Village Rites and Ignoble Hierarch make this deck playable again!
11/25/19
After trying to make Merchant of the Vale work as a replacement for Faithless Looting after the ban I have come to conclusion that it's just not worth it. Instead, we have Once Upon a Time making this a competitive deck again by increasing the amount of explosive starts by a ton. Hellspark Elemental has always been replaced by Spark Elemental to have more explosive starts and for Thunderkin Awakaner to bring something back from the GY on T2. With these changes I won FNM last week. If it keeps going well I will bring the deck to Palm Beach Magic Fest in April.
7/31/2019:
[http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/Star_City_Games_Invitational_Qualifier/2019-07-27_modern_Tampa_FL_US/1/]SCG IQ Results(http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/Star_City_Games_Invitational_Qualifier/2019-07-27_modern_Tampa_FL_US/1/)
I made a post the other day that I was going to bring this deck to the SCG IQ after I went 4-0 at FNM [https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/cgtwm8/40_with_my_take_on_thunder_balls_taking_it_to_scg/] Reddit Link(https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/cgtwm8/40_with_my_take_on_thunder_balls_taking_it_to_scg/)
Before the tournament I had very little time to practice or fix the deck's mana base. While picking up my friend to head to the tournament I mentioned to him that it needed 3 Bloodstained Mires and 1 Blood Crypt instead of the Overgrown Tomb and Windswept heaths. He offered to run back in his house and let me borrow them but we were already running a little late and I thought it would be fine. (big mistake, you'll see why later)
RD 1: 2-1 vs Snow Ninjas (1-0) This is a 17-time pro tour player and someone that raged on me hard the only other time I played him in a competitive event. G1 I mull to 5 and keep a slow hand. I play Thunderkin Awakener on T2 with nothing in my GY and just swing for 1. Turn 3 I cast Skelemental and he mana leaks it. I proceed to take it out of the GY with thunderkin and he says "is that how that works?" as he looks at the card. G2 I side in a Veil of Summer and Guttural Response but he only used Spell Stuttersprite to counter things and eventually just got too many 1/1 flyers on board. G3 I run him over pretty quickly.
RD 2: 2-1 vs Goblins (2-0) This is another Pro player that I've never played against. G1 he finds an Ammunition Expert relatively quickly and keeps my board under control as he loads up on goblins quickly. G2 I side in 2 Angers, 2 Finks, and a Blossoming Defense. I keep a strong hand with multiple SB cards and run him over pretty quickly. G3 he T1 mogg fanatic's my bird of paradise and I keep him on the backfoot the whole game. He goes to block a 5/5 Pelt Collector with 3 toughness not realizing it has trample and he dies to it and 2 ball lightnings while he was at 14 health.
RD 3: 2-0 vs Eldrazi Tron (3-0) This is a friend from my LGS who I had just beat on Monday. He actually made Top 4 in the this event. This is a pretty good matchup for me and I just ran him over quickly both games. SB is -4 Lightning Bolt, + Ancient Grudge, Blossoming Defense, Force of Vigor, and a Finks
RD 4: 1-2 vs Eldrazi Tron (3-1) This player ended up winning the tournament. He won the die roll and mulled to 5 cards. T1 he plays tron land and passes. I play a bird and he quickly Dismembers it. Don't think I had ever seen Dismember in a Tron player's MB, but it worked. T2 he plays chalice on 1 and shuts out half my hand. T3 he plays his third Tron land (natural tron) and plays Karn and grabs Lattice. I hit him with a Lightning Skelemental and make him discard it, but he grabs a Liquid Metal Coating his next turn and starts taking away my lands. Several turns later I concede. G2 I hit him fast and hard with some balls and he dies relatively quickly. G3 he plays a land and passes. Proceeds to dismember my Pelt Collector. He gets out lattice combo pretty quick and the game is over.
RD 5: 2-1 vs GB Rock (4-1) G1 I quickly put a ball in my GY and attack with thunderkin + ball (common theme of the day). He can't come back. G2 I get him to 6 but he wins the race with Goyfs. G3 I play a vexing devil that he pays 4 for. A ball and a Pelt Collector follows up and he goes down pretty quickly. Turns out Liliana of the Veil actually helps my deck.
RD 6: (4-1-1) I am ranked 5th and draw with my opponent to guarantee Top 8.
Top 8:
I am ranked 3rd overall and get to choose to take the play vs U/W control. G1 I Mull to 6 and keep a slow hand not knowing what I'm playing against. He Surgical, Snap, Surgical's both my balls (ow) and he never has less than 10 health. G2 I have a T3 kill with Faithless Looting, Thunderkin Awakaner, and 2 Ball Lightnings. I T1 FL a ball away and swing for 7 on T2. He top decks surgical and hits both the Ball in my GY and in my hand and yells out a victory cry. I get down a Bird and a Pelt collector but he supreme verdicts at 6 HP and his lands are all tapped. I have no hand but top deck a Lightning Skelemental. I look at my lands and remember that Blood Crypt needed to be in my deck just for this situation. I literally top deck 2 more Skelementals in a row as my deck mocks my land choices and he resolves a Circle of Protection Red and removes 2 pelt collectors as fast as I put them down. He resolves a Timely and I concede. I was extremely disappointed not to see the G3. He was playing 2 surgical main board and said he had 10 side board cards that he brought in against me.
I'm sorry I don't remember details of the matches better as I waited too long to write this report. All in all the deck performed well even though I never had any T1Pelt Collector T2Devil/Devil or T1Pelt Collector T2Pelt Collector/Devil games. Actually I don't think I even had a T1Pelt T2HellSpark start either. I should have mulliganed to 5 in G1 of Top 8 and G2 if I had actually fixed my mana base we would have went to G3. Lesson learned.
The deck is FUN. I encourage you all to try it. If you have the mana base it's a pretty cheap deck. LMK if you have any questions.
After going 4-0 at FNM I am going to take this deck to the SCG IQ this Saturday. I am trying to formulate a more competitive sideboard for the meta and a sideboard guide if you have any ideas.
