Counter Cat Rawr

Modern Burn Competitive Delver RGWU Tempo Zoo

ToolmasterOfBrainerd

Lands (20)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 2x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 4x Flooded Strand
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Plains
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 2x Wooded Foothills

Creatures (16)

• 2x Bloodbraid Elf
• 4x Delver of Secrets  ^Flip
• 2x Snapcaster Mage
• 4x Tarmogoyf
• 4x Wild Nacatl

Cantrips (8)

• 2x Mishra's Bauble
• 4x Serum Visions
• 2x Telling Time

Interaction (16)

• 4x Force of Negation
• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 2x Lightning Helix
• 4x Path to Exile
• 2x Tarfire

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Sideboard

Other (15)

• 2x Disdainful Stroke
• 2x Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip
• 4x Rest in Peace
• 3x Settle the Wreckage
• 3x Stony Silence
• 1x Timely Reinforcements

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Maybeboard

Creatures / pressure (13)

• 1x Arlinn Kord  ^Flip
• 1x Bounding Krasis
• 1x Goblin Guide
• 2x Hooting Mandrills
• 1x Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip
• 2x Nimble Obstructionist
• 1x Tarmogoyf
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 2x Vendilion Clique
• 1x Young Pyromancer

Interaction (12)

• 1x Disrupting Shoal
• 1x Dromoka's Command
• 1x Mutagenic Growth
• 2x Negate
• 1x Remand
• 1x Simic Charm
• 1x Spell Snare
• 2x Squelch
• 2x Trickbind

Burn (3)

• 1x Atarka's Command
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Electrolyze

Cantrips (2)

• 1x Opt
• 1x Thought Scour

Sideboard (3)

• 1x Damping Sphere
• 2x Spreading Seas

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Counter cat. Because Tarmogoyf and rest in peace are really good right now. Actually white in general is a good color, but it's usually just used for control (humans and burn don't count; they don't truly take advantage of white spells).

I don't know how to play modern without blue, but blue that isn't control is hard to do right now. By playing the whole rainbow we can abuse white exile effects with green creatures with blue utility and red burn spells. All of this is tied together in a Delver shell playing 8 creatures with 3 power for 1 mana.

This has some really unorthodox card choices. Let me explain a few.

Squelch

What I want is Stifle . What I have available is Trickbind , Squelch , and Nimble Obstructionist .

The motivation to play a card of this type is to be able to stop broken things. It's an insane tempo swing and tempo matters a lot with this deck. Especially vs decks like Tron and Control. Vs Tron, countering an Oblivion Stone activation or Ugin's -X ability is oftentimes enough to win on the spot. Expedition Map is also a great option to counter. Vs control, countering an early game fetch land might as well be a time walk. These matchups are difficult without access to this kind of effect.

But the options available aren't stellar. Nimble Obstructionist is too much mana. He gets the job done, but he doesn't flip delver and he requires 3 mana. I really really want Squelch to work because it draws a card. But modern has a lot of relevant triggered abilities, most important of which are Terminus from UW Control (this is the one that matters most), Thalia's Lieutenant , Militia Bugler , and Reflector Mage from Humans, Thragtusk post-board from Tron, anything from Dredge, even Myr Retriever from KCI. Trickbind can even counter Rift Bolt from burn and modular triggers from Hardened Scales.

Of course the best use is to counter fetchlands. Squelch is much better at this.

I'm currently on Squelch but that's subject to change anytime. My current reasoning is that the tempo swing of countering a fetch land and drawing a card against fair decks like Jund and UW Control is too great to ignore. The motivation to run trickbind is to beat Humans and Terminus . But my game 1 vs humans is bad anyway and I think Squelch is actually better vs control because of the card draw. Vs control I should be destroying lands, not countering Terminus. Ideally I'll only have 1 creature in play at a time, which will reduce the impact of Terminus.

I really wish Stifle was legal. It's so much better than the current options.

Telling Time

Telling Time flips Delver of Secrets really effectively. It smooths out draws. But mostly it flips Delver. When playing Grixis delver I struggled to flip delver consistently. Telling time helps fix that issue. Digging for sideboard cards is also nice.

Negate

Other contestants for this spot include Mana Leak and Remand and Spell Pierce . Spell Pierce gets out-classed very quickly and sucks vs Terminus . Mana Leak gets out-sized by Tron too quickly. And it will fail to counter Path to Exile and Fatal Push more often than not. Remand is too temporary. I can't tempo hard enough for it to work.

Mana Leak is frequently dead against stuff like Humans anyway. It's great vs Mardu Pyromancer to counter Bedlam Reveler , but it's otherwise lackluster. Negate counters everything I care about except Primeval Titan . It looks weird but I think it works.

Negate is Mana-intensive vs other efficient decks such as Grixis death's shadow (especially when protecting a Path to Exile ). But think the risk is okay.

I'm actively looking for better sideboard cards. I'm pretty dead set on playing many copies of Rest in Peace and Stony Silence . They are relevant in many matchups and are basically sledgehammers to the face when I bring them in.

I don't bring them in vs Spirits, Humans, UW control, Burn, probably Death's shadow, Jund, or Titan. Finding ways to tackle these decks is the bigger problem.

Disdainful Stroke is fantastic vs Tron, control, and titan decks. Huntmaster is a very nice piece because it's relevant against burn (because of life gain) and mid-range and control decks (because of 2 bodies and flipping). I really like having these in my sideboard.

With my current numbers that leaves 4 spots and I don't have anything for spirits or humans, which are top decks and problematic matchups. Isochron Scepter is under consideration because they can't interact with it and Lightning Helix or Path to Exile every turn is hard to beat. Anger of the Gods works but it's ugly. Delver and nacatl die to it. Izzet Staticaster leaves my stuff alive, but it's lower-impact. Pyroclasm just doesn't do much. I'm not sure what's best for the last few spots.

Like the deck? Click here to upvote and I'll burn out another tron player with it!

Top Ranked	Achieved #47 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #3 position in Modern Tempo 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	B
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 2 Mythic Rares 23 - 10 Rares 12 - 1 Uncommons 18 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.55
Tokens	Human 2/2 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	Modern, Other people decks
Based on	WURG Delver ToolmasterOfBrainerd MDN