Nice deck, love the synergy and the combos!

What do you normally tend to remove when you sideboard cards in?

why is there the hallowed fountain? I see no reason for it at all

Explorer's Scope is good at cleaning off the lands from the top of your library. Helps ramp and smooth out draws. Its the courser of kruphix of equipment.

Leonin Shikari and Auriok Steelshaper are generally the first to go considering their limited impact on the game, TDemers. Beyond that it is shaving down numbers on the cards that are 3 and 4 cmc. We are brought to the point where every card is important in the deck, but its level of importance changes depending on the very specific deck structure my opponent has. So studying every game and every card and every action really carefully is important in order to figure out the entire structure of their deck. Once you have done that, you replace the cards with a lesser impact on the opponent's deck with cards that will have a greater impact on your opponent's deck. And this relies on knowing the very subtle interactions and conflicts all your cards have with each other card in terms of the frequency that each of them occur, but also knowing how they interact with your opponent's cards and how they influence your opponent's decisions.

In a nutshell, piloting this deck requires a lot of experience with it.

Read my sideboard explanation on Spellskite , Murpy.

Explorer's Scope is not a 0 cmc equipment card Felixlives, so therefore, it will hinder the deck more than it will benefit. It also poses no immediate static benefit too my creatures that have relevance on my opponent's turn. It relies on a specific condition to be met to grant any benefit, which for the most part means it is a dead card. Finally, it is utterly useless when you compare it with the superior draw mechanics of Puresteel Paladin and the superior xilling scry mechanics of Puresight Merrow .

Also: YAY 200 UPVOTES! WOO!

ok great thanks Femme_Fatale, I just got the cards I needed to build it so I will test it out.

Isnt this deck monowhite?

Yes it is. There are no pure blue cards in this deck. Adding a land of a different colour does not immediately mean that the deck is mono-white. In fact, the T/O system automatically removes coloured mana that isn't used in the casting cost of cards. The only reason you actually see blue in the mana pie is because Puresight Merrow is a hybrid card.

Then why the Hallowed Fountain ??

Read the description for Spellskite in the sideboard Felixlives.

But since you pay two life to have it untapped, and you avoid paying 2 life to pay for spellskite, and no ones going to cast multiple spells that end up targeting the dame spellskite, I just think that its not worth it.

Spellskite can be used more than once Murphy, and I won't always be playing the Hallowed Fountain untapped. It can come tapped as well. This is generally either the 4th land I play OR a tutor off of a Flagstones of Trokair proc. The fact is, there is no reason not to run them, because that two life is going to be lost even if I don't run them. So what harm is there in running them when there is no change in net life loss upon the first usage? Beyond the first usage and/or with respect to potential tutoring, keeping them in can save me anywhere from 2-6 life, and perhaps even more against RDW builds.

No, they'll just double hit the spellskite,. You rarely activate a spellskite more than once because they won't cast a spell that doesnt kill it (bolt) unless its going to die when the cast it (path). Also, they're in your sideboard, and when you draw a hallowed fountain game one and it costs you two life, and it cam be killed by Tec edge and nonbasic land destruction, I think having the ability to activate spellskite twice in games 2+ is nit worth it.

You are forgetting quite a few things Murphy. A majority of the time I won't have to play it turn one, there is only two of them after all. Number two, I can tutor for it with Flagstones of Trokair , meaning the damage is now evaded.

Number three, land destruction is only used against decks in which non-basic lands are really prominent. In fact, if I can encourage them to play land-destruction against this deck, then I have a large advantage over them, as they've wasted a potential synergy in their deck just to try and limit a small portion of my land base, of which isn't all that important due to how mana basics I am running and how much colourless mana costs there are in this deck. Not too mention Flagstones of Trokair loves land destruction.

Number four, I will be using it multiple times in one game. As the amount of times EVERY deck will be able to hit it with removal is slim. Not too mention that getting them to direct their removal on Spellskite and not one of my creatures basically saves me the mana or life to do so. A professional player will never target Spellskite unless they are using Twisted Image , artifact hate or are playing Bogle Voltron or Splinter Twin . They don't because they know that the player using Spellskite will always redirect the spells to Spellskite , meaning that the Spellskite player has used up some resources in order to direct the spell, whereas no resources would be spent on their end if you just targeted Spellskite in the first. It is pretty obvious which one is more advantageous, getting the Spellskite player to either spend one mana or lose two life over them not losing any life or spending any mana for the same result. You then also have to consider that, with the exception of the scenarios I listed earlier, there is no reason to be targeting Spellskite as it holds no immediate threat. 0 power and no modern competitive combos associated with it means it is purely a defensive card and not an offensive card. There is nothing to fear about your life total or potential instant loss due to alternate win conditions against a card like Spellskite .

Number five, There is a very potent counter spell combo with Spellskite that will counter anything that can target a creature in this deck. Admittedly I did not put this down, however it goes like this: Leonin Shikari , Lightning Greaves and Spellskite . Let's say the opponent casts Abrupt Decay on my Lightning Greaves . Now, because Leonin Shikari makes the equip ability an instant, in response I can equip Lightning Greaves to Spellskite . While normally this is completely useless, I can activate Spellskite 's redirect ability on Abrupt Decay in response to the equip cost. Spellskite 's ability resolves first, Abrupt Decay now targets Spellskite , and then Lightning Greaves equip ability resolves granting Spellskite shroud and making Abrupt Decay fizzle and get placed in the graveyard without doing anything. In this, I can counter numerous different spells, making it one of the most powerful defensive cards in modern.

And finally, number six, ever heard of Spellskite versus Spellskite matches?

I do see your point and i obviously dont want to start an actual argument, but from my experiences with spellskite, I bring it in against splinter twin and burn, and in burn, you bolt them, they redirect to spellskite, you bolt spellskite. whether or not you have hallowed fountain in play, the spellskite still dies, and as you stated, no experienced player would cast a bolt into an untapped hallowed fountain and a spellskite that can kill the spellskite, which means you will almost never redirect two spells without the 'skite dying, especially on different turns, when having a blue land gives you the most value. i do like your combo though!

If you wanted removal in this deck, Dispatch might work?

Path to Exile > Dispatch .

this deck looks SWEET! My one comment would be that it would be SICK as a budget deck, as the only things that are really expensive are the lands and, since this deck is basically mono-colored, do you really need a playset of Cavern of Souls ? Honestly, drop those, drop some of the stuff like Aven Mindcensor , Spellskite , Leyline of Sanctity , etc from the sideboard, drop the expensive lands, and you got yourself a nasty ass budget deck! Just a thought....

This is a competitive deck nutellaisgreaterthanlife. It just so happens that everything I'm using is cheap because they have no applications outside a deck like this. The budget style of this deck is a consequence of no one else using these cards. Sort of how Jund used to be, Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant were $1 junk rares that everyone hated. So on that regard, I won't remove the cards that make this deck competitive, they are vital for this deck to function against any other type of deck. If you want to remove all of the $10+ cards, by all means go for it. The deck still functions perfectly without them, it just won't be as resilient against the plethora of different types of modern decks.

So I totally get Cavern of Souls . Totally understand. But your other lands...

This isn't a critique, this isn't a complaint, I simply would like to understand your reasoning. Please take this with a sense of curiosity, as I intend it.

For all intents and purposes, Puresight Merrow is a mono-white creature. I also understand the valuable nature of Spellskite in Modern. But do you really need Hallowed Fountain ? I suppose it would make more sense if you had some sideboard cards that required blue, but other than 'Skite, it is basically just another vulnerable nonbasic land. Tutorable with Flagstones, perhaps, but a fetchland has the same effect, though you pay a life to do so at any time.

And Flagstones of Trokair - I love the card. I really do. It has even found a loving home in my scapeshift deck. But what do you benefit from it? From a glance of the current Modern meta, main-deck land destruction is found, really, only in Living End decks and in other decks in the form of Tectonic Edge . I could be mistaken, but this doesn't seem to be a deck that wants to need to hit its fourth land-drop, so hedging against Tec-Edge might be unnecessary? I could be mistaken, as I am not as versed in this deck as you are. I do understand that playing two does thin your deck by a small margin, if your intent is in the niche card-advantage. If that is part of your plan, though, would it not be strictly better to run fetchlands? However, you could not any longer, in good conscience, label this as budget, if you do.

Now, if I might be allowed to spout just one criticism: Many of your creatures have WW in their mana cost. This requires very specific, unwavering sources of white mana for them to be entirely playable. Half of your lands, also, are nonbasic. These things said, what is your hedge against something such as Blood Moon ? It turns half your land base off-white, and, depending on your luck, prevents you from casting anything but equipment. Perhaps I am nit-picky, or particularly paranoid, but I avoid nonbasics like the plague when I perceive them to only be a potential liability in the best of times, and utter castration in the worst of times.

Again, understand that I bear no malice, I am merely curious, and would point out possible flaws in an attempt to assist. I do, however, apologise for all the reading! I understand a certain amount of someone questioning your logic can grate on the nerves.

It is a really good point thuzra, but I feel that you are forgetting some things. Blood Moon is only really played in RDW, in any other deck they are hurting themselves just as much as they are hurting me. For RDW, I don't really care about Blood Moon as Leyline of Sanctity shuts the entire deck down effectively.

Blood Moon will be used even less now that there are more fetches to fetch basics, so I only have to worry a small bit. In all other cases, Blood Moon comes out on turn 3 at the least, so I generally will have drawn 2+ cards (Puresight Merrow and Puresteel Paladin grant quite a few extra draws and/or perfect draws), which is a fair chance to draw some basics.

Finally, I have 7 instances of Paradise Mantle with Steelshaper's Gift . I can get by with only one plains in this regard and still be able to get any mana I want. With all of these in mind AND my (new) Disenchant s and Nevermore s in the side I'm not too concerned about any Blood Moon .

All this land thing could be practically irrelevant in the future, as I am seriously considering truly splashing blue for Retract , this would then remove Flagstones of Trokair for Flooded Strand . However I have no idea how to add Retract , do I remove all of my Steelshaper's Gift s? All of my Puresight Merrow s? Or just half and half? I have no idea.

Retract seems awesome, but it think you can't take out the merfolk or the mantle without taking out both. I would not take out steelsgaper's gift because it's too good, and I feel as if taking anything else out will make the deck worse. I don't know, however. I think I would have meddling Mage in the sideboard rather than nevermore. Maybe splash blue for that?!

Too easy to remove though Murphy :/ Nevermore is nice because against Jund or BUG, if they don't have mass artifact wipes, I can just say Abrupt Decay and everything will be all right. Whereas Meddling Mage could just be easily destroyed by any black removal spell or any red damage spell. Retract I like for a 2nd reason, it helps evade artifact wraths, and is the only way to prevent them beyond my Nevermore in the side and then Darksteel Forge which would be idiotic to include.

You have a fair point. Though some other decks play Blood Moon , as well, in ways you wouldn't expect. I've seen more than one Affinity deck with BM in the side. Blue Moon has four in the main. Also, some decks can get it out as early as turn 1. But that's a niche interpretation of Modern, I suppose.

But I digress - I think Retract is very powerful, when it's powerful. It makes for a good hedge, but I think it plays a more, ah, prominent role in degenerate combo decks. How well it will work in here I cannot say - Tinker with it. I have no doubt, given enough time, you'll find the proper balance between it, Gift, and Merrow.

I think that Ancient Den would be a good card to this deck, dont you think?

It's banned