Congratulations on the first post! As far as the deck, I feel like it's lacking the same thing my first draft did: interaction. You don't have any way to interact with your opponent other than your win condition, and there's also no protection for your combo. Maybe try some counterspells or increase your red beyond just Gruul Turf and add Bolts and such so you have some removal. By splashing red you also gain access to Ancient Grudge and Banefire (which I feel is more efficient than Increasing Confusion). Hope this helps, man! Happy brewing!
Alright, take 2. The sideboard here is just some cards I'm considering or looking for a place for them, etc. Here's with the black splash, 2/2 Crime/Seize split. Thoughts? I still need more removal though... but I'm not sure what I can cut. Probably an Insight and an Incarnate for some hard removal. What do you think? Maybe cut Incarnate entirely.
Before you start going into those card choices, you have a good beginning shell, but ou MUST have disruption in Modern or a ultra quick clock (Infect/Gishoalbrand/Bogles). This deck does not have that speed and is very midrangey, so you need some disruption. Molten Vortex and Anger of the Gods are not going to cut it, you need hand disruption, countermagic, etc., something that will buy you time against a variety of decks. I'd reccomend black for Abrupt Decay and Thoughtseize seeing as you already have Worm Harvest.
Another reason I reccomended Lotus Cobra is because it speeds you up dramatically, especially with fetches. It isn't bad late game because it makes the Life from the Loam and sac-lands value engine a whole lot faster, as well as a few other benefits. 2-3 may be appropriate because it is really bad in multiples.
Like I mentioned before, I was considering black anyway for Raven's Crime. Possibly a split of Thoughtsieze and Crime, then? I'd say in favor of Crime, because it's still relevant in the late-game because we can use it to empty our opponent's hand.
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but there is a deck called assault loam that is pretty much the exact same deck.
Yeah, a friend had already pointed it out to me. I still feel like this is different from most of the other Assault decks because they just want to get Assault online, all I'm doing is looking for land synergies and grinding out the game. Can it still be considered Assault Loam? Probably. I don't think that means it doesn't belong in this thread, however, because it's still very much a brew with the Awakenings and Rubblehulks. Most Assault lists I've seen don't even run Worm Harvest.
My main problem with Animist's Awakening is that you have to have a reason to run it, and you have accomplished that very well.
Thanks! It's still kind of a first draft though. I had thought of Avenger and Baloths (if I had to pick one, it'd be the latter), but I opted for Roil because it didnt die to a lot of the prevalent removal. Though, I may switch to Baloths because the tokens don't die to my own Anger. That's also my reason for not including the Cobra, because it's not very powerful later in the game when you have a million lands and just dies to my own sweeper anyway. I agree about the lands, though. I'm actually looking for some other ones that do good things when I sacrifice them. The other one I've found is Haunted Fengraf, which may or may not be good (although it's definitely slow, that's for sure). Some other lands that I've found were:
Boseiju is maybe a sideboard card? I'm not sure. Fungal Reaches feels better than Cobra, in my opinion, but I'm still not sure the deck needs an effect like that. Kher Keep seems like a good token maker for blockers. or Rubblehulk targets.
Some ideas I'm having about other cards to try include:
Looting is because I do a lot of milling, and milling a Magmatic Insight isn't amazing, but milling this is. Thragtusk... is Thragtusk. Genesis Wave is just something to keep in the back of my mind, because Animist's Awakening is essentially a mini G-Wave. E Wit, Loaming Shaman, and Sudden Reclamation are there for the same reason Looting is. Milling cards that aren't land, Life from the Loam, or Worm Harvest kind of sucks. Maybe that makes the deck a bit greedy, I'm not sure. Crucible is a bit faster than Loam, and becomes a lot better when I want to use the lands in my hand for discarding to do other things, but I can still play them and advance my board.
So, obviously, a lot of testing still needing to happen.
Thanks for the reply, but I've already seen that. It's not really the style of deck I want to be playing, versus the style to deck that plays stuff like Loam+Crime. Looking for less outright combo or aggro and more midrange/control-esque lands. My friend has actually built that one for fun and I've played against it a couple of times.
You're welcome. I think it'll pick up again if we start brewing something interesting. c; No big reason to fret though, in my opinion.
Well I know I want to run R/G at least. I'm just sure if I should run B though. Maybe as a splash? The main reason to even consider it is the powerful Loam + Crime engine. Honestly the list of cards I'd want to include is larger than the list of cards I can include...
X spells seem good in conjunction with making a bunch of lands, that's the only reason for the long list of them at the top. What's your opinion? Are there any interesting or good cards I'm missing? Aside from stuff like Abrupt Decay and such, of course.
I doubt Foundry's really needed as 4x, but I feel they're slightly better than Biovac's, since they can provide some Ojutai blockers. I'm going to see how V2 does later today, and after that I'll be reworking the deck to fix any 'weak spots' (on the plus side, with 10 g1 games vs mono-R, I've got a 80% win rate <.< Molten Vortex is a beating for them)
That's fair about the Hydra, but since I don't know the 'new' meta of my group (quit mid dragons standard, and never paid attention) but I know theres 5/26 people on mono-R, 2 on mbc/mbd (mono black control/devotion), 1 on Gr Ramp, 1 on temur dragons, 1 UR thopters, 1 UB control, 1 turbo fog. Other than that, all unknown and for all I know I've got mis-information haha.
I was talking cutting 1 Foundry 2 Bivouacs. Bivouacs aren't as good, but it's still a dual land which is greatly needed, because we're diluting our deck with more lands and have a slightly tougher time getting our colors occasionally.
Yeah, most of my friends are pretty locked in to their decks of choice at this point lol.
I played a similar deck at game day, going 3-1 and getting second. I couldn't quite get it down to 60 cards though
[...]
My one loss was to Abzan aggro, and I think I could have won but my draws didn't amount to anything, I kind of just drew a ton of land and did nothing with them. I beat G/r Devotion, Abzan Control and B/W warriors, though I might have lost to the devotion player if he'd played a little tighter.
Once the engine got going the deck felt really powerful, but it does feel a little clumsy, at least with this current build. A lot of draws can kind of just fail. I probably also made some mistakes though, as I didn't really do any testing before I took it to gameday, just a few matches against a friend of mine who was the guy playing abzan aggro.
I felt like Nissa, Vastwood Seer probably would have been pretty decent as a one of or something, as getting to 7 lands wasn't usually ever an issue. I did get stuck on 4 lands in one game against G/r devotion, but that was just kind of a weird occurrence.
I feel like you can cut 4 Forest and be fine. Even 30 lands is a lot. I'm not a Nissa fan in the first place, and I still think she's the second-worst of the set (Abzan was previously nicknamed "Junk" for a reason), and we need her even less here, in my opinion. Her creature side does almost nothing in this deck and her planeswalker side still feels lacking to me. I still just see her as bad Borderland Ranger that flips to bad Worldwaker. Also, why no Magmatic Insight?
On the subject of brewing though, I've always wanted a viable lands deck in Modern... do you think that's closer to happening with Animist's Awakening?
Well how badly do we need 4x Foundry? We can cut some of those too instead of just cutting the Bivouacs altogether. We don't even need Incarnate at 4, 3 is fine too.
The only reason I like Mistcutter over Revenge is because of the x in the cost. Otherwise Revenge's resilience is just straight up better, yes. I was planning on MB Revenge though, but that's just because I have a lot of Esper in my meta.
Zendikar Incarnate becomes better with Hammer of Purphoros out. Also, I'm not on the "dies to removal" bandwagon when that thing can easily be like a 14/4. As for the Command, the deck desperately needs to get to the late game. Rampant Growth + Bolt is still good in my opinion.
Also, the main charm for Mist cutter is that it's a big haste beater that can't get countered, effectively dodging all sorcery speed removal.
I believe they fill similar but different roles. If they were both 4 mana, it would be different. Unfortunately 5 mana is a bigger jump from 4 than one might think. In a deck that's already generating a ton of mana early or locks the game down quicker, maybe, but Agent also provides a fast clock with both his - abilities, and repeatable card advantage as a + rather than a -.
@TheWatchGuard Idk, maybe it's me? I just have a feeling that maybe it's not the best at what it wants to do. But if we're on the subject, then with all of these artifacts, maybe consider Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas to find them.
I'm actually interested in building this very same deck, and possibly looking for a Modern port. I just really feel like it needs Atarka's Commands to get off the ground.
Hey I stumbled upon an old wording on cards which can be abused. Cards like Storage Matrix and Howling Mine are only active if they are untapped. This is where we can abuse it. With the new addition of Ghirapur Æther Grid you can just tap those artifacts at the end of opponents turn. With the addition of taxing artifacts like Pithing Needle, Torpor Orb, Chalice of the Void and Relic of Progenitus and even Signet's and Talisman artifacts enable a board control (ping the creatures to death!) with the grid.
Control or lock pieces like Blood Moon, Ensnaring bridge and Day's undoing really shape a good permanent based control deck. I am still tuning on a list which is competitive enough to beat some Tier 1/2 decks reliably.
Maybe you guys have some nice insight or additions to my idea
Could be an interesting deck. But I mean, we've had Clock of Omens for a while now, so idk.
Edit: Actually, the deck feels a bit janky. Most of the artifacts we want tapped during our turn, but untapped during our opponent's turn. Genesis Chamber, Blinkmoth Urn, and Trinisphere have the same effect, for the record, but they all have that same problem. Unwinding Clock solves the problem on all but Storage Matrix, but that makes the deck expensive mana-wise and probably harder to play because of it.
3 Courser of Kruphix
2 Zendikar Incarnate
2 Rampaging Baloths
2 Rubblehulk
1 Gaea's Revenge
Spells:22
3 Animist's Awakening
1 Faithless Looting
3 Magmatic Insight
4 Molten Vortex
2 Raven's Crime
2 Thoughtseize
1 Grisly Salvage
4 Life from the Loam
1 Mulch
1 Worm Harvest
1 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
3 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
5 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Radiant Fountain
2 Raging Ravine
3 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Kher Keep
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Destructive Revelry
1 Drown in Filth
1 Ground Assault
1 Magma Jet
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Bow of Nylea
1 Avenger of Zendikar
Alright, take 2. The sideboard here is just some cards I'm considering or looking for a place for them, etc. Here's with the black splash, 2/2 Crime/Seize split. Thoughts? I still need more removal though... but I'm not sure what I can cut. Probably an Insight and an Incarnate for some hard removal. What do you think? Maybe cut Incarnate entirely.
Yeah, a friend had already pointed it out to me. I still feel like this is different from most of the other Assault decks because they just want to get Assault online, all I'm doing is looking for land synergies and grinding out the game. Can it still be considered Assault Loam? Probably. I don't think that means it doesn't belong in this thread, however, because it's still very much a brew with the Awakenings and Rubblehulks. Most Assault lists I've seen don't even run Worm Harvest.
- Boseiju, Who Shelters All
- Fungal Reaches
- Kher Keep
Boseiju is maybe a sideboard card? I'm not sure. Fungal Reaches feels better than Cobra, in my opinion, but I'm still not sure the deck needs an effect like that. Kher Keep seems like a good token maker for blockers. or Rubblehulk targets.Some ideas I'm having about other cards to try include:
- Faithless Looting
- Thragtusk
- Eternal Witness
- Genesis Wave
- Loaming Shaman
- Sudden Reclamation
- Crucible of Worlds
Looting is because I do a lot of milling, and milling a Magmatic Insight isn't amazing, but milling this is. Thragtusk... is Thragtusk. Genesis Wave is just something to keep in the back of my mind, because Animist's Awakening is essentially a mini G-Wave. E Wit, Loaming Shaman, and Sudden Reclamation are there for the same reason Looting is. Milling cards that aren't land, Life from the Loam, or Worm Harvest kind of sucks. Maybe that makes the deck a bit greedy, I'm not sure. Crucible is a bit faster than Loam, and becomes a lot better when I want to use the lands in my hand for discarding to do other things, but I can still play them and advance my board.So, obviously, a lot of testing still needing to happen.
3 Courser of Kruphix
2 Zendikar Incarnate
2 Rubblehulk
1 Gaea's Revenge
Instants and Sorceries (17)
3 Animist's Awakening
4 Magmatic Insight
4 Life from the Loam
3 Mulch
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Worm Harvest
4 Molten Vortex
3 Zendikar's Roil
Lands (28)
5 Forest
6 Mountain
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Radiant Fountain
4 Raging Ravine
3 Stomping Ground
3 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills
Notable interactions are Loam + Insight and Loam + Vortex, among others. What do you think?
Well I know I want to run R/G at least. I'm just sure if I should run B though. Maybe as a splash? The main reason to even consider it is the powerful Loam + Crime engine. Honestly the list of cards I'd want to include is larger than the list of cards I can include...
And then the brewing ideas...
X spells seem good in conjunction with making a bunch of lands, that's the only reason for the long list of them at the top. What's your opinion? Are there any interesting or good cards I'm missing? Aside from stuff like Abrupt Decay and such, of course.
Edit: Manlands, too...
Yeah, most of my friends are pretty locked in to their decks of choice at this point lol.
I feel like you can cut 4 Forest and be fine. Even 30 lands is a lot. I'm not a Nissa fan in the first place, and I still think she's the second-worst of the set (Abzan was previously nicknamed "Junk" for a reason), and we need her even less here, in my opinion. Her creature side does almost nothing in this deck and her planeswalker side still feels lacking to me. I still just see her as bad Borderland Ranger that flips to bad Worldwaker. Also, why no Magmatic Insight?
On the subject of brewing though, I've always wanted a viable lands deck in Modern... do you think that's closer to happening with Animist's Awakening?
The only reason I like Mistcutter over Revenge is because of the x in the cost. Otherwise Revenge's resilience is just straight up better, yes. I was planning on MB Revenge though, but that's just because I have a lot of Esper in my meta.
Also, the main charm for Mist cutter is that it's a big haste beater that can't get countered, effectively dodging all sorcery speed removal.
And sideboard Mistcutter Hydra vs any blue deck ever.
I'm actually interested in building this very same deck, and possibly looking for a Modern port. I just really feel like it needs Atarka's Commands to get off the ground.
Edit: Actually, the deck feels a bit janky. Most of the artifacts we want tapped during our turn, but untapped during our opponent's turn. Genesis Chamber, Blinkmoth Urn, and Trinisphere have the same effect, for the record, but they all have that same problem. Unwinding Clock solves the problem on all but Storage Matrix, but that makes the deck expensive mana-wise and probably harder to play because of it.