Intro: This deck is, at it's core, a deck designed to abuse both halves of the card Rise/Fall. With the trend in modern being that decks are playing cheaper spells it holds true that they will also be playing less lands. Fall has become the near equivalent of Hymn to Tourach in modern, and can make it hard for decks relying on casting a high volume of lower impact spells, or relying on synergies, to win. Where in a normal game hymn to tourach turns into a dead card; in this deck fall turns into rise, and the construction of the deck allows rise to gain value in symphony with the cheap, or free, ETB triggers on the bodies in the deck. The end result is, ideally, an orchestra of creatures bouncing from hand to battlefield to graveyard slinging spells and accruing value along the way.
Card Discussion:
3x Aether Vial: Modern is a format about cheating mana, and vial is how this deck cheats mana. Imagine vial as a sol-land for the deck; a sort of Eldrazi Temple that also gives creatures flash. Even if you draw it after the first turn you'll still get value out of it, and never have any awkward, 'should I go up or stay' moments.
Creatures: All the creatures are two CMC for vial synergies. Fifteen creatures may not seem like enough to justify running vial, but the hope is to have them in back in hand again and again for massive value on all their bodies.
4x Thing in the Ice
: Thing is the most important creature in the deck. Thing gives us even more opportunity to get out creatures back for more value while doing nothing more than playing the game. Thing is also the best threat to close out the game, and punishes opponents put on the back foot by rise/fall. Another gameplay component of this deck is casting discard spells, that are dead in most non-thing decks late in the game, to flip thing. This interaction will return creatures to your opponent's hand to discard.
4x Snapcaster Mage: The awesomeness of snap doesn't need to be stated again I think. I'd play four things and eleven snaps in this deck if I could.
4x Abbot of Keral Keep: Abbot is kind of a weird guy who didn't live up to his hype. He has a perfect home in this deck though because the curve is low enough that you don't whiff a ton, and he feels sweet to put in with vial. Abbot can also close out games really quickly with prowess. He does have a level of awkwardness though.
3x Phantasmal Image: Ideally he's more snapcasters, but also makes a good awoken horror. Also feel free to take advantage of any sweet creature your opponents plays. Don't try to bounce him with unsummon or rise though.
Spells: You're looking at a lot of instants and sorceries here. There's not much room for other things, outside of vial, or thing in the ice would get a lot worse.
4x Rise/Fall: The spell the deck is built to abuse. It's a hymn early that turns into a mini engine when the graveyard gets a little full. Also nothing feels better than casting fall, targeting your hellbent opponent, and flipping thing while it's on the stack to bounce a few creatures.
7x Cantrips: Cantrips help us load up the graveyard, turn into free cards with snapcaster and abbot, and smooth out some of the antisynergies inherent in a vial deck with few creatures and a lot of spells. I've been back and forth between thinking Thoughtscour and Serum Visions is better. I've tried splitting them every way between the two and played 5-8 total copies. I think 7 is right, and I think thoughtscour is better, with snap and darkblast, than serum visions is in general and with Abbot.
4x Lightning Bolt: Probably the best spell in modern. Also if snapcaster mage had a teddy bear he'd name it lightning bolt. Maybe <4 is a better number, but it's meta dependant.
3x Unsummon: Unsummon is a way to save own creatures and flip thing that doubles as a pseudo removal spell. Unsummoning a snap to snap back unsummon on the same snap is just free triggers for thing. I've heard I should play Vapor Snag, but targeting my own creatures is priority one, and the damage to myself adds up.
3x Inquisition of Kozilek: With no hard removal it's important to take some problem things that may kill you before you get rise/falling. Inquisition can also be hard removal if you flip thing, or bounce a creature with unsummon.
Darkblast: I was running into the problem late game of cantrips not hitting a spell to flip thing later in games. If I have a darkblast in the yard, and need a spell to flip thing, darkblast guarantees I'll hit one. I can create sequences like snap, unsummon, snap, cantrip, darkblast for three triggers from one snapcaster with darkblast that may have been bricked by a land or two in a row. Darkblast is also randomly really good sometimes.
Match-ups:
This deck is in a pretty good spot in the meta with it's good match-ups being popular decks. The good ones are:
Infect: Lots of one mana removal and snaps makes for a good infect MU.
Overrunning creature decks: Looking at things like affinity and elves. Synergies are broken up by fall, and bolts kill the heavy hitters. With less removal expect thing to flip.
Control: Rise/fall is a house against control decks. Also any deck running counters looks silly against vial.
Even match-ups:
Dredge: Dredge has trouble playing out of their hand, and this deck does a lot of putting things in hand with bounce and thing. It's dredge though and can overwhelm any deck.
Burn: With the combination of fast lands, discard, and creatures this deck isn't just a dog to burn like regular grixis control. It's still tough to beat them before they cast ~seven things though with no life-gain options really in color.
Bad match-ups:
BGx: The combination of big guys who don't die to bolt with many ways to kill thing is tough to beat. The MU is easier if they aren't on Grim Flayer, but he's a beast against this deck.
Tron/Valakut decks: There is nothing that great that can deal with lands in color, so this deck just ends up losing to tron being tron or Valakut making land drops.
