Hello, guys
English is not my first language, so if my written is too bad, sorry :c
Well, i'm a commander player trying to enter at modern. I never had the opportunity because the field at my city is "serious bussiness" and I can't buy the tier 1-2 decks, but i met some new players, with budgets decks and it seems like a chance to start.
I have some "mono W humans" set of cards like soldier of the pantheon, imposign sovereing and brave the elements, and some singles like thalia and path to exile. I have some mass removal, mana leaks and bad cantrips (ex: antecipate) But i dont want anything just cast creature and go to combat, i would prefer something with creatures doing some lock (like D&T) or an hard control.
My budget is low (university student without a job kinda low) in short time, but i have time to improve, so something that can be improve to tier, would be nice.
Some sugestion? If i need to give more information?
if you are used to commander style play and already have a fair amount of singletons in mono white the two obvious choices are death/eldrazi and taxes, or mono white devotion (of which goats is 100% the best version of it )
alternatively if your sick of the white playstyle some other very powerful decks id different playstyles
8 whack (this deck is the aggro playstle)
allies (a excellent budget version of humans)
mono blue fairy ninjacopter (old style tempo on a budget)
izzet prowess/thing/wizards (is also getting a lot of love at the moment and is tends to be very versatile and easy to change to a meta)
control is much harder to achieve on a budget, you best bet is probably either mono black 8 wrack or w/b superfriends/smallpox
lastly combo
a really cheap and flexible deck is restore balance, it had so many new potential pieces over that last few years in standard sets but has yet to be broken so is fantastic project deck. (its also one of the closest experiences to edh you'll play in modern)
Hey, thanks for the help.
I'm really trying to change my style (my friends already call me "little creatures guy"... in portuguese these sounds more funny i guess)so I will try get away of the D&T and his versions.
I'll check this aggro decks, i've just already seen the UR, didn't know the others.
Yeah, i'm kinda sad about all control be so expensive, but makes sense :/
I'll check restore balance too
Thanks for the help
Cards you already own
i own a lot of bw aristocrat cards a lot of pirates cards and a lot of saproling fungus cards
Colors you like to play
black/green/white i can play red and blue but the deck mechanics have to be appealing
Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
mid range aggro and combo btw i love sacrificing creature and draining my opponents life but u need board protection to do that and except heroic intervention i dont have any idea
Budget you have
50-100 but if the deck is really nice and can be upgraded i can go up on the budget
Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
casual and fmn
Hi, I have already posted here about what deck I wanted to play but I was unhappy with the choices I made and with modern as a whole. Only when I noticed that there's no true correct way to play the format is that I finally noticed what I was doing wrong and what should be matured in order to seek a new opinion, so here's the info.
Cards you already own
I have Skred Red almost complete and Mono Green Stompy complete, other than that I have relics, mana leaks, serum visions, opt, lightning bolts, logic knots, dispels, disdainful strokes, abrades, young pyromancers and other cheap format staples (mostly in red and blue colors). I have no fetches or shocks.
Colors you like to play
In commander I'm most comfortable playing with black/green due to the amount of removal and recursion in those colors. But in modern I tend to prefer blue with black, white or red, just so that I can have access to good removal spells.
Styles you like to play
I'm mostly a control player, prefering the draw-go style but I also enjoy playing with prison aspects. Besides control my second favorite playstyle is midrange and tempo as close third. I tend to enjoy the more draw-go style regardless of the deck I'm playing and I usually tend to valorize lands a lot, so I end up always wanting to hit my land drops, even if I'm playing aggro (which is my worst style so far). The style that I dislike the most is combo due to how vulnerable I feel towards my enemy interaction spells.
In pauper my go to deck is Dimir Alchemy, which to me feels like a draw-go control deck with a weak late game due to the lack of planeswalkers or other big finishers that control has access to in other formats. This is basically what I'm seeking for my modern deck, because playing that style just feels natural to me and I already have quite some practice with this style.
Besides the counter spell aspect of blue I also enjoy boardwipes, they give some security against aggro matchups.
Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (casual, fnm, ptq)
FNM level is enough for me.
Budget you have
I was looking for something towards the $400-$600 budget, some people already told me that UW Control should fit like a glove to me, but it's just too expensive for just fnm level of play.
Both esper and izzet run more snapcasters and cryptics than uw control, and esper also runs a full playset of colonnade. Wouldn't it make these decks as expensive as uw control?
@sekiars, How much of Skred do you have left to build? IMO, that's a great budget deck. As someone who regularly plays tier decks in a competitive metagame, I genuinely feel that Skred is a sleeper deck. I've been working on using data to tweak my own list for a little bit now, and that method's been working very well. I would love to try to help, if you're interested.
The problem with "Skred Red" is that it is not proactive enough and rather one-dimensional at what it does which is casting Blood Moon's and killing (small) creatures with all the red removal in its desposal.
It has major issues with decks whose gameplan doesn't line up with Skred's answers and it can't usually race very well to compensate.
It seems that your experiences with the deck are slightly different than mine, but our lists are also quite different. The past few months I've been approaching tweaking Skred using the same method that I used to work on Lantern. I built this spreadsheet to find the strengths and weaknesses in the deck.
The spreadsheet ranks each card relative to the others with respect to increased or decreased win percentages when said card is in the opening hand. There are two reasons why I focus on opening hands when doing this. First, a typical Modern game is often decided by the play within the first four or five turns. Either the aggressive deck has obtained an overwhelming advantage, or the defensive deck has done a decent job of keeping the aggressive deck in check and is able to prolong the game into the stage in which it has the long-term advantage. This means that, assuming each player keeps an opening hand of seven cards, each player will have seen 11 to 12 cards to accomplish what it needs to accomplish (obtaining control of direction of the game. Thus, the opening hand will be somewhere between 58% to 63% of the resources each player will see to do this. The opening hand is going to be quite important in accomplishing this task, and thus the importance of having cards in the opener that can interact with the gamestate in some significant way. Note that I didn't say "interact with the opponent", because that isn't necessarily what matters. What matters is that they can interact with the gamestate with greater significance than the opponent. The second reason I focus on the opening hands is that it is more efficient when it comes to objectively evaluating the performance of cards. I prefer to use objective, concrete numbers rather than trying to assign arbitrary scores to topdecks. That arbitrary scoring would be subjective, and that allows room for bias.
With that said, my current list, and explanations for it, is as follows:
As noted in my signature, the basic concept of all competitive decks is to neutralize any relevant interaction that the opponent might have. Every deck has some weakness where it may not be perfect at doing this (unless the metagame gets completely warped, as seen during times such as the Eldrazi Winter, etc.). This deck accomplishes it by using removal for the many creatures in the format, combined with having effective ways to prevent the opponent from casting relevant cards (Blood Moon). It also has ways to combat the many graveyard-based decks (Relic of Progenitus). It uses difficult-to-answer threats (the creatures, combined with Koth of the Hammer). It can change roles from being an aggressive deck to being a midrange-control deck when needed.
The hard-to-answer creatures are the methods to make it proactive. Those creatures are used to pre-emptively neutralize the many removal options used in today's metagame (going wide with tokens, being able to have a creature that always comes back, indestructible creatures, the inability to remove a planeswalker emblem, and a creature with protection from white). Blood Moon does pre-emptive work to constrict an opponent's options.
As I mentioned, I used the spreadsheet numbers to tweak the deck, and it's been performing very well for me. Something of particular note is that, thanks to the ability to draw and sift through the deck with Relic of Progenitus, Mind Stone, Magma Jet, and Scrying Sheets, it's been easier than ever to make sure that our cards line up.
The deck currently seems underrated by the community at large, and I can't say that I'm surprised. The community also once said that Lantern would get nowhere (and this is really where Lantern started!). This same spreadsheet method was successfully used on Lantern, and since then I've used the method to work on Mono Blue Tron and Taxes, and subsequently found success with those decks as well.
I have everything except for the expensive pieces (chandra, blood moon, shattering spree, etc) and I need to finish buying the snow-covered mountains. The problem I found in Skred is the lack of countermagic, making it imo a slightly worse control deck than the other ones. And when in lack of countermagic I prefer a style similar to death and taxes or jund, where I have at least some sort of control of what spells resolves due to disruption.
I do agree that the deck is good and has many good points going for it, I even read all your posts on the skred thread about your spreadsheets and gave a good look at them aswell. The only thing is that it's just not the deck for me.
-Cards you already own
Cards I own just ones from M19 and GRN
Cards that I used for GW midrange that I don't think translate to modern.
-Colors you like to play
These are listed in order of preference.
GW / UR / RGW / RG
-Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
I play midrange.
but, I think aggro/combo I think are the cheaper choices.
I don't mind tribal either.
-Budget you have
Budget 50$
-Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
casual, I think I want to go low just to get it built and then add onto it to try to get to FNM/Ptq levels.
probably have to treat it like a project deck.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Good gw midrange tends to be a little pricey
The two places I would go for budget midrange with green is either abzan blink or gr ponza. Both offer a effective midrange plan with minimal outlay for the basics. Naya and izzet tend to be more aggro/tempo style of play in modern,
I do see a ponza thread. Got some reading to do on that one.
Couldn't find info on abzan blink.
I know green has collected company/stompy and those are in consideration as well. Best guess there is collected company is combo based and stompy is aggro based.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
-Cards you already own
Cards I own just ones from M19 and GRN
Cards that I used for GW midrange that I don't think translate to modern.
-Colors you like to play
These are listed in order of preference.
GW / UR / RGW / RG
-Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
I play midrange.
but, I think aggro/combo I think are the cheaper choices.
I don't mind tribal either.
-Budget you have
Budget 50$
-Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
casual, I think I want to go low just to get it built and then add onto it to try to get to FNM/Ptq levels.
probably have to treat it like a project deck.
Hi, I'm a old player that return to modern. Nowadays I play only commander and pauper. So, I have only few cards.
I lkie to play control decks, bit i know that is very expensive to build a deck.
I have he Boros monarch, mono blue Delver, skred, ub control pauper decks. I have too staples for uwg commander(derevi). And 2 uw, 1 WB and 1 GB fetchs, 2 blood moons and 3 kiki jikis, pestermite and exarch.
I would like to play in a local tournaments in a minimun competitive way. I prever to play in a control mode or midrange. But I'm a adaptative player and I can play in any style.
I have $100-200 to invest in a deck, I can sell the cards to give a little more.
For budget control playable at the LGS level, Mono Blue Tron is the best option I know of. My deck is supposedly worth about $175 right now, but I got a lot of pieces cheaper. It's infinitely customizable, can be upgraded one card at a time if you want, and has a super strong top end even in budget form. Academy Ruins is the only absolutely indispensable expensive card.
- Colors you like to play
Considering building a UR deck.
- Cards you already own
All UR dual lands except Tarn.
4x UW fetch, 4x UB fetch.
6x Snowed-covered Mountain, no Snow-covered Island
2x Blood Moon, 3x Magus of the Moon
2x Grim Lavamancer, 4x Young Pyromancer
2x Remand, 0x Cryptic Command, 4x other mainstream counterspells
Lightning Bolt, Anger of the Gods, Skred, and several other red removals
Blue cantrips, Red rituals & SSG
- Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
I have been mainly playing combo decks so I'd like to try something different. Maybe tempo or control? I especially would like to build something that can utilize main deck Moon, but didn't find a good way to build around it (Blue Moon control seems really needing Cryptic Command / Snapcaster Mage to work which I don't have).
- Budget you have
- Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
With my existing cards + something within $50 is it possible to build something FNM competitive?
Hey, thanks for the help.
I'm really trying to change my style (my friends already call me "little creatures guy"... in portuguese these sounds more funny i guess)so I will try get away of the D&T and his versions.
I'll check this aggro decks, i've just already seen the UR, didn't know the others.
Yeah, i'm kinda sad about all control be so expensive, but makes sense :/
I'll check restore balance too
Thanks for the help
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/decks/budget/modern#paper
look at https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/844165#paper for example, is a budget martyr proc deck, a mono white control!
the upgraded version is pretty good if you know how to play it
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/martyr-proc/
i own a lot of bw aristocrat cards a lot of pirates cards and a lot of saproling fungus cards
Colors you like to play
black/green/white i can play red and blue but the deck mechanics have to be appealing
Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
mid range aggro and combo btw i love sacrificing creature and draining my opponents life but u need board protection to do that and except heroic intervention i dont have any idea
Budget you have
50-100 but if the deck is really nice and can be upgraded i can go up on the budget
Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
casual and fmn
Cards you already own
I have Skred Red almost complete and Mono Green Stompy complete, other than that I have relics, mana leaks, serum visions, opt, lightning bolts, logic knots, dispels, disdainful strokes, abrades, young pyromancers and other cheap format staples (mostly in red and blue colors). I have no fetches or shocks.
Colors you like to play
In commander I'm most comfortable playing with black/green due to the amount of removal and recursion in those colors. But in modern I tend to prefer blue with black, white or red, just so that I can have access to good removal spells.
Styles you like to play
I'm mostly a control player, prefering the draw-go style but I also enjoy playing with prison aspects. Besides control my second favorite playstyle is midrange and tempo as close third. I tend to enjoy the more draw-go style regardless of the deck I'm playing and I usually tend to valorize lands a lot, so I end up always wanting to hit my land drops, even if I'm playing aggro (which is my worst style so far). The style that I dislike the most is combo due to how vulnerable I feel towards my enemy interaction spells.
In pauper my go to deck is Dimir Alchemy, which to me feels like a draw-go control deck with a weak late game due to the lack of planeswalkers or other big finishers that control has access to in other formats. This is basically what I'm seeking for my modern deck, because playing that style just feels natural to me and I already have quite some practice with this style.
Besides the counter spell aspect of blue I also enjoy boardwipes, they give some security against aggro matchups.
Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (casual, fnm, ptq)
FNM level is enough for me.
Budget you have
I was looking for something towards the $400-$600 budget, some people already told me that UW Control should fit like a glove to me, but it's just too expensive for just fnm level of play.
It plays no Snapcasters or Cryptics though they would obviously be good upgrades down the line.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
It has major issues with decks whose gameplan doesn't line up with Skred's answers and it can't usually race very well to compensate.
I've been trying to fix this proactivity problem by playing Eldrazi in the deck to varying success but the deck shows promise and seems pretty solid overall though the SB is being constantly tweaked.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/791994-red-eldrazi?comment=11
The spreadsheet ranks each card relative to the others with respect to increased or decreased win percentages when said card is in the opening hand. There are two reasons why I focus on opening hands when doing this. First, a typical Modern game is often decided by the play within the first four or five turns. Either the aggressive deck has obtained an overwhelming advantage, or the defensive deck has done a decent job of keeping the aggressive deck in check and is able to prolong the game into the stage in which it has the long-term advantage. This means that, assuming each player keeps an opening hand of seven cards, each player will have seen 11 to 12 cards to accomplish what it needs to accomplish (obtaining control of direction of the game. Thus, the opening hand will be somewhere between 58% to 63% of the resources each player will see to do this. The opening hand is going to be quite important in accomplishing this task, and thus the importance of having cards in the opener that can interact with the gamestate in some significant way. Note that I didn't say "interact with the opponent", because that isn't necessarily what matters. What matters is that they can interact with the gamestate with greater significance than the opponent. The second reason I focus on the opening hands is that it is more efficient when it comes to objectively evaluating the performance of cards. I prefer to use objective, concrete numbers rather than trying to assign arbitrary scores to topdecks. That arbitrary scoring would be subjective, and that allows room for bias.
With that said, my current list, and explanations for it, is as follows:
2x Hazoret the Fervent
2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2x Stormbreath Dragon
2x Scrying Sheets
21x Snow-Covered Mountain
3x Blood Moon
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Magma Jet
4x Skred
4x Relic of Progenitus
3x Anger of the Gods
3x Koth of the Hammer
3x Damping Sphere
3x Dragon's Claw
3x Goblin Rabblemaster
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Ratchet Bomb
1x Shattering Spree
As noted in my signature, the basic concept of all competitive decks is to neutralize any relevant interaction that the opponent might have. Every deck has some weakness where it may not be perfect at doing this (unless the metagame gets completely warped, as seen during times such as the Eldrazi Winter, etc.). This deck accomplishes it by using removal for the many creatures in the format, combined with having effective ways to prevent the opponent from casting relevant cards (Blood Moon). It also has ways to combat the many graveyard-based decks (Relic of Progenitus). It uses difficult-to-answer threats (the creatures, combined with Koth of the Hammer). It can change roles from being an aggressive deck to being a midrange-control deck when needed.
The hard-to-answer creatures are the methods to make it proactive. Those creatures are used to pre-emptively neutralize the many removal options used in today's metagame (going wide with tokens, being able to have a creature that always comes back, indestructible creatures, the inability to remove a planeswalker emblem, and a creature with protection from white). Blood Moon does pre-emptive work to constrict an opponent's options.
As I mentioned, I used the spreadsheet numbers to tweak the deck, and it's been performing very well for me. Something of particular note is that, thanks to the ability to draw and sift through the deck with Relic of Progenitus, Mind Stone, Magma Jet, and Scrying Sheets, it's been easier than ever to make sure that our cards line up.
The deck currently seems underrated by the community at large, and I can't say that I'm surprised. The community also once said that Lantern would get nowhere (and this is really where Lantern started!). This same spreadsheet method was successfully used on Lantern, and since then I've used the method to work on Mono Blue Tron and Taxes, and subsequently found success with those decks as well.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
Cards I own just ones from M19 and GRN
Cards that I used for GW midrange that I don't think translate to modern.
-Colors you like to play
These are listed in order of preference.
GW / UR / RGW / RG
-Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
I play midrange.
but, I think aggro/combo I think are the cheaper choices.
I don't mind tribal either.
-Budget you have
Budget 50$
-Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
casual, I think I want to go low just to get it built and then add onto it to try to get to FNM/Ptq levels.
probably have to treat it like a project deck.
Appreciate it thanks
-Stay Frosty
I do see a ponza thread. Got some reading to do on that one.
Couldn't find info on abzan blink.
I know green has collected company/stompy and those are in consideration as well. Best guess there is collected company is combo based and stompy is aggro based.
-Stay Frosty
you may want to check this: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-98-30-tix-modern-little-kid-gw
a friend of mine is using this GW budget deck, it's good especially if it curves out properly, there are many cards already printed out since the posting of this article and you can upgrade it's pieces using some GRN cards such as knight of autumn, pelt collector, also temple garden is currently at a low price due to reprint.
I lkie to play control decks, bit i know that is very expensive to build a deck.
I have he Boros monarch, mono blue Delver, skred, ub control pauper decks. I have too staples for uwg commander(derevi). And 2 uw, 1 WB and 1 GB fetchs, 2 blood moons and 3 kiki jikis, pestermite and exarch.
I would like to play in a local tournaments in a minimun competitive way. I prever to play in a control mode or midrange. But I'm a adaptative player and I can play in any style.
I have $100-200 to invest in a deck, I can sell the cards to give a little more.
cheap and competitive? UR storm, its a 300 combo deck that can win a GP right now, but i dont think you have anything right now.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-storm-46456#paper
with the cards you have i believe you can make skred red, a mono red control deck, while not a good meta choice right now, is always a tier 3 deck that can win if your meta is full of aggro creatures (humans/bant spirits)
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/control/718932-skred-red
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/562904#paper
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/36462_Modern-Mayhem--Skred-Red-.html
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/budget-modern/796880-semi-budget-esper-control
Considering building a UR deck.
- Cards you already own
All UR dual lands except Tarn.
4x UW fetch, 4x UB fetch.
6x Snowed-covered Mountain, no Snow-covered Island
2x Blood Moon, 3x Magus of the Moon
2x Grim Lavamancer, 4x Young Pyromancer
2x Remand, 0x Cryptic Command, 4x other mainstream counterspells
Lightning Bolt, Anger of the Gods, Skred, and several other red removals
Blue cantrips, Red rituals & SSG
- Style you like to play (control, combo, aggro, midrange, tempo, ramp, rogue)
I have been mainly playing combo decks so I'd like to try something different. Maybe tempo or control? I especially would like to build something that can utilize main deck Moon, but didn't find a good way to build around it (Blue Moon control seems really needing Cryptic Command / Snapcaster Mage to work which I don't have).
- Budget you have
- Level you want to play at, or aim to build up to (causal, fmn, ptq)
With my existing cards + something within $50 is it possible to build something FNM competitive?
Thanks a lot!