MTG Salvation

the introduction and upcoming proliferation of planeswalkers thanks to hogaak's removal and GY deck nerfs means you will need to be better equipped to deal with PW threats such as small teferi, small chandra, w6 and the old but gold big tef and lily veil.

The best options in modern are:

Dreadbore
+ most efficient in our colors
+ gives nothing back unlike trophy
- may require more pain from lands to cast t2 due to color
- sorcery speed (doesn't matter with smol tef)

Magmatic Sinkhole
+ Singular color means easy castability
+ delve make for incredibly efficient casts in the midgame
+ instant speed
+ actually competent as a creature removal
- needs thought scour to go live early
- does little for walkers over 5 loyalty

Bedevil
+ hits 3 relevant types in the current meta, with artifacts being a very useful addition against urza, affinity, tron
+ instant speed
- technically highest cmc since sinkhole has delve
- also the most difficult to cast in terms of color

My take is: you probably can run 2 sinkholes if you run a full playset of thought scours. Without thought scours, even a single sinkhole will not be feasible since without the GY support it's basically dead until the midgame, which is too late against the problematic w6 and smol teferi. Dreadbore is probably a must, the question is, 1 or 2? Bedevil is not something to sleep on for the decks that only splash R. It's quite a real contender for the 3-slot if Kommand is being given up.

Q: Can I play Indomitable Creativity in Modern competitively?

A: Yes, you can.

Welcome to the humble primer for my brew, Sword & Shield. Yes, I could have called it something boring like Mardu creativity or Nahiri Creativity, but I prefer my deck names with some history and lore in it. This deck was originally conceived as go-wide aggro with a possible plan B of pulling in Emrakul, the Aeons Torn with Indomitable Creativity. If you'd like to read about the concept, development and previous iterations of the deck, open the spoiler below.
Glossary
Here's a few terms I will use in the primer and will be useful during discussion. They make discussion less clunky.


The beauty of this deck is that it combos, but the potential "blowouts" are minimal. For instance, a well timed bolt to Baral when you're floating 1 mana and Past in Flames is on the stack, path/push to Restoration Angel after you tap out for kiki, Assassin's Trophy/Bolt at Saheeli and so on, typically leave the combo attempter in a very bad position. In this deck, being denied the combo typically doesn't result in such a situation. Additionally, we don't get hit by meta hate such as RIP, Stony Silence, leylines. Ensnaring Bridge is one way to stop emrakul, but creativity can be cast for 2 or 3, and include the bridge as a target.
The deck threatens the opponent on 2 axes - they have to survive your tokens and burn, and also watch out for the combo via creativity or if Nahiri is on the board looking for her Wifi signal. They want to attack Nahiri, but they risk being chumped. They want to remove tokens to minimize damage, but they also want to save spot removal for your Creativity targets. They want to spend mana to wipe the board on their turn, but they risk getting comboed out by flash tokens and creativity. By this virtue, it is exceedingly common to win by attack steps and just finishing out with reach. That's right - you're playing splinter twin.
If you always wanted a deck that:

1. had a higher chance to ult Nahiri,
2. play indomitable creativity in modern,
3. will Annihilator 6 opponents often,
4. or are a big fan of having people gawk at incredible boardstates and ask "how the heck did this happen",

then please, read on.

The deck is in its third iteration, and by third I don't mean a couple of card changes here and there. The deck list is below, and its previous iterations and philosophies are described in the History Spoiler above. If you're a budget conscious player, you'd be interested in versions 1 and 2, since they're considerably cheap.
I have sorted the deck by purpose as opposed to card type for easy analysis, critique and planning.


Version 3.2 10 Jan 2019


Post Faithless Looting Ban September 2019



I'm going to talk about the key cards in this deck - their nuances, tips and tricks to using the cards, and how they were included, if not already apparent.



The turn 3 Emrakul:
To execute this requires you to,
1. Turn 1 Legion's Landing
2. Turn 2 any 2 cmc token generator, preferably Raise the Alarm for that instant speed.
3. Turn 3 Attack with 3 tokens, flip Legion's landing, play your 4th land, and Go for 1. You might hit the Shield, which is a bummer. Imagine that, Iona on turn 3 being a bummer. Go ahead, moan loudly at your opponent. "Oh MAN, its JUST Iona. Curse my poor luck."
4. Ignore the glare from across the table.

How not to get fizzled when Going for X:
If playing against an opponent you suspect has instant speed removal, go for a high X. If they have 1 card left in hand, going for 2 pretty much guarantees you'll at least get to go for 1, and so on. The more tokens and mana you have, the harder it will be to stop you. The cleanest answers to Creativity are in blue: counterspells, which means you get to keep your tokens anyway so its a 1-for-1 trade or at worst they may have Cryptic Commanded it and drawn a card. Against URx, watch out for Electrolyze. Postboard against blue decks like Storm, look out for Echoing Truths. If you suspect echoing truths, try to hit tokens of different names, such as 1 Soldier token and 1 Spirit token, to avoid getting fizzled. If course, there is always end-step Mardu Charm, discard mode.

Creatively comboing and dealing with hate:
As has been mentioned a couple of times above, you can hit opposing problematic artifacts or creatures with Creativity. An O Stone without the mana to activate can be destroyed while you Go for 1 or 2. Likewise, you can hit Ensnaring bridge. These are the 2 commonly played cards that will allow an opponent an out to your Sword and Shield.

Slow Rolling:
Against interactive opponents, the key to winning is to slow roll. Unless you're on the defensive for Nahiri, there is absolutely no pressure to overextend. If you have a Virtue on the table, it becomes all the more problematic for the opponent. Remove opposing threats with your removal suite and chip, chip, chip away. Then, when the opponent cracks and taps out for their threat or wipe, Flash tokens and Go for 2.

Charming the blue/control mage:
The deck has only 2 maindeck target discard, and they're built into the swiss knife Mardu Charm. If the blue mage has been holding up their mana for your big creative turn, Charm them on your end step and duress them. They now have 3 options: use their removal now, counter your charm, or do nothing. If they use their removal now, and you don't see another removal, you know you can flash in more tokens or simply continue slow rolling and not have wasted a creativity to a fizzle. If they counter the charm, they are down a precious counterspell and mana. If they do nothing, you get to check. 2 counterspells or 2 removals in hand? Record the info and continue chipping. If the opponent taps out for anger or supreme verdict, they'll soon understand this deck plays "splinter twin": end step Raise the Alarm or Mardu Charm for tokens, and Go for 2.

Lands:
There are 2 tricky spells in the deck: Creativity with its triple red and Mardu Charm with, well, Mardu. The filter lands help a great deal with triple red, so your fetch choices can be more or less catered to varying your mana appropriately. Rugged Prairie is key in this deck because the turn 3 Creativity execution involves Adanto, which produces straight white.

Sideboard:
The board is pretty straightforward - you have your white hate cards for Affinity and Tron (Stony Silence), GY decks (Rest in Peace), anti-Tron and efficient manland hate in Alpine Moon, flexible removal in Wear Tear. Thoughtseizes for opposing combo or to check control hands before comboing off, and Timely Reinforcements because sometimes burn just has the godhand and this is the only way you're going to survive while advancing your plan A.
Boros Charm is double duty - comes in control matches to buff up the aggro plan in case comboing off becomes too hairy, and also renders Nahiri and your board indestructible in response to wipes, Trophies, O Stones.
Helix is likewise here for control matches for additional reach, while also improving the burn and other such aggro match ups. It helped a lot against Creeping Chill Dredge, thats for sure.
Additional Intangible Virtues are for those matches where you want to lean toward aggro and away from combo. You typically drop Nahiris for these, since your tokens wouldn't be blocking.

Game 1 - Double threat the opponent with tokens aggro and combo, twin style, sometimes as early as turn 3.
Games 2 and 3 - Blank their sideboard by becoming a pure aggro/burn deck, or go deeper into combo with hand hate and protection with Boros charm.
If you've made it this far, thank you for your interest in the deck. I hope I've piqued your interest with this humble brew, and I look forward to any feedback, or even your experiences with this list after trying it out.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to annihilator 6 someone.

from my perspective Kess is on the same power-level-ish as 1UBR Nicol Bolas (NBR). You get immediate value (flashback 1 card vs opponent discards). Kess wins on this point.

NBR hits harder for a 5 turn clock in the air, Kess hits for 3, likewise in the air.
NBR has a much stronger top-end, but Kess keeps giving every turn as long as your GY is stocked, without any further input from the pilot (apart from the casting cost of the spell).

Perhaps the trickiest part of the equation is Kess needs you to keep her alive, which is best done with counterspells, but then her ability works best with discard, which puts tension on your deckbuilding choices. She wants Dreadbores, Rise // Fall, Inquisition of Kozilek, but she needs Countersquall, Cryptic Command, Spell Pierce.

Next question is - does she outdo the other 4 cmc sorcery-speed threat, JTMS? That appears to be on a whole other wavelength but make no mistake, they're in direction competition for the same slots in this deck. In fact JTMS despite being another permanent type probably has more in common with Kess than NBR, although Kess shares the same vulnerabilities as NBR.

Aria of Flame is super interesting. As far as the math goes, after you cast this you need to string 7-8 spells to "overcome" the 10 life granted. If we ritual into this on turn 2, it's very likely we'll kill our opponent turn 3, and their spot removal won't mean a thing, we don't have to care about surgical extractions, and we won't be needing a graveyard to hit that number. Would I be exaggerating if I said this might be even better than grapeshot in our deck?

Quote from jokerstyle00 »

What do people think of Vivien's Arkbow for filtering in mid/late game? Might help convert some of the useless dorks into threats in a more creature heavy version.

I think you'll probably be better served by the bow user herself, Vivien Reid. Does the filtering you're looking for, can also serve up removal or defend herself in a pinch. Not a very interesting ultimate, though.

I see a couple of issues with using Dryad arbor as your fodder.

1. There is a nonzero chance that you might not draw any of your 12 fetches when you want to, or you might need the fetch to correct your mana and then be left dry with combo in the hand and no fodder.

2. With only a singleton fodder in your deck, a single removal spell will mean multiple dead cards in your deck until you can get saheeli online and produce some tokens from there. More token generation would be good, since you have 6 combo cards.

Recommendations in blue:
Cloudform - doesn't get picked up by creativity, but can be used to create a 2/2 hexproof. jokes on you if you accidentally manifest the payoff card, though.
Callous Dismissal - bounce something, make a token, at instant speed. Use it defensively in conjunction with your combo, or just deal with an ensnaring bridge.

1 instant and/or 1 sorcery, sir. 2 sorceries, no can do.

Quote from Ym1r »

What are you guys talking about? This Bolas ROCKS! Comes in at a reasonable casting cost, protects himself, draws cards while discarding opponent cards (or even exiling permanents if they don't have cards) and his ultimate says "win the game". Also, Play him alongside Jace, 2 brainstorms in 1 turn.

I think its teferi pushing the bar upwards that makes even this decent bolas feel inadequate. I mean, 3WU vs RBBBU. Draw and untap 2 vs draw and oppo discard is pretty even, but I'd prefer to untap in a reactive deck, plus the discard could be irrelevant in the mid to late game. Teferi's minus deals with everything, including indestructible permanents, which will then have to dodge counterspells. bolas only deals with creatures and pw, altho he does do the job permanently. Both ultimates are pretty much on par, since they both spell GG.

So what bolas has going for him is that static ability. If you cast bolas after teferi, you could do anything he can. The downside? Your manabase has to produce RBBBU, while the UW deck can field playsets of Field of Ruin and truckloads of basics.

T1 breeding pool; utopia sprawl or noble hierarch
T2 island, puresight merrow, paradise mantle, equip mantle to merrow.

T3
untap
upkeep - activate puresight merrow any number of times until this Jace is on top.
Draw step - draw the jace
Main phase - play the jace, activate puresight merrow and exile your library. Uptick jace and win.

Comment Hidden

Playing Tasigur in a list with 0 cantrips in it seems very risky. 1of seems maximum. these types of blue jund lists proposed churn through very few cards.

Tasigur also just becomes a much worse card with Scour missing. tapping 3mana for him is unimpressive. tasigur is good on turn 2, or e.g. on turn 5 with cryptic up and similar. tapping out for tasigur on turn 3 is a loosing play in many matchups. too little too slow.

Quote from michaelvogler »

Rock/Jund/and Abzan are pretty much auto wins. If you lose the match then it is entirely on your playing the deck wrong. MVPS include RiP, Zealous Persecution, and Auriok Champion.

Most GBx decks are good match-ups for BW tokens. Auto-win is a bit of an exaggeration. BG has the tools to manage the match-up but BW tokens just isn't common enough to prepare for.

LOL - wow.

I literally made all those changes to the deck myself in the build i made changing it to my tastes.

I felt your landbase was too light, and could easily see that you had too many 4 drops to be carried by it. I also decided to draw your colors closer to 2 primary - Black and Red to cut down on the damage you would take from your manabase. You should only splash white in my opinion. I also immediately felt this deck was perfect for Bitterblossoms, and I actually just got mine in the mail and added them a few days ago.

Still reading your response. Its just that this was so unlikely to see all these changes reflected in how I built my version of your deck it was just uncanny and I had to immediately respond.

Re: Terminus
As far as I can see, there's only one person in this thread arguing that Terminus is busted in a bad way that requires correction. Then there are about 6+ people explaining why that stance is wrong. It's not remotely a universal position, so we don't need to be too invested in debunking it (even if it is pretty outrageous).

Quote from Zephyr Scarlet »

Quote from Wraithpk »

Quote from Zephyr Scarlet »

You talk as if topdecking a Terminus when you're dead on board requires any amount of skill.

So what, do you think control just shouldn't be able to win against explosive aggro decks? Like, if Hollow One flops out three H1s on turn 1, UW just shouldn't have any possible top deck that could save them, they should just lose the game on the spot? No man, that's bull*****. If your deck can do a busted thing in the first couple turns of the game, my deck should have a chance to do a busted thing to answer it.

So give us a busted anti-Terminus tech.

The anti-Terminus tech exists. We've all said it before. Vial and Company rebuild boards at instant speed. Bloodghast doesn't need to be recurred into a Terminus. Nor does Flamewake. Mage can stop it from being cast, Wanderer can counter it. Burn can punch in 6 damage off haste creatures and then ignore Terminus to win off spells. Hardened Scales can bulk up creature lands and then wait to activate them. Storm, KCI, and Tron can ignore Terminus entirely. And all creature-based aggro decks can and should slowly deploy creatures to not overextend; Modern threats are powerful enough that all those decks can threaten wins without overcommmiting critters to the board.

Moreover, UW is neither the most played deck, nor is aggro underplayed or hurt by UW. Aggro is rampant. Aggro players are clearly adapting to the matchup and doing just fine. If you are so personally invested against Terminus strategies, I suggest you examine your own gameplay and see what errors you are making that could be adjusted to shore up your Terminus matchup.

Quote from Zephyr Scarlet »

Just for the record, I am perfectly fine with Terminus and don't think the card should be banned, but the poster above asked why you should be able to do that. Sometimes you're topdecking with Jund and they pay W and steal the game from you. Thoughtseize, Liliana's +1 or Thrun just can't prevent that. A lucky topdeck and you're a goner. Same with Spirits: Selfless Spirit and Spell Queller can't nab the card. Or you managed to win an uphill battle and resolved an Etched Champion that will end the game next turn, but oh I pay W in what's suppossed to be my last draw step and steal the game from you. Sorry, GG. I get that there have to be powerful catch-all answers, but really, if they're allowed to have such a cheap, lopsided answer that makes all games against creature decks "if he topdecks Terminus I lose, if not I win" that prevents graveyard resiliency for such a cheap price that they can keep mana open to counter or kill whatever you drop next, I should be able to play a similar card, be it in Jund, Spirits, Affinity, Humans or whatever.

What you're basically saying is, "I want a card that there is no answer for," and that is a terrible idea. Yeah, if UW finds a Terminus for one of your difficult to deal with threats it can often be what wins them the game, but if they don't find the Terminus they're going to lose to it. You never want cards that can't be answered, that's bad game design, and a big reason why Standard was rancid for years. They were printing powerful strategies without good answers for them.

And the only reason why UW went to playing Terminus was because of the busted stuff people were doing with reduced casting costs and graveyard recursion. You say, "If they have Terminus, I should have something they can't answer," but in reality Terminus is in response to things like Hollow One, Bridgevine, Dredge, and other decks that can swarm the board on turns 1 or 2 and have threats that don't really care about going to the graveyard. Terminus is the only reason why blue control was able to survive in a meta with those decks, so you're looking at things completely backwards if you think Terminus is the problem here.

Hello,

I've been playing for a time, a WR deck, that is could look similar to this one, with good results. My list is more focused on tokens but has also the combo approach. It is not mardu also and I don't play Iona nor Nahiri but other things to improve my game plans.

For reference this is my list:




In my deck I'm using windbrisk heights to cheat the big monsters or the divine visitations (which are the other win con) so for each token spell I play, I get a bunch of angels, while being possible to cast them in long games. Only playing 2 because they are useless in multiples but in the games I've played the visitations I've won.

Also I have the full tokens plan with intangible virtue and so on.

When Indomitable Creativity was spoiled I realized how good it should be in my tokens deck so I changed to Wr without regreting it. Also faithless looting gives you some manipulation so makes the deck more consistent.

I've always doubting and testing one or the other between Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger and blightsteel Colossus. Each one gives you an alternative win con to beat infinite lifes. Right now I'm playing Ulamog because with heights you can cast it, so you have the chance to exile two permanents when you do it. Anyways both options are good enough.

Finally in my SDB I have 1 platinum emperion and 1 gideon against combo and the so. I've always be tempted to play more gideons (more types of gideons also) because they are also very good.

Right now I'm very happy with my list.

Quote from MarcWizard »

given that all the creatures save BBE can be brought back with Claim // Fame, I find it hard to believe it's not here. Even the aftermath half is incredibly relevant in this deck, according haste and additional power to any creature you cast later on, or simply to the creature you just claimed.

I would readily push Trophy to the sideboard and include something which pushes your plan A, after all you are "violent". Trophy causes tension in your decision trees, because do you want to ramp your opponent when you're the beatdown? The creatures are great but if you want to push damage through, some number of Rancor would also work very nicely with your non-tramply boys. We don't want to be chump blocked do we?

PS: nice brew man, keep on going! I love that feeling of bringing a brew to a sanctioned event and killing established decks.

Claim // Fame - I like the way you think. Definitely something worth trying. * goes on list of things to try * The idea of recursion with it and being able to suddenly haste a tarmogoyf sounds pretty awesome.

The Assassin's Trophy thoughts are in advisement. At 2 I usually don't see the card until mid or late game - when a problematic permanent may have found its way onto the field and either slowed or stopped my advance. The card has never proven problematic and is more often the saviour in my experience, but I will take your suggestion into advisement!

Thanks for the response MarcWizard. And I will absolutely keep brewing for the reasons you've described.

PS: Forgot to address Rancor - that sounds really good too. I do like the trample and recursive properties - also being an enchantment should the card fail to return to my hand doesn't hurt for goyf and delirium properties as well. I will put that on my list of cards to try as well.

The abilities do relate- the second ability makes a lifelinking token, which can gain you life.

You guys are going against the last 2 years of posts in this thread. We have always been a nice and constructive community that would ALWAYS listen to opinions and help people needing some advice. What you are doing here is childish and only damages the forum and your reputation. I would kindly ask you to stop this and behave as the rest of the forum has always treated you. Thanks.

Now to the matter. I am very much in line with what emu said. This deck is much better than the tier says, mainly because of the number of players in competitive events. Last two "big" events I have been to were a PPTQ where I went 6th out of 40+ people (7-2-1 I believe), and a MKM modern event where I went 6-4 but with some punting on my side, to be honest. In september I will be taking this deck to GP Stockholm, where OBVIOUSLY I plan to win hehe. I will be making some meta analysis and SB tech in the upcoming weeks, so guys be ready to contribute.

The only thing I disagree with is Legion's Landing. I have tried it before and the card feels really powerful. We dont usually play it turn 1, because most of the people running it run 1 or 2 max. It is however, a free creature if you already have 3 creatures (which doesnt mean you are already winning) and the late game is very powerful. Agree that discard is very important, but give it a try if you havent yet. I am currently playing 2 of them. Along with 6 discard spells, 2 CB, 2 Lilianas, I dont feel I need more disruption than that.

This deck is sadly dead in the water at the minute. We can fight after SB but man it's in a bad spot. I haven't sleeved up Ponza since like Febuary