Smallpox is on the cusp of being broken. The issue is there isn't enough ways to easily recurse it while gaining an advantage, without hurting yourself worse than your opponent. If there was another smallpox effect in modern (other than Death Cloud and Undercity Plague which each have their own logistical issues) it might be enough.
With the return of cycling I'm praying we get some good utility/cycling lands. I really want a life from the loam deck to be more viable in modern and that'd be a good step towards it personally.
Edit: maybe enters tapped cycling dual lands of some kind?
Spell weaver helix would work with a retrace spell like raven's crime, but at that point why aren't you just using crime and Dark Petition to fetch 20 lands to keep retracing dark petition into exsanguinate?
If you can handle an untapped colorless land in your mana base, I am of the opinion that you should run one. I play ad nauseam, and across about 2000 or so games with it on mtgo, gemstone caverns has enabled the turn 2 kill 4 times. (Turn 1 gemstone and a land + pentad prism, turn two land + simian spirit guide + angels grace + ad nauseam.)
I also ran it in a variant of eldrazi tron as a pseudo sol land, that occasionally enabled turn 1 matter reshaper into turn 2 reality smasher.
Neither of these are likely scenarios by any means, but they can and do occur occasionally. Generally when they do, the game is a free win.
Even when it existed it wasn't great, but yeah I miss playing against it because it's a great match up for my ad nauseam list. Especially when inexperienced control pilots don't understand that you can't risk tapping out against it.
Honestly, I want a control energy counterspell for modern. Like:
Force of Energy: 3UU
You may pay 2 life and 4 energy instead of ~'s mana cost.
Counter target spell.
Energy is tough to build in a format like modern, especially really quickly, so it's a nerfed FOW that probably can't be used on turn 1, but great for control.
To make sure it's not broken in standard, I'd like to see a hate bear or artifact style hoser that says "alternative casting costs can't be paid" somewhere on it.
Alternatively or in addition, I'd like a high power energy can trip.
Energetic Pondering (U)
Instant
You may pay 3 energy, if you do, scry 3.
Battle at the bridge? What bridge? Looks like Ensnaring bridge. I have the absolute highest doubts that card would ever see reprint in a standard legal set, but my inner sadist wants it so bad.
So, the biggest issue I see with dredge isn't that hate doesn't stop it. I have watched tons of players mulligan to relic/leyline/tormods/rest in peace/Graf diggers cage to try and beat dredge. The biggest issue is they mulligan to 4 or 5 cards in hand.
Disregarding all other factors and reasons, what percentage of games do you win when you mulligan to 4 or 5? I know for me it's not a very large percent. Maybe 30% of games when I mulligan that low do I have a chance to win, and that's if my opponent doesn't have hate for the deck I'm playing, in which case the chance of me winning is basically 0.
Honestly, you need consistent, early hate without mulliganing to beat dredge if your game plan isn't racing them. A card like Preordain helps you get to your sideboard hate quickly.
I truly believe that running two of a hate piece when you don't cycle through your deck at all is insufficient, and expecting to draw it is foolhardy.
You also can't play this version of thoughtseize at 1 or less life. Angel's grace and phyrexian unlife in ad nauseam come to mind. As well as Platinum Angel from the madcap deck. Platinum Emperion would also prevent you from paying life to cast it. Also, Spell Snare hits this and not thoughtseize.
If we're trying to abuse untaps a lot, has anyone considered Clock of Omens? If we're playing a bunch of low cost artifacts, we can use them all a fuel. It doesn't go infinite but it could provide redundancy to win across several turns.
The major issue with Mental Misstep is that it is the best answer to itself. So, in order to combat it effectively, you have to run it, making it incredibly format warping.
Edit: maybe enters tapped cycling dual lands of some kind?
1 blue mana
Sorcery
Target opponent fateseals 3. (To fateseal, the chosen opponent looks at the top 3 cards of your library and put them on top or bottom in any order.)
Draw two cards.
"You will only see what I want you to see." -Nicol Bolas
I also ran it in a variant of eldrazi tron as a pseudo sol land, that occasionally enabled turn 1 matter reshaper into turn 2 reality smasher.
Neither of these are likely scenarios by any means, but they can and do occur occasionally. Generally when they do, the game is a free win.
Force of Energy: 3UU
You may pay 2 life and 4 energy instead of ~'s mana cost.
Counter target spell.
Energy is tough to build in a format like modern, especially really quickly, so it's a nerfed FOW that probably can't be used on turn 1, but great for control.
To make sure it's not broken in standard, I'd like to see a hate bear or artifact style hoser that says "alternative casting costs can't be paid" somewhere on it.
Alternatively or in addition, I'd like a high power energy can trip.
Energetic Pondering (U)
Instant
You may pay 3 energy, if you do, scry 3.
Draw a card.
Disregarding all other factors and reasons, what percentage of games do you win when you mulligan to 4 or 5? I know for me it's not a very large percent. Maybe 30% of games when I mulligan that low do I have a chance to win, and that's if my opponent doesn't have hate for the deck I'm playing, in which case the chance of me winning is basically 0.
Honestly, you need consistent, early hate without mulliganing to beat dredge if your game plan isn't racing them. A card like Preordain helps you get to your sideboard hate quickly.
I truly believe that running two of a hate piece when you don't cycle through your deck at all is insufficient, and expecting to draw it is foolhardy.
Land
Tap: Add 2 to your mana pool, spend this mana only to cast non-creature artifact spells.
This is what I want in my life right now.