Land (17)
Instant (18)
Sorcery (12)
Creature (13)
Sideboard
Instant (11)
Artifact (1)
Sorcery (3)
Thanks for dethiding to give my beautiful mathterpiethe the time! I prethent to you: Thaw 5.
All kidding aside, this deck is extremely explosive. Its goal, as with any other modern zoo deck, is to get the kill minimum by turn four consistently. You should be playing THIS version of zoo, however, because it can transform into a very control-ish deck in no time. It is the aggro deck that hoses other aggro decks.
An example of a typical win against Dredge and Zoo:
Turn 1: Steam Vents, Monastery Swiftspear, Swing
Turn 2: Steam Vents, Thing in the Ice , Swing
Turn 3: Breeding Pool, Gitaxian Probe, Anger of the Gods, Swing (Monastery Swiftspear survives Anger of the Gods after just ONE extra spell! This deck is extremely resilient versus aggressive sweepers, pushing aggressive matchups into our favor)
Turn 4: Stomping Ground, Lightning Bolt, Flip Thing in the Ice , Redeploy Monastery Swiftspear, Mutagenic Growth, Mutagenic Growth
This is a deck that never sacrifices consistency for value. All 75 cards have excellent synergy with one another.
Why play Thaw 5: The Thing?
Over Delver:
Delver of Secrets
decks tend to have very linear and easy game plans to obstruct. In my experience, matchups only get worse after side boarding. This deck loses to similar adaptations of itself and to other low to the ground aggressive decks, as it attempts to straddle the line of control and aggro. Board wipes are essential in this meta at the moment, and UR Delver does not have the capacity to deploy these (especially while they are trying to create insane amounts of Young Pyromancer tokens).
Over Death's Shadow Zoo :
I can't believe this deck went from a fun Johnny deck to a super competitive deck in modern in six months. While it has the potential for some crazy draws and can possess many different answers to threats, the deck does an incredible amount of damage to itself (as the main theme of the deck) and cannot deal with burn, and less importantly zoo. It is not the right choice for the meta.
Over Abzan / Jund :
The bullies of the format are always going to be relevant no matter how the meta shifts in modern. Jund tends to be the bigger threat to the format, as more people know the intricacies and tends to have better answers to aggro and control decks. Abzan is simply a slower form of Jund that trumps Jund. With one good board wipe, both of these decks lose their Birds of Paradises, their
Dark Confidant
s, and their Lingering Souls/Olivia Voldarens. They cannot keep up with this specific build.
Over Affinity / Bogles / Storm:
The hate is too strong right now. Whenever there is a new deck in the format, such as Dredge in the past year, people tend to over-dedicate their sideboard slots to that deck. This is when Affinity/Bogles/Storm shines. These decks are really only excluded from the ban list due to the number of cheap, effective answers to the strategies. The only way one can feel comfortable playing these decks is when sideboard hate is light.
Let's run through some card choices here, shall we?
Mainboard:
Apostle's Blessing: A classic infect card that made its way into this build. It protects our Thing in the Ice or Kiln Fiend, and triggers prowess without mana restrictions. It is the most effective way to grant unblockability, indestructibility and hexproof from a single color to one creature.
Bedlam Reveler : This new addition from Eldritch Moon allows us to draw three turn three for a mere two red mana. This creature always takes full advantage of our bountiful graveyard, has prowess to join the party, and as an added bonus, it survives Anger of the Gods in the sideboard when we transform play styles.
Faithless Looting: Not a card that is very conducive to our strategy, it helps us meld our hand into something that transforms a Thing in the Ice in one turn, or helps fuel a turn two Bedlam Reveler . The card can be the saving grace of a questionable starting seven, but only occupies two slots on the list.
Gitaxian Probe: A staple for any RUG spells deck, Gitaxian Probe helps us gather information about our opponent's clock and game plan while letting us cantrip for free, getting extra Kiln Fiend and prowess triggers.
Kiln Fiend: Speaking of the devil (although I suppose Bedlam Reveler is the real devil), Kiln Fiend is an absurdly overpowered card. It single handedly allows for turn three wins, and often eats the brunt of our opponent's removal so we can have Thing in the Ice stick.
Lightning Bolt: Must this pick be justified? We want to kill them dead, and this card does the job well.
Manamorphose: Just like any good storm deck, we have to have a way to cast five spells with three lands! Manamorphose does fine work of drawing us a free card, while fixing our green mana just in case of a sideboarding malfunction. It always sucks to draw a double Steam Vents hand while wanting to Natural State something.
Monastery Swiftspear: While not the ideal one drop in this deck, Monastery Swiftspear can take charge when all else fails and every other creature bites the dust. It generally grows pretty large as a side effect of you digging through your deck for a real threat.
Mutagenic Growth: While strictly worse than Gitaxian Probe, we need to load up our deck with 'free' spells. Often, Mutagenic Growth + Temur Battle Rage on a Thing in the Ice is enough to kill somebody turn three. The only downside is that it cannot cantrip.
Serum Visions: A beautifully low-costed, high impact, unassuming card that digs for answers, triggers prowess when you most need it, and lets you bluff you are a control deck in the first couple of turns. Need I say more?
Sleight of Hand: Because Wizards said that I can only play four Serum Visions. It does what we want more effectively than Ancestral Vision because we don't want to wait that long.
Temur Battle Rage : This is an outrageously overpowered card. I can accept double strike at INSTANT speed for two mana, but trample with ferocious? It makes Assault Strobe look like an Armament of Nyx ! The ferocious effect always triggers on a flipped Thing in the Ice , and more often than not makes a rather large Kiln Fiend stomp over its foes.
Thing in the Ice : Finally, the card of the hour! This is an all-star of this deck. It survives aggro-oriented wraths, Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix, and Darkblast and Izzet Charm. It bounces EVERYTHING when it transforms, guaranteeing at least seven damage turn three plus whatever effects are placed on it. Nuts!
Sideboard:
Anger of the Gods: This is how we beat burn, dredge, and other variations of zoo. Three is the maximum toughness of the majority of the creatures played in these decks, including Wild Nacatl, Eidolon of the Great Revel, and Bloodghast. For the dredge match-up, the exile clause is particularly applicable.
Blossoming Defense: A new addition out of Kaladesh, Blossoming Defense is the cooler Vines of Vastwood. It is nice to side in against decks that go heavy on removal after they realize they can't kill your Thing in the Ice with their main board removal spells (ehem burn).
Gut Shot : A free card for trying to get ahead against Infect with their Blighted Agents and Dredge with their Insolent Neonate s. Only worth a single copy, as Anger of the Gods is much better if you are willing to wait for it.
Hurkyl's Recall: Without incredibly overpowered hate cards, the modern affinity deck would have been banned a long time ago. These have to be a mainstay in the sideboard, no matter what the meta looks like, because affinity always strikes when you least expect it. Also, it fits into casting it off of Manamorphose and Gitaxian Probe.
Magma Spray: For the same match-ups as Anger of the Gods; the exile clause is particularly relevant.
Natural State : An easy, clean, simple way to take out problems such as Daybreak Coronet or Arcbound Ravager. You always need a catch-all for tier three decks.
Swan Song: Better than Dispel for its wider array of valid targets, and the swan left behind really is the least of our concerns.
Tormod's Crypt: Because you can never have enough against Dredge, and Surgical Extraction really does nothing to their strategy. If you take their Golgari Grave-Troll, they will kill you with a recurring amount of zombies. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Twisted Image : This one copy is for the unlikely case of a mirror match. Just kidding, it is to prevent giving an opposing Spellskite double strike with Temur Battle Rage .
Vapor Snag: This is kind of an open slot up for negotiation as of now, but it is somewhat geared towards stopping Abzan and Jund early, along with repelling the onslaught of Collected Company decks.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you give this deck a try! Comments, suggestions and criticisms are all appreciated!
Link to more accurate pricing: Thaw 5: The Thing
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| Date added | 8 years |
| Last updated | 7 years |
| Exclude colors | WB |
| Splash colors | UG |
| Legality | This deck is not Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 11 - 0 Mythic Rares 10 - 6 Rares 11 - 3 Uncommons 22 - 6 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.74 |
| Tokens | Bird 2/2 U |
| Folders | Ideas |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
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