Ramp? Check. Incidental life gain? Check. Free creaure buff? Check. Card advantage? Check. Can easily come down on turn 4? Check. This card is scarily powerful, and I love it.
Hello readers! I'm picnic_bomber and my favorite Magic: the Gathering card of all time is Lingering Souls. Why? I don't know really, it just is. Well, maybe because discarding it to Liliana of the Veil is just so much value. Or maybe looting it with Smuggler's Copter feels THAT good. Listen, what I'm trying to say is: when I got back to this damned card game three years ago, I devoted myself to the Copter Squad and swore to ride it to the top of the Modern metagame. While I'm not there yet, I think I'm doing well. Like, "beating tier-1 decks"-well. Here's the list:
So let's start from the core of the deck. The plan is to protect the Copter and gain incremental value while hindering our opponents'. To do so we use "smart" creatures: Tidehollow Sculler takes removal spells or any key piece to the OP's plan directly from their hand, so that we can animate our Copter without worries; Tithe Taker is especially good here for two reasons: it protects the Copter from instants, which is the only way to interact with it while animated, while also leaving behind a 1/1 flying body when killed Giver of Runes is great in conjunction with the Sculler, not only protecting every other body on our side of the field but also helping keeping up the pressure;
Next, the card advantage: Lingering Souls creates up to four bodies and the ability to flashback it for 1B plays really well with the looting ability of the Copter; Battle Screech is basically Souls copies 5-8, just needs a little more work to flash it back.
So instead of saying first, you just say 3 words without any explanation?
Looks like a 4 cmc PW to me, that requires you to have a board presence when you play her. And if its an empty board she doesnt do anything.
'Her ultimate' is an interesting take, but abusable???
4/10 Vivien
Woah, I suggest you to read that card a couple times more, dude, you're definitely overlooking something. Her +1 is good because well, in green you are often playing creatures, you know, like Llanowar Elves and Paradise Druid to name a few which can also make her come down a turn earlier. Her -3 can remove an opposing threat, planeswalker included, you know, the ones that are everywhere nowadays. And remember, we are playing g r e e n, the color of big creatures, like Steel Leaf Champion to name one that can curve into her really well. Her -5 can grab answer to enchantment or artifact like Reclamaton Sage, Thrashing Brontodon or maybe the new uncounterable dino to close the gae against blue based deck, you know, the ones that infests the meta right now. Yeah, 4/10, right.
I believe the correct way to build ninjas is to maximize both Ingenious Infiltrator and Ninja of the Deep Hours, the strongest reason why we want to play ninjas. We want to reliably ninjutsu them on turn 2 so we need a lot of 1 drops, preferably evasive and/or with additonal ETB value. The best twelve 1 drop we can play are: Faerie Seer - our premium 1 drop. U for a 1/1 flier and Scry 2 is a lot, especially when it can be recurred with ninjutsu. Faerie Miscreant - another 1 drop that is evasive and can have added value when replayed. Changeling Outcast - very good in a deck with tribal payoff, being both a Ninja and a Faerie.
Then at the 2 drop slots we have: Ingenious Infiltrator - the Ninja payoff, generating crazy card advantage. Ninja of the Deep Hours - the second best Ninja, former number one. Spellstutter Sprite - having 12 faeries in the deck, this does some work.
Other cards to take into consideration are Mist-Syndicate Naga which is a great curve topper and can go very wide by itself if left unanswered, and Force of Negation which is great in a deck with so much card draw and that tends to tap out every turn. Fallen Shinobi I fear is a bit too expensive for this kind of strategy and Smoke Shroud is just not wort as a payoff.
A 2019 Ninja shell could look something like this:
Hello everyone, can you help me brew around Ayula's Influence and Beck // Call? The idea is to get crazy value by discarding lands to make bears and draw tons of cards thanks to Beck. There's also Dakmor Salvage which can dredge our entire library but I can't figure out what to do with it. Maybe dredging a Laboratory Maniac and reanimate it with Unburial Rites to win on the spot? That would be fun.
Anyway, the main goal is to generate the most value out of Ayula's Influence and to do so we must calculate what I like to call Bearlocity.
Yes, it's like Velocity, but with bears. And just like Velocity is measured in Meters per Second, Bearlocity is measured in Bears per Turn. I know it sounds silly but I'm being totally serious here, it's very important that you understand this principle.
So, let's rank cards based on their potential Bearlocity and start from those:
Life from the Loam is our number one choice. Recurring up to three lands every turn nets us a staggering 3 Bears per Turn, letting us maintain a steady Bearlocity. It can also rebuy some value lands;
Dakmor Salvage is our second choice. Being able to discard it every turn gives us 1 Bear per Turn, and in conjunction with Beck // Call it can accelerate us to Terminal Bearlocity: depending on the number of cards left in our library (X) we can make X/2 Bears per Turn;
Wrenn and Six is very interesting. Its +1 gives us 1 Bear per Turn and it has additional utilities. The downside is that it requires R;
Mulch can be very powerful. While not being a recursive engine, it can boost our Bearlocity up to 4 Bears per Turn for a single turn;
Gifts Ungiven, Realms Uncharted and Fact or Fiction fall all in the same category of providing card advantage and selection. Realm can found silver bullet lands or just provide 2 Bears at instant speed, Gifts can search for our combo pieces and FoF is just straight card advantage.
Also, this set has been only half spoiled, wait for the whole thing to come out for voicing your disappointment, please. Thank you and sorry for the rant.
I was so ready to post a Initial D "Deja-vu" meme, kinda disappointed by the regular art :/ . Still very grateful for this card to grace the Modern format. Thank you, Wizards.
4x Giver of Runes
4x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Tithe Taker
Artifacts:
4x Smuggler's Copter
Instants and Sorceries:
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Fatal Push
2x Path to Exile
2x Collective Brutality
4x Lingering Souls
4x Battle Screech
3x Liliana of the Veil
Lands:
4x Marsh Flats
4x Godless Shrine
4x Concealed Courtyard
2x Silent Clearing
2x Shambling Vent
3x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Ghost Quarter
So let's start from the core of the deck. The plan is to protect the Copter and gain incremental value while hindering our opponents'. To do so we use "smart" creatures:
Tidehollow Sculler takes removal spells or any key piece to the OP's plan directly from their hand, so that we can animate our Copter without worries;
Tithe Taker is especially good here for two reasons: it protects the Copter from instants, which is the only way to interact with it while animated, while also leaving behind a 1/1 flying body when killed
Giver of Runes is great in conjunction with the Sculler, not only protecting every other body on our side of the field but also helping keeping up the pressure;
Next, the card advantage:
Lingering Souls creates up to four bodies and the ability to flashback it for 1B plays really well with the looting ability of the Copter;
Battle Screech is basically Souls copies 5-8, just needs a little more work to flash it back.
Lastly, the interactions. The most important are Liliana of the Veil and Collective Brutality both let us discard value cards to gain incremental value. Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push and Path to Exile to answer early threats quickly and efficiently.
I'll add some Matchups in a couple days. See you soon!
Woah, I suggest you to read that card a couple times more, dude, you're definitely overlooking something. Her +1 is good because well, in green you are often playing creatures, you know, like Llanowar Elves and Paradise Druid to name a few which can also make her come down a turn earlier. Her -3 can remove an opposing threat, planeswalker included, you know, the ones that are everywhere nowadays. And remember, we are playing g r e e n, the color of big creatures, like Steel Leaf Champion to name one that can curve into her really well. Her -5 can grab answer to enchantment or artifact like Reclamaton Sage, Thrashing Brontodon or maybe the new uncounterable dino to close the gae against blue based deck, you know, the ones that infests the meta right now. Yeah, 4/10, right.
Faerie Seer - our premium 1 drop. U for a 1/1 flier and Scry 2 is a lot, especially when it can be recurred with ninjutsu.
Faerie Miscreant - another 1 drop that is evasive and can have added value when replayed.
Changeling Outcast - very good in a deck with tribal payoff, being both a Ninja and a Faerie.
Then at the 2 drop slots we have:
Ingenious Infiltrator - the Ninja payoff, generating crazy card advantage.
Ninja of the Deep Hours - the second best Ninja, former number one.
Spellstutter Sprite - having 12 faeries in the deck, this does some work.
Other cards to take into consideration are Mist-Syndicate Naga which is a great curve topper and can go very wide by itself if left unanswered, and Force of Negation which is great in a deck with so much card draw and that tends to tap out every turn.
Fallen Shinobi I fear is a bit too expensive for this kind of strategy and Smoke Shroud is just not wort as a payoff.
A 2019 Ninja shell could look something like this:
4x Faerie Seer
4x Faerie Miscreant
4x Changeling Outcast
4x Ingenious Infiltrator
4x Ninja of the Deep Hours
2x Spellstutter Sprite
3x Mist-Syndicate Naga
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Disrupting Shoal
2x Force of Negation
4x Vapor Snag
2x Fatal Push
Lands:
4x Polluted Delta
4x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
1x Drowned Catacomb
2x Island
2x Swamp
2x Mutavault
2x Ghost Quarter
Anyway, the main goal is to generate the most value out of Ayula's Influence and to do so we must calculate what I like to call Bearlocity.
Yes, it's like Velocity, but with bears. And just like Velocity is measured in Meters per Second, Bearlocity is measured in Bears per Turn. I know it sounds silly but I'm being totally serious here, it's very important that you understand this principle.
So, let's rank cards based on their potential Bearlocity and start from those:
Can "easily" go infinite with Skirk Prospector, niceNo, wait, what am I saying, I'm dumb. Nice card nonethelessAlso, this set has been only half spoiled, wait for the whole thing to come out for voicing your disappointment, please. Thank you and sorry for the rant.