Living Weapon Slayer (Modern MTG Deck)

I made a casual 60-card Living Weapon deck and love it. The goal of this update to the deck is to form-fit it into the Modern format while still keeping it somewhat casual. This new update incorporates red to help bring more individuality to the deck while also having more interactivity and having more utilization of the Living Weapons.

Some notes on budget :

The fancy pricey lands are to utilize Lashwrithe 's ability primarily ( Korlash, Heir to Blackblade secondarily). If you like the deck but don't want to throw down money on these fancy Swamp lands, swap them out for Rustvale Bridge s, Drossforge Bridge s, and Goldmire Birdges. They're great for casual and budget, and help buff Nettlecyst and Cranial Plating . If you go that route, you'll also probably want to swap out Lashwrithe and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade with more artifact-focused cards like another Nettlecyst , etc. The "Old Version" below has some cards that could be inspirational in that regard. Kaldra Compleat at the time of writing is expensive and not necessary (though nice and cool) -- if budget doesn't allow, don't worry about it.

Notes on the New Version

This deck focuses on utilizing Living Weapons by using their token as a free resource to advance our play while using the Living Weapon equipment itself to buff our creatures for high attack and burn damage, such as with Fireblade Charger and Dreadhorde Butcher .

The gameplay reason this deck doesn't run more than 1 Kaldra Compleat is because it would then be molded to become a Kaldra Compleat turbo deck, rather than a Living Weapons deck.

Main Deck Card Explanations

Living Weapons

2x Batterskull : A valuable Living Weapon with a good buff, and with Vigilance and Lifelink, it's great for sustain.
1x Kaldra Compleat : Very expensive on CMC, but extremely powerful.
4x Lashwrithe : One of the primary buffing threats in the deck, the affordable CMC with high power potential and Phyrexian-life equip cost makes this only a growing threat. Has high synergy with Korlash, Heir to Blackblade and Mycosynth Wellspring .
2x Mortarpod : A Living Weapon sac outlet, primarily intended as a backup option to sac our Fireblade Charger s and Dreadhorde Butcher s. Can also be used of course as a slight pinger for burn or creature removal.
3x Nettlecyst : Cranial Plating , but now a Living Weapon! Affordable to equip and cast, like Lashwrithe , it becomes more of a threat as the game goes on, being powered by all of the other Living Weapons and artifacts in the deck.

Utility

3x Apostle's Blessing : Can grant protection of a color or artifacts to either our Living Weapons OR our creature, rather than just being able to protect a creature. Can be used offensively or defensively.
3x Cranial Plating : Like Nettlecyst , a great buffing equipment which gets more powerful with the more artifacts we get out, like Living Weapons.
2x Korlash, Heir to Blackblade : Having the same effect as our Lashwrithe means it's doubling the Swamp potency when they are together. Korlash's Grandeur effect gives us ANY two swamps, ramping us and powering up Korlash and Lashwrithe . I love the Future Sight borders aesthetically too -- they're my fav so I'm glad to be able to include it in this decklist! Honestly, more of other cards like Dreadhorde Butcher or Nettlecyst are probably better than this, but... I want Korlash, haha.
2x Mycosynth Wellspring : Buffs Cranial Plating and Nettlecyst while also searches us a Swamp, increasing our available lands and thus also buffing Lashwrithe and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade .
4x Springleaf Drum : A cheap 1 drop that allows us another extra mana by tapping an untapped creature, such as a Germ token, and buffs Cranial Plating and Nettlecyst .

Sacrifice-Focused Utility
Cards used to take advantage of our Germ tokens and/or to initiate Dreadhorde Butcher / Fireblade Charger 's effect along with their own effect.

2x Bone Shards : Sac for creature/planeswalker removal.
2x Fling : Can cause massive burn damage by throwing a buffed Fireblade Charger or Dreadhorde Butcher , effectively doubling their effect. Of course, you can throw other buffed creatures as well.
4x Village Rites : Sac for card draw.

Buff Targets
These are the primary buff targets and are a solid win condition of the deck when combined with our Living Weapon buffs.

2x Dreadhorde Butcher : When it dies, it burns for its power -- Lashwrithe / Nettlecyst + Mortarpod provide great Living Weapon-specific synergy.
3x Fireblade Charger : Gets haste when equipped -- Living Weapons are equipment. When it dies, it burns for its power like Dreadhorde Butcher .

Land
All Swamps buff Lashwrithe and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade , and all are searchable via Korlash, Heir to Blackblade 's Grandeur effect.

4x Darksteel Citadel : A non-Swamp land, intended to buff our Nettlecyst s and Cranial Plating s.
3x Savai Triome : A Swamp that also produces white and red.
3x Smoldering Marsh : A Swamp that also produces red. It has a condition that can allow it to enter untapped. An affordable alternate to Blood Crypt .
9x Swamp : Basic Swamps. Searchable also via Mycosynth Wellspring .

Side Deck Card Explanations

3x Flayer Husk : If we need more, cheap Living Weapons, be it for sac ammunition, blockers, artifact buff, etc.
2x Fling : If we want more Fling.
4x Galvanic Blast : Highly effective burn/removal, synergizing with our artifacts (Living Weapons) to gain access to the Metalcraft power. Use if you need more burn/removal.
2x Resolute Strike : Equips our Warriors ( Dreadhorde Butcher , Fireblade Charger , Korlash, Heir to Blackblade ) at instant speed, allowing us to suddenly deal or block with a now powerfully buffed creature. Also gives a +2/+2 buff itself. Very synergistic.
4x Wear / Tear : Efficient artifact/enchantment removal if needed.

Maybeboard Notes/Considerations

4x Grafdigger's Cage : Cripples recursion and some cheat-out strategies while also helping with our artifact-liking cards. As this deck is supposed to be more casual, completely locking out strategies seems to counter that expression, so it's not in the decklist. Good sideboard card otherwise.
Sigarda's Aid / Steelshaper's Gift : 1 CMC fantastic equipment support in Living Weapons (equipment) deck. While not fit for my expression personally at the moment, technically these are very good.
4x Thud : Throws our buffed creatures. While 1 CMC, it IS sorcery speed, disallowing us to use it reactively. Still very good for the deck, but I'm not sure if losing the instant speed is worth the drop to 1 CMC compared to Fling . Use if you don't mind the sorcery speed.

Pre-Modern Horizons 2 "New" Version

Main

Sideboard

Old Version

The old Modern-format version of this deck. It is mono-black and focuses a lot more on Etched Champion .

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Casual

94% Competitive

Revision 6 See all

(2 years ago)

+2	Bone Shards	main
-1	Cranial Plating	main
-2	Dreadhorde Butcher	main
-1	Fireblade Charger	main
+1	Kaldra Compleat	main
-2	Mortarpod	main
+2	Mycosynth Wellspring	main
+3	Nettlecyst	main
-1	Resolute Strike	side
-1	Smoldering Marsh	main

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position in Modern Burn 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Casual 2 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 0 Rares 18 - 10 Uncommons 11 - 5 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.41
Tokens	Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B
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