UB murktide, going for a more controlling game, aiming to get the yard fleshed out and reanimate Archon with Persist, and delve out to play murktides
This is the slower graveyard focused version of my UB tempo deck I'm trying to find the best version of. Any advice to optimize is very appreciated!
LANDS
I'll cover the lands quickly because I didn't put too much though into them. running my 4 shocks for all the obvious reasons
I'm running the four copies of the surveil land, I didn't think I would like it, but I find myself fetching it at least 50% of the time. the ability to grab a dual land without using one of my 4 shocks is helpful in long games where I'll hit a lot of lands. and anytime I can fetch without pressure for it to enter untapped, this is the strictly better play since I get to surveil, plus I can use it as utility during my main phase to fish for either an archon to bin, and then persist. or to check for something I'm ok with binning to delve away for a murktide/murderous cut.
As of now I've got 8 fetch lands, that's probably too many, I was running 8 for when this draft had nethergoyfs in it, without the goyfs, the main use for the excess fetches is to add more cards as delve fuel, as well as making it more consistent to get the exact lands I need, especially being able to fetch for a surveil land, and potentially put two cards in the yard at instant speed without spending mana, can be very useful at times when you're just short of your delve quota
Creatures
to be clear, the main reason I built the deck is because I want to play Psychic Frog. I love the card, and is the only reason I want to play UB. in addition to being generically great though, it serves double duty in this deck by acting as my discard outlet in case I get archons in hand. in addition, it synergizes with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
, since attacking with the frog while Tamiyo is on board puts you at 2 draws, then you can either cantrip, or crack a clue to flip her, or just hold her as a creature if you would rather have more clues or a 3 toughness flying blocker.
as for Tamiyo, she has been even better than I anticipated, being able to build up a stash of clues to dump unused mana into, plus the extra cards can turn into damage with a frog on board. once she flips, her plus is obviously a comfy damage negation effect, but the minus is Very nice. being able to grab Drown in the Loch when you're already ahead will often seal the deal. can grab cantrips for emergency card draw. removal spells for when drown isn't available or would cost too much mana. but most importantly of all, she can grab copies of persist that have either been milled, or already used. this can be Extremely impactful, and if you have an archon in the yard already, can just win you the game.
Archon of Cruelty is the main reanimator target. it hitting the baord off a persist is already a massive shift in your favor, its an instant 3 for 1 assuming the opponent has at least one creature out and at least 1 card in hand, not to mention setting the life in your favor by 6 points. PLUS on top of all of that just off the etb, if it makes it back to your turn, it's a 3 turn clock at worst, that draws cards, kills creatures, and forces discards every turn it gets to attack. there's not much that will beat an archon in a race of attrition unless they can block and kill it. nut even if they trade on a block, you've just 7 for 1nd them for 2 mana. plus set the life 12 points in your favor. all assuming it doesn't even get to hit for damage. if they can't stop it after the first turn it's on the board. you more than likely just win, as it sets them so far behind on resources, while bolstering your own.
having to get it in the yard, and then get a persist in hand is the hard part of this though, it will not happen every game, and there will definitely be times where you're staring at an archon in hand and can't find a frog to discard it with. or a persist in hand and no archons showing up in the yard. Tamiyo and Ripples of Undeath help in this regard, letting you grab back your missed or used persists with Tamiyo, and letting you filter to grab persists faster with ripples, while also having good odds of milling an archon at the same time.
the next difficulty however comes from the fact that graveyard interaction is very big in sideboards right now, and even mainboard in a lot of decks. the existence of Dauthi Voidwalker is the biggest thing holding this deck back. a dauthi with no answer means you can't deploy either of your primary win cons. and stops you from setting up for them later. dauthi is a must answer threat, and is the reason I should move stern scolding from the maybe board to the mainboard. I've also seen soul guide lanterns hit the mainboard in other list, which, while it doesn't hurt murktide much, it completely turns off persist as an option. and against decks running lots of graveyard hate, it's probably correct to sideboard out both persist and archon. fighting with all your might to protect your yard is hard to come out on top for, and take so many resources that you'll probably lose the battle of attrition while you're distracted.
I don't think Murktide Regent Needs much explanation. if you're doing even just OK at filling your yard, it's 2 mana for a flier that ranges from a 3/3 to a 8/8, and then gets bigger if you delve more later, or grab anything back with Tamiyo. I mean there's not a lot left to say, it's tarmagoyfs blue flying draconic cousin, who is carrying on his work in 2024, by being a giant creature for 2 mana that beats people and creatures to death by Being the biggest thing on the field, and that's it. its just plain good, and with just a bit off help with thought scours, some lands that fill the yard, and a good sweep of interactive spells to keep the yard busy, playing murktide for 2 mana isn't hard in the slightest.
As for Orcish Bowmasters, everyone knows how much of a menace these things are, the only question in why am I not running more? I don't have a good answer for that, other than just not knowing what else to cut. it's not great with persist, only gets its etb trigger. I'm open to recommendations on what to cut for more copies of it. and more testing may make it clear anyway.
after some testing. I determined that stealing the scam tech off rakdos scam is just plain good. I'm running all 4 copies of Grief, and his best friend Not Dead After All. grief is strong early game, especially to target graveyard hate. and late game it's still a menace body to put on the field and will still usually trade two for one. and of course, casting not dead yet on it is crazy strong either on the evoke trigger, or on a later death to removal or combat.
Spells
Lets start with removal.
4 copies of Fatal Push. I don't think anyone will argue against that, it hits almost every single threat in the format, especially when running excess fetches and evoke creatures. its just the best option available in the colors, and probably the format.
4 copies of Drown in the Loch, another great card in modern. between fetches, early game instants, and Mishra's baubles. this will be able to hit every legal target usually by turn two, which happens to be the earliest turn you can cast it. there will be niche cases where you wont be able to counter the spell outright, but drown will still kill the creature a turn or two later if necessary. the biggest downside to the card is that it makes running Dauthi Voidwalker a big nonbo. but the card is basically never dead in hand. and grabbing it back from the yard later with Tamiyo can set you very far ahead. in a pinch you can point a Thought Scour at your opponent to turn on your drown as well.
these are the only removal spells in the deck. but I'm also running bowmasters, which are often hard removal, and archon kills creatures every turn as well. there are some sideboard options to help against wide strats, most notably toxic deluge.
Counterspells next.
I already covered the 4 copies of drown, it's just as good of a counter as it is as a removal spell, already said what there is to say about it.
Spell Pierce is here primarily for defensive purposes. mostly to keep my creatures on the board, and protect persists from being countered, spell pierce will counter its legal targets outright in most cases. it's not till late game that people might have extra mana to pay the tax.
Stern Scolding is here because dauthi voidwalker dismantles my deck. so having an answer, I can have up on time 100% of the time I draw it is important, as I can cast it on time even if I'm on draw. as a bonus though it also counters Grief, Ral, Monsoon Mage
, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, and more. it's quite good in the current meta.
All thats left is I'm running to support my own gameplan,
Most notable is Persist. one of my primary win routes is casting persist on Archon of Cruelty. I've talked about how strong this is already, as well as its drawbacks. but it's also very relevant that you can also persist a grief. even the same turn you evoke it to get a similar result to casting not dead yet on it. if you need a discard outlet, or a card draw engine, you can grab a psychic frog. who will survive the -1/-1 counter, and can put counters on himself as needed. tamiyo doesnt suffer Too much from the counter if you want to persist her, and if you plan to flip her the same turn then there's no drawback to persisting her, and she can get the persist back the next turn anyway. and in pinch you can hit bowmasters to get its etb trigger, or a murktide to get a flying body on the board, that can still grow later.
Not Dead After All is tech stolen from the rakdos scam list. but its quite good here as well. you can abuse grief just as well as rakdos can. and while you cant use kroxa, you DO have ability to hit an archon with it, which will not only save it, and re proc its etb. but will also make it 2 p/t bigger than it was off the persist. and of course, hitting a bowmaster with it is often extremely
strong. it's not great on murktide, but it's fine on the frog, and gives Tamiyo a way to deal damage.
and last on the list is Thought Scour. I'll mainly be covering why it's my cantrip of choice here. the main two competition are Preordain and Consider. all three obviously have their strengths over the others. so the question is which is most important for this list. maximizing the cards I mill with thought scour, at the cost of forgoing card selection, maximizing card selection with preordain, at the cost of forgoing self mill, and speed. or going in between with consider giving some card selection, while also having the ability to self-mill, and is still instant speed. with how much I want cards in my yard, forgoing self-mill entirely with preordain feels wrong. and having to main-phase it, and not be able to hold up interaction feels bad. so its down to consider or thought scour. I played consider a lot, but it very often ends up being the case that I want to keep the card on top, meaning I don't fill my yard a single extra card. so with the selection advantage I gain, there's two scenarios. 1: I see the top card, it fits what I need, I keep it, get no extra cards in the yard, and draw the spell I was going to draw anyway. or 2: I mill the card, and then draw a blind card anyway, just like I would with thought scour. except I get half as many milled cards as I would with thought scour. so I am personally of the opinion that in this list, though scour is the most consistently useful to my gameplan.
That sums up my full breakdown! thanks for reading if you did, and I would greatly appreciate any input, as I've been out of the meta for a couple years now, so my meta calls are all based on what I'm seeing as big decks on mtg goldfish.
