Sideboard


Maybeboard

Instant (3)


You didn’t lose because you had zero life.

You didn’t lose because you had 10 poison counters.

You didn’t lose because you had no cards to draw.

You lost because you agreed to play a game of Magic.

This deck wins not by playing valuable cards: it wins by forcing your opponents to play cards that lose them the game. The central piece of this deck is Hive Mind. When this spell resolves you won’t win immediately, but from that moment on your opponent’s odds of winning have decreased drastically.

It may feel impossible to cast a 6 mana spell such as Hive Mind in Modern; however, this is where the deck takes pointers from Ad Nauseum. If you suspend a Lotus Bloom turn in one and play a land on your first three turns: you will have 6 mana turn four.

Before you cast Hive Mind be sure you have a least one spell that says “Lose the Game” on it. Play out Hive Mind and then drop as many Lose the Game spells (usually pacts) as you can. After that pass turn. If you opponent cannot afford to play for the Pacts at upkeep or cannot kill you by their endstep: you win. If anything slips up, you probably lose.

The main way to win the game is casting pacts once you have Hive Mind out. Ideally you ensure you have pacts in hand that your opponents simply cannot afford. This can be done in two different ways. Either use a pact with a large tax on it early in the game such as Pact of the Titan. Alternatively, you can use color intensive pacts on opponents you cannot produce enough of that color of mana such as Summoner's Pact or Intervention Pact.

Often you will need to find the ideal pact to end your opponent. Tolaria West is excellent for finding whatever you need. For spell heavy decks such as Death’s Shadow or Delver be sure to use Summoner's Pact so they get no value. For creature-based decks such as infect, humans, or Coco use Slaughter Pact. For burn use burn cream. For affinity use several pacts at the same time.

You may wonder why Pact of Negation is in the sideboard instead of the main. This is because this counterspell is reactive rather than proactive. Once Hive Mind is on the battlefield you cannot drop Pact of Negation on an empty stack. While a similar requirement is needed for Slaughter Pact but it is much easier for a creature to be on the battlefield than a spell on the stack. What Pact of Negation excels at is surprising control players trying to counter Hive Mind: you have no mana open and counter their counter.

This deck bursts a win out of nowhere: but that means you don’t have much of a board state to protect you. Because the deck is red of course we use Lightning Bolt. If you can cheat it out: Slaughter Pact is extremely useful in removing Tarmogoyfs, Blighted Agents, and Monastery Swiftspears.

To ensure we can find Hive Mind the deck runs a few Ethereal Usher. This tutor is public but gives you the ability to find what you need for three mana without splashing another color. Ethereal Usher can also find the deck’s alternate wincon Frosty the Snowman. The deck is vulnerable to Surgical Extraction since the combo depends on having Hive Mind. Frost Titan gives you a secondary option with a 6/6 that can remove blockers, open mana, and is hard to remove.

As mentioned earlier every pact in the game can be cast on an empty board except for Slaughter Pact. This is where the Rakdos ender comes in. Cast Pact of the Titan on your first main then Slaughter Pact their Giant token. No one nets anything but both players now owe 8 mana. Pass the turn.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments View Archive

Casual

93% Competitive

Revision 20 See all

(6 years ago)

+1 Steam Ventsfoil main
-1 Wandering Fumarole main
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #3 position overall 7 years ago
Date added 7 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is not Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

2 - 0 Mythic Rares

28 - 5 Rares

16 - 5 Uncommons

8 - 5 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.52
Tokens Giant 4/4 R
Folders cool decks, LOL DECKS, Decks I want to build, Modern Love, interesting decks, Fun, Hivemind Pacts, Interesting Modern Decks, Deck wants, Modern
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views