Bring to Light is typically associated with Scapeshift, but today we’re pairing the powerful tutor with creatures for a deck that blends a lot of different elements that we’ve seen over the years in Modern.
The first is the mana acceleration package of Arbor Elf and Utopia Sprawl. Despite being five colors, the manabase here is skewed heavily toward green to make this package work, which is easy enough to do with fetchlands and shocklands. That Utopia Sprawl and tertiary accelerant Birds of Paradise provide extra fixing and also you start casting Bring to Light as early as Turn 3.
The second package is built around Restoration Angel. Most of the creatures in the deck have enters-the-battlefield effects that you can double up on with Restoration Angel, and of course there is a singleton Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker for the full-on combo. Conveniently, Kiki-Jiki is in range to be found with a fully converged Bring to Light, so the singleton copy isn’t too hard to find when your opponent puts their shields down.
And the last package is Nahiri, the Harbinger. Historically found in Jeskai and Mardu control decks as a finisher, it’s an easy card to protect in this deck with all of your creatures, and the mana acceleration in this deck means you can cast it on Turn 2, thus threatening an attacking Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as early as Turn 4. Keep in mind that its ultimate can also search for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker for a combo kill, though unfortunately Nahiri cannot be found with Bring to Light. I guess you can’t have all the fun.
With access to five colors of mana and several tutors, the options for this deck are endless. In this list I particularly like the Fiery Justice. In a deck that is necessarily light on removal, having your removal spells be very high-impact is important, and Fiery Justice can completely level an opposing battlefield, while the five life isn’t a big issue, since you aren’t trying winning on that axis.
No matter what your metagame, you’ll be able to find a configuration of this deck that can be competitive, and honestly, there’s no better feeling than blinking Acidic Slime with Restoration Angel, especially against a Tron player, so have at ’em.
Creatures (25)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- 1 Wood Elves
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 1 Mulldrifter
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 4 Arbor Elf
- 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
- 4 Wall of Omens
- 1 Deceiver Exarch
- 4 Restoration Angel
- 1 Tireless Tracker
- 1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (20)
Spells (11)
