Hey all, I've been trying to find a modern deck that I love, and I for some reason picked up a mythic nahiri for my marsh flat... but thats besides the point. Is the old Nahiri list seeing any win's or is it pretty much all teferi and jace since his unbanning.
I feel like this deck wants some variety of Birds of Paradise and Noble Heirarch. Just for early speed.
Ramp you into a T2 slide, then maybe you can stabilize from there.
The problem is that running multiple ETB tapped lands strongly conflicts with that approach.
It can cause issues even running *one* etb tapped land much less 4+.
Generally when constructing a modern deck you should think of ETB tapped lands as 1-drops from a curve perspective, since they essentially "Cost 1." Playing 8 dorks and 8 cycling lands is a crapload of 1-drops, and makes for a lot of air in your deck.
I dont see how ETB would prevent us from wanting 1 drops. We would just land it T2, and ramp T3. 1 Mana ramp just seems too good to pass up. Honestly, if anything it seems like we need this MORE because of our come into play tapped situation. We cant be slow and clunky all game or we'll get wrecked by anything remotely fast. Def wouldnt be thinking of the 1 drops as 'air' when they are helping take some weight off the manabase. We cant expect to come into play tapped land every turn and be behind all game every game and do well can we?
Also 8 Cycling lands only? My list has a LOT more than that. I would use 4 of every single cycle land in your decks colors, then just add more lands that come in untapped on top of that. Im currently at 29 lands.
Not to sound rude, but how much actual play testing have you been doing? Any amount of playtesting would reveal that one drops indeed, feel extremely out of place while trying to play them t1. And why would you ever play it on T2 when you have wall of blossoms/omens or nest invader? And on top of that, how terrible is it to top deck a 1 drop do nothing in turns 5+ when all you want to see is either (depending on your decklist) Removal/disruption, Some sort of value creature, or a cycler.
Someone mentioned a lack of one drops. Because just under 50% (9/20) of my mana lands come into play tapped, the curve of
T1 Tap land
T2 land, "Do I play this one drop instead of a two drop"
T3 uhhhh Grazer, cycle something?
vs
T1 Fetch land, pass
EOT crack
T2 Land, nest invader/Wall
T3 any of my toolbox 3 drops, or drift.
I do concede however, that your iteration of the deck does provide a better home for one drops because of all the 2 drop disruption and removal you have.
EDIT: 2 other potential cards are noxious gearhulk and cataclysmic gearhulk
I agree with Ohmybottomglasses. I think packing the deck with a bunch of different etb creatures is a mistake. It's already accepted that the deck has a slow start; I'd much rather spend the early game casting removal and disruption to reach the lynchpin turns than try to go toe-to-toe with an aggro deck in creature combat.
We should be able to ride Knight of the Reliquary/Tireless Tracker/Ayula's Influence to victory with the Loam engine, while Drift and Witness give us never-ending disruption.
We are not playing a loam shell. This has been discussed earlier in the thread. We are trying to make a Drift shell. Loam is not the intended engine, though, we will see plenty of loam decks entering the format. Our goal with this thread is to make drift the intended engine.
Below is where I'm currently at in theory. I wanted to gather my thoughts on the deck's history from Extended compared to what we have in Modern and lay them out here. I'll be presuming a metagame based off of mtggoldfish's data.
I'm not sold on the idea of being a predominantly creature deck trying to gain value from flickering different creatures. As such a strategy seems similar to collected company, which hasn't performed well in recent memory. Instead, I'm trying to keep with the spirit of Astral Slide decks from the old extended format, whereby we primarily abuse eternal witness. Notably, Extended-then and Modern-now are entirely different, with the latter being much more hostile and linear. Moreover, the card pool is vastly different where Extended had a better selection of cards with cycling than we do currently.
Arboreal Grazer looks to be perfect for this deck it provides an early blocker, ramps, and late-game helps us play several utility lands in a turn. Since my land count is spread out I figured knight of the reliquary can help us find a silver bullet while also being a huge treat that can end a game quickly. Admittedly, some of the spells seem odd but they add a means of locking the game up; angelsong while we have the loop stops combat and gilded light provides a lock vs storm, ad nauseam, and burn. However, it could be the case that since we already have wraths that only gilded light matters since it's more unique. unearth I think is another linchpin; late in the game allowing us to start chaining together e-wits. Oddly I don't have path to exile and instead opted to use assassin's trophy because of Tron just being nothing but problematic permanents, it's still cheap enough to be meaningful against humans, can kill the new planeswalkers that UW is maining, and still provides the land lock with ghost quarter. Also I am not playing edge of autumn as chaining grazers together turns the card into just sac a land cycle, but having more ways to ramp might be correct with an adjusted land base. The lands are rather greedy what with 8 tap lands and 4 colorless utility lands. I split the ghost quarter triplet to add a blast zone as another wrath and since I have loam and knight I tried to squeeze in some more utility lands.
Originally I was playing traverse but I decided to go with knights and an extra raven's crime. I think if anyone is going to play a creature toolbox they should consider some kind of tutor else they just have a clunky stack of creatures.
While I personally feel that this variation of the deck simply loses to surgical extraction. This is something I will be hoping to address in my sideboard, since I seriously expect to see extraction in game 2.
EDIT: Found it pull from eternity
I struggle to see you win con. with only 2 knights, I can hardly see that as a solution. Grazer is... well--grazer. and Ewit is in the same boat as knight. I would think that your best call would be to play Approach of the second sun since the direction of your deck at the moment is to simply stall the game. Also, your tutor argument is solved by eldritch evolution, and, further, toolbox decks are JUST THAT, a bunch of value creatures that play well on their own, but with the right engine become more. For instance, Kiki and Vanifar pod... Strong in their own right even if your take out pieces.
I actually have been brewing this deck since the preview of the card and came to think GWb is the best combo. There were a few cards that I saw in this thread that really made the deck go from C tier jank to (B)ish tier. One of those cards was indeed nest invader, a seriously important 2 drop that this deck SERIOUSLY needed. The lack of early game bodies meant inititally that I pretty much auto scooped to a good aggro deck. Another card that I havent seen yet here is [Shadow of the grave]. This card has won me a lot of games because it works perfectly with our free cyclers when youre struggling to hit the right top decks and need to sift through your deck quickly. You will also notice a lack of Paths. This is an issue you see with a lot of B tier decks. YOu have to COMMIT to the plan. Youre goal here is to get drift out, and out value your opponent in in turns 5 on. You will not have room to be spending mana to exile something early, you have to get to turn 5 or you lose. Here is my list, including the maybeboard. I am still working on a sideboard, but one step at a time, right?
//deck-1
4 Street Wraith
3 Edge of Autumn
2 Restoration Angel
4 Astral Drift
2 Eternal Witness
2 Wasteland Strangler
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Knight of Autumn
2 Life from the Loam
2 Shadow of the Grave
3 Wall of Omens
4 Nest Invader
2 Unearth
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Secluded Steppe
3 Tranquil Thicket
2 Barren Moor
2 Scattered Groves
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
Not to sound rude, but how much actual play testing have you been doing? Any amount of playtesting would reveal that one drops indeed, feel extremely out of place while trying to play them t1. And why would you ever play it on T2 when you have wall of blossoms/omens or nest invader? And on top of that, how terrible is it to top deck a 1 drop do nothing in turns 5+ when all you want to see is either (depending on your decklist) Removal/disruption, Some sort of value creature, or a cycler.
3 Edge of Autumn
2 Restoration Angel
4 Astral Drift
2 Eternal Witness
2 Wasteland Strangler
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Knight of Autumn
2 Life from the Loam
2 Shadow of the Grave
3 Wall of Omens
4 Nest Invader
2 Unearth
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Secluded Steppe
3 Tranquil Thicket
2 Barren Moor
2 Scattered Groves
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
Someone mentioned a lack of one drops. Because just under 50% (9/20) of my mana lands come into play tapped, the curve of
T1 Tap land
T2 land, "Do I play this one drop instead of a two drop"
T3 uhhhh Grazer, cycle something?
vs
T1 Fetch land, pass
EOT crack
T2 Land, nest invader/Wall
T3 any of my toolbox 3 drops, or drift.
I do concede however, that your iteration of the deck does provide a better home for one drops because of all the 2 drop disruption and removal you have.
EDIT: 2 other potential cards are noxious gearhulk and cataclysmic gearhulk
We are not playing a loam shell. This has been discussed earlier in the thread. We are trying to make a Drift shell. Loam is not the intended engine, though, we will see plenty of loam decks entering the format. Our goal with this thread is to make drift the intended engine.
While I personally feel that this variation of the deck simply loses to surgical extraction. This is something I will be hoping to address in my sideboard, since I seriously expect to see extraction in game 2.
EDIT: Found it pull from eternity
I struggle to see you win con. with only 2 knights, I can hardly see that as a solution. Grazer is... well--grazer. and Ewit is in the same boat as knight. I would think that your best call would be to play Approach of the second sun since the direction of your deck at the moment is to simply stall the game. Also, your tutor argument is solved by eldritch evolution, and, further, toolbox decks are JUST THAT, a bunch of value creatures that play well on their own, but with the right engine become more. For instance, Kiki and Vanifar pod... Strong in their own right even if your take out pieces.
//deck-1
4 Street Wraith
3 Edge of Autumn
2 Restoration Angel
4 Astral Drift
2 Eternal Witness
2 Wasteland Strangler
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Knight of Autumn
2 Life from the Loam
2 Shadow of the Grave
3 Wall of Omens
4 Nest Invader
2 Unearth
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Secluded Steppe
3 Tranquil Thicket
2 Barren Moor
2 Scattered Groves
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
//sideboard-1
1 Thragtusk
1 Siege Rhino
2 Dissenter's Deliverance
//maybe-1
2 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Scarab Feast
4 Arboreal Grazer