Sideboard

"Fine, I'll do it Myself" (w/ Disruption) (2)

Board Wipe (1)

Combo Hate (2)

Artifact / Enchantment removal creature (2)

Control Hate (1)


Maybeboard

Protect and Beats (4)


This deck functions mostly like an aggro deck, getting creatures on the board and swinging in before your opponent is the constant goal. HOWEVER, there is one big functionality of this deck that may not have been anticipated... prison-style lock pieces and advantage pieces. There are so many ways to cut your opponent off of resources in modern and this deck features the few that we ever printed as creatures or as the more cultured say, "on sticks." This deck has been through hell and back, about six different iterations in totality with only about three actually getting me to change this description because they take the deck in totally different directions every time.

I'm in the process of min/maxing the deck and I have a lot of general thoughts in the accordion below that outlines how i've been thinking about this deck throughout the months of working with the deck. Thank you for reading!

Some of the card choices and quantities may seem a little out of whack with what modern players are accustomed to, but the formula seems to work. We run 21 lands, 19 of which are purely fixing and two of which are the Kawigama lands to try and provide as much upside for this delicately crafted creature based deck:

I've run 18 lands, I've run 23 lands, and ultimately I feel like somoewhere in between should fit the bill the best since our curve basically stops at 4 CMC and we have 6 total ramp creatures in:

  • Ignoble Hierarch - who not only ramps in Jund colours, but also gives our attackers some extra scariness to try and race the opponent.

  • Birds of Paradise - because you know what, who doesn't want perfect fixing on a flying blocker.

To pair well with these ramp spells we have a relatively high number of 3 CMC creatures because they theoretically function as two-drops who also help lock the opponent off of resources that have become increasingly more common in modern as of late:

  • Fulminator Mage is the most interesting of the 4-ofs in the deck, he cuts our opponents off of typically their third land drop or sometimes even their second and makes mana a huge point of contention for our opponents hopefully until we can get far enough ahead on board.

  • Seasoned Pyromancer provides excellent card selection in the deck while also advancing the board state, he helps turn mediocre hands into S-tier hands without much investment at all.

  • Eternal Witness makes her way into the list with her amazing synergy with Collected Company to coco into her and use her trigger to get back coco to just do it again next turn, but she also helps with Unearth and even Fulminator Mage or any of the creatures we sacrificed for that matter.

  • Endurance because you know whats more annoying to a living end player than an evoked endurance? nothing, absolutely nothing, so year we run tier one deck hate.

  • Grist, the Hunger Tide is technically a creature! he makes defensive Collected Company's a tad awkward but he makes up for it in his versatility

beyond fulminator mage we also have a few more lock pieces to try and dwindle our opponents resources or at least make them no so scary:

  • Spore Frog is definitely a weird one but is much better than Dryad Arbor in a deck like this since he can save you on a crucial attack turn off of a defensive Collected Company or just keep annoying the opponent by recurring it with Eternal Witness or Unearth.

  • Dauthi Voidwalker has been the card I have received the absolute most salt for main decking, but he just houses some decks that cannot remove him or block him like affinity or cat oven (though they tend to run more removal).

  • Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is basically an auto-include at this point in any modern deck including the Rakdos colours because, while yes the front half is just basically a Ravenous Rats that doesn't make a body, his versatility to turn around and pressure your opponent on later turns is invaluable.

Then we come to cards that are included for their sheer value or aggression to push you over the top of your opponents:

  • Wrenn and Six because its f***ing Wrenn and six.

  • Soul of Windgrace because he provides crucial late game value off of usually dead land drops.

  • Tarmogoyf can grow to be a real house in modern Modern with all of the different enchantments and artifacts and planeswalkers flying around, you'd be hard pressed to play tarmogoyf of turn three or later at less than a 3/4 and for that he is just one of the best beat sticks in the format that has notably gotten worse since printing of cards like Prismatic Ending, but is still good in decks that build with him in mind.

The final two card choices are what make the deck function so fluidly and help break the parity that often comes with lock pieces:

  • Unearth to get back any one of the creatures we sacrifice for our locks from Spore Frog to Fulminator Mage and every ETB'er in between, it is more like a one-mana Black Lotus in this deck than anything else

  • Collected Company to churn through the deck and build up a board presence that the opponent either cannot deal with or doesn't think that they need to deal with until... they do!

the sideboard is more of a mash of creatures and effects I find lacking from the deck more than targeted hate. These include hand hate in Inquisition of Kozilek and Cabal Therapist (who I considered main decking until I realised he's horrible against a deck that either can just ping him down or doesn't really care about hand destruction), control hate and long game wincon in klothys, god of desitny who just advantages the crap out of the opponent and again is VERY main deck-able if not for the existence of Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger in the format, creature deck hate in Assassin's Trophy and Plaguecrafter who trys to fill in for the absurd lack of removal in the deck, Eldritch Evolution to help with consistency against certain decks, Reclamation Sage against affinity or other artifact decks and Scavenging Ooze against heavy Graveyard decks.

So actually I guess there is quite some amount of purely hate cards in the deck despite what I said.

This is a fun little deck especially for those who enjoy the Yawgmoth, Thran Physician creature toolbox style of deck without the combo potential or otherwise "Aristocrat-ey" feel. I'm going to try to take this to my local FNM since my Grixis Death Shadow list is getting a little boring and just isn't the same without Lurrus of the Dream-Den :(

I will take any and all constructive criticism into account and try to make this deck functional!

  • Spore Frog is a good tutor-able combat trick to maybe buy one more turn against aggressive decks so maybe increasing to two or three copies is valid, but I also feel very vulnerable against control decks as they just kill my Fauna Shaman or counter my Eldritch Evolution rendering my toolbox in-effective so maybe Eternal Witness isn't such a bad card after all, she's just which feels a little high so maybe even just Regrowth or Bala Ged Recovery   are valid options for this slot which you often don't want to tutor up anyway. Though it is often nice to it an eternal witness off of an arkbow or coco search so i might even want more than 2 copies as it helps those engines to really start making tempo plays.
  • Along those previously mentioned lines, Call to the Netherworld is a deceptively bad card in this deck as I see it. You often don't have it in your hand to discard for free value and when you do and even if you can discard it, will there often enough be black creatures in the Graveyard to get back?
  • Are Voldaren Epicure blood tokens even enough to justify them over a card like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer who is just an incredible magic card or even other decent threatening one or two drops like Tarmogoyf or Dragon's Rage Channeler?
  • I find that I often grab Bonecrusher Giant with my shaman because killing the opponent's creatures early is often one of the best lines this deck has and also you gain the added bonus of a 4/3 to play the following turn to maintain pressure. So moreover, adventure cards seem like they are incredibly powerful in this deck so maybe more cards like Lovestruck Beast would be effective? Though as this deck has been revised, less of the tutor effects bring the card to hand so cards that ETB to kill a creature may be more valid in this slot or even along with it.
  • This deck tends to run like a creature control deck more than a midrange deck with a notable lack of card advantage so Robber of the Rich I think will do MUCH better and shine in more ways than Lotleth Troll ever could giving card advantage by stealing the opponents cards often thanks to this fundamental lack of card advantage!
  • Going 'all in' on the toolbox with this deck is probably the best way to go about it such that the deck isn't trying to do too many things.
  • possible removal to get off of eldritch evolution: Demon's Disciple, Fleshbag Marauder, bone splitter, Plaguecrafter, Vengeful Rebel
  • would Brain Maggot's versatility in opponent discard make it a better choice than Valki, God of Lies   or Kitesail Freebooter?? (and with an incredibly mild synergy with Grist, the Hunger Tide
  • Under Performers in FNM were Bonecrusher Giant, Dryad Arbor, Kitesail Freebooter and Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh  . consider making this a 4 color or even 5 color deck incorporating ETB targeted removal on Skyclave Apparition and Brutal Cathar  
  • I used to be pretty lowon Aether Vial, but understanding now that churning out creatures and going wide is the best way for this deck to win I see it as an absolute must, the best ramp the deck could ask for and honestly, the downside of it not being a creature is greatly outmatched by the level of pseudo-ramp that the card provides. Maybe three of is the correct number considering this disadvantage, but again it outclasses any and all ramp that the deck has and provides that at little cost so I think I'm okay losing a bit of that "creature tribal" way of thinking for the deck to give it a better way to churn out creatures quicker.
  • Bloodsoaked Champion is bad, it doesnt facilitate the strategy or add to the midrange strategy. Needs to be replace, but with what?
  • I think I've focused too much on the idea that midrange should be able to answer threats and afflict the opponent and not enough on being able to deploy cheap, aggressive threats. I find that Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is rarely ever helpful with a GY that doesn't really grow too efficiently and having 2 Valki, God of Lies   feels way too aggressive on the hand hate over maybe say making him a one of silver-bullet and adding in aggressive threats. Abbot of Keral Keep seems like a decent enough aggressive creature (so there's two aggressive boys already) with prowess but she is more likely to just be card advantage and Grist, the Hunger Tide fodder (Flametongue Yearling finds himself in a similar situation where yes he as an added bonus to existing of being removal but nothing in the deck particularly capitalizes on our go wide-ness and everything just kind of fizzles out slowly (especially with the lack of card advantage)). So I have what I want to swap out, but what would be good in this spot? Tarmogoyf?
  • Augur of Autumn feels weird in the deck, while she is impactful with getting us a bit deeper in the deck and making sure we hit land drops we don't hit coven all too often through when we do she really does shine as a psuedo-finisher so IDK, maybe she is good but I still want to keep playing around with her,

  • Collected Company is so ridiculously constricting in this deck, it doesnt play into a midrange deck at all being 4 mana and only getting two of six possible creatures of 3 CMC or less, it just doesnt work with the deck as it makes us creature heavy, it makes us only want small creatures and as our one main piece of card advantage at 4 mana, it just isn't for us. so lets make the deck better, [insert jund midrange but weird asf update]

  • It turns out there are ALOT of cards wizards has printed throughout the years of magic that sit basically right at 3 CMC to gain advantage, so we really dont have much in the way of interacting with our opponents in the traditional way is Grist, the Hunger Tide, but we can find several lock pieces on our opponents that try to just build a massive wall of advantage and disadvantaging the opoonent that they can't keep up.

  • Modern is full of free ways to answer threats like Fury and Solitude or even Force of Negation, but if we keep our ramp creatures or at the least have a critical mass of them, the opponent can free spell as much as they want, but if we can find a way to keep crapping out our creatures until the opponent runs our of answers or we lock them out of their answers, then we can really see the potential that a combo shell can have with these beefy advantage creatures

  • two mana creatures do not work very well with this deck, on turn two we always want to be ramping out some 3 mana creature who just gets so much better on turn 2 like Grist, the Hunger Tide or Fulminator Mage so Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is not my favorite card for this list. especially not when considering Lightning Skelemental and its direct comparison to kroxa's ability but just for a mana cost that fits our decks plan better (curve out to turn three coco)

Credit: I've taken some spice from Aspiring Spike's list and built around Collected Company Again where the goal is to COCO into sacrifice creatures or ETB creatures and unearth them when they get sent to the Yard by sacrifice effects.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Feldon, Ronom Excavator (or "Ron" for short) from BRO is an excellent addition to the deck providing advantage similar to Seasoned Pyromancer but in a Light Up the Stage kind of way that really shines as a great aggro piece that almost wants to die as soon as possible while getting in some chip damage from the opponent not wanting to spend damage-based removal or a blocker on it for the advantage we gain. It has been mentioned that with the number of Unholy Heat running around in the format it is likely we can even get a look at our top 6 cards. He also works to ensure we hit land drops and synergizes with our own damage-based removal, Shatterskull Smashing  Flip who can target Ron for 1 and send the rest at an opponent's creature. This interaction might end up being "too cute," but ultimately it does serve as an added form of advantage while not being too bad of a removal spell in and of itself. In addition, some other changes have taken place to the deck including but not limited to the addition of Essence Warden as an excellent one drop in our creature deck, the addition of Abrupt Decay for more strict removal and interaction especially against control decks running cards like Dragon's Rage Channeler or other low CMC threats. This deck is going places and boy, oh boy do I think it's close to being one of the best decks I own!

Comments

Casual

96% Competitive

Date added 2 years
Last updated 11 months
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 1 Mythic Rares

36 - 11 Rares

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.25
Tokens Elemental 1/1 R, Insect 1/1 BG
Folders competitive modern decks
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