If I were you, I wouldn't maindeck the Gifts. I'd only bring them in if they're relevant - there are a lot of matchups where swords are horrible and that just makes the gifts dead draws. Packing your deck tighter with ways to win the game faster and then siding out what doesn't work in favor of Gifts is a much better plan against the decks where the Swords are relevant (i.e. GBx).
I don't know how it would work in multiplayer. Probably pretty badly. The deck is so fast that you become the threat player quite quickly, which usually means that you're boned.
The only downside is Blood Moon susceptibility, but I can't think of any popular decks that mainboard it. Plus, we could always Ghost Quarter to catch a plains if need.
The deck thinning only matters over a dozen or so games, and even then, it's by a tiny percentage. Most of the decks that run land destruction (can't really think of anything other than GQ and FM?) also run Blood Moon. Honestly, though, it's probably right to run at least one, since it's a strictly better Plains in a vacuum, and it's only really bad against Leonin Arbiters and Blood Moons.
The deck thinning only matters over a dozen or so games, and even then, it's by a tiny percentage. Most of the decks that run land destruction (can't really think of anything other than GQ and FM?) also run Blood Moon. Honestly, though, it's probably right to run at least one, since it's a strictly better Plains in a vacuum, and it's only really bad against Leonin Arbiters.
I've done some testing and I think 2 is ideal. The mana fixing with Ghost Quarter has been very helpful in a few games and the deck thinning is an added benefit. Considering it is at no cost to us (whereas you wouldn't want to run fetches for additional thinning because of life loss), I think it's a must include if you don't mind the cost. I tested 3-4 but that makes a main deck Blood Moon annoying and also led to a nasty nombo with Rest in Peace.
I wasn't a huge fan of 4 Dispatch in the sideboard because it's a bit inconsistent. Hallowed Moonlight gave us a huge edge versus CoCo, Living End, Merfolk, Lingering Souls, Nahiri, and Goryo/Breach decks. The problem with Hallowed Moonlight was that we had to keep 2 lands open and it forced us to play reactively when we should be playing aggressively.
Grafdigger's Cage performs much better in that it only costs C, is an artifact, hits many of these decks more proactively (and in some cases permanently), and provides additional GY hate for Dredge and Grixis Control. Furthermore, it doesn't nombo with Stone Haven Outfitter. The only downsides to running are that we are vulnerable to Breach (we can still remove/gain protection from Primeval Titan and Griselbrand but Emrakul is a loss) and have slightly fewer answers to Merfolk. However, reanimator decks with Emrakul only make up something like 0.7% of the meta and Merfolk isn't a troublesome matchup for us as it is.
Seems like it'll be a great standard block but relatively poor for Modern. Very few cards have any synergy with our deck and the ones that do are objectively worse or more expensive than the cards we have (I'd take Kor Duelist or Vault Skirge over Toolcraft Exemplar any day). The new land cycle could let us splash to red more easily, which could yield possible sideboard benefits. However, I don't see an all-out Boros equipment deck being ready yet. Goblin Gaveleer feels more fragile than Kor Duelist and Weapon's Trainer doesn't provide as many advantagess.
Well, I'm pretty interested in Toolcraft Exemplar, not as a replacement to Duelist or Skirge, but as a replacement to Auriok Steelshaper. I personally found Steelshaper to be worst card in the deck, because it hogged equipment and was pretty clunky at two mana. Exemplar provides a similar, if slightly smaller, damage and mana boost with an equipment around (+2/+1 and costs one mana less than Steelshaper), can be played turn one, and doesn't hog the equipment.
In addition, replacing Steelshaper with Exemplar brings our 1 drop count to 14, practically guaranteeing a turn 1 creature, which is important for an aggro deck.
I'm still fiddling with Inventor's Goggles. But all in all the set gave us a lot less than I thought it would. Outfitter, weapon's trainer and militant inquisitor had me going in w/ high hopes for more equipment maters cards. What I really want is a cheap vigilance lord for our deck since it would let us take advantage of Stitcher's graft
Private Mod Note
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
I really do think you guys need to re-evaluate how good Auriok Steelshaper is. I see him get a lot of (undeserved) flak with him being the "worst creature" and whatnot. I actually believe that he's a very powerful creature, and should be seen as Paladin 5-8 rather than as a beater. The cost reduction is amazing. It lets us equip 8 of our equipments for free will reducing the remaining ones to a mere 1.
I like this list but i think theres some tweaking to be done and choices in equipment or creatures we can use. Also, along the lines of galv blast, we also could run shrap blast too
I've discussed that decklist in the old thread. It's a version of the control approach. It works ok from what I've heard. It's a lot more fragile though and plays almost like a combo deck.
Heres a list of eh equipment that could maybe be discussed as well. Some i feel could be run, and i tried not to include any that were already mentioned in this thread:
Some of these cards require a lil work or depend on how the list looks... leering emblem is slow but could be good in a 0 cmc equipment style list while adventuring gear means we would want fetches. Im not saying we play any of these but just ideas to toss up. I like if we are talking about free equipping off of paladin some of our options even though we wont always get free equips some of the choices could be good and almost all the swords have a place and tbh the best sword for us is war and peace if we are going aggro. Gains us life. Deals them dmg. And protects against the main removal in the format... bolt and path
Yeah sry. Mad the list while i was at work. Wasnt thinking. Haha. Also, there is kazuuls toll collector. He equips stuff for 0. Yeah... that was super bad. Its sad ive played modern since it cqme out and still say stupid things like that. Lol
After thinking about it, I am willing to change my mind about the Swords. I agree that Sword of War and Peace is probably the best sword for our deck. I haven't tested it myself yet, but I've reached out to multiple people to maybe get ahold of a few copies. I mean, think about it. If you punch through with a duelist with only the sword equipped and your opponent has 3 cards in hand, you'll deal 12 damage. 12. Damage. That's insane! You'll also gain a life or two.
@TylerStegman: About the rest of the equipments you posted, I won't go through them one-by-one because that would be a waste of time. The ones maybe worth considering are Cranial Plating, O-Naginata and Livewire Lash. Two of them have already been discussed and the third is very iffy.
I'll update the primer with some of the things we've been talking about when I get home.
EDIT: Alright, I've updated it. Check the changelog for exact changes.
Doesn't Sword of War and Peace stop Strength of Arms from targeting the creature it's equipped to? Having four cards be dead on the creature that you probably want to use it most on is pretty awkward. Would you cut down on any copies if you switched the swords?
The sledge attaches when it comes in. Theres some equipmnt that do this. Not saying its great or better than swords but yeah. I think just shutting any other options isnt the way to be though. Some of those on the list i made arent that bad. I have all the swords but not everyone would want to get them due to their price
What do we think about Looter ScooterSmuggler's Copter? Could it have a place? Looting is great and it does good damage. I could imagine cutting Flayer Husk for it.
@metalcut: Sorry to hear that it's not as good in practice as on paper. Oh well, we have some other options (O-Naginata comes to mind).
I don't know how it would work in multiplayer. Probably pretty badly. The deck is so fast that you become the threat player quite quickly, which usually means that you're boned.
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
Allows us to ramp to 3 on turn 2.Incorrect because comes in tapped.WRGBurnGRW
RBGJund Shadowvine[/mana]gbr[/mana]
RGTooth & NailGR
Standard:
BGBG Energy ConstrictorGB
I've done some testing and I think 2 is ideal. The mana fixing with Ghost Quarter has been very helpful in a few games and the deck thinning is an added benefit. Considering it is at no cost to us (whereas you wouldn't want to run fetches for additional thinning because of life loss), I think it's a must include if you don't mind the cost. I tested 3-4 but that makes a main deck Blood Moon annoying and also led to a nasty nombo with Rest in Peace.
On another note, I've updated my sideboard a bit:
2 Aura of Silence
2 Dispatch
2 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Kor Firewalker
1 Mortarpod
2 Rest in Peace
1 Runed Halo
1 Spellskite
I wasn't a huge fan of 4 Dispatch in the sideboard because it's a bit inconsistent. Hallowed Moonlight gave us a huge edge versus CoCo, Living End, Merfolk, Lingering Souls, Nahiri, and Goryo/Breach decks. The problem with Hallowed Moonlight was that we had to keep 2 lands open and it forced us to play reactively when we should be playing aggressively.
Grafdigger's Cage performs much better in that it only costs C, is an artifact, hits many of these decks more proactively (and in some cases permanently), and provides additional GY hate for Dredge and Grixis Control. Furthermore, it doesn't nombo with Stone Haven Outfitter. The only downsides to running are that we are vulnerable to Breach (we can still remove/gain protection from Primeval Titan and Griselbrand but Emrakul is a loss) and have slightly fewer answers to Merfolk. However, reanimator decks with Emrakul only make up something like 0.7% of the meta and Merfolk isn't a troublesome matchup for us as it is.
WRGBurnGRW
RBGJund Shadowvine[/mana]gbr[/mana]
RGTooth & NailGR
Standard:
BGBG Energy ConstrictorGB
WRGBurnGRW
RBGJund Shadowvine[/mana]gbr[/mana]
RGTooth & NailGR
Standard:
BGBG Energy ConstrictorGB
On another note, what are you guys' thoughts on Kaladesh? Anything catch your interest?
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
WRGBurnGRW
RBGJund Shadowvine[/mana]gbr[/mana]
RGTooth & NailGR
Standard:
BGBG Energy ConstrictorGB
In addition, replacing Steelshaper with Exemplar brings our 1 drop count to 14, practically guaranteeing a turn 1 creature, which is important for an aggro deck.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
@Be_lakor: Thanks mate!
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
WRGBurnGRW
RBGJund Shadowvine[/mana]gbr[/mana]
RGTooth & NailGR
Standard:
BGBG Energy ConstrictorGB
I like this list but i think theres some tweaking to be done and choices in equipment or creatures we can use. Also, along the lines of galv blast, we also could run shrap blast too
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
1 Batterskull
1 Behemoth Sledge
1 Butcher's cleaver
1 Cranial Plating
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Ghostfire Blade
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Hero's Blade
1 Inquisitor's Flail
1 Lashwrithe
1 Leering emblem
1 Leonin Scimitar
1 Livewire Lash
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Nightmare Lash
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
1 O-Naginata
1 Piston Sledge
1 Quietus Spike
1 Scythe of the Wretched
1 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
1 Skullclamp
1 Stoneforge Masterwork
1 Sunforger
1 Trusty Machete
1 Vulshok Morningstar
Some of these cards require a lil work or depend on how the list looks... leering emblem is slow but could be good in a 0 cmc equipment style list while adventuring gear means we would want fetches. Im not saying we play any of these but just ideas to toss up. I like if we are talking about free equipping off of paladin some of our options even though we wont always get free equips some of the choices could be good and almost all the swords have a place and tbh the best sword for us is war and peace if we are going aggro. Gains us life. Deals them dmg. And protects against the main removal in the format... bolt and path
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
@TylerStegman: About the rest of the equipments you posted, I won't go through them one-by-one because that would be a waste of time. The ones maybe worth considering are Cranial Plating, O-Naginata and Livewire Lash. Two of them have already been discussed and the third is very iffy.
I'll update the primer with some of the things we've been talking about when I get home.
EDIT: Alright, I've updated it. Check the changelog for exact changes.
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~
Looter ScooterSmuggler's Copter? Could it have a place? Looting is great and it does good damage. I could imagine cutting Flayer Husk for it.@metalcut: Sorry to hear that it's not as good in practice as on paper. Oh well, we have some other options (O-Naginata comes to mind).
U Merfolk U
W Mono W PBJ W
UBRGDredgeGRBU
EDH:
U Arcum Dagsson U
~I think Randy Buehler's mug is buehlertiful~