[Modern] How can this Jhoira suspend deck get better?

[llamadude]

This is for a casual game night with some friends. Some of them have put more work into their decks than others (the best deck probably being a Tron deck with some big nasties).

I mostly play Commander and cube, so my collection isn't tuned to Modern, but I feel like this runs decently well while goldfishing. I'm particularly unsure about the sideboard though...

Can you give me some advice to tune the deck, and particularly what to do with the sideboard?

https://deckstats.net/decks/149773/1984215-delayed-gratification/en?revision=10

Thanks! ^_^

[llamadude]

https://deckstats.net/decks/149773/1984215-delayed-gratification/en?revision=11

+1 Aeon Chronicler
-1 The Magic Mirror

[jlutzxinc]

Your huge Sideboard (which is really more of a Maybeboard) suggests you're not willing to use anything not shown, so I'll go by that for now.  I honestly don't think I've ever seen SO MANY bad counterspells; why would you ever want versions that only work on SOME cards, or that your opponent can simply opt out of?  Of the options there, Faerie Trickery, Hinder and Nimble Obstructionist are the best three, the first two because they actually get rid of the countered card so your opponent can't just fetch it from the graveyard, and the latter not just because it counters abilities but also because it replaces itself AND doubles as a body you can flash in to block.  Delay is thematically appropriate but doesn't solve the problem and Flusterstorm can get rid of multiple spells but the rest are straight BAD.

In terms of the Deck itself you have a neat repeatable draw trick with Jhoira of the Ghitu, Aeon Chronicler, and a bounce effect you use on yourself (like Familiar's Ruse), but otherwise it looks pretty limited; there are many singletons from your Commander experience, and the handful of Red cards (except Jhoira, sometimes Angrath's Marauders and possibly Smash to Smithereens) do essentially nothing and you're better off without them IMO.  Deafening Clarion could also be helpful, but only if you either have multiple creatures you want to get Lifelink or none you're afraid to lose on the turn it comes down and not before.  I have a couple of ideas for cards you could add but I'll defer to my opening sentence until you confirm otherwise.

[llamadude]

Hey thanks for your input and advice!

To answer your first question, no I'm not set on anything in the sideboard-- as you can tell by the presence of Deafening Clarion (no white mana) a lot of it is simply leftovers. I had started with some ideas there, then also added in things I'd stripped out of the mainboard, and it just kinda got cluttered up. So yes, I'm completely open to suggestions!

With regards to your points about situational counterspells, I hear you but I'm going to guess that you don't play control very much? Many of those counterspells are actually quite good. The tradeoff is usually between cost (Counterspell is the gold standard for two blue, but obviously not in Modern, so a cmc of 3 is getting expensive) and effectiveness-- either in how completely it counters it (can they "opt out" by paying a cost, or does it get put somewhere they can cast it again at some point), or in the types of things it counters (only noncreatures, only creatures, etc).

The situational spells are going to be better off in the sideboard, since countering noncreature spells isn't going to be too useful against a creature deck, for example, but against a noncreature deck it's exactly what you want. Lilewise things like Mana Leak don't seem that great or exciting until you realize that 3 mana is a lot to leave open. You can't get everything with it, but you can usually get their big scary things when they are trying to move fast.

Control's whole game is to delay-- the long game. The aim is to slow the opponent and avoid their nastier things, but mostly to set ourselves up for success while preventing them from getting too far.

I'm hardly a great control player, and I'm sure you already knew the above, but I just wanted to get on the same page about the various counterspells. ^_^

[llamadude]

https://deckstats.net/decks/149773/1984215-delayed-gratification/en?revision=14

I cleaned up the sideboard a tiny bit. Still plenty of work to do.

[jlutzxinc]

I hope I'm not too late replying, but you have correctly guessed that I am not a Control main; however, I do have a couple of Control players among my Commander playgroup and even the Baral, Chief of Compliance Deck doesn't have most of those cards (and not only because Counterspell exists in that format).  I was going to suggest other similar cards but if you think 3 mana is too much I won't; I do think Miscast is mostly better than Dispel because 3 extra mana is a lot to pay for one card and it also hits Sorceries.

I would say it'd be better if you had more copies of Aeon Chronicler because it's basically Phyrexian Arena and I bet it could draw you a lot of extra cards over the course of a "casual game night", and another conditionally untapped Dual like Sulfur Falls or Frostboil Snarl in place of Wandering Fumarole.  You've also sided Fury Charm and I can't emphasize enough how much I love cards that do multiple things, and especially in this case between destroying Artifacts like Smash to Smithereens but also removing Time Counters that card is SO GOOD for this kind of Deck.

I'm not sure what your gameplan is with Watcher for Tomorrow; how soon are you expecting to get that exiled card?  I would have used Anticipate.

[llamadude]

lol no worries! Yeah I guess there are different approaches to control. The safer side in one sense is using spells like you mentioned, which counter things without a doubt. On the other hand, there's the side which is more likely to be able to cast a counterspell or two due to a lower cost, but with the downside that you might not have the right counterspell at the right time. I tend to prefer the second approach, but that certainly doesn't invalidate the first! I guess part of why I lean that way is because I want to keep my mana curve low. Control decks often have higher ones, but I can't stand getting mana flooded, so I tend to err just slightly on the lower side. Maybe that's a bad design choice, I don't know.

I was thinking of adding some more copies of Aeon Chronicler, but I'm not anticipating being able to use them (especially with my low mana curve) without Jhoira of the Ghitu -- I actually substituted that copy for The Magic Mirror. And with only four Jhoiras in the deck, it's going to be a dead card a lot of the time. So I'm thinking to use it once I've reached a good position, but not really before that.

Yeah, I'd stick better dual lands in there if I had them lol... I'm missing a few Izzet duals.

Yep! The way I originally built the deck (see revision 9) was a lot heavier on the suspending, and less so on the control aspects. Then I realized that to survive against most other decks long enough for the suspends to hit the board, I really needed better delaying tactics. That's when I moved four copies Fury Charm and four copies of Timecrafting out of the mainboard... But artifact removal is useful in the sideboard, and the multi-use like you said is helpful, so win-win! I think Abrade is still a slightly better card even for this deck, but I only have one copy so it's hard to put in more.

I'd actually like to put in multiple copies of Watcher for Tomorrow, because I think it works well!

• It digs deeper than Anticipate
• It's a chump blocker, which helps the control aspect
• It combos nicely with Familiar's Ruse