Hello and welcome back to the State of Modern, our monthly rendez-vous with all things Modern, including big tournament reports, the decklists and prices for the archetypes that are currently the most successful in the meta, and an up-to-date ban list. If you never tried your hand at Modern, this is the right place to know everything you need to know in order to begin; and if you're already into it, it can still be a good way to make sure you know everything that's happening in the format.
The series archive is here.
Let's start a new ride!
THE BIG EVENTS
Here's the latest Modern events with at least 200 players, ordered chronologically. Find the archetypes below.
Another busy month for Modern, with 10 major events. And that doesn't include April 13's MOCS Playoff Q1 (won by Dredge over Death's Shadow) and the MOCS Prelim Q2 that was held on April 19 (where a different Dredge deck piloted by Matti and Izzet Phoenix piloted by Lsmd took the top two pieces of the cake), given that neither of these events hit the 200-player threshold, but the Magic Online Championship Series is still crucial for Modern on MTGO, and this year it assigns $250,000 in prizes! (NOTE: MTGOTop8 reports the dates for these events wrong, the correct ones are on the schedule calendar).
April 1: MTGO Modern MCQ
Players: 311
Winner: superdan_7 with Humans
Top 8: Humans, Izzet Phoenix, Death's Shadow, Humans, Death's Shadow, Hollow One, Merfolk, UrzaTron
April 7: Hareruya's God of Modern Trial
Players: 308
Winner: Kotaro Yamaguchi with Martyr Life
Top 8: Martyr Life, Humans, Faeries, Humans, Amulet Titan, Humans, Phoenix Deck Wins, UrzaTron
April 7: StarCityGames Modern Open: Cleveland
Players: 754
Winner: Sam Lawrence with Amulet Titan
Top 8: Amulet Titan, Esper Control, Amulet Titan, Izzet Phoenix, Humans, Izzet Phoenix, Death's Shadow, Death's Shadow
April 7: StarCityGames Modern Classic: Cleveland
Players: 279
Winner: Tariq Patel with Izzet Phoenix
Top 8: Izzet Phoenix, Spirit Aggro, Izzet Phoenix, UrzaTron, The Rock, UW Control, UW Control, Valakut
April 13: MKM Series: Ghent
Players: 393
Winner: Thomas Van Der Paelt with Izzet Phoenix
Top 8: Izzet Phoenix, UW Control, Hardened Modular, Hardened Modular, Dredge, Hardened Modular, Pyro Prison, UW Control
April 13: Hareruya's 13th God of Modern
Players: 310
Winner: Yuta Takahashi with UW Control
Top 8: UW Control, UW Control, UW Control, UW Control, Burn, Death's Shadow, Dredge, UrzaTron
April 13: Grand Prix São Paulo 2019
Players: 1397
Winner: Marlos Batista Ferreira with UrzaTron
Top 8: UrzaTron, Humans, Bogle, Humans, Burn, Izzet Phoenix, Izzet Phoenix, Valakut
April 19: MagicFest Yokohama MCQ
Players: 312
Winner: Takuya Ishizuki with Izzet Delver
Top 8: Izzet Delver, Humans, Merfolk, Spirit Aggro, Izzet Phoenix, UrzaTron, Eldrazi Aggro, UW Control
April 20: Grand Prix Yokohama 2019
Players: 2495
Winner: Takahito Kobayashi with Hardened Modular
Top 8: Hardened Modular, Spirit Aggro, Dredge, The Rock, Dredge, Dredge, Izzet Phoenix, UW Control
April 26: Pro Tour London (Mythic Championship II)
Players: 515
Winner: Eli Loveman with Humans
Top 8: Humans, Affinity, UrzaTron, UrzaTron, Izzet Phoenix, Humans, Humans, Valakut
THE MODERN META
Already covered: Ad Nauseam, Affinity, Bogle, Blue Moon, Bloomless Titan (aka Amulet Titan), Bridgevine, Burn, Collected Chord (aka Creatures Toolbox), Death's Shadow, Dredge, Eldrazi Aggro, Eldrazi & Taxes, EldraTron, Elves, Gifts Control, Grixis Control, Hardened Modular, Hatebears, Hollow One, Humans, Infect, Instant Reanimator, Izzet Aggro, Izzet Phoenix (update), Izzet Pyromancer, Jeskai Miracles, Jund, Junk, KCI (banned), Lantern Control, Lanternless, Living End, Madcap Gruul, Mardu Pyromancer, Martyr Life, Merfolk, Nahiri Control, Naya Burn, Phoenix Deck Wins, Ponza, Pyro Prison, RDW, Saheeli Evolution, Selesnya Value, Skred Red, Spirit Aggro, Storm, Tezzerator, The Rock, Titan Breach, Tokens, Twinless Exarch, UrzaTron, UW Control, Valakut (aka TitanShift), Valakut Control, Vannifar Pod, Walks.
Update: We're still living in a Phoenix world, but April saw the slightest of declines for the firebird, with some established classics like Death's Shadow and UrzaTron still making the news (the latter also for the unfortunate episode of Yuuya Watanabe's disqualification for allegedly marking the Urza lands at the Mythic Championship II in London).
Humans took the Mythic Championship II and Hardened Modular the very large Grand Prix Yokohama (the archetype is collated with Affinity in the breakdown of MTGTop8, although they really aren't the same deck).
Amulet Titan is also enjoying a new youth, despite its most recent addition being just Ramunap Excavator
as a sideboard option. In recent lists, one or two copies of Hive Mind
are trending again as a secondary wincon, given the presence of Summoner's Pact
as a fixture of the archetype, and occasionally a Pact of Negation
as a general safeguard.
Some events were somehow dominated by certain archetypes (possibly due to local popularity), like the quadruple UW Control in the finals of the God of Modern at the Hareruya Tournament Center in Tokyo, but a few had unusual Top 8 lists. For instance, a Dimir Faerie deck running four copies of Bitterblossom
made the cut at the God of Modern Trial.
This Pyro Prison monored brew distinguished itself at the MKM Series in Ghent. We talked about this new archetype a couple months ago. It's about accelerating in the early turns with Desperate Ritual
, Pyretic Ritual
and Simian Spirit Guide
, then hindering the opponent with Blood Moon
, Chalice of the Void
and Ensnaring Bridge
, and ultimately winning with Goblin Rabblemaster
(whose boost circumvents the Bridge), Legion Warboss
and/or direct damage from Hazoret the Fervent
and Chandra, Torch of Defiance
.
The Yokohama MCQ saw Izzet Delver at the top, i.e. a Pyro-style deck that didn't actually play any copy of Young Pyromancer
. We called it Izzet Aggro in the past. Of note the fact that Wizard's Lightning
has definitely made the leap from Standard to Modern, but also Soul-Scar Mage
, albeit that one has been around longer.
THE MODERN BAN LIST
Last revised: January 21, 2019 (banned: Krark-Clan Ironworks
)
Next announcement: May 20, 2019
Total banned cards: 34
By Color:
- White: 2
- Blue: 6
- Black: 2 (of which 1 Golgari)
- Red: 5
- Green: 7 (of which 1 Golgari)
- Colorless: 13
- Multicolored: 1 (of which 1 Golgari)
By Type:
- Creature: 3
- Land: 8
- Artifact: 6
- Enchantment: 1
- Planeswalker: 0
- Instant: 7
- Sorcery: 9
By Set:
- Core Sets: 2 (of which 1 from 9th Edition, originally from Visions, and 1 from Magic 2011)
- Mirrodin block: 11 (of which 9 from Mirrodin, 1 from Darksteel, 1 from Fifth Dawn)
- Kamigawa block: 4 (of which 2 from Champions of Kamigawa, 2 from Betrayers of Kamigawa)
- Ravnica block: 1 (from Ravnica)
- Ice Age block: 2 (both from Coldsnap)
- Time Spiral block: 2 (both from Time Spiral)
- Lorwyn block: 1 (from Lorwyn)
- Alara block: 0
- Zendikar block: 4 (of which 1 from Zendikar, 2 from Worldwake, 1 from Rise of the Eldrazi)
- Scars of Mirrodin block: 4 (of which 1 from Mirrodin Besieged, 3 from New Phyrexia)
- Innistrad block: 0
- Return to Ravnica block: 1 (from Return to Ravnica)
- Theros block: 0
- Khans of Tarkir block: 2 (both from Khans of Tarkir)
- Battle for Zendikar block: 0
- Shadows over Innistrad block: 0
- Kaladesh block: 0
- Amonkhet block: 0
- Ixalan block: 0
- Three-and-One Sets: 0
See you next month, when we'll keep exploring the Modern meta. In the meantime, don't be ancient, play Modern!
