Once Upon A Time Is Taking Over Modern

Some formats just don’t know how to handle their busted combo and ramp decks.

Modern…

…Well, Modern isn’t one of them.

Okay, let me make sure I get this straight.

22 (!) different combo and ramp decks made Day 2 of the Modern SCG Open in Indianapolis this weekend? Even if you merge different-color decks with the same combo, we’re still talking double digits, and that’s just the combo and ramp decks. Control, Taxes, Burn, Zoo, Jund, Death’s Shadow, Delver, Affinity, and half a dozen different tribal decks?

Let me tell you a story…

Somehow, despite three of the most busted Modern-ready sets ever, Modern is extremely rich and diverse. I guess some formats can just handle it a little better than others.

Once Upon a Time is an extremely powerful new library manipulation spell that adds a whole lot of consistency to decks looking to assemble the right mix of creatures and/or land.

What could go wrong?

Here’s the Day 2 metagame, which despite all the insanity going on, right now, had zero decks with double-digit representation:

Archetype	Day 2 Metagame
Amulet Titan	8.7%
Jund	8.7%
Urza Ascendancy	8.7%
Mono-Green Tron	8.0%
Burn	8.0%
Death’s Shadow	7.2%
Paradoxical Urza	5.8%
Whirza	5.1%
Stoneblade	5.1%
Eldrazi Aggro	4.3%
Humans	2.9%
Azorius Control	2.9%
TitanShift	2.9%
Dredge	2.2%
Misc. *	19.6%

* Misc. = Spirits, Devoted Devastation, Goryo’s Vengeance, Abzan Company, Jeskai Control, Mystic Sultai, Living End, Elementals, Niv-Mizzet Reborn, Elves, Esper Control, Izzet Breach, Mono-Red Prowess, Four-Color Snowheeli, Kethis Combo, Naya Zoo, Izzet Delver, Jeskai Flash, Hardened Scales, Golgari Yawgmoth, Gifts Storm, Affinity, and Bant Soulherder.

Okay, to be fair, three of the top ten archetypes all revolve around Urza, Lord High Artificer, but that’s still not even 20% of the field.

Besides, they’re actually pretty different decks, and they underperformed anyway, and who can be mad when 24 distinct archetypes all put one or two players into Day 2… assuming we’re only counting the fringe decks that didn’t even make the above chart.

Yeah, that’s right. Once Upon a Time was already legal, playa. What now?

Err, yeah, I guess you can just play all eight and kind of define the format, can’t you?

Amulet Titan is the epitome of a deck that wants to draw a good mix of cards in the right order, and Pulliam’s finalist list represents the next evolution of the style. A playset of Once Upon a Time to go along with the Ancient Stirrings and Summoner’s Pacts sure does wonders for improving the consistency of what was already one of the most explosive decks in the format.

While Field of the Dead may be absolutely demolishing the less resilient Standard, here in Modern, it’s merely a major player that gives ramp decks another dimension for going long or fighting through interaction.

There is a new land, however, that surely warrants a little attention. After all, lands that tap for more than one mana are historically far more dangerous than almost any other kind of card.

Castle Garenbrig is perfect for when you want to skip five and go straight to six. Sure is convenient when you’ve got Primeval Titan in your deck. As if that wasn’t enough, its sometimes “drawback” can actually be used to your advantage with Amulet of Vigor.

While the Top 8 featured seven distinct archetypes, the lone strategy to put two into the Top 8 snagged two of the top three spots. Zach Allen’s third-place list differs only slightly from Pulliam’s, though he does have some spice in the sideboard.

Can you imagine playing Burn in a Modern event, and your opponent just starts Oko’ing you?

Oko, Thief of Crowns is versatile removal, a card advantage engine, and a reliable backup plan. Get used to seeing the rascal; we’ll be seeing more of him today.

Speaking of busted planeswalkers, remember this fella and his whole Mycosynth Lattice “one-card lock” thing? Once Upon a Time may not be able to find Karn the way Ancient Stirrings does, but it does help ensure we can use our Stirrings on spells more often and leave the land finding up to Once Upon a Time.

Only three Once Upon a Time?

Well, once we’re at the point of cutting copies of Sylvan Scrying for it, I could see an argument for us not wanting to draw multiples, as Once Upon a Time certainly suffers from diminishing returns.

Cutting most of the Oblivion Stone and Relic of Progenitus action is interesting. I guess when you’re just this consistent and have access to so much powerful and flexible interaction from Karn, Karn, Ugin, and Ulamog, you might not need much.

Ulamog wasn’t the only Eldrazi to benefit from Once Upon a Time. Eldrazi Displacer, Thought-Knot Seer, and Reality Smasher are all great threats that become insane when drawn alongside Eldrazi Temple. Once Upon a Time makes that meaningfully more reliable with little opportunity cost.

A lot of folks had visions of Stoneforge Mystic doing most of her work alongside Jace, the Mind Sculptor or other such classics.

It would appear she has adapted to the realities of the modern age. It’s not that she’s above working with ‘walkers. It’s just… well, times have changed.

Four is just so much mana, and three is just so much less. Teferi, Time Raveler and Oko, Thief of Crowns sure make for some intense Turn 3s, as demonstrated by Chuckie Davis’s Top 32 list:

No Once Upon a Time, true, but if you’re specifically looking to play an aggro-control deck, if you want to turn creatures sideways yet still pack permission, this list is a great place to start.

Three Force of Negations maindeck? Is that where the format is?

No, that is where the format is. There are seriously enough people playing spells for zero that Lavinia is getting solid play. I wonder if we’ll encounter any strategies using zero-cost artifacts? And that’s to say nothing of suspend spells without costs.

Sometimes the honest ones actually get there.

That said, Giver of Runes might not actually be as honest as advertised, but rather merely just powerful. Yeah, protecting your Stoneforge Mystic sounds like noble work, but what about Vizier of Remedies?

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. How many pushed green tutors have they made this year?

That’s a lot of Once Upon a Times. Not surprisingly, having access to this many strong tutors pushes decks into some pretty extreme positions.

With such automatic and continual access to the Vizier of Remedies / Devoted Druid combo, this list actually plays substantially more kill conditions than previous builds. By actually drawing one, we can sometimes shave a turn off the clock of the previous version’s goldfish times.

Any one of these wins the game, to say nothing of a Finale of Devastation for 100. We’ve even got the full playset of Postmortem Lunges for hasty kills through removal.

This deck does some spooky things and might not be done evolving. This is definitely one to watch.

Once Upon a Time’s reach has already been extremely wide, with even Death’s Shadow decks making use of the card.

As mentioned above, half a dozen tribal decks popped up, with Plague Engineer a solid tactical weapon.

With Traverse the Ulvenwald and Once Upon a Time, even one copy goes a long way against decks like Patrick Tilsen’s Top 32 Humans list:

The new hotness here is Charming Prince, who, conveniently enough, is Human.

While the lifegain and scry modes are solid in spots, the real reason for his appearance here is the blink ability. When combined with Aether Vial, you can make some pretty big plays against removal, blinking your creature at instant speed.

Besides, just getting another Thalia’s Lieutenant or Reflector Mage trigger can be unreal.

Jumping back to Jund, it’s worth noting that not everybody embraced Once Upon a Time, or even Death’s Shadow in general. The most popular style of Jund was still Wrenn and Six and their ragtag band of overpowered misfits.

While this package isn’t anything new at this point, Anthony Nazzaro adds an eyebrow-raising new Throne of Eldraine creature to the mix, Bonecrusher Giant.

Bonecrusher Giant’s rate is fantastic, and if we’re actually frequently able to kill something with the two damage, the card could be nuts. Jund is especially appreciative of a two-for-one, and Bonecrusher Giant counting as a creature in the graveyard makes Kolaghan’s Command take on new meaning.

Looking for a midrange deck that considers itself fair, despite having obviously overpowered cards at every spot on the curve?

Ahh, yes, that point in the format where Ashiok, Dream Render is on the rise.

Sick of Amulet decks? Well, do something about it.

You gotta admit, banning Hogaak and Faithless Looting has worked out pretty well so far, all things considered.

And besides, it’s not like there aren’t interesting options taking advantage of the space created by the void these cards made.

Bonecrusher Giant isn’t the only red Adventure creature putting up a finish. Merchant of the Vale is a poor mage’s Faithless Looting, but at least it discards first, letting you start dredging Stinkweed Imp right from the start.

Dredge is mad scary and all, I feel ya, fam. Thing is, they don’t even play the graveyard card y’all should be afraid of.

This card is ridiculous. Like, how hard is it to assemble two zero-cost artifacts in Modern?

That means Emry is a pretty easy Turn 1 play, and with Mox Amber and Mox Opal, it sure isn’t hard to cast Jeskai Ascendancy Turn 2.

Once you’ve assembled the “combo,” you can just tap Emry to cast a zero-cost artifact from your graveyard (which you probably milled from her enters-the-battlefield trigger, if you didn’t have a Bauble or whatever). This counts as casting a noncreature spell, so Jeskai Ascendancy gives Emry +1/+1, untaps her, and lets you loot.

Discarding artifacts is pretty great here, but all you really want to do is find a Mishra’s Bauble or a second copy of a legendary Mox. At that point, you’ll be able to completely loop, cycling through your deck, making Emry huge, and eventually making tons of mana from Moxes.

Olivier Tomajko’s Top 8 list does exactly this:

As if the Emry shenanigans weren’t enough, Tomajko has two more over-the-top engines to capitalize on all these zeros. Urza, Lord High Artificer we touched on earlier, but the other new hotness is Paradoxical Outcome.

Paradoxical Outcome has been growing in notoriety online, and with Emry to give further value to the zeroes, this deck has legit claimed a spot as one of the best decks in the format.

While it’s nice to be able to play as many good zeros as we can, Arcum’s Astrolabe is still slightly busted and worth (sort of) paying a mana for.

Witching Well as a fifth Astrolabe is definitely cool, though it remains to be seen if it will stand the test of time. I’m here for it, though.

Now, there’s a win condition!

Mirrodin Besieged can serve as a pretty solid advantage engine, giving us a 1/1 flyer for each zero we play (which also leads to us have a fantastic battlefield for getting Jeskai Ascendancy pumps). If things have gone on a little bit, Mirrodin Besieged gives us an instant-win one-turn-kill. It takes a little while to get fifteen artifacts in the graveyard, but each mill by Emry definitely helps.

Great sideboard option, as one-mana interaction is at such a premium and being able to counter creatures like Emry gives the card added flexibility compared to Spell Pierce (in addition to that whole “countered unless they pay three” part).

As much as I’d like to point to Emry, Urza, Primeval Titan, Stoneforge Mystic, Thought-Knot Seer, or Devoted Druid, when all was said and done, it was Mystical Dispute that represented Throne of Eldraine in the champ’s deck:

Gifts Storm?

After all that, Gifts Storm takes home the trophy?

On any given Sunday, you’re gonna win or you’re gonna lose. The point is, can you win or lose like a Modern player?

I guess, the more things change, the more they stay the same.