Wait, didnt Amonkhet ruin this with the split card cmc rule change?

Polupus: Well yes and no, you can no longer use Sunforger to cast Research/Development directly from the library, which is certainly a bit of a nerf since you used to be able to run a singleton R/D and 2 in the SB, find it with your first Sunforger activation and then chain them in that way.

However I have updated the deck to work with these new rules by simply running 3 copies of R/D maindeck with a mana base suited to casting them from your hand. Finding them is usually not that hard since you are running quite a lot of thinning, tutoring and card draw and the actual mana cost is still just 2, and the deck can win just fine without casting Research. It is also more resilient against counters etc to have multiple copies and now there is more pure answer slots in the SB so all is well more or less, I haven't found this version significantly weaker, though there a fewer turn 3 and turn 4 kills without the 3rd mox.

Everything works exactly as advertised in this primer, the infinite combo and all the SB cards etc. There are a few cards that are no longer work as sideboard options such as odds/ends and they have been removed.

TL:DR: You now run more copies of R/D and cast them from your hand, everything else works the same as before.

I have looked over this deck for a couple hours now, and I watched your decktech and gameplay for it and I must say this is one of the most beautifully unique yet powerful builds I have seen in a long time. I can see how much testing you have put into it, and the namesake of the deck probably doesn't only come from the interaction with Research/Development but the infinite research you've put into this deck haha. Well done. +1

Thanks a lot DangoDaikazoku, glad you like the deck. Yeah I guess I've put quite a lot of time into it :P

Not a bad thing considering you made a homebrew that can hold it's own against meta decks, it's really a great concept and you have answers to a lot of things since you have access to your whole library and even your sideboard practically at all times.

You have no aruas, why are you running 2 Open the Armory in place of 4 Steelshaper's Gift?

Flooremoji: Actually Wheel of Sun and Moon is an aura, so Open the Armory increases consistency in finding the infinite combo by 100%.

It's definitely debatable whether it's worth it over the speed advantage of 4 Steelshaper's Gifts though, because the deck is quite powerful without the full combo it could be more important to secure playing an early sunforger.

On the other hand Open the Armory sits well at the double 2 drop curve at turn 4 or 3 (if ramping) since the deck has so many 2 drops, so the potential tempo loss is not actually that big, and the risk of running out of relevant tutor targets is much smaller when the wheels can be fetched.

Another thing to consider here is that Wheel of Sun and Moon is also our graveyard hate card and a golden bullet against mill decks, the armorys giving us effectively a full playset of wheels is not nothing when facing dredge, KCI, mill decks, living end etc.

I don't play modern but this is one of the coolest decks I've ever seen. +1!

Thanks noshadowkick!

I have no suggestions, but this is easily one of the coolest Modern decks, if not one of the coolest MtG decks I've ever seen!

Great deck, I've actually been building a Commander deck with the Sunforger + Wheel of Sun and Moon combo, and also Jeskai Ascendancy and Paradox Engine to untap mana creatures and equipment attachers. Could you take a look and share any thoughts you have?

Wheel of Sunforger and Moon

Commander / EDH* elgosu1337

40 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Thank you elgosu1337, I made a comment on your deck with some suggestions, the main one being to add the infinite from my mtgo version linked in the description above since it's edh compliant. Keep in mind that I don't play edh so I'm not familiar with that format and metagame.

I read through this and I'm not sure if it gave me brain damage or enlightened me to a higher plane of existence
Fucking Hilarious. +1 from me.

Why bother running the Shield and Mantle? They seem like useless clunky pieces, unless there's some interaction I'm missing. I'd prefer 2x Open the Armory to bump your tutor count up to 6

Silverdrake thank you, I hope it's the latter :)

The mantle and shield actually serve a lot of functions in the deck. First of all they are 0 mana artifacts that can be dropped as cantrips with Puresteel Paladin, turn on metalcraft for the paladin and mox opals (which is really important), safeguard early Glimmervoids and make sure there are enough tutor targets for the steelshaper's gifts to never be dead draws. You simply need a critical number of low cost artifacts and equipment for the deck to work consistently, it's modern after all and things need to get fully developed turn 3-5.

Now some other 0 mana equipments could serve those purposes but I think the shield and mantle are the best ones. The mantle is a great ramping card, especially when used with Puresteel Paladin as you can move it freely from creature to creature tapping them all for mana in the same turn. The shield puts your enablers out of range for a lot of spot removal like Lighting Bolt, Collective Brutality, Anger of the gods and so on, and allows them to block more fatties and vigilance is also very useful.

I did run a 2/2 split Steelshaper's gift/Open the armory to allow tutoring for the wheel, but I decided to try 4 gifts now for a bit more speed.

I've mucked about with sunforger in the past- what do you think of Master's Call for instant metalcraft? It performed well in my attempt at a puresteel/sunforger brew, although this list looks a lot more refined and toll collecter looks like it fixes a lot of problems.

lagotripha The times you don't have metalcraft you'd be looking at 5 mana to equip and activate Sunforger just to get it, I think that's too slow and if you're in that situation you're usually going to either need the mana for a more powerful forging or to play cards from your hand. This deck now has an effective artifact count of 23 (16 artifacts + 4 tutors + 3 inkmoth nexus), and if I thought that was not enough consistency for metalcraft I'd probably think adding more tutors like Open the Armory or a couple Flayer Husks would make more sense in this build. It might be worth trying though but that's what I think off the top of my head.

I think Master's Call would make a lot of sense in a Sunforger deck with fewer artifacts and more spells though, in which case you could do something like run a full playset of Master's call and Thraben inspector for metalcraft and just fill the rest of the deck with Paladin, Toll Collector, Sunforger, tutors and spells. But IMO that's a less powerful way to do it.

Yo I like this brew and was messing around play-testing with it versus some of my own decks. While it plays well their was one thing that kept on being a problem that I hated having to do and it cost the deck 2 games that it otherwise probably could have won. That is you don't have a second plains. The reason for this is being able to turn 2 puresteel feels great especially if a Spell skate is in play. I found that shocking myself hurt way more than I expected it to in this deck. Just some food for thought!

Thanks for the feedback, I haven't run into wanting a 2nd plains that often, but I see how it can be a problem in some cases.

It looks like having metalcraft for mox opal is really inconsistant

Have you ever tested this at a grand prix?

Hi SURVEILMANIA,the most competitive events I've played this at are modern local tournaments and MTGO competitive leagues. Unfortunately the MTGO results are skewed by the fact that the online version is a bit weaker for reasons explained in the description above.

Results have been pretty good overall, and the deck might be better positioned now after the KCI ban with less artifact hate in the meta, I'm afraid I don't have the time or money to travel to big events unfortunately.

I think a Stoneforge Mystic unban might push this deck into a truly top tier competitive spot, with mystics replacing the Steelshaper's gift. That would give the deck a more solid creature count and alternative gameplan without losing any of the consistency. The combo would be a turn slower though. Anyways if that happens I'm going to try and bring the deck to larger events.

While I've gotten a fair bit of attention on this deck I've never seen anyone else actually play it or report back from tournament testing, I suppose because the deck is both expensive and very complex to try out.

Loved the deck specially because it uses Wheel of Sun and Moon which has great art. My only sugestion would be to replace the one in the mainboard for Glittering Wish since it gives you a way to tutor up the Wheel.

Thanks for the feedback OLucas! Glittering wish is an interesting suggestion, there are two obvious downsides though 1: It is a turn slower for the infinite combo to go off, a natural draw of all the pieces can go off turn 4 now (or even 3 with the nuts), and 2: It adds another green mana cost to the main, which is a slight consistency decrease as the sources of green are often limited in the early game.

Obvious big upside is that it gets you a kolaghan's or other answer on demand when the wheel isn't what you need.

very nice guide!

any chance we can see some new gameplay videos with your recent updates?