Primer W.I.P.
Enral, 6 years ago
The primer is outdated and will need to be revamped soon.
September 2018
DaringApprentice, 6 years ago
Lotus Vale, Captain Sisay, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Umezawa's Jitte, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Hall of the Bandit Lord, Grove of the Burnwillows, and Winding Canyons replace Detection Tower, Avenger of Zendikar, Somberwald Sage, Nissa, Worldwaker, Forest, Forest, Grasslands, and Mountain Valley.
Update 3
NZPIEFACE, 6 years ago
Remove:Gaea's Revenge 8/5 for 7 cmc. I don't feel it brings much value for it's cost.
Doubling Cube 2 mana, with 3 mana tap ability. I'd need at least 7 mana to get any profit from this, and even then, it's only a negligible amount. Only thing I would actually need this for is playing the big boys or empowering Omnath, and Selvala is strictly better than this at empowering Omnath.
None
Bagletrooper, 6 years ago
Wastes are just a placeholder until i decide what lands i actually want
Revised
Soilworkerr, 6 years ago
Added more playsets, hoping this will make more consistent play. Something inbetween aggro and mid-range.
None
Dapwrd4getr, 6 years ago
I had 2 games in the row where I simply did not draw any Mountains/Red Mana, so from there, I found myself needing to add ramp/more Mountains and decrease the tap lands. I also found out I can get an Izzet Signet, so that’s a sigh of relief there. Here are the updates.
Take out: Overwhelming Stampede, Highland Lake, Timber Gorge, Woodland Stream, Cancel
Add in: 2x Mountain, Cultivate, Izzet Signet, Arcane Denial
None
snowflake3114, 6 years ago
OUT - Tainted Sigil
IN - Enlightened Tutor
I feel just only having Children of Korlis is enough to get the card draw out of life loss from Lich or other life loss effects, so switching out a redundant card in exchange for instant speed top deck tutor is a pretty good move. I'm considering getting Teferi's Protection in this deck somehow so I can have another buffer from losing the game. Also thinking about going under 40 lands now that card advantage in the deck is gaining ground.
September 2018
DaringApprentice, 6 years ago
Vraska, Golgari Queen, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Flip, Entomb, Devastation Tide, Doom Whisperer, Tooth and Nail, Underrealm Lich, Alchemist's Refuge, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, and Wound Reflection replace Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Hedron Crab, Pernicious Deed, Buried Alive, Spore Frog, Mystic Remora, Creeping Tar Pit, Scapeshift, Dream Halls, and World Shaper.
Changes #02
xXW1nterFreshXx, 6 years ago
CHANGES TO THE MAIN DECK:
- Removed x2 Ifnir Deadlands with x2 Swamp
- Removed x1 Sunscorched Desert with x1 Swamp
- Removed x4 Icy Manipulator with x4 card:Gray Mechant of Asphodel
- Removed x4 Bone Picker with x4 Phyrexian Obliterator
- Removed x2 Duress with x2 Dismember
- Removed x4 Murder with x4 Hero's Downfall
CHANGES TO THE SIDEBOARD:
- Basically I redid the entire sideboard leaving a couple things that can prove to be useful. Definitely can use some help though to be able to board in things that this deck would/could be weak too. Open to suggestions! :)
CHANGES TO THE MAYBEBOARD:
- The maybeboard is no longed were I put expensive cards that would replace my budget cards. the deck is now how it's suppose to be.
v0.9
mookie990, 6 years ago
Pretty major changes here, since I finally went ahead and got a big pile of things for this deck. Not sure how many of the changes will stick, but the short story is I feel like trying to make the deck go bigger - more mana, more card draw, more impactful spells. May be skewing a bit too much in that direction though - if the deck ends up being too clunky, I'll trim things down again.
-Sidisi, Undead Vizier - I like Sidisi, but she is a bit inefficient at five mana, and I don't really have sac fodder for her most of the time.
-Dead Man's Chest - surprisingly awkward. Needs there to be both a large noncommander creature and a way to kill it, which isn't always guaranteed. (and since it doesn't hit lands, I wouldn't really want to target anything with under five power)
-Serum Visions - to be honest, it's almost certainly wrong to cut this - when all my cantrips have flashback, there is a very low bar for them due to how efficiently they create card advantage. The issue is that I'm the sort of person that prefers playing more high-impact cards over playing with a smaller, more consistent deck. The cantrips will probably come back if I ever try to make this deck a bit more competitive.
-Opt - see above.
-Compulsive Research - it's fine, but discarding lands is awkward (this deck is pretty mana hungry). I could discard spells to flash back with Kess, but that's insufficient value.
-Graveyard Busybody - consistently underperforms. I like the idea of flashing back stuff from my opponents' graveyards with Kess, but a vanilla beater is a bit underwhelming otherwise (and consistently having things in other players' graveyards is hard).
-Clocknapper - usually '5 mana: target player skips their turn. draw a card'. Which is good, but a little low impact.
-Nevinyrral's Disk - feels wrong to cut, but this deck is pretty reliant on its artifacts and enchantments. May come back if I find myself having issues.
-Commander's Sphere, Unstable Obelisk - a bit inefficient as mana rocks.
-Psychosis Crawler - it's fine, but generally just big. Lack of wheels / big card draw spells makes it a bit weaker.
-Nightveil Specter, Shadowmage Infiltrator - fun, but a bit slow.
-Notion Thief - fantastic card, but lack of wheels means it doesn't perform as well as it could. Probably wrong to cut - it's a card that tends to not seem to do anything because just stop drawing extra cards.
-Boompile - fun card, but a bit high variance. And, as mentioned, I want to try keeping my stuff around.
-Eye of Doom - hard to get full value from, and people will often throw counters on my stuff (or, alternatively, I'm afraid of that happening, so I don't play it out). I am a bit concerned about how much enchantment removal I'm cutting though. Hmmm...
-Chart a Course - as with all the cantrips, probably wrong to cut efficient card draw, but still doing it.
-Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, Grixis Panorama, Swiftwater Cliffs, Jwar Isle Refuge, High Market - cutting various ETBT and colorless lands. High Market may come back, depending on how many times I find myself wanting to sacrifice stolen creatures.
+Mystic Confluence - one of the best counters in the format, and incredibly flexible.
+Stolen Strategy - testing. I don't actually think it's a great card, but should be entertaining.
+Aminatou's Augury - testing. A bit expensive, but this deck has a pretty high mix of card types - getting even just four hits is a lot of value, and should be pretty doable.
+Blatant Thievery - oh hey, it's (insert problematic card here) removal that can be Kess'd.
+Chaos Wand - testing. Is it good? Probably not. Is it entertaining? Yes.
+Mental Note - I cut some cantrips, but the self-mill makes this a bit closer to Ancestral Recall.
+Increasing Vengeance - a little awkward due to not hitting my opponents' spells, but the flashback doubling works off Kess. Copying something big sounds very spicy.
+Reverberate - I generally lean towards removal over counterspells for this deck, because Kess doesn't work on my opponents' turns. Copying problematic spells is often just as good as countering them.
+The Scorpion God - testing. Mostly here for flavor reasons, but it's also hard to deal with and can draw cards.
+Last One Standing - mwahahaha. A cheap wrath, which is something I wanted more copies of.
+Ancient Excavation *list* - testing. Interesting alongside Kess, at least.
+Rakdos's Return - sometimes, you want the whole world to burn. Sometimes, you just want to burn someone in particular. Either way, I wanted a better way to quickly close a game.
+Thrilling Encore - testing. Interesting alongside wraths, at least.
+Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Indulgence, Dimir Signet, Gilded Lotus
- various efficient mana rocks, which also provide good fixing.
+Graven Cairns, River of Tears, Rocky Tar Pit, Lavaclaw Reaches - various duals I feel like testing.
+Myriad Landscape - ramp in a land slot.
+Reliquary Tower - this deck is pretty slow, which translates into not always being able to cast enough spells to get down to seven cards in hand.
Card Changes
joerlz2000, 6 years ago
After several tournaments where I only won 1 or 2 rounds I changed a few cards around. I hope this build helps because I was finding some cards that weren't really gelling with the deck and also a lot of the time the right mana just wasn't there.
None
LongNippleMcGee, 6 years ago
update the fourth - various nonsense
mookie990, 6 years ago
Swapping around a few things to try out some new tech. I do like that the deck is fairly modular - there aren't any significant packages or themes, and I think most cards function fairly well on their own, which makes it a bit easier to mix things up.
-Blue Sun's Zenith - this isn't really a deck that plays at instant speed a lot. May come back at some point if that changes or I find myself needing more card draw though.
-Dig Through Time - as above. I don't have many ways to fill the graveyard, so not getting full benefit from the delve either.
-Reverse Engineer - I'm actually generally happy with this, since I can tap random equipment to it. May come back at some point, but I currently want to try having a bit more action in the deck.
-Compulsive Research - this deck wants all its land drops due to a high curve, and not real graveyard synergy, so can be a bit awkward at times.
-Bident of Thassa - capable of drawing a lot of cards, but a bit off-theme - this deck goes tall, not wide.
-Sphinx of Magosi - I like the card, but it's way too slow. Very rarely lives long enough for me to draw many cards either.
-Unstable Obelisk - a weak mana rock, IMO. 7 mana to kill a thing is pretty steep too. Admittedly, blue doesn't have a ton of ways to answer problems, but...
-Pongify - as above. Blue is pretty light on removal, so I may regret this cut, but as removal spells go it's a bit awkward. Maybe I should add Reality Shift?
-Remote Isle, Lonely Sandbar - no graveyard synergy, enter tapped, and I want my land drops. Due to Back to Basics, I think that the nonbasics I play should try to have a more significant upside.
-Ghost Quarter - one of the more awkward lands-that-kill-a-land. This deck really hates cards like Maze of Ith, but I hopefully have enough ways to interact with lands already.
+Duplicant - a little pricy, but exile is good.
+Ancient Stone Idol - discount beef? Flash? Does something even if it dies? Sounds exactly like the sort of beater this deck wants.
+Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - this deck's creatures tend to be expensive, which makes things awkward if I play them out and they get killed. Flash makes things significantly safer to play, and also makes it easier to hold up mana.
+Gilded Lotus - a solid mana rock, and also casts off-color things occasionally. There aren't a ton of colored artifacts that see play, but they are generally high quality.
+Oblivion Sower - testing. I don't have a ton of ways to exile stuff, but it has a respectable body and does a bit of ramp.
+One with the Machine - testing. Can potentially draw a lot of cards for a pretty cheap price, so I'm generally optimistic.
+Padeem, Consul of Innovation - testing. Hexproof is good, and this deck is very good at playing big artifacts.
+Staff of Nin - testing. I've been wanting a bit more incidental card draw, and the ping is surprisingly relevant. Given that I'm in blue, there may be better options though.
+Buried Ruin - testing. This deck plays enough artifacts that I think I'll usually have something worth grabbing back. If I can steal something like Crucible of Worlds, this becomes even better.
+Inventors' Fair - testing. Again, playing enough artifacts that there should usually be a decent target, and it's a relatively low opportunity cost.
+Spire of Industry - testing. I'm actually not sure if this is better than just playing an island, but generating off-color mana isn't irrelevant.
minor edit:
-Nevinyrral's Disk, +All is Dust - Disk has always been awkward - it's very telegraphed, and blowing up my own artifacts is miserable. On the other hand, All is Dust is pleasantly asymmetric, and not telegraphed at all. Huzzah!
None
The_Jellybane, 6 years ago
Cut Hex, Day of Judgement, Psychic Intrusion, Prescient Chimera, Sanguine Bond, a Swamp Replaced with Dimir Guildgate,Artisan of Kozilek, The Eldest Reborn, Ghostly Prison, Cauldron of Souls and Mystical Barrier
v2 - Deck rework - Adding a Lands Matter Theme
LordShadowZ, 6 years ago
This deck has performed far beyond my expectations. It's an incredible value engine that's not easily slowed, but it didn't have much special beyond that. So I've decided to tone down the amount of the reanimator value engine and added in a Landfall / Lands matter theme into the deck which adds a great deal of power and a number of new win-cons.
Removed:
- Acidic Slime - Redundant naturalize at too high a CMC
- Baleful Strix - Weak card draw replaced by Hedron Crab's self-mill
- Ravenous Chupacabra - Redundant murder at too high a CMC
- Reclamation Sage - Redundant naturalize, higher CMC than other cards with the same effect
- Sidisi, Brood Tyrant - The self-mill ability is not very efficient and the zombies aren't that useful
- Sidisi, Undead Vizier - Too inefficient to justify a tutor, especially when my graveyard is my best resource
- Forbid - Good on paper, but not very practical even in a graveyard deck
- Asceticism - An ultimately unnecessary protective enchantment with too high a CMC
- Font of Fertility - A redundant and slightly inefficient ramp spell that is overshadowed by better cards
- Mortal Combat - A silly card very fitting the deck, however it was replaced by a different win-con, Laboratory Maniac
- Secrets of the Dead - Good on paper but unless it's played early game it's a dead card
- Vessel of Nascency - Redundant self-mill card that is overshadowed by more useful cards
- Golgari Signet - I hate signets. No one can convince me they are good
- Nihil Spellbomb - Overshadowed by much better draw spells, and pretty much just useless
- Oblivion Stone - Redundant and the least efficient board wipe in the deck
- Simic Signet - See Golgari Signet
- Skullclamp - A good card that could be potentially re-added later, but for now there's better draw/self-mill
- Barren Moor + Tranquil Thicket + Lonely Sandbar - Removed these 3 cycle lands because the cycle ability isn't great for this deck and they enter tapped.
Added:
- Avenger of Zendikar - The titan of Landfall, adds a much needed powerhouse into the deck
- Hedron Crab - Landfall synergy + self-mill
- Laboratory Maniac - A new win-con perfect for a self-milling deck, which barely missed the first version of the deck
- Lotus Cobra - Lands give me free mana
- Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar - Another powerhouse in a deck that gets most of its land out one way or another
- Ob Nixilis, the Fallen - Killing with lands, plus he'll get very big
- Rampaging Baloths - Lands give me an army
- Ramunap Excavator - An additional way to get lands out of the graveyard to trigger landfalls
- Roil Elemental - Playing lands lets me steal other player's creatures
- The Gitrog Monster - More lands per turn, a way to get lands into the graveyard, and card draw. All good abilities
- Titania, Protector of Argoth
- Gets lands from the graveyard and gives me creatures when one is destroyed - Splendid Reclamation - With tons of Landfall triggers this can quickly win me the game
- Torment of Hailfire - With the ramp this deck can pull, this is another fast win-con
- Exploration - More lands in play more quickly
- Grave Pact - Since I can easily sacrifice my own creatures I might as well keep the field clear
- Retreat to Hagra - A low tier Landfall trigger with some flexibility
- Fellwar Stone - Replaces both signets, since this deck has plenty of ramp as it is I only need one mana rock to replace them
- 2x Forest + 1x Island - Added a few additional basic lands to give more options for the land search cards
I look forward to play testing this new version of the deck and continuing to iterate on it and making it more consistent and more powerful.
Thursday Night Modern
Deruvid, 6 years ago
Went 3-1 tonight in a 20 man local tourney =R1 Wildfire Chandra 2-1 W= L G1 Wildfire shut me down and I couldn't recover. W G2 Fracturing Gust shut her down and she couldn't recover. W G3 I played around removal and she didn't draw enough mana to cast Wildfire. SB: 2 Fracturing Gust, Ruric Thar =R2 Boros Burn 2-1 W= L G1 I got stuck on multiple SLCs in hand with only Forest Forest Nykthos. W G2 Kept enough pressure to seal the win. W G3 Primal Command for Ruric Thar sealed the win. SB: 2 Kozilek's Return, Ruric Thar =R3 Junk Goodstuff 2-0 W= W G1 Just had bigger creatures and Kessig put out too much pressure. W G2 He didn't have enough removal and double Kessig sealed the win. SB: Nothing, but maybe Blood Moon would've been prudent. =R4 Bring to Light Kiki Combo 0-2 L= L G1 He had Glittering Wish in opening hand and was just too fast. L G2 He got Wish early and I couldn't find answers fast enough. SB: 2 Kozilek's Return, 2 Ballista, 1 Blood Moon
Fixing mana base
The_Jellybane, 6 years ago
Cutting Foster, Zhur-Taa Druid, Jar of Eyeballs, Obelisk of Jund, Charnelhoard Wurm, Burnished Hart, Harrow Replacing them with Gruul guildgate, Yeva, Garna, 1 Forest, 1 Mountain and 2 Swamps Changing cluestone for Signet
Update 09/07/18
Blaz1ENT, 6 years ago
ADDITIONS: - 3x Masterful Ninja - Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow - Force Spike - Turn Aside - Coat with Venom - Ojutai's Breath CUTS: - Mary O'Kill - 4x Killbots - Mistblade Shinobi - Hubris - Aqueous Form
