Hey everyone. I have been obsessed over Superfriends ever since Frank Lepore did his article on winning a tournament with Bant Superfriends in Standard a few weeks back. So, I decided I wanted to try something out for a Modern list to get to a competitive level. I have decent experience in Modern, but I need help filling a few slots. Here is what I have so far:
Please ignore the number of each card. After I fill in the rest of the slots, I will continue to update this list.
UPDATE: After first starting with Naya Superfriends, I realized the deck wouldn't be a contender. Since I love Red and Green as colors, I am attempting a build with blue for card advantage and a more control aspect to this build. The focus of the RUG Superfriends build will be win conditions based off of planeswalkers and a few select creatures.
Courser of Kruphix can help you net a few cards, and possibly increasing my Chandra, Pyromaster to 2 are a few sources of card advantage. Are there any other viable options?
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Modern decks: BGRDredgevineBGR UWRJeskai ControlUWR
Not really. Bant and America colors are better for planeswalker decks for this reason. Even BUG would be better. Ajani Steadfast is pretty bad here by the way because his plus is essentially worthless because you run so few creatures. Garruk, Primal Hunter can draw cards, so can Harmonize but Naya control is basically an oxymoron.
I play a lot of Superfriends, the biggest thing I've found is in the number of planeswalkers... some people try to go for 10 or 12 but I've found there usually just isn't deck room for that. 7 has always seemed like a very healthy number to me, lately I've been doing 8 to test going higher and just haven't been impressed.
Most of the planeswalkers in your list I don't agree with though. The first major problem is that all of them cost 4, you need to diversify your mana curve.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave - This is ok if you need a 4 but Tamiyo, the Moon Sage just works so much better. Between not dying to Lightning Bolt, not having an ability defeated by Skullcrack, and having all around better abilities I don't think you want Kiora. If you're desperate for a 4 it works but 4 CMC is the most common cost for a playable walker so there's no shortage in the slot. Besides that, getting to ultimate Tamiyo into 15 Lightning Bolts is stupid powerful.
Jace, Architect of Thought - He's not very good in Modern. Most creatures you care about have 3-4 power, and taking 1 off of 3-4 is considerably weaker than taking 1 off of 1-2 like in Standard. The bar on 4 CMC is just much higher, instead you want to use either Jace Beleren because he's .67 cards/turn card draw at 3 CMC or go up to 5 for Memory Adept because he's 1 card/turn and a possible win condition. Though at 5 you would usually prefer Tamiyo.
Chandra, Pyromaster - Chandra is fairly decent, but it's a card I've never really figured out in Modern. I would probably only play one because she's very bad against certain decks.
Garruk Relentless - You're playing few creatures so he's not all that good. He's a 2 for 1 but what makes Garruk good is his tutor ability. A superfriends deck can't really afford to run many creatures so his value is drastically reduced.
Xenagos, the Reveler - This is just bad in Modern. It's 4 mana for a 2/2 haste creature and 3 life.
So what you're probably looking at is
2 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Chandra Pyromaster
3 Jace Beleren
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Creatures - You're generally going to want 26 slots to be used on land and with another 7-8 used on planeswalkers you only have 33 slots in the deck. Making a rough outline of the deck you'll need 5 or so slots for board wipes, 8 for spot removal, 7 for counters, and 3 for card draw and that leaves you with only 10 flex slots to use on creatures and anything you want to bulk up. Because of this you need to be very selective with your creature choice.
Courser of Kruphix - Jund is playing this card because they're interested in some lifegain and are already in green. In RUG Superfriends, taking this card is committing you heavily to green due to the need to have GG on T3 but all of your walkers want green as your third color not your primary. This creates a lot of strain on the manabase. Usually you just want more spells here.
Snapcaster Mage - He's not bad in control but you run a large number of cards that he can't flashback. Snapcaster is good but I would run no more than two simply because running out of targets for him is a very real concern.
Aetherling - You're playing planeswalkers, each of which is capable of winning the game. Why do you need a creature finisher?
Keranos, God of Storms - It's just not well placed in Modern. This isn't a format where you can spend 5 mana to not impact the board that turn.
Spells - The best approach I've found to spells is to make an outline of how many of each effect I want. And then seek to fill the slots based on the mana curve. Generally you want to clear the board and play a planeswalker and you're interested in low cost removal. Between the sorcery sweepers and high walker count not to mention manlands as a backup you're generally looking to hold up counter magic early and then play a walker with only cheap counter magic available. In RUG I would probably look to Avoid Fate, Dispel, and Spell Pierce to protect your board while Mana Leak deals with your opponents threats. Something like 4 Mana Leak/3 Avoid Fate is probably good for counters. When it comes to Avoid Fate vs Dispel you'll have to make a call on the mana. It costs 1UU to Snapcaster a Dispel and 1UUU to hold up a Dispel after playing Jace. That puts you very far into blue which makes mana tough on Chandra on the other hand Avoid Fate is 1GUU which is easier to cast but requires that you have the green, of course being a green counterspell you WILL catch people off guard so that has some value, a split could be correct.
When it comes to board wipes I'm not really sure what I would run in RUG, what I can say is that in Grixis I run 3 Pyroclasm/2 Anger of the Gods but I also happen to be the only Pod player in my meta so Anger is less of a concern. You have to balance here between Affinity and Pod/Zoo. Your spot removal is obvious so I won't spend much time there. 4 Lightning Bolt is great but you also want a few other spells. Chandra is MUCH more useful with Electrolyze but you're not really an Electrolyze deck so 2 is probably sufficient. I would recommend your final couple slots be capable of dealing with 4 toughness creatures.
Last comes card draw, you already have walkers which all draw you cards so you don't need that much but you still want a few spells, I would recommend Serum Visions because it digs you 3 deep to your planeswalkers which is where your real advantage is.
Anyways, that covers 52 cards so you're free to choose your last 8
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1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Aetherling
1 Keranos, God of Storms
Superfriends:
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mana Leak
1 Spell Snare
1 Telling Time
Lands:
1 Arid Mesa
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Raging Ravine
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sulfur Falls
UPDATE: After first starting with Naya Superfriends, I realized the deck wouldn't be a contender. Since I love Red and Green as colors, I am attempting a build with blue for card advantage and a more control aspect to this build. The focus of the RUG Superfriends build will be win conditions based off of planeswalkers and a few select creatures.
BGRDredgevineBGR
UWRJeskai ControlUWR
Pauper:
GMono-Green AggroG
MTGO Username: creamy99
Twitch Stream: www.twitch.tv/coachcreamy
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/Cherokee3210
Check it out for the latest testing, gameplay, and dailies!
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
BGRDredgevineBGR
UWRJeskai ControlUWR
Pauper:
GMono-Green AggroG
MTGO Username: creamy99
Twitch Stream: www.twitch.tv/coachcreamy
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/Cherokee3210
Check it out for the latest testing, gameplay, and dailies!
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
Wall of Omens seems like another viable possibility. At the very least it cycles itself and it does a good job of protecting your walkers.
BGRDredgevineBGR
UWRJeskai ControlUWR
Pauper:
GMono-Green AggroG
MTGO Username: creamy99
Twitch Stream: www.twitch.tv/coachcreamy
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/Cherokee3210
Check it out for the latest testing, gameplay, and dailies!
Most of the planeswalkers in your list I don't agree with though. The first major problem is that all of them cost 4, you need to diversify your mana curve.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave - This is ok if you need a 4 but Tamiyo, the Moon Sage just works so much better. Between not dying to Lightning Bolt, not having an ability defeated by Skullcrack, and having all around better abilities I don't think you want Kiora. If you're desperate for a 4 it works but 4 CMC is the most common cost for a playable walker so there's no shortage in the slot. Besides that, getting to ultimate Tamiyo into 15 Lightning Bolts is stupid powerful.
Jace, Architect of Thought - He's not very good in Modern. Most creatures you care about have 3-4 power, and taking 1 off of 3-4 is considerably weaker than taking 1 off of 1-2 like in Standard. The bar on 4 CMC is just much higher, instead you want to use either Jace Beleren because he's .67 cards/turn card draw at 3 CMC or go up to 5 for Memory Adept because he's 1 card/turn and a possible win condition. Though at 5 you would usually prefer Tamiyo.
Chandra, Pyromaster - Chandra is fairly decent, but it's a card I've never really figured out in Modern. I would probably only play one because she's very bad against certain decks.
Garruk Relentless - You're playing few creatures so he's not all that good. He's a 2 for 1 but what makes Garruk good is his tutor ability. A superfriends deck can't really afford to run many creatures so his value is drastically reduced.
Xenagos, the Reveler - This is just bad in Modern. It's 4 mana for a 2/2 haste creature and 3 life.
So what you're probably looking at is
2 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Chandra Pyromaster
3 Jace Beleren
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
As you can see there's little that green is contributing to your walkers, if you want to play those colors that's fine but green isn't a very good superfriends color. Most notably UWR offers Elspeth Knight-Errant, Gideon Jura, and Ajani Vengeant or Grixis offers Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, and Liliana of the Veil.
Creatures - You're generally going to want 26 slots to be used on land and with another 7-8 used on planeswalkers you only have 33 slots in the deck. Making a rough outline of the deck you'll need 5 or so slots for board wipes, 8 for spot removal, 7 for counters, and 3 for card draw and that leaves you with only 10 flex slots to use on creatures and anything you want to bulk up. Because of this you need to be very selective with your creature choice.
Courser of Kruphix - Jund is playing this card because they're interested in some lifegain and are already in green. In RUG Superfriends, taking this card is committing you heavily to green due to the need to have GG on T3 but all of your walkers want green as your third color not your primary. This creates a lot of strain on the manabase. Usually you just want more spells here.
Snapcaster Mage - He's not bad in control but you run a large number of cards that he can't flashback. Snapcaster is good but I would run no more than two simply because running out of targets for him is a very real concern.
Aetherling - You're playing planeswalkers, each of which is capable of winning the game. Why do you need a creature finisher?
Keranos, God of Storms - It's just not well placed in Modern. This isn't a format where you can spend 5 mana to not impact the board that turn.
Spells - The best approach I've found to spells is to make an outline of how many of each effect I want. And then seek to fill the slots based on the mana curve. Generally you want to clear the board and play a planeswalker and you're interested in low cost removal. Between the sorcery sweepers and high walker count not to mention manlands as a backup you're generally looking to hold up counter magic early and then play a walker with only cheap counter magic available. In RUG I would probably look to Avoid Fate, Dispel, and Spell Pierce to protect your board while Mana Leak deals with your opponents threats. Something like 4 Mana Leak/3 Avoid Fate is probably good for counters. When it comes to Avoid Fate vs Dispel you'll have to make a call on the mana. It costs 1UU to Snapcaster a Dispel and 1UUU to hold up a Dispel after playing Jace. That puts you very far into blue which makes mana tough on Chandra on the other hand Avoid Fate is 1GUU which is easier to cast but requires that you have the green, of course being a green counterspell you WILL catch people off guard so that has some value, a split could be correct.
When it comes to board wipes I'm not really sure what I would run in RUG, what I can say is that in Grixis I run 3 Pyroclasm/2 Anger of the Gods but I also happen to be the only Pod player in my meta so Anger is less of a concern. You have to balance here between Affinity and Pod/Zoo. Your spot removal is obvious so I won't spend much time there. 4 Lightning Bolt is great but you also want a few other spells. Chandra is MUCH more useful with Electrolyze but you're not really an Electrolyze deck so 2 is probably sufficient. I would recommend your final couple slots be capable of dealing with 4 toughness creatures.
Last comes card draw, you already have walkers which all draw you cards so you don't need that much but you still want a few spells, I would recommend Serum Visions because it digs you 3 deep to your planeswalkers which is where your real advantage is.
Anyways, that covers 52 cards so you're free to choose your last 8