This has been winning a lot in Explorer for me.
Sometimes they ban a card in Standard and I think to myself, "should I have been playing that in other formats this whole time?" And sometimes the answer is yes, so while Bankbuster isn't the typical kind of card I like to play, it's just really strong. I was never really a Mazemind Tome guy, but Mazemind Tome never attacked for four. It works well with Azgol, too.
Azgol is awesome, but I think it's a little tough to build around. First, you have to build around, like, not building around it, by which I mean you might not draw it, and you might even board it out. Secondly, it's not like the payoff is huge, you can't really expect that a flipped Azgol instantly wins you the game. It does, though, sometimes, more than you might expect, but it's still just a creature. Third, like I said you might board it out, because there will be some matchups where it's not at its best. That's tough because we also run four Fatal Push, and now we're trying to board out 8 or so cards against control decks, which means we need 8 cards that come in against control decks. This is the best configuration I've been able to come up with where it feels like it's working the way it's supposed to.
I think that with things like Azgol, these little build-around packages are worthwhile to have in your back pocket, a concept I've been trying to solidify called Package Theory. I had a little thought I was trying to put together about Package Theory here, but basically, as long as Bankbuster, Den of the Bugbear, and Invasion of Azgol all remain solid in the metagame, I like playing them together, but those cards are kind of a package themselves, even though they are fine without each other in practice. For now, it seems to be the right amount of ability to flip the Invasion but not leaning into it too hard that compromise the rest of the deck.
I don't typically love Duress in these decks, but with the Bankbusters and Fables I think it works out. Usually I like haymakers over one-for-one stuff against control decks, but there's actually a lot of late-game value and card flow in the deck so Duress is fine there, which is good because it's usually better than Mind Rots (like Go Blank) against combo stuff. Eldest Reborn is just the biggest thing we can do with Jegantha for a five mana hammer, but I'm not married to it. Just give us Thragtusk, man.
No Liliana is to facilitate Jegantha, which I like a lot at the moment, and it seems to work well not exactly with Invasion of Azgol, but in the Invasion of Azgol deck. Kolaghan's Command over Riveteers Charm and other stuff is because I just think it's kind of a small ball format and K Command is great in that scenario. I don't really know how to explain that further.
I should probably talk about some stuff with the new set(s). Tranquil Frillback is a great catchall, not amazing but basically gives you a bigger sideboard, since you get your graveyard hate card and your life gain card and your disenchant card all in one. I don't think new Nissa does anything in Explorer because I'm not playing Fabled Passage unless I absolutely have to, but hey, maybe there's some Package Theory there with, like, Witherbloom Command or something.
As far as Lord of the Rings set, I think I like a couple of Bowmasters in Jund in Modern. Not because of the draw triggers, but just because it's an excellent way to get rid of some of the format's most annoying things, mostly Ragavan and Esper Sentinel. Great answer to those cards, plus mana dorks, looks totally awesome. Raise the Alarm plus Gut Shot already lines up really nicely against the format, so I think it's worth playing a couple, even if it's not as good as in Legacy where you just get a 4/4 and four damage in response to a Brainstorm. Not sure that there's very much else in the set for Jund, but I do think that the mono-white Samwise is getting super slept on for Modern, if that's your thing. Looks like a great add to a Wafo-Tapa style control deck (I know he's currently on Kaheera, but that style).
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Updates will continue to be sporadic, but Susie's getting older and I'm getting afforded a little more time here and there to play and write and stuff. Thanks for reading.
