It's not mana efficient as an accelerant, but if Magnifying Glass is one of your mana rocks and you're going infinite, you can use it to draw your deck without needing another card. It may belong in the basket with Pristine Talisman and Cryptolith Fragment. This may also be the rare deck that isn't super unhappy to keep a hand with Serum Powder, which could help us run fewer tutors.
Thanks for finding Zhur-Taa Druid! I thought I remembered something like it but of course it's at the absolute bottom of the Gatherer search. I wonder if you could drop the combo into an Elves shell? Dramatic Reversal becomes something of a ritual even if you don't have Scepter to imprint it on., and you have a good proactive plan if the combo never comes up.
What's the best win condition? Ideally you'd get something that makes mana and takes advantage of the storm, but nothing is springing to mind. Pristine Talisman? Cryptolith Fragment?
The newly-spoiled Dramatic Reversal is an instant that untaps all your non-land permanents for two mana. Sounds like an awesome thing to imprint on Isochron Scepter! With two mana-producing permanents on the board, you can repeat the cycle infinite times. It only costs four mana to go off, in a deck that would be running ramp already. Both combo pieces cost two, so you can transmute for either with Muddle the Mixture.
Literally *every single* GU Legendary is part of a cycle of ten or five,
with every enemy color pair if not every other color pair also getting a new toy at the same time.
I'm skeptical of Eldrazi Displacer because it's mana hungry, but it might be worth trying. I do however like going into white to get Dawnfluke, Wall of Omens, and most of all Restoration Angel, which is amazing with Summoning, and decent with any value low drops.
The optimal number of copies of Scout's Warning may be also greater than zero - it can make Deep-Fiend more effective, and maybe turn on some number of Vexing Scuttler?
Can you run Esper and Eldrazi Temple at the same time? Deep-Fiend is the only double-colored spell, but it feels like a stretch. There's also Sanctum of Ugin once we're playing big monsters at big discounts.
In Standard your best bet has to be Spreading Flames, right? Which you have milled or discarded of course. I also like the synergies with both Nahiri's +2 and her ultimate. You get to discard juicy spells, tutor the Hulk to cast them for free, then re-cast the Hulk again next turn! Spicy.
Too bad Dig Through Time is banned in Modern. You have Lavaball Trap, which might help your new 5/6 stay the biggest thing on the block for a while. I'm intrigued by Commandeer, which you can play for free early, and then recoup some of the card disadvantage of 3-for-2ing yourself by flashing back with the hulk.
Firemind's Foresight if there's some three-instant combo? Fated Return if you're going hard on self-mill or reanimation. It's sweet if you have a way to sacrifice the Hulk at instant speed so you can bring it back with Return and cast another spell. Supplant Form would be hilarious, if not exactly worth it.
Heartless Summoning reduces alternate casting costs in addition to the one printed in the top right, meaning it reduces emerge costs too. If you cast a creature with Summoning on the table and immediately sacrifice it to emerge, Summoning has reduced the cost of the emerge creature by 4!
You have a 4/4 in play and are at +1 card, your opponent is at -3 cards. Not bad!
But you don't really start to go off until you realize Summoning can reduce evoke costs in addition to emerge. With summoning on the battlefield, you can evoke Mulldrifter for U or Shriekmaw for B, and then emerge in Elder Deep-Fiend for UU or Drownyard Behemoth for U! On turn 3!
Add in some discard and some spellskites, maybe there's a deck there?
I don't know if any of the Phyrexian mana creatures are well positioned since Skirge and Legionnaire have 1 toughness, but it would be nice to have a good plan for when you don't draw Summoning or they remove it. Metamorph? Cathedral Membrane???
Immortal Coil is something you can harmlessly offer and win the game right away with a Nihil Spellbomb or Leyline of the Void, and running main deck graveyard hate as part of your combo will give you hilarious splash damage against a non-zero number of Modern decks.
I was thinking a Shelldock deck wants Amulet of Vigor so you can hold the Isle until you're ready to use it. That also opens up using the bounce lands like Dimir Aqueduct to pseudo-ramp and play Inverter a turn early. They can also do double duty by giving you re-rolls on the Shelldock hideaway if you don't have the library manipulation to guarantee a hit.
Separately, Life From the Loam can let you battle through land destruction and also stock your Graveyardenough to swing a few times with a big Eldrazi.
Wall of Resurgence is a card that you can play while you're looking for your combo pieces. The body is relevant since you're stalling for time and the ETB is a fun one to have over and over.
Any thought to using Reality Shift as removal against hard targets like the big fliers giving you trouble? It exiles, and the 2/2 body dies to Strangler.
You know what would be totally delightful from a design perspective and fit right in with Maro's "if there's something you can only do in this block, you should do it"?
Eldrazi Land
[T]: Add one mana of any color to your mama pool. Use that mana only to cast colorless spells.
For the record, I think it would be much more likely to see a Waste Moon effect stapled onto a 2/1 or something than as an encantment, precisely so that it can be interacted with.
People have been complaining that BFZ didn't have a very big impact on standard, because the power level of its cards just can't compete with the three-color gold cards from Khans block. In fact, adding the Battle dual lands enabled even more multicolor madness, like a tier-1 deck that plays Ojutai's Command and Kolagan's Command side-by-side. Those powerful gold cards will rotate when Shadows Over Innistrad drops, but given what we've seen about Kozilek and his lands, is it possible that they get hastened along by some nonbasic hoser along the lines of Blood Moon or (more likely) Magus of the Moon, only color(less) shifted into <>?
Thanks for finding Zhur-Taa Druid! I thought I remembered something like it but of course it's at the absolute bottom of the Gatherer search. I wonder if you could drop the combo into an Elves shell? Dramatic Reversal becomes something of a ritual even if you don't have Scepter to imprint it on., and you have a good proactive plan if the combo never comes up.
What's the best win condition? Ideally you'd get something that makes mana and takes advantage of the storm, but nothing is springing to mind. Pristine Talisman? Cryptolith Fragment?
Young Pyromancer or Monastery Memtor? Just straight up Grapeshot?
Maybe a good fit alongside Jeskai Ascendancy?
Is Rashmi, Eternities Crafter part of a cycle?
The optimal number of copies of Scout's Warning may be also greater than zero - it can make Deep-Fiend more effective, and maybe turn on some number of Vexing Scuttler?
Can you run Esper and Eldrazi Temple at the same time? Deep-Fiend is the only double-colored spell, but it feels like a stretch. There's also Sanctum of Ugin once we're playing big monsters at big discounts.
I love me some Havengul Lich or Myr Retriever shenanigans. The new Filigree Familiar seems like a pretty good upgrade over Phyrexian Rager or Matter Reshaper too.
I think McGee is right that Distended Mindbender is just bad - 4/4 is too small, even if you hit with both sides of the discard.
Too bad Dig Through Time is banned in Modern. You have Lavaball Trap, which might help your new 5/6 stay the biggest thing on the block for a while. I'm intrigued by Commandeer, which you can play for free early, and then recoup some of the card disadvantage of 3-for-2ing yourself by flashing back with the hulk.
Firemind's Foresight if there's some three-instant combo? Fated Return if you're going hard on self-mill or reanimation. It's sweet if you have a way to sacrifice the Hulk at instant speed so you can bring it back with Return and cast another spell. Supplant Form would be hilarious, if not exactly worth it.
This is totally a thing you could do:
T1: Swamp, Inquisition of Kozilek
T2: Swamp, Heartless Summoning
T3: Swamp, Phyrexian Rager (for B), Distended Mindbender (for BB, sacrificing Rager)
You have a 4/4 in play and are at +1 card, your opponent is at -3 cards. Not bad!
But you don't really start to go off until you realize Summoning can reduce evoke costs in addition to emerge. With summoning on the battlefield, you can evoke Mulldrifter for U or Shriekmaw for B, and then emerge in Elder Deep-Fiend for UU or Drownyard Behemoth for U! On turn 3!
Add in some discard and some spellskites, maybe there's a deck there?
I don't know if any of the Phyrexian mana creatures are well positioned since Skirge and Legionnaire have 1 toughness, but it would be nice to have a good plan for when you don't draw Summoning or they remove it. Metamorph? Cathedral Membrane???
Maybe you want value creature outside of UB, too. Reveillark? Avalanche Riders?
Separately, Life From the Loam can let you battle through land destruction and also stock your Graveyardenough to swing a few times with a big Eldrazi.
Called it?
T1: Mountain
T2: Island, Goblin Electromancer
T3: Island, Manamorphose, Crush of Tentacles with Surge