Need help finding a focus for Junk Winder
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 26, 2021, 3:15 a.m. by GrimlockVIII
I feel like Junk Winder is very underrated as a card that can easily have a whole deck built around him. I want to keep things budget friendly, though Im not sure which specific direction to take him.
I was thinking of taking advantage of Hero of Precinct One since he's potentially an efficient token maker depending on how I build the deck. I can combine him with Saheeli, Sublime Artificer to potentially generate a lot of tokens, allowing me to summon the Winder fairly quickly and start tapping down permanents.
If I want to focus on an artifact sub-theme, I can instead use Trail of Evidence with Saheeli instead.
There's also Young Pyromancer plus Trail of Evidence for a spell slinger sub-theme. I would use Poppet Stitcher Flip in place of Trail of Evidence, but, again, I want to keep things budget friendly.
There's also the potential to use static or landfall-based token generators like From Beyond, Awakening Zone, and Rampaging Baloths, but I feel like this route would either be too slow or would function better without Junk Winder taking up deck space.
I would like to keep the deck from needing more than two colors since anything more would be a nightmare for the mana base price-wise.
GrimlockVIII says... #3
Oof, if only Tendershoot Dryad wasn't so expensive, I'd definitely consider him/her.
Maybe Consuming Blob with a few other tools instead? He has the same mana cost as Tendershoot Dryad but isn't as pricey. He doesn't make tokens as often, but he can still pull off some solid stuff if given the chance.
Maybe I can do an Ooze token sub-theme in general given the amount of support that strategy has.
October 26, 2021 4:37 a.m.
InzHornet4 says... #4
If you'd want to use him, you would need fast access to a lot of tokens to be able to play him as soon as possible, maybe by turns 4 or 5. You could make it a bant list, because green white is pretty good at making tokens. I like planeswalkers that make tokens. If you can get enough on board, they get harder to deal with. Plus if you play that Saheeli, they count as non-returnable spells, so she'd make a token as you cast them. I wouldn't play that the Hero of the Precinct One honestly. I would suggest adding Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. They are very good in modern, and make tokens very reliably. Dovin, Grand Arbiter could be a cool addition, gaining some extra loyalty on the first turn he comes in, then start making tokens and gaining some life. For instants and sorceries, Raise the Alarm and Verdant Command are amazing low mana ways to get a couple tokens. The command would also give you an added second effect to help you out. If you draw one of those and a Nissa, Saheeli or Dovin, you could have 4 tokens on turn 4, then drop the Junk Winder. If you wanted to spend $9 on a card, you could get a few Cryptolith Rite and a few X spells and go that route. A Cryptolith Rite followed by a Raise the Alarm or Verdant Command would also get you a turn 4 Junk Winder. I would give you some more ideas, but I'm thinking of more budget friendly ways to make tokens. U do have a GW Walker Token deck for Modern if you want to check that out, but it isn't very budget friendly. Sorry if this is long btw, I love playing token decks.
October 26, 2021 4:42 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #6
Ooze subtheme...Slogurk, the Overslime, Ayula's Influence and Splendid Reclamation just joined the conversation ;)
October 26, 2021 4:56 a.m.
GrimlockVIII says... #7
Ah, I see. Yeah that makes sense. For some reason I thought there were way more cheap and viable spells that would help enable the Hero of Precinct One than there actually are.
I would take up the Bant suggestion if tri-color mana bases were cheaper to implement. As it stands, though, I can only do either Azorious or Simic colors.
Izzet also seems viable if I go with the Young Pyromancer and Saheeli spellslinger route.
What are your thoughts on Scurry Oak in a deck like this?
October 26, 2021 5:03 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #8
Regarding Scurry Oak: You'd have to have increasingly large creatures enter if you wanted to consistently trigger it. Seems not worth the hustle.
October 26, 2021 5:08 a.m.
lagotripha says... #9
There are a few really efficient token producers out there - with the advent of good investigate/treasure effects, Kuldotha Rebirth is a lot stronger.
I could see a Hard Evidence/Kuldotha Rebirth/The Underworld Cookbook/guy whose name I can't spell list being pretty good. It also should play nice with young pyro.
Something like this ;Junk Kitchen. Its a very rough outline but it feels managable. Could do with more card draw - thoughtcast or something, but I'll leave you to play with the idea.
October 26, 2021 5:12 a.m.
GrimlockVIII says... #10
Ah, I mean, the thing with the oak though is that you don't need to trigger evolve to make the squirrel tokens. Like, you can find another way to place counters on him. However, I do realize that requires its own setup that may prove too clunky for the Winder strategy.
October 26, 2021 5:13 a.m.
GrimlockVIII says... #11
@Iagotripha
Oooh I like the Junk Kitchen idea. Maybe add Squee, Goblin Nabob for recurring discard fodder?
October 26, 2021 5:17 a.m.
InzHornet4 says... #12
Yeah, tri-color decks suck for land prices. Scurry Oak would work with the Nissa, since her minus 2 puts counter on each of your creatures. Then you could maybe play Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter to add a few counter on him, and turn him into a mana producer,
The Nissa and Verdant Command could still get you the turn 4 Junk Winder, and the Scurry Oak could follow on turn 5 to make some Squirrel tokens with an established Nissa on board. Jace, Cunning Castaway could be a cool card that acts almost like Dovin, but can draw you cards. Simic could still play the Saheeli in it, and casting a Nissa and Verdant Command would get you a token from her.
I do like Young Pyromancer, but there aren't a lot of spells that make tokens reliably in blue or red. You could go that route, then play some cheaper obvious spells like Shock and Lightning Bolt to burn your opponents and make a few tokens.
Another deck idea I had for this at first was an Ominous Roost deck. Maybe pair that with the Young Pyromancer, then play some flashback spells. 4 Cackling Counterpart to copy the Pyromancer, maybe Think Twice to draw you cards. Then if you have the Pyromancer, Saheeli and the Roost out, every flashback would get you 3 tokens.
For Azorius, you'd then be able to play the Dovin and the Gideon. Then you could play the Raise the Alarms, and that plus Dovin is still a turn 4 Junk Winder. Then you could still play Saheeli, and those cards would all get you tokens upon casting. Another planeswalker that could be a cool turn 5 followup to a Junk Winder would be Ajani, Caller of the Pride. Give your Junk Winder flying and double strike and swing in for 10 two turns in a row, which would end them if they don't play fliers.
I feel either of these decks could work. Modern is a very fast format with a lot of decks designed to win between turn 4-6, so you would want your Junk Winder out ASAP. Saheeli seems like a great idea in any build of this you could make.
Try out a list of each color combo and figure out which one you like best. All seem like they could get you the Winder on turn 4, and each would have their own advantages.
October 26, 2021 5:41 a.m.
InzHornet4 says... #13
I forgot about the Kuldotha Rebirth. That would work well with Saheeli. Then, if you would have Saheeli and Young Pyromancer, plus that and a lightning bolt or shock, you could play shock or bolt to start turn 4, getting you a token from saheeli and pyromancer. Then sack the token from Saheeli and play that, netting you 5 more tokens, dropping Junk Winder to 2 blue, and you could still play it turn 4.
October 26, 2021 5:45 a.m.
InzHornet4 says... #14
I just posted an Izzet version of the deck you could look at and see if you like the build. It's at most $100, which is very budget for modern. Aside from lands entering tapped slowing it down, it seems to play pretty well.
October 26, 2021 7 a.m.
GrimlockVIII says... #15
Would Quasiduplicate be better than Cackling Counterpart for the Ominous Roost Plan? I know it's at sorcery speed, but casting it from the grave for its jump-start cost (provided you have a card to discard) is far cheaper than Cackling Counterpart's flashback cost.
October 26, 2021 7:02 a.m.
InzHornet4 says... #16
Could play better for the Jumpstart. Cackling at instant has it's own advantage with the speed, but you could easily play the Quasiduplicate twice much faster.
October 26, 2021 7:04 a.m.
GrimlockVIII says... #17
Just throwing this idea out there; would Kazandu Tuskcaller be too slow?
October 26, 2021 7:31 a.m.
GrimlockVIII says... #18
Actually, the Simic variant of this deck could definitely use Woodland Champion with all the token stuff we're trying to do.
October 26, 2021 7:36 a.m.
GrimlockVIII, I saw you had mentioned Scurry Oak, and was surprised to see no one mention that old combo of Ivy Lane Denizen + Scurry Oak . There’s all the tokens you’d ever need to abuse Junk Winder right there, although exactly how much more one would need after infinite tokens is a question for the ages.
October 26, 2021 11:02 a.m.
wallisface says... #20
I’m currently running Junk Winder in this deck, which has performed surprisingly well considering what it is. It’s also a deck where Junk Winder can really shine - being able to both come down for minimal mana, and provide lots of pressure by itself.
My only current concern with it in this deck, is that it’s directly competing with Thought Monitor, which makes it hard to run a full playset of either card without gumming the deck up.
October 26, 2021 3:13 p.m.
For modern, you prob wanan look at the old mardu pyromancer decks, and splash blue. thoughtsieze can help slow the game down and the you have stuff like seasoned/young pyromancer, lingering souls, and those modo izzets spells that make treasures. It would really be a grxisi deck with a white splash in the end, if white is even needed!
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #2
I have Junk Winder in my Koma, Cosmos Serpent EDH deck. And while that is a different format, the basic idea is still creating tokens on as many occasions as possible. Maybe try a Saproling deck with Tendershoot Dryad. You could basically create a aristocrat style deck with Junk Winder as an important card. You could even do some Growth Spiral/Eureka Moment shenanigans to get into big mana territory a little faster.
October 26, 2021 4:19 a.m.