Building a deck around Wayward Guide-Beasts
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 26, 2020, 9:42 a.m. by Snowmen1
Hello, There's a lot of really interesting cards that have been printed into modern with the release of Zendikar Rising, and one of the cards that I liked that hasn't really seen any decks built for it is Wayward Guide-Beast. Now it clearly isnt very good in an aggro deck, but there's something that it does that I think makes it worth looking at: You can play it in later turns, where it can be a quick clock while also being a decent engine and control piece.
Being a 2/2 with haste and trample, you can cast it with interaction up, and start swinging. While you are doing this, you are returning lands to your hand, which I think you can leverage into card advantage. You can draw Lightning Bolt every turn with Mystic Sanctuary, Use Searing Blaze, maybe attack and then replay a card:mutavault to block, take advantage of unique etb triggers for lands such as that of Bojuka Bog or Radiant Fountain. It just seems like there's a lot if stuff that yoy can do with this card. When it works, it seems like an excellent clock and control piece. If you have any ideas for a fleshed out list let me know. I have been thinking of doing a delver shell and including flip lands for higher frequency of delver flips and more card selection that you can use with later Wayward Guide-Beast. Another idea I had was to play Molten Vortex to have a lot of extra reach in the late game.
Edit: Some other cards I forgot to mention: Quicksilver Fountain, Teetering Peaks, and Tolaria West.
While Im at it, I started a little project to go through all of the modern legal sets and just noting down all remotely playable cards. This would be a deck building tool for anyone who likes brewing decks. If you are interested, you can find that here.
Anyways, any comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading.
I do like the synergy of the card and i think it's great for standard. Adding landfall triggers or bouncing a flip land to use it's other face in the late game.
In the late game, I like the idea of using it to return cards like Agadeem, the Undercrypt to your hand when you may not need the mana and letting you cast Agadeem's Awakening Flip.
September 26, 2020 2:47 p.m.
I think its not a very intuitive idea, and not in line with how many people would typically play magic. I am not thinking of utilizing Wayward Guide-Beast as a turn 1 play though. I dont think any decks can really support that.
The plan is to get it out on turns 3, 4, or 5 play to give you mid to late game card selection and a clock. Something else to keep in mind is that when compared with other delver cards like Nimble Obstructionist and Vendilion Clique (which would probably get played more if it werent for Lava Dart, Wrenn and Six, and other ping cards), they put out the same amount of damage within three turns of when theyre played. Basically the clock is on par, though a lack of evasion is worrying. Being one mana also makes playing it less of a risk/commitment to cast than normal threats though.
One thing to note though is that the clock gets a lot faster when you are bouncing and replaying certain lands that the deck might play, like Teetering Peaks.
The only thing is that it is a trade-off. This synergy may just be only ok, since you are essentially limiting yourself to 3 or 4 mana per turn. Definately should be tested though in my opinion.
Other ideas I forgot to mention was locking up mana with Quicksilver Fountain. This is probably just bad compared to bloodmoon, but notably this card allows you to have your landfall synergies and also can help fix your mana. Also all the lands stay as islands after the fountain dies, so thats funny.
There's a lot of ways that you could use Wayward Guide-Beast, but in landfall zoo I think Id rather play 4 Elvish Reclaimer before the first Wayward Guide-Beast first because Elvish Reclaimer can help make multiple landfall triggers every turn, its bigger, and you can get a land toolbox kind if thing going with the card where the guide beast doesnt really scale well unless youre keeping the board clear (why Im interested in trying delver). But idk. Its all speculation.
Anyways, Im going to make a test list and just see how or if it even works. Lots of testing to do.
Thanks for the comment.
September 26, 2020 3:06 p.m.
MagicMarc, thanks for the comment! Theres a lot if things to try, going black as also definately an option. I don't really follow standard, but Im sure at the least someone is going to try to use the card. In modern I am not sure what synergies there are that would fit the deck aside from Bloodghast, but I should definitely do some research in that.
Another way of looking at the card that I was thinking if is going green and playing Tireless Trackers and cards like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, but again, I think at that point you may as well play Elvish Reclaimer.
September 26, 2020 3:23 p.m.
psionictemplar says... #6
I think the concept as a whole is very interesting, but almost detrimental in the same way. When you think about mana and commonly returning lands to your hand, you limit yourself on how far up the mana curve you can go. With that in mind, you almost would need to either work on putting more lands into play to offset that or maybe even go as far as not needing lands to play your spells. Things like Talisman of Dominance and Aether Vial come to mind. Another option could just be to run a very low mana costing deck.
I am considering your idea of replaying lands like the peaks and they seem fine, but they commonly come in tapped (slowing you down) or are not very impactful repeatedly. Take Bojuka Bog as an example. The first time you drop it against dredge seems really good, but not very impactful after that. In the grand scheme though, I feel like the lands should probably be one of the last things you add after building the frame of the deck. This way you already know what you are looking to do and can add the most helpful lands from there.
As far as using the beast itself, you also need to keep in mind that modern is a fast format and many of the creatures played are larger than a 2/2. The combo decks probably won't care about it and control runs several ways to control creatures as well. So in a nutshell I wouldn't put all your eggs in this basket. It would probably work better as a support card more than the main focus of the deck.
Like I said though, this intrigues me and I would like to see where you take it from here.
September 26, 2020 5:17 p.m.
I agree that it is not something you would build a deck around for Modern. If you did build a deck around maximizing it's value, there are going to be better card choices to fulfill it's role in the deck.
But i could see this in a casual baloth or other landfall deck. Or as late game to get back flip lands you played as land so you can use their spell value instead. Like playing an Akoum Warrior Flip as land on an early turn, then mid-late game getting it back to hand to cast it as a Akoum Warrior Flip.
abby315 says... #2
Hm. I don't think a 2/2 is a fast enough clock to be denying your own resources. Just think about running into a Tarmogoyf or a Death's Shadow on turn 2.
Honestly, I think the Guide Beast has a home as a 2-3 in a Zoo deck, with Steppe Lynx, as a "late-game" play that allows you to pick up a land and keep the damage coming. But that would be a Tier-Two deck, as it's much slower than Red Prowess.
September 26, 2020 10:06 a.m.