I discussed the Dragons of Tarkir cards I thought might see play in Modern last week. This
week, I’m going to try to take the next step and actually put some cards around them to build a
few new Modern decks and update a few old ones.
First off, Myth Realized. I think this card is pretty exciting, and the biggest question is just how
aggressive you want to be with it. I can imagine playing it as a control finisher, but I can even
imagine playing it as a one-drop for Burn. I’m going to start somewhere in the middle:
Creatures (12)
Lands (21)
Spells (27)
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 4 Lightning Helix
- 2 Path to Exile
- 3 Spell Pierce
- 3 Mutagenic Growth
- 4 Gitaxian Probe
- 2 Gut Shot
- 1 Boros Charm
- 4 Myth Realized
Sideboard
Moving away from Delver of Secrets lets me not worry about sculpting the top of my library. I’d
like more cantrips to be able to keep growing my Myth Realized and triggering prowess, but I
think it’s more important to get big fast than it is to get very big, so I think Phyrexian mana spells
support Myth Realized even better than the blue cantrips do. Similarly, I think this deck is doing
enough damage fast enough that I’m less concerned with being able to trigger prowess over
many turns throughout a prolonged game, and more interested in being able to trigger it several
times per turn early.
Spell Pierce allows me to protect creatures that I care about, and it’s also just another high
impact play over the short games I’m trying to play. Boros Charm can get really explosive with
Myth Realized.
The sideboard is also trying to stick to cheap noncreature plays. Rending Volley seems
awesome in this deck anywhere where it will have targets, and Splinter Twin is definitely a deck
I’d be interested in hating at the moment. Without testing somewhat extensively, I can’t know
exactly which bullets to prioritize, so this sideboard is mostly a list of the kinds of things this
would have access to.
Emerge Unscathed is the unusual choice, but I like the idea of having it to protect a Myth
Realized or anything else, and then it comes back to retrigger prowess and get a creature through,
as we’ve seen with Center Soul in Heroic decks in Standard but at a more reasonable rate.
A more controlling deck with Myth Realized might look something like this:
Creatures (3)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (23)
Spells (29)
Here, Myth Realized is trying to play as a blocker for Planeswalkers that survives Supreme
Verdict. It also allows you to turn the corner quickly and has a particularly nice interaction with
Gideon Jura. It won’t get big early here the way that it will in the aggressive version, but you
aren’t really looking to spend early mana activating it anyway, so that’s not a problem.
I’m not sure what the right mix of Serum Visions and Anticipate is. Anticipate being an instant is
awesome, and the effect is definitely stronger, but two is a lot of mana, so I could definitely see
either being better.
Narset Transcendent also makes an appearance here, and I’ve included a Compulsive
Research partially just to have something awesome to give rebound. Most of the time I’d expect
to be ticking Narset up.
Next up, playing with +1/+1 counters:
Creatures (26)
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 2 Kabira Evangel
- 4 Kazandu Blademaster
- 4 Oran-Rief Survivalist
- 4 Hada Freeblade
- 4 Champion of the Parish
- 4 Avatar of the Resolute
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
Sideboard
There are a lot of mechanics in Modern that involve +1/+1 counters. Many of them are too old
or too linear to work. Allies are on the edge, as they were playable in Standard, but they don’t get
any extra support from Modern. Fortunately, all the good +1/+1 counter Allies are also Humans,
so they play well with Champion of the Parish. Avatar of the Resolute doesn’t make all the
other creatures bigger, but it itself is huge, so that’s the creature base.
The spells are where this deck gets interesting. Collected Company allows you to get Allies into
play at instant speed, which is something they’ve always been interested in. This gets really
exciting with Kabira Evangel. Inspiring Call works really well here, of course, keeping the action
going. After sideboarding, Eternal Witness lets the grinding really get going, as Collected
Company and Inspiring Call find it, and then it can get them back, or it can simply let you Path
more when you need to pair the card advantage with cheap interaction.
The sideboard offers more Kabira Evangels for matchups where you want to get through
blockers of one color, Ondu Clerics for lifegain, more removal, and some dedicated hate.
As a final note, it’s a bit of a longshot, but not too unrealistic to hope that Return to Zendikar
might feature a return to the Allies tribe and mechanic, as just a few more good cards that work
similarly might really help this deck–not that I think any of the cards in at the moment are
terrible, but Allies really do like to play with as many Allies as possible.
Now for a completely different way to use +1/+1 counters, still with Collected Company:
Creatures (33)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- 3 Safehold Elite
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Viscera Seer
- 3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
- 4 Blood Artist
- 4 Cartel Aristocrat
- 3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
Lands (18)
Spells (9)
Sideboard
This deck is committed to trying to combo as quickly and consistently as possible, especially
trying to build boards where Collected Company will win the game.
The sideboard is pretty straightforward, with the cutest thing going on being Fecundity to punish
people who try to kill your creatures, which should work pretty well.
I’m a little skeptical of being this committed to the combo, and I think I’d prefer something that’s
more interested in attacking, with the combo as a backup plan, like this:
Creatures (31)
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- 4 Safehold Elite
- 4 Viscera Seer
- 4 Doomed Traveler
- 4 Young Wolf
- 4 Cartel Aristocrat
- 4 Voice of Resurgence
- 3 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
Lands (23)
Spells (6)
Sideboard
This deck is designed to maximize creatures that come back into play as creatures when they
die for extra triggers with Anafenza and Abzan Ascendancy, which may conveniently result in an
arbitrarily large, or just regularly large number of Spirits.
Collected Company is expensive for the maindeck since this version doesn’t have mana
creatures, but I think it might be a good sideboard tool against people who are making the game
go longer, and the instant speed obviously gives you a little more play. Blood Artist gives you
faster combo finishes against people who don’t have much removal, and most of the rest of the
sideboard is designed to give this deck a chance against Twin, which will still be a difficult
matchup.
I’ve said that I think Atarka’s Command is the most powerful Dragons of Tarkir card in Modern, so I should probably put together some decks with it, even
if they’re not really my style. First, Zoo:
Creatures (21)
Lands (21)
Spells (18)
This is a “Small Zoo” deck designed to get in some early damage and then end the game with
huge amount of reach offered by Tribal Flames and Atarka’s Command. Lingering Souls offers
a backup plan that gives you some card advantage as well as evasion against people who lock
up the ground. It also plays well with Atarka’s Command. Nothing too fancy.
Another approach is to really try to play up the “go wide” element of Atarka’s Command,
perhaps with something like this:
Creatures (22)
- 4 Mogg War Marshal
- 4 Goblin Chieftain
- 4 Goblin Bushwhacker
- 4 Goblin Guide
- 2 Legion Loyalist
- 4 Foundry Street Denizen
Lands (22)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
This is a pretty extreme approach to building Goblins toward going wide, as I’ve maximized two-
drops that make multiple Goblins. I have Atarka’s Command, Goblin Bushwhacker, and Goblin
Chieftain to reward going wide, with Impact Tremors and Obelisk of Urd in the sideboard.
Impact Tremors is the plan against people who are trying to kill your Goblins, adding a burn spell
to each of them.
The three cards I’d be most interested in adding all cost three, and they all seem very good, but
I figured I should err toward the cheapest cards when there was a question, so none of
Hordeling Outburst, Goblin Rabblemaster, and Boggart Shenanigans made the cut, but if I were
to work on this deck, I’d definitely try them all.
While we’re looking at Impact Tremors, let’s not forget the best home for it that doesn’t involve
an infinite combo, Norin the Wary:
Creatures (21)
Lands (23)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
Norin the Wary might actually be the best card in this deck, which has sixteen cards that trigger
whenever it enters the battlefield. Champion of the Parish is basically on plan and also works
well with Norin, but I felt like the last slot was between that and Spectral Procession, and
Spectral Procession seemed better.
The sideboard here is mostly just extremely high impact hate cards. Wear//Tear is there mostly
as an answer to Torpor Orb, which basically turns off this entire deck.
Unlike my last article, this is not an attempt to be anywhere near comprehensive. It’s hard to
imagine attempting to create a comprehensive list of decks that could exist with almost any
restriction. Also, obviously, these are untuned and should be read as starting points rather
than my recommendations for what you should bring to Modern Spring States this weekend. If there’s
a card you think would improve one of these decks, by all means, play it, as there’s a reasonable
chance I just didn’t think of it.