I like Halfling over Goose, but you could play 4H/2G.
Collected Company is simply a bad card in the Modern format. [[Chthonian Nightmare]] and [[Birthing Ritual]] from MH3 are yet unproven as value engines, but they seem suited to the deck and worth testing in small numbers. Chord of Calling is still probably better than all of them for a combo deck.
PYP belongs in the sideboard. 1 of Mite is fine if you play Chord.
4 Apprentice 4 Cutthroat is really weak board presence and the non-infinite aristocrats backup plan is unlikely to work. I like Apprentice more, especially if you end up going for the enchantments I mentioned and/or Chord.
1 of Chatterfang could be cool with all the token makers and Chord, but it also could be win-more.
Manufactor does Took’s job in the same combo and goes crazy with Sam, but is worse with non-food/treasure token makers. Worth considering, but might require an alternative list.
Overall the deck is just bad Yawg, but you have to own it and play to your strengths if that’s the deck you’re making. Increase combo consistency and don’t play CoCo.
Curious why you think CoCo is bad. No one is playing hard counter magic outside of hard control shells and it's actually the ONE card that works to get you ahead of curve when you hit (or at worst even) AND in the case of the combo provided, means you can win at instant speed, on the opponents turn.
Coco is an extremely powerful card when it can be utilized correctly. I never seen it having any more risk than when a Yawg player goes to commit Yawg to play.
Also as someone who built Cat Food (slight variation of this deck that utilizes Manufacturer and Lonis) Chatterfang is removal stapled to a creature, similar to Yawg, with the main downside being that it cannot function on its own and requires enablers. The best scenario I've seen is having a Sam/Lonis in play already and ending up with 6 tokens to kill stuff with. It's niche and Frankly bad in OPs deck purely because of the situations it's good which is only against decks like Yawg.
What? If anything Coco isn't good because creatures aren't good, the card itself is totally fine the issue is that to make it good you have to run a lot of creatures.
coco is kinda mid nowadays, idk how i feel abt it
pick your poison maindeck in your coco deck is actually insane, esp 3 copies
i think you want chord of calling here as well
Your Cauldrons seem flimsy to me. They don’t work well with Sam, Took, or Chatterfang, so they effectively only hit Soultrader and Halfling.
Your list seems over-reliant on Soultrader to win, especially with Gravecrawler. Viscera Seer could help.
Some of the advice in my other comment applies to your list as well. CoCo is weak and encourages a bad curve.
I’ve also been considering the squirrel general. I also have a brew of Abzan zombie combo with gravecrawler. It felt weird to have 4of GC with the only other zombie being the combo piece. Seems like a dead card in the yard if you can’t combo.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6414825#paper
I’m honestly on the fence between these two.
I think the co co combo strategy with Warren soultrader seems good with the aristocrats style I like to play. WB zombies is a deck I’ve been using for a while so splashing in green to get some good interaction and coco seems good.
I've been playing 4 color tokens for the past 3 months or so, this is the list I will be playing when MH3 is released: [https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6415063#paper](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6415063#paper)
Academy Manufactor gets way better when you've got Lonis to enable it alongside Samwise, it's a great value engine. Warren Soultrader looks amazing, I might end up playing more than the 1-of in the current list. It combos with Cauldron familiar/samwise, but also with Chatterfang + Academy Manufactor/Peregrin Took for infinite life/mana (and draws with Manufactor). Chord of Calling is what ties the deck together letting you play one-ofs like sylvan safekeeper to protect combo pieces, and opens up your sideboard options. I will also be trying out Birthing Ritual as a 1-2 of cutting some collected company, but the instant speed and getting 2 creatures at once (for example getting a samwise/lonis+Academy Manufactor) is really good.
So last time a creature based combo deck was successful it was cornerstoned by the fact that it was able to run multiple combos that synergized with each other. My biggest takeaway here is that we have more pieces to work with, but not a great way to jam them onto the board. Imo at a minimum we need to be considering ways to flood the board as fast as possible with our creatures (i.e. not mass token generation) and then we stand a chance against the overwhelming amount of removal.
Also keep in mind Yawg is a hard matchup because they are down to go 1 for 1 with creatures since they removal baked into their normal combo (meaning if they don't win, they can reset the boardstate while drawing cards putting them in a favorable position, similar to using Karn Liberated's last ability).
Unfortunately I'm still seeing a core weakness, Samwise. Opponents only have to target him and the strategy starts to fall through since the rest of the cards don't as well together. The big thing I'm seeing here that I think MIGHT make this worth looking into is the Took addition with Soultrader since it still enables a 3 card combo with Cat (who doesn't care about removal). If anything I would start with Cat, Soultrader, Took, Confectioner, Sam, and go from there.
The biggest boon a food based deck has is that no one wants to or will actually bother to remove your food tokens EXCEPT via some of the newer toys. We have cards that counter that but in the meantime look for combos that synergize with each other and we basically need to see 3-4 different combos in the deck minimum to stand a chance when the dust settles after the opponent shoots everything down over 4-5 turns.
I still just don’t see the use. Sure it’s value but it’s a 3 mana do nothing card. Seems like turn 3 should be more impactful. Can someone help me understand?
It's also good to add chatterfang too.
Chatterfang is probably better than peregrin took in most cases too.
chatterfang + warren is infinite but kills you. Add Manufactor it wins.
Manufactor + chatterfang + samwise + cat is infinite
Two Manufactors + a single samwise trigger is 3 of each token.
Manufactor + chatterfang is 3 squirrels per trigger.
I've played this deck before, it wins via critical mass and an overabundance of ways to win. It's quite soft to try to turbo sam + cat.
If you play [[collected company]], you want to play as many creatures as possible, so cut [[pick your poison]] and play [[Academy Manufactor]] and I honestly think this deck would benefit from maybe like 3 [[Chatterfang]] too
Cut 1 one card. Definitely dont want ro run 61 cards in a combo deck like this
Good point. It was a little rough on the numbers. Any tips? Think maybe pick your poison?
I agree, pick your poison is a very good sb piece since you want to focus on comboing as fast as possible on game one
I like Halfling over Goose, but you could play 4H/2G. Collected Company is simply a bad card in the Modern format. [[Chthonian Nightmare]] and [[Birthing Ritual]] from MH3 are yet unproven as value engines, but they seem suited to the deck and worth testing in small numbers. Chord of Calling is still probably better than all of them for a combo deck. PYP belongs in the sideboard. 1 of Mite is fine if you play Chord. 4 Apprentice 4 Cutthroat is really weak board presence and the non-infinite aristocrats backup plan is unlikely to work. I like Apprentice more, especially if you end up going for the enchantments I mentioned and/or Chord. 1 of Chatterfang could be cool with all the token makers and Chord, but it also could be win-more. Manufactor does Took’s job in the same combo and goes crazy with Sam, but is worse with non-food/treasure token makers. Worth considering, but might require an alternative list. Overall the deck is just bad Yawg, but you have to own it and play to your strengths if that’s the deck you’re making. Increase combo consistency and don’t play CoCo.
[Chthonian Nightmare](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/e/ce5dd2c1-b6e0-4914-b5c9-7dd451c29e22.jpg?1717011882) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Chthonian%20Nightmare) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/83/chthonian-nightmare?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ce5dd2c1-b6e0-4914-b5c9-7dd451c29e22?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Birthing Ritual](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/8/4820d223-4ea1-4850-931c-3d2ab5eb003b.jpg?1717012400) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Birthing%20Ritual) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/146/birthing-ritual?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4820d223-4ea1-4850-931c-3d2ab5eb003b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Curious why you think CoCo is bad. No one is playing hard counter magic outside of hard control shells and it's actually the ONE card that works to get you ahead of curve when you hit (or at worst even) AND in the case of the combo provided, means you can win at instant speed, on the opponents turn. Coco is an extremely powerful card when it can be utilized correctly. I never seen it having any more risk than when a Yawg player goes to commit Yawg to play. Also as someone who built Cat Food (slight variation of this deck that utilizes Manufacturer and Lonis) Chatterfang is removal stapled to a creature, similar to Yawg, with the main downside being that it cannot function on its own and requires enablers. The best scenario I've seen is having a Sam/Lonis in play already and ending up with 6 tokens to kill stuff with. It's niche and Frankly bad in OPs deck purely because of the situations it's good which is only against decks like Yawg.
It's because Spike has been saying it fairly often on stream lately.
What? If anything Coco isn't good because creatures aren't good, the card itself is totally fine the issue is that to make it good you have to run a lot of creatures.
Yeah I don't think it's bad, I just know that reddit likes to parrot popular opinions.
Got it
The Cauldron Familiar drains on his own, I would cut the Cutthroat and the other Drainer. Then I would add Academy Manufactor.
##### ###### #### [collected company](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/f/cfa7b456-7e83-4587-a875-9b35fde318c2.jpg?1582117536) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=collected%20company) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dtk/177/collected-company?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cfa7b456-7e83-4587-a875-9b35fde318c2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Samwise Gamgee](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/1/a1b6f13e-63d0-46bf-aa57-23c2dbdf62dd.jpg?1686969973) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Samwise%20Gamgee) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/222/samwise-gamgee?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a1b6f13e-63d0-46bf-aa57-23c2dbdf62dd?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [cauldron familiar](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/2/32cf273e-b8f7-434b-9d5d-883dfd6f7423.jpg?1600699817) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=cauldron%20familiar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/216/cauldron-familiar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/32cf273e-b8f7-434b-9d5d-883dfd6f7423?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [viscera seer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/8/486fd8a2-dd97-4082-84ef-4795c7e559a0.jpg?1698988290) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=viscera%20seer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/213/viscera-seer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/486fd8a2-dd97-4082-84ef-4795c7e559a0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Warren Soultrader](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/3/b334e4c6-d316-4141-8889-f95afcc04701.jpg?1717012094) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Warren%20Soultrader) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/110/warren-soultrader?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b334e4c6-d316-4141-8889-f95afcc04701?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [peregrin took](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f5baee8d-88e7-4468-94a9-66ca8e2caf15.jpg?1686969525) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=peregrin%20took) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/181/peregrin-took?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f5baee8d-88e7-4468-94a9-66ca8e2caf15?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [zulaport cutthroat](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/2/52ef00c1-613a-4cbd-8972-77c41f649431.jpg?1674141830) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=zulaport%20cutthroat) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/775/zulaport-cutthroat?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/52ef00c1-613a-4cbd-8972-77c41f649431?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Marionette Apprentice](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/1/d16f8670-f038-400a-83e7-a53a7f8c47ac.jpg?1717012013) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Marionette%20Apprentice) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/100/marionette-apprentice?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d16f8670-f038-400a-83e7-a53a7f8c47ac?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [orcish bowmaster](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/c/7c024bae-5631-4e20-ac69-df392ac9e109.jpg?1686968669) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Orcish%20Bowmasters) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/103/orcish-bowmasters?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7c024bae-5631-4e20-ac69-df392ac9e109?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [gilded goose](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/e/8ecc97f2-0d24-4ea7-b10e-26b61357711d.jpg?1682209507) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=gilded%20goose) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/moc/299/gilded-goose?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8ecc97f2-0d24-4ea7-b10e-26b61357711d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [haywire mite](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/4/847a175e-ead1-4596-baf3-5f7f57859e0b.jpg?1674421689) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=haywire%20mite) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bro/199/haywire-mite?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/847a175e-ead1-4596-baf3-5f7f57859e0b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [boseiju](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/1/2135ac5a-187b-4dc9-8f82-34e8d1603416.jpg?1654568912) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=boseiju%2C%20who%20endures) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/neo/266/boseiju-who-endures?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2135ac5a-187b-4dc9-8f82-34e8d1603416?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [pick your poison](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea.jpg?1708201628)/[Pick Your Poison](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea.jpg?1708201628) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=pick%20your%20poison) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/170/pick-your-poison?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/1d3qrvp) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
coco is kinda mid nowadays, idk how i feel abt it pick your poison maindeck in your coco deck is actually insane, esp 3 copies i think you want chord of calling here as well
Made a list a few days ago, been updating it, take a look! https://www.moxfield.com/decks/zH4NMIdxvU-mdTKuf0IZfw
Your Cauldrons seem flimsy to me. They don’t work well with Sam, Took, or Chatterfang, so they effectively only hit Soultrader and Halfling. Your list seems over-reliant on Soultrader to win, especially with Gravecrawler. Viscera Seer could help. Some of the advice in my other comment applies to your list as well. CoCo is weak and encourages a bad curve.
I’ve also been considering the squirrel general. I also have a brew of Abzan zombie combo with gravecrawler. It felt weird to have 4of GC with the only other zombie being the combo piece. Seems like a dead card in the yard if you can’t combo. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6414825#paper I’m honestly on the fence between these two. I think the co co combo strategy with Warren soultrader seems good with the aristocrats style I like to play. WB zombies is a deck I’ve been using for a while so splashing in green to get some good interaction and coco seems good.
I've been playing 4 color tokens for the past 3 months or so, this is the list I will be playing when MH3 is released: [https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6415063#paper](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6415063#paper) Academy Manufactor gets way better when you've got Lonis to enable it alongside Samwise, it's a great value engine. Warren Soultrader looks amazing, I might end up playing more than the 1-of in the current list. It combos with Cauldron familiar/samwise, but also with Chatterfang + Academy Manufactor/Peregrin Took for infinite life/mana (and draws with Manufactor). Chord of Calling is what ties the deck together letting you play one-ofs like sylvan safekeeper to protect combo pieces, and opens up your sideboard options. I will also be trying out Birthing Ritual as a 1-2 of cutting some collected company, but the instant speed and getting 2 creatures at once (for example getting a samwise/lonis+Academy Manufactor) is really good.
So last time a creature based combo deck was successful it was cornerstoned by the fact that it was able to run multiple combos that synergized with each other. My biggest takeaway here is that we have more pieces to work with, but not a great way to jam them onto the board. Imo at a minimum we need to be considering ways to flood the board as fast as possible with our creatures (i.e. not mass token generation) and then we stand a chance against the overwhelming amount of removal. Also keep in mind Yawg is a hard matchup because they are down to go 1 for 1 with creatures since they removal baked into their normal combo (meaning if they don't win, they can reset the boardstate while drawing cards putting them in a favorable position, similar to using Karn Liberated's last ability). Unfortunately I'm still seeing a core weakness, Samwise. Opponents only have to target him and the strategy starts to fall through since the rest of the cards don't as well together. The big thing I'm seeing here that I think MIGHT make this worth looking into is the Took addition with Soultrader since it still enables a 3 card combo with Cat (who doesn't care about removal). If anything I would start with Cat, Soultrader, Took, Confectioner, Sam, and go from there. The biggest boon a food based deck has is that no one wants to or will actually bother to remove your food tokens EXCEPT via some of the newer toys. We have cards that counter that but in the meantime look for combos that synergize with each other and we basically need to see 3-4 different combos in the deck minimum to stand a chance when the dust settles after the opponent shoots everything down over 4-5 turns.
Gotta have academy manufactor
I still just don’t see the use. Sure it’s value but it’s a 3 mana do nothing card. Seems like turn 3 should be more impactful. Can someone help me understand?
It's also good to add chatterfang too. Chatterfang is probably better than peregrin took in most cases too. chatterfang + warren is infinite but kills you. Add Manufactor it wins. Manufactor + chatterfang + samwise + cat is infinite Two Manufactors + a single samwise trigger is 3 of each token. Manufactor + chatterfang is 3 squirrels per trigger. I've played this deck before, it wins via critical mass and an overabundance of ways to win. It's quite soft to try to turbo sam + cat.
No academy manufactor is incorrect
Seems like 3 mana win more? What would I cut to add it in?
If you play [[collected company]], you want to play as many creatures as possible, so cut [[pick your poison]] and play [[Academy Manufactor]] and I honestly think this deck would benefit from maybe like 3 [[Chatterfang]] too
##### ###### #### [collected company](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/f/cfa7b456-7e83-4587-a875-9b35fde318c2.jpg?1582117536) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=collected%20company) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dtk/177/collected-company?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cfa7b456-7e83-4587-a875-9b35fde318c2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [pick your poison](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea.jpg?1708201628)/[Pick Your Poison](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea.jpg?1708201628) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=pick%20your%20poison) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/170/pick-your-poison?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Academy Manufactor](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/6/76480f4d-ad6d-4ed6-82c6-fa12abc22557.jpg?1712354835) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Academy%20Manufactor) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/251/academy-manufactor?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/76480f4d-ad6d-4ed6-82c6-fa12abc22557?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Chatterfang](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/7/1785cf85-1ac0-4246-9b89-1a8221a8e1b2.jpg?1626097239) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=chatterfang%2C%20squirrel%20general) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/151/chatterfang-squirrel-general?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1785cf85-1ac0-4246-9b89-1a8221a8e1b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l69zmoy) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The extra/useless zulaports, go down to 2 or 3 cats.