Stirring Wildwood is double edged. I'm starting to think that it is tricking me into keeping some hands without mana dorks that i should really just be mulling anyways. That being said, it has had a notable impact by getting an uncounterable/unboltable creature into play. Sequencing like turn 1 wildwood into turn 2 thalia or voice are slow but not dead in the water against other middling hands. Blocking Inkmoth and lingering souls is also a good reason to play them - although that didn't come up yesterday. Overall I'm not sure that they are better than 2 Razorverge Thicket or 2 Horizon Canopy even.
Have any thoughts on these cards?
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Horizon canopy may be exactly what the deck needs if its variety of threats do manage to be answered to gain some card draw in the late game, but I think it weakens the burn match up. Every time I've lost to burn its been because even when fetching for basics the life loss is still significant. Ravorverge Thicket has been great for securing Mana without the life tradeoff. Depends on your meta I suppose.
With only 16 non-dork hits for company, I can't help but feel like that build is greedy in terms of adding spells and 4-drops. I'm not sure the deck can really handle 7 4 drops, but then you're running a couple more dorks than I do.
At least imo, the deck really needs to get close to 30 creatures to have company firing at full power.
edit: I'm not sure if you've seen my list, but I took Bant Company to a PPTQ last weekend. Report is last page. I wish I knew what to cut to stuff in a dromoka's command, that card is such a beating with an angel token
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
We're not playing the same colors but still we can take some good info, especially on creatures.
The full 4 Loxodon Smiters. The two main grindy strategies in the format are Grixis and Liliana-based BGx. Smiter is the perfect countermeasure against both and is great against people who rely on damage-based removal spells like Lightning Bolt, Kolaghan's Command, and Electrolyze. Yes, I did get to put Smiter directly into play off a Liliana +1 during the Grand Prix.
I ran 3 Qasali Pridemage, 3 Scavenging Ooze. Most people played 2/2 or 3/2 of these valuable utility creatures but I decided to make room for 3 of each. Pridemage is good against Tron, Affinity, and Twin, and has surprising random utility (I used it to kill Ghostly Prison in multiple matches). Scavenging Ooze is exceptionally well-positioned. From controlling Tarmogoyfs to opposing Knights to Snapcaster Mage, to keeping them off delve, it has an incredible number of applications in Modern. It’s also a source of incidental life gain in a deck that would otherwise have no way to win long games against Burn. Playing more of these creatures allowed my deck to have a small disruptive element that is often missing in Zoo strategies, especially when combined with Collected Company.
I think everybody's sold on the Loxodon playset.
Qasali is just too good in curret meta (op forgot to mention Infect which I see alot), I'll also up him to 3. Ooze on the other way, I don't think I'll ever mainboard more than two.
By the way, am I the only one who tested maindeck Cryptic Commands? I admit I have some trouble casting it (will fit more shocklands as I don't want to run more mana dorks), otherwise it's just too good. Same to say about Mirror Entity, it's a "terrible" 3drop but it's GG when collected.
I just can't bring myself to play less creatures. At the recent PPTQ, the match I lost can be attributed to missing entirely on a collected company. I believe the key to success with this deck's strategy is to hit the highest average mana worth of creatures possible.
Cryptic is good, I just don't think it fits the deck. We need to be proactive imo, because our creature based game plan's efficacy has a negative relationship with the number of turns in the game - eventually twin will just twin. I just can't justify diluting the proactive strategy for a card like cryptic. Cryptic can be proactive (tap their team/bounce), but is fairly narrow in that role.
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
I brought this up in a seperate thread, but Renegade Doppelganger really has quite a few nice synergies with the cards in this deck.
With a Geist of saint traft token it's an extra 4/4 flier everytime you attack (an attacking 3/3 first striker the turn Blade Splicer comes down). turn 2 Renegade Doppelganger into turn 3 Knight of the Reliquary lets you tutor up and use Ghost Quarter turn 3 (assuming you used a fetch at this point your knight is now a 5/5). It's a Scavenging Ooze for a turn but it will keep the tokens it gains (breaking any Tarmogoyf mirrors when you land one). It will double any exhalted triggers with Noble Hierarch. Even just as an extra bear crashing in as a copy of Kitchen Finks or Voice of Resurgence still gives it some value (it'll persist back as a 0/1 or give you a token should it die in combat). While not a 3CMC, straight casting a Wilt-Leaf Liege with a Renegade Doppelganger in play makes him a 6/6, and your WG greatures all get +4/+4.
I'm throwing together something akin to this tonight to play with. It's probably too heavy on the Doppelganger plan, but I just want to get a feel for how it plays:
Your mana curve looks high for only 21 lands. Venser looks like the least useful card and also your top end, so I'd suggest cutting that for another land. Let us know how it plays, Phantasmal Image is another option if you don't want to commit so heavily to the doppleganger plan.
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Modern Decks
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Azorius Control UW
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I just don't trust Yasova to stick around with 2 toughness for a whole turn, since he offers no value for a full turn. Test him if he suits your fancy - I certainly did think a while about him before ultimately rejecting him as bolt bait.
Quick modern night report: 3-1
GW Death n Taxes splashing for company: Outvalued him most games as smiter and rhox are bigger than blade splicer tokens and finks. 2-1.
Merfolk: He won the roll, and we traded games on the play. He got 2 games on the play, with a pretty nut hand in game 3. 1-2
Amulet Bloom: Meddling mage on primeval titan + aven mindcensor won both sideboard games. 2-1
Grixis Control: Fairly easy match - just couldnt keep his removal up with the board, and burrenton forge-tender prevented the sweeper in g2. 2-0
The deck is real guys. I would love to see more people playing it and reporting what is working/not working.
Play tested this list against RW Norin (similar to Soul Sisters), Scapeshift combo with Through the Breach, Tarmo Twin, and Infect last weekend against the local playgroup.
Some conclusions I came to:
Rhox War Monk can feel hard to cast at times, which makes Kitchen Finks feel like a better choice in the main board due to its split cost. Also seems to be a target that asks to be hit by abrupt decay.
Mirror Entity seemed to put the game on a faster clock than Gavony Township while fulfilling similar roles. I think both have room in the deck
Kavu Predator could be an answer to CoCo mirrors with Finks while hosing Soul Sisters as well.
What about the new jace`? you cast CoCo with 3 cards in your GY and in opponants endstep. put him into play (thats 4 cards now). on your turn you activate him. get the fifth card into your gy. transform him and cast CoCo again.
I think that the GP Singapore 4 color company deck has me realizing that the core of the deck is where the real power comes from, noble hierarch and birds of paradise getting us into early collected company, turning the weakness of building a deck around collected company on its head by using disruptive and very value oriented creatures like Voice of resurgence, etc. There are a number of ways this deck can be build around it's core cards that are very meta alterable. The 4 color deck for example is trying to disrupt and outvalue you with it's core playsets or near playsets of creatures and then use spicy one of's fetchable with fauna shaman, an excellent company target, and chord of calling, something easily cast for 4 and 5 mana cost Restoration angel and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker due to our decks dorks and ability to spit out absurd amounts of creatures that either stick around or replace themselves with tokens to end the game out of nowhere through a combo they just did not see coming. I have yet to test this list but to my eyes it may be a more powerful take on the core of our deck in the current meta. I'm eager to test both out, but I love the idea of taking a stalled board that we have to grind through with Gavony township while they wait to top deck an answer to kill us and just tutoring out a combo for the win. Some tech I think our company build can take from the 4 color build that may be incredibly effective in my opinion would be a possible 2 of Fauna Shaman to turn late game dork draws into the gas we need. Where do we make the room? No idea honestly but it seems powerful in theory. AlsoMirror Entity as a surprise game ender on a stalled board filled with dorks is something that appeals to me, but lets not forget that while it is a much faster version of a gavony township effect, it's also subject to removal and can be dead in the hand early in the game. To summarize, I think we're onto something big with this decklist and I'm excited to see what future modern tournament results bring to the table
The Paths are replaced by chords and more creatures in the 4 Color build, which could be the right choice. If we drop Path, it weakens Aven Mindcensor as well, but enough to warrant removing it?
PtE is absolutely indispensable. From decks that go too fast like Affinity Infect Bloom to resilient combo like Twin to an early Wurmcoil, there are too many decks that would just auto-win.
Also, Fiend Hunter is just too easy to remove and too weak as a beater. While being a great CC target, I think it's just bad on its own.
Speaking of GP Singapore, that decklist is really interesting. It's going a completely different route but gives new fuel to brewing. Revoker sounds really interesting to me, probably in sideboard.
About Mirror Entity, I've tried to sell him from the beginning. While being obviously a terrible 3-drop, it puts the opponent on such a clock that I think it definitely needs a spot.
I can say confidently after lots of testing that 2 dromoka's command are a near must in the current meta, too many decks are packing main and side board red sweepers and our deck just loses hard to them. I wish I could fit more in but we need to keep our creature count as close to 30 as possible to keep our companies in our favor.
A one of Mirror entity has won me some games tonight. Had a game in which I was stuck on 2 lands with 4 Birds of Paradise and an aven mindcensor out and an end of turn collected company sent my mirror entity and a noble hierarch into play. Next turn I swung in for 15 damage in the air. It's a little cute but serious business in the late game. Also works well with my Geist of Saint Traft on a gummed up board. Pumped the Geist and the angel token up to 7/7s and all he could do was chump with a tarmogoyf and take 7 in the air.
Second Question - they both play 23 lands, and I've noticed most of your lists have 22. Can you share your experience on this?
I am so excited about this deck - I've built it up but I don't get to play as often as I'd like. Hoping to make out this weekend but in the meantime I'm living vicariously through your tournament reports.
I'm not loving fauna shaman after testing in our build. Honestly collected company seems to be good enough at filtering through our library to find specific answers and fauna is really slow and dies to everything. Actually I've been testing the whole 4 color list and finding it surprisingly weak. Perhaps I'm just not practiced at its play style enough to really take advantage of the deck but I much prefer our list. I'll post my current list and outline some new changes I intend to try.
I've found Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to be the sort of weaker link in our disruptive creature strategy, so I'm so I'm considering going down to 2 of her and up to 4 Aven Mindcensor, which I almost always want to turn 3 into someones end of turn fetch. I almost want to cut the Qasali Pridemage all together to get back up to playsets of Loxodon Smiter and Voice of Resurgence but he's a decent aggressive two drop that hates on a lot of good decks right now and adds to our exalted game plan. I almost wish I could justify a 64 card deck lol I want to fit in a playset or at least 3 Eternal Witness the card is just stellar at making our low amount of removal into a recurring problem for our opponents as well as rebuying collected company.. I have also been testing this list Brain Kibler took to GP Charlotte and I can definitely see why he did so poorly with it. I think the quality of cards the list uses to build off of our core cards are just way too low. Frankly Blade Splicer and Flickerwisp have never struck me as creatures powerful enough for the current modern format. Flickerwisp is begging for flash and no matter how many golems you manage to get out of your blade splicer they're still 3/3s which is just a poorly positioned power toughness in the current meta.
Played in a local tournament where all my matches were recorded and uploaded to youtube. I figured since I was playing Bant Company you guys would enjoy them as well.
Have any thoughts on these cards?
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
At least imo, the deck really needs to get close to 30 creatures to have company firing at full power.
edit: I'm not sure if you've seen my list, but I took Bant Company to a PPTQ last weekend. Report is last page. I wish I knew what to cut to stuff in a dromoka's command, that card is such a beating with an angel token
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/naya-zoo/
We're not playing the same colors but still we can take some good info, especially on creatures.
I think everybody's sold on the Loxodon playset.
Qasali is just too good in curret meta (op forgot to mention Infect which I see alot), I'll also up him to 3. Ooze on the other way, I don't think I'll ever mainboard more than two.
By the way, am I the only one who tested maindeck Cryptic Commands? I admit I have some trouble casting it (will fit more shocklands as I don't want to run more mana dorks), otherwise it's just too good. Same to say about Mirror Entity, it's a "terrible" 3drop but it's GG when collected.
Cryptic is good, I just don't think it fits the deck. We need to be proactive imo, because our creature based game plan's efficacy has a negative relationship with the number of turns in the game - eventually twin will just twin. I just can't justify diluting the proactive strategy for a card like cryptic. Cryptic can be proactive (tap their team/bounce), but is fairly narrow in that role.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
With a Geist of saint traft token it's an extra 4/4 flier everytime you attack (an attacking 3/3 first striker the turn Blade Splicer comes down). turn 2 Renegade Doppelganger into turn 3 Knight of the Reliquary lets you tutor up and use Ghost Quarter turn 3 (assuming you used a fetch at this point your knight is now a 5/5). It's a Scavenging Ooze for a turn but it will keep the tokens it gains (breaking any Tarmogoyf mirrors when you land one). It will double any exhalted triggers with Noble Hierarch. Even just as an extra bear crashing in as a copy of Kitchen Finks or Voice of Resurgence still gives it some value (it'll persist back as a 0/1 or give you a token should it die in combat). While not a 3CMC, straight casting a Wilt-Leaf Liege with a Renegade Doppelganger in play makes him a 6/6, and your WG greatures all get +4/+4.
I'm throwing together something akin to this tonight to play with. It's probably too heavy on the Doppelganger plan, but I just want to get a feel for how it plays:
4x Birds of Paradise
1x Blade Splicer
1x Eternal Witness
3x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Loxodon Smiter
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Qasali Pridemage
4x Renegade Doppelganger
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Tarmogoyf
1x Vendilion Clique
1x Voice of Resurgence
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
2x Breeding Pool
2x Forest
1x Gavony Township
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Hallowed Fountain
2x Horizon Canopy
1x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Plains
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Collected Company
4x Path to Exile
Planeswalker (1)
1x Venser, the Sojourner
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Is there anyway to stack the top of your deck within modern? Congregation at dawn
Quick modern night report: 3-1
GW Death n Taxes splashing for company: Outvalued him most games as smiter and rhox are bigger than blade splicer tokens and finks. 2-1.
Merfolk: He won the roll, and we traded games on the play. He got 2 games on the play, with a pretty nut hand in game 3. 1-2
Amulet Bloom: Meddling mage on primeval titan + aven mindcensor won both sideboard games. 2-1
Grixis Control: Fairly easy match - just couldnt keep his removal up with the board, and burrenton forge-tender prevented the sweeper in g2. 2-0
The deck is real guys. I would love to see more people playing it and reporting what is working/not working.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Some conclusions I came to:
Rhox War Monk can feel hard to cast at times, which makes Kitchen Finks feel like a better choice in the main board due to its split cost. Also seems to be a target that asks to be hit by abrupt decay.
Mirror Entity seemed to put the game on a faster clock than Gavony Township while fulfilling similar roles. I think both have room in the deck
Kavu Predator could be an answer to CoCo mirrors with Finks while hosing Soul Sisters as well.
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Birds of Paradise
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Loxodon Smiter
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Vendillion Clique
1 Mirror Entity
1 Eternal Witness
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
Land (22)
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
2 Stirring Wildwood
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Spellskite
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Rhox War Monk
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Eternal Witness
3 Ghostly Quarter
2 Meddling Mage
1 Kavu Predator
Where does Vryn Wingmare fit in?
Any thoughts on the Four Color Collected Company list from GP Singapore?
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
Thoughts on Fiend Hunter over Path?
Also, Fiend Hunter is just too easy to remove and too weak as a beater. While being a great CC target, I think it's just bad on its own.
Speaking of GP Singapore, that decklist is really interesting. It's going a completely different route but gives new fuel to brewing. Revoker sounds really interesting to me, probably in sideboard.
About Mirror Entity, I've tried to sell him from the beginning. While being obviously a terrible 3-drop, it puts the opponent on such a clock that I think it definitely needs a spot.
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
Jacob Wilson went 6-2 in Modern at the Invitational with this list:
2 x Forest
1 x Island
1 x Plains
1 x Breeding Pool
1 x Hallowed Fountain
2 x Temple Garden
3 x Misty Rainforest
4 x Razorverge Thicket
4 x Windswept Heath
1 x Flooded Strand
3 x Gavony Township
1 x Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 x Birds of Paradise
4 x Noble Hierarch
4 x Voice of Resurgence
4 x Flickerwisp
1 x Qasali Pridemage
3 x Eternal Witness
4 x Geist of Saint Traft
3 x Kitchen Finks
Noncreature Spells
4 x Collected Company
4 x Path to Exile
1 x Dromoka's Command
2 x Magus of the Moon
2 x Meddling Mage
1 x Stomping Ground
1 x Aven Mindcensor
3 x Unified Will
1 x Eternal Witness
1 x Dromoka's Command
1 x Scavenging Ooze
1 x Qasali Pridemage
1 x Aven Mindcensor
1 x Burrenton Forge-Tender
And Kibler built this version with Blade Splicer instead of Geist for GP Charlotte:
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Blade Splicer
3 Eternal Witness
4 Flickerwisp
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Restoration Angel
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Plains
1 Breeding Pool
3 Gavony Township
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Meddling Mage
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Stony Silence
1 Dromoka's Command
3 Unified Will
Second Question - they both play 23 lands, and I've noticed most of your lists have 22. Can you share your experience on this?
I am so excited about this deck - I've built it up but I don't get to play as often as I'd like. Hoping to make out this weekend but in the meantime I'm living vicariously through your tournament reports.
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Loxodon Smiter
2 Eternal Witness
1 Mirror Entity
Noncreature Spells
2 Dromoka's Command
4 Path to Exile
4 Collected Company
2 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
1 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Gavony Township
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Stomping Ground
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Magus of the Moon
3 Unified Will
2 Meddling Mage
I've found Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to be the sort of weaker link in our disruptive creature strategy, so I'm so I'm considering going down to 2 of her and up to 4 Aven Mindcensor, which I almost always want to turn 3 into someones end of turn fetch. I almost want to cut the Qasali Pridemage all together to get back up to playsets of Loxodon Smiter and Voice of Resurgence but he's a decent aggressive two drop that hates on a lot of good decks right now and adds to our exalted game plan. I almost wish I could justify a 64 card deck lol I want to fit in a playset or at least 3 Eternal Witness the card is just stellar at making our low amount of removal into a recurring problem for our opponents as well as rebuying collected company.. I have also been testing this list Brain Kibler took to GP Charlotte and I can definitely see why he did so poorly with it. I think the quality of cards the list uses to build off of our core cards are just way too low. Frankly Blade Splicer and Flickerwisp have never struck me as creatures powerful enough for the current modern format. Flickerwisp is begging for flash and no matter how many golems you manage to get out of your blade splicer they're still 3/3s which is just a poorly positioned power toughness in the current meta.
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
Match 1 - U/W Tron
Match 2 - Tarmo-Twin
Match 3 - 5 Color Company