Sometimes I play a 20th land and it is usually City of Brass. I have actually encountered a situation where winning at 1 life with a lethal city trigger on the stack was a real possibility, so I tend to use city even though most would argue for confluence.
At any rate, if you want a 20th land, 1 City/confluence is fine. The pain is manageable.
how? your spell doesn't resolve before the trigger
Post board games tends to be slower, so i usually board out ~2 mox opal and ~1 lotus bloom, then some weaker eggs (chromatic sphere, terrarion). If you bring in Thopter Foundry, you can board out Conjurer's Bauble.
Rainbow lands are necessary. The deck needs to cast Reveillark. I feel that flashback Faithless Looting uses the gems real quick. Simian Spirit Guide is also a problem. If you don't play 3 SSG you'll have more permanent mana sources so the Gems don't deplete that quickly. SSG seems fine just as a 1-of.
If we go full rainbow with Mana Confluence and City of Brass, we can go for more colors (green splash for Grisly Salvage?)
Boseiju does not look good to me. Being colorless is a huge liability.
1. You can Footsteps a Reveillark into play if you have Body Double in the yard already.
2. The best Surgical Extraction target is neither Hulk nor Mogg Fanatic. It's Body Double.
The best Pithing Needle target is not Mogg Fanatic. It's Viscera Seer.
3. We have much less angles of attack unlike Amulet Bloom/Grishoalbrand. Amulet can Hive Mind and Grishoalbrand can Breach [card]Worldspine Wurm/card].
4. Miser Summoner's Pact don't make any sense to me the more I think of it. It is only useful when you Pact-Loot-Footsteps in the same turn. In this situation you are wasting the loot. I feel that having 5 vs 4 Hulks does not improve your chances more than just playing 1 more dig spell+utilizing the loot effect.
Overall I found that the primus was fairly well and in certain meta's it would be amazing. I think in my local its mostly just average and so I'll probably try Gifts before I settle on a final decision. I think the deck performed decently but no Serum Visions made finding keepable hands more difficult. Thragtusk will probably either be cut entirely or be moved to the board as a 1 of for games where I anticipate a Leyline if I stick with the green splash. I did not get to test out darkblast so I'll probably try it again. I think I liked the green splash for the most part but I'm not completely sold on it yet. I think it holds some good sideboard options vs burn and abrupt decay is pretty versatile but the more I think about it, bounce might be good enough in most of the situations where I would want a permanent destroy effect and in some its possibly even better.
A list would be nice.
Serum visions is especially good in land-light hands with all combo pieces.
1.
I totally agree that there are too many janky ideas. It always happens when a new deck gets the spotlight and players go to the forums. Newcomers, sleeve up the deck and test! If you got new ideas, test it up and show your results here. Untested ideas do not contribute much and is against the spirit of the Developing Competitive forum.
In the last page there was a comment about Worldspine Wurm. That was absurd.
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2.
I'm not in the Ashen Rider/Woodfall Primus camp, but you misunderstood their reasons. They are not there for RIP/Cage.
It is to solve the missing Hulk problems. There are 3 main solutions:
A. Dig deeper (Darkblast, Glimpse)
B. Tutors (Gifts Ungiven, Summoner's Pact)
C. Play some creatures similar to Hulk
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3.
A quick search for Leyline of Sanctity on mtgtop8. There're only 3 decks currently playing that sideboard card: Amulet Bloom, Ad Nauseam and Bogles
In all 3 matchups, Mogg Fanatic is not a relevant card (unless Bogles somehow plays Noble Hierarch). Board him out and bring whatever Venser or Thopter Engineer in. If you have the secondary win-con, you don't need Mogg Fanatic.
Rest in Peace: Merfolk, Bogles, Hatebear, UW Control
Venser is in.
Grafdigger's Cage: Abzan, Affinity, Tron (seldom, usually Relic instead)
I suggest playing 1 Hurkyl's Recall in the sideboard as Affinity is very good right now, and it's useful against Infect as well. (they usually play 2 Relics)
If you've followed the discussion, Ashen Rider and Woodfall Primus works as additional payoff cards that you can reanimate when you don't find Hulk. Venser, Shaper Savant is not a payoff card.
Any new ideas to improve the MU against RG Tron? I mean apart from answering Pyroclasms with Burrenton and trying to slow them down with cards like Stony Silence and Blood Moon.
I'm asking myself if we shouldn't try Pithing Needle. He can stop Karn, Ugin and Oblivion Stone.
1. Mulligan more. You either need a very fast clock (Norin+Champion/Chamber) or a decent clock (Champion+1~2 sisters)+Stony Silence. If you don't have a clock, they can just get to 5 lands and blow up Blood Moon with O-stone.
2. Pithing Needle is too narrow. And Tron board in 3~4 Nature's Claim vs all white decks. Blood Moon and Stony Silence both have potential to shut down their green source. Pithing Needle does not do that.
What's your target in modern?
how? your spell doesn't resolve before the trigger
Rainbow lands are necessary. The deck needs to cast Reveillark. I feel that flashback Faithless Looting uses the gems real quick. Simian Spirit Guide is also a problem. If you don't play 3 SSG you'll have more permanent mana sources so the Gems don't deplete that quickly. SSG seems fine just as a 1-of.
If we go full rainbow with Mana Confluence and City of Brass, we can go for more colors (green splash for Grisly Salvage?)
Boseiju does not look good to me. Being colorless is a huge liability.
2. The best Surgical Extraction target is neither Hulk nor Mogg Fanatic. It's Body Double.
The best Pithing Needle target is not Mogg Fanatic. It's Viscera Seer.
3. We have much less angles of attack unlike Amulet Bloom/Grishoalbrand. Amulet can Hive Mind and Grishoalbrand can Breach [card]Worldspine Wurm/card].
4. Miser Summoner's Pact don't make any sense to me the more I think of it. It is only useful when you Pact-Loot-Footsteps in the same turn. In this situation you are wasting the loot. I feel that having 5 vs 4 Hulks does not improve your chances more than just playing 1 more dig spell+utilizing the loot effect.
Serum visions is especially good in land-light hands with all combo pieces.
The downside of Darkblast is, of course, it doesn't kill enough things. Also dredge costs you a card.
I totally agree that there are too many janky ideas. It always happens when a new deck gets the spotlight and players go to the forums. Newcomers, sleeve up the deck and test! If you got new ideas, test it up and show your results here. Untested ideas do not contribute much and is against the spirit of the Developing Competitive forum.
In the last page there was a comment about Worldspine Wurm. That was absurd.
--
2.
I'm not in the Ashen Rider/Woodfall Primus camp, but you misunderstood their reasons. They are not there for RIP/Cage.
It is to solve the missing Hulk problems. There are 3 main solutions:
A. Dig deeper (Darkblast, Glimpse)
B. Tutors (Gifts Ungiven, Summoner's Pact)
C. Play some creatures similar to Hulk
--
3.
A quick search for Leyline of Sanctity on mtgtop8. There're only 3 decks currently playing that sideboard card: Amulet Bloom, Ad Nauseam and Bogles
In all 3 matchups, Mogg Fanatic is not a relevant card (unless Bogles somehow plays Noble Hierarch). Board him out and bring whatever Venser or Thopter Engineer in. If you have the secondary win-con, you don't need Mogg Fanatic.
Rest in Peace: Merfolk, Bogles, Hatebear, UW Control
Venser is in.
Grafdigger's Cage: Abzan, Affinity, Tron (seldom, usually Relic instead)
I suggest playing 1 Hurkyl's Recall in the sideboard as Affinity is very good right now, and it's useful against Infect as well. (they usually play 2 Relics)
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4.
The name of the deck. Does it matter?
(edit: add point 4)
The problem with Gideon is that while he is indestructible, Ulamog exiles.
I'm now on 4 Inquisition of Kozileks main and 2 Spell Pierces on the side. Izzet Charm is too slow as a protection spell. Also 3 Pithing Needles.
1. Mulligan more. You either need a very fast clock (Norin+Champion/Chamber) or a decent clock (Champion+1~2 sisters)+Stony Silence. If you don't have a clock, they can just get to 5 lands and blow up Blood Moon with O-stone.
2. Pithing Needle is too narrow. And Tron board in 3~4 Nature's Claim vs all white decks. Blood Moon and Stony Silence both have potential to shut down their green source. Pithing Needle does not do that.
3. Get your threat to 3 toughness. Ajani's Pridemate is very good at this. Pridemate has funny interactions with Grove of the Burnwillows and Nature's Claim.