Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast made some enormous changes to Modern. While seeing The One Ring and a staple of Boros Energy (in this case, Amped Raptor) get banned, what really caught players by surprise was the mass unbanning of four cards.
Every time there’s been a ban announcement over the past couple years, many players have taken the opportunity to spec on Splinter Twin. Well, the card is finally back in Modern, joined by powerhouses in the form of Mox Opal, Green Sun’s Zenith, and Faithless Looting.
While Izzet Splinter Twin was renowned as one of the strongest Modern decks back in its heyday, that was long before Modern Horizons sets were a thing. Splinter Twin was originally banned back in 2016. This time around, we believe that there are a multitude of reasons why this card may make a minimal impact in Modern. There’s a lot of hype, but will the card fall short of expectations?
Efficiency of Answers
For those unfamiliar, Splinter Twin is a unique card that combos with a handful of different creatures. Most commonly, players look to pair Splinter Twin with either Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite. As three-drops, these two cards set you up nicely to win the game the following turn.
The goal is to enchant one of these creatures with Splinter Twin. From there, you can tap the enchanted creature to make a token copy of itself. When that creature enters, simply untap the original creature, and tap it once again. You can repeat this process over and over, generating infinite Hasty creatures to attack with.
Part of what made this combo so powerful in the past is that players always had to leave up mana past turn three for fear of losing to it. Both Deceiver Exarch and Pestermite have Flash, so if you ever tapped out, you would risk the opponent casting one of these threats on your end step and winning during their turn.
On top of that, Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch can tap one of your lands when they enter, so you need to leave up extra mana just in case. Deceiver Exarch even has the luxury of dodging Lightning Bolt, which is a huge boon.
The problem now is that disruption has gotten so much better in recent years. In the past, once your opponent was tapped out, you’d be free to combo at will. This is no longer the case. From Solitude to Flare of Malice, there are a variety of ways your opponent can blow you out by getting rid of your creature.
This doesn’t even take into account free Counterspells. Decks like Belcher have access to Flare of Denial and Force of Negation to stop your combo at will. Deceiver Exarch and Pestermite simply aren’t that threatening by themselves, so you really need ways to push through your combo.
Backup Plan Takes a Step Back
This segues nicely into the next issue an Izzet Splinter Twin deck can have moving forward: the backup plan is less reliable. One of the reasons Splinter Twin players had immense success with the archetype is that they could rely on cobbling together wins with Lightning Bolt and Flash creatures like Snapcaster Mage.
In fact, in many cases, Splinter Twin players would sideboard out the combo and plan to play an Izzet control gameplan. The opponent still has to play scared of the combo, whether it’s in your deck or not. This gave you a huge advantage.
Well, cards like Snapcaster Mage have completely fallen by the wayside. Modern decks are so much faster and more resilient, making it difficult to realistically win with mediocre beats. In order to truly make Splinter Twin work in Modern, you need either a high density of disruption to free up your combo or a much more robust backup plan.
Changing the Course
With this in mind, there is still some hope for Splinter Twin enthusiasts. Right off the bat, one thing players were quick to realize is how synergistic Splinter Twin is with Fear of Missing Out.
Once you have Delirium and a clear path to attack the opponent, you can suit up Fear of Missing Out with Splinter Twin. Then, you can tap Fear of Missing Out to make a copy of itself, use the copy to attack the opponent, and untap the original in the process. You get another combat step, so you’re free to generate another token copy of Fear of Missing Out and repeat this process.
What’s nice about this compared to relying on Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite is that Fear of Missing Out is a strong card by itself. One player has already managed to boast a 5-0 record in a Magic Online Modern League with an Izzet tempo shell featuring this combo. With other Delirium payoffs like Dragon’s Rage Channeler in the mix, you now have access to solid tempo starts as well as a combo finish.
Another strategy that had some early success was, believe it or not, Boros Energy with Village Bell-Ringer and Splinter Twin. Village Bell-Ringer is a very similar combo piece to Deceiver Exarch, but being a white card makes it easier to support in aggressive decks like Boros.
While this combo variant may seem strange, it does solve the issue of featuring a backup plan. Arguably, this time around, the Splinter Twin combo is the backup plan, with the main focus being to beat the opponent down with Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride.
So, while we’re still skeptical of Splinter Twin’s long-term success in a Modern environment with Mox Opal and other broken tools, there’s tons of room for exploration in the format. We look forward to seeing how things shape out in the coming weeks.
