Carrion Feeder could push the old Finks combo decks. Now each piece of the combo has a 5-8 of redundancy: Melira/Vizer, Finks/Redcap, Feeder/Viscera Seer.
I also believe Eldamaris Call is being slept on. Possibly as inclusion in the above-mentioned combo deck but also in many other creature decks that might like a toolbox approach.
Time to ignite a debate: how many "canopy lands" should Dredge run? The colour fixing isn't the best with these lands, but man does popping one for a Dredge feel so good. Legacy does the equivalent of play 4 (with Cephalid Coliseum), complete with the colour un-fixing.
I think Dredge will likely end up running at least 2. It's worth remembering it essentially costs 2 Mana to activate the lands ability, so activating one of these for a single Dredge is pretty inefficient compared to 2 Mana for reunion or conflag or loam. That said, I think it'll increase the overall win percentage by a solid margin.
What I'm interested in is how fast we could potentially play that new delve/convoke 8/8 trampler. Potentially turn 2 in my brief tests
Carrion Feeder reprint seems interesting. Could potentially see a return to builds running viscera seer, especially with the addition of eldamaris call.
Each piece of the combo now has an additional piece of redundancy, if that's the way you wanted to go. Could toss in devoted druid for an alternate wincon and go "all in" on it.
I think Finale of Devastation is a strong enough card to consider slightly reconfiguring the deck for. I think it cleanly replaces Coco and doing so loses you all that comes with CoCo. That means your deck can't rebuild after a wipe as quickly.
It also means you no longer have that pesky deck restriction of running X number of 3cmc or less creatures to nearly always get two hits. It also means you no longer need to reduce the number of noncreatute spells you play in order to maximize coco hits.
Coco improved resiliency, but thanks to the reanimate part of FoD that might not be as big a factor.
Hell, without coco in the mix there's no reason not to try cards you'd never previously have used, like the new 2 mana eldritch evolution, planeswalkers, artifacts/enchantment, etc.
Finale of Devastation replaces collected company in the druid combo deck, making it way more consistent now with 8 chord type effects
I definitely agree. It feels like no one has picked up on the fact that the "and/or graveyard" part of the spell gives the deck additional resiliency as well as more consistency, and the 'overcharge' version is its own wincon, in the event your combo pieces are gone.
Together that makes Finale of Devastation my pick for sleeper hit of the set, creatures toolbox with 8 chord effects where 4 of those chords are also reanimates if they need to be will be a massive hit in the new modern meta.
Im not the only one who thought Finale of Promise will slot right in to UR Storm, am I? It works so well with a deck with tons of rituals that wants to be casting tons of spells per turn. Even ignoring the "supercharged" version, casting it for X=2 and getting to cast a ritual and grapeshot for free sounds like some craaaazy gas.
The deck can only support so many 4 drop spells and Gifts Ungiven still seems better.
My guess would be this card fits more of a past in flames roll than gifts. It also works really well with gifts as a sort-of copy of past in flames that you can fetch alongside PIF since they have different names.
Im not the only one who thought Finale of Promise will slot right in to UR Storm, am I? It works so well with a deck with tons of rituals that wants to be casting tons of spells per turn. Even ignoring the "supercharged" version, casting it for X=2 and getting to cast a ritual and grapeshot for free sounds like some craaaazy gas.
I'd just like to clarify - if we do run LUtS, I think we need to cut Rift Bolt, that's certainly too risky a card with the spectacle mechanic. And instead of thinking of LUtS as a Treasure Cruise or a Divination, I think we need to think about it as a new type of draw spell. Essentially Light Up the Stage is more like "Pay R: Scry 2, you may choose to put those cards into your hand instead". Which really makes me ask: Would you (in the worst case scenario for LUtS) pay R for a Preordain that doesn't draw you a card? From my own experience playing burn, knowing the majority of my losses are from bad late-game draws, I would say Yes, I would be willing to pay that.
I'm sorry, but I disagree on both counts. Rift Bolt is a great spectacle enabler, especially for awkward hands with multiple skewer the critics. As for Light Up The Stage, in my experience it compares favorably to thoughtcast. For both spells you basically dump your hand first, then replenish it with your one mana draw spell to have some reach. It's low cost and high yield enable you to fill your deck with 1 mana lightning bolts similar to how thoughtcast connects the dots between Ornithopter and Memnite and lethal damage on turn 3.
So after a lot of playgroup testing I'm pretty high up on Light up the stage in rakdos burn. I never much liked playing with 2 cmc burn spells anyway and the inclusion of LUTS and bump in the night means I don't have to.
I believe Rakdos is the best deck to take advantage of the card draw of LUTS, as it has the lowest curve and the quickest goldfish. Grim Lavamancer x 2 in the main is the only spot i'm slightly unsure of, and might consider skullcracks instead.
As others have mentioned, thats a lot of cards and a lot of work for what is a big ole beater that gets shut down for 4+ turns to a single lingering souls.
16 Lightning Bolts, Great blockers and damage to the dome from creatures, a faster clock than any deck in standard and a difficult to interact with gameplan. Sounds like RDW is back baby!
This list functions remarkably like Modern Burn, a deck I've played for years. RNA gives burn a lot of new playthings, including a new sorcery bolt in Skewer the Critics, a red thoughtcast in light up the stage, and a standard-sized version of sulfuric vortex with a 0/2 butt in spear spewer.
Areas to work on:
SB, Ghitu Lavarunner and Wizard's Lightning. SB is far from final and will depend on how the meta resolves itself, but i've included a couple great catch-alls that should be fine for week 1 and 2. Ghitu lavarunner is there as a wizard lightning enabler and another 1-drop, but is definitely one of the weakest cards in the deck. If there is a version with fewer wizard's lightning, I would drop these.
I don't think we'll see Electrodominance, at least not in Living End. It's a cool card, but I don't think the deck wants a bad Blaze that only works if you draw Living End.
Fair point, I guess I should have written suspend free cast enabler
Top 5 from the set now that the spoiler is out, in terms of modern playability.
1. Skewer the Critics sorcery bolt, definitely going into burn
2. Light Up The Stagethoughtcast for red decks
3. Growth Spiral instant speed explore, could possibly be played alongside explore in valakut or elsewhere.
4. Incubation / Incongruity Ancient Stirrings but for creature decks in U or G
5. Electodominance Living end enabler and overall cool card
I also believe Eldamaris Call is being slept on. Possibly as inclusion in the above-mentioned combo deck but also in many other creature decks that might like a toolbox approach.
I think Dredge will likely end up running at least 2. It's worth remembering it essentially costs 2 Mana to activate the lands ability, so activating one of these for a single Dredge is pretty inefficient compared to 2 Mana for reunion or conflag or loam. That said, I think it'll increase the overall win percentage by a solid margin.
What I'm interested in is how fast we could potentially play that new delve/convoke 8/8 trampler. Potentially turn 2 in my brief tests
4x Viscera Seer
4x Carrion Feeder
4x Vizier
4x melira
4x kitchen Finks
4x murderous redcap
Each piece of the combo now has an additional piece of redundancy, if that's the way you wanted to go. Could toss in devoted druid for an alternate wincon and go "all in" on it.
Human
Equipment that you control have living weapon.
2/2
It also means you no longer have that pesky deck restriction of running X number of 3cmc or less creatures to nearly always get two hits. It also means you no longer need to reduce the number of noncreatute spells you play in order to maximize coco hits.
Coco improved resiliency, but thanks to the reanimate part of FoD that might not be as big a factor.
Hell, without coco in the mix there's no reason not to try cards you'd never previously have used, like the new 2 mana eldritch evolution, planeswalkers, artifacts/enchantment, etc.
I definitely agree. It feels like no one has picked up on the fact that the "and/or graveyard" part of the spell gives the deck additional resiliency as well as more consistency, and the 'overcharge' version is its own wincon, in the event your combo pieces are gone.
Together that makes Finale of Devastation my pick for sleeper hit of the set, creatures toolbox with 8 chord effects where 4 of those chords are also reanimates if they need to be will be a massive hit in the new modern meta.
My guess would be this card fits more of a past in flames roll than gifts. It also works really well with gifts as a sort-of copy of past in flames that you can fetch alongside PIF since they have different names.
I'm sorry, but I disagree on both counts. Rift Bolt is a great spectacle enabler, especially for awkward hands with multiple skewer the critics. As for Light Up The Stage, in my experience it compares favorably to thoughtcast. For both spells you basically dump your hand first, then replenish it with your one mana draw spell to have some reach. It's low cost and high yield enable you to fill your deck with 1 mana lightning bolts similar to how thoughtcast connects the dots between Ornithopter and Memnite and lethal damage on turn 3.
I believe Rakdos is the best deck to take advantage of the card draw of LUTS, as it has the lowest curve and the quickest goldfish. Grim Lavamancer x 2 in the main is the only spot i'm slightly unsure of, and might consider skullcracks instead.
List:
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Monastery Swiftspear
Spells
4 Bump in the Night
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Skewer the Critics
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Light Up the Stage
2 Searing Blaze
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Mountain
2 Ramunap Ruins
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Collective Brutality
3 Skullcrack
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Fatal Push
2 Searing Blood
2 Searing Blaze
4 Ghitu Lavarunner
1 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Spear Spewer
4 Viashino Pyromancer
Spells
4 Shock
4 Light Up the Stage
4 Wizard's Lightning
4 Skewer the Critics
4 Lightning Strike
4 Risk Factor
19 Mountain
3 Lightning Mare
3 Goblin Chainwhirler
3 Hijack
3 Banefire
3 Flex Spots
This list functions remarkably like Modern Burn, a deck I've played for years. RNA gives burn a lot of new playthings, including a new sorcery bolt in Skewer the Critics, a red thoughtcast in light up the stage, and a standard-sized version of sulfuric vortex with a 0/2 butt in spear spewer.
Areas to work on:
SB, Ghitu Lavarunner and Wizard's Lightning. SB is far from final and will depend on how the meta resolves itself, but i've included a couple great catch-alls that should be fine for week 1 and 2. Ghitu lavarunner is there as a wizard lightning enabler and another 1-drop, but is definitely one of the weakest cards in the deck. If there is a version with fewer wizard's lightning, I would drop these.
Fair point, I guess I should have written suspend free cast enabler
1. Skewer the Critics sorcery bolt, definitely going into burn
2. Light Up The Stage thoughtcast for red decks
3. Growth Spiral instant speed explore, could possibly be played alongside explore in valakut or elsewhere.
4. Incubation / Incongruity Ancient Stirrings but for creature decks in U or G
5. Electodominance Living end enabler and overall cool card