Magic metagames are funny things. One day you’ll be pretty confident you have everything figured out, then the next some niche list will take the top two spots in a major event. This past weekend saw this very scenario play out in Modern. At Saturday’s Modern Showcase Qualifier, the final was a mirror match between two Basking Broodscale Combo decks. While this archetype has performed well in Pauper in the past, this level of Modern success is unprecedented. Given the stale state of the current meta, it’s also very exciting.
Basking Broodscale Combo In Modern
In case you haven’t heard of the Basking Broodscale Combo before, I’ll quickly break it down. It all revolves around the titular common creature from Modern Horizons 3. Each time one or more +1/+1 counters are placed on this eldritch Lizard, you get a 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn token. The crucial thing here is that this ability has no ‘once per turn’ clause. As long as you can keep placing counters, you’ll keep getting tokens.
In Pauper Basking Broodscale goes infinite with Sadistic Glee, but that’s not legal in Modern. Instead, players have come to rely on Blade of the Bloodchief as combo piece number two. While equipped, this places a +1/+1 counter on Broodscale each time you sacrifice an Eldrazi Spawn. This, in turn, will create another Spawn, leading to an infinite loop. From here, the deck has multiple ways to win the game.
The easiest of these is to simply have a Glaring Fleshraker in play. This pings your opponent for one each time a colorless creature enters under your control, which will instantly wipe them out as you generate infinite tokens. Alternatively, you can find a way to leverage infinite mana. Each Spawn you sacrifice gives you a colorless mana to work with, so the combo gives you as much as you want. You can funnel this into a Walking Ballista to end the game on the spot.
As with all combo decks, the most important factor here is speed. Or in other words, how fast the combo can typically be performed in a given game. In the case of Basking Broodscale Combo, the earliest you can pull off a win is turn three. The deck has plenty of tools to make sure this happens, however.
Keeping Things Consistent
The bulk of the decklists that JohnMTG and PedroGush piloted in the final of the Modern Showcase Qualifier were dedicated to consistency boosters. Outside of the core combo cards, these are the cards that make the deck tick.
Since the deck runs so many colorless and Eldrazi cards, Ancient Stirrings gets to do some serious work here. Digging for pretty much anything you need for just one green mana is a pretty excellent deal, after all. Malevolent Rumble fills a similar role for more mana but also creates an Eldrazi Spawn token. This can be used to start your combo without sinking more mana into Broodscale, so don’t underestimate it.
Speaking of card selection, one of the dark horses in the Modern version of Basking Broodscale Combo is Kozilek’s Command. If you have the combo going, you can sink infinite mana into the second ability here to Scry your whole deck and draw a Walking Ballista or Glaring Fleshraker to end the game. The other abilities are also handy on filler turns early in the game before you draw your key pieces.
Perhaps the best consistency booster in the deck is The One Ring. This card is good everywhere but it feels particularly good in a Combo deck, where draw power is king. The protection buys you more time to combo off, and you can even cast it extra safely using Delighted Halfling. Even in a niche Combo deck, you can’t escape the allure of four One Rings, it seems.
Beyond this, Urza’s Saga is the last notable inclusion in the deck. It can tutor up your Blade of the Bloodchief, which immediately makes it a slam-dunk in the list. On top of that it can grab situational answers like Haywire Mite too, in a pinch.
A Flash In The Pan?
Basking Broodscale Combo is a really interesting deck, and it’s great to see it doing so well in Modern. In addition to the two players in the final, seventh place in the Modern Showcase Qualifier was also running the deck. Are these early hints of a new meta deck emerging before our eyes?
It’s tough to answer that question, but I’ll say possibly. While this deck is very vulnerable to disruption via artifact removal, it also has a ton of ways to fish for extra copies of Blade of the Bloodchief when needed. Indeed, the consistency is what I think puts this over the top of something like Mono-Black Soultrader.
The deck is mostly linear, but it can interact via tactical Urza’s Saga plays. Haywire Mite can eat an opposing One Ring, for instance, and Pithing Needle can solve all kinds of problems. These cards can give you an edge against other Combo decks like Ruby Storm, but for the most part, you just have to hope your higher consistency lets you pop off first.
Playing against aggressive decks like Boros Energy is a similar gamble. Static Prison aside, these decks really can’t interact with your game plan much at all. This turns game one against Boros into a coin flip for the most part. Boros can side into pieces that hurt your deck later on, however, so you’re likely not favored in the follow-ups. Izzet Murktide also seems like a tough matchup, with so much countermagic to disrupt your key pieces.
Overall it’s hard to say whether Basking Broodscale Combo will be the next big thing in Modern. God bless the players above for giving it a shot, though.
