Took the deck to the Modern Quarterly and lasted through 4 out of the 7 rounds before dropping. The deck feels strong and my losses were mostly from misplays due to my unfamiliarity with the deck and the current state of Modern. I have made a few changes to the list which make the turn three kill a bit harder to pull off but make the turn four kill more consistent and resilient.
-2 Chromatic Sphere
-2 Mox Opal
-1 Elsewhere Flask
-1 Pithing Needle
-1 Serum Visions
-1 Walking Ballista
-1 Welding Jar
+3 Pact of Negation
+3 Thirst for Knowledge
+2 Lotus Bloom
+1 Pyrite Spellbomb
Going up to a full playset of Lotus Bloom makes the turn four kill a lot more consistent as suspending it on the first turn happens much more often. Because of this I added in three copies of Thirst for Knowledge to discard additional copies and potentially get them back with a mid-combo Open the Vaults. To make the deck more resilient to cards like Slaughter Games I have diversified my kill conditions by subbing in one copy of the classic Pyrite Spellbomb, which also gives me the instant-speed kill when I need it. Finally, I took some inspiration from the Ad Nauseam decks in Modern and put in a few copies of Pact of Negation to improve my game one matchup against Ux decks like Grixis Control and Bring to Light.
The sideboard has seen a few changes as well:
-3 Silence
-2 Thopter Foundry
-2 Sword of the Meek
-1 Defense Grid
+3 Leyline of Sanctity
+2 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
+2 Ethereal Haze
+1 Pithing Needle
The benefits of Silence against a small number of decks doesn't match up to slamming a turn zero Leyline of Sanctity against Burn, BGx, and Bant Eldrazi, especially since people are warming up to the new Death's Shadow lists running eight pieces of turn one hand disruption. I did like the Thopter/Sword interaction, but it fell just short in the aggro matchups I brought them in for. I have replaced them with Ethereal Haze as a fog that can let us win through an on-board Eidolon of the Great Revel and Padeem, Consul of Innovation who can protect us from Abrupt Decay and Ancient Grudge while also being a great blocker that draws us cards in longer games. With the addition of Pact of Negation in the maindeck we no longer need or really want Defense Grid against counter-heavy decks, so the Pithing Needle finds its place here.
I'm excited to see how the new list pans out and I have a few more ideas in the works, mostly different options for the four anti-aggro slots in the sideboard. I'm adding these in the maybeboard for the list and we'll see how they do.
