I've been playing this list (or some tweak of it) on Arena for a few days now and think it has huge potential.
I opted to cut the power of a maindeck angels package in favor of going more all-in on the tokens strategy, and so far it has paid-off nicely. If you can land an unanswered Hero things swing in your favor very quickly, and if it is removed the deck will recover VERY quickly.
Deputy of Detention has been a real all-star in this Krasis/WR-dominated meta, and its been rare that I havent been happy to toss one out. The other surprise all-star has been Unbreakable Formation. It is, at worst, sweeper protection, and at best a huge pump and free swing. I am considering adding one more to the maindeck.
I'm not convinced about peek. When I weigh "more information" vs "better draw", I typically want to control my hand more than I care about the exacts of what are in my opponent's. The earlier in the game, the more I care about the information, but the less I care about that extra card.
For cantrips 9+ I could see running Peek, but it doesn't directly impact the game-state so, unless you are running a ton of permission, isn't it basically just a Reach Through Mists?
In fairness, if you are running Sphinx of Foresight the scry on the cantrip is often irrelevant anyway, so more information might just be better.
On that note, has anyone tried Dovin, Grand Arbiter yet? I have been incredibly impressed with his performance on Arena, and wondering if he could have impact for us. I find that, at minimum, he will make 3 thopters, and at best, can just stack up a win. Either one is reasonable. And even if he gets removed or countered, that is less removal for the few actual threats we run.
I've been a big fan of The Peez since he was first printed, and Master Splinter makes me want to shave my head, run away to a remote monastery, and train as an airbender. But with the release of White Peezy I wonder if together they could form a playable legion of dorks.
I threw together a decklist I am going to test out, but I am interested in hearing what the community has to say.
Game plan is to stick a dork, and start casting as many spells to populate the board as possible, trying to throw damage at the opponent. Burn likely should prioritize keeping the opponent's board clear, but can double as direct damage in the late game.
I have done minimal testing so far, but will update this post when I do.
The major flex spots are Figure of Destiny (it only triggers Hero, but provides beatdown in case of a Tocatli Honor Guard effect or flood), Intangible Virtue (payoff is permanent, but only triggers Mentor AND provides another point of weakness, and Faithless Looting (I am wondering if this slot should be a 1-2CMC token producer instead).
My main concern is that in a format this fast, this may not hold up to the remaining big players (although the KCI ban doesnt hurt).
Also wondering if a third color should be splashed:
Burn is always fun and cheap. I recently build a Little Naya Zoo deck that performs fairly well.
They are also fairly linear but with potential for complex lines of play, so simple to learn, but takes time to master.
Vial-less Fish is also totally doable. Should be fairly competitive.
Or if you want to go off the deep end, introduce him to the Restore Balance combo. There are a dozen ways to build that deck, all of which HOSE UrzaTron.
Budget decks dont suck! Everything above is "budget", you just need quality budget decks rather than trying to make an expensive deck cheap.
On the flipside, I think that Pyromancer is actually a fine deck in the current meta, and if you throw in a couple Damping Spheres or Blood Moons and protect them with hand-manipulation.dek, they cant do a ton before you have overwhelmed them.
I am almost 100% running a play-set on top of Delver. The fact that adapt can be done at instant speed (and on this guy will almost always be 1-3 mana) to prevent a Bolt kill, while not wasting mana if they have a Push or Path kill seems amazing. And even 1 untap with a 5/5 flier goes so far...
While I love Peezy in my super spell-heavy build, he is just too slow against so much of the meta since we don't run hand manipulation and he cant ever attack in most games. I would of course hold a spot in my Sideboard, but this little guy seems so good for our beatdown plan. This is definitely a push towards a Swiftspear lowdown build with permission and burn (and probably exceptional for those of you who play Reveler).
I ran a slightly different decklist tonight and was mostly satisfied with the results. I think I am going to keep the creature structure the way it is here, and just tweak the spell base. I also didn't quite have all the lands I needed (Cody_X I think you are right, I am going to up the number of fetches to 3 -2 -1 , and reduce shocks to 3 -2 -1 and fill out the rest with fastlands/basics).
I'll post the list tomorrow. Also, fair warning, I know my sideboard game is weak, I'm new to Modern meta, so I'm working on it.
Match 1: Infect 2-1
- Game 1 (On Play): {T1 Delver}, {T2 Flip + 2nd Delver + Vapor Snag Blighted}, {T3 Flip + Unsub Inkmoth + Opt} Game was pretty much over from there. I drew answers when I needed them.
- Game 2: Opponent played Hierarch and passed, T1 delver, lost Delver T2 to Dismember, traded removal for infect creatures for a couple turns then lost to a triple mutagenic on inkmoth
- Game 3: Cleared a path with removal, stuck a pyromancer turn 3 and ran away with the game easily
Match 2: Merfolk 2-0
- Game 1 (On Play): T1 Delver (T3 Flip), traded removal for creatures and landed a Snapcaster to a comfortable win
- Game 2: T2 Pyromancer, T3 Staticaster, rode out the two to the win
Match 3: Dredge 0-2 : This was bad, adding TONS of hate to SB from now on
- Game 1 (On Draw): T1 Delver, T2 Flipped, BUT T1 he F.Looted into a LftL and SI, T2 dredged 3 Crippling Chills a Bloodghast and a Prized Amalgam, T3 2 more amalgams, and another Bloodghast. Total trainwreck
- Game 2: Mulled to 5 looking for a piece of hate, realized I had boarded in the wrong cards, and scooped after a couple turns of nothing. Suffice it to say that will not happen again
Match 4: Eldrazi 0-2 : Matchup is bad
- Game 1 (On Draw): T1 delver, removed, T2 he dropped a Chalice on 1, I Pierced, T3 He dropped another. I have no mainboard artifact hate and he had 2 Smashers. I scooped.
- Game 2 (Mull to 5 because lands): T1 Delver, T2-3 Removed/Countered Eldrazi+Chalice, delver did work. T4 he dropped 2 Thought-Knots to empty my hand and I drew dead until loss
Conclusions: The tempo build feels great. Glad I took out Myth Realized, it wouldnt have helped anywhere. Several times I wished I had a Mentor in hand, so he is staying in for testing tomorrow. Snapcaster is NOT overrated (I had misconceptions, sue me lol). Abrade should be maindeck, swapping for 1 Lightning Helix to board.
Below is from earlier this week too.
Infect: Favorable, Tribal-Tempo/Aggro: Favorable, Dredge: No idea, we will see with hate, Eldrazi: BAD Please give me tips, Control: Mixed, depends on whether proactive or reactive, HollowOne/Vengevine: Favorable, KCI: Favorable, Affinity: Favorable, Lantern/Prison-Control: BAD, Jund: Seems bad, but not 100%
ANGL- Welcome to the forum topic! I love your deck and it looks very well tuned. Unfortunately, I don't have a ton of of experience with Myth Realized so I don't have a lot to offer. How have you liked Izzet Charm. I always felt like it underperformed for me. I actually prefer just straight up Faithless Looting because it can be flashed back. You lose the other modes, but I rarely used them. Other than that that deck looks pretty awesome. It has a bit more counter magic than I am used to, but counter magic is awesome with Young Pyromancer.
I have liked Izzet Charm for the same reason I like Unsubstantiate. I actually have only used the loot feature once! Its pricipally good enough removal for an early tribal piece, it kills Arclight and Bloodghast, AND it can double as a Mana Leak against spell decks. I have been boarding it out most times after game 1 (along with mana tithe, where I get one good shot out of it, then adjust to a better focused gameplan). The most interesting/fun thing about this deck for me has been the flexibility. I think pretty much all the lists here confirm that too.
I'm playing events every day Thursday through Sunday (practice practice practice), and I'm going to try this build, a build where I swap Delver for Myth and run M.Mentor again, and one where I switch over to a flash plan with Spell Queller, Nimble Obstructionist, and Snapcaster Mage rather than Myth and Pyromancer (I may try out Wizard's Lightning since it worked so well for Jeff Hoogland).
Still, 2 K-Commands, 1 Tasigur, maybe even 1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad could make powerful additions to some of our decks.
And of course there are very powerful SB options as well: Rakdos Charm, Sin Collector, Unmoored Ego / Slaughter Games.
What do you guys think about this idea and how would you make the splash land-wise?
I like this thought, my 2c would be that Tidehollow Sculler would be better than Sin Collecter simply because it would force removal away from key pieces (Delver, etc.), eats ANYTHING, and fits more in curve (doesnt eat up the Geist slot). And I could easily see Unmoored Ego being just a better Surgical here.
Been lurking here a while.
Here is a build I have been working on for a couple of weeks. I have a ~2-2 average record and most of my losses were due to misplays in the course of learning the play style/deck.
This current build I haven't run yet (I was running something fairly close with Monastery Mentor as the third creature slot rather than Myth Realized). I WAS running Mission Briefing as card recursion, but I always would have preferred permission, so I added the Unsubstantiate and I am a HUGE fan. Putting off Abrupt Decay or Supreme Verdict while also being able to bounce creatures feels like a really strong card game 1 at least.
I am also considering cutting or splitting the Pyromancers with Snapcaster Mage or Thing in the Ice maindeck.
A T1 Delver Flip T2 (which I get more than 50% of the time), feels strong enough in the meta to justify playing some kind of build of this in my upcoming GP.
I opted to cut the power of a maindeck angels package in favor of going more all-in on the tokens strategy, and so far it has paid-off nicely. If you can land an unanswered Hero things swing in your favor very quickly, and if it is removed the deck will recover VERY quickly.
Deputy of Detention has been a real all-star in this Krasis/WR-dominated meta, and its been rare that I havent been happy to toss one out. The other surprise all-star has been Unbreakable Formation. It is, at worst, sweeper protection, and at best a huge pump and free swing. I am considering adding one more to the maindeck.
3 Shanna, Sisay's Legacy
2 Venerated Loxodon
3 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
2 Trostani Discordant
4 Hero of Precinct One
4 Deputy of Detention
2 Hydroid Krasis
Planeswalkers (3):
3 Dovin, Grand Arbiter
Non-creature Spells (14):
4 March of the Multitudes
4 Flower // Flourish
2 Unbreakable Formation
4 Depose // Deploy
1 Hinterland Harbor
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Forest
4 Temple Garden
2 Breeding Pool
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Lyra Dawnbringer
2 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2 Negate
2 Settle the Wreckage
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Knight of Autumn
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
2 Warrant // Warden
And I wonder if its worth including Drill Bit in the primer. I could see it performing nicely here.
For cantrips 9+ I could see running Peek, but it doesn't directly impact the game-state so, unless you are running a ton of permission, isn't it basically just a Reach Through Mists?
In fairness, if you are running Sphinx of Foresight the scry on the cantrip is often irrelevant anyway, so more information might just be better.
On that note, has anyone tried Dovin, Grand Arbiter yet? I have been incredibly impressed with his performance on Arena, and wondering if he could have impact for us. I find that, at minimum, he will make 3 thopters, and at best, can just stack up a win. Either one is reasonable. And even if he gets removed or countered, that is less removal for the few actual threats we run.
Interrupt
This card is all colors.
Split Second
Suspend 1851 -
Choose three -
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/instant-deck-tech-forbidden-hunted-path-modern
I wonder if there is a way to build this symmetrically with a sort of aristocrats shell... Maybe something with Genesis Chamber
I threw together a decklist I am going to test out, but I am interested in hearing what the community has to say.
4x Arid Mesa
2x Plains
2x Sacred Foundry
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Bloodstained Mire
4x Inspiring Vantage
2x Mountain
Token Producers (12)
4x Hero of Precinct One
4x Young Pyromancer
4x Monastery Mentor
4x Boros Charm
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lightning Helix
3x Path to Exile
Misc (13)
3x Figure of Destiny
2x Faithless Looting
4x Intangible Virtue
4x Manamorphose
1x Abrade
1x Celestial Purge
2x Damping Sphere
3x Deflecting Palm
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Rest in Peace
1x Silence
2x Stony Silence
2x Wear / Tear
Game plan is to stick a dork, and start casting as many spells to populate the board as possible, trying to throw damage at the opponent. Burn likely should prioritize keeping the opponent's board clear, but can double as direct damage in the late game.
I have done minimal testing so far, but will update this post when I do.
The major flex spots are Figure of Destiny (it only triggers Hero, but provides beatdown in case of a Tocatli Honor Guard effect or flood), Intangible Virtue (payoff is permanent, but only triggers Mentor AND provides another point of weakness, and Faithless Looting (I am wondering if this slot should be a 1-2CMC token producer instead).
My main concern is that in a format this fast, this may not hold up to the remaining big players (although the KCI ban doesnt hurt).
Also wondering if a third color should be splashed:
If this seems to be competitive enough to invest more time and energy into, I will update this post to a primer.
They are also fairly linear but with potential for complex lines of play, so simple to learn, but takes time to master.
Vial-less Fish is also totally doable. Should be fairly competitive.
Or if you want to go off the deep end, introduce him to the Restore Balance combo. There are a dozen ways to build that deck, all of which HOSE UrzaTron.
Budget decks dont suck! Everything above is "budget", you just need quality budget decks rather than trying to make an expensive deck cheap.
On the flipside, I think that Pyromancer is actually a fine deck in the current meta, and if you throw in a couple Damping Spheres or Blood Moons and protect them with hand-manipulation.dek, they cant do a ton before you have overwhelmed them.
This almost makes me want to consider mono-blue tempo as well (Force of Shoal, Badboi Djinn, Addict's Card-draw, etc...).
While I love Peezy in my super spell-heavy build, he is just too slow against so much of the meta since we don't run hand manipulation and he cant ever attack in most games. I would of course hold a spot in my Sideboard, but this little guy seems so good for our beatdown plan. This is definitely a push towards a Swiftspear lowdown build with permission and burn (and probably exceptional for those of you who play Reveler).
I ran a slightly different decklist tonight and was mostly satisfied with the results. I think I am going to keep the creature structure the way it is here, and just tweak the spell base. I also didn't quite have all the lands I needed (Cody_X I think you are right, I am going to up the number of fetches to 3 -2 -1 , and reduce shocks to 3 -2 -1 and fill out the rest with fastlands/basics).
I'll post the list tomorrow. Also, fair warning, I know my sideboard game is weak, I'm new to Modern meta, so I'm working on it.
Match 1: Infect 2-1
- Game 1 (On Play): {T1 Delver}, {T2 Flip + 2nd Delver + Vapor Snag Blighted}, {T3 Flip + Unsub Inkmoth + Opt} Game was pretty much over from there. I drew answers when I needed them.
- Game 2: Opponent played Hierarch and passed, T1 delver, lost Delver T2 to Dismember, traded removal for infect creatures for a couple turns then lost to a triple mutagenic on inkmoth
- Game 3: Cleared a path with removal, stuck a pyromancer turn 3 and ran away with the game easily
Board: +2 Deflecting Palm +1 Vapor Snag -1 Boros Charm -2 Monastery Mentor
Strategy: On play, get down pressure T1-2, remove everything. On draw, run opponent out of gas, THEN worry about threats
Match 2: Merfolk 2-0
- Game 1 (On Play): T1 Delver (T3 Flip), traded removal for creatures and landed a Snapcaster to a comfortable win
- Game 2: T2 Pyromancer, T3 Staticaster, rode out the two to the win
Board: +2 Izzet Staticaster +1 Electrolyze +1 Vapor Snag +1 Abrade -1 Boros Charm -1 Mana Tithe -1 Spell Pierce -1 Spell Snare -1 Logic Knot
Strategy: On both, get a single pressure piece, then remove everything. Aether Vial meant that permission was bad, bounce/removal was good
Match 3: Dredge 0-2 : This was bad, adding TONS of hate to SB from now on
- Game 1 (On Draw): T1 Delver, T2 Flipped, BUT T1 he F.Looted into a LftL and SI, T2 dredged 3 Crippling Chills a Bloodghast and a Prized Amalgam, T3 2 more amalgams, and another Bloodghast. Total trainwreck
- Game 2: Mulled to 5 looking for a piece of hate, realized I had boarded in the wrong cards, and scooped after a couple turns of nothing. Suffice it to say that will not happen again
Board: (Nothing, but should have been) +2 Grafdigger's Cage +1 Rest in Peace -2 Monastery Mentor -1 Young Pyromancer
Strategy: Find hate?
Match 4: Eldrazi 0-2 : Matchup is bad
- Game 1 (On Draw): T1 delver, removed, T2 he dropped a Chalice on 1, I Pierced, T3 He dropped another. I have no mainboard artifact hate and he had 2 Smashers. I scooped.
- Game 2 (Mull to 5 because lands): T1 Delver, T2-3 Removed/Countered Eldrazi+Chalice, delver did work. T4 he dropped 2 Thought-Knots to empty my hand and I drew dead until loss
Board: +1 Abrade +1 Wear // Tear +2 Deflecting Palm -1 Boros Charm -2 Unsubstantiate -1 Izzet Charm
Strategy: Not really sure here. It felt like I was just struggling to live each time. So... Avoid playing?
Conclusions: The tempo build feels great. Glad I took out Myth Realized, it wouldnt have helped anywhere. Several times I wished I had a Mentor in hand, so he is staying in for testing tomorrow. Snapcaster is NOT overrated (I had misconceptions, sue me lol). Abrade should be maindeck, swapping for 1 Lightning Helix to board.
Below is from earlier this week too.
Infect: Favorable, Tribal-Tempo/Aggro: Favorable, Dredge: No idea, we will see with hate, Eldrazi: BAD Please give me tips, Control: Mixed, depends on whether proactive or reactive, HollowOne/Vengevine: Favorable, KCI: Favorable, Affinity: Favorable, Lantern/Prison-Control: BAD, Jund: Seems bad, but not 100%
I have liked Izzet Charm for the same reason I like Unsubstantiate. I actually have only used the loot feature once! Its pricipally good enough removal for an early tribal piece, it kills Arclight and Bloodghast, AND it can double as a Mana Leak against spell decks. I have been boarding it out most times after game 1 (along with mana tithe, where I get one good shot out of it, then adjust to a better focused gameplan). The most interesting/fun thing about this deck for me has been the flexibility. I think pretty much all the lists here confirm that too.
I'm playing events every day Thursday through Sunday (practice practice practice), and I'm going to try this build, a build where I swap Delver for Myth and run M.Mentor again, and one where I switch over to a flash plan with Spell Queller, Nimble Obstructionist, and Snapcaster Mage rather than Myth and Pyromancer (I may try out Wizard's Lightning since it worked so well for Jeff Hoogland).
I'll leave a postmortem here!
I like this thought, my 2c would be that Tidehollow Sculler would be better than Sin Collecter simply because it would force removal away from key pieces (Delver, etc.), eats ANYTHING, and fits more in curve (doesnt eat up the Geist slot). And I could easily see Unmoored Ego being just a better Surgical here.
Here is a build I have been working on for a couple of weeks. I have a ~2-2 average record and most of my losses were due to misplays in the course of learning the play style/deck.
This current build I haven't run yet (I was running something fairly close with Monastery Mentor as the third creature slot rather than Myth Realized). I WAS running Mission Briefing as card recursion, but I always would have preferred permission, so I added the Unsubstantiate and I am a HUGE fan. Putting off Abrupt Decay or Supreme Verdict while also being able to bounce creatures feels like a really strong card game 1 at least.
I am also considering cutting or splitting the Pyromancers with Snapcaster Mage or Thing in the Ice maindeck.
A T1 Delver Flip T2 (which I get more than 50% of the time), feels strong enough in the meta to justify playing some kind of build of this in my upcoming GP.
1x Boros Charm
1x Izzet Charm
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
1x Logic Knot
1x Mana Tithe
4x Opt
3x Path to Exile
3x Remand
1x Spell Pierce
1x Spell Snare
2x Unsubstantiate
2x Vapor Snag
Enchantment (3)
3x Myth Realized
1x Arid Mesa
2x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
2x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Seachrome Coast
2x Spirebluff Canal
3x Steam Vents
1x Wandering Fumarole
Creature (8)
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Young Pyromancer
3x Serum Visions
1x Abrade
2x Damping Sphere
2x Deflecting Palm
1x Electrolyze
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Negate
1x Rest in Peace
1x Spell Snare
1x Stony Silence
2x Thing in the Ice
1x Wear // Tear
I would appreciate any feedback or criticism!