This deck just feels so old-school. I love it.
While I do believe that simply trying to target Eldrazi’s manabase is a difficult way to fight them, SPIJKER’s ability to keep Eldrazi opponents off-balance for just long enough to deploy massive haymakers may prove to be quite effective.
This R/G Ponza deck utilizes the Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl engine as a means to go absolutely wild extremely quickly and one of the land destruction spells, Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, even functions as ramp!
My favorite aspect of this deck is probably Bonfire of the Damned. The Standard menace is still an immensely powerful card and now that Modern is far less about keeping mana open in fear of getting Splinter Twinned, having access to super-high-impact sorceries seems awesome. It’s even quite good at dealing with the drawback on Beast Within!
Stormbreath Dragon is one of the best threats available for just getting our opponents dead, and now that there has been a huge push towards Path to Exile from various Abzan and U/W Eldrazi decks, Protection from White has never been so powerful.
Similarly, Inferno Titan is probably one of the best threats there is for both stabilizing the board and finishing the game. Its “Arc Lightning” trigger is perfect for cleaning up hordes from Affinity and various Birds of Paradise decks, while its clock is extremely fast and, as a 6/6, it is critically able to tussle with both Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher while being far less vulnerable to Dismember than most win conditions.
Batterskull has been getting a fair amount of press lately from decks like Blue Moon and it may be even more effective here. Not only does it help to stabilize against early aggression, but once it trades with a Thought-Knot Seer it can be seamlessly equipped to any spare mana creatures that have been hanging around.
The sideboard is fairly straightforward for the present colors, but SPIJKER is notably utilizing Sudden Shock. This Split Second removal spell is absolutely absurd against the likes of Affinity and Infect, which I suspect can be fairly problematic for this slow-and-steady land destruction deck.
It’s always refreshing to see someone being successful with an innovative deck in a field of eldritch horrors. I just wasn’t expecting to see something that looks like it jumped to the rescue out of the year 2004!
Creatures (16)
Lands (21)
Spells (23)
