To say that Standard has become expensive is an understatement. Between Fetchlands, Jace, Gideon, Nissia, Ugin, Deathmist Raptor, etc. decks are getting pretty pricey. Recently a standard deck hit $1,000 and while it’s dropped since then Standard is still extremely expensive. It’s disappointing to see Standard cost so much since it’s supposed to be the entry point for new players to work their way into other formats such as Modern and Legacy. Unfortunately, the average Standard deck currently costs around $500 and the format is starting to compete with Modern it terms of price. This is why I think Standard players should just start investing in Modern.
Standard is infamous for being an awful investment. It’s cheap in the short run but most of the cards will never see Modern, Legacy or Commander play and will become worthless when a new set rotates in or the card itself rotates out. Cards like Deathmist Raptor, Hangarback Walker and Gideon are very unlikely to ever see much play outside of Standard or hold their value post rotation. On the other hand, the average Modern deck costs about $950 but the difference is it will most likely keep that value for quite some time. There are also multiple decks that fall directly into Standard territory price-wise including R/G Tron (~$700), Fish (~$550), Amulet Bloom (~$500), Affinity (~$750) and my beloved Infect (~$800). These are not fringe decks but strong, tournament-level decks that will hold their value and compete at a pretty high level. Just making a slightly bigger investment in the short run could mean making less of an investment in the long run. You get to spend $900 once instead of spending $500 every time a set rotates (which is about to start happening more often).
So now that you’ve got the why, I should probably give some direction on the how. It’s easy to tell someone that they should just spend a few hundred more dollars and oh look it’s better! But that’s not realistic for a lot of people so I want to suggest that if you’re already playing Standard and are looking to take advantage of a deck you already have, see if there is a Modern counterpart.
As an example I decided to take a Standard deck I liked and see if I could port it into a Modern deck. So I grabbed G/R Eldrazi and tried to port it to R/G Tron. Not only does G/R Eldrazi seem like a deck that I would enjoy, I have quite a bit of experience playing Tron so it seemed like a port I might actually try. Overall the decks have the same style. They ramp quickly into a big dude and smash your opponent’s face in. When porting over I took note that G/R Eldrazi has some value in Hangarback Walkers, Nissa, Ulamogs, Dragonlord Atarkas and Ugins. These will be helpful not only to port into our deck but also to be used as trade fodder to bankroll it. The pricey cards to find for R/G Tron are two Spellskites, two Oblivion Stones, four Karns and four Grove of the Burnwillows (a total of $530 worth of cards, those Groves are pricey). I spent some time trying to make a more budget-friendly port of the deck that I believe also makes it easier to work your way into other Modern decks should you choose.
Budget R/G Tron
For lands you won’t see any dramatic changes from the traditional list except that I’ve dropped the Groves. Not only are they extremely expensive but I feel like investing in shocklands is a great choice if you’re interested in playing Modern. Stomping Grounds are much more versatile than Grove which is only played in R/G Tron in Modern (they are better known for being played in Legacy so if that is a long term goal they might be worth considering investing in over time). The lands should cost you about $70 tops, more than half of which is for the Stomping Grounds. This is the most expensive investment you’ll have to make to make to port the deck.
For creatures the port will be easy. The only difference between this and the average R/G Tron list is the cut of Spellskites (due to price) and the addition of Dragonlord Atarka. I think Dragonlord Atarka seems good for Modern as a strong beater who can clear creatures off the field when entering seems great to me. The rest of the creatures are traditional to the R/G Tron build and should cost in total (since you’ll already have Ulamog and Dragonlord Atarka) about $18, a relatively low cost.
For spells you’ll notice that I haven’t changed too much. Karn is very expensive (and I actually like Ugin way better in the deck anyway) so I’ve cut Karn and upped the number of Ugins to four. It saves money, and in my opinion is a better card anyway. I’ve also cut Oblivion Stones since they are also fairly expensive and replaced them with Beast Within‘s. I actually only run one O-Stone in my Mono-Green Tron list and run 2two Beast Withins—I find them very powerful and think that it is a fine swap. Overall, since you should already have three Sylvan Scryings (a recent reprint anyway) and the Ugins, this should cost you about $50.
I decided against putting together a sideboard since they are so meta dependent. While I’m aware that it has the possibility of adding a lot to the deck price-wise, I would rather not speculate on something that can be so wildly different from one deck to the next.
So overall this port should cost a max of $140. The best part is there are still standard cards worth money that aren’t being ported over that could be used as trade fodder. There would be two Ulamog, two Nissa, and three Hangarback Walker available which in total are worth about $110 in trade value. If you wish to be able to keep sleeving up both, then while $140 isn’t chump change it is a reasonable amount of money to spend to be able to play another format.
Overall this is a very realistic and doable port and best of all this is not the only Standard deck that could be ported into Modern. It was important to me that if I was going to suggest to people they should make Modern investments instead of Standard that I make it realistic for people to do so and I feel I achieved that. Once you have the start of a deck you’ll be able to work your way to save up to those Karns, Groves or whatever the money card in your deck is. The best part is the chances of your cards suddenly being worth nothing is much lower. Don’t get me wrong, Standard can be fun but there is no reason to spend that much money and watch it disappear when you can easily just play Modern instead.
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH. She has recently succumbed to MTGO.