Living Ultimatum (Modern)

So there's this modern deck that's (sort of) always been played, but never been truly as competitive as it should be. It runs very powerful cards that are, in a sense, exactly what should be able to thwart all the top-tier net decks. I'm speaking of a deck known by some as Cruel Control, a deck that uses red, black, and blue cards to basically stall everything the opponent does, until you play Cruel Ultimatum. (run your cursor over the card if you are confused about this concept)

I believe that I have found a way to alleviate its weak point, and can you guess what that may be? C-c-c-COMMMMBOOOOO!!!

The idea is that you want to pitch Cruel Ultimatum (or Rise) to your graveyard on one of the first three turns. By the fourth turn, your looting and digging should hopefully have drawn you into a Living Lore, which will now become a 4-mana HUGE creature. When this creature deals combat damage to anything (creature or player) you can fire off the Ultimatum (a great finisher) or the Rise (which will chain you into more huge Living Lores) and there's not much your opponent can do after that.

Path to Exile is, and always will be, a silver bullet to this type of deck. But hey, that's what sideboards are for!

Alternate options for mainboard cards that I personally reccomend (check your local meta) would include Monastery Siege, Gifts Ungiven, Fated Return, Dimir Charm, and Enter the Infinite. (yes, I said it.) This is, of course, in addition to all the typical red, black and blue cards you already love to play: Spell Snare, Vexing Devil, Cryptic Command, Gurmag Angler, Steam Augury.

I hope you have fun finding new and exciting ways to exploit this poopy Standard card!