Welcome to another installment of Madman, Genius, or Both? This week’s focus is on another Modern deck that I came across about a month ago when I was researching my previous Nexus of Fate article. If you’re looking to play a Nexus of Fate deck in Modern, check out my previous article. If you’d rather smash people in the face repeatedly with hasty 6/1 creatures – well, I’ve got the deck for you.
This is the first iteration I came across, which was posted on July 16, 2019 as a 5-0 list from a Modern League. If the deck had been around before then, I was unaware of it.
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson
I still remember the first time I lost to Ball Lightning as a kid. Even then it felt like a perfect, identity defining card for red (and still does). This was at a time when all I wanted to do was save up my allowance to buy the lone copy of a Revised Force of Nature at the local game store (which I ultimately did do).
Nostalgia aside, what does this deck do? Well, as I mentioned above (and Mike Tyson clarified), you punch your opponent in the mouth repeatedly with 6/1 trampling creatures until the game ends. Don’t believe me, check out the core of what makes this deck filthy:
Yep. Like most Modern decks that play red cards and win games of magic, we’ve got the full four copies of Faithless Looting. This is the most important card to have in your opening hand and the deck’s most powerful turn one play. This version runs the additional full suite of both Thoughtseize and Inquisition of KoziIek, giving the deck twelve turn one discard outlets if you take the all-in approach. What is that approach, you ask? Well, if you are lucky enough to have the option of playing your best and most important creature in Thunderkin Awakener on turn two, it will often be correct on turn one to Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek yourself to get a Lightning Skelemental or Ball Lightning into the graveyard. On turn two you can play Thunderkin Awakener, attack, and hopefully throw a 6 damage Blightning at your opponents face. The next turn you do the same thing. If they Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push or otherwise kill your Thunderkin Awakener, not to worry.
Just go ahead and cast Unearth on your Thunderkin Awakener, attack, and go back to throwing those six damage haymakers at your opponent.
With four Lightning Bolt and three Dreadhorde Arcanist to re-cast said lightning bolts, the deck has some reach to finish games off if you can land a couple of early six damage bursts. As additional removal, the deck also runs two copies of Fatal Push and a single copy of Kolaghan’s Command. The Dreadhorde Arcanist can also be used to Unearth the Thunderkin Awakener for the second or third time as needed, though this is less efficient because you can’t attack with Arcanist, cast Unearth, and attack with Awakener on the same turn.
Last, for some later game value creatures, this version runs two Seasoned Pyromancer and one Young Pyromancer just in case your Lightning Bolts aren’t enough to finish the game.
More recently, Caleb Durward took a slightly modified version of the deck to a 5-0 finish in a Modern League posted on July 30, 2019. Then, on August 10, 2019, MTGO player LORDOFTHELOBSTERS took Caleb’s identical seventy-five for a spin into tenth place in a Modern Challenge:
This version cuts one Dreadhorde Arcanist, one Kolaghan’s Command, one Young Pyromancer, and one each of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek. In exchange, we see the third and fourth copies of Seasoned Pyromancer, the third Fatal Push, a Collective Brutality, and a Dreadbore.
These changes seems solid. Kolaghan’s Command feels like a worse, more expensive Unearth that doesn’t put Thunderkin Awakener directly into play. Meanwhile, Collective Brutality seems great because you’re only down one net discard effect, and you get some added utility all in one card. The ability to discard excess lands and/or dig for needed resources also sounds great with regard to the third and fourth copies of Seasoned Pyromancer.
The manabase is also upgraded. Caleb has cut the third Blood Crypt and two Mountains in exchange for a Cavern of Souls, a Fiery Islet, and the eighth fetch land. The takeaway here is that the original version had eighteen red mana sources and fifteen black sources, while Caleb’s paired down to seventeen red mana sources and fifteen black sources. He traded one red mana source for some modest flood insurance and a way to cast un-counterable creatures. Look, if we’re being greedy, let’s just commit to it.
DECK GRADE: MADMAN
While I like the changes to the deck and would recommend Caleb’s version if you want to give it a whirl, the fact that Dreadhorde Arcanist re-casting Unearth doesn’t allow you to attack with Thunderkin Awakener the same turn is something of a nonbo. This feels like the kind of deck where you’ll sometimes have to save up a bunch of resources and go all-in on a single turn to finish off your opponent. In that situation, Arcanist isn’t the redundant Unearth effect you need it to be.
That said, the larger issue here is that if you don’t draw Thunderkin Awakener, or if it gets exiled with something like Path to Exile, your plan kind of falls apart. Also, this deck feels extremely weak to graveyard hate, including Leyline of the Void, which is pretty popular right now in the current Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis era. Speaking of which, an 8/8 creature is pretty good at blocking 6/1s.
To be fair, this deck can kill on turn three with the right draw, which is fast enough to be competitive in Modern. This can happen in a few different ways. The first is where you cast Faithless Looting on turn one and discard two 6/1s. Then you untap, play the first Thunderkin Awakener on turn two, and attack for seven. If your opponent has 1 toughness or less to absorb damage, you can cast a second Thunderkin Awakener on turn three and bash for another 14 damage. If instead of Faithless Looting on turn one you have two one mana discard spells – this plan also works. You will still need two 6/1 creatures by turn three as well as two Thunderkin Awakeners. Alternatively, this deck can win with exactly lethal on turn three if you have double Lightning Bolt to close out the game after up bashing for 7 on your second and third turns.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the article! If you have any suggestions for decks you would like me to discuss, please let me know in the comments!