If I hated playing Spirits...
Modern forum
Posted on Dec. 1, 2016, 10:48 p.m. by Kizzel
Elf player here. I've been looking for another competitive deck to build and put together a blue and white spirit deck. Turns out i hated the deck and sold it. Do you think I would also hate Merfolk as I feel they are very similar? Also, knowing I'm an elf player and love that deck, what other decks would you recommend building that I could love like my elves. The thing I hated about my spirit deck was "playing a turn behind" it felt. I guess I just don't enjoy Control all that much.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #3
Affinity is a good deck. The various 8whack brews feel like elves, too.
You probably wouldn't like fish, but no harm in testing a list out before buying it.
Tokens is another fun deck
December 1, 2016 11:27 p.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #4
Yeh Goblins are hugely overlooked atm. I've got some builds with different budgets but they pretty much all grant a T4 win consistently. You can easily build one for less than 200 euros which is nice if you happen to not like the deck.
If you like aggro based decks I'd say you might enjoy playing Eldrazis (much stronger in Legacy but well...) or GW Hatebears to disrupt you opponent's plays :)
Next time - it happened to me too - take all the time you need to properly playtest your deck so you won't end up with something you don't like to play! ;)
December 2, 2016 5:31 a.m.
I do have a budget Affinity deck that i like. Building that with the money cards is tough though, super expensive!
Goblins sound fun, could you link me to an example? Also, could they top at a tournament?
December 2, 2016 7:50 a.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #6
Yes of course man : here is my personal most advanced brew so far!
Not sure about the Dismember but it seems pretty well positioned right now with all the 4 toughness guys so... :)
December 2, 2016 8:48 a.m.
Looks like a fast deck. How does it hold up in tournaments?
December 2, 2016 10:39 a.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #8
Never got it out there.
It's mostly playtested against basically most of the metagame and it's doing good so far. As you can see it's a work in progress and I'm still looking at fine-tuning it, hence why the SB is a mess :)
December 2, 2016 10:54 a.m.
Gruul Zoo is mostly a strictly better version of Goblins, if you have the money to afford fetchlands. You could also try that.
December 2, 2016 11:01 a.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #10
I don't agree. GR aggro is decent but 'Strictly better' seems pushed :) Goblin Grenade deals 1/4 of the starting life total. That's not nothing!
Also, Goblin Piledriver justs wrecks faces if paired with Legion Loyalist and any other Gob'
In my version, the green splash for Collected Company really does the whole difference. End of opponent's turn or main phase, if you get like a Goblin Chieftain in there you can simply go nuts. It really helps at a later stage in the game or kills on the spot if curved T4 :)
December 2, 2016 11:28 a.m.
A Goblin deck is never going to have the 4 mana to cast a CoCo, and if it does, it's already in a bad spot, because it 4 lands when it could have been drawing more gas. CoCo is a value card in a hyper-aggro deck - it just doesn't fit. The proof is in the results - Goblins has never been above Tier 3, whereas Gruul Zoo had some extended shine time in the pre-Dredge era. Granted, Dredge is probably a better version of both those decks, but at least Gruul Zoo has the "doesn't die to graveyard hate" angle going for it.
December 2, 2016 11:35 a.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #12
Ok lol I bet you never played my version. Or any goblin version as a matter of fact. Hyper aggressive decks with 18 lands happen to draw 4 lands. Even Infect. So please :)
Also, the 4 lands 'that aren't gas' lead you to CoCo which is plenty. You got 30+ creatures too (max cmc = 3) so CoCo hit them all. It's hard to go more 'hyper-aggro' than this. But well, I guess you didn't even take time to playtest it properly or even take a look at the list I posted ahah! :)
No offense but you seem to be the kind of person with whom one can't really discuss because you'll never change your PoV :) so I'm not even going to bother much.
So there you go Kizzel, that was my personal input. Do what you what with it, Goblins is fun even though you prolly won't win a GP with it, unless you learn to master it :)
Let us know what you're going with in the end! ;)
PS : 'tier' just shows how much it's played. Many 'not tier 1 decks' are better than what they seem but don't get the opportunity to shine because netdeckers will simply join the stronger side.
December 2, 2016 12:37 p.m.
Oh, I've played plenty of Goblins. I have a Goblins deck in my profile. I never speak of decks I haven't at least done some cursory testing with. That deck always wanted exactly 3 lands every game. No more, no less. Collected Company pushes your deck in a very different direction, because it's a value play that incentivizes you to stuff the deck full of 3-drops so that it nets you mana when you hit 2 of them. Hyper-aggro doesn't care about value plays - it cares about ending the game before that sort of thing matters. The only true fast deck that can play CoCo is Elves, and it's because it produces bunches of mana to make it easily castable. These concepts are part of the fundamentals of Magic deckbuilding. You don't seem to have much tournament experience, but once you make it up to the big leagues, these concepts (along with some meta knowledge, game reps, and just enough variance to keep things interesting) determines who wins and who loses.
P.S.: Here's a video that I'm fond of that explains these concepts in detail. I highly recommend it.
December 2, 2016 1:31 p.m. Edited.
Wow thanks everyone!
I was able to borrow all the goblins from a friend and have been playing it all day. It's definitely fun and very explosive. The only thing that concerns me is if you are not whacking for game and don't have a follow up play, you are left with an army of 1/1's and an empty hand. It did perform fairly consistent since most of the spells are low curve. The version I played was mono red 8 whack. I just feel it's missing something. Can't quite put my finger on it. Let's make this work.
Zoo decks are very much out of my price range ATM. I can't afford a play set of Tarmogoyfs and Goblin guides.
December 2, 2016 5:46 p.m.
If you hated Spirits, you would not necessarily dislike merfolk.
Merfolk are a bit more aggressive and less tempo/disruption than Spirits. Spirits are a point between Merfolk and Faeries as far as an aggression/disruption. If you disliked Spirits, you might like Merfolk still, but Faeries might contain what you did not like about Spirits.
8-Whack is awesome. Generally I worry about Goblin Grenade being a sorcery and sometimes something as simple as Collateral Damage is better. Goblin Freerunner is also a nifty alternative to put in 8-Whack, but you'll feel back if you ever have to pay the full cost to cast.
December 3, 2016 10:44 a.m.
Would Merfolk be worth the money as an upgrade to my elves? Or is not a big enough upgrade to justify the cost? Affinity makes sense to buy, it's just so much money!! Lol.
December 3, 2016 8:41 p.m.
PelicanMan says... #17
Looking at the previous comments, I'd say Affinity is the way to go, and the list on your profile looks sweet!
The only issue I can see, is now you have 2 very similar decks, and I wouldn't be surprised if you enjoyed one deck more and just played it all the time, as the other deck would just feel like a less enjoyable version of the same thing, if that makes sense?
I'd suggest expanding your wheelhouse, maybe trying a combo, control or midrange deck? Or even if you are sold on staying an aggro player, both Elves and Affinity, moreso than any other aggro decks, tend to go all in and dump their hand onto the table as quick as possible and try and win that way, maybe try a different type of aggro? Burn, for example, tries to win by playing 1 or 2 fast creatures, and then throwing burn spells at the opponent. The Kiln Fiend decks that have been popping up recently play 1 or 2 prowess-style creatures, then try and win by chaining cantrips, free spells and pump spells to "combo" aka pump their creatures up to lethal power. Delver is a deck type that aims to land a powerful threat as early as turn 1, and then spend the rest of the game locking their opponent down with removal and countermagic while killing them with the single threat (or sometimes an additional threat).
If you're interested, I'd be happy to help further depending on how you feel about my suggestions.
December 4, 2016 9:33 p.m.
Merfolk are definitely more aggressive than Spirits, so if you're looking for a go-wide creature deck that has a bit more juice (Merfolk can semi-consistently goldfish a T4 kill, which is something that Spirits can almost never do), its definitely an option to consider. That said, it ultimately is a tempo deck, so make sure that you're comfortable with playing defense in some matchups.
December 5, 2016 8:59 a.m.
Has nothing to do with the topic, but no it's not worth playing.
December 23, 2016 6:33 p.m.
So I was looking at Living End, what are your thoughts on that deck? Is it competitive enough to be worth buying into? It looks like a fun combo decks.
rothgar13 says... #2
Affinity is like Elves, but even more crazy fast at times. Try that out and see if you like it.
December 1, 2016 11:16 p.m.