Doing a quick search on recent decks that contain Crucible of Worlds, I found a Green White Company deck (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/692848#paper) with a one-of Crucible maindeck and another in the sideboard that 5-0'd a league, using a one-of Azusa and Ghost Quarters to lock out people with a low basic count, as well as Knight of the Reliquary for the value. Of course, it's easier to kill an Excavator than a Crucible, but with a four-of Collected Company, you could run maybe two or three of the Naga maindeck, and it seems like it might be what this build of CoCo needs to make it a real thing.
Speaking of Landfall, you could do some pretty fun stuff with Lotus Cobra. Turn four, you could chain together any number of Primeval Titan/clones of it, by grabbing two fetches with with the ETB trigger. You could even set up with an Uncage the Menagerie X=4, to find Phyrexian Metamorph, Clever Impersonator, Clone, and Rite of Replication, which you could actually pay the kicker for after playing the Phyrexian Metamorph and another Clone effect, which I find absolutely hilarious. This doesn't directly tie in to Ramunap Excavator, but it could be good for value, if you're running so many fetchlands.
Having said that, i'm going to invest heavily in Lotus Cobra now.
Yeah, it might work in Scapeshift, but, to my understanding of the deck, the Excavator's only significant use is to help you hit your land drops, and only then if you're running fetches, which isn't all that common, because you need a certain density of Mountains in your deck. Once you cast Scapeshift, that should be the game, so getting those lands back should be irrelevant. Then again, I've never tried playing Scapeshift, so I may just be missing something.
Yeah, its weakness to pretty much all creature removal does make it worse than Crucible of Worlds in that sense, so I figured Coco would be the biggest incentive to run it. I'm pretty sure you're right, that you can play the land before it gets shot.
Actually, thinking of the MTG Goldfish article on GW Emeria when Renegade Rallier was printed (ultimately, it was decided that Renegade Rallier did not make GW Emeria better than UW Emeria), could this be the card to do the trick? It gets recurred by Sun Titan, and gets more lands toward the having an active Emeria.
Does Ramunap Excavator have a home in Modern?
It seems so good, but where does it belong?
I have to think it either shows up in traditional CoCo decks as value, replaying fetchlands from the graveyard, in a crazy Abzan Pox list or Death Cloud, or in a super janky build of CoCo. In terms of the Coco brew, you could try to lock people out of the game with Ghost Quarters, or just ramp up by replaying fetches to get value from a Duskwatch Recruiter and win with Rhonas. You could even toss in the Druid-Vizier combo, and give it a transformational sideboard to dodge hate. If that depends on the Excavator too much, you could use a couple of copies Crucible of Worlds might give it more consistency.
But really, is a spicy Excavator brew like that actually going to be better in any way than just playing Counters Company or something of the like, and if not, where else does our little Naga Cleric go?
Speaking of Landfall, you could do some pretty fun stuff with Lotus Cobra. Turn four, you could chain together any number of Primeval Titan/clones of it, by grabbing two fetches with with the ETB trigger. You could even set up with an Uncage the Menagerie X=4, to find Phyrexian Metamorph, Clever Impersonator, Clone, and Rite of Replication, which you could actually pay the kicker for after playing the Phyrexian Metamorph and another Clone effect, which I find absolutely hilarious. This doesn't directly tie in to Ramunap Excavator, but it could be good for value, if you're running so many fetchlands.
Having said that, i'm going to invest heavily in Lotus Cobra now.
Yeah, its weakness to pretty much all creature removal does make it worse than Crucible of Worlds in that sense, so I figured Coco would be the biggest incentive to run it. I'm pretty sure you're right, that you can play the land before it gets shot.
Actually, thinking of the MTG Goldfish article on GW Emeria when Renegade Rallier was printed (ultimately, it was decided that Renegade Rallier did not make GW Emeria better than UW Emeria), could this be the card to do the trick? It gets recurred by Sun Titan, and gets more lands toward the having an active Emeria.
It seems so good, but where does it belong?
I have to think it either shows up in traditional CoCo decks as value, replaying fetchlands from the graveyard, in a crazy Abzan Pox list or Death Cloud, or in a super janky build of CoCo. In terms of the Coco brew, you could try to lock people out of the game with Ghost Quarters, or just ramp up by replaying fetches to get value from a Duskwatch Recruiter and win with Rhonas. You could even toss in the Druid-Vizier combo, and give it a transformational sideboard to dodge hate. If that depends on the Excavator too much, you could use a couple of copies Crucible of Worlds might give it more consistency.
But really, is a spicy Excavator brew like that actually going to be better in any way than just playing Counters Company or something of the like, and if not, where else does our little Naga Cleric go?