I've been thinking about RGuWishValakut.

Good evening. I've been thinking about a new form of WishValakut with blue added.

If you don't know anything about WishValakut, you may want to read this article first so you can enjoy it more.(I casually translated a past article into English and was surprised to see it featured on the Valakut server on Discord. Thank you soooo much!)

So let's take a look!

Table of Contents

Benefits of Adding Blue

Can be adapted to more metagames.

In the story, Gruul are savage and violent, but in Modern, they are a diverse and dexterous Guild with "powerful creatures, removal, Board Sweeper, Artifact and Enchantment destruction, and countermeasures."

Adding blue allows you to add Bounce and counters, so it can be used in more metagames.

Be able to deal with Aether Gust

I don't think there has ever been a titanshift player who wasn't angry at Aether Gust.

Aether Gust is not a counter, which makes Veil of Summer, Cavern of Souls, Chandra, Awakened Inferno, Vexing Shusher, etc. useless.

Of course, blue is not red or green, so it is not a target. In addition, you can use counters, the greatest strength of blue, as a surprise attack.

Lighter than Gruul and has more range.

The only cards that can destroy multiple Artifacts and Enchantments with Gruul are those that cost more than 4 mana or have a strict Colored-Mana Requirement.(Examples include Fracturing Gust, Shatterstorm, Creeping Corrosion, Shattering Spree, etc.)

However, if you use blue, you can use the following three cards, which will greatly contribute to delay the game development. Wishvalakut can be cut down in one turn, so Bounce is not a problem.

1. Echoing Truth
2. Hurkyl's Recall
3. Rebuild

Cards that may be adopted

Flusterstorm

A standard card in Modern blue decks these days.It's an instant and sorcery only counter, but it's proven to be a powerful card in EDH and Legacy.

Cascade decks such as Cascade Crash, Living End, and Glimpse of Tomorrow can act as powerful counters as your opponent can load up on Storm themselves.If you don't have enough Storm, don't forget to use Summoner's Pact and Endurance.

By the way, the copy created by Storm is not casted, so it is not affected by the effect of Chalice of the Void. (The original will be countered because it is casted).

Swan Song

Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment-only counters to force your own combos through, or to counter Blood/Alpine Moon.Don't think too much about the bird tokens as they are not a big problem.

Note that even if you cast it on a spell that is not countered, it is not an Illegal Target and will still generate a bird token.

Dispel

One of the strongest counters in pauper.Even though it's an Instant-only counter, the fact that it can be cast with just (U) is a big plus.

However, since Dispel is powerless against Cascade decks, there is little need to prioritize it in a metagame where those decks are strong.

Test of Talents

Instant and Sorcery only counters with the added bonus of Unmoored Ego like exile.This is very reassuring in a metagame where spell-based combo decks are strong.

However, the following two points are confusing rules, so make sure you remember them.

1. If you counter a card with the Adventure subtype, "you can't exile everything, including the card you countered."→Spells with the Adventure subtype are recognized as creatures when they're not on the stack, so you can't exile any of them because the names don't match.
2. If you cast on a card that can't be countered, "Can't be countered, but other cards with the same name can be exiled."→It fails to counter, but since it is not an Illegal Target, other cards with the same name can be exiled.

Echoing Truth

This card is very useful in pauper because it can get rid of squirrels.It is often misunderstood that you can bounce any permanent of the same name, including your own, except for lands.

It's versatile enough to be used in any metagame, and works quite well against Delve creatures such as Murktide Regent. It's also great at removing tokens all together, and is the best answer to Rhino.

Aether Gust

If a card makes you very uncomfortable when used by your opponent, don't you want to use it yourself? I'm the type of person who wants to be offended, lol.

Fortunately, in this metagame, there are plenty of targets.For example, Wrenn and Six, Omnath, Locus of Creation, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, and Primeval Titan,Blood/Alpine Moon are good examples.It is more useful than expected, as it can be used to reuse the effect of Endurance, or protect Primeval Titan from removal.It is important to note that this is not an active card, so it needs to be a slow metagame when employing it.

Hurkyl's Recall

(1)(U) to bounce all target player's artifacts, which Gruul can never do.The following archetypes can expect a great return. Be careful with Hexproof as it takes a target.

1. Hammer Time
2. Thopter Control
3. Affinity
4. Scale Affinity
5. Urza Food

Rebuild

It's almost the same as Hurkyl's Recall, but it has cycling, so it's less likely to rot, and it doesn't take targets, so Hexproof doesn't matter.

Spellskite

In the past, I couldn't use it because it was very hard to pay for life, but with the addition of blue and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove making it easier to supply blue, I thought it was worth using.It is strong when played against the following archetypes. However, it is not a card that can always be employed, so please observe the metagame very carefully.

1. Burn(Keep in mind that Bump in the Night, Boros Charm, and Lava Spike are useless because they can only target players.)
2. Scale Affinity
3. 5cBtLScapeshift
4. Indomitable Creativity

By the way, Spellskite is famous for its complicated rules, and here are some of the tricky patterns you can expect when using WishValakut, so make sure you learn them before using it.

1. Equipment controlled by an opponent cannot be changed the target.→Equipment is an "ability that targets a creature you (or in this case, your opponent) control," so you can't change the target.
2. FoV taking two targets (if not taking Spellskite as a target)→Only one target can be changed.
3. FoV taking two targets(Spellskite is being taken as a target)→I can't change any of the targets.
4. If Prismari Command or Kolaghan's Command is chosen for artifact destruction and 2 points of damage (Neither of the two are targeted at Spellskite.).→If you activate it twice, you can change the target of both (command card is a card that resolves the written effects one by one from the top).
5. Spellskite is not a defender, so don't forget to bring it into the fight when you increase its size with The Ozolith.
6. There are times when you need to participate in combat even if your Spellskite power is 0.→If your opponent has a white deck, Condemn may be used.In order to change the target from Condemn, Spellskite must also be in combat.Don't forget to include Spellskite in your combat with Primeval Titan.
7. How to avoid having 3 valakut triggers on the stack that your opponent controls when you have 8 life.How do we survive?→You can survive by activating Spellskite once against each of your opponent's valakut triggers.(8-2*3)The first and second triggers will be retargeted to Spellskite, and the third trigger will be an Illegal Target since Spellskite is not already on the battlefield.
8. An opponent controls a Spellskite and has 8 life. There are three Valakut triggers on the stack that you control, and your opponent activates Spellskite's ability once for each Valakut trigger. How do you win?→If you stack and remove Spellskite in some way before your opponent's Spellskite ability resolves, you win.This is because Spellskite's ability is checked to see if it can be retargeted when it resolves.If Spellskite's ability is removed before it resolves, it will be an Illegal Target because it is not already on the battlefield.By the way, in this scene, your opponent's life is 8-3*3-2*3=-7, which is overkill.lol
9. Even if you can't change the target, you can still activate Spellskite.→For example, spells that cannot be targeted by Spellskite, such as Lava Spike, can still be activated.It's almost never useful, but the rules allow it. The only time it's useful is when your opponent is Triskaidekaphobia.

About RGuWishValakut's sample list

There are only three changes from the list in the previous article.

1. Mountain4→Mountain3, Steam Vents1
2. Cinder Glade3→Cinder Glade2, Ketria Triome1
3. Verdant Catacombs1→Misty Rainforest1

In the current metagame, there are not many Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin, so I decided not to include basic lands would not be a problem.If they do come into use, just replace the Steam Vents with Islands and you're good to go.I added one more Mountain last time, so I can spin it with the same feeling as titanshift a while ago.

By the way, play Steam Vents and Island as hidden as possible, like snow-covered Mountain in the previous article, to give the illusion that it is a general Gruul list.

Ketria Triome, on the other hand, is fine to play early in the game.It was used a lot in recent titanshift. Besides, from an opponent's point of view, it looks like you want to deal with tapping in, and it looks like you're only including it for X=3 in Engineered Explosives.If your hand is tight or you want to deal with tap-ins, search first. If you have a mana-flooded hand that allows cycling, you can do it later.Ketria Triome is the only Triome that has both Mountain and Forest, making it easier to build RGuWishValakut. This is truly a revolution, as previously it would have required a more complex mana base.

I know it's hard for Ikoria because The Rabiah Scale is 5, but I'd like to see RGb and RGw triumvirate soon, as soon as possible please Maro!

Thoughts on RGuWishValakut

1. I like the fact that it can now counter disadvantageous archetypes with very little change in land distribution or feel.
2. You need to identify your opponent's archetype as soon as possible (you want to have a rough idea by the time you search for lands on turn 2).
3. The number and type of blue cards to be used will vary greatly depending on the metagame, so we need to be more careful in understanding the metagame.

It's been a long time coming, but this is the end of my explanation.

I guess the next update will be the introduction of RGwWishValakut.I'd also like to introduce you to the cards for INNISTRAD: MIDNIGHT HUNT, now that the full spoiler is out!(Wrenn and Seven?I had to erase it from my memory because it didn't fit WishValakut too well...)

If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to contact me on Discord or twitter! (I'm not very good at English, so sorry if my response is delayed!)

I'll see you another time then. Good-bye.