Daily Digest: The Modern Thune-Up

Two-for-ones are my favorite thing in Magic, so today you’re getting one.

Since Birthing Pod was banned, people have attempted to replicate the Melira, Sylvok Outcast combo to some success. SCG Tour^® grinders Logan Mize and Brad Carpenter have certainly had the most success with the deck as of late. However, those lists haven’t evolved much since they first debuted. Somehow, that’s mostly changing.

Both of these decks re-introduce the Spike Feeder / Archangel of Thune combo, and one of them even cuts the Melira combo entirely! What makes Archangel of Thune so appealing? I think the biggest thing going for it is that if you’re playing against a fair deck, Archangel of Thune is one of the most powerful cards you can have access to. It doesn’t die to Lightning Bolt or Abrupt Decay, and if you have Spike Feeder or Scavenging Ooze, it’s probably lights-out for your opponent.

While it’s a five-mana card, it’s also part of a two-card combo instead of the three-card Melira combo, so it’s much easier to actually assemble it. Additionally, if Archangel of Thune is a playable card on its own, then your deck is littered with a bunch of Viscera Seers and other assorted nonsense. JAYBONECAPONE has kept the Melira combo intact, which allows him to play Collected Company, but Kaos5 elected to cut Collected Company entirely.

People say that with Splinter Twin and Summer Bloom out of the Modern format, it will likely slow down. If that’s true, building your Abzan decks to crush other fair decks is a good way to go about things. I’m not so sure on the ramifications of the bannings quite yet, but these decks are a good place to start.

Abzan Company

JAYBONECAPONE (5-0)

Test deck on 01-21-2016

Modern

Creatures (30)

• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 2 Spike Feeder
• 4 Kitchen Finks
• 1 Murderous Redcap
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 4 Viscera Seer
• 1 Spellskite
• 2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 2 Archangel of Thune
• 3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit

Lands (22)

• 1 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 3 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Temple Garden
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 2 Razorverge Thicket
• 2 Gavony Township

Spells (8)

• 4 Chord of Calling
• 4 Collected Company

Sideboard

• 3 Eternal Witness
• 2 Kataki, War's Wage
• 4 Kor Firewalker
• 3 Stony Silence
• 3 Eidolon of Rhetoric

Abzan Chord

KAOS5 (5-0)

Test deck on 01-21-2016

Modern

Creatures (27)

• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Spike Feeder
• 4 Wall of Roots
• 2 Noble Hierarch
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 3 Fauna Shaman
• 3 Spellskite
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Archangel of Thune
• 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric

Lands (23)

• 2 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Temple Garden
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 3 Marsh Flats
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Gavony Township

Spells (10)

• 4 Chord of Calling
• 2 Dismember
• 4 Lingering Souls

Sideboard

• 1 Kataki, War's Wage
• 1 Orzhov Pontiff
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 3 Beast Within
• 1 Dismember
• 2 Sin Collector
• 1 Reclamation Sage