Sideboard


Simplified Green/Black Rock

-- Creatures --

  • Dark Confidant where would green/black be without this amazing little draw power engine. a tiny beat stick and constant card advantage is no laughing matter. Card advantage is a boon nobody can pass up in control let alone midrange. while running Bob alongside any four drop is risky it ultimately fuels you to the turn you could play one, and that's not even taking into account the amount of life gain this deck can pull off to keep us in the game. as many pro players have stated in the past untapping with dark confidant in play while still at a healthy life total usually spells game over for your opponent.

  • Tarmogoyf this card doesn't need a whole lot of explanation. just look at modern top 8 lists and you'll see for yourself that every deck that can effectively run four goyfs does. he's just a good beater. simple, cheap, and he hits like a truck. not to mention that he will always outclass other two drops in the format. just being able to drop him early in the game as a relatively big threat can be a scary thought for your opponent. a great line will always be turn 1 thoughtseize followed by turn 2 goyf.

  • Scavenging Ooze Being able to gain life in a list running lots of damaging lands and spells helps immensely. the life-gain isn't the only boon that scooze has to offer though. exiling cards from your opponents yard, getting ride of creatures that could have come back, or even just removing flashback targets and other odds and ends really helps to control your opponents deck. lastly let's not forget that scooze grows when he eats creatures. when your opponent is low on removal scooze will often times become a clock to be feared. it should be noted however that scooze is very much a turn 3 or later play. unless you're using him to eat early game removal it will almost always be important to play him as a threat later in the game when the yard is full and you have mana available to use his ability at instant speed.

  • Tireless Tracker Having access to another green beat stick is nice for a deck that loves to play off the top. this creature pairs beautifully with fetch lands and field of ruin giving us lots of draw power in the late game if we sand bag lands. this gives us another way to eke out card advantage dispite the heavy mana cost of having to crack each individual clue token the card can run away with the game if left unchecked.

  • Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in the late game it's nice to follow up your threats and removal with a solid lifelinker. kalitas preforms several roles for the deck. the 3/4 body for 4 evades a lot of problematic removal, the exile effect deals with decks that try to derive value from the graveyard. and the final ability lets us run away with the game when we remove their threats.

-- instants, sorceries, & Walkers --

  • Thoughtseize early game hand disruption is the backbone of all control decks running black. being able to remove your opponents turn 1 or 2 play as well as any combo pieces and bombs makes it so your opponent has to fight fair or else. while 2 damage does hurt, it pales in comparison to the power of being able to shut down a combo or ruin a decks curve.

  • Inquisition of Kozilek this card is a damage free alternative to thoughtseize. it helps in practically the same way but has the added bonus of being perfect in the burn match up for being able to remove spells from hand damage free. it also lets you remove any counter disruption and removal spells early on with no drawback letting you follow it up with a creature that becomes that much harder to remove.

  • Fatal Push low curve killspells tend to be very helpful in aggro matchups. but fatal push has the added benefit of helping out mid to late game against many other decks. cards like siege rhino, kalitas, huntmaster, master of the waves, and even some eldrazi get easily and cheaply removed by fatal push. It's also not very hard to activate fatal push in this deck. you can fetch for a land, activate field of ruin, blow up a creature, minus a lily to death, chump block or even cracking a clue token and I'm sure if you get creative you can find other ways as well. the real shining point for this kill-spell is its ability to kill creature lands as well making it a decent top deck late game in the midrange match-up.

  • Assassin's Trophy having access to removal against any potential threat is exactly what the rock has been trying to do for the entirety of it's existence. finally with this removal spell we can remove everything under the sun including tron lands. this not only gives us a leg up in that match up but it also gives us a fool proof way to take out late game planeswalkers in several of the control decks running around in the format too. it doesn't hurt to note that this spell pairs perfectly with field of ruin due to the fact that most decks in modern run a limited number of basics meaning you will probably end up forcing your opponent into a land loss position.

  • Maelstrom Pulse much for the same reason as assassin's trophy, pulse is amazing at removing everything under the sun the downside of not being an instant is really out shined by the ability to two for one walls of creatures and in some cases when you need to kill a four drop or higher, abrupt decay just won't do the job. it mainly does the most work against decks that run lingering souls, planeswalkers, and large annoying creatures like ramp and tron.

  • Liliana of the Veil and finally the partner in crime to all Rock decks everywhere. lily can and will make you opponent have a bad time, but be warned. lily can be over taxed by walls of efficient creatures and she can be abrupt decayed by decks in the mirror match. otherwise she is the perfect hand manipulation. being able to force your opponent down to one card with free removal up each turn leads to some amazing late games. not to mention that she pairs excellently with any creature land. every turn force your opponents last card out of hand and swing for unanswerable damage with a hissing quagmire.

-- lands --

  • Field of Ruin one of the main reasons to run two colors in modern as opposed to three. utility lands in modern are not as prevalent as they are in other formats but in here creature lands and tron lands make up a big portion of what needs to be dealt with. being able to do that at any time when it's most convenient to you is also a reason why field of ruin is run. it also doesn't hurt that fatal push can be activated by it leaving play making it a great way to turn your fatal pushes into stronger kill spells. and lastly it always grabs a basic for you too meaning you will never put yourself in a sticky situation.

  • Hissing Quagmire although it enters the battlefield tapped, having extra creatures usually largely outweighs that downside. late game the mire becomes a force to be reckoned with. if lily is on board Mr. Quagmire here usually swings in for unanswerable damage because liliana has a habit of locking players out of the game when they don't have access to draw power. however even without lily most cases the mire is very hard to remove from play as it evades wraths, nonland permanent removal, and anything that's not cast-able at instant speed.

  • Treetop Village much for the same reason that the mire is good, the village also preforms well when it comes to turning the corner. having access to a decent size creature as early as turn three allows us to race decks to the finish.

  • Blooming Marsh fast lands are always great and rock finally got one of its own. being able to play a duel land from turn one to turn three with no downside is amazing for a multicolor deck. a blooming marsh into an inquisition of kozilek is an amazing start against the burn match.

  • Verdant Catacombs fetch lands, apart from deck thinning, also let you pick the colors you need to play your spells on curve. You also get a free shuffle which can be quite nice when you need to dig yourself out of a mana flooding situation. just like field of ruin they also help to activate fatal push so that it can be used to take down bigger threats.

  • Overgrown Tomb this land is used to fix your mana. It's fetchable, it can get us all of our colors, it can enter untapped when necessary to play spells on curve and can even enter tapped if the life is too important to lose. it also lets you play spells on curve with double black and double green in there cost making it a great utility in the late game.

  • Forest & Swamp most match ups your going to want some basics to deal with path to exile, ghost quarter, and blood moon. it also helps to have a damage free alternative to fetching for lands on your turn.

-- side board --

  • Surgical Extraction sometimes you just need to make sure a threat is gone for good. surgical helps us accomplish this against dredge, tron, and various combo decks here and there.

  • Nihil Spellbomb sometimes you need to be able to interact with the graveyard. the bomb allows you to do that without impeding your own gameplan as it adds artifact to the yard for goyf and it draws a card to replace itself as well.

  • Collective Brutality this card just says play me against burn. being able to deal two and gain two, kill small creatures and mana dorks, or even just casting it as hand disruption makes this a very versatile card. not to mention it can be cast with multiple modes active. this means against burn or control you can remove a card from their hand, kill a small threat like goblin guide or swift spear, and follow it up by trading 2 points of health with them effectively setting them back by nearly a bolts worth of damage. this doesn't even take into account being able to use this as a discard outlet if for some reason you should find yourself needing one like in the case of tarmogoyf. ultimately just a nice grab bag of effects for a card to have.

  • Fulminator Mage even though this deck has a lot of maindeck answers to land base strategies, it's nice to be able to back that up with additional support. fulminator mage has proven itself to be a staple in sideboards over the years and until it proves itself wrong it will be a card worth running.

  • Engineered Explosives until pernicious deed is legal in modern this will be the catch all answer to low drop aggro decks. it wipes tokens, one drops, and two drops with ease and it can come in handy against many prevalent decks that run lots of random difficult to interact with cards like lantern control. other decks in the format are lowering their curve to race the ever creeping meta and this card will only get better in the meantime.

  • Damnation I couldn't not run a board wipe. damnation is the perfect card for removing armies of creatures and will never not hold a place in my heart. wraths make aggro decks bearable and can be useful in all sorts of awkward situations where targeted removal would fail.

+1's and comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

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Date added 8 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

14 - 0 Mythic Rares

28 - 13 Rares

12 - 0 Uncommons

0 - 2 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.11
Tokens Clue, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Jund, Cool Decks, Playtest Decks, cool decks to keep an eye on, Rock GB, Modern, Decks, i like tis
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