Even disregarding Trial Gideon's last ability, I think his +1 is incredibly strong on a cmc3 planeswalker. Ajani Vengeant's +1 has always been incredibly strong, and this comes down one turn sooned and is most of the time even better. You can even shut off a Valakut with it
Keep in mind ajani can freeze lands and artifacts as well as deal with non damaging abiltiies. As someone playing mardu control i think hes good but not insane. Many modern decks dont care at all about him
Yay wizards continues to be idiots and ruins Split cards. They make it REALLY difficult to want to play this game i swear. Functionally changing how cards work again and killing a BUNCH of decks..
I'm out of the rule's loop. But how so?
Reddit and magic general i think has a thread on it. Basically split cards are now their TOTAL cmc on the stack. So you cant cheap boom/bust, beck/call breaking/entering with the expertises anymore. Or that eye in the jar or whatever.
This means you won't be able to fuse Beck // Call off of a Brain in a Jar or an Expertise anymore.
I'm posting this here since it's relevant to UW Control. Being able to Sram's Expertise into a Beck // Call to draw 4 and put 7 bodies in play gave the deck the kind of card advantage it needed to compete with decks like Tron, and losing that is a big hit.
This is a reasonable change and disproportionately goes after unfair decks. Of all the decks using Expertise and fuse/split card nonsense, the unfair Breaking/Entering ones were the best. It's not a major change but it does slow down the format a little.
I will say that it is unfortunate this hits fairer decks just looking to get value out of Sram's Expertise and B/C. But again, this isn't a huge format change and won't have a major impact.
But my Yahennis expertise into Boom bust combo slowed the games down!
Yay wizards continues to be idiots and ruins Split cards. They make it REALLY difficult to want to play this game i swear. Functionally changing how cards work again and killing a BUNCH of decks..
THe one thing I have learned playing Smallpox control is Arena is probably your best card when the game stalls. And since stalling the game is your goal I think 2-3 of is correct. I would honestly ditch LoTV or 1 LS copy before it I think. I do agree one of mardu's big problems is it has SO many good 3 drops and not as many efficient 2 drops like Tarmo.
You are correct though about Expertise.. I think it would be just fine maindeck if it was a different meta. With Deaths shadow the top dog now It might just need to be 2 damnations and 1 YE in the sideboard for the matchups its good.
<3 my mardu boys. Here are my builds that I have brewed up. I sold out of MTGO so give me some tips. I plan on buying one/both of these decks offline and starting to play paper magic. Gotta bite the bullet and the cost isn't a big issue for me. 1000 dollars no big deal! Everything is cheap right now for this deck.
@redsummers I think you will love my deck based on your idea. I have built smallpox based decks quite a few times and they grinded(in past metas) to the NEXT level. Here is my first build(no testing) of smallpox control. http://imgur.com/a/bExyW
Coming back to modern after a LONG layoff. As a mtgo only player I am considering buying this deck in paper before trying it. It seems crazy but MAN is this deck sweet! I always loved the archetype but Whir really brings it to that next level. Few comments looking over a few lists...
4 Mishras bauble should be base in the deck. It makes mulligans a bit harder but the interactions with both Tezz minus(get your card back) and Improvise are pretty insane. It just seems like a free artifact that turns on mox opal also(2-3 seems right if you play 4 Bauble). Yeah it feels gross knowing itll get reprinted and lose 90% of its value but its worth it to improve the deck imo.
Also Crucible+Ghost Quarter seems insane right now. Lots of greedy deaths shadow decks/decks dependent on tron lands. PLus the cycle lands should bring some loam decks out or more valakut decks.
Love your list radouf. Thats pretty much exactly what I was thinking in my head that i would test from. What are everyones thoughts on liliana of the veil? Just unnecessary?
Glad people here are being realistic on these. I remember wayy too much hype for the bfz lands when i knew theyd see almost no modern play. Coming into play tapped in modern is a huge drawback. These are a 1 or 2 of in pure control like uw in uw or uwr control and great if a good loam shell exists. Maybe ub one in cyptic command grixis. Hard to see other decks playing them when the downside is so painful
Smallpox is an extremely underrated card in modern. You need to build around it but think of all the low land count/land dependent/low creature decks played right now. Can win the game by itself in some situations.
Doesn't seem like it does anything modern wants to do, like having instant value when it enters. How bad is it when your 20 creature deck has 0 creatures alive and 2 copters in play? It just doesn't make sense when you arein a format with bolt and other good removal PLUS better threats. And frankly its slow for modern compared to what alot of decks are doing.
Emerge still costs too much to be worth it for the effects you get. Even if you double thoughtseize them you have to resolve it first, and have a creature worth emerging. Just doesnt seem worth when that much mana often just wins the game in other decks.
Keep in mind ajani can freeze lands and artifacts as well as deal with non damaging abiltiies. As someone playing mardu control i think hes good but not insane. Many modern decks dont care at all about him
Reddit and magic general i think has a thread on it. Basically split cards are now their TOTAL cmc on the stack. So you cant cheap boom/bust, beck/call breaking/entering with the expertises anymore. Or that eye in the jar or whatever.
But my Yahennis expertise into Boom bust combo slowed the games down!
You are correct though about Expertise.. I think it would be just fine maindeck if it was a different meta. With Deaths shadow the top dog now It might just need to be 2 damnations and 1 YE in the sideboard for the matchups its good.
@redsummers I think you will love my deck based on your idea. I have built smallpox based decks quite a few times and they grinded(in past metas) to the NEXT level. Here is my first build(no testing) of smallpox control. http://imgur.com/a/bExyW
4 Mishras bauble should be base in the deck. It makes mulligans a bit harder but the interactions with both Tezz minus(get your card back) and Improvise are pretty insane. It just seems like a free artifact that turns on mox opal also(2-3 seems right if you play 4 Bauble). Yeah it feels gross knowing itll get reprinted and lose 90% of its value but its worth it to improve the deck imo.
Also Crucible+Ghost Quarter seems insane right now. Lots of greedy deaths shadow decks/decks dependent on tron lands. PLus the cycle lands should bring some loam decks out or more valakut decks.
Love your list radouf. Thats pretty much exactly what I was thinking in my head that i would test from. What are everyones thoughts on liliana of the veil? Just unnecessary?
Just don't do it!