Blisters & Mantles

 

Hello everyone and welcome to another instalment of my modern series of articles. Today I will dedicate this article to a special Modern concoction that has been running around the field for awhile. It's a glass cannon deck in a way, sort of like Charbelcher, where if your opponents deal with the main combo card it will fall apart--like a glass cannon that had someone smash it with a baseball bat. This means that if they kill your Blistercoil Weird and you don't have a way to back him up, it's usually a game loss. Yeah, it has Blistercoil Weird. And Paradise Mantle. And as a cherry on top: a lethal Grapeshot.

You see, Blistercoil Weird has this ability that lets him untap every time you cast an instant or sorcery spell; Paradise Mantle, when equipped, allows the Weird to tap for any colored mana; mana you will use to cast a cheap spell to untap the Weird, and these cheap spells are all one-mana cantrips. Because he can only produce one mana at a time, you want spells that can be cast for that lone mana, that way you can play those spells over and over by tapping and untapping him. Now, all you need are one-mana spells that draw cards (Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand, and their kin), so as to draw more one-mana spells. Turns out, that as you untap the Weird spell after spell, he also gets +1/+1 until the end of your turn. Therefore, if you can manage to string a boatload of cantrips together and eventually attack with a giant Weird, usually a 20/20, or a Grapeshot with a storm count of 19 or more which is supposed to be lethal for opponents. On to the decklist!

Blisters & Mantles

Creatures - 4
4 Blistercoil Weird

Spells - 40
4 Paradise Mantle
1 Grapeshot
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
4 Crimson Wisps
4 Cerulean Wisps
1 Aphotic Wisps
4 Faithless Looting
4 Peek
4 Gitaxean Probe
1 Mizzium Skin
1 Dispel
4 Visions of Beyond

Lands - 16
4 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Mountain
5 Island

Having the deck list as a reference, we should take this opportunity to break down these card choices.

1. Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand/Faithless Looting: These are, perhaps, the most important cantrips in the deck. They are the only ones that permit you to filter your draws as you combo off. Serum Visions lets you push back the lands that are on top of the deck to the bottom. Sleight of Hand is also tasked the same job, albeit to a lesser degree considering that you can only look at the top two cards and choose one of them, regardless you get to pick non-land cards in order to maintain the chain moving. Finally, Faithless Looting ensures that you can draw two fresh cards and throw away the lands or extra Mantles and Blistercoils that have piled up in your hand. The best part about the Looting is that you can Flashback it if your hands has been strayed by lands.

When not in the middle of the combo, though, they will help you find whatever parts of the engine. They may not be as efficient as Ponder and Preordain, but they do your job well.

2. Cerulean Wisps/Gitaxean Probe: Probe and Cerulean, are tied for the second best cards in the deck, because these will have you "cheat" on the one-mana-per-spell restriction of the combo. Cerulean Wisps untaps your creature as part of its effect, thus you can tap your Weird for mana, untap it with the Coil's trigger of having played a spell, tap the Weird again for mana, and then untap it as part of the Wisps's resolution. This will effectively net you +1 mana and a card for the trouble. Gitaxian Probe, aside from giving you the benefit of knowing your opponent's hand, essentially untaps the Weird without having to expend any mana (assuming you paid the two life), also netting you +1 mana. The extra mana you gain may seem trivial, yet that mana becomes important when you are comboing out on turn two, and are tapped out. You can't play any more lands during the combo and you will need, at least, two mana to play the game ending Grapeshot or the three mana for a Flashback Faithless Looting if you get stuck with a handful of lands and no cantrips. Even if you don't have the Grapeshot as win-condition for something (possibly the victim of a Thoughtseize). You always have the option to attack with the Blistercoil Weird. Wait a minute... What if there are blockers?

3. Aphotic Wisps: Lo and behold, the answer to your distress! Not only does Aphotic Wisps cost one mana, untaps Blistercoil, pumps him and draws you a card, it also grants Fear! Fear will let it get through those pesky blockers when the going gets tough. Admittedly, this plan is flimsy at best and does not get past Dark Confidants and other black creatures, but this is one of the best ways to win through whatever creatures they may have gotten. The other advantage to Aphotic is that you can play it at any moment during the combo without disrupting the chain, whilst providing you with a way out if need be. Remember, the primary win-condition is Grapeshot, Aphotic is basically a Plan B in case Plan A fails for whatever reasons (they Thoughtseize'd Grapeshot, was forced to kill creatures to stay alive, had it milled, etc.). Speaking of failing Plans...

4. Crimson Wisps: The Red Wisps is or can be a Plan C. Crimson Wisps, Mantle, Blistercoil, and three lands means you can combo out when your opponent is either tapped out or after probing the opponent for any signs of removal. This is added flexibility that the deck desperately needed. Without the Crimson Wisps, the deck would try to stick a Blistercoil, then cross its metaphorical fingers for the Coil to see the dawn of next turn. One last thing the Wisps lets you do, is to get multiple Weird+Mantle combos moving while comboing with the first one. As you are drawing and generating mana, you can play another Weird and a Mantle, and Crimson Wisp the Weird to have two Weirds giving your mana. Although, it is rare that one will need multiple Coils comboing, it is better to know the option is there--just in case.

5. Mizzium Skin/Dispel: Skin and Dispel are there for the protection of the Blistercoils. They are cheap answers to any removal that may come your way. Dispel has broader applications as it can counter counterspells as well, or, to a lesser degree, keep you alive against Burn decks by countering a lethal burns spell. I chose to keep one of each, because drawing too many mid-combo are as useless as lands. That's why I strongly suggest adding one of either card to the sideboard, but not more.

Creating a sideboard for this deck is outstandingly tricky and complicated. What cards can we sideboard that won't dilute the deck? Bad Moon doesn't do anything for us. Adding more Mizzium Skins and Dispels will only make the combo weaker, regardless of how much they can protect your Weird.

To be honest, the best options we have for sideboarding might as well be transformative Sideboards. Slap a couple of Deceiver Exarchs and Splinter Twins, sprinkled with Spellskites and Mizzium Mortars; or a set of Manamorphose and Pyromancer Ascensions, making opposing creature removal obsolete; or if you are feeling frisky(er) we can try Spawning Breaths, an Emrakul, and Polymorphs. Granted the low land count might prove to be troublesome, fortunately that can be remedied by adding a land or two in the Sideboard. More than 50% of the deck is composed of cantrips, consequently your goal should be to abuse them as much as possible before and after Sideboard. Something like this might be acceptable:

Sideboard A:

4 Spawning Breath
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Polymorph
2 Mizzium Skin
1 Dispel
3 Magma Jet

If we are to approach the Sideboard this way, having more Skins and Dispels will help you protect the Eldrazi token generated by the Spawning Breath. The Magma Jets are there so you can kill any Thalia, Guardian of Thrabens, Gaddock Teegs, Melira, Sylvok Outcasts, Ethersworn Canonists, and so on. Magma Jet also has its uses if you stick with the Blistercoil Weird combo.

Sideboard B:

2 Spellskites
4 Deceiver Exarch
1 Pestermite
4 Splinter Twin
1 Kiki-Jiki, the Mirror Breaker
1 Dispel
1 Mountain
1 Sulfur Falls

Our other option is going all-in on the Spinter Twin combo plan. This plan requires a slightly higher land count to reliably get four lands by turn 4 and Spellskites gives us much needed redundancy in creature protection. Frankly, neither of the two Sideboards I'm in love with, and only a good amount of testing will ever paint the picture we need to make a better and informed Sideboard. On the meantime, just enjoy free turn 2 wins--they sure are sweet and tangy.

 

Well, this is the end of the line for now. I like to go down the rabbit hole when exploring formats, so expect a lot more of these articles in the future. I'll have another Modern article for next week, so stay tuned!

Always affectionately,
Chris

PS: By now, Steam Vents are on the cheap side topping at about 8 dollars compared to the 15-20 dollar mark they used to be before they were reprinted in Return to Ravnica. If they are still a pain to get (see what I did there?) you can probably get a playset of Shivan Reefs and/or a few Sulfur Falls for half the Vents' cost and that of a Fetchland. The deck can easily play without the Fetches, as well. Anyway, have fun!