Last Tuesday I shared two Modern brews built around Monastery Mentor. Monastery Mentor is a busted card, and it fits very well into pre-existing archetypes, so the decks I shared built themselves for the most part and I’d be confident taking either of them to a Modern tournament.

Today I have a Standard brew to share and it pushes to the boundaries of the unknown.

This deck doesn’t fall into a framework seen before and it takes advantage of plenty of new cards with power that lies below the surface--power that will take some work to uncover.

This deck does, however, have some familiar faces with a strong pedigree holding it together. With some work, it could be a contender.

Manifest Destiny

Maindeck

The backbone of this deck are the two cheap manifest enablers, Soul Summons and Wildcall. While Wildcall is a great late-game X-spell, it’s primarily just a two-mana manifest enabler that supplements Soul Summons. Lightform costs three mana and is demanding on the manabase, but the payoff is significant. These spells enable some powerful morph creatures with great manifest interactions.

By itself, manifest isn’t particularly exciting or efficient, but this deck is built around abusing it. Two morph creatures in particular, Hooded Hydra and Master of Pearls, are expensive normally, flipping for 5 mana, but they get a big discount from being manifested, which allows them to flip for just two mana.

Manifested, Hooded Hydra is a large, undercosted threat that attacks for a ton of damage and comes with built-in resistance to most removal spells. It fights right through Siege Rhino, and, with its token-generating trigger, will exhaust Hornet Queen. Hooded Hydra also gains a considerable amount of extra value from some of the manifest spells.

Wildcall potentially adds extra counters to make more tokens, and Lightform turning it into a DIY-Exalted Angel is perhaps the most powerful interaction in the entire deck.

Master of Pearls is a bit slow when morphed, but with manifest it becomes an efficient and effective force to be reckoned with. It isn’t terribly exciting by itself, but it’s a great combat trick, and it’s an Overrun effect that turns otherwise unexciting vanilla 2/2 manifest creatures into serious threats. It works particularly well with extra creatures from Whisperwood Elemental and tokens from Elspeth, Sun's Champion.

Rattleclaw Mystic isn’t a huge payoff for manifest, but it’s excellent mana acceleration that helps ramp into the heavy hitters like Elspeth, Sun's Champion. It’s excellent when manifested on turn two, potentially ramping into a turn three Whisperwood Elemental. It also does work whittling down the opponent for two a turn, and it helps with the Master of Pearls aggro plan.

Whisperwood Elemental is another source of manifest, although it’s higher up the curve than the cheap enablers. This card has been compared to Master of the Wild Hunt because it creates a steady stream of 2/2 tokens, but it’s quite a bit better in this deck because there are so many good manifest options, including additional copies of Whisperwood Elemental.

With so many morphs and manifest cards, Trail of Mystery will be excellent for generating value and ensuring land drops. This deck can be mana-intensive and it has plenty of use for extra mana with two X-spells in the deck. The +2/+2 trigger is also relevant, but not the primary reason to play the card. I could see this not making the cut, but I could also see playing more.

I have included Courser of Kruphix for a variety of reasons. It’s just a great Magic card. Not only does it generate value and help hit land drops, it also puts the breaks on many popular offensive creatures across the table. Courser of Kruphix also fills a novel role in this deck, because playing with the top card of the library revealed is excellent in conjunction with manifest. Having knowledge of the top will lead to better spell sequencing and making the most out of manifest cards. Courser of Kruphix is also a fine card to hit off of manifest, and turn two manifest enabler followed by a turn three flipped Courser of Kruphix is a common line of play for this deck.

A pair of Wingmate Roc are reliably raid-triggered from the many cheap threats this deck plays. It doesn’t have synergy with manifest, but it’s among the best creatures in the format. When ahead, it pushes the opponent farther behind, but it’s also capable of bringing its behind controller back into the fight. It’s a source of tempo and card advantage and it’s difficult for any opponent to deal with.

Rounding out the deck is a couple of Elspeth, Sun's Champion. It’s among the most powerful cards in the format, and it’s capable of winning a game by itself with a stream of Soldier tokens. The tokens are also excellent with Master of Pearls. The -3 ability provides a much-needed source of creature removal that can potentially deal with any large threats from across the table. This card doesn’t really fit the manifest plan, but it’s easy to support here and too good not to play.

The mana is straightforward, and this deck includes all eight available dual lands and four fetchlands. The presence of double green and double white cards, particularly Wildcall and Lightform in the early game, stress the mana, so I have included a set of Mana Confluence to ensure that, mathematically, these spells can be reliably cast on turn two and three, respectively. With some testing, these numbers could be tuned, but it’s a safe place to start.

Sideboard

The sideboard should be primarily focused on disruption and removal, and Banishing Light is powerful and flexible. Reclamation Sage is narrow but quite powerful when relevant. Glare of Heresy is a highly efficient removal spell with applications in many matchups

Hushwing Gryff hoses cards like Siege Rhino and Hornet Queen, and it’s a pretty excellent card to hit with a medium-sized to large Wildcall.

Mastery of the Unseen will require some testing, but it seems like a great way to keep the manifest engine rolling into the late game and exhaust attrition-based opponents relying on creature removal. Games in this format often go long, and this card will keep this deck in the fight.

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This deck was a blast to design and write about, and I look forward to giving it a spin. Please share your thoughts on the deck and any other manifest ideas in the comments!

Cheers!
-Adam