His 4 MD Witness + 4 SB Path to Exile are tempting me to return to this version of Druid Combo. My primary reticence comes from trying to support 4x Eternal Witness + MD targets costing approximately 2 to 5, with 21 lands and 7 mana dorks. That's a little too slim of a mana package to slam Witness into CoCo early enough to stay ahead of some decks, in my opinion.
I don't consider Druid to be a reliable mana source. Between the fact that it always gets killed/discarded ASAP and the fact that turn 1 mana dorks are significantly more valuable in midrange matchups (where mana advantage for use with Eternal Witness is very relevant, as described in my recent post), Druid is the last method of mana production that we can rely on.
Alright, so I'm back on this deck and my list is pretty close to that of SaintDoom.
The primary discussion topic these days is improving the Phoenix matchup. Post-board, we're probably fine due to 4-6 removal (with 2-4 Eternal Witness in the maindeck), 1-2 Eidolon of Rhetoric, a 2nd Scavenging Ooze, and other spice as desired. But things are still rocky game 1, despite the new tech Mirror Entity which does WORK against Thing in the Ice. Anyone have any thoughts on improving our game 1 against Phoenix?
How's the deck's matchups these days? I own most of the pieces for this and Knightfall, looking for something to thrash the Amulet, Tron, and other big mana players at my LGS. Also a BGx and some Burn and Phoenix players.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
You probably want a more combo focused version to beat Big Mana.
Druid Evolution crushes those decks
That version also has a much harder time vs BGx and Burn than this deck does.
Everything seems to struggle vs Phoenix, but Kitchen Finks certainly helps. Chumps TitI well.
Damn, guess the hunt continues. I seem to be seeing a lot of Company and Knightfall lists being one and the same lately, is that normal?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
I'm just getting back into magic after a year and half of very busy. This was one of my decks, and BW Tokens didnt do so hot my first Tuesday modern last week. 1-3. Mind you, I had Amulet Titan and Eggs first two matches. Also have a UR Control Deck (can go Jeskai, Blue Moon etc with it), GDS, and Burn. I imagine the latter 2 are the safer to play this meta, but I'd like to work the other decks as metas always change. Decklists are welcome.
What I like is the postmortem lunge as 1 of. I'd really like to know how good was Liliana: I like her but my previous test of her reveals that getting 2 black mana was hard, and there were not enough sacrifice opportunities. What I don't like is the manabase, I dislike singletons tectonic edge / ghost quarter without knight of the reliquary.
The guy who built and played that list was on the Discord last night. He acknowledged that it was sub-par in multiple ways, including those you just mentioned.
Postmortem Lunge is good. I'm using that slot for my 22nd land to improve my grind, as my meta is disproportionately fair and very likely to kill my mana dorks.
Links? Definitely sounds spicy. I'd be down to try it.
Also, I had been considering Rhythm of the Wild to give Devoted Druid haste. And I finally realized that it also works nicely with Persist! I'll probably be trying Rhythm first. If that doesn't work out, Vial would be next.
Damn, guess the hunt continues. I seem to be seeing a lot of Company and Knightfall lists being one and the same lately, is that normal?
Sorry I missed this earlier. Knight of the Reliquary + Devoted Druid is very popular these days. I ran it for a while but did not do well enough in the matchups that should be strong. After that I tried the all-in combo version and now I'm back on the Kitchen Finks version.
I notice several of the recent mtggoldfish Coco decks that have wins have 4 Aether Vial in them. Thoughts?
I'd like a link also, can't find them
I've played many games with vial (no eldritch evolution) and keep switching between that build and the "classical" one.
The differences are more or less like this :
+4 vial -1 land -3 birds
- shalai - lunge - 1 finks + 3 voice of resurgence (to have enough 2-drops)
+ 3 fields of ruins - 3 other lands
Pros: pseudo haste for devoted druid, more consistent against removal decks, fantastic early drop, great against the current most played deck (flash a blocker against thing in the ice is great), nice iteraction with recruiter and field of ruin (as mana sink, while vial for creatures), great with eternal witness
Cons: less creatures for collected company and for chord of calling, bad late game top deck, makes the deck slower (if you play vial T1 you will try to vial-out a druid at end of turn when there are 2 counters, which means combo earliest on T4)
Alright, so I'm back on this deck and my list is pretty close to that of SaintDoom.
The primary discussion topic these days is improving the Phoenix matchup. Post-board, we're probably fine due to 4-6 removal (with 2-4 Eternal Witness in the maindeck), 1-2 Eidolon of Rhetoric, a 2nd Scavenging Ooze, and other spice as desired. But things are still rocky game 1, despite the new tech Mirror Entity which does WORK against Thing in the Ice. Anyone have any thoughts on improving our game 1 against Phoenix?
Things to note about my list and how it differs from SaintDoom or other stock lists:
22 lands: I live in a land of fair decks where removal is rampant. My early mana dorks don't live long. The second land drop on turn 2 is CRITICAL and 3 lands by turn 4 needs to be reliable. Neither of which happens at 21 land.
3 Horizon Canopy: 22 lands lends itself to flooding sometimes. This is how I hope to mitigate that. However, 3x Canopy is pretty painful and I hope I won't regret it.
No Shalai: I love Shalai but I hate whiffing on Collected Company more.
No SB Abrupt Decay: Abrupt Decay is better than other removal only against Spirits. I find that to be too narrow of a use for a sideboard card.
SB Qasali Pridemage: I know Knight of Autumn is almost strictly better than Pridemage. However, this deck is SUPER weak to Grafdigger's Cage. You can beat Cage by, with Cage on the stack, casting Coco or Chord into Pridemage. Cannot make that line with Knight.
SB Eidolon of Rhetoric: It was great in the time of Storm and KCI. It's great again vs Phoenix. Just make sure you apply enough pressure that they can't find an answer by cantripping once on their turn and once on your turn, every turn cycle.
SB Eldritch Evolution: Sometimes, you just need to be faster. Whether its racing Tron or getting hate vs Phoenix or all sorts of similar situations, sometimes you just need all the speed you can get. That's where Eldritch Evolution comes in.
SB flex slot: A 3rd Sin Collector would be nice to help crush control and should be worthwhile against Phoenix. I'd like an Anafenza, the Foremost somewhere in my 75 but that might just replace the SB Scavenging Ooze. Plaguecrafter is rated highly on Discord. Maybe Shalai? Or a 2nd Mirror Entity?
Went with Plaguecrafter in the flex slot for a 6 round event on Sunday.
Beat Valakut (inexperienced pilot), Humans (he kept a bad hand), then Jund (excellent pilot, but I super-mised to steal game 1).
Then lost to Burn by the skin of my teeth. I drew a lot of dead cards game 3. If he had 1 more dead draw or I had one more turn I would have had the comeback.
Then lost to Izzet Phoenix. He wins the die roll. He plays a Turn 2 Titi. I play a turn 2 Druid, with T3 win in hand. He flips Titi on his turn 3 and stands up 2 Phoenix. Ugh. Game 2 I hit a Path to slow him down and a Eidolon of Rhetoric to prevent him from getting up to new shenanigans and eventually get there. Game 3 I misplay multiple times and lose narrowly; I definitely should have won game 3.
R6 I beat Whir Prison easily. He took game 2 because I was exhausted and not playing well.
Going into round 6, there were 4x 13 pointers so they drew in to T8 lock. There were 6x 12 pointers. The top 2 of those drew. If they had played it out, I would have made top 8.
Props: the whole deck
Slops: me
Final notes: Plaguecrafter is great and it is definitely staying in my SB. Still unsure if that 3rd Horizon Canopy causes too much pain and should be a Razorverge Thicket. I'm pretty sure 2x Eldritch Evolution is correct, but switching one for a Sin Collector, an Anafenza, the Foremost, or a Knight of Autumn is probably very good depending on your meta.
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
SaintDoom is still doing great with this deck :https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/avlpey/top_8_at_iq_with_abzan_company/
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
The primary discussion topic these days is improving the Phoenix matchup. Post-board, we're probably fine due to 4-6 removal (with 2-4 Eternal Witness in the maindeck), 1-2 Eidolon of Rhetoric, a 2nd Scavenging Ooze, and other spice as desired. But things are still rocky game 1, despite the new tech Mirror Entity which does WORK against Thing in the Ice. Anyone have any thoughts on improving our game 1 against Phoenix?
EDIT:
I just came across this. It's hilarious but undeniably effective against Phoenix!
http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=29967&iddeck=252709
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Druid Evolution crushes those decks
That version also has a much harder time vs BGx and Burn than this deck does.
Everything seems to struggle vs Phoenix, but Kitchen Finks certainly helps. Chumps TitI well.
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Modern
URB Grixis Delver
GWB Abzan Company
RWB Mardu Burn
WB Martyr Proc
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=21382&d=343060&f=MO
What I like is the postmortem lunge as 1 of. I'd really like to know how good was Liliana: I like her but my previous test of her reveals that getting 2 black mana was hard, and there were not enough sacrifice opportunities. What I don't like is the manabase, I dislike singletons tectonic edge / ghost quarter without knight of the reliquary.
Postmortem Lunge is good. I'm using that slot for my 22nd land to improve my grind, as my meta is disproportionately fair and very likely to kill my mana dorks.
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
Modern
URB Grixis Delver
GWB Abzan Company
RWB Mardu Burn
WB Martyr Proc
Also, I had been considering Rhythm of the Wild to give Devoted Druid haste. And I finally realized that it also works nicely with Persist! I'll probably be trying Rhythm first. If that doesn't work out, Vial would be next.
Sorry I missed this earlier. Knight of the Reliquary + Devoted Druid is very popular these days. I ran it for a while but did not do well enough in the matchups that should be strong. After that I tried the all-in combo version and now I'm back on the Kitchen Finks version.
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
I'd like a link also, can't find them
I've played many games with vial (no eldritch evolution) and keep switching between that build and the "classical" one.
The differences are more or less like this :
+4 vial -1 land -3 birds
- shalai - lunge - 1 finks + 3 voice of resurgence (to have enough 2-drops)
+ 3 fields of ruins - 3 other lands
Pros: pseudo haste for devoted druid, more consistent against removal decks, fantastic early drop, great against the current most played deck (flash a blocker against thing in the ice is great), nice iteraction with recruiter and field of ruin (as mana sink, while vial for creatures), great with eternal witness
Cons: less creatures for collected company and for chord of calling, bad late game top deck, makes the deck slower (if you play vial T1 you will try to vial-out a druid at end of turn when there are 2 counters, which means combo earliest on T4)
This version is really great imo, I had good results with it. New tech with Mirror entity is super sexy.
The Chalice/Thalia shell is great? Because I watched a stream of it and it fell flat really hard. It mulligans terribly.
However, Mirror Entity is indeed amazing.
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Viscera Seer
4 Devoted Druid
4 Vizier of Remedies
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Eternal Witness
1 Mirror Entity
1 Walking Ballista
4 Collected Company
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Gavony Township
3 Horizon Canopy
4 Path to Exile
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Eldritch Evolution
2 Sin Collector
1 flex slot
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival
Beat Valakut (inexperienced pilot), Humans (he kept a bad hand), then Jund (excellent pilot, but I super-mised to steal game 1).
Then lost to Burn by the skin of my teeth. I drew a lot of dead cards game 3. If he had 1 more dead draw or I had one more turn I would have had the comeback.
Then lost to Izzet Phoenix. He wins the die roll. He plays a Turn 2 Titi. I play a turn 2 Druid, with T3 win in hand. He flips Titi on his turn 3 and stands up 2 Phoenix. Ugh. Game 2 I hit a Path to slow him down and a Eidolon of Rhetoric to prevent him from getting up to new shenanigans and eventually get there. Game 3 I misplay multiple times and lose narrowly; I definitely should have won game 3.
R6 I beat Whir Prison easily. He took game 2 because I was exhausted and not playing well.
Going into round 6, there were 4x 13 pointers so they drew in to T8 lock. There were 6x 12 pointers. The top 2 of those drew. If they had played it out, I would have made top 8.
Props: the whole deck
Slops: me
Final notes: Plaguecrafter is great and it is definitely staying in my SB. Still unsure if that 3rd Horizon Canopy causes too much pain and should be a Razorverge Thicket. I'm pretty sure 2x Eldritch Evolution is correct, but switching one for a Sin Collector, an Anafenza, the Foremost, or a Knight of Autumn is probably very good depending on your meta.
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival