Rumors of the death of Splinter Twin have been greatly exaggerated. The U/R build of the combo seems to have dropped off substantially, but in the last few weeks we’ve seen variations on a new strategy featuring Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Chord of Calling, a type of deck more reminiscent of the Naya Birthing Pod decks. These decks are packed with value creatures and have the ability win out of nowhere, but the namesake card, Chord of Calling may be a little too slow for the format. This week, Pascal Maynard plays with a different take on the Kiki-Jiki strategy, one which trades some of the resiliency and flexibility of the Chord of Calling builds for additional explosiveness and efficiency. Let’s take a look:

Kiki-Jiki Bring to Light ? Modern | Pascal Maynard

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 2 Spellskite
• 2 Sylvan Caryatid
• 3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 3 Restoration Angel
• 4 Arbor Elf
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Deceiver Exarch
• 4 Kitchen Finks

• Spells (11)
• 2 Path to Exile
• 1 Primal Command
• 4 Bring to Light
• 4 Utopia Sprawl

• Lands (21)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Plains
• 3 Forest
• 1 Fire-Lit Thicket
• 1 Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Temple Garden
• 2 Breeding Pool
• 2 Stomping Ground
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Stony Silence
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1 Crumble to Dust
• 2 Negate
• 1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 1 Thragtusk
• 1 Slaughter Games
• 1 Izzet Staticaster
• 1 Fracturing Gust
• 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 3 Siege Rhino

Buy This Deck

This deck does interesting things and has quite a few subtle interactions giving it the ability to steal games out from under opponents. Fundamentally, the deck has traded Chord of Calling for Bring to Light. Bring to Light doesn’t have the utility of being instant-speed, but the advantage of being far more mana efficient. Additionally, this deck has the explosive mana engine of Arbor Elf plus Utopia Sprawl, which can generate 4 mana as early as turn two.

This deck has the ability to combo as early as turn three. If you lead with Arbor Elf, then use Utopia Sprawl to power out Deceiver Exarch or Restoration Angel on turn two, you can use Utopia Sprawl to generate almost all the Red mana you need to cast Kiki-Jiki on the following turn. Between Kiki-Jiki, Restoration Angel, Deceiver Exarch, and Bring to Light, the deck has an enormous density of combo pieces. Despite that, the deck is more than capable of playing a value-oriented game with Glen Elendra Archmage and Kitchen Finks backed up by Kiki-Jiki and Restoration Angel. It’s surprising there are zero copies of Eternal Witness to go with this package, but there aren’t a ton of free slots in the deck.

Last, it’s important to notice there are a handful of ways to generate a few extra mana here and there to help on combo turns. Deceiver Exarch can untap a land with some number of Utopia Sprawls to help play Exarch plus Kiki-Jiki or Bring to Light in the same turn. Similarly, Kiki-Jiki can make a copy of Arbor Elf to untap a land to cast the missing combo piece.

There’s a lot of power, redundancy, and trickiness available in this deck, which is generally a powerful place to be in the Modern format. This exact 75 may not be where you want to be, but the shell is certainly powerful and has a lot of potential.