Feeling heroic? JILESOFTREES certainly is, and he's helping the Theros Block mechanic make the jump from Block Constructed into Standard with the help of the cipher mechanic. Is this combination of aggressive guys, powerful Auras, and disruptive spells enough to get the job done? There's only one way to find out:

UWR Heroic ? Magic 2015 Standard | JILESOFTREES

• Lands (18)
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Island
• 4 Mana Confluence
• 1 Plains
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Steam Vents[/Lands]

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Akroan Skyguard
• 4 Favored Hoplite
• 4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
• 4 Nivmagus Elemental

• Spells (27)
• 4 Boros Charm
• 4 Gods Willing
• 4 Hidden Strings
• 2 Madcap Skills
• 4 Mizzium Skin
• 3 Ordeal of Purphoros
• 2 Ordeal of Thassa
• 4 Trait Doctoring

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Madcap Skills
• 2 Ajani's Presence
• 2 Aqueous Form
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Fall of the Hammer
• 2 Judge's Familiar
• 3 Ordeal of Heliod
• 2 Triton Tactics

Buy This Deck

We've seen takes on this style of deck before, but this is the first time this deck has cropped up in awhile. The combination of heroic creatures and cipher spells is already a powerful engine. If your opponents don't have removal, they'll quickly find themselves facing down an insurmountable fatty. If they do have removal, they'll have to get through your Gods Willings and Mizzium Skins to make any headway. Sometimes you even get to have Nivmagus Elemental going at the same time! This lets you use cipher to trigger heroic and then feed the spells to boost your Elemental as well.

This is a unique take on an aggressive archetype, and it's one that has a real chance of standing up to a deck like Mono-Black Devotion. You're more resiient to removal than many other decks, and can build a creature that can stand up to even Desecration Demon and Pack Rat. You even get the likes of Boros Charm to counter Supreme Verdict. All in all, this is an interesting and unique take on aggro in a format where Goblin Rabblemaster has taken over, and I'm excited to see it getting played a little more before cipher rotates.

In February of this year, Bitterblossom was unbanned in Modern. Since then, we've seen very little of the Tribal enchantment. On the rare occasions that it has shown up, it's usually backed by Pack Rat instead of an actual squad of Faeries. Brian Demars is setting out to see if he can change that with a new twist on the Faerie menace:

Gifts Faeries ? Modern | Brian Demars

• Creatures (9)
• 2 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Spellstutter Sprite
• 2 Tarmogoyf
• 1 Vendilion Clique[/Creatures]

• Spells (27)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Vedalken Shackles
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 2 Cryptic Command
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Doom Blade
• 2 Gifts Ungiven
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Grim Harvest
• 2 Mana Leak
• 2 Spell Snare
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 4 Bitterblossom

• Lands (24)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 3 Breeding Pool
• 3 Creeping Tar Pit
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Mutavault
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 3 Watery Grave
• 1 Academy Ruins

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 2 Sower of Temptation
• 2 Threads of Disloyalty
• 2 Negate
• 1 Shadow of Doubt
• 1 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Deathmark
• 2 Thoughtseize
• 1 Ghost Quarter

Buy This Deck

If it has Gifts Ungiven, you'd better believe that I'm curious to see what it can do. This is a Gifts list like none we've seen in Modern before. This isn't Gifts Rock; a deck that sits back until Gifts can lock up the game. This is a tempo deck where Gifts Ungiven is just an afterthought. Plan A is to tempo your opponent out with Bitterblossom, Spellstutter Sprite, and Tarmogoyf backed by counterspells and removal. When you can get ahead a little and play draw go with powerful instants like Cryptic Command and Gifts Ungiven, you know you're in a good spot.

The interesting part is what the actual Gifts packages are and what got cut to make space for them. Mistbind Clique is the big casualty here, and it's not actually too surprising to see it go. This used to be the card that closed the door on games, but in Modern it's vulnerable to Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, and Abrupt Decay; that makes it a much riskier proposition and consequently less appealing. Instead, you get the game-ending threat of Gifts Ungiven setting up Life from the Loam packages with Academy Ruins and sweet artifacts or powerful lands like Creeping Tar Pit and Ghost Quarter.

Al told, this seems like an interesting direction to take Faeries and Gifts, and I'm excited to see if this can find the space to thrive in an increasingly polarized Modern metagame.

Speaking of Life from the Loam, is there anything that card can't do? After seeing Travis Woo's latest brew, I'm pretty sure Loam can do literally anything. This is Travis's latest take on a dredge-fueled graveyard deck, but this one is more aggressive and features gems like Zombie Infestation to turn your extra cards into a real board presence. Let's take a look:

[Cardlist Title= Zombies ? Modern | Travis Woo]

• Lands (21)
• 4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Mutavault
• 1 Forest
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 3 Marsh Flats
• 4 Verdant Catacombs

• Creatures (28)
• 4 Gravecrawler
• 4 Lotleth Troll
• 4 Bloodghast
• 4 Stinkweed Imp
• 4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
• 4 Vengevine
• 4 Veilborn Ghoul

• Spells (11)
• 3 Raven's Crime
• 4 Life from the Loam
• 4 Zombie Infestation

Buy This Deck

This deck is trying to do so many cool things, and when the engines really get revving it's hard to imagine things going too wrong. The key idea is combining Zombie Infestation with a dredge engine to make an endless army of Zombies. It's pretty hard to run out of steam when you're dredging into Veilbon Ghoul, Squee, Goblin Nabob, and Gravecrawler. Life from the Loam gives you extra cards to throw away and Swamps to help rebuy Ghouls and Bloodghasts.

You've got Commune with the Gods to help dig into the Zombie Infestation, as well as Loam plus Raven's Crime and Lotleth Troll as backup plans, both of which are powerful in their own respects. This is a very interesting deck; one that does a better job tying all of the pieces together than previous attempts at Vengevine dredge nonsense. All of the synergies built around Zombie Infestation are powerful and fun; if you can assemble all the pieces, it seems pretty tough for most decks to fight through a never-ending and ever-growing stream of Zombies.

Argothian Enchantress is an interesting card that's been very popular since it's printing in Urza's Saga. It had periods of dominance in old Extended formats, and used to show up in Legacy from time to time. These days, it seems like Andrew Cuneo is the only one championing awesome Enchantress shenanigans. Let's take a look at his Green-Blue take on Legacy Enchantress:

[Cardlist title= G/u Enchantress ? Legacy | Andrew Cuneo]

• Lands (20)
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 8 Forest
• 2 Island
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 3 Windswept Heath
• 2 Tropical Island

• Creatures (11)
• 4 Cloud of Faeries
• 4 Argothian Enchantress
• 1 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 2 Eternal Witness

• Spells (29)
• 4 Wild Growth
• 4 Utopia Sprawl
• 4 Green Sun's Zenith
• 4 Elephant Grass
• 4 Seal of Removal
• 2 Seal of Primordium
• 4 Enchantress's Presence
• 2 Words of Wind
• 1 Mindbreak Trap

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Mindbreak Trap
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 2 Energy Field
• 2 Chill
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Seal of Primordium
• 1 Lignify
• 1 Compost
• 1 Carpet of Flowers
• 1 Tormod's Crypt

Buy This Deck

So what does this deck do? It starts the same way as other Enchantress decks. You want to curve Wild Growth or Utopia Sprawl into Enchantresses. In this deck, you have Argothian Enchantress, Green Sun's Zenith, and Enchantress's Presence as options. Once you have two or more Enchantressse in play, you get to start going off. Once you have enough mana auras, Cloud of Faeries plus Seal of Removal help you generate enough mana to chain auras through your deck until you hit Words of Wind. That's when you win the game.

And, of course, by win the game I mean bounce all of your opponent's permanents. You can use Words of Wind to pick up Cloud of Faeries and cheap enchantments to keep bouncing permanents until your opponent runs out of them. You can keep chaining through your deck to find the one-of Mindbreak Trap if that makes you feel safer. The end game is to rinse and repeat to bounce your opponents board and counter their spells every turn while you beat them down with Cloud of Faeries.

This deck is a little slower than most of the other combo decks in the format, but Elephant Grass kind of makes up for everything. It's a cheap way to contain both Delver of Secrets and Sneak Attack while you develop your mana and set up your combo turn. If you hit multiple Elephant Grasses, suddenly it's hard for most decks to attack at all. You can even reset the cumulative upkeep with Words of Wind!

Zedruu the Greathearted is many things. Kind-hearted, generous, and... angry? We're used to seeing controlling and combotastic Donate shenanigans from Zedruu, but this week Hunding Gjornersen is bringing us a twist. Tis is what happens when Zedruu gets into the red zone and brings the beats.

[Cardlist title= Zedruu Voltron - Commander | Hunding Gjornersen]

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zedruu the Greathearted

• Lands (35)
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Remote Farm
• 1 Sandstone Needle
• 1 Saprazzan Skerry
• 1 Eiganjo Castle
• 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Rainbow Veil
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Mystic Monastery
• 1 Tundra
• 1 Volcanic Island
• 1 Plateau
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Nimbus Maze
• 1 Mystic Gate
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Cascade Bluffs
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Battlefield Forge

• Interaction (22)
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Faith's Fetters
• 1 Banishing Light
• 1 Torpor Orb
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 1 Wear//Tear
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Unexpectedly Absent
• 1 Winds of Rath
• 1 Mass Calcify
• 1 Inundate
• 1 Wave of Reckoning
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Remand
• 1 Delay
• 1 Forbid
• 1 Rewind
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage

• Mana Rocks (10)
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Talisman of Progress
• 1 Pentad Prism
• 1 Sky Diamond
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Marble Diamond
• 1 Sphere of the Suns
• 1 Mana Vault

• Suit Up! (33)
• 1 Umbra Mystic
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Ring of Evos Isle
• 1 Vanishing
• 1 Elgaud Shieldmate
• 1 Champion's Helm
• 1 Pemmin's Aura
• 1 Spectra Ward
• 1 Indestructibility
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Mask of Avacyn
• 1 Flickerform
• 1 Taste for Mayhem
• 1 Dust Corona
• 1 Dragon Mantle
• 1 Madcap Skills
• 1 Daybreak Coronet
• 1 Red Scarab
• 1 White Scarab
• 1 Blue Scarab
• 1 Blessing of the Nephilim
• 1 Etherial Armor
• 1 Furor of the Bitten
• 1 Immolation
• 1 Magefire Wings
• 1 Spectral Flight
• 1 Tahngarth's Rage
• 1 Spirit Mantle
• 1 Hyena Umbra
• 1 Eel Umbra
• 1 Pursuit of Flight
• 1 Errantry
• 1 Bestial Fury

Buy This Deck

Three key words. "Enchanted creature gets." These words don't care about who owns or controls the aura. That means you get to suit Zedruu up with all the auras in the world and then donate them to draw cards later. Why bother with donating Illusions of Grandeur when you can donate Blessing of the Nephilim and crash in for damage? The extra cards help you draw into more mana and more auras to make sure you can keep getting in turn after turn. Two or three turns of exta cards and you're probably in one-shot territory.

This aggro plan is backed by some of the more traditional Zedruu elements. Permanent-based hate that anyone can control such as Rest in Peace and Torpor Orb; counterspells to protect Zedruu and stuff; even sweepers that miss your key permanents like Winds of Rath and Austere Command. All told, this is a fun twist on a tried and true archetype that will leave people wondering what happened and what made Zedruu so angry.