Modern Heartbeat Combo

Modern Deck Help forum

Posted on Jan. 22, 2019, 11:48 a.m. by SeekerofSecrets

So I've been playing storm and I just can't deal with the war of the sideboards anymore. I'm more of a tempo player but there's not really an affordable option atm SO I'm trying my hand at another combo deck but one that I've never seen before

If you've never seen the combo, I've included the loop in the deck description

Heartbeat of Karametra

It's technically a 5 card combo ( Gifts Ungiven , Early Harvest , Revive , Seasons Past , Heartbeat of Spring ) that acts like a 2 card combo with Gifts Ungiven and Heartbeat of Spring or (15 mana). In testing it's proven to just as consistent as storm (a turn slower) but I believe that it will prove to be more resilient.

for one you don't use any creatures so that blanks most removal and two because the combo only takes up 9 slots (the trimmed numbers do not decrease consistency) there's plenty of room to include main deck interaction to deal with hate or simply disrupt our opponent to buy time

If you've ever played the heartbeat combo I would love to hear about your experience with it. If your just an experienced combo player I would love to hear your thoughts on my take on the deck and how it might stack up to the new post KCI metta

Flooremoji says... #2

From what i've seen, the deck is more resiliant to GY hate depending on the version. This is a great asset, and my main problem with the gifts version. Also from what i've seen, the deck can make room for boardwipes and hand desruption before comboing. As you saw, I used Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Maga, Traitor to Mortals as win conditions. Have you found any better ones? How do you feel about adding Mirror Sheen ? Could you imagine some of the blue mass bounce spells in your deck? At what turn does it go off? Have you ever wanted Dictate of Karametra ? How often does giving opp extra mana help them too much? Hope these stimulate you!

January 22, 2019 3:15 p.m.

Flooremoji So I'm comparing the deck to storm (as it is actually very similarly in set up), gifts storm actually fairs decently well post board to GV hate, bouncing just enough spells to go off, this build actually has more interaction in the main and even more post, so I actually don't feel to bad about being disrupted. My main fear is still burn and discard decks, which should still have a large advantage over me.

Maga, Traitor to Mortals is extremely comparable to Blue Sun's Zenith . I haven't really thought about another win con, my thought process is that once I'm going off, my opponent has exhausted all interaction and I'm home free. If was worried about a rogue surgical to my only win con I can use the loop to fill my hand with counters of course.

I don't really see the appeal of Mirror Sheen ? what am i missing?

I've considered a few other single bounce affects, what do you have in mind?

It's pretty much turn 4 consistent, but thats with no interaction from either side. I'm thinking about adding Pact of Negation but that's pricey

Dictate of Karametra is probably the card highest on my list of potential adds. I'm just not sure how to include it or if it even needs to be included. part of me thinks I need to do a 4-2 split or a 3-3 split (to mimic the bears in storm), but the problem is that it's even slower which then means that I need more interaction but I have to make room for it somehow. I'm scared to pull out filter or ramp because it feels really good atm so I'm kind of stuck. The thought of giving my opponent access to all of that extra mana a turn before me terrifies me in this hyper linear metta though. It's really some thing I'll learn from extensive time with the deck (I literally found the combo last night so I'm very new to the build, it will become more refined over time)

I almost picked the deck up tonight to take to an event but I decided it would be better to proxy it and goldfish it until I really understand it. (I'd test it on here but i swear whenever I play test storm on here its like twice as inconsistent on the site as it is in paper, I could just be crazy though)

January 22, 2019 5:44 p.m. Edited.

Flooremoji says... #4

I agree, the decks alwys seem worse on TO :). The apeal of Mirror Sheen you ask? Early Harvest :D.

January 22, 2019 5:54 p.m.

Flooremoji says... #5

Oh and SeekerofSecrets I'm going to try to make a Valakut/Heartbeat deck, would you mind if I shared it with you?

January 22, 2019 5:55 p.m.

Flooremoji yeah please do!

January 22, 2019 6:14 p.m.

M_Malcom says... #7

Beacon of Tomorrows would allow you to Go infinite on your turns. With this just on planswalker of any type wold allow you to win. I would recommend Nissa, Steward of Elements as she can put the smack down with flying lands or find your beacon or anything else you may want.

January 22, 2019 9:09 p.m.

Flooremoji says... #8

M_Malcom, woulden't Nexus of Fate be better? Interesting idea w/ nissa though.

January 22, 2019 9:22 p.m.

M_Malcom says... #9

Flooremoji I didn’t want him to have to rob a bank.

January 22, 2019 10:07 p.m.

M_Malcom yeah I actually thought about the infinite turns idea but I ended up deciding that a win con that takes one slot vs 2 is just strictly better, thanks for the comment though!

So I gold fished a few hands and learned a few things.

  1. Perfecting this list and my ability to pilot it is going to take ALLOT of practice (I didn't successfully make it through a full loop off gold-fishing, because of my own errors) Piloting this feels much more intensive than piloting storm X)

  2. The combo requires at least 3 green sources for each loop to go infinite in both colors so I switched Explore with Utopia Sprawl . I hope this will be enough fixing if not I might add Sakura-Tribe Elder or Evolving Wilds ...I wish that i could afford Misty Rainforest

  3. flashing in Dictate of Karametra at the end of your opponents turn into Gifts Ungiven feels much better than letting Heartbeat of Spring sit on the board for a turn so I switched to a 4-2 split

  4. I felt like I had a good amount of interaction but felt somewhat light on draw and fixing, this could be because of limited testing though and will keep an eye on it

I still think that the deck is viable in this iteration but I think that it will take some testing and more testing to be competitive. Because of my limited experience of the deck I'm still not sure what set of cards are best for ramp, filter, interaction and in what ratios they need to be in. I could very well be trying to do to much, but I don't think the deck is worth playing (over something else) if we don't include all aspects of the strategy

January 22, 2019 10:23 p.m. Edited.

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