Overdriven! 53

Modern: Huge Tracts of Unexplored Land

It has been said of Modern: “The most important thing about Modern is diversity. It’s by and far the most open format right now, there are huge tracts of land no one has explored. It’s the new frontier of competitive Magic,” and “The nice thing about Modern is that the format is very open. There’s a lot of room to explore and find decks that can work.” And just to hammer that point, here are maps from some recent explorations:

Now here’s something you don’t see every day! I realize you’re probably sick of hearing Jund, Jund, Jund. I am, as well. This one is cool, though; I don’t normally think of Spellskite and Doran when I think of Jund. But apparently it works!

Another thing one doesn’t expect is Restoration Angel to come popping out of a predominantly GB deck! Woo hoo! Betcha Draajen got quite a few WTF? responses from his opponents! This deck falls under GB/x in the meta charts, not as Restoration.

Another deck that knocked me for a loop when I saw it. Flinthoof Boar? Woo hoo! This is Zoo at it’s basic level: cheap, tough critters clawing at your face, with burn to seal the deal. And you can’t argue with results.

GP Bilbao

Named after its founder, Bilbao Baggins, Bilbao is the capital of the province of Biscay, and is situated in the north-central part of Spain, some 14k south of the Bay of Biscay, where the estuary of Bilbao is formed.

Since its succession from Middle Earth, and foundation as a city in the early 14th century, Bilbao has been a commercial hub that has enjoyed significant importance, mainly thanks to its port activity based on the export of iron extracted from the Mountains of Mordor. Throughout the nineteenth and beginnings of the twentieth centuries, Bilbao experienced heavy industrialization that made it the center of the second-most industrialized region of Spain, behind Barcelona.

Once again, a Modern GP falls on the weekend after my submission deadline. I am cursed! Some day, there will be a Modern GP or PT that happens in the middle of my writing window instead of just after submission. This will be the last Modern GP before Gatecrash is released; I expect “the usual suspects” with a heavy dose of Aura Aggro.

PTQ Round-up

1/5/13

MTGO #4843632
1st: Spirit Jund
2nd: RUG Twin
T4: Aura Aggro, Living End
T8: Storm, Blue Naya Pod, 4C Gifts, Scapeshift

Selden, NY US
1st: BUG Infect
2nd: UW Solar Control
T4: RUG Twin, Glass Cannon
T8: Blue Naya Pod, Dragon Control, Twin Pod, Solar Restoration

Winter Park, FL US
1st: GBW Pod
2nd: Epic Storm
T4: Zombies, Robots
T8: Jund, UW Gifts Tron, Splinter Twin, 4C Teachings

Hopewell, VA US
1st: Blue Naya Pod
2nd: Scapeshift
T4: GR Tron, RUG Twin
T8: RUG Twin, Vex Bomb Bump, Epic Storm, Blue Naya Pod

München DE
1st: Blue Naya Pod
2nd: Spirit Jund
*T4: GBW Pod, Blue Naya Pod -
T8: Tribal Flames, Aura Aggro, Jund, Robots
*Both players issued a match loss (NOT DQ!) for shenanigans

Liverpool UK
1st: Jund
2nd: Robots
T4: Tribal Flames x2
T8: Aura Aggro, UW Restoration, UWR Restoration x2

Luxembourg LU
1st: Tribal Flames
2nd: Tokens
T4: Second Breakfast, RG tron
T8: UW Control, Jund Bump (assumed), Scapeshift Omen, Doran

Sapporo JP
Results unavailable at this time.

1/6/13

Bari IT
1st: Zoo
2nd: Twin
T4: Jund, Tribal Flames
T8: Blue Naya Pod, UWR Midrange, Teachings, URW Delver

Reggio Emilia IT
1st: UW Control
2nd: Rb win (Assuming BR Aggro, not R(x)DW)
T4: Scapeshift, Pod
T8: 4C? Gift, GW Hate Bears, Blue Naya Pod, GR Tron

Marseille FR
1st: Electrostorm
2nd: Black Jund
T4: GR Tron, Spirit Jund
T8: Blue Naya Pod x2, Tokens, 4C Gifts

Caen FR
1st: Jund
2nd: “Pod”
T4: Jund, (*URW Delver/”Pod”)
T8: (*URW Delver/”Pod”), Teachings, Jund, Vengevine
* The (Delver/Pod) decksare listed as “unknown” in the meta database until such time as clarity on positions is found.

Bound Brook, NJ US
Results unavailable at this time.

Medellin CO
Results unavailable at this time.

Hamamatsu JP
Results unavailable at this time.

01/12/13

MTGO #4877272
1st: UWR Midrange Control
2nd: RUG Twin
T4: Tokens, Jund
T8: UW Solar Control, Jund, Blue Naya Pod, Jund

Winnipeg CA
1st: Jund
2nd: Aura Aggro
T4: GR Tron, UW Restoration
T8: Death & Taxes, Spirit Jund, GBW Pod, GR Tron

Wien AT
1st: Jund
2nd: Robots
T4: Jund x2
T8: Jund, Boom/Bust, Scapeshift/Twin, Blue Naya Pod

South Bend, IN US
1st: Jund
2nd: Hate Bears
T4: Blue naya Pod, Twin
T8: Rb Burn, BUG Gifts, GR Tron, Twin

Madison, TN US
1st Spirit Jund
2nd: Splinter Twin
T4: UW Control, RDW
T8: Robots x2, Aura Aggro, Jund

Hamburg DE
1st: Spirit Jund
2nd: Tribal Flames
T4: RUG Twin x2
T8: Restoration, Vex Bomb, Soul Sisters, RUG Twin

Barcelona ES
1st: GR Tron
2nd: “Twin”
T4: Jund, Spirit Jund
T8: Jund, Aura Aggro, Bump (BR burn), UW Control

Houston, TX US
Casper, WY US
Midwest City, OK US
Results unavailable at this time.

Santiago CL
Results unavailable at this time.

01/13/13

MTGO #4877273
1st: UWR Midrange Control
2nd: GBW Pod
T4: UW Control, Blue Naya Pod
T8: Spirit Jund, RUG Twin, RUG Delver, 4c Twin

Lyon FR
1st: Spirit Jund
2nd: Storm
T4: Epic Storm, 4C Gifts
T8: Death & Taxes, Robots, Blue Naya Pod, Titan Ramp Valakut

Brussel BE
1st: UWR Delver
2nd: Storm
T4: Storm, Unknown
T8: Twin, Token x2, Boom/Bust

Catania IT
1st: Jund
2nd: Restoration
T4: Jund, UW Control
T8: Pod, Restoration x2, BR Aggro

Mestre IT
1st: GR Tron
2nd: Twin
T4: Naya Pod, Jund
T8: UW Control, Twin, Jund, GR Tron

Granada ES
1st: UR Fae
2nd: Blue Naya Pod (Kiki Pod)
T4: Living End x2
T8: Spirit Jund x2, UW Control, Unknown (bloodbraid 71 singleton)

Warsaw PL
1st: UWR Control
2nd: Blue Naya Pod (Kiki Pod)
T4: Spirit Jund x2
T8: “Twin”, Restoration x2(UW Flash), UWR Control

Copenhagen DK
Results unavailable at this time.

There were another 26 PTQs scheduled this past weekend, which I’ll try to deal with next time.

Break It Down!

As usual, Jund is staring out at the top of the food chain, but the numbers aren’t as ponderous as they are in the daily metas.

Blue! (Da Ba Dee!)

One of the biggest thrills for me is seeing how well the U/x/x Control archetype is doing this quarter, in both the PTQ and online SE arenas. It’s not as simple as it seems, tho:

There is no longer a “Dragon Control” category; I have started seeing UWR decklists that do not include a dragon. So “Dragon Control” is now “UWR Midrange”.

Solar simply means the deck was running a mainboard Sun Titan.

Also, UW Control and UW Restoration have been moving closer and closer together, differing mainly in the number of main deck Restoration Angels. Therefore, I have merged the U/x/x Control and Restoration archetypes. I am still maintaining a separate classification for Restoration (3/4 Restoration Angel + 3/4 Snapcaster Mage).

Overdrive! #78 Champion: geleroff / Soul Sisters
Overdrive! #79 Champion: pk23 / Blue Naya Pod
Eurodrive! #59 Champion: slug360 / Puresteel
Eurodrive! #60 Champion: Alphi / Tribal Flames

Decks from all Overdrive! can be found here.
Decks from all Eurodrive! can be found here.

 

Where Angels Fear To Tread #39
Players: 22
4-0: Nyzzeh, BattleCaptain ~ 3-1: pk23, ayanam1, andres_1995, Jeketerri
Where Angels Fear To Tread #40
Players: 22
4-0: pk23, RoccoCiccio ~ 3-1: _Kumagoro_, ayanam1, olioolli, ellmaris, Houmeris
Decks from all WAFTT events can be found here.

Friday Night Standard #7
Players: 22
4-0: SeemsLegit ~ 3-1: garltik, cosik, BattleCaptain, Lickitung, geleroff, Doqpelganger, andres_1995
Friday Night Standard #8
Players: 13
4-0: Canarith ~ 3-1: punkid_41_86, marcio costa, Dolane97
Decks from all Friday Night Standard events can be found here.

Dark Wars: A Legacy Of Evil
Season 1 Qualifier 6
Players: 17
Players, tables, and results can be found here.
Season 1 Championship: January 30, 2013
11/07/12 Bigwilly5555
11/21/12 Super_Secret_Tech
12/05/12 leprchan
12/19/12 SekKuar Deathkeeper
01/02/13 NecrOmniPotenz
01/16/13 slayerjensen4

Interesting Tidbits

Gatecrash previews are in full swing. I already see several cards that could see play in Modern. I think this next block will have just as large an impact on Modern as Return To Ravnica did.

The Modern B&R announcement is coming up very soon. Many people seem to forget the early days of the format: the B&R list started in August, was changed in September, then again in December. Things settled down after a few months as there was “No change.” After almost a year, Valakut was removed from the the list, and the schedule of announcements was changed from quarterly to “the Monday after.” I hesitate to make any predictions.

Modern attendance has been very nice, in both online PTQ and daily events. We’ll see if daily numbers continue after the Race for the FoW.