dknight27

I'm basically done with magic as a game as it's currently sitting. Took much longer than yugioh, but it's come apart. Fortunately I make my on cards and can indulge in the game mechanics I enjoy so much in a different way. Just thought I'd play around as a ghost on here a little bit, and I love the idea of Lutri.

Resonator basically just says 'do target triggered ability twice right now'. So, for Thraximundar, you'd force opponent to sac 2 critters

Ah, I gotcha. Best of luck, let me know how it goes

I gotcha. Nothin wrong with that, by any means.

That being said, I think there are a few tweaks that could help bring this build up a bit that would be cheap and easy to implement. Please keep in mind that I'm not here to throw shade, only to relay some thoughts and potentially help tighten up the build.

If you don't want to change anything else about the deck, I can't recommend highly enough adding 4 copies of [[Pillar of the Paruns]]. It does for under a dollar in modern masters 2, fixes colors, and can play almost every card in this deck (as is).


Problem number 1 is the curve. The deck is very, very top heavy. No one-drops, and a third of the deck at five-drop or higher. That means you're going to run into games where you've got nothing or very little to do until turn 7, by which point opponent is well ahead and the game's realistically over. I know you've got your cost reductors, but they don't really help as much as it would seem. Goblin only has 5 targets in the whole deck, and relying on a fielded and protected Nightscape Familiar just isn't reliable. I'd very much recommend cutting some of the big cards and going in for more one and two-drops (I know you want to play multicolored here, so one-drops aren't 'on theme', but they very much help with everything).

One-drops to consider:
[[Lightning Bolt]]
[[Hard Evidence]]
Bloodchief's Thirst
[[Ponder]]
[[Sleight of Hand]]



Two-drops to consider:
[[Fire // Ice]]
Max out Terminate

I'd recommend dropping Elder Mastery, Blood Tyrant, Dinrova Horror, and Goblin Electromancer altogether, which frees up nine spots you can fill with cheaper/faster cards.

I'd also recommend upping the land count. 21 is pretty standard, and I'd suggest going with something like [[Evolving Wilds]], as it's cheap and helps fix colors.


Problem number 2 is the better version idea. Skull Rend is a worse version of [[Blightning]]. For 2 extra mana, you lose 1 damage and discard at random instead of by choice. As this is a single player deck (I presume, since it's not EDH), the 'all opponents' doesn't matter. Playing Blightning two turns earlier than Skull Rend more than makes up for the difference, so I'd recommend Blightning over Skull Rend. The same is true for Thraximundar and any number of big creatures, Slave of Bolas and any number of removal/burn options, etc.


Just some thoughts and suggestions. I know it's just for fun, but I think tweaking some things will help up the speed and consistency, which will hopefully lead to more fun as you punish opponent with your grixis build.

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.