2:43 PM Turn 2: EMTEE.
2:43 PM EMTEE casts Amulet of Vigor.
2:43 PM EMTEE plays Selesnya Sanctuary.
2:43 PM Forest is returned to EMTEE's hand from the battlefield.
2:43 PM EMTEE casts Explore.
2:43 PM EMTEE plays Simic Growth Chamber.
2:43 PM Simic Growth Chamber is returned to EMTEE's hand from the battlefield.
2:43 PM EMTEE casts Summer Bloom.
2:43 PM EMTEE plays Simic Growth Chamber.
2:44 PM Simic Growth Chamber is returned to EMTEE's hand from the battlefield.
2:44 PM EMTEE plays Forest.
2:44 PM EMTEE casts Azusa, Lost but Seeking.
2:44 PM EMTEE plays Simic Growth Chamber.
2:44 PM Simic Growth Chamber is returned to EMTEE's hand from the battlefield.
2:44 PM EMTEE plays Simic Growth Chamber.
2:44 PM Simic Growth Chamber is returned to EMTEE's hand from the battlefield.
2:44 PM EMTEE plays Simic Growth Chamber.
2:44 PM Forest is returned to EMTEE's hand from the battlefield.
2:44 PM EMTEE casts Summoner's Pact.
2:44 PM EMTEE reveals: Primeval Titan.
2:44 PM EMTEE casts Primeval Titan.
2:44 PM EMTEE puts triggered ability from Primeval Titan onto the stack.
2:45 PM EMTEE puts triggered ability from Boros Garrison onto the stack.
2:45 PM EMTEE activates ability of Slayers' Stronghold targeting Primeval Titan.
2:45 PM Slayers' Stronghold is returned to EMTEE's hand from the battlefield.
2:45 PM _Soku_ is being attacked by: Primeval Titan
2:45 PM EMTEE puts triggered ability from Primeval Titan onto the stack.
2:45 PM EMTEE puts triggered ability from Simic Growth Chamber onto the stack.
2:45 PM Tolaria West is returned to EMTEE's hand from the battlefield.

It all started with an article by Carrie Oliver.

Well, actually it started with Pro Tour Philadelphia, where I played this monstrosity:

You can read all about that here.

The cliff notes version is I tried to jam Amulet of Vigor and Summer Bloom into a Cloudpost deck in order to beat the mirror. My results varied.

I'm no Ali Aintrazi, but I do enjoying putting extra land into play from time to time. Naturally, Carrie's (Richard's) deck caught my eye. My process for building combo decks in Modern starts by trying to streamline the deck as much as possible. Only after that's been done do I start looking for ways to fight hate or a specific metagame. That's how things like Dark Depths / Thopter Foundry are created.

Much like the Dark Depths / Thopter Foundry deck, I borrowed some innovations from other people, namely Yamayo from Magic Online.

In short, the deck aims to play a turn 1 Amulet of Vigor and a turn 2 Summer Bloom followed by a Karoo (the bouncelands from Ravnica, such as Simic Growth Chamber), which conveniently makes six mana for Primeval Titan. You search for Boros Garrison and Slayers' Stronghold with the Titan, give it haste, and then find some more lands.

This kills on turn 2 with two Amulets but turn 3 with a "normal" good draw. That being said, a turn 2 Primeval Titan is a virtual kill against nearly every opponent.

Should you suspect Path to Exile or a similar removal spell, you can search for Simic Growth Chamber and Tolaria West, float mana with Tolaria and Growth Chamber if you have Amulet in play, and then return it to your hand with the Growth Chamber. From there, you can start chaining Tolarias into Summoner's Pacts into Primeval Titans until they run out of removal spells or you run out of Tolarias, Pacts, or Titans.

Yamayo's deck added Hive Mind to the mix, which felt like the Thopter Foundry aspect the deck needed. Against things that are faster or when you're dead on board and can't kill them with a Titan, Hive Mind can bail you out. Conveniently, you already want to play some number of Pacts.

Another innovation of Yamayo's was the use of Gemstone Mine and Tendo Ice Bridge, which basically have no downside when your lands are constantly bouncing in and out of play. Those allow you to play things like Firespout, Timely Reinforcements, Stony Silence, and Slaughter Pact very easily, but I'll get into those later.

I'm sure you're wondering what happens when the deck doesn't draw Amulet of Vigor or Summer Bloom or a Karoo or a way to find Primeval Titan. Of those, not drawing a Titan is the one that's the most difficult to win with.

With a deck like this, you have to realize you're playing a numbers game. If your opening hand can "go off" quickly but is missing a key piece, such as the aforementioned Amulet of Vigor, Summer Bloom, Karoo, or Primeval Titan, then you should consider mulliganing. The deck is mostly incapable of interacting, and you have to kill most opponents relatively fast, so you need to weigh the pros and cons of keeping such a hand.

Also, nothing aside from Primeval Titan is truly necessary. It might be nice to play Amulet of Vigor into Summer Bloom into Simic Growth Chamber, but turn 2 Summer Bloom into turn 3 Primeval Titan is still more than fine. Turn 4 Primeval Titan from Scapeshift decks was scary enough.

So the deck is capable of nigh-unbeatable nut draws, and its mediocre draws are often fine too. What, then, was I losing to? The shortest answer I can give is Aven Mindcensor and my own misplays.

There's one thing I need to get straight: this is one of the hardest decks I've ever played. Like most decks, some draws don't interact with your opponent and just kill them. Those are pretty easy to play, but when your back is against the wall and you have five land drops to make, need to float the correct mana, have to keep the right lands in play, and still get to make more decisions in a turn? Well, it gets a little out of control.

It's easy to just make as much mana as possible up front and then go from there, but that's frequently wrong. I've had to cast Summer Bloom, make some mana, and then use Wargate or Trinket Mage to find my second Amulet of Vigor, followed by Azusa, followed by making sure I end up with Slayers' Stronghold and Simic Growth Chamber in play and untapped.

After that, I've cast Primeval Titan, searched for Boros Garrison and Tolaria West, bounced Tolaria and transmuted it for Summoner's Pact, cast another Primeval Titan to Vesuva the Slayers' Stronghold, and killed them.

Sometimes, you only have the mana to cast one Primeval Titan in that scenario and can't kill them that turn. If that's the case, you need to be able to transmute Tolaria West post-combat for Summoner's Pact because you know there's a Supreme Verdict coming.

"Cast Titan. Smash!" is super easy, but actually playing around their things requires practice.

This is what I was playing last week:

And this is what I'm playing this week:

As you can see, they are remarkably similar but noticeably different.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking: This card is unbelievable. There is absolutely no reason not to play four. She's not just a Tutorable Summer Bloom; she's exactly what the deck wants to be doing.

Explore / Sakura-Tribe Scout: I think Explore is a fantastic card, but it doesn't go as hard as this deck needs to go. I tried the Sakura-Tribe Scouts from Yamayo's list originally, but they didn't work very well. One of the reasons was because he didn't have enough turn 1 green sources to cast it with. The second reason was that he didn't have enough lands in his deck to take advantage of it.

Tribe Scout didn't appear to be speeding me up in any of the games until I added more land and Trinket Mages. With those, I was more likely to play a turn 2 Azusa or Trinket Mage, which would accelerate me into a turn 3 Primeval Titan. The random creatures also take away the need to play Khalni Garden to beat Liliana of the Veil.

All that said, Sakura-Tribe Scout is another high variance card that maybe this deck could do without.

Wargate: In theory, Wargate seemed great. It was an Amulet, Karoo, or Primeval Titan when you needed it, and for that, it may have earned its place in the deck. After trying the deck without it, I want to give it another shot.

Serum Visions: Similar to Wargate, I tried the deck without it but decided my draws weren't threat-heavy enough. There were also some consistency issues, which Serum Visions typically helped with. Visions was frequently bad in your good draws where you were using your mana every turn, but I would win those games anyway.

See Beyond: This is what I wanted to try instead of Serum Visions. There are games where your Slayers' Stronghold or Sunhome will be stranded in your hand and you'd do anything for a Brainstorm. Double the mana cost of Serum Visions can be rough in the early turns. If you have extra space or want some extra filtering for additional consistency, this is what I would play. Compulsive Research is another consideration.

Ancient Stirrings: This card is basically worse than any cantrip you could play. It digs, but not well, and rarely finds what you need. Not being able to find a threat unless you get incredibly lucky with Tolaria West is not what I want of this card.

Cavern of Souls: Counterspells, specifically Remand, are annoying to play against. I quickly maxed out on Cavern of Souls and haven't regretted it for a second.

The Other Options

I've seen lists with Summoning Trap, Through the Breach, and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, but I don't like those very much. Emrakul is very, very bad on its own, and I'd rather have Cavern of Souls than Summoning Trap. If you insist on casting Through the Breach, I recommend Griselbrand as your second fatty since he's reasonably castable.

A sideboard plan with Gifts Ungiven into Unburial Rites dodges a lot of hate but isn't particularly great against anything.

Hive Mind is also reasonable, but I don't think it's all that good. There are decks like Jund or Tron where you might want Hive Mind. but they can also pay for Summoner's Pact. Those are matchups where you don't usually want Slaughter Pact of Pact of Negation either. Overall, I feel like it dilutes the deck too much, and while it's an awesome, hard to beat win condition, it has little synergy with the rest of the deck.

The Sideboard

Stony Silence: For Eggs, Affinity, and maybe Tron. It's probably not necessary, but it does give you a few extra turns against some of the format's fastest decks.

Timely Reinforcements: Typically, I've been leaning on Glimmerpost against aggressive decks, but Timely helps too. These aren't a necessity because the matchups it's good in are typically good anyway. It's nice to lock it up though.

Beast Within: This is my random catchall against Tron, Splinter Twin, and Blood Moon. It's also good in the mirror if it ever comes to that.

Slaughter Pact: I like these against Splinter Twin and Aven Mindcensor.

Avenger of Zendikar: Jund will likely try to Slaughter Games you, so having this as insurance is very, very nice. Rampaging Baloths is another consideration.

Thrun, the Last Troll: Against Geist decks, having something to Pact for early that can block their Geist or sometimes go the distance is pretty nice. It's not necessary by any means. Just watch out for Cryptic Command on your Karoo leaving you unable to pay for your Pact.

The Problems

Aven Mindcensor: I've gone up to four Slaughter Pacts for a reason. Should you blindly side in all the Slaughter Pacts against any deck with Plains just because they might have two or three Mindcensors? It's hard to say. If it's the only way you can really lose, then probably.

Blood Moon: That's game, boys. Any deck with Mountains can sideboard this thing, but do you bring in Beast Withins in the dark? I lean towards no, and it's cost me a few times. Summoner's Pact into Indrik Stomphowler is probably your best bet if you're really worried.

Splinter Twin / Eggs / Affinity: These decks can be a little too fast for you. Thankfully, the sideboard shores up these matchups. Plus, your best draws are much faster than theirs.

Tron: Again, they can be slightly faster. However, your draws trump theirs, and Ghost Quarter is like double Time Walk. Michael Jacob insists that a second Ghost Quarter is necessary if you want to beat this archetype consistently, and I don't disagree.

Zoo / Geist decks: Whatever you do, don't block with your Primeval Titan if you can afford not to! I learned the hard way that Ghor-Clan Rampager is a very real card in Modern. For the most part, Glimmerpost shenanigans and the fact that they don't have many ways to interact with you will carry you to victory.

Should Something Be Banned?

I doubt it. I jumped the gun on Griselbrand / Goryo's Vengeance, although that interaction is starting to become a force in Legacy and is underrepresented in Modern. These things have a way of correcting themselves, as there are certainly enough problematic cards in the format to keep it in check. Does Wizards of the Coast want people dying on turn 2 in Modern? Certainly not, but we'll just have to finish out the season and see what happens.

Will I Play This At Grand Prix San Diego?

It's unlikely. I have 33 Pro Points right now, which means I only need a few more solid finishes to lock up Platinum. If I needed to spike a tournament (such as a PTQ) or if Pro Points weren't a concern, I would definitely play it. Instead, I'm looking for something a little more consistent that can get me two or three Pro Points.

I think a Top 4 at Grand Prix Verona this weekend would give me enough breathing room to play it and not be concerned with the variance. If I win the GP, then there's no deck I'd rather play.

GerryT

@G3RRYT on Twitter