MTG Modern Brew Wins by Turning a Land into Omniscience

Despite being a rather high-powered format, Modern has always been hospitable to brews. With such a vast card pool, players keep finding unique ways to use forgotten or underappreciated designs.

On November 14th, for example, a cool deck built entirely around Shifting Woodland went 5-0 in a Magic Online League, putting the once-hyped land back on the map.

Winning with a Land

This deck’s primary game plan revolves around using Shifting Woodland Shifting Woodland This land enters tapped unless you control a Forest.
{T}: Add {G}.
Delirium — {2}{G}{G}: This land becomes a copy of target permanent card in your graveyard until end of turn. Activate only if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard. to copy Omniscience Omniscience You may cast spells from your hand without paying their mana costs. . From there, you can cast any massive bomb from your hand, with your best options being Emrakul, the Promised End Emrakul, the Promised End This spell costs {1} less to cast for each card type among cards in your graveyard.
When you cast this spell, you gain control of target opponent during that player's next turn. After that turn, that player takes an extra turn.
Flying, trample, protection from instants and Griselbrand Griselbrand Flying, lifelink
Pay 7 life: Draw seven cards. .

Getting to this point requires a decent amount of set up, however, as you first need to enable Delirium. You also need to churn through your library to find Omniscience and get it into your graveyard, and you have numerous discard outlets and Mill effects.

Early in the game, both Faithless Looting Faithless Looting Draw two cards, then discard two cards.
Flashback {2}{R} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) and Malevolent Rumble Malevolent Rumble Reveal the top four cards of your library. You may put a permanent card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard. Create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}." do a good job filling your graveyard while digging for Shifting Woodland. Once you get to three mana, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker Fable of the Mirror-Breaker (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — Create a 2/2 red Goblin Shaman creature token with "Whenever this token attacks, create a Treasure token."
II — You may discard up to two cards. If you do, draw that many cards.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control. becomes an elite rummaging option that leaves behind a ramping Goblin.

Things start to heat up in the four-mana slot with Icetill Explorer Icetill Explorer You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
You may play lands from your graveyard.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, mill a card. , which, when paired with Fetchlands, serves as a turbo Mill engine. This Insect also lets you play any copies of Shifting Woodland you Mill over, or rebuy the land if it gets tagged by land destruction.

Icetill Explorer’s only downside is that it’s a bit clunky, but Utopia Sprawl Utopia Sprawl Enchant Forest
As this Aura enters, choose a color.
Whenever enchanted Forest is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional one mana of the chosen color. and the Eldrazi Spawn from Rumble get you to it a turn early. With the help of Unholy Heat Unholy Heat Unholy Heat deals 2 damage to target creature or planeswalker.
Delirium — Unholy Heat deals 6 damage instead if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard. keeping opposing creatures in check in the interim, you’ll usually have time to execute your game plan.

Once you have Shifting Woodland lined up with Delirium, the last piece of the puzzle is simply to find one of your fatties to win the game. Your looting effects obviously help, but for even more consistency, this deck runs a full playset of Traverse the Ulvenwald Traverse the Ulvenwald Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Delirium — If there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, instead search your library for a creature or land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. .

Of course, you can also use Traverse to tutor up Shifting Woodland itself, or even a utility land like Ghost Quarter Ghost Quarter {T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice this land: Destroy target land. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. to pair with Icetill. Grabbing Soulless Jailer Soulless Jailer Permanent cards in graveyards can't enter the battlefield.
Players can't cast noncreature spells from graveyards or exile. out of the sideboard after game one can be a game-saving play against Living End Living End Suspend 3—{2}{B}{B}
Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield. , too. This deck certainly has a lot of tricks up its sleeve.

Consistent, with a Glaring Problem

Thanks to this deck’s multitude of card-filtering effects, its game plan is extremely consistent. Having your win condition be a land is also very unorthodox, and many other archetypes aren’t prepared to disrupt you as a result.

Decks like Dimir Midrange, which rely on counterspells and Thoughtseize Thoughtseize Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life. to mess with your combo, for example, have little recourse once you activate Shifting Woodland’s ability. While the opponent can technically counter your payoff post-Omniscience, even beating Emrakul’s trigger is very difficult.

At the same time, assertive creature decks like Boros Energy can struggle to race your combo. Things only get worse for them when you add Fire Magic Fire Magic Tiered (Choose one additional cost.)
• Fire — {0} — Fire Magic deals 1 damage to each creature.
• Fira — {2} — Fire Magic deals 2 damage to each creature.
• Firaga — {5} — Fire Magic deals 3 damage to each creature. out of the sideboard, which can single-handedly buy tons of time.

Unfortunately, though, your weakness to graveyard hate means even your strongest matchups typically have a fighting chance in games two and three. Cards like Rest in Peace Rest in Peace When this enchantment enters, exile all graveyards.
If a card or token would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead. and Leyline of the Void Leyline of the Void If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead. not only halt Delirium, but they also make Icetill Explorer look silly.

As such, you’re essentially forced to find Force of Vigor Force of Vigor If it's not your turn, you may exile a green card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Destroy up to two target artifacts and/or enchantments. to handle those cards before you can go off. As good as this deck is at seeing lots of cards, Rumble doesn’t help with this task, and you won’t be able to Flashback Looting for more looks.

If graveyard hate weren’t enough, you also have to worry about Blood Moon Blood Moon Nonbasic lands are Mountains. and Pithing Needle Pithing Needle As this artifact enters, choose a card name.
Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated unless they're mana abilities. effects. The one saving grace is that Icetill Explorer still ramps you, so pivoting to hard-casting Emrakul is a realistic path to victory.

All things considered, this deck’s weaknesses go to show why Shifting Woodland never quite lived up to its initial hype. Nonetheless, if you can dodge hate, attacking from a unique angle has its benefits. So, if you’re a fan of wacky combo strategies, consider breaking this Gruul Woodland deck out at your next Modern FNM.

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