At the the last RPTQ, I played Scapeshift to a 4-3 finish, a little short of my goal. After the GP, I sat down and analyzed my deck once again.
What did this deck have problems with?
Well, that answer is fairly clear: aggressive decks. Against the midrange matches, Scapeshift shines. While they’re durdling to do a couple damage a turn, we are killing them by turn five consistently! But the aggressive decks make that plan a lot harder.
What are the aggressive decks?
We know the big aggressive decks—infect, burn, affinity, and bogles. They are decks that come out super fast, and cards like Farseek and Hunting Wilds aren’t that great at interacting. With Bring to Light, we gain access to silver-bullet sweepers like Shatterstorm and Anger of the Gods. But that flexibility comes at a (mana) cost of 3UG. We can’t count on a five mana spell in a turn four format, not with Inkmoth Nexus buzzing around ready to end at turn’s notice.
We struggle with decks that are simply too fast. As I played against these decks I noticed that that we didn’t need much extra time, a turn would often be enough. How can we delay death long enough for our Cryptic Commands and Bring to Lights to seal the game? The answer is (ironically) clear….
The current decklist:
Scapeshift
Spells (34)
2 Mana Leak
4 Cryptic Command
4 Remand
3 Izzet Charm
2 Electrolyze
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Farseek
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
1 Hunting Wilds
3 Scapeshift
4 Bring to LightLands (26)
3 Island
2 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
2 Breeding Pool
1 Watery Grave
4 Steam Vents
4 Stomping Ground
1 Cinder Glade
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Sideboard (15)
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Spellskite
3 Obstinate Baloth
4 Fog
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Shatterstorm
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Slaughter Games
The deck looks simple, right? Ramp spells, protect your combo with counterspells, Scapeshift. But I promise, it is a lot harder that it looks. One of the reasons why I love playing this deck is that the decision tree is huge. If I fetch a Forest the first turn instead of a Breeding Pool, how will that affect me on turn five? If I don’t Cryptic Command this and tap his creatures, will I live another turn? It is questions like this that you have to ask yourself every game and every answer changes the next question you ask. Scapeshift is a deck that rewards you more with the more time you put into practicing and playing the deck, and the rewards are worth every second of practicing.
Overall, the main deck is pretty stock. I don’t like running Lightning Bolt in Scapeshift because we are either an eight or nine card combo—having a card that doesn’t cantrip in the deck is a lot of card disadvantage that we can’t afford. In this slot, I’m running Izzet Charm which can be a bolt against the aggressive decks, a counterspell when we need it, and a loot when we are trying to find our combo. I also like having more counterspells in the main deck, which is why I am playing two copies of Mana Leak over the usual Anticipate. This is because a lot of the time, we just want to stall for time to get to eight lands and Scapeshift. Other than those two cards it is a pretty straightforward game one plan: don’t die, get to eight lands, Scapeshift.
Sideboard
So, the sideboard has a lot of standard choices for Scapeshift but there are also some interesting ones. I’m going to breakdown the sideboard one by one so you understand why I chose each card for the upcoming GP in Pittsburgh.
Dispel and Negate
These two spells are pretty much a catch all against most matchups. They are good against both the blue and non-blue decks. Having more cards like these are one of the reasons why I decided to have Mana Leak in the main.
Spellskite
Spellskite is another good catch-all kind of card, but mostly for the aggro decks. It is good against decks like Burn, Infect, and Bogles—all decks Scapeshift has a problem against. Having one of these is always a good thing in the sideboard because it has a lot of utility in matchups. That being said, I don’t like it against decks like Twin or Amulet Bloom—they don’t really do much and those deck can still kill us anyway. Bolt, Snap Bolt still gets there for Twin and just having a Primeval Titan for Amulet Bloom is pretty scary.
Obstinate Baloth
This card has always been a mainstay in the Scapeshift sideboard. It is a strong card in one of our worst matchups, Burn, and also is very well positioned against the Liliana of the Veil decks—Jund and Junk. It also has some good utility against decks that are on the more aggressive plan like Grixis Delver, a deck where Remand doesn’t shine so bright.
Fog
Having four copies of Fog in the sideboard has done everything I have wanted it to do. Against aggressive decks and creature heavy decks like Merfolk and Elves, Fog is half a Cryptic but for one inconspicuous green mana. There’s no greater joy than countering an Infect player’s entire hand with just one card.
Anger of the Gods
Anger of the Gods is one of those cards that I would never want to take out of my sideboard. Heck, it’s so good I put a copy in the main! Having a sweeper is really strong when playing against these fast, creature based decks that Modern is currently littered with. Turn three against Affinity? Boom. Elves? Boom. Anafenza Company? Boom. It comes in handy in so many matchups.
Shatterstorm
This is the one silver-bullet against Affinity, and also has some uses against the Lantern Control deck. I have been able to cast Bring to Light for Shatterstorm under a Blood Moon. Let’s just say things didn’t end well for the Affinity player that game.
Crumble to Dust
It is sad to say, but Tron isn’t an auto win for Scapeshift anymore. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Void Winnower have made it a lot harder—hard enough that we need a dedicated sideboard slot for this deck. Luckily, we can run five copies of it since we are playing Bring to Light. And, as an added bonus, it can also make its way into post-board mirror matches.
Slaughter Games
Slaughter Games is the reason I decided to choose black over white as my fourth color in Scapeshift for Bring to Light. The card is really good against those combo heavy decks: the mirror, Amulet Bloom, Living End, and Ad Nauseam are the big decks to consider.
Conclusions going into GP Pittsburgh.
So far, I am very pleased with this list and I am definitely going to run it for GP Pittsburgh. The deck has a good midgame and control game, and the sideboard will improve my chances when playing against all of the aggressive decks. Almost a fourth of the metagame is currently these fast aggro decks, and I want to make sure I am prepared for those matches going into the Grand Prix weekend. The deck has been putting up good results so far, going 4-1 in multiple Modern MTGO leagues, and has even beat some matches that I thought were unbeatable (Suicide Zoo).
Follow me at www.twitch.tv/kintreespirit to see when I go live to test more Blacklight Scapeshift before GP Pittsburgh! I am always open to answering questions there or on my twitter, @kintreespirit.
Don’t you want to have fun killing some people with mountains?
Lexie Mettler is a Level 2 judge from Fort Wayne, Indiana. By day she is a student, by night she streams MTGO and practices for tournaments all over the Midwest