Fusion Expertise!! An unholy combo deck that is likely to be simultaneously the best tokens deck and the best reanimator deck in Modern. Fusion Expertise isn't exactly a wholly unique idea, I must credit both PVD and Saffron Olive's articles as the origin of the deck idea. Certainly there is much to test but as of now I'm trying to make the combo as reliable as possible without really dipping into disruption outside of the sideboard. Here's the list.
Breaking // Entering is our primary wincon, with the rest of the deck set up to give you a solid statistical chance of hitting a Griselbrand, Emrakul, The Aeons Torn, or an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre off of breaking and reanimating it with Entering permanently with the addition of haste. Hitting an Emrakul is immediate game over, Ulamog does a decent Emrakul impression, and Griselbrand lets you draw an ungodly amount of cards for your trouble to set up another go at Breaking // Entering if it gets pathed. Beck // Call is less of an instant win card but it's honestly closer than you'd think as the sheer value of getting 4 1/1 flyers and drawing 4 is difficult for any other deck in modern to match, not to mention it's just inevitably drawing you closer to setting up a winning Breaking // Entering.
The rest of the deck is ramp and Kari Zev's Expertise targets in Birds of Paradise, Sylvan Caryatid, Dryad Arbor, and Forbidden Orchard. Then a playset of Faithless Looting to grease the wheels and bin your Griselbrands should you draw them. Please note that binning your Eldrazi Monsters with faithless looting WILL CAUSE THEM TO BE SHUFFLED BACK INTO YOUR DECK. They cannot sit in your bin for an easy entering later like Griselbrand can, they MUST be hit in the 8 cards your mill with breaking. This is something you might want to do to get eldrazi stranded in your hand back into your library to increase your chances of a Breaking // Entering hit. But keep in mind, it shuffles your whole graveyard back in, so any Faithless Looting that you haven't flashed back will be gone.
Defense Grid, Leyline of Sanctity, and Nature's Claim are all here to make sure your opponent can't mess with your combo with things like counterspells, discard spells, and little enchantments called Rest in Peace. Blood Moon is here just to gunk up the opponents works when you transform in game 2 and 3 into a more relentless but slower combo deck.
Important Sad Information
With the printing of Aftermath cards in Amonkhet the rules regarding the cmc's of split cards have changed, making the entire interaction between Brain in the Jar/The Expertise Cards + split cards now invalid. Here's the article.
While you're on a similar list to my own seems like most of the posts are going in more varied directions. I'm specifically trying to get discussion started on this combo version.
3. Faithless Looting seems unnecessary in this deck since Breaking // Entering deosn't need setting up and discarding "Eldrazi Titans" (or Worldspine.W) doesn't do anything. Simian Spirit Guide as an additional acceleration piece seems better for this deck (like it is used in "Goryo's Vengeance" decks).
1. Yahenni's Expertise on the face of it might seem like the better card for us to use, as wiping away creatures attacking us seems good for stablization, but in testing in general I felt underwhelmed by the -3/-3. it wasn't hitting enough stuff and was especially bad at delaying Bant Eldrazi's fast starts as well as tarmogoyf decks, in which I'd honestly just rather have 3 chump blockers in addition to my beck call flyers than -3/-3 killing nothing except potential beck call birds of my own left over from my previous beck calls. Even against the decks that -3/-3 was good against, 3 chump blockers was generally as effective or only slightly less so in delaying them. Then consider that Beck calling off of a Sram's expertise leaves you with over 7 power on the board spread across 7 different bodies, 4 of which is flying. That is very nearly a win con against many midrange decks in modern without even having to make it to breaking entering.
2. As discussed on the other threat, I'm not totally sure Blightsteel Colossus works with Breaking Entering do to it's replacement effect
3. Faithless Looting is less for set up (though it does set up your griselbrands) and more for card filtering in general. It's just hard to make sure you're going to have everything you need all the time without having to draw a few extra cards in a combo deck. I thought SSG was a little excessive when I tested him in the original decklist as I often found our mana dorks working out perfectly by themselves to get us to our combos a turn earlier.
4. Forbidden Orchard actually seems awesome and I hadn't considered it before thank you for the suggestion! Having 2 in the manabase with a Dryad Arbor is really going to make sure that we always have our Kari Zav targets.
Something to consider though, just had another brewer suggest Defense Grid for the sideboard against blue decks and honestly it seems so much better than what I have at the moment.
After checking the rules, Blightsteel Colossus indeed doesn't work with reanimation spells.
I'm going to replace it with Worldspine Wurm which seems like one of the stronger non-eldrazi finishers.
Faithless Looting really does not belong here unless we have more than 4 candidates to send to the graveyard; card disadvantage for a combo deck is extremely detrimental to consistency. Through the Breach is 100 times better here because it solves an important issue with the deck: having a fat creature in hand (which is a very common situation when you have 9 in your deck) that would otherwise go to waste.
Faithless Looting utilizes the 4 Griselbrands, but you are still stuck with the reality that your Emrakuls and Ulamogs are dead draws. Not to mention there are few (if any) situations where you would want to Looting over casting a mana dork on Turn 1.
Faithless Looting really does not belong here unless we have more than 4 candidates to send to the graveyard; card disadvantage for a combo deck is extremely detrimental to consistency. Through the Breach is 100 times better here because it solves an important issue with the deck: having a fat creature in hand (which is a very common situation when you have 9 in your deck) that would otherwise go to waste.
Faithless Looting utilizes the 4 Griselbrands, but you are still stuck with the reality that your Emrakuls and Ulamogs are dead draws. Not to mention there are few (if any) situations where you would want to Looting over casting a mana dork on Turn 1.
Agreed. If you intend to run looting then you are much better going for Elesh Norn and Iona.
Why not run those and a small gifts package as backup?
I think that this deck is more of an all-in "Reanimator" deck deck (like "Goryo's Vengeance") and Gifts would be too slow here (and off-color).
Elesh Norn or Iona can be SB options though.
It's not really card disadvantage since the Eldrazi/Griselbrands are dead draws anyway. Also shuffling back Eldrazi isn't that bad since it increases your chance of being able to hit an Emrakul with Breaking//Entering. I've tested the deck quite a few games and often after a counter or discard you are too much in topdeck mode. In those situations Faithless Looting can save you 2-4 turns.
My point is that even in this situation, Through the Breach/Brain in a Jar is a much, much better topdeck. Since counters and discard will typically target enablers, we should still have fuse cards and fatties in our hand. I would definitely rather topdeck a game-winning solution than a card that can draw into a game-winning solution.
And if you are going with Looting for kind of consistency, why not play Goryo's Vengeance instead of Brain in a Jar?
It is still a lot faster, has synergy with the rest of the deck, and still can swing a game or fuel you to win.
Also, why do we use Dorks, shouldn't Dryad Arbor and Forbidden Orchard be enought to have targets? We could use a few catrips for consistency and less mulligans.
Goryo's Vengeance (on it's own) does nothing with the Eldrazi while "Brain" casts the "fuse" spells and can also cast the "expertise" spells at a cheaper cost once charged.
Mana dorks just accelerate the whole process to get ahead of disruption and close the game quickly, they are not there just to be targets for Kari Zev's Expertise (which is also useful).
Once again, faithless looting isn't there to bin emrakul, it's there for card filtering and binning griselbrand. I have no idea why people are so relentlessly focused at calling down my deck for being similar to others. I don't want or need deck building brownie points for using bad but unique cards, I want to play the best deck possible and there are only so many cards in magic. Similarities between lists at higher tier competitive play is inevitable because of this.
After goldfishing extensively with the Saffron Olive / PV list, I found that casting Breaking // Entering was far and away the most powerful thing the deck could do. While occasionally explosive, Beck // Call mostly drew into fatties, mana dorks, and fuse cards and did not provide the necessary cards to combo again. The lack of deck manipulation also made it difficult to assemble the combo in a reasonable time frame and Breaking // Entering and Beck // Call often did nothing on their own. In an attempt to remedy some of these problems, I came up with a variant on Grixis Goryo's Vengeance:
Because the deck isn't running mana dorks or Dryad Arbor, it uses Forbidden Orchard to insure that there is a creature on board for Kari Zev's Expertise. The tokens that Orchard produces can become annoying, especially if we have to tap Orchard for mana before the combo turn, but Yahenni's Expertise cleans them up.
The Breaking side of Breaking // Entering can be used to set up Goryo's Vengeance, although it's best to wait until you have the mana to cast both Breaking and Goryo's in case you hit an Emrakul.
Pact of Negation is a hedge against control decks, but I could see swapping them out for something in the sideboard depending on your meta. Thoughtseize might actually be a better choice because it can be used to bin our own fatties.
At the moment, I'm running Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur as the ninth creature since it acts like a fifth Griselbrand, but I'm considering other options such as Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Narset, Enlightened Master. I originally ran Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre but found that he was a weak Goryo's Vengeance target. Annihilating four permanents and maybe dealing 10 damage was not enough to justify the resources expended on Goryo's Vengeance. As it stands, Griselbrand is usually a better Goryo's Vengeance target than Emrakul anyway because it draws you 7-14 cards and allows you to either combo again the next turn or set a up a second Goryo's Vengeance or Breaking // Entering on the spot. Emrakul is at its best as a Goryo's Vengeance target when your opponent is at 15 or less life or you can annihilate most of their board, giving your self plenty of time to reassemble the combo.
The sideboard is fairly tentative right now until I figure out exactly what the deck's weaknesses are.
So far the deck has preformed very well in testing. It can go off by turn 3 regularly and has the potential for a turn one combo (Forbidden Orchard, Kari Zev's Expertise, 2 SSG, Breaking // Entering). I welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvement.
Why not play Glittering Wish and wish out the fuse cards instead? Play it with Bant Colors.
That eliminates the dead draws of Beck // Call and instead open up a tool box of 15 cards to use at your disposal. You honestly only probably need to Beck // Call once or twice before you lose. I'll probably go with Bant Company's manabase and creatures, then dump away CoCo, some creatures (add in more counters/removal like Declaration in Stone, and toss in 4 Brain in a Jar and 4 Glittering Wish. It may be less explosive, but there's more things to do now.
Now I have a nice control deck with alternate win beat down plans. Something like this.
^^
This is a completely different deck.
I also don't like Glittering Wish at all as it is clunky and slow
(I haven't seen a competitive deck using it in recent years).
The whole point of the build discussed in this thread is to cheat out huge game-ending fatties early by "fusing" Breaking // Entering with Brain in a Jar or the "Expertise" cards accelerated by mana dorks (and SSG).
As a value/backup/refuell plan there is Beck // Call which is obviously very good when "fused".
If you have a bunch of tokens you are doing pretty well anyway (and I also preder to go with Black for Yahenni's Expertise over White for Sram's Expertise).
^^
This is a completely different deck.
I also don't like Glittering Wish at all as it is clunky and slow
(I haven't seen a competitive deck using it in recent years).
The whole point of the build discussed in this thread is to cheat out huge game-ending fatties early by "fusing" Breaking // Entering with Brain in a Jar or the "Expertise" cards accelerated by mana dorks (and SSG).
As a value/backup/refuell plan there is Beck // Call which is obviously very good when "fused".
Completely agree. This deck needs to be focused on its main gameplan to be competitive. In such a fast format we just want to fuse as fast as possible and avoid any clunky or slow card.
Wincon is super powerful and fast, but the real problem is -as with any deck playing tons of super expensive fatties- awful hands. I'm even considering Faithless Looting as we already play red, despite nonbo with graveyard shuffle I'd rather wash away some eldrazi and dig.
LAND CHOICE
Halimar Depths is amazingly helpful along with the 8 fetchlands. Being able to T1 (almost) scry 3, then fetch the next turn after seeing stuff you don't like is huge. Fetches thin the deck so you draw less junk. No shocks because pain is bad (though I kinda contradict myself in the spell section). Feel free to contest me on the lands bit.
CREATURE CHOICE
It That Betrays I think is important in cases where the combo goes off a turn late, but you should be trying to go off turn 2 or three. It is possible to go off turn 1 if you have ~*the nut*~. It That Betrays and Pathrazer both have annihilator, so getting them out early could autolock someone out of the game. It probably wouldn't even be bad to go 4 pathrazer 2 It That Betrays or vice-versa. Kozilek is there, again, for later game if you need to refuel to possibly combo again.
SPELL CHOICE
One Wheel of Fate is included to blast out with an expertise (though it wont work with brain) to stock up the hand, but this is very experimental.
Maybe replace WoF with a third Spoils of the Vault, which is included to get the other half of our combo for one mana! You should be blowing all their stuff up anyways when you go off, so the life loss shouldn't hurt too much.
Manamorphose is there because free cantrips are good, I hear. Gitaxian Probe would have made this deck much more fun before it got banned, RIP.
Desperate Ritual is terribly undervalued in this strategy. The ability to cavern or spirit into a ritual, into an expertise is wombocombo goodness, and it helps use multiple draw spells at once.
Brain in a Jar is kind of clunky, but it's easy to crank out turn one and start charging to play Breaking turn 3. Before, I tried Yahenni's Expertise but THAT was too clunky.
The goal of the deck is to end the game before it begins. I've been able to fairly consistently crank out Big Dumb Dudes turn 2 and 3, sometimes 4, but I can tell it needs tweaking for consistency.
The way I see it, if you are running TTB and Emrakul, why not just run traditional BR Goryo's? Why dilute that already-proven archetype with this Jank combo?
That being said, the combo isn't entirely jank. It definitely has some build-around potential but I think I'd try more of a token theme with Elesh Norn as my finisher.
The sideboard would likely consist of different threats to board in for different matches. This current MD obviously caters to aggro meta games.
1 Brain in a Jar
Creature 17
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Griselbrand
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Simian Spirit Guide
Land 20
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Forbidden Orchard
4 Windswept Heath
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Kari Zev's Expertise
4 Sram's Expertise
4 Breaking // Entering
4 Beck // Call
4 Faithless Looting
2 Blood Moon
3 Defense Grid
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Nature's Claim
3 Ravenous Trap
The basic idea is to create a deck that uses the interaction between Kari Zev's Expertise, Sram's Expertise, Brain in a Jar, and Breaking // Entering, and Beck // Call to cast both sides of these powerful fuse cards for only the cost of the expertise spell or the brain in the jar activation.
Breaking // Entering is our primary wincon, with the rest of the deck set up to give you a solid statistical chance of hitting a Griselbrand, Emrakul, The Aeons Torn, or an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre off of breaking and reanimating it with Entering permanently with the addition of haste. Hitting an Emrakul is immediate game over, Ulamog does a decent Emrakul impression, and Griselbrand lets you draw an ungodly amount of cards for your trouble to set up another go at Breaking // Entering if it gets pathed. Beck // Call is less of an instant win card but it's honestly closer than you'd think as the sheer value of getting 4 1/1 flyers and drawing 4 is difficult for any other deck in modern to match, not to mention it's just inevitably drawing you closer to setting up a winning Breaking // Entering.
The rest of the deck is ramp and Kari Zev's Expertise targets in Birds of Paradise, Sylvan Caryatid, Dryad Arbor, and Forbidden Orchard. Then a playset of Faithless Looting to grease the wheels and bin your Griselbrands should you draw them. Please note that binning your Eldrazi Monsters with faithless looting WILL CAUSE THEM TO BE SHUFFLED BACK INTO YOUR DECK. They cannot sit in your bin for an easy entering later like Griselbrand can, they MUST be hit in the 8 cards your mill with breaking. This is something you might want to do to get eldrazi stranded in your hand back into your library to increase your chances of a Breaking // Entering hit. But keep in mind, it shuffles your whole graveyard back in, so any Faithless Looting that you haven't flashed back will be gone.
Defense Grid, Leyline of Sanctity, and Nature's Claim are all here to make sure your opponent can't mess with your combo with things like counterspells, discard spells, and little enchantments called Rest in Peace. Blood Moon is here just to gunk up the opponents works when you transform in game 2 and 3 into a more relentless but slower combo deck.
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
Having a removal spell seems more generally usefull than making tokens (which you already can do with Beck // Call) imho.
2. What about Worldspine Wurm (or Emrakul, the Promised End) as one of the win-cons ?
It doesn't help draw cards like Griselbrand but can finish games quicker and is less susceptible to removal.
3. Faithless Looting seems unnecessary in this deck since Breaking // Entering deosn't need setting up and discarding "Eldrazi Titans" (or Worldspine.W) doesn't do anything.
Simian Spirit Guide as an additional acceleration piece seems better for this deck (like it is used in "Goryo's Vengeance" decks).
4. Forbidden Orchard might be a good option for color-fixing and always having a target for Kari Zev's Expertise.
For reference here is my proposed list:
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Elves of Deep Shadow
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Simian Spirit Guide
3x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
2x Worldspine Wurm
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
2. As discussed on the other threat, I'm not totally sure Blightsteel Colossus works with Breaking Entering do to it's replacement effect
3. Faithless Looting is less for set up (though it does set up your griselbrands) and more for card filtering in general. It's just hard to make sure you're going to have everything you need all the time without having to draw a few extra cards in a combo deck. I thought SSG was a little excessive when I tested him in the original decklist as I often found our mana dorks working out perfectly by themselves to get us to our combos a turn earlier.
4. Forbidden Orchard actually seems awesome and I hadn't considered it before thank you for the suggestion! Having 2 in the manabase with a Dryad Arbor is really going to make sure that we always have our Kari Zav targets.
Something to consider though, just had another brewer suggest Defense Grid for the sideboard against blue decks and honestly it seems so much better than what I have at the moment.
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
I'm going to replace it with Worldspine Wurm which seems like one of the stronger non-eldrazi finishers.
Other options can be:
Iona, Shield of Emeria, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Emrakul, the Promised End, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Terastodon.
Some of them (Iona, Jin, Elesh) can be SB options for certain match-ups.
Faithless Looting utilizes the 4 Griselbrands, but you are still stuck with the reality that your Emrakuls and Ulamogs are dead draws. Not to mention there are few (if any) situations where you would want to Looting over casting a mana dork on Turn 1.
Agreed. If you intend to run looting then you are much better going for Elesh Norn and Iona.
Why not run those and a small gifts package as backup?
Elesh Norn or Iona can be SB options though.
My point is that even in this situation, Through the Breach/Brain in a Jar is a much, much better topdeck. Since counters and discard will typically target enablers, we should still have fuse cards and fatties in our hand. I would definitely rather topdeck a game-winning solution than a card that can draw into a game-winning solution.
This is PV's take on the deck:
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Windswept Heath
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Dryad Arbor
2x Sacred Foundry
1x Temple Garden
2x Stomping Grounds
1x Breeding Pool
1x Forest
1x Plains
1x Mountain
3x Noble Hierarch
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3x Griselbrand
2x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Brain in a Jar
4x Kari Zev's Expertise
4x Sram's Expertise
4x Beck // Call
4x Breaking // Entering
It is still a lot faster, has synergy with the rest of the deck, and still can swing a game or fuel you to win.
Also, why do we use Dorks, shouldn't Dryad Arbor and Forbidden Orchard be enought to have targets? We could use a few catrips for consistency and less mulligans.
Mana dorks just accelerate the whole process to get ahead of disruption and close the game quickly, they are not there just to be targets for Kari Zev's Expertise (which is also useful).
Anyway, you can not combine faithles looting with creatures that shuffel themselves in.
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
4 Griselbrand
4 Emrakul, the Aeon’s Torn
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
4 Kari Zev’s Expertise
4 Breaking // Entering
4 Goryo’s Vengeance
4 Faithless Looting
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Yahenni’s Expertise
2 Pact of Negation
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Blood Crypt
1 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
3 Ancestral Vision
3 Wear // Tear
2 Swan Song
2 Fatal Push
1 Gemstone Caverns
The deck revolves around three overlapping combos--Goryo's Vengeance + a discarded fatty, Kari Zev's Expertise / Yahenni's Expertise + Breaking // Entering, Breaking // Entering + Goryo's Vengeance--which gives us a fair amount of resiliency and flexibility. Unlike the traditional Goryo's Vengeance deck (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-goryo-s-vengeance-30582#paper), this version is more reliant on the graveyard since it doesn't run Through the Breach. But it makes up for this weakness with increased speed and power: Breaking // Entering can be cast much more quickly than Through the Breach thanks to the expertise cards and allows us to keep the creature we reanimate permanently. Breaking // Entering also allows us to dodge most non-static graveyard hate, like Surgical Extraction, Scavenging Ooze, Relic of Progenitus, etc. This means we only need to worry about Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, and Grafdigger's Cage.
Some notes on card choices:
Because the deck isn't running mana dorks or Dryad Arbor, it uses Forbidden Orchard to insure that there is a creature on board for Kari Zev's Expertise. The tokens that Orchard produces can become annoying, especially if we have to tap Orchard for mana before the combo turn, but Yahenni's Expertise cleans them up.
The Breaking side of Breaking // Entering can be used to set up Goryo's Vengeance, although it's best to wait until you have the mana to cast both Breaking and Goryo's in case you hit an Emrakul.
Pact of Negation is a hedge against control decks, but I could see swapping them out for something in the sideboard depending on your meta. Thoughtseize might actually be a better choice because it can be used to bin our own fatties.
At the moment, I'm running Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur as the ninth creature since it acts like a fifth Griselbrand, but I'm considering other options such as Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Narset, Enlightened Master. I originally ran Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre but found that he was a weak Goryo's Vengeance target. Annihilating four permanents and maybe dealing 10 damage was not enough to justify the resources expended on Goryo's Vengeance. As it stands, Griselbrand is usually a better Goryo's Vengeance target than Emrakul anyway because it draws you 7-14 cards and allows you to either combo again the next turn or set a up a second Goryo's Vengeance or Breaking // Entering on the spot. Emrakul is at its best as a Goryo's Vengeance target when your opponent is at 15 or less life or you can annihilate most of their board, giving your self plenty of time to reassemble the combo.
The sideboard is fairly tentative right now until I figure out exactly what the deck's weaknesses are.
Leyline of Sanctity protects us from discard.
Ancestral Vision is for grindy match ups where it can be suspended turn one or cast off of an expertise.
Wear // Tear allows us to economize on sideboard space because it can hit both Grafdigger's Cage and Rest in Peace / Leyline of the Void. It can also be cast off the expertise cards if necessary.
Swan Song can counter Rest in Peace and provides additional countermagic against control decks.
Fatal Push kills problematic creatures like Scavenging Ooze and Anafenza, the Foremost. I'm not sure if it's necessary though.
Gemstone Caverns lets us make up for lost tempo on the draw, but I'm not sure if it's worth a sideboard slot.
Other sideboard options I'm considering are Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Echoing Truth, Defense Grid, Silence and, more speculatively Turn // Burn[/card].
So far the deck has preformed very well in testing. It can go off by turn 3 regularly and has the potential for a turn one combo (Forbidden Orchard, Kari Zev's Expertise, 2 SSG, Breaking // Entering). I welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvement.
Goryo's Fuse Combo UBR
That eliminates the dead draws of Beck // Call and instead open up a tool box of 15 cards to use at your disposal. You honestly only probably need to Beck // Call once or twice before you lose. I'll probably go with Bant Company's manabase and creatures, then dump away CoCo, some creatures (add in more counters/removal like Declaration in Stone, and toss in 4 Brain in a Jar and 4 Glittering Wish. It may be less explosive, but there's more things to do now.
Now I have a nice control deck with alternate win beat down plans. Something like this.
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Qasali Pridemage
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Spell Queller
4 Glittering Wish
4 Brain in a Jar
4 Path to Exile
4 Declaration in Stone
4 Mana Leak
Lands (22)
1 Breeding Pool
2 Flooded Strand
3 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
2 Beck // Call
1 Far // Away
1 Turn // Burn
3 Boom // Bust
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Dromoka's Command
1 Meddling Mage
1 Spell Queller
Now you have more than enough to control the game, draw some cards, have answers to fair decks etc.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
This is a completely different deck.
I also don't like Glittering Wish at all as it is clunky and slow
(I haven't seen a competitive deck using it in recent years).
The whole point of the build discussed in this thread is to cheat out huge game-ending fatties early by "fusing" Breaking // Entering with Brain in a Jar or the "Expertise" cards accelerated by mana dorks (and SSG).
As a value/backup/refuell plan there is Beck // Call which is obviously very good when "fused".
(in addition to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre which are the best targets becuase they are hard to remove and "annihilate").
Another option can be Emrakul, the Promised End, can it better than Worldspine Wurm for this deck ?
Completely agree. This deck needs to be focused on its main gameplan to be competitive. In such a fast format we just want to fuse as fast as possible and avoid any clunky or slow card.
Wincon is super powerful and fast, but the real problem is -as with any deck playing tons of super expensive fatties- awful hands. I'm even considering Faithless Looting as we already play red, despite nonbo with graveyard shuffle I'd rather wash away some eldrazi and dig.
1 Gemstone Caverns
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Halimar Depths
4 Mountain
2 Swamp
Creatures
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
2 It That Betrays
1 Wheel of Fate
4 Faithless Looting
2 Spoils of the Vault
4 Brain in a Jar
4 Breaking // Entering
4 Cathartic Reunion
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Manamorphose
4 Kari Zev's Expertise
4 Noxious Revival
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Roast
4 Anger of the Gods
LAND CHOICE
Halimar Depths is amazingly helpful along with the 8 fetchlands. Being able to T1 (almost) scry 3, then fetch the next turn after seeing stuff you don't like is huge. Fetches thin the deck so you draw less junk. No shocks because pain is bad (though I kinda contradict myself in the spell section). Feel free to contest me on the lands bit.
CREATURE CHOICE
It That Betrays I think is important in cases where the combo goes off a turn late, but you should be trying to go off turn 2 or three. It is possible to go off turn 1 if you have ~*the nut*~. It That Betrays and Pathrazer both have annihilator, so getting them out early could autolock someone out of the game. It probably wouldn't even be bad to go 4 pathrazer 2 It That Betrays or vice-versa. Kozilek is there, again, for later game if you need to refuel to possibly combo again.
SPELL CHOICE
SIDEBOARD CHOICE
I have no idea what I'm doing here. Noxious Revival and Leyline of Sanctity save you from discard and the revival helps with Expertise-ing multiple times???? Roast for Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Gurmag Angler and other Big Dumb Dudes(TM) and Anger is for aggro stuff.
The goal of the deck is to end the game before it begins. I've been able to fairly consistently crank out Big Dumb Dudes turn 2 and 3, sometimes 4, but I can tell it needs tweaking for consistency.
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Massacre Wurm
4 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Spells (27):
4 Brain in a jar
4 Beck//Call
4 Breaking//Entering
4 Kari Zev's Expertise
3 Sram's Expertise
4 Faithless looting
4 Remand
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Misty rainforest
3 Arid Mesa
3 Windswept heath
1 temple garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 steam vents
1 stomping ground
2 Rugged Prairie
1 island
The way I see it, if you are running TTB and Emrakul, why not just run traditional BR Goryo's? Why dilute that already-proven archetype with this Jank combo?
That being said, the combo isn't entirely jank. It definitely has some build-around potential but I think I'd try more of a token theme with Elesh Norn as my finisher.
The sideboard would likely consist of different threats to board in for different matches. This current MD obviously caters to aggro meta games.
Draft My Cube!