Is anyone still playing and tuning Death Cloud lists? The release of Growth Spiral got my gears spinning on a potential blue splash list and other cards we could include. Maybe Coiling Oracle and Nissa, Steward of Elements?
It's good to see our lists all starting to converge. Here's what I'm locked into playing for the next month. I want to get data on a couple flex spots and how well they're performing, specifically the Dismember over the 4th Fatal Push, adding a Treetop Village to go up to 20 lands, and testing a 3/3 discard split.
Disdainful stroke has some applications against scaepshift (scapeshift, titan), jeskai (cryptic command, teferi and jace), and there are few other things it hits.
This. It serves largely the same purpose Ceremonious Rejection does, but has greater flexibility in more matchups. I'm willing to be slightly less mana efficient for that personally.
Interesting list, what's the take from this list? 24 lands with 4 manlands. 6 walkers in total. only 12 creatures. only 5 discard spells. Dismember over Cast Down?
He posted his list and matchups he faced in the ModernBUG subreddit, if you want to ask him anything, or I can too if you like.
I've seen Nissa, Steward of Elements being mentioned a few times before. Curious to hear if she is any good in a modern shell like this.
I played her from the board vs. UB control in standard when countermagic vs. creatures for the Scarab God was a thing.
What would you cut for her?
I like Nissa on her own, but I especially like Nissa when paired with Courser of Kruphix for perfect information for her 0 ability the turn we cast her. I made room in my list by cutting a Serum Visions, since her +2 is a similar effect.
What do you think the decks need and where would you slot them in?
I want a playable, maindeckable modal spell like Kolaghan's Command that's reasonably costed. Silumgar's Command could have been it, but was too overcosted, even for Standard.
what made you guys play sultai over abzan/jund/..?
I originally built into Jund and Abzan back in the day, but something about the decks just didn't quite speak to me. The first BUG list I played was Caleb Durward's: https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/modern-bug/
Stubs and Snapcaster were fun, but the deck was a little clunky with 3 Tasigurs.
Courser and Jace were favorite cards from standard, and combined with Goyf and LotV, there was a deck I could truly get behind.
I had been playing variations of it for most of my time in Modern until recently when I went all-in on the delirium plan, inspired by this Jadoth list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/569532
It was certainly an interesting list that could grind with the best of them and had a scary late game, but I missed LotV too much. Reddit and Salvation have modified the deck to be much lower to the ground and aggressive, somewhere between a Death's Shadow deck and BUG Midrange, and it's that middle ground that I really enjoy playing today.
I should add, I swapped the 4th Bauble for a singleton Walking Ballista and it has been playing well, so you converted me and I'm officially on the Ballista hype train now.
Yeah, Kalitas is putting in a ton of work for me too, and I think this is one of the better metas we've had for him in a while with Humans being on top. It's a must-answer threat for them the turn he comes down or it's probably lights out.
Just read an article that explains why the Jund Traverse lists don't run Bauble, and I can't believe I didn't see it. Because they're running BBE, Bauble wouldn't be the greatest hit from cascade. Makes perfect sense because they already have enough bad hits in turn 1 discard.
If I had to guess, it probably has something to do with it not replacing itself if you cast it for 0. With Bauble and Architects of Will, at least you're not down a card on your way to delirium. It makes me wonder if Ballista is best served as a singleton to Traverse for when you need those final points of damage like you stated.
I find it interesting that these 4C/Jund lists we've started to see pop up on leagues prefer Architects of Will over Bauble too. Traditionally we've seen something like a 3/1 split in BUG, favoring Baubles, as paying for the cycling mana makes a difference in the first few turns of the game in an aggressive meta.
I feel there is a lot more action going on in this topic, Could Delirium and Midrange possibly be fused into one topic? (Like abzan) since at the base, both decks use the same BGx midrange shell.
I’m not sure how officially merging threads works, but we could unnoficially start sharing thoughts here. Like you stated, the lists are actually quite similar and just exchange a few cards here and there.
Lastly, why no IoK/Thoughtseize? I found it helps to set up my Serum visions and decision paths of what to counter/kill
I agree that IoK and TS would probably be a good addition here. With 4 Goyf, this at least opens up the line of Turn 1 Discard into Turn 2 Goyf. It also gives you more sorceries to grow Goyf early so he's less likely to die to Bolt on turn 2, because I rarely consider Serum Visions a great turn 1 play anyway.
However, this assumes that's a playstyle you like, which it may not be and that's why you built the list the way you did.
Small update: I've added a second Cast Down to my list, removing the second Abrupt Decay. As flexible as Decay is, there's too many large creatures floating around for me to justify 6 removal spells that don't hit Tasigur, Gurmag Angler, Reality Smasher and Hollow One. While Cast Down misses Tasigur, it's really only a singleton in Hollow One and it hits the rest of their deck. Another option I've considered but haven't tested yet, is going down to 3 Fatal Push instead, which may also be a viable option in a certain meta. Right now, I value the turn 1 removal more than Decay though.
I've also gone back up to 2 copies of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Scavenging Ooze, while cutting Hostage Taker and Courser of Kruphix. Courser is still one of my favorite cards, but Scavenging Ooze's ability to grow big quickly and tear apart graveyards is too important right now. And JVP is still an all-star in a deck that's land light and our mana efficiency really matters. A single copy of Snapcaster Mage is still great to Traverse for when needed though.
What sultai needed to be playable was a good removal and Cast Down is overperforming in my test.
I agree. I just added a second copy in my lists, removing an Abrupt Decay, which hasn't been too impressive as of late. I think we still want at least one moving forward.
As far as a playable BUG list right now, don't sleep on BUG Delirium either. Creating massive Tarmogoyfs is a great way to stonewall Thought-Knot Seers, Reality Smashers, Gurmag Anglers, Tasigurs, and Hollow Ones, while also racing the smaller creature decks. Plus, we have Grim Flayer as an additional clock that sets up our draws. He's been easier to connect with now that we have better removal for the previously mentioned threats, and in a delirium build, he's a 4/4 most of the time.
That sounds reasonable. I was super high on Azcanta not too long ago, but things seem to have sped up to the point where it's hard to justify running multiple.
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Polluted Delta
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Watery Grave
1x Breeding Pool
2x Blooming Marsh
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Treetop Village
2x Swamp
1x Forest
1x Island
// Planeswalker (4)
3x Liliana of the Veil
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
4x Mishra's Bauble
// Creature (13)
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Grim Flayer
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
// Instant (8)
3x Fatal Push
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Cast Down
1x Dismember
// Sorcery (11)
4x Traverse the Ulvenwald
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Thoughtseize
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Collective Brutality
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Negate
1x Golgari Charm
1x Damnation
1x Fulminator Mage
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Shriekmaw
Stubs and Snapcaster were fun, but the deck was a little clunky with 3 Tasigurs.
I evolved the deck for a little bit, but it wasn't until I came across Justin Pasquino's deck tech that I truly fell in love with BUG:
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/sultai_control_with_justin_pas.html
Courser and Jace were favorite cards from standard, and combined with Goyf and LotV, there was a deck I could truly get behind.
I had been playing variations of it for most of my time in Modern until recently when I went all-in on the delirium plan, inspired by this Jadoth list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/569532
It was certainly an interesting list that could grind with the best of them and had a scary late game, but I missed LotV too much. Reddit and Salvation have modified the deck to be much lower to the ground and aggressive, somewhere between a Death's Shadow deck and BUG Midrange, and it's that middle ground that I really enjoy playing today.
I find it interesting that these 4C/Jund lists we've started to see pop up on leagues prefer Architects of Will over Bauble too. Traditionally we've seen something like a 3/1 split in BUG, favoring Baubles, as paying for the cycling mana makes a difference in the first few turns of the game in an aggressive meta.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1090346
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1084938
However, this assumes that's a playstyle you like, which it may not be and that's why you built the list the way you did.
I've also gone back up to 2 copies of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Scavenging Ooze, while cutting Hostage Taker and Courser of Kruphix. Courser is still one of my favorite cards, but Scavenging Ooze's ability to grow big quickly and tear apart graveyards is too important right now. And JVP is still an all-star in a deck that's land light and our mana efficiency really matters. A single copy of Snapcaster Mage is still great to Traverse for when needed though.
As far as a playable BUG list right now, don't sleep on BUG Delirium either. Creating massive Tarmogoyfs is a great way to stonewall Thought-Knot Seers, Reality Smashers, Gurmag Anglers, Tasigurs, and Hollow Ones, while also racing the smaller creature decks. Plus, we have Grim Flayer as an additional clock that sets up our draws. He's been easier to connect with now that we have better removal for the previously mentioned threats, and in a delirium build, he's a 4/4 most of the time.