$40 Mindshrieker + Ula Cycling Aggro!

Modern

EXOSURE

Creature (34)

• 4x Curator of Mysteries
• 4x Glassdust Hulk
• 1x Gurmag Angler
• 2x Hollow One
• 4x Mindshrieker
• 4x River Serpent
• 3x Skaab Ruinator
• 3x Stormtide Leviathan
• 4x Street Wraith
• 4x Striped Riverwinder
• 1x Vexing Sphinx

Land (17)

• 15x Island
• 2x Temple of Deceit

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Quest for Ula's Temple

Instant (1)

• 1x Stubborn Denial

Artifact (4)

• 4x Mistvein Borderpost

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Maybeboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Training Grounds

Land (9)

• 1x Halimar Depths
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 4x Scalding Tarn

Instant (1)

• 1x Commandeer

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Fat Fishies and Screeching Birds Win Games.

So you want a Modern deck that's cheap, fun, and wins in unique ways? This is a super sweet, super budget Modern deck, coming in at under $40 if you have the Islands lying around!

The idea is to pack the deck full of high-cost cycling creatures to make Mindshrieker a deadly offensive threat without killing your hand. The deck has an average CMC of over 4, making Mindshrieker essentially a 1/1 flier that you can give +4/+4 for 2 mana.

A ton of the cheapest cyclers happen to be Serpents, so we stuff the deck with creatures and play 4 copies of Quest for Ula's Temple and boom, Stormtide Leviathans as early as turn 4. Oh, and after we cycle and Mindshriek all our creatures into the graveyard, we bust out Skaab Ruinator and Gurmag Angler and beat down for the win!

Cards in the "Maybeboard" are options for a non-budget version of the deck -- see below for details.

If you like the deck and think it's original, please help out the deck by leaving a +1 and a comment!

Win Conditions

4x Quest for Ula's Temple

Once you've seen this card, you know it's too fun and flavorful not to build around. Over half of the deck is creatures, 11 of which are fatties that can be dropped by the Temple, and the rest of which cycle through the deck quickly.

3x Stormtide Leviathan

No fishy is fatter than this one. An unblockable 8/8 that prevents your opponent from attacking will win you games if you get it down on turn 4, which can happen with Temple and a bit of luck.

4x Mindshrieker

Any flier that can potentially swing for 9 on turn three and 17 on turn four is a winner in my book. In a deck full of fat creatures that you won't be able to drop every turn, pumping Mindshrieker is a great way to keep the beatdowns going.

2x Skaab Ruinator / 1x Gurmag Angler

The fun doesn't stop here -- with Mindshrieker milling you and cyclers cycling themselves, it's possible to get these guys out even as early as turn 3! In general, the Ruinator is more powerful and flying goes a long way, but Gurmag Angler is often easier to cast for just one mana, and, importantly, its high CMC makes it a great thing to mill to Mindshrieker.

Cyclers

4x Street Wraith

This card totally makes the deck tick. Free cycling, high CMC for Mindshrieker, gives Temple a counter. Running 4 is a complete no-brainer. Absolutely worth it even though half the cost of the deck comes from these 4 copies of Street Wraith.

4x Striped Riverwinder / 4x River Serpent / 4x Curator of Mysteries / 3x Glassdust Hulk

A full 15 cards in our decklist cycle for 1 blue mana, and even if we're mostly cycling, the text boxes on the cards are important too. The serpents are extra fatties to drop with Temple, and a 5/5 hexproof is no joke. Curator of Mysteries provides scrying power whenever you cycle as well as a very usable 4/4 flying body for 4. Glassdust Hulk is perhaps the weakest cycler, but it is cheap to cycle and has a high mana cost.

2x Hollow One

I know what you're thinking: a deck with so much cycling should be running more free 4/4s. But the deck just isn't consistent enough with cycling to get 3 cards cycled in one turn, and in the meantime, Hollow One cycles for 2 mana, not just 1, making it so much more expensive to use than the 1 mana cost cyclers.

Other Stuff

3x Vexing Sphinx

A super useful multi-purpose card. Lets you discard Ruinators or creatures for Ruinator, lets you discard extra lands, fatties you can't cast, extra copies of Quest for Ula's Temple drawn in the late game, and gives you back a lot of cards later. Also, it's a 4/4 flier for 3. What's not to love?

1x Stubborn Denial

The good old fun-of, Stubborn Denial really keeps your opponent on their toes when you leave a land open. So many of the creatures we can get out early activate Ferocious, including Vexing Sphinx, Skaab Ruinator, and Hollow One.

Manabase

15x Island

Plain old Island is the best land card for the deck. No sources of pure black mana because being able to cycle for is so important for every land in the deck.

2x Temple of Deceit

A decent dual land and a scrying land for Temple and Mindshrieker. Two copies are enough in a deck with this much cycling.

4x Mistvein Borderpost

The card seems bad, but it has a number of things going for it in this deck. Its most important function is keeping the average CMC for the deck up so that Mindshrieker is as effective as possible. It's also just a decent source of double colored mana, and can be hardcast in a pinch.

If you're looking to give this deck an extra boost in power, here are some cards you could try:

Non-Budget Options

Tasigur, the Golden Fang

A slightly cheaper Gurmag Angler with an extremely useful ability for grinding out long matches. A more powerful version of the deck runs 2 Tasigur over the Skaab Ruinators.

Better Manabase

An expensive manabase goes a long way in Modern. First off, the deck runs MUCH smoother with a full playset of fetchlands (I recommend 8 to 10). Fetchlands are important because they thin your deck of lands, making your Mindshrieker pumps much more consistent. They also boost the power of your Anglers and help shuffle your deck if you decide to run something like Halimar Depths.

Simian Spirit Guide is another interesting and somewhat double-edged mana option, helping you ramp while not being horrible to hit with Mindshrieker off the top.

Training Grounds

An unorthodox option, but one that works really well with Tasigur and doubles the rate at which Mindshrieker can boost up. Just imagine: turn 1 Training Grounds, turn 2 Mindshrieker, turn 3 activate Mindshrieker 3 times hitting three big creatures -- gg. If you end up going with Training Grounds, you could consider trying out Pack Rat as well, a card that can win games by itself and can win even faster with TGrounds up, although you will need a consistent source of black mana.

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Mindshrieker's biggest problem is its total weakness to every kind of removal. Kira solves this problem very cleanly while being hard to get rid of itself, and one or two copies could go in over Vexing Sphinx.

Commandeer

A nice one-of, extremely strong against the right deck. You will often have the dead cards in hand to use it to its maximum ability. And of course a 7 CMC card with Mindshrieker is nice.

Got any questions about the deck or suggestions to make it better? Tell me below. Cheers!

Top Ranked	Achieved #22 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 20 - 0 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	4.33
Folders	Facinating decks, Saved Decks, Interesting Modern Decks, interesting decks, Vexing Sphinx upgrades, UW ideas, MAYBE DECKS