Competitive Modern General

I dont use them because I am autistic and enjoy having valuable things, but a friend of mine has a few and they look identical when doublesleeved. Just don't get the ENTIRE deck proxied, so that you can feign ignorance if you get caught

Thinking about getting back into modern (and mtg as a whole). One of the deck concepts I liked in the past was counter cat/aquarium zoo. Are these even remotely viable?

It's revolt zoo nowadays

I can't get a set of Stony Silences for a while, what does Veeky Forums think of Kataki as a temporary replacement? Looks just as good as long as they can't sac artifacts before the trigger.

How does it play?
Do you plan on putting in Ixalan's Binding when it comes out?
Also why no Celestial Colonnade or Chalice of the Void? Is it because they have an outrageous cost? Elspeth or Gideon would also be good, and they shouldn't cost too much.

Kataki has the drawback of dying to removal. It still wastes Tron's eggs so they can't filter for sorceries, makes it harder for Affinity to assemble and keep Metalcraft, and it affects static artifacts unlike Stony, but Stony is overall better due to how hard its effect is and the fact that it's harder for most decks to get rid of. If you're playing CoCo or Spirits it does have a significant upside over Stony.

Add 2x Sphinx's rev for the memes

Ixalan's Binding will likely replace Gideon's Intervention. May test an Elspeth or Gideon over the second Aetherling.

I like Mutavault over Colonnade because it leaves way more mana open.

Been wanting to test this.

Ok.
I would like to know its strengths and weaknesses since I want to have a second deck to play. How do you play against Titanshift, Tron, Affinity, and Death's Shadow?

Kills Dredge dead.

In my experience Kataki actually fucks decks like Lantern and Affinity harder than Stony, it's just not as good against Tron and it will occasionally get shot by removal before it can do anything. If you're playing a Coco or Vial deck I'd say he's worth a shot, but if you're playing UWx Control or some midrange pile I think Stony is better.

30 Creatures
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Goblin Guide
3 Kird Ape
4 Narnam renegade
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Reckless bushwhacker
1 Tarmogoyf
4 Voltaic brawler
2 Simian Spirit Guide

12 Noncreature Spells
4 Lightning bolt
4 Atarkas command
2 Path to exile
2 Rancor

18 Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Grounds
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Forest
1 Mountain

I actually like this list.
It has the appropriate mix of aggression and late game power.

After ixalan, voltaic brawlers might come out for pic related, and Kird apes might be experiment ones. Rancor used to be Ghor clan rampagers, but I didn't like the singular use.

Give me some spicy zoo tech?

How do you use olivia voldaren correctly? Just murder things to pump her? Or poke steal?

Poke steal

Whichever uses less mana. If it'll take more than two pings to kill, steal it.

Do not play Old-Growth Dryads. Good god do not play that card user. Giving your opponent a land and potentially color fixing for them is catastrophic to your aggro plan.

This. Wild Nacatl has already fallen off the radar. Why would you play a CONSIDERABLY worse version of it?

What is a fun aggro deck that isn't affinity and doesn't break the bank?

Burn

8whack.

Is Burn really an aggro deck, though? I would describe it as more of a tempo deck that sits between aggro and combo, but isn't really either of them. Playing it has convinced me that the Aggro-Combo-Control dichotomy is complete bupkis.

It's an aggressive deck and therefore 'aggro'. Its just not creature based aggro.

Is B/W aggro possible? I see a lot of mid-range and I don't like tokens

Ain't nothing to it but to brew it.

The Correct play is always Bolt you for 3, so I'ma say its Aggro

ma boi (overloaded of corse)

That's not even true 100% of the time. Against Death's Shadow, for example, you sandbag spells and let them kill themselves for you. It's almost always better to bolt the mana dork. Against control you play a hilariously fun game of cat-and-mouse. Just because Burn CAN (and usually is) be aggressive, doesn't mean you SHOULD always be aggressive not is it always the correct line of play.

Well, you can try running some D&T and make it more aggro oriented.

>use stuff like lingering souls for cheap flyers
>find a way to pump them
>hand disruption with duress + IoK +thoughtseize

i smell potential

Where does this dumbass line of thinking come from? Modern is the most popular constructed competitive format, it easily tops Standard twitch stream views, GP attendance is usually significantly higher then other formats and so on.
Standard and Legacy dont come close to the amount of players Modern has, ironically both for the same reasons. Both Standard and Legacy are absurdly expensive and very stagnant/not diverse. Modern is the absolute cheapest way to play competitive Magic in the long term and the format is wide open with tons of decks to boot.

The only format which surpasses Modern in playerbase is Commander and thats literally because it is dirt cheap to get in and harbors all the casuals too intimidated by other formats

I've rebuilt my degenerate EDH deck after a year or two of hiatus to show these casual fucks who their daddy is.

That's literally BW tokens

My jigga, get yourself a Flamebreak
>deals with Ezurishits
>3 damage to each creature
>3 to the dome

>I'll play an enchantment that gives my board +2/+2 instead of playing another fucking creature!
Said the 0-4 player.

The point of BW tokens is that the rampant removal present in the format is inefficient against it, plus it's great at slowing down aggro decks with chump blockers and life gain. Not like a brainlet like you would understand

I have them and it's a card I heavily considered as my sweeper of choice. However, Flamebreak says "each creature without flying" and I need to lingering souls and spectral procession tokens.

Is Languish a good sweeper in Grixis Death Shadow? It seems like it would be relatively one-sided considering Angler, Tasigur, and sometimes Death's Shadow can survive it.

>*tips fedora*
Just play Spirits or something if you want to dodge removal and play evasive beaters.

Twitch/Magic, something happening now.

Or maybe play a deck that isn't total shit like BW tokens

>Bant Spirits
>Bad
Like nigger just no. Meanwhile BW has dropped off the map entirely.

You are a fucking retard who can't read. Enjoy this (You) cretin.

I much prefer tokens in current meta. The hand disruption is invaluable

It doesn't matter what you prefer if the deck hasn't had a competitive finish in literally years. The problem with tokens is that it is worse than all other options in modern at accomplishing its game plan.

>want to disrupt your opponents hand and play threats?
Grixis shadow, Any eldrazi deck, and GBx are all far better options.
>want to grind out fair opponents?
Ux control is far better and you still lose hard to Tron and valakut.
>Want to beat combo?
You still lose hard to valakut and tron while being worse than any other fair deck because your clock is so slow.

There is no reason to play BW tokens over any other deck in modern. The only advantage you have is blanking spot removal, but that doesn't matter when the best thing you can do is cast a lingering souls on turn 3. At least bant spirits has a niche in that it's a tribal creature deck that can interact at instant speed.

Turn three with a bushwhacker tests very very well. If by turn three you don't swing for game you don't win.

>hurr durr all these decks that do 1 thing well are better than this totally different than this deck
>muhh meta
Nice to know I can safely ignore your opinion reddit

Not the same guy, but why not just play Wild Nacatl instead and not give your opponent a land?

Ok dude keep playing BW pile
I enjoy BW stuff in Commander but its not good in this format

And if your T1 3/3 with a downside gets fatal pushed or bolted then your absolutely screwed.

What does BW tokens do well? Play shitty planeswalkers no other deck wants? Lose? If you want to play BW tokens go ahead, you just can't honestly think its a viable competitive choice.

It beats decks that run a lot of spot removal. That's all it really has going for it.

How is it bad?

See

I do both just because the power is pretty strong for a mana, even with a downside like it.

What good is a sword with only one edge? If it gets pathed its an even trade, but if I get through with it, it makes the decks turn three kill more consistent.

>if I get through with it
You won't.

I already addressed that in my original post It doesn't matter if your deck is good against spot removal if you don't kill your opponent quickly. Like sure lingering souls and bitterblossom are good against removal, but you still just die to reality smasher, primeval titan, collected company, dredge etc. You have to back up discard with powerful threats or your opponent will just topdeck out of it. BW tokens does not turn the corner fast enough which is why it has not had a competitive finish in years.

>die to creatures
>with all those chump blockers and path/fatal push
You have no idea what you're on about dude
The only really bad matchup is Tron
The point of tokens isn't fast aggression, it's grinding out your opponent, it's more of a midrange-control deck than anything else

Man, i can't wait to teach people like you the error of their misbegotten ways.

I really don't know any other way to say it. The Dryads have a downside that is greater then its benefit. It's a matter of 'Risk vs Reward' and everyone but you agrees that the risk is too high.

>it's grinding out your opponent
Yeah I'm sure your two 1/1 fliers will grind out against that Tarmogoyf. Keep it up, champ.

And here I thought there would be no Elf cards from Ixalan.

For the record I've no idea if this is good or anything, byt seems at least interesting.

>Path/fatal push against smasher and titan
>collected company not just killing you
>Removal against dredge

My man you haven't even played competitive modern. The whole point of this was that somebody said that BW tokens is one of the better decks in modern when it clearly isn't. Chump blocking w/ removal is just such a shit strategy against every competitive deck because they are doing much more powerful things than you. It's like playing soul sisters in modern, you just lose to half the field because you're interacting on an axis that most decks don't care about. At least soul sisters is a budget deck, for the price of BW tokens you could literally play any tier one deck.

it can replace elvish archdruid in elves deck
t1- forest + llanowar
t2- forest + dwynen's elite + heritage druid + growing rites of iltimoc...it could be even possible cast a turn 2 collected company

>it can replace elvish archdruid in elves deck
No you dork, it can not. Archduid is a Lord, he is how you kill your opponent, you can't get rid of him.

>it can replace elvish archdruid in elves deck
Archdruid is a lord effect AND a Cradle effect you dipshit.

>not ezuri as a wincon
0-4 wait for you

>ezuri
>not just shaman of the pack

Go back to your 0-4 bracket.

>archdruid is a shitty 2/2 with summoning sickness that, if manage to survive, is also a walker cradle
FTFY desolator

with the latest add of vizier of remedies as a singleton, shaman of the pack is just a sideboard tech against some deck.
as usual, never change Veeky Forums

>actually arguing that archdruid is a bad card in the elves deck

Archdruid is great for pumping and chord of calling
What are you on about

AHAHHAHA LE GREENTEXT, EPIC PIC RELATED!!!!

elves doesn't win because of a bunch of 3/3 nettle sentinels with no combat ability...elves win because you tilt the board by flooding tons of cheap creatures and then let that Ezuri finish the job. who cares that the mana came from the elvish archdruid or came from a land, which is way more difficult to get the rid of?

Archdruid is the best way to activate Ezuri's ability and can tutor it with chord of calling

Is mono white hatebears viable?

Yes, it is. Its pretty decent to be honest.

I'm thinking about building Esper Goryo. Does anyone have any experience with it? Any tips?

Kataki or Stony Silence for SB?

Stony Hoses Harder in my experience, harder to remove too.

include jin-gitaxias to really screw over your opponent.

>elves doesn't win because of a bunch of 3/3 nettle sentinels with no combat ability
Plan B for Elves is literally that. Go wider than the opponent and beat down with a bunch of small creatures.

>who cares that the mana came from the elvish archdruid or came from a land, which is way more difficult to get the rid of?
A 3 mana enchantment that requires setup, can't be grabbed by Chord of Calling and needs a mana investment is just as easy to destroy as a creature. You've never actually played against elves, have you?

Serious question Veeky Forums
Anyone think Ruin Raider is modern playable?

It's definitely not as easy to kill as archdruid. it doesn't really need that much setup desu. I think the best argument is it makes coco significantly worse

no, seems like it's worse the dark confidant in almost every scenario.

Playable in fish?

Does a lone Mogis out race Lantern Control?

MATCH REPORT
G1 vs Blue Steel
Kept a hand with Whir, Pentad and Lili on play, got Lili out turn 3 and edicted his Judges Familiar. Next turn a ballista blew up Lili, played Tezz and won with 5/5 beatdowns. Notable Whirred for an Executioner's Capsule to swing in unblocked.
G2
+1 Damnation
+2 Flaying Tendrils
+2 Herald of Anguish
-1 Nihil Spellbomb
-2 Bridge
-1 Skite
-1 Shackles
Kept a land heavy hand with a Brutality for interaction, Thopter Foundry and a Pentad. Killed his Etherium Shaper with Brutality and checked his hand, played Pentad and topdecked into Whir. Easy win from there with Thopters.

lantern runs inventors Fair so I doubt it

Silvergill Adept is both a cantrip and a body for the same mana. Why would you ever run this?

Lantern starts at 14 like the rest of the meta, right?

Lantern has a painless manabase so they can utilize all of that total. At worst they start at 18 because of seize.