MTG Salvation

I feel like there is the possibility this could be a way that wizards takes a year to make some more experimental changes to the modern ban list.

slitherhead is not good enough. Experiment one or elvish mystic allow for much more aggressive plays. I've been messing around with this list, It's heavier green than yours, which makes Scavenging ooze better and Lotleth troll worse.

Personally I dislike desecration demon in this deck, especially as a two of, so would prefer to run the more consistent polukranos.

Quote from yrock

Way OP. Sacrificing a land would need to be attached to one of the second two abilities for this to ever be printed.

You're right, that was meant to be a part of the activation cost.

I'm generally looking for 3+ lands. I will keep a 2 land hand with a 2-3 CC rock or ramp spell if the rest of the hand is decent. I will almost always keep 6 land hands and trust my deck to deliver additional threats and answers. 7 lands is usually still a keep in Maelstrom Wanderer, but becomes questionable in Aurelia.

I would also love a new version of wasteland that isn't as insulting as encroaching wastes.


Maybe:
Wasteland-lite
Land
t:add1
t: put a charge counter on ~
t, remove a charge counter from ~, sacrifice ~: destroy target non-basic land

Why has nobody mentioned evoke yet? It's an awesome mechanic that plays really well.

Hoping for Theros to give us something like:

Almost Counterspell UU
Counter target non-enchantment Spell.

Of course, WoTC would really have to be trying to push enchantments in standard for this to be printed, so I doubt it will happen...

Quote from Poopingmypants

I'm working on a new list that ramps with DRS and also plays Goyf and Ooze. As Ooze and DRS help us have a positive game versus the grave decks, I think we might be able to get the deck to a more respectable stance. I just don't feel Finks and Steve make the cut in this meta. I'll post a list once I get enough testing in.

Rough list as of now. Super not budget!!!

Jangotat's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
3 Death Cloud 3 Garruk Wildspeaker 3 Overgrown Tomb 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Forest 2 Swamp 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 3 Treetop Village 2 Maelstrom Pulse 3 Thoughtseize 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Godless Shrine 3 Liliana of the Veil 1 Temple Garden 4 Marsh Flats 4 Abrupt Decay 4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Scavenging Ooze 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Lingering Souls

It looks solid, but it looks very much like a junk deck with Deathcloud and Garruk and no bob. I like the idea of a bigger junk deck that ramps instead of playing bob, but at that point is Death cloud the card you want to be ramping into?

I've wondered about restrictions being used before. I can get behind the idea that for many of the cards it would feel like a miracle situation where one person draws jace and the other doesn't.

What about some of the other cards though? Ponder and preordain are banned because of the consistency they add. I certainly don't see them being restricted leading to the same kind of blowout games where one person draws JTMS and the other doesn't. This is probably not the greatest example as a lot of people think one of these could come off the banlist regardless and be safe to modern.

What about Seething song? There's not much of a power issue with the card. Its banning was due to the consistency of storm winning on turn 3. A storm deck with 1 seething song is more powerful than one with 0, but a storm deck with one seething song is also not at the level of consistency that required a ban.

What about the artifact lands? you can't unban them because releasing all of them on the format lends too much speed and consistency to some decks, but if those decks can only play one of each? I honestly have no idea if this would be safe or not.

21 lands is very light for a control deck. I would look to play 23 minimum, and probably either 24 or 25 in actuality. If you're going to go straight GB (which I approve of) Then you should use this to your advantage and play tectonic edge. one of the major draws of two color decks in modern is the ability to fit in 4x tec-edge and go after others' manabases. Treetop village is also pretty awesome as a manland.

I would probably look at cutting some number of Birds to get to that number, especially if you play 3x Damnation as they turn into a liability.

Your deck is too slow. I'd suggest looking at the deathcloud deck: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=345694
It is more or less a B/G control list, and even if that specific deck is not what you want, It does showcase how you can make a control deck playing BG.

Quote from BbearZ

Maybe he expected the Gruul Zoo decks but I still like Spirit Link more.

I think maybe he planned on getting early Dryad Arbors or Forests and wanted to be able to Daybreak or double Ethereal Armor/Hyena Umbra or Double Keen Sense/Spider Umbra. He is playing 4 of each. It also saves life if he gets it early on. But Fetching into Shocks seems more consistent to me.

I find it interesting he doesn't have Paths mainboard. I lowered my Path count to 2 in my mainboard but I don't like cutting them entirely. He probably expected a lot of U/W/R control but if he did, he would have sided in nature's claim or Stony Silences since their best weapon against us is Spellskite.

He said the decks he was expecting were UWR Control, Pod, Jund and Scapeshift. (I think in that order) It sounded like he just didn't care about blockers and was happy to trample over them with lifegain.

Quote from Valanarch

Why are so many decks exactly the same? Also, that's a lot of American control.

There were a handful of testing groups that came out with decks they thought were going to be the best in this metagame. When you only have 16 people and 2-3 groups of 3-4 people each, it starts to be a lot of the field.

Besandra is one of the worst possible boros cards. Especially with Sunforger, you should be the one casting instants in combat, so it hurts you more than anyone else.

Speaking of sunforger packages, I find warleader's helix to be a mediocre card that doesn't really have enough impact when played. I've always liked being able to search up master warcraft. It can act as a fog at the minimum and can become as good as a plague wind if the board is right. Condemn also works as tutorable removal that tucks generals.

I'll also question legion loyalist and Ajani Vengeant. I have found both to be extremely low impact, and If tokens are a big deal in your meta, I would look for a different solution than the loyalist.

brutalizer exarch or primal command can deal with problem non-creatures, while also having other utility. I prefer that to the limited use of defiance.