1. He dislikes the same players I do. Draw-go blue chumps that try to win with chokeholds rather than knockouts. How does he show this displeasure? By Sudden Impacting them in their big stupid face!
2. He adds a little dash of randomness every turn. I love the excitement of gambling whenever I want and over the almost 2 years I've known him i could swear his draws have been steadily improving. We're best buddies after all.
3. He's DIRT CHEAP, and i'm not just talking about his mana cost. I try to stay as economical as possible with my collection and yet I still have managed to acquire about 5 binder pages filled with the dapper devil.
4. I have Insurrection'd with him six times now in EDH because players literally forget he exists.
5. I managed to open a foil copy at the AVR pre-release and I still have it to this day enshrined in a hard plastic sleeve on my work desk. I own two JTMS, a goyf and a full set of Bobs but I value this foil Tibalt above them all.
Don't worry Tibalt, no matter how many people call you names and toss you into bulk bins... you will always be my favourite
He claimed that he could destroy both my mountain and my blood crypt, even though moon makes my crypt a mountain. I didn't argue because it was just a casual game but it did end up winning him the match...
We just gotta be patient man.
IMO, the greatest thing about this deck (unlike most super saturated Modern decks) is that you can expect at least a few new shamans in pretty much every new set that comes out. Sure BFZ had nothing for us, but it had basically nothing for any Modern decks and we still got a couple possible inclusions.
We remain in the land of Fauna Shamans, Nighthawks and Ruinblasters for one more set. Hopefully they will ramp up the power to accommodate all the dissappointment from people not opening expeditions.
I've put a lot of time into trying to make midrange toolbox variants work. Unfourtunately, it makes the deck much harder to play and way more expensive to build. The biggest difference is a playset of Fauna Shaman to search for singletons that work in specific situations like Troll Ascetic, Burning-Tree Shaman, Cunning Sparkmage, Vampire Nighthawk and Tasigur.
The main issue is that it's still just trying to win with damage and it's no where near as focused. I really think that (at least until we FINALLY get a new 1cmc shaman dork) aggro is just better.
I kept grinned like a hyena the whole time and asked him if he had swing in hand after the game. He shuffled his hand away and left without saying a word.
I could definitely see him being used as Rage Forger 5-6 in some decks but I'm not crazy about him. I would rather just flesh out the 3CMC slot with witnesses for bolts and such.
Ok. So he's still not a 1 cmc manadork, but the fact that he has haste can really add a lot to board swarm. Play him on T2 then play Harbinger or play him T3 after a Bosk and he can refund his cost the second he hits.
The question is if such a weak body is worth it.
I think I can say with some confidence that I have tried to use this card in more Modern decks than any other living human. I've tried it on cockatrice with activated artifact abilities, R/G land ramp into Comet Storm, Obsidian Fireheart, Helix Pinnacle lockdown with Gilder Bairn, Red/White flash etb trigger creatures, U/R counterburn etc, etc, etc.
The deck always ends up super janky, but then I get that one damn game where something awesome happens and my opponent gushes about how cool/broken it is and I keep coming back for more.
Right now I feel like I'm on to something: Commune With Lava, Soulfire Grand Master's activated ability, lots of burn, Restoration Angel and Bogardan Hellkite. Braid lets me play burn on my upkeep and keep mana open to remove threats or block with flash creatures.
Does anyone have suggestions to improve this? Have you tried using Braid in something else?
When did people just forget this card exists?! Fetchlands and Scapeshift are still a thing people... so are Gifts and tron!
Use this amazingly flexible counterspell that cantrips please!
You discard 2, Exile something.
I draw 2, Exile 2 things.
I gain 4 Life, Exile three things and I'll exile pact.
Super slow and bad, but those times you win with Vraska's ult assassins vs your opponents nothing are worth the wait.
I get that he's no Stoneforge Mystic, but how is this a cheap rare?! With all the exalted backup and strong removal that Modern has to offer, it shouldn't be too difficult to connect with him and he straight up gives you a sword and gets bigger. As far as I can tell, he fills SM's old role better than anything in Modern right now... am I missing something? Initial cockatrice tests have been pretty phenomenal.
Or it would have if some company hadn't clear cut it to make napkins.
The End
Personally I think it fits in our deck like a glove.