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The newest version of my "budget" modern deck Charmed 8-Rack (Budget Modern) (budget increased a bit over time, but moved to mono color as well). The two color build wasn't working well consistently, and I believe a large part of that was because it wasn't focused enough on any one thing. Adding in too many blue control elements took away from the discard focus.

I finally broke down and invested in Ensnaring Bridge . I love 8Rack, but I'm just not winning at FNM. The symmetric effects of Necrogen Mists and Smallpox keep my hand low, but my low mana costs and lack of creatures makes the effects far less symmetric as they sacrifice creatures and lands. Necrogen Mists and Ensnaring Bridge also provide more targets for enchantment/artifact removal, making it even harder to disrupt your setup.

The discard package includes Inquisition of Kozilek , Blackmail , Funeral Charm , Raven's Crime , and Wrench Mind . I don't like Thoughtseize , primarily for the loss of life and that it can't remove land late game. Inquisition is a great early game start, with Blackmail doing a great job picking apart their hand mid-late game. Funeral Charm is instant speed, allowing you to remove small creatures early game or force a hellbent opponent to discard before their main phase late game. Raven's Crime is reusable from the graveyard, making it an acceptable discard to Mists or Pox and giving late game land draws a function (especially Dakmor Salvage ). Wrench Mind makes most decks discard 2, which is good enough for me.

Murderous Cut gives you a little removal in case something happens to Ensnaring Bridge, or for creatures like Dark Confidant or Grim Lavamancer that might get around your set up. Mutavault gets in early or during a late stalemate to help seal the deal, and provides an emergency blocker. Bojuka Bog gives you a way to deal with graveyards pre-board. While there aren't a lot of primarily graveyard strategies in Modern right now, disabling Flashback ( Snapcaster Mage / Jace, Telepath Unbound ) and Delve ( Tasigur, the Golden Fang ) are worth a tapped land.

Sideboard Cards:

Ghost Quarter disrupts man-lands, Tron, and Eldrazi. Hunted Horror punishes Leyline of Sanctity . In control matchups, there is a creature package of Pack Rat and Nezumi Shortfang , which they will hopefully have boarded out removal for. Pithing Needle is primarily for dealing with Tron, shutting down Oblivion Stone and Karn Liberated . Ravenous Trap is primarily included to interrupt Living End and Past in Flames . Shadow of Doubt is just a personal favorite 'gotcha' card, primarily for interrupting Tron's Expedition Map s and Eye of Ugin , but also stifling fetch lands in mana intensive decks (especially brutal paired with Smallpox ). Surgical Extraction is included to disrupt any combo deck, especially useful if you can choose what they are discarding on turn 1.

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Finally got to play an FNM with Ensnaring Bridge and it made all the difference. Ended up 2-2, but the matches I lost went to a third game and were close to the end. First match I played Abzan Company and lost to Chord for Reclamation Sage during my end step. Second match was a blue-red control deck where I ended up racing a Keranos, God of Storms during the second and third games, and managed to get lucky and land multiple racks. Third match was an aristocrats company deck that killed in one turn with multiple 'death' effects and Killing Wave. Fourth match was merfolk, where we ended up staring at eachother saying "draw-go" until we hit what we needed (Necrogen Mists or Raven's Crime for me, Hurkyl's Recall for her), I had a lot more outs and ended up coming back from 1 life.

Overall experience: I side-boarded out all of my Smallpox every game. Every creature deck went wide enough that one creature didn't matter, and I often had it sitting in my hand waiting to get to enough land that I could afford the sacrifice. At least once, I ended up mana screwed for a couple turns because of it. I'm debating between pulling a few common sideboard cards into the mainboard (maybe Nihil Spellbomb or Shadow of Doubt since they can cycle if they're dead) or adding a few more core cards (more discard or removal, maybe a couple Bile Blight). I know I had a suggestion in comments to mainboard my rats (and I might do all 5, since Nezumi Shortfang  Flip was an all-star in the game I boarded it in). Syphon Life is definitely getting added somewhere, it would have helped a lot against Keranos. Also, Tainted Remedy is a great sideboard card against both Abzan company and aristocrats.

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Revision 9 See all

(8 years ago)

+1 Scepter of Fugue maybe
Date added 8 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

4 - 0 Mythic Rares

17 - 10 Rares

17 - 5 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.84
Tokens Copy Clone
Folders Modern
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