Westvale Abbey - A side effect of Doubling Season and token-making walkers is the alternate wincon presented by this land is actually fairly possible. Also in desperate scenarios, it can produce tokens to protect walkers.
Gavony Township - This, Doubling Season and Nissa's plant tokens is hilarious.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Usually green devotion is enough for some hilarious plays, and with Oath of Nissa, who cares about colour?
The Walkers
So there's a lot of walkers to choose from (74, to be exact). The main goal of walkers is to come down with Doubling Season on the battlefield and immediately win (or almost win); this usually takes the form of getting Emrakul out to party; at a minimum, their initial loyalty should be half or more of their ultimate's loyalty cost. I won't analyze all 67 Modern-legal walkers, but here's the highlights.
Chandra, Flamecaller - Not a game winner, but a good sideboard card against token/creature decks. Entering with 12 loyalty will guarantee wiping almost all threats.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - Passes the double-loyalty test, another good choice against creature decks.
Garruk Wildspeaker - Ramp, token creation (doubled by Doubling Season) and passes the double-loyalty test handily. His +1 can also get broken with Karoo lands for extra extra ramp.
Garruk, Primal Hunter - Not bad, but expensive. The ultimate is dampened slightly by the fact that mana dorks don't count as land.
Gideon Jura - Coming in with 10 counters is awesome, especially when triggering the +2 to stall out an opponent's attack. The 0 can also serve as a backup attacker if need be.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar - Another good Gideon. His 0 is excellent with Doubling Season and his +1 is useful.
Jace, Architect of Thought - One of our Emrakul summoners. Enter with 8 loyalty, cast whatever you want. His other abilities are also really useful.
Karn Liberated - Passes the double-loyalty test, and is generally a scary-ass Walker, but the high casting cost counts against him. Problem is, his ultimate kinda sucks when activated straight up, because you don't get any permanents that he exiled.
Kiora, Master of the Depths - Ramp is good. This plus Arbor Elf and Utopia Sprawl could really accelerate stuff. With Doubling Season, acts as a 4cmc casting of three six 8/8 Octopus creatures, which isn't shabby. More of a 'utility' walker than a 'wincon' walker.
Liliana Vess - A fun ultimate with Doubling Season, but not really the best wincon. Also, we don't really do black.
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker - Soooo tempting. His ultimate is hilarious, but high (and restrictive) casting cost is tricky.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar - One of the default walkers, works great with Doubling Season and the backup 'tokens with +1/+1 counters' plan.
Ral Zarek - So much yes. A perennial favourite card of mine, though the ultimate doesn't strictly guarantee winning the game, but it sure makes it really likely. His other abilities are also useful.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis - Tempting, but involves splashing black. Would be fantastic to reveal Emrakul with the +1, his -X gets bat-***** crazy with Doubling Season, and the ultimate isn't really a auto-win, but still useful.
Tamiyo, Field Researcher - Wasn't in any of the deck techs I linked simply because she was too new. However, she's practically perfect for this deck. All abilities are relevant and the ultimate is pure, diamond-encrusted gold.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - Also very tempting. Slamming him with Doubling Season gives you a way to cast Emrakul from your hand, if that was needed. High cmc though.
Vraska the Unseen - Comes with her own wincons, which is nice. Also acts as an Abrupt Decay. Requires a black splash though.
Xenagos, the Reveler - Useful for ramping, useful for walker protection with his Satyr tokens, and his ultimate is almost as good as Ugin's.
The trickiest part of this deck is probably the mana; reliably casting the walker you want on turn 4/5 without Oath of Nissa can be hard (especially Tamiyo). I'm not sure which path is better to go down; more mana dorks, or fewer dorks and more Utopia Sprawls and Arbor Elves. I've yet to put this deck together in paper form (it's damn expensive), so I've been testing on XMage mostly. This is my decklist currently:
I went down a few Arbor Elves to put in Tamiyo and Path, but it might be better to test Utopia Sprawl with more Arbor Elves and fewer Sylvan Caryatids. Getting ramp out on turn 1 is really important. I'd really like to put in Nicol Bolas or Kiora (or go the Garruk + Karoo land route), but it's hard to know what to take out. And one of the best things about this deck is, whenever a new set comes out, any awesome walkers in that set could probably slot right in, if they have good win-cons (just like Tamiyo did).
I've played about 5 matches on XMage today, winning 3 (against Jund goodstuff, griselbrand reanimator and something else), I switched out the Sylvan Caryatids and Noble Hierarchs for Path to Exiles and Utopia Sprawls with more Arbor Elf to make a ramp less vulnerable to creature destruction. I also swapped out the Alchemist's Refuge for a Hallowed Fountain, since I didn't ever see what the flash brought to the party, and with mainboard Paths and two Jaces, I wanted a blue/white source.
Utopia Sprawl + Arbor Elf ramp is pretty effective; thanks to Oath of Nissa, mana screw rarely happens.
Tamiyo, Field Investigator is da bomb. I locked down two 5/6 Goyfs in the Jund match with her +1; the guy didn't want to give me any cards. He killed off a Nissa instead of the Tamiyo, so I ultimated her and drew an Emrakul and cast it for free for gg's.
Oath of Nissa is still awesome. I doubt this deck should ever play less than 4. The only annoying part of it is accidentally sending away a Doubling Season or Blood Moon.
Blood Moon is also useful against quite a few decks, especially those that really rely on fetches.
Everyone seems to be terrified of Westvale Abbey; it was the land of choice to get Ghost Quartered away.
The token Walkers (Nissa, Elspeth, Xenagos and Gideon) are valuable precisely because of their tokens; it provides some degree of protection. Xenagos has the bonus of mana production (also really useful), Gideon can beat down and Elspeth can straight up kill threatening stuff.
Whoops, I thought I'd searched for other threads about this deck, but clearly I didn't search well enough. Do you think I should move my conversations to the other thread?
Nah I would say keep it separate. I just linked it to get anyone else up to speed with the conversation from that thread. You did a good job with your intro post, no need for it to go to waste.
Thanks for the Kiora tip, I corrected that in my OP.
I am curious though... what's your win condition without Emrakul? When you drop Jace with DS and ultimate him, what are you fetching from our deck to immediately win?
I've been running my version and updating it for months as the newer Planeswalkers come out. I've done well at my FNMs. Here's my team, I call Wall of Superfriends:
My plan:
Idea is to set up a mana wall to hide Planeswalkers behind. Use tokens as fodder. Ultimate with Doubling Season or plow through with huge tokens. Strong gold fishing to turns 5/6. Almost every Planeswalker is a win condition on its own with our without DS. Lots of cool interaction/combos between the Planeswalkers. Here’s the batting order:
Jace, Architect of Thought has a nice shield to protect himself and team. His draw can be used to find doubling season or a sideboard card. Ultimate usually ends game by stealing a bunch of your opponent’s creatures and eventually dropping Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Kiora, Master of the Depths helps with crazy ramp in her +1. Her ultimate with DS is 6 8/8 tokens with fight. Just crazy.
Ral Zarek Tapping, direct damage, and oh yeah, a bunch of extra turns. Please come to the party!
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is my secret tech. I’ll usually hold him in hand unless I need token support. He comes down after DS and can reset 3 other Planeswalkers or take some of your opponent’s best stuff. Be careful of sideboarding Rest in peace but you can still exile stuff.
Tamiyo, Field Researcher is batting clean-up. All abilities are great for slowing down opponent and when ultimate hits – gg.
Vraska the Unseen is great across the board and has won a game with her -3. She is an alternate wincon as well! Love her.
Honestly skipping on the Blood Moon severely cuts the strength of this deck. The possibility for turn 2 Moon is just so huge, even when you're on the draw they might not be able to play around it.
The leverage it gives you in the current meta is what in my eyes takes this from a fun brew, into something that will make your opponent sweat when they sit across from you.
I agree that Blood Moon is huge, no question. Are you guys seeing it enough as a 2x or if its so back breaking should we go to 4x. I feel its an all in or not. I want to win by turn 5 or 6 so it only gives a couple turns to be relevant.
I would say going into an unknown meta like a new shop or large tournament 2 is what I would play main, with the other 2 in the side. If you know you local shop is getting greedy with mana bases, hell yeah jam 4 in the main deck.
I'm still building this deck (1x Nahiri, 2x Doubling Season, 2x Blood Moon to go!), so if anyone that is actually playing can do some match up reports that will be the next step to really progress the discussion of the deck. Theory crafting only goes so far.
I've played some version of this deck for about 8 months now with some friends. I have had great results versus several flavors of Tron, Illusion Control, Reanimator, and Living End. I'm okay versus Skred/Burn. Lately I've started playing this deck over the past couple monthly modern FNMs. I live in a very rural area about an hour away from the only shop. Our shop is more casual with lots of home brews but a few top decks. I'll start keeping better records of the matches and games now that I'm tweaking this deck more and more. In most matches it was fun to hear that my opponents had no clear sideboard options - LOL
I went 3-0-1. Beat D&T, Jund and Bant Eldrazi. Split with Soul Sisters due to time.
I went 2-1-1. Beat Slivers, UW Control. Lost to Affinity by 1 turn. I couldn't stop Etched Champ. Split with Scapeshift going to time.
I really like Blood Moon but have lent all my copies out at the moment. I'm interested in hearing how others are doing with this deck. I will continue to develop, test and play as aggressively as life allows :-). It is probably the most fun deck I've played in 10 years!
Saffron Olive played the deck again on his twitch stream. Video here. he plays a but slower since he is talking to people, but it's entertaining none the less.
New Chandra spoiled looks good for the deck. I feel like it is going to continue to power creep as the walker pool increases, definitely a good time to get into this deck. The unfortunate part is walkers are always hyped so getting them early is expensive.
He went 2-3 but some of the matches were really close (and the last one with Deflecting Palm was absurd). I still haven't managed to get this deck in paper yet, but I'm sure I'll try it on XMage at some point. And yeah, I think Chandra, Torch of Defiance could replace Chandra, Flamecaller since it's two mana cheaper and the ultimate is just nuts (and so is everything else). Pity that Saheeli Rai doesn't fit this deck at all, nor does Nissa, Vital Force. We get one more walker this set, I wonder if it'll be Tezzeret or Liliana? Neither seem suited to this deck since we don't play artifacts or black, but I guess we'll see.
It might be too silly, but would a proliferate card have any place in this deck? Most opponents feel pretty safe if a walker is 1 away from its ultimate, so it could be a real blowout if it turns out they miscounted. Tezzeret's Gambit would probably be the only one worth playing. Unfortunately, Nahiri ticks up by 2, so it won't work with her, really.
Also, while I like the new Chandra, I don't think it replaces Flamecaller. Flamecaller's -X is unparalleled, and the ability to generate tokens has synergy with Doubling Season. Torch of Defiance may have a place in this deck, but I don't think it's as her past self's replacement.
I like that Magus can be found off from Oath of Nissa, that does do some leg work to make up for it being more vulnerable.
I picked up a playset of Oath of Liliana because I had that same thought. The EtB trigger can be meh to amazing, but the zombies can give you breathing room or give you needed pressure.
I've been running my deck above for months at my LGS FNM. You are correct that Sorin flips our PW back for the win after a DS hits the table. Also the alternate win-con of Vraska has won me games. The tokens are especially sweet with the Garruk that I run. My all-star of late has been my Tamiyo. So great that I added the second copy so I could find her more often. On her ultimate, hitting even Oaths has been nuts.
For control matchups, I know they can be really tough and I haven't had a lot of matchups at my LGS. When I come up against them, I just try to keep slamming the super friends and overwhelm the counters. Timing and patience has also paid off for me. My mana walls and just one of the "untap" planes walkers can generate a ton of mana, often allowing a recast after remand.
@c001357 Great suggestion. I also like Idyllic Tutor. Both are good ways to find DS and enchantments out of the SB.
@daviusminimus I like the direction of your list a lot. It does seem faster. Mine is more mid-range combo, I guess. I thought about the white Oath of Gideon as a possibility but it was a terrible top deck later in the game. Oath of Nissa is good almost anytime as it allows an immediate dig.
I sure do enjoy the fun of this deck and to see the looks on people's faces when they try to sideboard is great!
This deck is SUBSTANTIALLY better with black splash vs blue (interestingly the opposite of usual kiki-chord decks). Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Ob shore up the aggro and control matchups alike. Additionally, if you're expecting combo you can add Slaughter Games. I also feel that PTE should be a 3/4-of in the deck. It has saved my butt many times vs the local aggro meta. I've gone down on the doubling seasons as, while cool and probably game-winning on the spot, are really hard to get to with a planesewalker. My experience is 1) vs aggro you die before you can season+walker; 2) vs control not resolve one or the other; 3) vs combo die before you resolve both.
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EDH:ShatterStax, Only The Strong Survive
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
What's the idea behind Sorin, Solemn Visitor? He's better in token-based decks, and while we have quite a few mana dorks (and plant tokens from Nissa), is he really one of the best walkers to put in this deck? Also without blue we lose Jace, Architect of Thought and Tamiyo, Field Researcher (not to mention Ral Zarek), all of which are very powerful cards.
What's the idea behind Sorin, Solemn Visitor? He's better in token-based decks, and while we have quite a few mana dorks (and plant tokens from Nissa), is he really one of the best walkers to put in this deck? Also without blue we lose Jace, Architect of Thought and Tamiyo, Field Researcher (not to mention Ral Zarek), all of which are very powerful cards.
I've found that hyper aggro is pretty tough. This IS a token deck (nissa, xenagos, gideon AoZ). Playing the deck, the combo is really easy to disrupt and kind of hard to pull off. Making the deck more resilient with a solid backup midrange plan seems correct to me.
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EDH:ShatterStax, Only The Strong Survive
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
I don't on me. But you basically swap the blue walkers for Ob and Sorin. and the lands are almost a direct swap
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EDH:ShatterStax, Only The Strong Survive
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Description
This is an easy deck to describe; use Doubling Season and awesome Walkers like Nahiri, the Harbinger, Jace, Architect of Thought and Ral Zarek to cheat out Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or take a ton of extra turns. Oh and don't forget Blood Moon to lock down opponents. This deck has been the focus of a TCGplayer article (where it went 3-2) as well as a Much Abrew About Nothing series (where it went 4-1)
There's a few parts to this deck, as far as I can tell;
The Ramp
Here we want to get a Blood Moon out by turn 2, or a doubled Walker by turn 4.
The Help
The Walkers
So there's a lot of walkers to choose from (74, to be exact). The main goal of walkers is to come down with Doubling Season on the battlefield and immediately win (or almost win); this usually takes the form of getting Emrakul out to party; at a minimum, their initial loyalty should be half or more of their ultimate's loyalty cost. I won't analyze all 67 Modern-legal walkers, but here's the highlights.
threesix 8/8 Octopus creatures, which isn't shabby. More of a 'utility' walker than a 'wincon' walker.Sideboard
Pretty standard Modern stuff. Engineered Explosives, Fog to buy time, Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, two more Blood Moon, Leyline of Sanctity and Worship for buying even more time. Ensnaring Bridge could also buy time, and Grafdigger's Cage and Relic of Progenitus could be more graveyard hate.
The trickiest part of this deck is probably the mana; reliably casting the walker you want on turn 4/5 without Oath of Nissa can be hard (especially Tamiyo). I'm not sure which path is better to go down; more mana dorks, or fewer dorks and more Utopia Sprawls and Arbor Elves. I've yet to put this deck together in paper form (it's damn expensive), so I've been testing on XMage mostly. This is my decklist currently:
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
3 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Ral Zarek
1 Gideon Jura
Creatures
2 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Arbor Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Path to Exile
2 Blood Moon
3 Doubling Season
4 Oath of Nissa
Lands
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Forest
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
2 Stomping Ground
3 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Gavony Township
2 Blood Moon
1 Fog
2 Worship
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Stony Silence
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Rest in Peace
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
I went down a few Arbor Elves to put in Tamiyo and Path, but it might be better to test Utopia Sprawl with more Arbor Elves and fewer Sylvan Caryatids. Getting ramp out on turn 1 is really important. I'd really like to put in Nicol Bolas or Kiora (or go the Garruk + Karoo land route), but it's hard to know what to take out. And one of the best things about this deck is, whenever a new set comes out, any awesome walkers in that set could probably slot right in, if they have good win-cons (just like Tamiyo did).
I am still working on building this deck in paper, but looking forward to it.
I am curious though... what's your win condition without Emrakul? When you drop Jace with DS and ultimate him, what are you fetching from our deck to immediately win?
1x Bloodstained Mire
2x Breeding Pool
1x Flooded Strand
3x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Island
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
1x Steam Vents
1x Stomping Ground
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
Enchantments
4x Doubling Season
4x Oath of Nissa
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3x Overgrown Battlement
4x Fog Bank
4x Sylvan Caryatid
3x Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers
3x Garruk Wildspeaker
4x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Kiora, Master of the Depths
1x Nahiri, the Harbinger
1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1x Ral Zarek
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2x Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1x Vraska the Unseen
Instants (5th DS)
1x Idyllic Tutor
1x Ajani Steadfast
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3x Ghostly Prison
2x Hurkyl's Recall
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
My plan:
Idea is to set up a mana wall to hide Planeswalkers behind. Use tokens as fodder. Ultimate with Doubling Season or plow through with huge tokens. Strong gold fishing to turns 5/6. Almost every Planeswalker is a win condition on its own with our without DS. Lots of cool interaction/combos between the Planeswalkers. Here’s the batting order:
Garruk Wildspeaker is great ramp with some token protection.
Jace, Architect of Thought has a nice shield to protect himself and team. His draw can be used to find doubling season or a sideboard card. Ultimate usually ends game by stealing a bunch of your opponent’s creatures and eventually dropping Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Kiora, Master of the Depths helps with crazy ramp in her +1. Her ultimate with DS is 6 8/8 tokens with fight. Just crazy.
Nahiri, the Harbinger does what Nahiri does. Draw, exile or find Emrakul, the Aeons Torn – so much goodness
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker Ah Nicol, you crazy dragon. You ruin opponents with all your abilities.
Ral Zarek Tapping, direct damage, and oh yeah, a bunch of extra turns. Please come to the party!
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is my secret tech. I’ll usually hold him in hand unless I need token support. He comes down after DS and can reset 3 other Planeswalkers or take some of your opponent’s best stuff. Be careful of sideboarding Rest in peace but you can still exile stuff.
Tamiyo, Field Researcher is batting clean-up. All abilities are great for slowing down opponent and when ultimate hits – gg.
Vraska the Unseen is great across the board and has won a game with her -3. She is an alternate wincon as well! Love her.
The leverage it gives you in the current meta is what in my eyes takes this from a fun brew, into something that will make your opponent sweat when they sit across from you.
I'm still building this deck (1x Nahiri, 2x Doubling Season, 2x Blood Moon to go!), so if anyone that is actually playing can do some match up reports that will be the next step to really progress the discussion of the deck. Theory crafting only goes so far.
I went 3-0-1. Beat D&T, Jund and Bant Eldrazi. Split with Soul Sisters due to time.
I went 2-1-1. Beat Slivers, UW Control. Lost to Affinity by 1 turn. I couldn't stop Etched Champ. Split with Scapeshift going to time.
I really like Blood Moon but have lent all my copies out at the moment. I'm interested in hearing how others are doing with this deck. I will continue to develop, test and play as aggressively as life allows :-). It is probably the most fun deck I've played in 10 years!
New Chandra spoiled looks good for the deck. I feel like it is going to continue to power creep as the walker pool increases, definitely a good time to get into this deck. The unfortunate part is walkers are always hyped so getting them early is expensive.
Also, while I like the new Chandra, I don't think it replaces Flamecaller. Flamecaller's -X is unparalleled, and the ability to generate tokens has synergy with Doubling Season. Torch of Defiance may have a place in this deck, but I don't think it's as her past self's replacement.
I picked up a playset of Oath of Liliana because I had that same thought. The EtB trigger can be meh to amazing, but the zombies can give you breathing room or give you needed pressure.
Are you doing leagues with deck?
For control matchups, I know they can be really tough and I haven't had a lot of matchups at my LGS. When I come up against them, I just try to keep slamming the super friends and overwhelm the counters. Timing and patience has also paid off for me. My mana walls and just one of the "untap" planes walkers can generate a ton of mana, often allowing a recast after remand.
@daviusminimus, do you have an updated list?
@daviusminimus I like the direction of your list a lot. It does seem faster. Mine is more mid-range combo, I guess. I thought about the white Oath of Gideon as a possibility but it was a terrible top deck later in the game. Oath of Nissa is good almost anytime as it allows an immediate dig.
I sure do enjoy the fun of this deck and to see the looks on people's faces when they try to sideboard is great!
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Modern: Fish, JUND/Junk
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RIP Twin
I've found that hyper aggro is pretty tough. This IS a token deck (nissa, xenagos, gideon AoZ). Playing the deck, the combo is really easy to disrupt and kind of hard to pull off. Making the deck more resilient with a solid backup midrange plan seems correct to me.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Modern: Fish, JUND/Junk
--------
RIP Twin
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Mono-U Control
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Sen Triplets
Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Derevi Stax
VolThrun
Marchesa, The Black Rose
Olivia Voldaren, Vampire Tribal
Modern: Fish, JUND/Junk
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RIP Twin