We're pretty far away from any deck that has had any results in a long long time. The banning of Mox Opal left the deck mostly dead in the water.
I like the line of thinking with Zuran Orb and once upon a time this would have been a crux card for the deck. Unfortunately with only Faith's Reward to get back lands it's a difficult ask. The decks have been running Open the vaults as recursion effect 5-7 and the deck would struggle without all 7/8. With the recent printing of an Enchantment Land and another playable Artifact Land there may be something hiding along those lines. (Especially since both are good in the deck on their own.
Thought Monitor is another angle of thought from recent sets but would require a good sac outlet.
I'm having trouble coming up with a cohesive deck or anything that performs at any real speed as a traditional Eggs deck. If there's an answer I suspect it exists as an A+B+C artifact combo deck that looks nothing like what we've seen before.
How are we feeling about our # of answers to thalia, damping sphere and the great white enchantments stony silence and rest in peace. im currently running 3 ways to deal with sphere and thalia, and 4 to deal with the enchantments. I haven't been able to test my humans match up, however i am slightly scared of the match up.
Because we win in one turn our answers can be more temporary than most decks that need to try and win through hate. Bounce effects like Echoing Truth, Æther Spellbomb, and the usually unnecessary Wipe Away. I run 4 in my board. They can also buy you time against aggro and creature combo.
An extra Pyrite Spellbomb can help to deal with many but not all of the hate bears.
So in general Visions is considered the better setup card and SoH the better active draw. You are right about it finding a turn 1 Bloom slightly better. This makes them about even turn 1 since you are unlikely to see a Bloom and will instead be setting up lands/not lands as needed. Even if you do see a Bloom off of the scry 2, often will have the opportunity to wait until turn 5 to go off anyway, in game one at least.
But during combo you will be drawing a bunch of cards, so as long as you draw 1 card after casting the cantrip the setup of Visions is better than the choice offered by SoH.
I was running a 3/2 split before I switched over to Looting.
My deck focuses on Grinding Station, and rather than using my Eggs to try and draw into another Open the Vaults effect, I’d use them to mill my own deck to find other artifact to return.
Playing that type of list has several advantages in that you can freely sac your eggs in the early turns, and once you cast your first Open the Vaults with a Grinding Station in play your deck plays out much, much faster than a typical eggs interaction. I've only played with it a few times so figuring out if your turn clock is slower like it feels or if it's actually the same will be interesting.
For our looping spells Faith's Reward and Open the Vaults, I've always liked having 7 of them in my deck. I think going up to 8 is certainly a viable choice too, but I don't know if I would go lower. We need to see enough of these cards to combo off.
I also decided to run Ichor Wellspring over Elsewhere Flask, because of the 2 draws you can get out of the card. That means we'd also need to run more main deck sacrifice outlets, besides Reshape. I opted to go with Phyrexia's Core and Thopter Foundry. Thopter is a permanent, on-colour sacrifice outlet and Phyrexia's Core is a kinda permanent sac outlet (needs to tap). Between those 3 cards I've felt I had enough sacrifice outlets.
For the lands, Phyrexia's Core, Inventor's Fair and Academy Ruins used to be 4 Darksteel Citadels when KCI was still legal. Now the Citadels have lost all (?) of their value, so I'm trying something new. The Inventor's Fair and Academy Ruins could probably be extra islands, though I don't think I've particularly needed them.
Lastly, I use Aetherflux Reservoir as my win-con. I've don't think I've ever really understood why people prefer Pyrite Spellbomb. It can remove a creature and can draw a card, but Aetherflux kills a lot quicker and can very quickly gain a lot of life. Is Pyrite Spellbomb really that good (convince me )?
I was hard on being at 7 recursion spells, changing over to 4xLooting brought me up to 4xVaults. Though that is still in testing.
I don't like having to find room for a sac outlet that doesn't do much, sure, you'll potentially have infinite 1/1s and infinite life but unless you have your Academy Ruins in play already you can't attack with them without drawing out. I think that if you want to go the sac outlet route in order to run Ichor Wellspring or Terrarion, that Grinding Station is better. Now if there was a haste source or a way to not draw out, then it would be a maindeck backup win.
I would definitely recommend running fetches or basics over those non-basics, makes the combo cleaner.
I think in a lot of ways you are playing with very powerful effects but I'm in favor of running as few cards outside the direct combo as possible and you seem to have a lot.
Tezzeret the Seeker is a neat way to think of interaction with Faith's Reward, but because it cost 3UU we can't play it until we are already comboing where as the other tutors can help with setup.
I'm really liking what Faithless Looting does for the deck. Though the Opals make me more confident in running them. I switched my lands to make a R instead of W since we will have white if we're going off anyway. Also upped my Open the Vaults from 3 to 4.
You can have whatever you want for breakfast, so long as it includes eggs, and the FDA (DCI) hasn’t inspected it yet. Eggs is a deck built around the powerful effect of recursively sacrificing artifacts that cantrip. Whether taking advantage of the dies triggers or just going infinite, people have found ways to win with the most insignificant of cards.
”The bright tunnel sometimes leads back to life.”-Second Sunrise
There is a phrase commonly applied to what happens when Timmy gets a little too into what they’re doing, “Durdling.”
What happens when the ability to durdle is refined down to a top tier deck? Well it didn’t start that way.
In the fall of 2001 Odyssey premiered and with two things were now available. A critical mass of artifacts that sacrifice to draw cards in the “Egggggs” Cycle. As well as a reason to run them, Nantuko Shrine
In in other formats the deck didn’t gain much traction outside of FNM level events. In Mirrodin the deck gained Disciple of the Vault, Second Sunrise, and Conjurer's Bauble to little immediate consequence. It wasn’t until October of 2006 that the deck started cooking with fire. Lotus Bloom and the associated rules change that cards without mana cost would have a CMC of 0.
Conceived by Sylvain Lauriol and played by most of the French players at Worlds that December Omelette aux Lotus was the buzz after Bastien Perez went undefeated on day one. "This might actually be the most skill-oriented combo deck in the entire history of magic."- Pierre Canali
Between 2007 and 2011 not much happened for the deck, extended had some tough competition.
In 2011 with the creation of modern brews began and in mid 2012 Faith's Reward was printed and the deck had finally come into its full. By October 2012 just 2 months after this version’s first tournament appearance Stanislav Cifka went 18-1 to win ProTour Return to Ravnica.
April 22nd 2013 just 5 months after Stanislav’s win the DCI announcement comes through that Second Sunrise is banned. The deck falls into obscurity and myth of how powerful it once was. Now running KCI it manages less than a dozen top 8’s in daily tournaments on MTGO and a single place in a World Cup qualifier over the next 4 years.
It wasn’t until January of 2017 that the deck became competitive again. Decks began by running Whir of Invention as an obvious inclusion and by April the power of Scrap Trawler was discovered. The deck now had consistency it craved and the power to go infinite.
In early 2018 a very specific rules interaction that made the deck require fewer pieces for its combo became widespread knowledge increasing the tournament presence of the deck.
When paying for the cost of Chromatic Sphere’s activated ability you can then choose to pay for it by activating the mana ability of KCI by sacrificing Myr Retriever, the Retriever’s triggered ability does not go on the stack until after the Sphere’s ability resolves. Allowing it to target itself where it normally couldn’t.
The power of the deck in the hands of a skilled player lead to an excess of high-profile finishes such as claiming 4 of the top 8 slots at GP Oakland 2019.
The day before the writing of this primer the DCI struck again. Banning the now crux card Krark-Clan Ironworks. The future of this deck remains uncertain, but below we will attempt to find where this deck should move onto.
”Deserted, but not uninhabited.”-Ghost Quarter
Eggs is a historically ridged deck as far as construction goes, you’ll have your necessary pieces of the combo and then 1-4 flex slots that even then don’t change that much. That said, the deck is currently undergoing a major transformation, so a lot of options are on the table.
We will need 25-35 artifacts, 15-20 lands, a recursion source or two, a slot dedicated to a win condition, and possibly some defensive spells. Wee will be focusing the discussion in on one particular build until others establish a bigger presence.
These will be the cards to power the deck.
Learning the timing on when to use your tutors and how far you’ll have to dig for a mass recursion is one of the key skills you’ll need to master to play this deck.
Typically, 4-9 recursive engine cards and 4-8 Tutors. The exact numbers will come down to how much you value speed verses consistency.
Open the Vaults (Run 2-4) : With Second Sunrise banned this is what we have left instead for redundancy. It doesn’t bring back everything, only artifacts and enchantments so pay attention to the mana you need off lands through fetches or quarters. The plus side is that it will bring back any artifacts you may have sacrificed on earlier turns of the game or if you need to restart your combo after failing to go off.
Roar of Reclamation (Run 0-4) : Can be run in place of Faith's Reward to have a build that recurs artifacts put into the graveyard through any means. It would be a more consistent build as you have the options to sacrifice eggs on earlier turns or come back from a turn where you don’t go off. The drawback of costing 5WW will probably slow down the starting turn by too much.
Tutors:
Whir of Invention (Run 4) : The main use of this card will be to, at the beginning of your combo turn, sacrifice Lotus Bloom to play Whir for 0 to tutor another Lotus onto the battlefield. Maintaining the same amount of mana until you cast either Faith's Reward or Open the Vaults where you will have 3 extra mana to work with. Later in the combo it will still most commonly be used for Lotuses but if mana is abundant would be used to find an Egg. Games 2/3 it can be used to find board cards if necessary.
Reshape (Run 1-3) :All the applications of Whir at one less mana, with the sacrificing of an artifact. Remember “in Modern two-mana Tinker for Black Lotus is a legal play.” You generally want to be sacrificing Elsewhere Flask or Chromatic Star so that you aren’t depriving yourself a draw off the eggs that cantrip from their abilities.
Tezzeret the Seeker (Run 0-1) :Tutors up any artifact in your deck by using his minus X=4. Can then be returned to the battlefield with Faith's Reward for repeatable tutor. Unlike our other tutors will not help us set up in the early turns and then on our combo turn requires us to at least have an investment of 2 since he can tutor for a Lotus Bloom.
Cantrips:
Serum Visions (Run 0-4) :Not an egg but will help with your early game setup and once you are in mid combo with extra mana. Run over eggs that cost mana because while both are mostly dead during the most fragile early combo iterations, this sets up better, where late combo where we are at our strongest already the bad eggs would be better. Obvious interaction is that during combo cast this before cracking your eggs to draw into the cards you scry from.
Sleight of Hand (Run 0-3) :Same story as Visions except the draw happens differently. Sometimes one is better than the other. In this deck you will more often want Visions.
Faithless Looting (Run 0-4) :The difference here is that Looting puts cards in a place where we already want them so they can be hit by Open the Vaults. The negative is needing R in the early game. Current Favorite.
Thoughtcast (Run 0-2) :A powerful draw effect, for a different deck most likely. Artifact aggro deck can cast this for U once they gave played out their hand to draw more steam. We are running spell based cantrips to improve our early game setup over artifact eggs. Thoughtcast would only really draw us cards cheaply once we are already ready to go off.
Ancient Stirrings (Run 0-4) :Unlike the KCI builds our artifacts are mostly interchangeable eggs. Unless you put in a colorless combo piece I wouldn’t run it over anything else.
Board the Weatherlight (Run 0) :Slightly more on color than Stirrings and digs one deeper. Can only find Legendary Lands instead of any land. Generally worse in most ways.
Crack an egg and watch the gears turn. These are the cards that draw you into the next, they occasionally color filter, or even win you the game. (Oh, wait that’ll be in the next section)
In most every incarnation of the deck you will run at least 16 after which they tend to start needing enablers to be playable.
Core:
Chromatic Star (Run 4) : The base of our deck. Play your eggs early while you can and avoid cracking them until the last possible moment.
Chromatic Sphere (Run 4) :The next best egg. You will get very, very familiar with cracking eggs. Note the difference between the two. This one only draws a card when you activate its ability, Star will draw a card however it goes to the graveyard.
Conjurer's Bauble (Run 4) : Not only is this an incredibly efficient 1 egg, but it is actually our combo piece. Early in the combo you will put back Faith's Rewards and Open the Vaults to improve your consistency. Late combo, when you have no cards in deck, you will stop sacrificing all other eggs that draw you cards. Then you will use a single Bauble to recycle a Faith's Reward for an infinite loop.
Elsewhere Flask (Run 4) : Here is where things get down to what we are given verses what we want. It does what we need it to though. Drawing a card, this time with the advantage of getting it on the front side for better early game setup. Secondly, it sacrifices itself without costing mana. You’ll find that nothing else quite meets those qualifications. As a small bonus it can mana fix your lands if you need that UUU for Whir, watch out though, as it can blank your Ghost Quarter.
Extras:
Mishra's Bauble (Run 0) :This is the cheapest egg, and while it can be played early to help draw into the combo, the turn we go off it does nothing since we don’t want our opponent to get another turn anyway. If for some reason you were unable to go off (maybe because one of your eggs doesn’t draw a card right away) it does a great job of rebuilding to help you win on your next turn.
Mind Stone (Run 0-2) :Can be used as early game ramp into other eggs. Since it’s draw affect cost mana it would drain one every iteration which can make all the difference when you are trying to go off. Once you use it for mana during a combo turn you are unlikely to be able to sacrifice it for any repeated value.
Kaleidostone (Run 0-4) :The best egg for our deck we aren’t running. It functions almost the same as Elsewhere Flask with the added benefit of better mana filtering. The startup cost is however one too high putting it just below the threshold of inclusion.
Courier's Capsule (Run 0-1) :Costing 1U per iteration is a steep price, with a sweet but passable payoff. A list or two once upon a time splashed one into the main.
Alchemist's Vial (Run 0-2) :The cost to sacrifice is detrimental to our combo plan but might serve to niftily delay our opponents from killing us an extra turn in the early game.
Nihil Spellbomb (Run 0-1) :Maindeck tutorable graveyard hate that can also serve to play into the combo. Probably belongs in the sideboard but let your meta decide. Easily the best of the modern spellbombs.
Sac-Outlet:
Grinding Station (Run 0-4) : A free sac-outlet that helps load up your graveyard for Vaults. Also serves as a primary win condition. If you want to run the eggs of the KCI days this is your best option.
Claws of Gix (Run 0) : Costing only 1 to play or sac this is our next best sac-outlet and it probably isn’t worth playing at all.
Metalwork Colossus (Run 0) : A free sac-outlet that first must be put into the graveyard and then has some pretty intense timing restrictions. Not runnable unless your combo innately involves a discard outlet and even then, seems questionable.
Thopter Foundry (Run 0-2) : Advantages include infinite life and infinite 1/1s. Disadvantages include requiring two colored mana to play, a mana to sacrifice, infinite life being irrelevant if you are winning, and needing a way to not draw out on your next turn in order to win with infinite 1/1s. Has very positive interactions with Sword of the Meek for times when you aren’t going off.
Time Sieve (Run 0-4) : Makes Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek worth running, lets you untap your lands and draw a card. A different strategy and win condition but takes up a lot more slots in the deck than our current combo.
Things that require Sac-Outlets:
Terrarion (Run 0-4) :It does everything we want. Except it comes into play tapped.
Ichor Wellspring(Run 0-4) :The most powerful draw egg for its cost.
Scrap Trawler (Run 0-2) :Powerful recursion engine, however the current build does not generate much mana with each iteration so Reward and Vaults function as ways around needing more than 6 mana.
Myr Retriever(Run 0) :Incredible value for recurring artifacts. In the current build would only get back a standard egg, so might as well be an egg that could sac itself.
Every deck needs land, we just so happen to be lucky enough not to need very many. Decks have historically run between 16-21 lands and enough other mana producers to explain the difference.
I’ve gone infinite without hitting a single land drop until turn 4.
Who needs lands when you have fast mana.
Fast Mana:
Mox Opal (Run 4) : Early game this ramps us, late game it becomes part of the combo. Take advantage of its Legendary Status during your combo turn to loop them for an extra mana each iteration, sacrificing the tapped one for the newly entered untapped one. Remember that if multiple enter play at the same time you won’t have an opportunity to tap either before sending one to the graveyard.
Lotus Bloom (Run 4) :Cast this on turn 1 for an additional three colored mana on turn 4. Tutor it with Reshape or Whir of Invention to get your combo started or add to the existing loop. This is the card that allows this deck to work. If drawn on any turn but turn one you might as well play it incase you have the opportunity to wait that long to go off. If you are running Looting or another discard source you can pitch it freely to later bring back with Vaults
Fetch and Mana Lands:
Ghost Quarter (Run 4) : Target a land you have already tapped for mana, to get a new basic land untapped. You will net the same amount as if you had tapped the ghost quarter for mana. Then in conjunction with Faith's Reward both the destroyed lands and Ghost Quarter will come back untapped. Thinning your deck and producing mana with each iteration.
Oneoffourfetches (Run 3-4) :An old and mostly debunked expression amongst magic players is, “Thin to win.” Running fetches to reduce your odds of drawing a land generally isn’t worth the life. In an average deck that wins or loses on turn 6 you will have seen 5 additional cards after your initial 7. Reducing the 53 card pile you draw from into a 52 card pile won’t affect your draws in a significant way. Eggs on the other hand intends to see every card in the deck and drawing any other card over a land can make the difference between winning or not. When cracked on a combo turn you can recur it for additional mana production and thinning as long as your life total or basic land count allows. Choose which fetch based on color splashes, and if you don’t have any non-blue cards except Reward or Vaults consider running one of each to confuse your opponents and increase your resilience to hate cards.
Island (Run 7-9) :This deck usually uses two colors and between 8 ChromaticFilters, Land Type Changing, Moxen, and Black Lotuses you find what you need pretty well. During combo your artifacts will be producing W]/ana]foRyoURWHitESPEllS,WHEREaSEaRlyGamEyoURtUtoRSWant[mana]U.
Other Basics (Run 0-2) :If you are running a second color this is half of the way you will be casting those spells. Shocks of any Island[c/c] including [c=Hallowed Fountain]Color may also be included for the same reason. You will often be running only one slot for your splash land so the choice between a basic or a shock depends on how much damage you are willing to take in order to more consistently have UUU for Whir of Invention
Spire of Industry (Run 1-4) :If your list is splashing for several colored effects this is your tri-land of choice.
Effect Lands:
Darksteel Citadel (Run 0-4) : If you are running main deck free sac-outlets this land will produce a mana per iteration.
Inventors' Fair (Run 0-1) : Late game when you haven’t gone off yet will find you an artifact, better if you are running artifacts outside of just eggs. If we need this we have already most likely lost.
Phyrexia's Core (Run 0-1) : A sac-outlet that only works once a turn. Generally, not worth a slot.
Academy Ruins (Run 0-2) : A way to not draw out if needed, if we need this we already lost. Has some specific applications in a few unique builds.
So we have the pieces for an infinite loop that produces infinite mana. We have all the options in the world, so many possible wincons, so easy to use once the loop is achieved. It actually means we are probably running the weakest of those win conditions because it plays better before we go off.
Win Conditions:
Pyrite Spellbomb (Run 1) : Looped infinitely with Faith's Reward will steadily kill a player form any life total. Early game can serve to remove a creature or draw a card furthering the early game plan. The only reason to run any other win condition is because of your opponent’s hate cards. Cannot win against infinite life since Bauble puts Faith's Reward into an unknown zone even if it is the only card in your deck. This mean you must play out each iterations. Easily outclasses every other original spellbomb for egg purposes.
Silence (Run 0-4) : This is our most powerful defensive option, once it resolved you are in the clear to go off. Sunrise decks ran two, current builds are more mana hungry and people often choose to exclude this safety net.
Backup options: Placed here rather than sideboard for better decision making.
Implement of Combustion : Very similar to the Spellbomb except it draws off R and can’t hit creatures. The only reason to run 1 in the board is if your opponent already knows to name Pyrite Spellbomb with Meddling Mage. Probably better off with a more versatile backup.
Blind Obedience : Can buy you time in the early game and win with untargeted life lost. This is the favored backup wincondition. Cannot win against infinite life
Laboratory Maniac : The fragility of being a creature is mostly negated by your ability to draw a card as many time as is needed to trigger his win. The only playable option that can win against infinite life. Note:Chromatic Sphere’s draw is part of a mana ability and cannot be responded to.
Banefire : Can let you win uncounterably much earlier on in your combo than any other win condition. Particularly relevant if playing on MTGO.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn : Be careful to have an extra card in your Library if you intend to cast him. Generally you would rather a wincon that you are guaranteed to be able to use if you combo out. Sometime casting him requires drawing all of your cards.
Grapeshot : Many of the same advantages as Banefire, can be played earlier for multiple creature removal if necessary.
Codex Shredder : Sets up an infinite combo with Faith's Reward if you have enough mana. You can deal infinite damage since the combo no longer interacts with an unknown zone.
Research // Development : If you would rather not guess how your opponent is going to try and stop your win condition just play a Wish Instead. Find whichever win they weren’t expecting.
Aetherflux Reservoir : Another storm based win condition, this time it’s an artifact which is worse since it can be hit by the hate they bring in for your artifacts and doesn’t do anything to help your combo during early turns anyway.
Sai, Master Thopterist : Like Emrakul will win through damage. Unlike Emrakul it doesn’t give you an extra turn to attempt to do so with. Will kill an opponent from higher than 15 but requires enablement to do so. Does produce blockers mid-game if you need them.
All together, what does the deck look like?
This deck is in a very heavy time of flux so please recommend your lists and ideas. We will rebuild, how is the question.
Feel free to post or recommend lists for the Primer.
”When the vaults are empty, everyone is rich.”-Open the Vaults
In this section we can compile sideboard strategies for specific matchups. Due to the varying nature of the modern what to run will depend entirely on your meta.
I hope that this part will be a community project, gathering play data and experience in how to react to each situation. Currently we have a lot of information throughout this thread. Now let’s gather it all together so that it can be of use to us.
The point of a sideboard is to shore up the decks weaknesses against common problem it will face in the current meta.
Let’s see what we’ve got.
This section will be filled in with community input, thank you for your patience as data comes in.
"Take a quiet moment to reflect on your sins."-Silence
Updated Last: Incoming Results will go here.
If I miss anything please feel free to message me about it.
Thank you for your contributions. This is still a very young primer and I would appreciate input and patience. Feel free to message me about technical errors, bad links, typos, and the like. If it is a large theoretical discussion on what belongs in the deck, that is a discussion for this thread.
Sources include but are not limited to: Stanislav Cifka, Nate Heiss, Redit user PrometeusGod, and Hanno Terbuyken. As well as Salvation users: Izzetmage, Aazadan, and you.
I like the line of thinking with Zuran Orb and once upon a time this would have been a crux card for the deck. Unfortunately with only Faith's Reward to get back lands it's a difficult ask. The decks have been running Open the vaults as recursion effect 5-7 and the deck would struggle without all 7/8. With the recent printing of an Enchantment Land and another playable Artifact Land there may be something hiding along those lines. (Especially since both are good in the deck on their own.
Thought Monitor is another angle of thought from recent sets but would require a good sac outlet.
I'm having trouble coming up with a cohesive deck or anything that performs at any real speed as a traditional Eggs deck. If there's an answer I suspect it exists as an A+B+C artifact combo deck that looks nothing like what we've seen before.
4x Chromatic Star
2x Engineered Explosives
4x Grinding Station
4x Ichor Wellspring
4x Mox Opal
3x Myr Retriever
1x Pyrite Spellbomb
4x Terrarion
4x Scrap Trawler
4x Semblance Anvil
2x Welding Jar
2x Sai, Master Thopterist
Lands (18)
2x Buried Ruin
4x Darksteel Citadel
2x Forest
4x Grove of the Burnwillows
2x Inventors' Fair
1x Island
3x Yavimaya Coast
1x Swan Song
2x Negate
1x Sai, Master Thopterist
3x Karn, Scion of Urza
3x Nature's Claim
2x Ghirapur Aether Grid
3x Galvanic Blast
Because we win in one turn our answers can be more temporary than most decks that need to try and win through hate. Bounce effects like Echoing Truth, Æther Spellbomb, and the usually unnecessary Wipe Away. I run 4 in my board. They can also buy you time against aggro and creature combo.
An extra Pyrite Spellbomb can help to deal with many but not all of the hate bears.
Extirpate is very hard to deal with. Fortunately most people are running Surgical Extraction, which if you suspect they have in hand lave a Conjurer's Bauble up.
But during combo you will be drawing a bunch of cards, so as long as you draw 1 card after casting the cantrip the setup of Visions is better than the choice offered by SoH.
I was running a 3/2 split before I switched over to Looting.
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Faithless Looting
1 Thoughtcast
1 Chart a Course
1 Board the Weatherlight
1 Ancient Stirrings
1 Grinding Station
1 Claws of Gix
1 Metalwork Colossus
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Time Sieve
1 Myr Retriever
4 Basics
4 Shocks
1 Spire of Industry
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Academy Ruins
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Sai, Master Thopterist
1 Altar of the Brood
I cannot factor in every build mentioned, but I will for any ideas with multiple people supporting it.
[C]Island[/C] becomes Island.
[Deck=Example] Lands (4) 4 Island[/Deck] becomes
4 Island
Playing that type of list has several advantages in that you can freely sac your eggs in the early turns, and once you cast your first Open the Vaults with a Grinding Station in play your deck plays out much, much faster than a typical eggs interaction. I've only played with it a few times so figuring out if your turn clock is slower like it feels or if it's actually the same will be interesting.
Here is my take on this version.
If only Careful Study were modern legal. I'm not high on Chart a COurse but let us know how it goes.
I was hard on being at 7 recursion spells, changing over to 4xLooting brought me up to 4xVaults. Though that is still in testing.
I don't like having to find room for a sac outlet that doesn't do much, sure, you'll potentially have infinite 1/1s and infinite life but unless you have your Academy Ruins in play already you can't attack with them without drawing out. I think that if you want to go the sac outlet route in order to run Ichor Wellspring or Terrarion, that Grinding Station is better. Now if there was a haste source or a way to not draw out, then it would be a maindeck backup win.
I would definitely recommend running fetches or basics over those non-basics, makes the combo cleaner.
I think in a lot of ways you are playing with very powerful effects but I'm in favor of running as few cards outside the direct combo as possible and you seem to have a lot.
Tezzeret the Seeker is a neat way to think of interaction with Faith's Reward, but because it cost 3UU we can't play it until we are already comboing where as the other tutors can help with setup.
4x Chromatic Sphere
4x Chromatic Star
4x Conjurer's Bauble
4x Elsewhere Flask
4x Lotus Bloom
4x Mox Opal
1x Pyrite Spellbomb
4x Faith's Reward
4x Faithless Looting
4x Open the Vaults
3x Reshape
3x Whir of Invention
4x Ghost Quarter
8x Island
1x Mountain
4x Scalding Tarn
P.S. FireWolf try [c]Reshape[/c] instead of [[Reshape]] slight differences between Salvation and Tappedout
How how your builds without Mox Opal been running?
There is a phrase commonly applied to what happens when Timmy gets a little too into what they’re doing, “Durdling.”
What happens when the ability to durdle is refined down to a top tier deck? Well it didn’t start that way.
In the fall of 2001 Odyssey premiered and with two things were now available. A critical mass of artifacts that sacrifice to draw cards in the “Egggggs” Cycle. As well as a reason to run them, Nantuko Shrine
4 Darkwater Egg
4 Skycloud Egg
4 Mossfire Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
4 Sungrass Egg
4 Nantuko Shrine
Instants & Sorceries
2 Circular Logic
4 Moment's Peace
4 Obsessive Search
4 Peek
4 Words of Wisdom
8 Forest
10 Island
In in other formats the deck didn’t gain much traction outside of FNM level events. In Mirrodin the deck gained Disciple of the Vault, Second Sunrise, and Conjurer's Bauble to little immediate consequence. It wasn’t until October of 2006 that the deck started cooking with fire. Lotus Bloom and the associated rules change that cards without mana cost would have a CMC of 0.
Conceived by Sylvain Lauriol and played by most of the French players at Worlds that December Omelette aux Lotus was the buzz after Bastien Perez went undefeated on day one. "This might actually be the most skill-oriented combo deck in the entire history of magic."- Pierre Canali
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Conjurer's Bauble
3 Darkwater Egg
4 Lotus Bloom
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Skycloud Egg
3 Sungrass Egg
Instants & Sorceries (13)
2 Cunning Wish
2 Mystical Teachings
1 Orim's Chant
4 Reshape
4 Second Sunrise
4 Archaeological Dig
3 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Ghost Quarter
5 Island
2 Plains
2 Seat of the Synod
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Angel's Grace
1 Brain Freeze
1 Echoing Truth
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Orim's Chant
1 Pithing Needle
1 Reclaim
1 Seedtime
1 Spoils of the Vault
1 Stifle
1 Trinket Mage
1 Wipe Away
Between 2007 and 2011 not much happened for the deck, extended had some tough competition.
In 2011 with the creation of modern brews began and in mid 2012 Faith's Reward was printed and the deck had finally come into its full. By October 2012 just 2 months after this version’s first tournament appearance Stanislav Cifka went 18-1 to win ProTour Return to Ravnica.
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Conjurer's Bauble
4 Elsewhere Flask
4 Lotus Bloom
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
Instants & Sorceries (22)
4 Faith's Reward
4 Second Sunrise
2 Silence
1 Gitaxian Probe
4 Reshape
4 Serum Visions
3 Sleight of Hand
7 Island
1 Plains
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Echoing Truth
2 Silence
1 Grapeshot
April 22nd 2013 just 5 months after Stanislav’s win the DCI announcement comes through that Second Sunrise is banned. The deck falls into obscurity and myth of how powerful it once was. Now running KCI it manages less than a dozen top 8’s in daily tournaments on MTGO and a single place in a World Cup qualifier over the next 4 years.
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
1 Codex Shredder
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
3 Lotus Bloom
4 Mox Opal
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Terrarion
2 Edge of Autumn
4 Faith's Reward
2 Open the Vaults
4 Reshape
Lands (19)
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Flooded Strand
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Island
3 Plains
2 Radiant Fountain
1 Banefire
1 Codex Shredder
4 Defense Grid
4 Echoing Truth
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Tormod's Crypt
It wasn’t until January of 2017 that the deck became competitive again. Decks began by running Whir of Invention as an obvious inclusion and by April the power of Scrap Trawler was discovered. The deck now had consistency it craved and the power to go infinite.
In early 2018 a very specific rules interaction that made the deck require fewer pieces for its combo became widespread knowledge increasing the tournament presence of the deck.
The power of the deck in the hands of a skilled player lead to an excess of high-profile finishes such as claiming 4 of the top 8 slots at GP Oakland 2019.
2 Buried Ruin
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Inventors' Fair
1 Island
4 Yavimaya Coast
Creatures (7)
1 Myr Retriever
2 Sai, Master Thopterist
4 Scrap Trawler
Instants & Sorceries (4)
4 Ancient Stirrings
3 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Mind Stone
1 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Spine of Ish Sah
3 Terrarion
1 Delay
1 Firespout
2 Galvanic Blast
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Nature's Claim
1 Negate
1 Sai, Master Thopterist
1 Swan Song
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wurmcoil Engine
The day before the writing of this primer the DCI struck again. Banning the now crux card Krark-Clan Ironworks. The future of this deck remains uncertain, but below we will attempt to find where this deck should move onto.
In this section we can compile sideboard strategies for specific matchups. Due to the varying nature of the modern what to run will depend entirely on your meta.
I hope that this part will be a community project, gathering play data and experience in how to react to each situation. Currently we have a lot of information throughout this thread. Now let’s gather it all together so that it can be of use to us.
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Incoming Results will go here.
If I miss anything please feel free to message me about it.