This is the list that I have been running for a little while now. (I did just recently drop Doom Traveler for Palace Familiar as a potential fight against MBC (that run witches and Hymms). Still testing so I'm not sure how well they work.
My local meta is somewhat diverse, but has a heavy Delver group of players. My list is tuned to beating that matchup since a lot of the meta is comprise of different delver list. There are 2 fairly strong MBC (both of which run Witches, Hymm of Tourachs and Sinkholes) that are probably played by two of the better players that we have. I started tuning some of the deck to match up well against those list (hence the palace familiars testing). Also, Bogles floats around every so often and I have already conceded game ones to that matchup, but the player that play the bogle list are newer to pauper and do not build their list around the hate I have in my sideboard. Lastly, some of the combo players from modern have started playing with us and they been playing the Familiar Combo deck. I actually do not really know how to deal with this deck as much since interacting with seems difficult. I've up the last breath mainboard for the familiars, sage's row, and the wall but beyond that I do not much thoughts.
Lord is far better, but I love Markov for the craziness it can do. In a cube draft, I ultimated him, took over his turn, then promptly blow out his board with a flashbacking a Dread Return a sac outlet then sac-ing the outlet to itself. Also at a Modern FNM, playing my 5CC Superfriends deck, I boarded him in against Soul Sisters. My opponent got up to 90 lives but was unable to kill me by turn 6. Dropped him and promptly win in a turn.
I like it. I agree with the above comments. Mono-red may have been more efficient. With the deck being fairly aggressive, I would ran the firecat over the Dragon Egg. I also would have ran Act of Treason, Academy Raiders, Glimpse the future, and Rod of Ruin in that order over in this deck over the Spell Blast. The deck really a aggro/tempo build and all these cards do much more and allow you to spend the most amount of mana during your turn. Keeping mana up for spell blast is terrible when you could be advancing your board and you on the draw, Spell Blast is basically a dead card. The other blue splash were great.
What really cool with choosing Red is that you can easily splash for Chain to the Rocks, where mono White actually has to splash multiple mountains to work.
White pretty much wins due to having the best removal
I actually think it may have the third best package. Here's my logic,
@ common
Ephara's Warden - 4 drop/5th turn answer to low power creature. May not be relevant because by turn 5, the low power creature may have been enchanted with a bestow, it's no longer strong/hard removal.
Divine Verdict - Combat trick removal have always been hit or miss, probably more of a hit since I feel this format is about resolving a massive beater and powering it up voltron style since you cannot get two for one with auras with the bestow and its targeted and not sac like with Celestial Flare in M14
Last Breath - I played with this in Masque's block limited when a lot of the creatures were low power (Rebels) but like the warden, its terrible late. Instant speed is a plus, forcing them to pay the bestow cost to enchant a target but only getting an expensive creature instead (Incremental Mana advantage may be a thing where you pay the cheapest to get an effect)
Leonin Snarecaster - Good tempo removal, good stats, but depending on how fast the format falls, maybe good to moderately okay.
Ray of Dissolution - So many enchantment creatures that it may/should be relevant.
@ Uncommon
Glare of Heresy - Sideboard at best
Vanquish the Foul - @ 6drop, I feel it is only okay to good. Scry and removal of fatties is what you need at 6. If this was a 5 drop, I say it may be the best non-rare removal in the format, sadly it isn't.
Heliod's Emissary - Tempo removal, may be a thing since Heroic-Tempo may be viable.
@ Rare
Chained to the Rocks - Full of flavor, terrible removal for based white, best removal if you are in boros. It's not one of the removal I would want to open.
I'm Quite disappointed that there are no Pacifism/arrest effect.
Black is black and has the best removal package as usual. has 2 straight hard removals in Hero's downfall and sip of hemlock and nearly another at instant speed in lash of the whip
I still dont see why no one is playing Blood Artist in this deck. Its insane, its a must kill for almost any deck or it will just win the game for you. Obviously this is just all in my opinion.
It's because it is a very limited card. It can only work as a combo piece and really nothing more. Thalia can attack and play the role of control spoiler. Bob can attack and gain CA. Blood Artist is an excellent card in itself but other cards just beat it out and it just misses the cut on many people's brews.
Well, some of this cards aren't in my strategy. I am not fond of the druid lord aswell as the pioneer.
What I consider, however, is the craterhoof and doubling chant.
Just curious, do you have a link to your legacy version?
They reason I run the Gilt-Leaf Archdruid is that I needed a the Glimpse of Nature effect that the legacy build has. Beck / Call is cheap, but needs blue to work (because it works better with Cloudstone Curio and Intruder Alarm combo). With all the mana elves being druids, it was the best option. Also, it has a pseudo one-side Armageddon for it to be a great late game top deck. Pioneer was added because I needed to get overloaded with druids for Gilt-leaf. Hoping for a good cheap druid in Theros.
Neat deck, but there are a lot of things in Modern that exceed 3CMC that are very powerful effects used commonly in Modern (especially at 4), i.e. Cryptic Command, Birthing Pod, Splinter Twins, Scapeshift, and a mess of Planeswalkers. I would consider replacing the Deprive for a 4 Drop (most preferentially Cryptic Command).
I'm not sure if anyone has suggested this yet, but my friends and I recently went over the Reserve List from Wizards and proxy a cube from that list. We excluded the ante cards and the non-interactive cards (like City in a bottle and Apocalypse Chime) and it was pretty fun. It it fully shows what everyone has long known, Blue is far and away the best color in Magic. And Urza's Saga Block was way too over-powered. I drafted all the Blue, Black and White cards from that set I saw and ended up with a Academy Rector-Bargain-Donate deck.
The deck is too color intensive where double or triple of one color or a specific mix of colors (ie Ajani or sphinx). It's the nature of this kind of deck. If you do not run fetches then you will need to run far more draw spells to get lands. But doing that strategy is not effective in a fast format like modern. You cannot be topdecking for another blue source so that you have triple blue up for Cryptic. Getting Mana screw happens a lot without fetches and by the time you get the right mana for an answer to a threat it could be far too late for you to recover.
Are you even at 60 cards? (I count 57) Absolutely need Path to Exile. 1 Supreme Verdict over 1 Mana Leak. Consider Gideon Jura over one of the Jace and Another Sphinx Revelation over the second Jace. Other then that, really consider purchasing Fetchlands (Arid Mesa and Scarning Tarn). This RWU control decks cannot really function well without fetches
I love that you are think outside the box for a deck design as a fellow rogue deck player. I do have a few concerns with this build however. With Stuffy Doll, by the time this lands turn 5, versus many of the higher tier decks, your life total will be around 9-13 lives. Are you able to survive long enough for the combo finish to go off. I think Boros Reckoner tempos out much better with Spellskite or YP into 4 drop planeswalker. Also, wouldn't Harvest Pyre be more effective with the YP shell over the Blast Act. If you cast YP on turn 2 off fetches, you could have around 4-7 cards in the yard by the time Stuffy Doll hits. You could use it as pseudo-burn if and when someone Path to Exile the doll away since its instant speed.
I like what you are trying to do here with this standard Archetype. Back at the SCG Legacy Open in Milwaukee, Sam Black (brewer of this archetype) created a functionally equivalent legacy build. It had more built in white protection, but the key thing was that in a fast format, playing a fair deck, he decided to cut the red from the deck. I believe that a Modern Aristocrats may no longer need red either. You built a strong case for making it BW. My suggestions are to reintroduce the Skirsdag High Priest over the Mortician Beetle since both really go off until turn 3/4, by then what would you want a 2/2 or a 5/5 flyer. You did solve a problem that Sam Black's legacy build had trouble with, another sac outlet. Young Teysa is great tech I believe and I will be trying her out. If you choose to cut Red then Falkenrath can become something like Thalia, Bolts become Path to Exile or Tragic Slip, and Lootings into Bobs. Here is my brew:
1 Bonesplitter
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Flayer Husk
Creatures (17)
4 Palace Familiar
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Trinket Mage
2 Guardian of the Guildpact
3 Mulldrifter
Instants (13)
4 Brainstorm
2 Counterspell
4 Mana Leak
3 Last Breath
2 Ponder
Enchantments (3)
3 Journey to Nowhere
Lands (22)
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Ancient Den
1 Seat of the Synod
4 Tranquil Cove
3 Desert
5 Island
2 Plains
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Cenn's Enlistment
2 Reinforcements
3 Standard Bearer
2 Circle of Protection: Green
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Counterspell
2 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Prohibit
My local meta is somewhat diverse, but has a heavy Delver group of players. My list is tuned to beating that matchup since a lot of the meta is comprise of different delver list. There are 2 fairly strong MBC (both of which run Witches, Hymm of Tourachs and Sinkholes) that are probably played by two of the better players that we have. I started tuning some of the deck to match up well against those list (hence the palace familiars testing). Also, Bogles floats around every so often and I have already conceded game ones to that matchup, but the player that play the bogle list are newer to pauper and do not build their list around the hate I have in my sideboard. Lastly, some of the combo players from modern have started playing with us and they been playing the Familiar Combo deck. I actually do not really know how to deal with this deck as much since interacting with seems difficult. I've up the last breath mainboard for the familiars, sage's row, and the wall but beyond that I do not much thoughts.
Any suggestions for improving the list.
IE: I cast Primal Surge and flip Garruk, Primal Hunter followed by Garruk Wildspeaker. Do I have to make the choice on putting Wildspeaker into play or do I wait for resolution of Primal Surge before I make the choice?
I actually think it may have the third best package. Here's my logic,
@ common
Ephara's Warden - 4 drop/5th turn answer to low power creature. May not be relevant because by turn 5, the low power creature may have been enchanted with a bestow, it's no longer strong/hard removal.
Divine Verdict - Combat trick removal have always been hit or miss, probably more of a hit since I feel this format is about resolving a massive beater and powering it up voltron style since you cannot get two for one with auras with the bestow and its targeted and not sac like with Celestial Flare in M14
Last Breath - I played with this in Masque's block limited when a lot of the creatures were low power (Rebels) but like the warden, its terrible late. Instant speed is a plus, forcing them to pay the bestow cost to enchant a target but only getting an expensive creature instead (Incremental Mana advantage may be a thing where you pay the cheapest to get an effect)
Leonin Snarecaster - Good tempo removal, good stats, but depending on how fast the format falls, maybe good to moderately okay.
Ray of Dissolution - So many enchantment creatures that it may/should be relevant.
@ Uncommon
Glare of Heresy - Sideboard at best
Vanquish the Foul - @ 6drop, I feel it is only okay to good. Scry and removal of fatties is what you need at 6. If this was a 5 drop, I say it may be the best non-rare removal in the format, sadly it isn't.
Heliod's Emissary - Tempo removal, may be a thing since Heroic-Tempo may be viable.
@ Rare
Chained to the Rocks - Full of flavor, terrible removal for based white, best removal if you are in boros. It's not one of the removal I would want to open.
I'm Quite disappointed that there are no Pacifism/arrest effect.
I personally like Red's removal package. @ common, you have Lighting Strike, and to a degree Spark jolt early. Mid-game, Lightning strike and Rage of Purphoros seem relevant. And late Boulderfall will work. Key thing is 3 of the 4 I've mention are instant speed, like last breathe providing mana advantage against auras. @Uncommon Magma jet basically fills the same role as Lightning strike. Ordeal of Purphoros seems legit. @ Rare, Anger of the Gods is pretty descent. Labyrinth Champion could work too. Titan of Eternal Fire has great flavor but questionable stats in terms of removal.
Black is black and has the best removal package as usual. has 2 straight hard removals in Hero's downfall and sip of hemlock and nearly another at instant speed in lash of the whip
It's because it is a very limited card. It can only work as a combo piece and really nothing more. Thalia can attack and play the role of control spoiler. Bob can attack and gain CA. Blood Artist is an excellent card in itself but other cards just beat it out and it just misses the cut on many people's brews.
I do not have a link, however, combo elves is a establish archetype in Legacy, the link is http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=329002
They reason I run the Gilt-Leaf Archdruid is that I needed a the Glimpse of Nature effect that the legacy build has. Beck / Call is cheap, but needs blue to work (because it works better with Cloudstone Curio and Intruder Alarm combo). With all the mana elves being druids, it was the best option. Also, it has a pseudo one-side Armageddon for it to be a great late game top deck. Pioneer was added because I needed to get overloaded with druids for Gilt-leaf. Hoping for a good cheap druid in Theros.
3x Nether Traitor
4x Cartel Aristocrat
3x Doomed Traveler
3x Teysa, Orzhov Scion
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Skirsdag High Priest
4x Dark Confidant
4x Path to Exile
4x Tragic Slip
Sorceries:
4x Lingering Souls
Enchantments:
1x Grave Pact
Planeswalkers:
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Lands:
4x Marsh Flats
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Arid Mesa
4x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Cavern of Souls
2x Plains
2x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
19 Forest
Spells
4 Doubling Chant
Creatures
4 Arbor Elf
4 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Elderscale Wurm
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Elvish Pioneer
4 Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel