The meta in modern has been dominated by Delver of Secrets
Tarmogoyf Splinter Twin and a whole bunch of CMC efficient creatures rising from the ashes of the post Birthing Pod ban. The latest addition of a turn 2/3 Primeval Titan in amulet bloom didn't go unnoticed either.
Enough reason for me to dive deeper into the various synergies and combo's that make these decks work. Infinite creatures, cheating lands and unfair creatures into play seems to have the meta in it's hold.
However.... Sooner or later they all swing for the win. And wouldn't you know, there's a 2 cent card that stops all of that nonsence from actually killing you?
Fog
I know, run 4 copies won't save you from creatures eventually breaking through. Luckily however, there's like 100 variants of Fog to play around with. Theoreticly it wouldn't be too hard to find and play 4 copies of 10 different types of fog-like cards and 20 lands and just cast 1 each turn.
Unfortunately there are other ways of winning the game then to swing for the win, suprisingly enough though the current meta in modern is running a very low amount of alternative ways to win the game. But just in case they do have a way of causing me to loose other then swinging with creatures, there is a solution for that too.
Counterspell
Obviously not legal, but there's plenty of counter target spell cards to go around and actually one that has some nice synergy with Fog.
Swan Song
So here i am, looking at my Fog and Swan Song thinking back to pauper turbo fog days of old. Obviously this has been done before, right? So i entered tappedout deck search, selected blue, white, green in modern containing Fog and Swan Song and pressed search. Hmmmmmmz, 0 results. I must have done something wrong, let's double check this. Nope, it's all there.
So either this idea was just really bad or no-one came up with it. Googled around a bit to find very old versions of turbofog and one huge upset in Standard. Both focussing their wincondition on just milling out the opponent eventually. There's only one way to find out. Throw together a bunch of seriously inefficient cards i had laying about and call some friends. And guess what, i only lost 2 out of 6 (uwr control and burn), which with my crappy version and a first draft was miles and miles above expectation.
The things i did find:
2012 Wizards article about a Standard legal turbofog: http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/rc/1952012 local FNM DeckTech video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOx95W4iOy42014 mtgsalvation primer about turbofog: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/550828-turbo-fog2015 StarCityGames open Pro DeckTech video about Standard legal turbofog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0q1dLkqf_42015 StarCityGames open Pro game 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9ncjs15-_IRight, so let's start building a solid modern version. Write down what i have and put them up against the current meta.
Gameplan:
Fogs: to stop creatures from killing usCounters: to stop anyting elseTurbo: to make sure we draw 1 fog each turn (and it's part of our win conditionMills: to make sure the enemy has less cards then us, else we kill ourselvesThe Current Meta:
Abzan (w or w/o collected) - Creatures fog it!Affinity - Creatures fog it!Amulet Bloom - Titan's to fog, but counter the Hivemind wincon.Burn - 4 Monastery Swiftspear to fog, 16 lands, everything else burns my face.Grixis Delver - Creatures, usually runs about 6 burn spellsGrixis Control - Creatures, usually runs about 4 burn spells and 4 snapcaster mages. So 8xInfect - Creatures fog it!Junk Aggro - Creatures fog it!Merfolk - Creatures fog it!Sultai - Creatures fog it!Tron - Can't mill tronUR Delver - Creatures, runs about 6 burn spells. Runs counterspells. So 10x.UR Twin - Combo assembly still needs to swing. Fog it!UR Storm - Need to stop the combo 4x.UWx Midrange - Creatures and about 4 burn spells. Runs counterspells and snapcaster mage, so 8x.Right, so to summary, out of the 15 most played decks:
7 Fog em!5 need 4-8 counterspells like Swan Song1 needs more counterspells1 is tron1 is burnWithout any further battleplan, that means we have a real chance against half the playingfield.
So let's actually start building a deck, now that we know some rough percentages and some problematic opponents.Judging by previous versions of turbofog u aim for 10-12 turns which gets you about 30 cards. Your opponent also got that many cards and you mill his other 30 cards.So roughly 20 fogs, 8 counterspells, lands, turbo for 30 and mill for 30. And then we still have to deal with burn and tron. And finally we might want an alternative win condition. Let's look at what magic has to offer.
Fogs:
Fog - its a 1 mana green fog.Holy Day - its a 1 mana white fog.Ethereal Haze - its a 1 mana better green fog since it also stops other damage creatures could deal.Angel's Grace - if everything else failed.
Blunt the Assault
- its a 4 mana green fog, but may very well keep your life total respectable considering you leave their useless creatures on the battlefield.Defend the Hearth - its a 2 mana green fog
Safe Passage
- its a 3 mana much better fog since it stops all damage for a turn (read burn spells)Dawn Charm - its a 2 mana better white fog that can also counter something that targets you (read burn spells)
Clinging Mists
- its a 3 mana green fog, leaving the creatures tapped could be helpfullMoonmist - its a 2 mana fog unless some1 plays werewolves....? its a 2 mana green fog!Counters:
Mana Leak - Since we are turbo, the opponent is getting cards/mana too and has no real need to keep spending it on useless creatures. So this card is quite frankly BAD.Swan Song - 1 mana counter everything except planeswalkers, creatures and artifacts. The 2/2 flyer is completely useless for themDispel - 1 mana counter instants (read burn and counters)Remand - Same as with mana leak, we dont care about tempo, so this is just BADNegate - 2 mana counter instants and sorceries (read burn and counters)
Dissipate
- counters and then exiles anything which might be useful against snapcaster mages or any other graveyard interaction in generalTurbo:
Rites of Flourishing
- 3 mana enchantment, the extra land per turn is niceHowling Mine - 2 mana artifactDictate of Kruphix - 3 mana enchantment, has the advantage of flash, which means u get the first extra draw, but 2 blue mana is quite an restriction early on since every fog is white or green. And frankly i prefer playing extra lands over getting an extra card first. (later you will know why)
Otherworld Atlas
- 4 mana artifact, controlling when the draw happends might be usefull
Font of Mythos
4 mana artifact, draws TWO cardsMonastery Siege 3 mana enchantment, only draws for you, but the other option might be usefull at one point or anotherMill:
Sphinx's Tutelage - not legal.
Sands of Delirium
- Remember the lands? this one has X.
Psychic Spiral
- 10 turns in, play a fog each turn, this might add up.Mesmeric Orb - Could be nice, since your opponent has to try and keep swinging to make you run out of fogs.Increasing Confusion - Remember the lands, this one has X. Takes 2 turns, but the x2 flashback one will finish the game.Jace's Erasure - Consistent mill with synergy for our turbo, gets things started.Other stuff:
Orbs of Warding - serves as a soft-fog against tokens and a LoS in one.Elixir of Immortality - serves as a life injection and prevents you from milling yourself out.Leyline of Sanctity - because burnLuminarch Ascension - provides for an alternative win condition with 4/4 flying angel tokens
Magosi, the Waterveil
- prevents us from miling ourselves if we have a good hand anyways, also good against amulet bloom's hivemind wincon and could fuel our alternative wincon with 4/4 angel tokens from Luminarch AscensionNevermore - because we can! By the time we play it, we know what to expect and can stop Lightning Bolt Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Karn Liberated etc.etc.Oblivion Ring - generally a descent card and more notably one of the few ways to get rid of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn without allowing him to shuffle his graveyard back in his library, which ruins our mill strategy.Sylvan Scrying - mana fixing for non-basic lands, allows us to play less islandsChalice of the Void - being able to auto-counter Lightning Bolt RiftBolt or what not, nice!Dragon's Claw artifact specific for the sideboard against burnBeast Within serves as destroy permanent because we dont care about the 3/3 token, we just fog that.My first impressions on this deck vs the current meta and overal card choices is that i might aswell take the Hivemind and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn loss for granted and focus on winning the other 13 matchups. And ofcourse i'll see if there's room left in the sideboard later to correct this.Dawn Charm and
Safe Passage
seem like a welcome flex in this deck though at the cost of CMC.
One other thing to mention is that i dont actually want to fetch for lands, as i need as many as i can get later on and i don't want/need to filter my deck.
So this is what i eventually ended up with. Obviously every suggestion is welcome and i'll add most usefull cast suggestions to the description.
