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Today I present to you a deck inspired by the Death & Taxes strategy, featuring the Armageddon of Modern: the Celestial Kirin + Ugin's Conjurant combo!

If you aren't familiar with the Armageddon combo, don't worry! It's not the end of the world. To offer a brief explanation, Celestial Kirin turns Ugin's Conjurant into a spell that reads: "Destroy all permanents with converted mana cost X." Naturally, this includes lands, whose converted mana cost is zero.

This deck's basic game plan is to combo-kill all your opponent's lands while keeping their creatures locked down with Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse. Then you attack with fliers while they can't do anything!

(Note: This primer is outdated--updates coming soon!)

Before the world ends...

The early turns of the game are spent ramping with Noble Hierarch, searching for combo pieces/miscellaneous creatures that fit the situation with Eladamri's Call, and possibly disrupting your opponent with whatever you happen to draw.

During these first turns, the best cards to play are:

  1. Aether Vial

  2. Noble Hierarch and/or Flagstones of Trokair and/or Ramunap Excavator

  3. Ghostly Prison and/or Windborn Muse

Once you have the combo in hand, it's simple: play Celestial Kirin, then cast Ugin's Conjurant!

One handy thing about this combo is that once you have the Kirin in play, your opponent is unable to stop it without a Stifle effect like Trickbind or Disallow; since Kirin's ability triggers on cast, whether or not Ugin's Conjurant actually resolves is negligible, and they can't play a removal spell on the Kirin before you cast it. That makes the combo completely uncounterable with an Aether Vial on 4!

You can pull off the combo as early as turn 3 with Noble Hierarch or on turn 5 for 0 mana with Aether Vial.


You have to pay your taxes!

The tax soft-lock is having Ghostly Prison or Windborn Muse on the battlefield and then Armageddon-ing (can also Vial in a Muse after combo). If they can't pay their taxes, they can't attack you!

Ghost Quarter + Leonin Arbiter + Ramunap Excavator is also a land lock after the combo, though they'll get one use out of most lands they play before you can do anything about it. (Note: The current version of this deck doesn't play Arbiter for various reasons. It's still a decent card to have, though.)


It's one of life's certainties.

After the end of the world, you will generally be left with a Celestial Kirin on the battlefield that you will then beat them down with in subsequent turns. However, there is a chance that your opponent will start to play lands and be able to stop you in the midst of that process, and that's when the next phase of the plan begins!

These cards fall into two categories: the ones that let you do stuff, and the ones that keep your opponent from doing stuff. I would make up code names for them but I suck at that so:

The Ones That Let You Do Stuff

Aether Vial, Noble Hierarch, Ramunap Excavator, and Flagstones of Trokair are the cards that keep you going post-Armageddon. Vial can handle the playing of larger creatures while Hierarch and Flagstones of Trokair give you some mana to cast the small things with.

Ramunap Excavator is the true MVP here; not only does it let you make land drops out of the ones you destroyed, but it also lets you loop Horizon Canopy and Ghost Quarter to draw cards or destroy lands every turn!

The Ones that Keep Your Opponent From Doing Stuff

This leads us into mana denial. Small Thalia, Big Thalia, and the aforementioned Ghost Quarter all deny your opponent the ability to pay their taxes, keeping them imprisoned forever!!!

(Note: Leonin Arbiter, Aven Mindcensor, Mana Tithe are also cards that work well in this deck.)

While Eladamri's Call's primary use is as a combo tutor, it also lets the deck play a creature toolbox sideboard! In each of these sections, I'll list the cards I would bring in for each match-up then explain some card choices, strategy, etc. in the second half. Cards which I will occasionally play in sideboard but are not currently included in the list above will be italicized.

Scavenging Ooze, Knight of Autumn, Fiend Hunter, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (where applicable), Kitchen Finks, Kor Firewalker.


Faster decks are generally very bad matchups for this deck, as they work off of little mana and can just go under the combo. Burn is particularly hard to beat since they don't wholly rely on creature damage, making the Ghostly Prison/Windborn Muse soft lock far less relevant.

Rest in Peace, , Scavenging Ooze, Knight of Autumn, Containment Priest, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (Phoenix), (Eidolon of Rhetoric) (Phoenix), Kor Firewalker (Mono R Phoenix/Prowess), Remorseful Cleric, (Jotun Grunt).


Graveyard decks are fast, but Dredge often wins through creature damage which can be stopped with Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse; the Kirin combo also delays the Conflagrate win, but only if they don't get a Life from the Loam cast in beforehand. If they do, you need to establish a fast clock ASAP so they don't get the chance to one-shot you.

Phoenix decks (now irrelevant but I'll mention them just in case) will likely board in Aria of Flame for game 2, so Knight of Autumn is very important in that matchup.

Mirran Crusader, Phyrexian Revoker, Scavenging Ooze, (Fiend Hunter), (Kitchen Finks), Knight of Autumn (at own discretion), Gaddock Teeg (aod), Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (aod), Rest in Peace (aod).


The most typical Midrange decks in Modern are either Jund, Rock (GB), or Grixis/UB Death's Shadow, but with the Stoneforge Mystic unban there are now Mono W, UW, BW, and Jeskai midrange decks out there as well, So be prepared for anything.

Against black decks, combo usually folds in the face of hand disruption, but this deck features a fairly decent midrange plan itself with Leonin Arbiter/Aven Mindcensor/Ghost Quarter (not in current iteration), Ramunap Excavator, and Giver of Runes while also having combo resiliency in Eladamri's Call, so there can still be some play even if a TS takes a combo piece away.

Post-board, Mirran Crusader is a boon against Jund and Rock; I also like to board in Kitchen Finks since it has potential to 2-for-1 through blocking and is difficult to remove at a profit. These days, Jund plays both Liliana of the Veil and Wrenn and Six in 4s and 3s, so Phyrexian Revoker is absolutely necessary in Game 2. As a deck whose entire game plan is built around prolonging the game with Armageddon, planeswalkers, which are an inevitable win condition that also operate through that type of resource denial, are your WORST ENEMY. Wrenn and Six in particular is insanely good against this deck, given that he straight-up undoes the effects of Armageddon with his +1.

Against decks with Blue in them, I suggest Scooze since it hits Snapcaster flashback targets in response, Thalia is good at stalling, and Phyrexian Revoker is once again a must due to the likes of T3feri and Jace.

Against White-based Midrange decks, the sideboard plan changes based on whether your opponent is going heavier on the top end of the curve or not. If they're UW, for example, Gaddock Teeg is good to deal with Cryptic and bigger planeswalkers, but not if they have a more tempo-like plan with Spell Quellers. Personally, I would only swap in a few cards to make sure the Kirin combo plan isn't diluted at all, since it's a bomb against Midrange in general. Though if you play against something like UW Midrange often you should change the listed sideboard since I made it with Jund and Rock in mind (I recommend a Thrun, the Last Troll and more small Thalias).

Other than the presence of planeswalkers, the midrange matchup is fairly even. Bant Snow, with their planeswalkers and card draw, is worst matchup out of them all.

Phyrexian Revoker (planeswalkers), Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Mirran Crusader (vs decks with B), Rest in Peace/Scavenging Ooze (if playing Snapcaster or Lingering Souls), Gaddock Teeg (depends on deck)


Control is an archetype that scoops if you can get the combo on the table; otherwise, it's pretty even. Having an early Aether Vial is your best play against blue decks, as it gets around counterspells and makes the combo uncounterable without a Stifle effect.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Gaddock Teeg (Storm, Ad Naus, Scapeshift, CoCo, Amulet Titan), Containment Priest (Lukka/Breach), Aven Mindcensor (Neoform, Amulet Titan), graveyard hate (Storm).


This deck's combo matchup is probably the worst out of them all since you aren't able to race and don't have much meaningful interaction (cough discard cough). You can play more Leonin Arbiter against Neobrand and some Weather the Storm against Storm, but otherwise the best you can do is hope they don't have the nuts, pray for a good draw, and jank 'em out with Armageddon.

Collector Ouphe, Knight of Autumn, lifegain & Fiend Hunter (Affinity), Phyrexian Revoker (Whirza).


Again, fast decks are not good matchups. Knight of Autumn is important vs Whir because this deck can't win through Ensnaring Bridge; Phyrexian Revoker is also notable since it can shut down their combo pieces (Urza/Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek), Goblin Engineer, and any planeswalkers they may be playing (Tezzeret/card:teferi, temporal master|Teferi). Having Collector Ouphe, Phyrexian Revoker, and Giver of Runes on the battlefield at the same time will shut down nearly their entire deck.

Since Mopal was banned Affinity has become less prevalent, but if you do run across it you should mulligan heavily for Ghostly Prison.

Collector Ouphe, Gaddock Teeg, Phyrexian Revoker


As you can imagine, the Tron matchup is pretty good between the main deck Ghost Quarters and the Kirin combo. It can be difficult if they have turn 3 Tron + Karn, but as long as you don't keep slow hands you'll have a decent shot at beating them.

This section is here to note various interactions between and uses of some cards in the deck.

  • With Aether Vial, Eladamri's Call is a 2 mana instant that can put any creature from your deck onto the battlefield. Very useful for getting your sideboard bullets.

  • The Kirin/Conjurant combo is also a flexible removal spell outside of blowing up lands.

  • Don't cast Windborn Muse while Celestial Kirin is on the battlefield without a really good reason.

Suggestions are not unwelcome.

Suggestions

Updates Add

It's a pretty long read, but it might be worth your time. :)

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/ktg3g5/i_placed_top_8_in_a_league_with_celestial_kirin/

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Revision 14 See all

(2 years ago)

+1 Branchloft Pathway  Flip main
+1 Brutal Cathar  Flip side
-1 Ghostly Prison side
-1 Horizon Canopy main
+1 Prismatic Ending main
-1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben main
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #18 position overall 4 years ago
  • Achieved #1 position in Modern 4 years ago
Date added 4 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is not Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 5 Mythic Rares

41 - 10 Rares

8 - 0 Uncommons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.95
Tokens Companion Zone, Day, Illusion */* U, Night
Folders cool modern decks, Decks to try, playtesting, decks that i like, Modern, Modern Interest, Modern things
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