Modern Deck Tech - UW Tempo

Hey guys, it's GuitarSlam.

So here's my first "real" post for you guys!  As the title says, I'm going to be going over the UW Tempo deck that I brewed up for Modern tonight.  I have yet to test it (I'll be doing that tomorrow) but I figured I would go over the concepts now so that there's something to compare it to after some actual playtesting.  

Something that is going to be helpful for you guys to know early on in this blog's life is that I'm a blue mage at heart.  I absolutely love control decks; my favorite card is still Venser, the Sojourner and my favorite color combination is UW by far.  Based on this, the majority of my decks are either straight control, u-based tempo, or combo (I love Splinter Twin and Storm decks for whatever reason).  Now that we've got that out of the way, here's the deck.

Creatures: 19                                                   

4 Delver of Secrets                                          

4 Squadron Hawk                                              

3 Wall of Omens                   

3 Kitchen Finks                     

3 Restoration Angel               

2 Snapcaster Mage               

Other Spells: 19

4 Path to Exile                        

4 Mana Leak                              

4 Serum Visions

3 Gitaxian Probe

2 Deprive

1 Sword of War and Peace

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

Lands: 22

4 Hallowed Fountain

4 Glacial Fortress

4 Seachrome Coast

3 Celestial Colonade

5 Island

1 Plains

1 Moorland Haunt

One quick note about the creature line-up.  I should be running both Vendilion Clique and Geist of Saint Traft, but I don't have the money for them.  Both are fantastic creatures that would easily make this deck better.  They're both just way too expensive for me to get at the moment, especially in multiples.  If you have the resources to get them, definitely add them to the deck.

Now, back to the overview.  The plan with this deck is to play cheap threats and then back them up with counter magic and removal. If you're able to equip a Sword to your creature you're doing even better. The advantage provided by the swords are immense, not only because of their powerful effects once you deal damage to your opponent, but also because of the protection from specific colors that they provide.  It makes blocking a disaster for your opponent and also can make their spot removal useless against your creature.

Delver is the best early creature that you can play; having a 3/2 flyer on turn 2 is very powerful in any format (as shown by his success in Legacy as well).  The best part of your creature package is that you don't mind too much if your opponent uses a removal spell on any of them.  With how cheap your creatures are, I would gladly see my opponent burn their Lightning Bolt or a Path to Exile on my 1 mana creature.  I will easily be able to recover and just play another cheap creature or two.

Restoration Angel is a fantastic card to top out your low mana curve. She has a 3/4 body, which is big enough to dodge being killed by both Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix, two of the more popular removal spells in Modern.  Obviously, a 3/4 flying flash creature is good on it's own, but being able to reset a Kitchen Finks that already has a -1/-1 counter on it or getting to draw an extra card off of Wall of Omens is especially sweet.  It's even decent to flash in Restoration Angel to blink your flipped Delver to save it from removal.  Sure, the Delver will flip back over to it's 1/1 side, but assuming that you're able to transform it again (which isn't that hard) you now have 6 total power of flying creatures on the field, and your opponent is down a removal spell.

The spells are fairly straight forward.  There are three main purposes for your instants and sorceries: draw cards, counter your opponent's spells, or remove your opponent's creatures.  Serum Visions both draws a card and sets up the top of your library to hopefully flip Delver.  Gitaxian Probe also draws you a card but, more importantly, it gives you invaluable information about what your opponent is playing and what they have in their hand.  Being able to use this information to your benefit is one of the most important things that you can do when playing a tempo deck.  There are going to be decisions that you have to make about whether it's worth countering something or if your opponent is trying to bluff you.  By knowing what cards your opponent holds, you can much more easily make the decisions as to how important every resource is.  Remember, you're looking to stick one or two creatures and ride them to victory by trading resources constantly with your opponent.  Don't waste your counter spells or removal spells if you know that you don't have to.

Mana Leak and Path to Exile are common cards to see in Modern, so they need little explanation.  They're both just extremely good at doing what they were designed to do.  The card that does need some discussion, however, is Deprive.  It's not a card that you often see people playing because of the tempo that's lost by returning a land to your hand.  I want to try it out because, most importantly, it's a 2 mana hard counter spell.  That's extremely powerful.  The fact that I return a land doesn't kill me because the majority of the deck is low mana cost, so the tempo hit doesn't seem like it will be that bad.  Maybe after some testing I will find out that I don't like Deprive as much as I think I'm going to, but at the moment it seems like a card that will fit very well into the deck.

The lands are basic.  Plenty of dual lands and even a few man lands to give some extra reach in the late game.  I don't run any fetchlands for multiple reasons.  The first is that I simply don't have any at the moment, but in a two color deck like this I don't feel like they're completely necessary anyway.  I'm able to fit in plenty of dual lands and, like I mentioned, the Celestial Colonades so for now I feel like the mana base is just fine.  I want to try out the one Moorland Haunt to give extra attackers once my regular creatures die.  It may not be needed, but it seems like it's worth trying out.

Well, that's the deck, I hope you guys like it.  I don't currently have a sideboard built, but if I end up liking this deck and want to take it to a tournament, I'll make one and put up a post about it.  Like I said earlier in this post, I'll be testing this deck soon so I'll make sure to talk about those matches and see what updates I will be making.  Until then, make sure to play some Magic and, if you're interested in tempo decks, give this deck a try!  I would love to hear what you think of it :)

See you guys later.