Faithless Brewing MTG: Modern and Pioneer for the Spike Rogue
Leisure:Hobbies
Season 18, Episode 6: Brew Session (Chrome Host Seedshark)
Shark Typhoon is powerful. A resolved Shark Typhoon is lights out. A resolved Shark Typhoon wins games. Most Modern and Pioneer players know this, or think they know this.
They don’t know the half of it.
Shark Typhoon sees play, but no one truly builds around it. It’s far too expensive to craft your game plan around having a Typhoon in play. Instead we cycle, and move on with our lives.
Enter Chrome Host Seedshark. Putting a Shark Typhoon effect on a 3 mana creature changes EVERYTHING. Synergies that seemed like pie-in-the-sky win-more plays, notably pairing huge cost reduction spells with the Shark Typhoon effect, are suddenly available as early and often as we want them.
Want to cast Leyline Binding? Sure, have a 6/6. Protect the Seedshark with Force of Negation or Metallic Rebuke? No problem, have a 3/3. Delve spells are incredible here, from Treasure Cruise and Temporal Trespass in Pioneer to Logic Knot and Magmatic Sinkhole in Modern. And don’t forget the “Splinter Twin” potential of the Shining Shoal cycle: a turn 3 Seedshark, followed by end step Shoal pitching a huge card (X=15 anyone? Autochthon Wurm and Shadow of Mortality make it happen) means you are attacking potentially for lethal damage on turn 4.
There’s more going on that just a parade of creatures, of course. Incubator tokens are decidedly not creatures, until we invest additional resources. Animating the tokens directly with Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh or Jinnie Fae, Jetmir’s Second is downright nasty. For larger Incubators, paying 2 mana is still a great bargain. For smaller Incubators, we can take advantage of the fact that unflipped Incubators are quite hard to remove (unlike, say, the tokens from Third Path Iconoclast or Sai, Master Thopterist). If we want to build up a solid battlefield of wrath-proof game objects for Affinity, for Improvise, for Urza or for Galazeth Prismari, Chrome Host Seedshark is simply best in class. We can even play sweepers of our own, and Seedshark leaves behind a massive token as a going away present.
There’s so much to discover about Seedshark, and about the Incubate mechanic in general, that we couldn’t imagine starting our March of the Machine brewing season with any other card. We’ve got seven new decklists drawn up in Modern and Pioneer, and a half dozen more ideas to explore besides. It’s Shark Week here at Faithless Brewing, and we could not be more excited!
Like our content? Support us on Patreon and join our brewing community!
Decklists for this episode can be viewed at FaithlessBrewing.com
Timestamps
[3:11] Housekeeping
[4:01] Brew Session: Chrome Host Seedshark
[7:59] Closest comparisons
[11:30] Key synergies: cost reduction
[20:08] Key synergies: Incubator tokens
[25:09] Sketch 1: Izzet Galazeth Turns (Pioneer)
[31:51] Sketch 2: Dimir Improvise (Pioneer)
[38:38] Sketch 3: Sultai Glistening Dawn (Pioneer)
[42:45] Sketch 4: 5c Galazeth Shark to Light (Modern)
[49:36] Sketch 5: UW Chrome Control (Modern)
[56:09] Sketch 6: WU White Pitch Please (Modern)
[1:05:44] Sketch 7: 4c Sickening Shoal (Modern)
The State of Brewing in Modern (June-July 2022)
Impossible 5-0 Lists with Fight Rigging
The Reality Chip: Uploading the Newest Pioneer Tech
The Truth About Cats & Dogs: Jinnie Fay in Modern and Pioneer
Good Ban / Bad Ban: Pioneer after Expressive Iteration & Winota
Hidden Gem? Extraction Specialist Is Seeing Play in Every Format
10 New Decks That Will Restore Your Faith in Pioneer
Jund ’Em Out: Riveteers Brews to Go 3-2 In Style
Make Your Choice! 11 Spicy Cards to Brew in June 2022 (ft. Serum Visions)
Esper Week: Obscure Problems with Raffine, Scheming Seer
Ban This, Not That: State of Pioneer (May 2022)
Shredding Through the Streets of New Capenna
Putting the ”Flash” Back in Flashback
Triome Trouble: Bant Week ft. Spara’s Headquarters
Eight New Capenna Staples for Modern and Pioneer (Week 1 Roundup)
Oh, the Calamity! Dangerous Brews with Invoke Calamity in Modern and Pioneer
Never Look a Gift Sword in the Mouth: 10 Ways to Play Luxior, Giada’s Gift
First Brews with New Capenna: Ob Nixilis, Vivien on the Hunt, Luxior and More
Top 10 cards from New Capenna
A New Brewing Project (ft. Serum Visions)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
That Don‘t Sound Right
Adeptus Ridiculous
Gun Talk
来都来了 | 听了再走
BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast