Heartless Valuetown
Modern*
SCORE: 17 | 40 COMMENTS | 6758 VIEWS | IN 12 FOLDERS
Update 4/14/18 (Going from Abzan to Golgari) —April 14, 2018
Update 4/14/18
Mainboard:
-4 Knight of the Reliquary: I decided to cut white from the list. I tried it for a while, but I feel like I’ve lost too much consistency by adding it. Knight was great in the games where we didn’t have Heartless Summoning on turn two, but those games I would typically rather have more removal or just another way to ramp.
-1 Life from the Loam: Loam seemed really good on paper, and there were scenarios where it was great (such as when we were able to play extra lands, but lacked the Ramunap Excavators to take advantage of it), but the amount of times where it was clunky and slow were significant enough to outweigh the benefit it gave. It felt very much like a “win more” card than anything else.
-1 Plains
+1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen: I decided to add another Ob Nixilis. I had two in the list originally, but I cut one when I decided to add white since Knight of the Reliquary made it less necessary to have big win cons at 5 mana. What I like about Ob is that 90% of the time when we untap with him, we likely just kill our opponent that turn from his landfall ability, and being able to do that more often seems good.
+1 Phyrexian Metamorph: Trying something new, don’t judge.
+1 Wayward Swordtooth: I had three Swordtooth in the list before adding Knight, so I figured it was right to put it back in.
+1 Fatal Push: This gives us another removal spell, which makes us slightly more interactive, allowing us to survive to the point of the game where we are resolving 5 mana creatures.
+1 Edge of Autumn: This is basically filling the role that Loam was trying to. It ramps us when we don’t have Heartless Summoning out, and it draws us cards when we do.
+2 Swamp
Sideboard
-1 Bojuka Bog: Without Knight of the Reliquary, Bojuka Bog gets significantly worse, so we’d rather have other ways to hate out graveyards.
-1 Choke: The UW Control craze has ended, so there is less need for powerful hate cards for the archetype.
-2 Engineered Explosives: I replaced EE with Ratchet Bomb. It might be wrong, but hey, you don’t know until you try it.
-1 Nihil Spellbomb: I prefer Scavenging Ooze over Spellbomb because I can bring it in against more decks.
-1 Pithing Needle: Needle had been underperforming pretty significantly. There simply aren’t many activated abilities we care very much about in the format. It felt like a Slaughter Games effect that could only hit planeswalkers.
-1 Stony Silence: Difficult to cast this without white mana…
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll: I feel like the Jund matchup is good enough that Thrun becomes less necessary. Adding Collective Brutality and Obstinate Baloth to the board helps that matchup as well.
+2 Ratchet Bomb
Thanks for all of the feedback, I'll keep updating the list as long as I make changes.
kgsouvorin says... #2
Perhaps cut the two ob nixilis for 2 Commune with the Gods? Ob Nixilis feels bad and commune allows you to just dig for more gitrogs and summonings, or random sideboard cards
February 26, 2018 11:26 p.m.
packbuckbrew says... #3
@Kgsouvorin, I'm not a huge fan of commune in this deck since we'd rather get card advantage by casting our creatures. Additionally, I know it's easy to underestimate Ob Nix, but he's a legit threat. Often he's 12ing our opponent the turn we play him, and if we untap with him still in play we almost always win that turn. Him along with Gitrog are the reason to play these colors.
February 27, 2018 2:32 a.m.
Hey there. I was curious on the interaction with Whisperwood Elemental. With Heartless Summoning out, are the Manifested creatures reduced in cost to flip or are you paying full cost?
March 28, 2018 5:07 p.m.
packbuckbrew says... #6
@xt3kn1x The costs to flip them up are unfortunately not reduced, however flipping an Ob Nixilis for full price still takes the cake for best reaction I have received from an opponent in any game I've ever played.
March 28, 2018 5:44 p.m.
Haha that's awesome. I've been following this build for a while now as it looks like something right up my alley. I tried messing around with a similar theme using Dunes of the Dead and Smallpox, Edge of Autumn, and Harrow to make little zombie armies and control the board. Then sacking World Shaper to keep recurring the lands using the same strategies with Tireless Tracker and The Gitrog Monster. Ultimately clipping them off with a Death Cloud. It was bad. But this. This looks awesome. I'm just short knights, can't wait to try this. Thanks so much for sharing.
March 29, 2018 6:44 p.m.
GALVANIZER says... #8
Just for curiosty: what would you add and/or remove to make this deck Legacy playable?
April 2, 2018 4:30 p.m.
packbuckbrew says... #9
@GALVANIZER I've never tried a deck like this in Legacy, but I'd say your best bet if you want to play a similar strategy would either be Maverick or Lands. You could also go with Nic Fit and try and ramp out turn three Gitrogs with Veteran Explorers.
April 2, 2018 5:42 p.m.
CommanderSausage says... #10
Love your deck mate! Someone described this as getting edh in my modern haha. This is the first modern deck Ive actually decidedTo build but coming from formats without side boarding I have a question. Other versions of this deck (namely Golgari versions) seem to have 3-4 collective life brutality in the sideboard and Im curious as to why you dont? Seems to have a nice flow with gitrog (dropping lands to escalate) or just getting the inevitable 3rd heartless summoning out of your hand.Thanks again for the deck, truely fantastic! Cheers!
April 12, 2018 12:33 p.m.
packbuckbrew says... #11
@CommanderSausage Thank you for the feedback, I'm happy you enjoy the deck. I think there is serious merit to running Collective Brutality because of how good it is against decks like Burn. The reason I don't run the card is twofold: First, I kind of accepted burn as a lost cause, since it is a really difficult matchup, and second, I have preferred Obstinate Baloth lately (which I haven't added to the tappedout list since I've been lazy) because of its application in the burn matchup as well as against Jund and Hollow One decks. It's purely personal preference. Collective Brutality is a really good card and I think depending on the meta you play in, it could be the better option.
kgsouvorin says... #1
Two types of cards you may not have considered: man-lands or commune with the gods/grisly salvage
Treetop Village sucks with a summoning out but it's a way for your lands to do something late game, and commune with the gods digs for gitrog/ob nixilis/heartless summoning, while salvage can grab lands or creatures at instant speed.
February 26, 2018 11:10 p.m.