That said, if you can copy an Archive Trap it's all worth it.
Sure, if it's active that's great, but at that point a Reverberate or Twincast does the same job, but right away and w/o disruptable setup needed.
And one copied trap or glimpse is probably enough to seal the deal with a decent draw.
The issue I'd see with Ascension is how inconsistent it is to trigger.
We aren't playing Storm with tons of cantrips and rituals.
As an example: Why does Burn not play Ascension?
W/o a reliable way to have it turn on it'll just be another 2 mana spell that does nothing until you draw and play 3x the same spell / 2x the same spell twice.
In Storm they run cantrips and mill themselves with Thought Scour to have a reliable way of triggering the Ascension.
But in this deck you're relying solely on the luck of the draw, as it's neither milling itself nor drawing a lot.
Yes, when it works it'll be good, U:draw 6 is pretty sweet.
The chance of that happening is quite low though and the Ascension does nothing to help you stay alive or get them milled faster.
And as Mockingbird_UK said, Snapcaster does not trigger the Ascension if there's only 1 copy of the spell in your graveyard.
She has numerous issues:
-fails the Bolttest
-has no immediate impact
-needs a board to really shine
-doesn't do anything for creatures that aren't able to attack with her or enter the battlefield later
For a 3 drop that's quite underwhelming.
With a lord or anthem effect out she could be decent, but even in Vampire tribal she's more likely a "win more" card that does rather little on it's own.
They can just tutor for it on your endstep, so no, you probably can't Thoughtseize it in most situations.
Though needle on Eye of Ugin with Thoughtseize in hand to either shut the eye down or force the opponent to make the tutor target vulnerable to discard could be nice.
That's a quite specific situation though.
Either way, I don't think those cards are really good in a competitive deck.
As fun, more casual inclusion, sure go for it and drive fair decks even more nuts! ^^
The problem with those 2 is that they cost 4 and 5 mana and for that high price you generally want a game-winning card in Modern.
Just gaining life doesn't win you the game though.
Granted, as a cute sideboard option against some aggro decks and tempo as well as midrange decks, also some control decks it can work, sure. But a 1/5 lifelink or a 5 mana enchantment that don't do anything on their own are very slow and not good against many decks.
The point is, if you are in a position to cast them, have them stick and abuse them....you're probably in a decent spot already.
Against an aggro deck like Burn or Affinity you can drop them and then get killed by a Lightning Bolt, Atarka's Command, Ornithopter with Cranial Plating etc.
Your 4 or 5 drop didn't do anything and can easily be too late when they can kill you t3/4.
In a midrange or tempo grindfest, if you get to resolve one and don't have them be blown up by those deck's versatile removal, you've probably won with a few Martyr sacs, as they can have a hard time to deal a couple hundred damage to you.
BUT that only works as long as they let you play your game.
And midrange as well as tempo are great in disrupting their opponent. Again, the cards don't do much alone and just dropping a Rhox vs an Angler isn't going to cut it, nor will it stop a swarm of unblockable fish people.
Control decks might give you the time to set up a cool combo of Rhox/Boon and some Martyr cycles, but they are also quite good at grinding you out and unless you have surplus Cavern of Souls to name Rhino or Monk, you are probably going to have an even harder time to get those guys on the field.
Granted, there aren't many control decks in Modern.
We have Grixis "control", which will give you issues with removal, counters and dropping a cheap 5/5 to plow away.
RUG Scapeshift, which runs a lot of permission to not let you resolve your lifegain, but against Scapeshift a martyr that puts you well above 3x life is probably enough to prevent a sudden combo death anyway.
The new UW tap out value deck with Sun Titan shenanigans that can probably do a decent job at at least keeping up with your staying power, while getting a quite sticky board.
Esper draw go decks, which will just sit there, counter your big things and eventually make a huge amount of cat tokens (White Sun's Zenith) to club you to death with.
Lantern "control", which is more of a prison deck, doesn't care about your life total for the most part anyway.
U Tron doesn't care either, as they'll just counter / bounce annoying things and eventually kill you with the Mindslaver lock.
Which brings me to the biggest issue with these 2 cards:
They do nothing against combo.
I said before, a 4+ drop has to have huge impact pretty much right away and be a threat.
Gaining a lot of life by turn 5 or 6 with those cards up sounds sweet, until your realize that you're already dead turn 4 to decks that don't even care about your lifegain:
-Infect (10 poison by turn 3/4, doesn't attack your life anyway)
-Twin combos of any sort (can combo t4 or whenever you tap out / they can have counters up, deals infinite damage [on Modo you can gain a lot of life and make them play out their combo to make them waste time of course, but that won't work irl where they can shortcut to "I do this *combos*, now I do this 3 billion times more" ^^])
-Amulet Bloom (can kill you t2/3 with Titan, or via Hive Mind + a pact)
-Elves (they pump their guys by a ton and swing for 20+ with relative ease, each turn once the combo is up)
-Storm (will usually kill you before t4/5 and can deal a lot of damage with multiple Grapeshot or Empty the Cheons [life gain is nice, a ton of goblin tokens which more to come are often nicer ^^])
-Any Gifts/Unburial Rites deck (Iona, Shield of Emeria is probably gg)
-U Tron (you no longer have turns and they kill you eventually)
-Podless Pod (gains more life with the infinite combo, can deal infinite damage [again, time consuming on Modo, so you can maybe cheese a win every now and then if they are low on time])
-Grishoalbrand (can kill you before those come down, though I'm not sure about their maximum damage, so you might be able to out-lifegain them, if they aren't faster and don't run Emrakul)
Not really combo, but against GR Tron it won't do a lot either, as they'll either exile them with Karn, exile a bunch of things and restart the game or, most likely, just drop Emrakul eventually.
Yes, those are all a lot of worst-case scenarios, but that's what's important to look at when evaluating new cards to replace others. Don't just look at what you gain, but think of the tough games and what they'd do there, over the other card(s).
Honor of the Pure is a lot more versatile and useful in more situations, to race a combo deck, defend against aggressive decks with more than just a pile of 1/1s and generally put on pressure.
So...
TL;DR:
They are win-more cards that will often do too little, too late and have barely any / no impact on their own.
As a cutesy sideboard card against midrange and tempo decks they might steal a win every now and then, but against most other decks I doubt the will do much, as you still need to survive to get to play them and have a board/hand to gain life from.
Other cards would do better in their spot I think, as Martyr decks are really good at gaining life anyway. Not to mention the inherent issue with lifegain: it doesn't kill your opponent on it's own.
Especially Honor of the Pure, as it gives your guys a way to outrange 1 damage / -1/-1 removal (and Pyroclasm / Drown in Sorrow with 2 of them) as well as let them trade better.
Without those and instead 4 4 or 5 drops you not only make your mana curve higher (so you might want a or two land more, to get to 4 mana on turn 4 more reliably with not only Rangers to cast then), you also make it harder to keep the board you need to make use of the doubled lifegain.
And they are dead against most combo decks.
BUT!
As they are relatively cheap cards, you can just get 1-2 and try them out.
When they work they are probably going to be great, but making them work can be difficult.
And I wouldn't recommend running 4 of them in any way.
So, if you're alright with adding some cute jank to your deck, then go for it and see how they do. If they work well for you, great!
But be wary that, depending on where you play and what your meta looks like, there are a lot of decks that you'll probably side them out against.
For those of you still on board with Bobs, what do you think of the inclusion of Endless One? I get that it doesn't interact nearly as well as Nyxathid and the like, but it's always going to fit the curve and if you draw with Bob it's a free creature, i.e. it can act as a chump or a finisher. For obvious reasons it doesn't play well with pox effects.
I don't really think that "it's a free Bob flip" is a compelling enough argument to run it.
It's a vanilla(!) x/x for x, which is very underwhelming.
Doesn't pass the bolttest till you pay 4, get's chumped by Lingering Souls like a goyf or delve guy, w/o their efficiency.
It has no immediate impact on the battlefield and basically needs to be played for 5 to be able to not die to the common 4/5 goyf or tasigur and trade with angler.
As a chump blocker there are better options, ones that don't die to any aggro deck's 1 drops. Instead of a 1 mana 1/1 you'd get more out of playing Darkness.
I'd sooner understand Hangarback Walker as a threat/blocker hybrid than Endless One, and even that is quuiiiite a stretch.
So, overall, I don't see how it would do much of use:
It's too slow against aggro decks (their 1 drops beat it, often even as a 3 drop, when it still dies to their bolts).
It's too expensive against midrange decks, as all of their big guys cost less and do more.
It is just a body that does nothing much, has no evasion or utility.
If we had some way to (ab)use +1/+1 counters then maybe, but the way it stands I don't think it's a great card for any version of this decktype.
Versatility is nice, but not when all modes are sub par versions of actual cards.
UB(x) Mill isn't a slow durdle deck that can afford drawing cards and mill via tutelage.
You gotta play it similarly to Burn or a similar aggressive, linear, combo-esque deck.
Tutelage can be used in things like Turbofog, where you don't do much else but stall your opponent anyway, but here you can't afford all the cards needed to build around Tutelage while still being a decently fast mill deck.
Instead of Devil's Play wouldn't Banefire be a better option in a blue heavy meta?
It depends on how you get to the card I'd say.
With a draw-engine Banefire is better in every way.
If a mill-engine is used though, you need to get the Banefire back somehow. In that case, the recursion effect can be countered just like Devil's play.
Then the question is: Do you want multiple Devil's Plays in your deck to cover counters, or a Banefire and multiple recursion spells.
Sounds like the Banefire plan would still be more useful, as recursion spells might have more uses than multiple finishers that brick up your hand.
But that's just theory, it would depend on the decklist anyway.
Tasigur could work perfectly and gets around leyline which is nice. There are just to many fun things to do with alarm.
Remember that Tasigur gives you a card of the opponent's choice.
So, it'll take a long time before you can start finishing the opponent with the Snag plan. First mill yourself out, then get given all cards but Vapor Snag into your hand...at that point a Banefire or Lab Maniac combo would be a fast win con I think.
Granted, if you play Paper only, you can probably shortcut by counting your deck and say you do the mana + tasigur combo X times, you so have all non-land cards in your hand. (if the opponent won't let you, just call a judge and show him or her you're combo and explain your overall line of play, there shouldn't be an issue, since you can say for certain how often you need to repeat it.)
On Modo that line sounds like a nightmare though and would likely give you clock issues...or get a cramp in your hand.
Braids, Conjurer Adept (so we have her linked in here and people don't have to look her up first. ^^)
I play her in EDH and while she is really fun and can drop some mean fatties on the field, you need to make sure you even get a benefit from her!
While in multiplayer EDH I enjoy her for just the chaotic nonsense that can ensue, and that format isn't a serious one in my eyes anyway, in a 1v1 setting like Modern, you /need/ to protect her.
Imagine dropping her, giving your opponent at the very least a free land and then having her bolted.
Something like Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrery to make sure you get her trigger first (while letting out hold up counter mana) would be good, or something to give her shroud (there are some Blue enchantments that do that for U or 1U, not sure about their Modern legality though).
And even with those precautions and a tapped out opponent, she'd probably come down no earlier than t4-5+.
So you also need a way to survive until then, or play a lot of big guys with comeback capabilities, that are just bricks w/o her.
For kitchentable Magic she would probably make a pretty fun deck though, there are a lot of neat things to cheat into play in blue already.
Perhaps a UG shell, with ramp and counters and perhaps a cheeky goyf or so to keep the board under control, while preparing for either Braids or just hardcasting the big guys. (or potentially both, dropping an Inkwell Leviathan into casting Kozilek, Butcher of Truth sounds quite fun. :3 )
Or a UB one, like mykatdied (rip kat ;__;) suggested, focusing on discard effects early into Damnation / stalling with blue shenanigans and counters until you drop a protected Braids for card advantage.
Once you're both essentially topdecking, with you having a big guy stuck in your hand, Braids seems pretty good.
You'd need some good draw engine though, to make some use of your open mana, so you can get free bodies and keep up counters or removal.
About 3: I was thinking about Amulet Bloom yesterday. Has it ever occurred to you(us) that maybe the reason that players won't play Amulet Bloom/Shoal and more on that, Lantern Control deck because they want the format to move away from those decks? I am not saying, they just do not like it. I am saying that maybe they are trying (on a secret) to embargo it.
If players did like Shoal/Bloom/Lantern Control and those decks occupied a meta analogous to their power level alone(which is SOLID tier 1 for Bloom and Lantern as well) and Modern was not supposed to be "battles around creatures" how do you think the format was going to be like? I say it would be a worse one. This thing proves argument number 2 as well, that the "point of Modern" is to attack with creatures. At least, that the majority of the players think this way.
I don't players are secretly or subconsciously trying to shape the meta a certain way.
The more likely explanation is, that the mentioned decks, Amulet and Lantern especially, are rather hard to play and master.
I for example would like to play Amulet, but tbh..I cba to learn it, so I don't.
Similarly, I adore Lantern's whole concept and slow controlling mill strategy, but just don't enjoy playing the deck myself. It's pretty taxing, and even though I know most decks in the meta relatively well, when I get home after a day of work and want to play some Modo to relax, playing Lantern isn't the first thing that comes to mind. ;>
Yes, that is just me and anecdotal evidence, but this line of thinking seems a lot more likely than people secretly trying to steer the meta in a certain direction.
Plus Lantern is a pretty weird and recent deck, so a lot of people don't take it for full yet, I imagine.
I don't see Modern as "the creature" format.
That's Standard.
Modern, to me, is somewhere in between the turn one kill combos of Vintage and Legacy and the super "turn creatures sideways" game of Standard.
It has some combo decks, Grishoalbrand, Amulet, Twin, but mostly Midrange or Aggro decks.
But that's only the top decks, and below are a vast amount of somewhat decent (rogue) decks, that do all sorts of things.
So, yes, creatures are more prevalent and important in most decks, even if they are combo decks, because most strong spells aren't in the format or banned.
But that doesn't make Modern a "only creature combat allowed" format.
Additionally, Modern is rather expensive. Not quite as much as Legacy/Vintage decks that need blue duals, but there's not much price difference between a Modern Jund deck and e.g. Legacy MUD.
So, switching decks can be a hassle too, even more so when niche cards for specific decks are sometimes very expensive and don't offer much overlap with other decks.
Switching between Twin variants is obviously a lot easier than going from Burn to Lantern, requiring a heap of relatively expensive things like Glimmervoid or Mox Opal.
It's a bit easier (on the wallet) online, in most cases, but in paper I can understand someone not changing to e.g. Amulet simply because of it's prize, deck-specific cards and learning curve, even though the deck's results or playstyle might interest the person.
So, overall, it's a lot more complex than "people don't want X deck in the format, so they don't play it and hope it fades away". (If anything, they should ALL play it, do very good at it and get it banned. :P)
The issue is that LB exists and she doesn't make an immediate board impact.
You mean that Drana, Liberator of Malakir will be killed by Lightning Bolt too easily or that because we can run LB in the deck we should do that instead? I'm not a competitive Modern player so perhaps you can help educate me. Every single creature in some people decks die to LB, why should this be different?
Does LB have such an impact on the game that Modern players shouldn't consider playing anything with less than 4 toughness unless it costs less than 3 mana? Drana dies to removal too, why should Lightning Bolt matter?
Disclaimer: This got longer and more rambly than I first thought, but as you said you're not all that well versed in competitive Modern I tried to explain a bit more and hopefully made it not too confusing. ^^;
LB matters so much, because it's the most efficient removal Modern has. (Most efficient. Not strongest. :P)
It costs R, so it can be used from t1 in most cases.
It's instant. It has no drawback (unlike e.g. Path to Exile).
And while it's true that most things that die to bolt also die to Go for the Throat, Bolt has more versatility, as it can also be aimed directly at you, to close out a game or to ping down a pesky Planeswalker.
Red is also a very widespread colour. All Twin variants run it, the Grixis decks, Jund, Scapeshift, Burn, to name the top decks.
And most decks that are red will have Bolt in them.
Now, why are any creatures that have <3 toughness even played then?
In most cases, because they can either be protected (withcounters [e.g. Delver decks] or pump and Protection [Infect]), are cheap and efficient (Wild Nyancatl, Goblin Guide), do something immediately (Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique) or they are very important to the deck (Goblin Electromancer in U/R Storm) to the point where untapping with it will very likely let you win.
Most other creatures have either a biggerbutt, or can grow bigger with relativeease.
Drana on the other hand costs 3 mana, which is already a difficult spot, especially on the draw, as tapping out on t3 for a threat that can be removed quite easily and has no immediate impact is dangerous in Modern, even with the Splinter Twincombo aside.
In comparison, why does Vampire Nighthawk see no play, even though it's a great control creature?
It stabilizes your life, has evasion, blocks big guys and kills them. Sounds pretty awesome.
Well, it dies to Bolt and when it does, it did nothing other than "waste" your turn 3 for R.
Drana has a similar issue.
Now, I won't dispute that IF she sticks and you are in a position to attack, she's really good and can get out of hand quickly!
A free, permanent Anthem every turn is pretty sweet.
But it requires you to:
-Have a board (though even w/o she'll at least buff herself)
-be able to attack with your creatures! Anyone not attacking won't get the buff. (running your 2/2 into a 3/4 Goyf or similar isn't very exciting, even if the 2/2 will be a 3/3.)
-have her get through (not usually an issue, but if Abzan or B/W Tokens is around a lot then Lingering Souls will be annoying to deal with.)
Now, there are ways to make life a bit safer for her:
Especially g1 your other guys are probably literal Lightning Rods, eating Bolts and such so it's going to be safer for her t3 or 4.
Besides that, with a Lord out she'll be 3/4 right away and out of Bolt-range.
If you add Discardspells to your deck, you can get rid of their removal + know what you're up against and try to bait it out with a weaker guy.
Similarly to lords, Bad Moon would make sure she's out of Bolt-range right away, while also buffing your other guys.
A way to give her (and your other guys) haste would be really useful. Some evasion too, or a combat trick, to have your weaker guys live through the attack.
And let's be honest, in a super cut-throat environment you're rather unlikely to run Vampire tribal (but more power to you if you still do and have a good time! ;D). For anything more causal-ish, go for her!
Give her a whirl and see how it turns out.
If you can make her stick reliably she's probably pretty good, but be wary that she isn't just "play, attack and get +1/+1 for everyone, forever".
She has some "hidden" conditions, that, when met, mean you're probably in a decent spot already. On an empty board she's not all that exciting though, albeit still a decent threat, if left alone for a while.
She won't race a Gurmag Angler after an Anger of the Gods though. ;>
Hi, been trying to work my way through the thread and in the process of trying to build a (budget) version. Finance being the real issue with the cost of Lil etc.. and at present, I'm a casual player only but absolutely love the theory behind the deck.
While i don't have Terminate, i do have a playset of Dreadbore but can't see anyone using them (?).
They both have their uses, but Terminate being instant is the biggest plus for it.
While Dreadbore can be great vs GRTron and Jund, as an easy out to their otherwise quite troublesome Planeswalkers, Terminate let's you often make more efficient use of your mana or get 2 for 1s.
Our hand is often relatively quickly empty or close to that, and so not always will be have a way to use all our mana.
In that case it's very handy to be able to keep Terminate up and kill an eventual threat right away, during our opponent's turn, instead of having to wait till our next turn, when we might draw our own big guy that we want to play.
It's also really useful again any creature-based combo deck.
You often can't stop Twin with Dreadbore, the "no regeneration" line can be really good against elves.
In general, if there's barely any Twin in your meta and more Tron or Jund (or the new "Blue Jund" deck[Grixis Midrange-y thing]), then Dreadbore might be even somewhat better, or at least more relevant more often.
In a normal, mixed meta game, Terminate will be more flexible and useful most of the time.
You can answer their play right away and don't have to go and clean up after your opponent on your turns, when you'd rather play that Blightning and wished that Goyf was dead already.
Not to mention being able to avoid a huge hit from Affinity by destroying their equipped guy mid combat, and similar shenanigans.
Nothing really competitive, but Marrow-Gnawer + Intruder Alarm + any 1 Rat = make one token ETB/die infinitely often, and get infinite "untap all creatures" triggers, in cases that's somehow relevant beyond this combo. [Sac the other rat, get 1 token for Marrow-Gnawer, untap him, repeat.]
Same combo, but with 2 other Rats for infinite, exponentially increasing numbers of 1/1 rat tokens (with fear, as long as MG lives).
[MG + 2 rats > sac 1 > get 2 tokens (4 rats) > sac one (3 rats) > get 3 tokens (6 rats) > 10 rats > 18 rats > 34 rats...]
I don't think anyone came up with a great solution yet.
The easiest would be to include one Godless Shrine (and maybe 1-2 Marshflats to have more than 4 fetches) to bring in Wear//Tear from the sb.
If your local meta is truly infested with Leylines, there's cute stuff like Hunted Horror.
But luckily Leyline isn't really popular right now, at least online.
I agree though that it can really suck.
Had one come out from Amulet Bloom yesterday with a hand that had 2x Inquisition, 2x Wrench Mind on the draw. ;__;
~~~
Speaking of Amulet:
@Raystack, I've been trying out your latest list (with a few little tweaks [4 fetches, no Blackcleave Cliffs. with 24 Lands I think I'll give Rix Madi another whirl though]).
The sideboard is interesting. I'm not sure if I like the removal of Slaughter Pact. Against Amulet (and Twin) it was always very nice to be able to keep up removal w/o having to "skip" a turn that could have been a Blightning or so.
What's your plan vs Amulet in general though?
I haven't had a chance to play against it very much at all.
Ensnaring Bridge is definitely great, won me g1. But the deck is quite annoying, having to defend against an early combo while needing to win before it's inevitability kicks in.
I think I sided in Ratchet Bomb vs Amulets, Nyxathids for more threats and Slaughter Games. Maybe also Sowing Salt to get rid of their Simic Growthchambers or so, not sure if I did that though. ^^
Took out Bolts and Lilis.
Nothing seemed super great though, but that might also be my inexperience with the match up to some degree.
Also, what's the reasoning behind Engineered Explosives over Ratchet Bomb? Both cost 2 to wipe tokens, Bomb can be set earlier though and always be adjusted upwards if need be (and in theory e.g. hit a Leyline, though by t5 that's not that relevant I think. ;> )and isn't limited to 0-2 cmc wipes.
I guess you like the option of playing Explosives as a 3/4 mana Shrivel/Infest?
It's nice to see some Artifact removal back in.
Saved my butt yesterday vs an Eggs brew that managed to win g1 by my durdling w/o a threat till turn 10.
Sure, if it's active that's great, but at that point a Reverberate or Twincast does the same job, but right away and w/o disruptable setup needed.
And one copied trap or glimpse is probably enough to seal the deal with a decent draw.
We aren't playing Storm with tons of cantrips and rituals.
As an example: Why does Burn not play Ascension?
W/o a reliable way to have it turn on it'll just be another 2 mana spell that does nothing until you draw and play 3x the same spell / 2x the same spell twice.
In Storm they run cantrips and mill themselves with Thought Scour to have a reliable way of triggering the Ascension.
But in this deck you're relying solely on the luck of the draw, as it's neither milling itself nor drawing a lot.
Yes, when it works it'll be good, U:draw 6 is pretty sweet.
The chance of that happening is quite low though and the Ascension does nothing to help you stay alive or get them milled faster.
And as Mockingbird_UK said, Snapcaster does not trigger the Ascension if there's only 1 copy of the spell in your graveyard.
-fails the Bolttest
-has no immediate impact
-needs a board to really shine
-doesn't do anything for creatures that aren't able to attack with her or enter the battlefield later
For a 3 drop that's quite underwhelming.
With a lord or anthem effect out she could be decent, but even in Vampire tribal she's more likely a "win more" card that does rather little on it's own.
Though needle on Eye of Ugin with Thoughtseize in hand to either shut the eye down or force the opponent to make the tutor target vulnerable to discard could be nice.
That's a quite specific situation though.
Boon Reflection
You can probably ask the people in the MartyrProc thread ( http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/developing-competitive-modern/582574-martyrproc-a-modern-control-deck-updated ) about your ideas, or in the Soul Sisters thread ( http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/developing-competitive-modern/490942-soul-sisters ).
Maybe Soul Sisters is closer to your list, as MartyrProc doesn't really run Honor of the Pure or the soul sisters, though dedicated Soul Sisters lists don't necessarily run Squadron Hawk.
So going by what you mentioned your list seems somewhat inbetween, perhaps a more Martyr focused Soul Sisters approach. Idk.
Either way, I don't think those cards are really good in a competitive deck.
As fun, more casual inclusion, sure go for it and drive fair decks even more nuts! ^^
The problem with those 2 is that they cost 4 and 5 mana and for that high price you generally want a game-winning card in Modern.
Just gaining life doesn't win you the game though.
Granted, as a cute sideboard option against some aggro decks and tempo as well as midrange decks, also some control decks it can work, sure. But a 1/5 lifelink or a 5 mana enchantment that don't do anything on their own are very slow and not good against many decks.
The point is, if you are in a position to cast them, have them stick and abuse them....you're probably in a decent spot already.
Against an aggro deck like Burn or Affinity you can drop them and then get killed by a Lightning Bolt, Atarka's Command, Ornithopter with Cranial Plating etc.
Your 4 or 5 drop didn't do anything and can easily be too late when they can kill you t3/4.
In a midrange or tempo grindfest, if you get to resolve one and don't have them be blown up by those deck's versatile removal, you've probably won with a few Martyr sacs, as they can have a hard time to deal a couple hundred damage to you.
BUT that only works as long as they let you play your game.
And midrange as well as tempo are great in disrupting their opponent. Again, the cards don't do much alone and just dropping a Rhox vs an Angler isn't going to cut it, nor will it stop a swarm of unblockable fish people.
Control decks might give you the time to set up a cool combo of Rhox/Boon and some Martyr cycles, but they are also quite good at grinding you out and unless you have surplus Cavern of Souls to name Rhino or Monk, you are probably going to have an even harder time to get those guys on the field.
Granted, there aren't many control decks in Modern.
We have Grixis "control", which will give you issues with removal, counters and dropping a cheap 5/5 to plow away.
RUG Scapeshift, which runs a lot of permission to not let you resolve your lifegain, but against Scapeshift a martyr that puts you well above 3x life is probably enough to prevent a sudden combo death anyway.
The new UW tap out value deck with Sun Titan shenanigans that can probably do a decent job at at least keeping up with your staying power, while getting a quite sticky board.
Esper draw go decks, which will just sit there, counter your big things and eventually make a huge amount of cat tokens (White Sun's Zenith) to club you to death with.
Lantern "control", which is more of a prison deck, doesn't care about your life total for the most part anyway.
U Tron doesn't care either, as they'll just counter / bounce annoying things and eventually kill you with the Mindslaver lock.
Which brings me to the biggest issue with these 2 cards:
They do nothing against combo.
I said before, a 4+ drop has to have huge impact pretty much right away and be a threat.
Gaining a lot of life by turn 5 or 6 with those cards up sounds sweet, until your realize that you're already dead turn 4 to decks that don't even care about your lifegain:
-Infect (10 poison by turn 3/4, doesn't attack your life anyway)
-Twin combos of any sort (can combo t4 or whenever you tap out / they can have counters up, deals infinite damage [on Modo you can gain a lot of life and make them play out their combo to make them waste time of course, but that won't work irl where they can shortcut to "I do this *combos*, now I do this 3 billion times more" ^^])
-Amulet Bloom (can kill you t2/3 with Titan, or via Hive Mind + a pact)
-Elves (they pump their guys by a ton and swing for 20+ with relative ease, each turn once the combo is up)
-Storm (will usually kill you before t4/5 and can deal a lot of damage with multiple Grapeshot or Empty the Cheons [life gain is nice, a ton of goblin tokens which more to come are often nicer ^^])
-Any Gifts/Unburial Rites deck (Iona, Shield of Emeria is probably gg)
-U Tron (you no longer have turns and they kill you eventually)
-Podless Pod (gains more life with the infinite combo, can deal infinite damage [again, time consuming on Modo, so you can maybe cheese a win every now and then if they are low on time])
-Grishoalbrand (can kill you before those come down, though I'm not sure about their maximum damage, so you might be able to out-lifegain them, if they aren't faster and don't run Emrakul)
Not really combo, but against GR Tron it won't do a lot either, as they'll either exile them with Karn, exile a bunch of things and restart the game or, most likely, just drop Emrakul eventually.
Yes, those are all a lot of worst-case scenarios, but that's what's important to look at when evaluating new cards to replace others. Don't just look at what you gain, but think of the tough games and what they'd do there, over the other card(s).
Honor of the Pure is a lot more versatile and useful in more situations, to race a combo deck, defend against aggressive decks with more than just a pile of 1/1s and generally put on pressure.
So...
TL;DR:
They are win-more cards that will often do too little, too late and have barely any / no impact on their own.
As a cutesy sideboard card against midrange and tempo decks they might steal a win every now and then, but against most other decks I doubt the will do much, as you still need to survive to get to play them and have a board/hand to gain life from.
Other cards would do better in their spot I think, as Martyr decks are really good at gaining life anyway. Not to mention the inherent issue with lifegain: it doesn't kill your opponent on it's own.
Especially Honor of the Pure, as it gives your guys a way to outrange 1 damage / -1/-1 removal (and Pyroclasm / Drown in Sorrow with 2 of them) as well as let them trade better.
Without those and instead 4 4 or 5 drops you not only make your mana curve higher (so you might want a or two land more, to get to 4 mana on turn 4 more reliably with not only Rangers to cast then), you also make it harder to keep the board you need to make use of the doubled lifegain.
And they are dead against most combo decks.
BUT!
As they are relatively cheap cards, you can just get 1-2 and try them out.
When they work they are probably going to be great, but making them work can be difficult.
And I wouldn't recommend running 4 of them in any way.
So, if you're alright with adding some cute jank to your deck, then go for it and see how they do. If they work well for you, great!
But be wary that, depending on where you play and what your meta looks like, there are a lot of decks that you'll probably side them out against.
I don't really think that "it's a free Bob flip" is a compelling enough argument to run it.
It's a vanilla(!) x/x for x, which is very underwhelming.
Doesn't pass the bolttest till you pay 4, get's chumped by Lingering Souls like a goyf or delve guy, w/o their efficiency.
It has no immediate impact on the battlefield and basically needs to be played for 5 to be able to not die to the common 4/5 goyf or tasigur and trade with angler.
As a chump blocker there are better options, ones that don't die to any aggro deck's 1 drops. Instead of a 1 mana 1/1 you'd get more out of playing Darkness.
I'd sooner understand Hangarback Walker as a threat/blocker hybrid than Endless One, and even that is quuiiiite a stretch.
So, overall, I don't see how it would do much of use:
It's too slow against aggro decks (their 1 drops beat it, often even as a 3 drop, when it still dies to their bolts).
It's too expensive against midrange decks, as all of their big guys cost less and do more.
It is just a body that does nothing much, has no evasion or utility.
If we had some way to (ab)use +1/+1 counters then maybe, but the way it stands I don't think it's a great card for any version of this decktype.
Versatility is nice, but not when all modes are sub par versions of actual cards.
UB(x) Mill isn't a slow durdle deck that can afford drawing cards and mill via tutelage.
You gotta play it similarly to Burn or a similar aggressive, linear, combo-esque deck.
Tutelage can be used in things like Turbofog, where you don't do much else but stall your opponent anyway, but here you can't afford all the cards needed to build around Tutelage while still being a decently fast mill deck.
It depends on how you get to the card I'd say.
With a draw-engine Banefire is better in every way.
If a mill-engine is used though, you need to get the Banefire back somehow. In that case, the recursion effect can be countered just like Devil's play.
Then the question is: Do you want multiple Devil's Plays in your deck to cover counters, or a Banefire and multiple recursion spells.
Sounds like the Banefire plan would still be more useful, as recursion spells might have more uses than multiple finishers that brick up your hand.
But that's just theory, it would depend on the decklist anyway.
Remember that Tasigur gives you a card of the opponent's choice.
So, it'll take a long time before you can start finishing the opponent with the Snag plan. First mill yourself out, then get given all cards but Vapor Snag into your hand...at that point a Banefire or Lab Maniac combo would be a fast win con I think.
Granted, if you play Paper only, you can probably shortcut by counting your deck and say you do the mana + tasigur combo X times, you so have all non-land cards in your hand. (if the opponent won't let you, just call a judge and show him or her you're combo and explain your overall line of play, there shouldn't be an issue, since you can say for certain how often you need to repeat it.)
On Modo that line sounds like a nightmare though and would likely give you clock issues...or get a cramp in your hand.
I play her in EDH and while she is really fun and can drop some mean fatties on the field, you need to make sure you even get a benefit from her!
While in multiplayer EDH I enjoy her for just the chaotic nonsense that can ensue, and that format isn't a serious one in my eyes anyway, in a 1v1 setting like Modern, you /need/ to protect her.
Imagine dropping her, giving your opponent at the very least a free land and then having her bolted.
Something like Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrery to make sure you get her trigger first (while letting out hold up counter mana) would be good, or something to give her shroud (there are some Blue enchantments that do that for U or 1U, not sure about their Modern legality though).
And even with those precautions and a tapped out opponent, she'd probably come down no earlier than t4-5+.
So you also need a way to survive until then, or play a lot of big guys with comeback capabilities, that are just bricks w/o her.
For kitchentable Magic she would probably make a pretty fun deck though, there are a lot of neat things to cheat into play in blue already.
Perhaps a UG shell, with ramp and counters and perhaps a cheeky goyf or so to keep the board under control, while preparing for either Braids or just hardcasting the big guys. (or potentially both, dropping an Inkwell Leviathan into casting Kozilek, Butcher of Truth sounds quite fun. :3 )
Or a UB one, like mykatdied (rip kat ;__;) suggested, focusing on discard effects early into Damnation / stalling with blue shenanigans and counters until you drop a protected Braids for card advantage.
Once you're both essentially topdecking, with you having a big guy stuck in your hand, Braids seems pretty good.
You'd need some good draw engine though, to make some use of your open mana, so you can get free bodies and keep up counters or removal.
I don't players are secretly or subconsciously trying to shape the meta a certain way.
The more likely explanation is, that the mentioned decks, Amulet and Lantern especially, are rather hard to play and master.
I for example would like to play Amulet, but tbh..I cba to learn it, so I don't.
Similarly, I adore Lantern's whole concept and slow controlling mill strategy, but just don't enjoy playing the deck myself. It's pretty taxing, and even though I know most decks in the meta relatively well, when I get home after a day of work and want to play some Modo to relax, playing Lantern isn't the first thing that comes to mind. ;>
Yes, that is just me and anecdotal evidence, but this line of thinking seems a lot more likely than people secretly trying to steer the meta in a certain direction.
Plus Lantern is a pretty weird and recent deck, so a lot of people don't take it for full yet, I imagine.
I don't see Modern as "the creature" format.
That's Standard.
Modern, to me, is somewhere in between the turn one kill combos of Vintage and Legacy and the super "turn creatures sideways" game of Standard.
It has some combo decks, Grishoalbrand, Amulet, Twin, but mostly Midrange or Aggro decks.
But that's only the top decks, and below are a vast amount of somewhat decent (rogue) decks, that do all sorts of things.
So, yes, creatures are more prevalent and important in most decks, even if they are combo decks, because most strong spells aren't in the format or banned.
But that doesn't make Modern a "only creature combat allowed" format.
Additionally, Modern is rather expensive. Not quite as much as Legacy/Vintage decks that need blue duals, but there's not much price difference between a Modern Jund deck and e.g. Legacy MUD.
So, switching decks can be a hassle too, even more so when niche cards for specific decks are sometimes very expensive and don't offer much overlap with other decks.
Switching between Twin variants is obviously a lot easier than going from Burn to Lantern, requiring a heap of relatively expensive things like Glimmervoid or Mox Opal.
It's a bit easier (on the wallet) online, in most cases, but in paper I can understand someone not changing to e.g. Amulet simply because of it's prize, deck-specific cards and learning curve, even though the deck's results or playstyle might interest the person.
So, overall, it's a lot more complex than "people don't want X deck in the format, so they don't play it and hope it fades away". (If anything, they should ALL play it, do very good at it and get it banned. :P)
In the end...people are going to complain about any deck anyway, no matter if it's reasonable.
And fun for your opponent is by no means a requirement in (competitive) Magic.
Disclaimer: This got longer and more rambly than I first thought, but as you said you're not all that well versed in competitive Modern I tried to explain a bit more and hopefully made it not too confusing. ^^;
LB matters so much, because it's the most efficient removal Modern has. (Most efficient. Not strongest. :P)
It costs R, so it can be used from t1 in most cases.
It's instant. It has no drawback (unlike e.g. Path to Exile).
And while it's true that most things that die to bolt also die to Go for the Throat, Bolt has more versatility, as it can also be aimed directly at you, to close out a game or to ping down a pesky Planeswalker.
Red is also a very widespread colour. All Twin variants run it, the Grixis decks, Jund, Scapeshift, Burn, to name the top decks.
And most decks that are red will have Bolt in them.
Now, why are any creatures that have <3 toughness even played then?
In most cases, because they can either be protected (with counters [e.g. Delver decks] or pump and Protection [Infect]), are cheap and efficient (Wild Nyancatl, Goblin Guide), do something immediately (Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique) or they are very important to the deck (Goblin Electromancer in U/R Storm) to the point where untapping with it will very likely let you win.
Most other creatures have either a bigger butt, or can grow bigger with relative ease.
Drana on the other hand costs 3 mana, which is already a difficult spot, especially on the draw, as tapping out on t3 for a threat that can be removed quite easily and has no immediate impact is dangerous in Modern, even with the Splinter Twin combo aside.
In comparison, why does Vampire Nighthawk see no play, even though it's a great control creature?
It stabilizes your life, has evasion, blocks big guys and kills them. Sounds pretty awesome.
Well, it dies to Bolt and when it does, it did nothing other than "waste" your turn 3 for R.
Drana has a similar issue.
Now, I won't dispute that IF she sticks and you are in a position to attack, she's really good and can get out of hand quickly!
A free, permanent Anthem every turn is pretty sweet.
But it requires you to:
-Have a board (though even w/o she'll at least buff herself)
-be able to attack with your creatures! Anyone not attacking won't get the buff. (running your 2/2 into a 3/4 Goyf or similar isn't very exciting, even if the 2/2 will be a 3/3.)
-have her get through (not usually an issue, but if Abzan or B/W Tokens is around a lot then Lingering Souls will be annoying to deal with.)
Now, there are ways to make life a bit safer for her:
Especially g1 your other guys are probably literal Lightning Rods, eating Bolts and such so it's going to be safer for her t3 or 4.
Besides that, with a Lord out she'll be 3/4 right away and out of Bolt-range.
If you add Discard spells to your deck, you can get rid of their removal + know what you're up against and try to bait it out with a weaker guy.
Similarly to lords, Bad Moon would make sure she's out of Bolt-range right away, while also buffing your other guys.
A way to give her (and your other guys) haste would be really useful. Some evasion too, or a combat trick, to have your weaker guys live through the attack.
And let's be honest, in a super cut-throat environment you're rather unlikely to run Vampire tribal (but more power to you if you still do and have a good time! ;D). For anything more causal-ish, go for her!
Give her a whirl and see how it turns out.
If you can make her stick reliably she's probably pretty good, but be wary that she isn't just "play, attack and get +1/+1 for everyone, forever".
She has some "hidden" conditions, that, when met, mean you're probably in a decent spot already. On an empty board she's not all that exciting though, albeit still a decent threat, if left alone for a while.
She won't race a Gurmag Angler after an Anger of the Gods though. ;>
They both have their uses, but Terminate being instant is the biggest plus for it.
While Dreadbore can be great vs GRTron and Jund, as an easy out to their otherwise quite troublesome Planeswalkers, Terminate let's you often make more efficient use of your mana or get 2 for 1s.
Our hand is often relatively quickly empty or close to that, and so not always will be have a way to use all our mana.
In that case it's very handy to be able to keep Terminate up and kill an eventual threat right away, during our opponent's turn, instead of having to wait till our next turn, when we might draw our own big guy that we want to play.
It's also really useful again any creature-based combo deck.
You often can't stop Twin with Dreadbore, the "no regeneration" line can be really good against elves.
In general, if there's barely any Twin in your meta and more Tron or Jund (or the new "Blue Jund" deck[Grixis Midrange-y thing]), then Dreadbore might be even somewhat better, or at least more relevant more often.
In a normal, mixed meta game, Terminate will be more flexible and useful most of the time.
You can answer their play right away and don't have to go and clean up after your opponent on your turns, when you'd rather play that Blightning and wished that Goyf was dead already.
Not to mention being able to avoid a huge hit from Affinity by destroying their equipped guy mid combat, and similar shenanigans.
Marrow-Gnawer + Intruder Alarm + any 1 Rat = make one token ETB/die infinitely often, and get infinite "untap all creatures" triggers, in cases that's somehow relevant beyond this combo. [Sac the other rat, get 1 token for Marrow-Gnawer, untap him, repeat.]
Same combo, but with 2 other Rats for infinite, exponentially increasing numbers of 1/1 rat tokens (with fear, as long as MG lives).
[MG + 2 rats > sac 1 > get 2 tokens (4 rats) > sac one (3 rats) > get 3 tokens (6 rats) > 10 rats > 18 rats > 34 rats...]
Basically (number of rats -1)*2.
Scooping is always an option.
I don't think anyone came up with a great solution yet.
The easiest would be to include one Godless Shrine (and maybe 1-2 Marshflats to have more than 4 fetches) to bring in Wear//Tear from the sb.
If your local meta is truly infested with Leylines, there's cute stuff like Hunted Horror.
But luckily Leyline isn't really popular right now, at least online.
I agree though that it can really suck.
Had one come out from Amulet Bloom yesterday with a hand that had 2x Inquisition, 2x Wrench Mind on the draw. ;__;
~~~
Speaking of Amulet:
@Raystack, I've been trying out your latest list (with a few little tweaks [4 fetches, no Blackcleave Cliffs. with 24 Lands I think I'll give Rix Madi another whirl though]).
The sideboard is interesting. I'm not sure if I like the removal of Slaughter Pact. Against Amulet (and Twin) it was always very nice to be able to keep up removal w/o having to "skip" a turn that could have been a Blightning or so.
What's your plan vs Amulet in general though?
I haven't had a chance to play against it very much at all.
Ensnaring Bridge is definitely great, won me g1. But the deck is quite annoying, having to defend against an early combo while needing to win before it's inevitability kicks in.
I think I sided in Ratchet Bomb vs Amulets, Nyxathids for more threats and Slaughter Games. Maybe also Sowing Salt to get rid of their Simic Growthchambers or so, not sure if I did that though. ^^
Took out Bolts and Lilis.
Nothing seemed super great though, but that might also be my inexperience with the match up to some degree.
Also, what's the reasoning behind Engineered Explosives over Ratchet Bomb? Both cost 2 to wipe tokens, Bomb can be set earlier though and always be adjusted upwards if need be (and in theory e.g. hit a Leyline, though by t5 that's not that relevant I think. ;> )and isn't limited to 0-2 cmc wipes.
I guess you like the option of playing Explosives as a 3/4 mana Shrivel/Infest?
It's nice to see some Artifact removal back in.
Saved my butt yesterday vs an Eggs brew that managed to win g1 by my durdling w/o a threat till turn 10.