MTG Salvation

It's good against Abzan CoCo, but it's bad against RG Tron. CoCo traditionally folds to decks with good removal, whether it's Bolt and Path, or Wrath of God. You don't tend to need an actual win condition like Kiki, you can just slowly grind out the game. Especially with cards like Electrolyze that's often a 3-for-1. RG Tron is traditionally good against slow control decks because of their ability to race you. While you present no win condition, your opponent is going to present a much faster win condition. Sure, your deck has Kiki combo, but it's really slow and doesn't race well. You're sort of waiting to draw a 2-of Kiki to get there, and don't interact well with them at all. Even post board, you're relying heavily on Crumble to Dust to solve your matchup problem, and only playing two copies. Twin was always a good matchup into RG Tron, but primarily because they could race with 4 copies of Twin.

PS. Goblin Dark-Dwellers has been seeing a lot of play in control decks in Modern, it's definitely a card.

Quote from thecroooow »

im looking to make a competitive deck in modern using assemble the legion and legions initiative
what other cards should i use?

Merged with the "What deck should I play?" Thread.

- Torpf

You could play Boros lock.

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

Quote from lvg »

What deck, other then tron, completely crushes abzan company?

Twin and Bloom. Oops!

No, I agree that Scapeshift would have a pretty good matchup against them. Some outlier decks would do well - like Lantern Control, Mill , I do well vs. it with Grishoalbrand. Tron is pretty much your best bet. I personally think that Control would do well against it, but an Abzan Company player last night said that Control is fine. So take that last one at your own understanding.

Really any deck running a lot of Hand disruption, kill spells and boardwipe.

Quote from darksteel88 »

It's good against Abzan CoCo, but it's bad against RG Tron. CoCo traditionally folds to decks with good removal, whether it's Bolt and Path, or Wrath of God. You don't tend to need an actual win condition like Kiki, you can just slowly grind out the game. Especially with cards like Electrolyze that's often a 3-for-1. RG Tron is traditionally good against slow control decks because of their ability to race you. While you present no win condition, your opponent is going to present a much faster win condition. Sure, your deck has Kiki combo, but it's really slow and doesn't race well. You're sort of waiting to draw a 2-of Kiki to get there, and don't interact well with them at all. Even post board, you're relying heavily on Crumble to Dust to solve your matchup problem, and only playing two copies. Twin was always a good matchup into RG Tron, but primarily because they could race with 4 copies of Twin.

PS. Goblin Dark-Dwellers has been seeing a lot of play in control decks in Modern, it's definitely a card.

Okay. Good analysis. I was thinking 3 Crumble to Dust, but felt like I could find them with Visions. However, I realize now how imperative it is that I draw them by turn 4 at least. Even turn 4 is too late for the past few times I've played vs. GR Tron.

I have another deck that I was theorycrafting while at work.



Some of the numbers are off. I'll try to update it. Basically it is similar to Scott Lipp's RG Breach played at a GP during the reign of Pod/Cruise. I felt like a deck that boards into turn 3 Crumble to Dust while mainboarding Anger of the Gods will have a decent chance vs. Company/Tron.

Honestly I could probably make it better by taking out 4 Through the Breach/4 Emrakul for 4 Scapeshift and ramp. Feel free to rip me a new one for this. I think I'm gonna try it tonight if I don't watch the NBA playoffs instead...

Quote from KLT »

Right now I got the budget Rallyfenza list from SaffronOlive. I'm not that experienced in modern so I started with a rather cheap list to get some experience about the meta. Additionally I own (mostly from my Cube):

• 1 of each shock land
• full playset of KTK fetches
• 2 Chords
• 1 Kiki-Jiki
• 1 Restoration Angel
• 1 Voice of Resurgence

I could possibly invest a bit to upgrade into either AbzanCoCo or KikiChord. But is it possible to build a slightly worse version of either without buying missing pieces or should I rather keep playing RallyFenza which is not tier 1, but can definitely steal games/matches.
Side info: I went 2-3 at the last GPT beating Living End (easy), Esper token/control? and lost barely to Abzan CoCo, MonoR Burn and Naya Zoo (all winnable matchups I think).

If you feel fine with what you're doing, then it's okay. But if you want the best option of what you listed, then Abzan Company is for you. It will take a certain amount to upgrade and it's better to do it now than later (cards will go up as it has risen to solid Tier 1). Kiki Chord is probably 1.5 in my opinion (although others list it as 2). I played it for quite a bit and it only really has a super tough time with non interactive Combo.

I recently discovered my love of UB Control. Is there a UB Control deck in the format that isn't Tezzerator? His $40 price tag is insane for a walker printed 5 years ago.

Well I am back. Got Naya Blitz completed. Now what?

Jund Dredgevine, Infect, Mardu something not sure.

Quote from Cretaceous1987 »

Well I am back. Got Naya Blitz completed. Now what?

Jund Dredgevine, Infect, Mardu something not sure.

Out of those, probably Infect. Infect is the best. Mardu is the 2nd best and Dredgevine probably is the most fun.

Alright, I'm back. I want to test multiple different decks to find the next one that's right for me. Here's my criteria:
1. Grindy as all Hell. I LOVE it when my game ones leave 15 minutes left in the round.
2. Doesn't cost a fortune. Jund is grindy, but out of reach for a high school student. I personally say that I don't want to drop more than $30 on a single card unless the deck is like Skred Red where the majority of the cost lies in Blood Moons: the rest is ~$100 worth of cards.
3. Plays sweet cards! I love playing planeswalkers, especially some of the less played ones. Anything outside the box is right in my wheelhouse.

Quote from CavalryWolfPack »

Alright, I'm back. I want to test multiple different decks to find the next one that's right for me. Here's my criteria:
1. Grindy as all Hell. I LOVE it when my game ones leave 15 minutes left in the round.
2. Doesn't cost a fortune. Jund is grindy, but out of reach for a high school student. I personally say that I don't want to drop more than $30 on a single card unless the deck is like Skred Red where the majority of the cost lies in Blood Moons: the rest is ~$100 worth of cards.
3. Plays sweet cards! I love playing planeswalkers, especially some of the less played ones. Anything outside the box is right in my wheelhouse.

Most grindy decks vost a lot because they are more about running s lot of powerful cards. I would say uwr Nahiri with emrakul eould be a hood fit. You durdle and stabalize the board and drop s
a nahiri. From there you just have to stall until her ultimate. These decks pretty much play like jtms decks just the digging aspect of nahiri is much weaker.

Quote from Jayman21 »

Quote from CavalryWolfPack »

Alright, I'm back. I want to test multiple different decks to find the next one that's right for me. Here's my criteria:
1. Grindy as all Hell. I LOVE it when my game ones leave 15 minutes left in the round.
2. Doesn't cost a fortune. Jund is grindy, but out of reach for a high school student. I personally say that I don't want to drop more than $30 on a single card unless the deck is like Skred Red where the majority of the cost lies in Blood Moons: the rest is ~$100 worth of cards.
3. Plays sweet cards! I love playing planeswalkers, especially some of the less played ones. Anything outside the box is right in my wheelhouse.

Most grindy decks vost a lot because they are more about running s lot of powerful cards. I would say uwr Nahiri with emrakul eould be a hood fit. You durdle and stabalize the board and drop s
a nahiri. From there you just have to stall until her ultimate. These decks pretty much play like jtms decks just the digging aspect of nahiri is much weaker.

UW control or Azorious Titan
maybe white prison devotion (with enchantments) or martyr proc. all these are (comparative) cheaper options for grind.

I currently have GW Hatebears, but I'm not satisfied. I have About $1,000 trade value plus Hatebears, what's good in the current meta?

Quote from Voxoxoxov3 »

I currently have GW Hatebears, but I'm not satisfied. I have About $1,000 trade value plus Hatebears, what's good in the current meta?

either abzan company or good old tron.

maybe you can jump from WG hatebears to WBc Eldrazi and taxes first?

Quote from LeviatanCL »

Quote from Voxoxoxov3 »

I currently have GW Hatebears, but I'm not satisfied. I have About $1,000 trade value plus Hatebears, what's good in the current meta?

either abzan company or good old tron.

maybe you can jump from WG hatebears to WBc Eldrazi and taxes first?

I might try WB Eldrazi. I only play Hatebears because I had D&T in Legacy, but can't stay in Legacy.

Back from a several month long hiatus from MTG, and currently trying to get back into the swing of Modern.

Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a new deck to build, preferably on a budget that doesn't exceed $200-$250~.

I'm away from most of my collection due to an internship, but I have access to an almost complete playset of the three Tron lands, and I have my CoCo Slivers, Elemental Combo, and Grixis Delver on hand as well.

In terms of playstyles, seeing as I'm returning from a few months of not playing, I'd love suggestions for a deck that doesn't require too much thinking, but offers a varied means of winning. I love MTG Goldfish's Free Win Red idea, with a Blood Moon & Ensnaring Bridge lockdown, but in terms of playing a deck like Grixis Control or other interaction heavy decks, I don't feel entirely confident I can handle those kinds of decks after just re-entering the scene.

Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions, and apologies if my post isn't super clear at first glance.

Quote from Ayiluss »

With so low budget there aren't many decks you can make. I would go with CoCo Slivers. It's not very challenging deck to play, accessible with your budget and could be fun if you like tribal decks but unfortunately it's not very competitive. Sure it's good enough for smaller local tournaments like FNM but I wouldn't take it to GP.

I already own CoCo Slivers and I have full playsets of both Aether Vial and Cavern of Souls if that helps bring up any other decks that rely on them.

Quote from jokerstyle00 »

Back from a several month long hiatus from MTG, and currently trying to get back into the swing of Modern.

Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a new deck to build, preferably on a budget that doesn't exceed $200-$250~.

I'm away from most of my collection due to an internship, but I have access to an almost complete playset of the three Tron lands, and I have my CoCo Slivers, Elemental Combo, and Grixis Delver on hand as well.

In terms of playstyles, seeing as I'm returning from a few months of not playing, I'd love suggestions for a deck that doesn't require too much thinking, but offers a varied means of winning. I love MTG Goldfish's Free Win Red idea, with a Blood Moon & Ensnaring Bridge lockdown, but in terms of playing a deck like Grixis Control or other interaction heavy decks, I don't feel entirely confident I can handle those kinds of decks after just re-entering the scene.

Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions, and apologies if my post isn't super clear at first glance.

Goblins can be done for 200+. Almost all of that goes into Guides ($40 each) and Loyalists ($10 each).

"doesn't require too much thinking, but offers a varied means of winning" <- this is simply a contradiction, having multiple ways of winning means you will have to consider which one is the best in every situation.

So I don't get to play Modern often, and I want to find a deck that I can have sitting around to pull out on the rare occasion I want to (and can) go to a tournament. I'm looking for a deck that can largely ignore what's going on in the metagame so that I don't have to tweak the list much, because I don't really have time to keep up with what everyone is playing.
To be clear, I'm not saying that I want to ignore what my opponent is doing and not interact (though that's always an option), I just want to ignore what the format/metagame as a whole is doing. I would like something that doesn't need to be changed up based on what is good for this particular tournament. I want to be able to put the deck on a shelf for two or three months and pick it right back up without spending too much time catching up on the format.

The last few times I went out to play Modern I tried a Jeskai midrange/control sort of brew; I feel like I got really bad matchups, but still wasn't happy with the way it ran. I got the feeling that even though I enjoy that play-style, those are exactly the kind of decks that require more testing and tweaking than I want/am able to put into it, which is what convinced me that I need to find something else, and particularly not try to brew something myself.

It's hard to define exactly what kind of deck I want to play because I'm open to any style, but there are some particular decks that just don't appeal to me for reasons I can't always explain or identify. I've decided that if I'm going to play a deck that just attacks, for example, I'm pretty sure I would prefer Bogles to Affinity or Infect, but I can't really say why that looks better for me.
I don't mind spending time goldfishing or reading primers to learn how the deck runs, but I'm not able to spend a lot of time testing specific matchups or post-board games and stuff like that. I typically avoid the "obvious" best decks that everyone will expect and prepare for, partly because I'm sure that I would be the less experienced player in any mirror match. That's not a hard rule, but if I do take one of the top lists I'm sure I would try to put my own spin on it one way or another. I'm not planning to spike any major tournaments, it just has to hold up at FNM-level stuff, maybe the occasional PPTQ or IQ or something.
Budget is a minor concern. I've been playing and collecting long enough that I have a lot (maybe most?) of the higher-end Modern staples, so if I don't already have most of the deck I can probably trade for it easily. I'm not interested in picking up a lot of really narrow cards that only go into one deck (so stuff like Lanterns or Ad Nauseam are less likely even though both do look kind of fun), but otherwise it's not much of an issue.

I've kicked around several different ideas for what I could play but nothing ever seems to stick. A while ago I was thinking Scapeshift, but since that card spiked I lost a little interest. Lately I keep thinking back to Bogles a lot because it seems both very straightforward and very customizable, but at the same time the old saying "Just play Jund" also sounds good to me right now. If anyone else is in the same kind of situation I'm very interested in any suggestions or ideas on what decks are always a reasonable to good choice no matter what the rest of the field is doing.

In general for this situation, you want a low maintenance deck. Those types of decks tend to be aggressive, proactive decks. You're basically looking to play decks that can ignore what the enemy is doing because it makes you more resilient to the adapting meta. Additionally, the more obscure your strategy is, the fewer cards you will have to add to it as well (along the lines of, blue is the least obscure, while Boggles would be very obscure). There is the issue that the obscure archetypes tend to have fewer cards playable outside of the deck, but it's a trade-off you make to not have to keep investing and keeping your list up to date.

I'd recommend something like Boggles or Affinity. They're both proactive, aggressive decks, and both obscure enough that new cards or changes to the format rarely affect them. Both decks have rarely changed ever, which is a key factor for you.

That's pretty much the direction I was headed the more I thought about it. I guess I should start finding Bogles stuff.
I don't mind those cards being narrow as much because everything that doesn't go somewhere else is cheap enough to not care. I think Daybreak Coronet is the only card worth money (besides lands, which I mostly have), I can deal with that.

Hello, long time since I've asked for help here. At the moment, I feel like I need another Modern deck to have in my arsenal. At the moment I've got G/R Tron and Abzan Company which my local store's players basically call the decks to beat at the store. I also have Merfolk which they consider on the same power level as the other two, yet I've always felt Merfolk is a little lower in power level to Tron and Company, so I feel like I need another deck to replace it. I was thinking Affinity as it has fast play, and throws people off, yet there is little interaction in the deck. Although I don't know if it's the right thing to do. Is Merfolk really considered powerful in Modern? Should I not worry about Affinity over Merfolk?

Hello all, I've been wanting to ask for advice on decks to play but this would be less of a metagame call and more of trying to have fun with magic one more time. I completely understand that this kind of request is a somewhat out of the scope of what usually goes on this thread, but might as well give it a shot. Sorry for the long text, by the way.

Long story short, I've been growing tired of magic in general, especially Modern. Usually I don't mind results (not competitive at all), my objective has always been "playing a good game", putting up a good fight. This is one of the reasons I don't like linear combo/non-interactive decks, and mostly played with midrange interactive brews. I used to like the pressure of maximizing the value of your spells through the game so you can shutdown your opponent's resources and/or overwhelm them with impressive board states or sheer card advantage. Needless to say, I have been a midrange/superfriends player for the past 4~6 years.

Aside from 'walker.deck (example: Naya Walkers) I'm known for playing "maximum durdle" (example: MonoG Devotion) and Seismic Assault (example: RG Assault). Specifically considering the Seismic Assault.deck, I have tinkered a lot with it in the past (back in Treasure Cruise Modern), but eventually gave up on newer builds or further testing.

Thing is - I don't want to stop playing magic, or to get stuck with casual EDH. I don't have the money (or patience) for Standard, and heavily dislike Legacy, which ends up bringing me back to Modern. I just feel tired after trying to come up with a lot of weird ideas and brews that can't put up a decent game against anything (example: Bant Blink).

Whenever I watch Modern, I feel like I'm so far away from anything and can't actually picture myself playing anything. That new Boros/Jeskai Nahiri deck, for example - I can't get over how lame it is to just cheat Emrakul into play. (Really not a fan of the concept of the "I win" button). Meanwhile, everyone around me seems excited about Dredgevine, Nahiri or some other way to cheat things into play... Is there no more room for 1:1'ning people and developing a board one threat at a time?

I don't know if I should expect any kind of feasible solution from this post, and this is too close to a rant - but truth be told, I'm so close to giving up on Magic it scares me. I just lost something, I'm certain.

Sorry for the long post, I'm aware that I write too much.

Blitkun:

What about Wu Titan? http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/developing-competitive-modern/600378-mono-value-control-aka-azorious-titan

-Slowly build to get 6 mana and play Sun titan, then go to value town and win.
-can be adjusted to combat meta/unfair decks (U for counters like negate/dispel, W for hate in SB like stony silence, etc).
-Is somewhat cheap, you dont have to bleed to build the deck

the only thing is that is really hard to play, you need to know very well the meta and master the deck.

At least is what i thinko you look in a deck: and interactable deck that can fight unfair decks, or am i not understading what you want?

Thanks for the advice, LeviatanCL - looks like an interesting option, gave the primer a quick read, as well as some of the latest comments there. I'm not completely sold, though - looks like a lot of wishful thinking (reminds me of my durdle decks).

And yes, you got it right, regarding what I probably want. It's a bit deeper than that (I used to enjoy playing fair games that lead to weird, complex board states), but you got the core idea. Really appreciate the feedback, will keep looking into it - thanks.