So the goal is to cast (yes cast!) emrakul on turn 4. Meaning you take an extra turn and can destroy 6 permanents!
The combo works by casting ornithopter with possibility storm on the battle field, the only other creature in the deck is emrakul.... so you may cast him without paying his mana cost.
The deck is fairly resilient to hate because of the 12 tutors. If you accidentally draw the emrakul you can shuffle it back in with a faithless looting. If they make you discard the ornithopter you can always get it back with the academy ruins (which of course is tutorable with tolaria West).
Possibility Storm is an insanely powerful combo engine on its own. Assuming you can resolve the enchantment itself (which is admittedly the challenge), you are almost guaranteed to win thereafter. Let me quickly go over the impressive strengths of this card and its combo strategy. As will be shown, a deck built around this card is going to be well positioned to win.
1. Possibility Storm is virtually immune to spell-based removal
To get rid of offending enchantments, players use cards like Krosan Grip, Nature's Claim, Deglamer, Echoing Truth/Wipe Away, and Maelstrom Pulse. The problem is, once Possibility Storm hits the battlefield, your opponent can't actually cast those cards. Storm just exiles the card and makes them cast something else, like a useless Path to Exile, Serum Visions, or something else. Players sideboard in between 4-6 copies of these removal spells to deal with enchantments, but in order to actually resolve those cards against an active Storm, you need to get lucky and actually "storm" into one. You can't have one in your hand. This makes the enchantment itself almost invulnerable to conventional removal, which means once it gets out, you don't need to combo instantly.
2. If you have both Storm and your Thopter in hand, your opponent can't even use permanent-based removal to stop the combo Qasali Pridemage is a real danger for enchantment-based combos. But like Hive Mind, once you get Storm onto the battlefield, there is no window of priority for your opponent to blast away Storm with a Pridemage. The spell resolves and priority returns to you. Then you cast Thopter and the the Storm trigger goes on the stack. Even if your opponent uses something like Pridemage to kill the Storm, you will still dig for your Emrakul. This gives the deck big game against both Pod and Naya decks.
3. Unless your opponent counters the Storm itself, countermagic won't stop the rest of the combo
Once Storm is on the field, countermagic can't stop you from winning. Even if Thopter is countered, its casting will still trigger the Storm to dig for Emrakul. Emrakul himself is uncounterable. And that's assuming that your opponent could even cast the spells reliably, which they can't with Storm on the battlefield.
4. The combo doesn't use the graveyard
As much as I love graveyard based combos (see signature), I acknowledge that they are very risky in a Deathrite Shaman metagame. This guy is everywhere, in the maindeck of Jund, Pod, Naya, Elves, and a variety of other decks. Heck, even Burn is starting to run him! And that doesn't even count the sideboard removal we see in Relic of Progenitus and other cards. Any combo deck that avoids the graveyard will have a leg up in those matchups.
5. The combo is immune to conventional removal
The nice thing about Cthulhu is that he doesn't care about Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Terminate, or any of the other removal spells we see in Modern. A lot of other combo decks rely on vulnerable creatures as part of their win condition, such as Goblin Electromancer, Griselbrand, Melira, Heritage Druid/Nettle Sentinel, Blighted Agent, etc. Emrakul just slithers/flies/floats across and doesn't care what removal you are playing. Sure, we need to be careful of sacrifice effects, but there are ways around that (and Cthulhu can easily just run over Liliana).
All of these reasons contribute to a very strong underlying deck strategy. As a final note, the deck is going to be winning no earlier than turn 4, so we don't have to worry too much about a big, mean banhammer getting slammed down on our new baby. The question is, can we make it work in practice in the Modern metagame?
I think that the answer is a definite "Yes". The Modern cardpool has the tools needed to make this deck a real contender. Without doing any testing, here are the cards off the top of my head that need to be a part of this deck. The OP has already done a good job of giving a starting point for the deck, so I am repeating some of his earlier card choices.
Prism is a card that does not get enough Modern love. It is one of the last, perhaps only, spells in Modern that accelerates you by two mana on turn 3. It enables an improbable and theoretical turn 3 win with this deck, if you can draw both Storm and your solo Thopter. More importantly, it sets up an almost guaranteed turn 4 win with the potential for countermagic backup. Desperate Ritual gets the nod over Pyretic just because of the splice mechanic.
The OP did a good job in identifying these tutors as the best cards for the job. They have the added bonus of fitting very well into our curve, both castable on turn 3 in setup for a turn 4 win. TW should definitely get a slot in the deck, but I wouldn't put too many in lest it mess with the manabase.
The only thing I am adding to the OPs list is the awesome Izzet Charm. This card is just too darn versatile to pass up. It digs, it counters, it kills offending creatures, and it does all that at instant speed and at only 2 mana.
This is really where I want to take the OPs deck suggestion to the next level. If we are already running 4 Emrakuls, there is no reason to not throw in a redundant win condition for the sake of resilience. This gives the deck the possibility of a turn 3 Emrakul off of Faithless --> Goryo's Vengeance, which will give us more than enough time to stabilize the board for our eventual Possibility Storm win. The redundant win conditions also give good options for a transformational sideboard (subbing out Storm for more creatures like Griselbrand or Worldspine Wurm), and give us added resilience to discard effects. For now I am going to stick with just Through the Breach to keep us on two colors and so we don't need to use slots on the Faithless. But that might end up being a better option after testing.
Here's a tentative and untested decklist based on these ideas:
Definitely an exciting deck idea and card. I plan on testing this baby out later and will report back with preliminary results.
EDIT: As a final note, I like the idea of running a singleton Emrakul along with Faithless Looting to get him back in the deck. But I don't much like Looting as a draw engine (without the Vengeance synergy), and I also like the idea of having redundancy with Through the Breach. So the ultimate Emrakul count should probably be 3 instead of 4, but testing will be able to reveal these flaws in time.
That's a really good idea! Although for one, I don't think Goryo's Vengeance works here, since Emrakul goes immediately back into your deck And there are a lot of Emrakul win-cons, but I think this thread we should mainly stick to Possibility Storm+Ornithopter. Awesome deck!
That's a really good idea! Although for one, I don't think Goryo's Vengeance works here, since Emrakul goes immediately back into your deck And there are a lot of Emrakul win-cons, but I think this thread we should mainly stick to Possibility Storm+Ornithopter. Awesome deck!
As with Modern Reanimator, the key is to discard Emrakul via Faithless Looting and then, with his reshuffle trigger on the stack, cast Goryo's Vengenace to bring him back and swing. It's a 3 card combo that can't happen before turn 3, but it would give the deck some early punch (and it has already demonstrated success in other decks). But that doesn't mean it is suitable for this deck.
The one problem I foresee with your choice of tutorable creatures aka ornithopter is that you're actually more likely to get a pentad prism with it and not necessarily the emrakul you're going for. Maybe Wild cantor instead?
The one problem I foresee with your choice of tutorable creatures aka ornithopter is that you're actually more likely to get a pentad prism with it and not necessarily the emrakul you're going for. Maybe Wild cantor instead?
Yes, that is definitely a huge problem with the Prisms. The solution is either to cut them out entirely or to run a different creature. Unfortunately, Modern has no non-artifact creatures that cost 0, and I think that it is very important to activate Possibility Storm on the turn you cast it. So the obvious solution is to get rid of the Prisms, and although I like their acceleration, they are probably not worth going with a more expensive creature.
The other free creature who is (barely) worth mentioning is the god awful Allosaurus Rider, who could maybe be used in tandem with Summoner's Pact. Unfortunately, to cast the dino without mana requires a lot of green cards, and this deck strategy doesn't really lend itself to green.
There is another solution, however, that cpu_doom gets at in his post...
If you play green you can get Time of Need. It can tutor for either Emrakul or a one-drop legendary as your one other creature in the deck (probably Norin the Wary or Rhys the Redeemed).
...
I'm not really sure about any of the other numbers but being able to search up both creatures with one card seems like a big advantage.
I was thinking of the Time of Need tutor as well, but I was wary, so to speak, about building around a creature that can't get out on turn 4 with the Possibility Storm. To be competitive, this deck needs either a lot of stabilization and control elements to go off later, or it needs to be reliably winning by turn 4. If Seething Song were still legal, then I would be totally on board with this plan. Between Song and Prism, there would be a good chance of having 6 mana available on turn 4. But with just Prism in the mix, this is a lot less likely. Waiting until turn 5 in this format is a bad idea, even if we are packing removal like Charm/Bolt and some countermagic.
If we have to wait a turn to cast Norin for a turn 5 win, the deck becomes a bad Hive Mind. But if we can reliably get Norin out there with the Possibility Storm on turn 4, the deck really starts to come together.
That begs the question; how can we reliably have 6 mana on turn 4?
With both Bloom and Prism in the deck, we have a very good left over to get out Norin. Song would have been better, but beggars can't be choosers. Using Time of Need also smooths out our curve. Turn 1 we can play a draw spell and/or suspend Bloom. Turn 2 we can tutor for Norin and/or play Prism. Turn 3 we can tutor for the enchantment or Norin, or play a Prism. Turn 4 we can win off of that previously cast Prism or the suspended Bloom.
Here's what I have so far. I'm loving the Lovecraft themes with the crazy little Norin accidentally summoning a giant Emrakul.
Still ironing out the numbers. I'd love to squeeze a Lightning Bolt or 3 in there, which might mean cutting down the TfBs and the Charms to 3 each (they say that 3 is the new 4). I am also sad that the current build cuts out Idyllic Tutor and white mana generally; having Silence in the sideboard is a really nice option. Maybe there is a way to squeeze that back in, but I am worried about having a manabase that is too crazy.
A worry I currently have is vulnerability to Abrupt Decay. When played on a Prism or Bloom during our turn 4 upkeep, this is a big blowout. The old build used Desperate Ritual to get out Storm on turn 4, but the new build can't do the same thing and expect to follow up that Ritual with a Norin (again, it's too bad Song is gone). So this is something to think about in future discussion of the deck.
If you use pact, you can get a hit off of Dryad Arbor, since you can't technically respond to a land drop. Not sure if it counts as casting a spell though.
Too much redundancy. It'd be quicker to include "free" spells like Noxious Revival to get cards back. Also, you need more ramp. I'd be inclined to play a deck that has a faster clock than loads and loads of redundancy. I would build the typical ramp package of Hive Mind into this deck, then use the flex slots for redundancy.
If you use pact, you can get a hit off of Dryad Arbor, since you vcan't technically respond to a land drop. Not sure if it counts as casting a spell though.
Dryad arbor says it's not a spell right on the card.
I really like possibility storm. It's really ridiculous and impossible to answer. Too bad playing against tron they'll probably cascade into something better than your stuff. It's also pretty useless against PW. Since people generally only run one guy.
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Dryad arbor says it's not a spell right on the card.
I really like possibility storm. It's really ridiculous and impossible to answer. Too bad playing against tron they'll probably cascade into something better than your stuff. It's also pretty useless against PW. Since people generally only run one guy.
Yeah, you have to combo off the same turn you land Possibility Storm against RG Tron, or else it has a good chance of casting Karn Liberated flipping Karn Liberated and booting the enchantment.
It is unfortunate that if you run Ornithopter you can't also run Lotus Blooms since you may end up "cascading" into them instead of Emrakul. It also means that Norin the Wary is more viable for the potential turn three ramp.
Thoughts on Glittering Wish as a redundancy option? Works with loads of other multi colour one drops.
Yeah, you have to combo off the same turn you land Possibility Storm against RG Tron, or else it has a good chance of casting Karn Liberated flipping Karn Liberated and booting the enchantment.
This underscores the need to reliably combo out on the same turn that you cast Storm. We have two options that achieve this goal:
Package 1, although cool in its incorporation of Time of Need, is a lot less resilient than Package 2, with its instant speed acceleration. Package 1 is very vulnerable to both Abrupt Decay and Qasali Pridemage, and that is a worrisome set of weaknesses. On the other hand, Package 1 has a lot of redundancy with alternate win conditions (perhaps too much redundancy, some would say).
Testing is ultimately going to be the factor that will distinguish one route as the superior option.
Tolaria West is uncounterable and can act as a land drop in a pinch. It can also tutor for Academy Ruins in case they make you discard your singleton Ornithopter.
This seems much better than Hive Mind. I've been playing the Time of Need package and I've had the deck be very consistent. You have 8 cards that combo (which is much more than just 4 Hive Mind) and instead of playing pacts you get Norin + Emrakul + Time of Need. I'm able to assemble one of the two combos in almost every game. The biggest issue is acceleration. Lotus Bloom is nuts on turns 1-2 but after that it's pretty much a dead draw. I would replace it with Desperate Ritual but the card doesn't speed the deck up enough to warrant replacing Lotus Bloom. The only solution I can see is just maxing out on Izzet Charm, it should be maxed out anyways, and maybe playing 2 Thirst for Knowledge to discard the dead Lotus Blooms.
Also, Lotus Bloom can get around an upkeep Abrupt Decay if you can use it to cast Through the Breach.
cpu_doom mentioned a few of the reasons as to why this combo is stronger than Hive Mind, or at least some key advantages over its competitor. I am just going to elaborate on and restate some of his points:
1. Possibility Storm/Ornithopter is online a turn earlier than Hive Mind
In order to get its own enchantment out on turn 4 at 6 CMC, Hive Mind needs to rely on Lotus Bloom/Pentad Prism (both vulnerable to Abrupt Decay and countermagic), or having redundant acceleration of Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, and Simian Spirit Guide. Possibility Storm just needs a single ritual on turn 4 to get out Storm. This means Storm can dedicate fewer slots to acceleration, and that it can more consistently combo out a turn earlier.
2. Emrakul and Through the Breach provide redundant win conditions
Hive Mind dedicates 8 slots to Pact and Hive Mind. If it wants to add in redundancy, it needs to use a totally different win condition. For Storm, Emrakul itself serves as the backup plan in tandem with Breach.
3. We can cast half of our win condition (Storm) without the other half in our hand; it will protect itself
Casting Hive Mind without Pact backup is a risky decision. It leaves you tapped out and vulnerable to spell-based removal. But Storm defends itself against spells (not against Pod, however). Moreover, even after Storm is in play we can still tutor up our Thopter using the awesome Tolaria West transmute synergy (this interaction is really crazy in the deck).
Now, on to the deck and the cards itself.
Tolaria West
I can't overstate how strong this card is in our deck. For one, it's an uncounterable tutor for half of our win condition. It also doubles as a mana source which helps smooth out our card choices and curve. TW also tutors up Academy Ruins to resurrect a discarded Thopter. But most importantly, we can use it to tutor Thopter AFTER we cast Storm. This means we can play turn 4 Storm and transmute into a turn 5 Thopter on a stabilized board. Of course, we need to run Thopter for TW to be in the deck, so that's a consideration in itself.
And in case it needed to be mentioned, don't run Fabricate.
Ancient Stirrings
One of the problems with Time of Need is that it forces us to use Norin the Wary as our second half of the win condition. Norin brings the cost of the combo up to 6 mana, and that puts us on a clock with Hive Mind. Given that one of our key advantages is a turn 4 "win", we don't want to be pushing that back too much. But that said, Time of Need helps us tutor for Emrakul for the Breach win condition.
Ancient Stirrings fixes this problem in the Thopter build. In fact, it doesn't just fix the problem, it outright solves it. It digs for Thopter. It digs for Emrakul. It digs for Tolaria West. It digs for Academy Ruins. It mana fixes. It isn't a pure tutor, true, but given all the other card draw we use (not to mention the redundancy with tutors), this shouldn't be much of a problem.
Lotus Bloom/Pentad Prism < Desperate Ritual/Pyretic Ritual:
Prism and Bloom are critical in the Norin build, but counterproductive in the Thopter build. Unfortunately, their vulnerability to a staple of Jund (Abrupt Decay) and two staples of Pod (Harmonic Silver/Qasali Pridemage) make me very wary of using them. Redundant Blooms are also totally useless if you draw them later, whereas redundant Rituals might even allow you to combo off as early as turn 3 (or cast Possibility Storm with countermagic backup). I have only done about 20 test games so far, but I am currently strongly leaing towards the Ritual package.
Gitaxian Probe
I'm not sold on this, but here's my logic for its consideration. One of the problems in this deck is probability. To be honest, it's a problem in every deck, particularly combo. But it's even worse in our deck because we can only run 1 copy of Thopter instead of the customary 4 combo pieces. Probe accomplishes two functions. First, it improves our odds of drawing Thopter or dig spells. Second, it gives us information. Possibility Storm is most vulnerable when cast, and Probe can give us the information we need to cast it at an opportune time.
Again, I'm not convinced that this is a good inclusion, especially if we already have a slot problem. But it's worth thinking about.
Still tinkering with some decklist ideas, but I will say that I am increasingly leaning towards the Thopter/Ritual/Ancient Stirrings package over the Norin/Time of Need/Bloom/Prism one.
Hrm. Something bothers me about this deck. It is pretty "Glass Cannon". I mean to say it protects itself better than most "Glass Cannon" builds, yet lacks the explosiveness of those builds.
It needs another wincon.
Planeswalker maybe? It'd have to be red or blue or both.
Koth of the Hammer, Ral Zarek?
Either case is a potential timewalk.
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You would be better off taking advantage of the things this deck already has to give you consistency/protection. For example, you could quite easily slip a blood moon into the sideboard to fetch up with idyllic tutor to really screw over the opponents that can stop you (I imagine these to be control variants, mostly)
the non crature morph spells would also be good (zoetic caver(auto 4),whetwheel(can tutors/be alternative wincon)and lumithread field(tutor). theyre slower but it means you can play more copies of the morph.
Right away I wanted to break this card. So here's what I came up with:
The Combo:
The Tutors:
The Dig:
The Rituals:
The Land:
So the goal is to cast (yes cast!) emrakul on turn 4. Meaning you take an extra turn and can destroy 6 permanents!
The combo works by casting ornithopter with possibility storm on the battle field, the only other creature in the deck is emrakul.... so you may cast him without paying his mana cost.
The deck is fairly resilient to hate because of the 12 tutors. If you accidentally draw the emrakul you can shuffle it back in with a faithless looting. If they make you discard the ornithopter you can always get it back with the academy ruins (which of course is tutorable with tolaria West).
Comment with your thoughts and side board ideas.
Not true for most tier one decks, but it does need to be sped up a little bit.
1. Possibility Storm is virtually immune to spell-based removal
To get rid of offending enchantments, players use cards like Krosan Grip, Nature's Claim, Deglamer, Echoing Truth/Wipe Away, and Maelstrom Pulse. The problem is, once Possibility Storm hits the battlefield, your opponent can't actually cast those cards. Storm just exiles the card and makes them cast something else, like a useless Path to Exile, Serum Visions, or something else. Players sideboard in between 4-6 copies of these removal spells to deal with enchantments, but in order to actually resolve those cards against an active Storm, you need to get lucky and actually "storm" into one. You can't have one in your hand. This makes the enchantment itself almost invulnerable to conventional removal, which means once it gets out, you don't need to combo instantly.
2. If you have both Storm and your Thopter in hand, your opponent can't even use permanent-based removal to stop the combo
Qasali Pridemage is a real danger for enchantment-based combos. But like Hive Mind, once you get Storm onto the battlefield, there is no window of priority for your opponent to blast away Storm with a Pridemage. The spell resolves and priority returns to you. Then you cast Thopter and the the Storm trigger goes on the stack. Even if your opponent uses something like Pridemage to kill the Storm, you will still dig for your Emrakul. This gives the deck big game against both Pod and Naya decks.
3. Unless your opponent counters the Storm itself, countermagic won't stop the rest of the combo
Once Storm is on the field, countermagic can't stop you from winning. Even if Thopter is countered, its casting will still trigger the Storm to dig for Emrakul. Emrakul himself is uncounterable. And that's assuming that your opponent could even cast the spells reliably, which they can't with Storm on the battlefield.
4. The combo doesn't use the graveyard
As much as I love graveyard based combos (see signature), I acknowledge that they are very risky in a Deathrite Shaman metagame. This guy is everywhere, in the maindeck of Jund, Pod, Naya, Elves, and a variety of other decks. Heck, even Burn is starting to run him! And that doesn't even count the sideboard removal we see in Relic of Progenitus and other cards. Any combo deck that avoids the graveyard will have a leg up in those matchups.
5. The combo is immune to conventional removal
The nice thing about Cthulhu is that he doesn't care about Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Terminate, or any of the other removal spells we see in Modern. A lot of other combo decks rely on vulnerable creatures as part of their win condition, such as Goblin Electromancer, Griselbrand, Melira, Heritage Druid/Nettle Sentinel, Blighted Agent, etc. Emrakul just slithers/flies/floats across and doesn't care what removal you are playing. Sure, we need to be careful of sacrifice effects, but there are ways around that (and Cthulhu can easily just run over Liliana).
All of these reasons contribute to a very strong underlying deck strategy. As a final note, the deck is going to be winning no earlier than turn 4, so we don't have to worry too much about a big, mean banhammer getting slammed down on our new baby. The question is, can we make it work in practice in the Modern metagame?
I think that the answer is a definite "Yes". The Modern cardpool has the tools needed to make this deck a real contender. Without doing any testing, here are the cards off the top of my head that need to be a part of this deck. The OP has already done a good job of giving a starting point for the deck, so I am repeating some of his earlier card choices.
ACCELERATION
Prism is a card that does not get enough Modern love. It is one of the last, perhaps only, spells in Modern that accelerates you by two mana on turn 3. It enables an improbable and theoretical turn 3 win with this deck, if you can draw both Storm and your solo Thopter. More importantly, it sets up an almost guaranteed turn 4 win with the potential for countermagic backup. Desperate Ritual gets the nod over Pyretic just because of the splice mechanic.
TUTORS
The OP did a good job in identifying these tutors as the best cards for the job. They have the added bonus of fitting very well into our curve, both castable on turn 3 in setup for a turn 4 win. TW should definitely get a slot in the deck, but I wouldn't put too many in lest it mess with the manabase.
DIG/DRAW
The only thing I am adding to the OPs list is the awesome Izzet Charm. This card is just too darn versatile to pass up. It digs, it counters, it kills offending creatures, and it does all that at instant speed and at only 2 mana.
ALTERNATE WIN CONDITIONS
This is really where I want to take the OPs deck suggestion to the next level. If we are already running 4 Emrakuls, there is no reason to not throw in a redundant win condition for the sake of resilience. This gives the deck the possibility of a turn 3 Emrakul off of Faithless --> Goryo's Vengeance, which will give us more than enough time to stabilize the board for our eventual Possibility Storm win. The redundant win conditions also give good options for a transformational sideboard (subbing out Storm for more creatures like Griselbrand or Worldspine Wurm), and give us added resilience to discard effects. For now I am going to stick with just Through the Breach to keep us on two colors and so we don't need to use slots on the Faithless. But that might end up being a better option after testing.
Here's a tentative and untested decklist based on these ideas:
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 City of Brass
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
2 Island
4 Steam Vents
1 Desolate Lighthouse
2 Tolaria West
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Ornithopter
Acceleration
3 Desperate Ritual
3 Pentad Prism
Win Conditions
3 Through the Breach
4 Possibility Storm
Dig, Draw, & Tutor
3 Izzet Charm
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Fabricate
3 Idyllic Tutor
2 Spell Pierce
Definitely an exciting deck idea and card. I plan on testing this baby out later and will report back with preliminary results.
EDIT: As a final note, I like the idea of running a singleton Emrakul along with Faithless Looting to get him back in the deck. But I don't much like Looting as a draw engine (without the Vengeance synergy), and I also like the idea of having redundancy with Through the Breach. So the ultimate Emrakul count should probably be 3 instead of 4, but testing will be able to reveal these flaws in time.
As with Modern Reanimator, the key is to discard Emrakul via Faithless Looting and then, with his reshuffle trigger on the stack, cast Goryo's Vengenace to bring him back and swing. It's a 3 card combo that can't happen before turn 3, but it would give the deck some early punch (and it has already demonstrated success in other decks). But that doesn't mean it is suitable for this deck.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Maybe something like this:
1 Breeding Pool
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Island
1 Desolate Lighthouse
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Norin the Wary
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Combo:
4 Possibility Storm
4 Through the Breach
Acceleration:
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pentad Prism
Search:
4 Time of Need
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
4 Izzet Charm
2 Spell Pierce
I'm not really sure about any of the other numbers but being able to search up both creatures with one card seems like a big advantage.
Yes, that is definitely a huge problem with the Prisms. The solution is either to cut them out entirely or to run a different creature. Unfortunately, Modern has no non-artifact creatures that cost 0, and I think that it is very important to activate Possibility Storm on the turn you cast it. So the obvious solution is to get rid of the Prisms, and although I like their acceleration, they are probably not worth going with a more expensive creature.
The other free creature who is (barely) worth mentioning is the god awful Allosaurus Rider, who could maybe be used in tandem with Summoner's Pact. Unfortunately, to cast the dino without mana requires a lot of green cards, and this deck strategy doesn't really lend itself to green.
There is another solution, however, that cpu_doom gets at in his post...
I was thinking of the Time of Need tutor as well, but I was wary, so to speak, about building around a creature that can't get out on turn 4 with the Possibility Storm. To be competitive, this deck needs either a lot of stabilization and control elements to go off later, or it needs to be reliably winning by turn 4. If Seething Song were still legal, then I would be totally on board with this plan. Between Song and Prism, there would be a good chance of having 6 mana available on turn 4. But with just Prism in the mix, this is a lot less likely. Waiting until turn 5 in this format is a bad idea, even if we are packing removal like Charm/Bolt and some countermagic.
If we have to wait a turn to cast Norin for a turn 5 win, the deck becomes a bad Hive Mind. But if we can reliably get Norin out there with the Possibility Storm on turn 4, the deck really starts to come together.
That begs the question; how can we reliably have 6 mana on turn 4?
The answer is Lotus Bloom.
With both Bloom and Prism in the deck, we have a very good left over to get out Norin. Song would have been better, but beggars can't be choosers. Using Time of Need also smooths out our curve. Turn 1 we can play a draw spell and/or suspend Bloom. Turn 2 we can tutor for Norin and/or play Prism. Turn 3 we can tutor for the enchantment or Norin, or play a Prism. Turn 4 we can win off of that previously cast Prism or the suspended Bloom.
Here's what I have so far. I'm loving the Lovecraft themes with the crazy little Norin accidentally summoning a giant Emrakul.
1 Mountain
2 Island
4 City of Brass
1 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Steam Vents
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Stomping Ground
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Breeding Pool
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Norin the Wary
Win
4 Through the Breach
4 Possibility Storm
Search
4 Izzet Charm
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Time of Need
3 Pentad Prism
4 Lotus Bloom
Disruption
2 Spell Pierce
Still ironing out the numbers. I'd love to squeeze a Lightning Bolt or 3 in there, which might mean cutting down the TfBs and the Charms to 3 each (they say that 3 is the new 4). I am also sad that the current build cuts out Idyllic Tutor and white mana generally; having Silence in the sideboard is a really nice option. Maybe there is a way to squeeze that back in, but I am worried about having a manabase that is too crazy.
A worry I currently have is vulnerability to Abrupt Decay. When played on a Prism or Bloom during our turn 4 upkeep, this is a big blowout. The old build used Desperate Ritual to get out Storm on turn 4, but the new build can't do the same thing and expect to follow up that Ritual with a Norin (again, it's too bad Song is gone). So this is something to think about in future discussion of the deck.
Too much redundancy. It'd be quicker to include "free" spells like Noxious Revival to get cards back. Also, you need more ramp. I'd be inclined to play a deck that has a faster clock than loads and loads of redundancy. I would build the typical ramp package of Hive Mind into this deck, then use the flex slots for redundancy.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Dryad arbor says it's not a spell right on the card.
I really like possibility storm. It's really ridiculous and impossible to answer. Too bad playing against tron they'll probably cascade into something better than your stuff. It's also pretty useless against PW. Since people generally only run one guy.
Currently playing:
GCasual 8-post
R Casual Land Destruction
UBRWG Legacy Dredge
WGB Modern Melira Pod
RUG EDH
Yeah, you have to combo off the same turn you land Possibility Storm against RG Tron, or else it has a good chance of casting Karn Liberated flipping Karn Liberated and booting the enchantment.
Thoughts on Glittering Wish as a redundancy option? Works with loads of other multi colour one drops.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
This underscores the need to reliably combo out on the same turn that you cast Storm. We have two options that achieve this goal:
Package 1:
Package 2:
Package 1, although cool in its incorporation of Time of Need, is a lot less resilient than Package 2, with its instant speed acceleration. Package 1 is very vulnerable to both Abrupt Decay and Qasali Pridemage, and that is a worrisome set of weaknesses. On the other hand, Package 1 has a lot of redundancy with alternate win conditions (perhaps too much redundancy, some would say).
Testing is ultimately going to be the factor that will distinguish one route as the superior option.
If we did cut the number of Ornithopter tutors I'd say Tolaria West is better than Fabricate.
Tolaria West is uncounterable and can act as a land drop in a pinch. It can also tutor for Academy Ruins in case they make you discard your singleton Ornithopter.
The Norin the Wary, Time of Need, Goryo's Vengeance package is interesting. I like the alternate wincon and it also lets us use those 'ritual' artifacts mentioned earlier.
I don't know which version is better yet however.
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Also, Lotus Bloom can get around an upkeep Abrupt Decay if you can use it to cast Through the Breach.
Also, you can double up your combo piece count with proteus staff.
Edit: I just realized this doesn't work with Storm, but I'll leave it for knowledge sake.
cpu_doom mentioned a few of the reasons as to why this combo is stronger than Hive Mind, or at least some key advantages over its competitor. I am just going to elaborate on and restate some of his points:
1. Possibility Storm/Ornithopter is online a turn earlier than Hive Mind
In order to get its own enchantment out on turn 4 at 6 CMC, Hive Mind needs to rely on Lotus Bloom/Pentad Prism (both vulnerable to Abrupt Decay and countermagic), or having redundant acceleration of Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, and Simian Spirit Guide. Possibility Storm just needs a single ritual on turn 4 to get out Storm. This means Storm can dedicate fewer slots to acceleration, and that it can more consistently combo out a turn earlier.
2. Emrakul and Through the Breach provide redundant win conditions
Hive Mind dedicates 8 slots to Pact and Hive Mind. If it wants to add in redundancy, it needs to use a totally different win condition. For Storm, Emrakul itself serves as the backup plan in tandem with Breach.
3. We can cast half of our win condition (Storm) without the other half in our hand; it will protect itself
Casting Hive Mind without Pact backup is a risky decision. It leaves you tapped out and vulnerable to spell-based removal. But Storm defends itself against spells (not against Pod, however). Moreover, even after Storm is in play we can still tutor up our Thopter using the awesome Tolaria West transmute synergy (this interaction is really crazy in the deck).
Now, on to the deck and the cards itself.
Tolaria West
I can't overstate how strong this card is in our deck. For one, it's an uncounterable tutor for half of our win condition. It also doubles as a mana source which helps smooth out our card choices and curve. TW also tutors up Academy Ruins to resurrect a discarded Thopter. But most importantly, we can use it to tutor Thopter AFTER we cast Storm. This means we can play turn 4 Storm and transmute into a turn 5 Thopter on a stabilized board. Of course, we need to run Thopter for TW to be in the deck, so that's a consideration in itself.
And in case it needed to be mentioned, don't run Fabricate.
Ancient Stirrings
One of the problems with Time of Need is that it forces us to use Norin the Wary as our second half of the win condition. Norin brings the cost of the combo up to 6 mana, and that puts us on a clock with Hive Mind. Given that one of our key advantages is a turn 4 "win", we don't want to be pushing that back too much. But that said, Time of Need helps us tutor for Emrakul for the Breach win condition.
Ancient Stirrings fixes this problem in the Thopter build. In fact, it doesn't just fix the problem, it outright solves it. It digs for Thopter. It digs for Emrakul. It digs for Tolaria West. It digs for Academy Ruins. It mana fixes. It isn't a pure tutor, true, but given all the other card draw we use (not to mention the redundancy with tutors), this shouldn't be much of a problem.
Lotus Bloom/Pentad Prism < Desperate Ritual/Pyretic Ritual:
Prism and Bloom are critical in the Norin build, but counterproductive in the Thopter build. Unfortunately, their vulnerability to a staple of Jund (Abrupt Decay) and two staples of Pod (Harmonic Silver/Qasali Pridemage) make me very wary of using them. Redundant Blooms are also totally useless if you draw them later, whereas redundant Rituals might even allow you to combo off as early as turn 3 (or cast Possibility Storm with countermagic backup). I have only done about 20 test games so far, but I am currently strongly leaing towards the Ritual package.
Gitaxian Probe
I'm not sold on this, but here's my logic for its consideration. One of the problems in this deck is probability. To be honest, it's a problem in every deck, particularly combo. But it's even worse in our deck because we can only run 1 copy of Thopter instead of the customary 4 combo pieces. Probe accomplishes two functions. First, it improves our odds of drawing Thopter or dig spells. Second, it gives us information. Possibility Storm is most vulnerable when cast, and Probe can give us the information we need to cast it at an opportune time.
Again, I'm not convinced that this is a good inclusion, especially if we already have a slot problem. But it's worth thinking about.
Still tinkering with some decklist ideas, but I will say that I am increasingly leaning towards the Thopter/Ritual/Ancient Stirrings package over the Norin/Time of Need/Bloom/Prism one.
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Norin the Wary
4 Possibility Storm
Ramp:
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Lotus Bloom
2 Pentad Prism
2 Pyretic Ritual
4 Idyllic Tutor
4 Time of Need
Dig:
4 Faithless Looting
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
Flex Slots:
2 Remand/Pyroclasm
Lands:
2 City of Brass
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
Not too sure about the land base.
Seems like Seachrome Coast is better than Hallowed Fountain. Needs more Stomping Grounds/Breeding Pools.Other alternatives to the Flex Slot would be Pyroclasm.
Also, drawing into Blooms is not bad. You can suspend them just in case something goes awry.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
It needs another wincon.
Planeswalker maybe? It'd have to be red or blue or both.
Koth of the Hammer, Ral Zarek?
Either case is a potential timewalk.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
It is worth giving it a play test run through.
My Modern decks:
B/R/G Living End G/R/B
G/R Tron R/G
U/W/G/R Gargageddon R/G/W/U
R/W/G Naya Burn G/W/R