Balaam__ Deckling -

• Edit User
• Edit Profile
• Enable styles
• Disable styles
• Unblock user
• Block user
• Disable chat
• Enable chat
• Remove friend
• Add as friend
• Gift Tokens
• Settings

Deck is improving since the initial forum post, but I see a few questionable things. Your only blue spell is Dispel , which is very situational. You’re in Vintage which has access to far better counter magic, although you’d need to invest more heavily in to take advantage of them.

The filter lands are alright, but unless it’s for budget reasons (which is understandable) there are better choices. If you ran fetchlands you’d find what you need while also thinning the deck for better subsequent draws.

You’ve dipped your toe into the waters of the Reanimation archetype with Animate Dead , which is perfectly fine. It would mean a radical retooling of the deck, but you could get Utvara (or any dragon you wanted) into play much faster if you went full on Reanimator. You could feasibly stick an Utvara at least a couple turns sooner than what you have here. But again, that might not be the direction you want the deck to take, which is fine. Bear in mind that many of the “best” cards in Vintage for a given strategy are quite costly, so sometimes it just isn’t viable to add certain cards.

Take all the above with a grain of salt; ultimately the design of the deck is all up to you and you should feel free to craft whatever you want.

Thanks. I believe Ignorant Bliss is the weakest link here so I replaced them with Nahiri's Wrath . There’s a few ways to draw/tutor in the deck so IB got the axe.

Looks good overall, although Sol Ring isn’t Modern legal. Maybe run Arbor Elf or something similar and you’ll retain the same level of ramp.

I don’t count Access Tunnel as a land (even though it is), since it was the only way I could think of to enable ‘unblockability’ within Standard’s incredibly limited card pool. I think I got hung up on worrying about how to guarantee that at least some combat damage per turn got pushed through. That said, you’re probably right; more removal is always a good thing.

A lot of the possible suggestions will depend on whether or not you intend to keep it as a budget deck. Fetch and/or Shock lands, for instance, could speed things up—but they’re quite pricey.

For ‘someone who doesn’t play Modern’ this is quite well put together. +1

It isn’t here, so I’m guessing Hymn to Tourach would make the deck too powerful?

No prob, deck looks good. Nice synergies between a few of the rogues.

Nah, I prefer to play everything in paper.

Great build, definitely one of the more competitive zombie decks I’ve come across. +1!

Dralnu, Lich Lord

If budget allows, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a must have.

I’d lower your creature count and add protection/removal of some kind. Tons of great choices in Modern; green can grant hexproof or steroid buffs with something like Blossoming Defense , and white can get rid of things with Path to Exile or On Thin Ice . There’s always Mana Tithe too. Just some suggestions; there’s tons of options.

Looks good overall. Maybe look into Fatal Push or Tragic Slip as creature removal over Hero's Downfall . They can both be triggered pretty easily by way of Rotting Rats or if you added some fetchlands to pull swamps. Also, Surgical Extraction might be a better overall pick than Extirpate , but your mileage may vary.

Epic suggestion Angel_Zero, thanks a bunch. I wasn’t familiar with that card either, but it’s definitely going in now.

Edit—Bah! I forgot this deck has issues when I try to edit it, so I can’t add it to the description. Just know I intend to make room for 4 copies of Nahiri's Wrath . Thanks again!

Swords to Plowshares isn’t Modern legal. Might I suggest Path to Exile instead?

Great call on Terastodon and Forbidden Orchard , both compliment Oath of Druids .

No prob. I always viewed the card as rather poor, until someone pointed out to me that the Deathtouch keyword is retroactively applied through the Longbow’s ability if the creature it’s equipped to has that characteristic. That changed my opinion of the card to be sure.

Nice build. Just a thought- Viridian Longbow would basically become a sniper rifle if you equipped it to one of your many Deathtouch creatures. It might be worth adding a copy or two. That way, if the opponent is reluctant to block with a particular creature because they’re trying to keep it alive, you have a way to circumvent that annoyance.

Welcome to Modern. The Gatherer website has a nice succinct explanation of the format. I’d post a link but I’m not quite sure how. In any case, it’s an excellent format and my personal favorite.

Thanks Caran_Lyg, I had fun building it. I feel as though Ignorant Bliss is a bit questionable, but my reasoning was to try and dodge discard spells like Thoughtseize . At least from Turn 2 forward. I haven’t playtested this yet so we’ll see.