PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION/GUIDE BEFORE MAKING SUGGESTIONS AS YOU CAN TAILOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS AGAINST MY OPINIONS IF YOU WISH TO MAKE ONE. THIS DECK HAS A "CARDS I KNOW EXIST BUT DON'T USE" SECTION PLEASE LOOK THERE BEFORE MAKING A SUGGESTION AS I MAY HAVE ALREADY COVERED YOUR CARD.
About Me: I have been playing magic for about 6 months now and in this time I have put great time into studying the game which has made me a fairly knowledgeable player despite some inexperience. I personally prefer modern as a format over standard or legacy because I feel like modern is a format where the duelist feels most powerful without feeling like he/she is abusing the game at least for the most part. I am a player who mostly prefers a tempo deck in the sense that I do not lean heavily towards control or zoo but instead reside somewhere in the middle and this particular deck reflects that however despite that i am willing to play any deck as long as i feel it is enjoyable and interesting. I have made several decks but they are mostly budget and standard decks for both modern and standard or even decks for friends, you can check them out on my profile if you wish. Enough about me let's move on to the deck itself. Enjoy the guide to "American Value Caster"
"American value caster" is a derivative of "American Midrange" a deck that won the 2013 modern world championship. I am on a fair budget so I will not be spending thousands on any deck but this one at a solid $375 is a nice price for a good deck to play in the modern format and at local gaming tournaments. The deck centers around tempo play using efficient removal to clear the way for value creatures like
Geist of Saint Traft
to finish your opponent off. The deck uniquely will use a couple of key artifacts and planeswalkers to reinforce its win condition but we will move on to that later for now its off to card discussion.
CARDS:
MAINBOARD
PLANESWALKERS: Most people, when they see planeswalkers in modern, roll their eyes and call said player a scrub for using them but I strongly disagree with this opinion. Player's who hate planeswalkers fail to realize it but modern is slowing down a lot, (just look at the born of the gods pro tour for proof). Up from 6-7 turn games modern is now at an average of 8-10 turn games (mostly due to the numerous bans that have killed most "perfect decks"). I won't go into the inner workings of exactly why modern has slowed down but the fact that it has allows the usage of planeswalkers. Now i will agree that planeswalkers are not usable in most modern decks and will never be as good in modern as they are in standard but people need to now realize that in the right deck a planeswalker in modern can generate all necessary advantages it takes to win a game. (Plus planeswalkers almost never face their counters because not enough people use them, which makes planeswalkers very tough to deal with for some decks).
Chandra, Pyromaster
: My personal fav card, as she is my BAE and the pyromaster art is amazingly sexy but besides that she is amazing in this deck and I love that I get to use her. Her +1 should be used to negate blockers or take out weenies, her 0 should be used to generate card advantage in a pinch, and her -7 is an average win condition in which you may be able to finish your opponent off after beating on them for a bit. Preferably you want to copy
Lightning Helix
in order to get maximum value (or you could always just Mana Leak yourself 3 times for the hilarity of it all).
Chandra, Pyromaster
is technically more of an aggressive planeswalker so i wouldn't recommend her vs zoo or something where you have to play defensively but whether you sideboard her out is your choice.
Ajani Vengeant: This guy is a bit debatable for this deck but I believe the deck borders control just enough to make him work. His +1 is efficient tap control in modern which is actually a rarity, his -2 is lightning helix but it can be used as something that removes a creature without necessarily wasting a card and his -7 is the most guaranteed win condition that exists in modern for obvious reasons. In short he's not bad but i think if I had more money I would replace him with Vendilion Clique
INSTANTS:
Electrolyze: This card is more of a filler card. The cycle and the splitting of the damage makes it fairly powerful but its a bit too expensive for what it does. Though it is certainly still usable and i like keeping 2 of these around as opposed to 4
Lightning Helix
and 4 Mana Leak
Lightning Bolt: A modern staple and definitely for a reason. 3 damage for 1 mana is sickeningly efficient and some decks will even play around having 3 health for that very reason (it's why i use Brimaz, King of Oreskos as opposed to Blade Splicer). In short, this card is strong and i use 4 of them for that reason. That is all.
Lightning Helix
: This card puts all two mana burn to shame as gaining 3 life can be a real game changer in some situations. The card is of course not as good as Lightning Bolt but it is still solid which is why i run 3. The card is also unfortunately a huge target for Spell Snare so watch out for that.
Mana Leak: A common counter spell in modern until recently as now its been largely replaced by
Remand
which I also use. I still think this card is very viable but it has slightly fallen out of favor because modern is slowing down as i mentioned earlier and mana leak becomes worthless in the late game. Hopefully the deck will kill fast enough that the 10 land late game doesn't happen for you but be wary of saving Mana Leak for too long.
Remand
: A nice tempo play for the deck that can set your opponent behind not only behind a turn but a card as well. Telling you what to use it on exactly is impossible but try to at least counter a spell that they cannot simply play again the same turn. Just like Mana Leak this card can be bad in the late game but once again hopefully you can kill fast enough to not get to that point.
Path to Exile: This card is your certified hard removal exiling for 1 mana is nicely efficient. Try to be frugal with this card as giving your opponent a land can turn sour very fast against certain decks but despite that i do run 4 of them in this deck because hard removal is very important in modern.
SORCERIES: NEVER HEARD OF EM
CREATURES:
Boros Reckoner
: Some people look at me crazy when i choose this card over Blade Splicer but i don't think people realize just how good his effects are. The potential extra damage, the potential first strike, and the lack of bounce in this deck to multi-trigger Blade Splicer's ability makes me opt to choose this card.
Geist of Saint Traft
: Wizards was high when they made this card because it is certainly insane and I am not afraid to put it to full use. Geist is the deck's heavy hitter and make sure you treat him right as he can easily win you a game.
Delver of Secrets
: He's a great early game beater for this deck and transforming him shouldn't be too hard because the deck consists of about 1/3 instants. Make sure to pray to this guy every day because he makes this beat down oriented deck possible.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos: Brimaz is was the born of the gods lottery for standard and not without reason as he is amazing, Not only is he out of Lightning Bolt range but that coupled with having vigilance and summoning tokens with vigilance easily earns him a spot in this deck and i was insanely surprised not to see this guy in the Born of the Gods modern pro tour but whatever ill be the guy who uses him if no one else does.
ARTIFACTS:
Batterskull: This card is a late game staple in modern and it certainly is very, very good. The artifact itself is pretty good by itself but with living weapon and an evasiveness activatable the card is just great and it's my late game threat of choice.
Sword of Feast and Famine: Another very nice artifact. The buff and effect make the artifact good but the protection is where it's at. I choose this sword mainly because i want to bolster my match-up against zoo and pod decks which run a lot of black and green.
Lands: I use a standard set of shock lands and what not they really aren't worth explaining. My main point here is I don't use fetch lands because they are simply too expensive for me to buy and they would majorly change the dynamic of the deck.
SIDEBOARD: My sideboard is built mostly to counter popular meta-decks you can change it to fit your own personal meta in your local area.
Rest in Peace: Use this against jund to help sate their graveyard interaction
Flame Slash
: use this when you need extra control in the deck or need to neutralize spell kites
Gideon Jura: When you need a control planeswalker you can trade this guy out for Chandra he does well to absorb some hits and can turn into a pretty heavy hitter as well.
Supreme Verdict: Use this against zoo and the aura deck.
Molten Rain
: Use this to counter the tron deck and to help against affinity and infect to destroy things like Inkmoth Nexus
Wear / Tear: This is the decks artifact and enchantment hate all in one. It's a nice option that boros decks get so make sure to put it to good use.
Boros Charm: Use this as hate against control so Supreme Verdict doesn't wreck you. The card is actually pretty nice on its own but i prefer not to mainboard it because i believe there are better options.
Leyline of Sanctity: This one may confuse new modern players but this one exists to counter the famous Grapeshot deck. This card shuts down the deck completely. Unfortunately to get maximum effectiveness out of it i have to sideboard 3 because i have to make sure i get it in my opening hand
A LIST OF CARDS I DON'T USE BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO EXPENSIVE:
Snapcaster Mage
Vendilion Clique
Cryptic Command
Celestial Colonnade
Sword of Fire and Ice
and any fetch lands.
CARDS I KNOW EXIST BUT PURPOSELY DON'T USE:
Serum Visions: This card is a decent draw card but it exists only to thin a deck to draw into its main strategy for low mana cost. Being a tempo deck, I do not need to do this because I do not need to draw into any strategy so that's why i don't use it.
Wall of Omens
: This card is best used in control decks to stall and draw into more control. I need to do neither of these things in this deck so i don't use it for that reason.
Blade Splicer: This card is not as good as
Boros Reckoner
by itself though I will concede that it is better in decks that can bounce it, this deck is not one of those decks so i choose to use
Boros Reckoner
instead of it.
Dismember: Too costly life wise and not as solid as
Flame Slash
IMO.
