There are two cards in Modern that seem to be the cornerstones of green creature-based decks in the format. Those cards are Cavern of Souls and Noble Hierarch. Unfortunately both of those cards are about $50 currently, but if you’re looking to play a deck like Bant Eldrazi, last week’s Spirits list, or this week’s Humans list, you’re going to need them at some point. They’re simply too good to substitute with other options, with Cavern of Souls acting as a pain-free City of Brass that makes our creatures (like Eldrazi!) uncounterable and Noble Hierarch providing all our colors and pumping our attackers.
Today’s Cavern of Souls/Noble Hierarch list is a Four-Color Human list piloted by BWG to a 5-0 finish way back on August 5th. I’ve had the deck in the queue ever since. Thankfully Modern isn’t a format that moves very quickly!
2 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
1 Breeding Pool
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Collected Company
4 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
4 Mantis Rider
3 Mayor of Avabruck
1 Meddling Mage
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Path to Exile
1 Plains
4 Reflector Mage
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Thalia’s Lieutenant
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Windswept Heath
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Lantern Scout
1 Mark of Asylum
2 Meddling Mage
2 Rest in Peace
2 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
3 Stubborn Denial
While we’re running full sets of the expensive cards we mentioned earlier, we’re also running some insane recent Standard cards, like Mantis Rider, Reflector Mage, and Thalia’s Lieutenant. We also have some previous Innistrad human hits in the form of Mayor of Avabruck and Champion of the Parish. Have I ever mentioned that I love it when lesser-played cards see play? Let’s see if they’ve still got it.
This deck certainly has a way of coming from behind, out of nowhere, and taking back games that we would have otherwise lost. We definitely kept some questionable hands in these matches, but I kind of like doing that, just to see what a deck is capable of. After all, we learn things from losing just as much – if not more so – as we do from winning.
Honestly, I’m narrowing Modern decks down for future events I might play in and this one definitely makes the shortlist. I find it comical that cards like Reflector Mage and Thalia’s Lieutenant are as powerful as they are in Modern, but here we are…so long, Tarmogoyf! Plus, being able to cast literally every creature in your deck off of a Cavern of Souls is pretty tremendous in terms of mana fixing.
The single Lantern Scout in the sideboard of decks like this always throws me off, though I suppose we can trigger it consistently if we’re making 2/2 allies with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Still, we would have to draw our one-of, presumably in a matchup where it would be extremely relevant; I’m not in love with our odds.
If I could make one change, I would give the deck a way to deal with problematic artifacts and enchantments, specifically things like Ensnaring Bridge or Blood Moon. We have ways to deal with activated artifacts in Stony Silence, like most of Affinity, but once an Ensnaring Bridge resolves, it becomes quite a problem to get past. While not a human, I could see having a few Reclamation Sages in the board to take care of things; they can also be hit off of Collected Company which is a huge boon.
That’s all I have for this week. Sorry about the delay for this week’s article – I was in Florida visiting friends and family – but be sure to let me know what you think of the deck in the comments. I for one really enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya next week!
Frank Lepore
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