Is Humans a real deck?

Modern forum

Posted on Oct. 28, 2017, 11:59 a.m. by kingcowofcows

As many of you probably know, last weekend Collins Mullen was able to win SCG Cincinnati with a 5 color humans deck in modern. Even more impressive was that his only loss on the weekend was an intentional concession in the last round of swiss. Also, his deck was somewhat different from the Collected Company versions that have been around for a little while by using Aether Vial instead, as well as zero other noncreature spells. He wrote about the deck on starcitygames

My question is: was this just a fluke or is this now a real and competitive deck in the modern format?

Any and all thoughts on the matter are welcome.

It's a powerful, linear, mostly noninteractive deck so it's perfect for modern. I'm not sure what tier it is and the meta will need time to adjust of the deck becomes popular but I think it can compete. But truthfully We need more resulrs to know for sure

October 28, 2017 12:40 p.m.

rothgar13 says... #4

It looks real enough to play. It probably will be tweaked from the form you saw in the Open, but the basic concept of disruptive Humans and a 5c manabase looks like it has legs.

October 28, 2017 3:02 p.m.

IlGuale says... #5

This is a video from the youtuber who brought the original idea (at least, he published his video before the tournament) and contains decktech and few matches if you are interested.

https://youtu.be/dmo4K14U074

October 28, 2017 3:41 p.m.

rothgar13 says... #6

Blood Moon says hi. And Collins himself admits the deck in its current version folds to control (which Merfolk decidedly does not). It also has no land hate, which will make Tron a real challenge. Let's not go too crazy here. The deck is good, playable, and I expect it to at least linger on the fringes of the Modern metagame, but I don't see it replacing Merfolk.

October 28, 2017 3:42 p.m. Edited.

shadow63 says... #7

Anyone got a link to the list?

October 28, 2017 4:23 p.m.

Lame_Duck says... #8

Yes, I absolutely think Humans is a real deck and one that's likely to get better and better over time since WotC is always going to print a bunch of Humans in every set. It's also super adaptable since, again, Human is easily the most populous tribe and I suspect you can probably tune the deck to be good in more or less any metagame.

I'm not saying it's the best deck ever or anything and the idea that it'll replace Merfolk seems pretty premature but, yes, it's definitely competitive.

October 28, 2017 4:41 p.m.

It's an extremely flexible deck because your creatures double up as spells. It also allows you to go wide or go tall, with no piece being extremely important. Basically 5-color good stuff, but it get's crapped on if the meta is heavy with Blood Moon, and control basically takes over past t6 if you aren't ahead by a lot. Getting boardwiped twice basically means GG as you have no ways to recover and you take some time to set up a decent board state to attack with.

October 28, 2017 4:54 p.m.

kingcowofcows says... #10

shadow63 I thought I put the link to his article in the original post, but for some reason it didn't work. Here is his deck pasted into Tappedout:



October 28, 2017 5:21 p.m.

shadow63 says... #11

Seems like a good deck. But it's not tier one. Blood moon kicks this in the balls.

October 28, 2017 8:47 p.m.

5c Humans is probably better at attacking different meta games than merfolk. Merfolk might be better against a slower meta game where people r trying to do more fair things

October 29, 2017 4:02 p.m.

I think it will be strong for a while. If wizards bans an important piece obviously it will just fall apart like so many decks of the past. If nothing becomes too meta breaking I imagine it will have a home for a great many years, and everyone will just have to plan to face it. I run an 8 whack zoo variant, and my weakest match up tends to be burn. To compensate I run Kor Firewalker out of the sideboard to buy me some time. My deck seems like it would be capable of outpacing this, but a lot of other stuff at my lgs would have to sideboard effectively to combat it. Does Aether Vial get dropped game 2 like it does in merfolk? If it is a crucial piece that can't be dropped it may be possible to just shut the deck down outright. If not I could see it being a force until we return to lorwyn. I remember a card called Ego Erasure that shut down entire creature based strategies, and if we go back we may get another sweeper that removes the creatures instead of just a neg effect. I am also curious on how reliably people cast All Is Dust early in tron? My meta doesn't have it, but if it can come down on turn 3 all the time it may be an issue.

October 29, 2017 7:56 p.m.

Pygmyrhino990 says... #15

My humans deck is uber competitive and goes pretty well


Aryan race will reign supreme

Modern Pygmyrhino990

SCORE: 13 | 14 COMMENTS | 1263 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS


October 30, 2017 10:54 p.m.

Lowenstein says... #16

The new Humans thing that's going around is pretty sweet. Uses Aether Vial but not Collected Company. It gets screwed by Blood Moon and like Anger of the Gods but it is actually quite good.



It especially utilizes Reflector Mage, Meddling Mage, Kitesail Freebooter, and the Thatlia's and the like. I have played a few times with it and done pretty well.

October 31, 2017 1:16 p.m.

Lowenstein says... #17

Even though it does get screwed by Blood Moon, however, that doesn't make it a bad deck at all. That card can kill many decks in the current meta, but frankly it isn't even used much anyways.

I'm feeling like Blood Moon will be coming back more soon, but as of right now Humans is decently safe.

October 31, 2017 1:18 p.m.

sylvannos says... #18

I know with the Humans lists I've messed around with, the problem I had was getting that "oomf!" a lot of other tribal decks have. Goblins has Goblin Chieftain. Merfolk have 29,834,891 bazillion different lords. Elves can snowball into Craterhoof Behemoth...and so on and so forth.

I also think the list is just a few pieces away from becoming an established archetype. I already think it's stronger than Slivers. If I had to put my finger on one thing in particular, it'd probably be some type of top-deck finisher. Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch saw some play in Vintage because she smashes Jace, the Mind Sculptor. She also works with Experiment One and Champion of the Parish. Surrak, the Hunt Caller and Samut, Voice of Dissent are also options.

None of those really have the ability to close out the game like Lord of Atlantis (islandwalk) or Craterhoof Behemoth, though.

November 1, 2017 6:59 p.m.

Xica says... #19

shadow63
Saying that the deck is bad because it folds to Blood Moon,
Is like saying that dredge is bad because it folds to Rest in Peace
(Not to mention that Blood Moon "kicks in the balls" most 3 color decks, and no one is going around crying rivers about how bad those are...)

Blood Moon decks are not a thing because they lack great removal.
Skred is too slow, Lightning Bolt is not really a removal spell...
And with the stupid Death's Shadow deck running all around, its likely that they fetch out that single swamp with the 8+ fetches, before you could play one of your 4 Blood Moons

As soon as proper red (creature) removal is printed, decks built around Blood Moon will become a viable strategy.
Still that would need to be something like a Lightning Axe with a lot more damage (lets say 13), and a mechanism that prevents abuse with Boros Reckoner, or makes it not worth it.
(like a clause for preventing all non combat damage to players until end of turn)

November 3, 2017 10:29 a.m.

shadow63 says... #20

Xica you can always splash black or white for removal. Run fetch lands and basics you'll never get screwd my your own moon

November 3, 2017 12:58 p.m.

Xica says... #21

shadow63
That much is true.

However if you plan playing control you will need some ways to interact with threats that are no permanents (aka. instants and sorceries).
Consequently playing blue for counterspells is somewhat necessary, if you don't like the idea of Lightning Storm or Gifts Ungiven killing you out of nowhere.Having red, blue and a third color is pretty hard to accomplish reliably while playing Blood Moon.

(Maybe its just my warped mindset, but i don't see midrange decks that happen to have slightly more removal, and slightly bigger creatures, as control. Control is the oppressive stuff, the draw go, and 8rack kind)

November 3, 2017 5:21 p.m.

Please login to comment