The Land Base:
When it was first conceived, the biggest weakness the deck had was the reliance on tap lands for consistent color fixing. This is embarrassing to admit, but I actually played this with Guild Gates back when it was Standard. Yes, I know. Tap lands? With no upside? Why?
Now that we live in the now, and the world is great, I’ve since swapped in the modal lands for a much faster take-off in exchange for a slight decrease in color flexibility. By the time you need more than one red or blue, you usually have access to a few draw spells to get you deeper in the deck anyway.
So, a few MDFC lands and some other dual color options, toss in some basics to taste, and you’ve got gas in the tank.
*Note: I run most low-to-the-ground decks with 16 lands because I like to suffer. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS with Act of Thud. Go with 20. You’ll need them.
The Low End:
Now early plays are ideally creatures, and all setup. The Siren Stormtamers make a cameo from Izzy Wizzies in order to provide some cover for our heavier hitters. They aren’t just cannon fodder, though, as the evasive damage early on can enable a clutch Light Up the Stage or Skewer. In addition to the one-drop, we have a two-drop Wall in Electrostatic Field, which might seem kind of strange. 0/4 is not what we need in a deck with Thud, but just take a look at this ability! So long as this little blocker survives, each and every spell we cast gets a free +1 damage. Not a lot, but when we’re dropping 4-5 spells per turn it adds up damn quick.
Speaking of, the low end also has a number of cheap spells to keep on deck, like Shock and Spell Pierce to defend against early threats, with Skewer and Quench for mid-level threats and a Syncopate and a Banefire that can scale into the late game. By then we’re making most of our plays at the opponent’s end step, though, so keep that mana open whenever possible.
Once we have a Siren, the next big goal is to get a Steamkin on the field. These little guys start out as delicate as a pillow full of nervous nitroglycerine, but a few Shocks and they will be enabling some insane chains of red dig. Seriously, though, keep a few counter spells on hand once they hit the field, because these ETB with a target on their back.
The High End:
That’s right, 3-mana is the high end. Fight me.
Immediately above our Steamy boi sits Guttersnipe, another huge target for any self-respecting opponent. This single gobbo can tack a free Shock on every Instant or Sorcery, including the Spell Pierce you invariably need to keep the damn thing alive, all while continually triggering Skewer and LUTS.
Sitting next to that is the first of our Drakes, Enigma Drake. I won’t lie, early game these are practically useless. Once you have a few spells in the yard, though, they get buff. Don’t sleep on these, pray your opponent does.
Also at 3 is Risk Factor, scientifically proven to be the best burn card ever printed. The raw value is debatable, sure, but in terms of shaking a player out of their flow by forcing them to decide something, it just can’t be beat. Couple the mental distress inflicted with the bonus damage from Field or Guttersnipe, and multiply by the Jump Start giving you a second cast, and that’s a ten.
(Pro tip for those of you who have never run this card: ALWAYS TAKE THE DAMAGE. If taking the damage would put you at zero, you're dead already.)
The one downside of both Light Up the Stage, and Jump Start is that they end up removing cards from our yard and that makes those buff Enigma Drakes back into chumps. The second drake in our stable, though, does not suffer from such weakness. Double blue and double red nets you a cool x/4 body, and a free draw off the top. By the time late game swings around, one of these can win you the game by themself.
After the big bad drake, I put Expansion/Explosion as a one-of, just because I’m cheeky.
You may notice that I skipped over the headlining combo, and that’s because it isn’t bound by a single situation. If you have the cards and mana, steal their stuff and hit them with it. That’s about it.
Or is it?! You see these drakes? Well they scale exceedingly well into the late game. Often you have an opponent down far enough that they are lethal if they connect. Which is a big IF. Act of Thud isn’t limited to your /opponent’s/ creatures, though. Sometimes you have three extra mana to give a 10/4 flyer haste. Sometimes you drop and pop a drake with thud because they can deal that final 10 damage immediately, and that's a feels good. Here's a few examples from my recent games:
The Strengths:
This is hard to boil into a few bullet points. Act of Thud is built as a generalist deck, able to strike fast against aggro, steal the big threats from ramp, go toe-to-toe with mid-range, and spam out spells against control.
One especially good matchup is against Stompy Green. 8/10 doctors recommend not playing Ghalta against this deck, as it often leads to lethal sodium overdose.
Another matchup along similar lines is Tron, really any deck that builds around a single big threat suddenly finds themself staring down the business end of that big threat.
I've also found a very favorable matchup against control, as having a single spell pierce can shut down an unsafe ultimatum, planeswalker, or board wipe and leave them vulnerable to a lethal crack back.
My favorite matchup with this deck by far is against mill. They aren't nearly as monolithic a threat in recent seasons, but having sixteen spells in the yard by turn 4 makes Enigma Drakes downright ludicrous value.
The Weaknesses:
Life gain. Especially the angel tribal circulating the ladder recently. I've occasionally managed to use calculated chump blocking to survive a Pridemate or Hallowed Priest long enough to steal it for lethal; most often, though, angels get out of control far too reliably to be a good matchup.
Another difficulty arises when trying to tackle anything with Ashiok or Phyrexian Scriptures. These decks tend to dump the deck into the graveyard, which is good, and then exile the graveyard, which is less good. These opponents pretty much nullify Enigma Drakes, though, luckily, they don’t really do much of anything to Cracklers.
Blue-X control also tends to be problematic, though that’s just blue being blue. I swapped one of the Quenchs out for a Mystical Dispute, and it has come in handy. With all the draw they have access to, there isn’t usually much that can be done about it.
There could be an argument to building a sideboard that has all the specialized counters and burn spells, so if you play BO3’s you have the option to swap in whatever situational tools you may need per game. That would be a good argument indeed. I don’t do sideboards, though, so you do what feels right.
The Cost:
All told, as is, this decklist will run you no more than $50. For modern, I’ve been told that’s “budget”, and I think in a funsies modern circle you could have a blast running your friends big bad creatures right back at them. You may find some success in a competitive scene, but the deck is not built for competitive viability so your mileage may vary. The usual advice applies for that: swap in some more obscenely expensive lands and you’re good to go.
On Arena, it might be a bit too expensive to craft, as it takes a whopping 16 rares between the Risk Factors (vital) and Expansion//Explosion (not vital) as well as the lands it takes to make it run smoothly. The upshot is that it doesn’t take any Mythics, so it won’t pull from the top shelf of your wildcard collection. I’d say that if you have the cards already, or an abundance of wildcards along with a burning desire to infuriate others, give it a whirl!
