Greetings, fellow players! Today, i decided to bring you my first semi-competitive (meaning that it's not totally casual) deck.
A lot has already been said about illusions, but let me give you my 2 cents about this fascinating tribe.
MAINBOARD: Illusion's strenght lies in their low CMC, which allows you to play aggressively since your first turn. Phantasmal Bear is a solid first turn play while Jace's Phantasm evasivesness helps dealing the initial damage. The Latter, thanks to its second ability, can also be a decent finisher if you draw it lately in the game. Second turn will almost always consist in playing Lord of the Unreal, the only lord illusions have. He's just a 2/2, but giving +1/+1 and Hexproof to all of your creatures since your second turn is huuuge. Hexproof give us an occasion to talk about the "sacrifice-it-when-targeted" drawback. It you're a fellow illusionist, you'll already know that this isn't really a problem; but if you're not, let me tell you that 90% of Modern's target spell would kill your creatures anyway. BUT since having your creatures killed isn't nice (especially if you don't get even a land from Path to Exile you should always run the playset of your Lord and at least three Phantasmal Image to copy it. Actually your third turn depends in large part by what you are facing (and by what is in your hand, obviously): if you believe that your opponent will play a Boardwipe or a removal targeting your Lord, it can be useful to keep some mana untapped for a Dispel or a Mana Leak. Grand Architect is another mini-lord and good third turn drop, but you should really substitute him with an Adaptive Automaton if you have it.
The deck's big shots are Phantasmal Dragon and Krovikan Mist. To be honest, the latter can be used since the first turns, but show it's best when you already have your lord and some creature on the board. Finally, Serum Vision is your way to adjust your draw and Vapor Snag can help slow down your opponent or remove an annoying attacker/blocker, while chipping away some of oppo's health.
SOME THOGHTS: I personally don't like Illusory Angel, but it deserves a mention. Same can be said for Illusory Servant, which can substitute the Dragon.
Another version of the deck which is worth to mention is the Grand Illusion Archetype. Grand Illusion make use of Grand Architect's ability of tapping blue creatures to cast artifact. It has to be built around the Architect, but playing a turn three Wurmcoil Engine or Steel Hellkite can really be gamechanging.
SIDEBOARD: This really is up to you. I used to play a ton of artifact's hate in the form of Annul and Hurkyl's Recall because my flatmate uses a big number of artifacts. Now, thanks to Kaladesh, i have a new tool to replace Annul in Cerimonious Rejection, which also helps against E-Tron.
Spreading Seas is good to mess with TRON and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, while Relic of Progenitus is a good graveyard's hate card which allows you to keep your mana open to cast illusions or counterspells. Finally, Spell Pierce and Negates are for most non creature deck.
Again, side is your choice and if you have some suggestion about it (or the deck in general), please write it in the comments.
