Here's the 75 I've been running with for the last month or so. I've got a lot of Death's Shadow and various flavors of Eldrazi/Tron decks in my meta as the big pains, which is why Crucible is in the main for now. Mechanized Production tries to come in on a Needle to just shut down the big mana decks while I hide behind a Bridge and delay threats as best I can. Does anyone have suggestions on my build to better deal with these decks aside from lots of practice? Thankfully, I have a playtest buddy who has Bant Eldrazi and E-Tron so I get lots of reps against those two decks as my tuning fork of sorts. Thanks in advance.
So while I don't normally care about people crying for bans, I at least want to think about what happens if Mox Opal does get shot down soon, as some are screaming for once more. I can't imagine it's just add Spire of Industry and call it a day. I run a Sultai list with Cranes right now, for reference.
Again, I'm trying to inspire conversation only, as this has been a discussion I've had at my LGS the last few weeks between rounds of different tournaments since I'm the only Lantern player there.
Alright, this is probably some silly Johnny shenanigans that will be easily shut down, but I was talking to some friends about brewing up a combo deck after Standard rotates.
The game plan is simple, get out Molten Nursery or Nettle Drone and drop a bunch of artifacts that lead to the opponent taking incremental damage. Paradoxical Outcome pulls back our 0 drops and the Puzzleknot to draw a bunch of cards and re-cast them for hopefully lethal damage. Panharmonicon cranks our damage up with each copy added to the battlefield, and Herald of Kozilek adds some very welcome cost reduction. I'm probably going to get this built as a Game Day surprise, but don't see it being useful against actual meta decks over the long run.
Definitely getting four walkers in this set. Kinda hoped they would save Tezzeret for Aether Revolt, but since we saw his art tonight, that is less likely now.
So I'm getting most of the non-dual pieces together for this, and I've been testing a budget mana base. I am very much aware that the ABUR duals are the preferred lands for this deck, but I don't have the spare $1k+ to get them yet. With that in mind, I've been going back and forth on this.
Tropical Island -> Breeding Pool
Volcanic Island -> Steam Vents
Underground Sea -> Sunken Hollow/Watery Grave
The first two lands don't have a fetchable alternative, but the Sea does, and I wanted opinions on if the small number of basics we run is worth looking at Sunken Hollow over the Grave or I should go full Shock lands and not worry. Ideally, I'll have proper duals before the year is out, but in the interim, I'd like to get the rest of the deck up to speed so I can get used to the lines it runs.
Land Grant allows us to get our lone Taiga/Stomping Ground/Forest out of the library for zero mana when we think we can kill our opponent, at the simple cost of showing them our hand. Even extra copies work on the turn we go off, since they all add to the storm count with no investment. Should we be going for a Belcher kill rather than storming, then it guarantees the opponent is toast as our library will have zero lands in it after the Land Grant and we will dome them for 40+ damage.
As much as I think we should see Tovolar, the prevailing theory I stand by is that Ulrich, Krallenhorde Alpha will likely be our legendary werewolf since he's the one that's appeared in SOI flavor text. Either way, as long as they actually give us a transforming RG Werewolf legend, I'll be happy.
I think the most likely bans incoming are an enabler and a creature from Eldrazi:
Eldrazi Temple
Eldrazi Mimic
I'm not sure if they want to kill Eye yet unless Tron truly takes over Modern. This still lets them have 4 conditional Sol Lands in the deck and removes the T2 TKS without SSG. The reason Mimic has to go is for Eye to stick around and allow some mana reduction. While nowhere near as gross as T1 Mimics, T2 TKS, being able to drop either Displacer or Aggregate on T2 with Mimics ready for combat seems a bit much.
Of course now, I fully expect to be wrong and only see Temple get whacked. Just my crazy 0.02.
Still too early for AV to come off the list, if only because Eldrazi dominated this ban cycle so there was no meaningful data to draw from.
So my shop is finally going to be adding Legacy to our monthly 'rotating' FNM non-standard slot. With that in mind along with my 4th LED arriving soon, I've been trying to think of a good 75 for an unknown meta. Since Belcher has basically fallen off the map completely, I figure I will get 2-3 good runs in with it while I work toward more fair decks/other LED based decks.
Overall, it's a pretty standard list, but I don't know if my sideboard is good enough to cover everything well.
Burning Wish #4 and Empty The Warrens #4 need little explanation
Carpet/Pyroblast/Xantid are a solid way to hopefully deal with all of the blue I will run into. I'm just wondering if the Carpet/Xantid density are high enough.
Cave-In is presently my main bit of help against D&T along with the artifact hate. I'm hoping to not run into Gaddock Teeg though, since I can't use Cave-In then. On the other hand, I'm more likely to need to handle Thalia/Vryn Wingmare before Gaddock since he isn't a guarantee in their 75.
I do have Diminishing Returns as an option to run over PiF, but I don't like the risk of giving a blue deck a second chance to counter if I need to reload mid combo for any reason. On the other hand, Grafdigger's Cage kills PiF and is generally a common board card for a few decks.
I'm trying a Pithing Needle for now to try and help with trouble spots in general, and have a few more of the common sideboard cards that have been run in the past available.
Overall, is the mainboard good enough or should I mix up my mana producing somehow? Also, should the sideboard be any denser in anti-blue hate or try to keep to a more varied mode until I figure out my meta?
Any help you can give is great, I've enjoyed this deck a lot in goldfishing and find the puzzle of generating enough mana to win to be one of my favorite things when testing it out.
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Collective Brutality
2 Thoughtseize
Instant:
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Abrupt Decay
Artifact:
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
4 Ghoulcaller's Bell
1 Pyxis of Pandemonium
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Opal
3 Pithing Needle
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Glimmervoid
4 Blooming Marsh
2 Academy Ruins
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Inventors' Fair
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Welding Jar
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Mechanized Production
1 Nature's Claim
1 Quiet Disrepair
1 Lost Legacy
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
Here's the 75 I've been running with for the last month or so. I've got a lot of Death's Shadow and various flavors of Eldrazi/Tron decks in my meta as the big pains, which is why Crucible is in the main for now. Mechanized Production tries to come in on a Needle to just shut down the big mana decks while I hide behind a Bridge and delay threats as best I can. Does anyone have suggestions on my build to better deal with these decks aside from lots of practice? Thankfully, I have a playtest buddy who has Bant Eldrazi and E-Tron so I get lots of reps against those two decks as my tuning fork of sorts. Thanks in advance.
Again, I'm trying to inspire conversation only, as this has been a discussion I've had at my LGS the last few weeks between rounds of different tournaments since I'm the only Lantern player there.
Three AER cards
Sword of War and Peace
Sword of Body and Mind
Ensnaring Bridge
Unwinding Clock OR Clock of Omens
Wurmcoil Engine
Oblivion Stone OR Perilous Vault
Planar Portal
Vedalken Shackles
Gilded Lotus OR Lotus Bloom
Coalition Relic
Basalt Monolith
Chalice of the Void OR Trinisphere
Thorn of Amethyst OR Lodestone Golem
Master Transmuter
Cranial Plating OR Skullclamp
Pithing Needle
4 Herald of Kozilek
4 Nettle Drone
Artifacts:
4 Bone Saw
4 Cathar's Shield
4 Fireforger's Puzzleknot
4 Panharmonicon
4 Molten Nursery
Instants:
4 Anticipate
4 Paradoxical Outcome
Lands:
10 Basics
4 Highland Lake
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Wandering Fumarole
The game plan is simple, get out Molten Nursery or Nettle Drone and drop a bunch of artifacts that lead to the opponent taking incremental damage. Paradoxical Outcome pulls back our 0 drops and the Puzzleknot to draw a bunch of cards and re-cast them for hopefully lethal damage. Panharmonicon cranks our damage up with each copy added to the battlefield, and Herald of Kozilek adds some very welcome cost reduction. I'm probably going to get this built as a Game Day surprise, but don't see it being useful against actual meta decks over the long run.
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/150013615008/im-a-little-bit-confused-how-many-planeswalkers
Tropical Island -> Breeding Pool
Volcanic Island -> Steam Vents
Underground Sea -> Sunken Hollow/Watery Grave
The first two lands don't have a fetchable alternative, but the Sea does, and I wanted opinions on if the small number of basics we run is worth looking at Sunken Hollow over the Grave or I should go full Shock lands and not worry. Ideally, I'll have proper duals before the year is out, but in the interim, I'd like to get the rest of the deck up to speed so I can get used to the lines it runs.
Swords to Plowshares
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Dark Ritual
Price of Progress
Glimpse of Nature
Will not be reprinted:
Stoneforge Mystic
Omniscience
Liliana of the Veil
Scalding Tarn
Deathrite Shaman
Mythics:
White:
Karakas
Blue:
Force of Will
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Black:
Necropotence
Imperial Seal
Red:
Imperial Recruiter
Gamble
Green:
Natural Order
Sylvan Library
Artifacts:
Sensei's Divining Top (really would rather this be at rare, but it's WoTC)
Mana Crypt
Random rare ideas, far from complete:
White:
Cataclysm (I wish they'd give us Balance, but that card literally only lives on in Vintage)
Containment Priest
Island Sanctuary
Land Tax
Blue:
Mind's Desire
Reset
Show and Tell
Black:
Cabal Therapy
Entomb
Patriarch's Bidding
Reanimate
Sorceress Queen
Red:
Chain Lightning
Chaos Warp
Moggcatcher
Price of Progress
Sneak Attack
Green:
Birds of Paradise
Bifurcate
Glimpse of Nature
Xantid Swarm
Multicolor:
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Baleful Strix
Bladewing The Risen
Overabundance
Gaddock Teeg
Vindicate
Balefire Liege
Prophetic Bolt
Deathrite Shaman/Abrupt Decay
Sliver Overlord (Slivers will probably be the 5C deck like elementals from MM2)
Artifacts:
AEther Vial
Black Vise
Defense Grid
Grindstone
Lotus Petal
Painter's Servant
Non-rares:
White:
Mother of Runes
Serra Angel
Swords to Plowshares
Blue:
Brainstorm
Careful Study
Fact Or Fiction
High Tide
Peregrine Drake
Black:
Ashes to Ashes
Dark Ritual
Tendrils of Agony
Red:
Aftershock
Fling
Lightning Bolt
Green:
Elvish Spirit Guide
Llanowar Elves
Priest of Titania
Rancor
Multicolor:
Baleful Strix
Shardless Agent
Cycles:
Apprentice Cycle from Invasion
Disciple Cycle from Apocalypse
Eldrazi Temple
Eldrazi Mimic
I'm not sure if they want to kill Eye yet unless Tron truly takes over Modern. This still lets them have 4 conditional Sol Lands in the deck and removes the T2 TKS without SSG. The reason Mimic has to go is for Eye to stick around and allow some mana reduction. While nowhere near as gross as T1 Mimics, T2 TKS, being able to drop either Displacer or Aggregate on T2 with Mimics ready for combat seems a bit much.
Of course now, I fully expect to be wrong and only see Temple get whacked. Just my crazy 0.02.
Still too early for AV to come off the list, if only because Eldrazi dominated this ban cycle so there was no meaningful data to draw from.
1 Taiga
Creatures:
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Tinder Wall
Artifacts:
3 Chrome Mox
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Desperate Ritual
3 Manamorphose
3 Pyretic Ritual
4 Seething Song
Sorceries:
3 Burning Wish
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Land Grant
4 Rite of Flame
1 Burning Wish
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Cave-In
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Goblin War Strike
1 Hull Breach
1 Past in Flames
1 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Reverent Silence
1 Shattering Spree
2 Xantid Swarm
Overall, it's a pretty standard list, but I don't know if my sideboard is good enough to cover everything well.
Burning Wish #4 and Empty The Warrens #4 need little explanation
Carpet/Pyroblast/Xantid are a solid way to hopefully deal with all of the blue I will run into. I'm just wondering if the Carpet/Xantid density are high enough.
Cave-In is presently my main bit of help against D&T along with the artifact hate. I'm hoping to not run into Gaddock Teeg though, since I can't use Cave-In then. On the other hand, I'm more likely to need to handle Thalia/Vryn Wingmare before Gaddock since he isn't a guarantee in their 75.
I do have Diminishing Returns as an option to run over PiF, but I don't like the risk of giving a blue deck a second chance to counter if I need to reload mid combo for any reason. On the other hand, Grafdigger's Cage kills PiF and is generally a common board card for a few decks.
I'm trying a Pithing Needle for now to try and help with trouble spots in general, and have a few more of the common sideboard cards that have been run in the past available.
Overall, is the mainboard good enough or should I mix up my mana producing somehow? Also, should the sideboard be any denser in anti-blue hate or try to keep to a more varied mode until I figure out my meta?
Any help you can give is great, I've enjoyed this deck a lot in goldfishing and find the puzzle of generating enough mana to win to be one of my favorite things when testing it out.
1UG - Uncommon
Creature - Fish Lizard
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may tap or untap target creature.
3/3
No image because the source didn't embed it well. I'll add it in if the picture ever gets uploaded correctly.
LINK