Against the Odds: Splinter Twin in 2024 (Modern)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Against the Odds! After eight long years, Wizards finally unbanned former Modern icon Splinter Twin. But is the enchantment even any good in 2024 after nearly a decade of power creep? Let's get to the video and find out!
Against the Odds: Splinter Twin in 2024
Discussion
If you aren't familiar with the Splinter Twin combo, the basic plan is simple: stick the enchantment on a creature that lets you go infinite! The most common options are Deceiver Exarch and Pestermite, both of which were Twin staples back before it got banned in 2016. Thanks to their enters triggers, which can untap a permanent, if we put a Twin on an Exarch or a Pestermite, we can tap the creature to make a copy thanks to Splinter Twin and then use the new token copy to untap the original so we can repeat the process, making an infinite board of hasty threats to win the game!
We've also got one new combo piece in Fear of Missing Out, although it's only a one-of because I'm not convinced that it's very good. It does go infinite with Splinter Twin. But there are also a bunch of drawbacks, including needing delirium, not being able to beat indestructible blockers (since the Fear of Missing Out combo only ever has one untapped creature to attack with—you make a copy with Twin, go to combat, use the Fear of Missing Out's attack trigger to untap the original, then rinse and repeat), and not being able to win through Orcish Bowmasters (since the draw on Fear of Missing Out means your opponent will generate enough Bowmasters triggers to kill the one wearing the Splinter Twin before you generate lethal). That said, I wanted to test out FOMO since I've heard a lot of other people talking about it, so we're going to give it a chance, even though our main plans are still Deceiver Exarch and Pestermite.
The other challenge of the combo is protecting it. Creature removal on whatever we toss Splinter Twin onto will fizzle all our fun. Thankfully, we got the perfect new option for this in Flare of Denial! Its power is that we can tap out for Splinter Twin and still cast Flare to counter a removal spell by sacrificing a blue creature, like Snapcaster Mage, Thundertrap Trainer, or Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student. In a world where free interaction like Force of Vigor, Solitude, and Flare of Malice can easily undo all of our work, having an equally powerful answer is super important. Backing up Flare are Counterspell and Spell Pierce, along with a couple of Sink into Stupors in our mana base.
Since we need cheap blue bodies to sacrifice to Flare, we have a few support creatures. Snapcaster Mage lets us reuse our removal, card draw, and counters. Thundertrap Trainer digs for Splinter Twin or [[Flare of Denial]. Tamiyo is just a one-of, but it can generate a lot of card advantage if it sticks. Also worth noting is that all of these creatures are Wizards, which lets us use Flame of Anor in our removal suite.
Rounding out the important cards in our main deck are a bit of removal and Preordain to smooth out our draws and dig for our combo pieces. Flame of Anor is absurd right now thanks to the Mox Opal unbanning. (In our league, we played against three different Mox Opal decks.) Being able to blow up an artifact while also drawing cards or killing a creature makes Flame one of the best cards in our entire deck. I only wish we had played the full four rather than three.
Wrap-Up
Record-wise, Twin did shockingly well. We finish 4-1, only losing to an Indomitable Creativity deck that used newly unbanned Faithless Looting to reanimate an Archon of Cruelty on Turn 2. Heading into our matches, I was convinced that Twin was tier three in 2024 Modern, at best. Now I'm wondering if it might actually be a real deck. It's worth mentioning that everything is in a state of upheaval right now thanks to the new list of bannings and unbannings so the format might look a lot different in a few months. Regardless, Twin did better than I expected. Way better.
As far as the deck itself, I wasn't impressed with Fear of Missing Out at all. Sure, it technically supports the combo, but it just scoops to too many things. Maybe a delirium deck could use it and Twin as backup plan, but I'm convinced the other options are just way better in a traditional Twin deck like ours. Next time I play the deck, I'll be cutting FOMO for another Flame of Anor.
Most importantly, this league was the most fun I've had playing Modern in months. I've talked about this before, but Modern Horizons 3 more or less killed my love for the format. But new post-ban (or post-unban?) Modern was a blast. I have no idea how long this will last, but for now, I'm super happy to be loving Modern again and that Twin is back!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
