while we can't have future sight in modern, we do have experimental frenzy (and precognition field, but that's a story for another time)! the power in being able to churn through your deck is incredibly powerful. while the 4-mana red enchantment may look like nothing more than a glorified draw engine, the ability to play directly from the library has huge synergies with effects like noxious revival or frantic salvage. the downside is of course getting "blocked" by lands and other undesirable spells. lanternless frenzy attempts to utilise the upsides of experimental frenzy while mitigating its downsides by 1. playing as little lands as possible; we use rituals to generate our extra mana (though simian spirit guide is a nonbo with experimental frenzy) and 2. by playing cards that help you manipulate the top card(s) of your library. like codex shredder and ghoulcaller's bell. combined with cards that reduce the cost of your artifacts, we turn these 1 mana artifacts into cheerios, and those cheerios in turn help dig through our library by milling off cards we can't or don't want to play. without further ado, here is the decklist for lanternless frenzy:
the playthrough of the deck is as follows: in the early game, start by playing a couple 1-mana or 2-mana millers. get down a cloud key, naming artifact, and then resolve an experimental frenzy. at this point, you should be ready to go off. play as many rituals and discounted artifacts off the top as you can, milling off lands and other expensive spells with your codexes, wands, etc. with a grinding station in play, the deck feels much smoother; each artifact you play lets you reset the grinding station to sac off tapped bells and wands to continue digging. if you have two cloud keys in play, it's a good idea to name instant with the next key, so that they act as electromancers for your rituals. at this point you should have a critical mass of mana and eventually an empty library. it's highly likely that you've milled off grapeshot. in this case, use the other activated abilities of perpetual timepiece and (an untapped) wand of vertebrae to shuffle grapeshot (and other cards you may need to support the finisher, such as more rituals or milled timepieces/wands) into your library. since you can play off the top of your library, just keep casting and eventually cast your grapeshot for lethal. you can also win by milling, in case the opponent has an infinite life engine and/or hexproof. if the opponent does not have hexproof, shuffle in all your artifacts and rituals with timepiece and keep proccing grinding station on the opponent as you reset it with artifacts off the top. if they happen to have a yard shuffle effect, have tormod's crypt at the ready to wipe them away. if the opponent has hexproof, it's a bit more complicated, but still winnable by looping bells with an elixir.
post-board games can get more difficult because this deck is vulnerable to both yard and artifact/enchantment hate. leyline of sanctity is a non-issue on its own; if someone is interested, i can write out the process to win through hexproof. rest in peace, leyline of the void, relic of progenitus, tormod's crypts, and surgicals all have the potential to ruin the combo by disrupting key pieces in the graveyard. the permanents can be played around by bringing in wear/tears or needles. surgical is a combo breaker; there is almost nothing we can do about it other than hope the opponent doesn't have it (which i will admit isn't a strong position to play.) white predominantly has the most potential hate cards; thalia is a huge road bump, and stony silence + rest in peace nullifies the combo. bring in glare of heresy to deal with these troubling permanents, or ghirapur aether grid to counter stony. grafdigger's cage is uniquely prohibitive to our deck because it says that player's can't cast spells in libraries. thankfully, they can easily be dealt with through wear/tear or engineered explosives. damping sphere also hurts the combo; bring in artifact hate like before, or use explosives.
anyways, that's the gist of the combo. just curious what ideas anyone else has been exploring with this concept or frenzy in general. suggestions to the deck would also be welcome.
First they came for the Cantrips, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Cantrip.
Then they came for the Artifacts, and I didn't speak up, because I was an Instant.
Then they came for the Rituals, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't really a Ritual.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.
i'd actually considered conjurer's bauble while brewing. i think the reason i took it out was because considering an empty library, it would be neat to be able to pop a card into the library to be able to play it... but then you draw it off and you can't play it because of frenzy's hand-cast clause. then i wished there was a card that had dredge 0, haha. but now that i think about it... 0 mana draw is pretty solid, and helps outside of the combo to dig a little deeper. chromatic star is 1 mana to draw and in the early stages of the combo, the difference between 0 and 1 mana is like night and day.
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First they came for the Cantrips, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Cantrip.
Then they came for the Artifacts, and I didn't speak up, because I was an Instant.
Then they came for the Rituals, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't really a Ritual.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.
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4 Arid Mesa
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
Artifact (33):
4 Mox Opal
1 Tormod's Crypt
4 Codex Shredder
4 Ghoulcaller's Bell
3 Wand of Vertebrae
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Grinding Station
4 Perpetual Timepiece
4 Cloud Key
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Desperate Ritual
Sorcery (1):
1 Grapeshot
Enchantment (4):
4 Experimental Frenzy
1 Glare of Heresy
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Blood Moon
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Wear // Tear
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
2 Defense Grid
the playthrough of the deck is as follows: in the early game, start by playing a couple 1-mana or 2-mana millers. get down a cloud key, naming artifact, and then resolve an experimental frenzy. at this point, you should be ready to go off. play as many rituals and discounted artifacts off the top as you can, milling off lands and other expensive spells with your codexes, wands, etc. with a grinding station in play, the deck feels much smoother; each artifact you play lets you reset the grinding station to sac off tapped bells and wands to continue digging. if you have two cloud keys in play, it's a good idea to name instant with the next key, so that they act as electromancers for your rituals. at this point you should have a critical mass of mana and eventually an empty library. it's highly likely that you've milled off grapeshot. in this case, use the other activated abilities of perpetual timepiece and (an untapped) wand of vertebrae to shuffle grapeshot (and other cards you may need to support the finisher, such as more rituals or milled timepieces/wands) into your library. since you can play off the top of your library, just keep casting and eventually cast your grapeshot for lethal. you can also win by milling, in case the opponent has an infinite life engine and/or hexproof. if the opponent does not have hexproof, shuffle in all your artifacts and rituals with timepiece and keep proccing grinding station on the opponent as you reset it with artifacts off the top. if they happen to have a yard shuffle effect, have tormod's crypt at the ready to wipe them away. if the opponent has hexproof, it's a bit more complicated, but still winnable by looping bells with an elixir.
post-board games can get more difficult because this deck is vulnerable to both yard and artifact/enchantment hate. leyline of sanctity is a non-issue on its own; if someone is interested, i can write out the process to win through hexproof. rest in peace, leyline of the void, relic of progenitus, tormod's crypts, and surgicals all have the potential to ruin the combo by disrupting key pieces in the graveyard. the permanents can be played around by bringing in wear/tears or needles. surgical is a combo breaker; there is almost nothing we can do about it other than hope the opponent doesn't have it (which i will admit isn't a strong position to play.) white predominantly has the most potential hate cards; thalia is a huge road bump, and stony silence + rest in peace nullifies the combo. bring in glare of heresy to deal with these troubling permanents, or ghirapur aether grid to counter stony. grafdigger's cage is uniquely prohibitive to our deck because it says that player's can't cast spells in libraries. thankfully, they can easily be dealt with through wear/tear or engineered explosives. damping sphere also hurts the combo; bring in artifact hate like before, or use explosives.
anyways, that's the gist of the combo. just curious what ideas anyone else has been exploring with this concept or frenzy in general. suggestions to the deck would also be welcome.