This week we'll be doing something a little bit different with the recordings, as I wanted to try out something different with the commentary on the matches. Normally, I prefer to do recordings while I'm playing the matches, but recently I've started to make a lot more errors because Modern decks tend to be more difficult to play, and I am not as familiar with them as I am with decks like Illusions.

As I play a different deck in almost every Daily Event, I thought I'd bring you my current favorite: Splinter Twin. After losing pretty roughly earlier in the day with Melira-Pod, I scrapped that project for a more consistent combo deck. The list is fairly "stock," but I think that's really what you need from a combo deck: redundancy. While playing more pieces of the combo will lead to a few awkward draws, you won't regret it once your opponent casts their third Path to Exile.

For reference, here is the list we'll be working with today:

Splinter Twin

Todd Anderson

0th Place at Test deck on 1/15/2012

Modern

 

Creatures (13)

• 3 Spellskite
• 4 Deceiver Exarch
• 3 Pestermite
• 3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Lands (24)

• 5 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 2 Cascade Bluffs
• 3 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Steam Vents
• 3 Sulfur Falls

Spells (23)

• 4 Splinter Twin
• 4 Dispel
• 4 Remand
• 3 Flame Slash
• 4 Serum Visions
• 4 Sleight of Hand

Sideboard

• 2 Blood Moon
• 4 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Echoing Truth
• 3 Spell Pierce
• 3 Firespout
• 1 Flame Slash

 

As the format begins to take shape, we'll see what sideboard options we need to improve on. As of now, Affinity is a pretty large piece of the metagame and a deck that can really give you problems. With the full set of Ancient Grudges, you should be fine in the long run, but you can expect to lose to that deck more than any other, though I don't feel like you have bad percentages against anything. Splinter Twin is much better now that Wild Nacatl doesn't exist.

Losing Punishing Fire made you a little worse against things like Merfolk, but Flame Slash gets the job done most of time. With everyone focusing their attention on Pyromancer Storm, decks are playing fewer removal spells, allowing you to capitalize on the Splinter Twin combo. I feel as if it is easier to combo off now than it ever was in Standard, which says a lot about where the format currently sits. Without a lot of dedicated removal and heavy discard, expect Splinter Twin to rise to the top in the early parts of the PTQ Season.

Enjoy!