I've toyed with Brain in a Jar before, and its biggest problems are its 1+-turn delay in cheating out 2-cmc spells such as Beck // Call and Breaking // Entering and its unerring tendency to get blown up by artifact removal in that period of time. Well, let's see how well cheating out spells like that does when I don't need to cast 2-cmc artifacts that get hosed by Stony Silence in order to do so. Let's get some cheap Expertises together with cards like that to wreak havoc!
Here's what I've been toying with lately on Cockatrice (against myself):
You can chain 3+-card draw spells fairly easily with this deck. You also draw (and discard) a lot of lands in the process. You get to win with 1/1's a bunch of the time. You need Celestial Colonnade to close out some other games. Tiago flashing back an Expertise to cheat out yet another draw spell feels so good. Kari Zev's Expertise isn't so hot against creature-light decks in the early turns, though.
Kari Zev's Expertise is your cheapest enabler, but unlike Sram's Expertise, it targets creatures, so it's fairly easy to hose. It's particularly painful when you target your own Tiago (for example) with it against a creature-light deck and they kill him in response. It turns into a 3-mana removal spell the moment Affinity gets out Arcbound Ravager unless you target your own (Galvanic Blast-vulnerable) creatures instead. Infect laughs particularly hard whenever you target their stuff with it and casts Blossoming Defense. Heck, even if you target your own guys, they may Vines of Vastwood them and counter your Expertise! At least you get to see your opponents burn up their removal cards and kill their own guys in response against other decks (some of the time, at least).
I've found that this is the deck where I make Tiago flash back nothing (on Turn 2) or Serum Visions the most often by a fairly wide margin so far. Enabling Kari Zev's Expertise fast is that good.
The sideboard is provisional and could contain stuff like more graveyard hate, Elspeth, Sun's Champion (imagine her +1 with Beck // Call--she's also good at smoking Eldrazi), more anti-aggro...Goblin Dark-Dwellers is good at cheating out Ancestral Vision and Call from the graveyard, though.
Board out at least some combo cards against real combo decks--you'll be stuck holding up counterspells for a long time against them. Ditch Beck // Call first, though, as you need some Expertises to blow up all lands with Boom // Bust.
Game 1, this build has problems against Dredge, Ad Nauseam, and probably several other decks, but you do get to out-grind Bant Eldrazi, win against Tron with a midrange deck more often for once, out-grind B/X Midrange often enough, and probably juke Affinity at least every so often.
There's probably a Yahenni's Expertise-abusing deck out there somewhere, so why don't you post your ideas below?
Only having one basic plains is a good way to get owned by Blood Moon, by the by.
This deck has 4 fetches for the basic Plains, regular UWR decks like Jeskai Nahiri and Geist of Saint Win have similar mana bases, and in Game 2, there's Kari Zev's Expertise into Wear // Tear. Supporting all those Expertises and Vendilion Clique makes my mana base pretty greedy, though.
#I like this idea though running Yahenni's Expertise instead of Sram's Expertise seems like a better idea as the deck doesn't have removal anyway.
It is also the only White card in the deck (Beck // Call is never going to be hardcast) so Black can replace White completely.
#Noble Hierarch isn't particulary necessary since it doesn't help with color fixing (especially without Sram's Expertise) and the "Exalted" ability isn't too relevant with giant fatties so it can be replaced with any other mana dork (it's a pity there are no other options that tap for Red besides Birds) like Elves of Deep Shadow that taps for Black (seems better here than a regular mana elf that taps for green).
#Griselbrand is very good but as quicker finisher which is tougher to remove I would rather use Blightsteel Colossus (it is also much cheaper on Modo).
Can Blightsteel Colossus even be reanimated by Breaking // Entering? Its shuffle clause is a replacement effect rather than a trigger ability like the Eldrazi Titans so I believe it would instantly be shuffled back into your deck before you could move on to resolving the rest of the card and reanimating it. Does anyone know for sure?
I'll probably go pure Reanimator style if I were to play Expertise. As well as put in numerous of control elements. And Breaking // Entering can actually be used if drawn to mill myself to hopefully get some targets in the grave yard.
So this gives me 7 reanimation targets, 8 ways to reanimate something, about 12 ways to mill myself and discard and some counter magic. Don't know if this is the right way to go about things, but it's a start.
I haven't played mtg in 8 months so i flubbed a few times
Match 1. Burn.
Game 1: I get lucky as he keeps a 1 lander with a 2 goblin guides and a swift spear. But I get a T3 Madcap experiment to get plat emperion. Stalls me long enough to get srams expertise into beck call. He concedes.
Game 2: I play turn 1 visions. Drawing simian, showing a Kari Zev and an Emrakul with my scry and I have breaking/Entering in hand. Easy money.
1-0
Match 2. Death Shadow
Not a fan of the MU.
game 1: I live long enough to get turn 4 madcap experiment. I don't think he had any main board way to kill it so he concedes.
game 2/3: his hand hate blows me out as I mull to 6 both games and never seeing a leyline. Afterwards, I realized I only put in 3 leylines and not 4.
1-1
Game 3. Infect
least favorite mu. makes me consider adding izzet charms
game 1: I only play 2 scry lands (U/W temples) and kills me on his turn 3. (He thinks i'm on ad nauseum)
game 2: He goes turn 1 noble so I'm not instantly dead. I get a t3 kari zev with Beck call. I continue to chain beck/calls with Srams expertise or kari zevs.
He concedes due to his mis sideboarding (I assume he took out distortion strikes for things like Dispel as he told me after the match he had a dispel in hand
Game 3: turn 1 G-Elf. I found a silence with my Turn 1 serum visions but I misplayed and didn't play a white source. (sequencing probs.
1:2
Game 4. coco combo with melira, finks, and friends
Game 1: turn 3 Griselbrand that I knew I'd get (discarded him turn 1 with a faithless looting) he never draws an answer.
Game 2: He sides in tide hallows and I forgot those were a thing. Oops. Madcap'd plat emperion dies to a pridemage. I scoop
Game 3: I get a open hand leyline. Hand is protected. Turn 4 Srams expertise into breaking gets me an Ulamog (my last emrakul didn't come in the mail)
He sacs things but doesn't concede. hoped to YUGIOOOOOOH into a PtE. Doesn't.
2-2
I feel like Srams is better than Yahenni's in all honesty. Yahenni's is a dumb nonbo with Beck/call. The tokens are mostly just to stall into getting a reanimator combo going. Or to overwhelm them with birds while the sram tokens fight the good fight and die to protect us. things that Yahenni's kill don't have trample anyway soooo who cares? Sure the spirit tokens can be annoying but they've been an acceptable loss.
NOTE: I talked to infect guy. He said if I had silenced him on his upkeep like I had intended, It would've bought me a turn while I had Red expertise and beck in hand. Feels bad but lesson learned: S E Q U E N C I N G
Here's what I've been toying with lately on Cockatrice (against myself):
3 Celestial Colonnade
1 Wandering Fumarole
2 Spirebluff Canal
1 Seachrome Coast
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Steam Vents
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
Spells
4 Kari Zev's Expertise
4 Sram's Expertise
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Beck // Call
2 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
1 Lightning Helix
1 Path to Exile
1 Negate
1 Shatterstorm
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Boom // Bust
2 Wear // Tear
1 Spell Queller
2 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
You can chain 3+-card draw spells fairly easily with this deck. You also draw (and discard) a lot of lands in the process. You get to win with 1/1's a bunch of the time. You need Celestial Colonnade to close out some other games. Tiago flashing back an Expertise to cheat out yet another draw spell feels so good. Kari Zev's Expertise isn't so hot against creature-light decks in the early turns, though.
Kari Zev's Expertise is your cheapest enabler, but unlike Sram's Expertise, it targets creatures, so it's fairly easy to hose. It's particularly painful when you target your own Tiago (for example) with it against a creature-light deck and they kill him in response. It turns into a 3-mana removal spell the moment Affinity gets out Arcbound Ravager unless you target your own (Galvanic Blast-vulnerable) creatures instead. Infect laughs particularly hard whenever you target their stuff with it and casts Blossoming Defense. Heck, even if you target your own guys, they may Vines of Vastwood them and counter your Expertise! At least you get to see your opponents burn up their removal cards and kill their own guys in response against other decks (some of the time, at least).
I've found that this is the deck where I make Tiago flash back nothing (on Turn 2) or Serum Visions the most often by a fairly wide margin so far. Enabling Kari Zev's Expertise fast is that good.
The sideboard is provisional and could contain stuff like more graveyard hate, Elspeth, Sun's Champion (imagine her +1 with Beck // Call--she's also good at smoking Eldrazi), more anti-aggro...Goblin Dark-Dwellers is good at cheating out Ancestral Vision and Call from the graveyard, though.
Board out at least some combo cards against real combo decks--you'll be stuck holding up counterspells for a long time against them. Ditch Beck // Call first, though, as you need some Expertises to blow up all lands with Boom // Bust.
Game 1, this build has problems against Dredge, Ad Nauseam, and probably several other decks, but you do get to out-grind Bant Eldrazi, win against Tron with a midrange deck more often for once, out-grind B/X Midrange often enough, and probably juke Affinity at least every so often.
There's probably a Yahenni's Expertise-abusing deck out there somewhere, so why don't you post your ideas below?
This deck has 4 fetches for the basic Plains, regular UWR decks like Jeskai Nahiri and Geist of Saint Win have similar mana bases, and in Game 2, there's Kari Zev's Expertise into Wear // Tear. Supporting all those Expertises and Vendilion Clique makes my mana base pretty greedy, though.
Thing in the Ice (or Young Pyromancer/Monastery Mentor) also seems good here to take advantage of all the cheap spells and chaining spells together.
Cryptic Command is always a good option (especially with Brain) in a deck like this (or Ojutai's Command to recycle Snapcaster Mage/Thing in the Ice/Young Pyromancer).
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/comboing-and-brewing-with-aether-revolt
It replaces Through the Breach with Brain in a Jar to lean heavier on the fuse spells and adds the fetchable Dryad Arbor for more targets for Kari Zev's Expertise and a fetchable answer to an edict effect like LotV.
#I like this idea though running Yahenni's Expertise instead of Sram's Expertise seems like a better idea as the deck doesn't have removal anyway.
It is also the only White card in the deck (Beck // Call is never going to be hardcast) so Black can replace White completely.
#Noble Hierarch isn't particulary necessary since it doesn't help with color fixing (especially without Sram's Expertise) and the "Exalted" ability isn't too relevant with giant fatties so it can be replaced with any other mana dork (it's a pity there are no other options that tap for Red besides Birds) like Elves of Deep Shadow that taps for Black (seems better here than a regular mana elf that taps for green).
#Griselbrand is very good but as quicker finisher which is tougher to remove I would rather use Blightsteel Colossus (it is also much cheaper on Modo).
Here is my tweaked version:
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Elves of Deep Shadow
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Simian Spirit Guide
3x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
2x Blightsteel Colossus
4x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4x Brain in a Jar
Sorcery (16)
4x Beck // Call
4x Breaking // Entering
4x Kari Zev's Expertise
4x Yahenni's Expertise
Land (19)
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Blood Crypt
1x Overgrown Tomb
2x Stomping Ground
1x Forest
1x Swamp
1x Mountain
1x Gemstone Caverns
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
In that case what is the most degenerate reanimation target ?
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Iona, Shield of Emeria, Terastodon, Emrakul, the Promised End, Worldspine Wurm, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth ?
4 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
2 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
2 Plains
2 Island
2 Swamp
4 Griselbrand
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
4 Serum Visions
4 Stubborn Denial
4 Fatal Push
4 Collective Brutality
4 Thought Scour
4 Zombify
4 Breaking // Entering
4 Yahenni's Expertise
1 Unburial Rites
2 Baral's Expertise
So this gives me 7 reanimation targets, 8 ways to reanimate something, about 12 ways to mill myself and discard and some counter magic. Don't know if this is the right way to go about things, but it's a start.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
Spirits
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/fusion-experts/
I haven't played mtg in 8 months so i flubbed a few times
Match 1. Burn.
Game 1: I get lucky as he keeps a 1 lander with a 2 goblin guides and a swift spear. But I get a T3 Madcap experiment to get plat emperion. Stalls me long enough to get srams expertise into beck call. He concedes.
Game 2: I play turn 1 visions. Drawing simian, showing a Kari Zev and an Emrakul with my scry and I have breaking/Entering in hand. Easy money.
1-0
Match 2. Death Shadow
Not a fan of the MU.
game 1: I live long enough to get turn 4 madcap experiment. I don't think he had any main board way to kill it so he concedes.
game 2/3: his hand hate blows me out as I mull to 6 both games and never seeing a leyline. Afterwards, I realized I only put in 3 leylines and not 4.
1-1
Game 3. Infect
least favorite mu. makes me consider adding izzet charms
game 1: I only play 2 scry lands (U/W temples) and kills me on his turn 3. (He thinks i'm on ad nauseum)
game 2: He goes turn 1 noble so I'm not instantly dead. I get a t3 kari zev with Beck call. I continue to chain beck/calls with Srams expertise or kari zevs.
He concedes due to his mis sideboarding (I assume he took out distortion strikes for things like Dispel as he told me after the match he had a dispel in hand
Game 3: turn 1 G-Elf. I found a silence with my Turn 1 serum visions but I misplayed and didn't play a white source. (sequencing probs.
1:2
Game 4. coco combo with melira, finks, and friends
Game 1: turn 3 Griselbrand that I knew I'd get (discarded him turn 1 with a faithless looting) he never draws an answer.
Game 2: He sides in tide hallows and I forgot those were a thing. Oops. Madcap'd plat emperion dies to a pridemage. I scoop
Game 3: I get a open hand leyline. Hand is protected. Turn 4 Srams expertise into breaking gets me an Ulamog (my last emrakul didn't come in the mail)
He sacs things but doesn't concede. hoped to YUGIOOOOOOH into a PtE. Doesn't.
2-2
I feel like Srams is better than Yahenni's in all honesty. Yahenni's is a dumb nonbo with Beck/call. The tokens are mostly just to stall into getting a reanimator combo going. Or to overwhelm them with birds while the sram tokens fight the good fight and die to protect us. things that Yahenni's kill don't have trample anyway soooo who cares? Sure the spirit tokens can be annoying but they've been an acceptable loss.
NOTE: I talked to infect guy. He said if I had silenced him on his upkeep like I had intended, It would've bought me a turn while I had Red expertise and beck in hand. Feels bad but lesson learned: S E Q U E N C I N G