Building a Verdurous Gearhulk Deck

Modern forum

Posted on Sept. 10, 2019, 1:09 p.m. by TestDiver

I’ve always wanted to build a Verdurous Gearhulk and need some help doing it.

I’d like to start this off by saying I'm a sucker for good card art and steampunk looking designs. So when I saw Verdurous Gearhulk around its release I was pretty hyped up for it. Sadly though, it never really seemed to live up to people expectations. So the question I'm posing here is how can we make this work? Clearly this deck is not supposed to be competitive but simply not be completely shut out at local game nights.

1. Colors: We need green… duh. I feel like it needs a lot more than that though. Since Verdurous Gearhulk is an artifact and we’re trying to find it and draw cards I think blue would also be a good inclusion. It would allow access to cards like Fabricate . Not only does it have a many good artifact synergies, but the recent Simic cards such as Neoform could also potentially contribute. I did of course think go mixing red for its artifact synergies, as well as, its burn potential but conceptually didn’t like it as much.

2. Gearhulking Out: Obviously, we need Verdurous Gearhulk on the field since that’s the whole point of this. Modern has always had a rather disgusting ability to ramp out high CMC cards on early turns. Since most decks are seems fairly fast these days, it would be important to get Verdurous Gearhulk out as early as possible. My first thought would be Tinker but thats not legal in Modern. So that leaves the previously mentioned Neoform could do the trick based off the combos it has been pulling off already and that would play in with the blue. Another blue card to look at would be Etherium Sculptor . It’s not flashy but it could speed Verdurous Gearhulk ’s entrance by a turn.

3. Gearhulk Smash: Once Verdurous Gearhulk is out, he needs to actually do something. Since Verdurous Gearhulk can come down as a 8/8 with trample, I believe it could pose as a viable win condition if proliferated on/buffed slightly. Additionally, some burn could be thrown in to improve the odds of winning. Another thought would be to have additional token generation to hit for the remaining damage. (To fit with the theme maybe some thoptors?)

These are just my current quick thoughts but I would love for some suggestions/ideas to actuality make this deck happen!

Flooremoji says... #2

Well, you can't use tinker as thats not modern legal :)

If it were, Blightsteel Colossus would be even more expensive ;)

September 10, 2019 1:13 p.m.

TestDiver says... #3

Flooremoji I realized my mistake right after posting. Thank you for correcting it. Also that's a very good point and is low-key terrifying.

September 10, 2019 1:28 p.m.

shadow63 says... #4

You could try him out in Hardened Scales affinity list

September 10, 2019 1:32 p.m.

enpc says... #5

I don't think you'd want to waste deck slots with proliferation type effects - I would have thought an 8/8 should either be the biggest thing on the board, or you're in the possition where you're already boned so it doesn't matter.

Personally I would build the deck as white/green, using a bunch of dorks and then have stuff like Kitchen Finks , with the list topping out at a few gearhulks. If you leverage dorks, then you can either dump a bunch of counters across all of them (if you're concerned about single target removal) or you can drop an 8/8 with trample quickly and then turn sideways with it.

Going creature heavy means you can lean on cards like Lead the Stampede for digging power. It also means that if you do want to dump more counters on your stuff, then you have access to Gavony Township which is going to do more work by itself than a proliferate effect.

Stick a couple of Path to Exile s in the list and you've got something that kind of works.

September 11, 2019 12:21 a.m.

wallisface says... #6

I’d just go simic-counters. Hardened Scales lets you dump down a load of counters if you have a load of creatures, and stuff like Cloudfin Raptor , Thrummingbird , Experiment One and Avatar of the Resolute can function well in this world.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade also helps get your gearhulk down in a more practical timeframe.

September 11, 2019 4:40 p.m.

match_lighter says... #7

I don't know if you need to run as Scrapyard Recombiner can tutor up Gearhulks and works amazingly well with Verdurous Gearhulk . You mentioned adding some burn and I think with Recombiner you could go straight and have a few Blood Moon to strangle the opponent.

November 1, 2019 4:09 p.m.