Spending on a Modern-Day Budget

Features

xzzane

6 July 2013

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Spending on a Modern-Day Budget #1


Intro

This is an article series designed to get people into the Modern format by showing various budget decks and explaining how to use them. In addition, I also want to get some lesser known decks out into the limelight. I plan on releasing an article once every Friday.

deck-large:i-wash-my-hands-of-this-weirdness

Ohthenoises’s deck uses the combination of Blistercoil Weird and Paradise Mantle to achieve dealing lethal damage through Grapeshot. This has the capability of being competitive in tournaments, and is relatively easy to make. For those just getting into Modern, this is definitely something to consider if you are looking into competitive gameplay.

The Deck:

1x Artful Dodge

4x Faithless Looting

4x Gitaxian Probe

2x Grapeshot

4x Ideas Unbound

4x Serum Visions

4x Sleight of Hand

1x Elixir of Immortality

4x Paradise Mantle

4x Cerulean Wisps

4x Crimson Wisps

4x Manamorphose

3x Thought Scour

3x Visions of Beyond

7x Island

3x Steam Ventsfoil

4x Blistercoil Weird


The Sideboard:

4x Dispel

4x Izzet Charm

3x Mizzium Skin

4x Quicken


The Cast


The Stars:

Blistercoil Weird

Paradise Mantle

Grapeshot

The Support Cast:

All the Cantrips.

Elixir of Immortality


The Play:

The Stars of this deck are the ones that get all the glory, but just like any real-life production, it would never be possible without their ever-loyal support cast.

Act One:

Set the stage with a Blistercoil Weird.

Act Two:

Equip Paradise Mantle and play your cantrips to your heart’s content.

Act Three

Now that your Blistercoil Weird is at 20+ power you can either swing for lethal damage with an Artful Dodge or Grapeshot for direct damage. Or you could choose to do a combination of both, the choice is always yours. For a third possible win condition for those of you who want to liven up things, you can use Elixir of Immortality and Thought Scour to mill the opponent to death. During rounds 2 and 3 you can sideboard in Dispel to protect from those pesky Path to Exiles and Lightning Bolts to keep your star alive.

Denouement

Bask in your victory. You know you want to.


Viability in Modern

This deck can definitely see a lot of play in the Modern format and is a very affordable alternative to mainstream competitive Modern decks at just under 80 dollars.


Alternative Choices

Peek

Serum Powder

Burning Inquiry

Peek and Burning Inquiry are fairly self-explanatory, but Serum Powder is something you don’t see that often. In a deck like this, that needs certain cards right from the start, getting a free mulligan is certainly noteworthy.

MollyMab says... #1

Be interesting if you could also offer some advice on the staple cards of Modern, how to play around them and what decks tend to play them.

July 7, 2013 3:05 a.m.

KingSorin says... #2

Gotta love weirdstorm :D Fun seeing the look on their face if thy've never played it.

July 7, 2013 4:32 a.m.

Goody says... #3

I've been trying to build this for a week or so, I need lotsa stuff still

July 7, 2013 2:36 p.m.

Matsi883 says... #4

As I was trying to convince xzzane of, Storm and Eggs is my version and should also be there for more perspective.

But very good article nonetheless. It hits the deck's focus points very well. Does it mention the best part of this deck; that it can win on turn 2?

July 7, 2013 7:50 p.m.

Putrefy says... #5

As an additional finisher you could also put in some Fling .

July 8, 2013 6:21 a.m.

Matsi883 says... #6

This deck already has 2x Grapeshot , which might be strictly better in this deck.

July 8, 2013 6:42 a.m.

Goody says... #7

The deck needs most of the cards to be cantrips; you already have lands, mantles, weirds, and the one artful dodge as dead draws, so fitting a two mana non-cantrip that wins less than Grapeshot is probably not worth the slots.

I have a question: what are your thoughts on Aphotic Wisps , Ohthenoises and Matsi883? It could replace Artful Dodge and still be a cantrip; and let's face it, how many times do you win by swinging instead of Grapeshot ?

July 8, 2013 7:36 a.m.

Ohthenoises says... #8

The problem that I have with Aphotic Wisps is simply that Jund and Affinity are commonly played. Deathrite Shaman is B so he would easily be able to chump the weird and Memnite makes an ideal blocker. Unblockable rules out those possibilities.

(Jund is the most played deck in modern so you have to keep that in mind..)

Fling can easily be countered. Grapeshot puts 20 copies of itself on the stack which means that you can't simply Dissipate the spell to prevent death. In fact, it takes a very specific card to beat storm on this early of a turn; Counterflux would be too expensive so they have to use Mindbreak Trap .

July 8, 2013 8:03 a.m.

Goody says... #9

Makes sense. How many times have you won by swinging as opposed to Grapeshot ?

July 8, 2013 9:18 a.m.

Ohthenoises says... #10

Sometimes I win off of a combined effort. Most times it's Grapeshot though.

July 8, 2013 9:56 a.m.

Ohthenoises says... #11

A big thank you to xzzane for the props. Weirdstorm is really an interesting build. Just be sure you can dodge removal.

July 8, 2013 3:59 p.m.

Arsene says... #12

I play one of these as well, and I would suggest playing Spell Pierce over Dispel to deal with Pyroclasm and a few other odd non-instant removal spells. Otherwise I suggest it to players new to modern, it's a fun deck, but will realistically probably never win a tourney because of how vulnerable it is. It also can have a bit more money dumped into it if you like it a lot and suddenly come into money by playing fetchlands which are invaluable in a deck like this when every draw needs to be a cantrip.

July 8, 2013 6:05 p.m.

Putrefy says... #13

How about Preordain instead of Sleight of Hand ?

July 8, 2013 6:45 p.m.

Ohthenoises says... #14

Preordain isn't modern legal.

I have a version of this that is legacy legal: Legacy Weirdstorm.

July 8, 2013 6:54 p.m.

Matsi883 says... #15

Ohthenoises: Legacy has Force of Will . It will completely destroy this deck, therefore Legacy Weirdstorm isn't the best idea.

July 8, 2013 8:01 p.m.

Ohthenoises says... #16

Not the best idea no but still a possibility. FoW can't stop the Grapeshot so I suspect you are saying that they T1 counter Blistercoil Weird or Paradise Mantle . If that's what, in fact, you are referring to there are ways of playing around Force of Will if need be. (As is the case with any valid counterspell.)

July 8, 2013 8:07 p.m.

KingSorin says... #17

Dispel for example, or Daze

July 8, 2013 8:10 p.m.

what would it take for you to do an article on my deck, Bolas of Grixis, only about $60

July 9, 2013 12:40 p.m.

bman5604 says... #19

Playing against the meta is rough. Combo decks are king right now which means control isn't horrible. While budget is nice and all I never will recommend it for a tournament in a external format. You might catch someone in a game but I assure u the decks that are teir 1 will be ale to handle you with ease.

July 9, 2013 1:28 p.m.

APPLE01DOJ says... #20

Good article, will check for future reads :)

July 9, 2013 10:44 p.m.

killersuv says... #21

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gargageddonrestore-balance/

This is my budget modern deck. This deck is really good. And its tons of fun to play. At a ptq my friend went 4-3 with it. So that was not too bad.

July 11, 2013 5:13 p.m.

bman5604 says... #22

@ killersuv I have played against a very similar list several times on mtgo and Its pretty descent. Horribly inconstant and defiantly a cheap deck to make. It hits the meta in weird way which is good but if you play against control decks your kinda hosed.

July 11, 2013 7:58 p.m.

Matsi883 says... #23

Jund is a worse matchup than R/W/U Control, the only control deck in Modern.

July 11, 2013 8:03 p.m.

Ohthenoises says... #24

Tron is always control...

July 11, 2013 8:11 p.m.

bman5604 says... #25

Don't ever rule out TRON but this list should combo before the do anything. Even if they naturally draw tron

July 11, 2013 8:14 p.m.

DNSolver says... #26

You should also explain how to play this deck with matchups and how to deal with them post-board? For example, the sideboard includes Dispel and Mizzium Skin which you should say comes in vs Path to Exile decks and Lightning Bolt decks, but you should then say that it sometimes is worth waiting an extra turn to drop the Weird so that you have mana to counter their removal spell.

Also, Izzet Charm comes in against? I'm guessing Scapeshift and Liliana of the Veil . Anything else?

Quicken in the sideboard is for what reason? Does it come in to replace Thought Scour against Graveyard-based shenanigans? Are you usually Scouring yourself or your opponent?

Just some tips and questions of my own for Ohthenoises and xzzane.

July 12, 2013 9:59 a.m.

bman5604 says... #27

Izzet Charm does nothing against Scapeshift trust me I run scape on mtgo and counter is never a issue considering we have our own charms and Remand main board.

July 12, 2013 11:38 a.m.

DNSolver says... #28

So is it only the Liliana of the Veil decks then?

July 12, 2013 6:45 p.m.

Ohthenoises says... #29

Lightning Bolt can be responded to by instant cantrips. Quicken helps in this regard. As do Dispel , Mizzium Skin , and Izzet Charm .

No one would cast Scapeshift for 4... (Or at least I've never seen it done.) Izzet Charm wouldn't help much there but it does help as a anti-removal counter.

July 12, 2013 6:55 p.m.

Matsi883 says... #30

Scapeshift is lethal turn 4 with Prismatic Omen turn 2.

July 12, 2013 10:17 p.m.

bman5604 says... #31

Yes you can scape with 6 lands out as long as omen is in play for 4 valakut a doing way more damage then I care to do the math for right this min.

And it does but it's not as good as Negate for you. Granted charm does serve dual function but I think a good blend would be better against scape and tron.

July 12, 2013 10:22 p.m.

Gadiner92 says... #32

With all respect, but i tried wierd-combo deck half year ago. Lack of [ponder]s and [preordain]s is hard for this deck... I play with it in legacy and it is preety good =)

July 17, 2013 8:37 p.m.

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