Stooges' Landfall

Modern Aggro Burn Combo

Emorelleum

Creature (27)

• 4x Boros Reckoner
• 4x Figure of Destiny
• 1x Grim Lavamancer
• 2x Lightning Mauler
• 4x Nearheath Pilgrim
• 4x Plated Geopede
• 4x Steppe Lynx
• 4x Volcano Hellion

Land (22)

• 4x Arid Mesa
• 4x Mountain
• 4x Plains
• 2x Sacred Foundry
• 4x Windswept Heath
• 4x Wooded Foothills

Instant (11)

• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 4x Lightning Helix
• 3x Path to Exile

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Sideboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Fulminator Mage
• 1x Kor Firewalker
• 1x Spellskite

Enchantment (6)

• 2x Blood Moon
• 2x Rest in Peace
• 1x Stony Silence
• 1x Worship

Artifact (1)

• 1x Pithing Needle

Instant (4)

• 1x Electrickery
• 3x Wear / Tear

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Crumble to Dust

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Just because twin was banned doesn't mean modern lacks T4 combo kills!

The goal of this deck is to threaten the opponent with cheap efficient threats early game. They are forced to choose to interact early or defend against the combos. This deck is great for aggressive metagames, where 8 maindeck lifegain cards pull you into a comfortable midgame with threat of combo.

Features:

-Straightforward proactive game-plan, but with combo present

-Maindeck lifegain

-White sideboard for hate

-Bigger than fast aggro, faster than midrange

-Good mana, middling pain, bloodmoon resilient even game one, mana sinks provide flood insurance

-Get to explain how Volcano Hellion works

Quirks:

-Slower goldfishing than other R/W aggro decks

-Generally sorcery speed

-Hard time dealing with Lingering Souls, and tokens in general

-Sometimes forced to race when it does not want to (landfall creatures make poor blockers)

I have taken this to several lgs level modern events, always with an even or positive record. Feel free to ask questions, leave comments, or make suggestions.

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General Strategy Show

First and foremost, we are not an all-out aggressive kill-by turn 3 or four deck (though some draws let you go down that path). Our creature suite gives us a solid mid-game against a lot of decks.

Against an unknown opponent, you want to pressure the opponent early, clearing blockers as applicable. Play your landfall creatures and pilgrims first, as these cards are the most mana efficient ways to swing life totals. If you can force your opponents to spend their removal early, you can stick a Reckoner or a growing Figure (which also makes a fine early drop if you have nothing else).

Against most aggro opponents, you can keep hands that are mostly removal, confident that you will draw enough muscle to take away the midgame.

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Combos and tips Show

Nearheath Pilgrim + Volcano Hellion = infinite life Boros Reckoner + Volcano Hellion = dead opponent

The latter combo requires having more life than the opponent. Note that in games where the combo is relevant you will likely have a significant life advantage for most of the game.

Be wary of being sniped by a stray bolt, charm, or command while the kill-the-opponent trigger is still on the stack.

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Cards: Show

The core of the deck is:4x Volcano Hellion4x Boros Reckoner 4x Nearheath Pilgrim

Nearheath Pilgrim : Alongside our supporting creatures lets us race any deck, even affinity. It is a big reason why our aggro matchups tend to be favorable. This inauspicious 2-drop is actually a must-remove for a lot of decks.

Boros Reckoner : Rules the board if the opponent has no removal. Remember you can give him first strike. Throw in some burn and you can potentially trade your bolt for a large creature. If he is in combat with something big, also remember you can send his bounce damage to face!

Volcano Hellion: Even in a vacuum, he is at least a terrible burn spell that can hit any creature. Late game, if you have enough mana and the opponent is sufficiently spent, consider lowering your lifetotal enough so you can pay his echo cost. Know his rules! You do not choose the damage for his ability until it resolves. This means you cannot accidentally kill yourself if the opponent kills your lifelink-giving pilgrim while the ability is on the stack. When pointed at a creature, you do exactly enough to kill the creature, no chance to sac something for an arcbond ravager or vial in a merfolk lord to save the creature.

Support:

Figure of Destiny , Steppe Lynx, and Plated Geopede all have the potential to single-handedly deal a huge amount of damage to the opponent or trade up at any point in the game. Figure is also a decent lategame topdeck.

Lightning Mauler A lot of creatures in this deck are begging for haste (looking at you especially Volcano Hellion). Having one of these early helps you goldfish more quickly against decks where that is relevant.

Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix need no explanation. If you are feeling especially combo-oriented, you can also use Magma Jet.

Path to Exile Cheap efficient catchall creature removal, lets us punch in an extra 4 or 5 damage when we care to resolve it. Be careful about giving certain opponents more lands.

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Sideboard: Show

The sideboard is highly tunable., so I won't get into specific choices/ All matches are winnable with the mainddeck (though some are less favorable than others). Because both our aggro and combo plans revolve around creatures, the best cards in the opponent's 75 are usually already in the maindeck. Opponents usually side in Kitchen Finks, more creature removal (including sweepers), and possibly a hedge against Blood Moon. The various enchantments that give your creatures -1/-1 are also rough, but there are not too many of those lying around, and sometimes the game is over before they get the chance to play them. If they side in combo-specific cards such as Torpor Orb, laugh as you steamroll them with your creatures. Post board, determine whether you need to beat down or control, trim the weaker cards from the opposite plan (usually volcano hellion or nearheath pilgrim for becoming more aggressive, lightning mauler if being more controlling), and siding in something disruptive. We are an aggressive deck, so consider leaving out blood moons on the draw against opponents where it is merely an inconvenience. Above all, don't dilute your aggro strategy! To keep the strategy intact, your sideboard cards should be high-impact (e.g. no Burrenton Forge-Tender). You are in white! The sky is the limit!

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'Why Nots': Show

Ghost Quarter: You can run this if you really want to, as it helps against land-based decks and can trigger extra landfall. However, many of our spells cannot be cast with colorless mana. Consider upping the land count if you run this card.

Wild Nacatl: A green splash certainly would be easy for this deck, but take another look at the aggro creatures. Every one of them can swing into a goyf under correct circumstances. This deck already dilutes fast aggro with the combo, so we want our threats to be live at any point in the game, rather than just being a high-variance aggro deck.

Goblin Guide: A fantastic one drop for sure, but it conflicts slightly with the gameplan of this deck. Potentially giving the opponent lands gives them the opportunity to stabilize by turning on their two-for-ones before we have opened up a large enough lead. The comments on Nacatl also apply.

Boros Charm: Although featured in many aggressive landfall decks, it has several problems in this deck. First, since we tend to curve out, and don't run ghost quarter, we usually don't get more than 2 landfall triggers a turn, so the doublestrike is only better than the 4 damage in rare situations. Second, we often have other things to do with our mana than hold two of it up to potentially save one or two creatures. This card has almost always been simply a burn-for-4 in testing, which is not what this deck is going for.

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General Matchup Comments Show

Aggro: As mentioned in the summary, you have to have very lopsided draws to lose against most aggressive decks. Whether you must race or if you can control depends on how much removal you draw in your opening hand. Sticking a nearheath pilgrim with pretty much anything puts red decks extremely far behind. Non-red aggro decks such as affinity and merfolk have trouble dealing with all the spot removal and a resolved Boros Reckoner . That said, you may have some trouble with spell-focused burn decks which can race over your bulkier creatures.

Midrange: Junk and tokens are pretty terrible matchups. You have a hard time getting them into burn range, and they can afford to save their removal for your combo. That said, if they get an awkward draw, you have a good chance of exploiting an opening. Jund is more manageable, since their large amount of lifeloss. Between figures, reckoners, and hellions, we can hold our own in a topdeck war.

Tempo: Nut draws are tough to beat since landfall creatures make poor blockers, and a good portion of our gameplan is susceptible to bounce. That said, we are plenty fine with their slower draws thanks to the amount of removal we run.

Control: All of your cards are capable of singlehandedly dropping the opponent into burn range. They must have their early interaction or die. Even if they control the early game, they still have to play cautiously lest you combo out, giving you chances to get back into the game.

Combo: This deck goldfishes a little slower than other aggro decks, so your matchups against dedicated combo decks suffer accordingly. If you have a lot of combo in your meta, your sideboard should reflect it.

Big Mana: Tron is a rough matchup. Infinite life means nothing, and the pure aggro plan is often a turn or two too slow, often leaving us to pray we draw a reckoner and a hellion. We cannot win through a resolved ugin. Eldrazi and bloom are slightly better, since our creatures tend to interact favorably with opposing large creatures.

Any comments are greatly appreciated!

Date added	9 years
Last updated	8 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	0 - 2 Mythic Rares 27 - 7 Rares 17 - 5 Uncommons 8 - 1 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.89