As you might have guessed from the title of this here article, it’s going to be devoted to the Splinter Twin archetype in Modern. In my last article I talked about Foo Fighters, The Chemical Brothers, Vanilla Ice, and DeVotchKa. Okay, so I didn’t really. I just used a few references to them as titles. What I really talked about was a few deck choices for the different Constructed formats on Magic Online (aka MODO). What I want to focus on today is the deck choice for Modern. Splinter Twin. Or as I’ve come to call it (courtesy of Bryce Menard), Grim Twin.
Creatures (17)
Lands (23)
Spells (20)
- 4 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Serum Visions
- 2 Echoing Truth
- 2 Spell Pierce
- 3 Dispel
- 4 Splinter Twin
- 1 Gitaxian Probe
Sideboard
I recently played this deck in a MODO PTQ and took 11th, losing to Reid Duke in round two and another Jund player in round eight (the win and in). I feel as though the Jund matchup is a coin flip, possibly slightly favored towards them if they have practiced against Twin. Every single matchup I played in that PTQ was so much easier with the major addition to the deck that I expect many players to adopt. That addition is Grim Lavamancer. The full set.
Who here remembers how Twin was during the last Standard season? It started to run three to four Grim Lavamancers after Jace, the Mind Sculptor was banned. Why was this? Well, Grim Lavamancer is good for multiple reasons. The first reason is that when combined with another Lavamancer or a Deceiver Exarch, you get to remove Spellskites or other creatures with larger toughness than two. With just your powerful red one-drop, you get to burn away annoying creatures like Gaddock Teeg, Dark Confidant, Qasali Pridemage, Soul Warden, Delver of Secrets, Pestermite, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Spellstutter Sprite, Vendilion Clique, Mutavault, Lord of Atlantis, and so on and so forth.
But wait, why do you need to be burninating the countryside if you’re a combo deck? Because sometimes not everything goes according to plan. Sometimes you need to fight through some maindeck hate like Spellskite. Sometimes you want ways to stop the Melira, Sylvok Outcast combo. And sometimes you just have to switch to plan B. With the fact that there are already four Grim Lavamancers in the deck, burning people out is not unreasonable. Combined with the eight tappers in the deck that can be played at the end of an opponent’s turn and the fact that four of those have 2/1 flying bodies attached, plan B is a reasonable plan. Don’t forget that people have Phyrexian mana spells (such as Birthing Pod), fetchlands, and shocklands. All of this adds up to a sizeable chunk of their life.
A little bit more on the maindeck, it was built with Grim Lavamancer in mind. I’m only running 23 lands because I feel like with three Halimar Depths and nine card selection spells (although Gitaxian Probe only cycles), you can afford to only run 23. Nine fetches are to feed the graveyard at the low, low cost of one life. I run two Mountains instead of one because I don’t like to lose to Blood Moon. Alright, you caught me; it’s because I like the ability to play Grim Lavamancer on turn one and not have to Lightning Bolt myself all the time.
As far as Depths go and the issue with it coming into play tapped, I have never lost a game to it coming into play tapped. I have won countless games because it lets me filter my draws and plan ahead. The issue of it being a nonbasic is also not very relevant, as there are almost no decks playing Tectonic Edge. The one Cascade Bluffs is to make comboing off easier but also for the sideboard Shattering Spree, and I could easily see going up to two, possibly cutting a Halimar Depths. Other than the nine fetches and three Depths, the mana is pretty standard for a Twin deck.
For the maindeck, I’ve already raved about how good Grim Lavamancer is, but how about the two other cards that aren’t typically maindeck? Well for starters, having maindeck bounce spells is incredible. Echoing Truth is my out to maindeck hate (which could start to pick up if Twin starts to dominate), incidental hate (Spellskite, Ghostly Prison), and Empty the Warrens. It’s also great to rebuy a tapper, save a guy from removal, or bounce a gigantic, dumb beast (like Tarmogoyf) and fog.
The other two-of is Spell Pierce. Spell Pierce is insane. It stops everything you want to stop (except Vendilion Clique, but that’s easily blocked, burned, or ignored). Thoughtseize me on turn one will you? How about I Pierce that instead? Birthing Pod, eh? Nope! Liliana of the Veil? No sir! It’s also a helluva lot easier to hold up one mana instead of two.
I’m sure there’s the question of Remand on your mind and where it went. Well, I cut it. By adding Lavamancers and trimming the land count, it becomes slightly harder to hope to get to enough mana to cast an end-step Exarch or Pestermite with Remand backup. Remand almost never protects your combo and only buys you time and tempo. Grim Lavamancer also buys you time and tempo and in my eyes is the more powerful of the two. All of the Twin players I’ve talked to have stated their dislike for Remand. I just went a step further and cut it entirely.
Now that we’ve covered the maindeck, let’s move on to the board and see what tricks and treats await there.
The Dark Side of the Blood Moon
Look at your lands, now back to me, now back at your lands, now back to me. Sadly, they’re Mountains. Has this happened to you? Then apparently you didn’t respect your opponent’s ability to have Blood Moon. Respecting your opponent’s ability to have Blood Moon in their deck and constructing your manabase to be more resilient to this backbreaking effect is an important part of Modern. And yet people continue to ignore this. And I continue to get free wins. Playing Blood Moon is like being some sort of magic man. I don’t think there’s much else to say about Blood Moon. It will win you games against all sorts of greedy people. It will also win you games against the people who can’t afford to run basic lands like Tron.
Flame Slash is for getting rid of troublesome creatures and slows clocks down so you have time to combo off. Getting rid of Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Soul Warden, Steppe Lynx, Goblin Guide, and Spellskites is of the utmost importance. You can also bring it in for the mirror to get rid of Spellskites and any extra Exarchs lying around. Some people bring in Ancient Grudge, but I prefer Flame Slash because it will get rid of Exarch and Spellskites versus just Spellskite.
Shattering Spree is my artifact destruction of choice over Ancient Grudge because 1) Breeding Pools are expensive and 2) Being able to blow up multiple permanents (more than two) is a huge upside to Spree. Okay, number one isn’t really a reason, but I do think the manabase doesn’t want another shockland. It’s important to keep the number of basics up so that Blood Moon works for us, not against us. Breeding Pool does the opposite.
Anyway, Spree will destroy everything Grudge does, but it will also blow up more things along the way. A lot of times an Affinity opponent will run out a Cranial Plating and a couple of really bad creatures like Vault Skirge and Memnite hoping the Plating will win the game. This is when you show them the bad news and cast Shattering Spree with a giant replicate number. And boom goes the dynamite.
Cliques are for control and combo matchups. They’re useful for getting rid of hate cards, removal, or combo pieces. They also attack for three, which is a huge part of the Blood Moon plan. When I board in Blood Moon and Cliques, I usually just board down to two Splinter Twins and cut Kiki-Jiki altogether. Then plan B really comes together. End-of-turn Clique can also help set up a turn-four Blood Moon, which is still just as likely to cold someone as a turn-three Moon. Vendilion Clique is also one of the few ways to play around Combust. Just make them put it on the bottom of their deck and combo off! Easy.
Finally there’s Jace Beleren. This guy is insane against all the blue decks. You just bring him in and slowly grind out the card advantage war, sculpting a perfect hand to combo off. He also helps big time with the Blood Moon plan. Jace and Blood Moon, when combined with Cliques and Grims, allow you to sort of become a weird control deck post-board against some decks. You even get to have eight flash guys that tap blockers or the one basic land they have left. Don’t forget you can still randomly draw the combo and win instantly.
I would provide a boarding guide, but it’s as simple as figuring out what cards are bad in what matchups and what hate cards they are most likely to have. White decks will probably have Path to Exile (you already have Dispels and Pierces maindeck for those), Ghostly Prison, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, or Suppression Field. Green decks are going to be more reliant on racing, so they will have Damping Matrix or Torpor Orb. Red decks have access to Combust, which Kiki-Jiki plays around. Black decks have discard and more spot removal. Dispel is the MVP here. Blue decks get access to all sorts of counterspells, all of which are trumped by Dispel.
Keep in mind the key hate cards that everyone has access to. Spellskite, Torpor Orb, and Damping Matrix. Decks that use abilities are unlikely to have Damping Matrix. Knight of the Reliquary decks, decks with mana creatures (Birds of Paradise), and decks with a combo kill (Melira decks) are unlikely to pack Matrix. Decks that care about creatures entering the battlefield are unlikely to have Torpor Orb. Squadron Hawk immediately comes to mind. Everyone has access to Spellskites, and the only decks that don’t really like him are the fast Red and Boros decks that like to race.
Well, that’s my time for today. Sorry I couldn’t come up with any REALLY witty titles, but for once I thought I would have a deep discussion about my take on the Twin archetype. If people don’t start adopting Grim Lavamancers, I’ll be very shocked (Get it? Because he deals two! Just like Shock! Ha!). Grim Lavamancer is the future. Remand is the past. If people would like an in-depth discussion on how the matches play out and a really in-depth look at decision trees (trust me, they get a lot more complex with Grim Lavamancers and the way the board works out) as well as an extensive sideboard guide, let me know in the comments.
krazykirby4 on MODO
@krazykirby4 on Twitter
krazykirby AT gmail DOT com