Think of a card, any card.

A Magic card, I mean. Not the Queen of Hearts or Team Rocket’s Charizard.

That was printed in the last eight years, to be precise.

And most importantly—that you absolutely loved playing in Constructed. Every time you cast it was like waking up on Christmas day as a small child and seeing a huge sack of presents at the end of your bed.

Got one?

Write it down, along with a couple of close runners up.

Now, post this on the Facebook wall of your five best friends scroll down…

…

…

…

So here’s the deal: Wizards of the Coast have given us a format called Modern. And while it might at first glance appear to be largely filled with Jund, Tron, Affinity, Melira Pod, and Twin Combo decks…

… It’s also the place where you can play those cards you just wrote down.

The cards that you love.

I’m not joking!

Modern is quite possibly the most wonderfully diverse format I’ve played since I started with tournament Magic way back in mid-2007. No deck takes up more than about 10% of the meta, and during the Swiss portion of a PTQ it’s likely you’ll play against X-1 different archetypes, where X is the number of Swiss rounds.

There’s more to it than just this diversity, though; often in Standard you’ll play against a range of different decks at an event, but some of them, while cute and fun for the pilot, are just bad and will never win anything. This isn’t necessarily the case in Modern. While there’s a strong argument that you should just always do the most powerful (and usually linear) thing you can do given the card pool, if this season’s results are anything to go by, this is not strictly necessary if you want to succeed at both earning match points and having fun in your next event.

Thus we move on to the decklists. The following all earned themselves a “place” finish in a Modern tournament of note, mostly PTQs, in the last four months. Some of them even won blue envelopes. All are a fair way “off the radar” and certainly wouldn’t have been in your Modern gauntlet if you take the whole “testing” thing seriously.

They probably aren’t quite as good in a vacuum as your Junds, Trons, and Affinities, but they will offer the element of surprise, and your opponent may not have a good plan or sideboard cards for you. Besides, if you were attracted to read this article by the words “rogue” and “decklists,” you’re probably well-versed in taking such risks right?

Most importantly though, they offer the chance to play with some of your favorite cards from yesteryear without having to play a deck that has no chance to win. Now is an especially good time to do so, as while PTQ season might be over, Modern events are still being run in stores and alongside GPs (case in point: 300 Euro Modern championship on Sunday at GP Manchester), which may be a slightly less-intense environment to try something a little different.

The decks have been sorted into very broad and hand-wavy archetypes, so you can skip straight to the section that suits your play style/type of pet card best. Some of the classifications you may not completely agree with (or are just plain wrong), but if that’s going to cause problems, I invite you to wade through over 800 decklists to find the diamonds in the rough yourself! 😉

Control

Decks that usually kill/stop/trade with lots of things and take ages to win.

Grixis Control

For lovers of: Cruel Ultimatum, Cryptic Command, Sorin Markov

Who would’ve thought Jace’s Ingenuity was Modern playable? Zaiem Beg wasn’t afraid to give it a go; his deck also featured a singleton Sorin Markov, miniature Trinket Mage suite, and the two Cruel Ultimatum to finish. A more ambitious (Vivid Land!) mana base could allow this deck to stretch into white for Esper Charm and alternative removal options.

U/B Teachings

For lovers of: Mystical Teachings, Skinrender, Creeping Tar Pit

When Modern was announced, many people were excited to play Mystical Teachings again (usually in Esper colors), but it quickly fell out of favor. Suzume revives the archetype in a straight two-color deck, with some interesting card choices including a pair of Skinrender and a split of Mana Leak and Remand where most players would opt for the full set of Leaks. I’d be tempted to squeeze a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir in somewhere and add an Academy Ruins to the mana base to recur sideboard options such as Engineered Explosives and Wurmcoil Engine.

U/W Control

For lovers of: Wall of Omens, Wrath of God, Sun Titan

A classic control deck from JB2002, who chooses Wall of Omens and Sun Titan over the Squadron Hawk plus Swords plan the more prevalent Caw-Blade decks have been using. Threads of Disloyalty and Ratchet Bomb from the sideboard in combination with the Sun Titan’s maindeck seem like this deck would be nigh unbeatable against aggro. Where’s the Baneslayer though? 🙁

Next Level Blue

For lovers of: Engineered Explosives for four, Ajani Vengeant, Desperate Ravings

A spicy one here from Sam Turner-Lynch; I did not expect to see Desperate Ravings outside of a (quite unusual) Storm deck in Modern! Going the full four colors does prevent you from using any manlands though; it may be possible to trim it back down to just RUG and have a Raging Ravine or two in there. Possibly a great home for Huntmaster of the Fells, too.

Demigod Control

For lovers of: Demigod of Revenge, Forbidden Alchemy, Rune Snag

Truckis barely squeaked onto the decklist page for this Magic Online PTQ, with something vaguely reminiscent of Nick Spagnolo U/R Demigod deck from pre-Modern Extended. Forbidden Alchemy serves double duty here, both drawing cards and getting Demigods in the bin to return later. Winning a game after getting Surgical Extraction cast against you must be pretty rough, though.

Coalition Control

For lovers of: Lauren Lee  Mulldrifter, Coalition Relic, Gifts Ungiven for value

Doug Linn made Top 8 at a $500 “Modern Warfare” tournament with this U/B/R/g control deck, held together by the mana fixing and acceleration provided by a full set of Coalition Relic. The Venser’s Journal and four Tarmogoyf in the sideboard are beautiful, though with a decent creature count I’d be quite tempted to try a Soul Manipulation somewhere. I’m a total sucker for that card, by the way.

Four-Color Bloodbraid Control

For lovers of: Bant Charm, Glen Elendra Archmage, non-aggro non-combo Bloodbraid Elf

Henry Romero offers this fun, planeswalker-filled, and more green than black take on the old “Four-Color Blood” decks, less the Cryptic Commands. Bloodbraid Elf into Jace Beleren is more value than you can shake a stick at and is even possible on turn 3! These days though, I don’t think the full complement of Mindbreak Trap is necessary in the sideboard, as Storm isn’t as big as it was earlier in the year.

Super Friends

For lovers of: Elspeth, Knight Errant, Gideon Jura, Plumeveil

Obviously Daniel Levy’s deck needs some changes (this list has some cards that are now banned in it), but I find it hard not to love this kind of deck (I qualified for Nationals with it when it was Standard legal, didn’t you know?). Any time you have more than one planeswalker on the board at the beginning of your turn you feel invincible, though the combo matchups are probably quite rough.

Aggro

Turn all your creatures sideways…

YOU’RE IN THE RED ZONE!

YEAAAAAH!

*guitar solo*

*fireworks*

*F18 Squadron flyby*

Worth noting here: many of these decks would be significantly less viable if Wild Nacatl was still legal, and traditional Zoo was the clearly best aggressive deck. Great banning IMO.

Four-Color Infect 

For lovers of: Blighted Agent, Plague Stinger, Might of Old Krosa

Black_Generation’s Infect is almost a combo deck, with the combo being an unblocked attacker, a couple of cheap pump spells, and praying your opponent doesn’t have a removal spell. Simian Spirit Guide can speed you up by a turn, though I’m not sure if Serum Visions is better than Sleight of Hand in the digging/card-filtering slots. Remember the Swamp whenever you bring in Phyrexian Crusader.

Bant Aggro

For lovers of: Noble Hierarch, Knight of the Reliquary, Geist of Saint Traft

Jeff_Stewart made a Top 16 online with this list, which has the full four Geist of Saint Traft (a deadly proposition cast turn 2 off a Noble Hierarch) and devotes eight slots to a Gifts/Rites package with Iona and Elesh Norn. It’s a change from the Sovereigns of Lost Alara / Eldrazi Conscription these decks usually play I guess, and it must be a beating against Tron thanks to Realm Razer in the board.

Mono-White Puresteel

For lovers of: Puresteel Paladin, Mortarpod, Flickerwisp

Mask of Memory?! Specter’s Shroud?! I’m not going to lie; I’d never seen those cards before I came upon jrk264’s list. This looks fun though when you get the Paladin going, and the rest of the deck is very Death and Taxes like with Mangara / Flickerwisp and Ghost Quarter / Tectonic Edge in combination with Aven Mindcensor and Leonin Arbiter to constrain your opponent’s mana. Ignoring the two Swords in the board, it’s also extremely budget friendly.

G/W Aggro

For lovers of: Vengevine and Squadron Hawk in the same deck, Fauna Shaman

No nonsense here from Brad Ruxton, just some solid aggressive creatures, a small and sensible set of bullets to Tutor for with Fauna Shaman, and a Steelshaper’s Gift to effectively give two copies of the three equipment. I’m not sure if the second (highly unexpected) Sejiri Steppe or an Arena in the sideboard would be too greedy, but that’s the kind of thing I’d do. Where’s Thalia, by the way?

Doran

For lovers of: Treefolk Harbinger for Doran, the Siege Tower

A loss in the finals for Tyke Pope, with this list quite possibly inspired by Kibler and friends’ Treehouse deck from PT Amsterdam. I’d be interested to know why he chose only three Doran and Harbinger though, as it seems like you’d want the full four of the cards that enable your best draws.

Boros

For lovers of: Plated Geopede, Steppe Lynx, Figure of Destiny

Brozek-style Boros from Scott Hoppe, who uses Boros Garrison to provide repeated landfall rather than the more all-in Flagstones of Trokair / Ghost Quarter mana base we’ve seen in the past. Figure of Destiny, Grim Lavamancer, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant give long game potential.

R/W/B Aggro

For lovers of: Tidehollow Sculler, Phyrexian Arena, Lightning Helix

A nice non-Jund use of Bob Maher here from Steven Bruce, which illustrates something I like about Modern—cards that were never in Standard together being used in a new archetype. Between the discard, extraction effects and four Hide / Seek, I imagine this deck has a superb matchup against Tron.

G/B Aggro

For lovers of: Strangleroot Geist, Profane Command, Garruk Wildspeaker

Jun.I offers five discard spells, some removal, and some guys including Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant. It’s kind of a non-Jund Jund deck, minus Bloodbraid Elf but with more manlands.

Big Zoo

For lovers of: Bloodbraid Elf cascading into Boom / Bust, choosing Bust

Very similar to the Boom / Bust Zoo decks played in pre-Modern Extended; going a little bigger has more appeal now Wild Nacatl is banned. Sascha_S has a very streamlined list here. I like it!

Kithkin —

For Cedric Phillips and other lovers of Knight of Meadowgrain and Wizened Cenn

CoreySMann’s Top 16 finish online with this deck was actually the inspiration for this article. In a time when other people are doing totally bonkers things, he made what is almost a Block deck work for him. Respect. No Mirrorweave shenanigans here, though the two red sources maindeck do allow for Blood Moon out of the sideboard, which must have stolen many a game.

G/B Smallpox

For lovers of: Smallpox, Kitchen Finks, Victim of Night

Plat is more controlling and discard-heavy than the other G/B deck above with six B discard spells, four Smallpox, and four Liliana of the Veil. I like the choice of removal spell in Victim of Night, as what that is seeing play in Modern right now does this not kill?

W/B Tokens

For lovers of: Spectral Procession, Zealous Persecution, Tidehollow Sculler

Grupper’s deck is more controlling than other Tokens builds, with plenty of discard and Liliana of the Veil as the main planeswalker over the more commonly played Ajani Goldmane or Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.

W/G Tokens

For lovers of: Intangible Virtue, Spectral Procession, Raise the Alarm

Bobby Oleksy qualified himself for Barcelona with this deck, which is mono-white save the Gavony Township activation cost and two Gaddock Teeg in the sideboard chock full of pinpoint hate cards. The total lack of planeswalkers (and only two Honor of the Pure) seems unusual, but it clearly worked well for him.

Aggro Elves

For lovers of: Imperious Perfect, Joraga Warcaller, Lead the Stampede

This deck from Santangelo Francesco “only” made Top 8 of a GPT but still shows some promise in the archetype—just look at how many Lords he’s playing! The deck is obviously quite weak to sweepers though, hence the inclusion of Fresh Meat in the sideboard, allowing him to overextend into Wrath of God with impunity.

Goblins 

For lovers of: Mogg Fanatic, Mogg War Marshal

Another tribal deck, this time little red men, which allowed James Million to best a hundred other players in a PTQ Top 8. I was expecting it to be R/B rather than R/W for some of the Lorwyn Goblins, which it actually only has two of. The Mogg Fanatic / Goblin Arsonist split seems wrong at first given that Fanatic can no longer trade with an X/2, however killing Delvers, Vendilion Clique, etc. on command is probably more important.

Mythic Conscription

For lovers of: Lotus Cobra, Sovereigns of Lost Alara into Eldrazi Conscription

Jake Miller took this old Standard favorite to a PTQ finals appearance—the maindeck is largely the same as it was back then, though with vastly superior mana and Mirran Crusader and Inkmoth Nexus enabling true one-hit kills.

White Weenie

For Evan Erwin and other lovers of Serra Avenger and Isamaru, Hound of Konda

Jason Simard here with another budget-friendly deck featuring the mono-white land-restriction package (as in the Puresteel deck above), only with a slightly different set of beaters. I was surprised to see no Aether Vial present, but the Harm’s Way seems like a fun way of catching your opponent out. I wonder whether there’s a similar deck that also uses taxing counters (Mana Tithe, or splashing for Mana Leak).

R/B Vampires

For lovers of: Bloodghast, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Stromkirk Noble

Another tribal deck, though this one is using more recent cards. Zendikar was never in Standard alongside Innistrad, but Citon’s ML Trial deck shows promise when Vampires from these respective sets are combined.

Mono-Green Jinxed Idol

For lovers of: Jinxed Idol, Strangleroot Geist, Gluttonous Slime

No, this deck name is not a joke! Like Vampires above, this deck from Canabiest placed in only a ML trial, but it wonderfully uses the interaction of Jinxed Idol and devour with undying and persist creatures. It’s reasonably budget-friendly to boot. Look out for more green/splashable undying creatures in Avacyn Restored that could help this out.

Aggro-Control (Tempo)

Drew, Ari, and co. are probably going to hunt me down for my misclassification here, but… I basically put decks here that win with smallish creatures while messing with what the opponent is trying to do in a big way. These most often feature Delver of Secrets, but some are outside of the usual U/W/R color-combination most played (including by me) this season in Modern.

Mono-Blue (Flores) Delver

For lovers of: Michael J, Delver of Secrets, Vedalken Shackles

This deck from Matt Westbrook is clearly inspired by this one from our own Mike Flores. The sideboard lacking Ratchet Bomb may be a weakness though, and I’m not sure what the Mindshrieker is for—mising Eldrazi on top against Tron?!

U/R Delver

For lovers of: Goblin Guide, Magma Jet, Gitaxian Probe

Between Probe and Guide triggers in stevenx01’s deck, you should know what’s in your opponent’s hand at all times, ideally letting you play your burn and counterspells optimally. I wonder if a Runechanter’s Pike might be good here, and the idea of playing Cryptic Command and Goblin Guide in the same deck tickles me even though it’s probably an awful idea.

Grixis Delver

For lovers of: Blightning, Sedraxis Specter, Magma Jet

Daniel Sale’s deck gains card draw in Dark Confidant and a manland in Creeping Tar Pit while also swapping some counterspells for discard with the addition of black to a U/R Delver shell.

Merfolk

For lovers of: SIlvergill Adept, Lord of Atlantis, Aether Vial

Initially hyped up when Modern was announced, while this has all the same creatures as the Legacy version the lack of free counterspells in Modern seems to have put a lot of people off and weakened the archetype. Alloran found some success with it though, and I’d consider splashing white or black for some removal, which is easy given the lands available in Modern.

G/R Land Destruction

For lovers of: Molten Rain, Goblin Ruinblaster, Boggart Ram-Gang

Adam Hodge’s SCG IQ deck has a simple plan: play one-drop acceleration, then play land destruction spells and hasty guys. Worth considering for an update of this deck: Darwin Kastle  Avalanche Riders (#beexcellent), Fulminator Mage.

Mono Black

For lovers of: Bloodghast, Geralf’s Messenger, Smallpox

A brutal amount of discard in this PTQ Top 8 deck from Michael Diezel, which is also probably the best home for Phyrexian Obliterator in Modern. Worth considering when it comes to this kind of deck that I saw in some similar lists from lesser events—Phyrexian Arena as Dark Confidants five and six and Vampire Nighthawk almost always as a four-of between maindeck and sideboard.

COMBO

Typically, decks that can lose to a couple of well-placed counterspells or a protected hate card but win in only a few turns otherwise using just one or two cards. Does combo even exist? Or is it just an extreme version of another archetype? I surely can’t tell you that, but these decks sure feel like it’s real!

Hive Mind

For lovers of: Pentad Prism, Seething Song, Pact of the Titan

Tmoney846’s deck may not have the two-mana producing lands and free counterspells of the Legacy version, but the acceleration available in Modern still enables turn 3 or 4 kills and placed him in a Magic Online PTQ.

Ad Nauseam

For lovers of: Ad Nauseam, Simian Spirit Guide, Conflagrate

Similar to one of the “hot” decks from PT Amsterdam Extended, Larry Wellington’s deck uses Angel’s Grace or new addition Phyrexian Unlife to allow Ad Nauseam to draw your entire deck before killing with Conflagrate or Lightning Storm. Mystical Teachings allows you to Tutor for a missing combo piece or one of the many one-of sideboard cards.

U/W/R Pyromancer Ascension

For lovers of: Pyromancer Ascension, Isochron Scepter, Desperate Ravings

A different color combination and approach to the usual Storm based Ascension decks here from MaksymG—no Storm cards, but a much more “grindy” plan. I wonder if Silence was a consideration at all for the combo with Scepter?

Mono-Red Storm

For lovers of: Goblin Lore, Burning Inquiry, Grapeshot

Again, a different approach to a known archetype, this one from Dan Gushen. He eschews the blue card draw/filtering for the graveyard-filling red equivalents and then maxes out on Rituals, Past in Flames, and Grapeshot. If you’re going to run the Snow mana base, though, can you not sneak in a Scrying Sheets and/or Mouth of Ronom?

U/W/R Tokens

For lovers of: casually Polymorphing Spectral Procession tokens into Emrakul

I really like this one from Manabogged; creating three tokens with Spectral Procession or Timely Reinforcements allows you to turn on Windbrisk Heights to cast Emrakul or Polymorph into it, but failing that you can just Through the Breach them too! Pentad Prism allows you to Breach a couple turns faster, while Serum Visions finds any missing pieces.

Tooth and Nail

For lovers of: Tron lands, Primeval Titan, Oracle of Mul Daya

This list by Curtis Wind comes pre-Charles Gindy G/R Tron deck, which seems much better. However, if you really love casting Tooth and Nail that much, this is the one for you. Emrakul / Flame-Kin Zealot is the kill of choice in case you mulligan to one and your opponent Duresses you; they might think you are on Dredge (you can actually cast Emrakul if necessary, and it’s less fragile than Kiki/Exarch).

Dredgevine

For lovers of: Hedron Crab, Vengevine, Stinkweed Imp

This is the rare aggro-combo deck, I guess? Still filed under combo as that’s where everything that dies to Relic of Progenitus lives isn’t it? Matej Zatlkaj (one of my favorite pros when I started playing) took this as far as a PTQ finals, with the best Gnaw to the Bones (not even close) you’ll ever see in Constructed.

Combo Elves

For lovers of: Nettle Sentinel, Heritage Druid, Summoner’s Pact

A non-agro Elves deck this time from pankill, who placed in a ML Trial with it. The deck uses Cloudstone Curio to set up loops to generate infinite mana or draw your entire deck (Mentor of the Meek subbing in for the banned Glimpse of Nature) before casting Emrakul for the win. Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender sideboard is essential to prevent the deck rolling over and dying to Pyroclasm effects.

Protean Hulk Combo

For lovers of: Through the Breaching things other than Eldrazi

Eight now-banned cards here in DPS’s list, so swap them for Sleight of Hand and Serum Visions for starters. This deck uses the kill of: Protean Hulk fetching Body Double (copy Hulk) and Viscera Seer, sac Doubled Hulk to Seer, get Reveillark and Mogg Fanatic, which is then infinitely recurred for the win. As a more bulky alternative, you could also fetch four Dryad Arbor, four Hedron Crab, and two Sakura Tribe Elder for a mill victory. However, Hulk is soft to commonly played Path to Exile, which is annoying. Given the deck already packs several Pacts, card filtering, and acceleration, I wonder if it could board into Hive Mind?

Reanimator

For lovers of: Instant speed turn 3 Jin-Gitaxias with Dispel backup

A couple cards missing from Jordan Mattox’s Modern Warfare deck, possibly Makeshift Mannequins as extra instant speed reanimation? This is much a Modern version of the once-popular Legacy deck—make your opponent discard their counterspells, discard a huge creature yourself, then Reanimate it on the cheap. This deck only includes two targets to return, but it could quite easily play a range and potentially splash Time of Need to Tutor them out.

Cascade Swans 

For lovers of: Captured Sunlight, Treasure Hunt, Swans of Bryn Argoll

Pretty much the old Standard deck here from Antonio Vega—cascade/hunt into a Seismic Assault and a Swans and then proceed to draw cards by shooting Swans with Dakmor Salvage into you have enough lands in hand to kill them. Emrakul lets you go through your whole deck multiple times if necessary. Zero card sideboard, what a hero!

U/W/B Polymorph 

For lovers of: Raise the Alarm, Promise of Bunrei, Polymorph

Standard superstar Lingering Souls finds a great home in Gabe Guenley’s deck, which has seven Anthem effects to buff his many sources of tokens, which can be cashed in at any time for an Emrakul via Polymorph. A good deck in my mind because it has a very realistic way of winning the game if its combo card is not found.

Sunny Side Up (Eggs)  

For Dan Royde and other lovers of: Second Sunrise, boring your opponent to death

Eggs is a very difficult deck to pilot, and if you intend on playing it, you need to practice with it a lot beforehand. That being said, if you have it can perform very well, such as it did for Frederico Bastos. The deck is explained quite thoroughly by Ari Lax here, but in summary: it offers potential turn 3 or 4 kills, can be completely dead to extraction effects, and takes a fair number of game actions to kill on your winning turn—but you have to be able to do it (and in a reasonable time frame) if your opponent doesn’t just scoop.

Mill / Sanity Grinding

An honorable mention here for a deck I really wanted to see someone make work. You’d have thought with eight Boomerangs (thanks to Eye of Nowhere, often one of the best cards in the Standard Sanity Grinding deck) and both Snapcaster Mage and Twincast to get you extra Grindings (or Archive Trap / Glimpse the Unthinkable) plus Nephalia Drownyard being easily splashable, there would be a mill deck somewhere. Alas, this was not the case, and the metagame is extremely hostile towards this right now, with a lot of Tron decks playing multiple Eldrazi you simply can’t beat. Maybe one day if this is not the case, though, it may have a chance…

Finally: Three Decks My Friends Have Played

Having shown you a range of rogue decks from all archetypes that have done well in the hands of people I don’t know, I wanted to finish a little closer to home by showing off three of the successful rogue decks my friends have played this season.

“Creatures Are The New Spells”

For lovers of: Reveillark, Sages of the Anima, Shriekmaw

Cameron Simmonds alerted me to this number, played by noted survivor-of-Australia Paul Richardson, to a Top 8 finish at a 100+ player side event during the GP Lille weekend. It’s a Modern version of an old Standard deck he used to play several years back—which thanks to containing only creatures and lands lets him use Ancient Ziggurat as a restriction-free five-color land, punish only his opponents with Thalia, and play combinations of mana costs most decks wouldn’t be able to pay consistently. Reveillark allows him to quickly recover from any mass removal, while all the one-of bullets are Tutorable with Fauna Shaman. The sideboard is also the first time I’ve ever seen Plated Pegasus; who knew that card existed?!

R/W Planeswalker Control

For lovers of: Ajani Vengeant, Wrath of God, Faith’s Fetters

I’ve known Crispin Bateman to be a staunchly against “net decking” for years now; he always plays something of his own design and often to great success—from ~40 lands in Time Spiral-Lorwyn Standard to “Angry Avatar” in Legacy (a R/B/W deck featuring plays such as turn 1: Dark Ritual into Avatar of Discord, discarding Anger). This Modern season has been no exception, as he’s been working on this R/W Planeswalker Control deck.

Crispin says:  “The deck wrecks aggro decks for obvious reasons and does pretty well against most of the field due to maindeck Blood Moon. Torpor Orb shuts down Splinter Twin and Melira decks, the latter of which becomes just aggro against me (which I win). Counterspells are the biggest problem, as it’s hard to play around them when you are trying to play five-to-seven mana cards.

I tend to lose against dedicated counter decks (or force a long, slow draw) unless I get lucky. I beat the burn decks mainly due to my maindeck lifegain, but there’s a bit of luck involved. I lost to one last tournament because I stretched out a Wrath rather than dropping Ajani and gaining three life. Ooops. Play errors kill me more often than the deck!

I came second in our Modern league with it, losing really only to the counterspell decks which I got much better against once I maindecked Blood Moon. And it’s SO FUN to play.”

In reference to the counterspell problem, I suggested Luminarch Ascension—but unfortunately there just wouldn’t be any room for it in the current sideboard!

R/G Snow Ramp

For lovers of: Skred, Primal Command, Wall of Roots

Finally, my favorite of these last three decks from Jason Welsh, who lost two PTQ win-and-ins and one a GPT with this list. It’s an update of the Time Spiral-era Snow Ramp deck you may remember the original SCG grinder, Chris Woltereck, a more aggressive version. I learned to play it under Jason’s tutelage:

Back then, the plan was to use Sulfurous Blast and Skred to control the board until you Tutored up your game-winning creature for the particular matchup with Primal Command and then won easily (Bogardan Hellkite against Elves / Kithkin, Akroma, Angel of Fury against blue based control, Cloudthresher against Fae, Detritivore against 5CC, etc.). Now in Modern, the plan is much the same—I’ll let Jason explain the intricacies of the deck a little more though:

“We were expecting lots of small creatures, particularly from the Delver decks, but couldn’t expect to hit double red on turn 3, so Firespout was the sweeper of choice. Eternal Witness was the real breakthrough in the deck, filling a very similar role to Snapcaster Mage in blue-based decks with the added bonus of getting back toolbox creatures. Burning-Tree Shaman is in there for Splinter Twin and also trades with Liliana of the Veil from Jund decks, which can be huge.

I’ve also been asked a lot about Beast Within and how bad the downside can be. For this deck it’s often not a problem at all as we play Wall of Roots, Firespout, and Obstinate Baloth to deal with the token one way or another.

We were surprised how many times we managed to steal wins with eight mana and a Primal Command after a board-clearing Firespout. You Command to search out Witness and put a land on top of their library, then play Witness to get Command back. They draw the land, you do the same again, basically take four extra turns and make another Witness each time. By the time they draw a new card you’ve done them eighteen damage with Witness attacks and played Inferno Titan for 21 damage. It doesn’t happen too often, but it’s a fine way to win when they’re in top deck mode.

Creature/burn matchups tend to be very easy. They make guys, you make a bigger guy and kill them. Often, gaining seven life and searching for Wurmcoil Engine or Inferno Titan is enough to seal the deal.

Storm is awful if they are killing with Grapeshot rather than Empty the Warrens. The only real way to beat them is hope they’re a little slow then EOT Beast Within a land, untap and Primal Command another land, and search for Lodestone Golem. This should buy you the turn you need to play Golem, but it’s hardly reliable.

U/W Tron is hard to beat if they’ve got Remand, as an early one sets us back a lot. That said, Grab the Reins in the board does mean they can’t safely tap out for a Wurmcoil or Ulamog unless they do so very quickly. G/R Tron is a lot simpler as we have Beast Within for their Karns and Grab the Reins for their Wurmcoils, but it’s still in their favor. We basically die to Emrakul!

I think the deck has a future as long as people continue to play lots of little creatures, but I honestly think you need a very good reason to not play Gifts Ungiven and Unburial Rites alongside a powerful linear strategy. If Gifts gets banned before the next PTQ season I may well update this deck again; if not I’ll be playing it myself.”

I hope you’ve all enjoyed this tour of Modern’s sights less seen and are inspired to try something a little different next time you play the format. And who knows? Maybe there’s a card or two in Avacyn Restored that you can bring into one of the above fringe decks up to tier 1 with…

Dan Barrett

@dangerawesome

danskate [AT] gmail