Building Modern Decks

[John Galli]

So while I don't have the means to buy cards at the moment, I do have an interest in this new Modern format. One of the things I've been kicking myself about for a while is the lack of a legacy deck, since the format is basically eternal and if you build one deck you can play it for a long time (especially if you play it semi-regularly to make sure you are making appropriate changes and keeping in the flow of things).

Travis put up a list of some of the staples he has, and I might do a little inventory myself at some point to see what I have. My collection is mostly limited to EDH fodder, with a singleton shock-land, a few fetches, etc, but there's little uncommons here and there of note (lightning helix, path to exile, etc).

Does anyone have interest in proxying up decks and playtesting this format occasionally? Also, do people have an idea of decks they are already planning on building? I think the pro tour will help us get a gauge for some of the more playable decks, but there's a lot of room for innovation here much like Legacy.

[crazedferret]

I have an idea which to me at least seems a winner.

Turn two eldrazi conscription? Academy researcher says 12/12 annihlator 2 trample on turn two with a bird of paradise (or on turn three with a tallowisp on turn two to dig it up)... I'm working on the rest of the deck as a pod deck where one reveillark can recur both an eternal witness and academy researcher bringing back a conscription and attaching it to the researcher...And if I do pod with llark I can include body double shenanegans. A sun titan can recur e witness and academy researcher as well as tallowisp finding other goodies. I can also play out sovereigns as well pretty quickily with a pod making any guy on my board pretty dangerous (even the birds of-I-get-giagantic-paradise). I'm also considering quillspike combo as a possible inclusion. Persist guys like K finks and glen elendra also seem excellent with pod as well. This means we don't sacrifice dudes, we just put minus one counters on them netting us either a blocker or another pod activation. And quillspike can eat the minus one counters keeping them on the board.

There are a few other cards that are absolute upgrades to dozens of our little creatures, Loxodon hierarch for one, qasali pridemage, harmonic sliver, necrotic sliver, eternal witness, noble hierarch...
As well as a few other goodies like ranger of eos to fetch bunches of little dudes
river kelpie (with persist and sac effects), and all of the magus creatures

Basically my goal would be to threaten with an eldrazi conscription or ridiculous combo every turn forcing them to play all of their removal and then winning when they can't keep killing my stuff. I'm working on a list.

[slynk]

Seem's like control will still be the most competetive, thereby ruining the fun (IMO) tournament-wise. However I'd be up for playing this casually as well, as an occasional change from EDH. I've got plenty of only builds written up that I can upgrade with some of the new cards.

[Travis Lannoye]

Aug 15, 2011 23:01:14 GMT -5 slynk said:

Seem's like control will still be the most competetive, thereby ruining the fun (IMO) tournament-wise. However I'd be up for playing this casually as well, as an occasional change from EDH. I've got plenty of only builds written up that I can upgrade with some of the new cards.

Oh, I think it's far too early to be making any kind of bold predictions like that.

I'm down for building decks and testing them, and since I have a bunch of staples, I'll be happy to play the guinea pig role and throw whatever's popular together.

[John Galli]

Actually Ryan, control is rarely a viable strategy in older formats and most likely going to be a non-factor in Modern due to the lack of free counterspells like "Force of Will" and "Daze" (albeit it is indeed early to tell).

I would expect if anything for Zoo and Combo decks to be very prevelant, most likely with a few new combo decks surfacing down the road.

I'd have to see how the format shapes up and what's affordable, but right now I'm considering playing Elves, Boat Brew, Jund, or some other new idea.

Anyone who has cards they are looking to sell due to the recent inflation in Modern I can help you with that on Ebay, I have a ton of packaging envelopes, etc. and have been slowly but surely getting my positive feedback up on Ebay. Typically I've been able to sell cards somewhere inbetween dealer buy prices and retail.

I'd encourage many to keep cards though, as our crew will almost assuredly need them if we decide to play this format. That said, once you have "built" a modern deck you probably can keep most of it together for a long time so it's actually worthwhile to go out and get the cards (over time)

[Zach]

I have several thoughts on decks for this format.

Mono Red will be ridiculous... Why? SOOO many people are gonna be like "OMFGWTFBBQ FETCHES AND SHOCKS!!!!!" that there will be a big number of decks that start at 14 life.

Cruel Control is a very viable option for this format, with one exception. Lack of a 1/2 drop wall against Mono Red.

Who let the monkeys out? Zoo will be nuts popular. Cuz guess what... They didn't ban Tarmoghoyf.

BBE is still nuts. So is Blightning. GG.

[Travis Lannoye]

@mono red: It always does well in fledgling formats because other people are still trying to figure out new strategies and mono red has had the same goals since the Carter administration: reduce life total from 20 to zero.

@cruel Control: The first couple of Daily events that were posted showed at least one or two Cruel Control lists. They usually don't have more than one or two creatures, but if they really needed one, they would likely go with Wall of Omens.

Zoo is of course still a deck, as 3/3s and 2/3s for one mana are still pretty good. Jund is also still a deck, as BBE > Blightning is still good.

One card I'm excited about playing is Bloodchief Ascension. Lots of people are gonna be paying life for their mana-base. I remember a couple of Extended seasons ago when Adrian Sullivan had this neat BRW deck featuring Bloodchief Ascension and Isochron Scepter. That might be another good one to take a look at.

EDIT: Getting back to the BRW list I mentioned above, a sample list would look something like this: magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=509768