Is Ram Through the best candidate mono-green removal option we’ve seen in a while? Instant Rabid Bite that actually makes tramplers ‘trample’. On a beefy Avatar of the Resolute, thy could do some heavy lifting.
Back on the subject of porting this deck to pioneer... one card I didn’t see mentioned as a loss is Savage Swipe - people may have it in mind as a ‘recent’ card and thus will come forward to pioneer, but as a card in Modern Horizons, it won’t. So we’re back to finding a playable removal spell with that gone.
And in another direction - if we’re interested in finding a similar-utility replacement for Rancor, we might look at Rosethorn Halberd again. When it came out we dismissed it for this deck because it simply wasn’t as good as Rancor. But in rancorless Pioneer, we should look again. It gives the similar power boost, devotion, and eventual (albeit slower) reusability if its first host goes away. It loses trample of course (trading it for +1 toughness) but on the other hand, it’s ‘permanent’ devotion - even if the creature goes away it stays on board, and while Rancor can be sent to grave for-real if removal removes its target while it’s on the stack, this at least stays on the battlefield for devotion and possible eventual reattach.
So, not as good as Rancor ... but is it good enough to replace Rancor in the new format where Rancor does not exist?
No, I don’t think it’s viable in most fair decks (4 mana is a huge cost if that’s what it winds up costing, which is what it does in fair decks). I think a modern shell theoretically exists where you drop it t1 with only one land down (assisted by Chancellor of the Tangle), where the cost is mitigated somewhat. But that’s a discussion for a different deck.
(I was sad when Elvish Spirit Guide was not printed in Modern Horizons - that in modern would provide some much needed redundancy for that sort of effect in green).
I love Rhonas’ Last Stand and wish more decks made use of it. But in our deck I think we have to choose whether we are building for big-play Aspect of Hydra or not. And if we are (and I think we are) we don’t want to be spending effectively 4 green mana putting a permanent with zero devotion onto the board.
I like Mandrills in builds with fetches - because they get another card or two in the graveyard making delve happen sooner. But to me, Mandrills+Narnam+Fetches is an all-or-nothing package. Either you're playing the fetches to enable Narnam and Mandrills, or you're not in which case neither one is quite good enough (Narnam doesn't Revolt reliably enough, Mandrills doesn't accelerate off Delve to enter play early enough).
Any one had a chance of testing once upon a time yet. I'm still waiting for my foil copies to come in.
Also, it seems like its primary use would be to let you use it as a land substitute that can also get a creature if you don't need another land. Considering this is not really a deck that is skimping on land (say <=16) I'm not even sure its principal function would work out that well.
That is interesting. I know some old casual-legacy Lowland Stompy decks often ran Land Grant, for that reason - it’s a nonland that can be free cast to become a land (and put a card in grave for delving a Hooting Mandrills, and cast a green spell for Talara’s Battalion or Nettle Sentinel...) I wonder if it finds a place in that sort of deck, where it is another way that deck can fluff its grave and reduce its land count...
Lovestruck Noble? I don’t see anything after your colon, either it didn’t paste or my mobile browser isn’t showing me what you’re trying to show.
I was curious about that one. Another case of thinking it works not so well in our usual devotion-aspect plan but might have a good home in non-aspect builds. But also thinking that with no inherent trample or evasion, it really would love to wear the rancor, not replace it.
Syr Faren, the Hengehammer (uncommon)
GG
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
2/2
Whenever Syr Faren, the Hengehammer attacks, another target attacking creature gets +x/+x until end of turn, where X is Syr Faren's power.
A base 2/2 for 2 ain't great but wow on doubling up our power boosts from Savage Swipe and Aspect and Rancor and Vines.
Think this is more along the lines of flavors that don't do the counters-synergy thing - no EOne/Pelty.
So... does Yorvo bump Steel Leaf from decks running Steel Leaf?
Yorvo's a GGG Giant, 0/0 printed, enters with 4 +1/+1 counters on him. Every time a green creature enters the battlefield under your control put a +1/+1 counter on Yorvo; then if that creature has more power than Yorvo, but another +1/+1 counter on Yorvo.
So in our deck it'll usually be attacking as a 5/5 or possibly even a 6/6 on turn 4...
I think legendary rule makes you not want it as a 4-of, but I would think it replaces at least one Steelie.
Any thought to using one of the costlier tricksier Fog cousins? Winds of Qal Sisma will often meet its Ferocious mode for us, and a one sided fog could be quite useful either on the attack (make their tradeoff blocks not tradeoffs) or on the defence (actually be able to take out some attackers). But can we swing the 2 cost for this versatility.
I almost feel like I need a rubber stamp for the “Does it cost more than 3? Then it doesn’t belong in our ~20 land nonramping blitzkrieg aggro deck”. The song remains the same every single time.
Hm interesting. Do you ever transform Garruk, or do you use him exclusively for his day-side abilities and maybe get a transform if your opponent walks into it?
If your intent is to transform, I wonder if Heart of Kiran is worth considering. You’ll often be able to crew it from a summoning sick creature or by taking a counter off garruk, transforming him.
its not about budget, it never has been about budget, the origins of this deck thread was about developing competitive decks.
I mean, right there in the second paragraph of the original post:
“One of the advantages of Stompy in Modern is it's an inherently cheap deck that doesn't require any truly expensive cards.”
Whether you like it or not, whether you agree or not, whether you like to lord your collection value over others or not, budget IS a consideration in this deck and has been from the start. A reason people are drawn to mono color builds as modern entry points is because they’re budget accessible in a way that multicolor builds are not. Also in that paragraph, “As such, if you're brand new to Modern and are looking for a starting point, this is a great one. ”.
You might as well remove that paragraph entirely if we start to take the “you need to run a $200 landbase in this monocolor build or you’re not welcome to talk here” attitude.
E1 evolves on toughness too, Pelty only checks power. Notably, Narnam Renegade has more toughness than power and can boost E1 at times that it can’t boost Pelty.
I’ve been wondering more about ... if everything we play has counters on it, how long before we actually consider Inspiring Call? It’s removal defense and card draw all in one.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
And in another direction - if we’re interested in finding a similar-utility replacement for Rancor, we might look at Rosethorn Halberd again. When it came out we dismissed it for this deck because it simply wasn’t as good as Rancor. But in rancorless Pioneer, we should look again. It gives the similar power boost, devotion, and eventual (albeit slower) reusability if its first host goes away. It loses trample of course (trading it for +1 toughness) but on the other hand, it’s ‘permanent’ devotion - even if the creature goes away it stays on board, and while Rancor can be sent to grave for-real if removal removes its target while it’s on the stack, this at least stays on the battlefield for devotion and possible eventual reattach.
So, not as good as Rancor ... but is it good enough to replace Rancor in the new format where Rancor does not exist?
(I was sad when Elvish Spirit Guide was not printed in Modern Horizons - that in modern would provide some much needed redundancy for that sort of effect in green).
That is interesting. I know some old casual-legacy Lowland Stompy decks often ran Land Grant, for that reason - it’s a nonland that can be free cast to become a land (and put a card in grave for delving a Hooting Mandrills, and cast a green spell for Talara’s Battalion or Nettle Sentinel...) I wonder if it finds a place in that sort of deck, where it is another way that deck can fluff its grave and reduce its land count...
But that’s not so sensible in the modern build.
I was curious about that one. Another case of thinking it works not so well in our usual devotion-aspect plan but might have a good home in non-aspect builds. But also thinking that with no inherent trample or evasion, it really would love to wear the rancor, not replace it.
Syr Faren, the Hengehammer (uncommon)
GG
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
2/2
Whenever Syr Faren, the Hengehammer attacks, another target attacking creature gets +x/+x until end of turn, where X is Syr Faren's power.
A base 2/2 for 2 ain't great but wow on doubling up our power boosts from Savage Swipe and Aspect and Rancor and Vines.
Think this is more along the lines of flavors that don't do the counters-synergy thing - no EOne/Pelty.
Yorvo's a GGG Giant, 0/0 printed, enters with 4 +1/+1 counters on him. Every time a green creature enters the battlefield under your control put a +1/+1 counter on Yorvo; then if that creature has more power than Yorvo, but another +1/+1 counter on Yorvo.
So in our deck it'll usually be attacking as a 5/5 or possibly even a 6/6 on turn 4...
I think legendary rule makes you not want it as a 4-of, but I would think it replaces at least one Steelie.
If your intent is to transform, I wonder if Heart of Kiran is worth considering. You’ll often be able to crew it from a summoning sick creature or by taking a counter off garruk, transforming him.
I mean, right there in the second paragraph of the original post:
“One of the advantages of Stompy in Modern is it's an inherently cheap deck that doesn't require any truly expensive cards.”
Whether you like it or not, whether you agree or not, whether you like to lord your collection value over others or not, budget IS a consideration in this deck and has been from the start. A reason people are drawn to mono color builds as modern entry points is because they’re budget accessible in a way that multicolor builds are not. Also in that paragraph, “As such, if you're brand new to Modern and are looking for a starting point, this is a great one. ”.
You might as well remove that paragraph entirely if we start to take the “you need to run a $200 landbase in this monocolor build or you’re not welcome to talk here” attitude.
I’ve been wondering more about ... if everything we play has counters on it, how long before we actually consider Inspiring Call? It’s removal defense and card draw all in one.