After the much ballyhooed – and much deserved – bannings a couple weeks ago in Modern, the big shift that was expected is happening.
Since the bans, we’ve had two Modern Premier IQs. You can examine the decklists from
Washington D.C.
and
Indianapolis
as much as you’d like, but here’s a quick look at the top 16 for each of them:
Washington, D.C.: Three Abzan decks; two Zoo decks; two Storm decks; one each of Affinity, Hexproof, Burn, G/R Tron, Jeskai Control, Jund, Merfolk,
Scapeshift, and Twin.
Indianapolis: Three Burn decks; two Affinity decks; two Dredgevine decks; one each of Amulet Combo, Bant Aggro, Death and Taxes, Elves, G/W Hate Bears,
Jeskai Control, Merfolk, Zoo, and Rack.
It’s not a huge surprise that Abzan was most popular the first week post-bannings, but it certainly wasn’t overwhelming. In fact, Abzan didn’t show up at
all in the top 16 at Indianapolis. It’s early, but the signs are good that the bannings really did shake up the format and spur people to start thinking a
little more outside the box for their deck choices.
There is one unmentioned archetype, however, that hasn’t yet shown up. But with its ability to grind out games against Abzan and handle aggro relatively
well, it should sta-
“Excuse me.”
What? Oh. Look, give me a minute, okay?
“I just want to say hi to everybody.”
I know, but it’s not time yet. Just wait your turn.
“Wait my turn? I don’t like to do that.”
Right. Still, you’re just going to have to be patient.
“Please?”
No.
“No?”
No.
“Okay.”
Like I was saying, there is one particula-
“LOL as if I ever take no for an answer.”
Sigh. Okay, so as you’ve probably guessed, Pearl Lake Ancient plays a role here. A 6/7 flash, can’t be countered creature is pretty good; a 6/7 flash,
can’t be countered creature who can dodge removal is even better; and a 6/7 flash, can’t be countered creature who can dodge removal and has prowess is
potentially insane in the right shell.
Say, for instance, this one:
Creatures (6)
Lands (26)
Spells (28)
Yep. Control. Not Flash, not Geist, but control. It’s an archetype that’s been on and off the Tier 1 list since Modern existed, but it was basically
eradicated by Treasure Cruise, with a healthy assist from Birthing Pod.
The reason for that is simple: If you’re going to win with a control deck, you’re going to have to grind out incremental advantage until you can land a
haymaker. It’s almost impossible to do that against decks that can basically cast Ancestral Recall on turn 3 or Natural Order on every turn. (Yes, Anger of
the Gods went a long way toward shoring up the Birthing Pod matchup, but it is really hard to beat a combo deck with a control deck if they can use an
uncounterable tutor effect to get the missing piece. It’s also hard to beat a deck that can pod a Kitchen Finks into a Siege Rhino, then bounce the Siege
Rhino with Restoration Angel in response to removal.) Taking a control deck to a tournament with one of those decks in the metagame is risky. Taking it to
a tournament with both of those decks in the metagame is basically filling in every line of your decklist with “0-2 drop.”
But in a metagame where the biggest expected threat is some sort of creature-based midrange deck, then Jeskai Control becomes a very viable option.
Especially now that it has a nice hefty finisher that allows you keep mana open every turn without ever having to tap out to cast it. And when you do cast
it, you can close things out very quickly with a bunch of cheap burn and removal adding an extra point of damage every time you cast them.
Oh, and you also get Sphinx’s Revelation. Sorry we were running around on you with Dig Through Time. Can you forgive us?
Great. The silent treatment.
So if there was a big Modern tournament coming up soon, I would look at this deck for five reasons:
1. Grinding is good again. Remember what I said earlier about this deck just losing to Ancestral Recall and Natural Order? Yeah, they’re
obviously not a worry anymore. What’s most likely to replace them at the top of the food chain? Attrition-based strategies, which this deck can beat
without much trouble at all.
Opponent casts Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek? Oh well. Just Snapcaster that Lightning Bolt later. They cast a Siege Rhino or Tarmogoyf? Counter it
or remove it. You’re both in topdeck mode? Hello, Sphinx’s Revelation.
The biggest threat out of the B/G/x decks to this deck is Liliana of the Veil, and she can be countered or killed, and you can always jam a couple
Celestial Purge in the sideboard to deal with her, Siege Rhino, or Anafenza, as well as any other black or red permanents that might be worrisome now that
red cards other than Young Pyromancer and burn spells will see play. Not bad for 1W.
2. When in doubt, set things on fire. A full set of Lightning Bolt, a full set of Lightning Helix, and a full set of Snapcaster Mage means
that if you have to, you can send a lethal amount of damage to the dome to close a game out quickly. Especially in Modern, where so many games involve five
or so points of self-inflicted damage off of lands, a healthy amount of burn can be the difference between X-1 and 1-X.
Helix also has the added benefit of reversing a Siege Rhino life swing. And Electrolyze would be fantastic against Affinity and Lingering Souls even if it
didn’t draw a card. As for Aurelia’s Fury, more on that in a minute.
3. Utility. You’re probably wondering why Azorius Charm is in the list, and it’s simple: because it’s really good. Even if all you ever do
is draw cards with it, it’s good. If you use it to bounce creatures, such as Tarmogoyf, it’s great. If you happen to use all three modes during a game,
you’ll wonder why you haven’t been running it all along. It’s kind of like running a card that’s one-third Think Twice, one-third Path to Exile, and
one-third tortured metaphor.
If Cryptic Command is the king of utility spells, Snapcaster Mage is the king of utility creatures. Consider this entirely reasonable sequence: Turn 1
Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile, Turn 2 Azorius Charm, turn Turn 3 Snapcaster Mage + Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile, Turn 4 Cryptic Command. Not bad, huh?
Sphinx’s Revelation isn’t really a utility spell, because it doesn’t do anything other than draw cards and gain life, but it’s really good at those things.
There will be a lot of times where you EOT Rev for four and pick up 6-9 points of burn out of the deal, or hit your finisher, or your opponent scoops
because they start having Flashback to when Rev was legal in Standard. Steam Augury is also not a utility spell, but it plays very well with Snapcaster
Mage.
Aurelia’s Fury, on the other hand, is a utility spell, and a surprisingly good one. It can be an instant-speed Fireball, it can be a “tap all your
creatures to clear the way for Pearl Lake Ancient or Celestial Colonnade,” or it can be both. Bonus: The reaction from a Storm player after you Fury them
for one as they’re working their way up to a lethal Grapeshot.
4. Good clean hate. Expecting a lot of creature decks? You have access to all the best sweepers, including one that kills Thrun, the Last
Troll deader than Pete Carroll’s reputation as a playcaller. Expecting a lot of counterspell wars? Nothin’ beats rock, as long as rock is Counterflux.
Expecting tons of artifacts, big (Oblivion Stone) or small (Cranial Plating)? Hi, Stony Silence!
As previously mentioned, Celestial Purge is very good right now. So is Combust, because it crushes both Siege Rhino and Deceiver Exarch. Heck, Valorous
Stance can even have some use out of the board, as it also hits Rhino and Exarch, as well as (conditionally) ‘Goyf, Courser of Kruphix, and Primeval Titan.
Basically, you get access to just about anything you’d need to hate out a particular deck, and the hardest call with the sideboard is narrowing it down to
fifteen.
5. An unexpectedly low curve and instant-speed everything. In the 60 cards I put together above, there’s literally one card that can’t be
cast on an opponent’s end step, and it’s only an uncounterable blow up all the things. All the creatures have flash, and all the burn, bounce, and draw
effects are instants.
They’re also relatively cheap. That’s not only good for allowing you to cast multiple spells early in the game, it’s awesome for being able to pump out
massive amounts of damage with Pearl Lake Ancient.
Consider: Opponent passes into your seven open mana while sitting comfortably at fourteen life. You EOT PLA, swing, and cast Lightning Bolt and Lightning
Helix before damage. Guess how much they just took? And you still have Cryptic Command mana open.
As is the case with every deck, this deck does have its bad matchups. I wouldn’t want to take it to a tournament if I expected everything to be Affinity,
Zoo, and Infect, because all of those decks can simply run you over before you can fully stabilize. But in a mixed metagame, you can take your chances with
one or two of those decks because they’re certainly not unwinnable game 1, and you can sideboard in a lot of sweepers or other hate.
In other words, the deck is good against midrange creature decks and a little soft to aggressive creature decks. But there are some other matchups that are
interesting as well.
G/R Tron is an interesting game 1 matchup because of the fact that Emrakul isn’t counterable, and you don’t have a great way to deal with a turn 3 Karn or
turn 4 Ugin if you can’t counter it. But, if you can counter Karn or Ugin and counter or remove Wurmcoil Engine, you can probably burn them out before they
can cast Emrakul. If they do manage to invite you to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I hope you have Cryptic Command to tap it before the
annihilator trigger. This matchup is nice though, because Oblivion Stone does pretty much nothing against you, and they have dead sweepers in game 1.
After board, Stony Silence and land destruction go a long way. I know most people prefer Molten Rain, but Sowing Salt is my personal favorite simply
because it can keep them off of a fully assembled Tron for the entire game.
Scapeshift is a matchup where the lifegain from Helix and Rev go a long way. The longer you can make them wait to try to go off, the more you can burn
them/dig for multiple counters. This is another matchup where Pearl Lake Ancient having flash is huge, because you can hold up counter mana in case they
cast Scapeshift, then flash it in if they don’t. After board, of course, Sowing Salt does some pretty serious work. Counterflux is also nice to be able to
laugh at their Cryptic Commands.
As for Amulet Combo, I’m honestly not sure about the matchup. It seems like it basically comes down to whether they can kill you before you can cast
counters. But being prepared for it is not a bad idea, because it’s put up some decent finishes. I wouldn’t overprepare for it though, because I have a
hard time believing that it would be a huge percentage of the field.
Overall, Modern is heading toward an exciting place, because the cards that were most warping the format are gone. Once it sinks in that we don’t have to
worry about Birthing Pod for the first time in the format’s existence, I look forward to seeing what innovations will start to hit the format.
But for right now, I’m going to stick with cheap burn, counterspells, and a big finisher that you pretty much can’t make go awa-
“Hello again.”