One of the first decks to take a format by storm in my memory was a Haakon, Stromgald Scourge deck right when Coldsnap was first printed. The deck combined Haakon with Court Hussar in order to generate absurd kinds of card advantage. Ever since, Haakon decks have gotten a number of interesting tools, specifically Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap. We haven’t seen much of Haakon in Modern, but there are a number of interesting graveyard decks, and there’s no reason Haakon can’t be one of them:

Haakon Vengeance ? Modern | MTGGoldfish

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
• 4 Tarmogoyf

• Instants (3)
• 3 Nameless Inversion

• Sorceries (18)
• 3 Death Cloud
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Life from the Loam
• 4 Smallpox

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Burning Vengeance

• Lands (24)
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 2 Blood Crypt
• 2 Graven Cairns
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Twilight Mire
• 4 Verdant Catacombs

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Forest
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Victim of Night
• 3 Damnation
• 3 Nature's Claim
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb

Buy This Deck

Against creature decks, your goal is to set up Haakon so you can take over the game with Nameless Inversion. Nameless Inversion is a powerful tool that helps you lock out small creatures, including Inkmoth Nexus and threats that are typically more resilient to some of the more common removal spells in Modern. When you combine this engine with Burning Vengeance, suddenly you’ve got a means of keeping all creatures off the board and threatening a consistent course of damage against more controlling opponents.

This deck can stop opponents from ever really getting off the ground. Discard spells plus Smallpox effects can stop your opponents from ever resolving a spell that matters, particularly when backed by the likes of Death Cloud or potentially Raven's Crime. However, it’s worth noting that you are somewhat short on win conditions. You are completely dependent on a set of Tarmogoyfs and three Haakons to win the game, since your Burning Vengeances don’t really do anything if your Haakons have been removed from the equation.

All told, this is a very interesting deck, and one that should positively crush midrange creature decks. However, you have to be concerned about more linear strategies that don’t care about the combat step, or which can consistently interact with your few creatures with the likes of Path to Exile. If your metagame doesn’t have a ton of Path to Exiles or counterspells, this could be a great choice for your next Modern event.