The only concern aabout it is that you are not playing Lotleth Troll which always have been one of the best zombies at least for me and in this deck can help you a lot being another win condition while filling the role of giving you an instant way of discarding any other of your zombies for value.
Have you tested them?
On the other side there is another card that I think I have to include in my list so because of that I'm suggesting it to you. This is Westvale Abbey. With all the zombies we can play and generate is easy to have fodder to flip it and is a win condition and a can turn away a game that otherwise would be lost and you are playing already urborg so I don't think there is much problem invcluding it.
So with this things in mind, My list would be something like:
I really think this list is a beauty and can do a really good work against almost everything. What do you think?
I could play a bunch of games with a GB list, I don't have the copters in person but I have the rest. If you are adding green I think you are missing out without using Abrupt Decay and Verdant Catacombs/Overgrown Tomb. I'll see what I can come up with for a GB list.
So with this list we have plenty of green sources and a maindeck answer to bridges and the so. Anyways I think we don't need as much green sources because with caverns and blooming marsh you have 7 lands to produce the green for trolls. If you include abrupt decay then you probably need more (cavern can't be used for that) so this is the reason I've changed the manabase as it is now. Anyways not very sure about it.
Although this is the list I like more, I have some concerns about all the anger of the gods people are playing right now.
I would like to have more sac oulets in order to avoid losing all my creatures from an anger.
The only ones that could survive are our beloved trolls, the colossus if they are 4/4 or bigger and mutavaults and copters. We are already playing blasting station, which is fantastic for me, but only one copy. The other way to avoid this is with copters but you need to draw any creature to make it works again or use mutavault on it to crew but we only have two copies of mutavault, so not sure if this is enough. What do you think?
So I'm thinking if there would be something to play to avoid people exiling our stuff. And I don't want to hear about discard spells, because topdeck exists :P.
Any ideas about this? What's your experience about that?
Not much here, gotta prepare for a big tournament tommorrow, but i won't be playing zombies because i expect everyone to be packing hate because of dredge. I will be back on zombies after that next week!
Here is a list by the guy who runs the Turn One Thoughtseize podcast. It is devotion centered but it got me thinking on maybe that a random 1-of Necromancer's Stockpile and things wouldn't e such a bad inclusion. If you draw it then you have an engine to work with, if not then play the normal gameplan.
I don't like necromancer's stockpile because it is the most clunky/durdly of all the discard outlets/engines. Collective brutality kills something right away, lotleth troll and smuggler's copter can often block right away, haakon, stromgald scourge is a 3/3 body and blasting station can be activated right away, even if it is still kind of clunky. Stockpile does nothing on turn 2 and on turn 3 you have to pay 2 of your 3 mana to get a TAPPED guy, way too slow.
I don't like necromancer's stockpile because it is the most clunky/durdly of all the discard outlets/engines. Collective brutality kills something right away, lotleth troll and smuggler's copter can often block right away, haakon, stromgald scourge is a 3/3 body and blasting station can be activated right away, even if it is still kind of clunky. Stockpile does nothing on turn 2 and on turn 3 you have to pay 2 of your 3 mana to get a TAPPED guy, way too slow.
All fair points. I suppose I didn't think too much into the card other that it can be an engine.
I think amalgam has potential with blasting station, also jace is basically an upgraded copter, lots of value with all of the 12 spells. Rotting rats is another enabler for amalgam and can bin them.
Just a thought experiment for now, i'll be tesing with my mono black list this upcoming week.
First change i maxed out on thoughtseize instead of inquisition of kozilek. I don't take damage from my lands so the 2 life is fine, and i really want to be able to hit big stuff from eldrazi, tron, titanshift, etc. The zoo/burn matchup is fine i don't feel i give up much to those by doing this.
Second changed i gave up on the haakon, stromgald scourge/nameless inversion combo. Yes it is powerful but again i wanted to hit bigger stuff with dismember, and the one mana option if very relevant. Inversion has been very medium and haakon require specific draws and is often a bad topdeck.
I decided to invest more space with the blasting station combo, now playing 2. It has been very good, and now i can beat ensnaring bridge decks game one! Saving stuff from exiling removal has been very good too.
EDIT: oh yeah, one more thing i learned, affinity is a super awful matchup, all their stuff fly over ours (like spirits which is another awful matchup). I feel like the blasting station combo is our only way to beat them G1, and copter can help.
Diregraf colossus is way better in my testing than the messenger. Yo can cast it and after that cast a crawler or other one drop for pure value. If unchecked it creates a board state that the opponent can deal with. I would never cut it. Also in the midgame it enters with a huge body and although don't shock the opponent can block and survive.
I also woudn't cut the pharaoh because is a good reusable removal that save us from lethal against suicide bloo and such decks. I think you need to test extensively the deck as it is to realizehow good are these cards.
Ace's list or mine are really well tuned and tested. I don' think I would change anything right now.
What is the point of Vengeful Pharaoh ?
It's effect happens after damage is dealt (like Reciprocate which no one plays) so it doesn't actually help you survive big attacks unless I'm missing something here.
Diregraf Colossus is a win-more card imho, it does nothing with an empty GY (for instance turn 3 on curve) and can be removed before you get value of him.
Geralf's Messenger is good no matter what (guaranteed 4 damage and a decent body which is good against removal) unless it is exiled.
What is the point of Vengeful Pharaoh ?
It's effect happens after damage is dealt (like Reciprocate which no one plays) so it doesn't actually help you survive big attacks unless I'm missing something here.
Diregraf Colossus is a win-more card imho, it does nothing with an empty GY (for instance turn 3 on curve) and can be removed before you get value of him.
Geralf's Messenger is good no matter what (guaranteed 4 damage and a decent body which is good against removal) unless it is exiled.
Diregraf colossus is one of the best zombies in the deck. It always does something even in an empty grave because of its last ability. With it you can spam the board with tokens and get a crazy amount of value even through graveyard hate. Not to mention how awesome it is with the basting station/gravecrawler combo, getting you 2 triggers every time you cast crawler. Also you can play around bolt and hold it until it gets 4 toughness. Discarding early crawlers, casting a big colossus, then casting crawlers from the grave, getting colossus triggers is a common play and is very good.
Vengeful pharaoh is our best tool for grinding creature matchups. It gets opposing creature the rest of our removal can't get. Yes you still get hit but having it means every opposing creature hits you exactly once, never more. And after that you can hardcast it later and get a huge threat (happens very often). It also works great vs temur battle rage because it triggers after the first hit and you can kill the creature before the second hit. We need stuff for our self discard and pharaoh is among our best "operate from the grave" engine.
Fleshbag marauder is pretty good, it hits creatures we can't remove with the rest of our removal, like bogles and geist of saint traft. It also negate opposing protection spells vs infect. Also it is great value with crawler, giving us a free 3/1 while the opponent is down a creature. It also lead to great plays with relentless dead because we can revive it and get another sac trigger.
I don't like geralf's messenger. Entering the battlefield tapped means we would have 8 "can't block righ now" creatures counting gravecrawlers, which is not very appealing. Diregraf can at least block right now. Diregraf does so much more work.
Prized amalgam is fine but not being able to cast it is a huge downside. I'd play them in the blue/black version i posted previously, but in mono-black we have only 4x gravecrawler to bring it back, which can lead to bad scenarios were they are dead draws.
Because of that BurningForce, Pcrusader and me suggest to play the green splash. It gives access to Lotleth troll which is a win con and pure synergy here and open a wide sideboard with green so you can cast any green disenchant effect (nature's claim, naturalize, golgari charm, etc.) as somebody suggested earlier.
I think that the monoblack list nowdays is not enough solid to compete because people have lot of graveyard hate (among other things) so splashing green open a new window to the deck.
Green or white or even blue can help with the graveyard-hate issue. It does seem prudent to use one of them. A red splash is viable but it obviously isn't going to help with graveyard preservation.
The Blasting Station strategy definitely benefits from something besides Zombies recurring ability. Geralf's Messenger is an obvious all-star here. Blood Artist can really help Zombies with this sort of strategy.
It probably almost goes without saying, but Messenger isn't going to play well with anything but a light splash.
But how to support all this and survive, when most of these cards cost 3cmc, without a black (or colorless) “destroy target Artifact or Enchantment” effect?
As for the lack-of-disenchant issue i've mentioned in a previous post i would try a green splash if i owned the lands to do so. I'm close to having a budget version of the mana base, with llanowar wastes instead of overpriced verdant catacombs, and a few off color swamp fetchlands. I'm going to try it out when i get the chance, although i'm going to miss the blood moon proof painless mana.
As for opposing hate right now i'm relying on ratchet bomb as my catch all permanent blower. Rest in peace is great vs us but fortunately a lot of deck use their own graveyard and can't play it. Grafdigger's cage actually only prevent us from casting crawler from the grave, the rest of our graveyard synergy are unaffected by it: colossus still gets big, pharaoh still do its thing, relentless dead still can be returned to hand (although the 2nd ability can't work).
The main cards i fear right now is surgical extraction and leyline of the void. Not much can be done about surgical, you just have to be careful, especially vs snapcaster mage decks, which are to most likely to play the card. I was thinking that to adress this in the green version maybe ground seal would be a good option? Turns off snap decks and scavenging oozes while almost not affecting our gameplan (it turns off relentless dead's 2nd ability but doesn't affect the rest of our deck).
If you want to be playing Geralf's Messenger in Modern (which I highly want to do because it's up there in my top cards ever) you are going to be better off with it in a deck playing some more repeatable sac outlets and Retribution of the Ancients. It's gimmicky, but unless you're doing it or some Devotion shell then there are more synergistic zombies to be playing in the slot.
As for the lack-of-disenchant issue i've mentioned in a previous post i would try a green splash if i owned the lands to do so. I'm close to having a budget version of the mana base, with llanowar wastes instead of overpriced verdant catacombs, and a few off color swamp fetchlands.
As long as you don't plan to fetch anything but Overgrown Tomb, any B-fetch will do. You may not want to run a Forest anyway.
Blooming Marsh is certainly a card to consider here. Depending on the rest of the mana-base, Woodland Cemetery can be an okay one or even two-of.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is probably not really needed, but you might want it if you do run a Forest.
I still run a Cemetery in my Rock deck and it kind of tickles me when I draw it and Urborg.
So i ended up strating by trying out the white splash first, in part because i already owned the lands, because tidehollow sculler was mentioned and it is great and also because of great sideboard cards.
Path is currently the best removal, and sculler deepens the disruption suite. Sadly no room for Kalitas, traitor of ghet anymore, because i want to keep the curve clean. Fragmentize has been great, it is the most efficient at what it does so i really enjoy it. Caves of koilos is a budget option until i get a couple of bloodstained mire. Not sure if i should be running a basic plains, the deck is black mana hungry and i don't plan on buying marsh flats to fetch it anytime soon.
Initial testing has been positive, i will report back with results later. Thoughts?
I've considered anguished unmaking but i don't know how much better it is than what i got. For creatures it is a terrible path to exile, and blessed alliance allows me to hit them throught almost anything. Wail of the nim sweeps small stuff. For artifact and enchants fragmentize is super efficient. Plus the 3 life matters and can add up with thoughtseize and lands and draws from cryptbreaker. Unmaking seems like a worst version of everything else i got.
I played smallpox/flagstone/urborg a lon long time ago and it was super inconsistent. Basically i'd only play smallpox in creatureless + high land count decks.
Reporting from testing:
yesterday went 4-0 beating 2 infect decks, an interesting abzan blink deck and mono-red blood moon/ensnaring bridge prison deck. I'm glad the deck has game vs grindy decks like the abzan value deck and fast linear decks like infect.
today went 1-2, beating affinity and losing to ad nauseam and a weird mardu deck.
Affinity i won both games because of blasting station plus fragmentize, was pretty happy because the matchup seems difficult. Lost game 2 to ghirapur aether grid but game 3 i was able to remove it from my opponent's hand with tidehollow sculler turn 2.
Lost to ad nauseam G2 and 3 after hitting my opponent's hand and removing ad nauseam. He then drew angel's grace followed by another ad nauseam both games, with the help of cantrips. Obviously i had lethal on the swingback both games he won, not much else i could have done...
I don't know what to think of the mardu deck, was a weird pile of goodstuff, he played lingering souls which helped him a ton. I saw a bunch of planeswalkers and titans and removal and sweepers . G3 his relic of progenitus did a ton of work. Later in the game he drew sarkhan the mad (yup...) and turned 2 spirit tokens into dragons on the 2 following turns. I pathed the first dragon but the second was too much. All i had was a blasting station and was hoping to draw any creature to kill the spirits, I drew back to back thoughtseizes and lands instead and just died after drawing relentless dead one turn too late...
I think overall i like the deck better with white. Sculler is very good and you can do neat tricks with it and blasting station, like saccing it in response to the trigger to exile something forever. You can also lock up the draw with those two and relentless dead plus 5 lands. Just sac dead during the opponent's draw step, use the first ability to get it back for B and use the 2nd ability by paying 2 to get back sculler. Stack the station trigger so it resolves before the sculler trigger, then sac sculler with the exile ability on the stack, taking away your opponent's drawn card. On your turn just cast dead for 2 black mana and leave the other 3 lands open to repeat the lock, all at the same time doing two damage points anywhere!
If you are looking into white then Ranger of Eos would be good call. It grabs Cryptbreaker and Gravecrawler to give a big bump in drawing cards. It can also grab Viscera Seer who is very good. The more I play the more I want a good sac outlet.
I've considered anguished unmaking but i don't know how much better it is than what i got. For creatures it is a terrible path to exile, and blessed alliance allows me to hit them throught almost anything. Wail of the nim sweeps small stuff. For artifact and enchants fragmentize is super efficient. Plus the 3 life matters and can add up with thoughtseize and lands and draws from cryptbreaker. Unmaking seems like a worst version of everything else i got.
The value of Anguished Unmaking is it hits all non-land permanents. It's rarely ever dead. It's not a card one wants four-of, but it saves side-board space by covering multiple bases.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
After your suggestions I think this list would be the most suitable:
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
creatures: 25
4 cryptbreaker
4 gravecrawler
4 Lotleth Troll
4 relentless dead
4 diregraf colossus
1 fleshbag marauder
1 Haakon, stromgald scourge
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
2 vengeful pharaoh
instants: 6
4 nameless inversion
2 Abrupt Decay
3 smuggler's copter
1 blasting station
lands: 22
5 swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blooming Marsh
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 shizo, death's storehouse
3 cavern of souls
2 mutavault
1 Westvale Abbey
2 Golgari Charm
2 crypt incursion
2 duress
1 pithing needle
2 ratchet bomb
1 Abrupt Decay
3 big game hunter
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
So with this list we have plenty of green sources and a maindeck answer to bridges and the so. Anyways I think we don't need as much green sources because with caverns and blooming marsh you have 7 lands to produce the green for trolls. If you include abrupt decay then you probably need more (cavern can't be used for that) so this is the reason I've changed the manabase as it is now. Anyways not very sure about it.
Although this is the list I like more, I have some concerns about all the anger of the gods people are playing right now.
I would like to have more sac oulets in order to avoid losing all my creatures from an anger.
The only ones that could survive are our beloved trolls, the colossus if they are 4/4 or bigger and mutavaults and copters. We are already playing blasting station, which is fantastic for me, but only one copy. The other way to avoid this is with copters but you need to draw any creature to make it works again or use mutavault on it to crew but we only have two copies of mutavault, so not sure if this is enough. What do you think?
So I'm thinking if there would be something to play to avoid people exiling our stuff. And I don't want to hear about discard spells, because topdeck exists :P.
Any ideas about this? What's your experience about that?
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 collective brutality
instants: 4
4 compelling deterrence
creatures: 24
4 cryptbreaker
4 gravecrawler
4 rotting rats
2 Jace, Vryn's prodigy
4 diregraf colossus
4 prized amalgam
2 vengeful pharaoh
2 blasting station
lands: 22
1 island
4 swamp
2 watery grave
2 bloodstained mire
4 polluted delta
4 Darkslick shores
1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 Shizo, death's storehouse
1 Minamo, school at water's edge
2 mutavault
1 big game hunter
2 stromgald crusade
2 vampiric link
2 duress
2 wail of the nim
2 nihil spellbomb
2 pithing needle
2 ratchet bomb
I think amalgam has potential with blasting station, also jace is basically an upgraded copter, lots of value with all of the 12 spells. Rotting rats is another enabler for amalgam and can bin them.
Just a thought experiment for now, i'll be tesing with my mono black list this upcoming week.
4 Thoughtseize
4 collective brutality
creatures: 22
4 cryptbreaker
4 gravecrawler
4 relentless dead
4 diregraf colossus
2 fleshbag marauder
2 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
2 vengeful pharaoh
4 dismember
artifacts: 4
2 smuggler's copter
2 blasting station
lands: 22
16 swamp
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 shizo, death's storehouse
2 cavern of souls
2 mutavault
2 ghost quarter
2 duress
2 wail of the nim
2 crypt incursion
2 pithing needle
2 ratchet bomb
2 big game hunter
1 stromgald crusader
First change i maxed out on thoughtseize instead of inquisition of kozilek. I don't take damage from my lands so the 2 life is fine, and i really want to be able to hit big stuff from eldrazi, tron, titanshift, etc. The zoo/burn matchup is fine i don't feel i give up much to those by doing this.
Second changed i gave up on the haakon, stromgald scourge/nameless inversion combo. Yes it is powerful but again i wanted to hit bigger stuff with dismember, and the one mana option if very relevant. Inversion has been very medium and haakon require specific draws and is often a bad topdeck.
I decided to invest more space with the blasting station combo, now playing 2. It has been very good, and now i can beat ensnaring bridge decks game one! Saving stuff from exiling removal has been very good too.
EDIT: oh yeah, one more thing i learned, affinity is a super awful matchup, all their stuff fly over ours (like spirits which is another awful matchup). I feel like the blasting station combo is our only way to beat them G1, and copter can help.
It is one of the better 3-drop zombies and is a real pain to deal with for the opponent, it also works well with sacrifice effects (Blasting Station/Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet).
I would use it over Diregraf Colossus or Fleshbag Marauder/Vengeful Pharaoh.
It (and Gravecrawler) also pair very well with Prized Amalgam which I also think would be very good here.
I would suggest:
+4x Geralf's Messenger, +4x Prized Amalgam, -4x Diregraf Colossus, -2x Fleshbag Marauder, -2x Vengeful Pharaoh.
I also woudn't cut the pharaoh because is a good reusable removal that save us from lethal against suicide bloo and such decks. I think you need to test extensively the deck as it is to realizehow good are these cards.
Ace's list or mine are really well tuned and tested. I don' think I would change anything right now.
It's effect happens after damage is dealt (like Reciprocate which no one plays) so it doesn't actually help you survive big attacks unless I'm missing something here.
Diregraf Colossus is a win-more card imho, it does nothing with an empty GY (for instance turn 3 on curve) and can be removed before you get value of him.
Geralf's Messenger is good no matter what (guaranteed 4 damage and a decent body which is good against removal) unless it is exiled.
Diregraf colossus is one of the best zombies in the deck. It always does something even in an empty grave because of its last ability. With it you can spam the board with tokens and get a crazy amount of value even through graveyard hate. Not to mention how awesome it is with the basting station/gravecrawler combo, getting you 2 triggers every time you cast crawler. Also you can play around bolt and hold it until it gets 4 toughness. Discarding early crawlers, casting a big colossus, then casting crawlers from the grave, getting colossus triggers is a common play and is very good.
Vengeful pharaoh is our best tool for grinding creature matchups. It gets opposing creature the rest of our removal can't get. Yes you still get hit but having it means every opposing creature hits you exactly once, never more. And after that you can hardcast it later and get a huge threat (happens very often). It also works great vs temur battle rage because it triggers after the first hit and you can kill the creature before the second hit. We need stuff for our self discard and pharaoh is among our best "operate from the grave" engine.
Fleshbag marauder is pretty good, it hits creatures we can't remove with the rest of our removal, like bogles and geist of saint traft. It also negate opposing protection spells vs infect. Also it is great value with crawler, giving us a free 3/1 while the opponent is down a creature. It also lead to great plays with relentless dead because we can revive it and get another sac trigger.
I don't like geralf's messenger. Entering the battlefield tapped means we would have 8 "can't block righ now" creatures counting gravecrawlers, which is not very appealing. Diregraf can at least block right now. Diregraf does so much more work.
Prized amalgam is fine but not being able to cast it is a huge downside. I'd play them in the blue/black version i posted previously, but in mono-black we have only 4x gravecrawler to bring it back, which can lead to bad scenarios were they are dead draws.
I think that the monoblack list nowdays is not enough solid to compete because people have lot of graveyard hate (among other things) so splashing green open a new window to the deck.
The Blasting Station strategy definitely benefits from something besides Zombies recurring ability. Geralf's Messenger is an obvious all-star here. Blood Artist can really help Zombies with this sort of strategy.
It probably almost goes without saying, but Messenger isn't going to play well with anything but a light splash.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
For the 3 cmc issue you simply have to make choices and pick the best ones. I play 2x blasting station as my primary engine, plus 2x fleshbag marauder and 4x diregraf colossus. I think 8x 3 cmc is the way to go, plus the 2x mandatory kalitas, traitor of ghet. We have a great amount of 1 cmc and 2 cmc to ease the curve. We are by no means all-in with the blasting station/gravecrawler combo.
As for the lack-of-disenchant issue i've mentioned in a previous post i would try a green splash if i owned the lands to do so. I'm close to having a budget version of the mana base, with llanowar wastes instead of overpriced verdant catacombs, and a few off color swamp fetchlands. I'm going to try it out when i get the chance, although i'm going to miss the blood moon proof painless mana.
As for opposing hate right now i'm relying on ratchet bomb as my catch all permanent blower. Rest in peace is great vs us but fortunately a lot of deck use their own graveyard and can't play it. Grafdigger's cage actually only prevent us from casting crawler from the grave, the rest of our graveyard synergy are unaffected by it: colossus still gets big, pharaoh still do its thing, relentless dead still can be returned to hand (although the 2nd ability can't work).
The main cards i fear right now is surgical extraction and leyline of the void. Not much can be done about surgical, you just have to be careful, especially vs snapcaster mage decks, which are to most likely to play the card. I was thinking that to adress this in the green version maybe ground seal would be a good option? Turns off snap decks and scavenging oozes while almost not affecting our gameplan (it turns off relentless dead's 2nd ability but doesn't affect the rest of our deck).
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
As long as you don't plan to fetch anything but Overgrown Tomb, any B-fetch will do. You may not want to run a Forest anyway.
Blooming Marsh is certainly a card to consider here. Depending on the rest of the mana-base, Woodland Cemetery can be an okay one or even two-of.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is probably not really needed, but you might want it if you do run a Forest.
I still run a Cemetery in my Rock deck and it kind of tickles me when I draw it and Urborg.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
This is what i'm currently testing:
4 thoughtseize
4 collective brutality
creatures: 24
4 cryptbreaker
4 gravecrawler
4 tidehollow sculler
4 relentless dead
4 diregraf colossus
2 fleshbag marauder
2 vengeful pharaoh
4 path to exile
artifacts: 2
2 blasting station
lands: 22
4 concealed courtyard
2 caves of koilos
4 polluted delta
2 godless shrine
5 swamp
1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
2 cavern of souls
2 mutavault
2 surgical extraction
2 wail of the nim
2 blessed alliance
2 pay no heed
3 ghost quarter
4 fragmentize
Path is currently the best removal, and sculler deepens the disruption suite. Sadly no room for Kalitas, traitor of ghet anymore, because i want to keep the curve clean. Fragmentize has been great, it is the most efficient at what it does so i really enjoy it. Caves of koilos is a budget option until i get a couple of bloodstained mire. Not sure if i should be running a basic plains, the deck is black mana hungry and i don't plan on buying marsh flats to fetch it anytime soon.
Initial testing has been positive, i will report back with results later. Thoughts?
But then I'd want to try Smallpox and Flagstones of Trokair, so maybe one shouldn't listen to me.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
I've considered anguished unmaking but i don't know how much better it is than what i got. For creatures it is a terrible path to exile, and blessed alliance allows me to hit them throught almost anything. Wail of the nim sweeps small stuff. For artifact and enchants fragmentize is super efficient. Plus the 3 life matters and can add up with thoughtseize and lands and draws from cryptbreaker. Unmaking seems like a worst version of everything else i got.
I played smallpox/flagstone/urborg a lon long time ago and it was super inconsistent. Basically i'd only play smallpox in creatureless + high land count decks.
Reporting from testing:
yesterday went 4-0 beating 2 infect decks, an interesting abzan blink deck and mono-red blood moon/ensnaring bridge prison deck. I'm glad the deck has game vs grindy decks like the abzan value deck and fast linear decks like infect.
today went 1-2, beating affinity and losing to ad nauseam and a weird mardu deck.
Affinity i won both games because of blasting station plus fragmentize, was pretty happy because the matchup seems difficult. Lost game 2 to ghirapur aether grid but game 3 i was able to remove it from my opponent's hand with tidehollow sculler turn 2.
Lost to ad nauseam G2 and 3 after hitting my opponent's hand and removing ad nauseam. He then drew angel's grace followed by another ad nauseam both games, with the help of cantrips. Obviously i had lethal on the swingback both games he won, not much else i could have done...
I don't know what to think of the mardu deck, was a weird pile of goodstuff, he played lingering souls which helped him a ton. I saw a bunch of planeswalkers and titans and removal and sweepers . G3 his relic of progenitus did a ton of work. Later in the game he drew sarkhan the mad (yup...) and turned 2 spirit tokens into dragons on the 2 following turns. I pathed the first dragon but the second was too much. All i had was a blasting station and was hoping to draw any creature to kill the spirits, I drew back to back thoughtseizes and lands instead and just died after drawing relentless dead one turn too late...
I think overall i like the deck better with white. Sculler is very good and you can do neat tricks with it and blasting station, like saccing it in response to the trigger to exile something forever. You can also lock up the draw with those two and relentless dead plus 5 lands. Just sac dead during the opponent's draw step, use the first ability to get it back for B and use the 2nd ability by paying 2 to get back sculler. Stack the station trigger so it resolves before the sculler trigger, then sac sculler with the exile ability on the stack, taking away your opponent's drawn card. On your turn just cast dead for 2 black mana and leave the other 3 lands open to repeat the lock, all at the same time doing two damage points anywhere!
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
The value of Anguished Unmaking is it hits all non-land permanents. It's rarely ever dead. It's not a card one wants four-of, but it saves side-board space by covering multiple bases.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn