Power Sagas

Modern Counters Creature Cheat Enchantment GWUB Prison Saga Toolbox Value Engine

wheels47

Land (22)

• 1x Breeding Pool
• 2x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Island
• 4x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 2x Plains
• 1x Spara's Headquarters
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Watery Grave
• 4x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (16)

• 2x The Birth of Meletis
• 4x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Out of Time
• 1x Scroll of Isildur
• 4x The Raven's Warning
• 3x Binding the Old Gods
• 1x Fall of the Thran

Artifact (4)

• 4x Power Conduit

Creature (13)

• 4x Birds of Paradise
• 4x Noble Hierarch
• 1x The Reality Chip
• 4x Tribute Mage

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 4x Reason / Believe

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Sideboard

Creature (6)

• 1x Platinum Angel
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Terastodon
• 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
• 1x Out of Time
• 1x Binding the Old Gods
• 1x Starfield of Nyx
• 1x Fall of the Thran
• 1x Overwhelming Splendor

Land (1)

• 1x Swamp

Artifact (1)

• 1x The Immortal Sun

Instant (1)

• 1x Cyclonic Rift

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Introduction

This deck is built around two ideas:

1. Power Conduit can remove counters from Sagas to repeat their abilities from turn to turn.
2. The third ability of The Raven's Warning puts a sideboard card on top of your deck. Use Reason / Believe from the graveyard to then cheat a creature like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn into play.

Together, these ideas make for my favorite deck I've made.

Gameplan

You start the game on defense, and grind out value from Sagas until you can find the pieces for a big power spike. That power spike usually comes from the sideboard. Sometimes it is a big sideboard creature, and sometimes it is a lock.

• Big sideboard creature: Use the third ability of The Raven's Warning to put a sideboard creature like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Iona, Shield of Emeria on top of your deck, and cheat it into play by casting Reason / Believe from your graveyard.
• Lock: Repeat Fall of the Thran's first ability with Power Conduit to destroy all lands every turn. Ghostly Prison prevents attacks. Win either by giving a small creature +1/+1 counters repeatedly, or by eventually decking the opponent.

With the right opening hand, you can get Emrakul out as soon as turn 4. But the deck doesn't necessarily need these big power spikes quickly to win. It can also be a threat by gradually making the Saga value grind more and more dangerous.

• Starfield of Nyx: If you don't have Reason / Believe in the graveyard to cheat in a creature, Starfield is a strong sideboard choice that can generate a lot of value.
• Binding the Old Gods: With Power Conduit, destroy one of your opponent's non-land permanents on each of your turns.
• The Reality Chip: Gives good card advantage in a deck with this much ramp. More on this card later.

Depending on your sideboard choices, the deck can play like a combo deck, like a prison deck, or like a value engine deck. No two games feel alike, but these strategies are not in conflict with one another because they are chosen situationally from the sideboard.

Notable Mechanics

• If you use Power Conduit to remove a counter from a Saga when its last ability is on the stack, the Saga will not be sacrificed. With The Raven's Warning, this lets you get a sideboard card every turn.
• Power Conduit can be activated on your upkeep before Saga abilities trigger. This lets you play Power Conduit the turn after Binding the Old Gods or Fall of the Thran and still return to the first ability.
• A Saga brought back with Starfield of Nyx will active its first two abilities that turn.

Individual Cards

Key Cards

• Power Conduit: The key card in the deck. It significantly improves every Saga.
• The Raven's Warning: The Saga the deck is built around. The third ability enables your wincons, but the first two abilities are a great source of life, creature tokens, and card draw. The second ability also gives information about the opponent's hand, letting you make more informed choices from the wishboard.
• Reason / Believe: Believe cheats out big sideboard creatures, and Reason helps you hit your land drops for a turn 4 Emrakul.

Other Sagas

• The Birth of Meletis: Fetches lands early, and goes wide with blockers.
• Binding the Old Gods: Destroys one non-land permanent per turn as early as turn 3.
• Scroll of Isildur: Situational, but stealing an artifact every turn (without necessarily needing to return it) can be very effective against some decks. Best in a meta with The One Ring.
• Fall of the Thran: In addition to the lock, it can also be played fairly to buy time. You are usually the less-affected player, since you have mana dorks and you don't need to cast spells to generate value.

Tutors

• Tribute Mage: Fetches Power Conduit or The Reality Chip.
• Idyllic Tutor: Can fetch any enchantment, but often acts as an extra copy of Out of Time or Fall of the Thran.

Board Wipes

• Out of Time: Can be fetched with Idyllic Tutor and recurred with Hall of Heliod's Generosity or Starfield of Nyx, potentially on the same turn it was lost. Power Conduit can speed up the countdown to re-cast it faster.

Ramp

• Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch: Important in a 4-color deck with relatively high mana costs. They work well with the Fall of the Thran lock and with Craterhoof Behemoth.

Other

• Ghostly Prison: Enables the Fall of the Thran lock, and works well with the ability to go wide with tokens.
• The Reality Chip: Improves Tribute Mage by giving it a second possible fetch target. It works well across a variety of situations. It blocks early on, when the deck is vulnerable. It snowballs with mana dorks to get huge value. It plays cards from the top of your deck, getting sideboard cards into play faster (including non-creatures). It works well with topdeck manipulation.
• Hall of Heliod's Generosity: Works well with Sagas and can recur Out of Time the turn it is sacrificed.

Sideboard creatures (in general order of utility)

1. Craterhoof Behemoth: Can win the game that same turn with enough creatures in play.
2. Iona, Shield of Emeria: Can lock the opponent out entirely.
3. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: Doesn't get you the extra turn and can't win instantly like Craterhoof or Iona, but it's a strong, reliable choice, especially if you haven't seen your opponent's hand.
4. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur: If you know the above 3 can't win or will be removed, it can be a good source of cards.
5. Terastodon: Situational, but useful for attacking the manabase. Can steal wins against Amulet Titan.
6. Platinum Angel: Can potentially set up a better creature for the next turn if you are about to lose.

Sideboard non-creatures (in general order of utility)

1. Fall of the Thran: Another way to get the lock piece.
2. Starfield of Nyx: Takes the deck to the next level in terms of grinding out value from Sagas.
3. Binding the Old Gods: The fourth copy of one of the most powerful maindeck cards. A good choice if you can't generate five mana.
4. Overwhelming Splendor: Expensive, but a wincon in its own right against some decks.
5. Wheel of Sun and Moon: An answer to mill decks. Also lets you eventually deck the opponent with the Fall of the Thran lock.
6. Swamp: Potentially lets you cast Reason / Believe next turn if you can't afford to cast it this turn. Any untapped land could fill this slot, but black is the only color that might typically be missing at this point in the game. And basic lands have enough advantages to make Swamp my choice here.
7. The Immortal Sun: An answer to planeswalker decks.
8. Out of Time and Cyclonic Rift: Board wipes that can be played this turn if you have card draw or an activated The Reality Chip. They are the only two cards that might get sideboarded into the maindeck between games.

Stray Points

• When building around Power Conduit, look for Sagas that get the most value out of one ability. Binding the Old Gods is a great example.
• Also look for Sagas like Scroll of Isildur, which typically have a short-term effect that you can instead prolong indefinitely.
• Unfortunately, the deck folds completely to Solemnity. It's such an unwinnable matchup that I don't even try to have an answer for it. In a meta that anticipates this deck, you would need to commit much more of the sideboard to protecting against it.
• Like any deck with a wishboard, the deck is strongest in game 1 and weaker after that. There's an argument to be made that the sideboard should have fewer wish targets and more typical sideboard cards, but I like getting the most possible utility out of the wishboard.
• Though not inspired by it, the deck is an odd cousin of Dice Factory. Many of the choices that keep it from going in a similar colorless direction are informed by the focus on The Raven's Warning.
• In general, I think the Power Conduit + Saga archetype has a lot of potential. This deck is built around The Raven's Warning in particular, but I think the approach would be effective across many colors and strategies.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to share.

Top Ranked	Achieved #26 position in Modern 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Prison 2 years ago
Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	0 - 8 Mythic Rares 37 - 5 Rares 17 - 1 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.87
Tokens	Bird 1/1 U, Elephant 3/3 G, The Ring, The Ring Tempts You, Wall 0/4 C
Folders	Favorite, Decks