by Johnny Cycles, February 2, 2024
I just can’t seem to quit this deck…I have other decks I’m working on and other decks I enjoy playing, but my mind keeps coming back to this one. Maybe it’s the Gruul dragons player in me getting to cast Thoughtseize and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, or maybe it’s the janky player in me tired of losing to busted Modern decks. Either way, my Lukka Surprise deck scratches several itches for me. And it’s a blast to play.
For the deck tech, break down, and game play from my Gruul Lukka Surprise deck, click here. I’ll sum up our primary gameplan with this:
Decklist – Jund Lukka Surprise with Karn, the Great Creator
by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern
Creatures (13)
| 4 Ignoble Hierarch | |
| 4 Noble Hierarch | |
| 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer | |
| 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn |
Planeswalkers (8)
| 4 Karn, the Great Creator | |
| 4 Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast |
Enchantments (5)
| 1 Footfall Crater | |
| 4 Bitter Reunion |
Spells (11)
| 4 Fatal Push | |
| 4 Lightning Bolt | |
| 3 Thoughtseize |
Lands (23)
| 3 Blood Crypt |
| 4 Bloodstained Mire |
| 1 Boseiju, Who Endures |
| 1 Forest |
| 1 Mountain |
| 3 Overgrown Tomb |
| 3 Stomping Ground |
| 2 Swamp |
| 4 Wooded Foothills |
| 1 Ziatora’s Proving Ground |
Sideboard (15)
Deck Tech
In our Gruul version, we’re all-in on this combo with multiple ways of digging for the necessary pieces, as well as the all important ability to give our Emrakul, the Aeons Torn haste the turn we cheat it in to play. Our chief back-up plan with that deck is Ragavan beats, pumped by Hierarch exalted triggers. The deck is super fun to play and certainly can compete with the best decks in Modern. Having a 15/15 flier that can’t be targeted by most spells and who blows up our opponents board on attack is a powerful win con. It also gives the deck a certain amount of inevitability, as we are frequently one draw away from winning on the spot.
That being said, being all-in on a single gameplan whose finisher is a single card comes with its own set of risks. In a game against Mill, our opponent had main-deck Surgical Extraction to exile our Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Against 5-color Money Pile, our opponent had Teferi, Time Raveler, Supreme Verdict, and Solitude to answer it. Any number of decks, from Merfolk to Rhinos, play main-deck Otawara, Soaring City that can simply return it to our hand. Furthermore, decks that run targeted removal or counter magic (so, like, most of the format), will either kill our 1-drop in response to Lukka’s -2, or counter the Lukka to begin with. We can play around this, of course, but when our chief win condition is cheating Emrakul into play, most opponents will let almost anything else go until we pull the trigger on getting Big Momma.
Why Karn, the Great Creator?
Enter Karn, the Great Creator. Anyone who’s played Modern recently knows the power of Karn, the Great Creator. His static ability that hates on opponent’s artifact activations is almost as obnoxious as Teferi, Time Raveler‘s. But the real power of this card, both in general and in our deck in particular, is his -2, which allows us to get an artifact from our sideboard and put it into our hand. As I mention in my article about the Sarkhan-Lukka deck I’ve been working on, this makes our sideboard an extension of our deck. Obviously, increasing our card count without also increasing our lands or watering down our synergies is powerful. Having silver bullet cards we can access in game 1 that most decks have to wait until sideboarding to play is even more so. It can be the literal difference between winning and losing a game, as you’ll see in the first match below.
However, in our deck, Karn, the Great Creator is even more powerful than all of that, if you can believe it. Given our combo’s inherent limitations that require us to play only 1-mana creatures, having access to additional creatures in the sideboard to ameliorate this drawback is, to put it simply, game changing. We are no longer solely reliant on finding a Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast in order to find Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or on janky Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer beats. We now have access to powerful threats like Wurmcoil Engine, Noxious Gearhulk, and Combustible Gearhulk.
Got to keep the jank level high…
And yes, outside of Wurmcoil Engine, the other two creatures don’t see much play, if any, in Modern. Pick your favorite artifact creatures, or ones you consider more powerful, for these spots. In fact, let me know what they are in the comments! I’m definitely toying with the sideboard almost every match, but I do have my reasons for the inclusion of the Gearhulks, other than needing to fulfill my jank quota. Both are big beaters with powerful ETBs. Noxious Gearhulk can take out an opposing Murktide Regent, Primeval Titan, or even Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The lifegain is not irrelevant, either, though it is probably too slow to save us against Burn most of the time.
Meanwhile, Combustible Gearhulk may be at its very best in our deck. Does our opponent really want to roll the dice and hope we don’t have our 1-of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn in the top 3? Is keeping us from drawing three cards really worth it? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out!
Our best analog for tutorable creatures is Tron, where we find a variety of powerful artifact creatures, like Haywire Mite, Walking Ballista, and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship. Tron, with their access to a million mana, also has Cityscape Leveler and Sundering Titan in the board. Are any of these better than Noxious Gearhulk and Combustible Gearhulk? Hmm…yes, most definitely. Both Haywire Mite and Walking Ballista give us powerful answers to certain cards and strategies we frequently encounter, such as The One Ring, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Orcish Bowmasters, and any other creatures with 1 to 2 toughness.
Are any of these more fun than Noxious Gearhulk or Combustible Gearhulk?
We all know the answer to this question.
Why Black?
Dipping into Black gives us some very important early game interaction in the main and some extra graveyard hate in the sideboard. Being all-in on our combo with Gruul Lukka Surprise, we were frequently racing our opponent to turn 3 or 4. If we didn’t find our combo pieces by then, there was a good chance we were losing or dead. With the addition of Black, we get some much needed removal and hand disruption. 90% of the time, Fatal Push reads “Destroy target creature,” while Thoughtseize gives us some way to interact with Combo, Control, and Cascade decks. It is rarely a bad draw, no matter the match-up. Further more, both of these Black spells increase our chances of getting in multiple hits with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. These cards also allow us more time to find our Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast, or to turn the corner with a Wurmcoil Engine or Liquimetal Coating from our sideboard.
At What Cost?
Adding Black and Karn, the Great Creator does come at a cost, or course. It makes our deck less consistent in finding our combo pieces. We also have less ways to give our Emrakul, the Aeons Torn haste, or to discard it if we are unlucky enough to draw it. We have found room, however, for one copy of Footfall Crater and four copies of Bitter Reunion. The hope, of course, is that we are able to manage the board with our cheap Black spells and pressure our opponent with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Karn, the Great Creator long enough to find what we need or just win without the combo. When we finally do draw our Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast, hopefully these other plays have exhausted our opponent’s answers, allowing us to resolve Lukka and cheat in Emrakul for the win.
Leyline of the Void in the sideboard does take up precious tutor slots, but you can’t tutor up an answer if you don’t draw one of the four copies of Karn, the Great Creator. My experience with graveyard decks has given me a very healthy respect for them, since they largely function and win on an entirely different axis.
Practice Games
Match 1 – Rakdos Graveyard Shenanigans
Mini Wrap-Up
Match 2 – Jund
Mini Wrap-Up
Match 3 – Naya MH2 Cards
Match 4 – Storm
Match 5 – Izzet Prowess
Practice League Record: 3-2
Wrap-Up
As always, thanks for reading and watching! Let me know in the comments how you’d build a deck around Lukka and Emrakul!
