Modern Musings: Uncharted Territory

Hey everyone, and welcome to another Modern Musings!  This week we are going a bit into uncharted territory in talking about what I think is one of the biggest sleeper cards in Modern: Realms Uncharted.  Realms Uncharted is a Magic card that I was immediately attracted to when it was first printed for two reasons: It is a Gifts Ungiven effect for 3 mana (even though it only gets lands), allowing you to tutor for nonbasic lands, and it comes at instant speed to boot!  So why hasn’t Realms Uncharted seen any play thus far?  Mostly due to the fact that it has been overshadowed by Scapeshift.  Scapeshift does similar things to Realms Uncharted, but instead of lands going to hand or graveyard they get to come into play, usually killing your opponent thanks to Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.  Obviously in that deck, Realms Uncharted is not going to be able to compete for a slot.  So where does it fit?  Let’s find out!

Polymorph

The first answer that popped up when searching for a deck to use Realms Uncharted in was actually a Polymorph deck.  If you’re going to play a land tutor, then why not play it in a deck that needs some very specific lands to win?  The advantage to running Realms Uncharted (henceforth known as RU) is that you don’t have to junk up your deck with so many ways to get a creature since RU acts as extra copies of these cards.  So what would a land pile look like in a Polymorph deck?  Probably something like Khalni Garden, Mutavault, Blinkmoth Nexus, and Inkmoth Nexus.  That way no matter what, your opponent is giving you 2 creature lands.  What would a deck look like? Probably something like this:

The idea behind this deck is pretty simple, you dig for a Polymorph, then cast it on a token or manland to get an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, since it’s the only actual creature that’s in your deck.  Ideally you do it when you have counter backup or your opponent is tapped out.  As a combo deck, Polymorph is surprisingly solid considering how janky it is to set up, often getting an Emrakul into play on turn 4 or more realistically turn 5 or 6 if you want counter backup.

Turbo Emeria

But what if you want to go more of the value route?  Well those of you that follow my articles know that I’m a sucker for G/W Emeria, and I think that’s exactly where this card could fit in.  For those of you who are less familiar with the archetype, it roughly breaks down as follows:

You use Explore, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, and Renegade Rallier to ramp your mana.  You then use Flickerwisp to generate even more value alongside Wall of Omens and Lone Missionary.  Then to use all this mana, we cast Sun Titan generating crazy amounts of value with Flickerwisp.  If they ever kill our Sun Titan, then we can get it back with Emeria, the Sky Ruin.  For further value, Mortarpod acts as a sacrifice outlet so we can make sure there are always things to get back with Sun Titan or Emeria.  Finally, since we are using Realms Uncharted, we also get to use Ramunap Excavator for extra value and to potentially lock out our opponents with Ghost Quarter.

The benefit of a list like this is that you get to grind most fair decks into oblivion, as most everything you do generates value.  The advantage of running Realms Uncharted is that you get to guarantee that you have both Emeria and Horizon Canopy in your graveyard for Sun Titan and Ramunap Excavator value.