Love the Heartless/Lich/Myr combo. You could add some Drainpipe Vermin for recurring discard maybe. Maybe a similar card that has no cost effect, but small enough to die to Heartless summoning.

@akaniu96 Thanks for the +1!

@Mj3913 Normally it's superior to just use Perilous Myr and kill them rather than force them to discard their hand. Thanks for the suggestion though!

I feel that Muddle the Mixture could work very well here. Not only can it stop disruption, it can also tutor for Heartless Summoning and Myr Retriever. Just something to consider.

@Angry_Potatoes The issue with Muddle the Mixture is that it is too slow. We waste our entire turn 3 play just to find a Heartless Summoning, and then get it countered turn 4 and lose. It also can't protect a Heartless Summoning until turn 4 at the earliest. Spell Pierce is much better as disruption. Running Muddle slows down the deck and we then start to lose to the slower decks that this deck preys on.

I would suggest Dig Through Time, but it was banned. :(

Anywho, I really do like the deck! :) +1

@NoviceMagician Yeah, Dig Through Time was really good in here when it was legal. Always found what I needed, or just more card draw. Anyways, thanks for the +1!

Yep! :)

Bitter Ordeal?

@Monsmtg

Bitter Ordeal totally works in the deck, but at its mana cost there's just better options.

@Monsmtg I originally had Bitter Ordeal in the sideboard, but it is just too slow. Altar of the Brood is better in every game other than with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and Surgical Extraction fixes that matchup.

Am I right to assume Spell Pierce is used mostly to protect Heartless Summoning? If yes, why not Dispel since most enchantment removal are instants. I understand that Spell Pierce might also be used to counter Splinter Twin and things like Amulet of Vigor but its gives the opponent a chance to pay 2 when used to protect your combo. Isn't it safer to just play Dispel in this case?

@beys2303 Dispel doesn't hit other relevant spells as you mention. However, even without messing with our opponent's gameplan, Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek are other problem cards that Spell Pierce hits.

Also it's just great to be able to stop their Collected Companys, Splinter Twins, Hive Minds, etc. No-one ever expects them to be in the mainboard, which means we can punish them for sloppy play if our combo isn't fast enough.

Why not use Bitter Ordeal as another kill condiction? That way you'll not need the Altar of the Brood.

Also, will be possible to easy win from Emrakul, the Aeons Torn decks.

@yghorbb That's why I run Surgical Extraction. You can exile it away and then continue to go infinite. Also we can win through the Perilous Myr/Havengul Lich shock plan.

Bitter Ordeal costs 3, which means that I can't successfully combo until turn 3 at the earliest and I need to have 3 lands and the rest of the combo. Altar of the Brood can be cast for free mid combo out of the deck, or can just be snuck into play whenever you have spare mana. It is a good card, but it just costs too much for what it does.

I'm sure someone has suggested Muddle the Mixture given how important heartless summoning is to your combos. I was wondering why you don't run it.

@kingofcramers Muddle the Mixture is essentially useless outside of finding the combo, and it is too slow. This build is designed to kill meta decks before they can do their thing or prevent us from doing ours. Muddle can help establish the combo, but we can simply run more cheap dig instead and find the combo faster.

I'm trying a variation of this deck since my first post, and I found some problems that dealy me a LOT to combo out.

Usually I have Havengul Lich, Altar, Summoning and Myr Retriever, or Retriever, Retriever, Altar and no Heartless.

The combo demands too much pieces to work out without tutors, or a lot of draw, and Mulldrifter is pointless when you don't have the Hearthless.

So I'm playing 2 Sidisi and 1 Bitter Ordeal, I think that's more consistent, and I'm playing Swan Song over Spell Pierce, I have a felling that this is more consistent.

@yghorbb We have a lot of draw due to Grim Haruspex. He turns all of our pointless creatures that kill themselves or our myr blockers into other cards, which then let us combo off. I typically try to aggressively mulligan into Heartless Summoning and Grim Haruspex.

That being said, Sidisi, Undead Vizier is a good card for tutoring up Heartless Summoning. I personally wouldn't mainboard it, but if it works for you then that is great. I still disagree with Bitter Ordeal, it typically delays the combo by a full turn in comparison to Altar of the Brood.

Finally, Swan Song is one that I've been very undecided about. On one hand, it works well into the late game and against bigger mana strategies. At the same time, we don't die to birds and can counter planeswalkers like Karn Liberated with Spell Pierce. If you get some positive playtesting experience with one or the other, feel free to post here on my wall so we can discuss it.

Yo I think those are some neato suggestions.

@lemmingllama

I think it's safe to say that adding Sidisi is probably the best option for a tutor in this deck. 3 mana tutors for anything and gets a death trigger under HS. And without HS it'll do a decent job of keeping tempo in the deck (if we can survive long enough to play it) and could allow us to get something like a Perilous Myr trigger off. Also I just realized now with Havengul Lich it's 4 mana tutor every turn, which could actually easily result in a win.

So yeah, she has my vote, and I do think Bitter Ordeal is pretty good even just for the utility in this deck (like anyone running Emrakul, combo pieces, or disruption). I still think Spell Pierce wins over Swan Song though.

@Quail I know, everything you just mentioned is why I side it in against my slower matchups where I can't easily turn 3-4 win. Actually my favorite with her and Havengul Lich is that you can play a second Heartless Summoning when you are mana screwed and keep on playing. I don't intend to mainboard it, but I may be going up to 2 copies in my side depending on how the meta changes. If more Grixis and Jund decks are showing up, Sidisi can combat them.

Bitter Ordeal is bad in comparison to Surgical Extraction and Nihil Spellbomb. I still win games even against decks with multiple shuffle cards, simply by getting one with Surgical Extraction and the other with Nihil Spellbomb. It is just too slow and doesn't bring enough power to justify it's increased cost.

Also as for now, I agree on Spell Pierce. Hitting relevant artifacts and planeswalkers is a big reason, but a bigger one is not dying to burn so fast. Swan Song can sometimes speed up their gameplan rather than slow it down.

Hmm, I understand your reasons for Spell Pierce, but why not like 2 Spell Pierce, 2 Spellsnare? Every deck runs 2 CMC cards, and almost every counterspell you'll run into will be 2 CMC, so it lets you counter back if they are trying to stop what you are doing, and most importantly it stops things like Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant from taking over games.

Also with most Splinter Twin decks siding out their combo vs removal/counterspell decks, the best card against them is actually Night of Souls' Betrayal (if you resolve it). It instantly kills all of their creatures (or turns them into 0 power creatures), it is also very good vs all the collected company decks that are popping up (good vs elves, junk combo), and it is good vs the B/W Tokens deck, etc.

Now a deck this deck is going to have serious problems vs is the new Grixis delver lists. Your putting cards into their graveyard for them (I'm talking about before you can actually combo) to enable them to get 1 mana 5/5's (Gurmag Angler) out super early to pressure your life. I recommend 2-4 copies of Dismember between main and side, as they help you get time vs all they Tarmogoyf and Gurmag Angler decks, and actually against most deck that pressure your life total with creatures in general anyway.

Another good card against both of them is Leyline of the Void. Exiles your opponen't graveyard but not your own. With all the delve cards, Tarmogoyfs, Snapcaster Mages, the unbanning of Golgari Grave-Troll, and the new instant speed Goryo's Vengeance combo deck, having some "exile all" cards at all times might be where you want to go. Not just 1 use (Nihil Spellbomb and not just 1 card (Surgical Extraction).

@XyZiron The difference between Spell Pierce and Spell Snare is that Spell Pierce is always relevant, whereas Spell Snare is mainly important on the draw after your turn 1. It is a good card, but I'd rather run more generic hate.

Night of Souls' Betrayal costs a lot of mana, and also entirely ruins our Grim Haruspex plan. I'd rather run Illness in the Ranks, but Spellskite is even better because it hits more strategies and is free if we resolve a Heartless Summoning.

Your concerns about Altar of the Brood are unfounded, since I rarely cast it before being able to combo off. We have enough good turn 1 plays that a turn 1 Altar is typically a bad idea. That being said, I have been considering cutting the Shadow of Doubt for a Dismember, just for that extra interaction.

Leyline of the Void isn't as good as Nihil Spellbomb, mainly since leylines are dead cards when not in our opener and we can reuse the spellbomb using Myr Retriever. It also cantrips if we leave up mana, which is relevant when trying to find our combo.

Thanks for all your suggestions though! If you think my reasoning is bad, feel free to simply post again explaining yourself.

3x Necropede in for 2 lichs and 1 Court Hussar. Main Board Spellskite, that will handle the spells initially. You can always bounce them back with a Myr Retriever on long games. I'd say take out 1 Grim Haruspex and 1 Myr Moonvessel for the 2 Spellskites. I personally don't use the Lichs or the Moonvessels.

This is the current deck I'm running as of right now and I can get a couple of wins off of Infect decks for which I usually have 2 people playing with in all my current modern format tournaments.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/28-07-15-altered-brood-deck/

@tru13 Necropede is cool, but I don't really want to cut combo pieces for more kill spells. I was thinking about using it instead of Perilous Myr at one point, but the ability to kill players with the myr makes it better.

As for Spellskites mainboard, it could certainly be good. It's just that I find it to be not good enough for any matchup that isn't Twin, Burn, or Infect. If my meta starts leaning more heavily on these, then I may have to add them mainboard.

Thanks for the suggestions!