Oh, and there’s a single Swarmyard, which lets us save a single creature of our choice from a board wipe if we have Mirror Entity down. The 1 Aether Vial is a bit perplexing, but creature count for Collected Company is vital and the creator of the deck valued the tutors over the artifact acceleration.įor lands, we have a standard assortment of shocklands, fetchlands, and fastlands, as well as a single Horizon Canopy for some extra card draw. Collected Company (also secretly Black Lotus) puts out a crazy amount of value, finding six mana’s worth of creatures for just four mana, and finally Aether Vial lets us flash in creatures to keep our opponent on their toes. Chord of Calling lets us tutor straight to the battlefield when we need it and secretly has Black Lotus built into it with Convoke. Eladamri’s Call gives us a cheap, instant-speed tutor so we can float our tutor decision until our opponent's end step. Our spells are all here to find the creatures we need to put the puzzle pieces together. Mirran Crusader dodges Fatal Push and swings in for a decent chunk of damage, especially when paired with our team captain Mirror Entity. Knight of Autumn is an incredibly versatile card that pulls its weight against burn, against artifact decks, and as a beater. Selfless Spirit allows us to protect against the board wipes that hexproof wouldn't cover, and Eternal Witness helps us grind out value, getting back pieces or tutors we lost previously. Scavenging Ooze is a bit of maindeck graveyard hate mixed with Burn hate and is just a solid threat against Snapcaster Mage decks and Tarmogoyf decks. The rest of the deck is all 'fun-of's.' Collector Ouphe gives us a way to handle artifact decks that we can tutor for, and Kor Firewalker does the same for us against Burn. Deputy of Detention gives us removal on a stick for any problematic permanents we come across and is our last core creature. Outside of the 12 card Illusion package, we have a lot of classic tenants of a Modern Company deck. We have our mana dorks, Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch, to help us fix and accelerate us to the point where we can play multiple spells in one turn. Hexproof to prevent any opposing targeting on Image is way better than something like Indestructible. Phantasmal Image on Lord of the Unreal provides both with hexproof and does a good Drogskol Captain team up impression. Turning Birds of Paradise into a 6/6 flier sounds great, let alone pumping your whole board.

Not to mention, Mirror Entity can make your team huge with excess mana, which our deck with 7 mana creatures will have. This lock is brutal to get through against a reactive deck with lots of spot removal, and Collected Company and Chord of Calling provide the opportunity to find one piece to help save the other at instant speed. The Lord bonus makes our base 0/0's into 1/1's. It gives us a 2/2 at baseline, and the hexproof ability provides protection for our fragile Phantasmal Images. When Lord is combined with Mirror Entity, you can grant your whole board hexproof until the end of turn for the low cost of 0 mana. Lord of the Unreal is a weird engine piece but it makes everything go in the deck. The deck is a strange Bant midrange brew centering around a few key pieces, to the point that I hesitate to truly call this “Illusion tribal” even though I really want to.

Creatures of aether codes