Big fan of the deck. Fast, inexpensive, and awesome!

i think that lord of extinctions power and toughness become zero because its not actually in play. i do like a lot of your combos tho, keep it up!

Because there are asterixes in the P/T box, they are affected that way at all times. :)

Very well written article, and the deck looks decently competitive for being relatively cheap! Playtested the deck a few times and was surprised at the amount of work Serum Powder was doing. Surprisingly consistent!

The decklist seems pretty tight, especially since you need doubles for some things in case of Serum Powder exile or being in your hand. That said, maybe go down to 2x Dread Return - I don't see why that's at 3 while the other combo pieces are 2x. Also maybe play a Watery Grave or Godless Shrine + Marsh Flats so you can hardcast Cabal Therapy ? Why 23 lands and 2 Lotus Petal rather than 21 lands and 4x Lotus Petal ?

Finally, Worldly Tutor and Brainstorm might make the deck more consistent but slower. The deck's main problem seems more like a lack of resiliency though - Pact of Negation or some cheap counterspells might be great.

The only problem I'm seeing here is that you'll rarely be able to combo out turn one with The Mimeoplasm due to the lack of sufficient creatures in the deck. Let's say you had the perfect hand, and didn't have to exile anything with Serum Powder . Turn one you play land, two Lotus Petal , Cephalid Illusionist , Shuko and proceed to mill your deck. Now you have 4 Narcomoeba , and Cephalid Illusionist in play. You flashback Dread Return , which puts 3 of the Narcomoeba back into your graveyard, bringing out The Mimeoplasm which then exiles a Lord of Extinction and a Triskelion . This leaves you with Cephalid Illusionist , Narcomoeba , The Mimeoplasm , Lord of Extinction , and Triskelion out of the graveyard. Since the deck starts with a maximum of 18 creatures, this means The Mimeoplasm will enter the battlefield with 18 - 5 + 3 (16) +1/+1 counters on it. So at maximum you will be able to deal 16 damage to the opponent with the first The Mimeoplasm . You will then have to sacrifice the first one to Dread Return the second one for the finish. The main problem with this is that if you have used Serum Powder even once, it's extremely likely you'll have exiled one of the six necessary creatures to make this work, or exiled enough of the others to make the combo fall apart. If Serum Powder is to stay in the deck, then I think there ought to be a 3rd of The Mimeoplasm , Lord of Extinction and Triskelion to make it less likely that you'll end up with Serum Powder in hand and unable to use its ability because you know you would exile necessary cards if you did. Another potential problem is if you end up with a hand that includes one of the six necessary combo pieces. There's no way to force yourself to discard them, outside of Cabal Therapy targeting yourself. And that just seems like a waste of a Cabal Therapy .

Lord of Extinction counts all cards, not just creatures. So even if he exiles half his deck with Serum Powder it will still kill people.

okay then it is amazingly awesome.

This deck has nothing to work against gravehate. so instaed of making other comboes that also die to gravehave such as the black leyline, grafdiggers cage, or the return to ravnica white gravehate card. may i suggest Chain of Vapor.

also, you only need one copy of every combo card you have. replace the rest with cards like ponder and preordain

Isn't Preordain banned?

@Boomwizard Not in legacy, just modern.

Might take longer to go off. But cantrips add consistency. Brainstorm Preordain and Ponder all help to add to that consistency.

Why would you consider Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Hello Everyone! Thank you all so very much for your wonderful thoughts, questions, and suggestions! Today I hope to make a couple of pressing mid-week announcements, and to address a couple of questions posed above.

The first deck update is set to roll out this Friday! To brace everyone for what might seem ridiculous to some, I would like to announce that I'm planning some exciting (albeit radical) changes for next week. I have been doing a good amount of research and throwing around a couple of (what I feel are) interesting ideas for this particular card list. Unlike some my previous ideas, which were focused on concepts restricted to categories like color and creature type, this list seeks to attain the most consistent method of achieving a deck's earliest possible win. In doing so, I have been brainstorming alternative strategies for the sideboard and mainboard respectively.

Thank you hubatish very much for your thoughtful recommendations! I will make sure to incorporate your suggestions on spell and land recommendations in this week's update! 4x Lotus Petal sounds like a wonderful idea, and reducing Dread Return to 2x frees up a card slot for anything from a Gitaxian Probe to another Cabal Therapy !

Thank you Boomwizard for your considerate thoughts! Indeed, I chose Lord of Extinction over Mortivore because the former promises to count all cards instead of only creatures. :)

Thank you isEpicWin for your constructive criticism! I greatly appreciate your suggestion of Chain of Vapor ; it is an ingenious solution against graveyard hate contraptions like Grafdigger's Cage , Leyline of the Void , and even Pithing Needle . However, for this deck, I have (for some reason) chosen to prioritize speed and consistency over versatility, and as a result have decided to forgo the implementation of most protection strategies.

Your and redafroninja's suggestions of including cantrips are also much appreciated! I had previously considered the addition of Brainstorm , Preordain , Ponder , Steelshaper's Gift , even Worldly Tutor and Eladamri's Call . However, in the interest of preserving the speed of the list, and due to the lack of available card slots, I ultimately decided against including these spells.

Lastly, @demongod, I added Emrakul, the Aeons Torn to the maybeboard because I am considering the possibility of recycling the deck's copies of Narcomoeba . The Eldrazi card's ability to reshuffle the graveyard into the library allows for this possibility. While I may not be able to cast Dread Return another time (or maybe I will, I'm not sure), I will certainly be able to ensure that both copies of Cabal Therapy go off, eliminating several countermagic cards that my opponent may be holding.

Again, thanks for all of the thoughtful comments! As I am still relatively new to Magic the Gathering, I would very much appreciate any further suggestions and/or constructive criticism that you may have to offer.

The problem with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn in this deck comes in the fact that you would have to keep milling yourself over and over until he is towards the bottom of the deck for the combo to go off properly without him interrupting it. doesn't present much of a problem really, but I can see it getting very tedious and annoying when you just can't quite seem to get the whole combo in the graveyard before Emrakul hits and makes you do it all over again.

Hello Everyone!

Thank you so very much for your wonderful suggestions! For this week's update, I carefully went through all of the comments posted under this topic as of August 23, 2013. See the corresponding log entry above for further details about this update.

I have to say that I am very pleased with the advice given to me throughout the development of this deck. Without further ado, I would like to explain the changes incorporated into the creation of the deck's final revision.

Change Log:

• Revamped Main Deck List
• Revamped Sideboard
• See Above for This Week's List

Thank you so very much for the helpful suggestions that were submitted this week in the comment section. I will make sure to keep every piece of advice in mind for the next revision, and to give each recommendation careful thought.

Again, thanks for all of the thoughtful comments! I will update this deck periodically (weekly, every Friday) until I feel that it has reached its maximum potential. As of now, however, I can see plenty of potential weaknesses. As I am still relatively new to Magic the Gathering, I would very much appreciate any further suggestions and/or constructive criticism that you may have to offer.

This deck has been approved by Chandler.

i played your deck back when it had Cephalid Illusionist and it worked way better honestly

It's more consistent to play Cephalid Breakfast, because if undercity has to mulligan twice, it loses 99% of games.

I have to agree with everyone else, the previous deck was far more consistent. getting the third card for the combo out, as well as the lack of permanent mana, make it much harder to pull off without an awesome hand.