BRING TO LIGHT SCAPESHIFT
COMBO
This deck is a consistent and competitive modern combo deck which can repeatedly win on turn 4 and possibly on turn 3 if everything goes your way.
The combo that wins you the deck is Scapeshift in conjunction with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.
Basically, you use Scapeshift on at least 7 lands to replace all your current lands with 6 Mountains and 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle which deals 18 damage, usually an instant win. If the opponent has more health you can use 8 lands to create 6 Mountains and 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacles.
Remember that pain lands such as Steam Vents are considered mountains and can be used in the combo.
Drawing Scapeshift is of utmost importance to win with this deck, so Bring to Light is the added in this deck to basically increase the chances of getting it for just extra mana.
BRING TO LIGHT
Bring to Light's flexibility doesn't just mean you must cast Scapeshift, if you already have it or have a double, you can cast many other specific spells from your library when in need.
Examples include: Drawn from Dreams, Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, Supreme Verdict, Ojutai's Command & Cryptic Command. From your sideboard you can also cast Crumble to Dust, Force of Vigor, Day's Undoing, Madcap Experiment & Shatterstorm.
RAMP
Getting to at least 7 lands as soon as possible means you can win the game before the opponent has time to answer or at least have the mana to answer their counters. For this, ramp is required.
For land plays, Search for Tomorrow, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Growth Spiral & Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath are added.
Lotus Cobra will not help you in playing lands, but its available mana advantage whenever you play a land makes this card help you ramp massive spells (or number of spells) from turn 3, especially with fetch lands.
There may seem to be an excessive amount of ramp spells in this deck, but it is done to counteract major control by having so many possibilities to grow that the control decks will not be able to keep up.
If this is not a problem, you can always sideboard cards like Growth Spiral with Remand etc.
CARD ADVANTAGE
Card advantage is useful in many decks and is absolutely essential in this deck to make use of your superior mana pool.
Drawn from Dreams, Growth Spiral, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Cryptic Command & Ojutai's Command all have a part in drawing cards. From your sideboard you can also cast Remand.
CONTROL
Making sure your combo goes as plan is just as important as anything else, which requires control.
A good start is Teferi, Time Raveler who can allow flash-speed sorceries which benefits Bring to Light and the variety of spells it can fetch. He can also return unwanted permanents such as Blood Moon which ruin your combo.
Mwonvuli Acid-Moss can help destroy meddling lands as well as continue your land advantage, if the opponent's lands are more of a threat, you can consider sideboarding Crumble to Dust.
Cryptic Command, Ojutai's Command & your sideboard's Path to Exile, Remand & Force of Vigor all are targeting control spells many of which can be collected by Bring to Light and help slow individual forces from the opponent down.
Supreme Verdict & your sideboard's Shatterstorm & Day's Undoing deal with everything at once.
SUPPORT
Vendilion Clique is a great creature for taking answers off from an opponent and apply pressure at the same time.
Snapcaster Mage helps return an important spell back to play.
Madcap Experiment & Platinum Emperion serve as a way to protect yourself if you are losing life too quickly before you can execute your combo. If this feels too heavy you can use Timely Reinforcements instead.
PLAYTHROUGH
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TURN 3 WIN (With 2 Lotus Cobras)
Turn 1 - Land + Search for Tomorrow
Turn 2 - Land + Lotus Cobra
Turn 3 - First Lotus Cobra + Search for Tomorrow's land + Fetch Land --- This gets you 4 lands (But only 2 are untapped) & 6 floating mana (pool) from Lotus Cobra.
Then you need to find a way to get 7 lands on the battlefield but still have at least floating for Scapeshift. There is a number of ways to get to this.
Growth Spiral + Land --- Will give you 1 untapped land profit.
Growth Spiral + Fetch Land --- Will give you 1 untapped land profit + 2 floating mana profit.
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath + Land --- Will give you 1 untapped land profit + -1 Mana floating (debt)
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath + Fetch Land --- Will give you 1 untapped land profit + 1 floating mana.
Sakura-Tribe Elder + Land --- Will give you 1 tapped land profit.
You need to use 3 of these possibilities to get to 7 lands yet you will still have enough mana to cast Scapeshift or even Bring to Light and win the game.
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TURN 3 WIN (With 1 Lotus Cobra)
You probably won't get 2 Lotus cobra's in a row, but you can still win in turn 3:
Turn 1 - Land + Search for Tomorrow
Turn 2 - Land + Lotus Cobra
Turn 3 - Search for Tomorrow's land + Fetch Land --- This gets you 4 untapped lands & 3 floating mana (pool) from Lotus Cobra.
Let's have a look at the options we have again:
Growth Spiral + Land --- Will give you 1 untapped land profit + -1 Mana floating (debt).
Growth Spiral + Fetch Land --- Will give you 1 untapped land profit.
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath + Land --- Will give you 1 untapped land profit + -2 Mana floating (debt)
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath + Fetch Land --- Will give you 1 untapped land profit + -1 Mana floating (debt).
Sakura-Tribe Elder + Land --- Will give you 1 tapped land profit + -1 Mana floating (debt).
You need to use 3 of these but taking into account that some of these combinations are not viable enough to get 7 lands and still have enough mana to cast Scapeshift or even Bring to Light and win the game.
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TURN 4 WIN
This will happen most of the time because there are too many combinations to keep track of, thus I will only give one example. (Just keep in mind there are many more ways to achieve a turn 4 win)
Turn 1 - Land + Search for Tomorrow
Turn 2 - Land + Sakura-Tribe Elder
Turn 3 - Land + Search for Tomorrow's land + Sakura-Tribe Elder's land --- This results with you having 5 lands, 4 of which are untapped where you can use Search for Tomorrow, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Growth Spiral or Sakura-Tribe Elder to make it 6.
Turn 4 - Land + Scapeshift or Bring to Light with your 7 lands. Or if the opponent has extra life, use Growth Spiral or Sakura-Tribe Elder to get 8 lands with still enough mana to cast Scapeshift or Bring to Light to win the game.
TIPS
There are 10 Mountains in this deck, so keep in mind that you shouldn't have more than 4 of them in play or in your hand at any time otherwise there won't be enough in your library to Scapeshift.
If you are not so interested in Day's Undoing then you can switch it with Learn from the Past or Reminisce
Ratio changes:
DECK MATCHUPS
So far I haven't had much time to playtest this deck enough to write a full guide against each archetype. I will add them when I can.
