Not sure if this is the right sub to talk about this, but I played Todd Steven's GW "ValueTown" deck here https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/692848#paper with -1 Finks -1 Crucible +2 Ramunap Excavator in a comp league. Started out 3-0 but ended 3-2 losing to Ad Naus and Infect. It was my first time playing the deck but I now see the glaring weaknesses. I felt like I could never win in a million years against Ad Naus, and probably any non-interactive decks in general. Excavator was fine though. Felt good with Ghost Quarter, and combined well with Azusa. Although I felt like I had an overabundance of "get extra land" abilities between courser and excavator and Knight. I missed Reflector Mage a lot. And with the GW version, casting CoCo doesn't have any good instant speed effects. You just get knights, Coursers, Excavators, etc., no reflector mages, quellers, or staticasters like traditional knightfall.
The only way you're winning that MU is Strip Mining them into oblivion since their deck had no basics and stony Silence turns off their rocks and lotus bloom
Unless you think it's necessary, Bazooka Boging an Abzan Midrange deck isn't as great as just resolving a Scavenging Ooze. The Bojuka Bog is in the Sideboard mainly as a hedge towards various graveyard strategies that are difficult to beat. The thing is, the majority of graveyard strategies that you'll face with Bant Knightfall can be beaten handly with Spell Queller, Scavenging Ooze, Unified Will/Deprive/Negate/Dispel, and Gaddock Teeg & Eidolon.
I think you're asking the wrong question. What I believe you're trying to ask is if there is a Collected Company deck that plays Goyf because it's coherent with its game plan. I don't think it does better in any Company deck other than Naya. It just doesn't do anything other than attack or block.
Having 8 ways to play a turn 2 Knight, or any other 3 drop, is a big deal. Being able to play 3 drops at an early rapid pace is what makes the deck. The power of playing a T2 Knight is unparalleled compared to a T3 Knight. Yes, it is a poor top deck but the extra body and mana it provides is perfect with Knight's ability to fetch Gavony Township and Kessig Wolf Run. We don't have Deathrite Shaman and Green Sun's Zenith as mana dorks. They are the kind of cards that are extremely powerful early game (Turn One DRS or GSZ for Dryad Arbor into turn Two Knight of the Reliquary) and equally as powerful late game (DRS is a planeswalker KEK, GSZ into Knight, Tracker, etc). If you can find purpose later in the game or mitigate their low impact then 8 is a fine choice. Some ways include:
- Gavony Township
- Kessig Wolf Run
- Vizier of the Menagerie and Courser of Kruphix (you can play mana dorks off the top of your deck alongside lands from courser)
- Tireless Tracker clues (extra mana)
- Lifecrafter's Beastiary
- Eldritch Evolution
- Voice of Resurgence Token
- Evolutionary Leap
- Retreat to Coralhelm + Mana dork is effectively Lotus Cobra
Testing with Goyf it just feels so out of place and often times you question whether or not the extra power and toughness is worth replacing your set of Voices and what not.
Nissa is just so bad if you don't play her on turn 2. Adding a ton of power isn't as relevant as adding numerous bodies that are RELEVANT in regards to their stats or the impact they have on the board. If you wanted weak tokens, you should just play Elspeth, Knight-Errant. It floods your board with 1/1 creatures and can turn those 1/1's into lethal 4/4 Flying Serrra Angel threats.
It's because her value is way under from a value engine perspective. You might as well play Domri, which CAN generate insane value from +1, kill their creatures, and an ultimate that offers a more reliable method of killing your opponent as opposed to making 2 5/5s that can just die.
A one of seems great. It can be a game winning top deck when the situation provides you with the opportunities to do these amazing things you just mentioned.
But if you look at this configuration of his sideboard, it literally has no silver bullets. It might as well be another Tireless Tracker, or another powerful sideboard card like Blessed Alliance or a tech land for Knight of the Reliquary. His sideboard is incredibly solid and the Eldritch Evolution is just a personal choice of his. When we speak ill of Eldritch Evolution, it's because people decide to play a variety of creatures alongside Eldritch Evolution, when in reality all they're doing is diluting the overall power and potency of their sideboard slots. In comparison to Kelvin Chew's sideboard for the traditional Bant Knightfall list, his sideboard is incredibly dense and doesn't spread thin towards 1-of bullets. He's using it to improve the creature count of the ones he thickens his creature line up with, which becomes more of a personal preference and how comfortable you are with that choice.
This isn't to say that I think that it's horrible, but depending on context and configuration, it is foolish to have it unless your entire 75 is incredibly tight.
I think you made the point we're trying to make. It's a SIDEBOARD card. It's verily important that your sideboard cards are either stone cold killers like Rest in Peace, or is quite potent in combating a variety of different match-ups, such as Izzet Staticaster. Modern, while it isn't ACTUALLY a turn 3-4 format, is quite fast. To my mind, it doesn't seem quite powerful to be paying 2 mana for Voice of Resurgence and then another 3 mana to sacrifice it to get a hate creature that will probably not win the game. Yes, openings with Noble Hierarch and Eldritch Evolution are great, it's just the same as drawing a powerful sideboard card that will impact the situation immediately, while being more efficient than Eldritch Evolution.
I think it's far too idealistic to consider Eldritch Evolution as a second copy of your sideboard creatures. How many games develop where Eldritch Evolution is that godsend sideboard slot where it gives you that creature to tutor and win the game? Also, you only have a single copy of it within the entire 75. You're going to dilute your sideboard with a myriad of Silver Bullets (that will just die the same way any other creature will) just for the chance at satisfying the theory that Eldritch Evolution will allow you to spread your sideboard density thin while being efficient. It is no Green Sun's Zenith, nor is the creature you're usually getting going to win the game in a landslide fashion. That's why it's a more attractive design to play less kinds of different creatures, and increase the density of very potent creatures like Eidolon of Rhetoric, Izzet Staticaster, Gaddock Teeg and the like. I don't disagree that it's nice to have Eldritch Evolution to have some sort of control over how the particular game will go, but it's not nearly as good as Chord of Calling and doesn't offer the flexibility and efficiency of the sorely missed Green Sun's Zenith.
I think it's verily important to have flexibility for the Modern Format considering it's sooooo wide but with Bant Knightfall, it's clearly evident what MU you are poor at. However, if you define those decks within their archetypes, you can just play very potent sideboard cards for those archetypes rather than the single deck.
The only way you're winning that MU is Strip Mining them into oblivion since their deck had no basics and stony Silence turns off their rocks and lotus bloom
- Gavony Township
- Kessig Wolf Run
- Vizier of the Menagerie and Courser of Kruphix (you can play mana dorks off the top of your deck alongside lands from courser)
- Tireless Tracker clues (extra mana)
- Lifecrafter's Beastiary
- Eldritch Evolution
- Voice of Resurgence Token
- Evolutionary Leap
- Retreat to Coralhelm + Mana dork is effectively Lotus Cobra
This isn't to say that I think that it's horrible, but depending on context and configuration, it is foolish to have it unless your entire 75 is incredibly tight.
I think it's verily important to have flexibility for the Modern Format considering it's sooooo wide but with Bant Knightfall, it's clearly evident what MU you are poor at. However, if you define those decks within their archetypes, you can just play very potent sideboard cards for those archetypes rather than the single deck.