Since I posted the 9-1 streak last time the deck continued to perform well and I went 6-2 in the following eight matches but then I went on a four day vacation and since I came back I keep loosing: 4-8-1 during the last six days
Only thing I changed since last time is 1 card in my SB: Containment Priest OUT - Immortal Servitude IN
@megatog201: Thanks for posting again. I have to admit that I didn't try Resto but I'll try her now.
The problem is that the CMC4 slot offers the strongest cards for the deck: Broodmoth, Basri's Lieutenant, Hero of Bladehold, Resto, Angelic Destiny or even PWs... but I don't want to use more than four CMC4 cards in the deck. Which combination of cards would you suggest for that slot?
I wish I could give some insight on this, but I have no experience with this deck in particular. All I can say for sure is Resto looks like one of the best in a vacuum. Broodmoth looks like it's probably the best if you were expecting lots of sweepers or just need the bodies to have evasion. Angelic looks like it pacts the most surprise punch. Really messed up combat math. I don't see hero really getting it done because it offers no defense to removal where all the other cards do, but you originally swore by the card, so IDK. Lieutenant looks good if you can put lots of counters out, but actually lacks the most punch. I'd almost say broodmoth is better than lieutenant 99% of the time. Smaller body but evasion has good protection vs sweepers or targeted removal should you have a more immediate threat that has to be answered.
All this combined I'd be most happy with 2 Broodmoth, 1 Resto, 1 Angelic Destiny. But again that is just theory crafting. I've used the worse of 2 cards to better effect in certain metas before.
Right now there looks to be lots of Jund, lots of RG ponza/monsters, Tron, combo, including goblins, is a smaller part of the field then those. And you have to contend with WUx control pretty often. Which of those choices seem the best against that field?
All this combined I'd be most happy with 2 Broodmoth, 1 Resto, 1 Angelic Destiny.
That's exactly what I started testing with yesterday before I read your reply
W&6 and KCommand can really do a number on my deck and 4x Fact or Fiction in Temur Reclamation were generating too much value for me to beat that deck during testing, but most of the time I am loosing because I either get mana flooded or mana screwed. For a few days now MTGO hasn't been kind to me: if I keep a hand with 3-4 lands I always draw 3 more lands until T4 and if I keep a hand with 1 land then I don't see a second until T4 (in both cases the game is lost at that point)... This makes me miss the 2 Charming Princes and their Scry effect.
I originally liked the true believer and charming prince package. Not sure why they were cut if they were. Also temur rec isn't that big a deck online right now thankfully. If you are seeing that a lot then you just have some bad luck. Lol
I still need to figure out the right mix of CMC2 creatures. There are just too many good one to pick from.
On another note, I found this wonderful card as a third equipment for my SFMs:
It could be really good in the deck since it can be cast without SFM, it can generate real card advantage early, and it helps getting rid of superfluous Vials.
This was heavily played in the standard of it's time. I believe it also saw some play in the old extended format. So it was at least playable. Is it today? I'm not sure on that. It doesn't offer anything if the creature doesn't get through is the biggest downfall of it. My suggestions for the 3rd would either be ShadowSpear or Basilisk Collar. Probably leaning on Collar unless you find your 1 drop getting really big fairly often. The giving deathtouch, on the collar l, while also having firststrikers is really good. Can pretty much attack unimpeded and then be ready to swap it on a blocker to make them not want to attack quite as much.
You said that your record has suffered recently. It honestly hardly even looks like the same deck. Several of the cards have swapped to different cards. IDK if this is a meta decision or if you are just trying things out. Go back to what worked and swap the cards that are no longer good in this new meta with ones that are is usually a pretty solid way to keep a deck fresh and still winning.
Why did you decide to reduce the count of vials? Did you have a run where you got 2 or 3 and lands? Where they getting cut off by a quick Karn? They are the strongest card in the deck by a mile. So I wonder what happened to reduce the count. Anyways good luck in the future my guy.
Hi all,
last 15 matches went better again with a score of 9-4-2.
I updated the total win percentage in the primer since I finally got to 150 test matches. It's actually at about 65%. Not stellar, but not bad either.
Since I haven't uploaded any games in a while her are two: This is game 1 of a match against the hot new mono white tokens deck. The token deck has no chance against this draw and game 2 is similarly one-sided. Easy 2-0.
This is game 3 of a recent match against Gruul Utopia. After winning game 1 I lost game 2 due a pretty stupid mistake and as you can see in game 3 I could have won but I threw the match away because I wasn't playing concentrated and I didn't really think about how I could actually win the game. Had I searched up the Sword instead of Batterskull I could have dealt 13 damage and won. The summer heat is really getting to me.
@megatog201: What you said was right. I had changed to much of the core of the deck. Since I went back to 4 Vials and 3 Givers like in the original version everything's running very smooth again
However, of course I am still trying out new things and I found another real sweet card for the deck:
Who spotted it?
Right! Repel the Abominable!
In this version I am running 21 Humans so this card is made for absolute blowouts.
Just won a sweet match on MTGO against the deck Meryn was playing today.
My opponent managed to go up to 30+ life and made a few Angels. With my Sword and protection from Giver I was able to slowly beat him back down to 20. Two attacks with Hero gave me a nice board and he had one turn left to finish me in the air, but I repelled the abominable Angels and won the next turn
Also in game 3 I feel like you made a play error in your block on the land. You put in moth and gave it protection, but I feel like a better thing would have been to double block and before damage give the protection. You flashed in the angel at the end of the turn so if they had tried to remove the stepmom as an instant you could have played the angel to save it. Which would have put you in the exact same seat with the possibility of killing the land of nothing happened. Or you could have let it die and have another flyer to pressure the board with. That would have opened up your turn to the field on the land with the sprawl. I don't think a point came where that mattered but they could have been down another Mana. After rewatching it The only point that mattered was they used the Mana to cast Anger of the Gods. Eh. That wasn't really a critical play on their part as it didn't progress their board at all.
The real misplay that I think cost you the game was the early path on the giant. I understand wanting to be Mana efficient and preserve the life total, but that was game 3. I'm fairly sure you had seen the god earlier in the match. That pretty much single handedly won them the game. After rewatching I'm pretty sure the god did deal 11 points of damage where the giant would have only done about 8. At the time of the path you had a vial on 2 and just cast another vial. Next turn your defenses were coming out. And one thing I see about your deck is it's pretty okay on the attack but it's really really good on defense. Between stepmom, moth, angel, batterskull, firststrikers, etc.
But yes, better games. You got more skills than a lot of the content producers on YouTube when they first started out.
Keep up the good work and get a microphone. 😁
Thank you for your kind words, megatog201, and also for taking a very close look at these replays!
Last couple of days I continued with the same build, ending up 7-3 in the last ten matches with some sweet victories over Sultai Control, Esper Shadow, and Skred Red.
And tomorrow I'm finally gonna play my deck in paper at FNM!
After selling my Jeskai collection last December this will be my first event in my LGS this year.
Over the course of the last ten days I ordered my deck and now I have all the cards, well, almost all of them because the Batterskull got lost in the mail. I hope that I can buy one at my LGS before the FNM starts.
Lands
Main
(Batterskull is going to replace the Mask of Memory)
Side
As always suggestions are welcome
Last week one of my opponents was using Angelic Overseer and that card seems amazing for my deck... if I only could cast it. CMC5 unfortunately is not feasible in a deck that only runs 21 lands
What is ruined Halo used against? Anything in particular or just a loose catch-all?
I think it's a good SB card against Infect, Bogles, Death's Shadow, Grapeshot, and Skelemental.
It's okay against Tarmogoyf, prowess deck threats like Sprite Dragon, Swiftspear, and even Griselbrand.
Unfortunately it's not useful against Titan/Valakut because it's too late when they get to cast Titan or get Valakut triggers. By then they'll usually kill you with Field of the Dead. (Even though I managed to beat Uro Field 2-0 at FNM, fighting my way through 10 zombies in game 2.)
How did the paper event go? Any interactions that you don't normally see online that you used or got you by surprise? Anything note worthy? Still about 50% win rate?
FNM didn't go too well.
(But it was fun nonetheless to play again with real cards!)
I played three rounds. Lost round one 0-2 against Grixis Shadow. Mana screwed in the first game, very unlucky in the next, when I drew three of my vials and played Nevermore on DS but my opponent had two Anglers to play. On top of that my opponent's deck was super removal heavy with playsets of Push AND Terminate...
I won 2-0 against UG Uro Field but then I lost again 2-1 against Combo Goblins. One game Thalia, Heretic Cathar bought me enough time to win but one game I got mana screwed again and one game my opponent assembled his combo T3.
Was it different compared to MTGO?
I think the variance is different. In almost 200 matches on MTGO I think I never drew three of my four Vials in a single game.
I often complain about the shuffle algorithm on MTGO and I am sure that you can statistically prove that you are more likely to draw another land card if you keep a starting hand with four or more lands than if you keep a starting hand with 1 or 2 lands. But after FNM I have to say that the algorithm is actually working pretty well.
On August 8th I posted my win rate of 65% in 150 matches. I just checked on MTGO and since then I went 28-15-2 including the FNM, which is still pretty much exactly 65% if you ignore the two draws. So the win rate with this deck stays at 65% in over 190 matches.
The last ten matches I played with the newest version with 22 lands and two Angelic Overseers and I won 8 of these, so this version feels very good so far.
To answer you comment in the middle.....
Yes the shuffle is different in paper and on Mtgo. In paper you can do things to influence your hand. Such as stack shuffling or insufficient shuffling. ,Ie leaving a group of cards basically untouched. The Mtgo will always sufficiently shuffle your deck.
This new Skyclave Apparition could be an auto-include in my deck even though it's not a Human.
It catches almost everything in Modern:
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Liliana of the Veil, Klothys, God of Destiny, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Karn, the Great Creator & Ensnaring Bridge, Hardened Scales, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Phyrexian Unlife etc.
The Jund and DS heavy meta in my LGS made me add 2 Mirran Crusaders main and so far I am happy with them in paper and online.
They carry Swords very well (or the Mask like in the above video). As you can see in the second video the Apparitions are very powerful, just as expected. Especially when they're combined with Broodmoth Didn't even need a Path that game.
At yesterday's FNM I ran the same list without Apparitions. I won 2-1 against Mono G Tron, was grinded out badly 0-2 against Yorion Flicker and then won 2-1 against UR Delver with Titi. MVP against Delver in game 3 was Grand Abolisher! It's awesome to be able to equip Sword of Fire and Ice without having the creature eat a Bolt in response...
I played 8 matches with the version above on MTGO since the new cards became legal and I actually went 1-7! Worst results since I started working on this deck. Very often I got mana scr*wed with my 21 lands so I decided to add two of the new double-faced land cards. With them my spell count is still 39 but I am running 23 lands. I had to choose between Kabira Takedown and Sejiri Shelter. I thought that Shelter might fit the deck better because it's important to protect SFM and the deck already got new removal with Apparition.
Besides the double-faced cards I added SFM no.4 and a third equipment: Maul of the Skyclaves, which has been amazing so far.
I tried a lot of stuff to make my army fly, like Elspeth and Angelic Destiny, but this card does it for two mana at instant speed.
I'll happily continue testing now...
Sorry to hear about your bad runnings as of late. I've been seeing a ton of powerful decks lately myself. All seem to be some sort of Uro build in some fashion. Or at least that's the decks I'm most impressed with. I wonder if you have tried my suggestion of either Basilisk Collar or Shadow Spear? I see the new flying equipment in the build and also think it's cool, but I wonder if maybe giving trample and lifelink may suit you better.
Aether Vial should be a 4-of, it's actually your best way not to be mana screwed ! Champ of Parish and Lieutenant should be 4-ofs too, it's your most aggro start possible.
You play 1-ofs that make little sense to me, like Kytheon (he's a filler card, not highly competitive), Big Thalia is only decent VS Tron (and Amulet according to the situation) afaik. Maybe that's the meta you expect ?
Broodmoth makes no sense to me, it's expensive, while a card like Selfless Spirit answers more situations and can be vialed in or easily hardcast. But overall, Giver of Runes is the cheapest way you protect your dudes and is a target for Ranger. Your deck should accept to lose creatures to removal spells, protection is not as important as in Coco decks with a combo win, where you want to protect Walking Ballista for example. In your deck, Giver is also good because it helps creatures attacking through blockers (Humans lack evasion and that's a big problem).
Shelter is bad with Thalia in your deck. 21 lands is enough if you don't run 4-drops and 4 Vials anyway. To protect your dudes, once again Giver is the most synergistic.
Maybe there's budget considerations too ? I would consider 4 Cavern of Souls in this deck, but I know they're expensive.
Don't get me wrong, I can see you're experimenting a lot of builds, and I wish you loads of fun ! Just objective criticism here (from proven history of the cards).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
I agree that Vial should be an auto 4 if in this deck. I was petitioning for that on page 1.
I don't agree with Broodmoth, however. The card is strong and requires an answer right then and there. Yes, there are possibly better options. I'm partial to more Restos. Would probably swap out the numbers.
And final point is I don't like how it feels like the deck is again shifting away from what has brought you to the party. The origin deck is almost completely different in the vibe and feel. The original deck was aggro hatebears in a sense. This just feels more like value or utility aggro. I'm fine with whichever build you like better, but realize it's a different monster.
@megatog201:
The bad run ended when I changed my build. So far I am 11-3 with the new version (as in the pic above). You just gotta go with the power creep...
I haven't tested Basilisk Collar or Shadow Spear because I am very happy with the Maul. Flying and free equip is a huge upside and this equipment has won me quite a few matches already.
@headminerve:
First of all, thank you so much for commenting! Even if it's constructive criticism I am glad to read it. This primer has more than 5000 views but only but only 5 people have contributed comments so far and that includes myself.
Regarding Vial, I have tried 4 and 3 and I am happier with 3 copies. Vial is such a bad draw after T3 and this deck has no looting effects to get rid of superfluous copies. With the Mask of Memory I felt comfortable with 4 copies but without it (or Smuggler's Copter or anything similar) it feels too bad drawing more than one. Besides, there are so many answers to Vial out there now, with Archmage's Charm, Karn, the Great Creator, Petty Theft, Skyclave Apparition etc...
When I had the bad run I often lost because I got mana scr*wed. That never happened since I am playing 23 lands with the Sejiri Glaciers so I am happy with them too. Regarding Cavern you're absolutely right. I'd love to run 2 or 3 of them but they're too expensive for me.
"Champ of Parish and Lieutenant should be 4" - I tried it but it didn't feel impactful enough. Since you're playing Humans I guess you assume they'd be stronger in my deck than they actually are.
Broodmoth is one of the cards I think I am never going to cut. It's so strong with Ranger-Captain of Eos that I should go back up to three Captains. Maybe I should cut big Thalia for another Captain.
Btw, what do both of you think about a single copy of Lurrus main? That's something I haven't tried yet.
@megatog201: About your last comment, I know what you mean. The deck has changed a lot. 11 cards from the original version are not included anymore.
Knight of the Holy Nimbus and True Believer made the deck quite unique and I am sad that they had to go, but I had to adapt to the new meta and I am still having a blast with this "value or utility aggro" version.
I'm not going to lie and say I saw the interaction of Moth and Captain. That is a really nice find right there. I really should have seen it as I play a deck that used Captain and Call of the Death-dweller to brutal efficiency. But your find is especially nice since it's free and gains flying. I can't say I've seen that interaction in your games yet. Would love to see that destroy some control decks. Lol.
Hi megatog201, I am using this interaction quite often. It couldn't save me against 8 crab mill (lost against that deck on MTGO two days ago) but it helped me twice at yesterday's FNM.
I have played 22 matches now with the current build and ended up 17-4-1. After FNM (3-0-1) I have to say that I am totally in love with this current build. I'd take it to a GP if there was one. It's so much fun to play. It has a strong offense, strong defense, a lot of card advantage, answers to almost everything...
Yesterday I won against Bogles (Mirran Crusader MVP), drawed against Gruul Midrange (time out, Pillage got me good, Worship saved me), won 2-0 against another opponent playing Gruul Midrange (Nevermore on Klothys was great, Mirran Crusader equipped with Sword and Maul won easily, felt like I was playing Bogles), last round I played against an aggressive BR deck feat. Swiftspear, Soul-Scar, DS, Scourge, Thoughtseize, Lava Dart, Bolt, Lurrus Companion and both I and my opponent had a blast during three intense games. First game he killed me turn 3. Second game went long and I went wide with tokens from the Castle and got him eventually. Third game went long too. I bought time with Runed Halo and Auriok Champion and after many turns I won by top decking a land... Sejiri Glacier. Opponent had Lurrus and Shadow in play, at 5 life, no cards left in hand. I had a SFM equipped with the Sword, an Apparition (exiled Scourge) and a small Champion of the Parish. Sejiri Shelter pro black on SFM won the match
Edit: The deck I played against was the one the won a recent MTGO Modern Challenge: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=27534&f=MO
Only thing I changed since last time is 1 card in my SB: Containment Priest OUT - Immortal Servitude IN
@megatog201: Thanks for posting again. I have to admit that I didn't try Resto but I'll try her now.
The problem is that the CMC4 slot offers the strongest cards for the deck: Broodmoth, Basri's Lieutenant, Hero of Bladehold, Resto, Angelic Destiny or even PWs... but I don't want to use more than four CMC4 cards in the deck. Which combination of cards would you suggest for that slot?
All this combined I'd be most happy with 2 Broodmoth, 1 Resto, 1 Angelic Destiny. But again that is just theory crafting. I've used the worse of 2 cards to better effect in certain metas before.
Right now there looks to be lots of Jund, lots of RG ponza/monsters, Tron, combo, including goblins, is a smaller part of the field then those. And you have to contend with WUx control pretty often. Which of those choices seem the best against that field?
That's exactly what I started testing with yesterday before I read your reply
W&6 and KCommand can really do a number on my deck and 4x Fact or Fiction in Temur Reclamation were generating too much value for me to beat that deck during testing, but most of the time I am loosing because I either get mana flooded or mana screwed. For a few days now MTGO hasn't been kind to me: if I keep a hand with 3-4 lands I always draw 3 more lands until T4 and if I keep a hand with 1 land then I don't see a second until T4 (in both cases the game is lost at that point)... This makes me miss the 2 Charming Princes and their Scry effect.
On another note, I found this wonderful card as a third equipment for my SFMs:
It could be really good in the deck since it can be cast without SFM, it can generate real card advantage early, and it helps getting rid of superfluous Vials.
You said that your record has suffered recently. It honestly hardly even looks like the same deck. Several of the cards have swapped to different cards. IDK if this is a meta decision or if you are just trying things out. Go back to what worked and swap the cards that are no longer good in this new meta with ones that are is usually a pretty solid way to keep a deck fresh and still winning.
Why did you decide to reduce the count of vials? Did you have a run where you got 2 or 3 and lands? Where they getting cut off by a quick Karn? They are the strongest card in the deck by a mile. So I wonder what happened to reduce the count. Anyways good luck in the future my guy.
last 15 matches went better again with a score of 9-4-2.
I updated the total win percentage in the primer since I finally got to 150 test matches. It's actually at about 65%. Not stellar, but not bad either.
Since I haven't uploaded any games in a while her are two:
This is game 1 of a match against the hot new mono white tokens deck. The token deck has no chance against this draw and game 2 is similarly one-sided. Easy 2-0.
This is game 3 of a recent match against Gruul Utopia. After winning game 1 I lost game 2 due a pretty stupid mistake and as you can see in game 3 I could have won but I threw the match away because I wasn't playing concentrated and I didn't really think about how I could actually win the game. Had I searched up the Sword instead of Batterskull I could have dealt 13 damage and won. The summer heat is really getting to me.
However, of course I am still trying out new things and I found another real sweet card for the deck:
Who spotted it?
Right! Repel the Abominable!
In this version I am running 21 Humans so this card is made for absolute blowouts.
Just won a sweet match on MTGO against the deck Meryn was playing today.
My opponent managed to go up to 30+ life and made a few Angels. With my Sword and protection from Giver I was able to slowly beat him back down to 20. Two attacks with Hero gave me a nice board and he had one turn left to finish me in the air, but I repelled the abominable Angels and won the next turn
The real misplay that I think cost you the game was the early path on the giant. I understand wanting to be Mana efficient and preserve the life total, but that was game 3. I'm fairly sure you had seen the god earlier in the match. That pretty much single handedly won them the game. After rewatching I'm pretty sure the god did deal 11 points of damage where the giant would have only done about 8. At the time of the path you had a vial on 2 and just cast another vial. Next turn your defenses were coming out. And one thing I see about your deck is it's pretty okay on the attack but it's really really good on defense. Between stepmom, moth, angel, batterskull, firststrikers, etc.
But yes, better games. You got more skills than a lot of the content producers on YouTube when they first started out.
Keep up the good work and get a microphone. 😁
Last couple of days I continued with the same build, ending up 7-3 in the last ten matches with some sweet victories over Sultai Control, Esper Shadow, and Skred Red.
And tomorrow I'm finally gonna play my deck in paper at FNM!
After selling my Jeskai collection last December this will be my first event in my LGS this year.
Over the course of the last ten days I ordered my deck and now I have all the cards, well, almost all of them because the Batterskull got lost in the mail. I hope that I can buy one at my LGS before the FNM starts.
Lands
Main
(Batterskull is going to replace the Mask of Memory)
Side
As always suggestions are welcome
Last week one of my opponents was using Angelic Overseer and that card seems amazing for my deck... if I only could cast it. CMC5 unfortunately is not feasible in a deck that only runs 21 lands
I think it's a good SB card against Infect, Bogles, Death's Shadow, Grapeshot, and Skelemental.
It's okay against Tarmogoyf, prowess deck threats like Sprite Dragon, Swiftspear, and even Griselbrand.
Unfortunately it's not useful against Titan/Valakut because it's too late when they get to cast Titan or get Valakut triggers. By then they'll usually kill you with Field of the Dead. (Even though I managed to beat Uro Field 2-0 at FNM, fighting my way through 10 zombies in game 2.)
(But it was fun nonetheless to play again with real cards!)
I played three rounds. Lost round one 0-2 against Grixis Shadow. Mana screwed in the first game, very unlucky in the next, when I drew three of my vials and played Nevermore on DS but my opponent had two Anglers to play. On top of that my opponent's deck was super removal heavy with playsets of Push AND Terminate...
I won 2-0 against UG Uro Field but then I lost again 2-1 against Combo Goblins. One game Thalia, Heretic Cathar bought me enough time to win but one game I got mana screwed again and one game my opponent assembled his combo T3.
Was it different compared to MTGO?
I think the variance is different. In almost 200 matches on MTGO I think I never drew three of my four Vials in a single game.
I often complain about the shuffle algorithm on MTGO and I am sure that you can statistically prove that you are more likely to draw another land card if you keep a starting hand with four or more lands than if you keep a starting hand with 1 or 2 lands. But after FNM I have to say that the algorithm is actually working pretty well.
On August 8th I posted my win rate of 65% in 150 matches. I just checked on MTGO and since then I went 28-15-2 including the FNM, which is still pretty much exactly 65% if you ignore the two draws. So the win rate with this deck stays at 65% in over 190 matches.
The last ten matches I played with the newest version with 22 lands and two Angelic Overseers and I won 8 of these, so this version feels very good so far.
Yes the shuffle is different in paper and on Mtgo. In paper you can do things to influence your hand. Such as stack shuffling or insufficient shuffling. ,Ie leaving a group of cards basically untouched. The Mtgo will always sufficiently shuffle your deck.
It catches almost everything in Modern:
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Liliana of the Veil, Klothys, God of Destiny, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Karn, the Great Creator & Ensnaring Bridge, Hardened Scales, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Phyrexian Unlife etc.
I bought 2x Skyclave Apparition this morning and played a match with this version:
You can watch game 1 here
and game 2 here.
The Jund and DS heavy meta in my LGS made me add 2 Mirran Crusaders main and so far I am happy with them in paper and online.
They carry Swords very well (or the Mask like in the above video). As you can see in the second video the Apparitions are very powerful, just as expected. Especially when they're combined with Broodmoth Didn't even need a Path that game.
At yesterday's FNM I ran the same list without Apparitions. I won 2-1 against Mono G Tron, was grinded out badly 0-2 against Yorion Flicker and then won 2-1 against UR Delver with Titi. MVP against Delver in game 3 was Grand Abolisher! It's awesome to be able to equip Sword of Fire and Ice without having the creature eat a Bolt in response...
Besides the double-faced cards I added SFM no.4 and a third equipment: Maul of the Skyclaves, which has been amazing so far.
I tried a lot of stuff to make my army fly, like Elspeth and Angelic Destiny, but this card does it for two mana at instant speed.
I'll happily continue testing now...
Aether Vial should be a 4-of, it's actually your best way not to be mana screwed !
Champ of Parish and Lieutenant should be 4-ofs too, it's your most aggro start possible.
You play 1-ofs that make little sense to me, like Kytheon (he's a filler card, not highly competitive), Big Thalia is only decent VS Tron (and Amulet according to the situation) afaik. Maybe that's the meta you expect ?
Broodmoth makes no sense to me, it's expensive, while a card like Selfless Spirit answers more situations and can be vialed in or easily hardcast. But overall, Giver of Runes is the cheapest way you protect your dudes and is a target for Ranger. Your deck should accept to lose creatures to removal spells, protection is not as important as in Coco decks with a combo win, where you want to protect Walking Ballista for example. In your deck, Giver is also good because it helps creatures attacking through blockers (Humans lack evasion and that's a big problem).
Shelter is bad with Thalia in your deck. 21 lands is enough if you don't run 4-drops and 4 Vials anyway. To protect your dudes, once again Giver is the most synergistic.
Maybe there's budget considerations too ? I would consider 4 Cavern of Souls in this deck, but I know they're expensive.
Don't get me wrong, I can see you're experimenting a lot of builds, and I wish you loads of fun ! Just objective criticism here (from proven history of the cards).
I don't agree with Broodmoth, however. The card is strong and requires an answer right then and there. Yes, there are possibly better options. I'm partial to more Restos. Would probably swap out the numbers.
And final point is I don't like how it feels like the deck is again shifting away from what has brought you to the party. The origin deck is almost completely different in the vibe and feel. The original deck was aggro hatebears in a sense. This just feels more like value or utility aggro. I'm fine with whichever build you like better, but realize it's a different monster.
The bad run ended when I changed my build. So far I am 11-3 with the new version (as in the pic above). You just gotta go with the power creep...
I haven't tested Basilisk Collar or Shadow Spear because I am very happy with the Maul. Flying and free equip is a huge upside and this equipment has won me quite a few matches already.
@headminerve:
First of all, thank you so much for commenting! Even if it's constructive criticism I am glad to read it. This primer has more than 5000 views but only but only 5 people have contributed comments so far and that includes myself.
Regarding Vial, I have tried 4 and 3 and I am happier with 3 copies. Vial is such a bad draw after T3 and this deck has no looting effects to get rid of superfluous copies. With the Mask of Memory I felt comfortable with 4 copies but without it (or Smuggler's Copter or anything similar) it feels too bad drawing more than one. Besides, there are so many answers to Vial out there now, with Archmage's Charm, Karn, the Great Creator, Petty Theft, Skyclave Apparition etc...
When I had the bad run I often lost because I got mana scr*wed. That never happened since I am playing 23 lands with the Sejiri Glaciers so I am happy with them too. Regarding Cavern you're absolutely right. I'd love to run 2 or 3 of them but they're too expensive for me.
"Champ of Parish and Lieutenant should be 4" - I tried it but it didn't feel impactful enough. Since you're playing Humans I guess you assume they'd be stronger in my deck than they actually are.
Broodmoth is one of the cards I think I am never going to cut. It's so strong with Ranger-Captain of Eos that I should go back up to three Captains. Maybe I should cut big Thalia for another Captain.
Btw, what do both of you think about a single copy of Lurrus main? That's something I haven't tried yet.
@megatog201: About your last comment, I know what you mean. The deck has changed a lot. 11 cards from the original version are not included anymore.
Knight of the Holy Nimbus and True Believer made the deck quite unique and I am sad that they had to go, but I had to adapt to the new meta and I am still having a blast with this "value or utility aggro" version.
I have played 22 matches now with the current build and ended up 17-4-1. After FNM (3-0-1) I have to say that I am totally in love with this current build. I'd take it to a GP if there was one. It's so much fun to play. It has a strong offense, strong defense, a lot of card advantage, answers to almost everything...
Yesterday I won against Bogles (Mirran Crusader MVP), drawed against Gruul Midrange (time out, Pillage got me good, Worship saved me), won 2-0 against another opponent playing Gruul Midrange (Nevermore on Klothys was great, Mirran Crusader equipped with Sword and Maul won easily, felt like I was playing Bogles), last round I played against an aggressive BR deck feat. Swiftspear, Soul-Scar, DS, Scourge, Thoughtseize, Lava Dart, Bolt, Lurrus Companion and both I and my opponent had a blast during three intense games. First game he killed me turn 3. Second game went long and I went wide with tokens from the Castle and got him eventually. Third game went long too. I bought time with Runed Halo and Auriok Champion and after many turns I won by top decking a land... Sejiri Glacier. Opponent had Lurrus and Shadow in play, at 5 life, no cards left in hand. I had a SFM equipped with the Sword, an Apparition (exiled Scourge) and a small Champion of the Parish. Sejiri Shelter pro black on SFM won the match
Edit: The deck I played against was the one the won a recent MTGO Modern Challenge: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=27534&f=MO