1. This is a combo control deck so basically the Main Idea is to wipe the board (wrath of gods) and established the threat (using Nahiri) or suspend a lot of creature (durkwood baloth, greater gargadon, and riftwing cloudskate) and wipe the board
2. Cascade into restore balance allow u to control the opponent cards in hands and also his/her lands. The lands destruction is not the deck main priority. Its main priority is number 1
3. Usually u want to be able to produce 4 manna after u do restore balance.
3. There 2 best combination for our lands to start well that are Sacred Foundry and Breeding Pool or Steam Vents and Temple Garden
4. Most of the time if u can start before the play with gemstone caverns with it luck counter do it
5. Sequencing is REALLY VITAL for the deck to control the game. Example scenario such as do you sac the lands or creatures using greater gargadon first before u do cascade into restore balance or not (remember do not make greater gargadon out from suspend before restore balance resolves)
6. Sigarda host of herons (2WGG) kills this deck absolutely (remember that when u facing Eldritch Evolution deck)
7. Because this is 4 color deck BE VERY CAREFUL when u pick the mana base for your spell (such as the mana for dismember)
8. Most of the time if u facing really aggresive deck such as affinity u will fighting a top deck wars
9. U can do trick to when u have 2 lands and 1 genstone mines with 1 counter left to force opponets lands down to 2 using cascade restore balance
10. Blood moon is another hate card for this deck so dont forget to fetch plains so you can cast nahiri ro handle it
11. This deck is also weak against dredge deck
12. Practice aggresive mulligan if u dont have cascade spell in your hand down to 4 cards
13. U can discard emrakul uaing nahiri so u can shuffle all reztore balance in gv back to library (very neat trick)
14. Ajani Vengeance Is there for alternate win con or control
15. Most of the time u dont want to suspend Restore Balance, for the best practice is NEVER suspend Restore Balance
16. Remember u can return Ardent Plea using Riftwing Cloudskate
- Generally speaking it's absolutely fine if your first Restore Balance is "only" a 4 for 1 or something along those lines. You don't always have to get all their lands and cards in hand. A small Balance combined with Nahiri is often enough to win a game.
- Violent Outburst is an instant. This has huge implications. It means you can just play a draw-go game and leave open your combo, meaning your opponents can't commit anything to the board even if they have a counterspell up. This also means you can use Violent Outburst in response to your own fetchlands to be "fake" down a land while Restore Balance resolves. This also means you should generally not react to opponents fetchlands.
- Effects that put creatures into play at instant speed (Aether Vial, Collected Company) can be annoying to fight. One very good way to deal with them is making sure you get rid of your entire hand before balancing. Another good way to play around Collected Company is to balance twice in quick succession.
- Unless they are a white deck with Path to Exile or a Black deck with Delve cards, it is very hard for decks to recuperate from having all their lands destroyed if you have a Gargadon suspended. This means you should generally, if possible, just go for it, even if it might look a bit suspicious on paper.
- You can use Ricochet Trap to redirect Ancestral Vision to yourself.
- Mardu Charm and hard cast Simian Spirit Guides can be used as targets for Demonic Dread and then be sacrificed to a Greater Gargadon for value.
- In most matchups I board out one Borderpost. In future versions of the deck I might include 1-2 lands in the Sideboard to make this more realistic. This is because most people's only decent Sideboard cards against us are heavy Artifact hate (Stony Silence, Ancient Grudge) this is not nearly as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Just be conscious of the risks of keeping hands heavy on Borderposts and light on Lands after board.
- Since balance is such a game breaking effect that can negate a lot of your opponent's card and board advantage accrued over the game, it is absolutely possible to play a really slow, long game with this deck where both players don't do much for the first 10 or so turns. This actually favors Restore Balance generally. This also means you mulligan incredibly well and should mulligan often. I've won on more mulligans to 4 than I've lost with this deck.
- Beware of Obstinate Baloth effects, they can be quite devastating if you're not prepared for them. A good way of beating them is cascading end of turn, then untapping and cascading again. Another decent way is to just try to have equal or more cards in hand than your opponent when you cast Balance, you usually don't need to make them discard to win the game.
- If your opponent has an active manland at the time Restore Balance resolves and they chose to keep it around as one of their lands, they will still have to sacrifice it during the second part of the spells resolution.
Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
Traditionaly this deck used Riftwing and Clique together because Beast Within had not been printed. They were played together to Clique your opponent, Clique yourself, bounce problem permanents, bounce your Clique or Ardent Plea for a redux Balance.
Now we have more options, and maybe better options that have been printed.
2. Cascade into restore balance allow u to control the opponent cards in hands and also his/her lands. The lands destruction is not the deck main priority. Its main priority is number 1
15. Most of the time u dont want to suspend Restore Balance, for the best practice is NEVER suspend Restore Balance
Disagree on these two points. Hitting all three things is the most important aspect. Denying your opponents resources is what this deck is all about.
I have to date only won a handful of games without a successful Balance. Most games end off of two balances, one of which may have come off an early suspend.
2. Cascade into restore balance allow u to control the opponent cards in hands and also his/her lands. The lands destruction is not the deck main priority. Its main priority is number 1
15. Most of the time u dont want to suspend Restore Balance, for the best practice is NEVER suspend Restore Balance
Disagree on these two points. Hitting all three things is the most important aspect. Denying your opponents resources is what this deck is all about.
I have to date only won a handful of games without a successful Balance. Most games end off of two balances, one of which may have come off an early suspend.
Agree with Spitlebug here. You should definitely aim to destroy opponent lands and cards in hand as well, not just focus on the board wipe effect. Cascading into a balance when the opponent has no creatures is a great play if it will destroy all (or most) of their lands. You should fight ALL of their resources, not just their creatures. And suspending Balance is a GREAT play! It lowers you hand size, it puts a huge stress on your opponent: (should I commit more to the board to try and beat him in 6 turns? Or do I sit back and do nothing for 6 turns?) Either way, we are usually favored. If they commit a lot to the board, then cascade while you still have one on suspend. If they don't commit a lot to the board, then sit back and take control with Planeswalkers. Also, this is good for control decks since on your upkeep, they will most likely counter the suspended balance, then after they tapped low, you can try to cascade and hope they don't have a second counter (or enough mana for a second counter).
@Ruferd and @Spitlebug
For no.2 I agree we should considered the total hand, lands and creatures in opponent hand vs us before we cascade into balance although in my exp usually the priorities is like this creatures > lands > cards in hand. So the factor for us before we do cascade balance is does the creatures in opponent side is threatening? after than does the enemy control more lands than us ? after that than is the opponent cards is hands is threatening fr us ?
But the main idea is battlefield, lands and hands control before we drop our bomb Nahiri.
For no 15. In my exp every time i do suspend balance the opponent can turn the game tide to his/her side. Can u two give me advice when we do suspend balance than cascade balance ? maybe with a scenario ?
Oh btw any recommendation what to side out and side in against Burn ? I am really having a hard time facing Burn deck
Many thx
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Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
@Ruferd and @Spitlebug
For no.2 I agree we should considered the total hand, lands and creatures in opponent hand vs us before we cascade into balance although in my exp usually the priorities is like this creatures > lands > cards in hand. So the factor for us before we do cascade balance is does the creatures in opponent side is threatening? after than does the enemy control more lands than us ? after that than is the opponent cards is hands is threatening fr us ?
But the main idea is battlefield, lands and hands control before we drop our bomb Nahiri.
For no 15. In my exp every time i do suspend balance the opponent can turn the game tide to his/her side. Can u two give me advice when we do suspend balance than cascade balance ? maybe with a scenario ?
Oh btw any recommendation what to side out and side in against Burn ? I am really having a hard time facing Burn deck
Many thx
Well, obviously if they have like 3+ creatures that are all aggressive (like a zoo deck) then the main priority is the creatures. But most decks I find myself cascading to have them sac 1-2 creatures, discard 0-2 cards and sac 3-4 lands. Again, I have a Borderpost heavy build, so the land destruction part comes easy. I'm not sure how a non-borderpost version would prioritize creature vs land destruction. But in my mind, taking out their lands means they can no longer play anything until they topdeck a land, where as focusing on their creatures, then they can still topdeck a threat or plainswalker or removal spell for our threat. They are still functioning normally with some lands out, but emphasizing land destruction is much more crippling. That is why I play borderpost versions of the deck, although non borderpost versions can attack lands and are putting up better results.
Yes, there are some times when I am very sad to suspend a Balance, like when the game is already lost, it's just a dead draw. But the best time to suspend it is turn 1 or 2. It puts a great deal of stress on them. Plus suspending it vs control decks is fine for the reason I gave before (fighting through counter magic). If you suspend it early (turn 1-2), then they might try to rush out a bunch of threats in order to beat you before the suspend happens. Well then you just cascade into another balance while the suspended one is on ~3 counters. The cascaded one wipes their board of their threats and hopefully all their lands (or maybe they keep 1 or 2 lands). But they will not want to make a land drop or commit anything to the board since it will be gone in 2-3 turns. The lingering effect of a balance is so threatening. Now when the suspended balance goes off it might not get anything (since they didn't commit much more else to the board) but it just bought you 3 turns of 0 threats and you opponent didn't progress their game plan.
Other times, I am desperate and the only way I can get back in a game is to Cascade (preferrably Violent Outburst at instant speed). I might not have a cascade in my hand and I might draw a Balance (dead draw late in the game). I would NOT suspend it here because there is no point, I won't survive 6 turns. So I hold it in my hand to make it look like the odds of me having an Outburst is higher. So then the opponent is thinking "I won't commit anything else to the board, since the only way I lose this game is if he Outbursts, and he has some cards in hand so there is a chance he has it." It won't win the game but it might buy us a turn if our opponent thinks we have the Outburst.
So typically, the earlier you suspend it the better. But against control decks, suspending it whenever is fine.
Burn is by far the hardest matchup for me, especially if it is the Nacatl version. In the regular burn version, I will side out 4 balances and 4 gargadons and a couple of one-ofs (beast within maybe) and I will bring in 3 Kor Firewalker (to cascade into), 4 Wispmare (for Stony Silence and Eidolon of the Great Revel) and 3 Ricochet Trap (Hey, it's better than some cards...late in the game you can hardcast it for 4 mana, not get hit by Eidolon triggers, gain a life from Fire Walker triggers, and redirect their burn spell back at them or one of their creatures. It basically acts like a Lightning Helix). Blood Moon is interesting here, Burn typically does not run basic plains or Forest, so landing an early Blood Moon shuts off their Atarka's Command, Lightning Helix, Deflecting Palm, Path to Exile, Destructive Revelry etc.
Some people say that Leyline of Sanctity is better than Firewalker since by having a Leyline out there, they have to commit stuff to the board to kill us, in which case we can still balance. But I don't have experience with Leylines out of the sideboard, so I don't know which way is better.
@Ruferd
Thx for the basic idea when we do suspend balance. It make sense actually
Well we can go extreme to cascade into kor firewalker hey its a nice idea never thought of it before
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Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
The problem I find with the Fire Walkers is that even if you win game 2, they side in Path to Exiles and Pyrite Spellbombs to take care of them. Not to mention they have access to Skullcrack and Atarka's Command to stop life gain (skullcrack being the better of the two since it can be used to kill a firewalker).
@Ruferd
Well I guess Timely Reinforcement is still the better option for this issue combine with Leyline of Sanctity. I guess we really can not hated out Burn if we still play restore Balance
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Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
My issue with Leyline is: Are you just supposed to mulligan until you see it? What if I mulligan to 5 and keep with a Leyline. Then on turn two it gets hit with Destructive Revelry. Doesn't sound like I'm winning that game. And same thing with Timely Reinforcements, do I mulligan until I see one, and keep the hand, even if the mana is sketchy or do I keep a good 7 card hand without one in it and hope to draw it? In either case, it seems like a bad 5 card hand with the SB card (Leyline/Reinforcements) AND a good 7 card hand without them is beatable. And Firewalker has it's issues too, even though it can cascaded into any time. So, I don't really know what is best to be honest.
@ruferd
Imho Leyline is also good against discard and mill spell
I think we should mull until.we get 1 sb like leyline or timely with corret mana base and we can go down to 4 cards in hands
Yes I believe burn is still our worst matchup
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Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
@NemoDnadeck
Imho u should put Nahiri pw and 1 emrakul to the deck because Nahiri put pressure and quick finishing if not handle quickly
You also can add ajani vengeant he is good and he has function like helix and tap permanent that is good for tempo
Yes the problem with borderpost version is the mana screw like u experience in game 4 and also there a lot stony silence and kolaghan command and hurkyll recall out there thats why I prefer non borderpost version
I disagree in riftwing cloudskate in my exp it give good tempo with bounce ablity and it also good to hit pw because of flying
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Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
@Papipo
Allow me to answer your question in IMHO mode
So, what I don't understand is why it's not packing 3 Wispmare on the SB and why Plains aren't fetchable at all ->
I'm assuming u are using Ryan Cubit decklist or FineSpoo list. The Plains are not fetchable in Ryan Cubit deck because the fetch is concentrate to allow the cascade to work (4x Scalding Tarn so we can fetch mountain (violent outburst) or island (Ardeat Plea), 3x Wooded foothields to able to fetch mountain or forest (Violent outburst) and No Hallowed Fountain because that land combination (WU) is very weak and really not needed to be fetch using Ryan Cubit land combination)
In FineSpoo deck the 4x Scalding Tarn are replaced by 4xFlooded Strand (IMHO because of the budget reason I believe) but because of this the chances to allow the cascade color combination to work is lower (u cannot fetch mountain or forest) thats why he replaced seachrome coast to Hallowed Fountain
(The Main Idea is to get the best color combination as easily as possible to enable Violent Outburst or Ardent Plea)
Why 2/x3 Ingot Chewer not 3xWispmare its because to handle Hate card like Blood Moon you can handle it using Riftwing Cloudskate or Nahiri the Harbringer
But to handle hate card like Chalice of The Void, Pithing Needle, or Graffdigger Cage Ingot is better because Nahiri can not do anything against it plus Ingot is also good for Affinity deck that is a general deck in any tournament
I hope my explanation help
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Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
One of the key decisions I made early in the development of the deck was to play black over blue. I liked black a lot more because of the added discard, hard non-creature permanent removal (Maelstrom Pulse/Anguished Unmaking over Detention Sphere) and the improved mana helped with a lot of the deck's issues. The main tradeoff is that you have to play Demonic Dread. The card is much worse than Ardent Plea because it requires a creature as target. Still, many Modern decks play creatures anyway, and the upsides are worth it in my opinion.
Another very important feature specific to this deck are the 3 main deck Blood Moons. These are a perfect natural fit, as you're playing 9 Borderposts and 5 Basics already, and you have Simian Spirit Guides to ramp them out, which can be absolutely game breaking on turn two on the play. Even if people fetch basics to play around them, that means that if you ever get to play a Balance that kills all their Lands, they can never recover.
The question I get asked the most is "Why are you playing Mardu Charms, they seem bad" and at the same time I'm asking myself all the time whether playing only 2 is correct. The card does exactly everything you want it to do in this deck. The default mode is instant speed Duress to clear the way against decks with counterspells. The two tokens are amazing at ambushing Snapcaster Mages and protecting your own Planeswalkers, the 4 damage makes the card not dead in matchups where the other modes don't matter.
The split of 2 Anguished Unmaking and 1 Maelstrom Pulse is like that because Unmaking is better at dealing with Wurmcoil Engines and opposing Nahiris (Pulse kills your own too) which are two of the harder permanents for this deck to deal with.
The one of main deck Pick the Brain is there to have a chance to deal with decks like Ad Nauseam, which are very hard to beat. It's actually possible to enable Delirium very consistently in this deck if you need it, by sacrificing permanents to Greater Gargadon and by discarding cards to Nahiri.
Leylines are particularly great in this deck as they "discard" themselves into play, which makes your Balance stronger while giving you an impactful benefit.
The Lingering Souls are mainly there to combat control decks.
Ajani Vengeant has positively surprised me, and I'm pretty sure that he's the next best Planeswalker for the deck after Nahiri. Especially critical is that he's very easy to cast. Other cards that could be considered for that slot are Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Gideon Jura, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. However, I'm not a big fan of 5 drops in this deck, and I also do not like making creatures, because those make Balance worse if you do not have a suspended Greater Gargadon.
You might have seen earlier lists with Goblin Dark-Dwellers, the card just didn't do enough and was very hard to cast.
It needs to be said that this list is very much a work in progress. For example the manabase needs to be slightly tweaked, Blood Moon has had such cataclysmic impact on games that not playing 4 might be wrong, and I'm considering playing even more Mardu Charms as the card has been amazing.
Position in the Metagame
For my WMCQ the deck was excellently positioned as there were a lot of creature based decks and not a lot of non-interactive combo. Generally this deck is very good against people trying to accumulate a resource directly affected by Restore Balance, that is lands in play, creatures in play, and cards in hand. This means that almost any creature deck is an amazing matchup, the slower, the better. It also makes ramp decks like Scapeshift into excellent matchups. Bad matchups are decks that do not care about creatures, lands in play, and cards in hand, especially if they're fast. This means things like Burn (fast and doesn't need creatures/lands to finish you off), Ad Nauseam (artifact mana, combo that only requires 1-2 cards in hand) and Lantern Control (doesn't care about cards in hand, or lands, plays lots of noncreature Artifacts). I went through all relevant Modern decks I have played against and grouped them into 5 different categories: Amazing, Favorable, Even, Unfavorable and Unwinnable.
Nahiri, the Harbinger
Versions:
Shadows Over Innistrad (Foil)
Amazing:
Bogles
Jund (includes all BG/x variants)
Elves
Kiki-Chord
Abzan Coco
Big Zoo
RG Scapeshift variants/Non-blue Valakut decks
UW Control
Bant Eldrazi
Black/White Tokens
Favorable:
UWR Nahiri
Merfolk
Shadow Zoo
Infect
Scapeshift (Blue based)
Grixis Control
Eldrazi Taxes
Little Kid Junk
Even:
Bushwhacker Zoo
RG Tron
Restore Balance
GW Death & Taxes
Living End
Keep in mind that those are probably slightly biased towards "too good" because people have no idea how to play against this deck. Consider picking the deck up if people in your area are playing decks more in the upper categories and also if you really like reducing your opponent's permanents in play to 0.
General Gameplay/Useful Tricks
- Generally speaking it's absolutely fine if your first Restore Balance is "only" a 4 for 1 or something along those lines. You don't always have to get all their lands and cards in hand. A small Balance combined with Nahiri is often enough to win a game.
- Violent Outburst is an instant. This has huge implications. It means you can just play a draw-go game and leave open your combo, meaning your opponents can't commit anything to the board even if they have a counterspell up. This also means you can use Violent Outburst in response to your own fetchlands to be "fake" down a land while Restore Balance resolves. This also means you should generally not react to opponents fetchlands.
- Effects that put creatures into play at instant speed (Aether Vial, Collected Company) can be annoying to fight. One very good way to deal with them is making sure you get rid of your entire hand before balancing. Another good way to play around Collected Company is to balance twice in quick succession.
- Unless they are a white deck with Path to Exile or a Black deck with Delve cards, it is very hard for decks to recuperate from having all their lands destroyed if you have a Gargadon suspended. This means you should generally, if possible, just go for it, even if it might look a bit suspicious on paper.
- You can use Ricochet Trap to redirect Ancestral Vision to yourself.
- Mardu Charm and hard cast Simian Spirit Guides can be used as targets for Demonic Dread and then be sacrificed to a Greater Gargadon for value.
- In most matchups I board out one Borderpost. In future versions of the deck I might include 1-2 lands in the Sideboard to make this more realistic. This is because most people's only decent Sideboard cards against us are heavy Artifact hate (Stony Silence, Ancient Grudge) this is not nearly as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Just be conscious of the risks of keeping hands heavy on Borderposts and light on Lands after board.
- Since balance is such a game breaking effect that can negate a lot of your opponent's card and board advantage accrued over the game, it is absolutely possible to play a really slow, long game with this deck where both players don't do much for the first 10 or so turns. This actually favors Restore Balance generally. This also means you mulligan incredibly well and should mulligan often. I've won on more mulligans to 4 than I've lost with this deck.
- Beware of Obstinate Baloth effects, they can be quite devastating if you're not prepared for them. A good way of beating them is cascading end of turn, then untapping and cascading again. Another decent way is to just try to have equal or more cards in hand than your opponent when you cast Balance, you usually don't need to make them discard to win the game.
- If your opponent has an active manland at the time Restore Balance resolves and they chose to keep it around as one of their lands, they will still have to sacrifice it during the second part of the spells resolution.
Below you will find an in depth matchup guide for every matchup I've played with the deck. I only recommend reading that if you're sure to pick up the deck. If you want to see me playing the deck, make sure you check out my stream.
Thanks a lot for reading and enjoy the deck!
Matchup/Sideboard Guide
Take all of this information with a grain of salt. Especially in matchups I have not played a lot consider these more recommendations than optimal strategies. To help better evaluate how sure I am about the information I've graded all matchups from 1 (almost never played) to 3 (played 15+ matches).
Boggles - Amazing - 2
Ideally you want hands with Violent Outburst, as they don't always have targets for Demonic Dread. If you can cascade away their board once, you're usually a huge favourite to win. They are also very soft to Blood Moon, usually playing only two Basics. Postboard they bring in Stony Silences and Nature's Claims/Natural States.
+ 1 Krosan Grip
- 1 Pick the Brain
Jund/BG - Amazing - 3
Yes, they have discard and Liliana, but at the end of the day they're going to have to win with creatures, so Demonic Dread always has targets. They are also slow. Save Unmakings for their Lilianas, especially in game 1. Blood Moon is amazing, an early Blood Moon almost always wins. Keep in mind that once you Balance away everything Gargadon can sometimes kill their Lilianas immediately. It's also sometimes really awkward for them to +1 Lilliana after a Balance as they have to discard their spells if they don't draw lands. Postboard they usually only bring in Ancient Grudge. I have met the occasional Obstinate Baloth and also Surgical Extraction out of this deck, so it's worth keeping that in mind. One of the few matchups that's already great game 1 and gets way better postboard.
+ 4 Leyline of Sanctity
- 2 Mardu Charm
- 1 Pick the Brain
- 1 Firewild Borderpost
Elves - Amazing - 2
At the end of the day, while very explosive and degenerate, Elves is just a creature deck. Any card advantage they might create with things like Duskwatch Recruiter is also mitigated by Balance. Keep in mind you can wipe their board in response to Shaman of the Pack triggers and their triggers will do nothing. Make sure they cannot Collected Company (or Chord of Calling) with floated mana after a Balance. Quite a few lists run Chord in the sideboard or not at all. If they run Chord, make sure not to randomly die to Shaman of the Pack in response to Balance. Also, if they're running white, be very careful for Chord into Eidolon of Rhetoric, that interaction can be absolutely game breaking for us. Usually they only have artifact hate post-board. If you're very worried about Shaman of the Pack, or if you've seen discard spells as well, you can consider Leyline of Sanctity.
+ 1 Pick the Brain
- 1 Firewild Borderpost
Eidolon of Rhetoric
Versions:
Journey into Nyx (Foil)
Kiki Chord - Amazing - 2
Like any Chord of Calling/Collected Company deck you should win game 1 basically always. They sometimes run Nahiri, the Harbinger themselves. Keep in mind that even if they do, it's not guaranteed that they're running Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn too. Generally save your removal spells for combo pieces and Nahiris. Restoration Angel, like Company and Chord can also be played with floated mana after a Balance. Post-board be very conscious of Eidolon of Rhetoric. They almost always have it and if they can Chord of Calling into it at the right time it can counter your Cascade ability.
+1 Pick the Brain
-1 Blood Moon
Abzan Collected Company - Amazing - 2
Very similar to other Chord/Collected Company matchups. Kitchen Finks and Voice of Resurgence can make you have to combo twice or clean up with alternate means. Mardu Charm tokens are particularly great at that. As always the main concerns are instant speed threats and post-board Eidolon of Rhetoric. Leyline of the Void is amazing since it completely shuts down Voice of Resurgence, Kitchen Finks and Eternal Witness. Keep in mind to not combo on their turn if they have a Voice of Resurgence out, as the trigger for the initial cascade spell will happen after the Cascade trigger. Blood Moon is fairly bad because of the high mana dork count.
+2 Leyline of the Void
+1 Pick the Brain
-3 Blood Moon
Big Zoo - Amazing - 1
This is usually also a Collected Company deck, so the usual concerns apply. Apart from that, it's basically only sideboard cards you care about. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is your biggest concern. It makes you two turns slower because you have to pay 1 extra on your Cascade spell and also 1 extra for the Restore Balance. This also means you should be careful to play around a Thalia off of a Collected Company in response to a Cascade trigger, since that can counter your Restore Balance if you don't have mana. It feels like Leyline of the Void making Tarmogoyf and Knight of the Reliquary worse seem better than Blood Moons (they usually run their own and have mana dorks) but I have not tested this enough.
+2 Leyline of the Void
-2 Blood Moon
RG Scapeshift/Valakut Variants - Amazing - 3
This, for once, is a deck that's trying to go wide on lands, not creatures. They still usually have enough creatures to enable Demonic Dread, which makes this matchup amazing. There are multiple slightly different versions of this. Keep in mind that, if you have a Violent Outburst, you can let them combo both with Scapeshift and Through the Breach and react afterwards. Restore Balance will usually kill enough of their lands that the Valakut triggers do not resolve because of the intervening if clause. Keep in mind that there are versions with a white splash for Nahiri, the Harbinger. That means you should save your removal spells for her if possible, and it also sometimes makes it correct to kill their Oath of Nissa if you have them under a Blood Moon lock. A black splash almost always means Slaughter Games, which is quite a good sideboard card versus our deck. Also this is by far the deck that is most likely to play Obstinate Baloth. It is usually not an issue though, as they are one of the few decks to empty their hand faster than us.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+1 Pick the Brain
-2 Mardu Charm
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-2 Anguished Unmaking (This is assuming no Nahiris)
UW Control - Amazing - 2
There are a couple of versions of this, but they generally are incredibly slow and pack a lot of mass removal and slightly less counterspells than other control decks. All in all that's a very good combination for us. Beware of main deck Crucible of Worlds, as that's a very scary card for them to have out. Also make sure not to get your Emrakul off of Nahiri ultimate tapped by Cryptic Command. Blood Moon depends a lot on their build, there are some with very few basics, others with loads. Post-board the Lingering Souls plan should be highly effective since they board out all their mass removal.
-4 Demonic Dread
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Firewild Borderpost
+3 Ricochet Trap
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Krosan Grip
Bant Eldrazi - Amazing - 2
Another very good matchup. Yes they have Thought-Knot Seer, but if you can cascade after they stuck one you get cards back. They're not very fast and don't have a lot of disruption either. If they have Engineered Explosives in addition to Stony Silence, I'd consider sideboarding Krosan Grip. They usually only have a couple of Stubborn Denials and Stony Silences as interaction.
Black/White Tokens - Amazing - 1
Another straight up creature deck. They are basically Jund with more resilient threats and less disruption, which makes the matchup even better for us. Raise the Alarm has the instant speed issue and Blood Moon can be slightly less effective than vs. Jund, but otherwise this matchup should be insanely good.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
-1 Pick the Brain
-2 Mardu Charm
-1 Firewild Borderpost
Ricochet Trap
Versions:
Worldwake (Foil)
UWR Nahiri - Favorable - 3
This matchup initially had me very worried. They combine counterspells with annoying planeswalkers, some of the best opposition to this deck. However, they are very slow, and once I've found my current sideboard approach, I've won a lot more than I've lost. Basically don't be afraid to go into the lategame. Usually they will eventually tap out of countermana and you can combo them. A decent "value" balance, say something like 2 cards in hand 2 lands is usually worth it. Keep Anguished Unmakings at all cost for their Nahiris. Blood Moon is very effective in this matchup. Post-board, they will usually take out removal. Especially mass removal will be gone. This means that Lingering Souls is an insane play and they frequently have to spend precious counterspells on halves of it. Keep in mind that if they run Ancestral Vision it can be worth trading with their counters early to clear the way to hijack it with a Ricochet Trap.
+3 Lingering Souls
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain
-4 Demonic Dread
-1 Veinfire Borderpost
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Greater Gargadon
Merfolk - Favorable - 2
Even though this is one of the most straightforward creature decks in the format, the matchup isn't perfect because they have Aether Vial and counterspells. If they do not draw a Vial or you can destroy it, the matchup becomes quite trivial. Note that most lists run few or even no counterspells at all main deck. Usually their main deck counterspell of choice is Spell Pierce, which you should play around if you can afford it.
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Krosan Grip
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Pick the Brain
Zooicide - Favorable - 2
They can turn 3 kill you, which sometimes you can do nothing about on the draw. Keep this in mind when mulliganing, in case you know the matchup. Ditch overly slow hands. Their only interaction, save one Stony Silence out of the sideboard, is usually a bunch of discard spells, this is why Leyline of Sanctity comes in. Blood Moon is insanely good, as most of them do not even run main deck basic lands. Remember that they have no relevant instant speed interaction usually, so feel free to leave Violent Outburst up until their end step, as insurance versus the decks various combat tricks. Sometimes they are low enough that you can just kill them with two Ajani Vengeant activations. Keep in mind that they can still cast Monastery Swiftspear, Mutagenic Growth and Temur Battle Rage under a Blood Moon.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
-1 Pick the Brain
-2 Mardu Charm
-1 Firewild Borderpost
Infect - Favorable - 2
Infect is "just" a creature deck. Sometimes they have draws with few Infect creatures, then the matches become very easy. Blood Moon can be devastating, especially if they don't know about it, but it can also not do much if they already have a Forest. Post-board the matchup becomes much harder, as they board in more Spell Pierces. Sometimes Ricochet Trap can be cast to redirect some of their pump spells, keep in mind that it can redirect non-blue spells for cheap as well, if a blue spell has already been cast during the turn.
+3 Ricochet Trap
-1 Pick the Brain
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Firewild Borderpost
Scapeshift - Favorable - 1
Very similar to R/G Valakut, but they do have a lot of counterspells. They usually play 4 Cryptic Commands and 4 Remands. 4 Cryptics means you should be careful with your Nahiri ultimates, since they can just use the tap and the draw mode (this works even through Ricochet Trap!). Blood Moon does prevent them from comboing, but they can just get rid of it EOT with a Cryptic Command. Feel free to experiment with Lingering Souls in this matchup, they might be better than Leylines. They also almost always have Obstinate Baloths post-board.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Slaughter Games
+1 Pick the Brain
-4 Demonic Dread
-2 Anguished Unmaking
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Wildfire Borderpost
-1 Ajani Vengeant
Leyline of the Void
Versions:
Guildpact (Foil)
Magic 2011 Core Set (Foil)
There are many different flavors of Grixis. While as how good the matchups are differs a lot whether they're Delver or Control, the decks play a lot of the same cards and my approach to the games is practically the same. If possible try to actively kill their threats using your removal spells, very often they will have to defend it with their counters because they have no other game plan. If you see them playing a lot of discard and not a lot of counters you can bring in Leyline of Sanctity instead of Ricochet Traps.
+2 Leyline of the Void
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain (Control)
-3 Blood Moon (they have surprisingly many basics, but depending on the list this can be fine)
-1 Maelstrom Pulse (Control)
-1 Ajani Vengeant (Control)
-1 Pick the Brain (Delver)
Death & Taxes Variants/Hatebears - Even/Favorable - 2
This encompasses all variants of white creature decks with Leonin Arbiter. Beware of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben making your spells more expensive. Flash Thalias (off of Aether Vial or Collected Company) can make you unable to cast your Restore Balance off of Cascade if you do not have a spare mana. Also make sure, if at all possible, that they cannot save permanents through Restore Balance with a Flickerwisp. As against Merfolk, kill Vials on sight. Versus Eldrazi Taxes we need Leyline of Sanctity because they have a lot of discard.
+3 Lingering Souls (G/W)
+1 Krosan Grip
+4 Leyline of Sanctity (Eldrazi)
-1 Firewild Borderpost
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Pick the Brain (Eldrazi)
Little Kid Junk - Favorable - 2
They are the most straightforward creature deck. The only reason this matchup is not a bye is that they have a lot of Obstinate Baloth effects. Try to play around these by Balancing twice. They also have Voice, which is annoying, since it means you have to combo on your turn and because it leaves behind tokens. If they have Kitchen Finks also, bringing in Leyline of the Void might be worth it.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+2 Leyline of the Void (Kitchen Finks)
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Pick the Brain
-2 Anguished Unmaking
Bushwhacker Zoo - Even - 1
They are a creature deck but they also have burn and are very very fast. If you're aware of the matchup, if you're on the draw, try mulliganing to hands that do something before turn 3 if possible. If you get to Balance at 7+ life, you'll usually win. Sometimes they also play Thalia, Guardian of Thraben post-board.
RG Tron - Even - 3
This matchup suffers heavily from Demonic Dread. Gargadon is by far your most important card. If you can manage to Balance with a Gargadon before they resolve a Planeswalker you're in great shape. Game 1 Blood Moon can be devastating, post-board they usually have at least 3 Nature's Claims. Keep in mind that a Gargadon can sweep up a stray Karn Liberated after you've resolved Restore Balance. Wurmcoil Engine is problematic because it leaves behind tokens after Balance. I'm not entirely sure whether Slaughter Games is worth boarding in.
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Krosan Grip
+1 Slaughter Games
-3 Demonic Dread
Restore Balance - Even - 1
Seems to me like having more Planeswalkers and Borderposts than your adversary is incredibly important. Basically you only want to Balance if you're ahead on those metrics. Ricochet Trap comes in as a hardcast answer to their Anguished Unmakings because Nahiri is so incredibly important. Do not keep a hand without Anguished Unmaking, Borderposts, or a Planeswalker.
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
+1 Krosan Grip
-3 Blood Moon
-3 Demonic Dread
Slaughter Games
Versions:
Return to Ravnica (Foil)
Living End - Even - 1
This matchup felt a lot like a mirror, which comes as no surprise considering the nature of the two decks. In general I think you're the control player.
+2 Leyline of the Void
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
-2 Wildfire Borderpost
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Ajani Vengeant
Affinity - Unfavorable - 3
The Affinity matchup is completely incomparable to everything else. They will apply a lot of pressure, which means you basically always have to cascade on turn 3. Unlike any other matchup, cascading can be quite a liability in this matchup, as it usually means discarding your hand and with it any potential followup. At the same time, denying their lands is not a great idea since they'll still have Springleaf Drums and Mox Opals left over, and potential Cranial Platings can turn any bad topdeck into a terrifying threat. Because of this Lingering Souls are incredibly important post-board, as they allow you to have some follow up and protect your Nahiri's until they can Ultimate.
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Krosan Grip
-3 Greater Gargadon
-1 Pick the Brain
Burn - Unfavorable - 2
If you mulligan a lot, sometimes you can make them discard enough early enough to win game 1. Another way is just to kill all the lands with Greater Gargadon and hope to kill them before they ever draw a land again. Post-board it becomes much better because of Leyline of Sanctity. Keep in mind that they can deal damage to you through Leyline with Atarka's Command. Blood Moon stays in because you want to prevent them from casting Destructive Revelry.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
-2 Anguished Unmaking
-1 Pick the Brain
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
Dredge - Unfavorable - 2
This is pretty straightforward. You can never win a single game where you don't have Leyline of the Void in play. They can never win the game if you have Leyline of the Void and they don't have an answer to it. In theory this makes it sound really bad, but I've had reasonable success by just straight up mulliganing to Leyline of the Void. If this deck is popular in your metagame, consider playing 4 Leyline of the Void.
+4 Leyline of the Void
+1 Slaughter Games
-1 Pick the Brain
-2 Anguished Unmaking
-2 Mardu Charm
Grishoalbrand - Unfavorable - 1
While they are a combo deck, at least they're trying to combo with creatures, so you can still interact. You'd still rather combo before they get the chance to use Through the Breach, as the wurm leaves behind tokens if you Balance it away.
+2 Leyline of the Void
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Ajani Vengeant
Storm - Unfavorable - 1
Contrary to other combo decks, they do care a lot about card quantity. Kind of similar to Burn, in the sense that if you can combo early with few cards in hand it can be effective. Post-board it gets a lot better, as we gain a lot of relevant cards and their usual post-board approach of Empty the Warrens does not work.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+2 Leyline of the Void
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
-3 Blood Moon
-2 Ajani Vengeant
-1 Anguished Unmaking
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Firewild Borderpost
Leyline of Sanctity
Versions:
Magic 2011 Core Set (Foil)
Modern Masters 2015 (Foil)
Lantern Control - Unwinnable - 1
They dump their hand really quickly, play no creatures, need basically no mana and their permanents aren't affected by Balance at all. The only way you can win is trying to punk them out by stripping all either Ensnaring Bridges with either Slaughter Games or Pick the Brain. Remember to hard cast Simian Spirit Guides to pressure them.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Krosan Grip
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
-4 Demonic Dread
-4 Violent Outburst
-3 Restore Balance
Ad Nauseam - Unwinnable - 2
Contrary to other combo decks, you can't attack their mana because they have Lotus Bloom and Pentad Prism, and you also cannot attack their hand well because they only need 1 or 2 cards to combo off. Your best bet is probably to get their Phyrexian Unlife mid-combo with a Krosan Grip. Other than that try Slaughter Gaming them out.
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Krosan Grip
+1 Slaughter Games
-4 Demonic Dread
-2 Ajani Vengeant
Mono U Tron - Unwinnable - 1
Resilient threats and more counterspells than any other deck in the format, Thought-Knot Seers, Wurmcoil Engines and sometimes even Chalice of the Void main deck. All in all hell on earth for Restore Balance.
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Krosan Grip
-4 Demonic Dread
-1 Blood Moon
Updated from Ari Lax link
The deck is incredibly fun to pilot, but there are some nuances to it that Ari told me about. If you're going to suit this up for your FNM, there's some things you should know:
“You can crack a fetchland [like Windswept Heath] and respond with Violent Outburst.” This means that after the Restore Balance, you end up +1 land (and your opponent -1).
“You can cast Simian Spirit Guide to have a Demonic Dread target.”
“For Greater Gargadon, the cost is sacrificing something. So even if it's low on counters, you can just keep sacrificing, and respond with Violent Outburst at the end.” This means the Restore Balance happens before the Gargadon becomes unsuspended, no matter how few counters are on it.
“Violent Outburst during their draw step to nab an extra card off Restore Balance.” Ari was quick to qualify however, “But watch out, it can backfire. This format has things like Pacts, and Angel's Grace, and giving an opportunity to untap can blow up in your face.”
“Mardu Charm is an instant; target them during their draw step.”
“DO NOT CUT LINGERING SOULS!”
Ari Lax restore balance guide from scg premium artikel
This past weekend, I sleeved up the fun deck I kept winning with.
Reason One – I kept winning with it.
Reason Two – I didn't have time to learn Lantern Control.
Reason Three – I wanted to pack light and not worry about a last minute audible, so I simply locked in and build it.
Behold Restore Balance, the most fun you can have in Modern if your goal is making people technically continue to play games despite being unable to cast spells:
Restore Balance
Ari Lax
0th Place at Test deck on 11/7/2016
Modern
What is Restore Balance? Restore Balance
The general idea of Restore Balance is similar to that of Living End. You want to cascade into a zero cost spell that in turn generates a broken symmetrical effect you can exploit.
Wrath Of God
One assumption of Restore Balance is that you aren't playing many creatures. Even if you were, it's not reliable to assume your opponent is and you would often lose your creatures when Restore Balance resolved. As a result, Restore Balance almost always mirrors Living End in its sweeping capabilities.
Greater GargadonFirewild Borderpost
The key build around of Restore Balance is exploiting the land balancing. You could leave them with no hand, no creatures, but many Modern decks can topdeck out of that. Instead, leaving them with zero or one land and no creatures makes most of their hands blank. There are two ways that the current list does this: sacrificing lands to Greater Gargadon, or replacing lands on the battlefield with Borderposts.
Simian Spirit GuideNahiri, the Harbringer
The other way to build towards Restore Balance is raw card count. By playing card types that aren't counted by Restore Balance, you can force your opponent into a low resource situation where you are far ahead. One way to do this is just getting the cards out of there. Simian Spirit Guide making mana or just suspending spells are the primary ways to do this. You can also play enchantments like Blood Moon, artifacts like Borderposts, or planeswalkers. While the cards you are casting might not look quite up to snuff, when all is said and done, you have received most of a card of value. Meanwhile, your opponent is forced to be way down on resources.
Why Restore Balance Now?
Restore Balance is a deck I have tried and liked as a not-great fun deck in the past, mostly via the heavy suspend lists a couple years back that included such highlights as Errant Ephemeron and Durkwood Baloth.
I never had tried the lists that were super heavy on Borderposts, but I knew from experience crushing them with a variety of decks that they were too easy to disrupt. Too many Stony Silences, Abrupt Decays, and Qasali Pridemages flew around the format for their mana to work.
At Grand Prix Lyon, a copy of the deck finished in the Top 64 after an even more solid start that had a lot of new technology. It turns out Julian Felix Flury had figured it all out.
The biggest shift was changing from a dedicated Restore Balance deck to more of a general “Restore Balance and other nonsense” strategy. You are less linear, but at the same time this doesn't cost you much power. The nut draw of Greater Gargadon and cascade spells is still very much in place, and you can also just nut draw into a turn-2 Blood Moon, cripple a creature deck with Anger of the Gods, or do any number of other things.
Playing interaction and playing for a more versatile game plan also lets you better leverage your Balances. You don't always want to jam your Violent Outburst as soon as possible, as it won't necessarily take out enough resources. You want to find the spot to absolutely annihilate your opponent, and having the interaction lets you maneuver right to that. You can play a game where your questions change from just “do I have to cast Restore Balance here to live?” and include “does this absolutely crush my opponent or can I get more?” You can make an alternate play to try and nab all their lands or all their cards in a turn and not just be forced to pass, do nothing, and hope they overextend more while doing so.
The interaction also lets you go toe-to-toe with the absurdly fast creature combo decks. You aren't all-in on firing off an early Restore Balance to not die. There are a lot of times you can use Simian Spirit Guide in a “fair” way to play a three-mana interactive spell on turn 2 to break up an early kill. Again, you can also chip away at their first threats, then clean up the rest with a later Balance and not just die to their reload. Your deck just plays more like a real deck and less like the one-shot gimmick the early lists trended towards.
Another big shift was the mana. Moving from Ardent Plea to Demonic Dread homogenized your color requirements to “go off.” It's hard to pinpoint the exact scenarios where things get awkward, but you can see the general problem of drawing the wrong Borderposts for your spells. In this list a single Veinfire Borderpost or Firewild Borderpost is one specific land away from either cascade spell, whereas a Fieldmist Borderpost doesn't contribute to a Violent Outburst. The mix and match issue gets even worse once you start trying to figure out what non-cascade spells you want to play and then throw the whole “needing to fetch basic lands to enable Borderposts” issue on top of it all. You can see how making everything a step simpler is a great idea.
You are also playing less Borderposts than most previous builds, whereas the previous lists really wanted their middle two-color Borderposts (i.e. Wildfield Borderpost in a R/G/W/U deck) on top of the cascade-matching ones. It's the difference between nine copies versus eleven or twelve, but it ends up being huge. A card like Stony Silence or Ancient Grudge is now sometimes annoying but rarely devastating. You can afford to play Sacred Foundry to fetch and don't have to maximize basics to avoid mulligans. You need less mulligans because you have less all-Borderpost hands.
This also isn't to say mulligans are bad. Often you are in situations where you mulligan to four or five cards and are almost happy to have done so. When you eventually Restore Balance, each card you sent back is one more card your opponent loses. You aren't actively trying to mulligan hands that do something powerful, but I'm extremely reluctant to keep anything that isn't some classification of “great draw” on six or seven cards. This unique property of Restore Balance might have been one of the biggest appeals to it, as it really violates a core rule of the game by doing so.
As mentioned, Restore Balance has a lot of similar sweeper properties to Living End. It has previously been classified as a worse cascade deck as it doesn't capitalize quite as well on the sweep; there isn't a built-in ten or more power brought back.
But you have a lot of the same strengths.
Most creature strategies are very simple matchups since your effect is so backbreaking. You even avoid some of the Living End-specific pitfalls like Viscera Seer or Arcbound Ravager while maintaining some of the specific strengths like the fact that you force a sacrifice.
The issue with Living End right now is that you simply can't play it into the Dredge-pushed metagame. Are you really showing up with a graveyard deck to the graveyard hate sideboard event? At the same time Restore Balance gains a ton here with Dredge pushing out fairer counterspell strategies that can be annoying and with people cutting some of the arbitrary spell and artifact hate cards from their sideboard for Grafdigger's Cages and Relic of Progenitus.
What Does Restore Balance Beat?
Mostly creature strategies, but also possibly anything.
Mind TwistArmageddon
One of the draws to Restore Balance is Mind Twist and Armageddon are just generally good Magic cards that are hard to defend against. It turns out that even in 2016 we still need cards to win games of Magic and lands to cast them.
Your strategy is generally fine against anything. You have a bit of the true Modern combo style where you can actually threaten a game-ending play on turn 2 or 3, but as I've repeatedly said, you aren't locked into that game plan. You can shove or you can play a long game; it's all about evaluating your resources.
What Beats Restore Balance? Mox Opal
There are weird cards that don't get hit by Restore Balance. You can often just Armageddon your opponent to cut them off the ability to play, but Mox Opal is a special case. Affinity isn't super worrying as you still kill all their creatures, but Lantern Control... yeah, I have no clue how you beat that deck. They are capable of winning games off no cards and no lands with just a bunch of artifacts, and unless you overload on artifact removal, you won't have enough to pick apart all their lock pieces before your draw step is dead. I debated sideboarding into Ancient Grudge as my cascade target over Restore Balance to beat it, but I seriously doubted it would be enough of the metagame to warrant it. Negate
The times I have lost to weird combo decks that I've been able to interact with have largely been on the back of countermagic. You can get into good spots with planeswalkers and instant Restore Balance off of Violent Outburst, but beating an oversaturation of the right countermagic backed by a clock is hard. Not only are you a little threat-light but each of your threats requires you to tap out. Golgari Grave-Troll
“Hey Ari, you just said your deck is good against people who need cards in hand to win and bad when they ignore that. Dredge is a deck that is actively trying to discard cards. You also said you can't play Living End into a Dredge metagame due to the hate. How can you justify playing a deck that loses to Dredge into a Dredge-metagame?”
Everyone can play Dredge hate. Not everyone can play Dredge, and far fewer people than you assume will play Dredge actually do. Even beyond that, everyone else playing hate will keep Dredge down a bit.
Sometimes you have to take a risk and go a level up. If this was a week ago and Cathartic Reunion Dredge was not a high priority target but was still good, I would have just played that instead of Restore Balance. But in people's minds the Modern metagame moves fast, so in reality almost no one changes their deck choice and everyone just changes their sideboard.
This brings me to another reason I played Restore Balance, which kind is kind of the whole philosophy behind why some people hate Modern.
Reason Four – It's Modern. Anything can happen, and worrying about the specifics is overrated.
When anything can happen, it is hard to actually plan for an event on a card-for-card level. This really bothers people who are used to being able to go to a perfect 75 to beat the expected five decks in a Standard tournament with very well-defined game plans.
Sure, Infect might be on the upswing this week, but that means you play against it 50% more to a total of one or two times. Maybe Dredge is the hot deck that actually wins, which means if you go deep into the event, you have to beat it...again once, maybe twice. Sure, sometimes you play against Burn four times in a weekend. That happens too, because that's Magic.
At the end of the day, you are playing against a random sample of a very diverse population. Anything can and will happen.
You have to select a deck that does something relevant early enough to matter in the dark, but beyond that, things are a little more up in the air. You want to consider your matchup against “creature combo” when making a deck choice, not necessarily specifically Infect or Death's Shadow. You need to know how to play against those specific decks, but “My deck can't beat Death's Shadow” isn't good enough to shift your opinion.
If you want to worry about metagame things, worry about big picture reactions. “People expect a lot of Infect, so I shouldn't play a deck full of x/1s if I care about them dying to Darkblast.” “People expect a lot of Dredge, so I should avoid other graveyard decks or things that lose to Grafdigger's Cage.”
At most you should worry about one or two specific archetypes, and even then it's only a tertiary concern. “This deck will likely do well, I probably have to be able to beat it to win the event.” This is why I played Dredge hate in my sideboard to a little bit of excess. It's possible I could have used the sideboard space better on a mix of Dismember, additional Anger of the Gods, but it was a case of seven or zero and I chose the high end. At least Leyline of the Void has additional benefits against other random graveyard decks that no one is playing because of Dredge, right?
Restore Balance Specifics Violent Outburst
Violent Outburst being an instant means you can cast it at any time. That means your upkeep, their draw step, in response to activating your fetchland... Greater Gargadon
You can sacrifice permanents to Greater Gargadon in excess of the number of time counters on it while it is awaiting the suspend cast trigger. Demonic DreadSimian Spirit Guide
You do have creature cards in your deck that you can cast to target with Demonic Dread. You can also shave down on Demonic Dread if your opponent doesn't have creatures to target.
The Future of Restore Balance
The thing that interests me the most about Restore Balance past this weekend is how oddly flexible the deck is for a cascade shell where you can only play higher cost cards. It turns out there are a lot of weird hate options out there once you spread across four colors.
If anything, you are actually presented with more options due to having to cut the obvious “best” ones out of the way. How else would you get to Mardu Charm?
Really, I couldn't think of a better analogy for the Modern format. You have a hard cap on what you can do, but with a little bit of rule bending you are suddenly presented with a diverse set of options. How can you tell which is the best? Meh, you probably can't, but you can make some great vague guesses.
Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
Just realize in finespoo or Ryan Cubit Deck you can do return Ardent Plea using Riftwing Cloudskate. This really useful because when u don't have any cascade card u can do this trick
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
@Delicious Rock
IMHO I think the cards is not important as Nahiri the harbringer. Because u need 3 cards to make that cards works and that is cascade spell, greater gargadon, and that cards. Even if u manage to use its ability u look 6 cards and there is no guarantee u can find a finisher cards like Emrakul to cast it.
IMHO the best cards in kaladesh block is the enemy color fastland (RW, RU, GU)
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
Modern
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierach not active Jund Tarmoless not active
DnT White
Living End Jund Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpost not active U/W Titan Control not active Mardu Nahiri/Control not active
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Here is IMHO how the deck work
1. This is a combo control deck so basically the Main Idea is to wipe the board (wrath of gods) and established the threat (using Nahiri) or suspend a lot of creature (durkwood baloth, greater gargadon, and riftwing cloudskate) and wipe the board
2. Cascade into restore balance allow u to control the opponent cards in hands and also his/her lands. The lands destruction is not the deck main priority. Its main priority is number 1
3. Usually u want to be able to produce 4 manna after u do restore balance.
3. There 2 best combination for our lands to start well that are Sacred Foundry and Breeding Pool or Steam Vents and Temple Garden
4. Most of the time if u can start before the play with gemstone caverns with it luck counter do it
5. Sequencing is REALLY VITAL for the deck to control the game. Example scenario such as do you sac the lands or creatures using greater gargadon first before u do cascade into restore balance or not (remember do not make greater gargadon out from suspend before restore balance resolves)
6. Sigarda host of herons (2WGG) kills this deck absolutely (remember that when u facing Eldritch Evolution deck)
7. Because this is 4 color deck BE VERY CAREFUL when u pick the mana base for your spell (such as the mana for dismember)
8. Most of the time if u facing really aggresive deck such as affinity u will fighting a top deck wars
9. U can do trick to when u have 2 lands and 1 genstone mines with 1 counter left to force opponets lands down to 2 using cascade restore balance
10. Blood moon is another hate card for this deck so dont forget to fetch plains so you can cast nahiri ro handle it
11. This deck is also weak against dredge deck
12. Practice aggresive mulligan if u dont have cascade spell in your hand down to 4 cards
13. U can discard emrakul uaing nahiri so u can shuffle all reztore balance in gv back to library (very neat trick)
14. Ajani Vengeance Is there for alternate win con or control
15. Most of the time u dont want to suspend Restore Balance, for the best practice is NEVER suspend Restore Balance
16. Remember u can return Ardent Plea using Riftwing Cloudskate
More decklist tips and strategy in http://www.blackborder.com/q/node/20025
General Gameplay/Useful Tricks
- Generally speaking it's absolutely fine if your first Restore Balance is "only" a 4 for 1 or something along those lines. You don't always have to get all their lands and cards in hand. A small Balance combined with Nahiri is often enough to win a game.
- Violent Outburst is an instant. This has huge implications. It means you can just play a draw-go game and leave open your combo, meaning your opponents can't commit anything to the board even if they have a counterspell up. This also means you can use Violent Outburst in response to your own fetchlands to be "fake" down a land while Restore Balance resolves. This also means you should generally not react to opponents fetchlands.
- Effects that put creatures into play at instant speed (Aether Vial, Collected Company) can be annoying to fight. One very good way to deal with them is making sure you get rid of your entire hand before balancing. Another good way to play around Collected Company is to balance twice in quick succession.
- Unless they are a white deck with Path to Exile or a Black deck with Delve cards, it is very hard for decks to recuperate from having all their lands destroyed if you have a Gargadon suspended. This means you should generally, if possible, just go for it, even if it might look a bit suspicious on paper.
- You can use Ricochet Trap to redirect Ancestral Vision to yourself.
- Mardu Charm and hard cast Simian Spirit Guides can be used as targets for Demonic Dread and then be sacrificed to a Greater Gargadon for value.
- In most matchups I board out one Borderpost. In future versions of the deck I might include 1-2 lands in the Sideboard to make this more realistic. This is because most people's only decent Sideboard cards against us are heavy Artifact hate (Stony Silence, Ancient Grudge) this is not nearly as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Just be conscious of the risks of keeping hands heavy on Borderposts and light on Lands after board.
- Since balance is such a game breaking effect that can negate a lot of your opponent's card and board advantage accrued over the game, it is absolutely possible to play a really slow, long game with this deck where both players don't do much for the first 10 or so turns. This actually favors Restore Balance generally. This also means you mulligan incredibly well and should mulligan often. I've won on more mulligans to 4 than I've lost with this deck.
- Beware of Obstinate Baloth effects, they can be quite devastating if you're not prepared for them. A good way of beating them is cascading end of turn, then untapping and cascading again. Another decent way is to just try to have equal or more cards in hand than your opponent when you cast Balance, you usually don't need to make them discard to win the game.
- If your opponent has an active manland at the time Restore Balance resolves and they chose to keep it around as one of their lands, they will still have to sacrifice it during the second part of the spells resolution.
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeGoblin Dank Dwellers, and the life gain matters.
Traditionaly this deck used Riftwing and Clique together because Beast Within had not been printed. They were played together to Clique your opponent, Clique yourself, bounce problem permanents, bounce your Clique or Ardent Plea for a redux Balance.
Now we have more options, and maybe better options that have been printed.
So there's a history lesson.
Disagree on these two points. Hitting all three things is the most important aspect. Denying your opponents resources is what this deck is all about.
I have to date only won a handful of games without a successful Balance. Most games end off of two balances, one of which may have come off an early suspend.
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
Agree with Spitlebug here. You should definitely aim to destroy opponent lands and cards in hand as well, not just focus on the board wipe effect. Cascading into a balance when the opponent has no creatures is a great play if it will destroy all (or most) of their lands. You should fight ALL of their resources, not just their creatures. And suspending Balance is a GREAT play! It lowers you hand size, it puts a huge stress on your opponent: (should I commit more to the board to try and beat him in 6 turns? Or do I sit back and do nothing for 6 turns?) Either way, we are usually favored. If they commit a lot to the board, then cascade while you still have one on suspend. If they don't commit a lot to the board, then sit back and take control with Planeswalkers. Also, this is good for control decks since on your upkeep, they will most likely counter the suspended balance, then after they tapped low, you can try to cascade and hope they don't have a second counter (or enough mana for a second counter).
For no.2 I agree we should considered the total hand, lands and creatures in opponent hand vs us before we cascade into balance although in my exp usually the priorities is like this creatures > lands > cards in hand. So the factor for us before we do cascade balance is does the creatures in opponent side is threatening? after than does the enemy control more lands than us ? after that than is the opponent cards is hands is threatening fr us ?
But the main idea is battlefield, lands and hands control before we drop our bomb Nahiri.
For no 15. In my exp every time i do suspend balance the opponent can turn the game tide to his/her side. Can u two give me advice when we do suspend balance than cascade balance ? maybe with a scenario ?
Oh btw any recommendation what to side out and side in against Burn ? I am really having a hard time facing Burn deck
Many thx
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeWell, obviously if they have like 3+ creatures that are all aggressive (like a zoo deck) then the main priority is the creatures. But most decks I find myself cascading to have them sac 1-2 creatures, discard 0-2 cards and sac 3-4 lands. Again, I have a Borderpost heavy build, so the land destruction part comes easy. I'm not sure how a non-borderpost version would prioritize creature vs land destruction. But in my mind, taking out their lands means they can no longer play anything until they topdeck a land, where as focusing on their creatures, then they can still topdeck a threat or plainswalker or removal spell for our threat. They are still functioning normally with some lands out, but emphasizing land destruction is much more crippling. That is why I play borderpost versions of the deck, although non borderpost versions can attack lands and are putting up better results.
Yes, there are some times when I am very sad to suspend a Balance, like when the game is already lost, it's just a dead draw. But the best time to suspend it is turn 1 or 2. It puts a great deal of stress on them. Plus suspending it vs control decks is fine for the reason I gave before (fighting through counter magic). If you suspend it early (turn 1-2), then they might try to rush out a bunch of threats in order to beat you before the suspend happens. Well then you just cascade into another balance while the suspended one is on ~3 counters. The cascaded one wipes their board of their threats and hopefully all their lands (or maybe they keep 1 or 2 lands). But they will not want to make a land drop or commit anything to the board since it will be gone in 2-3 turns. The lingering effect of a balance is so threatening. Now when the suspended balance goes off it might not get anything (since they didn't commit much more else to the board) but it just bought you 3 turns of 0 threats and you opponent didn't progress their game plan.
Other times, I am desperate and the only way I can get back in a game is to Cascade (preferrably Violent Outburst at instant speed). I might not have a cascade in my hand and I might draw a Balance (dead draw late in the game). I would NOT suspend it here because there is no point, I won't survive 6 turns. So I hold it in my hand to make it look like the odds of me having an Outburst is higher. So then the opponent is thinking "I won't commit anything else to the board, since the only way I lose this game is if he Outbursts, and he has some cards in hand so there is a chance he has it." It won't win the game but it might buy us a turn if our opponent thinks we have the Outburst.
So typically, the earlier you suspend it the better. But against control decks, suspending it whenever is fine.
Burn is by far the hardest matchup for me, especially if it is the Nacatl version. In the regular burn version, I will side out 4 balances and 4 gargadons and a couple of one-ofs (beast within maybe) and I will bring in 3 Kor Firewalker (to cascade into), 4 Wispmare (for Stony Silence and Eidolon of the Great Revel) and 3 Ricochet Trap (Hey, it's better than some cards...late in the game you can hardcast it for 4 mana, not get hit by Eidolon triggers, gain a life from Fire Walker triggers, and redirect their burn spell back at them or one of their creatures. It basically acts like a Lightning Helix). Blood Moon is interesting here, Burn typically does not run basic plains or Forest, so landing an early Blood Moon shuts off their Atarka's Command, Lightning Helix, Deflecting Palm, Path to Exile, Destructive Revelry etc.
Some people say that Leyline of Sanctity is better than Firewalker since by having a Leyline out there, they have to commit stuff to the board to kill us, in which case we can still balance. But I don't have experience with Leylines out of the sideboard, so I don't know which way is better.
Thx for the basic idea when we do suspend balance. It make sense actually
Well we can go extreme to cascade into kor firewalker hey its a nice idea never thought of it before
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeWell I guess Timely Reinforcement is still the better option for this issue combine with Leyline of Sanctity. I guess we really can not hated out Burn if we still play restore Balance
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeImho Leyline is also good against discard and mill spell
I think we should mull until.we get 1 sb like leyline or timely with corret mana base and we can go down to 4 cards in hands
Yes I believe burn is still our worst matchup
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeImho u should put Nahiri pw and 1 emrakul to the deck because Nahiri put pressure and quick finishing if not handle quickly
You also can add ajani vengeant he is good and he has function like helix and tap permanent that is good for tempo
Yes the problem with borderpost version is the mana screw like u experience in game 4 and also there a lot stony silence and kolaghan command and hurkyll recall out there thats why I prefer non borderpost version
I disagree in riftwing cloudskate in my exp it give good tempo with bounce ablity and it also good to hit pw because of flying
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeAllow me to answer your question in IMHO mode
So, what I don't understand is why it's not packing 3 Wispmare on the SB and why Plains aren't fetchable at all ->
I'm assuming u are using Ryan Cubit decklist or FineSpoo list. The Plains are not fetchable in Ryan Cubit deck because the fetch is concentrate to allow the cascade to work (4x Scalding Tarn so we can fetch mountain (violent outburst) or island (Ardeat Plea), 3x Wooded foothields to able to fetch mountain or forest (Violent outburst) and No Hallowed Fountain because that land combination (WU) is very weak and really not needed to be fetch using Ryan Cubit land combination)
In FineSpoo deck the 4x Scalding Tarn are replaced by 4xFlooded Strand (IMHO because of the budget reason I believe) but because of this the chances to allow the cascade color combination to work is lower (u cannot fetch mountain or forest) thats why he replaced seachrome coast to Hallowed Fountain
(The Main Idea is to get the best color combination as easily as possible to enable Violent Outburst or Ardent Plea)
Why 2/x3 Ingot Chewer not 3xWispmare its because to handle Hate card like Blood Moon you can handle it using Riftwing Cloudskate or Nahiri the Harbringer
But to handle hate card like Chalice of The Void, Pithing Needle, or Graffdigger Cage Ingot is better because Nahiri can not do anything against it plus Ingot is also good for Affinity deck that is a general deck in any tournament
I hope my explanation help
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeNahiri Balance by Julian Felix Flury
Deck by Julian F Flury on Sun, 08/21/2016 - 14:33
1st at WMCQ Switzerland
4 Greater Gargadon
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Ajani Vengeant
4 Demonic Dread
4 Violent Outburst
3 Restore Balance
2 Mardu Charm
1 Pick the Brain
2 Anguished Unmaking
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Blood Moon
2 Wildfield Borderpost
3 Firewild Borderpost
4 Veinfire Borderpost
2 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
3 Marsh Flats
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Slaughter Games
1 Krosan Grip
1 Pick the Brain
3 Ricochet Trap
3 Lingering Souls
2 Leyline of the Void
4 Leyline of Sanctity
How the deck works
Whoever lazy to click the link
One of the key decisions I made early in the development of the deck was to play black over blue. I liked black a lot more because of the added discard, hard non-creature permanent removal (Maelstrom Pulse/Anguished Unmaking over Detention Sphere) and the improved mana helped with a lot of the deck's issues. The main tradeoff is that you have to play Demonic Dread. The card is much worse than Ardent Plea because it requires a creature as target. Still, many Modern decks play creatures anyway, and the upsides are worth it in my opinion.
Another very important feature specific to this deck are the 3 main deck Blood Moons. These are a perfect natural fit, as you're playing 9 Borderposts and 5 Basics already, and you have Simian Spirit Guides to ramp them out, which can be absolutely game breaking on turn two on the play. Even if people fetch basics to play around them, that means that if you ever get to play a Balance that kills all their Lands, they can never recover.
The question I get asked the most is "Why are you playing Mardu Charms, they seem bad" and at the same time I'm asking myself all the time whether playing only 2 is correct. The card does exactly everything you want it to do in this deck. The default mode is instant speed Duress to clear the way against decks with counterspells. The two tokens are amazing at ambushing Snapcaster Mages and protecting your own Planeswalkers, the 4 damage makes the card not dead in matchups where the other modes don't matter.
The split of 2 Anguished Unmaking and 1 Maelstrom Pulse is like that because Unmaking is better at dealing with Wurmcoil Engines and opposing Nahiris (Pulse kills your own too) which are two of the harder permanents for this deck to deal with.
The one of main deck Pick the Brain is there to have a chance to deal with decks like Ad Nauseam, which are very hard to beat. It's actually possible to enable Delirium very consistently in this deck if you need it, by sacrificing permanents to Greater Gargadon and by discarding cards to Nahiri.
Leylines are particularly great in this deck as they "discard" themselves into play, which makes your Balance stronger while giving you an impactful benefit.
The Lingering Souls are mainly there to combat control decks.
Ajani Vengeant has positively surprised me, and I'm pretty sure that he's the next best Planeswalker for the deck after Nahiri. Especially critical is that he's very easy to cast. Other cards that could be considered for that slot are Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Gideon Jura, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. However, I'm not a big fan of 5 drops in this deck, and I also do not like making creatures, because those make Balance worse if you do not have a suspended Greater Gargadon.
You might have seen earlier lists with Goblin Dark-Dwellers, the card just didn't do enough and was very hard to cast.
It needs to be said that this list is very much a work in progress. For example the manabase needs to be slightly tweaked, Blood Moon has had such cataclysmic impact on games that not playing 4 might be wrong, and I'm considering playing even more Mardu Charms as the card has been amazing.
Position in the Metagame
For my WMCQ the deck was excellently positioned as there were a lot of creature based decks and not a lot of non-interactive combo. Generally this deck is very good against people trying to accumulate a resource directly affected by Restore Balance, that is lands in play, creatures in play, and cards in hand. This means that almost any creature deck is an amazing matchup, the slower, the better. It also makes ramp decks like Scapeshift into excellent matchups. Bad matchups are decks that do not care about creatures, lands in play, and cards in hand, especially if they're fast. This means things like Burn (fast and doesn't need creatures/lands to finish you off), Ad Nauseam (artifact mana, combo that only requires 1-2 cards in hand) and Lantern Control (doesn't care about cards in hand, or lands, plays lots of noncreature Artifacts). I went through all relevant Modern decks I have played against and grouped them into 5 different categories: Amazing, Favorable, Even, Unfavorable and Unwinnable.
Nahiri, the Harbinger
Versions:
Shadows Over Innistrad (Foil)
Amazing:
Bogles
Jund (includes all BG/x variants)
Elves
Kiki-Chord
Abzan Coco
Big Zoo
RG Scapeshift variants/Non-blue Valakut decks
UW Control
Bant Eldrazi
Black/White Tokens
Favorable:
UWR Nahiri
Merfolk
Shadow Zoo
Infect
Scapeshift (Blue based)
Grixis Control
Eldrazi Taxes
Little Kid Junk
Even:
Bushwhacker Zoo
RG Tron
Restore Balance
GW Death & Taxes
Living End
Unfavorable:
Affinity
Burn
Dredge
Grishoalbrand
Grixis Delver
Storm
Unwinnable:
Lantern Control
Ad Nauseam
Mono U Tron
Eggs
Keep in mind that those are probably slightly biased towards "too good" because people have no idea how to play against this deck. Consider picking the deck up if people in your area are playing decks more in the upper categories and also if you really like reducing your opponent's permanents in play to 0.
General Gameplay/Useful Tricks
- Generally speaking it's absolutely fine if your first Restore Balance is "only" a 4 for 1 or something along those lines. You don't always have to get all their lands and cards in hand. A small Balance combined with Nahiri is often enough to win a game.
- Violent Outburst is an instant. This has huge implications. It means you can just play a draw-go game and leave open your combo, meaning your opponents can't commit anything to the board even if they have a counterspell up. This also means you can use Violent Outburst in response to your own fetchlands to be "fake" down a land while Restore Balance resolves. This also means you should generally not react to opponents fetchlands.
- Effects that put creatures into play at instant speed (Aether Vial, Collected Company) can be annoying to fight. One very good way to deal with them is making sure you get rid of your entire hand before balancing. Another good way to play around Collected Company is to balance twice in quick succession.
- Unless they are a white deck with Path to Exile or a Black deck with Delve cards, it is very hard for decks to recuperate from having all their lands destroyed if you have a Gargadon suspended. This means you should generally, if possible, just go for it, even if it might look a bit suspicious on paper.
- You can use Ricochet Trap to redirect Ancestral Vision to yourself.
- Mardu Charm and hard cast Simian Spirit Guides can be used as targets for Demonic Dread and then be sacrificed to a Greater Gargadon for value.
- In most matchups I board out one Borderpost. In future versions of the deck I might include 1-2 lands in the Sideboard to make this more realistic. This is because most people's only decent Sideboard cards against us are heavy Artifact hate (Stony Silence, Ancient Grudge) this is not nearly as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Just be conscious of the risks of keeping hands heavy on Borderposts and light on Lands after board.
- Since balance is such a game breaking effect that can negate a lot of your opponent's card and board advantage accrued over the game, it is absolutely possible to play a really slow, long game with this deck where both players don't do much for the first 10 or so turns. This actually favors Restore Balance generally. This also means you mulligan incredibly well and should mulligan often. I've won on more mulligans to 4 than I've lost with this deck.
- Beware of Obstinate Baloth effects, they can be quite devastating if you're not prepared for them. A good way of beating them is cascading end of turn, then untapping and cascading again. Another decent way is to just try to have equal or more cards in hand than your opponent when you cast Balance, you usually don't need to make them discard to win the game.
- If your opponent has an active manland at the time Restore Balance resolves and they chose to keep it around as one of their lands, they will still have to sacrifice it during the second part of the spells resolution.
Below you will find an in depth matchup guide for every matchup I've played with the deck. I only recommend reading that if you're sure to pick up the deck. If you want to see me playing the deck, make sure you check out my stream.
Thanks a lot for reading and enjoy the deck!
Matchup/Sideboard Guide
Take all of this information with a grain of salt. Especially in matchups I have not played a lot consider these more recommendations than optimal strategies. To help better evaluate how sure I am about the information I've graded all matchups from 1 (almost never played) to 3 (played 15+ matches).
Boggles - Amazing - 2
Ideally you want hands with Violent Outburst, as they don't always have targets for Demonic Dread. If you can cascade away their board once, you're usually a huge favourite to win. They are also very soft to Blood Moon, usually playing only two Basics. Postboard they bring in Stony Silences and Nature's Claims/Natural States.
+ 1 Krosan Grip
- 1 Pick the Brain
Jund/BG - Amazing - 3
Yes, they have discard and Liliana, but at the end of the day they're going to have to win with creatures, so Demonic Dread always has targets. They are also slow. Save Unmakings for their Lilianas, especially in game 1. Blood Moon is amazing, an early Blood Moon almost always wins. Keep in mind that once you Balance away everything Gargadon can sometimes kill their Lilianas immediately. It's also sometimes really awkward for them to +1 Lilliana after a Balance as they have to discard their spells if they don't draw lands. Postboard they usually only bring in Ancient Grudge. I have met the occasional Obstinate Baloth and also Surgical Extraction out of this deck, so it's worth keeping that in mind. One of the few matchups that's already great game 1 and gets way better postboard.
+ 4 Leyline of Sanctity
- 2 Mardu Charm
- 1 Pick the Brain
- 1 Firewild Borderpost
Elves - Amazing - 2
At the end of the day, while very explosive and degenerate, Elves is just a creature deck. Any card advantage they might create with things like Duskwatch Recruiter is also mitigated by Balance. Keep in mind you can wipe their board in response to Shaman of the Pack triggers and their triggers will do nothing. Make sure they cannot Collected Company (or Chord of Calling) with floated mana after a Balance. Quite a few lists run Chord in the sideboard or not at all. If they run Chord, make sure not to randomly die to Shaman of the Pack in response to Balance. Also, if they're running white, be very careful for Chord into Eidolon of Rhetoric, that interaction can be absolutely game breaking for us. Usually they only have artifact hate post-board. If you're very worried about Shaman of the Pack, or if you've seen discard spells as well, you can consider Leyline of Sanctity.
+ 1 Pick the Brain
- 1 Firewild Borderpost
Eidolon of Rhetoric
Versions:
Journey into Nyx (Foil)
Kiki Chord - Amazing - 2
Like any Chord of Calling/Collected Company deck you should win game 1 basically always. They sometimes run Nahiri, the Harbinger themselves. Keep in mind that even if they do, it's not guaranteed that they're running Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn too. Generally save your removal spells for combo pieces and Nahiris. Restoration Angel, like Company and Chord can also be played with floated mana after a Balance. Post-board be very conscious of Eidolon of Rhetoric. They almost always have it and if they can Chord of Calling into it at the right time it can counter your Cascade ability.
+1 Pick the Brain
-1 Blood Moon
Abzan Collected Company - Amazing - 2
Very similar to other Chord/Collected Company matchups. Kitchen Finks and Voice of Resurgence can make you have to combo twice or clean up with alternate means. Mardu Charm tokens are particularly great at that. As always the main concerns are instant speed threats and post-board Eidolon of Rhetoric. Leyline of the Void is amazing since it completely shuts down Voice of Resurgence, Kitchen Finks and Eternal Witness. Keep in mind to not combo on their turn if they have a Voice of Resurgence out, as the trigger for the initial cascade spell will happen after the Cascade trigger. Blood Moon is fairly bad because of the high mana dork count.
+2 Leyline of the Void
+1 Pick the Brain
-3 Blood Moon
Big Zoo - Amazing - 1
This is usually also a Collected Company deck, so the usual concerns apply. Apart from that, it's basically only sideboard cards you care about. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is your biggest concern. It makes you two turns slower because you have to pay 1 extra on your Cascade spell and also 1 extra for the Restore Balance. This also means you should be careful to play around a Thalia off of a Collected Company in response to a Cascade trigger, since that can counter your Restore Balance if you don't have mana. It feels like Leyline of the Void making Tarmogoyf and Knight of the Reliquary worse seem better than Blood Moons (they usually run their own and have mana dorks) but I have not tested this enough.
+2 Leyline of the Void
-2 Blood Moon
RG Scapeshift/Valakut Variants - Amazing - 3
This, for once, is a deck that's trying to go wide on lands, not creatures. They still usually have enough creatures to enable Demonic Dread, which makes this matchup amazing. There are multiple slightly different versions of this. Keep in mind that, if you have a Violent Outburst, you can let them combo both with Scapeshift and Through the Breach and react afterwards. Restore Balance will usually kill enough of their lands that the Valakut triggers do not resolve because of the intervening if clause. Keep in mind that there are versions with a white splash for Nahiri, the Harbinger. That means you should save your removal spells for her if possible, and it also sometimes makes it correct to kill their Oath of Nissa if you have them under a Blood Moon lock. A black splash almost always means Slaughter Games, which is quite a good sideboard card versus our deck. Also this is by far the deck that is most likely to play Obstinate Baloth. It is usually not an issue though, as they are one of the few decks to empty their hand faster than us.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+1 Pick the Brain
-2 Mardu Charm
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-2 Anguished Unmaking (This is assuming no Nahiris)
UW Control - Amazing - 2
There are a couple of versions of this, but they generally are incredibly slow and pack a lot of mass removal and slightly less counterspells than other control decks. All in all that's a very good combination for us. Beware of main deck Crucible of Worlds, as that's a very scary card for them to have out. Also make sure not to get your Emrakul off of Nahiri ultimate tapped by Cryptic Command. Blood Moon depends a lot on their build, there are some with very few basics, others with loads. Post-board the Lingering Souls plan should be highly effective since they board out all their mass removal.
-4 Demonic Dread
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Firewild Borderpost
+3 Ricochet Trap
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Krosan Grip
Bant Eldrazi - Amazing - 2
Another very good matchup. Yes they have Thought-Knot Seer, but if you can cascade after they stuck one you get cards back. They're not very fast and don't have a lot of disruption either. If they have Engineered Explosives in addition to Stony Silence, I'd consider sideboarding Krosan Grip. They usually only have a couple of Stubborn Denials and Stony Silences as interaction.
Black/White Tokens - Amazing - 1
Another straight up creature deck. They are basically Jund with more resilient threats and less disruption, which makes the matchup even better for us. Raise the Alarm has the instant speed issue and Blood Moon can be slightly less effective than vs. Jund, but otherwise this matchup should be insanely good.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
-1 Pick the Brain
-2 Mardu Charm
-1 Firewild Borderpost
Ricochet Trap
Versions:
Worldwake (Foil)
UWR Nahiri - Favorable - 3
This matchup initially had me very worried. They combine counterspells with annoying planeswalkers, some of the best opposition to this deck. However, they are very slow, and once I've found my current sideboard approach, I've won a lot more than I've lost. Basically don't be afraid to go into the lategame. Usually they will eventually tap out of countermana and you can combo them. A decent "value" balance, say something like 2 cards in hand 2 lands is usually worth it. Keep Anguished Unmakings at all cost for their Nahiris. Blood Moon is very effective in this matchup. Post-board, they will usually take out removal. Especially mass removal will be gone. This means that Lingering Souls is an insane play and they frequently have to spend precious counterspells on halves of it. Keep in mind that if they run Ancestral Vision it can be worth trading with their counters early to clear the way to hijack it with a Ricochet Trap.
+3 Lingering Souls
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain
-4 Demonic Dread
-1 Veinfire Borderpost
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Greater Gargadon
Merfolk - Favorable - 2
Even though this is one of the most straightforward creature decks in the format, the matchup isn't perfect because they have Aether Vial and counterspells. If they do not draw a Vial or you can destroy it, the matchup becomes quite trivial. Note that most lists run few or even no counterspells at all main deck. Usually their main deck counterspell of choice is Spell Pierce, which you should play around if you can afford it.
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Krosan Grip
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Pick the Brain
Zooicide - Favorable - 2
They can turn 3 kill you, which sometimes you can do nothing about on the draw. Keep this in mind when mulliganing, in case you know the matchup. Ditch overly slow hands. Their only interaction, save one Stony Silence out of the sideboard, is usually a bunch of discard spells, this is why Leyline of Sanctity comes in. Blood Moon is insanely good, as most of them do not even run main deck basic lands. Remember that they have no relevant instant speed interaction usually, so feel free to leave Violent Outburst up until their end step, as insurance versus the decks various combat tricks. Sometimes they are low enough that you can just kill them with two Ajani Vengeant activations. Keep in mind that they can still cast Monastery Swiftspear, Mutagenic Growth and Temur Battle Rage under a Blood Moon.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
-1 Pick the Brain
-2 Mardu Charm
-1 Firewild Borderpost
Infect - Favorable - 2
Infect is "just" a creature deck. Sometimes they have draws with few Infect creatures, then the matches become very easy. Blood Moon can be devastating, especially if they don't know about it, but it can also not do much if they already have a Forest. Post-board the matchup becomes much harder, as they board in more Spell Pierces. Sometimes Ricochet Trap can be cast to redirect some of their pump spells, keep in mind that it can redirect non-blue spells for cheap as well, if a blue spell has already been cast during the turn.
+3 Ricochet Trap
-1 Pick the Brain
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Firewild Borderpost
Scapeshift - Favorable - 1
Very similar to R/G Valakut, but they do have a lot of counterspells. They usually play 4 Cryptic Commands and 4 Remands. 4 Cryptics means you should be careful with your Nahiri ultimates, since they can just use the tap and the draw mode (this works even through Ricochet Trap!). Blood Moon does prevent them from comboing, but they can just get rid of it EOT with a Cryptic Command. Feel free to experiment with Lingering Souls in this matchup, they might be better than Leylines. They also almost always have Obstinate Baloths post-board.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Slaughter Games
+1 Pick the Brain
-4 Demonic Dread
-2 Anguished Unmaking
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Wildfire Borderpost
-1 Ajani Vengeant
Leyline of the Void
Versions:
Guildpact (Foil)
Magic 2011 Core Set (Foil)
Grixis Control - Favorable - 2 // Grixis Delver - Unfavorable - 2
There are many different flavors of Grixis. While as how good the matchups are differs a lot whether they're Delver or Control, the decks play a lot of the same cards and my approach to the games is practically the same. If possible try to actively kill their threats using your removal spells, very often they will have to defend it with their counters because they have no other game plan. If you see them playing a lot of discard and not a lot of counters you can bring in Leyline of Sanctity instead of Ricochet Traps.
+2 Leyline of the Void
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain (Control)
-3 Blood Moon (they have surprisingly many basics, but depending on the list this can be fine)
-1 Maelstrom Pulse (Control)
-1 Ajani Vengeant (Control)
-1 Pick the Brain (Delver)
Death & Taxes Variants/Hatebears - Even/Favorable - 2
This encompasses all variants of white creature decks with Leonin Arbiter. Beware of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben making your spells more expensive. Flash Thalias (off of Aether Vial or Collected Company) can make you unable to cast your Restore Balance off of Cascade if you do not have a spare mana. Also make sure, if at all possible, that they cannot save permanents through Restore Balance with a Flickerwisp. As against Merfolk, kill Vials on sight. Versus Eldrazi Taxes we need Leyline of Sanctity because they have a lot of discard.
+3 Lingering Souls (G/W)
+1 Krosan Grip
+4 Leyline of Sanctity (Eldrazi)
-1 Firewild Borderpost
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Pick the Brain (Eldrazi)
Little Kid Junk - Favorable - 2
They are the most straightforward creature deck. The only reason this matchup is not a bye is that they have a lot of Obstinate Baloth effects. Try to play around these by Balancing twice. They also have Voice, which is annoying, since it means you have to combo on your turn and because it leaves behind tokens. If they have Kitchen Finks also, bringing in Leyline of the Void might be worth it.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+2 Leyline of the Void (Kitchen Finks)
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Pick the Brain
-2 Anguished Unmaking
Bushwhacker Zoo - Even - 1
They are a creature deck but they also have burn and are very very fast. If you're aware of the matchup, if you're on the draw, try mulliganing to hands that do something before turn 3 if possible. If you get to Balance at 7+ life, you'll usually win. Sometimes they also play Thalia, Guardian of Thraben post-board.
RG Tron - Even - 3
This matchup suffers heavily from Demonic Dread. Gargadon is by far your most important card. If you can manage to Balance with a Gargadon before they resolve a Planeswalker you're in great shape. Game 1 Blood Moon can be devastating, post-board they usually have at least 3 Nature's Claims. Keep in mind that a Gargadon can sweep up a stray Karn Liberated after you've resolved Restore Balance. Wurmcoil Engine is problematic because it leaves behind tokens after Balance. I'm not entirely sure whether Slaughter Games is worth boarding in.
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Krosan Grip
+1 Slaughter Games
-3 Demonic Dread
Restore Balance - Even - 1
Seems to me like having more Planeswalkers and Borderposts than your adversary is incredibly important. Basically you only want to Balance if you're ahead on those metrics. Ricochet Trap comes in as a hardcast answer to their Anguished Unmakings because Nahiri is so incredibly important. Do not keep a hand without Anguished Unmaking, Borderposts, or a Planeswalker.
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
+1 Krosan Grip
-3 Blood Moon
-3 Demonic Dread
Slaughter Games
Versions:
Return to Ravnica (Foil)
Living End - Even - 1
This matchup felt a lot like a mirror, which comes as no surprise considering the nature of the two decks. In general I think you're the control player.
+2 Leyline of the Void
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
-2 Wildfire Borderpost
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Ajani Vengeant
Affinity - Unfavorable - 3
The Affinity matchup is completely incomparable to everything else. They will apply a lot of pressure, which means you basically always have to cascade on turn 3. Unlike any other matchup, cascading can be quite a liability in this matchup, as it usually means discarding your hand and with it any potential followup. At the same time, denying their lands is not a great idea since they'll still have Springleaf Drums and Mox Opals left over, and potential Cranial Platings can turn any bad topdeck into a terrifying threat. Because of this Lingering Souls are incredibly important post-board, as they allow you to have some follow up and protect your Nahiri's until they can Ultimate.
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Krosan Grip
-3 Greater Gargadon
-1 Pick the Brain
Burn - Unfavorable - 2
If you mulligan a lot, sometimes you can make them discard enough early enough to win game 1. Another way is just to kill all the lands with Greater Gargadon and hope to kill them before they ever draw a land again. Post-board it becomes much better because of Leyline of Sanctity. Keep in mind that they can deal damage to you through Leyline with Atarka's Command. Blood Moon stays in because you want to prevent them from casting Destructive Revelry.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
-2 Anguished Unmaking
-1 Pick the Brain
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
Dredge - Unfavorable - 2
This is pretty straightforward. You can never win a single game where you don't have Leyline of the Void in play. They can never win the game if you have Leyline of the Void and they don't have an answer to it. In theory this makes it sound really bad, but I've had reasonable success by just straight up mulliganing to Leyline of the Void. If this deck is popular in your metagame, consider playing 4 Leyline of the Void.
+4 Leyline of the Void
+1 Slaughter Games
-1 Pick the Brain
-2 Anguished Unmaking
-2 Mardu Charm
Grishoalbrand - Unfavorable - 1
While they are a combo deck, at least they're trying to combo with creatures, so you can still interact. You'd still rather combo before they get the chance to use Through the Breach, as the wurm leaves behind tokens if you Balance it away.
+2 Leyline of the Void
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Ajani Vengeant
Storm - Unfavorable - 1
Contrary to other combo decks, they do care a lot about card quantity. Kind of similar to Burn, in the sense that if you can combo early with few cards in hand it can be effective. Post-board it gets a lot better, as we gain a lot of relevant cards and their usual post-board approach of Empty the Warrens does not work.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+2 Leyline of the Void
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
-3 Blood Moon
-2 Ajani Vengeant
-1 Anguished Unmaking
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
-1 Firewild Borderpost
Leyline of Sanctity
Versions:
Magic 2011 Core Set (Foil)
Modern Masters 2015 (Foil)
Lantern Control - Unwinnable - 1
They dump their hand really quickly, play no creatures, need basically no mana and their permanents aren't affected by Balance at all. The only way you can win is trying to punk them out by stripping all either Ensnaring Bridges with either Slaughter Games or Pick the Brain. Remember to hard cast Simian Spirit Guides to pressure them.
+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Krosan Grip
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Slaughter Games
-4 Demonic Dread
-4 Violent Outburst
-3 Restore Balance
Ad Nauseam - Unwinnable - 2
Contrary to other combo decks, you can't attack their mana because they have Lotus Bloom and Pentad Prism, and you also cannot attack their hand well because they only need 1 or 2 cards to combo off. Your best bet is probably to get their Phyrexian Unlife mid-combo with a Krosan Grip. Other than that try Slaughter Gaming them out.
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Krosan Grip
+1 Slaughter Games
-4 Demonic Dread
-2 Ajani Vengeant
Mono U Tron - Unwinnable - 1
Resilient threats and more counterspells than any other deck in the format, Thought-Knot Seers, Wurmcoil Engines and sometimes even Chalice of the Void main deck. All in all hell on earth for Restore Balance.
+3 Ricochet Trap
+1 Pick the Brain
+1 Krosan Grip
-4 Demonic Dread
-1 Blood Moon
Updated from Ari Lax link
The deck is incredibly fun to pilot, but there are some nuances to it that Ari told me about. If you're going to suit this up for your FNM, there's some things you should know:
“You can crack a fetchland [like Windswept Heath] and respond with Violent Outburst.” This means that after the Restore Balance, you end up +1 land (and your opponent -1).
“You can cast Simian Spirit Guide to have a Demonic Dread target.”
“For Greater Gargadon, the cost is sacrificing something. So even if it's low on counters, you can just keep sacrificing, and respond with Violent Outburst at the end.” This means the Restore Balance happens before the Gargadon becomes unsuspended, no matter how few counters are on it.
“Violent Outburst during their draw step to nab an extra card off Restore Balance.” Ari was quick to qualify however, “But watch out, it can backfire. This format has things like Pacts, and Angel's Grace, and giving an opportunity to untap can blow up in your face.”
“Mardu Charm is an instant; target them during their draw step.”
“DO NOT CUT LINGERING SOULS!”
Ari Lax restore balance guide from scg premium artikel
Restoring Balance To Modern
link to SCG
ARI LAX
11/07/16
#Premium #Modern #SCGCOL
This past weekend, I sleeved up the fun deck I kept winning with.
Reason One – I kept winning with it.
Reason Two – I didn't have time to learn Lantern Control.
Reason Three – I wanted to pack light and not worry about a last minute audible, so I simply locked in and build it.
Behold Restore Balance, the most fun you can have in Modern if your goal is making people technically continue to play games despite being unable to cast spells:
Restore Balance
Ari Lax
0th Place at Test deck on 11/7/2016
Modern
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Ajani Vengeant
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Forest
3 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Marsh Flats
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Veinfire Borderpost
1 Wildfield Borderpost
3 Blood Moon
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mardu Charm
4 Violent Outburst
2 Anger of the Gods
4 Demonic Dread
3 Restore Balance
1 Dismember
3 Ravenous Trap
4 Lingering Souls
2 Pick the Brain
1 Slaughter Games
What is Restore Balance?
Restore Balance
The general idea of Restore Balance is similar to that of Living End. You want to cascade into a zero cost spell that in turn generates a broken symmetrical effect you can exploit.
Wrath Of God
One assumption of Restore Balance is that you aren't playing many creatures. Even if you were, it's not reliable to assume your opponent is and you would often lose your creatures when Restore Balance resolved. As a result, Restore Balance almost always mirrors Living End in its sweeping capabilities.
Greater Gargadon Firewild Borderpost
The key build around of Restore Balance is exploiting the land balancing. You could leave them with no hand, no creatures, but many Modern decks can topdeck out of that. Instead, leaving them with zero or one land and no creatures makes most of their hands blank. There are two ways that the current list does this: sacrificing lands to Greater Gargadon, or replacing lands on the battlefield with Borderposts.
Simian Spirit Guide Nahiri, the Harbringer
The other way to build towards Restore Balance is raw card count. By playing card types that aren't counted by Restore Balance, you can force your opponent into a low resource situation where you are far ahead. One way to do this is just getting the cards out of there. Simian Spirit Guide making mana or just suspending spells are the primary ways to do this. You can also play enchantments like Blood Moon, artifacts like Borderposts, or planeswalkers. While the cards you are casting might not look quite up to snuff, when all is said and done, you have received most of a card of value. Meanwhile, your opponent is forced to be way down on resources.
Why Restore Balance Now?
Restore Balance is a deck I have tried and liked as a not-great fun deck in the past, mostly via the heavy suspend lists a couple years back that included such highlights as Errant Ephemeron and Durkwood Baloth.
Durkwood Baloth
I never had tried the lists that were super heavy on Borderposts, but I knew from experience crushing them with a variety of decks that they were too easy to disrupt. Too many Stony Silences, Abrupt Decays, and Qasali Pridemages flew around the format for their mana to work.
At Grand Prix Lyon, a copy of the deck finished in the Top 64 after an even more solid start that had a lot of new technology. It turns out Julian Felix Flury had figured it all out.
Blood Moon Ajani Vengeant
The biggest shift was changing from a dedicated Restore Balance deck to more of a general “Restore Balance and other nonsense” strategy. You are less linear, but at the same time this doesn't cost you much power. The nut draw of Greater Gargadon and cascade spells is still very much in place, and you can also just nut draw into a turn-2 Blood Moon, cripple a creature deck with Anger of the Gods, or do any number of other things.
Mardu Charm Anguished Unmaking
Playing interaction and playing for a more versatile game plan also lets you better leverage your Balances. You don't always want to jam your Violent Outburst as soon as possible, as it won't necessarily take out enough resources. You want to find the spot to absolutely annihilate your opponent, and having the interaction lets you maneuver right to that. You can play a game where your questions change from just “do I have to cast Restore Balance here to live?” and include “does this absolutely crush my opponent or can I get more?” You can make an alternate play to try and nab all their lands or all their cards in a turn and not just be forced to pass, do nothing, and hope they overextend more while doing so.
Blighted Agent Death's Shadow
The interaction also lets you go toe-to-toe with the absurdly fast creature combo decks. You aren't all-in on firing off an early Restore Balance to not die. There are a lot of times you can use Simian Spirit Guide in a “fair” way to play a three-mana interactive spell on turn 2 to break up an early kill. Again, you can also chip away at their first threats, then clean up the rest with a later Balance and not just die to their reload. Your deck just plays more like a real deck and less like the one-shot gimmick the early lists trended towards.
Demonic Dread Ardent Plea
Another big shift was the mana. Moving from Ardent Plea to Demonic Dread homogenized your color requirements to “go off.” It's hard to pinpoint the exact scenarios where things get awkward, but you can see the general problem of drawing the wrong Borderposts for your spells. In this list a single Veinfire Borderpost or Firewild Borderpost is one specific land away from either cascade spell, whereas a Fieldmist Borderpost doesn't contribute to a Violent Outburst. The mix and match issue gets even worse once you start trying to figure out what non-cascade spells you want to play and then throw the whole “needing to fetch basic lands to enable Borderposts” issue on top of it all. You can see how making everything a step simpler is a great idea.
You are also playing less Borderposts than most previous builds, whereas the previous lists really wanted their middle two-color Borderposts (i.e. Wildfield Borderpost in a R/G/W/U deck) on top of the cascade-matching ones. It's the difference between nine copies versus eleven or twelve, but it ends up being huge. A card like Stony Silence or Ancient Grudge is now sometimes annoying but rarely devastating. You can afford to play Sacred Foundry to fetch and don't have to maximize basics to avoid mulligans. You need less mulligans because you have less all-Borderpost hands.
This also isn't to say mulligans are bad. Often you are in situations where you mulligan to four or five cards and are almost happy to have done so. When you eventually Restore Balance, each card you sent back is one more card your opponent loses. You aren't actively trying to mulligan hands that do something powerful, but I'm extremely reluctant to keep anything that isn't some classification of “great draw” on six or seven cards. This unique property of Restore Balance might have been one of the biggest appeals to it, as it really violates a core rule of the game by doing so.
Living End
As mentioned, Restore Balance has a lot of similar sweeper properties to Living End. It has previously been classified as a worse cascade deck as it doesn't capitalize quite as well on the sweep; there isn't a built-in ten or more power brought back.
But you have a lot of the same strengths.
Most creature strategies are very simple matchups since your effect is so backbreaking. You even avoid some of the Living End-specific pitfalls like Viscera Seer or Arcbound Ravager while maintaining some of the specific strengths like the fact that you force a sacrifice.
Prized Amalgam Leyline of The Void
The issue with Living End right now is that you simply can't play it into the Dredge-pushed metagame. Are you really showing up with a graveyard deck to the graveyard hate sideboard event? At the same time Restore Balance gains a ton here with Dredge pushing out fairer counterspell strategies that can be annoying and with people cutting some of the arbitrary spell and artifact hate cards from their sideboard for Grafdigger's Cages and Relic of Progenitus.
What Does Restore Balance Beat?
Mostly creature strategies, but also possibly anything.
Mind Twist Armageddon
One of the draws to Restore Balance is Mind Twist and Armageddon are just generally good Magic cards that are hard to defend against. It turns out that even in 2016 we still need cards to win games of Magic and lands to cast them.
Your strategy is generally fine against anything. You have a bit of the true Modern combo style where you can actually threaten a game-ending play on turn 2 or 3, but as I've repeatedly said, you aren't locked into that game plan. You can shove or you can play a long game; it's all about evaluating your resources.
What Beats Restore Balance?
Mox Opal
There are weird cards that don't get hit by Restore Balance. You can often just Armageddon your opponent to cut them off the ability to play, but Mox Opal is a special case. Affinity isn't super worrying as you still kill all their creatures, but Lantern Control... yeah, I have no clue how you beat that deck. They are capable of winning games off no cards and no lands with just a bunch of artifacts, and unless you overload on artifact removal, you won't have enough to pick apart all their lock pieces before your draw step is dead. I debated sideboarding into Ancient Grudge as my cascade target over Restore Balance to beat it, but I seriously doubted it would be enough of the metagame to warrant it.
Negate
The times I have lost to weird combo decks that I've been able to interact with have largely been on the back of countermagic. You can get into good spots with planeswalkers and instant Restore Balance off of Violent Outburst, but beating an oversaturation of the right countermagic backed by a clock is hard. Not only are you a little threat-light but each of your threats requires you to tap out.
Golgari Grave-Troll
“Hey Ari, you just said your deck is good against people who need cards in hand to win and bad when they ignore that. Dredge is a deck that is actively trying to discard cards. You also said you can't play Living End into a Dredge metagame due to the hate. How can you justify playing a deck that loses to Dredge into a Dredge-metagame?”
Everyone can play Dredge hate. Not everyone can play Dredge, and far fewer people than you assume will play Dredge actually do. Even beyond that, everyone else playing hate will keep Dredge down a bit.
Sometimes you have to take a risk and go a level up. If this was a week ago and Cathartic Reunion Dredge was not a high priority target but was still good, I would have just played that instead of Restore Balance. But in people's minds the Modern metagame moves fast, so in reality almost no one changes their deck choice and everyone just changes their sideboard.
This brings me to another reason I played Restore Balance, which kind is kind of the whole philosophy behind why some people hate Modern.
Reason Four – It's Modern. Anything can happen, and worrying about the specifics is overrated.
When anything can happen, it is hard to actually plan for an event on a card-for-card level. This really bothers people who are used to being able to go to a perfect 75 to beat the expected five decks in a Standard tournament with very well-defined game plans.
Sure, Infect might be on the upswing this week, but that means you play against it 50% more to a total of one or two times. Maybe Dredge is the hot deck that actually wins, which means if you go deep into the event, you have to beat it...again once, maybe twice. Sure, sometimes you play against Burn four times in a weekend. That happens too, because that's Magic.
At the end of the day, you are playing against a random sample of a very diverse population. Anything can and will happen.
You have to select a deck that does something relevant early enough to matter in the dark, but beyond that, things are a little more up in the air. You want to consider your matchup against “creature combo” when making a deck choice, not necessarily specifically Infect or Death's Shadow. You need to know how to play against those specific decks, but “My deck can't beat Death's Shadow” isn't good enough to shift your opinion.
If you want to worry about metagame things, worry about big picture reactions. “People expect a lot of Infect, so I shouldn't play a deck full of x/1s if I care about them dying to Darkblast.” “People expect a lot of Dredge, so I should avoid other graveyard decks or things that lose to Grafdigger's Cage.”
At most you should worry about one or two specific archetypes, and even then it's only a tertiary concern. “This deck will likely do well, I probably have to be able to beat it to win the event.” This is why I played Dredge hate in my sideboard to a little bit of excess. It's possible I could have used the sideboard space better on a mix of Dismember, additional Anger of the Gods, but it was a case of seven or zero and I chose the high end. At least Leyline of the Void has additional benefits against other random graveyard decks that no one is playing because of Dredge, right?
Restore Balance Specifics
Violent Outburst
Violent Outburst being an instant means you can cast it at any time. That means your upkeep, their draw step, in response to activating your fetchland...
Greater Gargadon
You can sacrifice permanents to Greater Gargadon in excess of the number of time counters on it while it is awaiting the suspend cast trigger.
Demonic Dread Simian Spirit Guide
You do have creature cards in your deck that you can cast to target with Demonic Dread. You can also shave down on Demonic Dread if your opponent doesn't have creatures to target.
The Future of Restore Balance
Eidolon of Rhetoric Chalice of the void
Off the bat Restore Balance is definitely a deck you have to pull back on if the hate or the wrong opposing decks show up. Know when to fold.
Ricochet Trap Beast Within Night of Soul's Betrayal Leyline of Sanctity
The thing that interests me the most about Restore Balance past this weekend is how oddly flexible the deck is for a cascade shell where you can only play higher cost cards. It turns out there are a lot of weird hate options out there once you spread across four colors.
Inquisition of Kozilek
If anything, you are actually presented with more options due to having to cut the obvious “best” ones out of the way. How else would you get to Mardu Charm?
Really, I couldn't think of a better analogy for the Modern format. You have a hard cap on what you can do, but with a little bit of rule bending you are suddenly presented with a diverse set of options. How can you tell which is the best? Meh, you probably can't, but you can make some great vague guesses.
GO BALANCE
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeI'm missing the Nahiri package, but this makes me want to sleeve the deck up again. It really crushes people's souls like no other deck.
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeSuper hyped on this card, allows us to get aggressive with our balances and get rewarded; could be insane in a Tezz, AoB build
IMHO I think the cards is not important as Nahiri the harbringer. Because u need 3 cards to make that cards works and that is cascade spell, greater gargadon, and that cards. Even if u manage to use its ability u look 6 cards and there is no guarantee u can find a finisher cards like Emrakul to cast it.
IMHO the best cards in kaladesh block is the enemy color fastland (RW, RU, GU)
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot activeI hear what you're saying, but I have Tezz's not Nahiri's haha. I still think it may be worth exploring, I'll trow together a list tomorrow maybe
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/33680_Video-Restore-Balance-In-Modern.html
Good for learning
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Boros/Naya/Mardu Burn
Abzan Rhino non Noble Hierachnot activeJund Tarmolessnot activeDnT White
Living End Jund
Restore Balance Non Borderpost/ Borderpostnot activeU/W Titan Controlnot activeMardu Nahiri/Controlnot active