EthanLewis

Just checking up, I'm afraid. Ded sent me an inbox on The Vault and apparently I'm not forgotten around here hahaha. Life started up rather quickly, and magic has seemingly lost its flare for me. Started university, started writing a lot more--life has begun. I still know my way around the dojo, I just don't visit as frequently.

Long time no see! Isn't Bob just better than scrivener? Your curve tops at 4 and is comprised of mainly 2-drops. I'd much rather take 2 a turn for a definite draw than take 1 hopefully to draw 2 cards, and then HAVE to play them both to draw an additional next turn. Plus Bob beats down.

See, ZP is really good, and I mean, with Spirit Jund you could argue that it's now better than average, considering the amount of lingering souls running around, but since Edel won GP Toronto, I feel as though a lot of lists will reduce their ZP count. Well, he added Cobra, so maybe not.. who knows, it's something to toy with :) but either way, I wanted, originally, 4 tec edge. With Tron, and Jund, mana bases are so fragile! Taking away a filter land to keep them off BB is actually huge, and you certainly don't want to die to a Tar Pit or a Colonnade or a Raging Ravine,

Upped the anthem count, added abrupt decay and timely, and cut zealous persecution. also changed the landbase a bit.

Hahaha, to you, as well! :) Merry Christmas, and thank you! :)

Hahaha, believe it or not, it all started with you guys! From my 1st place FNM finish ever, I was then able to start testing with this "elite" play group, locally, and from then on, between you guys and this new group, I've come pretty far.

Thank you for all your kind words, and all your help and advice, Sure. :) And Merry Christmas :D

Okay, so, after reading some comments, hear me out; PLAY SHADOW OF A DOUBT.

Why? Think about it. 2 mana to put them back a land and draw a card... yeah, sounds pretty good, but consider this;
What are two of the most anticipated/tier decks you can expect to see in the field;
Valakut and Jund.

With the release of Deathrite Shaman, what are the jund decks doing? They're changing their landbase to more fetchlands to accommodate that. Jund's mana is garbage, and attacking their fetch lands AND drawing a card? Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.
What's (usually) valakut's win con? Scapeshift, but a lot of lists run boseiju. Why counter it when you can just completely null the effect? At worst it's a think twice, and even then, it's so solid. I can't emphasize how much I think you need to run this card, especially if people start playing Gifts Ungiven again.

Okay, so, time for the deck.

Creatures;
You will want 4x Snapcaster, hands down. He's an auto-4-of. Always. If you don't own the other 2, seriously try and find them.
3x Geist of Saint traft is usually good, and I seriously recommend adding the 3rd, especially where you don't own goyfs :(
3x Restoration Angel ; she's really good. Just a flat out solid card, that can't get bolted or Inquisitioned away, and she can reset your geist before damage during combat.
4x Knight of the reliquary, because you can do some seriously fun shit with this guy, and this way you can make your mana base awesome.

I honestly don't like delver in this list. I think while it could be good, you'd be better off with something else. Preferably a tarmogoyf, but again, I understand why you can't.
You could try like.. blade splicers, or wall of omens, or some combination of both, but believe it or not tempo decks aren't my thing at all. I've made so many Delver lists that you'd think by now I have a grasp on it, but I just know Burn and Disruption... not so much tempo :/

However, let's continue.

I'm a total counter slut, so in this deck, with access to KotR, you can get silly. I'd try like, 2 cryptic command, which you can support with your knights, and in addition to this, you could try 4x mana leak, and 3x Spell snare. This deck I think could realllly use Spell Snare, because it needs to make it until the middle game to really be effective. Hell, you could even run 4. Jund will be a pain, for any deck (fml) so you could try like, 3x Mana leak, 3x Spell Snare, 2x Cryptic and 2x spell pierce, but like I said, I'm a counter slut and feel completely comfortable with 10 counters, hahaha.

You want to run 4 path to exile, always.

3x Shadow of doubt (TRUST ME)

And where this isn't really tempo anymore, but midrange, rather, you could get rid of the Vapor Snag and the Azorious Charm - charm's aren't really the best in modern, well, the newer ones, anyway.

A really good card to have, lately, is Lingering souls. With KotR, you could put in like 1 swamp, and try it out? 3 - 4 LS have always done me well, but there may be other options.

It all comes down to how you want to play. If you want to play super aggressive, maybe Naya holds better options, if you'd like to play Tempo, maybe USA holds better cards. Without goyf, the strong allure to green kind of dies.. D: But, the landbase is still cool with KotR, and you do get gaddok teeg and even qasali pridemage. Who knows, you can try a few things out :)

However, lands you MUST run;
1x Vault of the Archangel (if you decide to splash black, this land is amazing)
2x tectonic edge (way better than ghost quarter)
2x celestial colonnade
5-6 fetches
only 1 horizon canopy (the damage actually sucks)
1x Stirring Wildwood
2x Mystic Gate (cryptic)
1x Flooded grove (same deal)

either 1x gavony township or 1x moorland haunt, your choice.

then your choice of the other shocks and whatnot. You could also maybe run like, My mind's a little cloudy at the moment, and a lot of Bant things aren't really coming to mind, but basically, if you can just slam a geist and protect it, you'll get there. Maybe you want some board sweepers, like Supreme Verdict, but it all comes down to how you want to play.

P.S, run 25 lands. This deck relies on KotR and Geist, so you NEED to get to 3 lands each time,

Hope I helped :)

Awh, you guys are makin' me blush <3 ;)

I'm really glad you guys enjoy some of my builds, and I take this deck, and your kind words as incredible compliments. Thanks guys :)

P.s. the reason people don't play abrupt decay in modern is because it doesn't hit manlands. This is very relevant, when usually it replaces a lot of the removal slots. When you can't hit a treetop village, a raging raving, or an inkmoth nexus, you're in a really rough spots. It mightn' seem like much, but trust me, it is.

And I'd love to check out some modern decks! What GP are you going to, Alleyway?

Deck is undergoing major changes. Will update tomorrow.

Thanks man :) I haven't really tested this much, because for some reason i've just completely strayed from Valakut lists, but I'm glad you enjoy it!

The reason I had dispel over pierce was because I figured hey, this is combo, essentially. All I want to do is go off, and that's it. Pierce, while good against a LOT, is pretty horrible at protecting the combo. Let's say on turn 10, when I try to go off, my opponent casts Shadow of Doubt, or a counter, even, and they still have 8 mana up, that's when I feel that spell pierce would be pretty weak. Yeah, it's solid in the early game, but I feel as though I really don't care about the early game. All i need to do is stall, and remand and cryptic can do that pretty well. Maybe you're right, though, but where this was a combo deck, in my mind, it only made sense to protect the combo.

I logged in, and without even checking any decks I saw "Dear Ethan" on the side. I was like "...can it be, for me?" And here it is :')

It looks solid, man. I completely forgot about this deck until now! My only concern would be abrupt decay, but apparently people aren't really running it much anymore. Who knew.

How do you find it runs, man? Izzet charm is definitely a strong addition. But, no cryptic command? :( I've recently fallen in love with cryptic <3

it's changed drastically :O Just trying out a few things! This version is much harder to play, but it has a lot of other really cool lines my previous version did not.

Search for tomorrow is by far the best ramp spell for the deck, as it can come down t1, and puts it into play untapped. Harrow is really bad, honestly, with the having to sac a land in addition to casting clause (if it gets countered, you just stone rained yourself..), and cultivate again, always costs 3, and never puts it in untapped. The land in your hand really doesn't matter, where you draw enough as is.

The reason I chose Into the Roil over Cyclonic rift was for the card draw. In this deck, if you Scapeshift with 7 lands, you win the game. This Valakut deck is a combo deck, more so than your more traditional standard Valakut lists. All I need to do is draw a Scapeshift and stall until I have 7 lands. :)

Primeval Titan is just for a back-up plan.

You actually made this deck and tested it? :D That's such a huge compliment! I hope it did you well :)
And yeah, while it's not the "end-all answer" to valakut and jund, I think it has a 60-40 percentage in its favor against two of the hardest decks to hate out in the format, which is really all you can ask for. It's actually ridiculously resilient against a lot of the more aggressive decks, too. Overall, I feel this might be the list (or some variation of it) I take to Toronto with me, for the GP.

The sb will definitely have a few disruption spells, but I'm still testing the main, seeing what it's weak against, you know? Mainly, I'm scared to death of slaughter games.. ew. It definitely needs some Disfigures, the 4th Shadow of doubt, another spell pierce, board wipe of some sort, possibly the 4th spreading seas, maybe zealous persecution, and definitely a phantasmal image. also probably a 3rd kitchen finks.

damnit, I hate jund so much.

It's just so good! I can't see why you wouldn't want a 2/1 body and turn 3 jtms... ;) or a t3 hardcast batterskull with fow back up... why don't people do this?

whoever wrote that article is, for lack of a better term, a dumb ass... hahaha. Modern CAN be broken, if you have the right 7 card hand... Which is exactly why it's not broken to begin with.
my friend and I were working on a deck to get a t1 grisel or emrakul, and that could actually win turn 1, as well, but we both scraped it after many, many versions and trials... but why was this? Because a deck that is 'broken' is a deck that can do broken things with broken consistency. The decks that win t1 are RARELY seen in a top 8, because chances are, 9 times out of 10, you're not going to win t1. Sure, the combos are broken in the sense that answers are limited (reprint fow!!!!), but past turn 1, you have answers to everything. t1 is kind of the great equalizer, in modern. Spell pierces answers all. And as for the ban list, the format's still relatively new. Until it develops, it made sense for Wizards to ban the go-to cards to get people to explore the format. I'd say GSZ will be unbanned relatively soon.

Modern is a fantastic, and fantastically fun format. I absolutely love it! But yes, the cantrips are lame.. Serum visions is like.. the go-to cantrip, but you'll never see me running it. I think it's a horrible card. I would play Thought Scour/Gitaxian probe over it any day.

Actually come to think of it, scrap the rootbound crags. with your ramp spells, you need to be able to hit basics, all the time, without depleting your mountain resources. Red is so minimal in this deck, so -4 rootbounds, +4 forest. with all the rest you have besides the rootbound, they wont be needed, and this way you have legit ramp targets haha

Lotus Cobra <3 Yes. Favorite green card ever printed.

Well, for starters, your land base could still be better.
Although Mountains are huge, so you kinda need a lot of them, you still want to make sure you always have green. I HIGHLY recommend using 4 stomping ground, if you can, but if not, you still need to change it up.
If you're using primeval titan, you can get a little funky with the mana base. So, here's what I'd run;
1x Boseiju (there's more to this title, but I forget. Makes your shit uncounterable)
2x Raging Ravine (relatively cheap land, extra threat)
1x Kessig wolf run (with all the extra mana, screw it, why not?)
4x Rootbound crag
4x Stomping ground (seriously, they're mountains that add green... get them)
3x Valakut, the molten pinnacle (4 are too many)
3x Forest
8x Mountain

This way, green isn't too hard to come by, and you still have more than enough mountains. :)

Besides that, your ramp package needs some work.
4x Search for Tomorrow
4x Explore (you need 4, you have no dig whatsoever without blue, so run 4)
4x Rampant Growth (Normally, valakut doesn't run these, but they're a virtual draw spell.. so run them.)

And that's pretty much the ramp package, on top of 4x Sakura-Tribe Elder. Besides these, your plan is to just slam a titan. This deck will play very differently than the traditional valakut list.

Creatures;
4x Primeval Titan
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
2x Azusa, Lost but Seeking (pretty sure that's her name.. you can play an additional land each turn)

Spells;
4x Scapeshift (obviously)
3x Harmonize (yeah, get there!!!)
3x Lightning Bolt (You're a lot more aggressive than the usual valakut, so these are burn spells alongside removal. woopwoop)
2x Magma Jet (again, removal, burn, and they dig :) )

So that's a 60 I'd start with. It's not perfect, but it's a template. For the sideboard, you definitely want at least 2 Cavern of Souls, for the control matchup, and DEFINITELY 3x pyroclasm for affinity. Also, you'll want 2x Thrun, the last troll, 2x Surgical, 3x Ancient grudge, and possibly even bloodmoon? I know it effs the valakut plan, but slam a titan and you win either way. The sideboard you can play with, but I hope I helped! Again, any questions are welcomed.

Baleful Strix isn't modern legal :'( I see it in legacy because it's an answer to delver that cantrips, and snapcaster doesn't really do what you need it to in Legacy, where the land bases are so fragile and often times don't exceed like, 5 land, max.

Shadow of doubt is for fetches, at times, or gifts ungiven, or any search effect, really, but mainly for scapeshift. With Valakut being so popular, if they cast a scapeshift with 7 lands, and resolve it, they win. However, if they run boseiju or something like that, and you can't counter it, you're pretty screwed, so this is a multipurpose answer that not only cantrips, but is really good against a lot of other decks. With such fragile mana bases in modern, "stifling" a fetch and getting to draw is so huge, especially v.s. Jund.

And mannn, modern has SICK cantrips, hahaha. It doesn't have brainstorm, or ponder, or preordain, but in terms of sole cantrips, it has Gitaxian Probe, Shadow of Doubt, Spreading Seas, Thought scour... okay, maybe not the best, but it's not lacking, by any means. It's a fun format, man. I love it.