Land (21)
Creature (24)
Planeswalker (5)
Instant (3)
Sorcery (3)
Enchantment (4)
Sideboard
Creature (7)
Maybeboard
Creature (5)
Planeswalker (2)
Artifact (1)
100 UPVOTES! I probably should do something to this deck as it's not been tweaked to the latest meta game but i don't play that much anymore so i'm not doing it, at least for now.
This deck combines surprise potential and very wide card pool of toolbox deck, while still having explosiveness of combo deck
This kind of deck is very unique and there are only one other deck that plays same way as this deck, it being Kiki Chord. So if you want to have bit different but still very fun and competitive deck, Saheeli Evolution is good option for you.
As this deck can be built very many different ways, here is little primer to explain my choices and the core of the deck:
At the beginning, what kind of hand is good or bad and how bad hand we can possibly keep?
-
1 landers are not good for us, but with Birds of Paradise you can think about keeping them if the hand is otherwise just incredibly good, but most of the time i would not recommend it. Deck plays only 21 lands so with 1 lander you have around 37% change to draw a land which means that one of our first 3 draws should be land and that is too slow, without Birds of Paradise always mull.
-
With 3-4 lands but without 1 or 2 drops, you can keep it almost only if you have combo in the hand and backup plan if we get Thoughtseized or something, in Modern you really need that early action.
-
Screw beats flood, so prefer hands with less lands than hands with 5+ lands because this deck doesn't have that great top decks with mono land hand, this is combo deck after all.
-
Best kind of hand has bit of everything, early creature or 2, removal spell/Oath/Evolution and combo piece with few lands, these hands are almost every time keeps, well because those are perfect. This kind of hand is very resilient against hand disruption and removal spells.
-
Against unfair decks that are faster than us we need to have some hate, for storm we need Eidolon of Rhetoric/Eldritch Evolution and creature to find it or Relic of Progenitus and preferably removal spell. For Affinity we need Stony Silence/Nature's Claim or at least Reclamation Sage. These kind of matchups are pretty bad to us usually. But then this deck mulls so badly that we can only go to 6 when searching for hate cards because we just can't easily win from 5 cards. So even if you don't have hate in opener, but hand is otherwise very good just go with it.
-
Deck doesn't straightly lose to mulligan, we can go to 6,but 5 is very hard us to handle, we just need so much resources to do what we want.
In first few turns we want to make up gameplan depending on our hand.
-
If we have chance to combo off we have to think about can we possibly do it without getting disrupted?
-
What might our opponent have to stop us?
-
If we fail to combo off, what do we do then?
-
In combo matchups do we have any hate for them and if yes do we play it out immediately or do we try to go for combo itself if possible?
-
Without combo it's all about in what order you play out creatures and using Eldritch Evolution, which all depends in what you have and what you are against
Opponent has 4 mana up, should i try to combo....
Opponent has Aether Vial on 2 and i know he/she is playing Leonin Arbiters and i need to cast Eldritch Evolution to combo should i go for it?
Opponent has only , but if he/she is holding up Path to Exile.. but if i go for it and he/she has the removal spell i will die on backswing, but if i just pass i can leave up my own Path to Exile, should i still go for the win?
All kind of situations comes across when playing and it is always very tempting to go for the kill.
But actually i think it is better to play it safe if you know that your opponent plays something that disrupts our combo and has mana for it. There are always exceptions though. If opponent has used for example 3 Path to Exiles and has only up and you haven't seen other removal spells from them, definitely go for it.
Or against Grixis Shadow, they have million hand disruption spells so you can always try to combo as well, they are so likely to get it out of your hand otherwise.
But if opponent has million mana up and many cards in hand if you are not going to die to anything there is really no need to hurry, we can play longer game too and if there opens window to combo off safely we get free win. Exception to this is against control, if they don't have Cryptic Command up yet i usually try to go for it because that card wrecks us very badly and against control we have really low changes of winning on late game.
If we are not able to combo off, we still have solid gameplan. We have 20 creatures which aren't part of the combo and all of them are made to buy us more time and slowing down opponent, sometimes even winning game just by itself. With Eldritch Evolution we are not just combo deck, but toolbox deck with good amount of amazing creatures:
-
Courser of Kruphix Digs us deeper into deck and helps us to find what we need, gains few life here and there which can be relevant. And for 2/4 isn't too bad.
-
Eternal Witness Is extremely versatile, it can get back anything as card says, and it's amazing sacrifice target for Eldritch Evolution as it is already done it's job.
-
Lotus Cobra Is maybe bit odd, but i like how it ramps us and makes everything easier to cast, because decks mana can be awkward sometimes. With Cobra i have made my fastest win by hard casting Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Felidar Guardian on turn 3, it was something amazing. Yes there is probably like 1 possible line to do that but it is possible!
-
Reflector Mage Excellent creature to buy time, also makes it so Eldritch Evolution can find kind of removal spell if needed.
-
Renegade Rallier Allstar of the deck, does so so much for us. Gets back Voice of Resurgence, Wall of Omens, Lotus Cobra, Birds of Paradise, any land or even Oath of Nissa if we need to dig for combo. And getting back Stony Silence or Relic of Progenitus can be huge game changer in certain matchups.
-
Scavenging Ooze Can be very annoying for some decks like Storm or Dredge by just eating their graveyards and can get surprisingly big while gaining few life. Great creature overall.
-
Voice of Resurgence Some games it's 2/2 bear for , sometimes it wins game alone, it all depends what we are up against. Against control it can be huge problem for them but some other decks like Affinity or Titanshift just doesn't care. Has nice synergy with Eldritch Evolution as you can itself sac it and get at least some value out of it.
-
Wall of Omens for creature that draws a card and brickwalls opponents early creatures? Yes please! When it doesn't block that well anymore it founds Felidar Guardian with Eldritch Evolution which is very important.
With these guys we should be able to survive long enough to find the combo or just win with beatdowns
Games doesn't always get this far, but sometimes it can happen, maybe Saheeli Rai or Felidar Guardian got hit by Surgical Extraction/Extirpate or we just have had unfortunate draw.
This deck isn't really great on late game but we can play it, we just have to be careful with our lifetotal.
If opponent doesn't have too great draws we can grind them out, specially against other combo decks like Storm or Ad Nauseam, we play much better game than they do. And we beat aggro and zoo decks too if we just survive and draw enough action.
This is part of the game where Sun Titan really shines, it can carry us alone to the win, and even though there is only 1 copy in the deck we can find it with Eldritch Evolution by saccing Felidar Guardian and Oath of Nissa can dig for it. And if we Saheeli Rai in play and in the graveyard, we can copy Sun Titan with Saheeli's -2 and get back another Saheeli and do this infinite times, another fun combo there.(just remember always to sacrifice already used Saheeli to legendary rule)
Keranos, God of Storms Plays similar role out of sideboard, it digs us trough lands and gives reach, which is all very good, and it is 5 drop so Eldritch Evolution finds it much easier.
And we can always find our combo and win game out of no where!
In nutshell, we can play long game, but specially before sideboard we don't really want to.
For honorable mentions, i collect here cards that are under consideration or could have slot in this deck.
-
Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies Combo: Could fit in this deck, but then deck would look whole different, but it is possibility.
-
Collected Company: This could be shaped to be Company deck, with Druid+Vizier combo it could be something, but it's not for this version
-
Kitchen Finks: Would make our late game much better, as what it does best is to buy time and works amazingly with Eldritch Evolution
-
Beast Within: Could make it to the sideboard just as catch all removal spell, but i really don't find room for it.
-
Chord of Calling: Is one possibility if i want to shape the deck for it, but currently there is really no need or room for it.
-
Spell Queller: Could find the way to deck, doesn't work well with Eldritch Evolution which is one of the reasons i left it out, great card still.
-
Unified Will: Could be good sideboard card, but there just is again no room for it.
-
Aven Mindcensor: Would make our matchups against certain decks like Storm and Titan Shift much better and is always good against anything that plays fetches. Could very easily make it to the sideboard.
-
Tireless Tracker: Great in longer and grindier games, could easily be 1 of in maindeck.
Here are the cards that i could play, but i can't afford them.
-
Horizon Canopy: Would be no brainer.
-
Noble Hierarch: Amazing manadork, we could use more of those anyway.
-
Engineered Explosives: Very good sideboard card against low on the ground decks.
-
Magus of the Moon: Possible sideboard card (Dropped in price with reprint i know but i don't really like it even though Kiki Chord deck main deck it)
-
Chandra, Torch of Defiance: Could be good sideboard card for grinding matchups.
-
Overall deck is super fun to play!
-
Deck is pretty challenging to play, not ideal for newer players
-
Worst matchups:
- Grixis Shadow - Control - Tron -
Good matchups:
- Titan Shift - Counters Company - Knightfall -
Price of the deck is around 300e/350$ so it's decently budget (From Magiccardmarket)
-
My win% in Xmage is currently 54,72% with this deck, from 24 best of 3 games
-
Original idea from: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-saheeli-evolution-39652#paper
-
Primer updated 2.2.2018
-
This is still my own brew and i'm developing this over time.
-
Huge thanks for the 4500 views, you all are amazing. Special thanks to everyone who upvoted my deck!
So there is the deck explained, hopefully it helps you to understand the deck better and if you play something similar itself, maybe you learned something too!
And sorry for my bad english, there are lot of grammar mistakes i know, i will fix them as i found them. :D
If you have suggestions, feel free to leave them on the comments, but remember that i don't want just random card names, you have to justify why i should play that. And check that it isn't already in Honorable Mentions/Possible Upgrades.
If you like the deck, upvotes are really appreciated!
I have no idea why that upvote button is so huge sorry for that.
Wait, wait 10000 views, 10000 VIEWS, huge thanks everyone!
Suggestions
Comments View Archive
Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!
Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax
Please login to comment
| Top Ranked |
|
| Date added | 6 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Key combos | |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 7 - 2 Mythic Rares 41 - 7 Rares 8 - 5 Uncommons 0 - 1 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.46 |
| Tokens | Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Elemental */* GW |
| Folders | Modern Brews, Modern, Modern Decks, Interesting Modern Decks, 4_Color, snazy (modern), Gimmick Decks, Decks I like, Modern, ok things |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
| Shared with | |
| Views |