Goryo's Vengeance is one of the most unfair cards still legal in Modern. The ability to cheat giant legends like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Griselbrand into play is absolutely crazy, and there are several archetypes built around it. Of course, there are other legends in Modern besides Emrakul and Griselbrand. What happens if one tries to build a deck around a legend that’s more castable?

Esper Goryo?s Vengeance ? Modern | Nichoras, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (8)
• 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

• Instants (15)
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 1 Ultimate Price
• 2 Fatal Push
• 3 Path to Exile
• 4 Goryo's Vengeance
• 4 Thought Scour

• Sorceries (16)
• 1 Collective Brutality
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 3 Pieces of the Puzzle
• 3 Serum Visions
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Lingering Souls

• Lands (21)
• 1 Island
• 1 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 2 Watery Grave
• 3 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Marsh Flats

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Celestial Purge
• 1 Ceremonious Rejection
• 1 Devour Flesh
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Negate
• 2 Damnation
• 2 Rain of Tears
• 3 Fragmentize
• 3 Stony Silence

Buy This Deck

Then there’s the combo element. Your combo is Goryo's Vengeance and Obzedat, Ghost Council. This lets you get a two-mana, hasty Obzedat in play, which is an incredible way to turn the corner against nearly every deck in the format. Unlike other control decks, you don’t have to grind your opponent into the dust and wait for your Ancestral Vision to resolve. You can just cast a Thought Scour on the first turn and a Goryo's Vengeance on the second and start clocking your opponent.

The beauty of this deck is that the control engine feeds into Obzedat in multiple ways. Your Jaces and Thought Scours make your Goryo's Vengeance faster, more consistent, and more resilient. Your control engine also just buys you time to cast Obzedat in games where your opponent is prepared for graveyard shenanigans.

If you want to play a deck that has the ability to both race and out control Death's Shadow, this seems like a great place to start. If you want a high density of removal to interact with the Devoted Druid decks, this is also pretty good shell to do that in. There’s plenty of room here to change up the exact suite of discard spells and removal to suite your metagame, which makes this deck a very reasonable choice for an open metagame.