Nailed it.
Sometimes format devastation in competitive Magic is easily foreseeable after one card from an upcoming set is spoiled. I remember sitting and thinking to myself how terribly powerful an Eldrazi strategy would be in Modern with a card like Thought-Knot Seer in it, tapping a single Eldrazi Temple with an Eye of Ugin on turn 2, and having a Tarmogoyf out that removes the best card in the opponent’s hand.
That, along with Endless One, Eldrazi Mimic, Wasteland Strangler, and other characters that process exiled cards, was my testing build that terrified me when preparing to take on the new Modern format prior to Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch. The list that I developed was more aggressive than the slower, online version, but much clunkier than the versions unveiled at the Pro Tour. Even though my version was a bit off, I knew it was going to damage the already weakened format. I felt a professional obligation to immediately write an article with a warning of the power level of any Eldrazi strategy, the two mono-black versions being the only ones I was familiar with at the time. Then there was the conversation that Ross Merriam, the readers, and I had on the state of Modern and what should be done prior to the bannings announcement and the Pro Tour.
I had no horse in this immediate race due to not qualifying for the Pro Tour, but I felt helpless when testing any midrange or control strategy against both Eldrazi builds. You’ll hear in a lot of the criticism aimed at those of us who want a piece banned that “the solutions are out there” and we just need to discover them. When every Modern player in the world is chasing down Painter’s Servants, Ghostly Prisons, and Ensnaring Bridges to jam in their deck, there is a huge problem.
This isn’t the good old Shatterstorm versus an overpowered Affinity deck, Rending Volley taking down a Deceiver Exarch, or even Spellskite syphoning spells against Infect. The Eldrazi deck has dangerous consistency with hand disruption on a 4/4 creature, four Ratchet Bombs to disperse permanent hate, and an additional set of Dismembers to deal with a silly 1/3, so three-mana spells won’t cut it.
Is Eldrazi unbeatable? Absolutely not. No deck in the history of Magic: The Gathering is unbeatable. There are always cards that have some positive interaction with menace decks, there is variance built into the game with mulligans and mana access, and skill is still a huge part of the game regardless. I remember playing in the Flash Hulk Grand Prix of old and defeating the deck twice with my sweet Aluren deck.
This doesn’t mean I developed the solution to one of the worst formats in our history. Instead I got very lucky a couple of times. People who are heavily involved in the tournament scene shouldn’t rely on variance and a bucket of hate cards to defeat a deck they’ll see every three matches or so.
This is where I step in, along with a large number of other Magic players, and say “that’s enough.” This is one of those disasters that I saw coming but knew there was no refuge. The suggested card that I felt had to be removed from the format was Eldrazi Temple. This was a far less impactful removal than Eye of Ugin because it prevented splash damage to G/R Tron.
Removing Eldrazi Temple also wouldn’t kill off the colorless strategy completely and would allow people to still build a sweet Modern deck around the new creatures. This was my theme before the Pro Tour and I still hold my ground on this subject today.
I don’t believe in conspiracy theories to sell more product with the Eldrazi banner waving and I also don’t buy the banning of Splinter Twin to remove the last “control”-style combo deck from the format to pave the way for the colorless take over.
I do believe that at Wizards headquarters they do not have the caliber of player that you’ll find at the Pro Tour, #SCGINVI, or even Grand Prix scene, which puts the burden on all of us to continue to test, discover problems, and stand on a social media soapbox with our solutions. I hope they hear us, but if they don’t, they definitely see the tournament results. Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch shined a bright light on the problems that I knew were about to strike the format and I am certain that they will seal the leak prior to the next official banning announcement.
As a few of my colleagues have stated in their writings and interviews, it is not constructive to just complain about the problems that exist in front of us with Modern, or any format for that matter. If you’ve read my work, you know that Modern has been a huge project for me and I truly want all of the archetypes to be healthy and represented. I never complain about the state of Standard because the rotation system prevents a stale format from sticking around for too long and the same rules applied for those old fogies like me that competed in Extended many years ago.
Since Modern doesn’t shift outside of bannings, we have to make do with the current format and that includes Eldrazi at the moment. I’ve hit the lab recently and came up with this deck.
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (25)
- 1 Ghostly Prison
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 1 Mana Leak
- 4 Serum Visions
- 1 Electrolyze
- 3 Logic Knot
- 3 Cryptic Command
- 4 Path to Exile
- 1 Desperate Ravings
- 3 Supreme Verdict
Sideboard
The list has been slightly modified to answer the new Eldrazi threat and deal with the even more prevalent aggressive decks that people think can beat the colorless army. I hear clamoring about Blood Moon being the answer, which frightens me to no end because of its effect on us. I had U/R Delver in the mix when testing against the two Eldrazi builds, and even with a Blood Moon on turn 3, sometimes it was too late. The deck is super-resilient due to its speed, and even if it falls behind, it has a Ratchet Bomb to overcome the hate.
Luckily, in a control build like this, we have the ability to play hate with some blue magic backup. I’ve run this build against U/R Eldrazi, Mono-Black Eldrazi, and the Mono-Black Midrange Eldrazi deck, and the numbers were pretty average. I don’t think I could craft a deck outside of this in the control realm that could still consistently beat other players.
You will not face the broken colorless creatures every round, so be careful when crafting the best possible deck against Eldrazi. Often people focus so hard on beating the best deck that they lose to matchups that were much easier before the alterations.
This deck comes equipped with a few spicy cards that may need further explanation. My favorite card in the deck is easily Logic Knot. Logic Knot has been an absolute all-star in Modern, easily countering a turn 2 spell with a fetchland and being overpowered in comparison to Mana Leak later in the game. I was getting fed up with Mana Leak and its inability to stop spells later in the game because of Path to Exile and the diminishing returns of the card, so I decided to play one Logic Knot.
I then started to feel a little frisky, upping the delve counterspell to a two-of to test the waters. Dredge is a tricky deckbuilding pitfall and must be incorporated carefully. We all want to play four Treasure Cruise and four Dig Through Time in Standard, but that would just be foolish. The two copies of Logic Knot worked perfectly and it was time to push the limits once more.
I have had minimal graveyard issues and even was able to counter spell after spell through Relic of Progenitus and Scrabbling Claws from the older Eldrazi list. There are just so many cantrips, fetchlands, and cheap spells in this list that the graveyard is always robust and ready to be exiled. Once you try Logic Knot, I promise you’ll never want to play Mana Leak again.
The only other mandatory ingredient in today’s Modern is a large number of Supreme Verdicts and removal spells. Modern is Aggro City and control is, and has been, largely absent. For this reason, any attempt at building a control deck in Modern must be done with defeating one archetype in mind. Your opponents will be playing a Goblin Guide, Slippery Bogle, Ornithopter, Glistener Elf, or Noble Hierarch on turn 1, and if that’s the case, our deck has to be nothing but slaughter early on with a planeswalker finish.
I’ve enjoyed old attempts at using Restoration Angel and Geist of Saint Traft in prior formats, but no creature is safe before our turn 4 Supreme Verdict. The other standout card in the list is the Desperate Ravings and it’s been pretty spectacular. It helps with Logic Knot, but that’s not the reason I love it. The deck is very redundant and has just a truckload of removal, so the random discard has rarely hurt me. I like it a lot better than Think Twice and it gives opportunity to use leftover mana when an opponent is finishing their turn. I completely understand if you prefer the less variance-filled draw spell, but the flavor of the card is too epic when describing Modern today.
Since we are on the topic of Desperate Ravings, here is a list I crafted while pulling my hair out during Pro Tour coverage:
Creatures (3)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (31)
- 4 Crack the Earth
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 1 Stone Rain
- 4 Night's Whisper
- 4 Molten Rain
- 4 Smallpox
- 4 Lingering Souls
- 4 Boom
- 2 Murderous Cut
Sideboard
This is reminiscent of my old Blink Riders days and I wanted to share it with you guys. I’ll be using Jeskai Control until the emergency banning, but I’ve been known to get crazy in Modern and dive into land destruction in the eleventh hour.
I think this deck has a decent game against most aggressive and midrange decks besides Affinity. I tried to craft a sideboard that could apply to multiple decks in the metagame, but some slots had to be reserved to assist against a matchup that is truly difficult.
The maindeck consists of an array of land destruction spells, Flagstones of Trokair to prevent falling too far behind, Lingering Souls and the synergy it has with Smallpox, and Goblin Dark-Dwellers to put the game away on turn 5. I decided that blue wasn’t the place I wanted to be in the format and black offered much more bang for my buck in the land and hand destruction department.
Lightning Bolt is a card that I’ve been forced to fall in love with in Modern and this is just another early-game strategy where you have eight cheap removal spells, Smallpox on turn 2 that can take out an opposing creature and land with a little luck, and an effective win condition from the hand or graveyard with Lingering Souls. I will warn you all that I’ve done zero testing with this deck and threw it together, but I know you all appreciate having more tools at your disposal, especially now. Give these decks a shot and hang in there, because I guarantee the bannings will be swift and harsh.
I knew they weren’t going to preemptively ban Eldrazi Temple or Eye of Ugin, but it was worth a shot. I’ll continue to point out the evils of Modern until this format has a healthy dose of aggro, midrange, control, and combo!