Late last week I featured a deck that is the spiritualsuccessortoU/RTwin. Today is the analogous deck for Temur Twin.
As Patrick Dickmann or Todd Anderson devotees may remember, Temur Twin played a more aggressive gameplan than U/R lists as a supplement to the Twin combo. Tarmogoyf is simply more efficient than anything that Izzet could provide and the splash was fairly easy and brought some other tools along with it, such as Ancient Grudge and Huntmaster of the Fells.
Also, when your opponent is under pressure, they are more often forced to tap out and react to what you are doing, thereby opening windows for you to combo them out. As they say, the best defense is a good offense, a principle that has been displayed in Magic more and more as our understanding of the game progresses.
This list has the same Tarmogoyf-fueld aggro plan and Snapcaster Mage / Lighting Bolt-fueled value plan that Temur Twin had, and it supports the combo plan via the inclusion of a singleton Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and three Traverse the Ulvenwald.
We saw Traverse in Sam Black’s list from the MOCS finals earlier this year, but Sam went in a midrange, value-focused direction with the card, while here we see it supporting something that is legitimately game-ending. Kiki-Jiki used to see play in Twin lists, but was ultimately cut since it was so fragile, difficult to cast, and expensive. None of those demerits has gone away, but its potential to end the game on the spot makes it a perfect singleton for a tutor package.
Enabling delirium with land / creature / instant / sorcery will be easiest, but this list uses Mishra’s Bauble, Spellskite, Tarfire, and Seal of Fire to give you added card types that make achieving delirium even easier.
You may be tempted to include a larger toolbox for Traverse, but combo pieces, Tarmogoyf, Snapcaster Mage, Spellskite, and Vendilion Clique are going to cover the vast majority of scenarios that come up, especially in pre-sideboard games. A single Scavenging Ooze also makes the cut, since it can be a significant threat ala Tarmogoyf with added disruption in the right matchups, but anything else has too high an opportunity cost to include in the maindeck.
To be a functioning Twin deck, you need a reasonable density of cheap interactive spells, so it’s important not to let thoughts of Traverse interfere with that need. This list does a good job of that. A smattering of removal, good counterspells, and enough cantrips to find the pieces you need in the right ratios is the real name of the game. As has been the case with Twin decks for a while, the threat of the combo is more relevant than the combo itself.
Creatures (14)
- 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- 4 Tarmogoyf
- 1 Pestermite
- 1 Vendilion Clique
- 1 Spellskite
- 1 Deceiver Exarch
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
- 3 Snapcaster Mage
- 1 Bounding Krasis
Lands (18)
Spells (28)
