[Primer] - Zirda G/W Creature Toolbox (Modern MTG Deck)

[Primer] - Zirda G/W Creature Toolbox

Modern* BRGW Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Lifegain Primer Stoneblade Zirda, the Dawnwaker

Oloro_Magic

Creature (30)

Land (19)

Artifact (3)

Companion (1)

Sorcery (4)

Instant (4)

4x Eladamri's Call

Sideboard

Creature (8)

Artifact (3)

Instant (4)

Maybeboard

Creature (3)

THE ABOVE LIST REPRESENTS WHAT IS FIRST AND FOREMOST A WORK IN PROGRESS, I THINK HOWEVER THAT ZIRDA HAS A LOT OF POTENTIAL IN THE MODERN FORMAT. ALSO I AM OPEN TO CREATIVE NAME SUGGESTIONS.

ALSO NOTE THAT SOME CARDS THAT ARE LEGAL IN MODERN ARE APPEARING AS BANNED OCCASSIONALLY, THESE THINGS GENERALLY SORT THEMSELVES OUT AFTER A FEW DAYS WHEN OUR GRACIOUS MODS GET AROUND TO THEM

Description and General Gameplan

Creature toolbox decks have been a feature of the modern format in various iterations since the birth of the format. Recently the archetype, like most in modern, has been given a considerable amount of upgrades both in the suite of creatures it can play and the ways in which those creatures can be obtained. The most profound upgrade the deck has been afforded however is the advent of the companion mechanic, which has not only revolutionized the way magic is played itself, but within the microcosm that is G/W Creature Toolbox there has been a more pronounced split in the ways the deck should be played, namely: Lurrus Devoted Druid Combo, and Zirda Umbral Mantle.

Based on my own feelings regarding Lurrus of the Dream-Den in terms of its continued legality in the format, and compound to this the more general play-pattern of a streamlined Devoted Druid deck, I have decided not to pursue this route, even though, at the current stage of development in G/W Value, Devoted Druid is likely still the most consistent and powerful combo available within the archetype. With that said, I do believe that the Zirda Umbral Mantle build has a ton of potential, and is very good as is. In fact, I would wager that, with some more attention and development, this build of the deck could at the very least be seen as the superior option within the archetype.

Speaking more to the variations of Zirda Umbral Mantle, there are two burgeoning schools of thought. The first of these, not represented here, is a variant on the previously established Leyline of Abundance combo decks. The combo remains unchanged in this build, however there is an increased focus on creating an environment to cultivate the central combo of Zirda and Umbral Mantle. Now while this build speaks more to my personal sensibilities, the limited playtesting I have had with those builds have left me a tad unimpressed. I feel that build is more of a glass-cannon, and while I welcome continued innovation within its parameters and will likely create a second page dedicated to its development, I am more excited by these more toolbox-oriented builds that this page is dedicated to.

The build below seeks to integrate the Zirda Umbral Mantle combo within a more diversified shell that can win in multiple ways. Most notably, the below list possesses an integrated Stoneforge Mystic package that serves both to facilitate its central combo whilst providing a reliable secondary win-condition. Tertiary to this, the bonus of playing Zirda, the Dawnwaker over Lurrus of the Dream-Den is the ability to still utilize Heliod, Sun-Crowned and its various combos, here making use of Spike Feeder for infinite-life and Walking Ballista for infinite-damage as well as life. This affords the deck another quick and reliable combo for the deck to utilize and makes it less-focused on simply one play-pattern while still allocating a degree of relevance to Zirda, the Dawnwaker in terms of efficiency; additionally, by integrating these additional patterns, for my own sensibilities, the deck stays more-true to the spirit of G/W Value.

In the primer that is to follow, I will attempt to explain the various interactions and choices that are made in the above list. For example, why am I playing Finale of Devastation, over Aether Vial or Collected Company? Or what one-of's do I believe are the most relevant, and what utility do they provide? Moreover, I will attempt to explain decisions made about the sideboard and introduce a collection of alternatives to be considered based on meta.

Training Grounds combos have been the passion projects of many much more creative minds than mine since the card was first printed in 2010. The issue these decks have always been confronted with however is that, most often, they cannot function without Training Grounds which is a card, by virtue of its being an enchantment, that can be very difficult to find and play on time in modern. The math itself is not in favor of the Training Grounds deck. A 4-of in any deck has a statistical probability of 39.9499626% to show up in one's opening hand. While this is a fairly good number, these decks have always relied on having access to Training Grounds as quickly as possible and as such none of them have been particularly viable in the modern format. Enter Zirda, the Dawnwaker. Zirda fixes the two fundamental problems faced by these decks. Firstly, the deck no longer has to devote 4 slots to a card that does not particularly do much by itself; instead by virtue of the totally-balanced companion mechanic, the deck doesn't even have to play a single copy in the 60 having access to the one needed copy perpetually from the sideboard at any moment. Add to this that Zirda is a creature, meaning one could easily include an additional copy in the main and utilize the various methods of fetching creatures available to the deck.

Now, with our built in Training Grounds perpetually available to us, the next logical step is to identify what combo, of the seemingly hundreds of combos enabled by Training Grounds, is the most coherent and beneficial to this deck. The answer to this question has, at this juncture, been clearly identified in the form of Umbral Mantle combined with any mana-dork. This deck already naturally wants to play 5-9 mana-dorks to speed up the pace of its secondary and tertiary combos, meaning this requirement is easy to satisfy. We have also already identified Zirda as our ideal companion, and thus the cost reduction component is satisfied and with a 100% hit rate at that. The final feature, the Umbral Mantle, is thus what we have left to address. Now, we could play 4 of them, however on its own without Zirda, it is at best a bad card, therefore in a competitive environment this is not a viable option. Luckily for us, a certain kor recently was freed after a long wait. Because of this, we are afforded the ability to minimize the space that a card like Umbral Mantle takes up, and with it we get a card that enables another less combo-oriented win that is addressed in the relevant section below in more detail.

Putting the math altogether then, our Training Grounds has a 100% probability of being available to us from the beginning of the game, Umbral Mantle has a 47.4562173% chance of being in our opening hand (this includes SFM in the calculation), and a 70.0225206% of a mana-dork being in our opening hand with 9 possible successes in the population. Add to this the various ways to fetch the missing piece and we end with a 83.715595% chance of having SFM, Mantle, or a way to fetch SFM in our opening hand, and then a 96.0174362% chance of having a mana-dork or a way to fetch a mana-dork in our opening hand with a total of 21 success in this sample, though it should be said that having to fetch the mana-dork gravely slows our clock.

As for how the combo itself works, it is quite simple really. Zirda reduces the cost of the untap ability on Umbral Mantle to , thus if we are able to attach Umbral Mantle to any mana-dork with a mana open, we can use the mana produced by said creature to create an / creature. Supplementary to this, if said dork is Joraga Treespeaker then infinite green mana is created at the same time, mana that can be dumped into something such as Walking Ballista.

Heliod, Sun-Crowned represents a solid supplementary gameplan that the deck can pursue in lieu of the aforementioned Zirda Umbral Mantle combo. The issue I have always had with Heliod, Sun-Crowned based combos has been that, in my opinion, that they aren't strong or consistent enough to serve as the primary gameplan of a deck. With Zirda Umbral Mantle however, I believe that the Heliod, Sun-Crowned based combos are in the best spot for them in a supporting role. They have the potential to win the game on the spot, whilst not being something that our opponent will necessarily be overly concerned with given the deck is diverse enough that focusing in on hate for say the infinite life combo with Spike Feeder could be against the best interest of the other player (this is not to say that certain decks are not well-positioned to fight every combo the deck can throw at it; however certain decks will be confronted with a choice, having a diverse pool is beneficial in those cases).

Both combos featured here with Heliod, Sun-Crowned are fairly simple. Beginning with the Spike Feeder interaction. By virtue of Spike Feeder entering with two +1/+1 counters, once you remove a counter and gain 2 life, Heliod, Sun-Crowned's ability triggers and the counter is placed on Spike Feeder. From there rinse and repeat. Do note however, that each activation does create a pass of priority meaning your opponent can respond to any of the triggers, the most common scenario will be your opponent responding to Heliod's first trigger to remove either Spike Feeder or Heliod, Sun-Crowned himself. Unfortunately this build does not have a real work-around to this if you lack any of the protection pieces such as Giver of Runes when attempting to combo.

The issue with Spike Feeder is that it does not actually win the game, it only does so on a functional level in eliminating combat damage as a viable option for our opponent. There are many ways to win a game of magic however that don't involve dealing damage, and as such we can't realistically put all our eggs in one basket gaining infinite life. We have to also find a way to win the game outright, luckily there is such a way that constitutes only a small investment in terms of deckbuilding. The solution comes in the incredibly diverse Walking Ballista, a feature of numerous mana combos as well as a card employed for its utility, with Heliod, Sun-Crowned the path to infinite damage is relatively simple. For it to work Walking Ballista has to have a minimum of 2 counters on it. From here, activate Heliod, Sun-Crowned to give Walking Ballista lifelink for or with Zirda. This means that whenever we remove a counter from Walking Ballista that Heliod, Sun-Crowned triggers and we can place the resulting counter back on Walking Ballista perpetually. Do note again however that, like the aforementioned Spike Feeder combo, this creates a priority pass during which your opponent can stop the combo assuming you only have 2 counters (the math changes as Walking Ballista accrues more counters, for example if there are 3 counters then your opponent would need 2 removal spells to successfully stop the combo).

Let's face it, equipment has long been a feature of the game that R&D has had trouble balancing and we can't really blame them for that. Equipment are essentially permanent auras and as such, when designing new equipment, that feature needs to be taken into account. This has resulted in a wide spectrum in the relative power-level of certain equipment from egregiously powerful in the form of Skullclamp or Umezawa's Jitte to vastly underwhelming and unplayable on every metric. The balance is a precarious one, and unfortunately it has led to a limited cardpool from a viability standpoint. Batterskull has consistently been an example of one of the more powerful equipment available in constructed formats, however, until the unbanning of Stoneforge Mystic it lay unplayed in modern due to its high mana cost. With Stoneforge Mystic though, this drawback is removed as we can circumvent having to pay the full 5 mana for Batterskull using Stoneforge Mystic's second ability, having a 4/4 Germ potentially as soon as turn 3, an acceptable rate in the modern format.

With Batterskull as well as the swords discussed more in detail below, Stoneforge Mystic provides the deck with a tertiary way to win the game, and a method at that which does not necessitate that one is comboing-out, but rather playing "fair" magic. This flexibility serves the deck well in grindier and more interactive matchups where assembling a specific combination of cards is unrealistic in most circumstances, and serves its own purpose in keeping our opponent somewhat honest as they must always be aware that we can beat them in a multitude of ways and focusing in on one specific strategy is likely not going to be good enough. Add to this that Stoneforge Mystic has added utility in the Zirda Umbral Mantle combo, and the cost to having this tertiary plan seems small, and in many ways is actually a boon for the deck.

It can be noted here as well that, while not important to the construction of this deck, with Zirda the bounce cost for Batterskull is only , and as such, with Stoneforge Mystic it wouldn't be hard to create an environment where one can abuse a large amount of death triggers from the Germs.

The Swords

In our short discussion of the spectrum of equipment above, we alluded to the wide power-spectrum that these cards occupy within Magic. Very rarely do we get great equipment at a reasonable cost; the swords in many ways represent the pinnacle of the power of equipment as a whole. With a fair casting cost and an equally reasonable cost to equip, the swords represent both some of the most powerful and realistic options when constructing a Stoneforge Mystic package in the modern format but the question reamins then, based on the nature of the swords themselves, which one is best to play? What is most relevant and at what time? The three examples pictured above will dominate the conversation, but all the swords will be addressed, at least in part, in the following paragraphs.

Beginning with the four swords not pictured, Sword of War and Peace stands out as likely the only sword that, as of now, is not an option that would be seriously considered. The effect, while potentially powerful, is too random and inconsistent to be considered above some of the other swords. This could change if the format changes drastically and there is an increased emphasis on having a lot of cards in hand every turn, but this does not seem realistic, add to this that protection from red and white is not the most pertinent of options in the modern format, both being largely used for support, and Sword of War and Peace, while an interesting card, is not quite up to the level of some of the other swords. The two Modern Horizons swords are equally not particularly relevant. Of the two, Sword of Sinew and Steel has the most potential, however, while its protections are very good with both being colours commonly associated with removal and some of the most played creatures in the format (i.e. good against jund), its effect is sadly just too specific to be a consideration for the mainboard, the odds that one gets full value out of it each time they swing is low, maybe if Oko, Thief of Crowns was still legal then it would be a more serious consideration, but as of right now, while I could see it occupying a sideboard space in the right meta, it is not up to par with the other options. Sword of Truth and Justice suffers from the fact that it does not make an immediate impact upon swinging, in almost all cases its effect will only be relevant the following turn, at which point our opponent has had a full turn cycle to react, because of this and also because protection from blue and white is not particularly relevant (though in a heavy Snowblade meta it could be nice) Sword of Truth and Justice should not be a serious consideration. The final of the four auxiliary swords, Sword of Body and Mind, is admitedly a card that I have always been a fan of. I believe it has the potential to be very good, the protection from blue and green is not particuolarly amazing, yes this covers a large quantity of commonly played creatures in modern, specifically in green, but does not cover any commonly played removal spells. The effect equally has the potential to be very good, an extra body and a sizeable amount of mill is not the worst thing, however, in relation to the mill, there are certain matchups where this would be a considerable downside with the amount of Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath decks around, not to mention the existence of decks such as Dredge and Crabvine that rely on the graveyard being full. With this in mind, Sword of Body and Mind is likely not a serious contender for the mainboard and the effect has little relevance in a sideboard.

Moving on to what are the more established and relevant swords as pictured above, the question with these three swords is not so much one regarding their playability but rather when they are to be played. Moving from right to left, the first of these swords, Sword of Feast and Famine, while immensely powerful and possessing what may be the most relevant combination of protections, is better suited to the Snowblade control builds than this build. The primary motivation for this is that this deck has a low land count, meaning there are times where the most attractive part of the sword's effect will be underwhelming, only untapping one or two lands total. For this reason, I believe the two swords to be discussed next are a better fit within the parameters this deck sets for itself, even though Sword of Feast and Famine may be the strongest overall sword within the confines of the modern format. This is not to say however that I would not consider playing Sword of Feast and Famine provided with the right set of circumstances and potentialy a greater focus on using a larger amount of mana per turn, for example if I was playing Collected Company.

Sword of Light and Shadow is very much a card that goes through phases of playability, at times appearing underwhelming, for example in a combo heavy meta Sword of Light and Shadow can oft seem very underwhelming seeing how in those matchups its effects are hardly relevant and having protection from any number of colours is largely inconsequential. When the meta slows down however and we see an uptick in hyper-interactive decks such as jund or Snowblade, in those circumstances Sword of Light and Shadow really shines based on its ability to recur threats from the graveyard, consistently being a 2 for 1, and granting protection from two colours in magic in white and black that encompass a significant proportion of playable removal in the format. In addition to this, with Lurrus of the Dream-Den Burn decks and even Jund playing Seal of Fire, having a repeatable source of lifegain that Sword of Light and Shadow provides is a difference maker.

The final sword, namely, Sword of Fire and Ice, has long been a staple of legacy Stoneblade builds, largely out of its ability versus the Delver decks of the format and the general preeminence of blue as a whole. In modern however, this historic level of dominance from blue based decks is not as profound and the meta has consistently been much more diverse in terms of the color-combinations we see, for this reason it is pertinent to consider other options outside of just Sword of Fire and Ice, with this said Sword of Fire and Ice represents the effect that is easily the most consistently relevant, in other words, drawing a card and dealing two damage to any target is never not going to be a good thing under normal circumstances. The issue is that, while always good, in modern Sword of Fire and Ice is not always great when compared to say Sword of Light and Shadow which can be exceptional under specific circumstances. For this reason I currently have the card in the sideboard for matchups where I am more interested in pivoting to a more midrange style Stoneblade build.

3-4 Finale of Devastation: Since its printing Finale of Devastation has largely replaced Chord of Calling in creature toolbox decks. The cost of both cards is roughly equivalent when factoring in the "convoke" of the latter in the mid-to-late game, however Finale of Devastation adds a few additional levels of flexibility. One of the greatest features of the unfortunately banned Green Sun's Zenith is the ability to ramp oneself by fetching Dryad Arbor, while not as efficient as GSZ, Finale of Devastation is able to fill a similar role on turn 2, and very often this will be the correct play. Add to this its ability to fetch any one of our many Toolbox options, and its ability to act as a win-condition in its own right, and Finale of Devastation represents a very versatile tool for this deck. One slight knock against the card is its lack of instant speed when compared to Chord of Calling or a number of the other options to be discussed in this section, however, in my opinion, its potential efficiency outweighs this small drawback; while it would be nice to be able to fetch the creature we need at our opponent's end-step, we can't have everything, and the upside of playing a card like Finale of Devastation is too great to pass up.

4 Eladamri's Call: Added to modern by virtue of Modern Horizons Eladamri's Call is quite simply one of the best creature tutors in the history of Magic, with a reasonable casting cost and the added benefit of instant speed, there is simply no card in the modern format that does what Eladamri's Call does at the same rate, and as such it is indispensable to this type of deck that wants access to a number of specific creatures in a variety of very specific circumstances. One thing to be aware of is that the casting cost is , meaning that Eladamri's Call does not naturally integrate itself into our infinite mana combo with Joraga Treespeaker or even the Devoted Druid builds of the deck. Plan accordingly for this if you plan on grabbing a win-con, I know this seems like an obvious point but this deck has a lot happening at once, and a lot of triggers are going onto the stack. It is important to remain vigilant then and ensure that you have a path to do everything you want to do in a given turn, overextending can easily be the death of us.

4 Ranger-Captain of Eos: Serving a dual purpose in the deck, Ranger-Captain of Eos acts as both a tutor effect as well as a form of protection during combo-turns. The tutor effect itself is not the strongest within a vacuum, however, when built around a bit has a ton of potential. In this deck, the most obvious application of the tutor is to grab the mana-dork needed for the Zirda Umbral Mantle combo, in this way adding additional percentage points to the likelihood of assembling this deck's namesake interaction. Now, as a reaction to the very specific nature of Ranger-Captain of Eos, it is advantageous to then search for one-drops that could fulfill some functional role both in the main and the side. At various times these will change and many of them will be discussed in the relevant section below entitled "Creature Toolbox," however some examples include: Burrenton Forge-Tender, Hexdrinker, Giver of Runes, Judge's Familiar, Walking Ballista, Hex Parasite, and more.

Some Other Options

Aether Vial: There is fundamentally a disconnect between deciding to play a card such as Aether Vial and a card more along the lines of Finale of Devastation. In large part the issue comes down to whether or not we are trying to play a toolbox oriented build, or if we are trying to construct a deck that plays out more as a tempo deck. This fundamentally comes down to personal preference, however, in my own opinion, I do not believe this type of deck, with its many interactions, is best suited to a tempo style shell. Ideally we will be able to have access to any card we may conceivably want at any time when playing this deck. Aether Vial does not satisfy this condition. Yes it speeds up the clock, and is great in matchups where we want to adopt a less combo-oriented stance, but these circumstances are not the predominant ones under which the deck finds itself, and as such I personally do not believe in playing Aether Vial, at least in this build of the deck.

Green Sun's Zenith: A man can dream can't he?

Collected Company:…

Chord of Calling:…

Postmortem Lunge:...

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Casual

90% Competitive

Revision 5 See all

(4 years ago)

-1	Joraga Treespeaker	main
+1	Zirda, the Dawnwaker	main

Top Ranked	Achieved #8 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 7 Rares 4 - 6 Uncommons 0 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.98
Tokens	On an Adventure, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B
Folders	Good Primers
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