TappedOut's Third Modern Moot

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ChiefBell

23 December 2015

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TappedOut’s Third Modern Moot

The Third Modern Moot

Modern moot is an article series about modern decks, written to appeal both to those who enjoy playing Magic, and those who enjoy talking about the game. A moot is a word from old or middle English that refers to a meeting or discussion between people about a particular topic, and that is what this article series aims to recreate. Consider these write-ups as casual discussions about decks in the Modern format.

Normally I focus specifically on one single deck archetype and analyze it. This time however I thought I would take a peek at the latest Oath of the Gatewatch spoilers and discuss whether I see any modern potential in them. I want to avoid trying to predict whether any will be specifically played because surprises always occur, and it is nigh on impossible to predict which tier 2 deck will spring up next. I am more interested in taking a look at each cards potential and discussing what could be done.

Last time we explored the archetype Skred, a mono-red control deck, which utilises a mixture of control, and strong finishers to dominate games. If you would like to go back and read that article you can find it here. For those of you who have been testing the deck over the last few weeks, I would love to hear any thoughts or interesting play-by-plays you may have!

The Theme For Today: Spoilers

For the third article I wanted to discuss a few of the new cards that have been spoiled for Oath of the Gatewatch. Some of these spoilers are unofficial so take all of this with a pinch of salt; it is possible that some of the cards are not real (but unlikely). My aim is to foster some discussion about these spoilers, and hopefully some excitement for new modern potentials.

Warning: Spoilers Below

Spire’s Needle

Land
Spire’s Needle enters the battlefield tapped
T: Add R or W to your mana pool
2RW: Spire’s Needle becomes a 2/1 elemental creature with double strike until end of turn. It’s still a land.

This is a fairly interesting card to me, for a number of reasons. Primarily, the Boros colours have not had a manland before so this fills a huge gap. To me, it is always interesting and exciting to see how cycles are finished up. Secondarily, as with most manlands, this is a subtly powerful card, and presents a host of options to decks that run RW.

On the surface, paying 4 mana and having to tap a land (so essentially paying 5 mana) for a 2/1 double strike is a bad deal. It dies to almost all the removal in the game. It can be successfully blocked by a number of important creatures. And it cannot provide much impact in the early game, given its activation cost. However, it is worth remembering that manlands are almost "free creatures" within a deck. The reason for this is that they provide mana as well as a creature and therefore can take up a land space, instead of a nonland space. This means that instead of running 20 creatures as nonlands, you could perhaps run 16 and then 4 of these lands. This would leave you 4 nonland slots to fill with other interesting picks. This inherently means that any value on a land is extremely strong.

Another reason why this card is potentially interesting is because it is a threat that really has to be answered by the opponent, or it can kill them fairly quickly. Yes it dies to Lightning Bolt, and Path to Exile, and Electrolyze and all manner of other things. But the fact of the matter is that this forces the opponent to do two things: hold mana or creatures back that they may want to use offensively (slowing their tempo), and use removal or blockers on a land instead of another threat (burning resources). Remember Magic is all about resources, and all things being equal it resembles a tug of war between two people. You might pull the rope one way by playing a creature. I pull the other way by removing your creature. So we go backwards and forwards. If you play more threats than I can handle then I lose. This is why manlands of all shapes and sizes should be appreciated. They give you extra win conditions in addition to the other, roughly, 36 nonland cards you are playing.

I am not going to speculate on whether or not this card will see play because that is a bit of a pointless endeavour at this stage. The large activation cost makes it fairly prohibitive in many situations and there is currently no top deck that utilises both red and white, and wants the game to go on for long enough for this kind of land to matter. Having said this, it is a very strong effect and I would urge people to consider it if they have no other options. Manlands are hugely strong, and this one does 4 damage to an opponent if unblocked. It is not trivial, and could swing games in your favour. Definitely a card worth keeping your eye on.

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim

WB
Legendary Creature - Kor Cleric
Deathtouch
1, Sacrifice another creature: You gain life equal to the sacrificed creature’s toughness.
1WB, Sacrifice another creature: Exile target nonland permanent. Activate this ability only if you have at least 10 more life than your starting life total.
2/3

Immediately we can see a 2/3 with deathtouch for 2 mana, which is pretty good. I particularly value this card because deathtouch enables a creature to be relevant in both the early game and late game. On turn 2 we can swing for a non-negligible amount of damage, and on turn 4 we can block a Siege Rhino. That in itself is pretty large value. The "dies to removal" argument will invariably be used, and it is valid in the cases of Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile. You lose a 2 mana creature, and they lose a 1 mana removal spell. That certainly is a tempo loss. Though in the latter case you gain a land. However with others such as Abrupt Decay it’s a 2 mana-for-2 mana trade, which is fair.

Moving onto the abilities, we can see a pretty impressive card forming. The first allows you to trade a creature for life, at an additional cost of 1 mana. The second allows you to trade a creature in order to exile a nonland permanent, at an additional cost of 3 mana. The huge snag in the second ability is that it can only be activated if you have 10 life more than your starting total. Obviously these abilities go together very nicely with the first producing the conditions in which the second can come into effect. However, there are hefty costs to pay for the abilities. I personally do not know of any decks that produce enough extra creatures in order to sacrifice for both abilities activating costs, and also have enough life-gain in order to meet the demand of the second ability. Some kind of mixture of a tokens deck and a soul sisters deck could produce both, but regardless, as it stands right now I see the second ability being very difficult to activate.

Ayli is a good card. There is no doubt about that. She is fair offensively, given her mana cost, and she is very good defensively, given deathtouch. Her abilities are extremely interesting. Hard to activate, but very, very strong. Exiling a nonland permanent every turn (multiple even, if you have the mana or creatures for it) is exceedingly powerful, and a worthy payoff for the difficulty involved in activation. It can potentially lock an opponent out of the game. As with the previous card though, I cannot think of a shell that would currently fit her. Abzan could play her but does not have enough life gain. Tokens could, but again does not have the life gain. Soul sisters could but cannot spare the creatures. This is problematic. Having said this I will certainly keep my eyes open for something.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

1GG
Planeswalker - Nissa
+1: Put a 0/1 green Plant creature token onto the battlefield
-2: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control
-7: You gain X life and draw X cards where X is the number of lands you control
3

I have a thing for planeswalkers that produce tokens as a plus ability, rather than a minus ability, because they give the player the opportunity to swamp the board with chump blockers when behind or attackers when ahead. Nissa is less able to do this given that her tokens are 0/1 and therefore useless on the offense, but she does have another ability which buffs them. There are many decks that need that early game board presence to hold off the opponent while they ramp, or draw into bigger threats and it is in these situations that Nissa could be useful. The ability to produce creatures for 0 mana every single turn is absolutely huge in a format that is dominated by decks that win through creature damage, and yet has a distinct lack of trampling threats.

Her middle ability is interesting because the counter stays for the duration of the creatures life, not just until the end of turn. This kind of effect can be utilized multiple times to produce ever increasing tokens. 0/1 then 1/2 then 2/3 etc. This is wishful thinking of course, and it is unlikely that the tokens she produce will live long enough to become truly large, but there are other uses. Would I pay 3 mana to make my Tarmogoyf have a +1/+1 counter? I would certainly consider it, especially if I have a few more creatures as well. If I have an established board presence as it is, that +1/+1 counter on each creature could translate to a lot of extra damage, or profitable blocks. Therefore she has a use when you want to be offensive, as well as defensive.

Her ultimate is pretty good, and whilst it might not immediately win games, it seems significant enough to write about. Card draw can be lacking in green, and by the time you manage to reach her ultimate it is possible to have 7 lands, essentially enabling you to draw a full hand. Midrange decks would certainly appreciate this boost given that they can have problems running out of spells or threats to play at times, especially against other grindy decks.

We need to remember that Nissa costs 3 mana to play, which is very little in real terms when you consider what you get. That could be 3 mana to buff your entire board state and produce more profitable swings or blocks. Or that could be 3 mana to start amassing an army of chump blockers in order to survive to the point at which you can cast Thragtusk. Having this kind of flexibility is very important. Obviously she is not at the same level as Liliana of the Veil in terms of power but she does appear to have some real use. I do like her and I would like to see her played but I fear that her immediate impact may be just a tad too small to make her a solid pick. 0/1 tokens are nice but they are not impressive. Similarly +1/+1 counter are nice but again, it is not too impressive. Finally she does not really interact with the opponent in any way which is problematic in a format that has decks like Tron or Twin. So overall, a mixed card. Very strong given the mana cost and ability to pump out blockers or buff a healthy board state, but also some significant problems including lack of speed and inability to interact with the opponent. There is a chance for some kind of weenie deck to abuse her abilities, but her impact seems too small for aggro.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

2BB
Legendary Creature - Vampire Warrior
Lifelink
If a nontoken creature an opponent controls would die, instead exile that creature and put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield
2B, sacrifice another Vampire or Zombie: Put two +1/+1 counters on Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.
3/4

3/4 for 4 mana, with lifelink puts him slightly below curve in terms of his size. I would have liked him to have 4 power, but that is forgivable. I suppose that with the addition of lifelink he is not bad value, just not fantastic either. What is significant is how Kalitas blanks both Lightning Bolt and Abrupt Decay, which is nice. Though all the other usual suspects hit him (Dismember, Maelstrom Pulse, Path to Exile, Terminate), resulting a tempo loss given his relatively high casting cost of 4. Initial impressions lead me to say that he is distinctly average but not great.

His abilities are what initially caught my eye when I read him. Black is a colour that excels at removing the opponents creatures, and therefore having access to a creature with an ability that profits from removal is significant. Turning an Abrupt Decay into a removal spell that also gives you a 2/2 beater is potentially huge because it means that Kalitas can act as a nice win condition in slow black control decks that aim to do little but remove opposing threats. It is always appreciated when a card can give a deck extra value for doing what it already did anyway (ie. remove threats). For proof of this see Tarmogoyf. The second ability synergises with the first because it allows you to sacrifice the tokens you create, or other creatures, to buff Kalitas. This can be extremely useful when used at instant speed in response to a removal spell, or when wanting to turn an unfavourable block into a favourable one, but you know what they say about putting all your eggs in one basket. In any case this is a card that can clearly win games and produce value even when behind.

You may have noticed that I have a soft spot for attrition cards: those that gain long term value throughout the game. I am a huge sucker for cards that repeatably give tokens or profit from removal spells and time. Kalitas excels here, and I am already excited about his prospect in mainly black decks. I am not going to pretend he is Siege Rhino or Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip. He will not ever be as significant as those creatures because a) he is legendary and b) his value is neither immediate and depends on other cards. Despite this he is very solid and could give late game options to other decks that perhaps do not play green or white. Monoblack midrange has always had a soft spot in my heart, and he could have a place there. I think that he is a worthy prospect for a very removal-heavy build.

Goblin Dark-Dwellers

3RR
Creature - Goblin
Menace
When Goblin Dark-Dwellers enters the battlefield, you may cast target instant or sorcery card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
4/4

I think this card has been generating a great deal of hype recently, especially in regards to Grixis Control, Skred, and Jund decks. Those that play at mainly sorcery speed and run red. I can certainly see why. It does appear to be something special, doing its best impression of Snapcaster Mage and Stormbreath Dragon all at the same time. Goblin Dark-Dwellers has decent but not great evasion, a decent but not great ability, and decent but not great power and toughness. When you put all of this together does it become more than the sum of its parts to generate the next must-pick card? I am not entirely sure, but it certainly is interesting.

One of my main concerns here is that for 5 mana most decks want to just win the game. Stormbreath Dragon in Skred for example gives you haste, better evasion, and protection from Path to Exile to almost guarantee a win. This, as a beater, only has menace which is certainly something, but not as significant as flying. It also lacks haste which means it cannot swing until turn 6, and it dies to all of the usual removal spells resulting in some nasty tempo losses. In Jund the most significant win condition is a mere 2 mana because the deck wants to play both control and aggro spells in the same turn. Creatures with large mana costs prevent you from doing this, and this goblin costs 5. Furthermore cards like Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip provide more significant threats, for less mana.

The ability to recast used spells is the saving grace here because it is a fairly unique ability. Many decks can profit from the ability to recast burn spells, or removal spells, or draw spells. The goblin essentially allows a variety of 2-for-1 situations as it enters the battlefield, which is really advantageous. However, note that the card does not have haste so it cannot be used with counterspells and any removal or draws must be done in your own turn. Furthermore, the card is slower than Snapcaster Mage in a variety of situations. Want to recast Lightning Bolt? Snappy does it for cheaper, and at instant speed. Terminate? Snappy does it cheaper and at instant speed. In fact when it comes to recasting used spells Snapcaster Mage is pretty much always better because he can target anything (not just cards with a mana cost of 3 or less), and he can do it at instant speed if you wish. Having said this, many decks could run both together for huge amounts of value and just snow the opponent under with all their many 2-for-1s (and better with cards like Kolaghan's Command). The two don’t necessarily clash because they are in different colours and can be used together.

You want to play this card in sorcery speed decks that include red. That gives Jund, Grixis, and Skred. It is a solid beater, but not excellent. And it is a solid value engine, but not excellent. I believe that this card could be extremely significant for Skred because allowing you to recast Skred is 2-for-1 on removal, and allowing you to recast a Lightning Bolt is kind of like the creature has haste (in a weird way). This is also a deck that has always wanted Snapcaster Mage but never been able to play him. I also believe this card would work alongside Jace, Telepath Unbound  ^Flip and Snapcaster Mage to make Grixis a really silly value deck, full of 2-for-1s, 3-for-1s, 4-for-1s etc. However I do not think this card will immediately be a snap pick up for every deck running red. And that is ok because it represents smart card design. Goblin Dark-Dwellers has real power but also real downsides, and this is why it is worth talking about. It is much more interesting than a card that is Snapcaster Mage version 2.0, and strictly better. It is forcing us to think carefully about where and when best to use it, and for me, there is value in that thought process.

Endbringer

5C
Creature - Eldrazi
Untap Endbringer during each other player’s untap step
T: Endbringer deals 1 damage to target creature or player
C, T: Target creature cannot attack or block this turn
CC, T: Draw a card
5/5

This is a 6 mana creature that comes with a pretty good body (but not amazing), that has a host of great abilities, and untaps in every players untap step which allows it to use the abilities multiple times in one turn cycle. Whats not to like here? Perhaps the largest upside is that this is a colorless creature and therefore available to all colour combinations.

I am excited about this card because of its large utility for a variety of decks, particularly control. It fundamentally changes combat as it is able to stop a creature attacking in your turn and then stop another blocking in the opponents. It allows up to two extra cards to be draw per turn cycle. These are both huge abilities for a deck that wants to manipulate the game. Furthermore it can ping damage to creatures, which may occasionally come in handy if you have a Lightning Bolt, for example, and want to do 4 damage. These are all large upsides and make the card seem fairly playable. I can imagine untapping with this card in my turn and then swinging for 5, untapping again in the opponents turn and then paying 2 and tapping in the end step to draw a card. It is just amazing value.

Of course pure value does not win games, durability and sustained pressure do. This is where the card falls down in my opinion. With a toughness of 5 it is certainly not the hugest creature around, and with a lack of flying, menace, hexproof, or anything else, it is simultaneously easy to block, and easy to remove. Control decks usually want to play more durable threats that can sustain damage despite the opponent holding Path to Exile or having a Primeval Titan on board. This card is going to have a hard time doing that without the use of further counterspells. It would probably be too strong if it had evasion and all the juicy abilities it has currently, but it would certainly have been nice to see at least trample or some kind of concession for decks that want a consistent win condition.

One of the ways that this could be utilised is to give a non-blue deck easy access to solid combat manipulation and card draw. I have used this example before, but it is relevant again, Skred is a deck that could benefit here. Being mono-red it usually lacks access to card draw. This card fixes that. Would Tron replace Wurmcoil Engine for this? Extremely unlikely given that wurmcoil produces tokens on death for even more value, and has a larger body with lifelink etc., but there is a case to be made for drawing cards and preventing attacks. Again, RG Tron is an example of a deck that lacks card draw but could play this. Obviously I have no certainty and I am not going to speculate at this point but the value here is very real and very usable. What I am most impressed with is that due to being colourless it is usable by a variety of decks. It could easily pave the way for a new tier 2 contender, given that it would work well in any deck that ramps in a large fashion and wants card draw.

Outro

I really like spoiler season because I tend to be somebody who gets more excited than disappointed. I stick to possibilities and future developments instead of focusing solely on where new cards do not work. I find that more conversation is stimulated if we start looking at what we can do, instead of always talking about what is not feasible. Here I hope to have highlighted some future inclusions and discussed what they can add to your decks. What I particularly like about this set, from analysing a few cards, is that there appears to be a lot of additional value here. Many of the cards have multiple interesting abilities that are usable in a variety of different situations. Flexibility: these cards are not just vanilla bodies or beaters. They give the player interesting ways to affect the game. It makes me want to test old decks and see how they change once they have new capabilities within.

I hope you enjoyed this article about a few spoilers and I hope that it can stimulate some discussion. Perhaps you even want to go out and test new decks yourself. If you do I would love to know your thoughts!

As always I welcome any comments and criticisms you may have. Feel free to let me know what you enjoyed here and what you didn’t like as well. Maybe you have a request for next time? Maybe you have a question? Let me know below!

ChiefBell