Welcome back, in this installment things are going to start getting complex as we dive into the world of Combo. These decks look to build the perfect group of cards to do something unfair to win the game on the spot.

Scapeshift

Creatures (5)

4 Sakura­Tribe Elder

1 Snapcaster Mage

Spells (29)

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Farseek

2 Izzet Charm

4 Remand

1 Anger of the Gods

4 Search for Tomorrow

4 Cryptic Command

1 Hunting Wilds

4 Scapeshift

4 Bring to Light

Lands (26)

2 Breeding Pool

1 Cinder Glade

1 Flooded Grove

2 Forest

3 Island

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Mountain

4 Steam Vents

4 Stomping Ground

1 Swamp

2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

1 Watery Grave

Sideboard (15)

1 Engineered Explosives

2 Dispel

2 Ancient Grudge

1 Negate

1 Spellskite

1 Krosan Grip

1 Crumble to Dust

1 Huntmaster of the Fells

2 Obstinate Baloth

1 Shatterstorm

1 Slaughter Games

1 Inferno Titan

It seems right to start with the deck that is a good place for those who were playing Amulet Bloom before the ban. The deck does play at a slower pace than Amulet Bloom, with a control shell building it’s land until it has 7 in play and is in a position to get a Scapeshift to resolve. With Scapeshift it will sacrifice all 7 lands and find a Valakut and 6 Mountains, when the lands come into play the Valakut will trigger 6 times for a total of 18 damage which, due to the use of fetchlands and shocklands will normally be enough to kill the opponent. With the release of Battle for Zendikar the deck has gain Bring to Light which is cast for a Converge of 4 and will act as another version of Scapeshift.

There is another variant of the deck which if you look around and stock levels for the card it adds people seems to think maybe on the rise, Prismatic Omen Scapeshift, one of the things to keep in mind while playing normal Scapeshift is making sure you leave enough Mountains in your library to be able to win.

With Prismatic Omen this is no longer a problem, it also allows you to find only 6 lands and two Valakut’s meaning you’d get 12 triggers.

Grishoalbrand

Creatures (14)

4 Simian Spirit Guide

2 Borborygmos Enraged

4 Griselbrand

4 Worldspine Wurm

Spells (28)

4 Faithless Looting

4 Serum Visions

2 Desperate Ritual

4 Goryo’s Vengeance

2 Izzet Charm

1 Manamorphose

3 Night’s Whisper

4 Nourishing Shoal

4 Through the Breach

Lands (18)

2 Blackcleave Cliffs

1 Blood Crypt

2 Bloodstained Mire

1 Darkslick Shores

1 Island

1 Mountain

3 Polluted Delta

4 Scalding Tarn

1 Steam Vents

1 Swamp

1 Watery Grave

Sideboard (15)

1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

2 Pact of Negation

2 Inquisition of Kozilek

1 Rending Volley

2 Echoing Truth

2 Pyroclasm

2 Sudden Shock

2 Painful Truths

1 Shatterstorm

Now we are into the real unfair and focused combo decks, how this deck wins is to cheat Griselbrand into play and draw as many cards as possible, normally 14. In those 14 cards it hopes to find a Nourishing Shoal and a Worldspine Wurm, it will then exile the Wurm to pay the alternative cost of the Shoal and gain 11 life, which will allow it to draw 7 or 14 cards again and it will continue this process. Once it has the right cards in hand it will cheat Borborygmos Enraged into play and discard lands until the opponent is dead.

The deck uses Serum Visions and Night Whispers to try and find Griselbrand in the first place, it also uses Faithless Looting and Izzet Charm to try and find him but these also serve a purpose of giving the deck a discard outlet which allows for Goryo’s Vengeance to bring him back. If the deck doesn’t draw any discard outlets or Vengeances it still has Through the Breach as a backup plan. The deck has been around as a shell for some time but it has only been recently that the Shoal/Wurm combo has been added, which has really catapulted the deck into the limelight as the streamlining it introduces means that the deck is now a potential turn 2 kill. While this breaks the key rule of Modern the deck has fallen out of favour and so is currently classed as “Not a Problem” by those in charge of the ban list.

Living End

Creatures (26)

4 Fulminator Mage

3 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Architects of Will

4 Deadshot Minotaur

4 Monstrous Carabid

4 Street Wraith

1 Pale Recluse

1 Twisted Abomination

1 Jungle Weaver

Spells (15)

3 Living End

4 Beast Within

4 Demonic Dread

4 Violent Outburst

Lands (19)

4 Blackcleave Cliffs

1 Blood Crypt

4 Copperline Gorge

1 Forest

1 Mountain

1 Overgrown Tomb

1 Stomping Ground

1 Swamp

4 Verdant Catacombs

1 Watery Grave

Sideboard (15)

1 Dismember

2 Gnaw to the Bone

2 Jund Charm

4 Ricochet Trap

4 Ingot Chewer

2 Shriekmaw

The last deck I’m going to cover today is Living End, this deck is older than the Modern format being a staple in the last version of the seven year Extended format. The goal of this deck is to simply cycle a load of creatures for their very cheap cycle cost, which allows you to draw into the lands you’ll need, you then cast either Demonic Dread or Violent Outburst, Outburst is prefered as it does not require a target, when you cascade you will only ever hit Living End which will bring all those creatures you cycled back and clear your opponent’s side of the field at the same time. Things to bare in mind with this deck,  if you wish to play and tinker with it,  all your cards have to be 3 mana or more otherwise you won’t be able to guarantee cascading into Living End. Fulminator Mage is likely one of the best cards in the deck looking to Living End,  just cutting your opponent off of mana isn’t a terrible idea.

That’s it for the decks I’m going to cover, below are the decklists for Ad Nauseum and UR Storm which are starting to pick up in popularity.

Ad Nauseam

Creatures (4)

4 Simian Spirit Guide

Spells (36)

4 Lotus Bloom

3 Pact of Negation

1 Slaughter Pact

4 Angel’s Grace

4 Serum Visions

4 Sleight of Hand

3 Spoils of the Vault

4 Pentad Prism

2 Lightning Storm

3 Phyrexian Unlife

4 Ad nauseam

Lands (20)

4 Darkslick Shores

4 Gemstone Mine

1 Plains

4 Seachrome Coast

4 Temple of Deceit

2 Temple of Enlightenment

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard (15)

1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

3 Duress

3 Holy Day

2 Drown in Sorrow

1 Laboratory Maniac

4 Leyline of Sanctity

1 Patrician’s Scorn

Storm

Creatures (4)

4 Goblin Electromancer

Spells (40)

4 Gitaxian Probe

4 Serum Visions

4 Sleight of Hand

4 Thought Scour

3 Desperate Ravings

4 Desperate Ritual

2 Grapeshot

4 Manamorphose

4 Pyretic Ritual

4 Pyromancer Ascension

3 Past in Flames

Lands (16)

4 Flooded Strand

4 Island

1 Mountain

3 Polluted Delta

2 Shivan Reef

2 Steam Vents

Sideboard (15)

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Spell Pierce

1 Echoing Truth

2 Pyroclasm

2 Stone Rain

3 Empty the Warrens

2 Shatterstorm