Hello, I was thinking the other day what would happen in modern if Glimpse was unbanned, and my mind went to some crazy imperiosaur brews. Then I thought, why not just do it in legacy with a crap ton of kobolds?
Enter, the Whack-a-Saur!
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/TKtZovhYnk6KiwVXdQ-3Ig
3 Ancient Imperiosaur (mom) 174
2 Boseiju, Who Endures (neo) 266
4 Crimson Kobolds (leg) 139
4 Crookshank Kobolds (leg) 141
4 Elvish Spirit Guide (dmr) 157
4 Glimpse of Nature (chk) 210
4 Kobolds of Kher Keep (leg) 157
4 Lotus Petal (tpr) 225
4 Memnite (plist) 262
4 Ornithopter (dmr) 386
4 Phyrexian Walker (plist) 885
2 Reckless Bushwhacker (ogw) 116
2 Shield Sphere (me1) 166
3 Stomping Ground (rna) 259
4 Street Wraith (tsr) 141
4 Taiga (3ed) 287
4 Wild Cantor (gpt) 149
The main goal of the deck is to combo off with glimpse, play your whole deck and attack with a couple hasty giant imperiosaurs. It can also just play a few creatures and make a 12/12+ dino turn 2 and kill them that way as well. Here's a couple screen caps beating a delver player
I haven't played competitive legacy in a long time, as such I didn't have a board, and would love to hand this off to people who would be able to iterate on it better than I would.
#mtgfinance follow on twitter: @mtgStaples
Originally Posted by OBFREELY
Team Brown & Team Unicorn. Does that make me a Brown Unicorn?
This looks fun!
A similar deck has existed for a long time in Legacy: Cheerios. Named after all the 0s in the deck. Play Glimpse, chain a bunch of Kobolds, draw your deck, play wincon.
Land Grant is a "free" spell that lets you play 8 copies of Taiga, without Stomping Ground. Or for a budget version your manabase could be 4 Land Grant + 3 Stomping Ground + x Wooded Foothills + 0 Taiga. Paying 2 life is negligible for this game plan.
Chrome Mox taps for red with Kobolds, because Kobolds are red! Otherwise Mox Opal is supported by the artifact creatures.
You can increase consistency by running 4 more copies of Glimpse (Beck // Call for UG) or by running 4 Personal Tutor to find Glimpse. In that case you'd want to be on Tropical Island instead of Taiga. Red has Gamble.
Street Wraith leads to bad mulligan decisions. That's a good spot to cut for Gamble/Personal Tutor/2nd Glimpse.
The usual wincon is Grapeshot. Ancient Imperiosaur+Reckless Bushwhacker is cute tech for the memes, but less competitive.
The Cheerios engine is fun. It sees limited Legacy play because other storm combo decks are more competitive (TES, ANT, Epic Gamble, Ruby Storm), but it can still make funny fast wins sometimes!
For SB the main priorities are to prevent Glimpse from being countered, to remove resistors like Chalice of the Void/Sphere of Resistance/Deafening Silence, and to disrupt faster graveyard combo decks like Reanimator and AllSpells.
Good SB options:
Xantid Swarm
Allosaurus Shepherd
Ingot Chewer
Fury
Endurance
Surgical Extraction
Veil of Summer
Noxious Revival
Force of Vigor
Reverent Silence
To answer your question more broadly: If Glimpse is unbanned in Modern, Elfball is too good and wins on turn 2. Glimpse was banned to keep Elves under control.
Last edited by FTW; 06-02-2023 at 02:49 PM.
Thanks! I'll be adding in gambles and sideboard cards. I think simian spirit guide is better than chrome mox since you don't want to waste two cards on a free mana when you go off. Also, I'm partial to the imperiosaur over grapeshot since you can just play 5 kobolds and imperiosaur and not have to "go off" to kill them. Since I'm not storming I think more lands is better than land grant. Thanks again for the feedback, it's helped make the deck better!
#mtgfinance follow on twitter: @mtgStaples
Team Brown & Team Unicorn. Does that make me a Brown Unicorn?
There used to be a version of this with Multani's Presence and Chalice@0 which is a lot more resilient as you lose to 1 counter.
As I recall that version didn't last long and wasn't consistent due to needing both Presence + Chalice in the opener (A+B) instead of just Glimpse. It was as weak to 1 Force (on Presence), and Chalice was dead if your hand had Glimpse instead of Presence. I tested it years ago and found it higher variance overall than Gamble. It was just a cute surprise if opponent opened Chalice @ 0.
Presence tech worked with Grapeshot kill (doesn't care if Kobolds resolve) but fails with a convoke/Bushwhacker kill.
That tech was also long before newer options were printed. There was no backup Glimpse at the time. Now there's Beck//Call (some UG lists had 4 Glimpse 4 Beck 2 Personal Tutor - 10 copies for opening hand consistency). 4 Gamble works too. To fight counters, now there's Veil of Summer or Allosaurus Shepherd. To fight enemy Chalice, Force of Vigor and Ingot Chewer exist. Veil also stops Chalice @ 0.
Edit: @OP didn't notice your list had ESG but no SSG. SSG is definitely better than a Mox. Mox only matters if you look at additional mana sources after that. The Grapeshot line sometimes needs that, saving Lotus Petal for Scapegoat. Wild Cantor is not common. Tinder Wall is normally better, but perhaps you need green more than RR. Both convoke for G!
Land Grant helps if your SB includes cards like Force of Vigor and Endurance (replace lands with green card). It also thins the deck of lands (less likely to draw land in combo chain). You could play Wooded Foothills instead. Seems better than Stomping Ground.
Thraben U recently posted a video with a similar deck, going for the Imperiosaur kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9qMsOzKQ28
He explored some tech you could consider.
Thraben U deck
//Lands: 14
4 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle
2 Boseiju, Who Endures
2 Lair of the Hydra
2 Turntimber Symbiosis
//Other Mana: 8
4 Lotus Petal
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
//Creatures: 26
4 Ornithopter
4 Memnite
4 Phyrexian Walker
3 Shield Sphere
4 Allosaurus Shepherd
4 Ancient Imperiosaur
3 Thrasta, Tempest's Roar
//Spells: 12
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Once Upon A Time
4 Chatterstorm
//Sideboard: 15
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Force of Vigor
3 Veil of Summer
1 Dismember
1 Endurance
2 Thrun, Breaker of Silence
Imperiosaur or small Chatterstorms proved to be the best lines, instead of trying to fully "go off".
Overall the deck was cute but often fell apart. I think your version is better, or maybe something in between.
The good of this version:
-Allosaurus maindeck is good protection against the many blue decks
-Once Upon A Time improves consistency
-Chatterstorm is a better Grapeshot that doesn't need to fully "go off" and has synergy with the Imperiosaur kill
-Gaea's Cradle is a powerful mana engine to help enable some bigger plays
The bad:
-Thrasta seemed too conditional, often dead or weak
-Creature count is a bit low. Deck sometimes struggled to do anything despite resolving Glimpse.
-Land count seemed high. Flooding happened.
-Some SB options like 1-of Dismember or 5-mana Thrun seem too conditional or rare to help in bad matchups
Maybe you could borrow some ideas from there, e.g.
//Initial Mana: 18
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lotus Petal
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Taiga
1 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Boseiju, Who Endures
//Spells: 12
4 Gamble
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Chatterstorm
//Creatures: 30
4 Ornithopter
4 Memnite
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Kobolds of Kher Keep
4 Allosaurus Shepherd
4 Wild Cantor
4 Ancient Imperiosaur
2 Reckless Bushwhacker
//Sideboard: 15
4 Force of Vigor
3 Endurance
3 Xantid Swarm
2 Stingscourger
2 Dismember
1 Thrasta, Tempest's Roar
Maybe you could squeeze in room for 3 Once Upon A Time too.
Or if you add Gaea's Cradle then Aeve, Progenitor Ooze becomes a legitimate alternate wincon.
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