I wanted to title this article "Epic Trap Battles of History" but it didn’t quite match to the content, so I unfortunately had to pass on it. Maybe one day when I write that article about the G/W Summoning Trap mirror match…
Anyway, the story begins Friday of last week as I prepared to leave for the Modern PTQ I was going to be playing the following day in Richmond, VA. I mentally readied myself for the tournament the way I’m sure many others do: by watching the defining movie of our generation. It’s a film that needs no introduction. I’m obviously talking about Bring It On 4: In it to Twin It. After that necessary pre-tournament ritual, I was fired up. I was inspired. I was ready to make an arbitrarily large number of 1/4 Clerics and send them on their merry little way into the red zone.
As I’m sure you have guessed by now, the "weapon" I brought to battle for this tournament was Splinter Twin.
Splinter Twin
I chose Splinter Twin for a few reasons. The first is that I read an article Matt Sperling wrote about how he got second place with the deck in a PTQ. There are a few people who know me as "that guy who got second place in back-to-back PTQs last summer" when I fell just short of qualifying for Philadelphia twice in the same weekend. Playing a list that’s already established itself as a strong contender to lock up that all-important second place is a key consideration for me.
Secondly, I’d never played a real match of Modern before and wanted to stick to something straightforward that I knew. While I’d never played Splinter Twin while it was in Standard, I certainly played against it many times and was pretty familiar with the kinds of plays to make with it.
The final consideration was that I had a lot of the cards for it, so I wouldn’t have to jump through fiery hoops to acquire the stuff I needed to play in this event. I don’t like having to track down a ton of different cards from people to put together a deck, and I sure didn’t want to buy a lot of cards for a deck that I’d never played and had no idea how viable it was in the Modern metagame.
Sperling’s Twin list looked really solid on paper. He had cut the Remands that were in previous versions for Grim Lavamancer. I liked this change a lot, as Remand is particularly ineffective at countering things like Delver of Secrets or Lightning Bolts since they can usually just replay it again in the same turn. Grim Lavamancer can buy you a ton of time against aggressive decks in the format by repeatedly offing their guys, and the cantrips and fetch lands provide a good bit of fuel for him.
Here’s the list I ran:
Creatures (17)
Lands (24)
Spells (19)
Sideboard
Piloted by a stone-cold master like myself, the above list was able to successfully finish in the Top 64 of the Richmond PTQ. I’m going to give you a second to let the magnitude of that sink in. I don’t like to brag, but I’m not sure that many others would have the kind of skill and precise decision-making capabilities that you need to pull off a 1-3 record and lock up a Top 64 finish. If going 1-3 in a PTQ is cool, consider me Miles Davis.
There were 57 players in the tournament. The deck felt about as powerful as a dull butter knife.
I’m going to go so far as to say that I think Splinter Twin in Modern is weaker than Splinter Twin was in Standard. And I’m not even talking about the power of the deck relative to the more powerful Modern metagame. I’m talking about the power level of the deck in a vacuum, period. Not having Ponder and Preordain is a huge beating. It’s kind of ridiculous to think that the Modern version of the deck might actually be worse than the Standard version due to the banning of those two cards, but I feel that is the truth.
The tournament began with me winning my first round against Affinity. My opponent didn’t have colored mana in games 1 or 3, and surprisingly enough, that made it pretty easy to combo off.
If there were even any wheels on this proverbial bus to begin with, something certainly up for debate, they began to fall off after that point. I lost the next three rounds to the mirror match, Mono-Blue Faeries (with Grim Lavamancer), and Boros. I thought Boros would be a good matchup. I had a Spellskite in play and I was hoping Pester-mite get there, but my opponent was able to make it rain all over my mana base. Molten Rains and Goblin Guides abounded. My life total? Did not abound.
That was the first and probably the last time I’ll play Twin. The deck feels a turn too slow, and there were many games where I sat there with one combo piece but couldn’t find the other in the three-to-four turns my opponent was giving me. Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand are pretty mediocre replacements for Ponder and Preordain. Additionally, everyone is prepared to beat it, and if I’m going to play a combo that’s easy to disrupt, I’d like to at least play one that’s under the radar or unexpected.
Speaking of a combo that was under the radar and unexpected: Kenny Mayer finished second at the PTQ with a G/W deck that utilized Summoning Trap, Through the Breach, and hideaway lands to cheat Emrakul (or Primeval Titan) into play. This is not a new deck or concept, as anyone who played Extended last year will remember, but it was certainly not something people were expecting or were prepared for.
Creatures (28)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 4 Nest Invader
- 4 Primeval Titan
Lands (25)
Spells (7)
Sideboard
That is the list Kenny had. As soon as I saw it, I knew that this was the deck I wanted to play for the Magic Online PTQ on Sunday. The list I settled on to play was a little different than the above list:
Creatures (28)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 4 Lotus Cobra
- 4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 4 Nest Invader
- 4 Primeval Titan
Lands (25)
Spells (7)
Sideboard
Someone else running a similar list finished in second and had some card choices that I would want to incorporate in the future, such as Fauna Shaman.
Saturday night, I borrowed the cards on Magic Online and fired it up to play in a two-man queue. The first match I played with the deck went like this: in the first game, I cast a turn 1 Noble Hierarch. Turn 2 I played Nest Invader and played a Windbrisk Heights placing Emrakul underneath it. On turn 3 I attacked with the Hierarch, Nest Invader, and Eldrazi Spawn and cast Emrakul from under the hideaway land. He conceded.
In the second game, he led with a turn 1 Delver of Secrets. I played a Noble Hierarch. On his turn, Delver tragically didn’t flip. He played a second land and passed, obviously representing a Mana Leak or Remand. I untapped and played Lotus Cobra on turn 2. He made the classic mistake of Remanding it. I slammed Summoning Trap, selecting Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. My opponent didn’t concede at this point, something I’m eternally grateful for because I wasn’t done quite yet. I slammed a second Summoning Trap, choosing Primeval Titan. I then slammed a third Summoning Trap, going bigger yet: Birds of Paradise. My opponent scooped after I flipped him the Bird. Here’s a quick recap. My board state on turn 2 was a Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, Primeval Titan, Emrakul, The Aeons Torn, and two hideaway lands, one of which had a second Emrakul underneath it.
But really, it was a shame that his Delver didn’t flip.
To say I was sold on the deck at this point would be an understatement. Not only was it something explosive and powerful that people were not expecting, but the deck was also a ridiculous amount of fun to play—for me. I can’t say the same for my opponents.
Every single time I cast Through the Breach against a deck with counterspells and Magic Online gave me the message "Would you like to use this ability?" signifying that Through the Breach had resolved, my inner schoolgirl would start giggling uncontrollably. I’d gingerly place my Emrakul or Primeval Titan into play and win the game.
I ended up going 5-3 with it in the Magic Online PTQ. The tournament started out exceptionally well for me. I was paired against Caw-Blade in the first round, and I gave him what can only be described as a Breach around with Emrakul in game 1. The second game involved a turn 2 Summoning Trap, putting Emrakul into play when he Spell Snared my Lotus Cobra. Magic is easy! As Kali Anderson succinctly put it, "You could say he got his Aeon’s Torn."
I also beat Tron twice, Mono-Blue Fae, and Jund. Blue decks feel like a bye, since countering your creatures is a Trap and you can cast Through the Breach during their end of turn step to bait a counter. If it resolves, the creature you put into play will stay in play until your own end of turn step. If they counter it, then you can untap and play a Titan or Summoning Trap.
I lost to Storm, which is a very poor matchup. You have Knight of the Reliquary to fetch Bojuka Bog to deal with Past in Flames and Ethersworn Canonist to keep them from building a storm count, but you have to have time to get those cards online and hope they don’t have an answer. Even with Leyline of Sanctity, you can still just lose to Empty the Warrens. It didn’t help that I mulled to three in the second game, but I don’t think I would’ve had a good chance of winning the match even if I had a good hand.
I also lost to Affinity, which seems like it could really go either way. It comes down to how many Ancient Grudges you draw versus whether or not they have Ric WhipFlare to destroy your board.
My final loss was to Melira Pod. He raw-dogged what I’m assuming was a one-of Linvala both games against me and that card basically shuts down the deck by itself.
I’m not going to lie to you and say that this is the best deck in the format or anything. It’s a lot of fun to play and has some busted draws, but it has a huge vulnerability to Pyroclasm effects or any deck that is able to repeatedly kill your mana dorks. I’ve lost every match I’ve played against the Loam decks, for example, because Flame Jab is almost impossible to beat. If they kill your Cobras, Birds, and Hierarchs, you have no chance of ramping up to cast Primeval Titan or Through the Breach or Summoning Trap on time.
I’m not sure how to combat this. One possible solution I thought of was to play Mark of Asylum in the sideboard. Other suggestions I’ve heard are Dauntless Escort and Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender. While those two can counter a Pyroclasm and also beat down in the meantime, they are ineffective against repeatable sources of damage, like a Grim Lavamancer or Flame Jab, which is why I think Mark of Asylum is probably stronger overall.
The issue with playing cards like Mark of Asylum is that they’re defensive cards that don’t actually advance your gameplan at all. I ran into the same problem with Leyline of Sanctity. They just attempt to stall your opponent’s deck long enough for you to get your plan online. That’s all fine and dandy, but when you have to side out proactive cards to bring in those kind of cards you end up getting a lot of very clunky draws. The deck already has a number of situational cards like Through the Breach, Summoning Trap, and Emrakul that are often dead in hand. Playing cards like Leyline of Sanctity and Mark of Asylum increases the number of those potentially dead draws. You end up getting starting hands that have two Leylines and an Emrakul, and it’s basically like you mulliganed to four.
For that reason, I think it might be right to just hope to dodge decks that run Pyroclasm effects or hope they don’t have it. If they destroy multiple creatures with a Pyroclasm, you probably aren’t winning anyway so it might not be worth it to even play around it at all.
There are also a couple of awkward interactions. Anytime Emrakul hits your graveyard for any reason, it resets your Knight of the Reliquarys back to 2/2s. Another is when you play a Windbrisk Heights and see something like three lands and a Through the Breach. Needless to say, Through the Breach is pretty unexciting when you cast it after you’ve already attacked for the turn.
Despite these vulnerabilities, the deck is a blast and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to play something that’s a little off the beaten path for Modern. It definitely has the trappings of success. If you want to learn more about how the deck plays out or what kind of decisions you can make, I suggest you read Todd Anderson article on it.
This weekend, I’ll be playing Modern again at a double PTQ extravaganza in the illustrious Roanoke, Virginia: home of StarCityGames.com. There are about four decks that I’m seriously considering playing, including the Trap deck. The others are Jund, U/W Tron, and Caw-Blade.
Each deck has its own set of upsides and downsides, and I’m honestly not sure which to play. I feel like Caw-Blade is the weakest of the bunch strictly on power level, but it’s also the deck that I’m most familiar with and I know that I would make better plays with it as a result. However, I am not excited about the prospect of running it in a field where people are doing much more powerful things, and I know that playing a deck you enjoy playing is a non-trivial consideration.
I still have a few days to decide. I’m hoping to come across something sweet to play in the meantime. Modern doesn’t excite me as a format, but I’m a big fan of Block Constructed right now and I’d really like to qualify for Pro Tour Avacyn Restored so I have a chance to play that format on the biggest stage. This weekend is my best shot to qualify, and I want to make the most of it. The first step is to choose the right deck…
Wish me luck.
Thanks for reading,
@BraunDuinIt on Twitter
BBD on Magic Online