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art138
05-30-2013, 06:41 AM
In my quest to find/develop unfair decks post-Seething Song ban, I have arrived at a list that very much wants to be the Modern format equivalent of Legacy Sneak and Show. This deck is based off of an Owen Turtenwald list from 2011 (here (http://www.channelfireball.com/home/owens-a-win-channeling-my-inner-conley)), with changes made to increase speed and efficiency. Below is my most recent build:

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4 Misty Rainforest (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Misty%20Rainforest)
4 Scalding Tarn (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Scalding%20Tarn)
1 Breeding Pool (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Breeding%20Pool)
1 Temple Garden (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Temple%20Garden)
1 Steam Vents (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Steam%20Vents)
1 Watery Grave (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Watery%20Grave)
1 Stomping Ground (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Stomping%20Ground)
1 Hallowed Fountain (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Hallowed%20Fountain)
1 Overgrown Tomb (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Overgrown%20Tomb)
1 Forest (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Forest)
1 Island (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Island)
1 Mountain (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Mountain)

4 Fist of Suns (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Fist%20of%20Suns)
4 Pentad Prism (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Pentad%20Prism)

4 Deathrite Shaman (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Deathrite%20Shaman)
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Emrakul,%20the%20Aeons%20Torn)
4 Simian Spirit Guide (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Simian%20Spirit%20Guide)
2 Worldspine Wurm (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Worldspine%20Wurm)

4 Ancient Stirrings (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Ancient%20Stirrings)
4 Channel the Suns (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Channel%20the%20Suns)
4 Gitaxian Probe (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Gitaxian%20Probe)
4 Serum Visions (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Serum%20Visions)
4 Through the Breach
(http://deckbox.org/mtg/Through%20the%20Breach)
Sideboard:

2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Boseiju,%20Who%20Shelters%20All)
2 Defense Grid (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Defense%20Grid)
4 Leyline of Sanctity (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Leyline%20of%20Sanctity)
4 Lightning Bolt (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Lightning%20Bolt)
3 Pyroclasm (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Pyroclasm)

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First off, the 'must haves' of the deck:

Fist of Suns - This card, paired with Emrakul, is the primary win condition of the deck. An ideal sequence is turn two Pentad Prism, turn three Fist of Suns, followed by turn four hard-cast Emrakul.

Pentad Prism - Probably the best mana accelerant in the format. Pentad Prism enables turn three Through the Breach and along with Fist of Suns, turn four Emrakul.

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn - If you could hard-cast any card on turn four, what card would that be? Omniscience is what first comes to mind, but Emrakul is pretty good, too, and thus it is this deck's win condition of choice. This deck can CAST Emrakul as early as turn four, and with an extra turn after, there are not many answers in the format for an attacking Emrakul before your opponent's fourth or fifth turn.

Simian Spirit Guide - This card could arguably not be a must-include, but if we want to cast Through the Breach on turn three, we need fast mana. As an uncounterable, free ritual, Simian Spirit Guide works quite nicely for forcing combo pieces through Spell Pierce and Mana Leak. Also, Emrakul only hits for 15; a 2/2 beater is sometimes necessary to finish the job.

Channel the Suns - An otherwise bad, four mana ritual that nets one extra mana is actually pretty good when all your deck wants to do is count to five. Obviously good for accelerating out a turn three Through the Breach, Channel the Suns also provides the one-of-each-color mana fixing we need to abuse Fist of Suns.

Serum Visions - All combo decks need some form of dig. Serum Visions is the best that we have available to us, so we play four.

Through the Breach - Last, but certainly not least, our secondary win condition. Should it resolve, Through the Breach (putting in Emrakul), on turn three or four is absolutely devastating and usually enough to win.

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Everything else:

Deathrite Shaman - Our dual purpose mana accelerator and post-Through the Breach killer. Owen chose Lightning Bolt as his means of finishing off opponents and buying time against aggro, but a lot has changed since 2011, and I think the unrivaled versatility of Deathrite Shaman is perfect for this deck. I think if he were to revisit the deck, he would agree.

Worldspine Wurm - If we could play more Emrakuls, we would, but Worldspine Wurm hits just as hard and has neat synergy with Through the Breach's end-of-turn sacrifice requirement. It's worth noting that Path to Exile is a blow-out to this line of play, but there's only so much we can do. Play around it if you can.

Ancient Stirrings - Owen chose Time of Need as a means of finding Emrakul, but the fact of the matter is that it's slow and a bit narrow in terms of application. What if we already have Emrakul in hand? Combo decks never want dead cards and Ancient Stirrings is never dead as it can find all major combo pieces (Pentad Prism, Fist of Suns, Emrakul). Worst case scenario, it hits a land (this build plays less lands than Owen's, so it can be relevant).

Gitaxian Probe - A deck as all-in as this one needs some way of knowing whether or not it is safe to cast its key spells. Duress and/or Thoughtseize are possible replacements, but we are going for speed, so a free cantrip that provides perfect information is what I have chosen to play. Provides a very easy slot for sideboard cards in matchups where we are not worried about what the opponent might have in hand.

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Sideboard:

Boseiju, Who Shelters All - There are two things that give this deck fits: hand disruption and countermagic. For the latter, Boseiju provides a free, uncounterable solution. Nothing is more satisfying than sneaking Through the Breach past an opponent's hand full of countermagic. It is very easy for this deck to operate off of three lands in matchups where the opponent is planning on relying on countermagic vs a fast clock as a means of interacting with us, and thus, playing around Tectonic Edge shouldn't be an issue. I usually board out the Forest and Mountain for the two of these.

Defense Grid - Another answer for countermagic, Defense Grid demands that the opponent burn a counter immediately or have an exorbitant amount of mana available to henceforth counter our spells. Along with Boseiju, we can also find this with Ancient Stirrings, should we need it.

Leyline of Sanctity - Needless to say, we do NOT want our opponent tearing apart our hand. This can also provide a free win against some burn builds (we can race burn otherwise, but we definitely don't need Gitaxian Probe against them, so bringing this in is painless).

Lightning Bolt - Added reach, should we need it post-Through the Breach. Also kills relevant hatebears (Thalia, Gaddock Teeg) pesky flying blockers, and things that should generally be killed right away (planeswalkers, Deathrite Shaman, Dark Confidant, etc.).

Pyroclasm - We don't play many creatures, so Pyroclasm is a convenient answer to general turn-creatures-sideways aggro decks.

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I've tested this deck quite a bit and I'm pleased with it enough to share it with you all. Any comments/questions/suggestions are welcome :)

(nameless one)
05-30-2013, 07:13 AM
Have you considered Prismatic Omen as a means to help out Fist outside of depending on your land types and Prism?

How fast can you get a critical turn with this deck and how consistent is it in doing so? I guess Prism speed things up but don't you need multiples of it to achieve a "faster" turn.

art138
05-30-2013, 07:59 AM
@(nameless one)

I have briefly considered Prismatic Omen, but the problem with it is that it does not accelerate you. The deck wants to be fast (Emrakul turn 3-4), and both Pentad Prism and Channel the Suns enable this while still fixing our mana. We don't depend on land so much (it is our back up plan) as we do Pentad Prism, and we can find the Prism with Ancient Stirrings on turn one (we could not do the same with Prismatic Omen). For Prismatic Omen to be useful, we need to make our fifth land drop. We would much rather 'go off' as soon as our third :)

Consistency is great as the only thing it wants to do is get Emrakul into play and the deck is designed to be very redundant/synergistic in doing it.

TheChuggernaut
06-19-2013, 10:47 AM
Is birds of paradise too fragile for consideration?

art138
06-20-2013, 12:07 PM
Is birds of paradise too fragile for consideration?

As far as actual fragility goes, I suppose the fact that Deathrite has an additional point of toughness could be relevant. The fact that Deathrite hits for two is what makes it a better inclusion over Birds, though. Emrakul does a lot, but often not enough to actually win, outright. If you are proposing Birds in conjunction with Deathrite, I guess I could see cutting the Gitaxian Probes. I like the information, though, personally.

kwis
06-21-2013, 02:03 AM
How does this stack up against Koby's monstrosity?

Slightly different play line and vulnerable to different hate. Any reason to Fist into 15/15 instead of Omniscience and Petals of Insight style kill?

art138
06-21-2013, 02:52 AM
How does this stack up against Koby's monstrosity?

Slightly different play line and vulnerable to different hate. Any reason to Fist into 15/15 instead of Omniscience and Petals of Insight style kill?

The Griselbrand deck? I haven't played it, but it looks fun! I think that this deck not being susceptible to graveyard hate is a huge advantage as graveyard hate isn't uncommon in an open meta. Heck, even this deck plays Deathrite Shaman! Also, Emrakul, to me, just seems so much harder to deal with as a primary win-con, both on the stack and in play; that we can actually cast Emrakul as early as turn four is huge. I do like that Griselbrand just wins once it's in play, though (from my understanding of the deck, anyway).

I have thought about building an Omniscience/Fist of Suns deck, but it just seems a lot harder to pull off. This deck has Through the Breach as an alternate means of getting Emrakul into play, but there really isn't another way (that I know of) to cheat Omniscience into play, in Modern. Now, if we had an Academy Rector of sorts...

The huge advantage that Emrakul has over Omniscience when being cast is that Emrakul is uncounterable. I have had opponents let fist resolve and die because they figured they'd just counter whatever I cast off of it. I suppose it also helps when people have no idea what the heck it is that you're playing xD