I really like the card Favor of the Mighty... It protects the Platinum Emperion from almost everything and lets it attack without being chump blocked. But I also feel like you'd like to have some other expensive creatures to put into play to really take advantage of Favor of the Mighty...
My 2 cents is look for a midrange strategy that does not worry about the graveyard and either include that strategy in the maindeck or have it as an option in the sideboard. I would say eliminate any potential strategy that relies on the graveyard, because there is often good graveyard hate in the meta. The deck is playing some very good midrange cards. Lotleth Troll is just good on its own, it can block, its very hard for opponents to remove. I wouldn't think you'd need too many enablers to combo with some reliability.
Time of Need might be a really excellent 5-8 versions of Eldritch Evolution. It may allow a tool box of legendary creatures that are actually good. It might be something to explore, especially if you can tutor for cards like Gadock Teeg and Kataki, War's Wage if you splash white. I am sure there are more quality Legend Tool box cards available to get out of the sideboard. But Ghalta, Primal Hunger might also be a Legendary Creature that might be cheap enough to cast with a couple creatures out or cheap to scavenge after you have scavenged other creatures to combo kill.
Honestly the Hardened Scales approach maybe good, because it plays a lot of quality creatures and the scales in many ways serve as more versions of Vrolz.
Forbidden Orchard by itself doesn't produce infinite mana (you'd have to make Forbidden Orchard a creature), although it might be good in this kind of deck.
The logic has been that you are basically creating a four card combo with inclusion of Intruder Alarm and a mana myr, that's hard to assemble. Time Sieve can do the same job with just one more card and you can tutor for it with anything that can tutor for the other parts, like Muddle the Mixture or Whir of Invention. Generally people have put more controlling cards into the deck and just won eventually with the two card combo of Thopter Sword.
What you are trying to do will work and there might be enough other Intruder Alarm combos to put into the deck to actually merit the combo centric version you are expousing, but you'd have to rework it. If you plan on doing that look for other Intruder Alarm combos and see what grabs you.
Could you use this to ramp into Enduring Ideal? I just feel like that might be a small card package, 7 cards I think... You already have the ramp to run it.
This is a deck list I have been playing around with its a version of Caw Blade that doesn't run Jace main... I could easily see replacing some pieces to play more Eldrazi.
Cards you should look at Spellstutter Sprite, Snapcaster Mage, Eternal Scourge, I think they pair well with Eldrazi Displacer, and a list more predicated on blinking could surely work. But I like Eternal Scourge, even if its a one or two of in your deck having a creature you can't remove is very nice. Moorland Haunt works well if Eldrazi especially Scourge which can exile him if he winds up in your graveyard, but Moorland Haunt also makes colorless mana. Every deck can figure out something to do with 1/1 flyers.
My deck is leveraging Wrath of God effects, I'm not sure you'd want to do that as much, but I have tech in my list that might help you.
Hoogland suggest looking at replacing Squee and Mogg War Marshall for some number of Zurgo, Bellstriker. But this is an interesting deck that sometimes plays like an aggressive deck "nickle and diming" your opponents, but that can very affectively hide behind an Ensnaring Bridge and finish opponents off with Impact Tremors. Here is some game play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKapXaGQRgc
Its an interesting budget direction for the deck that actually has some real strengths and even if this list isn't exactly the direction for this deck we may find some ideas in this deck that work for us.
As a toolbox element since you are running so many 1x-of artifacts that cost 0-1 have you considered Trinket Mage ?
Besides fetching SB cards it also serves as extra copies of Relic/Citadel/Axe (and Capsule).
That's a really good suggestion.
I don't think I can imagine doing it maindeck, but I could be convinced. My thinking is that Trinket Mage is too slow for a lot of matchups. But for a sideboard card that could effectively function as a second or third of the "one of cards", I could potentially see it.
I don't feel like my sideboard is good right now. I also don't know if the 2/2 body left over by Trinket Mage is helpful, but I'm not sure it needs to be anything other than a search card. I think there is a lot of value in being able to search up cards in a control matchup. If you did that you might consider Explorer's Map to be able to find Academy Ruins and other lands like Urborg, Field of Ruin, or Ghost Quarter. You might also in that situation add Tolaria West because it can search out some zero cost cards.
If the metagame changes you might move the Damnations out of the maindeck and that could make room for Trinket Mage Package.
Again this deck is actually fairly well positioned right now because its fairs well against the answers to Humans and Hollow One that other people are playing and most sideboards won't have a lot of good things to bring in against you.
I traded a Marsh Flats for a Urborg. I can't imagine running more than 1 Urborg. I'm sure it adds a percentage point or two, but its not fixing the issue. Urborg is a slight improvement, so thank you, it was a great catch and good tuning decision, with little downside. I am by no means locked into the mana base. I'm not sure that I shouldn't have either added an extra land or changed out a different land.
I know a lot of people want to talk people playing this deck into running more useful artifacts and enchanting them. I do not fall into that camp. Just akin to Boggles, indestructible is our hexproof. We don't want to be enchanting Dryad Arbor in Boggles, you don't want to enchant medium useful artifacts in this deck. Especially since a real strength of this deck is being able to overextend with no fear of sweepers and use your sweepers without sacrificing your board position. Does Boggles enchant a Dryad Arbor every now and again, yes. But the reason Dryad Arbor is in the deck is that it helps the deck get around Sacrifice effects. The Lich maybe overkill. We have a lot of ways to make 5/5 indestructibles in the deck. For BBB he is hard to play, he can also create board states where the only indestructible artifact gets three for one'd by a Path to Exile. I mentioned the Lich so that we'd all know he was there, and that he can play a similar role to Tezzeret's Touch.
Pendant is a bad magic card. We are playing a lot of Bad Magic cards solely because they are cheap and indestructible. Is pendant's ability more useful than Relic, yes. Does Pendant cost 2 more mana than Relic... yes. Does what Pendant does get you enough for two mana? No. In many games if you had a relic in play and can cast Ensoul Artifact on a Relic you are doing something to slow down Humans and give you enough time to find sweepers or amass enough blockers that you can go on the offensive. The turn you think you could be paying for the Pendant might also be the turn you play a removal or discard spell. Pendant might be okay in a control matchup, but its not good in the current aggro metagame. Playtest everything. Maybe the two mana for Pendant works for you, but mostly I find Modern is too fast for Pendant. Notice I still play Pendant, I'm just playing a playset of Relic and only three Pendant. I like the Relic more than the Pendant, but I'm not totally away from the Pendant. I value Relic more because this deck wants to aggressively use its mana in the first couple turns with removal and disruption and this deck doesn't fear over extending. The only sweeper that is played with any frequency that hurts us is Terminus, and we'll just lose some games to Terminus, but we also have Stubborn Denial to help in those matchups. So we do just play our cards into the Board in most matchups, so anything slowing us down hurts us. Even when we are the Control deck against the really aggressive decks, we still aggressively put our cards onto the board. Most control decks don't have enough cards that interact with our game plan to win. We turn off a lot of their cards, especially the sweepers that gain them card advantage. That's this decks strength.
I think the value of all of the indestructible artifacts are low when not animated other than Citadel. Relic is the cheapest, so it may actually be more value than Axe or Pendant.
4 thraben inspector
4 squadrone hawk
4 memnite
4 lingering souls
4 mishras bauble
2 nihil spellbomb
4 mox opal
4 smugglers copter
4 chromatic star
4 cranial plating
2 jace, the mind sculpor
3 metallico rebuke
4 path to exile
4 darksteel citadel
4 blinkmoth nexis
4 seachrome coast
4 spire of indistustry
1 plains
Smugglers copter is the best equiment by far for squadrone hawk, same goes for cranial plating
Might also look at this deck for inspiration: Its similar and dissimilar and I could potentially see the two decks having middle ground or at least some card overlap that might be helpful...
We’re all used to seeing Lantern Control as the artifact control deck of Modern. That said, there are plenty of situations where Lantern Control starts to lose some of its ability to execute its gameplan. Cards like Search for Azcanta or instant-speed card drawing can really throw a wrench in the works, and you can have a little trouble getting off the ground and finding both an Ensnaring Bridge and Witchbane Orb against aggressive decks with the ability to burn you out. This week, ItIsUnfair has a new take on artifact control that tries to address some of these concerns and attack from a slightly different angle:
The Antiquities War
Where Lantern Control is built around the combination of Ensnaring Bridge, Lantern of Insight, and various Codex Shredder effects, this deck eschews most of that. Instead, you’ve got a lot of powerful singletons that can swing matchups on their own, rather than an engine that tries to lock your opponent out of the game. Engineered Explosives can single-handedly end games against decks like Affinity, Elves, and Bogles. Ensnaring Bridge is still a monstrously powerful card against creature decks of all varieties. Vedalken Shackles and the Thopter Foundry plus Sword of the Meek combo are great at locking out creature decks and letting you pressure control decks.
There’s a lot of flexibility to this deck, and the combination of Whir of Invention, Thoughtcast, and The Antiquities War means that you’re going to be able to find your singletons with a high degree of consistency. All of your small choices - how many Welding Jars to play, which silver bullets you need to beat up on fringe strategies - are going to matter quite a bit, since you have the ability to find the cards that can swing those matchups in Game 1.
If you want to play a Mox Opal control deck, but aren’t interesting in doing Lantern of Insight things, this seems like fun and powerful choice for your next Modern event.
When you run the White Splash, it does more damage and does mess up your scry's some, but I am guessing that I'd run Field of Ruins and maybe a Ghost Quarter or two in my mono-blue list, so I will still do some amount of shuffling my own library.
I see the real downside as the shocking yourself and in aggro on aggro matchups that is a real of a disadvantage. In those same aggro matchups the White Splash doesn't really help you. The white does little in Hollow One and Humans matchups maybe the access to Path to Exile is worth it? But if the meta is more combo, control and even midgame/tempo matchups, the white splash is very good. Even if the three best decks are aggro matchups where the White Splash doesn't help, if those three matchups are less than 25% of the metagame, then the white splash could be pretty good.
If I am voting, I am coming down for the white splash. Thalia is very good. Other white sideboard cards are very good. I'm not convinced I am right, but I think I've good logic and not on my face wrong, so I would spend some effort on the white splash to see if its better against the current metagame and I suspect the white splash will be better in big tournaments, where the better players play less aggressive decks.
I would actually advocate for playing mono blue over splashing white unless you already own the u/w mana base. A big incentive to playing this deck is that it is very competitive for how cheap it is to build. Playing mono blue is the only way to keep it cheap. I, however, already own the cards, so I figure why not splash? Path to Exile has felt amazing to me, and I can't see Dismember or any of our other options being nearly as good. I used to play Thorn of Amethyst, and yes, that card is fairly comparable to Thalia. But since I am splashing white, Thalia seems like a perfectly reasonable upgrade.
So just to be clear, I think the mono blue version is great, and it even has some advantages over my build. I do, however, want to be let everyone know that there is not as much risk to splashing as you might think. In my experience, the damage from the mana base has been fairly negligible. I rarely have to pay 2 life to shock because I just fetch for island if I need the immediate mana, and I can usually find a place to play Hallowed Fountain tapped if I draw it naturally. Burn is the one match up where it's obvious the damage hurts, but with careful, mindful play the damage can be mitigated. And yes, shuffling after scrying seems counterproductive, the there are a zillion other multicolored decks that play Serum Visions and/or Opt, so scrying with fetchlands is nothing new. I just do my best to minimize this interaction by being mindful of how and when I crack a fetch land.
I also wanted to point out that I finally played against the Ponza deck. On paper, my mana base looks terrible against Blood Moon. However, I was able to beat an earlyBlood Moon and multiple Stone Rains because the most of my powerful spells are (colorless) artifacts. The key to that match up is getting an Engineer or Architect to stick around because then you can still cast big artifacts after they decimate your mana base. Maybe I got lucky in that match though, who knows? I am definitely going to replace one Seachrome Coast with another island. That will help vs Field of Ruin (which literally everyone plays) and give me another out to Blood Moon (which I admit I am still terrified of).
Totally agree that the power level between U and Uw is basically the same. Either deck could be a marginally better choice than the other depending on the meta-game. Thalia is very strong, but its the access to White Sideboard cards that is very compelling. 100% agree that you add a lot of money to your mana base if you splash white and for the small edge it might give you it may not be worth investing in the cards.
I think that Blood Moon's are being played less right now and that most of the decks in the format can play through a Blood Moon. Which maybe allowing decks to creep back into the metagame that Blood Moon was keeping out of the format.
Ponza will win some games, but generally Ponza is a bad deck. Its cards are powerful, but it has to draw the right card at the right time and often stalls letting people back into a game because it cannot draw a win condition or it draws a lot of ramp and nothing to do with it. Ponza is not a consistent deck, but it is powerful, so we can and will win a lot of games against Ponza, my guess is we matchup favorably, but they will get draws that crush almost everyone, which can make Ponza look better than it is and more threatening than it is.
Smugglers copter is the best equipment by far for squadron hawk, same goes for cranial plating
I like this deck... Definitely an interesting take on the build...
I would suggest a Mistveil Plains if you are going to run the Squadron Hawks. I'd also consider Moorland Haunt and Academy Ruins. I too am worried about your mana base. Regardless of Blood Moon, which would be a real problem, but also is seeing less and less play, to the point, that losing some games to Blood Moon may not be the worst. But I think you may need to play with the number of colorless lands and 17 lands may not be enough... Especially if you are trying to get to Jace the Mind Sculptor. I don't know what he adds to the deck and getting to 4 mana on turn 3 or 4 may not happen for this deck regularly. If he's not on curve then you probably are okay with 17 lands and Mox, you just have to make sure you have enough colored mana access to cast your spells.
Second thing that comes to mind is that this deck might be a worse version of Affinity. Slightly less aggressive, maybe slightly more defensive, cards like Lingering Souls are more long game. So we need to look at what makes your deck better than Affinity. I think you can withstand removal better. You see more cards with your Bauble's, Smuggler's Copter, etc.
I'm not keen on Thraben Inspector in your build. I think you could look at something with evasion. I'd look to replace it with the good affinity cards like Hangarback Walker or Arcbound Ravager, etc. Which also don't require colored mana to cast. It may not seem like it has evasion, but it evades removal and buffs other creatures.
I also am not sure you don't want one or two Steelshaper's Gift, so that you find Cranial Plating every game. Your build focuses on putting Cranial Plating on an evasive creature. But having a lot of evasive creatures to cast and Squadron Hawk and Moorland Haunt are really good at filling those bills.
Please don't think I'm being too critical, I do like your build and think it has potential. I think you may very well be onto something with Cranial Plating being the potential focus of the deck. Using useful cheap artifacts in the build like Pithing Needle and Nihil Spellbomb that allow you to interact with your opponent. This deck could play a copy or two of Engineered Explosives in the sideboard.
Maybe something in this vein would work well. I'm sure there are more good sideboard cards... No tuning yet on it, but its focus is on Cranial Plating on unending flyers... Something like Arcbound Ravager that lets you sacrifice artifacts might be really good with this deck and Hangarback Walker and Cranial Plating... I'm also no where sure how many lands and or which lands to cut. Don't have a feel for it, so spend some time looking at the number of lands, coming into play tapped, and whether they are okay on your color distribution. Lingering Souls may not be as necessary to splash black if you have Hangarback Walker and Moorland Haunt to help. Vault Skirge might be main deck worthy, especially in an effort to have more cheap evasive artifacts.
I also think actively looking for more sideboard cards like Pithing Needle and Damping Sphere that slow down opponents and are also adding to your artifact count are a good direction for the deck.
Another direction to take the deck is to remove all the color requirements but White and colorless. I am not sure that Blue or Black are necessary colors to the build. This helps not to hurt yourself on land damage, but also may focus the deck, adding back in creatures that work better with the theme. White has a lot of good sideboard cards and Lingering Souls while it works well with Copter isn't really necessary and doesn't really synergize with the artifact theme other than making lots of good creatures for carrying cranial plating. Tempered Steel might be very good in this type of build.
Feels good; it's been a long time since I've gone better than 3-2 in a League (and more 2-3's and 1-4's than I'd like). Anyways, I agree with Ace1, Artificer's Assistant rocks. I am going to try going up to 4 copies and go down to 2 copies of Sage of Epityr. Maybe I'll run 2 Signal Pests in the Sages' spot, seeing how they happen trigger the Assistant. Sage was pretty good tonight though, just not quite as good as the Assistant.
As always, questions and suggestions are always welcome. Mad props to everyone for continuing to keep this forum awesome!
When you run the White Splash, it does more damage and does mess up your scry's some, but I am guessing that I'd run Field of Ruins and maybe a Ghost Quarter or two in my mono-blue list, so I will still do some amount of shuffling my own library.
I see the real downside as the shocking yourself and in aggro on aggro matchups that is a real of a disadvantage. In those same aggro matchups the White Splash doesn't really help you. The white does little in Hollow One and Humans matchups maybe the access to Path to Exile is worth it? But if the meta is more combo, control and even midgame/tempo matchups, the white splash is very good. Even if the three best decks are aggro matchups where the White Splash doesn't help, if those three matchups are less than 25% of the metagame, then the white splash could be pretty good.
If I am voting, I am coming down for the white splash. Thalia is very good. Other white sideboard cards are very good. I'm not convinced I am right, but I think I've good logic and not on my face wrong, so I would spend some effort on the white splash to see if its better against the current metagame and I suspect the white splash will be better in big tournaments, where the better players play less aggressive decks.
Oona's Prowler
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Big Game Hunter
Illness in the Ranks, Virulent Plague, Could be good cards on their own in Modern with so many token creatures, I see you Lingering Souls, so it might be a decent Hunted Strategy alongside just using Hunted Horror and Hunted Troll.
Time of Need might be a really excellent 5-8 versions of Eldritch Evolution. It may allow a tool box of legendary creatures that are actually good. It might be something to explore, especially if you can tutor for cards like Gadock Teeg and Kataki, War's Wage if you splash white. I am sure there are more quality Legend Tool box cards available to get out of the sideboard. But Ghalta, Primal Hunger might also be a Legendary Creature that might be cheap enough to cast with a couple creatures out or cheap to scavenge after you have scavenged other creatures to combo kill.
Honestly the Hardened Scales approach maybe good, because it plays a lot of quality creatures and the scales in many ways serve as more versions of Vrolz.
Other cards that help with lands being creatures:
Genju of the Falls -- Etc is a land that untaps with Intruder Alarm, so does Faerie Conclave, Lifespark Spellbomb, but you still need green mana...
Forbidden Orchard by itself doesn't produce infinite mana (you'd have to make Forbidden Orchard a creature), although it might be good in this kind of deck.
The logic has been that you are basically creating a four card combo with inclusion of Intruder Alarm and a mana myr, that's hard to assemble. Time Sieve can do the same job with just one more card and you can tutor for it with anything that can tutor for the other parts, like Muddle the Mixture or Whir of Invention. Generally people have put more controlling cards into the deck and just won eventually with the two card combo of Thopter Sword.
What you are trying to do will work and there might be enough other Intruder Alarm combos to put into the deck to actually merit the combo centric version you are expousing, but you'd have to rework it. If you plan on doing that look for other Intruder Alarm combos and see what grabs you.
4 Spell Queller
2 Eternal Scourge
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
1 Selfless Spirit
Spells (14)
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Cryptic Command
1 Logic Knot
1 Negate
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgment
1 Paradise Mantle
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Grafted Wargear
Lands (24)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Academy Ruins
2 Plains
4 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Settle the Wreckage
3 Vendillion Clique
2 Negate
2 Dispel
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Jace the Mindsculpter
1 Batterskull
This is a deck list I have been playing around with its a version of Caw Blade that doesn't run Jace main... I could easily see replacing some pieces to play more Eldrazi.
Cards you should look at Spellstutter Sprite, Snapcaster Mage, Eternal Scourge, I think they pair well with Eldrazi Displacer, and a list more predicated on blinking could surely work. But I like Eternal Scourge, even if its a one or two of in your deck having a creature you can't remove is very nice. Moorland Haunt works well if Eldrazi especially Scourge which can exile him if he winds up in your graveyard, but Moorland Haunt also makes colorless mana. Every deck can figure out something to do with 1/1 flyers.
My deck is leveraging Wrath of God effects, I'm not sure you'd want to do that as much, but I have tech in my list that might help you.
1 Squee, the Immortal
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3 Mogg War Marshal
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Norin the Wary
2 Abrade
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Outpost Siege
4 Impact Tremors
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Genesis Chamber
1 Kher Keep
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
3 Sunscorched Desert
4 Ramunap Ruins
1 Magma Spray
4 Damping Sphere
2 Dire Fleet Daredevil
2 Outpost Siege
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ensnaring Bridge
Hoogland suggest looking at replacing Squee and Mogg War Marshall for some number of Zurgo, Bellstriker. But this is an interesting deck that sometimes plays like an aggressive deck "nickle and diming" your opponents, but that can very affectively hide behind an Ensnaring Bridge and finish opponents off with Impact Tremors. Here is some game play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKapXaGQRgc
Its an interesting budget direction for the deck that actually has some real strengths and even if this list isn't exactly the direction for this deck we may find some ideas in this deck that work for us.
4 Spell Queller
2 Eternal Scourge
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
1 Selfless Spirit
Spells (14)
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Cryptic Command
1 Logic Knot
1 Negate
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgment
1 Paradise Mantle
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Grafted Wargear
Lands (24)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Academy Ruins
2 Plains
4 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Settle the Wreckage
3 Vendillion Clique
2 Negate
2 Dispel
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Jace the Mindsculpter
1 Batterskull
That's a really good suggestion.
I don't think I can imagine doing it maindeck, but I could be convinced. My thinking is that Trinket Mage is too slow for a lot of matchups. But for a sideboard card that could effectively function as a second or third of the "one of cards", I could potentially see it.
I don't feel like my sideboard is good right now. I also don't know if the 2/2 body left over by Trinket Mage is helpful, but I'm not sure it needs to be anything other than a search card. I think there is a lot of value in being able to search up cards in a control matchup. If you did that you might consider Explorer's Map to be able to find Academy Ruins and other lands like Urborg, Field of Ruin, or Ghost Quarter. You might also in that situation add Tolaria West because it can search out some zero cost cards.
If the metagame changes you might move the Damnations out of the maindeck and that could make room for Trinket Mage Package.
Again this deck is actually fairly well positioned right now because its fairs well against the answers to Humans and Hollow One that other people are playing and most sideboards won't have a lot of good things to bring in against you.
4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
Creature (1)
1x Phylactery Lich
Artifact (12)
4x Darksteel Relic
4x Darksteel Axe
3x Darksteel Pendant
1x Executioner's Capsule
Enchantment (8)
4x Ensoul Artifact
4x Tezzeret's Touch
Sorcery (8)
3x Damnation
2x Thoughtseize
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
Instant (4)
2x Fatal Push
1x Dismember
1x Stubborn Denial
4x Darksteel Citadel
1x Academy Ruins
4x Polluted Delta
1x Marsh Flats
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Sunken Ruins
2x Watery Grave
4x Darkslick Shores
1x Island
3x Swamp
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Pithing Needle
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Bontu's Last Reckoning
1x Thoughtseize
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Nihil Spellbomb
3x Stubborn Denial
2x Damping Sphere
1x Etched Champion
1x Damnation
I traded a Marsh Flats for a Urborg. I can't imagine running more than 1 Urborg. I'm sure it adds a percentage point or two, but its not fixing the issue. Urborg is a slight improvement, so thank you, it was a great catch and good tuning decision, with little downside. I am by no means locked into the mana base. I'm not sure that I shouldn't have either added an extra land or changed out a different land.
I know a lot of people want to talk people playing this deck into running more useful artifacts and enchanting them. I do not fall into that camp. Just akin to Boggles, indestructible is our hexproof. We don't want to be enchanting Dryad Arbor in Boggles, you don't want to enchant medium useful artifacts in this deck. Especially since a real strength of this deck is being able to overextend with no fear of sweepers and use your sweepers without sacrificing your board position. Does Boggles enchant a Dryad Arbor every now and again, yes. But the reason Dryad Arbor is in the deck is that it helps the deck get around Sacrifice effects. The Lich maybe overkill. We have a lot of ways to make 5/5 indestructibles in the deck. For BBB he is hard to play, he can also create board states where the only indestructible artifact gets three for one'd by a Path to Exile. I mentioned the Lich so that we'd all know he was there, and that he can play a similar role to Tezzeret's Touch.
Pendant is a bad magic card. We are playing a lot of Bad Magic cards solely because they are cheap and indestructible. Is pendant's ability more useful than Relic, yes. Does Pendant cost 2 more mana than Relic... yes. Does what Pendant does get you enough for two mana? No. In many games if you had a relic in play and can cast Ensoul Artifact on a Relic you are doing something to slow down Humans and give you enough time to find sweepers or amass enough blockers that you can go on the offensive. The turn you think you could be paying for the Pendant might also be the turn you play a removal or discard spell. Pendant might be okay in a control matchup, but its not good in the current aggro metagame. Playtest everything. Maybe the two mana for Pendant works for you, but mostly I find Modern is too fast for Pendant. Notice I still play Pendant, I'm just playing a playset of Relic and only three Pendant. I like the Relic more than the Pendant, but I'm not totally away from the Pendant. I value Relic more because this deck wants to aggressively use its mana in the first couple turns with removal and disruption and this deck doesn't fear over extending. The only sweeper that is played with any frequency that hurts us is Terminus, and we'll just lose some games to Terminus, but we also have Stubborn Denial to help in those matchups. So we do just play our cards into the Board in most matchups, so anything slowing us down hurts us. Even when we are the Control deck against the really aggressive decks, we still aggressively put our cards onto the board. Most control decks don't have enough cards that interact with our game plan to win. We turn off a lot of their cards, especially the sweepers that gain them card advantage. That's this decks strength.
Might also look at this deck for inspiration: Its similar and dissimilar and I could potentially see the two decks having middle ground or at least some card overlap that might be helpful...
We’re all used to seeing Lantern Control as the artifact control deck of Modern. That said, there are plenty of situations where Lantern Control starts to lose some of its ability to execute its gameplan. Cards like Search for Azcanta or instant-speed card drawing can really throw a wrench in the works, and you can have a little trouble getting off the ground and finding both an Ensnaring Bridge and Witchbane Orb against aggressive decks with the ability to burn you out. This week, ItIsUnfair has a new take on artifact control that tries to address some of these concerns and attack from a slightly different angle:
2 Supreme Verdict
3 Thoughtcast
2 The Antiquities War
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Terrarion
2 Welding Jar
3 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
4 Chromatic Star
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
6 Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Flooded Strand
3 Damping Sphere
1 Detention Sphere
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Fragmentize
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Path to Exile
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The Antiquities War
Where Lantern Control is built around the combination of Ensnaring Bridge, Lantern of Insight, and various Codex Shredder effects, this deck eschews most of that. Instead, you’ve got a lot of powerful singletons that can swing matchups on their own, rather than an engine that tries to lock your opponent out of the game. Engineered Explosives can single-handedly end games against decks like Affinity, Elves, and Bogles. Ensnaring Bridge is still a monstrously powerful card against creature decks of all varieties. Vedalken Shackles and the Thopter Foundry plus Sword of the Meek combo are great at locking out creature decks and letting you pressure control decks.
There’s a lot of flexibility to this deck, and the combination of Whir of Invention, Thoughtcast, and The Antiquities War means that you’re going to be able to find your singletons with a high degree of consistency. All of your small choices - how many Welding Jars to play, which silver bullets you need to beat up on fringe strategies - are going to matter quite a bit, since you have the ability to find the cards that can swing those matchups in Game 1.
If you want to play a Mox Opal control deck, but aren’t interesting in doing Lantern of Insight things, this seems like fun and powerful choice for your next Modern event.
Totally agree that the power level between U and Uw is basically the same. Either deck could be a marginally better choice than the other depending on the meta-game. Thalia is very strong, but its the access to White Sideboard cards that is very compelling. 100% agree that you add a lot of money to your mana base if you splash white and for the small edge it might give you it may not be worth investing in the cards.
I think that Blood Moon's are being played less right now and that most of the decks in the format can play through a Blood Moon. Which maybe allowing decks to creep back into the metagame that Blood Moon was keeping out of the format.
Ponza will win some games, but generally Ponza is a bad deck. Its cards are powerful, but it has to draw the right card at the right time and often stalls letting people back into a game because it cannot draw a win condition or it draws a lot of ramp and nothing to do with it. Ponza is not a consistent deck, but it is powerful, so we can and will win a lot of games against Ponza, my guess is we matchup favorably, but they will get draws that crush almost everyone, which can make Ponza look better than it is and more threatening than it is.
I like this deck... Definitely an interesting take on the build...
I would suggest a Mistveil Plains if you are going to run the Squadron Hawks. I'd also consider Moorland Haunt and Academy Ruins. I too am worried about your mana base. Regardless of Blood Moon, which would be a real problem, but also is seeing less and less play, to the point, that losing some games to Blood Moon may not be the worst. But I think you may need to play with the number of colorless lands and 17 lands may not be enough... Especially if you are trying to get to Jace the Mind Sculptor. I don't know what he adds to the deck and getting to 4 mana on turn 3 or 4 may not happen for this deck regularly. If he's not on curve then you probably are okay with 17 lands and Mox, you just have to make sure you have enough colored mana access to cast your spells.
Second thing that comes to mind is that this deck might be a worse version of Affinity. Slightly less aggressive, maybe slightly more defensive, cards like Lingering Souls are more long game. So we need to look at what makes your deck better than Affinity. I think you can withstand removal better. You see more cards with your Bauble's, Smuggler's Copter, etc.
I'm not keen on Thraben Inspector in your build. I think you could look at something with evasion. I'd look to replace it with the good affinity cards like Hangarback Walker or Arcbound Ravager, etc. Which also don't require colored mana to cast. It may not seem like it has evasion, but it evades removal and buffs other creatures.
Hangarback Walker can make a lot of artifacts for Cranial Plating...
I also am not sure you don't want one or two Steelshaper's Gift, so that you find Cranial Plating every game. Your build focuses on putting Cranial Plating on an evasive creature. But having a lot of evasive creatures to cast and Squadron Hawk and Moorland Haunt are really good at filling those bills.
Please don't think I'm being too critical, I do like your build and think it has potential. I think you may very well be onto something with Cranial Plating being the potential focus of the deck. Using useful cheap artifacts in the build like Pithing Needle and Nihil Spellbomb that allow you to interact with your opponent. This deck could play a copy or two of Engineered Explosives in the sideboard.
3 squadron hawk
4 Ornithopter
4 Hangarback Walker
1 Arcbound Ravager
3 Metallic rebuke
4 Path to exile
3 lingering souls
2 Steelshaper's Gift
4 mishra's bauble
1 nihil spellbomb
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 mox opal
3 smugglers copter
4 Cranial plating
2 Darksteel citadel
4 Blinkmoth nexis
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand
1 Seachrome coast
2 Spire of industry
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Academy Ruins
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Metallic Rebuke
1 Dragon's Claw
4 Vault Skirge
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Ensoul Artifact
2 Damping Sphere
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
Maybe something in this vein would work well. I'm sure there are more good sideboard cards... No tuning yet on it, but its focus is on Cranial Plating on unending flyers... Something like Arcbound Ravager that lets you sacrifice artifacts might be really good with this deck and Hangarback Walker and Cranial Plating... I'm also no where sure how many lands and or which lands to cut. Don't have a feel for it, so spend some time looking at the number of lands, coming into play tapped, and whether they are okay on your color distribution. Lingering Souls may not be as necessary to splash black if you have Hangarback Walker and Moorland Haunt to help. Vault Skirge might be main deck worthy, especially in an effort to have more cheap evasive artifacts.
I also think actively looking for more sideboard cards like Pithing Needle and Damping Sphere that slow down opponents and are also adding to your artifact count are a good direction for the deck.
Another direction to take the deck is to remove all the color requirements but White and colorless. I am not sure that Blue or Black are necessary colors to the build. This helps not to hurt yourself on land damage, but also may focus the deck, adding back in creatures that work better with the theme. White has a lot of good sideboard cards and Lingering Souls while it works well with Copter isn't really necessary and doesn't really synergize with the artifact theme other than making lots of good creatures for carrying cranial plating. Tempered Steel might be very good in this type of build.
When you run the White Splash, it does more damage and does mess up your scry's some, but I am guessing that I'd run Field of Ruins and maybe a Ghost Quarter or two in my mono-blue list, so I will still do some amount of shuffling my own library.
I see the real downside as the shocking yourself and in aggro on aggro matchups that is a real of a disadvantage. In those same aggro matchups the White Splash doesn't really help you. The white does little in Hollow One and Humans matchups maybe the access to Path to Exile is worth it? But if the meta is more combo, control and even midgame/tempo matchups, the white splash is very good. Even if the three best decks are aggro matchups where the White Splash doesn't help, if those three matchups are less than 25% of the metagame, then the white splash could be pretty good.
If I am voting, I am coming down for the white splash. Thalia is very good. Other white sideboard cards are very good. I'm not convinced I am right, but I think I've good logic and not on my face wrong, so I would spend some effort on the white splash to see if its better against the current metagame and I suspect the white splash will be better in big tournaments, where the better players play less aggressive decks.