I'm surprised to see no discussion about one of the new RIX toys - Thrashing Brontodon. Last time I played the deck (was around the last modern WMCQ - 2016?), certain artifacts and enchantments were a big trouble - Ensnaring Bridge, Wurmcoil Engine, Worship, Phyrexian Unlife - the list could go on. At the time Deglamer effects (for Wurmcoil) and Natural State (for everything else) were our best answers, but drawing them without any target was pretty bad.
But now we have a way to deal with these permanents that doesn't suck when they don't have them. And the stats are great for a 3 mana creature, too! It's smaller than a Baloth, but I believe the time for Baloth to shine is long time gone.
As for eggs, they're cetainly powerful in builds that want to recur them, for example with Second Sunrise, because they are cheap and draw cards. They're commonly used in Sydri decks, among others.
There are many good white creatures that haven't really found a home. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben has a really powerful effect, but don't see play outside hatebears/D&T. There are many more, just being outclassed by sheer power of things like Tarmogoyf or Snapcaster Mage.
I think modern is alright now. Linear decks are at it's finest because most of them attacks at different angles, which control decks can't all contain. Combo decks suffers from the turn 4 rule, considering quite a lot of time aggro decks can T3-T4 you.
Out of ban list changes I've been thinking about there are 2 that I think would be at least worth considering
Most of us know how much of a well-oiled machine Twin was. One of the reasons of it's success was the fact that Exarch was dodging many removal spells. Abrupt Decay, Terminate and Path to Exile, with Dismember as a runner-up were pretty mmuch required in a deck, otherwise you'd be risking bad matchup against one of the most represented decks.
Pestermite, however, promotes interacting, being powerful (enabling Twin combo) and fragile at the same time. Quite a lot of decks need to deal with x/1 creatures, mostly in Infect and Affinity. Would Pestermite Twin still dominate and reign over all of Modern? Perhaps, but we'll never know unless we try.
2) Unban Stoneforge Mystic
An artificer so powerful, it was banned before modern has even started, Stoneforge Mystic seems like a missing link in making white a worthwhile base color, rather than Path-and-SB-cards-fodder. Looking at all the things this card brings we can "vivisect" it into certain categories:
- Being a creature - Modern is heavily a creature format, which makes it a removal format as well. It's worth to keep in mind that SFM is on decline in Legacy, ever since printing a more efficient removal (Abrupt Decay). The only shell that Mystic is still played is D&T, thanks to it's unique mana denial plan.
- First ability (trigger) - As opposed to Legacy, which is mostly spells format (which makes it a counterspell format), Modern is a removal format. Considering that we can assume that if a player casts SFM, most of the time he at least gets to resolve it's trigger. The CA the trigger brings could be a breather for some control/midrange strategies. Also the ability itself may range from quite good (let's say in Abzan shell with 4 SFM, 1 BSkull and 1 Sword), to outright busted in a shell that could make a gret use of it (think modern D&T, with Flickerwisps and Displacers to generate significant CA).
- Second ability (activated ability) - Ability that, paired with tutor trigget, makes SFM a threat deserving immediate attention. It let us cheat on mana, ignote timing restrictions and doge counterspells. T3 BSkull sounds scary, more so considering you've used only SFM and 2 lands to do it.
- Equipments - Another important point I like to call a Mana Crypt symptom - Crypt is as powerful as cards that it lets you cast. Equipments in modern are cetrainly powerful, even without Jitte (thank godness). BSkull is brought up the most when talking about SFM unban, and rightfully so. It's simple, is't boring, it's powerful. Skull is a pretty complicated threat, so regular removal might not be enough to deal with it. Also popular hate that would be good against SFM wouldn't overlap with hate against BSkull. It doesn't mean there is none (Damping Matrix, anyone?), but that could be tough. Then we have Swords of X and Y (notably Fire and Ice and Feast and Famine). Seeing pretty much none play, even though the power level is certainly there, SFM could let them shine in modern again. Another thing is there are many more fringe equipments (notably Sword of the Meek) that could really make use of some consistency improvement.
I guess these are not all the points that could be said about these cases, but all I could think about.
-1/-1 mode might be useful for binning Bloodghasts from play to return them with Amalgams that couldn't etb otherwise, but yeah, it's rather niche. Might be used against Affinity.
I see the archetype as solid 8 playsets of cards we mustn't touch, and about 20 lands. That leaves us with 8 flex slots.
What I tested recently was:
2 Life from the Loam
2 Conflagrate
3 Collective Brutality
1 Haunted Dead
And it felt quite lackluster. Brutalities were kinda nice, but I didn't like them as much. Also I noticed I went a little too dredge-light (GGT+Imp+2 Salvage+2 LotL).
What I'll be checking out is:
2 Life from the Loam
2 Conflagrate
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Darkblast
1 Scrapheap Scrounger
1 Haunted Dead
All the cards are valuable once in the grave.
I'm also interested in 4SSG version, gotta try it when I get my playset.
I think scrylands are fine in such a build (kinda like in Ad Nauseam and some Grishoalbrand lists). Dragonskull Summit and Choked Estuary have to go away, to be replaced with either fetch/shock or fastlands. I don't like the fact that you need to assemble either of 3 card combos. Pretty much half of your nonlands are dead cards by themselves.
I was playing with my dredge deck against a stompy deck I lent to a friend and noticed that Dryad Militant is a trump card in that matchup (besides Scooze - he's a boss). It gets rid of a conflag/loam engine, darkblasts, lootings. It doesn't stop dredge players as much as Rest in Peace and such, but it slows them down and puts a pressure on, which in most cases is just enough.
my mainboard is a normal dredge, with 4 Grisly Salvage
not the best card, for sure. but is a dredge4-5 instant speed. and you can get e land, or a neonate.
and is too important in game2-3
I have to agree with you on that one. This sideboard is indeed spicy. Are you running some sort of Unburial Rites package? I would really hope you're not just straight-up hardcasting 'em.
I guess the idea here is to bin creatures with keywords, then cast Flayer, exiling these cards to have Flayer become a Swiss-multitool. Kinda sweet tech, but throwing 12 cards into the deck has to take it's toll on consistency. Some number of Unburial Rites would be fine, as well as changing a manabase a bit to be able to hit BB reliably.
Back to Nature is as powerful as it is narrow. Spending SB slots on cards that are relevant in just one (quite unpopular) matchup seems like a bad idea.
Hunt the Hunter is not the card I'd side, most of the creatures you mentioned dies to Dismember already. Prey Upon is quite good against burn, where lifeloss from Dismember really hurts. Might just drop it entirely.
Spellskite might be overdoing it (Bogles is an unwinnable matchup, deal with it), but Pithing Needle is not a huge tempo loss, and one I'm gladly take in an otherwise tough matchups.
But now we have a way to deal with these permanents that doesn't suck when they don't have them. And the stats are great for a 3 mana creature, too! It's smaller than a Baloth, but I believe the time for Baloth to shine is long time gone.
As for eggs, they're cetainly powerful in builds that want to recur them, for example with Second Sunrise, because they are cheap and draw cards. They're commonly used in Sydri decks, among others.
Out of ban list changes I've been thinking about there are 2 that I think would be at least worth considering
1) Ban Deceiver Exarch, #FreeSplinterTwin
Most of us know how much of a well-oiled machine Twin was. One of the reasons of it's success was the fact that Exarch was dodging many removal spells. Abrupt Decay, Terminate and Path to Exile, with Dismember as a runner-up were pretty mmuch required in a deck, otherwise you'd be risking bad matchup against one of the most represented decks.
Pestermite, however, promotes interacting, being powerful (enabling Twin combo) and fragile at the same time. Quite a lot of decks need to deal with x/1 creatures, mostly in Infect and Affinity. Would Pestermite Twin still dominate and reign over all of Modern? Perhaps, but we'll never know unless we try.
2) Unban Stoneforge Mystic
An artificer so powerful, it was banned before modern has even started, Stoneforge Mystic seems like a missing link in making white a worthwhile base color, rather than Path-and-SB-cards-fodder. Looking at all the things this card brings we can "vivisect" it into certain categories:
- Being a creature - Modern is heavily a creature format, which makes it a removal format as well. It's worth to keep in mind that SFM is on decline in Legacy, ever since printing a more efficient removal (Abrupt Decay). The only shell that Mystic is still played is D&T, thanks to it's unique mana denial plan.
- First ability (trigger) - As opposed to Legacy, which is mostly spells format (which makes it a counterspell format), Modern is a removal format. Considering that we can assume that if a player casts SFM, most of the time he at least gets to resolve it's trigger. The CA the trigger brings could be a breather for some control/midrange strategies. Also the ability itself may range from quite good (let's say in Abzan shell with 4 SFM, 1 BSkull and 1 Sword), to outright busted in a shell that could make a gret use of it (think modern D&T, with Flickerwisps and Displacers to generate significant CA).
- Second ability (activated ability) - Ability that, paired with tutor trigget, makes SFM a threat deserving immediate attention. It let us cheat on mana, ignote timing restrictions and doge counterspells. T3 BSkull sounds scary, more so considering you've used only SFM and 2 lands to do it.
- Equipments - Another important point I like to call a Mana Crypt symptom - Crypt is as powerful as cards that it lets you cast. Equipments in modern are cetrainly powerful, even without Jitte (thank godness). BSkull is brought up the most when talking about SFM unban, and rightfully so. It's simple, is't boring, it's powerful. Skull is a pretty complicated threat, so regular removal might not be enough to deal with it. Also popular hate that would be good against SFM wouldn't overlap with hate against BSkull. It doesn't mean there is none (Damping Matrix, anyone?), but that could be tough. Then we have Swords of X and Y (notably Fire and Ice and Feast and Famine). Seeing pretty much none play, even though the power level is certainly there, SFM could let them shine in modern again. Another thing is there are many more fringe equipments (notably Sword of the Meek) that could really make use of some consistency improvement.
I guess these are not all the points that could be said about these cases, but all I could think about.
What I tested recently was:
2 Life from the Loam
2 Conflagrate
3 Collective Brutality
1 Haunted Dead
And it felt quite lackluster. Brutalities were kinda nice, but I didn't like them as much. Also I noticed I went a little too dredge-light (GGT+Imp+2 Salvage+2 LotL).
What I'll be checking out is:
2 Life from the Loam
2 Conflagrate
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Darkblast
1 Scrapheap Scrounger
1 Haunted Dead
All the cards are valuable once in the grave.
I'm also interested in 4SSG version, gotta try it when I get my playset.
I guess the idea here is to bin creatures with keywords, then cast Flayer, exiling these cards to have Flayer become a Swiss-multitool. Kinda sweet tech, but throwing 12 cards into the deck has to take it's toll on consistency. Some number of Unburial Rites would be fine, as well as changing a manabase a bit to be able to hit BB reliably.
Spellskite might be overdoing it (Bogles is an unwinnable matchup, deal with it), but Pithing Needle is not a huge tempo loss, and one I'm gladly take in an otherwise tough matchups.
2 Natural State
1 Oxidize
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Deglamer
2 Gut Shot
2 Prey Upon
1 Feed the Clan
1 Pulse of Murasa
Will test this for the time being.