Much Abrew: Electro-Balance (Modern, Magic Online)

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. This week, we have a sort of special episode. Technically, the most popular Instant Deck Tech from last week was Jund Shamans for Modern, but since we just played Rakdos Shamans for Budget Magic, playing the tribe again so soon felt like a bit of Shaman overload. Instead, we're playing a deck that we had an Instant Deck Tech of a few weeks ago (and that I've been wanting to play for a long time): Electro-Balance. Restore Balance is one of my favorite cards in Modern, but now, thanks to Electrodominance joining As Foretold as ways to cast our namesake card, we can drop the cascade plan altogether and play a real deck with cantrips and removal while still having plenty of ways to restore balance to the game by wiping away our opponent's lands, board, and hand. Just how competitive is this new build of Restore Balance? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we can talk more about the deck!

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Much Abrew: Electro-Balance (Modern)

Discussion

• Welp, that went pretty well. We played a competitive Modern league with Electro-Balance and ended up with a 4-1. In fact, we were arguably just one (possibly) bad decision against Izzet Phoenix (I'm still not sure if we should have played Tormod's Crypt on Turn 1 or not) away from finishing with a perfect 5-0.
• One of the biggest upsides of playing Restore Balance is that it absolutely crushes some decks (mostly fair-ish decks that are looking to win with creatures, as we saw against Bogles and Eldrazi). On the other hand, one of the most impressive parts of Electro-Balance is how good the deck performed in matchups that seemed medium or even bad. Against Tron, simply wiping away all of our opponent's lands was enough, and we even beat two different decks playing Chalice of the Void (maybe the single best card in Modern against our deck) in the main deck. 
• On a related note, if you ever see your opponent suspend a Greater Gargadon, play your Chalice of the Void on zero.
• Compared to older builds of Restore Balance, the biggest upside of Electro-Balance is consistency. Thanks to a massive 12 one-mana cantrips (and Ancestral Vision too), the deck does a really good job of finding our important combo pieces.
• If there's a downside of Electro-Balance compared to past Restore Balance builds, it's that the deck is a bit less explosive. Without Borderposts, we're less likely to wreck our opponent with a random Restore Balance. Instead, we really need to find a Greater Gargadon to get full value from our namesake card. Thankfully, having so many cantrips means we can usually find Greater Gargadon without much trouble.
• With Electro-Balance, keep in mind that it's more than okay to play a Wrath of God Restore Balance. In this build, it's usually the second copy of Restore Balance that wins us the game, while the first one often wipes our opponent's board and slows the game down while we are looking for a Greater Gargadon or Jace, the Mind Sculptor to close out the game with our second Restore Balance.
• All in all, I was really happy with this build of Restore Balance. I'm not sure I'd change much of anything. That said, going Jeskai for Nahiri, the Harbinger and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn offers some potential. Not only is Nahiri for Emrakul a good finishing plan, but being able to discard or loot away Emrakul, the Aeons Torn to shuffle copies of Restore Balance back into our deck also adds some additional value.
• So, should you play Electro-Balance in Modern? Based on our experience today, the answer is a resounding yes. Our record was good, the deck was a blast to play, and we managed to not just win our good matchups but also our bad matchups as well, which is often a sign of a good deck. If you like making your opponent not play Magic by wrathing away all of their lands, creatures, and hand, give it a shot! I could certainly see it 5-0'ing a league on Magic Online or winning an FNM, and I wouldn't be surprised to find that it could compete on the Grand Prix– / SCG Tour–level as well.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos. 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.