So I got to test a little bit while I was laying in recovery over the weekend allowing me to tune my list from a page back. After getting home today I was able to run in through a Modern Friendly League and went 5-0. Interestingly I was on the Draw for every single game except Game 3 of my last match.
Affinity 2-0 (1-0)
Game 1 I kept what turned out to be a pretty bad opening hand for me against Affinity, but I was able to delay long enough to get to a point where I was able to race his Etched Champion and team with Cryptic tap/draw, Cryptic tap/draw, Fatal Push to make sure I got exactly lethal through.
Early Goyfs backed up by counter magic allowed me to beat down while holding off the combo.
Jeskai Control 2-0 (4-0)
Both games in the end seemed to have come down to me waiting until T3 to cast my opening Tarmogoyf. I did this in both games to make sure it couldn't be killed by a Lightning Bolt. In both games my opponent hit it with Spell Queller but I was able to fetch Fatal Push to kill the Queller and get the spell through.
Cheerios 2-1 (5-0)
These games were interesting. Game 1 opponent had to mulligan down to 5 with no lands, one Mox Opal and needing to draw artifacts to turn the Opal on. Turn 2 Tarmogoyf into T3 Maelstrom Pulse on his Opal ended the game. Game 2 I kept a hand that was to creature heavy and couldn't interact when he combo'd out on T3. He eventually fizzled but I had no interaction when he went off again T4. Game 3 I had a had with 1 Snapcaster and a lot of interaction. I ended up flashing in the Snapcaster at the end of T2 and just beat down with it holding up interaction the rest of the game to keep opponent off his plan.
I've also been toying around with more midrange builds that use hand disruption for more Sorceries with fewer instants, Liliana of the Veil, and Mishra's Bauble to play stronger with Grim Flayer, and Tarmogoyf but those versions like most midrange decks run into a lot more issues of drawing hand disruption when you need counter magic, or negates when you need removal etc. The version I played today however feels like it has more of a focused gameplan but still has the flexibility to fight effectively on multiple accesses.
Grim Flayer is really fantastic for filtering but this build does struggle some getting Delirium turned on. There just aren't enough sorceries or other types to get him turned on any earlier than the midgame. I don't like cutting him down to two however b/c he is excellent in the spell based matchups where he both gets damage and digs you to the key spells in the matchups. It may warrant cutting a Thought Scour and a Go for the Throat to try and get up to 8 spells that turn on Delirium. I would 100% be running Engineered Explosives if they weren't 40 tix online, but I'm not sure where I'd go with the other slot yet...perhaps one Mishra's Bauble as a cantrip that also allows for activating Revolt on Fatal Push...
I agree we don't have the cards to grind/delay quite like other Cryptic decks...but other Cryptic decks don't have Green creatures to close and pressure.
Mostly I meant that perhaps the number of control cards isn't so large, so that BUG command decks will all share a large amount of overlap(as ours do). I do think it grinds pretty well. I mean, ok, no Esper Charm or Kommand, but Goyf certainly makes up for it.
I do recommend the fastland manabase. It's one advantage we have over grixis in that we only need U or B on turn 1. Mana has been a lot more agreeable than I thought it would before I played my first few games.
Agree the deck can grind, I just meant we don't have the Kolaghan/Snap loops that Grixis does or the nearly 100% spell based lists UW tends to run...for the reasons you're mentioning. Green almost forces us to have our control decks in BUG more of a midrange deck that slants towards the control end. But I'm not really complaining about that. It's kind of the draw for me.
I also agree the fastland mana base is completely manageable. That said I put a lot of stock into how Corey Burkhart setup his manabase to support 4 cryptic. Having read his articles on why he setup his manabase the way he did, paired with a brief Twitter exchange I had with him I'm going to play without the fastlands in this build. The big thing is Thought Scour/Tasigur, and in my case Grim Flayer all lead to cards being dumped in the GY. You need to be able to fetch the colors you need when you need them and to run fastlands means you either are cutting shocks or basics either of which really can get you in a pinch when you can't fetch the color(s) you need bc they found their way to the GY. This is the reason for the two of blue shocks. The other key thing is really wanting to ALWAYS have access to your fourth land untapped either for cryptic or snap+2cmc. This is the reason for the checkland over fast land as well. Obviously if Creeeping Tar Pit is the fourth land you peel you have no choice, but all the other lands work towards this plan.
@genini2
I agree it's largely meta based on which route you go, my other list running the more traditional BG shell runs tempo counters to go with the hand disruption as well as a couple Mishra's Baubles and LotV to enable revolt and help with Delirium as that list is 4 Grim Flayer, 3 Snapcaster.
@Velthov
I considered Vendilion Clique multiple times and there is no reason it couldn't be run. I would replace the Murderous Cut though over the Go for the Throat. I just wanted 3 pieces of removal that could take down big boys.
@naclmolecule
Nice list. I'll definitely be running an EE in paper, but I traded my two online in when they got up to 50 tix. Seemed like a good Modern Masters reprint and am hoping to get them under 10 tix again. Also traded one in paper for the same reason. I agree we don't have the cards to grind/delay quite like other Cryptic decks...but other Cryptic decks don't have Green creatures to close and pressure. Tarmogoyf and Flayer are both excellent in so many matchups. Flayer is supported by a deck designed to make way for contact when he isn't already trampling over, and the card selection from that is great. In a way my build is more focused on the Faeries style of counter/delay just long enough to close. But on top of that I have 9 solid creatures to help fight aggro since I have a slightly weaker removal suite (when compared to BR, BW, RW).
Those are my thoughts. Sadly I had surgery today from Pneumonia complications though so I probably won't get to play with this any further until early next week. On the positive side I'm feeling better after the surgery and Fatal Push should drop by then online so I don't have to get gouged
I have been testing a little bit on MTGO with Sultai builds using Disfigure in place of Fatal Push for now. Mentally noting what might have been possible with Push versus Disfigure. My initial testing was more on a build that was the standard BG hand disruption followed by Tarmogoyf or Grim Flayer with Snapcaster Mage to help flashback cheap counterspells/removal etc. My testing with that list was going pretty decent, but when thinking about why I WANT to run blue I found myself coming back to counter-spells. It offers more generic "catch all" to go with the generally powerful cards BG already has. So I built this which is a little more of a controlling list.
I tailored the manabase to essentially match the strategy that Corey Burkhart has been using with his 22 land Grixis list to support 4 Cryptic Command. Cryptic is THE counterspell and offers so much flexibility I needed to try and find a way to play 4. Now obviously we don't have Lightning Bolt or Kolaghan's Command to grind opponents into oblivion like Corey does in Grixis...so we just don't try to do that. Instead we play more must answer threats. Tarmogoyf and Grim Flayer offer the same excellent must answer threats backed up with a great interaction package. Tasigur, the Golden Fang also plays into this role but obviously is also there for more of a late game role as well. These threats paired with interaction provides us time to get to the mid/late game where we can make use of the power of Cryptic Command especially when paired with Snapcaster.
One excellent thing I've already picked up from playing this list is it's easy to stick a Goyf and protect it T4 or T5 and then use running Cryptics, or Cryptic/Snap-Cryptic to just have the Goyf race your opponent by tapping your opponent down. Cryptic Command also offers another way to enable Revolt on Fatal Push by returning a permanent to your hand...ideally your own Snapcaster Mage, but it could even just be a land in a pinch. It's possible the Murderous Cut should just be another Go for the Throat type card, maybe even Doom Blade or an Engineered Explosives. I also want to find some room for Collective Brutality and I think at least one of the Feed the Clan in the sideboard could be a good spot for that.
Obviously the sideboard will need some tuning as right now it's kind of just a greatest hits package. I think the 2x Dispel, 2x Negate, 2x Surgical Extraction, and 3x Fulminator Mage seem like easy locks, but without more testing I'm uncertain what the best artifact hate will be, maybe Seal of Primordium should be Hurkyl's Recall or Creeping Corrosion. I've been using Seal to help with Delerium but I don't know that is as necessary as Grim Flayer doesn't need to immediately be turned on in this deck and you lose flexibility with Snapcaster using it. Perhaps we need some more sweepers in the vein of Flaying Tendrils, Damnation, or even Languish might be good paired with Goyf and Tasigur. So far however the fatties have been able to hold the fort making those cards unnecessary.
Either way I think it's a solid core. I do love me some Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek and it may be worth experimenting with them in place of some of the other cheap interaction as well though I do have some concern on cutting some of the Serum Visions or Thought Scour as I think you then also need to strongly consider increasing your number of mana sources.
Intro:
When putting this deck together my goal was to have a deck that could combo win "out of nowhere" while also being able to grind games out. This is something I have strongly wanted out of a modern deck since picking up Legacy Elves. Splinter Twin would have done the job, but is gone now. I know Abzan Company and Kiki Chord can play a similar game, but I have an aversion to white and so I looked elsewhere. This deck is started as something similar to a Michael Majors list (Click Here) that played a grindy Grixis Control game and then backed into the Kiki Combo for a win. It's possible I didn't give that deck enough time, but I felt the combo was to slow to really scare my opponents. I wanted to put fear into my opponents head and a more aggressive combo strategy was needed. Therefore I took the Goryo's Vengeance enabled Kiki-Exarch combo down a bit of a different path.
Enter Griselbrand. When I put him in I figured this was probably going to be the "final" shot before I moved on to something else, but Griselbrand actually seemed to really tie the deck together in the ways I wanted. More about that in specific card choices. I would also note that prior to the addition of Griselbrand the deck ran only 2 Faithless Looting and 3 Goryo's Vengeance and was more focused on Thought Scour to fill the graveyard without the card disadvantage while also using Remand to buy time. It is possible that Remand could be a key part of this deck but counter magic doesn't synergize amazingly with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and so for now it is best in small numbers most of the time.
Gameplan:
The primary plan of the deck is to setup a situation where you can combine Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with either Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite to create an infinite amount of hasty tokens and attack for lethal. While the combo win occurs very similarly to the old Splinter Twin decks you are not playing that similar of a game. You are typically trying to do this in more of an "unfair" way by cheating Kiki into play with Goryo's Vengeance at a much cheaper rate. As Kiki-Jiki is Legendary you can use Goryo's Vengeance to "reanimate" him for the turn to pair with an Exarch or Pestermite as a way to get around hard casting him. This allows you to win from an empty board as early as turn 4 by casting a either Exarch or Pestermite, untapping a land and casting Goryo's Vengeance to reanimate Kiki, assuming of course you have Kiki in the graveyard. There is also a possible turn 3 win that is T1 Faithless Looting/Thought Scour putting Kiki into the Graveyard, T2 Goryo's Vengeance on your opponents end step, and a T3 Exarch or Pestermite to combo off. That won't happen often, but it is in fact possible.
The secondary gameplan is to defeat your opponent via beatdown without the combo. Sounds pretty terrible considering no creature under a 5 cmc has more than 2 power and eight have 1 power or less. That said, I have won several games by using Goryo's Vengeance to cast Griselbrand once or twice and followed it up with meager beats and/or Lighting Bolt effects to get the win. Griselbrand also is actually a fantastic enabler of this strategy as you usually draw 7 cards off Griselbrand at parity (gain 7 life from damage and then lose 7 life on the drawing of cards) which either gives you the gas to keep pressing the attack, or helps setup the combo or another round of Griselbrand as you discard to hand size. With 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound and 3 Snapcaster Mage the deck also has little trouble recurring Goryo's Vengeance or Lighting Bolts. On rare occasion you even get to live the dream of hard casting Griselbrand.
Individual Card Choices:
Creatures: Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound: Jace does a lot of things in this deck. First he is there for his filtering ability as his draw/discard looting ability puts the cards we want from our hand into the graveyard. Jace is also Legendary which is key as it means he can be targeted with Goryo's Vengeance. This is excellent as he is often an early target for removal and because Goryo's Vengeance gives haste, Jace can filter and flip to Jace, Telepath Unbound, even on your opponents turn...say after blocking...and then does not exile to Goryo's Vengeance as it is no longer the creature version of Jace. Planeswalker Jace then allows you to recast all of your spells as necessary. One common play is to use Goryo's Vengeance to return Jace to the battlefield on your opponents turn, either prior to blocks or at end step and then loot away a Kiki or Griselbrand from hand and flip Jace. Next step cast Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite, untap a land, use Jace to re-cast Goryo's Vengeance "reanimating" ideally for the outright win.
Griselbrand: Griselbrand is primarily there as a way to jumpstart you towards your combo win condition. A turn 1 Faithless Looting pitching Griselbrand into T2 Goryo's Vengeance targeting Griselbrand is a fireball for 7 plus a draw 7. Some might say that is busted. Against some decks where you are not concerned about your life total, Tron for example, you might even decide to draw 14 or 21 cards to "ensure" access to the combo after discarding to hand size at end step. Even if you don't draw into the combo you likely will draw into being able to discard another Griselbrand with access to another Goyro's Vengeance and a couple Lightning Bolts to finish off the opponent. Even if your opponent has removal that can actually kill Griselbrand you likely are still going to draw 7 in response. Speaking of removal, the way that Goryo's Vengeance is templated means your creature is only exiled at beginning of the end step IF it is still on the battlefield so destroy effects actually give you access to your Legendary creatures again with later Vengeances. Cannot be killed by Slaughter Pact, Doom Blade, or Shriekmaw. This is why Path to Exile is the worst removal for you to play against. Against aggro decks where the combo is not looking to be coming immediately you can also consider casting Goryo's Vengeance on your opponents turn to bring in Griselbrand as a blocker just looking for lifegain avoiding the draw 7 all together. Finally in long drawn out games do not forget that you can eventually hard cast this guy so be aware of this when fetching for lands in games looking to go that way.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: Kiki is here to combo out with Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite. If you do not know how the combo works basically Exarch and Mite both can tap or untap a target permanent when they enter the battlefield, while Kiki taps to create a copy of a non-legendary creature giving it haste. So Kiki can tap to create a copy of Exarch or Mite which enters the battlefield and untaps Kiki, allowing you to cycle this as many times as necessary to then attack for lethal. On occassion you may also need to do this on your opponents turn to create infinite blockers as well. As a Legenedary creature it is able to be "reanimated" with Goryo's Vengeance to cheat onto the battlefield for a much less mana restrictive cost allowing you to build wins from an empty board state. Kiki-Jiki can be killed by nearly any relevant removal spell so just be wary about comboing off if you suspect your opponent has removal, especially if you don't have any protection. It's also important to note that Kiki-Jiki's ability only targets creatures you control and thus cannot be redirected by Spellskite.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: Tasigur is primarily here as a hedge to the games where you you need to play in a more grindy fashion. He's a good blocker early against aggro threats, puts a solid clock down and as a Legendary creature can be "reanimated" with Goryo's Vengeance to get a one time blocker/attacker as needed. Furthermore his self mill ability both feeds the graveyard focus of the deck as well as helps with card advantage.
Deceiver Exarch: Other half of the combo with Kiki. Outsizes Lightning Bolt which is the most played removal spell in the format. When not comboing it is an excellent delay tool as it can tap down a permanent your opponent controls and is a very servicable blocker, all at instant speed. It can also untap a permanent you control allowing you to both cast Exarch and untap a land you control to cast Goryo's Vengeance in the same turn to win off of an empty board, assuming you have a Kiki in the graveyard. It is also important to note that while the tap ability only targets permanents your opponent controls, the untap ability only targets permanents you control. This means that Spellskite cannot break up, with redirection, the Kiki-Exarch combo. Exarch can also be used to untap a Jace, Vryn's Prodigy to get an extra loot activation and can be also be used to protect a Jace about to flip from removal. If your opponent targets Jace after a looting activation you can flash in the Exarch by untapping him in response to the removal and re-tapping him. This same trick can be used to protect Kiki from removal when you combo off by untapping Kiki while the removal is on the stack.
Pestermite: The other card that combo's off with Kiki. This card does all of the same things that Exarch does except it can be targeted by Spellskite and is not a great blocker. That said it is a much more effective attacker as a flyer that has two power, but is very easy to kill.
Snapcaster Mage: Snappy is in this deck for the same reason it is in most other blue decks. It gives you the ability to re-cast all of your spells, it can be cast at instant speed to block or add a suprise attacker at your opponents end step. Bolt, Snap, Bolt is a thing as well that in particular works very well in conjunction with the Griselbrand beats. Also Snapcaster offers instant speed access to a Goryo's Vengeance in the graveyard, something Jace cannot do, and it also helps when you don't have a flipped Jace to access it on your opponents turn.
Spells: Goryo's Vengeance: At this point I do not know if there is a whole lot more to say about the card. It gives instant speed access to "reanimating" Legendary creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield. This access is typically temporary as your creature will be exiled at end step. That said if a creature is killed and goes back to the graveyard it will NOT be exiled at the next end step. It is also worth noting the physical card says "Remove it from the game at end of turn" while the oracle text says "exile at the beginning of the next end step". Oracle text is what we care about and this means that we can cast Goryo's Vengeance at our opponents End Step and have access to the creature "reanimated" on our turn. This actually opens up the "nut draw" of a turn 3 kill with this deck. T1 Faithless Looting discarding a Kiki-Jiki, T2 opponents end step cast Goryo's Vengeance targeting Kiki-Jiki, T3 cast Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite and combo off. Other cards to consider playing with this spell are Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Vendilion Clique. I personally think Emrakul might require to many moving pieces to functionally count on. Vendilion Clique definitely has game in this deck in the right metagames.
Faithless Looting: Faithless Looting does more than it looks like. While it is clearly our outlet to get Griselbrand, Kiki-Jiki, and even Jace into the graveyard, it also helps filter our draws. This comes at a net card disadvantage however. The card also has the ability to be flashed back from the graveyard however and when used in that way there is no card disadvantage as it merely becomes card filtering. It can be re-cast from the graveyard for a single red mana with both Jace and Snappy or for 3 cmc by itself. The card also just helps fill the graveyard which benefits Jace, Snappy, Tasigur, Goryo's Vengeance and Murderous Cut in one manner or the other.
Thought Scour: Closest functional 1 cmc spell to Faithless Looting, though it is possible this might be better served as Insolent Neonate or another interactive spell all together. This cantrips while helping setup the graveyard for Jace, Snappy, Tasigur, Vengeance or Murderous Cut...all at instant speed...and can be recast with Jace and Snappy.
Izzet Charm: This card, like most charms, is a catch all that doesn't nothing particularly well but makes up for it in flexibility. One ability can counter a T3 Karn Liberated or Liliana of the Veil when you're on the draw, another can be your 5th Faithless Looting when you need it and at instant speed, and the 3rd ability is mediocre removal or can pair with a bolt to kill something larger.
Kolaghan's Command: A bit stronger than Izzet Charm, this card offers at instant speed your choice of two; 2 points of damage, artifact destruction, discard, and recursion of a creature in the GY to your hand. In this deck you actually get more functionality out of this card than others as you can use the targeted discard on yourself to pitch a Kiki, Griselbrand, Jace into the graveyard.
Lightning Bolt: Both the most efficient removal spell in Modern it pairs phenomenally with your backup plan of non combo beats. While you have 4, Jace and Snapcaster functionally give you access to double the number you actually see.
Murderous Cut: Due to our ability to feed the graveyard this is often an unconditional removal spell for a single black. Occassionally you have to eat spells you do not want to, but the access is worth it.
Remand: A counterspell meant to buy time. While it does not hard counter, it cantrips and can be re-cast with Snappy.
Lands: Minamo, School at Water's Edge: This is a Legendary land that is a pseudo Island. It cannot be fetched and can become a mountain under a Blood Moon, so it isn't all upside, but the upside is pretty great. For 1 blue mana you can use Minamo to untap a Legendary creature. Primarily this offers protection to Kiki-Jiki when you are comboing off as it allows you to untap it with removal on the stack to start the combo over. It also can be used with Jace to double up on looting effects.
Desolate Lighthouse: This offers us yet another way to filter Griselbrand and Kiki to the graveyard. Furthermore it is an absolute powerhouse in long grindy games. That said if you were looking to improve your access to black and red mana I could see replacing this with a second Blackcleave Cliffs as there are many games where you are focusing on comboing and never have a chance to activate the Loothouse.
Sideboard:
First I want to note that post board you can expect sideboard hate. It is important to note that you can easily cut cards like Goryo's Vengeance and Griselbrand all together. The Kiki-Exarch combo does not need the graveyard at all. However other cards like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Snapcaster Mage are also much weaker depending on the specific graveyard hate. If you legitimately are concerned about getting cut out of the graveyard in a matchup the sideboard is designed to allow for you pull graveyard functionality out. That said most decks do not run more than 2-3 dedicated graveyard hate. You could pull all of your most powerful cards out in a matchup and your opponent never draws what they need to shut that down anyway. Therefore my rule of thumb when I expect graveyard hate I will usually pull some portion of the graveyard centric cards out but not all of it and more of it on the draw than the play. Most of the graveyard hate comes in the form of Grafdigger's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void. Cage and Relic can be handled with artifact removal and sometimes you can even just press the issue against Relic and force them to crack it. Rest in Peace can be handled with Engineered Explosives or counter magic. Leyline of the Void you are just going to hope they don't draw in their opening hand.
Dispel, Countersquall, Deprive: A countermagic package is used in various amounts depending on what you're playing. It all comes in against control decks. Against combo decks it could all come in (Grishoalbrand, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseum), or just Countesquall and Deprive (Tron). Against low curve aggro decks you might bring in nothing or just Dispel. Against removal heavy non combo decks you might bring in just Dispel, or also Countersquall if you need the incidental damage.
Go for the Throat, Terminate, Engineered Explosives, Pyroclasm, Damnation: A removal package is used in various amounts against creature based aggro/midrange decks that can outrace all but your fastest draws. Murder, death, kill, rinse and repeat with Jace and/or Snappy.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: Kalitas is primarily paired with the removal package when you need a way to stabilize after stopping your opponents initial surge. Kalitas does extra work against creature combo decks such as Abzan Company and Kiki Chord who often need to recur key cards out of their graveyard that will hopefully be exiled via Kalitas when they initially died. Kalitas is also Legendary and so he is able to be "reanimated" with Goryo's Vengeance as an attacker/blocker. If you are able to kill any creatures on his turn the zombies he produces stick around. Damnation with him on the board typically will end with you getting zombies as well. Anger of the Gods is a nonbo with Kalitas as your opponent gets to choose which exile effect to resolve and if they choose Anger you don't get tokens. Kalitas also doesn't produce tokens under Rest in Peace.
Engineered Explosives: While a part of the removal package it also is there to help hate on Enchantments that you otherwise cannot handle in these colors namely things like Rest in Peace, Ghostly Prison that can otherwise lock you out of the game.
Rakdos Charm: Another charm card that isn't the greatest at any one thing but offers excellent flexibility. It can clear an opponents graveyard in matchups where that matters like Abzan Company, Storm, Grishoalbrand, Dredge. It can be incidental burn damage against decks that get to wide to get past with normal beats and can outright defeat Kiki Chord decks when they go for the combo. Finally it is extra artifact hate.
Keranos, God of Storms: This is our finisher of choice for grindy matchups where the combo win will be a challenge. Good against control if you can get it down and protect it and excellent against Jund if you can get it down in a reasonable timeframe. It is also technically Legendary so there may be some scenarios where you can actually "reanimate" it with Goryo's Vengeance to be used as an attacker or blocker. In a real pinch you could Vengeance it on an opponents end step to get one upkeep trigger if you really needed to draw something other than a land or if you just really needed to point 3 damage at your opponent. More likely if it's in your graveyard you are going to hope to return it to hand with a Kolaghan's Command and hard cast it later.
Other Considerations: Vendilion Clique: A creature that helps with both the tempo beat down plan as well as being good at hand disruption. As a Legendary creature it can be "reanimated" for hand disruption along with the usual attack/defender role.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: A Legendary creature that needs no introduction. I think this card does to much to break up our ability to combo out of the graveyard with his shuffle trigger and requires essentially a 3 card combo to setup in Faithless Looting, Goryo's Vengeance and Emrakul himself. Perhaps with Jace and Snappy's ability to recast Faithless Looting and or Goryo's Vengance it is less difficult than I think. That said, he is probably "good game" when you can pull it off. Certainly a fun of for those who want to...and possibly quite good.
Thing in the Ice: Initially my sideboard plan was all in on Thing in the Ice overand it's ability to transform into Awoken Horror over Kalitas as it seemed it was both good and slowing down aggro while being able to quickly transition into lethal beats. The truth is that its inability to kill anything it blocks means it is not great at slowing down aggro especially considering it is very difficult to flip in this build. There are just to many creatures and not enough spells even with Snappy and Jace recurring them. In a build that was fewer creatures and more focused on delaying into a combo then it would probably be fine, but it is my opinion that if you were going that route you might as well just play a straight Grixis Control deck.
Videos:
The following is a link to a my YouTube page where I have uploaded quite a few videos of me playing this deck TGCRequiem Youtube. The deck is still fairly new so there are frequent tweaks to the deck as I adjust to the existing metagame. I will note that I am playing with Misty Rainforest over Scalding Tarn as I do not have Tarn's, but I have listed Tarns in the decklist as I acknowledge they would be better. So far my success with it in Leagues has been middling, but I feel like the deck is better than it has performed.
Closing Remarks:
If you have ideas on ways to improve the deck I would love to hear them. I am a father of two young children and do not get to play nearly as much as I would like. I am confident other players could narrow in on the most optimal version of this deck more quickly than I. While I would love to become known as the "master" of this deck I know that is not likely due to my limited amount of time to practice. Therefore I have written this up as a primer at this time because it seems somewhat close to optimal and is a fun deck to play and I thought others might enjoy it and want to get in on trying to improve it. While I did come to this list on my own, with a kick start from Michael Majors of course, I apologize if my write up neglects some other list anyone else has already posted that is similar. I tried to lookup a lot of Kiki Vengeance lists during my last 2.5-3 months of playing this and have never seen anything quite like this. That said I would be foolish to think no one else has ever tried something similar.
Dismember can be cast for 1 colorless which allows us to maintain our proactive gameplan more easily than Abrupt Decay. Dismember can be cast with Heritage Druid trigger (assuming) you have elves and hits all the troubling stuff we need to hit, namely Inkmoth Nexus out of Affinity and Infect.
Fracturing Gust is Instant speed and the extra mana is typically not difficult to produce. It can easily be mistaken for a Chord or Collected Company being held but can wreck Affinity at attack step, or can free you from a Prison (artifact or enchantment based) at end step.
So the plan with Dryad Arbor is primarily only go for it if it's an Alpha Strike sort of thing? It seems a very easy creature to kill, so damage over multiple turns would seem difficult to do.
Also main decking to fetch in a chump blocker seems pretty solid as well when an opponent overextends?
What about Wild Defiance? I see people talk about considering it pseudo creature in hand. It seems best against burns removal yet seems too slow to be viable there. Can anyone explain this?
I'm new to the archetype and am trying to mass immerse myself.
What are the matchups you typically want Dryad Arbor in? I know it's good versus Lily in BGx. Beyond that are there any other archetypes that it's typically wanted for. I think I've heard Burn is a popular one. Otherwise do I just try and get a feel based on what I see my opponent playing and how aggressive they are in their fetches etc?
I'm kind of in the same boat. I've been jamming BG Infect, UG Infect and some BGx trying to get the biggest edge on the meta I can before GP Detroit. I am starting to think I should just play Elves. I have spent so much more time with Elves lately that I am definitely in a spot where I think it may just be better to play what you know best.
He basically just says you need to update your deck to adjust, and then gives a list built 100% for speed with 2 Viridian Corrupters in the main to help with Chalice. Then talks about hate cards other decks could use.
Looking at this list here, any thoughts on what the Pithing Needle is for? Was thinking maybe it's useful in Affinity, seems decent in BGx except Abrupt Decay/Maelstrom Pulse/Kolaghan's Command all hit it, so I wasn't sure what else it might be for. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/373196#online
Regarding Pulse of Murasa
I'm a newbie with relatively few matches under my belt, so take my comment with a grain of salt. It seems very very serviceable, most of this is theoretical. Not only is it lifegain that seems to line up well for around turn 3-4, where versus a deck like burn you either are going for it or trying to setup a second run, but in the longer grindy matchups like BGx it seems like it would really be a good card to have extending the game by a turn and getting you another threat. It seems extra good there w/BG Infect as you may be able to get Phyrexian Crusader that could live through a Night of Souls' Betrayal. I've been packing two, and while it's seemed decent against Burn, it wasn't good enough versus Zoo when I played it.
2. The only traps that new players typically fall into is not knowing when to hold, and when to go all in. Also finding an exit strategy if they take you off your infect damage plan is pretty challenging.
3. You want lands that tap for green so you can pump, I splash white in U/G infect for geist to help out the B/G/x Match-ups by having 1 Temple Garden main. It doesn't really hurt me because I can still tap for green off it.
4. Learn to sequence your spells properly, and see vines as your most powerful resource.
5. The rest you can learn through experience.
Thanks, I'm assuming the matchups are all for UG specifically? I definitely had the same experiences with UG versus Zoo and Burn specifically and about the same for Jund (except I was always on the Jund side) Thanks!
Hi guys, I'm new to Infect. I've played a LOT of BGx, Elves, and Delver specifically...and have dabbled in quite a few other decks, of which Infect is one. I've played roughly 15-20 matches with UG and maybe 4-5 with BG. Eldrazi has lit the fire under my seat to truly learn Infect.
In my limited experience so far I've found UG to be rather fragile and BG to be less so at a slightly slower pace. I find both decks to be highly interactive. UG in the more intellectual sense and BG in the more midrangey tangible sense. This actually was a bit of a pleasant surprise to me and part of the reason I want to devote more time to the archetype.
What I was hoping was someone could answer a couple questions for me to help speed up my development. Linking to other articles or discussions would be great as well, though I've red nearly every Tom Ross article on Infect already.
1) What are the historically good/bad matchups for each version? I'm thinking 60/40 or 40/60 "ish" on good/bad, everything else I'll consider about even. I know Eldrazi throws a wrench in the meta, but better understanding what it has been historically will better assist me in interpreting the present and future.
2) What traps do you often see new players falling into? Also any interactions that are easy to miss? EXAMPLE - blocking infect on infect in the mirror causing 1/1s to trade regardless of pumps.
3) NEWB ALERT - Why can't/don't we splash blue into the BG version? A minimal splash for Watery Grave and Blighted Agent seems good if even out of the board...told you I'm new.
4) Your two most important tips?
5) What question didn't I ask that I should have? (Preferably with the answer )
I know I'm asking a lot but some people love answering this stuff. I have read the primer but I often find them outdated which can make things a struggle. Thank you kind folks!
Besides the greatest value Visionary has always given is he increases your odds of finding your CoCos/Chords/Leads/Lands.
Not saying Vanquisher is unplayable, but "fighting fair" is not really what Elves typically wants to do. I don't see how the meta has changed to make us want to fight fair. If I want to fight fair I can switch to Jund. If anything it replaces Dwynen's Elite, but I think I'd rather chump with the token and have another Elf still on board.
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Grim Flayer
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Instants 19
2 Spell Snare
3 Thought Scour
4 Fatal Push
2 Go for the Throat
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Countersquall
4 Cryptic Command
Sorceries 6
4 Serum Visions
1 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave
2 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Collective Brutality
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Flaying Tendrils
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Damnation
I've also been toying around with more midrange builds that use hand disruption for more Sorceries with fewer instants, Liliana of the Veil, and Mishra's Bauble to play stronger with Grim Flayer, and Tarmogoyf but those versions like most midrange decks run into a lot more issues of drawing hand disruption when you need counter magic, or negates when you need removal etc. The version I played today however feels like it has more of a focused gameplan but still has the flexibility to fight effectively on multiple accesses.
Grim Flayer is really fantastic for filtering but this build does struggle some getting Delirium turned on. There just aren't enough sorceries or other types to get him turned on any earlier than the midgame. I don't like cutting him down to two however b/c he is excellent in the spell based matchups where he both gets damage and digs you to the key spells in the matchups. It may warrant cutting a Thought Scour and a Go for the Throat to try and get up to 8 spells that turn on Delirium. I would 100% be running Engineered Explosives if they weren't 40 tix online, but I'm not sure where I'd go with the other slot yet...perhaps one Mishra's Bauble as a cantrip that also allows for activating Revolt on Fatal Push...
Agree the deck can grind, I just meant we don't have the Kolaghan/Snap loops that Grixis does or the nearly 100% spell based lists UW tends to run...for the reasons you're mentioning. Green almost forces us to have our control decks in BUG more of a midrange deck that slants towards the control end. But I'm not really complaining about that. It's kind of the draw for me.
I also agree the fastland mana base is completely manageable. That said I put a lot of stock into how Corey Burkhart setup his manabase to support 4 cryptic. Having read his articles on why he setup his manabase the way he did, paired with a brief Twitter exchange I had with him I'm going to play without the fastlands in this build. The big thing is Thought Scour/Tasigur, and in my case Grim Flayer all lead to cards being dumped in the GY. You need to be able to fetch the colors you need when you need them and to run fastlands means you either are cutting shocks or basics either of which really can get you in a pinch when you can't fetch the color(s) you need bc they found their way to the GY. This is the reason for the two of blue shocks. The other key thing is really wanting to ALWAYS have access to your fourth land untapped either for cryptic or snap+2cmc. This is the reason for the checkland over fast land as well. Obviously if Creeeping Tar Pit is the fourth land you peel you have no choice, but all the other lands work towards this plan.
I agree it's largely meta based on which route you go, my other list running the more traditional BG shell runs tempo counters to go with the hand disruption as well as a couple Mishra's Baubles and LotV to enable revolt and help with Delirium as that list is 4 Grim Flayer, 3 Snapcaster.
@Velthov
I considered Vendilion Clique multiple times and there is no reason it couldn't be run. I would replace the Murderous Cut though over the Go for the Throat. I just wanted 3 pieces of removal that could take down big boys.
@naclmolecule
Nice list. I'll definitely be running an EE in paper, but I traded my two online in when they got up to 50 tix. Seemed like a good Modern Masters reprint and am hoping to get them under 10 tix again. Also traded one in paper for the same reason. I agree we don't have the cards to grind/delay quite like other Cryptic decks...but other Cryptic decks don't have Green creatures to close and pressure. Tarmogoyf and Flayer are both excellent in so many matchups. Flayer is supported by a deck designed to make way for contact when he isn't already trampling over, and the card selection from that is great. In a way my build is more focused on the Faeries style of counter/delay just long enough to close. But on top of that I have 9 solid creatures to help fight aggro since I have a slightly weaker removal suite (when compared to BR, BW, RW).
Those are my thoughts. Sadly I had surgery today from Pneumonia complications though so I probably won't get to play with this any further until early next week. On the positive side I'm feeling better after the surgery and Fatal Push should drop by then online so I don't have to get gouged
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Grim Flayer
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Spells 25
4 Fatal Push
4 Serum Visions
3 Thought Scour
2 Spell Snare
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Countersquall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Cryptic Command
1 Murderous Cut
4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave
2 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Feed the Clan
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Spellskite
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
I tailored the manabase to essentially match the strategy that Corey Burkhart has been using with his 22 land Grixis list to support 4 Cryptic Command. Cryptic is THE counterspell and offers so much flexibility I needed to try and find a way to play 4. Now obviously we don't have Lightning Bolt or Kolaghan's Command to grind opponents into oblivion like Corey does in Grixis...so we just don't try to do that. Instead we play more must answer threats. Tarmogoyf and Grim Flayer offer the same excellent must answer threats backed up with a great interaction package. Tasigur, the Golden Fang also plays into this role but obviously is also there for more of a late game role as well. These threats paired with interaction provides us time to get to the mid/late game where we can make use of the power of Cryptic Command especially when paired with Snapcaster.
One excellent thing I've already picked up from playing this list is it's easy to stick a Goyf and protect it T4 or T5 and then use running Cryptics, or Cryptic/Snap-Cryptic to just have the Goyf race your opponent by tapping your opponent down. Cryptic Command also offers another way to enable Revolt on Fatal Push by returning a permanent to your hand...ideally your own Snapcaster Mage, but it could even just be a land in a pinch. It's possible the Murderous Cut should just be another Go for the Throat type card, maybe even Doom Blade or an Engineered Explosives. I also want to find some room for Collective Brutality and I think at least one of the Feed the Clan in the sideboard could be a good spot for that.
Obviously the sideboard will need some tuning as right now it's kind of just a greatest hits package. I think the 2x Dispel, 2x Negate, 2x Surgical Extraction, and 3x Fulminator Mage seem like easy locks, but without more testing I'm uncertain what the best artifact hate will be, maybe Seal of Primordium should be Hurkyl's Recall or Creeping Corrosion. I've been using Seal to help with Delerium but I don't know that is as necessary as Grim Flayer doesn't need to immediately be turned on in this deck and you lose flexibility with Snapcaster using it. Perhaps we need some more sweepers in the vein of Flaying Tendrils, Damnation, or even Languish might be good paired with Goyf and Tasigur. So far however the fatties have been able to hold the fort making those cards unnecessary.
Either way I think it's a solid core. I do love me some Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek and it may be worth experimenting with them in place of some of the other cheap interaction as well though I do have some concern on cutting some of the Serum Visions or Thought Scour as I think you then also need to strongly consider increasing your number of mana sources.
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Desolate Lighthouse
Creatures 20
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Deceiver Exarch
1 Pestermite
3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Griselbrand
4 Faithless Looting
1 Thought Scour
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goryo's Vengeance
1 Izzet Charm
1 Remand
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Murderous Cut
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Dispel
2 Countersquall
1 Deprive
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Go for the Throat
1 Terminate
1 Pyroclasm
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Damnation
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Keranos, God of Storms
Intro:
When putting this deck together my goal was to have a deck that could combo win "out of nowhere" while also being able to grind games out. This is something I have strongly wanted out of a modern deck since picking up Legacy Elves. Splinter Twin would have done the job, but is gone now. I know Abzan Company and Kiki Chord can play a similar game, but I have an aversion to white and so I looked elsewhere. This deck is started as something similar to a Michael Majors list (Click Here) that played a grindy Grixis Control game and then backed into the Kiki Combo for a win. It's possible I didn't give that deck enough time, but I felt the combo was to slow to really scare my opponents. I wanted to put fear into my opponents head and a more aggressive combo strategy was needed. Therefore I took the Goryo's Vengeance enabled Kiki-Exarch combo down a bit of a different path.
Enter Griselbrand. When I put him in I figured this was probably going to be the "final" shot before I moved on to something else, but Griselbrand actually seemed to really tie the deck together in the ways I wanted. More about that in specific card choices. I would also note that prior to the addition of Griselbrand the deck ran only 2 Faithless Looting and 3 Goryo's Vengeance and was more focused on Thought Scour to fill the graveyard without the card disadvantage while also using Remand to buy time. It is possible that Remand could be a key part of this deck but counter magic doesn't synergize amazingly with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and so for now it is best in small numbers most of the time.
Gameplan:
The primary plan of the deck is to setup a situation where you can combine Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with either Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite to create an infinite amount of hasty tokens and attack for lethal. While the combo win occurs very similarly to the old Splinter Twin decks you are not playing that similar of a game. You are typically trying to do this in more of an "unfair" way by cheating Kiki into play with Goryo's Vengeance at a much cheaper rate. As Kiki-Jiki is Legendary you can use Goryo's Vengeance to "reanimate" him for the turn to pair with an Exarch or Pestermite as a way to get around hard casting him. This allows you to win from an empty board as early as turn 4 by casting a either Exarch or Pestermite, untapping a land and casting Goryo's Vengeance to reanimate Kiki, assuming of course you have Kiki in the graveyard. There is also a possible turn 3 win that is T1 Faithless Looting/Thought Scour putting Kiki into the Graveyard, T2 Goryo's Vengeance on your opponents end step, and a T3 Exarch or Pestermite to combo off. That won't happen often, but it is in fact possible.
The secondary gameplan is to defeat your opponent via beatdown without the combo. Sounds pretty terrible considering no creature under a 5 cmc has more than 2 power and eight have 1 power or less. That said, I have won several games by using Goryo's Vengeance to cast Griselbrand once or twice and followed it up with meager beats and/or Lighting Bolt effects to get the win. Griselbrand also is actually a fantastic enabler of this strategy as you usually draw 7 cards off Griselbrand at parity (gain 7 life from damage and then lose 7 life on the drawing of cards) which either gives you the gas to keep pressing the attack, or helps setup the combo or another round of Griselbrand as you discard to hand size. With 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound and 3 Snapcaster Mage the deck also has little trouble recurring Goryo's Vengeance or Lighting Bolts. On rare occasion you even get to live the dream of hard casting Griselbrand.
Individual Card Choices:
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound: Jace does a lot of things in this deck. First he is there for his filtering ability as his draw/discard looting ability puts the cards we want from our hand into the graveyard. Jace is also Legendary which is key as it means he can be targeted with Goryo's Vengeance. This is excellent as he is often an early target for removal and because Goryo's Vengeance gives haste, Jace can filter and flip to Jace, Telepath Unbound, even on your opponents turn...say after blocking...and then does not exile to Goryo's Vengeance as it is no longer the creature version of Jace. Planeswalker Jace then allows you to recast all of your spells as necessary. One common play is to use Goryo's Vengeance to return Jace to the battlefield on your opponents turn, either prior to blocks or at end step and then loot away a Kiki or Griselbrand from hand and flip Jace. Next step cast Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite, untap a land, use Jace to re-cast Goryo's Vengeance "reanimating" ideally for the outright win.
Griselbrand: Griselbrand is primarily there as a way to jumpstart you towards your combo win condition. A turn 1 Faithless Looting pitching Griselbrand into T2 Goryo's Vengeance targeting Griselbrand is a fireball for 7 plus a draw 7. Some might say that is busted. Against some decks where you are not concerned about your life total, Tron for example, you might even decide to draw 14 or 21 cards to "ensure" access to the combo after discarding to hand size at end step. Even if you don't draw into the combo you likely will draw into being able to discard another Griselbrand with access to another Goyro's Vengeance and a couple Lightning Bolts to finish off the opponent. Even if your opponent has removal that can actually kill Griselbrand you likely are still going to draw 7 in response. Speaking of removal, the way that Goryo's Vengeance is templated means your creature is only exiled at beginning of the end step IF it is still on the battlefield so destroy effects actually give you access to your Legendary creatures again with later Vengeances. Cannot be killed by Slaughter Pact, Doom Blade, or Shriekmaw. This is why Path to Exile is the worst removal for you to play against. Against aggro decks where the combo is not looking to be coming immediately you can also consider casting Goryo's Vengeance on your opponents turn to bring in Griselbrand as a blocker just looking for lifegain avoiding the draw 7 all together. Finally in long drawn out games do not forget that you can eventually hard cast this guy so be aware of this when fetching for lands in games looking to go that way.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: Kiki is here to combo out with Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite. If you do not know how the combo works basically Exarch and Mite both can tap or untap a target permanent when they enter the battlefield, while Kiki taps to create a copy of a non-legendary creature giving it haste. So Kiki can tap to create a copy of Exarch or Mite which enters the battlefield and untaps Kiki, allowing you to cycle this as many times as necessary to then attack for lethal. On occassion you may also need to do this on your opponents turn to create infinite blockers as well. As a Legenedary creature it is able to be "reanimated" with Goryo's Vengeance to cheat onto the battlefield for a much less mana restrictive cost allowing you to build wins from an empty board state. Kiki-Jiki can be killed by nearly any relevant removal spell so just be wary about comboing off if you suspect your opponent has removal, especially if you don't have any protection. It's also important to note that Kiki-Jiki's ability only targets creatures you control and thus cannot be redirected by Spellskite.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: Tasigur is primarily here as a hedge to the games where you you need to play in a more grindy fashion. He's a good blocker early against aggro threats, puts a solid clock down and as a Legendary creature can be "reanimated" with Goryo's Vengeance to get a one time blocker/attacker as needed. Furthermore his self mill ability both feeds the graveyard focus of the deck as well as helps with card advantage.
Deceiver Exarch: Other half of the combo with Kiki. Outsizes Lightning Bolt which is the most played removal spell in the format. When not comboing it is an excellent delay tool as it can tap down a permanent your opponent controls and is a very servicable blocker, all at instant speed. It can also untap a permanent you control allowing you to both cast Exarch and untap a land you control to cast Goryo's Vengeance in the same turn to win off of an empty board, assuming you have a Kiki in the graveyard. It is also important to note that while the tap ability only targets permanents your opponent controls, the untap ability only targets permanents you control. This means that Spellskite cannot break up, with redirection, the Kiki-Exarch combo. Exarch can also be used to untap a Jace, Vryn's Prodigy to get an extra loot activation and can be also be used to protect a Jace about to flip from removal. If your opponent targets Jace after a looting activation you can flash in the Exarch by untapping him in response to the removal and re-tapping him. This same trick can be used to protect Kiki from removal when you combo off by untapping Kiki while the removal is on the stack.
Pestermite: The other card that combo's off with Kiki. This card does all of the same things that Exarch does except it can be targeted by Spellskite and is not a great blocker. That said it is a much more effective attacker as a flyer that has two power, but is very easy to kill.
Snapcaster Mage: Snappy is in this deck for the same reason it is in most other blue decks. It gives you the ability to re-cast all of your spells, it can be cast at instant speed to block or add a suprise attacker at your opponents end step. Bolt, Snap, Bolt is a thing as well that in particular works very well in conjunction with the Griselbrand beats. Also Snapcaster offers instant speed access to a Goryo's Vengeance in the graveyard, something Jace cannot do, and it also helps when you don't have a flipped Jace to access it on your opponents turn.
Goryo's Vengeance: At this point I do not know if there is a whole lot more to say about the card. It gives instant speed access to "reanimating" Legendary creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield. This access is typically temporary as your creature will be exiled at end step. That said if a creature is killed and goes back to the graveyard it will NOT be exiled at the next end step. It is also worth noting the physical card says "Remove it from the game at end of turn" while the oracle text says "exile at the beginning of the next end step". Oracle text is what we care about and this means that we can cast Goryo's Vengeance at our opponents End Step and have access to the creature "reanimated" on our turn. This actually opens up the "nut draw" of a turn 3 kill with this deck. T1 Faithless Looting discarding a Kiki-Jiki, T2 opponents end step cast Goryo's Vengeance targeting Kiki-Jiki, T3 cast Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite and combo off. Other cards to consider playing with this spell are Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Vendilion Clique. I personally think Emrakul might require to many moving pieces to functionally count on. Vendilion Clique definitely has game in this deck in the right metagames.
Faithless Looting: Faithless Looting does more than it looks like. While it is clearly our outlet to get Griselbrand, Kiki-Jiki, and even Jace into the graveyard, it also helps filter our draws. This comes at a net card disadvantage however. The card also has the ability to be flashed back from the graveyard however and when used in that way there is no card disadvantage as it merely becomes card filtering. It can be re-cast from the graveyard for a single red mana with both Jace and Snappy or for 3 cmc by itself. The card also just helps fill the graveyard which benefits Jace, Snappy, Tasigur, Goryo's Vengeance and Murderous Cut in one manner or the other.
Thought Scour: Closest functional 1 cmc spell to Faithless Looting, though it is possible this might be better served as Insolent Neonate or another interactive spell all together. This cantrips while helping setup the graveyard for Jace, Snappy, Tasigur, Vengeance or Murderous Cut...all at instant speed...and can be recast with Jace and Snappy.
Izzet Charm: This card, like most charms, is a catch all that doesn't nothing particularly well but makes up for it in flexibility. One ability can counter a T3 Karn Liberated or Liliana of the Veil when you're on the draw, another can be your 5th Faithless Looting when you need it and at instant speed, and the 3rd ability is mediocre removal or can pair with a bolt to kill something larger.
Kolaghan's Command: A bit stronger than Izzet Charm, this card offers at instant speed your choice of two; 2 points of damage, artifact destruction, discard, and recursion of a creature in the GY to your hand. In this deck you actually get more functionality out of this card than others as you can use the targeted discard on yourself to pitch a Kiki, Griselbrand, Jace into the graveyard.
Lightning Bolt: Both the most efficient removal spell in Modern it pairs phenomenally with your backup plan of non combo beats. While you have 4, Jace and Snapcaster functionally give you access to double the number you actually see.
Murderous Cut: Due to our ability to feed the graveyard this is often an unconditional removal spell for a single black. Occassionally you have to eat spells you do not want to, but the access is worth it.
Remand: A counterspell meant to buy time. While it does not hard counter, it cantrips and can be re-cast with Snappy.
Minamo, School at Water's Edge: This is a Legendary land that is a pseudo Island. It cannot be fetched and can become a mountain under a Blood Moon, so it isn't all upside, but the upside is pretty great. For 1 blue mana you can use Minamo to untap a Legendary creature. Primarily this offers protection to Kiki-Jiki when you are comboing off as it allows you to untap it with removal on the stack to start the combo over. It also can be used with Jace to double up on looting effects.
Desolate Lighthouse: This offers us yet another way to filter Griselbrand and Kiki to the graveyard. Furthermore it is an absolute powerhouse in long grindy games. That said if you were looking to improve your access to black and red mana I could see replacing this with a second Blackcleave Cliffs as there are many games where you are focusing on comboing and never have a chance to activate the Loothouse.
First I want to note that post board you can expect sideboard hate. It is important to note that you can easily cut cards like Goryo's Vengeance and Griselbrand all together. The Kiki-Exarch combo does not need the graveyard at all. However other cards like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Snapcaster Mage are also much weaker depending on the specific graveyard hate. If you legitimately are concerned about getting cut out of the graveyard in a matchup the sideboard is designed to allow for you pull graveyard functionality out. That said most decks do not run more than 2-3 dedicated graveyard hate. You could pull all of your most powerful cards out in a matchup and your opponent never draws what they need to shut that down anyway. Therefore my rule of thumb when I expect graveyard hate I will usually pull some portion of the graveyard centric cards out but not all of it and more of it on the draw than the play. Most of the graveyard hate comes in the form of Grafdigger's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void. Cage and Relic can be handled with artifact removal and sometimes you can even just press the issue against Relic and force them to crack it. Rest in Peace can be handled with Engineered Explosives or counter magic. Leyline of the Void you are just going to hope they don't draw in their opening hand.
Dispel, Countersquall, Deprive: A countermagic package is used in various amounts depending on what you're playing. It all comes in against control decks. Against combo decks it could all come in (Grishoalbrand, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseum), or just Countesquall and Deprive (Tron). Against low curve aggro decks you might bring in nothing or just Dispel. Against removal heavy non combo decks you might bring in just Dispel, or also Countersquall if you need the incidental damage.
Go for the Throat, Terminate, Engineered Explosives, Pyroclasm, Damnation: A removal package is used in various amounts against creature based aggro/midrange decks that can outrace all but your fastest draws. Murder, death, kill, rinse and repeat with Jace and/or Snappy.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: Kalitas is primarily paired with the removal package when you need a way to stabilize after stopping your opponents initial surge. Kalitas does extra work against creature combo decks such as Abzan Company and Kiki Chord who often need to recur key cards out of their graveyard that will hopefully be exiled via Kalitas when they initially died. Kalitas is also Legendary and so he is able to be "reanimated" with Goryo's Vengeance as an attacker/blocker. If you are able to kill any creatures on his turn the zombies he produces stick around. Damnation with him on the board typically will end with you getting zombies as well. Anger of the Gods is a nonbo with Kalitas as your opponent gets to choose which exile effect to resolve and if they choose Anger you don't get tokens. Kalitas also doesn't produce tokens under Rest in Peace.
Engineered Explosives: While a part of the removal package it also is there to help hate on Enchantments that you otherwise cannot handle in these colors namely things like Rest in Peace, Ghostly Prison that can otherwise lock you out of the game.
Rakdos Charm: Another charm card that isn't the greatest at any one thing but offers excellent flexibility. It can clear an opponents graveyard in matchups where that matters like Abzan Company, Storm, Grishoalbrand, Dredge. It can be incidental burn damage against decks that get to wide to get past with normal beats and can outright defeat Kiki Chord decks when they go for the combo. Finally it is extra artifact hate.
Keranos, God of Storms: This is our finisher of choice for grindy matchups where the combo win will be a challenge. Good against control if you can get it down and protect it and excellent against Jund if you can get it down in a reasonable timeframe. It is also technically Legendary so there may be some scenarios where you can actually "reanimate" it with Goryo's Vengeance to be used as an attacker or blocker. In a real pinch you could Vengeance it on an opponents end step to get one upkeep trigger if you really needed to draw something other than a land or if you just really needed to point 3 damage at your opponent. More likely if it's in your graveyard you are going to hope to return it to hand with a Kolaghan's Command and hard cast it later.
Other Considerations:
Vendilion Clique: A creature that helps with both the tempo beat down plan as well as being good at hand disruption. As a Legendary creature it can be "reanimated" for hand disruption along with the usual attack/defender role.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: A Legendary creature that needs no introduction. I think this card does to much to break up our ability to combo out of the graveyard with his shuffle trigger and requires essentially a 3 card combo to setup in Faithless Looting, Goryo's Vengeance and Emrakul himself. Perhaps with Jace and Snappy's ability to recast Faithless Looting and or Goryo's Vengance it is less difficult than I think. That said, he is probably "good game" when you can pull it off. Certainly a fun of for those who want to...and possibly quite good.
Thing in the Ice: Initially my sideboard plan was all in on Thing in the Ice overand it's ability to transform into Awoken Horror over Kalitas as it seemed it was both good and slowing down aggro while being able to quickly transition into lethal beats. The truth is that its inability to kill anything it blocks means it is not great at slowing down aggro especially considering it is very difficult to flip in this build. There are just to many creatures and not enough spells even with Snappy and Jace recurring them. In a build that was fewer creatures and more focused on delaying into a combo then it would probably be fine, but it is my opinion that if you were going that route you might as well just play a straight Grixis Control deck.
Videos:
The following is a link to a my YouTube page where I have uploaded quite a few videos of me playing this deck TGCRequiem Youtube. The deck is still fairly new so there are frequent tweaks to the deck as I adjust to the existing metagame. I will note that I am playing with Misty Rainforest over Scalding Tarn as I do not have Tarn's, but I have listed Tarns in the decklist as I acknowledge they would be better. So far my success with it in Leagues has been middling, but I feel like the deck is better than it has performed.
Closing Remarks:
If you have ideas on ways to improve the deck I would love to hear them. I am a father of two young children and do not get to play nearly as much as I would like. I am confident other players could narrow in on the most optimal version of this deck more quickly than I. While I would love to become known as the "master" of this deck I know that is not likely due to my limited amount of time to practice. Therefore I have written this up as a primer at this time because it seems somewhat close to optimal and is a fun deck to play and I thought others might enjoy it and want to get in on trying to improve it. While I did come to this list on my own, with a kick start from Michael Majors of course, I apologize if my write up neglects some other list anyone else has already posted that is similar. I tried to lookup a lot of Kiki Vengeance lists during my last 2.5-3 months of playing this and have never seen anything quite like this. That said I would be foolish to think no one else has ever tried something similar.
Dismember can be cast for 1 colorless which allows us to maintain our proactive gameplan more easily than Abrupt Decay. Dismember can be cast with Heritage Druid trigger (assuming) you have elves and hits all the troubling stuff we need to hit, namely Inkmoth Nexus out of Affinity and Infect.
Fracturing Gust is Instant speed and the extra mana is typically not difficult to produce. It can easily be mistaken for a Chord or Collected Company being held but can wreck Affinity at attack step, or can free you from a Prison (artifact or enchantment based) at end step.
Also main decking to fetch in a chump blocker seems pretty solid as well when an opponent overextends?
What about Wild Defiance? I see people talk about considering it pseudo creature in hand. It seems best against burns removal yet seems too slow to be viable there. Can anyone explain this?
I'm new to the archetype and am trying to mass immerse myself.
Looking at this list here, any thoughts on what the Pithing Needle is for? Was thinking maybe it's useful in Affinity, seems decent in BGx except Abrupt Decay/Maelstrom Pulse/Kolaghan's Command all hit it, so I wasn't sure what else it might be for.
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/373196#online
I'm a newbie with relatively few matches under my belt, so take my comment with a grain of salt. It seems very very serviceable, most of this is theoretical. Not only is it lifegain that seems to line up well for around turn 3-4, where versus a deck like burn you either are going for it or trying to setup a second run, but in the longer grindy matchups like BGx it seems like it would really be a good card to have extending the game by a turn and getting you another threat. It seems extra good there w/BG Infect as you may be able to get Phyrexian Crusader that could live through a Night of Souls' Betrayal. I've been packing two, and while it's seemed decent against Burn, it wasn't good enough versus Zoo when I played it.
Thanks, I'm assuming the matchups are all for UG specifically? I definitely had the same experiences with UG versus Zoo and Burn specifically and about the same for Jund (except I was always on the Jund side) Thanks!
In my limited experience so far I've found UG to be rather fragile and BG to be less so at a slightly slower pace. I find both decks to be highly interactive. UG in the more intellectual sense and BG in the more midrangey tangible sense. This actually was a bit of a pleasant surprise to me and part of the reason I want to devote more time to the archetype.
What I was hoping was someone could answer a couple questions for me to help speed up my development. Linking to other articles or discussions would be great as well, though I've red nearly every Tom Ross article on Infect already.
1) What are the historically good/bad matchups for each version? I'm thinking 60/40 or 40/60 "ish" on good/bad, everything else I'll consider about even. I know Eldrazi throws a wrench in the meta, but better understanding what it has been historically will better assist me in interpreting the present and future.
2) What traps do you often see new players falling into? Also any interactions that are easy to miss? EXAMPLE - blocking infect on infect in the mirror causing 1/1s to trade regardless of pumps.
3) NEWB ALERT - Why can't/don't we splash blue into the BG version? A minimal splash for Watery Grave and Blighted Agent seems good if even out of the board...told you I'm new.
4) Your two most important tips?
5) What question didn't I ask that I should have? (Preferably with the answer )
I know I'm asking a lot but some people love answering this stuff. I have read the primer but I often find them outdated which can make things a struggle. Thank you kind folks!
Not saying Vanquisher is unplayable, but "fighting fair" is not really what Elves typically wants to do. I don't see how the meta has changed to make us want to fight fair. If I want to fight fair I can switch to Jund. If anything it replaces Dwynen's Elite, but I think I'd rather chump with the token and have another Elf still on board.