Not sure that I like Tarmogoyf in this build. You have enchantment, planeswalker, artifact, plus sorcery, instant, creatures and land. You can make a very big goyf already and it's not likely that it will really get to attack through your own bridge. I suppose if everything goes perfect then it's fine since you can build up your hand size. I would personally like to see neonate become lightning bolt. If you want to hide behind ensnaring bridge then worm harvest or syphon life can be a great way to further extend a lead. Syphon life would give you a better game 1 against burn. Molten vortex and flame jab are practically the same thing, I'm not sure you need both. I would love to see a couple of abrupt decay in here to deal with opposing Tarmogoyf which will likely be out of vortex range. It can also be an easy way to remove a bridge and get through a final punch with a goyf. Naturally you do have liliana to help clean up an opponents board at the same time you have a lot of mana hungry stuff in here where your 3 drops seem a bit cluttered with liliana and bridge
Another reason I went away from insight was increasing the amount of "cantrips" make the deck more full of air. Now you have 4 looting, 4 insight and 4 loam that don't effect the board state. It gets awkward when you use these for advantage then draw into more. It starts looking like a blue tempo deck, but without the efficient creature backed by counter magic to close a game. That's why I got rid of insight. But I replaced it with dark confidant. I still get card advantage and if they kill it then I can follow up with young Pyromancer and start getting value.
Odds are against the land discard on Insight screwing you very unlikely. Especially since you're drawing 2. With my luck I had several games where my next 4 or 5 cards weren't land. Just my luck really. I run 25+ and find 3. I fun 18- and find 6
Personally I never feel like the card disadvantage on looting is all that bad. If I were on a Naya or GR build, I might care since I am limited with graveyard interaction other than Loam. But with a Jund build you have flame jab, raven's crime, lands and life from the loam to discard. Later in the game the card advantage on loam, plus flashback on looting make for a very consistent well oiled machine to gain card advantage and find some selection in the process. My personal take on it. There was a period where I ran 4 looting and 3 insight, then went down to 2 insight as I found at times that with only 3 land in hand you are screwed if you discard 1 and don't find loam or more lands. I eventually dropped insight overall since looting was all I ever found that I ever needed being essentially 8 spells in the deck including the flashback. Insight is still nice if I went back to it I would likely be on a 4/2 split on looting/insight.
I like the "idea" of haunted Fengraf but not the actual concept. If you want more creature threats, run more creature threats. I suggest vengeful pharoah if you want a good creature that recurs.
Personally I would never drop the 4th Faithless Looting. Although you may at times find more than you need, it is great late game should you need to dig. Being able to cast it with Flashback to dig for threats that you can't recur is very relevant. If you have too many, you just discard them when you cast 1. Since they recur it isn't an issue to bin them. Early game they can be very necessary to dig and sculpt your hand.
I personally would never go below 3 Seismic Assault or effects of that nature. It isn't just a win condition. It is also an instant speed answer to creatures, or the final X amount of damage to the face of your opponent. It is certainly a durdly win condition, but it works great with our loam value engine.
As for the mana base, I would still never go twilight over graven cairns. Twilight is find and everything, but you rarely ever need GG in a turn. If you do, you should be able to get a forest and Gx shockland from your deck. Having Cairns means you can more easily facilitate retracing a Flame Jab or Raven's Crime more consistently as well as multiples in a turn. I could see 1 mire and 2 Cairns. But not 2 Mire. I am not sure why you have a basic Plains in the deck either. You likely never need to worry about hardcasting Lingering Souls that much, where you need to ensure that you have a white mana source through a Blood Moon. The decks that run Blood Moon usually run several sweepers. Tokens are terrible in those match ups. Usually. Many Blue Moon players run Staticaster in my experience and having a basic Plains out could be the difference between casting an Abrupt Decay or not. I would have a second Swamp or Forest in that slot.
I agree about Smallpox. In Legacy where decks only run 15-21 Lands it is far easier to cripple them, whereas in Modern most decks run between 19-23.
Hey, everyone. I've been tinkering with this deck a lot lately, and I've got some stuff to report back. For starters, I'll be playing a lot with the new cards this weekend, so here are some initial impressions:
I'm posting from mobile, I'll have to return to this later with responses to each item.
Splended reclamation I think could be great tech to at least get some value post board if life from the loam gets stripped from your deck. At least you can return all lands to get creature lands online in multiples possibly. It's worth it post board at least if you know surgical is a possibility. I like the idea of making a build with aggressive mining and reclamation. There is the possibility of adding amulet of vigor to gain "infinite" dig through your deck using assault as a way to kill. It could be really neat. Not sure if it would be a viable build though.
Noose Constrictor - I'm not sure we actually need this really for any reason. We're removal heavy and if the issue is resolving a spell, then this isn't going to help very much since we have access to decay, lighting bolt and later Seismic Assault. My experience is that infect is a favorable match up so I'm not sure this is necessary. In my experience I want to discard lands to cards like raven's crime retrace, assault and using faithless looting.
Geier Reach Sanitarium is likely fine as a one of for us to dig with, save a loam at instant speed. Running multiple ghost quarters we would need to be careful in not watering down the mana base since we have a very greedy array of spells to cast already.
Haunted Dead - I'm not convinced that this card really does much of what we want. It is likely better than zombie infestation since it brings along a spirit, but we don't have a reliable way to turn after turn use this ability.
Nahiri's Wrath- as you suggested anger of the Gods is likely just better. The fact it hits planeswalkers could be relevant, but the fact that it deals damage based on cmc is bad. I would rather it deal damage like devastating dreams which is a more relevant discard use since we can pitch lands. If you wanted to go Naya with nahiri and reckoner then pitching emrakul to 15 the reckoned and hitting face with that, then we are talking. As is anger exiling creatures is more relevant especially for dredge which you feel is a bad match up.
Bedlam reveler- I really like this as it discount without delve which is relevant. It allows us to draw extra cards and works well in a Pyromancer version with extra flame jabs and raven's crimes to get a lot of value from retrace spells.
Collective brutality is likely great with loam. Being able to kill eidolon, Goblin guide and also drain them for 2 then gain life is decent.
The Gitrog Monster/Traverse seems very good. Later in the game Traverse can grab a dakmor salvage for the combo finish. I like these as possibilities.
I don't think I would side out abrupt decay for the fact that it does still kill Clique, Snapcaster Mage, Soulfire Grandmaster, Rest in Peace and the stray pithing needle, etc.
I still prefer pulse since it does hit leyline which can be an issue. Bolt will likely never come out against you since it will always have some relevance so you can't always assume that pyromancer and souls will get there. Souls is likely to be ok, but being such a slow clock has a lot of disadvantages. Having pulse to turn assault and raven's crime back on is usually relevant. Plus the fact that it can hit every nonland with the same name could be relevant when staring down 2 or 3 tarmogoyf. The fact that dreadbore is a target for spell snare is also relevant, however dreadbore could open up the way for a pyromancer to land. I am not sure that is relevant enough though.
The loss of Eye of Ugin is not what made our Tron match up better. Ghost quarter every turn means they can never assemble tron and that is why the match up is good. When they miss land drops it also gives you the opportunity to play a young pyromancer and get a retrace in every turn to get the value and close out the game while you lock them under ghost quarter. On the play you could potentially tap out turn 2 for pyro and then turn 3 begin ghost quarter lock, on the draw you just have to immediately begin ghost quarter as soon as possible. If you give them turn 3 to potentially have Tron and play something like a Karn, you're in trouble.
Lingering Souls is a very nice addition. I had considered it at one point, but always felt that 3 color was painful enough so I never wanted to add the 4th color. Glad to hear it has worked out for you.
Commune with the Gods was great when I ran it back in the Treasure Cruise era. I can imagine that would still hold true today, given that we always want to find the assault or pyro digging 5 cards is great.
Your sideboard changes seem perfectly reasonable. I am curious about Gutteral Response though. Is it necessary? Raven's crime should be handling Blue instants.
I believe it was I that suggested cutting Liliana. In that shell I was never happy to see her since she doesn't trigger pyromancer and using 2 spells like a raven's crime and bolt/jab/loam/etc after pyromancer always seemed better.
I always have Maelstrom Pulse for the Leyline of the Void/Leyline of Sanctity. It is also relevant that if your opponent taps out turn 4 for Nahiri, you can just pulse it away.
For your mana base I would drop Temple Garden and keep the Sacred Foundry and Godless Shrine for the white splash. We are predominantly RBgx deck. Which is why I would drop the GW producing land over the RW or BW. Also Temple garden doesn't pump into Graven Cairns whereas the other 2 can. I would definitely add a Ghost Quarter back to the main. You really don't want to have 0 ways of interacting with Trons mana base game 1. Smallpox is great and all, but not nearly effective enough to shut down Tron.
I think it could be interesting if we wanted to run something like aggressive mining since it would be a good way to fight back against surgical extraction on loam. It also could be really cute with gitrog monster to make an insane value engine.
It's likely you would want countryside crusher for a build like that. Courser of Kruphix can end up being a life machine against burn and zoo if we can cast that and get 4 or 5 land back.
In longer grindy games a few lands can be ok to side out like against Jund or Grixis control. Against decks running Rest in Peace you really want additional lands so you can draw into the last few points of damage with Assault and also have plenty of land to restart loam and dredging into more lands after you answer Rest in Peace.
I wouldn't board in charm vs jeskai nahiri expecting rest in peace. I believe some play a 1 of, but they want snapcaster to be live and they want to be able to discard emrakul to nahiri and shuffle it back in so they can search it up.
Slaughter games is great against Scapeshift, it is fine against Ad Nauseam and I also like it against UR storm. Take grapeshot and have sweepers for empty.
Vs affinity I would likely board out the smallpox. It comes down turn 2, only answers 1 creature which really isn't enough. Much of their mana comes from mana rocks so it isn't like hitting land will get you there. They usually drop multiple creatures so it won't ever hit what you want. What match ups are you struggling with boarding? Are you looking for different sideboard card options?
One of the main reasons to splash black is access to Raven's Crime. You can likely drop 1 vortex and 1 assault for 2 and could potentially drop another assault for a 3rd. Graven Cairns is a must in the Jund aggro loam mana base. Soo much mana fixing power from it.
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I personally would never go below 3 Seismic Assault or effects of that nature. It isn't just a win condition. It is also an instant speed answer to creatures, or the final X amount of damage to the face of your opponent. It is certainly a durdly win condition, but it works great with our loam value engine.
As for the mana base, I would still never go twilight over graven cairns. Twilight is find and everything, but you rarely ever need GG in a turn. If you do, you should be able to get a forest and Gx shockland from your deck. Having Cairns means you can more easily facilitate retracing a Flame Jab or Raven's Crime more consistently as well as multiples in a turn. I could see 1 mire and 2 Cairns. But not 2 Mire. I am not sure why you have a basic Plains in the deck either. You likely never need to worry about hardcasting Lingering Souls that much, where you need to ensure that you have a white mana source through a Blood Moon. The decks that run Blood Moon usually run several sweepers. Tokens are terrible in those match ups. Usually. Many Blue Moon players run Staticaster in my experience and having a basic Plains out could be the difference between casting an Abrupt Decay or not. I would have a second Swamp or Forest in that slot.
I agree about Smallpox. In Legacy where decks only run 15-21 Lands it is far easier to cripple them, whereas in Modern most decks run between 19-23.
I'm posting from mobile, I'll have to return to this later with responses to each item.
Splended reclamation I think could be great tech to at least get some value post board if life from the loam gets stripped from your deck. At least you can return all lands to get creature lands online in multiples possibly. It's worth it post board at least if you know surgical is a possibility. I like the idea of making a build with aggressive mining and reclamation. There is the possibility of adding amulet of vigor to gain "infinite" dig through your deck using assault as a way to kill. It could be really neat. Not sure if it would be a viable build though.
Noose Constrictor - I'm not sure we actually need this really for any reason. We're removal heavy and if the issue is resolving a spell, then this isn't going to help very much since we have access to decay, lighting bolt and later Seismic Assault. My experience is that infect is a favorable match up so I'm not sure this is necessary. In my experience I want to discard lands to cards like raven's crime retrace, assault and using faithless looting.
Geier Reach Sanitarium is likely fine as a one of for us to dig with, save a loam at instant speed. Running multiple ghost quarters we would need to be careful in not watering down the mana base since we have a very greedy array of spells to cast already.
Haunted Dead - I'm not convinced that this card really does much of what we want. It is likely better than zombie infestation since it brings along a spirit, but we don't have a reliable way to turn after turn use this ability.
Nahiri's Wrath- as you suggested anger of the Gods is likely just better. The fact it hits planeswalkers could be relevant, but the fact that it deals damage based on cmc is bad. I would rather it deal damage like devastating dreams which is a more relevant discard use since we can pitch lands. If you wanted to go Naya with nahiri and reckoner then pitching emrakul to 15 the reckoned and hitting face with that, then we are talking. As is anger exiling creatures is more relevant especially for dredge which you feel is a bad match up.
Bedlam reveler- I really like this as it discount without delve which is relevant. It allows us to draw extra cards and works well in a Pyromancer version with extra flame jabs and raven's crimes to get a lot of value from retrace spells.
Collective brutality is likely great with loam. Being able to kill eidolon, Goblin guide and also drain them for 2 then gain life is decent.
The Gitrog Monster/Traverse seems very good. Later in the game Traverse can grab a dakmor salvage for the combo finish. I like these as possibilities.
I still prefer pulse since it does hit leyline which can be an issue. Bolt will likely never come out against you since it will always have some relevance so you can't always assume that pyromancer and souls will get there. Souls is likely to be ok, but being such a slow clock has a lot of disadvantages. Having pulse to turn assault and raven's crime back on is usually relevant. Plus the fact that it can hit every nonland with the same name could be relevant when staring down 2 or 3 tarmogoyf. The fact that dreadbore is a target for spell snare is also relevant, however dreadbore could open up the way for a pyromancer to land. I am not sure that is relevant enough though.
Lingering Souls is a very nice addition. I had considered it at one point, but always felt that 3 color was painful enough so I never wanted to add the 4th color. Glad to hear it has worked out for you.
Commune with the Gods was great when I ran it back in the Treasure Cruise era. I can imagine that would still hold true today, given that we always want to find the assault or pyro digging 5 cards is great.
Your sideboard changes seem perfectly reasonable. I am curious about Gutteral Response though. Is it necessary? Raven's crime should be handling Blue instants.
I believe it was I that suggested cutting Liliana. In that shell I was never happy to see her since she doesn't trigger pyromancer and using 2 spells like a raven's crime and bolt/jab/loam/etc after pyromancer always seemed better.
I always have Maelstrom Pulse for the Leyline of the Void/Leyline of Sanctity. It is also relevant that if your opponent taps out turn 4 for Nahiri, you can just pulse it away.
For your mana base I would drop Temple Garden and keep the Sacred Foundry and Godless Shrine for the white splash. We are predominantly RBgx deck. Which is why I would drop the GW producing land over the RW or BW. Also Temple garden doesn't pump into Graven Cairns whereas the other 2 can. I would definitely add a Ghost Quarter back to the main. You really don't want to have 0 ways of interacting with Trons mana base game 1. Smallpox is great and all, but not nearly effective enough to shut down Tron.
It's likely you would want countryside crusher for a build like that. Courser of Kruphix can end up being a life machine against burn and zoo if we can cast that and get 4 or 5 land back.
I wouldn't board in charm vs jeskai nahiri expecting rest in peace. I believe some play a 1 of, but they want snapcaster to be live and they want to be able to discard emrakul to nahiri and shuffle it back in so they can search it up.
Slaughter games is great against Scapeshift, it is fine against Ad Nauseam and I also like it against UR storm. Take grapeshot and have sweepers for empty.