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By: BlippyTheSlug, Volker Kirstein
Mar 13 2014 12:00pm
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Terra Incognita

It has been said of Modern: "The most important thing about Modern is [its] diversity. It's by and far the most open format right now, there are huge tracts of land no one has explored. It's the new frontier of competitive Magic.", and "The nice thing about Modern is that the format is very open. There's a lot of room to explore and find decks that can work".

To hammer home this point, here are maps from some recent explorations:

 

 

When I saw this list, my first reaction was to tick another Raka Twin. But something kept niggling at my brain. I looked at the list for a good five minutes before it dawned on me: there's no Splinter Twin! This deck appears to be taking the Tempo Twin route, controlling the board until such time as it can pop out the Restoration Angel / Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo for infinite hasty fliers.

I'm classifying this deck as a Splinter Twin deck, even though there's no Splinter Twin present. It uses the same inherent "make a million guys right now and swing" philosophy as the primary wincon. 

 

 

Here we have a more "traditional" type Zombie deck: pump 'em up and turn 'em sideways. Putrid Leech is an often overlooked piece of tech that fits in nicely with the green zombie plan. We already know about throwing away Gravecrawler to Lotleth Troll, and then casting it from the graveyard, is part of the game plan. There's not really too much to say, it's a pretty linear deck.

The reason I popped it out here for you, and what I think is really cool here, is the semi-transformational sideboard which turns if from a Zombie deck to a GB Rock deck. Surprise!

Meta Madness

There's just a few more weeks left in this quarter. Maybe this next quarter we can get a solid quarter's worth of results instead of having to start from scratch two or three times. One can hope.

Rock has fallen from its throne, exposing the Splinter Twin as the most egregious offender now. Rock and Tron are starting to recover, and more "rogue" variations of the usual suspects are popping up. 

I can't stress enough how much [REDACTED] this lack of event results is. The reasons WotC stated for the redaction have been shown to be so much [REDACTED]. Over a year, and still no letup. Call me the Lone Ranger.

Tribal Wars still aren't back. I can make a Mirage Theme Deck game, if I like. Amazing how we have all these formats that no one (I know of) plays, but they took away the ones that people did play. They said Tribal Wars is coming back "in due time." Don't kid yourself. They're gone.

Cut the [REDACTED], wizzo's.

All results. All the time. Bring back Tribal Wars!

The Big Picture

 

Higher Education

Post Graduate

 

College

 

High School

 

Primary School / The Sandbox

 

The Wall of Voodoo

 

 

 

 

 

I have consolidated Death &Taxes, Hate Bears, and UW Vial into one unified archetype/submeta. 

 

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It is so strange referring to a four color deck as "RDW", but here it is. Bump decks started out as , but now regularly run three or four colors.

Aggro and Burn are both "true" RDW variants, being mono . The main difference between the two is in the creature base. Aggro typically runs twelve to eighteen creatures, while Burn runs ten or less.

White Lightning is RDW Burn splashing for Boros Charm.

  

 

 

I'm using a dividing line of four Snapcaster Mages plus up to four more creatures to indicate Control, and more than eight creatures to signify Midrange. Keep in mind that "Midrange" in this submeta doesn't mean the same thing as it normally does. A Raka Midrange deck is still quite control heavy.

 

 

 

 

 

Rock

Even after the banning of Deathrite Shaman, Rock continues to be a force. It's taken a few days to recover, but Rock is once more making its face known. The basic core of the post-ban Modern Rock deck is:

Abrupt Decay
Dark Confidant
Inquisition of Kozilek  /  Thoughtseize
Liliana of the Veil
Scavenging Ooze / Tarmogoyf

Everything else is “accessories”, according to the builder’s preference. Jund and Junk are two appendages of the same beast. Ajundi and Junk'd happen 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Dusty" Tron is simply GR/b Tron with three or four All is Dust. "Regular" GR/b Tron runs none, sometimes one, never two.

 

Breakfast at Urza's (if/when it shows) is an "eggs" style deck that uses Krark-Clan Ironworks and Open the Vaults to generate huge amounts of mana to either hardcast Emmy, deliver a fatal Banefire, or durdle up a fatal storm of Grapeshots.

  

 

 

 

  



 

 

Little Zoo has a mana curve topping out at 2, while Big Zoo's curve tops out at 3 or more (Knight of the Reliquary, Kitchen Finks, Elspeth, Knight-Errant).

Ghor-Clan Rampager is counted as CMC2, not CMC4.

 

Tribal Flames is also known as Domain Zoo, or sometimes Blue Zoo after Snapcaster Mage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Random Gibberish

I guess the Spank The Slug segment went over like a lead balloon. I mean the common concept thereof, not the actual lead balloon made by Mythbusters. So I'm going to use this space to throw random gibberish at you. Be it in the form of poetry (most likely), video composition (maybe), rambling pointless stories (also likely). If you want to see something else, ask me. So there. Here we go...

The World Is A Moron

The revolution will not be televised
It’s happened before we even realized
How the hell you think Kony got worldwide?
Vacant heads trumped it
Lolcats jumped it
If the news woulda thumped it
No one woulda bumped it
Talking to your mom half a world away
While she’s sailing on a cruise on Acapulco Bay
Live pictures from the boat as it sways
The revolution will not be televised
It’s here before out eyes as we’re hynotized
Growing up with AIDS swept aside
Poison filled lips kicking reason to the curbside
The revolution will not be televised
It’s already here inside your mind
The revolution will not be televised
The revolution you cannot hide
You cannot hide

 

 

Overdrive!, which started on July 4th, 2011, is the original Modern format Player-Run Event! In fact, Overdrive! is even older than Modern, having started out as an event in the Overextended format. Overdrive! is a single elimination event: two men enter, one man leaves. Registration is done via Gatherling. You can find more information at the main event thread here.

 

 

 

Overdrive! #122
Players: 11
Champion: Call1Me1Dragon / Robots
Runner up: SeaandRhythm / Eternal Command
Decklists and results from all Overdrive! events can be found here.  

Robots
Call1Me1Dragon, Champion, Overdrive! 122
Creatures
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Etched Champion
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
28 Creatures

Other Spells
4 Cranial Plating
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
16 Other Spells
Lands
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Glimmervoid
1 Mountain
16 Lands

Call1Me1Dragon asked Robots out to the dance, and had a full dance card. He started the Robots out by kicking some Bant butt, followed by an ordeal by fire. Twice! The finals showed why Robots are so dominant in today's Modern meta by making very short work of SeaandRhythm's Eternal Command.

 

 


BlippyTheSlug on MTGO

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1 Comments

The original unedited poem is by BlippyTheSlug at Thu, 03/13/2014 - 12:11
BlippyTheSlug's picture

The original unedited poem is linked in poem title.