4 thalias In a deck with 19 nonlands doesn't work, at least not in my book

i assume you're refering to the 19 noncreature spells in the deck. i can see why you are concerned about thalia , but so far thalia has proven herself in this list time and time again. the tax effect she provides is never linear , and always worse for your opponent.also , with the exception of liliana and lingering souls , the other noncreature spells work rather well with thalia as most of the spells are 1 cmc , so that if you have thalia in play , it is safe to assume that you have at least 2 land , so you can easily cast your spells.

again , i see why you are concerned , but it works rather well , and way better than one usually expects.

thanks for the comment

That's good, I really like Thalia in decks :) She's actually on of my favorite white cards, and one with the most impact in games.
Have a good one and keep it up! Cheers!

Honestly, my only hesitation in this deck is 4x Thalia for fear of dead ones in your hand. But that aside, this looks really good man.

in well over 50 games she has never been dead in hand. if you have her on board and in hand , just discard her for lilianas +1

Not a fan of Champion or Thalia in this build. I would be looking for something like 2 thalia, then Grim Lavamancer or even the new 4 mana 4/4 dragon who bolts when targeted.

thalia has become crucial in almost all my matchups.im still not convinced of bloodsoaked , he might go for grim lavamancer. as for thunderbreak regent , i cant really afford to go heavier on the 4 drops , and falkenrath in combination with lingering souls and bloodsoaked ist strictly better in my meta.

First off, Great deck. It has both Black and White in it so I am already a fan.

I feel like you do just as much damage to yourself as your opponents. just a little more Lifelink might be a good idea. maybe in the form of a Sword or Planeswalker that would be up to you.

Thalia. 4 is always too many. I have found that 3 is the sweet spot. even at 3 with 10 noncreature spells in my Deck she still shows up in pairs and hinders my castings. if you cut one you will have more space for something else.

I agree with your idea of adding Grim Lavamancer or Olivia Voldaren. Grim is probably the better option it doesn't flip too hard with Bob and removal and win con.

thanks for the comment

you are right , this deck deals quite a lot of damage to itself , but that usually hasnt been much of a problem. ive thought about adding something that would be able to gain us some life back , and butcher of the horde instead of falkenrath aristocrat seemed obvious. though her innate haste is really powerful. i think ill test them again.but usually the batterskull in the sideboard takes care of everything.

yes, 4 thalia is probably 1 too many , but i really want to stick her every game , and she eats quite a lot of removal. also im a big fan of using playsets. i will probably cut one for a grim lavamancer, well see.olivia voldaren is such a great card , but im really not sure if she is the right fit for this deck. what i have found is , that i can only afford to play 4 and 5 drops with confidant because they are able to immediately swing back. even if i accidentally hit myself for 5 off of a confidant , the thundermaw will just get in and even it out. but with olivia , i would only ever play her as a 6-drop , with enough mana to use her right away. im not sure if that is what i want to be doing. i also see the synergy between her and vault of the archangel , but if the game gets to lets say 7 mana ( 2 for her ability , 5 for vault ) , the game would likely have gone to 9 , and that usually means thundermaw on the board , resto flicker him , in response to his trigger activate vault , one sided sweeper with lifelink , and that ends the game on the spot.

ill be sure to test her out , just bought 2 of her and 2 lavamancer.

You should use Blackcleave Cliffs instead of Dragonskull Summit. Fast lands are great.

With all that pain you're doing to yourself, a mainboard Batterskull is almost certainly not a bad idea.

yeah , ive thought about using them ,but in testing they seemed to frustrate me quite a bit as it is really importan for me to hit turn 3 ,4 and 5 lands drops , and if i dont have one of the fast lands , i always think about mulliganing... not so sure about them.

i agree batterskull is great , but honestly ,i dont like him as much in the mainboard.its just too slow for what i want to be doing. when i hit 5 mana , id rather cast thundermaw hellkite and immediately get in for 5 .i feel like i have enough lifegain for this deck to support the 2 thundermaws , and they just win faster.

i love batterskull in the side tho. has done serious work in a lot of matches. thanks for the comment!

Don't you ever feel Bob is doing too much damage to you? You're running 7 cards with 4+ CMC drops...
I stopped running him at all because of the same reason, and I fewer than you :o

thats why i commented on your deck. actually , i dont feel like bob is doing too much damage. yes , i have had games were bob killed me. but those were games i probably wasnt going to win anyway.that being said , we do get some very interesting deck building restraints when we take this route.if were going to take 5 from revealing a thundermaw, hed better get in there for 5 in the same turn. if we reveal a falkenrath aristocrat , shed better get in there for 4-5-6 , and win me the game. we need our 4 and 5 drops to have big impact. they need haste , of flash , or a great enter the battlefield . they need to stick , so they need to be bolt resistant , resistant to other removal , and they need to hit like a truck.

ive had games where i got in bolt range because of bob revealing a thundermaw. but i ive won those games , because he gets cast , bitchslaps any blockers , and gets in there for a quarter of their lifetotal.

also it is very important to have ways to gain life back. helix and vault does this sufficiently for me.the only matchup where i board bob out is burn.

also , i only play four 4 drops , and two 5 drops.

That's true, I don't know how I miscounted that O.o
Yeah, I can see now how you use Bob to it's fullest potential, as in all you reveal will have an impact. In my case I wouldnt be able to do it as well since I play on a more control shell, and having a Bob out on grindy matchups will most likely kill me.
Not sure if you got my point but I sure got yours, and it's very well backed.
Very good work :)

no , i totally get it.you want to establish a board state , and gain incremental advantage over your opponent. you want to be disruptive and resilient and later , after youve worn your opponent down overwhelm him and reap the benefits.my deck tries to do the same ,but i sacrifice life and board presence for strenght and speed. i can disrupt , hinder and remove , 3 turns in a row and still kill on turn 5.its all about personal preference , and i can only try and hope that people will be interested enough in reading what i have to say and not dismiss the deck as too destructive or flawed.theres probably a lot i could be improving on. but i really love the deck in its current state. ive tried some other options in the 4 drop spot and in the 1 drop spot but honestly. falkenrath aristocrat + bloodsoaked champion is awesome and screws a lot of people over.invalidating anything that isnt path to exile is a huge deal , at least in my meta. and i can only say , that so far , this deck is has proven itself to me.

Olivia Voldaren is definitely preferable to Falkenrath Aristocrat. Yeah, Aristocrat has haste, but being able to protect Olivia from bolts, even after a Blood Moon is very strong. Her abilities are amazing.

yes , olivia is great , but ive come to realize that she is not what this deck wants. falkenrath aristocrat is the better card in my opinion , at least for this deck. i want to play my 4 drops on turn 4. you basically never want to play olivia on turn 4. so thats a no go for me. also , image loosing 4 life by revealing olivia , and then playing her leaving mana up.most decks will most likely be able to burn you out or power through you with that much lifeloss for a card that is ultimately too slow . the haste is really important in this deck , it is crucial to even out the lifeloss from dark confidant immediately.

that being said , i think olivia is a superb card,but at this point she is not maindeckable in my meta. the only thing that stops falkenrath aristocrat is path and dismember ,and im fine with that.

As I was first looking I wasn't too sure where this one was going, but as I went further, my respect grew. I really like this deck, and it gave me some pretty good concept ideas for a modern deck I'm working on now that focuses on Kaalia of the Vast. Do you have any suggestions?

thank your very much , this is the reaction i can only hope to get from others.the deck may look all over the place at first , but it really is very focused ,strong and resilient.

sadly , i feel like i should tell you that i dont think Kaalia of the Vast is modern legal as she was only printed in commander supplemental product which is not modern legal. http://magic.wizards.com/en/gameinfo/gameplay/formats/modern you can check out the link ,it lists all modern legal sets and the modern specific banlist .

that being said , i hope this doesnt put you off of building a mardu coloured deck. we have lots of other different fun options for deckbuilding.if you have something in mind , dont hesitate to ask me to check it out .

Oooh that is right...I started out playing Legacy so when I get going on some ideas in Modern I always just think "8th edition cutoff". Even if it's just for casual I'd still like to make a deck that makes the big angels workable.. Basically, I had the luckiest birthday ever and pulled two Avacyn, Angel of Hope, and two Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, and a couple big demons (that weren't Griselbrand) then was gifted a playset of Aurelia, the Warleader. They're really awesome creatures but not easily playable in most formats because of their high CMC. I don't play commander, and any legacy opponent would just be moving too fast for me to catch up even with Kaalia, but it's just always been my personal challenge =]

oh wow , nice pulls . happy belated birthday.well ,one idea of the top of my head would be to run some kind of goryos vengeance /Through the Breach shell , with kaalia included to round it out more.

4- Goryo's Vengeance4- Through the Breach4- Faithless Lootingsome number of Lightning Axeand the rest would be up you to fill with angels , demons and kaalia.the problem would be , that with goryos vengeance you can only get legendary creatures ( which is fine),but youll only get to use them once.same thing with into the breach , you they still go to the graveyard , so you could use them again with goryos vengeance.kaalia can alternatively just bring them out from your hand.

hope this helps, if not , i might have some other ideas.

I'd switch Wear / Tear with Hide/Seek. Hide by-passes indestruct and regen, while Seek can snipe out single copies of Lightning Storm in ad nauseam decks or certain one-of's in Gift decks. Also great for gaining life in a pinch which can keep you going for another turn if needed, and you'll never see the card resurface which you played Hide on.

I like Goryo's Vengeance a lot, I had never seen it before. Thanks :]

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