I've playtested pretty much all of them: Lands, 4C Pile, Delver, Leovold, Maverick, Storm, D&T, Reanimator, and 12-Post. I play Eldrazi Tron and Madcap Moon in Modern and played Ramunap Red in Standard, so my playstyle is varied. I'm a big fan of midrange in general, and I really appreciate decks that reward tight play.
Hey everyone, I'm going to a Team Constructed event in April and besides some experience on Cockatrice/Xmage, I'm new to the format. I've only got about $1500 to drop on the deck, and I was leaning towards a Nic Fit list based around Birthing Pod, but then I remembered that Kolaghan's Command ruined one of my best matchups. I've also been looking into Maverick, but I'm not sure if the playstyle is one I'd like. What deck should I play?
I thought I was done with this thread, I really did. Had Eldrazi Tron, Elves, and half of Lands built, with Grixis Shadow being slowly assembled in the background.
Then my collection went missing.
While I really liked those decks when I played them, I'm still holding out hope that I might recover my collection, so I'd rather not build them again, but I still want to play Modern at a competitive level. My preferred style of play varies, but I've mostly enjoyed control variants and combo decks. Currently, the only expensive cards I have are some Flooded Strands, Hallowed Fountains, a Misty Rainforest, a Bloodstained Mire, a Wooded Foothills, and one of each shock in Temur colors.
What's a reasonably well-positioned deck that I can build for my playstyle?
My LGS had a PPTQ during Modern season, which never happens, and I absolutely had to attend. While I was torn between Elves and Eldrazi Tron, I ended up going with what I thought was the better deck. My friends were on Storm, Ponza, Burn, and Amulet so I figured if the rest of the metagame was similar to my group of friends, I'd be pretty well off on E-Tron. Without any further hemming and hawing, I grabbed my deckbox and started testing against the field.
The Emrakul in the board was originally supposed to be an Oblivion Stone, but my local store didn't have any so I sleeved it up last-minute as a concession to possible control. So I didn't field what I consider a perfect list, but I went into round 1 feeling confident.
Matches
Round 1 vs Jeskai Geist W 2-0
My Round 1 opponent was not a local, so I had no idea what he was on.
G1: I kept a solid 7 and he played a Celestial Colonnade tapped. I assembled Tron on turn 4 through no disruption, and cast my Conduit of Ruin, using the trigger to put Ulamog on the top of the deck. He conceded, saying he couldn't beat the cast trigger.
G2: Nothing much to say here, he just never saw a third land while I found lands to cast my spells. Not a real game of Magic, unfortunately.
Round 2 vs Storm L 1-2
G1: I landed a turn 3 TKS and a turn 4 Chalice on 2 and beat down while he didn't storm off.
G2: I really feel like I should have won this game, but I played as well as I think I could have. He storms off and empties 12 goblins onto the field a turn before I can land Chalice on 2, but I respond with a Platinum Angel and TKS. He responds to the trigger by making a gifts pile with Shattering Spree in it, I give him the Spree and take it with the trigger. The next turn, he does the same thing and I once again take the Shattering spree. This whole time, he's been beating me down with goblins to -2, but I've got him to 3 with Platinum Angel lethal in the air. With exactly one draw step and no cards in hand, he draws his only remaining copy of Shattering Spree to win.
G3: I keep a shaky 6 that has the ability to cast most of my spells if I see one more land and has game even if I don't. He struggles through a Chalice on 1 for a while while I look for a land to cast TKS and he beats down with Electromancers; he's flooded and I'm screwed. Eventually he draws Gifts before I see land and it's curtains.
Round 3 vs Colored Eldrazi Tron L 0-2
This is a local who I knew was building this because he was asking around for Temples and Tron lands at FNM two days before. I went in knowing my sideboard plan and expecting to do well, because my list is tuned to beat the mirror without sacrificing much to Death's Shadow and friends.
G1: Natural T3 Tron while I keep a slower hand than he does. Beats from a Wurmcoil and a Void Winnower end the game fast.
G2: I never see a third land while he hits Tron on turn 3. I chalk this whole match up to variance and wouldn't be salty about this if my opponent wasn't so condescending 90% of the time he's at the store.
Round 4 vs Storm W 2-1
This is my friend on storm, and we both need to win to be alive for top 8, so this is for all the marbles. We both have tested against each other extensively and play pretty much optimally the whole time. Notably, he couldn't find Shattering Sprees for his sideboard so he has Wear/Tear, which I'm thrilled about.
G1: I keep a 2-lander with a Temple and 2 Reshapers, end up at 26 attacking him down to 3. He has one turn to win, and he can only storm up to 9. He follows up with Grapeshot for 10 from the graveyard, grapeshot for 11 from hand, remand, grapeshot for 13. GG.
G2: Turn 4 Chalice on 2 spells his doom, though amusingly a chalice for 3 that I played to turn on Sea Gate Wreckage catches his singleton Blood Moon in his hand.
G3: I mull to Chalice and 4 lands, he starts slowly, and his Electromancer beats can't beat Chalice on 2.
Round 5 vs Burn W 2-1
This is my friend on Burn, and it's his first Modern tournament ever (he's actually borrowing half the deck from an acquaintance who's queued for PT Rivals already) and he's alive for top 8. Once again, we're both at do-or-die territory, but I feel really confident about Burn.
G1: Guide keeps revealing lands, but it's not enough to stabilize me. Searing Blaze on both my Reshapers lets Guide attack for the last two points of damage.
G2: I open a 7 with 2 chalices and 2 lands; perfect. He gets Revelry for the first one, and I follow up with a second and then Karn his only green source. After the game, he reveals a hand with 6 1-cost spells in it.
G3: I put down a Ballista on 2 and he uses his Revelry on it, which gives me breathing room to deploy a Batterskull that he can't answer and close out the game with a 7/6 vigilant lifelinking Reshaper.
Top 8 vs Merfolk L 0-2
I got lucky with my 9 points, as the two 7-point people went to turns and drew, leaving me to squeak into top 8 as the 8th seed.
G1: I hadn't expected him to be on Merfolk, because I'd gotten him confused with the other guy from the same store, who was on Storm. I kept a 7 on the merit of Chalice because of this, and Aether Vial nullified the Chalice. Beatdowns ensued, and I almost outraced him with a well-timed smasher.
G2: I keep a hand with T3 Tron and All is dust and pray for no Seas. He kept a hand with no Seas and drew two. Beatdowns don't go well for me after that.
All in all, I think my meta choice was good and that I played well in all 5 rounds and Top 8, and I got a lot of good sideboarding advice from some very friendly opponents. While I really wanted that RPTQ invite, a friend got it so I can't be too mad and I think this prepared me very well for SCG Louisville next weekend.
I've always been a control player in Standard, but with the advent of pseudo-Gaea's Cradle, I decided that midrange/aggro was calling my name as a brewer, and I looked for ways to get a huge number of creatures out on the board. Naturally, Oketra's Monument is a great way to do this, and since green already has good things like Overcome to include, I settled on straight GW as my colors and got brewing.
As you might guess, the sideboard is in flux due to the lack of meta knowledge this far before the format releases, but the maindeck feels incredibly solid.
Ramunap ruins needs the ban hammer. It allows lands to interact with planeswalkers which is bs. If I spend $100 on a playset of walkers the only way to interact with them should be another $25 card.
Redacted for use of inappropriate language. Card prices should mean nothing when it comes to interaction. While I agree that it's much too easy for lands to interact with walkers, redacted for flaming. Bolt can deal with JTMS and that's how it should be. Dreadbore can deal with LotV. My 50-cent common creature can kill a foil Karn if he has no blockers. The issue with Ruins is that lands aren't supposed to have repeatable damage; hell, even Barbarian Ring (which is way too good for standard) sacrifices itself. It'd be like my friend's custom legendary land with double Sphere of Resistance for rules text: The effect is fine, but not on a land, especially when lands are notoriously hard to interact with.
I could definitely see going up to 3 Caverns. I like having 3 GQ but I think going down to 2 could be fine. Really just depends on your meta. 4 GQ isn't very common nowadays, and I think that's too many for sure.
Honestly, I feel that Cavern is insanely overrated in this deck by nearly everyone. Sure, it stops Ceremonious Rejection, but I've yet to be in a situation where I felt the need to have a Cavern because I absolutely had to resolve something. And as for Cryptic Command and friends, we can push through them with our mana advantage 95 games out of 100.
In addition, since our deck is already reasonably favored in those matchups, I prefer the utility land slot to be dedicated to other purposes. Right now, I've replaced the standard 2 caverns with 1 Westvale Abbey and 1 Nephalia Academy and had far better results with them, not to mention far more games I wished I had drawn them.
That's an interesting stance. How much Grixis Shadow do you see? We're certainly not going to be "reasonably favored" against that deck games 2 and 3 when they have Rejections if we have no Caverns. Nephalia Academy is a sweet one to keep our key cards in hand but if we can't resolve them, well...
Grixis is the elephant in the room but U/W(r) control has a healthy meta share now as well. I've got a 60% win rate over about 30 matches there, but that's with Caverns. Without them I would expect it to be 55% max, probably less. Certainly not 95 games out of 100 lol.
Of lesser significance Merfolk brings in Rejection or Unified Will, Knightfall brings in Unified Will and Bant Eldrazi has Disdainful Stroke.
If these decks aren't prevalent in your meta then I can understand, but otherwise, not having access to at least 1 Cavern with 4 Maps seems pretty suspect to me.
Totally agree, resolving your creatures against both Grixis Shadow and UW control is how you win the matchup. For Grixis, they have the tools to counter so much of our noncreature spells that we need to resolve our creatures to stand a chance against their early board presence. For UW control, if you have no caverns your odds of winning once they get cryptic mana are pretty bad. Jamming threats and making them run out of removal is how to win this matchup. I would never run zero caverns in this deck since we have 4 maps, and having a second one in case of spreading seas as well as to name construct or wurm against Grixis Shadow feels pretty damn nice.
I 100% without question agree with sicsmoo and Tituba9. I think Riomehaire is underestimating the power of not being able to cast your most important creatures without worrying about them getting countered. My local meta is very competitive and diverse, seeing a lot of grixis shadow as well as some UW/UWR/Grixis control (and random merfolk). Having one that you could draw and an additional 4 that you can map-up is so critical that in games 2 and 3 vs shadow and all games vs control matchups I will map it up (almost always) preferentially to any other land I have in my deck. Think about it, you're shutting of however many counter spells they have, TIMES 2! since these decks all have snapcasters which can maximize value of the counterspells.
This has been my land base for the last couple of months. I originally played two caverns but cut one for Buried ruin (never looking back). The only land I would consider changing currently is to take out one GQ for another utility land (maybe Nephalia Acadamy) but I am on the fence as 3 GQs play better when I SB in my Cruicible. This change would result in slightly worse matchups against Land-centric decks but better against discard decks. Since I currently feel our matchup is slightly better against discard strategies, for now this is where it is staying (we'll see if this sticks long-term).
Sorry about a long post but TL:DR
I cannot see not playing 1 cavern because of both local and current modern meta.
This card is so good against these decks, that when I play against these decks I wish I had a second, naming 'Constructs'
Overall, a second would remove other lands that are too valuable and/or hedge better against other decks
One is perfect.
*edited for clarity
I took Eldrazi Tron to the Charlotte open and didn't drop a game to Grixis Shadow out of 4 matches, even through a game with Rejection-Snapcaster-Rejection. I'm not saying the Cavern accomplishes nothing, but I am saying the number of matches I felt the need to have a Cavern in play was far fewer than the number of matches where I was glad I landed a Nephalia Academy.
I could definitely see going up to 3 Caverns. I like having 3 GQ but I think going down to 2 could be fine. Really just depends on your meta. 4 GQ isn't very common nowadays, and I think that's too many for sure.
Honestly, I feel that Cavern is insanely overrated in this deck by nearly everyone. Sure, it stops Ceremonious Rejection, but I've yet to be in a situation where I felt the need to have a Cavern because I absolutely had to resolve something. And as for Cryptic Command and friends, we can push through them with our mana advantage 95 games out of 100.
In addition, since our deck is already reasonably favored in those matchups, I prefer the utility land slot to be dedicated to other purposes. Right now, I've replaced the standard 2 caverns with 1 Westvale Abbey and 1 Nephalia Academy and had far better results with them, not to mention far more games I wished I had drawn them.
Surgical extraction.
The more I test the more mediocre it feels in the board. Looking at my own sideboard matrix a lot of the time it only comes in because there is nothing better. Could we use these slots to helps with our tough matchups and has anyone got some ideas?
I've been playing around with various things in that slot, because I also came to the conclusion that Surgical is not what we want. Currently, I'm playing around with Karn, EtpE, and Relic in those slots, but I'm not really sure which is the way to go.
The Flux Capacitor is a mono-U Aetherflux Storm list that is both explosive and resilient, thanks to the life gain from its namesake card. It uses cheap artifacts and recursion to power your life total above 50 (the deck's 88 MPH), and then nukes your opponent in one fell swoop. While it can be improved on a larger budget, the vast majority of the deck's power is maintained in the $40 version.
Why should I play this deck?
Play this deck if:
You love casting spells for free or discounted
You like artifacts and crazy synergies
You don't particularly like beating down with creatures
Do not play this deck if:
You are afraid of counterspells
Combat math excites you
You believe life totals should never be more than 20
The Core
The core of this deck is separated into four categories: Draw, Acceleration, Protection, and Payload.
Draw
In the draw section, we have a few key pieces and some flex slots.
Paradoxical Outcome: The main engine of the deck, this guy is both a draw engine and an enabler for your go-off turn. Always run 4, because this deck is happy to pay retail for the effect (though it'd much rather pay 1 and tap some artifacts).
Glint-Nest Crane: This guy does double duty. It digs us 4 deeper for a combo piece or even just another 0-drop, and it also jumps in the way of aggro. Late-game when we're effectively casting this for U, it gets even better. Always a 4-of.
Thoughtcast: While this is a much worse effect than the above, it's still good and a 1-mana draw 2 is never something to scoff at. This is pretty stable at 4 as well, though it's more up to debate than the above.
Mystic Speculation: While most people would prefer Serum Visions in this slot, I actually really appreciate the buyback on this, which lets us cast it multiple times and boost our life total. Also, when we are able to buy this back but only invest 1 land into the spell, it gets really valuable. I run 4, but that's a personal decision, and many other draw spells can work just as well here.
Thirst for Knowledge: While this card is undeniably powerful, I think it's the least helpful overall, and as such I only run 1. It's still a good card to have access to, though, and I can definitely see myself deciding down the road that more than one is the right call.
Acceleration
There's not really a huge amount of acceleration in the deck, just 8 crucial slots.
Inspiring Statuary: This card is hands-down the best non-combo-piece in the deck. It lets us cheat on mana every turn, which is a big deal. Always run 4, even though multiples give no extra benefit.
Paradise Mantle: This is our other piece of acceleration, letting us cast our Statuary as early as turn 2 and getting us off to a fantastic start. It's pretty much a BYOB (build your own Birds) world for us, and while Mox Opal can sometimes be better, this is far more valuable on a go-off turn because it isn't legendary, meaning you can have multiples of it out. Also, each Opal costs more than the entire deck does.
Protection
This is fairly simple: it's a combination of aggro-stalling, interaction, and redundancy.
Glint-Nest Crane: See above. It is a 1/3 which means it blocks everything from Burn (except for the Elementals in budget Mono-R) very well. It's also disposable, meaning you can throw it in front of a large attacker and not care about it dying.
Mana Leak: The only maindeck interaction this deck runs, Leak is not supposed to be a hard counter, but more of a speed-bump to slow enemy decks down long enough for us to get going. Running 4 is recommended but not required.
Inventors' Fair/Buried Ruin: These are just meant for the long game, when you're trying to go off one more time and you need a piece of the combo. The life-gain from the Fair also can help stave off aggro, if only slightly. I run 1 of each both for budget reasons and because we're so dependent on those lovely U symbols.
Payload
The payload of the deck is its 3x Aetherflux Reservoir, as is obvious. However, there's a bit more to the payload than just the Reservoir.
0-drop Artifacts: These (Memnite, Ornithopter, and [/c]Paradise Mantle[/c] are the core of the deck. When combined with Reservoir and Paradoxical Outcome, they generate us tons of life that we can then fling directly at the enemy.
The List
Here's my current list. While it's far from perfect, it's pretty resilient and reliable for a $40 list.
The sideboard choices here are both to keep the deck under $40 and as a hedge against the metagame I'm expecting in my local super-budget league. Nothing insane, but I know that everyone will board out any removal they have against me and Enforcer seemed like a good way to leverage that. The other 11 are just good cards that hit a lot of the format and hate I'll see.
Yeah, I just totally forgot that Verdurous was an artifact creature. Abrade is probably the better call, though it's always nice to have access to a 4-damage removal spell to respond to Avacyn triggers.
Ever since pure UR started taking hard knocks from BG Energy and RGx energy and they spoiled Solemnity, I've been testing Jeskai, and I've come to two conclusions:
Solemnity is decidedly not what control wants to be doing turn 3, and it's too late to help later.
Even with Solemnity being disappointing, Jeskai is in a great spot right now.
Here's the 75 that I'm planning to run after Friday:
W/UW Monument: 55/45 preboard, over 70/30 postboard
This matchup is insanely in Jeskai's favor, to the point that I'd recommend this deck over any other if you expect large numbers of Monument players in your meta. While they can often go absurdly wide absurdly fast, their lack of an anthem effect means that they're usually putting you to 10 and letting you untap into a wrath. And as a bonus, since all our wraths are CMC 5 or more, Spell Queller doesn't grab them. Post-board, we have access to 10 wraths and 2 bounce effects (admittedly, the Chandras are not in there to be wraths, that's just added value) and go-wide can't really stabilize.
GB Energy: 55/45 preboard, 45/55 postboard
This matchup was the absolute worst for UR control, and it's still one of the tough matchups for the deck. Game 1 is in our favor a bit, since Fumigate is really good in the matchup, but this deck has explosive enough starts at times that they can overwhelm us if they go fast. It's not happened often to me in testing, but it's a very real threat. After boarding, the biggest threat we need to worry about is Gonti, Lord of Luxury. If he resolves, he usually grabs countermagic and can ruin us at the crucial moment. Other than that one situation, we're still about 55/45 favored postboard.
If you're playing this deck a lot and think Solemnity is a good idea, I tested it and it's really underwhelming. It's far better in this deck to have countermagic up than to use turn 3 dropping that.
RGx Energy: 60/40 preboard, 65/35 postboard
My friend and playtesting partner plays RGx Energy, and after a particularly one-sided set of games, he said that this matchup was his most unfavored matchup. While I disagree and think it's much closer than he said, we are quite favored here. Either the deck runs out multiple large threats and gets blown out by a boardwipe, or it plays a few smaller ones and gets blown out by the spot removal. That's not to say it can't take games, because it definitely can. It's more that RGx lacks the card advantage engines that GB has and is much easier to force into a topdecking scenario.
B/WB Zombies: 60/40 preboard, 70/30 postboard
Again, we have a deck that pretty much folds to the number of board-clears we have. This matchup really boils down to whether we're able to have 5 untapped lands turn 5 or not, and even in situations where we have to wait until turn 6 to board-wipe, we're often not in any immediate danger of dying.
Unusual Card Choices and Reasoning
Descend Upon the Sinful - I'm running this over more Fumigate or more Hour of Devastation for two reasons. First, the exile clause is relevant in a format with Selfless Spirit, Archangel Avacyn, and the Zombie deck's recursion. Second, this deck has a much easier time getting delirium than I ever expected before I played it: cycling enchantments and lands, plus 6 artifact creatures, really helps stack the types up.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk - This card has really outperformed my expectations for it in testing. It's a relevant threat to draw even on an empty board, it hits noncreature permanents, it's sacrifice-based wrath, and it's another card name for when they're throwing Disposess. It stabilizes so well, I can't see wanting less than 3 in my 75, barring something like mono-U mill becoming a real deck (at which point I'll need more enchantment removal or countermagic).
Forsake the Worldly - I've been considering running this in the main over the singleton Essence Scatter because of the uptick of Monument, but I don't know. I do value having at least one out to an unexpected enchantment, and the cycling is a plus. If it turns out that HOU standard is basically devoid of meaningful enchantments, I can see putting in another Abrade over this, but for now it's staying.
Harnessed Lightning - While many people testing this deck have replaced Harnessed wholesale, I find its ability to kill off a Verdurous Gearhulk that made it past my countermagic to be very valuable.
Hatebears is a real pain in the ass. I'm 4-8 against it. Their disruption and ability to go wide, especially with flyers, is really tough to deal with. Another one of the All is Dust or bust matchups a lot of the time, but it ain't easy to cast with 4 Arbiter, 4 Ghost Quarter and 4 Tec Edge. And Thalias. It's matchups like this I miss having access to Oblivion Stone from classic Tron. Easy to use even if they're blowing up your lands, plus it clears out Vial and golem tokens.
Edit: First match of the day, got paired against it. Now 4-9.
I've found that my oddball list actually does reasonably well against Hatebears, because so often they've already used their removal spells on my early threats like TKS and Smasher and the like that when I play a Platinum Angel they just look at it, look at their hand, look back at it, and go to the next game. I agree that Ratchet Bombs seem like a good idea in main in an aggro-heavy meta, but I struggle to see slots to put them in.
Potential colorless manland??? Would need to run 3 or 4 Ghost Quarter for sure to activate. Meshes with Sanctum of Ugin as well.
Its nice having options although they don't seem strong, but it seems good they are there with this set.
Dread Statuary is better in my opinion, because we're not exactly a mana-starved deck and this one doesn't have the extra cost of exiling lands. Even better, in my opinion, is Westvale Abbey.
Then my collection went missing.
While I really liked those decks when I played them, I'm still holding out hope that I might recover my collection, so I'd rather not build them again, but I still want to play Modern at a competitive level. My preferred style of play varies, but I've mostly enjoyed control variants and combo decks. Currently, the only expensive cards I have are some Flooded Strands, Hallowed Fountains, a Misty Rainforest, a Bloodstained Mire, a Wooded Foothills, and one of each shock in Temur colors.
What's a reasonably well-positioned deck that I can build for my playstyle?
For reference, here's the list I was testing the Invigs in:
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Soul-Scar Mage
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3 Harsh Mentor
3 Rampaging Ferocidon
2 Abrade
4 Lightning Strike
1 Invigorated Rampage
Land (24)
14 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
2 Scavenger Grounds
4 Sunscorched Desert
2 Aethersphere Harvester
1 Glorybringer
2 Pia Nalaar
1 Rampaging Ferocidon
1 Vance's Blasting Cannons
2 Chandra's Defeat
1 Abrade
2 Invigorated Rampage
2 Shock
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Expedition Map
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Mind Stone
1 Basilisk Collar
Creature (20)
2 Endbringer
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Walking Ballista
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Platinum Angel
1 Conduit of Ruin
2 Dismember
Land (24)
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
2 Wastes
1 Nephalia Academy
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
Planeswalker (1)
1 Karn Liberated
Sorcery (2)
2 All Is Dust
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
1 Batterskull
2 Hangarback Walker
1 Walking Ballista
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
2 Warping Wail
1 Karn Liberated
The Emrakul in the board was originally supposed to be an Oblivion Stone, but my local store didn't have any so I sleeved it up last-minute as a concession to possible control. So I didn't field what I consider a perfect list, but I went into round 1 feeling confident.
Matches
Round 1 vs Jeskai Geist W 2-0
My Round 1 opponent was not a local, so I had no idea what he was on.
G1: I kept a solid 7 and he played a Celestial Colonnade tapped. I assembled Tron on turn 4 through no disruption, and cast my Conduit of Ruin, using the trigger to put Ulamog on the top of the deck. He conceded, saying he couldn't beat the cast trigger.
G2: Nothing much to say here, he just never saw a third land while I found lands to cast my spells. Not a real game of Magic, unfortunately.
Round 2 vs Storm L 1-2
G1: I landed a turn 3 TKS and a turn 4 Chalice on 2 and beat down while he didn't storm off.
G2: I really feel like I should have won this game, but I played as well as I think I could have. He storms off and empties 12 goblins onto the field a turn before I can land Chalice on 2, but I respond with a Platinum Angel and TKS. He responds to the trigger by making a gifts pile with Shattering Spree in it, I give him the Spree and take it with the trigger. The next turn, he does the same thing and I once again take the Shattering spree. This whole time, he's been beating me down with goblins to -2, but I've got him to 3 with Platinum Angel lethal in the air. With exactly one draw step and no cards in hand, he draws his only remaining copy of Shattering Spree to win.
G3: I keep a shaky 6 that has the ability to cast most of my spells if I see one more land and has game even if I don't. He struggles through a Chalice on 1 for a while while I look for a land to cast TKS and he beats down with Electromancers; he's flooded and I'm screwed. Eventually he draws Gifts before I see land and it's curtains.
Round 3 vs Colored Eldrazi Tron L 0-2
This is a local who I knew was building this because he was asking around for Temples and Tron lands at FNM two days before. I went in knowing my sideboard plan and expecting to do well, because my list is tuned to beat the mirror without sacrificing much to Death's Shadow and friends.
G1: Natural T3 Tron while I keep a slower hand than he does. Beats from a Wurmcoil and a Void Winnower end the game fast.
G2: I never see a third land while he hits Tron on turn 3. I chalk this whole match up to variance and wouldn't be salty about this if my opponent wasn't so condescending 90% of the time he's at the store.
Round 4 vs Storm W 2-1
This is my friend on storm, and we both need to win to be alive for top 8, so this is for all the marbles. We both have tested against each other extensively and play pretty much optimally the whole time. Notably, he couldn't find Shattering Sprees for his sideboard so he has Wear/Tear, which I'm thrilled about.
G1: I keep a 2-lander with a Temple and 2 Reshapers, end up at 26 attacking him down to 3. He has one turn to win, and he can only storm up to 9. He follows up with Grapeshot for 10 from the graveyard, grapeshot for 11 from hand, remand, grapeshot for 13. GG.
G2: Turn 4 Chalice on 2 spells his doom, though amusingly a chalice for 3 that I played to turn on Sea Gate Wreckage catches his singleton Blood Moon in his hand.
G3: I mull to Chalice and 4 lands, he starts slowly, and his Electromancer beats can't beat Chalice on 2.
Round 5 vs Burn W 2-1
This is my friend on Burn, and it's his first Modern tournament ever (he's actually borrowing half the deck from an acquaintance who's queued for PT Rivals already) and he's alive for top 8. Once again, we're both at do-or-die territory, but I feel really confident about Burn.
G1: Guide keeps revealing lands, but it's not enough to stabilize me. Searing Blaze on both my Reshapers lets Guide attack for the last two points of damage.
G2: I open a 7 with 2 chalices and 2 lands; perfect. He gets Revelry for the first one, and I follow up with a second and then Karn his only green source. After the game, he reveals a hand with 6 1-cost spells in it.
G3: I put down a Ballista on 2 and he uses his Revelry on it, which gives me breathing room to deploy a Batterskull that he can't answer and close out the game with a 7/6 vigilant lifelinking Reshaper.
Top 8 vs Merfolk L 0-2
I got lucky with my 9 points, as the two 7-point people went to turns and drew, leaving me to squeak into top 8 as the 8th seed.
G1: I hadn't expected him to be on Merfolk, because I'd gotten him confused with the other guy from the same store, who was on Storm. I kept a 7 on the merit of Chalice because of this, and Aether Vial nullified the Chalice. Beatdowns ensued, and I almost outraced him with a well-timed smasher.
G2: I keep a hand with T3 Tron and All is dust and pray for no Seas. He kept a hand with no Seas and drew two. Beatdowns don't go well for me after that.
All in all, I think my meta choice was good and that I played well in all 5 rounds and Top 8, and I got a lot of good sideboarding advice from some very friendly opponents. While I really wanted that RPTQ invite, a friend got it so I can't be too mad and I think this prepared me very well for SCG Louisville next weekend.
Here's my list:
4 Oketra's Monument
Creature (25)
1 Oketra the True
2 Sunscourge Champion
4 Legion Conquistador
4 Drover of the Mighty
4 Ripjaw Raptor
4 Angel of Invention
2 Rhonas the Indomitable
2 Ranging Raptors
2 Regal Caracal
4 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
2 Legion's Landing
Land (22)
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Scattered Groves
7 Forest
7 Plains
Sorcery (3)
3 Uncage the Menagerie
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Sunscourge Champion
2 Manglehorn
3 Ashes of the Abhorrent
3 Shapers' Sanctuary
3 Cast Out
The deck is, at its core, a midrange deck that occasionally just explodes into an out-of-nowhere win. Cards like Uncage the Menagerie and Legion Conquistador give us our card advantage, while Oketra, Rhonas, and the backside of Legion's Landing give us our mana sinks, assuming we haven't drawn an Angel of Invention or an Overcome and gone alpha-strike already.
As you might guess, the sideboard is in flux due to the lack of meta knowledge this far before the format releases, but the maindeck feels incredibly solid.
Redacted for use of inappropriate language. Card prices should mean nothing when it comes to interaction. While I agree that it's much too easy for lands to interact with walkers, redacted for flaming. Bolt can deal with JTMS and that's how it should be. Dreadbore can deal with LotV. My 50-cent common creature can kill a foil Karn if he has no blockers. The issue with Ruins is that lands aren't supposed to have repeatable damage; hell, even Barbarian Ring (which is way too good for standard) sacrifices itself. It'd be like my friend's custom legendary land with double Sphere of Resistance for rules text: The effect is fine, but not on a land, especially when lands are notoriously hard to interact with.
I took Eldrazi Tron to the Charlotte open and didn't drop a game to Grixis Shadow out of 4 matches, even through a game with Rejection-Snapcaster-Rejection. I'm not saying the Cavern accomplishes nothing, but I am saying the number of matches I felt the need to have a Cavern in play was far fewer than the number of matches where I was glad I landed a Nephalia Academy.
Honestly, I feel that Cavern is insanely overrated in this deck by nearly everyone. Sure, it stops Ceremonious Rejection, but I've yet to be in a situation where I felt the need to have a Cavern because I absolutely had to resolve something. And as for Cryptic Command and friends, we can push through them with our mana advantage 95 games out of 100.
In addition, since our deck is already reasonably favored in those matchups, I prefer the utility land slot to be dedicated to other purposes. Right now, I've replaced the standard 2 caverns with 1 Westvale Abbey and 1 Nephalia Academy and had far better results with them, not to mention far more games I wished I had drawn them.
I've been playing around with various things in that slot, because I also came to the conclusion that Surgical is not what we want. Currently, I'm playing around with Karn, EtpE, and Relic in those slots, but I'm not really sure which is the way to go.
What is this deck?
The Flux Capacitor is a mono-U Aetherflux Storm list that is both explosive and resilient, thanks to the life gain from its namesake card. It uses cheap artifacts and recursion to power your life total above 50 (the deck's 88 MPH), and then nukes your opponent in one fell swoop. While it can be improved on a larger budget, the vast majority of the deck's power is maintained in the $40 version.
Why should I play this deck?
Play this deck if:
- You love casting spells for free or discounted
- You like artifacts and crazy synergies
- You don't particularly like beating down with creatures
Do not play this deck if:The Core
The core of this deck is separated into four categories: Draw, Acceleration, Protection, and Payload.
Draw
In the draw section, we have a few key pieces and some flex slots.
Paradoxical Outcome: The main engine of the deck, this guy is both a draw engine and an enabler for your go-off turn. Always run 4, because this deck is happy to pay retail for the effect (though it'd much rather pay 1 and tap some artifacts).
Glint-Nest Crane: This guy does double duty. It digs us 4 deeper for a combo piece or even just another 0-drop, and it also jumps in the way of aggro. Late-game when we're effectively casting this for U, it gets even better. Always a 4-of.
Thoughtcast: While this is a much worse effect than the above, it's still good and a 1-mana draw 2 is never something to scoff at. This is pretty stable at 4 as well, though it's more up to debate than the above.
Mystic Speculation: While most people would prefer Serum Visions in this slot, I actually really appreciate the buyback on this, which lets us cast it multiple times and boost our life total. Also, when we are able to buy this back but only invest 1 land into the spell, it gets really valuable. I run 4, but that's a personal decision, and many other draw spells can work just as well here.
Thirst for Knowledge: While this card is undeniably powerful, I think it's the least helpful overall, and as such I only run 1. It's still a good card to have access to, though, and I can definitely see myself deciding down the road that more than one is the right call.
Acceleration
There's not really a huge amount of acceleration in the deck, just 8 crucial slots.
Inspiring Statuary: This card is hands-down the best non-combo-piece in the deck. It lets us cheat on mana every turn, which is a big deal. Always run 4, even though multiples give no extra benefit.
Paradise Mantle: This is our other piece of acceleration, letting us cast our Statuary as early as turn 2 and getting us off to a fantastic start. It's pretty much a BYOB (build your own Birds) world for us, and while Mox Opal can sometimes be better, this is far more valuable on a go-off turn because it isn't legendary, meaning you can have multiples of it out. Also, each Opal costs more than the entire deck does.
Protection
This is fairly simple: it's a combination of aggro-stalling, interaction, and redundancy.
Glint-Nest Crane: See above. It is a 1/3 which means it blocks everything from Burn (except for the Elementals in budget Mono-R) very well. It's also disposable, meaning you can throw it in front of a large attacker and not care about it dying.
Mana Leak: The only maindeck interaction this deck runs, Leak is not supposed to be a hard counter, but more of a speed-bump to slow enemy decks down long enough for us to get going. Running 4 is recommended but not required.
Inventors' Fair/Buried Ruin: These are just meant for the long game, when you're trying to go off one more time and you need a piece of the combo. The life-gain from the Fair also can help stave off aggro, if only slightly. I run 1 of each both for budget reasons and because we're so dependent on those lovely U symbols.
Payload
The payload of the deck is its 3x Aetherflux Reservoir, as is obvious. However, there's a bit more to the payload than just the Reservoir.
0-drop Artifacts: These (Memnite, Ornithopter, and [/c]Paradise Mantle[/c] are the core of the deck. When combined with Reservoir and Paradoxical Outcome, they generate us tons of life that we can then fling directly at the enemy.
The List
Here's my current list. While it's far from perfect, it's pretty resilient and reliable for a $40 list.
3 Aetherflux Reservoir
4 Inspiring Statuary
4 Paradise Mantle
Creature (12)
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
Instant (9)
4 Mana Leak
4 Paradoxical Outcome
1 Thirst for Knowledge
18 Island
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Buried Ruin
Sorcery (8)
4 Mystic Speculation
4 Thoughtcast
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Into the Roil
4 Spell Pierce
3 Engulf the Shore
The sideboard choices here are both to keep the deck under $40 and as a hedge against the metagame I'm expecting in my local super-budget league. Nothing insane, but I know that everyone will board out any removal they have against me and Enforcer seemed like a good way to leverage that. The other 11 are just good cards that hit a lot of the format and hate I'll see.
Yeah, I just totally forgot that Verdurous was an artifact creature. Abrade is probably the better call, though it's always nice to have access to a 4-damage removal spell to respond to Avacyn triggers.
Here's the 75 that I'm planning to run after Friday:
4 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Kefnet the Mindful
2 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
Enchantment (2)
2 Cast Out
Instant (22)
2 Magma Spray
3 Harnessed Lightning
4 Glimmer of Genius
2 Censor
3 Disallow
1 Commit // Memory
2 Supreme Will
2 Abrade
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Essence Scatter
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Aether Hub
3 Island
2 Plains
4 Irrigated Farmland
2 Prairie Stream
2 Needle Spires
1 Wandering Fumarole
Sorcery (3)
2 Fumigate
1 Descend upon the Sinful
2 Sphinx of the Final Word
1 Cast Out
1 Forsake the Worldly
2 Negate
1 Dispel
2 Thing in the Ice
2 Supreme Will
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Descend upon the Sinful
1 Hour of Devastation
Matchups I've tested with this deck
W/UW Monument: 55/45 preboard, over 70/30 postboard
This matchup is insanely in Jeskai's favor, to the point that I'd recommend this deck over any other if you expect large numbers of Monument players in your meta. While they can often go absurdly wide absurdly fast, their lack of an anthem effect means that they're usually putting you to 10 and letting you untap into a wrath. And as a bonus, since all our wraths are CMC 5 or more, Spell Queller doesn't grab them. Post-board, we have access to 10 wraths and 2 bounce effects (admittedly, the Chandras are not in there to be wraths, that's just added value) and go-wide can't really stabilize.
GB Energy: 55/45 preboard, 45/55 postboard
This matchup was the absolute worst for UR control, and it's still one of the tough matchups for the deck. Game 1 is in our favor a bit, since Fumigate is really good in the matchup, but this deck has explosive enough starts at times that they can overwhelm us if they go fast. It's not happened often to me in testing, but it's a very real threat. After boarding, the biggest threat we need to worry about is Gonti, Lord of Luxury. If he resolves, he usually grabs countermagic and can ruin us at the crucial moment. Other than that one situation, we're still about 55/45 favored postboard.
If you're playing this deck a lot and think Solemnity is a good idea, I tested it and it's really underwhelming. It's far better in this deck to have countermagic up than to use turn 3 dropping that.
RGx Energy: 60/40 preboard, 65/35 postboard
My friend and playtesting partner plays RGx Energy, and after a particularly one-sided set of games, he said that this matchup was his most unfavored matchup. While I disagree and think it's much closer than he said, we are quite favored here. Either the deck runs out multiple large threats and gets blown out by a boardwipe, or it plays a few smaller ones and gets blown out by the spot removal. That's not to say it can't take games, because it definitely can. It's more that RGx lacks the card advantage engines that GB has and is much easier to force into a topdecking scenario.
B/WB Zombies: 60/40 preboard, 70/30 postboard
Again, we have a deck that pretty much folds to the number of board-clears we have. This matchup really boils down to whether we're able to have 5 untapped lands turn 5 or not, and even in situations where we have to wait until turn 6 to board-wipe, we're often not in any immediate danger of dying.
Unusual Card Choices and Reasoning
I am, and it's been great. Conduit of Ruin really helps it out IMO.
I've found that my oddball list actually does reasonably well against Hatebears, because so often they've already used their removal spells on my early threats like TKS and Smasher and the like that when I play a Platinum Angel they just look at it, look at their hand, look back at it, and go to the next game. I agree that Ratchet Bombs seem like a good idea in main in an aggro-heavy meta, but I struggle to see slots to put them in.
Dread Statuary is better in my opinion, because we're not exactly a mana-starved deck and this one doesn't have the extra cost of exiling lands. Even better, in my opinion, is Westvale Abbey.