MTGNexus

Background--

Okay so I've been brainstorming this Kenrith deck with persist combo as the wincon and it's not very smooth from a card advantage perspective--Kenrith is just kinda bad if you don't feed him, and I don't want to get on that Seedborn Muse bus.

I played abzan Coco for years in modern and really like it, would try to capture some of that magic of bashing face with 2-for-1 3/2s while threatening to combo out.

So I had an idea when I started noticing a lot of the enablers are multicolored. We have:

sac outlets Persist enablers Persisters

Some things to think about:
1) What does a ramp package look like, assuming you're willing to bend the Niv theme little but not go full goodstuff?
Stuff like Bloom Tender, Deathrite Shaman, Faeburrow Elder, Birds of Paradise, Growth Spiral?
Maybe I play a Cryptolith Rite / Earthcraft combo?

2) How many of each type do I want? Like obviously Grazing Kelpie is trash.

3) Are there any must have multicolored spells ? Seems like a lot of good ones like Voidslime / Drown in the Loch / Decisive Denial. But it also feels super easy to go overboard with the curve.

Any other thoughts?

I think you will want to make a lot of your support spells multicolored. If Niv isn't drawing you multiple cards you might as well be playing Kenrith.

1. Ramp - maybe Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner? Probably Binding the Old Gods?
2. How many tutors will your run? Fiend Artisan seems super good.
3. Multicolored spells: Assassin's Trophy, Anguished Unmaking, Merciless Eviction, Supreme Verdict, Kolaghan's Command, Bedevil - you see where I am going. You could probably make all of your removal multicolor (though I would probably keep StP). There are a lot of counterspells too. Card draw is tougher. Escape to the Wilds? Steam Augury? Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths ?

My concern is that this will look like a Niv deck that squeezed in some persist combos.

Definitely look into Birthing Pod and Vannifar; They'll let you churn into your combo pieces and double-dip on your persisters.

My Niv-Mizzet Reborn deck pre-Jegantha, the Wellspring ran a small persist-combo package. Master Biomancer is a sweet enabler that you missed. I only ran two sac outlets, but Grimgrin, Corpse-Born was always my third choice if I decided to run more.

Saffi Eriksdotter + Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero with a sac outlet generates infinite deaths and ETBs for your entire board - good with the persisters that have ETBs, your sac outlets that have relevant sac text (Maw of the Obzedat), as well as Niv and any other normal ETBs you run. They help protect your important pieces as well. If you run a lot of mana dorks and haste enablers (Chainer, Nightmare Adept, Rhythm of the Wild, Samut, Voice of Dissent) it's also infinite mana.

Saffi seams so good with with Niv.

Yeah saffi is great. The problem I'm seeing is that drift into blinking niv happens pretty easy and the guild colored cards are fairly homogenizing.

pokken wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Yeah saffi is great. The problem I'm seeing is that drift into blinking niv happens pretty easy and the guild colored cards are fairly homogenizing.

That's the problem with Niv
But the mitigating factor is you still need a way to win so why not persist combo

Dunharrow wrote: ↑

2 years ago

pokken wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Yeah saffi is great. The problem I'm seeing is that drift into blinking niv happens pretty easy and the guild colored cards are fairly homogenizing.

That's the problem with Niv
But the mitigating factor is you still need a way to win so why not persist combo

It is a pretty cool thing that so many of the persist enablers are multi colored. there're multicolored ones of every piece.