Nah New003, those cards have decent value, that's for sure, but without trample or flying or any other keyword or abilities, they are liable to just get chump blocked all day. thanks for the input, but I've already considered and dismissed those. maybe for another deck, but they just don't fit here.

No problem.

But I am curious that chump blocked by what? I play every thursday modern at my local store and that's a case of path to exile. I rarely face token deck. At worse you kill.. kalitas, goyf, resto and other strong card. The #1 removal in modern is Lightning Bolt and with Aether Revolt comming the #2 will be Fatal Push. None of those to manage a 10/10. Honestly I think it can really be good.

well you have a point there, i mean if you run those creatures and it works, then it works. it just really feels bad when youre trying to swing for big damage early and turn after turn they stall you out with a mana dork, a goblin guide, an ornithopter, or even a token until they can top deck the appropriate removal. if you have some kind of evasion then they need to have the correct removal on the spot.

the big issue with including more beaters is trying to figure out what to cut. the build is already fairly well balanced with early ramp and mill, and middle ground tutors, finishers and protection. i'm willing to grant that there are a few experimental slots open for consideration to cut between the graveyard retrieval pieces and the Renowned Weaver + Strength from the Fallen pieces, but i don't think that adding one or two beaters that can't support themselves justifies cutting any of those.

Death's Presence may or may not work out for you here, I'm not sure.

That's definitely a powerful effect, but I would think it would be better suited for an aristocrats or other self sacrifice deck. But that mana cost tho, by the time I get to play it it's probably too late. Probably doesn't work in this build. It feels more like an EDH card that would go well with Reyhan, Last of the Abzan

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Nighthowler are cards i really like in my fright list. Also, i do play this nifty little combo out of Noose Constrictor, Dakmor Salvage and The Gitrog Monster. Burying your whole library for zero mana to get an incredibly large splinterfright is no joke for your opponent.

You and I think a lot alike, Nighthowler is already in the build, I like to fetch for it late game using Fauna Shaman to pull finishers. I used to run Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord in the sideboard as an alternate win condition against lock down and control decks, but so far it's never been viable in my meta.

I definitely run Wild Mongrel, Noose Constrictor, and Dakmor Salvage in my The Gitrog Monster EDH deck, cycling through that deck near infinitely as long as you're running an oldschool Ulamog, Kozilek, or Emracool. But all that business I feel is better suited to EDH. The Rog is just too slow at 5 mana and you need to get all those pieces, it just doesn't cut it for competative modern.

I also used to run the Dakmor Salvage + Raven's Crime combo in this build but I opted for something more proactive rather than limiting against my opponent. Usually my big problem in the mainboard is when I'm outpaced by combo like Ad-nauseam or cheri0s. This is usually solved by going heavy mill to get them to dump their combo pieces, it works a lot since I already run 4 Hedron Crabs, but the problem is consistency and my reliance on crabs. basically I need cheap mill threats 5-8 in my sideboard, and right now Im looking at Archive Trap + Ghost Quarter . the super-nice added bonus to completely switching modes with the sideboard is that after game 1 people usually side in grave hate thanks to the popularity of modern dredge. once they windmill slam a Rest in Peace, you can just help them windmill slam the rest of their deck into exile. it feels real real good.

WOO! 69! I can stop deck cycling!

... Rats...

Hey man. I always check this deck of yours, because it is very similar to a simic deck i built a time ago: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/dead-mans-stomp/

I always found that it had 2 weaknesses: GY removal and that it is a little bit slow.

Regarding the first, after analyzing the GY hate cards that are used in the meta (Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, Rest in Peace, Grafdigger's Cage, Crypt Incursion, Nihil Spellbomb,Leyline of the Void and Scavenging Ooze to a lesser extent), i came to the conclusion that the best way to handle most of them is with Pithing Needle and Trickbind.

The needle prevents Tormod's Crypt (the most generically used GY hate card), Relic of Progenitus and Nihil Spellbomb from being immediatly activated.

Trickbind is a little bit slower and requires you to leave mana open, but it also makes the previously named artifacts to be sacrificed in vain, counters Rest in Peace and has splitsecond.

Leyline of the Void isn't such a concern, since it is played mainly by monoblack decks, doesnt exile your GY on ETB, and by the time it sees play, you should have your GY filled up (unless they get it on their opening hand, but being a GY hate card, it will usually be a 2x on the sideboard, making it unprobable for that to occur).

The other more fragile and slower alternative to the needle is Phyrexian Revoker. The upside is that it also counts as a creature.

In the case of the needle, once you've gone through game 2 and you know their GY hate card, on game 3 play it as soon as possible and name that card. Since this deck has no artifacts whatsoever, they shouldn't consider putting artifact/enchantment hate against it.

Moreover, it can screw some combos, like kiki jiki, Saheeli Cat, and others.

Trickbind is more abarcative and doesnt care about your opponent's game, so you can use it to a wider extent.

The second and complementary solution is being able to refill your GY ASAP once it has been exiled. Which this kind of deck shouldn't have any problem.

Regarding the second weakness, I found the solution to be adding 2x Lightning Greaves. It protects your T1 hedron so you can keep self milling, then equip it to your T3 splinterfright for 5-9 hasty trampling damage that just keeps escalating and your opponent cant do anything about it (except if they exile your GY). If you need to enchant your creatures, just equip it to other creature you control, enchant it, and equip it back again (though this is done at sorcery speed, so you open them to instant disruption).

Afterwards, just equip it to each of your creatures that enters the battlefield to attack on that same turn, putting a lot of pressure on your opponent.

Hope it helps

Forgot to say that I used to have the Plaxmanta in the budget version of the deck for protection, but it slows down your game because it forces you to play your beaters later (having to leave 2 mana open against removal on the same turn you play them). Although the boots dont quite solve this (because the equip is at sorcery speed), at least they grant you more freedom, since once you play them on T2 (ideally), on the following turns you just have to worry about the opponent being tapped out, and not also about leaving 2 floating mana in case they want to remove your creatures.

Plus, the haste part is awesome, inverting the pace of the game and forcing the opponent to play way more defensively. It also helps tipping the scales against aggro.

Hey Chino90! That's a lot to consider, thanks a lot for the input.

My build definitely tries to go big as fast as possible these days going all-in on aggro in the mainboard, but it's tough when the most consistent threats are hovering at 3CMC without haste and ALSO need to rely on filling the graveyard on turns 1 and 2. At one point early on I tried diversifying the playstyle of the build to allow for removal and counterspells and protection, but all the viable options like Trickbind weren't creatures, and in running them I would get dead mills all day and I would rarely reach lethal damage before turn 6 and 7. These days, I'm fully committed to running creatures and aggro as heavily as possible in the mainboard for a number of reasons:

1) I don't care if the opponent counters or kills my creatures, it's fine. that's just eating up their mana and their cards to stall my game with a larger graveyard later. (Path to Exile is pretty rough though unless I'm lucky enough to have Hedron Crab out and a spare basic in the library)

2) I have a huge number of targets for them to worry about between mana dorks, Fauna Shamans, Splinterfrights, and Strength from the Fallen boosts. If they can literally take care of all of my threats between Splinterfright, Nighthowler, and anything that gets boosted, then they are probably not doing much of anything else that's productive, aside from protecting some punk-@#$ 2-card combo or some such.

3) In keeping the mainboard highly creature-aggro fucussed, I've narrowed the lethal damage window down to around turn 5 or 6 on average, with turn 4 doable and turn 3 pretty unlikely but possible.

The big reason I run 2 Plaxmanta in the mainboard is just to push through a final attack and it curves out well. I only really need 1 to get the final push, I just run 2 because 1 is pretty likely to get milled. I know it's something to consider to try and protect my creatures after I play them, but why bother? If it's killed or countered, then I'll just fetch up another bigger one with Fauna Shaman later, and the following turn I'll swing, draw out removal, and fetch and flash out plaxmanta with the kill spell on the stack.

All that being said describes the mainboard pretty well, but now we're getting into dealing with the graveyard and graveyard-hate which is largely sideboard tech for most decks unless their doing something pretty wonky. Thanks to the popularity of decks like modern dredge, GY hate is a consistent sideboard threat almost everywhere which makes it consistently predictable. Most decks are going to run it except for dredge and probably most reanimators. so as long as we're up against anything else that likely will run GY hate then we board out 4 Splinterfright, 3 Strength from the Fallen, 3 Renowned Weaver, 2Dryad Arbor, some Gnaw to the Bones and whichever of Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip, Nyx Weaver, and Soul of Innistrad you prefer. Then board in the entire sideboard and go HAM on milling out the opponent, hopefully with their Rest in Peace out. The only reason this actually works, and yes, it actually works, is because of the predictability of the meta and the versatility of Hedron Crab. Heck, Phantasmal Image is only included in the side to act as crabs 5-8.

Game 1 will usually be a blowout in either direction, either the mainboard matchup is good or it isn't. If it's good and I don't suspect GY hate that I can't deal with, then I make no changes and push for game two. If I'm coming off of a loss from either game 1 or 2, then the next game is usually a steal for me when I board in the sideboard. Basically the deck flips modes entirely and is always fully committed in one direction or another, and for either purpose I'm mostly just looking to make it faster and more consistent. To that effect, you're right, Lightning Greaves is pretty rad. I've always known it was rad, but I never really considered it for this build due to not being fetchable with Fauna Shaman and also being a dead mill for me, but now I'm going to consider it.

You've definitely given me some food for thought, and I really appreciate your input. Thanks a lot :D

MattStar Glad it helped!

I understand your concern about having as many creatures as possible. I originally traveled that road too, but i found that taking a few creature cards in exchange of artifacts or other spells doesnt change the gameplay substantially. For instance, in the case of the greaves, suppose you add 2 of them. You are losing 2 power for your creatures, but you are potentially leting them attack 1 turn earlier, which translates into more damage. Plus, you protect them.

I also run 3x eternal witness to recover them, or any card i am in need of, in case i mill them.

After your explanation, i see that the angle of your gameplay is different from mine, so now i understand your choices.

Finally, not that they are neccesary, but the new amonkhet cards with embalm seem very interesting for our decks (specially Honored Hydra and vizier of many faces).

You can mill them and still use them. And the Vizier can come as an extra spliterfright or nighthowler.

The sphinx is kinda expensive, though.

Chino90, I'm glad we're able to come to an understanding here.

My biggest concern with running non-creature spells in small amounts is how unlikely it is in general to consistently utilize their effects. I really do like Lightning Greaves but as a 1-2 include i couldn't rely on any consistency of getting it into my hand throughout a game, and at 3-4 i might be able to bank on getting one in my starting hand or a lucky draw, but then i'd start whiffing mills left and right, at least that has been my experience.

I like your solution of running Eternal Witness, i used to use it myself, but i've found that i kinda like Nyx Weaver better to get any card back from the GY. with E-Wit you kinda need to hang onto it in your hand until you have a decent target and then it would be best if you had the mana to cast it and play the spell the same turn, but with the spider you can play it early and it starts milling for you and blocks weenies in the air like from Lingering Souls, and when you have a target you can recover it at the end of your opponent's turn. i know it's out of color for your simic build, but it was one of the early reasons why i originally went into golgari, you might want to consider it.

But, y'know, different solutions. thanks again for the input.

From Amonkhet, I'm definitely keeping an eye on the embalm creatures and the aftermath cards, but it looks like the aftermath sides are exclusively sorcery speed which is kinduva bummer. vizier of many faces seems pretty rad, but the 5 mana embalm is a little rough, might be able to work though. the hydra is a really decent beater, just solid, i like it but it might not curve out too well. Honestly the biggest thing i was hoping for before the spoilers was an "Enchantments Matter" set like Theros. an enchantment creature version of Haunted Dead would really push constellation from Strength from the Fallen for this deck, but any enchantment that could return itself faster than sorcery speed would be amazing. hopes have been dashed though.

Yo what about good o'l Vines of Vastwood over Plaxmanta? Easier to play, better than shroud, and can be cast on your opponent's creatures as a pseudo counter in some situations. The kicker can even help you eek out that extra damage with the +4.

Yeah, I love Vines of Vastwood, it's definitely a solid card. The big problem with it in this build is that just including slots for non-creature spells in general kinda ruins the rate of milling my own creatures into the yard like I'm wont to do. It might not seem like it at first but in practice a playset difference in creatures to non-creatures becomes pretty noticeable on average. But aside from that, Plaxmanta works out perfectly well when used in conjunction with Fauna Shaman. You don't even need plaxmanta in hand to make use of it in a snap response to some targeted removal. That's the big advantage of plaxmanta over vines of vastwood in here, I just can't rely on being able to utilize vines as consistently vs when I can have access to plaxmanta through fauna shaman.

You don't seem to have any ways of preventing gy wipes (RIP, Rakdos Charm, etc). You have decay and caterpillar... but that's kinda limited given the effects they have on the game. Am I missing something?

Yeah Entrei, there really isn't any hard counter to GY hate. Things like Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, Relic of Progenitus, Tormod's Crypt and Rakdos Charm kinda dash everything the mainboard is trying to do when they pop off and there's nothing that can be done about it short of counterspell effects (Grafdigger's Cage is fine though).

What you're missing is that GY hate is largely a meta-call for sideboard tech. Very rarely is any of it included in opponents' mainboards unless they're running something that just can't deal with something like dredge. As such, if you know the opponent is running GY hate in the sideboard either from a list, or from practice then you literally just take out all of the graveyard payoff cards like Splinterfright, and Strength from the Fallen, and board in the opponent mill strategy from the sideboard. It's cheeky, but the current modern meta is predictable enough to catch people with their pants down.

So the opponent mill strat is largely based around Hedron Crab + fetch-lands and Archive Trap + Ghost Quarter , and I'll be throwing Fraying Sanity in the mix when HoD comes out. Making the opponent mill 6 on each fetch can ruin plans, especially for combo decks, but if the game goes longer (which usually happens post-sideboarding) then Fauna Shaman helps to get more and more crabs or lands or whatever we need. Having a couple of crabs out and drop-cracking a fetch can be downright backbreaking for an opponent but you can also do some neat tricks like hitting yourself with a GQ to get a 3rd landfall trigger. Archive Trap is just nuts and always will be for mill, and can be made consistent with GQ. Fraying Sanity just puts the mill over the top.

T1 - land, birds go

T2 - crabs, ghost quarter, filler (more crabs) - mill 3(+)

T3 - fetchland, crack ghost quarter on opponent, archive trap, drop fraying sanity pass turn - mill 40

A lot of people don't get the sideboard call or they are just skeptical of it, and that's fine. A lot of people have no faith in mill. My justification for going this route, switching up what the deck does entirely from self-mill-GY-agro to opponent-mill, is that with an all-in self-mill creature-based deck like this, there's no good way to side in conventional methods of countering graveyard hate. Every playset of a non-creature spell like the most efficient counterspells or removal or anything to make the deck more mid-rangey detracts from the efficiency of the deck's main function. Even worse, the deck's enabling function of self-mill greatly diminishes the effectiveness of any meta-calls/answers that can be sideboarded in. It is more consistent to "flip a switch" and do something else that works well with pieces in the mainboard. Hedron Crab + Satyr wayfinder + fetchlands all work well with both strategies, and allows the opponent mill strategy to work on par with a lot of the "best", "competative" mill decks. The big plus side is, GY hate is one of the few reasons to ever touch the sideboard, and Mill works so great against it.

Fair enough. As a brewer, one of the strategies I tend to be the most skeptic about tend to be GY oriented strategies. Partially because sideboarding can cripple it, and because I am a firm believer of Cremate being one of THE best cantrips in the format ( straight up counters snapcaster, works as combat trick against goyf, and is phenomenal for dodging Surgical Extraction effects)

Best of luck!

Well thank you, I appreciate the criticism. Cremate seems pretty sweet in the current metagame too. It can probably also do work against gifts-storm or anything else that runs Past in Flames. Good luck brewing!

Hey Man!

Love the deck and really want to play it. However, I'm a little strapped for cash and was wondering if there is a way to make this budget. Other than the fetch lands, what cards would you add/take out to make this budget. It doesn't have to still be powerful just enough to have some fun at FNM.

Thanks!

Hey TankyHamster, I'm really glad you enjoy the deck!

If you want to build a budget version of this deck, then you can substitute in Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse and some more basics pretty easily and it will still maintain the integrity of what this deck does, it'll just be a turn or two slower on average. You will still be able to capitalize on the landfall trigger from Hedron Crab pretty respectably, which is important.

If Fauna Shaman is too rich for your blood, then you can substitute in Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip for a similar effect.

Street Wraith has gone up in price lately too. you can sub in some extra Nyx Weavers in their place to help the mill effort. I kinda want to throw more into my build but they just don't quite make the cut.

If anything else is too expensive for you, then you can always cut it for Wreath of Geists, Stinkweed Imp or Lotleth Troll is a nifty option.

If you're gonna go HaM on the funsies, then Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is always a good time.

Lastly, if even Hedron Crab is out of your price range, then you'd be best off going two color BG, but yeah, not too much about the deck is very expencive, mostly just the land-base.

Good luck, and have fun buddy! :D

Thank you so much MattStar this was very helpful!

Hey there again!

How about adding Invisible Stalker?

It's basically a free win if you could activate Screams from the Fallen or Nighthowler. I know it doesn't synergize with graveyard or milling, but I feel as if you had the two mentions above, it could be a cheap (both CMC and money wise) and effective win-con.

Oh whoops not screams from the fallen Strength from the Fallen. :P