I was thinking to myself, "sucks that there's no infinite combo played in modern." I was never a Twin player, but I have had my eye on Mindcrank-Duskmantle Guildmage for a while. Then I remembered the Thopter Foundry-Sword of the Meek combo is now legal. So this is what I call, tongue-in-cheek, UB TarmoTwin. It has a free win mode in Mindcrank/Guildmage as well as a backup aggro plan with thopters/Tezzeret. I'll walk you through the card choices by counting up from 0 to 60.
The core is 4 guildmage, 3 Mindcrank, 3 Thopter Foundry, 2 Sword of the Meek, a Tezzeret, and 3 Muddle the Mixture (which can tutor any of our 4 combo pieces! Cash money!). Combo is plan A, and there's not a ton of extra room in this deck, so Foundry/Sword/Tezz has been shaved to 3/2/1. Altogether this is 16 highly synergistic combo pieces.
3 Thirst for Knowledge we're gonna also call mandatory (running total: 19 cards). It digs for combo pieces and even helps enable thopters if you're able to bin a sword.
3 Spellskite we will also call mandatory (22 cards total). This is the epitome of synergy. It blocks, protects any of our 4 combo pieces, it's an artifact for Tezzeret, and it's even tutorable from Muddle the Mixture if we get that far against Infect or Bogles.
6 cantrips (28 cards total). Serum Visions helps us see the most cards for purposes of digging to a combo. Sleight of Hand is the runner-up. Sleight should maybe be Thought Scour, as Thought Scour provides another 1-mana way to trigger the combo on our opponent once assembled, but my reasoning is that Sleight, by helping us see more cards, can just get us whichever -other- card we need to trigger the combo more easily.
6 pieces of control magic round out the nonland cards. The remand/cryptic suite is stolen straight out of old Splinter Twin lists. Remand keeps us alive while helping to dig out the combo, and Cryptic answers a lot of random junk through various modes. This deck might warrant Pact of Negation to be truly all-in like Ad Nauseum. I also have 4 Thoughtseize in the main, rounding out my nonland cards, to help keep my ass alive while assembling the combo.
Lands: Academy Ruins cause it's an artifact deck, Urborg cause I'm running black in a multicolor deck. Trying out Nephalia Academy against Jund since I'm a combo deck. The 4 ghost quarters are NOT a weak concession to Tron, but rather an uncounterable, instant way to trigger the mill combo once assembled. Don't trim Ghost Quarters from this list. The remaining lands are self-explanatory; couldn't find room for any more Citadels for Tezz given all the colorless lands we already run.
Sideboard: It's geared heavily toward anti-hate. Generally, the plan is to board out thopter/sword and Tezz for 5 pieces of juicy hate plus the final Spellskite. This deck is deathly afraid of Rest in Peace, toward which I have Echoing Truth, 2x Swan Song, 2x Spell Snare, and 1x Duress. And it's quite possible the remaining slots should be nothing but Damnations and spot removal, but I'm trying out a bunch of 1-ofs to see what I find myself wanting.
Budget: Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand can be swapped for Sleight of Hand/Thought Scour. Spellskites and Cryptics can be traded for a 4th Thirst for Knowledge, an additional copy of Foundry + Sword, and more mainboard control in the form of Dismembers OR Delay (which is uniquely strong in this exact deck). Thoughtseizes can turn into Dimir Charms, which often have all 3 relevant modes. Swap lands for whatever UB lands you have.
