Scrapyard Salvo!

Well, it's after midnight, so it's technically a new day here in Germany.  So let's have another list already!

Modern

4 Semblance Anvil
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Terraion
4 Chromatic Star
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Elsewhere Flask
4 Ichor Wellspring
2 Everflowing Chalice
2 Mindstone
4 Prophetic Prism
2 Scrapyard Salvo
2 Grinding Station

4 Mox Opal
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Phyrexia’s Core
8 Mountain

The idea is to get out Semblance Anvil (imprinting an artifact) or Krark-Clan Ironworks and then go crazy.  Every artifact in the deck other than Anvil or Ironworks either becomes free (from the anvil) or can be sacrificed to pay for itself (the two mana artifacts) or net mana (chromatic star and terraion).  Chromatic Star is just to cycle a card.  

With so many artifacts being sacrificed to the Ironworks, Scrapyard Salvo can be lethal and then some.  Grinding Station will eventually mill out opponents.  I initially had four of each in the list, but I thought that was overkill.  I like diversifying threats and having two different ways to combo out and win seems fairly flexible.  

You might notice the split on Everflowing Chalice and Mindstone.  I thought that maybe the deck could run out of gas and Mindstone could be useful,but I was also concerned about hands like darksteel citadel, mox opal, 5x two drop.  If one of the 5 other random cards is Everflowing Chalice, your hand is good to go.

Anyway, the deck seems like it can go off pretty easily on turn three, maybe even on turn 2. I had built some standard version of this back during Scars of Mirrodin block, but it was pretty inconsistent and had no way of generating mana.  

I doubt Phyrexia's Core is very relevant, I doubt you'll every have the time to be doing that and gaining one life is pretty inconsequential.   I figured that would at least look more interesting than "6 mnt, 6 fetch."  

Quest and More

Hi guys,

there's a modern list I've been editing for awhile that I've thought is very interesting.  It was very similar to an old standard list about five years ago.

4 Quest for the Holy Relic
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Glint Hawk
4 Faerie Imposter
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ensoul Artifact
4 Kor Skyfisher
1 Argentum Armor
1 Batterskull
3 Erayo, Soratomi Ascendant
4 Springleaf Drum
3 Mox Opal
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Flooded Strand

Sideboard:
1 Erayo, Soratomi Ascendant
3 Spell Pierce
2 Kor Outfitter
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Welding Jar
3 Mizzium Skins
3 Repeal



Anyone familiar with the Zendikar block probably remembers how this deck works.  You play a Quest and vomit out 5 creatures in 1-2 turns, usually getting Argentum Armor and the opponent is unable to deal with a Vindication every turn.

I believe I've put a unique twist on the deck and I'm somewhat proud of it, as the deck now goes a few levels deep.  The first level is the Quest of course.  After that comes Erayo.  It only takes four spells to flip him, as opposed to 5 creatures.  Flipping Erayo on turn 1 or 2 could be back-breaking for any opponent, especially a tempo-oriented deck.  I think the only deck that wouldn't care about an Erayo might be Affinity, they sacrifice an Ornithopter and then dump their hand.  Gitaxian Probe is very helpful in regard to flipping Erayo, and can help smooth out your draws / find other creatures to keep Quest going.  The third option of the deck is to become aggressive with Ensoul Artifact.  Unfortunately, there are going to be those hands without Quest or Erayo and you can dump your hand, but only have 2 power among 4 creatures isn't the strongest.  Other forms of the deck utilize Signal Pest to try and swarm the opponent, but I cut it in favor of Erayo.

I also had to cut an equipment (1 Sword of War and Peace) and then 4 Vault Skirge, which was painful, but I thought that Kor Skyfisher was ultimately better for what the deck was trying to do.  I'm not sure on the numbers for mana right now.  16 might actually be too many, 1 Seachrome Coast or 1 Hallowed Fountain could be shaved.  I think 4 Springleaf Drum and 3 Mox Opal is correct, but this probably needs testing.

Things I've considered:
Running Repeal - it helps for the Erayo count and possibly for Quest.  It you're bouncing a Mox Opal, then it just cycles a card, Springleaf Drum is similar if you have another untapped creature to spare.  I'd like to put it in, I just don't know what to cut.

Quickling - it's very similar to Kor Skyfisher, but it can only pick up a creature.  It's nice that it has flash, but that isn't actually all too relevant.

Kor Outfitter - the nightmare scenario is being on the draw and the opponent letting you go through the Quest combo and responds to your attack step by Abrupt deacy / smother / vapor snag on your equipped creature (in the case of Argentum Armor) and you fold after not being able to re-equip.  Kor Outfitter would give you a second chance for decks with a lot of removal

Street Wraith - meh, making the deck have four cards less could be marginally relevant.

Bonus!

Modern burn

4 Lava Spike
4 Needle Drop
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Stomping Slabs
4 Shard Volley
4 See Beyond
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Thunderous Wrath

4 Scalding Tarn
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Steam Vents
9 Mountain

So, this deck seems pretty ridiculous I assume.  Stomping Slabs is a pretty awful card, but with See Beyond and enough Magma Jets, it might be good enough to hit.  Even if you only cast 1, 7 damage is so much life for a burn deck, you're basically getting a free card (there are a few cards that deal 4 damage for 2R or RRR, so you get 3 damage "for free").  Say, you're on the play and you kept Stomping Slabs and 6 Mountain, on your third turn, if you cast Stomping Slabs after drawing three mountain there's 49 cards left in your deck (3 of them being stomping slabs), you have about a 6% chance that the next card is another stomping slabs.

The chance that you would hit a Stomping Slabs in the top 7 cards is roughly 35.7% (individually), each additional card you turn over is something like .3%, so you could call it an even 36%.  I'm not sure if this is "good enough" for modern, but this is your basic chances in 49 cards.  a fetchland on turn 1 and a magma jet on turn 2 (putting both cards on the bottom) definitely help your chances.

See Beyond is for when you draw Thunderous Wrath off a Treasure Cruise (/Opening Hand) or draw an extra Stomping Slabs.

Needle Drop is for casting burn spells on your opponent's turn and then trying to draw a thunderous wrath off of it.

I think this deck is neat, I like the idea of some of these cards, but it seems kind of weak to creature decks.  The inclusion of Searing Blaze or Searing Blood might be needed in the sideboard.

Anyway, hope someone is reading this at least.  I have many more crazy ideas to throw out there.  Take care, guys.

#7 "I hope Ornithopter is in my opening hand..."

Standard

4 scuttling doom engine

4 chief engineer

4 phyrexia revoke

3 daring thief

4 ornithopter

3 hypnotic siren

3 singing bell strike

4 spring leaf drum

2 bident of thassa

4 ghost fire blade
1 hour of need

4 ensoul artifact

Land

1 nykthos, shrine to nyx

3 tomb of the spirit dragon

4 darksteel citadel

12 island

SB

2 tormods crypt

3 staff of the mind magus

1 aetherspouts

1 stubborn denial

3 negate

2 disdainful stroke

2 triton tactics

1 singing bell strike

As you would expect, this deck relies on explosive draws. Anything short of 3 permanents on turn 1 is abysmal. It is possible to cast Scuttling doom engine as soon as turn 3, though that rarely happens. Scuttlebutt primarily plays the role of finisher and sees the most play against control decks. Daring theif is easily activated with convoke and spring leaf drum - he's the threat most likely to catch your opponent offguard. Revoker is surprisingly relevant as it is able to shut down any mana dork or planeswalker, and you can even get real cute and permanently lock a singing bell struck creature by naming it. With that said, you are hard pressed to win games without drawing ensoul artifact in a timely manner. The deck could easily be titled "Ensoul or Bust".

As for the land base, tomb of the spirit dragon is excellent against many decks. While jeskai aggro is far and away the worst match up for this deck, other aggro archetypes, such as mono red, mono black, and abzan are more tenable thanks to the life gain provided by the unlikely utility land. Darksteel citadel's inclusion is obvious. Between blue creatures, bident, and cumulative singing bell strikes, it's not unreasonable for nykthos to net you a couple mana when your thirsty for a doom engine or mind control siren.

The sideboard is just a smorgasbord of counterspells, a few effective cards against aggro, and a couple of tormods crypts for those nasty Whip - based decks.

In summary, this deck loses a lot because of the generally low power level of cards. That said, you get a reasonable number of wins by slamming a T2 ensoul and quickly riding it to victory. Certain matchups are unwinnable, but the deck is quite cheap (even cheaper than mono red w/ rabblemaster) and has much more play than your run of the mill standard deck.

Edit: This list went 4-0 at the LGS.

Just Ridiculous

Hi guys,

in honor of the season, the list for today can be precisely described as "magical Christmas land".  And while I could have compiled 60 lands that tap for R/G, here's something much more fun:

Modern

"This will literally never work"

4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Chancellor of the Forge
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Street Wraith
4 Serum Powder
4 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Titanic Ultimatum
4 Clarion Ultimatum
4 Brilliant Ultimatum
4 Expedition Map

4 Windbrisk Heights
1 Gemstone Caverns
4 Gemstone Mine
5 Plains
2 Flooded Strand

So what is this pile?  The deck revolves around Windbrisk Heights casting an Ultimatum effect for free.  The idea is to throw out a pile of free creatures (Ornithopter, Memnite, and the goblin from Chancellor of the Forge) and then to trigger Windbrisk Heights and hit them with a Cruel Ultimatum as early as turn two.  Titanic Ultimatum is basically 15 damage and if you gain 15 life, you might have long enough to reset the combo.  It was a toss-up between Violent Ultimatum and Clarion Ultimatum - search your library for 5 permanents you already have in plan...this could be okay to "rebuy" a Windbrisk Heights effect and would give you enough creatures to attack for lethal with titanic.  The more I thought about it, I decided that Violent Ultimatum wasn't good enough...dealing 1 damage and blowing up three permanents is definitely not going to win you the game.  Brilliant Ultimatum is clearly just trying to find more Ultimatums.

So, this deck uses the 3 sets of chaff cards to burn through cards- Gitaxian Probe, Street Wraith and Serum Powder.  Be careful when using Serum Powder, losing too many ultimatums or losing two Windbrisk Heights could be game over.

Expedition Map is simply there to look for Windbrisk Heights.

Problems?  Where do I even begin?

You only have 8 real creatures, the goblins from the chancellors are very situational.  An early removal spell from the opponent could take the wind right out of your sails.  

16 lands isn't very much mana, but theoretically, all you need is a windbrisk heights and any other lands that makes W.   You're just kidding yourself if you ever want to hardcast an Ultimatum.

There is the possibility that you might actually get to free cast an Ultimatum and then doing 15-16 damage with a titanic ultimatum isn't lethal and you don't have the resources to do it again.  Or you free roll a brilliant ultimatum, which whiffs (and you turn over 5 lands or something).  Or that you cast cruel ultimatum and your opponent discarding three cards and sacrificing a creature isn't good enough - against a deck like affinity, which can usually dump its hand turn 1-2, the discard effect might catch an etched champion and then they sacrifice an ornithopter.  

The last, most obvious and most painful possibility for failure is simply that you whiff on the windbrisk heights and you find nothing in your top four cards.

Happy holidays and may all your opening 7s be sweet ones! 

#6 Mill and Grill

Modern

4 Archive Trap
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
4 Breaking / Entering
4 Mind Funeral
1 Crypt Incursion
2 Ravenous Trap
4 Hedron Crab
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
4 Thought Scour
4 Visions from Beyond
1 Surgical Extraction
4 Mana Leak
3 Smother

4 Darkslick Shores
4 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Island
2 Swamp

Sideboard:
3 Crypt Incursion
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Trapmaker's Snare
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Remand

So, this is a pretty straightforward mill deck.  At 1 you have Hedron Crab and thought scour and then Visions of Beyond - either a cantrip or ancestral recall.  The two slot is not my favorite - either defensive cards like Mana Leak/Smother or the 8/10 milling spells of Breaking and Glimpse the Unthinkable.  You might want to con yourself into splashing red for entering, but if you have that much mana, you've probably won already (or lost).

I think the main reason to play this deck in modern is archive trap.  Since fetch lands are fairly ubiquitous, it's almost always going to be 0: mill 13.

Ravenous Trap is strictly there to save face.  There are so many decks that can utilize the graveyard in some manner (think Treasure Cruise) or revolve around it (reanimator or Living End) so it helps to have a couple to pull the trigger if you have to.  I played against a mill deck once at a local FNM while I had living end sleeved up.  I went off turn 2 with 20+ power in play after getting archive trap'd on a verdant catacombs.  You never know.

As for surgical extraction, this is for decks where taking out one specific card can cripple the deck.  Scapeshift and Splinter Twin for example (they still have Kiki-Jiki, but still).  Crypt Incursion is for Birthing Pod, Affinity and other random creature decks.  These will probably be your most difficult matchup, but gaining 30+ life can just be so backbreaking against these decks, which usually buys you at least 2 turns.

Ashiok is mainly for control decks where the games where will be much more grindy and some of your important mill spells will get countered.

I don't think I'm very happy with the sideboard right now, but I have done 0 testing to see what might be good.  Maybe trapmaker's snare (to go get archive trap) is too cutsey, but it might actually be very good and could require more.

The thing is, there's just so many different ways to take this deck.  You could make it more aggressive with things like Jace's Phantasm and Wight of Precinct Six.  You could try and make it a combo with Duskmantle Guildmage and Glimpse the Unthinkable/Archive Trap (13 damage for 1BU - WHAM).  I even considered a monoblue version with things like Sanity Grinding and Chancellor of the Spires - honestly this one looks like the most fun, but the chancellors are always so inconsistent.

Bonus!

This is an "article" I wrote back in April that I never got around to doing anything with.

So, do you want to play standard without breaking the bank?    How does a deck that costs ten dollars sound? 

Monogreen-Aggro AKA Torchrunner

16x Forest
4x Hero of Leina Tower
4x Dryad Militant
4x Spire Tracer
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Slaughterhorn
4x Kalonian Tusker
4x Wasteland Viper
4x Aspect of Hydra
4x Giant Growth
4x Warriors’ Lesson
4x Phytoburst

Sideboard:
4x Hunt the Hunter
4x Sedge Scorpion
3x Mending Touch
4x Ranger’s Guile

So, this is a monogreen deck?  What does this have to do with storm?

At this week’s FNM (4/12), seven players including myself all battled at our LGS with the exact same list.  Fittingly, we called ourselves the horde.

That’s seven copies of the exact same deck.

So why should you play this deck?

It’s really fun to play.   Attacking with terrible creatures and killing your opponent out of nowhere is a blast.  Also, there’s always a tiny bit of delicious Schadenfreude that your opponent’s 500 dollar deck just got crushed by a pile.

It’s really simple to play.  Play creatures and attack.  Not much else to it.

It’s really cheap to build.  If you have to buy every card in the deck, it will run you about 10 dollars at most game stores.  The deck only has four rares, which are bulk.  The only cards in the deck that see legitimate tournament play are Elvish Mystic, Dryad Militant, and (to some extent) Kalonian Tusker.

It’s semi-competitive.  Would I take this to a ptq or scg open?  No, of course not.  But this is perfectly alright for FNM or game day.  If you have a buddy that’s getting back into the game or someone who doesn’t want to drop an entire paycheck on a deck, this might be the perfect transition deck to play for a few times for the fun of it.

Results?

There were seven of us running it at our LGS and overall, the horde finished 15-13.  Not great, but ok.  Slightly in the positive.  Two pilots went 3-1, four of us went 2-2 and only one of us went 1-3.  There was a five dollar entry and each round win earns you a pack, so 6 out of 7 got their money back.

Why?

Why would seven people play this deck?  For the fun of it.  The joy of having opponents say, “Ugh, this deck again?!?”  But people were amused that we were all in on it and a couple of people wanted to see the list at the end of the tournament. 

I’ll talk a bit about some of the card choices although a lot of the deck is a bit self-explanatory.

Spire Tracer is the best card in the deck.  All it says is “1/1…mostly unblockable”.  I can’t even tell you how many games it’s won.

Phytoburst = conditional lava axe for two mana.  This is what gives the deck a lot of reach.  14 can feel like a high life total…

Aspect of Hydra: sometimes this card is a blowout for +5/+5 or more.  Sometimes it’s garbage.  But it’s a necessary evil. 

Slaughterhorn: I really hate this card to be honest, but the number of pump effects in the format is so low that you pretty much have to play it.  Sometimes it just becomes a creature in desperation or to get some extra devotion for Aspect of Hydra.  The versatility is nice, but the +2 on toughness can really hurt sometimes.

Hero of Leina Tower: this guy isn’t great, but it’s something to do with your mana in case you flood (and in this deck, that’s usually drawing more than three lands)

Dryad Militant: oh boy, was this card a stinker.  This ended up being the worst card all night and the one that got sided out the most.  We discovered how it just gets brick-walled by Sylvan Caryatid, Soldier of the Pantheon, Ash Zealot and a ton of other cards.  Its inclusion seems obvious – a creature that’s aggressively costed.  But I recommend something else in its place.  Ranger’s Guile or Experiment One or something.

#5 Goobly Booblies

BR Goblins

3x Mogg War-Marshal
1x Goblin Pyromancer
4x Goblin Matron
4x Goblin Warchief
1x Siege gang Commander
4x Goblin Lackey
3x Goblin Piledriver
1x Skirk Prospector
1x Goblin Sharpshooter
1x Goblin Chieftain
3x Gempalm Incinerator
1x Tuktuk Scrapper
4x Goblin Ringleader

1x Tarfire
1x Warren Weirding
3x Cabal Therapy

4x Aether Vial

3x Scalding Tarn
3x Arid Mesa
4x Badlands
3x Mountain
3x Cavern of Souls
4x Wasteland

SB
3x Tormod’s Crypt
2x Rakdos Charm
1x Cabal Therapy
3x Mindbreak Trap
2x Pyrokinesis
1x Warren Weirding
3x Red Elemental Blast


I have long been infatuated by the humorously grotesque visages of goblins.  Their appearance, coupled with manic personalities revolving around innate berserk episodes and flashes of engineering brilliance, places goblins among the most well-developed and interesting tribes in Magic: the Gathering.  That said, I'd like to share one iteration of the archetype that so interests me with its mechanics as well as its flavor.

This is an aggressive take on the traditional legacy Goblins build.  Goblins tends to play more like a control deck, especially the version(s) that splashes white for Thalia and runs Rishadan port aiming to deny mana in much the same way Death & Taxes does; however, the black splash lends itself to a more proactive game-plan.  Precise legacy knowledge is a must for a deck mainboarding cabal therapies, but in conjunction with a fast clock and (often) plenty of excess creatures to pay its flashback cost, therapy can disrupt the opponent long enough for the green monsters to end the game. In addition to the explosiveness you'd expect from any goblins deck is the silver bullet Goblin Pyromancer, which, in combination with enough goblins, can ignite one monster of a hasty alpha strike.

Due to the introduction of high power level cards such as True-name Nemesis, and more recently Treasure Cruise, which easily matches the card advantage engine of goblins, this archetype has waned in popularity.  Goblins has long since been removed from the list of tier 1 strategies, and in light of these developments is rendered a generally unappealing choice for Legacy tournaments.

However, there is some room for this deck to attack a particular meta in an interesting way.  For starters, the goblins strategy is among the scant archetypes that has a highly favorable matchup against Miracles builds.  Not only that, but legacy has shifted so drastically that many decks mainboard narrow hate cards - graveyard hate a la relic of progenitus, for example - most of which does not affect goblins.  This means you can expect some portion of your opponents' decks will induce dead (or nearly blank) draws.

Goblins' inherent strengths allow them to competently combat other fair (and certain unfair) strategies - anything that is not specifically geared towards defeating aggro will find themselves subject to an onslaught of 2/2s with haste.  Inherently, goblin matron grants the deck flexibility as it may include one ofs and can reliably draw them when it matters most: it provides access to virtually any utility effect.  Defeating a resolved Griselbrand is no easy task, but one I have overcome many times in tournament thanks to the combined efforts of skirk prospector, goblin sharpshooter, and siege-gang commander (*a pseudo-combo, giving you the potential to instantly KO your opponent).  Finally, many forget how much of a powerhouse Goblin Lackey is, whereas its triggered ability leads to some number of "free wins".  Bottom line: though some games may boil down to turning 'em sideways, there is ample room for creative plays, meaning the deck can interact with other strategies in ways that are not superficially apparent.

I hope you will consider commanding an army of gurgling goblins at your next tournament!

#4 UWR Delver

Main Board


Creatures (9):
2x Snapcaster Mage
3x Young Pyromancer
4x Delver of Secrets

Instants (19):
2x Remand
2x Spell Snare
2x Timely Reinforcements
2x Electrolyze
3x Path to Exile
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lightning Helix

Sorceries (12):
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Serum Visions
4x Treasure Cruise

Lands (20):
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Sulfur Falls
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Arid Mesa
1x Flooded Strand
2x Steam Vents
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Sacred Foundry
3x Island
2x Mountain
1x Plains

Sideboard

1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Celestial Purge
1x Timely Reinforcements
1x Wear // Tear
1x Batterskull
3x Dispel
2x Counterflux
2x Negate
1x Porphyry Nodes
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Anger of the Gods


Riding the tcruise with T-pain, this iteration of delver tries to bring a more controlling approach to the now omnipresent UR delver archetype. Not only this, but it has a significant edge in the delver mirror (and many other prominent aggro decks, such as burn) via mainboard timely reinforcements. At a glance, TR seems strange in the mainboard, but it is the key motivation for splashing white. That said, its application is incredibly narrow, and while seemingly dead in several matchups retains some use and, as previously stated, completely busts the delver mirror. This deck also excels at playing a control game, as it's not likely to run out of resources before the opponent, and has 8 lightning bolts + a manland (besides the engine that tcruise provides) to grind its way to a win.

Combo matchups are usually quite difficult. While the deck has plenty of game against storm, Twin, Jeskai Ascendancy and Birthing Pod (arguably combo), it struggles especially against ramp strategies. Anyone wielding a combination of big green creatures, summoning trap, urza lands, etc. generally mean bad news. This is why the sideboard is saturated with counterspells, and may even deserve more.

Ulimately, this deck suffers principally from passive draws. Lack of a t1 delver or t2 pyromancer is troublesome as the deck is not terribly fast and is threat light. Moving forward, it may be best to drop the delvers, add geists, and play some mainboard hard counters, shifting into a UWR tempo/control shell. I have also flirted with the idea of a 4-color burn/control strategy, but suitable numbers elude me. If you have any questions or comments on specific inclusions/numbers, I am happy to answer to the best of my ability. I am a seasoned UWR control player, so my design and sideboard choices reflect that kind of attitude.

If you want to dispatch flying nacatls under the banner of Uncle Sam, you'd be hard pressed to find a more refined list. Have fun slinging cards and doing battle, no matter which 75 you decide to sleeve up!



Bonus: Disney Sultai Delver chant! (to the tune of Under the Sea)

Underground Sea, Underground Sea
Down where it's delver
Insectile flier
Now you take three!

#3 The saga continues

Herro again, another modern list for today.

1 Auntie's Snitch
4 Morsel Theft
3 Sygg, River Cutthroat
4 Bump in the Night
4 Noggin Whack
4 Nightshade Stinger
4 Prickly Boggart
4 Frogtosser Banneret
3 Thoughtseize
4 Earwig Squad
3 Oona's Prowler
21 Swamp

The first thing you might notice here is no removal.  I considered 3x Ulcerate or 3x Smother, but I'm not entirely sure if that's what the deck wants to be doing.  Modern is very much a combo-dominated format right now (with the exception of UR delver of course) - there's Ascendancy, Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin, Scapeshift, all of which are Tier 1 decks.  There's also Living End and a couple of fringe decks, but Noggin Whack is one of the most devastating discard spells for (essentially) 2 mana - there's no restriction on what you can pick.  I doubt Thoughtseize needs mentioning.  Against a combo-heavy format, Earwig Squad could be a veritable champion.  Some lists only play 3 copies of a certain card that they need to win and removing 3 of 4 could make it very difficult for them to win, especially for scapeshift, living end of Ascendancy.  Without those key cards, those decks mostly do nothing but cantrip and/or search out lands.

You might wonder about the maindeck inclusion of Morsel Theft.  While it's cute with Sygg, the main reason is the abundance of UR delver and burn in the format.  1B for a 6 life swing (+3, -3) and drawing a card can be very strong.

I'm not terrible sure on Oona's Prowler.  Monoblack rogue doesn't have many options at 2: Oona's Blackguard and (sort of) Stinkerdrinker Bandit, both of which seem much too slow for modern.  I worry that the prowler could be a liability against graveyard decks.  Perhaps it just becomes removal.

One might speculate at the lack of blue.  I don't really think blue brings enough to the table to be relevant.  There's a couple of unblockable creatures at 1 and 2 mana (triton shorestalker and invisible stalker...hey!  so many stalkers), but the blue rogue spells are mostly pretty bad/expensive.

Bonus list!

I went 4-0 at FNM last night here in Rostock so I thought I would include my mono red list.


18 Mountain
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Titan's Strength
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Dragon's Mantle
1 Coordinated Assault
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Stoke the Flames
1 Hall of Triumph
4 Frenzied Goblin
2 Hammerhand
4 Foundry Street Denizen
2 Monastery Swiftspear
2 War-Name Aspirant
2 Lightning Strike

Sideboard
3 Borderland Marauder
1 Hordeling Outburst
4 Searing Blood
3 Magma Spray
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Weird card choices?  Couldn't find 4 Monastery Swiftspear so I just jammed 2 War-Name Aspirants instead.  Why is Borderland Marauder in the board?  I had less than five minutes to get my cards together before leaving for FNM so I hurriedly threw together a board.  I never boarded it in once.  4x Frenzied Goblin?  That choice looks odd, but I've been very impressed with them.  Some people like going 2x Frenzied Goblin 1x Arena Athlete (and then maybe 3x Hammerhand), but I've never lied Arena Athlete that much,

-Travis

Three Kings

Greetings All! My name is Stephen, and I am the second champion of this Deck of the Day blog.  I am also a champion of wacky deck ideas, much like our first author, Travis.  The deck I am bringing to the forefront today is something I like to call The Three Kings, or more simply, Villainous Wealth.

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 temple of mystery
4 temple of malady
4 polluted delta
4 opulent palace
4 island
3 swamp
1 llanowar waste

1 murderous cut
4 hero's downfall
3 sultai charm
2 bile blight
4 dissolve
3 kiora, the crashing wave

4 sylvan caryatid
3 courser of kruphix
3 king macar, the gold cursed
2 reaper of the wilds
3 Villainous Wealth
---
Sideboard:
2 back to nature
1 perilous vault
2 negate
2 ashiok, nightmare weaver
2 bile blight
2 disdainful stroke
1 sultai charm
2 stymied hopes
1 yavimaya coast



While I am sure you all are familiar with the Villainous Wealth card, you are likely not familiar with this shell.  Currently, standard is a format ripe with one thing in common: one spell per turn.  Typically, that one spell is something in the air of Sidisi, Siege Rhino, Goblin Rabblemaster and the like.  What this deck aims to accomplish is much the same, but with the ability to get ahead, and stay ahead.  The key to this deck working is none other than King Macar. 

King Macar provides us with something no other card in the format does right now: the ability to kill creatures for profit, repeatedly.  All we have to do is attack.  But how do we do that?!?! Easy. Kill everything.  Downfall and Kiora are the ways in which we eliminate, or turn to pillows, the blockers in question, and attacking is all we do afterwards.  At that moment, they actually have to use a premium removal spell on a 2/3 in order to begin resolving additional creatures, meaning we no longer care about siege rhinos and their kin.  We actually can sit back and counter their walkers before doing anything else, say, resolve the wealth, which is just the nail in the coffin.

Essentially, this is a 57 card control deck that attacks for 2 (or 4) until our opponents are forced to react, in which case we cast the wealth and take the game back over.

How does this deck fair in the current metagame?  Quite well actually.  I personally have run this list to 2 IQs with fair results each time, with my opponents curious as to what King Macar is, and surprised when their creatures turn into excess mana.  Other midrange decks fall apart to the strategy of 'kill all the things' because they aren't able to crack us.  Control decks can't decide if they should kill our 2 power creatures, in which case we attack until they do, then we fight over our creature to tap them down, and wealth our way to victory.  And even swift strategies like Jeskai Tokens or the resilient Whip strategies fall to maindeck Bile Blight and Sultai Charm, 2 very powerful cards in today's standard.  It's very hard to argue with a deck that becomes a full on control deck post board that still has threats with which to win the game!

However, we are prey to turn 2 Rabblemaster, something I'm sure everyone is weak to.

Until next time, may your Kings be Wealthy!
-Stephen

Intro and Infinite Altar

Hi!  And welcome to deck of the day!  We'll be posting a decklist as often as we can and one per day is the hope.  Some will be slim, tuned lists ready to take to Grand Prixs and some will be wacky "this-will-never-work" combos.  I think to start us off, we'll start with the latter.

Modern:

#1 Infinite Altar
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 mox opal
4 ornithopter
4 memnite
4 pila-pala
4 trinket mage
4 altar of the brood
4 banishing knack
4 battered golem
4 retraction helix
4 springleaf drum
4 midnight guard

so i think you see the combo. midnight guard + helix + altar + memnite = infinite mill. and while i agree four cards combos are generally i bad idea, i like that there's so many redundant copies in this deck. battered golem and midnight guard are basically the same and retraction helix = banishing knack. memnite = ornithopter = mox opal. if you're wondering about pila-pala, the combo works, but only with mox opal. unfortunately there's only one real altar of the brood (i mean there's hair-strung koto...but it costs 6) and so trinket mage can go get an altar or mox opal/memnite/ornithopter.

i think the deck can take the opponent by surprise game 1 but game 2 theyre gonna know whats up so losing slots to pact of negation/mizzium skins/disrupting shoal could be problematic

How fragile is the combo? Probably very. The difficulty with needing four separate cards is that you could get stuck with 3 parts of the combo and lose without ever seeing the fourth part. Other than Mox Opal and the fetch lands, the deck is incredibly cheap to build and if you want to add another modern deck to your gauntlet, this could be the one.

-Travis