I'm just back from GP San Jose, where I played in 5 modern side events (4 rounds each). I don't have a full tournament report, but I do have a few notes.
I played a very light white splash (1 temple garden in the main) for two paths in the board for most of the event. Having played this for most of my rounds I highly recommend playing with 1-2 temple garden (for path/stony silence)
Renegade is the real deal. I won multiple games on the back of deathtouch+rancor (Merfolk was much more winnable) and having a 2/3 turn 1 was devastating to burn. That deathtouch interaction makes me want to try Bow of Nylea again.
I wasn't as impressed by the Elephant, but I'll still play it at 1 or 2. I cut one for a path today and I liked having a path in the main.
I think that heroic intervention deserves further testing. Saving the team from a wipe (even damnation!) is nothing to scoff at and blanking Spreading seas/Ghost quarter is also useful in certain matchups.
The bit about it only making me break even is very true since I'm trying to go revolt (4 renegades only, 7 fetches) and I'm playing a super light W splash for two paths in the board (1 shock in the 75). It mirrors my experience with the way scooze used to put me ahead and now it just makes me break even.
That said, I think that they're more versatile than both feed the clan and feeder.
I think I'll try 3 in the board for the side events at gp sj. I already have them, so I'm not losing anything if it doesn't work out.
Has anyone tested Kitchen Finks in the board? It seems like it could be very effective in grindier matches and is more proactive than Feed the Clan vs Burn.
I know it gets smaller when it dies, but it's still really nice to have a removal-reailient creature that gains life and gives devotion.
I wouldn't write off Elephant so quickly. It's also a repeating revolt trigger that doesn't cost life. In your deck, which seems like it's very dependant on hitting revolt consistently, I'd definitely try it as a 2-of.
I haven't tested this very much (7 games on Untap) so take this with a grain of salt, but I'm having some reservations about going all-in on fetches as a way of triggering revolt.
What reservations I have may be colored by the fact that I played half my games against burn, but regardless I feel that taking anywhere from 2-4 damage from fetches every game hinders the deck more than I expected and is unacceptable. It made me feel like the incidental life gain I had (scooze) was making me break even from fetches instead of putting me ahead on damage.
In addition, I often felt like I was forced to play the Fetches as Forests that pinged me. This came up more than I would have liked it to. Turn two, if I didn't have a Renegade, I was often forced to play a fetch to stay on curve. I imagine that this issue is made less glaring by the lowering of my curve, but I don't have evidence to back this up.
Finally, Fetches are one use only for triggering revolt. If I use them without gaining advantage off of them, as I mentioned above, they provide me with no value at all in addition to damaging me.
@amicdeep
The biggest problem with using Evolving Wilds to trigger Revolt is that the Forest comes into play tapped. This means that you can't use it to play a turn-one Renegade, which is the main advantage normal fetches have over, say, Greenbelt Rampager. The land coming into play tapped also means that if you don't use it to trigger Revolt, it ****s up your curve for nothing.
Speaking of Greenbelt Rampager, I think that it is a solid fix to all of my problems with Fetches. It provides me with a recurring Revolt trigger, and it is much less painful. I think that having eight Revolt procs is the right amount to have in the deck. It also has crazy synergy with Experiment One as has been mentioned before.
I think it's too soon to say for sure how eight fetches work in practice, but I'm going to start practicing with this list for the time being.
Also, @amicdeep, I understand if your budget isn't there, but definitely consider buying a set of Foothills in the future. They're incredibly valuable to have and they are virtually guaranteed to continue being useful for you beyond Stompy. They are very low right now and they will hold their value (if not grow) in the years to come. The same is true for Windswept heath, but it's played in fewer decks and is less likely to gain value over time since it was reprinted in a precon.
Oops, Kessig Prowler should be Kalonian Tusker my bad.
Fetches do make me marginally weaker to blood moon, but I think that I'd only see it game 1 against decks that main it. I don't think most people would keep it in since I'm only fetching basic Forests, but I could be wrong.
Pit-Skulk is cool and I've tried him before. He's super evasive, which I like. With more one-drops, he might have a place since it's less likely that he's my only one-drop on turn one.
4x Aspect worked well last night in a list with a very similar Devotion distribution. Renegade seems to fit perfectly and I don't think I'll have trouble triggering him t1 with eight fetches. If I do have trouble, I may splurge and pick up two Verdant Catacombs, but I hope it doesn't come to that.
I feel that this list is clean and powerful. Any thoughts?
So I'm back with results from FNM regarding Young Wolf, though I'm not sure it matters anymore. It wasn't great and I look forward to playing Narnam Renegade in its place. I didn't play @Beachweed's exact build (IIRC, mine was -1 Tusker, -1 wolf, -1 treetop village, +1 forest, +2 Defense), but I wasn't impressed. I boarded it out against most of my matchups. I did find the lower curve effective, though. Surprisingly so. I never thought that I'd like not haveing any Baloths or Elders so much.
Here's a brief report. I went 3-1 at ChannelFireball'a Modern FNM.
Round one just sucked: 0-2 vs Lantern Control. I got him down to one or two both games, but he was able to stabilize both games (Bridge=gg). I brought in two Natural States, but they didn't do much, not that I had high expectations. 0-1
Round two went well: 2-1 vs Abzan company. The game I lost I tried to force him to pay life with spellskite. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that he had two blue open... Wolf didn't shine here either, but his only removal was path, so idk. 1-1
Round three was incredible: 2-0 vs U Tron. Game 1, I drew the nuts and had the biggest board I've ever had with this deck. I knew pretty quickly that his deck was super slow, so I played greedily to make the board super dumb. pic. He had an o-stone, but it didn't save him b/c e1. I didn't see young wolf this match. 2-1
Round four could have been worse: 20 vs Jeskai Control. Game 1 he let me win by not cliquing away my Aspect. Aspect had me one off of lethal on board and he saw that I had an e1 in hand, but he let me keep it for some reason. Game 2 he mulled to 3 and I kept a good hand.
Young wolf wasn't good, but having 11 one-drops was. Again, looking forward to playing Renegade at the GP.
Yeah, none of this stuff looks exciting. It's only the first day of spoilers, so I'm still holding out for a broken green one-drop.
I agree that Defense is necessary. It works well with Aspect and allows me to use my Vines as disruption against Infect. I'm running two right now, and they've been nice.
Yeah I play 7 green fetches, but I could go up to 8.
I played a very light white splash (1 temple garden in the main) for two paths in the board for most of the event. Having played this for most of my rounds I highly recommend playing with 1-2 temple garden (for path/stony silence)
Renegade is the real deal. I won multiple games on the back of deathtouch+rancor (Merfolk was much more winnable) and having a 2/3 turn 1 was devastating to burn. That deathtouch interaction makes me want to try Bow of Nylea again.
I wasn't as impressed by the Elephant, but I'll still play it at 1 or 2. I cut one for a path today and I liked having a path in the main.
I think that heroic intervention deserves further testing. Saving the team from a wipe (even damnation!) is nothing to scoff at and blanking Spreading seas/Ghost quarter is also useful in certain matchups.
Idk. That event was sweet.
That said, I think that they're more versatile than both feed the clan and feeder.
I think I'll try 3 in the board for the side events at gp sj. I already have them, so I'm not losing anything if it doesn't work out.
I know it gets smaller when it dies, but it's still really nice to have a removal-reailient creature that gains life and gives devotion.
I'm playing seven fetches for it so I'm not super worried about never drawing into a white source.
What reservations I have may be colored by the fact that I played half my games against burn, but regardless I feel that taking anywhere from 2-4 damage from fetches every game hinders the deck more than I expected and is unacceptable. It made me feel like the incidental life gain I had (scooze) was making me break even from fetches instead of putting me ahead on damage.
In addition, I often felt like I was forced to play the Fetches as Forests that pinged me. This came up more than I would have liked it to. Turn two, if I didn't have a Renegade, I was often forced to play a fetch to stay on curve. I imagine that this issue is made less glaring by the lowering of my curve, but I don't have evidence to back this up.
Finally, Fetches are one use only for triggering revolt. If I use them without gaining advantage off of them, as I mentioned above, they provide me with no value at all in addition to damaging me.
@amicdeep
The biggest problem with using Evolving Wilds to trigger Revolt is that the Forest comes into play tapped. This means that you can't use it to play a turn-one Renegade, which is the main advantage normal fetches have over, say, Greenbelt Rampager. The land coming into play tapped also means that if you don't use it to trigger Revolt, it ****s up your curve for nothing.
Speaking of Greenbelt Rampager, I think that it is a solid fix to all of my problems with Fetches. It provides me with a recurring Revolt trigger, and it is much less painful. I think that having eight Revolt procs is the right amount to have in the deck. It also has crazy synergy with Experiment One as has been mentioned before.
I think it's too soon to say for sure how eight fetches work in practice, but I'm going to start practicing with this list for the time being.
4 Dryad Militant
4 Experiment One
4 Narnam Renegade
2 Greenbelt Rampager
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Blossoming Defense
3 Dismember
Enchantments
4 Rancor
11 Forest
2 Treetop Village
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
Also, @amicdeep, I understand if your budget isn't there, but definitely consider buying a set of Foothills in the future. They're incredibly valuable to have and they are virtually guaranteed to continue being useful for you beyond Stompy. They are very low right now and they will hold their value (if not grow) in the years to come. The same is true for Windswept heath, but it's played in fewer decks and is less likely to gain value over time since it was reprinted in a precon.
Fetches do make me marginally weaker to blood moon, but I think that I'd only see it game 1 against decks that main it. I don't think most people would keep it in since I'm only fetching basic Forests, but I could be wrong.
Pit-Skulk is cool and I've tried him before. He's super evasive, which I like. With more one-drops, he might have a place since it's less likely that he's my only one-drop on turn one.
4 Dryad Militant
4 Experiment One
4 Narnam Renegade
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Kalonian Tusker
4 Aspect of Hydra
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Blossoming Defense
2 Dismember
Enchantments
4 Rancor
9 Forest
2 Treetop Village
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4x Aspect worked well last night in a list with a very similar Devotion distribution. Renegade seems to fit perfectly and I don't think I'll have trouble triggering him t1 with eight fetches. If I do have trouble, I may splurge and pick up two Verdant Catacombs, but I hope it doesn't come to that.
I feel that this list is clean and powerful. Any thoughts?
Here's a brief report. I went 3-1 at ChannelFireball'a Modern FNM.
Round one just sucked: 0-2 vs Lantern Control. I got him down to one or two both games, but he was able to stabilize both games (Bridge=gg). I brought in two Natural States, but they didn't do much, not that I had high expectations. 0-1
Round two went well: 2-1 vs Abzan company. The game I lost I tried to force him to pay life with spellskite. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that he had two blue open... Wolf didn't shine here either, but his only removal was path, so idk. 1-1
Round three was incredible: 2-0 vs U Tron. Game 1, I drew the nuts and had the biggest board I've ever had with this deck. I knew pretty quickly that his deck was super slow, so I played greedily to make the board super dumb. pic. He had an o-stone, but it didn't save him b/c e1. I didn't see young wolf this match. 2-1
Round four could have been worse: 20 vs Jeskai Control. Game 1 he let me win by not cliquing away my Aspect. Aspect had me one off of lethal on board and he saw that I had an e1 in hand, but he let me keep it for some reason. Game 2 he mulled to 3 and I kept a good hand.
Young wolf wasn't good, but having 11 one-drops was. Again, looking forward to playing Renegade at the GP.
I can take some iteration of a young wolf deck to FNM tomorrow and report back with my results.
I agree that Defense is necessary. It works well with Aspect and allows me to use my Vines as disruption against Infect. I'm running two right now, and they've been nice.