Here’s a the second episode of Five Minutes of Magic, “Return to Ravnica”.
Podcasters: Neale Talbot, Bryan Prillaman, Chewie, Chris Lansdell.
This podcast is not recommended for anyone outside the ages of 13-16, is easily offended, believes in human dignity, or is in a long-term relationship with any of the podcasters.
This podcast is not safe for work.
In the next 24/48 hours, one of the most frequent questions people will ask themselves is “should I run this Thatcher Revolt?”.
To help those questions be answered, here’s a comprehensive list of Thatcher Revolt synergy in AVR.
Cards with Great Thatcher Revolt Synergy – Play it!
Cathar’s Crusade: TR produces 4/4s and adds 3 counters to every other creature you control.
Goldnight Commander: TR produces 4/4s and gives your other creatures +3/+3.
Champion of Lambholt: TR turns your Champion into a near-unblockable 4/4, and likely makes your tokens near unblockable as well.
Kessig Malcontents: For 2R + 2R you get 3 1/1s, a 3/1, and deal 4 damage to your opponent, which is fine.
Angel of Jubilation: TR produces 2/2s.
Riot Ringleader: Your TR makes 2/1s.
Kruin Striker: Becomes a 5/1 trampler when you play TR.
Blood Artist: You get 3 1/1s, EOT opponent loses 3 life and you gain 3 life.
Bone Splinters: A 1/1 token you’ll sacrifice anyway is a fine Bone Splinters outlet.
Vigilante Justice: 3 damage spead out over creatures & players is a very powerful effect to add to TR.
Good Thatcher Revolt Synergy – Consider it!
Emancipation Angel: Playing the Angel post-Revolt means not having to return a ‘permanent’ permanent.
Angel’s Tomb: They work well together in an aggressive deck, giving you 6/6 of power across 4 bodies that avoid enchantment and sorcery speed removal.
Mass Appeal: For 2U + 2R you get 3 1/1s and draw three cards.
Peel from Reality: As your token is going to disappear anyway it can make an excellent Peel target.
Druid’s Repository: Effectively makes Thatcher’s Revolt free. If you want to be very aggressive while still ramping, well worth it.
Banners Raised: Your tokens are 2/1s for a turn. You have to be hyper-aggressive to run this, however.
Mediocre / Overcosted Synergy – Value Edges Only
Devout Chaplain: More an emergency play than anything else, the two cards do work together to exile artifacts and enchantments.
Dual Casting: Ok, you get 6 1/1s for 2RR and tapping another creature. Is that really whant you to be doing?
Burn at the Stake: If you think you’ll find the time to have 2RRR + 2R in your mana pool then go for it.
Demonlord of Ashmouth: Technically it works, but only if you have 2BB + 2R to throw around.
Barter in Blood: Can save you having to sacrifice your larger creatures, though the synergy isn’t great and you’re paying 2BB + 2R for the effect.
Corpse Traders: Somewhat costly for the effect at 2B + 2R, it still works.
Goldnight Redeemer: If you can wear the mana cost of 4WW + 2R then you’ll gain 8 life.
Captain of the Mists: If you have 3R + 1U + 1U + 1U you can tap three of your opponents creatures (or untap three of your own)
Rite of Ruin: For 7RR + 2R you… oh jeez, please, don’t do this.
Soulbond Creatures (eg. Nearhearth Pilgrim, Tandem Lookout, etc: You can bond a creature for a turn with a token, though you should be aware the bonding will be removed when the token disappears end of turn.
Rush of Blood: 2R and a card to give one of your tokens +1/0 is not worth it.
Sheltering Word: Nor is 1G and a card to give one of your tokens hexproof at to gain a life.
Battle Hymn: Tap two lands, get 3 mana. They have synergy, but its not synergy worth having.
Poor Synergy – Forget it
Arcane Melee: Technically your TR can now be played for R – how you make this work for you is unknown.
Ulvenwald Tracker: If your 1/1s are killing your opponent’s creatures on T5 when you can activate this and play TR at the same, you’re probably winning anyway.
Wild Defiance: Only if you’re pushing synergy with Ulvenwald Tracker, but that’s a whole ‘nother deck.
Gallows at Willow Hill: Turns TR into 2R + 3 – Exile target creature and give your opponent a 1/1. Not worth it.
Equipment (Bladed Bracers, Tormentor’s Trident, Vanguard’s Shield, Moonsilver Spear): Generally not worth the excessive cost 2R + Equip cost on the same turn, though Moonsliver Spear may just be worth it as it leaves a 4/4 flying angel behind.
No Synergy – What the Hell are you Thinking??
Avacyn, Angel of Hope / Sigarda, Host of Herons: You still have to sacrifice your TR tokens.
Builder’s Blessing: Your TR tokens will never get to block.
Cloudshift / Ghostly Flicker / Restoration Angel / Nephalia Smuggler / Deadeye Navigator / Conjurer’s Closet: That TR token is never coming back from exile.
Herald of War: TR is not a human spell.
Lair Delve / Somberwald Sage: TR is not a creature spell.
Primal Surge: TR is not a permanent card.
Harvester of Souls / Soul of the Harvest: Doesn’t trigger from tokens.
Havengul Skaab: Makes your TR only produce 2 1/1s.
Dark Imposter: 4BB to exile a do-nothing 1/1 is not a combo.
Demonic Taskmaster / Descent into Madness: These make you sacrifice at the beginning of your upkeep, not at the end of your turn.
Homicidal Seclusion: 3 is more than 1.
Killing Wave: Why you’d cast this after casting Thatcher’s Revolt I will never know.
Necrobite: You still have to sacrifice the token you give Regeneration.
Unhallowed Pact: That token can’t return from the graveyard.
Blessings of Nature / Revenge of the Hunter: Those counters will disappear when your tokens do and Miracle is terrible with TR.
Aura Enchanments (eg Call to Serve, Commander’s Authority, Ghostly Touch, Infinite Reflection, Spirit Away, etc ): These will all fall of a token at end of turn.
Lands: Just no.
I had a suprising amount of success at the AVR pre-release with Boros humans. I noticed that a great deal of these cards were common and started to wonder if there was a viable mono-R pauper deck.
AVR essentially gives us the following cards to build around:
* Kruin Striker: An core part of the human strategy, Kruin Striker will usually be attacking as a 3/1 trampler on Turn 3. The lady is positively nutso with Thatcher Revolt.
* Riot Ringleader: The second core part of the human strategy, this guy essentially has Battle Cry for humans, including himself.
* Thatcher Revolt: The final core part of the human strategy, this card can push out crazy amounts of damage when planned well.
* Fervent Cathar: Not as exciting, it does help push Kruin Striker damage through or possibly save a Riot Ringleader. Would be nicer if it made something unblockable.
* Hanweir Lancer: I’m not sure if soulbound is the way to go with this deck, which wants to vomit out as many critters as possible as quickly as possible. It’s an option though.
That sequence of plays – T2 Striker into T3 Ringleader into T4 Revolt – if unmolested is an easy 17 damage by the end of Turn 4, nicely within Lightning Bolt range.
There are also a stack other humans out there to support the deck.
* Keldon Marauders: A core part of very aggressive pauper red decks, this is a no-brainer 2-drop. You especially don’t mind going T2 Striker, T3 Ringleader, T4 two of these. That damage really piles up.
* Vulshok Sorcerer & Vithian Stinger: Two options if the deck needs a little reach. The haste on Vulshok is nice, though the unearth on the Stinger could also be useful.
* Akoum Battlesinger & Highland Berserker: I’m inclined not to run these as the other humans aren’t allies, so there’s very little synergy in running these 2/1s.
* Gathan Raiders: I’m not sure about these guys. Does the morph trigger the Kruin Striker?
* Hinterland Hermit: I’m pretty sure you’re never flipping this guy when you want to.
* Keldon Halberdier: A cute kind of storm combo for your Riot Ringleader and Kruin Striker, but probably a little slow.
* Sparkmage Apprentice: Probably doesn’t do enough fast enough.
* Vulshok Heartstoker: Is a real posibility, as it effectively gives Striker +4/0 and leaves behind a 2/2 body.
And there are also a couple of non-humans that may support this type of aggro strategy.
* Goblin Bushwhacker: Regardless of not being a human, I think it makes it into the deck. Having to leave Thatcher Revolt to turn 5 isn’t great, but if you’re using T4 to clear out blockers so you can push through 11 damage using Revolt, Ringleader and Bushwacker, it is probably worth it.
* Furnace Scamp: Likely our only 1-drop creature in the deck. If it does 4 damage, it’s done its job.
And there’s a spell I’d like to try to give the deck some reach
* Dangerous Wager: I think running 2 of these is probably worth it. You’ll want to vomit out your hand ASAP, and even losing a land isn’t the worst thing.
There’s also a some white spells that could help immensely:
* Gather the Townsfolk: This seems pretty dirty with Ringleader and Striker and forms a core part of a Boros build.
* Unruly Mob: I’m not sure if the deck wants it, but going Unruly Mob into Thatcher Revolt seems fine. It can certainly make blocks awkward for your opponent.
* Youthful Knight: With all the other two drops, I’m not sure whether it’s good enough.
* Icatian Javelineers: A possible 1-drop for the Boros deck, though more likely a sideboard card.
Due to card availability it leaves the deck in the uncomfortable position of having no solid 1-drop creatures. That means the 1CMC slot will be largely be taken up by burn baby burn.
* Chain Lightning: Instantly in, either for clearing the path for our dudes or finishing off opponents.
* Lightning Bolt: Another instant in (no pun intended), the single best 1-mana red instant in the game.
* Shard Volley: Would probably make it into a mono-Red strategy, but not a Boros one.
* Reckless Abandon: Not available on MtGO yet, once it’s available, as a follow up on Turn 4 after Thatcher’s Revolt it seems fine.
* Searing Blaze: A great sideboard option, though probably not maindeck.
The other thing I would consider trying is a U/R control list based around ninjas, abusing Ninja of the Deep Hours and Mistblade Shinobi.
Here’s a mono-red list.
| Creatures (20) 4 Furnace Scamp 4 Goblin Bushwhacker 4 Kruin Striker 4 Keldon Maruaders 4 Riot Ringleader Instants (10) 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Shard Volley 2 Dangerous Wager Sorceries (8) 4 Chain Lightning 4 Thatcher Revolt Lands (22) 16 Mountain 4 Teetering Peeks 2 Smouldering Spires |
And a Boros list that goes all-in on the Human strategy
| Creatures (16) 4 Unruly Mob 4 Kruin Striker 4 Keldon Maruaders 4 Riot Ringleader Instants (10) 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Shard Volley 2 Dangerous Wager Sorceries (12) 4 Chain Lightning 4 Thatcher Revolt 4 Gather the Townsfolk Lands (22) 10 Mountain 6 Plains 4 Teetering Peeks 2 Evolving Wilds |
Once the cards are on MtGO I’ll give them a run and see how I go.
I’m getting old.
In the past I would of been quite happy to write a hit-piece. In fact, I would of reveled in it. I would of taken extreme, perverse joy in the tearing down of someone.
But I’m getting old and by sheer incidence of time and existence, I’ve now interacted with various Magic personalities and WotC people and found them almost universally friendly, helpful and all-round good people. While I’m sure Jacob Van Lunen is equally friendly, helpful and an all-round good guy, he is not one of the people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, and thus I have no emotional hang-ups about tearing the poor bastard a new one.
Building On A Budget, as written by Jacob Van Lunen, is one of the worst Magic columns on the web today.
Dear God I used to love Building on a Budget. It was, without a doubt, my favourite column on the mothership, back when Ben Bleiweiss was at the helm (having taken over from Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar).
By the end of his lengthy run, Ben had really got the heart of what Building on a Budget was all about – tight constraints on deck budget, interesting decks that attacked the metagame from unique angles, and keeping it fun.
Ben seemed to really love that little column, endlessly testing and tinkering with some ridiculously decks, playing up to 20 games and showing how the deck evolved over time. Sure, he had his weak points – his match writeups were really just chicken scratchings – but his smart and funny writing, combined with the level of effort he put into most columns really made the column come alive. When I think about my EDH decks, I can see just how that cheap-ass column really influenced my building style.
Jacob Van Lunen is no Ben Bleiweiss.
Jacob has been writing the column since Ben gave up the job in 2008 and since then the quality has just dropped and dropped to the point that I think Ben really doesn’t have his heart in it. Jacob’s style has certainly been more about the originally deckbuilding thought process than the gameplay and deck evolution that Ben emphasised, but recently even that has started to be relatively weak.
Where Ben had a great time discussing his budget and what he could cram into it (even spending time discussing the MtGO bots and where to find the cards on the cheap), there is nary a discussion in Jacob’s columns. How much does Jacob’s latest deck cost? No idea. Being mono-red it looks pretty cheap, but who knows? Certainly his deck from the week before couldn’t have been that cheap, starting with 4 x Venser the Sojourner. That’s about $30 right there, which would of generally blown Ben’s tight cap out of the water. As a result the ‘Budget’ part of ‘Building on a Budget’ doesn’t really exist anymore.
Then there are the decks themselves. Mono-Red Burn. UW Venser Control. Cheaper Delver. These aren’t exactly originally ideas. And while occasionally something new and interesting pops up – his Modern faithless looting deck is pretty unique – most of the decks are simply cheap versions of existing archetypes rather than anything new. Or fun.
Combine that with some very dry writing, very few match reports or deck evolutions, and long laundry lists of hypothetical match-up sideboards that we never get to see and you get the worlds most boring column.
So what would I do with the column?
Two things come to mind.
1. Find a writer who wants to write this stuff and can be as humorous and innovative as Ben. I mean, if I were to give someone like Patrick Chapin a trial-run on the mothership, this would be the perfect column for him. Funny, insightful, informative, and unique, Patrick would lend a lot to the column. My only fear would be that he’d see BoaB as a little below his unique talents, though neither do I know if he’s that precious. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of Patrick’s around. Someone like Conley Woods, who has been know to attack the metagame using cards no-one else would touch with a ten-foot barge-poll, might also be attractive, or a young up-and-coming deckbuilder like Smi77y, might be the one. I’m sure there are people out there who would shiv a guy just to write for the mothership. Does anyone know how well Jackie Lee writes?
2. MtGO happens to have a thriving format called Pauper. A few months ago, when people like LSV took a renewed interest in the format, the Pauper scene exploded. I can think of no better subject for Building on a Budget than Pauper, which has so many avenues of attack, and changes with every set release. Hiring someone like LSV to write Pauper articles for the mothership for Building on a Budget would give the format renewed legitimacy and would be perfect for the column.
Either way, something has to change. After almost 4 years I just don’t think Jacob’s heart is in it anymore, and the quality of the column reflects that. However I don’t want to see that little column, that won my heart so many years ago, die-off from neglect. Let’s get Jacob off onto bigger and better things and find someone eager to reclaim BoaBs former glory by seeking innovation in constraint and fun in failure.
BoaB deserves better than this.
Here’s a the first episode of Five Minutes of Magic, “What’s in the Helvault?”
Podcasters: Neale Talbot, Bryan Prillaman, Chewie, Chris Lansdell.
This podcast is not safe for work.
I’ve wanted to build a pauper deck around Midnight Guard / Presence of Gond since Dark Ascension was spoiled. Finally I found enough time to put a little list together.
Here it is.
Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together
A Pauper Deck By Neale Talbot
| Creatures (20) 4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim 4 Pili-Pala 4 Midnight Guard 4 Auramancer 4 Totem-Guide Hartebeest Instants (4) 4 Apostle’s Blessing Sorceries (4) 4 Commune with Nature Enchantments (8) 4 Presence of Gond 4 Journey to Nowhere Lands (24) 10 Plains 14 Forest |
That’s the core of the deck and it’s pretty simple; find your combo piece and play it out. If you get disrupted, either return your win conditions or find it again.
Clearly, putting Presence of Gond on a Pili-Pala instead of a Midnight Guard is not nearly as good (especially if you’re holding up Apostle’s Blessing mana), but it can still close out a game pretty quickly.
I’m sure this deck can be tuned, but it’s a pretty good starting point.
Right now I’ve been tinkering with B/G in Modern. The deck is very grindy, the kind of deck where incremental advantage is leveraged to the utmost. It rewards good play, punishes mistakes, and is generally pretty fun.
I wanted to get a feel for whether I should be playing Tarmogoyf or Tombstalker in the deck, so I took a look at some representative G/B Rockish decks.
There are a number of B/G archetypes floating around, namely Deathcloud, The Rock, Pox and Loam. I wanted to do an analysis of which cards each of the decks consistently play. Here are some representative decks. Before the list, here’s a link to the analysis of the decks in Google docs.
| CREATURES (12) 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Sakura-Tribe Elder 3 Kitchen Finks 2 Eternal Witness INSTANTS and SORCERIES (21) 4 Thoughtseize 4 Green Sun’s Zenith 3 Putrefy 3 Death Cloud 2 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Damnation 1 Go for the Throat 1 Doom Blade 1 Dismember OTHER SPELLS (3) 3 Garruk Wildspeaker LANDS (24) 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Swamp 4 Treetop Village 4 Verdant Catacombs 3 Forest 2 Twilight Mire 1 Dryad Arbor 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood 1 Golgari Rot Farm SIDEBOARD (15) 1 Kitchen Finks 3 Ghost Quarter 1 Viridian Shaman 2 Krosan Grip 2 Extirpate 2 Cranial Extraction 2 Duress 2 Memoricide |
| CREATURES (7) 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge INSTANTS AND SORCERIES (24) 3 Nameless Inversion 3 Death Cloud 3 Raven’s Crime 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Life from the Loam 4 Smallpox 3 Burning Vengeance OTHER SPELLS (5) 1 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Liliana of the Veil LANDS (24) 3 Swamp 1 Lavaclaw Reaches 1 Tectonic Edge 2 Blood Crypt 2 Graven Cairns 2 Overgrown Tomb 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 4 Twilight Mire 4 Verdant Catacombs 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth SIDEBOARD (15) 2 Ancient Grudge 3 Damnation 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Forest 3 Nature’s Claim 3 Nihil Spellbomb 2 Victim of Night |
| CREATURES (12) 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Dark Confidant 4 Knight of the Reliquary INSTANTS and SORCERIES (15) 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Swords to Plowshares 3 Vindicate 3 Thoughtseize 1 Inquisition of Kozilek OTHER SPELLS (9) 4 Sensei’s Divining Top 3 Mox Diamond 2 Liliana of the Veil LANDS (24) 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Wasteland 4 Marsh Flats 3 Scrubland 3 Bayou 1 Swamp 1 Karakas 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Forest 1 Plains 1 Maze of Ith SIDEBOARD (15) 1 Tower of the Magistrate 3 Engineered Explosives 2 Gaddock Teeg 1 Darkblast 1 Diabolic Edict 1 Ghastly Demise 3 Surgical Extraction 2 Duress 1 Ethersworn Canonist |
| CREATURES (17) 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Dark Confidant 4 Augur of Skulls 3 Kitchen Finks 2 Nyxathid INSTANTS and SORCERIES (16) 4 Smallpox 4 Thoughtseize 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Smother 2 Maelstrom Pulse OTHER SPELLS (4) 4 Liliana of the Veil LANDS (23) 6 Swamp 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Treetop Village 3 Mutavault 2 Overgrown Tomb 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Forest 1 Marsh Flats SIDEBOARD (15) 1 Kitchen Finks 1 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Damnation 2 Deathmark 1 Extirpate 2 Go for the Throat 1 Krosan Grip 3 Surgical Extraction 2 Thrun, the Last Troll |
| SIDEBOARD (15) 1 Life from the Loam 1 Devastating Dreams 2 Choke 4 Leyline of the Void 1 Reverent Silence 1 Perish 1 Chainer’s Edict 3 Red Elemental Blast 1 Nomad Stadium |
Some quick thoughts:
1. No-one plays Tombstalker. It turns out Tombstalker is really only played in Team America/Team Portugal B/U decks to maximise counter-spell usage.
2. Everyone plays Tarmogoyf
3. Many of the decks lean on a third (or fourth) colour to compete.
So what are the Top 9 cards the archetypes have in common?
1. Tarmogoyf (19)
2. Dark Confidant (12)
3. Thoughtsieze (11)
4. Liliana of the Veil (10)
5. Knight of the Reliquary (8)
6. Smallpox (8)
7. Inquisition of Kozilek (8)
8. Life from the Loam (7)
9. Mox Diamond (7)
That’s on raw figures. I’d note at this point that most decks build on internal synergies from there, eg. Punishing Fire / Grove of the Burnwillows, Death Cloud / Kitchen Finks, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge / Nameless Inversion.
If we take consolidate cards based on overlapping function due to card restrictions between Modern and Legacy and account for these little synergies, the numbers change a little. Here’s what the Top 9 cards would look like.
1. Finishers/Combo (28)
2. Instant-Speed Removal (20)
3. Tarmogoyf (19)
4. 1 Mana Discard Spell (18)
5. Mana Acceleration/Advantage (17)
6. 2 Mana Disruption Spell (16)
7. Planeswalker (14)
8. Dark Confidant (12)
9. ‘Kill Anything/Everything’ Sorcery (11)
Which, in Modern, creates a deck that looks as follows:
1. Something
2. 4 Doom Blade (or equivalent)
3. 4 Tarmogoyf
4. 4 Thoughtsieze (or Raven’s Crime or Inquisition of Kozilek)
5. 4 Life from the Loam (or Sakura-Triber Elder)
6. 4 Smallpox (or Augur of Skulls)
7. 4 Liliana of the Veil (plus possibly a Garruk)
8. 4 Dark Confidant
9. 2 Maelstrom Pulse (plus possibly a Damnation)
Which leaves behind the ‘something’, of which Knight of the Reliquary is probably the best, backed up in this archetype by a singleton Wurm Harvest, although admittedly it doesn’t play well with Dark Confidant. Here’s what a more streamlined deck might look like, bearing in mind just how much damage we might do to ourselves with Bob.
| CREATURES (12) 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Dark Confidant 4 Knight of the Reliquary INSTANTS AND SORCERIES (20) 3 Thoughtsieze 1 Raven’s Crime 4 Life from the Loam 4 Smallpox 4 Go for the Throat 2 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Worm Harvest 1 Death Cloud OTHER CARDS (4) 4 Liliana of the Veil LANDS (23) 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Marsh Flats 3 Temple Garden 2 Treetop Village 2 Tectonic Edge 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Twilight Mire 1 Mutavault |
The sideboard would be some number of Kitchen Finks, Krosan Grips, Extirpates, Engineered Explosives, Gaddok Teegs, Grafdigger’s Cage, Surgical Extraction, etc, depending upon your metagame.
I have to confess, the consolidated list does seem like quite the spicy brew. You can head down the Rock axis and grind out the win with Bobs, Gofts and disruption. You can go down the Pox access and build a super-large Knight of the Reliquary. You can head down the Worm Harvest axis and win with a million 1/1s, or down the Death Cloud axis and win with an opponent who is just dead on the board.
I think it’s worth testing just to see how it performs. It certainly <i>looks</i> powerful, and the various archetypes it has mashed up are pretty proven. Time to test, I guess.
Based on people’s feedback on the Modern MBC deck I posted, there clear suggestion was to make the most of pox by adding Life from the Loam. I rebuilt the deck with this in mind, stealing heartily from some Legacy decks along the way. Here’s the list.
| Creatures (5) 1 Eternal Witness 1 Shriekmaw 3 Tombstalker Instants (3) 3 Geth’s Verdict Sorceries (21) 4 Raven’s Crime 4 Smallpox 3 Wrench Mind 4 Life from the Loam 4 Maelstrom Pulse 2 Worm Harvest Planeswalkers (4) 4 Liliana of the Veil Artifacts (1) 1 Engineered Explosives Lands (26) 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Forest 4 Twilight Mire 4 Swamp 4 Marsh Flats 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Tectonic Edge |
Without the cycling lands the card draw is less powerful than in Legacy, but between the hand disruption and land destruction, it generally pans out okay. I’m certainly interested in exploring this archetype further, as you can sideboard into The Rock relatively easily with a transformative sideboard of Bobs and Goyfs.
Give it a spin, let me know what you think.
There are a number of mono-black control lists floating around for Modern, the main one being Deathcloud based ‘combo’. If you’re looking for something a little more straight MBC, you might enjoy trying this list out.
Modern Mono-Black Control
A modern list by Neale Talbot
| Creatures (18) 4 Dark Confidant 3 Tombstalker 4 Fulminator Mage 4 Bloodghast 3 Vengeful Pharaoh Instants (4) 4 Dismember Sorceries (12) 4 Thoughtseize 4 Smallpox 4 Grim Discovery Planeswalkers (4) 4 Liliana of the Veil Lands (22) 4 Marsh Flats 15 Swamp 3 Dakmor Salvage |
This is, at heart, a Rock deck, grinding out wins through sheer resource denial. I’ll admit the Vengeful Pharoahs are probably the weakest card, but I haven’t come up with a good substitute yet, and they do serve a pretty good purpose.
There’s a lot of internal deck synergy, which is what you really want right now. Discarding with Liliana almost always puts you at an advantage and is a real screw-you to the combo decks (Tron, Splinter Twin) that are floating around right now. The mana-denial package of Smallpox plus Fulminator Mage is really enhanced by Grim Discovery, which is an ace card in this deck, ensuring you can keep playing out land and either beating down or denying your opponent land.
It’s a little weak to tiny-mana aggro (eg Zoo, Affinity) but I’m sure some Damnations and other such cards in the sideboard would go a long way to shoring those matchups.
Give it a try, let me know what you think.
So I think I’ve arrived at the most consistent UR Modern Storm build I can. It goes off on T4 with alarming consistency for anywhere between 20 to 80 damage, drawing the entire deck.
The linchpin in this build is certainly Part in Flames, and it really can’t operate without it, so tuning for the metagame probably requires some number of counterspells. I’m thinking Pact of Negation, which is just silly with Past in Flames. After all, you never intend on paying the upkeep.
Dark Ascension has a number of cards that are perfect for the deck. The two weakest spots are Goblin Lore and Desperate Ritual. Faithless Looting and Thought Scour are two optional replacements from Dark Ascension, but we’ll have to see how they test.
Here’s the current list.
UR Modern Storm
A Modern Deck by Neale Talbot
4 Goblin Lore
4 Past in Flames
4 Grapeshot
4 Manamorphose
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Seething Song
4 Burning Inquiry
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Desperate Ravings
3 Pyretic Ritual
1 Cascade Bluffs
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
3 Mountain
1 Island
