“‘Tis the season” is my mindset whenever a banning is about to take place. Banning time for a deck builder gives an opportunity much better than any
other event in Magic. When new sets come and go and formats shift naturally, deck builders can face the task of innovation head-on. But when a banning
takes place in a format as wide open as Modern started out as, then innovation has a natural advantage. There wasn’t a month of spoilers and
preparation on the cards we know are leaving the format, but a sudden removal of powerful cards. This removal of powerful cards allows a control deck
builder to make the proper adjustments and have a large advantage in a PTQ, grand Prix, or upcoming Pro Tour.
What powerful cards got the axe?
…Wild Nacatl? Really? This is unprecedented and unbelievable. The last busted creature that got the ban (at least that I thought really deserved it)
was Disciple of the Vault for obvious reasons… but a 3/3 for one is not on the same level.
Modern is filled with answers for the little man rush — and at Worlds, my two encounters
against Zoo ended very well. In the first match I conquered in twenty minutes with an early Sundering Titan in game 1 and multiple Timely
Reinforcements in game 2. The other match where I played Zoo was against David Ochoa who I conceded to — but we did play a game for fun, and I played
an early Sundering Titan on the play again after a Gifts Ungiven, and the game was over.
Then again, Wizards doesn’t consider what to ban or not ban based on a Shaheen control matchup, but Wild Nacatl banning and their explanation was loose
at best.
Creatures have always received the benefit of the doubt when the ban hammer came their way. Extended cards like Hermit Druid and Disciple of the Vault
and Block cards like Lin-Sivvi, Defiant Hero were banned due to their abusive combo nature. Bannings should primarily be used when the format doesn’t
have the answers to abusive cards — which means everyone is either playing the card or having to play only decks that have answers to the card. There
are so few answers to Wild Nacatl in Modern…
- Repeal
- Lightning Bolt
- Engineered Explosives
- Path to Exile
- Dispatch
- Various Arrays of Control Anti-Creature Technology (Wraths, Black Removal, Snapcaster Opportunity with previously stated removal, etc.)
I could go on and on about the ways Wild Nacatl does not break the format, but the reason for my protest to this particular ban is that the hammer has
been dropped far too many times in this format. I understand unleashing a format that is completely unknown into a competitive field right off the bat
(PTQs, GPs, PTs and even Worlds) calls for a long list of bannings… But enough is enough. Just because every tournament yields a successful turnout
with a particular deck, that doesn’t mean we have to destroy it.
Zoo is fast and powerful, and we can all agree on that. Have you ever heard anyone refer to Zoo as unbeatable, unfair, and an unwinnable matchup? That
terminology has been used against a long list of decks that have since rotated or ceased to exist because of a necessary banning.
Luckily for all you diehard aggro players out there, I still think Zoo is feasible without the little fella. I doubt many consumers of Modern cards are
willing to accept their financial loss and toss the Naya duals in the trash, but instead play the same deck without Wild Nacatl. What the banning will
do is simply weaken Naya-based aggro, but it will not shift aggressive decks to other colors or archetypes (Merfolk, Affinity, Goblins, etc.). All
those aggro decks will still be around in a decent showing, but the king of the hill will still be aggro decks with monkeys, lions, and lhurgoyfs.
What else got banned?
Well…umm…that one’s okay to drop I guess. I don’t think it is completely overpowered, but if Wizards goal is to promote other forms of aggro besides
Zoo, then the repeatable removal spell had to get chopped off Modern’s playlist as well. The card is great, and I have had a lot of success with it
back in the old Extended days when shocklands didn’t allow for an easy 3/3 for one creation.
I don’t have too much to spout about the banning of Punishing Fire, but the way Wizards is going I foresee other powerful spells like Gifts Ungiven or
Splinter Twin getting similar treatment if they dominate a tournament or two.
Thoughts on Modern
I am on the Ali Aintrazi train when it comes to the power of U/W Tron. Him and I both played Tron
along with Gerry Thompson at Worlds this past year and I was 2-2 effectively before conceding to Ochoa in the final stretch. The deck played well
against the control mirror due to the massive mana capability. I played against the Grixis Control deck piloted by Michael Jacob and snagged a 2-0 win
on the back of big mana and an un-killable Batterskull after all other win conditions were extirpated. I also beat a white aggro deck and narrowly lost
to Anton Jonsson playing Cruel Ultimatum. I’ll post a list that I’ve been toying with — but my focus has been on Standard, which will take over the
last half of this article.
Even with all its bannings, Modern is still a pretty fun format in my opinion. With every ban comes opportunity to hit the old drawing board and create
a powerful metagame-breaking (control) list. This is no different — and with the weakening of Zoo and the removal of Punishing Fire, things have
changed.
Punishing Fire is the most significant of the bannings because it makes those pesky multi-color control decks less appealing than a more traditional
mid-range or aggro deck. People want to win PTQs and do well at a GP, so you will see safety over innovation. Expect a lot of aggro, Deceiver combo,
and mid-range Vendilion Clique or Knight of the Reliquary / Elspeth, Knight-Errant decks.
The beauty of Tron is that it is easily molded into what is demanded by the shifting metagame. For a format that doesn’t have any rotation, it sure
does change a lot — but most of the problems can be attributed to the bannings arriving every five minutes or so. This Tron list has been altered to
have a strong showing against twin and aggressive decks.
Creatures (2)
Lands (25)
Spells (32)
Enough Modern…I have some exciting news!!
Standard is my favorite format, as most of you know. I recently got into Standard more heavily on Magic Online and I have been tearing it up in
four-rounders, eight-mans and heads-up. At first I thought heads-up and similar tournaments were only played by average players or players like me —
but I’ve played against some of the big names in these random queues and it’s been pretty fun.
Now, I’ve talked about Tezzeret as of late and it treated me right, but the losses to Wolf Run and the new U/W Illusions deck made me switch back to a
more traditional U/B Control deck. I’ve tweaked it and tested it in over a hundred matches, and you will see the final product that raised my
Constructed rating on modo about 100 points and has caused me into what feels like a permanent free roll in these small tournaments. I really should
take the deck on the road to a PE event or PTQ online, but I can’t afford to sit at home for eleven hours battling in one of these ten-round
monstrosities. When summer vacation hits I’ll be sure to get more involved, but that’s a while down the road.
The switch back to a traditional U/B Control deck was no easy decision, as the matchup versus Mono-Red and G/W tokens worsened slightly, but the
matchups across the board besides those two decks have been stellar. For the first time since U/B Control pre-rotation, I am not afraid of any one deck
in particular, but welcome all matchups.
There are a few key differences between the two decks that change the rate of success in most cases.
The first big change is the removal of Ichor Wellspring. That card is an abomination against most decks and requires way too much mana investment early
in the game. The early game for U/B Control is the most important, because making it to the late game is almost always a win. Think Twice is much
better than Ichor Wellspring for obvious reasons, but the use of Tezzeret makes it mandatory to run the two-drop artifact.
Solemn Simulacrum is an amazing robot in a field of main-phase creature aggro — but with the popularity of Snapcaster Mage, Midnight Haunting, and
Moorland Haunt, the use of Solemn has degraded into a sad low level. Against control he is still the man — but against Wolf Run and the U/W Control
deck variants, he’s just too subpar.
In his same “tap out on turn 4” fashion, poor Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is going to also get cut from the team. Freeing yourself from Tezzeret allows
for many more slots to also be freed with cards that tend to be needed in the current metagame. I’m going to spend a great deal of time on a card I
have been winning with nonstop on Magic Online, a card that no one is currently playing (except my recent opponents, perhaps) and a card that has
caused instant concessions from U/W players when it resolves. And to keep my realness to the readers out there true, the card is definitely not a cheap
one to cast.
What card is it, already???
Even after the switch to classic U/B, I still was losing more than winning against the U/W Midnight Haunting Decks, U/W Illusions and U/W Humans decks.
I couldn’t figure out how to deal with the onslaught of efficient little guys. I tried upping the amount of Ratchet Bombs, moving the Bombs to the
main, playing more Black Sun’s Zeniths, cutting cards more specific to control… but nothing was working.
I finally decided to try the “Hail Mary” play and toss three expensive answers into a deck that can be very fast, and see what happens. It turns out
the move was very successful, and I haven’t looked back since. Let’s take a look at the reasons why Curse of Death’s Hold has been the answer I’ve been
looking for.
The Control Mirror
I know, I know this sounds crazy, but let me explain. In the control matchup, it has almost always been Oblivion Ringed, Countered or helped pave the
way to a long drawn out victory. While Curse is in play, it completely shuts down the Snapcaster pressure plan. When Snapcaster simply flashes back a
spell and doesn’t provide them a constant threat, it loses a bit of value. I do admit the value lost from Snapcaster isn’t devastating, to say the
least, but it does help.
Against the Solar Flare variants which run multiple White sun’s Zeniths, it helps in another big way to allow those big end of turn cat armies to not
slay you in one or two turns. If Curse in play isn’t helping the game state at all, it can still bait a counter against most opponents or warrant some
kind of removal in order for them to put pressure on you with dorks that are less than six mana.
The beauty of cards like this is that since it’s only dead in one matchup, the worst-case scenario against control is pitching it to Liliana of the
Veil or dropping them in the yard off of Forbidden Alchemy.
Again, I emphasize that Curse of Death’s Hold isn’t fantastic against control and I board it out against them — but it isn’t completely a dead draw
when you peel one. The reason for Curse of Death’s Hold is for a few other villains out there…
U/W Illusions/Humans/Midnight Haunting
Here
is the reason for the tech. Against the Midnight Haunting U/W deck, it creates an instant concession. Not one card in their entire maindeck can remove
it, they have not one creature that can survive it, and you have three copies and plenty of spells prior to that that they have to counter in order to
resolve it.
I didn’t think that all these U/W decks ran the same list, but I was proven wrong in these different standard queues when I played against it at least
50% of the time. The game started off with a Delver, and my attempts to remove it ended with plenty of my cards stopped, and pressure off of Midnight
Haunting and Moorland Haunt sent my life dwindling….
But then, at the end of the road, they got crushed. When the dust settled I had resolved a Curse, they drew a few cards here and there, desperately
searching for an answer. Then they realize the game is over.
The deck plays out like Faeries, and a card like Curse would be amazing against the Fae as well if they didn’t run three times as many counters that
the Delver deck packs.
After boarding, U/W brings in Negates, Dissipate, and Celestial Purge — which simply falls behind the plethora of cards we bring in against them. In
this scenario, the Curse might not get them, but the all the other hate cards are almost as deadly. I don’t know about you fellow rogue players, but
when you find a card that constantly shuts down an entire sixty-card assortment of spells instantly, well, that brings a new type of joy.
It’s just as good against U/W Illusions. They don’t concede instantly when you drop the bomb on them game one, but the idea that instead of
instant-speed power against control this army of bears can take it home is a silly one. Game one, we pack five targeted removal spells, two Zeniths,
three Lilianas, three Snapcasters, and win conditions that put little offenders on complete lockdown. As I said before, the Curse doesn’t beat them
instantly, but the matchup is even better — especially after sideboarding.
U/W Humans seems to be nearly as popular as the other two variants on MODO and in real life. U/W Humans is a tad bit better against us than the other
two decks, due to the Honor the Pures and Mirran Crusaders. After making heavy-duty changes to the actual control shell of the deck, however, I’ve lost
fewer and fewer games to Mirran Crusader.
The good news for us is that they don’t have a way to drop it before we can Mana Leak, so that enables us to dodge a silly instant loss that sometimes
those pesky G/W decks can dish out.
The matchup against U/W Humans is completely draw-dependent on their side, as it turns out. The only games I lose to UW Humans are the turn 2 Grand
Abolisher, turn 3 Mirran Crusader followed by countermagic on the draw. On the play we can deal with that start, but on the draw the deck doesn’t have
time to set up without sideboard. This is another matchup where the deck becomes neutered when we resolve a Curse of Death’s Hold or two — especially
if they don’t land an Honor the Pure. The key card to stop is Moorland Haunt in this matchup, and the Curse plus three Ghost Quarters does a pretty
good job at that.
Wolf Run Ramp
Curse has been phenomenal against this aging deck. I thought it would be super-weak because of their multiple answers to it post-board and you don’t
want to be caught with your pants down EOT with a Beast Within then just die out of nowhere. The biggest job of Curse against Wolf Run Ramp, I thought,
would be to shut down the Inkmoth Nexus plan.
I ended proving myself wrong, as I tested over and over and the same outcome shined through. You battle them….counter this, counter that, Liliana
discard, kill that, Liliana discard and then at the end of the day the enchantment protects you for nearly the rest of the game. Liliana makes Wolf Run
decide between keeping land and their expensive spells, and that decision makes this matchup atrocious for them. The matchup against Wolf Run was awful
with Tezzeret because of how much I had to tap out, but the matchup against Wolf Run now has to be the easiest of any other.
Mono-Red / U/R Delver
As you can guess Curse is also a bomb in these two matchups. Both Mono-Red and some UR Delver decks play a ton of creatures that start off with one
toughness, and a bunch that keep one toughness. You can stop Red’s assault with countermagic, spot removal, then end with Curse to seal the game up.
U/R Delver is such a good matchup already (especially after sideboarding with Batterskull and Sorin’s Thirst) that this enchantment is just another
pain that they have to deal with or the game is nearly over. Red is still a tough matchup game 1, and at times can fall below the 50% mark game 1. Game
2 and 3 are obviously much better, but you need to just make sure you don’t get Koth of the Hammer-ed out of the game to ensure victory.
But again, Curse of Death’s Hold is another card I don’t board out here and it helps a great deal against both decks.
Before the surge of U/W tempo decks I would have been crazy to pack 3 Curse of Death’s Hold in the main, but now it’s crazy not to pack them. It
creates silly good outs during an end of turn digging and puts games away that you had no business winning.
Without further ado, here is the list!
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (23)
- 2 Dissipate
- 4 Mana Leak
- 4 Think Twice
- 3 Doom Blade
- 2 Black Sun's Zenith
- 2 Go for the Throat
- 3 Curse of Death's Hold
- 3 Forbidden Alchemy
Sideboard
The list has been altered to a form that I will use to battle with in the upcoming, local StarCityGames.com Opens in DC and Richmond
as well as the GP. My list has zero Nephalia Drownyards and no maindeck Blue Sun’s Zeniths. My opponent tried to mill me in nearly every control mirror
I played, and I just killed them with a well-defended Liliana of the Veil (or just my large amount of win conditions post-board).
The control mirror is not a mill-fest, and I think that the Millstone strategy is only used when a true stalemate presents itself…which has been very
rare in my experiences. It is all about exhausting resources and not letting Mana Leak play a role. That strategy works best when you have more Think
Twices / Forbidden Alchemies than your opponent or are simply hitting more land drops. The control mirror isn’t too tough after sideboarding — just be
sure to bring in Ratchet Bombs for Oblivion Ring fodder, use Batterskulls and Blue Sun’s Zenith to bait countermagic, and do your best to land a Mimic
Vat to solidify the victory. Cutting the Drownyards and the Blue Sun’s Zenith from the main has helped me tremendously with the mana I need, and in not
having a horrendous card against most of the field in Zenith.
As far as sideboarding, I would cut the Zeniths, Curses, and a Doom Blade against most control matchups.
For Mono-Red, U/W Illusions, and U/R Delver, you bring in the Sorin’s Thirsts for obvious, life-gaining reasons. And for all the aggro decks out there
you can bring in the Batterskulls, an extra Zenith, Despises, and Ratchet Bombs. Despise is best against Wolf Run and any green deck in
general, but useful against decks that have Geist and/or Mirran Crusaders.
The cards that aren’t that great in the maindeck against aggro decks are…counterspells! I have been cutting countermagic from control decks for removal
/ hand disruption for quite some time, and it’s worked well. Don’t worry about Mana Leak — that’s what Despise is for.
As for Dissipate, I think it’s terrible against aggressive decks and I’m ecstatic when I get to send it to the sideboard. I tend to take out Karn
Liberated against most aggro decks, except when I’m feeling saucy and I’m on the play. I also drop Grave Titan against decks I know are running
multiple copies of Phantasmal Image and sometimes on the draw against U/W Humans to dodge their Mirran Crusaders / evasion creatures.
I don’t think sideboarding is ever an exact science due to the variance in peoples builds, but I hope these generalizations help you when deciding.
U/B Control is the real deal, and I’ve had educated discussions with friends like Mr. Cox and Beasley, who stick to their guns about running Wring
Flesh in the maindeck. I tell them…why kill one when you can kill them all? Or I probably said something closer to “Wring Flesh is terrible”….
Regardless, we all agree that UB control is pretty damn good.
I’m surprised on how well I’ve done against the metagame after the addition of Curse of Death’s Hold — because even I am suspicious about answers that
cost more than any spell in your enemy’s deck. The card has survived the test of MODO and real-life testing with great numerical outcomes, and I hope
it can guide you to victory in your upcoming tournaments as well.
As far as the Modern discussion goes, I think most of you agree that many of those cards deserve to be banned from a new, flourishing format, but not
that many. The big deal about these most recent bannings is that the list was so prestigious before when it comes to the power of those cards in their
respective formats. I think Wild Nacatl got unfair treatment — and when a blue mage is saying, that it definitely means something!
Let me know how Curse of Death’s Hold has treated you via twitter and I’ll retweet your success or failures for the world to know.
Thanks for reading like usual, friends!
Shaheen
@shaheenmtg — Twitter
[email protected]
– Email