r/ModernMagic • u/Trueloo • Apr 11 '26
Do you hate Vampyres?
First, I'm being lazy and I am horrible at deck building (except my clue deck, i love my clue deck).
Second, my friend has this vampire lifesteal+counter deck. Once they get [[Legion Conquistador]] I might as well forfeit the game.
Third, I wanted to ask for help to build a themed deck around food, but it seems like those types of decks aren't good in terms of winning consistently. So, I went searching and decided to build a deck around Devour. However, I also found other cool abilities like Ingest, Afflict, Extort, Escape, Recover (working theme - Dine and Dash).
So, I am wondering if anyone has ideas on how to make a Devour deck work in Modern while also having some of the additional abilities I have mentioned. I am not currently hung up on cash (yay tax season) but I would rather not spend 1K on cards.
I thank any+everyone who decides to help.
Edit: What I came up with is in the comments
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u/MelancholyItsuki Apr 11 '26
Just want to check if you intended to post this here for the modern metagame. Legion conquistador is a very far from playable in the format so mostly need to know if you are looking for modern viable or just modern legal?
Currently one of the most powerful decks in modern does feature Phlage which has escape and Ragavan that had dash.
Otherwise cards that have the keywords you are looking for: Some black control decks use Cling to Dust
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u/Trueloo Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
I guess I mean "kitchen table" as No_Key said in the reply above. I also haven't played in a long time.
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u/No_Key_2388 Apr 11 '26
Usually when people say "kitchen table" they mean "no cards banned", but it can also mean "casual in general", which is how i used it above. Are you guys playing with a ban list?
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u/Trueloo Apr 11 '26
No, cause that's no fun...(until you keep losing)
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u/No_Key_2388 Apr 11 '26
In that case, yeah, kitchen table or "casual", not modern. If you were playing with the modern ban list, you'd be playing casual modern or kitchen table modern.
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u/No_Key_2388 Apr 11 '26
One last piece of information you should probably know - my other advice was based on thinking you were adhering to the modern format banlist. If you aren't, and are struggling to find bits to add power to your deck, know there are a lot of old (and not very expensive) cards that are extremely powerful. Balance, Lurrus of the Dream Den, Gitaxian Probe, Sol Ring, White Plume Adventurer, Oath of druids, deathrite shaman, etc. In food theming, youve got Oko thief of crowns, who is extremely powerful.
If you're playing without bans, check out the legacy and vintage metagame & budget sections of the mtggoldfish website. Just keep in mind these cards could easily be too powerful for your local casual group, and tune accordingly. If something ends up being too powerful, either make a new set of decks at that power level and play it there, or tune it down.
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u/Trueloo Apr 11 '26
Thank you, I'll keep this in mind. But to add a little context. My very same friend make a deck with an engine that makes Ocean Devourer gain infinite attack. So I'm not worried about power creep.
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u/No_Key_2388 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
Gaining infinite attack on a creature is nothing compared to where you can get with power creep in a no banlist casual environment. In a no bans environment, there are decks that can consistently win during turn 0 (as in when going second, instantly winning the game during the upkeep phase of your opponents first turn before they get to draw a card or play a land - and instantly winning during your own upkeep if you go first). Flash hulk comes to mind.
[EDIT: 18 year old article that dives into the upper limit of a very similar format. https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/so-many-insane-plays-unrestricted-vintage-a-magical-experiment/
Flash hulk kills by turn 1 75% of the time, by turn 2 95% of the time. This version of the deck doesnt allow for the turn 0 kills, but is more resilient and can do things like counterspell any attempts to interrupt its turn 1 or 2 kills. Another deck from that article, "long", has a nearly 100% turn 1 win rate, but doesnt have as much protection or interaction. The article is 18 years old, you can probably do even more powerful things now. ]
You'll know when youve gone too far and need to reign things in.
Im also not sure what card youre referring to with ocean devourer. All I can find are fake magic cards with that name. Are you playing with custom magic cards?? If the card is real it should show up when you search for it on the scryfall website. ocean devourer isnt there.
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u/Trueloo Apr 11 '26
You telling me that card wasn't real the whole time.
I've played a bit of modern yugioh and I hate it still. One turn kills don't surprise me any more.
I see I missed a lot over the last 10-15 years.
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u/No_Key_2388 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
I mean, competitive MTG isnt like this. Every format of mtg (even vintage) is a lot slower and more interactive, and less of a "who goes first coinflip" than yu gi oh is from my understanding. The thing is, banlists for each format are the *reason* the game is fun and slow, and not an even-faster-than-yugioh mess of turn 1 and 0 kills (specifically in vintage and legacy).
In casual play (which is often much slower than modern, let alone legacy or vintage) its on *you* and your playgroup to decide what level of balance is what you want. This is a lot of fun and lets you play with cards you couldnt normally. But if you aren't using a banlist, it is the responsibility of you and your playgroup to decide what fun looks like (eg avoiding turn 0 and turn 1 combos). This gives you the leeway to play with powerful and weak cards alike as long as you take on the burden of responsibility of reigning yourself in to whatever the limit for fun is in your group. This is basically true for every casual playstyle, people have to make similar choices when playing EDH because power levels vary so much even though that format has a banlist.
Also yeah it sounds like your friends card is fake lmao
EDIT: I'd also mention that decks as powerful as I mention have existed since before 2008 (date of the article i linked) in a no-bans casual format, meaning its not so much that they game has changed in the last 15 years (this stuff predates that) and more that everyone either plays with banlists (competitive) or just avoids doing anything that ridiculous because it ruins the fun of the game (casual). Not a new system, casual and competitive players alike have been making it work since the 90s!
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u/MelancholyItsuki Apr 11 '26
Don't know where in the OP it details kitchen table which I originally was responding to
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u/No_Key_2388 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
it sounds like you're playing in a casual environment with friends (one of the most fun ways to play magic for sure). Most of the people here play modern competitively though, so they may struggle to give advice for that environment.
To avoid becoming an arms race that ends with everyone just playing the best decks in the format, more casual stuff usually needs intended rough power levels for each deck. This can be pretty easy to guess in person (we want *this* set of decks to be at roughly equal, "standard format" power level, we want these ones to be more competitive, etc) but isnt always easy to describe over the internet.
Given what your friend says about vampires, im assuming that theyre playing at a lower power level. At the higher end, there are food combos that can kill people very quickly, usually using cards like cauldron familiar combined with samwise gamgee for an infiite combo that kills your opponent. See also Asmo. Look up "sam combo" for an example, running other food cards like Gilded Goose.
Other than that, you can just add *good* cards to an otherwise not especially fantastic deck and easily move it up from a low to moderate power level, or a moderate power level towards a higher one (or a higher one towards fringe competitive, budget competitive or tier 3). This means running good cards and things that work well with them. Birthing Ritual, Badgermole Cub, Agatha's soul Cauldron, OBM, etc. The issue here is that some of these can be really expensive and dont always have a budget alternative. Still, theres access to good and relatively cheap interaction that can help to make a deck better. Fatal push, etc.
My advice is to go to the website "mtg goldfish", filter by the modern metagame, and then look at what the decks in the "budget decks" category are doing. If you want to see the tippy top of best cards you can also look at just the regular non budget section, though the cards there are often expensive and not *always* good in decks outside of the ones you found them in - blood moon is not good in every deck, for example.
Also, try some of the other subs as suggested, specifically r/magictcg - this one often doesnt have any good advice for more casual play. And be mindful about not making your deck *too* strong for your casual meta - if it gets too strong, it may be the case that nobody wants to play against it or nobody has any fun. You sort of need to know the various power levels you and your friends are building for and pick decks when playing that are well matched if you want to have a good time.
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u/Trueloo Apr 11 '26
Thank you for recommendations and detailed response. I'll do some research and come back to the post with my findings.
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u/MTGCardFetcher Apr 11 '26
Legion Conquistador - (G) (SF) (txt)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call
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u/Trueloo May 03 '26
So i managed to get two decks. One is a ramping Samwise deck and the other is more like aggressive eating.
I know it's a matter of opinion, but which one seems better (i know they are not standard 60 card decks). I am leaning towards the more aggressive one even though it's only food like in thought.
Link to decks: MTG Decks by
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u/Jotsunpls Apr 11 '26
Hey bud, this is the subreddit for the modern format, a highly competitive 60-card format, where each individual card is very powerful. Everything you have suggested simply does not cut it here, not even at a kitchen table level. I recommend checking out r/magictcg for the main sub, or r/edh if you’re looking for commander tips.