Zombies in Kansas (T3 Win)

Modern DuTogira

SCORE: 47 | 99 COMMENTS | 7705 VIEWS | IN 15 FOLDERS


DuTogira says... #1

More win-cons would be useful if this deck were intended to go as fast as possible. The point of this deck though is to be as sturdy as possible. Granted it's still a combo deck so speed is an objective, but with as many tutors and cantrips as the deck has (and a majority of the cards in this deck do one of those two things), being able to find a singular win-condition is not hard. Going off without a win-con isn't even all that risky (though still unsafe) as you will likely have plenty of draw spells in hand. The deck also has plenty of recursion in the form of Snapcaster Mage, which means that it is not unusual for a win-con which has ended up in the graveyard to still be accessible for me.
Instead of aiming for speed via a large number of win-cons, the deck aims for sturdiness through a select few win-cons which can be used multiple times if necessary. The deck also has Emrakul, the Aeons Torn in the sideboard for those situations where I end up needing another win-condition against the odd deck or two.

November 26, 2015 1:52 p.m.

DuTogira says... #2

Mostly happy with the deck so far, but one last card which has been feeling really underwhelming for me is Nihil Spellbomb. It was great in The Minefield as it was a very easy card to fetch, but in Zombies in Kansas it just... feels bad. I can't fetch it in this deck, and a one of tech card for graveyard hate (while by no means pointless) does feel less than powerful in a combo deck.
What I am thinking of replacing it with would be 1xDeathrite Shaman because he can help with some life-gain in match-ups like burn (while he lasts), can provide ramp and color fixing against those aggro decks which he is boarded in against, and can provide color fixing. Combine this with the fact that he provides graveyard hate and can serve as a blocker (or just eats removal) and I am rather sold on the shaman being superior to Nihil Spellbomb. The fact that he can hurt my opponent means almost nothing to me. However, I want more than one of him to be able to board in, for draw consistency if nothing else.
My question is this: What do you guys recommend I replace in the sideboard so that I can have 2xDeathrite Shaman in there, given that Nihil Spellbomb will be one of the two cards?

November 27, 2015 2:04 a.m.

Adameus2012 says... #3

Your deck is modern right? Deathrite Shaman is banned in Modern.

November 27, 2015 5:48 a.m.

DuTogira says... #4

facepalms note to self. Don't goldfish after a thanksgiving dinner. I guess Scavenging Ooze might be a suitable replacement but it feels far less powerful.

November 27, 2015 1:10 p.m.

Adameus2012 says... #5

Lol I hear you. I just was assembling a modern deck last week and in my rough draft I had treasure cruise. Took me a minute to remember that it was banned. I think ooze would be an okay replacement, he can beat face if needed.

November 28, 2015 7:57 a.m.

DuTogira says... #6

Hmmm... I might just do a one of ooze then. As a one of he can actually combo with my infinite mana loop to exile an opponents whole graveyard. Since he costs two I can tutor him.

November 28, 2015 1:21 p.m.

DuTogira says... #7

I am still fiddling with what I want to replace Nihil Spellbomb with.
If you think any of the cards which I am considering are better than ANY of my current sideboard options, please tell me. What I most want help with right now is this: The development of the side-board and specifically what to replace Nihil Spellbomb with.
Check out the "Maybeboard Discussions" section of the deck. I would very much appreciate any and all feedback on the matter.

November 29, 2015 2:31 a.m.

TheFoilAjani says... #8

I like how the deck looks! Quick note, Dispel does literal nothing against Living End. With Violent Outburst and Demonic Dread, cascade is a cast trigger, so you can't disrupt that part with Dispel.

Edit: In fact, Demonic Dread is a sorcery.

November 29, 2015 3:08 p.m. Edited.

DuTogira says... #9

Huh... I did not know that about cascade. I will make sure to change that then. Although that does make the match-up considerably worse than I previously believed. I will have to do some play testing to determine just how bad it is.
Any thoughts on the Nihil Spellbomb sideboard swaps?

November 29, 2015 4:42 p.m. Edited.

DuTogira says... #10

Really leaning towards replacing Nihil Spellbomb with Simic Charm. Thoughts anyone?

November 30, 2015 5:48 p.m.

TheFoilAjani says... #11

I'm personally a big fan of Tormod's Crypt. It does some work.

November 30, 2015 6:05 p.m.

DuTogira says... #12

Starting to think I might need a Batterskull or two just as alternate win-cons. One mainboard replacing Staff of Domination and one sideboard replacing one Spellskite. Thoughts?

December 2, 2015 5:12 p.m.

DuTogira says... #14

Considering Dimir Charm against Grisly Salvage. Thoughts?

December 6, 2015 12:47 a.m.

DuTogira says... #15

Ok so here is my two cents. If Stoneforge Mystic gets unbanned in modern, I am going to need a disposable removal spell to get rid of small creatures, and I will switch both Grisly Salvages over to Dimir Charms. The fact that Dimir Charm can act as counter magic in match-ups like bloom titan doesn't hurt either. However, because Dimir Charm is both slower by nature than Grisly Salvage and does not cantrip, I am going to stick with the copies of Grisly Salvage for now. Only time will tell now.

December 8, 2015 2:30 a.m.

DuTogira says... #16

Ok, new line of thought guys, and I would REALLY like feedback on this one. I am considering dropping one Batterskull (the mainboard one) for Necrotic Ooze.
In the interest of full disclosure, Grand Architect's second and third abilities both count as activated abilities, so Necrotic Ooze could combo off on just himself.
This would also provide a sneaky answer to Pithing Needle and Phyrexian Revoker. I could even use Postmortem Lunge on Necrotic Ooze if it gets binned to be able to combo off, blue mana being used to turn Necrotic Ooze blue and all on turn 5 in this manner.
Is this a good idea, should I swap out both copies of Batterskull for Necrotic Ooze, or is Batterskull just waaay too strong as an alternate win-con? Both creatures do serve as 4 attack face beaters.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd, FAMOUSWATERMELON I know you guys are both very good at looking at the value of cards outside of the fish bowl, so I would really value both of your feedbacks on this swap

December 8, 2015 2:46 a.m.

DuTogira says... #17

Arg nevermind I gun doofed again. Necrotic Ooze isn't an artifact creature, so that particular synergy is never going to work. I have no way to make him blue. Woops. Oh well, was fun while it lasted :P

December 8, 2015 2:57 a.m.

Yeah, I was going to say... XD Though Batterskull probably doesn't do much anyways, so you can probably add another Zenith.

December 8, 2015 5:22 p.m.

Dang that Necrotic Ooze combo looked fun. Trying to include a way to make it an artifact is still a 2 card combo, so that will be too inefficient.

I dunno about Dimir Charm in here. I love the card, but it's card disadvantage at its finest. Grisly Salvage is so good too. Honestly would your deck care about SFM? SFM is inherently pretty slow, so you can probably combo off despite it.

December 8, 2015 5:27 p.m.

DuTogira says... #20

ToolmasterOfBrainerd my deck would not give a flying squirrel about SFM, but its unbanning would require decks to run copious amounts of artifact hate, which I in turn would have to plow through.
The Necrotic Ooze combo could work. I could make it into an artifact by having Memnarch in the bin, and Memnarch could be used in place of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn/Batterskull given that he can also be used as a win-con. Hopefully this would mitigate some of the inefficiency. It would mean the Necrotic Ooze combo would require at least 8 mana (3UUUBB or 5UUU depending on whether ooze is cast or lunged), but since I also have a Jarad's Orders in the deck, I don't think consistency would be TOO big of an issue. The emerging issue is that I would have to run Memnarch and Scavenging Ooze main-deck, or leave them both in the sideboard to be used for certain match-ups. And I can't remove Jarad's Orders for either of them. This means I would have to throw Cryptic Command into the side-board and cut both Batterskulls. I'm not sad about seeing Grom go, but putting the command in the side-board might be... unwise.
Thoughts?

December 8, 2015 5:54 p.m. Edited.

That's too much work, requires too much setup, and is way too fragile. Honestly I wouldn't sweat SFM unbanning too much because I don't see it happening. Junk Blade is too powerful and there are other problems too. At a very minimum, Necrotic Ooze is a bad idea with your current deck. I don't think Nooze is a good idea even if SFM is unbanned because of the fragility. A single Scavenging Ooze will shut you down.

So what is viable vs tons of artifact hate? I'd go for something like Apostle's Blessing or Vines of Vastwood. Those reduce fragility, not increase it. Also, Nooze is a 4/3 so it dies to Bolt.

December 8, 2015 6:09 p.m.

DuTogira says... #22

Good against artifact hate? Simic Charm would be my go-to, but the problem is most artifact hate comes from Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker, Stony Silence, Shatterstorm, and Hurkyl's Recall. Shatterstorm can be answered by Simic Charm (bounce own artifact), Hurkyl's Recall has to be countered, and running my own artifact/enchantment hate would be the only answers to Stony Silence, Pithing Needle, and Phyrexian Revoker. Probably another Golgari Charm or two if SFM is unbanned.
Nooze doesn't tend to care that much about bolt. He does care about Scavenging Ooze and graveyard hate in general, and that concerns me. He would only be used for the long game (like Batterskull), and could invalidate artifact hate against the deck. Since he would have the active abilities of all creatures in all graveyards, he can always just combo off in the face of removal. At worst he would be a far worse copy of Batterskull which dies to bolt. Nooze would make the deck worse than it already is agaisnt Grafdigger's Cage though.
I could also always just stick Staff of Domination back in instead of the Batterskull to have another 3 cmc win-con... but that still feels weak against artifact hate. It's just another way to get further blown out by Stony Silence.
I'm trying to listen to all the ideas... and I know Batterskull is underwhelming in the deck, but I want the deck to have some fall-back plan if the combo gets disrupted in some way, shape, or form.

Actually I guess that becomes the question: Is it better for my deck to be weak to artifact hate, or for my deck to be weak to graveyard hate? That dictates whether or not Nooze beats out Grom for a spot in the deck.

December 8, 2015 6:30 p.m. Edited.

Oh yeah I love all the alters! They look great!

I don't like the 'weak to grave hate' plan very much. Although I'm overlooking that you can still combo off normally and keep Nooze as a backup. But it's such a clunky card. You have to land it on the battlefield and keep it alive long enough to combo off. Artifacting and comboing in the same turn takes 1UUU, which is really mana intensive, especially because you have to pay 2BB to cast him. AND in order to combo off, you need 3 specific cards in your graveyard. I don't like that. Way too fragile.

Remember that the idea of the minefield is to be an artifact recycler. I'm inclined to answer the problem by jamming the combo through some more.

What about running Nature's Claim? It gives you a way to gain value off your artifacts dying against things like Burn, and it gives you a way to answer the problematic artifacts and enchantments your opponent will have. Remand is a great answer you already have in the mainboard.

Remember this: no matter what they are playing, you will always have more ways to combo than they will have ways to disrupt the combo. They are likely to get 1, maybe 2 pieces of artifact hate. This you can handle without a full rebuild.

Oh yeah one more thing. You're the expert on this build, and I'm just throwing out anything that comes to mind. Don't take everything I suggest as the perfect answer, because secretly half the stuff I suggest I have no idea of whether they will work or not. They just come to mind so I'm throwing them your way to see if you see some sort of value in them.

December 8, 2015 6:51 p.m. Edited.

DuTogira says... #24

Necrotic Ooze would rarely be cast for 2BB. If he were he would have summoning sickness and could not combo off the turn he was played. He will usually be Postmortem Lunge'd, but that does leave it open to hate, which we have established. He would therefore usually be cast for 4 colorless off of Lunge and I would need 1UUU to get him off of the ground and combo'ing. I agree that needing 3 specific cards in the yard is extremely fragile (though I feel obligated to point out that 2 of those 3 tend to end up in the graveyard every game I play that makes it to turn 8), so I can back off of the Nooze idea.
Nature's Claim actually isn't bad but... what I really need right now is some way to win when my combo gets shut down. Every other combo deck has this. Bloom Titan has Hive Mind, U/R Twin has Keranos, God of Storms, Ad Nauseam has both Phyrexian Unlife and Angel's Grace so it's hard to hate on, Living End can just start playing its fatties if the game goes late, Scapeshift has Obstinate Baloth (which was my inspiration for Batterskull). Infect doesn't have an alternate con, but it is vastly different from this deck and doesn't need one, as the only way to kill all infect creatures is to destroy Inkmoth Nexus which is very hard to do.
This deck though... you can hard lock me off of combo'ing with Phyrexian Revoker and a Welding Jar.
I don't want to rebuild the deck, I know just how strong it is in its current condition. I just don't want to lose 100% of games where my opponent either is playing Hatebears or has aforementioned two card combo.

December 8, 2015 7:06 p.m.

DuTogira says... #25

This might just end up coming down to me doing a LOT of playtesting to determine what is best for the deck... Which means that since it's finals week, I probably won't reach a decision before christmas...

December 8, 2015 7:36 p.m.

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