Thopter Boom **Primer**

Modern Affinity Artifact Combo Competitive Land Destruction Lurrus of the Dream-Den Tempo

Kelvin-escesare

Artifact (18)

• 2x Chromatic Star
• 1x Cranial Plating
• 3x Mishra's Bauble
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 3x Portable Hole
• 1x Pyrite Spellbomb
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Springleaf Drum
• 1x Sword of the Meek
• 3x Thopter Foundry

Sorcery (6)

• 3x Boom / Bust
• 3x Vindicate

Land (23)

• 1x City of Brass
• 2x Flagstones of Trokair
• 4x Glimmervoid
• 4x Mana Confluence
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 4x Rustvale Bridge
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Spire of Industry
• 4x Urza's Saga

Companion (1)

Creature (13)

• 4x Esper Sentinel
• 4x Goblin Engineer
• 2x Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 2x Vedalken Certarch

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Sideboard

Artifact (7)

• 1x Aether Spellbomb
• 1x Damping Sphere
• 2x Engineered Explosives
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Void Mirror

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Collective Brutality
• 2x Prismatic Ending
• 1x Sunset Revelry
• 2x Thoughtseize
• 1x Vindicate

Creature (1)

• 1x Jegantha, the Wellspring

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Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Jegantha, the Wellspring

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Esper Sentinel, Vedalken Certarch, Boom / Bust are some of the best mana denial cards that also happen to synergize with the most dangerous card in Modern: Urza's Saga.

Analysis

Cheap mana denial is particularly well-positioned right now. Booming or tapping down their land on turn 2/3 means Urza's Saga can't make Karnstructs and they're often stuck with only colorless mana. Secondly, decks are also pretty land-light right now. While typically this would suggest decks are aggressive, which weakens mana denial, we're at an odd juncture where decks are both land-light and slow (Death's Shadow, Murktide Regent, Jund, Rakdos, Mill, etc.), meaning we can take them off their few lands.

Of course, 3 mana land destruction is as bad as it's always been since the game is pretty much over by then, especially now that Modern is a turn 2.5 format. This is why we're playing all the good 1-2 drop mana denial: Esper Sentinel, Vedalken Certarch, Boom / Bust. These three also happen to be artifact-related, letting us play the most dangerous card in Modern: Urza's Saga. Boom / Bust, for example, wants indestructible artifact lands, which add to our Karnstruct count.

Now the weakness of land destruction is that it's purely tempo/mana advantage, since it has no impact on the board or total number of threats in hand. We're always racing against time for our opponent to draw out of mana screw (screw beats flood after all), which is why land destruction must always be coupled with either strong endgame or pressure. Depending on our draw, our deck does one or the other. A typical draw of turn 2 Urza's Saga casting Boom / Bust into 2 Karnstructs while opponent is still on 1 land out-tempos any fair deck. Our other typical draw is Thopter Sword combo, which is resilient and has good late game inevitability. And of course we have Lurrus.

Single Card Discussion

Goblin Engineer is incredibly flexible. The main use is, of course, tutoring Sword of the Meek directly into the graveyard. But with Chromatic Star, Engineer also just says "{R}, {T}: Draw a card." Engineer also tutors hate cards and makes it incredibly difficult for the opponent to remove those hate cards. We can reanimate Nihil Spellbomb, Chalice of the Void, Damping Sphere, Pithing Needle, etc. at instant speed in response to opponent trying to combo, and we can do this multiple times.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Splash colors	UB
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 2 Mythic Rares 32 - 6 Rares 11 - 5 Uncommons 10 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.92
Tokens	Construct 0/0 C, Human 1/1 W, Thopter 1/1 U, Treasure