Help finding interesting cards to build around
Modern forum
Posted on March 20, 2020, 1:37 p.m. by hungry000
Hey all! Now that college admission season is over and I'm being quarantined, my life has gotten a lot less busy. As such, I finally have time to get back to brewing! The problem is I haven't been keeping up with all the new cards that came out, so I'd appreciate some help finding some interesting cards from recent sets to build Modern/Pioneer decks around.
The last set I thoroughly looked through the card pool of was Dominaria I think, so anything from sets after that would be great.
Yeah, I've already heard the buzz about those two. I think I'll update my Training Grounds combo deck with Thassa's Oracle. Isn't there a Legacy Underworld Breach combo deck out there too?
March 20, 2020 1:59 p.m.
Flooremoji says... #4
There was an Underworld Breach deck in legacy, then it got the ban :)
March 20, 2020 2:37 p.m.
Although not exactly making waves competitively to my knowledge; I am recently obsessed with Dryad of the Ilysian Grove.
In pioneer it seems like it'd have great synergy with Nissa, Who Shakes the World or maybe some kinda Maze's End deck....In modern I think it can be in a valakut deck with Prismatic Omen? or supplemant TitanShift/AmuletTitan?.... maybe some hybrid of the two?
March 20, 2020 3:03 p.m.
Flooremoji says... #7
Icbrgr: Well so far it has made an impact in modern, mostly by changing Amulet Titan into a land value deck with Valakut. That was quite the change. Without Ouat now, more decks will go back to the old configuration, but I suspect that some will still retain the dryad shel.
March 20, 2020 3:11 p.m.
I'm pretty sure some versions of Amulet/Valakut Titan play Dryad as a 4-of now.
March 20, 2020 3:12 p.m.
orly? thats fun to hear! i remember i started a thread about Dyrads potential in modern when the card was spoiled lol
Another idea for The Pioneer mazes end brew might be with Kiora, the Crashing Wave?
March 20, 2020 3:25 p.m.
That could use stuff like Arboreal Grazer, Hour of Promise, Growth Spiral, etc too. Maybe make it into a turbo fog deck with Haze of Pollen and Guild Summit to draw.
March 20, 2020 3:36 p.m.
dingusdingo says... #11
I enjoy brewing weird decks in Modern, so I'll share some of the things that have caught my attention
Ghirapur AEther Grid I think has loads of potential. I tried brewing it RG with Brass's Bounty and also in RW with Smothering Tithe.
Also a big fan of Unbound Flourishing for brews. I've been experimenting with Magus of the Candelabra and Hydroid Krasis in a UG shell, as well as Magus + Banefire + Underworld Breach + all the red loot effects like Thrill of Possibility in a RG variant.
I've also been exploring Puresight Merrow + Paradise Mantle in a Thassa's Oracle deck, which has been tons of fun.
March 22, 2020 2:37 p.m.
@dingusdingo - You may think about including Mistcutter Hydra in that build, I am a huge fan of it.
March 22, 2020 9:01 p.m.
Here's some stuff that caught my attention over the past few sets. Dreadhorde Arcanist, Wishclaw Talisman (looks like you can activate, hold priority, and sac it. May be something for a new eggs combo deck idk) , Charming Prince (saw brief play, but Im thinking maybe use it in a taxes shell to get an Akroma, Angel of Fury out on turn 3 using vial), theres a cycle of cards like The Cauldron of Eternity (of which this one seems like a great card to get a Metalwork Colossus out with), Fae of Wishes (which saw brief play in places but may be cool in a control shell), theres Elvish Reclaimer (which could go in a variety of shells, especially a Spreading Algae deck that I really want to see made).
I would also suggest trying to take a look at the changes that have been seen by modern such as the mox ban. Maybe something you could look at is making an affinity deck with Arcbound Ravager among other classic cards that no longer have a home.
Some decks that Im working on right now that you may also like to work on are BG Undying (which has been a lot of fun and felt very good), and Stompy (which is not the most compelling, but is very underrated, and got some new toys.)
Other cards I know have interested people I know would be: Brought Back, Resplendent Angel, Goblin Engineer, Astral Drift, and Echo of Eons (pretty much just look at modern horizons).
Hope some of this is of interest for you.
March 22, 2020 10:51 p.m.
dingusdingo, Snowmen1 Thanks for the lists. I'm totally up to date with everything Modern related at this point, so I know about all the bans and crazy things that happened over the fall/winter.
What are you using in your BG Undying deck? Are you playing Geralf's Messenger and Yawgmoth or something to that extent? Does it happen to use Cabal Therapist too, or is that a bit slow? I remember trying to use it in a Zombies deck in the summer and having a small amount of success with it.
March 23, 2020 1:30 a.m.
Well, if you are looking for interesting cards after Dominaria to build in modern, there is no better set than Modern Horizons. And it has the card Ephemerate which is yet to make a splash in Modern. However, I am going to link a deck that combines Ashiok, elrazi processors and the best counterspell in modern Delay with Ephemerate into a neat package of value:
This list has not been updated in couple of years. However, it has been great anytime I fielded it. And the best part - everything except Ephemerate, fetches and Eldrazi temple, and Vial are in Pioneer or have good equivalents.
I think that Processors is the next big thing.
March 23, 2020 7:32 a.m.
Oh, was Horizons after Dominaria? I thought it came before. I was wondering why everyone's suggesting cards from Horizons that I already knew about, haha.
Thanks for the deck. Yesterday I was thinking of how fun it would be to build an Astral Drift control deck with Sundial of the Infinite to exploit the end of turn trigger, I think I might add Flickerwisp and Ephemerate to my mental list and turn it into a more value-midrange type of thing.
March 23, 2020 11:51 a.m.
manbearpig90 says... #17
Boza: Ephemerate has already shown up in bant blink decks.
March 23, 2020 12:01 p.m.
Is bant blink a thing now? It gets the yet-another-snake-that-draws-a-card, but is it really a unit in the meta now? I assume Ephemerate will be a key part of any blink deck given that it is the best blink spell.
March 23, 2020 12:09 p.m.
manbearpig90 says... #19
Boza: its a thing enough to be listed on mtgfoldish under modern metagame decks.
March 23, 2020 12:12 p.m.
Hey sorry for the late reply. Here's a link to the current build of the undying deck: Undying Aggro 2.0
I haven't written a description for that yet, so if you don't see one there, here's a previous iteration that explains some of the core card choices: Undying Aggro 1.0
The deck does play yawgmoth, but while yawgmoth is very good, its not the main focus. This deck uses Retribution of the Ancients as its main value engine. The card is busted.
March 24, 2020 8:45 p.m.
Oh I haven't seen Retribution if the Ancients in ages! Sweet looking decks. Have you tried using Lotleth Troll at all?
March 24, 2020 9:14 p.m.
While I will say that the deck needs better ways of getting +1/+1 counters without having to send an undying creature to the graveyard (such as Carrion Feeder and Scavenging Ooze), I think that the card disadvantage of having to discard an extremely valuable creature card to get a counter is too much of a cost for the effect it has, especially at 2 mana. I really like Lotleth Troll, but I just don't think that this deck is the place for it since theres no way to get value from discarding without completely altering the game-plan.
March 25, 2020 11:36 p.m.
dingusdingo says... #23
I was getting exceedingly hype about a combo deck utilizing Dreadhorde Arcanist. The goal was to use Reckless Charge on Dreadhorde Arcanist before combat, then recur it with the Arcanist trigger, bringing Arcanst from 1 power to 4 power to 7 power. After combat, Fury of the Horde's alternate cost to get a second attack. During the second attack, return Fury using Arcanist to get a third combat. 3 combats x 7 for 21 damage for a neat aggro combo.
Unfortunately Fury of the Horde can only create an additional combat if it is a main phase, so if it comes back off Arcanist it does nothing.
April 1, 2020 6:52 p.m.
TriusMalarky says... #24
Watch and learn.
There's a lot of ways to make it work.
April 29, 2020 2:36 p.m.
aaron_the_great says... #25
plz build around Tarfire but actually bazzar trader
May 7, 2020 11:49 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #26
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/07-05-20-goblinstorm/?cb=1588889751 Tarfire for ya, aaron_the_great. Not particularly amazing, but Tarfire does get drawn by Matron and Ringleader.
May 7, 2020 6:17 p.m.
aaron_the_great Here's a Bazaar Trader/Harmless Offering deck: $15 Harmless Offering. I made it budget since I've been doing that for fun lately, but if you want I could make an upgraded version (it would look fairly different).
Pervavita says... #2
Underworld Breach and Thassa's Oracle are two quite powerful cards that have put up good results of late.
March 20, 2020 1:54 p.m.