What are the best/strongest Mono colored primarily creature decks used in the Modern format. Would it be something like RDW, Elves, Vamps, Zombies, Goblins, Knights, Soldiers, etc.
The strongest, most consistent mono-colored deck would be soul sisters. Its primary function is to gain obscene amounts of life and lock the opponent out that way. There is a new rising deck though which is mono red goblins though.
Faeries used to be playable, and even Top 8ed 2 GPs, but that was a long time ago. A time when control sucked, Storm was playable, and Jund didn't have Deathrite Shaman or Abrupt Decay.
Goblins is pretty popular on MTGO because it's so cheap to build.
I play Elves (GW, but easily converted to mono-green) and I believe it has potential. While it's true that the only new card it got from M14 is Elvish Mystic, don't underestimate the impact of that mana dork. Redundancy matters.
I would suggest either Merfolks or Goblins, but Elves are good option too.
It's hard to tell which is best, because all those decks are pretty different from each other.
If you want tempo deck with moderate number of creatures and counterspells , then choose Merfolks.
There is normally 12-16 lords in deck which means merfolks gonna be big.
Since all the builds use Aether Vial there is always mana for counterspells which slows enemy down.
And since Mutavault and Aethier Vial is reprinted, the cost of this deck became much cheaper.
Downside of this deck, not much creatures on the table, without vial on the table deck becomes very slow.
If you prefer fast agro deck with lots of creatures and burn spells your pick is Goblins.
This deck got a lot of 1 drops so it's pretty easy to have 4-5 creatures by turn 3 and if you use Krenko, mob boss you can easily have 10-16 goblins on the table.
A lot of goblins have "haste" and few goblins (Goblin Chieftain , Goblin bushwhacker) can grant haste to other goblins and with goblin grenade legal in modern, turn 3-4 kills is high possibility.
With good sideboard they can easily win against lots of competitive decks.
Another big plus of this deck is that it's dirty cheap, the most expensive cards are Goblin Guide and Cavern of souls.
But there is downside to this deck too, goblins are pretty small so they are vulnerable to Pyroclasm and since there is lots of people who use it in sideboard, it's often a big problem. The other big problem is that there isn't many modern legal lords and sadly only one of them is good (Chieftain). The last problem that there isn't any good drawing engines in red, so you can easily end up without cards on turn 4-5, unless you splash to another color, which is risky.
But aside from that it's a very fun and pretty powerful deck.
Believe me i play it!:cool2:
Last, but not least is Elves. If you like ramp combo deck it's for you.
They put lots of mana dorks and with drawing engine, they cast some giant creature and attack you to death. Since there is a lot of good elf lords they are not as vulnerable to Pyroclasm as goblins and it's makes much harder to attack them with creatures. It may not be the fastest combo in modern, but it's pretty fast. If you can't do combo you can always just attack enemy with lots of pumped elves, which works pretty well too.
But even this deck have some weakness, removals and mass removals can slow this deck much more than the others. And elves themselves normally don't use any removals, which can be a big problem against some decks.
Also I think this is the hardest deck to pilot of all three.
Well that sums up the most popular and competitive tribal creature decks, but i add few words about others:
Vampires- pretty solid deck with good creatures, discard and lots of good removals. There is 2 variation: mono black control and BR agro. Main problem is that it's a little bit slow for modern right now. Also not the cheapest deck.
Knights -Again pretty solid deck with cool creatures with lots of different variations and builds. Sadly a lot of builds lack of removal (those without black) and again not very fast for format.
Soldiers - in theory pretty powerful deck, with Preeminent captain in it and since nearly every soldier uses first strike. People mainly use mono white builds, but I think WR and WU is a good option. Still nobody proved power of this deck, and most of the builds are lacking removals.
Zombies - never saw them in action, but pretty sure they can be very powerful. Mono black, BU, BG and BUG version can be pretty competitive.
Merfolk had a good showing at the last Modern GP, but that said, it looked like he was just playing a lot better than his opponents. I could see a lot of them looked unfamiliar with the archetype, people don't necessarily expect Vapor Snag out of mono blue until it happens. Let's also not forget he played I think 4 Spreading Seas MB, which again, people unfamiliar with Merfolk wouldn't see coming.
I run mono black vamps and mono red goblins, and I gotta say, both are pretty great. Goblins will prolly be less expensive to run because black have things like thoughtsieze and bloodghast, but I gotta say, after play testing with nocturnes, once he hits the board, you opponet has to have an answer for it. They are on a 1 turn clock.
I flood the board with winnies and then curve out at nocturnes
Gobblins are a bit tricky. There is a lot of hand removal in my meta, which can really reduce the steam of red. ALso, you can hit a wall or lifegain with gobblins. With vamps, it doesnt matter since they have flying.
I really want to test out mono black zombies. I also want to try out Phyrexian Oblitorator.
GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG
GUEdric, Spymaster of TrestUG
BGWKarador, Ghost ChieftainWGB
URJhoira of the GhituRU
UWGeist of Saint TraftWU
BUOona, Queen of the FaeUB
I don't consider RDW to be a creature deck. Three of its creatures have short lifespans (Vexing Devil, Hellspark Elemental, Keldon Marauders), making them closer to instants and sorceries, and two of its other creatures are not used for attacking/blocking (Deathrite Shaman, Grim Lavamancer).
Faeries used to be playable, and even Top 8ed 2 GPs, but that was a long time ago. A time when control sucked, Storm was playable, and Jund didn't have Deathrite Shaman or Abrupt Decay.
Goblins is pretty popular on MTGO because it's so cheap to build.
I play Elves (GW, but easily converted to mono-green) and I believe it has potential. While it's true that the only new card it got from M14 is Elvish Mystic, don't underestimate the impact of that mana dork. Redundancy matters.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
It's hard to tell which is best, because all those decks are pretty different from each other.
If you want tempo deck with moderate number of creatures and counterspells , then choose Merfolks.
There is normally 12-16 lords in deck which means merfolks gonna be big.
Since all the builds use Aether Vial there is always mana for counterspells which slows enemy down.
And since Mutavault and Aethier Vial is reprinted, the cost of this deck became much cheaper.
Downside of this deck, not much creatures on the table, without vial on the table deck becomes very slow.
If you prefer fast agro deck with lots of creatures and burn spells your pick is Goblins.
This deck got a lot of 1 drops so it's pretty easy to have 4-5 creatures by turn 3 and if you use Krenko, mob boss you can easily have 10-16 goblins on the table.
A lot of goblins have "haste" and few goblins (Goblin Chieftain , Goblin bushwhacker) can grant haste to other goblins and with goblin grenade legal in modern, turn 3-4 kills is high possibility.
With good sideboard they can easily win against lots of competitive decks.
Another big plus of this deck is that it's dirty cheap, the most expensive cards are Goblin Guide and Cavern of souls.
But there is downside to this deck too, goblins are pretty small so they are vulnerable to Pyroclasm and since there is lots of people who use it in sideboard, it's often a big problem. The other big problem is that there isn't many modern legal lords and sadly only one of them is good (Chieftain). The last problem that there isn't any good drawing engines in red, so you can easily end up without cards on turn 4-5, unless you splash to another color, which is risky.
But aside from that it's a very fun and pretty powerful deck.
Believe me i play it!:cool2:
Last, but not least is Elves. If you like ramp combo deck it's for you.
They put lots of mana dorks and with drawing engine, they cast some giant creature and attack you to death. Since there is a lot of good elf lords they are not as vulnerable to Pyroclasm as goblins and it's makes much harder to attack them with creatures. It may not be the fastest combo in modern, but it's pretty fast. If you can't do combo you can always just attack enemy with lots of pumped elves, which works pretty well too.
But even this deck have some weakness, removals and mass removals can slow this deck much more than the others. And elves themselves normally don't use any removals, which can be a big problem against some decks.
Also I think this is the hardest deck to pilot of all three.
Well that sums up the most popular and competitive tribal creature decks, but i add few words about others:
Vampires- pretty solid deck with good creatures, discard and lots of good removals. There is 2 variation: mono black control and BR agro. Main problem is that it's a little bit slow for modern right now. Also not the cheapest deck.
Knights -Again pretty solid deck with cool creatures with lots of different variations and builds. Sadly a lot of builds lack of removal (those without black) and again not very fast for format.
Soldiers - in theory pretty powerful deck, with Preeminent captain in it and since nearly every soldier uses first strike. People mainly use mono white builds, but I think WR and WU is a good option. Still nobody proved power of this deck, and most of the builds are lacking removals.
Zombies - never saw them in action, but pretty sure they can be very powerful. Mono black, BU, BG and BUG version can be pretty competitive.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
I flood the board with winnies and then curve out at nocturnes
Gobblins are a bit tricky. There is a lot of hand removal in my meta, which can really reduce the steam of red. ALso, you can hit a wall or lifegain with gobblins. With vamps, it doesnt matter since they have flying.
I really want to test out mono black zombies. I also want to try out Phyrexian Oblitorator.
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