Type: Deck Idea
Format (invalid) modModern
Approx. Value:
$799.11
Buy

0 Likes 0 Comments
Avg. CMC 2.12
Card Color Breakdown
Card Type Breakdown

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Main Deck - 62 cards, 26 distinct
Columns
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (11)
1 Children of Korlis
$0.26 Creature - Human Rebel Cleric
4 Griselbrand
$9.31 Legendary Creature - Demon
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound
$5.27 Legendary Creature - Human Wizard // Legendary Planeswalker - Jace
4 Simian Spirit Guide
$1.37 Creature - Ape Spirit
Instant (20)
4 Angel's Grace
$5.41 Instant
1 Fists of Flame
$0.09 Instant
1 Fling
$0.08 Instant
4 Goryo's Vengeance
$21.94 Instant - Arcane
4 Izzet Charm
$0.23 Instant
1 Makeshift Mannequin
$0.29 Instant
3 Pact of Negation
$10.68 Instant
2 Thrill of Possibility
$0.08 Instant
Sorcery (6)
2 Footsteps of the Goryo
$4.77 Sorcery - Arcane
4 Scheming Symmetry
$5.77 Sorcery
Artifact (6)
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
$0.10 Snow Artifact
1 Mox Amber
$40.46 Legendary Artifact
1 Wishclaw Talisman
$2.92 Artifact
Land (19)
4 Flooded Strand
$10.85 Land
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
$1.28 Legendary Land
1 Hallowed Fountain
$8.08 Land - Plains Island
1 Mystic Sanctuary
$2.06 Land - Island
2 Polluted Delta
$13.42 Land
4 Scalding Tarn
$19.48 Land
4 Snow-Covered Island
$1.35 Basic Snow Land - Island
1 Steam Vents
$12.44 Land - Island Mountain
1 Watery Grave
$12.78 Land - Island Swamp
Sideboard - 92 cards, 68 distinct
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (16)
4 Baral, Chief of Compliance
$2.65 Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
$15.74 Legendary Creature - Phyrexian Praetor
1 Geist of Saint Traft
$0.71 Legendary Creature - Spirit Cleric
1 Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
$3.03 Legendary Creature - Boar God
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
$6.15 Legendary Creature - Angel
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound
$5.27 Legendary Creature - Human Wizard // Legendary Planeswalker - Jace
1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
$0.37 Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
$13.60 Legendary Creature - Angel
1 Linvala, the Preserver
$0.38 Legendary Creature - Angel
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
$0.22 Legendary Creature - Goblin
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
$3.45 Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
1 Vendilion Clique
$2.88 Legendary Creature - Faerie Wizard
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
$0.91 Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Instant (40)
1 Ceremonious Rejection
$0.12 Instant
2 Commandeer
$7.12 Instant
2 Cryptic Command
$7.34 Instant
4 Desperate Ritual
$2.86 Instant - Arcane
1 Dovin's Veto
$3.08 Instant
1 Drown in the Loch
$0.93 Instant
1 Esper Charm
$0.39 Instant
1 Fatal Push
$1.55 Instant
1 Force of Negation
$42.90 Instant
1 Gainsay
$0.06 Instant
2 Gifts Ungiven
$0.66 Instant
1 Kaya's Guile
$0.76 Instant
1 Lightning Axe
$0.24 Instant
1 Lightning Helix
$0.24 Instant
1 Lightning Storm
$0.33 Instant
1 Magmatic Sinkhole
$0.04 Instant
4 Mana Leak
$0.17 Instant
2 Manamorphose
$4.01 Instant
1 Murderous Cut
$0.32 Instant
1 Negate
$0.16 Instant
1 Noxious Revival
$5.96 Instant
1 Path to Exile
$0.81 Instant
4 Remand
$0.45 Instant
2 Silence
$6.71 Instant
1 Surgical Extraction
$2.63 Instant
1 Through the Breach
$10.13 Instant - Arcane
Sorcery (18)
1 Cathartic Reunion
$0.12 Sorcery
1 Chart a Course
$0.17 Sorcery
2 Collective Brutality
$0.83 Sorcery
1 Dead of Winter
$0.25 Sorcery
1 Discovery // Dispersal
$0.12 Sorcery // Instant //
2 Footsteps of the Goryo
$4.77 Sorcery - Arcane
1 Ideas Unbound
$2.37 Sorcery - Arcane
1 Maximize Velocity
$0.03 Sorcery
1 Providence
$0.21 Sorcery
1 Ransack the Lab
$0.06 Sorcery
1 Shenanigans
$0.07 Sorcery
4 Thoughtseize
$8.21 Sorcery
1 Unburial Rites
$0.18 Sorcery
Artifact (2)
1 Chalice of the Void
$28.56 Artifact
1 Vedalken Shackles
$4.49 Artifact
Enchantment (6)
1 Blind Obedience
$2.04 Enchantment
1 Blood Moon
$5.93 Enchantment
1 Deafening Silence
$1.39 Enchantment
1 Leyline of Sanctity
$0.63 Enchantment
1 Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin
$2.11 Legendary Enchantment // Legendary Land
1 Stony Silence
$1.88 Enchantment
Planeswalker (5)
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
$0.29 Legendary Planeswalker - Nahiri
3 Teferi, Time Raveler
$3.23 Legendary Planeswalker - Teferi
1 The Royal Scions
$0.35 Legendary Planeswalker - Will Rowan
Land (5)
1 Desolate Lighthouse
$0.09 Land
1 Prismatic Vista
$29.02 Land
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
$0.72 Basic Snow Land - Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Plains
$0.79 Basic Snow Land - Plains
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
$0.85 Basic Snow Land - Swamp

Notes
 
This deck hit as an epiphany last night. It incensed my mine for half the night. It seems so obvious. Whats an underrated graveyard deck that has more room to operate now that I've got reps in? Gifts ungiven/ unburial rights of course. I don't think this deck has been looked at by anyone since gifts storm became the best thing you can with gifts. It has so many new tools, and I'm more skilled as well. There are likely a number of creatures like Iona that are just KO against most opponents still, and the archetype is much improved as it got access too Teferi, Time Raveler, and Mox Amber, which add free mana 5-8 with an active Griselbrand. Speaking of griselbrand, I think we  finally found a home for it. Griselbrand with Fists of the flame is KO, Children of Korlis should be a KO, as any griselbrand should lead to a lot of cards and reanimating a borborygomos enraged, which with 7 land is an auto win. Goryo's vengeance is the perfect redundancy for the gifts package which offers a more explosive beginning as well. There seems like a good amount of room to work as well, I can play some good disruption and hold the combo, get them inevitably. I think I can do this instant speed too.

After trying to pair down the deck, it's clear that the package revolves around a more midrange style deck as we are completely incentivized too play counterspells with baral and thoughtseize. Thoughtseize is just the best card possible in this deck.It protects the combo, is great disruption, is great with Teferi, enables the fast combo by getting a piece out of our hand potentially going off on turn 2. Having my opponent having to slog through all that disruption that also functions as enablers should make it pretty easy to combo kill. Speaking of the combo kill, I think optimizing the graveyard combo for instant speed is necessary. This would allow us to combo out in their untap step, which is not only good with Teferi, but turns pact of negation into force of will to protect our combo, which is banana's. Playing this deck I want to note that we can not allow a Narset to resolve. The unfortunate thing is that an Instant speed win requires the exclusive use of simian spirit guide, which is problematic as we need a W most likely to full combo, and 5 mana. This would indicate a mixture of manamorphose and desperate ritual then, which is fine, but is another knock against korlis and mox amber. Footsteps of the goryo is another intriguing option between vengeance and unburial rites that allows us to further combo out at a different rate. After some more exploration, this feels almost more akin to storm. The difference then is tied to the amount of practive disruption we get to play to set us apart from the other baral based combo deck.

It's also cool that we could sideboard into Ilharg and Nahiri to sidestep graveyard hate.

Is this Griselbrand version I'm working just a bad storm deck though? I want to try a more traditional non-combo based version of the deck as well. Looking at big durdles locking out a game. I get to play more disruption so I think my individual card quality is higher, and something like dampening sphere doesn't hose me super bad. I also shouldn't die to a lot of aggro like storm does, but I do open myself to more hate, which is okay right now. The original gifts/rites deck used it more as a super slow stoneforge mystic, but it only saw any success because Iona and Elesh Norn lock out some matchups. My version is more combo oriented, which emulates storm and Ad Nauseum much more. We are actually super close to Ad Nauseum. We use the gifts/rite package as a super entomb and redundant combo mechanism. We are trying to assemble it in hand, but if we don't, then we get to go off on T5 every time. The difference between storm and Ad Nauseum is instant speed but at a trade off of mana. So is the niche' we are delving into the instant speed of Ad Nauseum with the fast starts of Storm, as well as more disruption then both? Our cost is being graveyard dependent, but in a low graveyard hate meta, and the upside of using force to cover our combo is just very strong. I think the next part is to make a combo decision tree and form the deck around optimizing this tree. I think I have to many variables to finish a list without doing this, making it impossible to pin down enablers and disruption packages. Congruent with this is a list of points in the game where I combo off. Deciding which one is the most optimal and consistent to strive for will inform engine decisions, and then we will know how many of the ancillary options are incorporated in our shell.
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