modern on a budget: cruel lore

by AngryBiscuits on 11 April 2016

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (12 cards)

Sorceries (6)

Instants (6)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

a deck inspired by something that forest bear studios built if you want something fresh to play at your local fnm i highly recomend looking them up on youtube. they make good stuff :D

p.s if you guys want to put in more expensive cards on your own of course you can! in my final cut im putting in kholaghans command and lili of the veil .im simply putting it out their as a template to spice up some fnm matches. (the only things i ever see are elves aggro and zoo at my shop)

How to Play

cycle through your deck with cards like catalog, faithless looting, and tormenting voice to throw your big instant and sorcery spells in the grave. use pentad prisim to cast your cruel ultimatum early. it also feels good to cast an army of the damned by turn three using a pentad prism for an early cast. you also use cruel ultimatum on your living lore to recast it once it hits the grave yard!!

REMEMBER living lore only needs to deal combat damage to trigger

if you have anny suggestions leave em in the comments

RE. mad some late changes regarding creatures and protection spells. 1 spellheart for late game, 2 spellbound dragons for consistent discard with aberrant researcher. and some creature protection.

Deck Tags

  • Modern
  • Budget
  • Grixis

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

41
Likes

This deck has been viewed 6,156 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

02624210

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for modern on a budget: cruel lore

Ideas Unbound, Compulsive Research or Thirst for Knowledge I would put over Catalog.

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Posted 12 April 2016 at 03:06

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compulsive research it is!

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Posted 12 April 2016 at 09:49

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Also I question Dream Fracture over many of the other counter spells. I'd prefer Dissolve so much more.

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Posted 13 April 2016 at 04:03

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* Ugh? This is rarely going to work ... Living Lore is your only creature and as you said yourself it has to deal combat damage to do it's trick. It may be huge but it lacks trample, so it can be blocked by anything while the other creatures the opponent has are still bashing your head in. Also, since it is the only creature, the opponent's creature removal spells will accumulate in his hand. A single Terminate, Path to Exile, Oblivion Ring or whatever will ruin your day. Graveyardhate ALSO ruins you, which might not be that much of a problem in FNM, then again more and more decks use their graveyards as a resource each year so I wouldn't count on that.

* I also question the inclusion of Skin Invasion - it does nothing until you kill the enchanted creature and this deck has ... wait, let me count ... well, not counting the Ultimatums because they will hit play either way too late or never, you have exactly ONE spells that kill creatures! Skin Invasion should be another creature that supports your theme like:
- Aberrant Researcher
- Academy Elite
- Magnivore
- Spellheart Chimera
- Spellbound Dragon
The former help you setting up, the latter are a threat by themselves that the opponent needs to deal with (so creature removal is spent) and Spellbound Dragon is both.

* From under the Floorboards: I doubt you will have enouogh extra mana to pay for the madness because all your ways to discard this cost mana on their own. Your best shot is Faithless Looting, but you want to cast your discard spells early on, which is where you don't have any access mana (and you need at le very least 3 additional mana!). And I doubt you would cast him via Living Lore because there are better targets. So your plan is to cast it regularily? If you want something useful with madness I suggest something with low madness cost that helps you survive:
- Dark Withering
- Fiery Temper
- Alms of the Vein

* Counterspells:
Will you have the mana to play them? Think Twice is your only other spell you can cast outside your turn. I think you will (have to) tap out each turn to either set up or to defend yourself. You will need counterspells later on to protect your Living Lore, however, by that time your opponent has enough mana himself, so Mana Leak will most likely not work!

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Posted 15 April 2016 at 09:01

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*It has to do combat damage to do its trick*
yeah, but not necessarily to a player.

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Posted 15 April 2016 at 22:31

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Yeah, it necessarily does have to do it to a player. Damaging a creature won't trigger it, and you can't attack yourself

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 03:43

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Rulings: 2/25/2015 Living Lore’s last ability will trigger whenever it deals combat damage, no matter if that damage is dealt to an opponent, an opposing planeswalker, or a creature it’s blocking or being blocked by. You choose whether to sacrifice Living Lore as that ability resolves.

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 03:55

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And your chances of resolving it a second time are out the window once they know what you're doing. They'll just kill it or counter it. You need a more consistent way to get it through. All it takes is stopping it once and getting it into the graveyard and a surgical extraction and you're finished. You should seriously look into one of the suggestions puschkin gave you for ways to spice up the deck without breaking your wallet, otherwise this deck will rarely win

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 05:12

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This isn't my deck. And I agree that it is not going to be consistent. I do think it is a neat card though and a neat idea that I haven't seen before.

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 16:21

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 16:22

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 16:23

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Okay, usually combat damage has to be assigned to a player to trigger the effect, so this part of my critique isn't valid.

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 17:36

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I must agree with Puschkin, having only one creature in a deck makes the deck vulnerable to many counters.

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Posted 05 May 2016 at 16:14

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thanks for the suggestions guys sry i didn't read this earlier XD

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Posted 11 May 2016 at 06:47

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go control dek man, inquistion of kozilek is grizis ceontrol staple

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Posted 12 May 2016 at 08:13

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to bad Gifts Ungiven isn't modern... :(

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Posted 15 April 2016 at 13:48

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Hm? Gifts Ungiven IS Modern legal! It isn't budget, though.
What you probably mean is Intuition - that would be great here but isn't modern legal. Well, and it isn't budget either ...

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Posted 15 April 2016 at 13:54

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Slice and Dice and Absorb Vis could be be cool since they put them selves in the grave yard and Clutch of the Undercity could be a Living Lore tutor

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Posted 15 April 2016 at 14:07

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This reminds me of my own Gy deck allot! 3 To set up is fine. Lots of room for uphhgrades here, that's the mark of a good budget deck though, when the upgrades are obvious, as it gives clear goals fir trading.

Also this isn't a raw idea this is tested so we invite that is at least ok as far as the deck goes.

Though the logic behind the above posts is fine, all cards suggested are too slow for my meta

The meta dependant changes I would go for are, -1 sonrin's vengeance -2 under the floorboards.

+1 languish +2 Firey temper

Due to my meta having more aggro creature decks, I would add vandelblast to the sb, move the under the floorboards to the sb, and add crypt incursion to the sb, I would also replace doom blade with lightning axe. Graveyard decks and affinity and infect, so I have to devote the whole sb to that.

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Posted 15 April 2016 at 20:04

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i think Eternal Dominion should be your card

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Posted 15 April 2016 at 21:08

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Ah yes, the ole budget modern deck playing three colors. What could possibly go wrong?

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 03:19

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Upgrade with pain land?

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Posted 16 April 2016 at 05:43

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This deck will get destroyed by any halfway decent deck in modern. If you look at any good deck in modern (aside from tron), the mana curve is WAY lower than this. As a control deck, you need to be able to interact with the quickest decks because if you just sit around ramping and drawing cards until turn 3-5 you will just end up losing.
This type of deck is a complete plague on this website: far too often I see decks without fetch lands that run cards that cost 6+ mana and have difficult color requirements. Pro-tip: They just don't work.
I appreciate cruel ultimatum, in theory, but calling this deck a modern deck is laughable.
Budget or not, this deck will simply not be any fun to play because it will rarely work and you will get smashed. Over and over.

^All of this aside...
At the BARE minimum, you should be running a playset of lightning bolts, a host of counterspells, and an anger of the gods in the main board.

Lightning axe+fiery temper might be a cute synergy in standard, but it's just not consistent or strong enough for modern. Think of this as a two card combo. If you compare it to other two card combos in modern, then you start to realize just how under powered it is: Sword of the Meek+Thopter Foundry; Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker+Restoration Angel; Kitchen Finks+Melira, Sylvok Outcast (Viscera Seer is really just gravy); Angel's Grace+Ad Nauseam; Knight of the Reliquary+Retreat to Coralhelm... My point here is that if you're looking to shove two cards together for synergy, then they really should be winning the game for you. If they aren't, then what's the point? (especially when lightning bolt is like 1$...)

Army of the Damned costs EIGHT mana. That's ridiculous. You're never, I repeat, NEVER going to resolve that. Cruel ultimatum is loose, but that.... That's just a whole other story. You should cut it and not look back. Yeah, 26 power across 13 creatures will win the game (unless you just die because you tapped out and put in a bunch of TAPPED creatures that can't even block on the turn they enter). But what's the point of winning with some big flashy piece of garbage when you could go for a sleeker design? (why drive a semi truck when you could be driving an SUV?) why not try something like Goblin Dark Dwellers? It's cheap enough that it follows your budget design, and rebuying a kill spell or a draw spell feels great, especially when it's attached to a 4/4 with evasion.

Living Lore is a cool card but I don't really know why you would want to play it when you have so many other options: Mulldrifter, Goblin Dark Dwellers, Gurmag Angler, Tasigur The Golden Fang, Inferno Titan, or even Grave Titan (since zoobs are fun).

So, if I have to explain diminishing returns then I will, but for now I'll just tell you that Whip of Erebos is bad here since you only have 4 creatures. Another wrath would be better. Maybe one you can rebuy with GDD? (Anger of the gods comes to mind?)

Skin invasion is fun for limited but is really just a Vanilla 3 power creature that you have to work for. If you want that effect, then you should be playing Wild Nacatl. Also, you should be playing zoo. Since you're effectively a control deck, as grixis should be, you should replace these with removal spells. You want things that hit a broad array of creatures, so varying you options is cool. Some array of things like Doom blade, Lightning Bolt, Electrolyze, and Repeal should do the trick while still maintaining a low price tag.

While we're at it, Serum Visions is exceedingly cheap right now relative to where it's been in the past, and has been a lynchpin or blue decks since the banning of ponder and preordain, so it's a good time to buy/trade into those, if you're looking to improve upon consistency.

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Posted 17 April 2016 at 00:45

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I think the serum visions price drop is due to the FNP promo repirtings of it.

So, the Grixis control ultimatum lists I have seen run thoughtseize, damnation , dismember, spell snare, mana leak, bolt, remand and cryptic the control and reach, also things visions for draw and I could say snapcaster but with him being so good with visions, bolt and cryptic that's a given . These are the natural upgrades for this deck but they would remove it from budget range.

I feel the point of this deck is to get people sort of used to the play style of that deck, (with the interesting and unexpected lore combo in the deck) so that they can take our stuff like army of the dammed, temper ect for the natural upgrades mentioned above if they want to progress to a more competitive meta.

I don't mean this comment to sound combative it just feels from the tone of your post you don't really seem that posting this kind of deck is viable...

EDIT:- In summery faithless looting, compulsive research, living lore and cruel ultimatum are the core of this deck, upgrade everything else. I feel that's what this deck in intended for.

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Posted 21 April 2016 at 07:02

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Posted 19 April 2016 at 23:39

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Change mana to R-B-G: keep the discarding spells, keep living lore, add Prey Upon x4, put some big meanie spellssss that let you win by themselves (Epic sorceries for example) aaaand this deck gets a little better.
Not competitive but with this tuning you might actually win, who knows.

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Posted 20 April 2016 at 14:22

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Why change it to jund? Pretty upon isn't good enough to warrant a change like that, especially since you still have to have blue sources to get lore out

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Posted 20 April 2016 at 20:18

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Sorry I meant grizzet deck, red blue green. If you have 5 mana and the opponent has at least one non hexproof creature, you cast living lore, cast prey upon, living lore inflicts fight damage (should kill the creature too) and it triggers.
You can do similar with spells that give haste, e.g. Expedite, and use only two colors, since neither black nor green are essential here.

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Posted 22 April 2016 at 19:13

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You're assuming they cast a creature. And what's to stop your opponent from just offing lore the moment it resolved? Five mana is a lot of uncertainty in a game. If you're at that point then your opponent is also likely there too, and therefore fully capable of dealing with whatever you do. It's better to go a more control route and just counter stuff until you can resolve lore safely. It's still not a good strategy.

Also, for future reference, "B" is shorthand for black and "U" is shorthand for blue.

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Posted 22 April 2016 at 21:53

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lol
Everyone knows that, it was just a typing mistake.
Anyway if the opponent can kill lore with an instant or an ability during your turn (as others have pointed out, any decent modern deck should be able to), then he can do so even better and easier on their turn since lands untap. What control could you possible use when you need 4 mana to cast lore and make it survive untill your next turn?
Never said this was a winning foulproof strategy, but sure with the right sorcery this way you win on turn 5 (with two colors you don't even have to get lucky with lands) if the opponent didin't see it coming and/or has no way to counter it, it's not something that will happen much, still better than how it is now or trying to add control when you don't have the mana for it, of course this is all my opinion, based on the reasoning above.

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Posted 24 April 2016 at 03:42

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Well for starters, if you're wanting cheap counters there are PLENTY to choose from that cost two or less and can halt removal effectively. Second, who says you HAVE to cast lore the moment you have four mana. That's a very stupid thing to do in a deck with ANY counters in it.

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Posted 24 April 2016 at 08:10

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I'll put it this way. I run narset control for modern (it's very much NOT budget mind you) and I will never, ever, EVER cast one of my big spells or game winners without leaving at least enough mana for a single counter. Sphinx's rev? Leaving at least three open. Narset? Leaving at least three open (two if I know I can get by with my smaller spells). Why do this? Because then if they aren't running control, I still can play mind games by leaving mana free, and when I might possibly have a Render Silent in hand, three mana is all I need to fuck with you. I see this deck as falling into the same mold. A strategy like this has to have protection, and lore is squishy as fuck. Without running counters this deck will possibly get lucky in game one, but never again after that. So if you're content with going 1-2-0 at every modern event, then by all means run this as is

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Posted 24 April 2016 at 10:39

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Never said you cast it on turn 4, but with your strategy you have to survive/not lose until turn 6 or 7 (having no mana acc), then you cast living lore and is your opponent turn. He has 6 to 8 mana, hasn't used a single removal spell since living lore is the first creature you've casted, so they probably are sitting on at least 2 of them, you have 2 or 3 mana to counter at least both, not mentioning opponent's permanent's abilities, and besides that you have to last one more turn. Up to me, winning like this is more unlikely than what i have suggested. In either original, mine or your version once the opponent finds out the strategy, on second game you're never gonna win (if they aren't retarded), end of the line, because the combo is not cheap while it's too frail.

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Posted 24 April 2016 at 19:16

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But if this were a more control oriented deck, countering a few spells that late is child's play. Got the two mana kill spells you have Spell Snare, for the others you have Turn Aside if it's already resolved on the field. If it's an ability, your only options are Voidslime unless you go legacy, because then you have Stifle. Mana management is key here, hence why control is the better option to go with for this deck. And as you yourself said, once the opponent knows what you're doing you won't ever win again, that right there tells me that you should never run this deck. Even kitchen table groups would eat it alive

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Posted 24 April 2016 at 22:08

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Also, control allows you to play more wrath of god effects, such as damnation, languish or kozlek's return. Those synergise rather well with the deck id say.

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Posted 25 April 2016 at 06:42

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Posted 20 April 2016 at 14:23

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I run a version of this and I have a lot of fun playing it, however admittedly mine is Vintage Casual and is borderline broken. I highly suggest running Not of this World to protect Lore. As well Sorin's Vengeance Is another great card to use, especially since I run 2 copies of Twincast.
Here's the link if you'd care to look.
http://www.mtgvault.com/maniacalmaniac/decks/living-ultimatum-of-vengeance/

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Posted 26 April 2016 at 23:37

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See this is what I was talking about in my previous posts. A control shell to protect lore

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Posted 27 April 2016 at 06:47

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i recomned you make this dek into grizelbread reaminator is better and more consistednd, also replace aberrean researcher with delver is OP!!!!!Q!!!! go delver tempo that would work aslwe :)

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Posted 12 May 2016 at 08:13

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I don't know why, but I find you more tolerable than most other trolls on this site. *sips tea* carry on.

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Posted 16 May 2016 at 13:57

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I was thinking about something:
The Hot Page is stale as american mainstream beer (I know you have great micro breweries, so shut up^^) and the MTGVault team hasn't done anything about the site in years. They promised to change the algorythm of the Hot Page, but they also said they'll bring the forums back "soon". Well, the forums are still down, in fact they were already down when I registered in september 2013 ...

So, what I suggest is:
If you had a deck on Hot Page and the discussion dried up, you might as well stop listing your deck as public, hence removing it from Hot Page and making room for others. I have currently 2 decks occupying precious slots on Hot Page even though nobody has replied to them in weeks. So, what I will do is make them private soon. I am asking you politely to do the same once you haven't gotten any replies for a considerable amount of time.
I will, however, list them again after some time, because otherwise they would end up in Nirvana. But until then other decks will have a shot at Hot Page and meanwhile my stale decks can't get any new Likes (which seems to be the main factor for Hot Page, not the actualy activity), so hopefully it won't immediately hog up Hot Page again.

I don't actually expect anyone to follow my example but at least I tried to fix this site.

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Posted 28 May 2016 at 10:11

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i heartfully agree my friend and honor your order :)

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Posted 29 May 2016 at 13:51

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