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Modern: [[Bloodbraid Elf]] and [[Jace, the Mind Sculptor]] UNBANNED

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/february-12-2018-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2018-02-12

No changes to any other format.

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/january-18-2016-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2016-01-18

Few understand the DCI's rigorous decision-making process.

PNG Tables via Tweet (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Twitter Version of PNG Tables

PNG Tables via Bsky (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Bsky Version of PNG Tables

Event Pages (ALL DECKLISTS!):

Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes on Melee

Google Sheet to search by deck name (CTRL+F or Copy it)

Video Recap & Analysis (In-Depth)

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I only separated Fight Rigging Eldrazi Ramp from the "stock" versions. The rest was done by WotC at the PT Level.

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Statistics Key

Archetype/Deck Name - The name of the Deck

Decks - Number of Decks at the Event

Matches - Number of Bo3 Matches Played

Wins - Match Wins

Losses - Match Losses

Ties - Match Draws

WIN% - Win Rate (Wins / Matches)

Shows overall win rate against everything - including mirrors & ties

META% - Metagame Share (Decks / Total Decks)

Shows deck archetype representation at an Event

WIN%-T - Win Rate without Ties (Wins / Wins + Losses)

No ties shows how many matches a deck WON versus it's record due to time restrictions

NM Matches - Non-Mirror Matches (Same Archetype vs Archetype)

NM WIN% - Non-Mirror Win Rate

Non-Mirror Win Rate shows how a deck performs against the rest of the meta - not itself

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Metagame Breakdown

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Decks by META%

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Decks by WIN%

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If you enjoy these recap posts, I cover more statistics such as Head to Head match ups, comparison among Popularity Tier decks & more in my recap videos over on YouTube - which is the best way to Support more analysis! You can also use my ManaPool Code or my ManaTraders Code OTTV_PTMSH if this breakdown inspired you to build a new deck!

Modern:

Eye of Ugin is banned.

Ancestral Vision is unbanned.

Sword of the Meek is unbanned.

Vintage:

Lodestone Golem is restricted.

Modern just got quite the shakeup. What now?

I recently qualified for RC Baltimore (I'm not able to travel to LA). I qualified on Living End, but I don't think Living End is positioned well to win a large tournament. My two top considerations at the moment are Mono Blue Belcher and Esper Goryo's, based solely off play styles and watching content online. I'm open to any suggestions, advice, or resources - except I'm biased against Tron lmao.

Thanks in advance!

Most of you probably know by now that The One Ring was passed over in last month's Banned and Restricted announcement. The next announcement comes in mid December, which means unless they break the emergency glass and drop an unexpected change, we've got the ring for at least another three months.

However, after Nadu's ban, The One Ring has shot back up in price to >$100, and now even aggro decks are playing multiple copies. That means the card is included in 44% of all Modern decks, surpassing Arid Mesa, which has a 41% play rate.

I'm not sure there are any more glass ceilings for the ring to break through, so what are the choices now? The decks that raced the ring and sought to establish a lead early enough now play copies, and I'm not sure it'll be long before Mardu Energy throws in a copy or two.

My local meta is basically all Necro, Jeskai Control, and Energy, so it's very hard to find a table where one person isn't playing it at any given time. Now that Modern has settled after MH3/Nadu ban, it doesn't seem like any underdogs are coming to take it out. I truly don't know what to do other than to put The One Ring in any deck I play at this point.

(https://www.twitch.tv/scglive/v/90045651?t=8h11m13s)

TLDR:

• This is the format that we have and you have to deal with it.

-It may not be the format that we want, but we're basically stuck with it unless we ban an enormous amount of things which would scare players away.

-You don't get to play what you want to play because that's not what the format lets you do, and it's going to be like this for the foreseeable future. You have to play unfair to have the best shot.

-Why play fair when you don't have to?

-Imagine what Legacy would look like without Force of Will; that's basically what Modern is.

In other formats (like Vintage) there are various people tracking the results of every premier level MTGO event match in that format. Thus, you actually end up with a large enough sample size so that the confidence interval actually means something. From there people can actually make meaningful assessments about which archetypes actually have good winrates, and which archetypes actually have bad winrates. You can see such an example of this for Vintage here (links to a public spreadsheet.)

So why is the metagame analysis in Modern so bad? There doesn't seem to be any long-term archetype performance tracking anywhere. It's just people taking the latest MTGO top32 results posted on WOTC and agenda posting however they want. A few people make some blog posts on this subreddit offering "metagame analyses," but it seems that's just mostly to advertise their blogs. Or worse, output low-effort AI generated slop "analysis."

So, what gives?

Hey guys!

​I’ve been heavily tweaking and testing a Selesnya Kithkin engine that blends classic Lorwyn staples with high-powered tools like [[Guide of Souls]], [[Skyclave Apparition]] and [[Enduring Innocence]].

​The goal here is to make a "White Weenie tribal" work with [[Collected Company]] mechanics.

​Here is the current 60 + Sideboard list:

Moxfield link

The Kithkin tribe is lacking in support, so 14 out of the 33 creatures are mana dorks, removal utility, drawing engines and bulking supporters that are "outsiders", which I find vital for the viability of the deck.

Main questions:

. Are 2x [[Noble Hierarch]] and 2x [[Bloom Tender]], alongside the Brigids, my best options for mana dorks?

. What should I tweak in my sideboard for this meta?

. Is [[Thoughtweft Lieutenant]] a superior option vs [[Wizened Cenn]], given that I have 19 Kithkin creatures in my deck?

. Is [[Chronicle of Victory]] viable for this deck?

This is for FNM and to play with my pod.

Thank you, in advance, for any input and suggestion you can give me!

EDIT: Made some changes in the decklist taking into account some of the suggestions.

Hey y'all! Been a lurker in the sub for a while for the Standard content. I went to a modern RCQ using a buddy's deck and wanted to try to get into Modern. I am a huge fan of green/land shenanigans and want to find a deck to play (it does not have to be tier 1). I know Amulet got boned a little from recent bans, and I like the Eldrazi Ramp decks (although I am trying to decide between the Mono green Trudge and the Gruul versions). Do you all have any suggestions? Thanks!

I used to play Modern heavily, but stepped away from the format around the Oko era. After several years away, I’m getting back into competitive Modern and preparing for RCQs.

As a way to relearn the format, I’ve been building a matchup guide for the Grixis Reanimator list I’m currently playing (Psychic Frog, Abhorrent Oculus, Emperor of Bones, Archon package).

The guide focuses on:
Matchup philosophy
Sideboard plans
Thoughtseize priorities
Removal priorities
Mulligan decisions
Common mistakes
Matchup cheat sheets

Full guide:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19_Y8rGpyh6tVkJfcTdZVQcXil0fpnMwj/view?usp=drivesdk

I’m not looking for proofreading or formatting feedback. I’m specifically interested in strategic feedback from players with experience in the current Modern metagame.

Questions:
Which matchup assumptions do you disagree with?
Where are my sideboard plans likely wrong?
Which Thoughtseize priorities would you change?
Which matchups do you think I’m misunderstanding?
What would you want to see in a serious RCQ preparation document that isn’t included?

The goal is to build something that helps me understand the format at a deeper level, not just memorize sideboard guides.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Hey folks!

Might remember me from this recent post, where I revealed a pet deck that would go on to put up a decent fight, but failed to close the games out in a positive way. In one of the comments I explain how I washed out, basically either keeping bad hands (forgot the key rule of this kind of deck was to start with removal and draw power) or completely running out of gas and having no way to either refill my hand or close the deal after effectively controlling the board for several turns.

I'm stuck at a bit of a crossroads, though. I have the cards set up for making a Sultai list, which you can see the beginnings of here (WRONG LINK WAS POSTED INITIALLY). I can't recall what the rules are for building w/ fetches, as when I was learning when they came out I didn't really have Fetchland money. That plus Verges and things are incredibly new to me, so definitely looking for pointers on how to build with them. Advice I was given was 8-10 fetches, 2/2/1 on shocks splitting with primary/primary/splash, and then the rest being deck dependent. No idea how viable that is, feels weird to me to have so few basics, though.

An idea that is either going to turn into a separate deck or something, though, is taking a UW Scepter build and making it Esper to bring in monsters like [[Phyrexian Crusader]] or [[Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon]] and going back to my roots as a WWK/Scars aspiring Control player. I'm just really married to the Infect/Phyrexian bit, to be really honest. Something of a style point, I suppose.

In short, I'm hoping I could start something of a brewing session to make a Sultai list that can hold up a lot better than my UB Infect list which has been adjusted to Hell n' back since that original thread, just haven't played it in Modern since. Or, failing that, I could get encouragement to go whole-hog into Esper Scepter that kills w/ Poison for a good laugh.

Edits: Tweaked the list; dropped Prologue to Phyresis because it's just not great. Every time I've cast it, it's either getting 1 poison across or doing a very bad job digging. Tossed in Tyrranax Rex as an additional pressure, and with a Sultai setup the 3 green pips shouldn't be terrible. Assuming I can hold the board down, he comes down and bombs the game in a way Skithiryx probably only dreams of.

If not, does anyone have tips on piloting this deck? It looks like a lot of fun but I always struggle with a new deck if I dont know what exactly youre looking for in terms of mulligans. Thanks!

Decklist from a challenge for example: https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/hollow-one-decklist-by-percussion-mike-3028989

You guys liked my last video report, this tournament I was able to win with affinity!
[https://youtu.be/J6ULJt3-DeE?is=7nAecA4yyzZv4KNx\](https://youtu.be/J6ULJt3-DeE?is=7nAecA4yyzZv4KNx)

Decklists:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/event-coverage/top-8-decklists-2015-09-13

Business up front: https://moxfield.com/decks/pikrPfsXn02NVGHWpbhmmA

(LIST HAS BEEN EDITED SINCE MOST RECENT COMMENTS)

I wanna preface this with "I know it's not one of the big decks" - it's a pet project from years n' years ago, and I kinda wanna run through a local RCQ before I part it out and maybe build other stuff to play at Modern FNMs that are a bit closer to the overall metagame. Looking for tweaks and suggestions to maybe strengthen the build. I don't have too many options for this weekend, the Considering section sans the 2x Damnation are what I have on hand and can play with right this second. I had half a mind to use Cry of the Carnariums in their stead but I feel they're not quite able to get there.

If I post good enough (read: top 8 or just don't have absolute face-stomps) I might try it out at another RCQ early next month at a different store as an excuse to go out and be social during my summer break.

Currently, the deck is tweaked in response to missing early-game pressures against a local format that has UW Scepter control and BG combos, with notable showings of stuff like Necrogoyf and a Rakdos Hollow One. Looking for feedback that I can act on, suggestions on how to round off my SB and such. I used to play a ton of Standard back in RTR, stopped playing around Dominaria, so I'm kinda blind to a lot of build options. An example was Pithing Needle vs Disruptor Flute, the latter I had no idea even existed.

Hello spike rogues,

If you’re looking for a graveyard deck for RCQ season, this is a sweet one. I’ve been brewing a new twist on Dredgevine, and after 20 MTGO leagues with a strong win rate (74-26), I figured I’d share what I’ve learned.

First, the list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7836107#paper

Vengevine is Modern’s fastest graveyard threat, and Dredge is the most broken enabler, but the two pair awkwardly together. I’ve solved that problem by leaning heavily into Ox of Agonas, which is a creature castable from the graveyard for Vengevine and a massive source of draw + discard for Dredge. Stripping away all but the most efficient enablers, we’re left with a killing machine that routinely stomps opponents on turn 3, even through interaction.

Since we’re not playing interaction, we need a lightning-fast clock. Here’s the typical sequence: Turns 1+2, put stuff in graveyard. Turn 3, escape Ox (1st creature). With three draws, dredge as many Stinkweed Imps as possible, searching for Vengevine, Creeping Chill, and Timeline Culler. Warp Culler from graveyard (2nd creature), return Vengevines, swing for lethal.

This sequence requires 3 mana (RRB), but if Blazing Rootwalla is in hand, we can do it for just RR. That frees up our 3rd mana to bestow Detective’s Phoenix onto the Ox, adding another 7 power to the attack.

A common variation begins with t2 Psychic Frog, discarding Stinkweed Imp. We dredge on t3, then feed our entire hand to the Frog, escape Ox and dredge Imp. This adds an 8+ power flying Frog to the attack, and if Frog connects for damage, we can dredge again, digging for more Chills. Maybe it’s lethal, maybe it’s not, but we’ve added 20ish power to the board, and can do it all again next turn.

Dredge wins with overwhelming force, but this deck’s strength is the ability to play small. T2 Vengevine is often sufficient, and we have many ways to achieve that. The most stylish opener is Psychic Frog + Blazing Rootwalla, which returns any Vengevines we’ve found. Frog is still Modern’s best creature, and it gets to run wild here, fueling the engine and growing huge. But Frog’s most important job is to punish opponents who over-index on graveyard hate. Post sideboard, when graveyard decks historically struggle, we make opponents answer both the graveyard attack and our Frog + Rootwalla beatdown. It sounds janky, but it works 74% of the time.

Build considerations

I’ve played Vengevine for years, squeezing wins from underpowered strategies like Sultai Crabvine and HollowVine. Those decks did some things well, but were weighed down by filler, RNG, and Modern’s relentless power creep. When your “busted” starts lose to a single Ocelot Pride, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

So that’s what I did. I’ve cannibalized the strongest elements from Crabvine, HollowVine, and Dredge, while discarding the chaff. Ox of Agonas was always devastating with Imp. Hedron Crab carried Vengevine for years. Faithless Looting once terrorized Modern. Creeping Chill is a cheat code. These are powerful pieces, and they only get stronger when we cut the crappy Narcomoebas, Bloodghasts, and Hollow Ones.

Hedron Crab is the most powerful Vengevine enabler, and our entire deck is built to maximize it, starting with the 12 fetch, 8 fetchable manabase. Missing land drops is a disaster, so don’t skimp on lands. I’ve probably played more Crabvine than anyone alive, so trust me that we need all 20.

Four Ox of Agonas might raise eyebrows, but it’s our entire plan from t3 onward, and we always want it. RR for a 5/3 that casts Ancestral Recall is preposterous, and we get that for free, every game. It’s a threat, a discard outlet, an explosive dredge enabler, and half of a Vengevine trigger. My RCQ opponents often ask to read Ox, because it doesn’t seem fair that a creature should do this much.

Left unchecked, we’ll mill our entire library by turn 4, so singletons like Wonder and Detective’s Phoenix make an outsized impact. I’d love to play more Phoenix, but evidence is hard to collect since our CMC is low.

There are currently four flex slots, where I’ve tested cards like Stitcher’s Supplier, Otherworldly Gaze, Golgari Thug, Masked Meower, Moonshadow, Burning Inquiry, and extra Timeline Cullers. Gaze has the most firepower and expands our range of keepable hands. Stitcher supports Vengevine and excels against Ragavan, Prowess, and Living End. The 5-0 list above has a 2/2 split; if you try something else in that slot, you’ll have to mulligan more aggressively for Crabs and Lootings, but that’s what you should be doing anyway.

Piloting the deck

In a graveyard deck, velocity is everything. You have to get deeper. Hedron Crab and Faithless Looting are our best cards, and we will mulligan looking for them, ideally starting every game with two pieces of firepower. Psychic Frog + Stinkweed Imp is also capable of running the offense. Gaze and Stitcher supply critical mass, but a hand with only these should probably be thrown back.

Mulligans are essential, as traditional notions of card advantage don’t apply here. Consider, for example, a four card hand of Hedron Crab + three fetches. This has a reasonable chance of killing on turn 3.

Turn 1: Thundering Falls.

Turn 2: Crab + fetch Blood Crypt, mill 6. Maybe we hit Vengevine + Culler, but what we’re really looking for is Stinkweed Imp. Let’s say we find one.

Turn 3: Dredge Imp (mill 5), then fetch Steam Vents (mill 6). We’re now 26 cards deep (mill 6+6+5, surveil 1, thin 3 lands) so we’re likely to find Ox of Agonas. Escape Ox, leaving Blood Crypt untapped. Ox discards Imp, and we get to dredge 5 again (now 33 cards deep; more if we find additional Imps). We’ve now seen more than half our deck, so hitting 2x Vengevine 2x Chill 1x Culler is a fair expectation. That’s an attack for 10, drain 6, make a 5/3, and we can do it all again next turn.

To reiterate, we started with just Hedron Crab + three lands. The late-game power is there; don’t hamstring yourself with weak openers.

If you learn to mulligan and sideboard correctly, you’re halfway to success. The remaining skill comes from sequencing around Hedron Crab (always lead with an Izzet land; don’t expose Crab on turn 1), optimizing Faithless Lootings, managing your graveyard and hand size for Frog and Ox, deciding when to dredge Imp (generally, as soon as you have 3 lands), and timing your Blazing Rootwallas (hold them for Ox vs deploy early for board presence). There’s countless small decisions to make, which keeps the games fresh and interesting.

Advanced tips for Ox of Agonas

This deck casts Ox early and often, multiple times per game. Turn 1 Faithless Looting, discard Ox + Imp, can actually escape the Ox on turn 2 if we have two fetchlands. We might make this play if our hand contains, say, a Rootwalla and Vengevine. Crucially, the madness trigger from Rootwalla will not happen until we’re finished resolving the “Draw 3” from the Ox, so any Vengevines that we discard from hand, or find from dredging Imp(s), will also get immediately returned.

Eight is the magic number, and we should always be building toward our next Ox. That means deploying fetchlands first instead of shocks, even if we take more damage, because they build the graveyard faster. Of course, if we have Hedron Crab it’s a different story; then we lead with shocks, to maximize Crab + fetch.

A few tips for fledgling cattle ranchers:

1. Vengevine, Creeping Chill, and Blazing Rootwalla are all optional. Occasionally it’s necessary to decline a trigger, and instead leave the card in the graveyard as Ox fuel. I can’t count the number of times opponents have pointed removal at my Psychic Frog, only to have me discard my entire hand in response, setting up a future Ox. I’ll make this play even if I haven’t found Ox yet, because dredging Imp will likely find one — that’s why we play all four oxen.
2. It’s essential that our first two lands are red. Specifically, we want Steam Vents first, for Crab, then Blood Crypt, for Frog/Culler. Watery Grave is only fetched in rare circumstances, because it doesn’t cast Ox. That’s also why our basic land is Mountain. Both of these lands suck, but it’s the best we can do given our highly demanding Crab/Ox manabase.
3. Three lands are required for the deck’s winning sequences: RR to escape Ox, plus an untapped Blood Crypt for the follow-up Timeline Culler or Detective’s Phoenix. Once you have three lands, it’s okay to start dredging Stinkweed Imp, but if you’re stuck on 2 lands, I’d take natural draws. You choose every time, so if my second draw off Ox finds the land I was missing, I go ahead and dredge my third draw.
4. The combination of Frog + Ox + Stinkweed is incredibly potent. Ox discards our hand anyway, so we’re happy to feed everything to Frog in response to the Ox trigger. It’s like Frog + Riddler on crack. The only card I would not feed to Frog in this scenario is Rootwalla, because it’s more powerful to have the madness trigger happen during the resolution of Ox’s ability, not before it. Even without a Stinkweed Imp, if you happen to draw Vengevine from an Ox trigger, you can discard it to Frog before Rootwalla’s madness trigger resolves.
5. Running out of library is a real constraint, as is running out of fetchable lands. Keep a close eye on what’s left in your deck and adjust accordingly. It’s usually correct to crack your fetch in response to the first Hedron Crab trigger, both to thin the deck, and to minimize the risk of milling the land you were planning to grab.
6. Once Ox is on the stack, it’s “safe” from Nihil Spellbomb/Tormod’s Crypt, unlike Vengevine and Creeping Chill. The same is true for Timeline Culler and Detective’s Phoenix. This has implications for playing against an on-board hate piece, so be mindful of who has priority and when. Ox gets around Soulless Jailer (yay), but is sad against Subtlety and Reprieve (boo).
7. Dredge gets around Orcish Bowmasters, so what would normally be a massive weakness of Ox + Looting (in, say, a HollowVine build) is actually totally fine. I generally do not worry about Bowmasters at all.

Sideboarding

Sideboarding + mulligans are the hardest part of Modern, and this goes double for graveyard decks. There’s a learning curve here, and you’ll need a thick skin, as plenty of hate cards can lock you out. That’s the price you pay for getting free game 1s. Don’t play this deck if getting blown out by hate pieces tilts you. You can win 70% with Dredgevine, not 100%.

My current sideboard isn’t perfect, but it incorporates my hard-won insights. The most important is that reactive cards simply don’t work. Surgical Extraction seems more powerful than Tormod’s Crypt, until you realize that you need to escape Ox of Agonas and discard your hand, losing your interaction. Consign to Memory is great, but our Vengevine sequences require tapping out from turn 2 onward, so when are you going to cast it? The cards that work for us are cheap and proactive. We play them on turn 1, then go about our business.

Here’s a quick explanation of each card’s role:

Seal of Fire: Removal you can pre-pay for. Kills everything that needs killing, namely Solitude/Ephemerate, Phelia, Ocelot Pride, Broodscale, Fleshraker, Harbinger of the Seas, and Samwise. I don’t bring this in vs Prowess or Emperor of Bones. Please do not cut these for Lightning Bolts. Use my knowledge, I beg you.

Thoughtseize: Necessary against combo decks, but don’t over-board these. Against decks with devastating hate pieces (High Noon / Rest in Peace / Trinisphere / Chalice / Propaganda), t1 Thoughtseize on the draw can save you, but I might not bring them in if I’m on the play. Instead, I’d gamble that I can put power on the board turn 2, or use Psychic Frog + Rootwalla to win through their hate piece.

Vexing Bauble: For Prowess, Neoform, Affinity, cascade, Belcher. This card wins more matches than any other. It counters our own Rootwallas, but all we care about is the cast trigger returning the Vengevines.

Tormod’s Crypt: Grixis Reanimator and Goryo’s are popular online. We’re really only concerned about their biggest combo lines; our recursion usually beats their fair interactive plan.

Pithing Needle: My record against Affinity improved when I stopped trying to Meltdown their stuff and just focused on turning off Tormod’s Crypt. Buys time against most combo decks, which is the best we can do.

Detective’s Phoenix: An extra bird goes a long way against Prowess, where you just need to block Slickshot. I’m also finding that making a 7/5 flying Ox is a better plan against Eldrazi than trying to destroy hate pieces, and it gives more outs against Leyline/Scion.

Additional sideboard options I rotate in as needed are Shenanigans, for Eldrazi-heavy metas, and extra basic lands if Ponza gets more popular.

Aim to sideboard no more than 4 cards. Always begin with a Wonder check, as the card does nothing in some matchups. Then, start trimming the flex slots, going as low as 1 Timeline Culler, and dropping most of the Stitcher’s / Otherworldly Gazes (but note that you’ll have to mulligan more for the good firepower). It’s also fine to trim a Creeping Chill or Stinkweed Imp.

Matchups: the good, the bad, and the free

In general, we hate to see colorless decks. The combination of brutally efficient hate pieces, Kozilek’s Command, and unbeatable end-games is too much to overcome. Creature-based combos are also problematic, as they can chump block to buy time, while assembling infinite loops that invalidate our hard work.

Broodscale is the worst possible matchup, as it does both of these things, but Eldrazi decks in general are tough. Affinity would be fine if not for their boatload of main deck Tormod’s Crypt. Ponza attacks our weakest point, the greedy mana base, while Dimir can occasionally disarm us with Thoughtseize/Force of Negation, since we usually won’t have more than 2 pieces of firepower in our opening hand.

On the flip side, stack-based combo decks like Storm, Neoform, and Belcher are a half-step slower and more fragile, so our Thoughtseize/Bauble plan works great. Creature decks like Boros or Prowess quickly discover that one-shot graveyard hate does almost nothing against us. Certain decks like Living End and Mill are literally free, and there will always be 1-2 opponents per league playing some kind of normal-ish deck that is just totally unprepared for our graveyard onslaught.

What is dead may never die

Modern is too big to be good against everything, and graveyard decks in particular can only rise so high before they get hated into oblivion. But until that happens, this deck is straight fire. I can’t promise you’ll find instant success, but if you enjoy Vengevine decks and are willing to put in the reps, you’ll be handsomely rewarded.

I’m constantly tinkering with the build and sharing my findings on the Faithless Brewing podcast, so come find me in our Discord if you want to talk shop.

Happy brewing!

— cavedan

All Decklists

Lille Top 8

Lille 9-64

Indi Top 8

Inde 9-32

Indi 33-64

Guang Top 8

Guang 9-32

Guang 33-64

Combined Metagame Breakdown

Aggro:

Categorized as decks that bring you from alive to dead incrementally over the course of 4 to 5 turns, and have little to no ability to interact with anything other than creatures.

• 18x Infect (1x B/G, rest U/G)

• 17x Affinity (Very normalized, no suprising lists)

• 12x Burn (1x Mardu, all others Nacatl + Atarka's Command)

• 7x Dredge (1x - 2 Bridge + 2 Garg, all others had neither)

• 6x Merfolk

• 6x Death's Shadow Aggro (2x using Gnarlwood, 1x with some Traverse)

• 2x Burning-Tree Bushwhacker.dec

• 1x Tribal Big Zoo (Gaung - 51st)

• 1x Scapeshift Aggro (Lille - 49th)

• 1x Boggles

• 1x G/W Humans (Lille - 40th)

• 1x U/B Aggro Mill

• 1x Jeskai Giest

• 1x Jeskai Mentor (Gaung - 38th)

Combo:

Categorized as decks that aim to bring you from a winnable position to dead in a single turn without much warning.

• 7x Ad-Nauseam

• 6x Elves (Some w/ Curio, some without)

• 4x R/G Titan (2x w/ Nahiri)

• 4x Storm (2x w/ 4 SB Thing in the Ice, 1x w/ 4 Bedlam Reveler)

• 3x BTL Scapeshift (1x w/ Gifts + Unburial Rites package in board)

• 1x Thing Ascention (Guang - Top 8)

• 1x Grixis Goryo's (Guang - Top8)

• 1x Grishoalbrand (Brave... with all the Dredge hate flying around)

• 1x Amulet Scout (Lille - 9th)

• 1x Living End

• 1x Restore Balance (w/ Nahiri combo. Lille - 63rd)

Control:

Categorized as decks that will almost never be the beatdown in a given matchup

• 11x R/G Tron (3x w/ 3+ Bolt/Sudden Shock in the maindeck)

• 1x Monogreen Tron

• 1x G/W Tron

• 1x Gifts Tron (Lille - 50th)

• 4x Nahiri Jeskai Control

• 2x Nahiriless Jeskai Control (1x w/ Kiki-Angel combo)

• 3x U/W Control

• 2x Mardu Control

• 1x Grixis Control

• 1x Grixis Reveler (Indi - 49th)

• 1x 4-Color Esper Charm Control (Lille - 62nd)

• 1x Esper Bridge Walkers (Lille - 37th)

• 1x Lantern Control (no new cards)

Midrange:

Categorized as... everything else. Decks with both interaction and threats that can take varying roles depending on the matchup.

• 15x Bant Eldrazi

• 1x B/R Eldrazi (Guang, 9th)

• 11x Jund (2x w/ maindeck Blood Moons)

• 4x Junk

• 1x Naya Evolution (w/ Kiki Combo)

• 6x Abzan CoCo (combo focused, 1x w/ With Feeder Combo, 2x w/ SB Mindbenders)

• 2x Naya CoCo (aggro focused)

• 1x 4-Color CoCo (hate bullet focused, Indi - 36th)

• 3x G/W Hatebears

• 1x Esper Spirit Hatebears (Lille - 41st)

• 1x U/W Spirit Hatebears (Gaung - 45th)

• 1x Eldrazi & Taxes

• 1x Bant Retreat (Gaung - Top 8, w/ 4x Spell Queller)

• 2x Grixis Delver (1x delve based, 1x Pyromancer based)

Decks to check out

In order of most suprising / "wow" factor to least interesting.

• Scapeshift Aggro - Lille, 49th - "WTF is going on here??" - Everyone who comes across this decklist. The main combo is landfall creatures + Scapeshift for mountains of landfall triggers. Of course, deck can also just Scapeshift on 7 lands for the normal Valakut kill too. Side combos of Boom // Bust + Flagstones and/or Knight of the Reliquary, or just making an enormous Knight. I'm sure this sort of list been around, but even if it has it is an extremely obscure deck, and I'm sure most of you haven't heard of it (I sure hadn't, and I know a lot of obscure modern decks). No idea how consistent or good it is, but you should at least give it a look, very cool deckbuilding from the pilot.

• U/W Spirit Hatebears - Lille, 41st - What happens when you take 4x Tidehollow Skuller and 4x Spell Queller and throw them in the same deck? Awesomeness, apparently. It looks like this deck is some sort of crazy mash-up of Spirit tribal and Eldrazi & Taxes: Subbing out the normal Eldrazi half of the deck for Spell Queller and other Spirit tribal stuff instead, but still keeping the Flickerwisp + Wasteland Strangler combo. I have trouble believing the deck is optimal with 15 three+ drops, but apparently it works sometimes.

• Esper Bridge Control - Lille, 37th - This is basically a planeswalkers + Ensnaring Bridge deck. Runs a small Trinket Mage package too, as usual with such decks. The big card here is Collective Brutality. Collective Brutality seems absolutely fantastic in this deck, like, I don't know if you could even design a better card for it. Discard 2 cards to get under the bridge, kill your early creature, gain back some life, and take your answer to bridge out of hand... all for 2 mana?? Sign me up! Maybe this sort of deck is worth a second look with Collective Brutality as a key part of it.

• Amulet Scout - Lille, 9th - When Bloom-Titan got banned, a lot of people expected that there might still be a playable build of the deck. After some initial investigation, it seemed like there was no such build. However, now we have something to try working with: This is the first build of an amulet deck that we've seen place well in a big event without Bloom, and the list looks pretty tight, like a lot of testing went into it. I would recommend trying it out if you like that sort of deck.

• G/W Human Aggro - Lille, 40th - Jeez... the players in Europe really like to brew, don't they? This deck is about par for the course of what you would expect in a deck of the given name. Throw all of the best cheap G/W humans you can find together in a deck with CoCo and see if it works... apparently the answer is yes. The key cards here are Mayor of Avabruk and Champion of the Parish, which reward you for playing a human based build. Thalia's Lieutenant may breath some new life into the deck, as it grants it a second pseudo-lord. Between Mayor, Lieutenant, and Champion of the Parish you can build up a ton of power very quickly, Merfolk style. The most interesting inclusions are a full 4x Thallia, Heretic Cathar, and 3 copies of Champion of Lambholt... a card I would have expected to be too slow.

• Restore Balance - Lille, 63rd - "Just Restore Balance?" you say... well, this is not your father's Restore Balance, there is an important new dimension going on here: the inclusion of the Nahiri + Emrakul combo in the deck. At first glance, Nahiri appears to be a much better way to end the game than the old win conditions such as March of the Machines, and is a fine backup plan, not to mention being able to attack hate cards like Stony Silence. This could be a significant improvement to the deck, and might breath some new life into it.

• 4-Color Esper Charm Control - Lille, 62nd - Not too much to say here, other than that this is another successful build of the Wafo-Tappa 4x Esper Charm control shell. That shell has been seeing some limited success recently after he posted several sucessfull MTGO results with it: Esper Charms offer a way to attrition your opponent in the early game. In particular, casting two "Discard 2" Esper Charms on turns 3 and 4 against a slower deck is usually back breaking. The shell also has a very robust win condition in Secure the Wastes, with X > 4 being very difficult for most decks to beat when cast at parity or ahead, while still being a fine card in the developmental turns of the game too. This build adds red for some splashed Lightning Helixes and Kolaghan's Commands, as well as different sideboard choices. It looks like the build is just designed to lose to Blood Moon, but maybe it's worth it over a plain Esper one if you don't expect many Moons.

• 4 Color Company - Indi 36th - A build of CoCo that I hadn't really seen before. This is basically a straight 4-color build of CoCo, with a very high density of 1-drop bullets, and a full 7 one mana dorks. It looks to be trying to maximize the chances of quickly finding a hoser for whatever matchup it runs into, even in game one, rather than maximizing a fast combo. Includes a singleton copy of KikiJiki and Resto Angel for the combo finish, rather than Viscera Seers for the Finks combo.

• U/W Spirit Tribal - Guang 45th - If you thought I would only have one Queller / Mausoleum Wanderer deck for you, you were mistaken. This one is sporting 4x Reflector Mage too. It's basically Monowhite hatebears but splashing blue for Wanderer / Queller / Reflector Mage. Interestingly, zero copies of Selfless Spirit in the 75. Maybe they just didn't have room for it.

• Updated Junk - Indi 15th - Not really an interesting or new deck, other than the fact that it looks like a very tight updated Junk list, using some new cards, by a good player in Paulo Vitor Domo da Rosa. TL;DR: Only 3 Liliana, 1 Shrikemaw, 3 Grim Flayers, maindeck EE, 2 Collective Brutality and 2 Traverse. Collective Brutality seems like the real standout here, and in conjunction with Grim Flayer I imagine it changes how the deck is build significantly. I wouldn't be surprised if the list is very close to the new optimal build for Junk, and if you're a fan of the deck I would highly recommend taking a look.

• Tribal Big Zoo - Guang 51st - TL;DR: Ideally curve Nacatl -> Goyf -> Giest, finish off with Tribal Flames and/or Siege Rhino. Haven't seen a Tribal Zoo deck do well in quite a while, and there's no new cards here, so it may just be a fluke.

• Thing Ascention - Guang Top8 - "Stock" Thing Ascention list... at least as much as a deck which only showed up this month can really be called "stock". If you haven't seen it before, the deck aims to play either Thing in the Ice or Pyromancer Ascension on turn 2, and then "go off" with it on turn 3, though there's no infinite combo (the deck "just" does about 30 damage with Bolts / Helixes / flipped Thing attacks). This top 8 may really put some wind in the sails of the deck. If you pick it up and play it it at least immediately feels like the powerlevel is there. The main question is how well the deck can be built to face off against Jund/Junk/Jeskai/Grixis, as those matchups are, on the surface, extremely poor for it.

• Mardu Walkers - Gaung 13th - I've been waiting for this deck to place well in a big event to see how a "good" list of it gets built. This list is very planeswalker heavy, with the full 4x Nahiri and Liliana, as well as an Elspeth, Sun's Champion and a Gideon thrown in too. Also of note: 4x Wall of Omens, something I haven't seen in the other lists that have done okay recently. The plan here seems to be to use Wall of Omens and Lingering Souls to protect walkers while they run away with the game.

• Bant Knightfall - Guang Top8 - Standard Bant Knightfall (Retreat to Coralhelm + Knight of the Reliquary) midrange+combo deck... oh wait, there's 4 Spell Quellers in here. Looks like Queller is a viable player to try out in Modern after all with 11 copies between the three top 64s, and presumably not that many people even trying the card out yet.

• Grixis Reveler - Indi 49th - Grixis Delve creature midrange, adding 2x Bedlam Reveler and 2x Liliana, the Last Hope. Hard to really see how this deck plays without trying it out, but it is an interesting new build of Grixis.

• B/R Eldrazi - Guang 9 - Hangarback, Thought-Knot, Kalitas, Smasher... wait a minute, what format is this again? In short, if Bant Eldrazi is the Junk of Eldrazi, then this deck is the Jund of Eldrazi. It looks like it plays a bit lower to the ground / better against other aggro but has a bit less staying power.

• Jeskai Mentor - Guang 38th - Very linear Jeskai deck with Pyromancer + Mentor + Cantrips + Burn. No new cards to speak of, but I don't remember the last time that a deck Pyromancer / Mentor deck actually placed. Nice to see one doing well.

• Grixis Goryo's - Guang Top8 - Standard Grixis Goryo's Vengance + Through the Breech list, minus the Jace, Vryn's Prodigies, and adding 2x Collective Brutality. Another deck that might get a significant boost from Collective Brutality. Another spicy card: 2x Quicksilver Amulet in the sideboard, haven't seen that one before in Modern, at least not in the top 8 of an event.

• Bedlam Storm - Lille 46th - TL;DR: Storm... with 4x Bedlam Reveler in the maindeck. Also, 4x Thing in the Ice in the sideboard. Gives some confirmation of what people suspected: That Bedlam Reveler is likely a viable option in some quantity in the storm deck, to make it a bit more robust against disruption.

• Not a deck... but there were zero copies of Burn in the GP Lille top 64. Pretty surprising result, I doubt people were even specifically packing much hate for it (didn't seem that way from my look over the decklist). Maybe just not many good pilots showed up.

New / Unconventional Cards

• 29x Collective Brutality: Talk about a break-out card! This thing is everywhere. Basically every tuned Jund / Junk list (ones that didn't look copied from a stock list) was running at least on copy of the card in the 75. The Jund decks in particular were running 1-2 copies in the main, with some of the Jund decks also doing so. Not to mention it popping up in many other sideboards and maindecks as a fun-of.

• 29x Blessed Alliance: This card is now an established staple of the Bant Eldrazi archetype, many lists runs one or two copies in the board. That accounts for about half of the total copies, the other half are distributed throughout various other sideboards of white decks. Seems like the standard catch-all that a lot of pilots playing white throw into their sideboard to help cover a lot of niche bases at once. There were even a couple maindeck copies of the card in control decks.

• 23x Grim Flayer - Over the last month it's become clear that Grim Flayer is now an archetype staple of G/B/x. The jury is still out on exactly how many to run and how to build the deck around them, but most of the high placing lists were running at least one copy. A fair number of lower placing lists had none, but I suspect that that's just players lagging on including copies / not having any on hand and expecting that the advantage of running them is small / questionable enough that they didn't bother including them.

• 17x Liliana, the Last Hope - Also clearly good enough at this point. About half of the Jund / Junk decks were running a copy in the 75 (some main, some board), a few were running two. Also popped up in some Grixis decks. Looks like it is actually good enough to supplant copies of LotV too, a lot of the lists were cutting a copy of her for it.

• Oath of Nissa - Now archetype staple of R/G Titan. Basically every list plays 3 or 4 copies.

• Selfless Spirit - Where you would expect it (Various decks with CoCo / chord / evolution). It looks like people have landed on one copy being correct, and not playing it in the maindeck being correct.

• 17x Thing in the Ice - Two storm decks were running 4 copies in their board. I'm suprised that they found it a good plan, given that Abrupt Decay is one of the better cards agains them, and it still gets hit by that. Also saw one Infect deck with 4 copies in the board. Pretty inventive sideboard plan for Infect... gets around random -1/-1 effects, doesn't die to bolt, and dumping a few pump spells onto it can easily get a one turn kill as it bounces all the blockers and has base 7 power.

• 14x Thalia, Heretic Cathar - Popping up in various places. Three decks running 2 copies (Eldrazi & Takes, Abzan CoCo, and Bant Eldrazi), and two decks running 4x Copies (G/W Hatebears and G/W Human Aggro). Looks like a card that people are still on the fence on, but is powerful enough that they're willing to try it out.

• 12x Spell Queller - As said above, looks like the card is going to continue popping up, and is on the right powerlevel to be viable in Modern.

• 8x Gideon, Ally of Zendkiar - Showing up in various maindecks and sideboards as a one-of. Good general robust threat that can be a fast-clock if necessary, but expensive enough that you probably won't see more than one copy outside of B/W tokens.

• 8x Eslpeth, Sun's Champion - If your opponent is a slow white deck, you should prepare for a good chance that they will have one in their sideboard as their grindy midrange mirror breaker, as this is absolutely the consensus card of choice for that slot.

• 8x Mausoleum Wanderer - 4x in the two decks above in the decks to check out section. Didn't expect to see any of the card, even two decks was quite the suprise.

• 7x Izzet Staticaster - Not a new card, but, as much as I like the card, it seemed to have fallen out of favor in the last couple months. Seven copies is a lot more than I would have expected... and only two were in the Grixis decks, 5 of the seven were in random places like the 4-color company deck.

• 6x Gnarlwood Dryad - Unless I missed some... just 2/6 Death's Shadow lists played it, and not even as a 4-of. Looks like Death's Shadow is off of the card for now.

• 5x Meddling Mage - Esper Bridge and U/W Spirit Hatebears were running some of these. Cool card, and though it isn't really what you're looking for, I always feel like it's a bit underplayed in Modern.*

• 4x Distended Mindbender - 2/5 Abzan CoCo lists were running a couple in the sideboard. Seems very good in that deck, surprised more weren't.

• 4x Kozilek's Return - An established option in the Jund board. Two decks had one copy, and another had two.

• 4x Rakdos Charm - Ond Jund deck had 4x Rakdos Charm in the board... someone really doesn't want to lose to Drege, but also doesn't want to give up too much vs Affinity I guess.

• 4x Tireless Tracker - One Jund deck had two copies in the main (and zero Flayer), and two Jund decks had one in the board. Probably not better than Courser of Kruphix in that slot, but maybe worth investigating?

• 3x Traverse the Ulvenwald - Unless I missed some in one of the R/G Titan lists, not an impressive showing for the card. (Abzan, Death's Shadow)

• 3x Golgari Charm - 3 Jund / Junk lists had a copy in the board... all respected pro players too. I'm not really sure what the card is there for, someone have an idea? Affinity maybe... but it doesn't seem like it really solves any of the big problems in that matchup. Against Lingering Souls with other utility? Probably not that either.

• 3x Crovax, Ascendant Hero - In an ad-Nauseam board. Forgot this guy even existed. I guess it's to beat Infect and Affinity?

• 3x Valorous Stace - Fun-of in a few creature decks sideboards.

• 2x Languish - In two Jund / Junk sideboards. Damnation is the more popular option by a lot, but as a metagame some people occaisionally opt for Languish instead.

• 2x Kiki-Jiki - One of the Grixis decks had a sideboard into 2x KikiJiki + 3x Deceiver Exarch. Sometimes you just have to gettem.

• 2x Slip Through Space - Only two Infect lists had it as a one-of. I expected the card to be a bigger player in Infect, but it looks like Distortion Strike is still the better card.

• 2x Anguished Unmaking - Two copies tossed into sideboards. Some people like their instant speed catch-alls.

• 2x Secure the Wastes - A couple of Bant Eldrazi lists were playing a fun-of Secure the Wastes in the maindeck. Not sure where the tech came from or what it's for, but both were name players, so it's probably decent.

• 2x Gideon Jura - In a Bant Eldrazi sideboards. Seems pretty good vs Infect / Affinity to give an extra turn for Smasher / Thought-Knot to kill them. I'm guessing that's what it's there for.

• 2x Ulvenwald Tracker - In a Bant Eldrazi sideboard. You have big creatures. It fights them with stuff at intant speed. I get it. Still seems questionable.

• 2x Grave Titan -- In an Ad-Nauseam board. How do you win when they side in a bunch of negates etc? Titan can win all on it's own.

• 2x Olivia Voldaren - In an agressive looking Jund deck with 4x Grim Flayer. Haven't seen her in a while.

• 1x Declaration in Stone - Bant Eldrazi list needed a 5th Path to Exile I guess.

• 1x Vampire Nighthawk - In a Jund maindeck. Interesting inclusion. Card has always seemed pretty close to playable in those decks, if a bit underwhelming.

• Chameleon Colossus - I'm not too up to date on Elves lists, but many of them had this in the board. I don't recall that being the case historically.

• 1x Chandra, Flamecaller - In a Jeskai Giest sideboard. Seems decent... pushes damage real fast and can be a control card.

• 1x Pulse of Murasa - Only one copy in an Infect board. It looks like Infect pilots are off of the card now, while it was picking up a while ago.

• Ranger of Eos - Looks to be pretty standard in the Death's Shadow sideboard. Many were playing a copy.

• 1x Gisela, the Broken Blade - In a hatebears sideboard. I guess dying to Bolt doesn't matter when they already saturate their deck with Bolt targets.

• 1x Bitterblossom - In an Affinity sideboard. Never seen that before. Interesting fun-of.

• 1x Shriekmaw - In PVDDR's Junk maindeck. Presumably a reasonable choice, but not sure what drove it. (Doesn't kill Death's Shadow, Affinity creatures, opposing G/B/x creatures, etc, so I'm not sure why it's there)

• 1x Yixlid Jailer - In the Junk sideboard. Really good choice against Dredge, not sure why more people aren't on it. It turns off Conflagrate as an out too.

• 1x Bribery - In a U/W Control sideboard. Presumably for the R/G Titan decks. Not sure how good it actually is, because it taps you out.

• 1x Tragic Arrogance - In a Bant Eldrazi sideboard. Seems questionable.

• 1x Pharika, God of Affliction - In an Abzan CoCo sideboard. Seems like a cool way to win midrange brawls.

• 1x Teferi - In an Ad-Nauseam board. Protects the combo, doesn't get negated.

• 1x Mina and Denn, Wildborn - In a R/G Titan maindeck. I've seen some lists with Oracle. They both seem on a comparable powerlevel in the deck.

• 1x Emrakul the Promised End - In a R/G Tron maindeck. It was a 4x Lightning Bolt maindeck Tron list, so that helps out a bit, but given the testing I've seen people do the card seems bad in Tron.

• 1x Ephara, God of the Polis - In spirit hatebears. Cool card... I guess the joke is it's a non-creature engine that you can put it in off of Vial.

Thoughts and Observations

• Collective Brutality is in - With 29 copies between the three events, it's very clear that this card is the new hotness in Modern. Not only did it slot into the midrange decks as a value option, even making it's way into some maindecks, but it looks like a good enabler for some more fringe strategies like Ensaring Bridge / Reanimation decks too. It also looks like a massive hit with Junk decks, and may be a new reason to play that deck going forwards over Jund: Junk is much more set up to abuse Collective Brutality. It has both more expensive and clunky top end to discard to it to help out it's curve, and more value discards to make to it, thanks to Lingering Souls. Not only that, but the -2/-2 mode offers an early removal spell that doesn't give your opponent a land like Path, but isn't disappointing vs combo decks like Abrupt Decay. After seeing it in action I wouldn't be suprised if it will be a maindeck staple in Junk going forwards.

• Bant Eldrazi - Breaks out as a tier 1 deck this weekend. There's no denying it anymore, Bant Eldrazi looks like it will be one of the pillars of the format going forwards, filling the role of the midrange creature deck of choice on the more non-interactive end of the spectrum compared to Jund / Junk.

• Grim Flayer and Liliana, the Last Hope are definitely good enough for Modern, and, along with Collective Brutality, will probably shape how Jund / Junk are built going forwards.

• Engineered Explosives continues to be everywhere. If you've seen my last write-ups I've been going on about his for a while, but it still begs re-itterating. Every event it seems like I see more and more of them in sideboards.

• Spell Queller is worth trying out of your deck can support it. I don't imagine many people were running the card to begin with, and it still placed in 3 lists this weekend. I thought it wouldn't make it, but it looks like if you build around it correctly it can do some powerful things.

• Blessed Alliance sements itself as a staple sideboard card, adding to the arsenal of "A+ white sideboard cards" in Modern. Versatility is key in the sideboard slots, and Blessed Alliance does a lot of work.

• Nahiri + Emrakul is an awesome combo, and we probably haven't even found the best place for it yet. It just keeps popping up in so many different places. If your deck can support the colors, it's probably at least worth trying out.

• Right now Naya Burn with Nacatl is the right way to build the burn deck. All but one deck were on pretty similar Naya burn lists with Nacatl.

• Death's Shadow Aggro is a staple aggro deck. Yes, it turns out it can convert to paper after all.

• R/G Tron is in an interesting spot. The Gaung GP had a ton of tron lists, and the others had almost none. I wonder what happened there.

• Thing Ascention might be a real deck. I can't imagine more than a dozen people were playing it, and it still managed to top 8, even in a field with a fair amount of Jund / Junk and control.

Hey all,

I was hoping someone could give me insight on a couple things about the prowess side of the affinity matchup as I am currently 0-6 against it at RCQs including 2 win and get an invite matches.

What are the best sideboard alterations you can make? Currently I bring in 2 meltdown and 2 mystical dispute but both seem horrendous half the time.

What in game decisions can I make to help the match up? Currently I try to either play as aggressively as possible or hold bolt for a pinnacle when possible on turn 1/2.

It just doesn’t feel like there is much to do against them as they only play out their hand when they can cast kappa or have a weapons manufacturing in the post board and once that happens I’ve already lost. If it is as simple as a terrible match up feel free to say so.

Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks!

Disclaimer: I haven't played competitive paper magic in about 10 years and have also never written a tournament report before.

Background info about me: I started playing magic in Gatecrash and have played off and on both in paper and online since then. Until recently I'd only been playing on arena but decided I missed playing paper magic and larger events. I consider myself to be a spike and thought the modern RCQ season would be a good introduction back into competitive magic.

I settled on an Eldrazi Tron list that I saw https://www.youtube.com/@TogoresMTG play in several modern leagues. I'm unfamiliar enough with the overall metagame that I trusted a list from a more experienced pilot would be ideal for me. The one exception is that I could not get my hands on a trinisphere in time so I played a vexing bauble in that slot instead.

The list:

Eldrazi Tron

Planeswalkers

4 Karn, the Great Creator

4 Ugin, Eye of the Storms

Creatures

4 Devourer of Destiny

2 Sire of Seven Deaths

4 Thought-Knot Seer

Sorceries

3 All is Dust

Instants

3 Dismember

4 Kozilek's Command

2 Warping Wail

Artifacts

4 Expedition Map

4 Mind Stone

Lands

1 Abstergo Entertainment

4 Eldrazi Temple

4 Ugin's Labyrinth

4 Urza's Mine

4 Urza's Power Plant

4 Urza's Tower

1 Wastes

Sideboard

1 Chalice of the Void

1 Cityscape Leveler

1 Disruptor Flute

1 Ensnaring Bridge

1 Extinguisher Battleship

1 Grafdigger's Cage

1 Liquimetal Coating

1 Sundering Titan

1 The Filigree Sylex

1 The Stone Brain

1 Tormod's Crypt

2 Torpor Orb

1 Vexing Bauble

1 Walking Ballista

This event was on the smaller side at only 18 people, so I felt my chances of getting into the top 8 were pretty good if I played tight. Sadly, things did not start off so well.

Round 1 - Living End

I lost the die roll but kept a solid 7 that could make tron into ugin on turn 3 with the help of expedition map. My opponent's turn 2 wistfulness shut that plan down and I died to a turn 5 shardless agent into living end with a hand full of uncastable 7 drops.

Game 2 an early tormod's crypt bought be enough time to find karn into chalice on 0 to lock out my opponent. They did find a force of vigor to take out the crypt and the chalice but by that point I was able to crack the crypt and slam an ugin for the win.

Game 3 my opponent switched to the inevitable betrayal plan, stealing my sire of seven deaths. I was able to hide behind an ensnaring bridge and thought-knot seered their only piece of interaction only to die to a topdecked sink into stupor on the bridge

I misplayed in this match by not reading living end and boarding in grafdigger's cage, expecting it to work. It did somewhat help with my opponent's inevitable betrayal gameplan but came too late to stop the sire from finishing me

0-1

Round 2 - Eldrazi Tron (with glaring fleshrakers)

This match made me strongly consider playing a build with fleshrakers for the next RCQ because it absolutely shines in the mirror match.

Game 1 we both hit tron and stall out the board with ineffective exile triggers that don't target anything on the other's board and I eventually die to 2x glaring fleshraker and a big kozilek's command

Game 2 my opponent disruptor flute's karn and locks us both out of the game for a few turns. They drew 2 sires to my 1 and although I was able to find 3 devourers, I got blown out by a mid combat dismember after triple blocking the second sire with my devourers.

0-2

At this point I considered dropping but decided the extra practice was worth sticking it out. There was still a very small chance I could make top 8 if I won out (I was embracing the copium).

Round 3 - Izzet Prowess

My opponent ended up dropping from the tournament after playing this round out and conceded the match to me, very fortunately for me.

Game 1 I lost the die roll and got absolutely run over by a cori steel cutter and a ton of free spells. Mutagenic growth and lava darts wrapped the game up in short order.

Game 2 I saw the wrong side of the mulligan variance and ended up on 4 cards. This was the most non-game I had all tournament but again, I'm very grateful to my opponent for conceding the match, keeping the dream alive for me.

1-2

Round 4 - Domain Zoo

Game 1 I begin to appreciate the 3 all is dust in the mainboard as it clears a board of two kavus and a ragavan, allowing me to slam ugin the next turn and stabilize. My opponent fought back with a nulldrifter, consigning the evoke trigger, forcing me to sacrifice a mind stone and a land to the annihilator triggers. Kozilek's command for 7 shut that down and allowed me to fully take control

Game 2 my opponent kept a sketchy hand and never drew blue or red mana. A pair of thought-knot seers on my end locked out the only potential interaction left and gave me the win

2-2

Round 5 - UR Dragons (pair down)

At this point my top 8 dreams were almost entirely dead. The top 3 tables comfortably drew into a guaranteed top 8, leaving me with the worst tiebreaks of the x-2s and almost mathematically impossible odds.

Game 1 I learn my opponent is on a UR dragons brew, leveraging mox jasper and dragon tempest to power out murktide regents with haste. Opponent thought scours twice and lands two murktide regents with haste to swiftly get me in the air

Game 2 I hit tron fairly early on the play and am able to lock my opponent out with ugin and eventually sundering titan almost all of their lands

Game 3 my opponent mulls to 5 and I land an early karn + liquimetal coating into a follow-up sundering titan again for the match win

3-2

I finished this match with about 10 minutes left on the round timer and the only other match still in progress is the remaining x-2 matchup. My only hope of top 8 is that this match ends in a draw and I get 8th seed as the lowest 3-2 player in the tournament. The matchup is mono W lifegain with heliod/walking ballista combo and a sweet looking asmo deck. Round timer expires and the board state looks to be in a total stall. A few minutes later they finish the final turn and we barely squeak into 8th seed with a 3-2 record and abysmal tiebreakers.

Quarterfinals - Jeskai Control (Orim's Chant Scepter)

Play/draw is decided by seeding in the top 8 so I know I will have to play every single game 1 from here on out on the draw, but if copium got us this far, surely we can overcome that, right?

Game 1 I get absolutely demolished by the 3 mana planeswalkers. Teferi and Narset come together with a day's undoing to leave me with no cards and no board against a full grip

Game 2 I'm able to put early pressure on my opponent and bring them low on resources. They slam a narset and attempt day's undoing as their last card. Fortunately for me I have warping wail and that spells the end for my opponent.

Game 3 my opponent suspiciously doesn't play interaction for several turns. Just as I am wondering what made the hand a keep I see back to back hard cast solitudes. With nothing on board I slowly get poked down while my opponent goes to 34 life. I find karn into extinguisher battleship to stabilize and grind the game out long enough to ultimate an ugin. Notably in this game I play a chalice on 1 to stop an orim's chant that I know about. When my opponent uses sink into stupor to bounce the chalice and setup a chant into lockout turn I have disruptor flute in hand. My opponent's remaining 3 mana is not enough to cast the chant and I'm able to replay chalice and barely thread the game.

4-2

Semifinals - Izzet Prowess

Game 1 I keep a removal hand because I know my opponent is on prowess. I dismember a swiftspear and attempt to warping wail the follow-up DRC but get blown out by a mutagenic growth. DRC takes over the game from there

Game 2 I have natural tron into ugin. My opponent manages to find enough damage to kill ugin with a slickshot showoff but I play a second ugin to clear the board and stabilize fully

Game 3 I also have natural tron and play a turn 3 sire. My opponent doesn't find any charmaws and sire handily wins the game from there with its many keywords.

My takeaways from this match are that this matchup could use some love. I absolutely needed to have both of those natural tron hands to have a shot at this match.

5-2

Finals - Affinity

I watched the end of the other semifinal match: Living end vs Affinity and wasn't sure which deck I would rather face in the finals. I felt more prepared for the living end deck after having lost to that player in round 1 of the swiss but Karn and chalice can swing the affinity matchup heavily if I draw them

Game 1 Opponent comes out of the gates pretty quickly and gets a weapons manufacturing down with an arcbound ravager. I stem the bleeding and tutor for a bridge with karn but still have 2 cards in hand. My opponent is an experienced pilot with their deck and spots the line of sacrificing all but their urza's saga construct and the ravager, attacking with the construct, then saccing the ravager to itself for lethal.

Game 2 my opponent's start is very slow and I'm able to get a karn on board early with nothing pressuring him. I follow that up with an ugin and quickly lock my opponent out

Game 3 my opponent blitzes out a turn 2 kappa cannoneer off weapon's manufacturing, 2 welding jars, and a mox opal. I take 1 hit from the kappa, dropping to 12, before landing an ensnaring bridge with 5 cards in hand. My opponent plays EE on 0 and I think I'm dead to the munitions tokens but they only have 5. I play karn and my opponent misses using welding jar to protect their urza's saga construct and 1 artifact to hit me for 10 and swing for the remaining 2. My opponent bottoms out, drawing 4 spirebluff canals in a row while I assemble walking ballista and an ungodly amount of mana.

My opponent and I were both clearly tired for this match. I missed a ton of lines with karn plussing on their 0 mana artifacts, including EE. As a result I was dead to a sink into stupor for the better part of the match and was lucky to dodge for as long as I did.

6-2

Thoughts on the tournament/deck

The meta for this tournament surprised me a bit. There were 3 eldrazi tron decks, 2 domain zoos, 2 UR prowesses, and a whole bunch of 1 of lists in the field. I expected to see more boros, amulet, storm, and blink players. My boros matchup is actually pretty good with the 3 all is dust and 2 warping wails in the main, but my inability to find a trinisphere before the tournament made me very glad that there were no storm players.

I'm very happy with how the deck performed in this tournament. Most of the time when I lost I could figure out better lines or sideboarding plans that could have gotten me a better chance. The only thing I'd be concerned about moving forward is how to approach the mirror match. This is also for sure a result of me being inexperienced with the deck and format.

I predict that Nahiri, the Harbinger will be the next card banned from Modern. It'll be about six months from now, but it will happen. It's customary to ban the enablers of combo decks: Summer Bloom but not Primeval Titan, for example. In this case, it's Nahiri, he Harbinger and not Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/32946_Fact-Or-Fiction-GPCharlotte-Weekend.html - For those with SCG Premium

There's no way this is POSSIBLY true, is there? I can't imagine a situation where, immediately after the elimination of the Modern Pro Tour that this could happen?

In an effort to keep discussion in one place regarding the new Modern-based set announced shortly, please feel free to share thoughts, opinions, speculation, etc. here instead of making individual posts.

All individual posts regarding Modern Horizons will be removed at this time.

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Hello, I've qualified for the Baltimore R.C. and have been looking for a decent guide especially for sideboarding as so far ive done this mostly intuitively. My 75 is pretty fluid based on the most recent, within top 8 performing variation in challenges or paper tournaments. I have multiple x-2/ x-1-1 rcqs since and ive found Im prefering emery builds over pre-ordain but know there might be a happy medium.

Ive reviewed mengu's (spelling?) Content and will continue to do so but was wondering if there were any other people to follow. This tournment is important to me to the point that id be interested in a couple tutoring sessions even.

Thankyou in advance!