Infinite Research MTGO version
Modern* Artifact Competitive Control Infinite Combo RGWU RW (Boros) Theme/Gimmick
Land (20)
Artifact (12)
- 1x Accorder's Shield
- 1x Batterskull
- 3x Boros Signet
- 2x Paradise Mantle
- 3x Sunforger
- 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
- 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
Creature (14)
Instant (12)
- 2x Boros Charm
- 1x Desperate Ritual
- 1x Lightning Bolt
- 1x Lightning Helix
- 4x Manamorphose
- 1x Path to Exile
- 2x Research / Development
Enchantment (1)
Sorcery (1)
Sideboard
Instant (14)
Enchantment (1)
This is the online version of my deck Infinite Research SFM UNBAN & ELD UPDATE!!, the reason behind the online version is that the infinite combo in the paper version is very unfriendly for playing on MTGO since it actually requires drawing the entire deck card by card before generating infinite mana, so I have built another way to go infinite that is a little less tedious (though it's still pretty damn tedious) and usually doesn't require you to draw your whole deck to win. Also Mox Opals are too expensive to buy online for me, and if you don't have them this list can serve as a more budget friendly paper version as well.
Infinite Research
This deck is the online version of my deck Infinite Research SFM UNBAN & ELD UPDATE!!, the reason behind the online version is that the infinite combo in the paper version is very unfriendly for playing on MTGO since it actually requires drawing the entire deck card by card before generating infinite mana, so I have built another way to go infinite that is a little less tedious (though I'm not gonna lie, it's still pretty fucking tedious :D) and usually doesn't require you to draw your whole deck to win. (Also Mox Opals are too expensive to buy online for me, I was lucky enough to get my paper playset before they spiked.)
The problem I've run into when trying to build Sunforger decks is inconsistency and protecting the key creatures, the best Sunforger targets are often not very good on the draw and makes it hard to reliably get a Sunforger Engine out quickly.
The idea of this deck is to reduce these problems by keeping all the fancy toolbox cards in the sideboard, and instead maindecking tutors, protection and mana fixers to quickly set up and protect your Sunforger engine, and then use Research/Development to access the toolbox as needed. This deck also sports two maindeck combo wins to end the game quickly, as well as the stoneblade threat package of Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull + Swords.
Puresteel Paladin is the most powerful enabler if you can establish metalcraft fast, but Fervent Champion is better if you're short on artifacts since it doesn't need metalcraft to set up for Sunforger , and he's also a turn faster. In most cases either of them will do the job, and it's usually a good idea to only have one at a time in play and keep copies in your hand.
If you only have one enabler in hand, you can lead with a Spellskite to protect it, depending on matchup it's often worth a turn to secure against removal.
If your enabler + Sunforger is out but unprotected leave WR untapped so your opponent thinks you have an answer to removal in the library even if you don't. (but hopefully you should)
Once Sunforger is set up you'll want to find an opportunity to either cast Research to restock your toolbox and tune it to counter your opponents deck, or to simply find a way to combo off and win.
Remember that you don't need to reveal the cards you fetch with Research , it's pretty nice to see your opponent trying to second guess you over which weird answers you brought in this time. This allows you to be more unpredictable.
The Development half of Research/Development is useful in a pinch when you're not drawing the cards you need, since it either creates pressure or digs.
If you get the above combo out you can alternate forging for Desperate Ritual and Manamorphose to gain as much mana and draw as many cards as you need to win. The simplest and most common scenario is to make 5 white and 5 red and then forge for Boros Charm 5 times, and extend this to whatever number necessary if the opponent has gained life, that gets quite tedious to online though, and it's often a good idea to explain what you're going to do in chat so that your opponent can choose to concede.
You HAVE to draw the cards from Manamorphose, so when demonstrating this loop it's necessary to calculate how many cards you will draw. For example generating 5w5r from wwr will make you draw 10 cards. Basically each red mana you add will draw you a card, and then each red mana you want to convert to white draws you another card.
You can still keep going if you draw the whole deck, simply cast Desperate ritual from your hand to put a card in the library when making more mana, and cast two alternating manamorphoses from your hand when converting mana into other colors.
The most straightforward wincon using the combo is to chain a burn spell for lethal, but if your opponent is immune to damage somehow you can do all sorts of complex things by fetching alternative wincons with Research and play as many cards as you like from your deck, for example fetching Blightsteel Colossus and hardcasting it along with Swiftfoot Boots plus chainging removals for all blockers, keeping mana up for counterspells etc. Worst case scenario you can destroy all your opponents permanents and keep the perfect hand and pass the turn, all dicarded cards go to the library in the order you choose. If Hide/Seek is in the sideboard you can research for it and chain cast it to exile your opponents deck.
You can combo off from only 2 mana (WR) if you haven't played a land yet, simply chain Manamorphose until you draw an untapped white land and then start alternating with ritual.
In order to consistently find Sunforger we are running 4 Stoneforge Mystic , these can also be used to tutor up the other equipments in the deck and go for a more traditional stoneblade strategy if the sunforger plan seems bad at the time.
Damping Matrix : Actually a little harder to beat than Stony Silence for us but not nearly as common, otherwise dealt with the same way except there are fewer removal cards available.
Artifact removal spells: People often bring in stuff like Naturalize and Disenchant etc against our deck. That isn't actually that bad for us as we can employ more or less the same protective measures as we do against creature removal and they are weakening their deck to bring that in. If they side out creature removal to bring in artifact removal it can even improve the matchup for us since it's easier to grind through a split removal suite than one focused on either creatures or artifacts.
Pithing Needle : Similar to Stony Silence and Damping Matrix and dealt with along the same lines. One of the harder cards to deal with as it's sometimes a maindeck card that comes down game 1 when we have less answers, otherwise same plan as for those cards.
Kataki, War's Wage : This is another less common but very effective counter against us. Luckily is should only take 1 Sunforger activation to get rid of, so the plan is to simply remove it. If we can't remove it that means playing artifacts more conservatively, for example not playing multiple sunforgers, and try to find a window to play and activate the same turn.
There are so many cards you can cast off Sunforger, and therefore there is great flexibility in building the sideboard as well. You can go for modern staple white and red instant cards that are easy to hardcast and therefore friendly to board in (which is probably the most competitive approach), you can go for a host of powerful controlling cards and counterspells or you can go for weird complex tricks. Here is my current sideboard:
Advent of the Wurm : Instant body, just nice to have. I find it's never a bad idea to throw in some additional access to bodies in decks that are thin on creatures like this one.
Boil : Make blue decks hate you.
Crackling Doom : A good way to deal with creatures that can't be removed with spot removal. Typically indestructible or hexproof creatures etc. The great thing about this spell, compared to alternatives like Blessed Alliance or Dispense Justice , is that it forces your opponent to sac their largest creature and also can be used before attacks to avoid attack triggers from eldrazi titans and such. This makes it much better at dealing with Emrakul or bogles. Another great thing is that it is "each opponent" so it doesn't need to target the enemy player, which makes it work through things like Leyline of Sanctity .
Hide/Seek: A very flexible little card, get rid of that mindslaver in a way that can't be brought back with academy ruins, remove Emrakul from their deck in response to Nahiri/Tooth and nail/Polymorph etc. And against Angel's Grace and such you can finish the infinite combo in style by just chaining seek to remove their whole deck and pass the turn.
Jund Charm : Graveyard hate and wipe against wide boards. One great thing about it is that if you can cast it twice in a turn (with wheel) you can use the first casting to protect your enabler with the +2 counters so it survives the wipe.
Kolaghan's Command : Just plain good modern staple solving many kinds of problems.
Ojutai's Command : Very versatile answer, great for bringing back Paladin and for stabilising against aggro.
Punish Ignorance : Probably the most flavorful card to pair with research, and it's also a pretty good counterspell when cast through Sunforger. A little clunky to cast from the hand sometimes so it should be used mostly when you can chain reseach into a sunforger activation the same turn.
Render Silent : Great counterspell, if you get this going with wheel/forger it resembles an isochron/silence lock as well. This is also the best counterspell against Bloodbraid Elf and other cascade cards as the silence effect stops the cascaded spell from being cast.
Scour : Supercharged enchantment removal, one of the more common cards to board in game two expecting Stony Silence.
Settle the Wreckage : So powerful with Sunforger it's not even funny.
Utter End : Sometimes you just need to remove something without compromises, planeswalkers usually.
Wear/Tear: Since we really don't like facing cards like Stony Silence , Pithing Needle and Damping Matrix , it's good to have some hate that is also easy to cast from our hand, so this goes in game 2 against white decks pretty much every time along with hide/seek.
Wrecking Ball : Land hate, can also kill creatures.
Congregation at Dawn : Creature tutor that can be good at recovering from removal and wipes, also a combo piece for Drooling Ogre.
Mirrorweave : A board wipe effect when targeting a germ token, and the second combo piece for Drooling Ogre.
Drooling Ogre : One of the most outrageous tricks with Sunforger, and also pretty redundant because if you can do this you can probably win in a simpler way, but who doesn't like to show off? You need Research plus an artifact in your hand, an equipped sunforger and enough mana, which is going to be WRUG the first turn and 4+the cost of the artifact the second turn. In opponents end step Research for Drooling Ogre , Congregation at Dawn and Mirrorweave , forge for Congregation at Dawn putting Drooling Ogre on top. On your turn draw and play the Ogre, forge for Mirrorweave targeting the Ogre, play the artifact and steal all your opponents creatures.
Vanish into Memory is a wonderful card with Sunforger . It can kill tokens, it can protect your enablers, it can draw you insane amounts of cards. It's great against nasty transformer lands, big tokens and all sorts of things.
Wild Ricochet is awesome to answer any kind of targeted removal or burn spell, usually much better than a normal counter.
Master Warcraft let's you swing things for lethal like inkmoth with sunforger etc, or buys you a turn if your opponent would be able to swing for lethal against you.
Dawn Charm is a great defensive option that is also easy to side in or mainboard, with wheel out it can be used to lock down the game against some decks.
There are lots of more possible cards out there, but in tournament play I've found so far that the best way is to pack up on different kinds of counters, damage dealers and removals. The more fancy tricks I usually only use in casual play.
Infinite Research
Modern*
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Revision 3 See all
(5 years ago)
| -1 | Boros Signet | main |
| -1 | Dispatch | main |
| -1 | Emrakul, the Aeons Torn | side |
| +4 | Fervent Champion | main |
| -4 | Kazuul's Toll Collector | main |
| +1 | Lightning Bolt | main |
| +2 | Manamorphose | main |
| -1 | Nahiri, the Harbinger | main |
| +1 | Open the Armory | main |
| +1 | Paradise Mantle | main |
| +1 | Path to Exile | main |
| -1 | Research / Development | main |
| -1 | Spellskite | main |
| -4 | Steelshaper's Gift | main |
| +4 | Stoneforge Mystic | main |
| -1 | Sunforger | main |
| -1 | Swiftfoot Boots | main |
| +1 | Sword of Feast and Famine | main |
| +1 | Sword of Fire and Ice | main |
| Date added | 6 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 3 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 9 Rares 18 - 5 Uncommons 0 - 1 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.15 |
| Tokens | Elemental 3/1 R, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Wurm 5/5 G w/ Trample |
| Folders | modern decks, Deck Ideas |
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