TheSwarmer

Trust me, with 4 Urborg you can afford to run 2 factories with a clear conscience and virtually no consistency sacrificed. I tend to turn 3 myself, but at that point there are a few hands that just don't work.

If you ever get some gameplay in with this, please post a comment here about it, I'd love to hear how it went!

+1 from me, it's nice to see something fresh.

However, there's no reason to not run white in modern seeing as how [[Flagstones of Trokair]] and [[Lingering Souls]] are.

As far as running [[Murderous Rider // Swift End]] alongside [[Nether Spirit]], I know it doesn't work in Loam Pox as you are likely to mill or discard the rider. Here discarding is the only danger but it is still a very real one.

Why no [[Castle Locthwain]] Or Mishra's Factory?

Other than that, a [[Torpor Orb]] and an [[ensnaring bridge]] seem like necessities in the sideboard. Oh yeah and [[Mycosynth Lattice]] is banned in modern.

Cheap, themed, kitchen table decks that nevertheless get titled budget decks. I used to be a massive part of this problem many years ago, perhaps that's why it frustrates me so much. There's a world of difference between slapping 2 dark rits in a dubiously Legacy legal, stupendously slow zombie deck meant as a fun, casual, themed deck, and cutting $200 from a T2 Modern deck in an attempt to make something semi-competitive for ~$50-$150.

Can't wait to complain about having to play against this xD +1 from me.

Seems to me like 4x [[Volatile Fjord]] is too slow for what the deck is trying to do, but then, the deck-thinning effect offered by [[Evolving Wilds]] doesn't give you a significant edge either. Could also be that 8 ninjutsu cards is 1 too many.

As the deck runs no mana sources [[Darkblast]] and [[Shambling Shell]] are essentially there just to Dredge 3, shell is objectively better as it is a creature for [[ichorid]]. I think that's the only reason it's run, though I've never played the format and I've seen the deck played only once for maybe 5 or 6 games.

I think this is the first list in which I like [[Shred Memory]] on account of running [[Dark Ritual]]s and a relatively high count of [[Duress]]s. Though 4x? I've only played the new Mardu versions with [[Late to Dinner]] but in general, I'd want more [[Duress]] or an angler or a [[Stinkweed Imp]] to find threats easier rather than 5 mana, 2-turn-slow [[Exhume]]s.

[[Nether Spirit]] is orders of magnitude more valuable than [[shambling shell]]. Though I frankly wish that Modern dredge lists ran the card, but that would require some serious bans or miracles to happen.

Oops, I only just now realized that [[Retrofitter Foundry]] did not in fact come out in Kaladesh block and is only legal in Legacy and Vintage xDD

I have no clue whether the land count is what it should be. How long / how many iterations does this usually take before you arrive at something resembling a satisfactory result?

That's actually true, as is the fact that the deck does have a good amount of cantrip-type effects (8 lands that draw/fetch a card). But don't you think that's assuming too much? You're assuming I will find a life from the loam (or darkblast), that I'll want to play / discard it, and that I will want to get it back, turn after turn *before I have found a crime to use alongside it*?

What do you think about cutting the racks for some other artifact and slotting a [[Witherbloom Command]] that way?

Yeah, but usually no Racks are run, fewer than 28 lands are run, and more [[Inquisition of Kozilek]] and more [[Thoughtseize]]s are run. I don't think that really works in this case.

Love the description xDD

Oh, I haven't tested this one unfortunately. Covid kinda killed most non-standard play in my city, and the social aspect of the game is important enough to me to where I am not keen on looking at my opponent through a thick pane of glass with a mask on for 2 hours.

My issue here is that you want fetches, really, but you can't really include them without sacrificing either the consistency with which you can sac [[Flagstones of Trokair]] to a [[Smallpox]] or getting rid of the cycle lands.

Honestly, with decks like this I would likely just be best off having a friend of mine with a masters in math turn this into an equation and solve for the ideal manabase given the deck's mana symbol distribution xDD

What other approaches have you used for iterating/testing things like this?

Uhm, 20 lands? And why not lean into [[Utopia Sprawl]] as well as, or instead of [[Abundant Growth]]?

[[Relic of Progenitus]] exiles my own yard as well, saving a single [[Life from the Loam]] doesn't seem worth it, especially when [[Elixir of Immortality]] is an option. [[scrabbling claws]] could work, in fact, I considered simply cutting both copies of [[The Rack]] for a [[retrofitter foundry]] and [[scrabbling claws]]. I'd have to do some serious testing to figure out what's better though.

I've had [[Witherbloom command]] in here as both a 1x and a 2x at various points during development but I always wound up cutting it. Having Raven's Crime every game seems more important to me, as does having 1x of [[Buried Ruin]], [[Darkmoss Bridge]] and both basic lands.

What would you guys cut for it?

Oh God this is fun xD Nothing to bind a community together like an enemy. Even brought me back from the dead. Then again, when someone spends a year sounding more and more like they have paranoid schizophrenia, that tends to make them quite entertaining to listen to.

I've had a good run on here, but life has sped up too much in the past two years for me to continue to be involved in this site to any real degree. So long and thanks for all the fish.

Hahaha, I still think there's value in what you're doing, 99 out of any 100 creative ideas fall somewhere between useless and stupid, but there is still immense use in creativity of the sort you are displaying here because of that 1 in a 100. Keep it up!

See, why build this when both Acid Trip and Dimir Hand-lock are both existing, relatively refined, mostly viable decks? This is a criticism that could be applied to a lot of your decks, though I have refrained from doing so due to just how much out of the box innovation you often engage in.

Like with [[Blood Researcher]] I think you're onto something. A deck running those and [[Putrid Leech]]s could be a viable, aggressively slanted midrange contender in most metagames I'd say, especially if they're slow.