The deck is really good, the few things I might’ve cknside is one Tireless Tracker as a tutor target, because it acts as both a finisher if you need something to quickly close out the game and a card advantage engine if you are low on cards, that can be found with a Traverse. Basically the Traverse package is decent I just want one more finisher/card advantage card. Also I’d cut a Decay or Spellbomb to bring the deck down to 60 cards.

Leafbladefighter

Glad you like it. Yeah 61 cards is kinda my thing lol always run one extra. But yeah I noticed that it does need a finisher main board besides locking out opponents. I had tireless in the original list but the fact that our creature count is so low they always had an extra removal to kill it. If you notice on my last “update” I talk about winning some games with a main board batterskull (I took out countersqual for it). It works great with academy and also doesn’t matter if they have removal. You can always bounce it or equip it to a witness/snap. So I really liked that. But also to make traverse a finisher I just added Ishkanah, Grafwidow. I haven’t got to play at a locals with it yet. But it seems pretty sweet because it can kinda stabilize the board while also great to recur with lily, pulse of murasa, or witness. Maybe test that out and let me know how you feel.

Let me know anymore if you have questions!

Yeah I mean Batterskull is really good, it’s quite the beating, especially against Aggro decks. I loved when I windmill slammed it against burn. The only problem is you can’t find it with Traverse the Uvenwald, if you don’t have a gifts. I’ll try Ishkanah and see how that does in the same slot.

You know, that 61 card thing is the worst thing I have ever heard, I feel so bad for you, were you born with this?

i cri ery tim!

Awesome +1

I tested with Ishkana, and was underwhelmed. I beat Infect and a bad mill brew, but cast the giant spider neither game. I do think cutting one Abrupt Decay is the right choice if you want 60 cards. I still love the deck. It hits the right balance of competitive and totally unique.

Leafbladefighter

Yeah I haven’t got a chance yet to test ishkanah. I just like the fact that is spams the board. 4 blockers to me is going to be at least two more draw steps that can help get me back into a game or maybe gives me a turn to chump block and cast a Gifts or activate Azcanta for an extra card. I’m just too grindy of a player sometimes I’d admit that. lol but also I like ishkanah to help me win a game (activating effect) when I side in my ensnaring bridge that I’ve been testing out.

I don’t know if I’d take out decay. It really helps in the lantern matchup and any deck that runs Lilly. It’s hard to pressure her in the deck because of the low creature count. I’d probably cut a Spellbomb like you originally said. But I’ve been super impressed with the spellbombs over baubles.

Another creature that I’ve been thinking about testing is v-clique. I think it’s a great piece of disruption or helps fix your hand (that is fine if the remove because I already got value off it) that can also clock an opponent.

Please feel free to tell me any updates from your time playing the deck. It’s really interesting to hear!

I've been testing out Wurmcoil Engine in the Ishkana/Batterskull slot. It's pulling it's weight so far. I like v-clique, but this deck is really tight so I'm not sure what I'd cut. Btw, in the past few days I've beaten a lot of really kind bad decks that aren't worth reporting about, as well as UW Control (looping Ghost Quarter was exactly my kind of fun) and Infect (turns out removal spells.dec is bad for the creature combo deck, who knew).

Leafbladefighter

Wurmcoil is one that I actually haven’t thought about! Seems great with the academy too. The only 6 drop creature that I’ve thought about running is Torrential Gearhulk because it can also be looped with academy and anytime I can add some instant speed game to the deck it really further sets itself apart from the Jund midrange strategies.

Just a quick thing that I think I may test out is a trinket mage in place of the baby Jace. Jace is really slow to set up and I rarely find myself tutoring for it or even having it survive. I think I would tutor for trinket mage a bit because it will add the artifacts to my hand that I need for certain matchups. With the addition of a trinket mage I can add graf diggers cage and a pithing needle to the side. With 3 traverse and 1 trinket mage it like I have 5 copies of the hate artifacts that I side in with only taking up two slots in the board. Idk...seems interesting. Also turn 5 trinket fetching hangarback casting it for 1 counter seems like a nice little line to buy a couple turns with chump blocks.

I agree with cutting Jace for Trinket Mage - I’ve been sideboarding out baby Jace a lot of games with the thinking that “Oh it’ll just die before I can flip it.” Trinket Mage works really nicely with the mini artifact package you have, especially because the only tutor you have that can get artifacts is gifts.
Torrential Gearhulk is also a good card for the big creature slot. I like Wurmcoil Engine because it improves Aggro matchups. Getting to turn six isn’t all that hard, so dropping a big lifelinker generally stonewalls them. On the other hand, being able to have a big body and cast another removal spell might have the same effect. And it might be more versatile. It requires testing. I’ll do some of that and come back to you.

Leafbladefighter

Awesome! I updated to list to have trinket mage in it.

Also another idea that isn’t on the list yet is cutting one search for a Jace the mind sculptor. I think Jace is pretty bad in modern right now but if I could get him on an empty board with this deck he is pretty insane. I think this deck makes him a little better. His minus getting a witness back to hand. The many many ways of shuffling the deck after a brainstorm. Being able to loam back 3 lands and then brainstorm exchanging to two of them for real cards. Brainstorm putting two bad in top and then minus lily last hope getting the two out of the way. Idk search has been really good for me but it’s bad when you draw the second copy and I tend to never search for search lol I could see me throwing a Jace in a Gifts pile as an additional win con to the deck while also filling the role of a card advantage machine. But Jace may just not be right for modern lol

Just a gift pile of JTMS, lily last hope, traverse (or pulse of murasa), eternal witness seems like a great card advantage/grind pile because I can get a board of both the walkers looping the witness.

Leafbladefighter

Also I am curious on your thoughts on the ensnaring bridge in the side? Have you had a chance to use it? It’s obviously for nearly any creature heavy matchup. But I thought it would be good for Bogels and Eldrazi. I’ve only got to use it at one FNM and it did win me a game.

T12H
Yeah I haven’t ever sided it in, I just never thought to. In theory it seems amazing. I’ll be sure to try it in my testing.

You want to explain some of your new card choices and edit decisions? Assassin’s Trophy is a nonbo w/ Rune Snag, though I agree that it’s slight and probably worth it for the sheer power and versatility it brings...dropping Loam altogether seems like a mistake, and in the board ensnaring bridge just seems terrible...not sure what the spider is doing in the list either and I’m not 100% sold on trinket mage over other options

Sk0oMa

Yeah I can explain!

I haven’t been able to test assassins trophy yet (obviously lol) but this is just the list that I think I’m going to try out first when it comes out. The nombo with Rune Snag isn’t as bad as you would think. If I have Snag in hand I’m always going to play that before a trophy. Then if I trophy and they ramp off it. The second Rune Snag is still just a mana leak (pay 4 mana minus the 1 land that I gave them with trophy = pay 3 mana) if that makes sense. Late game Rune snags when none are in the grave are always bad regardless of trophy giving extra mana. But they are still better than discard spells in my opinion and can be discarded to collective brutality.

Ishkanah has actually been pretty good in my games with my friends (haven’t got to play it in a FNM or anything). I was really looking for a late game creature that can end the game fast (5 power spread across 4 permanents) and that can also help stabilize a game and buy me time to get some Azcanta activations. Or take a turn to pulse of Murasa back a witness and then play it the following turn and stuff like that. It blocks the air also, so helps vs lingering souls and mantis riders. Rebuying with lily last hope over and over again is also very hard to out grind.

Trinket mage has been very good for me. It’s extra copies of explosives, Spellbomb, e-capsule, and hangarback walker all in one. It allows me to turn traverses into graveyard hate and removal. Turn 5 trinket mage into hangarback for 1 is also nice to kinda muck up the board and allow engines to get online. Also it makes a second copy of graf diggers cage out of the board and maybe pithing needle the nights I side that.

Ensnaring bridge is something that I haven’t really got to test yet. But I was thinking that I want to find a “wincon” that doesn’t rely on graveyard. Humans can’t beat a bridge if they didn’t side rec sage in or something like that. Against the Aggro decks side out the gifts, counters and then have ensnaring bridge to never get attacked again to me just seemed worth the testing (which I still have to do more of). Then you just win with ishkanah activations or Lilly ultimate plus draw for turn and a Azcanta activation and swing with a million zombie. Or just mill your opponent out because you have academy ruins to never mill out. (Drownyard was for control matchups and also to be sided in with the bridges to win with a mill plan but I think I’m cutting it)

Dropping loam hasn’t been tested yet. But whenever I sided in my crucible of worlds, it just seemed so much better than loam. I don’t have to waste my draw step to get lands from loam. And it opened a sideboard slot which I really liked. And I still have the gift pile to get the academy lock: Artifact of choice Witness Crucible Academy ruins

Let me know if you have anymore questions!

A lot of your points make sense in theory...I’ll start at the bottom and work my way up...I think it’s smarter to have BOTH Loam and Crucible, Incase one gets removed, but perhaps having crucible main IS the correct choice, provided you stick with ensnaring bridge plan...however you could alternatively run more collective brutality and be able to pitch the extra lands drawn off Loam...still, I think you are devoting a lot of sub par pieces to a plan that isn’t that great with bridge and drownyard etc...and bridge would just be better with lili of the veil and discard which changes the deck pretty drastically.

I totally overlooked hangerback w/ trinket mage, so I agree that’s a worthy inclusion.

Still not feeling ishkana

Wurmcoil Engine is a MUCH better choice, recursion with ruins, life gain for stabilizing, hard to get through so great for blocking multiple turns...easier to cast...way better

Hey, mind updating the description to replace Life from the Loam with Crucible of Worlds? Also, I have had a lot of use replacing the Loams with Crucible since I saw it here, getting Eternal Witness, Academy Ruins, and Crucible of Worlds, along with either Executioner's Capsule, Walking Ballista, Nihil Spellbomb, Hangarback Walker or Pulse of Murasa.

I have found great luck with Tasigur, the Golden Fang over Ishkanah, Grafwidow, having similar beat-down finisher capabilities while also being a decent beater if you need it, while also being a great early blocker, stonewalling most aggro decks. I understand Reach is useful, and the extra spidy-spider are nice, but Tasigur's ability is pretty great for the deck.

I do sideboard the big Momma Spider, but Tasi-G is my goto in that slot, thoughts?

SynergyBuild

Tasigur has been on my radar and I have put him in and "goldfished" with him and he seemed pretty sweet to traverse and cast him all for 2 mana. What drew me away from him is the delving can sometimes hurt me. taking out rune snags or fetches or potential witness/snap targets was just scary to me. But I may try him out when I get less busy.

Yeah I haven't updated this description yet lol. I plan to do that sometime after assassin's trophy comes out and I find the numbers that I like.

So have you been playing the deck in paper or online? What matchups have you found trouble with? I don't get a lot of time to play lately so I really am building this off theories and thoughts. lol Any feedback helps.

Sk0oMa

I use to look at ensnaring bridge and think you need to empty your hand as fast as possible like in lantern control. In my deck all the cards that are in my hand may cost more than lantern control but they also deal with the board. I may be slower at emptying my hand but I am taking out things as I do and then also not dying. Then the last card being bridge is just the nail in the coffin. Also helps vs bogles, bant decks, and pretty much any creature decks. As you said collective brutality does help empty the hand also. But there may be better options like you said also.

I do like wurmcoil....I have had people on here suggest it before and 6 mana just scares me sometimes. But you are right that it does stabilize the board with the life link. I think the thing that keeps me coming back to Ishkana is with all these control decks with path to exile Ishkana seems a little better vs that. (they are both bad vs terminus though) I have thought about the synergy with academy ruins. I will have to try that out when I get the chance!

thanks for the suggestions!

Paper, and Tron was originally my nightmare, paying for my Rune Snags and still obliterating my loops, but I sleeved up a pair of Field of Ruins for the mainboard and a Ghost Quarter sideboard in case of Scapeshift, which I only know one person plays at my LGS.

Otherwise, Jeskai contol is a bit of a game of luck, and my matchup against aggro is, favored me, but still rough, my best matchup are the decks like Abzan and Jund, the real midrangy decks that a good loop with Academy Ruins will grind to death.

Affinity and Lantern Control are a lot of fun. I have a white splash for Dispeller's Capsule for a lock against them, blowing up their mana, creatures, equipment, the whole thing. Making it 4-color is actually pretty good, sinc ewhite has the best sideboard options IMO. Path to Exile is a good addition too.

I’ll say one more thing in regards to the Crucible VS Loam thing...Loam also acts as fuel for the deck, turns on Traverse, digs deeper into the deck thus speeding up our game plan and making our gifts much stronger, gives more versatility to our Snapcaster sand witnesses and pulse etc...sure, Loam is probably way better in an actual dredging deck with some lingering souls etc, and any graveyard hate is scary, but graveyard hate is going to suck for us either way so I’d rather run Loam and speed things up by digging deeer and finding answers sooner...

+1 for BUG in modern

Glad to see you updating! Keep it up I’m still following this deck and would love to see a new video deck tech and/or some gameplay