When Madcap Experiment was first previewed, there was an awful lot of hype around the card in Modern. People were envisioning cheating Platinum Emperion and other giant monsters into play and then riding those giant threats to victory. The problem with that plan was that Path to Exile was such as enormous part of the format, particularly in conjunction with either fast pressure from Monastery Swiftspear or backup from Snapcaster Mage. That meant spending your fourth turn to put a giant threat into play just wasn’t good enough. But things have changed quite a bit recently, and it may be time to reconsider the Madcap Experiment combo variants:

U/R Madcap Experiment ? Modern | _GABRIELFEHR_ , 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (9)
• 2 Vendilion Clique
• 3 Platinum Angel
• 4 Snapcaster Mage

• Instants (17)
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Cryptic Command
• 2 Spell Snare
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Pact of Negation
• 4 Remand

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Roast
• 4 Madcap Experiment
• 4 Serum Visions

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Blood Moon

• Lands (23)
• 1 Mountain
• 4 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Desolate Lighthouse
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 3 Flooded Strand
• 3 Steam Vents
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Blood Moon
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
• 1 Harvest Pyre
• 1 Izzet Staticaster
• 1 Jace, Architect of Thought
• 1 Negate
• 1 Threads of Disloyalty
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Dispel
• 2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 2 Spontaneous Mutation

Buy This Deck

This deck isn’t trying to cheat Platinum Emperion into play anymore. Emperion is pretty good against fair decks, but doesn’t do a whole lot against the likes of Inkmoth Nexus or Path to Exile. Fortunately, the Fatal Push was just printed, and the format is shifting toward various Death's Shadow builds and other decks trying to utilize efficient removal to beat them. That leaves giant artifact monsters relatively safe in this metagame cycle.

With that in mind, why would you cheat in Platinum Emperion instead of Platinum Angel? Platinum Angel has a few key upsides that Emperion does not. Evasion is great, since you can fly in for damage over Tarmogoyfs and Death's Shadows without worrying about your life total. You also don’t have to worry about infect and other alternate win conditions as long as you can protect Platinum Angel.

That leads us to the next key inclusion: Pact of Negation. Suddenly, this deck has gained the ability to fight over Madcap Experiment for free with Pact. No matter what happens, if your Madcap Experiment resolves, you get to have a Platinum Angel in play, which means you can Pact without fear in most matchups, either to force through your Experiment or to protect the Angel once it’s in play.

The rest of the deck is designed to pressure your opponent into giving you openings to resolve a Madcap Experiment. Efficient interaction, Blood Moon to beat up on decks with ambitious mana, and Cryptic Command and Snapcaster Mage to help keep pace on card advantage. This is a deck with a lot of the advantages of Blood Moon, but with the additional benefit of a combo that sometimes just wins the game and others gives you a handful of free interaction.