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Leonardo Combo

Modern Aggro Counters Infinite Combo Lifegain Lifelink Mono-White

DashJovis2

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Creature (39)

Land (18)

Artifact (3)

Sideboard

Creature (3)

Instant (3)

Sorcery (3)

Enchantment (3)

Artifact (3)

So this is a mono-white lifegain aggro deck, with Pride of Souls for one axis, and an infinite combo for another. It also leverages a +1/+1 counter subtheme. It appeals to me as a good shell for Enlightened Confidant.

4x Leonardo, Cutting Edge

3x Walking Ballista

3x Agatha's Soul Cauldron

So this is the combo, and it can win the game as early as turn 3. You get the Cauldron and the Leo on board, and the Ballista in the GY (which you can do just for casting it as X=0). You put the Ballista's abilities on Leo with the Soul Cauldron. Because Leo is a Pridemate with lifelink, it can now remove a counter to deal a damage, gaining a life, and getting back the counter.

This isn't actually plan A of the deck, but what's nice is that none of these cards are terrible even if you can't assemble to combo. Even played fairly, Leo is a must-kill threat in the Soul Sister pile, and that's without even considering how it's a webslinging ninja. Soul Cauldron works as grave hate even if you don't see all the pieces, and Ballista can be a mana sink/removal spell on its own. Additionally, even if you don't have Leo, a bunch of cards put +1/+1 counters on your creatures, meaning Cauldron + Ballista often makes you board way more threatening. Cauldron can also rebuy Ranger-Captain of Eos' silence effect, or maybe even steal other good activated abilities from the opponent.

4x Guide of Souls

4x Ocelot Pride

These cards play well with themselves and each other, and also play well with Leo and the other lifegain payoffs in the deck.

3x Haliya, Guided by Light

This card can be awkward, since we aren't running Ephemerate to blink it, but it does provide another source of card draw and a backup Soul Sister effect.

4x Enlightened Confidant

This card is actually what makes me want to play this list, a card advantage engine that plays well with the Soul Sister plan. It's worth noting Lifelink is pretty good with the Cauldron/Ballista stuff too.

4x Ranger-Captain of Eos

1x Guiding Hydra

Ranger Captain helps put together Guide + Pride and makes it more consistent to see Guides in general. However, it can also search Ballista to assemble the combo, or Guiding Hydra, which buffs the board and plays well with the Soul Cauldron/Ballista stuff and with Abandoned Air Temple in the mana base.

4x White Orchid Phantom

So I'm running this maindeck with Flagstones of Trokair in the mana base. I just think the extra points against Urza's Saga and Eldrazi Temple are really important in this metagame. It's possible this should be Ephemerate, as I do miss that card, but also these make the mana way smoother and allow you to gain a mana advantage, and they're also easy to side out when the opponent isn't on Sol or Utility lands.

4x Solitude

This still seems to be the best removal for the deck, even without Ephemerate, triggering Guides and Haliyas, clearing the way for pride, and even hardcasting it can be pretty good.

4x Witch Enchanter   make their way into the mana base, mostly to pitch to Solitude, but also to give more game into floodgates and other obnoxious artifacts and enchantments.

Broodscale Combo

Probably the best deck in the format, a fast creature based combo deck with good interaction and lots of consistency. Thraben Charm can help clear the graveyard to delay Emrakul, or kill Broodscale provided you're on board, also deletes Saga. Wrath of the Skies sweeps up Sagas and Blades, and can also clear Broodscales some of the time. Haliya can be good game 1, but is non-essential. Then we trim on the combo and go aggro mode.

In -

3x Wrath of the Skies

3x Thraben Charm

Out -

3x Haliya, Guided by Light

1x Leonardo, Cutting Edge

1x Agatha's Soul Cauldron

1x Walking Ballista

Izzet Prowess

While this is a really strong aggro deck, the lifegain plan and the combo are both pretty good here. White Orchid Phantom is good as a mana consistency piece, but less valuable than High Noon. Wrath of the Skies could be good into Steelcutter, but is kind of awkward where it isn't a slam dunk, as we're a deck that floods the board with little shitters too.

In -

3x High Noon

Out -

3x White Orchid Phantom

Esper Goryos

Thraben Charm can kill Frog sometimes, and can be good against the Atraxa plan. White Orchid Phantom is good as a way to get ahead on mana, but doesn't have great lands to target. You could bring in the Grafdigger's Cage, but they might transform out of the Atraxa plan, which would make it a dead card.

In -

3x Thraben Charm

Out -

3x White Orchid Phantom

Boros Energy

Boromir could be important into their Wrath of the Skies, Wrath of the Skies could be important if they get ahead of you on the board.

In -

2x Boromir, Warden of the Tower

2x Wrath of the Skies

Out -

4x White Orchid Phantom

Izzet Affinity

Wrath of the Skies clears up all their dorky little artifacts and tokens. Thraben Charm can remove Saga and Weapons Manufacturing, also gives you more removal vs a board spam deck. Haliya is a good grindy engine, but a little slow in the matchup. Then side down on the combo.

In -

3x Wrath of the Skies

3x Thraben Charm

Out -

3x Haliya, Guided by Light

1x Walking Ballista

1x Agatha's Soul Cauldron

1x Leonardo, Cutting Edge

Living End

Boromir deals with their pitch spells and cascade nonsense. High Noon also stops cascading.

In -

3x Boromir, Warden of the Tower

3x High Noon

Out -

4x White Orchid Phantom

2x Haliya, Guided by Light

Devoted Druid Combo

Not only is the combo potentially good here, but the pieces individually also have play. We bring in Grafdigger's Cage for Green Sun's Zenith and Nature's Rhythm. You've gotta decide between bringing in sweepers or spot removal, but because we tend to go wider than them I'm inclined to bring in the spot removal.

In -

3x Grafdigger's Cage

3x Thraben Charm

Out -

4x White Orchid Phantom

2x Haliya, Guided by Light

Darklight Soultrader

Grafdigger's Cage shuts down Phoenixes and Soultrader combo. There's not much else to bring in. Hitting utility lands can be good in the matchup, and Haliya's lifegain can be key to surviving the combo, so we side down on a couple Ballistas which are searchable, and a Leo.

In -

3x Grafdigger's Cage

Out -

2x Walking Ballista

1x Leonardo, Cutting Edge

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