This deck was constructed around the third place winner for MTGgoldfish's Against the Odds poll on March 7, 2019,
Finest Hour
. Bringing you only the freshest of content that people didn't particularly want: this is Third Place's a Charm!
I thought building around Finest Hour would be a fun exercise, but Finest Hour is a tough card to make work in any interesting way. Simply put, it mostly just doubles combat damage from a creature, plus an additional 3 from its own exalted triggers. Beyond that, the upside is extra attack triggers, but the big downside is having to attack with only one creature (at least in the first combat). So we have to be playing attack triggers for it to be better than cheaper alternatives like
Samut, the Tested
. AND we have to be winning the game pretty much the turn we play Finest Hour; being five mana in Modern generally means you better win right around when you tap out to play it, and, worse, being a Bant creature deck in Modern means we're not really going to be interfering enough with your opponent's strategy to last much longer than five or six turns.*
This version of the deck is my second take on the linear aggro strategy using "safe" creatures, after realizing that fighting fair in Modern just isn't, well, fair to us. So, I noticed those "safe" creatures we were already playing - with hexproof, protection, and evasion - could just singlehandedly flip matchups. I mean, can Burn and Shadow beat maindeck
Auriok Champion
? Can Jund and Shadow beat maindeck
Mirran Crusader
? So now, with the eight flex slots focused on interaction (
Path to Exile
and
Negate
), I switched gears and really leaned into our deck's capacity to just jank out wins. Six of those slots are now dedicated to mainboard
Rest in Peace
,
Chalice of the Void
, and
Damping Sphere
, and we've included more highly protected creatures:
Great Sable Stag
and
Stillmoon Cavalier
, whose pump ability happens to sometimes work WONDERS with Finest Hour. I regret to say that, since almost all our creatures sport some resistance to removal,
Sublime Archangel
had to go, since it's just going to be target number one for any removal stuck in hand. Our sideboard now contains
Path to Exile
, which I think we need against
Thing in the Ice
(although maybe not, due to our maindeck hate) and random aggro decks, in addition to complementary hate pieces. Furthermore, we have a pair of
Hero of Bladehold
. With any luck, post-board, our opponent will have no answers to a 4-mana 3/4 that spits out an army with each attack.
Drawn correctly, our package of "free win" cards can destroy Eggs, Storm, Phoenix, Tron, Amulet Titan, Burn, Shadow, Restore Balance, Living End, Dredge, Hollow One, and Grishoalbrand. Our pro-black creatures can beat up on Grixis, Jund, Abzan, and Rock decks. Our pro-white and pro-blue creatures can beat up on UW control, Spirits, and Humans. Our pro-red creatures further beat up on Burn. As far as I'm aware, we've at least got a shot against almost everything in the meta.
Until the very "final" iteration of this deck, I had included two instant-speed tricks:
Valorous Stance
and
Selesnya Charm
. However, I ultimately removed those safety valves to make room for wombo synergy from The Swords.
Sword of Fire and Ice
helps us grind.
Sword of War and Peace
gives us a life buffer and ends the game in short order. I do not know if this is correct: the Swords don't really curve particularly well, but oh boy, the upside is so very high. Might as well dream big!
ALTERNATE FINEST HOUR FLASH DECK
VERSION ONE FULL DECK DESCRIPTION:
I looked at various ways to abuse multiple combats, i.e. attack triggers, but the best one - Combat Celebrant - would require a splash color. What you'd get is an eight mana combo as early as turn 3 (dork +
Simian Spirit Guide
) that attacks for 18 damage but dies to every imaginable creature removal spell other than
Fatal Push
and any blocker. That's quite a high ceiling but quite a low floor. Other attack triggers (in red) can float mana across phases, but that's not winning the game the turn you cast Finest Hour, and I consider that a liability. Red also has numerous ways to spawn creatures with extra attacks, e.g.
Goblin Rabblemaster
,
Legion Warboss
, and
Hanweir Battlements
, but going wide doesn't synergize with Finest Hour. In black, we could have fun with
Vona, Butcher of Magan
, attacking and exploding multiple things, but I don't think that's quite enough. In green we can untap our lands with
Bear Umbra
and
Sword of Feast and Famine
, but I don't know if that's better than just winning outright. In white we still have some creatures that spawn armies by attacking in
Brimaz, King of Oreskos
and
Hero of Bladehold
, but again, we're not winning the game, well not any more than just attacking with
Hero of Bladehold
already does. Similarly,
Kessig Cagebreakers
and
Kalonian Hydra
will win the game without Finest Hour. So, we're left mostly with Exalted or trying to bury our opponent in card advantage from
Curiosity
or
Thieving Magpie
with
Pact of Negation
and
Intervention Pact
to stay alive the turn after we resolve Finest Hour and don't immediately win. Of course, if we're on the
Curiosity
plan, there's a very different deck that's hilarious, so I think the actually route is still just Exalted attack triggers. How thematic yet boring.
At that point, it's about making sure we have a reliable attacker. That means protection, shroud, hexproof, and evasion. That in turn means
Invisible Stalker
and
Silhana Ledgewalker
.
Mirran Crusader
does a little more work, but is only a safe attacker in a few matchups;
Fiendslayer Paladin
is a safe attacker in a couple other matchups (not as good at dealing damage as
Auriok Champion
or
Paladin en-Vec
, but much harder to beat in those matches).
Noble Hierarch
and
Knight of Glory
do double duty as exalted creatures; one ramps, while the other is resilient against some removal and can get some free attacks against some decks. Unfortunately, this suite of creatures leaves us with a pretty low ceiling, so we need something to just go nuts with...and that card is
Sublime Archangel
or
Angelic Exaltation
, depending on how durable we need it to be. Then we have
Path to Exile
to fight against aggro and creature combo decks, and
Negate
to disrupt opposing disruption.
I'd really rather be attacking with
Gemini Engine
or
Nacatl War-Pride
twice, but man, the curve is all wrong. We'd need
Lightning Greaves
or something, AND we'd be a turn slower?
Knotvine Paladin
would hit hardest (heck, you can have it untap with Finest Hour before its own ability resolves for an extra pump), allowing you to attack for 53 by the end of your fourth turn with the perfect nine card opening, but it's totally vulnerable to every removal spell ever. :'( I don't even think I can justify
Rafiq of the Many
, and that feels baaaaaaaaad.
Ultimately, I'm just not sure if the restrictions involved with Finest Hour make it better than just stalling for one additional turn to play something like
True Conviction
. Or even just
Ajani, Caller of the Pride
or even
Fireshrieker
. Or
Blood Mist
. Or
Samut, the Tested
. Or
Curse of Bloodletting
. Or
Dictate of the Twin Gods
. It mostly just doubles combat damage from a creature, plus an additional 3 from its own exalted triggers. Beyond that, the upside is extra attack triggers, but the big downside is having to attack with only one creature. So we have to be playing attack triggers. But we have to be winning the game pretty much the turn we play Finest Hour. Ugh.
*Of course, you could be playing hatebears and hoping one of them can survive THRILLING SINGLES COMBAT, but that's still a gamble, and it's not really about Finest Hour. Alternately, you could be playing base-blue tempo, with creatures like
Vendilion Clique
keeping your opponent of their strategy long enough to resolve Finest Hour. I will prototype that deck shortly.
