Counters on ALL the Things! (Turn 4 Win)

Modern BG (Golgari) Budget Casual Counters Midrange

ChrisPBakon

Creature (25)

• 2x Aetherborn Marauder
• 4x Bond Beetle
• 4x Corpsejack Menace
• 2x Elvish Mystic
• 3x Lotleth Troll
• 4x Managorger Hydra
• 1x Primordial Hydra
• 3x Protean Hydra
• 2x Simic Guildmage

Land (22)

• 11x Forest
• 3x Llanowar Wastes
• 8x Swamp

Sorcery (3)

• 3x Overwhelming Stampede

Instant (6)

• 4x Bioshift
• 2x Solidarity of Heroes

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Hardened Scales

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Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 2x Aquastrand Spider
• 2x Cytoplast Root-Kin

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Maybeboard

Creature (8)

• 1x Avatar of the Resolute
• 1x Greenwheel Liberator
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Narnam Renegade
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Scrounging Bandar
• 1x Slitherhead
• 1x Tuskguard Captain

Artifact (3)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Ring of Kalonia
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

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A BG version of my UG counter deck, mainly to take advantage of Corpsejack Menace. I don't play competitive, so I'm more concerned about budget than board wipes, removal, etc.

Creatures

• Elvish Mystic to give a little bit of ramping. It also helps grow Managorger Hydra if drawn later in the game.
• Bond Beetle only costing one mana for it's potential here is utterly terrific.
• Lotleth Troll can only give itself counters by discarding a creature card, but having trample and cheap regeneration is too good to pass up. It can get counters by other means, of course.
• Aquastrand Spider can give creatures reach when necessary, and graft synergizes very well with the rest of the deck overall.
• Managorger Hydra grows quickly and consistently. Fantastic.
• Protean Hydra loses counters instead of taking damage, then gains more than it had, provided it doesn't die.
• Cytoplast Root-Kin may seem a little weird at first glance, but moving counters generates more of them with Hardened Scales and/or Corpsejack Menace. (Note: I may swap Cytoplast out for Simic Guildmage , but I'm torn on this decision.)
• Primordial Hydra isn't super budgety like the rest of the deck, but I happen to have one, and it's kinda broken in this deck.
• Corpsejack Menace is the star of the deck. Double +1/+1 counters. Awesome.

Noncreatures

• Overwhelming Stampede is a great game-finisher.
• Hardened Scales to give additional counters when counters are placed on a creature.
• Solidarity of Heroes for doubling counters. Triple the counters if Corpsejack is on the field.
• Bioshift is similar to Cytoplast's ability, but with way more utility. There's pretty much never a bad time to have it in hand. I'd also like to point out that the dude in the card art looks super uncomfortable, but I would be too if I grew a lobster claw and tentacle fingers.

Strategies

• Get Corpsejack Menace and Hardened Scales out as soon as possible. The goal is to be generating a stupid amount of counters. If a creature would gain a counter and both Corpsejack and Scales are in play, have Scales take effect before Corpsejack so that Scales' extra counter gets doubled as well. Ideally, Solidarity of Heroes should be used with Corpsejack, as it results in the tripling of the number of counters on the target(s).

• With Corpsejack and/or Scales in play, moving counters around with Cytoplast Root-Kin or Bioshift allows counters to be created just by moving them. Corpsejack in play, move five counters from one creature to another with Bioshift? Make it ten. For one mana. At instant speed.

• Bioshift is super useful. Counters can be moved to a creature to prevent it from dying, moving the counters from a dying creature, moving them to a creature that's not blocked, etc. It's spectacular when used to move counters from Protean Hydra (Cytoplast is also valuable in this regard).

Turn 4 Win (A Trampling 50/50)

Turn 1

Forest, cast Elvish Mystic.

Turn 2

• Forest, cast Managorger Hydra.

Turn 3

• Swamp, cast Corpsejack Menace. Managorger gets 1 counter (becoming a 2/2).

Turn 4

• Land, cast Hardened Scales. Managorger gets 2 counters (4/4).
• Cast Bond Beetle. Managorger gets 4 counters from casting the spell, and also give it the 4 from Bond Beetle itself, gaining 8 counters total (12/12).
• Cast Solidarity of Heroes. Managorger gains another 4 counters for the cast (16/16). Doubling the number of counters on it would be adding 16, plus 1 more because of Hardened Scales, so 17. That doubles again with Corpsejack Menace, totaling 34 counters, making Managorger a 50/50 with trample.

I'm always open to suggestions and appreciate any feedback! In particular, I can't decide if I should keep the pair of Cytoplast Root-Kin s in or swap them out for a pair of Simic Guildmage s, so if you have any input on that, that would be splendid! Also considering Aetherborn Marauder .

Top Ranked	Achieved #31 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Exclude colors	U
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 24 - 0 Rares 6 - 2 Uncommons 10 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.21
Folders	Ideas, Favorites, Possible Ideas, Cool decks by others, cool decks, Potential Purchases, Real Decks, modern, Budget, Modern Madness
Based on	Counters on ALL the Things! (~$35) ChrisPBakon MDN