This deck was birthed from a theory I've been toying with which goes as such. Years ago, when I was still actively involved in magic, one and two color decks couldn't really compete with three color decks under normal circumstances (barring things like death and taxes). This was obviously because of the saturation of S class cards necessary to be competitive, and adding a third color gave you access to 33% more S class cards. However, now that I've starting tooling around with magic again, I believe this modality has ended, as there are enough S class cards in each color to allow two color decks to stand on their own.
S class cards, by my estimation, are cards that are valued at at least 3/4 of the four variables I see at play in magic.
Material- who has more cards (aka card advantage) that 'matter'
Tempo- how quickly/easily a card can be utilized/become useful, and how non-card resources get properly utilized (such as time/mana)
Board state- who has control of the field and can actively do damage/stop opponent from doing things (aka inevitability)
Win condition- either advances the slow win scenario (such as combat damage) or completes a combo to win in one exchange
Let's take Jace as our example of a more oldschool card that is S class. It can create material (via it's own draw effect) as well as deny opponent material (via it's scry effect used to force opponent into drawing things they don't really want). It doesn't really have a tempo advantage, beyond the fact that 4-drop walkers aren't THAT bad and the fact that it has a useful +2 abil. It affects board state via its bounce effect. And it is a win condition in and of itself.
There are plenty of other oldschool examples of this, such as Snap, Goyf, Dark Confidant, etc. However, in the past few sets, cards have been coming our regularly that fit this description, leading to an oversaturation available in Modern.
The three main cards I want to discuss are Bonecrusher Giant, Brazen Borrower, and Hard Evidence. That's right, I'm including a common on the list.
Bonecrusher and Borrower are both pretty obvious. They gain material by having Adventure effects. They gain tempo by only costing 2 then 3 (with Borrower being a tempo boss as it has Flash). They both affect board state (with Bonecrusher being a board state boss) but with Borrower being less so as it can't block everything. And they both advance the combat damage win condition with Bonecrusher having the bonus of its burn effect. On to Hard Evidence.
Hard Evidence is the coolest card I've seen in years, which seems antithetical. I've always been annoyed at blue for being unable to protect itself once things actually resolve/hit the field. Blue largely needs to deal with things as they are happening instead of before, such as black's discard outlets, or after, such as red's burn spells. Hard Evidence 'sort of' fixes this problem, and hits 3/4 of the S class variables.
Material- you get a critter and get to draw a card, it's a +1 in material
Tempo- it's a 1-drop and then a 2-drop you can play whenever, which is fabulous. Splitting the cost is what makes this card delightful. A 3-drop create a wall and draw a card is unplayable in competitive, as it's far too slow and can't utilize the card it draws when it draws it (probably). But since the cost is split, and you can drop it turn 1, the tempo problem becomes a benefit.
Board State- the true gem of this card, at least for me. A 0/3 wall for 1 it PRECISELY what blue has always needed. Protection from fast critters that is as fast as the fast critters. Now, turn 1 I've got an answer to your damn Ragavan and can sit back and build my tempo advantage into a material advantage, the true control way.
Win Condition- this one is the only real weakness of Hard Evidence, at least indirectly. Neither effect moves a win along in a traditional sense, however, I'm going to make the argument that for control, it does 'increase' the win condition potential.
There are only three families of strategy in any interaction of rules (aka game): agro, control, combo. Agro wants to sacrifice material for tempo and beat opponent to death before he can take advantage of the material imbalance. Control wants to accumulate tempo then transmute it into material, ultimately out grinding the competition. Combo ignores the tempo/material battle entirely and attempts to use this circumvention of traditional mechanics to steal a win through an artificial machination.
Hard Evidence does precisely what control wants to do. Accumulate tempo and turn it into a material advantage, both directly and indirectly. It stops opponent from beating you to death quickly, gaining tempo, and replaces itself, gaining material. Thus, it 'advances' the control win condition, even if it doesn't actually do anything to win.
I'll be experimenting with this theory quite a lot in the near future. Stay tuned, only Toonami.
The deck does what control has always wanted to do in magic. Out last opponent and field, protect, and complete a win condition.
Win conditions in this deck are as follows:
Jace- wins while you control stuff, as he's a delight
Agro/burn damage- the 8 critters, Faerie Conclave, and Mishra's factory.
Sideboard is a work in progress, as it always seems to be. This setup seems to be pretty good against the prevailing decks in Modern right now: Hammer Time and Cascade builds, so that's nice.
Thoughts appreciated.