War of the Spark has already had a major impact on Modern. Many of the new planeswalkers are seeing play across various decks, with Karn, the Great Creator the big standout. However, the most wild card is a Simic uncommon that is nothing more than a single Birthing Pod activation.

Birthing Pod is banned for a reason.

Neoform has combined with the forgotten Coldsnap rare Allosaurus Rider to make putting Griselbrand into play as early as turn one a very real thing. Once Griselbrand is in play you follow a similar script to the Goryo's Vengeance decks and use Nourishing Shoal to gain life, which in turn turns into more cards, and you rinse/repeat until you draw your entire deck and kill your opponent with Lightning Storm or Laboratory Maniac.

Whoa.

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:06:36

Match 2 - 00:25:06

Match 3 - 00:42:08

Match 4 - 01:00:14

Match 5 - 01:12:47

Neoform Combo | Modern | Jim Davis

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
• 1 Wild Cantor
• 2 Autochthon Wurm
• 2 Griselbrand
• 4 Allosaurus Rider
• 4 Chancellor of the Tangle
• 4 Simian Spirit Guide

• Instants (15)
• 1 Lightning Storm
• 1 Noxious Revival
• 2 Manamorphose
• 3 Dissenter's Deliverance
• 4 Nourishing Shoal
• 4 Summoner's Pact

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Eldritch Evolution
• 4 Neoform
• 4 Serum Visions

• Lands (15)
• 1 Island
• 2 Breeding Pool
• 4 Botanical Sanctum
• 4 Gemstone Mine
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Chalice of the Void
• 2 Defense Grid
• 2 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Leyline of Sanctity
• 1 Pact of Negation
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 3 Spell Pierce

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In its present state, this deck certainly feels similar to how Goblin Charbelcher decks feel in Legacy - capable of killing on turn one or two, but ultimately fragile against strong interaction. Still, the power level present here is undeniable. We had a good number of turn two and three kills, and were very close to a turn one kill in that last game.

The deck is going to need to learn how to adapt to the various forms of interaction and hate cards that can be leveled against it, but make no mistake this deck is much more frightening than previous Griselbrand decks that use Goryo's Vengeance as their engine. Not using the graveyard, and thus not being vulnerable to Surgical Extraction/Leyline of the Void/etc, is a huge plus.

It's not there yet, but there's something very scary brewing here.