It is indeed time for me to face the truth: I’ve got to learn how to play Modern if I want to keep the lead I have in the Season One race!
We only have two Opens left before the Invitational, and while I have a full fifteen-point lead on second place, that can easily be overcome with so many points at stake. Not only are there a lot of points up for grabs, but the next two events are Modern!
This season I’ve played in all but one Open and so far have had to tip my toes into the wild world of Modern only once, which unfortunately found me exiting the event in record time! With most of my legwork being from my performances with various green and black strategies in Standard, I’ve got a lot of work to do if I want to hold my lead! This weekend is my first test when the SCG Tour makes its way to the beautiful city of Baltimore!
Last weekend was spectacular! It was the SCG Tour’s second Team Constructed event, which meant I got to spend fifteen rounds alongside “The” Tannon Grace and Todd Stevens. Team Dapper strikes again! This time we took our game a step further and, after a rocky 4-2 start to the event, decided not to lose again until we had clinched Top 8!
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite break as we had hoped in that Top 8, getting paired against some of the most polarizing matchups you could find in Modern and Legacy. While our story was cut short, I couldn’t have been happier to have made the elimination rounds with two of my favorite people. I’m sure I’m beating a very dead horse here when I say that team events are my favorite thing that have happened to the SCG Tour in a long while. I couldn’t ask for a better and more dashing set of teammates, and I look forward to getting another shot at a trophy alongside my friends in Atlanta at the next one!
Bringing this drawing to life was by far my favorite moment from this weekend!
Image: Inklin Customs
While Team Constructed was where all eyes were fixed last weekend, there were a whopping three Classic events that took place on Sunday! The very nature of Team Constructed is that sometimes the decks with the best individual record aren’t the decks that you see at the top. We called this taking “strategic losses” jokingly amongst Team Dapper, where we’d get our bad pairing and have our teammates carry us that round. One player who didn’t have a bad pairing was my former traveling teammate Bradley Carpenter.
Creatures (30)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Eternal Witness
- 4 Devoted Druid
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- 2 Noble Hierarch
- 2 Viscera Seer
- 1 Fiend Hunter
- 1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
- 2 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 2 Walking Ballista
- 4 Vizier of Remedies
Lands (22)
Spells (8)
I did get a chance to talk to Brad about this kind of deck, since we made the long and tedious drive to Louisville from Tampa (a thirteen-hour drive, for those keeping score at home) together. Before the event, we agreed that we didn’t really like the variations with Simian Spirit Guide and preferred a more mana-creature-heavy version. With an impressive 6-0-2 record in the Swiss and an easy 3-0 in the Top 8, I’ll quote Brad when he said, “This was the easiest tournament of my life.”
Having little experience with the format as a whole myself, it’s easy for me to take the recommendation from a friend like Brad, who now sits atop the overall SCG Tour Leaderboard with this recent finish.
Let’s not overlook the rest of that Classic, with the same deck taking the third- and fourth-place slots!
Creatures (30)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Eternal Witness
- 4 Devoted Druid
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- 1 Murderous Redcap
- 2 Noble Hierarch
- 2 Viscera Seer
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
- 1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
- 1 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 1 Walking Ballista
- 1 Rhonas the Indomitable
- 4 Vizier of Remedies
Lands (22)
Spells (8)
Creatures (31)
- 2 Eternal Witness
- 4 Simian Spirit Guide
- 1 Reveillark
- 4 Devoted Druid
- 3 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 1 Viscera Seer
- 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 2 Renegade Rallier
- 2 Walking Ballista
- 4 Vizier of Remedies
Lands (19)
Spells (10)
As you can clearly see, the jury is very much still out on the correct build of this deck.
These three cards play pivotal roles in each of the third- and fourth-place decklists but are “Abzant” from the winning list. Is if wrong to include them? Did they just know something Brad did not? I don’t think that’s the case. The core of the deck is just incredibly powerful enough that at some point it doesn’t matter what you do.
Simian Spirit Guide gives you the ability to kill on the second turn of the game by casting your Devoted Druid on turn 1! It also doubles as a way to cast Collected Company ahead of schedule, gutting your opponents taking their turn 2 or 3 to set up, thinking they have time to get under you. Renegade Rallier is perfect for this deck, since you’re reliant on having crucial two-drop creatures on the battlefield that are usually killed on sight.
One of the big debates I’ve heard is whether or not the inclusion of Rhonas the Indomitable is necessary. As of right now, I say nay. The only knock it has against the more commonly played Walking Ballista is that it is a kill card that can be found off Collected Company or can tutored for with Chord of Calling. To that I ask, why aren’t you just playing more copies of Duskwatch Recruiter? Rhonas the Indomitable almost never can attack, since we’re playing the value backup plan not made up of sizeable creatures, and while it does get through hate cards such as Leyline of Sanctity, the fact that Walking Ballista has endless uses in the current metagame as it stands makes me believe it’s almost certainly obsolete.
With multiple explosive combos both vulnerable and invulnerable to graveyard hate, I fully expect to see the new Counters Company deck in full force this coming weekend and it’s something you need to be ready for. This deck has the benefit of an insane toolbox that can be incorporated into the maindeck or sideboard to fight almost any matchup!
There are a lot of ways to fight this deck and the one I’ve seen be most effective is Grafdigger’s Cage. Grafdigger’s Cage stops all of the powerful cards in the deck, like Collected Company and Chord of Calling, while shutting off the alternate combo in the deck that uses Vizier of Remedies as a Melira, Sylvok Outcast proxy alongside Viscera Seer and Kitchen Finks.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence is a card I don’t think a single Chord of Calling deck can skimp on in their sideboard anymore, since this deck is now a known threat that dominates the mirror if left unchecked.
The Modern story of the weekend wasn’t solely Counters Company. Death’s Shadow decks in all variations of colors proved once again that they’re holding the torch in the Modern metagame.
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (18)
Spells (27)
The newest inclusion to this deck is Stubborn Denial. Punishing players trying to skimp on a ton of removal and gaining an insane tempo boost countering a spell for only a single mana? I can certainly see why the splash is there. Not to mention countering any one of these insane spells…
The combination of the full eight hand disruption effects as well as countermagic on top of one of the fastest clocks Modern has to offer makes this deck the top dog and favorite going into Baltimore. Oh, yeah, and this deck gets to play with one of my signature cards from Standard, Traverse the Ulvenwald, giving the deck the consistency it once lacked. Jund used to be the deck you thought of when your opponent fetched on turn 1 for an Overgrown Tomb and cast Thoughtseize, but this deck is its far more successful successor and is here to stay. Sorry, Jund Guy!
Of all the decks in Modern I’ve played (which is a short list, mind you), I actually have the most experience with these three cards.
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (20)
Spells (27)
- 3 Oblivion Stone
- 4 Sylvan Scrying
- 4 Chromatic Sphere
- 4 Chromatic Star
- 1 Relic of Progenitus
- 4 Expedition Map
- 4 Ancient Stirrings
- 3 Kozilek's Return
Sideboard
This was the event where I spent the most time testing for Modern and my 6-2 performance at that Invitational was nothing to scoff at. While it’s been a long while since this exact style of deck has seen much play, the Urza’s lands have been hard at work teaming up with the monstrosities from Oath of the Gatewatch.
Creatures (19)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (15)
There’s no person I know who puts more time into Modern than Todd Stevens. He streams it almost exclusively, and when he said that he wanted to run back the same deck he played at the previous Team Open in Modern, I believed he was right in doing so.
This is the ultimate midrange deck for Modern. There are some draws where you cast a Karn Liberated on turn 3. Sometimes you cast a Thought-Knot Seer on turn two! Other times, this deck just plays a completely fair game and curves Eldrazi after Eldrazi while locking out whatever converted mana cost it sees fit with Chalice of the Void.
Unlike the G/R , G/W or G/W Tron variants we’ve seen in the past, this deck sacrifices the consistency of early, almost guaranteed Tron for the resiliency of just playing a normal game and casting giant creatures! Todd Stevens mentioned on Premium earlier this week that there are few cards he enjoys seeing across the table from him than Blood Moon! Taking off a turn in Modern to play a card with little to no effect on the game state often gives Eldrazi Tron the time it needs to set up and win a completely fair game.
These are only some of the decks we’ve seen pull ahead of the rest in Modern, but there’s still much to learn and prepare for to truly understand the format. I will say I believe this is the healthiest I’ve ever seen the format and it might finally be time to settle in and embrace the chaos!
While my play patterm has long been tailored to the Standard format we’ve all come to sneer at, it’s time I get my bearings and take the leap into Modern and attempt to master a deck so that I can keep comfortable atop the leaderboard and claim victory as the Season One champion!
Good luck catching me, Todd Stevens, Eli Kassis, and Jim Davis! You’re gonna need it!