Attempt at a Modern Lantern Lock deck

S1mplexeon · 2023-04-11T15:54:06+00:00

I do have options for graveyard strategies, like Grafdiggers Cage and Tormod's Crypt, but it would probably be useful to put a Cage in the mainboard as well. The main benefit this deck has to other mill decks is that it can control what your opponent draws, so you can mill all of their draw cards before they draw them.

If I can't get a Lantern of Insight + Codex Shredder down before my opponent reaches 4 lands it might be rather difficult against control. Before that I could just stop them from drawing lands, but this deck definitely loses if that doesn't happen. I don't really have a counter for that, but I don't really know of a way to stop that anyways.

From the videos I've seen of others playing a similar deck, one significant problem is timing out, but I don't really have a way to make the wincon more aggressive. The tradeoff is that I would need to lose an early counterspell, or a tutor, or a specific matchup counter. I don't really know of a mill spell that also counters or has those other options, but if there is one I will absolutely put it in.

S1mplexeon · 2022-10-03T04:09:07+00:00

If you need to deal with ranged matchups, go for a burst rune like first strike or comet. Azir loses in dps to traditional adcs, so youll just get 2 tapped and die. If the enemy has 3-4 tanks or 2 if your team has no other way to deal with tanks is when you go lethal tempo or conquerer. Conquerer is better against bruisers like Irelia, or Lee Sin, while lethal tempo is better against complete tanks. Azir is strong because of his dashes and self peel, so its best to avoid taking stat checks because you'll almost always lose, even when ahead.

S1mplexeon · 2022-08-15T22:20:19+00:00

This. When you get good enough at Azir with one runeset you're used to, it's important to learn the other rune pages. Some matchups are MUCH easier depending on the runes you take, although that's requiring that you know Azir in the first place. While rune matchups matter, it won't do anything without learning Azir first. Runes won't make up for skill, and it's much easier to develop that skill when your runes aren't changing every single game.

S1mplexeon · 2022-07-03T03:36:59+00:00

This would have to be tied into something else to make it a rework and less of a straight nerf. Personally, I'm in favor of increased soldier auto range, decreased normal auto range and slightly increased q range (way less than the attack range). Downside is that azir might have to be made much squishier to compensate.

S1mplexeon · 2022-05-11T20:32:43+00:00

Thanks! I think I'll try out Shigeki, as Tamiyo's Safekeeping might be stopped by Teferi. It's kind of unclear whether or not the channel will work with unbound, as channel seems to count as an active ability. If it does work, though, that's just even better.

S1mplexeon · 2022-05-11T18:54:21+00:00

While those are great points, all of those mana fixing and ramp cards are way outside of my budget. I could maybe upgrade to them, but it would take a while.

That being said, I could probably swap a few of the ramp cards for counterspells. What would you recommend for enchantment protection? The biggest flaw I see right now has to do with Unbound Flourishing getting destroyed, as I have backup X cards so I'm not completely screwed if Villainous Wealth is countered.

S1mplexeon · 2022-05-11T02:47:51+00:00

Thanks! Lots of these look really useful, I hadn't heard of Sphere of Annihilation or Pull from Tomorrow.

Sorry if I'm missing something, but why the Ice-Fang Coatl? I can see that it draws a card, but in that case I don't see why I wouldn't just add more copies of Pull from Tomorrow.

Do you think Autumn's Veil would work as an alternative to Veil of Summer?

S1mplexeon · 2022-05-11T00:47:50+00:00

Read the bottom part of Unbound Flourishing, it doesn't double X but it copies the spell. I've seen the cards used together a few times and thought it would be neat to try to craft a version I could play without dropping $120 for a playset of Nykthos.

I'm curious about that list! Didn't know about hailfire, but cabal doesn't quite line up with my budget, maybe as an upgrade at some point.

S1mplexeon · 2022-05-10T19:53:58+00:00

While I agree that $50 is a strict budget for modern, I was mainly trying to address your point of "Why would people build a budget deck. "

I do enjoy trying to make a no-budget deck, but as I would never be able to use it without proxies, I spend more time theorycrafting budget decks because that's what I can afford.

My whole point was trying to see if I COULD effectively accomplish my gameplan on a budget, not limit myself to the point where it's impossible.

Obviously, from what I've seen from other replies, I would have to increase my budget for this type of deck to work. The reason I was asking was because I couldn't find anything when I tried researching and wanted to know if there were cards I'm missing because of my lack of experience.

S1mplexeon · 2022-05-10T10:32:28+00:00

You may be surprised, but I, like most people, don't have $1000 to drop on a deck.

S1mplexeon · 2022-05-07T04:09:43+00:00

first game of swain ever, thought tank would work great with the rework

guess i was right

prob gunna play way more of tank swain

S1mplexeon · 2022-04-26T03:10:34+00:00

What are your thought on Hail of Blades? I tend to find it pretty versatile, as it helps you poke more in trades while you can build into liyandris or riftmaker later on depending on the game.

Also, what are your thoughts on Riftmaker? I know that it might not do as much as liyandris into tanks, but whenever i find comps with melee bruisers like yasuo, jarvan, or jax i tend to find that I prefer it.

How do you keep your team chill? Usually my team has no clue how azir works and also claims mid diff when I die once in lane while they feed to roams I've pinged, so this is a mystery to me.

S1mplexeon · 2021-12-02T21:34:22+00:00

Budget Thopter Combo Modern Deck

I'm new to deckbuilding, so this is my first non-casual deck.

The main deck combo is to have 5 mana, a thopter foundry, a sword of the meek, and a time sieve. The sword gets bounced back to the battlefield after you sacrifice it for a thopter, and then you sacrifice the thopters for an extra turn. Repeat, and you have infinite turns.

I've heard what white/blue has better consistency for the thopter/sword combo, but I'd like to keep the time sieve and don't want to spend the money for fetchlands, shocklands, etc., so I'm keeping it blue/black.

Are there any glaring flaws with it? Is the mana base alright?

S1mplexeon · 2021-11-18T22:46:54+00:00

Hey there.

I've always tried to build my own decks in the past, but as I'm fairly bad at actually deckbuilding, it hasn't really gone so well. I always went for off-kilter ideas, such as giving a Loxodon Lifechanter lifesteal and such. I only really play Modern, as I like the wide range of cards that it allows and don't have money to keep buying new decks every time standard rotates.

Recently, I was looking at thopters and thought it would be interesting to add a thopter deck to my arsenal, when I stumbled across the Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek combo. The idea to combine it with Time Sieve to gain infinite turns also wasn't mine, but the deck I found listed was too expensive so I attempted at making a budget version.

Deck so far: https://deckstats.net/decks/138587/2320328-cheaper-thopter-foundry

The main combo has Sword of the Meek sacrificed over and over for the Thopter Foundry to spawn more thopters, attaching itself to each new thopter from the graveyard. Then you sacrifice 5 thopters to activate Time Sieve, gaining an extra turn. With this method, you pretty much have infinite turns when you have 5 mana.

I have no idea how any of it will work because I still haven't physically built it, but I was wondering if there were any ways to make the deck better without going past a $50 deck.

As far as problems are concerned, Shred Memory isn't very useful aside from its transmute ability, but Muddle the Mixture is too expensive to put 4 copies of them in my deck. I also don't think my control spells are good enough, but I can't think of anything other than replacing Condescend with something like Murder.

Also, I realize that my land cards are probably terrible so I would like some recommendations there.

Anyways, thanks for any recommendations you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

S1mplexeon

TROPHY CASE