Why does my deck suck?
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 18, 2015, 9:57 p.m. by BlueMageBrandon
When I built this deck, I had the intention that it would do wonderfully at my local modern tournament, but it did the opposite. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong and maybe what might be a better format (one that doesn't cost a lot of money, like pauper)? Thanks.
The +1/+1's of Gruul Playtest
Modern
SCORE: 26 | 39 COMMENTS | 2931 VIEWS
The problem with your deck is it's purely a creature based deck in a format where removal is cheap and card advantage is easy to come by. Now you are in the colors with most of the best removal spells, but are not really running any, you also lack discard to be able to interact with combo decks. So to be blunt you brought a handgun (good for shooting maybe your non-tournament going friends out of continuing to play mtg) to a fight where everyone is bullet proof and also carrying handguns or bigger.
To further the bluntness, every format on a competitive level of where you are playing for prizes with a monetary value will be "expensive".
October 18, 2015 10:25 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #4
More accurate: You brought a slingshot to World War II.
October 18, 2015 10:27 p.m.
yeah. if your gonna run like this, at least give some protection and/or removal. way too many creatures. this deck is very creature based and i could kill hit with a hand full of removal. its a fun idea, but not nearly good enough to play with in this format (at least how it is now). I disagree with Glistener. it is more like trying to nuke russia with a pebble. it just can compare. imagine if i only had 1 big bomb in the cold war, and they deflected it. i would be screwed. i couldnt protect it and it wasnt hard to remove
October 18, 2015 10:33 p.m.
to be fair for him, it was a local tournament so it could have been FNM level where some people do bring decks that can be more on the interesting side instead of competitive (though likely no where near enough to get one into a top 8).
October 18, 2015 10:35 p.m.
true. i hadnt though of that. at my local tournoments the guys are all dropping liliana and moyf. kindof scary.
October 18, 2015 10:39 p.m.
No evasion.. Threats aren't efficient. :( No removal.. (Lightning Bolt)
Volt Charge playset would gain yeh a lot more than Curse of Stalked Prey.. It does something on cast.. gives all your dudes another counter pre-combat.. gives yeh some reach.. though as removal it isn't as efficient.. Id recommend a playset of bolt to go with it.
Strangleroot Geist wouldnt be terrible.
October 18, 2015 10:55 p.m.
Fleetwood-Mat says... #9
Winning in modern depends very much on the player's understanding of the format. If you don't know what you're up against, you're going to be at a disadvantage because everyone else does. The general understanding is that modern is a turn 4 format, and every deck must be built with this in mind (which narrows down your card pool to low cmc cards only). The idea is that if you don't do anything for 4 turns, you're going to die, so you need to either win yourself, or stop your opponent from winning by turn 4. There are a handful of archetypes which make up the tier 1 modern deck group and all of them can be found online, and they all run some pricey cards, even the ones considered to be "budget". Competitive players will know the deck archetype right away, so they will already have a game plan in mind to stop you, as well as cards in their decks or the sideboard of their decks that might be required against a specific deck. Modern is one of the most predictable formats because of the low curve on win cons as well as the fact that there are no "restricted" cards in modern.
October 18, 2015 11:07 p.m.
incarceratedGeneticist says... #10
As everybody else said, you need removal. However some people have not emphasized enough that Lightning Bolt is absolutely essential. You need a playset. Also, better lands. I would recommend a playset of both Wooded Foothills and Stomping Ground. Your creatures are bad and rely on a long game with time to put counters on them. In reality they are immediately outclassed by things like Tarmogoyf, and by the time they beat Tarmogoyf, they're dead to Abrupt Decay. In other words, you're playing a deck with cards that are good lategame, but nothing that helps you early game. I often see decks like this being defended with statements like "but on turn 5 I can attack with my 20/20 Bloodhall Ooze" or whatever stupid synergy but in reality it dies immediately to removal, and you're dead by that turn against Burn anyway. Plus the quality of your cards decrease the later you draw them. Your 1 mana 1/1 is barely good on turn 1, let alone turn 6. And a Mistcutter Hydra in a deck with 22 lands and no mana dorks is just silly. Other suggestions: Tarmogoyf. Goblin Guide. Elvish Mystic. Scavenging Ooze.
Just so you know, as a joke, I played a Simic +1/+1 counter deck once. It had no removal, and was solely dedicated to interactions such as flashbacking Increasing Savagery onto Fathom Mage with Doubling Season in play. Needless to say, it was terrible, but I see some similarities to this deck in it. Competitive Modern just doesn't like +1/+1 counters for the same reason it doesn't like Giant Growth - it hates having to spend a card upgrading things it already has. Lightning Bolt will do the same amount of additional damage as a Giant Growthed creature will - without uncertainty about where that damage will go. As for what format well there's always Casual, but I think this could be a great commander deck if done properly - the format is much less hostile to slower strategies like this, and has a lot of room for the fun interactions that make the deck what it is.
October 18, 2015 11:35 p.m.
Adding onto incarceratedGeneticist, you shouldn't be using cards to pump existing cards in modern if the deck isn't Infect. That Solidarity of Heroes could be another threat.
October 18, 2015 11:45 p.m.
incarceratedGeneticist says... #12
And another thing - what's your gameplan against established decks? How do you beat Burn? Twin? Abzan? Infect? The problem you are having is that you can't interact outside of combat.
October 18, 2015 11:57 p.m.
The biggest issue in my opinion is you are running cards with ok synergies but no inherent value. Sure, Hardened Scales adds onto all your dudes and is very little investment, but it does nothing, nada, zilch, zero without those other dudes. By itself it is 
for something pretty to look at. You have quite a few cards like that... Curse of Stalked Prey, Solidarity of Heroes, Temur Battle Rage, etc... For all except the most devoted combo decks you need every card to bring something to the table by itself. What do you do if both players are in topdeck mode with empty boards when half of your deck does nothing?
Also, I feel like some of y'all are being kinda harsh above. Yea, the deck needs a lot of work, but I wouldn't say it's a hopeless case. Especially for FNM. As it is right now I don't think it will do better than like 1-2-1. If you work on it and tune it more you can probably get that up to a 2-1-1 or a 3-1 if you believe. Keep in mind, though, this will never be able to stand up to the boogeymen of the format (twin, affinity, abzan). They are too well-tuned and efficient.
Ultimately, to get this to max competitive status you would have to kill your theme. I'm not gonna ask you to do that. If you tuned this, essentially GR aggro, into the highest possible form... you'd get zoo. I don't want ya to do that because having your own interesting deck which you like is one of the best aspects of Modern. What you can (should) do then is look at zoo and see what you can use without hurting your deck. Lightning Bolt, as others have said, should be auto-include. Maybe you like their sideboard tech. Maybe you wanna add that white splash. It's on you.
Getting a non-meta deck to keep up with the meta is challenging but not impossible. You will likely get frustrated but it's worth it.
October 19, 2015 8:16 a.m.
another thing is that, you can still win without a tier 1 deck, if you really know the format. I have a vampire deck that i love. it beats burn, tron, twin, jund, and infect, but not consistently. if you go into a tournament without a tier deck, unless its incredible, dont expect to do great
GlistenerAgent says... #2
I'll take the blunt approach: Your cards suck. The competitive aggressive decks in Modern have creatures far more efficient than what you're playing, and focus more on a ruthless aggro gameplan rather than weak synergy and worse cards.
October 18, 2015 10:22 p.m.