Blue Pill: Turn 3 Combo **Primer**

Modern Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Mill Mono-Blue Primer

Kelvin-escesare

Land (22)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 4x Flooded Strand
• 3x Halimar Depths
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 3x Scalding Tarn
• 4x Snow-Covered Island
• 2x Steam Vents
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Index
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 4x Serum Visions

Instant (13)

• 1x Apostle's Blessing
• 1x Dismember
• 4x Muddle the Mixture
• 3x Opt
• 1x Perplex
• 1x Pongify
• 2x Swan Song

Creature (11)

• 2x Drift of Phantasms
• 4x Grand Architect
• 1x Kefnet the Mindful
• 4x Pili-Pala

Artifact (6)

• 1x Engineered Explosives
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of the Meek
• 1x Thopter Foundry
• 1x Viridian Longbow
• 1x Welding Jar

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Blood Moon

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Sideboard

Instant (5)

• 1x Dismember
• 1x Echoing Truth
• 1x Hurkyl's Recall
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Sphinx's Tutelage

Artifact (6)

• 1x Chalice of the Void
• 1x Engineered Explosives
• 1x Thopter Foundry
• 1x Tormod's Crypt
• 2x Welding Jar

Creature (2)

• 1x Izzet Staticaster
• 1x Spellskite

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Anger of the Gods

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Maybeboard

Artifact (3)

• 1x Defense Grid
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Pithing Needle

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Spreading Seas

Creature (1)

• 1x Walking Ballista

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Pili-Pala + Grand Architect gives us infinite mana, which lets us win using any of 10 tutors and 7 cantrips to dig for mana sinks which win on the spot (on turn 3 half the time). Our ample supply of tutors also lets us toolbox for hate cards to shut down the majority of Modern decks.

This deck is an upgrade of SaffronOlive's budget Modern Infinite Pili-Pala into a non-budget combo/toolbox deck. If you like this, I also recommend DuTogira's many innovative variants and A Hard Pil(i-Pala) to Swallow. While those lists are beautifully designed, they don't seem tuned to the current metagame. Our list appears to be the most competitive linear Pili-Pala combo available.

The Infinite-Mana Combo

The infinite mana combo can be achieved in two different ways. Both require Pili-Pala in play since the previous turn (or have Haste) so it doesn't have summoning sickness. The first way costs mana. The second way is preferred since it only costs (coming down turn 3), but also requires us to attack with Pili-Pala without dying.

The first way Show

1. Have Pili-Pala in play without summoning sickness
2. Play Architect
3. Pay to paint Pili-Pala blue using Architect
4. Pili-Pala for
5. Pay and Pili-Pala to gain one mana of any color
6. Repeat (4.) and (5.) for

The second, and preferred, way Show

1. Play Pili-Pala
2. Next turn, attack with Pili-Pala
3. Play Architect
4. Architect for
5. Pay and Pili-Pala for
6. Paint Pili-Pala blue
7. Tap Pili-Pala for
8. Pay and Pili-Pala for any color mana
9. Repeat 7. and 8. for

This gives infinite , along with infinite that can only be used on artifacts. At this point, we usually have leftover tutors (10), and any of them can tutor anything CMC 3, so we tutor for a win-con (see How to Win with Infinite Mana).

If our opponent doesn't have removal, our 4 Serum Visions, 3 Sleight of Hands, Index, and 3 Halimar Depths give us about 49% chance to infinite combo on turn 3. (Number seems high compared to testing; need to check my probability math.) Tutoring nearly guarantees the combo by turn 5. Tutoring also gives us silver bullets against combo, creature decks, and resilience. By adding a few links, we can tutor nearly any card with any tutor (see chart under The Toolbox).

How to Win with Infinite Mana

Once we have infinite mana, we can use any tutor to find any 3-mana win condition (see The Toolbox for tutoring sequence). Since we have so many tutors, we want as few win-cons as possible. These are the best infinite mana win-cons because they're 3 mana and very flexible:

Kefnet the Mindful draws the entire deck at instant speed, giving us answers to anything (including pesky Leylines). Then we win using Longbow, infinite Thopters, or just remove our opponent's board and hold a hand full of counterspells. Academy Ruins even prevents us from ever decking, but that should be unnecessary. Kefnet is by far the best win-con; its only weakness is that it's mediocre outside the combo.

Sphinx's Tutelage lets us mill our opponent's entire deck at instant speed. Unfortunately it struggles against Leyline and is entirely unplayable outside the combo.

Viridian Longbow can be equipped to Pili-Pala. With infinite mana, Pili-Pala can untap infinite times, pinging our opponent for infinite damage. Longbow is even sometimes useful outside of the combo. Unfortunately Longbow gets stopped by removal and Leyline.

Pyromatics deals infinite damage to any number of targets, so it gets around Gideon and Angel, but not Leyline. It also can't be countered, though your opponent would have presumably just countered Pili-Pala or Architect. Unfortunately it costs 2 mana, making it suboptimal for tutoring.

Chart comparing the pros and cons of potential win-cons Show

Any of the win-cons which draw the entire deck can win unconditionally. You get Explosives and Echoing Truth to remove Leyline, Platinum Angel, etc. Then use another win-con to seal the deal. Worst case scenario, you nuke the board, play all your creatures, keep a hand of counterspells with infinite mana, and can't be decked due to Academy Ruins.

Backup Combo

Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek are both fetchable with Muddle the Mixture and give you unlimited Thopters and life. It's not infinite, but still great against slower decks and gives us a backup if Pili-Pala gets silenced, extracted, needled, slaughtered, Nevermored, meddled, etc., or if we're just facing too much removal.

The Toolbox

With Modern being so combo-oriented, silver bullets are especially powerful. With 10 tutors and plenty of cantrips, we can even mainboard some (the best ones anyways; turn 4 Relic of Progenitus against Dredge is pointless). These are the hate cards that made the cut:

Silver bullets Show

Swiftfoot Boots makes us immune to sorcery-speed removal. Also if opponent s out, we can play Pili-Pala and equip to protect it indefinitely. Lightning Greaves is inferior because Shroud prevents us from executing the combo without exposing Pili-Pala again). (7 ways to tutor and play by turn 4, 11 by 5.)

Engineered Explosives is excellent in general, especially vs. Death's Shadow, Affinity, Jund, Counters Company, and Merfolk, and reusable with Academy Ruins. After comboing off, it becomes Sunburst 5 for removing hate cards like Leyline of Sanctity, Gideon of the Trials, and Pithing Needle. (3 ways by turn 4, 8 by 5.)

Blood Moon: Shuts down Tron and Scapeshift on turn 4. This is fine because Tron only assembles turn 3 Karn 22% of the time (6 ways by turn 4)

Swan Song stops all the most popular removal, including bounce spells and Detention Sphere, but not planeswalkers, Explosives, Abrupt Decay, and Verdict; very important for getting our double-creature-combo working. And often we get a free win against Scapeshift or Storm. With Simian Spirit Guide, we can play Pili-Pala and still hold up for Swan Song for a turn 3 win. (3 ways by turn 3, 7 by 4.)

Apostle's Blessing stops more than Swan Song, including bounce spells, Walking Ballista (once) and Decay, but not Liliana, Explosives, Karn, and board wipes. We can play turn 2 Pili-Pala and still hold up Simian Spirit Guide for Blessing for a turn 3 win. (1 way by turn 3, 6 by 4.)

Welding Jar can come down with turn 2 Pili-Pala and stops the most removal of all three but is the least versatile. It stops Anger of the Gods (you get to choose replacement effect), Walking Ballista (once), Explosives, Decay, Verdict, but not bounce spells, Liliana, Dismember, Terminate, Karn. (1 way by turn 2, 2 by 4.)

Dismember has CMC 3 for tutoring vs. creature combos (6 ways by turn 4)

Sideboard silver bullets Show

Izzet Staticaster hits hard against Affinity, Dredge, Counters Company, and even Abzan's Lingering Souls (6 ways by turn 4)

Anger of the Gods (6 ways to tutor and play by turn 4)

Chalice of the Void: Great against Death's Shadow, Affinity, control, and midrange. Needs to come down early though, so tutoring typically not worth it

Hurkyl's Recall: Turn 3 board wipe vs. Affinity is usually enough (1 way by turn 2, 2 by 3, 9 by 4 if we count Explosives)

Abrade (6 ways by turn 4)

Tormod's Crypt comes down turn 3 or 4 vs. Dredge (1 way by turn 1, 2 by 3, 7 by 4)

Pongify (2 ways by turn 3, 6 by 4)

Echoing Truth bounces problem permanents, especially after comboing off (Leyline, Chalice set to 1, Platinum Angel, etc.), and even saves Pili-Pala in a pinch (6 ways by turn 4)

Thirst for Knowledge is tutorable card advantage, and importantly lets us grow our hand after comboing with Sphinx's Tutelage (2 ways by turn 3, 6 by 4, 10 by 5)

Spellskite (7 ways by turn 4, 11 by 5)

Maybeboard silver bullets Show

Ensnaring Bridge takes care of creature decks, especially Death's Shadow and Merfolk (7 ways by turn 4, 11 by 6)

Pithing Needle slows down Affinity, Tron, Aether Vial decks, and stops Devoted Druid combo, planeswalkers, and manlands (2 ways by turn 4, 7 by 5)

Defense Grid: Great against control. Combined with Boots, this lets us avoid instant-speed removal as we play both Pili-Pala and Architect and combo off in the same turn. (7 ways by turn 4, 11 by 5.)

Spreading Seas: Turn 4 land destruction vs. Tron is fine because Tron only assembles turn 3 Karn 22% of the time (6 ways by turn 4)

Flowchart showing how to tutor any card in the deck Show

I used shorthand to squeeze in all the information, so the notation for each card in the image means: copies/copiesPlusTutors cardName (CMC). The number of ways to tutor may seem unbelievable, but many routes take far too much mana, so use your judgment. Of course once you get infinite mana, everything is fair game.

Another important design decision was to include as few win conditions as possible. Since we have infinite mana and our tutors are linked, we don't ever have to worry about drawing win-cons. We can always side in more/different win-cons if we suspect discard, counterspells, Pithing Needle, Meddling Mage, or even the highly improbable Jester's Cap.

Top Ranked	Achieved #75 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	W
Splash colors	BR
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 1 Mythic Rares 24 - 5 Rares 11 - 8 Uncommons 20 - 1 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.87
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Thopter 1/1 U
Folders	Interesting Modern, Favorites, Ideas, mtg, Modern Decks, Casual Constructed, Modern