@amicdeep:
Isn't using 5 lands that come into play tapped a bit much for this deck, whose greatest strength comes from its speed? Cycling also costs 1 mana, which for our deck is still a significant amount of mana you're not spending on creatures/pump spells or holding up for Vines etc. I would also personally play 3-4 Rancor instead of 2, but I think that's more of a personal preference and/or local meta choice.
@omer301:
If you want to know about certain tricks and tips, look in the Card Choice section of the primer on page 1. With every card, I've written useful information about that card and how it interacts in certain situations. I know I'm the one who made the primer, but I greatly recommend looking through it!
Thank you so much for replying, and yes I have read your guide and its incredibly useful. I was just asking in case he might have covered something or discovered something you haven't already mentioned since the list is quite different compared to what I've seen. Also, savage swipe is a card that isn't in your primer but is included in the list. Have you tried this card out? Lastly, what do you think is the most optimal fetch less build at the moment?
There are still a number of relatively new cards that have not been added to the primer yet. Damping Sphere (sideboard, maybe good enough?) Hexdrinker (fetchless builds) Savage Swipe (sideboard, maybe mainboard removal?) Tranquil Thicket (I don't think it's good enough) Collector Ouphe (sideboard) Weather the Storm (sideboard) Scale Up (also don't think it's good enough) Force of Vigor (sideboard)
are all cards I'd like to have implemented in the primer before this site shuts down in July and I'll (most likely) be unable to edit the primer anymore. Are there anymore newer cards that I need to implement, either to show its appeal or to explain why it shouldn't be used?
There are still a number of relatively new cards that have not been added to the primer yet. Damping Sphere (sideboard, maybe good enough?) Hexdrinker (fetchless builds) Savage Swipe (sideboard, maybe mainboard removal?) Tranquil Thicket (I don't think it's good enough) Collector Ouphe (sideboard) Weather the Storm (sideboard) Scale Up (also don't think it's good enough) Force of Vigor (sideboard)
are all cards I'd like to have implemented in the primer before this site shuts down in July and I'll (most likely) be unable to edit the primer anymore. Are there anymore newer cards that I need to implement, either to show its appeal or to explain why it shouldn't be used?
We can always continue in the new site that the mods are building. I heard it will be very similar to this forum.
There are still a number of relatively new cards that have not been added to the primer yet. Damping Sphere (sideboard, maybe good enough?) Hexdrinker (fetchless builds) Savage Swipe (sideboard, maybe mainboard removal?) Tranquil Thicket (I don't think it's good enough) Collector Ouphe (sideboard) Weather the Storm (sideboard) Scale Up (also don't think it's good enough) Force of Vigor (sideboard)
are all cards I'd like to have implemented in the primer before this site shuts down in July and I'll (most likely) be unable to edit the primer anymore. Are there anymore newer cards that I need to implement, either to show its appeal or to explain why it shouldn't be used?
i've tested most of these cards and hear my take on the damping sphere, the big downside of sphere is we only need it for tron, a dryad militant is as solid anit storm teck as it gets. but the main disadvantage of sphere is that on turns 3-4 we are waiting to play both threats and pump spells every turn, this (with our land base) limits us to 1 spell s turn which is a big downside as against tron (the matchup where we need it most) its slows u down enough for be boardwiped even through tron.
hexdrinker is solid in both fetchless and fetchbased mana bases (i may well become a staple 4 of in the deck. its probably worth waiting to see how this pans out before adding it to the primer)
savage swipe, strick upgrade on prey upon for super budget builds and maybe mb playable going forwards in fetchless mono builds
Collector Ouphe solid hate against tron, affinity, scales. but it doesn't hit bridge or chalice so its good but we need other hate specific to chalice and bridge.
weather the storm, is only better than feed the clan and life goes on in specific circumstances, its definitely suboptimal when facing burn and, zoo, hollow one, dreadge, and about even to clan vs mono red phoenix. (for now, if storm, eggs, or something similar breaks out this may be a huge advantage.)
Force of Vigor, i think in most situations this isn't a upgrade on existing tec, we dont worry about blood moon, and we are fast enough against affinity with other removal to be competitive, the only place this is better than rec sege, manglehorn and return to nature (which probably dose deserve an entry in the primer) is against mono red prison or enchantress both of which are exceedingly rare in modern.
ok Tranquil Thicket
and the reason i think this a auto include as a 2-3 of in mono none fetch/non canopy builds
first president on there use. mono cycle lands of there respective colors are extremely heavily used in one format in one type of deck and that is pauper in aggro decks, and lightly in mono colored midrange and control decks. there are exception to this rule and most of the time they happen in blue and green, and that is because historically in pauper there has been a over abundance of spells and effects that interact with basics, either with bouce effects (like daze) or ramo effects like Quirion Ranger and Land Grant .ect but the point is that these cycle lands are played in hyper aggro decks with 17 lands as three ofs, the reason is yes they can slow you down a turn but they also substantially increase consistency of mono color decks. as without fetchlands, powerful utility lands we are at a disadvantage and are very very vulnerable to flooding, (in contrast to things like control and aggro that can use the large amount of mana later on. cycle lands are very much like slow horizon canopies, yes they are inferior to fetchlands, fast duels and canopys (and yes creture lands) but they are better than basics.
creture lands are better hands down but they are bad in multiples as they cannot be used in multiples fast so these fill a similar role.
the reason up changed the land base up in my new budget list is that, first the deck is vulnerable to land flooding and screwing and the deck needs to get to three land drops turn 3, and that requires a higher land base than what we have (yes we have been making do for a while but we now doesn't need to) and yes if we get one of these as a land drop we play it like we do the man lands, but this means that if we draw them mid/late game we have something for the deck to do in increase our chance if that action card, in essence they provide a more consistent mana base as well as a late game mana sink and card draw ability.
yes my reference to pauper decks may be a little off as pauper is a slightly slower format than modern, but mono G stompy on a budget is a slower deck due to its lack of ramp and fetchlands than the rest of modern, so if we are going to be a turn 5 deck might as well make it so we can win turn 5.
so in a higher land base deck using three of cycle lands- no fetchland and no horizon canopies.
pros
mana sink
card draw
makes a colored mana
increases consistency of land drops
cons
if used as one of first three land drops slows mana base (but your still making the land drop)
in very rare cases makes opening hands unkeepable (you have 2 tap lands and lots of aggressive action)
to me the advantage slightly outways the disadvantage but only time and testing will truly tell.
hexdrinker is constantly over performing and i've even had him in progenatus mode a couple of time(something i honestly was not expecting to happen in modern) and the second almost hexproof mode was fairly common and loam lion is able to get eone to 3 with a fair bit more consistency. turn one eone turn 2 drinker and a narnam into a turn 3 lvl 3 hexdrinker has been surprisingly consistent and extremely powerful. no turn three kills yet but a very consistent turn 4 kills are happening. and the deck grinds surprisingly well as 10 of the mb creatures are basically hatebears against some of the stronger decks in the format and we now have a true and big payoff mana sink.
a leveled hexdrinker is hit by maelstrom pulse, dreadbore, "destroy" based board wipes, sac effects where its the only target. and not much else in the format touches it.
i'm a little tempted to add selfless spirit to the mb, but i'm not sure it's needed.
i have to say this change really really annoys me, as i've been working to bling out the deck with promos (as all the creatures except avatar and narnams have nice alt arts promos) and i've just got rhonas masterpieces and now i have to drop him and the steel leafs and buy and hope that the hexdrinker foils dont curl to much ;/
anyway yeah hexdrinker is bonkers and worth running 4 of (i expect it will be the 3rd 4 of one drop for the more traditional mono g fetchless stompy)
It looks like the reason you've chosen white as the splash color is Horizon Canopy but I'm not sure about that decision.
A corollary of making that decision is Dromoka's Command since all of the land damage really starts to impinge on the use of Dismember. However, the issue is that the deck you've listed doesn't need 20 land making Canopies a tougher sell.
You could just as easily stay (sort of) mono green and use Wild Nacatl and Titanic Brawl. Brawl being 1 mana a goodly % of the time helps streamline things as well.
I know amic loves his dromokas but I believe his sideboard is also loaded with white silver bullets.
I am interested to see he has abandoned aspect of hydra. If we’re off the green devotion tip, there have been a number of cards that we’ve disregarded over the years because we have been so heavily green-devotion based. I know I’m a huge fan of lupine prototype in a low curve hyper aggro deck, but that would be in a build that completely foregoes instant combat tricks.
Was able to get in some proxy testing this weekend with Hexdrinker.
I was very wrong about him. Not a two of in the deck. Its a 4x main deck staple going forwards!
I highly recommend you all pick up your play sets while he is under the radar.
It is my opinion that Hexdrinker is will find play in other archetypes and as the 2nd cheapest mythic of a premium priced product that wont be opened as much as a standard set will only go up in price over time.
Can you tell more about which decks you played against, and how Hexdrinker performed? Every bit of information is useful!
Mostly played out as expected but just better and smoother.
Played against Tron, UW-non miracles version,dredge, Infect, Boros burn, Rock, Mono R pheonix,Izzet Pheonix, Grixis Shadow, humans
Vs burn and Infect, its super nice having another one drop in your opening hand that you can block and trade off until your beef comes online and overpowers.
Vs Tron, 12 one drops > 8 one drops, in addition to rancor, and you just have more opening hands where you are dropping 6 power by end of turn 2 and able to race them out.
Vs UW control, wow just super sexy, on the play, its similar to Tron, you just have a higher chance to nut and win before they sweep. on the draw, it was an amazing late game draw and i was able to get him to Progenitus mode twice.
Vs G/B Rock, Similar to UW, great draw later on.
Vs humans, still a bad match up for us, but was able to win a game that became a board stall by getting hex up to progenitus mode and swinging past blocker for 2 turns.
Vs mono red, and izzet pheonix, dies alot since they have alot of cheap removal, but acts a lightning rod protecting,ooze, avatar and steal leafs
The key is that you don't want to play him turn one and spend all your mana turns 2 and 3, trying to level him up with out advancing the rest of your game plan. Treat him like a Savannah lion first and foremost and keep turning him sideways.
Only if the game slows down and you have a spare mana or two (accounting for protection mana) do you start pumping into him.
Can you tell more about which decks you played against, and how Hexdrinker performed? Every bit of information is useful!
Mostly played out as expected but just better and smoother.
Played against Tron, UW-non miracles version,dredge, Infect, Boros burn, Rock, Mono R pheonix,Izzet Pheonix, Grixis Shadow, humans
Vs burn and Infect, its super nice having another one drop in your opening hand that you can block and trade off until your beef comes online and overpowers.
Vs Tron, 12 one drops > 8 one drops, in addition to rancor, and you just have more opening hands where you are dropping 6 power by end of turn 2 and able to race them out.
Vs UW control, wow just super sexy, on the play, its similar to Tron, you just have a higher chance to nut and win before they sweep. on the draw, it was an amazing late game draw and i was able to get him to Progenitus mode twice.
Vs G/B Rock, Similar to UW, great draw later on.
Vs humans, still a bad match up for us, but was able to win a game that became a board stall by getting hex up to progenitus mode and swinging past blocker for 2 turns.
Vs mono red, and izzet pheonix, dies alot since they have alot of cheap removal, but acts a lightning rod protecting,ooze, avatar and steal leafs
The key is that you don't want to play him turn one and spend all your mana turns 2 and 3, trying to level him up with out advancing the rest of your game plan. Treat him like a Savannah lion first and foremost and keep turning him sideways.
Only if the game slows down and you have a spare mana or two (accounting for protection mana) do you start pumping into him.
found the same in my testing, i would also add that there are a few decks that if you can level up drinker early against (and want to) if they are tapped out. the big ones are rock and jund, if they tap out turn 2 (on the draw) or turn 3 (on the play) and you have 2 extra creatures to absorb a lilly sac, your pretty much locked in for the win.
also played a lot against deathshadow decks, and hexdrinker rule in this matchup, an early attacker but again if you can get him with 3 counter on him shadow just cannot deal with him. and sticking him in progenatus mode is auto win in this matchup as theyre normally bellow 6 life to use shadows.
@Marl Karx
in question to why white splash over say red or black (blues really really not worth it)
the main reason is SB teck. (i think a lot of my posts about sb tec got deleted when they wiped all european users with the GDPR law change last year) so ill start at the beginning
the deck struggles most in 2 matchups, Tron (really badly to eldrazi but still pretty bad to the other versions) and u/w control
now both of these matches are made hugly more winnable with the use of Gaddock Teeg he also shuts down a lot of other decks but his main purpose is these 2 deck. (he also stops, coco, cord, cryptic, Ad Nauseam, tooth and nail, chalice, explosives, gifts, past in flames, scapeshift, all played board wipes save 2 and plenty other spells and jank wincon.)
the second is path to exile, while there is a arugumnet for bolt and push, realistically if we carnt fight it bolt winot kill it, and the really difficult to deal with stuff for us, can shrug off pushes (gurmags, hollow ones, eldrazi, primal titan ect) so path is the best option (it is not mb because of the ramping effect, as ramping our opponent to a board wipe can be particularly reckless for this deck, hence placing them in sb. Knight of Autumn was almost built for the deck, as she works in in multiple sb slots, (solid life gain, solid artifact and enchantment hate, or just a +1 counter holder for avatar) she very relevant and allows more dedicated slots to trouble matchups
(historically, rest in peace and stony silence. both were big parts if the sb when KCI was still meta, (they also did solid work against other decks) but you needed to hit one of these turn 2 against KCI or just loose (and you lost sometimes the next turn anyway)
stony has been replace with collector and ive drop rest in peace completely, with the shift back to tribal statgerys and away from all in gy strategies
with the down shift in cmc and more focused on all out aggression ive also added 2 Selfless spirits to add another aggressive creature that can act as protection.
this is my current SB
ok now why MB Dromoka's Command?
first and foremost all its modes are relevant to the deck, the fight for minor removal, the counter for pump, and avatar, the sac a search for azcanta, harden scales, pyro ascension (and more recently wilderness rec), and finally, the strain up bolt protection, but also damage based boardwipe of anger of the gods or sweltering suns protection (also gutshot and lightning axe are becoming more popular targets.) the spells versatile and is very very rarly a dead draw.
my mb has changed a little since my last post to include a little more W in the mb
really liking loam lion, its nice that it continues to stay a 2/3 with active blood moon around and that it can be played by a canopy without need a shock. trialing a single Kytheon, as hes easy to flip and is another 1 mana creature that becomes a 4/4 to attack with turn 3.
dropped one eone (as hes consistently the weakest one drop to play past turn 2) and one scooze (this may change with the uptic in bridgevine alter decks)
nacatal is bad for this deck, as it requires going into 3 color, and becoming much more vulnerable to bloodmoon, (as is even with a turn 3 moon i can still play a strangleroot the turn after without to much worry) it's also very shock heavy meaning instead of maybe shocking once a game im shocking at least 2 times and that can be pretty painful in the current meta.
both brawl and thrash are both very very inferior to dro command,
the reason to not just play naya zoo,
there is a lot of tempo decks with alot of removal in the meta currently, and fair aggressive creature decks need either huge tribal payoffs of unfair advantages (like affinity) to be faster. we can not speed up and we cannot add super synygy to win, so we need to protect instead, vines and blossoming are the reasons to stay heavy green, (along with strangleroot as i feel strangleroot is an extremely underrated card) this also get around a lot of the tradianl hate (like bloodmoon) while minimizing life loss form the mana base. lastly staying heavy green means that trample is much more common, and trample is surprisingly relevant atm against decks like humans, spirits and thing in the ice.
as for the cycle land, as someone whos tested it in both this format and in others, i think it is a lot better that people give in credit for (just like narnams, blossoming defences and more recently hexdrinkers) in a fetchless build, but i also think people are going to have play it them selves to find this out. (highly recommend you play 8-10 games with it in and compared to how it runs with and without, yes you dont what to play in turn 1-2 but thats why i upped the land count, and laying a tapped land is better than laying no lands (something treetop village taught us a long time ago)
i also agree
BUY YOUR HEXDRINKERS NOW! the priced has already spiked in the last day (this is from europe price spike is from £6.14 to 9.48 for a per card when buying a playset via card market the european TCG Player) (and most most other uk venues are now out of stock for preorders ) from the amount of play its seeing online in jund and rock decks (along with all the zoo- delver- tron decks its being run in) it's also turning up in every commander deck that runs green and is seeing some fring legacy list (not sure if its good enough to be a legacy staple), the price may go down about a month after release but it may also do a phoenix (although probably not to that level) and go up and stick at the $15-18 price range (it is a mythic in a supplemental set after all). and if worse come to worse it is a auto EDH staple now, 18 months after release it will hit the 10-12 range just from that. so money back and then some.
This is where I ended up with my testing. I primarily took out my last 2 Kalonian Tuskers, but im not 100 percent happy about it since were back down to only 4 two drops that can get E1 to 3/3 precombat. But the Hexdrinkers are worth it.
Growth Cycle is one that looks like it might be viable, but probably isnt. Unless we get a Diligent Farmhand + Muscle Burst combo like before and the farmhand is really good in aggro.
Thank you so much for replying, and yes I have read your guide and its incredibly useful. I was just asking in case he might have covered something or discovered something you haven't already mentioned since the list is quite different compared to what I've seen. Also, savage swipe is a card that isn't in your primer but is included in the list. Have you tried this card out? Lastly, what do you think is the most optimal fetch less build at the moment?
Damping Sphere (sideboard, maybe good enough?)
Hexdrinker (fetchless builds)
Savage Swipe (sideboard, maybe mainboard removal?)
Tranquil Thicket (I don't think it's good enough)
Collector Ouphe (sideboard)
Weather the Storm (sideboard)
Scale Up (also don't think it's good enough)
Force of Vigor (sideboard)
are all cards I'd like to have implemented in the primer before this site shuts down in July and I'll (most likely) be unable to edit the primer anymore. Are there anymore newer cards that I need to implement, either to show its appeal or to explain why it shouldn't be used?
We can always continue in the new site that the mods are building. I heard it will be very similar to this forum.
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Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
i've tested most of these cards and hear my take on the
damping sphere, the big downside of sphere is we only need it for tron, a dryad militant is as solid anit storm teck as it gets. but the main disadvantage of sphere is that on turns 3-4 we are waiting to play both threats and pump spells every turn, this (with our land base) limits us to 1 spell s turn which is a big downside as against tron (the matchup where we need it most) its slows u down enough for be boardwiped even through tron.
hexdrinker is solid in both fetchless and fetchbased mana bases (i may well become a staple 4 of in the deck. its probably worth waiting to see how this pans out before adding it to the primer)
savage swipe, strick upgrade on prey upon for super budget builds and maybe mb playable going forwards in fetchless mono builds
Collector Ouphe solid hate against tron, affinity, scales. but it doesn't hit bridge or chalice so its good but we need other hate specific to chalice and bridge.
weather the storm, is only better than feed the clan and life goes on in specific circumstances, its definitely suboptimal when facing burn and, zoo, hollow one, dreadge, and about even to clan vs mono red phoenix. (for now, if storm, eggs, or something similar breaks out this may be a huge advantage.)
scale up, agreed, to slow and sub optimal
Force of Vigor, i think in most situations this isn't a upgrade on existing tec, we dont worry about blood moon, and we are fast enough against affinity with other removal to be competitive, the only place this is better than rec sege, manglehorn and return to nature (which probably dose deserve an entry in the primer) is against mono red prison or enchantress both of which are exceedingly rare in modern.
ok
Tranquil Thicket
and the reason i think this a auto include as a 2-3 of in mono none fetch/non canopy builds
first president on there use. mono cycle lands of there respective colors are extremely heavily used in one format in one type of deck and that is pauper in aggro decks, and lightly in mono colored midrange and control decks. there are exception to this rule and most of the time they happen in blue and green, and that is because historically in pauper there has been a over abundance of spells and effects that interact with basics, either with bouce effects (like daze) or ramo effects like Quirion Ranger and Land Grant .ect but the point is that these cycle lands are played in hyper aggro decks with 17 lands as three ofs, the reason is yes they can slow you down a turn but they also substantially increase consistency of mono color decks. as without fetchlands, powerful utility lands we are at a disadvantage and are very very vulnerable to flooding, (in contrast to things like control and aggro that can use the large amount of mana later on. cycle lands are very much like slow horizon canopies, yes they are inferior to fetchlands, fast duels and canopys (and yes creture lands) but they are better than basics.
creture lands are better hands down but they are bad in multiples as they cannot be used in multiples fast so these fill a similar role.
the reason up changed the land base up in my new budget list is that, first the deck is vulnerable to land flooding and screwing and the deck needs to get to three land drops turn 3, and that requires a higher land base than what we have (yes we have been making do for a while but we now doesn't need to) and yes if we get one of these as a land drop we play it like we do the man lands, but this means that if we draw them mid/late game we have something for the deck to do in increase our chance if that action card, in essence they provide a more consistent mana base as well as a late game mana sink and card draw ability.
yes my reference to pauper decks may be a little off as pauper is a slightly slower format than modern, but mono G stompy on a budget is a slower deck due to its lack of ramp and fetchlands than the rest of modern, so if we are going to be a turn 5 deck might as well make it so we can win turn 5.
so in a higher land base deck using three of cycle lands- no fetchland and no horizon canopies.
pros
mana sink
card draw
makes a colored mana
increases consistency of land drops
cons
if used as one of first three land drops slows mana base (but your still making the land drop)
in very rare cases makes opening hands unkeepable (you have 2 tap lands and lots of aggressive action)
to me the advantage slightly outways the disadvantage but only time and testing will truly tell.
Competitive Decks
Devotion to the Lash B ----
Monkey Conservation WUGR ---- Dragon WorshipR
It looks like the reason you've chosen white as the splash color is Horizon Canopy but I'm not sure about that decision.
A corollary of making that decision is Dromoka's Command since all of the land damage really starts to impinge on the use of Dismember. However, the issue is that the deck you've listed doesn't need 20 land making Canopies a tougher sell.
You could just as easily stay (sort of) mono green and use Wild Nacatl and Titanic Brawl. Brawl being 1 mana a goodly % of the time helps streamline things as well.
EDIT: or there is also Thrash // Threat
I am interested to see he has abandoned aspect of hydra. If we’re off the green devotion tip, there have been a number of cards that we’ve disregarded over the years because we have been so heavily green-devotion based. I know I’m a huge fan of lupine prototype in a low curve hyper aggro deck, but that would be in a build that completely foregoes instant combat tricks.
I was very wrong about him. Not a two of in the deck. Its a 4x main deck staple going forwards!
I highly recommend you all pick up your play sets while he is under the radar.
It is my opinion that Hexdrinker is will find play in other archetypes and as the 2nd cheapest mythic of a premium priced product that wont be opened as much as a standard set will only go up in price over time.
Mostly played out as expected but just better and smoother.
Played against Tron, UW-non miracles version,dredge, Infect, Boros burn, Rock, Mono R pheonix,Izzet Pheonix, Grixis Shadow, humans
Vs burn and Infect, its super nice having another one drop in your opening hand that you can block and trade off until your beef comes online and overpowers.
Vs Tron, 12 one drops > 8 one drops, in addition to rancor, and you just have more opening hands where you are dropping 6 power by end of turn 2 and able to race them out.
Vs UW control, wow just super sexy, on the play, its similar to Tron, you just have a higher chance to nut and win before they sweep. on the draw, it was an amazing late game draw and i was able to get him to Progenitus mode twice.
Vs G/B Rock, Similar to UW, great draw later on.
Vs humans, still a bad match up for us, but was able to win a game that became a board stall by getting hex up to progenitus mode and swinging past blocker for 2 turns.
Vs mono red, and izzet pheonix, dies alot since they have alot of cheap removal, but acts a lightning rod protecting,ooze, avatar and steal leafs
The key is that you don't want to play him turn one and spend all your mana turns 2 and 3, trying to level him up with out advancing the rest of your game plan. Treat him like a Savannah lion first and foremost and keep turning him sideways.
Only if the game slows down and you have a spare mana or two (accounting for protection mana) do you start pumping into him.
found the same in my testing, i would also add that there are a few decks that if you can level up drinker early against (and want to) if they are tapped out. the big ones are rock and jund, if they tap out turn 2 (on the draw) or turn 3 (on the play) and you have 2 extra creatures to absorb a lilly sac, your pretty much locked in for the win.
also played a lot against deathshadow decks, and hexdrinker rule in this matchup, an early attacker but again if you can get him with 3 counter on him shadow just cannot deal with him. and sticking him in progenatus mode is auto win in this matchup as theyre normally bellow 6 life to use shadows.
@Marl Karx
in question to why white splash over say red or black (blues really really not worth it)
the main reason is SB teck. (i think a lot of my posts about sb tec got deleted when they wiped all european users with the GDPR law change last year) so ill start at the beginning
the deck struggles most in 2 matchups, Tron (really badly to eldrazi but still pretty bad to the other versions) and u/w control
now both of these matches are made hugly more winnable with the use of Gaddock Teeg he also shuts down a lot of other decks but his main purpose is these 2 deck. (he also stops, coco, cord, cryptic, Ad Nauseam, tooth and nail, chalice, explosives, gifts, past in flames, scapeshift, all played board wipes save 2 and plenty other spells and jank wincon.)
the second is path to exile, while there is a arugumnet for bolt and push, realistically if we carnt fight it bolt winot kill it, and the really difficult to deal with stuff for us, can shrug off pushes (gurmags, hollow ones, eldrazi, primal titan ect) so path is the best option (it is not mb because of the ramping effect, as ramping our opponent to a board wipe can be particularly reckless for this deck, hence placing them in sb.
Knight of Autumn was almost built for the deck, as she works in in multiple sb slots, (solid life gain, solid artifact and enchantment hate, or just a +1 counter holder for avatar) she very relevant and allows more dedicated slots to trouble matchups
(historically, rest in peace and stony silence. both were big parts if the sb when KCI was still meta, (they also did solid work against other decks) but you needed to hit one of these turn 2 against KCI or just loose (and you lost sometimes the next turn anyway)
stony has been replace with collector and ive drop rest in peace completely, with the shift back to tribal statgerys and away from all in gy strategies
with the down shift in cmc and more focused on all out aggression ive also added 2 Selfless spirits to add another aggressive creature that can act as protection.
this is my current SB
2x Collector Ouphe
3x Gaddock Teeg
3x Knight of Autumn
3x Path to Exile
2x Pithing Needle
2x Selfless Spirit
ok now why MB Dromoka's Command?
first and foremost all its modes are relevant to the deck, the fight for minor removal, the counter for pump, and avatar, the sac a search for azcanta, harden scales, pyro ascension (and more recently wilderness rec), and finally, the strain up bolt protection, but also damage based boardwipe of anger of the gods or sweltering suns protection (also gutshot and lightning axe are becoming more popular targets.) the spells versatile and is very very rarly a dead draw.
my mb has changed a little since my last post to include a little more W in the mb
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Dryad Militant
3x Experiment One
4x Hexdrinker
1x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3x Loam Lion
4x Narnam Renegade
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Strangleroot Geist
3x Forest
3x Horizon Canopy
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Blossoming Defense
3x Dromoka's Command
2x Vines of Vastwood
Enchantment (3)
3x Rancor
really liking loam lion, its nice that it continues to stay a 2/3 with active blood moon around and that it can be played by a canopy without need a shock. trialing a single Kytheon, as hes easy to flip and is another 1 mana creature that becomes a 4/4 to attack with turn 3.
dropped one eone (as hes consistently the weakest one drop to play past turn 2) and one scooze (this may change with the uptic in bridgevine alter decks)
nacatal is bad for this deck, as it requires going into 3 color, and becoming much more vulnerable to bloodmoon, (as is even with a turn 3 moon i can still play a strangleroot the turn after without to much worry) it's also very shock heavy meaning instead of maybe shocking once a game im shocking at least 2 times and that can be pretty painful in the current meta.
both brawl and thrash are both very very inferior to dro command,
the reason to not just play naya zoo,
there is a lot of tempo decks with alot of removal in the meta currently, and fair aggressive creature decks need either huge tribal payoffs of unfair advantages (like affinity) to be faster. we can not speed up and we cannot add super synygy to win, so we need to protect instead, vines and blossoming are the reasons to stay heavy green, (along with strangleroot as i feel strangleroot is an extremely underrated card) this also get around a lot of the tradianl hate (like bloodmoon) while minimizing life loss form the mana base. lastly staying heavy green means that trample is much more common, and trample is surprisingly relevant atm against decks like humans, spirits and thing in the ice.
as for the cycle land, as someone whos tested it in both this format and in others, i think it is a lot better that people give in credit for (just like narnams, blossoming defences and more recently hexdrinkers) in a fetchless build, but i also think people are going to have play it them selves to find this out. (highly recommend you play 8-10 games with it in and compared to how it runs with and without, yes you dont what to play in turn 1-2 but thats why i upped the land count, and laying a tapped land is better than laying no lands (something treetop village taught us a long time ago)
i also agree
BUY YOUR HEXDRINKERS NOW! the priced has already spiked in the last day (this is from europe price spike is from £6.14 to 9.48 for a per card when buying a playset via card market the european TCG Player) (and most most other uk venues are now out of stock for preorders ) from the amount of play its seeing online in jund and rock decks (along with all the zoo- delver- tron decks its being run in) it's also turning up in every commander deck that runs green and is seeing some fring legacy list (not sure if its good enough to be a legacy staple), the price may go down about a month after release but it may also do a phoenix (although probably not to that level) and go up and stick at the $15-18 price range (it is a mythic in a supplemental set after all). and if worse come to worse it is a auto EDH staple now, 18 months after release it will hit the 10-12 range just from that. so money back and then some.
Competitive Decks
Devotion to the Lash B ----
Monkey Conservation WUGR ---- Dragon WorshipR
This is where I ended up with my testing. I primarily took out my last 2 Kalonian Tuskers, but im not 100 percent happy about it since were back down to only 4 two drops that can get E1 to 3/3 precombat. But the Hexdrinkers are worth it.
04 Experiment One
04 Dryad Militant
04 Hexdrinker
04 Strangleroot Geist
04 Avatar of the Resolute
02 Scavenging Ooze
04 Steel Leaf Champion
04 Aspect of Hydra
04 Rancor
03 Vines of Vastwood
02 Dismember
Lands x 21
14 Forest
04 Blooming Marsh
02 Treetop Village
01 Nurturing Peatland
02 Damping Sphere
02 Dismember
02 Pithing Needle
02 Surgical Extraction
01 Guttural Response
01 Gut Shot
01 Deglamer
01 Force of Vigor
01 Deglamer
01 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
01 Skylasher
like not at all, it will never never see play in modern
Competitive Decks
Devotion to the Lash B ----
Monkey Conservation WUGR ---- Dragon WorshipR
Beetle is too narrow to use anywhere else..
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