Modern Deck Tech: Storm Herald Conscription

Ladies & Gentlemen!

We are back with another Deck Tech of some of the most interesting or bizarre decklists that appear on recent Magic tournaments every week!

Today, we'll take a deeper look at the Challenges, to be exact, the Modern Challenge where the player Spouts placed 5th on April 18's Modern Challenge with a card that always asked to be broken: Storm Herald.

Storm Herald is a card that always seemed to have great potential to create unusual situations according to the Auras available in each format. The combination of this card with high-costed Auras is so great that Wizards noticed and, on the set following its release in Theros Beyond Death, created a clause in one of these Auras that forces the creature to be tapped when enchanted in the form of Colossification.

However, there are many Auras in Magic. Some of them are already well known from other combinations and formats, as was the case with Eldrazi Conscription with Sovereings of Lost Alara. This combination came to life and even saw some game his time as a Standard in the then famous Bant Mythics.

However, this deck tries to go beyond playing Auras to the graveyard to return with Storm Herald. It tries to throw everything to the graveyard and use cards like Unearth to create a comfortable combo-kill situation while still having great interaction and disruption against your opponent.

This deck's main objective is to win the game with a Storm Herald alongside any combination among the following enchantments:

• 2 Eldrazi Conscription for 23 power with Trample and Annihilator 4

• 1 Eldrazi Conscription + 1 Prodigious Growth for 20 power with Trample and Annihilator 2

• 1 Eldrazi Conscription + 1 Battle Mastery for 13 power with Double Strike and Trample

• 2 Progidious Growth + 1 Battle Mastery for 17 Power with Double Strike and Trample

Since Storm Herald has haste, any combination of those cards on the graveyard is enough for you to put him into play and go for the combat and, preferably, to the victory.

But how can we guarantee that the deck will put all those pieces into the graveyard on time?

By milling yourself.

In a format that no longer has access to cards like Faithless Looting and has no powerful effects of sending cards to the graveyard like Buried Alive or Entomb, the best option is to bet on milling as many cards from your deck so that you have all the necessary pieces for the "combo" in your hand and/or graveyard.

On a deck that uses so many fetchlands, Hedron Crab does a great job as an early drop who can serve as a blocker in the early game while cumulatively putting cards on your graveyard.

Glimpse the Unthinkable is the best way to speed up the combo available in Modern; milling ten cards from the library itself brings a great opportunity to put at least one or two of the cards you need to the graveyard.

Stinkweed Imp may seem strange as a one-of. Still, the possibility of exchanging your draw for milling five more cards gives the deck even more opportunities to mill the cards needed to close the combo and, as it is not an effect that you always want and that works as a conditional means to mill yourself, you don't really want many copies of it.

The deck needs to benefit from the fact that the combo pieces can be assembled from the graveyard and/or the fact it puts many cards into its graveyard.

Unearth allows you to play the whole combo from the graveyard by reanimating Storm Herald, which will bring the Auras alongside him.

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy benefits greatly from the mill effects and its Planeswalker side, Jace, Telepath Unbound is a great asset that helps the deck to play the entire combo from the graveyard if necessary by targeting Unearth with its ability, or by holding off the game a few turns with its first ability or by protecting the combo by flashbacking a discard spell.

Call of the Death-Dweller serves as an extra copy of Unearth that adds Menace or Lifelink to Storm Herald, making it possible to create a significatively big creature in some situations that may not win the game by itself, but that will gain you chunks of life which might give you enough time to dig for the combo once again.

Since the combo relies solely on combat to function and lacks Auras to protect Storm Herald, the deck bets on low-cost disruptions to remove the problematic cards from the opponent's hand.

Collective Brutality is a flexible card that serves as a discard spell, lifegain and removal for low-toughness creatures. Still, it also has great use in this deck to discard unwanted pieces of the combo from your hand, such as the Auras or even a Storm Herald if the best plan is to reanimate him with a Unearth.

Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek are your interactions on turn one, turn 2, or any other turn, and that allows the deck at a low cost to take away the main threat that the opponent has against you, such as a counter, removal or discard spell.

Izzet Charm also has a double function on this list, serving as a removal, a low-cost interaction, or the best looting effect currently available in Modern because of its flexibility, while also cards that need to be in the graveyard to play them later with Storm Herald.

As a deck with a low curve, abuses Hedron Crab and wants to have the least amount of dead cards going to the graveyard, it makes sense that it uses 12 Fetchlands to remove lands from the deck and increase Landfall triggers. It is obviously preferable to use Shocklands with Fetchs to have enough consistency in your color choice.

The card that stands out in the lands is curiously Reflecting Pool, a land that was once a Standard staple back in 2008 and that sees little or no game in Modern, but that collaborates so that the deck can correct the manabase according to the lands that you already have in play.

More board interaction, since the deck has too few means to interact with big creatures.

Fatal Push is still one of the best removals Modern can offer a removal that deals with Tarmogoyf, Death's Shadow, Monastery Swiftspear, among others for just one mana, yet it is a force to be respected.

The other removals also double as flexible slots to handle problematic cards:

Feed the Swarm has the main function of dealing with problematic enchantments, especially Rest In Peace or Leyline of the Void, cards that definitely hinder your game plan too much. In addition, the card also deals with other problematic permanents that you may encounter in Modern such as Leyline of Sanctity, Phyrexian Unlife, etc.

Angrath’s Rampage triples as an efficient removal against Planeswalkers and other problematic artifacts on the board, as well as being a good removal against larger creatures.

Modern is still a format in which you need to respect your opponent's graveyard and Surgical Extraction is a great option to deal with problematic graveyard strategies and specific hate cards that you might have removed from your opponent's hand.

It's important to have more access to unconditional discard spells against Control, Tron and other combo decks. It's also important to have more discard spells to protect your combo from decks with a high removal count.

Liliana of the Veil is a great tool to grind out games that benefit from this combo's disruptive strategy. She works as removal, as a repeatedly discard spell, which also allows you to discard Auras from your hand and can lead to a game where the opponent lacks any means of interaction besides the topdeck.

There are occasions when relying on the combo is not your best option, and the deck needs other ways to win the game and establish pressure on your opponent.

With so many cards going to the graveyard, it sounds like a natural choice that Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger can be used on the Sideboard and helps with matchups where your best option is to grind out your opponent.

Gurmag Angler represents an accurate, fast and extremely efficient clock that can be played on this deck even in turn 2 in combination with Hedron Crab and Fetchlands, and it may be exactly what you need in matches where extending the game is a great advantage for the opponent.

That was Modern's Storm Herald Combo, which made a great result at the Modern Challenge, earning a spot on the Top 8.

Modern has as its main characteristic being a “jungle” format, where you can literally face any type of deck and your sideboard needs to be wide to handle the most diverse occasions. This deck has one more angle to attack the metagame and is another deck to watch in Modern, one more option to play, and one more option to consider when building your 75.

Whether this deck has enough to be a big influence on the Metagame or not, it is still a question to be answered, but it is always good to see airs of innovation in competitive formats!

Thanks for reading!