Anything is “acceptable,” it’s just worse.

Will do and that is what a pair of better eyes will see >.< I suppose you did choose Temur for a reason. And I am actually trying to pucatrade my way into a 2nd goyf right now so when that happens would running 2 goyf and 2 madrills would be acceptable? At least until i get the other 2 ?

Grunt is so bad after an Undoing it’s not even funny. We don’t care about hard removal because bouncing to the hand is often enough, and we certainly don’t want to give opponents more cards on the board (via Path to Exile). I actually started with a Jeskai list, but ran Steppe Lynx over Grunt; take a look at my articles from a week or two back.

As a replacement to tarmogoyf you could choose to run Jötun Grunt instead. He fits in the 2 drop spot, and like gofy will not die to a lightning bolt. His upkeep price also proves valuable in possibly weakening another opponent’s goyf, or bolstering those bolts, serums, etc back into your deck to be reshuffled with your fetch lands. This allows you to restock up on spells , although it could seem a little redundant with Day’s Undoing (one of your centerpieces for this deck).

Also white opens up a bunch of removal, such as Path to Exile and Wrath of the Gods. (To get rid of those pesky elves) Anyways this was just some thinking I had after researching how to expand on Day’s because I believe it will be a huge play in modern soon. I would love to hear what you think of these ideas, I am still relatively new to magic (2 months experience to be exact) so your experience would be a huge help

This isn’t Monkey Grow. It’s iGrow. It’s not a “new version” of that deck, it’s an entirely different deck. The two share many cards, but iGrow plays very differently, following a “Treasure Cruise Delver” approach to games (empty your hand faster than your opponent, Undoing for value during the earliest possible window). Monkey Grow, on the other hand, follows a “Canadian Threshold Delver” approach (protect a single threat all the way to the bank, meticulously managing limited resources to ensure its survival). The decks are also skill-intensive for different reasons: Monkey Grow asks pilots to constantly attribute value to their cards and resources to make sure they “get there” before opponents stabilize. iGrow requires them to walk a fine line between playing in a “Treasure Cruise” way and playing in a “Threshold” way, depending on how many Undoings have resolved, whether they’re in hand or could be easily extracted from the deck via cantrips, what the board state, cards-in-hand ratio, and damage race looks like, etc.

I agree that 12 cantrips is “enough,” at least to support 17 lands in Monkey Grow. iGrow initially ran only 8 cantrips (4 Serum, 4 Probe, no Scour) and compensated with an 18th land, but since the curve is so much higher than Monkey Grow’s (Day’s Undoing costs 3, and half our threats cost two mana), it really wants 19 lands. As I’ve discussed, I’m comfortable cutting a land for two cantrips in tempo decks. Two Sleights over one land and one other spell make Delver, Pyromancer, Swiftspear, Goyf, Day’s Undoing, and Disrupting Shoal better, all while increasing the deck’s consistency.

On Simic Charm: Vapor Snag is cheaper and that matters. One point of damage is also ultra relevant on a Swiftspear/Elemental token plan. And we don’t want the other modes so much. Hexproof matters less when the threats they’re killing cost us so little, and when we can just refill after. Giant Growth matters less when we just bounce their guys before attacking anyway. Remember that iGrow doesn’t always follow a “protect the queen” strategy. It’s closer to the Aggro end of the Aggro-Control spectrum than Monkey Grow (look, Ma! No Mana Leaks!). As a result, Simic Charm’s “defensive” modes lose value in this shell, whereas Snag’s point of damage and low cost make it ideal.

Yeah, I can see how your spell ecosystem could be disrupted by trying to shoe-horn a Spell Snare in there. However, I will say that my testing with a deck based on yours (while nowhere near as exhaustive) has shown me that 12 cantrips (Gitaxian Probe, Serum Visions, Thought Scour) and Day’s Undoing is probably enough, so I would go ahead and say cut the Sleight of Hand. I think it’s worth it, because it fends off Searing effects, Lightning Helix, and Terminate on the removal side, and Goyf, Bob, and a bunch of others on the opposing threat side. Just my opinion, though.

One thing that I forgot in my last comment, though… What happened to Simic Charm? You were a big proponent of it in your last iteration of Monkey Grow, but this one is featuring Vapor Snag instead. I’d love to hear your reasoning on this, even if it just boils down to “Vapor Snag is cheaper and that matters”. I think that it’s great, especially if you choose not to run Spell Snare (because then you could Shoal it to counter 2-drops), and it’s really your best answer to Decay.

Unfortunately, there’s no room for Snare in the mainboard and there are better “hate cards” to put into the side. What would you cut for it in the main 60? If we cut the sleights we also need to add a land which means 19 lands and 1 Snare. That incidentally lowers the Delver count and I don’t think it’s worth it to have a single Snare in the deck. Sleight has been really good to me, especially for finding CCX spells with a Shoal in hand after Probing (like digging for an Undoing when my opponent has a Liliana in grip so I can counter it). As for the “blind spot,” Shoal mostly just counters Bolts early (like after a turn 2 Pyromancer) and anything late (with all the mana).

Recall was sweet at the Saturday PPTQ over one Feed. I don’t think the Affinity matchup is bad. I’ll be testing Electrickery against Elves; Hibernation only wins me the game if I have a sizable army already, and it costs 3 mana. Trickery can kill a mana dork turn 1 which is huge, although it unfortunately doesn’t do much against an Archdruid (hope I have that Vapor Snag!). Still, wiping boards of Heritage, Llanowar, Mystic, Visionary, etc. seems sweet, and the card has applications vs. Affinity as well.

1. I assume you have tested Spell Snare in this deck? Based on your spell lineup, your Shoal’s “blind spot” seems to be CMC2 spells, which would be covered nicely by this card. Have you felt like you haven’t needed it, or do you think it’s unproductive to focus this much on counterspells?

2. I’m surprised to see no Hurkyl’s Recall or Hibernation in your board. I think those would go a long way toward patching the Elves and Affinity matchups (even if they are a bit more mana-intensive than what is ideal). I think they’re at least worth a test. What say you?

This exact situation has happened to me before (mostly against Grixis Control, a highly favorable matchup) and I’ve won each time. The play is to Bolt your opponent, play a land, and Undoing again. Being ahead on the board isn’t the only situation in which Undoing is bonkers – if you’re ahead on damage, it will also probably win you the game. An active Pyromancer, a freshly drawn Swiftspear, and even the Vapor Snags you rip can dole out damage after an Undoing in addition to Lightning Bolt and Forked Bolt (if you’re post-board). If the board is empty, or if my opponent empties it, I’m perfectly happy drawing into Bolts, bounce spells, and Undoings, because it means I get free reach.

While I appreciate your interest in the topic, I won’t go over points already discussed (and diffused) in the article.

similar vs Bloom, if there’s an Amulet of Vigor on the field and you cast Day’s Undoing you are probably commiting suicide

for what it does with affinity/burn/infect/merfolks/elves and any decent agro I won’t even comment, you’ll probably die 1-2 turns after casting it

so maybe it’s a card that’s only good vs BGx and the decks that would play it already have a decent match vs BGx therefore do not need it?

I don’t disagree that if people are running days undoing you can’t be the guy durdling around eking out value on electrolyzes and colonnades. What I guess remains to be seen is whether you want to be the guy running day’s undoing against other linear decks.

Is it not just as likely that the existing linear decks push day’s undoing out of the format – leaving the grixis/jeskai/jund/abzan decks to eke out their 2-for-1s in peace?

I agree the card is more skill intensive than it looks – there’s times you shouldn’t cast it at all, times where you need to wait, etc. But boy does it feel stupid when my opponent just 1-for-1s my threats for the first 3 turns and then I’m looking at a hand of day’s undoing and lightning bolt vs his hand of 2 unknown cards. Am I really confident that if we basically reset the game with 4 lands in play and both of us down 5 life or so that this is going to be a good thing for me? Feels like a bit of a dice roll everytime, although less so if I have a solid board or they’re at low enough life that I’m confident 7 cards will deal 6 damage.

You might have some success with Hooting Mandrills, but there really is no substitute for Tarmogoyf.

NVM forgot terravore isn’t modern legal, so I need a new suggestion completely lol

ATM I only have 1 goyf and don’t have the cash to drop on another but this deck looks very fun, especially because I pulled a foil Day’s Undoing yesterday. Do you think Terravore is at least a somewhat suitable replacement in this deck, or is there anything better you could recommend possibly switching goyf out for instead?

Like Monkey Grow, this is an especially skill-intensive deck that forces players to put in a lot of hours before they start reaping rewards. I currently have about 40 hours with the deck, but I still learned a ton about piloting it even today, and I’m not even close to finished learning. Matt played the same 75 (minus two sideboard cards) in the PPTQ this afternoon and got pretty discouraged after going 1-2, but that’s pretty much the best you can expect for a deck like this if you’re new to it.

You’re correct in pointing out that Elves is a hard matchup and I’m working on a solution to it at the moment. I beat it yesterday on my way to the finals, but lost to it in Top 8 today (more on these games in my article next Friday). I think I’ve “solved” the Affinity matchup, though I need a little more testing to be sure, and Burn is highly favorable already (as outlined above).

The reason Day’s Undoing could redefine the format is that it’s good enough in aggro decks to push slower strategies out of the format. Elves is obviously not a deck that gets pushed out by Day’s Undoing. I’m not saying Modern will get turned upside-down, just that Day’s Undoing will make it much faster.

It’s easy to underestimate a card, or to prematurely consider a single day of testing representative of a deck’s viability. The only way to defeat the decks you mentioned (Elves, Burn, Affinity) is to put in a lot of games with them and to experience the intricacies of each matchup. You may know of this kung fu adage: ‘I can show you the path, but I cannot walk it for you.’ I’ll try to help readers understand my ideas, but to share my success, they must dedicate their own time and energy to learning the deck.

For a card that’s supposed to redefine the format it’s patently unplayable vs 2 of the top decks and the deck that most recently won a major event (coco elves).

Why do all that work if you don’t need to?

No. The only reason to go white IMO is Seeker of the Way + Mutagenic Growth but Tarmogoyf is just way too good not to play in this format.

No, when a card says “End the turn,” SBAs are checked before we skip to the cleanup step, which is when damage is removed. Check Gatherer.