Over the last couple of months, Krark-Clan Ironworks has shown itself to be one of the most explosive and resilient combo decks in Modern. It's also an interesting combo deck because the builds for online play can differ wildly from those in paper events due to the clock in online play. Another interesting aspect of this deck is watching it evolve as players start to take it more and more seriously, devoting more sideboard slots to cards like Stony Silence, Ancient Grudge, and Rest in Peace.

Krark-Clan Ironworks | Modern | acidrap, 5-0 Competitive Modern Constructed League

• Creatures (8)
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 3 Scrap Trawler
• 4 Sai, Master Thopterist

• Instants (2)
• 2 Whir of Invention

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Thoughtcast

• Artifacts (29)
• 1 Defense Grid
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Terrarion
• 2 Prophetic Prism
• 2 Pyrite Spellbomb
• 4 Chromatic Sphere
• 4 Chromatic Star
• 4 Ichor Wellspring
• 4 Mishra's Bauble
• 4 Mox Opal

• Lands (19)
• 1 Forest
• 4 Island
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Glimmervoid
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 3 Yavimaya Coast
• 4 Darksteel Citadel
• 4 Spire of Industry

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Damping Sphere
• 2 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Ghirapur Aether Grid
• 2 Lightning Bolt
• 3 Nature's Claim
• 2 Negate
• 1 Thoughtcast
• 1 Torpor Orb
• 1 Welding Jar
• 1 Whir of Invention

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The idea here is actually really cool - you're pinning your success on the idea that Sai generating thopters is good enough to beat most decks. Once you find a Scrap Trawler you can start looping artifacts to generate a steadily increasing number of thopters. These can either function as blockers to buy you more time, as attackers to pressure opposing control decks, or as cards to help you piece together either a combo win or a lock.

This varied strategy means that you're worse at being a control deck and a combo deck than the pure KCI and Lantern of Insight decks. That said, you're forcing your opponent to interact with you on more angles. Can your opponents board out their Terminuses and Supreme Verdicts when you beat them with Sai Game 1? If Sai eats removal spells early on, how will your opponents deal with a Scrap Trawler later on? How can your opponent know which spells they have to counter when there are so many angles you can attack from?

The best part about all of this is that, once your opponent overcommits to trying to deal with your Sai plan, you can just Whir of Invention up your missing lock pieces or combo pieces to punish them. You have an instant-speed tutor that be absolutely backbreaking as an additional payoff for focusing your deck around a more flexible engine.