MTG Salvation

I agree with elconquistador. Dreadhorde Arcanist looks strong, but when you figure out all the possible outcomes it's almost always best as a 1-2 mana "deal 3 damage" istant. I have a for-fun wizard-burn build and maybe it's too slow even there, even compared to something like Viashino Pyromancer which always deals at least 2 damage thanks to its ETB trigger.

I also wondered about Curious Obsession in Modern, but i fear that against interactive decks, it would open us to a lot of 2 for 1, while in uninteractive match-up, we should probably spare our mana for counterspells instead of tapping-out.

Hello everybody.
How do you feel about mainboard removals?
Premise: I am an inexperienced player and i have mostly played the budget robots version, so my P.O.V. on the deck can be totally wrong.
That said, i don't feel particularly satisfied with Galvanic Blast or Dispatch in the mainboard. It's nice to blast the bird or some annoying creature, but usually we're either fast enough to just race them or their creature is too big to be killed or it is recursive(and in both cases Blast is "just" reach). [card]Dispatch[/card is likely a better PtE, but imho it's too narrow and slow to be in the MB and i'd rather try to close the game before they can deploy their bigger threats.
Then again, i see that almost any traditional affinity list on Mtg Top8 runs 3-4 Galvanic Blasts, except some spicy list with Ensoul Artifact, Stubborn Denial and/or Thoughtcast (which i tried and liked as virtual additional threats, but never totally convinced me), so i am probably wrong.

Well, i suppose this list in particular ia designed as a budget deck and i would look at it as a starting point. I also thought that Fiery Temper was bad, but the full packages of Couriers, Flame of Keld and Faithless Looting make it really easy to discard it. That said, Gut Shot and Insult/Injury are definitively the flex slots of the deck and i too am wondering if the discard package is worth it. I really love Bomat Courier (as anyone here) and also quite like the Flame of Keld (especially as a 4 of), but i am not sure they are enough to justify Fiery Temper and Looting; this last in particular is probably there just to help fueling Temper, because the deck plays onlyn 18 lands, and no other graveyard synergie outside of those two pyromancers.

Guys, have you seen the list that aggro AF list that 5-0ed on MtGO a few days ago? It's technically a Bomat Red deck, so i thought that we should discuss it. Here's an EFro's article about it, if you're unfamiliar with the list.
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/card-of-the-day-the-flame-of-keld-modern/

I really like the whole elves beatdown idea and wanna throw my two cents in. In my opinion, as an aggro deck with even less ways than fishes to give evasion to our troops we need some reach, similarly to Goblins or Zoo. So we should go either G/b for Shaman (probably still dropping Chord for LtS) or G/R for BBE and Bolt, maybe going as far as replacing CoCo, which plays poorly with the Red splash.

Then, while Steel Leaf Champion seems good is it batter than another 3 mana lord?

Last, but nor least, today we received a new tool in the shape of a 2/3 elf warrior for 1G, with a minor resilience to removal. It's not particularly exciting, but it's another nice addition to the list of elves boosted by Bramblewood Paragon.

Hi, i imagine you all saw the new Ghitu Lavarunner. IMO that card is probably the best candidate as a budget GG: it is nowhere near as good on t1, but it's easily on par from turn 2. Thus it felt like it had to be introduced in this discussion.

It must be said that the Grenade Topdeck was strong with him.

Hello guys, long time no see! I recently started doubting if UW is the right colour combination for budget bots. Considering 4c manabases and Opals out of budget, we have to choose between White (Tempered Steel, Dispatch, token generators, sideboard techs and fringe cards like Court Homunculus and Toolcraft Exemplar), Blue (counterspells, Master of Etherium, Ensoul Artifact and Thoughtcast) and Red (Galvanic Blast, Shrapnel Blast and Whipflare). Right now, my opinion is that Red should be included, due to Galvanic Blast's sheer power. The problem is what do i cut for it?
Please share your thoughts.

I intended to suggest a playstyle for vampires for those who wants to play vampires. If one simply wants to play a top tier midrange deck, he/she should choose DS, Jund, Abzan.

The same if one wants to play a top tier tribal: he/she should pick Humans, Elves or Merfolk.

I want to throw my two cents on the subject. As someone already said we are not as esplosive as Elves, nor as synergic as humans and our lords are nowhere near to merfolks'. So, what is our competitive advantage over other tribes? Imho that advantage come from being mainly in the best modern colour: black.
Vampires are natural born midrangers: they have access to the best discard and removal packages in all modern without even splashing, while being good stand-alone creatures.

DISCLAIMER:I'm going to explain this sentence, but keep in mind that i love interaction and play a mono-b midrange version, so take my word with a grain of salt.

What i noticed playing the deck is that unlike humans, Elves or Merfolk, our creatures are not dependant on lords or totally subpar when compared with those of non-tribal decks. Gifted Aetherborn, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Asylum Visitor, Bloodghast... we play a lot of creatures who are fine on their own and almost incidentally benefit from the same lord. In other words, i think that vampires' historical tribal advantage was having powerful and indipendent individuals. The spirit of Black itself: selfishness and "greatness at any cost".

But i said "historical" for a reason: Ixalan brought us a lot of new toys and a lot them are white. White is a powerful colour and so are some of the new vampires, but its philosophy is the opposite of black's! For this reason i struggle to see how our long time staples can combine with those new "numbers matter" members of the tribe. Maybe i'm wrong, but i foresee the birth of a new archetype, more similar to WB Tokens or even to white weenies, than to what we have played until now. Even the new mechanic, ascend, seems to be made for midrangey, tokens strategies.

That card is the reason why i'm here. Mardu has an appealing curve, playing a T1 Vampire Lacerator into a T2 Legion Lieutenant, into a T3 Stromkirk Captain to end with a T4 Vampire Nocturnus. But that is probably too good to be real.

Hi Bkotz! As always, i suggest you to start from a primer or a tested budget list (like this one https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-67-13-tix-modern-mono-red-burn). Then, if you want to play burn, you should think of it like a 7 cards combo. Every single one of your spells must be able to deal at least 3 damage to your opponent in order to achieve 21 damage in three-four turn. Obviously, this is a very simplicistic way of explaining burn and accounts for no interaction with your opponent and a perfect draw, but is nonetheless a good starting point.

I'm sorry to bother you, diateone, but i am fairly new on the site and i can't find your list.

Thanks, i totally forgot that card. I suppose that it doesn't help racing your opponent, but a 1/2 flyer isn't that big of a menace either. Also, you side them to disrupt and slow down the opponent, not to be more aggressive.