I can see the appeal of Blue and Little Tef, BUT I don't own any copies of him, and he's far too expensive right now for me to buy a playset. Additionally, on the matter of replacing the Looting effect, even though we did lose Speed and Consistency, I feel that from all the looting reliant decks that are now trying desperately to replace it, the Creativity combo is one of the least affected. Let me explain.
I can understand that looting was our go-to Draw-power, Selection, and CA generator, pitching lingering Souls when needed and sending Emrakul back to our deck for the combo. Fortunately, and different from strategies like Dredge, Phoenix, and Grishoalbrand, those upsides of looting aren't even the deck's central strategy or even dependent on its early use, making it that much easier to replace. For example, going for a Full-playset of Nahiri, the Harbinger. It helps with removal, it loots away stranded emrakuls in hand and also those L.Souls for value. Nahiri also grants an alternative wincon with her Ult and synergizes extremely well with Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, as I've mentioned on my last comment. I'm up for Boros creativity, with a black splash and with B.Moon maindeck (like old Mardu Pyro) as so many strategies right now have greedy manabases.
with 4 Chandras, 4 Nahiris, maybe even war of the Spark Saheeli as none of those actually get hurt by B.moon's land taxing.
Marc, you stick to the Jeskai, I'll experiment with the colors I have access to right now!!! hope you get some awesome results
I wasn't really worried about replacing it, with the format slowing down the selection and CA Looting gave got a bit less relevant overall, so I focused on reactive relevant cards like K.Command and Kaya's Guile, which did WONDERS on my first playtests against those midrange-control decks as well as the aggro matchups. I'm quite sure though that discard is getting less relevant with so much CA being around, When I lost, it was mostly due to the OVERWHELMING card advantage some decks could generate out of the blue, rendering my fair cards really useless in the late-game. Goblins and Ringleader, SFM tutoring of a topdeck, Dredge, control, Affinity with Mystic Forge, Jund and W&6... So I'm thinking it would be better to move Discard to the sideboard against combo only, and focus our Maindeck on our combo and consistency + Overall catch-all removal like dunno, Anguished Unmaking to get creatures as well as PW, enchantments and artifacts. I know this seems CMC heavy, but we have flexible card choices to curve into.
The PW route seems quite appealing also, testing the Nahiri list + Chandra felt really really good. Little Chandra Helps Nahiri Ult as well as giving token fodder for the Creativity ALONE, Nahiri's +1 gives the selection we lack + Removal + alternative win-condition, to curve Legion's Landing into Raise the Alarm into either of these PW is a powerful curve giving little room to our opp to breathe and many angles of attack.
So, I've recently reassembled this deck together and EVEN without Nahiri or little Chandra I cruised to a 4-1 finish at my LGS. I'll be farming for those walkers very soon, i'm really impressed. MarcWizard, START FOILING THOSE WALKER MY MAN, LET'S MAKE THIS DECK A THING AGAIN!!!!
Marc, how about a Discord server? I guess a lot of primers here are migrating there, I sure would support it. If we could, I guess we should merge with the polymorph thread, we can create multiple "polymorph" like channels.
Wow, my experience has been greatly different. The combo wins me The game most of The time, and The token beatdown is Plan B in Fair disruptive matchups like Death shadow and The rock.
I guess It IS Just The way we configure our decks.
Well, I agree that its instant speed is important and that a linear strategy is, in many moments, more powerful than overall versatility or longevity over the game. So let me elaborate WHY I considered the change in the first place. On the curve, Sound the alarm is great, the fact that you can hold your removals and answers while holding your token generators is important. Still, it is LINEAR, 2 1/1 tokens for 2 mana are almost 100% of the time a barely playable limited card, it fits our strategy sure, but it makes horrible topdecks, don't apply enough pressure early game against most of the creature decks (shining mostly against control and linear combo) but still making the cut because of CURVE.
Situations where it shines and why: Control matchups dodging counters and BAITING counters at EoT. Racing against linear combo that lacks interaction (in this situation you have to rely on your discard for disruption since linear combo is so consistent, and secondly trying to race with token beats or your own combo, which in fact is also dependant on your deck structure, racing with 1/1s is a lot slower than 2/2s, so if you have multiple Intangible Virtues running 4 Raise the alarm might be more appealing). Chump Blocking, the tokens really help against Grixis DS since their fatties lack evasion most of the time and you can hold removal to time against their Temur Battle Rage. On Curve (feels nice, and the 2 drop slot is very lacking)
Situations Where I want literally anything else in my hand: Late game, as a topdeck: It does not help close out the game on a clogged board.
Against Aggro and midrange creature decks, they literally chump and that's it WHEN they can chump, because spirits/Humans and Hardened Scales and Burn could care less about ground Blockers. Honestly, it helps as a target for our combo and consistency, but thats the point i'm trying to make there are less powerfull ON CURVE options that shine greatly in the late game, trading imediate power (that is not at all THAT powerfull) for late game versatility.
Option I think could be considered: Secure the Wastes, on curve (turn 2 as a replacement for the Call), creates a tokens but becomes a much better late game topdeck, stealing multiple games from my testing.
Maybe a shift in strategy, having most of our token generator on cmc3 since those have a much wider and more powerful range of cards, creating space for more versatile and efficient cards on 2, Lightning Helix, Dreadbore, Terminate... and your preferred choice of 2cmc removal/discard/card advantage.
I'd like to finish by saying that I'm just trying to provoke a healthy discussion around the deck, since it has a lot of potential and problems inherent to the format, that maybe we can't fix yet, I still love Sound the alarm and will continue experimenting with different crazy builds that follow the initial format of this deck's threat. let's keep up the conversation guys!!!
Experimenting with more walkers in The Mainboard, maybe i'll use some Oaths too sice Gideons and lilianas Oath both make tokens It could be a possible exploration route to Beat grindy and Control matchups.
Im really inclined to change sound The alarm for something Else. Differently From L.Souls tokens, these often times get stuck on deffensive and act as chump blockers. Maybe they could be replaced byo something more agressive, or maybe something more disruptive.
Well, this is modern after ALL. We are bound to have a few miserable matchups. What I have found so Far is that Tron is and always Will be The boogeyman of The Format. No matter How much hate we pack they have The best answers to our Lock and Wincon. I keep relying on early discard and fast linear combo. Board out Iona. Board in Terastodon Alpine Moon and Stony Silence.
Not trying to overextend on The Saheeli subject...BUT, she plays Very nicely with out of The board artifacts. One might think artifacts on The board are Nonbos, but as stated above, Bridge might be a tutorable way to Deal with pesky aethervial matchups. With Saheeli Maindeck those artifacts combined with her -2 ability and your wincon replaces The artifact text, transforming Bridge into emrakul and allowint you to attack at The same time. Still subjected tô being bounced. But still much less punishing than ACTUAL emrakul.
Hey, MarcWizard, your reports on FNMs really made me go out of my way to test this deck, and unsurprisingly it performed just like I thought it would: Extremely F*****ing good.
Having both the option to delay the game to spread your threats with multiples Creativity targets is awesome. Lingering souls really makes Faithless Looting the best draw spell in the format. Iona not only protects you if you are well informed but she CRUSHES linear strategies.
I'm inclined to agree with the post above mine. Saheeli, seems like an amazing inclusion in the 75. she does trigger off from every single spell in the deck (noncreature clause), she does not interfere with the combo whatsoever. She turns her own tokens into hasty threats after you cast the combo and honestly she's not at all costly. 3 mana for 5 loyalty with the only upside on 3 is as broken as a token-oriented walker can get. Her Hybrid costing doesn't even make us splash any colors. I Will be adjusting the build to include her, 2 to 3 copies and I'll get back to you guys as soon as possible. cheers.
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I can understand that looting was our go-to Draw-power, Selection, and CA generator, pitching lingering Souls when needed and sending Emrakul back to our deck for the combo. Fortunately, and different from strategies like Dredge, Phoenix, and Grishoalbrand, those upsides of looting aren't even the deck's central strategy or even dependent on its early use, making it that much easier to replace. For example, going for a Full-playset of Nahiri, the Harbinger. It helps with removal, it loots away stranded emrakuls in hand and also those L.Souls for value. Nahiri also grants an alternative wincon with her Ult and synergizes extremely well with Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, as I've mentioned on my last comment. I'm up for Boros creativity, with a black splash and with B.Moon maindeck (like old Mardu Pyro) as so many strategies right now have greedy manabases.
with 4 Chandras, 4 Nahiris, maybe even war of the Spark Saheeli as none of those actually get hurt by B.moon's land taxing.
Marc, you stick to the Jeskai, I'll experiment with the colors I have access to right now!!! hope you get some awesome results
PS: Nice damn playmat bruh
The PW route seems quite appealing also, testing the Nahiri list + Chandra felt really really good. Little Chandra Helps Nahiri Ult as well as giving token fodder for the Creativity ALONE, Nahiri's +1 gives the selection we lack + Removal + alternative win-condition, to curve Legion's Landing into Raise the Alarm into either of these PW is a powerful curve giving little room to our opp to breathe and many angles of attack.
I guess It IS Just The way we configure our decks.
Situations where it shines and why: Control matchups dodging counters and BAITING counters at EoT. Racing against linear combo that lacks interaction (in this situation you have to rely on your discard for disruption since linear combo is so consistent, and secondly trying to race with token beats or your own combo, which in fact is also dependant on your deck structure, racing with 1/1s is a lot slower than 2/2s, so if you have multiple Intangible Virtues running 4 Raise the alarm might be more appealing). Chump Blocking, the tokens really help against Grixis DS since their fatties lack evasion most of the time and you can hold removal to time against their Temur Battle Rage. On Curve (feels nice, and the 2 drop slot is very lacking)
Situations Where I want literally anything else in my hand: Late game, as a topdeck: It does not help close out the game on a clogged board.
Against Aggro and midrange creature decks, they literally chump and that's it WHEN they can chump, because spirits/Humans and Hardened Scales and Burn could care less about ground Blockers. Honestly, it helps as a target for our combo and consistency, but thats the point i'm trying to make there are less powerfull ON CURVE options that shine greatly in the late game, trading imediate power (that is not at all THAT powerfull) for late game versatility.
Option I think could be considered:
Secure the Wastes, on curve (turn 2 as a replacement for the Call), creates a tokens but becomes a much better late game topdeck, stealing multiple games from my testing.
Maybe a shift in strategy, having most of our token generator on cmc3 since those have a much wider and more powerful range of cards, creating space for more versatile and efficient cards on 2, Lightning Helix, Dreadbore, Terminate... and your preferred choice of 2cmc removal/discard/card advantage.
I'd like to finish by saying that I'm just trying to provoke a healthy discussion around the deck, since it has a lot of potential and problems inherent to the format, that maybe we can't fix yet, I still love Sound the alarm and will continue experimenting with different crazy builds that follow the initial format of this deck's threat. let's keep up the conversation guys!!!
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1867168#paper
Experimenting with more walkers in The Mainboard, maybe i'll use some Oaths too sice Gideons and lilianas Oath both make tokens It could be a possible exploration route to Beat grindy and Control matchups.
Im really inclined to change sound The alarm for something Else. Differently From L.Souls tokens, these often times get stuck on deffensive and act as chump blockers. Maybe they could be replaced byo something more agressive, or maybe something more disruptive.
Having both the option to delay the game to spread your threats with multiples Creativity targets is awesome. Lingering souls really makes Faithless Looting the best draw spell in the format. Iona not only protects you if you are well informed but she CRUSHES linear strategies.
I'm inclined to agree with the post above mine. Saheeli, seems like an amazing inclusion in the 75. she does trigger off from every single spell in the deck (noncreature clause), she does not interfere with the combo whatsoever. She turns her own tokens into hasty threats after you cast the combo and honestly she's not at all costly. 3 mana for 5 loyalty with the only upside on 3 is as broken as a token-oriented walker can get. Her Hybrid costing doesn't even make us splash any colors. I Will be adjusting the build to include her, 2 to 3 copies and I'll get back to you guys as soon as possible. cheers.