Not a fan of the dying nature of the discussion in this thread. We got some pretty cool cards in recent sets, and I'm wondering if any are worth inclusion?
Bontu the Glorified- another sac outlet, albeit a clunky one. Comes stapled to a big body that's hard to remove.
He also answers the question why no Slither Blade. It's because the deck can't really support U 1-drops because of the fragile/poor mana base. Also, he says no Slippery Scoundrel because it's not good in the games where we have no City's Blessing, and it's win-more in the games that we do have it.
The only other consideration is possibly trying to fit 2 Gideon of the Trials into the SB for matchups against heavy removal.
With Energy and Ramunap Red now out of the format, I think ramp decks may be viable again. Below is my proposed list (without the mana base which I can't figure out) and comments about each card:
The one thing I'm sure you've noticed that may seem a bit weird is the inclusion of 4 Mastermind's Acquisition. I love this card in the deck next to Gift of Paradise because we can essentially use our sideboard as a cartridge of silver bullets without worrying about mana restriction. Is your opponent playing heavy control? Bring in Carnage Tyrant or Prowling Serpopard. Is your opponent playing midrange or beatdown? Bring in River's Rebuke or Sandwurm Convergence. Is your opponent aggro? Go ahead and grab an Arborback Stomper. Did you get your only Torment of Hailfire countered? Grab another one. Is the board stalled? Fling something at your opponent.
I think this deck has huge potential. The 4-of Gift of Paradise and their incidental life gain really helps us live to later turns, and the big dudes in the deck really give some serious finishing power.
I haven't tested the deck yet online, but I wanted to post it somewhere and get the community's thoughts.
Now, on to the game play. Ideally, we want to get our Assault Formation out as soon as possible. That's why there are 4 copies in the deck, as well as 3 Vessel of Nascency to dig for them. The deck curves out nicely, and has semi-consistently gotten a turn 2 Assault Formation, turn 3 Crater Elemental, and turn 4 Goldnight Castigator, swinging for 15 on turn 4!!!
Card selection:
For the creatures, it was trying to find cards with high toughness and low casting cost. While we're digging for the Assault Formation, we want to be able to stall the board. Even if we can't get back through on the ground later on, we have Goldnight Castigator and Skeleton Key for later.
Crater Elemental - 6 toughness for 3 CMC on him means we can deal 6 damage for 3 mana. That ratio is fantastic. Additionally, he provides some utility to get rid of troublesome creatures like Archangel Avacyn and Thought-Knot Seer.
Goldnight Castigator - She's the payoff. Swinging for 9 in the air on turn 4 in Standard is as close to living the dream as possible. The downside is definitely something to keep track of as it makes racing almost impossible.
Jaddi Offshoot - He's the best 1-drop I could find. His Landfall trigger helps us in the long game, and if need be, Assault Formation can turn him into a Hill Giant.
Vile Aggregate - 5 damage for 3 CMC is pretty good, especially since he comes with Trample and Ingest. He helps break through ground stalls with his Trample, and his Ingest provides some additional card advantage. (He is the reason for possibly including Kozilek's Sentinel over Moldgraf Scavenger as the Sentinel helps buff Vile Aggregate's power in the absence of an Assault Formation.)
Embermaw Hellion - Still don't quite know what to do with this spot. His power/toughness is meh when considering his 5 CMC. I like his ability, and in the long game, having one of him out let's you potentially drop 10 damage in the air with Goldnight Castigator.
As for the spells:
Assault Formation - This is the deck's namesake, the card that makes everything run smoothly. Kind of self-explanatory.
Shape the Sands - The best combat trick money can buy. With an Assault Formation out, it reads "Target creature gets +5/+5" for 1 green mana. He his a poor man's Goblin Grenade, and can steal a game on it's own.
Vessel of Nascency - Since we need Assault Formation to really get the best out of our deck, we need to find it. This card digs kind of deep to find it, and costs us almost nothing since it drops on turn 1, and can dig on turn 2. In the late game, we can use it to find a Castigator to finish things off.
Atarka's Command - This card has a ton of utility, and can provide the extra reach to finish an opponent off if needed, or help our creatures through combat. That said, I don't know how much I like this card in here. Maybe we take it out? But what goes in it's place?
Skeleton Key - This card is as super secret tech as it gets. Since most of our creatures have 0 or 1 power, Skulk usually makes the creature unblockable, and the card draw gets us deeper into the good stuff.
Sideboard choices:
I don't know the strengths/weaknesses of the deck yet, so building a sideboard was difficult. Here's what I have for now:
I think this deck has amazing potential. It wants to be a combo deck, an aggro deck, and a midrange deck all at the same time, so I need help from you guys to help me fine tune it and find it's true personality. Let me know what you think!
Been playing Smoke's decklist, and have found that I'm losing alot because I can't bounce my own Pacts. I've also found that once the game gets grindy, I can win off of the back of one Empty the Pits. Oath has also been pretty good.
4-color Rally, Esper Control and Atarka Red have had their time in the sun. Now it's time to align some Hedrons. Hedron Alignment screams combo-control, and with the right 75, I think it could be super competitive. I mean, with the recent uptick of Demonic Pact decks in Standard, there's no reason that Hedron Alignment can't also gain steam in the current meta.
That said, let me post my current list and get too card discussion.
As you can see, the shell is there, but the list needs some tweaking. One idea I had is to transform the deck entirely for games 2 and 3 (if needed) to a midrange deck. Maybe add Warden of the First Tree, Sagu Mauler, Liliana, Heretical Healer, and other cards like that. Another idea is to make it creatureless control and exchange the Den Protectors for Reclaims, and add counters and maindeck discard.
I think between all of us, we can make this deck relevant, and super fun/awesome to play.
I've been playtesting the deck a little bit, and it seems strong. The one weakness I find is that Rite of Undoing needs a card on their side, which isn't always a given. I've also had a few situations where I was grinding them out with Pacts, but couldn't find a bounce spell. This deck dumps a ton of cards into the GY, so why no Treasure Cruise? Also, Empty the Pits is awesome in this deck. Why only a 1-of? Lastly, Oath of Jace is ok, but I'm never super happy to see it. Any way to replace it?
I loved this deck when it first came out, and played with it religiously for awhile. I thought certain cards were dead or misplaced, so I tweaked the list a little.
Embodiment seems to come out every match and is replaced with whatever I need. Might take him out of the main, but he's OK. The SB is easy:
1) Gaea's Revenge and Negate vs Control
2) Offshoot vs Aggro
3) Snare vs Mid-Range, Tempo, or Beatdown
4) Naturalize vs GW Scales, Mid-Range removal (Snare and Silkwrap)
5) Moonlight vs Esper Tokens, Hangarback, or CoCo
Thoughts? It's very consistent online. Might have lost 1-2 matches out of 15+.
So even though the Modern Tier 1 Meta has all but been canonized, I think there is real potential here for a Crystal Shard, Eternal Witness, Time Warp deck that could blow away all of the competition. The way it works is simple- keep the board clean while trying to get to 8 mana as quickly as possible (Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, and Coiling Oracle help a ton here), play Time Warp to take an extra turn, on your extra turn, play Eternal Witness to get Time Warp back and replay it to take another turn, and use your Crystal Shard (which should already be in play) to get your Eternal Witness back. Wash, rinse, repeat for infinite turns.
What I really like about this deck is that it's a hybrid control/combo deck. Meaning that it keeps the board clean early on, and then turn 4 or 5, combos off to win you the game. Here's the decklist I've been eyeing:
Birds of Paradise/Noble Hierarch: ramp. Helps us get to countermagic mana quicker. Also, you'll find that we need as much acces to mana as possible, as it's a very hungry deck.
Coiling Oracle: helps us ramp and take advantage of Witness and generates card advantage. Combos nicely with the Shard to continue to generate advantage. Also our only turn-2 play. Helps provide an early game presence.
Eternal Witness: main combo piece. She fetches our countermagic and other combo piece (Time Warp) back.
Draining Whelk: more countermagic. This time though, it's attached to, potentially, a big body in the air. I've found that a 4/4 Whelk is sometimes enough to win games.
Thragtusk: Helps to stabilize if we are missing a combo piece, and once the engine is online, bouncing him every turn generates a ton of 3/3 dorks who can help us get through for lethal.
Crystal Shard: main combo piece. It works nicely with the Witness, Whelk, Oracle, and Tusk.
Delay: I chose Delay because it acts as a regular Counterspell once our engine gets online. Since they won't have any upkeeps, their spell will stay suspended. Delay gives us 3 turns to get our engine online; more than enough time.
Voidslime: more countermagic, but also doubles as an answer to other combo decks. It can counter Amulet of Vigor, Valakut, and Inkmoth abilities, as well as act as a regular counterspell.
Remand: included as additional early game disruption. Between turn 2-4, this basically acts as a Time Walk that draws us cards.
Cryptic Command: more countermagic, though this time provides us options. If we're holding our opponent off, and still looking for a Time Warp, recurring this guy every turn might be the difference. He's also great against Zoo, Aggro, and Infect decks as he can tap down creatures for a turn.
I think there is a ton of potential here, and I want to hear what you guys think.
When Alara Block was Standard legal, Blightning was such a house. It generated so much card advantage, and really pushed Aggro decks to the point of being too good to compete with.
Is there a chance, that in the current environment, a Modern version of Blightning Aggro could exist? If so, what would the decklist look like? If not, why not?
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Adorned Pouncer
3 Sacred Cat
4 Skymarcher Aspirant
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
1 Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
Spells
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Curious Obsession
3 Legion's Landing
3 Baffling End
2 Dive Down
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Irrigated Farmland
4 Island
7 Plains
2 Shefet Dunes
2 Authority of the Consuls
3 Fragmentize
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Slash of Talons
2 Spell Pierce
1 Baffling End
4 Negate
Main
+1 Sacred Cat
+1 Dive Down
-1 Sheltering Light
-1 Spell Pierce
Sideboard
+1 Spell Pierce
+2 Gideon of the Trials
-1 Slash of Talons
-1 Squire's Devotion
-1 Sheltering Light
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Adorned Pouncer
2 Sacred Cat
4 Skymarcher Aspirant
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
1 Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
Spells
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Curious Obsession
3 Legion's Landing
3 Baffling End
1 Spell Pierce
1 Dive Down
1 Sheltering Light
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Irrigated Farmland
4 Island
7 Plains
2 Shefet Dunes
2 Authority of the Consuls
3 Fragmentize
1 Sheltering Light
2 Slash of Talons
1 Spell Pierce
1 Baffling End
4 Negate
1 Squire's Devotion
He also answers the question why no Slither Blade. It's because the deck can't really support U 1-drops because of the fragile/poor mana base. Also, he says no Slippery Scoundrel because it's not good in the games where we have no City's Blessing, and it's win-more in the games that we do have it.
The only other consideration is possibly trying to fit 2 Gideon of the Trials into the SB for matchups against heavy removal.
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Adorned Pouncer
3 Sacred Cat
4 Slither Blade
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
Lands
5 Island
6 Plains
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Irrigated Farmland
2 Shefet Dunes
3 Baffling End
4 Cartouche of Knowledge
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Curious Obsession
1 Trial of Solidarity
2 Sheltering Light
3 Legion's Landing
2 Authority of the Consuls
1 Baffling End
1 Squire's Devotion
1 Dive Down
4 Negate
2 Slash of Talons
2 Spell Pierce
2 Fragmentize
4 Drover of the Mighty
4 Wayward Swordtooth
4 Combustible Gearhulk
4 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
3 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
4 Commune with Dinosaurs
4 Thunderherd Migration
4 Gift of Paradise
4 Mastermind's Acquisition
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Fling
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Nissa, Steward of Elements
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 River's Rebuke
1 Arborback Stomper
1 Prowling Serpopard
1 Silent Gravestone
2 Appetite for the Unnatural
4 Duress
We spend the first few turns ramping with Drover of the Mighty, Thunderherd Migration, and Gift of Paradise (with Wayward Swordtooth being a ramp option some of the time). The dream is to turn 4 a Combustible Gearhulk which either draws a Ghalta, Primal Hunger (which, at this point, costs GG because of Gearhulk's 6 power and Swordtooth's 5 power) or mills one or more Ghalta, Primal Hunger and/or one or more Razaketh, the Foulblooded for lethal. The backup plan to this is setting up a massive Torment of Hailfire to finish our opponent off.
Commune with Dinosaurs is in the deck as our only 1-drop, and also makes sure we either hit our land drops, or have a dino in hand for the Thunderherd Migration.
The one thing I'm sure you've noticed that may seem a bit weird is the inclusion of 4 Mastermind's Acquisition. I love this card in the deck next to Gift of Paradise because we can essentially use our sideboard as a cartridge of silver bullets without worrying about mana restriction. Is your opponent playing heavy control? Bring in Carnage Tyrant or Prowling Serpopard. Is your opponent playing midrange or beatdown? Bring in River's Rebuke or Sandwurm Convergence. Is your opponent aggro? Go ahead and grab an Arborback Stomper. Did you get your only Torment of Hailfire countered? Grab another one. Is the board stalled? Fling something at your opponent.
I think this deck has huge potential. The 4-of Gift of Paradise and their incidental life gain really helps us live to later turns, and the big dudes in the deck really give some serious finishing power.
I haven't tested the deck yet online, but I wanted to post it somewhere and get the community's thoughts.
7 Forest
6 Mountain
4 Cinder Glade
4 Game Trail
Creatures
4 Crater Elemental
4 Goldnight Castigator
4 Jaddi Offshoot
4 Moldgraf Scavenger
4 Vile Aggregate
2 Embermaw Hellion
4 Assault Formation
4 Shape the Sands
3 Vessel of Nascency
4 Atarka's Command
2 Skeleton Key
4 Roast
3 Naturalize
3 Terra Stomper
2 World Breaker
3 Exquisite Firecraft
Now, on to the game play. Ideally, we want to get our Assault Formation out as soon as possible. That's why there are 4 copies in the deck, as well as 3 Vessel of Nascency to dig for them. The deck curves out nicely, and has semi-consistently gotten a turn 2 Assault Formation, turn 3 Crater Elemental, and turn 4 Goldnight Castigator, swinging for 15 on turn 4!!!
Card selection:
For the creatures, it was trying to find cards with high toughness and low casting cost. While we're digging for the Assault Formation, we want to be able to stall the board. Even if we can't get back through on the ground later on, we have Goldnight Castigator and Skeleton Key for later.
As for the spells:
Sideboard choices:
I don't know the strengths/weaknesses of the deck yet, so building a sideboard was difficult. Here's what I have for now:
Cards that are still in consideration:
Kozilek's Sentinel - Mentioned above.
Uncaged Fury - Could potentially replace Temur Battle Rage as a new combo-kill card.
Kozilek's Return or Radiant Flames - For the sideboard against token decks, or decks that try to go wide.
Arlinn Kord - He seems so good, but I don't know how he fits in this deck.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers - Could be very valuable if he fetches back a Shape the Sands or Atarka's Command to help finish off an opponent.
Hermit of the Natterknolls - Potentially very good against pure control.
Scourge Wolf - Helps us stay aggro, and we can pop our Vessel of Nascency to surprise opponents by activating its Delirium ability.
Mina and Denn, Wildborn - When the ground gets crowded, the ability to give creatures trample really helps.
Berserkers' Onslaught - If we're going to go for it, let's go for it.
I think this deck has amazing potential. It wants to be a combo deck, an aggro deck, and a midrange deck all at the same time, so I need help from you guys to help me fine tune it and find it's true personality. Let me know what you think!
That said, let me post my current list and get too card discussion.
Lands (25)
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Windswept Heath
4 Opulent Palace
4 Sunken Hollow
4 Island
3 Swamp
1 Forest
Creatures (8)
3 Den Protector
3 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Hedron Alignment
3 Oath of Jace
Spells (20)
4 Dig Through Time
4 Sultai Charm
2 Murderous Cut
4 Taigam's Scheming
3 Languish
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Sylvan Advocate
3 Dispel
3 Duress
3 Rakshasa's Secret
Card choices:
Sideboard:
I think between all of us, we can make this deck relevant, and super fun/awesome to play.
4 Blighted Woodland
3 Lumbering Falls
4 Plains
5 Forest
8 Island
Creatures
3 Embodiment of Spring
2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Hedrom Archive
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
4 Explosive Vegetation
3 Nissa's Renewal
4 Temporal Trespass
4 Part the Waterveil
4 Planar Outburst
2 Gaea's Revenge
3 Jaddi Offshoot
2 Stasis Snare
2 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Naturalize
4 Negate
Embodiment seems to come out every match and is replaced with whatever I need. Might take him out of the main, but he's OK. The SB is easy:
1) Gaea's Revenge and Negate vs Control
2) Offshoot vs Aggro
3) Snare vs Mid-Range, Tempo, or Beatdown
4) Naturalize vs GW Scales, Mid-Range removal (Snare and Silkwrap)
5) Moonlight vs Esper Tokens, Hangarback, or CoCo
Thoughts? It's very consistent online. Might have lost 1-2 matches out of 15+.
-1 Thragtusk
-2 Draining Whelk
+1 Remand
+2 Venser, Shaper Savant
I also think that Aether Vial and Familiar's Ruse should be part of the deck. Maybe something like this:
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Breeding Pool
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Flooded Grove
4 Forest
3 Island
Creatures (17)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Eternal Witness
3 Coiling Oracle
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Remand
4 Familiar's Ruse
3 Cryptic Command
4 Time Warp
3 Crystal Shard
2 Aether Vial
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Dragon's Claw
3 Nature's Claim
2 Evacuation
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Voidslime
What I really like about this deck is that it's a hybrid control/combo deck. Meaning that it keeps the board clean early on, and then turn 4 or 5, combos off to win you the game. Here's the decklist I've been eyeing:
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Breeding Pool
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Flooded Grove
4 Forest
4 Island
3 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Coiling Oracle
4 Eternal Witness
2 Draining Whelk
1 Thragtusk
3 Crystal Shard
4 Delay
4 Voidslime
3 Remand
4 Time Warp
2 Cryptic Command
Reasoning:
I think there is a ton of potential here, and I want to hear what you guys think.
Is there a chance, that in the current environment, a Modern version of Blightning Aggro could exist? If so, what would the decklist look like? If not, why not?