Introduction
This a version of my The Spanish Inquisition in which I try alleviate some that decks weaknesses by using Living Wish. Hence, I dubbed this version "The Living Inquisition".
The main issue I am trying to fix here is drawing the "tech" Summoner's Pact creatures, such as Wild Cantor, Aeve, Progenitor Ooze, Colossal Skyturtle, Vine Dryad. These are cards that over the years have been in and out of the deck for various reasons. Whilst I like these a lot, and can even win games, I've never considered these to be essential cards to the deck. At best these "tech" creatures win you the game by providing that unique effect you need. At worst, these creatures are flat out dead draws. What I'm trying to say is that the ceiling of these cards is relatively high, but the floor is also low.
In this version I tried to alleviate this issue by running Living Wish instead of Infernal Tutor. Just like Infernal Tutor, it only has a mana value of 2, but unlike Infernal Tutor it can tutor from the sideboard, allowing you to run these Summoner's Pact tutor targets in the sideboard, thereby mitigating the undesirable effect of drawing them at the wrong time.
Card Selection
Blex, or rather the back side of it, is the main reason for running a version of The Spanish Inquisition. That hasn't changed for this version of the deck. The card is invaluable in the deck. Due to the heavy life cost for drawing cards I don't think you want more than 1 copy.
The squirrel performs the same function here, as in my more traditional decklist: it's a create to imprint under Chrome Mox and to sacrifice to Cruel Bargain. Here too, no reason to play more than 1 copy.
In my more traditional decklist, I've tried to rely less and less on green mana, but seeing as we're running Living Wish in this version, green mana just got a lot more important. For that reason I've bumped the number of ESG's all the way up to 3. I think running the complete playset is fine, though I've rarely needed all 4 copies.
This is currently my replacement for the 4th Elvish Spirit Guide. I'm still testing this card out, but the theory here is that it works similar to Manamorphose, in that you can convert floating black mana into green. But, rather than drawing a card, you get a creature that can later be sacrificed to Culling the Weak. I'm not sure if this effect is desirable enough to warrant an inclusion. That's why I'm testing it out.
A key reason for trying out Living Wish was the fact that we can get further access to draw spells with a copy of Blex in the sideboard. Casting Searching For Blex for 6 total mana is expensive, but it's good to have that option available to you.
I am a huge fan of this card and being able to put an actual win condition in the sideboard is very important for the usefulness of Living Wish.
When constructing the wish sideboard, I didn't immediately include this card, as it had been quite a while since I ran this card. However, having cast it a few times, I'm reminded how powerful the effect is. It requiring a blue mana makes it difficult to cast, and the fact that it's not tutorable by Summoner's Pact makes me glad it's not in the main deck any longer, but it sure is a good sideboard card.
Both of it's effects are strong, but rather situational. I've never felt fully convinced it earns a main deck slot, but the card is perfect to have access to from the sideboard. Hence it's inclusion.
I don't believe you actively want to tutor for a land from the sideboard. However, if you fail to go off and still have some mana floating around, searching up a land to have more access to mana the following turn is better than wasting it. Phyrexian Tower is card I've wanted to main deck, because it can create for the cost of a creature, but the fact that you can't search for it and it only taps for a , prevented me from doing so. As a sideboard card, it can come up every now and then.
Boseiju can be tutored for as a land drop for the following turn, just like Phyrexian Tower, but can also be used as a useful answer to hateful non-creature permanents.
Issues
After goldfishing the deck for a bit, I'm not sure if I can recommend this version over my more traditional build. While it does "fix" the issue of drawing the tech Summoner's Pact creatures, it introduces several new issues:
As Living Wish is a green card and I'm hoping to cast it often, I tried to add more Elvish Spirit Guide and a Hidden Herbalists. However, in my testing, I haven't reliably been able to use Living Wish. Getting the first green mana wasn't really an issue, however, due to the lack of black cards to cast form the sideboard (Blex, Vexing Pest
is the only one), Living Wish felt stuck in my hand more often than I wanted it to be. The fact that there is no green Dark Ritual really hurts the deck. When I had Lion's Eye Diamond in combination with Living Wish, casting spells wasn't an issue, in fact having a sideboard to choose from felt great. But you obviously don't always have an LED in your hand.
- Lack of access to main deck win conditions
In this version of the deck I went down from 4 main deck win conditions (typically 2x Tendrils of Agony and 2x Goblin Charbelcher), because I added a single copy of Aeve, Progenitor Ooze to the sideboard as a Living Wish target. However, as I said in my previous point, casting non-black cards from the sideboard has proven to be somewhat of a challenge, so you can't always rely on Living Wish to tutor for the win. This is compounded by the fact that Aeve requires you to untap with it, which you can't do if you cast Summoner's Pact previously. Lastly, because the Living Wishes replaced Infernal Tutors, tutoring for main deck win conditions became straight up impossible. If you then compare Living Wish to Infernal Tutor as a tutor for silver bullets and win conditions, I feel Infernal Tutor, by and large, does a better job.
Future
While I don't think the deck is currently the best version, Living Wish has an advantage that as the card pool expands, new cards might fit the sideboard. Wizards pushed storm into green with the release of Modern Horizons 2, so if a green ritual would ever be released, it would certainly fit this version. As for now, I'll leave this deck as other people might find it useful as a blueprint. Maybe there is a better version of The Spanish Inquisition that uses Living Wish out there.
