What is the advantage of another turn for this combo? I really can't see it. I mean: you need to play leveler + a "draw cards" card. I would suggest Æther Vial though, partly because it is awesome and partly because it protects that combo.
Wow, Flippers! So glad to see you and Shard around my articles! You guys have to come back to the tribal scene sometimes! It would make me so happy. Like a reunion of Tribal Presidents Emeriti. :)
small adjustment to my sealed performance. the 2x 2-2 is worth 6 packs not 12. Also i hit 10 sealeds, working on getting to 11 with a solid BR Removal bomb heavy pool.
labaratory maniac needs a timewalk effect. Final fortune (no idea if its modern legal), or maybe the uu1 version where you skip your untap. Or it needs to be able to combo out at instant speed on opp eot. Giving the opp a turn to kill your dude, with the entire game on the line since you have no library, seems awful.
I would go for a teferi shell, with a focus on maniac combo, with timewalks of some sort. Cant remember the name of the 3 mana skip your untap timewalk, but its very good with planeswalkers too. jace memory adept might be a good fit. At 5 mana its slow, but in a pure control deck that isnt planning on comboing turn 5, it can also work as an alternate wincon, and a card drawing engine.
One of the decks I used to help test the CCC decks was Seismic Swans, so I have a soft spot for that deck. I didn't find it particularly slow even then (though a few of the combos that were banned later, were not on the roster of potential decks at the time). But I did find it faltering just from its own draws. It is either super easy to pilot or a nightmare depending on how it draws out. Obviously you need RRR to get Seismic Assault down and you need WW or UW or UU or some such for the swans so that was problematic. I also used Life from the Loam + fetches and no BBEs because the cascade was very hit or miss. Treasure Hunt seems interesting as tech goes. Kessig Wolf Run seems like it would fit nicely in this deck too except for the colored mana issues.
Regarding Puresight Merrow + Paradise Mantle combo v leveler. It has some upside, namely acting as a flexible/repeatable demonic consultation to find Laboratory Maniac/protection and having a total mana cost of 3 for the Merrow+equip versus 5 cmc for leveler. This lets you goldfish a turn or two earlier than leveler. It is also less all in than leveler in the absence of Teferi.
Banality is a fact of life. I accept it, I'm sometimes guilty of it, but I try to raise above it whenever I can. Is this wrong? Do I risk "being shutout" just because I say, "Dear readers, this is very strong, yet it's very trite. Maybe try to to take some risks and be different and creative instead, you'll probably win less but each victory will be more rewarding this way". That's my entire philosophy, not only where MTG is concerned.
I have been running a madness deck in modern - Jace's achivist, fauna shaman, Zombie infestation, misses Veil - who can want more for discard outlets? While the deck can be decently fast (as in it can reasonable often hit for 10 or more turn 4-5 - aka. draw zombie infestation early) I'd like to have a way to abuse fauna shaman slightly more than it is already, for a better late game - removing a creature a turn is just not broken enough you see. Hence I have been adding the Melira combo. So thank you for reminding me of the Leveler combo...
I personally have been working on a bunch of these decks and am enticed by some that you have listed here.
I am particularly interested in building around burning vengeance. I love that card. I am thinking Grixis...splash Goyf.
I am playing Twin, except I have Engineered Explosives in the SB and MD Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows. The green helps Firespout kill flyers, Flashback on Ancient Grudge from SB, Bigger EEs, and Goyf.
For Teachings, I pretty much have the same deck card for card. Two slight differences:
-1 Surgical Extraction ; +1 Extirpate..Split Second is rather relevant.
- Shreikmaw, Grim Harvest; +2 Damnation. I felt this was a necessary evil.
Otherwise, pretty much the same card choices. My land base is also different. I run Minamo, School at Water's Edge for example and no storage lands.
Love the Swan deck. Love the Boroos and Rakdos decks. Needle Burn I pretty much have and should give a spin.
Storm still seems viable. I played against a gentleman the other day who was playing the legal Rituals, Telling Time and Peer through Depths for filtering, and Locket of Yesterdays and Past in Flames for some real degeneracy. It was a blast.
I vote for more Modern when you come back, and would love to test with you if I ever catch you online.
Thanks for this. Great ideas and I believe that all of these decks are viable.
I prefer Nature's Claim over all the other options because:
1) It's a one mana instant. I like to keep mana open for counters AND play my own stuff in the meantime, and therefore the mana costs of my cards are very important. The cheaper the better. And instants are always > sorceries.
2) It's versatile. It deals with Birthing Pod as well as it deals with Inkmoth Nexus. It deals with swords as well as it deals with Aether Vial. It deals with Oblivion Ring as well as it deals with Cloudstone Curio (Which is being played heavily by Elf decks). So my artifact/enchantment hate is not against Affinity only, but it's against all kinds of situations I may find myself in. Kataki is very useful against Affinity but it's useless against Pod decks for example. Nature's Claim therefore is a more versatile option.
3) Did I say it's a one mana instant?!
I chose the UG sword over the BG one because I don't need the bonuses the BG one is giving me. Discard is mostly meaningless as the format has lots of fast decks (They don't have much to discard) and most of the time I don't have any big spells I want to play (So that I can play them first and untap after I attack).
That's the same reason why I'm not using the RW one. Most of the time I don't have cards in hand so that I can gain life and they don't have cards in their hand so that I can deal damage to them. The UG one is interesting not only because it mills but because it also gives me a 2/2 token. It's definitely not the best sword, but I found out that it works better and is more useful to me than the BG one.
Indeed next level blue or next level faeries is a very strong deck. I tried it against zoo and results are very good. I always had a soft spot for teachings but existence of swords (particularly feast and famine) makes nlb my favorite. i dont like sword of shadows or body/mind though, i'd definitely try two swf&f. i'd also bump cyptic command to 4, it is too good to cut. i'd also suggest some artifact hate in the sideboard as affinity can be a tough matchup. whne it comes to next iprefer competitive modern, unless you give me a good enchantress deck list in legacy :)
edit : somehow didnt see nature's claims, was looking for kataki or your favorite hurkyls recall. how about that 4 mana destroy all artifacts card?
When you say "Rat (non-Kamigawa only)", do you mean that Kamigawa rats can't be run at all, or Kamigawa rats don't count towards the 20-tribe members?
(Also; no minions!?!)
I wasn't even aware that the tribal apocalypse was still going, so maybe I'll try to get back into it.
What is the advantage of another turn for this combo? I really can't see it. I mean: you need to play leveler + a "draw cards" card. I would suggest Æther Vial though, partly because it is awesome and partly because it protects that combo.
ismodern even firing?
ismodern even firing?
Modern all the way!
are these events saturday? what time do they start? i'm actually not working saturday and would love to attend.
Camtasia 7.
Wow, Flippers! So glad to see you and Shard around my articles! You guys have to come back to the tribal scene sometimes! It would make me so happy. Like a reunion of Tribal Presidents Emeriti. :)
BTW what do you use for the video recorder? I have been wondering awhile about this..
Likewise! (You're the one who's always trying some cool, different cards whenever you can, afer all! :)
small adjustment to my sealed performance. the 2x 2-2 is worth 6 packs not 12. Also i hit 10 sealeds, working on getting to 11 with a solid BR Removal bomb heavy pool.
Keep up the excellent work! This is a good primer on the format. I'll have to show my friend this article since he is interested in Modern.
Nice to see the tribal events are still going strong, keep up the good work guys :)
labaratory maniac needs a timewalk effect. Final fortune (no idea if its modern legal), or maybe the uu1 version where you skip your untap. Or it needs to be able to combo out at instant speed on opp eot. Giving the opp a turn to kill your dude, with the entire game on the line since you have no library, seems awful.
I would go for a teferi shell, with a focus on maniac combo, with timewalks of some sort. Cant remember the name of the 3 mana skip your untap timewalk, but its very good with planeswalkers too. jace memory adept might be a good fit. At 5 mana its slow, but in a pure control deck that isnt planning on comboing turn 5, it can also work as an alternate wincon, and a card drawing engine.
One of the decks I used to help test the CCC decks was Seismic Swans, so I have a soft spot for that deck. I didn't find it particularly slow even then (though a few of the combos that were banned later, were not on the roster of potential decks at the time). But I did find it faltering just from its own draws. It is either super easy to pilot or a nightmare depending on how it draws out. Obviously you need RRR to get Seismic Assault down and you need WW or UW or UU or some such for the swans so that was problematic. I also used Life from the Loam + fetches and no BBEs because the cascade was very hit or miss. Treasure Hunt seems interesting as tech goes. Kessig Wolf Run seems like it would fit nicely in this deck too except for the colored mana issues.
Well that's probably why I like teaming up with you. :D
Great show this week guys! Always impressed with it!
Regarding Puresight Merrow + Paradise Mantle combo v leveler. It has some upside, namely acting as a flexible/repeatable demonic consultation to find Laboratory Maniac/protection and having a total mana cost of 3 for the Merrow+equip versus 5 cmc for leveler. This lets you goldfish a turn or two earlier than leveler. It is also less all in than leveler in the absence of Teferi.
Banality is a fact of life. I accept it, I'm sometimes guilty of it, but I try to raise above it whenever I can. Is this wrong? Do I risk "being shutout" just because I say, "Dear readers, this is very strong, yet it's very trite. Maybe try to to take some risks and be different and creative instead, you'll probably win less but each victory will be more rewarding this way". That's my entire philosophy, not only where MTG is concerned.
Thank you!
I have been running a madness deck in modern - Jace's achivist, fauna shaman, Zombie infestation, misses Veil - who can want more for discard outlets? While the deck can be decently fast (as in it can reasonable often hit for 10 or more turn 4-5 - aka. draw zombie infestation early) I'd like to have a way to abuse fauna shaman slightly more than it is already, for a better late game - removing a creature a turn is just not broken enough you see. Hence I have been adding the Melira combo. So thank you for reminding me of the Leveler combo...
I personally have been working on a bunch of these decks and am enticed by some that you have listed here.
I am particularly interested in building around burning vengeance. I love that card. I am thinking Grixis...splash Goyf.
I am playing Twin, except I have Engineered Explosives in the SB and MD Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows. The green helps Firespout kill flyers, Flashback on Ancient Grudge from SB, Bigger EEs, and Goyf.
For Teachings, I pretty much have the same deck card for card. Two slight differences:
-1 Surgical Extraction ; +1 Extirpate..Split Second is rather relevant.
- Shreikmaw, Grim Harvest; +2 Damnation. I felt this was a necessary evil.
Otherwise, pretty much the same card choices. My land base is also different. I run Minamo, School at Water's Edge for example and no storage lands.
Love the Swan deck. Love the Boroos and Rakdos decks. Needle Burn I pretty much have and should give a spin.
Storm still seems viable. I played against a gentleman the other day who was playing the legal Rituals, Telling Time and Peer through Depths for filtering, and Locket of Yesterdays and Past in Flames for some real degeneracy. It was a blast.
I vote for more Modern when you come back, and would love to test with you if I ever catch you online.
Thanks for this. Great ideas and I believe that all of these decks are viable.
Hi guys and thanks for the comments.
I prefer Nature's Claim over all the other options because:
1) It's a one mana instant. I like to keep mana open for counters AND play my own stuff in the meantime, and therefore the mana costs of my cards are very important. The cheaper the better. And instants are always > sorceries.
2) It's versatile. It deals with Birthing Pod as well as it deals with Inkmoth Nexus. It deals with swords as well as it deals with Aether Vial. It deals with Oblivion Ring as well as it deals with Cloudstone Curio (Which is being played heavily by Elf decks). So my artifact/enchantment hate is not against Affinity only, but it's against all kinds of situations I may find myself in. Kataki is very useful against Affinity but it's useless against Pod decks for example. Nature's Claim therefore is a more versatile option.
3) Did I say it's a one mana instant?!
I chose the UG sword over the BG one because I don't need the bonuses the BG one is giving me. Discard is mostly meaningless as the format has lots of fast decks (They don't have much to discard) and most of the time I don't have any big spells I want to play (So that I can play them first and untap after I attack).
That's the same reason why I'm not using the RW one. Most of the time I don't have cards in hand so that I can gain life and they don't have cards in their hand so that I can deal damage to them. The UG one is interesting not only because it mills but because it also gives me a 2/2 token. It's definitely not the best sword, but I found out that it works better and is more useful to me than the BG one.
Thanks again for the comments.
LE
Indeed next level blue or next level faeries is a very strong deck. I tried it against zoo and results are very good. I always had a soft spot for teachings but existence of swords (particularly feast and famine) makes nlb my favorite. i dont like sword of shadows or body/mind though, i'd definitely try two swf&f. i'd also bump cyptic command to 4, it is too good to cut. i'd also suggest some artifact hate in the sideboard as affinity can be a tough matchup. whne it comes to next iprefer competitive modern, unless you give me a good enchantress deck list in legacy :)
edit : somehow didnt see nature's claims, was looking for kataki or your favorite hurkyls recall. how about that 4 mana destroy all artifacts card?
yep you are right it only gets better after you use them all/
Rune Snag has some serious antisynergy with Snapcaster.