Greater Gargadon + Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Kitchen Finks allows us to gain infinite life and put Greater Gargadon into play with haste as early as turn 3 if you naturally have it. Infinite life naturally beats a ton of decks in the format that don't have alternate win conditions or an infinite combo of their own. Decks that draw or concede to infinite life are: Storm, Affinity, Junk, Jund, Merfolk, Boggles, 8 Rack, America Control, 4c Gifts, (almost all other control decks), scapeshift, Burn, Hatebears, Liege Rhino, and the majority of other T2 decks and brews. Decks that can still win post infinite life are: Twin (infinite combo themselves), Tron (Karn restarting the game),Infect(life means nothing), and Mill(life means nothing).
The Value and the Tricks Greater Gargadon is much more than a combo piece, it is a card that brings an uncounterable, cheap sacrifice outlet, and an inevitability card that can put incredible pressure on most opponents once it becomes cast. Gargadon can allow us to sacrifice creatures in response to removal to allow them to be reanimated with Sun Titan whenever you like. It allows us to sacrifice Fiend Hunter immediately so it's target becomes permanently exiled, and when we start recurring it, we have a powerful creature exiling engine. Fiend Hunter and Sun Titan also allow us to put Greater Gargadon into play right away, since you can sacrifice Fiend Hunter after Exiling Sun Titan, and chain them as much as you need to cast Gargadon. We can also sacrifice Solemn Simulacrum at will to draw our extra card. Another Gargadon benefit is that you can sacrifice blockers to prevent lifegain, which is randomly relevant in a race against batterskulls and wurmcoils.
Solemn Simulacrum actually deserves its own paragraph here. This card is really impressive in the modern format. Bears are a relevant creature size in the current meta, being able to sneak in for extra damage and trade with a significant amount of opposing creatures. Solemn is effectively 3 cards rolled into one. We get Rampant Growth and Grizzly Bear right away, and we gain even more value since our grizzly bear is secretly a Jeskai Sage. Just imagine this card against decks with a long game plan in the format. URx decks will have a breakdown trying to trade effectively with it, and they will often let you hit with it rather than make a trade or straight block to kill it because they don't want you to draw a card. This card is the real deal.
Wall of Omens is also a significant card for similar reasons. It stonewalls tons of small creatures in the format while cantripping. Imagine having a smother with "draw a card" attached. That is basically what we have. It helps us dig for lands, which is relevant in our 23 land 6 drop deck, slows down aggro, and provides draw engine value later on. Our deck really utilizes this card well. Pilgrim's Eye is a similar card, though it directly draws us a land and is our only flyer. I don't know if I want to start running more than one though since multiples become increasingly weak, where Wall of Omens and Solemn Simulacrum can always draw gas.
Mangara of Corondor is an odd card, but if your opponent stumbles on immediate removal, you can start vindicating repeatedly with gargadon and sun titan or Gift of Immortality. This is just a nice versatile card that can answer things that we normally can't, and can even snipe lands to throw long game decks off their feet.
Tier 1 and common Tier 2 Matchups:
Burn: I'm expecting this to be a cake walk. 4 Finks, 4 wall of omens, and many ways to recur them, not to mention the potential for infinite life. The goal here is to slow them down as much as possible until we overwhelm them. We can afford to fetch into basics outside of our one necessary red source, which allows us to maintain tempo without hurting ourselves too much.
Affinity: game 1 will depend on whether I get enough removal for flyers. I can't just race them if they get a good hand. Post board I can bring in blood moons and wear/tears and be able to value them out more effectively. If a given meta has a lot of Affinity, you can adjust your sideboard accordingly. White and Red both have good sideboard answers here. Also keep in mind that the infinite life combo beats them on the spot since we have a far better long game and they can't possibly stall out a draw.
Junk: I'm expecting this to be a hell of a grind fest, but sun titan and gargadon are bigger than they can handle, especially when I have so much recursion. I can dodge path on small creatures with Gargadon, preserving my ability to recur them. I get a lot of card draw and card advantage out of my cards, even more so than they do, so I eventually make it out ahead of them. Post board they struggle even more against blood moons and/or fulminators. Jund will be similar.
Twin: I'm afraid of this one. I've played it to 2-0 and 0-2 both stomping each other based on whether they find the combo or I successfully interrupt it. I definitely crush them on the fair plan so they have to keep combo in. I don't expect non UR variants of the deck to play any differently against me. I fear the combo and beat their beatdown plan. The plan is to play very slowly and passively, putting out whatever creatures we can afford to while always holding up removal for their combo. We can't afford to fear drawing the game out as long as possible because we have 13 pieces of removal and they have only four splinter twins, and maybe a Kiki Jiki or two. Their fair game is literally ignorable vs our value, so we can slow all the way down and be safe.
Scapeshift: They can't shoot me down from 18 since I normally gain more than I deal to myself. I apply pressure until they die. They lose to the combo, and if I don't hit the combo, I just need to try to beat down as fast as possible. It may be difficult to race them effectively if I don't get the combo. Post board I ***** on their dreams by hitting their mana really hard and interrupting them.
Hatebears: I think I just poop on them with better creatures. I don't really have any concern for this matchup. Wall of Omens protects me well. Kitchen Finks trades well. Anafenza creates a power differential in our creatures in our favor. Sun Titan and Gargadon just properly blow them out.
Liege Rhino: This will progress just like the other fair matchups, but they will likely be tougher than Junk or Hatebears since they are taking a similar stance to us and having beefy, powerful, game ending creatures. We will have to get into value cycles to overwhelm them, and it will just be a value/beatdown race.
Storm: seems bad. I can't kill the ascension main board. I have to hope I can get some kind of combo off. I could see myself potentially sacrificing my whole board including lands to gargadon here to race to a finish. Storm can stumble though, and I can probably steal all the games where their deck doesn't cooperate before they can recover. Post board I can fulminator their lands, Tear their ascensions, and
Since you're already playing gift of immortality and sun titan, if you want an entertaining sideboard choice for twin, I suggest kami of false hope. Suppression field also does a number on them since they are all activated abilities. Rest in peace might be an option for graveyard decks, though you would have to "play fair" with just beating down with a 6/6 vigilant and a 9/7 haste. Otherwise, tormod's crypt is an option, but only when you can keep it online. Storm decks will usually just force you to sacrifice it, though.
Since you're already playing gift of immortality and sun titan, if you want an entertaining sideboard choice for twin, I suggest kami of false hope. Suppression field also does a number on them since they are all activated abilities. Rest in peace might be an option for graveyard decks, though you would have to "play fair" with just beating down with a 6/6 vigilant and a 9/7 haste. Otherwise, tormod's crypt is an option, but only when you can keep it online. Storm decks will usually just force you to sacrifice it, though.
yeah, the beauty of going white opens me up to a lot of sideboard tech like that. I like the idea of kami and grave hate. I might be content with something simple like scrabbling claws or relic of progenitus. The claws have the benefit of being a recursive draw 1 for 1 that exiles 2 cards from an opponents graveyard which isn't too bad in itself. I think claws are really underrated and this deck could use it well. I honestly didn't even consider cards that sacrifice themselves for value. I could even throw in things like stingscourger and mogg war marshal for some incredible gift value. I think there are a lot of avenues to explore here.
Also, I'm curious to hear opinions on comparing blood moon to fulminator in my deck. I feel like they sort of answer the same thing in different ways. blood moon is more of a lock down that they might eventually deal with or be able to play around, and fulmminator is a more incremental but permanent land inhibitor. Could I afford to reduce the numbers of them for fear of being overkill and having a wider sideboard?
I don't know. Affinity does play a lot of manlands, so blood moon is actually relatively effective against them for shutting that part off. It won't screw them over by any means: you'll need ways to deal with their other threats in order to actually win it. It also has the added disadvantage of really messing with all of your own fetches and non basics. I can't say that it is a bad card against affinity, as I really like it in my mono red control where I main it there. However, I also run 20 sources of spot removal maindeck. I might consider a way to shut down their artifacts, so maybe some of the artifact removal that red is famous for here? it's also meta dependent and playtest dependen as well.
I think landing a blood moon to turn off 8 cards of theirs is acceptable considering I have 15 other pieces of removal and 4 of them are sorcery speed creatures, and affinity will have a few more threats than that. I think taking out all the scariest flyers and get bigger than them on the ground is the strategy, and I don't think it is a bad one. I have the benefit of affinity being almost nonexistent in my local meta, but if it is a problem in someone else's area, white has no shortage of good cards against them in kataki and stony silence as well as red's artifact destruction and boardwipes like pyroclasm.
Also, if someone were to adopt the kami of false hope plan, affinity would have a hell of a time beating that with their usually limited spot removal.
I wouldn't say I'm that reliant on the combos. The combos are just nice icing on what I think is a good fair deck that generates value and resists removal. It's true that a lot of decks in modern are going to have a hard time dealing with a 6/6 that is very hard to remove that builds up board presence over time. I'm willing to lower and perhaps cut the Solemns if it turns out to be less powerful than I'd hoped, but I don't want to lower the number of sun titans since they can do some heavy lifting just being dropped on any board. Sun Titan giving recursion to most of the sideboard cards is a powerhouse as well. Twin can't combo through a Ghostly Prison or spellskite, Junk struggles with blood moon and has to burn multiple answers on it, same with tron, fulminator continues to eat away at mana bases...
Wall of omens is a good idea. I'm not sure whether I'll fit restoration angel in, but I'll keep it in mind depending on what my curve ends up needing. Honestly Sun Droplet was just in there as a stall tactic since I couldn't think of good 1-2 drops. Resto also knocks gift of immortality off, so that's a bit of a nonbo. I may eventually come to find gargadon to be bad and go mono white value with resto, but comparing this to that would be apples and oranges.
Anyways, this is theory so far and I'm currently in the process of acquiring the cards. I should have it built by the end of next week and I'll start doing reports on it. Maybe I'm a bit too hopeful, but I think there is a real format contender hiding somewhere in here.
Perilous myr is just bad. You gain nothing from running this. You would honestly be better off running lightning helix, even though it's only another bolt effect. If you want a low drop that has synergy, you could consider pilgrim's eye or maybe expedition map (it is a powerful ability to find emeria for the ability to get it online that much faster). Pilgrims eye also doubles as a flyer blocker, or on a rare occasion, a flying attacker.
I do enjoy mangara of corondor, especially if you can make the ability go off. How often does it happen? It can certainly be a nasty late game attrition warfare piece.
Restoration angel is an interesting suggestion, but you're not really a blink deck. Admittedly, if you do run it, blade splicer starts to look a lot better. I wouldn't run one without the other, though.
I could see pilgrim's eye being a good replacement for Solemn maybe since it is easier to recur, but I really need another 1 or 2 drop that influences the board. Wall of omens is a decent start. I'm not really sure if I can find a proper 1 drop. Some of my thoughts were Cathedral Sanctifier, Vexing Devil, or Myr Servitor. For other two drops... I'm not really sure. The thought on Perilous Myr is that it can slow down burn a lot when they have multiple 2/2s. I agree it seems less than ideal, but every card that represents a part of a clock as well as a little bit of control seems alright. I don't want to ever have a sun titan trigger that doesn't advance my board state, so lightning helix doesn't feel right.
Here is what I'm looking for in 1-3 drops:
1. be able to assist in slowing down decks that race me before I can start to value them out.
2. be able to slow down combo decks that can race me, or improve my racing
3. be useful to recur later in the game.
Here is how I'd categorize my low drops:
Perilous Myr: 1 and sort of 3
Wall of Omens: 1 and 3
Anazenza Spirit: 2 and ok at 3
Finks: 1, 2, and 3, incredibly strong
Gargadon: 2 and relevant to 3
Gift of Immortality: 2 and 3
managara: 2 and 3
And for the new options we're looking at:
pilgrim's eye: 3, basically just a long game card, although powerful
expedition map: 3, not really in the running
restoration angel: 3. A little slow for races, but very strong in the mid-late game
blade slicer: 1,3. This seems alright. I'll want to consider it, but I think 3 drops are a tight space already. It sort of competes with finks except it doesn't have combo potential.
cathedral sanctifier: 1. This would be fantastic in the beatdown races and do good work against them, but it sucks elsewhere.
vexing devil: 1,2,3 maybe worth consideration based on strength, but I feel like it doesn't fit with the deck idea for some reason
myr servitor: 1,3. This is a super meta dependent card. It gets ***** on by fliers and tramplers, but it will infinitely block and peck away at decks with non evasive creatures. Also good Gargadon Fodder to control his timing.
If you're looking for early drops that affect the board (one or two drops, as an example), cathedral sanctifier or lone missionary, perhaps? Good in heavy aggro metas and burn metas.
Doesn't really gain enough life, in my opinion. you want a minimum of 3 and 4 is better for the simple reason that you just cost a burn deck an extra bolt ( or more if the life gain is more). Killing them faster is all well and good, but not if you die first in the process. It is a delaying tactic, after all
I just built this and played in a 4 round FNM yesterday. I was missing a few things, and ran 3 gargadons and 3 solemns, but the rest of the main board was basically correct. My board was pretty unformed, and that hurt me. I was really surprised that I wiped my ass with the twin player, which is the tier 1 deck I feared the most. I basically just pray for removal and in the meantime my creatures royally ***** on them. I ran 2 Fiend Hunters main and 2 in the board, and I brought in the extra 2 in every game except the Jund Loam deck.
my results were:
1-2 against Bloom Titan, with both losses being very close, and the win being the natural infinite life combo on turn 3 and he couldn't find a hive mind. One of the close games was even a mull to 4 and I survived until the 3rd and 4th Prime Time were out at the same time, and I lost a lot of board surviving and killing one, but not being able to answer the last. My board in was 1 bloodmoon, 2 molten rain, 1 angel's grace, but will eventually be 3 bloodmoons and 3 fuminators instead.
1-2 against Instant Reanimator
The losses were typical losses to this deck, being crushed by quad Griselbrand hits and double emrakuls, but I was able to stall with pathing griselbrands, having a lot of saccable permanents quickly, and putting my life above 21. The win was just weenies vs floundering after I dealt with a single griselbrand. Once again, I would have liked the full land hate package and ghostly prison to lock him out, as well as nevermore, grave hate, and wear/tears.
2-0 against twin
This was basically a ***** stomp. I was lucky enough to get a path in my opener both games, and felt safe basically the whole game as I valued him out. He couldn't swing snaps through Wall of Omens, and I caught some unlucky deceiver exarchs under Fiend Hunters. I think that part of my victory was due to early luck, but I feel confident that I crush twin in the long game if he stumbles to combo with protection. Also, the **** is twin gonna do vs a 9/7 haster? My boarding was light aside from angel's grace and more fiend hunters. With full board, I'll bring in fulminators and ghostly prisons.
2-0 against Assault Loam
Both of the games were a hell of a grind against resolved seismic assaults. I was really happy that I could handle a pure value deck that was dealing 6 a turn, discarding my hand, and killing ***** off and blocking with that lich card. It really spoke to me the power of white card advantage that I could overcome it. I never even got out an Emeria, which would have totally taken over the game. Also, I didn't have grave hate in the board which could help in the future with these sorts of decks if I find it necessary.
Card evaluation: Solemn Simulacrum was surprisingly as good as I hoped it would be.
I realized Perilous Myr was a 1/1 and not a 2/2 when I first cast it in the event, and was disappointed in it. It simply can't perform without the deck being in full engine mode.
I had one blade splicer in the board and it was nice, but not really that exciting.
Gift of Immortality was sort of a non-player, and I may end up cutting it to 1 or 0.
Anafenza, Kin-tree spirit was an acceptable beatdown card, and the combo ended up relevant. T2 Anafenza into Wall of Omens holding up an open fetch and swinging 3 was a fine feeling play.
Fined Hunter was excellent. I will move to 3 or 4 main board rather than 2 main/2 side.
Played this at FNM again last night. There was a weak showing due to graduation weekend, but we got enough for 3 rounds. I ended 2-1
8 Rack - 1-0-1
Game 1 went 42 minutes. He landed Ensnaring Bridge, and I went infinite on life, and I had to kill him by recurring bolts into my deck with mistveil plains, using emeria and Solemn Simulacrum to shuffle and increase draw power. I had to bolt down a Liliana of the Veil first just in case he pulled off a dangerous ult pile. I nearly lost game 2 to a growing pile of Racks, but I managed to go infinite and force the draw in extra turns.
Twin - 0-2
Game 1 was a turn 4 loss in which I unfortunately only saw one path and he had a spellskite. Game 2 was longer, and I nearly had it in the bag, but I misplayed and gave him a combo window by dropping a Sun Titan and Fiend Huntering his Exarch, but he bolted it and had a Splinter Twin, when I could have just held up a wear/tear instead. I think this matchup is probably 40-60 in Twin's favor main board, and my sideboard is not fully developed yet. I think Blind Obedience will be my tech against them since it is also interestingly good in other matchups.
UG Infect - 2-1
I lost game one to distortion strike, allowing him to dodge my Wall of Omens that I was so proud of. I wasn't expecting it for some reason and it caught me off guard. I didn't have removal and the back to back unblockable got me. Game two and three I had better draws and had fiend hunters and removal spells to handle everything he had, and I got a blood moon off in the last game to hit the manlands. I think we have a slightly favorable matchup since we have removal and board clogging, but it isn't insanely favorable since they have manlands and unblockable techniques.
I love this deck, and I'm probably going to build it because of how much I love it.
The only issue I have is that it seems like it's be pretty bad on MTGO, since the combo doesn't /win/ you the game, it just stops you losing, and you can't shortcut it. But no deck is perfect. =P
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
Awesome! Make sure you post your results and findings here! I'd love to have more feedback from another play tester. I think the shell has a ton of potential in the metagame.
Game 1 he got land ****ed and I won without thinking. Game 2 was a fantastic game of back and forth magic, trying to break board stalls, and eventually losing to flyers. I didn't see a sun titan that game, which would have definitely changed the game to my favor. Game 3 I stumbled and got flooded and he had the beatdown nut. I still just think I need to raise pyroclasms to 4 in the board.
Round 2: Mono G Aggro 1-2
I had creature light hands in the losses of this match. I really need wall of omens and be able to stall into sun titan. The pressure this deck puts out is so constant that it is hard to deal with if you only have removal spells and no board presence, and the size of my creatures are not as good as his. Fiend hunter did do serious work, though. I need to actually get ghostly prisons and spellskites for the board to help these types of matchups.
Round 3: Storm 2-1
I stuck an early kor firewalker in both of my wins, and was able to just sacrifice permanents including lands to get gargadon to increase the clock. I wouldn't have won against a more experienced storm player, but it was enough for this game. Once again, my underdeveloped sideboard needs fulminators and nevermores.
Round 4: Bye
Round 5: Naya Aggro brew (2-0)
Goyfs, Seeker of the ways, swiftspears, temur battle rages, and become immense. He had creature light draws and I answered them and we just stared at each other until my board overwhelmed him. He said he ran 3 monastery mentors, and that could have been scary if he stuck one and I couldn't answer it, but luckily that never happened. Game 2 was actually close as he kept topdecking seeker of the way and I couldn't find the second pyroclasm (he buffed out of the first one), but I just went infinite on turn 6 and won.
Conclusion:
I need to get off my ass and buy the sideboard. The garbage I have now is not doing anything to shore up these heavy aggro and combo matchups. I need to go 4 pyroclasm, 3 fulminator, 2 spellskite, 2 ghostly prison, 3 wear/tear, 1 blood moon I think. Scrabbling claws might also make an appearance if I decide I need to start hating graveyards.
If you're looking for early drops that affect the board (one or two drops, as an example), cathedral sanctifier or lone missionary, perhaps? Good in heavy aggro metas and burn metas.
Try Auriok Champion for burn / delver. Not quite Kor firewalker, but it is close and with any other back up like Kitchen Finks or Leyline can lock them out of the game.
Game 1 was a turn 4 loss in which I unfortunately only saw one path and he had a spellskite. Game 2 was longer, and I nearly had it in the bag, but I misplayed and gave him a combo window by dropping a Sun Titan and Fiend Huntering his Exarch, but he bolted it and had a Splinter Twin, when I could have just held up a wear/tear instead. I think this matchup is probably 40-60 in Twin's favor main board, and my sideboard is not fully developed yet. I think Blind Obedience will be my tech against them since it is also interestingly good in other matchups.
Just a headsup Blind Obedience slows them down but does not stop them. They can combo at the end of your turn and have the tokens still on there turn to kill you. Try Linvala, Keeper of Silence if you want a body that also stops them or Suppression Field, Ghostly Prison, Spellskite, Celestial Purge, Disenchant, Runed Halo, or Nevermore. Gideon Jura can stall them for a turn if you just plus him all day.
This was a friend playing his own weird brew. It didn't really count for a whole lot considering I just overwhelm him with creatures and he has a really hard time handling multiple finks coming at him. I fear the active seismic assault + loam interaction if it happens really early because it can crush me if I'm not already on big mana with sun titans or emeria creating value. He got a turn 4 assault in one of the games, but I had enough creature presence to still overwhelm him and finish out the game. The second game was no contest. He didn't see an assault or gifts until it was too late.
Round 2: Bloom Titan (2-1)
He got game 1 by just having it, and me not having enough paths. Pretty typical. Game 2 I lasted long enough via removal to get myself to the infinite life combo, which he concedes to, of course. Game 3 he didn't threaten me before my turn 3 blood moon, which he had to concede to again.
Round 3: Jund Scapeshift (2-0)
I've never seen this deck before this match, but he said it was sort of a thing. I'm still sort of curious about it because it didn't seem too bad. Game 1 he didn't draw a scapeshift for a very long time. I ran into 2 finks and 3 Sun Titans, and he had to use a lot of his mountains and ramp spells just to survive, so when he finally hit a scapeshift, he could only grab 2 mountains from his deck and couldn't kill me. I eventually got there with another few creatures. Game 2 I landed an early blood moon and he was sitting on a hand full of ramp and scapeshift, and I just beat him down while he failed to find an abrupt decay.
Round 4: Split with RUG twin. I expect I have about a 50/50 win ratio with it, basically coming down to whether I saw enough removal for the combo while I crush his fair game. I was happy to split.
Verdict: My changes for this event were to remove Mangara from the deck and replacing it with a 1 of Flickerwisp, which was a good call since it is just a powerful value creature, and I may end up adding more of them. In the sideboard, I increased my pyroclasms from 2 to 4, taking out odd chaff. I still need to get more bloodmoons, since it is apparently such a good sideboard card for so many matchups. I'm still debating what number of blood moons and fulminators I should have in the side since they serve a fairly similar role, but bloodmoon works faster while fulminator provides more power as the game length increases.
How do you gain infinite life? Greater Gargadon only has ten counters - after you sac Kitchen Finks ten time and the persist and +1/+1 counters resolve - your sac outlet is gone from removing time counters. Unless I am missing something on the rules with suspend and your outlet?
The sacrifice is the cost of the ability, and the removal of the counter is the effect. You can continuously respond to the sacrifice ability itself, so you don't actually have to remove the counters until you sacrificed finks as many times as you want. The triggers will go like this:
Sacrifice finks. Two things go on the stack: Persist and the Gargadon ability. Persist resolves. Now Anafenza's Bolster goes on the stack on top of the Gargadon ability. Once that resolves, you're back to square one, except you have a Gargadon trigger on the stack, and two more life. You continuously respond to the triggers so that they don't resolve until you're done, then all the counters come off as you let the stack empty.
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4 Sun Titan
3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4 Fiend Hunter
1 Mangara of Corondor
3 Greater Gargadon
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Wall of Omens
1 Pilgrim's Eye
Land
4 Arid Mesa
2 Emeria, The Sky Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
Enchantments
1 Gift of Immortality
3 Blood Moon
1 Blind Obedience
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Inquisitor Exarch
1 Ghostly Prison
2 Nevermore
2 Spellskite
3 Wear
How the Deck Works
The Combo
Greater Gargadon + Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Kitchen Finks allows us to gain infinite life and put Greater Gargadon into play with haste as early as turn 3 if you naturally have it. Infinite life naturally beats a ton of decks in the format that don't have alternate win conditions or an infinite combo of their own. Decks that draw or concede to infinite life are: Storm, Affinity, Junk, Jund, Merfolk, Boggles, 8 Rack, America Control, 4c Gifts, (almost all other control decks), scapeshift, Burn, Hatebears, Liege Rhino, and the majority of other T2 decks and brews. Decks that can still win post infinite life are: Twin (infinite combo themselves), Tron (Karn restarting the game),Infect(life means nothing), and Mill(life means nothing).
The Value and the Tricks
Greater Gargadon is much more than a combo piece, it is a card that brings an uncounterable, cheap sacrifice outlet, and an inevitability card that can put incredible pressure on most opponents once it becomes cast. Gargadon can allow us to sacrifice creatures in response to removal to allow them to be reanimated with Sun Titan whenever you like. It allows us to sacrifice Fiend Hunter immediately so it's target becomes permanently exiled, and when we start recurring it, we have a powerful creature exiling engine. Fiend Hunter and Sun Titan also allow us to put Greater Gargadon into play right away, since you can sacrifice Fiend Hunter after Exiling Sun Titan, and chain them as much as you need to cast Gargadon. We can also sacrifice Solemn Simulacrum at will to draw our extra card. Another Gargadon benefit is that you can sacrifice blockers to prevent lifegain, which is randomly relevant in a race against batterskulls and wurmcoils.
Solemn Simulacrum actually deserves its own paragraph here. This card is really impressive in the modern format. Bears are a relevant creature size in the current meta, being able to sneak in for extra damage and trade with a significant amount of opposing creatures. Solemn is effectively 3 cards rolled into one. We get Rampant Growth and Grizzly Bear right away, and we gain even more value since our grizzly bear is secretly a Jeskai Sage. Just imagine this card against decks with a long game plan in the format. URx decks will have a breakdown trying to trade effectively with it, and they will often let you hit with it rather than make a trade or straight block to kill it because they don't want you to draw a card. This card is the real deal.
Wall of Omens is also a significant card for similar reasons. It stonewalls tons of small creatures in the format while cantripping. Imagine having a smother with "draw a card" attached. That is basically what we have. It helps us dig for lands, which is relevant in our 23 land 6 drop deck, slows down aggro, and provides draw engine value later on. Our deck really utilizes this card well. Pilgrim's Eye is a similar card, though it directly draws us a land and is our only flyer. I don't know if I want to start running more than one though since multiples become increasingly weak, where Wall of Omens and Solemn Simulacrum can always draw gas.
Mangara of Corondor is an odd card, but if your opponent stumbles on immediate removal, you can start vindicating repeatedly with gargadon and sun titan or Gift of Immortality. This is just a nice versatile card that can answer things that we normally can't, and can even snipe lands to throw long game decks off their feet.
Tier 1 and common Tier 2 Matchups:
Burn: I'm expecting this to be a cake walk. 4 Finks, 4 wall of omens, and many ways to recur them, not to mention the potential for infinite life. The goal here is to slow them down as much as possible until we overwhelm them. We can afford to fetch into basics outside of our one necessary red source, which allows us to maintain tempo without hurting ourselves too much.
Affinity: game 1 will depend on whether I get enough removal for flyers. I can't just race them if they get a good hand. Post board I can bring in blood moons and wear/tears and be able to value them out more effectively. If a given meta has a lot of Affinity, you can adjust your sideboard accordingly. White and Red both have good sideboard answers here. Also keep in mind that the infinite life combo beats them on the spot since we have a far better long game and they can't possibly stall out a draw.
Junk: I'm expecting this to be a hell of a grind fest, but sun titan and gargadon are bigger than they can handle, especially when I have so much recursion. I can dodge path on small creatures with Gargadon, preserving my ability to recur them. I get a lot of card draw and card advantage out of my cards, even more so than they do, so I eventually make it out ahead of them. Post board they struggle even more against blood moons and/or fulminators. Jund will be similar.
Twin: I'm afraid of this one. I've played it to 2-0 and 0-2 both stomping each other based on whether they find the combo or I successfully interrupt it. I definitely crush them on the fair plan so they have to keep combo in. I don't expect non UR variants of the deck to play any differently against me. I fear the combo and beat their beatdown plan. The plan is to play very slowly and passively, putting out whatever creatures we can afford to while always holding up removal for their combo. We can't afford to fear drawing the game out as long as possible because we have 13 pieces of removal and they have only four splinter twins, and maybe a Kiki Jiki or two. Their fair game is literally ignorable vs our value, so we can slow all the way down and be safe.
Scapeshift: They can't shoot me down from 18 since I normally gain more than I deal to myself. I apply pressure until they die. They lose to the combo, and if I don't hit the combo, I just need to try to beat down as fast as possible. It may be difficult to race them effectively if I don't get the combo. Post board I ***** on their dreams by hitting their mana really hard and interrupting them.
Hatebears: I think I just poop on them with better creatures. I don't really have any concern for this matchup. Wall of Omens protects me well. Kitchen Finks trades well. Anafenza creates a power differential in our creatures in our favor. Sun Titan and Gargadon just properly blow them out.
Liege Rhino: This will progress just like the other fair matchups, but they will likely be tougher than Junk or Hatebears since they are taking a similar stance to us and having beefy, powerful, game ending creatures. We will have to get into value cycles to overwhelm them, and it will just be a value/beatdown race.
Storm: seems bad. I can't kill the ascension main board. I have to hope I can get some kind of combo off. I could see myself potentially sacrificing my whole board including lands to gargadon here to race to a finish. Storm can stumble though, and I can probably steal all the games where their deck doesn't cooperate before they can recover. Post board I can fulminator their lands, Tear their ascensions, and
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
yeah, the beauty of going white opens me up to a lot of sideboard tech like that. I like the idea of kami and grave hate. I might be content with something simple like scrabbling claws or relic of progenitus. The claws have the benefit of being a recursive draw 1 for 1 that exiles 2 cards from an opponents graveyard which isn't too bad in itself. I think claws are really underrated and this deck could use it well. I honestly didn't even consider cards that sacrifice themselves for value. I could even throw in things like stingscourger and mogg war marshal for some incredible gift value. I think there are a lot of avenues to explore here.
Also, I'm curious to hear opinions on comparing blood moon to fulminator in my deck. I feel like they sort of answer the same thing in different ways. blood moon is more of a lock down that they might eventually deal with or be able to play around, and fulmminator is a more incremental but permanent land inhibitor. Could I afford to reduce the numbers of them for fear of being overkill and having a wider sideboard?
Considering that Affinity typically boards in Blood Moons of their own, I wouldn't recommend this.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Also, if someone were to adopt the kami of false hope plan, affinity would have a hell of a time beating that with their usually limited spot removal.
Wall of omens is a good idea. I'm not sure whether I'll fit restoration angel in, but I'll keep it in mind depending on what my curve ends up needing. Honestly Sun Droplet was just in there as a stall tactic since I couldn't think of good 1-2 drops. Resto also knocks gift of immortality off, so that's a bit of a nonbo. I may eventually come to find gargadon to be bad and go mono white value with resto, but comparing this to that would be apples and oranges.
Anyways, this is theory so far and I'm currently in the process of acquiring the cards. I should have it built by the end of next week and I'll start doing reports on it. Maybe I'm a bit too hopeful, but I think there is a real format contender hiding somewhere in here.
I do enjoy mangara of corondor, especially if you can make the ability go off. How often does it happen? It can certainly be a nasty late game attrition warfare piece.
Restoration angel is an interesting suggestion, but you're not really a blink deck. Admittedly, if you do run it, blade splicer starts to look a lot better. I wouldn't run one without the other, though.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Here is what I'm looking for in 1-3 drops:
1. be able to assist in slowing down decks that race me before I can start to value them out.
2. be able to slow down combo decks that can race me, or improve my racing
3. be useful to recur later in the game.
Here is how I'd categorize my low drops:
Perilous Myr: 1 and sort of 3
Wall of Omens: 1 and 3
Anazenza Spirit: 2 and ok at 3
Finks: 1, 2, and 3, incredibly strong
Gargadon: 2 and relevant to 3
Gift of Immortality: 2 and 3
managara: 2 and 3
And for the new options we're looking at:
pilgrim's eye: 3, basically just a long game card, although powerful
expedition map: 3, not really in the running
restoration angel: 3. A little slow for races, but very strong in the mid-late game
blade slicer: 1,3. This seems alright. I'll want to consider it, but I think 3 drops are a tight space already. It sort of competes with finks except it doesn't have combo potential.
cathedral sanctifier: 1. This would be fantastic in the beatdown races and do good work against them, but it sucks elsewhere.
vexing devil: 1,2,3 maybe worth consideration based on strength, but I feel like it doesn't fit with the deck idea for some reason
myr servitor: 1,3. This is a super meta dependent card. It gets ***** on by fliers and tramplers, but it will infinitely block and peck away at decks with non evasive creatures. Also good Gargadon Fodder to control his timing.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
my results were:
1-2 against Bloom Titan, with both losses being very close, and the win being the natural infinite life combo on turn 3 and he couldn't find a hive mind. One of the close games was even a mull to 4 and I survived until the 3rd and 4th Prime Time were out at the same time, and I lost a lot of board surviving and killing one, but not being able to answer the last. My board in was 1 bloodmoon, 2 molten rain, 1 angel's grace, but will eventually be 3 bloodmoons and 3 fuminators instead.
1-2 against Instant Reanimator
The losses were typical losses to this deck, being crushed by quad Griselbrand hits and double emrakuls, but I was able to stall with pathing griselbrands, having a lot of saccable permanents quickly, and putting my life above 21. The win was just weenies vs floundering after I dealt with a single griselbrand. Once again, I would have liked the full land hate package and ghostly prison to lock him out, as well as nevermore, grave hate, and wear/tears.
2-0 against twin
This was basically a ***** stomp. I was lucky enough to get a path in my opener both games, and felt safe basically the whole game as I valued him out. He couldn't swing snaps through Wall of Omens, and I caught some unlucky deceiver exarchs under Fiend Hunters. I think that part of my victory was due to early luck, but I feel confident that I crush twin in the long game if he stumbles to combo with protection. Also, the **** is twin gonna do vs a 9/7 haster? My boarding was light aside from angel's grace and more fiend hunters. With full board, I'll bring in fulminators and ghostly prisons.
2-0 against Assault Loam
Both of the games were a hell of a grind against resolved seismic assaults. I was really happy that I could handle a pure value deck that was dealing 6 a turn, discarding my hand, and killing ***** off and blocking with that lich card. It really spoke to me the power of white card advantage that I could overcome it. I never even got out an Emeria, which would have totally taken over the game. Also, I didn't have grave hate in the board which could help in the future with these sorts of decks if I find it necessary.
Card evaluation:
Solemn Simulacrum was surprisingly as good as I hoped it would be.
I realized Perilous Myr was a 1/1 and not a 2/2 when I first cast it in the event, and was disappointed in it. It simply can't perform without the deck being in full engine mode.
I had one blade splicer in the board and it was nice, but not really that exciting.
Kitchen Finks and Sun Titan were nuts, and so was Greater Gargadon. The value engine was real.
Gift of Immortality was sort of a non-player, and I may end up cutting it to 1 or 0.
Anafenza, Kin-tree spirit was an acceptable beatdown card, and the combo ended up relevant. T2 Anafenza into Wall of Omens holding up an open fetch and swinging 3 was a fine feeling play.
Fined Hunter was excellent. I will move to 3 or 4 main board rather than 2 main/2 side.
8 Rack - 1-0-1
Game 1 went 42 minutes. He landed Ensnaring Bridge, and I went infinite on life, and I had to kill him by recurring bolts into my deck with mistveil plains, using emeria and Solemn Simulacrum to shuffle and increase draw power. I had to bolt down a Liliana of the Veil first just in case he pulled off a dangerous ult pile. I nearly lost game 2 to a growing pile of Racks, but I managed to go infinite and force the draw in extra turns.
Twin - 0-2
Game 1 was a turn 4 loss in which I unfortunately only saw one path and he had a spellskite. Game 2 was longer, and I nearly had it in the bag, but I misplayed and gave him a combo window by dropping a Sun Titan and Fiend Huntering his Exarch, but he bolted it and had a Splinter Twin, when I could have just held up a wear/tear instead. I think this matchup is probably 40-60 in Twin's favor main board, and my sideboard is not fully developed yet. I think Blind Obedience will be my tech against them since it is also interestingly good in other matchups.
UG Infect - 2-1
I lost game one to distortion strike, allowing him to dodge my Wall of Omens that I was so proud of. I wasn't expecting it for some reason and it caught me off guard. I didn't have removal and the back to back unblockable got me. Game two and three I had better draws and had fiend hunters and removal spells to handle everything he had, and I got a blood moon off in the last game to hit the manlands. I think we have a slightly favorable matchup since we have removal and board clogging, but it isn't insanely favorable since they have manlands and unblockable techniques.
The only issue I have is that it seems like it's be pretty bad on MTGO, since the combo doesn't /win/ you the game, it just stops you losing, and you can't shortcut it. But no deck is perfect. =P
Round 1: Hatebears 1-2
Game 1 he got land ****ed and I won without thinking. Game 2 was a fantastic game of back and forth magic, trying to break board stalls, and eventually losing to flyers. I didn't see a sun titan that game, which would have definitely changed the game to my favor. Game 3 I stumbled and got flooded and he had the beatdown nut. I still just think I need to raise pyroclasms to 4 in the board.
Round 2: Mono G Aggro 1-2
I had creature light hands in the losses of this match. I really need wall of omens and be able to stall into sun titan. The pressure this deck puts out is so constant that it is hard to deal with if you only have removal spells and no board presence, and the size of my creatures are not as good as his. Fiend hunter did do serious work, though. I need to actually get ghostly prisons and spellskites for the board to help these types of matchups.
Round 3: Storm 2-1
I stuck an early kor firewalker in both of my wins, and was able to just sacrifice permanents including lands to get gargadon to increase the clock. I wouldn't have won against a more experienced storm player, but it was enough for this game. Once again, my underdeveloped sideboard needs fulminators and nevermores.
Round 4: Bye
Round 5: Naya Aggro brew (2-0)
Goyfs, Seeker of the ways, swiftspears, temur battle rages, and become immense. He had creature light draws and I answered them and we just stared at each other until my board overwhelmed him. He said he ran 3 monastery mentors, and that could have been scary if he stuck one and I couldn't answer it, but luckily that never happened. Game 2 was actually close as he kept topdecking seeker of the way and I couldn't find the second pyroclasm (he buffed out of the first one), but I just went infinite on turn 6 and won.
Conclusion:
I need to get off my ass and buy the sideboard. The garbage I have now is not doing anything to shore up these heavy aggro and combo matchups. I need to go 4 pyroclasm, 3 fulminator, 2 spellskite, 2 ghostly prison, 3 wear/tear, 1 blood moon I think. Scrabbling claws might also make an appearance if I decide I need to start hating graveyards.
4x Auriok Champion
4x Blade Splicer
4x Kitchen Finks
3x Knight of the White Orchid
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3x Restoration Angel
4x Squadron Hawk
2x Sun Titan
3x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
2x Weathered Wayfarer
2x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
4x Flagstones of Trokair
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Mistveil Plains
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
8x Plains
Artifact (2)
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of War and Peace
Planeswalker (2)
2x Gideon Jura
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4x Path to Exile
3x Aven Mindcensor
2x Celestial Purge
2x Disenchant
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
2x Ghostly Prison
3x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Mirran Crusader
Try Auriok Champion for burn / delver. Not quite Kor firewalker, but it is close and with any other back up like Kitchen Finks or Leyline can lock them out of the game.
Just a headsup Blind Obedience slows them down but does not stop them. They can combo at the end of your turn and have the tokens still on there turn to kill you. Try Linvala, Keeper of Silence if you want a body that also stops them or Suppression Field, Ghostly Prison, Spellskite, Celestial Purge, Disenchant, Runed Halo, or Nevermore. Gideon Jura can stall them for a turn if you just plus him all day.
Martyr Proc Thread
Esper Relicblade Thread
Standard:
Mardu Superfriends
Turbofog
Round 1: Gifts Assault Loam (2-0)
This was a friend playing his own weird brew. It didn't really count for a whole lot considering I just overwhelm him with creatures and he has a really hard time handling multiple finks coming at him. I fear the active seismic assault + loam interaction if it happens really early because it can crush me if I'm not already on big mana with sun titans or emeria creating value. He got a turn 4 assault in one of the games, but I had enough creature presence to still overwhelm him and finish out the game. The second game was no contest. He didn't see an assault or gifts until it was too late.
Round 2: Bloom Titan (2-1)
He got game 1 by just having it, and me not having enough paths. Pretty typical. Game 2 I lasted long enough via removal to get myself to the infinite life combo, which he concedes to, of course. Game 3 he didn't threaten me before my turn 3 blood moon, which he had to concede to again.
Round 3: Jund Scapeshift (2-0)
I've never seen this deck before this match, but he said it was sort of a thing. I'm still sort of curious about it because it didn't seem too bad. Game 1 he didn't draw a scapeshift for a very long time. I ran into 2 finks and 3 Sun Titans, and he had to use a lot of his mountains and ramp spells just to survive, so when he finally hit a scapeshift, he could only grab 2 mountains from his deck and couldn't kill me. I eventually got there with another few creatures. Game 2 I landed an early blood moon and he was sitting on a hand full of ramp and scapeshift, and I just beat him down while he failed to find an abrupt decay.
Round 4: Split with RUG twin. I expect I have about a 50/50 win ratio with it, basically coming down to whether I saw enough removal for the combo while I crush his fair game. I was happy to split.
Verdict: My changes for this event were to remove Mangara from the deck and replacing it with a 1 of Flickerwisp, which was a good call since it is just a powerful value creature, and I may end up adding more of them. In the sideboard, I increased my pyroclasms from 2 to 4, taking out odd chaff. I still need to get more bloodmoons, since it is apparently such a good sideboard card for so many matchups. I'm still debating what number of blood moons and fulminators I should have in the side since they serve a fairly similar role, but bloodmoon works faster while fulminator provides more power as the game length increases.
Sacrifice finks. Two things go on the stack: Persist and the Gargadon ability. Persist resolves. Now Anafenza's Bolster goes on the stack on top of the Gargadon ability. Once that resolves, you're back to square one, except you have a Gargadon trigger on the stack, and two more life. You continuously respond to the triggers so that they don't resolve until you're done, then all the counters come off as you let the stack empty.