Welcome everyone to my very first article with Numot Gaming. This will be a continuation of my Deck Trials series in which I will bring you some exciting brews across a variety of formats. Limited included of course!
This week we will be giving a Blue/White flash deck a try in Modern. I was inspired to play this deck a few weeks ago when I played Blue/White Spirits in Standard. The deck left a bit to be desired by Spell Queller impressed me from the beginning. I spent some time brewing the deck as Bant with the hopes of curving Spell Queller into Mystic Snake unfortunately the green just didn’t seem necessary. Poor Mystic Snake, I will get you in a list someday! So hear is what I ultimately settled on.
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Wall of Omens
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Spell Queller
3 Restoration Angel
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
Spells
4 Serum Vision
4 Condemn
4 Path to Exile
4 Mana Leak
2 Cryptic Command
Land
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Dela
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Irrigated Farmland
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Plains
3 Island
Sideboard
2 Surgical Extraction
4 Spreading Seas
2 Negate
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Cryptic Command
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Stony Silence
I set out wanting to build a control/tempo deck that kept its curve relatively low. A couple honorable mentions that almost made the cut are Detention Sphere and main deck Spreading Seas. The Detention Sphere’s seemed a bit slow at sorcery speed so I decided not to run them and the Spreading Seas made their way over to the sideboard in favor of main deck wall of omens due to the synergies with Restoration Angel. I also considered Remand and Censor in the two mana counter spell slot. I ultimately went with Mana Leak but I was pretty torn on this decision. I can see an argument for any of these cards.
I wanted a lot of easy to cast spot removal to combat the current fast decks in the format and to make Snapcaster Mage more valuable hence the four Path to Exile and Condemn. Both of these spells have their cost. Ramping the opponent and gaining them life can be significantly back breaking but our deck is able to put a fairly quick clock on the opponents in the air while maintaining tempo to our advantage. This will help with any of the drawbacks from Path and Condemn.
The sideboard is equipped with some tools to deal with some of Moderns more common decks in the form of artifact hate, graveyard disruption, and life gain. We also have access to more controlling cards for matches where all our remove just is not necessary. But, enough with card explanations lets dive in and see what happens!
Well, at the very least, this deck is a blast to play. I am certainly willing to give it some more runs through leagues and see if we can perfect a list. What changes would you make? I think having access to at least one Detention Sphere as a catch all would have been a good idea going in. I also think the sideboard needs some more work and Wall of Omens was, in my opinion, the least impressive card in the 75. I am always open to suggestions so feel free to leave me some comments. If you want to see the deck play out more as well as other sweet brews come hang out with me over on my stream at twitch.tv/dcmdame. Thanks for watching and remember it’s you, the fans, that make it all worth it!
