Phoenix Ignition
08-04-2015, 03:12 PM
I played some Evolutionary Leap with Smallpox deck at a weekly and was able to tune it a lot more. I went 3 colors initially (with white) but you just can't support that manabase with all the poxing and basic lands. Here's the list, it's the most fun deck I've played in magic in a looooong time. I can't vouch for it winning anything yet, but here's what I'll be playing for the foreseeable future:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Smallpox
4 Evolutionary Leap
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Life from the Loam
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Lotleth Troll
3 Bloodghast
3 Vengeful Pharaoh
2 Liliana, Heretical Healer
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Courser of Kruphix
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Thragtusk
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
3 Windswept Heath
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
5 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Woodland Cemetery
2 Temple of Malady
1 Dryad Arbor
Working Sideboard:
1 Thragtusk
1 Fulminator Mage
2 Death Cloud
3 Golgari Charm
2 Spellskite
2 Choke
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Damping Matrix
I tried this deck with white in it, Siege rhinos were amazing, Voice of Resurgence was decent, and the sideboard was much better, but the manabase lost me 2 matches (partially because I only had a single Forest and often Sakura was digging me up a 3rd swamp instead of the green source I needed, but still). I don't think another color is necessary in here.
Cards I tried but didn't like:
Lingering Souls -- you can do better with the slots
Voice of Resurgence -- Surprisingly not that great, regardless of synergy, the token is rarely better than a 2/2
Viridian Emissary -- I tried so hard to make him good, and you'd think with smallpox he would be amazing. That usually involved me waiting an extra turn to SP while playing him, and usually I didn't even have a creature I was protecting with him. He could have been a Rampant Growth for the most part and it would have played out the same. There are enough recurring creatures that you don't usually get hit too hard with a sac effect, and he's just unnecessary. Surprising, really.
Cards I wish I had room for:
Siege Rhino -- this card is so good right now. I just don't think a 3 color manabase is right for the deck.
Liliana of the Veil -- The new Liliana is so much better when she flips, and you can hit her with EL. With bloodghast she's super easy to flip. So new lily takes old lily's slot, but I'd ideally have 1-2 old lily's in here as well. I also flipped new lily by casting a second new lily and legend ruling, so that was pretty awesome.
Abrupt Decay -- Really I'd want Abrupt Decay or some other kill spells in here (instant speed), but Abrupt doesn't hit like 80% of things in Modern now. Grixis decks use things we don't care about or delve cards we can't hit (aside from twin decks). Tron has random stuff we could hit, but most of the time it's irrelevant and I'd rather just go heavier on the Poxing. Sideboard might have to switch to more stuff that kills things.
Shriekmaw -- I played this guy at first and he has amazing synergy with EL and new Lily, but sadly every non-goyf in the format is either black or an artifact. It pained me to cut him, but I'm sure he'll see his day in the sun eventually.
Grave Titan -- This could be any big beater, Wurmcoil, what have you. I just got to late game sometimes wishing I had that trump card in my deck to search for.
Card explanations:
Lotleth Troll -- I needed a beater who can survive all the burn that's going around, and having an extra discard outlet is pretty awesome for early Bloodghast/Vengevine/Gravecrawlers. Also, most games I'm ending up with 4+ creatures in hand late game since Bloodghast -> fetchland -> EL a couple times is the biggest source of card advantage ever. The other thing is previous lists didn't get any creatures out that were bigger than 4/5s and that can be a problem if you're trying to block stuff or attack into stuff. Lotleth can grow without limit.
Liliana, Heretical Healer -- I'll admit I threw her in here just because I thought she was cool and not good, but holy crap she's easy to flip in this deck and her abilities are amazing. +2 loyalty to discarding cards (starting at essentially 5) means she takes a ton of beating if you don't have the blockers out, and reanimating something is really awesome. The ultimate isn't immediately game ending, but it is actually quite good. Playing a second one with a first out is a great way to flip her, but obviously you'd prefer to be using EL or Sakura-Tribe Elder. Turn 2 Sakura into turn 3 Liliana is really good. The 2/2 zombie token is another way to get gravecrawler back, so that's pretty cool too.
Vengeful Pharaoh -- I really like this card's interaction with Smallpox and with Lotleth Troll. It doubles as a late game win condition as well, who can take out any size of goyf or Wurmcoil and potentially find his way back into play. Having great abilities against aggro decks as well as control decks who wait to use bigger creatures later on gives this guy his slot for now.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang -- Always a 4/5 for :b:. Tasigur is just good. Maybe better off as Gurmag Angler, but I like the circumstantial card advantage possibilities.
Life from the Loam -- This doesn't have any utility lands, but I think a 1-of can't be bad. You're going to be losing a lot of land drops to your own stuff, and it's really nice to have a way to get them back and make sure Bloodghast triggers every turn.
Courser of Kruphix -- You need some form of life gain and I think it's between this and Kitchen Finks. You don't need more creatures that sac, though, and Courser is better card advantage. I really like Courser in decks with Death Cloud, and always have.
Death Cloud -- Seems weird to be running this alongside Smallpox, but we can really handle the discard and creature sac. Lands can be the sticking point, but if you can resolve this against almost any deck they have no chance of keeping up. With EL on the table you can pretty much Smallpox/Death cloud at will. It's also the only real way to fight Scapeshift and Tron decks, as they can tend to lose a single land with ease. Pump it to 2 or 3 though and they'll have some major issues.
Dryad Arbor As bad as this one is with Smallpox, it's even better than that with EL.
There are a lot of other cards I'd like to fit in or don't like, but I've only played it at one tournament. This deck is seriously the most fun deck I've played in years.
4 Thoughtseize
4 Smallpox
4 Evolutionary Leap
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Life from the Loam
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Lotleth Troll
3 Bloodghast
3 Vengeful Pharaoh
2 Liliana, Heretical Healer
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Courser of Kruphix
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Thragtusk
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
3 Windswept Heath
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
5 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Woodland Cemetery
2 Temple of Malady
1 Dryad Arbor
Working Sideboard:
1 Thragtusk
1 Fulminator Mage
2 Death Cloud
3 Golgari Charm
2 Spellskite
2 Choke
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Damping Matrix
I tried this deck with white in it, Siege rhinos were amazing, Voice of Resurgence was decent, and the sideboard was much better, but the manabase lost me 2 matches (partially because I only had a single Forest and often Sakura was digging me up a 3rd swamp instead of the green source I needed, but still). I don't think another color is necessary in here.
Cards I tried but didn't like:
Lingering Souls -- you can do better with the slots
Voice of Resurgence -- Surprisingly not that great, regardless of synergy, the token is rarely better than a 2/2
Viridian Emissary -- I tried so hard to make him good, and you'd think with smallpox he would be amazing. That usually involved me waiting an extra turn to SP while playing him, and usually I didn't even have a creature I was protecting with him. He could have been a Rampant Growth for the most part and it would have played out the same. There are enough recurring creatures that you don't usually get hit too hard with a sac effect, and he's just unnecessary. Surprising, really.
Cards I wish I had room for:
Siege Rhino -- this card is so good right now. I just don't think a 3 color manabase is right for the deck.
Liliana of the Veil -- The new Liliana is so much better when she flips, and you can hit her with EL. With bloodghast she's super easy to flip. So new lily takes old lily's slot, but I'd ideally have 1-2 old lily's in here as well. I also flipped new lily by casting a second new lily and legend ruling, so that was pretty awesome.
Abrupt Decay -- Really I'd want Abrupt Decay or some other kill spells in here (instant speed), but Abrupt doesn't hit like 80% of things in Modern now. Grixis decks use things we don't care about or delve cards we can't hit (aside from twin decks). Tron has random stuff we could hit, but most of the time it's irrelevant and I'd rather just go heavier on the Poxing. Sideboard might have to switch to more stuff that kills things.
Shriekmaw -- I played this guy at first and he has amazing synergy with EL and new Lily, but sadly every non-goyf in the format is either black or an artifact. It pained me to cut him, but I'm sure he'll see his day in the sun eventually.
Grave Titan -- This could be any big beater, Wurmcoil, what have you. I just got to late game sometimes wishing I had that trump card in my deck to search for.
Card explanations:
Lotleth Troll -- I needed a beater who can survive all the burn that's going around, and having an extra discard outlet is pretty awesome for early Bloodghast/Vengevine/Gravecrawlers. Also, most games I'm ending up with 4+ creatures in hand late game since Bloodghast -> fetchland -> EL a couple times is the biggest source of card advantage ever. The other thing is previous lists didn't get any creatures out that were bigger than 4/5s and that can be a problem if you're trying to block stuff or attack into stuff. Lotleth can grow without limit.
Liliana, Heretical Healer -- I'll admit I threw her in here just because I thought she was cool and not good, but holy crap she's easy to flip in this deck and her abilities are amazing. +2 loyalty to discarding cards (starting at essentially 5) means she takes a ton of beating if you don't have the blockers out, and reanimating something is really awesome. The ultimate isn't immediately game ending, but it is actually quite good. Playing a second one with a first out is a great way to flip her, but obviously you'd prefer to be using EL or Sakura-Tribe Elder. Turn 2 Sakura into turn 3 Liliana is really good. The 2/2 zombie token is another way to get gravecrawler back, so that's pretty cool too.
Vengeful Pharaoh -- I really like this card's interaction with Smallpox and with Lotleth Troll. It doubles as a late game win condition as well, who can take out any size of goyf or Wurmcoil and potentially find his way back into play. Having great abilities against aggro decks as well as control decks who wait to use bigger creatures later on gives this guy his slot for now.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang -- Always a 4/5 for :b:. Tasigur is just good. Maybe better off as Gurmag Angler, but I like the circumstantial card advantage possibilities.
Life from the Loam -- This doesn't have any utility lands, but I think a 1-of can't be bad. You're going to be losing a lot of land drops to your own stuff, and it's really nice to have a way to get them back and make sure Bloodghast triggers every turn.
Courser of Kruphix -- You need some form of life gain and I think it's between this and Kitchen Finks. You don't need more creatures that sac, though, and Courser is better card advantage. I really like Courser in decks with Death Cloud, and always have.
Death Cloud -- Seems weird to be running this alongside Smallpox, but we can really handle the discard and creature sac. Lands can be the sticking point, but if you can resolve this against almost any deck they have no chance of keeping up. With EL on the table you can pretty much Smallpox/Death cloud at will. It's also the only real way to fight Scapeshift and Tron decks, as they can tend to lose a single land with ease. Pump it to 2 or 3 though and they'll have some major issues.
Dryad Arbor As bad as this one is with Smallpox, it's even better than that with EL.
There are a lot of other cards I'd like to fit in or don't like, but I've only played it at one tournament. This deck is seriously the most fun deck I've played in years.