The Curse of Erayo

Modern* Counterspell Jank WU (Azorius)

reddeath68

Creature (13)

• 1x Azor's Elocutors
• 3x Erayo, Soratami Ascendant  ^Flip
• 4x Meddling Mage
• 4x Reflector Mage
• 1x Triskaidekaphile

Enchantment (6)

• 3x Curse of Exhaustion
• 3x Ixalan's Binding

Instant (16)

• 4x Counterspell
• 4x Neutralize
• 4x Opt
• 4x Shelter

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Serum Visions

Land (21)

• 4x Evolving Wilds
• 4x Glacial Fortress
• 7x Island
• 6x Plains

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Sideboard

Instant (3)

• 3x Generous Gift

Sorcery (3)

• 3x Reduce to Memory

Enchantment (3)

• 3x Detention Sphere

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I have friends trying to get me to play modern with a more competitive deck than the jank I have been sharing. To that end I decided to try making something a bit more serious with just a splash of jank that functions as a game winning hard lock, hopefully since it serves a purpose it passes the test. Anyway let's break down the deck.

"Creatures"

• Erayo, Soratami Ascendant  : This is the card that made me create the deck. By flipping Erayo we can turn them into an enchantment that counters our opponents first spell every turn, even if they say try to cast a counter spell on my turn. This card is combo-ed with a one sided Rule of Law effect in the form of Curse of Exhaustion But more about that later.

• Meddling Mage: This card is usually a side board card but I prefer best of 1 and it has helped me a lot being able to remove an opponents permanent or counter their spell and then follow it up with Meddling Mage in order to prevent them from casting it again.

• Reflector Mage: This guy was a thorn in my side when they were in standard, but here they do so much work. By bouncing our opponents creature and preventing them from casting it again the following turn, even if they destroy our Reflector Mage while the trigger is on the stack, we buy ourselves a turn to ready a Counterspell or to drop a Meddling Mage to prevent the threat from returning.

• Azor's Elocutors: One of 2 alternate win conditions in the deck for if we succeed in forming the lock but the opponent is too hard to kill.

• Triskaidekaphile: Another alternate win condition. We play one of each to avoid removal and hate.

"Instants and Sorceries"

• Opt: Not much to say here, solid draw fixing at instant speed that can help flip Erayo, Soratami Ascendant   fairly early as they only count the number of spells cast, not who cast them.

• Serum Visions: Again not much to say here, more draw fixing and we can use them to help dig our way out from under cards like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer by making sure our good cards are 1 below the surface so the opponent can't take them.

• Counterspell: Old reliable. Nothing else really needs to be said aside from a turn 4 Erayo flip is possible thanks to them if our opponent is playing low CMC spells.

• Neutralize: Our other counter spell in the deck. I went with this one over the many options because we can cycle it if it is not needed.

• Shelter: Protects our creatures, especially Erayo, and draws us a card. What's not to love.

"Enchantments"

• Curse of Exhaustion: A one sided rule of law that can limit our opponents actions in a pinch and combos with Erayo after they flip to form a hard lock against our opponent. I can think of very few ways out of this lock beyond a card that says cannot be countered, a card with the split second ability, or some sort of no cast needed removal like sacrificing a creature.

• Ixalan's Binding: This is for dealing with things that are fairly hard to deal with like planes walkers such as Teferi, Time Raveler whose static ability shuts us down fairly hard, certain enchantments and artifacts like Chalice of the Void which can shut down a good portion of our deck.

"Lands"

Like always I play budget, Erayo is the most expensive card in the deck by far, and that means a cheap but fairly fast mana base. We run Glacial Fortress and Evolving Wilds for mana fixing and then the rest is basics.

"Notes"

The deck and the side board are not final as they still need a lot of play testing, but so far the deck has been fairly successful. Also for those who don't know you could make a slower even more budget version of this deck with Jace, Unraveler of Secrets as his emblem does the same thing as the flipped version of Erayo and the emblem can't be removed. Plus it is commander legal as Erayo is banned in commander.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 3 Rares 26 - 6 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.38
Tokens	Elephant 3/3 G, Spirit 3/2 RW