dknight27

Are you going for casual budget here?

[[Spell Queller]] would fit pretty well in here.

If this is a tournament build, I'd suggest trying to cut the curve down a bit. 1/3 of the deck is 3-drop or higher, and you've got permanents with activated abilities that want mana. Plus, there's only seven 1-drops, and you'd really like to hit the ground on a turn 1 play.

Just my initial thoughts.

That also gets rid of the negative effects of the lands, such as enters tapped. Making Forgotten Cave an absolute score, which warms my heart.

I like 4x Obelisk of Urd over Escape the Wilds. It has instant value, where as Wilds takes a turn to do anything, and Urd is faster, as you'll be able to cast it turn 4 and will be able to stomp faces turn 5.

4x Metallic Mimic and switch Masked Vandal to the sideboard. You really, really, really want to drop a Mimic turn 2 so that all the shamans hit the field with their bonus, and 4 copies will up the chances of that.

Anachomancer isn't as fitting as well, cause it reduces colorless mana, so it doesn't help your noncreature spells at all and about half your critters. Ignoble Hierarch is a better version (faster, guaranteed mana boost, exalted).

Here's how I'd run your deck as is:

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/gruul-shamans-deck/

Very. Drop it turn 2 and your weak shamans hit the field buffed out

Here's an example. That deck should go for $20, and is competitive despite its budget range.

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/modern-budget-green-stompy/

Not really.

Honestly, you're all over the place at this point. Playing tribal on a budget is very difficult, as all the cards you really want are too expensive for the build. [[Collected Company]], [[Cavern of Souls]], [[Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki]], [[Coat of Arms]], [[Seasoned Pyromancer]]. Plus, running a dual-color budget in competitive means you can't use the fetch, shock, Surveil, or cycling lands that are a tremendous help in development, color fixing, and deck thinning.

If you're shooting for a competitive budget modern build, I'd suggest scrapping this idea and going for a mono-green aggro, a mono-red burn, or a red/green good-stuff aggro like it was originally with a bunch of BOGO cards to make up for the difference in budget. The simplicity of mono-green aggro combined with how cheap some of its heavy hitters are means you could have a good working deck that's consistent and competitive, and probably wouldn't cost more than $20-$30 in total. That would generally be my suggestion, but that's just how I see it. Not trying to throw shade on you or your decks. If you want to run shamans, run shamans and max out their good stuff and you'll be fine.

Ideally you'd cast it turn 4 and swing for serious damage turn 5

If you want help figuring out your IRL deck, I'd be happy to help. we can talk it through

Couple problems with the build.

Off the bat, shamans are a generally weak tribe. They don't have a good lord or lords like the powerful tribes (elves, goblins, merfolk), they aren't beefy or fast, and they don't have endless interaction like elves or wizards. So, a shaman tribal deck is sort of a bad idea in general.

That being said, if you want to make one, you've gotta make the whole build about using the advantages they have. Trim out the unnecessary or slow cards (Compass, giant growth, renegade tactics, battle rage), and throw in some more shaman-themed synergy. They don't do well as a quick damage build like the previous build, they've gotta rely on swarm tactics and the synergy them have, most of which involves enter the battlefield triggers.

Check out:

[[Ignoble Hierarch]]
[[Burning-Tree Shaman]]
[[Eternal Witness]]
[[Obelisk of Urd]]
[[Icon of Ancestry]]

Knock the lands up to 20 as well (this is a general rule of thumb to at least be 20 on the very low end).

Seems a bit too top heavy on the curve. Too many three-drops, not enough one-drops. Render Silent in particular looks a bit chunky for what it does. Maybe consider swapping it out for some one-drop counters or interaction?

I'm going to assume this deck's on a budget.

The idea for the deck is a classic beginner build. Throw out strong stuff, swing for damage with a little buff help on the way, turn tempo and quick material into an aggro win.

A lot of the cards you've got have better, cheaper versions that you could swap out very easily/cheaply. Take a look at:

[[Itzquinth, Firstborn of Gishath]]
[[Lightning Bolt]]
Atarka's Command
[[Questing Druid // Seek the Beast]]
[[Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp]]
[[Hearth Elemental // Stoke Genius]]
[[Rancor]]
[[Zurgo Bellstriker]]
[[Gruul Spellbreaker]]
[[Renegade Tactics]]
[[Domri, Anarch of Bolas]]
[[Kird Ape]]
[[Vexing Devil]]
[[Aloe Alchemist]]
[[Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard]]
[[Voltaic Brawler]]
[[Yavimaya Iconoclast]]
[[Vines of Vastwood]]

Aborneal Gazer doesn't give you enough value for what it does. It speeds you up a turn in development and is a good target for your buff cards, but without them, it just sits there, and ideally you'd want to stack the buff damage on regular damage rather than it being just a direct buff damage target. You'd be much better off with a one-drop damage clock that gets the ball rolling.

I'd also recommend upping the lands to at least 20, as you will eat mulligans with only 18, and you badly want to out material the removal opponent will be running.

I'd be happy to help continue to shape the deck if you'd like.

I like Bowmaster for the speed and anti-Ravagan applications. Another thought would be [[Putrid Leech]] since it's conditionally beefy, helps you bleed on command, and is a bit faster than Glissa. Turn 3 you'll be swinging on a 5 turn clock with it

I like the idea of Frenzy in here. Dump your hand in development, lock it down and grind away with material advantage. I've wanted to combine Counterbalance with lantern control ideas for like a decade, but have not been able to get away with it yet. Good idea here, fits perfectly with the theme.

First thing that leapt out to me was the need for the one-drop tactics cards (Opt and Consider) cause you need that Counterbalance, and once you have it, each one is basically a one-drop counter. Just a thought. Other than that, looks solid.

Here's my thoughts on the anti-scam aspects of the deck.

Turn 1 Deafening Silence shuts down the recursion bullshit cold, and has next to nothing opponent can do about it cause it's an enchantment against red/black. It also greatly hampers development and does next to nothing against you.

Canonist does the same thing but slower and vulnerable to bolts/pushes. However, that's 8 mainbaorded problems for Scam.

Still thinking about the sideboard options. I hate that Scam has a couple different builds, but what can you do. Still a work in progress.

It's all good. Once upon a time, I made combo decks with walls in them. I even played a turn 3 dragonstorm deck and thought I was cool.

Sentinel was indeed going to be my first thought. Another good one would be [[Deafening Silence]], which should shut down everything nice and tight while you suicide off life with the lands and so forth. Another alternative would be [[Root Maze]], but that's gunna hurt your lands something awful, so probably not.

Also, are you as fed up with modern, and realistically this game, as much as I am these days? It's like every deck is a cousin-kissing inbred copy

Thalia seems an odd fit, since you're running 26 cards it hates on. Curve is wicked small (bravo), and that obviously helps a ton, but 21 one drops sounds a hell of a lot faster than 21 two-drops.

I love a good mill build. Is this going for casual modern budget?

Here's some things to consider:

[[Psychic Corrosion]] is a better version of Curse of the Bloody Tome, but it's more expensive.

Fog Bank is delightful at blocking but dies to essentially every removal, will be a guaranteed target, and there are more advantageous versions of it if you really want the blocker. [[Go-Shintai of Lost Wisdom]] is immune from some removal, is a good blocker, and turns unused mana into mill. [[Hard Evidence]] hits the field turn 1 (very useful), and lets you get the +1 later when you need it or instantly if it's topdecked.

With 16 lands and no fetches, the crab won't be of much use compared to other builds. I'm also an advocate for upping the land count as well. Even with 26 one-drops, 16 lands is asking for mulligans, and if this build is on the play with a mulligan, it's in trouble.

Jace's Phantasm is a great damage clock, but you don't need one and a 4/4 blocker is nice but again, there are better versions of it outside situational matchups.

Index is nice but is a -1 in tempo, and you should probably run [[Preordain]] or [[Consider]] over it, and should 100% run [[Visions of Beyond]] instead of Index.

Psychic Spiral interferes with Archaeomancer. If you can afford it, running [[Snapcaster Mage]] over Archaeomancer would be for the best. But if not, I'd cut one or the other and enhance the theme. Realistically, I'd cut Psychic Spiral so you could run [[Mystic Sanctuary]].

[[Surgical Extraction]] is basically a targeted Tome Scour, and should be considered even if you don't want to splash black.

[[Fractured Sanity]] is a win/win in a mill deck. If you topdeck it or have it in the opening hand, it comes with advantage and combos with lots of things in the build.


Just some ideas. I'd really recommend upping the lands to at least 18, cause you're looking at having to mulligan a land-dead hand about one in five shuffles, which is far too often. Upping it to 18 lands cuts that down to around 8%, so close to 12% better odds.

Just some thoughts.