Now You See Me, Looking for Help.
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Dec. 20, 2016, 8:40 a.m. by aplechaty
I am planning this deck around Life gain and Blinking my creatures in and out. Of course a bit further in the game the life gain also hurts opponents wearing them down.
I am really looking for suggestions to make this competitive among my friends who play some pretty powerful decks.
Now You See Me
Modern
SCORE: 1 | 5 COMMENTS | 44 VIEWS
I understand what you're going for, but the shell it's presented in is far too clunky. You don't have enough lands to reliably cast a 5-drop, and blink abuse for something like Soul Warden is far too marginal if you're facing actual competitive decks. I think you should either focus on using lifegain to your benefit, or on blinking creatures for your benefit. Given your budget restrictions, I would strongly recommend lifegain (there is a very good -based deck based on blinking things, but it's way above your budget).
In order to reconfigure your deck toward lifegain, I would recommend dropping the altogether, and instead jamming cards like Ajani's Pridemate, Lone Rider Flip, and token makers like Spectral Procession to trigger your Soul Warden a bunch of times. Speaking of which, there's a functional equivalent to the Warden in Soul's Attendant - you should play that as well. Next, add some Honor of the Pure, Path to Exile (this will be your only expensive card, but it's worth it), and Oblivion Ring so that you have a bit of creature control. All of that put together should make for a pretty decent deck.
December 20, 2016 9:34 a.m.
I see what you are saying at the same time though the Main Win con of this deck is the life gain also dealing damage to my opponents.
Going straight life gain completely changes the entire aspect of the deck. That said if I remove the budget restriction and want to keep the mechanic what do you suggest?
December 20, 2016 9:39 a.m.
If we're talking competitive? Drain is too slow, unless you manage to build an infinite combo out of it (and I don't know of any). Blinking creatures, on the other hand, leads us down to Eldrazi and Taxes, which is a very underrated deck in the Modern metagame. Example list.
December 20, 2016 9:43 a.m.
He's already doing that. But blinking your team for a few points of life isn't big enough of a deal.
December 20, 2016 10:54 a.m.
Suture Priest is cool in a Norin Sisters kind of deck.
December 20, 2016 10:54 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #9
I think a question that needs to be asked is what qualifies as a "pretty powerful deck" to you and your friends?
Are we talking dredge, affinity, and infect? Or more tier 2-3 decks in the modern format?
December 20, 2016 12:07 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #10
Or more likely, is it like a beasts tribal deck, mardu removal spells the deck, or like Maze's End turbo fog?
The major problem with this deck is that you're assuming that life gain is a win condition. You can gain as much life as you could ever want but if you can't kill your opponent then you don't win the game. The drain life effects are fine, but your lifegain isn't reliable enough to have them get there before you just die or they get removed. My suggestion would be to put in some other beaters in there to help distract from your bigger game plan. Ajani's Pridemate, Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Linvala, the Preserver, or some other huge angel type dude would all likely benefit you.
December 20, 2016 2:12 p.m.
OK I love the comments but don't you think between the Sanguine Bond and Exquisite blood and the blinking I will be able to gain enough life to stay in the game long enough to do sufficient damage if the answer is no and beaters are necessary, what should I remove and add.
I like all the creature suggestions but want to focus primarily on my gaining life to do damage to my opponents, the creatures like the moth and such are there to block blink and then block again the next turn. If my opponents get to many creatures out I use an eerie interlude and the destroy all creatures end of turn I am the only one with any creatures left.
December 20, 2016 2:37 p.m.
As far as a powerful deck we usually play multiplayer so I am looking for something that can stand up and last, so that I am doing damage evenly as this deck is going to draw attention quickly.
December 20, 2016 2:38 p.m.
aplechaty it would be helpful if you would directly link to your deck in your post, the code for that is:
[[deck-large:20-12-16-now-you-see-me]]
which makes this:
Now You See Me
Modern
SCORE: 1 | 5 COMMENTS | 44 VIEWS
In terms of edits to your deck, it appears right now that your main wincon is the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond combo, but right now, you're only running 2 copies of each. I'd run the full 4 of each, and take out the Momentary Blinks. You don't have the for the flashback, and 2 mana and a card is too much to pay for just a flicker. I'd also take out the Righteousnesses, as their only real utility is removal, which can be done a lot easier with cards like Path to Exile, Condemn, Smite, or Oust.
December 20, 2016 4:14 p.m.
Thanks for the formatting tip and suggestion Pieguy.
December 20, 2016 5:27 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #15
That really didn't answer my question.
What I was asking is the competitive level of your playgroup.
dredge, affinity, and infect are tier 1 competitive decks. Highly tuned for competitive tournaments.
December 20, 2016 6:08 p.m.
NO it is more casual play than anything but they have some excellent decks, that I sometimes I have serious difficulty with as I had gotten rid of my cards from back in the day and I am starting over rebuilding my collection.
December 20, 2016 8:36 p.m.
Soul Sisters Strategies are fun and competitive. You have the start of such an idea with Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant
Drain seems slow so you might want to consider some some more win conditions
My casual, multiplayer silly competitive-in-a-kitchen-table-sort-of-way deck is my take on a mono-white version based on the blink in Flickerwisp and Cloudshift that abuses the goats created by Springjack Shepherd and I find it to be ridiculously fun and surprisingly competitive.
aplechaty says... #2
I am trying to keep the price down as much as possible with this deck as well. Prefer to try and stay under $100 if possible. So far in play testing it seems to play pretty smoothly.
December 20, 2016 8:43 a.m.