evanmartyr
08-06-2013, 03:22 AM
I've been experimenting with off-the-beaten-path tempo decks in Modern, and while fiddling with a shitty LD pile, my friend reminded me that there's still a decent amount of bounce spells that can hit lands in Modern. While it's missing some of the more important things (like, say, a reliable way to take advantage of any tempo you're generating by setting your opponent back nearly a turn every turn) it is kind of fun to play. Needs a ton of tweaking, though.
4x Riftwing Cloudskate
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
2x Karn Liberated
4x Eye of Nowhere
4x Boomerang
4x Wipe Away
4x Cryptic Command
1x Clutch of the Undercity
4x Deny Reality
4x Shadow of Doubt
The usual 22 lands.
Cards I'm considering/not sure about:
Delver of Secrets: is worse than useless. Your creatures are, for the most part, speedbumps that either keep you trucking along with the game plan of bouncing any and everything, or let you reuse old spells. It'll just soak up removal, but you'd rather have nearly anything in your opening hand rather than try to be offensive early.
Clutch of the Undercity: Is a win-con with Tamiyo ultimate-ed, which is pretty swell, but unlike Cryptic Command and Deny Reality, it doesn't progress you very far. Many games it'll either be a desperation-transmute for a Cryptic Command, or it'll be just another Boomerang...but one that costs a ton.
Shadow of Doubt: At worst it cycles for 2, which isn't terribly worse than the other options I was looking at (Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand are better at digging, but have no potential for blowout and are sorceries). At best it's a damn beating; a way to permanently set back a more aggressive deck or put control further on the back foot.
Lands: I'm not sure about the count. The deck has no real card draw (8 of its cards cycle, but that's it), but 22 has so far been floody rather than screwy, and that seems best with the number of 4+cc spells included.
Spellstutter Sprite: Seems great until I started playing it. Yes, you'll get to counter your fair share of spells with it, but for the most part I really, really don't care if they want to Path or Bolt my creatures, and in the case of Path I'd rather they actually resolve it than remove a blocker 90% of the time.
Cheap Countermagic (Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, etc): Just doesn't seem worth it most games. I'm not against siding them in, and Muddle the Mixture may be a good option there too (being able to Transmute it into a Snapcaster could prove pretty excellent). If taking the deck in a more reactive direction is needed, then I'll certainly look at these first.
Far//Away: Is a great way to get ahead/stay ahead against aggressive decks, since you'll be setting them back a bit more than you should and/or killing a creature for a reasonable cost, but I honestly haven't playtested the deck against much so I'm not sure what this thing has to really worry about.
Karn, Liberated: Haven't actually tried him out yet but the deck was screaming for a card that could carry it into the late game. Most of the time you're not terribly concerned with casting it super early, since it's likely that aggro decks will be stalled out and control will be racing to keep up with even the shitty clock that Cloudskates represent, so lacking the ramp that Tron has isn't a big deal. I feel like he might be pretty solid. At the very least, permanently removing two lands or two threats you're just tired of seeing isn't too bad.
Cyclonic Rift: Expensive to Overload, and can't hit lands, but shit is it one-sided. My concern is that most of the time it'll buy you a single turn, which isn't great for a card that doesn't dig.
Encroaching Wastes: Introduces the possibility of color screw, but the upside is that you can potentially turn a land drop into a better bounce spell mid- to late-game. Opponents shouldn't really be getting to the Tectonic Edge threshold, and Ghost Quarter doesn't affect your board position positively.
Jace Beleren: Cheap, you don't usually care if your opponent is drawing cards since most of your deck prevents them from playing them, and represents a recurring source of card draw as well as a possible alternate win condition. My concern is that he's terrible: no abilities that even remotely affect the board, and can't help you recover from a negative situation as well as literally any other card drawing spell that is remotely playable. May be win-more, may be an engine piece that ties the whole deck together. Haven't had a chance to test him.
Eye of Nowhere: It's just a crummy boomerang, and it makes sure you almost always keep them off their third land for a while. My concern is that most Modern decks tend to care more about their second land than their third, and that it's a sorcery which means you're making decisions about mana and card usage on your turn, so you're missing a lot of information.
Thoughts?
4x Riftwing Cloudskate
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
2x Karn Liberated
4x Eye of Nowhere
4x Boomerang
4x Wipe Away
4x Cryptic Command
1x Clutch of the Undercity
4x Deny Reality
4x Shadow of Doubt
The usual 22 lands.
Cards I'm considering/not sure about:
Delver of Secrets: is worse than useless. Your creatures are, for the most part, speedbumps that either keep you trucking along with the game plan of bouncing any and everything, or let you reuse old spells. It'll just soak up removal, but you'd rather have nearly anything in your opening hand rather than try to be offensive early.
Clutch of the Undercity: Is a win-con with Tamiyo ultimate-ed, which is pretty swell, but unlike Cryptic Command and Deny Reality, it doesn't progress you very far. Many games it'll either be a desperation-transmute for a Cryptic Command, or it'll be just another Boomerang...but one that costs a ton.
Shadow of Doubt: At worst it cycles for 2, which isn't terribly worse than the other options I was looking at (Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand are better at digging, but have no potential for blowout and are sorceries). At best it's a damn beating; a way to permanently set back a more aggressive deck or put control further on the back foot.
Lands: I'm not sure about the count. The deck has no real card draw (8 of its cards cycle, but that's it), but 22 has so far been floody rather than screwy, and that seems best with the number of 4+cc spells included.
Spellstutter Sprite: Seems great until I started playing it. Yes, you'll get to counter your fair share of spells with it, but for the most part I really, really don't care if they want to Path or Bolt my creatures, and in the case of Path I'd rather they actually resolve it than remove a blocker 90% of the time.
Cheap Countermagic (Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, etc): Just doesn't seem worth it most games. I'm not against siding them in, and Muddle the Mixture may be a good option there too (being able to Transmute it into a Snapcaster could prove pretty excellent). If taking the deck in a more reactive direction is needed, then I'll certainly look at these first.
Far//Away: Is a great way to get ahead/stay ahead against aggressive decks, since you'll be setting them back a bit more than you should and/or killing a creature for a reasonable cost, but I honestly haven't playtested the deck against much so I'm not sure what this thing has to really worry about.
Karn, Liberated: Haven't actually tried him out yet but the deck was screaming for a card that could carry it into the late game. Most of the time you're not terribly concerned with casting it super early, since it's likely that aggro decks will be stalled out and control will be racing to keep up with even the shitty clock that Cloudskates represent, so lacking the ramp that Tron has isn't a big deal. I feel like he might be pretty solid. At the very least, permanently removing two lands or two threats you're just tired of seeing isn't too bad.
Cyclonic Rift: Expensive to Overload, and can't hit lands, but shit is it one-sided. My concern is that most of the time it'll buy you a single turn, which isn't great for a card that doesn't dig.
Encroaching Wastes: Introduces the possibility of color screw, but the upside is that you can potentially turn a land drop into a better bounce spell mid- to late-game. Opponents shouldn't really be getting to the Tectonic Edge threshold, and Ghost Quarter doesn't affect your board position positively.
Jace Beleren: Cheap, you don't usually care if your opponent is drawing cards since most of your deck prevents them from playing them, and represents a recurring source of card draw as well as a possible alternate win condition. My concern is that he's terrible: no abilities that even remotely affect the board, and can't help you recover from a negative situation as well as literally any other card drawing spell that is remotely playable. May be win-more, may be an engine piece that ties the whole deck together. Haven't had a chance to test him.
Eye of Nowhere: It's just a crummy boomerang, and it makes sure you almost always keep them off their third land for a while. My concern is that most Modern decks tend to care more about their second land than their third, and that it's a sorcery which means you're making decisions about mana and card usage on your turn, so you're missing a lot of information.
Thoughts?