Talk to the Hand is a fun card but really only useful if something with more than three points of damage is coming your way. No way is it main-deck material and it seems dubious in the side-board.
Storm is pretty prevalent in my local meta and it kind of a tough matchup imo. I think Eidolon of Rhetoric might be a good sideboard inclusion or at least another option for the primer. I brought in 3 duress, 1 rest in peace, 3 kor firewalker (burn hasn't been showing in great numbers though) and was still combo'd out with lethal on the board. Eidolon might be better just because of the 4 toughness since it's not dying to a bolt by itself. I don't want to get in too heavy on storm hate though, since the rest of the meta is pretty well repersented.
You could try a few copies of Mindbreak Trap in the side-board until the Storm players all rage-quit and move away.
Angel's Grace is a respectable one-of in the side-board. It can crush a number of all-in combo players' hopes and aspirations.
Something I'm going to try in my mono-W Knights for fun is Stave Off. It's the only spell of its type that can double as Storm-hate.
I'm definitely considering Mardu and I guess I'll try as soon as I get my hands on a playset of Bloodstained Mires. The addition of red allows to play a lot of things, including: Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, Young Pyromancer, Purphoros, Crackling Doom and Butcher of the Horde. But this is going to require a lot of testing and tweaking. But hell yeah, Butcher seems like an awesome finisher.
I started to argue about Bloodstained Mire (everything else seems spot-on), but I realized it's fine as long as all of the shock lands make W. So Mire into Godless Shrine or Sacred Foundry as needed. I would still not run a set of Mire as there are two fetches that get Plains and Mire would be need only to run more than eight. I can see ten total feches, but probably not twelve.
Here's my Stupid Question of the week; Does anyone like Murmuring Bosk? played it in Junk for a while - without Doran, the Siege Tower or any other Treefolk - and found it was often the Forest I wanted to fetch.
I have 1 in the main and use it the same way. Tri-color land to EOT fetch. I also do not run any treefolk.
Exactly! EoT fetch because if you need the mana now you fetch something else. Painless G is groovy and there are ample B sources already - not to mention Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - and W is just a splash anyway, right?
I have been lurking for awhile and finally decided to post. I am somewhat new to magic and my friend bought me the modern event deck. After reading this thread I have made some slight adjustments to it.
I do want to get the fetch lands and also Hero of Bladehold but not sure what would be more of a bonus to the deck. Or should I make the sideboard better first?
Thank you for your help!
Any chance your friend might buy me one as well?
The counts of both anthems and discard are debatable. Discard is super the first turn, okay the second and often useless after that. It's not a good top-deck in many match-ups. You do want at least six each of both anthems and discard which is probably what I'd do, but I'm no authority.
Marsh Flats were the cheapest of the Zendikar fetches and one suspects the price may have fallen a bit. They are in real danger of being reprinted so be prepared for a bit of buyer's remorse if you spring for them now. Still, given what they do for you, it might be worth it.
On the other hand, since the only Shock land you'll be running is Godless Shrine, you could run either Windswept Heath or Flooded Strand to just as good effect as Marsh Flats. You will, however, lose style points:). There's nothing wrong with running six or more fetches as you don't really want many - if indeed any - basic swamps. You want three W mana on turn three. Personally, I like Caves of Koilos better than Isolated Chapel. Chapel stinks without the means to ensure there's a Swamp or Plains in play beforehand (think fetches).
Hero of Bladehold is indeed an absolute beating if she can get in. Brimaz, King of Oreskos has merit as well being one mana cheaper. He's also about ten-times as expensive and the three-casting-cost slot is already crowded.
White Shield Crusader is an alternative to Leonin Skyhunter. If the protection is relevent, then the cost is probably worth paying. The pump is a nice bonus. The toughness is a drag and he is not the guy one want's if there's a lot of UR in the neighborhood.
Why? It certainly isn't fast enough to help with Burn, and what other match-up does it help? Deathtouch is in itself good, so I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to run one, but I don't see a compelling reason to run it. It obviously makes the Spirits much more effective, but creature removal isn't really a problem usually.
Does anything from Khans of Tarkir strike anyone's fancy? Doesn't Ride Down seem well suited for Knights? I don't think there are any R knights that I want to test, but there's plenty of lovely R and WR cards suitable for the aggro plan.
p.s. People playing Brave the Elements - consider playing Mark of Asylum. It doesn't have the surprise factor but protects our dudes from Anger, Bolt, Helix, Electrolyze, etc...
Where Brave the Elements is good, that is, in a mono-W creature deck, it can be an offensive blow-out as well as a means of protecting against damage-based spells. Mark of Asylum strikes me as a side-board card for decks that use a great deal of targeted removal.
Here's my Stupid Question of the week; Does anyone like Murmuring Bosk? played it in Junk for a while - without Doran, the Siege Tower or any other Treefolk - and found it was often the Forest I wanted to fetch.
Did you think of putting in preeminent captain? Daxos drops in and gets there!
I did indeed consider Captain Kithkin; it's actually in the OP. I went with Fabled Hero instead but that may be an error. Perhaps I can drop one each of Daxos and F-Hero and something else to fit in three of the little guy. I agree, that would be a super-fun play.
If you're looking to use the Daxos combo reasonably often, I would suggest dropping a few of the refuges into the deck and putting in some Ajani's Pridemates in, possibly instad of Raise the Alarm? They fit very well into the +1/+1 counter theme you seem to be going for with the outlast creatures.
I just wasn't sure there was enough life-gain in the deck for 'Jani's buds but they were considered. There's also no other benefit from more life-gain other than perhaps not losing so quickly. It's certainly worth reconsidering and perhaps testing.
Having played a couple of test games, I'm faced with the horrible truth; it's just not a great idea. That's usually the case with anything that might actually seem like fun. So I'm probably going to dial back Daxos and Ride Down and add some R reach; Arc Lightning seems "well-positioned" as they say. Lightning Strike and possibly even one copy of Crater's Claws are also under consideration. Plainswalkers - especially Elspeth, Sun's Champion (Glare of Heresy seems like it might be needed in the board) - are big problems as is finishing those last few life points off.
Herald of Anafenza seemed like such a great idea but now I'm thinking LAME!. I'm also a little embarrassed to notice that I cut the rest of the U. Daxos alone is probably not worth the splash. I originally had Battlewise Hoplite in the main. A U card I'd love to try out, perhaps in the side-board, is Turn to Frog. Take that Stormbreath Dragon!
Abzan or Mardu is probably a better choice for an aggro style deck but I may persist for a little while at least.
You could try a few copies of Mindbreak Trap in the side-board until the Storm players all rage-quit and move away.
Angel's Grace is a respectable one-of in the side-board. It can crush a number of all-in combo players' hopes and aspirations.
Something I'm going to try in my mono-W Knights for fun is Stave Off. It's the only spell of its type that can double as Storm-hate.
I started to argue about Bloodstained Mire (everything else seems spot-on), but I realized it's fine as long as all of the shock lands make W. So Mire into Godless Shrine or Sacred Foundry as needed. I would still not run a set of Mire as there are two fetches that get Plains and Mire would be need only to run more than eight. I can see ten total feches, but probably not twelve.
Exactly! EoT fetch because if you need the mana now you fetch something else. Painless G is groovy and there are ample B sources already - not to mention Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - and W is just a splash anyway, right?
Any chance your friend might buy me one as well?
The counts of both anthems and discard are debatable. Discard is super the first turn, okay the second and often useless after that. It's not a good top-deck in many match-ups. You do want at least six each of both anthems and discard which is probably what I'd do, but I'm no authority.
Marsh Flats were the cheapest of the Zendikar fetches and one suspects the price may have fallen a bit. They are in real danger of being reprinted so be prepared for a bit of buyer's remorse if you spring for them now. Still, given what they do for you, it might be worth it.
On the other hand, since the only Shock land you'll be running is Godless Shrine, you could run either Windswept Heath or Flooded Strand to just as good effect as Marsh Flats. You will, however, lose style points:). There's nothing wrong with running six or more fetches as you don't really want many - if indeed any - basic swamps. You want three W mana on turn three. Personally, I like Caves of Koilos better than Isolated Chapel. Chapel stinks without the means to ensure there's a Swamp or Plains in play beforehand (think fetches).
Hero of Bladehold is indeed an absolute beating if she can get in. Brimaz, King of Oreskos has merit as well being one mana cheaper. He's also about ten-times as expensive and the three-casting-cost slot is already crowded.
It might work on the play, but on the draw I think you can forget about it. At least as far as the Ascendency match-up goes.
Why? It certainly isn't fast enough to help with Burn, and what other match-up does it help? Deathtouch is in itself good, so I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to run one, but I don't see a compelling reason to run it. It obviously makes the Spirits much more effective, but creature removal isn't really a problem usually.
Where Brave the Elements is good, that is, in a mono-W creature deck, it can be an offensive blow-out as well as a means of protecting against damage-based spells. Mark of Asylum strikes me as a side-board card for decks that use a great deal of targeted removal.
Congrats, all of you.
I did indeed consider Captain Kithkin; it's actually in the OP. I went with Fabled Hero instead but that may be an error. Perhaps I can drop one each of Daxos and F-Hero and something else to fit in three of the little guy. I agree, that would be a super-fun play.
I just wasn't sure there was enough life-gain in the deck for 'Jani's buds but they were considered. There's also no other benefit from more life-gain other than perhaps not losing so quickly. It's certainly worth reconsidering and perhaps testing.
Having played a couple of test games, I'm faced with the horrible truth; it's just not a great idea. That's usually the case with anything that might actually seem like fun. So I'm probably going to dial back Daxos and Ride Down and add some R reach; Arc Lightning seems "well-positioned" as they say. Lightning Strike and possibly even one copy of Crater's Claws are also under consideration. Plainswalkers - especially Elspeth, Sun's Champion (Glare of Heresy seems like it might be needed in the board) - are big problems as is finishing those last few life points off.
Herald of Anafenza seemed like such a great idea but now I'm thinking LAME!. I'm also a little embarrassed to notice that I cut the rest of the U. Daxos alone is probably not worth the splash. I originally had Battlewise Hoplite in the main. A U card I'd love to try out, perhaps in the side-board, is Turn to Frog. Take that Stormbreath Dragon!
Abzan or Mardu is probably a better choice for an aggro style deck but I may persist for a little while at least.
Thanks for the input, folks.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/standard-archives/111351-card-and-deck-tag-explanation