Bring to Light lets you play a slew of colors, and an excellent toolbox package. The only limitation is how many cards you can fit into your deck. So who says that that number has to be 60? When players go to 61, or Finkel forbid even more, people assume you have no idea what you’re doing and that your deck isn’t competitive. So how about a 150-card Bring to Light deck that just took down a 130-person Modern tournament in Finland last weekend?
I could write until I’m arthritic about the things this deck is capable of, but it starts with mana fixing. Between Farseek, Search for Tomorrow, Harrow, Kodama’s Reach, and Sakura-Tribe Elder, there are plenty of ways to make more colors and ramp your mana.
The card draw spells form another long list. Thirst for Knowledge and Worldly Counsel help you get deeper into your deck. Remand and Cryptic Command pull double duty in functionality. Izzet Charm can also load up the graveyard, deal with a creature, and dig deeper.
Gifts Ungiven can come up with some pretty crazy piles. You have the combo with Unburial Rites available to lock up a game. You have value packages. There’s a playset of Snapcaster Mages to make sure you can go deeper. You’ve got removal spells in Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile, sweepers in Wrath of God, and even a singleton Crumble to Dust to deal with Tron!
Bring to Light can get any card in the deck. It can set up the Gifts into Unburial Rites, or find other game winners.
Scapeshift threatens to just win the game on the spot if you have 7 lands and your opponent is at 18 or less life. With 64 lands, you hardly even notice the times where drawing Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is pretty bad!
Traumatize is another interesting option. It combos really nicely with Splendid Reclamation as you’re likely to put 30 lands into play. This is also likely to hit some Valakuts to just win the game, but at the very least you have access to more mana than you’ll ever know what to do with, and very likely some Unburial Rites for value.
You also have Madcap Experiment with just the single Platinum Emperion as your only artifact. Grabbing the Experiment with Bring to Light is a win condition against a number of different decks, such as Burn.
Glittering Wish gives you access to even more Bring to Lights in the sideboard. It can also find Fracturing Gust against Affinity or Bogles, Izzet Staticaster to deal with tokens or little infect creatures, Slaughter Games to beat combo, Supreme Verdict or Firespout for a sweeper, Nahiri, the Harbinger to deal with problematic permanents and threaten ultimate, or just Rhox War Monk when you need a beater and are ready to race.
I think it’s pretty easy to dismiss a 150-card deck. The thing has to be a nightmare to shuffle, and how consistent could it possibly be? That said, it just won a large tournament and it’s sweeter than sweet. As someone who won a PTQ long ago with Battle of Wits, consider me in love with this deck!
150-Card Bring to Light
Leo Lahonen, 1st place at Pro Tour Modern
