I've previously said that Platinum Emperion is removal-weak against surprisingly many decks (yes, some builds of Ad Nauseam and Bogles can boot one, and Dredge generally kills one with an 8-card Conflagrate more than half the time in my testing, even against decks with counterspells). One Platinum Emperion can't hold off aggro or combo forever...but two often can.
With that in mind, I built a deck with 4 Madcap Experiment and 4 Bring to Light to maximize the chance of slamming down 2 Emperions at once:
To increase the chances of slamming down 2 Emperions at once, there are 3 Platinum Emperions in the deck. This is partially in case one of them is stranded in hand, although I have both hardcast Emperions in hand in some games and cheated out 3 Emperions in a single game multiple times. Some days, I want a fourth Emperion in the deck.
The 3 V. Clique and 2 See Beyond are to stuff all Emperions I inevitably draw back into the deck. There are 5 of them because the chance I draw one of my 3 Emperions is very real. I've generally had good results with See Beyond in other decks with dead cards to cheat out (Ad Nauseam, Nahiri decks, etc.). Of course, V. Clique is also a beater that disrupts opposing hands, and it's great against combo, especially on Turn 2.
There are 24 lands and 10 mana dorks to increase the chance of Turn 3 Madcap Experiment and Bring to Light. Sylvan Caryatid is the last mana dork to support black sideboard cards.
Eternal Witness gets back anything I want. A fringe way to cheat in Emperion for the fourth time is to E. Wit. a dead Emperion back to hand, then stuff it back into my library with See Beyond or V. Clique, then Madcap it back out. This is why the second E. Wit. is in the deck.
Whirler Rogue is an anti-midrange target and surprisingly good support guy. It not only makes Emperion unblockable (I hit pretty nasty board stalls against Affinity with earlier builds because Cranial Plating makes blockers beefy enough to trade with Emperion and makes Vault Skirge Lifelink hard enough to soak up Emperion alpha strikes), it also blocks pretty well. It's easier to cast than Pia and Kiran Nalaar in this deck.
Glen Elendra Archmage is the Bring to Light target that protects Emperion (because this deck can't play Spellskite) and hoses combo. Get her our and Ad Nauseam can't even win with Laboratory Maniac unless it finds Boseiju, Who Shelters All to force Ad Nauseam through.
Qasali Pridemage is the maindeck way to Bring to Light for a way to blow up artifacts or enchantments.
Scavenging Ooze is mainly a pre-boarded hate bear, although it also gains life and gets fat.
There are more PtE's than Bolts maindeck because Kiki Chord also tends to run PtE over Bolt. However, singleton Bolt is a nifty Bring to Light target when opponents are at 3 life or less.
Gavony Township is a remote Plan C, although its synergy with Glen Elendra Archmage is hilariously good.
The sideboard is in flux, and Loaming Shaman may be too cute despite being able to shuffle all dead Emperions back into the deck and being able to one-shot Dredge's graveyard.
I've found that this deck can go toe-to-toe with a lot of other decks in Modern, and I think it can rise up the tiers! What do you think?
Given the number of times late-game Botanical Sanctum has delayed hardcasting Emperion by one turn, yes, Emperion in hand really is that bad. Emperion in my opening hand is the worst. This deck can and has hardcast Emperion, but that's a late-game play, generally only done after I cheat out at least one Emperion (who doesn't necessarily survive).
Against decks like Merfolk, I need to stick 2 Emperions at all costs. I prefer cheating them out to hardcasting them because cheating them out is faster and costs less. Cheating them out faster allows me to turn the corner and close out the game faster instead of hiding behind Emperions who are too chicken to swing into blockers and Harbinger of the Tides. Cheating them out costing less is great whenever I need to stick 2 Emperions because Emperion prevents me from cracking fetchlands.
I haven't tried out the narrow counterspells, as I can't guarantee that I get Emperion in a timely fashion. In matchups like Infect, I often don't even want to cheat out Emperion when I have better things to Bring to Light for.
I played some games with the list and I really like it. I particularly like the vendillion clique for taking out lilliana of the veil for instance. I don't see the need for qasali pridemage, i swapped it out for maelstrom pulse as I feel like it serves a similair purpose.
I also swapped out sylvan caryatid for explore as i feel it serves a similair role but drawing a card in the lategame is better.
What do you think about taking out see beyond and instead running Cathartic Reunion in combination with one burial rites as emperion #9 and being a bring to light target? It also pitches mana dorks and lands after having enough already.
I tried Maelstrom Pulse before, but supporting the black splash got too painful. Sadly, if I wanted one slot for the Bring to Light anti-noncreature target and I couldn't pick Pridemage, I'm stuck with Angelic Purge, which is no friend of a curve that needs to hit 8 mana late-game.
I think trying Explore is fine, especially if you have no black cards (OK, maybe not since you're running Pulse) and no 5-cmc cards in your 75 besides Bring to Light. However, I've already Bring to Light once for Bolt, so I don't want to ditch it.
I'm not a fan of Cathartic Reunion in any deck not named Dredge because getting it countered feels awful, and I often can only think of one card to discard, not two. Dredge can only afford it because they want to discard their entire hand.
I'm also not prone to trying Tormented Voice here because I'd rather stuff Emperion directly into the deck. Discarding Emperion forces me to jump through one more hoop to stick the third Emperion all game, whether it's the 5-cmc Unburial Rites or it's returning it to hand, then possibly tucking it.
Clique and See Beyond are excellent ideas, well done on those!
Do you ever struggle with wanting to crack fetchland after landing an Emperion? I`m thinking mostly about playing a Madcap for the first Emperion, then wanting to crack a fetch (maybe a freshly drawn one) to play Bring to Light for the second one.
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Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Clique and See Beyond are excellent ideas, well done on those!
Do you ever struggle with wanting to crack fetchland after landing an Emperion? I`m thinking mostly about playing a Madcap for the first Emperion, then wanting to crack a fetch (maybe a freshly drawn one) to play Bring to Light for the second one.
I've drawn fetches after the first stuck Emperion so many times that I'm considering dropping one for another land. I See Beyond fetches at that point to get them out of my hand, but that doesn't hand me my eighth mana source (for Emperion #2) fast enough. Thing is, I'm fetching for basics less often than I initially thought, so I know I need the colour fixing.
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I've previously said that Platinum Emperion is removal-weak against surprisingly many decks (yes, some builds of Ad Nauseam and Bogles can boot one, and Dredge generally kills one with an 8-card Conflagrate more than half the time in my testing, even against decks with counterspells). One Platinum Emperion can't hold off aggro or combo forever...but two often can.
With that in mind, I built a deck with 4 Madcap Experiment and 4 Bring to Light to maximize the chance of slamming down 2 Emperions at once:
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Flooded Grove
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Lumbering Falls
1 Gavony Township
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Platinum Emperion
3 Vendilion Clique
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Eternal Witness
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Whirler Rogue
1 Qasali Pridemage
Spells
4 Madcap Experiment
4 Bring to Light
2 See Beyond
2 Path to Exile
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Fiery Justice
1 Slaughter Games
1 Shatterstorm
1 Nature's Claim
1 Stony Silence
1 Negate
To increase the chances of slamming down 2 Emperions at once, there are 3 Platinum Emperions in the deck. This is partially in case one of them is stranded in hand, although I have both hardcast Emperions in hand in some games and cheated out 3 Emperions in a single game multiple times. Some days, I want a fourth Emperion in the deck.
The 3 V. Clique and 2 See Beyond are to stuff all Emperions I inevitably draw back into the deck. There are 5 of them because the chance I draw one of my 3 Emperions is very real. I've generally had good results with See Beyond in other decks with dead cards to cheat out (Ad Nauseam, Nahiri decks, etc.). Of course, V. Clique is also a beater that disrupts opposing hands, and it's great against combo, especially on Turn 2.
There are 24 lands and 10 mana dorks to increase the chance of Turn 3 Madcap Experiment and Bring to Light. Sylvan Caryatid is the last mana dork to support black sideboard cards.
Eternal Witness gets back anything I want. A fringe way to cheat in Emperion for the fourth time is to E. Wit. a dead Emperion back to hand, then stuff it back into my library with See Beyond or V. Clique, then Madcap it back out. This is why the second E. Wit. is in the deck.
Whirler Rogue is an anti-midrange target and surprisingly good support guy. It not only makes Emperion unblockable (I hit pretty nasty board stalls against Affinity with earlier builds because Cranial Plating makes blockers beefy enough to trade with Emperion and makes Vault Skirge Lifelink hard enough to soak up Emperion alpha strikes), it also blocks pretty well. It's easier to cast than Pia and Kiran Nalaar in this deck.
Glen Elendra Archmage is the Bring to Light target that protects Emperion (because this deck can't play Spellskite) and hoses combo. Get her our and Ad Nauseam can't even win with Laboratory Maniac unless it finds Boseiju, Who Shelters All to force Ad Nauseam through.
Qasali Pridemage is the maindeck way to Bring to Light for a way to blow up artifacts or enchantments.
Scavenging Ooze is mainly a pre-boarded hate bear, although it also gains life and gets fat.
There are more PtE's than Bolts maindeck because Kiki Chord also tends to run PtE over Bolt. However, singleton Bolt is a nifty Bring to Light target when opponents are at 3 life or less.
Gavony Township is a remote Plan C, although its synergy with Glen Elendra Archmage is hilariously good.
The sideboard is in flux, and Loaming Shaman may be too cute despite being able to shuffle all dead Emperions back into the deck and being able to one-shot Dredge's graveyard.
I've found that this deck can go toe-to-toe with a lot of other decks in Modern, and I think it can rise up the tiers! What do you think?
Given the number of times late-game Botanical Sanctum has delayed hardcasting Emperion by one turn, yes, Emperion in hand really is that bad. Emperion in my opening hand is the worst. This deck can and has hardcast Emperion, but that's a late-game play, generally only done after I cheat out at least one Emperion (who doesn't necessarily survive).
Against decks like Merfolk, I need to stick 2 Emperions at all costs. I prefer cheating them out to hardcasting them because cheating them out is faster and costs less. Cheating them out faster allows me to turn the corner and close out the game faster instead of hiding behind Emperions who are too chicken to swing into blockers and Harbinger of the Tides. Cheating them out costing less is great whenever I need to stick 2 Emperions because Emperion prevents me from cracking fetchlands.
I haven't tried out the narrow counterspells, as I can't guarantee that I get Emperion in a timely fashion. In matchups like Infect, I often don't even want to cheat out Emperion when I have better things to Bring to Light for.
I tried Maelstrom Pulse before, but supporting the black splash got too painful. Sadly, if I wanted one slot for the Bring to Light anti-noncreature target and I couldn't pick Pridemage, I'm stuck with Angelic Purge, which is no friend of a curve that needs to hit 8 mana late-game.
I think trying Explore is fine, especially if you have no black cards (OK, maybe not since you're running Pulse) and no 5-cmc cards in your 75 besides Bring to Light. However, I've already Bring to Light once for Bolt, so I don't want to ditch it.
I'm not a fan of Cathartic Reunion in any deck not named Dredge because getting it countered feels awful, and I often can only think of one card to discard, not two. Dredge can only afford it because they want to discard their entire hand.
I'm also not prone to trying Tormented Voice here because I'd rather stuff Emperion directly into the deck. Discarding Emperion forces me to jump through one more hoop to stick the third Emperion all game, whether it's the 5-cmc Unburial Rites or it's returning it to hand, then possibly tucking it.
Do you ever struggle with wanting to crack fetchland after landing an Emperion? I`m thinking mostly about playing a Madcap for the first Emperion, then wanting to crack a fetch (maybe a freshly drawn one) to play Bring to Light for the second one.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
I've drawn fetches after the first stuck Emperion so many times that I'm considering dropping one for another land. I See Beyond fetches at that point to get them out of my hand, but that doesn't hand me my eighth mana source (for Emperion #2) fast enough. Thing is, I'm fetching for basics less often than I initially thought, so I know I need the colour fixing.