How has Skirsdag High Priest worked for you CosmicCharlie? I love the card but haven't found quite the right shell for it in Modern. It looks like it'd be pretty well supported here by lots of interaction and expendable bodies powering a grindy game.
Ooh, a bit of thread necromancy here. Just thought I'd show my list in case someone is looking for other options. This list allows several colours, and when you look at the mana base, you'll know why. Painful, but quick enough to blitz the opposition.
The sideboard is a bit up in the air, made for my local meta.
Shelldell
He wins me games. You need practice with him though to get him to work. Pact, dis, lily, miren and mikaeus are my outlets. However, making demons isn't all he does he also gives creatures evasion by making blocking a bad choice or he can make an opponent's attk bad. He's a remove on sight card. I also have sideboard tech with him in the form of burrenton, red decks usually can't comeback from that interaction. On the other side, he does need alot of support and drawing multiples in your opening hand usually isn't good if he's one of the only creatures in your hand.
What MUs do you face in your environment (i.e FNMs) ? That's the only thing that will help us analyze what can be improved in your list.
Sun Fin pointed out Swiftspear and Interlude, which are indeed suspicious cards. But if you tell us you face Jeskai Nahiri with maindeck wrath effects, it's somewhat understandable to play Interlude.
Overall, I personally haven't tested such blitz aggro lists, it looks weak (I feel like it's a standard deck, not modern) but surely good enough for some FNMs.
Edit :
new tool for humans :
Voltaic Brawler
RG
Human Warrior
3/2
When etb, get EE.
When attacks, pay E to get +1/+1 and trample ueot.
I don't think Brawler needs more energy cards. A 3/2 for 2 mana that can threaten to become a 4/3 or even 5/4 to dissuade blocking is pretty good.
I also think that this is better than Scab-Clan Mauler and Stormblood Berserker because you avoid niche scenarios where you can't enable Bloodthirst, and you can also play Brawler with Lightning Mauler during your first main phase to attack the same turn. Additionally, when you factor in Brawler's pump ability his damage output is slightly higher than the other two.
Overall I've had some concerns that Energy is too parasitic to achieve good value from lone cards in Modern but if they keep revealing more cards like this I'll be pretty happy.
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The biggest deck building problem I'm running into now is the old issue of clashing between GR for Lightning Mauler, Voltaic Brawler, possibly Hanweir Garrison & Burning-Tree Emissary, and the White needed for Champ & Lieutenant. There are so many card choices available that it's starting to becoming tiring to explore, test, and optimize them all... I guess that should be a good thing from a brewer's perspective but I haven't found anything that felt just right yet. Here are the archetypes that appeal the most to me right now:
1) Low-curve RGw Blitz. Potentially fast enough to go under some slower control decks but also the frailest and least interactive. Struggles to reconcile GR with W core. Kind of like a slightly worse version of Burn/Zoo. The further you go from white the poorer your SB options are, also. But maybe being able to actually go under some decks is worth all of those issues? The occasionally T3 kills are pretty nuts.
2) WGrb Company. Shift the emphasis to our good 3-drops, Garrison & Mantis Rider (or others from SB), by adding dorks, Hierarch & Pilgrim, and CoCo. Trades roughly a turn of speed for grindy resiliency / inevitability via CoCo, Garrison, etc. Better than blitz against midrange, probably a similar matchup for aggro, not sure yet on combo & control.
3) Mono W Human Soldiers. Solves the issue of Mayor being a mediocre lord by replacing him with the soldier lord and Honor of the Pure. Painless mana and lots of consistency through redundancy. Should be pretty fast, though I'm not sure yet if it's as fast as the RGw Blitz variation (anyone played both?). Individually less powerful cards (lots of savanah lions), more reliant on synergy and fewer bombs.
So far the most successful decks according to MTGTop8 have been the lists running CoCo, for whatever that's worth. I'm still trying to figure out if there isn't some way to build a modular 75 that can blitz, grind, or disrupt depending upon the matchup... but then the consistency of Mono-W tempts me, as well.
I'm in the exact same spot trying to fit Voltaic Brawler into a Naya Blitz list. Brawler's 3/2 definitely helps EX1, but having both Champion & Lieutenant enter as 1/1s still hurts. On top of that Champ is already a bad topdeck, I dunno how much you want to add another bad topdeck with EX1 since we lack good draw filtering in GRw without CoCo. Right now I'm looking for something else in the 1-drop spot. I agree that even if we squeeze in 10x instants Monastery Mentor is going to be a pretty inconsistent performer. A combination of Kytheon, Grim Lavamancer, and maybe even Thraben Inspector might be ok.
Looks very solid in the right build but will probably need some more cards in the deck that produces energy?
I don't think so. I mean, if there's another human that produces energy and fits to the deck, great. But since it feeds the other copies of itself you will play later, there's no wasted value when the first dies.
don't think that the energy mechanic will be relevant in Modern (I'm not even sure about Standard).
Voltaic Brawler seems pretty good escpecially in shell with Burning-Tree Emissary and Lightning Mauler,
but Naya Humans already has Scab-Clan Mauler (and Stormblood Berserker) which is almost comparable and doesn't see play.
Bloodthirst is unplayable because fairly conditional. Moreover, as mentionned above, it doesn't play well with Champ.
And if you compare, the condition of Brawler makes it stronger than the Bloodthirst guys anyway. Brawler can attack as a 4/3 Trampler on T3, for 2 consecutive turns minimum : it's one of the best ratios you can find with humans !
Trample is also very relevant since evasion is known as one big flaw of these archetypes.
This is the one card that gives BTE aficionados a reason to lean towards a R-heavy build. The core for creatures is more consistent now :
It doesn't matter whether BTE doesn't help Lieutenant, that one can be played on the next turn and pump the whole team anyway.
To me, Brawler is better than Lightning Mauler in terms of what is a core piece, Brawler plays alone and can trample over blockers.
Do you guys think voltaic brawler with its 3 power could make Experiment the one drop naya blitz needs?
Brawler helps Naya Humans being a deck. Experiment One is a trap in the first place in my opinion. The only competitive deck that takes advantage of it is Zoo, and look at how bigger Zoo creatures are. Humans have no Apes, Lions, Nacatls to make Exp1 a good card.
Same with BTE, the card isn't shaped for a Human tribe, but for Zoo. Now, the more G/R 2-drops Humans will get, the best BTE will be for the tribe. With Brawler, BTE turns into a better card.
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You haven’t included R/W which I guess is because it’s not something that interests you but I think it is a solid compromise between the raw speed of Blitz and the consistency of Soldier. Certainly it’s my preferred option!
My personal reservation with Wr is that I'm not sure you gain enough by adding a splash of Red without investing in Green + Red.
With Mono-White you have 100% consistent mana and can run 4x Mutavault, you have access to two more "Lords" via Field Marshall and Honor the Pure, and you have the extremely versatile Brave the Elements, which both guards against sweepers and gives everyone a type of evasion, which the tribe desperately needs. By splashing Red you dilute those valuable aspects that only work in Mono-White, and I'm not fully convinced yet that the value added by Red is worth that cost. With that said I encourage you to keep brewing and I'll keep an open mind about Wr.
I think the deck is loaded up on two-drops, not much more room for Ash Zealot. I would probably run Noble Hierarch over Aether Vial, but I'm not sure yet if either are needed. I think Gather the Townsfolk is worth running in the spell package *if* Mayor of Avabruck is included to increase the odds that it's 1W for 2x 2/2s.
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EDIT, here's where I'm at right now for a potential Blitz deck with Brawler:
It's not quite as fast as the nut draws of some of the earlier Blitz decks but the average performance looks like it could be better from preliminary goldfishing.
Atarka's Command pump mode has been pretty useful with Gather the Townsfolk's tokens and makes me feel better about running Gather. Despite some initial doubts on running a dork in a lean aggro list Noble Hierarch does help bridge the gap between GR and W and helps run at 18 lands.
Oath of Nissa provides Prowess-fodder for Swiftspear and also helps to dig for more beaters, lords, or lands depending upon what's needed -- it's solid at any point in the game and enhances consistency here.
Swiftspear is usually a 2/3 in this list (before Lord effects). That's obviously not quite the all-star status she attains in Burn but a hasty 2/3 is solid enough to keep testing her.
Thanks for the first comments!!!! First of all, my local meta mostly has control and combo decks, with a little aggro (mostly in the form of Robots, Merfolk and Goblins).
Second, the Monastery Swiftspear work more than fine with 12 spells. This is a full aggro deck, so almost all of the removal is for blockers, so even the single extra point in power helps. Besides, with the help of the Lieutenant, she'll never stay as a 1/2 for long. Anyways, what I cared most about the card is that is a hasty one drop that will hit for 4 or more if it's not holded back.
I know that the Eerie Interlude is an odd choice: hell, in the beggining I didn't liked it and used the full playset of Charms. But this card allows to some insane combat tricks, in particular, to trigger all at one the Champion of the Parish and the Thalia's Lieutenant at the end of opponent turn, aftet using it in combat, or even saving them from the Annihilator effect of Emrakul.
It may looks weak, but against deck that fetch+shock themselfs, it has already managed some turn 3 kills.
@Shelldell, Brave the Elements it's an awesome card, but the protection agaist mass removal is limmited to damage sweepers. If the protection is the only use someone will give for the white instant,in that case Boros Charm is, just for an extra R, more efficient.
But, just as you say, the main reason to use Brave is the evasion it gives to the creatures, and in that aspect is far greater than others choices
I'm not sure that Oath of Nissa is the right card in an aggro deck though it is obviously good.
That's fair, I had a similar thought about Oath but surprisingly I've been more happy to see it than I have been to see Atarka's Command. Command was great once you had enough board presence to get value out of both the pump and burn modes but otherwise felt lackluster. Between Hierarch and BTE I didn't have any trouble dumping my hand by ~T3 so putting out another land didn't help much and I'd have to get some sideboarded games in to tell how much the anti-life-gain helps this deck compared to Burn. As I mentioned the deck usually has more mana than it needs by T3, so paying G for a bit of filtering without losing card advantage has been welcome, and while it doesn't speed up my clock on its own it has helped keep the right ratio of lands and threats, which helps in its own way. In exchange it has had a significant effect on my consistency and longevity while powering Swiftspear. In a pinch it can also serve as an acceptable T1 play if you've already mull'd. I'm still weighing other options for this slot (if I need to side in Path game 2 I'll probably slot it over Oath).
I think Hanweir Garrison can be really solid in a slightly more midrange-y build with Dorks, CoCo, and Lightning Mauler to speed it up. In that context it can get out and swing early while also grinding you towards a favorable board state in attrition-based, creature-heavy matchups. Without such support, however, I don't think it's doing your clock any favors and my understanding is that you want to tune your aggro lists to have the fastest linear clock you can for game 1. With that said I agree that Garrison might belong somewhere in the 75. However, I do feel strongly that a lower curve blitz deck needs a minimum of 10 1-drop Humans, ideally 12. Games that started without a T1 play didn't seem very strong. This is what lead me to Swiftspear, which lead me to squeezing in a few more spells, which in turn led me to Gather the Townsfolk.
So far I've felt like I could use some sort of draw mechanism or a good mana sink.
Have you considered using Ghor-Clan Rampager in the spell-slots as (uncounterable) pump/removal ?
Maybe some number of Kytheon, Hero of Akros should be in the deck as it is probably one of the stronger 1-drop options and flipping him on turn 3 shouldn't be too hard.
Unfortunately using Rampager's discard ability doesn't count as casting a non-creature spell so it doesn't help Swiftspear, but if I move away from Swiftspear I'll keep that in mind.
@Dennis : it seems like a good idea to implement Hanweir Battlements as you play 4 Garrisons. It's a card I had to cut because I play 4C, but in Naya colours, it's quite attractive. It's probably in a slot of a spell though, but it's up to debate.
I would really like to see Collected Company and Lightning Mauler in your list, probably in the place of Burn spells.
Because BTE is a centerpiece of that version, it feels better to slam a Mauler than wasting a Command. For the attrition game, it feels better to topdeck a Coco rather than a Lightning Helix (imagine you must race a Tarmo). That being said, I understand the idea behind burn spells, I just believe it turns the deck into a worse Naya Burn or a worse Zoo archetypes. I'm curious to get your feedback within time.
Like Shelldell says, Garrison is great in a heavy aggro (I wouldn't call that midrange though ), and Coco is the perfect card there. Is Garrison worth it if your goal is to slap your opponent with direct damage ?
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Pretty stock. I cut exotic slots for now, but there's still two 3-drops I'm unsure about, and these are Garrisons. Maybe Thalia, Heretic Cathar could be a better call. Hard to figure this out alone.
Brawler already shows up results in my short testing. More muscles, more evasion, more pressure.
Thalia would be good as extra Reflector Mages, meaning sweeping the path to victory.
I'm still partial to Garrison and Fiend Hunter, but the list above is what I'd recommand to start.
After months trying to figure out Meddling Mage, I believe the card is complicated and narrow. Most combo decks have several ways to combo you off and ways to meddle with the Mage.
Another card I can't get behind is Avacyn's Pilgrim x2. I had absolutely no problem running the list for months (otherwise I'd be the first to add more fixing, believe me), so I conclude it's an uber-precautious way to avoid mana deaths in real life big tournaments, like the one that japanese guy TOP8'd.
That's pretty close to where I'm at with a CoCo build. If you're running red for Brawler, Rider, and Garrison have you already fiddled with running Bolt over Path in the MB? It's a bit more flexible and helps your clock to boot, and Reflector Mage could already handle things bigger than X/3. The other difference is that I'm running a few more 1-drops (3x Kytheon) as running more than 8x 3-drops felt a little clunky to me.
I had tried Bolt over Path with little to no success. The only creatures you wanna deal with are usually the grounders that are bigger than your creatures. Tarmo, Rhino, Thing, Tas, Angler, pumped guys in Infect and Suicide, etc... It also deals with Wurmcoil, Titan, and 1-shot guys in Affinity (when Ravager puts all its counters on a Nexus for example).
Another way to think Path as a better spell is when you deal with a big creature, suddenly your X/X Champion or Lieutenant deals way more damage than a Bolt.
Third reason is white is our main color, over green, and eventually over red. It's always easier to pay WW for 2 white spells, than keeping R for Bolt (sometimes Foundry is used for a white spell, or Ground for a green one).
That's why Dromoka's Command is a fine card on its own too, we have big dudes that can deal with our opponent's big dudes... well sometimes.
About the curve, it depends on how many lands you run. The list above shows up 22, which is the amount the japanese player had iirc. I wouldn't go under 21. Considering we run 4 Coco, 3-drops shouldn't be a concern, at least not when we're speaking of 2 extra copies. The deck is built in order to be able to cast 4-cmc spells after all !
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Truth is, I neved had any kind of troubles with Thalia and the Swiftspear, both in maindeck. Usually, Thalia is more of a mid-lategame card, unless I'm faceing a control or combo deck, while Swiftspear is a full blitz creature that, thanks to haste, will usually do 4 or 5 damage over the game, while also pumping the Champion and Lieutenant.
About the Interlude, it's main reason besides being an amazing combat trick is thw great power it gaves to the champions and lieutenants. But, I gotta admit, it gets extremy awkward to play if I already have a Thalia in play.
But, since almost all of my deck consist only in 1 and 2 drops, only having 4 cards with CMC of 3, and only using them if the game is going longer than turn 5 or 6, it dosen't give me much troubles, at least for now.
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Sorry for the bad english, not my native language!!!
For someone with Naya Humans deck, Brawler will definitely be included in my deck. I still hope there will be a modern-playable lifelink human that is 3 cmc or less.
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The sideboard is a bit up in the air, made for my local meta.
3 soldier of the pantheon
4 ash zealot
4 burning-tree emissary
4 Dark Confidant
4 Lightning mauler
3 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Path to Exile
2 Atarka's command
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Cavern of Souls
4 City of brass
4 gemstone mine
2 karplusan forest
4 mana confluence
2 stomping ground
1 grafdigger's cage
2 grim lavamancer
2 path to exile
2 wear//tear
1 destructive revelry
2 rest in peace
3 stony silence
2 zealous persecution
He wins me games. You need practice with him though to get him to work. Pact, dis, lily, miren and mikaeus are my outlets. However, making demons isn't all he does he also gives creatures evasion by making blocking a bad choice or he can make an opponent's attk bad. He's a remove on sight card. I also have sideboard tech with him in the form of burrenton, red decks usually can't comeback from that interaction. On the other side, he does need alot of support and drawing multiples in your opening hand usually isn't good if he's one of the only creatures in your hand.
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Thraben Inspector
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3x Lightning Berserker
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Ash Zealot
2x Hanweir Garrison
4x Path to Exile
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Boros Charm
2x Eerie Interlude
Lands (20)
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Clifftop Retreat
4x Arid Mesa
1x Hanweir Battlements
4x Plains
3x Mountain
4x Wear/Tear
3x Blessed Alliance
2x Electrickery
2x Stony Silence
2x Rest in peace
2x Deflecting Palm
Sun Fin pointed out Swiftspear and Interlude, which are indeed suspicious cards. But if you tell us you face Jeskai Nahiri with maindeck wrath effects, it's somewhat understandable to play Interlude.
Overall, I personally haven't tested such blitz aggro lists, it looks weak (I feel like it's a standard deck, not modern) but surely good enough for some FNMs.
Edit :
new tool for humans :
Voltaic Brawler
RG
Human Warrior
3/2
When etb, get EE.
When attacks, pay E to get +1/+1 and trample ueot.
Great 2-drop !
Voltaic Brawler seems pretty good escpecially in shell with Burning-Tree Emissary and Lightning Mauler,
but Naya Humans already has Scab-Clan Mauler (and Stormblood Berserker) which is almost comparable and doesn't see play.
I also think that this is better than Scab-Clan Mauler and Stormblood Berserker because you avoid niche scenarios where you can't enable Bloodthirst, and you can also play Brawler with Lightning Mauler during your first main phase to attack the same turn. Additionally, when you factor in Brawler's pump ability his damage output is slightly higher than the other two.
Overall I've had some concerns that Energy is too parasitic to achieve good value from lone cards in Modern but if they keep revealing more cards like this I'll be pretty happy.
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The biggest deck building problem I'm running into now is the old issue of clashing between GR for Lightning Mauler, Voltaic Brawler, possibly Hanweir Garrison & Burning-Tree Emissary, and the White needed for Champ & Lieutenant. There are so many card choices available that it's starting to becoming tiring to explore, test, and optimize them all... I guess that should be a good thing from a brewer's perspective but I haven't found anything that felt just right yet. Here are the archetypes that appeal the most to me right now:
1) Low-curve RGw Blitz. Potentially fast enough to go under some slower control decks but also the frailest and least interactive. Struggles to reconcile GR with W core. Kind of like a slightly worse version of Burn/Zoo. The further you go from white the poorer your SB options are, also. But maybe being able to actually go under some decks is worth all of those issues? The occasionally T3 kills are pretty nuts.
2) WGrb Company. Shift the emphasis to our good 3-drops, Garrison & Mantis Rider (or others from SB), by adding dorks, Hierarch & Pilgrim, and CoCo. Trades roughly a turn of speed for grindy resiliency / inevitability via CoCo, Garrison, etc. Better than blitz against midrange, probably a similar matchup for aggro, not sure yet on combo & control.
3) Mono W Human Soldiers. Solves the issue of Mayor being a mediocre lord by replacing him with the soldier lord and Honor of the Pure. Painless mana and lots of consistency through redundancy. Should be pretty fast, though I'm not sure yet if it's as fast as the RGw Blitz variation (anyone played both?). Individually less powerful cards (lots of savanah lions), more reliant on synergy and fewer bombs.
So far the most successful decks according to MTGTop8 have been the lists running CoCo, for whatever that's worth. I'm still trying to figure out if there isn't some way to build a modular 75 that can blitz, grind, or disrupt depending upon the matchup... but then the consistency of Mono-W tempts me, as well.
I don't think so. I mean, if there's another human that produces energy and fits to the deck, great. But since it feeds the other copies of itself you will play later, there's no wasted value when the first dies.
Bloodthirst is unplayable because fairly conditional. Moreover, as mentionned above, it doesn't play well with Champ.
And if you compare, the condition of Brawler makes it stronger than the Bloodthirst guys anyway. Brawler can attack as a 4/3 Trampler on T3, for 2 consecutive turns minimum : it's one of the best ratios you can find with humans !
Trample is also very relevant since evasion is known as one big flaw of these archetypes.
This is the one card that gives BTE aficionados a reason to lean towards a R-heavy build. The core for creatures is more consistent now :
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Voltaic Brawler
It doesn't matter whether BTE doesn't help Lieutenant, that one can be played on the next turn and pump the whole team anyway.
To me, Brawler is better than Lightning Mauler in terms of what is a core piece, Brawler plays alone and can trample over blockers.
Brawler helps Naya Humans being a deck. Experiment One is a trap in the first place in my opinion. The only competitive deck that takes advantage of it is Zoo, and look at how bigger Zoo creatures are. Humans have no Apes, Lions, Nacatls to make Exp1 a good card.
Same with BTE, the card isn't shaped for a Human tribe, but for Zoo. Now, the more G/R 2-drops Humans will get, the best BTE will be for the tribe. With Brawler, BTE turns into a better card.
Any other 1-drop we can use ?
(if not Experiment One we still have: Kytheon, Hero of Akros, Student of Warfare, Warden of the First Tree, Monastery Swiftspear, Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, Grim Lavamancer, Thraben Inspector)
Maybe just go with Æther Vial ?
For spells we can go with the burn package of:
4x Lightning Bolt, 4x Atarka's Command and 4x Lightning Helix (or 4x Boros Charm).
Path to Exile can probably be in the SB like in Zoo/Burn to maximize the reach of the deck.
My personal reservation with Wr is that I'm not sure you gain enough by adding a splash of Red without investing in Green + Red.
With Mono-White you have 100% consistent mana and can run 4x Mutavault, you have access to two more "Lords" via Field Marshall and Honor the Pure, and you have the extremely versatile Brave the Elements, which both guards against sweepers and gives everyone a type of evasion, which the tribe desperately needs. By splashing Red you dilute those valuable aspects that only work in Mono-White, and I'm not fully convinced yet that the value added by Red is worth that cost. With that said I encourage you to keep brewing and I'll keep an open mind about Wr.
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I think the deck is loaded up on two-drops, not much more room for Ash Zealot. I would probably run Noble Hierarch over Aether Vial, but I'm not sure yet if either are needed. I think Gather the Townsfolk is worth running in the spell package *if* Mayor of Avabruck is included to increase the odds that it's 1W for 2x 2/2s.
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EDIT, here's where I'm at right now for a potential Blitz deck with Brawler:
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Champion of the Parish
3x Mayor of Avabruck
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Voltaic Brawler
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Atarka's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Gather the Townsfolk
3x Oath of Nissa
1x Rancor
Land (18)
4x Cavern of Souls
1x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
It's not quite as fast as the nut draws of some of the earlier Blitz decks but the average performance looks like it could be better from preliminary goldfishing.
Atarka's Command pump mode has been pretty useful with Gather the Townsfolk's tokens and makes me feel better about running Gather. Despite some initial doubts on running a dork in a lean aggro list Noble Hierarch does help bridge the gap between GR and W and helps run at 18 lands.
Oath of Nissa provides Prowess-fodder for Swiftspear and also helps to dig for more beaters, lords, or lands depending upon what's needed -- it's solid at any point in the game and enhances consistency here.
Swiftspear is usually a 2/3 in this list (before Lord effects). That's obviously not quite the all-star status she attains in Burn but a hasty 2/3 is solid enough to keep testing her.
Second, the Monastery Swiftspear work more than fine with 12 spells. This is a full aggro deck, so almost all of the removal is for blockers, so even the single extra point in power helps. Besides, with the help of the Lieutenant, she'll never stay as a 1/2 for long. Anyways, what I cared most about the card is that is a hasty one drop that will hit for 4 or more if it's not holded back.
I know that the Eerie Interlude is an odd choice: hell, in the beggining I didn't liked it and used the full playset of Charms. But this card allows to some insane combat tricks, in particular, to trigger all at one the Champion of the Parish and the Thalia's Lieutenant at the end of opponent turn, aftet using it in combat, or even saving them from the Annihilator effect of Emrakul.
It may looks weak, but against deck that fetch+shock themselfs, it has already managed some turn 3 kills.
@Shelldell, Brave the Elements it's an awesome card, but the protection agaist mass removal is limmited to damage sweepers. If the protection is the only use someone will give for the white instant,in that case Boros Charm is, just for an extra R, more efficient.
But, just as you say, the main reason to use Brave is the evasion it gives to the creatures, and in that aspect is far greater than others choices
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Mayor of Avabruck
4x Voltaic Brawler
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
4x Hanweir Garrison
4x Atarka's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Boros Charm
2x Lightning Helix
Land (20)
4x Cavern of Souls
1x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Razorverge Thicket
1x Copperline Gorge
I opted to go with Hanweir Garrison over Gather the Townsfolk here as it seems to have more synergy with the deck, I wonder if it's a good idea to add a copy of Hanweir Battlements to the deck.
Noble Hierarch does indeed seem like the best 1-drop option outside Champion of the Parish, and can help Hanweir Garrison attack with exalted.
I'm not sure that Oath of Nissa is the right card in an aggro deck though it is obviously good.
That's fair, I had a similar thought about Oath but surprisingly I've been more happy to see it than I have been to see Atarka's Command. Command was great once you had enough board presence to get value out of both the pump and burn modes but otherwise felt lackluster. Between Hierarch and BTE I didn't have any trouble dumping my hand by ~T3 so putting out another land didn't help much and I'd have to get some sideboarded games in to tell how much the anti-life-gain helps this deck compared to Burn. As I mentioned the deck usually has more mana than it needs by T3, so paying G for a bit of filtering without losing card advantage has been welcome, and while it doesn't speed up my clock on its own it has helped keep the right ratio of lands and threats, which helps in its own way. In exchange it has had a significant effect on my consistency and longevity while powering Swiftspear. In a pinch it can also serve as an acceptable T1 play if you've already mull'd. I'm still weighing other options for this slot (if I need to side in Path game 2 I'll probably slot it over Oath).
I think Hanweir Garrison can be really solid in a slightly more midrange-y build with Dorks, CoCo, and Lightning Mauler to speed it up. In that context it can get out and swing early while also grinding you towards a favorable board state in attrition-based, creature-heavy matchups. Without such support, however, I don't think it's doing your clock any favors and my understanding is that you want to tune your aggro lists to have the fastest linear clock you can for game 1. With that said I agree that Garrison might belong somewhere in the 75. However, I do feel strongly that a lower curve blitz deck needs a minimum of 10 1-drop Humans, ideally 12. Games that started without a T1 play didn't seem very strong. This is what lead me to Swiftspear, which lead me to squeezing in a few more spells, which in turn led me to Gather the Townsfolk.
So far I've felt like I could use some sort of draw mechanism or a good mana sink.
Maybe some number of Kytheon, Hero of Akros should be in the deck as it is probably one of the stronger 1-drop options and flipping him on turn 3 shouldn't be too hard.
I would really like to see Collected Company and Lightning Mauler in your list, probably in the place of Burn spells.
Because BTE is a centerpiece of that version, it feels better to slam a Mauler than wasting a Command. For the attrition game, it feels better to topdeck a Coco rather than a Lightning Helix (imagine you must race a Tarmo). That being said, I understand the idea behind burn spells, I just believe it turns the deck into a worse Naya Burn or a worse Zoo archetypes. I'm curious to get your feedback within time.
Like Shelldell says, Garrison is great in a heavy aggro (I wouldn't call that midrange though ), and Coco is the perfect card there. Is Garrison worth it if your goal is to slap your opponent with direct damage ?
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Voltaic Brawler
4 Reflector Mage
4 Mantis Rider
2 Hanweir Garrison
4 Path to Exile
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
Brawler already shows up results in my short testing. More muscles, more evasion, more pressure.
Thalia would be good as extra Reflector Mages, meaning sweeping the path to victory.
I'm still partial to Garrison and Fiend Hunter, but the list above is what I'd recommand to start.
After months trying to figure out Meddling Mage, I believe the card is complicated and narrow. Most combo decks have several ways to combo you off and ways to meddle with the Mage.
Another card I can't get behind is Avacyn's Pilgrim x2. I had absolutely no problem running the list for months (otherwise I'd be the first to add more fixing, believe me), so I conclude it's an uber-precautious way to avoid mana deaths in real life big tournaments, like the one that japanese guy TOP8'd.
Edit : the side :
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Auriok Champion
2 Fiendslayer Paladin
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Izzet Staticaster
Another way to think Path as a better spell is when you deal with a big creature, suddenly your X/X Champion or Lieutenant deals way more damage than a Bolt.
Third reason is white is our main color, over green, and eventually over red. It's always easier to pay WW for 2 white spells, than keeping R for Bolt (sometimes Foundry is used for a white spell, or Ground for a green one).
That's why Dromoka's Command is a fine card on its own too, we have big dudes that can deal with our opponent's big dudes... well sometimes.
About the curve, it depends on how many lands you run. The list above shows up 22, which is the amount the japanese player had iirc. I wouldn't go under 21. Considering we run 4 Coco, 3-drops shouldn't be a concern, at least not when we're speaking of 2 extra copies. The deck is built in order to be able to cast 4-cmc spells after all !
About the Interlude, it's main reason besides being an amazing combat trick is thw great power it gaves to the champions and lieutenants. But, I gotta admit, it gets extremy awkward to play if I already have a Thalia in play.
But, since almost all of my deck consist only in 1 and 2 drops, only having 4 cards with CMC of 3, and only using them if the game is going longer than turn 5 or 6, it dosen't give me much troubles, at least for now.
IMO it's a mostly better version of Scab-Clan Berserker.
EDIT: grindy mardu
2x Arid Mesa
1x Blood Crypt
2x Bloodstained Mire
4x Cavern of Souls
1x Godless Shrine
1x Hanweir Battlements
4x Marsh Flats
1x Mountain
2x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Swamp
2x Auriok Champion
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Dark Confidant
2x Falkenrath Aristocrat
4x Hanweir Garrison
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros Flip
1x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
2x Skirsdag High Priest
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Terminate
Sorcery (4)
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
You could also swap out the Soul Sister package for Kytheon & Skrisdag High Priest. Or keep the sisters and work in Lone Rider with Lightning Helix.