Much Abrew: CoCo Walls (Modern)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week, there was one Instant Deck Tech that blew the others out of the water: CoCo Walls in Modern! I have to admit that, looking at CoCo Walls on paper, I was pretty skeptical. While the deck didn't look quite as bad as Mono-Blue Mill, winning a match seemed ambitious. I mean, the deck plays a massive 20 walls that don't do anything except block and make mana, and then hopes to use the walls to cast 15-drops. Is it really possible that this plan could work? If it does, it will prove true a theory that Jeff Hoogland proposed on Twitter about Modern: you can make pretty much any unplayable tribe playable simply by playing four copies of Collected Company. If the green instant is enough to make Wall tribal (of all things) work in a format as powerful as Modern, I think we'll have to declare the theory true!
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CoCo Walls Instant Deck Tech
CoCo Walls vs. Death's Shadow Aggro (Match 1)
CoCo Walls vs. Infect (Match 2)
CoCo Walls vs. Merfolk (Match 3)
CoCo Walls vs. Skred Red (Match 4)
CoCo Walls vs. Eldrazi & Taxes (Match 5)
CoCo Walls (Wrap Up)
Discussion
- Well, apparently the theory is true! While our record wasn't insane, we managed to finish 3-2, which is way better than I imagined when looking at the deck in paper. It seems that Collected Company really can make any tribe good enough for Modern—even tribes that can't attack, like Walls!
- As far as the deck itself, it ran much smoother than I thought it would. I figured that we would have an issue with drawing all Walls and no action, but the combination of Collected Company and Duskwatch Recruiter (which we could activate a million times thanks to our Wall mana) did an amazing job of making sure we always had a powerful threat when we needed one.
- The deck can make a ton of mana, thanks to our Wall package. Axebane Guardian looks like the most powerful of the bunch, but with only three toughness, it's also the most fragile, which complicates matters. Overgrown Battlement dodges Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix, and taps for just as much mana as Axebane Guardian but doesn't help us cast our handful of white spells. The rest of the Walls in the deck are more or less similar, tapping for only a single mana, but they do help power up Axebane Guardian and Overgrown Battlement.
- Wild Pair looks odd, but it's actually very important to the deck. Considering that to win the game we need 15 mana for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (or to dump into Duskwatch Recruiter to find Emrakul, the Aeons Torn), being able to cast an Overgrown Battlement and get a second Overgrown Battlement is actually a huge deal, since it gives us at least four (and often far more) mana the next turn. We can also do some interesting tricks like search out a Duskwatch Recruiter after casting one of our Walls or, more importantly, cast one Kami of False Hope and search out a second copy for the next turn.
- Speaking of Kami of False Hope, it's sneakily one of the most important cards in the entire deck. There are a surprising number of decks in Modern that are looking to win with pump spells like Become Immense, and Kami of False Hope is essential to keeping us alive long enough to win with our huge finishers. Kami of False Hope is very strong even against normal creature-based aggro decks, and oftentimes the one turn it buys us is exactly enough time to resolve an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite to win the game.
- Westvale Abbey was also great. Not only does it flip quickly thanks to our ability to flood the board with creatures and make a ton of mana, but it gets us out of tight situations by gaining us a huge chunk of life, getting us out of danger of dying to Lightning Bolts and other burn spells.
- The only part of the deck I'm not sold on is the sideboard. While sideboarding into a stax strategy is interesting, I had a really difficult time figuring out what matchups this plan was intended for. If I play the deck again, I'll probably go with a more traditional sideboard of efficient answers along with good white hate cards like Stony Silence, Rest in Peace, and Leyline of Sanctity.
- As far as matchups, our sample size is small, but it felt like our deck was set up to fight against aggressive decks thanks to being great at blocking and also having Kami of False Hope to fizzle attacks. On the other hand, it sometimes struggles when we run into decks that can kill our walls, which makes it difficult for us to generate enough mana to play our finishers, and especially struggles against sweepers, which can pretty much win our opponent the game on the spot because it's very difficult for our deck to rebuild post-wrath.
- So, should you play CoCo Walls? I think the answer is yes, but probably not in a super-competitive tournament. While it seems great for FNMs or even Leagues on Magic Online, I have a hard time imagining that the deck will be consistent enough to win a 15-round tournament. That said, it does some crazy things, is really fun to play, and will generate some gasps from your opponents when you play a bunch of janky walls and then kill them with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive, or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
