This is a combo deck that I have played ever since Twin's ban. The cards Sprout Swarm, Elemental Mastery, Jeskai Ascendancy, and Intruder Alarm all synergies with each other to create a powerful redundant combo deck with unexpected and explosive power. A 1/1 elemental token from Young Pyromancer threatens lethal if an opponent is not wary-and unsuspecting opponents are very likely to lose to this deck due to its unexpected combo turns.
The strength of this deck is its ability to fight through hate and removal. Tax effects don't help when you have infinite mana, enchantment destruction isn't enough since you can go off at instant speed, land destruction isn't good enough if you can buy back sprout swarm, 1 for 1 removal spells are inefficient vs a token deck, infinite life can be depleted with little effort, deflecting palm can be negated by choosing to go wide, and board wipes can be exhausted with the late game monster that is Sprout Swarm. This is not the fastest combo deck in modern since it can't consistently win on the third turn, but the ability to win through any conceivable meta silver bullets, and the ability to win without the combo online, allows for a unique deck with very few unwinnable matchups.
Combo explanation:
This deck features four primary combos as its win conditions.
1: creature, Intruder Alarm, Elemental Mastery. Generate infinite creatures with haste to kill your opponent on the spot. Elemental Mastery tokens trigger Intruder Alarm, and can win as early as turn four.
2: X creatures/lands, Intruder Alarm, Sprout Swarm. Buyback Sprout Swarm repeatedly by tapping creatures/lands until you get to 5 creatures, then you can buyback indefinitely for infinite creatures at instant speed.
3: X creatures/lands, Jeskai Ascendancy, Sprout Swarm. Same as above, but it also has the advantage of giving all of your creatures pseudo prowess and drawing your entire deck for any necessary answers.
4: 4 copies of any combinations of Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor, and Sprout Swarm. While not feasible to to pull off, this is technically a combo that this deck can pull off and you ought to be aware of it.
Card explanation:
Enchantments:
2x Elemental Mastery: Every creature can go off with this when in tandem with Intruder Alarm. You can also pseudo go off with Jeskai Ascendancy and a few cantrips.
4x Intruder Alarm: While less powerful than Ascendancy, since more pieces of the combo go off with it I opted for more copies of Alarm.
2x Jeskai Ascendancy: One of the most powerful cards in the deck. Every creature becomes a threat with this online, and it makes it significantly more likely for you to find Sprout Swarm and end the game.
Lands:
Shock lands: The various shocks in the deck are to insure that whichever combo we choose to go for in a particular game can easily come online. This is a multi colored combo, and knowing which shocks to fetch for depending on the cards in hand and expected win condition is a vital part of learning this deck.
Fetchlands: Wooded Foothills can grab every shock land in this deck minus Hallowed Fountain, as well as Dryad Arbor. No reason not to run 4. Flooded Strand is noticeably not as powerful as Wooded Foothills due to its inability to grab Stomping Grounds, one of the most common shocks to fetch for with a bird in hand, and Dryad Arbor, so only 3 copies of it are ran.
Basics: Blood Moon hurts this deck a lot, as does early aggro. Limit their impact by fetching for basics if you can afford to do so.
Moorland Haunt: Acts as extra gas against control decks, or acts as a surprise body as a blocker or for Elemental Mastery. If you don't want to run this card, you can always run a filter land like Desolate Lighthouse, Arch of Orazca, or Geier Reach Sanitarium.
Dryad Arbor: It is unfortunate when it is drawn, but not game losing. This card allows for surprise kills by fetching for it at the end of your opponent's turn with an Intruder Alarm on the field, then enchanting it with Elemental Mastery. Likewise, it can be used to generate infinite mana to fight through tax effects like Ghostly Prison by tapping it for mana in response to a Jeskai Ascendancy or intruder alarm trigger. It is a cute card, but multiples of it are not needed. Therefore, the deck only runs one copy. If you do happen to draw it, try to save it for when you are going off with Sprout Swarm. Since it counts as a creature and convoke doesn't take summoning sickness into account, it makes it easier to achieve the combo.
Interaction:
4x Bolt: Bolt is an amazing and efficient card in modern. We are heavy in red mana sources, so 4 are ran to assist with removal.
3x Path: Path is also an amazing card to have. Either path a troublesome creature, or, if desperate, a token on your board for mana. This deck is not as heavy in white as we are in red, so this deck only runs 3 copies.
3x Remand: Remand is a cheap counterspell and cantrip. Stall your opponent for a turn and use it try to assemble one of your combos. With 2 Steam Vents and 1 Breeding Pool that can be fetched with by all of our fetches, and with Hallowed Fountain, it is easy to get blue mana in the deck. Slowing down the game by a turn is great in a combo deck that is slower than the other combo decks in the format.
Cantrips:
4x Serum Visions. While Opt is nice due to its ability to act at instant speed, this deck needs to reliably hit 3 or 4 land drops. The extra scry on Serum Visions helps immensely in a deck that only runs 20 lands, and it allows for keep able hands on the draw that consist of a single land being a blue source and serum visions.
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise: Used to increase the speed of the deck. The average mana cost in this deck is high for modern, so Bird is used to thin the gap between mana costs. It can also generate a ton of tempo with Jeskai Ascendancy and a hand full of 1 cost spells, as you can cast those spells for "free" and improve your hand with the loot effects.
2x Monastery Mentor: If you ever untap with Mentor in this deck, you are very likely going to win the game even without the combo due to the sheer power that this card can throw out in tandem with the 11 1 drop spells plus Sprout Swarm. When you are trying to enable a Sprout Swarm combo, he allows you to easily hit the 5 creature requirement to go off.
4x Young Pyromancer: Similar to Mentor. More copies of Pyromancer are played when compared to Mentor due to him costing a bit less.
4x Snapcaster Mage: The best blue 2 drop in modern. Finish games with bolt flash bolt, end step flash to enchant it with elemental mastery, or gain extra copies of interaction that have been previously used.
Sideboard explanation:
4x Anger of the Gods: Anger allows for this deck to better survive against aggro decks, and to sideboard into a pseudo control deck. With the heavy emphasis of red mana in the mana base, fulfilling the rr colorless requirement is simple to achieve.
1x Ephemeral Shields: The weirdest inclusion in this deck. It allows you to play Mentor while tapped out and still have some form of protection, and allows you to be aggressive with cards such as Geist since the creature will be guaranteed to survive combat.
2x Rest in Peace: While it has anti synergy with Snapcaster Mage, some decks exist that care a bit more about their graveyard than you do.
3x Geist of Saint Traft: Difficult to kill makes him a good target for Elemental Mastery. He also acts like a fast clock against creature light decks, and can feasbily do upwards of 18 damage to a Lantern deck if it comes down early enough.
3x Blessed Alliance: Comes in against burn or decks in general that require untargetable interaction such as Bogles. Remember that you can cast Blessed Alliance during the End of Combat Step to kill any creatures that were not killed by blockers.
2x Spell Queller: Hits uncounterable spells such as Abrupt Decay or Supreme Verdict, and counts as a body for Sprout Swarm Shenanigans.
Tips and tricks:
You can save creatures from removal spells with Jeskai Ascendancy triggers.
One cantrip plus Anger of the Gods allows you to save Monastery Mentor. With Ascendancy you don't need the cantrip.
In game one, you can often times win without revealing the combo to your opponent by making an insane amount of tokens. After game one play a slower game and try to go off with the combo, or force them to use a wrath effect and follow it up with an end step get a creature from Dryad Arbor/Snapcaster Mage/Sprout Swarm and go off with Elemental Mastery.
Remand your own spells to save them from counter magic instead of remanding your opponent's spell when applicable. If your opponent can just recast the same counter magic, force them to have a second piece of interaction.
Sprout Swarm will probably be the best card in the matchup if both you and your opponent are in top deck mode. Trade up resources by using a few tokens to kill creatures. They will lose the creature, but you will still have = Sprout Swarm.
Matchup Guide: Throughout the week I will post matchup guides to various decks. If you have a specific deck that you want to see a matchup guide for, contact me on Reddit under the username Miyamotoshi.
