At the academy, "show and tell" too often becomes "run and hide."
This budget permission-combo deck takes inspiration from one of the most iconic decks from Magic's Legacy format: Show and Tell. Unfortunately, a turn one Eldrazi isn't feasible in Modern, so this deck must focus more on preventing your opponent from playing the game rather than jamming your combo.
Also, of note, when building this deck my main priority was to keep it around $250. Because of that, some obvious upgrades can be made to this to make it more competitive. Some glaring upgrades include:
-4 Inkwell Leviathan, +4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
-3 Kozilek, the Great Distortion, +3 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.
-4 Spreading Seas, (For Inkwell,) +2 Cryptic Command, +2 Pact of Negation.
-1 Commandeer, +1 Crucible of Worlds.
Now, onto the deck itself:
The deck revolves around the interaction between casting a spell, holding priority, then targeting your spell with Fold into Aether to cheat an expensive creature into play. The deck has 6 copies of main deck 0 cost instants in Surgical Extraction and Gut Shot to make this combo feasible on turn 4. As a secondary, yet less reliable way to cheat out creatures, this deck also plays 2 copies of Counterlash. Counter a creature, "cast" a Kozilek, refill your hand, then have 0 cost counterspells for most of the rest of the game.
The deck is also designed to be abusive towards combo decks, which make up a large portion of my opponents at my LGS. Destroy a Valakut or Tron land followed with Surgical Extraction to shut off an opponent's deck, Counterbore a Through the Breach, or any other similar lines of play. Commandeer a Karn, only to later use Bribery to steal an Emrakul, etc etc.
Card Explanations:
Instants:
1x Counterbore: If you are playing against a combo deck that needs one particular spell to resolve, then this combined with surgical extraction and permission spells can shut off the deck without worry. If your opponent is not playing a combo deck, side this out after game one.
2x Counterlash: This card serves as Fold into Aether # 5 and 6. This card also has the benefit of "casting" the card you play, so the cast trigger from Kozilek, and eventually Emrakul, can theoretically end the game by themselves.
2x Cyclonic Rift: For 2 mana, it can bounce a combo piece so as to counter it at a later time. For 7 mana, and at instant speed, it can serve as an emergency restart button for when your opponent's board gets out of control.
2x Disrupting Shoal: Modern doesn't quite have Force of Will in its arsenal, but its weaker counterpart will still suffice in a predominantly-blue permissions deck.
4x Fold into Aether: Serves as a Modern Show and Tell. While more expensive, it is one sided. The downside is that it requires you to cast a spell of your own. You should not, under any circumstances, cast this against an opponent lest they are incredibly low on cards.
4x Gut Shot: Shoot a Vault Skirge, elf, Pyromancer, or just serve as an enabler for your Fold.
4x Mana Leak: Next to deprive, this is the closest modern is going to get to having a 2 cost counter spell. It gets considerably worse as the game goes on, but by that point you should have a game winning creature on board to end the game with. Serves as excellent pitch fodder for the later portions of the game.
4x Remand: Every blue combo deck in Modern runs a few copies of these. While not a hard counter, you can significantly slow down your opponent's game plan by remanding a spell that costs more mana than they have untapped mana sources.
3x Snapback: Serve as a "Force of Will" by bouncing obnoxious creatures without necessarily countering them for 0 mana. Stop an aura from resolving by bouncing the creature your opponent tries to play, or serves an emergency way to stall a creature attacking for lethal.
2x Surgical Extraction: Stop combo decks in their tracks by removing their win condition from the game, or serves as a 0 cost activator for Fold into Aether.
Lands:
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All: This deck actually struggles against other permission decks due to the nature of its pitch spells and 3 card combo. While this land won't automatically make you favored in the match, it does make it a bit more bearable.
2x Ghost Quarter/2x Tectonic Edge: Mana bases in Modern are greedy. Punish your opponent for any potential greed by shutting them off of a color with these and surgical extraction, or just disable Tron/Valakut.
17x Islands: The best card in modern, and we are able to run more than 4. Ideally, you would run 60 islands, but that may be a bit too greedy, even for modern.
Creatures:
4x Inkwell Leviathan: Ideally, this would be Emrakul. As it stands, it is just a big idiot that is difficult for your opponent to kill. It doesn't win the game in a single attack like Emrakul, but 1 to 2 more attacks backed up with permission based magic shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.
1x Kefnet the Mindful: Pitch it against aggro, play it against control. It's recurring card draw makes winning against slower decks possible.
3x Kozilek, the Great Distortion: Ideally, this would be Ulamog. As it stands, turning your hand into potential 0 cost counter spells isn't the worst thing in the world.
Enchantments:
2x Spreading Seas. Shut off an opponent's color, cycle, and serves as an enabler for an unblockable leviathan.
Sideboard:
2x Bribery. Steal big creatures from your opponent. Against certain decks, you can grab an Emrakul for 5 mana.
4x Commandeer: Tron isn't an easy matchup, and it is prevalent at my LGS. Steel a Karn with the sole purpose of slowing down your opponent before restarting the game with a massive advantage. This is a very expensive pitch card, but if you can win the game off of the stolen card, then this is worth bringing in.
1x Counterbore: Against combo decks that need to resolve one specific card, this can shut off your opponent's deck when combined with Surgical Extraction.
2x Mindbreak Trap: Laugh as your opponent tries to resolve a grapeshot. It can also counter spells with a "can not be countered" clause.
2x Negate: Sometimes you just need more counterspells. If affinity is popular at your LGS, you can easily exchange this with Hurkyl's Recall.
2x Spreading Seas: Against particularly greedy mana bases, you can side these in to shut your opponent off of their deck.
2x Surgical Extraction: For decks that need to resolve specific spells, more copies of this can break your opponent's deck.
