dknight27

24 lands seems mighty high in a build like this, even with the search lands. I would personally take it down to 23. Maybe trim a colonnade as you don't really want one in your opening hand as it slows your development. With only 2 you will more likely grab it in the middle game when you want one.

I almost never run more than 1 cryptic command in a modern tri-color as its so hard to get that 3 blue with modern lands in time to make the card usable. 3 copies just ups the chances of it being in the opening hand and being a brick till about turn 7 or 8 at best. It's my opinion that a cheaper control element would be better to keep the opening turns under your game plan even though they don't give you the card advantage like command. Running 2 more spell snares for example would give you excellent early game play and aren't really ever dead draws.

I am also almost always in favor of running at least 3 electrolyzes when possible as they snipe so perfectly and are an excellent target to snap back.

I haven't tried out spell queller in a build like this. How does she handle?

24 lands is way too high for a deck like this. Your curve operates fine at 2 mana and hits full playability at 3 mana, so I wouldn't run more than 22 lands tops. 21 would be better as you will almost always get your third land by turn 3 and will be up and running.

Harness the storm doesn't give you enough advantage in here and is conditional. I would swap it out for 4x electrolyze, which is basically the best edition to a burn/control deck ever as it can snipe off creatures or hit strait to life and always replaces itself.

Blistercoil weird doesn't do much for you either. Its a turn 1 drop that keeps juicing itself, but that's not really how decks like this win games. You will get 2-3 damage off it if you drop one turn 1, but after about turn 3 they don't matter anymore. I would add in some more instants/sorceries as you are only running 16 now, which is low for a deck like this. Some counterspells like mana leak or remand would help much more as they retain card advantage and trigger your creatures.

I would also give serious thought to running thermo-alchemist, who is basically the best win condition in a deck like this, plus he doubles as a blocker in the early game if you need him.

I'm not sure why this is coming up as not modern legal.

The potential problem I see in here is that it relies on aether vial for speed for the 3 drops, which overall should slow the deck down quite a bit. if you get a vial turn 1, you still wait 3 more turns till you drop a 3 drop, so its turn 4 before it works out for you. If you don't have a vial, you wait till you snag the third land, which at best puts this deck in full swing by turn 3.

I would work on cutting down on the 3 drops in favor of more 2 drop control creatures, that way you can hard cast them on turn 2 and vial them in on turn 3 for free when you hard cast a 3 drop anyway, giving you a sick turn 4 and beyond.

Right now I only see 9 targets for the flicker effect, and thought-knot is limited for flickering due to the draw opponent gets off of it, which is imbalanced with the 8 flicker casters. As it stands, you are just as likely to get a flicker caster without a target as to get one. I would personally prefer a 10 target to 7 flicker or even 11 target to 6 flicker, but that's me.

Other than that this deck looks solid. The thalia twins are a devastating pair. turn 2 and 3 thalia should be a scoop unless they have non basics and a removal spell in hand already.

I love decks like this. However, I think a few tweaks could be made that would really help things along.

I almost never run 22 lands in a control deck that has 1 and 2 drop control elements as that's all you need to survive the first 3 turns and by then you will be into your third land and won't really need many more.

Cryptic command just isn't viable in a tri-color deck from my experience. that 3 blue cost is a killer until the late game in modern, and having a command in your opening hand is like playing a card down. Even if you have 4 of the lands that allow you to play it early, you can't do it in a turn you would burn something off or counter something else, so its even harder to use. I know its a sick counter with card advantage built in, but if your deck gets behind early the game is over, so I would consider running something that keeps you afloat in the early turns like mana leak or remand, both of which hit turn 2 and stay relevant for most of the game. If you feel like you can't go without command, at least consider dropping it down to 1 copy, as it will almost never hit in your opening hand and sit there until turn 10 before its useful.

I'm not a big fan of thought scour in here, but that's just me. I don't see it giving you enough advantage to justify its spot over a control element, even though it gives you targets for tasigur and snap. Plus it eats a spot of a 1 drop control card that can counter the opponent's turn 1 and 2 action, which is essential. maybe another kozilek, 2 spell snares, and a terminate instead?

This is just my opinion, but I almost never run 4 snaps in favor of only 3. I know they are wondrous cards, but having one in the opening hand is annoying to me as its a dead card until you get at least 3 lands out and even then you need the right target in the grave to be useful. having only 3 ups your chances of pulling it in the middle game but not the opening, which is exactly how the card is designed to work. Plus you can always pull a copy back with kolaghan, so you are conditionally running quite a few more of them anyway.


As an alternate way to win with this deck, I would consider checking out thermo-alchemist, which is a card that I absolutely adore. I'm not quite sure why the magic community hasn't jumped on board that train yet, but that sucker drains life like no other in a deck like this, and can even sub in as a turn 2 blocker against fast agro decks. And, if they want to use a removal spell on it, it costs 2 mana. Let em.

As for the sideboard,

Slaughter games dismantles combo decks like no other and in modern you can almost always make it to 4 mana, especially with the other control elements you have going in here.

Mindbreak trap handles stuff that can't be countered and infinite combos and you can always hard cast it as a counterspell if necessary, making it borderline essential.

Cruel edict handles hexproof/indestructible/shroud stuff like emrakul combos, thrun, etc. and can always be used as an extra kill spell against creature heavy decks anyway.

I like running at least 3 dragon's claws in here as the deck burns itself quite a bit with the lands which just helps burn out like no other. Plus half your deck will trigger the claw anyway, so a turn 2 claw should be enough to win you the game if they can't remove it.

Just some thoughts.

well shit, it's been so long since ive used it I didn't bother to check. just assumed it was still legal

Only running 4 answers to the early game against burn is borderline suicidal in competitive play. 4/60 cards, in a deck that runs lands that hurt you, against an entire 60 card build who's singular purpose is to drop your life to 0 before you get your mechanic rolling is terrifying. In reality, without the finks lifegain or the big sorcery/instants in the late game, this deck's starting life total is more like 16 because of the lands, which makes a burn player smile all day long. I would much rather have 7/60 answers than 4/60 answers against a deck that is predatory to mine, especially since outside of burn and wickedly fast combo decks that get lucky this deck has a good chance of taking game 1 and siding in the ability to win either game 2 or 3.

As to viridian emissary vs sakura, I may be the only player out there to think so, but this is an easy answer from my perspective. It's basically my contention that viridian emissary is one of the most undervalued cards in modern. If your opponent is running fast agro, it chump blocks, costs opponent material and a tempo, and speeds you up. If they run creatureless, its a turn 2 cards that starts a 10 turn clock, and if your opponent expends resources to deal with it, you retain card advantage and are sped up. If it's something in between, it gives you board presence on turn 2, can trade off for their turn 1 or 2 presence, and again gives you speed and card advantage.

Basically, its one of the best ways to play a turn 2 for anything that runs green and is cognizant of what opponent is doing (i.e. everything but burn and RDW).

Sakura doesn't have the agro power, so it can't be used as a win condition realistically, and its delicious to drop a win condition turn 2 against a control deck that will have to waste something to take out a 2 drop that gives me mana.

Plus, this deck doesn't necessarily need to worry about the instant mana search sakura offers, as it runs 22 lands and 4 noble hierarch, so mana diversity or presence isn't really an issue that needs the immediate 2 drop sac off that sakura offers.

Cathedral sanctifier is in here for basically the same reason as it's text basically reads "prevent 3 damage and force opponent to lose 1 card and a tempo."

wall of blossoms isn't modern, but you could always run wall of omens which is exactly the same thing.

However, the point of steel wall is for a turn 1 drop that I can play with any mana that will save me from super fast agro decks. While this deck isn't really slow, as it's a control deck it has a weakness against rush agro, so steel wall buys me a couple turns to setup the control necessary to win. Because it has 4 life it can't be burned away with the small burn spells (lightning bolt etc) unless they attack in the same turn, which is basically what I want as it will make them waste material and let me stay alive. If they don't use a burn spell after attack damage, the wall will block one of their weenies every turn, buying me at least 3 more turns which this deck desperately needs.

Wall of Omens and wall of roots are 2 drops so they won't be able to handle the turn 1 goblin guide or monastery swiftspear that are staples in rush/burn decks.

It's all good. I know it looks stupid at first, but the wheel just keeps on spinning.

It has no answer to force of will, but statistically that puts you ahead. If opponent isn't running 4 copies, and doesn't get lucky enough to have material to sack off to it, you run right over him. Even if he does kill off a piece early in your wheel, he just lost 2 cards and most likely won't have enough material or mana base to stop the second time your wheel starts on the next turn, so it becomes a race to see who starts first on the second time.

Again, not fullproof, but if you go first you are almost certainly going to win.

There are also a few tactical combos that really help putting this deck over the top.

Demonic tutor into a black lotus if you don't need it to search for a wheel piece, which spends 2 mana to get you 3, so it guarantees you enough mana to play any piece of the wheel either this cycle or after you draw 7.

Black lotus for 3 black then demonic tutor for contract from below and use the black from lotus to wheel yourself a new hand.

Well, the point of this deck is to basically never give your opponent the chance to play anything. Because of the way the artifacts work as mana sources, contract from below and timetwister basically act like "draw 7 new cards and take another turn", which gives this deck 12 consistent and cheap cards that give you extra turns. Couple that with ancestral recall and demonic tutor and you are almost guaranteed to start the "wheel" mechanic turning, which continually draws more cards and gains more mana producers so you have enough to burn for 3 each cycle and then reset the whole thing.

The math plays out like this. Each time you draw 7, you have 29/60 possible mana sources, 23 of which can be played on the same turn. So, of the 7 cards you draw, give or take 3-4 of them will be mana producers you can drop which nets you extra mana to keep the combo rolling. The other 3-4 cards statistically work out to be something that propagates the wheel (twister, contract, time walk, recall, demonic tutor) which is a 20/60 chance so you get 2/7 cards to possibly keep going, and 10/60 or 1/7 burn cards to hit for 3 damage before you wheel away your hand and replenish it.

Because of the way the deck continuously replenishes card advantage, on average 3-4 times easily per turn (for a total of either 21 or 28 cards drawn), you will hit a time walk/time warp which untaps your mana producers and draws you a card, so you can cash out all the burn you have for that turn and then continue drawing next turn. This works extremely well with bump in the night once you have milled through about half your deck.

And, possibly most devastatingly, timetwister resets your grave, so the more you mill through with draw 7 cards, the more saturated your deck is with ways to continue the combo, making the last 9ish damage hit on 1 draw cycle.

Try the draw sample hand feature a few times and see what I mean. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but a good 80% it gets an FTK.

fulminator mage would be better especially with the potential mana problem in here, but I wouldn't run it unless your meta calls for it. As its a 3 drop you probably wont be using it to actually slow down the opponent too much with only a sided option, so the only reason to run it is to counter something specific.

they are different for each color, but ya like bloodmoon, snapcaster mage etc. unfortunately competitive magic is basically about who is willing to spend more, which is very annoying, especially since everyone net decks instead of trying to build something original or adapt a deck type yourself.

Well, it won't be tier 1 as you don't have fetch lands or the expensive staples that are necessary to compete on the top level, but its not a bad deck. I would consider playing it as an intermediate player to help you work your way up to the upper levels.

Sure.

Dragon's claw would be the first option in a deck that doesn't run white, as it knocks 1 off each of their damage and gets triggered by yours too, which should give you enough time to get up and running.

spell pierce is a wonderful early game counter against burn, and against a good player having to pay 2 mana will still be a pain in the middle/late game.

spell snare works similarly, as burn cards in modern basically cost either 1 or 2, and spell snare will take care of half the threats and is fast.

No worries mate, postulating about this game is a passion of mine.

delver is a powerhouse in a deck like this. If you can locate a playset I would definitely do so. turn 1 delver puts the opponent on a 7 turn clock and forces them to expend a resource to stop a 1 drop, which is beautiful. whoever made the card was on dope, they basically forced players to make versions of this deck.


You have some beautiful sideboard potential in a deck of these colors.

mindbreak trap should be in 99.9% of decks as it stops uncounterable stuff, infinite combos, and can be hardcast as a counter if need be so its not a complete dead draw.

shattering spree devastates artifact decks.

blood moon doesn't hurt you at all in your current build and will completely shut down or cripple a lot of modern builds, particularly tri-color decks like esper and jund.

pyroclasm takes care of rush creature decks like goblins and elves, or you could run slagstorm which hits a little harder.

peak eruption can be a pain for the opponent, especially if you manage to drop it turn 3, and it will never be a dead draw as you get 3 damage out of it.

relic of progenitus takes care of a lot of problems like delve cards, dredge cards, and tarmygof, plus it replaces itself so again, never a dead draw.

A few more burn cards with some muscle might help in the sideboard just in case you run into things that can't be burned off by 3 damage like char or flame slash.

I see several potential problems for this deck.

The landbase is incredibly risky. Even for such a small curve, 16 lands seems light for a duel-color deck with no non-basics. You run the risk of getting only 1 mana which will stall the deck badly, or only 1 color, which will cripple the deck. This deck's tipping curve (mana production at which the deck does what it's supposed to do) is 2. It can survive on only 1, but it most likely wont be able to win games with an early stallout.

If you can afford it, I would look into the fetch lands and then run 6-7 fetch lands and 14-13 regular lands (either way 20 total), which will give you the 2 you need to operate and thin the deck out so you don't draw dead lands after you get 3.

pyromancer ascension is a good win condition for a deck that tries to win with prolonged control, but this deck isn't really trying to do that. I'll address this problem directly then come back to the pyromancer problem.

the biggest potential problem this deck faces is that it's not really 1 cohesive deck but two decks crammed together into one. You have all the elements of a rush burn deck and a stall control deck, but havn't managed to combine them properly, most likely because they directly counteract each other.

Your 2 of your 3 win conditions- thing in the ice and pyromancer ascension, are both conditional and slow, implying a stall control deck that locks everything down, eliminates threats, and then hits hard for the win. Guttersnipe, your third win con, is a midranged version of this problem as well as he is useless without a hand to dump to him and you will most likely dump your hand in the early game which poses a big problem.


The opposite problem, running out of steam/usefulness, happens with monastery swiftspear. He is arguably one of the best blitz cards out there, but your deck doesn't really support him properly to justify the little guy. Yes I know your deck is full of non-creature spells, but 8 of them are counterspells, so you cant dump them to power him up, and you will almost never cast a riftbolt until the middle game, so your turn 1 swiftspear has a decent chance of scoring only about 2-4 damage which doesn't justify his place in this deck which will have a big problem with running out of steam early and could really use either a control element or a bigger burn source that isn't conditional. On top of this, even if he is running exactly as you want him to, he takes the place of a win condition, and since youre running 12 already, you don't need to run 16.

Back to pyromancer ascension. yes I know it means super burn damage of doom and good card advantage and all that, but its useless until the lategame on average and only useful middle game if you get really lucky. That's fine if you want to use it in a longterm stall deck, but as ive mentioned before, this deck isn't that.


So, my overall advice would be to decide which direction you want to go with this deck. Keep it fast and heavy or take it long term. You can make a fusion, blue-red burn control, but it's never a rush build like you're trying for here.

Just some thoughts, trying to talk it out. Not trying to disrespect the deck or anything.

runechanter's pike is a bad fit for this deck as its conditional on having a creature and you only run 4. It will be super effective if you have the material, but its super easy to dismember the combo and it won't hit all the time anyway so I would personally go with something safer and more consistent that is almost guaranteed to give you more benefit every time. I would consider swapping it out for slagstorm which will let you deal with fast creature decks and is almost never a dead draw as it can still be used to burn away lp if opponent isn't running creatures.

I would also consider running an extra land. I know the curve in here is low, but 20 can lead to extra mulligans or stalling out at 1 land, and this deck's operational number is 2 mana. Getting ahold of some fetch lands, such as arid mesa etc, would go a long way in here as it will help solve your red/white problem as well as pull unneeded lands out of the deck for the middle and late game, but some of them are expensive. If you can get ahold of them I would consider running 6 which will speed things up for you.

Just some thoughts.

20 lands is a bit too few in this build. In general, 22 is the amount you should stick with unless you're running a combo or really small curve. This deck has an operating number, the number of lands necessary to do pretty much anything, of 3 so you need the extra 2 lands overall to make sure that on turn 3 you can drop the third land and then drop a relentless rat. In addition, you don't really need to worry about drawing dead lands in the middle and late game cause you can drop them to pack rat and pump out more tokens, making 22 lands an even more desirable number.

Just some thoughts.