And We’re Back!!

What’s happening everyone, MoxAmethyst here and I know it’s been a little while. As much as I love this game and wish I could do nothing but play unfortunately I have to earn a living and life has taken over a little these last few weeks. Now that everything’s settled down a bit I’ve finally had some time to play, watch and really think about my absolute favourite format; Modern!

Now just very quickly before we get into today’s topic for discussion, I’d just like to remind you that you can find us on Social Media, both at Facebook and Twitter. Also if you want to keep up with what I’m playing, brewing or just generally messing about with you can follow me on Instagram. Let’s keep those numbers rising!

Now quite a lot has happened in Modern recently, and it’s taken a couple of weeks for everyone to get used to how the format has shaped around the recent printing and Banlist changes, so today we’re going to look at the state of Modern, and breakdown which decks you should expect to be facing at your local Modern Tournaments.

First, let’s take a quick look at Modern’s most hyped addition of recent memory; Stoneforge Mystic. If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll know I’ve written a little about Stoneforge Mystic already, so I won’t spend too long. Let’s look at the best performing Stoneforge Archetypes since the Unbannings.

The big Archetypes to come out of the change have been UWx Stoneblade; GW Eldrazi and Saheeli Combo, as well as some more fringe ideas including BW Smallpox and Bant Soulherder. These decks have been performing reasonably but are by no means taking a stranglehold on the format. The presence of this kind of strategy encourages players to be prepared for grindy midrange matchups, which is exactly the kind of Modern that I enjoy playing!

The other deck that has toyed around with our Equipment loving friend is Urza Combo. From numerous discussions in the Urza Facebook group and the results of the past few weekends, it seems that the tried and true Goblin Engineer is still the best way to support your ThopterSword combo. That’s not to say that Stoneforge is a poor inclusion, and if you expect a larger amount of Midrange and Control decks at your local store, a UW central build with Stoneforge and Teferi, Time Raveler might be the way to go.

Another deck that seems to have gained a new lease on life recently is Titanshift. This is one of those decks that generally shows up and you should probably expect to see in most Modern environments, however with the amount of Urza decks and Stoneforge archetypes, Titanshifts ability to present threat after threat starting as early as turn 3 is a very powerful way to pressure these midrange strategies.

One Modern mainstay that has surprised me looking back at these past few weeks is Dredge and the quite respectable performances that pilots of the Archetypes have continued to provide since the banning of arguably one of the best ‘dredge’ cards printed in Modern, Faithless Looting. Dredge players don’t seem to have reached a concensus yet on exactly what should replace the powerful enabler, however builds with Tome Scour and Insolent Neonate have both been popping up in Paper Tournaments and in Online results since the Ban. So don’t skimp on the Graveyard hate, between this and Urza there’s still plenty of reason to pack a few pieces in your 75.

On the topic of Modern mainstays, Jund has continued to put up promising results since the printing of Wrenn and Six. Players still can’t seem to decide on an exact list, with some people including the classic Jund icon Dark Confidant, whilst others continue to experiment with newer cards, such as Seasoned Pyromancers and main deck Plague Engineers. I don’t expect a ‘stock’ version of Jund to appear for a while, with the format being as open as it is right now and all of the options having good arguments behind them, I would think that Jund decks will continue to vary on a number of the cards they play, though the core I’m sure will stay pretty recongisable throughout!

Outside of that, we have the usual suspects in Tron (both Mono-G and Eldrazi), Burn, Devoted Vizier combo and Humans that everyone is pretty used to seeing in the format by now.

So there it is, my little breakdown of Modern right now. I love how wide open the format is, and for the first time in a while I feel comfortable trying new things. So as a little treat, here is the deck that I’ve been working on in the small amount of time I’ve had over the last couple of weeks, and I’m pretty happy with how it feels in the format right now. Let me know if there’s anything you would change about the list in the comments!

And that’s it for today. Thank you for taking time out to have a read, and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions, suggestions or just fancy saying hello! Remember if you are looking to buy any of the cards mentioned you can follow the links or head over to TCGPlayer to have a browse. Buying through the links helps us out a bunch and keeps the site running. Until next time, MoxAmethyst Tapping out!