Last week, Wizards finally slammed down the banhammer on Eye of Ugin, thus ending Eldrazi’s Robspierrian reign of terror on the Modern format. Wizards also unbanned Sword of the Meek and Ancestral Vision, to the applause of people like me who have an affinity for Islands. So how did the B&R announcement affect Modern? While we don’t have a lot of data to work with, we can of course break down the top 32 from the SCG Modern Classic in Baltimore this past weekend.
Every time I analyze one of these, I make myself a handy dandy spreadsheet. While I will go through and break down the results, I figured some folks might like to see what I was working with:
The most represented deck in the top 32, at 12.5%, was Infect. While I can’t say that I love playing against Blighted Agent and crew, I like the space that Infect occupies in the format. Infect is a linear creature based combo deck; it attacks and plays pump and protection spells. Just about every deck in the top 32 had maindeckable ways to interact with Infect. Scapeshift has Lightning Bolt, Jund has every removal spell ever, Merfolk has Dismember, Abzan Company has Spellskite and Orzhov Pontiff, Jeskai Flash has Path to Exile, and so on and so forth. Infect is a frustratingly efficient deck, but one that can be combated without using up too many precious sideboard slots.
Arguably the best deck in the tournament was Scapeshift, with one list winning the tournament and the other sitting pretty at seventh place. The 1st place list, piloted by Daryl Ayers, opted to play four Prismatic Omens, a card that has fallen out of favor in Scapeshift for some time. While Omen doesn’t do much by itself, it does speed up the combo and fixes mana which can be crucial when playing spells like Cryptic Command. The seventh place list, piloted by Nick Hyler, went all in on the Bring to Light plan and has a full white splash with two copies of Lightning Helix in the main deck. Hyler didn’t stop the innovation there and played three Worldly Counsel in his list. Most of the time Counsel acts like Anticipate, but when you hit that fourth domain type, Counsel digs just a little bit deeper, which is crucial when searching for the game winning Scapeshift (or Bring to Light for that matter). Here is Hyler’s list in all of it’s spicy glory, and yes, that’s a Hunting Wilds in the maindeck:
Bring to Light Scapeshift
But wait, what about all of those unbanned cards? Well, there were 19 copies of Ancestral Vision in the top 32 and nine copies of Sword of the Meek, which seems like a pretty healthy number of each. The decks that seemed to best utilize Vision were the Grixis Control lists, 9% of the top 32. The 10th place list, piloted by Matthew Nester, not only rocked the full playset of Ancestral Vision but also included two copies of Thing in the Ice, which seems pretty insane in a deck with 25 spells and six creatures that can flash them back. Furthermore, even if you flip your Thing in the Ice and have to return creatures to your hand, Snapcaster and Pia and Kiran get additional value off their ETB triggers and Tasigur should be able to be replayed for a minimal mana requirement. While Nester chose not to play any copies of Goblin Dark Dwellers, both of the other lists chose to as they allow you to “flashback” Ancestral Vision in a way that neither Snapcaster or Jace can. I am including Raymond Griffith’s 11th place list for reference because it is super sweet:
Grixis Control
While we’re on the topic of unbanned cards, Sword of the Meek had a respectable showing at the classic, with the ThopsterSword combo showing up in three Gifts Ungiven lists (Tron, four color, UW) and a UW Open the Vaults/Krark Clan Ironworks combo deck. In the gifts lists, you can set up a gifts pile of Sword of the Meek, Thopter Foundry, Crucible of Worlds, and Academy Ruins to ensure putting the combo in play the following turn.
The last thing I want to talk about is the WTF decklist of the tournament, Kyriakos Mavroulis’ WR Angels deck:
Angels in the Outfield
| Creatures (12) 4 Baneslayer Angel 4 Guardian Seraph 1 Sunblast Angel 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight 2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence | Lands (25) 1 Mountain 9 Plains 4 Snow-Covered Plains 4 Battlefield Forge 1 Cavern of Souls 4 Clifftop Retreat 2 Sacred Foundry Spells (23) 4 Blood Moon 4 Leyline of Sanctity 2 Celestial Flare 2 Dawn Charm 3 Faith’s Shield 1 Riot Control 3 Sudden Shock 2 Day of Judgment 2 Wrath of God Sideboard (15) 4 Rest in Peace 2 Angel’s Grace 2 Celestial Flare 1 Faith’s Shield 1 Fracturing Gust 1 Riot Control 1 Day of Judgment 1 Shatterstorm 2 Vandalblast |
If you’re confused you’re not the only one. While the deck is bizarre, it does a few things I like. One, it plays maindeck Blood Moon, one of the best ways to get free wins in Modern. Two, the maindeck Celestial Flares, Dawn Charms, Sudden Shocks are great against Infect and they will never see them coming. Three, it plays Guardian Seraph. I have never seen a Guardian Seraph in play in any constructed format and only one in play in Limited back when M10 was being drafted. This card may be wonky but it’s pretty reasonable against Burn which should be a good matchup given the maindeck Leyline of Sanctity, Dawn Charm, and Riot Control. I can’t say I completely understand the Angel package but I’m sure he won a bet against someone who doubted Angel tribal was a thing.
The results of the SCG Modern Classic in Balitmore are encouraging to say the least. With 21 unique archetypes and no deck accounting for more than 12.5% of the top 32, the classic suggests that the B&R announcement had a positive effect on format diversity. The format appears to be in a good place with a solid mix of aggro, control, and combo decks and even a few rogue builds to look into moving forward. It is also noteworthy that there were no copies of Eldrazi anywhere to be seen, perhaps signalling that the Eye of Ugin ban sounded the death knell for the deck.
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.