My "Oh, so he's not a Stromkirk? Dang, did we guess wrong." crack was a reference to Florian's upper quarters and seat initially showing up in the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt image leaks and us guessing whether that was a picture of Runo Stromkirk or not. I remember saying that his image was of a "Stromkirk-looking vampire in the throne-looking seat" (might not be my exact words). I don't recall anyone in that thread guessing he was a Voldaren.
Tested Florian in Modern Bloodbraid Elf Jund (yes, that build has met a steep decline lately). Turns out that Florian was surprisingly good there even given that the only support he got there was removal, targeted discard, big friends, Haste friends, and Wrenn and Six. Shame he doesn't dig for any cards at all maybe around half the time, but he's happy digging 3 cards deep on an otherwise empty board, and digging 3 cards deep feels a lot better than drawing a card. Digging 6 or more cards deep with a fat enough Goyf wins the game pretty fast. Unfortunately, not only does he die to Bolt, he also feels a tad win-more. He might not even sufficiently get you out of trouble if you're losing the damage race but they graciously won't block (e.g. just Florian against two fliers). It does feel like aggro and creature-based midrange is on the downswing in Modern, so Florian feels surprisingly good in the current Modern meta.
That dig ability looks spicy, although you'll need to use up a burn spell or life loss spell if your guys cannot deal combat damage. Oddly, Florian vaguely encourages you to bait out expensive counterspells (e.g. Cryptic Command) that your opponent may need to crack fetchlands to cast (alternately, your opponents just crack all their fetchlands in advance except the one they were saving for Omnath, Locus of Creation). Florian will have a tougher time against aggro, control, midrange, and tempo, but digging well for the anti-combo hate you want looks spicy against combo. (Imagine a land destruction spell every turn against Tron!)
My "Oh, so he's not a Stromkirk? Dang, did we guess wrong." crack was a reference to Florian's upper quarters and seat initially showing up in the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt image leaks and us guessing whether that was a picture of Runo Stromkirk or not. I remember saying that his image was of a "Stromkirk-looking vampire in the throne-looking seat" (might not be my exact words). I don't recall anyone in that thread guessing he was a Voldaren.
Tested Florian in Modern Bloodbraid Elf Jund (yes, that build has met a steep decline lately). Turns out that Florian was surprisingly good there even given that the only support he got there was removal, targeted discard, big friends, Haste friends, and Wrenn and Six. Shame he doesn't dig for any cards at all maybe around half the time, but he's happy digging 3 cards deep on an otherwise empty board, and digging 3 cards deep feels a lot better than drawing a card. Digging 6 or more cards deep with a fat enough Goyf wins the game pretty fast. Unfortunately, not only does he die to Bolt, he also feels a tad win-more. He might not even sufficiently get you out of trouble if you're losing the damage race but they graciously won't block (e.g. just Florian against two fliers). It does feel like aggro and creature-based midrange is on the downswing in Modern, so Florian feels surprisingly good in the current Modern meta.
Shame you cannot have Lurrus of the Dream-Den as your Companion in any deck with Florian.
That dig ability looks spicy, although you'll need to use up a burn spell or life loss spell if your guys cannot deal combat damage. Oddly, Florian vaguely encourages you to bait out expensive counterspells (e.g. Cryptic Command) that your opponent may need to crack fetchlands to cast (alternately, your opponents just crack all their fetchlands in advance except the one they were saving for Omnath, Locus of Creation). Florian will have a tougher time against aggro, control, midrange, and tempo, but digging well for the anti-combo hate you want looks spicy against combo. (Imagine a land destruction spell every turn against Tron!)