I’ve been doing my homework for the Modern season. For this week and next, I’ll be taking a look at basically every single deck in Modern. That is no exaggeration.
Every.
Single.
Deck.
I’m meticulous, but with Modern being as huge as it is, it’s possible that I missed something. If that’s the case—and I mean missed anything—chime off in the forums!
Today, I’m starting with the aggressive decks.
ZOO
Creatures (20)
Lands (20)
Spells (20)
Sideboard
Let’s get it started with the obvious elephant in the room—Zoo. There are plenty of ways to build Zoo, each with their own pros and cons, but the one that I think will perform the best over the course of the season is Domain Zoo. “Tribal Zoo” implies something else entirely, and with Nacatl and Punishing Fire banned, tribal decks are poised to make a comeback. I’d prefer to not have any confusion with the branding of decks.
Anyway, this version of Zoo is fast and consistent. By playing all the colors, you’re saying, “I don’t care if I take some extra damage from my manabase because I get a bunch of awesome tools,” and that’s exactly right. Decks like Moon Zoo or Congregation Zoo might play fewer colors and play the same amount of disruption, but nothing compares to Domain Zoo.
Disruption like Spell Pierce and Thoughtseize only goes so far. You need a fast clock to back it up, and Domain Zoo is about the only one still playing Kird Apes and Loam Lions. All of the other Zoo decks are about a half turn or turn slower, so that single piece of disruption you draw is going to go a long way against combo decks.
I can’t say enough good things about this version of Zoo. You get the lightning speed you want from a Zoo deck, but you also get to interact with the various combo and control decks in the format. On top of that, you can tweak and tune it to beat nearly any deck you want.
Rating: 9/10
Creatures (18)
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Kavu Predator
- 3 Tarmogoyf
- 1 Gaddock Teeg
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 1 Qasali Pridemage
Lands (21)
Spells (21)
I don’t think anyone has tried this since Zenith and Punishing Fire were banned, and there’s probably a reason for that. Honestly, this type of Big Zoo shell seems fine to me. It didn’t even want to play Nacatl in the first place! In fact, my list of this deck for Pro Tour Philadelphia only had one Tarmogoyf. Every other threat in the deck was better, and you had Zenith to fill the gaps. I guess that means you need to replace Zeniths with Goyfs. Poor you…
The thing holding this version back is a metagame that’s weak to land destruction or Fiery Justice. Right now, the metagame looks like Storm, Zoo, and various brews, and this Zoo version isn’t particularly good against any of them.
Rating: 5/10
Creatures (25)
- 1 Grim Lavamancer
- 2 Eternal Witness
- 1 Meddling Mage
- 1 Magus of the Moon
- 4 Tarmogoyf
- 1 Gaddock Teeg
- 1 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Wild Nacatl
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 1 Qasali Pridemage
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 1 Baneslayer Angel
Lands (19)
Spells (16)
This deck has a near and dear place in my heart. You see, I could have played Dark Depths at Grand Prix Houston and probably done very well, but I played this brew instead. I made day two but was one of seven people to not cash.
If it’s not obvious, the goal of the deck is to cast Congregation at Dawn, typically getting a Bloodbraid Elf, a hate bear, and then probably an Eternal Witness. I’d say the power of the deck lies in how good the Congregation bullets are at kolding your opposition. If there are a couple decks that can’t beat a Magus of the Moon or Ethersworn Canonist or Gaddock Teeg, then you’re in business. If you’ve got a bunch of mildly annoying Grizzly Bears, you probably aren’t beating anyone.
We don’t live in a format of Dark Depths anymore, and while there are some decks like Storm that really struggle with something like Ethersworn Canonist, those are few and far between. Most combo decks aren’t really kold to a Yixlid Jailer, Gaddock Teeg, or Meddling Mage.
The deck is pretty fun though.
Rating: 4/10
Creatures (23)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Tarmogoyf
- 3 Vendilion Clique
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 2 Qasali Pridemage
- 2 Geist of Saint Traft
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (23)
Spells (12)
Sideboard
Before, you’d be better off just splashing Wild Nacatl, but now playing Bant over Zoo is defensible. If you’re not looking to burn them out, you’ve got to have reach in a different way. Thankfully, cards like Vendilion Clique, Geist of Saint Traft, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant break stalemates.
I’d like to see some Shining Shoals in the sideboard, but other than that, it looks very solid. Like I said, you lose a little reach, but you have more disruption and a better mana base. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bant were a better choice than Zoo in some metagames.
Rating: 7/10
Creatures (27)
Lands (11)
Spells (22)
Sideboard
The second biggest aggressive deck is going to be Affinity. Much like my Tezzeret deck from last week, this one operates purely on synergy. You might get the nut turn three kill, but you could also draw a bunch of Ornithopters.
Thankfully, you have a lot of nut draws and cards that some people can’t beat. Otherwise, the fact that whoever wants to beat you can would be very depressing. You’ve got to be a sick, sadistic person to run Affinity in a tournament, and I respect that a lot.
Rating: 7/10
Creatures (26)
- 4 Ornithopter
- 4 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
- 4 Ethersworn Canonist
- 2 Master of Etherium
- 4 Memnite
- 4 Signal Pest
- 4 Vault Skirge
Lands (14)
Spells (20)
Sideboard
I think that, based on what’s popular right now, this version is a much better choice than burn Affinity. That said, burn Affinity is going to be much better in an open field, whereas this version is built specifically to prey upon combo decks. While that might seem wise, you should realize that Affinity often goldfishes faster than Storm. It might not even be necessary to pack all that hate!
Rating: 7/10
Creatures (16)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (22)
Spells (17)
I think this list is pretty good. It seems like there was a lot of thought put into it, which is something I don’t see in most Jund decks. Big Poppa Willy (Edel) probably copied the list from the Finals tournament in Japan, but he knows what he’s doing. It looks like he placed himself firmly in the aggro-control camp of Jund, weighing more heavily on the aggro side.
I’ve seen versions with large, expensive spells meant for control matchups. If the game goes long against those decks, you’ll likely lose to their better trumps, so why bother? Similarly, Blightning is absent! You aren’t trying to grind them out with two-for-ones like in the old days.
These days, we have Liliana, Tarmogoyf, and Dark Confidant. To some extent, there’s also Kitchen Finks. Our two-for-ones are more powerful and versatile. Blightning does the Mind Rot thing pretty well, but sometimes it’s the Lava Spike that’s relevant.
With something like Liliana, you have Cruel Edict or Raven’s Crime, both of which are incredibly effective against control, combo, and aggro. Likewise, Goyf, Finks, and Bob are great in all the matchups, whereas Blightning would get sided out half the time.
If you learn anything from this, it should be that there are no sacred cows, and you can’t just port decks over from other formats. Nothing is the same, so you don’t need the same cards.
Is Bloodbraid Elf any better than Wild Nacatl? Likely not, but thankfully we don’t have to make that distinction anymore. We actually have a reason to play Jund! Compared to Zoo, Jund has more game against combo but is a little slower.
That makes it worse vs. the control decks out there but also less vulnerable to things like Firespout and Engineered Explosives. The flip side of that coin is that the average converted mana cost is a lot higher, so you won’t be keeping any one-landers like you would in Zoo.
Rating: 7/10
Creatures (26)
- 3 Dark Confidant
- 4 Tarmogoyf
- 3 Doran, the Siege Tower
- 1 Gaddock Teeg
- 2 Treefolk Harbinger
- 1 Chameleon Colossus
- 1 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 3 Knight of the Reliquary
- 2 Qasali Pridemage
- 2 Spellskite
Lands (20)
Spells (14)
This is the most recent Doran deck that I’ve seen, but obviously you need to cut the Green Sun’s Zeniths. Treefolk Harbinger over Nacatl? You’re crazy! Thankfully, just like Jund, we don’t need to make that choice anymore. Instead, now it’s Doran vs. Bloodbraid Elf.
Jund is the deck full of answers with some good threats, and Doran is the deck with all the threats and some of the answers. It all depends on what type of deck you want to play. Some people just want to club their opponents over the head and want to topdeck a threat every turn. If that’s you, then maybe you should play Doran.
Spellskite is obviously cool with Doran but so is Skinshifter. Now that Punishing Fire is gone, you don’t even have to build your deck like the PT Amsterdam lists. Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch are more than welcome in this deck.
Rating: 6/10
Creatures (26)
- 4 Lord of Atlantis
- 3 Dark Confidant
- 4 Merrow Reejerey
- 4 Silvergill Adept
- 3 Cursecatcher
- 2 Merfolk Sovereign
- 4 Coralhelm Commander
- 2 Phantasmal Image
Lands (14)
Spells (20)
I talked about Merfolk on my live episode of GerryTV, but I’ll repeat most of that here. The Merfolk lists are untuned. You have no idea what counterspells to run, what color to splash (if any), and most don’t run Snapcaster Mage.
The other, more important issue is that the creatures are still good enough in Modern that going tribal might not be the best. A single Tarmogoyf equals roughly three Merfolk. You could splash Goyf, but I think you should be playing Snapcaster as well. At that point, why not just play Delver of Secrets instead of some other crappy dudes?
That whole dilemma is roughly the Jund vs. Doran debate. Do you want more threats or answers in your deck?
If we’re going to ignore that debate and talk about how to build the best Merfolk deck, I’d say add Snapcaster. You should be splashing white for Path to Exile (and Sygg), so Snapcaster should make the cut, at least in some numbers.
Rating: 6/10
Creatures (12)
Lands (20)
Spells (28)
This list comes from Star City’s own David McDarby, playing in his first Magic Online Modern Daily Event. His crazy card choices go above and beyond what even I’d try, and that says something. I was even playing One-Eyed Scarecrow in the last Daily Event!
Suffer the Past, Sorin’s Thirst, Molten Rain, Countersquall?! Molten Rain might be okay, but I’m not so sure about the other ones. Then again, I voiced my opinion on Blightning earlier, and Molten Rain is similar, but taxing on a different resource.
However, from playing the Storm deck, I’ve learned that every single mana source they have is important. The goal with Storm is casting Past in Flames with two floating, and that can be a lot harder than it seems, especially against a deck with hand disruption.
Leyline of Sanctity goes a long way for them, so you need to attack them in a different way. Counterspells are certainly an option, but Molten Rain honestly isn’t that bad. Without Leyline, cards like Rise / Fall should shred their hand.
It’s stuff like this that both gives me hope for Delver decks and Modern in general. If a semi-new strategy can pop up and perform admirably, that’s good for a format, especially a new one. After this series, I don’t expect much to be “new” any longer though.
Rating: 6/10
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (20)
Spells (24)
This is another take on McDarby’s deck. His looks more focused, but I’d say a little weaker. You have to do a lot of work to make Death’s Shadow better than Delver of Secrets, and I can’t imagine Dimir Cutpurse is very good.
Playing a Sword in these types of decks isn’t unheard of, but I’m not sure Light and Shadow is the one I’d choose. You’d want that one to fight attrition-based matchups, but I’m not sure if Sword of Feast and Famine or even Sword of Body and Mind wouldn’t be better.
Quad Mindbreak Trap is very hateful, but you’re already in blue and black; do you really need that type of hate? Wouldn’t you be better off with more counterspells or some discard? At least those cards are good vs. non-Storm matchups.
Rating: 6/10
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (21)
Spells (24)
Sideboard
Another list, another one without Delvers. This one has way too many dual lands for a deck not playing Death’s Shadow, although they do count for his sideboard Vedalken Shackles.
These decks are not well tuned but are winning anyway. Take notice people—Delver of Secrets is making his way to Modern too!
Rating: 6/10
Creatures (20)
Lands (20)
Spells (20)
- 4 Shining Shoal
- 2 Plains
- 1 Island
- 1 Prison Term
- 4 Steel of the Godhead
- 3 Path to Exile
- 4 Gitaxian Probe
- 1 Angelic Destiny
Sideboard
I was super impressed with this one, even if the deck’s designer wasn’t pleased. You have some hexproof and protection from red creatures to combine with Steel of the Godhead vs. aggro decks, and you have the ole Peek / Meddling Mage pair for combo decks. Shining Shoal and Worship are two more very effective tools against aggro.
I could see this deck being a sleeper.
Rating: 6/10, maybe higher.
That’s it for today. Be sure to check out the rest of the series, starting with Aggro Part Two!
GerryT