A lot has been written recently on the state of the Modern format; on the dominance of Eldrazi, decks suited to beat it, and the idea of an emergency ban. Right now, I’m feeling ambivalent about the whole thing. Eldrazi is clearly an oppressive deck that is bad for format diversity but at the same time it’s beatable. Recently, Affinity, Living End, and UW Control (complete with sweepers, Ghost Quarters, and Spreading Seas) have been putting up results on MTGO Modern Leagues and dailies. I am interested in the idea of piloting one of these decks but don’t really want to put the effort in when I imagine Eldrazi Temple/Eye of Ugin see a ban in the very near future. Furthermore, I understand Wizards’ perspective on emergency bans, they don’t do them, and I don’t think they need to do it in this situation. Having said that, I’m not really interested in playing the format until a ban—perhaps alongside some long overdue unbans—goes down.
So what’s a Modern mage to do?
This weekend I played Standard. I haven’t played Standard since GP Indianapolis at the end of October where I quickly 1-2 dropped with Esper Dragons. It’s not that I don’t like Standard—it is both diverse and skill intensive, hallmarks of a good format. Mostly I haven’t had the time to keep up with it and kind of lost interest. I decided to pick it up this weekend since it’s Standard PPTQ season and I didn’t want to play Modern.
Having little experience with the format, I decided to pick up Rally, which I perceived to be the best deck. I knew people would be gunning for the deck, with plenty of hate floating around in maindecks and sideboards, but Rally seemed resilient enough to shrug the hate off. I sleeved this up:
Rally the Ancestors
| Lands (24) 2 Canopy Vista 3 Evolving Wilds 4 Flooded Strand 1 Forest 1 Island 1 Plains 4 Polluted Delta 1 Prairie Stream 3 Sunken Hollow 1 Swamp 3 Windswept Heath Creatures (28) 1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim 3 Catacomb Sifter 3 Elvish Visionary 2 Grim Haruspex 4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy 4 Nantuko Husk 4 Reflector Mage 3 Sidisi’s Faithful 4 Zulaport Cutthroat Spells (8) 4 Collected Company 4 Rally the Ancestors | Sideboard (15) 4 Arashin Cleric 2 Disdainful Stroke 4 Dispel 2 Duress 1 Merciless Executioner 2 Murderous Cut |
The deck is pretty close to MitchMachine’s deck from the top eight of MOCS. The difference:
-1 Windswept Heath
-1 Elvish Visionary
-1 Sidisi’s Faithful
+1 Sunken Hollow
+2 Grim Haruspex
I made these changes having never played the deck. Grim Haruspex was featured in most Rally lists, 17 of the last 20 on MTGTop8, so I figured I would give it a try. Having now played the deck, I can say that Haruspex is easily the worst card and I should have played MitchMachine’s exact 75. Haruspex doesn’t get any value coming into play or from the opponent killing it. The 3/2 body can’t block anything and live to tell about it and the toughness allows it to be 1-for-1’ed by Fiery Impulse and Wild Slash. Furthermore, the three drop slot is really clogged in this deck and for curve considerations it would have been better to play an additional Ayli, Visionary, or Faithful. Spex is really only good when you’re already winning, which does not make for a great card.
On Saturday, I played at a PPTQ in Acton, Massachusetts at Gaming etc. On a side note, I’m a big fan of Gaming etc. as it’s spacious, clean, and has a huge selection of singles. Anyway, I started off the event 3-0 after dispatching UR Dragons, Mono Green Ramp, and Abzan.
Despite doing well at the start of the event, I was making plenty of mistakes, just not as many as my opponents. In the second round, my ramp opponent landed an Ugin. I had a flipped Jace, a Catacomb Sifter, and a Eldrazi Scion. I was holding up four mana for Collected Company. First my opponent missed his Sanctum of Ugin trigger, which would have allowed him to get an Ulamog or World Breaker. Then they chose to use Ugin’s -3 ability, thinking it would kill Catacomb Sifter. It didn’t of course and I was able to Collected Company into a Reflector Mage to bounce his blocker and kill Ugin on the following turn. He had no action so he scooped up his cards.
However, the wheels came off immediately afterward and I went 0-3 losing to Abzan Aggro, Grixis Dragons, and Atarka Red. While it seemed that Grixis Dragons was a nightmare match-up, I think I could have won the other two rounds if I had mulliganed a bit more aggressively and generally played a little tighter (I missed a few scry triggers off of Catacomb Sifter). Despite losing two win-and-in’s, and then losing the last round to miss on prizes, I enjoyed the deck. Even when I was really behind it seemed like I was just a Rally away from getting back in the game. My plan is to actually jam some more Standard PPTQ’s with the deck, this time getting in plenty of playtesting time beforehand. While the deck is inherently powerful, I missed a few triggers, incorrectly sequenced some lands, and didn’t sideboard optimally, which led to my 0-3 punt at the end of the day.
Also, a reminder that I stream every Wednesday night at 7:30 PM (EST) on Twitch.tv/hipsterstv. Last week I streamed a Kamigawa draft, this week I’ll be drafting and maybe even getting in a few games of Standard.
Thanks for reading!
In terms of Magic, Shawn Massak is a Modern enthusiast, with a penchant for tier two decks, counterspells, and pre Eighth Edition frames. In terms of life, Shawn lives in Brighton, MA where he works as an employment coordinator for people with disabilities, plays guitar in an indie-pop band, and spends his free time reading comics, complaining about pro-wrestling, and wishing his apartment allowed dogs as pets.