Where is everyone at on Chord right now in the deck? I've seen most trimming to only two chords or even less. I'm on zero at the moment and haven't really missed it one bit. It seems really slow alongside Evolution. I could see the deck switching between chord and evo based upon meta speed. But with Modern, I can't really see the meta slowing down anytime soon.
I'm not sold on Verdurous Gearhulk. There's only room for so many 5 drops, probably 3 max including Kiki, and I think for the most part Reveillark, Thragtusk, and Cataclysmic Gearhulk are ahead of Verdurous. Reveillark is just impossible for a lot of decks to out-grind, whereas Verdurous loses a lot of impact if it eats a Path, and Supreme Verdict just completely ruins its day.
I'm not entirely sold on him either, but there are situations where I can see him being very good. I'm trying him in Reveillark's stead because running more Kitchen Finks generally loses targets for Reveillark. Most likely I will play him, think he's cute, then go back to Reveillark. I'm still only running about 3 total 5 drops. I think Cataclysmic is generally the better one.
Hey guys, long time lurker on this thread and finally getting to posting. I've been thinking a lot about where this deck is headed with Kaladesh and I ended up on this list of mine.
Some notes:
I'm definitely on the bolt hype train. Played with these last few weeks WITH birds and liked it a lot. The extra removal and reach we get from it is great and lets us survive much better than just 3-4 paths.
No chords right now. I know, I know. Kiki chord and all, but this deck just doesn't spew out a huge board of creatures so consistently like it used to. With Evolution we sac a lot of creatures, so our board doesn't really grow super big early. As well, we run a lot of 4+ drops so chording those guys out is... hard. Usually chord is stuck in hand and all you can get is a 1 or 2 drop, so I'm trying without it for awhile. I could be easily convinced to run 1-2 of them if the meta is right and the deck is going where they would be useful again.
Gearhulks! Eldrazi can be tough for us, and there are plenty of other wide strategies that don't immediately die to a Pontiff. Enter Cataclysmic Gearhulk. What he means for us is that we play him, keep a creature (even two if we have Courser out)plus him and our opponent sacs some stuff if they have more than one creature. Extra points if your opponent runs a lot of artifacts like Lantern. Even against Affinity this seems decent.
Verdurous Gearhulk seems like a huge fatty and nothing more. I'd like to think he represents a ton more than that. Think of it this way. When we play him we get the equivalent of a mini gavony activation on board, along with a nice 4/4 trampler. He immediately impacts board when he comes down, just not in a crazy flash utility way. All of our small stuff needs a bit of extra reach to close out games and block effectively and he seems to be a decent solution. Not to mention he gets really cute with Kitchen Finks off an evolution. Sac finks, persist him before the gearhulk gets searched out by evo, when the gearhulk enters you can cancel out the -1/-1 counter and spread the rest of the counters to your team.
I'm also shocked to see almost no mention of Chandra, Torch of Defiance in this forum. Have we considered her as an option for a value walker? Even if she doesn't serve as a win-con like Nahiri, we've seen that walkers can have some grind value in our deck. Her first plus is pseudo card advantage instead of pseudo card filtering like Nahiri, and her second plus fixes/ramps us for our 5+ drops and Kiki. Her minus kills almost anything seen in modern and her ult obviously wins the game. If I can get my hands on a few copies I could see testing her as a 2 of.
Where is everyone at on Chord right now in the deck? I've seen most trimming to only two chords or even less. I'm on zero at the moment and haven't really missed it one bit. It seems really slow alongside Evolution. I could see the deck switching between chord and evo based upon meta speed. But with Modern, I can't really see the meta slowing down anytime soon.
I'm not entirely sold on him either, but there are situations where I can see him being very good. I'm trying him in Reveillark's stead because running more Kitchen Finks generally loses targets for Reveillark. Most likely I will play him, think he's cute, then go back to Reveillark. I'm still only running about 3 total 5 drops. I think Cataclysmic is generally the better one.
Some notes:
I'm also shocked to see almost no mention of Chandra, Torch of Defiance in this forum. Have we considered her as an option for a value walker? Even if she doesn't serve as a win-con like Nahiri, we've seen that walkers can have some grind value in our deck. Her first plus is pseudo card advantage instead of pseudo card filtering like Nahiri, and her second plus fixes/ramps us for our 5+ drops and Kiki. Her minus kills almost anything seen in modern and her ult obviously wins the game. If I can get my hands on a few copies I could see testing her as a 2 of.
Thoughts?