Modern is upon us! And there are a LOT of viable strategies and decks. As more events fire, the format will become more defined, but currently the only things we know for certain are that combo decks will be prevalent, that 12Post will be a popular choice, and that Zoo will be the go-to aggro deck (which may not be true on MTGO due to Zoo’s price tag).
With all this in mind, I’ve been focusing on two decks in the Tournament Practice room: Fast Zoo and 12Post.
Fast Zoo
Zoo is the generic name for multicolor decks that focus on beating down their opponents with small creatures and burn. This version of the deck focuses on killing its opponent as fast as possible. It features seventeen 1-drop creatures, eight of the best 2-drop creatures (ever), twelve burn spells, and two obligatory Path to Exiles for removing blockers that can’t be effectively burnt (e.g., Kitchen Finks, Knight of the Reliquary).
_ShipIt's Fast Zoo for Modern
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(This list is by no means perfect, but it’s good enough for testing purposes.)
A deck of this type sets the pace for the rest of the format. Either you need to be doing similarly fast things, or you need to have enough disruption so that you don’t succumb to this deck in the first couple turns of the game.
Turn 1 is a crucial turn for this deck. You really have to think through what you’re going to do with your lands for the rest of the game on that turn. Everything after that becomes pretty simple, as long as you can cast all of your spells.
If you want to try this version yourself, consider some of the following cards:
- Might of Alara– It makes the deck even faster!!!
- Kavu Predator– Not just a budget player’s Tarmogoyf. It gets a lot better when building around it (e.g., Grove/Fire, Fiery Justice, etc.)
- Molten Rain– Bad synergy with Path to Exile, but it can act like a Time Walk while being even better against 12Post.
- You don’t have to use Zenith early if you have other forms of mana acceleration.
- Against many decks, one Mindslaver activation is enough to win the game, so don’t overpressure yourself to combo off.
- Dredging Life from the Loam into Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is bad, but it sometimes can’t be avoided.
- Eye of Ugin can fetch Wurmcoil Engine if you need it to.
- Engineered Explosives can blow up an opposing Blood Moon with the help of a Simic Signet or an Island and Forest.
- Against Hive Mind, you can play Vesuva, choosing their red source, in advance in order to pay for a Pact of the Titan later (I’ve done this successfully).
- 1 Expedition Map
- 3 Sylvan Scrying
- 4 Simic Signet
- 4 Remand
- 3 Gifts Ungiven
- 1 Life from the Loam
- 1 Mindslaver
- 1 Chalice of the Void
- 1 Engineered Explosives
- 4 Explore
- 4 Green Sun’s Zenith
12Post
This version of 12Post is something that I’ve been working on for the past week. It started out as the mono-blue version (straight from MTGOverextended.com) and slowly made its way to a much more focused UG version.
_ShipIt's UG 12Post for Modern
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The game plan of this deck is to set up either a Mindslaver (sometimes one Slaver is enough to win) or to hard-cast Emrakul as fast as possible. The deck is a load of fun to play once you get the hang of it, and here’s a few pointers to make sure you do:
If you have any questions about either deck or what I think about the format, I’ll gladly respond in the comments section! So, with all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the videos of me testing out these decks!
Modern Fast Zoo TPR Match 1
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Modern Fast Zoo TPR Match 2
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Modern Fast Zoo TPR Match 3
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Modern UG 12Post TPR Match 1
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Modern UG 12Post TPR Match 2
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.
The decks look good but next time could you post a budget friends version of Zoo or 12post?
@ Malum
You can’t really make a budget 12 post list because you need vesuva’s and they are quite pricey. You can go mono green to save some money (no gifts).
Isn’t 4 zenith’s too many? You only have 3 green creatures.
It was funny to see that deck with the martyr. It has a chance against Zoo due to the lifegain, but nothing it does would be relevant against 12post.
I have not yet played a game of modern, but it seems to me that Goblin Guide is better than Kird Ape/Loam Lion. Especially in a speedy version like that, you don’t really care about giving them lands and I think 2 damage>1 extra toughness.
@Malum – Budgetizing Zoo is difficult because even if you cut the most expensive cards, you’ll always have to pay for the mana base. As for 12Post, going mono green should reduce the cost as well as make the deck better.
But if those are still too expensive for you, you should try something else, maybe Living End. I’ve actually found the deck to be pretty good and it happens to be on the cheap side. My version adds up to about 110 tix. I’m not sure how much better you can do than that without sacrificing power (Check the last DE from today when it’s posted for my latest list [3-1 record]).
@boekia – My theory is that if you’ve Zenithed for or drawn all of your targets, you should be able to win regardless of drawing and extra Zenith.
@Steve – I actually wanted to run Goblin Guide in this version, but my friend pointed out that Goblin Guide gets outclassed by opposing 1 drops and it also would be one of the only good targets for a Punishing Fire.