dknight27

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.

Deck says it's 9 years old but was edited now, so I'm going to assume it was changed and proceed accordingly.

I don't think you need the third Stasis condition, Birds + Instill Energy. Yes, the combo doubles as available mana for you, but in reality, needing both to make Stasis go off is much less efficient than running cards that fetch either Stasis or the pop conditions, such as [[Ponder]] or any of the other tactics draw cards. I'd also look at some of the counter options you can abuse, such as [[Daze]], which gives you exactly what you want in this build.

4x Iron Maiden isn't really necessaary, as Chronatog is a win condition, and you'll eventually draw into him and then just deck opponent out. I'd cut that spot down to probably 2 cards as an alternate win con. And I'd consider running [[Black Vise]] over the Maiden anyway. Or, alternatively, you could run [[Jace Beleren]], as it's a win condition wrapped in a way to make Forsaken City work.

Just some update ideas

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.

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