I think it will probably still be a matter of fighting through removal as well as just keeping enough creatures that can trigger Ferocious in the deck. I probably will bump my Flamewake Phoenix count back down to 2 of them though and bring my Stratus Dancer in board up to two though as the dancer can both rez the Raptors and stop important removal effects as generally speaking when they get to 5+ mana is when I want to really be ready to counter them. I think the Pheonix will be good but the mana to cast them is still going to be a little awkward and I don't really want to have like 2x of them in hand at the same time.
Have you considered trying out some number of Whisperwood Elemental as board wipe protection? He would need to take the place of a few non-creature spells, but might be worth trying if you need more ways to bring Deathmist Raptor back from the dead.
I too am working on a Collected Company build, however I'm playing around in Abzan colors since I'm also running two copies of Rally the Ancestors. Keeping all the creatures at three mana (except for two copies of Sidisi, Undead Vizier) seemed to me like it would synergize well when combined with the Rally decks that come back from the graveyard to swing with Mogis's Marauder in one fell swoop. So far it has turn out to perform a lot better at FNM than most of my homebrews. Aside from the cards needed to fill my graveyard (Nyx Weaver & Satyr Wayfinder) the MVPs of the deck have been Merciless Executioner and Ambuscade Shaman. The Shaman has especally proven to be useful, it fufills the Savage Knuckleblade role in some respects. The turn he comes out he's a 4/4 and after can still pump whatever Collected Company or Rally the Ancestors brings out, and I've won a few of my more grindy matches by utilizing his dash ability when my opponent's hand is full of sorcery speed removal.
Have you considered trying out some number of Whisperwood Elemental as board wipe protection? He would need to take the place of a few non-creature spells, but might be worth trying if you need more ways to bring Deathmist Raptor back from the dead.
I too am working on a Collected Company build, however I'm playing around in Abzan colors since I'm also running two copies of Rally the Ancestors. Keeping all the creatures at three mana (except for two copies of Sidisi, Undead Vizier) seemed to me like it would synergize well when combined with the Rally decks that come back from the graveyard to swing with Mogis's Marauder in one fell swoop. So far it has turn out to perform a lot better at FNM than most of my homebrews. Aside from the cards needed to fill my graveyard (Nyx Weaver & Satyr Wayfinder) the MVPs of the deck have been Merciless Executioner and Ambuscade Shaman. The Shaman has especally proven to be useful, it fufills the Savage Knuckleblade role in some respects. The turn he comes out he's a 4/4 and after can still pump whatever Collected Company or Rally the Ancestors brings out, and I've won a few of my more grindy matches by utilizing his dash ability when my opponent's hand is full of sorcery speed removal.
So far most of us have been testing 23 land lists with around 8 potential miss targets. I would say that you should watch how many targets you run that dont interact with Company if you plan to play it as a company deck. Really about the bare minimum you can get away with in a company deck would be a 22 land 4 company build which results in 26 / 60 misses. Most people wont play this close to the extreme because the card still digs 6 deep but if you put too many targets that miss into your list you will start to notice that the spell becomes less effective. Later in the game some things such as mana dorks also tend have less impact on company as well so while hitting them is usually a bad thing its usually better than missing still.
So, assuming sort of the norm which is something like 29 / 60 targets being valid. I will be honest that I don't know for certain if I can shortcut the probability this way but the chance of finding a creature in the top three cards of a 29 / 60 valid target deck is 86.21%. Considering you are looking for two creatures in the top six I don't know if that simplification is a very good choice but essentially you want a valid target every three but the chance of seeing two good targets in the same three could occur so the odds of finding two in 6 are better than one in three.
Still, if you are going to run Collected Company it really needs to be something you plan around. I have done something like 15 test games now with around the 30/60 valid targets and I can admit that while my overall results have been fairly good I have ended up putting like a single utility guy in before off of company. I have yet to actually fail to find but it would not be a very fun experience either. If you are going to build it I would be very hesitant adding 5 mana creatures because it means either diluting your count or running them in place of spells. Keep in mind that the few slots you devote to bad targets are important as they are hurting the performance of a very key card.
As for running Abzan, I did consider it as there is a lot of utility that you can come across. Offhand though I did look at Abzan but there were a lot of reasons I felt conflicted by the setup that Abzan had:
I felt like the manabase is smoother in Temur due to Rattleclaw Mystic.
I liked the boost in size in the Temur creatures in general. It helps some against the sideboarded 3 mana sweepers.
Deathmist Raptor seemed like he supported Temur the best. Honestly there isnt a ton of Morph that should see standard constructed play so in too many color combinations I feel like he doesnt belong or he is being forced. Rattleclaw Mystic is nice that we get so much from it in temur.
The counterspells and flash enablers seem useful in some games. Temur charm is very versatile right now as well considering the amount of deathtouch and sheer size creatures we have.
When it comes to looking at Abzan and Bant I liked the spells a lot and some of the utility on the creatures seemed nice but the raw power of some of the creatures felt a little lesser so. I like a lot of the Temur creatures as I can push a lot of them to trade with dragons on their own and or not die to several of the sweepers being run. The access to counterspells also felt good to me because you can present a board presence and then fall back to countering if your opponent tries to End Hostilities.
I think there are still pros and cons to different color setups but I would be interested to see a full list if you have one offhand. In my mind Deathmist Raptor and Savage Knuckleblade are the reasons I am playing Temur right now.
When it comes to looking at Abzan and Bant I liked the spells a lot and some of the utility on the creatures seemed nice but the raw power of some of the creatures felt a little lesser so. I like a lot of the Temur creatures as I can push a lot of them to trade with dragons on their own and or not die to several of the sweepers being run. The access to counterspells also felt good to me because you can present a board presence and then fall back to countering if your opponent tries to End Hostilities.
I think there are still pros and cons to different color setups but I would be interested to see a full list if you have one offhand. In my mind Deathmist Raptor and Savage Knuckleblade are the reasons I am playing Temur right now.
I ran the below decklist at FNM this weekend and went 3-1-1, losing to mono red aggro (but beating a different version of mono red aggro as well as GR aggro) and intentionally drawing with the top seed to take 4th place. I then proceeded to play the top seed for funsies and beat him (Bant Heroic), so I would've taken 1st had we played it out as he was the only undefeated person.
I found the deck to be quite resilient. I also played a couple of pick-up games against Esper control. Lost both games due to Ashiok, but the resiliency of Deathmist Raptor and Mastery of the Unseen together led me into a very long game. He almost decked me out before I scooped because I made a misplay that would've cost me the game in a few turns and I needed to head home anyway. Some of my card choices were based on what I had available. Now that I've had good success, I'm trading to finalize the deck into what I consider to be an even more resilient and competitive version:
Couple of things worth noting. While I have Duress in the MB, if I take this to a competitive tourney, I'll borrow some Thoughtseizes in their stead. I removed the Elvish Mystics because there were few games where I actually saw them and I did as well as I did, so I don't think I need them. My mana base was a little wonky, and it may not be super resilient still, but I think it will suffice. Due to the large number of aggro decks I saw, I added in extra mass removal in the board for mono red and token hate. Secure the Wastes is an attempt to go wide as surprise blockers or as additional life gain if I have Mastery of the Unseen in play (more creatures = more life gain). Finally, Warden didn't do much work for me, but if I need to up my creature count, I can throw him back in the mix.
DRay - I think those are interesting lists but they are more on a premise of Mastery of the Unseen / Deathmist Raptor / Whisperwood Elemental based decks which I would roll up and probably just call it some sort of morph support. The discussion here tends to be more about Collected Company and different builds for it which tend to include much heavier creature density builds.
I don't know if I can really comment all that much on your own list as it looks interesting but its taking the morph / manifest to more of a deck based between morph support and playing Abzan than the goal of playing Collected Company efficiently.
If I were to comment on your list it would probably be that it seems like you could use some Sylvan Caryatid. The Duress feels a little out of place too personally I dont know if I would bother with hand hate in the main as its generally going to be vs control that you want it so I could even see just pushing that stuff to sideboard and getting the Thoughtsieze when you can but I dont know if you need that main. Your build looks a little slow as it stands though which might give you some issues with fast aggro.
DRay - I think those are interesting lists but they are more on a premise of Mastery of the Unseen / Deathmist Raptor / Whisperwood Elemental based decks which I would roll up and probably just call it some sort of morph support. The discussion here tends to be more about Collected Company and different builds for it which tend to include much heavier creature density builds.
Saw above you were talking about Deathmist/morph and thought I'd chime in, but yeah, I do note this thread to be more about Collected Company which my deck concept doesn't really support.
If I were to comment on your list it would probably be that it seems like you could use some Sylvan Caryatid. The Duress feels a little out of place too personally I dont know if I would bother with hand hate in the main as its generally going to be vs control that you want it so I could even see just pushing that stuff to sideboard and getting the Thoughtsieze when you can but I dont know if you need that main. Your build looks a little slow as it stands though which might give you some issues with fast aggro.
Caryatid would help my mana... just not sure I want to trade for the card since she's rolling out in just a handful of months. I've grimaced about trading for the pain lands, but if I want to make this deck work, they're a necessity. I agree that hand-hate is more control oriented, but it definitely would help against most of the other builds I saw. Removing Roast/Atarka's Command/Aqueous Form/Dromoka's Command/Dragon Fodder/Hammerhand/Hordeling Outburst would definitely help my game plan against many of the other decks. I'll test it out and see how it goes. But against decks that run lots of creatures, I'll probably want Bile Blight or Drown in Sorrow or Ultimate Price, so my SB is geared towards taking it out. Esper control being the "deck to beat right now," having Duress MB means I have a much better shot G1.
Thanks for your feedback, and sorry for trying to derail!
As for running Abzan, I did consider it as there is a lot of utility that you can come across. Offhand though I did look at Abzan but there were a lot of reasons I felt conflicted by the setup that Abzan had:
I felt like the manabase is smoother in Temur due to Rattleclaw Mystic.
I liked the boost in size in the Temur creatures in general. It helps some against the sideboarded 3 mana sweepers.
Deathmist Raptor seemed like he supported Temur the best. Honestly there isnt a ton of Morph that should see standard constructed play so in too many color combinations I feel like he doesnt belong or he is being forced. Rattleclaw Mystic is nice that we get so much from it in temur.
The counterspells and flash enablers seem useful in some games. Temur charm is very versatile right now as well considering the amount of deathtouch and sheer size creatures we have.
Fair enough, I get why you chose Temur and honestly I love the wedge and played it in both the Khans and Fate prereleases. I agree that the highest amount of 3cmc creatures as possible is nessisary. I run 22 land and 7 targets that Collected Company cannot hit in my abzan build (3 Collected Company, 2 Rally the Ancestors and 2 Sidisi, Undead Vizier).
What originally got me to check out what WBG had to offer was thinking that collected company would work well with exploit. I eventually decided that the black exploit cards with a CMC of 3 or under weren't worth playing except for Minister of Pain in the sideboard, then it dawned on me that Merciless Executioner is pretty much an exploit card (although the ETB sacrifice is always mandatory). From there I realized that the deck was beginning to look alot like the Rally the Ancestors combo decks and decided to combine the strategy. For me the wayfinders and elvish mystics don't get in my way as much (both really help to smooth out the 22 land mana base), as I'm normally playing Collected Company as a way of filling my graveyard at the same time as slowing and maybe trading with my opponent's attackers. As soon as I get the Marauder or a number of Executioners in the graveyard I can create a big swing in the board state by casting Rally for only five mana since almost every creature in the deck has a cmc of three.
I still am unsure if it is a Rally deck or a Collected Company deck because both cards work so well together and in certain match-ups I might side out Rally or Collected Company depending on what I am playing against. The reason why I don't play with a playset of either card is becuase Sidisi can become whichever card I need, as well as an all around excellent Rhino blocker that dodges all burn except for Burn Away (I've never seen it in constructed) and Crater's Claws.
I ended up playing a lot of games vs a few friends evaluating some card choices and what not. Some feedback I have so far in the 15 or so games I logged.
Chord of Calling - this deck is very aggressive and has a lot of very scarey fast creatures. There isn't enough toolbox to justify running it mainboard. Its possible to justify one of these in the sideboard to flush out and make sideboard cards more available but in the main deck I didn't feel like it was worth justifying how slow it was. I think it could be good at fetching the sideboard stuff but it depends on how heavily you need to focus on the sideboarded targets. As it stands I feel like I am just going to move forward without it as it felt like too much to fiddle with it.
Quickling - I agree that it felt too "cute". There were too many situations where I would get them in my opening hand and there were too few situations where I wanted to bounce guys other than when I would get set up with mana and run out of hand then I would consider flickering Silumgar Sorcerer and Den Protector but otherwise I felt they were sort of a trap. They are slow in an opening hand and generally not something that I liked trying to keep mana up for. I found myself preferring just another aggressive creature instead.
Temur Charm - I really like its modes but I was just seeing too much of it as a 4 of. Its useful in a lot of ways but I would see two of them too often. I tend to like having access to it after I curve into my three drops but getting too much of it seems not as good to me. I am going to see how I feel about them as a 3x of as I want to see how a Crater's Claws can do in here. I like that it gives some reach vs players, walkers, and still can take out a dragon halfway decently. I considered other removal options but the claws seems like the best option to go for the face if needed. Given how aggressive the creatures in here are it feels like I am usually forcing my opponent to deal with me during the combat phase which opens me up to playing things second main.
Fanatic of Xenagos - new to my own list. I like how aggressive he is though. Its a bit awkward in general off of Company because he will be a 3/3 with haste likely every time. So, he is better from hand but its still an aggressive creature that fits the company plan. I don't have much for testing results yet but I like that he doesn't die to Drown in Sorrow and he is aggressive which is nice.
RealOG its cool to see your results but I figured I would ask some questions yet about your testing and results.
Elvish Mystic - I am interested in what changed your mind on the mystic. There didn't seem to be a lot that nicely ramped into on turn 2 in this deck but I suppose if you want to rush a face down morph it expands what you can do. I tend to put the morphs off until I have 5 mana up but a T2 morph seems like it could also be good. I just generally dislike dropping them on T3 because I usually have the capacity to drop something more. The downside in my mind is that you are packing 4 of these that are really bad if you cant opening hand them essentially. It also takes lands that come down untapped two turns in a row to really take advantage of which is also a concern in my mind. You run a creature base that seems to better support the mystic at this time as well as far as mana costs but I still wonder how much I want to draw mystics through the course of the game and offhand it seems like a lot to give up for something that you really need to drop on turn one to be useful.
Yasova Dragonclaw - it feels like its really bad against the current meta is my concern. Vs UB dragons it does nothing but be a bad Boon Satyr and vs red sly its slow with a low toughness which is also hard to justify in my mind. If you shift to some other decks that are seeing play right now vs GR dragons it only really can target mana dorks and rabblemaster. There is Hornet Nest (which might be worth justifying but at which point sideboard it for vs their sideboard inclusion). Abzan seems to be one of the few matchups where it really works right now and a Rhino will still be a problem. Abzan is falling from favor though too so its hard in my mind to really bank on that as a favorable matchup to use it in. The low toughness is a concern for me still too as it dies to most sideboard sweepers. I guess my question is what sort of results have you gotten with it and against whom?
I agree with your analysis of Temur Charm, Quickling, and Chord of Calling. I haven't had a chance to test Fanatic of Xenagos, but I feel like he will be underwhelming. I had been considering him earlier today, and decided that he was just to easy to interact with to be worth it. But, I would love to be wrong, so let us know how testing with him works out. I also am not a fan of Flamewake Phoenix. With Dragons being a big thing right now, a lot of decks have easy ways of blocking it. As a creature it is pretty small, with it's major positive being that it is good at pinging the opponent. Since I don't think it does that well right now, I would rather look at other options.
Here are my experiences on the cards that I run that in my deck that you asked about: Elvish Mystic and Yasova.
Originally I didn't like Elvish Mystic because I had a lot of hands where I didn't need the mana. However, as I played more with it I noticed three things: 1) it helped me get out turn 2 Deathmist Raptors and it helped me haste out a turn 3 Savage Knuckleblade; 2) it helped me play Collected Company as soon as possible; and 3) it was a fine creature to sac to Foul-Tounge Invocation. On the first point, the games that I have done well in are games where I can power out creatures as fast as possible. Elvish Mystic gives me more options on how to play my creatures, thereby allowing me to put more pressure on the opponent. On the second point, Collected Company has been absolutely insane for me, and the earlier I can play one, the more comfortable I feel about winning. And for the last point, it' just an expendable creature once we get the mana together. This is a somewhat mana intensive deck (it really wants to get to 5 mana as fast as possible), so having the random dork isn't bad early. I am often happy to grab one off of a Collected Company just to make sure that I can play my spells how I want to. With Den Protector, I can get back the Company, so I don't feel like I'm wasting it if I grab a mana dork and a Knuckleblade.
If you decide not to play Elvish Mystic, I think you can run more tap lands, since turn 1 mana is less relevant. I'm running 4x Yavimaya Coast to enable the possibility of turn 1 coast Mystic, turn 2 mountain Knuckleblade.
Yasova has been pretty strong for me. I like her because she has an ability that your opponent has to think about and try to play around, but is not important to activate. For instance, I had a game against Mono-blue here I used her to steal a Master of Waves and virtually wipe my opponent's board. She also gets better with pump spells such as the fight with Temur Charm, Setessan Tactics, or Boon Satyr. Finally, she matches up well vs Dragonlord Silumgar, since she can steal him which allows you to regain control of whatever creature it stole. She forces your opponent to play more defensively, since if they attack too aggressively, she may steal something relevant and the swing back for game. I have been really impressed by how she can make her presence felt on the games I've played her.
In other news, I played this at my LGS's Sunday tournament. I went 3-0-2 (intentional draws) to make top 8, and then one the first round before splitting with the remainder of top 4. I played against Mono-red, Mono-blue, GR aggro, and Abzan Aggro. The most important thing I learned is that I need to adjust my sideboard. I had a lot of noncreature spells, which messed up my Collected Company. Eventually I just chose to not sideboard a lot of games, because it would actually make my deck run worse. Moving forward this will probably be my sideboard:
My opponents were:
Temur Mid 2-0
RG Dragons 2-0
UB Dragon Control 2-0
Mono Red 1-2
Jeski Control 2-1
Some of the all stars were: Silumgar Sorcerer He was a beast all night except for Mono red just being able to flash him in at end of turns during my control match ups were key Collected Company The fact that it is an Instant made it hell for opponents. it was great to play end of turns or even in combat and to play it in combat and hit 2 Hornet Nest is just wronge. i only wiffed once so i was happy with that. Deathmist Raptor He was a nightmare for people they always forgot he could come back and made for some really bad combat fazes on there part. Shorecrasher Elemental was great in the control match ups just being able to exile him. Plus even if i had no morphs in play i could exile bring back and un morph to bring back Deathmist Raptor
Some Under achievers: Master of Waves There is so much remove right now it made it had to keep him out he only shine in 2 games other then that i held onto him a lot. Thassa, God of the Sea I held it more and was really only good in late game glad i only played 1 came out for SB a lot IceFall Regent I was doing so much with everyting else in the deck i only played him once. probably been better if i didn't see 2 control decks and mono red.
Some maybe wondering why i have 4 Hornet Nest there are always 4-6 people playing mono red and its the only thing i can think of to play against it its just a hard match up unless i draw like a champ. Just not sure what is good side board for that match up.
I couldn't decide if i should go with Plummet or Reality Shift, i feel like i could hit more with Reality Shift not a fan of giving them a creature not knowing what it is but Plummet is very Limited
With all the flyers in the deck made for great evasion while the big guys were able to clog up the ground.
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Some maybe wondering why i have 4 Hornet Nest there are always 4-6 people playing mono red and its the only thing i can think of to play against it its just a hard match up unless i draw like a champ. Just not sure what is good side board for that match up.
I couldn't decide if i should go with Plummet or Reality Shift, i feel like i could hit more with Reality Shift not a fan of giving them a creature not knowing what it is but Plummet is very Limited
With all the flyers in the deck made for great evasion while the big guys were able to clog up the ground.
Mono R options:
Courser of Kruphix its a bit slow as a three drop but it has lifegain options as well as card advantage options. You are playing a bit more of a control based shell so I could actually see these being main possibly for your build. The advantage here being its hard for them to kill and it blocks their guys well without dying. There is a downside though too which is your opponent seeing everything you draw but it also gets you closer to company faster while being a good company hit and giving you information on when company might be good to do.
Highland Game its a two drop and it gives some lifegain options. If they drop removal on it you still get life so its not bad as a road bump in board.
Hornet Nest as you mentioned. The concern is still how fast they are with all their bodies. Its still great against them if you can get it set up and use it before they swarm you out but being swarm its still a bit rough.
Omenspeaker robust back end on it, it still kills most all of their stuff and it has a good ETB effect to get you set up.
I personally like the red options to fast red as you can pick up Circle of Flame or Barrage of Boulders both of which do decent against them. Circle is a bit concerning if they run command though as it just encourages them to build up and run you over.
I really wish there were more hexproof three-and-under drops. It would help so much against mono red, because the moment mono red sees I'm playing green, they immediately assume that I'm siding in hornet nest and side in Goblin Heelcutter in response.
Since I'm running Abzan colors, I've been giving some serious thought to making space in my sideboard for Eidolon of Rhetoric just to make red choose between dashing a creature or burning one of mine and the Eidolon is, at the very least, a 1/4. The downside is that to use the eidolon effectivly I'll have to include Boon Satyr and other cards with flash or counterspells, with thin my deck (I need to have some devotion to make Mogis's Marauder worthwhile). Then there is the fact that if I hardcast the Eidolon I better hope to god that they can't take it out that same turn because its ability stops me from casting another spell to protect it.
If you move into white and look at sideboarding vs red, Nyx-Fleece Ram used to be fairly good but with how hard they are swarming its a little more uncertain now. It doesn't kill any of their guys unfortunately being a zero power but it blocks and gives you life which can help stall. It was better against red when they weren't using token swarm tactics so it might not be as good now.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos seems like he would have a fairly good match vs red sly if you can get him set up quickly because of all his tokens he would put out there while attacking out. The flip side being that his WW to cast on curve seems rough.
Overall I feel that adding white is probably not going to improve your matchup vs red sly. The landbase is sort of rough and their sideboard options don't exactly add strong new options vs red sly at this time. Adding white gives some cool spells and some decent creatures if you can properly fix but it still seems a bit rough and a little slower and more midrange based. Bant seems like it would match up vs midrange and possibly control well but I don't see it being as good against aggro at the moment.
8 Mana dorks was too many, I always wanted to take a few Rattleclaw Mystics out. Never tried the sideboard into Temur (dragon) Control but it seemed like it would have been fun...
I think 4 color aggro is sort of a crazy thought but if you are going to try it I feel like your Mystics probably need to be Sylvan Caryatid instead because its going to be far more important to fix than it is to ramp if you go greedy enough to run 4 color.
I feel like Mantis Rider is also sort of an unfortunately bad creature at the moment with all the dragons in the skies. I really love the guy but he gets just slapped down. Brimaz also has some of the same issues because there are so many x/4 guys running about right now and he doesnt have enough power to trade with them. The landbase is also going to make hitting him on curve challanging which can slow him down. 4 of a legendary creature is always a bit heavy handed too if you ask me.
I get the want to make 4 color work but you need to shift it to a slower midrange with more emphasis on fixing in my opinion if its going to work at all. It also feels like you have far too many basic lands in there with thoughts that fetching into lands will fix correctly instead of using the ETB tapped 3 color lands. I think its a bit of a pipe dream to make 4 color aggro work correctly.
Back to your thoughts on WG company, I think WG company is a legitimate choice. The new Command is really strong and you shouldn't hit much issues in your landbase. If you stick to aggro which company tends to encourage I suggest trying just WG for now because the landbase is going to be more acceptable at the moment which means you will probably have a more consistent early game which is a good thing for aggro. I think its possible to pick up black as a splash color to allow you to have Anafenza, the Foremost but I think my emphasis would be WG if you are going to run those colors.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Its really a shame that Master of Waves is a whiff on company since the reason to build that deck tends to be Master of Waves. Thassa also feels awkward in any case as a 4x of. Its interesting to see those sort of results from that deck to be honest as it doesn't feel very flexible in general to me.
I ended up going 3-1 last FNM with my own list. I thought it was draft so I didn't have all of my sideboard ready which was awkward and after playing it I think I have to gear more for esper control and GR dragons since about half of the decks were one of the two at the event.
Match 1:UB control 2-1
Game 1: I got sort of land screwed keeping a two land hand with a scry land going second and never dug up a third land. I managed to slow roll into a T3 mana dork who immediately died and I just scooped after doing nothing several turns into this game. It wasn't worth revealing what my deck was to him when it was clear I would not win the game in the long run.
Game 2: I got a fast game on him and ran him down before he could do much.
Game 3: I got a lot of robust guys and the value of recursive creatures carried me through.
Match 2: Esper control 1-2
Game 1: he managed some very early removal which made it harder for me to put pressure on. His Narset really pushed me onto the back foot and bought him a lot of time because I had to kill her. He wrathed me and when I started recovering he started using exile removal to seal off my raptor. He killed me with some random dragons. I lost this game without ever finding a company.
Game 2: I managed a fast curve and had a counterspell when it mattered.
Game 3: It went really long and I got into a situation where the best thing I could do was loop Den Protectors recovering each other. He ended up dropping a lot of walkers and dragons on me which made it more or less impossible to win. He also had brought in Silence the Believers probably from side which was concerning. I lost this game without ever finding a Company.
Match 3: BW warriors 2-0
Game 1: I dropped 3x Heir of the Wilds in this game and he couldnt really deal with them nicely. I swung in with more powerful creatures and kept deathtouch back on defense against him which he couldn't deal with.
Game 2: I got a bit of a slow hand but dropped a Hornet Nest on curve. I was stuck with 3x Company in hand which became awkward but he really slowed down to the Hornet Nest so I morphed in a dork and started flipping Company into tons of value. He came close to killing me with more or less just direct damage from Blood-Chin Fanatic throwing warriors at my face. I think he brought me from 16 life to like 7 life with just throwing creatures through. Personally I think he could have been more aggressive when I dropped the Nest and it could have become awkward for me.
Match 4: Temur dragons (more or less GR dragons but with a little blue in it) 2-1
Game 1: He ramped well and bound up my ground game while continuing to beat me up in the air. It was sort of close but I couldn't interact with his air game unfortunately and it killed me. He finished me off with a monsterous trigger after I drew which was smart because I was ready to flash a creature in response to live but I couldn't do it after drawing.
Game 2: He got land screwed and I played well. He died.
Game 3: He got a slow game and I curved into 3x Knuckleblades on T4 with casting one and hitting two on a company.
I ended up taking 3rd place with second being a more streamlined GR dragons deck loosing to the same esper guy I lost to. Offhand, I want to work on my sideboard more as it seems like I could use a better game vs control dragons as well as vs GR dragons.
After having played it through an FNM I will say that I am fairly happy with it in general. Some thoughts on what I might want to look at offhand.
Stratus Dancer was really solid out of sideboard. I might want to move up to 3x of them as the two I had were very useful and my Flamewake Phoenix sideboard option seemed more questionable.
Netcaster Spider I had been sort of avoiding it before but I am just having too much of an issue with GR dragons. I think I need to consider these guys as a good answer to them as well as its ability to be hit with company. I considered other options such as Plummet and Atarka's Command but the spider seems like it fits well. The big question offhand is if they bring in Anger of the Gods which would be bad for me if my answer is the spider. Anger of the Gods is sort of an issue regardless though so I don't know offhand. So far the upside is if they bring in Anger of the Gods they are probably sideboarding out their ramp game which means my Silumgar Sorcerer plan improves against them.
Fanatic of Xenagos he.... didn't do so well to be honest. I think I might move these to Frost Walker just to see how they play instead. Frost Walker still activates ferocious which seems good. It also potentially moves me up on my clock but it also makes Drown in Sorrow more effective against me which seems like a mixed result sort of a feeling. I will probably try to go light on the Frost Walkers instead for now as perhaps like a 2x of and see how they go for me.
Sagu Mauler I might move to playing a few of these guys in the board for dragon control games. They still have their edicts but honestly I just need a surprise big beater that they cant kill. My morph plan usually puts them on edge and especially after sideboard they are expecting Den Protector and the Stratus Dancer as the face downs so I might move to put 1-2 of these into my board as a surprise big beat. I am having a tough time with some of the esper builds depending on if they are counter and exile based removal because it can stop company as well as my recursive guys.
Overall the deck did well. Fanatic was the only maindeck card I found myself not so happy with. My sideboard needs some work too but overall I like where I am and I felt like I had a good game against every opponent I played.
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Surraks became 2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos and the fourth Den Protector. Surrak made CC a little awkward at times, but Brimaz can be grabbed off it which I think will help decrease the number of whiffs and half-whiffs.
I know more than half of them aren't worth playing, but speaking as someone who starting playing MTG when Revised Edition came out, it kind of blows my mind how many three drop creatures there are with a power of 4 or more. I remember when Juzám Djinn was considered to be the most powerful creature ever printed ("A 5/5 for 4 mana, what were they thinking?!"), and now its strictly worse than 25 cent rares such as Deadbridge Goliath.
I know more than half of them aren't worth playing, but speaking as someone who starting playing MTG when Revised Edition came out, it kind of blows my mind how many three drop creatures there are with a power of 4 or more. I remember when Juzám Djinn was considered to be the most powerful creature ever printed ("A 5/5 for 4 mana, what were they thinking?!"), and now its strictly worse than 25 cent rares such as Deadbridge Goliath.
Mainboard I think it slows the game down too much but it might have a place in some count in the sideboard vs control. Running out of gas is generally the leading way to die against control and the haste punching would be very effective against them. Den Protector could help force it through the counters too not to mention the fact that if you are on the play their counters wont be up in time for an on curve cast.
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Despite my success with G/W, I'm still considering other possible options. What are thoughts on Green/Black, basically splashing Green into a Mono-B Aggro shell?
Master of the Feast, Merciless Executioner, Pharika, God of Affliction, and Rakshasa Deathdealer seem to be the ones you would really want to consider if you ask me.
Master of the Feast feels very weak vs control and very strong vs midrange right now. If you expect to see a lot of Dromoka's Command it will be a problem though as it very effectively removes it. This guy seems like he would do well against RG dragons though as he is bigger than their guys and a lot of their removal isnt well suited for him.
Merciless Executioner seems good against the hexproof dragons but if you are playing against control it still leaves him as an awkward drop until they play a creature which feels odd to me. Vs GR dragons they have mana dorks so it really comes down to who is on the play it seems like and or if you are also playing one mana dorks. It seems like you likely would not catch their dragons when you would want to. I feel like he is not that well positioned right now to be honest as he is expensive removal that in my mind doesnt seem that well positioned considering his cost to drop and the current meta.
Pharika, God of Affliction seems fairly good in my mind. She might be a little slow but her tokens can be useful and assuming you are sticking to 2 color creatures she should animate decently.
Rakshasa Deathdealer he is a good creature. He is versatile which is nice and has resistances to removal later on which is good.
In my mind I feel like the Rakshasa and Pharika are going to be the big two to consider and the others seem a little more situational. Mogis's Marauder can be powerful but if you run him it would be in low numbers because he is a poor hit in company because you would have to be casting it before blocks declared on your turn to make it a thing with company. Spiteful Returned is interesting but honestly it just dies to too many creatures in my mind without killing them in return. Pitiless Horde might be decent but its sort of awkward sized in that it still trades with most midrange creatures while also dying to Bile Blight / Anger of the Gods.
Black might open up a little better in the future. The Origins printing of liliana seems interesting to me but that still seems very difficult for an aggro company deck to build around offhand. The multi colored stuff is in my mind more interesting at this time than the pure black options.
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I think Master of the Feast would be better in the side for the RG Dragons matchup. Like you mentioned, they don't really have an effective pre-board way of removing it and it just eats all their dragons except Atarka.
It actually wouldn't be too hard to just slide Rakshasa Deathdealer and Pharika, God of Affliction at least into my new list as Fleecemane becomes Deathdealer and Brimaz becomes Pharika.
Sultai Emissary replaces itself while also helping to recur Deathmist Raptor. Pharika is weak to Dromoka's Command, but that can make things awkward for the opponent because they can't just Counter+Fight to eat a single dude.
Sultai Emissary still feels really sort of weak to me. I feel like I would be happier with possibly some split of Grim Haruspex and Ruthless Ripper. Honestly I am not all that fond of black's morph/manifest/megamorph options.
You might also turn those Ultimate Price into Murderous Cuts also as a possibility since you are only running two of them. You have to watch Den Protector targets and Raptor but with only two cuts in I think you should still probably see an improvement in maindeck playability of them. The Price would make a good sideboard option to bring up the removal options.
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Sultai Emissary still feels really sort of weak to me. I feel like I would be happier with possibly some split of Grim Haruspex and Ruthless Ripper. Honestly I am not all that fond of black's morph/manifest/megamorph options.
You might also turn those Ultimate Price into Murderous Cuts also as a possibility since you are only running two of them. You have to watch Den Protector targets and Raptor but with only two cuts in I think you should still probably see an improvement in maindeck playability of them. The Price would make a good sideboard option to bring up the removal options.
You're probably right. I've really liked Avatar of the Resolute, but I don't think it fits as well without Dromoka's Command. However, there have been many times when I was happy to cast it as just a 3/2, so it might still work?
There aren't a lot of options that I would want to delve away, so I'm not sure if Murderous Cut would be best. Hero's Downfall would be better, but my reasoning was that most early creatures are mono-colored (except Abzan) anyway, so the cheap cost on Price seemed better.
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I too am working on a Collected Company build, however I'm playing around in Abzan colors since I'm also running two copies of Rally the Ancestors. Keeping all the creatures at three mana (except for two copies of Sidisi, Undead Vizier) seemed to me like it would synergize well when combined with the Rally decks that come back from the graveyard to swing with Mogis's Marauder in one fell swoop. So far it has turn out to perform a lot better at FNM than most of my homebrews. Aside from the cards needed to fill my graveyard (Nyx Weaver & Satyr Wayfinder) the MVPs of the deck have been Merciless Executioner and Ambuscade Shaman. The Shaman has especally proven to be useful, it fufills the Savage Knuckleblade role in some respects. The turn he comes out he's a 4/4 and after can still pump whatever Collected Company or Rally the Ancestors brings out, and I've won a few of my more grindy matches by utilizing his dash ability when my opponent's hand is full of sorcery speed removal.
So far most of us have been testing 23 land lists with around 8 potential miss targets. I would say that you should watch how many targets you run that dont interact with Company if you plan to play it as a company deck. Really about the bare minimum you can get away with in a company deck would be a 22 land 4 company build which results in 26 / 60 misses. Most people wont play this close to the extreme because the card still digs 6 deep but if you put too many targets that miss into your list you will start to notice that the spell becomes less effective. Later in the game some things such as mana dorks also tend have less impact on company as well so while hitting them is usually a bad thing its usually better than missing still.
So, assuming sort of the norm which is something like 29 / 60 targets being valid. I will be honest that I don't know for certain if I can shortcut the probability this way but the chance of finding a creature in the top three cards of a 29 / 60 valid target deck is 86.21%. Considering you are looking for two creatures in the top six I don't know if that simplification is a very good choice but essentially you want a valid target every three but the chance of seeing two good targets in the same three could occur so the odds of finding two in 6 are better than one in three.
Still, if you are going to run Collected Company it really needs to be something you plan around. I have done something like 15 test games now with around the 30/60 valid targets and I can admit that while my overall results have been fairly good I have ended up putting like a single utility guy in before off of company. I have yet to actually fail to find but it would not be a very fun experience either. If you are going to build it I would be very hesitant adding 5 mana creatures because it means either diluting your count or running them in place of spells. Keep in mind that the few slots you devote to bad targets are important as they are hurting the performance of a very key card.
As for running Abzan, I did consider it as there is a lot of utility that you can come across. Offhand though I did look at Abzan but there were a lot of reasons I felt conflicted by the setup that Abzan had:
When it comes to looking at Abzan and Bant I liked the spells a lot and some of the utility on the creatures seemed nice but the raw power of some of the creatures felt a little lesser so. I like a lot of the Temur creatures as I can push a lot of them to trade with dragons on their own and or not die to several of the sweepers being run. The access to counterspells also felt good to me because you can present a board presence and then fall back to countering if your opponent tries to End Hostilities.
I think there are still pros and cons to different color setups but I would be interested to see a full list if you have one offhand. In my mind Deathmist Raptor and Savage Knuckleblade are the reasons I am playing Temur right now.
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I ran the below decklist at FNM this weekend and went 3-1-1, losing to mono red aggro (but beating a different version of mono red aggro as well as GR aggro) and intentionally drawing with the top seed to take 4th place. I then proceeded to play the top seed for funsies and beat him (Bant Heroic), so I would've taken 1st had we played it out as he was the only undefeated person.
2x Warden of the First Tree
4x Fleecemane Lion
3x Deathmist Raptor
3x Den Protector
2x Ruthless Ripper
4x Siege Rhino
1x Courser of Kruphix
4x Elvish Mystic
Non-Creature Spells (14)
3x Abzan Charm
1x Hero's Downfall
2x Mastery of the Unseen
3x Dromoka's Command
2x Ultimate Price
1x Murderous Cut
1x Ajani Steadfast
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1x Windswept Heath
3x Temple of Plenty
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Llanowar Wastes
2x Caves of Koilos
3x Temple of Silence
2x Plains
2x Swamp
5x Forest
1x Abzan Charm
2x Hornet Nest
2x Mastery of the Unseen
2x Bile Blight
2x Foul-Tongue Invocation
2x something I can't remember
2x Whisperwood Elemental
2x Hornet Nest
I found the deck to be quite resilient. I also played a couple of pick-up games against Esper control. Lost both games due to Ashiok, but the resiliency of Deathmist Raptor and Mastery of the Unseen together led me into a very long game. He almost decked me out before I scooped because I made a misplay that would've cost me the game in a few turns and I needed to head home anyway. Some of my card choices were based on what I had available. Now that I've had good success, I'm trading to finalize the deck into what I consider to be an even more resilient and competitive version:
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Deathmist Raptor
4x Den Protector
4x Siege Rhino
2x Courser of Kruphix
2x Whisperwood Elemental
Non-Creature Spells (16)
3x Abzan Charm
2x Hero's Downfall
2x Mastery of the Unseen
3x Dromoka's Command
2x Ultimate Price
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
3x Duress
3x Windswept Heath
3x Temple of Plenty
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
4x Llanowar Wastes
2x Caves of Koilos
2x Temple of Silence
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Plains
1x Swamp
3x Forest
2x Utter End
2x Drown in Sorrow
3x Bile Blight
2x Foul-Tongue Invocation
2x Secure the Wastes
2x Ultimate Price
2x Warden of the First Tree
Couple of things worth noting. While I have Duress in the MB, if I take this to a competitive tourney, I'll borrow some Thoughtseizes in their stead. I removed the Elvish Mystics because there were few games where I actually saw them and I did as well as I did, so I don't think I need them. My mana base was a little wonky, and it may not be super resilient still, but I think it will suffice. Due to the large number of aggro decks I saw, I added in extra mass removal in the board for mono red and token hate. Secure the Wastes is an attempt to go wide as surprise blockers or as additional life gain if I have Mastery of the Unseen in play (more creatures = more life gain). Finally, Warden didn't do much work for me, but if I need to up my creature count, I can throw him back in the mix.
I don't know if I can really comment all that much on your own list as it looks interesting but its taking the morph / manifest to more of a deck based between morph support and playing Abzan than the goal of playing Collected Company efficiently.
If I were to comment on your list it would probably be that it seems like you could use some Sylvan Caryatid. The Duress feels a little out of place too personally I dont know if I would bother with hand hate in the main as its generally going to be vs control that you want it so I could even see just pushing that stuff to sideboard and getting the Thoughtsieze when you can but I dont know if you need that main. Your build looks a little slow as it stands though which might give you some issues with fast aggro.
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Saw above you were talking about Deathmist/morph and thought I'd chime in, but yeah, I do note this thread to be more about Collected Company which my deck concept doesn't really support.
Caryatid would help my mana... just not sure I want to trade for the card since she's rolling out in just a handful of months. I've grimaced about trading for the pain lands, but if I want to make this deck work, they're a necessity. I agree that hand-hate is more control oriented, but it definitely would help against most of the other builds I saw. Removing Roast/Atarka's Command/Aqueous Form/Dromoka's Command/Dragon Fodder/Hammerhand/Hordeling Outburst would definitely help my game plan against many of the other decks. I'll test it out and see how it goes. But against decks that run lots of creatures, I'll probably want Bile Blight or Drown in Sorrow or Ultimate Price, so my SB is geared towards taking it out. Esper control being the "deck to beat right now," having Duress MB means I have a much better shot G1.
Thanks for your feedback, and sorry for trying to derail!
Fair enough, I get why you chose Temur and honestly I love the wedge and played it in both the Khans and Fate prereleases. I agree that the highest amount of 3cmc creatures as possible is nessisary. I run 22 land and 7 targets that Collected Company cannot hit in my abzan build (3 Collected Company, 2 Rally the Ancestors and 2 Sidisi, Undead Vizier).
What originally got me to check out what WBG had to offer was thinking that collected company would work well with exploit. I eventually decided that the black exploit cards with a CMC of 3 or under weren't worth playing except for Minister of Pain in the sideboard, then it dawned on me that Merciless Executioner is pretty much an exploit card (although the ETB sacrifice is always mandatory). From there I realized that the deck was beginning to look alot like the Rally the Ancestors combo decks and decided to combine the strategy. For me the wayfinders and elvish mystics don't get in my way as much (both really help to smooth out the 22 land mana base), as I'm normally playing Collected Company as a way of filling my graveyard at the same time as slowing and maybe trading with my opponent's attackers. As soon as I get the Marauder or a number of Executioners in the graveyard I can create a big swing in the board state by casting Rally for only five mana since almost every creature in the deck has a cmc of three.
I still am unsure if it is a Rally deck or a Collected Company deck because both cards work so well together and in certain match-ups I might side out Rally or Collected Company depending on what I am playing against. The reason why I don't play with a playset of either card is becuase Sidisi can become whichever card I need, as well as an all around excellent Rhino blocker that dodges all burn except for Burn Away (I've never seen it in constructed) and Crater's Claws.
2x Crater Elemental
4x Dragon's Eye Savants
4x Monastery Flock
4x Omenspeaker
4x Savage Knuckleblade
3x Wall of Frost
2x Kiora, the Crashing Wave
4x Collected Company
4x Assault Formation
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I agree with your analysis of Temur Charm, Quickling, and Chord of Calling. I haven't had a chance to test Fanatic of Xenagos, but I feel like he will be underwhelming. I had been considering him earlier today, and decided that he was just to easy to interact with to be worth it. But, I would love to be wrong, so let us know how testing with him works out. I also am not a fan of Flamewake Phoenix. With Dragons being a big thing right now, a lot of decks have easy ways of blocking it. As a creature it is pretty small, with it's major positive being that it is good at pinging the opponent. Since I don't think it does that well right now, I would rather look at other options.
Here are my experiences on the cards that I run that in my deck that you asked about: Elvish Mystic and Yasova.
Originally I didn't like Elvish Mystic because I had a lot of hands where I didn't need the mana. However, as I played more with it I noticed three things: 1) it helped me get out turn 2 Deathmist Raptors and it helped me haste out a turn 3 Savage Knuckleblade; 2) it helped me play Collected Company as soon as possible; and 3) it was a fine creature to sac to Foul-Tounge Invocation. On the first point, the games that I have done well in are games where I can power out creatures as fast as possible. Elvish Mystic gives me more options on how to play my creatures, thereby allowing me to put more pressure on the opponent. On the second point, Collected Company has been absolutely insane for me, and the earlier I can play one, the more comfortable I feel about winning. And for the last point, it' just an expendable creature once we get the mana together. This is a somewhat mana intensive deck (it really wants to get to 5 mana as fast as possible), so having the random dork isn't bad early. I am often happy to grab one off of a Collected Company just to make sure that I can play my spells how I want to. With Den Protector, I can get back the Company, so I don't feel like I'm wasting it if I grab a mana dork and a Knuckleblade.
If you decide not to play Elvish Mystic, I think you can run more tap lands, since turn 1 mana is less relevant. I'm running 4x Yavimaya Coast to enable the possibility of turn 1 coast Mystic, turn 2 mountain Knuckleblade.
Yasova has been pretty strong for me. I like her because she has an ability that your opponent has to think about and try to play around, but is not important to activate. For instance, I had a game against Mono-blue here I used her to steal a Master of Waves and virtually wipe my opponent's board. She also gets better with pump spells such as the fight with Temur Charm, Setessan Tactics, or Boon Satyr. Finally, she matches up well vs Dragonlord Silumgar, since she can steal him which allows you to regain control of whatever creature it stole. She forces your opponent to play more defensively, since if they attack too aggressively, she may steal something relevant and the swing back for game. I have been really impressed by how she can make her presence felt on the games I've played her.
In other news, I played this at my LGS's Sunday tournament. I went 3-0-2 (intentional draws) to make top 8, and then one the first round before splitting with the remainder of top 4. I played against Mono-red, Mono-blue, GR aggro, and Abzan Aggro. The most important thing I learned is that I need to adjust my sideboard. I had a lot of noncreature spells, which messed up my Collected Company. Eventually I just chose to not sideboard a lot of games, because it would actually make my deck run worse. Moving forward this will probably be my sideboard:
2x Stratus Dancer
2x Silumgar Sorcerer
2x Stubborn Denial
2x Netcaster Spider
3x Hornet Nest
2x Reclamation Sage
2x Courser of Kruphix
2 Dissolve
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Stubborn Denial
4 Shorecrasher Elemental
4 Deathmist Raptor
4 Frost Walker
4 Silumgar Sorcerer
4 Stratus Dancer
2 Icefeather Aven
2 Master of Waves
2 IceFall Regent
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Thornwood Falls
2 Yavimaya Coast
13 Island
3 Encase in Ice
2 Profaner of Dead
2 Monastery Siege
4 Hornet Nest
2 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Plummet
My opponents were:
Temur Mid 2-0
RG Dragons 2-0
UB Dragon Control 2-0
Mono Red 1-2
Jeski Control 2-1
Some of the all stars were:
Silumgar Sorcerer He was a beast all night except for Mono red just being able to flash him in at end of turns during my control match ups were key
Collected Company The fact that it is an Instant made it hell for opponents. it was great to play end of turns or even in combat and to play it in combat and hit 2 Hornet Nest is just wronge. i only wiffed once so i was happy with that.
Deathmist Raptor He was a nightmare for people they always forgot he could come back and made for some really bad combat fazes on there part.
Shorecrasher Elemental was great in the control match ups just being able to exile him. Plus even if i had no morphs in play i could exile bring back and un morph to bring back Deathmist Raptor
Some Under achievers:
Master of Waves There is so much remove right now it made it had to keep him out he only shine in 2 games other then that i held onto him a lot.
Thassa, God of the Sea I held it more and was really only good in late game glad i only played 1 came out for SB a lot
IceFall Regent I was doing so much with everyting else in the deck i only played him once. probably been better if i didn't see 2 control decks and mono red.
Some maybe wondering why i have 4 Hornet Nest there are always 4-6 people playing mono red and its the only thing i can think of to play against it its just a hard match up unless i draw like a champ. Just not sure what is good side board for that match up.
I couldn't decide if i should go with Plummet or Reality Shift, i feel like i could hit more with Reality Shift not a fan of giving them a creature not knowing what it is but Plummet is very Limited
With all the flyers in the deck made for great evasion while the big guys were able to clog up the ground.
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Mono R options:
Courser of Kruphix its a bit slow as a three drop but it has lifegain options as well as card advantage options. You are playing a bit more of a control based shell so I could actually see these being main possibly for your build. The advantage here being its hard for them to kill and it blocks their guys well without dying. There is a downside though too which is your opponent seeing everything you draw but it also gets you closer to company faster while being a good company hit and giving you information on when company might be good to do.
Highland Game its a two drop and it gives some lifegain options. If they drop removal on it you still get life so its not bad as a road bump in board.
Hornet Nest as you mentioned. The concern is still how fast they are with all their bodies. Its still great against them if you can get it set up and use it before they swarm you out but being swarm its still a bit rough.
Omenspeaker robust back end on it, it still kills most all of their stuff and it has a good ETB effect to get you set up.
I personally like the red options to fast red as you can pick up Circle of Flame or Barrage of Boulders both of which do decent against them. Circle is a bit concerning if they run command though as it just encourages them to build up and run you over.
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Since I'm running Abzan colors, I've been giving some serious thought to making space in my sideboard for Eidolon of Rhetoric just to make red choose between dashing a creature or burning one of mine and the Eidolon is, at the very least, a 1/4. The downside is that to use the eidolon effectivly I'll have to include Boon Satyr and other cards with flash or counterspells, with thin my deck (I need to have some devotion to make Mogis's Marauder worthwhile). Then there is the fact that if I hardcast the Eidolon I better hope to god that they can't take it out that same turn because its ability stops me from casting another spell to protect it.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos seems like he would have a fairly good match vs red sly if you can get him set up quickly because of all his tokens he would put out there while attacking out. The flip side being that his WW to cast on curve seems rough.
Overall I feel that adding white is probably not going to improve your matchup vs red sly. The landbase is sort of rough and their sideboard options don't exactly add strong new options vs red sly at this time. Adding white gives some cool spells and some decent creatures if you can properly fix but it still seems a bit rough and a little slower and more midrange based. Bant seems like it would match up vs midrange and possibly control well but I don't see it being as good against aggro at the moment.
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However, the funnest version I have played is 4-color. It's not perfectly tuned, but check this out:
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Mantis Rider
4 Savage Knuckleblade
4 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 non-targetable creatures
2 Thunderbreak Regent
7 Spells
2 Valorous Stance
4 Collected Company
1 Dromoka's Command
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
1 Island
4 Mana Confluence
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Valorous Stance
2 Wild Slash
2 Roast
1 Dromoka's Command
2 Negate
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Sarkhan Unbroken
2 Thunderbreak Regent
8 Mana dorks was too many, I always wanted to take a few Rattleclaw Mystics out. Never tried the sideboard into Temur (dragon) Control but it seemed like it would have been fun...
I feel like Mantis Rider is also sort of an unfortunately bad creature at the moment with all the dragons in the skies. I really love the guy but he gets just slapped down. Brimaz also has some of the same issues because there are so many x/4 guys running about right now and he doesnt have enough power to trade with them. The landbase is also going to make hitting him on curve challanging which can slow him down. 4 of a legendary creature is always a bit heavy handed too if you ask me.
I get the want to make 4 color work but you need to shift it to a slower midrange with more emphasis on fixing in my opinion if its going to work at all. It also feels like you have far too many basic lands in there with thoughts that fetching into lands will fix correctly instead of using the ETB tapped 3 color lands. I think its a bit of a pipe dream to make 4 color aggro work correctly.
Back to your thoughts on WG company, I think WG company is a legitimate choice. The new Command is really strong and you shouldn't hit much issues in your landbase. If you stick to aggro which company tends to encourage I suggest trying just WG for now because the landbase is going to be more acceptable at the moment which means you will probably have a more consistent early game which is a good thing for aggro. I think its possible to pick up black as a splash color to allow you to have Anafenza, the Foremost but I think my emphasis would be WG if you are going to run those colors.
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[Modern] Allies
4x Collected Company
Creatures
4x Shorecrasher Elemental
4x Silumgar Sorcerer
4x Stratus Dancer
4x Frost Walker
4x Thornwood Falls
4x Hypnotic Siren
4x Kiora's Follower
4x Thassa, God of the Sea
4x Master of Waves
12x Island
4x Temple of Mystery
4x Yavimaya Coast
3x Sidisi's Faithful
4x Encase in Ice
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Aetherspouts
2x Wall of Frost
2x Negate
I ended up going 3-1 last FNM with my own list. I thought it was draft so I didn't have all of my sideboard ready which was awkward and after playing it I think I have to gear more for esper control and GR dragons since about half of the decks were one of the two at the event.
Match 1: UB control 2-1
Game 1: I got sort of land screwed keeping a two land hand with a scry land going second and never dug up a third land. I managed to slow roll into a T3 mana dork who immediately died and I just scooped after doing nothing several turns into this game. It wasn't worth revealing what my deck was to him when it was clear I would not win the game in the long run.
Game 2: I got a fast game on him and ran him down before he could do much.
Game 3: I got a lot of robust guys and the value of recursive creatures carried me through.
Match 2: Esper control 1-2
Game 1: he managed some very early removal which made it harder for me to put pressure on. His Narset really pushed me onto the back foot and bought him a lot of time because I had to kill her. He wrathed me and when I started recovering he started using exile removal to seal off my raptor. He killed me with some random dragons. I lost this game without ever finding a company.
Game 2: I managed a fast curve and had a counterspell when it mattered.
Game 3: It went really long and I got into a situation where the best thing I could do was loop Den Protectors recovering each other. He ended up dropping a lot of walkers and dragons on me which made it more or less impossible to win. He also had brought in Silence the Believers probably from side which was concerning. I lost this game without ever finding a Company.
Match 3: BW warriors 2-0
Game 1: I dropped 3x Heir of the Wilds in this game and he couldnt really deal with them nicely. I swung in with more powerful creatures and kept deathtouch back on defense against him which he couldn't deal with.
Game 2: I got a bit of a slow hand but dropped a Hornet Nest on curve. I was stuck with 3x Company in hand which became awkward but he really slowed down to the Hornet Nest so I morphed in a dork and started flipping Company into tons of value. He came close to killing me with more or less just direct damage from Blood-Chin Fanatic throwing warriors at my face. I think he brought me from 16 life to like 7 life with just throwing creatures through. Personally I think he could have been more aggressive when I dropped the Nest and it could have become awkward for me.
Match 4: Temur dragons (more or less GR dragons but with a little blue in it) 2-1
Game 1: He ramped well and bound up my ground game while continuing to beat me up in the air. It was sort of close but I couldn't interact with his air game unfortunately and it killed me. He finished me off with a monsterous trigger after I drew which was smart because I was ready to flash a creature in response to live but I couldn't do it after drawing.
Game 2: He got land screwed and I played well. He died.
Game 3: He got a slow game and I curved into 3x Knuckleblades on T4 with casting one and hitting two on a company.
I ended up taking 3rd place with second being a more streamlined GR dragons deck loosing to the same esper guy I lost to. Offhand, I want to work on my sideboard more as it seems like I could use a better game vs control dragons as well as vs GR dragons.
After having played it through an FNM I will say that I am fairly happy with it in general. Some thoughts on what I might want to look at offhand.
Stratus Dancer was really solid out of sideboard. I might want to move up to 3x of them as the two I had were very useful and my Flamewake Phoenix sideboard option seemed more questionable.
Netcaster Spider I had been sort of avoiding it before but I am just having too much of an issue with GR dragons. I think I need to consider these guys as a good answer to them as well as its ability to be hit with company. I considered other options such as Plummet and Atarka's Command but the spider seems like it fits well. The big question offhand is if they bring in Anger of the Gods which would be bad for me if my answer is the spider. Anger of the Gods is sort of an issue regardless though so I don't know offhand. So far the upside is if they bring in Anger of the Gods they are probably sideboarding out their ramp game which means my Silumgar Sorcerer plan improves against them.
Fanatic of Xenagos he.... didn't do so well to be honest. I think I might move these to Frost Walker just to see how they play instead. Frost Walker still activates ferocious which seems good. It also potentially moves me up on my clock but it also makes Drown in Sorrow more effective against me which seems like a mixed result sort of a feeling. I will probably try to go light on the Frost Walkers instead for now as perhaps like a 2x of and see how they go for me.
Sagu Mauler I might move to playing a few of these guys in the board for dragon control games. They still have their edicts but honestly I just need a surprise big beater that they cant kill. My morph plan usually puts them on edge and especially after sideboard they are expecting Den Protector and the Stratus Dancer as the face downs so I might move to put 1-2 of these into my board as a surprise big beat. I am having a tough time with some of the esper builds depending on if they are counter and exile based removal because it can stop company as well as my recursive guys.
Overall the deck did well. Fanatic was the only maindeck card I found myself not so happy with. My sideboard needs some work too but overall I like where I am and I felt like I had a good game against every opponent I played.
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[Modern] Allies
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Boon Satyr
4x Deathmist Raptor
3x Den Protector
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Fleecemane Lion
3x Surrak, the Hunt Caller
2x Warden of the First Tree
8x Forest
2x Mana Confluence
2x Plains
4x Temple of Plenty
4x Windswept Heath
2x Wooded Foothills
Instant (10)
4x Collected Company
4x Dromoka's Command
2x Valorous Stance
1x Archetype of Courage
1x Become Immense
1x Den Protector
2x Glare of Heresy
1x Gods Willing
3x Nylea's Disciple
2x Plummet
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Valorous Stance
1x Windstorm
Wins: Mono-B Humans, 2x Atarka Red, Chromantiflayer, UW Control
Loss: G/W Collected Company (mirror)
Draw: Intentional to get into Top 8
I have no idea how I avoided Abzan variants and Esper Dragons all day.
Afterward, I tweaked the deck with the help of a friend and it looks like this now
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Boon Satyr
2x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4x Deathmist Raptor
4x Den Protector
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Fleecemane Lion
2x Warden of the First Tree
2x Blossoming Sands
7x Forest
3x Mana Confluence
2x Plains
4x Temple of Plenty
4x Windswept Heath
Instant (10)
4x Collected Company
4x Dromoka's Command
2x Valorous Stance
1x Archetype of Courage
2x Glare of Heresy
3x Hornet Nest
2x Nylea's Disciple
2x Plummet
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Valorous Stance
2x Whisperwood Elemental
Surraks became 2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos and the fourth Den Protector. Surrak made CC a little awkward at times, but Brimaz can be grabbed off it which I think will help decrease the number of whiffs and half-whiffs.
I know more than half of them aren't worth playing, but speaking as someone who starting playing MTG when Revised Edition came out, it kind of blows my mind how many three drop creatures there are with a power of 4 or more. I remember when Juzám Djinn was considered to be the most powerful creature ever printed ("A 5/5 for 4 mana, what were they thinking?!"), and now its strictly worse than 25 cent rares such as Deadbridge Goliath.
Mainboard I think it slows the game down too much but it might have a place in some count in the sideboard vs control. Running out of gas is generally the leading way to die against control and the haste punching would be very effective against them. Den Protector could help force it through the counters too not to mention the fact that if you are on the play their counters wont be up in time for an on curve cast.
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[Modern] Allies
These seem great to grab off a Collected Company stack
Master of the Feast feels very weak vs control and very strong vs midrange right now. If you expect to see a lot of Dromoka's Command it will be a problem though as it very effectively removes it. This guy seems like he would do well against RG dragons though as he is bigger than their guys and a lot of their removal isnt well suited for him.
Merciless Executioner seems good against the hexproof dragons but if you are playing against control it still leaves him as an awkward drop until they play a creature which feels odd to me. Vs GR dragons they have mana dorks so it really comes down to who is on the play it seems like and or if you are also playing one mana dorks. It seems like you likely would not catch their dragons when you would want to. I feel like he is not that well positioned right now to be honest as he is expensive removal that in my mind doesnt seem that well positioned considering his cost to drop and the current meta.
Pharika, God of Affliction seems fairly good in my mind. She might be a little slow but her tokens can be useful and assuming you are sticking to 2 color creatures she should animate decently.
Rakshasa Deathdealer he is a good creature. He is versatile which is nice and has resistances to removal later on which is good.
In my mind I feel like the Rakshasa and Pharika are going to be the big two to consider and the others seem a little more situational. Mogis's Marauder can be powerful but if you run him it would be in low numbers because he is a poor hit in company because you would have to be casting it before blocks declared on your turn to make it a thing with company. Spiteful Returned is interesting but honestly it just dies to too many creatures in my mind without killing them in return. Pitiless Horde might be decent but its sort of awkward sized in that it still trades with most midrange creatures while also dying to Bile Blight / Anger of the Gods.
Black might open up a little better in the future. The Origins printing of liliana seems interesting to me but that still seems very difficult for an aggro company deck to build around offhand. The multi colored stuff is in my mind more interesting at this time than the pure black options.
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[Modern] Allies
It actually wouldn't be too hard to just slide Rakshasa Deathdealer and Pharika, God of Affliction at least into my new list as Fleecemane becomes Deathdealer and Brimaz becomes Pharika.
How about this?
4x Boon Satyr
4x Deathmist Raptor
4x Den Protector
4x Elvish Mystic
2x Pharika, God of Affliction
4x Rakshasa Deathdealer
4x Sultai Emissary
2x Warden of the First Tree
4x Thoughtseize
Instant (6)
4x Collected Company
2x Ultimate Price
22 Land
Sultai Emissary replaces itself while also helping to recur Deathmist Raptor. Pharika is weak to Dromoka's Command, but that can make things awkward for the opponent because they can't just Counter+Fight to eat a single dude.
You might also turn those Ultimate Price into Murderous Cuts also as a possibility since you are only running two of them. You have to watch Den Protector targets and Raptor but with only two cuts in I think you should still probably see an improvement in maindeck playability of them. The Price would make a good sideboard option to bring up the removal options.
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[Modern] Allies
You're probably right. I've really liked Avatar of the Resolute, but I don't think it fits as well without Dromoka's Command. However, there have been many times when I was happy to cast it as just a 3/2, so it might still work?
There aren't a lot of options that I would want to delve away, so I'm not sure if Murderous Cut would be best. Hero's Downfall would be better, but my reasoning was that most early creatures are mono-colored (except Abzan) anyway, so the cheap cost on Price seemed better.