On the topic of removal for big creatures, what about Reality Shift? Exiling removal and the possibility of blanking a spell, or you can just discard a land to remove the downside. But if you don't have assault out, it might be questionable.
The thing that makes Sultai Shadow, and indeed Sultai in general worse than Grixis or Jund is a grindy 2-for-1 type card like Kolaghan's Command. Without it, we get to 1-for-1 over and over again, but never really gaining any advantage, especially if we play against Grixis with its Snap-KCommand loops.
I think that after I reach turn 4 sac-blocking isn't really an issue because I would have the mana to pretty much play anything in my deck, plus early on I wouldn't have the mana to cast Savage Summoning anyway.
Let me preface this by saying I wanted to emulate the sort of "ramp-control" playstyle of the Legacy deck, Nic Fit. To that end, I have tried different ways to ramp including:
- Mana Dorks, which always led me toward a Chord playstyle, which is more creature-heavy than I would prefer.
- Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl, which works, but I thought that either card was pretty bad on its own.
- Search for Tomorrow, etc. , which I feel just pushes me to play Scapeshift.
Then, I came across Rallier + Sakura-Tribe Elder, which is the interaction I'm asking about. In my opinion it's pretty decent, Rallier is an excellent card on it's own and ramping to 6 mana on turn 4 doesn't seem that bad, assuming I can stay alive. The problem is that I might not be able to use Elder to block and sac if I don't have a fetchland to trigger revolt for the Rallier.
Grave Titan/Wurmcoil should be fine as finishers. Out of the ones you mentioned I'd probably take either Mauler or Vorapede because of resilience to removal. I've thought about Sheoldred, Whispering One as well but a 7-drop is probably close to impossible with either chord or evolution.
For spell-based combo try Glen Elendra, boarding in some extra discard/counters if you have them. My pet card against spell-based combo and control is Mindslicer. It's probably garbage but if your deck contains a sac outlet it can be pretty funny.
@Nickums AV is definitely powerful and can be worth running depending on meta imo. It has immense use as a midrange mirror-breaker but it also suffers from being a terrible topdeck. Basically, when it's good it's really good, but when it's bad it's awful. Some people find success with it, some people think it's too slow.
Thanks guys. Yeah I realize nothing in Modern even comes close to what you can pull with the Legacy cardpool, but as we see here there's plenty of interesting interactions to play around with in this format as well.
I've been looking for cards in the Modern card pool similar to Recurring Nightmare and Meren of Clan Nel Toth for a grindy BUG Creature Toolbox deck. But so far I've only found cards that seem too weak (Undertaker) or come down too late (Sheoldred, Whispering One). It's likely that sheoldred goes in the deck either way but something less costly would be nice (cmc-wise). Am I sort of stuck with these options?
61 cards with 21 lands is probably sketchy, might cut the bauble just to have 22 lands, and even that might be too few. The main reason why I'm doing this is due to wanting to play at least 4 discard with Cryptic/Spell Snare/Leak. It's not likely to work but I just thought I'd try it. It probably works much better with actual Tarmogoyfs.
Thanks.
Just how bad is the matchup against Bant Eldrazi and how do I beat it? Do I just need to hope they never draw Drowner of Hope?
- Mana Dorks, which always led me toward a Chord playstyle, which is more creature-heavy than I would prefer.
- Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl, which works, but I thought that either card was pretty bad on its own.
- Search for Tomorrow, etc. , which I feel just pushes me to play Scapeshift.
Then, I came across Rallier + Sakura-Tribe Elder, which is the interaction I'm asking about. In my opinion it's pretty decent, Rallier is an excellent card on it's own and ramping to 6 mana on turn 4 doesn't seem that bad, assuming I can stay alive. The problem is that I might not be able to use Elder to block and sac if I don't have a fetchland to trigger revolt for the Rallier.
What do you guys think? Too slow? Too gimmicky?
Oh boy if Meren were legal in Modern Chord and Coco decks would have a field day.
4 Grim Flayer
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Tireless Tracker
Instants (16):
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Cryptic Command
4 Fatal Push
1 Go for the Throat
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
3 Thought Scour
1 Collective Brutality
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Serum Visions
1 Thoughtseize
Lands (21):
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Breeding Pool
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Forest
2 Island
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
1 Steam Vents
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
61 cards with 21 lands is probably sketchy, might cut the bauble just to have 22 lands, and even that might be too few. The main reason why I'm doing this is due to wanting to play at least 4 discard with Cryptic/Spell Snare/Leak. It's not likely to work but I just thought I'd try it. It probably works much better with actual Tarmogoyfs.