Transforming Trading Post

Modern Competitive Control Mill Superfriends WU (Azorius) WUB (Esper)

Behgz

Land (26)

• 4x Hallowed Fountain
• 6x Island
• 2x Mutavault
• 4x Plains
• 3x Temple of Deceit
• 4x Temple of Enlightenment
• 3x Temple of Silence

Creature (1)

• 1x AEtherling

Instant (12)

• 4x Azorius Charm
• 3x Dissolve
• 3x Last Breath
• 2x Sphinx's Revelation

Planeswalker (7)

• 3x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 2x Jace, Architect of Thought
• 2x Jace, Memory Adept

Artifact (6)

• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 2x Trading Post
• 3x Traveler's Amulet

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Supreme Verdict

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Detention Sphere

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Sideboard

Land (4)

• 3x Godless Shrine
• 1x Swamp

Artifact (2)

• 2x Pithing Needle

Instant (3)

• 3x Hero's Downfall

Creature (3)

• 3x Blood Baron of Vizkopa

Sorcery (3)

• 3x Thoughtseize

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(Retired standard deck from RTR/THR)

This deck was Featured in the video article series TapDown Duels #2

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Trading Post by Day, Esper by Night.

U/W control brew featuring Jace, Memory Adept as a win-con along side Elspeth, Sun's Champion they work great in tandem. Mutavault in the mainboard and game 2 allows for a transformation from Azorius to Esper, as you can see the 3x Godless Shrine and one Swamp in the sb, I swap out the mutavaults which rounds off the near perfect esper land base allowing me to completely change up the play style of the deck. Along with Trading Post which are like mini-planeswalkers themselves with the amount of options it has, most notably the first ability;

For those not yet familiar with Trading Post it was a part of last years core set M13 and got the reprint this year in M14, I'm guessing because it got limited to no play in any of the formats.

I'll admit I was in the category of people who saw Trading Post last year and skimmed right over it, an artifact that costs 4cmc and doesn't really do anything, PASS. I'm sure a lot of you had the same reaction then if not this year, and I can definitely see that it is one of the strongest cards I've played with.

The four abilities on Trading Post are designed to net you every form of resource in the game of magic at a slight cost of one of the other resources, you get an equal exchange in a different resource. You might think, well isn't that not that great, exchanging one thing for another doesn't net you a gain, you stay the same just more flexible, however that's only assuming you have a fixed set of resources with which to convert, so to speak. While this is true, the Trading Post is designed to get the ball rolling for you and keep it going by converting cards in your hand into life, which is arguably the most important feature of the card.

Again, you might think, well that's just converting a card in hand, lets say a chump creature, you could just play, block with, and prevent 4 damage, essentially the same; That would be true if you were dealing with a set amount of resources, the one creature in hand, fortunately the card Trading Post says, discard a card, so it doesn't need to be a creature it can be anything you drew that turn, a land, enchantment, sorcery, any card, and you will get 4 life. That's what makes the card so powerful, for the rest of the game, every turn from that point on you have the potential to gain 4 life each turn, in some scenario's, an opponent may not be able to come back from that kind of stabilization and they may even scoop. There are 3 other abilities on the card, which is why this card is amazing; Once you've stabilized on life, you'll find you almost invariably have a surplus of it with which to use as a resource to activate the Trading Post second ability of paying 1 life to make a 0/1 goat token, which you can use to activate the next ability; Sacrifice a creature, return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand. Now that we have the Traveler's Amulet from the starting hand back, we can cast it and activate Trading Post final ability, sacrifice an artifact, draw a card. and there you have it, the chain comes full circle and now we have a spare card in hand IN ADDITION to the card you draw each turn at your upkeep, giving us options going forward with the Trading Post.

It is not uncommon to land 2 Trading Post in one game and just start going to town with either artifact recursion for card draw or massive life gain each turn, once we've stabilized on life, we can switch gears and start making goat tokens, then sac'ing them to recur an artifact Traveler's Amulet and then cast and sac the amulet for card draw off the Trading Post.

It was suggested that I try out Prophetic Prism as it draws a card when it enters the battlefield, so I could color fix and card draw on top of recurring it via Trading Post however Traveler's Amulet fetches a specific colored basic out of my deck and I get to have it for the rest of the game, better than just color fixing, and works cheaper too, which can end up being a factor down the line in the mid-late game. Technically, with the Traveler's Amulet you can keep a one-land hand knowing the amulet will be fetching you a second and at the 2-step you can either fecth again or tempo up and stay in the game, after keeping a one-land hand. Prophetic Prism can't do that unfortunately.

Game 2 unlocks the sb and the ability for the deck to transform into a somewhat more familiar looking standard Esper control deck list along with a pair of Pithing Needle for precision control when needed, combo's well with the Trading Post sac'ing a needle for card draw then recur it and name a new card with the needle, or just sac it again.

Deck List:

Elixir of Immortality 5 life, recycles the yard.

Traveler's Amulet Put that Land in my Hand. The perfect combination of reliable land fetch for colors that have trouble ramping, and works later in the game with Trading Post to recur as a card draw engine.

Last Breath This card is amazing right now in standard.

Azorius Charm Excellent Value.

Dissolve the go-to counter spell of any seasoned spell slinger. Scrying is fairly beneficial.

Detention Sphere the best option for immediate spot removal.

Sphinx's Revelation yea, I got 2 foils.

Trading Post The theme of the deck, with all the spare artifact 1-drops I should have floating around my hand and graveyard, I can start combo'ing off and chaining it into card advantage that usually speeds up the win-cons or I can just use it to gain 4 life every turn after it resolves, either way it's a powerful card.

Jace, Architect of Thought This card has been performing great since it debuted and continues to be a staple in control top 8's.

Supreme Verdict The board-wipe in standard.

Jace, Memory Adept the mill-con, he can close out a game in a few turns, works great along side elspeth behind her wall of soldier tokens.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion She can stifle an otherwise deadly scenario or completely take over a game.

AEtherling the one man army.

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Game 2 unlocks the sb

Thoughtseize Super strong card in standard.

Hero's Downfall Theros brought us a new staple.

Blood Baron of Vizkopa that picture was the best I could find, still looking for a better, large picture.

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Check out my latest project

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Infinite Mill (No Ascendancy)

Casual Behgz

SCORE: 113 | 49 COMMENTS | 27064 VIEWS | IN 61 FOLDERS

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Formatted by Behgz

Top Ranked	Achieved #38 position overall 10 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 3 Mythic Rares 27 - 8 Rares 5 - 3 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.26
Tokens	Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Goat 0/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W
Folders	STD, Transforming Trading Post, Decks to try, budget, maybe decks, mill decks, control, Stuff to try, Cool Decks