I’ve been playing a ton of Modern lately. 5C Creativity has given me about forty match wins in a row. I finally lost some matches at a recent RCQ, but Sophie Miller was able to take it down anyway with 5C Creativity.
There are a few main deck and sideboard slots still up for debate; I’ve improved the board by adding Fury. Today I’m going to share my updated sideboard plans.
Here’s the list we will be discussing:
The maindeck is largely the same as what I’ve been playing, but the Furies in the sideboard fundamentally shift many matchups.
Let’s first talk about how we arrived at playing Fury in the sideboard as it seems counterintuitive.
Iona, Shield of Emeria- It’s about time I cut Iona from the Creativity sideboard. It is legendary which doesn’t work well with Persist. Nine mana is also a lot so I never hard casted it in the first thirty matches with the deck. The benefit to Iona was it represented a threat left in the deck after Necromentia, but that can be done cheaper.
I tried Wurmcoil Engine and Inferno Titan was also considered as a solution to Iona being too expensive to hard cast while playing around Necromentia. They could both be persisted, cast through a Blood Moon, and interacted with Grist, the Hunger Tide. Grist is important to consider because Yawgmoth is the most popular Necromentia deck alongside Rakdos Scam.
Fury- Creativity’s game one plan is to be a focused combo deck that puts Archon of Cruelty into play. After sideboard the opponent will disrupt your core game plan which means we must craft a less focused plan B.
Necromentia is a popular hate card out of Yawgmoth and Rakdos Scam. Not only will Fury serve as a secondary creature to reveal from Creativity it happens to be a great threat in both matchups. Since Scam and Yawgmoth are more interactive there are times I wait to Creativity for x=2 to hit one Fury and one Archon of Cruelty on average.
Blood Moon is another popular hate card out of Rakdos Scam and Izzet Murktide. One way to fight the threat of Blood Moon is to leave up mana for Prismari Command on the third turn to threaten Creativity. Fury is another avenue to fight Blood Moon as it’s only five mana; cheaper than Wurmcoil and Inferno Titan.
Hammertime doesn’t board in hate cards where Fury is required, but it happens to be great interaction. Prismari Command and Wear/Tear are excellent spells in the matchup, but cost three mana; Fury helps ensure you don’t fall behind in the early turns.
When I add Fury to my deck after sideboard I will often cut an Archon of Cruelty since I’m going to five Creativity hits. I want all of the Archons and Furies against Control because I plan to hard cast all of the creatures as the games go long.
As a general guideline I value Indomitable Creativity less in post board games as the opponent will be ready to interact. The games will play out longer as the opponent is forced to respect the threat of Archon and I have more targeted interaction for the matchup. Creativity and Wrenn and Six are the two spells I never cut.
Leyline has been in all of my Creativity lists, but I’m going to dive deeper into how to think about sideboarding as I’ve received many questions.
Creativity is a focused deck and the sideboard is fairly rigid as a result. Midrange decks will often want to board out a large swath of cards in each matchup and require a versatile sideboard. Creativity is built to take advantage of powerful sideboard cards and then find the appropriate number of main deck cards to cut.
Leyline of the Void can be boarded in against Yawgmoth to exile undying creatures and Scam to nullify Feign Death effects. Since the cost of adding cards that don’t contribute to your core game plan is high I don’t board in Leyline against Yawgmoth and Scam. The primary game plan against Yawgmoth is to use your creature removal to keep the battlefield clear which reduces the power of their synergies.
I don’t board in Leyline against Izzet Murktide because I can bounce the Regent with Teferi or exile with Leyline Binding. The opponent has a hard time countering Leyline Bunding as it can lead to resolving a Creativity.
Living End and Breach Combo are the main decks to board in Leyline because the graveyard is pivotal to their core strategy. Breach is a tough matchup because they can threaten a quick combo kill or undo your early interaction with a value Breach. I have found Leyline of the Void to be the only interaction that cannot easily be undone.
Boarding in card advantage is an option to combo with Leyline of the Void against Living End, Breach, and Dredge. Since you’re encouraged to mulligan aggressively the average hand size will diminish, post board.
As a general guideline I will take the first mulligan in search of Leyline, but will keep acceptable six-card hands. It’s a consideration, but there are enough three-drops in the deck that I don’t need a specific additional card to regain lost card advantage from taking more mulligans.
A consideration in post board games is to find double-black sooner. I’ll fetch Savai Triome quickly to have the option to get Blood Crypt if needed to hard cast Leyline. In general, Savai Triome is important to fetch earlier because hard casting Archons in the midgame will often require a black source to combine with a treasure.
Orvar, the All-Form- There are times I’m ahead in post board games and won’t go for a Creativity as it exposes me to Orvar. I can wait to put multiple Archons onto the battlefield or use Teferi’s +1 to put them into play at the end of the opponent’s turn. Another avenue of attack is to keep extra dwarves and planeswalkers to use as sacrifice fodder.
Orvar can’t be effectively used in the mirror as it’s a blank hit on Creativity. Creature decks, such as Goblins and Humans, can take advantage of the changeling ability making Orvar more likely to be played in their board.
I’ve been experimenting with Prismatic Ending over Fire Ice and it has so far been promising.
That’s a change I would endorse.Let’s get to the sideboarding!
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
That’s all I have for today. Thanks for reading!
