MTG Salvation

Anyone playing Courser of Kruphix these days? Obviously a its nice draw when you're playing the midrange game, but how is it when you're trying to play as a combo deck? Does it feel dead and/or a waste of a draw?

Heavy combo-focused list that made top8 GP Portland: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gppor18/top-8-decklists-2018-12-09#steven_rieckens_abzan_evolution

Quote from spankxz »

I love courser, but tracker is way better in this deck imo. He's better while comboing, drawing often 2 cards to find a piece, but more import, he applies more pressure, which is absolutely crucial for this sort of deck.BUT..courser is such a house against dredge and burn.

I agree. Courser is in addition to Tracker.

Quote from Atanar »

Heavy combo-focused list that made top8 GP Portland: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gppor18/top-8-decklists-2018-12-09#steven_rieckens_abzan_evolution

If my local meta wasn't rampant with midrange, I'd definitely switch to combo-focused. Personally I'd lose some Commune with Nature to test out Fauna Shaman, as I cannot imagine 4x Postmortem Lunge without a way to feed Lunge besides Druid self-kill or opponent's removal.

This list is something else ! 4x Lunges + 4x Commune is shtg I never saw since the icneption of the archetype. Is this brand new ?

4x Postmortem Lunge is fairly standard in combo-only builds. Commune with Nature varies in numbers from 0 to 4 based on player preference.

Quote from Moneymakermich »

And nowadays graveyard hate is very common.

Too true. Even our guru is playing more GY hate:
http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=29252&iddeck=243493

He cut the two Courser of Kruphix for a 2nd MD Scavenging Ooze and a 3rd MD Tireless Tracker.

Is anyone else bothered by Laplasjan's 7 fetches? With the rise (pun unintented) of Arclight Phoenix, Lightning Bolt is making a comeback. The risks in playing Knight of the Reliquary with only 1 land (or zero) in the graveyard are higher than ever. I can only fit in 8 fetches and I'm not even content with that.

I haven't had the opportunity to play the matchup since I went off of the Kitchen Finks plan. And Laplasjan has not made a new sideboard guide since then either. His advice was to go for the combo plan, but I wonder if this is due to the weakness of Kitchen Finks in this matchup.

I would still say combo plan. However, this would differ from many matchups where I go combo focused in that I would leave in midrange cards. Against combo-only, if UW saved their answers for Devoted Druid, the combo is pretty screwed. However if I force them to answer Devoted Druid, Knight of the Reliquary, Tireless Tracker, and Collected Company then I should be able to secure at least one route to victory.

I've been playing without Rhonas for 2 weeks now. I don't miss the 5/5 indestructible and I don't miss the alternate wincon much, but I'm itching to give my creatures trample fairly often (especially with the 4x Knight + 3x Tracker shell from Laplasjan). I'm considering wedging a Kessig Wolf Run and a Stomping Grounds into my mana base, so Knights can tutor for a source of trample. This also has the added bonuses of not needing Chord of Calling in order to tutor for my source of trample and having an alternate win condition if Duskwatch Recruiter or Walking Ballista gets shut off.
Thoughts? Feedback?

Here's my entire list for reference, if you have other feedback.

MD flex slots:
Gavony Township

SB flex slots:
Kataki, Knight of Autumn

I've been on the heavy combo build for at least a couple months and I'm telling you guys you need to ditch the coursers, trackers, knights and even the oozes. I only play mtgo but the meta has shifted to super linier (obviously).

I played the finks/seer combo religiously, but once you go the commune with nature, evolution, lunge, NO COCO route you will never look back. My list is almost card for card with the Portland list but I run sb chameleon collosus and mirron crusader to shore up he GDS and GBx mu. Also throw in 2 ensnaring bridge for surprise effect. My biggest spice addition is 2 Mark of Asylum I think k they're called the will save your *** against anything red.

Someone said dredge was a hard mu? That's crazy I don't think I ever lost to dredge with this build. And I don't run a single piece of grave hate in my 75.

If you plan on having any chance against UW/Jeskai/anything mid-range you need to run 4 Lunge you will get so many "oops I won" and trust me... opponents never see it coming

Sorry have to go to sleep now...

Quote from thefleetfarmer »

I've been on the heavy combo build for at least a couple months and I'm telling you guys you need to ditch the coursers, trackers, knights and even the oozes. I only play mtgo but the meta has shifted to super linier (obviously).

And if someone doesn't play in a super linear meta, would you still recommend the combo shell? I reliably play against midrange 1 to 3 rounds out of every 5, plus another once or twice per top 8, at every FNM. I doubt that combo can punch through that much removal.

Sometimes playing against mid-range it seems like they have a bolt/push for every creature we play, but lunge allows us to win when/if they tap out.

But I do admit if I were to play against more mid-range than linier then the combo is hard to pull off, I just played 3 leagues and only lost to that "lanternless pile of artifacts", burn, and GBx totally flooded out against the artifact deck and recently removed kataki(mistake) from sb. And burn is not easy to win even with Mark of Asylum I'd say it's 50/50 or a little less. GB had thoughtsieze surgical TWO GAMES IN A ROW!!! Definitely wish I wasn't so combo heavy ten lol.

No 5-0s today but modern is a format so diverse one day ill play against burn 5 times in a day sometimes it's Tron after Tron...sorry to rant

Oh ya I definitely leave 4 Lunge after SB every game that card is crucial to this strategy, always keep vizier and duskwatch in hand so when u draw lunge BOOM...hasty druid party ending in opponent being machine gunned by walkie B

Quote from thefleetfarmer »

I've been on the heavy combo build for at least a couple months and I'm telling you guys you need to ditch the coursers, trackers, knights and even the oozes. I only play mtgo but the meta has shifted to super linier (obviously).

I played the finks/seer combo religiously, but once you go the commune with nature, evolution, lunge, NO COCO route you will never look back. My list is almost card for card with the Portland list but I run sb chameleon collosus and mirron crusader to shore up he GDS and GBx mu. Also throw in 2 ensnaring bridge for surprise effect. My biggest spice addition is 2 Mark of Asylum I think k they're called the will save your *** against anything red.

Someone said dredge was a hard mu? That's crazy I don't think I ever lost to dredge with this build. And I don't run a single piece of grave hate in my 75.

If you plan on having any chance against UW/Jeskai/anything mid-range you need to run 4 Lunge you will get so many "oops I won" and trust me... opponents never see it coming

Sorry have to go to sleep now...

Have you tried Mystic Enforcer for BGx? I found myself preferring it to Colossus with how much better it plays against Goyf.

I've been wondering if splashing black is truly worth it for a Sin Collector. It's definitely a great effect to have access to given matchups like Jeskai or Burn are difficult.

Looking at other splashes, I've meaning to try a red splash for the traditional Magnus of the Moon, but also Goblin Cratermaker in the sideboard (I like to play one Rallier in my lists). The power level is pretty bland but access to a tutorable kill spell would be handy, it could potentially just replace a Path in the side.

It reminds me a lot of Pridemage given how well the two synergizes with the deck. Two drops that sac themselves work fantastic with Evolution, Rallier, and Lunge. Many games I'm flooded I'll look to fetch Arbor and Evolve it to mitigate the two for one a bit. Rallier obviously loves all twos, but the fact that you can trigger Revolt with the ability to get two activations in one turn is real nice. Lastly, it being a sac ability means Lunge doesn't exile it, and you can keep rebuying it off Witness, Rallier, and more Lunges.

Am currently 5-1 playing my combo oriented list in modern challenge. Wish I would kept notes for tournament report hopefully I make top 8, 1 more round I think?

I tried mystic enforcer for like 1 match lol I never even got a chance to play it I totally see how it would be better against goyf cuz collosus is terrible against it, you make a good point so ill reconsider it.

I never liked splashes(I'm straight GW) but ive thought of a red splash for kessig wolf run and magus, never tried it but honestly there's no reason it wouldn't work. I never understood the black splash for sin collector???

What are you guys’ thoughts on the new incubation//incongruity ? It allows to have removal maindeck without compromising the combo. The blue splash doesn’t seem that difficult since all of our dorks already taps for blue.

Quote from thefleetfarmer »

I never understood the black splash for sin collector???

And Assassin's Trophy/Abrupt Decay! Those are very important IMO.

Quote from NandoCesar »

What are you guys’ thoughts on the new incubation//incongruity ? It allows to have removal maindeck without compromising the combo. The blue splash doesn’t seem that difficult since all of our dorks already taps for blue.

Definitely worth considering, but the other good things about blue (card draw and counterspells) weaken Incubation/Commune with Nature/Collected Company.

Quote from NandoCesar »

What are you guys’ thoughts on the new incubation//incongruity ? It allows to have removal maindeck without compromising the combo. The blue splash doesn’t seem that difficult since all of our dorks already taps for blue.

Anyone playing the Evolution variant with Commune with Nature should play this instead. Even without a Breeding Pool, you can still generate Blue off of Birds and Noble. It's strictly better, and it's nice to be able to tag dangerous creatures like rival Druids, Baral, Titans, Lavamancer, etc.

With the large differences between the more traditional Abzan Company and the new combo heavy list featuring Evolution and Postmortem Lunge, I figured I'd plug the Druid Evolution primer in the Deck Creation section. Take a look if you're interested.

Druid Evolution Primer

A friend of mine pointed out that the new rhythm of savages (1gr, enchantment, creatures spells uncounterable, creatures have riot) might be nice in gwx decks.
- hasty druid and possible combo on t3 with dork
- resets finks
- hasty knight for immediate access to land toolbox
- better protection from izzet staticasters
...
Maybe 2 main?

Hey,

We can already T3 with dorks, and reset finks with vizier.
And that card is an enchantment, doesnt fit so much with coco ..
But we can try it, yeah.

Another question, what about Scryb Ranger in Laplasjan actual deck ? Seems great with KoR and Tireless, right ? (And surprise block)


Greetings,


PFM

Yes, but with this on the field, our opponent always has to leave up removal, regardless of whether we have druid or not. It also protects dorks and viziers from staticaster postboard.
Ofc, it also does nothing on its own...
How about in sb against bw ctrl, gds, maybe humans?