I knew there was still some use for bouncing in Modern!
Note on this idea: The core idea of this deck came from Asparagus by Frog_Bomb. I tried to build a slightly modified version of that deck (rakdos-reverse-rack), and liked it's flexible strategy and disruptive abilities, but realized it was ultimately pulling in two directions much of the time. It's best disruptive capabilities were good with the normal 8-Rack strategy, but less so for it's more explosive Liliana's Caress/Waste Not strategy. So why not disrupt in a way is also conducive to the primary wincon? Hence this build, which makes all the more sense with Displacement Wave looming.
How it works:
First, you bounce stuff as your opponent plays it. Using Remand, Void Snare, Boomerang and Vapor Snag, we can cheaply keep our opponent at bay by sending cards back to his or her hand. And then there's the new guy, Displacement Wave, which I think could be really useful in Modern if we can mitigate the symmetry of it. We also have extra sideboard options for particular matchups - Cyclonic Rift, Echoing Truth, and Hurkyl's Recall.
Second, as you potentially continue bouncing (because our spells are cheap), you lay down some enchantments like Liliana's Caress, Waste Not, and Megrim.
Third, as your opponent's hand remains a bit full and you have your board set up, you drop Dark Deal, Wistful Thinking. or activate Jace's Archivist, doing damage to the opponent through Liliana's Caress and/or Megrim, throwing off their plan, and refilling your hand with Waste Not and/or Dream Salvage.
The alternate wincon is straight beatdown with Jace's Phantasm (which works with the hand-cycling even if you can't combo with an enchantment), Waste Not tokens, and Faerie Conclave.
Card Choices:
I think most of my choices were pretty obvious given the goal of the deck, but here's some of my reasoning where it may not be totally clear.
Displacement Wave - Just plain good stuff. I think it will see play in Modern, and might end up being good enough to see a minor resurgence for control decks.
Void Snare - Largely ignored in Modern, primarily because of it's Sorcery speed. But here, it's versatile and effective. There are 2-mana spells that are a good bit better, but I wanted to consistently be able to bounce something and drop an enchantment on turns 3 and 4. That being said, there's a good reason Boomerang et al. are available on the sideboard.
Boomerang - Almost (but not quite) on par with the flexibility of Remand, but can also hit land. This is pretty important in a few matchups, as we're letting the opponent see tons of cards, so they're likely to hit key land drops.
Tectonic Edge - Again, mitigates the land problem.
Wistful Thinking - This was actually a key omission from the initial build. It's not great, but it gives us more consistent hand-cycling, which is important to our wincon, alternate wincon, and overall advantage. Jace's Archivist is almost perfect for the deck, but obviously slower and susceptible to any removal.
On the sideboard: We have a suite of different bounce spells we can swap out to increase our effectiveness against particular decks, a lifegain gag, four extra creatures to get around removal of our enchantments, and some graveyard hate.
Perplex - I always liked this card. It''s kind of this deck's mascot. It's also a great late-game move when you want to shut the game down. Hedges against the major card pseudo-advantage we're conceding. The deck almost became (and still might become) more counter-heavy with Perplex and Muddle the Mixture, which also would allow us to transmute for combo pieces. The deck has more synergy with bounce spells, but they're not great against combos or hexproof stuff, so we may end up mixing it up either on the mainboard or sideboard with the counter/transmuters.
Budget Notes:
This is absolutely intended to be a budget deck. Ok, so Remand is not really a budget-friendly card, and accounts for the deck going over $100. But it is the best spell in this deck, fits the concept perfectly, and doesn't have a real replacement. In fact, it's better in this deck than most because we get value out of our opponent keeping a card. Another $21 is added by Hurkyl's Recall. That one hurts because it's primarily in there for the Affinity matchup, but that's our toughest opponent by a good margin. So you can build this deck for under $75 without those items, but you really lose some power. Mikokoro, Center of the Sea can easily be cut if you're trying to go cheaper.
On the other side of things, if you happened to have some Snapcaster Mages and Creeping Tar Pits around, they would be useful here, as would Cryptic Command.
Suggestions Welcome, +1's Appreciated:
This is a work in progress, and I'm very open to criticism, so tell me what you think. Please take a look at the maybeboard and feel free to make a case for any of that stuff - those cards are on there for good reason. But do keep in mind that this is a budget deck when making suggestions.
One of the big questions for me is whether or not to run Wistful Thinking. Yes it's basically a bad card, and a worse Dark Deal, but Jace's Archivist is fragile, slow, and harder to cast. I likely wouldn't swap one for the other, but rather play two Jace, and cut 1-2 other spells for 2-3 Wistful.
Which leads me to the other major question, which is how many bounce spells, enchantments, and cyclers to run for an optimal balance? Or, do I run fewer of a given combo piece in favor of counter/transmuters like Perplex and Muddle the Mixture?
