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Thread: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

  1. #1
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    Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    I played my very first games of Modern last night. I took Enchantress to a small Monday Night Modern tourney in my corner of the world. It was fun and the local meta was pretty aggro.
    Back in the day I brought Rabid Wombat to smash the local meta (to mixed results). I'm talking 15 years back when Goblins was tier 1.
    Any chance I can port a basic Wombat list to Modern standards?
    I'm looking at something simple like:

    4 Secluded Steppe
    16 Plains

    4 Eternal Dragon

    4 Abeyance
    4 Swords To Plowshares
    4 Wing Shards
    3 Wrath of God
    4 Renewed Faith
    3 Decree of Justice
    3 Rune of Protection: Red
    3 Gilded Light
    4 Runed Halo
    4 Angelsong

    The obvious card DQs are Chant and Decree (Swords turning into Path, Abeyance turning into Silence, Eternal Dragon turning into that MH2 Dragon).
    We now have Planeswalkers to add wincons, which is pretty cool. I like the idea of cycling with Abandoned Sarcophagus (probably dumb). I have no idea how Modern works anyway and I may assuming that the format is Legacy for kids with helmets...
    But is there even a chance that a modern (pun intended) version of this deck is worth any brain power?
    Spoiler alert, I have the deck sleeved up in my mind so I'll probably build something to play next week so I can act smarter than everyone else
    .
    Thanks for any input.


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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    You need to be able to beat burn, Lurrus recursion, DRC value, 4/4s with counter backup, Murktide, Ragavan, Urza's Saga etc. etc. Modern is quite fast with resilient decks.
    I really hope you can at least brew a tier 2 deck, I would love to sleeve up mono white. And if it's not Quinn, it might as well be Wombat.

    Urza's Saga might be good here. And it would be interesting to go without planeswalkers in order to dodge Force of Negation.

  3. #3
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    I wasn't able to go to Modern Monday because of a Covid scare. I did sleeve up a deck and was fairly confident I would have played it.

    4x Bandage
    4x Path to Exile
    4x Silence
    4x Angelsong
    3x Gilded Light
    4x Renewed Faith
    4x Wing Shards
    1x Starnheim Unleashed
    2x Wrath of God
    2x Doomskar
    4x Solitude
    3x Timeless Dragon
    1x Pristine Angel

    1x Field of Ruin
    3x Ghost Quarter
    16x Plains


    I wish I had Doomskar 15 years ago. Banking a wrath is pretty sweet. I also like Starnheim Unleashed; it's no Decree of Justice but late game it will make a bunch of Angels. Also thinking about changing the ratio of Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter.
    I don't have a definite sideboard. I was just going to bring the standard stuff like Rest in Peace and Ghostly Prison and Cast Out. Also trying to make Shining Shoal work. Oh the memories...
    I am also debating trying the escape Elspeth. With the graveyard hate, this may not quite work.
    There's always next week.
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  4. #4
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    I made it to Monday Modern this week, ready to disrespect this format with extreme prejudice. I went with the list in the previous post and totally forgot to bring my Enchantress deck, which has my graveyard SB hate. Oops.
    First round was against a dude playing Murktide. I commenced to exile all of his threats and failed to come up with a wincon of my own. Out of the 20 land in the deck, I drew about 16 of that over the course of game 1. Game two was a bit of the same. Highlights include my opponent trying to counter Wing Shards (twice) with storm triggers on the stack. He also bounced a creature of his own with Brazen Borrower (which I didn't catch) at a key moment which swung the game in his favor. Needless to say, in typical Wombat style the game went to turns and I couldn't stop lethal on turn 3.
    Game two was against Through the Breach/ Emrakul. Game one he breached Emrakul turn 5. Game two had him pulling Emerakul around turn 6, which I was able to Wing Shards. I rebuilt and (surprise, surprise) we went to time. I was able to play a Starnhiem Unleashed for 3 angels and won on turn 2.
    Third round I got the bye. Record of 1-1-1 was acceptable.
    All's said, my mission was successful. People were confused. No one knew what the f Bandage is. Curse words were spoken after creatures were repeatedly destroyed. Games went to time.
    But I'll be going back to Enchantress next week.
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    Amazing haha!
    What cards underperformed? Were the Solitudes necessary? They are card disadvantage, after all.

  6. #6
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    I must have hardcast Solitude about 75% of the time. I treated the card as a creature foremost and pitch spell secondary.
    I don't know what it says about a deck that uses Solitude as a wincon...
    That said, I don't think it's a 4-of but I think it has a place in the deck.
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  7. #7
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    I'm gearing up to take this out soon. I'm planning on throwing some Gideons (of the Trials and Blackblade)in the mix. Not sure if I'll play it this Monday. I'll prepare a rundown if I do.
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  8. #8
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    It's been a while and I needed something different from the Lotus Breach deck I've been bringing to Monday Modern. I was inspired by a Standard deck I played against on Arena that features The Restoration of Eiganjo and Reckoner Bankbuster. To my dismay, I discovered that I only own 1 Restoration.
    I threw this deck together:

    2 Timeless Dragon

    4 Bandage
    2 Silence
    3 Path to Exile
    4 Due Respect
    4 Renewed Faith
    4 Wing Shards
    3 Wrath of God
    1 Starnheim Unleashed
    1 Doomskar
    1 Farewell
    2 Touch the Spirit Realm
    1 The Restoration of Eiganjo
    1 Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis
    1 The Wandering Emperor
    1 Soul-Guide Lantern
    4 Reckoner Bankbuster

    11 Plains
    1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
    4 Flagstones of Trokair
    3 Field of Ruin
    3 Urza's Saga

    SB

    1 Soul-Guide Lantern
    4 Curtain of Light
    2 Aura of Silence
    4 Angelsong
    1 Hallowed Moonlight
    2 Silence
    1 Realm-Cloaked Giant


    The first round was against a Death's shadow brew. He dropped a Lilly game one and I realized that I had no instant/sorcery speed PW kills. Oops. Anyway, thanks to the cantrips I was able to have plenty of cards to pitch to her +1 and I eventually killed her. Then he played another one. In the end I fought through Lilly #2 and a Death's shadow and beat him game one. Game two he sided in Bloodghast and went a little wide. I got rid of all his threats and beat him down with a couple Angels from Starnheim.
    Round two was against an Asmo-Food deck I am all to familiar with. Game one was relatively quick as he built up his artifact tokens and took infinite turns with Time Sieve. I didn't have too many answers in the SB, and game two ended with a rather large Construct clobbering me.
    Round three was against UR Delver/Murktide. Game one went long (as this deck is meant to do) as I removed his threats and he went down to three cards in his library before he ripped a couple Lightning bolts FTW. Game two went to turns after about 10 minutes. much like the first game, I took away his dudes and on turn 2 I had out an Angel token and zombie dragon after Elspeth helped bolster my life total. He was down to 8 life on turn 3 when he played Murktide to seal our fate. Game went to turns which brought back warm feelings of Wombat in 2006 going to time every round, and getting shit in the win column.
    Thoughts:
    Restoration looks like a good card in theory. I don't know how it works here because the one time I actually got to cast it, it got countered.
    Urza's Saga; I don't know about this. The issue us that is goes away. I needs my lands! I only used it to create a construct two or three times and that was usually to chump something. I also rarely had out more that two other artifacts to make the constructs a threat, anyway.
    Reckoner Bankbuster; I love this card. The draw is fantastic and when you can poop out a treasure and a creature, that is a decent effect on the board state. However, I don't know if it's a 4 of. I also need to get more creatures to crew the damn thing. Probably another Wandering Emperor.
    Touch of the Spirit Realm is probably going. Even though it's satisfying to touch my opponents creatures in inappropriate ways.
    I need some kind of PW removal, cut a Wrath of God, and when I get more Restorations I'll put some Seal of Cleansing in the SB. Maybe main considering my meta.
    Wing Shards again shines and may be one of my all-time favorites. Storm is so f'n good.
    Due Respect did some serious work, hosing dashing Ragavans left and right and drawing cards.
    Silence doesn't need to be main board.
    I also completely forgot about Solitude! Not sure where that fits...
    Another strength of the deck is that's it's pretty resilient to SB hate. I faced Blood Moon which took out Sagas, but that wasn't a huge deal. I also saw Leyline of the Void which made me rethink some things, but wasn't the kick in the balls my opponent thought it would be (that was round 1 that I won 2-0).
    Anyway, looking forward to play this next time. This deck made my day after coming down from the high of playing Naya Stompy at a Legacy tourney the day before.
    Thanks for reading.
    Suggestions welcome.
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  9. #9

    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    Quote Originally Posted by the Thin White Duke View Post
    I played my very first games of Modern last night. I took Enchantress to a small Monday Night Modern tourney in my corner of the world. It was fun and the local meta was pretty aggro.
    Back in the day I brought Rabid Wombat to smash the local meta (to mixed results). I'm talking 15 years back when Goblins was tier 1.
    Any chance I can port a basic Wombat list to Modern standards?
    I'm looking at something simple like:

    4 Secluded Steppe
    16 Plains

    4 Eternal Dragon

    4 Abeyance
    4 Swords To Plowshares
    4 Wing Shards
    3 Wrath of God
    4 Renewed Faith
    3 Decree of Justice
    3 Rune of Protection: Red
    3 Gilded Light
    4 Runed Halo
    4 Angelsong

    The obvious card DQs are Chant and Decree (Swords turning into Path, Abeyance turning into, Eternal Dragon turning into that MH2 Dragon).
    We now have Planeswalkers to add wincons, which is pretty cool. I like the idea of cycling with Abandoned Sarcophagus (probably dumb). I have no idea how Modern works anyway and I may assuming that the format is Legacy for kids with helmets...
    But is there even a chance that a modern (pun intended) version of this deck is worth any brain power?
    Spoiler alert, I have the deck sleeved up in my mind so I'll probably build something to play next week so I can act smarter than everyone else
    .
    Thanks for any input.


    I'm afraid that a direct port of the deck may not be very effective in today's Modern meta.

    Modern has evolved significantly since its inception, and the power level of the cards and decks available has increased substantially. The current meta is much faster and more aggressive than what you may be used to, with many decks looking to win the game by turn four or five.

  10. #10
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    If you're still toying around with Modern Wombat, I would look at going up to


    4 Timeless Dragon
    4 Solitude
    2-3 March of Otherworldly Light
    3-4 The One Ring

    They're some of the best new monowhite control cards for either Legacy or Modern.

    Timeless Dragon thins plains out of the deck like Flagstones (improving future draws) and then becomes a wincon, like your 4/4 angels.

    Solitude/March give you the option for faster interaction against fast opponents (pitching some of the more conditional cards in hand), or later on you can just hardcast. This modality is very helpful for control to both stabilize early and also have late game action.

    Then you need a card draw engine. The One Ring is strong. You may also like Staff of the Storyteller, which draws cards with tokens from Bankbuster, Saga, Timeless Dragon, Wandering Emperor, Elspeth...

    There's still room to preserve the core of Wombat: Bandage, other cantrips, Wing Shards, Wrath/Doomskar

    For example, based on your last build you could try something like this


    //Lands: 22
    4 Flagstones of Trokair
    2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
    3 Field of Ruin
    11 Plains
    2 Emeria's Call

    //Creatures: 12
    4 Solitude
    4 Timeless Dragon
    4 Eagles of the North

    //Spells: 18
    4 Bandage
    4 Due Respect
    4 Wing Shards
    2 Doomskar
    1 Farewell
    3 March of Otherworldly Light

    //Artifacts: 4
    4 The One Ring

    //Enchantments: 2
    2 Court of Grace

    //Planeswalkers: 2
    2 The Wandering Emperor

    //Sideboard:
    2 Leyline of Sanctity
    2 Rest in Peace
    2 Hallowed Moonlight
    2 Celestial Purge
    2 Path to Exile
    2 Silence
    2 Cast Out
    1 Story Circle


    Edit: Removed Staff. The One Ring is the best Modern-legal control draw engine, might as well play 4 copies.
    You could play Niveous Wisps instead of Bandage. Wisps actually stops Ragavan (the modern Goblin Lackey), while Bandage doesn't prevent enough damage. Wisps also stops bigger stuff like Murktide and Tarmogoyf. The downsize is Wisps does not cycle with 0 creatures in play, while Bandage does. Bandage can also prevent Bowmaster pings.
    Last edited by FTW; 09-07-2023 at 06:41 PM.

  11. #11
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    Cool, I'm glad someone else is thinking on this. Unfortunately, I've given up on Modern. Our weekly tourneys have become dominated by try-hards and I'm not feeling that vibe right now.
    Plus, Staff ain't legal in Modern.
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    Too bad. Mono W control could actually be good in Modern.

    The biggest thing holding back Mono W Control in Legacy is that the combo matchup is unwinnable. Otherwise mono W has great matchups against fair decks. Modern doesn't have the same power level of combo to worry about and has most of the white control tools.

    You can skip Staff, no big deal. You still have draw engines via The One Ring, white Courts, etc.

    Edit: To make this more competitive you'd need to shave back on some of the cute stuff and run more good cards, but that may be too "try hard" for your purpose.

    Caw-Go 2023

    //Lands: 23
    2 Urza's Saga
    4 Field of Ruin
    4 Flagstones of Trokair
    1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
    1 Arid Mesa
    9 Plains
    2 Emeria's Call

    //Creatures: 10
    4 Solitude
    4 Timeless Dragon
    2 Eagles of the North

    //Spells: 13
    1 Bandage
    2 Path to Exile
    2 Wing Shards
    2 Cosmic Intervention
    3 Doomskar
    3 March of Otherworldly Light

    //Enchantments: 4
    4 Cast Out

    //Artifacts: 6
    1 Expedition Map
    1 Soul-Guide Lantern
    4 The One Ring

    //Planeswalkers: 4
    2 The Wandering Emperor
    2 Karn, The Great Creator

    //Sideboard: 15
    1 Mycosynth Lattice
    1 Liquimetal Coating
    1 Ensnaring Bridge
    1 Crucible of Worlds
    1 Argentum Masticore
    1 Ratchet Bomb
    2 Rest in Peace
    2 Silence
    2 Leyline of Sanctity
    2 Celestial Purge
    1 Story Circle


    The curve seems high. But at 1-2 mana there is a lot of action from pitch cards (Solitude, March), cycling (Dragon, Cast Out, Eagles), Foretell (Doomskar, Cosmic), or land abilities (Saga, Field, Eiganjo). Only 10 cards in the deck do nothing on 2 lands. Meanwhile there are 21 lands + 2 MDFC + 7 land tutors + 5 1-mana cyclers to help ramp up to 4.

    Once at 4-5 mana, the big engines come online (The One Ring, Karn), all the modal cards can be cast at full value, and Masticore can pitch them to destroy most things. Meanwhile you will be drawing big action statistically more often than decks with lower curves (high % big-mana action + many ways to thin basic Plains) so the lategame should be favorable.

    Saga can avoid putting you behind on lands by getting Expedition Map.

    Karn can get multiple lategame engines:
    Coating -> pick away their lands
    Crucible -> loop Saga (creatures) or Field of Ruin (mana denial) or Mesa (ramp)
    Lattice -> lock
    Masticore -> kill stuff & attack

    Cosmic Intervention has synergy with fetchlands, Field of Ruin, Saga, Map, Lantern, Solitude, engines dying, or making wraths 1-Sided. It's not as good here as in Legacy (Zuran Orb, Cataclysm) but still a great engine for mono white.

    The deck still gets to run Bandage for meme value, with minimal downside. It's a 1-mana cycler that builds storm for Wing Shards and has high probability of digging into instant interaction while preventing 1 damage with the cycle. Due Respect might be the better card overall (Niveous Wisps has too many failcases where it can't cycle), but punking people with Bandage is still fun even after the days of Goblin Lackey are long done.

    It may be optimal to go up to 4 Eagles + 4 Emeria's Call. They are both great tools for mono W control to have stable mana while also having pitch cards (Solitude, March) and not manaflooding lategame. There is a tradeoff though, because you need enough fetchable basic Plains in the deck. I think 9 is a good number. Maybe Flagstones is the cut. It functions as a 0-life fetch for Plains (legend rule), though it is worse in Modern without Legacy's Zuran Orb. Since Eagles also thins the deck, Eagles may be better.
    Last edited by FTW; 09-07-2023 at 06:39 PM.

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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    Updated list:

    Now with more Bandage!

    //Lands: 20
    2 Urza's Saga
    4 Field of Ruin
    10 Plains
    1 Arid Mesa
    1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
    2 Emeria's Call

    //Creatures: 12
    4 Solitude
    4 Timeless Dragon
    4 Eagles of the North

    //Artifacts: 6
    1 Soul-Guide Lantern
    1 Expedition Map
    4 The One Ring

    //Planeswalker: 4
    1 Gideon of the Trials
    1 The Wandering Emperor
    2 Karn, the Great Creator

    //Enchantments: 4
    4 Cast Out

    //Spells: 14
    4 Bandage
    2 Path to Exile
    2 Wing Shards
    3 Doomskar
    3 March of Otherworldly Light

    //Sideboard: 15
    1 Mycosynth Lattice
    1 Liquimetal Coating
    1 Ensnaring Bridge
    1 Crucible of Worlds
    1 Argentum Masticore
    1 Ratchet Bomb
    2 Rest in Peace
    2 Silence
    2 Leyline of Sanctity
    2 Celestial Purge
    1 Court of Grace


    12 1 mana cycles
    5 2 mana cycles

    14 cards that thin lands out of the deck to improve draws

    9 answers for opposing The One Ring

    5 mass creature removal + up to 15 spot removal; wishboard has 1 mass removal + 1 creature prison + 1 reusable spot removal

    4 LD + 3 wishboard mana hate
    Last edited by FTW; 09-19-2023 at 11:50 PM.

  14. #14

    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    List I tried recently for modern "monoW control" was

    19 Snow Plains
    1 Boseiju Shelters All
    1 Hall of Heliods Generosity
    1 Mistveil Plains
    1 Nykthos

    4 Potion of Healing
    4 Wall of Omens
    4 Reprieve
    4 Search for Glory
    4 Enduring Ideal
    4 Lotus Bloom
    4 The One Ring
    1 The Book of Exalted Deeds
    1 Nyx Lotus

    1 The Eternal Wanderer

    1 Form of the Dragon
    1 Dovescape
    1 Overwhelming Splendor
    1 Elspeth Conquers Death
    1 Phyrexian Unlife
    1 Teleportation Circle

    The Enduring Ideal plan gives you a kind of combo kill to play towards so rather than build a deck with a ton of creature removal that bricks vs other control/combo decks you just cast big sorcery and gg. Phyrexian Unlife makes you immune to your own Ring counters and you have the usual Enduring Ideal combo of resetting to 5 with Form of the Dragon every turn so you can't die to combat damage.

    Reprieve very good at delaying the game while making land drops or get suspend counters off lotus.

    Search for Glory was mostly to make sure you have Ring on turn 4 and lets you chain them together more reliably. Also helps finding the 1of Boseiju way more consistently vs blue decks. Can also help search for more mana from Nykthos/Nyx Lotus or search for WWW Book to increase devotion. Book also sometimes can make angels with Potion/Search gaining 3.

    Eternal Wanderer is great 1of, can search with Search for Glory, pseudo-wraths, reset Ring, value engine blinking Wall/Potion, makes tokens as backup wincon in case Form of the Dragon is exiled or to pressure opposing PWs. Teleportation Circle similarly just a nice value 1-of to reset Ring or draw with Wall/Potion.

    Ultimately I didn't use the devotion plan as much as I thought, a lot of the time I was casting Ideal off Lotus Bloom or just 7 land drops powered by Ring advantage. So maybe Wall/Potion/Book are the wrong idea. You could keep devotion plan but cut the 1W cantrips for like Leyline of Sanctity or Runed Halo, which gives higher density of white pips but might make the deck too inconsistent (lack of velocity/cantrips to find your key cards Ring/EI).

    Another issue I ran into after not playing Ideal for a long time is Boseiju Endures. You usually want to get Dovescape first (generally) because of cards like Teferi3 or Leyline Binding or subsequent counterspells, but Dovescape dies freely to Boseiju. Overwhelming Splendor stops it, but getting Splendor first gives a 1 turn window to get Splendor disrupted by all those other cards. (If your opponent casts Ring then it falls off too).

    But yea if you really want to play OblivionRing.dek then I like this style of strategy having an actual 1-button kill condition rather than just being monoW removal pile. SB needs something vs counterspell/teferi/grindy decks to board Lotus Bloom out (so some mix of Skyclave Apparition and Grand Abolisher I think) and then can just fill up with Leyline of Sanctity or Sanctifier En Vec or whatever hate cards you like to play. In theory you could full transform into MonoW durdle deck by boarding the entire EI package out but it's like 11 cards so probably not feasible

    Looking at your SB court of grace isn't in the modern cardpool (edit: neither is cosmic intervention) and lattice is banned. Is Eagles being a tapped plains that pitches to Solitude really worth the upside of potentially being a 6 mana 3/3 flying? Even then you might rather have Skyclave Cleric or Ondu Inversion. Idk if W:draw 1 and maybe gain a life is good enough either. (Potion of Healing sucks too I guess but it least it adds devotion)

  15. #15
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    Bandage sucks obviously. It's there because it's the last piece that keeps this as the Rabid Wombat deck. Otherwise it's just generic mono W control.

    Wombat is an old draw-go Legacy control deck that only saw serious play as a meta deck when Tier 1 was defined by Goblins vs Landstill. Typical control with Wrath of God was too slow to interact with Goblins' explosiveness and mana denial. 2WW Wrath is hard to resolve through Wasteland + Port. Sorcery speed Wrath is dodged by EOT Aether Vial, hasty Goblin Ringleader, or Goblin Warchief+Goblin Piledriver out of nowhere. Goblins could also goldfish on T3 sometimes with fast Goblin Lackey starts. Goblins was favored 80/20 over UW control (even with 4 StP + 4 Wrath of God). The meta demanded a control deck that could interact faster. Bandage has a hilarious interaction vs turn 1 Goblin Lackey, and was only ever competitively playable as maindeck Lackey hate that could cheaply cycle in other matches. Wing Shards + basic plains also wipes the board sooner than 2WW Wrath + duals (vs Wasteland & Port). 1-mana cantrips play well with Wing Shards (build storm on opponent's turn to help answer Warchief + Piledriver out of nowhere). Wombat was essentially a grindy fair deck that hated on Goblins using "bad cards". It has good matchups vs fair decks but is bad vs fast combo, which made it irrelevant in Legacy since 2009 if not earlier. Some players have tried to keep it alive for the memes. There is no delusion that Bandage is a good card.

    Bandage is a hilarious fail in Modern where the Goblin Lackey is a 2/1 (Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer), so it doesn't even prevent the trigger! Still, it adds Wombat flavor and builds storm for Wing Shards. White doesn't have a better 1cmc instant cantrip. Niveous Wisps would deal with turn 1 Ragavan, but cannot cantrip without a target. If you play a card that's dead vs no creatures, it might as well be proper removal like Path to Exile.

    I like the Enduring Ideal control deck you posted. However it strays far from the Wombat gameplan. I think OP's purpose for this thread was to try to revive Wombat with new cards.

    I posited that Wombat might be viable in Modern because Modern has less fast combo and is dominated by fair decks. Even most combo is creature-centric. That all plays into Wombat's advantages, especially if you update it with power-creeped variance-smoothing mono W control tools.

    The shell of Solitude, Timeless Dragon, Ring, Saga, removal, planeswalkers is all Legacy viable in Mono W Parfait or other control variants. Those decks autolose to combo but play well against fair decks. In theory, it may be viable enough in Modern to make Wombat salvageable.

    Eagles is questionable. It's there to thin basic Plains out of the deck or pitch to March/Solitude early. Thinning Plains is a classic mono W control variance-smoothing engine, reducing flood. The 3/3 Eagle is pretty bad, but perhaps better than drawing a 7th land. Needs more testing. You can cycle EOT (Wombat is usually in "draw go" mode), so it's not really a tapped Plains if you play at instant speed. 1-mana cycling/cantrips are a way to maximize mana utility after leaving mana open for opponent's turn. Emeria's Call is a better threat, but should be a tapped Plains more often and doesn't thin Plains. Flagstones of Trokair is untapped and does thin Plains, but doesn't pitch to March/Solitude and topdecks as a land. Those are the other 2 contenders if that slot is not Eagles.

    Due Respect or Renewed Faith are probably better control cantrips than Bandage, but they don't maximize mana utility or build Wing Shards storm as well as 1 mana cantrips. Edit: Renewed Faith was in the original deck because it can be cycled through Standstill (the other top deck to play around) and fogs Mishra's Factory or 2 1/1 Goblins. Angelsong similarly has that dual mode of fogging Goblins or cycling through Standstill, not relevant in Modern.

    Cast Out is a 4-of not to be O-Ring.dec but because it cycles for W and has Flash, so it plays well with Wombat's draw go plan and maximizing mana utility. It's also one of Mono W's few answers to The One Ring.

    Edit: Cast Out, Solitude and The Wandering Emperor are all instant speed exile removal that aren't dead if opponent has 0 creatures/permanents, so they seem like good choices for the removal slot. The only 1-for-1 removal dead vs no creatures is Path to Exile, and that's cut down to a 2-of. March of Otherworldly Light can at least hit artifacts (The One Ring) and enchantments (Saga, Beanstalk, etc) so it should have value against control decks. Bandage cycles for W. The only dead slots vs creatureless decks are Path, Wing Shards & Doomskar (7 cards). Maybe some of those slots could be cut further. Wing Shards is mainly there for nostalgia, although it plays well with the draw-go plan.
    Last edited by FTW; 10-02-2023 at 11:41 AM.

  16. #16
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    Re: Tell me I'm crazy (and save me some time)

    Wall of Omens and Potion of Healing are better cantrips than Bandage but promote a tap-out control deck instead of a draw-go control deck. Even if you tone down the Wombat elements, there are still significant advantages to playing the draw-go style. Holding up mana threatens optimal use of Solitude, Cast Out, Wandering Emperor and March as the game drags on.

    Reprieve looks very strong for the draw-go plan.

    Search for Glory looks promising, though I don't love tapping out at sorcery speed without impacting the board (even if you gain 3 life). It could find many targets: Urza's Saga, Eiganjo, Snow Plains, Karn, Wandering Emperor, Gideon, The One Ring. Curving into T4 Ring might be enough to make it worth it.

    Updates:

    //Lands: 23
    2 Urza's Saga
    4 Field of Ruin
    10 Snow-Covered Plains
    1 Mistveil Plains
    1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
    1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
    4 Emeria's Call

    //Creatures: 8
    4 Solitude
    4 Timeless Dragon

    //Artifacts: 6
    1 Soul-Guide Lantern
    1 Expedition Map
    4 The One Ring

    //Enchantments: 4
    4 Cast Out

    //Spells: 15
    2 Path to Exile
    2 Bandage
    4 Reprieve
    2 Wing Shards
    2 Doomskar
    3 March of Otherworldly Light

    //Planeswalkers: 4
    2 The Wandering Emperor
    2 Karn, the Great Creator

    //Sideboard: 15
    1 The Stasis Coffin
    1 Liquimetal Coating
    1 Crucible of Worlds
    1 Ensnaring Bridge
    1 Ratchet Bomb
    1 Argentum Masticore
    2 Rest in Peace
    2 Leyline of Sanctity
    2 Silence
    2 Celestial Purge
    1 Gideon of the Trials

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