots) may become feasible. If Prot.Black is powerful in your meta, you can take your pick from Light and Shadow vs. Feast and Famine (the new Prot. BG sword) based on what else there is in the meta.

SB Nevinyrral's Disk: SB E.Tutor-> Pithing Needle seems to do the trick. Has he even got anything to remove an active Needle from the board?

Planeswalkers: See the previous notes about hard counters/prot. black/Pithing Needle. Any combination of those works.

thank you so much for the help.

I was going to add in my sb a single pithing needle, but it seems that I need to play around with hard counters and avoid overextendance. (xD)



@guy above

Aura of Silence improves our Combo Matchup, while it has a nice bonus of getting rid of enemy juttes. What's not to love?

[Karhumies]

@ Guilan: I can't tell how serious you were with your post. I did indeed recommend you to run a SB Pithing Needle versus Nev's Disk + Planeswalkers. However, an opposing Damnation needs to either be countered or turned into a more reasonable 1:1 or 2:1 by slow-rolling our creatures (when there are no counters available), since we are a combat-based deck when it comes to our win conditions.

Supposing that the opponent is running 7 problematic card advantage cards (4 Skeletal Scrying, 3 Damnation) and plays them around Daze, we only have 6 MD answers: 4x Force of Will (which still gives card advantage to the opponent) + 2x Spell Pierce (which can still be played around in the end game if the opponent plays all-basics instead of fetches + duals). Supposing ceteribus paribus, the opponent has a more-than-decent chance of winning the pre-SB card advantage fight. And despite the name "UW Tempo" becoming established, our deck is - in practise - very much about establishing card advantage, long-run games and statistical averages.

[colo]

I managed to win yesterday's weekly tournament (11 players attending) 3-0, beating Merfolk 2-0, Bant Aggro 2-0, and another Merfolk 2-0. My singleton mainboard Pithing Needle once again proved very worthwhile, winning me the last game of the tournament: My starting hand was Tundra, Fetchland, Vial, Pithing Needle, Mother of Runes, Daze and something I don't remember, and my opponent opened with a Vial. I played a vial of mine and passed. Next turn he upped his to one, vialed in a Cursecatcher and landed a _second_ vial. No worries on my side though; I just went on to up my vial as well, used it to beam down Mother of Runes, and landed my Pithing Needle - naming Aether Vial, quite obviously, to seriously hamper his engine. Turns out he was very light on actual mana, and in the end, a singleton Serra Avenger flew in for the win. The other merfolk games were major beatings due to Sword of Fire and Ice (which I run mainboard alongside a singleton Umezawa's Jitte). I won against Bant due to Umezawa's Jitte and massive card-advantage thanks to Wayfarer game one, and triple Mother of Runes game two, which enabled me to alpha-strike with a pro-green Jotun Grunt on the fourth extra-turn (:D) after I've been chipping away on his life totals with a Serra Avenger for many turns in a row. The game took that long because his duo of Quasali Pridemages kept me off of Jitte which I had held in hand for the better part of the game, and three teensy 2/3 Tarmogoyfs weren't particularly good at scaring me or my life totals in a serious manner. I did not change the mainboard against the Merfolk builds at all, and boarded +1 Relic of Progenitus, +3 Submerge, -2 Fathom Seer, -1 Sword of Fire and Ice, -1 Pithing Needle.

It's been a great ride, and I'm looking forward to next week, though I'll probably try something new for a change :)