I was wondering if humans could be made into a workable hyper-aggression deck, similar to zoo. Unfortunately, i'm not too familiar with every human ever printed, and need input on potential strategy/ card choice
of course, i'd be quite weak to removal
main core i'm thinking about: Lightning Mauler- essentially gives all your creatures haste, potentially speeding up your clock by an entire turn Champion of the Parish and Boros Elite are extremely damage efficient for 1 drops. Frontline medic allows you to swing with relative impunity, giving later staying power this deck has no right to have.
Based on these cards, i'm imagining a sort of extremely low curve, almost all-creature deck (perhaps 6 slots for lightning bolt+ 2 helix or something)
additional cards in boros colors: thalia, guardian of thraben throws a wrench in many non-creature plans, though isn't as relevant now that eggs and storm are gone. First strike is always nice too. accorder paladin is extremely damage efficient, especially when combined with frontline medic and lightning mauler fiend hunter aggression and removal packed into one seems nice mother of runes has some potential
additional cards outside boros colors: geist of st. traft can't forget to mention this guy, though he'd force a blue splash mayor of avarbruck is the cheapest lord outside of merfolk, seems like he'd kinda fit burning-tree emissary can make this deck even more exposive, and allow battalion triggers to occur sooner experiment one- not quite as good as champion of the parish, but if we play things like accorder paladin and fiend hunter, we can count on him getting to 3/3?? unsure
as a goldfish, it finishes extremely consistently on turn 4, usually doing more than 10 damage by turn 3
will need to test it against decks though, as i sense itll be very weak to removal
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I was wondering if humans could be made into a workable hyper-aggression deck, similar to zoo. Unfortunately, i'm not too familiar with every human ever printed, and need input on potential strategy/ card choice
of course, i'd be quite weak to removal
main core i'm thinking about: Lightning Mauler- essentially gives all your creatures haste, potentially speeding up your clock by an entire turn Champion of the Parish and Boros Elite are extremely damage efficient for 1 drops. Frontline medic allows you to swing with relative impunity, giving later staying power this deck has no right to have.
Based on these cards, i'm imagining a sort of extremely low curve, almost all-creature deck (perhaps 6 slots for lightning bolt+ 2 helix or something)
additional cards in boros colors: thalia, guardian of thraben throws a wrench in many non-creature plans, though isn't as relevant now that eggs and storm are gone. First strike is always nice too. accorder paladin is extremely damage efficient, especially when combined with frontline medic and lightning mauler fiend hunter aggression and removal packed into one seems nice mother of runes has some potential
additional cards outside boros colors: geist of st. traft can't forget to mention this guy, though he'd force a blue splash mayor of avarbruck is the cheapest lord outside of merfolk, seems like he'd kinda fit burning-tree emissary can make this deck even more exposive, and allow battalion triggers to occur sooner experiment one- not quite as good as champion of the parish, but if we play things like accorder paladin and fiend hunter, we can count on him getting to 3/3?? unsure
as a goldfish, it finishes extremely consistently on turn 4, usually doing more than 10 damage by turn 3
will need to test it against decks though, as i sense itll be very weak to removal
I posted a boros humans list in the boros thread a while back. It used champion, thalia, mirrans, marauders, lavamancers, silverblades, beserkers etc. Just 4 bolt and now 2 boros charm. Had good results locally with it, beating some tier 1 decks. Slayers' stronghold was superb in the deck. Mauler I tried but it was awful. Never tried it as naya.
Personally, I think the strength of human tribal is its aggression, and tbh, there are way more aggressive decks in modern.
Champion of the Parish is the only card that has any sort of merit, as it is really aggressive and only works with humans.
The question always tell to deck brewers is this:
In what ways is this deck better than [insert similar deck]?
For this deck I'd go with Naya Zoo. What makes your strictly humans deck better than a deck involving cards that simply reward hyper aggression and value
Edit: actually, soul sisters is a good comparison, too, as its a deck that makes big, fast, cheap beaters (like your champion) in the form of Pridemate and Ascendant. Does your deck kill faster? If so, is it worth the trade off of massive amounts of life?
Granted, a large chunk of those decks are, in fact, human. It's still something to think about.
The strong points to the deck, specifically, are probably Champion of the Parish and Hero of Bladehold. Boros Elite is pretty good, too, but that could be used in just about any hyper aggro deck.
Personally, I think the strength of human tribal is its aggression, and tbh, there are way more aggressive decks in modern.
Champion of the Parish is the only card that has any sort of merit, as it is really aggressive and only works with humans.
The question always tell to deck brewers is this:
In what ways is this deck better than [insert similar deck]?
For this deck I'd go with Naya Zoo. What makes your strictly humans deck better than a deck involving cards that simply reward hyper aggression and value
Edit: actually, soul sisters is a good comparison, too, as its a deck that makes big, fast, cheap beaters (like your champion) in the form of Pridemate and Ascendant. Does your deck kill faster? If so, is it worth the trade off of massive amounts of life?
Granted, a large chunk of those decks are, in fact, human. It's still something to think about.
The strong points to the deck, specifically, are probably Champion of the Parish and Hero of Bladehold. Boros Elite is pretty good, too, but that could be used in just about any hyper aggro deck.
cavern of souls gives an obvious advantage to tribal too- possibly one of the best reasons to be tribal. I agree with your point re zoo comparisons 100 pcent, which is why my take on the deck was in boros, more aggro control than flat aggro. Ranger of eos is another 4 drop of note for aggro control- hero can be flat or great depending on what the deck is trying to do.
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While I do appreciate this deck's idea, and I think it could be viable, there are many decks that are similar to this but should perform better.
Anyway, the only other human lords are Hamlet Captain (which I like better than Accorder Paladin) and somehow Adaptive Automaton
3 mana lords are unplayable outside of goblin chieftan in goblins.
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So I don't know how old most of you are but when I first started playing magic my favorite deck was sleigh, which was an efficient red deck with burn and land destruction. The next development of this deck was copying a black aggro theme of suicide called red guy dead, In RGD the aggro play used there life total as a way to turbo your game. So in that vein along with the naya blitz making waves in standard, My list for NayaHumans
As you can see I end the game at about 6 life, Yes you fetch for a duel untapped for three life, but your a super tempo deck 3 life for at least 3 extra dmg/or 5 power on board is well worth it. Theres no trick lands theres no basics, yes path exiles your guy and you dont get a land but that card automatically puts you behind to begin with as you need 4 lands the whole game to play this deck.
Card choices.
// Creatures (33) [1CC] Champion of the Parish - Highest turn 2 dmg Experiment One - Second Highest turn 2 dmg Elite Vanguard - Over boros elite because doing 1 less damage more often, is better for your damage curve, than having the remote chance that your boros elite stays a 1/1 [2CC] Burning-Tree Emissary - Free bear that triggers CoP/X1 Keldon Marauders - 3/3 with double burn that triggers 1drops Lightning Mauler - Haste all the things Mayor of Avabruck - Anthem with legs/Wincon if they dont spell Howlpack Alpha [3CC] Silverblade Paladin - In standard this slot is Frontline Medic, while frontline is by no means a bad card the creatures in modern are not currently swarm decks as this one and the new gruul deck are the most aggro, so even just SBing with mauler gives both doublestrike and haste and leaving the champion to be swinging for 7ish without doublestike actually increases your damage output. Also SBing with marauders is a beast of a swing and lets you SB next turn. If gruul deck sees more play frontline may come back but most other decks wont block with any utility creatures, and your sideboard has answers to goyf. This shouldn't be to hard to cast except off BTE. If they make a decent R/G human 3 drop it probably will take this spot. Burning-Tree Shaman may be an option here.
// Spells (9) [0CC] Mutagenic Growth - I realize we arn't playing infect however, we are playing suicide so a 1 for 1 trade on life totals are acceptable, or casting it with another 1 drop or bolt off BTE. [1CC] Lightning Bolt - Modern Staple Removal Or Domecap [2CC] Ghor-Clan Rampager - THIS CARD IS A UNCOUNTERABLE PUMPSPELL. 2 mana for 4 damage or creature retention.
// Sideboard Boros Charm - How is this not the best aggro card they've made in a while, creature retention, doublestrike, or face burn for 2? its a terrible card. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Good for storm, U/W/x, and it's an all star against tron. While the last part of that seems counter intuitive tron starts the game first 4 turns or such playing Eggs/Explore/Map, Thalia generally puts them two turns behind which Should be enough time to kill him. You can beat a Karn, You can beat Wyrmcoil, You can't beat sundering titan. Mirran Crusader - Anti-Half the meta card with doublestrike that's also a human? Almost good enough to mainboard. Dismember - Suicide Removal for big lifelinking angel flyers and whatnots. Celestial Purge - Liliana destroys all of our plans.
Perhaps this can give you some ideas. The baneslayers are off-theme, but they do work in here. This is a more of a hybrid-control kind of deck, so you can push towards either more aggro or more control. (Typically the former)
For an aggro deck to work in Modern, it needs to be super fast. If you can't goldfish to deal 20 damages in 3-4 turns, then Splinter Twins and Scapeshift will win, or control decks are going to wrath, stablize and sphinx's revelation for the win.
So, anything with 4+ mana like hero of bladehold and slow cards like Mikeus is probably unplayable in Humans aggro.
On the other hand, anything that speed up your plan is highly valued. Burning-tree Emissary is a must, as it is a free creature.
Mayor of Avabruck is a must too, as it is an anthem on a stick. In case you got wrathed against control deck, Mayor can also flip and produce an army for you.
Path to Exile deal with blockers that you can't burn out.
Domri Rade helps to win the aggro mirror and give you more gas against control.
Grim Lavamancer is also a source of CA, let you reuse your dead creatures.
Sideboard choice:
*Wear/Tear - for SplinterTwins, Ensnaring Bridge, Assault-Loam, Affinity, any decks with troublesome enchantment/artifacts that preventing you to race to win
*Skullcrack - for sphinx's revelation deck, or decks rely heavily on a few lifegain cards to stablize
*Lead the stampede - an efficient draw spell for longer game
*Blind Obedience - for Kiki-jiki or Twins combo decks, or eggs
*Shatterstorm or Ancient Grudge - for Affinity
*Melira, Sylvok Outcast - for Infect
*Ratchet Bomb - for token decks
How about Keldon Marauders? It has a good sized body that doesn't die to pyroclasm.
Keldon Marauders is actually amazing in Red vs. GoST.
You plop it down. 1 Damage.
It can block Geist (which just means they don't attack). That's 1 damage dealt, 6 damage saved.
Next turn it swings for 3. That's 4 damage dealt, 6 damage saved.
Then it vanishes and hits for 1. 5 damage dealt, 6 damage saved. That's a virtual 11 point life swing vs. UWR Tempo for 2 mana.
Now, the reason why it's so good in RDW, is that it does other stuff against other decks. It's a slow, clunky, burn spell for 5dmg/2mana. It looks like a creature, it's not. It's a waste of a slot in most matchups with a humans deck.
TL;DR The only place marauders has in this deck is as a buffer against Geist decks. Not even worth a sideboard slot if you ask me.
Keldon Marauders is actually amazing in Red vs. GoST.
You plop it down. 1 Damage.
It can block Geist (which just means they don't attack). That's 1 damage dealt, 6 damage saved.
Next turn it swings for 3. That's 4 damage dealt, 6 damage saved.
Then it vanishes and hits for 1. 5 damage dealt, 6 damage saved. That's a virtual 11 point life swing vs. UWR Tempo for 2 mana.
Now, the reason why it's so good in RDW, is that it does other stuff against other decks. It's a slow, clunky, burn spell for 5dmg/2mana. It looks like a creature, it's not. It's a waste of a slot in most matchups with a humans deck.
TL;DR The only place marauders has in this deck is as a buffer against Geist decks. Not even worth a sideboard slot if you ask me.
Marauders were close to my MVP with boros humans. Played in two 16-20 player tournaments with them in my list- playing against mostly top tier decks with the odd home brew.
They worked surprisingly well - the point damge on leaving to consistently make bloodthirsty 3/3 beserkers (or to drop a marauder and a beserker t4) that themselves presented a good 2 mana threat. They are a good deal with slayers' stronghold or silverblade paladins vs UW and URW tempo control type decks in the mid game, and are fast enough to put a good clock on. The ability to drop a t3 paladin and connect with the marauder for 6 on that turn is very powerful.
They clearly are a creature from the POV of champion of the parish trigger and interaction with cavern of souls to make them uncounterable, and they enable manipulation of soulbond rather well too by virtue of their emphemeral nature.
Incidentally I actually used an aggressive list with couple of potential control elements (other than 4x bolt:D)- 4 thalia, 2 lavamancer and a couple of of fiend hunters, the latter of which a couple of times allowed me to hit my own tapped marauder for a leaving damage, and threaten to bring it back for the last two point(s) of damage vs mid speed good stuff decks- held of the odd goyf like that. It came up a few times in testing, once in a tournament. The lavamancers appreciated stuff to munch too other than sac lands.
If the deck is fast enough it is worth including, although most people's reaction to it when inspecting lists/discussing is to suggest swapping it as in its own right its simply not that good. Generally my opponents had more respect for it when it was inn a deck that was winning matches, which as much as anything was to do with the little synergies with other cards in the deck.
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of course, i'd be quite weak to removal
main core i'm thinking about:
Lightning Mauler- essentially gives all your creatures haste, potentially speeding up your clock by an entire turn
Champion of the Parish and Boros Elite are extremely damage efficient for 1 drops.
Frontline medic allows you to swing with relative impunity, giving later staying power this deck has no right to have.
Based on these cards, i'm imagining a sort of extremely low curve, almost all-creature deck (perhaps 6 slots for lightning bolt+ 2 helix or something)
additional cards in boros colors:
thalia, guardian of thraben throws a wrench in many non-creature plans, though isn't as relevant now that eggs and storm are gone. First strike is always nice too.
accorder paladin is extremely damage efficient, especially when combined with frontline medic and lightning mauler
fiend hunter aggression and removal packed into one seems nice
mother of runes has some potential
additional cards outside boros colors:
geist of st. traft can't forget to mention this guy, though he'd force a blue splash
mayor of avarbruck is the cheapest lord outside of merfolk, seems like he'd kinda fit
burning-tree emissary can make this deck even more exposive, and allow battalion triggers to occur sooner
experiment one- not quite as good as champion of the parish, but if we play things like accorder paladin and fiend hunter, we can count on him getting to 3/3?? unsure
experimental decklist:
4 Boros Elite
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Experiment One
4 Accorder Paladin
4 Mayor of Avabruk
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Lightning Mauler
3 Thalia, Guardian of thraben
4 Frontline Medic
4 Lightning Bolt
Land: 21
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
4 Arid Mesa
2 Rugged Prairie
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Plains
as a goldfish, it finishes extremely consistently on turn 4, usually doing more than 10 damage by turn 3
will need to test it against decks though, as i sense itll be very weak to removal
UWUW ControlUW
UGWSpiritsUGW
GHardened ScalesG
WGRUKiki PodWGRU [RIP]
It seems to be a place to start at. I think it's possible to have a Humans deck in Modern, but I'm not an expert.
I posted a boros humans list in the boros thread a while back. It used champion, thalia, mirrans, marauders, lavamancers, silverblades, beserkers etc. Just 4 bolt and now 2 boros charm. Had good results locally with it, beating some tier 1 decks. Slayers' stronghold was superb in the deck. Mauler I tried but it was awful. Never tried it as naya.
Champion of the Parish is the only card that has any sort of merit, as it is really aggressive and only works with humans.
The question always tell to deck brewers is this:
In what ways is this deck better than [insert similar deck]?
For this deck I'd go with Naya Zoo. What makes your strictly humans deck better than a deck involving cards that simply reward hyper aggression and value
Edit: actually, soul sisters is a good comparison, too, as its a deck that makes big, fast, cheap beaters (like your champion) in the form of Pridemate and Ascendant. Does your deck kill faster? If so, is it worth the trade off of massive amounts of life?
Granted, a large chunk of those decks are, in fact, human. It's still something to think about.
The strong points to the deck, specifically, are probably Champion of the Parish and Hero of Bladehold. Boros Elite is pretty good, too, but that could be used in just about any hyper aggro deck.
cavern of souls gives an obvious advantage to tribal too- possibly one of the best reasons to be tribal. I agree with your point re zoo comparisons 100 pcent, which is why my take on the deck was in boros, more aggro control than flat aggro. Ranger of eos is another 4 drop of note for aggro control- hero can be flat or great depending on what the deck is trying to do.
3 mana lords are unplayable outside of goblin chieftan in goblins.
4 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Arid Mesa
// Creatures (33)
[1CC]
4 Elite Vanguard
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Experiment One
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Mayor of Avabruck
0 Howlpack Alpha
3 Silverblade Paladin
// Spells (9)
[0CC]
3 Mutagenic Growth
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Boros Charm
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Mirran Crusader
3 Dismember
3 Celestial Purge
As you can see I end the game at about 6 life, Yes you fetch for a duel untapped for three life, but your a super tempo deck 3 life for at least 3 extra dmg/or 5 power on board is well worth it. Theres no trick lands theres no basics, yes path exiles your guy and you dont get a land but that card automatically puts you behind to begin with as you need 4 lands the whole game to play this deck.
Card choices.
// Creatures (33)
[1CC]
Champion of the Parish - Highest turn 2 dmg
Experiment One - Second Highest turn 2 dmg
Elite Vanguard - Over boros elite because doing 1 less damage more often, is better for your damage curve, than having the remote chance that your boros elite stays a 1/1
[2CC]
Burning-Tree Emissary - Free bear that triggers CoP/X1
Keldon Marauders - 3/3 with double burn that triggers 1drops
Lightning Mauler - Haste all the things
Mayor of Avabruck - Anthem with legs/Wincon if they dont spell
Howlpack Alpha
[3CC]
Silverblade Paladin - In standard this slot is Frontline Medic, while frontline is by no means a bad card the creatures in modern are not currently swarm decks as this one and the new gruul deck are the most aggro, so even just SBing with mauler gives both doublestrike and haste and leaving the champion to be swinging for 7ish without doublestike actually increases your damage output. Also SBing with marauders is a beast of a swing and lets you SB next turn. If gruul deck sees more play frontline may come back but most other decks wont block with any utility creatures, and your sideboard has answers to goyf. This shouldn't be to hard to cast except off BTE. If they make a decent R/G human 3 drop it probably will take this spot. Burning-Tree Shaman may be an option here.
// Spells (9)
[0CC]
Mutagenic Growth - I realize we arn't playing infect however, we are playing suicide so a 1 for 1 trade on life totals are acceptable, or casting it with another 1 drop or bolt off BTE.
[1CC]
Lightning Bolt - Modern Staple Removal Or Domecap
[2CC]
Ghor-Clan Rampager - THIS CARD IS A UNCOUNTERABLE PUMPSPELL. 2 mana for 4 damage or creature retention.
// Sideboard
Boros Charm - How is this not the best aggro card they've made in a while, creature retention, doublestrike, or face burn for 2? its a terrible card.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Good for storm, U/W/x, and it's an all star against tron. While the last part of that seems counter intuitive tron starts the game first 4 turns or such playing Eggs/Explore/Map, Thalia generally puts them two turns behind which Should be enough time to kill him. You can beat a Karn, You can beat Wyrmcoil, You can't beat sundering titan.
Mirran Crusader - Anti-Half the meta card with doublestrike that's also a human? Almost good enough to mainboard.
Dismember - Suicide Removal for big lifelinking angel flyers and whatnots.
Celestial Purge - Liliana destroys all of our plans.
Other Options.
Manic Vandal - Heavy pod/affinity metas
Nevermore - Catchall
Fiend Hunter - Journey on legs?
Path to Exile - Heavy creature meta
Combust - G/U meta
Naturalize - Card is never bad, over Disenchant because you can cast it off BTE
Ancient Grudge - Heavy artifact metas
Melira, Sylvok Outcast - Infect a problem? Want an bear that triggers one drops?
"The root of all greevils" -Root Greevil
EDH
Kaalia of the Vast - BigGuys
Jhoira of the Ghitu - ChaosEnchants
Lavinia of the Tenth - Blink Value Control
Shaman tribal is unplayable with the banning of BBE, keep up on the ban list much?
"The root of all greevils" -Root Greevil
EDH
Kaalia of the Vast - BigGuys
Jhoira of the Ghitu - ChaosEnchants
Lavinia of the Tenth - Blink Value Control
4 Champion of the Parish
3 Doomed Traveler
4 Precinct Captain
1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
3 Kazandu Blademaster
2 Mirran Crusader
4 Fiend Hunter
3 Hero of Bladehold
2 Baneslayer Angel
4 Path to Exile
Enchantments - 8
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Oblivion Ring
Land - 22
20 Plains
2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Perhaps this can give you some ideas. The baneslayers are off-theme, but they do work in here. This is a more of a hybrid-control kind of deck, so you can push towards either more aggro or more control. (Typically the former)
So, anything with 4+ mana like hero of bladehold and slow cards like Mikeus is probably unplayable in Humans aggro.
On the other hand, anything that speed up your plan is highly valued. Burning-tree Emissary is a must, as it is a free creature.
Mayor of Avabruck is a must too, as it is an anthem on a stick. In case you got wrathed against control deck, Mayor can also flip and produce an army for you.
My try, based on the PTQ top 8 version:
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Temple Garden
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Arid Mesa
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Champion of Parish
4 Lightning Mauler
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Rip-Clan Crasher
4 Boros Elite
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Path to Exile
2 Domri Rade
4 Lightning Bolt
Path to Exile deal with blockers that you can't burn out.
Domri Rade helps to win the aggro mirror and give you more gas against control.
Grim Lavamancer is also a source of CA, let you reuse your dead creatures.
Sideboard choice:
*Wear/Tear - for SplinterTwins, Ensnaring Bridge, Assault-Loam, Affinity, any decks with troublesome enchantment/artifacts that preventing you to race to win
*Skullcrack - for sphinx's revelation deck, or decks rely heavily on a few lifegain cards to stablize
*Lead the stampede - an efficient draw spell for longer game
*Blind Obedience - for Kiki-jiki or Twins combo decks, or eggs
*Shatterstorm or Ancient Grudge - for Affinity
*Melira, Sylvok Outcast - for Infect
*Ratchet Bomb - for token decks
Keldon Marauders is actually amazing in Red vs. GoST.
You plop it down. 1 Damage.
It can block Geist (which just means they don't attack). That's 1 damage dealt, 6 damage saved.
Next turn it swings for 3. That's 4 damage dealt, 6 damage saved.
Then it vanishes and hits for 1. 5 damage dealt, 6 damage saved. That's a virtual 11 point life swing vs. UWR Tempo for 2 mana.
Now, the reason why it's so good in RDW, is that it does other stuff against other decks. It's a slow, clunky, burn spell for 5dmg/2mana. It looks like a creature, it's not. It's a waste of a slot in most matchups with a humans deck.
TL;DR The only place marauders has in this deck is as a buffer against Geist decks. Not even worth a sideboard slot if you ask me.
Marauders were close to my MVP with boros humans. Played in two 16-20 player tournaments with them in my list- playing against mostly top tier decks with the odd home brew.
They worked surprisingly well - the point damge on leaving to consistently make bloodthirsty 3/3 beserkers (or to drop a marauder and a beserker t4) that themselves presented a good 2 mana threat. They are a good deal with slayers' stronghold or silverblade paladins vs UW and URW tempo control type decks in the mid game, and are fast enough to put a good clock on. The ability to drop a t3 paladin and connect with the marauder for 6 on that turn is very powerful.
They clearly are a creature from the POV of champion of the parish trigger and interaction with cavern of souls to make them uncounterable, and they enable manipulation of soulbond rather well too by virtue of their emphemeral nature.
Incidentally I actually used an aggressive list with couple of potential control elements (other than 4x bolt:D)- 4 thalia, 2 lavamancer and a couple of of fiend hunters, the latter of which a couple of times allowed me to hit my own tapped marauder for a leaving damage, and threaten to bring it back for the last two point(s) of damage vs mid speed good stuff decks- held of the odd goyf like that. It came up a few times in testing, once in a tournament. The lavamancers appreciated stuff to munch too other than sac lands.
If the deck is fast enough it is worth including, although most people's reaction to it when inspecting lists/discussing is to suggest swapping it as in its own right its simply not that good. Generally my opponents had more respect for it when it was inn a deck that was winning matches, which as much as anything was to do with the little synergies with other cards in the deck.