This is something I've been gnawing at since Imperiosaur was downshifted in Modern Masters. It's not amazing, but I feel like it's fairly mature as a brew. I have a decent record with it in the practice room, but that owes as much to rogue deck factor as to anything else.
It turns out that a vanilla 5/5 for four mana, all of which have to be from basic lands? That's not actually very good. But his big brother, Blastoderm, has always been a fearsome and excellent card, and he does good work in this deck.
Basic Theory of Operation:
This deck plays the mid-range. You want to stall out early aggression, then take over the game and end it with your main threats, Blastoderm and Wormfang Drake.
Your means to this end is your full 12-set of 2-cost 1/1s with ETB triggers that put you up a card. Against aggro, they're your speedbumps; against black, they're your edict fodder; and they feed the Wormfang Drake in a way that benefits you.
As mentioned above, you want a couple of 1/1s in play before you try to stick a Blastoderm against anyone who'll have edicts; you also want multiple 1/1s in play if you're trying to drop a Wormfang Drake against someone with instant-speed removal.
Ninja of the Deep Hours and Mulldrifter contribute in utterly predictable ways to help you pump out huge waves of card advantage. Ninja, along with Wormfang, can save a Blastoderm that's going to fade out the following turn. Compulsive Research helps thin out land floods, and generally reload your hand.
Vapor Snag makes it easier to push Blastoderm through their blockers. You can also save your own creatures, if you're really just that desperate or if they don't give you targets.
Spell Pierce gets the nod over Mana Leak because it comes online so much faster. It's very easy to develop your board while threatening to mangle their removal/dig/counterspells with a single blue mana, much more so than doing it while threatening with 1U.
Sideboard is a bit all over the place, full of basic blue-green goodstuff. A lot of it is informed by a need to stall for time against fast decks. Fade Away is a hilarious beating against anybody whose creatures routinely outnumber their lands. Temporal Spring is mainly for punishing bouncelands.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Maybe Curfew would be interesting in the maindeck? You can replay your 2-drops for extra effects, or reset a Blastoderm, or save a dying Wormfang Drake.
On that drake, it's probably one of my favorite creatures, it certainly brings the beats. My experience with Kjeldoran Dead tells me to never, ever be greedy with laying it down early, you will be punished with removal/bounce.
Curfew is definitely on the list of cards that have come and gone in this deck. I'm a little anxious of how it interacts with opposing Spellstutter Sprite, but it might be worth testing again - it left around the same time Wingcrafter did.. I'll probably cut into Ninja of the Deep Hours, Sylvan Ranger, and Vapor Snag to make room for it.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
The deck looks like a blast to play and should function well in theory! Some other 2-drops that could work well are:
- Wormfang Newt: With spell-lands like Khalni Garden and Halimar Depths alongside your lifegain lands, this could be an interesting piece of tech to be bounced with both Ninja and Drake. And it actually trades with a lot of the Pauper meta unlike the 1/1's.
- Thalakos Seer: Ninjutsu enabler and draws cards upon leaving, which works well with Ninjutsu itself and the Drake, although the double blue might strain the manabase.
- Augury Owl: Enables Ninjutsu too and allows you to filter through your deck.
Man-o'-war, although a 3 drop, will provide huge speedbumps and tempo swings against creature decks, bouncing one and trading with another, and can be reused with both Drake and Ninja.
Like Upkeep said, I would substitute Vapor Snag for Curfew: it targets Bogles, which seems like a problematic matchup for you, it keeps the opponents off tempo, and it lets you reuse your ETB creatures, also working great with Blastoderm resetting it's counters (Curfew doesn't target) or Drake for an instant speed ETB effect + saving him from removal. I would also trim a land or two since you already have so much draw power and land searching, and fit in 2-3 Mana Leak (they can counter creatures).
Heh, I was thinking a bit more about this deck. It's very interesting!
If you don't like Curfew, have you tried Withdraw before? It can be a very big potential swing in tempo, as well as doing a Curfew-like thing (use the second optional target on your own creature and don't pay the mana). Obviously not as good against Hexproof or with Blastoderm, but I think it might be interesting over vapor snag.
Also, I built a mono-blue Flying aggro deck probably close to 10 years ago, and one of my favorite combos was Wormfang Drake + Unstable Mutation. a 6/7 attacking on turn 4 was often the end for my opponents. And when it dies, you get your exiled creature back with a etb effect. It might be too janky, though.
Wormfang Newt bothers me because it sets me back a mana. It's important to keep hitting your land drops, you have 3 and 4-drops to cast.
Thalakos Seer might be good, but his UU mana cost and lack of defensive functionality seem troublesome.
Augury Owl seems like a clear winner, though. ETB value, so I don't need an enabler, and he's a flying 1/1, which would help hold off the Faerie hordes. Good synergy with Coiling Oracle, as well.
Mana Leak would be nice, but now you're talking about having five mana if you need to use it to force through a Wormfang Drake. I'm a little anxious about cutting land count - it's very important to curve out smoothly if you're going to keep up with the opponent.
It's not sensible to replace all the Vapor Snag with Curfew. Very often they'll attack with one guy while leaving back a chump blocker; Curfew just falls on its face in that circumstance. You generally need the ability to bounce specific creatures in your maindeck.
Man-O'-War is going to be really sad if he pops back onto the battlefield and finds himself to be the only creature. I don't think I need any more creature bounce - you only need a spoonful to get through the end of the game.
I think I'll try out a 21-land build with Augury Owl and maybe a couple of Mana Leak and a couple of Curfew, and see how it functions.
EDIT: Missed a response, there.
Withdraw is interesting. At the moment the U price tag feels like a huge selling point for bounce spells - notice how much of the sideboard is U spells as well. We have just a tiny bit of room to play disruption around our somewhat clunky tempo gains. But! It might be worth looking at again.
Unstable Mutation feels a little bit win-more - getting an aura onto a live, resolved Wormfang seems like a lot of narrow hoops to jump through, and even sticking it on a 1/1 doesn't seem like a great blowout play. I like that card, but I don't know if it'd be good here - maybe in some kind of dies-trigger-tribal deck with Palace Familiar and Jeskai Sage?
EDIT EDIT: Oooh, and Demonic Appetite. I'll have to have a look at this incredibly silly idea later.
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
for the sideboard, it's probably going to go through some massive optimization. The only spells that seem like solid winners are Dispel (love that spell now), Moment's Peace and Hydroblast. Everything else looks like it could move around a lot. I don't quite get Feed the Clan. It doesn't feel like a particularly strong constructed card. Fade Away seems too numerous as a 3-of for the amount of matchups where you'll need them (1 or 2 would seem like better numbers).
While I love Temporal Spring (you're playing a lot of my pet cards!), I don't think it will do quite enough as opposed to more land destruction. Personally, when people mess with my lands when I'm playing Blue, I don't care because my draw spells usually win over a card like this. This rings true for Tron and for Esper familiars, who will just draw their way out of cards being put on top of their library. I don't think it will have the impact you desire, as you won't be able to apply pressure early on enough for it to matter (the later you play it, the worse the effect is, the earlier you play it, the less aggro you have going).
Thermokarst, the obligatory land destruction spell to fight Tron and Esper. I'd prefer a good solid counterspell instead. But that's personal, I guess.
Don't have a lot to say about this at the moment - testing is difficult because this deck tends to lose horribly against a resolved Treasure Cruise from a control deck. Once that slips out of the format, I'll be back to being able to grind out of control's reach other than by resolving my own Cruise.
So for now I'll just play my Grixis Atog Cruise deck.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
I was working on a similar idea for a deck. I had Cloud of Faeries and Ghostly Flicker which enabled all kinds of crazy things along with the growth chamber. The drake seems pretty sweet, I need to find a spot for it, Augury Owl also seems good (over preordain). Faeries allow for big blowouts in turn 6 or 7, but maybe Ranger or Visionary could work better (and won't be banned as Cloud might be). Maybe take out faeries and wolf for ranger and visionary.
Search for tomorrow is very nice T1 ramps, but a bit redundant if Ranger and Oracle are in the mix. -2 tomorrow +1 Blastoderm, and +1 Vapor Snag. or +2 Wormfang. Maybe play around with Rancor and spell pierce as well.
It turns out that a vanilla 5/5 for four mana, all of which have to be from basic lands? That's not actually very good. But his big brother, Blastoderm, has always been a fearsome and excellent card, and he does good work in this deck.
Here's the list:
4 Sylvan Ranger
4 Coiling Oracle
4 Elvish Visionary
Medium Guys
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Mulldrifter
Big Guys
4 Blastoderm
3 Wormfang Drake
Disruption
3 Spell Pierce
4 Vapor Snag
3 Compulsive Research
Land
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Thornwood Falls
3 Simic Growth Chamber
8 Forest
6 Island
3 Dispel
2 Hydroblast
2 Moment's Peace
1 Feed the Clan
3 Fade Away
2 Temporal Spring
2 Thermokarst
Basic Theory of Operation:
This deck plays the mid-range. You want to stall out early aggression, then take over the game and end it with your main threats, Blastoderm and Wormfang Drake.
Your means to this end is your full 12-set of 2-cost 1/1s with ETB triggers that put you up a card. Against aggro, they're your speedbumps; against black, they're your edict fodder; and they feed the Wormfang Drake in a way that benefits you.
As mentioned above, you want a couple of 1/1s in play before you try to stick a Blastoderm against anyone who'll have edicts; you also want multiple 1/1s in play if you're trying to drop a Wormfang Drake against someone with instant-speed removal.
Ninja of the Deep Hours and Mulldrifter contribute in utterly predictable ways to help you pump out huge waves of card advantage. Ninja, along with Wormfang, can save a Blastoderm that's going to fade out the following turn. Compulsive Research helps thin out land floods, and generally reload your hand.
Vapor Snag makes it easier to push Blastoderm through their blockers. You can also save your own creatures, if you're really just that desperate or if they don't give you targets.
Spell Pierce gets the nod over Mana Leak because it comes online so much faster. It's very easy to develop your board while threatening to mangle their removal/dig/counterspells with a single blue mana, much more so than doing it while threatening with 1U.
Sideboard is a bit all over the place, full of basic blue-green goodstuff. A lot of it is informed by a need to stall for time against fast decks. Fade Away is a hilarious beating against anybody whose creatures routinely outnumber their lands. Temporal Spring is mainly for punishing bouncelands.
On that drake, it's probably one of my favorite creatures, it certainly brings the beats. My experience with Kjeldoran Dead tells me to never, ever be greedy with laying it down early, you will be punished with removal/bounce.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
- Wormfang Newt: With spell-lands like Khalni Garden and Halimar Depths alongside your lifegain lands, this could be an interesting piece of tech to be bounced with both Ninja and Drake. And it actually trades with a lot of the Pauper meta unlike the 1/1's.
- Thalakos Seer: Ninjutsu enabler and draws cards upon leaving, which works well with Ninjutsu itself and the Drake, although the double blue might strain the manabase.
- Augury Owl: Enables Ninjutsu too and allows you to filter through your deck.
Man-o'-war, although a 3 drop, will provide huge speedbumps and tempo swings against creature decks, bouncing one and trading with another, and can be reused with both Drake and Ninja.
Like Upkeep said, I would substitute Vapor Snag for Curfew: it targets Bogles, which seems like a problematic matchup for you, it keeps the opponents off tempo, and it lets you reuse your ETB creatures, also working great with Blastoderm resetting it's counters (Curfew doesn't target) or Drake for an instant speed ETB effect + saving him from removal. I would also trim a land or two since you already have so much draw power and land searching, and fit in 2-3 Mana Leak (they can counter creatures).
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
If you don't like Curfew, have you tried Withdraw before? It can be a very big potential swing in tempo, as well as doing a Curfew-like thing (use the second optional target on your own creature and don't pay the mana). Obviously not as good against Hexproof or with Blastoderm, but I think it might be interesting over vapor snag.
Also, I built a mono-blue Flying aggro deck probably close to 10 years ago, and one of my favorite combos was Wormfang Drake + Unstable Mutation. a 6/7 attacking on turn 4 was often the end for my opponents. And when it dies, you get your exiled creature back with a etb effect. It might be too janky, though.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Thalakos Seer might be good, but his UU mana cost and lack of defensive functionality seem troublesome.
Augury Owl seems like a clear winner, though. ETB value, so I don't need an enabler, and he's a flying 1/1, which would help hold off the Faerie hordes. Good synergy with Coiling Oracle, as well.
Mana Leak would be nice, but now you're talking about having five mana if you need to use it to force through a Wormfang Drake. I'm a little anxious about cutting land count - it's very important to curve out smoothly if you're going to keep up with the opponent.
It's not sensible to replace all the Vapor Snag with Curfew. Very often they'll attack with one guy while leaving back a chump blocker; Curfew just falls on its face in that circumstance. You generally need the ability to bounce specific creatures in your maindeck.
Man-O'-War is going to be really sad if he pops back onto the battlefield and finds himself to be the only creature. I don't think I need any more creature bounce - you only need a spoonful to get through the end of the game.
I think I'll try out a 21-land build with Augury Owl and maybe a couple of Mana Leak and a couple of Curfew, and see how it functions.
EDIT: Missed a response, there.
Withdraw is interesting. At the moment the U price tag feels like a huge selling point for bounce spells - notice how much of the sideboard is U spells as well. We have just a tiny bit of room to play disruption around our somewhat clunky tempo gains. But! It might be worth looking at again.
Unstable Mutation feels a little bit win-more - getting an aura onto a live, resolved Wormfang seems like a lot of narrow hoops to jump through, and even sticking it on a 1/1 doesn't seem like a great blowout play. I like that card, but I don't know if it'd be good here - maybe in some kind of dies-trigger-tribal deck with Palace Familiar and Jeskai Sage?
EDIT EDIT: Oooh, and Demonic Appetite. I'll have to have a look at this incredibly silly idea later.
for the sideboard, it's probably going to go through some massive optimization. The only spells that seem like solid winners are Dispel (love that spell now), Moment's Peace and Hydroblast. Everything else looks like it could move around a lot. I don't quite get Feed the Clan. It doesn't feel like a particularly strong constructed card. Fade Away seems too numerous as a 3-of for the amount of matchups where you'll need them (1 or 2 would seem like better numbers).
While I love Temporal Spring (you're playing a lot of my pet cards!), I don't think it will do quite enough as opposed to more land destruction. Personally, when people mess with my lands when I'm playing Blue, I don't care because my draw spells usually win over a card like this. This rings true for Tron and for Esper familiars, who will just draw their way out of cards being put on top of their library. I don't think it will have the impact you desire, as you won't be able to apply pressure early on enough for it to matter (the later you play it, the worse the effect is, the earlier you play it, the less aggro you have going).
Thermokarst, the obligatory land destruction spell to fight Tron and Esper. I'd prefer a good solid counterspell instead. But that's personal, I guess.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
So for now I'll just play my Grixis Atog Cruise deck.
Search for tomorrow is very nice T1 ramps, but a bit redundant if Ranger and Oracle are in the mix. -2 tomorrow +1 Blastoderm, and +1 Vapor Snag. or +2 Wormfang. Maybe play around with Rancor and spell pierce as well.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/coiling-ninja-blast-10/
This forum rocks!
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Cloudskate
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Coiling Oracle
4 Wormfang Drake
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Blastoderm
2 Mulldrifter
4 Rancor
Instant (3)
3 Ghostly Flicker
Land (23)
10 Island
8 Forest
3 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Khalni Garden
1 Halimar Depths
4 Mana Leak
3 Fade Away
3 Epic Confrontation
2 Serrated Arrows
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Æthersnipe
Some thoughts:
*We'll have to deal with Rancor not being able to enchant Blastoderm; the green aura is just too good to pass up!
*The only cards able to interact with opponents' creatures are in the sideboard (Epic Confrontation, Fade Away, and Serrated Arrows).
*Ghostly Flicker tricks:
1) Wormfang Drake with a Spellstutter Sprite underneath for a counterspell
2) Khalni Garden for a surprise blocker
3) Serrated Arrows to reset the arrowhead counters
Speaking of Ghostly Flicker, I wanted to include the Reality Acid tech in the main. Just don't know what to cut and if the deck would still work.