Ominous Moon

by DedWards on 14 August 2016

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Artifacts (2)

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

Pure land destruction isn't viable in the format, but with Blood Moon able to shut down almost every deck in Modern, land destruction on a selection of lands becomes very good.

This deck is based off this:

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/modern-rg-land-destruction-deck-guide/

Just with tweaks to include what I have and minor improvements I felt would make the deck run better (like including Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Boom // Bust).

------------------------------------------------------

*EDIT 16 Aug 2016*
<Main Deck>
-2 Inferno Titan (Can't get my hands on a full set anyway)
-1 Stormbreath Dragon (Moved to Sideboard)
-2 Stone Rain
-1 Cinder Glade
+3 Goblin Dark-Dwellers (I got 3 of the Buy a Box print :p )
+2 Boom // Bust
+1 Mountain (I found against RDW, I need red without the self burn. I can also fetch it after my creature gets Pathed)

<Sideboard>
-1 Kitchen Finks (Getting 2 from a friend :D )
+1 Stormbreath Dragon (Moved from Main Deck)

Been testing Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Boom // Bust on XMage and I'm loving them.

------------------------------------------------------

*Edit 30 August 2016*
<Main Deck>
-1 Lightning Bolt
-2 Beast Within (I don't like leaving the 3/3 Beast behind (
-1 Magus of the Moon
-1 Verdant Catacombs (My one copy seems to be MIA)
+1 Inferno Titan (I have 3 Titans, so I'll use 3)
+1 Stormbreath Dragon (Returned to main deck)
+2 Stone Rain (More consistent land destruction)
+1 Misty Rainforest

<Sideboard>
-1 Obstinate Baloth
-1 Stormbreath Dragon (Returned to Main Deck)
-1 Dismember
+1 Natural State
+1 Relic of Progenitus

Sideboard was sitting at 16 cards for some reason, so I fixed it and tweaked it.

------------------------------------------------------

*Edit 31 August 2016*
<Main Deck>
-1 Magus of the Moon
+1Blood Moon (my friend found a 4th)

How to Play

Ideally, you want Blood Moon out on turn two, though a turn two Stone Rain isn't bad if you can't Moon. To do this, we need two lands (with at least one red source) and a mana dork / Utopia Sprawl.

With a Moon out, your key targets for the land destruction (Stone Rain; Mwonvuli Acid-Moss; and Boom // Bust) are any land that can produce anything other than red.

Once locked down, and with all the mana ramp, playing your big beasties should be easy, allowing for an easy win.

With Utopia Sprawl and Arbor Elf, you play the Elf on turn one, then enchant a basic forest on turn two, allowing the Elf to untap the enchanted forest so you can tap it for two mana. You do NOT want to Enchant a dual land, as once you have a Moon out, the enchantment will fall off and Arbor Elf won't be able to untap it.

There's a trick to playing Boom on turn two. Turn one, play Birds of Paradise; or Utopia Sprawl (calling red); or Stomping Ground into Arbor Elf. Turn two, play a fetch land and cast Boom targeting your fetch and the opponent's non-fetch, then sacrifice your fetch before Boom resolves so that only the opponent loses a land.

With some luck, you can cast something that costs 4 mana on turn two, and 6 mana on turn three. To do this, we need two lands (a basic forest and another source of green), Arbor Elf, and Utopia Sprawl in the opening hand. Turn one, Forest and Arbor Elf. Turn two, play and tap the other green source to Enchant the untapped forest (I normally call red), tap it, untap it with the Elf, tap it again and cast your 4 cmc card (Mwonvuli Acid-Moss is best). Turn three, play another land and cast Inferno Titan.

Deck Tags

  • Modern
  • Land Destruction
  • Lockdown
  • gr

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

3
Likes

This deck has been viewed 929 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

0003124

Card Legality

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

Deck discussion for Ominous Moon

You need to prepare for semi-combo like death's shadow, affinity, infect and burn, since all are present in today's meta.
Maybe pack some chalice of the void's or spellskites in sb.

Your secondary problem is most of the "other" combo-decks. You might be able to moon some of them, but not all. Those you can moon are likely to remove anything moonlike, so perhaps spellskite can double it's value in sb.

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 13:22

Permalink

Infect and RDW do have me a little concerned. Against infect, Moon locks down one of their "creatures" (Inkmoth Nexus); and Beast Within "removes"infect from a creature. Infect doesn't run many creatures, so a successful removal of them early game cripples the deck. Sideboard brings in Sudden Shock and Dismember for more removal. Success relies on well timed removal.

Against RDW, Moon comes out for Anger of the Gods. The Dragon comes out for the third Obstinate Baloth, and the Titans are replaced by Kitchen Finks and Thrun. This should cover life gain and give me more resilient creatures.

Affinity is probably the worst matchup, but you can't be ready for everything. The best I can do is pack as much mass removal as possible, and that's where Fracturing Gust is key. Natural State helps a little too.

I like the idea of Spellskite, but I'm not sure yet how well it fits, if I can fit it in at all. I'll keep it in mind as I playtest some more. Thanks.

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 14:28

Permalink

I am no expert on Modern, so don't take what I say too serious (I reply anyway because I know from experience that, even when you don't make any changed according to someone's suggestions, just by replying to them and explaining why something wouldn't work you are making progress since you are forced to analyze and evaluate):

Is LD even viable? To my knowledge that never really worked in serious tournaments except for the very early days, one of tha many reasons being that WotC has no interest in making a resource denial deck like that tier 1. I mean, it means something when something as vanilla as Stone Rain is your second and only pick for LD spells. Anyway, assuming it is viable or that you don't care:

* Molten Rain instead of Stone Rain - or is that double-red too bothersome?

* I am surprised to see no Avalanche Riders in this. They were "timeshifted" und are thus legal in Modern!

* Centaur Vinecrasher might be good midgame drop and a recurring good finisher. To make room - I question that planeswalker.

* Again, I don't know the Modern metagame, so this might be off, but isn't 3 Blood Moons AND 2 Magus a bit too much to run MAIN? The Magus, at least, can swing/block but the Blood Moon is potentially dead. But from your description I take it that Blood Moon is crucial in Modern?

* What about artifact mana, isn't that a thing in Modern? Because maindeck, the only thing I can see that is able to take out artifact mana would be Beast Within. Granted, it seems like all Modern legal spells that allow to hit both cost 4 mana. Of those I like Icefall the best because it has potential for card advantage (which is the main problem of LD decks that typically trade 1-for-1).

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 13:28

Permalink

Pure LD isn't viable. This is actually only using LD to get rid of problematic lands and / or basics once a Moon is out.

With the few rounds I have played on XMage, fetching a basic forest is often more important than fetching a dual land, so the {R}{R} of Molten Rain is actually quite bad, especially on turn two (if I don't have a Moon to play).

Centaur Vinecrasher is awesome, but sadly not Modern legal. Cards only printed in Commander, etc. sets are only legal in Legacy and Vintage.

After the few games I've had so far on Xmage, I've found the 4 Moons I was originally resting with to be too little to get them regularly on turn two to four, the crucial time to get them out. I'm trying 5 Moons, but will go back to 4 if it causes any problems.

Artifact mana is only a thing in Affinity and Lantern Control. The rest of Modern rush fetch lands into Ravnica duals.

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 14:37

Permalink

And Avalanche Riders? Too slow I guess?
That thing about Commander-only-cards is a bummer, though. I thought the definition was "all cards with the new cardface are legal".

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 15:08

Permalink

I haven't tested the riders, but at 4 mana, I see it being a little too slow. Acid-Moss at least doubles up as land ramp that can search for the duals.

Ja, Modern is everything in an official release since 8th Edition, excluding the banned list.

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 16:00

Permalink

You have enough to stop some creatures, however there isn't a lot to stop some decks from simply going off.
The 3 I see you having a huge problem with are Infect, RDW and Lantern Control.

Infect: Although they can tend to rely on non-basics, they will almost cernainly crush you turns 2-3. I should know. This is my fav deck. While Mizzium and Anger are great removal, they don't work on Infect. Bolt works well, but a single Giant Growth and they're fine since you only have one.
RDW: This uses basics 99.9% of the time and will have enough to get around any land destruction you have. If they are running anything above 3 CMC, then I am suprised.
Lantern Control: Uses a lot of artifacts. Unless they have a Codex Shredder out, then not using Academy Ruins will just piss them off for a bit and you will get out none of your endgame.

If you come across any decks similar to these, then you will have problems. I currently cannot offer any alternatives to stop this. Your SB looks good for some of these issues but if the opponent really knows what they are doing, then it will still hurt you

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 13:42

Permalink

As I mentioned to wickeddarkman, infect, RDW and Affinity / Lantern Control are the concerning matchups. Game one, most of these will probably be difficult and possibly beat me.

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 14:41

Permalink

Funny thing. When I wrote this, that wasn't there.....

0
Posted 15 August 2016 at 21:36

Permalink

Ya, that happens from time to time.

0
Posted 16 August 2016 at 04:11

Permalink

Made some minor changes to include Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Boom // Bust. What do you guys think?

0
Posted 16 August 2016 at 19:01

Permalink

Managed to find a local site with 3x Inferno Titan and another with 3x Obstinate Baloth. Looks like I won't be needing to substitute these, like I feared I would. I had to look locally because I couldn't risk an order not getting here in time for WMCQ.

Also, I'm thinking of dropping a Magus for the third Titan; and I'm not sure about Beast Within leaving behind a 3/3 Beast, so I'm considering dropping them and bringing Stone Rain up to 4x

0
Posted 26 August 2016 at 08:54

Permalink

Edited the deck again. This is most likely the build I'm taking to WMCQ, though the sideboard may change before then.

0
Posted 30 August 2016 at 08:53

Permalink

Minor Mainboard edit. My friend found a 4th Blood Moon, so goodbye Magus.

0
Posted 31 August 2016 at 12:26

Permalink