With so many sets coming out so often, it’s no surprise that the majority of new Magic: The Gathering mechanics don’t amount to much. Sure there are the occasional exceptions like Flurry or Plot, which feature on breakout cards from recent sets, but for the most part new mechanics change the Limited experience and little else. This was certainly the case with Ferocious, which made its debut in Khans of Tarkir back in 2014. Now, however, it appears to be experiencing a bit of a comeback. In Monday’s MTG Online Modern League, a spicy Temur Ferocious list delivered a great result.
This deck, as you’d expect, is all about creatures with power four or greater. It runs just one actual Ferocious card, but a ton of others that care about this metric too. The result is a deck that puts out bigger threats than most lists in Modern at an impressive rate. On top of that, one of the key ‘Ferocious’ cards in the deck even enables a wild combo kill out of the sideboard.
Temur Ferocious In MTG Modern
The Temur Ferocious deck we’ll be looking at today comes via weehee17, who piloted it to a 5-0 finish in the MTG Online Modern League on Monday. A quick scan of the list is all it takes to see that this deck cares a lot about fielding creatures with power four or greater. There are a ton of synergies here that rely on this specifically.
Fanatic of Rhonas, the deck’s only actual Ferocious card, is a prime example. On its own, it’s an underwhelming two-mana dork, but with a four-power creature out, it taps for an absurd four green mana. This is enough to single-handedly power out some of your other creatures, or tutor for them via Green Sun’s Zenith.
Fanatic aside, Temur Battlecrier is definitely the heart of the deck. It’s a four-power creature that reduces the costs of all your spells for each four mana creature you control, itself included. Following up a Fanatic with this on turn three essentially gives you five extra mana to work with, which is insane. You can easily drop multiple creatures with this, putting you way ahead of your opponent on board.
The deck also runs Outcaster Trailblazer, which offers both mana and draw for a deck full of four-power creatures. Interestingly, it also adds a solo copy of Cactusfolk Sureshot, which gives pretty much every creature in your deck Trample and Haste. Much like Ferocious itself, this wasn’t something we were expecting to see outside of Limited. Throw in Bonecrusher Giant, which is just a generically good four-power creature, and you have a list that’s very much capable of playing a ‘fair’ creature combat game.
A Sneaky Sideboard Combo
That’s not where this list’s bag of tricks ends. Weehee17’s Temur Ferocious is also a powerful MTG combo deck, capable of winning on the spot as early as turn four in Modern. This is achieved through Temur Battlecrier’s discount and a number of potent colorless cards.
For this combo to work, you need at least a four mana discount active from Battlecrier. You can achieve this with one Battlecrier and three other four-power creatures, or by simply having two Battlecriers in play at once. The deck runs three copies of Phyrexian Metamorph to make the latter more likely.
With these out, you need to drop Karn, the Great Creator and use its -2 ability to grab two cards from your sideboard: Ancestral Statue and Aetherflux Reservoir. This will take two turns in normal circumstances, but you can do it immediately if you have two Karns in hand. With a four mana discount, you’ll be able to play both easily.
Next, cast Reservoir for free, and follow up with Statue. You’ll gain some life from Reservoir, then have the option to bounce Statue back to your hand via its enters trigger. Since Statue costs nothing to cast, you can repeat this infinitely to build up infinite life, then use Reservoir’s damage ability to end the game.
If that sounds a bit elaborate, that’s because it is. It’s worth noting that you can easily pop off with this combo in the course of a normal game, however, just by drawing Karn with a board presence out. If you’re in a bind and really need the combo to win, you can dig for Karn via Malevolent Rumble, and Battlecrier with Summoner’s Pact. Both of these cards can also support your fair Midrange plan as well, so they pull double duty.
Triumph Of Ferocity?
For a deck with this many unusual cards and play lines, a 5-0 League finish is impressive work. That doesn’t necessarily mean Temur Ferocious is a new MTG Modern menace, mind you. The deck has a number of glaring weaknesses, which will likely be its downfall as it sees more use in the meta.
First of all, the deck is very reliant on Temur Battlecrier to function. The mana discount it offers turns a pile of clunky creatures into a lethal Aggro deck. It’s also the key to getting your combo win online. If your opponent deals with Battlecrier, the rest of the deck falls apart fairly quickly. Given that it only has three toughness and you’re not running any protection, that’s not an unlikely scenario. Whether it’s Phlage or Galvanic Discharge in Boros Energy, or Lightning Bolt in Izzet Prowess, this is a problem you’ll need to reckon with at some point.
The deck also lacks interaction itself. Outside of the Adventure half of Bonecrusher Giant, there’s no way for you to remove opposing threats if you find yourself behind. This means creature decks like Energy and Domain Zoo can often get underneath you, especially if you don’t land Battlecrier early.
Ultimately, it’s best to think of Temur Ferocious as a Combo deck in the wider context of Modern. It’s a deck that will suffer against decks with interaction, but shine against combo decks like Amulet Titan, since they lack the tools to shut down your Battlecrier. As with all Combo decks, this makes Temur Ferocious a bit of a coin flip, but, based on these results, it’s one that can definitely pay off.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!
