Welcome to What We'd Play! With SCG Regionals this weekend, many are unsure what they’d play in such a high-profile tournament. That’s where we come in and let you know what we’d play and why we’d play it. Hopefully this last-minute advice aids in your decision making! Be sure to vote for what deck you would play at the end!
Ari Lax – Neobrand
Creatures (18)
- 2 Autochthon Wurm
- 1 Wild Cantor
- 4 Allosaurus Rider
- 4 Simian Spirit Guide
- 1 Street Wraith
- 4 Chancellor of the Tangle
- 1 Laboratory Maniac
- 1 Griselbrand
Lands (13)
Spells (29)
I am here to sell you on the idea that in Modern, maybe it’s better to be the person causing problems than the people trying to find solutions.
People just aren’t respecting this deck at all. There aren’t many Force of Negations, there are especially few disruptive cards out of opposing fast combo decks, and Veil of Summer hits a lot of the light disruption hard. The worst popular matchup is Eldrazi Tron with Chalice of the Void and a fast disruptive clock, and that’s merely bad and not horrible.
If you’re just picking this deck up, Neobrand is not a reliable Turn 1 deck. It’s a reliable Turn 2 to Turn 3 deck that accidentally has Turn 1 wins. Or rather a deck that reliably keeps hands that are likely to kill Turn 2 or Turn 3. Just don’t draw the one Griselbrand ever, but if you registered this deck you were signing up to let it ride anyway. What’s a couple percent per draw step?
Shaheen Soorani – Grinding Breach
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (20)
Spells (32)
They messed up again. Every time we think that Ironworks is dead, here’s another, arguably more resilient, version of the dominant deck of Modern’s past. Those of you that know me well understand my connection to Ironworks, which is why I have had a hard time putting down decks that utilize Urza, Lord High Artificer. Although he wasn’t around during that time, he has enabled similar interactions that mirror Ironworks very well.
Grinding Breach moves away from Urza but it doesn’t have to. I have been working on version with the High Lord Artificer; however, I do not think I’ll have time to get it ready for Regionals this weekend. I’m probably going to take a list like this, which has already had live success to add to Magic Online results, and go to work. This deck is resilient as mentioned and is also new. Players that do not live and breathe Modern will not be prepared for its complexity and the hate will not be refined, making this an easy choice for this weekend.
Sam Black – Temur Uro
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (27)
Spells (25)
There’s a good chance that the best deck in Modern plays Underworld Breach, but I don’t know the best build and don’t have experience with it. Instead, I’d stick to Temur Uro.
Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath gives the deck a strong Burn matchup and a relatively fast, resilient way to close games that requires very little deck real estate to allow room for a lot of great interaction.
Aether Gust is amazing right now, and this deck uses it exceptionally well because of Uro (which makes the one-for-one exchange profitable) and Mystic Sanctuary (which lets you keep doing it).
Surgical Extraction and Pithing Needle (for Grinding Station) are my primary hedges against Grinding Breach, but I don’t expect it to be all that popular and I expect counterspells to play well against it.
Cedric Phillips – Grinding Breach
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (21)
Spells (31)
If I were a betting man (which I am), I’d bet on Underworld Breach being banned in Modern on Monday…
Don’t be the person who didn’t play with the broken enchantment before it got banned. Be on the right side of history.