Build Decks So Good, It Feels Like Cheating (Ep 3)

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Below are deck-building notes distilled from the community video "Build Decks So Good, It Feels Like Cheating (Ep 3)" by Based Deck Department. Treat these notes as your source material.

TASK: Summarize the key deck-building lessons, then give concrete, actionable suggestions (specific cards, includes and cuts, synergies) a player could apply. If I paste a decklist or ask a follow-up after this, tailor your answer to it.

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- Base advice only on the notes below plus well-established Magic: The Gathering rules and card knowledge.
- Do not invent card names, card text, or interactions. If a card here is unfamiliar, say so instead of guessing.
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===== BEGIN VIDEO NOTES =====
## Summary

Riku of Many Paths (Temur) modal-spells deck reviewed. Core problem: modal spells are interactive one-for-ones that cede card advantage; fix by adding vanilla draw, cast-triggered draw engines, or graveyard recursion. Diagnosis: too many win lines (ping, birds, Voltron) spread thinΓÇöcommit to one; ping (Guttersnipe, Fiery Inscription, Arcane Bombardment) too slow for turn 6-7, so prioritize Riku commander damage plus go-wide birds. Cut expensive low-impact modal spells (Titania's Command, Seasons of the Bold, Sublime Epiphany), Blast spells (too narrow), most ramp and cost-reducers (ramping into nothing on a low curve), and greedy tapland-heavy manabase. Keep 4-5 more cheap protection. Recommended adds: Cryptic Command over Archmage's Charm, Heritage Reclamation, Fierce Guardianship, Secret Identity, Defend the Rider, Three Steps Ahead, Jeska's, Trash the Town, Skullclamp, Frostcliff Siege, Airborne Aid, Distant Melody, Winged Portent, Beast Whisperer/Shared Animosity, Beastmaster Ascension, Cryptolith Rite, Bloom Tender, Roaming Throne (Wizards), Quandrix apprentice. Principles: focus by cutting not adding; every modal spell should hit protection/draw/wincon buckets; expensive spells must be game-changing; balance ramp against castable payoffs. For higher power, go all-in commander damage with counter-doublers (Fangs of Kalonia) and damage amplifiers plus free protection. Deck peaks in bracket 2-3.

## Key Clips

- **[05:07]** We have so many cool spells, but very few actually generate card advantage. And this is exacerbated by the fact that so many of our spells tend to be interactive. We trade one for one with that single player. And this means that the other players, having spent no resources on an exchange, come out ahead in card advantage.
- **[05:29]** This means we need to do one of three things. Either include vanilla card draw spells or include engines that allow us to draw cards whenever we cast spells or need to be able to recur spells from our graveyard or at best all three.
- **[06:23]** A deck is focused and strong because of what we remove, not because of what we add. So I'm likely going to recommend cutting at least one of these three lines of play.
- **[06:48]** I think they are game-breaking when they do one of two things. Either they enable us to play a winning combination of a select number of cards far earlier than we should, like in a combo deck, or we have enough card advantage engines that we're able to abuse that cost reduction. We don't really have either of those situations active in this deck.
- **[07:29]** A three-mana commander and a fairly low mana curve means we're potentially ramping into absolutely nothing. I think rather than ramping, I'd prefer to have mana open in turns two and four to interact and slow others down.
- **[09:13]** I'm going to challenge some of the expensive modal spells. Yes, they trigger RKU multiple times, but if a spell is costing us five to six mana in bracket 3, it needs to be, for the lack of a better word, game-changing. Cards like Titania's command, Seasons of the Bold just aren't doing enough.
- **[10:14]** I think that the strongest win condition in the deck is RKU's commander damage followed by a board of pumped birds. I don't think that the pinging strategy is explosive enough to reliably close out games by turn seven in bracket 3, especially if we're splitting focus on multiple paths to winning.
- **[13:42]** I've taken the rest of our card advantage in a bird-filled direction. Skull Clamp is pretty much a no-brainer. I've also added in frost cliff siege that can turn a few birds into repeatable card advantage, plus airborne aid, distant melody, and winged portent to turn our wide board of birds into a handful of cards.

## Tags

**Archetypes/Strategy:** control, tokens, voltron
**Format/Bracket:** Upgraded
**Card Categories:** draw, protection, counter, removal, finishers
===== END VIDEO NOTES =====

Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oqgqNyPZW0

Summary

Riku of Many Paths (Temur) modal-spells deck reviewed. Core problem: modal spells are interactive one-for-ones that cede card advantage; fix by adding vanilla draw, cast-triggered draw engines, or graveyard recursion. Diagnosis: too many win lines (ping, birds, Voltron) spread thinΓÇöcommit to one; ping (Guttersnipe, Fiery Inscription, Arcane Bombardment) too slow for turn 6-7, so prioritize Riku commander damage plus go-wide birds. Cut expensive low-impact modal spells (Titania's Command, Seasons of the Bold, Sublime Epiphany), Blast spells (too narrow), most ramp and cost-reducers (ramping into nothing on a low curve), and greedy tapland-heavy manabase. Keep 4-5 more cheap protection. Recommended adds: Cryptic Command over Archmage's Charm, Heritage Reclamation, Fierce Guardianship, Secret Identity, Defend the Rider, Three Steps Ahead, Jeska's, Trash the Town, Skullclamp, Frostcliff Siege, Airborne Aid, Distant Melody, Winged Portent, Beast Whisperer/Shared Animosity, Beastmaster Ascension, Cryptolith Rite, Bloom Tender, Roaming Throne (Wizards), Quandrix apprentice. Principles: focus by cutting not adding; every modal spell should hit protection/draw/wincon buckets; expensive spells must be game-changing; balance ramp against castable payoffs. For higher power, go all-in commander damage with counter-doublers (Fangs of Kalonia) and damage amplifiers plus free protection. Deck peaks in bracket 2-3.

Key Clips

[05:07] We have so many cool spells, but very few actually generate card advantage. And this is exacerbated by the fact that so many of our spells tend to be interactive. We trade one for one with that single player. And this means that the other players, having spent no resources on an exchange, come out ahead in card advantage.
[05:29] This means we need to do one of three things. Either include vanilla card draw spells or include engines that allow us to draw cards whenever we cast spells or need to be able to recur spells from our graveyard or at best all three.
[06:23] A deck is focused and strong because of what we remove, not because of what we add. So I'm likely going to recommend cutting at least one of these three lines of play.
[06:48] I think they are game-breaking when they do one of two things. Either they enable us to play a winning combination of a select number of cards far earlier than we should, like in a combo deck, or we have enough card advantage engines that we're able to abuse that cost reduction. We don't really have either of those situations active in this deck.
[07:29] A three-mana commander and a fairly low mana curve means we're potentially ramping into absolutely nothing. I think rather than ramping, I'd prefer to have mana open in turns two and four to interact and slow others down.
[09:13] I'm going to challenge some of the expensive modal spells. Yes, they trigger RKU multiple times, but if a spell is costing us five to six mana in bracket 3, it needs to be, for the lack of a better word, game-changing. Cards like Titania's command, Seasons of the Bold just aren't doing enough.
[10:14] I think that the strongest win condition in the deck is RKU's commander damage followed by a board of pumped birds. I don't think that the pinging strategy is explosive enough to reliably close out games by turn seven in bracket 3, especially if we're splitting focus on multiple paths to winning.
[13:42] I've taken the rest of our card advantage in a bird-filled direction. Skull Clamp is pretty much a no-brainer. I've also added in frost cliff siege that can turn a few birds into repeatable card advantage, plus airborne aid, distant melody, and winged portent to turn our wide board of birds into a handful of cards.