It's something you could try, though I don't think that the deck actually needs it. We already have Pithing Needle to deal with Planeswalkers, and just about every deck in the format will be able to deal with a pair of 1/1 fliers. I'd prefer it as a one-of, if anything. I feel as though Beast Within is the better all-round card for the deck (though not strictly better due to no Flashback), if you wanted an answer to almost anything that could also double as a win-con once you have your opponent locked out of the game.
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These visions of mine... are they still daydreams if the sun is dead? Are they waking nightmares, instead, or is that what they always were?
Counterbalance is cute, but doesn't really work too well in our deck (or in Modern in general) because it's very hard to reliably counter their spells without Sensei's Divining Top-- even with a Lantern of Insight shell. Part of the reason why I don't think it's necessary is because in order to make Counterbalance work well, we'd already need to have Lantern of Insight + several mill pieces on the table, in which case we should already have control of the game. In addition, we've got a very narrow range of casting costs in our deck: almost everything in our deck costs one mana, while there honestly isn't many threatening cards that we'd counter at 1CMC.
As for the decklist you posted, I'd cut at least one copy of Abrupt Decay purely because you can't afford to clog up your hand (makes your Infernal Tutor + Ensnaring Bridge much worse). If you're going to be running multiple copies of Noxious Revival then I'd honestly only want 1-2 of most cards that aren't core for the deck / lock, such as Infernal Tutor (which I'd prefer as a one-of) and Abrupt Decay. You also need to bear in mind that if you're running Pyxis over Ghoulcaller's Bell (I'd like to see a split instead), Noxious Revival's utility gets worse since you can't reliably use it on yourself, as well as lowering your ability to recur cards with Codex Shredder. Your manabase seems fine, though if you want to run 3 copies of lands that destroy enemy lands, I'd suggest a split of Tectonic Edge + Ghost Quarter, rather than 3 Ghost Quarters. Academy Ruins is also a card to consider as a one-of, though again it's made worse by having 4 copies of Pyxis. I think you have a little too much hand disruption in your maindeck, and I'd personally move the Duress into the sideboard because of how narrow it is (and IoK hits almost everything that's relevant anyway).
Test out your decklist and see what you think / let us know how it runs!
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These visions of mine... are they still daydreams if the sun is dead? Are they waking nightmares, instead, or is that what they always were?
Tezzeret is enough of an alt win-con all on his own, because the deck has inevitability anyway (especially since you've got Academy Ruins and an Elixir of Immortality in the deck). The one thing I'd be a little wary of is the way the manabase works at the moment-- you've got six total possible sources of blue mana, including your two Tendo Ice Bridge, so it makes activating Academy Ruins + playing Tezzeret less reliable. Maybe you could switch one of your basics for an Island, or since you don't run Mox Opal just add 1-2 Darkslick Shores. Besides that, I really like Surgical Extraction (so I think adding a couple of those, like you were thinking, would work out well for you) and for the remaining slot perhaps the extra land I suggested, or another Pithing Needle or even a Beast Within if you think you're short on answers.
Good luck with the deck, it takes a tonne of practice haha.
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These visions of mine... are they still daydreams if the sun is dead? Are they waking nightmares, instead, or is that what they always were?
As someone who plays this deck in paper magic I couldn't imagine not playing Tezz. Even with tezz in the main I often draw games due to my opponents "slow playing" but doing so in a way that makes it so its not easy for me to call a judge. I had an opponent last tournament recheck his sideboard 3 times after a first match. Any time I lose a first game, my opponents seem to become overly fatigued and every mulligan they take lasts 2 minutes. Any time I politely ask my opponents to speed it up they tell me not to rush them and that they are going as fast as they need to. If I do have the lock game two they literally take 15-20 seconds each turn, which, when I know they've just drawn a land that will contribute in no way to the game state, is too long. Suddenly everyone needs to check their GY and my GY and count their library every 3 turns and think intensely before passing. At a larger tourny I may be willing to call for a judge, but at various FNMS and small tournies (I'm new to my area which has many LGS's) I'd hate to be the guy who calls a judge on every opponent he has. I play this deck fast, but in paper, unlike mtgo, the variable of your opponents speed matters too much to not include Tezz at least somewhere in the 75.
YellowMimic, as far as beast within vs abrupt decay I've swapped to the decay side from the beast within side. The main problem with abrupt decay is that it doesnt hit the planeswalkers and leyline of sanctity. We still have all the tools to deal with those permanents with pithing needle and nature's claim if you have some in the board. The biggest reason I swapped to aburpt is simply the 2 cmc vs 3 which often comes up since a great deal of the hate for us is at 2 cmc like stoney silence, chalice on 1, kataki, ect. Add the fact that sometimes adding to their clock can kill you.
That being said if my meta contained a great deal of leyline i'd probably stick with beast just because its hard to predict which decks will bring it in since any deck can run it. You cant just bring in nature's claim against every deck after all can you? And I've been in those situations where you have to thoughtseize yourself to lower your hand for bridge and its a little more than awkward.
The inherent flaw with this deck is that you cannot allow your opponent to win game 1. If you do, they WILL NOT concede if you get the lock in game two and will try to make it go as long as possible. The reason is obvious. If the game draws, they win. If you finish them, there is a good chance that you will not have enough time to do it again, but they will still have enough time to win if you don't get the lock because if they were to win it would likely be within the first 10 turns. And why wouldn't they? They get put in a situation where they can manufacture either 3 points or 1.
That is the major problem with the deck it is true. If you get really good with the deck(which usually involves knowing the other person's deck enough to be milling, tutoring, and shuffling while knowing the correct play in seconds) you can usually finish the game in 15 minutes average.
The positives are that usually the Bridge throws a large wrench into most deck's plans for winning. This deck maximizes the Bridge, and rarely do I lose game 1 against any deck save for a hardcore burn deck or a Rock Deck with a fast opening.
I have Tezz in my sideboard for the game 2 and game 3 for the speed that he helps, granted you lose your defense by having him in the deck.
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Top Control: The only pure lockdown deck in Modern.
Won a local GPT with my 5c version of the deck which had a Glittering Wish mb. I sibeboarded the wish out g2 against both affinity and tokens since having a card stuck in hand would spell doom. I've also come to the conclusion that Tezz or wish isn't needed in the main. I'll still try Tezz in the side in-case I lose game 1. I also want to try some different lands, might even make my 75 only bug.
The GPT was small but diverse. Hard to remember all of the games but I only lost a match to Pod once before top 8. In top 8 I beat UWR control, affinity and WB tokens.
I'm tempted to try a 3rd academy ruins in the main. Beast Within could easily come out for something else, possibly faithless looting - in which case I'd swap out a Tendo Ice Bridge for Blood Crypt.
Didn't vs all-in burn at the ptq or gpt. Lost against zoo at the ptq which is why I added reinforcements to the sb. Other than that my aggro match-ups felt really solid. I'm usually able to find a bridge by turn 3 and the decks I came against crumbled to it, namely fish, boggles and tokens. With that said I'm willing to try a faithless looting or 2 in the main.
How are you finding surgical in the main, something I hadn't really given too much thought. Also, 3 Pithing Needle main - is that a meta choice or has it been good against everything?
Having to exile the cards facedown feels weird with Lantern in play, but I suppose it's what you've got to do + you can always just write down the cards if you need to keep track of them.
I see the fetches more from the perspective of fixing your mana and thinning your deck while also giving you a shuffle effect if you don't want to draw what's on top of your library (or don't want to exile / mill it with our artifacts). Being more resilient to Blood Moon because you can fetch basics to turn on Tutor + Abrupt Decay is nice, too! I've been trying to work fetches into my (albeit theoretical) manabase to see if I can keep it smooth.
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These visions of mine... are they still daydreams if the sun is dead? Are they waking nightmares, instead, or is that what they always were?
Ya I figure they are mostly there for the shuffle effect and the life loss is about the same as from pain lands. Yes we should always exile face-down with Pyxis. There's actually quite a few things that must be done properly in paper with this deck. I've had multiple warnings for my opponents top card of library not being revealed between phases with lantern in play.
If we do not shuffle here and there there is not really an average during the game. Of course, we can apply these calculations in general and often it will be the case even without shuffling, but in some cases one just starts with a "bad library" where the bridges are "unfindable". I goldfished a game last time where all 4 bridges were in the last 20 cards...
Shuffling once versus ~3 times every game doesn't really matter. It's not like you'll never start with a unknown bridge within the top ~5 and then shuffle it away with a fetchland. You would need to shuffle a huge amount of times for the kind of reliable distribution that you're looking for.
Besides, you have redundant Lanterns to shuffle cards that you shipped to the bottom with Ancient Stirrings.
I really like the look of this idea as I'm a control player at heart in MTG and by pure chance I nearly have all the key cards for a top control modern deck. I just need to track down more Ensnaring Bridges and some Mox Opals (got plenty of Chrome Moxes, but I don't think Wizards will ever allow them in the Modern format).
I haven't yet had the time to go through all 48 pages of this thread so forgive me if this has already been asked, I was wondering if anyone has tried playing with Doran, the Siege Tower as an alternate win condition? He can attack through the bridge lock and also make attackers out of your Spellskites. Or will he not work because the battlefield has way too many blockers in most games to make Doran a viable win condition?
One more question, has anyone playtested this with Terminus? Is drawing it in an opening hand too risky to make it worthwhile? Would putting their creatures back into their library negatively effect the top control strategy?
I'll be sure to check back in with my decklist as soon as I get the pieces together and playtest it a bit.
While the idea of Doran sounds pretty sweet / synergistic, the problem with running almost any creature as an alternate win-con just means that whatever removal they've got stuck in hand will become live, be it Smother / Dismember / what have you. He represents a fast clock and only costs 3 mana, but the actual cost of BGW is slightly prohibitive compared to the "standard" alt win-con of Tezzeret. If you decide to run a BGW variant of top control, you get Dispatch as well as an extremely strong removal spell with Metalcraft. Terminus definitely seems like a nonbo with our plan of milling out the opponents-- very few creatures are actually threatening once we have a Bridge out, so running some number of spot-removal spells would likely work better between Dispatch / Galvanic Blast / Abrupt Decay / Beast Within / the new black Delve removal spell from Khans.
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These visions of mine... are they still daydreams if the sun is dead? Are they waking nightmares, instead, or is that what they always were?
Just got second at FNM last night with this deck. Went 3-0-1. Matched against Assault Loam, Mono-White Aggro, Izzet Control, and Grixis Moon. I'll post the decklist later tonight since I'm on my phone right now
About 20 people showed up for Modern. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish the land base, but the basics helped round 4 against Blood Moons.
Assault Loam player got so salty at Pithing Needle game 1, as that stopped him from winning. Game 2, he got excited over finally finding an Ancient Grudge on top of the deck during his end phase, and dared me to mill it. I drew into Tutor, searched Pyxis, and exiled it. So much salt.
Match 2, White Weenie player realized that, after a few mill rocks and lantern were in play, he was never going to be drawing into Oblivion Rings for the Ensnaring Bridges. Game 2 went the same way.
Match 3, fought through some counterspells to land bridge, and he wasn't running enough burn to finish out the game (I think just 3 Bolts, 1 Pillar of Flame, and 2 Electrolyze). Game 2, Clique too away bridge and I wasn't able to search and play one fast enough. Game 3, I had a Lantern, Shredder, and Bridge out on turn 3. He conceded then because he knew it would be difficult to win at that point.
Match 4, opponent walks up, "So I heard that your deck makes us draw a lot of cards." I respond with a casual, "we get to because we play so many turns." I knew he was on some sort of Grixis Blood Moon deck from watching a couple minutes of play earlier. Took game 1 without too much of a struggle. He had a good deal of creature removal in the main. Game 2, He played Gifts Ungiven for Wipe Away, Cryptic Command, Snapcaster Mage, and something else when I only had 1 bridge in play. Next turn, bounce bridge and swing lethal. Game 3, he had Ashiok, Liliana, and Chandra in play, and I eventually got Pithing Needles for each of them. Went to time and couldn't finish out the game.
Overall, good run, despite having to accommodate for some cards I couldn't get a hold of. Players 3 and 4 liked the deck because of how interactive it was, despite locking them out. Player 2 was sad that Ensnaring Bridge existed, and Player 1 was salty throughout our games and right after, but seemed to be back in the spirit of magic after round 2.
This is all of my second post ever (I believe) and I have to say I've read pretty much the whole thread now, took awhile, and I love the deck idea. I love being that guy with the deck that has a different way of playing, case in point I had a deck built around a combo that made you quite literally shuffle to death.
So I decided to take a crack at brainstorming up 2 versions of the deck with cards I currently own. I'm looking to take one of these to a local event at the end of the month so I have some time to pick one and tweak it.
First up I went for a GB version of the deck because it seemed like I could utilize two of my favorite cards(they aren't very overwhelming in random decks but I think they fit here), Vraska The Unseen and Glissa the traitor.
I thought that these 2 could help me with more aggressive decks as well as acting as removal / win conditions.
This version of the deck is built around artificer's intuition, I know people don't really care for Artificer's Intuition but in this version of the deck I think it really has a place. Only major down side is that its VERY weak to graveyard hate. But has a few counters to help that.
The main win condition is essentially taking infinite turns and attacking them to death with your ever growing horde of myr tokens.
Muddle the mixture is a counter and a tutor for time seive/artifcer's inutition/genesis chamber so I found it to be great card.
Artificer's Intuition allows me to not only reliably get servitors in graveyard but also allows me to make sure I can get my deck control into place.
I've been interested in this deck for a while ever since I first saw it. I've been playtesting it in a vacuum all week and this is what I came up with.
Strengths
The deck can get a lock very early. This essentially hoses one-draw-per-turn control decks.
If a player has to mull to 6, or to 5, this deck ends the game for them at once. When people rely on drawing cards in order to further their strategy, this deck will say no.
The deck is resilient and resists removal. At least, I have found it so. Artifacts are not such a big thing that people play Shatterstorm and Hurkyl's Recall does not hurt this deck at all.
Weaknesses
There's no way to fetch for Ensnaring Bridge, which is the most important card in this deck. The bridge will shut down all the "lots of power early on" decks, but it has to be drawn.
Faithless Looting is not a good choice for this deck. If you dump your hand by turn 3 and draw a looting, you have a dead draw. The card then reads "mill two."
Tendo Ice Bridge is really not good enough for this deck. There aren't enough lands- only 16- which means every land has to pull its weight. If you have a Tendo and an Academy Ruins in hand, you will only be able to cast one of three Ancient Stirrings, Galvanic Blast and Thoughtseize. You want to be able to cast all three of these, if possible.
The original build I saw on the front page doesn't consider Birthing Pod decks, who don't even need to draw cards to win. Every turn, they'll get one step closer to victory. So if you run a discard spell, you MUST have it in your opening hand. Otherwise, this deck will cream you.
The deck, from what I can tell, doesn't really have a good answer for control decks who will always counter, bounce, and do weird things.
Solutions to Problems
Fabricate is the best all-around answer I've been able to find to not having the artifact you want in hand. This card trades one turn for having what you want. The card being discarded from your hand isn't really an issue with Academy Ruins. I have also included Welding Jar in the sideboard to protect the bridge, which can be blown up any number of ways. Since this deck has no creatures, it has to protect the bridge more than any other card. Losing it for one turn might be enough to cause a loss.
Thoughtcast is a much better draw spell than Faithless Looting. In some instances, this card will be cast on turn 2 or 3, often for one blue mana. The primary benefit of it is that you get to keep what you draw. It's also good to have in your hand when you have the top card of your deck revealed. You'll then focus on drawing it instead of milling it (if possible).
City of Brass is by no means the best card that produces all five mana. But it is the best card that can produce all five mana and stick around from turn 1 until turn 10. You have to be careful how you use it. Obviously, if that's the only land you have in your hand, you're going to pitch it. I also considered Forbidden Orchard, except that the spirit produced for an opponent can (potentially) do more than 1 damage.
Birthing Pod decks hate sweepers. Pyroclasm seems like the best answer here. Melira Pod decks want to put every creature in play as soon as possible in order to ensure that they combo off as fast as they can. A well-timed Pyroclasm wipes them out. Then you can prevent them from drawing the card they want later on. Pyroclasm can also work well against Merfolk, Elves and Infect decks.
Cryptic Command is really the only reason anyone plays control. The ability to counter a spell and bounce a permanent is huge. I've played matchups against Modern control decks where it was basically, "if you cast Cryptic twice, you win. If not, you lose." It makes THAT much of a difference. How to stop Cryptic then? The best thing I've found is Choke. Choke stops islands from untapping, which means that the control player has to wait until they get four untapped islands (if you let them draw any such) to use their Cryptic. By that point, the game will have advanced so far in your favor that they won't be able to come back. Choke also works well against Merfolk, Mono-Blue Tron and Mono-Blue Pod. In some instances, Mox Opal will allow you to drop it turn 2.
The decklist
Accordingly, this is the deck I came up with. In playtesting, this build seems to run more smoothly. It's a bit more consistent. It has fewer answers and instead relies things coming together. I've left out Thoughtseize because it doesn't feel like it fits. In a deck full of one drops, Thoughtseize says, "lose this turn to have someone discard a card. You lose 2 life." Loss of life becomes more important with City of Brass in the deck. This is purely my own opinion- if you find that Thoughtseize wins you games all by itself by forcing someone to discard their best card, then keep it.
In case you run into Splinter Twin decks, remember that you can keep your Pithing Needle in hand until you see a combo creature drop, then you can just name Deceiver Exarch to prevent infinite creatures. Choke also does a decent job of slowing down Splinter Twin. Abrupt Decay is usually good enough to take care of everything else.
Can still cast it if you mill it and provides attackers through Bridge...
Twitch: gamerchamp
Modern: UGrand Architect, UBTezzeret Control, UBWRG Bridge From Below (Dredge)
Legacy: UWGTrue-Name Bant
Counterbalance is cute, but doesn't really work too well in our deck (or in Modern in general) because it's very hard to reliably counter their spells without Sensei's Divining Top-- even with a Lantern of Insight shell. Part of the reason why I don't think it's necessary is because in order to make Counterbalance work well, we'd already need to have Lantern of Insight + several mill pieces on the table, in which case we should already have control of the game. In addition, we've got a very narrow range of casting costs in our deck: almost everything in our deck costs one mana, while there honestly isn't many threatening cards that we'd counter at 1CMC.
As for the decklist you posted, I'd cut at least one copy of Abrupt Decay purely because you can't afford to clog up your hand (makes your Infernal Tutor + Ensnaring Bridge much worse). If you're going to be running multiple copies of Noxious Revival then I'd honestly only want 1-2 of most cards that aren't core for the deck / lock, such as Infernal Tutor (which I'd prefer as a one-of) and Abrupt Decay. You also need to bear in mind that if you're running Pyxis over Ghoulcaller's Bell (I'd like to see a split instead), Noxious Revival's utility gets worse since you can't reliably use it on yourself, as well as lowering your ability to recur cards with Codex Shredder. Your manabase seems fine, though if you want to run 3 copies of lands that destroy enemy lands, I'd suggest a split of Tectonic Edge + Ghost Quarter, rather than 3 Ghost Quarters. Academy Ruins is also a card to consider as a one-of, though again it's made worse by having 4 copies of Pyxis. I think you have a little too much hand disruption in your maindeck, and I'd personally move the Duress into the sideboard because of how narrow it is (and IoK hits almost everything that's relevant anyway).
Test out your decklist and see what you think / let us know how it runs!
Tezzeret is enough of an alt win-con all on his own, because the deck has inevitability anyway (especially since you've got Academy Ruins and an Elixir of Immortality in the deck). The one thing I'd be a little wary of is the way the manabase works at the moment-- you've got six total possible sources of blue mana, including your two Tendo Ice Bridge, so it makes activating Academy Ruins + playing Tezzeret less reliable. Maybe you could switch one of your basics for an Island, or since you don't run Mox Opal just add 1-2 Darkslick Shores. Besides that, I really like Surgical Extraction (so I think adding a couple of those, like you were thinking, would work out well for you) and for the remaining slot perhaps the extra land I suggested, or another Pithing Needle or even a Beast Within if you think you're short on answers.
Good luck with the deck, it takes a tonne of practice haha.
YellowMimic, as far as beast within vs abrupt decay I've swapped to the decay side from the beast within side. The main problem with abrupt decay is that it doesnt hit the planeswalkers and leyline of sanctity. We still have all the tools to deal with those permanents with pithing needle and nature's claim if you have some in the board. The biggest reason I swapped to aburpt is simply the 2 cmc vs 3 which often comes up since a great deal of the hate for us is at 2 cmc like stoney silence, chalice on 1, kataki, ect. Add the fact that sometimes adding to their clock can kill you.
That being said if my meta contained a great deal of leyline i'd probably stick with beast just because its hard to predict which decks will bring it in since any deck can run it. You cant just bring in nature's claim against every deck after all can you? And I've been in those situations where you have to thoughtseize yourself to lower your hand for bridge and its a little more than awkward.
The positives are that usually the Bridge throws a large wrench into most deck's plans for winning. This deck maximizes the Bridge, and rarely do I lose game 1 against any deck save for a hardcore burn deck or a Rock Deck with a fast opening.
I have Tezz in my sideboard for the game 2 and game 3 for the speed that he helps, granted you lose your defense by having him in the deck.
u/Anon_Amarth - Fun as a zero sum game: If my opponent is having none of it, then by extension I must be having all of it.
Current Top Control Decklist
Cockatrice: Spage
This is the new list I'm working with.
4 Glimmervoid
2 Academy Ruins
1 Reflecting Pool
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Duskmantle, House of Shadow
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Tendo Ice Bridge
Spells
4 Pyxis of Pandemonium
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Codex Shredder
1 Pithing Needle
2 Infernal Tutor
3 Mox Opal
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Thoughtseize
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Lantern of Insight
1 Sunbeam Spellbomb
1 Beast Within
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
2x Duress
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Nature's Claim
2x Spellskite
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Torpor Orb
I'm tempted to try a 3rd academy ruins in the main. Beast Within could easily come out for something else, possibly faithless looting - in which case I'd swap out a Tendo Ice Bridge for Blood Crypt.
How are you finding surgical in the main, something I hadn't really given too much thought. Also, 3 Pithing Needle main - is that a meta choice or has it been good against everything?
I see the fetches more from the perspective of fixing your mana and thinning your deck while also giving you a shuffle effect if you don't want to draw what's on top of your library (or don't want to exile / mill it with our artifacts). Being more resilient to Blood Moon because you can fetch basics to turn on Tutor + Abrupt Decay is nice, too! I've been trying to work fetches into my (albeit theoretical) manabase to see if I can keep it smooth.
Shuffling once versus ~3 times every game doesn't really matter. It's not like you'll never start with a unknown bridge within the top ~5 and then shuffle it away with a fetchland. You would need to shuffle a huge amount of times for the kind of reliable distribution that you're looking for.
Besides, you have redundant Lanterns to shuffle cards that you shipped to the bottom with Ancient Stirrings.
I haven't yet had the time to go through all 48 pages of this thread so forgive me if this has already been asked, I was wondering if anyone has tried playing with Doran, the Siege Tower as an alternate win condition? He can attack through the bridge lock and also make attackers out of your Spellskites. Or will he not work because the battlefield has way too many blockers in most games to make Doran a viable win condition?
One more question, has anyone playtested this with Terminus? Is drawing it in an opening hand too risky to make it worthwhile? Would putting their creatures back into their library negatively effect the top control strategy?
I'll be sure to check back in with my decklist as soon as I get the pieces together and playtest it a bit.
Edit:
4 Ghoulcaller's Bell
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
4 Lantern of Insight
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Expedition Map
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Sun Droplet
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Trading Post
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquistion of Kozilek
3 Duress
3 Infernal Tutor
1 Fabricate
2 Glimmervoid
2 Watery Grave
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Unknown Shores
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Academy Ruins
1 Duskmantle, House of Shadow
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
2 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Island
4 Swamp
2 Pithing Needle
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Sun Droplet
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Swan Song
3 Echoing Truth
About 20 people showed up for Modern. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish the land base, but the basics helped round 4 against Blood Moons.
Assault Loam player got so salty at Pithing Needle game 1, as that stopped him from winning. Game 2, he got excited over finally finding an Ancient Grudge on top of the deck during his end phase, and dared me to mill it. I drew into Tutor, searched Pyxis, and exiled it. So much salt.
Match 2, White Weenie player realized that, after a few mill rocks and lantern were in play, he was never going to be drawing into Oblivion Rings for the Ensnaring Bridges. Game 2 went the same way.
Match 3, fought through some counterspells to land bridge, and he wasn't running enough burn to finish out the game (I think just 3 Bolts, 1 Pillar of Flame, and 2 Electrolyze). Game 2, Clique too away bridge and I wasn't able to search and play one fast enough. Game 3, I had a Lantern, Shredder, and Bridge out on turn 3. He conceded then because he knew it would be difficult to win at that point.
Match 4, opponent walks up, "So I heard that your deck makes us draw a lot of cards." I respond with a casual, "we get to because we play so many turns." I knew he was on some sort of Grixis Blood Moon deck from watching a couple minutes of play earlier. Took game 1 without too much of a struggle. He had a good deal of creature removal in the main. Game 2, He played Gifts Ungiven for Wipe Away, Cryptic Command, Snapcaster Mage, and something else when I only had 1 bridge in play. Next turn, bounce bridge and swing lethal. Game 3, he had Ashiok, Liliana, and Chandra in play, and I eventually got Pithing Needles for each of them. Went to time and couldn't finish out the game.
Overall, good run, despite having to accommodate for some cards I couldn't get a hold of. Players 3 and 4 liked the deck because of how interactive it was, despite locking them out. Player 2 was sad that Ensnaring Bridge existed, and Player 1 was salty throughout our games and right after, but seemed to be back in the spirit of magic after round 2.
Seems cute. If it was a "may" it would probably be the nuts, but as is probably too hard to control.
EDIT: Just realized it triggers for lands -- is it nuts?
This is all of my second post ever (I believe) and I have to say I've read pretty much the whole thread now, took awhile, and I love the deck idea. I love being that guy with the deck that has a different way of playing, case in point I had a deck built around a combo that made you quite literally shuffle to death.
So I decided to take a crack at brainstorming up 2 versions of the deck with cards I currently own. I'm looking to take one of these to a local event at the end of the month so I have some time to pick one and tweak it.
First up I went for a GB version of the deck because it seemed like I could utilize two of my favorite cards(they aren't very overwhelming in random decks but I think they fit here), Vraska The Unseen and Glissa the traitor.
I thought that these 2 could help me with more aggressive decks as well as acting as removal / win conditions.
The deck does run a fun mindslaver lockdown combo in the form of: Glissa, The Traitor + Mindslaver + Forbidden Orchard
3 Glissa, the traitor
Planeswalkers 2
2 Vraska The Unseen
Spells 15
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Ancient Stirrings
3 Abrupt Decay
Artifacts 23
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Opal
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
2 Ghoulcaller's Bell
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
1 Expedition Map
1 Mindslaver
1 Executioner's Capsule
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Glimmervoid
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forbidden Orchard
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
This version of the deck is built around artificer's intuition, I know people don't really care for Artificer's Intuition but in this version of the deck I think it really has a place. Only major down side is that its VERY weak to graveyard hate. But has a few counters to help that.
The main win condition is essentially taking infinite turns and attacking them to death with your ever growing horde of myr tokens.
Combo is: Myr Servitor + Genesis Chamber + Time Seive
Muddle the mixture is a counter and a tutor for time seive/artifcer's inutition/genesis chamber so I found it to be great card.
Artificer's Intuition allows me to not only reliably get servitors in graveyard but also allows me to make sure I can get my deck control into place.
4 Myr Servitor
Planeswalkers 2
2 Tezzeret Agent of Bolas
Spells 10
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Remand
2 Infernal Tutor
Enchantments 4
4 Artificer's Intuition
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mox Opal
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
2 Ghoulcaller's Bell
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
2 Time Sieve
2 Genesis Chamber
4 Watery Grave
4 Glimmervoid
3 Island
2 Academy Ruins
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
As I said trying to decide between the two and what I want to do to further refine it for a event at end of month.
Strengths
The deck can get a lock very early. This essentially hoses one-draw-per-turn control decks.
If a player has to mull to 6, or to 5, this deck ends the game for them at once. When people rely on drawing cards in order to further their strategy, this deck will say no.
The deck is resilient and resists removal. At least, I have found it so. Artifacts are not such a big thing that people play Shatterstorm and Hurkyl's Recall does not hurt this deck at all.
Weaknesses
There's no way to fetch for Ensnaring Bridge, which is the most important card in this deck. The bridge will shut down all the "lots of power early on" decks, but it has to be drawn.
Faithless Looting is not a good choice for this deck. If you dump your hand by turn 3 and draw a looting, you have a dead draw. The card then reads "mill two."
Tendo Ice Bridge is really not good enough for this deck. There aren't enough lands- only 16- which means every land has to pull its weight. If you have a Tendo and an Academy Ruins in hand, you will only be able to cast one of three Ancient Stirrings, Galvanic Blast and Thoughtseize. You want to be able to cast all three of these, if possible.
The original build I saw on the front page doesn't consider Birthing Pod decks, who don't even need to draw cards to win. Every turn, they'll get one step closer to victory. So if you run a discard spell, you MUST have it in your opening hand. Otherwise, this deck will cream you.
The deck, from what I can tell, doesn't really have a good answer for control decks who will always counter, bounce, and do weird things.
Solutions to Problems
Fabricate is the best all-around answer I've been able to find to not having the artifact you want in hand. This card trades one turn for having what you want. The card being discarded from your hand isn't really an issue with Academy Ruins. I have also included Welding Jar in the sideboard to protect the bridge, which can be blown up any number of ways. Since this deck has no creatures, it has to protect the bridge more than any other card. Losing it for one turn might be enough to cause a loss.
Thoughtcast is a much better draw spell than Faithless Looting. In some instances, this card will be cast on turn 2 or 3, often for one blue mana. The primary benefit of it is that you get to keep what you draw. It's also good to have in your hand when you have the top card of your deck revealed. You'll then focus on drawing it instead of milling it (if possible).
City of Brass is by no means the best card that produces all five mana. But it is the best card that can produce all five mana and stick around from turn 1 until turn 10. You have to be careful how you use it. Obviously, if that's the only land you have in your hand, you're going to pitch it. I also considered Forbidden Orchard, except that the spirit produced for an opponent can (potentially) do more than 1 damage.
Birthing Pod decks hate sweepers. Pyroclasm seems like the best answer here. Melira Pod decks want to put every creature in play as soon as possible in order to ensure that they combo off as fast as they can. A well-timed Pyroclasm wipes them out. Then you can prevent them from drawing the card they want later on. Pyroclasm can also work well against Merfolk, Elves and Infect decks.
Cryptic Command is really the only reason anyone plays control. The ability to counter a spell and bounce a permanent is huge. I've played matchups against Modern control decks where it was basically, "if you cast Cryptic twice, you win. If not, you lose." It makes THAT much of a difference. How to stop Cryptic then? The best thing I've found is Choke. Choke stops islands from untapping, which means that the control player has to wait until they get four untapped islands (if you let them draw any such) to use their Cryptic. By that point, the game will have advanced so far in your favor that they won't be able to come back. Choke also works well against Merfolk, Mono-Blue Tron and Mono-Blue Pod. In some instances, Mox Opal will allow you to drop it turn 2.
The decklist
Accordingly, this is the deck I came up with. In playtesting, this build seems to run more smoothly. It's a bit more consistent. It has fewer answers and instead relies things coming together. I've left out Thoughtseize because it doesn't feel like it fits. In a deck full of one drops, Thoughtseize says, "lose this turn to have someone discard a card. You lose 2 life." Loss of life becomes more important with City of Brass in the deck. This is purely my own opinion- if you find that Thoughtseize wins you games all by itself by forcing someone to discard their best card, then keep it.
In case you run into Splinter Twin decks, remember that you can keep your Pithing Needle in hand until you see a combo creature drop, then you can just name Deceiver Exarch to prevent infinite creatures. Choke also does a decent job of slowing down Splinter Twin. Abrupt Decay is usually good enough to take care of everything else.
4 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Ghoulcaller's Bell
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Mox Opal
3 Pithing Needle
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Galvanic Blast
2 Academy Ruins
4 City of Brass
2 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Sulfurous Springs
3 Fabricate
4 Thoughtcast
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Choke
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
3 Pyroclasm
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Torpor Orb
2 Welding Jar