After my disappointing performances at Pro Tour: Dark Ascension and Grand Prix: Baltimore, I found myself needing to qualify for Pro Tour: Avacyn Restored in Barcelona. This meant practicing and working on the Modern format yet again. Modern is a format in which there are many decks, and it is impossible (as far as I know) to have a good matchup against all of them. I decided to look for a deck that:

• I would enjoy playing for at least nine rounds—so that I wouldn’t become tired of playing and start making mistakes—and that . . .
• Had a good, proactive game plan—I felt that there were way too many angles to defend as a control deck.

While doing my research, I found that Gerry Thompson played U/r Tron in a Magic Online PTQ and in some daily events. This seemed to be a good idea to try to work with because I had a lot of fun playing with U/R Wildfire Tron in old Ravnica Standard.

The build he originally played was something like this:

"Gerry Thompson’s U/r Tron"

• Creatures (4)
• 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

• Spells (31)
• 1 Burst Lightning
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 3 Electrolyze
• 3 Repeal
• 3 Through the Breach
• 4 Gifts Ungiven
• 4 Remand
• 4 Thirst for Knowledge
• 4 Expedition Map
• 4 Izzet Signet

• Lands (25)
• 1 Mountain
• 3 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Tolaria West
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Urza's Mine
• 4 Urza's Power Plant
• 4 Urza's Tower
• 1 Eye of Ugin

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Ancient Grudge
• 3 Combust
• 1 Damping Matrix
• 3 Dispel
• 1 Electrolyze
• 1 Through the Breach
• 3 Vendilion Clique

Buy This Deck

We can see that the core of the deck wants to execute one of two plans. Plan A: Through the Breach, revealing an Eldrazi; or Plan B: Assemble Tron and hard-cast an Eldrazi or find an one with Eye of Ugin.

However, fast-forwarding an iteration or two, after talking to Gerry some more on Google Chat, I ended up here:

"U/r Tron Update"

• Creatures (5)
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

• Spells (30)
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Noxious Revival
• 1 Repeal
• 2 Electrolyze
• 3 Gifts Ungiven
• 3 Through the Breach
• 4 Remand
• 4 Thirst for Knowledge
• 1 Firespout
• 1 Pyroclasm
• 1 Prismatic Lens
• 4 Expedition Map
• 4 Izzet Signet

• Lands (25)
• 1 Mountain
• 3 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Steam Vents
• 2 Shivan Reef
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Urza's Mine
• 4 Urza's Power Plant
• 4 Urza's Tower
• 1 Eye of Ugin

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Combust
• 3 Dispel
• 2 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Hurkyl's Recall
• 1 Pyroclasm
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Through the Breach
• 1 Torpor Orb
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

Buy This Deck

A few things I noticed after playing with this version and talking with Jason “The Snoop” Ford was that Snapcaster Mage, Noxious Revival, Dismember, and Firespout were mostly awkward and/or bad. Pyroclasm was awesome (it might as well be a 2-mana Wrath of God, basically killing everything in Modern besides Tarmogoyf). It also didn’t really make much sense for us to have the fourth Through the Breach ’boarded instead of in the maindeck.

I also did try a version that Gerry had sent me that splashed white for Unburial Rites and Iona, Shield of Emeria and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, but I wasn’t super-happy about that—you had a lot of dead cards you could draw.

The version I finally settled on for the PTQ last Saturday in Richmond was as follows:

"U/r Tron Final"

• Creatures (4)
• 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

• Spells (31)
• 1 Condescend
• 1 Repeal
• 2 Electrolyze
• 3 Gifts Ungiven
• 4 Remand
• 4 Thirst for Knowledge
• 4 Through the Breach
• 3 Pyroclasm
• 1 Prismatic Lens
• 4 Expedition Map
• 4 Izzet Signet

• Lands (25)
• 1 Mountain
• 3 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Steam Vents
• 2 Shivan Reef
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Urza's Mine
• 4 Urza's Power Plant
• 4 Urza's Tower
• 1 Eye of Ugin

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Dispel
• 2 Combust
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Wurmcoil Engine
• 2 Torpor Orb
• 2 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Burst Lightning
• 1 Pyroclasm

Buy This Deck

As I said, Pyroclasm is the best sweeper in the format at the moment—it lines up very well against Affinity, MeliraPod, Bant, and other creature decks. It’s not at its best against Tarmogoyfs, but I don’t expect to see many of those except out of Jund and Loam decks. Gifts Ungiven isn’t actually crucial for the operation for this deck because it acts as a card-draw spell here, and it occasionally acts as a tutor for an Eldrazi for Through the Breach (Gifts Ungiven for three Eldrazi and anything else gives you one Eldrazi guaranteed). This is also why you need to play Kozilek, Butcher of Truth—even though he is the weakest Eldrazi in the deck.

A quick summary of my rounds is as follows:

Round 1: Played Will Fitchko with U/r/g Faeries – Won 2–1

Round 2: Played Brian Schneider with R/G land destruction – Lost 0–2. This is among the worst possible matchups.

Round 3: Played Matt Gargiulo with U/w Tron – Won 2–0

Round 4: Played Brendan Hurst with R/b burn – Won 2–1, but this matchup is kind of awful.

Round 5: Played Paul Telkamp with Storm – Won 2–0. This was a pair-up for me (3–1 versus 4–0).

Round 6: Drew with Andy Vorel with Red artifact aggro—my breakers were somehow really good after losing Round 2.

Round 1 of Top 8: Played Andy Vorel with Red artifact aggro – Won 2–0. The games were comically easy since he did not draw very well, and Pyroclasm kills all of his guys except Arcbound Ravager.

Round 2 of Top 8: Played Joshua “The Photobomber” Cho with U/w Tron:

Game 1 was extremely complicated, but he basically Tronned up first, but I had Through the Breach, which he had to keep Remanding, but it eventually made it through and annihilated six of his eleven permanents (he kept Tron and an Azorius Signet). The turn after that, he Gifts Ungivened for Unburial Rites and Iona, and he named red (not sure if this is right; I think it might not be) and clocked me down to 8 from one Iona swing (I had taken a bunch of damage from pain lands and fetch lands) with a Celestial Colonnade in play. I drew Urza's Tower to repeal his Iona and went to 4 from his Colonnade attack. On the next turn, I cast Gifts Ungiven for Through the Breach, Thirst for Knowledge, Electrolyze, and an Eldrazi. He gave me Thirst and Electrolyze (I actually just needed the Breach). I cast Thirst, drawing into Condescend and two lands. I cast Electrolyze, and then forgot to Condescend it for 0 to earn for myself more percentage points on trying to hit Through the Breach, but I slowly drew my card, and it was the Through the Breach I needed. This killed him, ending a very convoluted first game.

Game 2, I just assembled Tron and Through the Breached very quickly, and he lost.

Incidentally, one of the main draws of U/r is that it is favored against U/w Tron.

Round 3 of Top 8: Played G/W/r Trap-Breach ramp. In the first game, I Condescended his Lotus Cobra on turn two (with X as 0—I had kept a loose one). He chose not to pay 0 . . . then played Summoning Trap into Primeval Titan. When I didn't draw a land, I packed it up—a turn-two Titan was enough to kill me.

Game 2, I aggressively Pyroclasmed his turn-one Birds, then on turn three , I Electrolyzed two Noble Hierarchs (wow, value), and then on turn five, I Through the Breached an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

For Game 3, I kept a loose one, and he managed to activate Windbrisk Heights on turn three, revealing Summoning Trap! He impulse seven cards and only found a Knight of the Reliquary, which was a 2/2. I cast Thirst for Knowledge, found a Pyroclasm, and killed all of his men. (Later, he told me that he could have just instead cast Primeval Titan on that turn, which would have been much better for him and probably would have beaten me singlehandedly that game). I cast a bunch more Thirst for Knowledges and assembled Through the Breach with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and he packed it in.

I really dislike giving sideboarding plans with any deck—it depends a great deal on what you have already seen from your opponent. Nonetheless, the general idea is that Gifts Ungiven and Remand (and Condescend) are boarded out a fair amount against aggressive decks for more removal (Pyroclasm, Burst Lightning, and sometimes Combust against aggro Delver decks).

I added a second Wurmcoil Engine to the board, expecting Jund, Burn, Boros, and aggressive Delver decks to be somewhat popular in the Richmond metagame. Dispel has utility against other blue decks for obvious reasons in addition to being an over-glorified Healing Salve against Burn and Boros. Combust kills Deceiver Exarch, Pestermite, Vendilion Clique, Delver of Secrets, Steppe Lynx, Mistbind Clique, and so forth. Ancient Grudge is mostly for Affinity, although I don’t mind ’boarding it in the mirror to try to earn a mana advantage. Torpor Orb is boarded in against Twin, mono-blue Faeries (it shuts off Spellstutter Sprites and both types of Cliques), and MeliraPod. Grafdigger's Cage covers Storm and MeliraPod alike. Spellskite is for Twin, Burn, and Boros. Burst Lightning and Pyroclasm are two more cheap removal spells to board in.

I’d be happy to address any comments here or on Twitter at @jkyu06.

P.S. Gerry just wrote a very good article about Tron this past week (the history of Tron in Standard as well as Extended) and how he looks at it for Modern. I would recommend reading it!

P.P.S. U/w Tron is also a fine choice, but I prefer U/r because it fits my style better, trying to aggressively punish people with a combo that clears most of an opponent’s board. U/w definitely has better sideboard options than U/r, and Gifts for Unburial Rites and Iona, Shield of Emeria or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is clearly still among the best plays you can make in Modern.