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.
October 5: StarCityGames Team Constructed Open: Philadelphia (team of three playing each a different format)
Players: 264
Winner: Matthew Dilks with Amulet Titan (teammates: Daryl Ayers playing Legacy, Jon Rosum playing Standard)
Top 8: Amulet Titan, Urza Outcome, Urza Outcome, Whirza, Affinity, Urza Outcome, UrzaTron, Valakut
Pictured: Rosum on the left, Dilks in the middle, Ayers on the right.
October 6: StarCityGames Modern Classic: Philadelphia
Players: 243
Winner: Zachary Fowler with Amulet Titan
Top 8: Amulet Titan, EldraTron, Burn, Equipment Storm, Eldrazi Aggro, Infect, RDW, UrzaTron
October 12: StarCityGames Modern Open: Indianapolis
Players: 591
Winner: Drake Sasser with Storm
Top 8: Storm, Amulet Titan, Amulet Titan, Burn, Death's Shadow, Dredge, Eldrazi Aggro, Jeskai Ascendancy
October 19: NRG Series Regionals: Chicago
Players: 227
Winner: Noah Huizinga with UrzaTron
Top 8: UrzaTron, Blue Moon, Amulet Titan, Infect, Amulet Titan, Crabvine, Dredge, Jund
October 21: MTGO Modern PTQ
Players: 289
Winner: Ajani89 with Amulet Titan
Top 8: Amulet Titan, Jund, Death's Shadow, EldraTron, Burn, Dredge, Eldrazi Aggro, Urza Food
October 26: StarCityGames Modern Open: Atlanta
Players: 443
Winner: John Holland with Death's Shadow
Top 8: Death's Shadow, Urza Food, Urza Food, Urza Food, Amulet Titan, Creatures Toolbox, Urza Food
THE MODERN META
Already covered: Ad Nauseam, Affinity, Allosaurus Combo, Bogle, Blue Moon, Bloomless Titan (aka Amulet Titan), Bridgevine (banned), Burn, Collected Chord (aka Creatures Toolbox), Death's Shadow, Dredge (update), Eldrazi Aggro, Eldrazi & Taxes, EldraTron, Elves, 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 Foundry (aka Whirza), UrzaTron, UW Control, Valakut (aka TitanShift), Valakut Control, Vannifar Pod, Walks.
Update: The last banned and restricted announcement dealt with issues in Standard and Pauper, but left Modern alone. The format is still recovering from the earthquake of Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
's summer banning, and it's in search of a new king. On top of that, there's the specter of Pioneer looming large now, threatening to take away Modern's status as Magic's non-rotating darling format. Is Modern starting to show all the degeneracy accumulated throughout its now 16 years worth of sets?
Looking at the meta adjustments in October, at first we see a few established archetypes staking a claim to supremacy in the power vacuum left by Hogaak Dredge and, to some extent, by the Arclight Phoenix
decks that have simultaneously found themselves orphaned of Faithless Looting
. Amulet Titan is one of those grizzled veterans that are rising to the occasion, with top placements in each of last month's major events, including an impressive triplet of first places. Its consistency is clearly the winning factor here, compared to fancier combo lists that ultimately proved to be just passing fads (remember when Allosaurus Combo was all the rage? Yeah, those 15 minutes have passed fast). Amulet decks mostly appear in tried and tested configurations, with only Field of the Dead
to spice up a little their gameplan with a secondary wincon, and of course the inevitable inclusion of Throne of Eldraine's most impactful card, Once Upon a Time
.
Throne of Eldraine didn't just introduce us to a reliable card selector, though; it created a much more problematic monster. That's right, Oko, Thief of Crowns
is making his presence felt in Modern too. It all stems from variants of Urza, Lord High Artificer
decks that introduced a more unassuming, artifact-related ELD card, Emry, Lurker of the Loch
, dropping the Thopter Foundry
plan entirely in favor of a more combo-oriented build with Paradoxical Outcome
.
Emry might be lurking under the surface of her loch, but take a look at what's lurking in the sideboard of these lists.
It took pro builders very little to realize that Oko's Food tokens are artifacts, which plays very smoothly into any plan featuring Urza and Emry. Plus, you might have heard, Oko is a really strong three-mana walker. And so Urza Food was born, going back to the Whirza setup.
These lists don't actually have a fancy name yet, they're mostly recorded as "Urza Oko", which is unspeakably bland, or "Simic Urza", which is factually incorrect. Like all Oko-based decks, they're becoming extremely popular, and most notably took over the Top 8 of SCG Atlanta, where they were featured in half the slots, although in the end good ole Death's Shadow was the winner.
Is Oko, freshly banned from Arena Brawl, destined to become a nightmare everywhere he shows up? Does he need to be stopped? It's undeniable that, in hindsight, his design was too pushed, though I completely subscribe to the line of thought that encourages pushed designs, even those that end up requiring a ban, since the alternative is a game becoming progressively more dull and unchallenging. Also, having played with and against Oko in Standard, his meta-warping effect isn't as an intrinsic factor as it is, for instance, in the case of Teferi, Time Raveler
, which I still consider a much worse design (shutting down instant speed entirely brings much direr consequences for a meta, and games with a Teferi on the battlefield are much less dynamic). We'll see what's going to happen in Standard later this month, but I think Modern is fully equipped to tackle Oko, and worse.
OFF THE META: THE ROGUE GALLERY
The Modern meta is still in flux, so the stranger things are crawling out of the shadows. For instance, decks exploiting Puresteel Paladin
have been constantly around, but rarely popped up in any major Top 8 ranking. And pairing the old Paladin from New Phyrexia with the functionally equivalent Sram, Senior Edificer
from Aether Revolt and the obscure Retract
from Darksteel engenders a crazy five-color equipment-based storm deck.
And what about the aquatic evolution of the dearly departed Bridgevine, using Hedron Crab
and Merfolk Secretkeeper
as very fast self-mill enablers? (Of course Oko's there, too.)
THE MODERN BAN LIST
Last revised: August 26, 2019 (banned: Faithless Looting, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis; unbanned: Stoneforge Mystic
)
Next announcement: November 18, 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!
