As the title suggests, I'm an edh player who's been playing the format for a few years at this point. I've been interested in getting into modern for a while, but I don't really know the first thing about 60 card formats in mtg. I'm not really trying to win any super big tournaments so I'm not too concerned with the meta, but I was hoping to get some advice on general deck building philosophies and what a game of modern typically feels like to play.

A month ago aspiring spike posted a video with this deck.

https://moxfield.com/decks/2H6Z2o9Xz0yJs76IlKMRPQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87r6lpnxTsA&t=2551s

Now, I'm not here asking if this is an amazing perfect tier 0 deck. Obviously, this is an off-meta deck.

I'm wondering if this can be at least competitive. I like the idea of playing murktide regent, this helps build a fetch and shock collection without being too expensive.

Now onto some deckbuilding concerns and choices.

How important is Wan-Shi?

Does Frog or Bilbo have a chance in here?

Some comments mentioned running Tombstalker as a one of, how viable do we think that would be?

I’ve been working on my Mardu Energy list for a while now, and I’m curious what you guys think of my 60 rn and in how I can improve my sideboard especially since I haven’t been paying much attention to the meta shifts lately

Link: https://moxfield.com/decks/BIGhAcsoo3-CQ4mKbiOGnQ

Hi, I'm very new to modern and was looking through a couple Ruby Storm lists on Mtgtop8, because Storm is a deck that interested me. When looking through the lists, I found a couple people playing a Jund version of the deck. I was a bit confused by the card choice and tried finding out more about it online but couldn't find anything. So I thought maybe here somebody knows more about it. So I wanted to ask: Why do some people play Jund over Boros? And why are there Fatal push's in the sideboard? I can make sense of the Thoughtseize against some control players or something, but Fatal push's I don't get.

Thanks in advance for any information regarding these choices.

In my short amount of time playing it seems like Izzet aggro struggles against Teferi/Narset shenanigans. Other than just try to get under them and win by T3/T4 (hoping they don’t silence you) are there any other specific interactions in the match up that are key?

seems like focusing on their planeswalkers is a guaranteed way to lose, but they also provide so much advantage

This isn’t a call for a ban, I actually think Solitude ok for modern today. But it got me thinking about how the format is/was defined by pitch elementals and other free spells. So the question can also be whether Solitude is fine because the format is to some extent balanced around it. So if it was banned, how do you think the format would evolve? Would Goryo’s, Blink and UW chant suffer too much, or do you think some deck would quickly rise to the top because it was in a chokehold?

Hi all,

I'm looking for help getting into modern, i've had a long break from magic and have decided to get into modern, since its quite popular in my city.

I'm looking to play Izzets Prowess since I enjoy the playstyle.
I've got most the cards for the deck already but not the fetch lands and I want to try and play for a few months before investing big.

Asking for a bit of advice and tips on changes especially on lands before I buy the last few singles I'm missing.

Deck link: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/8017999#paper

Thank you in advance.

So I always see a lot of talk about bans (because wizards printed way too many cards into modern). In your opinion, what are the 4 most powerful cards in Modern?

I thought about this as I was brewing a while back. I came up with these:

1. Ephemerate
2. Urza’s Saga
3. Solitude
4. K Command

To me, the top decks abuse these 4 cards. That’s not to say there aren’t other powerful decks that don’t use these cards, but those decks have to have insane synergy to compete (Boros Energy and Prowess for example). I was on the fence about K Command, but it is the best card in Eldrazi of any variant. What do you guys think? What is your 4 card list? I think you can rank all the top decks as the ones who abuse more than 1 of these on my list. I would even rank all decks that abuse more than one of these cards as tier 1 and left at the top as tier 1.25 (not far behind, but not quite at the same level)

Edit: Just to clarify, this list was in no particular order, but yes I do believe ephemerate is a top card in modern. Not because of its individual power, but because of the strategies it enables and abuses. I think it and psychic frog are close. Frog has way more individual power, but it just doesn’t abuse things like ephemerate does. Just my opinion.

Now that the new Rakdos aggro deck has overtaken Broodscale, which definitely had a target on its back, I've been thinking that this format needs unbans because of three reasons.

1. MH3 drastically increased the power level of the format, making bans from even the MH2 era unnecessary. You saw this most recently when Violent Outburst was unbanned and the most powerful deck of the end of the MH2 era, Rhinos, failed to make a dent in the format, and Living End barely budged.

2. Modern is a full turn faster than it used to be. Whereas older cards were banned for being too good for their mana value, many of them would help keep new strategies in check.

3. Some of the colors have gaping holes that banned cards fill, most notably green and black.

What I would like to see come off the ban list:

1. Deathrite Shaman. We need main deck graveyard hate in the format given the power level of the delirium cards and how much easier it is to shove cards into the graveyard.
   
2. Ponder. Control has been in the gutter ever since MH3 and Ponder would help control decks find their cards.
   
3. Grief. Grief was not even powerful when it was banned and is great at disrupting combo decks. Vexing Bauble also exists which turns it into a liability past turn 1 or on the draw.
   
4. Artifact lands. Affinity can already dump their hand early, and modern is fast enough to be able to handle artifact lands.

Those are the four things I would like to come off the ban list that would increase the diversity of the format and help with some of the swinginess we're seeing where new strategies come up that are hard to counter.

The results are in...233 players later...and we have a winner, UW Control!

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/414849

Top 16:

1. UW Control (Silence-heavy, Kaheera)
2. Broodscale (Mono-G, Ugin's Labyrinth)
3. BR Moonshadow Nethergoyf (No Stitcher's Supplier)
4. BR Moonshadow Nethergoyf (Stitcher's Supplier)
5. Amulet Titan
6. BR Moonshadow Nethergoyf (Stitcher's Supplier)
7. Sewer-veillance Combo (Mono-U, 4 Key to the Side-Door, Cruel Calculations)
8. Sewer-veillance Combo (UW, Oswald Fiddlebender, Thopter-Sword)
9. Broodscale (Mono-G, Ugin's Labyrinth)
10. BR Moonshadow Nethergoyf (Stitcher's Supplier)
11. Prowess (Boomerang Basics, no Stormchaser's Talent(!), no Pompous Battlemage)
12. Neoform
13. Energy (RW)
14. Broodscale (Mono-G, Ugin's Labyrinth)
15. Amulet Titan
16. Broodscale (Mono-G, Ugin's Labyrinth)

I've been out of modern since [[gitaxian probe]] was banned and never liked other blue cards in my infect deck. Looking at more recent cards I came across [[leyline of resonance]] and realized I can get consistent turn 2 kills when it starts the game in play and t3-t4 when it's not. Added ignoble hierarch for more chances to exalt. Has this been done or theory crafted before?

Main:

2 Blossoming Defense

2 Dryad Arbor

2 Giant Growth

4 Glistener Elf

4 Groundswell

4 Ignoble Hierarch

4 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Leyline of Resonance

4 Might of Old Krosa

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Mutagenic Growth

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Scale Up

2 Snow-Covered Forest

4 Stomping Ground

4 Vines of Vastwood

4 Windswept Heath

The results are in for the South America RC...404 players later...needing to get the finals and some semifinals results from an Instagram post of all things, https://www.instagram.com/p/De70UvKFD55/ ...and we have a winner, Boros Energy!

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/480317

Top 16:

1. Energy (RW)
2. UW Control (Silence-heavy, no Kaheera(!))
3. Broodscale (Mono-G, Ugin's Labyrinth)
4. UW Control (Silence-heavy, Kaheera)
5. Broodscale (Mono-G, Ugin's Labyrinth)
6. Affinity (URg, Weapons Manufacturing)
7. Eldrazi Tron (Colourless)
8. Grixis Reanimator
9. Merfolk (Mono-U, Namor)
10. Affinity (UR, Weapons Manufacturing)
11. Broodscale (Mono-G, Ugin's Labyrinth)
12. BR Moonshadow Nethergoyf (Stitcher's Supplier)
13. Energy (RW)
14. Neoform
15. BR Moonshadow Nethergoyf (Stitcher's Supplier)
16. Eldrazi Tron (Colourless)

1RW
Legendary Bajoran Soldier

Trample
If a creature you control would enter while you control an attacking creature, instead it enters tapped and attacking.

Whenever another creature you control enters, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
4/3

How do we feel about this card? I think it has a lot of neat interactions with cards like [[aether vial]] to let you vial in something post blockers for guaranteed damage or even just something like [[cathar commando]] . But it also works with with mobilize and [[voice of victory]] or the tokens that[[myrel shield of argive]] (which ik is a lil expensive at 4 cmc but bear with me) makes also enter tapped and attacking

I think the part that mostly sells it for me is that she doesn’t need to be attacking herself for you to gain the effect so you benefit from her the turn she comes down

Full list: https://archidekt.com/decks/27748086/the_rock_2026

Hey fellow Rock entusiast! im a big fan of this deck and i have been working on this archetype for a while in my city. i wanted to share my list so more rock entusiast work and play on it and help me test out because i do think we are really close to be meta viable (we just need 1 good one drop ) yesterday i went 5-0 with my rocksi deck at the fnm. and the big new card that im playing in the rock right now, is carnivorous cultivator!.

Round 1 vs Rakdos hollow one. 2-1.
Round 2 vs Rakdos Fenix. 2-1
Round 3 vs affinty 2-1
Round 4 vs Boros Energy 2-1
Round 5 finals vs Izzet prowess. 2-0

My list:

Creatures 15:
Nethergoyf x4
Carnivorous Cultivator x4
Orchis Bowmaster x3
Haywire mite x1
Cecil dark knight x3

Explanation:

Carnivorous Cultivator: ok so for a while i have been searching a good solid 2 mana value creature to fit the role that dark confidant used to fit. and cultivator (aka bob marley) fits the roll perfectly, it can search and recurr urza saga which is super crucial in this archetype, AND searching and recycling boseiju its AMAZING. what makes carnivorous cultivator great is that the rock has so much removal that him conecting a hit is almost trivial, and in a losing position it can block creatures in combat and kill them like a champ. Great card, i belive he is one good land away for bing excepcional.

Cecil Dark kinght: This is a role that tarmogoyf used to occupy. In modern it is very crucial the ability to play 3 spells by turn 2 for midrange decks (Discard removal creature, Removal Creature removal, Creature creature discard ect.) so i needed a solid 1 drop to play in that spot. honestly, cecil is so so right now, great when you are able to flip it, kinda bad when he makes you take 4 damage and gets killed by a bolt. This is the most flexible spot for this deck, and i hope we get a solid beatdown 1 drop that we can play in this spot (a rework of hexdrinker would be awesome) i have been testing many other one drops and honestly all fell subpar compared to cecil, but again. this is why this requires more testing. feel free to play the old goyf on this spot.

Sorceries 7:

4x Thoughtseize
2x Inquisition of kozilek.
1x end the hunt.

Explaination:

End the hunt is a solid removal againts kappa and draco, plus the reason is here is for the delirium count for nethergoyf.

Instants 7

4x fatal push
3x Witherbloom charm
2 Sheoldrect Edict.

Artifacts: 7
4 x mishras bauble
1 x Shadowspear
1 x Nihil Spellbomb
1 x Pitting needle

Explanation: the strenght of this archetype is getting a solid midrange deck which can tuttor the silver bullet for various matches. feel free to adjust these.

Lands: 22

4x Verdant catacombs
4x Marsh Flats
2x overgrown tomb
1 x Underground Mortuary
3 x Swamp
1 x Forest
4x Urza's Saga
1x Nurturing Peatland
1x Castle Locthwain
1x Boseiju who endures

Explanation:

Nurturing peatland: For the cultivator toolbox, great to being able to draw continously if needed.

Boseiju: This card is awesome with the cultivator, againts eldrazitron this can literally lock them out of the game if unanswered. Againts affinty yesterday i was able to control pretty well the game with this lock.

Castle Locthwain: Honestly this is a freespot, i was thinking about barren more for this slot, but i belive the castle have been working fine during testing. an untaped land for most of the games, but in grindy matches you can pull 1 or 2 cards out of it.

Urza saga: again what cultivator now enables us to do, is to search and recurr this, searching is awesome because now we functinally have 8 sagas for consistency, and also you can get multiple recursions out of the saga. it forces our opponent to interact with the cultivator in some way, opening the road for our other treatss.

Sideboard:

Toxic Deludge x2
Pick your poison x2
Vexing Bauble x2
grafdiggers cage x1
Nihil spellbomb x1
Damping Sphere x3
Tourarch Dread Cantor x2
Ghost quarter x1
Tectonic edge x1

Explanation: Notable mentions here. we actually have a pretty reasonable match againts broodscales, we can attack that deck in all the angles (remove the combo, kill the sagas, exile the graveyard ) so i tried to focus more on my local matches.

Tourarch is awesome againts solitude decks

Ghost quarter is for saga and eldrazi decks
Tectonic edge its a card for control matches were we try to cut them out of one color, tutorable and recurable so its nice.

Pick your poison have been an all star honestly.

The card that strikes fear in our hearts: Wrath of the skies.

i would say my record with this version of the deck have been arorund 18-3, but again, it requires more work but im happy with the results.

Hope you rock and jund entusiast are able to test your cultivators! Happy dueling!

Is there somewhere to discuss old Boomer Tron? I know of the Tron discord but thats almost all Eldrazi and variants, thats not the version i want to talk about.

I don't care that the deck isnt meta anymore, just want to bounce ideas off people, chatgpt has some weird opinions sometimes.

hey! i do have the full deck, EXCEPT, the 3 or 4 voice of victory. there is any good replacement for the card? enlightment confidant maybe? or some other token producer. keep your sugestions in the boros line (im playing 2 bloodmoons main so splashing a color is rough)! happy to hear your suggestions!

Edit: Its a temporal substitude, so please avoid messages like *nothing replaces it*. Its just in the meantime while i get the card.

Hello, I played Amulet Titan to a 16th place finish in RC LA. I played Dryad of the Ilysian Grove instead of Malevolent Rumble. I wrote an article about why I did this, and how I landed on my list.

Included in the article are my observations about how the Amulet Titan community is suffering from deckbuilding psycosis.

A Dryad build with 0 Rumbles also made top 8 in BAL. Across both RCs, there were only 3 Dryad lists with 0 Rumbles, and two of them grabbed PT invites. (At least in USA) They were the only Amulet Titan configurations to do so, despite being BY FAR the least common configuration.

Anyway, article is below.

Article: https://buymeacoffee.com/andywilson/what-dryad-does-an-observation-amulet-titan-deckbuilding-psychosis

I feel informed about every other matchup, but I can’t seem to beat blink. They don’t care that much about my combo, so the game goes to midrange, and they’re better at that than me. What do y’all think?

I am an Eldrazi player. I play any type of Eldrazi deck and, as many, recently I focused on the good Basking Broodscale variant to take home some wins here and there.

The deck is very powerful not going to lie.

Community started agreeing on BB-Eldrazi being the "deck to beat" around July and since then quite large changes happened.

My impression is that after Phlage ban many decks started looking for new lists and new versions to get the Tier 0.5 position that was left free (apparently) after Boros Energy downfall.

Any META-game is determined (among all of the things) by the stronger deck(s) and how the other decks try to attack them. Few decks play the list they want, the other answer them (e.g. BB-eldrazi playing unholy heat and crysalis in the Boros Energy metagame).

Now BB-Eldrazi is at the top, but new enemies (Rakdos delirium, Canopy Titan...) are on their way, so that the list of BB-Eldrazi are shaping heavily around cards that before were not even considered (e.g. Sire of Seven Deaths that recently is a main staple).

The deck went from a aggressive combo with various ending (Walking Ballista, Fleshraker...) and Emrakul as inevitability tool, to a ramp deck with Emrakul as main ending, to finally (now) a ramp deck with a combo component (the number of the blades is going down 2->3) and a beat down sector that (originally) was Crysalis, now is Sire of Seven Deaths. The Sire enables the Ugyn's labyrinth and so the Devour of destiny.

META-share is 20%->12%

Boros Energy is back

Modern: No changes

Sometimes I feel like we overlook for bans while the META is shaping, and possibly fixing itself.

Do you feel the same? (#freeshaman)

(Essentially I am an Eldrazi player ranting on the possibility that K-Command is banned)

hey guys,

my boros ponza deck is almost complete, can't wait to play it. i know that the sideboard is against the local meta and as my firend said "you sideboard agains decks, not for yourself", but what is your suprise card in your boros ponza sideboard?

sure, i can check tens of decks, but deck on the internet usally netdecked other decks from the internet.

so, what is your favorite surprise card in your sideboard?

It seems my pet deck has been discovered and is taking its share of the Meta. My query is what is the advantage of a 5 drop creature that’s only a 3/4 (Street Wraith) when it’s cycling burns 2 life. Please tell me why I shouldn’t cut it for something more aggro. I’m a newer player so don’t beat me up too much lol

👍

https://www.youtube.com/@aspiringspike

MH3 added a couple cards that were originally printed in commander products. Insert joke about commander here, but some of these cards have really interesting design and would benefit the modern format, and generally, I think it's safer to add these cards years after the fact (because some see play in legacy/dual commander/cube etc) than to go through direct to modern Nadu slop again.

Listing some cards that see play in legacy and cube as a reference:

• [[Ursine Monstrosity]]
• [[Broadside Bombardiers]]
• [[Minsc and Boo, Tireless Heroes]]
• [[Pyrogoyf]]
• [[Baleful Strix]]
• [[Staff of the Storyteller]]
• [[Glimmer Lens]]
• [[Comet, Stellar Pup]] (in a legacy legal un-set)
• [[Barrowgoyf]] (my jund heart can dream but this card is too good for modern)
• [[Poxwalkers]] / [[Triumph of St. Catherine]] / [[Chaos Defiler]]
• [[Currency Converter]] / [Retrofitter Foundry]]

Obviously initiative/monarch cards see play in legacy. No, we shouldn't have initiative cards in modern.

EDIT: a lot of people missing the point, so I'll state it here: you can think of this "gateway" kind of like that pauper secret lair that got a whole bunch of new cards added to pauper. Or like the arena anthologies that add specific cards into historic or timeless. But make a full set out of it, add maybe 10-20 new cards, give us some needed reprints (mopal, burning inquiry etc) and call it a day. You can call it modern remastered or something. Do it with safer cards (staff of the storyteller for example) that are maybe too weak for legacy.

I just moved to a new city and all my magic cards are at my parents place :(

I want to buy a new deck, just so i could play a bit as long as i don't have my old ones! Do you have any recommendations for a good base deck that's currently available as a starting point (might upgrade it later)?

I wanted to add that it's been a while since I was actively playing, so i am very open to any kind of deck. I just don't want to get destroyed every round, as I know these prebuild decks vary a lot in strength!