Every once in a while I find a deck that’s hard to lose with. Last year it was Caw-Blade, and the year before it was Naya. Some other decks of that nature included U/G/W Blink and W/B aggro. If you noticed, those decks are all aggro-control.
While I’ve found some success with control decks like Teachings and Five-Color Control, it’s pretty clear what type of deck I do well with. Taking that into account, I started experimenting with Illusions after being inspired by the Invitational top eight lists from Adam Prosak and David Bauer as well as Andrey Yanyuk’s deck that he started 8-0 with.
Each of them contained different pieces of the puzzle. David had Sword of War and Peace; Andrey had the Trinket Mage sideboard, but Adam had the major innovations. He was the only one to drop Lord of the Unreal and actually find suitable replacements.
For reference:
Creatures (18)
Lands (20)
Spells (22)
Creatures (22)
- 4 Phantasmal Bear
- 4 Lord of the Unreal
- 3 Phantasmal Image
- 4 Snapcaster Mage
- 3 Geist of Saint Traft
- 4 Delver of Secrets
Lands (20)
Spells (18)
The beauty in Adam’s list is his hybridization with the U/W Delver Control. He kept the Phantasmal Bears but added Midnight Haunting, which was particularly effective against my Five-Color Control deck. Against control decks or Wolf Run Ramp, where he needs to keep counterspells open, he gets the option of playing some threats if they decide to play draw-go.
Unfortunately I don’t recall the exact transformation my deck went through, although that would have been an interesting process to chronicle. I know I started a single Sword of War and Peace maindeck, a couple Looters and Hauntings, and the Trinket Mage sideboard.
I won.
A lot.
As always, I thought things could be improved. I tried a few things out because I thought they’d be good, but also because I wanted to try different things. I played with nearly every combination of cards I could think of, trying to see what works best against every archetype.
The Bears seemed fragile and unnecessary. Once I cut them, I started a horrible losing streak, and I couldn’t figure out why. I watched a couple replays and thought about how the games were playing out.
Usually, I’d open with Delver or Looter, which almost always died. Then, I’d counter or kill a couple things until I started churning out fliers with Moorland Haunt or Midnight Haunting. Eventually, they’d stick a threat like Hero of Bladehold or Primeval Titan, which they were sandbagging the entire time, and I’d lose.
I wasn’t ever able to enter into a race situation because I was rarely dealing them early damage. When Delver lived, I could usually flip it and finish them. If Looter lived, my card quality would be good enough that I’d eventually attrition them out.
I couldn’t beat any of their resolved threats though. Despite that, I was still trying to. Rather than be an aggro-control deck, or even just a control deck with answers to everything, I was playing nothing. My deck wasn’t coherent and didn’t have a real game plan. Most of my games would play out like this:
Turn one – Cantrip.
Turn two – Mana Leak.
Turn three – Dissipate.
Turn four – Snapcaster or Midnight Haunting.
Turn five – Attack for TWO.
That, my friends, is not powerful Magic.
Obviously if I have a flipped Delver by turn two, that draw is insane. However, Bear isn’t that much worse. If he dies, your Delver was going to die too, and if he’s getting in all those turns, you can easily sneak in the last few points. Snapcaster targeting Vapor Snag gets a lot of damage through.
There is no inevitability. Even if the game goes long, you can still die on turn twenty thanks to their Moorland Haunt. Tap-out control decks struggle in a field full of Mana Leaks, so it looks like we’re out of options. Pristine Talisman helps, but MJ and I gave up a lot of ground vs. Illusions by cutting Snapcaster Mages. Illusions and Humans are uphill battles.
Being a control deck that is killing your opponent is much better than trying to control every aspect of the game.
The Bears went back in, and a few days later I owned five Modern decks. Not kidding.
This is the maindeck I’m playing right now.
Creatures (14)
Lands (21)
Spells (25)
The maindeck is about as good as it’s going to get. In my mind, Delver, Bear, Snapcaster, and two Looters are a lock. You want Looter against decks like the mirror, Control, Wolf Run Ramp, and Humans. Those matchups are about trading one-for-one while clocking them, and Looter allows you to keep the gas flowing.
Ponder is a must, assuming you want to ever flip your Delver of Secrets, and Probe is another fantastic card. While initially I didn’t want to play the deck very aggressively—such is my nature—I have since learned to love Silvergill Adept. Probe gives you more ways to profitably play Snapcaster Mage on turn two, and all you’re really looking to do is create favorable interactions.
You might look five turns down the line where you think you want to Snapcaster a Mana Leak on their Titan, but if you’re pressuring them instead, they would just be dead. Get out of that control mentality and find a happy medium.
This deck wouldn’t exist without Mana Leak, so I’d venture a guess that those are pretty good. The singleton Dissipate is because I’ve found that I wanted more counterspells. In fact, I wouldn’t mind a second. Note that the counterspells aren’t very good against the mirror, Mono-Red, or Grand Abolisher (though I still like them vs. Humans), but they are golden almost everywhere else. Psychic Barrier is another option, but I prefer Dissipate.
Gut Shot is still pretty awesome. There are decks like Wolf Run and Control that don’t have many good targets, but that’s okay. Gut Shot makes up for that by being absurd against every creature deck. Maybe if Control or Ramp had things worth Dismember-ing, I would play a couple of those, but they don’t. Hero of Bladehold is about the only thing that dies to Dismember, and I’ll talk about that guy in a bit.
The Swords have been fantastic. Sometimes they win a Moorland Haunt fight; sometimes they force a Day of Judgment for every single creature you have; and sometimes they get pitched to Merfolk Looter. All of those are fine options.
I prefer to have something in my maindeck that deals with Moorland Haunt, and I think Sword is it. Runechanter’s Pike is what all the MTGO decks are playing, but it doesn’t help you when you’re behind, whereas Sword does.
Moorland Haunt is the card you miss the most when you don’t draw it, and because of that, I’m playing four. You can win without drawing it, but your deck gets so much better when you have it in play. Control decks used to splash for maindeck Stone Rains in order to beat Kjeldoran Outpost, and Moorland Haunt is better in some ways.
The sideboard I’m currently using is:
3 Trinket Mage
3 Dissipate
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Hex Parasite
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Celestial Purge
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Act of Aggression
The above sideboard is doing the following:
- Helping me win the mirror with Trinket Mage. If you’re in a Moorland Haunt war, Sylvok Lifestaff is going to win it for you. If you are facing down some Bears, get Hex Parasite and Wrath them.
The mirror is all about attrition, so draw first. The only way you’re losing early is to an uncontested Delver (or maybe Geist), but you have a bunch of answers for those.
- Helping me not be kold to Geist of Saint Traft or Thrun, the Last Troll thanks to Phantasmal Image. Image also brick walls Lord of Illusions, which is one of the reasons you shouldn’t play Lord in your Illusions deck. You need some pressure, but not bad pressure.
Geist isn’t a big issue since you have Snapcaster and whatnot, but it’s nice to have a clean answer sometimes. That way, you don’t have to play scared, like in those “What if they have Snag and Snapcaster?” scenarios.
Thrun is annoying, and is a big reason why Image is still in my sideboard. Fiend Hunter is another.
- Helping against Mono-Red with Oblivion Ring, Celestial Purge, and Sylvok Lifestaff. If you can kill Mono-Red’s first couple creatures, you should be able to force them to start burning your guys. Lifestaff will be a huge help at that point.
The problem is when their first few guys go unanswered, and they can easily burn you out. You need removal, and for a while, I had four Purges. If you kill their guys, you can usually race their Shrine. If you’re able to play more Purges, by all means go ahead, but I want to focus on other matchups.
Sometimes, they don’t need to kill your Lifestaff-ed guy, which is pretty annoying. I had a couple Mortarpods in my sideboard for that reason, and they worked well. Red seemed to be dying in popularity, at least in the Gold Queues, so I didn’t bother with it anymore.
- The Oblivion Rings are for Pristine Talisman, Titans, Shrines, equipment, and other Oblivion Rings. I’m playing a Disperse over a Vapor Snag for the same reasons as I want Oblivion Ring—I don’t just want answers to creatures.
- Act of Aggression is a very good miser’s card against Titans and Hero of Bladehold. One copy has been very good for me. You might want to draw it more frequently, but drawing two usually does nothing, as the first kills them.
The Matchups:
Wolf Run Ramp
+ 3 Dissipate, X Oblivion Ring, 2 Phantasmal Image, 1 Act of Aggression
– X Vapor Snag, X Gut Shot, X Sword of War and Peace
How you sideboard depends on their build. Obviously Gut Shot is awesome if they have Birds and Elves, but those versions aren’t popular. Against a normal Iyanaga build, I haven’t figured out the correct mix of removal.
Sometimes, usually on the draw, Sword of War and Peace is too slow. However, against versions with lots of removal, you really want it. Sometimes they can just block with a Nexus and kill you on the swing back.
Vapor Snag might seem good as a way to push damage in by bouncing that Primeval Titan, and you’d be right. You still don’t want to draw multiple copies.
I know it’s right to play some amount of ways to clear their Titans out of the way, but I’m not sure if it’s Vapor Snag or Oblivion Ring. Gut Shot might be good to fight a defensive Nexus, but you aren’t winning if their Nexus is attacking you. Focus on how you can get through for lethal more than situations where they are attacking you. Chances are you’ve already lost.
I’ve been keeping in one Snag, one Gut Shot, and one or two Swords, and siding in one Oblivion Ring. It’s much better to draw a mix of removal. It hasn’t “felt” right, but I’ve been winning.
Illusions
+ 3 Trinket Mage, 2 Phantasmal Image, 1 Sylvok Lifestaff, 1 Hex Parasite, 2 Oblivion Ring
– 4 Gitaxian Probe, 4 Mana Leak, 1 Dissipate
The Oblivion Rings aren’t necessary and in fact are actively bad unless they have equipment or Stitched Drake. At that point, I’d rather keep in a couple Probes.
As I said earlier, draw first! That’s step one. Step two is evaluate your position and decide whether you are control or aggro. Most likely, you will be control. Preserve your life total and trade creatures whenever applicable. Eventually you’ll get an equipment online, and they can’t win.
Images are great for copying Snapcaster, killing their Geist, and if they are foolish enough to keep in Lord of the Unreals, completely stop their ground force. A third is probably overdoing it, but two seems right.
Mono-Red
+ 2 Celestial Purge, 2 Oblivion Ring, 3 Trinket Mage, 1 Sylvok Lifestaff, 1 Hex Parasite
– 4 Mana Leak, 1 Dissipate 4 Gitaxian Probe
You are actually the aggro deck here. They’re the ones with plenty of removal and inevitability in the form of Shrines. You’re not going to win a late game, so you have to get them dead.
Despite that, you need to kill every reasonable threat they play; otherwise you aren’t winning the long OR short game.
Control
+ 2 Oblivion Ring, 3 Dissipate, X Phantasmal Image, X Act of Aggression
– 4 Gut Shot, X Vapor Snag
What you bring in depends on their deck. If they have Sun Titans, Phantasmal Image probably won’t get the job done. You’d rather have Vapor Snag instead.
Assuming you both draw lands and spells, I’d like to think Illusions is the heavy favorite. Pristine Talisman is a huge pain, but other than that, your spells are way cheaper, and your engine is better.
Don’t overcommit to Day of Judgment, Ratchet Bomb, or Timely Reinforcements if you don’t have to. Pay life whenever you can to make Reinforcements a non-issue. Just take it slow; don’t fight their card drawing most of the time, and focus on countering their threats.
Sometimes a threat to you would be a Day of Judgment, assuming you can kill them in two turns and you’ve got another counterspell. For the most part, you’re just going to let their removal kill your guys.
Humans
This matchup is very annoying. I was on the Human side of this matchup, against a version with Lords, and got completely stomped. Lord plus Image plus Snag plus Snapcaster put me away every game. Now, since I don’t have Lords, this matchup really suffers as a result. I’ve still been winning a match or two over fifty percent, but it feels very difficult.
+ 2 Oblivion Ring, 2 Phantasmal Image, 1 Act of Aggression, 1 Dissipate
– X Gut Shot, X Gitaxian Probe
Gut Shots are usually pretty bad here, but some builds are going back to the Champion version. The main thing you’d want to Gut Shot is Gideon’s Lawkeeper, but you never know how many of those your opponent has.
Despite Humans having Grand Abolisher, I really like the counterspells against them. Most of their good cards cost three or four, and you should already have a board presence. I don’t mind going up to two Dissipates on the play. You should be able to Leak Abolisher, but if that doesn’t happen, you haven’t drawn a Leak, and hopefully you haven’t drawn a Dissipate yet.
Potential changes I would consider making:
-A fourth Snag instead of the Disperse, assuming you are more worried about mana efficiency than random permanents. There are a non-zero amount of games that will come down to burning them out with Gut Shot, Vapor Snag, and Snapcaster Mage. At that point, you’ll be happy knowing that you’re drawing significantly more live than if Snag was a Disperse.
–Mortarpod or Spellskite to help against Mono-Red. Spellskite has more applications than Mortarpod and is probably better. I played with Spellskites for a long time, both as a way to stop early attackers, but also as a way of deflecting Oblivion Ring, Gut Shot, or Vapor Snag. The problem was that it wasn’t aggressive enough, didn’t stop fliers, and against control, would get caught up in their Day of Judgments. Overall, not the most reliable card.
-Find something better than the Trinket Mage sideboard. Hex Parasite is getting worse and worse as players cut their Illusions, and Sylvok Lifestaff doesn’t solve all the problems. For right now, it’s the best I’ve got. I’ve tried One-Eyed Scarecrow with things like Mental Misstep and Spellskite to protect it, but again, it didn’t solve all the problems. If they have an equipment that goes over the top, like Sword of War and Peace or Runechanter’s Pike, your Scarecrow looks pretty dumb.
-Ignore the Mono-Red matchup. It’s actually not bad the way I have it set up, but I don’t expect Red to be a large part of the metagame. Celestial Purge could become something like Sensory Deprivation to give you more game vs. random stuff like Phyrexian Crusader.
–Porcelain Legionnaire is a card that hits as hard as Delver. As I said, the games where you have an uncontested Delver are super easy; Legionnaire is pretty close. That could shift your game plan away from attrition and into one where you just protect your threats with things like Spellskite and Mental Misstep. You would almost certainly have to cut Midnight Haunting and Merfolk Looter, and that might make your control matchups a little worse.
A few notes:
-When faced with the choice of Bear or Delver turn one, I almost always lead with Bear. It will draw out their removal and probably get in more damage than Delver would.
-In the mirror or against Mono-Red, burn Mana Leak on any spell you can, even if it’s just a Probe or Chandra’s Phoenix. Your Leaks go dead very fast, and you use your mana every turn. If you get a chance to trade Leak with a card, or even half a card, I’d take it.
-Keeping one-landers is perfectly acceptable as long as you have a cantrip or enough spells you can cast. I’ve kept some Probe, Ponder, Moorland Haunt hands on the draw, and those haven’t worked out. You still need to be able to function a little bit, and the all-colorless land draw isn’t going to get you there.
This has been one of the most profitable couple of weeks for me, as far as Magic Online is concerned. Hopefully some of you can replicate my success!
GerryT