What do you guys think of Deep-Sea Kraken? Has this card already been experimented with? Seems like a solid threat against most decks and can end the game rather quickly (even quicker with a Thassa in play). I might try replacing Gideon and Elspeth with two of these...
So I'm not super experienced with the deck but I think the issue with the Kraken is that the 2U suspend means that you're suspending it at a sort of awkward point in the curve when I think you'd rather be getting ready to balance and/or deploy a clique. Also, I'm not sure how useful the "Whenever an opponent plays a spell" clause is going to be, since decks using creatures spells as threats get balanced (i.e. Aggro), and decks using instants/sorceries as threats (i.e. Storm) are going to win before you get a chance to attack with the Kraken. Just my 2cents.
Bitterblossom is interesting, though I'm a bit more concerned with the other side of the coin, apart from dumping hand whats the plan to deal with a hoard of Blossom tokens getting in under the wall?
-I am very interested in finding room for 1+ Vedalken Shackles, but I need some serious contortions to my manabase to make it happen. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this?
I tried to figure this out, but I think the need for a really relevant number of islands is just too burdensome. I like having access to a bunch of utility lands since we're only 2 colors, and having to jam Islands to play a shackles just feels like too much work.
I really prefer Ghost Quarter to Tec Edge just for the random cases where you Ghost Quarter your own Darksteel Citadel for a basic color you might be missing. Pretty corner case, but its otherwise a pretty marginal difference so I tend toward Ghost
-Those who play Liliana of the Veil, I assume she works really really well for you? I am considering making the financial jump for a playset, and I want to know beforehand that it's worth it.
I dunno, someone with more experience with Lili can probably speak better to this, but I've recently cut my Lili number from 3 to 2. With all the ramp you can dump your hand pretty well to take advantage of the +1 but I just rarely feel like I want to put down a Lili over a lot of the other useful stuff in the deck.
-Thopter Foundry: has anyone made this card effective? I want to love it, but it just looks like I don't want to sac any of my artifacts to it, and it seems to do too little (and it's CMC is 2).
-Wurmcoil Engine vs Batterskull - which is the better finisher? I have a 1/1 split right now, although my hunch is that Wurmcoil Engine is slightly better overall I am really not sure.
I really like Thopter Foundry in the late game, I feel like Saccing rocks and the like for some fliers and a bit of life has been very useful when I've had it. And as a 1 off it's not really getting in the way of other stuff i'd rather play. Personally I think Wurmcoil is the way to go if you want one of them, but I don't any of either in my MD. From my end, I feel like Tezz has always been a sufficient MD wincon and Wurmcoil comes in for me if I really need something against more aggro decks.
That's all I've got, surely someone with more experience can give some better insights though.
It sort of depends on whether you rate splashes as full colors, since Kiki Pod Decks are typically Naya with a Blue splash and B/G/x variants will occasionally splash a 4th color for certain cards.
Among the Top Tier I think those are the only ones I can think of.
EDIT: There's also 4c Gifts Control, which isn't exactly top tier, but is pretty solid.
restore balance has highest chance of leaving a board clear of creatures.
while we want to couple it with greater gargeddon that doesn't seem to always play out the way we want, as JimbothePie seem to be experiencing. (if i followed your posts correctly Jimbo, no offence.)
yea, you're spot on, don't worry about it :P.
Thanks for the tips, I'll see how the tweaks help.
Boom is currently in the SB partially because I'm not sure what I want to be cutting for it in the MB and partially because I'm not entirely clear what happens when you cascade into it.
What do you think the cut would be if I wanted to move Boom into the MB?
That's fair enough. I'd just been having issues with late game no-post when I can't get a gargadon to armageddon, so I was looking for ways to get some extra pressure down later.
I may potentially just swap to a post build since I'm increasingly finding that no-post games where I dont find a gargadon just end up playing like crappy living end
How do madness creatures interact with a Restore Balance?
i.e. if you pay the madness cost on Reckless Wurm while pitching to Balance does it add to the creature count or does it hit play afterward?
If after, is there consideration to maybe 1 or 2 of Madness dudes for later game balances where you might find yourself needing to add to the board faster?
So I just started playing a no-post list, and it sometimes feels like if i'm not able to armageddon during my balance (no gargodon etc) some decks (affinity, etc) can just rebuild faster than your suspend dudes can come down to close the game out. Just curious what the plan is against faster decks when your balance takes out their initial wave of threats, but they're going to stabilize faster than you can clock them.
Is this actually a regular issue, or am I just dealing with some bad instances in my limited play.
Venser Acid is probably one of my favorite janky combos ever, though it always makes me wish you could +1 at instant speed, so much potential.
Manawise, I'd be curious to see if Gemstone Mine would work better than the Ice Bridge, budget wise they're not too much more expensive iirc. Same with 3 or 4 Seachrome coast
Personally I'd really want to run some mulldrifter somewhere in the maindeck (its a bit of a pet card of mine), this deck seems like it would love the draw 2 but it may be too cute. I'll defer to you there. Definitely interested to see where this heads.
I think typically modern is open and regulated enough that you could probably do decently at casual tournaments with a competent homebrew, but it probably depends on how spiky the other players are likely to be. I wouldn't put tons of money into your brew, but if the brew is fun and relatively coherent it wouldn't hurt to put some effort into it and see where it takes you.
So I'm not necessarily in a position to go out a buy a 75 card competitive legacy deck, but I'd like to get an idea of what sort of decks might fit my style. I originally looked into buying into modern, but was sort of turned off by the fact that competitive decks almost always need to be insanely proactive. I personally like toolbox-y, grindy decks and my preferred style of game is an interactive but mostly reactive style. Thoughts?
The decision trees in Pod are pretty decent, you're plan is to combo out if possible, but between Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling you have great ways to search out silverbullet value depending on what you're facing. Sometimes you're looking to combo out, sometimes you're beating down, sometime you're podding disruption, it's pretty fluid
I'm admittedly not especially well versed in the modern metagame, but what specifically is holding down the Primetime version of Scapeshift lists. I can see how lists concentrating on the big Scapeshift kill would suffer from a lot of the incidental lifegain and disruption, but it seems to me that the Primetime list wouldn't suffer from the same issues.
Favorite Playstyle (Aggro, Midrange, Control, Combo): Control/Toolbox
How Competitive (For Fun, Local Tournament, MTGO, PTQ/GP): FNM Competitive, wouldn't be embarrassed to play it at a GP Side Event
Favorite Cards/Colors: U/W, Spellstutter Sprite, Ghostly Prison/Propaganda, Astral Slide
Budget: Would prefer not to have to buy singles > $40 (i.e. no fetches)
Staples Owned: 2 Snapcaster Mage, 2 Mutavault, 2 Aether Vial, SoLaS, 1 V Clique, 1 Spellskite, 2 Remand.
I've posted in this thread in the past, but this time I'm mostly looking for suggestions on if there exists a budget toolbox-y control-y archetype for modern. It doesn't need to be PTQ competitive or anything, but should hopefully at least have a shot in small scale organized play. Mostly I'm looking for something with a bit less linear of a playstyle that has a lot of interaction designed to disrupt an opposing game plan.
So I'm not super experienced with the deck but I think the issue with the Kraken is that the 2U suspend means that you're suspending it at a sort of awkward point in the curve when I think you'd rather be getting ready to balance and/or deploy a clique. Also, I'm not sure how useful the "Whenever an opponent plays a spell" clause is going to be, since decks using creatures spells as threats get balanced (i.e. Aggro), and decks using instants/sorceries as threats (i.e. Storm) are going to win before you get a chance to attack with the Kraken. Just my 2cents.
I tried to figure this out, but I think the need for a really relevant number of islands is just too burdensome. I like having access to a bunch of utility lands since we're only 2 colors, and having to jam Islands to play a shackles just feels like too much work.
I like 2, sometimes it turns into a relevant 2-turn clock with Tezzeret, but a lot of the time its just sort of meh for me.
I really prefer Ghost Quarter to Tec Edge just for the random cases where you Ghost Quarter your own Darksteel Citadel for a basic color you might be missing. Pretty corner case, but its otherwise a pretty marginal difference so I tend toward Ghost
I dunno, someone with more experience with Lili can probably speak better to this, but I've recently cut my Lili number from 3 to 2. With all the ramp you can dump your hand pretty well to take advantage of the +1 but I just rarely feel like I want to put down a Lili over a lot of the other useful stuff in the deck.
I really like Thopter Foundry in the late game, I feel like Saccing rocks and the like for some fliers and a bit of life has been very useful when I've had it. And as a 1 off it's not really getting in the way of other stuff i'd rather play. Personally I think Wurmcoil is the way to go if you want one of them, but I don't any of either in my MD. From my end, I feel like Tezz has always been a sufficient MD wincon and Wurmcoil comes in for me if I really need something against more aggro decks.
That's all I've got, surely someone with more experience can give some better insights though.
Among the Top Tier I think those are the only ones I can think of.
EDIT: There's also 4c Gifts Control, which isn't exactly top tier, but is pretty solid.
yea, you're spot on, don't worry about it :P.
Thanks for the tips, I'll see how the tweaks help.
4 Durkwood Baloth
4 Keldon Halberdier
4 Nihilith
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Violent Outburst
4 Ardent Plea
4 Restore Balance
2 Demonic Dread
2 Thieves' Fortune
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Arid Mesa
4 City of Brass
3 Reflecting Pool
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Mountain
2 Beast Within
2 Lingering Souls
4 Ricochet Trap
1 Damping Matrix
2 Firespout
3 Boom // Bust
Boom is currently in the SB partially because I'm not sure what I want to be cutting for it in the MB and partially because I'm not entirely clear what happens when you cascade into it.
What do you think the cut would be if I wanted to move Boom into the MB?
I may potentially just swap to a post build since I'm increasingly finding that no-post games where I dont find a gargadon just end up playing like crappy living end
i.e. if you pay the madness cost on Reckless Wurm while pitching to Balance does it add to the creature count or does it hit play afterward?
If after, is there consideration to maybe 1 or 2 of Madness dudes for later game balances where you might find yourself needing to add to the board faster?
Is this actually a regular issue, or am I just dealing with some bad instances in my limited play.
Manawise, I'd be curious to see if Gemstone Mine would work better than the Ice Bridge, budget wise they're not too much more expensive iirc. Same with 3 or 4 Seachrome coast
Personally I'd really want to run some mulldrifter somewhere in the maindeck (its a bit of a pet card of mine), this deck seems like it would love the draw 2 but it may be too cute. I'll defer to you there. Definitely interested to see where this heads.
Any insights?
How Competitive (For Fun, Local Tournament, MTGO, PTQ/GP): FNM Competitive, wouldn't be embarrassed to play it at a GP Side Event
Favorite Cards/Colors: U/W, Spellstutter Sprite, Ghostly Prison/Propaganda, Astral Slide
Budget: Would prefer not to have to buy singles > $40 (i.e. no fetches)
Staples Owned: 2 Snapcaster Mage, 2 Mutavault, 2 Aether Vial, SoLaS, 1 V Clique, 1 Spellskite, 2 Remand.
I've posted in this thread in the past, but this time I'm mostly looking for suggestions on if there exists a budget toolbox-y control-y archetype for modern. It doesn't need to be PTQ competitive or anything, but should hopefully at least have a shot in small scale organized play. Mostly I'm looking for something with a bit less linear of a playstyle that has a lot of interaction designed to disrupt an opposing game plan.