This baby already has the creative juices flowing on modern reddit, so I was hoping there would be some fun discussion and evaluation of how this card could work as a build-around deck.
Keeping in mind you probably only need 4 activations of Petitioners (or their equivalent) to reach 48 mill (which given starting hand size and drawing should be lethal), I foresee a few possible ways to go:
1. Straight-up Advisor tribal. This would focus on jamming out as many advisors as quickly as possible and using other cards for big mill payoffs. This deck would race to 4 mill-12's probably around turn 5 I'm guessing? This might include:
Minister of Inquiries. A 1-drop advisor that already has mill utility. This would be a 4-of because you really only need one Petitioner on the battlefield.
Mothdust Changeling. Another 1-drop advisor, but with limited utility. Still, it would probably be a 4-of.
Mutavault. Helps race to that first activation. Turn 1, 1-drop, turn 2 Petitioner, Turn 3 1-drop and activate mutavault.
Dramatic Reversal. With 4 advisors on board (assuming 1 Petitioner), this card reads 1U: Mill 12. Outside of this scenario, few other applications.
Village Bell-Ringer. Splashing white now, but the same effect as reversal only with a big-butt creature attached which probably makes it better.
Eerie Interlude. Also the same effect, but with some interesting utility. Allows you to dodge board wipes, and allows you to block with your team. Not sure which would be better between this and Bell-Ringer.
2. Self-Mill into Rally the Ancestors. Rally on their end-step, get a relevant number of activations for lethal. This deck would probably let you play fewer creatures, and more utility spells, but would require more lands I'm guessing.
Self Mill cards. Not really sure which would be the best enablers. I like the idea of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy because you can cast rallies that were binned. Other options off the top of my head could be faithless looting, cathartic reunion, Search for Azcanta, Commune with the Gods, um...
Intruder Alarm. Having this out would guarantee a lethal kill with rally, as getting 4 petitioners = 4 untap triggers and thus 60 mill.
Village Bell-Ringer. This guy would require a rally for X=3, but would reduce the chances of non-lethal rallys.
3. Big Self-Mill into Unburial Rites and Angel of Glory's Rise. Mill yourself a lot, get to 4 mana with Unburial Rites and Angel in the yard to win instantly. The advantage here would be everything you need in your graveyard, the dis-advantage would be that the deck is way more graveyard dependent.
Which GY enablers are best for big mill? A few dredgers? Shriekhorn? Glimpse the Unthinkable on yourself? Not sure.
There may be other options to enable Petitioners, but I personally like option 1 at first glance. It's potentially slower than the graveyard decks, but probably more consistent and harder to disrupt. A real difficulty is determining the correct number of petitioners, but that's part of what makes this deck fun to discuss. A first shot at a deck could look like:
To Arms! untaps all creatures you control and cantrips.
If you only need one Petitioners, the right number is probably 7. 6 if you want to push your luck, 8 if you want to be safe. I'm basing this off the number of cost reducers that Storm has, and the number of cascade spells in Living End.
Really? 7-8 seems way low here. Those decks both play a bajillion cantrips to find those 8 enablers. And they both can "go off" once resolved, whereas you would want to resolve one early here, cause why not you have redundancy.
I feel like the easiest route would be to find and ramp into Thrumming Stone, then flip like twenty of them onto the battlefield in one shot. A green-blue shell with Ancient Stirrings, Serum Visions, and burst mana seems good. Pentad Prism and Lotus Bloom both enable turn four wins.
Yeah, that's another valid route to take. Would certainly be a faster combo kill, but a little more fragile, given the stone needs to survive a turn, and you could whiff on the ripple trigger. How many petitioners would you have to play for ripple, I wonder? And would ramp that puts lands into play, like search for tomorrow, be better as it helps thin your deck?
It would have a transformational sideboard with some form of mono-green stompy, as casting Carnage Tyrant is easy with all the mana generation, and you can only really take the the Thrumming Stones and 11 Persistent Petitioners out. It would be way too hard to protect the combo Game 2.
Archive Traps definitely help speed it up, and also means you only have to hit 12 Petitioners, but there is also enough redundancy to try again T4 for another big mill if you don't hit it the first time. The thing that is really left to figure out is whether 18 Petitioners is enough.
I really like the idea of the deck. I was wondering if there was any enchantment or something to self-mill (something like: mill until non-creature it's revealed) and then rally the ancestors to bring them back. But Thrumming Stone it's a really nice card to bring them to play faster.
Gonna follow the deck idea, it was something I was thinking of doing someday.
But every time I think of intruder alarm in this deck, I wonder if an untap effect like bell ringer isn't just practically better. Because you're racing to 4 activations, alarm will need to trigger on an opponent's creature plus your own to be worthwhile.
EDIT: With a thrumming stone build, intruder alarm will probably make a resolved stone lethal if it whiffs after a few ripples.
This baby already has the creative juices flowing on modern reddit, so I was hoping there would be some fun discussion and evaluation of how this card could work as a build-around deck.
Keeping in mind you probably only need 4 activations of Petitioners (or their equivalent) to reach 48 mill (which given starting hand size and drawing should be lethal), I foresee a few possible ways to go:
1. Straight-up Advisor tribal. This would focus on jamming out as many advisors as quickly as possible and using other cards for big mill payoffs. This deck would race to 4 mill-12's probably around turn 5 I'm guessing? This might include:
2. Self-Mill into Rally the Ancestors. Rally on their end-step, get a relevant number of activations for lethal. This deck would probably let you play fewer creatures, and more utility spells, but would require more lands I'm guessing.
3. Big Self-Mill into Unburial Rites and Angel of Glory's Rise. Mill yourself a lot, get to 4 mana with Unburial Rites and Angel in the yard to win instantly. The advantage here would be everything you need in your graveyard, the dis-advantage would be that the deck is way more graveyard dependent.
There may be other options to enable Petitioners, but I personally like option 1 at first glance. It's potentially slower than the graveyard decks, but probably more consistent and harder to disrupt. A real difficulty is determining the correct number of petitioners, but that's part of what makes this deck fun to discuss. A first shot at a deck could look like:
4 Mothdust Changeling
15 Persistent Petitioners
4 Village Bell-Ringer
3 Aether Vial
1 Eerie Interlude
4 Archive Trap
4 Mutavault
4 Aether Hub
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Field of Ruin
4 Island
1 Plains
2 Flooded Strand
If you only need one Petitioners, the right number is probably 7. 6 if you want to push your luck, 8 if you want to be safe. I'm basing this off the number of cost reducers that Storm has, and the number of cascade spells in Living End.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Good find on To Arms.
3 Arbor Elf
4 Incubation Druid
18 Persistent Petitioners
Instant (9)
3 Archive Trap
4 Burst of Strength
2 Stony Strength
4 Utopia Sprawl
Artifact (4)
4 Thrumming Stone
Land (18)
4 Breeding Pool
4 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Windswept Heath
It would have a transformational sideboard with some form of mono-green stompy, as casting Carnage Tyrant is easy with all the mana generation, and you can only really take the the Thrumming Stones and 11 Persistent Petitioners out. It would be way too hard to protect the combo Game 2.
T1: Forest, cast Utopia Sprawl
T2: Land,cast Arbor Elf, cast Incubation Druid
T3: Land, tap Utopia Sprawl'd Forest (2 mana floating),Arbor Elf targetting same Forest, tap it again (4 mana floating), tap Incubation Druid (5 mana floating), cast Burst of Strength targetting Incubation Druid (4 mana floating), tap Incubation Druid for 3 (7 mana floating), cast Thrumming Stone (2 mana floating), cast Persistent Petitioners, ripple and hopefully hit 16 total Petitioners. (2 lands still untapped, maybe for a counterspell(s)?)
Archive Traps definitely help speed it up, and also means you only have to hit 12 Petitioners, but there is also enough redundancy to try again T4 for another big mill if you don't hit it the first time. The thing that is really left to figure out is whether 18 Petitioners is enough.
Let me know what you think!
Edit: I just realized with 2x Dramatic Reversals you could hardcast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, or for 9 you entwine Tooth and Nail, and search for Xenagos, God of Revels and Emrakul. That would be fun sideboard tech.
Gonna follow the deck idea, it was something I was thinking of doing someday.
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EDIT: With a thrumming stone build, intruder alarm will probably make a resolved stone lethal if it whiffs after a few ripples.