This is my first post here on MTGSalvation, but I'll try not to ramble too much. The deck I have here today is a brew, and probably my favorite. It combines the Second Breakfast (AKA Eggs) deck with Scapeshift decks, which makes for an interesting experience. It wins by saccing and recurring lands via cards like Scapeshift and Splendid Reclamation, then ending the game with either Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle or Banefire. This post will be a combination deck post and mini-primer, so buckle up. We'll start off with the decklist.
Scapeshift: A classic, really. This guy does everything we want. It sacrifices lands, it adds lands to the combo, and is really the ideal sac spell in this deck.
Mana Seism: This is sac spell 5-8. It creates mana, is cheaper than Scapeshift, and is still a very good card in this deck.
Recursion:
Splendid Reclamation: The printing of this card is really what allows this deck to function. Whereas normal Eggs decks have Open the Vaults, we have this. And honestly, it's considerably better. At only four mana, we can run ourselves lower drawing than we could if we had to use Vaults. The best part about this is that, unlike Faith's Reward, Splendid Rec doesn't care if the lands hit the yard from the battlefield this turn or not. It just cares if they're there.
Faith's Reward: A staple of the current Eggs decks, this is recursion spell 5-8, and it's good at what it does.
Wincons:
Banefire: In an homage to Eggs, I decided to use this as one of our wincons. Traditional Eggs used Pyrite Spellbomb, but many lists nowadays win via this card. And it's no wonder why. With all the mana we generate, we can easily Banefire for lethal.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle: Oh look, our other wincon is also an homage, this time to Scapeshift. The Valakut win is nice because it's tutorable with Scapeshift, and saccing eight lands to get Valakut and seven mountains is always a valid strategy. You can also just keep sacrificing and recurring, and slowly Valakut your opponent out of the game.
Other Cards:
Bring to Light: This card is used in some Scapeshift builds, and fits perfectly here. Can can generate all five colors of mana, and only need four to turn this into a Sac spell or Recursion. It's versatile, and can be anything you need it to be (including a Lotus Cobra in a pinch).
Trade Routes: A nice little 2-mana enchantment that does pretty much everything we could ask for. This draws us cards, fills our yard with lands to be brought back with Splendid Reclamation, and helps us dig through our deck. Probably the best card for this purpose.
Lotus Cobra: A big combo piece. This lets us generate absurd amounts of mana, and is really the reason the combo works at all. Getting mana of any color is important, and the Cobra comes through.
Amulet of Vigor: Another big combo piece. This and Lotus Cobra share basically the same purpose, but getting both down is fantastic. This makes all your shocks painless, and untaps lands that enter due to Splendid Reclamation or Scapeshift. Absolutely the best Turn 1 play the deck can make (especially since it can't make any others).
The Lands:
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle: I talked about this in the wincon section. The possibility of a Valakut kill is a great thing, and it taps for red.
Stomping Ground, Steam Vents, Sacred Foundry, Mountain: These are all mountains, which is relevant for Valakut, and all but one of them can tap for an additional color (the one that can't being the lone Mountain). These help smooth out our colors, and an Amulet of Vigor basically turns these into ABUR duals.
Plains, Forest: We actually are able to run a few basics, especially with our land count being so high (28), and these are good early plays if we have a hand full of shocks and an Amulet. Also gives us something to go for if our Lotus Cobra gets hit by Path to Exile.
Horizon Canopy: Quite possibly the most important card in the deck. There are quite a few times where you won't have a Trade Routes on the board, but you still need some way to draw cards. This enters untapped, taps for two colors, and can provide us card draw. And, since it's a land, we can tutor it to the battlefield with Scapeshift.
Grove of the Burnwillows: Taps for green and red, or even colorless if we need it. The fact that it gives our opponent life is really irrelevant, since we either hit them for a lot of damage with Valakut, or the deck can hit with a Banefire on x >40 (and that's on the low side).
Gemstone Mine: In this deck, as long as you don't play this turn one, it's basically a five-color land with no drawback. We're constantly saccing and bringing back our lands, so the mine will always reset its counters.
Sideboard:
Before I get to into the cards here, keep in mind that this sideboard is very primative, and will need a lot of work before it gets where it needs to be.
Autumn's Veil: This is here for the matchups where our opponent is running some form of countermagic. Stops it dead in its tracks, and for just G, is really quite a nice card.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: This tree is fighting with Autumn's Veil for basically the same sideboard slot. This can be used on all of our recursion spells to stop them from being countered. The major drawback is that each one will cost us two life, which is definitely a noticeable cost.
So now that you've seen the list and card choices, let me explain the core of the combo. The deck wins on turn 3 or four typically, by using things like Scapeshift or Mana Seism to sacrifice our lands. Then, we can bring them all back with Splendid Reclamation and Faith's Reward. This, coupled with Lotus Cobra and/or Amulet of Vigor, give us the base of our loop. We get card draw via Horizon Canopy and Trade Routes. This is the base of our combo.
Good Hands
What a "good hand" is can vary considerably. A good hand generally looks something like this: A sac spell, a recursion spell, a way to produce mana (this means Cobra or Amulet), a way to draw, and some lands. Why am I not giving specific examples? Because giving a list of all the different "good hands" you could have would take ages. The deck has effectively 11 sac spells, 11 recursion spells, eight mana-producers, twelve ways to draw cards, and twenty eight lands, with some overlap between categories. What do I mean by this, you ask? Well, Trade Routes is our ideal card to have in the draw spot. However, if you have a Scapeshift, then you don't necessarily need a Trade Routes. Why? Because you can fetch a Horizon Canopy when you Scapeshift (assuming you also have an Amulet of Vigor down), which can take the place of Routes temporarily. I know I've done some very slow combos with my only draw engine being a lone Canopy, and while it isn't ideal, it works. In this same vein, one or more Horizon Canopys in your opener means you don't need a trade routes. This philosophy also applies to sac and recursion spells, which can be Bring to Lights.
Seer's Sundial: This used to be in the slot that Trade Routes holds now. I didn't know about Routes when I was first making this deck, and it ended up getting cut for just being too inefficient. You could use it in place of Trade Routes, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Tireless Tracker: This came in after Sundial went out. It cost one less mana, and we didn't have to immediately pay the 2 to draw cards. We could just wait. It also helped fill the curve of T1 Amulet, T2 Cobra, T3 this, T4 Scapeshift. This card was replaced by Trade Routes once I found out about it. Routes has a CMC of only two, and can't get bolted. Again, you could use this in place of Trade Routes. This is an okay replacement, and is usually better than Sundial.
Devastating Summons: I originally ran twelve sac spells in here. This card being 9-12. The card does nothing we want except for saccing lands. It can't generate mana, and the sacrifice is a cost, which leaves us completely dead to countermagic. A countered Scapeshift is a Time Walk. A countered Summons is 4+ time walks. Please, don't run this card.
Alternate Wincons: Door to Nothingness: Come on, who hasn't at one point or another, wanted to actually win a game with this card? Well, now you can. The deck can create any color of mana, so playing this and then activating it, all in the same turn, is quite easy, especially when you remember that we run four Amulet of Vigor. If you want to win with style, this is the way to go.
Tunneling Geopede: This little guy can grind an opponent out, and acts sort of like a miniature, less-selective Valakut. He's in our sideboard, so I'm not sure "alternate card choice" is really accurate, but it's close enough.
Conclusion
The deck has not had much testing. If you want to mess with it on Cockatrice, Xmage, or another program, go for it! And if you want to report back here with your results, please do. I have a feeling the deck is pretty weak in the current fast meta, but I'm sure the deck will be able to steal some games away. If you have any suggestions for the deck (and sideboard), please feel free to post them here. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
I am a huge fan of Splendid Reclamation and would love to see it work in Modern. Your list above is a start for sure, but I think it's trying to do too many things at once. My main concern is the manasink that is required to get it going and the lack of interaction that it has. Interactive decks are going to rip apart your gameplan and linear decks are going to outrace you. I'll try out the deck and see what I think of it rather than my first impressions and see what I think after.
It seems to me that a green land focused strategy should probably run some number of Primeval Titans. It's ramp, it's wincon, it's everything.
While this is true, I'm not really sure we want it unless we're planning on having the combo fizzle. Maybe going less all-out combo and more mini-combo-that-just-ramps-us-harder-than-normal-scapeshift could work here.
I am a huge fan of Splendid Reclamation and would love to see it work in Modern. Your list above is a start for sure, but I think it's trying to do too many things at once. My main concern is the manasink that is required to get it going and the lack of interaction that it has. Interactive decks are going to rip apart your gameplan and linear decks are going to outrace you. I'll try out the deck and see what I think of it rather than my first impressions and see what I think after.
I also love Reclamation, and it's one of the big reasons I decided to make this deck. By "manasink" do you mean Trade Routes? Because if so, I kind of have to agree. It sucks to have to use it, and I wish we could just draw off of our pieces entering the battlefield a la Eggs, but I haven't found a way to make that work.
Did some minor testing and this deck seriously lacks draw power to do an eggs style win. It's great if you can get a trade routes into seism and faiths reward effect, but that hand isn't likely.I think you want to play a card like Hedron crab and more fetches to accelerate and get a bunch of lands in the grave. I'd also play Faithless looting to sculpt your hand early and dump unneeded cards. Dakmor Salvage is a fun interaction with trade routes as well, because you can discard and then immediately dredge for 2 as many times as you can pay one mana. If you want a win con that works from the grave and is a mana sink, try Devil's Play or Increasing Confusion. Confusion has the added bonus of being insane gas while combing off.
Take out 1 forest, 1 plains, and 1 Grove for 3 fetchlands that can target mountains. These work great with cobra to make lots of mana. And mid combo they'll add quite a bit more lands to the mix.
No, since he is in green Autumn's Veil is a much better choice if protecting the combo is the plan. Veil allows the to waste mana by casting the counter or removal then prevents the effect in a since.
Silence is the better catch all since it can be boarded in to stop silly decks from doing their thing. If room allows I'd suggest running both, but if the deck can get to moving faster then Veil could emerge the better choice.
I think Charbelcher was a suggestion for when you empty your library of lands. Not too sure and don't know if that has ever happened with enough cards left to actually deal enough to win. A variant could be made that uses more fetches to thin the deck out a lot after each reclomation. IDK
Did some minor testing and this deck seriously lacks draw power to do an eggs style win. It's great if you can get a trade routes into seism and faiths reward effect, but that hand isn't likely.I think you want to play a card like Hedron crab and more fetches to accelerate and get a bunch of lands in the grave. I'd also play Faithless looting to sculpt your hand early and dump unneeded cards. Dakmor Salvage is a fun interaction with trade routes as well, because you can discard and then immediately dredge for 2 as many times as you can pay one mana. If you want a win con that works from the grave and is a mana sink, try Devil's Play or Increasing Confusion. Confusion has the added bonus of being insane gas while combing off.
As for what you said about Silence, the idea here is that the deck can cast Veil after our opponent drops a counter, effectively "countering" their counter. Silence could be good too, it would just be played at the beginning of the combo turn instead of the end. Actually, maybe Pact of Negation would fill that slot better.
EDIT 2: I've been playing with this idea, and I'm still not sure how it draws cards. Then again, I also don't play Dredge, so maybe I'm missing something here. The other problem could very well be that I'm just running the wrong cards. I successfully comboed off once so far. This is going to need some tweaking.
Take out 1 forest, 1 plains, and 1 Grove for 3 fetchlands that can target mountains. These work great with cobra to make lots of mana. And mid combo they'll add quite a bit more lands to the mix.
No, since he is in green Autumn's Veil is a much better choice if protecting the combo is the plan. Veil allows the to waste mana by casting the counter or removal then prevents the effect in a since.
Silence is the better catch all since it can be boarded in to stop silly decks from doing their thing. If room allows I'd suggest running both, but if the deck can get to moving faster then Veil could emerge the better choice.
I think Charbelcher was a suggestion for when you empty your library of lands. Not too sure and don't know if that has ever happened with enough cards left to actually deal enough to win. A variant could be made that uses more fetches to thin the deck out a lot after each reclomation. IDK
The fetches sound nice. I also wanted some number of Flagstones of Trokair, but I'm not terribly good with mana bases and that ended in disaster. Needing plains for flagstones + mountains for Valakut didn't go over well. Charbelcher seems a bit unnecessary.
It's not the direction of your deck at all, but if I were to run something that tried to get lands into the graveyard I'd be playing something similar to Dradge with Cathartic Reunion and some dredgecards to essentially mill 20 cards on turn 2. It really seems to be the fastest way to fill your yard in any sense, but at that point why aren't you just playing dredge....
A while ago, before Splendid Reclamation was spoiled I was thinking of ways to use the Tron lands. Scapeshift into tron lands can be a thing, and you only need 1 of each land. Same for milling them then using Life From the Loam to get them all back in one card. That is some idea that could potentially be worked with.
In the OP you already mention Amulet of Vigor and how it interacts with Splendid Reclamation, but if you are running Amulet then why not also run bouncelands like Bloom Titan did? It 'doubles' your mana and we will only need to reanimate 3 lands for it to get absurd with an amulet out. A deck that plays like Bloom Titan and some Goryo's Reanimator could happen from this.
Been Testing on cockatrice the Deck needs something for sure but it is fun. I Ran it without Blue and therefor With clues. Also Edge of autum?
I thought about Edge of Autumn, and dismissed it earlier on. Now, I'm not so sure. It certainly seems to fit. Its tipping point is 4 lands, which is perfect. I'll have to look into it. By without blue and with clues, you mean tracker? How'd that go for you?
It's not the direction of your deck at all, but if I were to run something that tried to get lands into the graveyard I'd be playing something similar to Dradge with Cathartic Reunion and some dredgecards to essentially mill 20 cards on turn 2. It really seems to be the fastest way to fill your yard in any sense, but at that point why aren't you just playing dredge....
A while ago, before Splendid Reclamation was spoiled I was thinking of ways to use the Tron lands. Scapeshift into tron lands can be a thing, and you only need 1 of each land. Same for milling them then using Life From the Loam to get them all back in one card. That is some idea that could potentially be worked with.
In the OP you already mention Amulet of Vigor and how it interacts with Splendid Reclamation, but if you are running Amulet then why not also run bouncelands like Bloom Titan did? It 'doubles' your mana and we will only need to reanimate 3 lands for it to get absurd with an amulet out. A deck that plays like Bloom Titan and some Goryo's Reanimator could happen from this.
I just made a full "Splendid Dredge" version, and with what I made (a modified Dredge engine, with some pieces replaced with ours, plus a lot more lands). It could deal anywhere from 36-48 damage consistently on turn 5. The problem is that it won on turn five, which is just a bit too slow. I'm sure some tweaks could be made to fix this. I just need to figure out what those tweaks are. For reference, here's the list I ran:
This deck wins by just dredging like there's no tomorrow, followed by a Mystic Retrieval that returns Splendid Reclamation. Consistent turn five wins were had. It was actually pretty fun (I might have to start playing Dredge now).
The tron idea is certainly interesting. Maybe some sort of controlling build that uses urza's lands as a wincon? I've thought about running bouncelands, but quite frankly they scare me in the early combo. If we're comboing off with a lone Lotus Cobra and no amulets, these kill it. Let's say we have two bouncelands down on turn four (which is a typical rate with bouncelands). When we recur these for the first time, they get bounced, and then we have nothing left to sac. They may have a place in the deck, but I don't think it's in large quantities by any means.
Yes I mean tracker if I got to Splendid or scape shift even if it was only 4 lands it producer an insane amount of potential draw but it is kinda weak to removal
I think it's nice, but Saffron is more on the self-mill plan, whereas I'm working on a combo-style plan. I like what he did with the deck, but I'm not sure it really carries over here.
I like your idea!
Did you think about Crumbling Vestige and Vesuva?
Maybe can help the main strategy... Crumbling Vestige can be a 2 mana land with amulet or cobra and a three mana land with cobra and amulet.
If you have some lands but not enough for a valakut you can scapeshift for 3 Crumbling Vestige or Vesuva and have 6+ mana
I like your idea!
Did you think about Crumbling Vestige and Vesuva?
Maybe can help the main strategy... Crumbling Vestige can be a 2 mana land with amulet or cobra and a three mana land with cobra and amulet.
If you have some lands but not enough for a valakut you can scapeshift for 3 Crumbling Vestige or Vesuva and have 6+ mana
What do you think?
Vesuva gets a solid maybe out of me, but the fact that I didn't think of Crumbling Vestige is forcing me to rethink my life. That card can allow you to combo off safely on T3, and, as you pointed out, is great to Scapeshift for.
Has anyone here considered Animist's Awakening? Seems like a great ramp spell in a deck that is half lands and it does the untappkng for us with spell mastery.
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Has anyone here considered Animist's Awakening? Seems like a great ramp spell in a deck that is half lands and it does the untappkng for us with spell mastery.
I was thinking about that card recently. The factor of randomness could definitely hurt it, but I think it just might have a spot as a 1- or 2-of.
Has anyone here considered Animist's Awakening? Seems like a great ramp spell in a deck that is half lands and it does the untappkng for us with spell mastery.
I was thinking about that card recently. The factor of randomness could definitely hurt it, but I think it just might have a spot as a 1- or 2-of.
There's going to be better ways for getting lands into play. You are better off playing Harrow, Sakura-Tribe Elder, or Khalni Heart Expedition. To make Animist's Awakening really be worth it you will need some really good luck, or be sinking 5-6 mana into it and that's just something that you can't really afford to be doing in Modern.
Has anyone here considered Animist's Awakening? Seems like a great ramp spell in a deck that is half lands and it does the untappkng for us with spell mastery.
I was thinking about that card recently. The factor of randomness could definitely hurt it, but I think it just might have a spot as a 1- or 2-of.
There's going to be better ways for getting lands into play. You are better off playing Harrow, Sakura-Tribe Elder, or Khalni Heart Expedition. To make Animist's Awakening really be worth it you will need some really good luck, or but sinking 5-6 mana into it and that's just something that you can't really afford to be doing in Modern.
I would be very interested to see an updated list for the deck, to try it out online.
I'm currently bouncing back and forth between two lists. The main difference is that one uses Trade Routes and the other uses Edge of Autumn. Someone on reddit suggested a switch to 2x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and zero Banefire, so I'll need to test that as well. Anyway, here are the decks.
Overview:
This is my first post here on MTGSalvation, but I'll try not to ramble too much. The deck I have here today is a brew, and probably my favorite. It combines the Second Breakfast (AKA Eggs) deck with Scapeshift decks, which makes for an interesting experience. It wins by saccing and recurring lands via cards like Scapeshift and Splendid Reclamation, then ending the game with either Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle or Banefire. This post will be a combination deck post and mini-primer, so buckle up. We'll start off with the decklist.
Decklist
1x Banefire
3x Bring to Light
4x Mana Seism
4x Scapeshift
4x Splendid Reclamation
Enchantment:
4x Trade Routes
Creature:
4x Lotus Cobra
Instants:
4x Faith's Reward
Artifacts:
4x Amulet of Vigor
2x Forest
3x Gemstone Mine
4x Grove of the Burnwillows
4x Horizon Canopy
1x Mountain
2x Plains
4x Sacred Foundry
3x Steam Vents
4x Stomping Ground
1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4x Autumn's Veil
3x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
2x Tunneling Geopede
Card Choices
Sacrifice:
Scapeshift: A classic, really. This guy does everything we want. It sacrifices lands, it adds lands to the combo, and is really the ideal sac spell in this deck.
Mana Seism: This is sac spell 5-8. It creates mana, is cheaper than Scapeshift, and is still a very good card in this deck.
Recursion:
Splendid Reclamation: The printing of this card is really what allows this deck to function. Whereas normal Eggs decks have Open the Vaults, we have this. And honestly, it's considerably better. At only four mana, we can run ourselves lower drawing than we could if we had to use Vaults. The best part about this is that, unlike Faith's Reward, Splendid Rec doesn't care if the lands hit the yard from the battlefield this turn or not. It just cares if they're there.
Faith's Reward: A staple of the current Eggs decks, this is recursion spell 5-8, and it's good at what it does.
Wincons:
Banefire: In an homage to Eggs, I decided to use this as one of our wincons. Traditional Eggs used Pyrite Spellbomb, but many lists nowadays win via this card. And it's no wonder why. With all the mana we generate, we can easily Banefire for lethal.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle: Oh look, our other wincon is also an homage, this time to Scapeshift. The Valakut win is nice because it's tutorable with Scapeshift, and saccing eight lands to get Valakut and seven mountains is always a valid strategy. You can also just keep sacrificing and recurring, and slowly Valakut your opponent out of the game.
Bring to Light: This card is used in some Scapeshift builds, and fits perfectly here. Can can generate all five colors of mana, and only need four to turn this into a Sac spell or Recursion. It's versatile, and can be anything you need it to be (including a Lotus Cobra in a pinch).
Trade Routes: A nice little 2-mana enchantment that does pretty much everything we could ask for. This draws us cards, fills our yard with lands to be brought back with Splendid Reclamation, and helps us dig through our deck. Probably the best card for this purpose.
Lotus Cobra: A big combo piece. This lets us generate absurd amounts of mana, and is really the reason the combo works at all. Getting mana of any color is important, and the Cobra comes through.
Amulet of Vigor: Another big combo piece. This and Lotus Cobra share basically the same purpose, but getting both down is fantastic. This makes all your shocks painless, and untaps lands that enter due to Splendid Reclamation or Scapeshift. Absolutely the best Turn 1 play the deck can make (especially since it can't make any others).
The Lands:
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle: I talked about this in the wincon section. The possibility of a Valakut kill is a great thing, and it taps for red.
Stomping Ground, Steam Vents, Sacred Foundry, Mountain: These are all mountains, which is relevant for Valakut, and all but one of them can tap for an additional color (the one that can't being the lone Mountain). These help smooth out our colors, and an Amulet of Vigor basically turns these into ABUR duals.
Plains, Forest: We actually are able to run a few basics, especially with our land count being so high (28), and these are good early plays if we have a hand full of shocks and an Amulet. Also gives us something to go for if our Lotus Cobra gets hit by Path to Exile.
Horizon Canopy: Quite possibly the most important card in the deck. There are quite a few times where you won't have a Trade Routes on the board, but you still need some way to draw cards. This enters untapped, taps for two colors, and can provide us card draw. And, since it's a land, we can tutor it to the battlefield with Scapeshift.
Grove of the Burnwillows: Taps for green and red, or even colorless if we need it. The fact that it gives our opponent life is really irrelevant, since we either hit them for a lot of damage with Valakut, or the deck can hit with a Banefire on x >40 (and that's on the low side).
Gemstone Mine: In this deck, as long as you don't play this turn one, it's basically a five-color land with no drawback. We're constantly saccing and bringing back our lands, so the mine will always reset its counters.
Sideboard:
Before I get to into the cards here, keep in mind that this sideboard is very primative, and will need a lot of work before it gets where it needs to be.
Autumn's Veil: This is here for the matchups where our opponent is running some form of countermagic. Stops it dead in its tracks, and for just G, is really quite a nice card.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: This tree is fighting with Autumn's Veil for basically the same sideboard slot. This can be used on all of our recursion spells to stop them from being countered. The major drawback is that each one will cost us two life, which is definitely a noticeable cost.
Tunneling Geopede: This guy comes in if our opponent is running Leyline of Sanctity. It gets around hexproof, and you can almost always just swap out Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and Banefire for it.
Guide to Playing the Deck
Core Combo
What a "good hand" is can vary considerably. A good hand generally looks something like this: A sac spell, a recursion spell, a way to produce mana (this means Cobra or Amulet), a way to draw, and some lands. Why am I not giving specific examples? Because giving a list of all the different "good hands" you could have would take ages. The deck has effectively 11 sac spells, 11 recursion spells, eight mana-producers, twelve ways to draw cards, and twenty eight lands, with some overlap between categories. What do I mean by this, you ask? Well, Trade Routes is our ideal card to have in the draw spot. However, if you have a Scapeshift, then you don't necessarily need a Trade Routes. Why? Because you can fetch a Horizon Canopy when you Scapeshift (assuming you also have an Amulet of Vigor down), which can take the place of Routes temporarily. I know I've done some very slow combos with my only draw engine being a lone Canopy, and while it isn't ideal, it works. In this same vein, one or more Horizon Canopys in your opener means you don't need a trade routes. This philosophy also applies to sac and recursion spells, which can be Bring to Lights.
Alternate Card Choices
Seer's Sundial: This used to be in the slot that Trade Routes holds now. I didn't know about Routes when I was first making this deck, and it ended up getting cut for just being too inefficient. You could use it in place of Trade Routes, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Tireless Tracker: This came in after Sundial went out. It cost one less mana, and we didn't have to immediately pay the 2 to draw cards. We could just wait. It also helped fill the curve of T1 Amulet, T2 Cobra, T3 this, T4 Scapeshift. This card was replaced by Trade Routes once I found out about it. Routes has a CMC of only two, and can't get bolted. Again, you could use this in place of Trade Routes. This is an okay replacement, and is usually better than Sundial.
Devastating Summons: I originally ran twelve sac spells in here. This card being 9-12. The card does nothing we want except for saccing lands. It can't generate mana, and the sacrifice is a cost, which leaves us completely dead to countermagic. A countered Scapeshift is a Time Walk. A countered Summons is 4+ time walks. Please, don't run this card.
Alternate Wincons:
Door to Nothingness: Come on, who hasn't at one point or another, wanted to actually win a game with this card? Well, now you can. The deck can create any color of mana, so playing this and then activating it, all in the same turn, is quite easy, especially when you remember that we run four Amulet of Vigor. If you want to win with style, this is the way to go.
Tunneling Geopede: This little guy can grind an opponent out, and acts sort of like a miniature, less-selective Valakut. He's in our sideboard, so I'm not sure "alternate card choice" is really accurate, but it's close enough.
Matchups (Coming Soon!)
Coming Soon!
Conclusion
The deck has not had much testing. If you want to mess with it on Cockatrice, Xmage, or another program, go for it! And if you want to report back here with your results, please do. I have a feeling the deck is pretty weak in the current fast meta, but I'm sure the deck will be able to steal some games away. If you have any suggestions for the deck (and sideboard), please feel free to post them here. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
External Links:
Tappedout Decklist
Reddit Discussion of the Deck
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
I'm afraid I don't really understand the purpose of adding belcher? In a deck this full of lands?
While this is true, I'm not really sure we want it unless we're planning on having the combo fizzle. Maybe going less all-out combo and more mini-combo-that-just-ramps-us-harder-than-normal-scapeshift could work here.
I also love Reclamation, and it's one of the big reasons I decided to make this deck. By "manasink" do you mean Trade Routes? Because if so, I kind of have to agree. It sucks to have to use it, and I wish we could just draw off of our pieces entering the battlefield a la Eggs, but I haven't found a way to make that work.
Also, if you're running white, isn't Silence better than autumn's veil?
No, since he is in green Autumn's Veil is a much better choice if protecting the combo is the plan. Veil allows the to waste mana by casting the counter or removal then prevents the effect in a since.
Silence is the better catch all since it can be boarded in to stop silly decks from doing their thing. If room allows I'd suggest running both, but if the deck can get to moving faster then Veil could emerge the better choice.
I think Charbelcher was a suggestion for when you empty your library of lands. Not too sure and don't know if that has ever happened with enough cards left to actually deal enough to win. A variant could be made that uses more fetches to thin the deck out a lot after each reclomation. IDK
So your "Dredgeshift" sounds interesting. I'm thinking Faithless Looting, Dakmor Salvage, along with perhaps Oona's Grace and Flame Jab? I think Ancient Grudge would be very good in the sideboard for this deck. Desperate Ravings and Memory's Journey could fit in this shell, along with Think Twice and Mystic Retrieval. Maybe even Past in Flames. Obviously we wouldn't run all of these, but there very well may be a shell here.
As for what you said about Silence, the idea here is that the deck can cast Veil after our opponent drops a counter, effectively "countering" their counter. Silence could be good too, it would just be played at the beginning of the combo turn instead of the end. Actually, maybe Pact of Negation would fill that slot better.
EDIT: Also, perhaps Noxious Revival?
EDIT 2: I've been playing with this idea, and I'm still not sure how it draws cards. Then again, I also don't play Dredge, so maybe I'm missing something here. The other problem could very well be that I'm just running the wrong cards. I successfully comboed off once so far. This is going to need some tweaking.
The fetches sound nice. I also wanted some number of Flagstones of Trokair, but I'm not terribly good with mana bases and that ended in disaster. Needing plains for flagstones + mountains for Valakut didn't go over well. Charbelcher seems a bit unnecessary.
A while ago, before Splendid Reclamation was spoiled I was thinking of ways to use the Tron lands. Scapeshift into tron lands can be a thing, and you only need 1 of each land. Same for milling them then using Life From the Loam to get them all back in one card. That is some idea that could potentially be worked with.
In the OP you already mention Amulet of Vigor and how it interacts with Splendid Reclamation, but if you are running Amulet then why not also run bouncelands like Bloom Titan did? It 'doubles' your mana and we will only need to reanimate 3 lands for it to get absurd with an amulet out. A deck that plays like Bloom Titan and some Goryo's Reanimator could happen from this.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
I thought about Edge of Autumn, and dismissed it earlier on. Now, I'm not so sure. It certainly seems to fit. Its tipping point is 4 lands, which is perfect. I'll have to look into it. By without blue and with clues, you mean tracker? How'd that go for you?
I just made a full "Splendid Dredge" version, and with what I made (a modified Dredge engine, with some pieces replaced with ours, plus a lot more lands). It could deal anywhere from 36-48 damage consistently on turn 5. The problem is that it won on turn five, which is just a bit too slow. I'm sure some tweaks could be made to fix this. I just need to figure out what those tweaks are. For reference, here's the list I ran:
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Life from the Loam
3 Darkblast
3 Dakmor Salvage
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cathartic Reunion
4 Burning Inquiry
Win Package:
3 Splendid Reclamation
2 Mystic Retrieval
3 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Stomping Ground
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blood Crypt
4 Smoldering Marsh
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
This deck wins by just dredging like there's no tomorrow, followed by a Mystic Retrieval that returns Splendid Reclamation. Consistent turn five wins were had. It was actually pretty fun (I might have to start playing Dredge now).
The tron idea is certainly interesting. Maybe some sort of controlling build that uses urza's lands as a wincon? I've thought about running bouncelands, but quite frankly they scare me in the early combo. If we're comboing off with a lone Lotus Cobra and no amulets, these kill it. Let's say we have two bouncelands down on turn four (which is a typical rate with bouncelands). When we recur these for the first time, they get bounced, and then we have nothing left to sac. They may have a place in the deck, but I don't think it's in large quantities by any means.
Yeah, that's kinda what I thought of it too.
Oh. I clicked on him. Says banned in modern....
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/against-the-odds-splendid-valakut-modern
I think it's nice, but Saffron is more on the self-mill plan, whereas I'm working on a combo-style plan. I like what he did with the deck, but I'm not sure it really carries over here.
Did you think about Crumbling Vestige and Vesuva?
Maybe can help the main strategy... Crumbling Vestige can be a 2 mana land with amulet or cobra and a three mana land with cobra and amulet.
If you have some lands but not enough for a valakut you can scapeshift for 3 Crumbling Vestige or Vesuva and have 6+ mana
What do you think?
Vesuva gets a solid maybe out of me, but the fact that I didn't think of Crumbling Vestige is forcing me to rethink my life. That card can allow you to combo off safely on T3, and, as you pointed out, is great to Scapeshift for.
I was thinking about that card recently. The factor of randomness could definitely hurt it, but I think it just might have a spot as a 1- or 2-of.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Hm...definitely a good point.
I would be very interested to see an updated list for the deck, to try it out online.
Current Decklist- https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/732750#online
Sideboard Guide- https://www.scribd.com/document/384901650/Sideboard-Guide-to-Squeeflagrate
Forum- https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/582542-raphael-levys-loam-pox?page=37
I'm currently bouncing back and forth between two lists. The main difference is that one uses Trade Routes and the other uses Edge of Autumn. Someone on reddit suggested a switch to 2x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and zero Banefire, so I'll need to test that as well. Anyway, here are the decks.
1 Banefire
4 Amulet of Vigor
3 Bring to Light
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Faith's Reward
4 Scapeshift
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Trade Routes
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Mana Seism
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Steam Vents
1 Mountain
1 Forest
3 Gemstone Mine
2 Plains Avon
4 Stomping Ground
3 Crumbling Vestige
1 Banefire
4 Amulet of Vigor
3 Bring to Light
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Faith's Reward
4 Scapeshift
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Edge of Autumn
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Mana Seism
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Steam Vents
1 Mountain
1 Forest
3 Gemstone Mine
2 Plains Avon
4 Stomping Ground
3 Crumbling Vestige
And hey, if you wanna report back with suggestions and how the deck did, It would be greatly appreciated.