i think the new leyline makes the mirror into a lotv against dredge decks, if you start with it and your opponents first spell isn't to immediately kill it its going to be a very short match. the only real defence againt it is your own leyline (or turn 2 rev)
thanks for the input
Abyssal Persecutor really isn't great, ive found in lists that what in spawn is generally better
night hawk has always need on of the weaker elements of the budget deck. he was alright if you went with a vampire sub theme but dieing to bolt and with the rise of spirits that ca trade one drops for him has made me start to look elsewhere. soul flayer tends to do a very solid impression of nighthawk but with the upside of being bolt and push proof. i agree feaster is an odd choice but he can come in turn three as a 7/7 flyer push/bolt proof flyer which is something a lot of decks in modern still struggle to deal with pre sb. (although its made me hate turn three karns with a vengeance
with 20 bodys under 3 mana i've found moon to be particularly good as long as your not facing bridgevine.
ive found dreadshade to work better in a much more control focused version of the eck (turn 1 discard turn 2 removal ect)
yeah i had considered champion if he had a single keyword or cost a little less to reanimate i would probably be running him, but as is hes still not quite the fit i what for the deck
i would probably run kitesale/brain magot over rat due to the targeted nature of the spells but they all return the spell later, this might just be something i have to except with the deck.
i think in the currnt meta with a creature based deck, ashiok is a tad slow, so will probably stick to bogs and spell bombs for now
the snow synagys help iron out some of issues the more budget versions of the deck have.
the reson im posting it is that i've found Kaya's Guile to be constantly the best card in the deck, every mode is basically something you would sb in rounds 2-3 anyway, and having its versatility is extremely useful in the current meta.
ive was also pleasantly surprised by how often Silumgar's Command is relevant, having a way to mb deal with planeswalkers is extremely usfle. it's only a shame one of its modes isnt card draw
ok so this is a very different beast from normal mono b devotion builds, i really heavily on newer sets. im open to ideas for improvements, im building this as a deck to help teach a friend at fnms as i want to keep the deck fairly simply but with opportunities and room to be more complexe if they think about there plays and gain experience. i'm trying to keep the total budget under $60 where possible
the idea is to use some fast value creatures, to get in a little damage and value befor they die/become ineffective. they tidy up with one or two finishers (feaster, soul flayer, merchant)
feaster and soul flayer work well together, merchant is a little less syagetic with them but also gets a pay off from the enchantments
Defile adds a solid new removal spell and adding snow lands means we can add dead of winter to sb as a board wipe(even after adding the cost of 17 snow lands and 3 winters is still seems to e the cheapest strong option.
now the big questions i have with the deck
Cabal Therapist, he works well with spawn as hes normally able to deal damage, hes also a solid way to get stuff to gy for soul flayer, but he himself doesn't add anything to soulflayer (as menace is a newer key word) and he can miss. im not shore if i just what to add in 4 duress or add is either Rimebound Dead as an unkillable blocker/ Carrion Feeder as a sac outlet and beat stick
field of ruin may or may not be added going forwards, i'm currently on the fence
Dreadhorde Invasion, i've yet to be truly sold and could be convinced to try a different card in this slot, (this is normally the card advantage slot, instead of card draw im thought this make also add the advantage needed.)
No point in trying to brew with Altar when the Vengevine Altar shell is already tier 1. The card has already been solved.
Your right if it's in a teir 1 deck there no other way to use the card effectively, I suppose we should also better ditch those fetchlands, surgical and and thoughtsizes then ow well :/
On another note (and the reason a came hear) I got milled yesterday buy a janky build splashing green for Voracious Wurm after casting a Crypt Incursion, the sacing to alter without passing priority, I have no idea what else he was running (as I was discarded, milled then this turn 5 both games) it seemed pretty interesting so I thought I'd share.
You seen to be trying to go both Wizards and fairy's but without any of the wincons for either.
I would suggest you either go more fairy's and run mistbind clique (it's not cheap but it not to expensive)
Or drop Scion of oona and run favourable winds, instead.
The deck also has 0 removal, in standard this is kind of workable but in modern you'll loose and really struggle.
I suggest 4 vapour snags and 2 dismembers.
There are also some solid mono u Wizards devotions lists floating around.
Using Master of Waves, as a wincon.
Alot of your Wizards have powerful etb triggers. Maybe looking at ninjas or Familiar's Ruse would be very solid attions.
Also Sage's Dousing is just a bad card in modern as alot of decks win with combos and powerful synergies without combat so it's really just a 2 mana cantrip most of the time.
I would also consider both remand and smugglers copter, and maybe chart a course as card draw.
I would run 1 more land and add 2 fairy conclave and 2 feild of ruin to your mana base. And maybe 2 lonely sandbars.
Can you tell more about which decks you played against, and how Hexdrinker performed? Every bit of information is useful!
Mostly played out as expected but just better and smoother.
Played against Tron, UW-non miracles version,dredge, Infect, Boros burn, Rock, Mono R pheonix,Izzet Pheonix, Grixis Shadow, humans
Vs burn and Infect, its super nice having another one drop in your opening hand that you can block and trade off until your beef comes online and overpowers.
Vs Tron, 12 one drops > 8 one drops, in addition to rancor, and you just have more opening hands where you are dropping 6 power by end of turn 2 and able to race them out.
Vs UW control, wow just super sexy, on the play, its similar to Tron, you just have a higher chance to nut and win before they sweep. on the draw, it was an amazing late game draw and i was able to get him to Progenitus mode twice.
Vs G/B Rock, Similar to UW, great draw later on.
Vs humans, still a bad match up for us, but was able to win a game that became a board stall by getting hex up to progenitus mode and swinging past blocker for 2 turns.
Vs mono red, and izzet pheonix, dies alot since they have alot of cheap removal, but acts a lightning rod protecting,ooze, avatar and steal leafs
The key is that you don't want to play him turn one and spend all your mana turns 2 and 3, trying to level him up with out advancing the rest of your game plan. Treat him like a Savannah lion first and foremost and keep turning him sideways.
Only if the game slows down and you have a spare mana or two (accounting for protection mana) do you start pumping into him.
found the same in my testing, i would also add that there are a few decks that if you can level up drinker early against (and want to) if they are tapped out. the big ones are rock and jund, if they tap out turn 2 (on the draw) or turn 3 (on the play) and you have 2 extra creatures to absorb a lilly sac, your pretty much locked in for the win.
also played a lot against deathshadow decks, and hexdrinker rule in this matchup, an early attacker but again if you can get him with 3 counter on him shadow just cannot deal with him. and sticking him in progenatus mode is auto win in this matchup as theyre normally bellow 6 life to use shadows.
@Marl Karx
in question to why white splash over say red or black (blues really really not worth it)
the main reason is SB teck. (i think a lot of my posts about sb tec got deleted when they wiped all european users with the GDPR law change last year) so ill start at the beginning
the deck struggles most in 2 matchups, Tron (really badly to eldrazi but still pretty bad to the other versions) and u/w control
now both of these matches are made hugly more winnable with the use of Gaddock Teeg he also shuts down a lot of other decks but his main purpose is these 2 deck. (he also stops, coco, cord, cryptic, Ad Nauseam, tooth and nail, chalice, explosives, gifts, past in flames, scapeshift, all played board wipes save 2 and plenty other spells and jank wincon.)
the second is path to exile, while there is a arugumnet for bolt and push, realistically if we carnt fight it bolt winot kill it, and the really difficult to deal with stuff for us, can shrug off pushes (gurmags, hollow ones, eldrazi, primal titan ect) so path is the best option (it is not mb because of the ramping effect, as ramping our opponent to a board wipe can be particularly reckless for this deck, hence placing them in sb. Knight of Autumn was almost built for the deck, as she works in in multiple sb slots, (solid life gain, solid artifact and enchantment hate, or just a +1 counter holder for avatar) she very relevant and allows more dedicated slots to trouble matchups
(historically, rest in peace and stony silence. both were big parts if the sb when KCI was still meta, (they also did solid work against other decks) but you needed to hit one of these turn 2 against KCI or just loose (and you lost sometimes the next turn anyway)
stony has been replace with collector and ive drop rest in peace completely, with the shift back to tribal statgerys and away from all in gy strategies
with the down shift in cmc and more focused on all out aggression ive also added 2 Selfless spirits to add another aggressive creature that can act as protection.
this is my current SB
ok now why MB Dromoka's Command?
first and foremost all its modes are relevant to the deck, the fight for minor removal, the counter for pump, and avatar, the sac a search for azcanta, harden scales, pyro ascension (and more recently wilderness rec), and finally, the strain up bolt protection, but also damage based boardwipe of anger of the gods or sweltering suns protection (also gutshot and lightning axe are becoming more popular targets.) the spells versatile and is very very rarly a dead draw.
my mb has changed a little since my last post to include a little more W in the mb
really liking loam lion, its nice that it continues to stay a 2/3 with active blood moon around and that it can be played by a canopy without need a shock. trialing a single Kytheon, as hes easy to flip and is another 1 mana creature that becomes a 4/4 to attack with turn 3.
dropped one eone (as hes consistently the weakest one drop to play past turn 2) and one scooze (this may change with the uptic in bridgevine alter decks)
nacatal is bad for this deck, as it requires going into 3 color, and becoming much more vulnerable to bloodmoon, (as is even with a turn 3 moon i can still play a strangleroot the turn after without to much worry) it's also very shock heavy meaning instead of maybe shocking once a game im shocking at least 2 times and that can be pretty painful in the current meta.
both brawl and thrash are both very very inferior to dro command,
the reason to not just play naya zoo,
there is a lot of tempo decks with alot of removal in the meta currently, and fair aggressive creature decks need either huge tribal payoffs of unfair advantages (like affinity) to be faster. we can not speed up and we cannot add super synygy to win, so we need to protect instead, vines and blossoming are the reasons to stay heavy green, (along with strangleroot as i feel strangleroot is an extremely underrated card) this also get around a lot of the tradianl hate (like bloodmoon) while minimizing life loss form the mana base. lastly staying heavy green means that trample is much more common, and trample is surprisingly relevant atm against decks like humans, spirits and thing in the ice.
as for the cycle land, as someone whos tested it in both this format and in others, i think it is a lot better that people give in credit for (just like narnams, blossoming defences and more recently hexdrinkers) in a fetchless build, but i also think people are going to have play it them selves to find this out. (highly recommend you play 8-10 games with it in and compared to how it runs with and without, yes you dont what to play in turn 1-2 but thats why i upped the land count, and laying a tapped land is better than laying no lands (something treetop village taught us a long time ago)
i also agree
BUY YOUR HEXDRINKERS NOW! the priced has already spiked in the last day (this is from europe price spike is from £6.14 to 9.48 for a per card when buying a playset via card market the european TCG Player) (and most most other uk venues are now out of stock for preorders ) from the amount of play its seeing online in jund and rock decks (along with all the zoo- delver- tron decks its being run in) it's also turning up in every commander deck that runs green and is seeing some fring legacy list (not sure if its good enough to be a legacy staple), the price may go down about a month after release but it may also do a phoenix (although probably not to that level) and go up and stick at the $15-18 price range (it is a mythic in a supplemental set after all). and if worse come to worse it is a auto EDH staple now, 18 months after release it will hit the 10-12 range just from that. so money back and then some.
There are still a number of relatively new cards that have not been added to the primer yet. Damping Sphere (sideboard, maybe good enough?) Hexdrinker (fetchless builds) Savage Swipe (sideboard, maybe mainboard removal?) Tranquil Thicket (I don't think it's good enough) Collector Ouphe (sideboard) Weather the Storm (sideboard) Scale Up (also don't think it's good enough) Force of Vigor (sideboard)
are all cards I'd like to have implemented in the primer before this site shuts down in July and I'll (most likely) be unable to edit the primer anymore. Are there anymore newer cards that I need to implement, either to show its appeal or to explain why it shouldn't be used?
i've tested most of these cards and hear my take on the damping sphere, the big downside of sphere is we only need it for tron, a dryad militant is as solid anit storm teck as it gets. but the main disadvantage of sphere is that on turns 3-4 we are waiting to play both threats and pump spells every turn, this (with our land base) limits us to 1 spell s turn which is a big downside as against tron (the matchup where we need it most) its slows u down enough for be boardwiped even through tron.
hexdrinker is solid in both fetchless and fetchbased mana bases (i may well become a staple 4 of in the deck. its probably worth waiting to see how this pans out before adding it to the primer)
savage swipe, strick upgrade on prey upon for super budget builds and maybe mb playable going forwards in fetchless mono builds
Collector Ouphe solid hate against tron, affinity, scales. but it doesn't hit bridge or chalice so its good but we need other hate specific to chalice and bridge.
weather the storm, is only better than feed the clan and life goes on in specific circumstances, its definitely suboptimal when facing burn and, zoo, hollow one, dreadge, and about even to clan vs mono red phoenix. (for now, if storm, eggs, or something similar breaks out this may be a huge advantage.)
Force of Vigor, i think in most situations this isn't a upgrade on existing tec, we dont worry about blood moon, and we are fast enough against affinity with other removal to be competitive, the only place this is better than rec sege, manglehorn and return to nature (which probably dose deserve an entry in the primer) is against mono red prison or enchantress both of which are exceedingly rare in modern.
ok Tranquil Thicket
and the reason i think this a auto include as a 2-3 of in mono none fetch/non canopy builds
first president on there use. mono cycle lands of there respective colors are extremely heavily used in one format in one type of deck and that is pauper in aggro decks, and lightly in mono colored midrange and control decks. there are exception to this rule and most of the time they happen in blue and green, and that is because historically in pauper there has been a over abundance of spells and effects that interact with basics, either with bouce effects (like daze) or ramo effects like Quirion Ranger and Land Grant .ect but the point is that these cycle lands are played in hyper aggro decks with 17 lands as three ofs, the reason is yes they can slow you down a turn but they also substantially increase consistency of mono color decks. as without fetchlands, powerful utility lands we are at a disadvantage and are very very vulnerable to flooding, (in contrast to things like control and aggro that can use the large amount of mana later on. cycle lands are very much like slow horizon canopies, yes they are inferior to fetchlands, fast duels and canopys (and yes creture lands) but they are better than basics.
creture lands are better hands down but they are bad in multiples as they cannot be used in multiples fast so these fill a similar role.
the reason up changed the land base up in my new budget list is that, first the deck is vulnerable to land flooding and screwing and the deck needs to get to three land drops turn 3, and that requires a higher land base than what we have (yes we have been making do for a while but we now doesn't need to) and yes if we get one of these as a land drop we play it like we do the man lands, but this means that if we draw them mid/late game we have something for the deck to do in increase our chance if that action card, in essence they provide a more consistent mana base as well as a late game mana sink and card draw ability.
yes my reference to pauper decks may be a little off as pauper is a slightly slower format than modern, but mono G stompy on a budget is a slower deck due to its lack of ramp and fetchlands than the rest of modern, so if we are going to be a turn 5 deck might as well make it so we can win turn 5.
so in a higher land base deck using three of cycle lands- no fetchland and no horizon canopies.
pros
mana sink
card draw
makes a colored mana
increases consistency of land drops
cons
if used as one of first three land drops slows mana base (but your still making the land drop)
in very rare cases makes opening hands unkeepable (you have 2 tap lands and lots of aggressive action)
to me the advantage slightly outways the disadvantage but only time and testing will truly tell.
i've uped the land count slightly in the mono-budget version of the deck (sits around $80 on tcg)
the resons for this are 4 fold
first Tranquil Thicket is a really good card, and being able to cycle instant speed in the late game or having a tapland in the early game is pretty solid.
second the deck can play the better pump spell in vines over blossom (blossom is better in hyper aggro but vine is better with a larger manabase)
third playing steel leaf constantly is much less of an issue
forth Hexdrinker provides a very good way to sink mana in the mid-late game, soloing as you have the mana to make it work
cuts
1 eone, with the meta how it is dryad militant is needed and is the best turn one play, hexdrinkers are both one drops early and huge wincons late game. while eones are solid turn 1-2s but terrible top deck late game.
pump spell for another savage swipe. basically swipe is a slow pump spell that also acts as removal for a lot of the meta with your onedrops without loosing them (bob, snapcaster, thalia, meddling mage, spell queller, goblin guilds ect, are all now solid removal targets off of our pump spells.
you could probably drop a cycle land or oasis for another of the other, or another forest without much worry, (its something that will have to tested to be shore of )
I am sure I am going to continue playing W/g instead of pure white.
My opponents will play a targetted creature kill, a Wrath effect, and then a second of both.
Or, they will play an Ugin on turn 4
Or, they will combo win on turn 4.
Or burn me out on turn 4.
The 2 pure white decklists above play less land, are less reliable, are more vulnerable to discard, slower, have weaker land bases, have less surprises, less recovery, fewer fliers, much fewer creatures, are vulnerable to Wrath/Anger, and almost no testing.
Sure, they will win games, and matches.
They have 2 different lands, and 5 different lands. (Emeria? - really?)
My decklist is the result of hundreds of games, and has 10 different lands.
As you planning on going a little more into g have you considered hexdrinker, it's been testing extremely well in a super agressive version of stompy and is now a 4 of in temure delver list (some times over goyf)
Is meh but ok as a one drops but if you get to three lands it's an extremely solid "three drop". It also tends to be a removal magnet meaning that your better stuff stays safe (I would require a bigger splash into g for a consistanty being able to play it by turn 2 but it may work.
my apologies i'm tired and snarky today (YAY insomnia :/ ) also you get a double helping of incoherent rant as yes im dyslexic so parts may just be random collections of letter rather coherent text. (double YaY)
ok time to back to deck building principles with this i think
reasons to run snow
Ice-Fang Coatl: solid tempo card
Dead of Winter: solid board wipe
Marit Lage's Slumber: an ok wincon, not having haste is a big downside and ledgendy type means multiples are bad.
On Thin Ice: honestly not worth running, putting ourselves into 4 color when trying to function of basics seems silly and no one runs chained to the rocks for a reason
Snow stuff is new, cool and trendy again: yes totally agree, im hear right
so if we include the first three we have a tempo shell with a possible combo wincon
we need snow permanents which means mostly lands, we need to draw out the game so counterspells and board wipes with a land ramp package while avoiding cards with heavy mono color commitments.
so in the order i think of them
snow
4 Ice-Fang Coatl: pure tempo advantage and maybe sometimes removal
3 Dead of Winter : its dead in a control matchup and we have blue for snap casters if need be, solid board wipe
2 Marit Lage's Slumber: its a legendary permanent and without haste so should be used as a alt wincon and card selection engin.
ramp
3 growth spirals: does everything we what the deck to do, except chump block
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder, chump blocks!!! , ramping and fetching needed colors
more filteringing
1 Search for Azcanta: card selection and ramp
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy: snapcaster that doesn't die to board wipes
removal
2 Fatal Push: stuff needs to die
1 Abrupt Decay: along with everything else
2 Assassin's Trophy: even lands
other tempo auto includes
2 Snapcaster Mage: beautiful graveyard value!!!!
4 Remand : stall + cantrip
2 Cryptic Command: very high color requirements but its the best
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang: because awesome and a wincon
my hatred for humanity
1 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales: value engin, hate survives board wipes.... also i hate 8rack
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor: what can i say, i hate everyone else two
and 24 lands
3 frost march: yes they are bad but where control we can a few tapped land
4 Prismatic Vista: come to mummy
2 Verdant Catacombs: just two more fetchland
1 Breeding Pool: and a shock
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: The best dual land of all
2 Field of Ruin: Hate Tron, Fetches snow... YAY!
5 Snow island
4 Snow Forest
2 Snow Swamps
notable omissions
White, personally i think the deck either runs White or Green, White is basically esper control with a much worse wincon and a much more clunky land package
bitterblossom: really tempted and they may well work in the deck.
wilderness rec + Teachings package: another solid direction for the deck, but i felt the inclusion of so many socerys and cretures made it a tad to clunky
red/scred definite maybe in if the deck needs more spot removal
more cryptics: guys casting cost, i feel like 2 might be a little to optimistic
Scrying Sheets: ok maybe i could make room for one or two but i think the deck needs the colors and interaction
frostwalk bastion: again maybe, but it would need to be only a 2 or 1 color decks as we need those colors and this is no colonnade or tarpit
either/both snow rocks: no they are bad, if they where not snow permanents this wouldn't even be being discussed
Abominable Treefolk: NOOOOO... like really
Ohran Viper: the only other snow creature that i would consider in a tempo deck, if it had flash, maybe but as is its a stinkweed imp and ninja of the deep hours, but worse that either so no.
Glacial Revelation: only in a wilderness rec list, as tapping out three mana to get a couple of lands is pretty bad, Into the North is better as the land goes into the battlefield an its a true tutor effect for sheets or the color you need. i also think that using glacial hoping to mill eons is a little cute better just to use......
collective brutality: ok im on the fence about this one and i'm totally willing to have my mind changed, its superbe in all ist modes and works in most situations
the deck may end up wanting some more counter spells and answers, and i think the planeswalkers and tribe elders are the best place to look for changing things out
its not a great deck but please when brewing guy don't play bad card just because they are new,
the deck could also fit a eons, narset combo quite well and that could be very fun. but im waiting to see how that works out before adding it hear.
lastly hoping for some more snow support in future standard sets, if this dose come to pass this deck may well get a large power boost.
tricksters are solid cards and very good against creature heavy decks
the main advantage of serpent over djinn is being push proof, push is now the third most common removals spell in modern and being resistant to it is a big deal, the second main advantage is that its can take out huge goyfs, gurmags and make most death shadows pause, yes djinn can block a phoenix, but phoenix's are rarly the issue in that matchup, the big issue tends to be thing in the ice.
curious obsession, i think this is a straight up bad card for the deck, the reason it works in standard is the 12-16 one drops to equip it to and a load of defensive spells and lots of two mana removal, modern is different most modern removal is on mana, and unlike in standard where mono u flyers is one of the more aggressive end of things this is much less so. i think that's where the bug differences in card choices have come from, this is at its core a spell slinger tempo deck where as the standard is a creature disruption tempo deck, decks like fairies/rogues/u/w flyers are much more sued to a creature enchantment, delver and pteramander bother need the spell slinging to work and i feel curios takes away from the decks synagis for a maybe card draw and a not very impactful pump
spell slinging tempo needs to spend turns 2-3 stopping our opponents game plan and threats as otherwise we don't get a turn 4, we are nowhere near fast enough to race, and if we try we lose, the decks is already on the bad side of 2-1s with shoal and now force we simply cannot afford the 2-1 we take from an opponent pushing a our delver turn 2 when we tap to play curiosity or have our stuff blocked by a well timed rattle chains. it's also using up a mana turn 2 which we need for remands or cantrips to find our next counter/land and make our serpent and ptermander cheaper and help our delver.
the last issue for me with obsession is that its taking up the slot for serum visions and disruption, visions has 2 major roles in the deck, first its adding another cantriping soc that we can see with delver, and to reduce costs for serpent and ptermander. secondly it's the only card in the decks that allows you to manipulate the top of your deck which makes delvers ability to flip vastly more consistent.
and like i said above if we are not disrupting our opponent we often don't get to turn 3, solid removal and 1 mana counter magic is extremely important (you never have to deal with phonixs if you can consistently stop there faithless lootings.)
now with the new free counter spell djinn may be better and workable in the deck
other creatures that have been tried and not quite worked in the past include
merfolk trickster (our closest thing to a budget snap caster in function we have)
curios homunculus (this dude is a personal favorite as hes a very constant turn 3 flip and he dose wonders when cryptic and chart a course where both 3 of mb)
spellstutter sprite (with the meta speeding up and more and more onedrops being played sprite may be worth another look (may work well in a deck with obsession as it provides another body to work with)
Illusory Angel (most similar to djinn but can be played in decks with utility lands much easier but struggles to come down late game (she really needed flash))
Venser, Shaper Savant(really good for a turn or 2 but no evasion can be a bit lacking)
Nimble Obstructionist (not half bad, one of the best choices if not running clique)
less budget
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy (very very good in gainst control)
Thing in the Ice (used to be budget, now no longer so)
sb looks like a solid start
i highly recommend 2-3 copies of Ceremonious Rejection. is a extremely solid card against tron and all versions of affinity, it used to be a 4 of sb when kci was around but is still good enough against the others and sb tec (like relics bridges and chalices) that's its still a priority.
Spell Snare is very very good against particular decks and because of its reprint in battle bond is still sitting under $1 so well worth 2 of sb
i highly recommend 2 Dismember is your 75, it provides a way to deal with big threats that you would otherwise struggle to keep off the board
boomarang is nice Echoing Truth or repeal can sometimes be better (depends on your meta)
Hurkyl's Recall is fantastic at making affinity cry (less useful now but still one of the best source of artifact hate in modern)
Dispel for counter wars against control.
shadow of doubt is an awesome sb option in the current meta as either just stopping a fetch (against deathshadow) to stopping cord of calling/ whir of invention/ gifts ungiven. its also one of the best ways to stop titan shift decks.
i really think you need some gy hate, on a budget im a fan of tormod's crypt, although nihil spellbomb and ravenous trap will both also work very well.
without thing in the ice or cryptic commands the deck really struggles to deal with go wide strategies, the best option i've found is engulf the shores (although there is a case for sleep and Whelming Wave in a deck that runs 4 serpents)
@AmicDeep What do you think the best non-fetches deck would look like? Also, you cut Steel Leaf Champions?
In a fetchless build I suspect it's still going to contain steel leafs as narnam and the lion just don't really work in a fetchless build. But it may well be worth young the land count a little to something closer to compensate for a strong mana sink and casting steel leaves consistantly
I'll draw up a new budget list a little later and see what works.
like not at all, it will never never see play in modern
Abyssal Persecutor really isn't great, ive found in lists that what in spawn is generally better
night hawk has always need on of the weaker elements of the budget deck. he was alright if you went with a vampire sub theme but dieing to bolt and with the rise of spirits that ca trade one drops for him has made me start to look elsewhere. soul flayer tends to do a very solid impression of nighthawk but with the upside of being bolt and push proof. i agree feaster is an odd choice but he can come in turn three as a 7/7 flyer push/bolt proof flyer which is something a lot of decks in modern still struggle to deal with pre sb. (although its made me hate turn three karns with a vengeance
with 20 bodys under 3 mana i've found moon to be particularly good as long as your not facing bridgevine.
ive found dreadshade to work better in a much more control focused version of the eck (turn 1 discard turn 2 removal ect)
yeah i had considered champion if he had a single keyword or cost a little less to reanimate i would probably be running him, but as is hes still not quite the fit i what for the deck
i would probably run kitesale/brain magot over rat due to the targeted nature of the spells but they all return the spell later, this might just be something i have to except with the deck.
i think in the currnt meta with a creature based deck, ashiok is a tad slow, so will probably stick to bogs and spell bombs for now
so current list now updated to
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mono-black-lash-devotion-budget/
2x Absorb
1x Anguished Unmaking
2x Cast Down
2x Dovin's Veto
2x Esper Charm
2x Fact or Fiction
3x Fatal Push
3x Kaya's Guile
1x Logic Knot
1x Path to Exile
2x Silumgar's Command
2x Boreal Shelf
4x Evolving Wilds
3x Field of Ruin
2x Frost Marsh
5x Snow-Covered Island
4x Snow-Covered Plains
4x Snow-Covered Swamp
Enchantment (4)
2x Marit Lage's Slumber
2x On Thin Ice
3x Arcum's Astrolabe
3x Nihil Spellbomb
Sorcery (3)
3x Dead of Winter
Creature (2)
2x Torrential Gearhulk
the snow synagys help iron out some of issues the more budget versions of the deck have.
the reson im posting it is that i've found Kaya's Guile to be constantly the best card in the deck, every mode is basically something you would sb in rounds 2-3 anyway, and having its versatility is extremely useful in the current meta.
ive was also pleasantly surprised by how often Silumgar's Command is relevant, having a way to mb deal with planeswalkers is extremely usfle. it's only a shame one of its modes isnt card draw
4x Banehound
2x Cabal Therapist
4x Vault Skirge
4x Gifted Aetherborn
4x Spawn of Mayhem
3x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3x Soulflayer
2x Feaster of Fools
3x Defile
2x Victim of Night
Enchantment (5)
3x Bad Moon
2x Dreadhorde Invasion
Land (22)
3x Barren Moor
19x Snow-Covered Swamp
Artifact (2)
2x Lashwrithe
3x Dead of Winter
3x Duress
1x Lost Legacy
3x Nihil Spellbomb
3x Rain of Tears
2x Soot Imp
the idea is to use some fast value creatures, to get in a little damage and value befor they die/become ineffective. they tidy up with one or two finishers (feaster, soul flayer, merchant)
feaster and soul flayer work well together, merchant is a little less syagetic with them but also gets a pay off from the enchantments
Defile adds a solid new removal spell and adding snow lands means we can add dead of winter to sb as a board wipe(even after adding the cost of 17 snow lands and 3 winters is still seems to e the cheapest strong option.
now the big questions i have with the deck
Cabal Therapist, he works well with spawn as hes normally able to deal damage, hes also a solid way to get stuff to gy for soul flayer, but he himself doesn't add anything to soulflayer (as menace is a newer key word) and he can miss. im not shore if i just what to add in 4 duress or add is either Rimebound Dead as an unkillable blocker/ Carrion Feeder as a sac outlet and beat stick
field of ruin may or may not be added going forwards, i'm currently on the fence
Dreadhorde Invasion, i've yet to be truly sold and could be convinced to try a different card in this slot, (this is normally the card advantage slot, instead of card draw im thought this make also add the advantage needed.)
Your right if it's in a teir 1 deck there no other way to use the card effectively, I suppose we should also better ditch those fetchlands, surgical and and thoughtsizes then ow well :/
On another note (and the reason a came hear) I got milled yesterday buy a janky build splashing green for Voracious Wurm after casting a Crypt Incursion, the sacing to alter without passing priority, I have no idea what else he was running (as I was discarded, milled then this turn 5 both games) it seemed pretty interesting so I thought I'd share.
I would suggest you either go more fairy's and run mistbind clique (it's not cheap but it not to expensive)
Or drop Scion of oona and run favourable winds, instead.
The deck also has 0 removal, in standard this is kind of workable but in modern you'll loose and really struggle.
I suggest 4 vapour snags and 2 dismembers.
Another direction that would work well is looking more at Wizards pay off cards like
Naban lists
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-99-31-tix-uw-naban-modern
There are also some solid mono u Wizards devotions lists floating around.
Using Master of Waves, as a wincon.
Alot of your Wizards have powerful etb triggers. Maybe looking at ninjas or Familiar's Ruse would be very solid attions.
Also Sage's Dousing is just a bad card in modern as alot of decks win with combos and powerful synergies without combat so it's really just a 2 mana cantrip most of the time.
I would also consider both remand and smugglers copter, and maybe chart a course as card draw.
I would run 1 more land and add 2 fairy conclave and 2 feild of ruin to your mana base. And maybe 2 lonely sandbars.
Good luck
found the same in my testing, i would also add that there are a few decks that if you can level up drinker early against (and want to) if they are tapped out. the big ones are rock and jund, if they tap out turn 2 (on the draw) or turn 3 (on the play) and you have 2 extra creatures to absorb a lilly sac, your pretty much locked in for the win.
also played a lot against deathshadow decks, and hexdrinker rule in this matchup, an early attacker but again if you can get him with 3 counter on him shadow just cannot deal with him. and sticking him in progenatus mode is auto win in this matchup as theyre normally bellow 6 life to use shadows.
@Marl Karx
in question to why white splash over say red or black (blues really really not worth it)
the main reason is SB teck. (i think a lot of my posts about sb tec got deleted when they wiped all european users with the GDPR law change last year) so ill start at the beginning
the deck struggles most in 2 matchups, Tron (really badly to eldrazi but still pretty bad to the other versions) and u/w control
now both of these matches are made hugly more winnable with the use of Gaddock Teeg he also shuts down a lot of other decks but his main purpose is these 2 deck. (he also stops, coco, cord, cryptic, Ad Nauseam, tooth and nail, chalice, explosives, gifts, past in flames, scapeshift, all played board wipes save 2 and plenty other spells and jank wincon.)
the second is path to exile, while there is a arugumnet for bolt and push, realistically if we carnt fight it bolt winot kill it, and the really difficult to deal with stuff for us, can shrug off pushes (gurmags, hollow ones, eldrazi, primal titan ect) so path is the best option (it is not mb because of the ramping effect, as ramping our opponent to a board wipe can be particularly reckless for this deck, hence placing them in sb.
Knight of Autumn was almost built for the deck, as she works in in multiple sb slots, (solid life gain, solid artifact and enchantment hate, or just a +1 counter holder for avatar) she very relevant and allows more dedicated slots to trouble matchups
(historically, rest in peace and stony silence. both were big parts if the sb when KCI was still meta, (they also did solid work against other decks) but you needed to hit one of these turn 2 against KCI or just loose (and you lost sometimes the next turn anyway)
stony has been replace with collector and ive drop rest in peace completely, with the shift back to tribal statgerys and away from all in gy strategies
with the down shift in cmc and more focused on all out aggression ive also added 2 Selfless spirits to add another aggressive creature that can act as protection.
this is my current SB
2x Collector Ouphe
3x Gaddock Teeg
3x Knight of Autumn
3x Path to Exile
2x Pithing Needle
2x Selfless Spirit
ok now why MB Dromoka's Command?
first and foremost all its modes are relevant to the deck, the fight for minor removal, the counter for pump, and avatar, the sac a search for azcanta, harden scales, pyro ascension (and more recently wilderness rec), and finally, the strain up bolt protection, but also damage based boardwipe of anger of the gods or sweltering suns protection (also gutshot and lightning axe are becoming more popular targets.) the spells versatile and is very very rarly a dead draw.
my mb has changed a little since my last post to include a little more W in the mb
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Dryad Militant
3x Experiment One
4x Hexdrinker
1x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3x Loam Lion
4x Narnam Renegade
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Strangleroot Geist
3x Forest
3x Horizon Canopy
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Blossoming Defense
3x Dromoka's Command
2x Vines of Vastwood
Enchantment (3)
3x Rancor
really liking loam lion, its nice that it continues to stay a 2/3 with active blood moon around and that it can be played by a canopy without need a shock. trialing a single Kytheon, as hes easy to flip and is another 1 mana creature that becomes a 4/4 to attack with turn 3.
dropped one eone (as hes consistently the weakest one drop to play past turn 2) and one scooze (this may change with the uptic in bridgevine alter decks)
nacatal is bad for this deck, as it requires going into 3 color, and becoming much more vulnerable to bloodmoon, (as is even with a turn 3 moon i can still play a strangleroot the turn after without to much worry) it's also very shock heavy meaning instead of maybe shocking once a game im shocking at least 2 times and that can be pretty painful in the current meta.
both brawl and thrash are both very very inferior to dro command,
the reason to not just play naya zoo,
there is a lot of tempo decks with alot of removal in the meta currently, and fair aggressive creature decks need either huge tribal payoffs of unfair advantages (like affinity) to be faster. we can not speed up and we cannot add super synygy to win, so we need to protect instead, vines and blossoming are the reasons to stay heavy green, (along with strangleroot as i feel strangleroot is an extremely underrated card) this also get around a lot of the tradianl hate (like bloodmoon) while minimizing life loss form the mana base. lastly staying heavy green means that trample is much more common, and trample is surprisingly relevant atm against decks like humans, spirits and thing in the ice.
as for the cycle land, as someone whos tested it in both this format and in others, i think it is a lot better that people give in credit for (just like narnams, blossoming defences and more recently hexdrinkers) in a fetchless build, but i also think people are going to have play it them selves to find this out. (highly recommend you play 8-10 games with it in and compared to how it runs with and without, yes you dont what to play in turn 1-2 but thats why i upped the land count, and laying a tapped land is better than laying no lands (something treetop village taught us a long time ago)
i also agree
BUY YOUR HEXDRINKERS NOW! the priced has already spiked in the last day (this is from europe price spike is from £6.14 to 9.48 for a per card when buying a playset via card market the european TCG Player) (and most most other uk venues are now out of stock for preorders ) from the amount of play its seeing online in jund and rock decks (along with all the zoo- delver- tron decks its being run in) it's also turning up in every commander deck that runs green and is seeing some fring legacy list (not sure if its good enough to be a legacy staple), the price may go down about a month after release but it may also do a phoenix (although probably not to that level) and go up and stick at the $15-18 price range (it is a mythic in a supplemental set after all). and if worse come to worse it is a auto EDH staple now, 18 months after release it will hit the 10-12 range just from that. so money back and then some.
i've tested most of these cards and hear my take on the
damping sphere, the big downside of sphere is we only need it for tron, a dryad militant is as solid anit storm teck as it gets. but the main disadvantage of sphere is that on turns 3-4 we are waiting to play both threats and pump spells every turn, this (with our land base) limits us to 1 spell s turn which is a big downside as against tron (the matchup where we need it most) its slows u down enough for be boardwiped even through tron.
hexdrinker is solid in both fetchless and fetchbased mana bases (i may well become a staple 4 of in the deck. its probably worth waiting to see how this pans out before adding it to the primer)
savage swipe, strick upgrade on prey upon for super budget builds and maybe mb playable going forwards in fetchless mono builds
Collector Ouphe solid hate against tron, affinity, scales. but it doesn't hit bridge or chalice so its good but we need other hate specific to chalice and bridge.
weather the storm, is only better than feed the clan and life goes on in specific circumstances, its definitely suboptimal when facing burn and, zoo, hollow one, dreadge, and about even to clan vs mono red phoenix. (for now, if storm, eggs, or something similar breaks out this may be a huge advantage.)
scale up, agreed, to slow and sub optimal
Force of Vigor, i think in most situations this isn't a upgrade on existing tec, we dont worry about blood moon, and we are fast enough against affinity with other removal to be competitive, the only place this is better than rec sege, manglehorn and return to nature (which probably dose deserve an entry in the primer) is against mono red prison or enchantress both of which are exceedingly rare in modern.
ok
Tranquil Thicket
and the reason i think this a auto include as a 2-3 of in mono none fetch/non canopy builds
first president on there use. mono cycle lands of there respective colors are extremely heavily used in one format in one type of deck and that is pauper in aggro decks, and lightly in mono colored midrange and control decks. there are exception to this rule and most of the time they happen in blue and green, and that is because historically in pauper there has been a over abundance of spells and effects that interact with basics, either with bouce effects (like daze) or ramo effects like Quirion Ranger and Land Grant .ect but the point is that these cycle lands are played in hyper aggro decks with 17 lands as three ofs, the reason is yes they can slow you down a turn but they also substantially increase consistency of mono color decks. as without fetchlands, powerful utility lands we are at a disadvantage and are very very vulnerable to flooding, (in contrast to things like control and aggro that can use the large amount of mana later on. cycle lands are very much like slow horizon canopies, yes they are inferior to fetchlands, fast duels and canopys (and yes creture lands) but they are better than basics.
creture lands are better hands down but they are bad in multiples as they cannot be used in multiples fast so these fill a similar role.
the reason up changed the land base up in my new budget list is that, first the deck is vulnerable to land flooding and screwing and the deck needs to get to three land drops turn 3, and that requires a higher land base than what we have (yes we have been making do for a while but we now doesn't need to) and yes if we get one of these as a land drop we play it like we do the man lands, but this means that if we draw them mid/late game we have something for the deck to do in increase our chance if that action card, in essence they provide a more consistent mana base as well as a late game mana sink and card draw ability.
yes my reference to pauper decks may be a little off as pauper is a slightly slower format than modern, but mono G stompy on a budget is a slower deck due to its lack of ramp and fetchlands than the rest of modern, so if we are going to be a turn 5 deck might as well make it so we can win turn 5.
so in a higher land base deck using three of cycle lands- no fetchland and no horizon canopies.
pros
mana sink
card draw
makes a colored mana
increases consistency of land drops
cons
if used as one of first three land drops slows mana base (but your still making the land drop)
in very rare cases makes opening hands unkeepable (you have 2 tap lands and lots of aggressive action)
to me the advantage slightly outways the disadvantage but only time and testing will truly tell.
ok this would be my go to
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Dryad Militant
3x Experiment One
4x Hexdrinker
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Steel Leaf Champion
4x Strangleroot Geist
16x Forest
2x Hashep Oasis
3x Tranquil Thicket
2x Treetop Village
Enchantment (2)
2x Rancor
3x Aspect of Hydra
2x Dismember
3x Vines of Vastwood
Sorcery (2)
2x Savage Swipe
i've uped the land count slightly in the mono-budget version of the deck (sits around $80 on tcg)
the resons for this are 4 fold
first Tranquil Thicket is a really good card, and being able to cycle instant speed in the late game or having a tapland in the early game is pretty solid.
second the deck can play the better pump spell in vines over blossom (blossom is better in hyper aggro but vine is better with a larger manabase)
third playing steel leaf constantly is much less of an issue
forth Hexdrinker provides a very good way to sink mana in the mid-late game, soloing as you have the mana to make it work
cuts
1 eone, with the meta how it is dryad militant is needed and is the best turn one play, hexdrinkers are both one drops early and huge wincons late game. while eones are solid turn 1-2s but terrible top deck late game.
pump spell for another savage swipe. basically swipe is a slow pump spell that also acts as removal for a lot of the meta with your onedrops without loosing them (bob, snapcaster, thalia, meddling mage, spell queller, goblin guilds ect, are all now solid removal targets off of our pump spells.
you could probably drop a cycle land or oasis for another of the other, or another forest without much worry, (its something that will have to tested to be shore of )
but this should be a pretty optimal budget build.
As you planning on going a little more into g have you considered hexdrinker, it's been testing extremely well in a super agressive version of stompy and is now a 4 of in temure delver list (some times over goyf)
Is meh but ok as a one drops but if you get to three lands it's an extremely solid "three drop". It also tends to be a removal magnet meaning that your better stuff stays safe (I would require a bigger splash into g for a consistanty being able to play it by turn 2 but it may work.
ok time to back to deck building principles with this i think
reasons to run snow
Ice-Fang Coatl: solid tempo card
Dead of Winter: solid board wipe
Marit Lage's Slumber: an ok wincon, not having haste is a big downside and ledgendy type means multiples are bad.
On Thin Ice: honestly not worth running, putting ourselves into 4 color when trying to function of basics seems silly and no one runs chained to the rocks for a reason
Snow stuff is new, cool and trendy again: yes totally agree, im hear right
so if we include the first three we have a tempo shell with a possible combo wincon
we need snow permanents which means mostly lands, we need to draw out the game so counterspells and board wipes with a land ramp package while avoiding cards with heavy mono color commitments.
so in the order i think of them
snow
4 Ice-Fang Coatl: pure tempo advantage and maybe sometimes removal
3 Dead of Winter : its dead in a control matchup and we have blue for snap casters if need be, solid board wipe
2 Marit Lage's Slumber: its a legendary permanent and without haste so should be used as a alt wincon and card selection engin.
ramp
3 growth spirals: does everything we what the deck to do, except chump block
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder, chump blocks!!! , ramping and fetching needed colors
more filteringing
1 Search for Azcanta: card selection and ramp
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy: snapcaster that doesn't die to board wipes
removal
2 Fatal Push: stuff needs to die
1 Abrupt Decay: along with everything else
2 Assassin's Trophy: even lands
other tempo auto includes
2 Snapcaster Mage: beautiful graveyard value!!!!
4 Remand : stall + cantrip
2 Cryptic Command: very high color requirements but its the best
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang: because awesome and a wincon
my hatred for humanity
1 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales: value engin, hate survives board wipes.... also i hate 8rack
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor: what can i say, i hate everyone else two
and 24 lands
3 frost march: yes they are bad but where control we can a few tapped land
4 Prismatic Vista: come to mummy
2 Verdant Catacombs: just two more fetchland
1 Breeding Pool: and a shock
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: The best dual land of all
2 Field of Ruin: Hate Tron, Fetches snow... YAY!
5 Snow island
4 Snow Forest
2 Snow Swamps
notable omissions
White, personally i think the deck either runs White or Green, White is basically esper control with a much worse wincon and a much more clunky land package
bitterblossom: really tempted and they may well work in the deck.
wilderness rec + Teachings package: another solid direction for the deck, but i felt the inclusion of so many socerys and cretures made it a tad to clunky
red/scred definite maybe in if the deck needs more spot removal
more cryptics: guys casting cost, i feel like 2 might be a little to optimistic
Scrying Sheets: ok maybe i could make room for one or two but i think the deck needs the colors and interaction
frostwalk bastion: again maybe, but it would need to be only a 2 or 1 color decks as we need those colors and this is no colonnade or tarpit
either/both snow rocks: no they are bad, if they where not snow permanents this wouldn't even be being discussed
Abominable Treefolk: NOOOOO... like really
Ohran Viper: the only other snow creature that i would consider in a tempo deck, if it had flash, maybe but as is its a stinkweed imp and ninja of the deep hours, but worse that either so no.
Glacial Revelation: only in a wilderness rec list, as tapping out three mana to get a couple of lands is pretty bad, Into the North is better as the land goes into the battlefield an its a true tutor effect for sheets or the color you need. i also think that using glacial hoping to mill eons is a little cute better just to use......
collective brutality: ok im on the fence about this one and i'm totally willing to have my mind changed, its superbe in all ist modes and works in most situations
the deck may end up wanting some more counter spells and answers, and i think the planeswalkers and tribe elders are the best place to look for changing things out
its not a great deck but please when brewing guy don't play bad card just because they are new,
the deck could also fit a eons, narset combo quite well and that could be very fun. but im waiting to see how that works out before adding it hear.
lastly hoping for some more snow support in future standard sets, if this dose come to pass this deck may well get a large power boost.
the main advantage of serpent over djinn is being push proof, push is now the third most common removals spell in modern and being resistant to it is a big deal, the second main advantage is that its can take out huge goyfs, gurmags and make most death shadows pause, yes djinn can block a phoenix, but phoenix's are rarly the issue in that matchup, the big issue tends to be thing in the ice.
curious obsession, i think this is a straight up bad card for the deck, the reason it works in standard is the 12-16 one drops to equip it to and a load of defensive spells and lots of two mana removal, modern is different most modern removal is on mana, and unlike in standard where mono u flyers is one of the more aggressive end of things this is much less so. i think that's where the bug differences in card choices have come from, this is at its core a spell slinger tempo deck where as the standard is a creature disruption tempo deck, decks like fairies/rogues/u/w flyers are much more sued to a creature enchantment, delver and pteramander bother need the spell slinging to work and i feel curios takes away from the decks synagis for a maybe card draw and a not very impactful pump
spell slinging tempo needs to spend turns 2-3 stopping our opponents game plan and threats as otherwise we don't get a turn 4, we are nowhere near fast enough to race, and if we try we lose, the decks is already on the bad side of 2-1s with shoal and now force we simply cannot afford the 2-1 we take from an opponent pushing a our delver turn 2 when we tap to play curiosity or have our stuff blocked by a well timed rattle chains. it's also using up a mana turn 2 which we need for remands or cantrips to find our next counter/land and make our serpent and ptermander cheaper and help our delver.
the last issue for me with obsession is that its taking up the slot for serum visions and disruption, visions has 2 major roles in the deck, first its adding another cantriping soc that we can see with delver, and to reduce costs for serpent and ptermander. secondly it's the only card in the decks that allows you to manipulate the top of your deck which makes delvers ability to flip vastly more consistent.
and like i said above if we are not disrupting our opponent we often don't get to turn 3, solid removal and 1 mana counter magic is extremely important (you never have to deal with phonixs if you can consistently stop there faithless lootings.)
now with the new free counter spell djinn may be better and workable in the deck
other creatures that have been tried and not quite worked in the past include
merfolk trickster (our closest thing to a budget snap caster in function we have)
curios homunculus (this dude is a personal favorite as hes a very constant turn 3 flip and he dose wonders when cryptic and chart a course where both 3 of mb)
spellstutter sprite (with the meta speeding up and more and more onedrops being played sprite may be worth another look (may work well in a deck with obsession as it provides another body to work with)
Illusory Angel (most similar to djinn but can be played in decks with utility lands much easier but struggles to come down late game (she really needed flash))
Venser, Shaper Savant(really good for a turn or 2 but no evasion can be a bit lacking)
Nimble Obstructionist (not half bad, one of the best choices if not running clique)
less budget
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy (very very good in gainst control)
Thing in the Ice (used to be budget, now no longer so)
sb looks like a solid start
i highly recommend 2-3 copies of Ceremonious Rejection. is a extremely solid card against tron and all versions of affinity, it used to be a 4 of sb when kci was around but is still good enough against the others and sb tec (like relics bridges and chalices) that's its still a priority.
Spell Snare is very very good against particular decks and because of its reprint in battle bond is still sitting under $1 so well worth 2 of sb
i highly recommend 2 Dismember is your 75, it provides a way to deal with big threats that you would otherwise struggle to keep off the board
boomarang is nice Echoing Truth or repeal can sometimes be better (depends on your meta)
Hurkyl's Recall is fantastic at making affinity cry (less useful now but still one of the best source of artifact hate in modern)
Dispel for counter wars against control.
shadow of doubt is an awesome sb option in the current meta as either just stopping a fetch (against deathshadow) to stopping cord of calling/ whir of invention/ gifts ungiven. its also one of the best ways to stop titan shift decks.
i really think you need some gy hate, on a budget im a fan of tormod's crypt, although nihil spellbomb and ravenous trap will both also work very well.
without thing in the ice or cryptic commands the deck really struggles to deal with go wide strategies, the best option i've found is engulf the shores (although there is a case for sleep and Whelming Wave in a deck that runs 4 serpents)
In a fetchless build I suspect it's still going to contain steel leafs as narnam and the lion just don't really work in a fetchless build. But it may well be worth young the land count a little to something closer to compensate for a strong mana sink and casting steel leaves consistantly
I'll draw up a new budget list a little later and see what works.