Resto Gonti
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 5, 2018, 1:17 a.m. by ballisticexperiment
I'm trying to help my friend brew a deck using Gonti, Lord of Luxury.
Deck is meant to pick at opponents win conditions and either play them itself or put them off their game until our as yet to be decided win condition can be dropped.
We've worked out that the best build is a Rites shell with Unburial Rites and Restoration Angel. Since we're already picking our opponents deck apart, Praetor's Grasp furthers that strategy.
B/W so far, so Lingering Souls is a solid call.
Looking to fill this out a bit with some other suggestions. Competitive options are best, as we would like to see this be a solid rogue deck at an fnm or local tournament.
If there is a better shell for Gonti than Rites, please don't hesitate to tell me I'm using the wrong shell.
Assuming a Rites shell, should there be a third color for better options, or just the two for more consistency?
Since Praetor's Grasp doesn't have the 'you may use any color of mana clause, is it still worth using with a filter land or Mana Confluence or should it be dropped entirely?
Is Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip / Liliana, Defiant Necromancer Flip worth using here as addition recursion / value? I know she can't target Gonti, but working on the assumption that there will be other ETB creature targets.
ballisticexperiment says... #3
Thanks for the response. Most constructive comment I've gotten regarding this in other places (lots of why don't you just play __ instead).
1) Eating away at their win cons or value cards from the deck. Gonti, Lord of Luxury + Praetor's Grasp gives a lot of information in addition to being able to remove threats and/or answers. If you get Grasp early enough game 2, you may be able to catch the SB cards they brought in. The more I think about it, the more I think some of the eldrazi processors might work with him because of a processors interaction with the exile zone.
2)Non-budget. Looking for competitive additions. But I'd rather not get bogged down with 'play this deck instead'. It's a new brew. If it ends up not working, that's fine. But every deck starts somewhere.
3)FNM or LGS tourneys for now. If it ends up effective, maybe the next local GP.
September 5, 2018 9:09 a.m.
Well, gonti is a rogue and rouge is a pretty cool tribe with a great mechanic. So check out this competitive at LGS level Rogue tribal:
You can even add some blue for Thieves' Fortune. You can definitely take a more midrange approach to the deck and rely on Oona's Blackguard and Bitterblossom to pick away at opponent.
Earwig Squad works very well to strip an opp's deck of win conditions.
September 5, 2018 10:27 a.m.
ballisticexperiment says... #6
That could be cool. I guess I'd be looking at the control rogues rather than the aggro ones at that point if I'm running things like Card:Sadistic sacrament and Praetor's Grasp.
That said, Gonti might be a neat top end trick in an aggro rogue tribal.
September 5, 2018 12:17 p.m.
Gontis ability is fine, even game-winning, against some combodecks. But mostly, modern decks are fine with you borrowing a card and playing it, especially since the remaining cards go on bottom of library (just consider a deck like burn - "oh, you grabbed a Lava Spike? That would have been useful, but I got plenty of shoot-for-3-at-1-mana where that came from").
As for Praetor's Grasp and Sadistic Sacrament, they are both too heavy in mana for what they do. By the time you can cast them, your opponent has found his counterspells/leylines/whatevers. Thoughtseize and Surgical Extraction are better for the purpose since you can play them turn 1.
September 5, 2018 5 p.m.
Maybe a couple of Obzedat's Aid or Beacon of Unrest for extra reanimation? I'd also consider a heavy discard/removal package, so that you can stall out your opponents until reanimating/casting Gonti or being able to rip out combo pieces/wincons. Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push, Path to Exile, Liliana of the Veil and Tidehollow Sculler all seem like good options.
September 6, 2018 6:34 a.m.
TheDuggernaught says... #9
Flicker effects are generally really strong in Eldrazi and Taxes. You could maybe try to fit him into BW Eldrazi as blinking him with Flickerwisp, and Eldrazi Displacer could yield some good results. Thought-Knot Seer, and Tidehollow Sculler would also give you ways to pick at your opponent's hand to get rid of things that could kill Gonti.
Other option might be to play green for some ramp, like Birds of Paradise. The ramp might make the tempo loss of having Gonti bolt'd a little less painful.
As per your question about Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip, I like her. But only in decks that have on demand sacrifice abilities (i.e. Viscera Seer). Otherwise she just eats removal before she can flip. With sacrifice effects, she pretty much gets to flip no matter what.
September 6, 2018 8:33 a.m. Edited.
Squirrelbacon says... #10
What if you went ? Then you gain discard spells, a SMALL amount of permission if you wish, Creeping Tar Pit, Liliana of the Veil and my favorite for the deck, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver.
Imagine Ashiok on 3, mill, into Gonti on 4 plus Ashiok -X. I'm in!
September 6, 2018 9:17 a.m.
ballisticexperiment says... #11
Took the rogue tribal deck route with Gonti and Earwigs at the top end. Let me know what everyone thinks.
Boza says... #2
1/ Besides casting Gonti, what else do you want the deck to do?
2/ What is the budget for this?
3/ Where will it be used - FNM, the kitchen table, GPs?
TBH, a Gonti deck is difficult to build. Gonti does not do anything special and I hate to say it, dies to Lightning Bolt, which, for a legendary 4 mana card that is worse than Vampire Nighthawk in terms of abilities, is not really something spectacular.
September 5, 2018 5:08 a.m.