Let's pretend the goal is getting the combo out as early as possible. You can do this:
1. Land + Mana Dork
2. Land + Domri, Anarch of Bolas or other 1-3 1 CMC one mana producers.
3. Land + Irencrag Feat --> Deathbellow War Cry FTW OR cast a 2+ mana accel such as Satyr Hedonist, Jaya Ballard, 4. Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Vessel of Volatility, Chandra, Novice Pyromancer
4. Land --> you should just have 8 mana so cast Deathbellow War Cry FTW
However, if you want consistency you need to run Fae of Wishes.
So something like:
1. Land + Dork
2. Land + 1-3 1 CMC one mana producers.
3. Land + Fae of Wishes search for Deathbellow War Cry or Irencrag Feat
4. "Combo"
Given the above, it would seem that the deck would at best be a fragile glass cannon so we need to include some sort of protection. This would necessitate slowing the deck a turn, which does open up space.
1. Land + Dork
2. Land + [Discard] (or other protection like T3feri)
3. Land + [Discard] (or other protection like T3feri)
4. Land + Fae of Wishes search for Deathbellow War Cry or Irencrag Feat
5. "Combo"
However, the above would require us to be in 4 or 5 colors! As such we can take inspiration from the Izzet Possibility Storm combo deck and not run green, especially if we have slowed down a turn.
Yeah hoping for some good Cows in Theros. But sort of doubt whatever new one they print would let us get away with less than the 6 the deck runs at the moment. As for Fae package, I feel the choice is between Izzet Fae and Jund Beatdown plans, due to my experience with Possibility Storm. If you don't have the search to combo off turn 4/5, you need a secondary game plan like beat-down to compete. We can look at the Grull version of that deck to see what a build may look like (the advantage of this deck over Possiblity storm is that the combo is cheaper, and you can run sorceries. The disadvantage is more "dead cards"):
The advantage of the Jund version is you can easily play the Cows you draw into. Also it can easily go off turn 3. The disadvantage is that the chances of going off turn 3 are only about 15% (chances of drawing into both Feat and War Cry). However, you can easily have 8 mana by turn 5 regardless of drawing Feat, so chances of Comboing by 5 are about 42%. The hope is that the rest of the cards provide enough beatdown for them to be worth it in a vacuum.
A decent beatdown plan would be Boros Reckoner, some Nykthos and red devotion stuff. The new minotaurs in THB will be the cheap ones, because there's no good playable 1 & 2 cmc minotaurs in the format for now. We could also get a very big fatty better than some you suggested for the combo package. A minotaur generating mana would be dope (ala Generator Servant).
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Well the Beatdown version only really has room for 7 beat down cards and they are currently Bone Crusher Giant or Glorybringer. Any additional beatdown will have to be better than those cards and that's a high bar. As for the combo, that's true, but the cards on the "chopping block" are Neheb, the Worthy and Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion. Kragma Warcaller makes the combo work, and Fanatic of Mogis deals at least 4 and attacks for at least 6 with Warcaller. Rageblood Shaman is sort of hard to beat given that it gives trample. So only the Nehebs are replaceable IMO. However, at least on the Beat Down version, if we get any mana generating Minotaur that could potentially replace any of the Planeswalkers.
1) On the Possibility Storm Discord there was some brief discussion over stuffing both combos into one deck. The idea being that the percentage chance of going off with one of the combo's will go up turn 4/5 and it will be more durable to thoughtseize with multiple avenues of combo. The downside is less protection cards. The two theoretical lists are:
2) As I was brainstorming Cow Storm. If you treat it is a two card 5 mana combo instead of a 1 card 8 mana combo, one advantage it will have over possibility storm is that both of its combo pieces are sorceries that cost 2 mana. This means that Baral, Chief of Compliance and Goblin Electromancer make the Combo cost 3 mana. They also reduce the cost of Fae of Wishes. This lets you have a perfect 4 turn curve of:
1. Land
2. Land + Baral/Electromancer
3. Land + Fae of Wishes
4 Combo
This requires 20 lands + 8 Baral/Electromancer + 16 "Combo Cards" - leaving 16 cards open for draw/control. One option would be to run Izzet Phoenix. The deck used to run Baral/Electromance before moving on, but given the combo it may be used as a throw back. So for the 16 cards imagine:
The idea is to play 7 payoffs and not only 4, and which win within a turn.
I think the important cows must be 2-ofs anyway, in case I draw 1.
If I have a Star in hand the turn I play War Cry, I go search for Fanatic, Neheb, Reckoner and any of the lord, it doesn't matter. Fanatic already deals 7-8 so I don't need to attack thanks to Neheb's mana, but I will if need be (the opponent may interact).
Wily Gob is the worst card, but there's no great mana producer other than him. Treasure Map is too slow, Gleaming Barrier doesn't add to devotion. Runaway Steam-Kin is the alternative.
The other Minotaurs appeared to be completely useless, especially the other Nehebs.
Up.
I tested the list above and quickly felt I want some card selection. Black has nothing, red is subpar (rummaging effects are not quite the right effect for this archetype), so I splashed blue and came up with this :
The list can't cast Warcaller, but I never want it n my hand anyway. The deck mulligans until there's a combination of 2 among ramp, dig and payoff. Any Minotaur but reckoner are sent to the bottom of the library anyway.
I don't know how much I can commit in blue, but it's way way better not to rely on lucky topdecks.
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IDK why you are running so many Cows? Assume you will draw 2 cows, you only need 7 cows in the deck I think
2 Kragma Warcaller
1 Rageblood Shaman
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Neheb, the Worthy
1 Neheb, the Eternal
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
You only need multiples of Kragma because the combo doesn't work without it. Otherwise any other cards you draw should lead to a win. For example at worse you draw Neheb, the Eternal and Rageblood AND don't get one or less card in hand - that means you get Kragma Warcaller, Neheb, the Worthy, Fanatic of Mogis, Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion - which is 5 damage through Fanatic, and 17 attacking first strike power?
You can replace the worse Neheb's with Boros Reckoner, but I feel you can cut out some just to open up two or three extra spaces in your deck for draw or what not.
Yep I agree. I did cut 2 reckoners, but kept 2 in order to have a second chance to combo off with Star.
I suppose 1 Neheb and 1 Rageblood are indeed enough, and gives room for digging spells. I think I can easily go down to 8 cows, 7 seems like a stretch but why not !
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Augur of Bolas is good at finding land spells, so it can fix the mana. necessary evil to block early dudes. Valakut Awakening is great in the deck, lets me bottom the minotaurs I drew and dig for everything else.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/theros-beyond-death-theme-boosters-2019-12-17
The one that is popping out at me was Deathbellow War Cry. It's 8 mana, but you can search up Fanatic of Mogis, Kragma Warcaller, Rageblood Shaman, and Neheb, the Worthy (if you have one or no cards in hand or Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion. Fanatic deals 5/6 damage, and you attack with either 29 haste, trample, first strike power or 24 haste, trample power. Of course getting to 8 is the hard part. Combine with Irencrag Feat and it's essentially a 2 card 2RRR mana combo. . .
Let's pretend the goal is getting the combo out as early as possible. You can do this:
1. Land + Mana Dork
2. Land + Domri, Anarch of Bolas or other 1-3 1 CMC one mana producers.
3. Land + Irencrag Feat --> Deathbellow War Cry FTW OR cast a 2+ mana accel such as Satyr Hedonist, Jaya Ballard, 4. Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Vessel of Volatility, Chandra, Novice Pyromancer
4. Land --> you should just have 8 mana so cast Deathbellow War Cry FTW
However, if you want consistency you need to run Fae of Wishes.
So something like:
1. Land + Dork
2. Land + 1-3 1 CMC one mana producers.
3. Land + Fae of Wishes search for Deathbellow War Cry or Irencrag Feat
4. "Combo"
Given the above, it would seem that the deck would at best be a fragile glass cannon so we need to include some sort of protection. This would necessitate slowing the deck a turn, which does open up space.
1. Land + Dork
2. Land + [Discard] (or other protection like T3feri)
3. Land + [Discard] (or other protection like T3feri)
4. Land + Fae of Wishes search for Deathbellow War Cry or Irencrag Feat
5. "Combo"
However, the above would require us to be in 4 or 5 colors! As such we can take inspiration from the Izzet Possibility Storm combo deck and not run green, especially if we have slowed down a turn.
The current decklist that I am playing with is:
2 Kragma Warcaller
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Rageblood Shaman
1 Neheb, the Worthy
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
3 Irencrag Feat
3 Deathbellow War Cry
4 Dig Through Time
4 Thoughtseize
4 Opt
4 Izzet Charm
4 Vessel of Volatility
24 Lands
The manabase only needs to account for a three color deck instead of a 4 or 5 color one.
Any help is appreciated
Vessel T2 > Irencrag turn 3 is your quickest start btw.
Instead of the Fae package, the deck might also be good enough to just Irencrag into something else than War Cry. Anyway, it's promising !
Jund Cow Storm
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Glorybringer
2 Kragma Warcaller
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Rageblood Shaman
1 Neheb, the Worthy
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
4 Deathbellow War Cry
4 Thoughtseize
20 Lands
The advantage of the Jund version is you can easily play the Cows you draw into. Also it can easily go off turn 3. The disadvantage is that the chances of going off turn 3 are only about 15% (chances of drawing into both Feat and War Cry). However, you can easily have 8 mana by turn 5 regardless of drawing Feat, so chances of Comboing by 5 are about 42%. The hope is that the rest of the cards provide enough beatdown for them to be worth it in a vacuum.
1) On the Possibility Storm Discord there was some brief discussion over stuffing both combos into one deck. The idea being that the percentage chance of going off with one of the combo's will go up turn 4/5 and it will be more durable to thoughtseize with multiple avenues of combo. The downside is less protection cards. The two theoretical lists are:
Izzet Possible Cows
4 Merfolk Secretkeeper
2 Kragma Warcaller
1 Fanatic of Mogis,
1 Rageblood Shaman
1 Neheb, the Worthy
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
1 Walking Ballista
1 Borborygmos Enraged
1 Enter the Infinite
3 Deathbellow War Cry
3 Izzet Charm
4 [[Dig Through Time]] (If we go three color this would be a great spot for T3feri. Then the deck would also have the T3feri+Storm Lock)
4 Opt
4 Vessel of Volatility
3 Possibility Storm
22 Lands
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Lovestruck Beast
2 Glorybringer
2 Kragma Warcaller
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Rageblood Shaman
1 Neheb, the Worthy
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
1 Walking Ballista
1 Borborygmos Enraged
4 Vessel of Volatility
4 Possibility Storm
4 Deathbellow War Cry
1 Enter the Infinite
21 Lands
1. Land
2. Land + Baral/Electromancer
3. Land + Fae of Wishes
4 Combo
This requires 20 lands + 8 Baral/Electromancer + 16 "Combo Cards" - leaving 16 cards open for draw/control. One option would be to run Izzet Phoenix. The deck used to run Baral/Electromance before moving on, but given the combo it may be used as a throw back. So for the 16 cards imagine:
They simultaneously let you play with Phoenix and search for your combo.
3 Star of Extinction
4 Irencrag Feat
4 Boros Reckoner
3 Fanatic of Mogis
2 Kragma Warcaller
3 Neheb, the Eternal
2 Rageblood Shaman
4 Wily Goblin
4 Vessel of Volatility
4 Blood Crypt
4 Dragonskull Summit
12 Mountain
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
The idea is to play 7 payoffs and not only 4, and which win within a turn.
I think the important cows must be 2-ofs anyway, in case I draw 1.
If I have a Star in hand the turn I play War Cry, I go search for Fanatic, Neheb, Reckoner and any of the lord, it doesn't matter. Fanatic already deals 7-8 so I don't need to attack thanks to Neheb's mana, but I will if need be (the opponent may interact).
Wily Gob is the worst card, but there's no great mana producer other than him. Treasure Map is too slow, Gleaming Barrier doesn't add to devotion. Runaway Steam-Kin is the alternative.
The other Minotaurs appeared to be completely useless, especially the other Nehebs.
I tested the list above and quickly felt I want some card selection. Black has nothing, red is subpar (rummaging effects are not quite the right effect for this archetype), so I splashed blue and came up with this :
4 Star of Extinction
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Fanatic of Mogis
2 Kragma Warcaller
2 Neheb, the Eternal
2 Rageblood Shaman
4 Vessel of Volatility
4 Irencrag Feat
4 Shimmer of Possibility
2 Izzet Charm
4 Steam Vents
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Shivan Reef
2 Sulfur Falls
6 Mountain
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
The list can't cast Warcaller, but I never want it n my hand anyway. The deck mulligans until there's a combination of 2 among ramp, dig and payoff. Any Minotaur but reckoner are sent to the bottom of the library anyway.
I don't know how much I can commit in blue, but it's way way better not to rely on lucky topdecks.
2 Kragma Warcaller
1 Rageblood Shaman
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Neheb, the Worthy
1 Neheb, the Eternal
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
You only need multiples of Kragma because the combo doesn't work without it. Otherwise any other cards you draw should lead to a win. For example at worse you draw Neheb, the Eternal and Rageblood AND don't get one or less card in hand - that means you get Kragma Warcaller, Neheb, the Worthy, Fanatic of Mogis, Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion - which is 5 damage through Fanatic, and 17 attacking first strike power?
You can replace the worse Neheb's with Boros Reckoner, but I feel you can cut out some just to open up two or three extra spaces in your deck for draw or what not.
I suppose 1 Neheb and 1 Rageblood are indeed enough, and gives room for digging spells. I think I can easily go down to 8 cows, 7 seems like a stretch but why not !
With the new cards from ZNR, the deck gets a bit better :
3 Star of Extinction
2 Fanatic of Mogis
2 Kragma Warcaller
1 Moraug, Fury of Akoum
1 Neheb, the Eternal
1 Rageblood Shaman
4 Augur of Bolas
4 Irencrag Feat
4 Valakut Awakening
2 Silundi Vision
4 Shimmer of Possibility
4 Opt
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Shivan Reef
4 Riverglide Pathway
2 Clearwater Pathway
2 Mountain
Augur of Bolas is good at finding land spells, so it can fix the mana. necessary evil to block early dudes.
Valakut Awakening is great in the deck, lets me bottom the minotaurs I drew and dig for everything else.
Not sold on Silundi Vision (is more 3-cmc digging necessary ?) nor Clearwater Pathway (to hardcast Kragma).
did not expect there would be a combo deck on minotaurs.
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