Hey, I’m a regular Bring to Light Shift player and I’ve been having good results with it, I’m now experimenting on fusing the BTL build with Gifts to give us a better aggro win (we can frequently T3 gifts into T4 unburial->Elesh vs aggro) though I’ll need to see what the more stressed mana base will require (26 land) and whether gifts and BTL will non-bo frequently (Elesh in hand without an Izzet Charm would suck)

The only situation where it is significantly worse than twin is if you are facing a lethal board, since Day may let them get one more swing in before you untap and sweep. But I’ve played this combo often enough to know that can be played around, and you can usually find something in the top 14 cards that saves you.

I kinda prefer WB Tokens as a shell for Polymorph – it’s pretty good at slowing down most of the linear decks anyway, with its infinite blockers and maindeck lifegain. Splashing Blue isn’t much of a cost.

Burn isnt worth talking about. It will always be around and it will always be a thing to watch out for since a lot of nubs pick up the deck while they try to learn the format. Eventually, they build real decks and complain about Burn, its a never ending cycle.

With so many cool things to do in Modern, it baffles me why people want to do something boring, like 3 to the face every turn. Unless, the reason is the costs of other decks or that they are too stupid to play real magic. I can respect either reason, but I wish they would just admit it.

Yes, Kiki chord has been having a lot of succes and I see a lot of people playing it. It definitely has that surprise potential and can grind very well, though I don’t know how well it matches up against the really linear big mana decks or fast combo.

I’ve been testing UWR Kiki a lot in the last month on Xmage, where everyone’s playing the new cards.

My list is close to the 2013 players championship deck piloted by shahar shenhar, but with a couple Kiki. His sideboard made the deck pretty aggressive, where he could race the fast decks and combo decks.

I think it will be the level 2 deck in the company format. What I mean is that people are expecting a lot of linear big mama decks and so are opting to play fast, aggressive strategies like burn, zoo, and mono green stompy. UWR control decks match up well against these types of strategies. Against decks like TRON and Eldrazi, you go hard at their life total, backed up with some land destruction and a few counters.

It’s also a deck that is relatively strong to hand disruption, as it is a relatively homogenous deck. I was testing scapeshift before, which is weak to the discard and extraction effects that a lot of people are playing as catch all answers.

I think we’re just talking about slightly different things. You can have a very good deck that fills Twin’s position without also having a winning combo that comes out of nowhere. But I wouldn’t really call that deck a direct Twin successor because it doesn’t have the “if you tap out on turn three you might lose regardless of my/your board position” threat. That doesn’t work with permanent-based combos because if the permanent isn’t in play, your opponent has nothing to fear and can tap out freely.

Not saying a Temur Prowess or Monkey Grow/RUG Delver style deck isn’t good. I think those decks are quite decent right now. Just that those decks wouldn’t be direct Twin replacements because they can’t accomplish #1 quite the same way Twin did.

It’s fast (too fast), decisive (you are definitely dead) and surprising (any 2 cards could be hiding an instant speed win if you have the mana) and resiliant (never seen a combo deck happier to play off the top, where faithless looting in the graveyard or any of half a dozen cards actually say “I Win”). It can also switch from graveyard combo to spell combo in Through the Breach, or if you lock it out with Leylines and such, just change gears and play Worldspine Wurms till you die.

You don’t “need” a opps I win combo, if you pressure the opponent starting with Turn 1. Twin did “nothing” in the first 2 turns (Serum Visions, Bold and Remand were the most common plays, and those cannot compete with stuff like Nacal into Goyf), while Zoo starts kicking your ass.

I know this from the RUG Delver/Prowess deck I’m currently playing. Having a fast clock AND interaction is most of the times enough vs those problematic decks. Also, the “mini” combo in my deck is Become Immense + unblocked dude. Easy to deal 10 damage with a single swing (due to Prowess) which should be enough to finish the game in that or next turn.

Greetings,
Kathal

Absolutely love the Jeskai Ascendancy “Control” version we saw Scott Kirkwood play at SCG Cincinnati. I don’t think it has quite the same surprise win-threat potential as Twin, but it fires on enough cylinders that it might not matter. It certainly has some strong Plan Bs in burn, Snapcaster, Unburial Rites, etc. I’d probably avoid the Glittering Wish version and stick with the Gifts package (which fits Criterion 1 much better than Wish does), but there’s still a lot of potential in all those variants.

I’m not totally confident a next level Twin is doable, but if it is possible, I think Jeskai Control and Kiki Chord are nice starting places. White generally seems well suited to this, whether in bodies like Restoration Angel, removal like Path, or manlands like Colonnade. As you also mention, it has great sideboard tools to handle the linear and ramp foes we’ll likely encounter after the ban goes into effect.

Storm won’t be the Twin replacement because it requires way too many slots to fulfill #2, which was a major contributor to Twin’s success. That said, I do think Storm is well-positioned in this current metagame, especially if players are too preoccupied with creature-based aggro decks, ramp, and Affinity. That leaves a nice hole for Storm to, well, storm through.

Kiki Chord is certainly in a similar category to Blue Knightfall Zoo. It doesn’t really meet Criterion 3, but it passes pretty handily on #1 and #2 (which, I believe, are more important). Hoogland has had a lot of great runs with the deck, so maybe we see more of it as 2016 unfolds.

It’s certainly decisive but it lacks the surprise element of Twin. This means opponents don’t have to respect it and suffer self-inflicted tempo loss for holding mana for interaction and the threat of interaction.That’s a major strike against the combo, although I still think it’s a neat brew.

Knightfall has potential. The Remand and Snapcaster loss is unfortunate, but it keeps Bolt and still meets the important Criterion 1 and Criterion 2. I also think Zoo is generally a good deck to bring to this current metagame, so we might see some Knightfall in our future if people figure out the best way to play and build it.

If not Hooglands list, I think a jeskai control deck is the way to go. I think the new red snapcastsr in oath looks like a promising one or two of to have a versatile ETB. And I don’t think it nessecarily needs a combo, just needs to combat the linear decks in a reasonable manner

Bottom line is I think White is crucial for the replacement, because of how many amazing sideboard cards its offers. The boogie men are infect, tron, affinity, and burn. White has the tools to combat all of those strategies and still compete with GBx.