Holy crap Daredevil is ridiculous for this. Absolutely ridiculous. Hit your opponents thought seize? Path? Removal? And it exiles from their graveyard? This is NUTS!
The first strike is absolutely relevant too, since it will have to eat a removal. Boys I think we found ourselves a new main deck addition.
2 copies of Flooded Grove seems ambitious, especially considering you yourself talk about turn 1 being so important. Those guys do nothing on turn 1. Thassa seems a little cute here. The upkeep scry doesn't seem entirely worth 3 mana and you're not heavy enough into devotion to reliably get her rumbling into the redzone. The idea of making a Goyf unblockable does have its appeal, but I'm not sure that's worth the card and all the mana it takes to activate it, ya know?
Is Thirst for Knowledge with only 4 artifacts the best thing to be doing with 3 mana? Discarding an excess Vial with Baral on the battlefield seems absolutely ludicrous, but it also seems somewhat Christmas Landy. Chart a Course might be a better way to draw cards, especially if you get to do it for 1 mana from time-to-time.
That said, I love the 1-of Baral. Cryptic, Electrolyze, Remand, and Mana Leak all make him look real good. Remand puts the card back in their hand, draws you two cards, discards 1 card, and does it all for 1 blue mana. Pretty sweet.
I love Fulminator Mage as a card, but I'm not sure this is the deck for him. It's an extra colored mana in a greedy mana base and it can't be recurred unlike Stone Rain. Spreading Seas is also something to look into. It costs 1 less, draws you a card, and is easier to cast, at the cost of not permanently getting rid of the land.
All that said, I'm really intrigued by the idea of a really draw-heavy build like this. Let us know how testing goes.
The 2 copies of flooded grove have been okay thus far. I've been able to play aether vial from them T1, which is better than a tapped land/burn land.
You're totally right about Thassa being a cute pick. The main reason I'm running it, is that a LOT of jeskai/esper control decks manage to get Search for Azcanta out before I have 2 mana up for a counter (I cast vial for t1). Once its on the board, I just start falling behind very quickly.
With Thirst for Knowledge, ... you know you're totally right. I'm being too greedy with that card. In hindsight, Remand is a MUCH better slot than Thirst. Same with Fulminator Mage, I'll just cut it down to 1 and bring Stone Rain up to 2. Having to wait for vial to tick up to 3 just to play it, is way too slow against tron. Plus, Stone Rain has more synergy with Snap Caster, AND I can use it against Forest with a bunch of Utopia Sprawl + Overgrowth ramp. +1
So far my results have been okay. I'm really liking baral for the reasons you mentioned. But if I'm not on the play, I really struggle what to do on turn 1. Do I cast vial t1, and not have Spell Snare up for their t2? And then on t2, do I not cast again so that I can Remand or Mana Leak ? Playing Vial on T3 feels straight up awful, and these tempo decisions I feel could lose me out midgame. This also plays poorly into T1 discards like Thoughtseize and Inquisition.
Against control matchups, I feel out-grinded. Search for Azcanta, just makes their lategame card quality so much better than mine. Yes I have the soft-lock with eWit + cryptic, but my opponent has straight up more mana to counter my counters. Mana Leak becomes useless, as does Remand. I usually find myself stuck around 4-6 lands, to their 7-8, and they will grind out until they can smash face with Celestial Colonnade with a backup plan.
I'm going to take out Thassa into the sideboard, put in scooze, and overall un-thin this deck. It feels a bit airy at the moment when I'd prefer to always be doing something each turn for tempo.
I think I'm really pushing for some experimentation here, but I can't be sure if I'm getting any really good results. So far T1 seems SUPER important. And I'm basically cantripping my way through the game. It doesn't feel too right with the deck, but what do you guys think?
Sideboard stretched too thin? Main decklist stretched too thin? I figured I could get away with 20 lands because of Baral, Chief of Compliance as well as extra digging (2 Opt, 3 Serum Visions, 1 Thirst + potential from Baral)
Has anyone tried/thought of trying this combo or the similar familiar's ruseeternal witness combo in a more delveresque shell? I've been toying with the concept because I can't afford aether vials and that variant of the deck probably wouldn't use them. You could run 12 cantrips (opt,serum visions, and thought scour) to help negate the possibility of drawing the wrong half of the deck, and for threats you could use hooting mandrils and young pyromancer (alongside delver of course), both of which benefit greatly from the high cantrip count. The downside of having too much air in the deck could largely be mitigated by the endgame the softlock would provide as well.
Hmmmm, unfortunately this is one of the pricier decks in modern, with 4 tarmogoyfs, 4 snaps, 4 aethervials. If you're not running aethervial, it really cuts the power of eternal witness. Sometimes I like to think of this deck as a "birthing pod" deck, that lets you deploy any/all ETB tools from your hand. Without that "cheat into play" mechanic, eWit and most of the other ETB creatures lose power.
But none the less, if you want to try it out, I'd suggest swapping the vials with manlands and go the control route (though jeskai control would probably be objectively better).
Have there been any thoughts to add Baral, Chief of Compliance to this deck? The more I think of it, the more I see a 1-of being completely and totally worth it. Remands are suddenly U, mana leaks are only U, cryptic are UUU, electrolyze is only UR, this can help with side board too.
With vial, mana organizing can be tight, which is why some control matchups can be tough (even though eternal command overall has a pretty big advantage vs control).
Plus, this guy does a free optional loot, which is RIDICULOUS.
It can be really good in clutch situations where you're sitting on 1 blue, and you can vial this in and pull off a remand, or a mana leak.
Hey, all. I love AEther Vial. Merfolk is my primary deck in Modern and I've dipped my toe into Eldrazi and Taxes as well, but what I haven't done is play the sweetest Vial deck in Modern. So here I am, throwing together a build to bring to my LGS. The choice between RUG and BUG was a tough one. I like RUG's burn a lot, but I like BUG's removal much better. Plus...BUG gets Hostage Taker, which I've been wanting to play in Modern since the day it was spoiled, going so far as to brew up an abominable lovechild between a Death and Taxes and Esper Flicker build.
So, here's the list I came up with. It's based on Todd Steven's list from above, but adding some of the stuff from more traditional RUG builds that he eschewed (Remands and Scooze and Opt) as well as trimming down on the Eternal Command package. What do you guys think? The sideboard still needs work, but it's a suitable placeholder until I get my 60 worked out a bit.
I love seeing variations of this deck splashing black instead of red, but I don't think this list is strong enough. Namely the fact that Lightning bolt is pretty much the most versatile card that also functions as a win condition. Bolt -> EWit -> bolt -> snap -> bolt is 9 damage from 1 bolt alone. Replacing red removal with black removal leaves you with no other win conditions other than board state.
The second drawback is the side boarding. Huntmaster of the fells is such a ridiculously, ridiculously good card in this deck, because it helps your life total (which usually is an issue with this deck) + board state. You can control it's triggers so much more easily with vial. In comparison, black's side board is kind of lacking. You need cards that can potentially "make up" for the holes in this deck, which are:
1) Its slow start
2) Its aggressive use of life total being a resource (for land fetching and taking free hits early game).
Huntmaster fixes this problem so nicely that it's even being main boarded now.
In comparison, damnation is the closest fix, however it doesn't stick, AND its symmetrical board wipe. Maelstrom Pulse can situationally be efficient. Thoughtseize is great, at the cost of exacerbating your life total. One suggestion for sure is to sideboard fulminator mage (tron is one of the hardest matchups vs vial). That being said, I really like your balance of spells here, and am very curious how your results fair !
This card is so disgustingly strong. I think this makes the BUG version of eternal command stronger than RUG. Thoughts?
Just the idea of 4 assassin's trophy, 4 abrupt, 4 spell caster with vial is gross.
The first strike is absolutely relevant too, since it will have to eat a removal. Boys I think we found ourselves a new main deck addition.
The 2 copies of flooded grove have been okay thus far. I've been able to play aether vial from them T1, which is better than a tapped land/burn land.
You're totally right about Thassa being a cute pick. The main reason I'm running it, is that a LOT of jeskai/esper control decks manage to get Search for Azcanta out before I have 2 mana up for a counter (I cast vial for t1). Once its on the board, I just start falling behind very quickly.
With Thirst for Knowledge, ... you know you're totally right. I'm being too greedy with that card. In hindsight, Remand is a MUCH better slot than Thirst. Same with Fulminator Mage, I'll just cut it down to 1 and bring Stone Rain up to 2. Having to wait for vial to tick up to 3 just to play it, is way too slow against tron. Plus, Stone Rain has more synergy with Snap Caster, AND I can use it against Forest with a bunch of Utopia Sprawl + Overgrowth ramp. +1
So far my results have been okay. I'm really liking baral for the reasons you mentioned. But if I'm not on the play, I really struggle what to do on turn 1. Do I cast vial t1, and not have Spell Snare up for their t2? And then on t2, do I not cast again so that I can Remand or Mana Leak ? Playing Vial on T3 feels straight up awful, and these tempo decisions I feel could lose me out midgame. This also plays poorly into T1 discards like Thoughtseize and Inquisition.
Against control matchups, I feel out-grinded. Search for Azcanta, just makes their lategame card quality so much better than mine. Yes I have the soft-lock with eWit + cryptic, but my opponent has straight up more mana to counter my counters. Mana Leak becomes useless, as does Remand. I usually find myself stuck around 4-6 lands, to their 7-8, and they will grind out until they can smash face with Celestial Colonnade with a backup plan.
I'm going to take out Thassa into the sideboard, put in scooze, and overall un-thin this deck. It feels a bit airy at the moment when I'd prefer to always be doing something each turn for tempo.
3x Eternal witness
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
1x Thassa, God of the Sea
2x Vendilion Clique
Instants (19)
2x Opt
2x Spell Snare
1x Vapor Snag
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Mana Leak
3x Remand
1x Electrolyze
1x Thirst for Knowledge
3x Cryptic Command
3x Serum Visions
Artifacts (4)
4x AEther Vial
Lands (20)
2x Breeding Pool
2x Steam Vents
1x Stomping Ground
2x Flooded Grove
1x Spirebluff Canal
1x Forest
4x Island
1x Mountain
3x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Ceremonious Rejection
1x Dispel
1x Negate
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Ancient Grudge
1x Stone Rain
2x Fulminator Mage
1x Anger of the Gods
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
I think I'm really pushing for some experimentation here, but I can't be sure if I'm getting any really good results. So far T1 seems SUPER important. And I'm basically cantripping my way through the game. It doesn't feel too right with the deck, but what do you guys think?
Sideboard stretched too thin? Main decklist stretched too thin? I figured I could get away with 20 lands because of Baral, Chief of Compliance as well as extra digging (2 Opt, 3 Serum Visions, 1 Thirst + potential from Baral)
Hmmmm, unfortunately this is one of the pricier decks in modern, with 4 tarmogoyfs, 4 snaps, 4 aethervials. If you're not running aethervial, it really cuts the power of eternal witness. Sometimes I like to think of this deck as a "birthing pod" deck, that lets you deploy any/all ETB tools from your hand. Without that "cheat into play" mechanic, eWit and most of the other ETB creatures lose power.
But none the less, if you want to try it out, I'd suggest swapping the vials with manlands and go the control route (though jeskai control would probably be objectively better).
Very recently there was a decklist VERY similar to this, but running blood moon: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=117667
^ This went 5th place.
Now, you could argue this works only because of Bloodmoon, but hope it'll help you reconsider!
With vial, mana organizing can be tight, which is why some control matchups can be tough (even though eternal command overall has a pretty big advantage vs control).
Plus, this guy does a free optional loot, which is RIDICULOUS.
It can be really good in clutch situations where you're sitting on 1 blue, and you can vial this in and pull off a remand, or a mana leak.
I love seeing variations of this deck splashing black instead of red, but I don't think this list is strong enough. Namely the fact that Lightning bolt is pretty much the most versatile card that also functions as a win condition. Bolt -> EWit -> bolt -> snap -> bolt is 9 damage from 1 bolt alone. Replacing red removal with black removal leaves you with no other win conditions other than board state.
The second drawback is the side boarding. Huntmaster of the fells is such a ridiculously, ridiculously good card in this deck, because it helps your life total (which usually is an issue with this deck) + board state. You can control it's triggers so much more easily with vial. In comparison, black's side board is kind of lacking. You need cards that can potentially "make up" for the holes in this deck, which are:
1) Its slow start
2) Its aggressive use of life total being a resource (for land fetching and taking free hits early game).
Huntmaster fixes this problem so nicely that it's even being main boarded now.
In comparison, damnation is the closest fix, however it doesn't stick, AND its symmetrical board wipe. Maelstrom Pulse can situationally be efficient. Thoughtseize is great, at the cost of exacerbating your life total. One suggestion for sure is to sideboard fulminator mage (tron is one of the hardest matchups vs vial). That being said, I really like your balance of spells here, and am very curious how your results fair !