Hey everyone!

The Dominaria spoiler is complete and now we need to update some sweet Modern decks.

To start, let's talk about the format at the high level. Humans has been performing quite well as the disruptive elements hold off combo decks while the critical mass of creatures can quickly close a game against anyone else. This has been public enemy number one, but it doesn't mean you're locked into playing it. Meddling Mage is a tricky card that rewards preparation so I'm not surprised to see many players quickly abandon Humans. There are still dozens of viable strategies each with their own pros and cons.

Hollow One has also been doing a lot of winning because it's good against many different decks. It still has bad matchups, just like every other deck; that can't be avoided by going off the radar. Many have tried their hand at piloting perceived top tier decks by now to see if they're the answer to their struggles of consistently winning in Modern.

Sideboard hate can answer a few decks at a time, but it's difficult to combat everything at once. I'm torn between playing the perceived best deck as I typically do and just doing something insane for the sake of getting those extra percentage points.

White/Blue Control

I bring up Humans as one of the top decks to beat because one of the weaker matchups seems to have dissapeared: Control. There was a battle between Jace and Bloodbraid Elf and it seems the elf berserker is ahead . . .  for now. The perfect time for a comeback is when they least expect it.

Here's my list once Dominaria is legal:

W/U Control -- Modern | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (5)
• 1 Wall of Omens
• 2 Snapcaster Mage
• 2 Vendilion Clique

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 1 Gideon Jura
• 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 2 Gideon of the Trials
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Spells (25)
• 1 Disallow
• 1 Logic Knot
• 1 Negate
• 1 Settle the Wreckage
• 3 Cryptic Command
• 4 Path to Exile
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Wrath of God
• 4 Serum Visions
• 3 Detention Sphere
• 4 Spreading Seas
• 1 Search for Azcanta

• Lands (24)
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Irrigated Farmland
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Celestial Colonnade
• 4 Field of Ruin
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 3 Snow-Covered Plains
• 5 Snow-Covered Island

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Stony Silence
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Damping Sphere
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Negate
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Celestial Purge
• 1 Timely Reinforcements
• 1 Blessed Alliance
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

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The sideboard looks conventional, but contains two of the most impactful Modern card from Dominaria -- Damping Sphere. Aside from Snapcaster Mage, I'm not looking to cast two spells in the same turn, so it's hardly a drawback for . This artifact will be widely played and combo players are going to take note. I can see Storm bringing in Shattering Spree and Echoing Truth more often which is why I still have other spiteful permanents like Rest in Peace.

Damping Sphere functions like Blood Moon against Tron; it has high diminishing returns and Oblivion Stone will typically be the answer. It prevents Utopia Sprawl from adding extra mana, but I think that's too narrow. Spreading Seas already makes Sprawls fall off of Forests. Damping Sphere's ability stacks against combo decks that plan on casting multiple spells in a turn. The second spell cast by an opponent will cost two additional mana.

I like my sweeper suite like my investment portfolio well diversified. Wrath of God, Supreme Verdict, and Settle the Wreckage all have their pros and cons, but gives Meddling Mage a headache. Settle the Wreckage, also known as Path of God, can be shut off by Runed Halo, Leyline of Sanctity, and Shalai, Voice of Plenty. Despite this drawback, it's still the best sweeper against Bogles, Hollow One, Dredge, and Affinity.

Search for Azcanta hasn't lived up to my expectations in every Modern Blue deck. There are too many enchantments in the deck to quickly discover Azcanta, so I only play one. If you play a third color for Fatal Push or Lightning Bolt, it's easier to get cards in the graveyard.

Detention Sphere is always a card that scares me playing against . I don't think two is enough given that control decks need to answer a wide variety of threats. Jace, Architect of Thought was a great answer to spirit and elemental tokens in the past, but the Mind Sculptor has taken that slot. At first, I thought Jace would dominate the format, so removing all Mind Sculptors on the battlefield would be a serious drawback for . Now that the metagame has proven to be diverse I'm all right with the third sphere.

Sweepers aren't very popular at the moment as Jund is the premier control deck. This means the strongest decks are filled with resilient threats to maintain a solid footing in the metagame. This will only be exacerbated by Jund gaining the powerful Damping Sphere to shut down Tron which will further its popularity. Control can exile the sticky threats giving Jund players fits.

Collected Company

I can't get away from Collected Company in Modern, but there have been some recent innovations and new toys. Devoted Druid and friends also get a boost with Dominaria -- Shalai, Voice of Plenty. Even before I thought this angel was strong enough to make it to Modern, I was working on some Coco brews I wanted to share. I'm going to throw in the latest Bant Coco list because that's what I do.

G/W Valuetown

Todd Stevens has been honing Valuetown for a while. It's good at grinding, but combo decks can shrug off these extra land drops and win early.

To Illustrate here's the list Todd piloted to a 20th place finish at SCG Milwaukee.

G/W Valuetown -- Modern | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 2 Ramunap Excavator
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 3 Tireless Tracker
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Voice of Resurgence

• Instants (8)
• 4 Collected Company
• 4 Path to Exile

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Worship

• Lands (23)
• 2 Plains
• 5 Forest
• 1 Gavony Township
• 2 Horizon Canopy
• 2 Temple Garden
• 3 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Ghost Quarter
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Blessed Alliance
• 1 Eldritch Evolution
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 2 Stony Silence
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 1 Kataki, War's Wage
• 2 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Reclamation Sage

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This deck is very good in some matchups, but as a Bant Company player I would like to face this deck every round. Modern is such a diverse format that I want any deck I register to have passable bad matchups. Since Valuetown typically wins slowly it's hard to win when your plan doesn't line up well against your opponent.

Even the Aven Mindcensor has been eschewed for Worship which doesn't do much against many of the powerful combo decks in the format.

What to do?

I'm going to suggest a mashup between Valuetown and my favorite creature in Modern -- Devoted Druid.

Value Druid -- Modern | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Duskwatch Recruiter
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Ramunap Excavator
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Vizier of Remedies
• 1 Voice of Resurgence
• 1 Walking Ballista
• 3 Birds of Paradise
• 3 Courser of Kruphix
• 4 Devoted Druid
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary
• 4 Noble Hierarch

• Instants (9)
• 2 Path to Exile
• 3 Chord of Calling
• 4 Collected Company

• Lands (22)
• 2 Plains
• 5 Forest
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 2 Temple Garden
• 3 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Ghost Quarter
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 3 Voice of Resurgence
• 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
• 1 Kor Firewalker
• 2 Fracturing Gust
• 2 Path to Exile
• 1 Selfless Spirit
• 1 Aven Mindcensor
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 1 Qasali Pridemage

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Shalai has some cool interactions in Devoted Druid decks. It not only protects the mid-game combo by granting Devoted Druid hexproof, but can also be used as a sink for trillions of Green mana. Walking Ballista can end the game immediately, but Shalia has a more warping effect on the battlefield. Her Gavony Township ability can be used trillions of times and can then attack with at least a hexproof Devoted Druid on the same turn.

When the game comes to a stall, the Gavony Township ability will turn the tide because it buffs your ¾ flying angel and any other creatures you control. This is a very scary prospect for Jund opponents.

Having hexproof is a boon in many matchups. Gifts Ungiven cannot be cast as it needs to target an opponent. Storm needs to naturally draw Past in Flames to have a good chance at winning. If Shalia remains in play on the combo turn, Grapeshot needs to first be cast on only the angel because nothing else on your side is a legal target for the storm copies.

Burn decks can be problematic for Temple Garden strategies because they can kill an early Devoted Druid and back it with pressure. Shalia is very good against Burn as direct damage is no longer good. A single maindeck spell is not able to deal four damage to a creature. Not even Searing Blaze does anything as you need to be a legal target. Be careful of blocking Goblin Guide with Shalia as Boros Charm can double strike her down. Shalia can still die to two bolt effects.

Ad Nauseam needs extra mana to be able to combo with Laboratory Maniac instead of Lightning Storm when Shalia is in play.

Don't even get me started on hexproof against Jund: Liliana of the Veil, Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, and discard are pretty bad. Most of what I named are cascade hits which also makes Bloodbraid Elf a bit worse, too.

The reason I like combining Devoted Druid with Valuetown is because Courser of Kruphix, Knight of the Reliquary, and Tireless Tracker are able to recover lost card advantage from drawing too much mana. There are a whopping 33 mana sources.

Abzan Company -- Modern | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1 Walking Ballista
• 2 Noble Hierarch
• 2 Viscera Seer
• 3 Duskwatch Recruiter
• 3 Vizier of Remedies
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Devoted Druid
• 4 Eternal Witness
• 4 Kitchen Finks

• Instants (8)
• 4 Chord of Calling
• 4 Collected Company

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Postmortem Lunge

• Lands (21)
• 1 Snow-Covered Plains
• 3 Snow-Covered Forest
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Blooming Marsh
• 2 Razorverge Thicket
• 2 Temple Garden
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Kor Firewalker
• 1 Selfless Spirit
• 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 2 Sin Collector
• 1 Orzhov Pontiff
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 2 Fracturing Gust

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An issue with Collected Company decks is the turn two Devoted Druid dies often. Decks that kill Devoted Druid and back it with pressure can be challenging: Burn, Affinity, and Hollow One. The lunge acts as a way to win out of nowhere with a hasty Devoted Druid back from the dead. An empty battlefield can quickly turn into trillions of damage when you keep Vizier of Remedies and Duskwatch Recruiter in hand for the grand reveal.

Postmortem Lunge not only helps with the Devoted Druid, but also the lifegain combo with Kitchen Finks, Viscera Seer, and Vizier of Remedies. Any of these creatures in the graveyard can be the final piece of the puzzle. Since it exiles the creature at the end of turn Viscera Seer's sacrifice ability can put a Kitchen Finks into play persisted without a Vizier of Remedies on the battlefield.

Gaining arbitrarily large amounts of life is strong against a good chunk of the field, but falls short against Tron, Ad Nauseam, and Devoted Druid Combo. It's possible to stack the optimal draw to win with the Devoted Druid combo in the following turns. Collected Company is very powerful when you can stack the top of your deck.

Stacking your deck is very powerful against Lantern Control as if the matchup wasn't good enough already. I think of the deck operating like a Rubik's Cube. Find your best draw and then hide it when it goes to be milled and then put it back after the ability resolves.

Bogles, not Boggles, is on the rise and I really like the Collected Company side. Fracturing Gust is for Affinity, but has bleedover against hexproof creatures. Kataki is the typical artifact hate, but the level 0 response to Temple Garden decks is to bring in removal plus Ghirapur Aether Grid and a 2/1 is vulnerable. Remember that Gaddock Teeg and Kor Spiritdancer are the premier threats, making Path to Exile good against Bogles.

Bant Company

Unsurprisingly I want to share my Bant Company update as Shalia is quite the combo with Spell Queller.

Bant Company -- Modern | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• 1 Voice of Resurgence
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 2 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 2 Walking Ballista
• 2 Vizier of Remedies
• 3 Duskwatch Recruiter
• 4 Devoted Druid
• 4 Eternal Witness
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Spell Queller

• Instants (9)
• 2 Path to Exile
• 3 Chord of Calling
• 4 Collected Company

• Lands (20)
• 1 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Snow-Covered Plains
• 2 Snow-Covered Forest
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 2 Botanical Sanctum
• 2 Razorverge Thicket
• 2 Temple Garden
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 2 Voice of Resurgence
• 1 Path to Exile
• 2 Unified Will
• 1 Negate
• 1 Kor Firewalker
• 2 Fracturing Gust
• 1 Meddling Mage
• 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender

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That's right. Jace is out of the maindeck in favor of Shalia. Fight me. Change my mind.

I'm trying an additional Scavenging Ooze instead of a Voice of Resurgence because they are also good in the fair matchups, but also doubles as a mana sink for Devoted Druid. Ooze also helps against Dredge and Storm. Shalia's strength against Jund decks makes me less afraid of Liliana of the Veil. I don't need the stickiness of Voice quite as bad as before.

Jace was my answer to creatures in the maindeck so I need to add a couple copies of Path to Exile. Eternal Witness has been impressive as a combo piece to rebuy Chord of Calling and Path makes it function better as a fair card.

I'm not cutting mana sinks to make room for Shalia because I need a white mana on the turn I combo. This may seem trivial, but when I untap with Devoted Druid on turn three and find Vizier of Remedies with Chord of Calling I will be tapped out. Shalia will function more as a midrange threat that protects my plan A of comboing that sometimes is there to help attack for billions and billions and...

Billions of damage.

She also increases the value of Chord of Calling because the game warps around the powerful angel on the battlefield. If I search for her at instant-speed I can counter a spell that targets me or my creatures. It's a Collected Company miss so I don't take adding her to the deck lightly. A Coco miss that is a creature is better than a planeswalker because she is a hit on Duskwatch Recruiter.

The type of removal Shalia is not so great against happens to be sweepers like Wrath of God and Supreme Verdict. This isn't the end of the world as Control is a good matchup given the higher curve. One of my greatest Magic accomplishments was getting a split in the finals of a tournament with Ray Perez Jr., also known as the Pro of Future's Past. He is known for never splitting, but chose to do so because he didn't want to face Counters Company with .

Conclusion

Dominaria has some interesting cards for Modern. Damping Sphere will have a clear impact making Jund's matchup against Tron stronger. Shalia looks fringe on the surface, but is what Collected Company decks want. Grand Prix Hartford has shown us forgotten decks have a great chance at attacking from an unexpected angle. Modern will never be solved so I'm excited to see where it goes next.

Thanks for reading,

Kyle