The Fluctuator

Premodern Artifact Bird Combo Competitive Creature Cheat Cycling Flying Living End Reanimator WUB (Esper)

Icbrgr

Land (23)

• 4x Blasted Landscape
• 4x Drifting Meadow
• 1x Dromar's Cavern
• 4x Polluted Mire
• 4x Remote Isle
• 3x Slippery Karst
• 3x Smoldering Crater

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Living Death

Creature (22)

• 4x Cloud of Faeries
• 2x Drifting Djinn
• 4x Keeneye Aven
• 4x Pendrell Drake
• 4x Primoc Escapee
• 4x Sandbar Merfolk

Instant (9)

• 2x Expunge
• 2x Gilded Light
• 4x Miscalculation
• 1x Songs of the Damned

Artifact (5)

• 4x Fluctuator
• 1x Lotus Petal

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Sideboard

Instant (12)

• 1x Clear
• 2x Gilded Light
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Radiant's Judgment
• 4x Rapid Decay
• 1x Repopulate
• 1x Scrap
• 1x Stifle

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Drain Life
• 1x Living Death

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Rune of Protection: Artifacts

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Maybeboard

Land (1)

• 1x Ancient Tomb

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{W}{U}{B} The Fluctuator {W}{U}{B}

• On Turn 2-3 play Fluctuator for free cycling.

• Cycle cards filling the Graveyard with Creatures.

• Cast Songs of the Damned to be able to cast Living Death.

• On Turn 3-4 Swing in the air for the win... Drain Life/Haunting Misery can technically kill a turn faster due to not having to deal with summoning sickness; but Living Death is just cooler.

That seems pretty sweet to me! I wanted to build something to play in the Premodern format; so I figured I would try something simple and budget friendly.

Card Choices: Show

There is both room for improvement in consistency for those looking to Goldfish as well as a surprising amount of room for customization. This is just how I like to run the deck and is by no means the BEST/ONLY way to play it.

WinCon/Combo:

Fluctuator Turns everything with {2} cycling into FREE cycling. Do this into Lotus Petal then add {B} for Songs of the Damned to ramp into Living Death.

Lands: Pretty much just a big ole' pile of lands that cycle. Dromar's Cavern {T} for all colors this deck could want but most importantly {B} for casting Songs of the Damned. When this land is played its returns another land to the hand to continue cycling.

Creatures: {U} Creatures for evasion with flyers and synergy with Misdirection. Drifting Djinn is BIG but because of his upkeep cost there reasonably can only be one in play.

Utility:

• Expunge: Creature Removal.
• Gilded Light: Fights off Cabal Therapy or Storm Brain Freeze type effects.
• Miscalculation: General Countermagic.

SIDEBOARD:

• Clear: To fight off Humility/Greater Good.

• Radiant's Judgment: It can kill Psychatog.

• Misdirection: Protect combo from Counterspell.

• Stifle: To fight off Tormod's Crypt.

• Rune of Protection: Artifacts/Scrap: Piece of mind against Phyrexian Dreadnought.

• Rapid Decay/Repopulate: Graveyard hate I can use.

• Drain Life: Alternate WinCon.

About Premodern:

Premodern is a community-created constructed format consisting of the sets from Fourth Edition to Scourge. The card pool thus roughly spans the period in between the formats 93/94 and Modern. A rule of thumb for the card pool is: all cards with the old frame printed between 1995 and 2003, which were standard legal at some point during this period. Portal and promo cards are thus not legal (sorry, Nalathni Dragon).

An underlying idea is that the format should be a home for iconic and fun cards that don't see play in other formats—either because their relative power level has withered over time, or because they are not tournament legal due to their interactions with newer cards (e.g. Survival of the Fittest and Vengevine in Legacy). In line with this idea, some cards that are dominant in other formats are banned in Premodern (e.g. Brainstorm and Force of Will) in order to leave room for other cards to prosper, and to make the format distinct from others.

Premodern was invented in 2012 by Martin Berlin, as he switched gears from competitive to casual play. At that point, he was already into the 93/94 format, but felt that it didn’t fully satiate his cravings for old school Magic. Martin is responsible for maintaining the banned list, based on input from the community. Premodern has an active community for discussing decks and events. Join social media channels listed here!

Check out Premodern Magic for more detailed information.

Here is a snapshot of Premodern format looks like at this time.

Ban List:

• Amulet of Quoz
• Balance
• Brainstorm
• Bronze Tablet
• Channel
• Demonic Consultation
• Earthcraft
• Entomb
• Flash
• Force of Will
• Goblin Recruiter
• Grim Monolith
• Jeweled Bird
• Land Tax
• Mana Vault
• Memory Jar
• Mind Twist
• Mind's Desire
• Mystical Tutor
• Necropotence
• Rebirth
• Strip Mine
• Tempest Efreet
• Tendrils of Agony
• Time Spiral
• Timmerian Fiends
• Tolarian Academy
• Vampiric Tutor
• Windfall
• Worldgorger Dragon
• Yawgmoth's Bargain
• Yawgmoth's Will

Date added	2 weeks
Last updated	4 days
Legality	This deck is Premodern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 7 Rares 11 - 4 Uncommons 42 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.14