I love playing Hatebears type decks and I can definitely say that Death and Taxes has gotten a lot better with the addition of Stoneforge Mystic. Equipping an Archon of Emeria or some other bear with a sword really helps close the game out faster, because you are right, how does it win with a bunch of 2/2s? The answer is the old "disruption PLUS a clock". Stoneforge and the equipment gives this deck access to a clock it hasn't had in the past.
Hardest part of playing Merfolk against your friends is hearing all that stuff like "you have Vials, they are like $$$, no wonder you win" and "stop tapping my shit" and "you have a counterspell, don't you? Do you? Ok I play xxx; [mana pierce]; you son of a peach!". All of that while they are running Faithless Lootings, Ugins etc. It is tough to win, even tougher to lose.
@@RIP_Texpert yeah same here, I have some mono B aggro, white knights, some goofy Sunforger decks for fun, Izzet Prowess for killing and UW Control for mental breaking.
i never understood the blue hate yeah blue has many control thinks but white has as many control things and even easy wincon cards and you dont loose cards
I randomly got recommended your channel and even though I don't play modern, the videos are great quality and you have a great sense of humor. so I watch.
Humans is actually quite difficult. The first three turns have a bunch of possibilities and basically determine the outcome, and using meddling mage effectively is tricky.
In today's episode, Nikachu reveals that magic is in fact a very hard game if you are very bad at magic. Stay tuned for next weeks episode, where Nikachu explains that cards are very expensive, if you don't have an income. Don't forget to check out last weeks episode, wherein Nikachu explains that meta decks are sometimes better than off meta decks.
Amulet is definitely still a challenging deck, I'd say a lot of the new support has made it much more linear though. Primarily the Dryad. It's super powerful and enables you to get kills with Valukut which is an amazing option, but I'd definitely say it felt more challenging before things like field of the dead, dryad, and the castle were printed. I like your assessment as always, keep up the good work!
Amulet is definitely still challenging, and I honestly think the new additions (not fotd lol) have given the deck more lines of play increasing it’s complexity , it is more consistent Thanks to urza saga , I play the version with karn just because i like it being a toolbox deck and karn adds threats and Increases game 1 wins
Control got muuuuuch easier when it essentially became a super friends deck, when it was just draw go with colonnades that shit was so difficult to navigate in some matchups (rip that deck)
@@EvanPlaysPc control is hard because you need to know what you have to control to begin with, so not only do you need to know your own deck, you need to know everyone else's deck
@@RIP_Texpert kinda. D&T is a tempo (aggro control) deck. You have fast creatures that delay or nulify your opponent's plays while hitting him. But when people talk about Control, they're generally talking about Gandalf decks like Azorius Control which win condition is either eliminating your resources and putting you so behind and finally hitting you with some creature/token when you don't have any resources to deal with it
I've been playing D&T for more than 5 years and I can confirm that it's the hardest to drive because the deck doesn't have a line of play. You can see it from my YT channel
@@toubeelo1979 Yeah the title is like "what's the hardest deck to play" but then the scale is all about the ability to get free-wins so that felt weird lol
Whoa, no control? I'm far from being an experienced player, but control always seemed like one of the most difficult decks to pilot imo. If you don't know the meta and what to counter, you're screwed. Should you counter an earlier threat and gain some tempo? Or save your counters for a finisher? Bad judgments can lead to your opponent picking up too much pace and you may be doomed. You may be dealing alright with earlier threats, gaining some room to breathe, commit your mana on a PW in an apparently safe, empty board and out of nowhere your opponent pulls a combo out of their ass and fucks you instantly.
I dont have control on the list because most of their cards are really powerful. You could make an argument for Jeskai Control because Bolt and Helix doesn't kill everything.
Storm only really pilots itself against decks that have 0 interaction, and where you have gifts in your hand. When playing into interaction, which Id say is 4/5 games, the deck really requires a lot of player agency.
I play a good amount of dnt, and I have to say that it is true that a deck have almost no free wins, but it has some. Some creature decks, like humans, are very soft to t2 mystic for example. Arbiter and a couple of gq can be devastating for some decks that has low land count.
Hey Nikachu! My commenters on youtube have told me I should ask you to be in your morning show. They say that someone asks about Hardened Scales every other day and I am quite good at the deck!
As a modern storm player we really don’t do that pile for gifts 95% of the time it's probably closer to 80-90% of the time thanks to game 2-3 if we actually keep it in or if we are casting a second copy
i get that storm wins when you cast gifts ungiven with 3 floating mana + a bear in play but i personally have found it to be a really difficult deck to play. Gifts piles are a real pain when you dont have a bear in play, not to mention mulligan and sideboard decisions based on matchups as well as knowing when to cycle manamorphose to get a hit.
I know basically nothing about the modern metagame, but ur commentary is literally my favorite of any magic channel. Completely hilarious! Especially when ur roasting something
If you make a follow up to this video, you should talk about Goblins. I know it's not a tier 1 deck, but it is deceptively complicated to play and I'm curious to hear your opinion on it!
I’ve been playing D&T for more than 5 years (You can see it from my YT channel) and I can confirm that it's the hardest to drive because the deck doesn't have a line of play. 👍🏻
i want to point out two big thing with hard decks: deckbuilding and mulligan. - some decks are 75 +/- 5 cards to build of. jund has its main shell easy to pick up (4 goyf, 4 liliana, 3 w&6) and only a few moveing slots, other decks are so much harder to build (like d&t) - some decks are easy to muligan (tron) where you know what to look for a starter hand, as the deck has only one main plan (win fast, grind, combo) other decks are much more rely on what could be the next 2-3 turn draws, opponents plays and so on. i had not have played with amulet since the driad got printed, but without valakut and field of the dead, it was like a math problem to figure out what to do. counting mana, operating with colors (enough green, blue) when to combo, when just grind, and the hardest was pact (single ghost quarter or filed of ruin and the game is ower). im not a midrange player for a reason. midrange is the deck of decisions. win or lose with jund could rely on a thoughtseize decision - when to play? turn1 or turn2; what to discard? count every outputs of attaks (i will newer forget when Reid Duke was playing on a gp, got behind agains an abzant combo, and the correct choise which he made was to attack with tarmo and ooze, to force a block as in two turns he could race the opponent) grixis death shadow is like a midrange deck but worst. its like juggling but with one hand! creating big creatures while sacrificing own life to get ahead is a line dance. one bad decision and its ower. (there is the small window for situations. affinity was easy to play, but mirror was a horror story! also uw control mirror - but these are just situations and machups, nut the difficulties of the decks)
As a long time DnT player in modern and legacy, I appreciate the pat on the back 😘 Never underestimate a flickerwhisp. I'm convinced it's the best card in mtg
Cool video! I don't play modern, it seems too much complex and I would need to come to know hundreds of cards, but I fell in love with Death's Shadow and Death and Taxes on Historic. The two decks are so much fun!
i can assure you it does not. If they can land an Amulet T1 and I can't find removal for it, it's probably going to be gg for me. Things like Archon and Apparition have helped a bit, but it's really not hard for them to make enough mana to not care about Arbiter, and in the worst case scenario, they win by beating you down with an overpriced Collosal Dreadmaw
I've been playing D&T for more than 5 years and I can confirm that it's the hardest to drive because the deck doesn't have a line of play. You can see it from my YT channel
In a large part thanks to you and Dev [SBMTG], I finally bought into Modern via MTGO w/ a semi-optional BW Smallpox deck (no LOTV, TS, Tomb or Fetches). I have only goldfished at present to get used to the MTGO interface, but I would put Smallpox in the clunky category. It is so slow and durdely beyond belief. I still have no idea how Flankattack 5-0 in a league with Smallpox! Yet, I *love* the fact that it is slow and durdely, however with a number of really good modal cards e.g. Kaya's Guile, Collective Brutality, etc, yet with what feels like the slowest wincons.
as a longtime taxes player who has been kinda been in the process of dropping the deck since uro was printed, that takedown hit me in the feels. That deck was so fun, but it just isn't getter better as fast as the meta is advancing in power level.
The deck is great! It got a lot of upgrades over the past 2 years (giver, Yorion, apparition, Stoneforge unban, archon of Emeria) it’s just hard to pilot.
Piloted u/w spirits at the scg iq back in 2019 and went 3/3 was 3/2 going into 6. However prowess was not my friend that day. This video is v accurate on how you play it lol. Playin bant sf these days 😤
I would add some decks are harder to play because they require extensive deck knowledge to win with. This is true of all decks but more true for discard and counter spell decks.
You should definitely do another video. What about Ponza, Izzet Prowes, UW Control and many others? Sorry, I haven't read all 285 comments if someone has already suggested this!
@@NikachuMTG But you haven’t talked about “hardest to play” yet or included Spirits & DnT in the same video! My favorite decks to play. Spirits might be more of a “fragile” but free wins deck perhaps? Everything dies to Lava Dart 😔
I lived in Japan for four years and I never figured out how to use those toilets. The only time I had to use one was when I had a uh emergency. I got into the bathroom pulled my pants down and sat on it like I was about to ride a horse into the sunset.
Lived in China for 6 months and have travelled to Japan 5 times. I had occasion to need a squat toilet on a couple of occasions in China; just once in Japan on a train to Nikko Strong leg muscles and good balance is crucial, and remembering to pull your trousers and pants *forward*
@@broomybroomybroomy the thing with bogles is that you need to know what enchantments are more important than others, what enchantments to you have in your deck to begin with, also when to kill stuff off and if you need to kill said thing off to begin with, you need to know when to swing and when to hold back, also sideboarding makes it even more complex, what do you bring in, what do you take out, when to you play your sideboard cards, will playing them interfear with your plans, what do you even have in the sideboard, every deck in modern is hard to play of you go for an in depth approach
@@broomybroomybroomy burn has more dupe cards, 3 damage 1 cost spells and mountains are 3/4 of the deck, it's no longer a game of "which of these spells do I bring out first" because it doesn't matter at all
Wait, did you just call Jund CLUNKY and then not put it in the CLUNKY tier? Did you also just describe Merfolk in the same way you described Death and Taxes and then not rank them along the same tier?
I guess Delver decks are more like "the stars need to allign" to win so it's not in this list ? xD It's a very polarized deck for sure, some games it can win through whatever the opponent does and some games you feel like you can try for 20 turns straight and you're still not getting anywhere. The bad thing about it, is that when the deck does well other tempo decks would do as well and most of them would be ok versus some things this deck would be bad against. What can I say ? It's hard to go under other people's strategies when all you have are 1 mana 3/2's and soft counterspells :/
Mono Blue Tron is one of the hardest decks to play. It has some free wins with turn 3 Wurmcoil but in most of them you have to fight hard for the victory.
If amulet titan is on the list with the given reasoning Neoform sholld be as well. In Amulet most decisions that arnt base patterns can be learnt by goldfishing or asking what manacollor or lifetotal do i need to survive. The complications only affect very interaktive matchups and under those conditions Neoform is in my opinion even harder to play. If the rules of this video say that a deck is excluded if after the base patterns are understood a deck isnt hard Amulet shouldnt be on this list at all because the complicated part of amulet is that there are many some times not obvious base patterns. I think Amulet isnt the easiest deck but it gets (in my opinion) disqualified by the rules.
Every deck is learned by recognizing patterns. What makes Amulet Titan difficult is that the patterns change based on a number of factors and the deck has a Toolbox quality that means your approach will change based on the opponent. Case in point: I was playing against an 8 rack player at an FNM years ago and my go to line is Khalni Garden and Vesuva to protect against Liliana and Innocent Blood. It’s not differential equations but every decision tree opens up the possibility for a mistake. Do you always transmute Tolaria West for Cavern in control matchups? It’s the most fun and the biggest headache I’ve had playing magic.
@@patrickmchugh4616 that is right but the point i wanted to make is if you take the base patterns out of the equasion (like what can I archive by searching something) the part left is figguring out what I need to win. Figguring that out is easy (in your exapple having another creature against edict effects. Getting there is the hard part but that are base patterns witch by the rules of the video are not to be considered. What you need to search to get with given resources a certain tesult can be prakticed without an opponent and is therefore in my opinion a base pattern. If your point is that you dont consider that the basics of the deck then yes it is copmlikated but i cant see an argument why that decisions are not a core of the deck that is not to be considered by the rules.
Not sure I agree Hammer Time is complicated. About as complicated as affinity. It is more complicated to play against it. I guess it is harder to pilot than Merfolk, which is really just Lords.deck. BR Vial Goblins is really complicated to win with, and if it had a better reputation, would be piloted by more competent pilots and be winning a lot more tourneys. Unfortunately, years of 8Whack made the deck the go to for beginners trying to jump into Modern without playing Burn, and the reputation unfairly gets applied to a deck that plays completely differently. I seem to remember a video of you playing against Jim Davis. I'll have to go find that. I'm not sure I watched it.
I dont know amulet doesnt seem that complicated to me, granted i only picked it up after dryad came out, but its rather easy to play once you know how the stack works. Old school affinity seemed way harder to me, guess im not good with aggro decks, cause I was also able to pick up KCI rather easily.
@@SerafimGuigo faeries is a control deck with faerie cards as the win con. That's not hard to pilot, that's knowing things like card advantage and what to counter IE knowing the meta (which is an important skill and equally as hard as mastering a complex deck). This list is about decks that require deep knowledge of your own deck to win (because they're complex or slightly underpowered or very synergistic). Faeries requires deep knowledge of the meta. Different horse for a different race.
@@claytonmauldin1113 unpowered and synergistic are the definitions of Faeries, come one. Last time the deck got a good faerie besides Brazen Borrower was, let me think, Lorwyn. A thousand years and power creeps ago.
@@claytonmauldin1113 ty! That makes alot of sense. Personnaly i think faeries is one of the hard decks but looking at it this way it makes alot of sense as to why it woudnt be. Ill look into it!
Sorry but as a core storm player.. i find it storm extremely resilient. Just the opposite... For the reason you mentioned, somehow you can get through tons of hate. Grapeshot, empty and aria require different hate, so is difficult to shut it down for good
Game 1 storm is just unga bunga free win, games 2 and 3 are some kind of fucked up rocket science and everything you know about the game just goes completely out the window. Literally half of everyone's sideboard constitutes some kind of storm hate and you have to weigh what gifts bundles you need, what win conditions you can/can't use (baral aggro time?), can you even actually run gifts ungiven or do you need to swap draw packages, what draw packages do you even use, 1 PIF or 2, what do you do vs leyline of sanctity, and what the everloving fuck do you do when that person with leylines is playing tron. You're not even playing the same game half the time after game one, and often times you won't even recognize whatever abortion your opponent is playing and sometimes decks get so warped that even your opponent has no clue what anyone's playing.
As a D&T Player, I think Merfolk is the more complicated, at least white got some removal, Path, Winds of abandon, even declaration in stone, don't know how many times have win with 3/1 flyers or blink effects to evade removal. And some players just don't know how to play against Leonin Arbiter or tax effects In general. Still, love the video! Be safe people!
I've been playing D&T for more than 5 years and I can confirm that it's the hardest to drive because the deck doesn't have a line of play. You can see it from my YT channel 👍🏻
Hello Nikachu, a recent, but loyal follower here. Why do you say Jund is a toolbox deck? I have always thought that toolboxes are decks that have some engine to search for answers for particular situations. Jund is about attrition as you said, but they have no way to tutor, they rely on winning the topdeck war as their cards as you also correctly stated, are individually high quality and hardly irrelevant. I believe decks like birthing pod, amulet titan (thanks to tolaria west + summoners pact), and maybe something like pauper's tortured existence are toolboxes, but not Jund.
Maybe I'm misrepresenting the usage of this term (along with other people) but im referring to how Jund has a wide variety of cards to build their deck; even if they cannot tutor for them. Many decks like Humans or Burn are very stock, it's the same 72/75 over and over again. But Jund's spell suite can change a lot pending the metagame given they have a large toolbox of choices to choose from.
@@NikachuMTG I see what you mean. So toolbox in this context is: "A deck with not such a big core, that allows multiple flexslots". Yeah definitely human would not be one of those, as all the slots are locked, and if you change them the deck becomes worse.
as a jund player it's toolbox like you said but it's honestly more of a non blue control deck. tons of toolboxing/tempoing, and lots of removals, and disruption and unlike blue it's not very forgiving and has zero margin for error where as blue they got more leeway when screwing up which is why I always say blues a zero skill color lol; since it's removal counter spells are 1 size fits all removal and jund and mardu control which I play have to pick and choose a balance of removal for specific card types.
I know they're not exactly the most played decks, but I feel like Niv Miz with their Bring to Lights (while also being clunky) should be on the list. Also, Kiki-Chord is REAL tough to play, hardest deck in modern imo, depending on the flavour. Soulherder decks are pretty similar in this regard too. I realise they're not the most popular and that's probably why they're not on the list, but they're probably as popular Merfolk :P Sorry Nikachu!
@@NikachuMTG Surprised by that. They play a lot of tutors, which generally give you a lot of options, and a lot of opportunities to make mistakes. Pretty much the same argument is made for Amulet being hard (because of the titan trigger), while getting a tonne less free wins. As always, these are just opinions though! Cool to see your list
Obviously you’ve never vialed in a arbiter and double ghost quarter and pathed you’re opponent into the stone-age. Felt like a free win to me.
exactly! And did he really say "what do you do against combo decks"? The question should be " what do combo decks do against you"
@@randoomday1520 exactly, I run arbiter and mind censor so you have to pay 2 mana to search and you can only search less than 10% of your deck
Yes to all of the above
I see you're a man of taste 🥂
I love playing Hatebears type decks and I can definitely say that Death and Taxes has gotten a lot better with the addition of Stoneforge Mystic. Equipping an Archon of Emeria or some other bear with a sword really helps close the game out faster, because you are right, how does it win with a bunch of 2/2s? The answer is the old "disruption PLUS a clock". Stoneforge and the equipment gives this deck access to a clock it hasn't had in the past.
Hardened scales is like "How does this deck win? Oh wait, I think I've won"
Yeah, that's a good one.
Without mox opal how does it work? All i have seen hardenscale do without opal is gettin run over (ok with a small sample size but stil)
At the same time.."Oh I could´ve won the last turn!"
Opponents baffled.
@@seriour Mr Hardened Scales himself enters the chat ;)
Nikachu: Merfolk has no free wins
Taxes players after seeing an opponent play merfolk: Oh shit oh shit oh shit
Hardest part of playing Merfolk against your friends is hearing all that stuff like "you have Vials, they are like $$$, no wonder you win" and "stop tapping my shit" and "you have a counterspell, don't you? Do you? Ok I play xxx; [mana pierce]; you son of a peach!". All of that while they are running Faithless Lootings, Ugins etc. It is tough to win, even tougher to lose.
This is why I play tier 3 or 4 decks, I play kci less kci, counterspell affinity, and bridge less lantern control
@@RIP_Texpert yeah same here, I have some mono B aggro, white knights, some goofy Sunforger decks for fun, Izzet Prowess for killing and UW Control for mental breaking.
Mana Pierce? Lol
@@Generic42
« Counter target preferably-not-creature spell unless its controller pays 2.5 »
The old classic
i never understood the blue hate
yeah blue has many control thinks
but white has as many control things and even easy wincon cards and you dont loose cards
I love how the description of "worst win condition in the game" is literally just describing basic gameplay mechanics hahaha
If you’re playing a fair creature deck, you’re playing limited winconditions in a constructed world... FeelsBadman
I randomly got recommended your channel and even though I don't play modern, the videos are great quality and you have a great sense of humor. so I watch.
You should start playing modern!
Humans is actually quite difficult. The first three turns have a bunch of possibilities and basically determine the outcome, and using meddling mage effectively is tricky.
In today's episode, Nikachu reveals that magic is in fact a very hard game if you are very bad at magic. Stay tuned for next weeks episode, where Nikachu explains that cards are very expensive, if you don't have an income. Don't forget to check out last weeks episode, wherein Nikachu explains that meta decks are sometimes better than off meta decks.
I appreciate that this man always takes the time to like our comments. It makes me feel really special
You guys are special!
You gotta remember he almost quit until we all went "WE NEED OUR MERFOLK"
It's not special though, he hearts every comment. Hell, he'll probably heart this one within 5mins.
@@a_fuckin_spacemarine7514 because he reads them all and he hurts them to let you know that he read it
The hardest part of playing KCI is finding a working time machine to play it
lmao
@@NikachuMTG you could've begin with second breakfast, KCI eggs, KCI Emrakul and finish with how banned Mox Opal opens KCI again
No it's knowing the 2 thousand combos
@@RIP_Texpert two thousand and two
@@cbrsdf1 there's actually 2,613 if you count each copy of each card
Amulet is definitely still a challenging deck, I'd say a lot of the new support has made it much more linear though. Primarily the Dryad. It's super powerful and enables you to get kills with Valukut which is an amazing option, but I'd definitely say it felt more challenging before things like field of the dead, dryad, and the castle were printed. I like your assessment as always, keep up the good work!
Amulet is definitely still challenging, and I honestly think the new additions (not fotd lol) have given the deck more lines of play increasing it’s complexity , it is more consistent Thanks to urza saga , I play the version with karn just because i like it being a toolbox deck and karn adds threats and Increases game 1 wins
Could you imagine death and taxes with lords? Ha! Nightmares... I’m kind of surprised that control isn’t on here in some form.
Taxes IS control
Control got muuuuuch easier when it essentially became a super friends deck, when it was just draw go with colonnades that shit was so difficult to navigate in some matchups (rip that deck)
@@EvanPlaysPc control is hard because you need to know what you have to control to begin with, so not only do you need to know your own deck, you need to know everyone else's deck
@@RIP_Texpert kinda. D&T is a tempo (aggro control) deck. You have fast creatures that delay or nulify your opponent's plays while hitting him. But when people talk about Control, they're generally talking about Gandalf decks like Azorius Control which win condition is either eliminating your resources and putting you so behind and finally hitting you with some creature/token when you don't have any resources to deal with it
I happen to play two of these decks lol , taxes and merfolk. Great video! Hilarious, keep up the great content!!
@5:07 What about wilt leaf liege? Maybe it's not played anymore but that was my finisher in when I played g/w hate bears.
Clunky card imo, though it is strong if you can get it out.
nikachu: how does this deck wins??
death and taxes: *debt*
I've been playing D&T for more than 5 years and I can confirm that it's the hardest to drive because the deck doesn't have a line of play. You can see it from my YT channel
"How the F does this deck win?" As a D&T player, I feel that sometimes....
However, Mirren Crusader does say I win vs Rock G2 🤷
I'm not sure to grasp the actual tier-list scale, but great commentary nonetheless. Really entertaining :D
Yeah, I was confused too 😅
@@toubeelo1979 Yeah the title is like "what's the hardest deck to play" but then the scale is all about the ability to get free-wins so that felt weird lol
@@UTUB2kholle Yeah. I was like, "But, if I don't know how to play Amulet Titan, then it's not a free win?" I don't know. Lol.
I’m a storm player and your analogy is absolutely correct.
What tragic event made you stray onto this self-destructive path?
@@benyseus6325 the unnecessary banning of splinter twin.
Whoa, no control? I'm far from being an experienced player, but control always seemed like one of the most difficult decks to pilot imo. If you don't know the meta and what to counter, you're screwed. Should you counter an earlier threat and gain some tempo? Or save your counters for a finisher? Bad judgments can lead to your opponent picking up too much pace and you may be doomed. You may be dealing alright with earlier threats, gaining some room to breathe, commit your mana on a PW in an apparently safe, empty board and out of nowhere your opponent pulls a combo out of their ass and fucks you instantly.
I dont have control on the list because most of their cards are really powerful. You could make an argument for Jeskai Control because Bolt and Helix doesn't kill everything.
coolest streamer/youtuber ever. Would love a sequal to this video
Oh hey now I feel less bad for losing all the time with Shadow and d&t.
Mad love for that mushihimesama 虫姫さま shoutout. Shoot em up genre is kind of dying glad someone found the gem
Where was this when I decided to bring storm to my second ever modern tournament?
Storm really just pilots itself 4/5 times
Storm only really pilots itself against decks that have 0 interaction, and where you have gifts in your hand. When playing into interaction, which Id say is 4/5 games, the deck really requires a lot of player agency.
@@anteater2083 I took storm to an SCG during the phoenix spring, and I went 2-3 drop.
@@wetwillyis_1881 hate pheonix as a storm player tbh
@@velphidrow -someone who doesn’t play storm/doesn’t play it well
Opened 4 packs of timespiral while watching this video, got a old bordered chalice of the void and a tarmoghoyph. You're good luck
it was destiny!
Woah I saw someone commented on a past video to do this and you followed thru for the fans! Bravo 👏
I did!
"Moo-She-He-May-Sah-Mah"
It literally translates out to "Insect Princess" as your character is a girl that rides around on a giant stag beetle.
I think I need this tier but with every deck in modern.
Thank you for making quality mtg content! Nice too see something other than mtgo matches
You’re welcome!
I play a good amount of dnt, and I have to say that it is true that a deck have almost no free wins, but it has some. Some creature decks, like humans, are very soft to t2 mystic for example. Arbiter and a couple of gq can be devastating for some decks that has low land count.
As an Aggro-Player, i can confirm that T3 Batterskull is basically a free win.
That said, i shouldn't play Zoo in 2021.
@@linkXness that's correct, you should play it in 2022 (and possibly beyond) ;)
@@vintagebeyblade6477 true. What build are you on currently?
Hey Nikachu! My commenters on youtube have told me I should ask you to be in your morning show. They say that someone asks about Hardened Scales every other day and I am quite good at the deck!
Hi, MrSeri! DM me on twitter or Facebook and I’ll get you on!
@@NikachuMTG Admin of the Hardened Scales Discord here. Very much disappointed that you didn't include our counters. Shame, my boy.
If you ever need a Soul Sisters person on your show, Nikachu, I'm your guy. 😂
dude i cracked my ass of with this video greatings from Brazil Nikaaaaa
Greetings from Canada!
Thanks you for this video, i wanted to strat modern but i didn't know the deck to pick for my small brain.
I love your channel
As a modern storm player we really don’t do that pile for gifts 95% of the time it's probably closer to 80-90% of the time thanks to game 2-3 if we actually keep it in or if we are casting a second copy
DnT is an extremely hard deck to play, save for those few times when Leonin Arbiter and Ghost Quarter do their thing. In those cases it's a free win.
i get that storm wins when you cast gifts ungiven with 3 floating mana + a bear in play but i personally have found it to be a really difficult deck to play. Gifts piles are a real pain when you dont have a bear in play, not to mention mulligan and sideboard decisions based on matchups as well as knowing when to cycle manamorphose to get a hit.
All the hate cards printed in the last couple of years makes it really hard to succeed with storm. That's the main issue IMHO.
Jund's biggest weakness is that there are too many sideboard options.
I know basically nothing about the modern metagame, but ur commentary is literally my favorite of any magic channel. Completely hilarious! Especially when ur roasting something
this feels like watching one of those classic jerry seinfeld comedy rants..
very epic! x'D
As a taxes main I died at your commentary on taxes. Made my day lol.
Nearly spat out my morning tea when I suddenly saw mushihimesama gameplay on an mtg video. The merfolk master is also a danmaku master apparently lol
Great list, you NAILED DnT. It’s one of the competitive builds I pilot and constantly ask myself the same thing, but it’s fun to play.
The Storm reference was on point hahahah
If you make a follow up to this video, you should talk about Goblins. I know it's not a tier 1 deck, but it is deceptively complicated to play and I'm curious to hear your opinion on it!
Where's counters company? There's so many combos it's the most confusing damn thing I've ever seen
I am now a Death and Taxes player, and im loving it. Really hard, but rewarding at the same time.
I’ve been playing D&T for more than 5 years (You can see it from my YT channel) and I can confirm that it's the hardest to drive because the deck doesn't have a line of play. 👍🏻
Stanislav Cifka's Pro Tour winning Eggs deck would be on this list if it wasn't banned.
It’s nice to see your channel go off Nikachu. Deserved as well as you’ve really upped your content game. Those livestreams were also a great idea!
Thanks!
Definitely want to hear you talk about Lantern, Bogles, and Urza/Whirza
Love this video! We need more of these!
i want to point out two big thing with hard decks: deckbuilding and mulligan.
- some decks are 75 +/- 5 cards to build of. jund has its main shell easy to pick up (4 goyf, 4 liliana, 3 w&6) and only a few moveing slots, other decks are so much harder to build (like d&t)
- some decks are easy to muligan (tron) where you know what to look for a starter hand, as the deck has only one main plan (win fast, grind, combo) other decks are much more rely on what could be the next 2-3 turn draws, opponents plays and so on.
i had not have played with amulet since the driad got printed, but without valakut and field of the dead, it was like a math problem to figure out what to do. counting mana, operating with colors (enough green, blue) when to combo, when just grind, and the hardest was pact (single ghost quarter or filed of ruin and the game is ower).
im not a midrange player for a reason. midrange is the deck of decisions. win or lose with jund could rely on a thoughtseize decision - when to play? turn1 or turn2; what to discard? count every outputs of attaks (i will newer forget when Reid Duke was playing on a gp, got behind agains an abzant combo, and the correct choise which he made was to attack with tarmo and ooze, to force a block as in two turns he could race the opponent)
grixis death shadow is like a midrange deck but worst. its like juggling but with one hand! creating big creatures while sacrificing own life to get ahead is a line dance. one bad decision and its ower.
(there is the small window for situations. affinity was easy to play, but mirror was a horror story! also uw control mirror - but these are just situations and machups, nut the difficulties of the decks)
As a long time DnT player in modern and legacy, I appreciate the pat on the back 😘
Never underestimate a flickerwhisp. I'm convinced it's the best card in mtg
Cool video! I don't play modern, it seems too much complex and I would need to come to know hundreds of cards, but I fell in love with Death's Shadow and Death and Taxes on Historic. The two decks are so much fun!
With my very limited playtest of 2 players I can assure DnT has free wins against Amulet Titan.
i can assure you it does not. If they can land an Amulet T1 and I can't find removal for it, it's probably going to be gg for me. Things like Archon and Apparition have helped a bit, but it's really not hard for them to make enough mana to not care about Arbiter, and in the worst case scenario, they win by beating you down with an overpriced Collosal Dreadmaw
I've been playing D&T for more than 5 years and I can confirm that it's the hardest to drive because the deck doesn't have a line of play. You can see it from my YT channel
When up against many Death Shadows matchup in the days. They Definitely are *living on the edge!*
Finally, someone properly describes DNT.
[zips piss soaked pants up]
In a large part thanks to you and Dev [SBMTG], I finally bought into Modern via MTGO w/ a semi-optional BW Smallpox deck (no LOTV, TS, Tomb or Fetches). I have only goldfished at present to get used to the MTGO interface, but I would put Smallpox in the clunky category.
It is so slow and durdely beyond belief. I still have no idea how Flankattack 5-0 in a league with Smallpox! Yet, I *love* the fact that it is slow and durdely, however with a number of really good modal cards e.g. Kaya's Guile, Collective Brutality, etc, yet with what feels like the slowest wincons.
Well, if you play enough leagues, you’ll 5-0 eventually!
Where would you put UWx Control on your list Nikachu?
In the middle of hard and easy depending on the version. I would say Jeskai versions are harder because Bolt and Helix doesn’t kill everything
as a longtime taxes player who has been kinda been in the process of dropping the deck since uro was printed, that takedown hit me in the feels. That deck was so fun, but it just isn't getter better as fast as the meta is advancing in power level.
The deck is great! It got a lot of upgrades over the past 2 years (giver, Yorion, apparition, Stoneforge unban, archon of Emeria) it’s just hard to pilot.
Piloted u/w spirits at the scg iq back in 2019 and went 3/3 was 3/2 going into 6. However prowess was not my friend that day. This video is v accurate on how you play it lol. Playin bant sf these days 😤
Jund-hammer reference is cool
I would add some decks are harder to play because they require extensive deck knowledge to win with. This is true of all decks but more true for discard and counter spell decks.
Me being a Mono Red Prowess and Dredge player...feeling pretty stupid over here now.
Coming soon Boros Blitz
Great Video pace.
Grixis - Glimpse the unthinkable thousand year storm
You should definitely do another video. What about Ponza, Izzet Prowes, UW Control and many others? Sorry, I haven't read all 285 comments if someone has already suggested this!
I’ll make another video or 2
Was a little upset about the gifts is easy part, but you saved it in the end.
Oh boy. How I love your videos and your humor! So incredibly entertaining! 😄
The analogies really make this top tier content 😂
No Lantern? AngledLuffa is defying all reason and still churning 5-0s with the archetype
Where’s that galaxy brain deck known as Tron?
Oh I just read the title my bad
To be fair there are good tron players and bad tron players.
@@davideditullio567 UW gifts ungiven tron isnt easy but it isnt very good at the moment (and has been for a while)
Calm down boys it was a joke
Is this away screaming at us ? Is like a really intense micro managing boss, and high pitch
Love this new type of video!
this is my millionth tier list video :P
@@NikachuMTG But you haven’t talked about “hardest to play” yet or included Spirits & DnT in the same video! My favorite decks to play. Spirits might be more of a “fragile” but free wins deck perhaps? Everything dies to Lava Dart 😔
I lived in Japan for four years and I never figured out how to use those toilets. The only time I had to use one was when I had a uh emergency. I got into the bathroom pulled my pants down and sat on it like I was about to ride a horse into the sunset.
Lived in China for 6 months and have travelled to Japan 5 times. I had occasion to need a squat toilet on a couple of occasions in China; just once in Japan on a train to Nikko
Strong leg muscles and good balance is crucial, and remembering to pull your trousers and pants *forward*
Don't mind the absence of Ponza, RW Prison and Goryo on the tier list, but I wanted to hear your analogy for those three, ngl
What About Mono Blue Tron? One of the hardest decks to pilot and the masters of the deck are still winning like shocktrooper.
It probably deserves to be on this list.
@@NikachuMTG Thank you 🙏
Now you have to do the counter-video of easiest decks to pilot.
Burn, number 1
Bogles
@@broomybroomybroomy the thing with bogles is that you need to know what enchantments are more important than others, what enchantments to you have in your deck to begin with, also when to kill stuff off and if you need to kill said thing off to begin with, you need to know when to swing and when to hold back, also sideboarding makes it even more complex, what do you bring in, what do you take out, when to you play your sideboard cards, will playing them interfear with your plans, what do you even have in the sideboard, every deck in modern is hard to play of you go for an in depth approach
@@RIP_Texpert all of what you just said applies to burn
@@broomybroomybroomy burn has more dupe cards, 3 damage 1 cost spells and mountains are 3/4 of the deck, it's no longer a game of "which of these spells do I bring out first" because it doesn't matter at all
Wait, did you just call Jund CLUNKY and then not put it in the CLUNKY tier? Did you also just describe Merfolk in the same way you described Death and Taxes and then not rank them along the same tier?
The fact he used a comparison to a bullet hell like Mushihimesama
I love this video
Me who built storm as my first modern deck...
happy to hear storm in this list
I guess Delver decks are more like "the stars need to allign" to win so it's not in this list ? xD
It's a very polarized deck for sure, some games it can win through whatever the opponent does and some games you feel like you can try for 20 turns straight and you're still not getting anywhere. The bad thing about it, is that when the deck does well other tempo decks would do as well and most of them would be ok versus some things this deck would be bad against.
What can I say ? It's hard to go under other people's strategies when all you have are 1 mana 3/2's and soft counterspells :/
Well, delver needs to prove it’s a deck before we discuss it in modern :P
Mono Blue Tron is one of the hardest decks to play. It has some free wins with turn 3 Wurmcoil but in most of them you have to fight hard for the victory.
If amulet titan is on the list with the given reasoning Neoform sholld be as well. In Amulet most decisions that arnt base patterns can be learnt by goldfishing or asking what manacollor or lifetotal do i need to survive. The complications only affect very interaktive matchups and under those conditions Neoform is in my opinion even harder to play. If the rules of this video say that a deck is excluded if after the base patterns are understood a deck isnt hard Amulet shouldnt be on this list at all because the complicated part of amulet is that there are many some times not obvious base patterns. I think Amulet isnt the easiest deck but it gets (in my opinion) disqualified by the rules.
Every deck is learned by recognizing patterns. What makes Amulet Titan difficult is that the patterns change based on a number of factors and the deck has a Toolbox quality that means your approach will change based on the opponent. Case in point: I was playing against an 8 rack player at an FNM years ago and my go to line is Khalni Garden and Vesuva to protect against Liliana and Innocent Blood. It’s not differential equations but every decision tree opens up the possibility for a mistake. Do you always transmute Tolaria West for Cavern in control matchups? It’s the most fun and the biggest headache I’ve had playing magic.
@@patrickmchugh4616 that is right but the point i wanted to make is if you take the base patterns out of the equasion (like what can I archive by searching something) the part left is figguring out what I need to win. Figguring that out is easy (in your exapple having another creature against edict effects. Getting there is the hard part but that are base patterns witch by the rules of the video are not to be considered. What you need to search to get with given resources a certain tesult can be prakticed without an opponent and is therefore in my opinion a base pattern. If your point is that you dont consider that the basics of the deck then yes it is copmlikated but i cant see an argument why that decisions are not a core of the deck that is not to be considered by the rules.
I'm planning on playing Soulherder when I get back into Modern, I'd guess it's on the lower end of this list
Not sure I agree Hammer Time is complicated. About as complicated as affinity. It is more complicated to play against it. I guess it is harder to pilot than Merfolk, which is really just Lords.deck.
BR Vial Goblins is really complicated to win with, and if it had a better reputation, would be piloted by more competent pilots and be winning a lot more tourneys. Unfortunately, years of 8Whack made the deck the go to for beginners trying to jump into Modern without playing Burn, and the reputation unfairly gets applied to a deck that plays completely differently.
I seem to remember a video of you playing against Jim Davis. I'll have to go find that. I'm not sure I watched it.
Living End is always like, you can always win until you cast your third living end and you did not win.
I dont know amulet doesnt seem that complicated to me, granted i only picked it up after dryad came out, but its rather easy to play once you know how the stack works. Old school affinity seemed way harder to me, guess im not good with aggro decks, cause I was also able to pick up KCI rather easily.
A people of culture, I see
Good video again! Where would you put Elves and UB Faeries at?
Not on the list.
Faeries is not on the list but Merfolk is? Sure sir, that’s accurate.
@@SerafimGuigo faeries is a control deck with faerie cards as the win con. That's not hard to pilot, that's knowing things like card advantage and what to counter IE knowing the meta (which is an important skill and equally as hard as mastering a complex deck). This list is about decks that require deep knowledge of your own deck to win (because they're complex or slightly underpowered or very synergistic). Faeries requires deep knowledge of the meta. Different horse for a different race.
@@claytonmauldin1113 unpowered and synergistic are the definitions of Faeries, come one. Last time the deck got a good faerie besides Brazen Borrower was, let me think, Lorwyn. A thousand years and power creeps ago.
@@claytonmauldin1113 ty! That makes alot of sense. Personnaly i think faeries is one of the hard decks but looking at it this way it makes alot of sense as to why it woudnt be. Ill look into it!
Sorry but as a core storm player.. i find it storm extremely resilient. Just the opposite... For the reason you mentioned, somehow you can get through tons of hate. Grapeshot, empty and aria require different hate, so is difficult to shut it down for good
But what about Treasure Hunt + Yidaro 52land? I've never won with it so it must be hard to pilot
But is there proof that it can win at all? ;)
nice vid bro... I find it full of good humor :) (lol'd @ Leonin Arbiter)
Game 1 storm is just unga bunga free win, games 2 and 3 are some kind of fucked up rocket science and everything you know about the game just goes completely out the window. Literally half of everyone's sideboard constitutes some kind of storm hate and you have to weigh what gifts bundles you need, what win conditions you can/can't use (baral aggro time?), can you even actually run gifts ungiven or do you need to swap draw packages, what draw packages do you even use, 1 PIF or 2, what do you do vs leyline of sanctity, and what the everloving fuck do you do when that person with leylines is playing tron. You're not even playing the same game half the time after game one, and often times you won't even recognize whatever abortion your opponent is playing and sometimes decks get so warped that even your opponent has no clue what anyone's playing.
As a D&T Player, I think Merfolk is the more complicated, at least white got some removal, Path, Winds of abandon, even declaration in stone, don't know how many times have win with 3/1 flyers or blink effects to evade removal. And some players just don't know how to play against Leonin Arbiter or tax effects In general. Still, love the video! Be safe people!
I've been playing D&T for more than 5 years and I can confirm that it's the hardest to drive because the deck doesn't have a line of play. You can see it from my YT channel 👍🏻
Hello Nikachu, a recent, but loyal follower here. Why do you say Jund is a toolbox deck? I have always thought that toolboxes are decks that have some engine to search for answers for particular situations. Jund is about attrition as you said, but they have no way to tutor, they rely on winning the topdeck war as their cards as you also correctly stated, are individually high quality and hardly irrelevant. I believe decks like birthing pod, amulet titan (thanks to tolaria west + summoners pact), and maybe something like pauper's tortured existence are toolboxes, but not Jund.
Maybe I'm misrepresenting the usage of this term (along with other people) but im referring to how Jund has a wide variety of cards to build their deck; even if they cannot tutor for them. Many decks like Humans or Burn are very stock, it's the same 72/75 over and over again. But Jund's spell suite can change a lot pending the metagame given they have a large toolbox of choices to choose from.
@@NikachuMTG I see what you mean. So toolbox in this context is: "A deck with not such a big core, that allows multiple flexslots". Yeah definitely human would not be one of those, as all the slots are locked, and if you change them the deck becomes worse.
Idk why you are calling all these decks hard to play when I have to decide whether to I am going to put my auras onto Kor Spiritdancer or my Boggle.
Don’t mind me, still playing with UW Miracles 😅
as a jund player it's toolbox like you said but it's honestly more of a non blue control deck. tons of toolboxing/tempoing, and lots of removals, and disruption and unlike blue it's not very forgiving and has zero margin for error where as blue they got more leeway when screwing up which is why I always say blues a zero skill color lol; since it's removal counter spells are 1 size fits all removal and jund and mardu control which I play have to pick and choose a balance of removal for specific card types.
I know they're not exactly the most played decks, but I feel like Niv Miz with their Bring to Lights (while also being clunky) should be on the list. Also, Kiki-Chord is REAL tough to play, hardest deck in modern imo, depending on the flavour. Soulherder decks are pretty similar in this regard too. I realise they're not the most popular and that's probably why they're not on the list, but they're probably as popular Merfolk :P Sorry Nikachu!
They are good decks, but I don’t consider them that hard to win with. They play with a lot of individually strong cards and card advantage.
@@NikachuMTG Surprised by that. They play a lot of tutors, which generally give you a lot of options, and a lot of opportunities to make mistakes. Pretty much the same argument is made for Amulet being hard (because of the titan trigger), while getting a tonne less free wins. As always, these are just opinions though! Cool to see your list
please do this for every relevant deck in the metagame
When I played Yugioh my favorite deck was Synchro Sylvans and that deck took serious calculations to play!