[Deck] Fluctuator Cycling Combo/Aggro/Control

[morgan_coke]

So, for basically like forever, people have been like "why don't you put Fluctuator in Slide?" And the answer has always been that slots in the deck are super tight and it flat out just doesn't do enough. But, with the printing of a large number of excessively good cycling cards in Ikoria, that's changed since it's now part of multiple 2-card kill comboes. Flourishing Fox and Drannith Stinger both combine with a Fluctuator and a bunch of cards that cycle for only colorless to make a big boom win on the spot. Fox is more disruptable because it has to attack, has a CMC of 1, and doesn't have evasion. But your opponent won't always have an STP or Fatal Push in their opening hand either.

So here's the tentative list:

Creatures
4x Flourishing Fox
4x Drannith Stinger
4x Valiant Rescuer
4x Hollow One

Artifacts
4x Fluctuator
2x Abandoned Sarcophagus

Enchantments
4x Astral Drift
4x Lightning Rift

Instants
2x Zenith Flare
3x Angelsong
2x Forsake the Worldly
3x Gilded Light

Lands
4x Ash Barrens
4x Arid Mesa
3x Plateau
2x Mountain
2x Plains
2x Drifting Meadow
2x Smoldering Crater

Sideboard
4x Orim's Chant
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Disenchant
4x Blood Moon

This is obviously a tentative list, there's still probably more ridiculousness coming out of Ikoria. I'm particularly interested in what they do for lands with that. It's been possible to make a cycling board control deck for years, the main issues with it were always:

1)Not enough good cards with reasonable casting/cycling costs to make the cut
2)No way to cram in the kind of free, random wins a deck needs in Legacy without jumping through so many hoops the deck is bad
3)Way too slow of a clock to ever be competitive against combo decks
4)The cycling draw engine wasn't strong enough to compete with the card selection of the blue decks
5)The decks already slow speed was compounded by the numerous "do nothing" cards and turns from cycling, and despite running a huge number of lands, it was incredibly mana hungry as well

All of that has now been fixed, and what's left is a deck that can easily switch between combo, control, and aggro roles. There are two card comboes that win on turn 2 with the attack step, and 2 card comboes that win on turn 3 without it. Gilded Light and Angelsong both provide "outs" to faster combo decks in game one, and with free 4/4's and rapidly growing 1/1's and swarm token generating 3/1's, the deck has the speed to take advantage of that extra turn. Forsake the Worldly provides a game one answer to a lot of stuff like Ensnaring Bridge that people think "this means I win game one".

For longer games you've got the unparalleled board/creature/planeswalker control of Rift/Drift, backed up by the card advantage of what is basically a permanent Yawgmoth's Will effect from Sarcophagus. And in those longer games, Flare can often provide a topdecked win out of nowhere.

I know this deck is using a strategy that was either never good, only usable for meme/casual decks, or hasn't been good for a decade, and is using the two traditionally weakest colors in Legacy, but this right here, this is the comeback. This deck cheats massively on all the effects and in all the ways winning Tier One Legacy decks do.

This is a very rough draft, but there is real, legitimate potential here. The biggest weaknesses I can identify right now are a lack of pure card advantage outside of Sarcophagus, and no mana acceleration, but I'm not certain either of those are needed. All maindeck disruption is more reactive than proactive, and the maindeck has no way to deal with problematic lands. I don't think that's a big enough issue to include nonsense like Lay Waste but it is an option I guess.

[aedemiel]

Man, I hope.

[Reeplcheep]

I think if you are playing a cycling deck and not splashing for shadow of the grave, you are doing something wrong.

That at least is something truly powerful by legacy standards.

[Mr. Safety]

Early interaction is going to be really important. I mean, how do you beat Delver decks? I think black, or another splash color, will be important. Shadow of the Grave is interesting, but this isn't an engine combo deck like storm. This is an engine control/combo deck much closer to something like Enchantress.

Discard seems good, as does some sort of early cheap counterspell. I don't think Mana Tithe cuts it, but something similar would be good. Maybe just finding a way to jam in 4x Lightning bolt or Swords to Plowshares. You need like 1, maybe 2 extra turns to start locking in your inevitability.

[FTW]

What do you do if you don't draw Fluctuator?

Make a 3/3 Fox? Ping the opponent a few times?

[Mr. Safety]

What do you do if you don't draw Fluctuator?

Make a 3/3 Fox? Ping the opponent a few times?

Enlightened Tutor is probably neccessary.

[morgan_coke]

What do you do if you don't draw Fluctuator?

Make a 3/3 Fox? Ping the opponent a few times?

Play board control with Rift and Drift.

Early interaction is going to be really important. I mean, how do you beat Delver decks? I think black, or another splash color, will be important. Shadow of the Grave is interesting, but this isn't an engine combo deck like storm. This is an engine control/combo deck much closer to something like Enchantress.

Discard seems good, as does some sort of early cheap counterspell. I don't think Mana Tithe cuts it, but something similar would be good. Maybe just finding a way to jam in 4x Lightning bolt or Swords to Plowshares. You need like 1, maybe 2 extra turns to start locking in your inevitability.

Replacing the Meadows and Craters with the RBW Triome, adding a Swamp, a Scrubland, and a Badlands in place of two of the Plateau's and a Mountain makes a light black splash pretty easy, but I don't know what to cut out of the rest of the deck to make room for a bunch of early discard. I'm not disagreeing with you about the lack of early disruption, it's just a hard thing to fit into the deck. I think of disruption as basically something that buys you a turn. Angelsong buys a turn against decks using the attack step, which is some combo, some graveyard decks, lands, and aggro swarm decks. Gilded Light does the same against stuff that targets you, including a lot of planeswalker ults. But I guess if I was going to run black, I'd go with:

Creatures - 16
4x Flourishing Fox
4x Drannith Stinger
3x Valiant Rescuer
3x Hollow One
2x Vile Manifestation

Artifacts - 6
4x Fluctuator
2x Abandoned Sarcophagus

Enchantments - 8
4x Astral Drift
4x Lightning Rift

Instants - 4
2x Easy Prey
1x Forsake the Worldly
1x Rapid Decay (this is really just a flex cycling slot, could be anything that cycles for 2, Angelsong and Gilded Light are also options here)

Sorceries - 6
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Thoughtsieze

Lands - 20
4x Ash Barrens
2x Arid Mesa
2x Marsh Flats
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Plateau
1x Badlands
1x Scrubland
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Swamp
4x Savai Triome
1x Karakas

I think the mana still holds up, even if it's not as rock solid anymore, Easy Prey and Vile Manifestation are easy adds well from black. This version is far less likely to pull off kills out of nowhere, but it does have a lot more early game interaction. Testing should reveal which is better.

I think if you are playing a cycling deck and not splashing for shadow of the grave, you are doing something wrong.

That at least is something truly powerful by legacy standards.

Abandoned Sarcophagus is strictly better, and far cheaper mana-wise in practice.

EDIT: oh, and to add E.Tutor, I'd cut 1x abandoned Sarcophagus and 3x lighting rift.

[the Thin White Duke]

I like this build with abandoned sarcophagus. I tried something with it after it came out but there weren't enough good permanents with cycling to make it worthwhile.
I hope the card see play (especially since I bought 40+ for a quarter apiece a little while ago).