Sideboard


PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION! Afterward, all help is GREATLY appreciated. I am going to be working on getting this deck perfect because it looks just too fun to not play.

I have always wanted to build an Assault Formation deck. Now this might not be the best one out there, but it can durdle pretty hard, especially post sideboard. If you can aggro out early on then you will get there with Assault Formation and under-costed beaters. If not, then wait for your Thing in the Ice   to transform with Collected Companys, Shape the Sands, Tower Defense, and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  s.

This deck looks super janky at first, but it actually has some sweet interactions!

Lets start with the first inspiration card.

Assault Formation is a pretty sweet card. It allows all of our high toughness creatures go on the offense. Even if we just sit back with it, our defensive creatures will start to kill opponents creatures if they swing in. This card is close to an essential to win the game. (More specific interactions listed with specific cards below.)

Now lets get into the bread and butter utility cards.

First up we have the infamous Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  . A 0/2 for 2 mana is not that spectacular, but at least with Assault Formation it becomes a Runeclaw Bear with upside. But the real power of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   comes from his loot ability and planeswalker form Jace, Telepath Unbound. This deck has 2 problems with consistency and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   greatly helps to smooth out both. The first issue is that Assault Formation is almost a necessity to run this deck smoothly. The loot ability makes us find this card MUCH quicker. Secondly, Thing in the Ice   requires 4 instants or sorceries to be cast in order to transform, we only have 8 in the deck. Jace, Telepath Unbound allows us to recast our instants and sorceries from our graveyard giving us up to 16 instants and sorceries, now that's a LOT better! All his extra utility is cute, and so is the fact that we can have one Jace, Telepath Unbound and one Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   as a beater. But the real reasons we run him is to smooth it all out.

Birds of Paradise becomes a 1/1 flyer that can add any mana color to our pool. Great utility right? Its worth noting, it doesn't have defender, so you don't need to spend mana to attack with it.

Sylvan Caryatid is a 2 drop 3/3 hexproof that can tap for mana! Sweet on the offense, sweet on the defense, sweet for ramp. What an all-star, and hard to get rid of! The only downside is it has defender, so it costs G to be able to attack, but that is a small price to pay.

Embodiment of Spring is our second 3/3 for 2. While this body fails to pass the Lightning Bolt test like our Sylvan Caryatid does, he still has the ability to be sacrificed for mana should they target him and you cant save him with a Spellskite (or if you just wanat more mana). Good utility, with a great body. Also worth mentioning, he doesn't have defender!

Spellskite, oh Spellskite. This card ROCKS. it is a 4/4 for 2, already phenomenal! But there is SO much more going on here. The fact is that it can eat a Lightning Bolt and live (a prime removal spell), and hes so nice that he will do it for any of his buddies! He also can mess up affinities game plan with +1/+1 counters. (No longer does he stop Splinter Twin though, his old nemesis is defeated.) There are some sweet interactions with Thing in the Ice   too, but you can read that below.

Finally we have Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, this card is a fun one to say the least. Countering spells makes our dudes much harder to kill. Pair it with a Spellskite on the field and you can keep just about whatever you want alive for quite a while. She may not benefit from Assault Formation but she definitely does some good work for us. I may try to fit more of her in if she is a bigger star then I anticipated (which I am beginning to think she might be).

Next up we have our instants, and what powerhouses they are.

Collected Company is one of my favorite cards, so its only natural I find a place for it here. It has a total of 24 legal targets in the deck - not perfect, but definitely enough to be a solid card. This card is already a T1 strategy in both standard and modern, and now, it has larger targets than ever to hit (ok, not relaly, but still they are a good size). We needed some instants to flip Thing in the Ice   and this is one of my favorite ways to do so... While finding more Thing in the Ice  s!

Shape the Sands is a cute little combat trick to say the least. +5/+5 and reach for 1 mana? SIGN ME UP! Its like a Become Immense without having to exile cards. Use this on Thing in the Ice   and when it transforms, you'll be swinging for at least 13 damage! Even without Assault Formation this card can be a clutch savior for you.

Whats better then giving 1 guy +5/+5 for one mana? Giving all of your guys +5/+5 for two mana! Tower Defense does a lot of what Shape the Sands does, but is just so much more efficient most of the time, thus why we have more of them.

And finally, the card that ties it all together...

Thing in the Ice   one of the two cards that inspired the start of the brew. Pair it with Assault Formation and you have a 4/4 for two with upside. (sound similar to any menacing threats in modern right now? Maybe of the Eldrazi variant?). But that is just the tip of the ice (sorry, I had to make the pun), Thing in the Ice   synergies very well with Collected Company. First of all, it can be found off of Collected Company and also looses a counter from Collected Company, but here is where it gets better; if Collected Company is the last spell you cast to trigger the transformation, the trigger will go off before Collected Company resolves, thus bouncing their creatures and giving you 2 more (Do this on their end step and you can end up just winning the game).Thing in the Ice  's flip side, Awoken Horror   also works well with Assault Formation making it deal 8 damage instead of 7, yay for cute tricks. But here is where it gets REAL fun. Spellskite's interaction with Thing in the Ice   is super fun. First of all, Spellskite will protect Thing in the Ice   very well, especially since we are running blue mana. Secondly, when Awoken Horror   bounces all non-horrors, you keep your 4/4 Spellskite, that is a whopping 12 damage with just 2 creatures.

There are a few more cards we can talk about here as well namely, the lands. We all know why Misty Rainforest, Breeding Pool, Island, and Forest are in a Simic deck, but lets dig into some of the other choices.

Lumbering Falls is a great alternate win-con. With or without Assault Formation its a 3/3 hexproof. More bodies never hurts, and it produces both of our colors, thank you WotC!

Minamo, School at Water's Edge is super fun with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  , thats the sole reason we have this card. It doesn't enter tapped, and we are not struggling to find blue sources, so the extra synergy is nice. Being able to flip Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   with only 3 cards in the graveyard is nothing to overlook.

Oboro, Palace in the Clouds. Once again, we have no problems finding blue sources, and this one enters untapped, so why not take the extra utility. I don't think land destruct is a HUGE issue right now, but its better to be safe then sorry. Island with upside.

Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers is an interesting card. Like the others, it comes in untapped and we aren't having issues finding lands we need, so this card is Forest with upside. The only creature that this works with is Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   (noticing a theme?). But, it allows an extra damage with our Runeclaw Bear wizard. I also just realized, Minamo, School at Water's Edge can untap Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers! Lets get in there for 4 with our legendary wizard please!

Finally Ghost Quarter rounds it out. Destroying a piece of Tron or an Eldrazi land is always a good thing to be able to do. I am considering adding more (possibly sideboard) if nothing gets banned from the Eldrazi deck.

Sorry for the long description, but thats the full breakdown.

I would LOVE any help that you have to offer, ESPECIALLY for the sideboard. Thanks for reading!

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Revision 5 See all

(4 years ago)

Date added 8 years
Last updated 4 years
Exclude colors B
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

4 - 2 Mythic Rares

41 - 7 Rares

6 - 3 Uncommons

5 - 3 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.00
Tokens Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Folders Things, Modern
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