I wondered the same thing and built some trial decks to see if vengevine was worth it to run in modern. Seems like it could be decent. The thread can be found here if anyone has any ideas: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=378492
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For what it's worth - the analogy to Standard isn't at all relevant. Vengevine was extremely good until Primeval Titan was printed and wafflestomped every possible midrange deck into submission. In Shards - ROE Standard, there were Vengevine decks in virtually every color combination -- Naya and Jund builds that played no/almost no non-creature spells (ie, 1 Basilisk Collar with 2 Stoneforges) in order to make Bloodbraid Elf a rebuy every time. Next-Level Bant was a deck that was founded entirely on 2 cards, Vengevine and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. And the aforementioned Dredgevine in BUG. When Primeval Titan and Valakut happened, you had to either play extremely aggressive (RB Vampires) or a million counterspells (UB Control). Vengevine was too slow to win before Titan came online, and not powerful enough to overcome Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.
Anyway, Vengevine seems fine against Zoo, if you can stay alive long enough they only have 4 Paths plus maybe a Snapcaster or two, and those will get stretched between Goyf, Vine and Kitchen Finks. Against control decks, he's hard to kill and worth infinite card advantage (although Teachings is playing an Extraction, kind of a bummer).
Fauna Shaman is slow to win, but if you're dumping Vengevines you've basically got a Dark Confidant that costs G instead of life.
I did the Dredgevine deck that is listed in the building forum, and it worked good. Just waiting until DA releases since it seems there will be more dredge-style mechanics to fuel it.
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GW Vengevine was played early on in the last PTQ season, and it's still a fine deck. It's pretty much a Bant deck with less disruption but more resilience and a better nut draw. The Fauna Shaman into Vengevine into Squadron Hawks chain works quite well against the midrange decks, and Knight of the Reliquary into multiple Tectonic Edges is actually fairly strong. However, the deck is pretty weak to Tron and Blue-Red combo decks, so playing it is a metagame call.
I think 8 is fine because you want that turn 1 accel and later game can act as VV recursion or bait to dump to Shaman.
You can use lotus cobra for mana accel as well, in place of either birds or heirarchs. I am a bit biased because I'm a fan of lotus cobra, but I do think lotus cobra works well with this sort of deck, and could possibly even be better than bop or noble heirarch in some cases despite it costing one more.
I've always pictured a modern vengevine deck in a sort of RUG shell, which would give the added benefits of Countermagic, Burn, and blue filter. You'd have a 2-slot of Fauna Shaman, Remand, Lotus Cobra, Tarmogoyf, maybe even Explores. Something like RUG ramp in Caw-Blade Standard, but Vengevines rather than Jaces/Titans, along with some way to effectively re-buy. I'd consider a build like that, personally.
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I don't have all four Vengevine, so I made a BRG version of the Fauna Shaman style deck with 2 VV, and 4 Bloodghast. In addition to Fauna Shaman I am also running Greenseeker too, to give me more discard power and some ramp.
Of course, you can get a few clunky hands without Llanowar/Hierarch every once in a while, but overall my draws have been quite solid ever since I went up to 8/9 1cc mana dorks.
Eight is the absolute max I would ever run, and even two of those slots would be the first things to go if I wanted to slide in more beaters or util. Creatures. They are dead way too often late game (though to be fail, Exalted means Hierarch is never really dead) otherwise.
With less than 8 dorks, it would be neccessary to lower your curve to go for more 2cc creatures, but that would go against the plan of this deck to have every topdeck be a threat the turn it hits play.
And increasing the chances of drawing a mana dork makes top-deck threat a more likely occurrence? Your best bet is to limit your 4cmc cards (with the right build your Vengevines should never be a 4cmc creatures), reduce your mana dorks slightly, and add in more good 2 cmc threats.
Also, you are mad if you think that you can just replace lands with dorks in a deck that runs eight 4cmc creatures. You land count should be at least 22, and your deck needs to be more focused on cheap aggro, or tutor/discard synergies.
There is actually a pretty good deck with Vengevine, is called Naya Fauna, should check it out, the deck plays no Goyf tho, but I want to add in Goyfs if I plan to build one lol.
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Anyway, Vengevine seems fine against Zoo, if you can stay alive long enough they only have 4 Paths plus maybe a Snapcaster or two, and those will get stretched between Goyf, Vine and Kitchen Finks. Against control decks, he's hard to kill and worth infinite card advantage (although Teachings is playing an Extraction, kind of a bummer).
Fauna Shaman is slow to win, but if you're dumping Vengevines you've basically got a Dark Confidant that costs G instead of life.
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Played:
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GW Vengevine was played early on in the last PTQ season, and it's still a fine deck. It's pretty much a Bant deck with less disruption but more resilience and a better nut draw. The Fauna Shaman into Vengevine into Squadron Hawks chain works quite well against the midrange decks, and Knight of the Reliquary into multiple Tectonic Edges is actually fairly strong. However, the deck is pretty weak to Tron and Blue-Red combo decks, so playing it is a metagame call.
You can use lotus cobra for mana accel as well, in place of either birds or heirarchs. I am a bit biased because I'm a fan of lotus cobra, but I do think lotus cobra works well with this sort of deck, and could possibly even be better than bop or noble heirarch in some cases despite it costing one more.
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Eight is the absolute max I would ever run, and even two of those slots would be the first things to go if I wanted to slide in more beaters or util. Creatures. They are dead way too often late game (though to be fail, Exalted means Hierarch is never really dead) otherwise.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
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Also, you are mad if you think that you can just replace lands with dorks in a deck that runs eight 4cmc creatures. You land count should be at least 22, and your deck needs to be more focused on cheap aggro, or tutor/discard synergies.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Birds of Paradise
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Eternal Witness
3 Path to Exile
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Arid Mesa
2 Treetop Village
2 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Plain
1 Mountain
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