MTG Salvation

Hey guys, I recently started playing Modern, and my lack of fetches/limited number of shocks is most of what pushed me to play Merfolk (though I also already had a lot of the pieces for it).

If I wanted to buy into the landbase that would help me the most in my future Modern career, what would people recommend picking up? I've heard that now, at the near end of the Khans Standard, the Onslaught Fetches are probably about as cheap as they'll be for a while, so I figured if I wanted to pick up a playset or three now would be the time.

So what colors (historically and predictively) have been/will be most used? Which fetches would be the most helpful to pick up now?

Considering potentially grabbing a set of all five, but that'd be a hefty pricetag. If some people could maybe rate them best to pick up to least used, that'd be great.

I had thought the Tier system was determined by amount of play the archetype got, both in paper and digital, with added "points" for relevant finishes in recent tournaments.

Yeah, there's a thread about each Tier in the Modern forums. These tiers aren't by any means universal, I guess, just standards for MTGS to go by.

Here's the link to the Tier 1 thread.

I haven't played the deck in a few weeks, but I really don't think the manabase has to be touched all that much. From what I remember it really isn't that hard to cast everything as it's a 2-colored deck. Also, while I definitely can splurge on some cards, I'm not going to be getting sets of fetches/shocks anytime soon.

Hey, long time Sliver player here (kitchen table, the Premium Deck was my first actual deck years ago, been touching up the list ever since), and I'm really intrigued by running Modern Slivers. I just got into Modern a few weeks ago with Merfolk (another early deck I had, just needed a few pieces to be Modern legal/competitive), and I think Slivers would be a pretty cool second deck for me, if only for the nostalgia.

My main concern here is cost of the mana base (which is going to be a problem for 85% of Modern decks, I know). Merfolk is great, I had to spend a bit on a set of Mutavaults, but other than that it's just Islands. How important are the fetches/shocks to avoiding dead turns? I'd be willing to get Sliver Hives, but probably won't get playsets of multiple fetches/many shocks, and also probably not Cavern of Souls (didn't realize how crazy expensive that card had gotten).

Is the deck runnable on painlands? Are the Hives enough? Are Ziggurats worth running in a half-creature deck? (I think I like GreySavant's build the most so far.) Mana Confluence?

If I'm not running shocks, does Sedge Sliver drop in necessity? (I think that's my most expensive Sliver I'd need to pick up, and while 40 for a set isn't too bad grabbing CoCo and the Hives is the same price)

I'd be able to "borrow" the Mutavaults and Aether Vials from Merfolk while I see how good the deck is.

Hey guys, I've just recently started getting into Modern after being a pretty much solely kitchen table player for years. And I've realized that a deck I had put together actually is technically Modern legal, and I was wondering if I could get some suggestions on possibly making it actually competitive for Modern play. If it ultimately isn't viable, that's fine, I've just always enjoyed piloting the deck and think it'd be cool to take this to the field.

Here's the list:



I've thought about maybe adding Conduit of Ruin and maybe a singleton Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to grab, for a potential turn 6 hard cast Newlamog.

Thoughts?

Hey guys, looking to maybe get into Standard. The modern scene at my LGS isn't too big, thinking I might have better luck in Standard.

I've never played Standard before, but I've opened a lot of BfZ, so much that I've got 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. It'd be nice to use them, but if there are no viable decks that use him that's ok. I also have a good number of the Tangolands, but no fetches. If they're absolutely necessary I can get some.

So are there any good decks that can use a set of Gideons and preferably are not too financially painful otherwise? (I'm not willing to dish out for Jace.)

I've also got 3 Ob Nixilis Reignited and 2 Kiora, Master of the Depths.

If you choose to target both Zada and the token (for some reason) then Zada is not the only target of the spell and she will not trigger. If you only target her, then the spell is copied, with all its modes copied (so only 1 target per copy) and you redirect each copy to a viable target.

I think you might be missing that Zada reads "...spell that targets ONLY Zada..."

Any suggestions against RG Tron? I went 2-1 at a small local event last week, beating Faeries (pretty simple matchup) and Affinity (I outraced/bounced him game 1, game 2 I drew 2 Hurkyl's and he misplayed, blocking a 3/3 Muta with his Champ), but I couldn't really do anything against Tron. Game 1 I didn't go off as quickly as I had the previous rounds, and he got down a semi-early Karn after popping an O-stone, and game 2 I got mana flooded and was beat down with a Wurmcoil. I had a few misplays, as it was my first time piloting the deck, but I wasn't quite sure what the proper way to face Tron is for us. The primer says we just have to outrace Tron, and I might just have not seen that as viable because I had a slow start/no start both games, but is there something specific we need to do/tech we can use to make this less painful? At optimal starting hand I can see racing working well for us, but the Tron player just seems like he should be able to get an O-stone/Karn/Ugin before we can actually swing for lethal excepting a perfect start. Taking into consideration the sided Pyroclasms, and this matchup just seems inevitable (which is I guess what RG Tron is all about).

Quote from Flisch »

Alternatively, Kozilek was lurking just outside Zendikar, close enough to spawn his lineage and have its presence felt but not inside the plane, so it didn't manifest physically. Until Ob called it, that is.

In Ob's UR, didn't he say something about feeling the great presence of Kozilek underground, though? I think I remember him actually referencing that his body was deep below the surface, which makes it feel like Kozi is actually on the plane itself. Maybe Ob can sense the presence of the Titans from the Blind Eternities, but the phrasing made me think Kozi was actually there.

Quote from wallycaine »

I'd advise looking at the spoiler again, it's definitely not legendary. Granted, your points are still mostly valid, but they can run two of these to proc at least one.

Oh wow, I saw the mythic and assumed Legendary. Thanks!

Quote from Roo770 »

I'm not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet.

If Bloom Titan is not banned in the OGW then this land will make that deck very gross.

That really depends on how the rules of <> work. If it means "must be paid with 1 colorless mana" then Bloom Titan might have a hard time actually activating it (I don't think the deck runs a whole lot of colorless sources, and I think using your Sunhome/Stronghold for colorless mana over the ability isn't worth it).

If <> is functionally new mana (can only be paid by sources that make <>) then unless we get better utility <> lands, I don't see Bloom Titan running Wastes. Remember this is legendary, so you can't tutor 2 copies and use one to pay the other.

Thanks for the help, guys! I think I'll end up getting Masters of Waves and Harbingers of Tides, and splurge on Cursecatchers and Mutavaults for now and hold back on the Vials initially.

It looks like most decks don't have an abundance of 1-drops (I think the trend is that either you have Cursecatchers or you replace them with Cloudfins or Judge's Familiars). I guess with the ultra low curve it's not a huge issue, but is Cosi's Trickster really not played at all? With the abundance of fetches in Modern I'd have thought it would be a nice card to have.

Does this look alright for a starting point?

Hey, fellow fishy people. I've been playing Magic for around six or so years, (mostly casually) and I'm looking to maybe get into Modern. I already have a casual Merfolk deck with some pieces, but the parts I don't have are kind of expensive. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on what's absolutely necessary and what I can pass on, as I've tried digging through this thread and have seen a nice spread of lists, but not a whole lot in the way of cores. (Side note, if the first post could be updated that'd be great. Hint.)

So I have a playset of: Lord of Atlantis, Merrow Reejerey, Silvergill Adept, Master of the Pearl Trident, and Coralhelm Commander. I have singletons of Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and True-Name Nemesis. I have a few other 4-ofs for common merfolk like the Banneret. What I am missing are Mutavaults, Æther Vials, Cursecatchers, and Master of Waves's.

I can't really answer any questions about my meta, as I don't have one yet. I'm more looking to flesh out a maindeck first, get trounced once or twice, then fill in a sideboard.

In terms of budget, I think I'd be willing to dish out for the deck. Depends on how many Vial-level expensive cards are necessary.

Hey, I just started working so I finally have income, and I'm thinking of getting into Modern. I most recently have been playing casual, so I'll probably need to learn the meta (I won't really know matchups or anything like that).

I just recently opened a playset of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, and I have three Ob Nixilis Reignited and two Kiora, Master of the Depths. I think I have a good spread of the other BFZ mythics, but no Ulamog unfortunately. Other than those I don't think I really have many staples, I don't have fetches and only have a few shocks in my many EDH decks.

I play pretty much every color, I have casual decks for most playstyles. (I don't really play control, but that's more because I feel it's not as "fun" as other archetypes. I might be able to be persuaded otherwise in more competitive environments though.)

I think midrange is probably what I enjoy most, but after looking around RG Tron/KarnTron looks totally awesome. Of course, that's also very expensive, so I'm kind of looking to take advantage of the 4 Gideons I have.

When I first started I really liked tribal decks, I have a fun Slivers deck and I made my fiance an Allies deck that I enjoyed making. I also have a Soldier deck with a few Elspeth, Knight-Errants in it.

I also have a Merfolk deck that's probably a few expensive pieces from being Modern worthy (Vials and Spellcatchers).

I've always been more casual than competitive, but I think that's mostly because I was budget limited before. I'd be interested in competing at the FNM level to start with, I suppose.

Because Promise of Power dictates how big the demon is, there is no rules text on the created token. So if you discard your whole hand later, the demon is still however big it was when you made it.

Because of this, the populated token gets to copy the token as is - it only sees an X/X Demon token, and has no clue how it came to be. So even if you have 0 cards in hand as you populate, you still get an exact copy of the Promised Demon.