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.
November 15: StarCityGames Invitational: Roanoke
Players: 489
Winner: Christopher Barone with Humans
Top 8: Humans, UrzaTron, Amulet Titan, Death's Shadow, Death's Shadow, Dredge, EldraTron, Urza Food
November 18: MTGO Modern PTQ
Players: 207
Winner: 3HDgamers with UrzaTron
Top 8: UrzaTron, Death's Shadow, Death's Shadow, Humans, EldraTron, EldraTron, Infect, UW Control
November 23: Cardmarket Series: Prague
Players: 378
Winner: Tomas Hanousek with EldraTron
Top 8: EldraTron, Urza Food, Bant Control, Jund, Creaturex Toolbox, Dredge, Jund, Valakut
November 26: Grand Prix Columbus 2019
Players: 657
Winner: Brian Coval with Urza Food
Top 8: Urza Food, UrzaTron, Humans, Urza Food, Burn, Burn, Humans, UrzaTron
THE MODERN META
Already covered: Ad Nauseam, Affinity, Allosaurus Combo, Bogle, Blue Moon, Bloomless Titan (aka Amulet Titan), Bridgevine (banned, update: Crabvine), Burn, Collected Chord (aka Creatures Toolbox), Death's Shadow, Dredge (update), Eldrazi Aggro, Eldrazi & Taxes, EldraTron, Elves, Equipment Storm, Faeries, Gifts Control, Goblins, Grixis Control, Hardened Modular, Hatebears, Hogaak Dredge, Hollow One, Humans, Infect, Instant Reanimator, Izzet Aggro (aka Izzet Delver), Izzet Phoenix (update), Izzet Pyromancer, Jeskai Miracles, Jund (also feat. Wrenn and Six), Junk, KCI (banned), Lantern Control, Lanternless, Living End, Madcap Gruul, Mardu Pyromancer, Martyr Life, Merfolk, Nahiri Control, Naya Burn, Phoenix Deck Wins, Phoenix Wrenn and Six, Ponza (update), Pyro Prison, Rakdos Midrange, RDW, Saheeli Evolution, Selesnya Value, Skred Red, Spirit Aggro, Stoneblade, Storm, Tezzerator, The Rock, Titan Breach, Tokens, Twinless Exarch, Urza Food, Urza Foundry (aka Whirza), Urza Outcome, UrzaTron, UW Control, Valakut (aka TitanShift), Valakut Control, Vannifar Pod, Walks.
Update: Oko, Thief of Crowns
has been banned! ...in Standard. The Food Prince is still very much active in Modern, and the Whirza variant list that runs a full playset of the Elkinator remains one of the most successful decks in the meta. Urza and Oko, past and present, coming together to kick butts.
For the rest, the meta actually seems to be contracting. Usual suspects UrzaTron and EldraTron are winning many big events, while UW Control, once a major force in the Modern scene, is now in steep decline, possibly because many control players are jumping on the Oko bandwagon. Look for instance at this Bant Control list, which is basically UW Control with a splash of green just for Oko, Ice-Fang Coatl
, and a couple sideboard cards (key among which is Veil of Summer
).
While we're waiting for the next explosive development, we can't help but Ponder
if the rise of Pioneer won't mark the beginning of the end for Modern: the new, sexy, unencumbered-by-tons-of-broken-interactions newcomer that ends up overshadowing the aging, not-so-fresh-anymore, almost-a-decade-old format, which was once the next hot thing, and is now destined to become... Legacy junior.
THE MODERN BAN LIST
Last revised: August 26, 2019 (banned: Faithless Looting
, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
; unbanned: Stoneforge Mystic
)
Next announcement: December 16, 2019
Total banned cards: 36
By Color:
- White: 1
- Blue: 6
- Black: 4 (of which 2 Golgari)
- Red: 6
- Green: 8 (of which 2 Golgari)
- Colorless: 13
- Multicolored: 1 (of which 1 Golgari)
By Type:
- Creature: 3
- Land: 8
- Artifact: 6
- Enchantment: 2
- Planeswalker: 0
- Instant: 7
- Sorcery: 10
By Set:
- Core Sets: 2 (of which 1 from 9th Edition, originally from Visions, and 1 from Magic 2011)
- Modern Horizons: 1
- 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: 3 (of which 2 from Time Spiral, 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: 4 (of which 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: 0
See you next month, when we'll keep exploring the Modern meta. In the meantime, don't be ancient, play Modern!
2 Comments
The thought occurs that Modern is no longer the smallest nonrotating set.
Yeah, that should change. :)
It was actually always wrong to call it an Eternal format, by the way.