dknight27

18 lands and mind twist don't mix. I would consider kicking the land count up to 20 anyway. Your curve is low, which is good, but this deck really wants to hit the turn 2 land drop into one of the 2-drop discard cards. Plus you can ditch lands to raven's crime, so they aren't useless top decks.

Let me know how it works out

I'm not a huge fan of dragon mantle and flamekin brawler in here. They are completely useless early game, and with 17 lands it's quite possible you will be stuck with them for a while before they are worth the slot. In addition, adding in the wonderful berserkers, there are 10 pumpers in this build, and any more than 1 on the field at a time is borderline a waste.

Bomat courier is a consideration in here, if for no other reason than that he has haste. I assume swiftspear is out of the budget, or I would say that is a definite.

I like thought scour over merfolk secretkeeper in this build. Fewer cards milled, but retains tempo and card advantage, and a 0/4 that doesn't trigger amalgam or help with gravecrawler isn't going to help much. Yes it helps with vengevine, but thought scour's material retention allows for vengevine help (for only U).

At least that's the way I look at it.

I also like 4 dream twist over gnaw to the bone, but that's me.

Even with 24 lands, this build looks too top heavy. You've got a serious 3-drop clog going on that's going to cause problems getting developed and dealing with anything fast. And even after you hit your third land, you're going to be at 1 card per turn for quite a while.

Are you going for semi-competitive, semi-budget modern here?

I actually kinds like gearhulk in here. 1 copy means you will almost always topdeck it, and with 24 lands it's not gunna be a horrible dead draw forever if you draw it early. On top of this, there are only 6 cards in this deck that cost more than 2, so even if you get it in the opening hand you are gunna have ammo ready.

Just my opinion, I know the general magic community doesn't value gearhulk as highly as I do.

This looks mighty tight. Personally I like 4 kozileks over 2 and 2 thought erasure, but that's me. The surveil is nice, but turn 1 kozilek is too tempting. Four fetches seems a bit light to me, you could probably trim the island down to 4 and add 1 flooded strand.

Other than that this looks excellent. Good work.

I would highly recommend cutting the mana curve down considerably. Right now you are flooded with 4-drops which is gunna slow the deck down a lot. Jeskai has a lot of low-cost options to help fix this.

I would also recommend taking a loot at the royal scions, a fantastic fit for this build.

I would advise upping the 1-drop critters as much as possible in a deck like this, and dropping assemble the legion entirely. It takes a while to get going, and this deck wants speed.

4 color snow deck with no arcum's astrolabe?

The Oko combo works every turn on the presumption that the 3/3 dies by opponent's actions, blocking and removal. It would be fantatsic if there was a way to do it every turn regardless, but what can you do.

I prefer astrolabe to oath of nissa in here, as nissa can't fetch enchantments or instants and doesn't interact with oko favorably. I like opt over nissa because it's an instant and helps smooth out the color balance. The main draw to nissa is the combo of cantrip and color fixing. The color fixing isn't important in a 3-color build backed up by fetches, duel lands, and astrolabe. The cantrip is very good, but as stated above I like opt and astrolabe better in here. Just my preference.

Force of negation would most definately be sided, but I don't like mainboarding them in non-control/non-combo decks. That being said, I don't think this (or superfriends in general) is a strong contender in Tier 1 competitive modern. If you were trying to build it for Tier 1, force of negation would be mighty strong.

As for Coatl, the more I look at this build, the more I absolutely agree with you. Even if it is hard to boost it to deathtouch early, the tempo and material mixed with the chump-block aspect is too attractive to ignore.

As for the 5-drop walkers, that's very possible. Obviously speed is a major concern in this, and any, build. I'm just attracted to the two 5-drops in here. Garruk protects itself, can reload the hand, and starts a 5 turn clock. Sarkhan keeps material, ramps (slightly), can protect itself, and 4/4 flyers are fun. Time will tell.

Changes incoming.

What format, budget, and level of competition are you going for here?

Seems to me you can get away with fewer than 21 lands. You've only got 12 non-1-drops, and 5 of them are cost redactors. You can almost certainly get away with only 19 lands and not blink an eye.

I also like risk factor in a build like this. Every land you draw after your third drop is basically pointless, and risk factor does what you want it to whichever way they go.

Assuming this build is budget and for casual, this is how I would build it. Just to give you some ideas

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/casual-budget-prowess/

Best advice here, up the lands to 21, cut way way down on the 3-drops, up the 1-drops

You can probably get away with 20 lands in here, the curve is pretty low and you can survive on 2 fielded lands for quite a while if necessary. It might also be worth thinking about a copy or two of nurturing peatland.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that the blue balance doesn't really fit with the red balance. Hierarch doesn't pump red mana, and there are 27 red mana symbols in the deck, with only 5 lands that add red. Meanwhile, there are 3 lands that pump blue , with 4 hierarchs, for only 6 mana symbols.

I love royal scions in zoo. They either kill useless topdecks or pump a critter while building toward a hand refill. Mantis rider is also quite powerful, but with only the 6 maindecked cards and 3 sideboard, I'm not sure if the splash is worth it.


Another consideration in here is elvish reclaimer that benefits heavily from the 10 fetches and 2 sac/draws, ups the 1-drop threats, can pull the sac/draw lands late game to keep material working when you're top decking, and at full power is un-burnable and a reliable beater.

I'm not the biggest fan of rampager in here at first glance, even if he can be used in a pinch to squeeze out a win.



Just my initial thoughts, perhaps I'm off base here

That's fair. Only thing I can think to recommend off the top is some mainboarded swords to plowshares and/or ponder to both lower the curve, up the sorcery count for goyf (ponder), and keep cheap removal (swords).

Other than that (once sideboard is set for glittering wish), this looks excellent

Are we going for competitive legacy here?