These panels are going to read similarily to the original list, lots of copy/paste, but figured it was worth tweaking these sections according to the new changes/strategy in the 4-color list. Give this a read, if you want to make sure you understand all of the synergy.
The first and potentially obvious thing to note is that the deckbuilding restriction with this combo is that NONE of the other spells in the deck can be nonpermanents other than the 1-of Spellshift and Primal Surge.
Here's an in depth breakdown of the cards and their purposes for getting started: (I will mention cards more than once, I am sorting by purpose primarily so you can understand how the deck fits together.)
"I win!" - your "win the game" play is to cast Spellshift, in response to when you cast an adventure card. (you have to then hold priority FYI! Unless you are confident your adventure card will draw out an opponent's response on the stack, in which case you can pass priority and for example draw out a force of negation. Happens less than 1% of the time) With the adventure on the stack, you need to counter it using Spellshift. when spellshift resolves, it will automatically cast:
Primal Surge, which will then dump every card in your deck onto the battlefield. This is assuming it isn't stuck in your hand.
Important Hits: Thassa's Oracle
Oracle scrys early game if you draw it, no worries on casting it for chump blocking if you know you won't need to win the game on the spot. (If you choose to run 2, you never have to worry about drawing and playing 1, as you dump a billion lands and can hardcast #2 if you draw it or itll etb and win)... BUT since I cut down to 1 copy, it is simply a judgement call on when it's appropriate to play it vs hold it in hand, if drawn. Dumping 30-40 power onto the battlefield, 12 of it with haste is often enough to win anyways. Just worry about keeping Primal Surge out of your hand and in the lib. Don't forget that when you combo off, you are getting most likely at least 1 but usually 2-3 vendilion clique triggers, so you should be able to pick apart whatever scary thing your opponent is about to do, like set up a wrath. I have considered cutting oracle altogether, except sometimes when I need a win I need it yesterday, or with something on the stack. It's worth its slot but 2 of them is excessive if we are being realistic.
The only card to worry about having in your hand is Primal Surge. If this happens, you need to tuck it to the bottom of your library with Vendilion Clique before you combo off, or switch gears and win with your creatures. (We used to be able to mystic sanctuary it back to hand, but now that that card is banned we have no way to recur the combo. You just have to switch gears if spellshift or surge get discarded.)
The all star combo piece of the deck:
Spellshift: This is the card you want to dig for when you get to around 4-5 mana. It costs a minimum of 5 mana to combo off in this deck, so your choices are A: Ramp to it, B: Delay the game until you can cast it, or C: Hope to stumble into it while on the midrange plan, and randomly win on the spot. This version runs a lot of spot removal and interaction so we usually midrange the game and put pressure before we combo, rather than race to it.
In order to pull the combo off and cast spellshift, you need another adventure card in hand to cast. I'm going to list them in order of importance, as 8 slots allow for a 5 mana combo, and 8 slots allow for a 6 mana combo at instant speed, for a total of 16 combo enablers. We no longer run any 3 mana adventures. The list used to run Hypnotic Sprite but through playtesting I dropped it for mana efficiency reasons. Depending on the Metagame it would be worth adding again, which would add a situational 7 mana combo option.
1 mana combo pieces:Lovestruck Beast lets you go off for 5 mana at sorcery speed with spellshift, and Merchant of the Vale, the new addition to the list, lets you go off at INSTANT speed for 5 mana as well. Important to note this lets you combo off at instant speed if your opponent taps out on your end step or during their turn!
2 mana combo pieces: Both of these options are instant speed as well. Brazen Borrower lets you go off for 6 mana, as does the new addition, Bonecrusher Giant.
Tutors:
The combo would be much less consistent without 4-of Wishclaw Talisman, the permanent based tutor for the deck. If your opponent isn't playing blue or black, usually smart with a 1 mana adventure in hand to crack the talisman when you are at 4 mana on field, and 5th land in hand (or in a bind and hope to topdeck a land) as no matter what they grab they probably can't disrupt your combo with mana of any other color. Or rather, they COULD but they are very unlikely to grab what they need as they probably have no clue what you're about to do. Very often, they won't even crack it for fear of giving you another tutor. If the opponent is playing black, weigh decision carefully with how dead you will be next turn. They could tutor a thoughtsieze and take your spellshift right out of your hand. IMPORTANT TO NOTE: if you have 3 islands and a fetchland, you don't care about this! If you crack the talisman for spellshift and it gets thoughtsiezed, play a fetch and tutor Mystic Sanctuary, and get it back. you now have spellshift to draw and a talisman with another free crack! If you don't have fetches this becomes sketchy, you need to draw into one. The USUAL play, however, is to drop the 2 mana artifact when you get the chance, and combo off all at once by cracking it. The 3 color lists have by and large moved to using the card Dimir House Guard, but the double black requirement is simply too much to manage for a 4-color deck that only splashes black. See the aggro build for details.
Know your opponent's deck, is the bottom line here. Quick (or not I guess) lines to note:
Do not underestimate the value against linear decks of just cracking a talisman for bloodbraid elf and casting as a 2 for 1, letting your opponent crack or not crack, and if they do just getting another BB elf (assuming that they probably grabbed an answer to a Spellshift.) (Or, based on board info, determine whether they grabbed an answer to beatdown plan and go for spellshift). Bloodbraid elves are a great way to outvalue opponent's resources.
Crack the tutor and Brazen Borrower it immediately after, or if grabbing a sideboard card, grab something like Collector Ouphe or Ashiok, Dream Render and immediately play it for example, shutting off the opponent's use of it. We are also running one Engineered Explosives as a potential 2-drop in this deck (now sideboarded), so with 5 mana up, cracking talisman for explosives, casting it on 2, and then cracking it immediately blows up all the opponents' 2-drops as well as the talisman, so that your opponent doesn't get to tutor. Very relevant in 2-drop heavy matches such as Merfolk or Humans. Last line to note: if the midrange/creature game is close, and your opponent smells shenanigans, or better yet knows exactly what you are comboing into, just crack it for value and grab a midrange threat like Bonecrusher. They will often crack it in response and play a hate card, which wastes their mana and gives you yet another threat. If they don't crack, just as well. But, it's a very skill intensive play, use wisely.
The rest of this deck is all about tempo and midrange value:
Ramp package:
The new ramp package is Arbor Elf+Utopia Sprawl, which is pretty self explanatory. Utopia sprawl is almost as good of a topdeck as a tapland, and the combo is quite explosive. The other reason for the change is that Arbor Elf enables Lovestruck Beast to attack.
Removal package:
Bonecrusher Giant, Brazen Borrower, and in a pinch, flashing any of your 3cmc flyers to trade with something like an attacking Bob or other important piece, that your opponent tries to "get in with" for value on your empty board. (including borrower.)
Value spells (counters, and discard):
Update: Added Uro, then proceeded to cut it when it didn't perform. Uro was good when it was good, but really bad when I needed on blocker duty without casting for 7 mana. And we can normally only escape it once so it's not that resilient.
Further update: In place of Uro, now trying Bloodbraid Elf. We have a ton of 3cmc threats that give us max value out of this, and being able to choose between getting the card advantage and tempo plays of casting the adventure for free, OR just casting the second creature as a beater, feels great. If it's good enough for the other elf+sprawl decks, maybe it's good enough for us.
Hypnotic Sprite didn't make the cut, although it ALWAYS felt good in hand. Would love to jam it back in but tough to find what else to cut. If I were heavier on the combo for 6 plan, I would just cut merchant. Vendilion Clique is a great way to do a quick hand check and take something to clear the way to combo the next turn. Just generally a good magic card, lots of value for 3 mana and a real threat. Another soft counter worth mentioning is Nimble Obstructionist. Takes care of a lot of big annoying creature ETB effects that would otherwise pick your board apart, and also is just a sleeper to have maindeck against a lot of combos, namely the new oops all spells deck (counter the undercity informant trigger or in a pinch, belcher to buy a turn) and storm (counter the storm trigger and turn Grapeshot into a 1 damage spell) or against a primevil titan trigger in a pinch, you get the idea. If they are playing their own Thassa's Oracle deck, another good option to uncounterably win the game on the spot. One more note: do not be afraid to counter fetch land cracks for your opponent’s third or fourth land depending on the deck! If you know they need that 4th land for cryptic command in hand, save some mana and do it! It feels great and is very often the best value you can get in those matchups. A stifle effect (especially a basically uncounterable one that draws a card for 3!) is strong in Modern at the moment, and the flash flyer is a great way to stick it to decks that are trying to leave all their mana up to stop your combo!
Wrath slot: None. The original list ran Engineered Explosives and if we are going more Aggro, then doesn't make quite as much sense. We have two in the sideboard for those pesky permanent matches, and we could run Ratchet Bomb which I've really been enjoying lately. We can usually stall and pressure people while we tick it up, but I recently cut it for an explosives as it's been better for me lately.
This new deck cut Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which I won't link to as we don't run it anymore. Not fast enough, not a clock. For the control plan and digging to combo pieces was EXCELLENT in the old list but trying something new. If you build this deck as more of a control shell for your meta, run Jace. Jace also tucks primal surge, but that role is already fulfilled by:
Vendilion Clique can also tuck Primal Surge back into the library - very important line to know! When you draw primal surge, your combo becomes a little bit harder, but the idea is to tutor for, or stall/draw into Clique. With Clique, best to wait until the opponent's end step if at all possible to cast, targeting yourself, as your opponent will then see what you're up to. If you've played your cards right, you'll tuck Primal Surge back into your library, untap and win anyways. This is all assuming, of course, that the midrange tempo/beatdown plan isn't working out. Often I just go with plan B if I draw surge, but it's nice to have answers to that issue you can draw or tutor into. This is also key against decks that you know run incidental counters - things like thopter sword decks that run metallic rebuke. If you can survive another turn before the combo, and opponent has a few cards in hand, it can be a hand check (and you can take the counter) at their end step to check if safe to combo.
Ground Blocker package:
For blocking big dumb creatures on the ground, tarmagoyfs and shadows etc., use Lovestruck Beast. Post sideboard, we use Hornet Nest if the opponent attacks with a clock that's better than ours, on the ground. Beast is a solid threat if you think you can or should part ways with access to the combo, and really solid if you already have another 1cmc adventure in hand. It's obviously a good attacker, but you can cast it for 3cmc instead of the typical total of 4 with the adventure token, as you probably want to do a good amount of gumming up the board on the ground anyways, and Arbor Elf fills the 1/1 role well. We have a million flyers to attack with if need be - don't be afraid to play without the adventure side by side. As far as blockers in the air: We have a total of 23 reasonable blockers, 27 counting arbor elf, and 9 of which can reasonably trade with most common flyers. We do have issues with beefy flyers, due to new lack of spot removal but I'll elaborate below.
Hornet nest was a TOUGH card to cut. A ramped t2 or even t3 nest CHANGES THE GAME against a lot of decks, they simply CAN'T ATTACK profitably. And if they attack into it, it's REALLY good value. Absorb some damage, and gum up both the ground and the air with a few deathtouch flyers, all for a 3 mana investment. Not to mention, we have the addition of Stomp to smack our nest for 2. It's not much, but the combo mimics a flashed in ice fang coatl to deal with pesky flyers. In a deck where we want to stall, it made sense.
But, doesn't apply pressure, isn't proactive. I still think it's VERY valuable in the sideboard and honestly gives us game against decks we should have no business beating, like Shadow, and due to the new addition of stomp from bonecrusher, it's probably even worth bringing in if we have flyers decks we can't race. Trading a stomp and a nest for 2 opponents' flyers is a deal we usually would take.
Attacker package:
Most of our creatures can attack. We generally want to be either playing a big dumb annoying threat to gum up the ground on our turn, or flashing in flyers at the end of theirs to speed up our clock in the air. Always remember that if you can be patient enough to leave an adventure card in your hand up, you can always luck into the spellshift combo or into a talisman to combo on the spot, or to set up for a next turn combo. But, Arbor Elf enables Lovestruck Beast, so makes some sense to cast it, but I would only cast one if you draw another one typically as it enables the combo. Always make sure to have an adventure in hand unless you're super confident our creatures outclass the opponent's creatures. Bonecrusher Giant is an excellent new attacker and the 2 damage cost for an opponent to spot remove it is not irrelevant. UPTADE: We are going to try Bloodbraid elf! Cutting obstructionist.
Bloodbraid Elf deserves its own mention. It's extra good in our deck, in my estimation, as it forces our opponent to actually deal with our board a bit and uses resources, AND every single one of the hits for it in this deck, by and large, have a 3 mana mode. Elf and Sprawl aren't really misses as this deck is always trying to ramp, but putting a hasty bloodbraid elf alongside an evasive 3/1, a 5/5, or a 4/3 that hurts when targeted is strong mana wise. When flooded, casting adventure mode off the top is icing on the cake, as it's a bit of a 3-for-1 card advantage wise to stomp, bounce, and play the threat. I don't know why it wasn't in the original decklist but I'm so glad I tried it, it is here to stay. Way better than Uro for this list (this deck has card advantage already, it wants free spells, not durdley card draw, as it's inefficient.)
Lands and other misc purposes:
Mystic Sanctuary as a 1-of - I know, you're thinking why would we run what is usually a tapland in a deck with 2 instants and sorceries? Well, my friend, it's a GREAT answer to a thoughtsiezed spellshift that your opponent took because it was scary, or even in a pinch, when you need to Spellshift your opponent's Scapeshift into a Search for Tomorrow in a pinch, then crack your fetch and reassemble the combo for use later. Fetchlands become ways to recover from a devastating discard or niche-scenario where spellshift ends up in the graveyard. I will likely up the number of blue fetchlands seeing as it's important to have the option more often to recover, but I also need real lands, and bumping to 4 color definitely makes this card a tapland most of the time until late game.
We no longer run Jace, Wielder of Mysteries - see other decks description for pros and cons. Too tough for 4-color build at times, although in reality, maybe not? The reason to run was it made the combo a lot harder to sideboard against. Draws 2-3 cards in the control matchups, fills the GY for out new Uro plan, and opponent cannot play a torpor orb to stop the combo, or play something like archmage's charm if we're a little overzealous on digging for oracle to deck us with oracle on the stack. Highly considering bringing Jace back - I just ran him in a small online tournament and opponent brought in torpor orb, and Jace won through it. It is relevant, but cannot win on the stack like oracle can.
One last note about the adventures: Having so many adventure spells means inherently this deck creates card advantage, as successful adventures become a mana sink, and one spell becomes worth 2 slots. Having a few high cmc cards in the deck doesn't feel awful even at 4 mana for a while, since it seems like there is always something to cast. You bounce something with borrower, and you can flash it in. You kill something with bonecrusher, and cast a big body. It makes it easy to play more lands too - I've considered adding in another land and upping the land count even more. The deck feels like it has enough lands, but I very rarely find myself with nothing useful to cast, and always appreciate an extra landdrop as there are so many mana sinks. Just a thought, if you have any comments I'm curious to hear them. (This is LESS true now that we run elf+sprawl - we can dump our hand pretty quick sometimes, I might do DOWN a land even, but not sure yet. I still feel the adventures add reach via card advantage but we can get them out quicker now.) We are also able to keep land heavy hands much easier than other decks - spending turn two bouncing or shocking something and then turn 3 playing the big dumb creature usually gives us time to draw into more gas naturally.
