Guide to Turbo Fog: From Budget On

Modern Budget Control Mill Primer TurboFog WU (Azorius)

ZaneOlric3

Instant (18)

• 2x Angelsong
• 4x Dawn Charm
• 4x Ethereal Haze
• 4x Holy Day
• 4x Pollen Lullaby

Enchantment (8)

• 4x Dictate of Kruphix
• 4x Sphinx's Tutelage

Land (23)

• 8x Island
• 7x Plains
• 4x Sejiri Refuge
• 4x Tranquil Cove

Sorcery (2)

• 2x End Hostilities

Artifact (9)

• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 4x Howling Mine
• 4x Temple Bell

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Sideboard

Instant (5)

• 3x Dispel
• 2x Repel the Abominable

Sorcery (3)

• 3x Fragmentize

Creature (3)

• 3x Azor's Elocutors

Artifact (4)

• 4x Witchbane Orb

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What is Turbo Fog?

Overview

Turbo Fog is a unique form of control deck that aims at preventing damage to stall for a win condition. This is done by playing cards with Fog effects each turn, mixing in removal and board wipes where it’s appropriate. At least one card like this must be played every turn after a certain point so consistent card draw is required. Howling Mine and other similar cards help accomplish this.

Win conditions vary widely across the format. Traditional Turbo Fog decks use Sphinx's Tutelage to mill their opponents, a natural result considering all the card draw available to prock its passive. Don’t let that stop you from experimenting. Turbo Fog is an amazing deck type because the delay tactics open up a world of normally impossible win conditions!

Strategy

Defensive Set Up

To begin, your going to want a hand with either Howling Mine and 1 Fog effect or two Fog effects. This guaranties that as the game progresses you'll have enough cards to block incoming damage. Perhaps a scary idea to face but you'll let your opponent damage you as much as possible so you can build your field to where it needs to be before burning your Fog's

Dawn Charm is your most valuable Fog effect as it can also counter burn spells targeting you directly. This should be the LAST card to use as a Fog effect as it's a key defensive card.

Ethereal Haze and Holy Day are your one mana Fogs and the first to go. Ethereal Haze's wording has a unique effect to block creatures abilities as well, making it slightly more valuable.

Pollen Lullaby is a card for getting out of a Fog dry spell. It keeps attacking creatures tapped for a turn allowing you to build your board as well as save Fogs for future turns.

Angelsong is card that while useful, doesn't make it to the more expensive version of this deck. However, for keeping the deck playable with Budget, this card helps pat the number of Fogs that can be drawn.

Card Draw

As you'all be burning a Fog every turn, its key to be able to draw constantly for free to keep mana available for other purposes. Luckily, Cards like Howling Mine do this every turn. A beneficial side effect is that your opponent draws cards to. This means your opponent's deck shrinks a little bit every turn.

Howling Mine is the best simply because it is color free and the cheapest mana cost. One in your opening hand can single handedly feed you every card necessary for victory.

Dictate of Kruphix is second place because it's ability, Flash. This allows you to hold it in your hand and gauge wether you need to spend mana to defend or to play during their end step. This also allows you to benefit from its draw ability before your opponent.

Temple Bell is arguably better than Dictate of Kruphix depending on who you ask. It's lack of flash lends it to taking longer to play safely but has the added benefit of not having a restrictive colored mana cost. I personally prefer Dictate and replace this card in the Finished Version, shared bellow.

Win Condition and Sideboard

The win condition for this deck is Shinx's Tutelage. It slowly mills your opponent, and for every card like howling Mine activates its ability again. However, on occasion our opponents throw something at us we need an answer to.

Azor's Elocutors are for when your opponent is immune to being milled. Either they have Hexproof or can reshuffle their graveyard back into their deck. This is perhaps the first card to be replace with Gideon, Champion of Justice and/or Luminarch Ascension. It's weak to removal but hopefully our opponent has pulled all of that out of their deck after round one as we literally run no creatures

Dispel is a nice counter for people trying to use direct damage like lightning bolt or similar cards. While a better option is Swan Song, this is a good place holder until you decide to invest.

Fragmentize is a fairly unsurprising card to include. An answer to the meta right now, it also allows some flexibility to what it can do and fight against. Interchangeable if your worried.

Witchbane Orb is just a stand in for its extremely expensive counterpart, Leyline of Sanctity. It helps fight against burn decks and other indirect ways of winning.

Repel the Abominable is a filler for dealing with indirect damage. Great card that could be swapped for Luminesce

Utility

These cards might not be part of the main synergy, but they allow for powerful plays that can turn a game around

Elixir of Immortality is used to get a burst of life back as well as reshuffle all your Fog effects back into your deck. This card is arguably better than its replacement because of the life gain, but its replacement also acts as a win condition and reshuffles your Fogs by just being discarded.

End Hostilities is a nuke for sticky situations. Able to reset your opponents entire strategy, it's one sided effect in this deck is amazing. While it winds up getting side boarded first, Nuking you problems is a fairly good answer.

Upgrades for the Deck

Have fun with turbo Fog and want to maximize its efficiency? Below are a list of cards that take you from a beginning budget deck to an upper limit of what turbo Fog can do and what to replace with them.

Main Deck

X2 Angelsong --> X2 Isochron Scepter

X1 Temple Bell --> X1 Isochron Scepter

X3 Temple Bell --> X3 Jace Beleren

X4 Holy Day or Pollen Lullaby --> X4 Angel's Grace

X1 Elixir of Immortality --> X1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

X2 End Hostilities —-> X2 Supreme Verdict

X1 Island --> X1 Supreme Verdict

X4 Azorius Guildgate --> x4 Hallowed Fountain

X4 Sejiri Refuge --> X4 Glacial Fortress OR Shelldock Isle

X2 Island and X2 Plains --> X4 Flooded Strand

Side Board

X3Azors elecutors --> X1Gideon, Champion of Justice and X2Luminarch Ascension

X4 Witchbane Orb --> X4 Leyline of Sanctity

X2Repel the Abominable --> x2 Pithing Needle

X3 Dispel --> x3 Swan Song

Why these upgrades?

Isochron Scepter: this card works amazing with Turbo Fog. Basically allowing infinite Fogs, this locks down your opponent for two mana every turn. Get a Dawn Charm equipped to it and you can also counter incoming burns or Thoughtseize's.

Jace Beleren: This card is an amazing second win condition. Acting as a Howling Mine, he also packs an ult that seals an opponent's fate of decking out first.

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: some of you are probably cringing at a dollar card getting switched for a 50 dollar card. But there are a lot of advantages. Unlike Elixir of Immortality, Emrakul will put the graveyard back into the library for free. While the loss of life gain can hurt and feel dangerous, the second reason is also important. If your opponent manages to negate your mill and have a way of recycling their graveyard too, they will not survive Emrakul when he is hard cast. Next to no one can. So as a last resort win condition, he takes the prize of being literally unstoppable.

Shelldock Isle: so while having a land enter tapped might be taboo to some, it can fish an extra Fog out of your deck for emergencies and cast Emrakul fairly easily if your lucky. Some actually run two of her because of this card.

Gideon, Champion of Justice: so this is a game two or three win condition. If your opponents locking your mill down or blowing up your enchantments like cannon fodder, Gideon can win the game before having to bide your dangerous time for Emrakul. As a planeswalker he is a lot harder to kill than an enchantment and psychs your opponent out by saying "oh I can't win with mill? Then I'll smash down the front door and take you down with creatures"

Luminarch Ascension: An alternate win condition for against those fond of personal Hexproof.

Leyline of Sanctity: Because your fond of personal hexproof. Helps against Burn and Thoughtseize type spells.

Pithing Needle: sometimes people run planeswalkers or a number of creatures that pose issues to a turbo Fog deck. Name them off and deal with them latter.

Supreme Verdict: An uncounterable Nuke is the best kind of Nuke. Plus it’s one of the cheapest mana cost board wipes in the game.

Swan Song is a powerful one drop counter with perhaps the greatest drawback imaginable: give your opponent a 2/2 flying creature. However, this is a Turbo Fog deck. we don't care about their creatures. The unique style of this deck allows you to run this powerful card and ignore the side effects.

Other Cards to Consider

There are a few cards out there that definitely are worth merit but I personally have shied away from them for a few reasons. Great cards that you may find better success with than I did.

Mana Tithe: I had to check a few times just to make sure I wasn't crazy that this was modern legal. It's an amazing counter spell for one mana that's not even blue. However, it's easy to get out of and Swan Song does most the work we need from a counter anyways.

Gideon of the Trials: this Card is amazing for a Turbo Fog Deck! This is absolutely viable to run two of these over Luminarch Ascension. Then it’s a game of slowly chipping into your opponent.

Monastery Siege: this card is flexible and can really hurt burn decks in the late game. However, it takes an while and it is possible to sideboard Leyline of Sanctity for a much more fullproof effect. It could be run over Dictate of Kruphix but I prefer forcing my opponent to draw as well. Synergizes well with Emrakul though, making it so you don't have to have 7 cards in hand to discard her.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria: draw a card, untap mana for a fog spell, and has a way to remove stuff when we mill? Yes please! Sadly he is 5 mana for a draw mechanic, but some have reported success with him. Worth a try! Better in the Esper Turbo Fog, check it out!

Green spells: there are a number of amazing cards in green that are worth considering. However 99% of them are locked behind the legacy barrier for when they were last printed. Dawn Charm steals the show as the best Fog ever printed (packing a counter in it) and as such the deck picks white over green.

Finished Versions and others

Thank you for reading this guide! Please leave an up vote or comment about questions, thoughts or personal choices when it comes to Turbo Fog.

Finished Version

Esper Turbo Fog

Edh: Bant Turbo Fog

Edh: Grixis Turbo Nuke

Other Deck builders

Original Turbo Fog by James Newman

Mazes End Turbo Fog by BMPatrol

Orzohv Turbo Fog by Afenshire

Pauper Turbo Fog by the Ming

Edh Turbo Fog by edevil27

Top Ranked	Achieved #71 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #37 position in Modern 3 years ago Achieved #2 position in Modern WU (Azorius) 3 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 7 Rares 17 - 2 Uncommons 10 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.24
Folders	Turbo Fog, Interesting Decks, Misaki, Modern, Cool Decks, Modern, Budget Modern, control opponent, Fog, Modern