A (MTGO) Magic the Gathering Online Clan

Alphi shares his thought on the current state of Modern along with some crazy, brand-new brews that topped the Dailies.

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Hi everyone!

Modern has been moving a lot lately, and although Jund and Twins are still posting strong results regularly, new archetypes have been emerging. Here’s a look at these newer brews:

WG Auras

If you had followed Nys‘s advice here, you would have know about this before anyone else, and you would have top 8′ed a PTQ… Seriously!

[deck][Creatures]
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Kor Spiritdancer
4 Slippery Bogle
[/Creatures]

[Land]
2 Dryad Arbor
4 Horizon Canopy
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
[/Land]
[Spells]
4 Daybreak Coronet
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Hyena Umbra
2 Keen Sense
3 Path to Exile
4 Rancor
3 Spider Umbra
4 Spirit Mantle
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Lifelink
2 Nature’s Claim
1 Path to Exile
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Torpor Orb[/Sideboard][/deck]

This deck has taken last monday’s online PTQ by storm, with 2 pilots placing in the top 8. The strategy is as simple as they come: play a hexproof beastie, load it with auras, and bash. And with cards like [card]Rancor[/card] and [card]Spirit Mantle[/card], chump-blocking with [card]Lingering Souls[/card] tokens is not gonna cut it. The clock is fast (your Bogle can easily be a 8/6 trample by turn 3), fast enough to seriously threaten the combo decks, and most decks have little answers to both hexproof and auras. Sweepers and edict are the most obvious, but most sweepers come online too late, and there aren’t that many edicts played in Modern except for Liliana. Of course, neither of these answers works well against umbras.

On the other hand, you have to play some really poor cards to enable your shenanigans. I mean umbras, really? And of course, as with any such linear strategy, it is exceedingly easy to hate out. Just like Affinity and [card]Creeping Corrosion[/card], the aura pilot feels deeply nauseous every time he sees [card]Back to Nature[/card]. Or even a [card]Spellskite[/card]. A colorless Spellskite, that fits in every sideboard. Hint.

So, should you pick it up? Well, first, the deck has shot up in price. [card]Daybreak Coronet[/card]s are now 6.68 tix at the time of this writing, going up like crazy for the whole past week. Secondly, the deck’s success is in no small part due to rogue effect. That’s not to say it’s not here to stay, but it will be a metagame thing: only play it when no one’s expecting it. And right now, that’s just not the case.

And remember: [card]Ensnaring Bridge[/card] makes for a sad, sad Bogle.

This is a Sad Bogle

Russian Prime Minister’s Gulag Deck

Ok, that’s probably not the real name. But this brew is by Medvedev, and it aims at controlling you:

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Aven Mindcensor
4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Fauna Shaman
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3 Mirran Crusader
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
[/Creatures]
[Land]
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Horizon Canopy
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Pendelhaven
1 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Stirring Wildwood
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Temple Garden
[/Land]
[Spells]
4 Path to Exile
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Kataki, War’s Wage
1 Rest in Peace
4 Spellskite
3 Stony Silence
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Torpor Orb[/Spells][/deck]

The goal here is simple: stop the opponent from playing any meaningful spells! The nut draw goes turn 1 mana dork -> turn 2 [card]Leonin Arbiter[/card] + [card]Ghost Quarter[/card], crack and I’ve just Wastelanded you. Even without the Ghost Quarters, the Arbiter – and [card]Aven Mindcensor[/card] to a lesser degree – shuts down fetches, which hurts all those greedy manabases out there (Jund, I’m looking at you!), and makes [card]Path to Exile[/card] a much better card. Linvala will shut down opposing mana dorks, Thalia will slow down combos and removals, and all in all, you should get enough time to bash in with your [card]Mirran Crusader[/card]s or play a [card]Baneslayer Angel[/card] or two.

It’s difficult to argue with success. The list has evolved a lot over the past month (the [card]Thorn of Amethyst[/card] used to be maindeck for one thing), and although I really dislike playing that many copies of legendary creatures, this is a list that can win. Should you pick it up? Why not. Most of the cards are Modern staples, and the deck has certainly proved itself on MODO.

My Beautiful Corruption

Yes, Mono Black Control is a thing in Modern! I’ve seen quite a few lists going around, but the most successful ones run infect for their kill:

[deck]
[Creatures]
4 Phyrexian Crusader
4 Phyrexian Vatmother
[/Creatures]
[Lands]
4 Howltooth Hollow
4 Inkmoth Nexus
13 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Spells]
4 Disfigure
1 Doom Blade
4 Funeral Charm
3 Go for the Throat
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Raven’s Crime
2 Runechanter’s Pike
4 Sign in Blood
4 Wrench Mind
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
4 Infest
3 Lashwrithe
4 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Vampire Nighthawk[/Sideboard][/deck]

This deck runs a carefully crafted and intricate plan: rip the opponent’s hand, kill any creature that made it to the battlefield, poison opponent to death. The great thing about this plan is that discard will hurt 99% of the decks, so you don’t have to worry about a poor game 1 matchup. Only dredgevine is really immune, and it’s not exactly running rampant these days. As a result, the sideboard is simplistic: [card]Infest[/card] against small creatures weenie decks, [card]Nihil Spellbomb[/card] against graveyard strategies and storm, [card]Vampire Nighthawk[/card] against RDW, and [card]Lashwrithe[/card] coz it’s fun to play. Seriously, I have no idea why you would need Lashwrithe.

Obviously, MBC will get quite a few free wins versus combo decks, and the heavy removal suit will help your suboptimal infect creatures punch through. Any [card]Funeral Charm[/card]s you kept for the late game can be cast during the opponent’s draw phase, which will often boil down to a timewalk. The only drawback is that the deck does not top-deck nicely, so if the opponent took care of your threats (of which you do not have many), you might be in trouble. It might also be worth figuring out a plan for the mirror should the deck become more popular.

Should you pick it up? It’s very reasonably priced (60 tix at the time of this writing), has few weaknesses, and if you were playing during the scars block, you might already have a lot of the cards. It’s definitely worth a try.

Bloody Moon

Now, this deck is not a winner, it only went 3-1, and only once at that. However, is has attracted the attention of Gerry Thompson in SCG’s weekend letter, and more importantly, our Fearless Clan Leader has told me to find Koth action or something bad will happen to me (I thing he said I would get “Junded to death”. Hard to say, it was in German). Anyways, here is some Koth action:

[deck]
[Creatures]
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Spellskite
3 Thundermaw Hellkite
[/Creatures]
[Land]
3 Scrying Sheets
21 Snow-Covered Mountain
[/Land]
[Spells]
2 Batterskull
4 Blood Moon
2 Dismember
2 Flame Javelin
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Pyroclasm
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Skred
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
4 Mindbreak Trap
2 Slagstorm
4 Torpor Orb
4 Vandalblast
1 Wurmcoil Engine[/Sideboard][/deck]

The good idea here is going after the 3, 4 and 5 colors decks. If you have a look at some of the more popular lists, many decks don’t play more than 2 or 3 basic lands, and [card]Blood Moon[/card] basically neuters them. The rest of the deck is much more average: it has no early turns action, tries to play 5 5-drops in Modern, and [card]Flame Javelin[/card], really? And don’t get me started on [card]Scrying Sheets[/card]. So no, it’s not a very good deck, but the core strategy has one big, BIG advantage: it kills Jund. This is a work in progress, and it’ll be interesting to see if it can be improved.

"What do you mean this deck is not good?"

That’s it for today. As always, don’t hesitate to comment.

—Alphi