Part of what makes Modern so beloved as a format is that it’s full of whacky interactions that are just on the fringe of being competitive with more powerful cards in the format. Perhaps the best example of this was Lantern Control when it first broke onto the scene, combining many cards that were considered largely unplayable into a monstrosity that prevent opponents from being able to play. There are thousands of players around the world that are testing all kinds of crazy decks trying to replicate this phenomena. With that many people trying to break something, we’re bound to find something, right? Brian DeMars brings us today’s sweet Modern decklist, courtesy of Stephen Boggemes!

Paradox Engine Combo ? Modern | Stephen Boggemes

• Creatures (5)
• 1 Walking Ballista
• 4 Coretapper

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Ancient Stirrings
• 4 Tezzeret's Gambit

• Artifacts (28)
• 1 Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Mox Opal
• 1 Planar Portal
• 2 Mind Stone
• 2 Temple Bell
• 3 Hedron Archive
• 4 Astral Cornucopia
• 4 Everflowing Chalice
• 4 Paradox Engine
• 4 Surge Node

• Lands (19)
• 1 Island
• 3 Forest
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 2 Tolaria West
• 4 Encroaching Wastes
• 4 Inventors' Fair
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Torpor Orb
• 2 Defense Grid
• 2 Karn Liberated
• 2 Seal of Primordium
• 2 Wurmcoil Engine
• 3 Natural State

Buy This Deck

The next question is this: how consistently and quickly can you put together this combination of cards? Pretty quickly, it turns out. Ancient Stirrings remains one of the best cantrips in the format, and when it’s backed up by Tolaria West and Inventors' Fair, you’ve got plenty of access to your key combo pieces. When you’ve got enough mana going, you can start utilizing Tezzeret's Gambit, Hedron Archive, and Temple Bell to churn through your deck looking for a way to end the game.

So how exactly do you end games? Batterskull is the best place to start. Once you can net 8 mana per spell cast, you can bounce and replay Batterskull to ensure you never run out of spells to keep the engine going. From there, you can win with Aetherflux Reservoir, which does double duty as a means of gaining a bunch of life and buying an extra couple of turns against aggro decks. Alternatively, you’ve got a Walking Ballista which can be tutored up with Tolaria West which gives you the ability to end the game on the spot.

So the deck is interesting, has the potential to be very fast, and is fairly resilient to most maindeck interactive elements. The problem comes after sideboarding. You can see that the deck is built in such a way to mitigate the effect of Stony Silence. You’ve got a handful of answers like Natural State and Cyclonic Rift along with a backup plan of just casting a quick Karn Liberated or Wurmcoil Engine. All told, this is very interesting combo deck that I can’t wait to see pick up steam. Let’s see what it can really do in Modern!