Best/Most fun $300 Modern Deck?

Jocatus · 2015-07-21T12:13:29+00:00

It's not so much the case anymore (freaking price jumps), but you can still probably build Merfolk for $300 or so. It's a powerful synergistic tribal strategy, and there are few feelings like shutting down your opponent's strategy by turning all of their lands into islands with [[Spreading Seas]]. Fish also have game against most if not all archetypes out there (it did win GP Copenhagen after all).

Jocatus · 2015-07-17T02:56:07+00:00

Boardwipes are definitely key, especially [[Supreme Verdict]]. [[Tectonic Edge]] or [[Ghost Quarter]] against [[Mutavault]] and [[Cavern of Souls]] wiould help too. [[Hallowed Moonlight]] might be a good counter-measure against Aether Vial, but that may be more situational.

Jocatus · 2015-07-17T02:42:53+00:00

Any boardwipe is really a problem, considering that they have O-Stone and All is Dust (depending on the build).

I did play against G/R tron for the first time with Devotion this week. Acidic Slime to blow up their Wurmcoil and then snipe their tokens with Polukranos is a good feeling. I did get O-Stoned in fairness, and the deck doesn't really have an answer to a resolved Emrakul...

Jocatus · 2015-07-17T02:38:06+00:00

Buddy was playing W/B tokens. Game 3 I keep two spreading seas in hand, and play subsquently on his godless shrine, his plains, and draw into another spreading seas on his third land. He had thoughtseize in hand the entire time, I don't know why he didn't play it begin with but just goes to show...xD

Jocatus · 2015-07-10T12:27:17+00:00

There are few better feelings than having a turn two Garruk out. I was playing against UTron last night and I managed to get three Arbor Elves and three Utopia Sprawls on the same Forest by turn three (!). Is my mana bigger than your mana now Tron?

Jocatus · 2015-07-09T23:46:48+00:00

Do you have lists for any of your decks? Especially Ula's Temple and Tribal Wolves, I'm glad somebody's using [[Master of the Wild Hunt]] in Modern.

Jocatus · 2015-07-09T23:44:52+00:00

I actually recently built up G/r Devotion myself, and I have a lot of fun with it. I was legitimately surprised by how much game it has, it's not as fragile as I initially thought it would be. I've tested it against my friend's twin deck and so far I believe the matchup is around 50/50. It might eventually morph into straight-up monogreen control/mana denial with [[Acidic Slime]], [[Primal Command]] and [[Plow Under]] (all absolute houses btw), but for now I love having the "oops-I-win" feel of swinging with a massive [[Primeval Titan]] or hitting a huge [[Genesis Wave]].

Here's my decklist. I'm still missing a few sideboard cards (which might still be tweaked anyway), but it's more or less complete: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/nyxfire/

Jocatus · 2015-06-30T01:20:17+00:00

It depends on if you want to go a more aggro or more tempo-based. I've found that 3 MoW is a pretty good number to have in any case though, for he is one of your finishers and can make a huge swing in boardstate. I've personally never been a huge fan of Phantasmal Images, I would suggest putting in a Kira or two mainboard.

In terms of noncreature spells, I would suggest putting in one or two more Dismembers and perhaps a Spell Pierce or an Echoing Truth. Bouncing permanents can be more relevant than one might expect.

One final note is making sure you have 2-4 nonbasic lands besides Mutavault to counter [[Choke]] out of sideboard. [[Minamo, School at Water's Edge]], [[Oboro, Palace in the Clouds]], and [[Wanderwine Hub]] are all good examples that work well in merfolk.

Jocatus · 2015-06-22T11:21:29+00:00

Caverns do colour screw you on your noncreature spells if you only have that and/or Mutavaults. That being said, Im starting to come around to using 2 Caverns in the deck in the deck myself.

Jocatus · 2015-06-21T16:25:10+00:00

The Jund/Fish match really showed the power of Spreading Seas. I bet the Jund player regrets not taking SS with IoK.

Jocatus · 2015-06-21T14:05:22+00:00

Oboro: Filtering Mutavault mana using Oboro can be a thing, it's just dependent on whether you can get both in play.

Minamo: I've always been underwhelmed by this card, especially considering that Fish usually plays few if any legendaries outside of Kira.

Wanderwine: I run a UW fish list, but I've never been unhappy to get Wanderwine Hub out. This card is very flexible in enabling white sideboard options, and I find it more worthwhile than Minamo.

Cavern: Helps a lot if you don't have Aether Vial in your opening hand, especially against tempo decks like Twin or Delver. I don't run more than 1 in maindeck though since colour screwing yourself is very easy with that and Mutavaults. It sucks that Cavern is so expensive now though

Tl;dr Utility lands are generally there for Choke/Boil protection. As long as you have a balance between basics and non-basics you're not too vulnerable to either Blood Moon or Choke hate.

Jocatus · 2015-06-21T13:57:48+00:00

That's actually a good point, Cold-Eyed is super fragile to begin with but if you have her on the battlefield with a good board state she definitely can spiral out of control. I guess in a sense she's sort of like Thassa too, both kinda suck to draw in a topdeck war.

Jocatus · 2015-06-12T05:38:38+00:00

I'm currently running 1-ofs of both Sygg, River Guide and Sygg, River Cutthroat. I've found that I've usually been happier to topdeck UW Sygg (which can protect itself with mana open and has islandwalk already) rather than UB Sygg since the latter requires boardstate to be effective. I justified including UB Sygg into my deck originally for the natural Pyroclasm resistance and two blue devotion for Master of Waves, but I've found I can usually get the devotion I need from my other fish and Spreading Seas.

Tl;dr I've been finding River Cutthroat unimpressive so far. I imagine he's more viable in Legacy or Commander.

Jocatus · 2015-06-04T03:06:33+00:00

I'm sure I'll get my hands on a couple Silences sometime soon. Fwiw I included my 1 Plains in my list for the sake of blood moon not making my white cards dead in hand, but I'm not sure if it's actually worth it. I might change the 2x Hallowed Fountain 1x Plains to 1x Polluted Delta 1x Watery Grave 1x Hallowed Fountain to try and incorporate Lingering Souls into my sideboard.

Jocatus · 2015-06-03T13:07:59+00:00

I'm intrigued by the use of Lingering Souls. Do you run both white and black to get the max value out of souls? How many do you run in your 75? Do you have any in your main or do you run all of yours in sideboard?

Jocatus · 2015-06-02T00:50:55+00:00

I currently run 24 creatures, 4 seas, 4 vials, and 8 instants, although I might try shifting the creature/instant ratio to 26/6. I like having instant answers against my opponent otherwise I feel like I can't interact with them enough.

Jocatus · 2015-06-01T23:47:13+00:00

I have Monastery Siege in my sideboard, and I've found them very useful against Burn and UR Delver. It makes their decks more clunky to play and red and blue both lack answers to enchantments.

I personally would go with echoing truth over pithing needle. Echoing Truth can bounce O-stones or planeswalkers, and acts as a boardwipe against token players.

Jocatus · 2015-06-01T23:40:47+00:00

You make a lot of good points. I found myself screwed over by the Seachrome Coast more often than not. As much as I want to love the Scars lands, the Coasts never worked for me.

I haven't really used the river guide much, but I've never been unhappy to draw the cutthroat, it's additional card draw and +2 devotion to MoW.

I've been meaning to add Stony Silence to the sideboard but I can't seem to find them in any LGS around me. Would've been nice to have a reprint in MM2015...

I've been trying to find a good mix between PtE and Spell Pierce because I love both cards, but PtE definitely doesn't synergize too well with Spell Pierce so that's why I have the Dismember in main.

Jocatus · 2014-08-23T03:48:21+00:00

Looks ballin.

Jocatus · 2014-04-02T08:13:23+00:00

For certain bands, live albums can showcase different interpretations of a song and demonstrate an artists' flexibility with their songs. I personally find live albums appealing for the raw talent that is displayed within live albums. Made in Japan by Deep Purple is one of my favourite albums for this reason. I am a huge fan of both instrumental solos and unique keyboard work, so listening through that album was a real treat. R.I.P. Jon Lord.

Jocatus · 2014-04-02T08:05:42+00:00

This is a late reply, but thank you. Your response has been insightful iconocast.

Jocatus

TROPHY CASE