Tag: modern-decklist

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Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - March 13, 2014

Deck of the Day – Scapeshift by Andrew Calderon (13th at Grand P...

Valakut

Scapeshift

Andrew Calderon

13th Place at Grand Prix on 3/9/2014

As is the case with many decks in Modern the basis for the original design was found in Standard which was adapted and improved upon by the cards available in the expanded pool. This one is no different and comes from a very powerful deck which was known as Valakut. The basic premise of the deck revolves simply around the land Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and its interaction with Mountains which can turn a Mountain entering the battlefield into an uncounterable Lightning Bolt. The original design of the deck in Standard used Khalni Heart Expedition and Primeval Titan as was to get Mountains into play faster but Modern had a very different way to combo for the kill…Scapeshift. Once you have achieved a critical mass of lands in play you are able to use Scapeshift to sacrifice all your lands to search for either one or two Valakut and usually six or seven Mountain in order to kill your opponent on the spot.

There are a few pieces to the puzzle to help get lands into play ahead of schedule in the form of Sakura-Tribe Elder, Search for Tomorrow and two Explore. Since you need the lands in play for Scapeshift to do its magic these cards are critical and opening turns will often go turn 1 Suspend Search into turn 2 Elder which basically advances your combo by two turns. With Blue in the deck and a combo finish that needs protection we find a permission suite that consists of Remand and Cryptic Command, the latter usually the reason the deck will float four mana when going for the kill. There is also the utility player Izzet Charm which can act either as additional counter, dig to draw into answers or combo pieces, or even a way to burn small pesky creatures especially hate bears. There’s also a pair of Lightning Bolt, an Electrolyze and an Anger of the Gods to help as removal or a small amount of reach if needed to finish them off. And that Electrolyze pairs up with Peer Through Depths as the draw power of the deck with Cryptic and Explore as well. And finally what has quietly become a format all-star Snapcaster Mage is able to rebuy any of the already cast instants or sorceries and even do a little beatdown himself to work your way towards victory.

Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
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Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - March 11, 2014

Deck of the Day – UW Control by Shaheen Soorani (18th at Grand P...

Cryptic Command

U/W Control

Shaheen Soorani

18th Place at Grand Prix Richmond on 3/9/2014

Those that know Shaheen Soorani know that he is no stranger to UW based Control style decks, in fact he can be called somewhat of an expert on the subject. It’s no secret that it is his person preference as far as play style and he has championed those Control decks in every format. Often it is difficult to build a Control deck in a relatively wide open field especially one as hugely diverse as Modern, but Shaheen is never one to back down to a challenge.

As with any Control deck in the post-Lorwyn world of Magic we find a very important package of Planeswalkers. Working as primary win conditions which come down once the deck has taken over the game we find the incredibly powerful dynamic duo of Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Gideon Jura both with their own style of beatdown. Also, we have Jace Beleren or ‘Baby Jace’ which is a very strong source of card advantage. There is also a pair of Vendilion Clique and a set of Celestial Colonnade to help the deck finish off the opponent making great use of Flying to sneak through the beats. Next we get to the permission package of the deck which sports some diverse answer with full sets of each Cryptic Command, Mana Leak and Spell Snare to ensure the opponent isn’t allowed to advance their game plan. There’s also a singleton Repeal to bounce any nuisance which they may have been able to sneak in at some point. And no Control deck would be complete without a range of removal with this deck rife on both spot and mass including a set of Path to Exile, trio of Supreme Verdict and pair of Detention Sphere which will find a way to get rid of anything that was allowed to hit the board. There is also a set of Tectonic Edge in the manabase to fight against opposing manlands, Tron lands or even Valakuts. As for draw supplementing the Jace and Cryptic there is also Serum Visions to help dig through the deck to find that right answer. The last piece of the puzzle is found in a trio of Snapcaster Mage that given this deck runs 23 spell targets for the Snappy to rebuy is a dream for any control player when able to slot them in.

While the trend for Control in Modern had been to go with a Blue/White shell adding Red to supplement with reach through burn that route does limit some of the options available to you and relies heavily upon cooperation from your manabase to operate effectively Shaheen was content to stick with the two colors and while it didn’t pay off with a top 8 it did get him 18th out of some 4300 players which is none too shabby. I expect with this result we should be seeing more of the straight UW Control builds and they will as always never end in their constant tweeking and tuning to adapt to an ever-changing metagame.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
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Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - March 11, 2014

Deck of the Day – Affinity by Vipin Chackonal (2nd at GP Richmon...

Cranial Plating
Affinity
Vipin Chackonal
2nd Place at Grand Prix on 3/9/2014
Affinity is a name that’s holds a deeper meaning then just what it stands for in Modern. Part of that meaning is why people tried to reinvent the deck to be known as Robots, but that name just wasn’t accepted. Way back when it was a deck that had a huge amount of game in Standard during the original Mirrodin era it was a menace to that format. This deck is certainly not the same deck as that as there are key elements that came out of Scars of Mirrodin which made the deck a much different beast. Also, the elements around it throughout the Modern metagame even out the playing field a little.

The key to Affinity is a critical mass of artifacts and this deck boasts 48 including the manlands. The reason why the amount of artifacts is so crucial is because Cranial Plating can turn a simple tiny creature into a one or two shot killing machine as it boosts power for each artifact you control. The army comes from a variety of artifact creatures starting with zero drop in Ornithopter and Memnite which help the deck start the game by emptying as much onto the battlefield as quickly as possible increasing the total artifact count substantially. The decks true one drop is Signal Pest with it team pumping Battle Cry and uniquely evasive ability, but Vault Skirge with it Phyrexian mana cost is most often played as a one drop and can quickly gain back the life lost paying for it. Speaking about pumping the team Steel Overseer is a card that if you are allowed to untap with it on the board can quickly make your army of mites turn into ferocious battle bots quickly. Another strong card is the Arcbound Ravager which carries a lot of history in the Affinity decks. With him able to manipulate the board state and sneak damage through where you opponent left himself defenseless can create an inevitable demise for your enemy. The final creature is Etched Champion which in a land of spot removal and opponents with colored creatures it reigns supreme. Often once you attain Metalcraft with him on board it’s gameover in very few hits. There is also two set of manlands with Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus, both able to help end the game but Inkmoth with it poison counters pairs up with Cranial Plating very nicely to quickly infest your opponent from the inside out.

The deck also derives it blinding ability to speed its hand onto the battlefield with acceleration pieces in the form of Springleaf Drum and the impressively powerful Mox Opal. The Mox is able to get around the Legendary drawback of only one in play for you at a time by using the recent changes to the rules and allowing you to use it for mana, play a second sacrificing the first and then using the second for more mana often powering out a huge fighting force on the first or second turn. For some amount of removal and reach there’s the megabolt in Galvanic Blast which will almost always have metalcraft to burn for four. And finally we get to the draw power of the deck and only card with the Affinity mechanic to still be included in the deck with Thoughtcast which with all the ways to speed out your threats helps to ensure those threats just keep on beating.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter

 

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Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - March 10, 2014

Champion’s Deck – Kiki Pod by Brian Liu (1st at Grand Prix...

Birthing Pod
Kiki Pod
Brian Liu
1st Place at Grand Prix on 3/9/2014
One of the marquee cards in Modern has been Birthing Pod and it’s unique ability to upgrade creatures into new creatures from your library. There is an entirely different Pod deck which centers around Melira, Sylvok Outcast but this version uses a different legendary creature Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to steal the ‘Twin’ win engine and combo kill your opponent with infinite creatures.

The engine of the deck runs primarily around the interaction of Birthing Pod with its ‘pod chain’ which is basically a set of creatures at each converted mana cost which you chain together to move up progressively. There is also a second way to ‘tutor’ your creatures with Chord of Calling which is why the deck is so heavily focused on creatures and has a toolbox which can find answers in the maindeck to many of the problems the deck may face from the different decks in the format.

We then get to the creatures in the deck which comprise an entire half of the deck. Starting at the bottom we have the one drop creature with four Birds of Paradise and three Noble Hierarch which serve as the primary acceleration of deck to power out you Pods as quickly as possible. Then moving to the two drops there is three Wall of Roots which complete the mana dork suite and have a favorable interaction with Convoke from Chord of Calling to provide two mana towards the casting cost. There is also two Voice of Resurgence which will leave behind its token when podded, two Scavenging Ooze for incidental lifegain and graveyard control, one Spellskite which can be used either to protect key creatures or disrupt opponents such as Splinter Twin, and one Qasali Pridemage that can destroy a pesky enchantment or artifact especially after sideboard. From the three drops there are two Kitchen Finks which helps to regain life lost from spending Phyrexian mana as well as basically two creatures each for Birthing Pod because of Persist, one Eternal Witness which can rebuy anything lost to the graveyard back to your hand, and one Deceiver Exarch which is a key piece in comboing off for the kill using its ability to untap your Pod or combined with Kiki create infinite creatures. At the next level the four drop are comprised of four Restoration Angel which is another integral cog in the combo by blinking a Pod or Exarch to continue chaining or as a Kiki target to create an infinite army of flying angels. There is also utility from one Murderous Redcap which can be used to kill off low toughness creatures or go to the dome to finish the last points of life, one Glen Elendra Archmage which is the decks only permission, and one Linvala, Keeper of Silence which shuts down many creature abilities to either stiffle the opponents chance to win or at least severily delay it. Finally we have the five drops where we find the namesake of the deck with two Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker the way this deck combo kills for an instant win and also one Zealous Conscript which can be used in the chain to continue by untapping a Pod to be used again.
This deck also has in its manabase two Gavony Township which allow it to switch to the beatdown plan if necessary and also remove -1/-1 tokens from the Persist creature to get additional use from them.
This deck is truly a work of art and only continues to improve with each new creature that is printed being another possible option to add to your pod chain. You should definitely expect this deck to be around for a long time in Modern and must either prepare to face it or learn to master it.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
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Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - February 25, 2014

Champion’s Deck – UWR Control by Shaun McLaren (1st at Pro...

Ajani Vengeant

UWR Control

Shaun McLaren

Pro Tour Born of the Gods – Modern – Champion

What an amazing final game this deck played with such patience by Shaun McLaren.  This deck is basically your quintessential Counter-Burn deck for the Modern format. It plays to go long by playing a draw go style and stifling the opponent until stabilizing the board and taking over the game. During that stabilizing period it’s able to send extra burn to the dome to chip away at the opponent until beating out those final life points with its select few creatures.
The beatdown plan in the deck comes primarily in the form of Celestial Colonnade which as a manland is able to sneak around the formats sorcery speed removal and with 4 toughness bests 3 damage spot removal. There is also a Vendilion Clique which serves as minor disruption but also an efficient Flying clock against a format comprised mainly with armies not air forces. The land creatures comes in the truly overworked Snapcaster Mage which in a deck comprised with 27 maindeck spells to target will always find a use especially now that Deathrite Shaman is gone from Modern no longer eating your Flashback targets. The next key element of this style deck is the permission package and this one packs a wallop indeed boasting Mana Leak and Cryptic Command, backed up by Remand and Spell Snare to deal with threats of all shapes and sizes. One great interaction between Cryptic and a Snapcaster on board allows you to bounce the Snappy further grinding additional value from him. We next get to the burn suite in the deck and find all the heavy hitters with format staple Lightning Bolt, lifegainer Lightning Helix and additional card draw with Electrolyze. Combo those with Snappy and your opponent will end up crispy in no time flat. While the burn will often be used as removal you also have another format staple in Path to Exile dealing with particularly devastating creature threats and find the decks lone sweeper in Anger of the Gods which works it’s Exile clause to the max with many of the creatures it finds. There is also Tectonic Edge which against opposing manlands is solid removal but often will be able to hit an integral dual land to cut the opponent off a key color. The primary draw power comes from a pair of Sphinx’s Revelation which has a knack of pulling a control deck from the brink of death into a commanding position refueling both your hand and your health in one fell swoop. We finally get to the decks lone Planeswalker with Ajani Vengeant who first has the ability to lock down a particularly troublesome permanent such as a Birthing Pod or particular land as seen in the finals. The second ability basically grants the deck additional Lightning Helix to either remove creatures or blast face. But the final ability is one of the most destructive ultimates with a one-sided Armageddon which we saw is able to practically end games instantly and against an unprepared foe should often draw a concession.
So this deck was not a deck which took advantage of either the unbanning of Wild Nacatl or Bitterblossom but instead was given a slight extra edge from no longer worrying about splash damage from the banned Deathrite Shaman. And while this configuration was suited to take down this meta we are sure to see many different tweeks and variations in the future as a control deck must always adapt to its environment.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
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Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - January 12, 2014

Champion’s Deck – UWR Midrange by Vjeren Horvat (1st Place...

Geist of Saint Traft

UWR Midrange
Vjeren Horvat
1st Place at GP Prague Modern on 01/12/2014

Lands (25)

Creatures (13)

Spells (22)

Sideboard

The first Grand Prix of the new year has come and gone this past weekend from the historical European capital of Prague in the Czech Republic.  The format for this tournament was Modern which since its inception two and a half years ago has been one that always piqued my interest, much like the Extended format which it took its roots from did for me before it.  This weekend was another very exciting weekend and Vjeren was able to battle through Moderns rather diverse field to rise to the top and take the first GP crown of the new year.  It was great to see Modern in action as it is sorely lacking from this PTQ season since Wizards decided to push the Modern PTQs to the summer.  This was also partially a tune up for some players as this is the only big tournament for the format before the Pro Tour in Valencia next month which is also going to have Modern for its constructed portion.

Getting into the deck it is at its core an extremely strong Counter-Burn shell using some of the most powerful elements of control and aggression to take over games and destroy opponents with impunity.  The creature suite is centerpieced by a pair of legendary creature with Geist and Clique.  They are supported by a pair of one-ofs in Resto Angel and Thundermaw which really help to dominate the skies.  But the real synergy comes from a full set of Snapcaster with a plethora of targets to push his value to the limit.  A huge burn package starts with the requisite set of Bolt along with a set of Helix, then to top it off Electrolyze which doubles as card draw as well.  As if all that burn wasn’t enough there’s a trio of Path to clear away any pesky creature threats.  Then we get into the permission package with the versatile Cryptic, tempo play Remand and stock control piece Leak.  Put that package together and we get a deck that can really lay out the beats.

So if you are lucky enough to have your local game store host Modern FNMs or are already thinking ahead towards the summers PTQs definitely give this deck high consideration.  And even if you don’t think this deck is your style make sure you have it in your gauntlet to be sure you know how to attack it lest it burns you out with a Bolt Snap Bolt GG finish.

Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
ejseltzer@hotmail.com

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Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - January 12, 2014

Deck of the Day – Tin Fists by Jan van der Vegt (Day 1 GP Prague...

Fist of suns

Tin Fists
Jan van der Vegt
Day One at GP Prague Modern on Jan. 11th 2014

Lands (21)

Creatures (15)

Spells (24)

For those of you who don’t know Jan and his signature bell he is a very active Twitch streamer from The Netherlands who goes by the handle DzyL.  And for those of us who do know we have already been watching him test his Tin Fists brew on MTGO.  He was able to pilot the deck to an 8-0 start before dropping his last match of the day but still remains at 8-1 going into Day 2 giving himself a great chance to make a run for the top 8.

This deck can have some ridiculously explosive starts, some of which were seen on camera in his feature matches.  It is basically looking to cheat a Griselbrand or Emrakul into play which can happen at times as early as turn two.  The deck uses Goryo’s Vengeance as it’s reanimation tool to rise these legendary creatures back from the grave for a turn, and because it is an instant you are able to respond to Emrakul‘s graveyard trigger before he gets shuffled back into the libray.  Using Faithless Looting and the draw/discard mode of Izzet Charm you are able to dig through your deck then stack the graveyard with targets.  But the final and perhaps most ingenious aspect of the deck is where is gets it’s name from, Fist of Suns.  This simple little artifact allows you to cast any spell for one mana of each color instead of it’s actual mana cost.  Jan then carefully crafted his manabase with a specific mix of duals to compliment City of Brass and Gemstone Mine so you could somewhat ‘easily’ cast an Emrakul on turn five, and since it is cast you get to take advantage of his extra turn trigger which will most often draw an instant concession .

So while the tournament is still now far from over it does look like Jan has put together a true contender with this spicy brew.  I know I will be glued to the coverage in hopes to see another turn two Griselbrand or Emrakul take it down.  Good luck DzyL, we will all be rooting for you.  DING !!!

Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
ejseltzer@hotmail.com

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Gregoire Thibault - November 1, 2013

Deck of the Day: Fabrizio Anteri Tron (Grand Prix Antwerp Top 8 Theros...

Karn Liberated

Tron

Fabrizio Anteri

Top 8 Grand Prix Antwerp 2013 – Modern

Main Deck

60 cards

21 lands

4 creatures

31 other spells

4 planeswalkers

Sideboard

15 sideboard cards