Holy moly, will you look at Splicer's Skill! It's got Splice onto instant or sorcery for 3W, and it makes a 3/3 colourless Golem artifact creature token. On its own, it's a sorcery that costs 2W. UWx Control tends to be a spellslinger nowadays, so Splicer's Skill might fit there as long as you like expensive cantrips, removal, and counterspells. It also makes late-game targeted discard better if you feel like this in Junk Midrange. Yes, the token is produced after the Terminus this is spliced to tucks all creatures. And yes, this is nuts Spliced onto Storm and Replicate spells before they copy themselves.
Time to ignite a debate: how many "canopy lands" should Dredge run? The colour fixing isn't the best with these lands, but man does popping one for a Dredge feel so good. Legacy does the equivalent of play 4 (with Cephalid Coliseum), complete with the colour un-fixing.
Is there a loam deck that can make use of this in interesting ways I like this design.
Also Empty the Bears of your Neoform/Combo wins
I think that, even if Life from the Loam decks use Ayula's Influence in boring ways, that's still making 6 power's worth of creatures every turn. That wins games fast.
I think Neoform Grishoalbrand will stick with win cons that win that turn and can be cast with only Simian Spirit Guides and one Manamorphose, though...unless they give us Elvish Spirit Guide, but that would be nuts.
Is the Manamorphose in Ftzz's maindeck to semi-dodge Blood Moon?!?
In the meantime, we'll get some new toys in Modern Horizons. Force of Negation is a "free" (conditional) counterspell we can get with Teachings, and I think this deck can support Ice-Fang Coatl as long as all our basic lands are snow lands and we're fine with the Coatl only cantripping with Flash for 2 mana early-game instead of also killing something with Deathtouch.
This list resembles the first paper result, including Samut's Sprint and Chancellor of the Tangle. The sideboard has hilarious alt win cons, though.
In the meantime, it looks like all we get so far from Modern Horizons is Waterlogged Grove (heck yeah, a cantrip land!) and more hate headed our way (so our opponents can tap out for planeswalkers and hold up Force of Negation, so now we have to be even more cautious).
Frostwalk Bastion is an efficient enough manland at a 2/3 for 2 mana, and needing snow mana to activate shouldn't be that hard to cater for (just fetch for snow basics). It's a nasty piece of work defensively, as it taps and forces no untapping for a turn when it deals combat damage to a creature. But will producing only colourless snow mana hurt it too much?
Is a riff on Treetop Village good enough to see play? I feel like most of the playable manlands turn on for 1...
Only in Legacy and Vintage (and, even then, you do see the odd Creeping Tar Pit or Faerie Conclave). In Modern, most of the playable manlands turn on for upwards of 3 mana. The popular Celestial Colonnade turns on for 5 mana!
Might this be playable in Modern? Fetchlands easily get snow basics there, and this is a nasty piece of work defensively, but not colour fixing will hurt it, and there are sadly no such thing as Snow Wastes.
Ranger-Captain of Eos looks quite good. Tutors for a 0-1-drop on ETB, is a 3/3 for 1WW, sacs himself to interrupt a Storm turn or in response to Allosaurus Rider (or simply to prevent your guy from getting countered, or to force out removal when you play creature-based combo)...will Humans or Collected Company decks want him?
Is there a way to break Planebound Accomplice? Seems like you need to cheat out multiple walkers (Sneak Attack-style) with him on the same turn or he isn't worth it. Tough to come up with walker minuses with big enough impact to be worth losing them to this guy (although instant-speed walker static abilities are hilarious)--are stuff like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Chandra, Flamecaller good enough?
Hey neat, Crypt Rats is now in Modern! Can we find it a home?
Dregscape Sliver looks pretty spanking good in Slivers as a way to rebuild board presence.
"Scale Up" looks really dangerous in Infect. It cannot stack with other copies of itself when applied to the same creature, but it notably sets base power and toughness (to a cool 6/4) for only G at sorcery speed without making its target lose abilities.
Doesn't seem that it overwrites their keywords, cards that do usually say "lose all abilities" or something like that?
Nope, they don't lose their abilities, although they do lose their creature types and colors. They just become green Wurms with base power and toughness 6/4.
Yeah, I have to admit that, although it doesn't stack with other copies of itself when you have only one Infect dude, and it's not an instant, this is otherwise The Best Might of Old Krosa Ever. What the?
"Blazing Chant" costs 2R and is like a Sphinx-Bone Wand that cannot hit creatures, but it unfortunately gives all your opponents 10 life each first. I suppose there's always Tainted Remedy...
Goblin Engineer is a 1/2 for 1R, Entombs an artifact when it ETB, and can sac any artifact and reanimate an artifact that has cmc 3 or less for R, t at instant speed. The usual shenanigans with stuff like Ichor Wellspring and more consistent (and pop-up) Ensnaring Bridge will come up, but can we make this guy excellent?
Overall, we don't run that many mountains. I realized it as I tried the card already. It probably makes it a playable 1-of, but certainly not a 2-of in my taste. We play like 4-5 mountains and 7 fetchlands, and even though we fetch for Vents most of the time, there are plenty of games where we don't see a fetch or a Vents at all.
Another interesting card to me is the Horizon land : Fiery Islet. I don't know how many the deck can support though. We can probably cut a Spirebluff Canal and a Sulfur Falls.
Tried Fiery Islet tonight on Cockatrice and it was great! The additional gas is awesome (even if the additional pain sometimes isn't). Ditched 2 Spirebluff Canal, a Steam Vents (so I went down to 1 of that), and a Mountain fetch for 4 Islets.
Yeah you can make an interesting UW more Midrangey Deck with this.
I think it does its best work in some sort of GW Valuetown deck though with Vizier of Remedies, Devoted Druid, Collected Company and Knight of the Reliquary. Oh also toss in Scavenging Ooze, you can make big fat knights and oozes and swing in uncontested.
Though Geist is intriguing insofar as 6 damage every turn for a roughly 3 turn clock is pretty good.
My experience with Mother of Runes in Legacy is that you use her to ward off spot removal first and use her to push stuff through blockers second. This means that the first Mom never pushes anything through blockers. I believe the same will apply to Giver of Runes.
In the meantime, the amount of gas 8 "canopy lands" give to any deck that can support them felt close to broken when testing Mono-Red Phoenix Prowess today. 4 "canopy lands" in UR Phoenix or RWg Burn just didn't compare.
Interesting but at 2cmc AND sorcery speed I dare say it won't see play.
Yeah, I have to agree--I never found Strategic Planning to be good enough, and I doubt giving something close to it 5-mana Flashback will make it playable in Modern.
Giver of Runes almost seems like the spot removal spell protector creature-based combo decks want, although needing to tap for her ability isn't quite as hot, and Ranger of Eos has cooled off. I suspect D&T-like decks want her, though.
I think that's the sound of a lot of URx combo decks making room for Fiery Islet.
Burn ditching fastlands for Sunbaked Canyon looks pretty realistic, though.
I guess Dredge might want Sunbaked Canyon or Fiery Islet, too, especially since Dakmor Salvage will eventually let you pop it for a Dredge even if you keep a 1-land hand with a "canopy land".
Is there a way to break Urza, Lord High Artificer? He makes Thopter-Sword go infinite and cast the rest of your library, but we already have cards that make Thopter-Sword go infinite.
In the meantime, I suppose Generous Gift, the white Beast Within, might get useful somewhere.
I think that, even if Life from the Loam decks use Ayula's Influence in boring ways, that's still making 6 power's worth of creatures every turn. That wins games fast.
I think Neoform Grishoalbrand will stick with win cons that win that turn and can be cast with only Simian Spirit Guides and one Manamorphose, though...unless they give us Elvish Spirit Guide, but that would be nuts.
A nice 2nd place paper performance!
1 Blast Zone
1 Field of Ruin
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Flooded Grove
2 Hinterland Harbor
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Breeding Pool
2 Watery Grave
4 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Snapcaster Mage
Spells
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Nexus of Fate
1 Pulse of Murasa
2 Assassin's Trophy
3 Fatal Push
3 Mystical Teachings
4 Cryptic Command
4 Growth Spiral
4 Opt
4 Remand
1 Nimble Obstructionist
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Consume the Meek
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Devour Flesh
1 Dispel
1 Echoing Decay
1 Fatal Push
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Pulse of Murasa
1 Shadow of Doubt
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
And Ftzz got another MTGO Modern Challenge Top 32 result!
1 Blast Zone
1 Field of Ruin
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Flooded Grove
2 Hinterland Harbor
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Breeding Pool
2 Watery Grave
4 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp
Creatures
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
4 Cryptic Command
3 Fatal Push
4 Growth Spiral
1 Logic Knot
1 Manamorphose
3 Mystical Teachings
1 Nexus of Fate
4 Opt
1 Pulse of Murasa
4 Remand
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Fatal Push
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Consume the Meek
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Dispel
1 Echoing Decay
1 Extirpate
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Life Goes On
1 Nimble Obstructionist
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Surgical Extraction
Is the Manamorphose in Ftzz's maindeck to semi-dodge Blood Moon?!?
In the meantime, we'll get some new toys in Modern Horizons. Force of Negation is a "free" (conditional) counterspell we can get with Teachings, and I think this deck can support Ice-Fang Coatl as long as all our basic lands are snow lands and we're fine with the Coatl only cantripping with Flash for 2 mana early-game instead of also killing something with Deathtouch.
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Island
2 Breeding Pool
3 Yavimaya Coast
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Gemstone Mine
Creatures
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Wild Cantor
2 Griselbrand
3 Autochthon Wurm
3 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Allosaurus Rider
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Lightning Storm
1 Noxious Revival
1 Pact of Negation
1 Samut's Sprint
2 Manamorphose
4 Nourishing Shoal
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Eldritch Evolution
4 Neoform
4 Serum Visions
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Voracious Wurm
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Dissenter's Deliverance
1 Echoing Truth
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Nature's Claim
1 Spell Pierce
This list resembles the first paper result, including Samut's Sprint and Chancellor of the Tangle. The sideboard has hilarious alt win cons, though.
In the meantime, it looks like all we get so far from Modern Horizons is Waterlogged Grove (heck yeah, a cantrip land!) and more hate headed our way (so our opponents can tap out for planeswalkers and hold up Force of Negation, so now we have to be even more cautious).
EDIT: Our 3rd paper result!
1 Island
2 Breeding Pool
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Gemstone Mine
Creatures
1 Wild Cantor
2 Autochthon Wurm
2 Griselbrand
4 Allosaurus Rider
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Lightning Storm
1 Samut's Sprint
2 Manamorphose
2 Noxious Revival
4 Nourishing Shoal
4 Summoner's Pact
1 Sleight of Hand
4 Eldritch Evolution
4 Neoform
4 Serum Visions
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Dissenter's Deliverance
1 Echoing Truth
1 Nature's Claim
3 Pact of Negation
1 Pongify
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Spell Pierce
I still don't approve of Samut's Sprint, but I think paper lists are starting to stabilize!
Only in Legacy and Vintage (and, even then, you do see the odd Creeping Tar Pit or Faerie Conclave). In Modern, most of the playable manlands turn on for upwards of 3 mana. The popular Celestial Colonnade turns on for 5 mana!
Might this be playable in Modern? Fetchlands easily get snow basics there, and this is a nasty piece of work defensively, but not colour fixing will hurt it, and there are sadly no such thing as Snow Wastes.
Might Scrapyard Recombiner find a home in Hardened Scales Robots or something? 3 mana, Modular 2, taps itself and sacs an artifact to tutor a Construct into your hand...like Walking Ballista or Hangarback Walker. It is kinda like a walking Evolutionary Leap in that way.
Is there a way to break Planebound Accomplice? Seems like you need to cheat out multiple walkers (Sneak Attack-style) with him on the same turn or he isn't worth it. Tough to come up with walker minuses with big enough impact to be worth losing them to this guy (although instant-speed walker static abilities are hilarious)--are stuff like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Chandra, Flamecaller good enough?
Hey neat, Crypt Rats is now in Modern! Can we find it a home?
Dregscape Sliver looks pretty spanking good in Slivers as a way to rebuild board presence.
Yeah, I have to admit that, although it doesn't stack with other copies of itself when you have only one Infect dude, and it's not an instant, this is otherwise The Best Might of Old Krosa Ever. What the?
"Blazing Chant" costs 2R and is like a Sphinx-Bone Wand that cannot hit creatures, but it unfortunately gives all your opponents 10 life each first. I suppose there's always Tainted Remedy...
Goblin Engineer is a 1/2 for 1R, Entombs an artifact when it ETB, and can sac any artifact and reanimate an artifact that has cmc 3 or less for R, t at instant speed. The usual shenanigans with stuff like Ichor Wellspring and more consistent (and pop-up) Ensnaring Bridge will come up, but can we make this guy excellent?
Tried Fiery Islet tonight on Cockatrice and it was great! The additional gas is awesome (even if the additional pain sometimes isn't). Ditched 2 Spirebluff Canal, a Steam Vents (so I went down to 1 of that), and a Mountain fetch for 4 Islets.
My experience with Mother of Runes in Legacy is that you use her to ward off spot removal first and use her to push stuff through blockers second. This means that the first Mom never pushes anything through blockers. I believe the same will apply to Giver of Runes.
In the meantime, the amount of gas 8 "canopy lands" give to any deck that can support them felt close to broken when testing Mono-Red Phoenix Prowess today. 4 "canopy lands" in UR Phoenix or RWg Burn just didn't compare.
Yeah, I have to agree--I never found Strategic Planning to be good enough, and I doubt giving something close to it 5-mana Flashback will make it playable in Modern.
Giver of Runes almost seems like the spot removal spell protector creature-based combo decks want, although needing to tap for her ability isn't quite as hot, and Ranger of Eos has cooled off. I suspect D&T-like decks want her, though.
Burn ditching fastlands for Sunbaked Canyon looks pretty realistic, though.
I guess Dredge might want Sunbaked Canyon or Fiery Islet, too, especially since Dakmor Salvage will eventually let you pop it for a Dredge even if you keep a 1-land hand with a "canopy land".
Is there a way to break Urza, Lord High Artificer? He makes Thopter-Sword go infinite and cast the rest of your library, but we already have cards that make Thopter-Sword go infinite.
Collected Conjuring might be worth it with 4 Ancestral Vision in your deck if Legacy Shardless Agent is any indication, but will a deck that can support UR sorcery Collected Company for sorceries be too bad for Modern?