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Much Abrew: London Sram O's (Modern, Magic Online)


Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Right now, we're on Instant Deck Tech hiatus for War of the Spark spoiler season (having a daily spoiler video and an Instant Deck Tech video every day overloads the YouTube channel a bit too much), which means we have a special episode today where we are playing a random deck that I thought looked fun. As we wait for War of the Spark to release, the most exciting thing happening in the Magic world is the London mulligan rule test on Magic Online. So today, we're heading to Modern to play a combo deck that seems to benefit greatly from the rule change: Sram O's. While Sram O's is one of the best ways to win on Turn 2 in the Modern format, the deck sometimes struggles with consistency since it only has four copies of Sram, Senior Edificer and four Puresteel Paladins to combo off and win the game. Under the London mulligan rule, we should be able to consistently find at least one—and hopefully two copies—of our combo engines, which gives us protection from a discard or removal spell. How much does the London mulligan rule power up Sram O's in Modern? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we can talk more about the deck!

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Much Abrew: Sram O's

Discussion

  • As for our record, we played a competitive league with Sram O's and finished with a 3-2 (although one match—the loss to Esper Control—is from the two-player queues since I had someone at the door while recording the league and ended up timing out in game one against Jund). 
  • As far as the London mulligan rule, Sram O's reminds me a lot of Zombie Hunt in some ways. The deck is certainly much more consistent—we rarely had trouble finding a Sram, Senior Edificer or Puresteel Paladin. But even with the increased consistency, the deck is still beatable by Turn 1 Thoughtseize or a removal spell on our first combo creature. While the London mulligan rule does allow us to be a bit more aggressive in mulliganing for multiple copies of Sram, Senior Edificer or Puresteel Paladin, we can't be too greedy—it's really hard to put back a reasonable hand with either Sram or Puresteel in the hopes of finding something better. 
  • The best part of Sram O's is that the deck is really, really good at putting the opponent to the test on Turn 2. While sometimes our opponent has the right answer and we lose horribly, more often than not, we're able to piece together the combo kill and win the game, which is pretty impressive, even in a format at fast a Modern. 
  • One of the other big upsides to Sram O's is that it's a fast combo deck that doesn't care about the graveyard. Right now, it seems like a lot of people are trying to combo off with Dredge and various reanimation decks thanks to the London mulligan rule, which means there's a lot of graveyard hate running around (even in main decks). Sram O's offers a combo kill that is just as fast as something like Grishoalbrand but doesn't scoop to graveyard hate, which makes it a pretty appealing option at the moment.
  • Perhaps the biggest challenge with Sram O's is the sideboard. Since we can't sideboard out most of our deck without ruining our combo, it's hard to bring in more than a handful of cards. Leyline of Sanctity seems like it would go a long way toward solving the Thoughtseize / Inquisition of Kozilek problem, but it might be that adding it to the deck will cause the combo to fizzle out too often. It seems worth testing, but I'm not 100% sure if it will end up being worth it in the end or not. 
  • While Leyline of Sanctity could solve the discard problem, the removal problem is harder to figure out. While Burrenton Forge-Tender is good at stopping Lightning Bolt, it doesn't help against Path to Exile, Fatal Push, or Dismember. Something to keep an eye on is Benevolent Bodyguard. While the card isn't currently in Modern, it does seem like the sort of random common that could be reprinted in Modern Horizons. If it happens to enter the format, it would be the perfect way to protect our combo creatures and likely push the deck near the top of the format.
  • As far as playing the deck, the combo itself is pretty easy: you cast zero-mana artifacts and hope you hit a Mox Opal and a Retract, and then you can't really lose. The harder part is trying to figure out a way to play around the opponent's disruption. Since we often only have one Sram, Senior Edificer or Puresteel Paladin, it's extremely valuable and worth trying to protect. Figuring out when to go for the combo and when to wait until the opponent taps down (or taps out) is the most important (and hardest) decision to make in the deck. This being said, you probably shouldn't try to go for the combo on Turn 1 except in really rare instances. We tried once during our league, fizzled, and lost horribly. 
  • So should you play Sram O's in Modern? The deck is unique and surprisingly consistent, and oddly fun to play, so the answer is probably yes. While there will be some brutal losses to Turn 1 Thoughtseize or a removal spell on Sram, Senior Edificer or Puresteel Paladin, there will be even more spectacular Turn 2 wins where the opponent won't have the right answer and Sram O's will feel like the most broken deck in Modern. Sram O's is a solid option if you like comboing off on Turn 2, especially while the London mulligan rule is in effect.

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.



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