New Life Gain Deck Puts 30 Power Into Play Turn 3

Reality Fracture cards are finally tournament legal, and unsurprisingly, players are already starting to brew around them. In fact, well-known content creator Aspiringspike has already managed to 5-0 a Magic Online Modern League with a unique life gain “combo” deck. Capable of putting 15 2/2 bodies into play as early as turn three, this deck has some real potential.

Abusing Germinate Recruits

This Abzan brew piloted by Aspiringspike is designed to maximize Germinate Recruits as its primary win condition. This card is a potential army in a can with the right support, and in this case, that support comes from Nourishing Shoal Nourishing Shoal You may exile a green card with mana value X from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
You gain X life. and Autochthon Wurm Autochthon Wurm Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
Trample . By exiling Wurm to Shoal, you’ll gain 15 life without having to invest any mana, perfectly enabling Germinate Recruits to add 30 power to the board.

To find these three distinct pieces to execute your combo kill, you need ways to dig for them. Synergizing perfectly with the lifegain plan, Necrodominance Necrodominance Skip your draw step.
At the beginning of your end step, you may pay any amount of life. If you do, draw that many cards.
Your maximum hand size is five.
If a card or token would be put into your graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead. can draw tons of cards, with Nourishing Shoal enabling it. Other sources of life gain, like Witherbloom Charm Witherbloom Charm Choose one —
• You may sacrifice a permanent. If you do, draw two cards.
• You gain 5 life.
• Destroy target nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less. and Professor Dellian Fel Professor Dellian Fel +2: You gain 3 life.
0: You draw a card and lose 1 life.
−3: Destroy target creature.
−6: You get an emblem with "Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life." , only increase this enchantment’s likelihood of popping off.

Notably, because Germinate Recruits is an instant, you can cast it during your end step after drawing a bunch of cards with Necrodominance. As such, if you have Shoal and Wurm lined up, it’s often worth gaining 15 life since you can then dig deep for your win condition.

From there, the only thing to worry about is opposing pieces of disruption, which Thoughtseize Thoughtseize Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life. and Inquisition of Kozilek Inquisition of Kozilek Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it with mana value 3 or less. That player discards that card. can help combat. With Fatal Push Fatal Push Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn. and Witherbloom Charm keeping problematic creatures like Orcish Bowmasters Orcish Bowmasters Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1. in check, you cover most of your bases.

A Surprisingly Robust Gameplan

Despite being a combo deck with a one-dimensional gameplan, this deck has decent resilience in many matchups. Naturally, the life gain package lines up extremely well against aggro decks like Boros Energy, making it extremely difficult for the opponent to race. From there, a resolved Germinate Recruits completely halts all opposing pressure and should be more than enough to win the game.

Similarly, most combo decks like Ruby Storm have little recourse against Germinate Recruits once you find it. With access to a whopping 12 discard spells in sideboarded games, you should have no problem slowing the opponent down until you win.

On top of that, this deck lines up better than you might expect against many of Modern’s typical hate cards. Board wipes like Wrath of the Skies, for example, are ineffective, since you can assemble lethal on the opponent’s end step. While Engineered Explosives Engineered Explosives Sunburst (This artifact enters with a charge counter on it for each color of mana spent to cast it.)
{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Destroy each nonland permanent with mana value equal to the number of charge counters on this artifact. keeps Germinate Recruits in check in theory, Witherbloom Charm can stop that plan preemptively. Charm even answers High Noon High Noon Each player can't cast more than one spell each turn.
{4}{R}, Sacrifice this enchantment: It deals 5 damage to any target. , which could otherwise stop you from casting Shoal and Germinate Recruits in the same turn.

Where this deck can run into problems, however, is against hate cards that dodge your interactive suite. A resolved Narset, Parter of Veils Narset, Parter of Veils Each opponent can't draw more than one card each turn.
−2: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a noncreature, nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. shutting down Necrodominance, for instance, can make it very hard to find your combo pieces. On a different axis, Trinisphere Trinisphere As long as this artifact is untapped, each spell that would cost less than three mana to cast costs three mana to cast. (Additional mana in the cost may be paid with any color of mana or colorless mana. For example, a spell that would cost {1}{B} to cast costs {2}{B} to cast instead.) slows your combo down immensely by making you pay three mana for Nourishing Shoal, which can give green ramp decks time to assemble a win.

Still, even with these weaknesses, this deck has plenty of appeal, especially as a rather unknown archetype that players aren’t prepared for. There’s also plenty of room for exploration within the strategy, so it’ll be worth seeing if players continue to build on these ideas moving forward.

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