Whispers of the Muse: Benjamin M’s Modern Superabundance (EVE)
Welcome back to another installment of Whispers of the Muse, our occasional series where a reader asks for deckbuilding assistance from the Lament community! Today’s deck comes by way of Benjamin M, and he’s asked us to put our Modern hats on this time around.
Says Benjamin,
I’m a big fan of buying pre-constructed decks and then getting cards to modify them while keeping the basic strategy of the deck in place.My most recent acquisition is the Superabundance deck from Eventide. Shadowmoor was one of my favourite sets, and I liked both the color combination of this deck and the ‘tricky’, combo nature of it.I usually play modern, and I do go to FNM when I can and like using my decks there.Direction wise, I am happy to order cards that are good additions, but I would say $5 is my absolute limit on individual cards, and I’d prefer if additions were less than that, especially if they are multiple. I also would prefer to keep the deck U/G and to keep the overall theme of the deck, so I guess I’d mostly be looking for cards to replace ones in the deck that either do not pull their weight or can be taken out for others better suited to the theme.
For those unfamiliar with the deck, Superabundance is a Simic-coloured deck (Blue/Green), that loves making creature tokens and counters.The complete decklist with hover-over links can be found here (simply scroll right to the bottom).
So who will take up the challenge and offer Benjamin some insights on how to reconfigure Superabundance into a Modern masterpiece? What cards would you remove, and what would you build in their place?
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Ertai's Lament 
An intriguing deck to be sure… Blue/Green is my favorite color combination so I’m willing to give it a go!
To be honest, I’d probably start by removing a great deal of those cards though. At first glance, the strongest ones supporting the deck’s theme seem to be the Shorecrasher Mimic (which I’d bump up to four), and the Fable of Wolf and Owl (of which I’d add two copies)
Then I’d aim at filling the rest of the deck exclusively with spells that are both Green and Blue, if possible to take maximal advantage of the two previously mentioned cards. The first that immediately comes to mind is Coiling Oracle ( 4-of, no questions asked), and I’d add 3 more Slippery Bogles and 2 extra Favors of the Overbeing.
Other good additions: Cold-Eyed Selkie, and Vedalken Heretic, which both draw cards for you when they connect with an opponent, and the recent Master Biomancer which can make your late-game topdecks more potent. He is a mythic though, so I’m not sure if he’d be over budget… however the Zameck Guildmage might make a nice replacement. Also from Gatecrash, the Simic Charm does pretty much everything a Blue/Green aggro deck would want.
If you’d like to expand upon the card-draw subtheme, there’s Lorescale Coatl (which really likes the aforementioned guildmage’s company), and Overbeing of Myth.
Well these are more vague suggestions than an actual meddling, but it feels like the deck has different directions it could take. I’m definitely interested in seeing what other people will make of it!
What creature-based U/G deck is complete without Jhessian Infiltrator? A 2/2 unblockable is (almost) always a shoe-in, and in this case it is. Also, is you go along with Excel’s idea for playsets of the Mimic and the three Fables, I would recommend Nulltread Gargantuan. A 3 CMC 5/6, he requires you to put a creature you control on top of your library… however, this is actually good if you have a Mimic out and/or a Fable of Wolf and Owl out. About the Fable, you might want to have some ramp in there so that you can get the Fable out more quickly.
Another option is building a deck centered around Spitting Image and the Gatecrash rare – Biovisionary ( around 0’50 at a few stores ). You could use the Coiling oracles Excel mentioned, they ramp/draw and accelerate your deck. You can also use looter Il-kor/merfolk looter to sift through the deck for the cards you need. Completing a playset of Wistful selkies could be interesting, since it’s a decent body which reemplaces itself; and don’t forget the fact that Nulltread Gargantuan sinergises pretty well with the Coiling oracle, and can be used as an alternate win condition.
An initial decklist to begin with could be:
24 lands:
– 4 Simic guildgates (very cheap double lands for slower decks)
– Fill with Forests, Islands and other simic dual lands you own.
Creatures:
– 4 Coiling oracle
– 4 Wistful selkie
– 3 Nulltread Gargantuan
– 4 Biovisionary
– 4 Looter il-kor
– 2 Sturdy hatchling (from the original decklist, they can come in handy)
Spells:
– 3 Spitting Image
– 3 Snakeforms (Good defense against creature threats, also cantrip)
– 4 Cultivate (Ramp AND gives you fuel for the Spitting Image’s retrace)
– 2 Dissipate (A bit of defense never hurts)
The main goal of the deck is to get out a Biovisionary and then up the count to four by bringing more or cloning it with Spitting Images. The card draw and the ramp let the deck play all the extra cards it gets, and then the spitting image over and over.
If the Biovisionary route happens to get blocked, you can dig your way through with the gargantuans and the hatchlings (and its copies!)
I know the deck deviates a lot from the original decklist, but it is a bit unfocused to keep most of its cards. Anyway, good luck with the deck!
I did like this deck, so I put in on http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net. I did credit you as the designer and the only addition I made was 3 Zameck guildmages to get the number of cards up to 60. Hope you don’t mind.
Of course i don’t mind, i’m glad i could help 😉
Thanks guys. These have been pretty interesting ideas. I really do like the Biovisionary deck from Varo, and I think I will definitely order what I need for that.
However, I do still want to make a secondary blue/green that focuses on Fable of Wolf and Owl/Shorecrasher mimic. I agree in boosting the first up to 3 and the second up to 4.
Here’s a very rough, incomplete deck list (based on comments here)
10 Forest
10 Island
4 Simic Guildgate
4 Coiling Oracle
3 Snakeform
2 Dissipate
4 Looter-il Kor (may drop these)
4 Slippery Bogle
4 Cultivate
3 Nulltread Gargantuan
2 Spitting Image (Maybe)
4 Shorecrasher mimic
Ok, so here’s what I want to know
From suggestions, Lorescale Coutl, Overbeing of Myth, Cold-Eye Selkie, Jhessian Infiltrator,
Favor of the Overbeing and Zameck Guildmage are all worthy additions, and are all reasonably priced. I could easily get up to 4 of any of them… But I can’t really fit them ALL into this deck list without dropping some of the 4 offs and 3 offs, and I don’t think running just one each will work very well, so I may have to trim that list down too
So I guess I’m interested to tweak the numbers. Which of the additions listed should I leave off completely, or what should I just remove from the rough decklist. More importantly, how many can I get away with in these cases?
Thanks for your help this far :). I regret that the Master Biomancer is currently out of my prcie range, otherwise the suggestions thus far have been very helpful
– Benjamin
One card that I strangely haven’t seen anyone suggest: Simic Charm! All of the modes are relevant for you: getting more damage through on Cold-Eyed Selkie, protecting a creature enchanted with Favor of the Overbeing from removal, or returning a creature to your hand to re-trigger Shorecrasher Mimic.
As to what cards you want to cut, it depends on whether you’d prefer to win early or late. For Shorecrasher Mimic beats, load up on Infiltrators, Bogles, Nulltreads, and Favors, then shave the high-end (4+cmc) down to just a few copies of Fable of Wolf and Owl for those last few points of reach. If you’re more interested in swarming the board with tokens, cut down on creatures that only do something when attacking, and focus on options like Lorescale Coatl and Zameck Guildmage instead that grow in power over time. Ranger’s Path is also a good way to make the jump to 6 mana.