The story of my deck and how I made it:When I started playing Magic, which was around the time when the Khans of Tarkir set was new, my friends had very bad decks. They had very good cards in them, but no synergy, no nothing. Of course, since they were the ones that introduced me to Magic I though that their decks were good at the time. The friend that dominated the most had a black deck, in which he had one Griselbrand, one Dark Ritual, and strange cards only one time in the deck (you get the idea). His second deck that he made also kicked butt (compared to how bad the other people's decks were) and it was Izzet. He had a few cards 1-2 times, definitely better synergy than the mono black one, and not strange cards one time. But the strangest thing in the deck that caught my eye was just one copy of Lord of the Unreal to buff the one copy of
Phantasmal Bear
which he had in the deck. It was awful, of course, since the Lord only buffed one thing, but those two cards sparked an idea in my mind: Why not build a deck centered around this Lord and that bear? The idea turned into reality when I made my first deck around the year 2015, I don't really know exactly though. I ordered some cards online, and although the cards didn't make the deck legal in modern, since it wasn't 60 cards, I still had fun with it. Then, when I researched online, I found that people actually had decklists for the deck! So, I watched TheManaSource's old video on illusions and bought some cards from that decklist to add onto my own deck. Around a year later, I got better at deckbuilding and tweaked some cards. At that time TheManaSource released his new video, which had a modern legal deck! So, I ordered cards that were not in my deck but in his, but found the deck to be lacking a little bit of juice. So I tweaked the deck to how you see it now, and am still tweaking it, to be a powerful force to be reckoned with.
This deck is based off of TheManaSource's budget modern illusions video. I made a few tweaks to the deck to adjust it to my playstyle. This deck is open to suggestions, and really needs some. I would want to make the deck effective and competitive by splashing a certain color, red or white. I have been thinking of splashing red though, because of the removal and Lightning Bolt, but Mirror Entity is also really good. Also is the deck I currently use in real life.
Red splash: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bluered-illusions-red-splashed/
White splash: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bluewhite-illusions-white-splashed/
Maybeboard:Psychic Barrier is a replacement for Dismember - either better in some cases or worse. Dismember kills a creature while the creature is on the board, but is only good for up to 5 toughness.
Psychic Barrier
can only counter a creature at a certain time, so it isn't as good in some situations, however the unexpected life loss for the opponent like by
Vapor Snag
can sometimes win you games.
Turn Aside is if you don't want to buy some expensive cards like Spellskite which can absorb hurtful spells for your Illusions if you lord isn't on the field. This spell does the same thing, but is worse in a lot of cases. If you want a cheaper option, a playset is recommended by me. Adjust and fiddle with the numbers, but in my opinion if you don't have the money for Spellskite, then at least 3.
Metallic Mimic is a great replacement for the more expensive Adaptive Automaton. I think it is better than the Grand Architect because of the creature type counting in how strong the
Krovikan Mist
will be and how the counters don't leave the battlefield after it dies, but the downside is that the Illusions only get the counter if they enter the battlefield.
