I love the deck: looks like a blast to play.

One question: How often do you find yourself i need of a lifegain hoser? I wonder with the jace unbanning if keeping a Choke in your sideboard might be a nice thing to have.

Anyway, I'm definitely gonna start amassing these cards to give this a go at FNM.

StankP.I. Thanks :D

It's true I haven't found that much use for Everlasting Torment so far, but I also haven't played against Soul Sisters et al yet. My thinking with that card was that if you can get it out against Soul Sisters type decks you could easily race them with your much bigger threats. On the other hand Ghostly Prison is also quite good against them and life gain isn't a very common deck to face anyways.

I think Choke might be a good idea, unfortunately you'll hose your own islands but it should turn out in your favor against control and hopefully you can get a BOP on the field to get blue, I Will defenitely test that and see what happens.

Not looking forward to Jace control meta and modern miracles, yuck...

I bet adding a couple more chord of calling over maybe the tower defenses will help vs. a control-ier meta.

Here's to smashing jaces. smash 'em real good

StankP.I. I've been testing some control matchups today and I've found that a 3rd Chord really improves the deck a lot. Sidisi's Faithful hasn't really done the work I hoped for but Dragon's Eye Savants really impressed me in these games, both in terms of going 1 point over many of the popular big creatures some control decks use as wincons in modern but also because they double as a 3drop with hand spying, seeing my opponents hand on turn 2 after dropping a bird turn 1 won me 3 games by letting me know if it was safe or not to drop my Doran on turn 3, saving me from playing into a counterspell or sweeper so I could keep up Chord mana instead. So I've ended up dropping 1 sidisi and 1 tower defense for the 3rd chord and 2nd savants.

nice. how good is the tower defense? would something with a little more utility like dive down be better, or is it important to have a big one time team pumper like that?

I haven't played with it yet, so of course my concerns are based in theory rather than experience, but it seems like when doran or assault formation are out you should already be in the driver's seat and it'd be better to spend some of those spots in the 60 getting there rather than on what you're doing after you get there.

StankP.I. well the tower defense often represents 10-20 extra damage, usually translating to 2 creatures connecting being lethal. I feel that it's really good to have a way to close out the game fast when you only get that one window to attack, especially as aggressive decks will often attack you believing that they can trade attacks for 1 more turn and win the race, and you just kill them with tower defense.

A more defensive build could cut it and play a maindeck ghostly prison, greater auramancy or something. My first build had greater auramancy and a creature aura with totem armor to lock down an unkillable Zur or Doran but it was just too slow IMO.

I hear you in keeping it aggressive. I was just cruising gather looking for something with similar utility but on a body, but there just isn't. I guess I was hoping for something that's a little less of a dead draw when you're behind on board, but there really isn't much that fills both roles.

StankP.I. I'm currently testing a 2nd copy of Assault formation instead of tower defense since I've ran into interactive decks managing to keep me off Doran/formation for too long, and these have been some of my tougher matchups.

How is treefolk harbinger performing for you? In playtesting he didnt seem to do much for me

Athraithe: It's been more than excellent for me. Secures land drops so I don't have to mulligan 1 land hands, finds Doran and is a 3/3 for 1. IMO the harbinger is a key consistency piece for this deck.

I suppose you could play other dorks, a couple more lands and a 4th Chord instead, but I believe that's worse.

Outstanding deck Sjorpha! I don't know if you're still trying to keep it up to date, but I'll still make a few suggestion for the sake of discussion and getting your opinion. My deck is also a bit more budget minded so my suggestions might also reflect that...

You are right that Behind the Scenes and skulk gives these Doran decks and alike a whole new dimension. I also thought that Vigilance could be equally powerful. Imagine being able to attack, block and then use convoke? Maybe something like Brave the Sands ?

How about Forbidding Watchtower for some land tech?

Did you notice Arboreal Grazer could be a potentially advantageous replacement or doubling for Birds of Paradise ? Bigger body and his ramp, although lost if you skip a land drop, 1) doesn't precludes you to attack, 2) survives the body and 3) he counts double to Chord of Calling .

Also would you consider Jeskai Barricade a good option to avoid a spot removal? It lets you replay Treefolk Harbinger or an eventual Arboreal Grazer . Unlike Selfless Spirit or Spellskite you can keep it in hand. And since you have 2 Assault Formation it might attack if its needed.

And what do you think of Tangle Angler ? This ugly thing could be a two turn clock alternative win con and a repeatable removal.

Hi KamiMakz, thanks for the feedback.

Good suggestions, the only one I have tried is Arboreal Grazer. Unfortunately I did not find it very good. BoP is the only real consideration for replacement, and the advantages of BoP is that it lets you potentially keep 1-2 land hands, that it fixes mana in a 4-color deck, and that it can block fliers or be an evasive attacker with Assault formation. The problem with my tests with the grazer was that I had to mulligan more and the benefits didn't really pan out. I think Grazer is excellent in a 1 or 2 color assault formation deck, but IMO this deck needs the birds to smooth things out.

I could see Forbidding watchtower replacing Dryad Arbor, as Arbor hasn't really impressed that much in this deck as you usually can get several creatures out. I don't think we can replace any dual color land or basic, again this is such a greedy mana base.

Jeskai Barricade looks super interesting actually, especially to protect Doran or Zur, I can see it replacing Selfless Spirit (maybe put the spirit in the sideboard if facing boardwipes). I like having a spellskite in the main, since it's so good against infect and bogles etc.

My intuition is that Tangle Angler is too slow for Modern at 4 mana, and that the "alternative wincon" undermines your main wincon when you wish you had a lethal attck but you don't because one of your creatures doesn't deal normal damage. it would have to replace a Zur and I just don't see it.

Brave the sands looks nice but I'm not sure it's worth lowering creature density for or replacing an enchantment. Probably it should replace a Detention Sphere if used.

Again thanks for the feedback and please tell me about the results if you test the deck with your suggestions.