Jeskai Midrange sounds interesting, now that I think about it. It has a great removal selection, cantrips, Snapcaster, and now it’ll have ways to revive guys for value. Nice idea.

This is a Bant control list I’ve been working on that tries to play out like the Grixis control decks currently seeing play but with even more grinding power and some better anti-aggro options. I play Mardu so I don’t own most of the cards I need for this. I’m sure most will think 8 four-drops is crazy but with Noble Hierarch and Remand to help get you to turn 4 I think the payoff is potentially worth it. I’m finally proxying it up now…

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bant-command-and-control/

That said… why would anyone run Arashin Cleric over Lone Missionary when the goal is to thwart aggro and maximize the potency of Ojutai’s Command? Missionary’s 2 power let it actually trade with attacking creatures, which takes their guys off the board and gives you opportunities for more value with Ojutai’s Command. Furthermore, you get more life per casting. I’m really puzzled by that call.

Jeskai is one of the better venues for OC, and I’d love to see more Jeskai decks make it with a combination of Jace and the Command. Definitely let us know if you get any results!

Those are interesting synergies! Seems like a good singleton bullet in versions of that deck, although the BtL Scapeshift builds haven’t made a lot of noise recently.

Interesting idea! It’s still unclear to me if Bant is really what you want to be doing in Modern; if Sultai can’t cut it for lack of Bolt, I’m sure Bant will suffer a similar fate. But it’d definitely be worth some testing!

As I indicated in the article, OC’s viability depends a lot on there being grindy decks to beat. That’s where the card is at its best, although it’s not abysmal in more aggressive metagames as long as you have the right shell. I’ll definitely grant it’s terrible in combo metagames, but it’s more workable where other decks have a higher share.

To me, this feels more like a metagame call than anything else. The guy must have expected an incredibly aggressive field, and wanted the IoK and Verdicts to address that. He’s not even in that heavily on the Verdicts at just two copies, which he can ship away through scrying or just discard via Jace. As for Leak and Path, that’s existed in Modern for ages. Numerous Modern pros have used the cards together because it’s the best UWx has in Modern, including Shaun McLaren, a longtime Jeskai aficionado.

Grixis is not currently tier 1 but it’s certainly tier 2, and it was absolutely tier 1 earlier this year. We just go where the data takes us, and with Grixis Midrange making Top 8 at Pittsburgh (with other copies in the T32), along with its wider metagame performance, it’s fair to say this color pairing is here to stay. Indeed, the collective metagame share of Grixis decks is currently 7%-8%, all based around Kolaghan’s Command, Tasigur, and other traditional Grixis synergies. It was significantly higher early in the year as well.

I don’t think tempo is where you want OC to do its job. Tempo decks aren’t currently playing Cryptic, and they really can’t support a 4 CMC card on their curve, at least not without disrupting other elements of the deck. You could eke by with 22 or so lands (as Grixis Control strategies have done) if you lean on cantrips, but that’s still not what I want to be doing with Delver.

I’m sorry you feel that way. Given our traffic numbers and other feedback I’m going to have to disagree, but I’m happy to hear areas where you feel the content could be improved. As for Jace’s functionality with countermagic, at no point am I really drumming up Jace’s synergy with the counterspells themselves. It’s mostly his synergy with the recursion mode, which is pretty clear in the article.

These are factors that have also pushed out Cryptic Command to some degree. I could see a day when it is viable, but it’s going to sit on the shelf for now for me.