I'm really not sure how I feel about this deck right now :/
Unless Gravecrawler 5-8 gets printed, it just feels strictly worse than dredge when it comes to aggro. Right now I'm thinking it would be strongest as a midrange (leaning towards aggro) deck with utility spells that help the gameplan (lightning axe, darkblast, collective brutality, etc.)
I playtested an all in (dredgeless) aggro version with the Varolz + Shadow combo dumped in. I didn't really expect it to work (it didn't) even with 2 lead the stampede and playsets of looting and salvage. On average, it was a turn too slow and would overkill the last turn.
I've been slowly reworking it a few cards at a time and this is where I'm at right now
4 vine
4 crawler
4 Lotleth
2 grim Flayer (as troll 5&6 kinda)
4 birds of paradise
3 varolz
3 deaths shadow
3 bloodghast
2 flamewake phoenix (haven't tested yet, used to be 1 ghast and 1 collective Brutality
I agree that Fetch is the way to go.
I only play 19 lands. I understand 20-21 lands is the hotspot, but I was having awful mana flooded opening hands somehow with 20 lands, and swapping out that last land for another enabler made worlds of difference for my consistency.
I run
4x of each of the relevant fetches
(Foothills/mire)
2x blood crypt
2x stomping ground
1x steam vents
1x overgrown tomb (because sometimes BB is super relevant)
1x swamp, mountain, forest for the obvious reasons
And then 2x Dakmor salvage of course.
Usually my plan is to fetch Stomping Grounds first (and I almost always have at least 1 fetch in my opener.)
Then I cover my 2nd red most of the time, unless I really need the black more. Sometimes you can do both at once with blood crypt obviously. I almost always go for basics on land 3 just to save some pain.
On average I take 4-5 damage from my mana per game, which is pretty standard for Modern and the only game it's lost me so far was a test game against myself with UR Storm.
Anyways, instant speed EoT landfall triggers have been relevant for me more often than not, and in grindy matches the rainbow lands could do enough damage to lose a game you should've won
I don't see how Narcomoeba is terrible lol. It's a free Amalgam activation and another (tiny) body on the board but with Bushwhacker effects from Rally the Peasants or Scourge Devil that 2 or 3 power can really add up. Also is gargadon/bridge food if you run that
I was in the process of building vine but I'm just switching to dredge. Vine seems a lot more fun and you get to use cooler creatures, but you have to jump through so many more hoops that Dredge doesn't
Yeah I was wondering that too. It looks super fragile and like the only way to set it off is sacrifice insolent neonate EoT and yolo for a narcomoeba on the dredge since they don't typically run fetches. I understand why it's faster but it looks so much weaker to control and GY hate.
Also, does anyone know if the Varolz and Reanimator packages play well together in the same build? I'm assuming not, due to the lack of dredge in the varolz build?
Unless Gravecrawler 5-8 gets printed, it just feels strictly worse than dredge when it comes to aggro. Right now I'm thinking it would be strongest as a midrange (leaning towards aggro) deck with utility spells that help the gameplan (lightning axe, darkblast, collective brutality, etc.)
I playtested an all in (dredgeless) aggro version with the Varolz + Shadow combo dumped in. I didn't really expect it to work (it didn't) even with 2 lead the stampede and playsets of looting and salvage. On average, it was a turn too slow and would overkill the last turn.
I've been slowly reworking it a few cards at a time and this is where I'm at right now
4 vine
4 crawler
4 Lotleth
2 grim Flayer (as troll 5&6 kinda)
4 birds of paradise
3 varolz
3 deaths shadow
3 bloodghast
2 flamewake phoenix (haven't tested yet, used to be 1 ghast and 1 collective Brutality
4 looting
4 salvage
1 darkblast
1 brutality
2 lightning axe
19 lands, fetch/shock/basic pool
Haven't had any mana issues yet
Any suggestions?
(This is just a for fun deck and something to use against newer players in my group. I bring Dredge to tournaments)
I only play 19 lands. I understand 20-21 lands is the hotspot, but I was having awful mana flooded opening hands somehow with 20 lands, and swapping out that last land for another enabler made worlds of difference for my consistency.
I run
4x of each of the relevant fetches
(Foothills/mire)
2x blood crypt
2x stomping ground
1x steam vents
1x overgrown tomb (because sometimes BB is super relevant)
1x swamp, mountain, forest for the obvious reasons
And then 2x Dakmor salvage of course.
Usually my plan is to fetch Stomping Grounds first (and I almost always have at least 1 fetch in my opener.)
Then I cover my 2nd red most of the time, unless I really need the black more. Sometimes you can do both at once with blood crypt obviously. I almost always go for basics on land 3 just to save some pain.
On average I take 4-5 damage from my mana per game, which is pretty standard for Modern and the only game it's lost me so far was a test game against myself with UR Storm.
Anyways, instant speed EoT landfall triggers have been relevant for me more often than not, and in grindy matches the rainbow lands could do enough damage to lose a game you should've won
I was in the process of building vine but I'm just switching to dredge. Vine seems a lot more fun and you get to use cooler creatures, but you have to jump through so many more hoops that Dredge doesn't
Also, does anyone know if the Varolz and Reanimator packages play well together in the same build? I'm assuming not, due to the lack of dredge in the varolz build?