Farewell to Modern and Some Standard Tips

Adam Koska

About Adam Koska

Adam is an experienced player from the Czech Republic who has a number of high-profile finishes under his belt:

• 9th at Worlds 2009
• 9th at Pro Tour Kyoto 2009
• 45 Lifetime Pro Points
• Top 32 GP Vienna 2008
• Top 64 GP Krakow 2007
• Three times Czech Nationals Top 8

Farewell to Modern and Some Standard Tips

The Modern PTQ season is almost finished and some of the last tournaments in this format have recently taken place. Grand Prix San Diego will be held in Modern in mid-March, but that’s pretty much it. Modern is still quite a new format, and with bannings happening in this environment much more often than in any other Magic format, it also remains dynamic and flexible. Standard is kept fresh by the means of new sets and rotations, but in Modern, rotation doesn’t happen and because of the overall higher power level, new sets don’t have quite as big an impact as in Standard, where one edition is a much bigger part of the whole card pool. Because of this, I’m actually quite in favor of proactive bannings (and unbannings) in Modern, simply to keep the format evolving and interesting. I think that the season that has just ended proved that Modern is a healthy format with lots of interesting possibilities and strategies. Today, I’d like to take a look at the state in which we’re leaving this format and at some of the latest „breakout“ decks, before shifting my attention to Standard and some of the recent post-Montreal changes that happened there.

Versions:
Conflux (Foil)

By far the biggest push that Modern received in the past couple of weeks and months was the ban of Bloodbraid Elf and Seething Song. While the axe for the big red Ritual left most people wondering about the reasons Wizards had for this move (erasing decks worth less than 100$ from the format? Probably not...), Bloodbraid Elf seemed like a more reasonable ban target, as Jund had been undoubtedly the most powerful Modern deck and its presence did decrease the diversity of the format. I think that the decision to solve the Jund problem by banning Bloodbraid Elf eventually played out fairly well – the black-green core of cards like Deathrite Shaman, Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Thoughtseize and Liliana of the Veil still forms a powerful core that can be adopted by different shells, but it’s not all that oppressive and besides, you can actually choose your third color now, rather than just play red because of Bloodbraid Elf. Some lists still opt for red, but others go for blue instead (for cards like Snapcaster Mage and countermagic), white (Doran, Knight of the Reliquary, Path to Exile...) or still stick to red, but with various replacements for the hasty cascade Elf. Olivia Voldaren has been quite popular recently, but there have also been successful ventures in other directions. One that I like quite a lot is the aggro jund deck that Cpal90 used to win a premier event on 25th February. The award for the most innovative card in the deck easily goes to Bloodhall Ooze – a 1/1 for R that grows in your upkeep by +1/+1 if you have a green permanent and by additional +1/+1 if you have a black permanent. It turns out that both Deathrite Shaman and Putrid Leech are green black, which means that in your first upkeep, Bloodhall Ooze becomes a Wild Nacatl and on your second upkeep, it overtrumps in size most creatures in Modern, including an average-sized Tarmogoyf. I also like that it keeps the tradition of the red creatures in Jund starting with „Blood“, although that’s more of an aesthetic criteria than anything else. But I’m sure that Bloodbraid Elf would approve of this change.

Lifting the oppressive rule of Jund (if the pre-ban period can even be called like that) has recently lead to some new decks being played in Modern. Jund has traditionally been very good against fast aggro decks, because it has so much removal and good cheap creatures, that it could stop archetypes like Zoo in their tracks and win with bigger creatures, better removal and more lategame plays, including lifegain from Deathrite Shamans to climb out of Tribal Flames range. With Jund weakened and Gatecrash providing some new tools, aggressive „small“ decks have returned to the scene. Two distinct lists stand out here and I’ve seen both of them doing well in some of the recent PTQs, both online and offline. The first one is a 5C Tribal Zoo, not too different from what Martin Jůza played to a Top8 finish back at Pro Tour Austin in 2009. Here’s an updated 2013 list:

The deck can deal 42 damage on turn three, which is quite impressive, if you ask me. The scenario goes like this: you have to be on the draw (otherwise you don’t have enough cards) cast a Deathrite Shaman on turn one, a Steppe Lynx and another Shaman on turn two (+ an uncracked fetchland), then another fetch on turn three, attack with the Lynx, crack both fetches to make it 6/7, exile both with Deathrite Shamans to get to five mana, cast three Might of Alara on the Lynx and then give it doublestrike with Boros Charm. Voilá, you‘ve just dealt your opponent more damage than twice his starting life total! Easy as one-two-three. I think that when you do this, it should not only kill your opponent, but also the person sitting behind him at the next table (or make a huge hole in the wall behind your opponent, if there’s not another table there). That’s how massive a blast a 21-power doublestriking Steppe Lynx deals. This obviously won’t happen in every game, but I think that it illustrates how much punch this deck packs. Might of Alara + Boros Charm can deal absurd amounts of damage together and a turn 2 Geist of Saint Traft off of a Deathrite Shaman + fetchland is also an opening that most decks will scoop to, especially if you back it up with burn.

Another brand new aggro deck that received a huge boost from Gatecrash and is now actually a real thing in Modern is R/G, or Gruul aggro. Here’s the list:

Versions:
Gatecrash (Foil)

Gruul aggro, while not having as flashy plays as the 5C Zoo, can also have difficult-to-beat openings, largely thanks to Burning-Tree Emissary, the new „Frogmite“ of red aggro decks. Operating on only nineteen lands, the deck has a fast clock and can overwhelm the opponent before they get into a position to stabilize. Lightning Helix decks can be a bit troublesome to play against, especially if they don’t take a ton of damage from their own lands, but overall, in a format where Jund doesn’t render aggro a perennial bad deck choice, this deck can deliver some really quick beats.

With aggro and midrange decks on the rise, the door always opens for combo decks. I’ve never been a big fan of Martyr of Sands and to some extent, I can get behind the opinion that this never was and never will be a real deck, but I’ve recently seen some really nice updates to this particular archetype and I was moderately impressed by what the deck can do. I’ll probably never play the deck myself, but I can definitely see the appeal and the new reach that the deck received, courtesy of some new cards from Return to Ravnica and Guildpact.

Traditionally, the deck has always been mono-white. After all, Martyr of Sands requires you to play only white non-land cards, with just a very limited space for exceptions. However, with the two past sets being multicolor, we can still stick to only white spells, but at the same time incorporate some of the guild cards that fit the best into this strategy. There’s one Orzhov card in Gatecrash that gives the deck a brand new angle of „offense“, a brand new win condition. The card I’m talking about is called Vizkopa Guildmage – if you activate the second ability and then trigger a Martyr for 7 or more, your opponent is going to lose 21 life points in a single bang. That by itself should be a pretty big incentive to stick to this plan, as it removes one of the traditional weaknesses of Martyr, a lack of win conditions. Staying alive is a nice thing, but it doesn’t directly translate into a game win on its own – and Vizkopa Guildmage provides a nice and elegant solution here.

Another good Orzhov card that could find its place in Martyr is Orzhov Charm. It can bring a dead Martyr back to life, kill an opposing troublesome creature (the life loss shouldn’t be an issue in a deck which can easily gain 15+ life) or save a Guildmage from removal. A disadvantage of playing the Guildmage and the Charm is that you suddenly have very good targets for your opponent’s Spell Snares, which you previously didn’t have, but I think that the two Orzhov cards might very well be worth it and changing the strategy from the „Soul Sisters“ model to a more controlling/combo build could now be a viable option.

Another reason why I think a „control Martyr“ build could be good is that since Return to Ravnica, white actually has a good card advantage spell. Sphinx's Revelation, while still being white, provides a lategame engine that can give you a massive card boost, as well as some more lifegain. If we play black for the Orzhov Charms, we could also fit in Esper Charm as another way how to draw cards. Together with Wraths and Supreme Verdicts, this could actually provide a solid enough defensive barrier that the deck could rely on its Guildmage + Martyr combo in the mid/lategame. The nice thing with the combo is that you don’t care about removal. With enough mana, you can play the Guildmage, activate the second ability, play Martyr and sac him and your opponent doesn’t have any room to interact here with removal. You still need a lot of cards in hand, but with an end of turn Sphinx's Revelation, this could actually work more often than not.

That’s it for Modern, let’s have a look at Standard for a change. After PT Montreal, things seem to be quite stable and in the weeks after the Pro Tour, we haven’t seen that many new techs or new approaches to the format. An environment which is stabilized to this extent might seem a bit boring (not much new when you go through the decklists), but at the same time, I think that it provides players with a very rewarding challenge to brew. Standard is clear-cut now: there is aggro, control and combo and while the format is quite diverse, there are not many cards that could surprise you, so when you brew, you know your opponents very well and can prepare exactly for what the metagame looks like. Aggro is represented mostly by Saito Burn, Jund aggro, Naya Blitz, The Aristocrats (although this deck has a bit of a midrange reach) and Zombies (somewhat forgotten after the PT, but still in full force, especially in the new „Jund“ facelift). Control means mostly Esper, UWR and Bant, but various Jund decks also fall into this category, since they often aim very specifically for the lategame. Combo is mostly Reanimator – now usually of the Angel of Glory's Rise kind, rather than of the “Hoof” variety.

I don’t think there is a single recipe for how to succeed in the current metagame with outside-of-the-box thinking. However, with such a clearly defined metagame, the most efficient part of the process is to know your enemies and – even more importantly – to know how these decks win, what is their usual gameplan and its key components. Most of these Standard decks that I’ve mentioned above have one or two cornerstone cards that the vast majority of their games revolve around. In the case of Esper control, for example, it’s Sphinx's Revelation and Nephalia Drownyard. In the case of The Aristocrats, it’s Champion of the Parish, Boros Reckoner and Falkenrath Aristocrat. When brewing a deck (or even adjusting a stock list to your liking), take a look at these lists and take a minute or two to think about how you interact with the key cards. How do you beat a gameplan involving Nephalia Drownyard? Can you win if the opponent resolves a Revelation for five? If not, how do you make sure that such a situation doesn’t occur? Planning in advance like this is always important, but when the situation is as easy to take in as now, I think that it is essential, especially since Standard is going to be very relevant in the coming months and the next big change in the format presumably won’t take place until Dragon’s Maze comes out in a couple of months.

That’s all from me for today. As always, thanks for reading and see you next time!

Adam Koska