Most of the time, no. Think of it like kessig wolf run in knight of the reliquary decks; it pushes through blockers by giving a trampler deathtouch. However, wolf run can be used on any creature and at the worst is a land. Viper has a much lower floor because the deathtouch can be useless and you only bloodrush it to get through chumps.
I've done a bunch of play testing and this list has performed very well. There's a few things that need attention such as: [Bojuka Bog]? and in general more GY hate though in general the list is pretty solid and straight forward.
Any questions/thoughts? I am more than happy for opinions and critiques.
I think you misinterperet my reluctancy to hop on every Hoogland hype train as the "correct" version of Kiki Chord as me being rude? Maybe?? I'm not sure to be honest as I give almost everything posted here a shot.
On a side note I did get to 5-0-1 a Modern No Ban List event today with Kiki Pod. I miss Pod, but it definitely got me back to thinking about ways to improve Evo/Chord lists from a more combo oriented G1 plan.
Would you say the deck's success was primarily down to the inclusion of Pod or were there cards you thought had a viability in some of the Evo/Chord/Company lists?
Has anyone tried a blue splash with spell queller in the main? It gives the deck a faster clock and more interaction so that you don't have to combo off to win as often.
20-22 lands with 2-3 treetop village is normal. I also run 19 forest 2 village, but take out a village when I shave three drops.
I'm not going below 4 rancor unless the meta becomes all jund or something. It's two power with haste in races or against tron/ad nas. Trample is also great against creature decks, and like Zasse_G said, you can play around removal.
Is it insane to board more cards in than you take out? I did it on accident in my last MTGO match and won without getting mana flooded.
And I personally feel like splashing dilutes the raw power. I get not being able to path a Wurmcoil or Ulamog is frustrating but everything else should be dealt with by turning your big dudes sideways right?
Yes and no. It dilutes your deck and all, so you shouldn't do it if you want to be competitive, but the percentage added is very small per card. You can google a hypergeometric calculator and use it to figure out the percentages.
I must completly disagree on the not for modern part, I have recently began building dragonstorm for modern, and I am doing great with it. I agree it is difficult chaining the cards, But to my opinion players here need to focus less on the combo itself and more on the interaction with other decks, blood moon is a nice hate card but will often be dead in your hand or absolutly not the draw you wanted, cantrips to search for your combo and cards like see beyond are nice on paper but in reality you are casting that card while your opponent played a 4/5 goyf last turn. I am all for burn, removal and boardwipes. And where are the storage lands in these lists? Also the spinerock knoll is an often very much overlooked card.. And I have to say chandra torch of defiance is a very welcome adition in the deck, dragonstorm is definitly not the best deck, but it does win it's matches
You can add a deck with the symbol that looks like a pile of cards and a face up card, between the mana symbols and the die on the far right. Hovering over the buttons will tell you what they do. You can also add section titles by not putting a number in front of the title (creatures, lands, etc.) and hit enter a couple times to put a gap between sections.
I can see the comparison. The deck is built around a toolbox, there isn't a consensus best main deck, and the curve is high for modern. The difference is that eldritch evolution, chord of calling and collected company all put the creature directly into play instead of requiring you to cast unburial rites or another spell. This means that you don't have to lose a turn casting your tutor and sometimes fishing it out of your graveyard. Also, wizards has been printing more powerful utility creatures, which is why coco dominated standard. Another issue with gifts ungiven is it requires you to play bad cards like noxious revival to complete gifts packages, while you can play single card bullets in kiki chord.
tl;dr
-our tutors put bullets directly into play, not into graveyard
-creatures are getting more powerful in new sets
-we play single card bullets, not 3-4 card packages
With fog against eldrazi, you let the boards build up until they think they have lethal. Then they swing, you fog, and attack back to win. Fog is also good against death's shadow and infect to effectively counter a pump spell. Remember to let the pump spell resolve, ask if they have anything else before damage, then fog when you get priority.
I don't like pithing needle against tron because it slows down your clock, and half the time you name the wrong thing. Going in blind name ugin, the spirit dragon or oblivion stone so that you don't get board wiped. Expedition map is good to name if they play it without mana open, so you can cut them off urzatron. Very rarely you can name chromatic sphere or chromatic star if a red board wipe is their only hope to win. I normally don't name karn liberated because you can ignore him and just kill your opponent.
Edit: Sphere/star have mana abilities, so naming them with pithing needle won't stop them.
You want at least 22-23 hits off of coco so that you don't whiff, and you only have 18. I'd recommend cutting a few evolutions/paths, P&K, reveillark, resto, and redcap. You can replace resto with deceiver exarch or village bell-ringer, and throw in a fiend hunter if you need more removal in the main deck.
A lot of writers have been posting articles on their prerelease, and all of them seem to be 3 rounds. My local store has midnight individual and 2HG events, then 2HG at noon Saturday and Sunday and individual at 6pm both days. All events have four packs per player prize support, including two pack rounds. 2HG is normally 5-6 rounds, individual is 6-7 rounds. How do most stores run them?
The best home for flip lily is probably abzan blink, where cartel aristocrat can flip her at instant speed and there are so many expendable creatures to protect her and die. Kiki chord can't do that without mana up and P&K, BB is rough on the mana base, and she doesn't provide any utility to help weak matchups since she only shines against decks with little pressure.
Something I've been playing around with lately is Eldritch Evolution. Sac a Strangleroot Geist on T3, bring in a Creakwood Liege and swing for 4 using the now 4/3 Geist is pretty fun.
Eldritch evolution is balanced around being a one shot tutor that functions on card and tempo disadvantage. Most of the time you'll spend all your mana on upgrading a dude to liege or surrak. If you untap you win, if they have removal you lose. Unless there's more green bullets besides scavenging ooze I'd rather play nissa, voice of zendikar to win the grindy games. Evolution is better in kiki chord, which has lots of mana and bullets.
Some scapeshift lists run mana leak over remand and are more controlling; think it depends on pilot preference. Have you tried a tooth and nail shell to go all in, and used dragonstorm as copies 5-8 of t&n? Using this list, just cut the primal commands for dragonstorm, eternal witness and spellskite for dragons, and change some of the ramp out.
Loaming shaman is good gy hate, and you can get the effect again with eternal witness or restoration angel if you need to. You can also use generic stuff like rest in peace (but not grafdigger's cage)
Has anyone tried a blue splash with spell queller in the main? It gives the deck a faster clock and more interaction so that you don't have to combo off to win as often.
I'm not going below 4 rancor unless the meta becomes all jund or something. It's two power with haste in races or against tron/ad nas. Trample is also great against creature decks, and like Zasse_G said, you can play around removal.
Yes and no. It dilutes your deck and all, so you shouldn't do it if you want to be competitive, but the percentage added is very small per card. You can google a hypergeometric calculator and use it to figure out the percentages.
Could you post your list?
I missed that, not sure why my opponent didn't just wipe me anyways. Thanks for catching it.
tl;dr
-our tutors put bullets directly into play, not into graveyard
-creatures are getting more powerful in new sets
-we play single card bullets, not 3-4 card packages
I don't like pithing needle against tron because it slows down your clock, and half the time you name the wrong thing. Going in blind name ugin, the spirit dragon or oblivion stone so that you don't get board wiped. Expedition map is good to name if they play it without mana open, so you can cut them off urzatron. Very rarely you can name chromatic sphere or chromatic star if a red board wipe is their only hope to win. I normally don't name karn liberated because you can ignore him and just kill your opponent.
Edit: Sphere/star have mana abilities, so naming them with pithing needle won't stop them.
You want at least 22-23 hits off of coco so that you don't whiff, and you only have 18. I'd recommend cutting a few evolutions/paths, P&K, reveillark, resto, and redcap. You can replace resto with deceiver exarch or village bell-ringer, and throw in a fiend hunter if you need more removal in the main deck.
The best home for flip lily is probably abzan blink, where cartel aristocrat can flip her at instant speed and there are so many expendable creatures to protect her and die. Kiki chord can't do that without mana up and P&K, BB is rough on the mana base, and she doesn't provide any utility to help weak matchups since she only shines against decks with little pressure.
Eldritch evolution is balanced around being a one shot tutor that functions on card and tempo disadvantage. Most of the time you'll spend all your mana on upgrading a dude to liege or surrak. If you untap you win, if they have removal you lose. Unless there's more green bullets besides scavenging ooze I'd rather play nissa, voice of zendikar to win the grindy games. Evolution is better in kiki chord, which has lots of mana and bullets.