As many of you know, yesterday was Modern Monday. With our new format, we now stream the matches on Twitch, alerting readers of the deck we’ll be playing in an article here on NumotGaming.
Then, on the following Tuesday, today, we post the matches for those who missed them along with our thoughts. Here is the deck that we piloted which was played by Meanmrmustard in a Magic Online League to a 5-0 finish.
Creatures
3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
4 Restoration Angel
Spells
4 Faithless Looting
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Lingering Souls
2 Painful Truths
4 Goryo’s Vengeance
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile
Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
3 Clifftop Retreat
2 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Lingering Souls
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Crumble to Dust
2 Duress
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Grim Lavamancer
3 Lone Missionary
2 Stony Silence
1 Wear // Tear
The deck we chose was a Mardu deck based on cards like Goryo’s Vengeance, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and Obzedat, Ghost Council. Similar to the Breach Reanimator deck, the goal is to use Faithless Looting or Liliana of the Veil to get a Kiki-Jiki or an Obzedat into the graveyard. Once there, we either win with Obzedat as a resilient threat, or we cast Restoration Angel and make millions of copies with Kiki-Jiki shenanigans.
Take a look at the matches and see how things went for yourselves.
Unfortunately, as often happens, Magic Online denied us the Wear // Tear that was in our sideboard as it couldn’t load the card properly when I loaded the deck up.
As you can see, the deck didn’t perform exactly as anticipated. Unfortunately I simply don’t think we had enough ways to get cards into our graveyard, and when we did we would still need other cards like Goryo’s Vengeance or Restoration Angel to facilitate any sort of combo. The beauty of Griselbrand is that once you reanimate him, even if he’s killed he basically helps you draw the rest of the combo pieces you need. The same cannot be said of Kiki-Jiki or Obzedat. We did manage to reanimate an Obzedat once, but the legendary spirit was quickly sent on a Path to Exile.
One problem I had was that the deck wants us to discard a lot of cards, but we have few ways to actually recoup any card advantage. I think Night’s Whisper is probably better in this list than Painful Truths, especially since we don’t have anything to really do on turn two. Unless we manage to discard a Lingering Souls. I think the sideboard could also use some work, and I wouldn’t mind having access to another Anger of the Gods or two.
While the deck did manage a 5-0 finish in a League on Magic Online, our results weren’t very similar. Unfortunately I don’t really think the deck in its current state is really ready for prime time. I think there are definitely some tweaks and changes that can be made but, as it stands, having a Kiki-Jiki, and having a way to discard Kiki-Jiki, and having a Goryo’s Vengeance, and having a Restoration Angel, and having four mana is just so much more fragile and difficult to piece together than simply reanimating a Griselbrand.
Regardless of our success with the deck or lack thereof, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next Monday! Be sure to tune into my daily stream as well for more Modern action!
Frank Lepore
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