Hello in 2012! I’m writing this article in the most festive mood ever—‘cause I’ve just returned from a New Year celebration in Kiev—which is, I’d say, one of the most underrated capitals of Europe. I want to keep this holiday atmosphere for the whole winter, so I’m going to write a Christmas article about Modern, filled with fireworks and gifts of under-the-radar decks (disclaimer: no Gifts Ungiven decks inside). Having a good and interesting deck is a significant part of having the proper mood at a PTQ, so My Magical Christmas Land is the proper place to charge before the season.

You can guess that it’s too late for a Christmas article, but in Soviet Russia (I mean, the mostly Christian states of the former USSR: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Armenia), we have Christmas on the 7th of January because the Orthodox Church still lives under the Julian calendar—the very same thing that caused the Great October Revolution to take place on the 7th of November.

Actually, the New Year is celebrated here far wider than Christmas, so if you’re European, I would recommend you celebrate Christmas at home and then to go to Kiev for the New Year celebrations—the city is worth it. As a side note, there will be a European soccer championship in Poland and Ukraine this summer—one more good reason to go to Kiev. As a side note for the side note, I really hate to name football “soccer,” but most of my readers are Americans. I want to be understood, not like when I said to Mike Flores that PT Barcelona is the same weekend as the Formula One race, and he answered that he had no clue what F1 is. If you have no clue too, there is the link and the note that even if you’re not interested in auto racing, you should keep in mind increased hotel costs for PT Barcelona.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Actually, we’ll come to Christmas Land a little bit later. I’m not a very religious person, and I’m a fan of Tim Burton, so The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my most important Christmas impressions. Luckily, there is an underrated Modern deck perfectly fitting into this theme: what can be a more horrific nightmare than Living End? So, enter Jack Skellington and his friends.

Earlier versions of Living End were perfectly armed to fight against Zoo but fell to literally anything else, especially to combo decks. This updated version is far better against non-Zoo decks because of the land destruction game plan, which allows you to keep opponents from killing you until you’re ready to swing with unearthed draft commons.

The matchup against U/R Storm is still unfavorable, but at least the deck is now able to play an actual game of Magic and to punish opponents for keeping mediocre or land-light hands. Some discard spells would help to keep combo decks in check, but Living End couldn’t use Thoughtseize because of its mana cost. Possible options are Night Terrors (Thoughtseize for three mana), Entomber Exarch (additional mana for a body and ability to hit a land), and Nightmare Void (four mana for a repeatable discard effect). Nightmare Void also fills the graveyard while dredging, so it looks like the optimal choice.

The land destruction plan will work well against the Tron Control decks that are gaining popularity in MTGO. It’s possible to keep them off of colored mana or Tron pieces, especially if you choose to run a full playset of Avalanche Riders. In this case, the deck goes into some mix of Living End and Ponza—that would probably be the right call. Speed is crucial, and Simian Spirit Guide can help play either Fulminator Mage or Night Terrors on the second turn. Fitting all these things into one deck would cause some consistency problems, but we’re in Magical Christmas Land, so I hope that everything will work as intended. Let’s fulminate everything around and ride the resulting avalanche!

Living End

Valeriy Shunkov

Test deck on 01-08-2012

Modern

Creatures (27)

Lands (19)

Spells (14)

Sideboard

The embedded bonus of the deck is its cheap cost, which seems to be very relevant on MTGO. Storm was very popular some days ago mostly because of its cost, and Living End now has far more good matchups than expected, so I have no reason to throw this deck out of consideration. But that’s all about Living End for me, as we’re entering to my actual Magical Christmas Land.

Christmas Tree

The only proper Christmas Tree in Russia is a spruce (while fir and pine are commonly used in Europe and America), but Lorwyn unfortunately has no evergreen trees—so we are forced to use black poplar. I obviously mean Doran, the Siege Tower—but I don’t want to be the person offering garlands to an old wanderer. Are there any volunteers?

Doran is an interesting take if you’re willing to ask as many questions as possible. Zoo is definitely underrated in the current format (and I have no clue why), but putting all these apes and cats through Russian winter would be cruelty to animals, so let’s work with trees and lhurgoyfs.

The most respectable similar deck now is Jund, but I prefer to play a threat every turn and to stab my opponent to death instead of playing things like Blightning or Liliana of the Veil. If you remember PT Amsterdam’s Doran, that deck was able to produce turn-four kills (Doran, Treetop Village, and a pair of Harbingers). That deck was designed to play in the combo-filled metagame, so we can use that experience for our purposes. Moreover, Treefolk Harbinger is much better against Kird Ape than against Wild Nacatl, and he outclasses any Jund creature with Doran on the battlefield.

The Amsterdam Doran was built to avoid Punishing Fire, so it lacked Noble Hierarch, but we can use her now for powering faster starts.

Doran

Valeriy Shunkov

Test deck on 01-08-2012

Modern

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Lands (23)

Spells (9)

Sideboard

This list has many things to do on the first and second turns and probably has all the tools to handle Jund and Storm. You’ve probably already noticed the lack of Dark Confidant, but I don’t want to see Hoffmann-style horror stories in my Magical Christmas Land, so the deck is designed to topdeck threats every turn. Dark Confidant is obviously good against many decks, but I can’t justify playing more than ten three-mana creatures (Doran, Knight of the Reliquary, and Kitchen Finks to compensate for Confidant’s life loss)—dying from my own creatures is not what I want.

More control-ish variants of Doran are also available, but if I built a non-blue control deck, I’d prefer Smallpox or Death Cloud. These decks, while having their places in the Modern metagame, have no place in my Magical Christmas Land. Terrorists have already attacked my imagination, but the Barrier will stay before the next article. Look, I see the deer in the sky! Oh, I’ve seen the one in Doran’s sideboard, but there are more, and an old man with them!

Old Man’s Reindeer

The next important part of Magical Christmas Land is Santa Claus reindeers. This part of my article will be more western than I’d like—just because the Russian analogue of Santa Claus has no deer. He is named Grandfather Frost, and he is probably better known abroad as General Frost—his previous work before retiring includes significant victories in 1812 and 1941. Now the old general prefers to give New Year gifts to children, but in case of emergency, we can break the glass and summon him for old times’ sake.

Grandfather Frost prefers horses to deer, but there are no good Modern-legal horses, while Wilt-Leaf Liege is one of the best possible answers to Jund—Blightning is rarely played, but Rise / Fall and Liliana of the Veil are important parts of the most popular deck, so it’s just wrong to leave this potential weakness as is. And, as I started to speak about other deck’s weaknesses, the deck to build is my pet archetype—Bant.

The most appropriate person to be Santa Claus of Magical Christmas Land is Gaddock Teeg, but it is just the wrong time for him. Gaddock Teeg is the ultimate threat against Tron decks (which are quickly gaining popularity now), but even dedicated Mystical Teachings decks have a lot of answers, not to mention that Gaddock Teeg is just a 2/2 against Jund and occasionally cannot stop Storm from comboing via Pyromancer Ascension and Grapeshot.

Gaddock Teeg deserves his place in the sideboard, but he and other hatebears are not worth having in a dedicated Haterator deck. But as there is no longer a way to splash Bant for Wild Nacatl, the deck should be better than Zoo—and may be the best possible choice now. The lack of good two-mana creatures means that there will be an excess of three-drops, so six or seven manadorks are definitely needed.

Bant

Valeriy Shunkov

Test deck on 01-08-2012

Modern

Creatures (27)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Lands (23)

Spells (8)

Sideboard

Okina helps Geist survive through blockers and allows Vendilion Clique to be a good clock without the mana-hungry swords, perfectly fitting into a “stick a threat then defend it” strategy. It would be good to play a third Elspeth, but I really like Wilt-Leaf Liege, and there are enough four-mana spells in the deck.

Notable creatures that didn’t make the cut are Qasali Pridemage (swords are rarely played now) and Rhox War Monk (Kitchen Finks is just devastating to U/x tempo decks, and the immediate lifegain is important against Storm). I don’t really like Tarmogoyf in this deck, but it is still better than Pridemage would be. It would be good if three-mana creatures were a part of Christmas sales, but dreams, dreams…

Christmas League of Legends

I’ve noticed differences between Santa Claus and his foreign colleagues—Russian Grandfather Frost among French Père Noël, Finnish Joulupukki, Italian Babba Natale, etc. I like celebrations, so I would like to invite all these legendary characters into my Magical Christmas lands (obviously aiming to be granted with more gifts). And the universal invitation for any legendary character in Magic is Time of Need. I believe that it is significantly underrated in Modern—it can be very similar to the banned Green Sun’s Zenith. As long as any tutor is legal, people will try to break it.

I obviously would not invite black and red creatures—because they are mostly bad guys, so this deck will be in Bant colors. Emrakul is obviously not invited too (although I’ve seen an evil deck with Fist of Suns and Time of Need). Legends are not very cheap to cast, so we would need Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in addition to the obvious Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise.

The final take will be very similar to a basic Bant deck, but with a wide variety of outstanding gentlemen. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV is the most important of them—he cements our game plan and builds the deck around himself as an overgrown haterator with three-mana creatures instead of two-mana ones. Christmas sales in action! Hokori, Dust Drinker will secure the opponent’s lack of resources (while manadorks and Knight of the Reliquary will ensure that we can take some action).

The idea of Augustin’s deck belongs to my fellow teammate Nikita Sekretarev, and it wouldn’t exist without his relentless energy and addiction to deckbuilding during our co-work. Now everything is ready, and the first meeting of the Christmas League of Legends is officially open!

Christmas League of Legends

Nikita Sekretarev and Valeriy Shunkov

Test deck on 01-08-2012

Modern

Creatures (26)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Lands (23)

Spells (9)

Sideboard

Both Okina and Eiganjo protect our lieber Augustin from Lighting Bolt, and so do Stave Off (with some work against Splinter Twin) and Kira. Augustin’s effect is crucial against both Jund and Storm. Do you remember how good Frost Titan was in the right metagame? Turn-three Augustin is even better. The excess of three-mana creatures is a little bit problematic, but the deck, despite being primarily a Theme Deck, is worth additional work: the ability to attack for ten or twelve on the third turn (Noble, Geist, Elspeth, or Rafiq) should not be ignored.

While all these gentlemen are here, it’s the proper time to think about Christmas Gifts. Obviously not Gifts Ungiven, but toys! I always preferred LEGO to any other toys, but an artificial robotized frog is good for me too.

Toys

So, robotized frogs and unmanned airplanes. The flavor text of the most recent incarnation of Ornithopter says: “Regardless of the century, plane, or species, developing artificers never fail to invent the ornithopter.” So, regardless of format, bans, and metagame, developing deckbuilders never fail to invent Affinity. This deck is one of the most controversial choices in Modern: it has some unbeatable draws, but it is the easiest deck to hate: Ancient Grudge, Shattering Spree, Shatterstorm, and Creeping Corrosion are ready to smash Affinity; and other colors have Hurkyl’s Recall, Fracturing Gust, and Curse of Death’s Hold.

The common red version of the deck is almost established. The largest differences are between three of four slots previously occupied by Atog. The evergrinning creature definitely has no place in the maindeck with significantly less combo around. Playing all-in is dangerous these days, so even Arcbound Ravager’s place is not secured—because Ravager is not so devastating without Arcbound Worker and artifact lands. But if not going too far from the universally accepted list, the contenders are Etched Champion (popularized by Ari Lax), Dark Confidant, Ethersworn Canonist, Spellskite, and even Steel Overseer.

Personally, I don’t really like Etched Champion. He is slow without Cranial Plating and can’t take part in devastating goldfishes—which are the main reason to play Affinity over any other deck. There are also Tempered Steel, Master of Etherium, and even OMG Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas—but they all share that very problem: they are not part of the deck’s fastest starts. Affinity definitely would win long games, but the intention to play long games with Affinity is just wrong; it’s like using telescopic sight as a microscope for long-term investigations instead of one well-prepared shot. I’d also consider Tarmogoyf if somehow forced to play Affinity in a hostile field (that is obviously a bad idea). Tarmogoyf is always large in this deck, but if you have him, and the field is hostile to Affinity, you’d better find another home for your Lhurgoyfs.

My final vote for Affinity is a playset of Ethersworn Canonists (who are useful enough alone to justify the colored manacost). Dark Confidant (as three copies) is a very close runner-up—in case of larger amounts of removal-heavy decks like Grixis. I am writing this a article few days before publication, so it’s possible that this moment has already happened in the fast-changing MTGO metagame. Anyway, my current list for the 3rd of January looks like this:

Red Affinity

Valeriy Shunkov

Test deck on 01-08-2012

Modern

Creatures (28)

Lands (15)

Spells (17)

Sideboard

You can see—nothing outstanding, just a well-tuned list, but I have something special for you. Enter Erayo, Soratami Ascendant. She was first introduced into Modern at PT Philly by Ukrainian Oleksander Onosov (better known as Dr.Vendigo), who used Erayo and made a PT top 16 (that qualified him to both Worlds 2011 and PT Honolulu) and later, to some success on MTGO. His recent list is the following:

Erayo Affinity

Oleksandr Onosov

Test deck on 01-08-2012

Modern

Creatures (26)

Lands (15)

Spells (19)

Sideboard

This deck has the incredible ability to lock opponents out of the game before they can do anything (especially Storm and Tron decks), while being not significantly worse than the common red version in other matches. It will be obviously in “hard mode,” but I found key matchups to stay reasonably good to justify playing this version over the red one. I’ve already said that Arcbound Ravager’s slot in Affinity is not secure, and this version is the right call. I do love Affinity very much (probably because I didn’t take part in the nightmare of Mirrodin-era Standard), so I was unable to avoid testing this deck—and my deck has some significant discrepancies with Oleksander’s design.

First off, every point of damage is crucial without Galvanic Blast, so Blinkmoth Nexus is an autoinclude over Inkmoth Nexus. I’ve seen Vendigo playing either, but I have no clue if his recent list is an experiment or the final decision (he is known for “build and go fight” experiments), but the old Nexus is the clear answer for me. There is no place for seven, and playing five or six is more harmful than useful, so it is right just to keep the other lands as is.

Erayo Affinity

Valeriy Shunkov

Test deck on 01-08-2012

Modern

Creatures (27)

Lands (15)

Spells (18)

Sideboard

I’ve swapped Master of Etherium for Etched Champion: the deck is often a few damage short of winning in games when it is impossible to set up the combo (to be fair, most games), so Champion is far more reliable. For the very same reason, a miser’s Gitaxian Probe is now a miser’s Tooth of Chiss-Goria. My teammates advocated Scale of Chiss-Goria “in case I really want to play a stupid do-nothing artifact,” but I’m really happy with this singleton. Scale would be better in a world of Punishing Fire (protecting Ethersworn Canonist is priceless), but additional damage is much more relevant, alongside the ability to allow Memnite to trade with opponent’s creatures.

The deck is very interesting to play and surprisingly very flexible: it doesn’t rely on combo (while it’s right to skip your turn-one action to try to combo on turn two against an unknown opponent, taking the risk of being Thoughtseized out of the game), and Erayo’s flying is relevant enough. The most interesting game I won during testing was one when I drew nine of fourteen lands, and my opponent drew three Shattering Sprees. Fourth Nexus for the win! This is how Magical Christmas Land works. Try to repeat it at home, and if you succeed, nothing will stop your holiday at the upcoming PTQ!

Valeriy Shunkov

@amartology