The question was more one of value than one of mana. Recurring Engineered Explosives seems fine, but there are probably better utility lands (Tectonic Edge or Ghost Quarter or both should really be in here). Rebuying Wurmcoil Engine is gas, but it's win-more.

Note that many decks will likely remove a lot of Path to Exile against this deck after board.

thispersonisagenius: True, but bear in mind that thanks to Gifts Ungiven , having 1-offs in this deck is not necessarily a bad thing. Flipping Wurmcoil into the mainboard allows for the gifts package of:

Academy Ruins , Life from the Loam , Wurmcoil Engine , Engineered Explosives - a terrifying combo in it's own right.

Also, I do have Ghost Quarter in this deck.

I personally don't like Academy Ruins , but if it appeals to you go for it. Test it out to see if it's worth it, however. Against some decks, EE is completely useless and Wurmcoil isn't what you want to be doing, while you can always take advantage of Tectonic Edge .

One more thing. What are your thoughts on having a non-creature finisher like Sphinx's Revelation as a one-of? If your fatty/Unburial Rites is dealt with, it may be nice to have a card that can generate a whole lot of advantage at once instead of the other grindy cards in the deck. Sometimes you need to push your advantages, and Sphinx's Revelation is the perfect card to break the backs of opponent's who are already low on resources. The card is also a topdeck when you are falling behind, and can pull you out of dire situations.

thispersonisagenius: There's a reason Wurmcoil is sideboarded- it and the second Thragtusk come into the mainboard vs. heavy aggro decks, like Affinity, RDW, etc. Sphinx's Revelation is actually something I hadn't considered!

I wouldn't call it a win-con in of itself, though, and I would not replace an actual win-con with it. That being said, It probably wouldn't hurt to nab a copy and throw it in there, just to see how it operates...

play putrefy it is a better kill card that can deal with more situations! also i use to play this deck and the problem i had was it was too slow cant get the ball rolling right away, what do you think of that?

joking_pumpkin:

I'm not sure what you're saying Putrefy in reference to, as it's a strictly worse Maelstrom Pulse , which is in the deck =)

This deck typically tries to get it's endgame into play by turn 4-5. It can be a little slow to get going, especially if it's key combo is disrupted, but it excels at a long grindfest. The key is to have a removal/control suite capable of getting you to that finish line.

Putrefy is instant speed. Junk decks play it as a one-of usually, or not at all. It gives you another way to interact G1 with Affinity, while still having another removal spelll. I wouldn't play it here, because you only want the best removal spells.

thispersonisagenius: Ah, I didn't see the instant speed aspect of it. I thought Maelstrom Pulse was instant too, for some reason...

How do you feel about Avacyn, Angel of Hope as a win-con with Iona? Getting them both out (and claiming 'white' with Iona so they can't exile Avacyn) instantly locks the game out. The downside is that that combo is a tad heavy...

Don't bother. You'll never get them both into play and not be winning already.

thispersonisagenius: Heh, yeah, that sounded pretty janky even as I typed it. Was a fun Idea, though.

One thing that I may actually have a problem with is not having any way to deal with Blood Moon .

Float for Abrupt Decay . You can also play Unravel the Aether or Nature's Claim if you're particularly worried. I recommend Unravel the Aether because it also kills Keranos, God of Storms .

thispersonisagenius: I gotcha. That may have to be something I sideboard.

thispersonisagenius: I just realized that if I have a few Sylvan Carytids out, I should be able to fix my mana long enough to nuke it with Abrupt Decay .

You can also float mana in response to the Blood Moon , then kill it immediately afterwards.

thispersonisagenius: What are your thoughts at running a counter suite in this deck (3x Mana Leak , or 2x Mana Leak and 1 Pact of Negation )?

This deck can handle it's main combo being countered fair decently, but it'd be nice to ensure it's safety, even if it takes a turn or two more to pull it off.

If I took out cards to put it in, I'd probably take out Slaughter Pact , maybe? Maybe take out a Path to Exile ?

No Pact of Negation . You're not a combo deck.

Try out Mana Leak . My qualm with it is that your game plan is to use cheap spells to stop spells before they are cast (discard), or use cheap spells to remove guys after they resolve (Path to Exile et al.). Using cheap spells that are useless when you're behind to counter things you can deal with everywhere else seems wrong. You may just need an answer to big spells that your discard missed like Keranos, God of Storms and game-changers like that, so give it a shot.

I wouldn't be too worried about your combo going through. You use your first Gifts Ungiven to get set up with control engines in most matchups anyway, and the combo goes with the second Gifts Ungiven . If that doesn't work, you kill them with manlands and Ghost Quarter .

I think you may be trying to do too much. The land count should really be 25-27, since you want to do expensive things and use your mana every turn. Cut the gimmicky/inconsistent and useless things (Thirst for Knowledge , Inquisition of Kozilek ) and play more lands. You are a control deck, after all.

thispersonisagenius: I getcha. I think part of the problem is that I'm not used to playing true control decks.

Anymore success with this? Have you taken it to a tournament?

I don't know about you, but I'm excited for Polluted Delta and Flooded Strand rotating into Modern. I've found the Zendikar fetches often times lead to clunky hands.

With Zendikar you already had 12 if you wanted them. Having easier blue mana is nice though.

sylvannos: I haven't taken it to tournament yet. I have all the parts, save for... (you can probably guess) the fetches! I was holding off on getting them until Khans came around, so I could hopefully buy the ones at a reduced price.

It was all speculation at the time, but boy am I glad that I went that route .

I'll probably take it to tournament after the Khans release and I can grab mah fetchies!

GlistenerAgent: The only real awesome fetch for this deck from Zendi are the Verdant Catacombs tho. Misty Rainforest is eh, so on and so forth.

Although since it's a 4 color deck, the fetch color combinations that you use don't really matter as much as with 3 color decks. It's more of a pricing point for me at this point lol.

GlistenerAgent: One of the guys at my college was selling off his old collection of magic cards that he hasn't played with in years. (I know what you're thinking: Cha-Ching! And you'd be right .)

I managed to get a button of things. For a total of 20 bucks I got: 1x Mutavault , 1x Godless Shrine , 1x Abrupt Decay , 1x Thoughtseize (original print), 2x Chord of Calling and a bunch of other non-money goodies.

Among them, I managed ot get a full set of Remand , which I hadn't had before! So my question is: What do you think of Remand in this deck as opposed to counter spells? This isn't really a counter deck, but I could see it benefiting greatly from the tempo that Remand gives.

Remand isn't that good here. You need hard counters to help stabilize. It also doesn't do much to stop combo decks, such as Eggs or Storm.

Don't get me wrong, Remand is boss. Just not in Gifts Ungiven . In decks like American Control, you can Remand and wind up Time Walk ing them, draw into Mana Leak or Cryptic Command , then counter their play again. Gifts Ungiven runs too many singletons. You could Remand something, then they replay it, and you have no other answer.

sylvannos: I gotcha. I'm not sure what I'd take out for a set of Mana Leak , though. I guess -1 Inquisition of Kozilek , -1 Thragtusk and -1 Dismember .