“What’s the best combo deck?”
“Storm, obviously. Actually, Storm is probably the best deck period.”
How quickly things change, and honestly, they will probably change again once we’re a couple weeks into the PTQ season. Once Ethersworn Canonist is showing up in maindecks and there are Rule of Laws in the sideboard, decks like Splinter Twin are going to capitalize on that.
But we’re not three weeks into the future yet, so here’s my Storm list:
Lands (12)
Spells (48)
- 4 Island
- 4 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Serum Visions
- 4 Peer Through Depths
- 4 Desperate Ritual
- 4 Seething Song
- 4 Grapeshot
- 2 Pyromancer's Swath
- 4 Manamorphose
- 1 Dispel
- 1 See Beyond
- 4 Pyretic Ritual
- 4 Gitaxian Probe
- 4 Past in Flames
Sideboard
I’ve gone through probably a hundred different iterations with Storm, and this is where I am now. It’s not perfect, but it’s close. A few things:
–Desperate Ravings, as much as I love the card, isn’t good here. If you’re setting up a Past in Flames, that’s fine, but you still need as many Rituals in your hand as possible. Post-board, they always bring in graveyard hate against you, which makes setting up something like Swath + Shot or Empty the Warrens super dangerous. Peer through Depths is much better for what you’re trying to do.
–Dispel maindeck is solid if you’re playing vs. lots of mirrors, Ad Nauseam, or blue decks. Post-board, I like the Defense Grids more than Dispel, and siding in both vs. blue decks dilutes you too much.
-Game one, you are trying to win with Past in Flames. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anybody win with Pyromancer Ascension or Empty the Warrens when they didn’t also have Past in Flames. Those cards aren’t good. Post-board, they’ll have graveyard hate, which makes Ascension terrible and Empty a lot better. However, Empty is much worse than Pyromancer’s Swath.
If you take one thing away from this whole article series, it should be how good Pyromancer’s Swath is in the Storm deck. Players value graveyard hate against Storm very highly, and they should. Without a backup plan like Swath, graveyard hate like Relic of Progenitus or Nihil Spellbomb will kold Storm. Swath gives you a clean kill and is much better than garbage like Empty the Warrens.
-You’re going to notice some See Beyonds in my combo decklists. These decks greatly need a Brainstorm effect, and it’s the best one around. The problem is that all of their combo pieces have diminishing returns, and you find yourself with dead cards in hand with no way to get rid of them. Thirst for Knowledge is another option, but I prefer the two-mana spell.
With Storm, See Beyond is better in the post-board games. Almost no one can fight you game one, so the games tend to go very quickly. You don’t want to spend a bunch of time filtering cards, so maybe that slot should just be something that does something, like Channel the Suns. Maybe the See Beyond should be a Simian Spirit Guide. Even though it doesn’t count for Storm, it’s a good accelerator. The main reason I’d play it is to trump the mirror’s Telemin Performances.
I would feel weird sideboarding See Beyond, but you kind of need to. Against most people, you need five spells, Swath, and Grapeshot. If you have excess anything in your hand, that plan is basically out the window. A single See Beyond later, and you’re back in business though.
The maindeck is mostly great, but there are plenty of potential sideboard plans. Some other ones I tried include:
Deus of Calamity: I wanted to use this guy against non-blue graveyard hate decks. Most of the time, it was good against Zoo, Jund, and slower combo decks. In order to facilitate him, I needed to side some Simian Spirit Guides too. In the end, it was too many slots for not much reward. Pyromancer’s Swath was just better.
Polymorph / Dryad Arbor / Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: This one was cute. I went turn one cantrip, turn two Misty Rainforest, end of turn fetch Dryad Arbor, turn three Ritual Polymorph—more than a few times. It was good against roughly the same stuff Deus was and took up about the same amount of slots.
One of the problems was that decks like Jund and Zoo would keep in their Lightning Bolts, so you’d need Dispel too. It was almost as much hassle as just combo-ing off normally, so screw it.
Dark Confidant / Thoughtseize: This package is ok. Thoughtseize is nice because it deals with any hate card, but you still need a couple Echoing Truths in case something sneaks past you. Confidant, in theory, should be good against most decks since they’re siding out removal, but I’ve found that Defense Grid and Leyline of Sanctity are better.
Gifts Ungiven / chargelands: This one is mainly for control, but again, Defense Grid is much better if you can find and resolve one. Another issue was that Gifts is still very weak to graveyard hate. The chargelands were awesome, and I’d like to sideboard a couple if I could.
A few final notes:
-I’ve played with basic Mountain for a while, but it can really mess with the amount of keepable hands you get. One in sixteen one-landers you’ll have to mulligan because that Mountain doesn’t make blue mana, and that’s basically unacceptable. Every land should make blue mana. It might cost you some life here or there against aggro decks when you have to fetch Steam Vents instead, but that’s okay.
-Leylines aren’t for most combo mirrors. They are for heavy discard decks like Jund or something with Rise / Fall. However, most mirror opponents have brought in Leylines against me, so you have to side in one or two Echoing Truths against every mirror match.
-Anyone that wants to beat you probably can.
If you’re looking for a cheaper option for Modern, Storm is probably your best bet.
Rating: 8/10
Creatures (4)
Lands (14)
Spells (42)
Initially, I did a lot of winning with Hive Mind. Things like Ethersworn Canonist were okay but not great. The main issue was that most decks could pay for my Pacts, so I needed two or more. The other problem was that Ad Nauseam was a deck, and Angel’s Grace is insane against you, hence the sideboard Chalice of the Void.
Against Ad Nauseam, I found that a sideboard of 4 Delver of Secrets, 4 Snapcaster Mage, 4 Angel’s Grace, and 3 Geist of Saint Traft was very effective. It just wasn’t great anywhere else. End-of-turn Pact of the Titan, Snapcaster it, untap Angel’s Grace was a very solid clock.
Against Storm, it’s possible to just turtle up behind Relic of Progenitus and Leyline and kill them with Pact of the Titan. If you take that route, you need an Engineered Explosives to deal with any Goblin swarms.
Plunge into Darkness over Ethereal Usher is the main innovation and one that I think is correct. Usher is very slow, and while Plunge isn’t without its downsides, it seems much better.
If you want a combo deck that is almost as good as Storm but dodges some of the hate, you could play Hive Mind.
Rating: 7/10
Creatures (5)
Lands (19)
Spells (36)
I like this deck a lot, but it seems to be short on actual search cards. Mystical Teachings is great but super slow. I wouldn’t mind seeing some See Beyonds in that list (obviously), but I can understand why people might think it’s not good enough.
The Lightning Storm kill seems better, seeing as how you can now go off at instant speed, but a single Thoughtseize kolds you, right? Thankfully, we have Snapcaster Mage. Conjurer’s Bauble is another option, but you can’t win at instant speed with that one.
Ad Nauseam is a bit slower than Storm, less consistent, but a little better against hate cards due to Mystical Teachings. It can certainly win, but I’d rather play Storm.
Rating: 6/10
Creatures (11)
Lands (14)
Spells (35)
- 3 Mountain
- 6 Island
- 2 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Remand
- 4 Think Twice
- 2 Into the Roil
- 2 Spell Pierce
- 4 Dispel
- 4 Splinter Twin
- 2 Gitaxian Probe
- 2 Forbidden Alchemy
Sideboard
What happened to this deck? It seems like a poor performance at Worlds tarnished its good name, and that’s a shame. You should be terrified of this deck, especially now that nobody, including you, is giving it any credit.
Stop and think for a moment—are you really as prepared for Twin as you could be?
Rating: 7/10, maybe higher.
Creatures (28)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- 1 Gravedigger
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 4 Wall of Roots
- 1 Venser, Shaper Savant
- 1 Pestermite
- 2 Kitchen Finks
- 2 Glen Elendra Archmage
- 1 Thornling
- 4 Overgrown Battlement
- 1 Obstinate Baloth
- 1 Spellskite
- 3 Deceiver Exarch
Lands (21)
Spells (11)
I think I like this list more than the Melira Pod versions. They just seem cleaner. Birthing Pod, six mana, and a two-drop is game. Allow me to explain.
Activate Birthing Pod, paying two life (five mana left).
Put Deceiver Exarch into play, untapping Birthing Pod. Activate Birthing Pod (four mana).
Put Gravedigger into play, returning Deceiver. Cast Deceiver (one mana), untapping Birthing Pod. Activate Birthing Pod (zero mana), put Kiki-Jiki into play.
Voila!
That’s what I mean by clean. You need fewer pieces and barely need anything to win the game at all. Melira might ignore the attack step and everything, but this requires one fewer piece to win and even has a toolbox to remove obstacles like Ghostly Prison.
If I were playing Pod, it would be very close to the above list.
Rating: 7/10
Creatures (27)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Yosei, the Morning Star
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 3 Wall of Roots
- 1 Protean Hulk
- 1 Body Double
- 1 Reveillark
- 1 Fulminator Mage
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- 1 Murderous Redcap
- 1 Ranger of Eos
- 1 Tidehollow Sculler
- 1 Noble Hierarch
- 3 Viscera Seer
- 3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Lands (19)
Spells (15)
I know the Czech guys played this deck a few times, but I’ve barely even watched matches of it. I can’t comment much, but I can say that the toolbox is very powerful for battling opposing combo decks.
Past that, the Melira combo seems fragile, but it continually puts up numbers. After all, there is a lot of tutoring in the deck, and I’m sure that people aren’t used to playing against it.
Rating: 6/10
Creatures (27)
- 4 Street Wraith
- 3 Shriekmaw
- 4 Fulminator Mage
- 4 Jungle Weaver
- 4 Monstrous Carabid
- 4 Valley Rannet
- 4 Deadshot Minotaur
Lands (17)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
Living End used to be great against Zoo decks because they were sticking to Naya. After board, they’d have some Ethersworn Canonists, which you could easily kill with your sideboard cards, and you’d cascade to victory. Now, with combo all the rage, there are Canonists maindeck, Spell Pierces everywhere, and Zoo isn’t an easy matchup.
Why would you play this deck?
Rating: 4/10
Lands (16)
Spells (44)
I tried so hard to make this one good. After Pro Tour Valencia (which is an article’s worth of stories on its own), Enduring Ideal became one of my favorite decks. Sadly, Ideal is about a turn slower than the other combo decks on average, and that just isn’t good enough. Also, when Ideal “goes off,” it doesn’t actually win the game on the spot.
Say you’re at five life against Zoo. You get Phyrexian Unlife, and they play fetchland, Snapcaster Mage on Tribal Flames, putting you to zero, and then attack with Tarmogoyf, Kird Ape, and Steppe Lynx dealing you lethal infect. As far as I know, Unlife is the best card to make it so you don’t die in that situation.
Against Storm, you can get Dovescape and kold them, which is awesome. The above Zoo situation is one of the reasons Ideal won’t likely make it to the big time. I’m sure there could be a retooling, where you just cut the red and play more of a U/W Control game. Having a mana accelerator that you can Peer for is the whole reason red is in the deck though.
I wouldn’t expect Ideal to ever be the best deck, but it’s pretty good against Storm and puts the hard lock on a lot of decks.
Rating: 5/10
Creatures (27)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 1 Essence Warden
- 4 Heritage Druid
- 4 Nettle Sentinel
- 2 Regal Force
- 4 Elvish Visionary
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
- 4 Arbor Elf
Lands (10)
Spells (23)
Ah yes, the Matt Nass special. The whole reason I liked Combo Elves was Chord of Calling, so I’m surprised that it doesn’t make an appearance here. Chord gives you the capability to lockdown decks like Storm, which will probably be a turn faster than you. Without it, you’re helpless. The Thorns in the sideboard should help a little bit though.
As I said in part one, I think I like the Warrior version of the Elf deck better. Much like any of the other combo decks in Modern, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Elves take down a big tournament, but it’s not likely.
Rating: 5/10
Creatures (15)
Lands (19)
Spells (26)
I’ve been a fan of Hegel’s deck since the Dark Depths Extended season, where he was first piloting the deck. It’s fast, disruptive, and people have no idea what’s in your deck. Overall, it’s the perfect rogue deck.
The goal is to find a Death’s Shadow, protect yourself with Phyrexian Unlife or Angel’s Grace, and then Spoils of the Vault for Fling. If the Spoils doesn’t make the Shadow big enough, maybe a Hex Parasite will.
I’m not sold on the Mishra’s Baubles, and only three Confidants seems suspect, but I like the rest. It might be a little janky, and maybe you need too many pieces to actually combo, but he’s been doing well for himself.
Rating: 5/10
For the most part, these are the “good” combo decks, but the next article has some truly crazy ones. You don’t want to miss it.
GerryT