Introducing my new article series Madman, Genius or Both?, where I shine a spotlight on a deck list that I find interesting and attempt to solve the ultimate question of whether the deck creator is a madman, genius, or both. As the title implies, the first deck I’ll be talking about includes the much hated card, Nexus of Fate.
I started writing this article back in June, before we had a firm launch date for manatutors. At that time, I spotted a deck by FTZZ, who posted a 29thplace finish in a Modern Challenge from May 18, then another 5-0 result with the identical decklist on May 31, 2019. Here is that list:
I LOVE THIS DECK, BUT I NEVER WANT TO PLAY AGAINST IT.
I plan to try out the deck on Magic Online at some point and write a follow up piece, but it should be noted up front that I have played exactly zero games with the deck.
That said, it has the core of every blue deck I’ve ever sat down to build in Modern: 4 Cryptic Command and 4 Remand . Most decks I’ve tried to build are some version of Blue control and they never seem to be able to fit the full 8 copies, but FTZZ has found a formula that seems at least functional. In fact, this deck not only fits them, but it feels like it leans pretty heavily on both the Cryptic Commands and Remands just to stay alive long enough to win the game.
Next, you show me a deck in Modern that can actually make use of Mystical Teachings and you’ve already won me over. I love me some Mystical Teachings. I’ve tried to make them work in Modern, but as a grindy value card in Esper or Grixis it has never been good enough.
Enter the Wilderness Reclamation/Nexus of Fate combo.
Wilderness Reclamation takes Mystical Teachings and makes it playable. A worse version of a one-sided Mana Flare, Wilderness Reclamation untaps all of your lands at the beginning of your end step, thereby effectively doubling your access to mana for each copy of Wilderness Reclamation in play. This allows you to cast expensive instants like Nexus of Fate at the end of your turn as early as turn 4.
Other than lands, there are only three cards in the deck that you want to cast during your main phase and they are all Wilderness Reclamations. In the early game, the deck simply wants to hold up remand mana and then cast growth spirals and opts on the opponents end step until you hit your fourth land and hopefully stick wilderness reclamation. Then you can immediately untap and hold up Cryptic Command mana until you’re ready to go off.
The key is to survive long enough to take multiple turns with Nexus of Fate until you have enough mana to either mill out your opponent with Blue Sun’s Zenith, or beat them to death with some combination of snapcaster mages and creeping tar pits. To get to that point in the game, you need a critical mass of lands, plus at least one wilderness reclamation. To really go off, you probably want two wilderness reclamations out at the same time. The minimum number of mana you’ll need to start taking several additional turns is 13. With only 11 mana, you can cast teachings for Nexus, but you need the full 13 mana to flashback teachings and cast Nexus on the same turn. The other important piece to this deck is Blue Sun’s Zenith.
If they don’t have counter spells, you can cast Mystical Teachings on their end step for Blue Sun’s Zenith, untap, play your fifth land, and then on your end step you have access to 10 mana to reload your hand if necessary with Zenith, or continue to hold up counterspells and removal until you’re ready to go off.
The removal suite of 3 fatal push, 1 abrupt decay, and 1 assassin’s trophy means game one against the super aggressive decks is likely not favorable. However, the combination of blast zone, pulse of murasa, and snapcaster mage means the deck is capable of sweeping the board potentially 3 different times and gaining 12 life in the process.
Post board the deck has access to 14 silver bullets and the 4th Snapcaster Mage. The combination of 3 Mystical Teachings and 4 Snapcaster Mage means the deck has 4 cards that represent the first copy of each silver bullet, plus 4 additional cards that represent version #2 of that silver bullet. That is some decent consistency. Death to the werewolves I guess.
Like most combo decks, this deck feels fragile. Thoughtseize into surgical extraction on either nexus, blue sun’s zenith, or wilderness reclamation feels like game over, but such is life for most Modern combo players.
On that note, I recently looked back through some recent online decklists because the article was getting stale and luckily found a more recent version of the deck by FTZZ. This was a 5-0 list from July 12, 2019:
Here, FTZZ has added another win condition in expansion // explosion and cut down to 2 Teachings. In doing so, they’ve changed up the mana base to support double red, and adjusted the removal suite accordingly, opting for 3 lighting bolt instead of fatal push. The mana base has also changed. Instead of two creeping tar pits and a Blast Zone, FTZZ has opted for Kher Keep, Lumbering Falls, and Kessig Wolf Run. Unclear whether Blast Zone was cut because it wasn’t pulling its weight or for color restrictions. They’ve also added a Minamo, School at Water’s Edge for what can only be style points. (Because untapping the newly added Ice-Fang Coatl doesn’t seem worth the cost of not running the 5th Snow Island when turning on deathtouch and eating a turn three Hogaak seems critical to the whole not dying plan.)
The sideboard has also changed to account for the color shift to red, and to add copies 2-4 of the Ice-Fang Coatl, which seems like it would be an all-star against the fair creature decks. And just when I thought I was done talking about this deck, I found a more recent version. This is a 5-0 list by DANADIN posted July 30, 2019.
DANADIN has kept the core of the original deck (4 Cryptic, 4 Remand, 4 Growth Spiral, 3 Mystical Teachings, 3 Wilderness Reclamation, 1 Blue Sun’s Zenith, and 1 Nexus of Fate) but has gone harder on the snow sub-theme to support the 4 maindeck Ice-Fang Coatls and Astrolabes. I don’t mind the Astrolabe’s over the Opts here, especially since having access to Scrying Sheets in a deck with 20 snow permanents seems like it would be fairly good while the deck is setting up to win.
The sideboard is similar but slightly less diversified than FTZZ. I personally like the second surgical rather than a 1-1 split of surgical/extirpate, just because sometimes you need all your mana to cast teachings. I would like to fit an assassin’s trophy into the sideboard, but without playing any games I have no idea what I would cut. (Though it’s probably weather the storm, since I have a feeling burn is unwinnable anyway.)
DECK GRADE: GENIUS
It may not be Tier 1, or even 2, but figuring out how to win games of Modern with 3 mystical teachings in your main deck along with the full suite of cryptic commands and remands is straight up badass.
Although it’s certainly not the fastest deck in Modern, it has inevitability against a lot of the field, and comes with a very customizable sideboard plan, which is always fun for people like me who like to tinker with their sideboards.
If I were to play this deck anytime in the near future I would start with DANADIN’s version because I think the mana is more consistent and the snow sub-theme and main-deck Coatls seems necessary in the current Hogaak era of Modern.
OPPONENTS WHO LOST TO THIS DECK: MAD!, man. Is there anything more frustrating and non-interactive then having all your spells remanded or cryptic commanded only to sit there and watch your opponent take 4 or 5 turns in a row off Nexus of Fate and then mill your face for 50 while you sit there waiting for the game to end? No, no there is not.