Mana Seism

Sorcery

Sacrifice any number of lands. Add (1) to your mana pool for each land sacrificed this way.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (15)

wallisface on Izzet Sway Combo

2 years ago

Stolos Ahh yeah my bad - i missed that sway set life totals to 7. This combo does indeed feel a LOT more feasible to me now that i understand the actual interaction.

I still think aiming for a turn 6-8 win is a bur slow, especially when most modern decks aim for a turn 4-5 win, and even a lot of casual creature-based strategies will be able to beat you down before turn 7. Here are some thoughts on potential improvements:

• The combo only realistically needs Cerebral Vortex, Sway, and Mana Seism, with 8 lands in play. I would suggest making the rest of the deck hard-control to stall out the game that long. Going to 25-26 lands, and including White as a 3rd colour, gives you a lot of hard-control options to buy you all the time you’d need to pull this off. Control thrives on dragging the game out long, so that feels like the best-bet.

• To that end, i’d suggest adding Archmage's Charm, Counterspell, and Cryptic Command, as well as some draw packages like Opt or Serum Visions. White becomes useful for running Prismatic Ending, and a few copies of Teferi, Time Raveler.

• A must, imo for this deck would be 2ish copies of Memory Deluge - this will help you assemble the combo pieces quickly late-game when you have enough lands to go-off.

The reason i’ve suggested going down the hard-control route is that your current plan leaves your opponent too much ability to do what they want - and for a slow deck that spells doom. The other option could be to add Green and try going for heavy-ramp, but that will leave your deck a lot more unreliable in its ability to complete the combo.

Stolos on Izzet Sway Combo

2 years ago

Hi wallisface! Thanks for your feedback!

However, I think you may have missed that fact that Sway of the Stars sets each player's life total to 7 as part of its effect. This means that a subsequent Cerebral Vortex would deal lethal damage. Alternatively, a Lightning Bolt and a Char would do the trick.

Mana Seism is indeed the main way this deck would cast a quick Sway of the Stars, and the aim would usually be cast it on turn 6 at the earliest or 7 or 8 more realistically. A turn 7 Seism puts you up to 12 mana, so two treasures or extra mana from Mage-Ring Network would give you the requisite 14 mana to be able to cast Sway and either Vortex or Bolt+Char. Also a Sway into Unexpected Windfall would give you a strong start in the "reset" game.

I will happily admit that, by the standards of a competitive Modern deck, this plan is still quite hard to pull off. The deck is supposed to be a Combo+Control deck, so the plan is really to stall out until you can combo off rather than accelerate the combo to an earlier turn. It is not designed to compete in competitive Modern tournaments, but if you do have any suggestions about how to make it stronger without completely losing sight of the deck's main plan, then I would still appreciate them.

wallisface on Izzet Sway Combo

2 years ago

Some thoughts:

• i’m not sure how Sway of the Stars helps you combo-off and win the game - there’s no immediate wincon outside of just burning your opponent with spells. I get there is Cerebral Vortex, but that only gets you half-way there.

• You have almost no ramp outside of a few treasures, and Mana Seism… but to cast just Mana Seism followed by Sway means you need 6 lands in play, which is already a very hard/impossible feat for any deck that isn’t ramping or playing control. And even if you do that, it leaves you with no mana left (outside of a few treasures?) to actually cast anything. (Note with 23 lands, you’ll draw your 6th land, on average, turn/draw 9).

• Assuming you can generate the required mana to Sway into Cerebral Vortex, you’re still only around halfway there, and need to inflict 11 more damage before this point. You only have 14 other burn-spells, and you’ll need 3-4 cast before your big finale to secure the win. Which is going to require you’ve drawn through around 17 cards in your deck (10 after starting hand): that’s no small feat! It will generally require you surviving through 10 turns/draws, on average.

It just feels to me like this deck needs too much time to enact its plans, and in the meantime you have very few ways to stop your opponent completing theirs & winning.

king-saproling on

3 years ago

You might like these: Reckless Fireweaver, Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, Inspiring Statuary, Blinkmoth Urn, Kamahl's Druidic Vow, Genesis Wave, Reshape the Earth, Boundless Realms, Traverse the Outlands, Scapeshift, Mana Seism, World Shaper, Splendid Reclamation, The Mending of Dominaria, Creeping Renaissance, Mina and Denn, Wildborn

Epicurus on Klothys Hates Your Lands

3 years ago

Reznorboy, Past in Flames seems awesome in theory, but is a bit too costly for this deck. To pay 4 mana and then the mana cost of whatever spells I want to flashback, most of the time I'd be able to recur one spell, maybe two, and forget about casting it for its own flashback cost. Desperate Ritual and spells like that are certainly something I'm considering, if I can find the right one or two. Mana Seism is really the only one I'm using at the moment. Also, hell yes build that Tasigur deck!

Peoyogon, I'm already running Boom / Bust and Impending Disaster, as well as Tectonic Break and quick spells like Raze and Tremble. Jokulhaups and some of the others you listed are too high mana cost. If I have that much mana to spend, I've either been messing up, or I've been doing amazing. If the latter, I have a lot more lands to lose than the opponents, and if the former it's probably too late to be helpful. And Decree of Annihilation is a hard no because I have a lot of interaction with my graveyard, and would be screwing myself if I exiled it. However, Boil and Ruination are certainly possible maybes.

king-saproling on Smaug's Everlasting Avarice | Primer

4 years ago

You might like these: Solidarity of Heroes , Psychotic Fury , World Shaper , Claws of Gix , Lithatog , Need for Speed , Overlaid Terrain , Mana Seism , Rain of Filth , Jund Panorama , Not of This World

majorappliance on Snap! Caster! Pop! Rice Grixes!

5 years ago

i see rain of filth, bubbling much and high tide. You missing that Mana Seism . ><

SuneEnough on Godo - Fashion Statement

5 years ago

Nice list. May I suggest Mana Seism? It's one of the most efficient colorless mana engines out there if you don't care about lands.