Tribal Snapcaster

Modern Competitive Four Color Midrange Tempo WUBR

ToolmasterOfBrainerd

Land (22)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 2x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Creeping Tar Pit
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 2x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Island
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Plains
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (18)

• 1x Fatal Push
• 4x Force of Negation
• 3x Kolaghan's Command
• 2x Lightning Bolt
• 4x Path to Exile
• 4x Thought Scour

Creature (12)

• 1x Gurmag Angler
• 4x Nimble Obstructionist
• 4x Snapcaster Mage
• 3x Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Sorcery (8)

• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4x Serum Visions

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Sideboard

Instant (7)

• 1x Countersquall
• 2x Mana Leak
• 3x Settle the Wreckage
• 1x Terminate

Creature (3)

• 3x Fulminator Mage

Artifact (4)

• 4x Nihil Spellbomb

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Stony Silence

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Maybeboard

Instant (23)

• 2x Countersquall
• 3x Cryptic Command
• 2x Disdainful Stroke
• 2x Dispel
• 2x Fatal Push
• 4x Lightning Helix
• 4x Settle the Wreckage
• 2x Spell Pierce
• 2x Spell Snare

Sorcery (16)

• 3x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Collective Brutality
• 2x Dreadbore
• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 1x Rise / Fall
• 2x Thoughtseize
• 1x Timely Reinforcements
• 2x Unmoored Ego

Land (2)

• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Sacred Foundry

Enchantment (6)

• 3x Rest in Peace
• 3x Rest in Peace

Creature (2)

• 2x Young Pyromancer

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Welcome to Tribal Snapcaster. With blue Snapcaster Mage , white Path to Exile , and rakdos Kolaghan's Command I'm ready for anything. Except Tron. Screw Tron.

This deck represents all that I stand for in magic: efficient removal, multiple angles of attack, seamless synergy, grindy value engines, and the ability to crush whatever stupid degenerate aggro deck is currently crowning modern.

Woe is Modern

Modern is in a bad place right now. Fair decks are pathetically outmatched by linear aggressive strategies. The interaction in modern, frankly, sucks. There are a few diamonds in the rough, but they are spread very thin across the colors. Looking at the top decks we see Izzet Phoenix, Tron, Humans, and Dredge. These may not be the poster children of miserable times in magic (that title goes to Lantern Control, or maybe Tron), but Phoenix, Humans, and Dredge are all minimally-interactive linear aggro, while Tron is one of the most frustrating decks to exist ever, especially in the world of modern where playable counterspells are basically nonexistent.

In short, modern is currently Wizard's vision of the perfect standard: goldfishing to see who can count to 20 first. Misery at its finest.

The Shortcomings of Grixis

Grixis has a lot of merit. It beats other midrange and control decks all day long. Rock, Jund, UW Control, Jeskai Control, all of them. Only Abzan has a chance, but it hasn't been a deck in modern since the days of Splinter Twin (ah, those were the days). Grixis has access to a lot of solid cards: Snapcaster Mage , Tasigur, the Golden Fang , Lightning Bolt , Kolaghan's Command , Anger of the Gods , Fatal Push .

Unfortunately, Lightning Bolt and Anger of the Gods , the 2 best cards in red, are terrible right now thanks to Phoenix. Neither kills Thing in the Ice   or Crackling Drake and killing a Phoenix with Lightning Bolt doesn't really matter because they'll get it back. In addition, Terminate is nowhere near as good as it used to be.

The graveyard hate in Grixis is sub-par as well. Nihil Spellbomb and Rakdos Charm aren't enough to beat Dredge. Leyline of the Void is too much of a gamble. Surgical Extraction is not enough half of the time. In this dire time sub-par graveyard hate doesn't cut it.

White Fixes the Problems!

Path to Exile and Rest in Peace are, in my opinion, the 2 best fair cards in modern. Beautiful cards. They also happen to address the major issues with Grixis.

Headaches like Wurmcoil Engine and Arclight Phoenix are pitiful in the face of Path to Exile . The only time Path to Exile is worse than Terminate is vs burn, and even then it's a toss-up.

Rest in Peace slaughters graveyard strategies. I oftentimes think of it as a sledgehammer. Since graveyard strategies are a significant portion of modern and always will be, Rest in Peace will oftentimes be the card I want to draw most. Even in this deck with Tasigur and Snap and K-Command relying on the graveyard, Rest in Peace is such a blowout that it's still worth playing. Cuter cards like Surgical Extraction are nice and all, but I'd rather take a sledgehammer to the opponent's face any day.

You may be thinking "Why are you playing 4 colors? Surely 3 of these still capture all the benefits. And only 3 colors is much more consistent". The consistency point is a good one. Consistency is important. But sadly, none of the 3-color combinations offer everything I want. I can't bring myself to play a deck without Snapcaster Mage , and I've already said why Grixis isn't good enough, which leaves Jeskai and Esper. Jeskai is too soft. It doesn't have very good threats, the removal is much worse (only 4 copies of Path isn't enough!), and it's not good at grinding vs BGx decks. Esper is solid and I almost switched over to it, but I found that I couldn't beat UW Control or BG Rock. Grixis routinely crushes those decks, and a large reason why is Kolaghan's Command . Sacrificing the other fair matchups to have decent but not overwhelming aggro matchups is not worth it in my opinion. Thus, here we are with 4-color midrange.

Snapcaster Mage

Snapcaster Mage is the best card in this deck. In many ways, this deck is built to take advantage of the power of Snapcaster Mage . Snap + Kolaghan's Command is some of the best grindy card advantage around. The iconic Bolt-Snap-Bolt is the best way to close a game. If the opponent gets that double Arclight Phoenix draw, Snap turns our one Path to Exile into 2 and puts us well on our way to winning. The card value of Snapcaster Mage is the reason to play blue in modern.

Mana Leak is better than you think

Not much to say here, but it needs to be said. When looking at this decklist, Mana Leak probably looks like the worst card. Yet when testing the deck it fits right in and wins games. Without it we lose as soon as Tron is online, right when they cast Primeval Titan , or a few turns after they stick Teferi, Hero of Dominaria . It's also amazing vs Burn, Phoenix, Grixis Death's Shadow, Rock, Affinity, Storm, and many other matchups.

Changes I'm Considering

Field of Ruin -> Flooded Strand A colorless land in a four-color deck feels bad. But it kills manlands, Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin , and Urza's Mine .

Any land -> Plains Right now I only have 2 white sources, and between my own Thought Scour and opposing Field of Ruin it's not hard to imagine losing access to white mana. Basic plains would help fix this, but with only 6 white cards in the main deck I feel like a basic plains will be less useful than a Field of Ruin more often than not.

Countersquall or Izzet Staticaster -> Fulminator Mage Tron is a very poor matchup in game 1 and Fulminator Mage is one of the best ways to beat them post-board.

Rise / Fall -> Collective Brutality This one is tricky. Brutality is better vs Burn, but I think Fall is better against almost everything else. And Fall is plenty good vs burn (in fact I'd say it's our best card in the matchup).

Let me know if you have other changes that you recommend!

This deck is sweet. I'd like to UPVOTE!

Top Ranked	Achieved #51 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #5 position in Modern 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Competitive 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Midrange 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	34 - 7 Rares 10 - 1 Uncommons 11 - 7 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.24
Folders	"Stolen" gems