Brad Carpenter—Izzet Phoenix
| Creatures (11) 4 Arclight Phoenix 2 Crackling Drake 1 Snapcaster Mage 4 Thing in the Ice Spells (31) 4 Faithless Looting 1 Flame Slash 1 Lightning Axe 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Manamorphose 4 Sleight of Hand 4 Serum Visions 2 Surgical Extraction 4 Thought Scour 1 Set Adrift 2 Pyromancer Ascension | Lands (18) 1 Flooded Strand 4 Island 2 Mountain 1 Polluted Delta 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Spirebluff Canal 2 Steam Vents Sideboard (15) 1 Abrade 1 Beacon Bolt 3 Molten Rain 1 Jace, The Mind Sculptor 2 Dispel 2 Ravenous Trap 1 Surgical Extraction 1 Shatterstorm 1 Ceremonious Rejection 2 Spell Pierce |
This week I am of the firm belief you should play Izzet Phoenix in Modern. It’s by far the most consistent strategy and capable of both fair and unfair game plans. It’s no coincidence that the deck has started to take up roughly 15-20% of every Day 2 meta in the past month. The deck has come a long way from the early incarnations after the banning of KCI the deck has achieved almost Eldrazi Winter-levels dominance.
At this point the lists are pretty fleshed out. Pyromancer’s Ascension is the backup plan of choice as it is one of your best cards in the mirror and against Grixis Death’s Shadow. But there is a new card that has started to pop up in lists: Set Adrift. Set Adrift has is basically a cheaper version of Echoing Truth, which helps get rid of pesky permanents like Ensnaring Bridge or sniping an early Gurmag Angler from Death’s Shadow.
In the Opt versus Sleight of Hand slot I honestly think it’s a crapshoot and probably won’t end up mattering. While Opt is instant speed I think the ability to have more information when digging with Sleight of Hand has a higher upside.
The only other thing I’ve really liked is Molten Rain over Blood Moon. Most decks tend to expect Blood Moon from Izzet Phoenix decks so it’s really lost its surprise factor and opponents now bring in sideboard answers for Blood Moon. The other reason for Molten Rain over Blood Moon is in the Tron and Titan Shift matchups. I think it’s more important to be able to destroy a Tron piece or Valakut in play and then be able to Surgical those cards, or simply set them back a turn or two, as opposed to casting Blood Moon and hoping they don’t have one of the answers they board in.
Harlan Firer—Izzet Phoenix
Modern Izzet Phoenix
| Creatures (11) 1 Snapcaster Mage 4 Thing in the Ice 4 Arclight Phoenix 2 Crackling Drake Spells (31) 4 Faithless Looting 1 Flame Slash 1 Lightning Axe 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Serum Visions 4 Sleight of Hand 2 Surgical Extraction 4 Thought Scour 4 Manamorphose 1 Set Adrift 2 Pyromancer Ascension | Lands (18) 1 Flooded Strand 3 Island 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Mountain 1 Polluted Delta 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Spirebluff Canal 2 Steam Vents 1 Sulfur Falls Sideboard (15) 2 Dispel 2 Spell Pierce 2 Abrade 1 Beacon Bolt 3 Molten Rain 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 Ravenous Trap 1 Shatterstorm 1 Keranos, God of Storms |
I’m not going to SCG Cleveland, but if I were I’d throw in the proverbial towel and go back to playing Arclight Phoenix. Take it from me, if you want to get cheeky and play your sweet deck that you overhauled to beat Phoenix, or play your super metagamed deck that’s designed specifically to prey on Phoenix, just don’t. Phoenix has power level and it has consistency, so you won’t beat it every time even if you try. You won’t play against it every round, either, so just don’t.
This is a fairly stock build of Phoenix these days. Set Adrift has become a pretty standard card to split with Lightning Axe, and is a change I recommend making if you haven’t already. The Molten Rains are in the board to improve the Tron matchup more than Blood Moon does. Rain over Moon makes you much weaker vs Amulet Titan, so proceed with caution if you think you’ll run into any members of the AmuLIT Cabal.
Will Pulliam & Chad Harney—Amulet Titan
Chad: Being on a team with Will Pulliam means that you hear “just play Amulet” almost every time a Modern tournament comes up. I had been able to resist the #nobadmatchups Amulet cult for a long time. But I finally broke down and tried it…and I loved it. It has reasonable game against Phoenix, a bye against Dredge, an amazing tool box of answers, and the ability to play as a fast combo deck or gridy big mana deck. It definitely isn’t for everyone, but I’ve quickly found it to be the most fun deck in Modern and really rewarding to play.
Will: Chad is smart, you should be more like Chad. You probably didn’t need to read this to know what I am playing. This deck is great, and you should play it. As for specific card choices, I have been dabbling with various cantrips to increase the consistency with the deck. I went from Serum Visions to Adventurous Impulse because Adventurous Impulse lets you keep all of your silver bullets in your mana base. With the addition of Impulse I have cut the sideboard Hive Mind for Emrakul, the Promised End. These cards serve similar roles in a lot of matchups but Emrakul wins the tie breaker due to Impulse helping us find it.
Modern Amulet Titan
Drake Sasser—Izzet Phoenix
Modern Izzet Phoenix
| Creatures (12) 4 Arclight Phoenix 4 Thing in the Ice 2 Snapcaster Mage 2 Crackling Drake Spells (30) 4 Thought Scour 4 Faithless Looting 2 Surgical Extraction 4 Manamorphose 1 Flame Slash 4 Serum Visions 1 Echoing Truth 4 Opt 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Pyromancer Ascension | Lands (18) 1 Sulfur Falls 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Polluted Delta 1 Flooded Strand 4 Spirebluff Canal 3 Steam Vents 3 Island 1 Mountain Sideboard (15) 1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy 1 Beacon Bolt 1 Anger of the Gods 2 Abrade 1 Flame Slash 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 Dispel 1 Surgical Extraction 2 Spell Pierce 1 Shatterstorm 2 Molten Rain |
Surprised? Didn’t think so.
Phoenix is the best deck in Modern and everyone knows it, so I am going to dive into the changes I made to the “stock” list.
First off, the bounce spell innovation allows you to beat Ensnaring Bridge and Chalice of the Void in pre-board games while still answering large Awoken Horrors and Tarmogoyfs. However, I like Echoing Truth in the bounce spell slot over Set Adrift because it is better against Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void.
Second, I like Molten Rain over Blood Moon in the sideboard because Blood Moon just hasn’t felt not good enough against Tron and is another target for the Nature’s Claims that Tron players are bringing in. Molten Rain also pairs well with Snapcaster Mage and, while it is a little worse than Blood Moon against Amulet Titan, is better against UW Control.
Lastly, I still prefer Opt to Sleight of Hand in Phoenix because the ability to flip Thing in the Ice at instant speed comes up quite a bit and Opt can be better when holding up counterspells post-board.
Austin Collins—Izzet Phoenix
Unsurprisingly, I plan on playing Izzet Phoenix.
This weekend we will see two things: a bunch of inbred Phoenix mirrors playing a pile of Surgical Extractions and Pyromancer’s Ascensions, and a lot of Tron. So to combat those this weekend I plan on playing a copy of Set Adrift over Flame Slash to deal with pesky cards like Wurmcoil Engine and Pyromancer’s Ascension.
I also am playing zero Blood Moons and 3 Molten Rains as I think it’s better vs Tron, because Tron’s game plan is to reach five mana and cast Thragtusk vs Blood Moon. Surgical Extraction also pairs well with Molten Rain, allowing you to exile all copies of a problematic land. Molten Rain is worse vs Amulet Titan, though, but I plan on playing some copies of Disdainful Stroke to compensate. Make sure vs Amulet you don’t play a Molten Rain while they have a Sakura Tribe-Scout untapped as they can blow you out with a bounce land. I also think Spell Pierce is better than Dispelfor Tron and the mirror to answer Pyromancer’s Ascension.
Modern Izzet Phoenix
| Creatures (11) 4 Arclight Phoenix 2 Crackling Drake 1 Snapcaster Mage 4 Thing in the Ice Spells (27) 4 Faithless Looting 1 Set Adrift 2 Lightning Axe 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Manamorphose 4 Serum Visions 4 Sleight of Hand 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Pyromancer Ascension | Lands (22) 1 Flooded Strand 3 Island 2 Mountain 1 Polluted Delta 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Spirebluff Canal 2 Steam Vents 4 Thought Scour 1 Wooded Foothills Sideboard (15) 2 Abrade 1 Echoing Truth 1 Beacon Bolt 3 Molten Rain 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 1 Dragon’s Claw 2 Ravenous Trap 3 Spell Pierce 1 Surgical Extraction |
Ally Warfield—GB Rock
Modern GB Rock
For the past couple weeks in Modern I have heavily recommended Izzet Phoenix as the deck you should be playing in Modern. When I went to SCG Cincinnati I was confronted with nothing but medium to bad matchups for Phoenix. While the deck is still likely the best deck in Modern, I tend to stray away from decks with the biggest target on their backs. For SCG Cleveland, this will be (by far) Phoenix.
When testing decks for this event, I tried everything; Phoenix, Amulet, Humans, The Rock, Dredge, and even Tron. I think Tron is a good choice for this weekend to combat the Phoenix decks, so part of my decision to pilot The Rock came from wanting to beat Phoenix and wanting to also beat Tron.
Some key cards in this list that fight Phoenix include the one mainboard Nihil Spellbomb, many (many) removal spells, as well as the plethora of tools in the sideboard like Surgical Extractions and Grafdigger’s Cage. Tron was a long-feared matchup by us GB players; however, with the recent printings of Field of Ruin and Assassin’s Trophy, the matchup has quickly turned to our favor by running four of each copy in the deck.
The Rock is in a good place right now because it can be favored against both the Izzet Phoenix and Tron matchups when configured correctly, in additional to having the tools to beat almost every deck in the format. The deck has so many decisions, therefore I don’t recommend picking it up without a serious amount of testing beforehand. With some good league results, I’m feeling good about this list going into Cleveland.
Feel free to let the team know what you think or if you have any questions about their decks post on Twitter at @TeamNovaMTG.