LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
I have picked this deck back up and have been playing it lately. I am curious if any one is still on this or has made improvements. I love the deck but it seems really inconsistent.
I return to it every now and again for a nostalgic reunion. I'm a sucker for a Solemnity deck, but this build is unfortunately just too slow and fragile for the current meta. The biggest problem is the curve: You have a lot of your key combo pieces at the 3cmc slot, which is awkward. It also has the problem of drawing into the right pieces when you need them and without Solemnity + Viscera Seer + one of our recurring creatures online, the deck has 0 card filtering. You can run Idyllic Tutor or Beseech the Queen, but at 3cmc that just adds to the awkwardness. A deck like Counters Company operates a similar gameplan only it's a hell of a lot more consistent because their tutor spells can tutor up any of their combo pieces. I would give this deck another serious look if a 2 mana recurring creature with an attached effect was printed, but as it stands now, I don't think the deck quite cuts the mustard.
But sometimes I don't care about all that and just want to play some immortal Kitchen Finks
I decided to make one more attempt at making this deck competitive. While black white has been the most consistent, I think splashing green to tutor for the creature combo pieces will make this more consistent. That means at least a 1 of Melira, even though she is a worse solemnity. I will be playtesting the deck below, but would love some suggestions on improving the mana base.
Splitting the combo between creatures and enchantments is one of the primary things holding back the deck's consistency. There's just much better creature tutors available in modern than there are enchantment tutors. Considering we have creatures (Vizier of Remedies & Melira, Sylvok Outcast) that can substitute for Solemnity, I see little reason to not go all-in on creatures similar to how Counters Company does.
So immediately you'll notice that without Solemnity we lose the ability to use the Undying combo, namely Geralf's Messenger. But if you've ever played this deck you know how his mana cost can be painfully restrictive. However, dropping the enchantments gives you a ton of room to build the deck in a way that focuses on consistency and with a combo deck this is important. Not to say you can't still run Phyrexian Unlife in the sideboard or even mainboard if you want, but with Assassin's Trophy now out in the wild I think this "soft lock" got a little less reliable.
The real question is, if you build the deck in this way do you end up just being a worse Counters Company?
I tend to agree that it ends up being a worse version of Abzan Counters by playing the creature version. But with Assassin's Trophy, this fragile combo is significantly worse. What made this decent was that very few decks pack much, if any, enchantment removal. Assassin's Trophy takes care of the strongest piece of the combo and is good enough to see significant play. I think this deck is destined to be a middling deck that can be competitive at times, but is played more for fun than for results.
The arrival of Assassin's Trophy definitely hurt the deck a little, but Asstrophy is only played in g/b decks, and those decks had ways to deal with the enchantments before anyways with AD and Pulse.
I also think you're taking the wrong approach to make it competitive. You need disruption to be competitive in Modern.
LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
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Can you share your list?
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
But sometimes I don't care about all that and just want to play some immortal Kitchen Finks
4 Cartel Aristocrat
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
3 Path to Exile
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Anguished Unmaking
3 Eldritch Evolution
4 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Solemnity
2 Forest
3 Godless Shrine
2 Hissing Quagmire
2 Isolated Chapel
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
4 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Pithing Needle
2 Damping Sphere
2 Stony Silence
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Rain of Tears
2 Day of Judgment
2 Leyline of Sanctity
Maybe something like this:
So immediately you'll notice that without Solemnity we lose the ability to use the Undying combo, namely Geralf's Messenger. But if you've ever played this deck you know how his mana cost can be painfully restrictive. However, dropping the enchantments gives you a ton of room to build the deck in a way that focuses on consistency and with a combo deck this is important. Not to say you can't still run Phyrexian Unlife in the sideboard or even mainboard if you want, but with Assassin's Trophy now out in the wild I think this "soft lock" got a little less reliable.
The real question is, if you build the deck in this way do you end up just being a worse Counters Company?
I also think you're taking the wrong approach to make it competitive. You need disruption to be competitive in Modern.
// 20 Creature
4 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Dark Confidant
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Viscera Seer
// 7 Enchantment
3 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Solemnity
// 4 Instant
1 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
// 22 Land
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Godless Shrine
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
1 Beseech the Queen
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Damping Sphere
2 Stony Silence
2 Disenchant
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Path to Exile
2 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC