MTG Salvation

I think Drive//Despair might be great in Elves

T1: 1 cmc Elf
T2: Elf Elf Elf
T3: Both Drive and despair, Draw 3, they discard 3. That's a ton of card advantage. I think it might give good game against combo decks that you can't interact with otherwise, where losing 3 cards, even 3 ones of their choice, is all the time you need anyway. This also seems like a pretty easy scenario to pull off, since they run like 16-20 1cmc elves. I have a have a hard time imagining Tron could come back from that.

I too just built this deck and took it to my LGS modern night.



Sideboard
1 pithing needle
1 vedelken shackles
1 Trinket MAge
1 Trophy Mage
3 Etherium Sculptor
3 judge's familiar
1 Ghost quarter

Match 1: GW Vizier/Devoted Druid 0-2
First game I mull away a hand of ballista, copter, copter, throne, Lodestone, landx2. Seemed too slow against an unknown opponent. I get comboed out on turn 3, unable to do anything. I side in pithing needle, Game 2 I mull away 1 land+epityr and an otherwise good hand. Again not sure if that was right. I don't really get going before I'm dead. I tutor for a shackles with trophy mage and cast it without quite enough mana to use it that turn. He combos for the win. One more turn and I'd have locked up the game with the vedelkan shackles.
I play him again for fun 2 times more, both of them very good interesting games and both of which I win, often on the back of shackles. A ballista on the board is hard for him to beat, even just sitting there at 1 counter. which I hadn't seen at all in the first two games. I think this match-up is actually pretty even or potentially even in our favor.

Match 2: Esper Control/Tempo
G1 he has endless removal for everything I play and then beats me down with a geist. Spell Queller is a beast since I run no removal at all. I also saw a spell snare this game, which ate an engineer.
G2 My hand is Land Land Epityr Golem, Mausoluem, Walker, land. I lead with epityr and find Cheif Engineer, Mausoleum, Land Land. I place them back Engineer, Land, Mausoleum, Land. Next turn I decide to slow roll the engineenr, my only enabler and play the mausoleum as some protection. The following turn I realize my mistake. I had thought I'd want that 4th land to eventually cast golem, but if I'd put them mausoleum next, I could have played it and had 3 power of wanderers up to counter something. Instead I draw the land, play out the engineer and it gets spell snared with the mana up to pay for a potential wanderer tax. The 2 1/1's trade with a geist. Next turns golem gets pathed and thats the game. I think if I'd done that differently, I might have had a chance at it.

Match 3: Bye

Match 4: Bring to light Scapeshift
Game 1 he is at 7 live with me and a strong board but casts madcap experiment for platinum empirion. I realize my only way out is a Ballista for 8 to kill it. 2 copters keep me finding gas, but I make another mistake and play my first ballista at 3, which eats a lightning bolt. 2nd one gets cryptic commanded. 3rd one lands but he finds a scapeshift and wins.
Game 2 I keep a slowish hand with only a etherium sculptor as an enabler, which gets sumarily bolted. My hand of copters and thrones doesn't do much before he scapeshifts for the win on time.

I had no idea what to be sideboarding here. I think I put in the sculptors and traded the epityrs for judges familiars just to try to be faster but really didn't know what I'd have wanted vs empirion even if I was better at the deck.

Things I've learned/ Questions for you all.:

• Deck is super fun to play. and I'm sure there is a lot more tuning I could do. And some of the plays with hasted convoke/copter/architect are hard to figure out. More play experience is for sure in order.
• I felt like my deck didn't show up for several games and never really got the explosive starts I've seen in solitare play. I think future versions will have less 3 drops and more Etherium Sculptors or 1 drops.
• I'm tempted by some way to answer creatures. Do people play path or fatal push or something? Or even discard to take them out premptively?
• What does one sideboard against scapeshift? Do I just need to be faster? Ghost quarters seemed irrelvant despite having multiples in play. He had plenty of basics of all the colors I might have tried to screw him out of.. Emepiron was rough.
• Sword of light and shadow was excellent against an Esper control deck in testing during the day. That is definitely staying.
• Never played a creature match to make Ensnaring bridge or daring thief good. But I never saw either of them anyway. I think Bridge may move to the sideboard. I want to see thief at least once before I give up on it completely.
• My LGS has a ton of tron.

Hey there,
Long time stalker, first time poster who just built the deck with some questions:

1) Are 1 land hands + sage of epityr hands keepable? I feel like I keep doing that, seeing 4 non lands (or even 1 land and no shuffle) and getting screwed. I think the answer may be no.

2) Etherium sculptor seems like the worst card in the deck in the draws I've done. 1 mana off doesn't really enable big plays like engineer or architect do. He's a pretty good supplement to those 2. Is this other peoples experience? More 1 drops, spellskite, Renowned weaponsmith or Contraband Kingpin all seem promising instead.

3) Sideboarding seems hard: with such a large and versatile core and engine, the options to side in are great but its hard to figure out what to take out What do people take out against major matchups (affinity, tron, jund/junk variants)?

4) I'm trying out a 3 drop trophy mage package, which seems lackluster with only bridge+light and shadow as targets. What 2nd sword would you want after light and shadow? Fire and Ice seems nice for more draw and a clock.

5) Ensnaring bridge+throne of the god-pharaoh or walking ballista seems like a pretty solid lock. Throw in a pithing needle on karn or a welding jar to stop decay and it seems like a few decks just can't beat it. This had me thinking of using a trophy mage/trinket mage package to find the pieces as needed, which are fine on their own. Has anyone tried this?

6 Throne of the god-pharaoh got me excited, so I decided to double down on the tap effects with inspired idea with disciple of deceit and daring thief alongside a single copy of sky hussar. So far in draws by myself, sky hussar has been fine but might just be worse than another smugglers copter, daring thief has been pretty solid (Trade a sage for a goyf? Yes please) but disciple of deceit has been somewhat lackluster. My manabase is too budget to hit CC on turn 2 reliably. I think he could be good in a more dedicated skyhussar build with more copies of both, but as is doesn't quite get there. Has anyone tried anything like this? I think my testing has suggested that this is not the road to go down. Occasionally it will fetch up an much-needed architect or sword though, which feels really good.

Also, a unrelated forum question. How do I post one of those nice decklists. As in, what is the syntax for it?

I think TfTD is plausibly playable but likely over-hyped. Remember, you get nothing along the way. There are quite a few other cards that look very strong but their conditions aren't met enough to make them strong. Look at hoarding Dragon or Quest for the holy relic. If you go too all in on their task, you end up losing to inconsistency while without some effort they aren't quite strong enough and are bad late game draws.

Also, compare to other 2 drops like kiln fiend, young pyromancer or many of the prowess creatures. By the time you've gotten TfTD going you've A: Hit for 10ish damage or B: Created a permanent 6 power across 5 bodies.

Also, while I don't usually like the 'dies to removal spell' argument, a lot of people seem like they are building decks pretty all-in on the single 2 drop, which seems prone to problems. First, unlike other 2 drops, they have a good window to draw an answer and can easily prioritize it if/when TfTD becomes a problem. Further, a lot of the other things you might play in that spot are not quite as vulnerable by generating value along the way or applying immediate pressure.

I agree that it has the best chance in a more control oriented build, but then it starts competing with 5 drop game enders.

Minor edit to both of the above decks: zulaport cutthroat is strictly better than blood artist in your decks with the 1 power. Its also a human for xathrid necromancer.

Root maze is one of my pet cards. Its neat to see people trying to run it.

However, if you are running root maze, you shouldn't be running fetches. Punish the other guy more and all that.

Also, abrupt decay costs 2. myth realized costs 1. Even if they do abrupt decay it after you activate, you've still broken even on mana and cards. And that is pretty much the best possible situation for their decay....

Quote from TheGrease »

I think that cards like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx are a better way to boost mono-color decks instead of trying to gimp 3+ color decks. Devotion is a good mechanic that could have probably been pushed a bit more for Modern. Hopefully, we see similar help for mono-color and 2-color decks in the future.

I agree completely. I was excited for devotion and wish it had been a little more pushed.

I personally see the easy multicolored manabases in modern as a loss of diversity. Monocolored decks are unplayable (you'd always be better off splashing). Magic is interesting when we get (and are forced to) think through our decisions. As is, you are never required to consider your 2nd color or even 3rd color. I think that is a loss of diversity there.

Similarly, I see 12 fetchlands in every single high-tier deck. That too is a loss of diversity. I wish people had to think through those decisions, where currently there is no reason not to max out on fetches.

A Pyre for Konda's army 2RR

Instant

A Pyre for Konda's army deals damage to target player equal to the number of creatures that player controls.[/quote]

Have you seen Rakdos Charm? It sees some play for exactly that reason. Much much stronger than your version, and still playable in other matchups.

I really like the life-paying search restriction. I really wish fetches weren't such an auto-include. Whenever something is an auto-include, there is limited diversity.

Why is everyone running return to the ranks instead of immortal servitude? It seems like if you are swept by a pyroclasm or something 4 mana to get back all your 1 cc creatures is much stronger than 4 mana to get back just 2 of them. Are people regularly casting it for only 1 or taking advantage of the convoke that much?

Basically everything in the deck is cmc 1 anyway.... Am I missing something?

I would love to see the fetches banned. I know it is unpopular, as they were just printed and are financially valuable. But here me out:

Some previously used criteria for banning:
Ubiquitous: played as 8-12 in every single deck with very very few exceptions.
Format warping: Beyond enabling numerous multicolor strategies they also push a lot of other cards into broken territory. Goyf is amazing because of fetches. A 2/3 or 3/4 is not nearly the same as a 4/5. Treasure cruise/Dig were banned because filling your graveyard was too easy, mostly due to fetching. On the other hand, Death and Taxes is playable exclusively because of the dominance of fetch-heavy decks. If that isn't a testament to their might, I don't know what is.

Stifling of diversity: Other manabases are simply unplayable by extension. Monocolored decks are unplayable. 2 colored decks are also basically unplayble.
Time consuming: previously used against top and the eggs combo, frequent shuffling due to fetches certainly contributes to game times in a big way.

I actually think removing them would do amazing things for format diversity and would allow for several other unbans (dig, ponder, deathrite shaman, pod (not so strong without easy access to 3+ colors)).

Having just accumulated a set, this obviously isn't in my financial interest, but usually goal is to go after the enablers. I think the fetches are prime examples of highly ban-worthy cards.


edit: Woo! 200 posts!

I like the idea of cosmic horror. Its biggest problem is that it would break standard in half though.... Its also way way to complex and with too much text to fit on a normal card. I do like giving decks a big beater and rewarding them for casting it the old fashioned way.

What about

Cosmic Golem 5
Artifact Creature - Golem
Sunburst
~ gains Lifelink if W was spent to cast it
~ gains Deathtouch if B was spent to cast it
~ gains Trample if G was spent to cast it
~ gains Hexproof if U was spent to cast it
~ gains Haste if R was spent to cast it
2/2

Similar idea, but a little simpler. And less degenerate situations like an activated ability reading 1:destroy target creature... Is that likely to be fun?

I think it is a perfectly fair card (which is unusual to see on this board.) Yes, it is a harder to cast convolute. But its white, so isn't strictly worse.

The only question is if it passes the color pie test.

It might not be strong enough to see play though....

Angel of Jubilation tops my list

Shuts down
Thoughtseize
Pod
Fetches

The biggest and obvious drawback is that it dies horribly to bolt. If only it was a 2/4 or 3/4!
Or maybe if they printed a 2 mana toughness boosting bear to help it survive?

Shieldmdate W1
Human Soldier 2/3
Other creatures you control get +0/+1

Or something to that effect.

I really like it but strongly feel like it needs to BOTH EtB tapped AND only produce colorless. Also, it should put the extra land into play tapped.


Land of Opportunity
Land
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may place a basic land from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
T: add 1 to your mana pool

Would give mono-and dual color decks a big boost. Only producing colorless would push it even more into mono and duo-colored decks while.
Most decks are already excited to play mana elves which accomplishes exactly what this card does while not exposing you to potential 2-for-1s like most other ramp spells. Ramping 1->3 in any color without costing a card is a huge deal. I think even with several extra drawbacks it would still see play.