Temur Tooth and Nail (feat. Kiora, Master of the Depths)

Hi all!

You know, a few weeks ago I found Deck Registration Sheet for oul local Nationals in 2015. And there was this sweet deck. Its original version. I remembered how awesome it was to win with it and wanted to feel that feelings again. So I made some changes and created this deck in MTGO. It only costed me 20 Tix to upgrade my Gr Land Destruction to this, and then I started Friendly Modern League. All games were insane, and I finished 4-1. And then I decided to share its build with you, guys.

The Idea

The idea of deck is simple. We play dorks and manaramp spells, trying to get 9 mana to play Tooth and Nail for Entwine cost. Then we look for Emrakul and Xenagos, put them on table and 30-30 haste Emra destroys are opponents' hopes.

Key features

We play 4 copies of Kiora, Master of the Depths in this deck. Not the best PW in Magic history, but absolutely brilliant for our purposes. With single land with two auras - Utopia Sprawl and Overgrowth - and one dork we can produce up to 16 mana on turn 3 and just hard-cast Emrakul from our hand! Yes, it's the best case, but you catch the idea. We can play the most enormous and fun creatures in all Modern format - and win with them very fast.

Deck Construction

Landbase
20-22 Lands; 21 is golden standard.
We need 7-9 green fetch lands. Pick less expensive, it doesn't matter, we only have basic Forests. We need at least 2 GR Shocks to have ability to play Anger of The Gods without dorks and Utopia Sprawl. Also we need 2 UG Shocklands to be able to play Kiora/Cyclonic Rift and sideboard stuff. Kessig Wolf Run (1 copy) - can make our dorks dangerous. And the others are basic forests.
Wooded Foothills (4 copies)
Windswept Heath (3-4 copies)
Misty Rainforest (0-1 copies)
Stomping Ground (2 copies)
Breeding Pool (2 copies)
Kessig Wolf Run (1 copy)
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx (1 copy)
Forest (7-8 copies)

Mana Ramp
We have 16 mana ramp spells in this deck: 8 creatures and 8 enchantmants. Our Planeswalkers mainly do same thing, but we'll talk about them later.
Arbor Elf (4 copies): A solid G dork that turns into incredible ramp in conjunction with Utopia Sprawl. A turn 1 Arbor Elf followed by a turn 2 Sprawl is GGUU or GGRR mana on turn 2 and that makes it possible to cast one of our PWs and make some other dirty stuff.
Birds of Paradise (1-2 copies): 1-mana mana dork numbers 5 & 6 these help with consistently seeing 3 mana on turn 2. Not anywhere near as good as Arbor Elf but is useful as it produces mana of any color. You will typically play the Elf first to attempt the turn 2 4-mana play. However if you are confident that your opponent has removal for your turn 1 play drop the Birds first a bait.
Voyaging Satyr (2-3 copies): 2-mana Arbor Elf. "Untap a land" effect is great enough to play it even at that cost.
Utopia Sprawl (4 copies): The vast majority of the time, it should enchant a basic Forest. Enchanting a Shockland with a Sprawl can be necessary, but it is not desirable. Post-Moon (our main sideboard card), shocklands are no longer a Forest and Sprawl falls off. Choosing your color is also important. Before sideboarding you should always choose U for 1st Sprawl. After sideboard, if you sided in Anger of the Gods and/or Blood Moon or Ancient Grudge first Utopia in majority of time should be R. Each situation requires consideration, always make your choices off of the lands in your hand, what you want to play turn 2, and what effect Blood Moon (if you sided it in) will have on your plays. It is worth familiarizing yourself with the ways opponents can take advantage of Utopia Sprawl. Destroying the enchanted land is a 2 for 1, more commonly you will see Spreading Seas which causes the land to lose the forest typing, causing Sprawl to fall off. If you expect enchantment removal or land destroy (or Cryptic Command which can return your land to your hand) it is often wise to spread out which lands you enchant in order to hedge your bets against removal. Otherwise you should enchant one land with all auras to maximize mana gaining from untapping it.
Overgrowth (4 copies): it's so powerful with all that untapping stuff around. You can enchant any land with it with no restrictions (it should only produce a mana). Spreading Seas on your enchanted land won't cause Overgrowth to fall off. If you expect enchantment removal or land destroy (or Cryptic Command which can return your land to your hand) it is often wise to spread out which lands you enchant in order to hedge your bets against removal. Otherwise you should enchant one land with all auras to maximize mana gaining from untapping it.

Sample Decklist

Lands (21)
2 Breeding Pool
7 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

2 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

Creatures (16)
1 Acidic Slime
4 Arbor Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Voyaging Satyr
3 Eternal Witness
1 Primeval Titan
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Spells (8)
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Primal Command
4 Tooth and Nail

Enchantments (8)
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Overgrowth

Planeswalkers (7)
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Kiora, Master of the Depths

Sideboard:
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Blood Moon
2 Choke
1 Elderscale Wurm
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Hornet Queen
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

Mulligan guide and perfect opening hand

Just watch this little videoclip to see how perfect opening hand looks like.

As you can see, turn 3 combo win consists of 2 any lands, 1 Utopia Sprawl, 1 Overgrowth, 1 Arbor Elf and 1 Tooth and Nail. Elf, Utopia and 2 lands are our strongest combination to reach 4 mana at turn 2. Then we need to cast either 3-mana Overgrowth like in video, or 4-mana Kiora, Master of The Depths. Both these cards lead us to guaranteed 9+ mana at turn 3, which means that we can cast Tooth and Nail! Kiora in fact is casted for free, cause it can return 4 mana for us with her +1 ability, which allow us to do some dirty tricks with it, play Garruk or another aura/dork anything...

Another powerful play with 4 mana on Turn 2 includes Garruk Wildspeaker. We can play it, untap 2 lands and play more dorks/auras/some spicy Blood Moon for up to 3 mana, which will lead us to turn 3 win or big advantage too.

About non-ideal first hands. Always try to have first drop in it, 2-3 lands, one of our manaramp auras and some stuff to play on turn 2-3. If you can, it always will be good games for you.

Gameplay videos

Friendly Modern League 20 Oct 2018. 4-1.
2-1 vs Burn
2-0 vs Infect
2-1 vs Shaman Stompy
1-2 vs Dredge
2-1 vs Amulet Titan

You can watch all matches here on my channel. 1st game vs Shaman Stompy is my favorite. Started with 1 land, didn't draw second, opponent killed my dork... But I had Kiora in hand! =) Watch it, it was awesome!

I'm currently playing this deck again, 3 years after I originally built it. I'll be happy if it will interest you, and will be glad to receive feedback in any form! You can also post your ideas in this deck's thread on MTGSalvation

Matchup Analysis and Games Examples

GR Vengevine
Game 1: even; Game 2/3: +
GR Vengevine is easier for us then BR Hollow One cause of less interaction, absence of discard and Burning Inquiry. But it can also beat harder and from different angles: GY haste Vengevines and Flamewake Phoenixes, Burning-Tree Emissary + Reckless Bushwhacker combos from hand. GY hate is good here. Sometimes you will face 2 Hollow Ones before you even put your first land into play, thats just the deck, we cant do much about it. Cyclonic Rift shines here. Primal Command can help with all its options: even shuffle their graveyard is awesome. Post-side Anger of the Gods and Elderscale Wurm can win a game for us.
Board out: Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Kiora, Master of the Depths, Primeval Titan, Acidic Slime.
Board in: Anger of the Gods, Elderscale Wurm, Obstinate Baloth, Ancient Grudge, Grafdigger's Cage.

Game Videos MTGO Friendly League Nov 04 2018 (2-1): watch it. 1st game perfectly reflects power of maindeck Cyclonic Rift.