However, Modern Masters isn’t known for its small price tag, so players may only have a chance to draft the set once or twice or open up less than a box’s worth of product. In addition, newer players may have collections that only reach as far back as Innistrad or even just Return to Ravnica.

So for today, I want to start with a few forty-card decks that look like reasonable Modern Masters Draft decks and then modify them with Standard-legal cards to create casual, Johnny decks with relatively-easy-to-acquire card supplements. This way, if you only have one chance to draft MMA, you can use the experience and the Draft deck as an opportunity to build a casual deck for future enjoyment, taking advantage of the themes and archetypes from the Modern-reprints set to have some fun with newer cards.

U/R Storm

But still, the archetypes exist, and we’re going to mess around with them to make playable casual lists. Let’s start with a storm list that could possibly win some games and that could reasonably be drafted.

"MMA Storm"

• Creatures (4)
• 1 Grinning Ignus
• 1 Mothdust Changeling
• 1 Pestermite
• 1 Stingscourger

• Spells (21)
• 1 Desperate Ritual
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 Perilous Research
• 1 Traumatic Visions
• 2 Logic Knot
• 2 Manamorphose
• 2 Peer Through Depths
• 4 Reach Through Mists
• 1 Rift Bolt
• 2 Empty the Warrens
• 2 Grapeshot
• 2 Pyrite Spellbomb

• Lands (15)
• 7 Island
• 8 Mountain

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This is a list I found on TappedOut.net by user mtg_deckmaster. I assume this is a list the user actually drafted, but even if’s not, it has a conservative enough number of uncommons the deck would want such that I expect this is a realistic starting point. Sure, you might not be able to draft this every time, but it’d be possible sometimes.

Dipping into our Standard suite, we see the Izzet guild of Ravnica is quite fond of the storm concept. Goblin Electromancer is a very powerful common even used in Modern storm lists, Melek, Izzet Paragon can do great things, especially with splice—which, unfortunately, doesn’t show up much in the above Draft deck—and Dragonshift can turn all of the Goblins from Empty the Warrens into a lethal army. If you wanted, you could even give your Epic Experiment a shot.

Outside of Ravnica, the last couple years have also included such wonderful treats as Arcane Melee, Lunar Mystic, and Talrand, Sky Summoner. If you are able pick up a few extra commons and uncommons from Modern Masters, go up to four each on the storm spells (Empty the Warrens and Grapeshot) along with more Desperate Rituals, Manamorphoses, and Rift Bolts.

"MMA+Standard Storm"

• Creatures (8)
• 2 Errant Ephemeron
• 4 Goblin Electromancer
• 2 Melek, Izzet Paragon

• Spells (31)
• 1 Dragonshift
• 1 Firemind's Foresight
• 4 Desperate Ritual
• 4 Glacial Ray
• 4 Manamorphose
• 4 Reach Through Mists
• 4 Empty the Warrens
• 4 Grapeshot
• 4 Rift Bolt
• 1 Arcane Melee

• Lands (21)
• 10 Mountain
• 9 Island
• 2 Steam Vents

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B/G Dredge

Next up, we have the graveyard-based combo deck. Let’s start by taking a look at LaysanRail’s presumably genuine Draft deck from TappedOut.

"MMA Dredge"

• Creatures (11)
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Hana Kami
• 1 Masked Admirers
• 1 Tarmogoyf
• 1 Tombstalker
• 2 Deepcavern Imp
• 2 Greater Mossdog
• 2 Stinkweed Imp

• Spells (12)
• 1 Death Denied
• 1 Death Rattle
• 1 Horobi's Whisper
• 1 Reach of Branches
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Syphon Life
• 2 Raven's Crime
• 2 Worm Harvest
• 1 Bridge from Below
• 1 Moldervine Cloak

• Lands (17)
• 6 Forest
• 6 Swamp
• 1 Dakmor Salvage
• 1 Vivid Grove
• 1 Vivid Marsh
• 2 Terramorphic Expanse

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Now, I certainly don’t expect everyone to open a Tarmogoyf, and if you do and you’re a casual player, you should probably trade it in for a Commander deck or two, but it is actually more powerful in a graveyard-based Limited deck than a basic green deck.

Looking outside of MMA, we see the B/G Ravnica guild of the Golgari, who—interestingly and not at all coincidentally—also play with the graveyard. Deadbridge Chant is just a wonderful spell, and while it is a mythic, I just love it too much. Similar in the price-tag range is Varolz, the Scar-Striped, who has been rising in price along with his increase of play in Standard. It doesn’t hurt that he combos with Death's Shadow and Phyrexian Dreadnought either.

Bridge from Below is not as good without Narcomoebas and Dread Returns to sac them to, but it would be silly to not include the quintessential dredge card in today’s dredge deck. To ensure it has some combo potential—and not just a few extraneous Zombies—let’s borrow from Orzhov their Immortal Servitude. By sacrificing a bunch of 3-drops to Varolz, we can make a bunch of Zombies; then, we can return them with the Servitude and sac them all again. If one was our Eternal Witness, we can return the Servitude and repeat on the next turn. Just make sure not to attack into blockers that are going to die—you don’t want to lose the Bridge from Below before you’re ready.

Finally, Innistrad and Dark Ascension are less than a couple years old, which means they’re valid candidates here. The rare Unbreathing Horde and the uncommon Wakedancer—which I’ve always loved but have had yet to find a use for, even in Limited—fit the combo with Immortal Servitude and Bridge from Below. They’re both 3-drops, and the Horde will be massive while the Dancer will bring with her extra Zombies.

"MMA+Standard Dredge"

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Greater Mossdog
• 1 Masked Admirers
• 1 Tombstalker
• 1 Unbreathing Horde
• 2 Eternal Witness
• 3 Stinkweed Imp
• 3 Wakedancer
• 4 Dreg Mangler
• 2 Varolz, the Scar-Striped

• Spells (19)
• 2 Death Rattle
• 2 Putrefy
• 4 Grisly Salvage
• 1 Reach of Branches
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Raven's Crime
• 2 Immortal Servitude
• 2 Worm Harvest
• 1 Deadbridge Chant
• 1 Moldervine Cloak
• 2 Bridge from Below

• Lands (23)
• 10 Forest
• 10 Swamp
• 1 Dakmor Salvage
• 2 Overgrown Tomb

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G/W Thallids

Anyway, the Thallid Draft decklists I found online also tended to be five-colored decks. At first, this bothered me, and I wanted to stick to Selesnya colors. But then, I realized that five-colored decks probably play sunburst, and with Doubling Season, the key build-around rare for Thallids, sunburst is twice as good. A deck drafted in these videos could have had a Skyreach Manta in the same Draft deck as two Doubling Seasons, but the author didn’t think the two synergized, so he didn’t include the Manta in his deck. It would have been awesome to see a 20/20 flying artifact Fish in Limited.

Anyway, here’s a Draft list I’ve constructed from my imagination.

"MMA Thallids"

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Aethersnipe
• 1 Pallid Mycoderm
• 1 Penumbra Spider
• 1 Sporoloth Ancient
• 1 Thallid
• 1 War-Spike Changeling
• 2 Avian Changeling
• 2 Sporesower Thallid
• 2 Thallid Germinator
• 2 Thallid Shell-Dweller
• 1 Etched Oracle
• 1 Skyreach Manta

• Spells (7)
• 1 Drag Down
• 1 Echoing Courage
• 1 Sylvan Bounty
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Search for Tomorrow
• 1 Tribal Flames
• 1 Doubling Season

• Lands (17)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 9 Forest
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

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However, I made sure to work in something I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else. Let’s look at Sporesower Thallid closely. “At the beginning of your upkeep, put a spore counter on each Fungus you control.” As you know, creatures with changeling have all creature types—and that includes Fungus. Therefore, a Sporesower Thallid will put spores counters on all your changelings. Now it just needs some way to actually use those spores. Let’s take a look at Sporoloth Ancient closely. “Creatures you control have “Remove two spore counters from this creature: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.”” Therefore, the combo of these Fungi and a changeling results in an additional, albeit weaker, Saproling generator. That just seems fun.

Selesnya has some great additions to the Thallid deck, but without actual Thallids and with only 1/1s to populate, there isn’t actually too much to contribute directly to the theme. They don’t even play with counters too much for the Doubling Season to play with. Simic’s evolve and Golgari’s scavenge—or even Rakdos’s unleash—would be a different story, but as it is, we’ll have to settle for the potentially awesome Wayfaring Temple. Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage is always an awesome card, Scion of Vitu-Ghazi is great, and Rootborn Defenses will help us survive Wrath of God effects while simultaneously giving us an extra Saproling. And how could we pass up a Collective Blessing?

Finally, as Return to Ravnica is more about two-colored multicolor decks than it is about five-colored multicolor decks, it doesn’t have much to add to the sunburst theme. However, Chromatic Lantern is a great way to help the lands tap for any color while also ramping.

"MMA+Standard Thallids"

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
• 2 Pallid Mycoderm
• 2 Wayfaring Temple
• 3 Avian Changeling
• 3 Sporoloth Ancient
• 3 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
• 4 Sporesower Thallid
• 1 Etched Oracle
• 3 Skyreach Manta

• Spells (14)
• 2 Drag Down
• 2 Rootborn Defenses
• 2 Tribal Flames
• 3 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Collective Blessing
• 1 Doubling Season
• 3 Chromatic Lantern

• Lands (24)
• 1 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Swamp
• 9 Plains
• 9 Forest
• 1 Transguild Promenade
• 2 Terramorphic Expanse

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That list has a really high curve, and I probably took up too many spots with five-color stuff that should have been occupied by Thallid Shell-Dwellers, but hey, if you can get away with not playing anything until turn three, go ahead.

Wrap-Up

I don’t know how many of you out there have the same card-availability-based deck-building restrictions outlined at the start of the article, but I hope these lists were helpful—or at least interesting—for some of you. Let me know in the comments what kind of awesome Standard-legal cards I missed and what MMA archetypes should have been covered here. See ya next time!

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com