Everyone in our car had an abysmal PPTQ. All of us dropped with 2-3 records, except Nik who was 1-4. On the drive home we recounted our bad beat stories. I had played a turn two Primeval Titan, via Summoner’s Pact, against an opponent on Merfolk. He played his second land and then put a Spreading Seas on my Simic Growth Chamber. I couldn’t pay for pact and lost. This was only topped by the fact that Eric lost to a Standard deck. Apparently this guy thought the PPTQ was Standard, brought along his UR Thopters deck and somehow proceeded to trounce Eric who was playing Burn.
The car conversation shifted to a theoretical Modern deck that played Zur’s Weirding with multiple life gain effects to soft lock the opponent out of the game. After the 20th time “soft lock” was used, we abandoned this thought experiment and I began to think about what would actually be good right now in Modern. We had all spent the day playing against Grixis Twin, Jund, Junk, and Grixis Control. While I don’t mind the last three match-ups while piloting Amulet Bloom, I have found the Grixis Twin/UR Twin/Tarmo Twin match-up to be really really bad. If I were to switch to a deck that had reasonable game against Twin combo and some fair-attrition based strategies, what deck would that be?
Nik joked that I could always go back to playing Tron. I made a face and said that it was still really bad against Twin.
“What about Gifts Tron?”
To be honest, I hadn’t thought about UW Tron in quite some time. I wasn’t even sure what a current list would look like. After a quick google search and a browse through MTGtop8 these were the most recent lists I found:
Turtenwald's UW Tron- May
McWinSauce UW Tron-July
I’m going to do my best to break these down and discuss the overall plan as well as individual card choices:
- 10 Tron Lands—Unlike the “all-in” RG Tron decks, UW Tron is a control deck first and foremost. This deck requires having multiple colored sources in order to cast its wrath effects and countermagic. However, unlike other control decks, the tron lands allow you to gain a significant mana advantage in the late game which can help you Mindslaver lock your opponent, jam Ugin, or even cast Emrakul.
- Snow-lands—Because sometimes you will need to cast gifts for lands, it’s helpful to be able to retrieve four lands with different names. Specifically, being able to retrieve four basics is very helpful against Blood Moon.
- Utility Lands—McWinSauce plays a singleton Ghost Quarter, perhaps as a concession to the rise of Amulet Bloom and RG Tron. The colorless land also blows up opposing man-lands which stick around after you cast Wrath of God. Turtenwald, opted to play a Tectonic Edge in the sideboard which he could bring in alongside Crucible of Worlds to keep opponents off mana for the long game.
- Creatures—Both lists feature Iona and Elesh Norn as part of a Gifts package with Unburial Rites. Snapcaster is present in each list as both an excellent way to buy back spells and a way to add redundancy to gifts piles. The point of differentiation is that McWinSauce plays an Emrakul in the main while Owen keeps his on the side. Emrakul is an excellent way to go over just about every deck in the format and especially good in long games against Grixis or UWR Control but is clunky and unnecessary against the Aggro match-ups. I’m fine with keeping Emrakul in the side and boarding it in when necessary.
- Countermagic—Both lists feature Remand and Spell Snare in the countermagic suite. McWinSauce also has a one-of Condescend to have a counter active at all points throughout the game. I like that neither list is playing Mana Leak given that it gets substantially worse when you’re playing a full playset of Path to Exile.
- Gifts/Card Draw— The primary function of Gifts is to Unburial Rites an Iona or an Elesh-Norn or to find a Wrath to help clear a clogged board. However, if your opponent isn’t doing much you can often just cast one for value, if you’re using McWinSauce’s list you could Gifts for Gifts Ungiven, Thirst for Knowledge, Snapcaster Mage, and Sphinx’s Revelation which should quickly bury an opponent in card advantage. Though Owen’s list doesn’t have the one of Revelation or Think Twice, just having a full playset of Thirst for Knowledge should be more than enough.
- Removal—Each list runs the full four Path to Exile and three different Wrath effects to sweep the board. Path to Exile offers up a way to interact with the Twin Combo, Primeval Titan, and early Goblin Guides while Supreme Verdict, Wrath of God, and Day of Judgment clear away robots, mana dorks, and Tarmogoyfs.
- Timely Reinforcements— This card is so good in this list. You can gain back much needed life against Burn and force opposing creature decks to overcommit to push damage through, playing right into your sweepers. I think two is the right number to play.
- Sideboard—Both lists run Celestial Purge as a way to take out a resolved Liliana or Blood Moon while also being serviceable against the Tasigur/Angler decks. Owen’s list runs 5 additional counters in Negate and Dispel as a way to fight Twin, Storm, and other Combo/Control decks. McWinSauce only plays two Dispel and one Negate but has a Mindbreak Trap to counter a lethal Grapeshot or perhaps even “counter” an opposing Emrakul. Both lists have an additional copy of Timely Reinforcements because it really is that good against burn as is the Rest for the Weary in Owen’s list. One thing I really like in McWinSauce’s SB is the two copies of Ghostly Prison which are excellent against both Twin and aggro decks.
Next week, I’ll present my current list and talk more specificially about each match-up and whether or not UW Tron is in fact a real deck.
At age 15, while standing in a record store with his high school bandmates, Shawn Massak made the uncool decision to spend the last of his money on a 7th edition starter deck (the one with foil Thorn Elemental). Since that fateful day 11 years ago, Shawn has decorated rooms of his apartment with MTG posters, cosplayed as Jace, the Mindsculptor, and competes with LSV for the record of most islands played (lifetime). When he’s not playing Magic, Shawn works as a job coach for people with disabilities and plays guitar in an indie-pop band.