Two Felidar Guardians also create a loop that triggers the altar. As does liquimetal coating + saheeli rai (which combo's also nice with Felidar Guardian, so quite a few synergies!)
I've played a very similar version with settle the wreckage and have to disagree with clixxi. Settle the wreckage is a house (sweeper that doesn't fill the yard). Especially if people don't expect it. In your local environment the surprise is quickly gone and people play around it, but at a GP the surprise factor is a real thing. I'm not sold on gideon though and WW on T3 is sometimes hard. Instead I would just play the fourth path here, lowering your curve and freeing up a spot from your sideboard. To further lower your curve you could consider cutting a Command for a Pierce. I would also play at least one Mystic Gate if you're playing WW spells like settle the wreckage.
To get your SB further down to 15 cards I would cut a Fearie or the Cage: with paths and settle the wreckage opp's graveyard doesn't fill too quickly, plus you also have bog to tutor up to remove opp's graveyard.
Yeah I played against this version yesterday. Kinda hard to living end my own riverwinders when the opponent gets griselbrands... Was a very fun match!
I'm preparing for post Amonkhet since my next tournament is after the release.
New cards in my list:
- angel of sanctions as a catch all removal while being evasive pressure
- dusk against eldrazi, DS, BGx midrange (apart from sweeping only opponent's creatures, the value from Dawn seems also really good in grindy matchups). I'm going to try a full set in the board.
Further changes:
- I'm down to 3 saheeli. She's bad in multiples and bad in quite a lot of situations anyway. I use Kiki-Jiki as the fourth saheeli that has the added benefit of being tutorable, so the deck is even more consistent than when running just 4 saheeli and 4 guardian whithout kiki-jiki.
- I replaced Path to exiles with worship mainboard. Against the decks you want path (eldrazi, DS, merfolk, etc) worship is way better, especially mainboard, when most decks simply have no answer to that card. Mainly against inkmoth nexus path is better, so I give up a small percentage against affinity and infect, but those are not heavily played in my meta.
- instead of using voice-into-rallier-shenenigans for value, I just run 4x finks, which is value by itself. This saves your evolutions to ramp into something like Sigarda (which is way more powerful in grindy matchups than voice into rallier) or Kiki-Jiki to just win the game on the spot.
- I was sceptic at first, but after some testing I'm starting to become convinced about lotus cobra. T2 cobra is often a T3 win out of nowhere, (either with guardian + saheeli, or saheeli + evolution) I'm playing 3 cobra instead of 2 now.
Hi guys, I've been playing Death cloud in all my competitive tournaments for the past 8 months or so and thought let's share my thoughts on this great archetype.
I've tuned this deck a lot, tried all kinds of color combinations (BG, abzan, jund and even sultai) and tried different overall approaches for the archetype. I'm now at the point that I regularly top 8 at the competitive modern tournaments in the Netherlands (avg 50 players), including winning a 90 player PPTQ last year. I honestly feel death cloud is one of the strongest archetypes out there if you know how to play it, and it only got stronger now Twin is banned.
Some overall conclusions:
- I like the Abzan build best. straight BG comes close, but I feel you simply need the lingering souls against affinity, infect and BGx and there is nothing in straight BG to replace that.
- Always go all-in on the death cloud theme. That means 4 death clouds and 4 garruks. Always. Otherwise we're just halfway stuck between two strategies and we're a strictly worse deck than traditional BGx. The only matchups in which I board out deathclouds are affinity when I'm on the draw and burn.
- Kalitas is a beast. Creates zombie armies with our sweepers and liliana, the lifelink is great against aggro as well as midrange, he grows bigger than eldrazi, can't be bolted, and the exile mode is a bonus that comes up more often than you think (and shuts down abzan company).
- The fulminators mainboard are a recent addition for me now that Eldrazi is a thing and it also helps our worst matchup Tron a lot. Also great against affinity, infect and BGx. I like them main, but this is very metagame dependent.
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To get your SB further down to 15 cards I would cut a Fearie or the Cage: with paths and settle the wreckage opp's graveyard doesn't fill too quickly, plus you also have bog to tutor up to remove opp's graveyard.
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New cards in my list:
- angel of sanctions as a catch all removal while being evasive pressure
- dusk against eldrazi, DS, BGx midrange (apart from sweeping only opponent's creatures, the value from Dawn seems also really good in grindy matchups). I'm going to try a full set in the board.
Further changes:
- I'm down to 3 saheeli. She's bad in multiples and bad in quite a lot of situations anyway. I use Kiki-Jiki as the fourth saheeli that has the added benefit of being tutorable, so the deck is even more consistent than when running just 4 saheeli and 4 guardian whithout kiki-jiki.
- I replaced Path to exiles with worship mainboard. Against the decks you want path (eldrazi, DS, merfolk, etc) worship is way better, especially mainboard, when most decks simply have no answer to that card. Mainly against inkmoth nexus path is better, so I give up a small percentage against affinity and infect, but those are not heavily played in my meta.
- instead of using voice-into-rallier-shenenigans for value, I just run 4x finks, which is value by itself. This saves your evolutions to ramp into something like Sigarda (which is way more powerful in grindy matchups than voice into rallier) or Kiki-Jiki to just win the game on the spot.
- I was sceptic at first, but after some testing I'm starting to become convinced about lotus cobra. T2 cobra is often a T3 win out of nowhere, (either with guardian + saheeli, or saheeli + evolution) I'm playing 3 cobra instead of 2 now.
My list after Amonkhet:
4 birds of paradise
1 noble hierarch
3 lotus cobra
4 voice of resurgence
1 glen elendra archmage
4 felidar guardian
1 deadeye harpooner
4 kitchen finks
1 kiki-jiki, mirror breaker
1 angel of sanctions
1 sigarda, host of herons
spells
4 oath of nissa
3 saheeli rai
3 eldritch evolution
3 worship
2 arid mesa
4 wooded foothills
4 windswept heath
1 plains
2 forest
1 mountain
1 hallowed fountain
1 breeding pool
1 temple garden
1 stomping ground
2 razorverge thicket
2 gavony township
1 acidic slime
1 glen elendra archmage
2 stony silence
2 selfless spirit
1 scavenging ooze
4 dusk
1 izzet staticaster
1 eidolon of rhetoric
1 gaddock teeg
1 reclamation sage
Feedback on my choices is always welcome!
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I've tuned this deck a lot, tried all kinds of color combinations (BG, abzan, jund and even sultai) and tried different overall approaches for the archetype. I'm now at the point that I regularly top 8 at the competitive modern tournaments in the Netherlands (avg 50 players), including winning a 90 player PPTQ last year. I honestly feel death cloud is one of the strongest archetypes out there if you know how to play it, and it only got stronger now Twin is banned.
Some overall conclusions:
- I like the Abzan build best. straight BG comes close, but I feel you simply need the lingering souls against affinity, infect and BGx and there is nothing in straight BG to replace that.
- Always go all-in on the death cloud theme. That means 4 death clouds and 4 garruks. Always. Otherwise we're just halfway stuck between two strategies and we're a strictly worse deck than traditional BGx. The only matchups in which I board out deathclouds are affinity when I'm on the draw and burn.
- Kalitas is a beast. Creates zombie armies with our sweepers and liliana, the lifelink is great against aggro as well as midrange, he grows bigger than eldrazi, can't be bolted, and the exile mode is a bonus that comes up more often than you think (and shuts down abzan company).
- The fulminators mainboard are a recent addition for me now that Eldrazi is a thing and it also helps our worst matchup Tron a lot. Also great against affinity, infect and BGx. I like them main, but this is very metagame dependent.
My list:
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
4 Fulminator mage
3 Arbor elf
Planeswalkers
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Liliana of the Veil
Spells
4 Death cloud
3 Damnation
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering souls
4 Utopia sprawl
4 Verdant catacombs
4 Windswept heath
2 Marsh flats
2 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Shambling vent
1 Stirring wildwood
2 Twilight mire
3 Overgrown tomb
1 Godless shrine
1 Temple garden
3 Chalice of the void
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 Mwonvuli acid-moss
1 Choke
2 Stony silence
3 Drown in sorrow
2 Maelstrom pulse
2 Surgical extraction