Wall of Blossoms
has been reprinted in Modern! This got me brewing a competitive defender-combo deck.
This deck has three win-condition:
1: With 5 walls on board, including at least one
Overgrown Battlement
or
Axebane Guardian
,
Staff of Domination
generates infinite life, mana and card-draw. Draw into
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
and win.
2:
Arcades, the Strategist
beat-down, which even works through an
Ensnaring Bridge
.
3:
Thrun, the Last Troll
beat-down. A turn-3 Thrun will give most opponents huge hassles.
Carnage Tyrant
can also come in from SB vs counter-magic decks.
Matches are a matter of stalling and drawing until one of the above situation happens.
Wall of Denial
makes the Arcades plan really strong and lethal in one swing.
Mainboard:
3x
Drift of Phantasms
find the following things roughly the following amount of the time: 50%
Staff of Domination
, 30%
Chord of Calling
, 10%
Axebane Guardian
, 9%
Beast Within
and 1%
Sphinx's Revelation
. After side-boarding, options could range from
Ensnaring Bridge
or
Trinisphere
, through planeswalkers like
Narset, Parter of Veils
,
Teferi, Time Raveler
,
Dovin, Hand of Control
or
Huatli, the Sun's Heart
, depending on your meta.
6x
Wall of Blossoms
/
Wall of Omens
help dig, stall and build to a lethal board state.
4x
Perimeter Captain
is the only 1-drop slot. This card is absolutely insane against aggro decks, where a careless attack can actually gain you life. E.g. This just happened before writing: A guy attacked into my board of 3x Captains and 3x Blossoms/Omens with a 5/4
Tireless Tracker
, thinking he could now attack in and kill a Captain. Sure, he could, but I gladly blocked with all 6 walls and gained 36 life in exchange for a 1 drop wall. This card can win the Dredge matchup by itself, as it makes a mockery of
Prized Amalgam
.
3x
Wall of Denial
provide the ultimate blockers that almost nothing can get around.
2x
Beast Within
gives game against Tron and Planeswalkers and any non-indestructible threats. We don't really care about the tokens because we have 24 creatures with 4+ toughness.
2x
Negate
saves your (big) butt.
4x
Path to Exile
because it's the best.
2x
Arcades, the Strategist
can ends games fast if he sticks around even one combat step. Great card advantage too - with him around,
Wall of Blossoms
draws 2 cards and is free if you have 2x mana walls. Rediced to 2 after adding 2x
Chord of Calling
.
2x
Chord of Calling
lets us leverage our big-mana for EOT searching of Arcades or Axebane for a kill/combo when we untap, or to bait a counter spell to open up our turn to land something. Being able to be tutored for with
Drift of Phantasms
really boosts the Arcades plan.
1x
Staff of Domination
is the core of the infinite combo. One is enough, it can be tutored with
Drift of Phantasms
once you have enough mana, and you really want to land it when counter-spells are down and you have enough mana to combo. With extra mana, the combo can't be blown up or bounced at instant speed, outside of Split-Second shenanigans like Krosan Grip or Wipe Away. I sometimes play it before comboing to help me dig or survive as the draw, tap and life-gain modes are almost always relevant.
1x
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
is an uncounterable, removal-proof, flying, trampling, Annihilator 6 beast that gives you a new turn to swing in for the kill. Can be hard cast reliably when top-decked, if you have 2+ mana walls.
Sideboard:
4x
Leyline of Sanctity
can cause instant-scoops and gives us time to win. This + turn 1
Perimeter Captain
laughs at the notion of a turn 1
Monastery Swiftspear
. Is also about the only good card in the
Scapeshift
matchup, which can race us and is hard to slow down.
2x
Negate
because sometimes 2 is just not enough. Could be
Dovin's Veto
but the 3 colour mana-base is already strained enough.
2x
Generous Gift
is one more
Beast Within
effect.
2x
Slaughter the Strong
is a 3-mana, one-sided board-wipe that can be tutored with
Drift of Phantasms
. So good.
1x
Settle the Wreckage
hates on Dredge, Zoo, Living End, Boggles, Affinity, Zombies, Angels..... anything that attacks. Cast in response to
Perimeter Captain
triggers for extra spice.
1x
Carnage Tyrant
hates on control.
2x
Heroic Intervention
answers most removal and board-wipes outside of
Terminus
. Brought in against
Supreme Verdict
in particular.
Gameplay:
I have a LOT of fun with the deck and it can win on turn 4-5, with enough disruption and stalling to reliably get you wins through turns 6+. Between the removal suite, really strong blockers and counter-magic, it absolutely crushes most fair decks. One nice thing is the ability to untap and top-deck Arcades or Emrakul for "Ooops, I win" moments. Additionally, if you win game 1 with the Arcades, the combo is unexpected and can steal G2, and vice-versa. Instant-speed
Negate
,
Beast Within
and
Sphinx's Revelation
in the MB give us ample time to combo or kill any kind of deck, and we have the element of surprise on our side more often than not. Post-board
Leyline of Sanctity
,
Negate
,
Carnage Tyrant
and
Heroic Intervention
further help the control match-up. Be prepared for grindy, but winnable games G2-3. An early
Beast Within
,
Negate
,
Dovin, Hand of Control
, or
Teferi, Time Raveler
can see us easily bury a control deck.
The fact so many walls not only replace themselves but also survive Beast,
Lightning Bolt
and Plagued Amalgram give this deck some real game. Would love suggestion for the control,
Scapeshift
and Tron match-ups.
All in all, play this deck if you love the idea sitting back and casting
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
or drawing 7+ cards with
Sphinx's Revelation
. After some play testing on MTGO, I've found this deck can crush any fair deck except control with some spectalar wins against Dredge and Burn. I've held off Tron with
Field of Ruin
and
Beast Within
enough to feel it's a fair match-up. Games vs Control feel like it's down to who ever plays first.
Update:
I watched the Against the Odds video of Arcades, and have now embraced the
Chord of Calling
option, with 2x copies of that and
Wall of Roots
Mainboard. This has been really strong, but I had to cut 1x
Axebane Guardian
, 1x
Island
and 1x
Wall of Omens
to make them fit, which could be a mistake. This also alloows
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
in the SB for instant-speed shenanigans as a
Chord of Calling
target against removal, burn or discard.
Also in the SB, I've added
Disdainful Stroke
for the
Scapeshift
matchup and other big, impactful spells or creatures that
Negate
or
Dovin's Veto
can't stop.
Cards I'm considering and would love input about:
-
Vivien's Arkbow
for card-filtering and instant-speed Arcades shenanigans. The deck has enough mana to turn a Dud card into a creature at every of the opponent's EOT.
-
Jeskai Barricade
could be a nifty protection card / combat trick to eek more value from
Wall of Blossoms
. It seems a bit cute and could just be another
Wall of Omens
-
Duskwatch Recruiter
and/or
Collected Company
for card advantage. They aren't walls or answers though, and Duskwatch is a
Lightning Bolt
-magnet.
-
Detention Sphere
,
Teferi, Time Raveler
and
Trinisphere
as SB
Drift of Phantasms
transmute targets.
Detention Sphere
is like better/worse
Beast Within
for the deck that could hit many things / be answered more easily.
-
Astral Slide
for that sweet, sweet
Wall of Blossoms
recursion. The deck already has enough protection from creatures though.
-
Wall of Shards
, but the life given to opponents can make the Arcades kill harder. Could be great vs
Death's Shadow
decks.
-
Tooth and Nail
, because why not? Not a wall though.... I prefer the slim nature and synergies of the
Staff of Domination
/
Drift of Phantasms
package.
