dknight27

Clerics, one of the almost forgotten tribes, even though there are hundreds of them. A few thoughts jump out at me.

You want to get as close to 60 cards in a deck as you can in general, it helps the math too much to ignore. So try and cut 5 cards if you can. If you do cut it down to 60, 1 or 2 of the 5 cards can be lands, as you really only need to run 21 or 22 lands in a build like this (which should help).

You've also got a high concentration of 3-drops, which is going to slow things down (even with the cost reductor cleric). I'd recommend trimming Cabal Archon completely. You can use it to suicide off your clerics for a conditional win, but other than that, you're just throwing away material and tempo for a little draino (lifegain/lifeloss). I know you can combo it with Skirsdag High Priest and/or Oversold Cemetery, but if you want a sac outlet to combo, there are much better options, and you kind of have to build a deck around them.

Couple other things to trim for various reasons: Exterminatus (hurts you just as much, costs much more than most nuke options) and Book of Ras (costs too much, takes too much resource to operate, better versions exist).

I'd say the cards you need to check out are, first and foremost, [[Crippling Fear]], which does nothing to you but will devastate opponent (and is relatively cheap). Patriarch's Bidding, which fits perfectly with the Scion of Darkness theme as well as just tribal in general. [[Shadow-Rite Priest]] just fits in with everything. [[Doubtless One]] is a nice consideration, especially with the lifelink that can keep you alive long enough to pull off your combo. And a potential sub for Book or Ras, [[Slate of Ancestry]], which goes (potentially) well in heavy critter builds that combos with a lot of themes and can give you MASSIVE card advantage.

I'm sure there's more to consider, but this was what jumped out.

Couple ways to do it that come to mind. [[Ezuri, Renegade Leader]] will turn your Devoted Druid into an infinite/infinite with Trample (that can attack this turn), so it can attack for lethal damage. It's 7 bucks a pop. Same thing with [[Kamahl, Fist of Krosa]], which is less than a dollar but isn't legal in Modern (I assume this is going for Modern legal). Kamahl also kicks all your lands into death critters, so if opponent has a response it makes it less likely to hit. [[Shalai, Voice of Plenty]] puts infinite +1/+1 counters on your critters (who can attack), so you have 2 infinite/infinites ready to attack that turn with one more with flying set for the turn after. It's modern legal and costs about 3 bucks a pop.

None are as good as Ballista, but each would get the job done. If you don't care about legality, Kamahl is probably the way to go.

Solid combo setup. If you can afford it (10 bucks a copy minimum) it would be easier/safer to run [[Pact of Negation]] over Avoid Fate, as it covers essentially everything, and you'd (hopefully) have already won, so you don't have to worry about paying the upkeep price on the next turn. That will free up a mana and give you better coverage, specifically from sorceries, artifacts, and creature effects that could disrupt the combo if they land.

Not really necessary though, overall I think it looks pretty good. You could try to pull some shenanigans with Green Sun's Zenith now that it's modern legal, but it's quite expensive, and only grabs you 1/3 of your combo. There are still fun tricks you can do with it, such as using it turn 1 to fetch a [[Dryad Arbor]] to essentially give you a +1 in development (this deck wants mana), but I assume it's not really an option due to the price.

Don't get me wrong, I'll agree all day that it's a broken card. As are lots of the banned cards. I was just looking forward to working out effective counter measures against them.

I'm both excited for the mass banning but also a little bummed, as I've been working on counter measures for a little bit, and I think I found a few silver bullets buried in the halls of forgotten cards, such as [[Arc Trail]] and [[Exorcise]]. But obviously it's good for the format and the game as a whole, so I guess I won't complain further.

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/dramatic-reversal-combocasual/

I figured I'd just do it and simplify.

Fun combo indeed. Couple ways I see that can help. I'm actually going to propose a major change that should help quite a bit, followed by a bunch of small changes that play off that major change.

So, what you need for the combo to go off: 1- Isochron, 2- Dramatic Reversal,3- 3 mana per turn generated by artifacts/creatures tapping, and 4- your mana outlet (currently Blue Sun's Zenith).

The major change I see is dropping Blue Sun's Zenith as the win condition and using [[Razortip Whip]] and [[Twitching Doll]] instead. I say this for the following reasons:
1- both new wincons are searchable by the same thing as almost the entire other combo, whereas Zenith isn't (more on this below)
2- Twitching Doll is also a mana rock and ups the chances of your combo going off
3- both don't require specifically colored mana to activate, which frees up your mana rock options

The best part of this combo is that you can search a good chunk of its pieces with the same cards, which are both cheap and have a low mana cost. Your first and best search option is [[Muddle the Mixture]], which lets you search Isochron, Reversal, your mana rocks, and your new win conditions (see above). Meaning, you can literally search any piece of the combo you want for 3 mana.

If you switch out the win cons (see above), the only card you can't search with artifact search is Reversal, which makes the combo (again) even more likely to go off, as you can search out almost every piece with the same search cards. [[Fabricate]] is your best bet, but it's 5 bucks (might be out of the price range), in which case go with [[Tribute Mage]] which fetches everything but Sol Ring and Reversal. Combined with Muddle, that's 8 fetch cards that are 3-drops that get you what you need.

I'd also cut Jaspera Sentinel, as it's hella conditional, and just go with some 1-drop blue tactics cards like [[Ponder]], which thins the deck, gets you what you want, and can be played early to speed things up.

Your mana rocks can/need to be swapped around too, as you don't need blue anymore for the combo. I'd leave Simic Signet (you still have blue cards) and go with [[Talisman of Curiosity]] over the other two signets, as they get what you need done in a better fashion, and has an extra feature that helps the build.

As for Trinket Mage and Sol Ring, I say keep those, and add in 1 copy of [[Magma Mine]] that is fetchable by Trinket Mage, that way you can use it to fetch either your best mana rock or a win condition, again making the combo more likely to hit. (Magma Mine is a win condition that functions almost exactly the same as Razortip Whip in practicality, but is a 1-drop so it's not fetchable with Muddle, which is why I went with Razor as the primary win condition instead).

Since you need 3 mana from rocks, you can also run [[Everflowing Chalice]] and/or [[The Enigma Jewel // Locus of Enlightenment]] that are fetchable by a Trinket Mage that are double mana rocks (which makes the combo much easier to pull off, as you only need the 1 more mana), which also ups the chances of you drawing into one of them naturally.

I realize this is a LOT, but I used to make decks like this all the time, and it hit me with a little nostalgia. It literally might be easier for me to just make a deck showing what I'm talking about. If that's the case, I'd be happy to do so.

Not trying to say your build is bad, just suggesting some alternatives.

Couple good options to consider:

[[Brave the Elements]] gets all your white critters, which is most of your critters

[[Emerge Unscathed]] gives you 2 turns of protection with no drawback

[[Gods Willing]] gives you the Scry


Emerge Unscathed is probably your best bang for your buck, as it'll give you 2 turns of a probable unblockable critter and/or protected from spot removal, all for W at instant speed.

That being said, it's much easier to get around unfavorable match ups with removal, which handles the problem for good (going 1 for 1) rather than just dodging it (going -1 for tempo). [[Path to Exile]] is the classic example and fits the 1-drop white qualification. Bloodchief's Thirst is another option that's got some flexibility with a different set of downsides. Or just accept the 2-drop removal and do [[Vanishing Verse]] or [[Fell]].

I miss exalted, it was a fun mechanic idea. A few thoughts to help this build out.

Splashing blue for 3 Mana Leaks really isn't worth it. If you're worried about nukes, you can get around within white by just going with [[Make a Stand]], which costs 1 more but is the right color and opponent can't pay 3 to get around it. Plus it doubles as a conditional game winner buff, so that's nice. If you're running the counters as a generic 'no' to opponent's plan, that's sort of outside what this deck wants to do. You want to dump your mana each turn fielding a critter to pump the exalted, so running counters just slows that down. You want to outrace and outmuscle opponent rather than denying opponent resources. This also lets you pull out your Glacial Fortresses and keep things consistent. You could sub in [[Shineshadow Snarl]] on the cheap and your color consistency will be tip top.

A few card choices are just worse versions of better cards that are all cheap. Faith's Shield is an 'ok' counterspell to interference, but [[Surge of Salvation]] does almost the same thing except with all your critters and you on top, so you can use it to stop burn damage if necessary, as well as protecting your critters from spot removal.

Nighthawk is nice, and ideally a great attacker, but it's a 3-drop without exalted, and you'd rather run something faster that ups the exalted count. I'd consider running [[Akrasan Squire]] over it. Much less sexy, but it's THE turn 1 drop you want in this build, as it swings for a minimum of 2/2 on turn 2 with a hopeful 3/3, which is a hell of a fast damage clock to deal with. It also lowers the mana curve quite a bit, which will be helpful, as you ideally want to be playing spells turns 1-3 consistently so you can build your exalted count and be swinging for damage, putting opponent on the backburner.

Appetite for Brains is extremely hit or miss, and is a potentially useless topdeck. I'd personally rather run something like [[Vanishing Verse]] and just deal with the threat once it's fielded, running the risk of that being too late balanced against the overwhelming efficiency and removal power of exiling most relevant permanents for 2 at instant speed.

Silent Arbiter is a cool idea, but would probably work better in the sideboard, as you probably won't need him when you're swinging with your single pumped up weenie anyway. I'd personally rather run 2 more Aven Squire, which cuts the mana, ups the exalted cost, and gives you an exalted flyer to play around with.

Mentor of the Meek, on the other hand, I had never considered for a build like this. It's certainly not a bad idea, especially when it gets tripped by almost 1/3 of the deck. My gut says let it run and see how it works. The 3-drop + mana eating cost is a pain, especially since it doesn't up the exalted count (throwing off your turn 3 drop potentially), but it's a good topdeck and will probably pay dividends in the mid game, so I say see how it goes.

Just some thoughts.

Boltwave, as if burn needed another 1-drop bolt effect option. Silly WOTC and their shenanigans.

Changes generally look solid. Only thing that comes to mind is Destructive Revelry looks good in theory but won't do much in the current meta because it only destroys rather than exiles, so you can't use it to deal with [[The One Ring]], which is nearly ubiquitous in modern.

Now, this is a double edged effect, as the Ring burns the player for using it, which is what this deck wants. But it also turbocharges the hand and will probably let opponent overwhelm you with sheer material, so it's worth considering on that fact alone. As it is, this deck can only hope to outrace an active Ring. One way to deal that would be to swap out Destructive Revelry for either [[Cast Into the Fire]], [[Exorcise]], or [[Haywire Mite]], each of which comes with its particularly good matchups with the various popular decks. Cast deals with the energy build, Mite keeps you alive another turn, Exorcise also deals with the big blue threats that can overwhelm this deck if landed (Murktide, Oculus, as well as some Eldrazi nonsense).

Personally, I'd go with Exorcise, as I think it has a remarkably deep coverage for this meta. I'm actually working on a bunch of stuff that utilizes it mainboard at the moment (I love anti-meta strategies).

Just my thoughts.

I like the idea of Not of This World protecting your boy from [[Swords to Plowshares]] and the like, but I'm not sure it's worth the slot, as it literally does nothing whatsoever if your combo hasn't gone off, which requires too many pieces to fit together. My point being, to get any value, it actually detracts from the combo potentially going off (fewer cards that can combo), and only protects the token once it exists. Maybe run [[Duress]] over it instead? That way, if you can't combo immediately, you can stall opponent (hopefully pulling out a combo piece) and turn it into a race instead of holding a counter that's not going to do anything till your combo pops.

I'm years out of competitive legacy, but that's what came to mind. For what it's worth.

Solid idea (I love tinkering with mono blue), but I see a few areas that can be tweaked to help things out a bit.

As Andross says, the Manipulation combo is a cool idea, but isn't worth the cost/benefit ratio outside of stuff like commander where you're sure to have game-winning targets and lots of mana. In single player, especially legacy, you're not really likely to see the best return on investment, and the combo needs both pieces to hit with each piece being much, much less useful on its own. I also like the Thaumaturge and Icy Blast interaction, as in this build you would essentially pay U to double tap every critter opponent controls and buy yourself 2 turns. Very creative and cool interaction. However, since I'm advocating for no Mass Manipulation, it makes Thaumaturge only have 4 applicable targets, which essentially neuters the combo (as cool as it is), so I'd advise pulling both cards out as well. This frees up 12 spots (which I'll get to in a bit).

Baral's Expertise is a nice idea, but since it's a sorcery and a 5-drop, there are better versions of it that I'd recommend instead, particularly [[Engulf the Shore]], which is cheaper and faster and synergizes PERFECTLY with this build. You don't care about your own critters being bounced, as you can replay them for nothing anyway (if they get bounced at all), and it's basically a tempo nuke for 4.

Contingency Plan and Taigam's Scheming are great in theory, as they give you what you need in the grave and keep what you need on the topdeck, but they don't actually give you even material, and they're 2-drop sorceries, which are annoying to play turns 2 and 3, as you can't do anything else. I'd instead recommend [[Thought Scour]] and [[Preordain]], both of which give you what you need but cheaper and faster, and both retain material so you don't waste a turn and a card to make it happen. If you're got the budget, [[Mental Note]] would be good over Preordain (possibly), but they're 5 bucks a pop.

The Gifts potential is indeed good, but with mono blue budget, there's not a whole lot you can capitalize on beyond filling up your grave and fetching 4 good things and losing 2 of them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing (I like using Gifts to find a second copy of Gifts for example), but when Gifts really becomes deadly is when it's used in combo with splashed other colors or double/triple color decks. For example, running [[Life From the Loam]], Raven's Crime, and some tech lands means you can basically make opponent discard his whole hand every turn, and opponent can't do much about it (besides grave hate stuff). While I won't advocate a complete recoloring of this build, I'll suggest a cool bit of synergy to run with Gifts that won't call for too big a rehash. If you're ok with splashing green, you can run a copy of Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, which you can pick up for like 3 bucks nowadays. You'll have to change your lands a bit (won't be difficult or expensive, I'll help), but it would force opponent to give you a beast of a card either way. Ideally you'd run 1 copy of Uro, 1 copy of [[Life From the Loam]], 1 copy of [[Lonely Sandbar]], and 1 copy of [[Tranquil Thicket]]. This will turn your deck into a self-milling machine that also nets you material every turn (4 mana turnaround gets you a minimum of +1 card and mill 3 with the Loam back in hand again (so you can keep doing it)). And the best part is, opponent can't stop the combo without grave hate, as it doesn't matter what he picks. Running that change will cost you about 10 bucks total (plus another 4 bucks to change the lands around a bit), added to the 5-10 bucks for the other changes, just to put that in perspective.

The other major changes I'd suggest would be more classic blue staples, as you get the bonus of them being cheap and helping you do what you're trying to do. Running 4 [[Counterspell]] just makes perfect sense, as being able to say 'no' when you need to is basically never a bad thing. Instead of Thaumaturge, I'd recommend either [[Augur of Bolas]] or [[Hard Evidence]], which do nearly the same thing, but using slightly different timing and with slightly different benefits (immediate material and stronger blocker slower vs delayed material and weaker blocker immediately (+extra grave sorcery)). If you can afford it, running a few copies of Lorien Revealed would go a long way, as you can cycle it turn 1 at instant speed to fetch an island and fill your grave, and they make for good late game topdecks. [[Whelming Wave]] is another good pseudo-nuke option, although it's slower than [[Engulf the Shore]], it doesn't touch you at all, so that's always nice.

There are a few cards considered 'generally underpowered' that I sort of like for this build too. [[Hithlain Knots]], [[Remand]], and [[Startle]] are all useful for stalling critter builds while filling your grave, moving you through the deck, and keeping your material healthy. Remand in particular is worth considering, as it does everything this deck wants it to do, and can essentially be read as 'on turn 2, take an extra turn (sort of)', so when you get a Remand in the opening hand, things are looking up.

A lot of thoughts, I know. But I've got a soft spot for mono blue, especially since it can't really protect itself from anything that hits the field like every other color can.

This is actually getting close to my favorite type of build in magic, the instant control synergy. You are doing something slightly different than usual here, as you're going for big spells reduced in cost, but most of the principles remain the same.

There are a few problems that need to be sorted out though. Firstly, and unfortunately, Isochron Scepter doesn't let you pay the X cost on instants and sorceries, so you can't put Electrodominance on it. As such, you don't actually have any cards you can imprint directly onto isochron, and have to rely on the cost reduction effects to 'sneak' a Chaos Warp onto an Isochron, which is both very unlikely and ultimately not a great idea, as the math on it happening is minimal (2 copies of isochron, 3 copies of Warp, + needing a reductor). So, either drop Isochron or you'll have to add some instants to imprint on it.

Secondly, even though you're going for cost reduction on larger spells, you're only running 6 cost reductors and 20 total instants/sorceries (almost all of which require lots of mana), so you're much more likely to have a hand full of cards you can't use than being able to reduce and move quickly. You've also got a lot of [I need instant/sorcery cards to work] cards that aren't instants/sorceries, which ups the potential for hands full of nothing. I'd recommend cutting out some of the supported cards and upping the instant/sorcery count while also going for lower cost instants/sorceries (2-4 drops) so you can play things sooner and still take advantage of the cost reductors when you have them.

I'd also say swap out a few islands for [[Lorien Revealed]], as this deck has no 1-drops and it synergizes perfectly, but that's a $2.00 card, so not sure if it's in the budget.

Then there are a few cards that I'd say to cut entirely:

Mana Geyser is just a bad card in general (it's so conditional) and is really only viable in commander (where you have multiple opponents and can potentially harvest 10-20 mana per use). It also is a 5-drop, so by the time you can play it, you can play most of the cards you wanted to play anyway. That's a hard cut from my perspective.

Commence the Endgame isn't worth the 6-drop cost. I know you want the token as a damage clock, but for a 6-drop, you could be laying much more effective/damaging spells.

Just some thoughts. I've never made a deck exactly like this, I always opt for the lower cost instants/sorceries and triggering off of casting them a bunch instead.

I gotcha. So, to clarify, you want to basically deck everyone out? Or is the point just to survive and not do anything and inevitably lose based on your lack of pursuit of a win condition? I think the build could be pretty easily shifted into an elf pillow fort that could have a strange but fun angle of nonthreateningly surviving for the deckout strategy.

Are you going for budget casual here?

Let me know how she plays

I realize this is a gift and may already be purchased, but there are a few things I'd recommend checking out, as it's still a bit till christmas:

[[Campfire]], [[Candy Trail]], [[Cat Collector]], Ajani's Pridemate, [[Linden, the Steadfast Queen]]

All are budget, help lower the curve, and get done what the deck wants to get done. I'd consider some as replacements for a few cards that don't really fit the theme you've got going, such as Holy Mantle, since almost none of your critters are agro and the deck doesn't want to win by a slow damage clock.

I'd also recommend cutting the curve down on 4-drops and upping the 1 and 2-drops (and cutting the deck down to 60 in general), as you'd like to avoid games where you get mana screwed and sit with 2 mana and nothing to do, and this build is almost 1/3 4-drops or higher as is.

Just some thoughts.

Here's why I find it interesting:

1- it slows down [[The One Ring]] for a turn, which essentially makes opponent lose an important turn and have less ammo for their protection turn

2- it slows down all the tiny artifacts that are/were popular in modern. Since Grinding Station and Belcher are now competitive decks apparently, this is mainboarded tempo hate against 2 major competitor decks that are largely immune from your mainboarded spot removal, which is nice

3- it completely nerfs one-turn critter bombs (but unfortunately won't do much but save some life against stuff like Goryo's Vengeance)



Is this enough to include it? Honestly, I have no idea. It's almost pointless to try to play outside the box in modern anymore, but I can't help but try to fit cards that have interesting ideas into a framework and see what's possible. High Noon will almost certainly be forgotten, but it intrigues me and I want to play around with it, and Blind Obedience seems to fit at least some portion of what the Noon strategy is trying to do, slow things down and transform a lack of tempo into an advantage. I'll keep digging I guess, and see what happens.

You know, that's honestly the most interesting suggestion I've heard in a long time. This deck will have dead mana anyway (hopefully) thanks to High Noon, so it wouldn't be an imposition like in decks with tight mana curves that can't afford the extra mana every turn. If all 3 enchantments are on the field, that's pretty much GG unless there's some mega-threat already fielded that can't be dealt with by the hand-buildup that's essentially guaranteed in this build. I will do a lot of thinking on this, as you could even cut Bitterblossom and just run High Noon and Blind Obedience on their own and potentially have a similar effect. Thank you kindly for the feedback.

I gotcha. Just clarifying my thoughts really, making sure I wasn't missing some internal combo that got around the problem. There are a few inclusions I can think of to help with the build as is (assuming things aren't banned, etc). [[Merchant Scroll]] would let you tutor a counter if you need one or Muddle the Mixture, which you can transmute into one of your combo pieces, basically trading 1.5-ish turns of tempo for a higher probability of the combo going off early. Or you could just grab Brainstorm, thinning the deck a touch and getting some tactics tempo. [[Shred Memory]] acts as another transmute tutor for the combo pieces (again, not ideal cause it's slow, but better than nothing), and its grave hate on its own mainboarded if you need it, so that's a nice tradeoff. [[Cunning Wish]] would let you grab a support card from the sideboard. If you need a counter, or recursion, or removal etc.

Just some musings. My mind also immediately went to [[Lutri, the Spellchaser]], both potentially for this deck and as another 1-off build to save some cash. I personally love Lutri as a concept, especially in a format like Vintage and Legacy were there are so many powerful cards that you can get away with 1-offs and not be bothered by it too much.

Let me know how this goes when the bans come out and you start figuring out what you want to do, I'm still intrigued