dknight27

The curve is pretty high for the land amounts you are running, and with no 1-drops at all this is going to be very slow

The bones look pretty solid here. Some land tech like field of ruin would help, and fatal push is a natural fit. I'm not sure if 2 cruel ultimatums is a solid idea, as its going to be a brick until the late/late middle game. I would consider cutting it down to 1.

Just my thoughts

Normally it would be critter-light, but you have 4 opts, 3 insights, and 2 Ral's to move through the deck more quickly, which is around 16% of the deck in tactics cards. Plus, as long as you arn't dropping your critters in the early middle game, each one of them is a win condition.

I would think about maxing negate and 2 copes of search for azcanta. 4 negate's will help keep your win conditions alive as well as stall into your win conditions, and search for azcanta is just too good to ignore. It's basically a win condition on its own in a deck like this.

I'm not a big fan of dive down in builds like this. You can get an almost identical effect from negate as well as the other utility it has over dive down, which only has 7 targets.

I also like cutting the drake to 3 mainboarded, as it hits harder when dropped in the middle game and its hard to nail the exact mana cost early, both of which suggest 3 instead of 4 copies to me.

I also HIGHLY recommend 3 star of extinctions in the side, as its this decks only recourse against the dreaded carnage tyrant, and it doubles as a semi-effective boardwipe (cost Is high, I admit).

Other than that this looks solid

I don't think you will have a problem. Cryptic, electrolyze, remand, 4 1-drop tactics cards, and 4 snaps to pull em back, all of which retain tempo, card advantage, and move through the deck.

But at least worth testing

The staples are: caged sun, expedition map, grave pact, and no mercy off the top of my head.

Swarm yard would be a good addition too



I understand the conspiracy combo, but it doesn't statistically justify its spot. You are currently running 5 critters that aren't rats, so the chances of conspiracy interacting with any of those 5 is slim. Plus, at best its going to give your rats a +1/+0, and for 5 mana on a conditional small boost it can't be justified. You could just run bad moon and achieve a better effect for a non-conditional 2 mana enchantment, or any other number of good effects that don't rely on horrible math to work. Or you could run caged sun and for 1 more mana give a better boost, that isn't conditional, and double up your mana production.
As for interacting with kindred dominance, the math on that is staggeringly low. You would need 1 of the 5 non-rats, conspiracy, and kindred dominance to hit at the same time, which isn't going to happen even with tutors. On top of this, worst case scenario you drop kindred dominance and lose 1 critter to it for a nuke that otherwise doesn't touch you, which is a hell of a bargain.

Conspiracy doesn't help you, and you're doubled up on herald's horn. I'm surprised to not see pack rat in her as well, as he is the champion of rat builds. There are some general EDH staples missing as well that would help out

I like opt for this build over serum visions. I know it sees fewer cards, but instant speed lets you keep the land open for spell snare, bolt, path on turn 1, with the all important response to turn 2 of opponent if you go second. Just my preference, other than that this looks solid

As hulk pulls from the deck you dont' need to run 4 copies of the combo pieces (besides hulk as you want him fast), which frees you up for some more combo-grabbing cards

The biggest advice I can give to this build is to lower the curve drastically. No 1 drops, few 2 drops, few-ish 3 drops, and the rest 4 or higher. This deck isn't going to do anything till turn 3-4 and will be turns behind in development the whole game.

Also, you aren't running any direct interaction at all, and 4 nukes that take out this deck's only win conditions. I would highly advise looking into cheap/fast cards that give control and development, as well as tech lands and man lands that give the landfall some punch and doesn't translate to dead draws.

Thought scour hits hard because decks run lots of delve and snapcasters. This deck has 2 delve cards, and by the time you get to them you will have more than enough material, so i would say opt is the better fit. Personally, i think opt is the best tactics card for modern control, as instant speed helps a lot both early game and late, and the pre-scry sees fewer cards than serum visions but cuts down on the useless topdeck lands in hand.

Not trying to start a fight here, just saying that in competitive modern you are giving opponent 2-3 turns minimum to hit you with an inquisition of kozilek, thoughtseize, negate, remand, logic knot, mana leak, abrupt decay, vendilion clique, or spell pierce which will shut you down cold, and the saturation of these cards in competitive modern is nearly 90%.

Also, because you have no direct interaction at all, and only 3 nodes and 4 halos for indirect interaction, you are extremely vulnerable to the devastatingly fast win conditions that are also supersaturated in modern, like delver, goyf, young pyromancer, scavenging ooze, or the fast zoo critters. So, assuming opponent has the interaction to stop your turn 3 drop, which is almost inevitable in competitive modern, you are going to see a win condition dropped followed by interaction that stops you from gaining control, and the win condition is off to the races before you get anything on the field. What's more, even if your deck does what you want and opponent doesn't pin you down in the first 3 turns, you are still looking at dropping 1 card per turn for the next several turns, giving opponent time to catch up.

Games 2 and 3 are a variable, as some decks run lots of non-critter hate in the board and some don't.

I'm not saying its a bad idea or a bad deck, i love prison builds and mechanics. I'm just saying in competitive magic, including modern, the most important variable by far is speed, and if you let opponent dictate the pace and get ahead you will most likely lose, so by dropping the 3-drops to more 2-drops and 1-drops you will statistically do better.

I personally always want to work in dark confidant in builds like this, but that's me. And ya, Claim would be perfect. If you needed to you could morph this into grixis and go for it, but I don't think it's necessary. Looks good as is.

Unfortunately Rofellos is banned

Is this supposed to be competitive? Also, are we working with any budgetary issues?

This is sleek as can be. Good work

I would think search for azcanta would fit nicely in here. Clearly this deck wants to grind out a long game, and azcanta in either form does that fantastically.

Fair enough, it is right at home in builds like this

Even with 26 lands, a casual glance at this looks too top heavy for me. You won't be playing anything turn 1 or 2 basically ever, turn 3 will most likely be choked out, and by then it wont matter when you hit the stride this deck wants at 4-5 drops.

Just my thoughts

I'm not the biggest fan of maxed out niv's in here. You don't want to see it early whatsoever, and 4 copies is gunna translate into a lot of dead draws. Just my thought