Mainstream Modern: A Look into Modern

[Simping For Hina]

Modern is a newly created format in Magic: the Gathering of Wizards of the Coast. 3 years ago, in the Spring of 2011, Modern was birthed as a format replacing Extended (Type 1.5) as the format between Standard and Legacy. Different from Extended, Modern is a non-rotating format that begins with the card pool of Eighth Edition, including any later print runs of cards within Expansion and Core Sets. Because of this, any card printed in Supplement products are not included in the Legality of Modern unless the cards are reprints of cards in Modern Legal sets. The Modern format encases all cards that have been printed in a set using the two most recent forms of the Modern card frame, Mirrodin and M15.

This is just a guy with a love of a card game. Hi, I'm Dae as people may know me, and Gregg as others might. Magic: the Gathering is a game I came across when a few years ago by some friends and their influence helped me to love it more than anything. I started in the Scars of Mirrodin - Innistrad Standard knowing how the game worked right, but I started around the time New Phyrexia was released. I bought some cheap packs, and created a black deck. I never really touched my cards again until my brother gifted me with the Standard deck that is now my pet deck.

Around the beginning of last year, I still used that deck. My friend started a blog where I went to read and learn about basics of the Modern Format, even if I was already playing under the Modern Format. I then took more competitively to it, and began to purchase the first cards for my Affinity deck that I now mainstream for almost any major or big tournament. By the time I finished the deck, I then began to play at local FMNs where I met this group of Modern players that I came accustom to know, and later test with. These are the people who influenced my competitive spark more than anything as they are the people who I test against, became acquainted with, and later got to become friends with.

Now I, with their help and my ability to keep up with the format, I want to become a Modern enthusiast and help people who read this blog become one as well, or just learn about the way I approach the format. Either way, the people who read this blog are going to get better as players in the Modern Format.
 
Articles:

19/12/2014: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6538958"]Modern: The Format[/url]

28/12/2014: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6542723"]Mono U Tron Primer[/url]

11/01/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6548515"]Sideboard Nouveau[/url]

26/01/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6556353"]Abstract Metagame[/url]

02/02/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6559096"]Connections Through The Multiverse[/url]

28/02/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6572945"]Where We Go From Here[/url]

01/03/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6573451"]Bugs' Eye View[/url]

22/04/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6602288"]UW Control[/url]

15/06/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6646862"]Taking Control[/url]

28/07/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6677205"]Living End[/url]

28/07/2015: [url="http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/326832-mainstream-modern-a-look-into-modern/?p=6677205"]UW Dragon Control Primer[/url]

[Simping For Hina]

 

 

Modern is the easiest non-rotating format to enter with the smallest entrance barrier from Casual Play to Competitive Grinding. Modern’s card pool only increases and cards usually increase in value the longer they exist.
 
Modern is a defined format that continues to stimulate the drive of players through the top tier decks and a liberal banned list that is almost always changing.
 
A note to always be reminded of is how Modern is defined, The Turn 4 Format. No deck should consistently win before turn 4.
 
The Top Tier decks are those that hold up a high percentage of deck archetypes being played in the format over a constant period of time. These decks are expected to see play at any REL tournament, whether in the winning or losing tables. Learning how these decks work and how to beat them are one of the keys to doing well in Modern. Learn your deck inside and out, each intricacy and mechanic existent. Learn how to play a deck against others, get an understanding of how the matchup works.
 
The Top Tier Decks:
Affinity
GBx Midrange
Scapeshift
Abzan Pod
Burn
 
The underdog of the format, Affinity is looked at as the true aggro deck of the format with elements of both combo and tempo. With low-costed cards that alone are weak, but brought together, synergistically in the piece of this deck are incredibly powerful. Affinity can play under a different list, prepared for any meta, and is powerful whether people are prepared for it or not.
 
GBx Midrange takes forms under different color combinations with a base in both Green and Black. Known to be the most fair deck in the format, the only known deck to play around grinding out the games and the opponent until there are only resources and ways to win on the GBx players side of the board.
 
Behind the wall of control, Scapeshift is a combo deck at heart that utilizes Ramp and Control elements to hit the needed amount of lands playing straight into a Scapeshift to ultimately win the game. Valakut, the win condition of Scapeshift decks plays entirely around hate and disruption to be a resilient win condition, proving that Scapeshift is a force to be feared.
 
An engine around the card Birthing Pod, Abzan Pod is a creature-based utility deck that can play both an efficient midrange game or an extremely powerful combo game through synergy with specific cards (Melira, Sacrifice Outlet, Persist Creature) or (Spike Feeder and Archangel of Thune. Prepared to tackle any game and any style of play, Pod is known for hitting around all different corners with strength to back it up.
 
Why fight fire with anything else than fire? Let’s count to 17 in an opening hand. That is the correct amount to kill just about any player in Modern. Burn plays the best game at dealing the most amount of damage in the least amount of time. To play this deck is based around the math of the opponent’s Life Total and how to bring it down to 0 as fast and efficiently as possible. Try that with spells and creatures.

 
The Banned List:
 
Ancestral Vision
Ancient Den
Blazing Shoal
Bloodbraid Elf
Chrome Mox
Cloudpost
Dark Depths
Deathrite Shaman
Dread Return
Glimpse of Nature
Golgari Grave-Troll
Great Furnace
Green Sun’s Zenith
Hypergenesis
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Mental Misstep
Ponder
Preordain
Punishing Fire
Rite of Flame
Seat of Synod
Second Sunrise
Seething Song
Sensei’s Divining Top
Skullclamp
Stoneforge Mystic
Sword of the Meek
Tree of Tales
Umezawa’s Jitte
Vault of Whispers
 
Each card on the Banned List would define Modern by a singular card. An outlet that would stall the format in such a way that the format became stale. A multitude of decks that neither balance or overpower each other, but a format that is overpowered itself. To keep this from happening, the Banned List is a force of will for Modern to slow down and balance out. These cards, even with printing in Modern Legal sets, are no legality in Modern, thus they are not playable in the format.
 
Some cards would enable a limited tier of decks to contend against one another, winning too fast before turn 3 or earlier.
 
Ancient Den
Blazing Shoal
Chrome Mox
Dread Return
Glimpse of Nature
Great Furnace
Hypergenesis
Seat of Synod
Seething Song
Vault of Whispers
 
]There are cards that have helped to develop decks that became too reliable, consistent or have the power to limit other decks from existing ultimating stagnating the format.
 
Ancestral Vision
Cloudpost
Dark Depths
Deathrite Shaman
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Mental Misstep
Ponder
Preordain
Punishing Fire
Rite of Flame
Stoneforge Mystic
Sword of the Meek
Umezawa’s Jitte
 
Cards that push for time in tournaments to last longer than what a round provides are banned because of the stress and constraints that cards would create during a tournament.

Second Sunrise
Sensei’s Divining Top
 
Importantly, there is only one card that is too strong for its own good. A complete mistake of printing. This card was banned because of how powerful and broken it is, no matter what situation or deck that card is in.
 
Skullclamp.
 
The format is only continuing to grow and develop where new decks have the ability to appear, shake the format and cause people to react to that shift. For each player, a deck is suited for his or her style of playing that has at least made an appearance at an MtG sanctioned event. Because of this, any player with appropriate knowledge can learn them intricacies of playing that cannot be read to them. Appropriate for all players: Practice, Learn and Get Better. And I want to help people do just that.

[Simping For Hina]

The amount of time it took me to write this is more than I thought, but it was worth it. I plan to do something like this at least once a month. My next Article is going to be Sideboard Nouveau, Modern Sideboarding. But here we are:

 

Around the idea of putting each of the three Urza Lands out (Urza’s Power Plant, Urza’s Mine, and Urza’s Tower) to produce 7 mana as many Urza Tron decks do, this deck is a dedicated control deck stylized to fit a certain meta. Similar to playing EDH in Modern.

 

The idea of this deck is to fight like a tempo deck until turn 7+ without having a threat out. Purposely limiting the opponent from doing what is needed to win, so that we can. There is no straight forward way to play the game when a hand of seven is never consistent enough to have redundancy. This deck requires more thought to each matchup than just blanking a hand.The goal isn’t to assemble the 3 Urza Lands as fast as possible, but to utilize them to win the game in the long run. Normally, achieving a full set of Tron Lands doesn’t occur until turn 4 or 5.

 

While there are many tools to balance and perfect the deck, there are also many routes to establish the type of deck into the style of your choosing. The deck is fairly easy to manipulate and alter for a person’s style and meta understanding. From the Treasure Mage, Solemn Simulacrum build to the Chalice Build and even builds utilizing value cards such a Gifts Ungiven as a 1 to 4 of build.

 

Mono U Tron focuses on the ability to use permission spells (Remand, Condescend, Spell Burst, Repeal and Dismember) to stall the game out until the moment where the deck can stabilize on its own or access a game-winning lock or move. The ability to sculpt a perfect hand is normal when each permission spell exists to also provide value of replacing itself through a cantrip or filter into the next draw step. Almost no spell is dead in the deck at any given moment.

 

The style I chose was a straight U Tron control deck with cards such as Chalice of the Void and Dig Through Time to easily flow value from one card to the next and still being able to hold my back for more much needed answer cards.

 

1 Sundering Titan

1 Platinum Angel

1 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Snapcaster Mage

 

4 Expedition Map

3 Talisman of Dominance

2 Chalice of the Void

1 Mindslaver

1 Batterskull

 

4 Thirst for Knowledge

4 Condescend

3 Remand

2 Dig Through Time

2 Dismember

2 Repeal

1 Spell Burst

 

4 Urza's Mine

4 Urza's Power Plant

4 Urza's Tower

1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

1 Tectonic Edge

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Academy Ruins

7 Island

 

Sideboard:

2 Aetherize

2 Dismember

2 Sun Droplet

2 Negate

2 Spell Snare

1 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Snapcaster Mage

1 Grafdigger's Cage

1 Pithing Needle

1 Relic of Progenitus

 

A Well-Oiled Machine is normally what this deck is referred to as since each part of the deck is meant to work with each other to achieve the ultimate goal; Win, but with style. And that is where the interest part begins. Play the game at your own pace with an array of permission and answers. This deck has one of the best late game stages. The inevitability that this deck will win the longer the game goes is the reason this deck is permission-based.

 

Sundering Titan, Platinum Angel and Wurmcoil Engine. These cards are complete all stars and are part of the Well-Oiled Machine. This is when the machine works to bring out, these cards are the main ways to win the game. This is where EDH comes into Modern. Playing these cards is basically playing EDH in a competitive setting, even when Sundering Titan is banned in EDH.

 

Sundering Titan is Mono U Tron’s Blood Moon, but better. The way to punish any greedy deck or just any regular deck, too. This kills both basics and shocklands. A one-sided armageddon that wins the game just by itself. The body of this creature isn’t anything to just pass by since dealing 7 a turn destroys any threat, while still having an amazing ass to back it up. Answers are useless against this card since it just attacks their land base again. The curve topping card couldn’t be a better choice to use when we’re always the permission deck.

 

Platinum Angel is the deck’s way to slow down or complete stop an opponent’s game plan. Sometimes this card is an only out, other times the opponent just doesn’t know what to do. When unanswered, Platinum Angel wins the game entirely. Dealing 4 a turn while providing the ability to overextend is the purpose of playing Platinum Angel.

 

Wurmcoil Engine is a deal-with card that plays well with Oblivion Stone. It is best creature to stabilize, and later win the game. Against Aggro and Midrange decks, Wurmcoil Engine is almost an unstoppable force that can’t be answered with combat tricks or one-shot removal spells unless they’re packing Path to Exile, which isn’t so horrible anyways. Path to Exile only hits 4 cards in the deck, and further advance the length of the game, where Mono U Tron will ultimately win.

 

Snapcaster Mage is a utility creature more than anything. While it can help to slow down decks that are faster than us early enough, the main goal is to use it as an access to any spell in the deck. Need another Repeal, Remand, or Condescend? Snapcaster Mage acts as another copy of any spell while still putting a threat on the board or just a potential blocker so our life total doesn’t go all that low.

 

Now, the lack of regularly used cards such as Treasure Mage and Simulacrum are because they are lackluster. In the long game, they do nothing and are dead draws. I don’t want to use them stall out the game when I can use more efficient cards that are almost never dead, even in the late game. Without them, I still am able to punish my opponent while obtaining value for each spell I cast. They are stallers at best that don’t put up a needed clock or force my opponent to play around decisively. Cards like these two are training wheels to help people to learn how the deck functions, but are not needed in the long haul goal of winning.

 

People will think that these are staples when just witnessing what the deck is, but when familiar with the deck, there are more times when they just cards in hand than cards on the battlefield. Against a much faster meta, these cards are in their best shape to be used, but are only turn 3-4. That point is when Treasure Mage and Solemn Simulacrum are at their most useful.

 

Expedition Map is Mono U Tron’s Birthing Pod. With 4 of each Urza Land and three different one-of lands. With this land base, it is essentially to either fuel win conditions or consistently keep up the ability to lock people down, in terms “fuel our win condition.” Mono U Tron doesn’t run fetchlands, so Expedition Map is the catch-all makeshift fetchland that allows for the set of one-ofs and reliance of each land. Since they part of what this deck was built around, they are needed to be drawn most of the time, which is why I chose to play 4.

 

Talisman of Dominance is meant to filter the opening hands when the nine blue sources aren’t enough. It is just another land most of the time, but it does help to take off less damage from a Dismember casting. Usually good to help ramp into a turn 4 Batterskull if that is the deciding turn whether aggro decks win or not. Otherwise, it is usually the Island that needed to cast most of our permission spells when there aren’t any islands in the opening hand. As Island 9-11, I wouldn’t run more than 3 in the off chance to be filled with them. While they aren’t a dead draw, they are just horrible in consecutives.

 

Chalice of the Void is meant to be a constant source of permission against the current meta, which is ravaged by Delver and Burn. Chalice is an important tool in many bad match ups so that this deck can keep up with their speed or slow them down enough to keep up with the deck’s speed. I originally used four copies in the main deck. The change was meant to increase the power of this deck in an opponent meta. When Chalice of the Void is good, it can win the game on its own. When Chalice of the Void is bad, it is one of the worst cards in the entire matchup, which is why I would suggest to only play 2 in the main deck is playing any.

 

Oblivion Stone is the Chalice of the Void when things resolve. Oblivion Stone is the catch-all sweeper that destroys almost every problem left on the board. I have to play around this card as much as my opponent, though, since it does destroy many permanents on my side of the field such as Chalice of the Void and Talisman of Dominance, but slowing down the opponent is more of a necessity than limiting the game plan. With enough mana, Oblivion Stone could be a completely one-sided sweeper when using its second ability unless there is enough pressure on the table to force an immediate crack of Oblivion Stone.

 

Mindslaver is an out. The ultimate lock in the late game. This and Academy Ruins allow each turn to be played in favor of the Mono U Tron player. Inexperienced Thoughseize players would choose the win condition before limiting us, and Academy Ruins play completely around what Thoughtseize accomplished. While needing a 12 mana investment as minimum, Mindslaver could be shot off immediately to limit the opponent’s game plan and still taunt the opponent from the afterlife. While not a common feat to win with, it feels damn amazing to win in this style.

 

Batterskull is more of a way to stabilize than win the game, but by the time Mono U has stabilized, Batterskull becomes a win condition that is almost impossible to deal with due to overwhelming, consistent mana. Equipping Batterskull onto a Wurmcoil is some of the most trolling outs against an opponent, and Batterskull doesn’t die to any straight removal spell. This card is used to stall the board out until the Mono U Tron player has developed and out valued the opponent in terms of resource.

 

The instant and sorcery spells in the deck offer more than just one-to-one trading for card.

 

Condescend flows our draw steps to delve into the deck for cards during the right moment, while filter draw steps with ease. Both early in the game to make sure hitting land drops isn’t a problem and in the late game when the opponent doesn’t have as much mana to produce as the Mono U Player. Condescend is the go-to counterspell in the deck to answer any troublesome cards when Remand doesn’t do what is needed.

 

Remand is the other counterspell that provides value. Instead of answering any specific card, Remand is used to slow down the opponent’s progress of increasing his or her board state while drawing into another live card that is either an answer or a win condition. The cheapest counterspell in the deck meant to limit the opponent’s actions while providing us with another card and stalling the game until Mono U Tron reaches the late game to win.

 

Repeal and Dismember are the way to deal with troublesome permanents that filter through a sweep of counterspells. While Dismember doesn’t replace itself, it is still useful to destroy an early Tarmogoyf or troublesome Wild Nacatl without the use of any Blue resource. It also helps if trying to threaten a counterspell later that same turn.

 

Thirst for Knowledge is meant to be a value card at best, or a way to abuse Academy Ruins later on. When Expedition Map, Chalice of the Void and Talisman of Dominance become lackluster, they are just dead cards in hand until Thirst for Knowledge is used. Instead of being a dead card, they replace themselves with a newly drawn card while also filling the grave so that Dig Through Time is easier to cast early on.

 

Besides Snapcaster Mage and Academy Ruins, the graveyard is hardly used outside of those two cards. Delve at least allows for better use of cards within the graveyard, specifically in the form of Dig Through Time as another value card. With cheap counterspells and cheap artifacts hitting the grave after each turn, Mono U Tron is able to fill the graveyard in a substantial amount of time to make Dig Through Time to be reliable. Instead of just drawing into blind cards, Dig Through Time can finish any type of game being played. Dig Through Time finds the missing Urza Land missing from completely the Tron set, the combo lock of Mindslaver or Academy Ruins or any bombs that are hidden with the deck. Later in the game, Dig Through Time is easily hard casted when the graveyard becomes less beneficially, so it works in both the Late and Early portion of the games.

 

Fabricate is a card that trades for itself to search for any bomb or helpful artifact at the moment, perfect for a certain situation. At worse, Fabricate would be used to search for an Expedition Map or Talisman of Dominance if behind, but those situations occur less than frequent. Snapcaster helps to fill the gap of being behind, where Dig Through Time can play the same role as Thirst for Knowledge and Fabricate.

 

Spell Burst is the star permission spell in the late game. Buyback creates a Spell Burst counter lock with enough mana present. The main reason to play Spell Burst is the inevitability of Spell Burst locking when there is more mana than known what to do with. The ability to keep up a counterspell after a counter war and still have more fuel for later counter wars to exist.

 

The land base is shifty between 23 to 25 lands, with 24 lands being the average in Mono U Tron and many other control decks. This land base is meant to be efficient and utilized throughout each point in the game.

 

Islands are sometimes, more than not, the most important lands in the deck. Hitting Blue is more important than hitting any other land in the deck. As the permission spells are the backbone of the deck’s success, the islands are the most reliable sources for blue mana. There have been a plethora of games lost due to colorless land keeps and no drawn into a blue source. Instead of being behind on lands, it is the lack of consistent sources of lands that can screw this deck over.

 

Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is Island #8 that helps to fuel the need of hitting blue. With a single colorless land, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds efficiently encases the ability of hitting two sources of blue in a single turn. But there is also utility against Jund/BGx decks that utilize Liliana of the Veil, especially her discard +1 ability. To spice this up, send Oboro, Palace in the Clouds back to your hand and then discard upon resolution of Lilian of the Veil’s +1 Discard ability.

 

Tectonic Edge and Ghost Quarters are land hitters against greedy or problematic lands. Against Control, Tectonic Edge can stop Celestial Colonnade or any dual land that they play. It can stop an early play of Cryptic Command. Ghost Quarter is the same idea, but it doesn’t put them back except on the number of sources in any specific color of mana. But Gavony Township and Treetop Village become less scary when they do not exist. Both Tectonic Edge and Ghost Quarter hit lands early on when casting a Sundering Titan is a little world’s away.

 

The Urza Lands (Urza’s Power Plant, Urza’s Tower, and Urza’s Mine) are the namesake of the deck, the way to ramp into the silver bullets turns before any regular deck would normally cast them. There is no reason to not run a playset of each. While Mono U Tron doesn’t focus on assembling the set as early as GR Tron does, there are still tools to increase the speed of Mono U Tron in terms of resource and strength.

[.Rai]

Nice article. Obviously, Tron is always your thing. Any thoughts on more than 2 Dig through Time? I think it's just too good a card to be leaving it at that number. Or even Treasure Cruise, it's broken enough to consider in anything really.

Any other cards you've tested for the deck? The archetype's always felt very stuck in stone throughout its history.

[Simping For Hina]

Well thank you. I really only liked having two for how powerful they are, but how unreliable they are in the early game. I don't have enough early cards that filter them to be useful, so I don't have much desire for more. Maybe 3 is a good number, but I felt like two was always the right amount. I have liked my deck list so far with only wanting minor changes here and there. I never really set on having 3 or 2 Chalice main deck until after side boarding, and that was the biggest change recently.

but I have been thinking on playing a UB Tron with Thoughtseize as a splash and better sweepers for the board. I would lower my number of counter spells to play 8 B sources, for attacking the meta on two different fronts: proactive and reactive. It might be horrible, but the deck is too badly positioned against an unknown meta while having the greatest ability to meta game for a tournament if prepared. I want to try to take this deck in the direction of having two ways to strike against decks like Affinity and UWR Midrange without specifically side boarding because it is never that linear in any REL event.

[Simping For Hina]

This is a long one, so it most likely will be split into 3 different posts. Here is the first one:

 

 

“Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.”

           — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

 

The player set between two games in a match, where he is either on the play or the draw. The strategy and game he is about to play is different from others. Different game and different means of playing. As the player begins his game, he has to decide if his hand is worthy of being kept or mulligan to a hand 1 card lower. But before a game, he has the ability to alter his deck with a chosen 15 or less Sideboard that is meant to prepare for the second and third game of any match up. Winning is key, but the same strategy will never present itself the same way in two different games and each player would sideboard in their own manner. The player is against a different list of 60 and an opponent who choose what was sideboarded for a specific reason.

 

A sideboard is a set of 15 or less cards meant to improve a match up, whether it is winnable or not. The chosen cards are useful in multiple occasions, against a multitude of decks. The main idea of a sideboard is not to differ from a deck’s main game strategy, but stylize around the opponent’s deck and help to improve the deck’s overall game.

 

Common misconception of a sideboard is that there is enough space to include cards that are discluded from the main deck or never found enough space/reason to support those cards.

 

Knowledge comes from the first game. The deck they are playing and a type of strategy that they plan to follow. This doesn’t change at all, even with the strangest of decks. One powerful thing about Magic: the Gathering is the Philosophy of the Color Pie, but it is also a limiting factor of many of these decks. The colors share the belief: to follow a philosophy. The meaning of this is that each color has their own power and weakness, which is best to determine what cards exist and what cards might be used in the sideboard.

 

As well as an already determined meta is helpful, Sideboards are nearly linear in the means to play out, especially for known and practiced decks. Use this to take advantage of, learn the cards people use to sideboard and why they are meant to be sideboarded in to a deck after the first game.

 

Let’s take a look at Storm, a dedicated combo deck.

 

 

For dedicated combo decks, the focus is to set up a strategy that stops the opponent from limiting or forbidding you from comboing off. Functionally, this is meant as a guide to never side in too much to the point a combo deck becomes nothing more than an answer deck that fizzles at the attempts to combo off.

 

Storm uses cards that answer more than one type of hate against them forms such as Wear // Tear, Dispel, and Meddling Mage. These cards are used to limit hate that is relevant or even seen enough to stop a Storm player from comboing off.

 

Wear // Tear hits creatures, enchantments and artifacts. This is true for the cards such as Ethersworn Canonist, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Rule of Law and Engineered Explosives.

 

Dispel does the same, but for most counterspells except Counterflux.

 

Meddling Mage is different from anything set because it is both a proactive answer to Hate cards, but also an answer to opposing combo decks.

 

The way the Storm sides is to functionally increase the number of ways to combo off while limiting the number of possibilities the opponent has to stop once the combo has started.

 

There comes times that Storm will shift enough gears to dilute the deck for a higher chance of winning a near unwinninable matchup, but that is only proven for one type of deck; a threat against the speed of Storm, Affinity.

 

 

Aggro decks, Affinity and Zoo, play a different role in society. The purpose is not to stop from being an Aggro deck, but to continue that Aggro plan with a much stabler board state once people side in hate. Bringing in supporting cards that do more than just stop an opponent is key for this.

 

Affinity utilizes the synergy between both artifacts and creatures, while continue to put in enough damage around the support of anti-hate/hate sideboard cards. With a multitude of sideboard strategies, Affinity can play a different role altogether, but that never stops from the Artifact Creature beat down plan that always shines through.

 

Slowing down a turn or two to stop the opponent from finishing off the Affinity Player is enough to keep the gas rolling progressively, even if there is not constant pressure being aimed at the opponent. This is why Affinity utilizes, or can, sideboard cards that most decks wouldn’t even think of, or couldn’t pull off without decimating are part of their game plan.

 

Zoo functionally plays cards that value out the opponent in their raw power and otherwise essential game plan. Creatures that have abilities that are helpful to stopping an opponent are the type of cards that help in a Zoo-type of deck. Otherwise known as Hatebears, these creatures don’t take away from a beat down plan, but also limit what an opponent is able to accomplish.

 

These decks don’t dilute from their number one game plan, and have the support needed to focus on a more essential plan to win.

 

The number of cards don’t matter when sideboarding, it is the power and efficiency of a card’s effect that are relevant to sideboard strategies.

 

Control has the most freedom to sideboard cards in, but that doesn’t mean it has the best means to sideboard in enough cards. Sideboarding with Control decks is a skill of its own, just like with any other deck, but every card has relevance in some situation as the game progresses. To sideboard with these type of decks is to know what situation seems more likely to occur and what cards would be more useful in more than one type of situation.

 

Sideboarding for any of these decks is a skill of set of its own, and it is a skill to being able to sideboard against an open field. The best way to learn how to properly sideboard is to read sideboard guides and take them to a tournament. Practice sideboarding, as it is just as important as a first game during a match. Properly sideboarding for any match up is helpful, and sometimes the best tool to manifest a win.

[Simping For Hina]

 
Take a look around. The winds, they change again. The echoes from Research and Development reach all planes of the multiverse. Planeswalkers shrivel from the frightening sound. The sound of others falling face first into an ocean of regret and sadness. Those who took upon the Cruise sunk. Those who went Through Time are trapped in their own hole. The Birthing Pod shut down. There is only one individual that can feel euphoria as Dredge is back from the utter decimation that takes form in the matter of a Banned and Restricted List. Golgari-Grave Troll is a card that resurfaced from the depths of the banned list, to most likely do nothing to the format.

With a shaken up metagame, people try to keep their game of playing the same type of deck with as much innovation as possible to keep to their type of deck. Brewers from across the planes try to innovate with a Podless Pod deck, a Delver deck and going back to the old forms of Scapeshift and Twin. While this could all work, the field has changed and so has the way people play these decks. The old version of the decks aren’t as strong as they were simply by the shift itself.
 
Decks will evolve to affect this meta change as they try their hardest to do come all format changes; when a new set is released or when there are updates to the Banned and Restricted List such as this one.

A mistake of players in times like this is the hold of the past they keep with them; nostalgia playing old decks. Shortly, this brings forth growth to decks and player bases, playing what the type of deck best suited to their own game plan. Commonly, people always say that it is best to know your deck inside and out to know how to tackle the format. It is also helpful to learn matchups and how other decks are played, in most terms as possible, to know how to attack the game specifically for.
 

Look to what is coming out of this: GBw Midrange is going to be a powerful deck once more with Dark Confidant and Siege Rhino coming into the picture properly. Zoo has access to Siege Rhino and Anafenza, the Foremost to be a powerful ⅘ Aggro deck.
 
The approach of the new metagame is how to be successful in the limited nature of knowledge that exists. Look at the reasons why cards were banned or unbanned and look at the presence of what decks were weakened (or strengthened) by the last format. Players who keep to their championed decks will venture to a new method of that deck such as Patrick Dickmann did in Pro Tour Valencia with the innovation that was Tarmo-Twin.

There is no sure fire way to play out the next few weeks and no deck will be accomplished properly because of this. The deck choices I made when I played during the KtK Metagame was specifically set up for that. Iterations of decks that I played and worked on during this time are going to just be a shell that I could develop upon. The core will remain the same since I have become accustomed to that style of play, but the cards included with change. Some cards were included or excluded for a specific reason in the KtK Modern format.
 
With the Pro Tour coming up in just two weeks, being aired live in February 6th through the 8th, this is where the format begins to define itself. Decks will emerge from the outskirts of Modern. New decks will come into the sight of others and players will work to turn the Metagame from Abstract to Realistic. A pillar in modern has fallen, and the cries of others fall short when it the updates were announced. There is nothing stopping people from playing what they want at the moment. Imagination runs free for all of those willing to learn and create.
 
The decks that I suspect to take pillar while the format is developing itself are:
Domain/Tribal Zoo
GWRb Zoo
Abzan Midrange
Affinity
Scapeshift
BW Tokens
Burn
Living End
Etc.
 
While everything isn’t set in stone, there is information available to all of those willing to learn. To approach this new format is to let go of the nostalgia that playing now broken decks and to create anew, decks that while similar in style are used differently. Those that attack the game from a different and powerful angle. Combo decks are weak to GBx with hand disruption and a variety of answers, but they are strong against aggressive decks. Control decks have better inevitability (not UWR, but the matchup is strong.) than GBx while weaker to aggressive decks.

Attack the format with full force. Don’t be afraid to take risks while the format adjusts and recreates itself. Onward now, my readers. The winds will change again, but now is the time to venture forward into the abyss of an unknown format.

[Simping For Hina]

Just a little break from the info game, I thought I would write about GP experiences and other means.

Connections Across the Multiverse

 
There are nine rounds for Day One competition, which means nine different opponents and nine different personalities. Each of them have a different way to play the game and an interesting way to communicate with their opponent. The only constant factor is you. I get to hear all of these different stories or just have a friendly talk with some people. Other times, I just flick the cards back in forth in my hand waiting for my opponent to attempt something.

Boredom does kick in, and the timer is a testament to how strenuous some opponents can be. I would rather play a fifty minute match against someone who has a story than a 10 minute game with those who only care about the game itself. People like to remain entirely focused and adversed in what is occurring during the time limit. Others tell their story, they inform you of personal information that interests you more than the game itself.

Taking a job offer because your girlfriend recommended you pushes you in a spot to accept the offer, even if you don’t want to. But in the pornography business, the job offer just seems fun. Go for it. One guy did so, even when he realized that guys in the Erotic Film Industry get paid less than the girls.

“Do you spend a lot of time on the internet? Well, then you must have heard of Brazzers. I used to work for them, even when I got paid less than most of the girls I worked with.”

That is the last thing I expected to hear this at a tournament for Magic: The Gathering, even if it took place in New Jersey.

An opponent for round 5, gassed with the smell of tar and cigarettes, but held a friendly face nonetheless. My opponent sat down 3 minutes after the clock began for the round, so I got a free win. The rule stands that if your opponent doesn’t make it before the round timer begins, then the first game is automatically lost. I wasn’t excited about this since I would rather play to prove who deserves the win, but a game is a game when playing for top spots. Explaining why he was late, my opponent named Samuel Blabbergunnington, was referring to his job history and how people get really interested to hear what his history is. Just that phrase caught my attention: turns out, he worked in porn after being recommended by his girlfriend.

That wasn't all that interesting compared to some stories people tell just by sitting across from them during a competitive best out of three match, or in the line for vendors and artists while standing in the same spot for a good hour or so.
Grand Prix New Jersey (Grand Prix Edison) took place during November, the weekend of the 14th. A three day event with more than four thousand people signed up for the main event, but more people showed up for everything else. Artist, vendors, side events, and friends. One person planned an entire week with his family just to find time to attend this tournament, for one day. Guess that goes to show how important this is for people; family comes first…except when there is a Magic: the Gathering tournament.

“What kind of deck is that? Are you sure you’re playing Legacy?”

There are a multitude formats in the game. Each format has a limited card pool, where some have more cards legal in that format than others. Legacy is the most competitive format with the largest amount of legal cards in the format. I decided to play a Modern deck in this tournament since I don’t plan on spending the amount a car costs just for one game. My deck cost a fraction of what other people’s did, and they were shocked that I played such a weird deck. I explained to people what my deck was, after the match so I wouldn't reveal any new or helpful information. Their looks were condescending, to say the less. An opponent was angered that I played the deck I did, and I just let it go. His anger only made my game better than his.

“This is a Legacy tournament, go play Modern at a side event or something. Thanks for the free win, but not the competition.”

I still won, letting my opponent soak up his words and feel like crap afterwards anyways. After our match, he packed up his stuff as fast as he could and floundered his way away from the table. Guess some people can’t stand to lose to skill and luck rather than having a deck that costs more than anything I own at the moment.

I only won five out of the nine matches over the course of the entire tournament, but that is pretty awesome for how large this entire event was. Some good opponents, some people that just played it out, and some that were sore losers.

Around the ninth round, I was awarded a bye. Which means that I get a break from playing for the time being and have a free win. But technology is a pretty nifty thing, especially when mistakes are made. I think the word “awarded” was used incorrectly here. I was called up to the main event stage where I had an opponent show up last minute. The specialists working the computer system placed the opponent as a drop from the event, when the slip stated that he just received a lost from last round. So I played, and won. But the idea of an award is an item or object given in placement of a prize and cost. When I get my Awarded Bye taken from me, a simple punch in the face would have been a little bit nicer. I laughed it off, even when I was exhausted from the overall day.

The opponent was pretty relaxed about the entire thing. He got to play instead of dropping the entire event and it was fun to play against him. I got the win way too easily, taking up about 5 minutes of my time. I got my 45 minute break in the end. Just like a bye in the end. The person still had a smile on his face the whole time; from time in the round beginning to where he lost.

Over the long haul of the day, I spent about three hundred minutes across the table from different people. I played against Magic Judges who were off duty from their job. I played against people who questioned each little thing that was established. I played against people that were just happy to play, whether they did well or not. The day came to an end, and I didn't make it to the next part of the competition: Where the top players are determined to continue to. I shrugged it off and passioned forward to the Sunday stage since artists and side events still existed.

This time, I was mostly in line waiting for artists to sign. Sometimes, they just can’t say no to offers or commissions. They lines were horrendously long, and an hour passed where I barely moved in inch. The line would just be at a standstill. So, people decided to talk to each other. A fantastic way to pass the time. We talked about what we were expecting for the event itself, what we wanted from the artists and where we were from. I was even behind one of my previous opponents from the day before.

I think the way to just power through the ability of communication between people is to create communication. Each story and connection made affects new degrees of success, whether personal or labor-based. This tournament, communication led to the success of a well run event where people were able to merrily be pleased with each aspect of the entire Grand Prix setting.

“Communication — the human connection — is the key to personal and career success.”

[Simping For Hina]

 

Let’s take a walk from here. Modern, from both GP Vancouver and Pro Tour Fate Reforged (Washington), both ended with Splinter Twin winning in the hands of two different pilots. People have lost faith in Modern due to the banning of Birthing Pod alone. Bloom Titan is a deck that is scary to keep watch of, as a major contender in the top tables, seeing 2 Quarter Finalists in the Top 8 of Grand Prix Vancouver. Wilted Abzan took shape as a creature-base midrange deck. Abzan is still the forefronting deck of the format with other linear proactive decks follow short and behind. The format is taking shape, in a way that is unhealthy and unbalanced for all type of archetypes. This isn’t what should become of Modern as a format, the only port for cards to be printed in is Standard. It makes sense for a format to grow in number and strength as a format pool is added onto with each set printing, but the banning of cards is preventing this from taking effect.

Treasure Cruise was a card that allowed decks to compete in a reactive motion against decks featuring Thoughtseize, Liliana, and Inquisition. While their resources were being taken away from being used, the tools also became a resource to fuel a deck backing to the game. BGx Midrange decks have the ability to take away a player’s resource without the hassle of it being used against them again. Their tools are the best in the format for attacking from a wider range of angles, while other tools do come even meet these standards. BGx can play a Legacy type of game plan while other decks fall too short behind them with specific sideboard and mainboard cards for specific matchups without the ability to search for those cards unless they are naturally drawn. The limit is what holds Modern back from being a balanced format.

The non-specific cards are proactive and are the best cards to run against an openfield. Remand and Mana Leak are the cards that are reactive, that see the most play and have the best chance of attacking the game from a reactive angle. These cards look their effectiveness in the later game as they become easier to play around. Drawn backs on these cards become worse and worse as the game transpires into the later parts of it. White taxing decks also lose their effectiveness. The later part of the game favors those that can build up their resources while still presenting enough open answers to respond or make the opponent respond to what is happening. There isn’t enough open answers that allow for a longer game plan, without presenting a sort of catch-all for the deck archetypes.

 

The Banned List is the death of Modern, it is really that simple to understand and keep track of. It is too aggressively used for the safety of where Modern is meant to be heading, and is what is holding Modern back from being a powerful and properly popularized format.

Here is a proposal: Reprint and print cards that allow for the format to slow down and for decks to be able to play a slower game properly, without their resources become ineffective unless a long game does not support the deck’s game plan. Increase the power of the format for each archetype to fight against most decks as possible. Answers, both proactive and reactive, are the tools that allow for this. This puts Modern in a place to play decks that either defend or attack a certain archetype, which is another issue. Balancing this out would also be for decks to get back in the game as their tools are depleted or they are behind enough. BGx Midrange decks have these tools and are the ones that keep reaching for what other archetypes should be. Printing tools for BGx decks wouldn’t support the balance of the format.

Ancestral Vision is meant to support control as its entirety, a card that gets the deck back into the game while other decks put enough pressure on resources and life. Control decks would also need a card that responds to these decks, for how behind their resources are and how limiting the resources are as a game progresses. Counterspell is the type of card for the format to balance out with Blue vs GBx and the type of card for Control, but not necessarily the exact card to reach exactly this goal. Printing a card that plays into what Counterspell was printed specifically for Modern would be helpful. Give blue a generic answer that is powerful enough to play the role of Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay for Blue as a card, but don’t let it be an all end card that no one can play around. 

 White tax effects are known to be powerful oppressors against effects that force the opponent to play around them. They are too easy to play around, though, which is what is weakening about them. Hatebears have all of the tools to be a good deck, but a weaker setting to be prepared for their match ups. Leonin Arbiter is the type of card for Hatebears to be a tolerable deck in the format and White Weenies are an archetype known for attacking the meta when the shields are done and the meta is open. The Tax effects hurt both players, which is the weaker part of the deck. Put the opponent in a seat to respond and react while the Tax player could sit behind and work up their pressure. The game isn’t going to end in 5 turns due to the absurd clock that decks put on and how much the opponent works to play around it. How I feel these should type of effects should work are to make the effects continuously affecting the players to reuse their resource and taunt what players attempt to complete while having the pressure of resources depleted. Zoo would also take more into this against Twin and Combo decks. The Aggro decks can put of the clock for pressure but no back it up with support against the other decks that can win almost unexpectedly without specifically having hate against that one deck while diluting the ability to play against others.

Tax effects would also allow fair decks to make other unfair decks play on a fair level behind all of these tools, which is what Blue and White are lacking in Modern to be potent and properly executed colors in the Balance of the color pie.

The tools for Modern exist and the cards are there, but they are hidden or taken away from the format in the sense of the Banned List which is the most daunting thing about the format. The Banned List is Modern’s Force of Will without the ability to continue to play an archetype. Force of Will is how Legacy and Vintage keep unfair decks fair, but it could be debated how the card would be unhelpful to what Modern is trying to accomplish. Instead of using Force of Will or the Modern Banned list to keep cards and decks in check, allow for tools to do this itself. Boost the power level of Modern to compete against the others at the same level, but also be able to have generic answers so decks can face off against each other without the effectiveness of more specific sideboard cards that make up 55% of a match win.

 

GBx based decks are Katy Perry. Twin type of decks are Right Shark. Compared to this, every other deck is Left Shark: Loved by all, but still doing its own thing in a noticeably not-so-right way.

[Simping For Hina]

 

Gerard Fabiano took down Baltimore with his craziest brew yet, Sultai Control. Much to Gerard, these colors together, BUG, are the strongest tools as his disposable. The colors that took down Standard in Gerard’s hands. What is most surprising about this is that Sultai is not recognized as an appropriate color combination in Modern without the efficient tools that Sultai has in Legacy and Standard, but that didn’t hold back this Brewer from making it work.

The deck works like a Midrange deck that utilizes efficient answers with a powerful and cheap clock to pressure the opponent into making decisions that normally wouldn’t be made. The answers in this deck are what keep the power in Gerard’s hand with being both proactive and reactive with the forms of counterspells and hand disruption, taking over the idea of raw power in each card being used. With the efficient clocks of Tasigur, Tarmogoyf, and Thragtusk, his deck is fully equipped to be able to go long without applying pressure and respond to his opponent’s game plan while taking each chance to put the opponent in a spot where one mistake could lose the game.

Thragtusk, Ashiok, and Compulsive Research are the cards that are not normally seen in Modern, but used to their fullest extent in this Sultai shell. The decklist is interesting in that of itself because of how each card is powerful on its own, but the redundancy is shown through almost each card seen in his list. I think this deck is better in the hands of a proper player since the hardest part of playing the deck is in the lines of play than the actual cards, as they are defined by themselves in power level.

A deck definitely powerful in and of itself, but not something that will be seen too often in the future of Modern, but I do hope that this opens up a hand to other players willing to brew their own deck that is more fitting for their own style. Congrats to Gerard for his SCG Baltimore Open with Sultai Midrange, a deck most appropriate in the hands of you as a pilot. Continue to do your best and to play to your outs.
 

[Simping For Hina]

A scorn breaks wind, from another in the voice of Dragonlord Ojutai. Silumgar’s Scorn is nothing powerful except in the hands of Dragonlord Ojutai. Recently, Dragons of Tarkir has been making its way down non-rotating format avenue, into Modern. Dragonlord Ojutai and Silumgar’s Scorn have been surfacing ever so slightly within the format, and have been dominating the smaller metagames.
 

 
Recently, Jeff Hoogland, from TheMeadery placed 1st at the most recent Modern IQ from StarCityGames with UW Tempo deck that utilized Silumgar’s Scorn in contention with Dragonlord Ojutai, with other means of synergy to boot. The name bestowed to this deck by Jeff Hoogland was called Scornful Sprite, as it played a tribal subtheme tempo game with Spellstutter Sprite and Scorn as means to answer any problem in a reactive manner, when the opponent casts a problematic spell.
 
Mutavault is seen as a tribal all-star in this type of build as a creature that is both a Faerie and Dragon, to abuse Spellstutter Sprite and Silumgar’s Scorn to their absolute potential. Vendilion Clique is another means to both deploy a threat and utilize Spellstutter Sprite’s ability in any level of play the game has progressed to.
 

 

I think this deck has a lot of potential to grow and be tuned to fit any method of playing, but this is a fantastic basis to start formulating the power of cards for UWx Shell with the printing of new cards from Dragons of Tarkir. Silumgar’s Scorn is Modern’s closest thing to Counterspell, but that doesn’t lessen the effects of the card in terms of its power level or effect on the game. As both relevant in the first few turns against any deck that plays on a curve, or to the late game as Mutavault and Dragonlord Ojutai shine through, impacting the game in their own way and with the use of Silumgar’s Scorn.
 
Dragonlord Ojutai is the real card to talk about, though. It is nearly impossible to kill with pseudo-hexproof and the generative power of card advantage as the game becomes a grindy top-deck based match on who can top deck better, where any player using Dragonlord Ojutai will ultimately win without too much strain. 

 

 

 

Even I began to practice with these set of cards newly added to the format, in the same type of shell but with the means of prolonging the game until in a controlling position to ultimately win with Dragonlord Ojutai beatdown or through attacking with Celestial Colonnade and Mutavault, for how powerful those cards are in the late game.

I think that these new additions to the Modern cardpool are enough to give control a fighting chance in both a field of linear combo and grindy matchups that seem to have no end.  There is also going to be a problem with decks that are already commonly faster; Infect, Affinity and other hyper aggressive decks, but that is not going to stop me from playing this deck and continue to work on it to the best of my ability since I think that UWx Control/Tempo decks have a new shell to implement into their already varied collection.

[Simping For Hina]

 
Modern is a format that is changing constantly, even week to week. When people prepare for one type of deck, another player takes advantage and plays to the opponent’s weakness. But it also comes to the idea that people love to just play any type of deck that suits their own fancy. I know that I have done this constantly. Since the UR Delver meta that featured Treasure Cruise, I have taken to the hand of playing control. I started with Mono U Tron, then switched over to UWR Control and now I have been working on my own hand of UW Control with Dragonlord Ojutai.
 

 

Chalice of the Void was the only card that kept Mono U Control in contention with the entirety of the rest of the format. Every deck at that point in time was either Delver, Siege Pod, Junk or decks to fight against Delver. Mono U Tron already had a good matchup against Junk due to the ability to just go over anything that they were attempting and the fact that Inquisition of Kozilek did almost absolutely nothing against us. Junk decks even strayed away from Thoughtseize due to how fast and dangerous the format was, and taking any excessive damage could almost cost the game. Siege Pod decks were a complete race, but all of their cards were answerable and Oblivion Stone was a complete house in this match up.
 
Now back to the idea of Chalice of the Void. Most decks that were set up to face Delver were decks that tried to accomplish the same thing but in a different manner. Affinity relied on Chalice of the Void to compete. Burn utilized Treasure Cruise for better advantage in the late game. Bogles was in a height at this time as well for its creature base and card selection of Life gain spells. And these are only a selection of cards, but each of the decks were weak to Chalice of the void in the early turns while pressured to win the game in the late game.

U Tron balanced the first few turns of the game with Chalice of the Void as decks became slower and tried to get around or even find time to just answer the card. This cleared the way for the game to transition into the late game where we were completely favored and had better inevitability than almost any other deck besides GR Tron, and guess what: Chalice of the Void was a complete house against them as well.
 
Come time after that, Treasure Cruise and Birthing Pod were banned. The format shook and Twin decks were the biggest foe to watch out for. U Tron in almost any interaction are just favored against Twin due to the ability to just close out the game and counter every single one of their spells, trading one-for-one in most cases. They weren’t able to cast more than one threat per turn, and U Tron never taps out. But Amulet Bloom, Tokens, Burn, and other decks came into fruition. Chalice of the Void just sucked in most cases, and Mono U Tron went back to the basis of Mana rocks to speed up both proactive and reactive threats to the format, while losing games against all of the faster decks present.
 

 
This was the downfall of Mono U Tron, so a new deck was set for my testing. I figured that UWR Control was going to be worth it to attempt as it has both ways to clean up any problematic creature and put up threats against other combo decks. It was just a powerful deck with means of putting up clocks, answering clocks, and ultimately winning most games in a plethora of burn spells and counterspells, while also deploying threats; All at the end of an opponent’s turn. The deck worked well, and had fair match ups against the entire field depending on how the deck was set up. Until people started using Tasigur, the Golden Fang. A card that was almost impossible to deal with in the early game without a Path to Exile, and then just became an outlet of card advantage that outclassed anything UWR was doing if left unanswered. Grixis Delver, Junk, Jund, Grixis Control, Grixis Twin, and other decks realized how powerful the card was. Those decks ultimately went from a fair 50-50 match up to a 45.-55 in their own favor, meaning that it would be more of a fight to win against these decks than anything.
   

I stopped playing UWR Control due to this reason, as I thought it was just an okay deck for PPTQs, Grand Prixs, and 5K Premier IQs. It was never going to be just a top tier deck in these turns without affecting matchups just for trying to fight Tasigur itself.
 
Then Dragons of Tarkir was released: It affected Modern in almost every angle, for every archetype. Tasigur, the Golden Fang was, by itself, a powerful card. Kolaghan’s Command paired with it was even more powerful. Collected Company decks also finally found strength in Elves, Naya, Junk, Bant, and other decks. The format began to settle. Delve cards were seen to be truly powerful and value creatures finally had the means of being utilized to their full power, at instant speed.
 

 
Supreme Verdict has proven its worth in the format. The ability to punish any deck without people knowing to respect it. I settled to try and play UW Control simply because of this card, and the value of almost every other card that Blue and White had to offer. Except, I came to realize with testing that there was no way to close out a game when control of it had already been established if a finisher wasn’t featured in the top 20 or so cards.
 
Right now, I think that any UW Control deck is just presented badly in the format with no real way to close out a game. The finishers in the UW base are slow at best, and require a lot of time to set up properly. That isn’t going to stop me from jamming Ojutai against most players and smash face. It just leaves me in a position to switch gears for some time with a control deck that has the reach and power to close out a game as fast as other decks. This is where, I think, Black is properly in the clear to close out games with cards such as Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Gurmag Angler.
 

UW Control decks are only existent because of one card: Supreme Verdict. Against Delver decks and the lack of Thrun, the Last Troll being present, this is the best wrath in the format to answer any creature-based strategy. Collected Company decks are also impossible to lose to once a single wrath resolves, and most decks have to play around in respect of this singular card.
 

Grixis Control is most likely the best control deck that Modern has due to both the reach and answers of Red and the best creatures to support both an aggressive and controlling game. The delve creatures have supported this theory with Patrick Chapin finishing 9th at Grand Prix Charlotte. If I had to play any control, I would settle on Grixis Control because of the different sets, answers, and the lack of ability to get flooded due to the number of lands played.
 

 
I will still continue to work on UW Control in smaller tournaments and practice, but it isn’t something I would take to any big tournament until I find means to both close out a game once I establish control and have more means to find finishers. This is where I miss Dig Through Time or desire a card like Ancestral Visions, but I don’t think I have any reason to talk about bannings as long as I find ways to play control in the format.

[Simping For Hina]

Sometimes the way to begin fresh in a format is to try something old. For most of the past while, since November, I have being playing control or reactive, blue-based decks. I found those decks to be fun and I have learned a lot about attacking the format from a different angel. Most of the losses with those decks were because of how games would play out, in the way the pilot made choices that affected the deck or maintaining control over the game. Each loss was pretty much to the fault of myself. But, then I got bored of them and the style got a little old. I wanted to switch to a deck that was almost completely different than reactive decks, which is why I chose Living End.

I thought Living End was the perfect deck to switch over to until I get bored and move on to another deck because it has the card draw of Control and the best Wrath of God in the format, 7-8 copies of it as well. The only thing that is different is, I don’t have to care about what the opponent is doing too much. Games will usually pan out with the opponent trying to pressure us as much as possible or they let me doing whatever I want without any means of stopping it. The deck is meant to revolve around the entire focus of Living End, hence the namesake of the deck. To be able to cast this card, Violent Outburst and Demonic Dread allow us to cast the card at different times of the game without having to suspend it.

That pretty much just means that I have to find ways to get creatures into the graveyard in the early turns of the game to set up ways for them to hit the field. That is where cards like Deadshot Minotaur, Jungle Weaver, Monstrous Carabid, Pale Recluse, Architect of Will, and Street Wraith all come from. Just to pay a Cycling cost, and these cards are ready to come from the graveyard and completely devastate the opponent.

The second purpose of the game is to play a Land Destruction game with the powers of Fulminator Mage, Avalanche Riders, and Beast Within. The best possible means of this is to be aggressive with these cards to throw the opponent off of what they are capable of casting, while also having the ability to get these cards back from the grave with Living End so that they can do double work as a threat or to be able to get a second activation of the cards, throwing the opponent off even more. Beast Within is a different story since it is an instant, but it provides a blocker to be able to cast Demonic Dread, and I don’t have to worry too much about that 3/3 Beast Token since all of these creatures are bigger than it and it just dies to Living End.

As it is straightforward, there is no real wrong way to play this deck. Most of the early turns are going to be set up for Living End by cycling creatures without worry for what the opponent is trying to accomplish. The best cyclers are those that are cheap to cycle or provide resiliency other the points of the game as they are harder to deal with, with the most utilized spot removal present. Pale Recluse is one of the better cards to cycle against certain decks as it is a play around Blood Moon and doesn’t take damage that fetchlands do take.

The best play with this deck is to be aggressive with cyclers, land destruction, and overall Living Ends when against faster decks, as going over the top when they cannot keep up. This is the proper way to beat Burn, Infect, and other hyper aggressive decks that can win the game out of nowhere. Using Violent Outburst reactively is something that becomes more relevant than not when “combo” decks go off and take action.

Against decks that like to grind the game out and try to gain an advantage over the long term of the game, I usually end up following the same game plan. Take off with a later Living End then begin casting creatures as there is usually nothing else to complete.

I see this deck as a fine choice to compete with as long as you know when to “go off” and how to respond to certain things. Test different scenarios with this deck to determine the right line of course over a variety of games, as many things are never certain. Because this deck doesn’t go off and win most of the time, a lot of matchups aren’t as straightforward to play as they should be. But that is the fun about Modern, learning how to play the deck and then learning how to play the deck against other decks that exist. That is the best situation whenever trying to play a new deck, as there are many different lines to play and some aren’t as rewarding as others.

 

 

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Recently, it has been all around that Grixis Control is the forerunner for control in the format. Gurmag Angler and Tasigur allow for the deck to attack from different angles and close out games faster than normal for control decks. Every deck in Modern is trying to do something powerful, which is why forcing the game to go long and allow for players to gather up resources is not prioritized.

One of the great things about Modern, though, is the variance in both metagame and players, as each is trying to do something as over the top as possible against fair and unfair decks. I figured that playing UW Control was a powerful means to do so as it has the best removal in the form of Path to Exile and a powerful finisher in Dragonlord Ojutai, with some of the best permission spells that Modern has to offer. In this decklist, we are able to go over the top against the fair decks of the format with Dragonlord Ojutai, Sphinx’s Revelation, and Gideon Jura. Against the unfair decks of the format, cards such as Dispel, Shadow of Doubt, and Spell Snare do most of the work to clean up those matches and hedge against other problematic cards that shore up in a variety of matchups.

The point of this control deck is to seemingly trade 1-for-1 with each problematic card that rears its ugly head and then being able to capitalize on the opponent running out of resources in the late game as our cards become much better and get more value than just trading 1-for-1. Many forms of UW Control aren’t made to trade 1-for-1 against certain decks. Instead, those decks use value cards and creatures to gain an overall advantage the longer the game progresses. That formula is powerful when the metagame is more solved, as fairer decks would make their way to the top tables and Abzan is the king of grinding instead of Jund being present as much as it is.

I chose a different route for the deck due to how much variance is present in most unknown metagames, as being able to answer a multitude of different manners of playing is more important than fighting against a specific strategy.

At this deck’s core, this is a pure control deck with a reasonable means of closing out the game and having a variety of answers to attack a variety of strategies. One thing the deck lacks is proper card selection, but it isn’t needed as much as each card in its own means is able to get value in different situations, and the end game of this deck is stronger than most others.

 

 

I have to admit: The deck has a horrible matchup against Burn because of their efficient spells costing only one mana plenty of them time, and our means of countering them cost more. Spell Snare is probably the best card in the deck against them as their more important spells do cost two. When I was playing Mono U Tron, some of the games were just locked out when I was able to put Chalice of the Void on two and use all of my other spells to deal with theirs. The same concept is applied here, but Chalice of the Void would also lock us out of casting some of our better pay of spells. Instead, Timely Reinforcements and Kitchen Finks are set up to both help stabilize against many faster decks, while also provide a means to put pressure on the opponent early on. Timely Reinforcements can just help win a game against burn, as gaining 6 life could easily hinder a Burn player. Timely Reinforcements plus Snapcaster Mage means that it only acts as a weaker life gain spell by the time this situation is relevant, but Snapcaster Mage does allow to be a blocker and a threat. Kitchen Finks plus Restoration Angel is easily enough to close out a game against burn with relative ease.

But the matchups that are exploding around Modern are those against certain Grixis builds (Delver, Twin, Control.), Jund, Affinity, Burn and Tron still taking form at the upper tables, beating down Collected Company and Jund decks easily. This deck has gone up with different iterations, making for certain matchups to be better than others.

When I began testing this deck, I had the following build:

 

 

The problem was that I was attempting to be too controlling with this version of the deck, which isn’t appropriate to attempt at the moment with no way to continuously plow through the deck as the game goes long, so stalling out the game isn’t always an option. Surely Snapcaster Mage does have an Ambush Viper mode, but pinging the opponent for 2 every turn isn’t fast enough to stop the opponent from doing powerful things. It was also impossible to start a fight against other, faster decks. This is a powerful build, no doubt, but it is only powerful when people play fair; In Modern, that is almost impossible to see consistently. So I put this deck through a different iterations, trying to figure out a proper build or core to continue to work on.

I had to increase the number of threats in this deck so that it was possible to stabilize against hyper aggressive decks and still be able to put a clock on them afterwards. I eventually took out a Snapcaster Mage for Restoration Angel and put in cards such as Aven Mindcensor and Vendilion Clique to help against Amulet Bloom, Grishoalbrand, GR Tron. This still didn’t help against Burn, but it was still fitting to have a clock in certain mirror matches. Kitchen Finks came to mind simply because it applies the same amount of pressure against these decks, and shores up the Burn matchup quite well. Kitchen Finks also helped against Grixis Delver, Grixis Control, and Jund as a way to put pressure on them and blank removal spells early on.

It wasn’t efficient against Twin, though. The best game plan I have against Twin is to play reactively in most situations, while trying to figure out when to start a fight over something. Their proper out to the winning the game against us is to set up the combo in the late game when both resources are depleted. This is it is a better arrangement to start fights when the opponent can’t. Sometimes it is fine to get aggressive in the early turns with Snapcaster Mages and Mutavaults as their plan is to hit land drops and sculpt a proper hand for the later game. Usually resources such as Lightning Bolts and Roasts will come out for sideboarding, turning our beaters into more efficient houses in the early parts of the game. Casting beaters on their end step is an extremely powerful move and forcing the opponent to have the combo as their last resource sets the game in our court without too much straining on our resources later into the game.

This is when I came to this, the most current build of the deck and the one I think is set up for the current meta:

 

 

Silumgar’s Scorn is a card that I continue to enjoy casting as it catches people off guard, and it is almost always better than Mana Leak. It is the only card that properly stands out from other UW builds, but also part of the reason that I continue to the play this sort of deck. With Dragonlord Ojutai and Mutavault, it has the means of being the best counterspell variant in the format alongside Logic Knot. I honestly am not pleased with Mana Leak in the format unless I am play Delver or other tempo-based decks.

But as I venture forward with this deck, I believe that it will only become stronger in terms of playing. It isn’t an easy deck to play by any means, and knowing how to play certain matchups is why the deck has the ability to be strong. There are times to start fights and there are times to stop fights, and each moment is not clear until you figure out how to close out the game.

Dragonlord Ojutai does continue to be my favorite beater and finisher for control decks, as it is strong when cast and incredibly impossible to deal with. Minamo, School at Water’s Edge makes it even harder to answer. This becomes relevant on multiple occasions against cards such as Dismember and other removal spells. If this card gets resolved against other grindy decks and is able to connect, there is almost no means to losing the game. And with 4 toughness, it is still just able to block continuously until the favor of the game turns around for the control player.

To build and play this deck requires theorizing and testing out those theories, and trying anything new in Modern requires just that. The manner of the deck is up to the pilot in any instance, and there are numeral ways to construct the deck. I think the best way to do so is to work on a player’s strength and understand how to play the game. I am not one to try and tap out on my turn, and I rather start a fight of counter magic or disruption spells on my own term, getting value in the game later than early. The first few turns are to just hit land drops and and to slow down any threats from the opponent that could cause me to lose the game quickly if unanswered. Which is why I chose to build the deck in such a manner that I had cheap spells to slow the opponent down and have enough pay off spells in the late game that give me the opportunity to win.