Decklist - Warp World Modern [GR]

Remember my old Warp World decks? As far as MtG goes, I'll never forget them. Nor forgive myself for missing out on their existence back in Ravnica.

After my old Warp World deck stopped being Standard, it sat around for a few months, slowly losing bits of it in a process that I call cannibalization. As for a current example, MonoPod's fighting a losing battle to stay intact. Before that, I had a Heartless Architect that just last weekend succumbed to complete separation. When the decks down to three major parts (Heartless Summoning, Grand Architect, and Myr Superion), it's time to admit defeat.

Anyway, sometime around a year ago, I got the urge to rebuild the deck for casual play. It looked something akin to this, with the additions of Lotus Cobra, Ob Nixilis, and a solo Emrakul.

And then, in early April, I saw this:

I loooooooooooooooove Lotus Cobra.

How to get one of these promo bad boys? Play in a Grand Prix.

So that's what I want to do.

And that meant turning the deck serious. Because I feel it'd be the most appropriate deck to play for that cobra.


Warp World, Modern [GR]
---Lands (25)---
1 Arid Mesa
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Stomping Grounds
8 Forest
4 Mountain

---Creatures (27)---
4 Joraga Treespeaker
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Wood Elves
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Primeval Titan
2 Avenger of Zendikar
2 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Eternal Witness
2 Rampaging Baloths
1 Urabrask the Hidden

---Enchantment (4)---
4 Khalni Heart Expedition

---Sorcery (4)---
4 Warp World


General Breakdown:
The deck's goal is to cast Warp World, abusing EtB and landfall to gain an upper hand while decks running less permanents suffer. If Warp World isn't around, ramping into big creatures quickly suffices.

The Land: A bit more complicated this time around. The fetchlands are to take advantage of landfall and to abuse Stomping Ground's Forest/Mountain nature. Wolf Run's placing is pretty straightforward. With the amount of ramp effects in the deck, and my need to draw more, I'm feeling pretty comfortable at 25, though going higher was a possibility for some time.

The Ramp: Joraga Treespeaker, Khalni Heart Expedition, Lotus Cobra, Overgrown Battlement, Primeval Titan, and Wood Elves... quite a few here, eh? It's needed, since eight mana's my goal. And believe me, that's a hard number to race towards. I had to sign a deal with the devil and use the Titans. They lowered my average turn-cast for Warp World from turns 5-6 to turns 4-5. A rather important improvement in a competitive environment. Also, they're the main reason I haven't gone up to 28 lands in the deck.

Eternal Witness: General graveyard recursion as usual, with the major note of bringing Warp World back to hand post-Warp. Combined with enough land, or Lotus Cobra's mana, it can lead to a situation I call "Infinite Warping." Infinite Warping tends to lead to a mix of the following: huge battlefield for me; opponent death-by-Hellkite; and lack of battlefield permanents for others. Nine-out-of-ten Judges recommend opponent's concede when that happens.

The Big Guys: Avenger of Zendikar, Bogardan Hellkite, Primeval Titan, Rampaging Baloths, and Urabrask the Hidden all count here. The Avengers and Baloths love the post-Warp environment, pumping out craploads of token critters. And the Hellkite's make quite an entrance, burning opposing creatures as well as throwing fireballs at heads when I need to end things quickly. Primeval Titan helps fuel the token frenzy in addition to busting out the Wolf Run's for more win conditioning. Lastly is the smaller and solitary Urabrask, enabling a free swing post-Warp, which generally is enough to do the trick.

Warp World: Confuses opponents, hates planeswalkers, ignores Cascade, screws up board states, and is a Sorcery that doesn't play well with other nonpermanents. Almost as effective as throwing a Comprehensive Rules print-out at your opponent.


I don't have a set sideboard for it yet, but it'll come. Most likely after I obtain the three each Stomping Grounds and Titans for the deck. Expect mucho anti-counterspells and an obligatory solo Emrakul, She Who Tears the Aeons.

Casual playtesting has mostly been positive for me. We'll see how it goes after putting it through the minor modern tournament grinder. The big tournament for me is in November, so I've got a little time...

alt by Card Kitty

Update

So it's been a little over five months since my last update. My bad.

Time can go quickly, and laziness can be a factor. And honestly, I've had a lull in crazy ideas. September was a mixture of anguish and anticipation. For the former, I had to part with my Warp World deck on the months end. I'll admit I'm rather fond of the deck; a rare trait that only two of my Standard decks had managed to possess until that point (A Mirrodon/Kamigawa block Leveler deck, and a consistant top 8ing Ravnica/Time Spiral block "Zombify" deck). As with the previous two, a new block was arriving, hence the anticipation. When Mirrodin (my first block being a competitive player) left I was introduced with Ravnica, reveling the Golgari guild. I moved on fairly easy, and hardly missed the artifact-heavy sets when the Orzhov came around. Hell, even Dissension's Nephilim kept me entertained. When the time came for Lorwyn to kick out all my fun creatures in Ravnica, I don't feel like I was compensated for the loss. To this day I keep bitter feelings towards those storybook sets. And then came Scars of Mirrodin.

I savored the final FNM before the transition. Warp World almost possessed a will of it's own, giving me good draws the whole night. Even legitimately massacring the rare Valukut match I encountered. It was good times to Top 8 once again; the last time being the first time I tried out the deck.

As for Scars itself, it was good to see Mirrodin again. Old friends. Like Time Spiral was for me. I won't go into an in-depth review of the set; too late in the game I'd say, but also because critique of it can easily be found in abundance elsewhere. I will say though, as someone who never saw Affinity as an actual threat back in the day, I found Metalcraft to be quite underwhelming.

So I've been here and there, mostly playing with one deck that I've tinkered with on and off. I'll post it a bit later. Tempted to play it again tonight, but I'm considering another deck to try toying with before MtG goes full WoW and Besieged brings about the Infected Horde.

Here I'm almost on the eve of another set release, and I'm surprised to see myself dreading Infect's spotlight. Mayhaps the Phyrexians are coming back to their old selves. We'll see.

Warp World, Updated

Just wanted to post a quick update to my 'Drazi Warp deck, since it has changed a tad. Surprisingly few introductions from M11.

'Drazi Warp
---Land (24)---
x4 Evolving Wilds
x4 Forest
x4 Khalni Garden
x6 Mountain
x2 Rootbound Crag
x4 Terramorphic Expanse

---Creatures (28)---
x3 Avenger of Zendikar
x4 Bloodbraid Elf
x3 Bogardan Hellkite
x2 Gaea's Revenge
x4 Joraga Treespeaker
x3 Lotus Cobra
x2 Mnemonic Wall
x4 Nest Invader
x2 Rampaging Baloths
x1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

---Spells (8)---
x4 Growth Spasm
x4 Warp World


Change Summary:
+2 Rootbound Crag, -2 Mountain; A change meant for the early game. With the fetchland, it's practically a guaranteed turn 2 untapped dual. Any more though, and I feel like I'd be putting stress on the mana base. It does, however, sacrifice the potential of two post-Warp lands coming into play untapped. A minor inconvenience, as I find Lotus Cobras do most heavy lifting after a warp. A shame I can't get a hold of one more of them...
- -1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, +1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre; I've mentioned wanting to replace She Who Tears the Aeons before, as much as I like her, and now it's done. Ulamog is still a heavy hitter, and still gives me limited mill dodging. Unlike his big sister, though, he's much, much easier to hard cast if need be. As far as experience has taught me, in most games I can net 9 or 11 mana, with 12 being the hardest curb to cross. While 11 isn't the optimal cost, it's still a start.
- -1 It That Betrays, -2 Terastodon, +3 Bogardan Hellkite; I love these guys flavor-wise, and they tend to be awfully fun to warp into. The Hellkites double that utility, giving me something that can eat critters and fry players post-warp, driving my advantage home. Oh, and flying defense! That rarely hurts. I can't wait for a game against Destructive Force in which I flash one of these in after the flames to fry their Titan of choice and bring in the pain.
-2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, +2 Rampaging Baloths; Nixilis is a great guy for ending games, but I've gotten tired of games in which he sat in my hand, dead until a Cobra decided to help out. Too much dependence on three specific cards in my deck. Sure I could toss in two swamps, but that would slow down my usual concern of fetching red to afford Warp World. The Baloths give me some landfall play still, with the added bonus of being affordable as soon as turn four.
-1 Goblin Bushwhacker, -1 Madrush Cyclops; I liked the haste idea, alot. But after witnessing a reduction of mass kill in my metagame, and especially after having Madrush as a dead card in hand during too many games, I decided to drop the idea for now. Mayhaps sideboard two Bushwhackers or something, but not maindeck for now.
- -1 Omnath, Locus of Mana; He had his moments, sure. But in a deck full of heavy hitters, he usually wasn't too impressive, offensively. Utility-wise, it's sad to say he rarely helped out. The specific mana costs of Warp World meant he usually could only bog me down with green mana. Great for the green critters, I suppose, but the Treespeakers already do that job just fine :/
- +1 Avenger of Zendikar, +2 Gaea's Revenge; These guys were mostly included to give me something to cast with my mana while waiting for a warp, and not definitely not bad after one!


Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go cry to myself while thinking about the lack of Warp World post rotation.

First Post / 'Drazi Warp

Since the Wizards Community blog system is a tad too clunky for my tastes, I'll try here instead. Laziness pending, expect a new deck at least once a week, and occasional FNM deck reports. Savvy?

Anyways, onto the deck!

I wanted to play with Warp World, but my older deck lists (Alara-Worldwake) for it were too slow in my opinion. Rise of the Eldrazi introduced new options that made a turn 4 Warp 'feasible' in theory (albeit not advisable), and ultimately I couldn't resist a go. 'Feasible' here being (A) able to gather permanents for a warp rather quickly, and (B) able to warp quickly enough to still be a "relevant" event in a given game. So here's the list after some hard brainstorming (and input from a fellow demented planeswalker).


'Drazi Warp
---Land (24)---
x4 Evolving Wilds
x4 Forest
x4 Khalni Garden
x8 Mountain
x4 Terramorphic Expanse

---Creatures (28)---
x2 Avenger of Zendikar
x4 Bloodbraid Elf
x1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
x1 Goblin Bushwhacker
x1 It That Betrays
x4 Joraga Treespeaker
x3 Lotus Cobra
x1 Madrush Cyclops
x2 Mnemonic Wall
x4 Nest Invader
x2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
x1 Omnath, Locus of Mana
x2 Terastodon

---Spells (8)---
x4 Growth Spasm
x4 Warp World

---Sideboard---
Not yet finalized.


First thing's first, the creature section's a mess. I want to four-of the Cobras and eventually decide which hastey to stick with (Cyclops or the Bushwhacker - both have valid uses). The Eldrazi I want to switch out with Kozilek and Ulamog, since Warping into the current ones are okay, but (mainly with Emrakul) the mana base still has a tiny bit of trouble hitting anything above 11 mana quickly.

Premise of the deck is simple: Ramp up, net permanents whenever you can, and play Warp World as soon as you get the chance, hopefully catching your opponent with their guard down and most likely netting an advantageous post-warp board.

Playtesting has taught me that one of the fun qualities of this deck that I didn't expect is that an opponent too worried about Warp being played risks being beaten down by the little critters (point to Bushwhacker). And being the crazy fellow I am, I slapped together a crude sideboard and took it to the Rise Gameday, taking a place in the top 8. I'll be using it again this Friday, so we'll see how that goes.

So, criticism, yes? Also, I'd appreciate sideboard advice for use against Mythic. Thanks for glancing!