If you really want that strategy (novablast wurm+impervious greatwurm), you need more interaction. I guess you could take a look at green devotion strategies for vomiting him onto the battlefield, but such strategies often have a tendency to run out of gas or draw the wrong half of the deck. A more interactive strategy while running these two as a top end when you want to should be stronger. A better idea would be to run tooth and nail as a top end into your 2 wurm combo.
Alternatively, if you don't want this strategy (because it's already been done or there are already 2 card I win combos) is to run the new green tutor shared summons and just cast them as you can. This allows for stronger and grindier deck, with things like collector ouphe, kitchen finks, scavenging ooze, ramunap excavator, etc. as cards that can contribute towards winning the game/stopping your opponents from winning and keeping your options full.
Regardless of what choices you do make, I would consider replacing vernal bloom with nissa, who shakes the world as 4 mana is pretty much the same as 5 mana here, or garruk wildspeaker for the additional land untap. Helping your opponents kill your faster really seems like a bad idea!
If you're mono black, it might behoove you to check out Legacy's "The Gate" thread. Modern doesn't have access to hymn to tourach, of course, but there are tons of value cards you can run that would stick to the theme. The theme here is basically the same.
I see another person has fallen into the love-to-be-hated wiles of MLD. I, too, run a MLD angel stax deck (yes, it is mono red angel stax). I do run several walkers as well, but I am aiming slightly differently. Those differences are worthwhile enough to be noted here I think.
My strategy is simple: I blow up all creatures, all lands, and all artifacts I don't control. The reasoning is that I need my mana rocks to keep up, as my general is 8 mana. Hence, I don't run obliterate or jokulhaups. If I ran more walkers, I might, but I need to keep my artifacts around.
I think you need a few more threats. Cards that would help and might potentially survive your stone-age spells (as in, you blow everyone else back to the stone age):
(well, doesn't necessarily survive your own stone age removal, but borrowing everyone else's nice mana rocks sort of fits under the "blow up artifacts I don't control" plan. vicious shadows (expensive threat, but you are blowing up all creatures and lands and this is bound to take maximum advantage of that) sarkhan the masterless (turns the walkers into quick game ending threats...nothing to sneeze at)
I really don't see why you're running null rod in a red deck. I see a ton of interaction for artifacts in your list already, so why bother?
Good artifact recursion seems to be king. I think goblin welder, goblin engineer (if you have other options to fetch artifacts out of the graveyard), daretti, scrap savant, trading post, and maybe hoarding dragon all should be considered. I know there is some dis-synergy, but there are many faster decks than you and the ability to recur some threats can't be ignored because they will remove yours for sure.
I respectfully disagree on bloodghast. It is a good card, but I do feel that gravecrawler is the superior card here. You have 3 mutavaults and 4 rotting regisaurs, all of which are zombies. It should be a straight replacement for gifted aetherborn unless your meta is heavy on burn.
I second/third bitterblossom as a really solid add here. I might consider using it in place of liliana of the last hope
Leyline of singularity's best use would be against token decks most of the time. Primarily mardu pyromancer, tireless tracker tokens, and anything else using lingering souls. I am fairly certain that urza's ruinous blast would be a bad idea to try and use with leyline of singularity, as leyline makes it so that all of the non land permanents left are legendary and hence, immune.
However, it would work as a pseudo mass removal of sorts, and makes single target removal pretty solid, more so than usual.
Those aren't bad ideas, I especially like evolution charm myself. However, important to note is that activated abilities will not trigger gargos, only spells. This means to say that something like a rancor will trigger him (an aura is a spell on the stack), but bonesplitter will not.
Your hydra tribal theme is understood, but your support seems to be lacking.
Repeatable ways to target your creatures to enable the fight mechanic seem good. I see elvish fury, but how about monstrify? Add in a life from the loam with the cycling land package and you have additional card draw engine and a nasty, if slow, way to constantly remove your opponents creatures. You could also consider resize if you can always keep mana up. With that kind of fighting ability on your commander and considering his size, a lot of creatures will be dying constantly.
I am not going to mention all the synergy with +1/+1 counters, but you really should be researching them as hydras tend to get lots of them and there rae a ton of +1/+1 counter synergies in green. I will note that solidarity of heroes is a thing and accomplishes 2 goals with the deck: killing things and making hydras much bigger.
Speaking of killing things with your hydras, you need to be able to target the opponents things. Fortunately, green has 4 easy choices to make and all of them are relevant:
I would look over your supporting ramp a bit better. Even with your general, hydras are expensive and you need more ramp in my opinion. Soul's majesty and traverse the outlands seem pretty solid in here, too.
Worship? Good card, but maybe serra the benevolent will be worth a shot? This is the one deck I could see her as a 1 or 2 of. However, it is only really good against burn/zoo decks (worship, that is). Serra has a relevant -3 and her +2 is also a win condition in this deck, or gets you closer. All in all, a bit more versatile.
If you use my red splash idea, then I think seachrome coast is no good. Instead I would probably run a fetch/shock manabase with heavy basics and maybe also prismatic vista. With 6 to 8 maindeck red cards, you really don't need many sources of red.
Moorland haunt is a 2 of at most. You really don't want to see more than one of these any given game in this deck.
I don't know how I feel about empyrial plate in this deck in modern. The ability to keep your hand full with land tax and your opponent slow with island sanctuary/back to basics is gone in modern. Instead, you're running ghostly prison which is generally a lot worse.
Dredge variants, including hogaak dredgevine are all over right now, as well as tons of other graveyard decks. The more I think about it, the more I like remorseful cleric main and maybe rest in peace in the board. It's that prevalent. Unlike mausoleum wanderer/judge's familiar, remorseful cleric can sacrifice at will in order to clear out bridge from below.
I think the scry ability on the 1 drop faerie is insane. It's good enough that I think I would consider it a 4 of and up to 4 spellstutter sprite. Even these faeries is enough to disrupt your opponents severely.
Angry birds in legacy was always more about tempo/card advantage with a tad bit of stax thrown in. Spirits is tribal with some disruption thrown in (in the form of counters). Angry birds will gain more with a few more stax elements where spirits doesn't have the room. That is going to make for a very different game.
Interesting deck, and similar to a casual godo deck I have been working on. My question is as follows: I see no rings of brighthearth, sensei's divining top, or crucible of worlds. Why are you running fetchlands? Mountains would do the job just as well in a mono colored deck and wouldn't cost you life or be prey to hate in the process.
How does angry birds fare against the burn or 8 whack matchup? In legacy, I believed burn to be the gold standard for fair, but fast decks that don't have a strong combo win, and I believe this to be true in modern as well. Jund and tron will also give you the acid test and they come up quite a lot. Unfortunately, I don't see a lot of your maindeck options doing very well against tron or all that much against jund. I think you will yourself missing Island sanctuary (and in my build, back to basics) quite a lot.
Against burn: If you can survive their first onslaught, I am positive you can grind them out. Creatures you can stall out well enough, but burn can still use reach against you.
Srongest cards: leyline of sanctity, ghostly prison (to an extent. any taxing effects hose them pretty well)
8 whack: If you can survive their first onslaught, I am positive you can grind them out. However, this is 100% dependent on finding ghostly prison and sticking it.
Srongest cards: leyline of sanctity, ghostly prison.
Jund: Sort of the fairest of the fair, really. Angry birds biggest problem has always been having their hand ripped apart and this is no exception. Top it off with some excellent multi purpose removal and it's not looking too good. Fortunately, you have lots of fliers game 1 to kill liliana of the veil with, so there is that. Forecast will certainly be helpful, but here you're probably the aggro, not the control. Game 2 in comes leyline of sanctity, and you're probably sitting pretty if it hits turn 0.
Tron: Modern's nemesis, or so some say. It is a strong big mana deck and their late game is better than yours. I also notice a distinct lack of hate for this seemingly ubiquitous matchup. Worse, angry birds clock isn't the fastest (unless it's 1 drop into pride of the clouds x4). No ghost quarters or field of ruins to kill tron lands with, no stony silence to stop the cantripping, no chalice of the void, or no damping sphere, etc.
Strongest cards: uhhh, aggro and pray?
I could see how some of your listed matchups could be pretty good. That said, I also know modern is chuck full of graveyard.deck right now and you have no grave hate main. If the London Mulligan becomes a thing, it will be even worse. I think rest in peace is stronger than leyline of the void, and I would run at least 2 maindeck and 1 or 2 more in the board. If you're preferential of targeted graveyard removal, then remorseful cleric is a good option, too.
Various white brews have come out in the past, and one thing I have noticed is that leyline of sanctity main has an awful lot of uses sometimes. It's meta dependent, but stopping discard and burn cold is something to consider. I would be tempted by 3 main and a 4th sideboard.
Splashing other colors: You already mentioned a possible black splash for lingering souls. It's an excellent idea. If this becomes an option, then I would likewise be tempted with spectral procession over something else (take your pick). A lot of bodies can be problematic for some decks to deal with.
However, I would likewise consider a red splash. Blood moon is a legitimate card choice, and I like lightning bolt over path to exile most of the time. Being able to choose between an opponent, a planswalker, and a creature threat is a pretty good choice to have. Blood moon combined with your clock (and a few counters) also gives you a better than fair chance against tron. Of course, as always, this depends on your meta.
How about Radiant, Archangel? There are a lot of new cards that just got printed in mono white that care about fliers. It could be a tokens strategy or angel tribal, there can be some reanimator, removal isn't a problem, etc. However, since you're in white, one thing is for sure. You won't be drawing so many cards you can become the archenemy and win!
Alternatively, if you don't want this strategy (because it's already been done or there are already 2 card I win combos) is to run the new green tutor shared summons and just cast them as you can. This allows for stronger and grindier deck, with things like collector ouphe, kitchen finks, scavenging ooze, ramunap excavator, etc. as cards that can contribute towards winning the game/stopping your opponents from winning and keeping your options full.
Regardless of what choices you do make, I would consider replacing vernal bloom with nissa, who shakes the world as 4 mana is pretty much the same as 5 mana here, or garruk wildspeaker for the additional land untap. Helping your opponents kill your faster really seems like a bad idea!
My strategy is simple: I blow up all creatures, all lands, and all artifacts I don't control. The reasoning is that I need my mana rocks to keep up, as my general is 8 mana. Hence, I don't run obliterate or jokulhaups. If I ran more walkers, I might, but I need to keep my artifacts around.
I think you need a few more threats. Cards that would help and might potentially survive your stone-age spells (as in, you blow everyone else back to the stone age):
- greater gargadon
- thunderblust
- wurmcoil engine
- hellkite tyrant
(well, doesn't necessarily survive your own stone age removal, but borrowing everyone else's nice mana rocks sort of fits under the "blow up artifacts I don't control" plan.vicious shadows (expensive threat, but you are blowing up all creatures and lands and this is bound to take maximum advantage of that)
sarkhan the masterless (turns the walkers into quick game ending threats...nothing to sneeze at)
I really don't see why you're running null rod in a red deck. I see a ton of interaction for artifacts in your list already, so why bother?
Good artifact recursion seems to be king. I think goblin welder, goblin engineer (if you have other options to fetch artifacts out of the graveyard), daretti, scrap savant, trading post, and maybe hoarding dragon all should be considered. I know there is some dis-synergy, but there are many faster decks than you and the ability to recur some threats can't be ignored because they will remove yours for sure.
I second/third bitterblossom as a really solid add here. I might consider using it in place of liliana of the last hope
However, it would work as a pseudo mass removal of sorts, and makes single target removal pretty solid, more so than usual.
Repeatable ways to target your creatures to enable the fight mechanic seem good. I see elvish fury, but how about monstrify? Add in a life from the loam with the cycling land package and you have additional card draw engine and a nasty, if slow, way to constantly remove your opponents creatures. You could also consider resize if you can always keep mana up. With that kind of fighting ability on your commander and considering his size, a lot of creatures will be dying constantly.
I am not going to mention all the synergy with +1/+1 counters, but you really should be researching them as hydras tend to get lots of them and there rae a ton of +1/+1 counter synergies in green. I will note that solidarity of heroes is a thing and accomplishes 2 goals with the deck: killing things and making hydras much bigger.
Speaking of killing things with your hydras, you need to be able to target the opponents things. Fortunately, green has 4 easy choices to make and all of them are relevant:
I would look over your supporting ramp a bit better. Even with your general, hydras are expensive and you need more ramp in my opinion. Soul's majesty and traverse the outlands seem pretty solid in here, too.
If you use my red splash idea, then I think seachrome coast is no good. Instead I would probably run a fetch/shock manabase with heavy basics and maybe also prismatic vista. With 6 to 8 maindeck red cards, you really don't need many sources of red.
Moorland haunt is a 2 of at most. You really don't want to see more than one of these any given game in this deck.
I don't know how I feel about empyrial plate in this deck in modern. The ability to keep your hand full with land tax and your opponent slow with island sanctuary/back to basics is gone in modern. Instead, you're running ghostly prison which is generally a lot worse.
Dredge variants, including hogaak dredgevine are all over right now, as well as tons of other graveyard decks. The more I think about it, the more I like remorseful cleric main and maybe rest in peace in the board. It's that prevalent. Unlike mausoleum wanderer/judge's familiar, remorseful cleric can sacrifice at will in order to clear out bridge from below.
I think the scry ability on the 1 drop faerie is insane. It's good enough that I think I would consider it a 4 of and up to 4 spellstutter sprite. Even these faeries is enough to disrupt your opponents severely.
Against burn: If you can survive their first onslaught, I am positive you can grind them out. Creatures you can stall out well enough, but burn can still use reach against you.
Srongest cards: leyline of sanctity, ghostly prison (to an extent. any taxing effects hose them pretty well)
8 whack: If you can survive their first onslaught, I am positive you can grind them out. However, this is 100% dependent on finding ghostly prison and sticking it.
Srongest cards: leyline of sanctity, ghostly prison.
Jund: Sort of the fairest of the fair, really. Angry birds biggest problem has always been having their hand ripped apart and this is no exception. Top it off with some excellent multi purpose removal and it's not looking too good. Fortunately, you have lots of fliers game 1 to kill liliana of the veil with, so there is that. Forecast will certainly be helpful, but here you're probably the aggro, not the control. Game 2 in comes leyline of sanctity, and you're probably sitting pretty if it hits turn 0.
Strongest cards: Moorland haunt (Jund WILL kill all of the everything, so this gives inevitability), and leyline of sanctity.
Tron: Modern's nemesis, or so some say. It is a strong big mana deck and their late game is better than yours. I also notice a distinct lack of hate for this seemingly ubiquitous matchup. Worse, angry birds clock isn't the fastest (unless it's 1 drop into pride of the clouds x4). No ghost quarters or field of ruins to kill tron lands with, no stony silence to stop the cantripping, no chalice of the void, or no damping sphere, etc.
Strongest cards: uhhh, aggro and pray?
I could see how some of your listed matchups could be pretty good. That said, I also know modern is chuck full of graveyard.deck right now and you have no grave hate main. If the London Mulligan becomes a thing, it will be even worse. I think rest in peace is stronger than leyline of the void, and I would run at least 2 maindeck and 1 or 2 more in the board. If you're preferential of targeted graveyard removal, then remorseful cleric is a good option, too.
Various white brews have come out in the past, and one thing I have noticed is that leyline of sanctity main has an awful lot of uses sometimes. It's meta dependent, but stopping discard and burn cold is something to consider. I would be tempted by 3 main and a 4th sideboard.
Splashing other colors: You already mentioned a possible black splash for lingering souls. It's an excellent idea. If this becomes an option, then I would likewise be tempted with spectral procession over something else (take your pick). A lot of bodies can be problematic for some decks to deal with.
However, I would likewise consider a red splash. Blood moon is a legitimate card choice, and I like lightning bolt over path to exile most of the time. Being able to choose between an opponent, a planswalker, and a creature threat is a pretty good choice to have. Blood moon combined with your clock (and a few counters) also gives you a better than fair chance against tron. Of course, as always, this depends on your meta.