The Deck
I've always liked decks that feel like a toolbox of effects, decks that play differently from game to game, and decks that prevent your opponents from doing things. I play Alesha and Glissa in EDH, to give you an idea. So this kind of deck appealed to me. Humans are an interesting tribe, and while they lose a LOT going from modern to pioneer they're still very fun to play.
The deck is basically a toolbox of various beneficial and/or disruptive effects and ways to find and reuse them. We have Kitesail Freebooter to snag important spells from our opponent's hand, Reflector Mage to bounce their creatures, Hostage Taker to O-Ring creatures or artifacts and maybe even steal them, and Deputy of Detention to deal with problem permanents and tokens...
To find the right effects at the right time we have Charming Prince to scry, Thraben Inspector to draw cards, Smuggler's Copter to loot and Militia Bugler to dig for creatures. Charming Prince blinks our creatures for even more etb value, Order of Midnight recurs them, and Hostage Taker can even act as a makeshift blink spell in a pinch.
As for actually winning the game, well, all our disruption and removal is creature based, so you're beating up your opponent while disrupting them. Smuggler's Copter and Order of Midnight are both aggressively costed flying beaters. But by far the most important card when it comes to actually winning the game is Thalia's Lieutenant, which is the best and only real payoff for playing humans in the format. While we only have four copies of this one lord, we have so many ways to find, blink, and recur it that it feels like many more.
The sideboard plan:
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Two extra copies of Deputy of Detention, an honorary human, come in against problem permanents such as Planeswalkers, token decks like Scapeshift / Field of the Dead, and counter decks like Hardened Scales. TBH the card is so stupidly good, just by itself and specific to matchups, that I probably should be maindecking the full playset even though its inability to be pumped by Lieutenant does slow down my gameplan and its inability to be cast off of Unclaimed territory has proven problematic in the past.
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Giant-Killer is a new try-out in the sideboard that comes in in grindier matchups. Not here to hose anything in particular but I really enjoy playing the card. It's good against Stonecoil Serpent, what can I say.
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Kambal comes in against spell-based decks. Pretty straightforward here.
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Plaguecrafter is our tool of choice against decks that try to win the game with one big resilient threat, such as Heroic and especially Soulflayer. Honestly it's only somewhat effective against Soulflayer but it's our best shot. I tried Mardu Woe-Reaper but it just doesn't cut it when they can discard to Lotleth Troll or cast Grisly Salvage on our end step. Apostle of Purifying Light is too slow and mana intensive. Maybe I just need Leylines? Or even Silumgar Sorcerer lol.
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Suncleanser is specifically here to hose Stonecoil Serpent, which is otherwise difficult for me to deal with. It's just great against Scales decks in general and does some work against heroic and Ensoul (Animating Faerie). And maybe I run into an an energy deck like Pummeler once in a blue moon? Who knows. I might end up putting a full playset of these in the board if Scales becomes popular enough, but our deck already has a good scales matchup because our O-ring effects permanently kill their creatures.
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Xathrid Necromancer comes in against decks that run board wipes - Deafening Clarion, Witch's Vengeance, and especially Supreme Verdict. Honestly it's mostly here for verdict. I've found that our deck is relatively resilient against the other commonly played boardwipes because a single Thalia's Lieutenant puts our 2/3s out of range. The one unfortunate thing is that Necromancer does nothing against Anger of the Gods. If it becomes enough of a problem I might consider Eerie Interlude or Unbreakable Formation.
