dknight27

I love a good Lantern Control, maybe the most interesting deck from my perspective. Only thing that really jumps out at me that might be a problem in here is the double blue in Narset, since your lands are gunna have trouble covering the spread so you'll have to rely on the 0-drop artifacts to get it done. Obviously if you can shut down draw you're in business here, but perhaps running [[Orcish Bowmasters]] would be an alternative to punish the draw for cheaper/better coverage/better color spread? Just an initial thought, love the build.

The 1-drop cycle lands are my favorite little cheat in all of magic. Goodbye mulligans, hello economic deck thinning and free synergy.

I love the affinity build to take advantage of artifact lands which sort of doubles their output. Unfortunately, I see some tactics problems with the build as it is.

The main problem is that you're playing a deck that only has four sources of mana that don't come in tapped, and a whole bunch of your affinity cards need a pretty big reduction. Meaning, you're going to be really, really slow fielding artifacts that aren't lands, so you'll essentially be spending your first 2 turns of every single game doing nothing but playing a land. Best case scenario, you drop a tapped land turn 1, then turn 2 drop a Darksteel Citadel and cast one of nine cards (4 of which need red), which isn't going to happen almost ever. What will far more likely happen is you'll drop lands turns 1 and 2 then finally be able to play something turn 3, after which you'll have a decent chance at beginning to dump your hand more quickly turns 4 and 5.

The problem is, at this point, you'll be playing into opponent's first 2 turns and open mana with opponent able to answer your threats as quickly as you cast them because you can't do anything to slow opponent down or pressure him before turn 3. So, opponent plays a threat on turn 1 and/or 2, then just spends the rest of the game saying 'no' to your artifacts while smacking you with the threat until you die. You'll always be on the defensive, always a step behind. And that is the exact opposite of what this deck, and artifacts in general want, as you've got no interaction at all, so all you can do to stop opponent from winning is to win more quickly, which this deck currently can't really do.

I highly recommend looking into cutting down the curve, changing up the lands to allow for more untapped lands so you can do things early, and taking advantage of the mega-cheap value artifacts you can spam into play quickly and the support cards that are typically paired with them.

Obviously you'd like to run [[Mox Opal]], but it costs an arm and a leg. Urza's Saga's a little better, but still probably out of the price range. So instead check out Mishra's Bauble, [[Blood Fountain]], [[Portable Hole]], [[Grim Bauble]], [[Soul-Guide Lantern]], and [[Spire of Industry]].

That would certainly do it. Just missing some of the legacy staples that are admittedly extremely expensive, so I was just wondering.

Kozilek's Command would be the perfect fit in here. Powerstone Shard seems a bit too slow as well. Maybe try for a 2-drop rock instead, especially since you have so many 3-drops in here, so you really want to use turn 2 to get ready for that. [[Mind Stone]] perhaps?

That would probably help quite a bit. Some other considerations would be [[Witherbloom Command]] and/or [[Malevolent Rumble]]

I love everything about Roots, such an interesting card.

I do think this build would run a lot more smoothly with some discard attached so you can fast track your necro boys without having to field them directly. Nothing says that like running red so you can use [[Faithless Looting]] and potential chaos discard (which I don't necessarily recommend, but are available). You could also extremely easily work [[Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar]] in here, which is always fun and synergizes perfectly with the Food token theme you've got going.

I say all this because, as is, the curve seems a bit too high to really get this off the ground easily. You've got to field critters, have them die, connect their necro condition, and have Roots in play to take advantage of it, which eats turns 1-3 in a heartbeat if you make all your land drops. You'd almost certainly rather have a guaranteed turn 1 play that sets up whatever you're trying to do (almost certainly discard or mill), then turn 2 drop Roots or equivalent and proceed with your feet under you.

I've done a couple builds trying to take advantage of Roots if you're interested, here's the most recent:

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/modern-garlic-competitive/

Oreskos Sunguide, Crash the Ramparts, Invoke the Divine, and Prism Ring are a bit too impotent to be justified in this type of build when there are more potent options available. Check out: [[Trelasarra, Moon Dancer]], [[Guide of Souls]], [[Hardened Scales]], and [[Conclave Mentor]].

Seems like [[Raubahn, Bull of Ala Mhigo]] would be a perfect fit. You can snag one for like a buck too, so that's a definite consideration.

I'd also advise cutting down the curve as much as you can, as speed is this deck's ally. Maybe take a look at [[Burnout Bashtronaut]], [[Exuberant Fuseling]], and [[Zurgo Bellstriker]] on the critter side and [[Rabbit Battery]], [[Chainsaw]], and [[Hidden Footblade]] on the equip side.

I'd also advise cutting out Valakut and Battle-Axe. Valakut isn't reliable, you don't want the game to last long enough to utilize it, and you don't want tapped lands because this deck craves speed and eats quick mana. Battle-Axe just comes with bad timing, as you need it on the field for it to work, so you'll spend turn 3 casting it, then need to cast a warrior after, meaning you won't have a warrior attacking until turn 5 while equipped, which is a big problem. You're better off running one-drop critters and equipments that auto-equip themselves so you can cast a critter turn 1 then turn 2 cast the equipment, which equips itself, and start swinging for damage.

Just some thoughts.

Looks like you're going for budget legacy here, right?

I love seeing the draw token buff squids in action.

There are some budget-friendly cards that could help this build out a bit, as I see a few areas that could be tweaked for some more umph. Wisps, Clockspinning, Exlude, and Twiddle are too low impact/conditional/outclassed by several better options, so I'd advise shaving those so you can run more potent/cost effective options like [[Preordain]], [[Counterspell]], [[Spell Pierce]], [[Remand]] (which I see you have sideboarded), [[Stern Scolding]], [[Soul-Guide Lantern]], and [[Dismember]] (which is a pain to run for the life loss, but is some of the only available spot removal in mono-blue).

I'd also advise cutting down the lands to 21, as well as swapping out some islands for some tech lands like [[Hall of Storm Giants]] as an extra win condition, and [[Fiery Islet]] and [[Lonely Sandbar]] for draw power.

I'd personally cut out two Krakens because they eat mana, but that's me. Ten wincon critters should be more than enough, especially with all the cantrips you're running/should run.

Just some thoughts.

I love a good weenie build. The only way I play critters really.

You've got kind of a couple themes going on here, and I think you could clean up the build a bit if you sort of clarify the plan and modify accordingly. Right now, I'm seeing the following interlocking mechanics: small critters, ETB triggers, energy, and supporting mechanics rewarding you for having all three of the above.

Here are the problems I see with that:

1- your critters are small, but expensive. You've only got 4 one-drops, and 8 two-drops that are critters, and 4 one-drops and 4 two-drops that are support, so you're looking at a very slow start to most games, especially since you play the Module with the express intent of harvesting energy on dropping critters, so you'll want to use turn 2 to cast it, meaning you're looking at turn 4 before you can start swinging for damage or really doing all that much. Also, your supporting abilities are mana hogs, so you won't be able to take advantage of them the way you want, as you've got to shell out mana on your triggers/costs to get Module and Mentor to do anything. Combine that with the 8 four-drop critters and you're looking at a slow game you're always playing from behind in tempo, which negates the weenie strategy sort of altogether

2- your ETB triggers are good but not great and are very expensive. The four-drops are a pain, even with the excess of lands (which we'll get to). Your Chupacabra is a nice idea, but a 2/2 bear with a [[Terror]] effect on top for four mana just isn't worth the hassle when you could kill something for one mana and use the rest of the tempo to accomplish something. I know it triggers Mentor and you can recycle it with Module, but that requires a HELL of a lot of mana to utilize (five for Mentor in a turn, twelve for Module in three turns (presumably)), so you're almost certainly better off running cheap spot removal and more efficient critters to take advantage of the tempo you'll have against opponent, who needs an answer to stop you and will have limited time to draw into one while you've got your fast damage clock running

3- your energy colors are tough to justify when the strong energy strategies are either in different colors or are bolstered through different strategies like control that uses passive energy gain to max out the energy synergy.

4- your land count is too high to be justified, especially in a weenie deck. Obviously you get to double dip with the flip lands, but running 24 means you'll be land flooded more often than not, and the 4 flip lands aren't really that great on their own. Again, the 2/2 bear with an ETB spot removal is nice, but is really only worth it in a pinch and as a way to smooth out some synergy by running one copy in a build to tweak the land math in your favor rather than running the full 4 and making it very likely that you'll run into a copy in a game that goes longer than a few turns. I know I said above that this build is starving for mana, but that's not a good thing, and overcompensating with extra lands and no acceleration into those lands means the build will be wrecked with problems all over the place.

5- you've got next to no interaction, so you're letting opponent do whatever he wants while you have to wait for your slower critters to catch back up. The boardstate math just doens't work out when opponent can field a threat turn 1 and/or 2 and have open mana to protect those threats while you're waiting for your three-drop or four-drop to interact with that threat. Say opponent casts a [[Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student // Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar]] turn 1 on the play (as is EXTREMELY likely to happen these days). The best case scenario for your deck to do anything about it is to hit Aether Channeler turn 3 to buy yourself a single turn or Chupacabra turn 4 to hopefully kill it off. In that timeframe, opponent will be able to create at least 2 Clues, will have a very good chance of flipping Tamiyo, and even in your best case scenario has gone up +2 in material on you with a very real chance of having the win condition clock activated, at which point you can't really do much about it. When Tamiyo flips, all you can do is bounce it with Channeler, then opponent replays and goes back to harvesting Clues for the win. And, on top of that, you've given opponent two to four more draws to collect protection for Tamiyo against your spot removal, and a turn with open mana against your need for three or four mana, so the math on your ETB removal going through is pretty low

I realize that's all a lot. What I'm trying to get at here is to a- cut down the mana curve to speed everything up, b- cut down the lands, c- focus on energy if that's what you want to do, or modify as needed to get the synergy correct, d- add in some cheap interaction so you can stop opponent from cruising over the top of you while you're stuck waiting for the lands to do anything.

I'm by no means trying to insult the build here, just sharing my thoughts on what's going on and how to look at the build. Cheers

You're running 19 lands that can cast it, I think you'd be safe running 2-3 copies (not 4 so you cut down on opening hands that you have to wait on). You're probably ok just running even 1 copy, as you can tutor it with Harbinger

You also probably want to drop the curve as much as possible, as you've got only 8 one-drops, so you'll be slow off the gun and slow to respond. Shaving out Helix and Act of Treason for [[Lightning Bolt]] is the perfect way to do that, as Helix is a luxury 3 life you probably don't need and Act is conditionally good, expensive, and hard to abuse with Fling because of the five mana cost attached. That ups your one-drop count to 20% of the build, which should help speed things up enough to make a difference.

Tormenting Voice is also a worse version of either [[Grab the Prize]] or [[Highway Robbery]], with Witche's Mark as another consideration. All of the above cost a quarter a pop.

A troll deck without a single [[Troll of Khazad-dûm]], irony incarnate. In all seriousness, that card fits this build extremely well, even discounting the joke.

I do love a good build that just wants to piss off a friend group. I do see some things that could be tweaked in here to make that happen a little more efficiently. Right now your deck sort of doesn't do anything until you hit six lands, which is a major problem. You can interfere with opponent a little bit, but you've got no acceleration and very little interaction that's going to deny opponent the means of getting down what he needs to get done in time for you to pull off your curve and field and protect an asset. As such, I'd advise working on your interaction, cutting your mana curve down, and tightening up your middle game so you can accelerate faster and survive more efficiently.

[[Mind Stone]] would be a perfect fit here, as you can play it turn 2, accelerating you a turn in land development, then sac it off later when/if you don't need it anymore. [[Remand]] has a similar idea, as you're basically denying opponent a turn early on, which helps you much more than it hurts you (you aren't doing anything in the early game anyway). [[Fire // Ice]] does something similar to Remand, as you can use it turn 2 to tap down a land in the upkeep, potentially denying opponent a turn as well as using it as semi-reliable spot removal if necessary. [[Hard Evidence]] keeps you sort of protected for cheap as well as letting you invest in card advantage and take advantage of the early turns where you won't be doing anything. [[Pyroclasm]] will keep you alive and help neutralize the damage clocks that will otherwise eat this deck alive.

As for tightening things up, [[Stock Up]] is just a better version of Steam Augury and Browbeat, but it costs 8 bucks so there's that. Mind Grind, Poison the Well, and Decimator Web are too slow/inefficient/out of place in the build, and would be better served by interaction that keeps you alive or even four copies of Annex, which is actually pretty interesting in this build as it hurts opponent and accelerates your mana.

Just some thoughts.

Seems like [[Ball Lightning]] would be right at home in here.

I'm happy it took down reanimate, that deck was just stupid (bypassed what combo is supposed to be). I do love the idea of bypassing traditional ideas and sticking that Back to Basics with no detriment. Nice work

Can't say I've seen one like this before. No [[Tundra]]s, no third color for Prismatic Endings, no reliance on super scry from Rage Channeler.

I'm a little surprised about Batterskull, as you obviously want Kaldra instead and hardcasting Batterskull seems like a pipe dream here. Did you prefer the backup to a [[Shadowspear]] or other 1-drop option that you know you can get in hardcasted? I'm seeing a little nonbo with the equipments, as you are going to starve for mana with this build but have the self-recycle equipments that you probably won't have the mana to take advantage of, especially if your Stoneforge get sniped. Not attacking the build or anything, just trying to work out the thought process.

Are you going for budget legacy here?

4 Unholy Heat and 4 Murktide fells like a bit of a nonbo. Seems like the classic Mishra's Bauble set would work better, but that's just the traditional thinking.

I gotcha, classic deck thinning. In that case, may I suggest switching them out for the cycle lands, which come in mighty handy for cutting down on mulligans, quick development, and still help you cycle through the deck? [[Barren Moor]] and [[Tranquil Thicket]].
You can also look into Green Sun's Zenith, which fetches out 2/3's of your combo, plus you can do the [[Dryad Arbor]] trick that lets you fetch for mana turn 1, which double thins the deck (pulls a land and puts Zenith back in which fetches a combo piece).

I'm not exactly sure what's going on with this one. I see the Melira combo, but don't see the purpose of the cycling creatures you basically can't play or some of the choices of support cards. Beast Within is bad removal in modern, especially when you have access to black, so you could just run [[Abrupt Decay]], Assassin's Trophy, [[Bitter Triumph]], or [[Feed the Cycle]]. Same logic with Dismember, which is largely used by decks that don't have access to spot removal. Are the cycling cards meant to thin the deck and get you to your combo pieces faster?