I haven't played standard competitively since M14, but I want to get back into it. I used to run a Maze's End Turbo-Fog deck, though typically I am more of an aggro player and I think aggro has a fair shot at competing against the heavy mid-range meta, but I'm just not sure what colors I should dive into for a good aggro deck. Any ideas?
I originally got back into magic around New Ravnica (having quit around Lorwyn) and shinbatsu's super budget standard decks are what got me going again. So when I got interested in playing standard after Born of the Gods hit (I 'quit' playing competitively because there weren't any good shops around my college and my Maze's End deck had mostly rotated out when Innistrad did)...So I build my own $5-ish deck that basically used enchantment creatures and enchantments that draw to pump guys up and swing big and fast. With the loss of Ethereal Armor I thought the deck would not play as consistently. But after reading some of the threads on here, I got the idea to go back and see what Khans and M15 gave to this deck.
Basically you want to get a low costing creature out and start dropping bestows and other enchantments down...because of bestow it makes it easier to deal with creature hate without getting 2-for-1-ed. Plus it helps that, Chasm Skulker has Murder Investigation built right in. However, I haven't played standard competitively in a while, so if there's a lot of creature hate you might want to run some counters in your board to deal with that. But without further ado, here's the deck:
I wasn't a huge fan of Screeching Sliver or Two-Headed Sliver (except against Zoo), but I needed another 1-drop and evasion. A couple Charms main board would have been nice. There's just too many possible ways to go with slivers, so I guess I just gotta test them all out before I know what's best.
EDIT: Trying a more controlling version of Slivers next time using all the cheap slivers as Vindicates with Necrotic Sliver. Hopefully blowing up their land base and eventually reanimating for one big final swing. Also using Telekinetic to tap down any threats/lands on their upkeep. Will post deck list when done.
IMO that is a horrible choice since it depends on you casting a spell, at which point you could just be countering the 'normal way' then.
As i see it the only viable way in modern is a Isochron Scepter imprintet with a card like Telling Time - if only Index was an instant - the Scepter on its own is also a good card in a Control shell, so it's not a dead card.
I suppose I really wasn't thinking that way. Good point though.
After play testing some decks with counterbalance in it, I think Fairies is the way to go w/ Harbinger. You can bounce it with things like Cloudshift, but a better use of a card slot (in terms of synergy) would be to run Fairie Impostors, except you then have to pay for a 4 mana counter spell (after already paying 1 for Impostor), and it requires 3 cards for one spell being countered. Another way would be to use Cloudstone Curio, but again you would need at least 4 mana available. However with fairies you also get Spellstutter Sprite to help counter your opponents spells. And with the idea of bouncing harbinger, running Cryptic Command and Familiar's Ruse wouldn't be a bad idea. The main problem is letting your opponent do whatever they want until turn 4 when you have the mana for Harbinger (if you have one and if you managed to play Counerbalance). This then requires hand disruption and counter spells in blue and black w/ fairies...which begs the question, why are you even running counterbalance? And the real Modern Counterbalance deck wouldn't need to ask that question.
Cool. I just realized that Mistveil Plains doesn't work as Depths needs to find its way to the yard somehow. Brainfart from my behalf. But I guess 4 activations is good enough in most games.
The old bounce lands could get your Depths back to your hand, and I don't know if something like Alchemist's Refuge could make it playable from your hand... I don't know. Just going off of your idea haha.
EDIT: Haha just kidding! Forgot Alchemist's Refuge is nonland... But Sakura-Tribe Scout could help. Go with a landfall sub-theme or something... I don't know. Could be cool.
EDIT 2: And thinking again... Meloku the Clouded Mirror could bounce it back and let the Tribe Scout put it back into play multiple times in a turn. Getting Illusion tokens, Landfall triggers (Maybe Rampaging Baloths or Emeria Angel for more tokens, Lotus Cobra for ramp (would mean you wouldn't have to tap another land to trigger Meloku), Hedron Crab for mill.), and Countering Spells! That would be pretty badass.
I feel like people are missing an amazing card when they talk about using Counterbalance in Modern... Eyes of the Watcher. It's repeatable, and if you throw it in a storm-esqe deck (aka rituals, low cmc cards) it has amazing potential. I've been messing with the idea of a counterbalance deck in modern for a while (and at the modern masters gpt I went to I pulled a foil and non-foil goyf, so I plan on buying this deck with the money I get for them).
Here's what's needed for a Controlish Counterbalance deck...
Most cards in the 1-3 CMC range. You can use Condescend for higher costing cards your opponents are playing.
You're gonna want cards with Phyrexian mana, so that you can counter higher costing spells and cast them for cheap to be able to activate Eyes. Good cards for this deck specifically... Noxious Revival and Dismember. Gut Shot isn't a bad choice either.
One or two Crystal Balls isn't a bad idea, but you don't want to waste too many slots on it since its not an instant.
And finally, win cons... GET CREATIVE!!!! You've just stalled out your opponent and made their deck useless. Kill them with something fun so they feel the game was worth it, haha.
For me though, because I want this deck to be super competitive, my win cons are by damage: Riddle of LightningRal Zarek (untaps your ball if it's on your turn) and then just Lightning Bolts and Magma Jets. Though my side boarded Delver of Secrets is a pretty badass dude in this deck.
However, there is one other way to run a Counterbalance Deck... and that's to go Tribal! Faerie's are the best option with Faerie Harbinger. But really any tribal deck with AEther Vial and Harbingers, specifically Flamekin Harbinger and Treefolk Harbinger because of their 1CMC it makes it easy to curve out, Turn 1 Vial, turn 2 CB, let your Vial sit on one counter and throw those bad boys out whenever you need them. Plus flickers and things of that nature could make that deck somewhat competitive.
And one other Tribal version (my favorite Tribe... Until M14) SLIVERS!
Use Darkheart Sliver or another sac outlet and Pulmonic Sliver. The only problem is the deck is kinda slow... Earliest countering would be turn 4 if you're lucky and have Gemhide Slivers and a one drop to ramp to 5 mana turn 3 for Pulmonic. (And that's assuming you don't miss a land drop). But nonetheless, as a casual deck it's damn fun to play.
Hope it helps! I currently am constructing Faerie, Sliver (not Modern, though it could be), and Elemental/Treefolk decks to use with CB, but the one I'm working on the most is CounterEyes (Hope that catches on!). Message me for deck lists, or if you want, I can make a thread for each and get some help making them! Thanks!
PS: I used an iPad to type this so sorry for mistakes.
So I saw this post and knew exactly what to do. I recently played against a werewolf deck and they had a card called full moon. It's only 5 cents and regenerates all vampires. So here's your deck and strategy...
4 Reckless Waif (Room in budget for 4, but have to keep at 60 cards)
4 Young Wolf
2 Gatstaf Shepherd
4 Scorned Villager
1 Mayor of Avabruck (Expensive, but worth it, $1.80)
3 Immerwolf
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Villagers of Estwald
1 Instigator Gang
2 Mondronen Shaman
1 Afflicted Deserter
1 Grizzled Outcasts
4 Mutagenic Growth
2 Titanic Growth
2 Moonmist
2 Full Moon
1 Worldslayer
1 Feed the Pack (expensive CMC and tokens would get wiped out by worldslayer, but good if you don't get worldslayer; I have mixed feeling about this card)
(I thought about some cards like slagstorm to have a similar effect to worldslayer, not as extreme, but can't find any room or any that are really all that cheap, but I figured some damaging red spells wouldn't hurt this deck if you could think of any good ones)
13 Forest
7 Mountain
3 Evolving Wilds
Time Stamp: June 2, 2012 @ 4:15 AM
Cost: $4.41 (Cost includes $.01 per werewolf card for checklist card)
Remaining Budget: $.59 (Plenty of room to work with)
CMC Spread
12 / 13/ 5 / 4 / 3
0-1/ 2 / 3 / 4 / 5+
Strategy:
- Get out your smaller werewolves like Reckless Waif and Young Wolf (not a werewolf but still) to prevent any aggro decks, or against non-aggro decks they could potentially act like an aggro. Use your pump spells if needed but try to save them for the finishers.
- After a few turns of developing your human werewolves and once you get immerwolf out, take a turn and do nothing so they can transform.
- Repeat this process to develop your non-human werewolf army.
- Once you have 5-6 mana out, save at least two lands in your hand.
- Once you get Worldslayer and Full Moon you're in for a treat. Play them and equip Worldslayer to a werewolf with intimidate. Attack and destroy everything except your werewolves. (At this point it won't matter that Immerwolf dies because your opponent won't be playing enough spells in the next two turns to transform your werewolves back.) Then full out attack next turn, at most they will have kept a couple regenerators and maybe played a land and a creature on their turn. Use your remaining pumps and go for the win.
- BUT, if somehow they survive the first strike of worldslayer, use the lands you saved to get out another Full Moon (if you have it) or whatever other creatures you may have had in your hand. If you have a second Full Moon repeat the last step and this time they won't have enough mana to regenerate. If you do not, get out Young Wolf or pay to equip Worldslayer to a creature you won't be attacking with, just so you don't destroy your own army.
No matter what if you get Worldslayer and Full Moon it's game over.
So I saw this post and knew exactly what to do. I recently played against a werewolf deck and they had a card called full moon. It's only 5 cents and regenerates all vampires. So here's your deck and strategy...
4 Reckless Waif (Room in budget for 4, but have to keep at 60 cards)
4 Young Wolf
2 Gatstaf Shepherd
4 Scorned Villager
1 Mayor of Avabruck (Expensive, but worth it, $1.80)
3 Immerwolf
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Villagers of Estwald
1 Instigator Gang
2 Mondronen Shaman
1 Afflicted Deserter
1 Grizzled Outcasts
4 Mutagenic Growth
2 Titanic Growth
2 Moonmist
2 Full Moon
1 Worldslayer
1 Feed the Pack (expensive CMC and tokens would get wiped out by worldslayer, but good if you don't get worldslayer; I have mixed feeling about this card)
(I thought about some cards like slagstorm to have a similar effect to worldslayer, not as extreme, but can't find any room or any that are really all that cheap, but I figured some damaging red spells wouldn't hurt this deck if you could think of any good ones)
13 Forest
7 Mountain
3 Evolving Wilds
Time Stamp: June 2, 2012 @ 4:15 AM
Cost: $4.41 (Cost includes $.01 per werewolf card for checklist card)
Remaining Budget: $.59 (Plenty of room to work with)
CMC Spread
12 / 13/ 5 / 4 / 3
0-1/ 2 / 3 / 4 / 5+
Strategy:
- Get out your smaller werewolves like Reckless Waif and Young Wolf (not a werewolf but still) to prevent any aggro decks, or against non-aggro decks they could potentially act like an aggro. Use your pump spells if needed but try to save them for the finishers.
- After a few turns of developing your human werewolves and once you get immerwolf out, take a turn and do nothing so they can transform.
- Repeat this process to develop your non-human werewolf army.
- Once you have 5-6 mana out, save at least two lands in your hand.
- Once you get Worldslayer and Full Moon you're in for a treat. Play them and equip Worldslayer to a werewolf with intimidate. Attack and destroy everything except your werewolves. (At this point it won't matter that Immerwolf dies because your opponent won't be playing enough spells in the next two turns to transform your werewolves back.) Then full out attack next turn, at most they will have kept a couple regenerators and maybe played a land and a creature on their turn. Use your remaining pumps and go for the win.
- BUT, if somehow they survive the first strike of worldslayer, use the lands you saved to get out another Full Moon (if you have it) or whatever other creatures you may have had in your hand. If you have a second Full Moon repeat the last step and this time they won't have enough mana to regenerate. If you do not, get out Young Wolf or pay to equip Worldslayer to a creature you won't be attacking with, just so you don't destroy your own army.
No matter what if you get Worldslayer and Full Moon it's game over.
Background:
I originally got back into magic around New Ravnica (having quit around Lorwyn) and shinbatsu's super budget standard decks are what got me going again. So when I got interested in playing standard after Born of the Gods hit (I 'quit' playing competitively because there weren't any good shops around my college and my Maze's End deck had mostly rotated out when Innistrad did)...So I build my own $5-ish deck that basically used enchantment creatures and enchantments that draw to pump guys up and swing big and fast. With the loss of Ethereal Armor I thought the deck would not play as consistently. But after reading some of the threads on here, I got the idea to go back and see what Khans and M15 gave to this deck.
Basically you want to get a low costing creature out and start dropping bestows and other enchantments down...because of bestow it makes it easier to deal with creature hate without getting 2-for-1-ed. Plus it helps that, Chasm Skulker has Murder Investigation built right in. However, I haven't played standard competitively in a while, so if there's a lot of creature hate you might want to run some counters in your board to deal with that. But without further ado, here's the deck:
TIMESTAMP: 12/21/2014 2:58AM EST
4 Hopeful Eidolon
2 Hypnotic Siren
1 Nyxborn Shieldmate
2 Artisan of Forms
2 Flitterstep Eidolon
4 Hero of Iroas
2 Sage of Hours
2 Chasm Skulker
4 Eidolon of Countless Battles
2 Gods Willing
4 Chosen by Heliod
3 Fate Fortold
4 Ordeal of Thassa
2 Stratus Walk
Lands:
9 Island
13 Plains
2 Aqueous Form
2 Gods Willing
1 Hypnotic Siren
3 Akroan Skyguard
2 Artisan of Forms
2 Soul Tithe
2 Armament of Nyx
1 Chasm Skulker
Price: $16.97 Budget Left: $3.03
That was fun but there are major changes needed to be made. Here is the list I actually run. I'm 23-8.
Sorry for the sloppy ordering of these lists, they're copied from Cockatrice deckbuilder (it's where I first playtested them).
4x Galerider Sliver
2x Screeching Sliver
4x Sidewinder Sliver
3x Striking Sliver
4x Virulent Sliver
1x Gemhide Sliver
3x Manaweft Sliver
4x Predatory Sliver
2x Sentinel Sliver
4x Sinew Sliver
1x Two-Headed Sliver
2x Adaptive Automation
2x Firewake Sliver
1x Bonescythe Sliver
2x Sliver Legion
1x Thorncaster Sliver
4x Ancient Ziggurat
4x Cavern of Souls
3x City of Brass
3x Gemstone Mine
3x Mutavault
3x Reflecting Pool
3x Homing Sliver
2x Harmonic Sliver
2x Necrotic Sliver
2x Telekinetic Sliver
1x Two-Headed Sliver
3x Boros Charm
2x Path to Exile
I wasn't a huge fan of Screeching Sliver or Two-Headed Sliver (except against Zoo), but I needed another 1-drop and evasion. A couple Charms main board would have been nice. There's just too many possible ways to go with slivers, so I guess I just gotta test them all out before I know what's best.
EDIT: Trying a more controlling version of Slivers next time using all the cheap slivers as Vindicates with Necrotic Sliver. Hopefully blowing up their land base and eventually reanimating for one big final swing. Also using Telekinetic to tap down any threats/lands on their upkeep. Will post deck list when done.
I suppose I really wasn't thinking that way. Good point though.
After play testing some decks with counterbalance in it, I think Fairies is the way to go w/ Harbinger. You can bounce it with things like Cloudshift, but a better use of a card slot (in terms of synergy) would be to run Fairie Impostors, except you then have to pay for a 4 mana counter spell (after already paying 1 for Impostor), and it requires 3 cards for one spell being countered. Another way would be to use Cloudstone Curio, but again you would need at least 4 mana available. However with fairies you also get Spellstutter Sprite to help counter your opponents spells. And with the idea of bouncing harbinger, running Cryptic Command and Familiar's Ruse wouldn't be a bad idea. The main problem is letting your opponent do whatever they want until turn 4 when you have the mana for Harbinger (if you have one and if you managed to play Counerbalance). This then requires hand disruption and counter spells in blue and black w/ fairies...which begs the question, why are you even running counterbalance? And the real Modern Counterbalance deck wouldn't need to ask that question.
Still I see nothing about the potential of using Eyes of the Watcher. I don't know... just seems the best way to go in Modern.
The old bounce lands could get your Depths back to your hand, and I don't know if something like Alchemist's Refuge could make it playable from your hand... I don't know. Just going off of your idea haha.
EDIT: Haha just kidding! Forgot Alchemist's Refuge is nonland... But Sakura-Tribe Scout could help. Go with a landfall sub-theme or something... I don't know. Could be cool.
EDIT 2: And thinking again... Meloku the Clouded Mirror could bounce it back and let the Tribe Scout put it back into play multiple times in a turn. Getting Illusion tokens, Landfall triggers (Maybe Rampaging Baloths or Emeria Angel for more tokens, Lotus Cobra for ramp (would mean you wouldn't have to tap another land to trigger Meloku), Hedron Crab for mill.), and Countering Spells! That would be pretty badass.
Here's what's needed for a Controlish Counterbalance deck...
Most cards in the 1-3 CMC range. You can use Condescend for higher costing cards your opponents are playing.
You're gonna want cards with Phyrexian mana, so that you can counter higher costing spells and cast them for cheap to be able to activate Eyes. Good cards for this deck specifically... Noxious Revival and Dismember. Gut Shot isn't a bad choice either.
One or two Crystal Balls isn't a bad idea, but you don't want to waste too many slots on it since its not an instant.
And finally, win cons... GET CREATIVE!!!! You've just stalled out your opponent and made their deck useless. Kill them with something fun so they feel the game was worth it, haha.
For me though, because I want this deck to be super competitive, my win cons are by damage: Riddle of Lightning Ral Zarek (untaps your ball if it's on your turn) and then just Lightning Bolts and Magma Jets. Though my side boarded Delver of Secrets is a pretty badass dude in this deck.
However, there is one other way to run a Counterbalance Deck... and that's to go Tribal! Faerie's are the best option with Faerie Harbinger. But really any tribal deck with AEther Vial and Harbingers, specifically Flamekin Harbinger and Treefolk Harbinger because of their 1CMC it makes it easy to curve out, Turn 1 Vial, turn 2 CB, let your Vial sit on one counter and throw those bad boys out whenever you need them. Plus flickers and things of that nature could make that deck somewhat competitive.
And one other Tribal version (my favorite Tribe... Until M14) SLIVERS!
Use Darkheart Sliver or another sac outlet and Pulmonic Sliver. The only problem is the deck is kinda slow... Earliest countering would be turn 4 if you're lucky and have Gemhide Slivers and a one drop to ramp to 5 mana turn 3 for Pulmonic. (And that's assuming you don't miss a land drop). But nonetheless, as a casual deck it's damn fun to play.
Hope it helps! I currently am constructing Faerie, Sliver (not Modern, though it could be), and Elemental/Treefolk decks to use with CB, but the one I'm working on the most is CounterEyes (Hope that catches on!). Message me for deck lists, or if you want, I can make a thread for each and get some help making them! Thanks!
PS: I used an iPad to type this so sorry for mistakes.
Ask about any other in construction decks I have!
Standard:
5-Color Maze's End
Modern:
U/R Ascension
5-Color Borderpost
R/B Elemental
Legacy:
5-Color Dredge
Thanks bro, haha. I just joined today so I'm getting used to things. I didn't realize there was an edit button.
Wow, I said vampires, I meant werewolves haha
Challenge Accepted!!
So I saw this post and knew exactly what to do. I recently played against a werewolf deck and they had a card called full moon. It's only 5 cents and regenerates all vampires. So here's your deck and strategy...
4 Reckless Waif (Room in budget for 4, but have to keep at 60 cards)
4 Young Wolf
2 Gatstaf Shepherd
4 Scorned Villager
1 Mayor of Avabruck (Expensive, but worth it, $1.80)
3 Immerwolf
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Villagers of Estwald
1 Instigator Gang
2 Mondronen Shaman
1 Afflicted Deserter
1 Grizzled Outcasts
4 Mutagenic Growth
2 Titanic Growth
2 Moonmist
2 Full Moon
1 Worldslayer
1 Feed the Pack (expensive CMC and tokens would get wiped out by worldslayer, but good if you don't get worldslayer; I have mixed feeling about this card)
(I thought about some cards like slagstorm to have a similar effect to worldslayer, not as extreme, but can't find any room or any that are really all that cheap, but I figured some damaging red spells wouldn't hurt this deck if you could think of any good ones)
13 Forest
7 Mountain
3 Evolving Wilds
Time Stamp: June 2, 2012 @ 4:15 AM
Cost: $4.41 (Cost includes $.01 per werewolf card for checklist card)
Remaining Budget: $.59 (Plenty of room to work with)
CMC Spread
12 / 13/ 5 / 4 / 3
0-1/ 2 / 3 / 4 / 5+
Strategy:
- Get out your smaller werewolves like Reckless Waif and Young Wolf (not a werewolf but still) to prevent any aggro decks, or against non-aggro decks they could potentially act like an aggro. Use your pump spells if needed but try to save them for the finishers.
- After a few turns of developing your human werewolves and once you get immerwolf out, take a turn and do nothing so they can transform.
- Repeat this process to develop your non-human werewolf army.
- Once you have 5-6 mana out, save at least two lands in your hand.
- Once you get Worldslayer and Full Moon you're in for a treat. Play them and equip Worldslayer to a werewolf with intimidate. Attack and destroy everything except your werewolves. (At this point it won't matter that Immerwolf dies because your opponent won't be playing enough spells in the next two turns to transform your werewolves back.) Then full out attack next turn, at most they will have kept a couple regenerators and maybe played a land and a creature on their turn. Use your remaining pumps and go for the win.
- BUT, if somehow they survive the first strike of worldslayer, use the lands you saved to get out another Full Moon (if you have it) or whatever other creatures you may have had in your hand. If you have a second Full Moon repeat the last step and this time they won't have enough mana to regenerate. If you do not, get out Young Wolf or pay to equip Worldslayer to a creature you won't be attacking with, just so you don't destroy your own army.
No matter what if you get Worldslayer and Full Moon it's game over.
Thoughts? Critiques?