Is playing only 2 copies is a consideration for you ? That's where I am with the land right now.
It's possible shaving a copy or two is correct to limit inconsistency as much as possible. Although, I tested out the original template for a five color mana base a few pages back, and sometimes found that my colors would come in the wrong sequence. Reflecting Pool is draw-reliant, but gives me 12 total rainbow lands and can still cast CoCo. If anything, I'd cut one for a second Horizon Canopy
You didn't encounter creature decks, that's why. It can be very awkward to play 4 PtE and 4 Ref Mages in a meta with few creature decks. Burn, Affi, Merf, Elves, Drazi, Coco and Chord decks, etc... the format is full of decks where you want to be prepared G1. That said, cutting a couple PtE doesn't sound ridiculous, that's actually what I did for 2 Hostage Takers.
It's true, there's a little bit of selective reason on my part. There were creature decks in the room that night--I saw Burn, Affinity, Spirits, Knightfall, and Counters Company--but I just dodged them all. It's most likely correct to have some number of Paths in the 75, especially since I'm thinking of taking this to Regionals this weekend. Although I wonder how Vial Humans is able to avoid including them in the list. Is it just another instance of dodging the creature matchups?
How are you liking Hostage Taker? Are you on Vial or CoCo? If the latter, has the 4cmc been irksome at all?
Done some tinkering with the list, and this is where I'm currently at:
EDH GWSelvala and the Return to HumanityGW UWDragonlord Ojutai, Control's Elder DragonUW UBGTasigur, the God-Pharaoh's Gift to EDHUBG UBRNicol Bolas and his SuperfriendsPawnsUBR
Modern UWUW Control/Midrange/Bad JundUW WUBRGHumansWUBRG BGMidrangeBG
I was considering Abzan Falconer for the mirror. Actually, I thought it might be beneficial to run 1 main as I did in previous versions.
How does falconer interact favourably with the deck apart from when you draw thalia's lieutenant?
If it doesn't have any other synergies apart from that one card I'd suggest that it's a trap.
There are some other 'army in a can' or card advantage type effects that are decent in a race situation when there isn't much removal flying around. Hero of bladehold, huntmaster of the fells, tireless tracker, hanweir garrison, hostage taker, nekrataal, Eternal witness, even, could be a possibility. Who knows.
You could even, in a straight mirror match, run a singleton basilisk collar as a way to outclass opposing creatures.
There's decent options around, even in the "all creatures" list.
You can do lethal with champion of the parish which, if it survived to mid-game, should be pretty big at this point. Plus falconer can give +1/+1 counters as well. The point being that some evasion might be smart if you get log-jammed with similarly large humans, merfolk, tarmogoyfs, scavenging ooze, etc. As we don't have any hard cast removal, the longer the board state goes on jammed, the worse it is for us, in my opinion.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I hope to have such a death—lying in triumph upon the broken bodies of those who slew me."
—Radha, Keldon warlord
Is Xathrid Necromancer really that much better than Sin Collector in the Vial list? Sin Collector can pick out all of the same wraths except O-Stone, doesn't have the same weakness to Anger of the Gods, and has more utility in some other matchups like Burn.
I also keep Living End in mind when comparing those 2 cards (they often have more cascade spells than we have disruption). I also think of ConflagrateDredge can cast from the graveyard.
Then you have the races vs other aggros (including the mirror and eldrazis with Ballista) where you can push through damage, keeping critical mass even after unfavorable trades.
Finally, UWx control and Lantern have ways to let you strip their hand on their draw step, then play Serum Visions, Ancient Stirrings, activate milling artifacts and so on to dig for the wrath main phase.
Against Burn it's cool to have a body after they kill your Necromancer with Searing Blaze. Not great but it's better for combat purposes than Collector, which is better for noncreature spells. Not easy to figure which is better in such a MU.
I think Collector shines because it doesn't care about a 1-2 removal on it ->> Wrath, while Necromancer falls short to that combination. Collector shines more in other combo MUs like Valakut, Ad Naus and Storm, so while they overlap in the "wrath" MUs, they also have seperate applications elsewhere.
So the question is do we need other disruption cards while we already have Med + FreeB ? Necro looks like Canonist in a way, it's a card that attacks the opponent on a complementary angle. I don't know, both cards are ok.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
I think against mirror your better playing Champion of Lambholt than Falconer. It gives you another growing creature in a stalled match, and eventually allows you to swing mostly unblocked. It makes your late one drops have some more value, a good target for exalted, and uses Mayor's boost well.
I think against mirror your better playing Champion of Lambholt than Falconer. It gives you another growing creature in a stalled match, and eventually allows you to swing mostly unblocked. It makes your late one drops have some more value, a good target for exalted, and uses Mayor's boost well.
Not a great topdeck and bad when played on curve after all your one and two drops.
I wasn't totally sold on falconer but at least falconer allows you to drop it and suddenly win, without giving an opponent time to find a removal spell.
Ranger of eos?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
I've been crawling through the gatherer and I found a couple of humans that might make for some interesting discussion. I'm curious what others think about them and if they have a potential place in this deck.
Harsh Mentor this seems like a great SB card for us. It stops elves hard which is one of our weakest matches. It also does a surprising amount of work against affinity as well. It hits them on cranial plating, overseer, man lands, and it makes ravager incredibly sad. It will definitely draw removal but it will slow them down quite a bit while they look for it, or if we take it with kitesail. It is also good against counters company and most infinite combo decks.
Hanweir Militia Captain this is kind of in the same boat as Hanweir Garrison in that it produces human tokens. This one however comes down a turn sooner and is easier to vial. It can also be vialed in eot when we have 3 creatures out for a quick flip. It can also hit much harder later on. It does go tall as opposed to wide (It does go a bit wide just not as much as Garrison) but it can still make tokens regardless of attacking.
Kessig Malcontents this seems like a nice finisher. Dropping in for 3-5 extra damage out of nowhere. A great way to speed up our clock. It is a little more expensive at 3, but overall it's not a huge issue.
Prophetic Flamespeaker this one might be a bit more out there but I think it's worth considering. So by itself it's not great. Throw in a mayor or lieutenant and it starts to become a real threat. What's more it also provides us with more cards. By the time we get this guy out our hand is getting thin. What's more if it's unblocked (or even blocked if it's buffed) it can get us two cards a turn.
Disciple of Deceit I think this one is actually a pretty interesting card. It turns almost any dead draw into a tutor. Game two being able to pitch a random card for one of your SB cards sounds amazing, or even just pitching a priest for a champion of the parish. It does have some problems though. It is slow. Hard cast it takes two turns for a pay off. With vial/Coco though it does cut that down to a single turn. It's also got decent stats. Nothing to set the world on fire but it can take a hit from the average bear and live to tell the tale. I think trying as a two of might be worth testing.
I've been crawling through the gatherer and I found a couple of humans that might make for some interesting discussion. I'm curious what others think about them and if they have a potential place in this deck.
Harsh Mentor this seems like a great SB card for us. It stops elves hard which is one of our weakest matches. It also does a surprising amount of work against affinity as well. It hits them on cranial plating, overseer, man lands, and it makes ravager incredibly sad. It will definitely draw removal but it will slow them down quite a bit while they look for it, or if we take it with kitesail. It is also good against counters company and most infinite combo decks.
Yes, everything you say makes this my sideboard card of choice in another deck. Unfortunately it does not quite stop elves from massively casting more elves with their mana engine. The one azuri activation is no biggy. If wizards had designed this card slightly different. i.e. Htting planeswalkers and mana abilities, or had left out the "on the battlefield" clause, this would be way overpowered
Hanweir Militia Captain this is kind of in the same boat as Hanweir Garrison in that it produces human tokens. This one however comes down a turn sooner and is easier to vial. It can also be vialed in eot when we have 3 creatures out for a quick flip. It can also hit much harder later on. It does go tall as opposed to wide (It does go a bit wide just not as much as Garrison) but it can still make tokens regardless of attacking.
Not what I want to be doing at 2 mana
Kessig Malcontents this seems like a nice finisher. Dropping in for 3-5 extra damage out of nowhere. A great way to speed up our clock. It is a little more expensive at 3, but overall it's not a huge issue.
Great in a real go wide strategy for sure! Though I don't think that that is what we truely are. So, situational at best. I do believe the Vial version fits this card better than the COCO version
Prophetic Flamespeaker this one might be a bit more out there but I think it's worth considering. So by itself it's not great. Throw in a mayor or lieutenant and it starts to become a real threat. What's more it also provides us with more cards. By the time we get this guy out our hand is getting thin. What's more if it's unblocked (or even blocked if it's buffed) it can get us two cards a turn.
Trample is nice, But we allready have Mirran Crusader which is in our base collors and more resilient. The CA potential is nice when it connects, but we are usually tapped out before combat
Disciple of Deceit I think this one is actually a pretty interesting card. It turns almost any dead draw into a tutor. Game two being able to pitch a random card for one of your SB cards sounds amazing, or even just pitching a priest for a champion of the parish. It does have some problems though. It is slow. Hard cast it takes two turns for a pay off. With vial/Coco though it does cut that down to a single turn. It's also got decent stats. Nothing to set the world on fire but it can take a hit from the average bear and live to tell the tale. I think trying as a two of might be worth testing.
On the surface it looks like a way to find a silver bullet, but note, this takes two full turns after landing for it to pay off. One of which it has to survive combat because we don't realy have a way to tap our own creatures. Seems way to janky
Kessig malcontents are the human version of Shaman of the Pack.
Not half bad, actually. It's going to often be lava spike or better.
I'd be interested to know whether raw damage is necessarily what we need in the deck though. Like, is a disruptive card (with less damage output) just better? Not sure. Agree that it fits the vial list better.
I might test a couple. Giving the deck reach without the need to attack is a great way to close out games that have become stalled.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Cards like Kessing Malcontents and Hanweir Militia Captain are win-more cards. If you have enough creatures on board to make them good, you should be winning the game already.
Hey Humans players, so I've recently been drawn to this deck because of it's D&T feel, but it also plays personal favorites like Noble Hierarch and Mantis Rider. So, I have a question: is it worth getting into the hype, or do you all think cards that have spiked in price like Meddling Mage will go down in price after the initial hype before buying into it? I already have most of the deck minus a few Caverns and the Ziggurats and Meddling Mage.
Oh right, harsh mentor doesn't hit Mana abilities. I suppose it does put a bit of pressure on the ezuri activation assuming you've delt a decent amount of damage before hand, but ya nowhere as good as I originally thought for elves. Still decent for stuff like affinity though.
I'm still new to the deck, but I don't think having 2 or 3 creatures the turn Malcontents comes down would be too unreasonable. At that point it's essentially a free lava spike on a creature. Admittedly not the best stats with 1 toughness, but it does go over blockers with the etb. I definitely agree it is much better with vial since you can control when it comes down.
For Flamespeaker vs mirrian I think they're trying to do somewhat different things. Mirrian is a great sideboard card, but outside of certain match ups he's just a 2/2 double strike. He's also still weak to much of the same removal as flamespeaker (path, bolt, Lili neg assuming they remove other creatures). Flamespeaker really has trouble only when fighting bigger creatures and he's unable to benefit from pump effects. As for the card advantage we should be running low on things to do around the time he should be attacking (roughly turn four ish). He can also help us repopulate after a blow out where we might be in straight topdeck mode.
The disciple is pretty slow unfortunately. I still might try some out and see how they go.
Cards like Kessing Malcontents and Hanweir Militia Captain are win-more cards. If you have enough creatures on board to make them good, you should be winning the game already.
+1.
is it worth getting into the hype,
You're on the topic where most players believe in the archetype and have fun with it. The deck is at the same power level of Modern D&T variants or Hatebears for sure. Now is it as strong as Merfolk ? I believe it is, and it has more chances to become stronger and stronger within time, thanks to regular new Human printings.
Caverns are a must, but the 4 Med Mages, not sure, especially if new printings take its place at some point. There's also enough human cards you can play for good results.
Oh right, harsh mentor doesn't hit Mana abilities. I suppose it does put a bit of pressure on the ezuri activation assuming you've delt a decent amount of damage before hand, but ya nowhere as good as I originally thought for elves. Still decent for stuff like affinity though.
The issue with the card is that it doesn't overlap besides the few MUs where it's good. You'll have trouble finding room for them when cards like Staticaster / Pontiff already do a good job in the same MUs (affi, elves,...) and more (all Coco / Chord decks incl. Vizier Company which is an unfavorable and possibly popular MU). Mentor is certainly better anytime the metagame narrows down and you expect to face a ton of artifact and midrange decks.
Flamespeaker
This card is tough to cast, RR isn't trivial in my book. It would be a reasonable card in a red-centric list, but it also has competition with E Wit, Recruiter, Bob and maybe others if we're talking about CA. I think the main issue with the card is it's not super well designed for the archetype. Crusader is way better at racing tough green decks (Elves, Bogles, Vizier Company), so you're right, both cards aim at different purposes.
Also are we trying to be aggro, tempo or both?
The vial version wants to be aggro tempo. It's MU-dependant whether you prefer the aggro or interactive package in your opening hand though.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
For anyone new to the thread, I would highly recommend looking through the primer as it goes over lots of specific card choices (sorted by cmc) with a list of pros and cons for each. If there is something not covered in the primer (or if corrections need to be made), feel free to post about it and I'll make sure it gets added.
Is Xathrid Necromancer really that much better than Sin Collector in the Vial list? Sin Collector can pick out all of the same wraths except O-Stone, doesn't have the same weakness to Anger of the Gods, and has more utility in some other matchups like Burn.
I also keep Living End in mind when comparing those 2 cards (they often have more cascade spells than we have disruption). I also think of ConflagrateDredge can cast from the graveyard.
Then you have the races vs other aggros (including the mirror and eldrazis with Ballista) where you can push through damage, keeping critical mass even after unfavorable trades.
Finally, UWx control and Lantern have ways to let you strip their hand on their draw step, then play Serum Visions, Ancient Stirrings, activate milling artifacts and so on to dig for the wrath main phase.
Against Burn it's cool to have a body after they kill your Necromancer with Searing Blaze. Not great but it's better for combat purposes than Collector, which is better for noncreature spells. Not easy to figure which is better in such a MU.
I think Collector shines because it doesn't care about a 1-2 removal on it ->> Wrath, while Necromancer falls short to that combination. Collector shines more in other combo MUs like Valakut, Ad Naus and Storm, so while they overlap in the "wrath" MUs, they also have seperate applications elsewhere.
So the question is do we need other disruption cards while we already have Med + FreeB ? Necro looks like Canonist in a way, it's a card that attacks the opponent on a complementary angle. I don't know, both cards are ok.
I actually think that Necromancer is a trap and Sin Collector might be indeed better. UW Control is a much less common archetype compared to decks that run Anger of the Gods and Sheltering Sun. Even against Jeskai it will probably just eat a spot removal for one token.
I have looked at all modern-playable humans. The actual list already plays the most efficient ones.
Open questions to me are:
- 1 Abzan Falconer for 1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar in the main?
- Kambal vs. Ethersworn Canonist in the side. Is the one turn earlier so important compared to the additional application against Burn of Kambal. Or the additional application of Canonist against Elves? I think we already have a quite good Storm matchup without Canonist, so I am not sure if the 1CC difference is that important. What do you think?
- Dark Confidant vs. Tireless Tracker side
- Do we need Mirran Crusader in the side? I think that our matchup against Death's Shadow and BX decks is already favorable.
Kambal play roles that canonist isn't supose to reach. In ALL non-creature MU, Kambal buy clock, gets life and take removal.
About the others, i think we are already favorable.
In this time, we need a detailed MU scheme to analize real sideboard silver bullets, considering the aggro-control oriented style of humans in vial. In coco builds, on the others hand, the midrange mode can support the tireless, the mirran, the Falconer and so on...
Thing is a ton of good sb humans are 3-drops and we cut 2-drops for them. The curve becomes worse, that's a big reason to me why 2-drops in the SB are gold. Doesn't mean we have a ton, but that's what I'm lookig forward in Rivals. Canonist is interesting for that reason. Playing Kambal is close in terms of results, either can be played for good results.
Same goes with some 1-ofs that are proposed. They're cute for the most part but they can take opponents off-guard. I see many players here discuss cards that have already been tested and left on the bench, cards that I'd put in "playable but not staple".
Do we need Mirran Crusader in the side?
No. It's like Rest in Peace. Those cards can be brought when the meta is specific and the top decks are weak to those cards. In a wider metagame, Crusader is a "playable". Its main role is to actually race green decks (Elves, Bogles, Vizier Company, etc...) rather than making already good MUs even better.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
It's possible shaving a copy or two is correct to limit inconsistency as much as possible. Although, I tested out the original template for a five color mana base a few pages back, and sometimes found that my colors would come in the wrong sequence. Reflecting Pool is draw-reliant, but gives me 12 total rainbow lands and can still cast CoCo. If anything, I'd cut one for a second Horizon Canopy
It's true, there's a little bit of selective reason on my part. There were creature decks in the room that night--I saw Burn, Affinity, Spirits, Knightfall, and Counters Company--but I just dodged them all. It's most likely correct to have some number of Paths in the 75, especially since I'm thinking of taking this to Regionals this weekend. Although I wonder how Vial Humans is able to avoid including them in the list. Is it just another instance of dodging the creature matchups?
How are you liking Hostage Taker? Are you on Vial or CoCo? If the latter, has the 4cmc been irksome at all?
Done some tinkering with the list, and this is where I'm currently at:
4 Champion of the Parish
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Meddling Mage
3 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Mantis Rider
3 Reflector Mage
1 Eternal Witness
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Uncharted Territory
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Blood Crypt
1 Plains
2 Vithian Renegades
2 Izzet Staticaster
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Meddling Mage
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Reflector Mage
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 War Priest of Thune
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
GWSelvala and the Return to HumanityGW
UWDragonlord Ojutai, Control's Elder DragonUW
UBGTasigur, the God-Pharaoh's Gift to EDHUBG
UBRNicol Bolas and his Super
friendsPawnsUBRModern
UWUW Control/Midrange/Bad JundUW
WUBRGHumansWUBRG
BGMidrangeBG
—Radha, Keldon warlord
How does falconer interact favourably with the deck apart from when you draw thalia's lieutenant?
If it doesn't have any other synergies apart from that one card I'd suggest that it's a trap.
There are some other 'army in a can' or card advantage type effects that are decent in a race situation when there isn't much removal flying around. Hero of bladehold, huntmaster of the fells, tireless tracker, hanweir garrison, hostage taker, nekrataal, Eternal witness, even, could be a possibility. Who knows.
You could even, in a straight mirror match, run a singleton basilisk collar as a way to outclass opposing creatures.
There's decent options around, even in the "all creatures" list.
—Radha, Keldon warlord
I also keep Living End in mind when comparing those 2 cards (they often have more cascade spells than we have disruption). I also think of Conflagrate Dredge can cast from the graveyard.
Then you have the races vs other aggros (including the mirror and eldrazis with Ballista) where you can push through damage, keeping critical mass even after unfavorable trades.
Finally, UWx control and Lantern have ways to let you strip their hand on their draw step, then play Serum Visions, Ancient Stirrings, activate milling artifacts and so on to dig for the wrath main phase.
Against Burn it's cool to have a body after they kill your Necromancer with Searing Blaze. Not great but it's better for combat purposes than Collector, which is better for noncreature spells. Not easy to figure which is better in such a MU.
I think Collector shines because it doesn't care about a 1-2 removal on it ->> Wrath, while Necromancer falls short to that combination. Collector shines more in other combo MUs like Valakut, Ad Naus and Storm, so while they overlap in the "wrath" MUs, they also have seperate applications elsewhere.
So the question is do we need other disruption cards while we already have Med + FreeB ? Necro looks like Canonist in a way, it's a card that attacks the opponent on a complementary angle. I don't know, both cards are ok.
Not a great topdeck and bad when played on curve after all your one and two drops.
I wasn't totally sold on falconer but at least falconer allows you to drop it and suddenly win, without giving an opponent time to find a removal spell.
Ranger of eos?
Harsh Mentor this seems like a great SB card for us. It stops elves hard which is one of our weakest matches. It also does a surprising amount of work against affinity as well. It hits them on cranial plating, overseer, man lands, and it makes ravager incredibly sad. It will definitely draw removal but it will slow them down quite a bit while they look for it, or if we take it with kitesail. It is also good against counters company and most infinite combo decks.
Hanweir Militia Captain this is kind of in the same boat as Hanweir Garrison in that it produces human tokens. This one however comes down a turn sooner and is easier to vial. It can also be vialed in eot when we have 3 creatures out for a quick flip. It can also hit much harder later on. It does go tall as opposed to wide (It does go a bit wide just not as much as Garrison) but it can still make tokens regardless of attacking.
Kessig Malcontents this seems like a nice finisher. Dropping in for 3-5 extra damage out of nowhere. A great way to speed up our clock. It is a little more expensive at 3, but overall it's not a huge issue.
Prophetic Flamespeaker this one might be a bit more out there but I think it's worth considering. So by itself it's not great. Throw in a mayor or lieutenant and it starts to become a real threat. What's more it also provides us with more cards. By the time we get this guy out our hand is getting thin. What's more if it's unblocked (or even blocked if it's buffed) it can get us two cards a turn.
Disciple of Deceit I think this one is actually a pretty interesting card. It turns almost any dead draw into a tutor. Game two being able to pitch a random card for one of your SB cards sounds amazing, or even just pitching a priest for a champion of the parish. It does have some problems though. It is slow. Hard cast it takes two turns for a pay off. With vial/Coco though it does cut that down to a single turn. It's also got decent stats. Nothing to set the world on fire but it can take a hit from the average bear and live to tell the tale. I think trying as a two of might be worth testing.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
Not half bad, actually. It's going to often be lava spike or better.
I'd be interested to know whether raw damage is necessarily what we need in the deck though. Like, is a disruptive card (with less damage output) just better? Not sure. Agree that it fits the vial list better.
I might test a couple. Giving the deck reach without the need to attack is a great way to close out games that have become stalled.
I'm still new to the deck, but I don't think having 2 or 3 creatures the turn Malcontents comes down would be too unreasonable. At that point it's essentially a free lava spike on a creature. Admittedly not the best stats with 1 toughness, but it does go over blockers with the etb. I definitely agree it is much better with vial since you can control when it comes down.
For Flamespeaker vs mirrian I think they're trying to do somewhat different things. Mirrian is a great sideboard card, but outside of certain match ups he's just a 2/2 double strike. He's also still weak to much of the same removal as flamespeaker (path, bolt, Lili neg assuming they remove other creatures). Flamespeaker really has trouble only when fighting bigger creatures and he's unable to benefit from pump effects. As for the card advantage we should be running low on things to do around the time he should be attacking (roughly turn four ish). He can also help us repopulate after a blow out where we might be in straight topdeck mode.
The disciple is pretty slow unfortunately. I still might try some out and see how they go.
Also are we trying to be aggro, tempo or both?
+1.
You're on the topic where most players believe in the archetype and have fun with it. The deck is at the same power level of Modern D&T variants or Hatebears for sure. Now is it as strong as Merfolk ? I believe it is, and it has more chances to become stronger and stronger within time, thanks to regular new Human printings.
Caverns are a must, but the 4 Med Mages, not sure, especially if new printings take its place at some point. There's also enough human cards you can play for good results.
The issue with the card is that it doesn't overlap besides the few MUs where it's good. You'll have trouble finding room for them when cards like Staticaster / Pontiff already do a good job in the same MUs (affi, elves,...) and more (all Coco / Chord decks incl. Vizier Company which is an unfavorable and possibly popular MU). Mentor is certainly better anytime the metagame narrows down and you expect to face a ton of artifact and midrange decks.
This card is tough to cast, RR isn't trivial in my book. It would be a reasonable card in a red-centric list, but it also has competition with E Wit, Recruiter, Bob and maybe others if we're talking about CA. I think the main issue with the card is it's not super well designed for the archetype. Crusader is way better at racing tough green decks (Elves, Bogles, Vizier Company), so you're right, both cards aim at different purposes.
The vial version wants to be aggro tempo. It's MU-dependant whether you prefer the aggro or interactive package in your opening hand though.
And what do you guys think about Norin the Wary? It works great with Thalia´s LT and Champions, plus it triggers Revolt for Renegade.
I actually think that Necromancer is a trap and Sin Collector might be indeed better. UW Control is a much less common archetype compared to decks that run Anger of the Gods and Sheltering Sun. Even against Jeskai it will probably just eat a spot removal for one token.
I have looked at all modern-playable humans. The actual list already plays the most efficient ones.
Open questions to me are:
- 1 Abzan Falconer for 1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar in the main?
- Kambal vs. Ethersworn Canonist in the side. Is the one turn earlier so important compared to the additional application against Burn of Kambal. Or the additional application of Canonist against Elves? I think we already have a quite good Storm matchup without Canonist, so I am not sure if the 1CC difference is that important. What do you think?
- Dark Confidant vs. Tireless Tracker side
- Do we need Mirran Crusader in the side? I think that our matchup against Death's Shadow and BX decks is already favorable.
About the others, i think we are already favorable.
In this time, we need a detailed MU scheme to analize real sideboard silver bullets, considering the aggro-control oriented style of humans in vial. In coco builds, on the others hand, the midrange mode can support the tireless, the mirran, the Falconer and so on...
Same goes with some 1-ofs that are proposed. They're cute for the most part but they can take opponents off-guard. I see many players here discuss cards that have already been tested and left on the bench, cards that I'd put in "playable but not staple".
No. It's like Rest in Peace. Those cards can be brought when the meta is specific and the top decks are weak to those cards. In a wider metagame, Crusader is a "playable". Its main role is to actually race green decks (Elves, Bogles, Vizier Company, etc...) rather than making already good MUs even better.