Cragganwick Cremator Stomps Over Modern
Modern is a weird place, where anything and everything can find success once or twice. Even decks that use the most odd, off-the-wall cards can do well, including this list from the October 21 Modern Challenge that leverages Cragganwick Cremator.
This deck has a lot of weird choices, like Ghalta, Magus, and Impervious Greatwurm, but the deck plays really well considering all the weird stuff it’s trying to do, and plays mostly as a RG stompy list that has a nice synergy with Cremator + any big creature, giving you up to 16 damage off of the trigger, which is often enough to kill an opponent in combination with their own fetches and shocks alone. The Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarchs are great for mana fixing, and Hierarch makes all of our stompy creatures just a little bit better.
Lightning Bolt is one of the best removal spells ever printed and gives us some extra reach, while Eldritch Evolution gives us another great tutor for our higher-cost targets like Surrak and Cremator. Our lands are pretty heavy into duals for a two color deck that splashes white, since the deck sometimes needs turn three triple green into turn four double red. Cavern of Souls gives us extra fixing, with a lot of our deck being Humans, and Kessig Wolf Run is a great way to push through damage.
In the sideboard, we have an extra Cavern of Souls for control, an extra Scavenging Ooze for graveyard decks, Alpine Moon to deal with Tron, and Caldera Hellion to clear away the opposing board. Damping Sphere helps with Tron and Storm, Eidolon of Rhetoric slows down Storm, and Kitchen Finks keeps burn at bay. Linvala is good at holding off opposing activated abilities, Reclamation Sage is great against affinity and random enchantments, and Relic of Progenitus is an extra hedge against graveyard strategies, Shattering Spree is great at taking out multiple artifacts, and Slagstorm is great for dealing with armies of small creatures. Finally, we have Wall of Reverence to gain us life with all of our big creatures.
Tips:
- If you need to push through damage, Impervious Greatwurm can be evolved into Ghalta. You lose indestructible, but gain Ghalta’s trample.
- Fauna Shaman is a terrific tutor, getting you Greatwurms when you need something to pitch, Cremator when you need to push through extra damage, Tracker when you need the cards, Scavenging Ooze when you need life, or anything else you might need to grab in a pinch, including just something like Steel Leaf Champion for the beats.
- When you want to grab a four drop with Eldritch Evolution, you can sacrifice Strangleroot Geist, since it’ll be brought back immediately with a +1/+1 counter on it.
- You can play a turn one mana dork into a turn two Eldritch Evolution to grab Magus of the Moon from your deck, which is very effective against decks like Tron.
All in all, the deck plays like a Stompy list that also has a potential combo finish, forcing the opponent to respect both of your gameplans and acknowledge the fact that you can win on an empty board. The deck is a lot of fun, and has some great Johnny and Timmy elements. Give it a shot, and I’m sure you’ll find something to love about it.
