Elemental Shotgun Because your life total should be -2 and you should have 16 poison counters. Video Primer!
Use this Video Primer as a great way to watch and pick up the deck.
Forward:
During Pro Tour Seattle Star City Black unveiled a combo deck that broke Modern's turn 4 rule in half. They would have been the talk of the town, the next group of people who broke Modern... if Jund didn't show up in droves and make them lose horribly. Since then, there has been little development on the U/R combo deck. Delver of Secrets has been thrown in, different cheap spells and and Artful Dodges, none of which really solved the problem this deck faced: it's weak to a variety of sac/removal effects and has no good plan B.
That was until someone mentioned Death's Shadow to me. Knowing my aggro decks like the back of my hand, I retooled the deck from being an all in combo deck, to a hybrid "Charged" Combo deck (see my latest videos on my channel for aggro archetypes) and suicide black. Now the deck feels way more solid. It is removal resistant, and has a strong plan B that people don't usually see coming. While it's not as all in as it used to be, meaning less turn 3 wins, it still can do it, but would rather take chunks out of life totals, rather than one big sniper shot.
This core allows 12 game winning creatures. While I'll be the first to admit, I'd rather have 14 creatures, (-2 Death's Shadow, -2 Kiln Fiend for a one cmc verison of Kiln Fiend) there currently is no Kiln Fiend at one cmc other than Nivmagus Elemental. With that, we can go over the top; without, you're tier 1.5 at best. Kiln and Nivmagus allow you a incredibly strong attack approach, but should it fail, Death's Shadow can stabilize you for a second go.
These spells are the core of the deck. Apostle's Blessing lets you alpha strike as well as dodge removal, Gitaxian Probe and Thoughtseize allow you to lower your life total while knowing what the opponent will try to use against you. Ground Rift allows you to bypass blockers, and also is a nice snack for Nivmagus. Tainted Strike wins the game off a strong Kiln Fiend or a normal Death's Shadow, and gives the deck a second attack win.
While I suggest the fetches be Verdant Catacombs to grab Stomping Ground and 2 Blood Crypts, you can cut the Dryad Arbor plan. It allows you some recovery, and gives you a sac outlet to rock decks, so I wouldn't recommend cutting it.
Other cards:
While any Phyrexian mana spells can be used some rise above the rest. We generally look for spells that are cheap (2 cmc to free) and more powerful than your average card, especially if it has a pay more life cost (Duress vs. Thoughtseize) Here is a rag tag list of cards found useful in this deck:
Just pointing out that you said that this is from Pro Tour Valencia but it is actually from Pro Tour Seattle. They also did a tech deck that you should probably link to.
Death's Shadow has been one of the most exciting cards for me building this deck. I was never satisfied playing Flamekin Harbinger. Fun side note, I once got to follow up a turn two Kiln fiend + phyrexian mana spell attack on turn three into 3 Death's Shadow at 4/4 post-combat. My opponent burst into hysterics and conceded.
Yeah. Deaths shadow does a lot for the deck, especially after you retool the mana to make it work just as well as an old suicide deck. Harbinger always felt lack luster because it doesnt draw it right away, and reveals your game plan to counters.
And with the retooled mana, you can keep arbor dryad in the deck naturally too.
I wont be doing matchup videos, not for a while at least. Got to do more zoo stuff once a week, then a random deck, so either it will be a random deck or just a few weeks before I do another video. Already did 2 on it.
First of all, thanks for the great primer. Really interesting deck, but I am wondering how well it can stand up to countermagic. With so few threats (somewhat similar to Infect), it seems that a well timed counterspell on a guy like Death's Shadow could leave you with a hand of spells with nothing to use them on. Without access to uncounterable threats like an Inkmoth Nexus (again paralleling infect), it seems to me you would run into some difficulties.
Interested to hear how the deck handles it. Thanks!
Just found this deck from an MTGO daily (http://www.gracefulstats.com/deck/view/16523) and I'm in love. Not a lot of discussion so far on this deck. Has anyone considered/tried Street Wraith? On the surface it seems PERFECT for this deck.
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My MTG Site: Graceful Stats (deckbuilding website that actually works on mobile)
Counter magic is something you need to play though, but most of the time you know about it. You have 7 different peeks in the deck, 3 of which get rid of said counter magic. Counter magic can only stop one spell in the chain, which doesnt really effect much, because after words you're still attacking for a ton. Kiln simply is triggered by "cast" and nivmagus is double ammune because he just eats it off the stack. Ground rift, only one copy gets countered, so its pretty fine there.
Generally after a counter in the spell chain, nothing changes, they are very venerable. Countering kiln can happen as well, but since its 2 cmc, you can wait, and if your on the play, sans spell snare, it cant be countered. Nivmagus and Deaths shadow are even easier to sneak through remand and mana leak. Removal is worse then counter spells... but if you have a lot of black removal and counterspells Autumn's veil is the card you want to look for.
Doing some testing and I found that it falls into the issues that bogles and infect has. You have to mull into a creature. I actually added a couple spoils of the vault to sure up this flaw, plus it plays extremely nice with Death's Shadow. I will keep testing though. We may not have enough mana for this, but opinions on Storm Entity?
Storm Entity plays awkwardly with many of our cards, but more than that, its buffs really aren't that great. Consider it compared to the other creatures: NivMagus Elemental gets two +1/+1 counters from one spell (3/4), Kiln Fiend gets +3/+0 from one spell (4/2), Death's Shadow (assuming a phyrexian mana spell) would get +2/+2 if our life total was already below 13, and Storm Entity gets one +1/+1 counter from one spell (2/2). While Storm Entity is a pretty cool card, and the buffs are permanent, it just doesn't pack the same punch the other creatures do.
A comment regarding the first sentence though. IT should be: "Because your life total should be -2 and yo..."
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Would adding in any number of Past in Flames be a good call? With so much phyrexian mana floating Around it wouldn't be tough to tap for 4 and unload a half dozen spells to cast or feed to Niv.
Using that card would assume you still have the life for it but hey a 1-of in the 75 won't kill ya, unless it does.
I dont think so... I so rarely have games where I have 4 mana... and if I do, I gernerally am losing from not drawing enough spells. Deaths shadow seems to be a better back up plan since if they kill kiln he can still do work, where as you need to still have an alive kiln fiend in past in flames. Even postmordon lunge seems better
Would adding in any number of Past in Flames be a good call? With so much phyrexian mana floating Around it wouldn't be tough to tap for 4 and unload a half dozen spells to cast or feed to Niv.
Using that card would assume you still have the life for it but hey a 1-of in the 75 won't kill ya, unless it does.
The problem is that you probably will already have exiled a lot of the spells on to Niv if you have him. It might work with Kiln Fiend though.
The biggest problem I see with it is that it costs four mana. In a 16 land deck, you are generally not going to reach 4 lands in time for it to be useful.
More all in, as you can see, and a switch to white more than green for emerge. Reason being is two fold. 1. emerge does more at this point than vines do. It gives our dude protection from removal, but allows it to also act as unblockablity. I thought about distortion strike, for the +2 power on prowress, but opted for removal protection over the one damage. It also gives us a rebound, netting us double swings, and 2 extra damage. Whats really good about this is the CA. You can use it to null a bolt, than on your turn, use it to bypass chumps. Fun Fun.
Reason for the switch is because it givesMonastery Swiftspear Soooo much more value.
R
Creature - Human Monk
Haste
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
The calligraphy of combat is written with strokes of sudden blood.
Lets be real. Unless this was a 2/1, which its not mind you, its not good enough for any deck but ours. And even then its not awesome. It allows a better shot at turn 2/3 wins by giving you a new 1 cmc beater that fits with our gameplan better, but its lackluster even with haste. Out of most games I played (when the game went long and she showed up turn 1-3) I could get in with her for a garrenteed 3 damage, but might have been closer to 6 over long term.
Thats not alot. But, again, our "strong options" come at 3 cmc, and we cant get there. 2 cmc offers us nothing, and at 1 cmc we have deaths shadow (whos again, plan B, not good in the early game) and nothing else. So she'll do til we get something better at 1 cmc to 2.
The power level of the deck isnt all that rased with her. Id say... 10%? tops? Its not like shes going to make the deck suddenly more good (think ensoul artifact for affinity levels of strong). But I have out of 15 games, won with her turn 2/3 twice. It takes MUCH more work than kiln or nivmangus, but she can get it done if you get the right cards. 5% more chances of winning is better than none. She IS a good support card though. If you're lucky and you can get a turn 1 swift and turn 2 kiln, you've got the game.
I've had 2 games where her haste was a big boon, basicly you get to cast her with a niv out and she adds to your storm count, and you can let niv eat away, and feel good, because you're still getting prowess buffs of it, and you can swing. Its probably no more than 4 damage there, but hey, that means you did more than bolt would, so its above curve. One game I unloaded with my niv, cept a assault strobe and her. I swung him down to 7. He cracks a fetch, goes to 6, and kills my niv while I'm tapped out. I draw a blessing, cast her, cast blessing naming purple, and strobe. Than I swing for 6 exact.
Here's what I'd keep an eye out for for the last spoilers (and next set) another 1-2 mana prowress, one thats maybe a 2/2 unblockable. Or even a hexproof one. Something thats between kilnfiend and Niv on powerlevel and cost.
Delve is also something you can keep an eye out. We do unload, so any given game we can realisticly delve 4 by turn 2/3. I think they might print some more fun stuff like assault strobe or distortion strike, because they like to make fun 1 cmc kiln fiend support like cards. With prowress being a mechanic, they might print some spell support for it.
So, I really love Nivmagus Elemental. It's one of my favorite cards. I've been playing Niv/Kiln fiend decks for quite some time, but run into the same problems you're having. The deck is really missing one more redundant threat. I tried Death's Shadow pretty early on and didn't really like it that much. Seemed like by the time I could get it out and feel good about it, I was either closing out the game anyway, or it wasn't enough to pull me out on its own. Maybe you're utilizing it better, and maybe two is the right number for it.
When I first saw Prowess spoiled, I really hoped it would be a variable buff, but it wasn't, and seemed too conservative for the deck. I'm still skeptical about Swiftspear, but maybe it's good enough. What I'm really hoping for is some kind of Prowess enabler that can be exploited, but it doesn't seem like anything has been spoiled except for typical combat tricks. I don't know if delve will work, since some spells get fed to Nivmagus and don't go to the graveyard.
I really want this deck to be good. As it is, it can take down some FNM's if you draw right.
How much better is Monastery Swiftspear than Blistercoil Weird? I think haste will be the biggest addition, just giving the deck the ability for more explosive starts. A lot of people have been talking about potential turn 1 kills with it.
You're not getting turn 1 wins with it. Not happening. Turn 1 wins involve Spirit guide, whos only good when going for turn 2-3 wins, and terrible when you try to make a bit more of a stable version.
Swift spear is better because after 2 spells its out of bolt range, unlike blistercoil, and because of its haste, even if it can only get in 3 damage, it's still more useful than blisercoil because it can be used right away. It will even boast 1 damage right away, because, well ever bit helps. We can't use anything blister does for the untap, there for, just not that great.
And swiftspear, like I've said, isnt actually all that impressive. Its a good edition to the deck as a support card, but it doesnt change it enough to make you feel like you're deck is that much stronger.
Jund getting Deathrite shaman= 100% more powerful
Zoo getting Nacatl= 90% more powerful.
Delver getting young pyromancer= 70% more powerful
Affinity getting Ensoul Artifact= 50% more powerful.
Pod getting reclamation Sage= 20% more powerful
Twin getting Izzet Staticaster= 5% more powerful.
Izzet Staticaster is probably the best comparison to swift spear. Its not game ending. It doesnt make you quake thinking about it like a resolved batterskull or something... Still it does its job. Some games it might swing it in your favor, other games, its just going to miss. Its a support card.
Elemental Shotgun
Because your life total should be -2 and you should have 16 poison counters.
Video Primer!
Use this Video Primer as a great way to watch and pick up the deck.
http://youtu.be/f1I1edWbFVo
http://youtu.be/x-ywDi0YBwg
Forward:
During Pro Tour Seattle Star City Black unveiled a combo deck that broke Modern's turn 4 rule in half. They would have been the talk of the town, the next group of people who broke Modern... if Jund didn't show up in droves and make them lose horribly. Since then, there has been little development on the U/R combo deck. Delver of Secrets has been thrown in, different cheap spells and and Artful Dodges, none of which really solved the problem this deck faced: it's weak to a variety of sac/removal effects and has no good plan B.
That was until someone mentioned Death's Shadow to me. Knowing my aggro decks like the back of my hand, I retooled the deck from being an all in combo deck, to a hybrid "Charged" Combo deck (see my latest videos on my channel for aggro archetypes) and suicide black. Now the deck feels way more solid. It is removal resistant, and has a strong plan B that people don't usually see coming. While it's not as all in as it used to be, meaning less turn 3 wins, it still can do it, but would rather take chunks out of life totals, rather than one big sniper shot.
I give you Elemental Shotgun.
Core:
Creatures-
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Death's Shadow
This core allows 12 game winning creatures. While I'll be the first to admit, I'd rather have 14 creatures, (-2 Death's Shadow, -2 Kiln Fiend for a one cmc verison of Kiln Fiend) there currently is no Kiln Fiend at one cmc other than Nivmagus Elemental. With that, we can go over the top; without, you're tier 1.5 at best. Kiln and Nivmagus allow you a incredibly strong attack approach, but should it fail, Death's Shadow can stabilize you for a second go.
Spells-
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Thoughtseize
4 Ground Rift
4 Tainted Strike
These spells are the core of the deck. Apostle's Blessing lets you alpha strike as well as dodge removal, Gitaxian Probe and Thoughtseize allow you to lower your life total while knowing what the opponent will try to use against you. Ground Rift allows you to bypass blockers, and also is a nice snack for Nivmagus. Tainted Strike wins the game off a strong Kiln Fiend or a normal Death's Shadow, and gives the deck a second attack win.
Lands-
4 City of Brass
4 Fetchlands (getting green, I suggest Verdant Catacombs)
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Shocklands
While I suggest the fetches be Verdant Catacombs to grab Stomping Ground and 2 Blood Crypts, you can cut the Dryad Arbor plan. It allows you some recovery, and gives you a sac outlet to rock decks, so I wouldn't recommend cutting it.
Other cards:
While any Phyrexian mana spells can be used some rise above the rest. We generally look for spells that are cheap (2 cmc to free) and more powerful than your average card, especially if it has a pay more life cost (Duress vs. Thoughtseize) Here is a rag tag list of cards found useful in this deck:
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
And with the retooled mana, you can keep arbor dryad in the deck naturally too.
I wont be doing matchup videos, not for a while at least. Got to do more zoo stuff once a week, then a random deck, so either it will be a random deck or just a few weeks before I do another video. Already did 2 on it.
Although...your opponent playing Zuberas did play an untapped Vivd Marsh and then a two drop when all the Vivids come into play tapped :\
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
Lol, yeah, I was 10,000% sure it was just going to be able to show me off goldfishing lol.
Interested to hear how the deck handles it. Thanks!
Generally after a counter in the spell chain, nothing changes, they are very venerable. Countering kiln can happen as well, but since its 2 cmc, you can wait, and if your on the play, sans spell snare, it cant be countered. Nivmagus and Deaths shadow are even easier to sneak through remand and mana leak. Removal is worse then counter spells... but if you have a lot of black removal and counterspells Autumn's veil is the card you want to look for.
A comment regarding the first sentence though. IT should be: "Because your life total should be -2 and yo..."
Did I write something useful? Leave a like.
Any new cool Daretti cards printed in the latest set? Tell me about it!
Rules Advisor
Using that card would assume you still have the life for it but hey a 1-of in the 75 won't kill ya, unless it does.
The problem is that you probably will already have exiled a lot of the spells on to Niv if you have him. It might work with Kiln Fiend though.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Mountain
1 Dryad Arbor
3 City of Brass
4 Mana Confluence
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Death's Shadow
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivmagus Elemental
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Assault Strobe
1 Dismember
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ground Rift
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Tainted Strike
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Gut Shot
2 Emerge Unscathed
1 Dismember
2 Duress
4 Pyroclasm
2 Shattering Spree
3 Thoughtseize
3 Leyline of Sanctity
More all in, as you can see, and a switch to white more than green for emerge. Reason being is two fold. 1. emerge does more at this point than vines do. It gives our dude protection from removal, but allows it to also act as unblockablity. I thought about distortion strike, for the +2 power on prowress, but opted for removal protection over the one damage. It also gives us a rebound, netting us double swings, and 2 extra damage. Whats really good about this is the CA. You can use it to null a bolt, than on your turn, use it to bypass chumps. Fun Fun.
Reason for the switch is because it givesMonastery Swiftspear Soooo much more value.
R
Creature - Human Monk
Haste
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
The calligraphy of combat is written with strokes of sudden blood.
Lets be real. Unless this was a 2/1, which its not mind you, its not good enough for any deck but ours. And even then its not awesome. It allows a better shot at turn 2/3 wins by giving you a new 1 cmc beater that fits with our gameplan better, but its lackluster even with haste. Out of most games I played (when the game went long and she showed up turn 1-3) I could get in with her for a garrenteed 3 damage, but might have been closer to 6 over long term.
Thats not alot. But, again, our "strong options" come at 3 cmc, and we cant get there. 2 cmc offers us nothing, and at 1 cmc we have deaths shadow (whos again, plan B, not good in the early game) and nothing else. So she'll do til we get something better at 1 cmc to 2.
The power level of the deck isnt all that rased with her. Id say... 10%? tops? Its not like shes going to make the deck suddenly more good (think ensoul artifact for affinity levels of strong). But I have out of 15 games, won with her turn 2/3 twice. It takes MUCH more work than kiln or nivmangus, but she can get it done if you get the right cards. 5% more chances of winning is better than none. She IS a good support card though. If you're lucky and you can get a turn 1 swift and turn 2 kiln, you've got the game.
I've had 2 games where her haste was a big boon, basicly you get to cast her with a niv out and she adds to your storm count, and you can let niv eat away, and feel good, because you're still getting prowess buffs of it, and you can swing. Its probably no more than 4 damage there, but hey, that means you did more than bolt would, so its above curve. One game I unloaded with my niv, cept a assault strobe and her. I swung him down to 7. He cracks a fetch, goes to 6, and kills my niv while I'm tapped out. I draw a blessing, cast her, cast blessing naming purple, and strobe. Than I swing for 6 exact.
Here's what I'd keep an eye out for for the last spoilers (and next set) another 1-2 mana prowress, one thats maybe a 2/2 unblockable. Or even a hexproof one. Something thats between kilnfiend and Niv on powerlevel and cost.
Delve is also something you can keep an eye out. We do unload, so any given game we can realisticly delve 4 by turn 2/3. I think they might print some more fun stuff like assault strobe or distortion strike, because they like to make fun 1 cmc kiln fiend support like cards. With prowress being a mechanic, they might print some spell support for it.
When I first saw Prowess spoiled, I really hoped it would be a variable buff, but it wasn't, and seemed too conservative for the deck. I'm still skeptical about Swiftspear, but maybe it's good enough. What I'm really hoping for is some kind of Prowess enabler that can be exploited, but it doesn't seem like anything has been spoiled except for typical combat tricks. I don't know if delve will work, since some spells get fed to Nivmagus and don't go to the graveyard.
I really want this deck to be good. As it is, it can take down some FNM's if you draw right.
Swift spear is better because after 2 spells its out of bolt range, unlike blistercoil, and because of its haste, even if it can only get in 3 damage, it's still more useful than blisercoil because it can be used right away. It will even boast 1 damage right away, because, well ever bit helps. We can't use anything blister does for the untap, there for, just not that great.
And swiftspear, like I've said, isnt actually all that impressive. Its a good edition to the deck as a support card, but it doesnt change it enough to make you feel like you're deck is that much stronger.
Jund getting Deathrite shaman= 100% more powerful
Zoo getting Nacatl= 90% more powerful.
Delver getting young pyromancer= 70% more powerful
Affinity getting Ensoul Artifact= 50% more powerful.
Pod getting reclamation Sage= 20% more powerful
Twin getting Izzet Staticaster= 5% more powerful.
Izzet Staticaster is probably the best comparison to swift spear. Its not game ending. It doesnt make you quake thinking about it like a resolved batterskull or something... Still it does its job. Some games it might swing it in your favor, other games, its just going to miss. Its a support card.
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Nivmagus Elemental
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ground Rift
4 Gut Shot
4 Mutagenic Growth
3 Apostle's Blessing
2 Dismember
2 Assault Strobe
4 Thoughtsteize
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Blood Crypt
4 Sulfurous Springs
1 Apostle's Blessing
2 Dismember
4 Duress
2 Postmortem Lunge
3 Pyroclasm
2 Shattering Spree
1 Slaughter Pact
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)