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By: Gardevi, Lee McLeod
Aug 26 2011 8:34am
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 By the time you read this, Modern queues have just been put up or are soon to be up. And, like many other people, you may want to play Modern but not know where to start. Sure, you can always jam 12 Wild Nacatl variants in a decklist and hope for the best, but what kind of competition are you going against? What decks are being played right now online? Modern has a card pool of over 6000 cards. It isn't possible to predict everything, but you can at least see a little of what's coming and prepare for it.


As soon as Modern was announced, players who had invested in the format previously or really wanted to play in it went and bought decks to bring to the Tournament Practice room. There's usually 20-30 matches of Modern being played in the TP room at any given time - despite it not even being incorporated on MTGO yet! Now, since I love playing Modern because of the new variety of the format (and I don't own Legacy cards), I've been one of these people. Here's roughly what I expect people to play for the first few days to a week or so in the Modern dailies, 2mans, and 8mans. 

(Decklists have been taken from various sources around the internet)
 
ZOO

Zoo is the defining deck of Modern. Some people have said it's too strong, some say that the bannings don't allow for decks other than Zoo to exist. I think both camps of people are very wrong. Zoo is not an oppressive deck and it doesn't do anything overly unfair. It plays a bunch of efficient creatures and smashes you with them. Zoo comes in three main varieties - Little Zoo, Big Zoo, and Fires Zoo.

Little Zoo focuses primarily on 1-drop creatures that avoid getting Punishing Fired. Wild Nacatl, Loam Lion, and Kird Ape are the defining cards of this deck. The deck tries to lower the curve to be faster than the other aggro decks and combo decks, and pushing through extra damage with burn spells like Lightning Helix to finish you off. 

Big Zoo doesn't play as many 1-drops as little zoo. Usually you only find Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape. Big Zoo is called such because they play "expensive" cards like Bloodbraid Elf and (sometimes) Boom/Bust. Big Zoo is slightly slower than it's smaller counterpart due to its increased mana curve, but has the benefit of winning the games that go longer that Little Zoo wouldn't win. This gives Big Zoo an edge in the Little vs Big matchup. A vast majority of the Zoo players are playing Big Zoo.

Fires Zoo is similar to Big Zoo, but plays the Grove of the Burnwillows and Punishing Fire combo to team up with Kavu Predator to make a giant monster that is even bigger than Tarmogoyf... with trample! This was considered the best version of the Zoo decks during Overextended because of how absurd Kavu Predator can be, but I have yet to encounter a deck playing Kavu Predator online, so you probably shouldn't factor it in to your decisions.

I should also mention Domain Zoo, which plays Breeding Pool and Blood Crypt to turn on Tribal Flames for a 2-mana Lava Axe. Some of these builds even play Dark Confidant for a little more draw power!

 



Beating these decks is pretty simple. It pretty much boils down to 'play more removal'. If you're playing combo, play enough removal to buy you time to win the game, or just aim to be faster than Zoo. For control, play things like Vedalken Shackles, Tarmogoyf, or Threads of Disloyalty in addition to more removal. Blood Moon also does a number on Zoo decks in addition to also punishing...


12POST

Though Zoo gets more press, I've seen much, MUCH more 12post online than anything else. 12post comes in three versions - a monogreen version that ramps extremely quickly towards Emrakul or the Eldrazi Titan of your choice, a monoblue version that is more content with controlling games via Condescend and Repeal and wins via Mindslaver-Academy Ruins lock, and a blue/green one that combines both of these elements. 

Monogreen 12post is the most popular online, no doubt due to the extravagant cost of Breeding Pools at the moment. Monogreen is super consistent and very fast. It plays Ancient Stirrings, Sylvan Scrying, and Primeval Titan to find the lands it needs to kill you. However, monogreen tends to stumble on actually killing you sometimes. Sometimes it draws all ramp spells and not an Eldrazi, Tooth and Nail, or Eye of Ugin. In addition, you have a hard time interacting with your opponent. You can't counter spells or draw cards like blue can, so you're trading consistency with speed and resilience. Blood Moon is not as huge a worry for the monogreen lists as it is to the others because these decks typically board into a ton of Naturalize effects. (While U/G also gets the actual Naturalize effects as well, sometimes you have to worsen your manabase by fetching a Basic Forest to kill the Moon, then you can't cast blue spells because you're playing 12 colorless lands.)

U/G 12post is probably the strongest version out of the three. It isn't as popular online as monogreen, but it's still a force to be reckoned with. The addition of blue adds Condescend, Repeal, and Gifts Ungiven to the 12post arsenal - to ensure that you can stop your opponent from trying to do anything that might stop you, and then tutor out whatever pieces you don't have with Gifts. 

Monoblue, sadly, isn't really a force online. I haven't seen a single decklist in the Tournament Practice room. I think this version is different enough from the two others to be worth looking at, though.





If you can disrupt this deck's mana, that's the only way I can see you coming out with a win. Tectonic Edge, Ghost quarter, Magus of the Moon, Blood Moon, etc. Glimmerpost is actually the secret nightmare card for most decks that would otherwise beat this deck. The 12post decks usually 'go off' around turn 4-5, turns by which something like Monored or Zoo could kill you by. However, Glimmerpost gains the Post player enough life to just barely live, and then smash you on the next turn. 


MELIRA "COMBO"

This is the third most popular deck online. This deck plans to assault you with little creatures and then set up an infinite life or damage combo with Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Kitchen Finks/Murderous Redcap + Greater Gargadon/Viscera Seer. There are two versions of this deck that I've seen - Naya and Jund. 

Naya Melira is pretty much a strictly combo version. Most Naya Melira decks I've seen are only half-heartedly applying any early pressure, and more trying to assemble combo pieces via ...their draw step. For some reason, this is the most popular version of the deck online. I'm still not sure why the deck plays white. It plays green for Melira and Finks and Red for Redcap and Bloodbraid Elf and Gargadon, and white for...pretty much just Knight of the Reliquary, with sometimes Qasali Pridemage and Gaddock Teeg coming out of the board.

Jund is few and far between online, but it is - in my opinion - much better than its Naya counterpart. Black gives you access to Dark Confidant and Putrid Leech, which are better beatdown creatures than Melira herself and Kitchen Finks. It puts your opponent under a faster creature clock while still giving you a better combo clock because of the extra cards Confidant draws. Be careful not to shove Gargadon in this deck, though; Viscera Seer is your sacrifice outlet of choice.





Sadly, I couldn't find a Naya Melira decklist from my cursory glances around the internet. Either people can see a list I can't find, or a lot of people online are having the same thought!

Beating Melira is pretty simple. The Naya version especially puts up no real resistance once you kill Melira herself. In addition, Punishing Fire is quite crippling against Melira decks in general.  Barring significant draws on the Melira side, most decks can outrace Melira. Zoo kicks its inferior creatures' teeth in, combo like Living End of Dragonstorm are too quick, and 12post can both out race (monogreen/ug) and out control (ug/monoblue) Melira. That said, be careful when playing against this deck. It does have a penchant for just 'oops, I win' moments when they casually drop a Kitchen Finks and gain infinite life. 



These three above are the current 'pillars' of the metagame; the decks I've seen the most of. If you want to go "rogue" (or as much rogue as you can be in an untested, unformed format), you have to build your deck to - at minimum - have a decent game against these three decks. Based on what I've seen in the Tournament Practice room, if you can build a deck with a fair game against these three decks, you can theoretically avoid other decks because of their lack of popularity. However, there are a few combo decks in the metagame that it's pretty important to be aware of. In descending order of popularity. 


LIVING END/DRAGONSTORM

I've seen about an equal amount of people play these decks. They both crush unprepared Zoo decks, which I suspect is why they have so much popularity. Living End, especially, is a very budget deck. Living End aims to cycle a ton of creatures like (Monstruous Carabid) to dig for a cascade spell such as Demonic Dread or Violent Outburst, which then cascades into Living End to return to play all the creatures in your grave that you cycled previously. Then it bludgeons the now-undefended opponent over the head with terrible cycling creatures. 
Dragonstorm, on the other hand, plays like a Storm deck on a clock. It wants to suspend a Lotus Bloom on turn 1, then spend the next two turns using Ponder effects to dig for Rituals like Seething Song as well as a copy of Dragonstorm. On turn 4, when the Lotus unsuspends, you play a couple Rituals and Dragonstorm, fetching out either 4 Bogardan Hellkite or 2 Hellkite and Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund to kill you in one turn. 



What beats these decks? Living End is super vulnerable to hate cards, because it relies entirely on cascade spells and its graveyard in order to win the game (well, I guess it could also just play Monstrous Carabids and beatdown, but what deck can't beat that?). So any card that can hose its graveyard or counter the Living End just steamrolls them. Some Living End lists have caught on to this, and play Krosan Grips and Ricochet Traps to hope to 'counter' your hate cards. The cards you want against this deck are things like Leyline of the Void, Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus to hose their graveyard, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Ethersworn Canonist and literally any counterspell printed ever (slight exaggeration) to deal with Living End itself. Discard such as Thoughtseize is okay against Living End, but you can only get a cascade spell, and they are likely to either play it in response or just find another one eventually - they play a ton.

Dragonstorm is far more resilient than Living End is, but is still relatively fragile. Countering their second ritual or destroying Lotus Bloom stops them from Dragonstorming you out. Any card that stops them from playing multiple cards per turn, like Trinisphere, (Ethersworm Canonist)/Rule of Law, Gaddock Teeg, etc, also stops them from storming. Then you need to deal with them hardcasting the Bogardan Hellkites and trying to kill you that way. Any targetted discard spell like Thoughtseize also works wonder against Dragonstorm, taking a Ritual or Dragonstorm itself so they can't go off. The discard is particularly hurtful for Dragonstorm - back in old Standard, I played Ignorant Bliss to stand half a chance against the B/W decks of the day that were playing Castigate and Stupor. Dragonstorm's anti-hate for these cards is Gigadrowse at the end of your turn, Magma Jet or Repeal to get rid of the hate bears, and Leyline of Sanctity - a long step from Ignorant Bliss - to stop any discard shenanigans. 

These decks are popular enough that you want some form of hate for them in your sideboard. The overlapping card here is (Ethersworm Canonist), an all-star against combo decks if there ever was one. 



PYROMANCER ASCENSION

Thanks to Gavin's article on Starcity last week, everyone is on to the deck that Larry Swasey (kirbykrazy4) and I designed for Overextended and have "ported" it to Modern (the deck was pretty much all Modern legal anyway). This deck plays sort of like a Storm deck in that it wins all in one turn, but plays quite differently since instead of multiple Rituals, you're playing much more cantrips, so you have an easier time finding your combo. 


Most decks I've seen in the TP room have Grove of the Burnwillows/Punishing Fire, but there are some that just eschew the creature-control combo entirely to focus more on Ascending, which is what I prefer, though it is not entirely clear whether that is better or not. The best cards to fight this deck are, in order of effectiveness, Leyline of the Void, any sort of enchantment kill such as Nature's Claim or Krosan Grip, Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere, and the graveyard hate artifacts like Relic of Progenitus and Tormod's Crypt. This deck is quite strong, but hard to play. Most people I've seen play the deck in the practice have made some sloppy plays or not budgeted their draw spells efficiently and failed to combo off as a result. So you don't need to prepare against this deck per se. There aren't many decks in the format right now that rely on artifacts or enchantments, and Ascension isn't a huge factor in the meta right now (there's a large difference between Ascension's popularity and that of Zoo's, for instance), so don't feel like you MUST put graveyard or enchantment hate in your sideboard.





Those are the major players in the Tournament Practice room right now, so that's what I expect most people to be playing in the Dailies and 8mans. That's right, no control decks! No one seems to want to be reactive in an unestablished metagame, though that doesn't mean they don't exist at all - they're just played in far fewer numbers. Now, there are many, many decks that I haven't listed here - the format is HUGE in comparison to the Extended that it has replaced. I've seen Burn, Splinter Twin, Boros, (Ad Nauseum), Hive Mind, The Rack Discard decks, Grixis control (some people can't give up their Cruel Ultimatums), Next/Previous Level Blue, and a few more! The ones above are simply the most prevalent. Just be aware of the most mainstream decks, tune your decks accordingly to beat them, and I'll see you in the Modern queues. :)

Lee McLeod
Gardevi on Magic Online
@Gardevi on Twitter

8 Comments

I've been running Firemane by protocol_7 at Fri, 08/26/2011 - 10:56
protocol_7's picture

I've been running Firemane Angel/Zur's weirding control deck for fun.
It's been catching people off guard since they have no idea what they are up against.

That was a cute deck back in by Gardevi at Fri, 08/26/2011 - 11:16
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That was a cute deck back in Standard. Is it not too slow for you to have a fighting chance against Zoo, or is the incidental lifegain from Firemane and Faith's Fetters enough?

Try Bloodcheif ascension over by Reaper9889 at Sat, 08/27/2011 - 06:59
Reaper9889's picture

Try Bloodcheif ascension over firemane angel :)

I have run that combo quite a bit (in 2hg classic though). 1 alone provides both the life gain of 2 angels AND a reasonable fast clock and it makes removel better :)

it's been all about luck. If by protocol_7 at Sat, 08/27/2011 - 02:11
protocol_7's picture

it's been all about luck. If I get lightning helix and mana leaks I'm ok. If I get cancels and fetters, I'm toast

Affinity ftw by NO_WayJose at Sun, 08/28/2011 - 23:32
NO_WayJose's picture

SneakAttackKid has pulled a fast one on you, and came out with mono red affinity. I also took it to 13th in the PE Modern today.

I'm not sure what I think by Gardevi at Tue, 08/30/2011 - 23:14
Gardevi's picture

I'm not sure what I think about the deck. I have yet to play against it or with it, so I'll reserve judgment for now. Seems quite solid, though I'm not sure of its longevity once the metagame settles.

I am rather astounded at the by Paul Leicht at Mon, 08/29/2011 - 02:36
Paul Leicht's picture

I am rather astounded at the clarity of the bot spam. It is almost as if a human took the time to post that nonsense. *sigh* looks like more severe security is called for.

that was weird by JXClaytor at Mon, 08/29/2011 - 02:43
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I had not seen one of those bot postings in a while.