Hello again, Premodern humans! The idea for this deck actually came while thinking about how to use the card Urza’s Bauble. It gives you information, helps you dig through your library, and most importantly for this deck, puts a card in the graveyard. The threshold mechanic seemed like a perfect fit, and the rest of the deck started to build itself.
Now we can’t be quite as efficient as the old 10 land Extended Miracle Grow deck, as without Tropical Island we miss out on a lot of the Land Grant and Gush shenanigans. Losing Force of Will and Brainstorm also hurts, but I think we can stilll build a pretty decent tempo deck around the threat package of Nimble Mongoose, Werebear and Quirion Dryad.
SIDEBOARD
Truth be told, this is a combination of a Miracle Grow deck and the straight up threshold deck from 2002 Standard. I wanted to stay away from the madness mechanic, as UG Madness is already shaping up to be an established archetype in Premodern.
The game plan is similar to most tempo decks: play a threat, protect it with counterspells, and draw enough cards to grease the wheels and keep the whole thing going just long enough to bring your opponent from 20 to zero. Portent, Urza’s Bauble and Mental Note rip through the deck while stocking the graveyard, to turn on threshold as quickly as possible without losing card economy. Memory Lapse, Daze, Misdirection and Foil can keep your opponent on the back foot while you start beating down, and don’t forget you can shuffle away a card countered by Memory Lapse with Portent if you need to.
Playing a heftier land count means you get access to Fact or Fiction, which can be really gross in this deck especially. It can often turn on threshold all by itself, as well as restocking your hand with more threats or counterspells. Beyond that, Repulse and Stifle are both very nice, flexible tempo cards. Stifle can disrupt anything from fetchlands to Goblin Lackey to Illusions of Grandeur, while Repulse gives us a nice tool in the maindeck for keeping opposing creatures off the board.
The spell slots in this deck are very flexible, and options abound for blue interactive tempo spells. Season to taste for your local meta or play style.
So what do you think? Would you change any numbers around or make any substitutions? Scrap the deck and just play UG Madness? As always, leave comments in the Premodern Facebook group, or hit me up on Instagram @mtgdojoera.