I really like these flicker decks. One things I am thinking of throwing into mine is Delusions of Mediocrity. Quick gain of 30 life.

First, Delusions of Mediocrity is no Delusions of grandeur and I prefer to be grand rather mediocre. Second, it is not modern legal. Third, how do you gain life from this by flickering? Fourth, even if you could gain the life, it is really unnecessary. Life is just a resource, the only thing that matters is that it is greater than 0.

write into being or Soul Summons from Fate Reforged. Another way to get creatures on the battlefield faster!

20/22 creatures in the deck have ETB abilities which do not gel with manifest. Keep the suggestions flowing though.

yeah I know, I was thinking about manifest them and them blink them! I'll do it ;)

Unless a good card with manifest comes out in azourious colors, I will not use the mechanic. It is a waste of precious deck space in this deck and has about 1/2 chance to do absolutely nothing (a land or an instant). That is way too much variability for me, though I see your point.

Always loved homebrewed modern decks. Cloudshift is a nice mechanic and i like how you built your deck around it! +1!

@pr0minence, do not forget that is an actually successful deck to boot.

I have not had the opportunity to try it in a pptq or really anything beyond FNM, since there are VERY few in my area, especially for modern. I urge everyone who likes the deck to build it and go with it to a PPTQ or the likes!

If you detension sphere reality acid, or use some other temp exile mechanic, like leonin, and then leonin is bounced and reality acid comes back to the battlefield - what happens? do you retarget it?

@ alanlee222, Reality Acid returns to field and is simply attached to a permanent of your choice. Auras only require targets when cast so a bounced Reality acid can be attached to Geist of Saint Traft

@Boza thanks so much!

What do yo think about including these cards in a flicker type deck:

Familiar's Ruse, AEther Adept, Spellstutter Sprite, Lyev Skyknight, Pestermite, Ephara, God of the Polis, Court Street Denizen, Kor Hookmaster, Nevermaker, Vendilion Clique?

@ Dennis14, here is what I think card by card:

• Ruse - Not really necessary, countering the opponents can be done just with blinking. Unless the expected field is Wrath of God and Damnation decks, I would not include a single card that returns creatures to the hand.

• Adept - can be decent vs some decks (affinity or infect), when returning a buffed dude to their hand, but the that can be done by blinking a Flickerwisp.

• Skynight and pestermite - weak bodies, though detain is cool vs twin.

• Ephara - can be very good, but there is not much room to include her - 4 mana do-nothings are not what you want. Add more venser (planeswalker edition) if you want to achieve a similar effect with more synergy.

• Denizen and Hookmaster - weak effects.

• Nevermaker - if it could put lands on the top, then yes, otherwise, it is weak. Very weak without venser to make him repeatable.

• Clique - awesome, that is the three-drop the deck sorely needs - hand interaction! the $50 price tag is the only thing stopping me from including it here.

Thank you for your analysis.

Some points you didn't touch on:

1. AEther Adept makes them recast the creature which can be good against be guys and give you tempo.

2. Pestermite can mess with their lands as well to slow them down.Deceiver Exarch can do the same in a more defensive approach (1/4 blocker vs. 2/1 flying threat).

More cards I thought about:

1. Phantasmal Image - can copy anything (especially good with Sun Titan and Stonehorn Dignitary, problematic with targeting but 1 copy is worth trying out in my opinion.

2. Ghostway - mass Cloudshift that can save from board whipes, doesn't target so works with P.Image (as does Familiar's Ruse).

3. Solemn Simulacrum - can get lands and cantrip upon dying, although a bit too high cmc (interacts with Leonin Relic-Warder+flicker).

4. Spreading Seas - can slow down the opponent and flickered for card draw.

5. Augur of Bolas/Court Hussar - card advantage.

6. Ojutai's Command - multi-purpose toolbox.

7. Lavinia of the Tenth - can lock down the opponent, pro red is also good but the cmc is high.

8. Deputy of Acquittals/Quickling/Kor Skyfisher - bounce creatures against removal (except Kor) and replay etb effects.

Also, I wanted to ask you how do you survive the early game with only 3x 2-drops and 7x 1-2 cmc spells ?

Why do you use Remand and not something more permanent like Rune Snag or Mana Leak ?
Another Counterspell that cantrips is Hindering Light, what do you think about it ?

@Dennis14

1. You can rarely benefit from said tempo unless you are already far ahead, at which point you can probably do without it.

2. Very weak interaction - using an actual card like Cloudshift to tap a land and do nothing else? Not very good. Venser, Shaper Savant does it better anyways.

3. Unable to be blinked makes him useless in this particular deck.

4. If you make use of that as just a mass cloudshift, you are probably winning. If you use this as a way to counter the mass removal, you can do just as well with a Negate from the SB or Venser, Shaper Savant.

5. Too high CMC for a very weak effect. The decks problem is rarely lands, but having the right utility creature at the right moment.

6. Sure, but Wall of Omens also cantrips and actually blocks well vs a large % of the field.

7. The first one lacks targets (11 cards total in the MB is far too low), the second dies when flickered. Hussar is OK if you run 2 or more Sun Titan as top end.

8. Cryptic Command is the more useful of the two commands for the deck, but again price and deck space are limited.

9. High CMC, though effect is desirable. Could be worked in to sideboards. Stonehorn Dignitary works almost as well.

10. Again, returning stuff to your hand is just like playing tax effects on yourself - not at all desirable. Add more Cloudshift effects instead.

@Dennis14,

The Early Game Package is: 3x 2 drop creatures, 3x path and 4x remand. These are 11 cards that you want to cast ideally in the t2-t3, but have uses in the lategame as well or when blinked.

In general, you need 1-2 of these total to survive the first couple of turns. That is why these are kept to a minimum - outside of path, you do not need multiples of these.

Once your third mana comes in, the deck is "unlocked" - you have 11 more creatures and 4 Dsphere. So, the previous 11 cards serve only to get you to your third mana.

Remand is better than leak or runesnag because it is good all game long and gives you tempo in the crucial first few turns, while actual counterspells leave you at parity early on and are dead in the mid and lategame.

I agree that Rune Snag is rather bad in mid/late-game if you don't resolve 1 in the early game (and it stays in the GY).

Mana Leak is great early on and decent in mid-game.

Remand is terrible in late game though unless u win right away after playing it, not being a combo deck I wouldn't play it.
I would rather use: Familiar's Ruse, Deprive, or Negate(Unified Will is an interesting option as well).

What do you think about Phyrexian Metamorph for this deck ?

Remand has the very crucial text "draw a card". That is the best thing about it and nearly 100% of the reasoning to include it over "hard" counters. If you want hard counterspells, the next best thing is Condescend and if I were you, I would not consider any of the "hard" counters you mentioned, since they are restrictive and/or conditional.

Metamorph - As always with clones, they are too variable and situational - they are only as good as the best thing on the battlefield. Worth the experiment, but I doubt he will make the cut.

Why do you prefer Condescend to something like Deprive or Familiar's Ruse (which let's us replay a creature for another etb effect) ?

Another option is Delay, what's your take on it ?

Condescend requires you to keep quite a lot of mana open, isn't running something like Rewind better ? or even Mana Leak if they have less than 3 mana open ?

Also why not run Sun Titan+Reveillark over Gideon Jura+Mulldrifter ?

I would also consider maindecking Supreme Verdict over Detention Sphere (or at least splitting them 2/2).

Btw, I have new variant of a flicker deck (I wasn't happy with the previous one) which I would like you opinion on.

Azorius Flicker V2 Playtest

Modern Dennis14

SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 88 VIEWS

What do you think about Icatian Javelineers for this deck ?

It seems like an interesting option to control the board (mess up the opponent's combat math) or ged rid of key 1-toughness creatures (Snapcaster, Confidant, Noble Hierarch, Birds, Vendilion and so on...) while replenishing it's ammo with flickering.

I'm also interested in your opinion about the counters and the 5-6 cmc creatures I mentioned earlier.

Javelineers is an option that are extremely meta-dependent. Right now, there are not many birds running around. Also, once you kill a 1 toughness card, there are usually not many others around to make use of its flickering.

You only have room for 1-2 creatures with 5 or more CMC. Sun titan is a good option, but generally felt underwhelming, since your permanents are less likely to end up in the yard. Reveillark is even more restrictive than ST in what it can return here.

Gideon Jura most often act as a Fog, even vs splinter twin that doubles as a game ending threat. Mulldrifter is a Pauper staple (this deck is based on a Pauper deck) and can be a Tidings when combined with Cloudshift or just a Divination.

When you play 21 creatures which you really want to stay out there for the maximum possible time, you do not want to play Supreme Verdict and do your opponent's job for him. Verdict cannot be flickered.

You aren't really an Aggro deck and can and will get swarmed by them so Supreme Verdict makes a lot of sense in my opinion and can punish all-in tactics rather well.
You also have good tools to rebuild to your board with Blade Splicer and Kitchen Finks and the Planeswalkers.
It can also generate card advantage against creature decks even if you both lose your creatures, as you (usually) have more threats to play later than the opponent.

However, I am not a control deck either. The aim of the game is generating CA through applying tempo and creating value. This deck wins 80% of its games through swings with a single Flickerwisp, backed up either mucking up the ground and/or having some other ways to control the battlefield. A Cloudshift on a creature that is targeted by removal will be 1-for-1, except I get also get another ETB effect - subtle, but still ok in terms of trades. And that is about the least effective trade the deck can get.

Playing a Supreme Verdict is playing an equalizer, not something you generally want to do. And really the only aggro decks in general in Modern are affinity and burn, which do not really swarm you, more like have 1 giant creature or have abundance of reach, respectively. This turns Supreme Verdict into one of the most situational cards in the deck that strives on card versatility.

I would consider sweepers only in the case of a deck with 12 or less creatures and only if 1/3 of those are Sun Titan.