Made a couple of changes since last time, where I only lost to Burn and disliked Sun Titan in my matches. Thragtusk replaced Titan in the main and I swapped Township for an Arid Mesa, since the second colorless land felt too greedy. In the sideboard two Worships were new to combat aggressive strategies, and Spell Pierce against control, combo or Burn. Cataclysmic Gearhulk, the 4th Path and the second Gideons Intervention got the axe.
I lost round 1 to Jeskai Tempo (0-2) after flooding heavily in both games. I was really advantaged in game 1, but then just stopped doing relevant things, and never found a removal for Spell Queller in either game. Thragtusk was useful both games, but couldn't do it all on its own.
Round 2 was an easy win against Grixis Shadow (2-0), great draws didn't leave him many chances. There was a situation where I had exactly enough mana to cast Thragtusk and no other cards in hand, facing Liliana of the Veil. Had it been a Sun Titan, it would likely have landed in the grave instead of the battlefield. Six mana is just a little too much in Modern sometimes.
Then I got savagely demolished by Affinity in round 3 (0-2), I only played 4 total spells in that match and wasn't happy with my draws. In the second game he mulliganed to 5 and I had Path+Witness, but he still killed me turn 5.
In the final round I faced UR Storm (2-1), where I lost game 1 after drawing nothing but mana, Saheelis and Voices. Game 2 he made 6 Goblins on turn 2, then Gaddock Teeg locked him while I dug for my combo. After revealing Saheeli to Oath with two Felidars on the board, he used a medium sized Grapeshot plus Bolt to kill Teeg and both Felidars. However, his Gifts ran into Spell Pierce a turn or two later and I found another Felidar for my combo before he could recover. Game 3 I had Eidolon plus the combo, and he couldn't answer either.
While 2-2 overall isn't the desired finish, my losses were mostly due to variance. The deck was good whenever I actually got to cast spells, and I was happy with both the updated sideboard and the Titan-Thragtusk switch. I faced four very different decks, and felt like I had solid chances in all the matches if variance didn't butt in. Going forward, I might cut 1-2 mana sources, since 22 lands + 6 dorks + 2 Cobras + 2 Ralliers is likely a little too much. It's very explosive this way, but flood is also more frequent. Another Horizon Canopy could help mitigate that too.
I agree on adding a second Canopy (maybe over your 3rd Forest) before cutting to 21 lands. I just picked up two Canopies now that the price is coming down off of IMA. Alternatively you could try a manland like Ravaging Ravine?
How have you liked Nissa, Vital Force in the side?
Which matchups do you bring Worship in and how has it done?
I’m waffling a bit on Spell Pierce vs Dispel in my own board. Dispel is better at forcing the combo through and remains active even in the late game — in this respect it’s a rather proactive counterspell. Conversely Spell Pierce can sometimes hit those early haymakers like Anger of the Gods and Karn which give us a bad time, and can even stuff T1 Thoughtseize if we’re on the play.
I think I'd rather not cut a green source, with 10 green 1-drops I really want to have access to 16. Maybe the second Plains isn't as important now that Sun Titan as the only WW cost is out. I'm pretty sure I will test a second Canopy for now, it seems a lot more synergistic than a manland.
Nissa, Vital Force has been great whenever she lands - either she can basically be a Reality Smasher that opponents can't kill with spot removal or stop with Gideon of the Trials, or a value engine that is pretty tough to overcome when combined with Felidar and Eternal Witness. Also, sometimes you can animate two lands in one turn by blinking Nissa with Felidar and attack for 10. Or use the -3 twice. I really like the flexibility, and the fact that she can deal a lot of damage very quickly.
Obviously the big downside is her high cost (at least out of Spell Queller range though) and weakness to fliers like Celestial Colonnade or Lingering Souls.
I've been very happy with Nissa against all kinds of grindy matchups, but you don't really want her when you expect a lot of countermagic.
Worship is meant for Burn, Bogles, Merfolk, Dredge, Humans, Living End, Hatebears - they usually can't kill all your creatures and have few ways to interact with Worship itself. I also bring it in against Affinity, but they still have Inkmoth Nexus that gets around it (and some Merfolk decks have Vapor Snag!). It's won me several games in the past, but I also remember a game where I had two in my hand while my opponent was mana screwed and I had no pressure. Still, it usually wins the game on its own in a couple of difficult matchups. Most of those aren't tier 1 strategies right now, so Worship is mostly a meta call for my LGS.
Concerning Spell Pierce vs Dispel: I chose SP because it also hits planeswalkers, Past in Flames, Living End, Ensnaring Bridge, All is Dust. It not quite as good at just forcing the combo through, but still does that job well, and interacts more with what the opponent is doing. Whenever it counters a spell the opponent taps 3+ mana for, the tempo advantage should really put us ahead.
Do you think Regisaur Alpha would be worth it? It can sort of combo with Saheeli and give a 14 damage haste the turn it comes down given that Saheeli is around.
@Underused Cards: pushing 14 DMG through could be game-winning, although I can also imagine a lot of board states where two 4/4s and two 3/3 tramplers have trouble getting the full damage through. As others have noted, at 5 CMC Regisaur is competing against a lot of other good cards including Thragtusk, Glorybringer, Kiki, etc... Proxy it up and let us know how it goes!
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I'm tuning up my own deck for this Friday, converging on something between Emzed and Lejoon's recent lists:
As I mentioned in my last report, Strangleroot Geist was a generally solid performer that synergized with the deck's core. I still like the card, but as I looked for ways to improve my Affinity matchup, especially game 1, Qasali Pridemage edged it out as a potentially more valuable meta-pick. I think Pridemage is well enough positioned at the moment with the high amounts of Affinity, 8-rack, and Prison decks that a second copy could be alright. Its ability to snipe Vial in Humans/Merfolk/Taxes is also appreciated, and just getting in for an Exalted 3 damage against Jeskai is OK at supporting the tempo plan game 1.
I'm also switching back to the classic 4/2/2 Dork formation. The triple Cobra lineup was an interesting experiment but as you might expect I wound up with hands polarized between explosive or clunky, and with the lowering of my curve it's OK to trade some explosiveness for consistency. Banking on T1 Dork -> T2 Evolve into Eidolon of Rhetoric seems like one of the most realistically relevant plays we can make vs Storm (although even this can be disrupted by Bolt, Remand, and Echoing Truth).
One idea I wanted to bounce off you guys was swapping the SB Dispel, Helix, and Thalia for 3x Chalice of the Void as a proactive strategy for combating decks loaded up on cheap spells.
Chalice could be good on 1 vs Shadow for Discard / Cantrips / Push / Shadow, on 1 vs Jeskai for Path / Bolt / Cantrips, on 2 vs Storm for Rituals / Manamorphose / Enablers (and maybe even on 1 in a pinch), 1-2 vs Burn, on 1 vs Lantern.. and then there are some (admittedly shakier) possibilities on the play like 1 vs Elves or 0 vs Robots or on 1 vs Tron.
Obviously we can play Chalice on 1 turn 2, and with any ramp hit Chalice on 2 turn 3. The symmetry on 1 kinda hurts, although we'd like to curve Birds / Hierarch / Oath on T1 before Chalice if possible. Turning our Paths off against Shadow could be OK if they don't have any Shadows down yet.
The symmetry on 2 doesn't hurt so much as this is a weaker point in our curve. Both 1 & 2 don't disrupt the combo core of Saheeli / Felidar / Evo aside from making it harder to play 2-drops to Evolve into Felidar. Conversely, Chalice on 1 generally turns off the most common cheap interaction that opponents use to disrupt the combo such as Thoughtseize, Path, Push, Bolt.
Do you see merit in this approach, or is it too slow without Spirit Guide / too painful in its symmetry?
While I think Chalice is excellent in general, with 13 spells that cost 1 (and 8 that cost 2), you are hurting yourself a lot. If it was just the mana creatures at cmc1, that would probably be okay, but Path and Oath are still important later in the game. You could replace some Paths with Reflector Mages or Dismembers, but Oath must stay in the deck.
I haven't tested it, and it depends on the metagame, but I don't think Chalice is very good in this deck.
Also, I'm sceptical about the second Pridemage. I'm very happy with one copy in the main, and I search it up frequently, but it can be a little low impact when drawn in the grindy matchups like Death's Shadow or Jeskai.
Regisaur Alpha is interesting. It brings a ton of power and toughness, looks good against most commonly played removal spells, does some haste damage and some trample damage, and synergizes well with our core cards. On the other hand, Gurmag Angler, Death's Shadow, Reality Smasher, Tarmogoyf and Primeval Titan all outclass it, and it doesn't interact with the opponent's board, gain life or block fliers. In a pure racing matchup like Ad Nauseam it's potentially a very good 5-drop creature, but I imagine it's not so great against something like Affinity.
I'm really torn about the card. I don't think it's quite good enough, but I would really like a huge beater in my deck to get with Evolution when the time calls for it. Glorybringer is okay, but isn't the best at this particular job. A 4-drop would be so much faster online when I just want to kill that Storm player dead quickly. Wilt-Leaf Liege has been suggested before, and Hero of Bladehold is another option. Both become pretty absurd with Saheeli to copy them. But they both rely on getting through on the ground, so for now I think I will test Sublime Archangel - the card was a complete non-starter for years because of the prevalence of Lightning Bolt, but that has changed, and maybe the Angel could actually be reasonable now. With some creatures on the board, it represents a lot of power right away, but is also acceptable on a completely empty board. It's very very good with Saheeli, has evasion, and is big enough to block Spell Queller, Signal Pest and Vault Skirge in the air. Blocking it profitably seems nearly impossible (with the exception of Stinkweed Imp), however it does get stalled badly by Lingering Souls. As long as it dodges instant speed removal, it's probably actually a good card. But if it gets removed all the time, or if damage racing is just not an option, it turns into a big liability.
You guys talked some sense to me about Chalice of the Void
Also, I ultimately agreed with Emzed about the second Pridemage, so I moved Ooze over it's spot into the Main, and used the extra SB slot for Sigarda to add a little more game against BGx since I'm not running Witness/Lark/Titan for grinding, and add game against Eldrazi Tron since I'm not running Blood Moon.
I hemmed and hawed on Spell Pierce vs. Dispel in the side before finally just deciding to try doubling up on Thalia, in part since she could be potentially better than a single counterspell against Storm, and also because shocking myself for Blue (Spell Pierce) or Black (Kambal/Sin Collector) didn't sound great against common decks like Burn or Jeskai that are both pressuring my life total and clearing Dorks.
With Rhino's Helix and general beat-down potential I felt like winning more games by beat-down was a realistic strategy, and Fiery Justice's +5 life became a real drawback again (not to mention its sorcery speed) so I swapped it for the second Explosives.
Match 1: Grixis Waste Not (2-0)
Both games I combo'd out pretty quickly without any response. Didn't get to see any SB cards. SB out: -3 Path, -1 Courser or Finks? || in: +2 Thalia, +2 Explosives
Match 2: Mono-U Merfolk (0-2)
G1 - I keep a hand with a bit of ramp, Oath, Pridemage, and Felidar. Swung with double Exalted Pridemage for 4, then blew up Vial. Had some Paths in hand but Kopala came down which forced me to build my board rather than Pathing. Eventually he caught up and I died.
G2 - I chose to keep a "racing" 7 that sequenced T1 Bird into T2 Cobra into T3 Rhino + Voice. Got him down to ~3 life and was ready to flicker Rhino next turn for the win but he bounced a couple of my creatures, vial'd in another Lord, and swung for lethal.
In conclusion I probably should've mulled harder for a hand with the combo or sweepers. SB out -1 Ooze, -2 Rallier, -1 Finks, -1 Courser || in +2 Explosives, +1 Staticaster, +1 Rec Sage, +1 Gearhulk
Figuring out what to take out from the MB was tough -- I could probably make better swaps but I'm not sure what exactly
Match 3: Titanshift (1-2)
G1 - I made a misplay, I tried to combo out but he had Valakut and a Fetch, so he cracked his Fetch to burn out Saheeli in response to the second Felidar's ETB. He burned me out with Valakut 2-3 turns later. If I would have played Rhino instead of Felidar and copied it with Saheeli I would've won the game.
G2 - I ramped Hierarch into Rallier into Oath, picking up Rhino. Played Saheeli, then Rhino next turn, fixing my mistake from G1.
G3 - I had to mull down to a 5 including a dork, Felidar, and Oath. Pulled Gaddock off Oath and played him. Eventually my opponent played Pact into Titan, and between Valakut and Titan I was done. SB out -3 Path || in +2 Thalia, +1 Helix I reasoned that by the time Titan comes down I'm probably dead so I boarded out Paths to focus on tempo.. thoughts?
Match 4: Burn (2-1)
G1 - I have a slow start but get to curve Finks into Evo Finks -> Rhino and end up winning the race
G2 - I land Thalia, which taxes him for 2-3 mana but I otherwise can't stabilize and get burnt out.
G3 - I play Bird T1 into T2 Oath -> Thalia. Thalia keeps Guide at bay and next turn he taps out to Bolt her. I follow with Rhino and then flicker Rhino to win. SB out -2 Rallier, -1 Saheeli || in +2 Thalia, +1 Helix Overall 2-2
Take aways:
Rhino continues to be a significant improvement to the deck. Two copies feels good, and between Oath and Evo there have been a surprising number of games where I'll have one or both Rhinos on the field. Regarding the black splash: I still haven't run into any issues with it, but I don't think it's wise to push my luck by adding more black cards to the SB. Furthermore I'll try to swap out Arid Mesa for Misty Rainforest when I can just to get a couple more lands that can grab Overgrown Tomb.
Thalia performed really well against Burn and after the match my friend / opponent confirmed that she was "really annoying". I think there are still some concerns about her tax’s symmetry but so far it’s slowed my opponents down much more than it’s slowed me down, especially on the play. I’ll keep her at two copies for now and try to test her more. I expect her to do really well against Jeskai, Storm, and Tron, but to possibly perform worse than a counterspell against decks bringing in 3-4 red sweepers like Titan Shift.
Feels good to finally have Canopies! Got to crack one a couple times to keep the gas flowing.
Sigarda’s a flex spot that I'm still thinking about but I'm pretty happy with the list overall.
Nice report Shelldell. I've also found that attempting a damage race against Merfolk can backfire badly if Harbinger of the Tides gets involved, or if they rip that one extra lord of the top. It rarely works out, I'd rather lean on the combo or try to assume a controlling position.
On the topic of Path against Titanshift: Giving them an extra land after Titan lands is awful. I still don't really know what to do, since having no removal doesn't seem great either. If you have Blood Moon, Gideons Intervention, Leyline of Sanctity or some other way to defend against the damage from Valakut, Path looks more interesting as a way to remove Titan, but otherwise boarding it out seems reasonable, especially when you are on the play.
Her +1 is win-more, dependent on you already having a worthile beater on the board in a position where you can push damage through and safely get ahead on a damage race.
Her -2 “forked Bolt” mode is mediocre at protecting her from Modern’s threats and just a generally a wimpy effect compared to other 4 CMC walkers’ -2 abilities.
Her -7 assembles your combo but that doesn’t automatically win the game as your opponent has had 4 turns of notice to find spot removal, a hate piece, etc. — if you’re playing against a deck that’s good at disrupting the combo (which is probably why you haven’t won by the time Samut would be Ulting on T8+) then Samut’s Ult isn’t necessarily providing you with a goodd backup plan IMO.
Most Planeswalkers will “soft” win the game if they Ultimate — why not use one with good +/- abilities and an ultimate that attacks the game from an orthogonal angle? Ajani Vengeant / Mentor, Nahiri, Kiora, Nissa VF / SE and so forth... The fact that Samut’s Ult can find our combo pieces seems like a red herring to me.
What is the consensus on Coiling Oracle vs Wall of Omens? I’ve tested both and can’t decide. The ramp/advantage Oracle can provide is powerful but it’s harder on the mana compared to Wall and sometimes I’d prefer to not have the card I’m drawing be revealed. Also against some decks the 0/4 body is more relevant. I’m hoping someone else has tried both so I can decide which is better or if I should do some kind of split.
The Wall/Oracle decision is a little metagame dependent. If you can actually use the 0/4 as a relevant blocker (not so common these days, too many huge creatures, flying robots and combo decks), then Wall is a fine choice. It's also more resilient to cards like Liliana the Last Hope, Anger of the Gods etc. Some of the better matchups for Wall are Burn and Hatebears: It's not difficult to cast and loves blocking Goblin Guide, Thalia, Golem tokens or other small attackers.
In theory, Oracle is the better choice when you expect to be attacking, not blocking. That means control and combo decks, but unfortunately a 1/1 isn't a big factor in most games. At least it trades for Snapcaster Mage, can harass Planeswalkers, and occasionally gives you a free landdrop. The fact that it dies very easily in combat can actually be useful in combination with Renegade Rallier. Overall though, its powerlevel is rather low, and its demanding mana cost can be awkward in matchups where Blood Moon is a factor.
I'm not a fan of either card, and prefer to run neither. A different metagame could change my opinion (A Bloodbraid Elf unban might make Wall more attractive).
Strangleroot Geist is a solid option that I haven't tested yet, but I'm a little uneasy about making my deck weaker to cards like Rest in Peace and Grafdigger's Cage.
Has anyone tried/tested Hoogland’s 5-0 list that focuses more on the lotus cobra/rallier synergies? Its super explosive and is worth testing I think. Also somewhat confused about having sigarda, heron’s grace in the main of that list..is this just a maindeck silver bullet against valakut? Couldnt they just send two triggers at sigarda and the rest at you or am i misunderstanding how that interaction works? Thanks for the feedback.
I tried out Regisaur Alpha and I would say a good 1-2 of would be great in the archetype. There's an opportunity to just smash in for a good 6-14 damage out of nowhere. Especially on decks that tend to deal damage to themselves a lot like Burn.
Initial thoughts on Hoogland's build after watching his streamed league:
As blasphemous as it sounds, yes, trimming the 4th Felidar for the 4th Evolution might be correct.
Felidar's ability to threaten the combo or generate blink-value makes it at least playable, but I have to agree with Jeff that Felidar is still a pretty mediocre card for its cost. I do wish we had a proper 2-drop looting engine to pitch extra Evos to, though (RIX please!).
I'm not totally sold on 4x Cobra + 4x Rallier.
While it technically improves the odds of a T2 combo the odds are still pretty low (looking into calculating the exact odds). Siefer, myself, and others have tried builds that go heavy on Cobras and Ralliers and found that while you do get some sweet explosive synergies there are also clunky hands and diminishing returns involving over-ramping with redundant Cobras and Ralliers stuck in hand without good GY targets or Revolt enablers. With that said the extra Cobras/Ralliers work together to make the 4th copy of Evolution better.
Having all that ramp and cutting down Felidars lets him run more good value creatures going all the way up the curve to 2x Titans. Without a way to tutor up your 2nd Saheeli and the difficulty of Evoing into Sun Titan I'm still hesitant to get too excited about the Saheeli-Titan combo, though, and we’ve already discussed how Sun Titan is a pretty sweet but polarizing card. With fewer Felidars he can also run more silverbullet toolbox targets in the main.
The Summoner's Pact as a 5th Cobra/Rallier for T2 nut draws was a clever idea but I suspect it's more cute than practical.
I'm uncertain about cutting all Paths from the main.
We don't miss Paths much against control and we can maybe get by with Reflector Mage + value + a combo finish against midrange. Against creature-swarm aggro (Affinity/Humans/Elves) and creature-dependent combo (Storm, Devoted Druid) we're much more dependent on both having the T3 combo and being on the play to win without a Path, and winning game 1 is important for these matchups.
Jeff's proposed SB revision is also pretty light on removal: one Path and one Staticaster.
There's enough artifact hate to possibly deal with Affinity but the deck doesn't seem to have any plan vs evasive Aggro lists beyond mulling into an early combo. He played against one Zoo/Whack list and (IMO) got very lucky being able to chain Ralliers to set up blocks and consistently drew into his singleton Thragtusk and Felidar. The omission of Gearhulk isn’t so surprising and I’ve felt that Gearhulk has a bit of tension being a 5 cmc card I bring in while I’m also trying to slim my curve against Aggro. I haven’t had any good Gearhulk plays recently so the slot is becoming gradually more flexible for me.
1x Meddling Mage in the main is a nice way to have at least some Evo-tutorable (if fragile) out to Grapeshot and other troublesome combo cards game 1. I'm not sure I would run her in the main myself but if you're running into enough Storm it makes sense. Outside those matchups she's still functional and generally helps to provide a critical mass of sac-able 2 CMC creatures. Just gotta be careful about what blocked card you unleash when you sac her...
Overall there are some interesting, pushed angles here and while I suspect that some of them might be the right direction it’s hard to say from one league given that Jeff is obviously a really good player with GW toolbox lists further aided by some fair matchups and pretty lucky draws / misplays from his opponents. Curious to see how the next league goes, but in the very least I wouldn't be surprised to see some new faces in here if his 5-0 gets spread around.
Beat Burn, Grishoalbrand, Blue Steel, Storm, and Sultai Shadow. Everything was 2-1, and nothing super crazy to report for notes. Lotus Cobra is absolutely insane and lets you lead to some super disgusting plays. I stole every game from Grishoalbrand by Cobra, evolution into Cat, blink a land for extra mana, Saheeli.
I cut Domri every game, but given almost everything was combo or aggro that makes sense. He was thrown in last second as I couldn't think of anything, but I'm not sure if he's even that necessary or desirable.
The highlight was a turn 3 win. Turn 2 Cobra, turn 3 Fetch to make 3 mana, tap another land, cast Cat. Blink a land for +2 mana, tap final land for Saheeli.
Against Shadow I only won because opponent got greedy game 3. I was at 13 and he was at 2, with me having a Saheeli and 2 Ralliers on board. Opponent swung at me, no blocks. He cracked a fetch, putting us both to 1. I untap and plus Saheeli. If he hadn't cracked the fetch, I would have been at 2 as well and in a much worse position given his fat Goyfs and Shadow.
Red should be burn, Goblins, Dragons, draw/discard, and Standard-unplayable 5CMC cards with insane, lengthy effects that take 10 minutes to figure out what they do and another 20 to actually make their effects work on the field.
I only have a couple of questions on deckbuilding choices I'm still not sold on:
1. Did Sigarda pull her weight?
2. Did you miss paths against aggro? (Especially against Blue Steel)
Not sure which Sigarda, but I will say they were both alright. Newer one was useful against Storm as it turned off his Gifts which bought me a few turns in one game, along with beating face. Both were helpful against Blue Steel as they were larger than anything else they had barring a huge Master of Etherium in game 2. Their effects never really came into play, but being a big flyer did.
I did not miss Paths at all, but I wouldn't say they are unnecessary. Against Blue Steel I swarmed back and won with fatter creatures game 1, and game 3 was won off the back of Cataclysmic Gearhulk annihilating his entire board.
I did probably lose game 2 to Storm since I wasn't able to answer a Baral that he immediately combo'd off with, but Spell Pierce stopped the same thing in game 3.
I'm definitely not opposed to running Paths, but I haven't found it a must have either.
Also I just noticed my sideboard is slightly off. It was -2 Fiery Justice -1 Pridemage +1 Reclamation Sage +1 Obstinate Baloth +1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk.
Red should be burn, Goblins, Dragons, draw/discard, and Standard-unplayable 5CMC cards with insane, lengthy effects that take 10 minutes to figure out what they do and another 20 to actually make their effects work on the field.
I've been working on this list a lot here mentally and the one thing I cannot wrap my mind around is the Hallowed fountain that can only be fetched by 4 fetches. That cannot be right.
One thing Jeff's list really did was fix a lot of issues with the manabase (all the fetches can get all the shocks except the sacred foundry, which is less critical). Plus lotus cobras themselves being a lot of fixing as sketchy as tha tis.
I would be inclined to shave the hallowed fountain entirely and subsist on stomping ground/sacred foundry/breeding pool as my splash lands, or adjust your fetch layout to a mix of misty rainforest/flooded strand/windswept heath to help balance better. And no one should be running RR creatures (glorybringer lookin' at you) ever.
It's really important to be very disciplined with mana and pip layout in decks like this that are fairly greedy color-wise by nature.
I've been working on this list a lot here mentally and the one thing I cannot wrap my mind around is the Hallowed fountain that can only be fetched by 4 fetches. That cannot be right.
One thing Jeff's list really did was fix a lot of issues with the manabase (all the fetches can get all the shocks except the sacred foundry, which is less critical). Plus lotus cobras themselves being a lot of fixing as sketchy as tha tis.
Fountain can be grabbed by 7/11 fetches, only the Wooded Foothills can not grab it. Misty is probably better than Foothills, but it currently is not fetchable by only 4 fetches.
I would be inclined to shave the hallowed fountain entirely and subsist on stomping ground/sacred foundry/breeding pool as my splash lands, or adjust your fetch layout to a mix of misty rainforest/flooded strand/windswept heath to help balance better. And no one should be running RR creatures (glorybringer lookin' at you) ever.
It's really important to be very disciplined with mana and pip layout in decks like this that are fairly greedy color-wise by nature.
The card is just a one of, and double red is not difficult to achieve thanks to Cobra + Bird + constant fetching thanks to Rallier. The card can also easily be Evolved into thanks to the high amount of 3 drops.
Red should be burn, Goblins, Dragons, draw/discard, and Standard-unplayable 5CMC cards with insane, lengthy effects that take 10 minutes to figure out what they do and another 20 to actually make their effects work on the field.
Wow, I somehow completely missed the strands despite looking? My apologies.
Even so, I think I would be inclined to try to tune it up a bit. Jeff's base with misties seems quite a bit smoother esp. if you're going to run meddling mage/reflector.
Any RR or UU card is a complete no in my opinion but hope it works for ya
4x heath 4x misty 3x strand = all can fetch fountain. Misty cannot fetch foundry, strand cannot get stomping ground, but that seems fine because both of those fetches can still find a red source and by the time you need red you are probably agnostic on whether its paired with green or white.
Is there a need for a more generically strong 4 drop in the deck? Or are we usually happy to evolve a cobra/voice into a rallier? When I look at the list I see felidar and avalanche riders as the fours and both seem highly situational. The stabilizers only hit at five (thragtusk, sigarda) and then your uber value at 6 with the sun titans.
I'm not sure what four would fit the bill here either - Obstinate Baloth? Huntmaster of the Fells? Wilt-Leaf Liege? Siege Rhino? Liege seems interesting because it is excellent with ralliers and voices/tokens and cloning a liege with saheeli is minimum 12 damage and another 6-7 for any other bodies you have on the table at the time. It may also be super cute but you could summoner's pact for a liege in response to a discard effect - you still end up paying the 4 mana, but it negates the discard and more or less gives your liege haste.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
4x heath 4x misty 3x strand = all can fetch fountain. Misty cannot fetch foundry, strand cannot get stomping ground, but that seems fine because both of those fetches can still find a red source and by the time you need red you are probably agnostic on whether its paired with green or white.
Is there a need for a more generically strong 4 drop in the deck? Or are we usually happy to evolve a cobra/voice into a rallier? When I look at the list I see felidar and avalanche riders as the fours and both seem highly situational. The stabilizers only hit at five (thragtusk, sigarda) and then your uber value at 6 with the sun titans.
I'm not sure what four would fit the bill here either - Obstinate Baloth? Huntmaster of the Fells? Wilt-Leaf Liege? Siege Rhino? Liege seems interesting because it is excellent with ralliers and voices/tokens and cloning a liege with saheeli is minimum 12 damage and another 6-7 for any other bodies you have on the table at the time. It may also be super cute but you could summoner's pact for a liege in response to a discard effect - you still end up paying the 4 mana, but it negates the discard and more or less gives your liege haste.
The 4 drop should depend on your meta. If you have lots of burn, go with Baloth, if you have lots of combo decks like Elves, go with Linvala, if you have Tron and stuff, another Avalanche Rider or Fulminator mage can be used. I also finally understand the non-Path to Exile include. You want to be able to grab whatever you can from Oath of Nissa, and you get to go wide and swarm.
I think having another Planeswalker that can buff all your creatures for an attack would work wonders here. Sarkhan Vol might come in handy as a 1 of.
The problem with many of those suggested 4-drops is that they are rather bad against big creatures (Deaths Shadow, Gurmag Angler, Reality Smasher, Primeval Titan) and at the same time rather bad against decks like Storm, Lantern or Affinity. So basically, there are various matchups where you don't really want them, and I don't think their power level in the more appropriate matchups makes up for that.
I've been testing Sublime Archangel recently, which has three relevant upsides compared to many other four-drops: Thanks to flying it attacks over many of the currently popular creatures and blocks small flying attackers, it hits very hard against combo decks, and it is relevant against Ensnaring Bridge. On the other hand, it dies to almost every removal spell in the format (the few exceptions are Collective Brutality, Abrupt Decay and Electrolyze) and is especially weak to instant speed removal.
Its synergy with Saheeli is neat however: Assume your board is a Birds and a Saheeli on 4 loyalty. Now if you cast Sublime Archangel and copy it with Saheeli, you can attack with the token for 10 in the air (3 creatures which all have exalted twice gives +6/+6 from exalted), then do the same thing on the next turn. That can actually be fast enough to win a race against a deck like Storm.
I haven't done enough testing with the Angel yet to decide if I want to keep running it, and as expected it has its weaknesses, but it has also impressed me a few times.
Thanks - but before jumping to "which 4 drop" my first question was more "do we actually want/need another 4 drop?". For those who have been playing the deck, in practice what do you usually evolve a cobra or voice into? Rallier? Witness?
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4x Noble Hierarch
2x Birds of Paradise
4x Voice of Resurgence
1x Qasali Pridemage
2x Lotus Cobra
1x Reflector Mage
2x Renegade Rallier
1x Eternal Witness
1x Kitchen Finks
4x Felidar Guardian
1x Glorybringer
1x Thragtusk
Other Spells 14
4x Oath of Nissa
3x Path to Exile
4x Saheeli Rai
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Arid Mesa
1x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
3x Forest
2x Plains
1x Mountain
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Spell Pierce
1x Lighting Helix
1x Fiery Justice
1x Damping Matrix
2x Blood Moon
1x Gideon's Intervention
2x Worship
1x Nissa, Vital Force
Made a couple of changes since last time, where I only lost to Burn and disliked Sun Titan in my matches. Thragtusk replaced Titan in the main and I swapped Township for an Arid Mesa, since the second colorless land felt too greedy. In the sideboard two Worships were new to combat aggressive strategies, and Spell Pierce against control, combo or Burn. Cataclysmic Gearhulk, the 4th Path and the second Gideons Intervention got the axe.
I lost round 1 to Jeskai Tempo (0-2) after flooding heavily in both games. I was really advantaged in game 1, but then just stopped doing relevant things, and never found a removal for Spell Queller in either game. Thragtusk was useful both games, but couldn't do it all on its own.
Round 2 was an easy win against Grixis Shadow (2-0), great draws didn't leave him many chances. There was a situation where I had exactly enough mana to cast Thragtusk and no other cards in hand, facing Liliana of the Veil. Had it been a Sun Titan, it would likely have landed in the grave instead of the battlefield. Six mana is just a little too much in Modern sometimes.
Then I got savagely demolished by Affinity in round 3 (0-2), I only played 4 total spells in that match and wasn't happy with my draws. In the second game he mulliganed to 5 and I had Path+Witness, but he still killed me turn 5.
In the final round I faced UR Storm (2-1), where I lost game 1 after drawing nothing but mana, Saheelis and Voices. Game 2 he made 6 Goblins on turn 2, then Gaddock Teeg locked him while I dug for my combo. After revealing Saheeli to Oath with two Felidars on the board, he used a medium sized Grapeshot plus Bolt to kill Teeg and both Felidars. However, his Gifts ran into Spell Pierce a turn or two later and I found another Felidar for my combo before he could recover. Game 3 I had Eidolon plus the combo, and he couldn't answer either.
While 2-2 overall isn't the desired finish, my losses were mostly due to variance. The deck was good whenever I actually got to cast spells, and I was happy with both the updated sideboard and the Titan-Thragtusk switch. I faced four very different decks, and felt like I had solid chances in all the matches if variance didn't butt in. Going forward, I might cut 1-2 mana sources, since 22 lands + 6 dorks + 2 Cobras + 2 Ralliers is likely a little too much. It's very explosive this way, but flood is also more frequent. Another Horizon Canopy could help mitigate that too.
I agree on adding a second Canopy (maybe over your 3rd Forest) before cutting to 21 lands. I just picked up two Canopies now that the price is coming down off of IMA. Alternatively you could try a manland like Ravaging Ravine?
How have you liked Nissa, Vital Force in the side?
Which matchups do you bring Worship in and how has it done?
I’m waffling a bit on Spell Pierce vs Dispel in my own board. Dispel is better at forcing the combo through and remains active even in the late game — in this respect it’s a rather proactive counterspell. Conversely Spell Pierce can sometimes hit those early haymakers like Anger of the Gods and Karn which give us a bad time, and can even stuff T1 Thoughtseize if we’re on the play.
Nissa, Vital Force has been great whenever she lands - either she can basically be a Reality Smasher that opponents can't kill with spot removal or stop with Gideon of the Trials, or a value engine that is pretty tough to overcome when combined with Felidar and Eternal Witness. Also, sometimes you can animate two lands in one turn by blinking Nissa with Felidar and attack for 10. Or use the -3 twice. I really like the flexibility, and the fact that she can deal a lot of damage very quickly.
Obviously the big downside is her high cost (at least out of Spell Queller range though) and weakness to fliers like Celestial Colonnade or Lingering Souls.
I've been very happy with Nissa against all kinds of grindy matchups, but you don't really want her when you expect a lot of countermagic.
Worship is meant for Burn, Bogles, Merfolk, Dredge, Humans, Living End, Hatebears - they usually can't kill all your creatures and have few ways to interact with Worship itself. I also bring it in against Affinity, but they still have Inkmoth Nexus that gets around it (and some Merfolk decks have Vapor Snag!). It's won me several games in the past, but I also remember a game where I had two in my hand while my opponent was mana screwed and I had no pressure. Still, it usually wins the game on its own in a couple of difficult matchups. Most of those aren't tier 1 strategies right now, so Worship is mostly a meta call for my LGS.
Concerning Spell Pierce vs Dispel: I chose SP because it also hits planeswalkers, Past in Flames, Living End, Ensnaring Bridge, All is Dust. It not quite as good at just forcing the combo through, but still does that job well, and interacts more with what the opponent is doing. Whenever it counters a spell the opponent taps 3+ mana for, the tempo advantage should really put us ahead.
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----------
I'm tuning up my own deck for this Friday, converging on something between Emzed and Lejoon's recent lists:
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Noble Hierarch
2x Lotus Cobra
2x Qasali Pridemage
4x Voice of Resurgence
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Kitchen Finks
2x Renegade Rallier
4x Felidar Guardian
2x Siege Rhino
Spell (14)
4x Oath of Nissa
4x Saheeli Rai
3x Path to Exile
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Arid Mesa
1x Flooded Strand
1x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Stomping Ground
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Overgrown Tomb
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Forest
2x Plains
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Dispel / Spell Pierce
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Lightning Helix
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Stony Silence
1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
I'm also switching back to the classic 4/2/2 Dork formation. The triple Cobra lineup was an interesting experiment but as you might expect I wound up with hands polarized between explosive or clunky, and with the lowering of my curve it's OK to trade some explosiveness for consistency. Banking on T1 Dork -> T2 Evolve into Eidolon of Rhetoric seems like one of the most realistically relevant plays we can make vs Storm (although even this can be disrupted by Bolt, Remand, and Echoing Truth).
One idea I wanted to bounce off you guys was swapping the SB Dispel, Helix, and Thalia for 3x Chalice of the Void as a proactive strategy for combating decks loaded up on cheap spells.
Chalice could be good on 1 vs Shadow for Discard / Cantrips / Push / Shadow, on 1 vs Jeskai for Path / Bolt / Cantrips, on 2 vs Storm for Rituals / Manamorphose / Enablers (and maybe even on 1 in a pinch), 1-2 vs Burn, on 1 vs Lantern.. and then there are some (admittedly shakier) possibilities on the play like 1 vs Elves or 0 vs Robots or on 1 vs Tron.
Obviously we can play Chalice on 1 turn 2, and with any ramp hit Chalice on 2 turn 3. The symmetry on 1 kinda hurts, although we'd like to curve Birds / Hierarch / Oath on T1 before Chalice if possible. Turning our Paths off against Shadow could be OK if they don't have any Shadows down yet.
The symmetry on 2 doesn't hurt so much as this is a weaker point in our curve. Both 1 & 2 don't disrupt the combo core of Saheeli / Felidar / Evo aside from making it harder to play 2-drops to Evolve into Felidar. Conversely, Chalice on 1 generally turns off the most common cheap interaction that opponents use to disrupt the combo such as Thoughtseize, Path, Push, Bolt.
Do you see merit in this approach, or is it too slow without Spirit Guide / too painful in its symmetry?
I haven't tested it, and it depends on the metagame, but I don't think Chalice is very good in this deck.
Also, I'm sceptical about the second Pridemage. I'm very happy with one copy in the main, and I search it up frequently, but it can be a little low impact when drawn in the grindy matchups like Death's Shadow or Jeskai.
Regisaur Alpha is interesting. It brings a ton of power and toughness, looks good against most commonly played removal spells, does some haste damage and some trample damage, and synergizes well with our core cards. On the other hand, Gurmag Angler, Death's Shadow, Reality Smasher, Tarmogoyf and Primeval Titan all outclass it, and it doesn't interact with the opponent's board, gain life or block fliers. In a pure racing matchup like Ad Nauseam it's potentially a very good 5-drop creature, but I imagine it's not so great against something like Affinity.
I'm really torn about the card. I don't think it's quite good enough, but I would really like a huge beater in my deck to get with Evolution when the time calls for it. Glorybringer is okay, but isn't the best at this particular job. A 4-drop would be so much faster online when I just want to kill that Storm player dead quickly. Wilt-Leaf Liege has been suggested before, and Hero of Bladehold is another option. Both become pretty absurd with Saheeli to copy them. But they both rely on getting through on the ground, so for now I think I will test Sublime Archangel - the card was a complete non-starter for years because of the prevalence of Lightning Bolt, but that has changed, and maybe the Angel could actually be reasonable now. With some creatures on the board, it represents a lot of power right away, but is also acceptable on a completely empty board. It's very very good with Saheeli, has evasion, and is big enough to block Spell Queller, Signal Pest and Vault Skirge in the air. Blocking it profitably seems nearly impossible (with the exception of Stinkweed Imp), however it does get stalled badly by Lingering Souls. As long as it dodges instant speed removal, it's probably actually a good card. But if it gets removed all the time, or if damage racing is just not an option, it turns into a big liability.
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Noble Hierarch
2x Lotus Cobra
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Voice of Resurgence
2x Renegade Rallier
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Kitchen Finks
4x Felidar Guardian
2x Siege Rhino
Spell (14)
4x Oath of Nissa
4x Saheeli Rai
3x Path to Exile
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Arid Mesa
1x Flooded Strand
1x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Stomping Ground
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Overgrown Tomb
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Forest
2x Plains
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Stony Silence
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Lightning Helix
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1x Sigarda, Host of Horons
Both games I combo'd out pretty quickly without any response. Didn't get to see any SB cards.
SB out: -3 Path, -1 Courser or Finks? || in: +2 Thalia, +2 Explosives
Match 2: Mono-U Merfolk (0-2)
G1 - I keep a hand with a bit of ramp, Oath, Pridemage, and Felidar. Swung with double Exalted Pridemage for 4, then blew up Vial. Had some Paths in hand but Kopala came down which forced me to build my board rather than Pathing. Eventually he caught up and I died.
G2 - I chose to keep a "racing" 7 that sequenced T1 Bird into T2 Cobra into T3 Rhino + Voice. Got him down to ~3 life and was ready to flicker Rhino next turn for the win but he bounced a couple of my creatures, vial'd in another Lord, and swung for lethal.
In conclusion I probably should've mulled harder for a hand with the combo or sweepers.
SB out -1 Ooze, -2 Rallier, -1 Finks, -1 Courser || in +2 Explosives, +1 Staticaster, +1 Rec Sage, +1 Gearhulk
Figuring out what to take out from the MB was tough -- I could probably make better swaps but I'm not sure what exactly
Match 3: Titanshift (1-2)
G1 - I made a misplay, I tried to combo out but he had Valakut and a Fetch, so he cracked his Fetch to burn out Saheeli in response to the second Felidar's ETB. He burned me out with Valakut 2-3 turns later. If I would have played Rhino instead of Felidar and copied it with Saheeli I would've won the game.
G2 - I ramped Hierarch into Rallier into Oath, picking up Rhino. Played Saheeli, then Rhino next turn, fixing my mistake from G1.
G3 - I had to mull down to a 5 including a dork, Felidar, and Oath. Pulled Gaddock off Oath and played him. Eventually my opponent played Pact into Titan, and between Valakut and Titan I was done.
SB out -3 Path || in +2 Thalia, +1 Helix
I reasoned that by the time Titan comes down I'm probably dead so I boarded out Paths to focus on tempo.. thoughts?
Match 4: Burn (2-1)
G1 - I have a slow start but get to curve Finks into Evo Finks -> Rhino and end up winning the race
G2 - I land Thalia, which taxes him for 2-3 mana but I otherwise can't stabilize and get burnt out.
G3 - I play Bird T1 into T2 Oath -> Thalia. Thalia keeps Guide at bay and next turn he taps out to Bolt her. I follow with Rhino and then flicker Rhino to win.
SB out -2 Rallier, -1 Saheeli || in +2 Thalia, +1 Helix
Overall 2-2
Rhino continues to be a significant improvement to the deck. Two copies feels good, and between Oath and Evo there have been a surprising number of games where I'll have one or both Rhinos on the field. Regarding the black splash: I still haven't run into any issues with it, but I don't think it's wise to push my luck by adding more black cards to the SB. Furthermore I'll try to swap out Arid Mesa for Misty Rainforest when I can just to get a couple more lands that can grab Overgrown Tomb.
Thalia performed really well against Burn and after the match my friend / opponent confirmed that she was "really annoying". I think there are still some concerns about her tax’s symmetry but so far it’s slowed my opponents down much more than it’s slowed me down, especially on the play. I’ll keep her at two copies for now and try to test her more. I expect her to do really well against Jeskai, Storm, and Tron, but to possibly perform worse than a counterspell against decks bringing in 3-4 red sweepers like Titan Shift.
Feels good to finally have Canopies! Got to crack one a couple times to keep the gas flowing.
Sigarda’s a flex spot that I'm still thinking about but I'm pretty happy with the list overall.
On the topic of Path against Titanshift: Giving them an extra land after Titan lands is awful. I still don't really know what to do, since having no removal doesn't seem great either. If you have Blood Moon, Gideons Intervention, Leyline of Sanctity or some other way to defend against the damage from Valakut, Path looks more interesting as a way to remove Titan, but otherwise boarding it out seems reasonable, especially when you are on the play.
Her +1 is win-more, dependent on you already having a worthile beater on the board in a position where you can push damage through and safely get ahead on a damage race.
Her -2 “forked Bolt” mode is mediocre at protecting her from Modern’s threats and just a generally a wimpy effect compared to other 4 CMC walkers’ -2 abilities.
Her -7 assembles your combo but that doesn’t automatically win the game as your opponent has had 4 turns of notice to find spot removal, a hate piece, etc. — if you’re playing against a deck that’s good at disrupting the combo (which is probably why you haven’t won by the time Samut would be Ulting on T8+) then Samut’s Ult isn’t necessarily providing you with a goodd backup plan IMO.
Most Planeswalkers will “soft” win the game if they Ultimate — why not use one with good +/- abilities and an ultimate that attacks the game from an orthogonal angle? Ajani Vengeant / Mentor, Nahiri, Kiora, Nissa VF / SE and so forth... The fact that Samut’s Ult can find our combo pieces seems like a red herring to me.
In theory, Oracle is the better choice when you expect to be attacking, not blocking. That means control and combo decks, but unfortunately a 1/1 isn't a big factor in most games. At least it trades for Snapcaster Mage, can harass Planeswalkers, and occasionally gives you a free landdrop. The fact that it dies very easily in combat can actually be useful in combination with Renegade Rallier. Overall though, its powerlevel is rather low, and its demanding mana cost can be awkward in matchups where Blood Moon is a factor.
I'm not a fan of either card, and prefer to run neither. A different metagame could change my opinion (A Bloodbraid Elf unban might make Wall more attractive).
Strangleroot Geist is a solid option that I haven't tested yet, but I'm a little uneasy about making my deck weaker to cards like Rest in Peace and Grafdigger's Cage.
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As blasphemous as it sounds, yes, trimming the 4th Felidar for the 4th Evolution might be correct.
Felidar's ability to threaten the combo or generate blink-value makes it at least playable, but I have to agree with Jeff that Felidar is still a pretty mediocre card for its cost. I do wish we had a proper 2-drop looting engine to pitch extra Evos to, though (RIX please!).
I'm not totally sold on 4x Cobra + 4x Rallier.
While it technically improves the odds of a T2 combo the odds are still pretty low (looking into calculating the exact odds). Siefer, myself, and others have tried builds that go heavy on Cobras and Ralliers and found that while you do get some sweet explosive synergies there are also clunky hands and diminishing returns involving over-ramping with redundant Cobras and Ralliers stuck in hand without good GY targets or Revolt enablers. With that said the extra Cobras/Ralliers work together to make the 4th copy of Evolution better.
Having all that ramp and cutting down Felidars lets him run more good value creatures going all the way up the curve to 2x Titans. Without a way to tutor up your 2nd Saheeli and the difficulty of Evoing into Sun Titan I'm still hesitant to get too excited about the Saheeli-Titan combo, though, and we’ve already discussed how Sun Titan is a pretty sweet but polarizing card. With fewer Felidars he can also run more silverbullet toolbox targets in the main.
The Summoner's Pact as a 5th Cobra/Rallier for T2 nut draws was a clever idea but I suspect it's more cute than practical.
I'm uncertain about cutting all Paths from the main.
We don't miss Paths much against control and we can maybe get by with Reflector Mage + value + a combo finish against midrange. Against creature-swarm aggro (Affinity/Humans/Elves) and creature-dependent combo (Storm, Devoted Druid) we're much more dependent on both having the T3 combo and being on the play to win without a Path, and winning game 1 is important for these matchups.
Jeff's proposed SB revision is also pretty light on removal: one Path and one Staticaster.
There's enough artifact hate to possibly deal with Affinity but the deck doesn't seem to have any plan vs evasive Aggro lists beyond mulling into an early combo. He played against one Zoo/Whack list and (IMO) got very lucky being able to chain Ralliers to set up blocks and consistently drew into his singleton Thragtusk and Felidar. The omission of Gearhulk isn’t so surprising and I’ve felt that Gearhulk has a bit of tension being a 5 cmc card I bring in while I’m also trying to slim my curve against Aggro. I haven’t had any good Gearhulk plays recently so the slot is becoming gradually more flexible for me.
1x Meddling Mage in the main is a nice way to have at least some Evo-tutorable (if fragile) out to Grapeshot and other troublesome combo cards game 1. I'm not sure I would run her in the main myself but if you're running into enough Storm it makes sense. Outside those matchups she's still functional and generally helps to provide a critical mass of sac-able 2 CMC creatures. Just gotta be careful about what blocked card you unleash when you sac her...
Overall there are some interesting, pushed angles here and while I suspect that some of them might be the right direction it’s hard to say from one league given that Jeff is obviously a really good player with GW toolbox lists further aided by some fair matchups and pretty lucky draws / misplays from his opponents. Curious to see how the next league goes, but in the very least I wouldn't be surprised to see some new faces in here if his 5-0 gets spread around.
4 Windswept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
2 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Hanweir Battlements
2 Forest
2 Plains
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Renegade Rallier
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Sun Titan
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Hanweir Garrison
1 Regisaur Alpha
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Reflector Mage
1 Eternal Witness
4 Eldritch Evolution
4 Oath of Nissa
4 Saheeli Rai
1 Path to Exile
2 Stony Silence
1 Thragtusk
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Fiend Hunter
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Meddling Mage
2 Lightning Helix
1 Qasali Pridemage
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
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4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Lotus Cobra
1 Meddling Mage
1 Reflector Mage
4 Renegade Rallier
1 Eternal Witness
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Glorybringer
1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
1 Thragtusk
2 Sun Titan
4 Eldritch Evolution
4 Saheeli Rai
1 Domri Rade
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
3 Flooded Strand
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Acidic Slime
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Fiery Justice
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Spell Pierce
Beat Burn, Grishoalbrand, Blue Steel, Storm, and Sultai Shadow. Everything was 2-1, and nothing super crazy to report for notes. Lotus Cobra is absolutely insane and lets you lead to some super disgusting plays. I stole every game from Grishoalbrand by Cobra, evolution into Cat, blink a land for extra mana, Saheeli.
I cut Domri every game, but given almost everything was combo or aggro that makes sense. He was thrown in last second as I couldn't think of anything, but I'm not sure if he's even that necessary or desirable.
The highlight was a turn 3 win. Turn 2 Cobra, turn 3 Fetch to make 3 mana, tap another land, cast Cat. Blink a land for +2 mana, tap final land for Saheeli.
Against Shadow I only won because opponent got greedy game 3. I was at 13 and he was at 2, with me having a Saheeli and 2 Ralliers on board. Opponent swung at me, no blocks. He cracked a fetch, putting us both to 1. I untap and plus Saheeli. If he hadn't cracked the fetch, I would have been at 2 as well and in a much worse position given his fat Goyfs and Shadow.
Not sure which Sigarda, but I will say they were both alright. Newer one was useful against Storm as it turned off his Gifts which bought me a few turns in one game, along with beating face. Both were helpful against Blue Steel as they were larger than anything else they had barring a huge Master of Etherium in game 2. Their effects never really came into play, but being a big flyer did.
I did not miss Paths at all, but I wouldn't say they are unnecessary. Against Blue Steel I swarmed back and won with fatter creatures game 1, and game 3 was won off the back of Cataclysmic Gearhulk annihilating his entire board.
I did probably lose game 2 to Storm since I wasn't able to answer a Baral that he immediately combo'd off with, but Spell Pierce stopped the same thing in game 3.
I'm definitely not opposed to running Paths, but I haven't found it a must have either.
Also I just noticed my sideboard is slightly off. It was -2 Fiery Justice -1 Pridemage +1 Reclamation Sage +1 Obstinate Baloth +1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk.
One thing Jeff's list really did was fix a lot of issues with the manabase (all the fetches can get all the shocks except the sacred foundry, which is less critical). Plus lotus cobras themselves being a lot of fixing as sketchy as tha tis.
I would be inclined to shave the hallowed fountain entirely and subsist on stomping ground/sacred foundry/breeding pool as my splash lands, or adjust your fetch layout to a mix of misty rainforest/flooded strand/windswept heath to help balance better. And no one should be running RR creatures (glorybringer lookin' at you) ever.
It's really important to be very disciplined with mana and pip layout in decks like this that are fairly greedy color-wise by nature.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Fountain can be grabbed by 7/11 fetches, only the Wooded Foothills can not grab it. Misty is probably better than Foothills, but it currently is not fetchable by only 4 fetches.
The card is just a one of, and double red is not difficult to achieve thanks to Cobra + Bird + constant fetching thanks to Rallier. The card can also easily be Evolved into thanks to the high amount of 3 drops.
Even so, I think I would be inclined to try to tune it up a bit. Jeff's base with misties seems quite a bit smoother esp. if you're going to run meddling mage/reflector.
Any RR or UU card is a complete no in my opinion but hope it works for ya
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-wurg-44572#paper
4x heath 4x misty 3x strand = all can fetch fountain. Misty cannot fetch foundry, strand cannot get stomping ground, but that seems fine because both of those fetches can still find a red source and by the time you need red you are probably agnostic on whether its paired with green or white.
Is there a need for a more generically strong 4 drop in the deck? Or are we usually happy to evolve a cobra/voice into a rallier? When I look at the list I see felidar and avalanche riders as the fours and both seem highly situational. The stabilizers only hit at five (thragtusk, sigarda) and then your uber value at 6 with the sun titans.
I'm not sure what four would fit the bill here either - Obstinate Baloth? Huntmaster of the Fells? Wilt-Leaf Liege? Siege Rhino? Liege seems interesting because it is excellent with ralliers and voices/tokens and cloning a liege with saheeli is minimum 12 damage and another 6-7 for any other bodies you have on the table at the time. It may also be super cute but you could summoner's pact for a liege in response to a discard effect - you still end up paying the 4 mana, but it negates the discard and more or less gives your liege haste.
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
The 4 drop should depend on your meta. If you have lots of burn, go with Baloth, if you have lots of combo decks like Elves, go with Linvala, if you have Tron and stuff, another Avalanche Rider or Fulminator mage can be used. I also finally understand the non-Path to Exile include. You want to be able to grab whatever you can from Oath of Nissa, and you get to go wide and swarm.
I think having another Planeswalker that can buff all your creatures for an attack would work wonders here. Sarkhan Vol might come in handy as a 1 of.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
I've been testing Sublime Archangel recently, which has three relevant upsides compared to many other four-drops: Thanks to flying it attacks over many of the currently popular creatures and blocks small flying attackers, it hits very hard against combo decks, and it is relevant against Ensnaring Bridge. On the other hand, it dies to almost every removal spell in the format (the few exceptions are Collective Brutality, Abrupt Decay and Electrolyze) and is especially weak to instant speed removal.
Its synergy with Saheeli is neat however: Assume your board is a Birds and a Saheeli on 4 loyalty. Now if you cast Sublime Archangel and copy it with Saheeli, you can attack with the token for 10 in the air (3 creatures which all have exalted twice gives +6/+6 from exalted), then do the same thing on the next turn. That can actually be fast enough to win a race against a deck like Storm.
I haven't done enough testing with the Angel yet to decide if I want to keep running it, and as expected it has its weaknesses, but it has also impressed me a few times.
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron