Mind Stone is a very tempting piece of accel. due to 1, tap and sac to draw. Do you find that the colorless it generates are useless? I ask because of the RRR in Reckoner.
What is the main problem against Tron? I assume lack of interaction with their early plays (Sylvan Scrying, Ancient Stirrings, etc). Is Sowing Salt too slow? Pithing Needle just not worth the space?
The reason I ask is because I am interested in building this deck but would like at least some shot (even a small one) of beating the tier 1's (even a 1 in 4 wins against power decks I am happy with, I just like playing different types of decks, and this looks fun).
Mind Stone is a very tempting piece of accel. due to 1, tap and sac to draw. Do you find that the colorless it generates are useless? I ask because of the RRR in Reckoner.
I mean you do run into that issue from time to time but overall I like it because it helps accel you out and at the same time is a draw spell later in the game.
I'm thinking maybe a wurmcoil in the deck somewhere.
The decks good matchups are jund,pod and uwr. bad matchups are twin and tron. So I know my gf is on this deck for richmond.
Skred doesn't help you kill the Exarch? I've seen a variation with Wurmcoil; it ran 4 Coldsteel Heart for the Snow count; 2 Wurmcoil, 2 Batterskull, 2 Godo backing by a set of Reckoners and 3 Stormbreath Dragon.
What is the main problem against Tron? I assume lack of interaction with their early plays (Sylvan Scrying, Ancient Stirrings, etc). Is Sowing Salt too slow? Pithing Needle just not worth the space?
The reason I ask is because I am interested in building this deck but would like at least some shot (even a small one) of beating the tier 1's (even a 1 in 4 wins against power decks I am happy with, I just like playing different types of decks, and this looks fun).
the problem is oblivion stone, no matter what we do they can go o stone go.
and turn 6 wurmcoil is still really good vs this deck.
i treat that matchup like i do when i play living end, i accept some decks are gonna be bad for me. play to the my advantage and hope to get lucky. I still think the deck is damn good.
the problem is oblivion stone, no matter what we do they can go o stone go.
and turn 6 wurmcoil is still really good vs this deck.
i treat that matchup like i do when i play living end, i accept some decks are gonna be bad for me. play to the my advantage and hope to get lucky. I still think the deck is damn good.
Hmm yeah I guess O Stone would do it. I still want to build this deck though. I think I would add a Wurmcoil or two.
I've been tinkering quite a bit with this deck. The major problem I have with it is that the threat count is too low. It definitely needs 4 md strombreaths and maybe 1 or 2 copies of another threat, but I haven't found any other threat as resilient as koth and strombreath. Mind stones make up for the lack of threats by digging, which is a second best option. Post board useless cards, like clasms or moons, can be replaced by thundermaw, although he still dies too easily.
So, I started testing this deck online after seeing Caleb's article. No one has mentioned the fact that you can build the whole thing for ~$200, even if you have none of the cards.
Here is the deck I ended up on that I am pretty happy with. I'll then talk about what I've learned about the deck and what I'm currently testing.
The dragons can be swapped for another hasty threat if you like. Thundermaws would be good. I might go down to 3 postboard against burn, but otherwise I think you need to keep that many threats. There are no decks where I board out any of the rest of the core of the deck.
Skred
Love this card. So many games that end where you skred your own reckoner for 6+. Also kills 4+ toughness creatures 1 mana. Don't cut this card for something else.
Mind Stone
I like this card. There was never a time I used scrying sheets and hit this card, but plenty of times where I cycled it. This deck is essentially a red control deck and needs some kind of card draw. Since we are in red, Mind Stone's flexibility is awesome.
Sweepers
I think you need 5. My split of 2 Pyroclasms, 2 Volcanic Fallout, and 1 Blasphemous Act. You can take out the Act, but I like it for it's pseudo combo finish with Reckoner.
Relic of Progenitus
Love this card. I think it should be maindeck. Even if you are playing against a deck that doesn't use it's graveyard it still cycles and allows you to use your mana efficiently, something that can be difficult in the early turns with this deck. But let's look at the decks that use their graveyard: jund, delver, pyromancer ascension, reanimator, pod (persist), any deck with deathrite, snapcaster, or tarmogoyf. Great card. The only tier one decks that don't care about their gy: burn, merfolk, scapeshift, tron. But still a cycler.
Mana
This deck is pretty mana hungry. 24 land and some number of mana rocks seems right.
Sideboard
The Myojins are something I'm trying out against Tron. The sowing salts never seemed to be that good. 10 mana seems like a lot, but all you have to do is untap with Koth on the board. Still testing. Maybe Boom/Bust is better.
Current testing
I got to thinking about the lack of card draw. I also noticed that this deck saves its life total without the sac and pain lands. In order to up the cantrips in the deck I am currently testing +4 Gitaxian Probe, -1 mountain, -1 Relic, -1 mind stone, -1 act. Instead of probe, I'm also trying pyrite spellbombs in that spot.
All in all, I like the deck. It has a gameplan agains all decks and is pretty competitive for cheap without having to play agro-burn.
Tron is so miserable that I gave up on it. You can sometimes win with a turn 3 blood moon and then curve out with Koths and dragons. Otherwise, forget it.
This deck demolishes green decks, white decks, and GW decks. It has decent game agains jund, pod, and URx tempo decks, and affinity. Not good against combo. Gets raped by Tron.
But for $200 you can at least play modern and not feel like you're bringing a knife to a gun fight.
I looked at that spell as a Skred for nonSnow decks. If you're not running Coldsteel Heart, then it takes just as long to fire off a Skred for 5. I'm probably wrong. I like combos with Blasphemous Actbecause look at dat art.
Also, do you guys think Fated Conflagration warrants testing? Scry 2 is always welcome, and the 5 damage can be channeled through Recokner/Spitemare/Stuffy doll.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
This deck just went 3-1 at a daily. It also seems like it will be strong in the new meta since the many sweepers that it runs can handle Zoo and Tron is going to see less play. Also, first post after the move!
That sideboard from the 3-1 list was too awesome to pass up. Stalking Yeti!!!
The beauty with this list is the high end creatures. Thundermaw and Inferno Titan are like best friends forever. The addition of Volcanic Fallout mainboard now is pretty decent against the Faerie match up and will be just as good as it was back when Faeries was all over the place.
What is the main problem against Tron? I assume lack of interaction with their early plays (Sylvan Scrying, Ancient Stirrings, etc). Is Sowing Salt too slow? Pithing Needle just not worth the space?
The reason I ask is because I am interested in building this deck but would like at least some shot (even a small one) of beating the tier 1's (even a 1 in 4 wins against power decks I am happy with, I just like playing different types of decks, and this looks fun).
I mean you do run into that issue from time to time but overall I like it because it helps accel you out and at the same time is a draw spell later in the game.
I'm thinking maybe a wurmcoil in the deck somewhere.
The decks good matchups are jund,pod and uwr. bad matchups are twin and tron. So I know my gf is on this deck for richmond.
the problem is oblivion stone, no matter what we do they can go o stone go.
and turn 6 wurmcoil is still really good vs this deck.
i treat that matchup like i do when i play living end, i accept some decks are gonna be bad for me. play to the my advantage and hope to get lucky. I still think the deck is damn good.
Hmm yeah I guess O Stone would do it. I still want to build this deck though. I think I would add a Wurmcoil or two.
I've been tinkering quite a bit with this deck. The major problem I have with it is that the threat count is too low. It definitely needs 4 md strombreaths and maybe 1 or 2 copies of another threat, but I haven't found any other threat as resilient as koth and strombreath. Mind stones make up for the lack of threats by digging, which is a second best option. Post board useless cards, like clasms or moons, can be replaced by thundermaw, although he still dies too easily.
Here is the deck I ended up on that I am pretty happy with. I'll then talk about what I've learned about the deck and what I'm currently testing.
22 Snow Covered Mountain
2 Scrying Sheets
Threats
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Stormbreath Dragon
Other Spells
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Skred
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Blood Moon
2 Pyroclasm
2 Volcanic Fallout
3 Mindstone
1 Blasphemous Act
2 Pithing Needle
1 Blasphemous Act
3 Shatterstorm
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Combust
2 Shattering Spree
2 Myojin of Infinite Rage
Core of the deck
The dragons can be swapped for another hasty threat if you like. Thundermaws would be good. I might go down to 3 postboard against burn, but otherwise I think you need to keep that many threats. There are no decks where I board out any of the rest of the core of the deck.
Skred
Love this card. So many games that end where you skred your own reckoner for 6+. Also kills 4+ toughness creatures 1 mana. Don't cut this card for something else.
Mind Stone
I like this card. There was never a time I used scrying sheets and hit this card, but plenty of times where I cycled it. This deck is essentially a red control deck and needs some kind of card draw. Since we are in red, Mind Stone's flexibility is awesome.
Sweepers
I think you need 5. My split of 2 Pyroclasms, 2 Volcanic Fallout, and 1 Blasphemous Act. You can take out the Act, but I like it for it's pseudo combo finish with Reckoner.
Relic of Progenitus
Love this card. I think it should be maindeck. Even if you are playing against a deck that doesn't use it's graveyard it still cycles and allows you to use your mana efficiently, something that can be difficult in the early turns with this deck. But let's look at the decks that use their graveyard: jund, delver, pyromancer ascension, reanimator, pod (persist), any deck with deathrite, snapcaster, or tarmogoyf. Great card. The only tier one decks that don't care about their gy: burn, merfolk, scapeshift, tron. But still a cycler.
Mana
This deck is pretty mana hungry. 24 land and some number of mana rocks seems right.
Sideboard
The Myojins are something I'm trying out against Tron. The sowing salts never seemed to be that good. 10 mana seems like a lot, but all you have to do is untap with Koth on the board. Still testing. Maybe Boom/Bust is better.
Current testing
I got to thinking about the lack of card draw. I also noticed that this deck saves its life total without the sac and pain lands. In order to up the cantrips in the deck I am currently testing +4 Gitaxian Probe, -1 mountain, -1 Relic, -1 mind stone, -1 act. Instead of probe, I'm also trying pyrite spellbombs in that spot.
All in all, I like the deck. It has a gameplan agains all decks and is pretty competitive for cheap without having to play agro-burn.
22 Snow Covered Mountain
2 Scrying Sheets
Threats
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Stormbreath Dragon
Other Spells
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Skred
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Blood Moon
2 Pyroclasm
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Mindstone
2 Pithing Needle
2 Blasphemous Act
2 Shatterstorm
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Shattering Spree
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Volcanic Fallout
Tron is so miserable that I gave up on it. You can sometimes win with a turn 3 blood moon and then curve out with Koths and dragons. Otherwise, forget it.
This deck demolishes green decks, white decks, and GW decks. It has decent game agains jund, pod, and URx tempo decks, and affinity. Not good against combo. Gets raped by Tron.
But for $200 you can at least play modern and not feel like you're bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Terrible. Skred costs 1.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
3 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Godo, Bandit Warlord
2 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Skred
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Coldsteel Heart
3 Pyroclasm
1 Batterskull
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Blood Moon
2 Mouth of Ronom
19 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
3 Shattering Spree
2 Sowing Salt
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Volcanic Fallout
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Blasphemous Act
1 Blood Moon
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Nice deck you have. And yes, with Bitterblossom and Faeries poised to be a thing soon, Volanic Fallout will be so much better main deck.
With that said, I think Thundermaw may be better instead of Stormbreath because it can simply kill off all their X/1s they have flying around.
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
The deck isn't mine, I just saw that it did well. Here is my deck for this new meta.
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Blood Moon
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Anger of the Gods
3 Tectonic Edge
19 Mountain
I'm still working on the sideboard, but I think that this has potential. The one problem that I've been having is my inability to draw my finishers.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
My Updated list to deal with new Modern post Bitterblossom.
3 Thundermaw Hellkite
3 Inferno Titan
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Skred
4 Lighting Bolt
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Mind Stone
3 Pyroclasm
2 Volcanic Fallout
3 Blood Moon
2 Scrying Sheets
21 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Avalanche Riders
2 Blasphemous Act
3 Combust
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
3 Shatterstorm
1 Stalking Yeti
That sideboard from the 3-1 list was too awesome to pass up. Stalking Yeti!!!
The beauty with this list is the high end creatures. Thundermaw and Inferno Titan are like best friends forever. The addition of Volcanic Fallout mainboard now is pretty decent against the Faerie match up and will be just as good as it was back when Faeries was all over the place.
"There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." -Terrance Fletcher, Whiplash (2014)
Any ideas on what I would cut if I wanted to run more finishers?
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.