“Mono-Green Tron won both the Mythic Championship and the SCG Open in the same weekend.”
Wait, what? Really? Mono-Green Tron? Surely you mean Eldrazi Tron. Nobody has seen Mono-Green Tron in weeks. How did it win both majors this weekend? The short answer is Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, and the long answer is Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis as well, but with more steps.
Let’s step back for a minute and look at exactly what occurred. Thorvald Severin lifted the trophy in Barcelona, while in Columbus Dom Harvey took home the hardware. Both with Mono-Green Tron. I think it’s safe to go back to calling it “Tron” for the rest of this article.
The stock in “Tron” had been steadily falling as the upstart “Eldrazi Tron” deck claimed to be the best deck registering Urza’s Tower. The Eldrazi variant even managed to pick up a couple high profile finishes on Magic Online. On the back of Chalice of the Void being a powerful option against a variety of decks in Modern. Eldrazi Tron also became thought of as the best home for Karn, the Great Creator. So what happened?
Hogaak happened. Once the Eldrazi Tron players realized they needed real amounts of graveyard hate, they had to start cutting into their wish board to fit four copies of Leyline of the Void. Once they started trimming on wish targets, Karn, the Great Creator got worse.
From there is isn’t all that hard to make the transition back to “real” Tron. The old standby has some nice features: a much freer sideboard, main deck copies of Relic of Progenitus, and doesn’t use the graveyard at all. Those are attractive qualities in the current landscape of Modern.
“Surely a good Hogaak matchup can’t be the only thing the propelled Tron to such heights.” Well, you’d be right. One of the things Hogaak did to Modern was compress it down to a metagame of decks that largely fell into two categories: Decks trying to beat Hogaak, and Hogaak.
The first wave of decks that were trying to beat Hogaak were Infect and Devoted Druid. That naturally led to some predators that beat small creature combo decks—enter Jund and Izzet Phoenix. As the metagame continued to evolve, we saw Burn and Azorius Control enter the ring to contest the Jund and Phoenix decks. When Burn needed a bump in power level, it morphed into Mono-Red Phoenix.
These predominantly fair decks are too busy cannibalizing each other while claiming they just needed, “a passable Hogaak matchup” to be favored against the field. Famous last words. The Hogaak players kept going about business as usual whil the fair decks killed off Hogaak’s potential predators.
Fair decks beating up on fair decks? It’s a shame really—unless you’re playing Hogaak.
How long could this madness continue? How deep could the rabbit hole go? This is the part of our story when the hero villain Eldrazi Tron shows up. I guess this is what happens when Hogaak is nearly untouchable: people decide to beat what is left and hope that they can win enough matches against Hogaak to post a good result.
In a metagame that looks like Jund, Azorius Control, Izzet Phoenix, Mono Red Phoenix, and Hogaak; Chalice of the Void blanks significant portions of the format. Why is Chalice so much better than it normally is? You guessed It!
As Hogaak compresses the metagame, it does not merely push out the decks that can’t hang; it also forces people to warp their decks to be more efficient. Let’s face it. If your deck isn’t the leanest, most efficient version of your deck; you’re going to get a bunch of cards stuck in your hand when something (Hogaak) kills you on turn three.
In reality it doesn’t matter much how powerful your three-mana spells can be. If you die with them in your hand, they don’t do anything. That means you have to get that curve down. Once people are bottoming out their curve to stay competitive, its prime time for the cup that everyone loves to hate!
“Hold on a minute, you said this was an article about how Tron won two major tournaments in one week, not just another Hogaak article!” Well you’re some kind of right.
You see, “Tron” Tron is a parasite on the format that Hogaak has created, capitalizing after people thought it was assuredly gone. Like many of the other people trying to fight the good fight in the fair deck mosh pit, I don’t think I’ve ever registered a deck in a competitive REL tournament that matches up well against Tron.
Tron regulars and others who found it early enough in testing to make a decision decided to sleeve up the boom boom cannon. There wasn’t a ton of representation for Karn and friends at either tournament, but that didn’t matter to Karn, Ugin, and Wurmcoil Engine as they tore through round after round of both events. This success is in no small part to having a sideboard being dominated by Karn, the Great Creator, making more room for Leyline of the Void.
Time will tell how long Tron’s success can last. I think it largely depends on two things. First, how long it takes people to add Fulminator Mage, Damping Sphere, and Ceremonious Rejection back into their sideboard. Well, that’s assuming they have room after jamming eight pieces of graveyard hate to beat Hogaak. Second, whether combo decks can survive the sea of disruption that exists in the space between Hogaak and Tron.
Oh. I suppose if you want to play Tron, I should share some lists.
Mono-Green Tron, by Thoralf Severin
| Creatures (9) 3 Walking Ballista 4 Wurmcoil Engine 2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger Planeswalkers (6) 4 Karn Liberated 2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon Spells (26) 4 Ancient Stirrings 4 Sylvan Scrying 4 Expedition Map 4 Chromatic Star 3 Chromatic Sphere 3 Oblivion Stone 3 Relic of Progenitus 1 All Is Dust | Lands (19) 4 Urza’s Mine 4 Urza’s Tower 4 Urza’s Power Plant 5 Forest 1 Blast Zone 1 Sanctum of Ugin Sideboard (15) 4 Leyline of the Void 1 Spatial Contortion 1 Warping Wail 2 Nature’s Claim 2 Dismember 1 Veil of Summer 3 Thragtusk 1 Emrakul, the Promised End |
Mono-Green Tron, by Dom Harvey
| Creatures (7) 2 Walking Ballista 4 Wurmcoil Engine 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger Planeswalkers (6) 4 Karn Liberated 2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon Spells (28) 4 Ancient Stirrings 4 Sylvan Scrying 4 Expedition Map 4 Chromatic Star 4 Chromatic Sphere 4 Oblivion Stone 3 Relic of Progenitus 1 Dismember | Lands (19) 4 Urza’s Mine 4 Urza’s Tower 4 Urza’s Power Plant 4 Forest 1 Blast Zone 1 Sanctum of Ugin 1 Ghost Quarter Sideboard (15) 4 Leyline of the Void 3 Nature’s Claim 2 Dismember 3 Veil of Summer 2 Thragtusk 1 Emrakul, the Promised End |
Michael Rapp is a Boston-area grinder who started playing competitively in 2014. Loves Modern but plays everything. His favorite card is Thoughtseize has a soft spot for Tarmogoyf. GP Toronto 2019 Champion. Always happy to answer questions or just chat on Twitter or Facebook.