I put a detailed description of the deck on MTGVault here.
On Saturday, I went to the LGS to play Standard Showdown, and it turned out that SS was canceled because it was Game Day at 6 PM instead. But I found a few people willing to play some Modern and try out my deck, and I was very glad I came! I went 1-0 against a Rakdos (black-red) burn deck, and I went 2 - 4 against an aggressive Izzet (blue-red) prowess deck. They were both pretty low-budget builds, but it was a lot of fun and I think this deck at least can play a game.
I look forward to trying it out more.
Feel free to comment on the build. What do you think?
Thanks!
Hmm, the art for Soulflayer kind of reminds me of AKH's Grim Strider. Looks like you've tweaked this deck a bit from last time I saw it and really improved it. The redundancy with N. Phalanx seems really good, as does having 8 1-drops that get the graveyard strategy going. This deck would be less than 5 tix on MTGO (~$5) - and over half that is for Lightning Runner. You sure do like those Hexproof creatures. Sinister Concoction seems really tempting for main deck, but I have very little sense of how often it will have a target - guess it's highly dependent on your local meta. I'm not sure what kind of Modern deck I'll eventually try, but I bet this deck will give me trouble. :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree that Sinister Concoction is probably a good main deck card. I don't know enough about Modern to know whether it is a dead card often enough to be a problem, but it would be really good against a lot of popular creatures.
DeleteThat's funny that Lightning Runner is the most expensive part on MTGO. LR is a dead budget mythic in paper, and Samut is the most expensive card (although she has been steadily dropping, and I won't be surprised if she hits bottom eventually also). Oketra the True is another AKH card I'm interested in for this deck if it becomes cheaper.
Did you consider Phylactery Lich for it's Indestructible keyword? If it's in your hand you could always cast it for BBB and it will then go to the GY when you are forced to sacrifice it. Suppose you looked at Bontu but he's a bit pricey, although another example of pricing difference between paper and online ($4 vs $0.70). Sac-ing the Lich would turn on Bontu if he was on the battlefield.
ReplyDeletePhylactery Lich was in my original design, when I was trying to work with a more "fair" version. There are a couple of reasons it came out:
Delete1. Usefulness of Indestructible. The main problem with indestructible in Modern is Path to Exile. This deck puts so many resources into making one creature that it had better stick, and Hexproof is better than Indestructible for that in the early game. Hexproof and Indestructible together is great, but I found that (at least in theory) a hexproof creature with good combat abilities is probably good enough. With double strike it beats every creature with 4 or less toughness. With flying it goes around big ground creatures like Tarmogoyf and Tasigur. And with Lifelink it races favorably against almost anything. So my priority in game 1 is to get Hexproof plus as many other abilities as possible, then I have Indestructible in the sideboard if the opponent is likely to be playing mass removal or big fliers that I can't overrun.
2. I want multiple abilities on each creature. The real puzzle with this deck was (and still is) how to get the best odds of having the abilities I want, and you just can't get there with 1 ability per creature. Everything I am trying to use for Soulflayer has at least 2 abilities, and I'd like to have more 3-ability creatures.
3. At 3 mana, Phylactery Lich is too slow for something that mainly just discards itself. I'd love to be able to play it onto the board sometimes, but that requires a certain number of artifacts. For discarding or milling, it isn't what I'm looking for. Turn 3 if I don't already have Soulflayer out or ready to cast, I'd rather be transmuting Netherborn Phalanx, casting a real creature to the board (like Heir of Falkenrath, who can discard something and be a board presence), or milling myself.
I was really disappointed by Bontu - the problem with Menace is that Soulflayer can't have it (Menace was added as a keyword in Origins, after Soulflayer was printed). She's good for indestructible, but with the low number of castable creatures in this build she'll rarely be useful.
After playing this a couple times, I think the most important card I'm missing is Darkblast. It gives an answer to some of the more aggressive creatures in the format, and it mills 3 for free (or almost free -- in place of drawing a different card) if I get it in the graveyard.
I appreciate the comments, and I certainly may be wrong about some of these things.
Played the deck a few more times on MTGO. Your tips on starting hand are very important! The tricky thing about taking a mulligan is what to do when you Scry an important card, like a Soulflayer. Putting it on top can slow you down if you have a T1 Memory Sluice - I messed that up one game and wound up w/a top-of-deck scry SF in my GY by mistake! Anyway, what do you think about Oona's Prowler? While it's around $2.80 on paper, it's only $0.02 online, so it's definitely in budget. A lot of times I get a Samut or other good card in hand and would really like better discard options. Heir of F only lets you discard one and then it transforms. Or wondering about Oblivion Crown, as sometimes the buff would be nice and on a hexproof SF you don't risk getting 2-1'd as much. But Flashing in the ability to have a 5/5 or 6/6 seems okay - but maybe it's a dead card most of the time ...
ReplyDeleteOona's Prowler was one of the cards I looked at originally. It's interesting, but I feel like the opponent's ability to debuff it outweighed the value of multiple discards. I think a hand with a lot of cards you want to discard is just not usually a great hand anyway. I'm more and more focusing on mill as the way to get cards in the graveyard, and if I have Samut in hand, I'd rather focus on milling a second one. I bought a playset of Darkblast, and I'm thinking about putting at least 2 in the main deck, replacing Horrifying Revelation. In games where it matters, you get to cast it over and over, milling 3 every time. In games where it doesn't matter, you still have the possibility of it being milled incidentally and then milling another 3 at the expense of a draw.
DeleteOblivion Crown seems kind of bad just because it requires a creature target. If you're casting it on a hexproof SF, making SF bigger is great but you probably don't need the discard outlet. Some other good ways to discard that I looked at are Pack Rat and Cryptbreaker -- both generate very real value when you discard, with the downside of costing mana to use.
For the scry-revealed Soulflayer when you're holding a turn 1 Memory Sluice, I think the answer is usually straightforward. If you have Corpse Churn in hand, you leave SF on top. If you don't, and you have a SF or Phalanx in hand, you put SF on bottom to maximize the value of your Sluice. If you have Sluice without SF/Phalax or Churn in hand, you kept a pretty sketchy hand, and I think you leave it on top and don't cast Sluice on turn 1 because having SF is so important. In that case, you are getting the chance to make a turn 3 SF instead of milling yourself and potentially doing nothing.
Where I wrote "If you don't, and you have a SF or Phalanx in hand, you put SF on bottom to maximize the value of your Sluice," I would like to revise that to delete Phalanx -- even if you have Phalanx in hand, you should play it like the third option (SF to top and draw it before casting Sluice) because of the shot at a turn 3 SF, with backup Phalanx for later.
DeleteI'll totally allow for the possibility that I'm not playing the deck optimally but my experience is that sometimes one SF is not enough. For example, I got a quick SF out w/flying, hexproof, & lifelink only to get it answered by a 4/4 angel w/first strike. Had a Samut and another SF/Phalax in hand. Both the buff and ability to discard would have been super relevant. Darkblast requires a target too. And I could always target Crown on an opponents creature if I really needed the discard outlet. I see how you want to mill, but sometimes the perfect card is already in your hand. The playset of Crown cost me $0.04 total, so I'll test swapping it in for 3x Heir of Falkenrath and let you know what I find.
ReplyDeleteOk, thinking about this some more, I see your point. Darkblast would also solve the 4/4 first strike problem. And having a Dredge card in the GY means you don't draw, and therefore don't have such a risk of getting ability creatures in hand.
DeleteI really love that you're testing different things, and I like all the feedback. I got a couple games in today but I was playing against a Standard aggro deck. I lost twice and then third game I got the near ultimate SF and won. One loss was because I couldn't find anything to delve except Vault Skirges (2 Soulflayers with VS wasn't enough), and second loss was because I kept a sketchy hand I would normally have mulliganed.
DeleteLooking at Oblivion Crown again, you can't use the ability if you cast it on an opponent's creature because it gives the ability to the creature.