Brewing An Aggro-Control Deck In Modern

Today I’ve got a bit of a treat for you, though it didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d planned. Instead of taking an established deck and doing a “decktech” on it, I’m going to do a deckbuilding exercise before a Daily Event and run whatever concoction I come up with.

Whenever I’m brewing for a format, I try to figure out what I’m trying to accomplish before I put a deck into motion. I know that I want a way to disrupt combo decks, but I also want a decent amount of pressure to put it to the control decks. Card advantage is also a must, since card selection cards like Preordain and Ponder don’t really exist. I would rather refrain from playing too many Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand if I can help it.

Today I want to build an aggro-control deck (shocker, I know), featuring aggressive, cheap threats backed with a decent amount of countermagic, a bit of removal, and a few creatures to gain us a bit of an advantage in the mid-game.

Here is the list we ended up with:

Esper Tempo

Todd Anderson

Test deck on 01-08-2012

Modern

Creatures (20)

• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Ethersworn Canonist
• 4 Phantasmal Bear
• 4 Diregraf Ghoul
• 4 Snapcaster Mage

Lands (21)

• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Watery Grave
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Marsh Flats
• 2 Verdant Catacombs
• 3 Creeping Tar Pit
• 3 Seachrome Coast
• 3 Darkslick Shores

Spells (19)

• 4 Mana Leak
• 3 Spell Snare
• 4 Path to Exile
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Gitaxian Probe

Sideboard

• 2 Threads of Disloyalty
• 4 Meddling Mage
• 3 Angel's Grace
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 3 Spell Pierce

While a lot of card choices could be different, I wanted to put myself under a bit of pressure to actually make decisions, since the tournament started right after I finished building the deck. There were some nonbos in the deck that could easily have been caught given more time, but that’s sometimes how these things go.

For what it’s worth, I do not recommend playing this list. You are very weak to Tarmogoyf decks, and something about that needs to change. Overall, I felt like the ideas and theory behind the deck were sound, but the actual card choices and matchups were not ideal. Overall, I think it was a great exercise, and hopefully they can give you a bit of information about the format as opposed to being a guide on “how to play” this deck.

Later this week, we’ll discuss some of the combo decks in Modern, as well as how to beat them. Next week’s videos will probably go back to normal, and I’ll just grind out an established deck against a random field. Magic Online PTQs begin soon, so look for me to record one of those in the near future, though they are incredibly long.

Thanks for watching!

Todd

strong sad on MOL