Long reading before the Modern SM

History

Modern was officially born 10 years ago when Wizards of the Coast decided it needed yet another format where your cards didn't suddenly get banned after a few years. Legacy and Vintage were on the scene but those formats are difficult for newer players to get into as many cards are hard (and expensive) to get hold of. It was decided that all Sets that were standard from 8th Edition (2003) onwards would be included and success came quickly. The format was long Magic's most popular format among players thanks to the large amount of cards to choose from.

Many who played Modern appreciated that you could play with the same deck until you got tired and the value of the card was reasonably stable, which allowed you to sell your old deck and buy another one (in theory anyway). But about two years ago, Modern was thoroughly shaken up in connection with five Sets that were released in close succession, War of the Spark, Throne of Eldraine, Theros Beyond Death, Ikoria and not least Modern Horizons.

The first four were unusually powerful Standard sets that spawned many new decks and greatly enhanced existing decks: Teferi, Time Reveler, Oko, Thief of Crowns, Uro, Titan of Natures Wrath, and Lurrus of the Dream- These are examples of cards that had major impact on Modern. In between these Sets, Wizards also chose to release Modern Horizons, which was the first non-standard legal set allowed to be used in Modern and was loaded with strong cards.

After this summer's Modern Horizons 2, the format has once again changed and this is where we start our review of some of the strongest games and probably many of the games that players in Örnsköldsvik will come across.

"Hammer Time"

Hammer-time is a Mono-white deck that wants to be able to put a Colossus Hammer on a creature as quickly as possible to win already turn 2. The deck uses Lurrus as a companion and Urza's Saga to be able to play longer matches in case of an early attack is interrupted by the opponent. The game is difficult to play and requires a skilled pilot to win if plane A is stopped.

"Izzet Murktide"

There are different variations on Izzet (Blue-Red), but the deck is built around Dragon-Rage's Channeler, Murktide Regent and counters/removals. Doesn't have the same speed as Hammer time and prefers to play a longer match until one or two Murktide Regents come into play and then the match usually ends quickly.

"Young Lurrus"

Jund is a classic game in Modern but has received a major facelift with Modern Horizons 2. The game has several names such as "Zoomer-Jund" or "Modern Horizons Constructed". This deck is packed with the most powerful cards from Modern Horizons: Wrenn & Six and Modern Horizons 2:

Ragavan, Dragon Rage's Channeler, Urza's Saga, and Unholy Heat. It uses cheap removal and hand attack (Thoughtseize) to stop the opponent's plan and attack with an early Ragavan, Channeler or Tarmogoyf. The deck likes to play a long match, using Urza's Saga and Wrenn & Six to create many Construct tokens.

The first deck to use Shardless Agent and Violent Outburst cards to Cascada to a Crashing Footfalls and get two 4/4 tokens with trample. Bonecrusher Giant, Brazen Borrower, and Fury make it difficult for the opponent to keep their permanents on the table, leaving the way for the 4/4s open. If everything goes as it should.

"Living End"

Also uses the cards Shardless Agent and Violent Outburst to Cascada. But instead of Crashing Footfalls, the game finds Living End. Living End is a boardwipe, but returns the creatures that were already in the graveyard to the battlefield. A grave as a Living End player filled with cycling creatures during turns 1 and 2. After a Living End is played out, the opponent usually has 0 creatures while the Living-End player has 3-4 fairly large creatures in play.

"Boros Burn"

Another classic Modern game that hasn't received very many new cards in recent years, but you can still expect to come across Burn high in the leaderboards. Burn is at its best when no one expects to face burn and has not prepared the sideboard properly. Burn enlists the help of Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear to deal early damage and finishes the match with a stack of Lightning Bolt (and similar spells).

"Mill"

If Burn wants to count to 20 in damage, then mill wants to count to 60. You have 60 cards in the deck when the match starts and get the Mill player what it wants, then you have 0 cards left when you draw the next card… and you have in other words, lost. The game has received a lot of help from the latest sets and the question is whether it is black-blue as it has been for a long time, or whether it has instead switched to white-blue. Like Burn, Mill is at his best when no one expects Mill and is prepared.

"UW-Control"

Blue-white control has become more and more popular in recent weeks since it started playing with Chalice of the Void in the maindeck. In today's Modern, spells that cost one mana are the most important and common - which Chalice is an excellent card against. Along with counters, boardwipes and planeswalkers, this deck breaks down your game plan and stops your attempts to play fun magic.

Besides these decks, there are a host of others worth mentioning: Elementals, Esper Re animator, Tron, Amulet Titan and Yawgmoth combo… and many more. Modern is a fantastic format for those who want to play with and against many different games and go out and compete for who is the master of the block.

We at Manatorsk wish everyone who is heading to Ö-vik this weekend the best of luck and keep our fingers crossed that you never have to mulligan and all your topdecks are bombs!

Have a nice weekend!

/The modern cod