Hello, all. I’m Derrick (@BadMoonMTG). When I was approached about writing for GalaxyGameTV, I knew that I was going to need to introduce myself properly. I am a brewer first and foremost, so it seemed only right that I share a brew with you all. Which brew, though? A Standard brew could be fun, but I think it would lack the levels of nonsense that I would require for a real introduction. For that, Modern is my preferred playground, and one deck stands above them all. This deck is so absurd that it plays absolutely no win conditions. Join me as we discover our Shared Fate.
The Card
Shared Fate is an Enchantment for {4U}. Once it is on the battlefield, it fundamentally breaks a core tenet of Magic: the idea that you build a deck and pilot your deck to victory. You see, Shared Fate says that any time a player would draw a card, they instead exile a card, face down, from their opponent’s deck. They may then play cards exiled this way as though the cards were in their hand. In essence, if we are playing Shared Fate, we are planning to win with our opponent’s deck.
A note about “Replacement Effects” (REs): Shared Fate creates a trigger that replaces our usual draw action. If there are multiple REs trying to replace the same thing, they affected player gets to decide which one happens first or, in some cases, at all. As an example, if we have a resolved Shared Fate and they have a Stinkweed Imp in their Graveyard, they can choose to replace their draw with the Stinkweed’s Dredge ability instead of the Shared Fate trigger. We’ll talk more about this later.
Shared Fate by Derrick
| Artifacts (8) 4 Lotus Bloom 4 Pentad Prism Enchantments (4) 4 Shared Fate Spells (28) 4 Abrupt Decay 4 Damnation 4 Fatal Push 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Opt 2 Pact of Negation 4 Serum Visions 2 Thoughtseize Land (20) 3 City of Brass 1 Forest 1 Island 2 Misty Rainforest 3 Overgrown Tomb 4 Polluted Delta 1 Swamp 2 Verdant Catacombs 3 Watery Grave | Sideboard (15) 1 Disdainful Stroke 2 Dispel 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Pact of Negation 2 Pithing Needle 2 Thoughtseize 2 Unmoored Ego |
The Deck
All right, now that we have our 5 CMC Enchantment in Shared Fate how do we ensure that we can make use of it? I’ve built this list on the shell of an Ad Nauseam deck. We intend to find Shared Fate with Serum Visions and Opt. Then we’re going to ramp into it with Lotus Bloom and Pentad Prism. For protection for our ramp spells we have Pact of Negation. All of this should look very familiar if you know Ad Nauseam, but there are some important differences.
We need to make sure that there are absolutely no win conditions in our deck. That means we can’t use Simian Spirit Guide as ramp, because our opponent could cast it and kill us with combat damage. We also can’t have anything in the deck that can get our opponent out from under the Shared Fate lock. This means that Assassin’s Trophy is out of the question. So what does that leave us?
Hand disruption is going to be priority number one. This will help us protect Shared Fate or it can deal with threats before our opponent has an opportunity to cast them. For that, we’re playing four Inquisition of Kozilek and two Thoughtseize in the main deck. Anything that can win the game for our opponent, and can’t be dealt with in some other way, has got to be taken before it can be played. Planeswalkers dodge some, if not all, of our removal, so they are prime targets.
Speaking of removal, we’re running four copies of Fatal Push, Abrupt Decay, and Damnation. These will help us to keep the board clear long enough to stick a Shared Fate on the battlefield. Abrupt Decay is a must-have for the deck because it can’t hit our Enchantment, but it can help clear away a Blood Moon or Liliana of the Veil. Fatal Push is great for the early game, and against a creature deck we are often going to want a Damnation right before we drop Shared Fate.
The manabase has the usual suspects of shock and fetch lands. We also get to play three copies of City of Brass, which is great in a situation where we might need to cast literally any card in Modern. Sure, we take a damage every time we use it, but it ensures that we are not waiting around to Exile lands from our opponent’s deck just to be able to cast their spells.
Sideboard
Our sideboard is primarily comprised of control cards. We’ve got Disdainful Stroke to answer Tron threats or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Dispel and two more Pact of Negation allow us to fight control decks, two Thoughtseize for more hand disruption and Pithing Needle to answer troublesome Planeswalkers. Additionally we include two Unmoored Ego to preemptively answer any card that might need to be dealt with.
Next, are playing four copies of Leyline of the Void. Graveyards are problematic for our deck because they can allow our opponents to get out from under our lock. For example, Dredging is a replacement effect, just like Shared Fate. Our opponent could choose to Dredge a Stinkweed Imp back to their hand rather than Exiling a card from our deck. Additionally playing against Arclight Phoenix decks they can cast our Damnation and two more spells, they would in turn steal their birds back from us. Leyline allows us to close that avenue off. It is probably the most important spell in our sideboard.
Tips and Tricks
I would usually talk about match-ups here, but how do you evaluate that? The whole purpose of the deck is to be as terrible as possible while still being able to play and defend one Enchantment. So, instead, I’ll tell you some things to look out for.
You are going to want to take things slowly once Shared Fate is on the field. You can’t use any cards like Living End or Past In Flames because they give your opponent ways back into the game. If Living End is the deck, then you are going to have to hard-cast the creatures instead of reanimating them. With Storm, the good news is that you won’t have a hand limit (since all of the cards are actually in Exile). You just need to draw cards until you have critical mass and then start casting.
And then there is Tron….
Tron has a number of cards that can be dangerous to our plan. Oblivion Stone, Karn Liberated, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and World Breaker can all deal with a resolved Shared Fate. If our opponent is clever enough to sandbag one of those cards, they can potentially ruin our day. Hand disruption is going to be very important in this match-up.
Man lands!
Creature Lands like Mutavault and Celestial Colonnade are difficult to deal with until they activate. If we are not careful, we can end up without a way to kill them. Be aware of these lands, and have a plan to take them out.
Some other thoughts on match-ups…
There is one match-up that I can comfortably say is the absolute worst for us: Mill. You see, if we manage to resolve a Shared Fate against Mill, we can’t win. It all goes back to Replacement Effects. Mill’s whole reason for being is to make its opponent draw from an empty Library. It relies on an RE that causes their opponent to lose the game. As you already know, you can choose which RE happens if it is affecting you, so anyone in the game who has to draw a card from their empty Library will have a choice:
- Exile the top card of their opponent’s deck, even if there isn’t currently a card there, or
- Lose the game.
Easy choice. In the end, we’ll just be two immortals locked in combat until judgement day and trumpets sound. The best you can hope for in this instance is that your opponent doesn’t understand the interaction and concedes because they think they’ve lost. Just don’t lie to them about what happens, since that is a punishable offense.
In Game 2, if your Mill opponent brings in something like Echoing Truth, you can mill out their Library and then bounce Shared Fate on their Upkeep.
Important Note
If you decide to show up to a tournament with this deck, you have a responsibility to be as respectful as possible with your opponents’ cards. Your goal is to win with a deck that is so bad that it’s good, not make your opponent scoop because you are being a jerk with their foiled-out Jund deck. With great jank comes great responsibility.
Conclusion
That’s what I’ve got for you this time around. Do you think this is a viable deck in an actual tournament? Do you think I’m just a madman? Questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome in the Comment section or on Twitter (@BadMoonMTG).
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