There are few things in Magic I like more than free spells and blue tempo
decks, and today’s list checks off both boxes.
Thing in the Ice has been seeing more play in Modern as of late since it
can easily undo a lot of the work that the popular creature decks do in the
early turns. Humans, Hollow One, Affinity, and even a deck like Mardu
Pyromancer don’t like to see their creatures bounced in one fell swoop
while the 7/8 Awoken Horror makes recovering quickly a dicey proposition.
Also, Thing’s four points of toughness make it difficult to answer given
the ubiquity of Lightning Bolt in the current metagame, though Fatal Push
and Reflector Mage are still problematic.
We’ve seen the hibernating horror become a key sideboard card for Blue Moon
decks, with some variants moving them to the maindeck and making it a
primary focus of the deck, but today’s list eschews the red nonsense for a
sleek mana base including eighteen Islands and some role players that are
quite powerful. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing some fetchlands to help out
when Brainstorming with Jace, the Mind Sculptor or potentially enabling a
Logic Knot or two so you have at least one cheap, hard answer when needed.
Disrupting Shoal is a card I’m always looking to play in Modern because
protecting an early advantage can be game-ending. In this case, protecting
your Thing in the Ice on turn two is very important and you don’t much care
about the card disadvantage so long as you’re very far ahead on tempo.
Spell Pierce acts similarly as protection that’s also good against turn one
discard spells and even the deck’s primary removal spell, Vapor Snag, can
let you reset a critical Thing or save a Snapcaster Mage to be reused
later.
Honestly, this deck has to be immensely frustrating to play against as an
aggro deck. There’s so much bounce that your hand is always full and one of
the great joys of playing aggressive decks is not having to hold your hands
up like a sucker. Just throw it on the table, kick back, and relax with
both hands free to play the bongos, yo-yo, or smoke a fancy pipe. Whatever
you want, it’s dealer’s choice. But no, all your creatures keep going back
to your hand. It’s exhausting.
But playing decks that tilt my opponents (especially if their name rhymes
with Chad Smellson) is another of Magic’s great joys. And that’s why Shadow
of Doubt is my favorite card in the deck. Stifle on a fetchland is among
Magic’s most tilting plays, but when you add the insult of a cantrip to
that injury, it takes it to a whole new level. And don’t even get me
started on tagging a Chord of Calling or Gifts Ungiven.
What a great deck.
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (2)
Spells (46)
