(Fade in)
“Ross, W/U Monument is one of the best decks in Standard right now and everyone knows about it, so why are you featuring it in the Daily Digest?”
“It’s a Modern deck built around Oketra’s Monument.”
“Guffaww??”
(End Scene)
Oketra’s Monument is the kind of card that needs a critical mass of powerful, small white creatures around it to make a reasonable deck. Modern is a much larger format than Standard, so it stands to reason that if there are enough creatures to make the card work in Standard, there may be enough to make it work in Modern.
Spell Queller comes over from Standard to help out, as does Reflector Mage, spurned by its former flame into the wide and wonderful world of Modern.
Judge’s Familiar shouldn’t need any explanation, but I’ll give you one because it never gets the respect it deserves: two-time Pro Tour Champion. Scoreboard!
Sky Hussar replaces Cloudhaven as the primary source of card advantage. It’s not as clean as the Azorius Mulldrifter, but once it gets going, it’s more like a Phyrexian Arena, which has much more upside in long games.
The really exciting cards are the two-drops. Squadron Hawk is essentially perfect, providing an endless source of creatures to make tokens. Wall of Omens is just a good card on its own, and importantly locks up the ground so you can go to work in the air.
Whitemane Lion is the worst of the bunch, playing the role of the oft-eschewed Aviary Mechanic, but with flash it’s significantly better. It can also return itself, letting you make a token for each white mana you have as a mini-Thopter/Sword combo. Still, as a weak individual card, four seems excessive.
You also have great options for noncreature spells with Path to Exile as premium removal and Dusk coming over from Standard. It may be a little slow for Modern, but there’s no denying its potential. I’d like to see Honor of the Pure somewhere, since the Anthem is sorely needed to give you some faster goldfishes against combo decks.
Still, this is an intriguing port of a card that we’re just getting used to at the top tiers of Standard. The deck took a lot of people by surprise last month and it could do the same in Modern.
Creatures (27)
- 3 Sky Hussar
- 4 Whitemane Lion
- 4 Wall of Omens
- 4 Squadron Hawk
- 4 Judge's Familiar
- 4 Reflector Mage
- 4 Spell Queller
Lands (22)
Spells (11)
