What do people feel about Inverter of truth? Its a 6/6 for four with flying a downside that's easily an upside?
Not good.
If you're planning to use him just as a beatstick, Tasigur and Angler are better. Got a big graveyard that ensures you won't die to Inverter of Truth? Great, that same graveyard can be used to fuel Tasigur/Angler. I honestly think that a 2BB 6/6 flier is not good enough to see play in Modern, even if it comes with absolutely no drawback.
If you're trying to combo him with Laboratory Maniac you have to somehow build a deck without cantrips or fetchlands. Even then, you're only winning on turn 5 upkeep, and your wincon is an easily killable 2/2. There's just too many restrictions placed on your deck, and the combo is too easily disrupted.
I wonder if there's a mono-G Colorless deck that can use Ancient Stirrings with Devoid cards. Basically so it's almost a better Ponder. You have two sweepers, two spot removal spells, a counterspell, a hand disruption spell, and some other things. Problem is these cards are all really narrow.
Or maybe the way to go is Mono-G Eldrazi. Do you still need Thoughtseize and Inquisition when you play Thought-Knot Seer on turn two?
Mono-G Eldrazi is what I'm working on. The main reason for Black is Urborg to turn on your Sower lands, but with all the new colorless cards, land destruction, Life from the Loam and World Breaker I think there's at least something worth experimenting with. Ancient Stirrings and Oath of Nissa make the library manipulation strong also, and Courser of Kruphix shores up the aggro matchup some.
Natural State is definitely Modern Sideboard playable, as it wrecks Affinity and protects against Bloodmoon.
Pulse of Murasa might be playable. It's kinda like Timely Reinforcements but you get to grab Tasigur instead of just 3 1/1s, though the question is is it better than Feed the Clan?
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
I wonder if there's a mono-G Colorless deck that can use Ancient Stirrings with Devoid cards. Basically so it's almost a better Ponder. You have two sweepers, two spot removal spells, a counterspell, a hand disruption spell, and some other things. Problem is these cards are all really narrow.
Or maybe the way to go is Mono-G Eldrazi. Do you still need Thoughtseize and Inquisition when you play Thought-Knot Seer on turn two?
Mono-G Eldrazi is what I'm working on. The main reason for Black is Urborg to turn on your Sower lands, but with all the new colorless cards, land destruction, Life from the Loam and World Breaker I think there's at least something worth experimenting with. Ancient Stirrings and Oath of Nissa make the library manipulation strong also, and Courser of Kruphix shores up the aggro matchup some.
The main reason to run black is a combination of Urborg (huge with eye, hugeeeee), Wasteland Strangler (stops early aggression and is almost always a 2-1), and the removal/discard package (you can't ramp if you can't survive long enough to do so). Mono green lacks ALL of these things.
Natural State is ******* awesome. Sweet new Negate art, gimme foils of that!!!
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
The mono-B thread is already considering moving away from Wasteland Strangler and the removal/discard package can be mitigated by a combination of the new colorless spells, Thought-Knot Seer and/or Dismember, and Green brings its own set of advantages. I don't know if mono-G is viable, I think it is at least interesting to explore.
The most difficult to replicate part of the Black deck is the Urborg. Of course you could play Urborg in a green version with enough other Green sources or Gb may be plausible. The Urborg interaction is also most essential to Oblivion Sower. I love Sower and think it is very strong, but a version without it might be plausible given all of the other alternatives. Its a fun time to brew.
Devour in Flames is interesting. Three mana is probably too much when you could just play Roast, but this does offer meaningful upside for the downside. Later in the game the land-bouncing part becomes an upside: if you don't have a land to play it basically costs two mana.
Natural State is definitely a great sideboard card that will replace Nature's Claim in many cases. It was always awkward to play Claim in Scapeshif, for instance, because your opponent gaining 4 life might set your win back a turn. But you really wanted to be able to kill Blood Moon for one mana. This card does that and still hits other relevant things like Amulet of Vigor and all of Affinity's creatures.
Pulse of Murasa can gain a lot of life in combination with Snapcaster. I don't know if I actually expect it to see play, but stranger things have happened in the world of anti-Burn sideboards...
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When you peer long enough through the depths, the depths peer also through you.
Essence backlash doesn't care if the card is countered or not, it's still going to hit Tron in the face for 15.
Same as Plasm Capture; you can't *counter* Emrakul, but you can get all that mana. Difference being that you probably won't live long enough to use it.
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
They would still take 15. Emrakul as a spell on the stack can be targeted by Essence Backlash, which doesn't require that the spell be countered to do the damage.
Natural State is definitely Modern Sideboard playable, as it wrecks Affinity and protects against Bloodmoon.
Pulse of Murasa might be playable. It's kinda like Timely Reinforcements but you get to grab Tasigur instead of just 3 1/1s, though the question is is it better than Feed the Clan?
Would they play it over nature's claim though? the 4 life drawback isn't as big as the 3 cmc imo (misses splinter twin).
Natural State is definitely Modern Sideboard playable, as it wrecks Affinity and protects against Bloodmoon.
Pulse of Murasa might be playable. It's kinda like Timely Reinforcements but you get to grab Tasigur instead of just 3 1/1s, though the question is is it better than Feed the Clan?
Would they play it over nature's claim though? the 4 life drawback isn't as big as the 3 cmc imo (misses splinter twin).
It depends on the deck; Infect will stick with Claim, because they don't care about lifegain, but decks like Scapeshift will probably like State more as the Lifegain can actually really hurt them.
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
Did I misread the card Thought-Knot Seer? Why is everyone so optimistic about it? Sounds like a slower Sin Collector but with some risk. What if the opponent has one card left in hand and it's an instant-speed removal spell? Or just empty handed?
For starters, it's a 4/4 body, it often costs just 2 colorless mana (with Eye), and it exiles any non-land card rather than only instants and sorceries.
Hea right though.super best case scenario mentality on here. The card is good but i dont think its insane or anything. Eapecially since people are going to start to hate on this deck when it top 8s the pt. Im feeling maindeck blood moon may be the way to go t destroy tron this and amulet for the pt
Natural State looks like a playable SB card. It notably misses Twin, but does a fine job against most other artifacts/enchantments: anything from Affinity (other than Etched Champion), Spellskite, both Nexuses, Blood Moon. The question is: which deck wants it? Aggressive decks play Destructive Revelry, GW decks have Qasali Pridemage or Reclamation Sage, BG decks have Abrupt Decay. Despite that, I'm willing to believe it has a home in a SB somewhere. I think it's only slightly worse than Nature's Claim.
The hardest cards to evaluate are the mid-sized Eldrazi, since the Bx Eldrazi deck is relatively new. Thought-Knot Seer should give it that push that it needs to be at least tier 2. The other mid-sized Eldrazi (Matter Reshaper, Reality Smasher, Endbringer) are not as good as Thought-Knot Seer, but it's unclear if they can find a spot in the Eldrazi deck. Matter Reshaper could, in a non-Eldrazi deck.
Slip Through Space and Unnatural Endurance are my two pet cards. Unnatural Endurance is strictly better than Boon of Erebos. They seem like they could fit in Infect - UG used to play Distortion Strike, and BG is being tried out at the moment. Distortion Strike combos with Wild Defiance, whereas Slip Through Space doesn't, though. Also, both of these spells are in splash colors instead of green.
Sparkmage's Gambit seems unassuming, but I see faint potential in it for swarm aggro decks like Goblins. The problem with swarm aggro is that your creatures can get stonewalled by blockers too big to kill with burn, and then you can't do anything from that point onwards. Sparkmage's Gambit takes two blockers out of the equation for one turn, with the added bonus of killing them if they're x/1s. I only wish it was an instant so it could kill a flashed-in Snapcaster Mage.
Nissa is a unique PW - I've mentioned before that she's the cheapest PW that makes tokens. No deck currently exists for her, but a fresh new green token build might want her. Sprout Swarm + Intruder Alarm goes infinite, btw - if 0/1 Plants are good for anything besides chump blocking and saccing to Liliana, it's convoking.
Pulse of Murasa is another unassuming card. "Why play this when you can play Feed the Clan?" Well, what if I told you that you're not playing this card for the life gain? Healing Salve is a bad card, but stick it onto a Bolt and the resulting card is playable. Everyone knows how good Kolaghan's Command is, raising Snapcaster and Jace from the dead. How about a Raise Dead with a different secondary effect? You can even play it in green-based decks with Eternal Witness, and, listen to this, unlike Snaps or Jace, you can loop Witness and Pulse indefinitely.
Despite how underwhelming the manlands are, I have to begrudgingly give the BG and UR ones the benefit of doubt since they're the best 2-color combinations in Modern. Willy Edel mentioned that he would play the BG manland no matter what, even if he wasn't absolutely serious when he said that. Twin doesn't want the UR one though - ETB tapped lands are bad in that deck.
- Close, but I'm calling unplayable
Endbringer
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Matter Reshaper
Reality Smasher
Slip Through Space
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Unnatural Endurance
Kozilek's Return
Sparkmage's Gambit
World Breaker
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Pulse of Murasa
Hissing Quagmire
Sea Gate Wreckage
Wandering Fumarole
- Unplayable
Call the Gatewatch
Eldrazi Displacer
Linvala, the Preserver
Searing Light
Stone Haven Outfitter
Dimensional Infiltrator
Gift of Tusks
Hedron Alignment
Overwhelming Denial
Prophet of Distortion
Inverter of Truth
Remorseless Punishment
Reality Hemorrhage
Chandra, Flamecaller
Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Tears of Valakut
Bonds of Mortality
Zendikar Resurgent
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Jori En, Ruin Diver
Mina and Denn, Wildborn
Reflector Mage
Corrupted Crossroads
Crumbling Vestige
Mirrorpool
Ruins of Oran-Rief
Needle Spires
All Oaths other than Nissa's
Rare Eldrazi cycle with on-cast trigger
Anything with Cohort or Support on it
- Some deck wants it, but that deck will not be tier >= 2
Reckless Bushwhacker (Goblins)
Oath of Nissa (Mono-green Devotion)
Sylvan Advocate (Allies)
Stormchaser Mage (Suicide Zoo)
Overall the set is decent. It has a cool, new, usable mechanic (colorless-only costs) and a few cards for specific deck archetypes. I'm excited to see which 2-color decks would "splash" for colorless - UW in particular could use Spatial Contortion, which kills any creature that Bolt could. It can't kill PWs or players though (unless you cast it targeting your Restoration Angel for an extra 3 damage).
edit: forgot Sylvan Advocate's Ally subtype. It's got borderline combat stats for a 2-drop in a swarm aggro deck. If it sees play it will be in Allies, not a random "good stuff" deck.
Thought-Knot Seer
This is a really good card on turn two and cements the Eldrazi vs. fair deck matchup. But I still worry it doesn't help the Affinity, Burn, Tron, etc. matchups enough. Despite that fear, it's just been so good in testing that I want to play it more.
Grip of the Roil
Interesting in Disrupting Shoal-based Delver decks or a Temur Prowess style build. Pitches at 3 CMC to Shoal, works against all the major creature clocks in the format, castable on turn two off Probe or Bauble, flips Delvers and, most importantly, replaces itself.
Reality Hemorrhage
Not sure where I want to test this but I like that it kills Firewalkers (if Burn) and Master of Waves/Etched Champion. Ghostfire does it too but the difference between 3 and 2 CMC is huge.
Natural State
Need to analyze sideboards to see what decks are currently using Nature's Claim and other similar spells and if those decks want this instead. Seems like the most playable card at first glance.
If you're planning to use him just as a beatstick, Tasigur and Angler are better. Got a big graveyard that ensures you won't die to Inverter of Truth? Great, that same graveyard can be used to fuel Tasigur/Angler. I honestly think that a 2BB 6/6 flier is not good enough to see play in Modern, even if it comes with absolutely no drawback.
If you're trying to combo him with Laboratory Maniac you have to somehow build a deck without cantrips or fetchlands. Even then, you're only winning on turn 5 upkeep, and your wincon is an easily killable 2/2. There's just too many restrictions placed on your deck, and the combo is too easily disrupted.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Mono-G Eldrazi is what I'm working on. The main reason for Black is Urborg to turn on your Sower lands, but with all the new colorless cards, land destruction, Life from the Loam and World Breaker I think there's at least something worth experimenting with. Ancient Stirrings and Oath of Nissa make the library manipulation strong also, and Courser of Kruphix shores up the aggro matchup some.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/oathofthegatewatch
Pulse of Murasa might be playable. It's kinda like Timely Reinforcements but you get to grab Tasigur instead of just 3 1/1s, though the question is is it better than Feed the Clan?
The main reason to run black is a combination of Urborg (huge with eye, hugeeeee), Wasteland Strangler (stops early aggression and is almost always a 2-1), and the removal/discard package (you can't ramp if you can't survive long enough to do so). Mono green lacks ALL of these things.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
The most difficult to replicate part of the Black deck is the Urborg. Of course you could play Urborg in a green version with enough other Green sources or Gb may be plausible. The Urborg interaction is also most essential to Oblivion Sower. I love Sower and think it is very strong, but a version without it might be plausible given all of the other alternatives. Its a fun time to brew.
Also of note that he can allow you to run a Sunforger package in Modern; as long as he survives he can cast Mana Tithe, Counterflux, Double Negative, Essence Backlash (Hilarious against Tron. "I cast Emrakul!" "You take 15!"), Ride Down, Lightning Bolt/Helix, Terminate, Deflecting Palm, and others.
Natural State is definitely a great sideboard card that will replace Nature's Claim in many cases. It was always awkward to play Claim in Scapeshif, for instance, because your opponent gaining 4 life might set your win back a turn. But you really wanted to be able to kill Blood Moon for one mana. This card does that and still hits other relevant things like Amulet of Vigor and all of Affinity's creatures.
Pulse of Murasa can gain a lot of life in combination with Snapcaster. I don't know if I actually expect it to see play, but stranger things have happened in the world of anti-Burn sideboards...
Kills Firewalkers dead.
All in all, lots of fun stuff to brew with. My favorites are probably Jori, Stormchaser, Nissa, Warping Wail, and Sea Gate Wreckage
Emrakul can't be countered...
Essence backlash doesn't care if the card is countered or not, it's still going to hit Tron in the face for 15.
Same as Plasm Capture; you can't *counter* Emrakul, but you can get all that mana. Difference being that you probably won't live long enough to use it.
Modern - UG Mana Denial GU
. . . . . . .
WBG Melira Pod GBWCommander - BR Olivia Voldaren RB Vampire Tribal
. . . . . . . . . WUB Sharuum the Hegemon BUW Not-Broken Artifact Midrange
. . . . . . . . . WUG Rafiq of the Many GUW Voltron
. . . . . . . . . . .UB Oona, Queen of the Fae BU No-combo Tempo-Mill
. . . . . . . . . WUB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic BUW Pillow Fort
Would they play it over nature's claim though? the 4 life drawback isn't as big as the 3 cmc imo (misses splinter twin).
It depends on the deck; Infect will stick with Claim, because they don't care about lifegain, but decks like Scapeshift will probably like State more as the Lifegain can actually really hurt them.
IT'S GARBAGE, MARO DOES IT AGAIN, THANKS WIZARDS!
Ah but seriously it must be nice playing EldraziGoodstuff.dec right about now.
Hea right though.super best case scenario mentality on here. The card is good but i dont think its insane or anything. Eapecially since people are going to start to hate on this deck when it top 8s the pt. Im feeling maindeck blood moon may be the way to go t destroy tron this and amulet for the pt
The hardest cards to evaluate are the mid-sized Eldrazi, since the Bx Eldrazi deck is relatively new. Thought-Knot Seer should give it that push that it needs to be at least tier 2. The other mid-sized Eldrazi (Matter Reshaper, Reality Smasher, Endbringer) are not as good as Thought-Knot Seer, but it's unclear if they can find a spot in the Eldrazi deck. Matter Reshaper could, in a non-Eldrazi deck.
Slip Through Space and Unnatural Endurance are my two pet cards. Unnatural Endurance is strictly better than Boon of Erebos. They seem like they could fit in Infect - UG used to play Distortion Strike, and BG is being tried out at the moment. Distortion Strike combos with Wild Defiance, whereas Slip Through Space doesn't, though. Also, both of these spells are in splash colors instead of green.
Sparkmage's Gambit seems unassuming, but I see faint potential in it for swarm aggro decks like Goblins. The problem with swarm aggro is that your creatures can get stonewalled by blockers too big to kill with burn, and then you can't do anything from that point onwards. Sparkmage's Gambit takes two blockers out of the equation for one turn, with the added bonus of killing them if they're x/1s. I only wish it was an instant so it could kill a flashed-in Snapcaster Mage.
Nissa is a unique PW - I've mentioned before that she's the cheapest PW that makes tokens. No deck currently exists for her, but a fresh new green token build might want her. Sprout Swarm + Intruder Alarm goes infinite, btw - if 0/1 Plants are good for anything besides chump blocking and saccing to Liliana, it's convoking.
Pulse of Murasa is another unassuming card. "Why play this when you can play Feed the Clan?" Well, what if I told you that you're not playing this card for the life gain? Healing Salve is a bad card, but stick it onto a Bolt and the resulting card is playable. Everyone knows how good Kolaghan's Command is, raising Snapcaster and Jace from the dead. How about a Raise Dead with a different secondary effect? You can even play it in green-based decks with Eternal Witness, and, listen to this, unlike Snaps or Jace, you can loop Witness and Pulse indefinitely.
Despite how underwhelming the manlands are, I have to begrudgingly give the BG and UR ones the benefit of doubt since they're the best 2-color combinations in Modern. Willy Edel mentioned that he would play the BG manland no matter what, even if he wasn't absolutely serious when he said that. Twin doesn't want the UR one though - ETB tapped lands are bad in that deck.
Final rankings:
Thought-Knot Seer (Bx Eldrazi)
Reprint: Negate
- Sideboard cards
Spatial Contortion
Warping Wail
Flaying Tendrils
Natural State
- Close, but I'm calling unplayable
Endbringer
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Matter Reshaper
Reality Smasher
Slip Through Space
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Unnatural Endurance
Kozilek's Return
Sparkmage's Gambit
World Breaker
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Pulse of Murasa
Hissing Quagmire
Sea Gate Wreckage
Wandering Fumarole
- Unplayable
Call the Gatewatch
Eldrazi Displacer
Linvala, the Preserver
Searing Light
Stone Haven Outfitter
Dimensional Infiltrator
Gift of Tusks
Hedron Alignment
Overwhelming Denial
Prophet of Distortion
Inverter of Truth
Remorseless Punishment
Reality Hemorrhage
Chandra, Flamecaller
Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Tears of Valakut
Bonds of Mortality
Zendikar Resurgent
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Jori En, Ruin Diver
Mina and Denn, Wildborn
Reflector Mage
Corrupted Crossroads
Crumbling Vestige
Mirrorpool
Ruins of Oran-Rief
Needle Spires
All Oaths other than Nissa's
Rare Eldrazi cycle with on-cast trigger
Anything with Cohort or Support on it
- Some deck wants it, but that deck will not be tier >= 2
Reckless Bushwhacker (Goblins)
Oath of Nissa (Mono-green Devotion)
Sylvan Advocate (Allies)
Stormchaser Mage (Suicide Zoo)
edit: forgot Sylvan Advocate's Ally subtype. It's got borderline combat stats for a 2-drop in a swarm aggro deck. If it sees play it will be in Allies, not a random "good stuff" deck.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
The only card that got a second look from me. Mardu Equipment brew, here we go!!!
Very interesting that you can equip stuff over Stony Silence with this.
"When you get your opponent down to 0 sanity, you win the game!"
I think Naya would be more appropriate, honestly; Mage Slayer gives it a psuedo-doublestrike, with the first bit being unblockable.
Thought-Knot Seer
This is a really good card on turn two and cements the Eldrazi vs. fair deck matchup. But I still worry it doesn't help the Affinity, Burn, Tron, etc. matchups enough. Despite that fear, it's just been so good in testing that I want to play it more.
Grip of the Roil
Interesting in Disrupting Shoal-based Delver decks or a Temur Prowess style build. Pitches at 3 CMC to Shoal, works against all the major creature clocks in the format, castable on turn two off Probe or Bauble, flips Delvers and, most importantly, replaces itself.
Reality Hemorrhage
Not sure where I want to test this but I like that it kills Firewalkers (if Burn) and Master of Waves/Etched Champion. Ghostfire does it too but the difference between 3 and 2 CMC is huge.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Still my favorite card and still testing! Going to keep trying to get this to work with Boom // Bust
Kazuul's Toll Collector
My Johnny senses are tingling. I am prepared to be disappointed.
Natural State
Need to analyze sideboards to see what decks are currently using Nature's Claim and other similar spells and if those decks want this instead. Seems like the most playable card at first glance.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Seems really scary on turn two off a dork.
Oath of Nissa
Gotta find a home for green Ponder.
Cliffhaven Vampire
Exquisite Blood! Sanguine Bond! Bolt proof creature! It's even on the curve! JOHNNY SENSES CAN'T CONTROL THEMSELVES.