Okay, okay, a 3 drop with no ETB effect in a format with a 4 mana wrath in one of the best decks is probably just bad. The text on this card has me drooling: a card advantage engine on an above rate flyer. So I guess that I am talking about fun FNM decks.
I like fun FNM decks! Please help with ideas and decklists.
Jeskai is an option but maybe to ambitious. I really think that an Aggro Boros can be the most reasonable/safe shelter for her.
She is already good by herself and synergizes with the great adition of Tenth District Legionnaire, the best heroic card after Favored Hoplite.
The new Gideon is also a reason to play an Boros Aggro. He and Tenth can be targeted by Reckless Rage all day, killing all the enemies creatures. He can also after 2 turns, exile any nonland permanent. It´s weird because is a deck that can be really fast, but can adapt itself to play safely with the help of Gideon and Sheltering Light.
The pump spells can also be played defensively agaisnt red decks, where integrity/intervation can play a big role.
Nice work Ryder052! Lots of good finds. Gird for Battle and Wee Dragonauts stand out to me. Since I change decks so often, I want to ask you to make/lead the thread in Deck Creation when the spoiler is complete (but "no" is always a fine answer).
There are so many ways to do this. If we could reliably get Arcanist to 3 power, imagine a turn of Heroic Reinforcements then recast Heroic Reinforcements with Arcanist.
One idea is an evasive aggro deck, something like the following, but I want a heroic 1-drop so much it hurts. A shared creature type for Unclaimed Territory would be useful also (Jeskai can use wizard for Arcanist and Beamsplitter):
Edited to fill in sideboard.
Sure, I'm heavily considering this archetype to be "my thing" once WAR hits, I may as well lead the deck thread.
Heroic Reinforcements looks like a good, but slow card. It kinda wants to be built around. I'd personally prefer to cast a smaller pump spell and leave mana open for protection. There are a few differing styles Feather can go with, one is straightforward aggro, another is aggro-control, even midrange is viable with Naya.
Other than budget reasons though, there is no reason to stay in pure Boros.
A few thoughts after initial couple of games:
- Feather works, if you can keep her alive she wins games alone.
- The deck really wants mana to keep casting those recurring spells and still have some open for protection.
- Dreadhorde Arcanist is good, but weak on its own, I cut him down to 3
- Beamsplitter Mage wins games, just he and any other creature can give a solid beating and can both be protected from wrath effect with one card
- Sheltering Light can't reliably protect Feather on T4 due to mana issues (exactly RWWW required)
- Adamant Will is nice as it provides both pump and protection
- Dovin's Veto is like the best card in this deck right after Feather. Just stops everything.
- Stealth Mission is great in that the buff persists, so with Feather she gets bigger every turn.
- Feather + Essence Capture is hard lockdown vs midrange. Against other decks it's not so good, so probably SB material.
- Reckless Rage worked ok'ish so far
- Run Amok is bad in that you can't cast it twice with Arcanist
- Defiant Strike is weak without Feather or Beamsplitter.
About interactions:
It's disappointing that Feather's trigger is not optional and you can't have two activations with her + Arcanist on the same turn.
She can, however, return to your hand cards that were in the graveyard before she hit the field and are revived by Arcanist.
Guys, I think you're sleeping on Samut's Sprint if you're building around Feather and Dreadhorde Arcanist, it has amazing synergy with both of those cards, I think it deserves to be tested, getting +4/+2 and Scry 2 for R using the Arcanist sounds better than Run Amok, since the Arcanist has built-in Trample, and Feather already flies, so having even more card filtering should improve the consistency of the deck, Run Amok may help you go all-in faster, but card filtering is nothing to scoff at, and I may even try it over Defiant Strike, +1/+0 sounds too weak even with the cantrip effect.
The builds I had best results with were aggressive. One of my best creatures was Lagonna Band Trailblazer, an 0/4 for 1. The effects we were trying to exploit were not huge, a few counters. So I found that I needed to nearly win before the midrange and controlling decks got rolling.
But this is a different deck and a different meta, so that may all be incorrect. There are also a lot of ways to take this, and the different builds may perform differently against different other decks. But I get defensive when I am told that budget is the only reason to run pure Boros. I did it because I envisioned an aggro build and game plan. Aggro is not the only game plan, and I can't really argue that it's the best without a lot of testing, but it seems like a possible game plan that may excel in some meta.
I love the idea of Essence Capture, but UU seems hard. I am thinking that we will need all the random scry effects like those on the Tenth District Legionnaire that I have been ignoring. All our versions will be somewhat combo-ish, needing a good distribution of lands, creatures and spells to be powerful.
Maybe you're right hoser about Boros pure aggro being a valid choice, I just don't think you can't gain anything by including another color given the landbase we have atm. You can splash even for one card. Seeing your list, it looks like Pteramander could be a solid contender to swap Rustwing Falcon for.
More results: Defiant Strike is bad in Jeskai. It's only any good with Feather, otherwise it's just a silly cantrip and the deck does not have the time to sift through the deck, it wants value ASAP. Removed completely.
Cut Dreadhorde Arcanist down to 2. Again, Jeskai isn't about trying to all-in with all the cards in your hand, Arcanist can be explosive with the right setup, but this 1 power does not make him an ideal 2-drop. Tenth District Legionnaire is effective on it's own, 4-of atm. Reckless Rage up to 4. It's R for 4 damage, dope. What's silly, it doesn't fizzle when its target gains hexproof and gets back to hand with Feather anyway
I would caution attempting to ramp this card out on T2 with Llanowar Elves You need about 20 white sources to get Feather, the redeemed on T2, not only that you need 13-14 untapped sources of green for Llanowar Elves.
The main problem with this is you would have to have 3 dual lands in your hand and or draw it on your next turn which means you have to already have Feather, the Redeemed and Enter the unknown
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
On the draw, playing a T3 Feather into a T4 Kaya's Wrath seems bad.
I am also a strong believer in my ignorance and the value of testing everything anyone thinks is good.
We need an effective combination of lands, creatures and pump spells. I can see putting in card selection cantrips like Opt. Getting good combinations of ramp, lands, creatures and pump spells doesn't seem impossible. But counting on that possibility just seems fraught to me.
Currently I am most interested in Boros Aggro, Naya Aggro and Jeskai Tempo versions.
I just don't see it being very feasable. To ramp the card on T2.
Also playing any card into T4 Wrath feels bad.
I think Jeskai/boros will be really interesting. Boros with green splash maybe. I wonder if Mardu is a possibility.
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"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
I can think of only two cards that can deal with T1 Grazer into T2 Feather and those are Lava Coil and Walk the Plank. If you manage to untap with a protection spell, it’s party time.
Other than this scenario, you’re not supposed to play her and hope she’s not going to be removed. Wait a turn or two more then land her with mana open for Adamant Will or Dive down
Mardu doesn’t have anything for Feather, only Blessing of Belzenlok, no good creature targets and removal is available in RW already.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Discard spells and counters are not removal. Out of the cards you listed, only Baffling End,Price of Fame and Collision would get there in time before you could protect Feather on your own turn 3. Still, fairly limited options.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
I've found Mardu to be pretty good at racing opposing creature decks. I play 4 Blessing of Belzenlok, lifelink is huge and it's been a better Intergity overall.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
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Okay, okay, a 3 drop with no ETB effect in a format with a 4 mana wrath in one of the best decks is probably just bad. The text on this card has me drooling: a card advantage engine on an above rate flyer. So I guess that I am talking about fun FNM decks.
I like fun FNM decks! Please help with ideas and decklists.
Abraham Stein has an article on Star City Games here.
The obvious companions:
Do we have enough multicolor cards to emphasize multiple colors? Multicolors matter cards:
Let's fight! Naya options:
Removal got you down? Jeskai options (credit Ryder052!):
Does she work with Judith? Mardu anyone?
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Another card I think belongs to this deck is Dreadhorde Arcanist.
To sum up, for creatures we have:
Beamsplitter Mage, Tenth District Legionnaire, Dreadhorde Arcanist and Feather, the Redeemed.
And I'm not even sure the deck should include all of these. Weirdly I'd drop Tenth District Legionnaire first in favor of Tajic, Legion's Edge or Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice to help the Arcanist a little.
She is already good by herself and synergizes with the great adition of Tenth District Legionnaire, the best heroic card after Favored Hoplite.
The new Gideon is also a reason to play an Boros Aggro. He and Tenth can be targeted by Reckless Rage all day, killing all the enemies creatures. He can also after 2 turns, exile any nonland permanent. It´s weird because is a deck that can be really fast, but can adapt itself to play safely with the help of Gideon and Sheltering Light.
The pump spells can also be played defensively agaisnt red decks, where integrity/intervation can play a big role.
1 Dauntless Bodyguard
1 Skirk Prospector
2 Tenth District Legionnaire
2 Dreadhorde Arcanist
2 Tithe Taker
2 Adanto Vanguard
3 Feather, the Redeemed
3 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
3 Tajic, Legion's Edge
Straight Buffs:
1 Integrity//Intervention
1 Gird for Battle
1 Storm Strike
2 Sure Strike
2 Battlefield Promotion
1 Sheltering Light
2 Adamant Will
2 Assure // Assemble
2 Justiciar's Portal
Evasion:
1 Arrester's Zeal
2 Desperate Lunge
2 Run Amok
Haste:
1 Maximize Velocity
1 Samut's Sprint
Card Advantage:
1 Defiant Strike
4 Ajani's Influence
Answers:
1 Reckless Rage
1 Dual Shot
2 Bedeck // Bedazzle
4 Seismic Shift
4 Gravitic Punch
UnFeatherable:
1 Shock
1 Shivan Fire
1 Thud
2 Lightning Strike
2 Finale of Promise
2 Revival // Revenge
3 Slaughter the Strong
3 Deafening Clarion
3 Unbreakable Formation
3 Chance for Glory
4 Heroic Reinforcements
4 Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants
1 Pteramander
2 Beamsplitter Mage
2 Goblin Electromancer
3 Adeliz, the Cinder Wind
3 Wee Dragonauts
4 God-Eternal Kefnet
Protection:
1 Dive Down
2 Teferi's Time Twist
1 Maximize Altitude
3 Stealth Mission
Answers:
2 Essence Capture
Others:
1 Invert//Invent
2 Depose // Deploy
3 Quasiduplicate
3 Role Reversal
1 Incubation // Incongruity
1 Spell Pierce
2 Dovin's Veto
2 Mission Briefing
2 Narset's Reversal
3 Narset, Parter of Veils
3 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Bond of Insight
1 Arboreal Grazer
1 Pelt Collector
2 Growth-Chamber Guardian
2 Huatli's Raptor
2 Incubation Druid
3 Gruul Spellbreaker
3 Hallar, the Firefletcher
4 Vine Mare
6 Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner
1 Giant Growth
1 Might of the Masses
2 Gift of Strength
2 Gift of Growth
2 Collision // Colossus
3 Courage in Crisis
4 Emergent Growth
6 Bounty of Might
1 Prey Upon
2 Thrash // Threat
2 Domri's Ambush
3 Band Together
Others:
1 Enter the Unknown
UnFeatherable:
1 Incubation // Incongruity
2 Cindervines
2 Finale of Devastation
2 Dreadhorde Butcher
2 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Isareth the Awakener
Straight Buffs:
1 Blessing of Belzenlok
Protection:
2 Abnormal Endurance
2 Unlikely Aid
1 Fungal Infection
3 Bleeding Edge
5 Yawgmoth's Vile Offering
UnFeatherable:
1 Kaya's Ghostform
1 Duress
2 Angrath's Rampage
2 Despark
2 Moment of Craving
2 Sorin's Thirst
3 Bedevil
3 Mortify
4 Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
6 Bolas's Citadel
2 Applied Biomancy
3 Journey to Eternity
4 Artful Takedown
My Jeskai current version:
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Dreadhorde Arcanist
3 Adeliz, the Cinder Wind
4 Beamsplitter Mage
4 Feather, the Redeemed
Land
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
1 Plains
3 Clifftop Retreat
2 Sulfur Falls
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Dive Down
2 Adamant Will
3 Dovin's Veto
3 Defiant Strike
Sorcery
3 Chart a Course
2 Stealth Mission
1 Finale of Promise
3 Spell Pierce
1 Dive Down
2 Sheltering Light
3 Reckless Rage
3 Essence Capture
1 Dovin's Veto
2 Narset's Reversal
There are so many ways to do this. If we could reliably get Arcanist to 3 power, imagine a turn of Heroic Reinforcements then recast Heroic Reinforcements with Arcanist.
One idea is an evasive aggro deck, something like the following, but I want a heroic 1-drop so much it hurts. A shared creature type for Unclaimed Territory would be useful also (Jeskai can use wizard for Arcanist and Beamsplitter):
Edited to fill in sideboard.
4 Rustwing Falcon
4 Dreadhorde Arcanist
2 Tithe Taker
4 Tenth District Legionnaire
3 Feather, the Redeemed
Enchantment
3 Legion's Landing
4 History of Benalia
2 Conclave Tribunal
Land
1 Mountain
8 Plains
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Boros Guildgate
1 Sheltering Light
1 Adamant Will
1 Run Amok
4 Defiant Strike
Sorcery
2 Heroic Reinforcements
4 Gird for Battle
2 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
2 Conclave Tribunal
3 Reckless Rage
3 Unbreakable Formation
3 Lava Coil
2 Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Heroic Reinforcements looks like a good, but slow card. It kinda wants to be built around. I'd personally prefer to cast a smaller pump spell and leave mana open for protection. There are a few differing styles Feather can go with, one is straightforward aggro, another is aggro-control, even midrange is viable with Naya.
Other than budget reasons though, there is no reason to stay in pure Boros.
- Feather works, if you can keep her alive she wins games alone.
- The deck really wants mana to keep casting those recurring spells and still have some open for protection.
- Dreadhorde Arcanist is good, but weak on its own, I cut him down to 3
- Beamsplitter Mage wins games, just he and any other creature can give a solid beating and can both be protected from wrath effect with one card
- Sheltering Light can't reliably protect Feather on T4 due to mana issues (exactly RWWW required)
- Adamant Will is nice as it provides both pump and protection
- Dovin's Veto is like the best card in this deck right after Feather. Just stops everything.
- Stealth Mission is great in that the buff persists, so with Feather she gets bigger every turn.
- Feather + Essence Capture is hard lockdown vs midrange. Against other decks it's not so good, so probably SB material.
- Reckless Rage worked ok'ish so far
- Run Amok is bad in that you can't cast it twice with Arcanist
- Defiant Strike is weak without Feather or Beamsplitter.
About interactions:
It's disappointing that Feather's trigger is not optional and you can't have two activations with her + Arcanist on the same turn.
She can, however, return to your hand cards that were in the graveyard before she hit the field and are revived by Arcanist.
Updated my decklist
Confession time: the last time I worked with Heroic was with Hardened Scales, this: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/standard-archives/572598-gwx-hardened-heroic-counter-madness
The builds I had best results with were aggressive. One of my best creatures was Lagonna Band Trailblazer, an 0/4 for 1. The effects we were trying to exploit were not huge, a few counters. So I found that I needed to nearly win before the midrange and controlling decks got rolling.
But this is a different deck and a different meta, so that may all be incorrect. There are also a lot of ways to take this, and the different builds may perform differently against different other decks. But I get defensive when I am told that budget is the only reason to run pure Boros. I did it because I envisioned an aggro build and game plan. Aggro is not the only game plan, and I can't really argue that it's the best without a lot of testing, but it seems like a possible game plan that may excel in some meta.
I love the idea of Essence Capture, but UU seems hard. I am thinking that we will need all the random scry effects like those on the Tenth District Legionnaire that I have been ignoring. All our versions will be somewhat combo-ish, needing a good distribution of lands, creatures and spells to be powerful.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Another nice find: Incubation // Incongruity works very well in decks with few creatures.
More results:
Defiant Strike is bad in Jeskai. It's only any good with Feather, otherwise it's just a silly cantrip and the deck does not have the time to sift through the deck, it wants value ASAP. Removed completely.
Cut Dreadhorde Arcanist down to 2. Again, Jeskai isn't about trying to all-in with all the cards in your hand, Arcanist can be explosive with the right setup, but this 1 power does not make him an ideal 2-drop.
Tenth District Legionnaire is effective on it's own, 4-of atm.
Reckless Rage up to 4. It's R for 4 damage, dope. What's silly, it doesn't fizzle when its target gains hexproof and gets back to hand with Feather anyway
T1: Temple Garden, Llanowar Elves
T2: Tap Elves, Enter the Unknown, Rootbound Crag, Sunpetal Grove, Feather
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
The main problem with this is you would have to have 3 dual lands in your hand and or draw it on your next turn which means you have to already have Feather, the Redeemed and Enter the unknown
-Stay Frosty
I am also a strong believer in my ignorance and the value of testing everything anyone thinks is good.
We need an effective combination of lands, creatures and pump spells. I can see putting in card selection cantrips like Opt. Getting good combinations of ramp, lands, creatures and pump spells doesn't seem impossible. But counting on that possibility just seems fraught to me.
Currently I am most interested in Boros Aggro, Naya Aggro and Jeskai Tempo versions.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Also playing any card into T4 Wrath feels bad.
I think Jeskai/boros will be really interesting. Boros with green splash maybe. I wonder if Mardu is a possibility.
-Stay Frosty
Other than this scenario, you’re not supposed to play her and hope she’s not going to be removed. Wait a turn or two more then land her with mana open for Adamant Will or Dive down
Mardu doesn’t have anything for Feather, only Blessing of Belzenlok, no good creature targets and removal is available in RW already.
Thought Erasure
Lava Coil
others:
Lightning Strike + Fanatical Firebrand rare but it happens
Essence Scatter
Thrash \\ Threat can happen off T2 Steel-Leaf really rare play.
Syncopate
Quench
Price of Fame rare but just a reminder
Baffling End
Mortify
Bedevil
Collision \\ Colossus
There is some exile based stuff in there but can't remember off the top of my head.
-Stay Frosty
Again, any of these cards can get there depending on how your OP chooses to play.
-Stay Frosty
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Yea assuming you get a T2 feather up and assuming you have protection.
-Stay Frosty