In the world of MTG, one of the fundamental rules pertaining to the majority of Constructed formats is that players can only utilize four copies of a given card in their deck (other than basic lands, of course). This forces players to make more intricate deckbuilding decisions, as they can’t just shove any number of the best possible cards into a deck and call it a day.
That being said, over the years, there have been a few exceptions to the rules printed. For instance, players can have any number of Persistent Petitioners and Relentless Rats in their decks. These cards aren’t too strong individually and tend not to cause any issues in Constructed. In fact, it’s rare these styles of cards make any noise in Constructed whatsoever.
Well, that narrative is about to change. Just recently, a player managed to put up a solid performance in a Magic Online Modern Challenge with 20 copies of Slime Against Humanity in the maindeck! This deck is absolutely wild and features some unique inclusions that can grow your Oozes significantly. It’s safe to say that players were not expecting to compete against it. This strategy is simply too exciting to ignore, so let’s take a gander at what it’s trying to accomplish.
Maximizing Slime Against Humanity
- Mana Value: 2G
- Rarity: Common
- Text: Create a 0/0 green Ooze creature token with trample. Put X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is two plus the total number of cards you own in exile and in your graveyard that are Oozes or are named Slime Against Humanity. A deck can have any number of cards named Slime Against Humanity.
Slime Against Humanity is a very weird card. When you cast it, you get a two-power Ooze creature at minimum. Obviously, getting a 2/2 with Trample for three mana is not worth it in Modern by a long shot. However, what if I said that creature could have 10 power? How about 20 power? As such, the card becomes a lot more intriguing.
The main goal behind this deck is to reliably make huge creatures each time you cast Slime Against Humanity. The way to ensure your Ooze tokens will enter with a lot of +1/+1 counters is to have many copies of Slime Against Humanity or various Ooze cards already in your graveyard or in exile. Luckily, this deck utilizes a plethora of ways to exile a bunch of copies of Slime Against Humanity from your library at very little cost.
Serum Powder, for example, pairs quite nicely with Slime Against Humanity. If you decide to pitch Serum Powder and the rest of your hand during mulligans, chances are, you’re exiling a few copies of Slime Against Humanity in the process. Devourer of Destiny works similarly, giving you some card selection if it’s in your opening hand while exiling any copies of Slime Against Humanity from the top four cards of your deck if you choose.
The most amusing enabler for Slime Against Humanity this deck has access to, though, is Surgical Extraction. Once you get a copy of Slime Against Humanity into your graveyard (typically either by casting it or Surveilling it into your graveyard), you can then use Surgical Extraction to exile it and the rest of the copies from your deck. From there, when you go to cast a copy from your hand, the Ooze it creates will be absolutely enormous! Thanks to the Ooze’s Trample ability, chump blockers are of no concern.
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Speed and Stability
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- TextL Imprint- When Ugin’s Labyrinth enters the battlefield, you may exile a colorless card with mana value 7 or greater from your hand. Tap: Add colorless mana. If a card is exiled with Ugin’s Labyrinth, add two colorless mana instead. Tap: Return the exiled card to its owner’s hand.
This strategy got a pretty big upgrade with the release of MH3. In a format as fast as Modern, you really need to be attacking with huge Ooze creatures as quickly as possible. Fortunately, Ugin’s Labyrinth lets you cast Slime Against Humanity a full turn ahead of schedule.
To help enable it, this deck uses playsets of both Devourer of Destiny and Drowner of Truth. These cards will rarely get cast, but Ugin’s Labyrinth is so strong that they’re presence is absolutely worth it. On top of that, they at least provide some value even when you don’t draw Ugin’s Labyrinth. We already mentioned Devourer of Destiny’s role when in your opening hand. Drowner of Truth, by contrast, doubles as a mana source when necessary.
Another card that helps a lot when it comes to the deck’s overall velocity is Lightning Greaves. Lightning Greaves only costs two mana to cast, so you’d ideally play it the turn before casting Slime Against Humanity. Then, you can equip the Ooze you create on the following turn and attack right away. If you cast Slime Against Humanity on a future turn, you can simply reattach Lightning Greaves to the new token, and bash.
The only other nonland card in the deck is Insult//Injury. Insult serves as another way to push damage quickly, in this case by doubling the damage your Ooze creatures deal. The “damage can’t be prevented” clause is also very important in the face of The One Ring, which remains one of the most popular cards in Modern. This deck is certainly hilarious, but it’s capable of presenting a lot of power to the board very quickly.
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Fighting in a Hostile Environment
- Mana Value: 3
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Text: As long as Trinisphere is untapped, each spell that would cost less than three mana to cast costs three mana to cast. (Additional mana in the cost may be paid with any color of mana or colorless mana. For example, a spell that would cost 1B to cast costs 2B to cast instead).
At the end of the day, this archetype is unlikely to become a top-tier strategy. The deck features very little interaction of its own, and mostly relies on sheer speed and the opponents not being prepared. Hand disruption like Grief can be quite awkward to face down, considering how few non-land cards this deck plays besides Slime Against Humanity. Similarly, counter magic backed up by pressure is tough to beat. You could also always run into opposing copies of Surgical Extraction, which would strip you of all copies of Slime Against Humanity not just from your graveyard and library, but also from your hand.
Still, this deck is a bit more resilient than you might think. Your Oozes are often too big to take down with damage-based removal, which is important against Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury and the like. Meanwhile, Lightning Greaves can allow you to sneak past sorcery-speed removal and board wipes.
This deck can definitely outpace some other combo decks like Bant Nadu. Ruby Storm, which is typically too fast for this deck to beat in game one, is very vulnerable to Trinisphere out of the sideboard. Trinisphere is a great piece of technology for this deck in general. Playing it turn two off of Ugin’s Labyrinth can really mess with the opponent’s gameplan while making it harder for them to interact with you in an efficient manner.
It’s really cool to see what many may describe as a meme deck have some striking tournament success. If you’re looking to break out something unusual at your next FNM, this deck fits the bill nicely.
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