I really digging the uncommon planeswalkers in WAR. I think a couple will see Modern use, especially when I saw Narset, Parter of Veils. Yes it's Modern Leovold, Emissary of Trest. I'm not saying it will be seeing tourney play but throwing out a deck build to lock out the opponent's hand/library. The key combo here is with Teferi's Puzzle Box coming down turn 4, burying the opponent's hand with no cards in hand the next turn.
The rundown is to play control for the first 2 turns while you set up Narset and Puzzle Box.
The Rack is a win-con and you can always beat them with Delver if you're able to bounce their creatures back to their hand to be buried. I put Thing in the Ice in here mainly for the transform ability Awoken Horror to bounce all non-horror creatures. This would likely be flipped later in the game once the Puzzle Box has been played.
T1: land, (Rack, Delver, Spell Pierce, or Serum Visions)
T2: land, (Thing in the Ice against creature heavy decks, or hold for counter)
T3: land, Narset
T4: land, Puzzle Box
Opponent's hand gets dumped into the library and can't draw any cards since they drew once already from their draw step. Only cards in play are the issue.
T5: land, bounce, draw, use cycling on Censor if needed. Basically clear way for creature damage or rack damage.
There are a surprising number of decks that can get out under these spells though. Decks like burn can still race early game and have inevitability in the late game. This the clock is pretty slow. Not sure how to fix it.
Yeah, I fully understand the clock is slow for the two card "lock", hence this would be a low tier deck if it amount to anything. Only defense against early burn spells are counter spells or Leyline of Sanctity in opening hand. Bouncing a land on turn 2 could throw off some decks to get the lock in place. Blue discard would be Piracy Charm, and originally I imagined this deck being UB but felt for the few discard spells I reverted to mono-Blue.
Howling Mine was originally included but I favored putting a full set of Thing in the Ice for creature defense and a future bounce payoff on the transform. Would consider to back it down to 2 each. Gigadrowse could have potential to help stall and cheap spell to remove ice counter. I should put more 1CMC spells to respond when I'm most vulnerable.
While the lock idea is extremely cool, I'm not super crazy about the execution for two reasons:
First, the deck has a lot of dead or underwhelming cards in games where Narset doesn't show up, dies immediately, is discarded, is countered, etc. A Puzzle Box without Narset ranges from being a symmetrical digging tool to a powerful accelerant that empowers dredge and turns lands into gas. The Rack is horrible in a deck that has more in common with Owling Mine than 8rack without the lock. Bounce is cute, but it's ultimately a band-aid without a means to capitalize. I think the Mono-U Delver plan B could use some fine-tuning.
Second, you run 18 lands in a deck that needs to hit its fourth land drop, preferably on curve, to execute its game plan. You have some card draw and a bit of Xerox stuff going on, but that's no guarantee with a land count that low. Not being able to grab mana with Narset's -2 also hurts.
Wheel of Sun and Moon + Flux Channeler = recycling your bounce while charging Narset back up with proliferation after each noncreature spell you cast.
I think finding a wincon that gets better from flux channeler would be a good idea instead of using the rack. I think The Rack will be hard to win with, considering you'll keep bouncing cards back to your opponent's hand.
If you are trying to stick to Mono-U, you should easily be able to have 2-4 Geier Reach Sanitarium in your mana. Otherwise, I would recommend splashing white for Spirit of the Labyrinth for redundancy of effect.
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Current Decks:
MODERN: RG Shamanism RG WUG Blades of the Avatars WUG
The rundown is to play control for the first 2 turns while you set up Narset and Puzzle Box.
4 Teferi's Puzzle Box
4 The Rack
4 Remand
4 Boomerang
4 Eye of Nowhere
4 Serum Visions
3 Spell Pierce
3 Censor
4 Thing in the Ice
4 Delver of Secrets
17 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
The Rack is a win-con and you can always beat them with Delver if you're able to bounce their creatures back to their hand to be buried. I put Thing in the Ice in here mainly for the transform ability Awoken Horror to bounce all non-horror creatures. This would likely be flipped later in the game once the Puzzle Box has been played.
T1: land, (Rack, Delver, Spell Pierce, or Serum Visions)
T2: land, (Thing in the Ice against creature heavy decks, or hold for counter)
T3: land, Narset
T4: land, Puzzle Box
Opponent's hand gets dumped into the library and can't draw any cards since they drew once already from their draw step. Only cards in play are the issue.
T5: land, bounce, draw, use cycling on Censor if needed. Basically clear way for creature damage or rack damage.
dictate of kuphrix or howling mine
]c]gigadrowse[/c]
exhaustion
There are a surprising number of decks that can get out under these spells though. Decks like burn can still race early game and have inevitability in the late game. This the clock is pretty slow. Not sure how to fix it.
Howling Mine was originally included but I favored putting a full set of Thing in the Ice for creature defense and a future bounce payoff on the transform. Would consider to back it down to 2 each.
Gigadrowse could have potential to help stall and cheap spell to remove ice counter. I should put more 1CMC spells to respond when I'm most vulnerable.
4 Teferi's Puzzle Box
3 The Rack
2 Howling Mine
4 Remand
4 Boomerang
2 Eye of Nowhere
2 Vapor Snag
4 Serum Visions
3 Spell Pierce
3 Censor
3 Thing in the Ice
4 Delver of Secrets
17 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
First, the deck has a lot of dead or underwhelming cards in games where Narset doesn't show up, dies immediately, is discarded, is countered, etc. A Puzzle Box without Narset ranges from being a symmetrical digging tool to a powerful accelerant that empowers dredge and turns lands into gas. The Rack is horrible in a deck that has more in common with Owling Mine than 8rack without the lock. Bounce is cute, but it's ultimately a band-aid without a means to capitalize. I think the Mono-U Delver plan B could use some fine-tuning.
Second, you run 18 lands in a deck that needs to hit its fourth land drop, preferably on curve, to execute its game plan. You have some card draw and a bit of Xerox stuff going on, but that's no guarantee with a land count that low. Not being able to grab mana with Narset's -2 also hurts.
I think finding a wincon that gets better from flux channeler would be a good idea instead of using the rack. I think The Rack will be hard to win with, considering you'll keep bouncing cards back to your opponent's hand.
Maybe try out Exhaustion?
MODERN:
RG Shamanism RG
WUG Blades of the Avatars WUG
LEGACY:
WUBRG Cascabalance WUBRG
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