Welcome to Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Exit Interview week!
If you missed Innistrad: Midnight Hunt First Impressions week, various members of the SCG Staff shared their thoughts on their Top 5 Innistrad: Midnight Hunt cards in each format before having the opportunity to play with them. With Innistrad: Crimson Vow preview season about to begin, we thought it would be fun to have those same folks update their lists now that they’ve had the opportunity to play with Innistrad: Midnight Hunt for the past month and share what they got right, what they got wrong, what surprised them, etc.
On Monday we knocked out Standard, on Tuesday we Considered our way through Historic, and yesterday we Played with Fire in Pioneer. Today, we’ll close things out with Modern. The same scoring system we had in place for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt First Impressions week will be in place here so that we can get an idea of what card ranked in what place in the aggregate to close out each article. The scoring system is as follows:
- 1st — 5 points
- 2nd — 4 points
- 3rd — 3 points
- 4th — 2 points
- 5th — 1 point
Today we, once again, kick things off with the host of Dominaria’s Judgment, Dom Harvey!
Dom Harvey
Previous List
- Champion of the Perished
- Faithful Mending
- Consider
- Memory Deluge
- Slogurk, the Overslime
New List
- Faithful Mending
- Memory Deluge
- Consider
- Sunset Revelry
- Outland Liberator
For better or worse Faithful Mending was never going to be the next Faithless Looting, but it has proven itself as a vital enabler for Esper Reanimator and other fan favourites. I still think it’s plausible in small numbers in control decks too as a way to cycle through the conditional interaction that’s the backbone of any reactive strategy; a regular Looting variant isn’t worth it there, but a repeatable, instant-speed one that gains life has a lot going for it.
Memory Deluge quickly established itself as the go-to ‘big’ draw spell for control decks that don’t want to rely on protecting planeswalkers or committing mana on their turn. I wasn’t surprised when Wafo-Tapa’s iteration on Azorius Control on his new stream (which is an absolute delight) added the first Deluge, and then the second, before soon arriving at the full four.
I pegged Consider as a marginal improvement for existing decks rather than the game-changer it is in smaller formats and that’s looked right so far. One interesting subplot is the ongoing competition between Thought Scour and Consider in Izzet Midrange, where Scour enables your best draws but Consider is better at fixing the rest — the jury is still out there.
Boros Burn straight out of 2018 (barring the Lurrus, which many Burn pilots think is optional!) is somehow one of the most successful decks in post-Modern Horizons 2 Modern and Sunset Revelry joins a deep roster of Burn hosers. Timely Reinforcements gives you more back, but Burn’s best draws on the play can win before then and you can’t afford to stumble in that matchup. Sunset Revelry is more consistent in that role and offers another much-needed way to blunt Ragavan.
Exactly one copy of Outland Liberator often appears in sideboards of decks like Amulet Titan and Golgari Yawgmoth that want access to that effect on a creature but aren’t impressed by the alternatives. Destroying its target at instant-speed, becoming a legitimate threat if nothing else is going on, and costing less for cards like Chord of Calling are all strong selling points.
Ari Lax
Previous List
- Consider
- Sunset Revelry
- Cathartic Pyre
- Wrenn and Seven
- Memory Deluge
New List
- Faithful Mending
- Memory Deluge
- Sunset Revelry
- Outland Liberator
- Consider
Faithful Mending was a huge miss for me on the initial rankings, especially as a now Esper Reanimator lover, but I really quickly realized it was a miss. As in, it took a single game; I played that game between when I submitted that list and when it was published, and my Tweet about that initial list was, “I’m wrong, Faithful Mending is insane.”
After that it gets tough to add big game-changers to Modern. There are many free or one-drop spells courtesy of Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2 that you can’t match in Standard sets where things usually need to cost mana. Still, Innistrad: Midnight Hunt managed a few role-players that are marginal upgrades to existing important cards.
Memory Deluge is a card I don’t love in Modern that sorta snuck into my prior Top 5, but the importance of your big draw spell having flashback in Azorius Control mirrors has meant the card has become a staple of that archetype. Sunset Revelry as cheaper Timely Reinforcements was a no-brainer. Outland Liberator really surprised me, but the specific interaction with Chord of Calling against Urza’s Saga is a big deal relative to the other Reclamation Sage or Qasali Pridemage options. Your opponent with a Saga is likely to just leave up mana and not cast a spell on their Chapter II turn, so you can often end-step Chord for Liberator, have day flip to night, and get the attack Naturalize trigger while still having the sacrifice ready.
The more interesting discussion might be why Consider was a relative failure. It has shown up enough to make this list, but it felt like a clear-cut addition to the format. I think we just have to realized the day of the one-mana cantrip is pretty much over in the format. Mishra’s Bauble replacing everything in Death’s Shadow lists was the first sign that was the case, but so much of the format pushing towards free spells or cheap threats means one mana for a cantrip is just a significant investment.
Unless you are offering Preordain levels of selection or the Dark Ritual of Thought Scour, it’s a tough ask to include the card. You probably don’t want to push one-mana cantrips into the power level of Modern playable for the sake of other formats, but I’m also unsure Modern would be better off with Preordain in it. For now, just downgrade your assessment of these cards in the future.
Shaheen Soorani
Previous List
- Faithful Mending
- Sunset Revelry
- Consider
- Rite of Harmony
- Fateful Absence
New List
- Faithful Mending
- Memory Deluge
- Sunset Revelry
- Consider
- Outland Liberator
The Modern Top 5 was an easier beast to tackle for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. Faithless Looting was banned, and the new set offered a suitable replacement for the graveyard archetypes of old. Although Faithful Mending is not in the same stratosphere with color, the manabases of Modern can handle some strenuous additions with relative ease. It turns out that this Azorius-based graveyard enabler created an Esper Reanimator deck out of the blue, with the more obvious Arclight Phoenix strategies initially being ignored. Esper Reanimator is a sweet deck, and even though Faithful Mending is not running the format with that shell, it’s only a matter of time until someone breaks it. Paying one more for a Faithless Looting, but doing so at instant speed, provides the initial ingredient for broken deck recipes.
Both of my lists, old and new, are shrines built to honor the Azorius guild. My ideas did not differ much from the other content creators, as we all knew that Consider was an upgrade to Opt and Memory Deluge is a powerful card draw spell that replaces anything in that mid-game slot. The latter has made a bigger splash in competitive play; however, Consider will see more play as the metagame evolves further. Opt always seems to sneak its way into tempo and control decks, so expect Consider to continue to grow in popularity.
My favorite card that made both lists is Sunset Revelry. It killed Timely Reinforcements for good, which is perfectly fine in my book. Three mana was always too much to pay versus the aggro decks in the format, which is why I often defected to Kor Firewalker. This two-mana aggro killer has impressed the world with its efficiency, and easily makes the new Top 5 list.
The only sore thumb I included there was Outland Liberator. Outland Liberator is a versatile creature that fits into Collected Company decks, or others that search up creatures. Having this two-mana creature that can rip apart an artifact or enchantment is strong enough, but Frenzied Trapbreaker does even more work in some scenarios. It’s a repeated effect, every time it attacks, while also having the option to throw it at a must-answer permanent. This card should be a little higher on my list, but I’m too impressed with the blue cards of this set to make that adjustment (or regret it).
Ross Merriam
Previous List
- Faithful Mending
- Memory Deluge
- Consider
- Champion of the Perished
- Infernal Grasp
New List
- Faithful Mending
- Memory Deluge
- Sunset Revelry
- Consider
- Otherworldly Gaze
Faithful Mending was an easy pick for #1, though I’m surprised it hasn’t been adopted by Dredge. Especially when some lists are adding blue to the deck to cast Otherworldly Gaze, enough so that Gaze snuck into the last spot on my updated list. Though to be fair, it was tough to find a fifth card to round this one out because the barrier to entry for Modern is very high.
Memory Deluge maintains its second spot because while Wilderness Reclamation decks haven’t risen much in popularity, Deluge has become a staple of control decks, which are performing quite well right now. It’s just one of the best four-mana draw spells printed in the last five years.
I bumped Consider down to fourth in order to make room for Sunset Revelry, which is a staple sideboard card of the format, especially for control decks. Burn is still around and it’s great against them, while still being serviceable against other aggressive decks. Consider, however, initially looked like it would replace Serum Visions in Izzet Midrange, but most players have gone back to the sorcery. It was also in early versions of Esper Reanimator but is less common now. It still shows up enough to make the list, but it’s far from a staple.
Gaze rounds out the list because it’s seen play in Dredge, and personally I would play both it and Faithless Mending in a heavier blue build. Gaze compares favorably to Shriekhorn and the fact that you can mill into half of it ensures that you don’t run out of gas after a mediocre first dredge.
Ultimately not a major impact from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt on Modern, but that’s to be expected with how powerful the format is these days.
Corey Baumeister
Previous List
- Sunset Revelry
- Memory Deluge
- Intrepid Adversary
- Smoldering Egg
- Willow Geist
New List
- Faithful Mending
- Sunset Revelry
- Memory Deluge
- Consider
- Willow Geist
This may be the best I have ever done on one of these! Only four cards really ever saw play in Modern from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and that is exactly how it should be. I’m very glad the power creep seems to be slowing down a bit and just making functional upgrades to a format as powerful as Modern.
Faithful Mending is the card I missed, and to be honest that was pretty foolish of me since we have seen a card with a similar template succeed in Modern before. It created a powerhouse of a deck in the form of Esper Reanimator and that’s exciting to see. Memory Deluge is the other card that made it into maindecks of certain control / Wilderness Reclamation decks, but it was never amazing or a four-of.
Consider is an interesting one for me. On the one hand, it’s one of the best cantrips ever printed, but it still isn’t doing anything amazing in the format. This is just a product of Modern being so fast and so interactive that if you spend your turns cantripping you just fall too far behind. If Izzet Phoenix ever makes a comeback, it will include four Consider.
Sunset Revelry really has a dominant effect on the Burn matchup which puts it a bit higher than Memory Deluge to me. Willow Geist is still at a very meme level of being “playable,” but it has still seen some play in some random Tier 3 decks.
Big fan of this minimal impact on the format from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and I hope this continues in Innistrad: Crimson Vow!
Todd Anderson
Previous List
- Consider
- Infernal Grasp
- Diregraf Rebirth
- Faithful Mending
- Skaab Wrangler
New List
- Consider
- Faithful Mending
- Memory Deluge
- Champion of the Perished
- Sunset Revelry
It’s no wonder that a host of cheap cards has made my Top 5 for Modern, as the format tends to be low to the ground with each effect coming at the lowest possible mana cost. Consider is making the grade in just about every format, including Modern, acting as one of the best card manipulation spells of all time. Now if they just bit the bullet and made surveil evergreen…
Faithful Mending has been helpful in brewing all sorts of cool Reanimator decks. Thanks to Persist and Unmarked Grave, you have a bevy of options for keeping your consistency high. Being able to discard those large creatures if you draw them takes a lot of pressure off your clunky hands. The extra card filtering and lifegain also help race more aggressively slanted opponents. All in all, Faithful Mending is probably the most impactful new card in the format, even if Consider is seeing more play.
Memory Deluge isn’t ubiquitous among control players just yet, but it’s one of the best control card draw spells ever printed. It’s currently giving Fact or Fiction a run for its money, and I assume most people will lean Memory Deluge sooner rather than later. Most control decks these days are trying to gain extra mana in some way, or prefer card selection over raw card draw. Memory Deluge allows you to play more singletons, and helps you win games that go much longer than usual.
Champion of the Perished is solid, but I haven’t been too impressed by the aggressive Zombie decks I’ve been seeing. It’s a nice threat for the early turns, but I rarely see Zombies win by attacking all-out, and instead relying on long game engines or repeatable effects like Goblin Bombardment. In that gameplan, Champion of the Perished isn’t spectacular, but it can still get in a bunch of early damage so you can finish them with pings.
Lastly, Sunset Revelry is looking like it will be one of the best sideboard cards ever printed. It’s an absolute beating in most of your aggressive matchups, offering you both defensive measures and a life recoup. It’s almost the same card as Timely Reinforcements but costs one full mana less. In a format as fast as Modern, costing one mana cheaper will make all the difference.
And now, without further ado, the SCG Staff’s Top 5 Innistrad: Midnight Hunt cards for Modern are now…
5. Outland Liberator — 4 points
4. Consider — 10 points
3. Sunset Revelry — 15 points
2. Memory Deluge — 19 points
1. Faithful Mending — 25 points
We hope you enjoyed our Exit Interviews on Innistrad: Midnight Hunt‘s impact on Standard, Historic, Pioneer, and Modern. Be sure to keep your eyes out for our Innistrad: Crimson Vow First Impressions coming soon so you can see how the SCG Staff is dissecting Magic’s newest set!
