Modern Front Page Feature #3

Features

ChiefBell

3 July 2016

1046 views

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#3 - the-oath-of-sir-siegegoyf

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At regular intervals, I’m bringing you a fresh deck from our homepage that caught my eye as it floated down on a deckcycle. I’ll show you the list, provide you with insights directly from the creator, offer improvements, and display a few runners-up that barely missed the cut. Join me as we celebrate our community’s creativity and get the lowdown on a sweet brew!

When am I most likely to see your deckcycles? I’m always taking peeks at TappedOut throughout the day (and night), so there’s not one specific time each week I’m looking for new lists. It’s the luck of the draw, but deckcycling more often can’t hurt you.

This week’s deck belongs to kyuuri117, who wanted to build a competitively viable superfriends deck.

the-oath-of-sir-siegegoyf

1x Abrupt Decay 1x Dismember 1x Forest 1x Garruk Relentless 1x Garruk Wildspeaker 1x Gavony Township 2x Godless Shrine 2x Hissing Quagmire 2x Inquisition of Kozilek 1x Isolated Chapel 2x Liliana of the Veil 4x Lingering Souls 1x Maelstrom Pulse 2x Marsh Flats 1x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar 4x Oath of Nissa 2x Overgrown Tomb 4x Path to Exile 1x Phyrexian Arena 1x Plains 1x Razorverge Thicket 1x Shambling Vent 4x Siege Rhino 2x Sorin, Solemn Visitor 1x Stirring Wildwood 1x Swamp 4x Tarmogoyf 1x Temple Garden 3x Thoughtseize 1x Treetop Village 1x Vault of the Archangel 3x Verdant Catacombs 1x Windswept Heath 1x Woodland Cemetery Sideboard: 1x Duress 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion 2x Engineered Explosives 2x Fleecemane Lion 1x Fracturing Gust 2x Hero's Downfall 1x Kataki, War's Wage 4x Kor Firewalker 1x Painful Truths

This is an Abzan deck with a heavy emphasis on planeswalkers. The key driving force of the deck is the card advantage that is generated by planeswalkers’ abilities, given that they can repeatedly make tokens, remove creatures, or buff your board presence over and over again, without repeat investment. To back up the planeswalkers are solid removal spells and a suite of the most efficient beaters available to modern in Tarmogoyf and Siege Rhino. By taking control of the board in the early game with a combination of creatures and removal spells, the planeswalkers are then relatively protected and able to gain long-game advantage.

        Strengths

Long game, long game, long game. This is a classic attrition deck; reducing the opponent’s effectiveness through long-term sustained pressure. Given that planeswalkers can activate abilities without mana investment, and without further cards being cast, this deck generates a lot of card and mana advantage as the game goes on. Each token from Garruk Wildspeaker after the first one or two is essentially free, each dead creature after the first one or from Liliana of the Veil is essentially free etc. etc. Now, planeswalkers aren’t quick exactly and the pressure they provide does take a while to ramp up, but it is undeniably powerful as the game progresses.
Another thing that I see as a particular strength is the efficiency of the other cards on offer. Path to Exile removes any threat for just 1 mana. Tarmogoyf can contest just about any creature in combat for just 2 mana. In this way the deck has clear and effective plays to make at all stages of the game. The early game gives us some strong creatures and the best removal spells in modern. The late game gives us overwhelming board presence and all kinds of advantages from planeswalkers - so there’s key tempo synergy here.

        Weaknesses

Speed is a large weakness of the deck. There are plays available on every turn but the real meat of the deck comes down on turns 3 and 4, which is just a tad slow for modern as many deck make turns 2 and 3 their crucial window of opportunity. Being one turn slower than the rest isn’t necessarily a problem in itself but it does mean that aggro can sometimes be tricky.
The second weakness could be consistency, as it is often is with midrange. Draw a Path to Exile when all you wanted was that last Tarmogoyf to win the game? Draw a Garruk Wildspeaker when you really need an answer to that Delver of Secrets  ^Flip? It happens. And it happens often in midrange. When you split your deck into two halves i.e. a control portion and an aggressive portion, you leave yourself vulnerable to drawing the wrong pieces at any given time.

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        Creator Insights

What inspired you to build the deck? What’s the motivation there? Is it the colour combinations, or the strategy that interests you the most?

"I had been pretty bored with modern since the Splinter Twin ban. Didn’t enjoy the eldrazi decks, and didn't really find anything I liked after the Eye of Ugin ban. After seeing Nahiri Jeskai take off, I wanted to build a deck that just trumped Nahiri (as well as other midrange decks such as Grixis and Jund), while at the same time having some game against aggro decks. I also had been loving Oath of Nissa, and wanted to see what I could do to maximize it. Playing a three color deck with some walkers without having to worry about mana requirements seemed like an awesome thing to try. I also just really wanted to play with Lingering Souls in a meta full of 1 for 1 removal. Once I decided to play with Lingering Souls, I wanted to maximize them. Liliana of the Veil is an all star in modern, but when you can discard Lingering Souls, she’s even better. The new Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, is great as well. She protects herself, she can buff the souls out of nowhere, and she's inexpensive. I’ve been very impressed with her. Garruk Wildspeaker has been one of my favorite cards for a while, and the potential of going Lingering Souls on turn 3, Garruk Wildspeaker on turn 4, then using him to untap two lands and flashback souls in the same turn... and then threaten Overrun on turn 5 was just too awesome to pass up. And yes, it’s as good as it sounds. Sorin, Solemn Visitor is also obviously great with Lingering Souls, and giving Siege Rhino and Tarmogoyf lifelink seemed great. Lastly, I wanted to play one more walker and couldn't figure out what I wanted to add. I tried Elspeth, Knight-Errant. I tried 5 mana Ajani, and I just wasn’t impressed. Garruk Relentless  ^Flip isn't the best, and could probably be removed, but he's honestly fantastic in the midrange mirrors. Getting to tutor for a Siege Rhino by sacrificing a souls token is pretty broken."

I see a fairly large reliance on 3 and 4 mana cards, which I imagine can be problematic against such decks as Affinity, or perhaps Burn (though you do play Siege Rhino)? How do you handle linear aggro?

"As far as linear decks go, I think it’s kind of draw dependent. Affinity has been interesting. Lingering Souls is absolutely fantastic at buying time in the affinity matchup, and the deck has enough removal that i can keep up depending on my draws. Etched Champion can be a pain with only having one Abrupt Decay in the deck to get rid of the Cranial Plating, but it isn’t as bad as a matchup as it seems. I'd say about 40/60 Affinity pre-board. Burn is not at all a bad matchup game one. I'd say about 50/50 game one. And well, I hate losing to Burn (and have quite a few burn players in my meta), which is why I’ve stuck 4 Kor Firewalkers in the board. One is usually lights out. Actually, the hardest matchup I’ve had to face so far (ignoring tron, which I’ve intentionally ignored), is Bushwhacker Zoo. Bushwhacker Zoo is super fast, isn’t really bothered by cheap removal, and has great disruption for lifegain. I’d say that's the biggest hurdle for the deck. Infect isn't an issue, for the most part. Just make sure you can turn 3 a Lingering Souls with a removal spell or two in your hand for any blighted agents and you should be able to buy yourself enough time to stabilize."

Talk me through your control cards for a second. I notice you’ve opted for 4 Path to Exile over Abrupt Decay. How do you compare these two cards and what drove your decisions making process in choosing the control portion of the deck?

"One of the bigger reasons I’ve chosen Path to Exile is because of the manlands. I want to make sure I have access to a removal spell on turn 2 if I have to play a manland turn 1. I also just wanted to be able to cast 2 spells a turn as fast as possible considering the amount of 3-4 mana spells i'm running. Being able to cast a Path to Exile on the same turn as an Oath of Nissa or a Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozilek is pretty important. Plus, I think there's been an increase in 4 mana threats that Abrupt Decay just can’t handle. Kalitas, traitor ofghet, Gurmag Angler, Nahiri, the Harbinger to name a few. I think as far as removal goes, Path to Exile works just as well if not better against aggro decks (boggles excluded), and it’s just got an easier casting cost.
As a follow up to that last question, if you really wanted to toss in a few more Abrupt Decays, I’d suggest dropping the Garruk Relentless  ^Flip and the Maelstrom Pulse. They feel like the weakest cards in the mainboard."

In playing and/or designing the deck have you spotted any particular problems or all-stars? Have any cards turned out to be much worse or better than you initially expected?

"As far as clunkers go, I think Maelstrom Pulse is a fine card, but there are other things I want to be doing on turn 3 such as casting Lingering Souls, or a Thoughtseize to prepare for a walker on turn 4, alongside a Tarmogoyf or removal spell. As far as actual all stars go, I think I’d like to have another 2 Inquisition of Kozileks in the sideboard. The Thoughtseize effect without taking damage for the aggro decks / control decks to grab Remands is just so awesome when you get to drop a walker or Siege Rhino on turn 4. And anything bigger can just eat a removal spell or be run over, so i’d value Inquisition of Kozileks over Thoughtseizes. Another absolute all star in the sideboard is Fleecemane Lion. He's a 2 drop that eats 80% of the creatures from linear aggro decks, while at the same time providing a fantastic clock against a control deck with the implied threat of becoming unremovable. I’m very happy with having 2 of them. Another card i’m very happy with is Phyrexian Arena. Not the best vs. linear aggro, obviously, so depending on what meta you’re expecting you might want to toss it into the sideboard or remove it... but it’s been invaluable against Jeskai and Grixis and Jund. Thoughtseize on turn 2 to grab a Nahiri, counterspell or whatever, into this on turn 3 is just game winning, and I don't think that’s an overstatement."

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        Potential Improvements

-1 Garruk Relentless  ^Flip, +1 Inquisition of Kozilek

It’s been discussed how Garruk Relentless  ^Flip can often feel a tad weak, whilst early game discard is essential against such a wide range of decks it’s almost always welcome. Inquisition of Kozilek helps in making sure you have a great starting hand against linear aggro, and can be a nice late game draw against opposing midrange and control decks, given they rely on card advantage. Garruk Relentless  ^Flip is a great card, but he’s somewhat tricky to flip and until you do he can lack impact and feel very vulnerable.

-1 Siege Rhino, + 1 Garruk Wildspeaker

The deck can feel kind of slow, and one of the easiest ways to deal with that is to provide ramp. kyuuri117 discussed the great sequencing you can do with Garruk Wildspeaker and Lingering Souls so I thought it would be great to capitalise on that. Losing a creature with lifegain for another planeswalker is kind of risky, but Garruk Wildspeaker is not at all bad at protecting himself and it must be remembered that there will still be 3 Siege Rhinos and 2 Sorin, Solemn Visitors in the mainboard after this change. That’s more than a lot of decks have available even after sideboarding. I also have a thing for Garruk Wildspeaker, I think he works so well in midrange and does a fantastic job of applying pressure or being defensive, I like the idea of playing 2 of him side by side with 2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor because 4/3 tokens with lifelink sounds fantastic.

-1 Shambling Vent, +1 Twilight Mire

I tend to play 4 manlands in a deck and even then can find them slow. Treetop Village stays in because it’s obviously exceedingly powerful. Hissing Quagmire stays for the mana fixing, because at the end of the day it’s more important to be able to play your spells than have the optional ability to turn creatures into lands. Lastly, Stirring Wildwood stays because it dodges Lightning Bolt and holds off against flying threats due to reach. Shambling Vent is the odd card out here, providing fixing which is only mediocre in this deck and a threat which is only somewhat appreciable. I tend to prioritise my mana fixing over supplementary abilities, and this is why I chose Twilight Mire here, however it is also worth considering another Swamp to enable the casting of Liliana of the Veil despite Blood Moon or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth just because it’s such a powerful card. I know that Oath of Nissa provides fixing but it’s not as dependable as just having a really solid, and quick, manabase.

-1 Phyrexian Arena , +1 Painful Truths

This is experimental and I’m not entirely sure it’s the correct thing to do, but I have a few reasons for thinking about this change. The first is that immediate payoff is obviously better than extended payoff. Painful Truths can potentially net 3 turns worth of cards when compared to Phyrexian Arena. The second reason is that Painful Truths allows you to control the life loss. It might be the case that you can only afford the 1 life for a single card, this could be the case against aggressive decks. Once Phyrexian Arena is played, it’s been played. Unlike Dark Confidant you cannot just chump block with it to stop the life loss - it’s pretty much just stuck there. Sure, there are matchups where you want the long game draws, but there aren’t many of them, and besides, drawing 3 cards in a single turn is nothing to sneer at anyway, even against control.

Overall

So the changes I’ve gone for here are based on factors that kyuuri117 talked about in the Q&A section. They’re designed to speed up the deck, make it more consistent and provide a few more ways to ensure you have things to do in the early game. Most of the cuts I’ve made have been cards that I think are slow or lack impact. Now this doesn’t mean these decisions will ALWAYS be the right ones, but I hope that 9 times out of 10 they produce favourable results.

This leaves us with the following list:

1x Abrupt Decay 1x Dismember 1x Forest 2x Garruk Wildspeaker 1x Gavony Township 2x Godless Shrine 2x Hissing Quagmire 3x Inquisition of Kozilek 1x Isolated Chapel 2x Liliana of the Veil 4x Lingering Souls 1x Maelstrom Pulse 2x Marsh Flats 1x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar 4x Oath of Nissa 2x Overgrown Tomb 4x Path to Exile 1x painful truths 1x Plains 1x Razorverge Thicket 1x twilight mire 3x Siege Rhino 2x Sorin, Solemn Visitor 1x Stirring Wildwood 1x Swamp 4x Tarmogoyf 1x Temple Garden 3x Thoughtseize 1x Treetop Village 1x Vault of the Archangel 3x Verdant Catacombs 1x Windswept Heath 1x Woodland Cemetery Sideboard: 1x Duress 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion 2x Engineered Explosives 2x Fleecemane Lion 1x Fracturing Gust 2x Hero's Downfall 1x Kataki, War's Wage 4x Kor Firewalker 1x Painful Truths

Sideboard
Sideboards are very meta specific so it would be impossible to suggest something that is fully formed. This deck already has a fairly well developed sideboard here, but I would perhaps suggest a sweeper such as Drown in Sorrow or perhaps Damnation. It’s really great in a deck with planeswalkers because it leaves them unscathed whilst killing all the opponents stuff - you can recover much faster than them if you have a Garruk Wildspeaker down. In fact, this is what decks like Death Cloud are built around. I suggested that Phyrexian Arena in the mainboard becomes Painful Truths so it might be worth swapping the Painful Truths for a Phyrexian Arena in the side. Pulse of Murasa may be worth a slot, it’s a card that’s very interesting in a variety of matchups, and could go in place of a Kor Firewalker. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is a fantastic long game card but I don’t fancy her middle ability against control, it might be worth testing Garruk, Primal Hunter. Repeatable card draw is pretty amazing against Jund, against Jeskai, and many others, and it still provides huge board presence. Having said this I’d probably rather have Elspeth than Garruk against decks like Grixis due to their reliance on Gurmag Angler and Tasigur, the Golden Fang (though reliance on Gurmag Angler is decreasing in those decks). There are upsides and downsides to both but it’s worth considering..

Do you have anything else to add? What would you do differently? What do you think? Let me know down below!

Keep deckcycling out there! You never know when I could be eyeballing your list.

Happy tapping, players!
ChiefBell

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This article is a follow-up to Modern Front Page Feature #2 The next article in this series is Modern Front Page Feature #4