Indomitable Creativity is one of the best decks in the format, ranked fifth in my December Modern Power Rankings. Two months ago, I wrote a Deep Dive about the deck and I considered all the options between the white splash with Teferi, Time Raveler and Leyline Binding, as well as the black splash with Persist and Bitter Reunion.
It features two old cards that we haven’t seen in a long time in Modern: Mana Leak and Burst Lightning. The first one is pretty intuitive; Mana Leak over Counterspell because the mana base cannot afford to pay UU with four Dwarven Mine and the selection of non-blue lands. Burst Lightning is less intuitive, and Yriel prefers it over other answers such as Leyline Binding because it can answer a turn one Ragavan on the draw. One-mana answers are extremely important in Modern with the best decks in the format playing Ragavan and Esper Sentinel.
You can replace Burst Lightning with Dead // Gone or Unholy Heat and you won’t change the deck too much, but Yriel likes Burst Lightning because of the ability to burn the opponent, which is relevant in a deck with so many burn spells. What’s important to understand here though is that in order to be successful in Modern, you need to lower your curve and be ready for the turn one Monkey!
