Hello and welcome back to the State of Modern, our periodical 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 250 players or otherwise relevant for the meta, ordered chronologically. The end of the pandemic meant that the paper tournaments played in person are returned in full force: in addition to those listed, several events with 150-200 playes have been held during the past three months. Find the archetypes below.
July 30: NRG Series Trial: Chicago
Players: 272
Winner: Zach Dubin with Yorion Control
Top 8: Yorion Control, Amulet Titan, Elementals, Izzet Murktide, Amulet Titan, Yawgmoth Chord, Izzet Murktide, Azorius Control
July 30: IMPACT Returns 2022 at Narón (Spain)
Players: 251
Winner: Diego Mayo with Creativity
Top 8: Creativity, Puresteel Hammer, Creativity, Amulet Titan, Crashing Footfalls, Creativity, Izzet Murktide, Izzet Murktide
August 14: MTG SEA Championships Open at Oracle Events (Philippines)
Players: 252
Winner: James Joash Primicias with Crashing Footfalls
Top 8: Crashing Footfalls, Crashing Footfalls, Living End, Yorion Control, Amulet Titan, Death's Shadow, Glimpse of Tomorrow
August 20: Grand Open Qualifier for Legacy European Tour (Copenhagen)
Players: 477
Winner: Gianluca Boaretto with Valakut
Top 8: Valakut, Elementals, Puresteel Hammer, Living End, Creativity, Glimpse of Tomorrow, Puresteel Hammer, Izzet Murktide
September 10: 4Seasons Tournaments in Bologna (Italy)
Players: 279
Winner: Manuel Ferraro with Tameshi Bloom
Top 8: Tameshi Bloom, Monoblue Aggro, Crashing Footfalls, Izzet Murktide, Yorion Control, Creativity, Lotus Twiddle, Rakdos Aggro
September 17: Grand Open Qualifier for Legacy European Tour (Paris)
Players: 497
Winner: Francisco Sanchez with Azorius Control
Top 8: Azorius Control, Living End, Death's Shadow, Puresteel Hammer, 5-color Domain, Creativity, Puresteel Hammer, Rakdos Aggro
October 8: SCG CON: Dallas ($30k)
Players: 325
Winner: Brian Shiels with Creativity
Top 8: Creativity, Yorion Control, Yawgmoth Chord, Creativity, Burn, Puresteel Hammer, Puresteel Hammer, Rakdos Aggro
October 20: NRG Series: Newark (Team Constructed)
Players: 171 trio teams
Winner: Derrick Davis with Heliod Life
Top 8: Heliod Life, Yawgmoth Chord, Jeskai Breach, Puresteel Hammer, Creativity, Rakdos Aggro, Titanless Valakut, Azorius Control
THE MODERN META
Already covered: 4-Color Ramp, Ad Nauseam, Affinity (update), Allosaurus Combo, Azorius Control, Bant Aggro, Bant Control, Bogle, Blue Moon, Bloomless Titan (aka Amulet Titan), Bridgevine (banned, update: Crabvine), Burn, Collected Chord (aka Creatures Toolbox), Crashing Footfalls (aka Temur Rhinos), Creativity, Creatures Toolbox: Heliod (aka Heliod Life aka Heliod Company), Creatures Toolbox: Lurrus, Creatures Toolbox: Yawgmoth (aka Yawgmoth Chord), Death's Shadow (update), Dredge (update), Eldrazi Aggro, Eldrazi & Taxes, EldraTron, Elementals, Elves, Equipment Storm, Faeries, Gifts Control, Goblins, Golgari Food, Green Devotion Prison (banned), Grixis Control, Gruul Aggro, Gruul Utopia, Hardened Modular, Hatebears, Hogaak Dredge, Hollow One, Humans, Infect, Instant Reanimator, Izzet Aggro (aka Izzet Delver), Izzet Murktide, Izzet Phoenix (update), Izzet Pyromancer, Jeskai Breach, Jeskai Miracles, Jund (also feat. Wrenn and Six), Junk, KCI (banned), Landless Charbelcher, Landless Spy, Lantern Control, Lanternless, Living End, Madcap Gruul, Mardu Pyromancer, Martyr Life, Merfolk, Nahiri Control, Naya Burn, Niv-Mizzet Reborn, Orzhov Ephemerate, Phoenix Deck Wins, Phoenix Wrenn and Six, Ponza (update: Prison Ponza aka Gruul Karn), Puresteel Hammer, Pyro Prison, Rakdos Aggro (MH2 update), Rakdos Midrange, RDW, Saheeli Evolution, Scapeshift Control, Selesnya Value, Simic Field, Skred Red, Spirit Aggro, Stoneblade, Storm, Tameshi Bloom, Temur Reclamation, Tezzerator, The Rock, Titan Breach, Tokens, Twinless Exarch, Urza Emry, Urza Food, Urza Foundry (aka Whirza), Urza Outcome, Urza's Kitchen (aka Grixis Food), UrzaTron, Valakut (aka TitanShift), Valakut Control, Valki Cascade (obsoleted), Vannifar Pod, Walks, Winota Colossification, Yorion Control (update).
Update:
The big news in the last season of Modern play is not as much the entering of Dominaria United into the pool, as is the banning of Yorion, Sky Nomad
, announced last month on October 10. Following the nixing of Lurrus of the Dream-Den
back in March, this confirms how Ikoria's companions were the real design blunder of the past few years. People usually see Oko, Thief of Crowns
as the biggest offender, but that was just one card with bad number implementation, which was almost immediately removed from nearly every format where it was legal. On the other hand, the companions represented an entire mechanic declined throughout a cycle of ten different cards, several of which caused issues in multiple formats – even after the mechanic itself was severely nerfed, which is an unprecedented fact in and of itself. Granted, by reading the announcement for Yorion, it sounds like the specific concerns for Modern took mostly the form of the headache, on both players' part, for having to shuffle or watch the opponent shuffle a large deck in a format where searching the library is a frequent action. Now that tabletop Magic is back on the table, so to speak, 4-color Yorion decks had to go. So long, weirdly elongated feathered friend.
The lists running Yorion, mostly 4-color concoctions featuring Omnath, Locus of Creation
, have been a definite presence on the meta since 2020 (last summer we were still talking about their latest incarnation). However, they never were the dominant force, if such a thing even exists in Modern, gravitating at best around a 5% of the metagame. At its core it was, after all, a control deck, a broad archetype that has rarely been "the one to beat" in the format. The current success stories are combo builds like Creativity and Puresteel Hammer, combo-adjacent like Crashing Footfalls, or pure aggro decks running the dynamic Modern Horizons 2 duo of Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
and Dragon's Rage Channeler
– lists like Izzet Murktide and the up-and-coming Rakdos Aggro. The latter held a 3% of the meta the last time we checked on in less than a year ago; now it's grown to a whopping 8%, at least if we lump together a number of variations on the basic formula. Some Rakdos lists dropped Mishra's Bauble
and, consequently, the delirium cards (i.e. Channeler and Unholy Heat
). They instead chose to pack a stronger punch with Lightning Skelemental
supported by Unearth
, while disrupting the opponent's mana base with Blood Moon
. Other versions, nicknamed Rakdos Scam, run the evokers Fury
and Grief
paired with Feign Death
and Undying Malice
. Some more recent decks skew more midrange with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
and the just reprinted Liliana of the Veil
.
A deck that emerged at top levels in the past season and we never talked about before is Glimpse of Tomorrow. It's a very simple cascade build that use the namesake card as payoff, being a zero-cost spell along the same lines as Living End
. The goal is cheating into play a bunch of Elementals (it's indeed secretly a tribal deck), including Omnath and various evokers. Repeating the Glimpse of Tomorrow
routine with Chancellor of the Forge
already on the battlefield is particularly effective.
We're also seeing sporadic but conspicuous appearances of a strange monoblue tempo-ish deck that runs Svyelun of Sea and Sky
but no other Merfolk, instead populating its large creature base with different subtypes.
To stress how little Dominaria United has affected Modern so far, yes, a 5-color Domain build does exist in the format (although black is relegated to the sideboard), and yes, it did score a Top 8 at the Paris qualifier. But the only card it borrows from the latest set that implemented its titular mechanic is Leyline Binding
.
One major Modern archetype in severe need of an update is classic Azorius Control. Last time we talked about it was, believe it or not, more than five years ago. And while the gist of its strategy is still the same, the cards it contains are very different. It's not the same force to be reckoned with as it was in the past, with only 2% of the meta currently to its name, but it managed to end on top of the largest Modern tournament in recent memory, so it's not fading away into obscurity anytime soon.
Another update that's due regards Jeskai Breach. The deck today looks a bit different from the version that used to run Arcum's Astrolabe
when it was still legal. The centerpiece is still the namesake self-milling combo between Underworld Breach
, a zero-mana artifact, Grinding Station
, and Thassa's Oracle
. But now the proceedings have speeded up with the incorporation of fast burn, Expressive Iteration
(it has always been more of an Izzet list, with a white splash strictly for sideboarding purposes), Ledger Shredder
, and of course Ragavan. Because in this day and age, if you're running red, there's really no reason not to run Ragavan.
THE MODERN BAN LIST
Last revised: October 10, 2022 (banned: Yorion, Sky Nomad)
Total banned cards: 48
By Color:
- White: 3 (of which 1 Azorius, 1 Orzhov)
- Blue: 9 (of which 2 Simic, 1 Azorius)
- Black: 5 (of which 2 Golgari, 1 Orhov)
- Red: 8
- Green: 11 (of which 2 Golgari, 2 Simic)
- Colorless: 18 (of which 10 lands)
- Multicolored: 5 (of which 2 Golgari, 2 Simic, 1 Azorius)
By Type:
- Creature: 7
- Land: 10
- Artifact: 9
- Enchantment: 2
- Planeswalker: 1
- Instant: 9
- Sorcery: 10
By Set:
- Core Sets: 3 (of which 1 from 9th Edition, originally from Visions, 1 from Magic 2011, 1 from Core Set 2020)
- Modern Horizons: 2
- Mirrodin block: 12 (of which 9 from Mirrodin, 2 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: 4 (of which 2 from Time Spiral, 1 from Planar Chaos, 1 from Future Sight)
- Lorwyn block: 1 (from Lorwyn)
- Alara block: 0
- Zendikar block: 3 (of which 1 from Zendikar, 1 from Worldwake, 1 from Rise of the Eldrazi)
- Scars of Mirrodin block: 5 (of which 1 from Scars of Mirrodin, 1 from Mirrodin Besieged, 3 from New Phyrexia)
- Innistrad block: 1 (of which 1 from Dark Ascension)
- 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: 7 (of which 3 from Throne of Eldraine, 1 from Theros Beyond Death, 2 from Ikoria, 1 from Kaldheim)
