Modern MOST

Primer: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...radewind-Rider

Here is a deck I have been enjoying in Legacy ported to Modern. It's called MOST (Merieke, Opposition, Survival, Tradewind Rider) but really it's a Fauna Shama+Scryb Ranger, and to a lesser extent a Vial deck. It plays 4-colors and a lot of silver bullets. Merieke is maybe not needed in Legacy, but it has won me a lot of games so far in Modern.

Not sure if all those fetchlands are needed, but it's important most of the lands in the deck are Forest, if not all, so you can use Scryb Ranger on them. The 2nd Forest is a nod to the fact that Scryb Ranger+painlands is a non-bo, so that aspect of the Legacy version is pretty handicapped.


4 Windswept Heath
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Dryad Arbor

Acceleration
4 Aether Vial
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierach

Engine
4 Fauna Shaman
2 Scryb Ranger

The Meat
3 Siege Rhino
2 Tarmogoyf
1 Bitterblossom
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Eternal Witness
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Merieke Ri Berit
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Reflector Mage
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Spell Queller
1 Vendilion Clique


Other
4 Assassin's Trophy
1 Chord of Calling
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

SB
2 Thoughtseize
1 Bitterblossom
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Unmoored Ego
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Meddling Mage
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Stoic Angel




edit: changed up the list a little. I originally slapped in Siege Rhino because I coudn't think of anything else, but hot damn did it randomly end up being great in a lot of match-ups. Resolving that thing is no joke. Don't think there is enough UW Control in Modern, or combo, to warrant the Glen-Elendra main over a 3rd Siege Rhino, but that could be meta-dependant as Glen-Elendra is also very good against any combo, Infect, and to a point Mardu. Shalai is another very strong options, but I don't think going 1 Rhino, 1 Shalai, 1 Glen-Elendra is correct, though I may be wrong. If I were to do that I'd cut something to fit the 2nd Rhino in.

Goyf #3, Rhino #3, SoLas #2, Bitterblossom, Chord of Calling, Eternal Witness, Phantasmal Image, Vendillion Clique, Mangara of Corondor, and Lilianna the Last Hope are all slots that can change up depending on preference. You are usually bringing in whatever you don't have g2, but g1 it's up to you what you want to run in those. I recommend not going under 2 Goyfs or 2 Rhinos in any case.

edit: Didn't want to bump the thread, but testing 3 Mana Leak over 2 Abrupt Decay and 1 Scryb Ranger. I for sure miss the Ranger, but Decay has not been the best card. Not completely sold on Mana Leak, but it's very easy to cast. Wish I could think of something to cut to run 3 Leaks, 2 Scryb... but I don't know what to cut.

Very nice, Kanti! I could definitely see myself playing this at a modern event. Lacking the goyfs only, I'll try to figure out some alternative. Like Scavenging Ooze seems pretty good with all the graveyard shenanigans going on. Also, with Sword of Light and Shadow being the closest to a modern equivalent of Meren, I can see playing a Trophy Mage to get better access to the sword. Maybe even play two Swords and a Mage.

Edit:
Disclaimer: never played Modern.
Wouldn't Sword of L&S + Fulminator Mage be good vs many decks? Also Sword + Qasali vs the artifact decks? I imagine 2 Swords and a Trophy Mage would be great, playing also 1 Fulminator Mage and 2 Qasali. Hmm I also wonder if Trinket Mage + Basilisk Collar is great, Izzet Staticaster should be played too, at least if Collar is played...

I don't play much Modern either but damn is Fauna Shaman fun. I think a Goyf could be cut for another Bitterblossom no problem, going to a 2/2 split. The split may actually be correct as BB is a total freaking house in my opinion. People are just starting to realize how good it is, across formats (check Grixis in Legacy for the BB love). Another Siege Rhino here woudn't be bad either, or Shalai. 1 Goyf, 2 BB, 3 Siege Rhino is legitimate, I think. At that point you could cut the last Goyf for another hate bear (2nd Scooze, 1 Meddling Mage, Hallowed Spiritkeeper, etc) or something beefy like Serra Avenger or that Smugglers Copter you mentioned (which gets stronger with the 2nd BB main-deck if you go that route).

I think Mangara is a little better than Fulminator Mage. You get the same effect except it doesn't have haste, but you set up Mangara+Scryb Ranger a lot more easily than you could set up Fulminator Mage+SoLas. Mangara has the benefit of being relevant against basically everything, rather than just lands. Sword+Qasali does seem nice, maybe a Qasali MD over the Sage is better. Personal preference there really.

Trophy Mage is pretty cool, you would pretty much get a guaranteed Sword every-game. Combined with BB and all those 1cc dorks that can get pretty deadly. I guess you could cut the Goyfs for this as well, going -3 Goyfs, +1 Mage, +1 SoLas, +1 Bitterblossom. Would let you run some other swords as well. Trinket Mage package in the SB might be good. You could run x2 Trinket Mage, x2 GY hate pieces for your x4 GY hate, and then have access to a couple of more silver bullets. Pithing Needle, Chalice, EE, and some other options. Don't know if there is enough 1cc hate to justify it, but it deserves exploring.

Maybe Archangel of Tithes could be a good Peacekeeper replacement?

There's no replavement for Mother I guess but Shalai plays a similar role and interacts with storm. Could be great?

I wonder if there is any meaningful card draw or creature tutoring card other than Chord. Collective Company I guess but that's not what I think the deck wants. Traverse..

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edit: Didn't want to bump the thread, but testing 3 Mana Leak over 2 Abrupt Decay and 1 Scryb Ranger. I for sure miss the Ranger, but Decay has not been the best card. Not completely sold on Mana Leak, but it's very easy to cast. Wish I could think of something to cut to run 3 Leaks, 2 Scryb... but I don't know what to cut.

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You are playing one Eternal Witness and one Renegade Rallier. Im thinking Witness is more versatile and you could settle for that, skipping Rallier. There is no Jitte or Sylvan to get bsck with it, not even Qasali, so it doesn't seem as useful as in a legacy version.

Archangels is schweet but that mana cost is crazy. Double anything but GG is tough in the deck, even with the extra dorks. It’s easiee than it is in Legacy as Dryad Arbor acceleration sucks ass with out varied mana costs, but I still don’t feel comfy aiding in a card requiring triple anything, unless it’s GGG.

Shalai does not cover the Mother role. Mother+Scryb is something I really miss, and a huge part of the Legacy deck. She is amazing in Modern, and could easily replace a Rhino. You blank like 25 of Mardus cards, plus a whole bunch of other crap. Problem is with Leyline effects they are better earlier rather than later, so you might drop a Shalai after already being demolished by TS and Collective Brutality. 4 toughness, evasion, and a good effect make it a good option though. Restoration Angel might be better, but probably not. Glen Elendra might be better in the matches you want Shalai in, and stronger in the matches you don’t really care for Shalai (Tron, Jeskai, Infect, GW Hexproof).

As for Scryb #2, it’s needed. It produces insane amounts of mana. I cut Goyf #3 for it. Mana Leak has performed admirably, though playing more Modern I’ve seen decks where AD could be just as good or better. Depends on your meta, and on what you want to make your deck better against. Playing against Jeskai without Mana Leak would probably suck. Witness and Rallier, they do different things. Rallier gets back Goyf, BB, Fauna, dorks, and lands, and some more. It’s an amazing grind card as it’s almost always a guaranteed 2-for-1, but I think the most attractive aspect of the card is that it’s cheap and fast. Waiting on a full turn to re-cast Fauna Shaman sucks, especially as then you need to wait ANOTHER turn just to activate it. Compare this with basically casting Reanimate on any 2cc spell. Getting a Fauna back same turn is amazing, and dropping Rallier->Goyf while grinding is great. Vial on 3 with Fauna out means you can blank Bolts and swing for 3 the next turn. Witness has been freaking MVP for me though, I search it up way more than Rallier. Anything in your grave is fair game for it, and allows you to basically use Fauna to tutor up removal (E Witness for Path, AD, or SB cards) o a counterspell that isn’t Spell Queller by recycling Mana Leak. Other day I drew a Witness after Leaking some spell. I had 2 lands, a dork, and a Ranger in play, along with the Goyf I was racing with. With 1 land and a dork I was able to E Witness my Leak back to hand and have Leak mana up via Scryb Ranger on opponents turn. Tap dork, tap land, untap dork+bounce land, play land, tap land for Witness and bring Mana Leak back to hand.

Lead the Stampede is a decent card draw. Potential to draw a shitton of cards. I thought about it over Chord, but with all of our silver bullets I prefer the Chord. Only time I hate Chord is when I have my 1-of Teeg out. Another card I've still really wanted is Phantasmal Image. Sucks that it doesn't have flash, so it can't really double up on Queller or Clique unless you keep a Vial @2, but there are some times I'm tutoring for a card and would love to be able to crab Image. The only bad thing about it is that it can be a little "win-more". Still, so many ETB effects. Tutor up a Reflector Mage, followed by another Reflector Mage would be... holy shit.

edit: was on my phone. couple funny spelling errors.

bump! I'm EXTREMELY excited for Ravnica. There are so many damn playable cards it's not even funny... starting with the obvious 4-of MD Assasin's Trophy since Modern is a format with tons of Tron and Valakut, and Jace. As if that wasn't enough we get Knight of Autumn, a straight up upgrade over Reclamation Sage which will help us with Burn, and can randomly clock people. Thief of Sanity can be really good, it has evasion and a pretty strong effect against most decks. Stealing burn or counter spells sounds good. Unmoored Ego... holy shit, what a card. Kraul Harpooner is probably better in Legacy, but decent. Being able to blast a 1cc dork is good, or Monastery Swiftspear. Probably a very good card now that I think twice about it. Venerated Loxodon is alright, though I probably rather play Siege Rhino. Ledev Champion does not look so bad either.

Hell, even Find//Finality and Assure//Assemble can find some room somewhere. And we might have gotten a planeswalker in Vraska, Golgari Queen. Looks like a great cards on it's own, being Abrupt Decay on a stick, but it has some meaningful interaction with the rest deck as well. It fits very well with Bitterblossom or Nissa, and it also lets you sacrifice lands late game to draw a card (imagine it as turning all of your lands into Horizon Canopy). We can't run Brainstorm in Modern, and sometimes end up with 4-5 lands in play, and start top-decking Vials. Vraska comes to the rescue in these scenarios.

Your last post made me think of the multicolor glittering wish deck https://blog.cardsphere.com/untitled-2/

Would you make an updated list with ravnica cards?

Hey haven't played in 2 months and haven't followed the new set. Looked through it briefly and I saw two hate-bears that stick out for sure, those being Lavinia, Azorius Renegade and Deputy of Detention. Deputy is damn good and definitely deserves a place in the main-deck, though the question of what to cut is a tough one and probably up to personal preference. Lavinia looks like it craps all over the non-creature decks we struggle with barring Tron assembles on t3. You could solve this problem by cutting some Trophy's and running Mana Leak but then you are weak to the other things. It's always nice getting another 2cc hatebear to shit on non-creature decks post-sb. The split cards seem nice, can see myself throwing one or two in the sideboard if I wanted to test stuff. Overall a very interesting set that gives us 2 really powerful looking cards.

Deputy for sure. I have zero modern experience, but, I've been thinking of playing 1 Death's Shadow, 1 Varolz the Scar-Striped, then considering using Varolz also with some mix of Devoted Druid, Necrotic Ooze, Vizier of Remedies, Quillspike, Kitchen Finks.. Didn't think it through yet. But Scryb Ranger + pain lands means you can drop in life if you need to for Death's Shadow, and Varolz makes Shadow a one mana win con basically, scavenging +13/+13 for black on a Scryb Ranger or another flier can probably get a win out of nowhere. And Druid can give infinite mana, Varolz can be a sac outlet, Finks gives infinite life, etc. So many options with these few cards.

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Originally Posted by pettdan

Deputy for sure. I have zero modern experience, but, I've been thinking of playing 1 Death's Shadow, 1 Varolz the Scar-Striped, then considering using Varolz also with some mix of Devoted Druid, Necrotic Ooze, Vizier of Remedies, Quillspike, Kitchen Finks.. Didn't think it through yet. But Scryb Ranger + pain lands means you can drop in life if you need to for Death's Shadow, and Varolz makes Shadow a one mana win con basically, scavenging +13/+13 for black on a Scryb Ranger or another flier can probably get a win out of nowhere. And Druid can give infinite mana, Varolz can be a sac outlet, Finks gives infinite life, etc. So many options with these few cards.

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That sounds.... crazy. I love it on paper but holy moly does that sound like you are going to get your flyer blown up in response to the scavenge trigger, but it probably can get a win out of nowhere. This decks gy is always stacked anyways from things getting blown up, countered, or discarded so I think Varolz might be good on it's own merit, and Death's Shadow shenanigans are just the icing on the cake. Only thing that scares me is again he doesn't do anything if he's dead. Every creature in MOST has to have an ETB, or some sort of effect when it leaves play. If it doesn't it and you opt for a more vanilla creature it better solve a problem your deck is having (Goyf>Lightning Bolt). For the most part I prefer running hatebears and big fat stupid monsters over cards that require more set-up but this deck for sure has a lot of creature combo potential.

Adding Finks wouldn't be a far from bad, and infinite life sounds saucy as hell though. Gonna test this once I get my MTG feet wet again. What I really want to test is x3-4 Meddling Mage. I wanted to before but looking at MTGoldfish metagame I see some potential for the little mage.

Yeah, Desth's Shadow may do too little too often. I have no idea how 3-4 Meddling Mages would work out in Modern but probably pretty well, stopping collected company or ironworks etc, the main payoff cards in each matchup, might be really good [edit: otoh there is no Mother to protect them, can you explain the value you see? Vs decks with no removal mainly?]. I'm wondering how a list with 3-4 deputy will run too.. Just keeping the board clear on the other side of the table can be pretty good..

For inspiration :

4 Aether Vial
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Breeding Pool
3 Collected Company
1 Collector Ouphe
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Deputy of Detention
4 Eladamri's Call
1 Eternal Witness
1 Gavony Township
1 Hostage Taker
4 Ice-Fang Coatl
1 Knight of Autumn
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plague Engineer
4 Prismatic Vista
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Temple Garden
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Yixlid Jailer

1 Auriok Champion
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Fulminator Mage
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Path to Exile
1 Plague Engineer
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Tireless Tracker
2 Yixlid Jailer

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2042703#online
https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic...m_source=share