dknight27

Your best bet for a fetch land setup on a budget is 4x [[Seething Landscape]] and 4x [[Evolving Wilds]]. I'd trim out the Halimar Depths and 4 islands to make that happen, as it has the same disadvantage as Wilds but double trips the crabs, and Landscape is just perfect for what you want here and has very little drawback (shame you can't use the cycling, but oh well). The sort-of-scry is nice, but in reality you'd much rather have a double mill off a crab, especially since it's not actually a Scry, so you can't toss away stuff you don't need.

To clarify, are you going for that combo as the point of the deck, or is it just a fun feature that happens to pop up? Otherwise, I assume this is budget modern goblin combos that do very similar things, right?

Running 16 lands with no fetches is sort of anti-synergy with your crabs. You want to drop at least 1 land each turn, preferably a fetch to double trigger the crabs.

There's also a few mill staple cards to take a look at:

[[Thought Scour]]
[[Archive Trap]]
[[Field of Ruin]]

I like [[Hearth Elemental // Stoke Genius]] quite a lot in a build like this.

I actually really like trying out [[High Noon]] in a deck like this. I've been letting it percolate myself, trying to find the right spot to put it, and I think inside a burn deck would be a good way to go. You're fine playing a sorcery or critter on your turn and an instant on opponent's turn, and it will hurt opponent WAAAAAAAAAY more than it inhibits you in any way. You'd have to deal with no spectacle cards, unless you want to rely on battle damage, but honestly, I'd rather have it than Roiling Vortex under most circumstances. Plus, it turns into a win condition when you hit 5 mana.

Just a thought, I haven't actually tested the theory or anything.

No problem, keep me in the loop about how it goes.

9 fatties seems pretty high, especially when 3 of them don't want the other 6 and vice versa, on top of the 12 cantrips. I'd recommend dropping that down to 6 or 7 and throwing in more discard. Realistically, this deck wants a turn 1 discard to either stop the flood of bullshit or pull out opponent's answer to your fatty. I'm also not a fan of the Charm in here cause it's a 3-drop with 18 lands (I know the tapped lands, but they're slow in modern these days, as are 3-drops) and 3-drops are slow in modern these days. So maybe drop those, kick the fatties down to 7, and run a full round of Thoughtseize and Inquisition? Now you're running 8 1-drop discards and have a phenomenal chance of a turn 1 'fix a future problem' turn into a turn 2 cantrip and cruise.

Just some quick thoughts.

Keep in mind, I know next to nothing about Pioneer.

Seems like [[Consider]] would fit better than Sinister Sabotage. Sabotage is an ok but expensive counter that has color problems and digs 1 card. Consider is the operative cantrip that digs 2 cards and gets you closer to your combo twice as well for a third the mana.

27 lands also seems a bit high, even with the 4 cycle lands, and with the Caryatids, that's half your deck with no fetches to thin things out.

Just some initial observations, I really dig the Gearhulk into Magma Opus combo, especially since Opus discards itself and makes Gearhulk a 5-drop.

I loved playing Snoko, last time I played legacy at all in fact. Never ran into a Spark Double thankfully.

Hey, I miss Oko. What's not to like about a 3-drop that fixes whatever problems you've got and builds to a win condition while you do it?

I gotcha. I'd consider dropping Catapult Master, Darien, Keeper of the Accord, Suture Priest, Silence, and Mobilization (9 cards) and look into:

4x [[Thalia, guardian of Thraben]], 4x [[Valiant Veteran]], 1x [[Secluded Steppe]]

My reasoning was that it's really only running 20 lands because of the 4 cycle lands, which are 1-drop draw cards. It won't trigger anything, but it cuts down on mulligans; I've got a whole working theory on the idea. You could make the argument that 4 Preordains would be better cause they dig and trip, but I'm all about trying to minimize disadvantage rather than maximize advantage, and running 24 lands that act like 20 lands makes mulligans supremely rare. But that's me, there's certainly a case to be made in the opposite direction.

I'd wager there are some updates that could be made here, assuming the unloved was intentional.

I assume this is budget casual, correct?

Hey, we're all just trying to figure this game out through trial and error. The only reason I like Flare of Denial is as a manaless counter sided in against a win condition, other than that it's not worth it. Keep me in the loop if you don't mind.

I'm well outside meta knowledge, so there's that. But it's hard for me to imagine eight 3-drop hard cast counters being fast enough to make a difference when there's cards like [[Flusterstorm]], [[Anticognition]], and [[Flare of Denial]]. Has it been working the way you wanted?

The eight 3-drop counter spells seems to be a bit problematic in here. They really up the curve and choke out what you can do in a turn for the whole opening and middle game, and the mill bonus isn't really worth it from my perspective. Milling three for a 3-drop that's a +0 has efficiency problems. I'd consider dropping them for 4x [[Thought Scour]] and 4x [[Fractured Sanity]], both of which are +0 in materials that are faster than the counters, can be cast without a target, and have better mill ratios. Hard casting Fractured Sanity is also a potential win condition if the rest of the deck is doing what it's supposed to and you topdeck it.

I'm also not a huge fan of running 4 Vantress and only 5 islands with all those fetches. Vantress is mighty expensive for a Scry, and having one in the opening hand is just a potential hindrance. Maybe cut it down to 2 and run 2 more islands so you have more fetch targets to trip the crabs.

Just some thoughts, not trying to hate on the build. I love a good mill deck, and the crabs are forever interesting with fetch lands and Oboro.

The math for certain is on your side, and I love it as a Careful Study target. Good point

Seems like Deep Analysis is kinda risky with the curve/tapped lands, even if the goal is to selfmill it and then fulfill the Snacker requirement in one go. Wouldn't a Ponder be better? It won't trip the Snacker directly, but it helps with everything else and gets you half way to Snacker in a turn (with so many other targets available). I know nothing about Pauper, just thinking out loud.

You kind of need to decide what you want to do with this one. Do you want to run discard stuff, rat aggro, or a combo of both. There are lots of cards for any of those options that could help you out here.