Just sold my ~$3,000 collection to MTGOTraders via wire transfer and it was very fast and very easy. Highly recommended!
almost the exact same for me - just over $2800 value for my collection and I went with the wire transfer option. the process was quite simple (export a CSV of collection, send it to them, reply to offer email with some details). and now is the bittersweet day that I am no longer an MTGO player for the foreseeable future. I hope someone out there enjoys all those shocks and Goyfs.
Good nitpick actually, it was a typo, I added a 2nd line that said "1 Verdant Catacombs" (after I already had 2) instead of "1 Overgrown Tomb". I can and have cast multiple game-winning Slaughter Games post-board vs Scapeshift and Storm. The typo is now corrected.
Going *slightly more black* is an explorable path. You're right that Terminate is most appealing; it hits more of my problem cards than Abrupt Decay. Thanks for the suggestion. This furthers the idea of a 2nd black source; I could get away with "7" (6 fetch + 1 shock) because of scry, dig, and not needing black until 4+ mana for Games. If Terminate wants to happen at any time earlier, I'll need to assemble 3 colors more quickly.
Already on the Blood Moon plan. The number of matches that card steals is absurd. Scapeshift, Amulet-Bloom, Zoo, and 3-color control decks just fold. It's been lackluster against Tron, however, because I don't apply enough pressure to stop them from just cycling their artifacts, tutoring lands, and playing a Wurmcoil Engine to get back into it.
Thragtusk only continues to earn itself more of the spotlight. Since even my last post I moved another into the maindeck.
The problem with Infect is their density of threats + pump is greater than my density of removal spells; Inkmoth Nexus is the chief offender because it can't be swept. I die most often to the inevitable Become Immense after all my outs are exhausted. I'm familiar with the lines of play that minimize damage - e.g., post-combat removal, and favoring destroy effects to damage when they have open mana. I should probably bite the bullet and pick up a 2nd Spellskite as well, it's just a bit pricey online.
Not sure what to do with a no-reply thread; let it die or self-bump, but since I'm still playing with this and iterating on it, I'll give it another shot at the front page.
My Daily results with this have been 5 cashes out of 9 opportunities (all 3-1), with a surefire 6th that I punted on the very very last possible play (bolted a burn player who responded by killing me, instead of waiting a turn to crash for lethal with my creatures, force their burn, and respond with my bolt).
The worst matchups have been Tron, Storm, and Infect, while Burn, Zoo, and Control have gone very well.
Not sure if the best thing is to update the OP with a list or post an updated list here; I'll try the latter.
The most marked changes are the additions of these cards which I think are strong in the meta, including one that was worth a dedicated splash: Slaughter Games, Thragtusk, and (just in this style of control deck) Blasphemous Act.
Notes on each:
Slaughter Games digs hard at some of my worst matchups and either bricks their deck entirely (Scapeshift, Storm if they don't have Empty the Warrens), or puts them on a more level playing field (Splinter Twin naming the namesake card, Tron naming Wurmcoil or Karn depending on the game state).
Thragtusk is a card I was low on for a long time, because of the "dies to Bolt" clause, but coming out ahead a spell, a 3/3, and 5 life is still strong for the 4-to-1 mana disadvantage. Against Junk, it rumbles with all their fatties, and is one of the best cards to play when behind to Liliana of the Veil. It's a fine threat vs any control deck and it is about 50/50 to blow out burn (depends if I can cast it & they don't have Skullcrack).
Blasphemous Act: I noticed that this deck had problems either with strategies that go wide (e.g. tons of tokens backed by enchantments, Soul Sisters' army including Pridemates and Ascendants), tall (Junk, GW Creatures), or both (Merfolk). Lacking a proper "Wrath" above 3 damage, I weighed the typical cost of Act (let's call it 5) against how likely I am to reach that mana, and decided it was worth it.
A mod-friend is currently inquiring for me about the classification and requirements for a thread like this. This is my first time making something on here in years, so I wasn't sure if I should call it a Primer, and what I needed in the OP to qualify.
edit: for the time being, I've changed it from a 'Primer' to a 'Deck'.
Hello MTG Salvation! I've got something a-brewin', that as far as I can tell, is not a thing being done in Modern. The deck's core interaction is possible in some Jund lists, but the shell is completely new.
Intro
This idea was built around the extremely versatile card Courser of Kruphix. I wanted to find a way to abuse the top-of-library ability in a way that's more than just filtering a few lands. While I could have gone in a Domri Rade direction, that is a different deck (and fun in its own right). I picked another planeswalker that cares about your top card: Chandra, Pyromaster. But, that couldn't be the only interaction, because jamming your deck full of the same named 4 mana planeswalker is not a great idea in a turn-4 format.
So what else does Courser do well? It survives 3 damage removal - great, let's run Anger of the Gods. It has a symbiotic relationship with fetchlands and Scry. And by putting lands into play off the top, we're effectively drawing cards. How can we do more of that? Explore!
Decklist
Here's a list to get us started. I ran this (+/- 8 cards) to 3-1 in the first MTGO Daily I played with it Sunday night, but bear in mind that is skewed by an opponent disconnect in a drawn (1-1) match.
Some of the less obvious, let's-talk-about-it slots, include:
Sweepers: Anger? Clasm? Angerclasm? Volcanic Fallout (probably does the least of the 3)? They all have merits. Anger becomes better when the meta skews towards persistent creatures and graveyard dependencies, Pyroclasm is better at just cleaning up the mess Affinity puts on the board and a field of mana dorks / hatebears / Geist of Saint Trafts. A split is where I want to be. Numbers and main/side are up in the air. Trying 1/1 w/ 1 side atm.
"Dragons": There are really 4 5-mana "dragons" worth talking about that function as offense or defense control-style finishers: Hellkite (in my list), Stormbreath Dragon, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, and Batterskull. Hellkite kills faster and slays a board of Lingering Souls. Stormbreath Dodges Path, but strangely, fares neutral or worse against all the relevant white creatures. Monstrous is kind of like a Planeswalker ult in that you can't expect to use it. Batterskull is a known quantity - gums up the board and is very hard to deal with unless answered immediately, or flown over the top of. It's not in my 75 right now, because A) I have a lot of other lifegain and B) it can't be tutored up with Primal Command. Sarkhan doubles as a hasty dragon thing or a Flame Slash - but a 5 mana Flame Slash is pretty underwhelming against Tarmogoyf, Tasigur, and Rhino, while his dragon mode can't play defense for you. Probably the worst option here.
wildcard slot / extra power card: Currently, for lack of a better idea, I've got Garruk Relentless in this slot as a 1-of. Obviously a powerful card, but only in certain situations and definitely dead against combo decks and decks without the right creature base. A 3rd Chandra here seems excessive because she costs 4 and doesn't die a lot, making multiples unwanted. I may just end up playing a 3rd dragon, or adding a utility card, or a removal spell... who knows! Maybe just good old B-Skull as mentioned above.
Sideboard: My meta is MODO, so you can assume that, past the first round or two of any typical daily, the competition I really need to beat is the known, top-tier and 2nd-tier decks. Ergo, I focus on beating things like Twin, Abzan (both discard and G-W creatures varieties), Affinity, Scapeshift, Burn, Infect, Tron, Jeskai midrange/control, etc. I actually have a shockingly good Amulet-Bloom matchup due to maindeck LD, and can Beast Within in response to a Pact to get surprise G1 wins before bringing in Blood Moon for the kill in G2/G3. The work that card also does against Scapeshift and any greedy 3-color deck is incalculable. Maindeck Bolts and sweepers help me be non-abysmal vs Affinity and then GR has all the blowout cards post-board. Twin is dicey G1 unless I'm gripping an early Dismember or double Bolt for the Deceiver Exarch, and some of my stuff is just way too slow to be tapping out for, so I load up on Combusts. Beating a deck like Junk is just about maintaining board parity while trading up smartly - using Bolts/Chandras plus my guys to take down Tasigurs/Goyfs/Rhinos, having sweepers so Lingering Souls doesn't take over the game, having multiple outs to Liliana, and Ewitt/Harmonize to recoup card loss from discard.
Just an aside that Plow Under is my favorite card to cast in all of Magic, but I'm glad to be running a deck with land hate at 2 mana fewer.
My meta is MODO, where if you assume something is popular and successful, it is popular and successful - Twin, Affinity, UWR, Burn, Junk, etc etc. Noteworthy that this is a < 100 tickets deck for anyone who wants to play with it online (though Primetimes would increase it by $30+ each), not that cost is especially a barrier for me. I do plan to iterate with Primeval Titan in the near future.
A few Elvish Visionaries would be correct in a Chord build, but I think outside of that, a 1/1 for 2 providing 1 devotion and no ramp is not getting it done for me - I'd rather draw the card it was going to draw. Note the lack of Genesis Wave as well - an alternate wincon that is totally fine but a bit greedy when concerned about assembling and protecting a combo and living long enough to get there. It gradually became Primal Command which is better at 5 (x=2) or 6 (x3) than Wave. Inferno Titan or *insert monster of your choice here* only happened after I needed something game-ending to grab off Command. A Chord build would probably introduce a lot of silver bullets but also randomize the deck more. Harmonize is a card that begets consistency.
TL;DR: I'll definitely give Primeval Titan a closer look, though it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem fetching Boseiju, Who Shelters All (they'd just counter the Primetime first), grabbing Nykthos or a Kessig Wolf Run can indeed close out a game.
In my experience playing Chord decks, Dryad Arbor as an accelerant off Chord is a rarely useful case relative to how bad it is to draw. It's worse in-hand than any mana dork because it dies to the same things but costs a land-drop to play. It is much more underwhelming with Chord than with Green Sun, KOTR, or other use cases (such as Bogles fetching 1 to attach auras to and battle). Spend that slot on a threat or answer for Chord before an accelerant.
Hey all. If I've found the wrong thread, sorry about that - I've looked for one on Tooth and Nail in both Developing Competitive and Deck Creation and didn't see anything recent. If I need to move this post to another thread, holler.
A few weeks ago I was inspired by a Modern Monday post on magic.tcgplayer.com that showed a 4-0 Tooth and Nail list (in a pre-bans meta), with the engine as green untappers + enchanted lands, and the win condition as Emrakul + Xenagos.
I felt like relying on 8 Bolt/Clasm/Anger-able mana dorks to do the heavy lifting was a bit fragile, and I also saw a lot of easily accessible weakness coverage in a red splash (with light black for Decay). Devotion seemed like a natural route to pursue given that I wanted tons of mana and the list I saw was already running cards like Eternal Witness and Garruk Wildspeaker (2 devotion each and natural archetype fits).
I 3-1'd Friday night (literally 1 life point of play mistake away from 4-0 :(), then had some up-and-down 2-2s on Saturday/Sunday where I lost to Twin (worst matchup) and Affinity (a coin flip that we can win, because neither deck interacts much and both are as fast as turn 3 kills) both times.
Without further adieu, here's what I've been working on:
To at least head off a few questions, I'll reference a few specific card choices:
Mind Stone - This was the result of digging and digging to find a combination of "ramp early and never dead". Anything that jumps us from 2->4 is a welcome addition, and yes a Fertile Ground or similar would make starts more explosive, but the deck's problem is never generating mana, it's running out of business. Overgrowth - Mentioning because a 1-of looks awkward. Let's call this the 60th card and a pure curve-filler with upside. This deck goes 1->2->2->2->4 a lot more than it goes 1->3. Inferno Titan - This comes from a mindset of picking my battles game 1 versus post-board and deciding, in the shell I'm playing, that I can crush and shut the door on aggro maindeck (t3 Command into t4 Titan or similar), and focus on the combo, control, and Tron matchups after. If I change mindsets and focus on beating combo first, you'd see this move. Blood Moon - A nonbo with Nykthos, but a card that will win the game when cast against Tron, Scapeshift, or control (especially Cryptic control). Very easy to play around knowing our own is coming, and even a card opponents will foolishly side in to shut off Nykthos. Again, there are so many other routes to high mana here that was just don't care. It's worth noting that after boarding in BM, don't forget to stick Utopia Sprawl on basics only.
I don't think a non-undead scavenger really fits the set. But they should still print it in another set eventually. Same goes for Chaos Warp. But cards like Brainstorm, Sol Ring, Windfall etc. are a huge no.
They had Predator Ooze, and that one other enchantment that made Oozes. It would've been fine.
I'm holding out for SO in the M13 core set, or perhaps as sort of a "Golgari" card in RTR.
As soon as your opponent realizes what you're doing, there's no way they're pointing removal at a vanilla 2/2; they're going for your potential combo piece.
Actually, that's one way. Descendant's Path is 3 mana, so you could put in a bunch of 4+ mana cascade spells which will guaranteed hit it, if that's your only 3 mana or under card. Bloodbraid elf into descendant's path seems pretty sweet, because you get to cast it, so cascade goes. Maybe some copies of Slyvan Scrying, so every cascade gets you either a mutavault or a descendants' path? This could totally work. The biggest trumps the path has over the call to kindred are that 1) it doesn't have to be on one creature and 2) path is cast, meaning Emmy gets you a free turn, which is huge.
Problems with this post:
You mentioned having Path as your only 3-or-less spell (making this a Living End deck of sorts, I guess?), but unlike Living End (which just cuts out 1s and 2s), I think that's too narrow a restriction. You simply can't make a consistent/competitive enough deck under those conditions in Modern as it doesn't have cards like Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors to catapult you up to that mana threshold. For example, you just mentioned Sylvan Scrying for consistency... except that costs 2.
And you most certainly can't cascade into a land (Mutavault).
edit: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH I'm way too tired. You're saying your only 2CMC spell would be Scrying, so when you cascade, you scry for a Vault. My apologies.
Aye. I think at this point, almost a year into the format's existence, it's clear that both Wizards and fans don't want Modern to just be another repeat of past eternal formats and always be dominated by Blue.
Annex is a cool card with potential for Tron mirrors, but 4 mana is more than I want to pay to take 1 land from them (Ajani does the same but with upside). Eye of Nowhere is sorcery speed and thus largely relegated to 1 role; I use Boomerang for a mix of effects that don't just include bouncing lands or turn 1 plays.
I could see building a deck around scepter, but I feel like WUR scepter has already been done enough, and better.
Anyways I came into this thread to post just how ludicrous Boil is in two of my worst matchups, Twin and Faeries. Like, do people even realize this is legal? Instant speed splashable 4 mana island-geddon? All I need to do is bring down a threat like Gideon or Celestial Colonnade, Boil in response to them tapping out (I have very few islands myself), and walk away with the game. Combos extremely well with spreading seas, btw. Against Twin I just start by denying them red mana, turning their mountains into islands, then bang. A suite of countermagic backup doesn't hurt of course.
almost the exact same for me - just over $2800 value for my collection and I went with the wire transfer option. the process was quite simple (export a CSV of collection, send it to them, reply to offer email with some details). and now is the bittersweet day that I am no longer an MTGO player for the foreseeable future. I hope someone out there enjoys all those shocks and Goyfs.
Going *slightly more black* is an explorable path. You're right that Terminate is most appealing; it hits more of my problem cards than Abrupt Decay. Thanks for the suggestion. This furthers the idea of a 2nd black source; I could get away with "7" (6 fetch + 1 shock) because of scry, dig, and not needing black until 4+ mana for Games. If Terminate wants to happen at any time earlier, I'll need to assemble 3 colors more quickly.
Already on the Blood Moon plan. The number of matches that card steals is absurd. Scapeshift, Amulet-Bloom, Zoo, and 3-color control decks just fold. It's been lackluster against Tron, however, because I don't apply enough pressure to stop them from just cycling their artifacts, tutoring lands, and playing a Wurmcoil Engine to get back into it.
Thragtusk only continues to earn itself more of the spotlight. Since even my last post I moved another into the maindeck.
The problem with Infect is their density of threats + pump is greater than my density of removal spells; Inkmoth Nexus is the chief offender because it can't be swept. I die most often to the inevitable Become Immense after all my outs are exhausted. I'm familiar with the lines of play that minimize damage - e.g., post-combat removal, and favoring destroy effects to damage when they have open mana. I should probably bite the bullet and pick up a 2nd Spellskite as well, it's just a bit pricey online.
I'm so happy someone replied!
My Daily results with this have been 5 cashes out of 9 opportunities (all 3-1), with a surefire 6th that I punted on the very very last possible play (bolted a burn player who responded by killing me, instead of waiting a turn to crash for lethal with my creatures, force their burn, and respond with my bolt).
The worst matchups have been Tron, Storm, and Infect, while Burn, Zoo, and Control have gone very well.
Not sure if the best thing is to update the OP with a list or post an updated list here; I'll try the latter.
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Temple of Abandon
2 Raging Ravine
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Forest
2 Mountain
Creatures: 16
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Courser of Kruphix
1 Eternal Witness
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Thragtusk
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Dismember
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Explore
1 Pyroclasm
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Beast Within
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Harmonize
2 Primal Command
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Combust
1 Deglamer
1 Unravel the Aether
1 Anger Of the Gods
2 Blood Moon
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Slaughter Games
1 Thragtusk
2 Blasphemous Act
The most marked changes are the additions of these cards which I think are strong in the meta, including one that was worth a dedicated splash: Slaughter Games, Thragtusk, and (just in this style of control deck) Blasphemous Act.
Notes on each:
edit: for the time being, I've changed it from a 'Primer' to a 'Deck'.
Intro
This idea was built around the extremely versatile card Courser of Kruphix. I wanted to find a way to abuse the top-of-library ability in a way that's more than just filtering a few lands. While I could have gone in a Domri Rade direction, that is a different deck (and fun in its own right). I picked another planeswalker that cares about your top card: Chandra, Pyromaster. But, that couldn't be the only interaction, because jamming your deck full of the same named 4 mana planeswalker is not a great idea in a turn-4 format.
So what else does Courser do well? It survives 3 damage removal - great, let's run Anger of the Gods. It has a symbiotic relationship with fetchlands and Scry. And by putting lands into play off the top, we're effectively drawing cards. How can we do more of that? Explore!
Decklist
Here's a list to get us started. I ran this (+/- 8 cards) to 3-1 in the first MTGO Daily I played with it Sunday night, but bear in mind that is skewed by an opponent disconnect in a drawn (1-1) match.
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Temple of Abandon
2 Raging Ravine
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
2 Mountain
Creatures: 14
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Courser of Kruphix
1 Eternal Witness
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Dismember
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Explore
1 Pyroclasm
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Beast Within
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Harmonize
2 Primal Command
1 Nature's Claim
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Combust
1 Deglamer
1 Anger Of the Gods
3 Blood Moon
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Shatterstorm
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
A lot of what's in here should seem fairly obvious, from "blue" cards like Grove Of the Burnwillows and Tarmogoyf, to powerful card advantage like Harmonize and Primal Command.
Some of the less obvious, let's-talk-about-it slots, include:
Sweepers: Anger? Clasm? Angerclasm? Volcanic Fallout (probably does the least of the 3)? They all have merits. Anger becomes better when the meta skews towards persistent creatures and graveyard dependencies, Pyroclasm is better at just cleaning up the mess Affinity puts on the board and a field of mana dorks / hatebears / Geist of Saint Trafts. A split is where I want to be. Numbers and main/side are up in the air. Trying 1/1 w/ 1 side atm.
"Dragons": There are really 4 5-mana "dragons" worth talking about that function as offense or defense control-style finishers: Hellkite (in my list), Stormbreath Dragon, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, and Batterskull. Hellkite kills faster and slays a board of Lingering Souls. Stormbreath Dodges Path, but strangely, fares neutral or worse against all the relevant white creatures. Monstrous is kind of like a Planeswalker ult in that you can't expect to use it. Batterskull is a known quantity - gums up the board and is very hard to deal with unless answered immediately, or flown over the top of. It's not in my 75 right now, because A) I have a lot of other lifegain and B) it can't be tutored up with Primal Command. Sarkhan doubles as a hasty dragon thing or a Flame Slash - but a 5 mana Flame Slash is pretty underwhelming against Tarmogoyf, Tasigur, and Rhino, while his dragon mode can't play defense for you. Probably the worst option here.
wildcard slot / extra power card: Currently, for lack of a better idea, I've got Garruk Relentless in this slot as a 1-of. Obviously a powerful card, but only in certain situations and definitely dead against combo decks and decks without the right creature base. A 3rd Chandra here seems excessive because she costs 4 and doesn't die a lot, making multiples unwanted. I may just end up playing a 3rd dragon, or adding a utility card, or a removal spell... who knows! Maybe just good old B-Skull as mentioned above.
Sideboard: My meta is MODO, so you can assume that, past the first round or two of any typical daily, the competition I really need to beat is the known, top-tier and 2nd-tier decks. Ergo, I focus on beating things like Twin, Abzan (both discard and G-W creatures varieties), Affinity, Scapeshift, Burn, Infect, Tron, Jeskai midrange/control, etc. I actually have a shockingly good Amulet-Bloom matchup due to maindeck LD, and can Beast Within in response to a Pact to get surprise G1 wins before bringing in Blood Moon for the kill in G2/G3. The work that card also does against Scapeshift and any greedy 3-color deck is incalculable. Maindeck Bolts and sweepers help me be non-abysmal vs Affinity and then GR has all the blowout cards post-board. Twin is dicey G1 unless I'm gripping an early Dismember or double Bolt for the Deceiver Exarch, and some of my stuff is just way too slow to be tapping out for, so I load up on Combusts. Beating a deck like Junk is just about maintaining board parity while trading up smartly - using Bolts/Chandras plus my guys to take down Tasigurs/Goyfs/Rhinos, having sweepers so Lingering Souls doesn't take over the game, having multiple outs to Liliana, and Ewitt/Harmonize to recoup card loss from discard.
Fire away!
My meta is MODO, where if you assume something is popular and successful, it is popular and successful - Twin, Affinity, UWR, Burn, Junk, etc etc. Noteworthy that this is a < 100 tickets deck for anyone who wants to play with it online (though Primetimes would increase it by $30+ each), not that cost is especially a barrier for me. I do plan to iterate with Primeval Titan in the near future.
A few Elvish Visionaries would be correct in a Chord build, but I think outside of that, a 1/1 for 2 providing 1 devotion and no ramp is not getting it done for me - I'd rather draw the card it was going to draw. Note the lack of Genesis Wave as well - an alternate wincon that is totally fine but a bit greedy when concerned about assembling and protecting a combo and living long enough to get there. It gradually became Primal Command which is better at 5 (x=2) or 6 (x3) than Wave. Inferno Titan or *insert monster of your choice here* only happened after I needed something game-ending to grab off Command. A Chord build would probably introduce a lot of silver bullets but also randomize the deck more. Harmonize is a card that begets consistency.
TL;DR: I'll definitely give Primeval Titan a closer look, though it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem fetching Boseiju, Who Shelters All (they'd just counter the Primetime first), grabbing Nykthos or a Kessig Wolf Run can indeed close out a game.
A few weeks ago I was inspired by a Modern Monday post on magic.tcgplayer.com that showed a 4-0 Tooth and Nail list (in a pre-bans meta), with the engine as green untappers + enchanted lands, and the win condition as Emrakul + Xenagos.
I felt like relying on 8 Bolt/Clasm/Anger-able mana dorks to do the heavy lifting was a bit fragile, and I also saw a lot of easily accessible weakness coverage in a red splash (with light black for Decay). Devotion seemed like a natural route to pursue given that I wanted tons of mana and the list I saw was already running cards like Eternal Witness and Garruk Wildspeaker (2 devotion each and natural archetype fits).
I 3-1'd Friday night (literally 1 life point of play mistake away from 4-0 :(), then had some up-and-down 2-2s on Saturday/Sunday where I lost to Twin (worst matchup) and Affinity (a coin flip that we can win, because neither deck interacts much and both are as fast as turn 3 kills) both times.
Without further adieu, here's what I've been working on:
9 Forest
4 Nykthos, Shrine To Nyx
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Stomping Ground
Creatures (18)
4 Arbor Elf
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Wall of Roots
3 Eternal Witness
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Inferno Titan
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Utopia Sprawl
2 Mind Stone
1 Overgrowth
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Harmonize
2 Primal Command
4 Tooth and Nail
2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Vandalblast
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Combust
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
2 Blood Moon
1 Slaughter Games
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
To at least head off a few questions, I'll reference a few specific card choices:
Mind Stone - This was the result of digging and digging to find a combination of "ramp early and never dead". Anything that jumps us from 2->4 is a welcome addition, and yes a Fertile Ground or similar would make starts more explosive, but the deck's problem is never generating mana, it's running out of business.
Overgrowth - Mentioning because a 1-of looks awkward. Let's call this the 60th card and a pure curve-filler with upside. This deck goes 1->2->2->2->4 a lot more than it goes 1->3.
Inferno Titan - This comes from a mindset of picking my battles game 1 versus post-board and deciding, in the shell I'm playing, that I can crush and shut the door on aggro maindeck (t3 Command into t4 Titan or similar), and focus on the combo, control, and Tron matchups after. If I change mindsets and focus on beating combo first, you'd see this move.
Blood Moon - A nonbo with Nykthos, but a card that will win the game when cast against Tron, Scapeshift, or control (especially Cryptic control). Very easy to play around knowing our own is coming, and even a card opponents will foolishly side in to shut off Nykthos. Again, there are so many other routes to high mana here that was just don't care. It's worth noting that after boarding in BM, don't forget to stick Utopia Sprawl on basics only.
uhhh
They had Predator Ooze, and that one other enchantment that made Oozes. It would've been fine.
I'm holding out for SO in the M13 core set, or perhaps as sort of a "Golgari" card in RTR.
Problems with this post:
You mentioned having Path as your only 3-or-less spell (making this a Living End deck of sorts, I guess?), but unlike Living End (which just cuts out 1s and 2s), I think that's too narrow a restriction. You simply can't make a consistent/competitive enough deck under those conditions in Modern as it doesn't have cards like Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors to catapult you up to that mana threshold. For example, you just mentioned Sylvan Scrying for consistency... except that costs 2.
And you most certainly can't cascade into a land (Mutavault).
edit: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH I'm way too tired. You're saying your only 2CMC spell would be Scrying, so when you cascade, you scry for a Vault. My apologies.
I could see building a deck around scepter, but I feel like WUR scepter has already been done enough, and better.
Anyways I came into this thread to post just how ludicrous Boil is in two of my worst matchups, Twin and Faeries. Like, do people even realize this is legal? Instant speed splashable 4 mana island-geddon? All I need to do is bring down a threat like Gideon or Celestial Colonnade, Boil in response to them tapping out (I have very few islands myself), and walk away with the game. Combos extremely well with spreading seas, btw. Against Twin I just start by denying them red mana, turning their mountains into islands, then bang. A suite of countermagic backup doesn't hurt of course.