i have a question to who is really experienced with the deck.
if im playing aganist a deck which is not very interactive, lets say tron. i know it will be a race, i need to combo before a karn starts eating my resources.
Im on the play, i look at my seven cards and it has the combo, angel's grace, ad nauseam, some lands and a spoils but no mana acceleration making it too slow.
Is it too risky to try turn 1 spoils for lotus bloom? should i try that or mulligan to 6? i know my life aganist tron is not very important, but it can exile key pieces, also aganist decks like scapeshift being above 18 life means an extra turn.
you can skullcrack or command this card, and it is a sorcery but i dont know if your opponent still dont get to untap the lands next turn if you do it. either way i see it as a worse timely reinforcements as a sideboard aganist burn, if they resolve a timely reinforcements its probably over anyway, so why would they risk playing with that card? kor firewalker is way better. Also if people start using it and they dont untap lands after a crack, i will just use 4 command + 2 crack instead of 2 helix or something like that.
Lol.I love the idea! kira, great glass-spinner and eidolon of rhetoric or rule of law could do some work in a build like this I think. Eidolon works better with Kira since she can protect it too.
i kinda like kira, but i prefer vendilion clique, and i dont think eidolon of rhetoric or rule of law is worth it because these cards are bad on it's own. if i get a kira on the board, the opponent will probably lose anyway if he tries to waste 2 removal per creature so i dont see a good point on using both.
Before Gitaxian Probe got the axe I always wanted to run a deck with it, discard spells, and Pithing Needle in order to Needle the opponent's fetchlands. Maybe you could try out Pithing Needle here to add to meddling-type abilities.
will certanly put on sideboard, i forgot about it but i dont know if it's good on maindeck, i dont like cards that are sometimes useless, but it is my preference.
I had this deck idea and im trying to see if it is possible to make it near competitive.
The deck has two plans:
PLAN A: cast discard spells on turn 1 or Tidehollow Sculler turn 2, now you know what is in your opponent's hand, you take out a removal and proceed to locking the game with Meddling Mage + Phantasmal Image on it or on sculler. let the creatures come if you got one of the removals in hand. PLAN B: no Meddling Mage / Tidehollow Sculler on hand, discard your opponents removal, play with Delver of Secrets + Phantasmal Image copying it fliped to get a good clock.
the deck is already good aganist top tier combos, so im focusing on how can i get it better aganist other kind of decks.
the pilot of the deck must know the modern field well, so he can predict what the opponent can draw and what to name with meddlings, sideboard cards knowledge makes a huge difference, one anger of the gods comming out of the sideboard and not being predicted will probably cost the game for example.
i think we have to evaluate on how many decks the harsh mentor hits to know if it deserves a slot on the sideboard.
sure it stops the infinite life combo on abzam company but is it really worth it? they still get infinite scry and put the needed removal on top.
if it is to punish vials, isn't it just better to destroy it with a revelry?
if it is about lantern and affinity, isn't it just better to play a kataki and completly destroy them? on these two matchups there's already 4 revelry to put on the deck, that's already a good ammount of cards to take out from maindeck.
Hello all, on my LGS the field is not so fast, i usually go 3-1, 4-0 on FNMs with a stock naya burn list.
The games i lose are mostly because of me flooding out or making mistakes, so im trying to maximize the overall damage per card.
I know this sounds bad but i was thinking on playing with 4 tarns + 4 mires so i could include a single Watery Grave to fetch as the 3rd land to finish games with Tribal Flames by paying the colorless mana on that or skullcracks.
I play tested around 10 games, most of them it did not make any difference (did not come to hand). I won 2 games because of it being 5 damage, and had to mulligan one time because the watery grave not being able to produce red mana.
Bad thing it is a sorcery, good thing it can destroy creatures when needed (i know that most of the time it is a bad thing but sometimes it makes a difference).
A Tribal Flames for 5 damage is at the same level of Skullcracking a Kitchen Finks.
Also i thought about a single Blood Crypt instead of watery grave, so thats 4 damage but with a red producing land. Also tought about Magma Jet to scry preventing the flood.
It is taking into consideration a slow field.
What you guys think about that? any other suggestions?
what about a list using maralen of the mornsong?
you could CoCo, Chord, Vial, etc at the end of the opponents turn, it would serve as any piece of the combo.
lets say you CoCo and get spike feeder and her, get the evolution from your deck, sac her to get the angel, or even reveilark if value is needed.
Or you already have the angel, CoCo or vial her at end of the turn and get the spike feeder.
I know the trade off is that you cant just cast her because it will be bad, but that would be the cost for having a wildcard for the combo. And if you have 6 manas you can just cast it and evolution.
correct me if im wrong, but if you cast natural affinity as the 4th spell to flip it, it will flip and put the return ability on the stack to resolve BEFORE natural affinity. So you have to play something like a bolt, and in response to the flip, play natural affinity. It's kinda hard, and leaves you vulnerable to a path for example, losing natural affinity wich will do nothing.
i built a similar deck last year to play on magic online. i played a couple of dailys. there's the daily i won: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-daily-2014-09-21
as you can see, i built it to kill with tokens as the main win condition, and if i draw a polymorph, its the plan B. i did that because when i put pressure on the table, with the enchants, my opponent is forced to use his removals to survive, making the polymorph more safe. I used springleaf drums to accelerate the game also making a turn 3 emrakul possible.
i also like the 4x windbrisk heights, because its a free win when you get emrakul out of it, because you get the extra turn.
at some point i also tested progenitus instead of emrakul, because i lost so many games because of my opponent stopping the emrakul with cards like: fiend hunt(POD), shriekmaw(POD), karn(TRON), oblivion stone(TRON), pestermite/deceiver exarch tapping him(TWIN), cryptic command tapping him(TWIN), supreme verdict(U/W Control), liliana of the veil(jund) and some others.
making the deck more control oriented is not worth when playing on a field full of abzans because each one runs 4 abrupt decays to stop you.
you could also try a new card, that i could not test because there was not fate reforged at this time. Cloudform
i made a notion thief ub control list myself. I dont use red, instead to combo with notion thief i use Careful Consideration, which can be usefull even without notion thief, using on yourself.
with careful consideration you can can almost lockdown the opponent, casting it before the draw step ends, after he draws, so he has to discard everything and you draw 4.
other cards that i considered to use are Wistful Thinking, Time Reversal and Teferi's Puzzle Box. Im actually not using any of them because i think if you hit Careful Consideration with Notion Thief one time, its basically over. They have to discard 3 (almost every time its their entire hand) and you draw 4 on a control deck.
I would suggest you to drop red. Its even better for the mana base.
my question is if its too risky to keep and do that or should i mull to 6?
if im playing aganist a deck which is not very interactive, lets say tron. i know it will be a race, i need to combo before a karn starts eating my resources.
Im on the play, i look at my seven cards and it has the combo, angel's grace, ad nauseam, some lands and a spoils but no mana acceleration making it too slow.
Is it too risky to try turn 1 spoils for lotus bloom? should i try that or mulligan to 6? i know my life aganist tron is not very important, but it can exile key pieces, also aganist decks like scapeshift being above 18 life means an extra turn.
i kinda like kira, but i prefer vendilion clique, and i dont think eidolon of rhetoric or rule of law is worth it because these cards are bad on it's own. if i get a kira on the board, the opponent will probably lose anyway if he tries to waste 2 removal per creature so i dont see a good point on using both.
will certanly put on sideboard, i forgot about it but i dont know if it's good on maindeck, i dont like cards that are sometimes useless, but it is my preference.
The deck has two plans:
PLAN A: cast discard spells on turn 1 or Tidehollow Sculler turn 2, now you know what is in your opponent's hand, you take out a removal and proceed to locking the game with Meddling Mage + Phantasmal Image on it or on sculler. let the creatures come if you got one of the removals in hand.
PLAN B: no Meddling Mage / Tidehollow Sculler on hand, discard your opponents removal, play with Delver of Secrets + Phantasmal Image copying it fliped to get a good clock.
this is de decklist i got so far:
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
4 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
Creatures / Spells
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
4 Path to Exile
4 Fatal Push
1 Spell Snare
4 Serum Visions
4 Meddling Mage
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Dispel
3 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Illness in the Ranks
2 Spellskite
2 Rest in Peace
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Duress
the deck is already good aganist top tier combos, so im focusing on how can i get it better aganist other kind of decks.
the pilot of the deck must know the modern field well, so he can predict what the opponent can draw and what to name with meddlings, sideboard cards knowledge makes a huge difference, one anger of the gods comming out of the sideboard and not being predicted will probably cost the game for example.
im also considering -4 Delver of Secrets; + 3 Snapcaster Mage + 1 Vendillion Clique.
and maybe -1 or 2 lands, since its all 1 and 2 drops, with 4 serum visions.
sure it stops the infinite life combo on abzam company but is it really worth it? they still get infinite scry and put the needed removal on top.
if it is to punish vials, isn't it just better to destroy it with a revelry?
if it is about lantern and affinity, isn't it just better to play a kataki and completly destroy them? on these two matchups there's already 4 revelry to put on the deck, that's already a good ammount of cards to take out from maindeck.
The games i lose are mostly because of me flooding out or making mistakes, so im trying to maximize the overall damage per card.
I know this sounds bad but i was thinking on playing with 4 tarns + 4 mires so i could include a single Watery Grave to fetch as the 3rd land to finish games with Tribal Flames by paying the colorless mana on that or skullcracks.
I play tested around 10 games, most of them it did not make any difference (did not come to hand). I won 2 games because of it being 5 damage, and had to mulligan one time because the watery grave not being able to produce red mana.
Bad thing it is a sorcery, good thing it can destroy creatures when needed (i know that most of the time it is a bad thing but sometimes it makes a difference).
A Tribal Flames for 5 damage is at the same level of Skullcracking a Kitchen Finks.
Also i thought about a single Blood Crypt instead of watery grave, so thats 4 damage but with a red producing land. Also tought about Magma Jet to scry preventing the flood.
It is taking into consideration a slow field.
What you guys think about that? any other suggestions?
you could CoCo, Chord, Vial, etc at the end of the opponents turn, it would serve as any piece of the combo.
lets say you CoCo and get spike feeder and her, get the evolution from your deck, sac her to get the angel, or even reveilark if value is needed.
Or you already have the angel, CoCo or vial her at end of the turn and get the spike feeder.
I know the trade off is that you cant just cast her because it will be bad, but that would be the cost for having a wildcard for the combo. And if you have 6 manas you can just cast it and evolution.
as you can see, i built it to kill with tokens as the main win condition, and if i draw a polymorph, its the plan B. i did that because when i put pressure on the table, with the enchants, my opponent is forced to use his removals to survive, making the polymorph more safe. I used springleaf drums to accelerate the game also making a turn 3 emrakul possible.
i also like the 4x windbrisk heights, because its a free win when you get emrakul out of it, because you get the extra turn.
at some point i also tested progenitus instead of emrakul, because i lost so many games because of my opponent stopping the emrakul with cards like: fiend hunt(POD), shriekmaw(POD), karn(TRON), oblivion stone(TRON), pestermite/deceiver exarch tapping him(TWIN), cryptic command tapping him(TWIN), supreme verdict(U/W Control), liliana of the veil(jund) and some others.
making the deck more control oriented is not worth when playing on a field full of abzans because each one runs 4 abrupt decays to stop you.
you could also try a new card, that i could not test because there was not fate reforged at this time. Cloudform
with careful consideration you can can almost lockdown the opponent, casting it before the draw step ends, after he draws, so he has to discard everything and you draw 4.
other cards that i considered to use are Wistful Thinking, Time Reversal and Teferi's Puzzle Box. Im actually not using any of them because i think if you hit Careful Consideration with Notion Thief one time, its basically over. They have to discard 3 (almost every time its their entire hand) and you draw 4 on a control deck.
I would suggest you to drop red. Its even better for the mana base.