Goreclaw, Terror of Modern
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 7, 2018, 8:19 a.m. by Boza
Hi guys,
I have gotten a lot of great feedback from you already, but more cannot hurt. Cast your eyeballs upon this monstrosity and give some advice if you want:
Goreclaw Superion
Modern
SCORE: 19 | 22 COMMENTS | 861 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS
The idea is to leverage the power of conditional creatures to develop a solid board ASAP. It is an aggro deck with threats a bit higher on the curve, but more powerful overall.
There are a metric ton of creatures that are great with goreclaw - literally anything with 4 or more power and more power than its CMC. However, that is why I am being super selective about this. Now lets go through the pros and cons of Surrak:
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Large, good discount with Goreclaw, relevant abilities of giving cards trample, good versus control.
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Too expensive sans Goreclaw, goreclaw already grants the larger creatures trample, manabase is very fragile as is so introducing a third color for 1 card is a bit dangerous.
Overall, while I like OG surrak, I think the cons outweigh the pros.
Definitely keep them suggestions coming!
September 7, 2018 9:31 a.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #4
My bad, I didn't really remember Goreclaw gives trample. But he needs to attack meaning he can die in the process while Surrak just sits there and gives all your dudes this evasion without even having to get in the red zone himself.
Also, Surrak's cmc is high for modern, that's true. However, I have to disagree with you saying that 6 mana for an uncounterable 6/6 body with flash that makes your creatures uncounterable too while giving them trample is overcosted :D
I guess the real (and only) con would be the manabase.
What about Thrun, the Last Troll, Yeva, Nature's Herald or Tarmogoyf?
September 7, 2018 10:08 a.m.
Not attacking with the 6/6 creature is not really an option. Heck, blocking with any of these creatures when they could have attacked will be a rare event. No staying back, only turn sideways! The best thing about this deck is the large creatures - the only other large creatures in modern that are able to go toe to toe with Lupine Prototype are Gurmag Angler and Wurmcoil Engine.
This whole deck's CMC is high for modern, that is not really a consideration. However 5 mana of three colors on 19-20 lands is really pushing it. For this deck, any card above 4 mana should have the text "you win the game when you cast this" or it is not really castable.
Neither the flash nor the uncounterability are important - flash is nice if I have a lot of instants or want a surprise blocker - I have nor desire to block and the deck has 3 bolts basically. Uncounterability is only a thing versus decks with counterspells. These are few and far between, so this is an ability for the sideboard.
That is why Thrun, the Last Troll and Guttural Response are both in the SB.
For Yeva - as explained earlier, the deck does not benefit at all from flashing in its creatures. Thus, a vanilla 4/4 for 4 is not really important.
For tarmogoyf - there is a consideration, but with few fetches (manabase is by far the most expensive part of the main deck) and few card types overall (4) and 0 cards that fill the graveyard - tarmogoyf will rarely reach 4 power.
September 7, 2018 11:15 a.m.
SliverKing815, can you please elaborate on this? The deck is fairly low curve and 19-20 lands seems to be the sweet spot; and what does fauna shaman do for the deck? I see a card that takes 2 turns and 4 mana to put a card in your hand, which seems woefully slow.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #2
Seems like removing Swordtooth for Surrak Dragonclaw wouls be a good thing to me. It'd require splashing blue and therefore making your manabase more clunky and expensive, but I'm sure it'd be better that way. With Goreclaw on the board, Surrak basically costs you
September 7, 2018 9:05 a.m.