Modern: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
In the past month and a half, there has been a renaissance of an old archetype quietly taking over the Modern world. No, this is false. This archetype has been here, dominating the Modern world since the Modern world’s creation. You might know it under a different name, but make no mistake, Rock has been part of Modern since the beginning.
The midrange aggro/control archetype we know today as Rock first hit the scene during Tempest/6th/Urza Standard, and was called “The Rock and his Millions.” It used mana dorks for early ramp, and filled your hand with lands (giving you card advantage to boot) with the Yavimaya brothers. Deranged Hermit would clog the ground with squirrels. Opponents’ hands would be taken apart under duress. The game would ideally be finished by “The Rock”* bashing face with “his Millions”**.
(*Phyrexian Plaguelord is affectionately nicknamed for professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, allegedly because of the pose shown in the card art.)
(**His “Millions” are Squirrel tokens generated by Deranged Hermit.)
The Rock and his Millions by Sol Malka
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Magic rotated. The deck rotated along with it, migrating over to Ice Age-Invasion Extended. While holding true to the principles of hand disruption, clogging the ground, and card advantage, it moved away from Plaguelord and Squirrel tokens as the finisher, and moved towards Pernicious Deed and Spiritmonger. This is the build that took down GP Las Vegas 2001:
The Rock and his Millions by Michael Pustilnik
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Here’s a nice little deck tech article about Rock from PT Houston ’02. It’s also a nice little trip down memory lane. Check out those ads!
Magic continued on it’s inexorable course. Green fatties got better/cheaper with Ravenous Baloth, hand disruption improved with Cabal Therapy, and graveyard recursion became a thing with Eternal Witness. By the time Tempest-Kamigawa Extended was in season, the deck had dropped the “and his Millions” part of the name, and simply became The Rock.
The Rock by Ernie Marchesano GP Seattle '05
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Ravnica block started another revolution in Rock’s evolution. “The” was dropped, and it became just Rock. The shock and karoo lands solidified the manabase, and made it possible, even desireable, to splash other colors. Very quickly Rock started splashing W for Loxodon Hierarch, R for Flametongue Kavu, or U for Gifts Ungiven. Some even splashed 2 colors!
UW Gifts Rock by Javier Dominguez Worlds '05
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I don’t need to tell you how Future Sight‘s Tarmogoyf became the beater of choice for any deck running G. Rock was no exception.
During Lorwyn-Shadowmoor, more lands producing multiple colors came out, and Liliana Vess made her debut, as did Garruk Wildspeaker and the rest of the Base Five crew. Doran, the Siege Tower solidified an offshoot branch of Rock with W, and this became known as “Junk”. This nomenclature came about because GBW builds of a non-Rock deck of the time looked like a “pile of junk” when written out in a decklist. Since Junk builds happened to be GBW, as more and more Rock decks started splashing W, Junk came to mean the specific GBW color combination that we think of today.
Then Shards of Alara Block happened, and another branch of the family tree blossomed. The shards had names. Red Rock became Jund, and exploded onto the Standard scene. Say what you will, Jund is Rock with a red splash. Hand disruption, card advantage, clogging the ground, and beaters. These are all the hallmarks of Rock.
Formats changed. Extended was bastardized into a “4 Block Standard”, and slowly dwindled to nothing, finally dying earlier this year. Overextended and Modern battled it out to become the new “midlevel” format, and Modern won. Rock variants did well in both formats. Rock was still a player in Standard, as well. A prime example being this PTQ winner from Zendikar/M11/Scars of Mirrodin Standard.
Fast forward to today.
In today’s Modern world, if a card character could be iconic for Rock, I’d say Liliana Vess is that poster girl. Mostly because of her Liliana of the Veil form, but Lili has played in Rock decks in all her incarnations. I think she is the embodiment of of the Rock archetype.
Just like Bloodbraid Elf was the poster child for Jund – which we all now know is a Rock deck as well – until she got hammered, Liliana Vess is Rock’s pin-up girl.
Today, the basic core of the Modern Rock deck is:
Abrupt Decay
Deathrite Shaman
Inquisition of Kozilek / Thoughtseize
Liliana of the Veil
Scavenging Ooze
Tarmogyf
Everything else is “accessories”, according to the builder’s preference. Here are some of the things you might find in a dedicated GB build:
Garruk Wildspeaker / Garruk Relentless
Maelstrom Pulse
Putrefy
To make it into Jund, all you have to do is add some combination of:
Blightning
Chandra, Pyromaster
Huntmaster of the Fells
Lightning Bolt
Terminate
Same with Junk. To make Junk, add some combination of:
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Lingering Souls
Loxodon Smiter
Oblivion Ring
Path to Exile
Then, for Ajundi, these accessories, plus any of the above:
Ajani Vengeant
Boros Charm
Lightning Helix
You can even go a more MBC route by adding:
Nyxathid
Tombstalker (does not play well with Goyf!)
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Wrench Mind
These accessory lists are by no means all-inclusive.
Then there’s Gifts (Blue) Rock. I’m not even going to begin to list the possibilities for spells that Gifts Ungiven can target. You can go the reanimator route, the control route, whatever your little heart desires. The Gifts Package possibilities are endless.
Jund and Junk are two appendages of the same beast. Ajundi happens when the appendages slap together. But it’s all the same slavering, rabid swampbeast hybrid that comes tearing into every Modern FNM, every Modern GP, every Modern PTQ, every Modern PT. And usually ends up King of the Hill. That beast is Rock.
Rock & Roll
All my Modern events are on hold at this time. I am burnt out on running events four to five times a week for over three years running. MTGO Academy and I are amicably parting ways, and I am not actively seeking sponsorship for these events. They may return, they may not. I don’t know.
I will continue to write and play. I don’t know where my writing will end up yet. I don’t even know if I would call myself a writer.
I do have plans for a new event, of sorts. I am exploring some groundbreaking innovations, and hope to blaze new trail in the PRE world. I’m setting my birthday (November 26) as a target date goal.
Overdrive! was 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! #111 Champion: pk23 / Melira Pod
Overdrive! #112 Champion: abomai / Hate Bears
Eurodrive! #92 Champion: Endir / U Tron
Eurodrive! #93 Champion: uberbacon / U tron
Decks from all Overdrive! events can be found here.
Decks from all Eurodrive! events can be found here.
Where Angels Fear To Tread was a limited-seating Modern format Player-Run Event that followed 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.
Where Angels Fear To Tread #72
Players: 18
4-0: Jeketerri ~ 3-1: Socanelas, abomai, shuffleorboogie, Farfishere
Where Angels Fear To Tread #73
Players: 15
4-0: pk23 ~ 3-1: Procrastination, pelao28, fliebana
Decks from all WAFTT events can be found here.
Where are my meta charts? They were there when I submitted it it.
Would love to see some videos! Modern is my favorite format and it would be awesome if you would be able to find the time. Your content is great! Thanks as always!