Much Abrew: Asmor Surprise (Modern)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. We've seen Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar (hereby known as Asmor because I'm not typing that name 100 times) Food decks be a thing in Modern almost from the day when Modern Horizons 2 was released. Most of them are super grindy, looking to eke out value with Asmor, Ovalchase Daredevil, and food synergies like Trail of Crumbs until they eventually overwhelm the opponent. But today's deck has a surprise: the possibility of reanimating an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Obzedat, Ghost Council on Turn 2 with the help of Goryo's Vengeance! Is mashing together Asmor Food and Obzedat Reanimator a good plan for Modern? Let's get to the video and find out on this week's Much Abrew About Nothing!
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Much Abrew: Asmor Surprise
Discussion
- Welp, that was a rough one. We ended up going 1-4 with the deck, although we did do some powerful things along the way and came up just short in several of our matches. While I think the deck is probably somewhat better than the record suggests, I also don't think it's very good.
- The biggest problem we had with Asmor Surprise was consistency, which makes some amount of sense. The deck is almost two decks in one, tied together by The Underworld Cookbook's ability to discard big reanimation targets and make food for Asmor. We had quite a few games where we'd draw a bunch of Goryo's Vengeances but not reanimation targets, or reanimation targets but no Goryo's Vengeance, or Asmor but no Ovalchase Daredevil for consistent Food production. While the deck can do some explosive things when it all comes together, it simply didn't come together often enough, at least in our league.
- The other issue with mashing Obzedat, Ghost Council into an Asmor deck is the mana. Most Asmor decks use Urza's Saga as a backup way to find The Underworld Cookbook and other toolbox-y artifacts. In an attempt to be able to hard cast Obzedat, Ghost Council, our deck has triomes and more dual lands instead. This not only compounded the consistency issues but also cut a super-powerful card from the archetype. (Sometimes, Urza's Saga just wins games by itself, and doubly so in a deck that can make a bunch of Food to pump the Constructs.)
- Finally, the last issue we had with the deck is that reanimating Emrakul, the Aeons Torn isn't always enough to win the game. We actually had this happen against Hammer Time, where we reanimated Emrakul, annihilated our way into a 6-for-1, and our opponent proceeded to replay their combo pieces and Colossus Hammer us to death. Reanimating Obzedat, Ghost Council is slower but still very strong, although even this plan isn't a guarantee, as we got blown out by Dress Down (making Obzedat lose its ability to exile itself, so it was exiled forever to Goryo's Vengeance), and cards like Solitude that can answer Obzedat, Ghost Council at instant speed are also a problem.
- So, should you play Asmor Surprise? The answer seems to be no. While Asmor Food decks are good in Modern and we've had some success with Goryo's Vengeance / Obzedat, Ghost Council decks in the past, it seems like the two archetypes are better separate than mashed together. We were hoping to surprise our opponents with random hasty Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, but the real Asmor Surprise was just how inconsistent and clunky the deck ended up playing.
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. 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.
