Modern Capitalism-Competitive

by dknight27 on 23 February 2024

Main Deck (60 cards)

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Deck Description

Capitalism- pay life to gain capital. In this context, that means a bunch of tokens.

Here's the theory- spot removal doesn't do shit to tokens. Nukes clear the board, but with token generators, they essentially only buy a few turns and inevitably lose material. There's next to no call for mainboarded nukes in modern anyway, and limited siding nukes as all the popular decktypes don't swarm. Next to no mainboarded enchantment-specific hate, same analysis as nukes for siding. The only problem this build will have is the general removal like Abrupt Decay and Prismatic Ending. Other than that, this build pumps out tokens and swarms for a win with excess material that should thoroughly overbalance the general options employed against it.

There are two major drawbacks with the idea, both of which have been (potentially) mitigated.

Drawback 1- the build has very little removal and/or interaction mainboarded, and thus is seeking to out race/material opponent rather than deal with opponent's strategy. This is potentially mitigated by the sheer material imbalance the tokens will generate, as well as the chump block ability of tokens and the one for one against several key matchups such as Ragavan. One token takes Ragavan out of consideration, and ultimately all it costs you is 1 life if you've got a token generator in play. Thus, opponent just cast a spell that said {r}: deal 1 damage to opponent, and is now at -1 with your threat still active. The same is true for other relevant threats such as Orcish Bowmasters and a lot of the fellas in Hammer Time.

As for chump blocks, each token generator is essentially a 'pay 1 life per turn, eliminate meta threat' if necessary. Bitterblossom is an answer to Murktide Regent, or at least a stalling tactic that effectively removes it from damage. The same is true for the Hammer critter and the like. Trample is still a problem, but other than that, each token generator is a temporary answer to big bads.

Drawback 2- the bleeding is what will kill you unless you kill opponent first. Ideally this deck will have at least 1 token generator fielded at a time, with 2 or 3 being optimal. So, anywhere from 1-3 life lost per turn to your own cards. Put another way, opponent gets to play burn against you for free. This is mitigated in two ways.

Firstly, by some of the 'incidental' lifegain the deck offers. 14 cards (25%) have 'free' lifegain elements, none of which are a loss in material. It's essentially a side component of the cards which doesn't really slow you down but helps stretch the life at least a few turns. Revitalize and Kaya's Guile, for example, each go one for one and buy you 1 or 2 turns (depending on conditions) at instant speed and for relatively cheap mana cost. And they essentially can't hurt you, as neither card loses out to anything other than a counterspell or the odd 'can't gain life' stuff that is only used by burn. If opponent burns a counter on a Revitalize, accept the +0 with a smile and use the tempo machine to pump material and out grind opponent. If Revitalize resolves, you've bought yourself an extra turn for 2 mana at speed that replaces itself. Thus, the incidental lifegain keeps your clock mitigated, at least most of the time.

This is also mitigated by Witch's Oven, which we'll get to below.

Secondly, by the material overwhelm the token swarm will (in theory) generate which should buy you the win before you bleed to death. Two token generators running for three turns is -6 life but +6 material. Over those three turns, that's a potential 6 damage to opponent with an additional 6 up the next turn unless opponent has an answer. Thus, its entirely possible to ignore the bleeding once your machine builds to a certain point. On turn 4 of the above, you're at a relative +4 health with +8 material. The turn after that, you're at +10 health with +10 material, and the game's over.

All of the above is essentially immune from most answers available to opponent beyond counterspells and the staples of mainboard removal that are essentially impossible to get around anyway such as Prismatic Ending. But the good news is, you have more token generators than opponent will have spot removal for those generators, 100% mainboarded and probably sided.



Synergy breakdown:

Bitterblossom + Skrelv's Hive means 8 two-drop token generators, so 13% of the deck. Very high likelihood of being able to drop one turn 2 and get to work. If the turn 2 generator lands and isn't dealt with, that's a very likely gg unless opponent pops off a combo.

14 total token generators in the build (25% of the deck) ensures that you've got something to do in the opening hand, and more than likely means you can do a turn 2 and 3 token producer drop. So, if opponent can deal with the turn 2, he probably can't deal with the turn 3.

Sythis splashes green in the build for delightful synergy. 25 cards are enchantments (42%), so a fielded Sythis is going to generate card advantage like crazy and helps to offset the bleeding. As long as she stays fielded, Sythis is easily worth +3 material and life in a typical game, which essentially gives you everything you need to ram home the win. Green mana is also readily available due to fetch lands and Triomes.

Eidolon of Rhetoric slows the game down in all the right ways. You want to turn tempo into material. Thus, you want turns to go slowly for opponent, and you really don't care if they go slowly for you. 17% of the deck is instants with another good smattering of cycling lands (that are essentially 'pay 1 draw 1' cards when needed), so you can always use opponent's turn to keep the build going. Other than that, the more turns you have, the bigger your army, so Eidolon slows opponent and helps you. Eidolon is also (relatively) hard to remove, as it's immune to bolts, hard to kill with Prismatic Ending, and can't be Fatal Pushed without an activated push. It can also block lots of threats, so if you need blockers it doubles. It's also an enchantment, so it trips Sythis.

Kaya's Guile is one of the best cards I've seen come from the game in a while. Instant speed answer to almost every problem that's not 'I'm so overbalanced at this point the game's already over anyway'. Grave hate, life gain, token generator, removal (notably that gets around hexproof). And it's a prefect topdeck lategame cause you can escalate it into essentially a +1 material +4 life goodbye threats. The 4 life is nothing to sneeze at on its own in this build anyway, so thank you Guile.

Intangible Virtue speaks for itself in this build. Suddenly those 1/1's that were pests are 2/2's that attack and block in the same cycle and cut opponent's clock in half.

Witch's Oven has a unique spot in this build. You're almost certainly going to be chump blocking and/or losing tokens at some point, so the Oven takes that inevitability and turns it into lifegain that can be stored and utilized when necessary/mana available. Chump block, sac the token, pay 2 mana later when you've got it (or right away) and you're at +3 life for the exchange and haven't 'really' lost material. In a pinch, the Oven turns one of your token generators into 'pay 2 life, gain 2 life' every turn, which really keeps you alive with an additional 2 token generators active every turn with no actual loss of life. So, if you're gunna bleed to death, the Oven is fantastic life support. It's also cheap as hell and gets around Eidolon's shutdown, allowing you to utilize the mana that would otherwise be doing nothing.

Urborg helps with colors (which shouldn't be a problem but still), and turns fetch lands into nonbleeding lands, so if you don't need the mana pulled from the deck, just keep them as swamps and save the life.

The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Legion's Landing is a cheap token with lifelink that will almost certainly turn into a land that gives you more tokens with lifelink that also gets around Eidolon. On Thin Ice is cheap removal that trips Sythis and has plenty of available snow (including fetches). Virtue of Loyalty is a storable win condition that gives you an up front 2/2 vigilance token at instant speed and combos about as well with Eidolon as physically possible, as it turns the slower game into token steroids. Cycling lands are good turn 1 drops, either on the field or discarded, as the low-ish 1-drop quotient works out for you either way. If you don't need the mana, its a draw card. If you need the mana, you skipped a mulligan. Cling to Dusts is a reusable grave hate or life gain (if absolutely necessary) that's cheap, gets around Eidolon, and will probably pop more than once in a game if it comes up.

Feedback Appreciated.

Deck Tags

  • Modern
  • Token
  • Competitive
  • Orzhov

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Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

320904

Deck Format


Modern

NOTE: Set by owner when deck was made.

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Modern Capitalism-Competitive

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