Hi! I have Unbound Flourishing on the board then cycle Shark Typhoon for x=1. Unbound would trigger and copy the cycling ability but the triggered ability that creates a shark token applies only to the original cycling instance, right? The net result is drawing 2 cards and creating one 1/1 shark token?
The part of Unbound Flourishing that refers to activated abilities with {x} is different than 'Sacrifice x clues' (Lonis, Cryptozoologist) so this ability would not be copied by Unbound, right?
Faithless Brewing podcast mentioned that Mothdust Changeling is probably the best Magda card in modern. I have to agree. They tested a bunch of ideas like Aura of Dominion and changeling. I'll dump some of their ideas here:
Magda + Clock of Omens + artifact dwarf (e.g. Universal Automaton, Metallic Mimic, Saheeli Rai, Adaptive Automaton, Bloodline Pretender) gives infinite tapped treasures to fetch all artifacts and dragons from the deck. How it works: tap Clock + artifact dwarf to untap the artifact dwarf, Magda creates a treasure. Now tap the treasure + artifact dwarf to untap the artifact dwarf. Repeat. Sac infinite tokens to Magda and fetch your wincons.
The Omenkeel and Smuggler's Copter are great tap outlets that also apply pressure while smoothing out your lands and draws. I find running both are great because Omenkeel's ability applies to all vehicles, not just itself. They also use Omenkeel to pitch to Force of Negation back when Tibalt's Trickery was a thing.
They run only Changelings, so they fetch Reaper King followed by all artifact changelings to clear the board
In their testing they found Rimrock Knight to be pretty good at trading since most decks don't expect instant speed pump spells. Hard to say if you want 4x but 2-3x feels good
Magda does a pretty good job at being aggro with her +1/+0 ability so building the deck to be aggro seems like a good strategy. It's not uncommon to just kill on turn 4 with creatures. Depala, Pilot Exemplar as a lord and dwarf / vehicle refueler is pretty strong
They like Springleaf Drum but I find it clunky in all but the most explosive hands
A couple of ideas I'm brewing with that might give inspiration:
The math on Coco is beaten to death, but in short, the deck needs 22+ hittable creatures for reasonable consistency on hitting 2 targets in 6 cards. We can safely assume with 22+ humans in Winota.dec + some number of non-humans we get good consistency (note: Winota only needs to hit 1 target in 6 cards, but must hit a human type). Obviously, this is a heavy deck building restriction! To get around this, the trick is to use humans that create non-human tokens. This leaves 1-2CMC slots for mostly non-humans while 2+ CMC slots are for humans.
How Winota gets busted is by causing her to trigger multiple times and early in game. To achieve multiple triggers, we can use non-human tokens such as Seasoned Pyromancer, Raise the Alarm or Chandra, Acolyte of Flame. To achieve triggers early in the game, we can use non-human mana dorks such as Birds of Paradise and Gilded Goose that accelerate Winota and then later join her for an attack.
Seasoned Pyromancer, the MVP, that cycle dead cards and creates 2 non-human tokens
It's worth mentioning that Winota, Joiner of Forces can also find another Winota with her trigger and replace herself in an attacking, indestructible state. That's a lot of pressure! Even with 2 triggers as early as T3-4, your board state will snowball out of control.
All of these you can do by T3 to snowball out of control.
Common in Coco decks, Horizon Canopy and Sunbaked Canyon let you cycle your lands for more gas since you're already playing 8 mana dorks. Gavony Township let's you go tall in longer games since this deck already inherently goes wide.
There's some weird artifact synergy with Gilded Goose's artifact food token, Blade Splicer golem, Pia Nalaar and Pia and Kiran Nalaar's thopters and abilities. You can pump up the golem, which can have first strike. You could sac an artifact to prevent a blocker. Or, you could throw the golem or repeatedly lay and throw eggs for 2 damage in a pinch.
One future variant for Winota is to use the 5 color Humans deck as a base to open up to humans from all colors. Another variant could be to add blue for Neoform.
Just checking this is right, on my turn Gideon Blackblade enters as a creature (due to his static ability) when loyalty counters are put on him. This means Winding Constrictor sees Gideon as a creature and the replacement effect would put 5 instead of 4 counters?
Same thing with using Gideon's +1 ability on your turn, right?
Last year, from the Dominaria set, there was a cool combo with Naru Meha, Master Wizard and Ghostly Flicker that gave infinite flickers for creature/artifact/land. (Put Ghostly on the stack, play Naru copying Ghostly, target Naru and another creature/artifact/land. Repeat.) You win by flickering lands that damaged the opponent or flickering a creature with EtB mill effect or EtB draw effect, finding Nexus/BZS/Lab Maniac.
The one problem with the combo is that you needed 7 mana, but its redeeming quality is it can be done at instant speed. IMO, Wilderness solves this better than mana dorks or ramp by letting you go off as early as T4. I don't think Naru lists are better than the current Wilderness lists but if you want to play a different style, one with more creatures, less reactivity and more confusing combos, it could be fun!
Aside from cards already talked about, two of them stand out for me that no one has brought up:
Woodland Champion. There's enough token generation on curve to make this a green Ajani's Pridemate. T2 Woodland, T3 Spectral Procession, Seasoned Pyromancer or all-in Devastating Summons + a 2cmc token creator. That puts on a lot of pressure on board, letting you go wide and tall at the same time. Woodland is a totally fair but unassumingly strong card.
Dread Presence. Whenever a swamp etb, choose one: draw 1 and lose 1 life or 2 dmg to ANY target and gain 2 life. Really, any target? So, I can kill planeswalkers and clear the board with swamps. There's a lot of strong land ramp in modern, enough to turn Dread into a draw engine to draw more ramp then kill your opponent.
Yep, the efficiency and speed of Elvish Reclaimer in BGx / BGW with sufficient fetch lands could be real. Any of those utility lands that Knight of the Reliquary could fetch can now be done 2 turns earlier!
Say, T1 Elvish T2 Bojuka Bog against dredge. Or green Mother with Sejiri Steppe. T3 1cmc EE with Blast Zone. This toolbox flexibility seems great.
I'm thinking Kaalia, Zenith Seeker could be useful in Changeling tribal. "You may reveal an Angel card, a Demon card, AND/or a Dragon card" so potentially netting up to 3 cards such as Nameless Inversion, Crib Swap and Restoration Angel to flicker Kaalia for more value (Kaalia is weirdly not an Angel).
It can play Zada, Hedron Grinder or Mirrorwing Dragon. I think the flicker variant list is better suited because either of them only make copies for creatures you control. The white, low cost flicker effects usually don't target opponent creatures, so it wouldn't matter. Cards like Forbidden Orchard and Zev's Expertise get less good. Someday I'll brew a dual color list with Zada and Mirrowing.
My thoughts about cards that I didn't find good enough:
Cryptolith Rite dilutes the deck too much, especially when you want only creatures and instant/sorcs
Fiery Gambit was mediocre. Each creature gives you a 12.5% of winning 3 flips. There were too many times this card would miss or be underwhelming. Also, you want to cast this as early as you can, meaning you won't have many lands to untap.
Rally the Righteous is a bit like Sigil Blessing. Sometimes led to obscene amounts of untaps but the color restriction makes it less useful.
Twinflame close to being strong, but requires Ink-Treader and critical mass of creatures
Chasm Skulker gets a counter if fetched with Neoform. Creates more tokens for Ink-Treader. Synergy with draw effect from Wisp. Makes a decent Neoform sac tribute. A bit too slow.
Blessed Alliance decent on it's own, or if escalated for life + targeting only Ink-Treader. Decent SB card but not MB.
Simic Charm mana cost is high for flexibility unless targetting Ink-Treader
Cards that might have potential:
Feather, the Redeemed mana cost is rough, but has a great bod, relevant ability for Wisps and good fetch target for Neoform / Eldritch. Good color synergy with Bloom Tender
Mangara of Corondor mana cost is rough, but has great synergy with Wisps. From old school Death & Taxes, Managara can easily be a deck defining card.
Pride Sovereign abusable ability with Wisps and generates tokens
Shaman of Forgotten Ways mana accel and win-con after stealing all of the opponents creatures with Kari. High mana cost.
- Bloom Tender generates an absurd amount of mana especially with Ink Treader or Niv Magus on the field. Subtle synergy with Wisps turning things blue. Can be replaced with Sylvan Caryatid for a slower but more resilient ramp.
- Humble Defector activations can be be put on the stack with Wisps. Kari Exp also lets you steal him back for another activation or combo off if he has sickness. Has been surprisingly good.
- Nivmagus Elemental is an curve acceleration for Bloom Tender. It importantly protects your own creatures from removal your opponent cast on Ink Treader. Copies are under your control so you can exile them. Also, Nivmagus can act as possible combo piece with Cryptolith Rite which was tested but removed because it dilutes the deck.
- As you mentioned Voice of Resurgence is a good target for Eldritch. It can also be used to fetch Pia and Kiran Nalaar which was a classic Naya pod beatdown strategy. 4/4 elemental, 2 1/1 thopters and a 2/2 creature can put on a lot of pressure quickly.
- Snapcaster Mage is another value play and Eldritch sac tribute
I'll put in another post the cards that I was playing around with that I'm still on the fence about.
The part of Unbound Flourishing that refers to activated abilities with {x} is different than 'Sacrifice x clues' (Lonis, Cryptozoologist) so this ability would not be copied by Unbound, right?
Thanks
A couple of ideas I'm brewing with that might give inspiration:
Winota is similar to Collected Company in that it
The math on Coco is beaten to death, but in short, the deck needs 22+ hittable creatures for reasonable consistency on hitting 2 targets in 6 cards. We can safely assume with 22+ humans in Winota.dec + some number of non-humans we get good consistency (note: Winota only needs to hit 1 target in 6 cards, but must hit a human type). Obviously, this is a heavy deck building restriction! To get around this, the trick is to use humans that create non-human tokens. This leaves 1-2CMC slots for mostly non-humans while 2+ CMC slots are for humans.
How Winota gets busted is by causing her to trigger multiple times and early in game. To achieve multiple triggers, we can use non-human tokens such as Seasoned Pyromancer, Raise the Alarm or Chandra, Acolyte of Flame. To achieve triggers early in the game, we can use non-human mana dorks such as Birds of Paradise and Gilded Goose that accelerate Winota and then later join her for an attack.
Your juiciest targets for Winota are
It's worth mentioning that
Winota, Joiner of Forces can also find another Winota with her trigger and replace herself in an attacking, indestructible state. That's a lot of pressure! Even with 2 triggers as early as T3-4, your board state will snowball out of control.
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Gilded Goose
4x Voice of Resurgence
1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Blade Splicer
4x Seasoned Pyromancer
3x Fiend Hunter
1x Pia Nalaar
1x Eternal Witness
1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1x Huntmaster of the Fells
3x Avalanche Riders
4x Winota, Joiner of Forces
2x Forest
2x Gavony Township
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Mountain
2x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
2x Stomping Ground
1x Sunbaked Canyon
2x Temple Garden
3x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Eldritch Evolution
This modern Naya Winota deck is a variant on the Naya Kiki Evo deck that runs Eldritch Evolution. I've kept Eldritch Evolution to enable:
All of these you can do by T3 to snowball out of control.
Common in Coco decks, Horizon Canopy and Sunbaked Canyon let you cycle your lands for more gas since you're already playing 8 mana dorks. Gavony Township let's you go tall in longer games since this deck already inherently goes wide.
There's some weird artifact synergy with Gilded Goose's artifact food token, Blade Splicer golem, Pia Nalaar and Pia and Kiran Nalaar's thopters and abilities. You can pump up the golem, which can have first strike. You could sac an artifact to prevent a blocker. Or, you could throw the golem or repeatedly lay and throw eggs for 2 damage in a pinch.
One future variant for Winota is to use the 5 color Humans deck as a base to open up to humans from all colors. Another variant could be to add blue for Neoform.
Same thing with using Gideon's +1 ability on your turn, right?
Thanks!
I noticed that the BUG Wilderness shell is pretty similar to the Naru lists. It plays Mystical Teachings to search up combo pieces Naru Meha, Master Wizard and Ghostly Flicker. It wants to play similar creatures like Ice-Fang Coatl, Snapcaster Mage, Vendilion Clique and Wall of Blossoms to flicker. (Some of these even get +1/+1 from Naru)
The one problem with the combo is that you needed 7 mana, but its redeeming quality is it can be done at instant speed. IMO, Wilderness solves this better than mana dorks or ramp by letting you go off as early as T4. I don't think Naru lists are better than the current Wilderness lists but if you want to play a different style, one with more creatures, less reactivity and more confusing combos, it could be fun!
3x Fatal Push
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Assassin's Trophy
3x Growth Spiral
3x Remand
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Archmage's Charm
2x Cryptic Command
2x Ghostly Flicker
4x Mystical Teachings
4x Ice-Fang Coatl
3x Wall of Blossoms
2x Naru Meha, Master Wizard
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
Enchantment
4x Wilderness Reclamation
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
Woodland Champion. There's enough token generation on curve to make this a green Ajani's Pridemate. T2 Woodland, T3 Spectral Procession, Seasoned Pyromancer or all-in Devastating Summons + a 2cmc token creator. That puts on a lot of pressure on board, letting you go wide and tall at the same time. Woodland is a totally fair but unassumingly strong card.
Dread Presence. Whenever a swamp etb, choose one: draw 1 and lose 1 life or 2 dmg to ANY target and gain 2 life. Really, any target? So, I can kill planeswalkers and clear the board with swamps. There's a lot of strong land ramp in modern, enough to turn Dread into a draw engine to draw more ramp then kill your opponent.
Say, T1 Elvish T2 Bojuka Bog against dredge. Or green Mother with Sejiri Steppe. T3 1cmc EE with Blast Zone. This toolbox flexibility seems great.
Was a big fan of Sylvan Caryatid during testing and yea, was excited to see Paradise Druid.
Cards that might have potential:
The creature package has a lot of activated tap abilities.
- Bloom Tender generates an absurd amount of mana especially with Ink Treader or Niv Magus on the field. Subtle synergy with Wisps turning things blue. Can be replaced with Sylvan Caryatid for a slower but more resilient ramp.
- Humble Defector activations can be be put on the stack with Wisps. Kari Exp also lets you steal him back for another activation or combo off if he has sickness. Has been surprisingly good.
- Nivmagus Elemental is an curve acceleration for Bloom Tender. It importantly protects your own creatures from removal your opponent cast on Ink Treader. Copies are under your control so you can exile them. Also, Nivmagus can act as possible combo piece with Cryptolith Rite which was tested but removed because it dilutes the deck.
- As you mentioned Voice of Resurgence is a good target for Eldritch. It can also be used to fetch Pia and Kiran Nalaar which was a classic Naya pod beatdown strategy. 4/4 elemental, 2 1/1 thopters and a 2/2 creature can put on a lot of pressure quickly.
- Snapcaster Mage is another value play and Eldritch sac tribute
I'll put in another post the cards that I was playing around with that I'm still on the fence about.