Probably there is another thread talking about it already. Probably it is too slow for modern. But are there actually any valuable interactions among this bunch of "stuff"?
Graft, Persist, Undying, Unleash, Evolve, now Outlast...
Then there's also arcbound ravager, steel overseer...
Short answer: No
Long answer: No, because all of these mechanics have two downsides (except undying and persist, which have one): They ALL suffer from exile-based removal being a tempo blowout against you, for the most part, and with the exception of undying and persist, none of the other mechanics are pushed enough to stand up to the power level of the modern card pool. Persist, obviously, does very well in modern with melira pod being a top-tier deck, but this was really the first pushed mechanic of the bunch and they made some power level mistakes. Undying, while being more-pushed individually in some cases than persist, is less easily abusable (as unintuitive as that sounds) because we have yet to get a mechanic printed that prevents +1/+1 counters from being placed on permanents, and additionally have generally more strict casting costs to reward those willing to build around them (compare Geralf's Messenger to Kitchen Finks. And I would even argue that persist creatures don't have the power level to stand up to the modern card pool in a raw sense, but make up for it with synergy based interactions, and the exile vulnerability downside is probably more relevant with the undying creatures as they don't have that inherent synergy to abuse, e.g. playing well with blink effects.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
The problem is that without Hardened Scales the deck is just a bunch of 1/1's for 1. Many decks suffer from the only having 4 copies problem which limits their consistency to unplayability (Heartless Summoning).
Retribution of the Ancients, on the other hand, lets you use your counters in response to their removal as your own removal. Works great with undying. With Geralf's Messenger and a sac outlet things get disgusting, comboing hem with viscera seer gives you B: scry 1, target creature gets -1/-1, and your opponent loses 2.
Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
You're all missing the biggest issue. The problem with all of these cards/strategies is that they necessitate playing cards that are really bad on their own. Exploiting powerful synergies with suboptimal individual cards CAN BE a valid strategy. Look no further than affinity. However, for SYNERGY to trump raw card power, you need synergy that is busted ON THE LEVEL OF AFFINITY. Ask yourself if any of these synergies you are considering are anywhere in the remote vicinity of the abstract power level potential of affinity. If your answer is anything other than a definitive and resounding YES, then you're going down a rabbit hole of mediocrity.
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Yes, I am a local area mod. WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Primary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
You're all missing the biggest issue. The problem with all of these cards/strategies is that they necessitate playing cards that are really bad on their own. Exploiting powerful synergies with suboptimal individual cards CAN BE a valid strategy. Look no further than affinity. However, for SYNERGY to trump raw card power, you need synergy that is busted ON THE LEVEL OF AFFINITY. Ask yourself if any of these synergies you are considering are anywhere in the remote vicinity of the abstract power level potential of affinity. If your answer is anything other than a definitive and resounding YES, then you're going down a rabbit hole of mediocrity.
It's a question of opportunity cost. Affinity decks run about 20-30 dead cards, because having a 10/1 lifelinking flyer on turn 3 is worth that. Splinter Twin also uses suboptimal cards, but you only need 4 dead cards and 4-6 worse-than-average but useful cards to pull it off. This archetype could work if we can build a shell around 4- of these enchantments and fill the rest of the deck with already reasonable cards that take advantage of it. I don't think Carnifex Demon, Bioshift, etc. is the right direction. It seems better to use powerful cards that happen to make use of counters like Scavenging Ooze and I'm convinced retribution is better than hardened scales. Some other options that are potentially at the right power level for modern: Experiment One Rakdos Cackler Falkenrath Aristocrat Stromkirk Noble
These cards are all capable of doing serious damage even without scales/retribution out.
I know this forum is mostly driven to competitive play, but not every deck needs to be able to take down a GP. Sometimes people just want to have some fun while staying with in a format. It's fun to build theme deck, even if they end up being casual or worse unplayable. Building poor decks is a learning experience and is important for new and old players alike.
You're all missing the biggest issue. The problem with all of these cards/strategies is that they necessitate playing cards that are really bad on their own. Exploiting powerful synergies with suboptimal individual cards CAN BE a valid strategy. Look no further than affinity. However, for SYNERGY to trump raw card power, you need synergy that is busted ON THE LEVEL OF AFFINITY. Ask yourself if any of these synergies you are considering are anywhere in the remote vicinity of the abstract power level potential of affinity. If your answer is anything other than a definitive and resounding YES, then you're going down a rabbit hole of mediocrity.
It's a question of opportunity cost. Affinity decks run about 20-30 dead cards, because having a 10/1 lifelinking flyer on turn 3 is worth that. Splinter Twin also uses suboptimal cards, but you only need 4 dead cards and 4-6 worse-than-average but useful cards to pull it off. This archetype could work if we can build a shell around 4- of these enchantments and fill the rest of the deck with already reasonable cards that take advantage of it. I don't think Carnifex Demon, Bioshift, etc. is the right direction. It seems better to use powerful cards that happen to make use of counters like Scavenging Ooze and I'm convinced retribution is better than hardened scales. Some other options that are potentially at the right power level for modern: Experiment One Rakdos Cackler Falkenrath Aristocrat Stromkirk Noble
These cards are all capable of doing serious damage even without scales/retribution out.
And how do you intend to capitalize on all the +1/+1 counters?
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Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
I did some testing with a GBr aggro deck, and found that the synergy between retribution and undying creatures is our best option for making this work. It lets you attack into practically anything, as if they block you can use the undying counters to finish off the blocker. Evolve works very well with this. I was able to attack into Phyrexian Obliterator multiple times, then sac my other undying creatures to get enough counters to kill the obliterator.
I did some testing with a GBr aggro deck, and found that the synergy between retribution and undying creatures is our best option for making this work. It lets you attack into practically anything, as if they block you can use the undying counters to finish off the blocker. Evolve works very well with this. I was able to attack into Phyrexian Obliterator multiple times, then sac my other undying creatures to get enough counters to kill the obliterator.
I don't know if this is the best option. What I mean is there are several options, all fun to play, and non that are more competitive than casual play.
This forum post started with the viability of these cards (obviously intended for competitive play.) I would say no, a +1/+1 counter deck has not been proven to rack up a single win in a daily unfortunately. It's viability is low in this format.
For casual settings, I can see a lot of fun.
Best thing for making this 'work' needs some actual results. I mean I would never play Geist and Messenger in the same deck since one is always going to be a dead card (being able to cast double green on turn two, triple black on turn three would be a small miracle.)
Undying creatures need to be very aggressive to be viable. Hardened Scales is a cheap synergistic piece to increase aggressiveness (but is itself a non-aggressive card). Retribution of the Ancients is a cheap synergistic piece, but works better in control decks ironically (which is what these creatures do poorly.)
I mean Anger of the Gods is seeing a decent amount of sideboard play in modern. Jund is not afraid to throw it out. Path to Exile is everywhere.
If you gonna be fast, be as fast as you can. If you are going to be control, be control. Mid-range, well you need efficient beaters, and the best one-sided control you can find.
If you goal is to throw out creatures to beat face with. Get them as big as possible and do your damage quickly. See Zoo and even Stompy decks as examples. They know the longer the game goes, the less effective their creatures become (a 3/2 on turn 5 is not very good at all.)
Retribution does nothing to help you win. I rather play Ion Storm, so I could actually do damage to an opponent if he throws an Ghostly Prison at you.
I don't know if this is the best option. What I mean is there are several options, all fun to play, and non that are more competitive than casual play.
This forum post started with the viability of these cards (obviously intended for competitive play.) I would say no, a +1/+1 counter deck has not been proven to rack up a single win in a daily unfortunately. It's viability is low in this format.
For casual settings, I can see a lot of fun.
Best thing for making this 'work' needs some actual results. I mean I would never play Geist and Messenger in the same deck since one is always going to be a dead card (being able to cast double green on turn two, triple black on turn three would be a small miracle.)
Undying creatures need to be very aggressive to be viable. Hardened Scales is a cheap synergistic piece to increase aggressiveness (but is itself a non-aggressive card). Retribution of the Ancients is a cheap synergistic piece, but works better in control decks ironically (which is what these creatures do poorly.)
I mean Anger of the Gods is seeing a decent amount of sideboard play in modern. Jund is not afraid to throw it out. Path to Exile is everywhere.
If you gonna be fast, be as fast as you can. If you are going to be control, be control. Mid-range, well you need efficient beaters, and the best one-sided control you can find.
If you goal is to throw out creatures to beat face with. Get them as big as possible and do your damage quickly. See Zoo and even Stompy decks as examples. They know the longer the game goes, the less effective their creatures become (a 3/2 on turn 5 is not very good at all.)
Retribution does nothing to help you win. I rather play Ion Storm, so I could actually do damage to an opponent if he throws an Ghostly Prison at you.
How is double green and triple black impossible? Between fetches, shocks, filters, and urborgs, it's perfectly reasonable for a two-color deck. Sure, path 1-for-1s you. So what? Tarmogoyf dies to a lot more things, but the fact that it's not easily outclassed on the ground is enough to make it playable. Anger is good against you, but there's cards good against every deck. We can also use retribution to shrink their creatures in response if it's Jund using it. Don't forget we have access to thoughtseize and inquisition, too. And even zoo plays cards that don't do anything to increase aggression, Path to Exile can't be aimed at the face.
As for scales VS retribution, You're assuming the scales deck isn't running any removal. Retribution is a single card that provides multiple removal spells. I'm going to do some more serious testing now that I know what cards work for the deck and see if it's actually as good as I think.
I don't know if this is the best option. What I mean is there are several options, all fun to play, and non that are more competitive than casual play.
This forum post started with the viability of these cards (obviously intended for competitive play.) I would say no, a +1/+1 counter deck has not been proven to rack up a single win in a daily unfortunately. It's viability is low in this format.
For casual settings, I can see a lot of fun.
Best thing for making this 'work' needs some actual results. I mean I would never play Geist and Messenger in the same deck since one is always going to be a dead card (being able to cast double green on turn two, triple black on turn three would be a small miracle.)
Undying creatures need to be very aggressive to be viable. Hardened Scales is a cheap synergistic piece to increase aggressiveness (but is itself a non-aggressive card). Retribution of the Ancients is a cheap synergistic piece, but works better in control decks ironically (which is what these creatures do poorly.)
I mean Anger of the Gods is seeing a decent amount of sideboard play in modern. Jund is not afraid to throw it out. Path to Exile is everywhere.
If you gonna be fast, be as fast as you can. If you are going to be control, be control. Mid-range, well you need efficient beaters, and the best one-sided control you can find.
If you goal is to throw out creatures to beat face with. Get them as big as possible and do your damage quickly. See Zoo and even Stompy decks as examples. They know the longer the game goes, the less effective their creatures become (a 3/2 on turn 5 is not very good at all.)
Retribution does nothing to help you win. I rather play Ion Storm, so I could actually do damage to an opponent if he throws an Ghostly Prison at you.
How is double green and triple black impossible? Between fetches, shocks, filters, and urborgs, it's perfectly reasonable for a two-color deck. Sure, path 1-for-1s you. So what? Tarmogoyf dies to a lot more things, but the fact that it's not easily outclassed on the ground is enough to make it playable. Anger is good against you, but there's cards good against every deck. We can also use retribution to shrink their creatures in response if it's Jund using it. Don't forget we have access to thoughtseize and inquisition, too. And even zoo plays cards that don't do anything to increase aggression, Path to Exile can't be aimed at the face.
As for scales VS retribution, You're assuming the scales deck isn't running any removal. Retribution is a single card that provides multiple removal spells. I'm going to do some more serious testing now that I know what cards work for the deck and see if it's actually as good as I think.
I am just stating the competitive reality of Modern. Retribution is a cool card, and good decks can be made from it. It is underpowered even for Standard, and that is a much slower format than Modern (there is a reason it is a 25 cent rare.)
I am just stating the competitive reality of Modern. Retribution is a cool card, and good decks can be made from it. It is underpowered even for Standard, and that is a much slower format than Modern (there is a reason it is a 25 cent rare.)
I understand it's likely not good enough, but you don't know that. You're making a ridiculous claim saying it's underpowered for standard when you haven't done anything to prove that. The price is meaningless in this discussion, Desecration Demon was an underpowered punisher card that would never see play even in standard until rotation happened.
I don't know if this is the best option. What I mean is there are several options, all fun to play, and non that are more competitive than casual play.
This forum post started with the viability of these cards (obviously intended for competitive play.) I would say no, a +1/+1 counter deck has not been proven to rack up a single win in a daily unfortunately. It's viability is low in this format.
For casual settings, I can see a lot of fun.
Best thing for making this 'work' needs some actual results. I mean I would never play Geist and Messenger in the same deck since one is always going to be a dead card (being able to cast double green on turn two, triple black on turn three would be a small miracle.)
Undying creatures need to be very aggressive to be viable. Hardened Scales is a cheap synergistic piece to increase aggressiveness (but is itself a non-aggressive card). Retribution of the Ancients is a cheap synergistic piece, but works better in control decks ironically (which is what these creatures do poorly.)
I mean Anger of the Gods is seeing a decent amount of sideboard play in modern. Jund is not afraid to throw it out. Path to Exile is everywhere.
If you gonna be fast, be as fast as you can. If you are going to be control, be control. Mid-range, well you need efficient beaters, and the best one-sided control you can find.
If you goal is to throw out creatures to beat face with. Get them as big as possible and do your damage quickly. See Zoo and even Stompy decks as examples. They know the longer the game goes, the less effective their creatures become (a 3/2 on turn 5 is not very good at all.)
Retribution does nothing to help you win. I rather play Ion Storm, so I could actually do damage to an opponent if he throws an Ghostly Prison at you.
How is double green and triple black impossible? Between fetches, shocks, filters, and urborgs, it's perfectly reasonable for a two-color deck. Sure, path 1-for-1s you. So what? Tarmogoyf dies to a lot more things, but the fact that it's not easily outclassed on the ground is enough to make it playable. Anger is good against you, but there's cards good against every deck. We can also use retribution to shrink their creatures in response if it's Jund using it. Don't forget we have access to thoughtseize and inquisition, too. And even zoo plays cards that don't do anything to increase aggression, Path to Exile can't be aimed at the face.
As for scales VS retribution, You're assuming the scales deck isn't running any removal. Retribution is a single card that provides multiple removal spells. I'm going to do some more serious testing now that I know what cards work for the deck and see if it's actually as good as I think.
I am just stating the competitive reality of Modern. Retribution is a cool card, and good decks can be made from it. It is underpowered even for Standard, and that is a much slower format than Modern (there is a reason it is a 25 cent rare.)
Doesn't matter too aweful much; Modern has a bigger card pool, so it may have something to synergize with it that Standard doesn't.
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
When everybody else dismissed Chronicler back when it was spoiled it was one of the first cards of the set that caught my attention. Don't know if it's as good as I think it is, but either way the enablers don't seem to be there yet.
I guess Abzan Ascendancy could work somehow... but it's still a lot of different directions to go to support a loose synergy
Abzan Asc. with a Blackguard in play becomes a Mind Twist, which is kinda cool. Cackler and Slitherhead are pretty loose and probably don't fin into the midrange plan, but what are you gonna do? We need something to do with Oona T2. Troll makes no sense either and so on..
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Graft, Persist, Undying, Unleash, Evolve, now Outlast...
Then there's also arcbound ravager, steel overseer...
Long answer: No, because all of these mechanics have two downsides (except undying and persist, which have one): They ALL suffer from exile-based removal being a tempo blowout against you, for the most part, and with the exception of undying and persist, none of the other mechanics are pushed enough to stand up to the power level of the modern card pool. Persist, obviously, does very well in modern with melira pod being a top-tier deck, but this was really the first pushed mechanic of the bunch and they made some power level mistakes. Undying, while being more-pushed individually in some cases than persist, is less easily abusable (as unintuitive as that sounds) because we have yet to get a mechanic printed that prevents +1/+1 counters from being placed on permanents, and additionally have generally more strict casting costs to reward those willing to build around them (compare Geralf's Messenger to Kitchen Finks. And I would even argue that persist creatures don't have the power level to stand up to the modern card pool in a raw sense, but make up for it with synergy based interactions, and the exile vulnerability downside is probably more relevant with the undying creatures as they don't have that inherent synergy to abuse, e.g. playing well with blink effects.
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
Graft and Hardened Scales may be a thing.
T1: Hardened Scales
T2: 2 Simic Initiates (I.E. 1 drop 2/2s), which can be a 1/1 and a 4/4 if required.
Taking it further....
T1: Hardened Scales
T2: Simic Initiate, Slumbering Dragon (1/1 and a 5/5, after Graft).
T3: Something, graft SI into that, Hunger of the Howlpack on Slumbering Dragon (+4, so now a 9/9 and capable of attacking in the air).
Yes, it loses out to Path to Exile, but removal removes things and that's true for all removal. That's why it's played in Modern
Also, Strangleroot Geist comes back as a 4/3 haste.
I think you need a second tool of repeatable +1/+1 removal.
Part of me also wants to put in Bioshift and Fathom Mage.
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Bioshift could make the cut, especially if we end up running any Heroic.
Depending on how cute the deck is, Cruel Sadist may make the cut; removal, counters for life (2 counters for 1 life), and a one drop.
Cheeri0sXWU
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Carnifex Demon might be worth looking at.
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Yes, I am a local area mod.WELP. GOOD LIFE CHANGES ALL HAPPEN AT ONCE AND SOME ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVEPrimary Decks:
Modern: Esper Draw-Go
Legacy: RUG Lands
EDH: Sidisi turn-3 storm
3 Champion of Lambholt
1 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
2 Mutant's Prey
4 Bramblewood Paragon
4 Hardened Scales
3 Fanatic of Xenagos
2 War-Name Aspirant
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Markov Blademaster
2 Obsidian Battle-Axe
4 Brighthearth Banneret
3 Nettle Sentinel
1 Countryside Crusher
9 Forest
4 Lightning Bolt
7 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Stomping Ground
1 Hero of Leina Tower
It's a question of opportunity cost. Affinity decks run about 20-30 dead cards, because having a 10/1 lifelinking flyer on turn 3 is worth that. Splinter Twin also uses suboptimal cards, but you only need 4 dead cards and 4-6 worse-than-average but useful cards to pull it off. This archetype could work if we can build a shell around 4- of these enchantments and fill the rest of the deck with already reasonable cards that take advantage of it. I don't think Carnifex Demon, Bioshift, etc. is the right direction. It seems better to use powerful cards that happen to make use of counters like Scavenging Ooze and I'm convinced retribution is better than hardened scales. Some other options that are potentially at the right power level for modern:
Experiment One
Rakdos Cackler
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Stromkirk Noble
These cards are all capable of doing serious damage even without scales/retribution out.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
And how do you intend to capitalize on all the +1/+1 counters?
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
I said in my post that I wanted to use Retribution of the Ancients, not Hardened Scales.
I did some testing with a GBr aggro deck, and found that the synergy between retribution and undying creatures is our best option for making this work. It lets you attack into practically anything, as if they block you can use the undying counters to finish off the blocker. Evolve works very well with this. I was able to attack into Phyrexian Obliterator multiple times, then sac my other undying creatures to get enough counters to kill the obliterator.
So that leaves us with a starting point of:
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Geralf's Messenger
3 Retribution of the Ancients
I don't know if this is the best option. What I mean is there are several options, all fun to play, and non that are more competitive than casual play.
This forum post started with the viability of these cards (obviously intended for competitive play.) I would say no, a +1/+1 counter deck has not been proven to rack up a single win in a daily unfortunately. It's viability is low in this format.
For casual settings, I can see a lot of fun.
Best thing for making this 'work' needs some actual results. I mean I would never play Geist and Messenger in the same deck since one is always going to be a dead card (being able to cast double green on turn two, triple black on turn three would be a small miracle.)
Undying creatures need to be very aggressive to be viable. Hardened Scales is a cheap synergistic piece to increase aggressiveness (but is itself a non-aggressive card). Retribution of the Ancients is a cheap synergistic piece, but works better in control decks ironically (which is what these creatures do poorly.)
I mean Anger of the Gods is seeing a decent amount of sideboard play in modern. Jund is not afraid to throw it out. Path to Exile is everywhere.
If you gonna be fast, be as fast as you can. If you are going to be control, be control. Mid-range, well you need efficient beaters, and the best one-sided control you can find.
If you goal is to throw out creatures to beat face with. Get them as big as possible and do your damage quickly. See Zoo and even Stompy decks as examples. They know the longer the game goes, the less effective their creatures become (a 3/2 on turn 5 is not very good at all.)
Retribution does nothing to help you win. I rather play Ion Storm, so I could actually do damage to an opponent if he throws an Ghostly Prison at you.
How is double green and triple black impossible? Between fetches, shocks, filters, and urborgs, it's perfectly reasonable for a two-color deck. Sure, path 1-for-1s you. So what? Tarmogoyf dies to a lot more things, but the fact that it's not easily outclassed on the ground is enough to make it playable. Anger is good against you, but there's cards good against every deck. We can also use retribution to shrink their creatures in response if it's Jund using it. Don't forget we have access to thoughtseize and inquisition, too. And even zoo plays cards that don't do anything to increase aggression, Path to Exile can't be aimed at the face.
As for scales VS retribution, You're assuming the scales deck isn't running any removal. Retribution is a single card that provides multiple removal spells. I'm going to do some more serious testing now that I know what cards work for the deck and see if it's actually as good as I think.
I am just stating the competitive reality of Modern. Retribution is a cool card, and good decks can be made from it. It is underpowered even for Standard, and that is a much slower format than Modern (there is a reason it is a 25 cent rare.)
I understand it's likely not good enough, but you don't know that. You're making a ridiculous claim saying it's underpowered for standard when you haven't done anything to prove that. The price is meaningless in this discussion, Desecration Demon was an underpowered punisher card that would never see play even in standard until rotation happened.
Doesn't matter too aweful much; Modern has a bigger card pool, so it may have something to synergize with it that Standard doesn't.
T1: We have Experiment One and Rakdos Cackler
T2: We have Lotleth Troll and ....?
T3: ?
This is where I gave up
When everybody else dismissed Chronicler back when it was spoiled it was one of the first cards of the set that caught my attention. Don't know if it's as good as I think it is, but either way the enablers don't seem to be there yet.
I guess Abzan Ascendancy could work somehow... but it's still a lot of different directions to go to support a loose synergy
This is the best I can come up with for a +1/+1 counter theme.
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Slitherhead
4 Oona's Blackguard
4 Lotleth Troll
3 Chronicler of Heroes
4 Lingering Souls
4 Abzan Ascendancy
2 Abrupt Decay
Abzan Asc. with a Blackguard in play becomes a Mind Twist, which is kinda cool. Cackler and Slitherhead are pretty loose and probably don't fin into the midrange plan, but what are you gonna do? We need something to do with Oona T2. Troll makes no sense either and so on..