Sarkhan the Masterless with Lukka Surprise

Sarkhan the Masterless with Lukka Surprise

by Johnny Cycles, January 31, 2024

What happens when we take two tier 4 strategies and mash them together? Will they be greater than their parts and rise up to, dare I say, tier 3? Or will we be left durdling with parts of both so much that the deck sinks to the depths of competitive play? Let’s find out!

For readers of my Sarkhan the Masterless article, the idea of the first part of this jank is the same. We are looking to ramp into some Planeswalkers, stabilize the board with them, then turn them all into 4/4 dragons and 1-shot our opponent. The plan looks something like this:

That’s four Planeswalkers-turned-dragons about to kill my Infect opponent (and me in the reflection, taking the picture before I started making videos).

For readers of my Lukka Surprise article, the plan is basically the same, as well. We’re looking to use our 1-mana creatures to ramp into a turn 3 Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast in order to turn one of those 1-mana creatures into an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

Combining the two strategies makes us less reliant on a single path to victory at the cost of some consistency. Before I go into further detail about the deck, let’s take a look at the decklist and deck tech.

Decklist – Sarkhan the Masterless with Lukka Surprise

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern

Creatures (13)

4 Ignoble Hierarch
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Planeswalkers (13)

1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
4 Karn, the Great Creator
2 Lolth, Spider Queen
4 Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast
2 Sarkhan the Masterless

Spells (11)

4 Fatal Push
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Thoughtseize

Lands (23)

3 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
2 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Ziatora’s Proving Ground

Sideboard (15)

1 Chalice of the Void
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Void Mirror
4 Force of Vigor
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Deck Tech

Why Combine Two Strategies?

As mentioned above, we are combining two janky strategies in a single deck, while also adding a third color. Rather than rehash each strategy in detail, click here for the article on Sarkhan the Masterless and here for the article on Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast. Instead, I want to talk more about what we lose and what we gain in making these changes.

First, on the Sarkhan side of things, we don’t lose much by adding our Lukka + Emrakul package, since Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast furthers our gameplan of playing Planeswalkers and turning them into dragons. The biggest drawback of playing Lukka is he doesn’t do anything to help us on an empty board. He can’t protect himself and he can’t kill an opponent’s threat. The card draw we get with him is pretty meh, since there’s a really good chance we whiff and then whiff again. And, in the process of missing with his +1, we’re probably exiling relevant cards, such as kill spells and other Planeswalkers. He is a one-trick pony in our deck. Granted, that trick is pretty incredible and will frequently result in our opponent scooping, but not always. Modern is full of answers to a resolved Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

Thus, the big drawback of Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast is he takes the place of other Planeswalkers that could do more to keep us alive in the early game. Wrenn and Six, Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer all come down sooner and help us stay alive in various ways. Furthermore, since we want creatures to target with Lukka’s -2, we are playing less Planeswalkers to make room for Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer to go along with the 8 Hierarchs. Throw in the additional color and we are down from 23 total Planeswalkers to only 11. This limits our chances of building up a big board of Planeswalkers, turning them in to dragons with Sarkhan the Masterless, and one-shotting our opponent.

The third color is, of course, not for no reason. Moving into to Black gives us access to cheap removal in Fatal Push, hand disruption in Thoughtseize, and a whole new suite of powerful Planeswalkers. Both Fatal Push and Thoughtseize do the job of keeping us alive better than the Planeswalkers mentioned above, while they also synergize nicely with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, who gives us another line of attack our original Sarkhan the Masterless deck didn’t have. We’ve chosen the never-before-played-in-Modern Lolth, Spider Queen as much to become one with the jank so as to channel it fully, as because she does a really good job of protecting us with her Spider tokens.

It’s possible/probable we want either Liliana of the Veil or Liliana, the Last Hope in this spot. The former gives us a way to discard Emrakul, the Aeons Torn if we are unlucky enough to draw her. One of my favorite parts about this deck is the many, many sweet Planeswalkers we can play. Grist, the Hunger Tide is a tempting option, but since it’s a creature anywhere but on the battlefield, it’s a nonbo with our Lukka plan.

Thus, by adding Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast we are sacrificing early game action for a potential midgame win. Throw in the addition of Black, however, and we are gaining back that early game interaction, but at the cost of late-game explosiveness since we’ve halved the number of Planeswalkers we play. Seems like a fair trade off, right? We’ll find out soon enough!

Now for the Lukka Surprise aspect of the deck. Making room for Sarkhan and friends comes at a steep cost, unfortunately. We lose two key aspects of the deck that give us both consistency and power. First, we have to cut our various ways of giving Emrakul, the Aeons Torn haste. And, as I discuss in the original article, letting our opponent untap before we can annihilate their board with an Emrakul attack trigger will often see them answer the biggest, baddest creature in the format. Of course, since we are no longer all in on this plan, it won’t be game over for us if they do.

Second, we’ve had to cut our ways of digging for our combo pieces. More specifically, we’ve cut our ability to discard an Emrakul for value. Gone are Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Bitter Reunion, which allowed us to do just that. And, even when we weren’t pitching our finisher with them, those enchantments did double duty in their own ways. Losing them is painful, but all is not lost. Beyond the Black spells we gain, we also are adding Karn, the Great Creator.

Anyone who has played Modern (or Pioneer, where it’s been banned) recently knows how powerful this card is. He takes our 60-card deck and makes it a theoretical 75-card one. We play a total of 8 artifacts in our sideboard to tutor up, including Liquimetal Coating. This 2-mana artifact can lock opponents who stumble on mana out of the game. At the very least, we hope this combo slows our opponent down long enough for us to find what we need to close out the game, or to tutor it up. The incidental artifact hate of his static ability will slow down decks like Izzet Murktide and Rakdos Scam, while potentially hosing Affinity. Karn, the Great Creator gives us a third legitimate gameplan to win us games if Sarkhan the Masterless or Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast don’t do the trick.

Weaknesses

Trying to do two things at once often ends up with neither thing done. The same is true with combining two combo decks, even when they synergize with each other well enough on paper. By reducing the consistency of both strategies, we increase our chances of executing neither. Furthermore, we have lowered the power and explosiveness of each individual approach, while increasing our early-game interaction and adding a third approach all together in Karn, the Great Creator. That’s a lot of moving parts. Will we end up with a hodgepodge of midrange cards that don’t synergize with one another? Will we ramp into a turn 3 Sarkhan the Masterless with no other Planeswalkers on the battlefield? Or will we stabilize the board but be at the mercy of our drawstep to find the Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast we need to win the game? Let’s find out!

A Note on Deck Building and Game Play

Much like many of the articles I’ve posted, I’m not simply presenting what I consider the finished product of the decks I play. Rather, I am recording the various builds of the deck as I playtest it. Hopefully, this process will be both interesting and helpful. I’ll note any changes I make between videos along the way, as well as discuss my rationale at the beginning of the first video after I’ve made the changes.

Practice Games

Match 1 – G/W Lifegain

Match 2 – Tron

First Change:

Out: 1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame and 2 Lolth, Spider Queen

In: 3 Liliana of the Veil

Match 3 – Hammer Time

Match 4 – Rakdos Cookbook

Second Change:

Out: Blightsteel Colossus and Relic of Progenitus

In: Engineered Explosives and Tormod’s Crypt

Match 5 – 5-Color Control

Update: My computer must have ran out of memory, because the match gets cut off before completion. My apologies to both my viewers and my opponent, who was very nice and friendly. They scooped in game 2 after I resolved a Karn, the Great Creator. Game 3 was our best game and I’m sad it didn’t record. I managed to resolve Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast and put Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on the battlefield…twice!!! Both times, opponent found the Supreme Verdict. The turn after that, I plussed up Lukka only to exile the Emrakul…the game then went more or less like game 1 with opponent grinding it out and answering all of our threats. Fun match and nice opponent. Shout out to him/her! Email me at johnnycycles16@gmail.com or leave a comment below if you want a rematch and I’ll be sure I have all the memory needed to record it!

Wrap-up

Practice Record: 3-2

 

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