This prototype deck achieves card advantage through looting effects and recurrent creatures, then swarms the opponent quickly. I have tested it in depth and I believe it is competitive for tournament play.
If you are looking for a deck with an excellent winrate against death shadow aggro, good winrates against jund and decent against combo and control decks then this might be for you. The matchup against humans seems to be about even.
The clearly disfavoured matchups are Tron and Eldrazi decks.
I'd love to get more feedback and advice, especially on the Sideboard!
Card discussion
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It runs the usual suspect in a midrange deck with Thoughtseize, IoK, Fatal push, Lightning bolt and Path to exile
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The cards that provide the card advantage are Gravecrawler, Bloodghast and Lingering souls
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Testing has showed me that the deck needs a minimal number of discard/looting effects (currently 12) for 'Bloodghast' to work consistently as you obviously don't want to hardcast it.
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'Faithless looting' provides the best looting effect in MTG and it's the main reason the deck has to play red
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'Cryptbreaker' provides another discard effect, it gets the Zombie count up for 'Gravecrawler' and occasionally draws you cards, he is great in grindy matchups
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'Smugglers Copter' is a great card in this setup but the creature base usually can`t support more than one at a time
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'Liliana of the Veil' is generally a strong card in combination with hand disruption and again serves as a way to discard
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'Collective brutality' has yet another optional discard effect, its very flexibilie and occasionally is a 2for1: just fantastic in this shell
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I would really like more bodies in the one mana Slot but I am not sure about 'Bloodsoaked Champion' as he is strictly worse than 'Gravecrawler', 'Dread Wanderer' although fitting perfectly in the theme is unfortunately a weak card overall
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'Diregraf Ghoul' unfortunately gets into play tapped which is anti synergetical with 'Cryptbreaker' and 'Smuggler's Copter'
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Due to input from reader 'Lagotripha' I am thinking about replacing some Tidehollow Scullers with Rotting Rats. The Rats can discard, come back from the GY and still keep the Zombie count up. They might help with the overall consistency of the deck. It would severly weaken the combo and dredge matchup though. On the other hand it would make the deck less dependable on white and as such could potentially enable Bloodmoon in the Sideboard
Sideboard:
The prevalence of Graveyard hate is, since the downfall of Dredge, declining. Although the deck is by no means cold dead to Rest in peace but it looses it`s card advantage engine.
vs Humans: The matchup feels even
- +2 Path to exile
- +1 Fatal push
- +1 Grim lavamancer
- +1 Zealous persecution
- +1 Kolaghans command
- -2 Liliana of the veil
- -2 Lingering souls
- -2 IOK
vs RDW The matchup feels favourable with 4 Collective brutalities
- +2 Collective Brutality
- +1 Fatal push
- -1 Lingering souls
- -2 Liliana of the Veil
vs Tron: this matchup is disfavourable as the deck is not quick enough to consistently evade Ugin. I have tested back and forth with Blood moon and Fulminator mage out of the Sideboard but it didnt significantly improve the matchup.
- +2 Dumping sphere
- +2 Path to exile
- +2 Thouhtseize
- +1 Kolaghans command
- -2 Fatal push
- -3 Bolt
- -2 Collective brutality
vs combo: I think those are good matchups: Tidehollow rules
Storm:
- +2 Collective brutality
- +2 Nihil Spellbomb
- +2 Thoughtseize
- +2 Dumping sphere
- -4 Lingering souls
- -2 cryptbreaker
- -1 Path to exile
- -1 Kolaghans command
Nauseam:
- +2 Collective brutality
- +2 Thouhtseize
- +2 Wear/Tear
- -2 Path to Exile
- -2 Fatal Push
- -1 Lingering Souls
- -1 Cryptbreaker
vs Jundt: Liliana of the Veil? I couldn't care less, Bloodbraid elf is their best card but we are still clearly favoured
- -4 Tidehollow Sculler
- -2 Smugglers Copter
- +2 Path to exile
- +2 Thouhtseize
- +1 Kolaghans command
- +1 Fatal push
vs Death Shadow: I have a fantastic win rate here. (currently 8-0!)
Lingering souls and lots of removal is just back breaking for them. Their only real chance at winning is 'Temur battle rage'.
- -4 Tidehollow Sculler
- -2 Collective Brutality
- -1 Bolt
- +2 Path to Exile
- +2 Thoughtseize
- +2 Nihil spellbomb
- +1 Fatal push
vs Abzan: I would think this is probably an even matchup
- +1 Zealous Persecution
- +2 Nihil spellbomb
- +2 Thoughtseize
- +2 Path to Exile
- +1 Kolaghans command
- -4 Tidehollow Sculler
- -2 Liliana of the Veil
- -2 Ligthning Bolt
- -1 Collective brutality
vs Affinity: pre sidebord we are in disadvantag, after that it is a different Picture though
- +2 Path to Exile
- +1 Zealous Persecution
- +1 Kolaghans command
- +3 Stony Silence
- -1 Thoughtseize
- -2 Smuggler's Copter
- -2 Liliana
- -2 Tidehollow sculler
vs Eldrazi Tron: this is a horrible matchup, Fulminator mage unfortunately doesnt help much so I took it out of the Sideboard
- +2 Path to exile
- +3 Stony Silence
- +2 Thoughtseize
- -2 Collective brutality
- -3 Lingering Souls
- -2 Smugglers copter
vs Bant eldrazi: this is a very tough matchup too
- +2 Path to Exile
- +2 Thoughtseize
- +1 Zealous Persecution
- -4 Lingering Souls
- -2 Cryptbreaker
Results:
Competitive modern league:
Season 1 (2017):
I was altogether new to the modern format and still learning with the deck. Aditionally I kept doing small adjustments to both main- and sideboard along the way:
win vs loss: Over about 65 games, overall winrate slightly above 50%
Abzan 0/1, Grixis delver 0/1, Titan/scapeshift 2/2, Creature aggro (stompy, zoo): 2/1, Death shadow: 8/0, Tron 2/3, Eldrazi 0/5, Death+Taxes evt. mit eldrazi: 0/2, Jund: 0/1, Prison: 0/1, Naya burn: 3/2, Affinity: 1/0, Boggles: 1/1, Humans: 1/1, BW Tokens: 1/0, Storm: 1/1, Grixis/UW/Esper control: 2/2, Jeskai Combo: 1/0, Elves: 1/0, Dredge: 0/1, G/W Company combo: 2/2
Season 2 (2018-..):
I will now leave the main board steady and only keep adjusting the Sideboard, I also have a better grip on the metagame in modern:
First matchup: 4-1
Jund:win, Jund:win, Affinity: win, Blue/green control: loss, G/W Company: win
Second matchup: 3-2
Affinity: win, BW Planeswalkers: win, Humans: win, Soul sisters: loss, Humans: loss
Third matchup: 2-3
Affinity: loss, Scapeshift: win, Blue Tron: loss (never tick up Lili to 6 against them! I lost with asumedly full control over the game when he topdecked a Mindslaver, cast all my spells and let me sac. all my board :-), U/W control: win, Jund: loss
Fourth matchup: 3-2
Humans: win, Humans: loss (staticaster), Sultai: win, Bring to light scapeshift: loss, R/U bloodmoon: win
Fifth mathcup: 3-2
G/W company: win, GTron: win, storm: win, Amulet titan: loss, Humans: loss
Sixth matchup: currently 2-2
Death shadow: win, Jeskai control: loss, infect: win, grixis control: loss
