Standard is on its last legs at the moment, so I’ve been refamiliarizing myself with Modern (in case I decide I want to go to Grand Prix Detroit). Luckily, last weekend, the Magic Online Championship Series Season 8 took place to give me a great starting point to look at what has been happening in Modern.

The Top 8 consisted of Wizard_pt with Affinity, Malavi with MeliraPod, Avignon with B/G Deathrite, goobafish with B/G Deathrite, syrup16g with Jund, Charly with Junk Deathrite, prolepsis9 with MeliraPod, and FakiVII with Affinity.

A friend of mine (Bing Luke a.k.a. prolepsis9) managed to take it down (winning his quarterfinals versus Avignon, his semifinals versus syrup16g, and his finals versus Malavi), making him a three-time MOCS qualifier with MeliraPod:

"MeliraPod"

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Cartel Aristocrat
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Orzhov Pontiff
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Ranger of Eos
• 1 Reveillark
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 1 Voice of Resurgence
• 1 Wall of Roots
• 2 Murderous Redcap
• 2 Viscera Seer
• 3 Deathrite Shaman
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Kitchen Finks
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Spellskite
• 2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast

• Spells (8)
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 2 Chord of Calling
• 4 Birthing Pod

• Lands (23)
• 1 Swamp
• 3 Forest
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 3 Gavony Township
• 3 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Verdant Catacombs

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 2 Dismember
• 1 Harmonic Sliver
• 3 Lingering Souls
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Shriekmaw
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 1 Voice of Resurgence

Buy This Deck

A lot has been written about MeliraPod by people (such as by Sam Pardee) more familiar with the deck than I am. Suffice it to say that I think it was a great metagame call for this MOCS given the popularity of B/G variants and R/W/U decks from the World Championship. The only glaring exclusion is the combination of the Spike Feeder and Archangel of Thune (which the other MeliraPod decklist in the Top 8 included). Even if one of your pieces is killed before you assemble the combo, they are both reasonable on their own. (In fact, Archangel of Thune does a great Baneslayer Angel impression by itself.)

Pros: This deck is great at grinding out other decks. Gavony Township is actually awesome (and it’s another incentive to play G/W-style decks, including Kiki-Pod and Naya variants).

Cons: In games in which you don’t draw Birthing Pod or Chord of Calling, you are at the mercy of your deck to just try to form a coherent plan. Your (relatively few) colored mana sources can be an issue.

Here’s the Affinity list I prefer from that Top 8 (by FakiVII):

"Affinity"

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Master of Etherium
• 3 Etched Champion
• 4 Arcbound Ravager
• 4 Memnite
• 4 Ornithopter
• 4 Signal Pest
• 4 Steel Overseer
• 4 Vault Skirge

• Spells (16)
• 4 Thoughtcast
• 4 Cranial Plating
• 4 Springleaf Drum
• 4 Mox Opal

• Lands (16)
• 1 Island
• 3 Glimmervoid
• 4 Blinkmoth Nexus
• 4 Inkmoth Nexus
• 4 Darksteel Citadel

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Dispatch
• 2 Ethersworn Canonist
• 2 Relic of Progenitus
• 3 Spellskite
• 3 Whipflare

Buy This Deck

Pros: Etched Champion is quite good at the moment against all of the Pod, R/W/U, and B/G-style decks. Sometimes, you overrun your opponent with a fast Cranial Plating on an Ornithopter, Vault Skirge, or Nexus.

Cons: Your deck is filled with 0/2s and 1/1s that don’t do anything if your gas cards die.

Notable in this list is the lack of Galvanic Blast, which is a fine exclusion if you expect no Kiki- or MeliraPod, but going forward, I would advise against it. The other list had access to Blood Moon, but I’ve never really liked that in Affinity since your eight man lands are disabled by it, and colored mana is at a premium.

Also briefly browsing the modern Premier Event from last weekend, we see that noted Affinity master Alex Majlaton made the finals of the PE with the following list:

"Affinity"

• Creatures (28)
• 2 Memnite
• 2 Spellskite
• 4 Arcbound Ravager
• 4 Etched Champion
• 4 Ornithopter
• 4 Signal Pest
• 4 Steel Overseer
• 4 Vault Skirge

• Spells (16)
• 4 Thoughtcast
• 4 Cranial Plating
• 4 Springleaf Drum
• 4 Mox Opal

• Lands (16)
• 1 Island
• 3 Glimmervoid
• 4 Blinkmoth Nexus
• 4 Inkmoth Nexus
• 4 Darksteel Citadel

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Dismember
• 2 Duress
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Illness in the Ranks
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 1 Negate
• 1 Ray of Revelation
• 1 Relic of Progenitus
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Torpor Orb

Buy This Deck

His choice to main-deck Spellskite was in response to his expected metagame of B/G and R/W/U. Besides that, his sideboard is a lot more diversified because a lot of sideboard cards for Affinity have diminishing returns, and having access to powerful one-ofs that aren’t exactly the same is a good thing.

Goobafish (a.k.a David Caplan) has many MOCS Top 8s, and his B/G Deathrite list looks very tuned:

"B/G Deathrite"

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Fulminator Mage
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Deathrite Shaman
• 4 Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Tarmogoyf

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Liliana of the Veil

• Spells (14)
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Dismember
• 2 Maelstrom Pulse
• 3 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3 Thoughtseize

• Lands (23)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 3 Tectonic Edge
• 3 Treetop Village
• 4 Marsh Flats
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Verdant Catacombs

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Batterskull
• 3 Creeping Corrosion
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 2 Infest
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Rain of Tears
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 1 Tectonic Edge
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 2 Thrun, the Last Troll

Buy This Deck

The inclusion of main-decked Fulminator Mage tells me that he was expecting a lot of Scapeshift or Tron decks, and it’s not even a dead card against other decks if you have the right draw (just Stone Raining an opponent on a land-light hand might be enough to win the game). I like that he chose to play a lot of Dismembers (great for killing enemy Tarmogoyfs or any sort of big creature).

Pros: You aren’t really a dog to anything. You play some of the best cards in the format (Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Deathrite Shaman, and Thoughtseize).

Cons: Your nut-draws still lose to extremely linear decks (such as Affinity or Storm). You don’t have a huge edge over any given deck (so a lot of games come down to top-decking).

"Charly?s Junk Deathrite"

• Creatures (14)
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Deathrite Shaman
• 4 Tarmogoyf

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
• 4 Liliana of the Veil

• Spells (17)
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 4 Path to Exile
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 3 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3 Lingering Souls
• 3 Thoughtseize

• Lands (24)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Gavony Township
• 2 Ghost Quarter
• 2 Godless Shrine
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Temple Garden
• 3 Stirring Wildwood
• 4 Marsh Flats
• 4 Verdant Catacombs

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Back to Nature
• 2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
• 1 Creeping Corrosion
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 2 Stony Silence
• 2 Thrun, the Last Troll
• 2 Voice of Resurgence

Buy This Deck

The deck is full of powerful cards (similar to B/G Deathrite). Here are a few things to note though: It has sixty-one cards for no apparent reason. The lack of Treetop Village is also sort of confusing (I’d rather max out on that card before touching Stirring Wildwood). I would also probably include the second Gavony Township before the first Ghost Quarter. The sideboard seems confused as well.

Pros: Similar to B/G Deathrite, you have game against anything. Gaining white gives you access to Path to Exile, Gavony Township, and Lingering Souls, which are all incredibly potent cards.

Cons: This deck has slightly more awkward mana than a two-colored deck. The sideboard is extremely unfocused.

The rest of the MOCS decks can be found here.

In Summary

Going forward, I would suggest having a plan to beat Pod (both Melira and Kiki), B/G decks, and Affinity decks, as they’re the most popular decks. Following that, R/G Tron, R/W/U control, U/R Delver/Spellstutter Sprite, and G/W hate-bears have also made a reasonable impact online if you want to look for something slightly under the radar to play.

I appreciate any comments here or on Twitter @jkyu06.

Thanks for reading!

Jarvis