*Updated as much as I can for now, will keep working on it. - 23/08/13
Introduction
Everyone knows this type of deck. Destroy or deny their mana, then take over the game when they're helpless. It's a classic that has been around since the start of MTG (Sinkhole, anyone?). Being a big fan of this fun archetype (even though it'll probably never be very competitive in any format), I really believe that this could work fairly well (even better here than Legacy) since Modern is a format with mostly very greedy land bases. And with more control decks surfacing in the meta, I think this is a good time to give this a(nother) shot.
Why play this?
As said above, there's a ton of greedy land bases around in modern these days. Attacking their land base shuts off their spells, and lets you take over the game. Against decks that play little lands, you have the advantage. It's also actually pretty fun to pilot and annoying to play against if it goes your way. And if you're sick of the usual aggro beatdown decks, this is a nice change than all the mainstream decks.
History (Dedicated/Partial Variants)
There have been many different variants and strategies for this type of deck but since Modern is a quick format filled with lots of aggressive and combo strategies, most of these are either too slow, or too meta-dependent. Here they are.
G/x/x Ponza
This is the classic. Play many mana dorks, ramping artifacts and all that, then head right into the land destruction and with green, Plow Under, then cast a fatty to seal the deal. The general plan of this variant is simple but it's too slow for Modern. I'm sure many of you have tried this. It just doesn't consistently work, especially when you don't manage to be able to deal with all the creatures attacking you.
U/X Tempo
Basically bouncing permanents (essentially lands) with cards like Boomerang but that doesn't really stop them. Some decks like Affinity and Zoo can work well at 2 mana so just bouncing lands wouldn't be enough. It'll only keep you alive for a little longer at best.
This is really fun but it's too fragile and dependent on it. It'll just break and fail without the artifact. And with so much artifact hate in the current meta... Great when it goes your way though.
Wildfire Domain
One of my favourite decks of the '05 period. Basic idea of this is to ramp yourself a little, clear small threats, counter problematic stuff, steal their lands with Annex and Dream Leash, and then play your fatty before throwing a big Wildfire to end it.
Blood Moon Control
Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon based decks are also forms of mana denial. Locking down your opponents by rendering their non-basics useless. Hurts most decks in Modern due to the greedy landbases. But recently, I don't see Blood Moon affecting many decks except maybe TRON. Most decks are starting to play around it now.
Modern Smallpoxl
Modern Pox basically relies on the very damaging Smallpox to gain advantage. The land destruction is a bonus in these decks but Smallpox is really something to abuse. Every 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 with it is huge.
*If there are any more variants that I have missed out, do let me know. But I'm sure I've mentioned it all; been exploring this archetype for modern since it was officially announced
Basic Idea
With such a greedy land base in modern now (and TRON), denying their (specific) colours will go a long way. Much more if you repeatedly do it. The deck aims to be consistent with its plans of destroying and denying (maybe stealing too) your opponent's lands; slowing them down long enough to take full control and finish the game.
The only way for this to work is to deny the opponent of their specific coloured mana while playing some disruption and removal early on. Instead of the most common and usual 'ramping into land destruction', we have to take a different approach because we just can't match the speed of Modern decks. The idea is to slow them down just enough so that we can set the game at our tempo and take over.
Card Choices
There's a ton of options for the decks. It all depends on what colours you decide to play. But generally, 3 colours will work best. But you'll generally have red (duh). As for white, blue, green and/or black, that's entirely up to you on how you want to build it. Personally, I tend to avoid playing green as 'dedicated' ramping strategies are very lackluster in modern. I used to play UR but am now currently playing RBW.
1RRMolten Rain: 3CC, bonus 2 damage on non-basics. Downside, double R.
1R/5RBoom//Bust: 2CC at best, works very well with Ghost Quarter and fetchlands. The Bust part of it pretty much ends the game once Frost Titan gets in play.
2RRRoiling Terrain: With all the fetchlands running around in currently popular decks, coupled with our land destruction, this could potentially be very damaging for just 4CC.
2RRSowing Salt: Great for removing multiple copies of shocklands.
2RRSeismic Spike: Essentially only costs 2CC but I'd very much rather have the bonus damage from Roiling Terrain.
2GBeast Within: The only card that makes me splash green. It's very versatile, in case of troublesome creatures, enchantments, artifacts or planeswalkers. And if there's none of those, works as a land destroyer too.
2RGWreak Havoc: A fine reason to splash green for its versatility in this meta full of artifacts. Playing it doesn't ruin our plan. Works as a desperate answer for a troublesome artifact.
4RRWildfire: Acts as both a great sweeper and land destruction. 4 lands will hurt us, but not as much as it hurts them with all the land stealing and destruction going on. Probably costs too much for us to handle without any acceleration though.
4GGPlow Under: Huge tempo right here. Resolving this would give you the huge advantage to take over the game.
BBSmallpox: Great card, damaging in all ways. Being able to 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 once or twice will give you a great advantage.
1USpreading Seas: This will work very well in the current state the format is in. There are so many multi-coloured decks in play now that enchanting a shockland is really going to hurt. Deny them of their colours. I believe this will only suck horribly vs. Merfolk though.
2UUAnnex: Steal a land, make it yours for a bit, then just Boom//Bust it away when you're done with it.
3RAvalance Riders: 4CC land destruction with a hasty body and a horrible echo cost. Better off playing Roiling Terrain for the guaranteed bonus damage at the same cost.
3RShivan Wumpus: Not exactly a land destruction card but it fits with the gameplan. Only gripe with it is that it'll draw all the removal and it'll beat the point of playing it. Maybe a sideboard tech at best.
8Sundering Titan: 8CC, but with a powerful effect. Second wincon? As 1-of at best.
1WLeonin Arbiter: Reason to splash white, again. Probably a sideboard card, but against all the fetchlands and tutors, it might be good in the main as well.
3RRKazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs: Good for taxing and creating many bodies with all the land destruction going on, but
it's too slow and conditional. Very good against the aggressive meta though.
4UUFrost Titan: Finisher which will primarily act as land denial by tapping down a land. Also very hard to remove with all the land destruction and taxing going on.
And then comes disruption, in the form of counters and removals.
Sweepers
1RPyroclasm: The cheapest sweeper to cast. Merfolk, Elves, Affinity all pretty much fold to it.
1RRSlagstorm: Sweeper to sweep the board early if you're getting swarmed before starting to take control.
1WWUSupreme Verdict: If you somehow need to play around counters.
3UUDevastation Tide: Another sweeper that's kinda perfect for the deck, but the miracle is a little clunky to rely on. Remand and Repeal might get it off during the opponent's turn. However, the anti-synergy with the enchantments could be bad. It makes Spreading Seas reusable though, for another cantrip.
3UUEvacuation: More synergy with the rest of the deck, as it does not bounce our enchantments but at 5CC, it might be too slow. It's great in a sense that after you bounce, they probably won't be able to play the creatures. But this over Wrath? Don't think so.
WPorphyry Nodes: Could work as a cheap removal. Not sure how effective it would be but in this aggressive creature format, it'll buy us some time. Total dead card against combo though, maybe a sideboard.
Spot Removal
XRRed Sun's Zenith: A finisher for the deck to use all the excess mana to end games. Picked this over Banefire and Devil's Play and Fireball for its possible (though unlikely) reuseability.
RLightning Bolt: The most efficient burn removal though it might be weak in case of little critters and whatever small fry that comes in our way. Burn to the face as a finisher works too.
WRLightning Helix: 2CMC burn/heal. Need to say more? The life gain is huge in the meta.
XURepeal: Versatile nonland permanent bouncer which works great early, but will be fine in the mid/late game too.
1USnapcaster Mage: Reusing a spell, whether removal or land destruction, would come in handy at the right time. The things you can do with this is pretty situational, seeing as you'll be flashing back sorceries most times. The surprise factor is still there though.
Planeswalkers
2WRAjani Vengeant: Another reason to splash white. Regularly taps their land down, and a Lightning Helix occasionally wouldn't hurt. His finisher does exactly what we want as well.
3UUTamiyo, the Moon Sage: Great for tapping down extra lands and as a second win-con too. Pretty good inclusion, actually.
3RChandra, the Firebrand: A fine guy to help with the plan. With low amounts of mana once we stabilise the board, the pinging for 1 can be useful taking out weaker creatures. But the duplicating ability is what makes it an insane choice. Double land destruction is really sick.
Locks
3Ensnaring Bridge: Really good card to stop attacks, but this would require another way to win.
2WGhostly Prison: Great reason to splash white, taxing them will buy us some time to stabilise before going on land destruction mode.
Counters
1URemand: Time walk, and chances are, they won't have enough lands to play the spell they just casted again the next turn.
1UMana Leak: As good as a hard counter in a deck like this. They'll never have the extra 3 mana to cast anything once you have things going your way.
USpell Pierce: Similar role as Mana Leak, cheaper too. Probably just a 1-2 of though.
1URune Snag: Another 2CC counter similar Mana Leak, but stronger in a longer game (which is what this deck plays).
XUSpell Burst: Great in the mid/late game as opponents will like have only enough mana to play 1-3CMC stuff if things go our way so we'll even have the mana for buyback-ing it.
[/CARD]
Notes
Here's just some general stuff I've noticed through my playtesting of various builds. Will update more as I notice more things.
As user Flaat has mentioned earlier on when I first started this, discard is a more reliable way of taking care of threats, being proactive, as compared to running counters and being reactive. But not a big discard suite, just a small one coupled with removals. They work a lot better than counters.
1
*Updated as much as I can for now, will keep working on it. - 23/08/13
Introduction
Everyone knows this type of deck. Destroy or deny their mana, then take over the game when they're helpless. It's a classic that has been around since the start of MTG (Sinkhole, anyone?). Being a big fan of this fun archetype (even though it'll probably never be very competitive in any format), I really believe that this could work fairly well (even better here than Legacy) since Modern is a format with mostly very greedy land bases. And with more control decks surfacing in the meta, I think this is a good time to give this a(nother) shot.
Why play this?
As said above, there's a ton of greedy land bases around in modern these days. Attacking their land base shuts off their spells, and lets you take over the game. Against decks that play little lands, you have the advantage. It's also actually pretty fun to pilot and annoying to play against if it goes your way. And if you're sick of the usual aggro beatdown decks, this is a nice change than all the mainstream decks.
History (Dedicated/Partial Variants)
There have been many different variants and strategies for this type of deck but since Modern is a quick format filled with lots of aggressive and combo strategies, most of these are either too slow, or too meta-dependent. Here they are.
G/x/x Ponza
This is the classic. Play many mana dorks, ramping artifacts and all that, then head right into the land destruction and with green, Plow Under, then cast a fatty to seal the deal. The general plan of this variant is simple but it's too slow for Modern. I'm sure many of you have tried this. It just doesn't consistently work, especially when you don't manage to be able to deal with all the creatures attacking you.
U/X Tempo
Basically bouncing permanents (essentially lands) with cards like Boomerang but that doesn't really stop them. Some decks like Affinity and Zoo can work well at 2 mana so just bouncing lands wouldn't be enough. It'll only keep you alive for a little longer at best.
Liquidmetal Coating Combo
This is really fun but it's too fragile and dependent on it. It'll just break and fail without the artifact. And with so much artifact hate in the current meta... Great when it goes your way though.
Wildfire Domain
One of my favourite decks of the '05 period. Basic idea of this is to ramp yourself a little, clear small threats, counter problematic stuff, steal their lands with Annex and Dream Leash, and then play your fatty before throwing a big Wildfire to end it.
Blood Moon Control
Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon based decks are also forms of mana denial. Locking down your opponents by rendering their non-basics useless. Hurts most decks in Modern due to the greedy landbases. But recently, I don't see Blood Moon affecting many decks except maybe TRON. Most decks are starting to play around it now.
Modern Smallpoxl
Modern Pox basically relies on the very damaging Smallpox to gain advantage. The land destruction is a bonus in these decks but Smallpox is really something to abuse. Every 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 with it is huge.
*If there are any more variants that I have missed out, do let me know. But I'm sure I've mentioned it all; been exploring this archetype for modern since it was officially announced
Basic Idea
With such a greedy land base in modern now (and TRON), denying their (specific) colours will go a long way. Much more if you repeatedly do it. The deck aims to be consistent with its plans of destroying and denying (maybe stealing too) your opponent's lands; slowing them down long enough to take full control and finish the game.
The only way for this to work is to deny the opponent of their specific coloured mana while playing some disruption and removal early on. Instead of the most common and usual 'ramping into land destruction', we have to take a different approach because we just can't match the speed of Modern decks. The idea is to slow them down just enough so that we can set the game at our tempo and take over.
Card Choices
There's a ton of options for the decks. It all depends on what colours you decide to play. But generally, 3 colours will work best. But you'll generally have red (duh). As for white, blue, green and/or black, that's entirely up to you on how you want to build it. Personally, I tend to avoid playing green as 'dedicated' ramping strategies are very lackluster in modern. I used to play UR but am now currently playing RBW.
Non-Creature Spells
2R Stone Rain: 3CC
[MANA]1BB[/MANA/ Rain of Tears: Another 3CC
1RR Molten Rain: 3CC, bonus 2 damage on non-basics. Downside, double R.
1R/5R Boom//Bust: 2CC at best, works very well with Ghost Quarter and fetchlands. The Bust part of it pretty much ends the game once Frost Titan gets in play.
2RR Roiling Terrain: With all the fetchlands running around in currently popular decks, coupled with our land destruction, this could potentially be very damaging for just 4CC.
2RR Sowing Salt: Great for removing multiple copies of shocklands.
2RR Seismic Spike: Essentially only costs 2CC but I'd very much rather have the bonus damage from Roiling Terrain.
2G Beast Within: The only card that makes me splash green. It's very versatile, in case of troublesome creatures, enchantments, artifacts or planeswalkers. And if there's none of those, works as a land destroyer too.
2RG Wreak Havoc: A fine reason to splash green for its versatility in this meta full of artifacts. Playing it doesn't ruin our plan. Works as a desperate answer for a troublesome artifact.
2GG Mwonvuli Acid-Moss: Destroys a land and ramps you too.
4RR Wildfire: Acts as both a great sweeper and land destruction. 4 lands will hurt us, but not as much as it hurts them with all the land stealing and destruction going on. Probably costs too much for us to handle without any acceleration though.
4GG Plow Under: Huge tempo right here. Resolving this would give you the huge advantage to take over the game.
BB Smallpox: Great card, damaging in all ways. Being able to 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 once or twice will give you a great advantage.
1U Spreading Seas: This will work very well in the current state the format is in. There are so many multi-coloured decks in play now that enchanting a shockland is really going to hurt. Deny them of their colours. I believe this will only suck horribly vs. Merfolk though.
2UU Annex: Steal a land, make it yours for a bit, then just Boom//Bust it away when you're done with it.
3UU Dream Leash: Also to steal a land and profit.
Creature Spells
1BB/1RR Fulminator Mage: A "Molten Rain" with a 2/2 body. Could come in handy as a blocker.
3GG Acidic Slime:
3R Avalance Riders: 4CC land destruction with a hasty body and a horrible echo cost. Better off playing Roiling Terrain for the guaranteed bonus damage at the same cost.
3R Shivan Wumpus: Not exactly a land destruction card but it fits with the gameplan. Only gripe with it is that it'll draw all the removal and it'll beat the point of playing it. Maybe a sideboard tech at best.
8 Sundering Titan: 8CC, but with a powerful effect. Second wincon? As 1-of at best.
1W Leonin Arbiter: Reason to splash white, again. Probably a sideboard card, but against all the fetchlands and tutors, it might be good in the main as well.
3RR Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs: Good for taxing and creating many bodies with all the land destruction going on, but
it's too slow and conditional. Very good against the aggressive meta though.
4UU Frost Titan: Finisher which will primarily act as land denial by tapping down a land. Also very hard to remove with all the land destruction and taxing going on.
And then comes disruption, in the form of counters and removals.
Sweepers
1R Pyroclasm: The cheapest sweeper to cast. Merfolk, Elves, Affinity all pretty much fold to it.
1RR Slagstorm: Sweeper to sweep the board early if you're getting swarmed before starting to take control.
2WW Wrath of God: Self-explanatory.
2BB Damnation: Self-explanatory.
1WWU Supreme Verdict: If you somehow need to play around counters.
3UU Devastation Tide: Another sweeper that's kinda perfect for the deck, but the miracle is a little clunky to rely on. Remand and Repeal might get it off during the opponent's turn. However, the anti-synergy with the enchantments could be bad. It makes Spreading Seas reusable though, for another cantrip.
3UU Evacuation: More synergy with the rest of the deck, as it does not bounce our enchantments but at 5CC, it might be too slow. It's great in a sense that after you bounce, they probably won't be able to play the creatures. But this over Wrath? Don't think so.
W Porphyry Nodes: Could work as a cheap removal. Not sure how effective it would be but in this aggressive creature format, it'll buy us some time. Total dead card against combo though, maybe a sideboard.
Spot Removal
XR Red Sun's Zenith: A finisher for the deck to use all the excess mana to end games. Picked this over Banefire and Devil's Play and Fireball for its possible (though unlikely) reuseability.
R Lightning Bolt: The most efficient burn removal though it might be weak in case of little critters and whatever small fry that comes in our way. Burn to the face as a finisher works too.
WR Lightning Helix: 2CMC burn/heal. Need to say more? The life gain is huge in the meta.
XU Repeal: Versatile nonland permanent bouncer which works great early, but will be fine in the mid/late game too.
BG Abrupt Decay: Best removal in the format.
1BG Maelstorm Pulse: Great for multiple copies.
Discard
B Blackmail: The only discard spell that could catch a land.
B Thoughtseize: Clearly the best choice, but in my testing, the life loss is sometimes very hurtful.
B Inquisition of Kozilek: Cheaper alternative to Thoughtseize which actually works very well.
B Duress: Good and cheap against control/combo.
Creatures
1U Snapcaster Mage: Reusing a spell, whether removal or land destruction, would come in handy at the right time. The things you can do with this is pretty situational, seeing as you'll be flashing back sorceries most times. The surprise factor is still there though.
Planeswalkers
2WR Ajani Vengeant: Another reason to splash white. Regularly taps their land down, and a Lightning Helix occasionally wouldn't hurt. His finisher does exactly what we want as well.
3UU Tamiyo, the Moon Sage: Great for tapping down extra lands and as a second win-con too. Pretty good inclusion, actually.
1BB Liliana of the Veil: Great for controlling the board and game.
3R Chandra, the Firebrand: A fine guy to help with the plan. With low amounts of mana once we stabilise the board, the pinging for 1 can be useful taking out weaker creatures. But the duplicating ability is what makes it an insane choice. Double land destruction is really sick.
Locks
3 Ensnaring Bridge: Really good card to stop attacks, but this would require another way to win.
2W Ghostly Prison: Great reason to splash white, taxing them will buy us some time to stabilise before going on land destruction mode.
Counters
1U Remand: Time walk, and chances are, they won't have enough lands to play the spell they just casted again the next turn.
1U Mana Leak: As good as a hard counter in a deck like this. They'll never have the extra 3 mana to cast anything once you have things going your way.
U Spell Pierce: Similar role as Mana Leak, cheaper too. Probably just a 1-2 of though.
1U Rune Snag: Another 2CC counter similar Mana Leak, but stronger in a longer game (which is what this deck plays).
XU Spell Burst: Great in the mid/late game as opponents will like have only enough mana to play 1-3CMC stuff if things go our way so we'll even have the mana for buyback-ing it.
[/CARD]
Notes
Here's just some general stuff I've noticed through my playtesting of various builds. Will update more as I notice more things.
As user Flaat has mentioned earlier on when I first started this, discard is a more reliable way of taking care of threats, being proactive, as compared to running counters and being reactive. But not a big discard suite, just a small one coupled with removals. They work a lot better than counters.
Decklist
My current testing list:
4 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Marsh Flats
4 Arid Mesa
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Godless Shrine
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Blood Crypt
Creatures [1]
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Others [26]
1 Batterskull
2 Wrath of God
3 Inquisiton of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Lingering Souls
4 Boom/Bust
4 Smallpox
1 Wrath of God
3 Pyroclasm
2 Wear/Tear
4 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Pithing Needle
Concluding Notes
P.S. The 'card choices' section will be revised as and when possible for me to do so. Probably will need to reorder and tidy up too.