First, an introduction.
Modern is a format controlled by the power of exchange. My Path to Exile for your Tarmogoyf, your Electrolyze for my Lingering Souls. Many of the best decks in Modern arent doing anything wild or innovative, they simply work to capitalize on exchanges, gaining an inch here, two there, until they pull ahead enough to steal a game. Decisions such as which shock to fetch, which spell to counter, which card to Thoughtseize can inspire multiple lines of play that need to be carefully navigated to achieve tight, hard-earned victory.
Nah, screw that. Lets just kill em.
Suicide Zoo
Like any good zoo deck, our goal is to grab whatever creatures we can find laying around, throw them in a deck with a shaky manabase, add some Bolts and call it a day. No? Oh Fine, our real goal is to grab the classiest cats we can find, add a Human and an Avatar for good measure, and kill our opponent on Turn 2 or 3. Yeah, that sounds much better. Lets break it down, shall we?
Maindeck
Wild Nacatl / Steppe Lynx / Death's Shadow / Monastery Swiftspear
A 3/3 for one mana, Wild Nacatl needs no explanation. We are playing these colors, so its an auto include. Steppe Lynx is great on Turn 1 or Turn 2, as our 12 fetchlands almost guarantee hell be swinging for at least 4 damage when he attacks. Unfortunately his value diminishes after we play our second land (as it becomes increasingly more difficult to make land drops past two) so he acts as Wild Nacatl 5-6 in our list. In our deck, Death's Shadow is basically a free reward. We were already playing a painful Naya manabase for Nacatl/Lynx/Rage/Immense and 11 cantrips to burn through our deck, 7 of which deal us damage. Death's Shadow provides us a cheap, hard-hitting threat that needs no pumps to kill our opponent, but will still gladly take some Battle Rage and go to work. Monastery Swiftspear is an all-around excellent card, and great in our deck with the number of free cyclers/pumps we have.
Temur Battle Rage / Become Immense
The combo. 3 mana and a creature is a minimum 18 damage (even on a Monastery Swiftspear, as the prowess triggers from both spells make her a 3/3. The rest of our deck is built to support the delve on Become Immense, and with our 12 fetch/5 shock manabase we almost always only need 2 other cards in the bin to fuel the delve (after the fetches). More than any other deck, our deck is built to cast Become Immense for G without any problems.
Simian Spirit Guide
While our deck is designed to present a giant threat and kill our opponent before they can interact with us, I have found that the deck could stand to be a little faster. Simian Spirit Guide allows us Turn 2 kills (by providing the third mana for Immense/Rage) and allows us to kill unsuspecting opponents out of nowhere when they believe they have time. Multiple times my opponent has cast a Tarmogoyf or Young Pyromancer on two, only to find themselves taking 18 trample damage out of nowhere from a puny one drop. For the grindier games where we dont have the combo in hand, playing a one drop plus Swiftspear on Turn 1 allows for some quick beats and makes the games where we kill them with normal 3/3s much easier. His presence in the deck also lets us kill before Liliana of the Veil comes down, which can wreck our draws where we only have one creature (or they have the removal draw of Abrupt Decay into Liliana).
Lightning Bolt
This might be a no-brainer, but I still feel like it needs a little explanation. Lightning Bolt as creature removal seems on the surface to be out of place in our deck, as we are suiciding ourself already to kill our opponent quickly (so small creatures should not matter), but in reality we often find ourselves racing against small guys presenting lethal. In our deck, we often have to kill our opponent from 17-20, but they only ever need to do 10-12 damage to kill us. This makes opposing Goblin Guide's and Snapcaster Mage's actually scary for us, and we appreciate ways to kill guys out of Merfolk, Infect and Affinity anyways.
Mishra's Bauble / Street Wraith / Gitaxian Probe / Mutagenic Growth
Street Wraith and Gitaxian Probe serve dual function as Shocks for Death's Shadow and free cantrips to fuel delve. Mishra's Bauble is the next best free cantrip, and Mutagenic Growth is essential to grow our 3/3s out of Lightning Bolt range. Remember, Mutagenic Growth on a Death's Shadow is a +4/+4, not +2/+2. Eleven cantrip effects help us dig for our second and third land (and are the primary reason why we can afford to play only 17 land in the first place).
Sideboard
Thoughtseize
I bring in Thoughtseize in every non-aggro matchup. It does so much for our deck, stealing removal spells, triggering prowess, building towards Death's Shadow and fueling the graveyard for delve. Many modern decks (besides Junk) are so focused on their gameplan that they can only afford 6-7 slots for removal at most (Twin, Delver), and 0 at worst (Infect, Merfolk, Bloom). Often, we only let our opponents see 10 cards in a game, so taking one removal spell with a Thoughtseize can leave them with absolutely no interaction.
Hooting Mandrills
An extra creature that dodges both Lightning Bolt and Abrupt Decay, I board in Mandrills when facing decks that contain either of these two cards, if I expect my opponent to be removal heavy, or if Thoughtseize is a liability. Mandrills can also do good work against Affinity and Merfolk as the 4/4 body is relevant, but we must remember that blocking is not our primary gameplan.
Nourishing Shoal
Probably the most interesting card choice in the deck, Nourishing Shoal is brought in to trade extra Become Immense and Hooting Mandrills for 6 life against decks such as Burn, Affinity and Merfolk. I have found the 6 life to be just enough to not invalidate our work for Death's Shadow while still keeping us alive long enough to kill our opponent.
Ancient Grudge
Among the multiple artifact hate options, Ancient Grudge is the best for us as it helps our Affinity matchup and still hits a Chalice of the Void on 1. Nature's Claim is unnecessary as we really dont need the help against Twin, they have to have the combo on four or theyre dead, and we often dont even let the game get to that point. After board, we have four Thoughtseize for Twin and dont need any more help than that. Play Ancient Grudge. Dont die to Chalice.
Pact of Negation
An excellent trick for forcing through our lethal hit, Pact of Negation is an irreplaceable free counterspell on our turn, but it has to be on our turn, and it has to be the turn we kill them. I have found Pact of Negation to be the only thing that saves me sometimes, but it usually only ever get them once, and once we get them it rarely works again, as if our opponent knows about it they could just cast their removal in their main phase. Pact of Negation is on the way out of the deck, but currently Im still trying it out, and the LOLZ have been worth it.
Some NotesYour Life as a Resource!
No, this isnt the intro to some imperialist futuristic pamphlet handed out to new recruits in a post-apocalyptic dystopian society. We all went to kindergarten, we all learned the rules: toy blocks arent for eating, if you cant share neither of you will have it, and the biggest lesson of all: your life total is a resource! Look, this is Modern. Pain is the name of the game, and if you want to play, you have to pay. Life, that is. Other guys choose to pay a little, but hold back by fetching basics (lame). We choose to pay it all (or none at allPact of Negation) in an attempt to go all-in on both Death's Shadow and our opponents life total. All jokes aside, this puts us in an interesting position in the format that I feel needs to be stated.
1: We become the most hyper-efficient deck in the field, except for possibly Affinity. This means that we are both the best delve deck, and the best deck at finding our sideboard cards. (Besides Dig Through Time decks, but Im not counting those.
2: We can expect to do a minimum of 8-10 damage to ourselves in the process of killing our opponent. Normally this doesnt matter, as our deck is constructed to kill on turn 3 or 4, but for some reason our opponents keep trying to cast spells against us as well, and sometimes it takes a little bit longer. Burn becomes an interesting matchup as we find ourselves in this subgame of trying to preserve our life total while also trying to kill them before they can start casting multiple burn spells per turn.
Overgrown Tomb casts Wild Nacatl and Death's Shadow, but does not pump the Nacatl at all, or help cast Steppe Lynx,Lightning Bolt or Monastery Swiftspear. Often we will get one land opening hands, so doing the math for what to fetch assuming we draw no other lands is necessary, and will take some getting used to.
Wild Nacatl is almost always the best Turn 1 play, assuming we dont have a Steppe Lynx with another land in hand. Street Wraith and Gitaxian Probe before any land drops, as we dont mind drawing second or third lands off the cantrip as we will need them if we want to combo, and our draws can influence what shock well be fetching for.
Dont get trapped by hands that allow Turn 1 Death's Shadow. If you have any other option, play the other creature, as its often best to wait for Death's Shadow to grow out of Lightning Bolt range before playing it.
If youre not digging for something, dont use your Gitaxian Probe! This is rare, but important to note, as we are rarely holding cantrips before playing spells, but if we have our turn planned out and dont have a Death's Shadow to pump, then holding the Probe can give us perfect information for one more turn. In a game of inches, going for our combo on the assumption that the coast is clear can be devastating if our opponent draws a removal spell when we think were safe.
Sideboard?
As for sideboarding, I consider it relatively straightforward. Cut Street Wraiths and Gitaxian Probes against Burn, bring in Thoughtseize against decks with removal, and Pact of Negation when you want to make your opponent rage! I cut a few copies of my combo pieces on the draw, and when I feel like it will be more difficult to combo safely. I cut Lightning Bolts against creature-light decks, as the rate is great but not really what we want to be doing if we dont need to.
Thats about it! Good luck in all of your Modern endeavors, I hope youve enjoyed this article and found it entertaining and helpful. If you have any thoughts or opinions on the deck or my writing, please leave a comment below! I strive to improve my writing and welcome any help/criticism.
