More Cereal: And Also, Thoughts Moving Forward

Greetings again all! Stephen here with some more intel on the Cheerios archetype today, along with some thoughts moving forward about things that I will be posting about, and what other formats that I may be writing about.  Exciting!

So, as we all now from my last post, I did make 3rd place in States with Cheerios.  What I did not expect was that the list would be featured by Gerry Thompson, titling the article as "The Best New Modern Combo Deck?", which feels great on the inside, but I honestly will never be able to take all the credit.  I noticed that there were others doing something similar to me, and I feel that while I did take it to the next level, there needs to be more innovation for it before the next big event.  What this means moving forward is that people will expect this deck and make it even harder for us to go for it in the early game.  We don't have the disruption to fight through everything, so something has to give, and while I don't know what it is going to be yet, you can be sure that I am going to try and find out.

As for my local meta, everyone is hostile towards Cheerios.  This means that I have to wait for someone to tap out and go for it, or basically what for 4 mana, Muddle, and a Paladin to be sitting in my hand, which isn't exactly the best idea I've ever had.  My locals will simply mulligan into a hand that can beat the Paladin and keep it, knowing exactly what I am trying to do.  Honestly, I don't blame them. This deck is fast, but it makes for some very negative playtesting, as that is not likely to happen in a true tournament environment.  In fact, I ended up playing standard last night instead of Modern, to the anger of the folks who questioned why I wasn't going to play in a format against decks like Burn, Zoo, Twin, Scapeshift and U/W/R Control... easily the most hostile matchups, haha.  In a large event I would do it, but here with 7 others, not likely.

Back to the cereal though, there is some wiggle room, some might say, to the deck now.  I have found ways to sideboard up to 6 cards out for some matchups, but were the real weakness lies is really just removal.  There is so little we can do about it, that I want to try and shore up that weakness as best I can.  Silence does the job well, but that leads to us having a 2 card combo, which is a little off-putting. It's the reason I went to Mentor in the first place.  However, it may be necessary moving forward for the Twin matchup and the Burn and the like.  I've also been toying around with the idea of Leyline of Anticipation, and playing the entire deck at instant speed.  While this shores up any weakness, in a sense, we end up only having a 6 card hand, and that is looking at best case scenario, haha.  Other types of protection include Spellskite, but we must remember that Spellskite is an artifact, and does go right back up to our hand when we cast Retract, so that's a bit of a no-go.  Path may end up in the board as well, simply based on how gross Eidolon is against us.  In the future, a good deal of research and testing will need to be done to ensure that we have an optimal list, especially for GP Charlotte.

Cheerios aside, I have been playing 4 Color Control in standard, because playing Narset with Jace is simply busted, and having only 3 win conditions in the entire deck is like playing with fire.  The deck is only ever truly hindered by its mana production, but I think I have that one down.  As the deck is currently not sitting next to me, I shall have to post that list a little bit later on.

Also, I have YET ANOTHER Modern deck that is in the works.  Travis, our main man, remembers the days of being 'Van Lunen'd' by Allies.  Well, I'm willing to play Allies again, this time in modern.  As a deck with only one creature type, Cavern of Souls seems like a great place to start, along with the Shock/Fetch mana base.  Aether Vial also seems very good here.  But what makes the deck truly tick? Hardened Scales.  Every ally now gives itself 2 counters, and gets 2 counters when another ally comes into play.  This makes for some very large creatures, very fast.  I'm still working on the exact configuration, whether or not to play Vial, Collected Company or Lead the Stampede, etc.  Will be posting that list in the future too.  Hell, my next article will just be a bat-shit ton of decklists, haha.

As always, I want to thank you guys for checking out the blog.  Humble beginnings for humble people just looking to write about what we love.  Be prepared for more Cheerios updates, modern updates, and even from me, Standard updates.  Also, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Thanks again!
-Stephen D.