Alternative to splinter twin
Modern forum
Posted on June 14, 2016, 10:48 a.m. by Xica
I don't get why so much people are upset by the banning of Splinter Twin.
Since there are (modern legal) alternatives that one could play.
No i am not talking about Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker since he is slower and thus may only replace it in controll / midrange list, that have alternative win-cons.
Elemental Mastery also occupies the 4 cmc spot (heck it even requires 1 less colored mana). It too has its creature enabler at 3 cmc Midnight Guard. And it creates tokens with haste.
While it doesn't have multiple creature cards that enable the combo, the newly printed card, Open the Armory can serve as a second playset of the enchantment, thus giving the same chances of drawing the combo as the twin decks had at their days.
Why no twin players transferred their deck to this combo?
ducttapedeckbox says... #3
Pretty much above. Twin threatened to go from nothing to game between the end of your turn and their combat step. Having to play around a combo piece with flash made the deck incredibly threatening.
Now, in your version, if you go to T3 Guard T4 Mastery your opponent will have time to remove Guard or at least have an idea of what you were doing. Against Twin, you were probably dead if you didn't play around the combo.
Your combo is fine, but far from what Twin was.
June 14, 2016 11:53 a.m.
I actually think kiki-resto is the next best thing to traditional twin. It pushes your game plan back a turn, but it's still potent. Flashing in resto and curving into kiki is still GG, but it's turn 4-5 instead of 3-4. Obviously this is a big difference, but you do get some extra value out of it. Resto is harder to kill (can't be bolted down) and can net you a card etb off of a Wall of Omens. The biggest drawback is the color saturation on kiki which makes curving into him T5 difficult. It's definitely doable, but running kiki and Cryptic Command can be very taxing on the mana base.
June 14, 2016 12:10 p.m.
Because those pieces are individually bad, that's why. The power of Twin was that you could play a normal 
tempo/control game, and if your opponent dared tap out past turn 3, he could just be dead. That type of versatility is mostly absent from your proposed combo, and Midnight Guard only having 3 toughness and no flash makes it significantly more vulnerable to removal. Plus, Twin could play just colors, whereas this combo probably pushes you to Naya or Jeskai, since just Boros is lousy at actually finding things.
June 14, 2016 12:33 p.m. Edited.
agreed that kiki-resto is probably better at this point. the flash is strong, but harder to hide compared to exarc. but its usually played with Chord of Calling which will find combos pretty quick.
June 14, 2016 1:01 p.m.
...i though you couldn't enchant Pestermite / Deceiver Exarch on your opponent's turn, regardless of flash.
If this assumption is true then Elemental Mastery
+
Midnight Guard
given haste is no more vulnerable to removal than splinter twin was. (and red doesn't suffer a chronic lack global haste granting effect... Mass Hysteria, Break Through the Line ...etc.)
I also would not state that red lacks ways to dig thorough the library to find certain cards (of course its less orthodox color for this, than blue), but it has options Faithless Looting, Magmatic Insight, Burning Inquiry, Wheel of Fate, Dangerous Wager, Tormenting Voice, Shattered Perception, Reforge the Soul...
June 14, 2016 1:16 p.m.
no the issue was that on non-twins end step if they have no mana, twin player would flash in Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite with flash. then it would procede to twin players turn since this was during the end step of non-twin players turn. twin player untaps their mana and plays a land. they now cast Splinter Twin for the win. they basically won because the non-twin player did not keep mana open to stop twin. and since this could theoretically happen on any turn, the non-twin player always has to have at the very least 1 kill spell in hand and the mana to play it at all times or he risks twin winning because he couldn't respond. also because of blue, if we are talking T5+ then you also have to have a second kill spell because twin probably has Spell Pierce or Remand or Mana Leak etc.
this combo cannot play gaurd on the end step. so you have to cast it main phase on your turn. then turn is passed to the other player who now gets to untap all their lands. because they know that no matter what turn you play gaurd, they will be able to survive until their next turn, they can use all their mana and not hold up kill spells up at all times, meaning they can use all their mana.
June 14, 2016 1:24 p.m.
Then its good that red can cast global haste granting enchantments on t3.
So it shouldn't be a problem that Midnight Guard doesn't have flash or haste.
June 14, 2016 1:28 p.m.
And then i realised that without flash i don't get to untap my lands. :/
June 14, 2016 1:30 p.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #11
"Why no twin players transferred their deck to this combo?"
Cuz Midnight Guard sucks hard :) I went over the subject in a thread some weeks ago (and lots before and after me did so too) and people just made me realize how clunky the whole thing was. Tap out T3 for a boltable guy with no protection / evasion isn't even worth the try, sadly :/
June 14, 2016 1:59 p.m.
yeah that was another really good part of twin. Pestermite was still a great beater. without combo you could cast that, Snapcaster Mage and just start punching the opponent who is too affraid to bolt the pestermite because it's their only removal spell left and they are worried that the opponent will flash in another creature, then follow up on their turn with combo, etc.
June 14, 2016 2:05 p.m.
Also deceiver exarch dodged bolt.
Also, no one wants to splash white in a tempo deck.
June 14, 2016 4:01 p.m.
if u want splinter twin, then use kiki jiki + pestermite and hive mind as your 2 combos. splinter twin used to use hive mind in the sideboard, and it is a perfectly fine strategy. turn 5 is not too slow. most twin decks didnt win on turn 4, and controlled the game.
aholder7 says... #2
a lot of the deck's combo power came from the threat that if you tap out, they could flash in their 3 drop on your end step, then combo next turn. this is a fine combo and could be reasonably assembled. (theres also Intruder Alarm, if you want a different consistency, but this kind of deck usually wants blue anyways.) but this just doesn't have the urgency that twin did. im not afraid to tap out against it until they drop midnight. and to stop them i just need to hold back a kill spell, maybe 2 if theyre playing blue as well. i dont need to do is hold open the mana for that kill spell even if they don't have a creature on board. that was something twin forced people to do turn 3, which was a massive tempo boost.
TL;DR
your deck idea is fine and you have a way to get pieces within reason, but lack of flash, means it doesn't have the same threat as twin. That means you don't get the psuedo tempo that came with it.
June 14, 2016 11:18 a.m.