Dickmann is a true master with Twin, and in his hands this deck is very powerful, but if you haven’t played a thousand games with Twin yet, then you will probably make mistakes, and this deck is not very forgiving to your own mistakes. Noah Swartz (4-1-1 at 2011 Worlds). Simon Görtzen (2010 PT Amsterdam, Extended). They only get to replay their land, probably still don’t have a play, and discard. A bad matchup against Infect or Urzatron is a small strike against a deck, but not necessarily a dealbreaker. 1x Battered Golem. Twin started out as an Extended deck. Matt Nass (6th at 2011 GP Pittsburgh, Standard). His deck is among the successful decks of the tournament (6-4 or better) although David went 5-5. In some matchups having. The application that might not be quite as obvious is as a buffer against Liliana of the Veil. The first successful deck that is actually dedicated to winning with Splinter Twin comes from Matt Nass. If you know more please post them in the comments. Splinter Twin featured a list of flash creatures that would increase tempo with or without the Splinter Twin aura itself. These are all the Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker infinite combos I know of. Ancient Grudge, Sowing Salt, and Grim Lavamancer are also powerhouse sideboard cards which Jund can access but Abzan cannot. At least in spirit this is a predecessor to the Kiki-Jiki deck that Shaun McLaren recently Top 8’d a Grand Prix with. Jesse had a stellar result, but as is often the case in Magic, different players can have vastly different experiences with the same deck. For example if Estratti had played against Sam Black’s Blazing Shoal deck those Dispels sure would have come in handy although Pact is better as combo protection. This is because you just need 1 Pestermite, 1 Splinter Twin, 2 Mountain, 1 Island and any other fourth land in your opening hand to guarantee lethal on turn 4. They never had access to more than a single mana apiece. Especially Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor don’t have adequate replacements in Modern. Pestermite and Exarch are out here, but Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker do the same thing, a mana more expensive but with individually more powerful cards . Splinter Twin is not the quickest combo, it can pull of a turn four win without any ramp at all but in my experience is much more of a turn six sort of deck. The combo forces opponents to be careful, which raises your chances of getting into the late game where you will be a huge favorite. Teachings Twin In the next upkeep your Deceiver Exarch taps their only land, and on your fourth turn you kill them. Inferno Titan might not be the perfect maindeck card, but it in a field with lots of Pod decks –basically what you would expect at the top tables of an American Grand Prix– having Inferno Titan in the sideboard might be a good choice indeed. When players are forced to leave Abrupt Decay mana open every turn for the entire game, it’s easy to wear them down with Cryptic Commands and Snapcaster Mages. Posted on June 29, 2020. Splinter Twin; Splinter Twin. Today we’re going to look at another PTBNG deck list that performed quite well. However, a problem remained that Abzan doesn’t have access to a good turn-one removal spell. Straight U/R Twin, Tarmo Twin and due to recent additions to modern, mainly Grixis Fetchlands, but also Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Kolaghan's Command - Grixis Twin. If you’re attending Grand Prix Vancouver, or have another Modern event coming up, this is the time to learn the format, choose a deck, and get a big edge over the competition. Set: Modern Masters 2015 Type: Enchantment Rarity: Rare Cost: {2}{R}{R} Enchant creature Enchanted creature has "{T}: Create a token that's a copy of this creature, except it has haste. Asatas on WOMBO COMBO!!! Thing is, recent SCM-Exarch-Twin lists have given me the idea to put Splinter Twin combo inside either a Burn shell or Blue Sligh shell. 3rd - 4th. German players Simon Görtzen, Florian Pils, and Jan Rüß chose a super-hybrid Pyromancer Ascension deck for the Extended portion of the tournament. Not unlike Tarmotwin today, the main deck has four Tarmogoyf. Tempo Twin Vendilion Clique, Grim Lavamancer, and Molten Rain also help with this strategy. On the other hand turn 4 Shatterstorm on the draw might just not be good enough, especially in a time when Affinity players often had 4 Galvanic Blast and 3 Shrapnel Blast. Having maindeck answers to cards like Linvala, Spellskite, and Ghostly Prison is certainly useful, but this was only a side effect. on the play is devestating. What did take me by surprise however was seeing a Splinter Twin deck, not just in the event, but in the top 8! Splinter Twin A problem with this approach is that the mana base is not as good as you would like it to be. Sang Mun Bang (24th at 2011 GP Singapore, Standard). For Abzan, I like two copies of Maelstrom Pulse, three copies of Abrupt Decay, and rounding out the rest with a mix of Path to Exile, Dismember, and Victim of Night. Of course, not having a banned list also beefs up Twin combo by allowing access to actual Splinter Twin (still banned at the time of this writing), alongside Kiki-Jiki, Deceiver Exarch, and Pestermite. Ironically, Deceiver Exarch plus Splinter Twin is exactly the sort of two-card combo that I recommended avoiding. It doesn’t really seem natural to splash green just for the flashback of Ancient Grudge, but Grudge fits the game plan so much better than Shatterstorm. I detest Path to Exile in Abzan. Against all three of them, I will take out as much combo, as possible and play a tempo / control game since most of the time Splinter Twin will be the worst card in your deck. The only thing to avoid is a deck that needs to assemble a two-card combo in its hand in the late game. If you have a lot of lands then you just need to protect this one card to win. The deck has a reasonable beatdown plan as we saw, but having the ability to tap six lands and win the game no matter what the board state looks like is very impressive. There’s still nothing like turn 1 Inquisition of Kozilek into turn 2 Dark Confidant! 1 Negate: 1 Comm. I can only guess what the exact reasons were, but I suppose a well prepared field and inexperienced pilots were at least two of the main reasons. More interesting are the three Spreading Seas. Event: MTGO Standard Premier #2 - 7/10/11 The protection package looks a bit rough around the edges. "I know just the person for that job." Jesse Hampton was the highest finisher, and also happened to have the most traditional deck list. Finally a couple of days ago LSV played a Daily with a version of Twin that was mainly supposed to be a joke at Efro’s expense. If you know more please post them in the comments. Thoughtseize can round out the rest, depending on how many slots you choose to dedicate to hand disruption (I recommend seven to nine between main deck and sideboard). It played a lot of counter magic, and it demanded your opponent to have removal or counter spells of their own or else Splinter Twin’s combo with Deceiver Exarch would go off consistently. Another GP Top 8 in Madrid in 2012 soon followed, where he brought the Legacy Omniscience deck to the forefront of the format. Finally Wall of Omens and Lightning Helix make racing this deck very hard, even with Tarmogoyfs. Shaun McLaren (3rd at Grand Prix Minneapolis). Asatas on WOMBO COMBO!!! In fact, I’d say it’s the only deck that you’ll definitely need to beat if you’re looking for a strong finish in a Modern tournament. It’s valuable to have a 1-mana removal spell against Infect and Splinter Twin, but for grindy matchups like the mirror, giving your opponent a free land is a huge liability. 4 Splinter Twin. Created By: _YS. Samuele Estratti (1st at 2011 Pro Tour Philadelphia), Samuele Estratti won Pro Tour Philadelphia with this combo-oriented Splinter Twin version. Patrick Dickmann (3rd at Pro Tour Born of the Gods). Creature removal, countermagic, enchantment destruction and Spellskite all shut the combo down. There are several possible builds of twin varying from the first “all in” twin list that Samuele Estratti used to win Pro Tour Philadelphia in 2011, to the recent “Tarmo-Twin” list … The rest of the deck follows quite naturally then. Del Moral Leon’s deck featured a few controlling elements like Cryptic Commands and Electrolyzes, but for the most part it was rather dedicated to winning with the combo. The format was introduced as a non-sanctioned Magic Online format in May 19, 2011 and subsequently officially codified on August 12, 2011, when the format of Pro Tour Philadelphia was changed from Extendedto Modern. Replacing Ponder and Preordain with Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand is a downgrade, but it might not render the deck unplayable. EDH Recommendations and strategy content for Magic: the Gathering Commander There has been a wide variety of approaches to Splinter Twin decks, and taking a look at these can serve as an inspiration for future decks. From there, he quickly trumped Hall of Famer Jelger Wiegersma in the semifinal mirror match pitting Splinter Twin against Splinter Twin. (Philly Top8 decklists). In Part 1 of the Splinter Twin Modern Deck Primer, we discussed the basics of how these decks operate, how they want to win the game, and how they sideboard. However, the Modern format hadn’t found an equilibrium state between deck representation and adequate sideboard hate back then. An easy swap between Thoughtseize and Inquisition will change your greatest liability into a great strength in one of the format’s more important matchups. I am aware you could nitpick the list ad nauseam and try to give twin perfect Christmas land 3 card combo hands on the play every game, but that isn't the purpose of the list nor is it more realistic than any other top tier deck nut drawing into a … Except, of course, for the times when it’s suddenly turned completely on it’s head! Otherwise, be sure to include them in your testing gauntlet, and be prepared to face them in your next Modern tournament. After the recent bannings and Antonio del Moral Leon earning a Pro Tour title with the deck, it could reach an all-time high in popularity. Previously Splinter Twin had been almost exclusively a European deck. Since the Pro Tour some new Twin brews have emerged. This is not even to mention other builds of Twin like TarmoTwin and W/U/R Twin! Latest Sets. Splinter Twin: 4 Rare Lands (23) 1 Cavern of Souls: 1 Rare 2 Desolate Lighthouse: 2 Rare 4 Island: 4 Misty Rainforest: 4 Rare 1 Mountain: 4 Scalding Tarn: 4 Rare 3 Steam Vents: 3 Rare 1 Stomping Ground: 1 Rare 3 Sulfur Falls: 3 Rare Sideboard (15) 1 Grim Lavamancer: 1 Rare 1 Rending Volley: 1 Unc. In the next couple of months not much happened with Twin. They never had access to more than a single mana apiece. The sideboard includes four copies of Splinter Twin and Pestermite each. In a format where most players damage themselves with their lands the sequence of end of turn Bolt, Snapcaster, flashback Bolt, untap attack with Snapcaster often means that opponents lose half their life out of the blue. Here we have a Teachings control deck, that makes use of the best combokill in the format. A reliable combo deck that is fairly easy to draft and fit within a broad and established shell. Naya Twin deck by 49547681. One of the problems of combo-oriented Twin decks is that the combo can be attacked from so many different angles. At it’s core this is a combo deck, and a good one at that. The Splinter Twin deck has a devoted core of followers. This leads to a deck that has two solid game plans, and thus makes Tarmotwin the most robust Twin version to date. Successful decks run four of these, but tempo pilots keep looking for excuses to run fewer. And as anyone who played Modern during Twin’s heyday knows, having access to a game-winning, turn four combo is extremely powerful. [deck title= Jeskai Splinter Twin by Max Ansbro] [Creatures] *3 Deciever Exarch *3 Pestermite *2 Snapcaster Mage *2 Vendilion Clique Instead it employs Kiki-Jiki for basically the same shenanigans. I’ll grant that it matches up poorly against Burn, but it remains excellent against combo decks, control decks, and the mirror match. This might not be too surprising considering Twin’s results at Worlds. A reliable combo deck that is fairly easy to draft and fit within a broad and established shell. Although Twin’s results were bad overall, a lot of innovation between PT Philly and Worlds took place. David Shakarisaz (5-5 at 2012 Pro Tour Return to Ravnica). For this reason I have two important recommendations. We also looked at a sample deck list from Pro Tour: Born of the Gods called “Tempo Twin”. It can generate extra value with (excess) Splinter Twin by using it on Wall of Omens. Three Twin decks made it to the top eight, Carsten Linden with Tarmotwin, Stefan Schütz with a regular Tempotwin version, and Patrick Dickmann with his take on a Spreadings Seas Twin deck. 1 This balance is exactly the right way to play Splinter Twin. As a side note, there’s no rule that says you have to play four or zero Confidants. When Splinter Twin came out of Rise of the Eldrazi there was no Pestermite in Standard and Deceiver Exarch hadn’t been printed yet. Boomerang Twin Rarity, #: R, 129 Card Type: Enchantment Description: Enchant Creature Enchated creature has "T: Put a token that's a copy of this creature onto the battlefield. With the Modern PTQ season just having started, I’d like to explore the history and the possibilities of Twin. From there, he quickly trumped Hall of Famer Jelger Wiegersma in the semifinal mirror match pitting Splinter Twin against Splinter Twin. Twin decks like this were in vogue for a short time. I am not sure how competitive Swartz’s deck really was, but Bitterblossom surely helps if you want to play Faeries in some fashion. Sticking Teferi means, that the opponent can only interact with the combo on-board, and especially for Kiki-Jiki plus Exarch there are just very few ways to do that. Duel … The slower combo plan should make this deck quite weak against dedicated combo decks like Ad Nauseam, Storm, or Scapeshift. On the other hand the existence of Abrupt Decay hurts this deck as all plans are susceptible to this card. The Modern format is slow to change. Set: Rise of the Eldrazi Type: Enchantment — Aura Rare Cost: {2}{R}{R} Enchant creature Enchanted creature has "{T}: Create a token that's a copy of this creature, except it has haste. It might also have been a bit of a hedge in the unknown metagame. Aim for a well balanced sideboard that gives you reasonable game against aggro, combo, midrange, and control. Of all the innovative Twin decks, Noah Swartz’s take stands out. Next, you need to be able to progress your game plan without leaving yourself vulnerable to the combo. They only get to replay their land, probably still don’t have a play, and discard. So we all know that Splinter Twin is banned, and this thread wasn't created to talk about Twin at all. At the 2012 Modern Pro Tour Return to Ravnica, just one year after Estratti’s triumph, and only one and a half years from now, Twin was basically off the radar. After that, he overcame Pro Tour first-timer Justin Cohen's devastating Amulet Bloom deck in the finals, securing the trophy, $40,000 USD, Platinum Pro status, and an invitation to the 2015 World Championship. The problem with this deck is that it is exceedingly fragile. (Worlds decklists). For the evolved Twin decks I will try to explain what makes them special and under which circumstances they might thrive again. This means that a deck could be dead for months only to become the next breakthrough deck again. This Faerie/Twin Hybrid is particularly interesting as Mistbind Clique has a bunch of powerful applications in Twin. Consequentially Anger of the Gods was not as strong in Tempotwin as in Tarmotwin. 0. Jund has a hard time executing its own game plan while being a land down and under the constant threat of being combo’d out. If you don’t care just skip ahead to the “Modern Era” section. Aside from the mainstream versions several alternate versions have been tried: Grixis Twin as a combo-oriented approach, other tempo-oriented versions with Spreading Seas or Faerie Hybrids, and finally control oriented versions such as Grixis Teachings Twin and UWR Kiki Control, that doesn’t really use Splinter Twin, but has a similar combo finish. Baker Neenan - 02.12.2020. Dickmann goes for the set of Pestermite here as they are so much better in the beatdown role. It’s strange to me that it’s now become so marginalized as a card! I went into Pro Tour testing wanting badly to play a deck like the one Jesse Hampton settled on. Jund needs Kitchen Finks more than Abzan because it does not have Lingering Souls to play a similar role as a buffer against Liliana. Like all Splinter Twin decks, this deck has as its gameplan, an infinite combo. Both of these decks are interesting, but two other decks –the ones that made it to the Top 8– had even more ingenious alterations. Shortly before the Pro Tour, I sat down with my teammates and wrote down a list of Modern decks. Such a deck should propser in a metagame that has a lot of regular and/or Tarmotwin decks. Splinter Twin is a blue/red combo deck for the Modern format (as of Jan 18th 2016, Splinter Twin has been banned in Modern format, rendering this deck unplayable). Inquisition Kozilek is the perfect way to protect your combo against all these cards as long as people’s answers are not super-plentiful. Where Thoughtseize is nearly uncastable against Burn, Inquisition of Kozilek and Duress are some of the best cards you can have! (I was a bit startled to realize that it has actually been banned longer than it was ever legal.) Brian Eleyet played one of the most streamlined combo-Twin decks ever, and splashed Village Bell-Ringer to give his combopieces maximal resilience. No Seriously, It's Splinter Twin. McLaren’s deck is not a tempo deck, though. - Fling Affinity by Chikara Nakajima. You play five matches per run. Such a deck could definitely be strong, but it lacks the surprise value of Twin and thus the major tempo advantage that made Twin so good. By Jim Davis. I absolutely love Kitchen Finks right now. In 2016, a full year with Splinter Twin banned, seven decks once again held that same 5% or more of the top-8 meta. It means knowing your own deck well enough that you can handle the unexpected. As a result, Twin players usually couldn’t blindly jam the combo – they had to try and manoeuvre into a better position over several turns. You can beat Abzan by being very fast, as in the case of Burn or Infect. 3rd - 4th. There are several possible builds of twin varying from the first “all in” twin list that Samuele Estratti used to win Pro Tour Philadelphia in 2011, to the recent “Tarmo-Twin” list … Which brings us to Antonio del Moral Leon’s sideboard, which features an odd assortment of cards. In between Portaro and Lippi had done well with Twin at GP Torino, but their deck was only a streamlined version of their Pro Tour deck. However, I’d like to point out these Dragonmaster Outcasts in the sideboard. My conclusion was that Abzan was all-around just a little bit too slow to keep up with the pace of Modern. Good luck! Twinning Mistbind Clique itself can result in a soft lock if enough Faeries are around, and Mistbinding them at the end of their turn can protect the combo. Patrick Dickmann (1st at 2013 Grand Prix Antwerp). I am not giving you a deck list because the conclusion from this deck challenge is that to use Splinter Twin on a creature once per turn just does not work right now. Robert Berni (2013 GP Kansas City, 4th). The deck was ultimately deemed too strong for the format, and it died with the ban of Splinter Twin in the first weeks of 2016. We also looked at a sample deck list from Pro Tour: Born of the Gods called “Tempo Twin”. His teammate, Alessandro Portaro also Top 8’d with Twin. By. One way to fall miserably behind in a B/G mirror is to get a single creature Edicted by Liliana’s -2, leaving you with no way to attack her on the following turn. The removal package keeps the combo in check, and Restoration Angel is one of the most annoying cards for combo decks. Unlike Splinter Twin decks, which at least retain value on the whole because of their mana base and other format staples, if Affinity gets gutted at some point in the future, all that will remain is a pile of 71 unplayable artifacts which slot into no other deck. Tarmotwin Some players will remain dedicated to their combo, while others will morph into a more controlling deck. [[Splinter Twin]] is a completely safe unban in my opinion. Set: Rise of the Eldrazi Mana Cost: Card Type: Enchantment - Aura Description: ... Theme Deck Set Planechase Planechase 2012 Welcome Deck 2016 Welcome Deck 2017 Battlebond Legendary Cube Prize Packs Treasure Chest Jumpstart Game Night 2019. This is a nice simple bog standard list for Splinter Twin. Playing 27 lands seems excessive to me, and I am not sure that the three, are adequately supported, but nevertheless this is very clearly the first Tempo Twin deck on Pro Tour level. Next time I’ll cover some more of the most important ones, but remember that Modern is about choosing a balanced deck and being prepared for everything. Twin on Sharpshooter, make a Sharpshooter, shoot the other X/1, untap both twins; Make a Sharpshooter, shoot 1 on enemy with the second sharpshooter, have third sharpshooter shoot itself, untap 2 sharpshooters They served him well. Modern is a format of almost limitless variety. 2 Pyroclasm: 2 Unc. I suppose the main deck is best equipped for a metagame of midrange and control decks, but with access to black and red the very best sideboard options to fight aggro and combo are also available. Imagine your opponent starts with a tapped land or something like Serum Visions, and you Boomerang their one land on your second turn. First, focus on versatile sideboard cards like Duress and Thoughtseize. The only Twin list that has survived from that tournament is from David Shakarisaz, and even his deck list is only conveyed to us due to an oversight. 1x Sunstrike Legionnaire. The other reason why this is interesting is that. Twin decks like this were in vogue for a short time. This means both building your deck with some basic lands, but also practicing against the card. Losing Punishing Fire certainly reduces the deck’s flexibility, but replacing this with Gitaxian Probe might strengthen the combo plan. Followed by a in Depth Deck Tech on the original Modern combo deck Splinter Twin. ... Every deck can run away with a game, but midrange decks are more prone to scraping across the finish line, while decks with a two-card combo can lean on that power level to win while sitting on several dead cards. Temur Twin - Tempo twin with Goyf and Oko for when Tempo twin is good but needs more midrange sticking power if the format slows down. The first Twin decks here are mostly of historical interest. Pro Tour Philadelphia Deck Tech: Splinter Twin with Josh Hakakian - Duration: 9:52. While Patrick Dickmann is often credited with designing Tempo Twin, two of these decks at GP KC were obviously built with a non-combo win firmly in mind. "I know just the person for that job." You’ll win a majority of games where your opponent Paths your turn 2 Dark Confidant. Unfortunately, in our testing gauntlet, Abzan surprisingly proved to be a bit of a punching bag. Especially since Abzan players will be loading up on Path to Exiles to beat Splinter Twin and Infect, a 2-mana, must-kill-immediately creature is very appealing. Twinning Mistbind Clique itself can result in a soft lock if enough Faeries are around, and Mistbinding them at the end of their turn can protect the combo. A card I particularly like right now is Maelstrom Pulse, as it can kill expensive creatures, wipe up Lingering Souls, and gives insurance against unexpected cards like Batterskull. In a field of 382 competitors only 5 played Splinter Twin, and none particularly successful. Throne of Eldraine Singles Sealed Product. 'Splinter Twin' - constructed deck list and prices for the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game from TCGplayer Infinite! This deck will in all likelihood cast its spells most of the time, however it will have to pay some extra life as the lack of good fetchlands lets you pay more often for shock lands. It’s not completely out of the question to play them both in the same deck (my own suggested Jund deck list contains four Confidants and one Tasigur), but it’s not ideal either. If you only have time to familiarize yourself with one Modern deck, it should be Abzan. 2 Spellskite, 2 Dispel, 2 Pact of Negation and 1 Disrupting Shoal main plus 1 Deprive and 2 Spellskite doesn’t look like it can be the best configuration in the vacuum. Throughout Modern’s history it has remained a small, but noticeable—and often quite successful—portion of the field. Having at least one proactive early play is helpful, and I do recommend this approach if Abzan is your deck of choice. The deck is very much about making your opponent play guessing games, and finding the best way to win under any circumstances. The list was meant to feature all of the decks that we, “wouldn’t be surprised to play against,” in the tournament. Patrick Dickmann discusses the Splinter Twin archetype in Modern. Just a few weeks later Peter Dun Top 8’d Grand Prix Lyon with a Grixis Twin deck. I don’t know how well this deck would fare if opponents were prepared, but for the time being this seems like an approach worthwhile of exploration, especially for Control mages looking for a Modern deck. Exile that token at the beginning of the next end step." - Monoblue Infect by Samuel Black. Commander 2019 Singles Sealed Product. Splinter Twin from Rise of the Eldrazi for . Thoughtseize is the best way to achieve this goal, but other ways include cheap, instant-speed removal spells like Path to Exile, Dismember, and Slaughter Pact, or flash creatures like Vendilion Clique and Restoration Angel. To make a long story short, I miss Lightning Bolt! It was essentially a combo control deck that relied on flash creaturesShop Now, and though the primary goal was creating infinite creaturesShop Now to win on the spot, it often w… Such a deck could definitely be strong, but it lacks the surprise value of Twin and thus the major tempo advantage that made Twin so good. It's been some time since the card was banned, and we have had a lot of cards printed since. Splinter Twin Rarity, #: R, 129 Card Type: Enchantment Description: Enchant Creature Enchated creature has "T: Put a token that's a copy of this creature onto the battlefield. (I was a bit startled to realize that it has actually been banned longer than it was ever legal.) 1x Captain of the Mists. Anyway, his deck is not bereft of innovation at least. Splinter Twin would get to enjoy their opponent playing slower while they continued to make full aggro/tempo plays, but our hypothetical Cannonade deck can't do the same thing. I wouldn’t know what to do with this in Modern right now, but this card certainly has a powerful effect, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it again some time. In Part 1 of the Splinter Twin Modern Deck Primer, we discussed the basics of how these decks operate, how they want to win the game, and how they sideboard. Tasigur, the Golden Fang is also quite good. But in other cases, the win turn is higher. Shortly thereafter the last World Championship as we knew it was held in San Francisco. At it’s core this is a combo deck, and a good one at that. Peter Dun (6th at 2012 Grand Prix Lyon). Magic: The Gathering 22,353 views. Today we’re going to look at another PTBNG deck list that performed quite well. - Splinter Twin by Samuele Estratti. ChannelFireball - Magic: The Gathering Strategy, Singles, Cards, Decks. Keranos, God of Storms, Threads of Disloyalty, Anger of the Gods, Blood Moon, and Jace, Architect of Thought give him the option to move partially away from his combo toward a more normal U/R Control deck. At Grand Prix Minneapolis Shain McLaren made Top 8 with a deck that doesn’t have any Splinter Twins. Nevertheless KC suddenly had four Twin decks in the top 16. Second, don’t overtest against any one particular build of Splinter Twin. It shuts down Goblin Guide, Monastery Swiftspear, and Eidolon of the Great Revel dead in their tracks. It's possible, but there's not really any way to know. This deck is certainly not for every metagame, but if you like Twin you might want to remember this version. Affinity represents the aggro part of the format, Rock decks are pure midrange, Pod is midrange with a combo element, and Twin decks have evolved from a combo deck to a tempo deck with a combo element. McLaren’s deck might be the most similar current deck, but I suppose it plays quite differently, being focused much more on playing spot removal and winning a very long game with Sphinx’s Revelation instead of Jace. Sea Twin The mana and time spent creating a token Wurmcoil Engine is far better spent casting two Wurmcoil Engines. Turn 2 Grudge, turn 3 Deceiver Exarch plus Grudge into turn 4 Twin is almost unbeatable for Affinity. In addition to Lightning Bolt, red offers Thundermaw Hellkite. Jace Control with Twin Izzet Charm is new, but so obvious as to be essentially a non-innovation. We also have an excellent trading opportunities finder tool that gets you trading in seconds! It’s a bad feeling to be eliminated from a tournament because you fetched the wrong land on turn 1. Anyway, he made top 16 of the BoM Modern main event with this Twin version. After the recent bannings and Antonio del Moral Leon earning a Pro Tour title with the deck… After Estratti’s win in Philadelphia Twin was widely played, and did abysmally, winning only 40% of its matches. Share. Straight U/R Twin, Tarmo Twin and due to recent additions to modern, mainly Grixis Fetchlands, but also Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Kolaghan's Command - Grixis Twin. Splinter Twin from Rise of the Eldrazi for . Along the same lines, I strongly recommend reconfiguring your discard spells to better fight the Burn deck. Yet this entire time, a very functional replacement for Splinter Twin has been readily available. After ten games or so, either quit and move on to a new matchup, or search the web for a new deck list of Splinter Twin to copy and play against. Meanwhile Dickmann was brewing up a new take on his singature deck, Tarmotwin. Alternatively, you can fight it by chocking your deck full of powerful mid- and late-game topdecks, as in the case of Urzatron or Scapeshift. After 2011 Worlds it took more than a full year for another innovation in Twin to have a real finish. The other reason why this is interesting is that Bitterblossom has since returned to Modern. 6/15/2010: If the ability is activated during a turn’s end step, the token will be exiled at the beginning of the following turn’s end step. In the coming weeks, Abzan will be the top dog by a clear margin. Three months later Marcel Kachapow made it to the finals of Grand Prix Prague with almost the same deck list. Set: Rise of the Eldrazi Type: Enchantment Aura Rarity: Rare Cost: {2}{R}{R} Enchant creature Enchanted creature has "{T}: Create a token that's a copy of this creature, except it has haste. Splinter Twin. In 2015 — when Twin was arguably at its best — there were seven non-Splinter Twin decks still holding 5% or more of the top-8 meta for the year. We named deck after deck—I reached the bottom of the page and had to turn to the next one in my notebook—28 different decks in all! Splinter Twin constructed deck list and prices for the Magic the Gathering TCG. In some matchups having Boomerang on the play is devestating. In particular, it doesn’t copy the ability granted to the enchanted creature by Splinter Twin. Finally, you can play a creature deck that simply does something more powerful than Abzan. It is the first of the Twin decks here that had Blood Moon, and it is something that has been central to UR Twin’s sideboard strategy ever since. [deck title= Jeskai Splinter Twin by Max Ansbro] [Creatures] *3 Deciever Exarch *3 Pestermite *2 Snapcaster Mage *2 Vendilion Clique 6/15/2010 If the enchanted creature is copying something else when the ability resolves (for example, if it’s a Renegade Doppelganger), then the token enters the battlefield as a copy of whatever the enchanted creature is copying, plus it has haste. Inquisition of Kozilek was a reasonable attempt to get Twin through all the hate in the metagame. Max Ansbro piloted a Blue Red Splinter Twin list splashing white all the way to the elimination rounds. It’s probably on equal footing with the Stoneforge Mystic plan. - Counter-Cat by Josh Utter-Leyton. There are many, many more decks to discuss in Modern. Patrick Dickmann discusses the Splinter Twin archetype in Modern. Splinter-Twin. The idea is a bit older, and I know for a fact that Grixis Twin existed at GP Torino that I mentioned previously. Tarmotwin basically does the same, but goes one step further with the help of the best beatdown creature in the format, Tarmogoyf. Pyromancer Ascension with Twin morph plan It burst onto the scene when Modern became a format the next year, and from then on it was the most polarizing deck in the game and considered the best deck in Modern by most players. After Abzan, it’s my second deck to beat. (60 cards, 24 distinct) - Misty Rainforest, Scalding Tarn, Snapcaster Mage, Cryptic Command, Batterskull, Blood Moon, Vendilion Clique This is a nice simple bog standard list for Splinter Twin. I suppose this plan mainly worked for them, because most of the Ascension hate would have been aimed at the graveyard back then. For everyone else, it’s about knowing public enemy number one, and finding the best way to beat them. Florian Koch started playing Magic in 1994, but first saw major success with a win at GP Lyon in 2010. Leagues last for roughly a month. However, playing in a completely unknown format, it might have helped to keep opponents off balance. (Jund also lacks the life gain of Siege Rhino). Choose Printing (2 Total) Sign up to add this card to your Inventory, Wishlist or Tradelist, and to start creating decks with it. Yet this entire time, a very functional replacement for Splinter Twin has been readily available. The token is exiled at the beginning of the next end step regardless of who controls it at that time, or whether Splinter Twin or the enchanted creature is still on the battlefield at that time. Mark is not well known outside of Germany yet, but here he has made himself a name for a style that resembles that of Guillaume Wafo-Tapa. Aware of the fragility of the Ascension plan, they had brought a backup plan in their sideboard and even main deck. Max Ansbro piloted a Blue Red Splinter Twin list splashing white all the way to the elimination rounds. Three Abzan decks made the Top 8 of Pro Tour Fate Reforged. To clarify: For Goblin Sharpshooter + Splinter Twin to work, you need 1 other X/1 in play on either side (I'd recommend running 2 Forbidden Orchard):. Whenever possible, I like to streamline and play the cards that I’m happiest to draw in my opening hand. The pure combo versions are nearly extinct as of now although there is no reason why we should not see a resurgence of that approach at some point. Birthing Pod is gone, but B/W Tokens, Soul Sisters, and Affinity still exist! Unfortunately, Abzan and Jund are notorious for being well-balanced decks without specific holes that can be attacked. Yet others will be trying to steal games away from you with Blood Moon. If you enter a Modern tournament, be prepared to have your hand torn apart early and often. The last thing you want is to overload on hate cards like Spellskite and Torpor Orb only to lose to a player who brought in Keranos, God of Storms and Batterskull. Imagine your opponent starts with a tapped land or something like Serum Visions, and you Boomerang their one land on your second turn. I’ve talked at length about the different flavors of B/G that might be out there, and some recommended card choices for anyone considering playing the archetype. This Faerie/Twin Hybrid is particularly interesting as Mistbind Clique has a bunch of powerful applications in Twin. So there you have my picks for the most important decks to beat in Modern. You may enter any number of times but only one deck at a time. 1st. We immediately notice that the Splinter Twin deck has 7 and 6 card hands that will always win on turn 4. For Glenn Jones' last episode as Co-Host, Ben Batemen joins the show to discuss four of the most important Modern Tournaments in it's history and how each one shaped the face of the format. Splinter Twin from Modern Masters 2015 for . The Japanese pros Mihara, Kaji, and Nakajima included Thirst for Knowledge and multiple Spellskites. has since returned to Modern. He loves control decks, but the decks he builds are always very clunky and never seem to work for anybody else, yet he is regularly successful with them. I must admit I am not quite sure if Twin is the main plan or the backup plan here. In theory you can get the whole combo off Mystical Teachings, digging for Exarch, Teferi, and finally Kiki-Jiki. Splinter Twin on Deceiver Exarch could be broken up by cards that just about any deck played. These are all the Splinter Twin and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker infinite combos I know of. When we’re talking about a deck whose main weakness is being slow, paying 4 life on turn one against an aggro deck isn’t an appealing option. That’s not even to mention the activated ability, which comes up more than you might expect, especially when the B/G mirror is prone to dragging on for so long. The tier 1 deck I want to look at this week is Splinter Twin. The main difference between the two decks was that Portaro also harnessed the power of Punishing Fire. 6/15/2010 The tier 1 deck I want to look at this week is Splinter Twin. Jund should be even lower on Abrupt Decays because Lightning Bolt also matches up poorly against Siege Rhino and Tasigur. 4 Splinter Twin Land (24) 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Sulfur Falls 1 Stomping Ground 3 Steam Vents 1 Desolate Lighthouse 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Mountain 5 Island Several other Twin decks has a 7-2 result, the most interesting of these by Mark Tobiasch. Twin on Sharpshooter, make a Sharpshooter, shoot the other X/1, untap both twins; Make a Sharpshooter, shoot 1 on enemy with the second sharpshooter, have third sharpshooter shoot itself, untap 2 sharpshooters Dark Confidant and Tasigur don’t go great together, because of Tasigur’s high converted mana cost. Previously almost all Twin decks had four Deceiver Exarchs and only a few Pestermites. 1 Description 2 Deck construction 2.1 Set legality 2.1.1 Modern … I find this deck very interesting as it displays some of the characteristics of Tarmotwin long before that deck came to be, and also because it could be ported quite easily to the current Modern format. 1x Goblin Sharpshooter. Several other Twin decks has a 7-2 result, the most interesting of these by Mark Tobiasch. Siege Rhino is a fantastic card, but Lightning Bolt plays a critical role in the archetype where Rhino is a little more replaceable. Reid Duke burst onto the competitive scene in 2011 by winning the Magic Online Championship at Worlds, and has since grown to become one of the most widely respected players in Magic. Aug 3rd League 2–2 Download; Buy; Source; Creatures 24. Inferno Twin Faerie Twin This and Inquisition being mostly a dead card against aggressive decks make this deck a bad choice when Nacatls run rampant. Of course with 20% of this Standard deck being on the Modern banned list, there is no easy port for this deck. Many of my decks in testing contained three copies. Suppression Field, Negate, Dismember, Combust, Nature’s Claim, and Torpor Orb (just to name a card in each color) all do the trick. In Part 1 of the Splinter Twin Modern Deck Primer, we discussed the basics of how these decks operate, how they want to win the game, and how they sideboard. It might have been a reasonable plan back then anyway, but I wouldn’t try it in the age of Tarmotwin. Theros: Beyond Death Singles Sealed Product. We also looked at a sample deck list from Pro Tour: Born of the Gods called “Tempo Twin”. Living the dream! The first time that Splinter Twin was played to some success at a major tournament was at Pro Tour Amsterdam. I am not giving you a deck list because the conclusion from this deck challenge is that to use Splinter Twin on a creature once per turn just does not work right now. However, the deck has other qualities that give it quite a lot of game in the matchup. Your main deck should have four Inquisition of Kozilek and your sideboard should have one or two copies of Duress. By comparison, the core of Affiinity is probably something like 50 cards. ChannelFireball - Magic: The Gathering Strategy, Singles, Cards, Decks. Vito's Revenge: Splinter Twin Returns To Standard! The next innovation to Twin happened about half a year later at Grand Prix Kansas City. And we’ve only scratched the surface. Four months later Patrick Dickmann won Grand Prix Antwerp with the most tempo-oriented approach to Twin till then. Pioneer’s Splinter Twin. What makes Twin so dangerous is that it’s largely a normal, well-balanced deck that simply has the threat of winning the game out of nowhere. The Splinter Twin deck has a devoted core of followers. This is true especially for the blue red versions of Twin. Any of these decks would be good choices for upcoming tournaments, particularly if you have to the time to practice and make the decklists your own. For the uninitiated, Splinter Twin is in reference to an infinite combo deck that originated in Standard all the way back in Rise of the Eldrazi/New Phyrexia. I won’t linger on this as Pro Tour Philadelphia was just a few weeks away. In the next upkeep your Deceiver Exarch taps their only land, and on your fourth turn you kill them. Instead it plays the control role reasonably well with Wall of Omens and twelve removal spells. Deathrite Shaman is banned, and Jund thus more susceptible to mana disruption, the plan makes Tron a bye, and UWR control has a hard time winning without its manlands. Hellkite, while it might not be objectively as good as Siege Rhino, is also an appealing curve-topper in a format in which Lingering Souls is one of the defining cards. I never tried this build, so I am not quite sure how good Boomerang is on the draw, but against aggressive decks it seems like a resonable proxy for removal. It’s generally one of the cards you’re happiest to see in your opening hand. Kitchen Finks is great at preventing this. Do not leave home without four Inquisition of Kozilek in your main deck. Your top priority for beating Splinter Twin should be to make sure you don’t fold to Blood Moon. Instead he is on the regular UWR control plan, and uses Kiki-Jiki as a miser’s chance to catch opponents off guard to win on the spot. As if that weren’t good enough, Tarmogoyf as a blocker is one of the most powerful plays against aggressive decks. The other two Abzan players in the Top 8, Eric Froelich and Jacob Wilson, addressed this problem by playing with Noble Hierarch. On the other hand it might be a very good choice in a metagame full of other combo decks. Overtesting against one build can lead you into dangerous habits and subtract from your ability to expect the unexpected. Splinter Twin - The cheapest of the duplication effects. The two main versions of Twin are UR Tempo Twin and RUG Tarmotwin, both of which are tempo decks. For a deck whose best early plays are answer cards, trying to keep up with two dozen different decks—many of which are brutally explosive—all at the same time is just too tall an order. Back then it might have been there mostly to keep Jund players under control. And it’s not that figuring out if you want to play Noble Hierarch over Birds of Paradise in Pod or Terminate over Abrupt Decay in Jund doesn’t have its merits, yet Twin has displayed a higher versatility so far, going beyond exchanging cards in a specific role on a one for one basis. Noah Whinston’s deck probably still won more often with the combo than not, but Derrick Steele had Batterskull in the sideboard, a very clear indicator that he at least wanted to switch to a non-combo plan in certain matchups. To clarify: For Goblin Sharpshooter + Splinter Twin to work, you need 1 other X/1 in play on either side (I'd recommend running 2 Forbidden Orchard):. Unlike the other pillars, Affinity, Pod, and Rock, Twin has been successfully played in very different forms. Today we’re going to look at another PTBNG deck list that performed quite well. And people will probably bring cards like Negate, Nature’s Claim, and Spellskite anyway, even if they believe that Twin is dead. (You sacrifice the Sword of the Meek, and then when the 1/1 hits, it returns to … Rock and Pod have some flexibility in deck construction at least in theory, but somehow large parts of the deck lists always seem to be the same.