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:
Glass Cannon, Todd Anderson - T16, GP Kansas City
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I know, I know. This isn’t a new deck. So what? It’s trés cool. Cool enough that it deserves another spotlight. Being the contrary and argumentative slug that I am, I love decks that thumb their nose at the “Turn 4 rule” of Modern (Infect is another example), and can dish out the Turn 2 Win! I have personally (well, via coverage, not in person!) seen this deck kill on Turn 2, through a Path to Exile!
The main “combo” here is: toss Griselbrand into the graveyard, cast Goryo’s Vengeance to dig him out of the graveyard and onto the battlefield with haste, swing, draw cards as needed to cast Fury of the Horde via alternate casting cost, swing again. Rinse and repeat. With the Sunburst mechanic of Pentad Prism and some help from Simian Spirit Guide, it is entirely possible to do all this on Turn 2.
Through the Breach is a solid backup plan, often used to throw Emmy in your opponents face. You just got up to five lands and a beater? Too bad, so sad. Eat 15 and sac ‘em all.
Now for the other shoe. This deck is commonly called “Glass Cannon” for a very good reason. While it is very powerful, and capable of the Turn 2 kill, it is also very easily hated out. Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, Relic of Progenitus, Grafdigger’s Cage, or just about any form of graveyard hate, all do a nice job of keeping it in check. Key pieces are easily tossed away via hand disruption.
| The Book of Modern1. In the beginning, there was the format, and the format was Extended. 2. The Poobahs looked upon the face of the format, and did darken their faces in anger, 3. for the format was not played, 4. and the people did scorn the format. 5. The Poobahs set forth to gather, and much rain fell upon the land. 6. The halls of The Ivory Tower filled with lamentations and gnashing of teeth; 7. Poobahs congregated on the fifth dawn 8. to determine the fate of the format. 9. The Poobahs sent forth their herald 10. who read forth the word of the format:11. The number of the blocks shall be four, and four shall be the number of the blocks. 12. No longer shall the number of blocks be varying, upon the whim of the season, 13. but fixed at four. No more, no less. | 14. No longer shall the format rotate upon the whim of the season, 15. but the rotation shall follow the rotation of Standard, 16. upon the release of a new block.17. And the format was not played, 18. and the people did scorn the format. 19. It came to pass that the people played a new format, 20. whose face was not yet known, and whose name was Overextended. 21. And there was much rejoicing among the people.22. The Poobahs were not pleased, and swore a mighty oath 23. to remake the format. 24. Once more the conclave was called, and much rain fell upon the land. 25. In the depths of The Ivory Tower was made a new format 26. from the ashes of the old. 27. And the format, whose name is Modern, was unleashed 28. upon the people. |
As with any cult, there are varying schools of thought as to when Modern actually was born. Some say it was born when WotC first published A Modern Proposal. Others say when it was played at the 2011 Community Cup Challenge. I choose to use the day Modern became sanctioned as a format for online play: August 24, 2011.
Last year, I started the tradition of throwing a free tournament with wazoo prizes in celebration of Modern’s birthday; I plan on continuing that tradition this year. Since August 24 is a Saturday this year, choosing a time is relatively easy: 1800 UTC (2PM Eastern/11AM Pacific) is a start time convenient for most of the world on a Saturday, although this may change forward up to 2 hours pending late news from Kathmandu.
Registration will be via Gatherling, and is already open for this event. The number of Swiss rounds will be determined by the number of entrants according to the standard tourney rules, and there will be a T8 cutoff.
If you have to ask me what the format for this event is, I will slap you, then tell you to fall in the forest and see if anyone hears you. (That’s a Zen threat, BTW!)
I’m starting to hit up all the usual suspects for prize support, and hope to offer another cornucopia of awesomeness. I’ll keep you informed here, and the official thread will go up at the PRE forums on the mothership on August 10.
Meta Madness
Woo hoo! With the increased interest in Modern, and the increasing attendance at Modern events events (I blame Modern Masters), the Q3 online Modern is developing at a breakneck pace. I’m foreseeing it splitting into four pieces — the next division comes at >= 20 4-0 finishes — before the next Overdriven! hits the presses. I really do believe Modern got a big shot in the arm with Modern Masters, and WotC banged that nail square on the head.
As I said last time, there is no way to judge long term effects, as there has been no long term yet. Modern staple prices have pretty much stabilized across the board. Those prices have not plummeted like paralyzed falcons. (remember the “Wah! My ‘goyf is gonna be worthless! Wah!” people when Modern Masters was announced?) Modern is being played with a noticeable increase in frequency in the Just For Fun room, and scheduled event attendance is on the same level as we are used to seeing during a Modern PTQ season. Modern is being played here at the local level, and is a regular FNM format at one store.
Modern is where it’s at, baby!
The Big Boys
Pod People
Melira Pod remains at the top of the pops. This is the new “bogey man” for Modern, a spot long claimed by Jund. Last year, you couldn’t sneeze without spattering a Jund deck. This year, it’s Melira Pod.
For a while it looked like Kiki Pod might be a contender as well, but the Kiki-Jiki-Restoration Angel combo, while extremely powerful, just wasn’t gettin’ ‘er done. Kiki Pod is currently “evolving” in two directions: Kiki-Rade Pod(Kiki Pod w/Domri Rade(duh)), and UWR Splinter Twin.
But Is It Jund?
Jund has gone through some interesting changes since Bloodbraid Elf was crushed by M’banor, the Ban-Hammer. The core of the deck remains unchanged: Abrupt Decay, Deathrite Shaman, Lightning Bolt, Liliana of the Veil, Tarmogoyf, and (Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize). While the “little black dress” the different Jund decks wear is basically all the same cut, the accessories make all the difference.
The most common form of Jund these days is Huntmaster Jund. This deck simply plops in Huntmaster of the Fells to replace BBE, and is a true GBR deck. With Huntmaster dropping in price as people start to anticipate rotation, this version is showing up more and more. While Huntmaster does not provide quite the same value that BBE did, it provides a different kind of value. This value is not insignificant, just different.
The other “true” Jund variant is TFO Jund. TFO is my own shorthand for Troll/Finks/Olivia. This version of Jund replaces BBE with a varying combination of Thrun, the Last Troll, Kitchen Finks, and Olivia Voldaren.
Then we start running into a quandary: is a GBRW deck still Jund? GBW is usually referred to as Junk. Since late last year, W has started being splashed in Jund decks, at first for Lingering Souls, which gave Jund amazing late game reach. This became known as White, or Spirit, Jund. Shortly thereafter, Ajani Vengeant started showing up as well, giving rise to the name Ajundi. There are currently two main flavors of White Jund: W Thundermaw (Lingering Souls+Thundermaw Hellkite), and Ajundi (Lingering Souls+Ajani Vengeant). Occasionally a list will pop up with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Jund has also been know to splash U.
Middle of the Road
Some of these archetypes are on the verge of moving up to the “Big Boys” chart, and may have already migrated there over the weekend between submission and publication. Merfolk has been racing up the charts, and may soon end its “always a bridesmaid” streak.
Lady In Red
Even after all this time, it still feels weird calling a four-color deck “RDW”. What started out with Innistrad as a BR deck called Bump (aka “R(akdos)DW”) has turned into a multicolor monstrosity, often splashing G for Deathrite Shaman shenanigans, or W for Boros Charm or Lightning Helix, or even both! The most common variant is BRG, followed by BRGW, and BR. The BRW version has not yet appeared this quarter, but was there for last one.
Kothcicle is a straight up burn/aggro mono red deck using Koth of the Hammer, Skred, and snow lands. Vex Bomb is also straight up mono red burn/aggro using Vexing Devil.
Wannabes
These are the guys that have shown up once, only to wander off into the woods and be eaten by wolves.
I think Hive Mind and Aggro Loam might be showing up soon; the meta still feels soft to combo-ish decks to me.
Overdrive! is the original Modern format Player-Run Event! In fact, it’s even older than Modern, having started out as an event in the Overextended format. Overdrive! is free to enter, and happens every Monday evening at 8:30PM Eastern time. Eurodrive!, a Euro-time friendly Overdrive! clone, happens every Saturday at noon UTC.
Overdrive! #101 Champion: Beaubafett / RDW
Overdrive! #102 Champion: NobleM600 / Robots
Eurodrive! #82 Champion: ChineseNotebook / Titan Ramp
Eurodrive! #83 Champion: Randel Flag / Soul Sisters
Decks from all Overdrive! events can be found here.
Decks from all Eurodrive! events can be found here.
Where Angels Fear To Tread is a limited-seating Modern format Player-Run Event that follows the same structure as the MTGO Daily Scheduled Events: 4 rounds of Swiss pairings, with prizes going to all 4-0 and 3-1 players. As with all of my events, it is absolutely free to enter! WAFTT happens every Sunday at 1800UTC (2PM Eastern, 11AM Pacific).
Where Angels Fear To Tread #62
Players: 18
4-0: justcanceled ~ 3-1: woodjt, Beaubafett, No_Outs, ChineseNotebook, brettmemphis1989, Nyzzeh
Where Angels Fear To Tread #63
Players: 18
4-0: woodjt5 ~ 3-1: brettmemphis1989, dain23, allstar997, DirtyDuck, shuffleorboogie
Decks from all WAFTT events can be found here.
Interesting Tidbits
TNMO for August 15 will be Modern.
MOCS Season 8 Preliminaries (August 9-10) and Finals (August 17) will be Modern format.
Online PTQs for PT Born of the Gods will include two Modern Masters Sealed events, one on September 28 and November 29.
Modern’s Second is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 24 at 1800 UTC (2PM Eastern, 11AM Pacific). This event will be 1v1 Modern, Swiss pairing, and the number of rounds will be determined by attendance. There will be a T8 cutoff. I will be starting to hit up sponsors, Wizzos, etc., at the beginning of August.
I wasn’t able to track attendance during my netless period, hence the gap.
