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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Time of Heroes
Enchantment
Each creature you control with a level counter on it gets +2/+2.
RedmundR2 on
Get on my Level!
5 years ago
I have a lot of experience in the level up mechanics (see my deck Magic: The RPG (Level Up/Proliferate) *Updated!*) and I think I can offer some good perspective on the mechanic and how (I think at least) to make it as strong as possible.
First off, lets address the concerns I have with your deck on a fundamental level as opposed to the mechanic of level up and how best to use it.
1- Curve
Modern is a very fast format and I feel like the average CMC in your deck is a bit high without any actual ramp effects. Not to mention your creatures don't just want you to slap them down on curve - you have to use your mana to develop level counters on them as well, which means you either need a way to gain a bunch of mana quickly, or you need to cheat level up costs. Considering the speed of decks in the format I think even with just adding a way to cheat level counters cheaply wouldn't be enough. Your curve isn't bad by any means, but i think it can use some tightening up.
2 - No removal at all
Your deck currently has probably way too many creatures and planeswalkers, and currently has absolutely no way to interact with your opponent. In modern having a way to clear your opponents early threats especially with a high curve feels essential to me. With 4 colors, you have tons of options (Path to Exile, Fatal Push, Remand, Mana Leak, etc) for cheap removal. Since our deck is mostly winning through creature damage, artifact removal might also be necessary (Fragmentize, Naturalize, etc) If your opponent plays something that disrupts our gameplan, or a big threat, we have no current way of dealing with them. The current collection of Planeswalkers are kind of unnecessary and feel forced, could be replaced with removal to lower the curve and allow the deck to interact with our opponent.
3 - 4 colors / Lands
Trying to run 4 colors especially with a specific and admittedly slow and weak mechanic like Level up feels like a bad idea to me. For one, our lands are mostly slow that give us more than 2 colors, we have no artifacts or creatures that produce mana or color fix, and the benefits from being 4 colors feels minor. I recommend U/W for level up far more than G or B.
Okay, onto the level-up mechanic:
Most of your creatures cost 3 mana to level up. Thats super expensive for something you have to do multiple times at sorcery speed, so many times you will find yourself spending mana on a level just to have your creature removed afterwards, wasting your turn and potentially losing you the game. One way around this is Training Grounds, which if you're planning on keeping the deck as it is with the creatures, is a 100% must have card for the deck. Venerated Teacher is good too, you already have that in the list. Time of Heroes could be useful as it's a pretty powerful effect for the mana cost.
Hope this helps!
Haeus on
Dungeons & Dragons EDH
5 years ago
I've been having the same idea lately! I was thinking of including some of the Level Up mechanics with a Time of Heroes also if your play group is cool with it Sword of Dungeons & Dragons
xyr0s on
6 years ago
Dewdrop Spy seems to be simply too weak - it doesn't generate any card advantage, it just lets you look at one card. How about Nimble Obstructionist instead? The problem about levelling creatures in a tempo deck, is that you have to spend mana in your own turn. Take Transcendent Master as an example - it's going to take a lot of mana (6, to be exact), before that really is anything better than the standard fare for 3/3 creatures in modern. You could also consider Reflector Mage in that slot.
mmmm.... looking a bit longer at it: Levelling is actually almost the greatest anti-tempo you can find. First of all, redundant copies are just that - redundant. You can't level more than one Lighthouse Chronologist or whatever, in the scope of a normal game. Second, removal is a real issue, since you lose quite a bit of tempo if you have to Vapor Snag a creature back to your own hand (against some decks, that happens quite a lot - grixis control, for example). And lose even more, if a creature is levelled, and then removed as you declare the last level-counter on the stack. You need some other kind of protection, and fewer creatures to protect, perhaps. That could be something like Gods Willing.
Time of Heroes is not all that great, either. Due to the cost of both playing AND levelling a creature, before it gets any bonus from Time of Heroes, you will have fewer creatures to receive the bonus... and that reduces the utility of the enchantment.
landofMordor on
Magic: The RPG (Level Up/Proliferate) *Updated!*
6 years ago
I'd put in as many Time of Heroes as you can. Venerated Teacher saves you mana if you have 3 or more mana of level counters out already (he's proliferate on a stick). I'd also add Skyship Plunderer alongside Thrum.
To find space for these, I'd cut Gilder Bairn since it's so much mana to cast and activate. You also have only 58 cards here...so you get 2 free adds! Then I'd consider cutting some copies of your color-intensive 2-drops like Commander and Dragonlord, especially if they're cards you want to cast reliably T2.
Redace878 on
Magic: The RPG (Level Up/Proliferate) *Updated!*
6 years ago
I would reccomend Venerated Teacher or Time of Heroes
Chino90 on
7 years ago
i missed Time of Heroes. That could really justify splashing white. But since you are not putting cards like Student of Warfare or Transcendent Master for budget reasons, i would leave it as a secondary color, for some enchantment control.
cut Halimar Wavewatch, Guard Gomazoa and Invisible Stalker for sure.
CyborgNate on
Students be prepared!
8 years ago
This looks really great, Iksar! You really ramped this up from my little old budget deck. Something I feel like I should point out that I was mistaken about in my description is that if you target the same Venerated Teacher with copied Cloudshifts, all but the first one will miss their target. Kinda sucks, but that's how it works. Still useful to be able to copy burn spells and counters and the like. I'm also kind of surprised you took out Time of Heroes. That gives a permanent +2/+2 for nearly all your creatures. Although, the counters and such are a great addition. +1 from me! I think I'll stick with the budget version though.
One last thing, if you based this off my deck, I'd appreciate it if you credited me in the description, get some traffic my way, ya know what I'm saying? I'll also mention you in my description for people who care more about competitiveness than cost.
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