I'm considering taking this to FNM tonight, and I'm wondering about post-SB games where the opponent has successfully brought in wholesale GY hate. Say opp has a RIP in play, and you need a Ray of Revelation before you can make anything worthwhile happen. Is there any point to using discard effects knowing that you'll never be able to access them again? E.g. do you cast Faithless with an active RIP in play to dig for Ray (or Grudge for that matter)? Or do you play draw go until something pops up?
I have been drawing if the board isn't threatening and if they have threats that are trouble I start to dig furiously.
Played this deck for the first time at FNM last night. No playtesting, no goldfishing, just going for it.
Finished 2-2, broke even with prize.
Round 1: 2-0 Young kid playing Tron. Game 1 I got down a very early Zombie Infestation and proceeded to GQ lock him out of colorless mana. Beautiful. Game 2 was a mess of Zombies and Spirits, had him to very low life when he played Ulamog, exiled my infestation and Ghast, Spirit beatdowns for another turn. He didn't swing with Ula because his life was so low, played Wurmcoil and passed. Spirits over the top followed by Conflagrate.
Round 2: 0-2 Affinity. Guy plays the deck frequently, usually finishes top 4. Needless to say, this was rough and I was unprepared. Game 1 was a blur, and i botched Game 2 so hard. I played fetch, pass. He played Memnite, then Ravager. Because I suck at this game, I didn't Darkblast the Memnite while Ravager was on the stack. This I feel cost me the game. Not worth going into further.
Round 3: 0-2 UW Helldrazi. What a degenerate pile of cards. It's really difficult to stock up for a Conflagrate when you have to make multiple zombies per turn just to survive to midgame. Killing TKS with Pharaoh trigger is amazing, especially with Loam in the yard. I think this match highlighted for me that it isn't always necessary to dredge dredge dredge when the board is not in your favor. Also, Drowner of Hope is very intimidating when your only answer to it is a Souls on flashback.
Round 4: 2-1 Naya something. Game 1 was another blur of zombie tokens. Game 2 he trumped me with a Scooze. GOD that card butchers dredge. Game 3 was a very epic grind-out where he had Huntmasters flipping, wolves pooping out, etc. He slammed RIP which I thought was game over, but I had spent the previous turns setting up Godless Shrine + Vault of the Archangel. I will happily throw 2 cards into exile to make a 2/2 DT LL zombie. Also had souls going over the top. Got him to 2 life, then Conflagrate closed it.
Wow what a fun deck. I still find it very skill-intensive to know when to dredge and when not to, especially when you desperately need a Ray of Revelation but dumping it into the yard is useless when RIP is out. Weird.
I love love love turning Squees into zombies.
Got 1-2 with 5 people showing up last friday, so it wasn't the most exiting day. Videos are uploading in 1080P now (on a 0.7Mbit/s upstream T.T), including another match I recorded while I had that bye.
Still uploading, the big ones take upwards of 2 hours on my pitiful upstream. First part of the first match just finished uploading. I'll see if I can come up with a faster means of uploading, but I'm doubtful.
I've been thinking about GY hate and ways to minimize its effectiveness. I have to say I haven't come up with any satisfying answers. Is this deck going to be blown out of the meta after Helldrazi banning? In my MU against UW eldrazi, the opponent put down a Grafdigger's Cage. It singlehandedly shut my deck down. Even loaming into Ancient Grudge wasn't an option. The only way out of it was to 1. naturally draw Grudge, or 2. dig with Faithless looting from hand. That's a garbage prospect. While my opponent stacked up 4/4s and 2/1 flyers, I played draw-go.
Has anyone considered Noxious Revival? Anti-GY hate, allows us to recycle anything we want. I get that it does nothing from the Yard, but it would have partially saved my ass in the aforementioned draw-go scenario.
Heres the last match of the day. I prioritised it as it was the longest and most agonising games that I've ever had with this deck. Multiple Relics aren't fun.
Valor did little to nothing, so cutting that in favor of another Pharaoh. In that match, I think that having access to Masterpiece would have won me the match. It is a massive flying beater that can save itself from graveyard hate, can be hard casted and ignores things like Ratchet Bomb and bolt with relative ease.
I really want to include 4 copies of Sultai Charm now as well as a fairly good catch-all for the deck. Had another idea as well: Desolate Lighthouse. More testing, more testing.
With the latest version Raphael Levy played I noticed he decided to leave out Lingering Souls and instead he mainboarded 1 ray of revelation as his only white card. I'm wondering if playing Lingering Souls is really necessary or not? I was thinking of playing the Squee/Conflagrate version of this deck and I'm not sure if should play this with or without Lingering Souls.
That Game 3 was painful to watch. Did you have any Ancient Grudge in the board? Batterskull is near impossible to contend with without it. Also, I like your use of Abrupt Decay, but aren't you worried about Loaming them away?
If you play the flying zombie, how much restructuring to the mana base will it require?
@carl: Lingering Souls is amazing IMO, it's almost always more useful being cast from the GY, synergizes beautifully with Zinfest, gives us reach, stops flyers for a time. What else would you use in its slot?
@ wm0; I had all 4 boarded in, it would have been suicidal not to in that matchup. I simply didn't hit them fast enough as they were all at the bottom of the deck when I looked at it post game. I would have been able to kill him next turn if he didn't land that Batterskull. That's just how it goes sometimes.
Also, here's the latest iteration of my Masterpice Loam for you to have a look at:
As you can see, it doesn't need any major revisons to the standard land base. I'm using two U sources to both revent color screw for Sultai Charm and to hardcast Masterpice as needed.
Speaking of, Sultai Charm is a beast in this deck, as it shoots down a ton of stuff in any matchup. It's not even dead in the eldrazi matchup either, as it can be used for instant powerdredge.
@carl; I agree with wm0, Souls is too good not to play in this deck. Also the ability to hardcast both souls and ray for the price of a single land slot for Godless Shrine is a price worth paying.
Finally, heres two videos of my deck getting stomped on by stompy:
User SebastianStueckl has been on a tear on Modo with this Squeeflagrate build, is there anybody here who can take credit? He's 5-0d on three occasions in the last week with small tweaks each time. I find it quite interesting to watch his deck progress so I thought I'd share incase anyone else had a similar response...
Some very interesting shifts. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the flex land slot is an option I can't recall anyone discussing here. It could also provide an avenue to reincluding Smallpox for this style build should we wish to do so. Molten Vortex is the other interesting choice.
With the latest version Raphael Levy played I noticed he decided to leave out Lingering Souls and instead he mainboarded 1 ray of revelation as his only white card. I'm wondering if playing Lingering Souls is really necessary or not? I was thinking of playing the Squee/Conflagrate version of this deck and I'm not sure if should play this with or without Lingering Souls.
I'm playing totally without white these days, and it feels better to me. But I'm still playing Smallpox, and I don't think anyone else here still is.
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I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
I can certainly see the directions of SebastianStueski.
Urborg is here to fuel Raven's Crime. I don't like the land because it helps your opponents, most importantly Eldrazi matchups.
I don't like MD Raven's Crime either. Still have nightmares about my awkward loss where opponent led with Misty Rainforest>Breeding Pool >> Noble Hierarch, I got spider sense of Infect and met a Loxodon Smiter. Quite some corner case but G/W is a formidable deck, especially in some not-so-competitve enviroments like FNM or the likes.
Crime is certainly good in some grindy matchups and against hate cards while they are in hand, even though it doesn't quite target and topdeck is a thing. Current Modern is a format of speed, and demolishing opponent's hand with Raven's Crime is quite slow and requires them to actually have card resources.
Golgari Brownscale leaving the team is an interesting choice. There are some issues - it is not strong enough as your lifegain or blocker, but what hurt me the most is it's low Dredge count. It's the last card on my Dredge priorities list - Life from the Loam nets advantage, Stinkweed Imp affects game state a lot and actual draw steps are important if you want Infestation or the likes. With all that in mind decision is justified but I'm not a fan of it. Life points still matter and Vault of Archangel can't carry it all on it's back.
Return of Lightning Axe is something I had on my own agenda. I want MD answer to Scavenging Ooze and there aren't much.
Chung's article highlighted Deadly Allure as an Edict effect, and that's pretty accurate. However it doesn't make our life easier - decks with Ooze like G/W Aggro/bears, Melira Company and Kiki Chord play a lot of spare meat like manadorks. Edict weak decks like Infect or Bogles have Dryad Arboror generally don't care about Sorcery speed. Also Ooze can eat Allure the turn it lands. Lightning Axe is the card I want to see against Ooze. Molten Vortex can do Zombie Infestation impression but it takes a lot of mana, especially red and there is no red Urborg. Graven Cairns help but they are not fetchable. And you still gotta draw enchantment naturally.
Speaking of Chung's article I'd like to say thanks to him for giving a bunch of insight, mostly for sideboard plan.
All those things gave a couple of things to consider, and I'll probably do some tunes. @kozzi83 Thanks for digging
Was doing some Modern testing on Sunday between Commander games. My opponent and buddy does alters and we got talking about my Zombie tokens.
He said, 'why don't I alter your Zombie tokens to look like a zombified Squee with smallpox? And instead of holding his little toy, why not a brain or a limb?'
After I beat his turn 4 Phyrexian Obliterator, I gave him some tokens to get to work on. What a sweet idea. Will post the results once I get them.
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I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
100% agree on your analysis of Urborg. Considering how Eldrazi decks began to side board it out in mirrors for fear of the advantage they could give away, I think we should be extra careful.
I'm on a different page with Raven's Crime, but this could be a local meta call. I've noticed that UW Control is one of the more popular responses to Eldrazi in my region. Resolving an early Crime against control is pretty amazing. Whilst a free Smiter is a possibility, I think it is just a case of erring on the side of caution against GWx.
@MikePemulis, those zombie tokens sound AMAZING. Please do post up pictures.
Eastvale Abbey - 5 mana for a dude is way too much, especially in a deck that wants to cast Life from the Loam each turn. In Modern. Also if you have 5 creatures on board you are pretty much ahead anyway, and there is no real need in to bank all of your board into dies-to-PtE flier. Also no Trample.
Abbey doesn't cover situations where you don't see Infestation, because setting up 5 creatures without our enchanment is pretty much impossible task.
It's Timmytastic and flavorful but thanks, I'll pass.
Strong argument. Definitely win-more. I just get overwhelmingly excited when I see new loam toys.
re: Raven's Crime
You won't find me without at least 1 somewhere in the 75. It only really sucks against GW bears. It can save you 3 life on average against Burn and sends them into topdeck mode sooner. It's excellent against Tron because they want to keep a buffered hand in the early game, even if they pitch an egg that's still 1 less green mana to cast Ancient Stirrings or Sylvan Scrying. It's not great against Snapcaster decks, but I have limited experience testing against blue control with this deck. An unchecked Raven's can take over a game.
After Eldrazi gets knocked down a peg, I think it will start to make more sense to run a few Molten Vortex as part of the core considering how removal light we are. Then again, if Tron becomes the best deck Vortex is garbage.
My point was that it doesn't shine against Snap decks like it does against Burn etc. Forcing a Burn opponent to discard a Bolt is much more efficient than forcing a U/x Snap opponent to pitch Bolt. I would still use it against them.
I'm also considering going to FNM tonight, thoughts on SB? How many copies of Ray?
Ray of Revelation is tricky in our deck. Generally you want it before hate lands to deal with it immediately - it may be marginal against Rest in Peace where you have G mana up and Ray in your GY, or something quite difficult against Leyline of the Void. where it's starting hand or bust. For the deck that generally doesn't draw cards it is important to maximize count so you can see it in first 7-10 card easily.
My concern, however, is that Ray is weak outside of its "beating hate" role. Enchantment is generally underrepresented card type in Modern, and value enchantments like Detention Sphere or Bitterblossom are far from their popularity peak. Thus you only want Ray against deck that certainly bringing enchantment hate or Blood Moon out of SB. Artifacts are more common, and that's why Ancient Grudge is generally a 4-of.
Thoughtseize, on the other hand, does not suffer from lack of application. It solves issues of hate and combo altogether, while taking less precious space in sideboard 15. We also should not forget you can't cast Thoughtseize out of GY, meaning getting it in your first 7-10 cards is even more important that Ray, and that's why is should be a 4-of if this plan ever floats your boat.
Those are my reasonings for running 3 Ray of Revelation and 4 Thoughtseize in my sideboard. I would really like to play Duress to save money or my favorite card in Magic Cabal Therapy, but former doesn't hit Scavenging Ooze or the likes and latter is not yet deemed worthy of entering Modern card pool. (This is a worthless speculation, but I would really like to see Therapy in Modern.)
Went 4-0 tonight, getting first place. Will start posting the recordings of all but the first match, as that was against a guy who had been bribed to play with store credit and ran a quite poor version of eldrazi. Should be up on my channel come Sunday as I'll leave them uploading overnight on my laptop.
I have also come to a disturbing realisation; this deck makes both other people and your own brain hate you.
I agree about other people and your own brain hating you. I can't play this deck if I'm not feeling my best. I have to play something less decision-intensive in that case, which in my case is 8Rack. But as far as opponents hating you . . . I'm not sure I can think of a deck that doesn't do that. Maybe the synergy decks like this one and Storm, Infect, Soul Sisters, Hatebears, that aren't playing inherently powerful cards, maybe those are harder to lose to. Maybe getting beaten by Squee and junk uncommons from Time Spiral feels worse than getting beaten by Bob and Tarmogoyf.
Private Mod Note
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I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
How can you hate probably the most rogue and unique competitve deck in Modern that doesn't really play unfair things or ridiculously fast? That doesn't cost 2000$ against your casual budget brew?
How can you hate a deck that basically folds to your sideboard cards?
I don't get it, really. A pleasure to play and a pleasure to beat.
Brain intensivity and complexity is a thing, tho. Zombie Loam plays totally different Magic, and it's not really easy to keep up. I do feel like I miss casting spells and creatures normally sometimes. You can also take a wrong line and realize you messed up only when game is over.
But this is a good Johnny deck, and I am a Johnny at my heart. Only Pauper can really make me feel better than playing Loam.
@phenaxe
Good job! Looking forward for footage and some more feedback on what you've felt thought etc.
I have been drawing if the board isn't threatening and if they have threats that are trouble I start to dig furiously.
Finished 2-2, broke even with prize.
Round 1: 2-0 Young kid playing Tron. Game 1 I got down a very early Zombie Infestation and proceeded to GQ lock him out of colorless mana. Beautiful. Game 2 was a mess of Zombies and Spirits, had him to very low life when he played Ulamog, exiled my infestation and Ghast, Spirit beatdowns for another turn. He didn't swing with Ula because his life was so low, played Wurmcoil and passed. Spirits over the top followed by Conflagrate.
Round 2: 0-2 Affinity. Guy plays the deck frequently, usually finishes top 4. Needless to say, this was rough and I was unprepared. Game 1 was a blur, and i botched Game 2 so hard. I played fetch, pass. He played Memnite, then Ravager. Because I suck at this game, I didn't Darkblast the Memnite while Ravager was on the stack. This I feel cost me the game. Not worth going into further.
Round 3: 0-2 UW Helldrazi. What a degenerate pile of cards. It's really difficult to stock up for a Conflagrate when you have to make multiple zombies per turn just to survive to midgame. Killing TKS with Pharaoh trigger is amazing, especially with Loam in the yard. I think this match highlighted for me that it isn't always necessary to dredge dredge dredge when the board is not in your favor. Also, Drowner of Hope is very intimidating when your only answer to it is a Souls on flashback.
Round 4: 2-1 Naya something. Game 1 was another blur of zombie tokens. Game 2 he trumped me with a Scooze. GOD that card butchers dredge. Game 3 was a very epic grind-out where he had Huntmasters flipping, wolves pooping out, etc. He slammed RIP which I thought was game over, but I had spent the previous turns setting up Godless Shrine + Vault of the Archangel. I will happily throw 2 cards into exile to make a 2/2 DT LL zombie. Also had souls going over the top. Got him to 2 life, then Conflagrate closed it.
Wow what a fun deck. I still find it very skill-intensive to know when to dredge and when not to, especially when you desperately need a Ray of Revelation but dumping it into the yard is useless when RIP is out. Weird.
I love love love turning Squees into zombies.
I've been thinking about GY hate and ways to minimize its effectiveness. I have to say I haven't come up with any satisfying answers. Is this deck going to be blown out of the meta after Helldrazi banning? In my MU against UW eldrazi, the opponent put down a Grafdigger's Cage. It singlehandedly shut my deck down. Even loaming into Ancient Grudge wasn't an option. The only way out of it was to 1. naturally draw Grudge, or 2. dig with Faithless looting from hand. That's a garbage prospect. While my opponent stacked up 4/4s and 2/1 flyers, I played draw-go.
Has anyone considered Noxious Revival? Anti-GY hate, allows us to recycle anything we want. I get that it does nothing from the Yard, but it would have partially saved my ass in the aforementioned draw-go scenario.
G1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nO2Lk9guro
(Don't google the last 4 letters of that link. Honestly, it was unintentional)
G2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-eo85YsvPw
G3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaB7iKU39Q8
Valor did little to nothing, so cutting that in favor of another Pharaoh. In that match, I think that having access to Masterpiece would have won me the match. It is a massive flying beater that can save itself from graveyard hate, can be hard casted and ignores things like Ratchet Bomb and bolt with relative ease.
I really want to include 4 copies of Sultai Charm now as well as a fairly good catch-all for the deck. Had another idea as well: Desolate Lighthouse. More testing, more testing.
If you play the flying zombie, how much restructuring to the mana base will it require?
@carl: Lingering Souls is amazing IMO, it's almost always more useful being cast from the GY, synergizes beautifully with Zinfest, gives us reach, stops flyers for a time. What else would you use in its slot?
Also, here's the latest iteration of my Masterpice Loam for you to have a look at:
4 Bloodghast
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
2 Vengeful Pharaoh
2 Geralf's Masterpiece
Instants (6)
4 Sultai Charm
2 Darkblast
Sorceries (15)
4 Life from the Loam
4 Faithless Looting
4 Lingering Souls
3 Conflagrate
Enchantments (4)
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Blood Crypt
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Ancient Grudge
3 Ray of Revelation
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Memory's Journey
1 Golgari Brownscale
1 Darkblast
As you can see, it doesn't need any major revisons to the standard land base. I'm using two U sources to both revent color screw for Sultai Charm and to hardcast Masterpice as needed.
Speaking of, Sultai Charm is a beast in this deck, as it shoots down a ton of stuff in any matchup. It's not even dead in the eldrazi matchup either, as it can be used for instant powerdredge.
@carl; I agree with wm0, Souls is too good not to play in this deck. Also the ability to hardcast both souls and ray for the price of a single land slot for Godless Shrine is a price worth paying.
Finally, heres two videos of my deck getting stomped on by stompy:
G1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXsETV16W08
G2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUpAsUJMUoc
User SebastianStueckl has been on a tear on Modo with this Squeeflagrate build, is there anybody here who can take credit? He's 5-0d on three occasions in the last week with small tweaks each time. I find it quite interesting to watch his deck progress so I thought I'd share incase anyone else had a similar response...
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Bloodghast
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
3 Vengeful Pharaoh
3 Stinkweed Imp
1 Golgari Brownscale
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
Spells (21)
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Faithless Looting
4 Life from the Loam
3 Darkblast
2 Conflagrate
2 Lingering Souls
2 Deadly Allure
4 Ancient Grudge
4 Thoughtseize
3 Ray of Revelation
2 Raven's Crime
2 Memory's Journey
This seems pretty close to Chung's GP list. Small tinkerings on the numbers, but no significant departure.
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Bloodghast
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Vengeful Pharaoh
1 Golgari Brownscale
Spells (23)
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Faithless Looting
4 Life from the Loam
3 Darkblast
3 Conflagrate
3 Lingering Souls
2 Molten Vortex
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Thoughtseize
3 Ray of Revelation
2 Raven's Crime
2 Memory's Journey
1 Darkblast
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
Some very interesting shifts. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the flex land slot is an option I can't recall anyone discussing here. It could also provide an avenue to reincluding Smallpox for this style build should we wish to do so. Molten Vortex is the other interesting choice.
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Graven Cairns
4 Bloodghast
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Vengeful Pharaoh
Spells (23)
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Faithless Looting
4 Life from the Loam
3 Darkblast
3 Conflagrate
3 Lingering Souls
1 Raven's Crime
1 Lightning Axe
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Ray of Revelation
2 Lightning Axe
2 Raven's Crime
2 Memory's Journey
1 Thoughtseize
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Bojuka Bog
Some quite interesting choices, Raven's Crime main along with Graven Cairns. Stinkweed Imp cementing to the dredge creature of choice with Golgari Brownscale being dropped entirely. The return of Lightning Axe as well as Bloodstained Mire dropping from 2 - 1 - 0 copies.
Finally, Justin Chung's article on his GP build process coupled with SB plan has been released on MTGMintCard
Plenty of data to ponder over.
My Builds
W: Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
WB: Karlov of the Ghost Council
WR: Anax & Cymede
WUG: Phelddagrif
Others' Builds that I've Enjoyed
WUB: Chromium
I'm playing totally without white these days, and it feels better to me. But I'm still playing Smallpox, and I don't think anyone else here still is.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Urborg is here to fuel Raven's Crime. I don't like the land because it helps your opponents, most importantly Eldrazi matchups.
I don't like MD Raven's Crime either. Still have nightmares about my awkward loss where opponent led with Misty Rainforest>Breeding Pool >> Noble Hierarch, I got spider sense of Infect and met a Loxodon Smiter. Quite some corner case but G/W is a formidable deck, especially in some not-so-competitve enviroments like FNM or the likes.
Crime is certainly good in some grindy matchups and against hate cards while they are in hand, even though it doesn't quite target and topdeck is a thing. Current Modern is a format of speed, and demolishing opponent's hand with Raven's Crime is quite slow and requires them to actually have card resources.
Golgari Brownscale leaving the team is an interesting choice. There are some issues - it is not strong enough as your lifegain or blocker, but what hurt me the most is it's low Dredge count. It's the last card on my Dredge priorities list - Life from the Loam nets advantage, Stinkweed Imp affects game state a lot and actual draw steps are important if you want Infestation or the likes. With all that in mind decision is justified but I'm not a fan of it. Life points still matter and Vault of Archangel can't carry it all on it's back.
Return of Lightning Axe is something I had on my own agenda. I want MD answer to Scavenging Ooze and there aren't much.
Chung's article highlighted Deadly Allure as an Edict effect, and that's pretty accurate. However it doesn't make our life easier - decks with Ooze like G/W Aggro/bears, Melira Company and Kiki Chord play a lot of spare meat like manadorks. Edict weak decks like Infect or Bogles have Dryad Arboror generally don't care about Sorcery speed. Also Ooze can eat Allure the turn it lands.
Lightning Axe is the card I want to see against Ooze. Molten Vortex can do Zombie Infestation impression but it takes a lot of mana, especially red and there is no red Urborg. Graven Cairns help but they are not fetchable. And you still gotta draw enchantment naturally.
Speaking of Chung's article I'd like to say thanks to him for giving a bunch of insight, mostly for sideboard plan.
All those things gave a couple of things to consider, and I'll probably do some tunes.
@kozzi83 Thanks for digging
He said, 'why don't I alter your Zombie tokens to look like a zombified Squee with smallpox? And instead of holding his little toy, why not a brain or a limb?'
After I beat his turn 4 Phyrexian Obliterator, I gave him some tokens to get to work on. What a sweet idea. Will post the results once I get them.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
I'm on a different page with Raven's Crime, but this could be a local meta call. I've noticed that UW Control is one of the more popular responses to Eldrazi in my region. Resolving an early Crime against control is pretty amazing. Whilst a free Smiter is a possibility, I think it is just a case of erring on the side of caution against GWx.
@MikePemulis, those zombie tokens sound AMAZING. Please do post up pictures.
My Builds
W: Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
WB: Karlov of the Ghost Council
WR: Anax & Cymede
WUG: Phelddagrif
Others' Builds that I've Enjoyed
WUB: Chromium
Thoughts on this card? Seems like it could be the inevitability ticket that decks like Tron enjoy so much. 5 creatures is steep though.
Abbey doesn't cover situations where you don't see Infestation, because setting up 5 creatures without our enchanment is pretty much impossible task.
It's Timmytastic and flavorful but thanks, I'll pass.
re: Raven's Crime
You won't find me without at least 1 somewhere in the 75. It only really sucks against GW bears. It can save you 3 life on average against Burn and sends them into topdeck mode sooner. It's excellent against Tron because they want to keep a buffered hand in the early game, even if they pitch an egg that's still 1 less green mana to cast Ancient Stirrings or Sylvan Scrying. It's not great against Snapcaster decks, but I have limited experience testing against blue control with this deck. An unchecked Raven's can take over a game.
After Eldrazi gets knocked down a peg, I think it will start to make more sense to run a few Molten Vortex as part of the core considering how removal light we are. Then again, if Tron becomes the best deck Vortex is garbage.
I'm going to play a one of
I'm also considering going to FNM tonight, thoughts on SB? How many copies of Ray?
My concern, however, is that Ray is weak outside of its "beating hate" role. Enchantment is generally underrepresented card type in Modern, and value enchantments like Detention Sphere or Bitterblossom are far from their popularity peak. Thus you only want Ray against deck that certainly bringing enchantment hate or Blood Moon out of SB. Artifacts are more common, and that's why Ancient Grudge is generally a 4-of.
Thoughtseize, on the other hand, does not suffer from lack of application. It solves issues of hate and combo altogether, while taking less precious space in sideboard 15. We also should not forget you can't cast Thoughtseize out of GY, meaning getting it in your first 7-10 cards is even more important that Ray, and that's why is should be a 4-of if this plan ever floats your boat.
Those are my reasonings for running 3 Ray of Revelation and 4 Thoughtseize in my sideboard. I would really like to play Duress to save money or my favorite card in Magic Cabal Therapy, but former doesn't hit Scavenging Ooze or the likes and latter is not yet deemed worthy of entering Modern card pool. (This is a worthless speculation, but I would really like to see Therapy in Modern.)
I have also come to a disturbing realisation; this deck makes both other people and your own brain hate you.
I agree about other people and your own brain hating you. I can't play this deck if I'm not feeling my best. I have to play something less decision-intensive in that case, which in my case is 8Rack. But as far as opponents hating you . . . I'm not sure I can think of a deck that doesn't do that. Maybe the synergy decks like this one and Storm, Infect, Soul Sisters, Hatebears, that aren't playing inherently powerful cards, maybe those are harder to lose to. Maybe getting beaten by Squee and junk uncommons from Time Spiral feels worse than getting beaten by Bob and Tarmogoyf.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
How can you hate a deck that basically folds to your sideboard cards?
I don't get it, really. A pleasure to play and a pleasure to beat.
Brain intensivity and complexity is a thing, tho. Zombie Loam plays totally different Magic, and it's not really easy to keep up. I do feel like I miss casting spells and creatures normally sometimes. You can also take a wrong line and realize you messed up only when game is over.
But this is a good Johnny deck, and I am a Johnny at my heart. Only Pauper can really make me feel better than playing Loam.
@phenaxe
Good job! Looking forward for footage and some more feedback on what you've felt thought etc.