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Hey everyone!
Today I thought it would be fun to answer your questions about Modern so I took to Twitter for inspiration.
Let's get to it!
This is a great question as there has been an accessory overload over the last couple decades. What's important and what's noise?
When I began playing tournaments in 2001 (Boomer alert) players would have a Crown Royal bag to store dice, card sleeves, and their deck box. It was a simpler time.
Today I use a Boogie Board to keep track of life totals and notes about the game. You can use the back of a pen instead of the stylus because it will be needed to sign the match slip.
I make sure my phone is charged ahead of time now that the Companion app is mainstream.
I also have a small pack of six-sided dice, a playmat, and a single-sleeved deck. My favorite sleeves are Matte Black Dragon Shield.
Double-sleeved decks are too thick and feel clunky to me. There may be a time in the future where the stock of older cards starts to wear to the point I need to double-sleeve. It's already the case that my Onslaught fetch lands are becoming worn.
Grixis Lurrus is a highly reactive deck. The ability to counter cascade spells as well as interact with early creatures makes it a top tier card.
I have been playing four Drown in the Loch in Dress Shadow lately due to the recent success of both Temur Rhinos and Living End. Tron has also stayed around longer than expected and they add plenty of cards to their graveyard thanks to early artifacts used for fixing.
The other option to interact with Murktide Regent is Terminate. Both spells are good against Izzet Murktide. Thought Scour quickly fills their own graveyard, but there's also a desire to keep delirium while delving. Drown can't easily stop an early Murktide, but once the game drags on they will find multiple copies thanks to cantrips and the graveyard will be larger.
As the Izzet Murktide player I would look to delve more aggressively to keep seven cards out of the graveyard to play around Drown. In the coming weeks I would expect a resurgence of Izzet Murktide and it may be correct to prioritize Terminate over the last copy of Drown in Grixis decks.
Drown can interact with Murktide Regent, but isn't in the deck to primarily answer the powerful dragon.
My final comment on the overloading of Drown in the Loch is its versatility in Lurrus mirrors. Since Rakdos Lurrus and Hammertime focus on cheap spells, Drown is Terminate + Counterspell.
First off, you deserve your wins, Zac.
This is a classic dilemma in Modern that has a lot of ins, outs, and what-have-yous.
Budget is a key consideration to deck selection in Modern. I have access to all of the Modern decks, but that's not the norm. Many Modern decks survive in some form for many years making the upfront cost tolerable. Clearly you must be more selective if accumulating multiple Modern decks isn't your goal.
A high-level trend with Modern card prices is the top tier cards are being reprinted each year. WOTC accepts some cards will have a high price tag due to demand, but they do a reasonable job alleviating supply-driven spikes. They aren't perfect at predicting where those cases occur, but they get sorted out over time. This means you will likely not recoup your investment as the popular cards wax and wane and older cards become easier to access through reprints. New cards from Modern Horizons sets also reduce demand for older cards over time.
Not only do your Modern cards have value on the secondary market, but they also yield winnings from tournaments. Branching into new archetypes will have an upfront cost in how much you win. This can come in the form of store credit from your LGS.
There's an upfront cost to acquire the cards for new decks and you will win less on average with an unfamiliar archetype, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Becoming proficient in multiple archetypes will help you win more Modern matches overall.
If you consider yourself to be an archetype expert in Modern then playing a different deck will help you see the matchup from the other side. I will personally try and play new decks fairly often to keep things interesting and continue to learn.
When big paper events were the norm I would use off times in the competitive season to learn new Modern archetypes. Now that there are fewer large tournaments I spend more time playing new decks. My local LGS has two Modern events each week. I try to play the best deck when the payout is higher and experiment in the more casual event where prizes are flatter.
Some of the key archetypes, such as Burn, Tron, Dredge, Blue control, have been playable for years. These are good decks to focus on learning if you're planning to play Modern for the long hull.
Modern is typically an open format making personal enjoyment a key factor in deck selection. Be honest with yourself when trying to master a new deck. I have a wide range of decks I like to play in Modern, but that's not the case with everyone. Don't focus too hard on chasing results and just play something you find fun.
Izzet Murktide happens to be well positioned and is very fun to play. It's going to be the next deck I take for a deep dive. Here's my current list inspired by Aspiringspike as usual:
Izzet Murktide | Modern | Kyle Boggemes
- Creatures (12)
- 4 Dragon's Rage Channeler
- 4 Murktide Regent
- 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
- Instants (20)
- 4 Archmage's Charm
- 4 Counterspell
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 4 Thought Scour
- 4 Unholy Heat
- Sorceries (5)
- 1 Serum Visions
- 4 Expressive Iteration
- Artifacts (4)
- 4 Mishra's Bauble
The move to leaning heavily on counterspells comes from the uptick in linear strategies. Last month featured plenty of grindy Ragavan piles, but Modern is starting to settle into a diverse metagame.
The single Serum Visions looks out of place, but is the fifth sorcery for delirium. I want the extra cantrip to find lands early as holding up Counterspell and Archmage's Charm makes the deck more mana-hungry.
Izzet Murktide can win a late game thanks to the high power level of each card. Thought Scour is the weakest card in a vacuum, but is very strong with Murktide Regent. The other spells in the deck are all Modern staples.
Since we have a streamlined, proactive Blue deck the sideboard can address the linear strategies. Temur Rhinos and Living End are nimble enough to play around a single counter making Flusterstorm important. These two Cascade decks are weak to either Engineered Explosives or Soul-Guide Lantern to round out the extra interaction.
Alpine Moon and Blood Moon help fight big mana. Some Grixis Lurrus piles are very weak to a Blood Moon, so I want a single copy. There are some games where it's weaker and I don't want to draw more than one. I have wanted exactly two Alpine Moon against many of the Urza's Saga decks making an easy case for diversification.
The single Jace in the sideboard is to diversify top end threats as opponents board in cards like Terminate and Supreme Verdict to answer Murktide Regent. It's a single planeswalker for delirium, too. Jace is better in paper where the metagame is more diverse. If you're playing a Magic Online event, I might want a second Force of Negation or third Soul-Guide Lantern.
Dress Down is in the sideboard for Hammertime and Elementals. I'm moving away from Abrade as it's primarily for Hammertime, but Dress Down is more high-impact for the same cost. It's important to have plenty of sideboard cards for decks where Ragavan isn't good, making Izzet Murktide take a more controlling approach.
Name a more iconic duo than ban discourse and the Modern format.
Faithless Looting was a popular card while it was legal, but would often create problematic metagames. Modern needs linear strategies in order to retain its identity. Without these linear decks in the format it will devolve into a bunch of midrange piles of good cards. That becomes boring very quickly.
The effect of Faithless Looting isn't problematic, but it's more an issue of raw power. I came across this idea from fellow Michigander, Sam Lowe, that I think is the right approach.
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I would add a Red Careful Study. It would likely be called Careless Study. Graveyard decks are currently under fire by Sanctifier en-Vec and Asmor has too many awkward draws to be considered top tier despite D00mwake's best efforts.
I'm cheating a bit, but I would not remove any card; even Jade Avenger. This is because adding a card to help archetypes in need will expand the amount of playable decks. Asmor decks and graveyard decks are easily beatable as the hate cards are very strong. There currently isn't an oppressive card in Modern so I would like to see more cards available.
The power level of Lurrus is also a topic of interest lately.
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There will be a time where Lurrus needs to get the axe, but the time is not now. Lurrus and Mishra's Bauble are likely to cause problems in the future as more efficient interaction and threats are added to the format. In my opinion, Lurrus is the best thing to be doing in Modern, but not by such a large margin that other decks aren't viable.
I would expect Izzet Murktide to be the home for the most efficient spells without Lurrus in the format. This is already a good deck, so it's metagame share could expand.
Lurrus prevents more expensive permanents from shining, but Jace and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria are being held in check by Unholy Heat rather than the companion restriction. There would be fewer reasons to keep Wilderness Reclamation Control from being a top tier competitive option.
Death's Shadow would be able to once again play Street Wraith and remain a viable archetype.
Overall, there would be slight changes to the metagame without Lurrus, but wouldn't shake up the format too much. I think the Modern metagame is very healthy at the moment where most popular decks have an extremely powerful card as the base. There is not currently an imbalance.
It's great. I'm not a fan of the reductive posts about the format on social media because it's hard to get the format in a better spot than it currently is. WOTC took a gamble on creating so many insane cards in one set, but a rising tide lifts all ships.
Ragavan is one of the best 1-drops in Modern. I won't debate here if it's better than DRC, but it's a very strong card. The metagame is currently diverse despite the strength of Ragavan, which has surprised me.
Stoneforge Mystic is not currently a top tier creature, but is extremely fun to play. She has a cult-like following regardless of her competitive positioning. Players are excited to build around Stoneforge to have fun.
I would give the nod to Ragavan, but it's a close race. If Ragavan caused the metagame to stagnate I would have voted for Stoneforge Mystic.
I would vote for Ragavan because when things aren't horrible the devil you know is better. Deathrite might be safe now that Modern is filled with cheap creature interaction in more colors. When fair decks either played Deathrite or Celestial Colonnade, it wasn't much of a contest. The Shaman was ahead of its time.
From a diversity standpoint I would say it has been positive. Prior to MH2 we had Prowess versus 
Heliod Duel Decks. Today we see forgotten archetypes making a resurgence and there's plenty of room to play aggro, control, combo, and midrange. No deck looks to be too good yet. Ignore the Twitter hyperbole.
The prices of cards from MH2 are prohibitive, but some of that can be attributed to the pandemic. If WOTC can make another Modern Horizons set in the future with fewer broken rares and mythics it would feel less daunting to rebuild collections. Dragon's Rage Channeler may be the best card in the set and didn't break the bank so it's possible.
Modern streamers got a huge boost thanks to MH2 which is great for Magic and Modern. Aspiringspike, D00mwake, Kanister, Nassif, and many more content creators saw sustained growth. They currently move the metagame so it's important to follow their journeys.
I play Modern at my LGS two times per week. I try plenty of different decks since we still haven't solved the format. This has been going on for months and it hasn't gotten boring.
Overall, MH2 is a net positive for Modern, but the cost of acquiring new cards is a downside.
I expect Modern and Legacy to always retain a unique identity. As time goes on WOTC will continue printing more powerful threats to port directly into Modern. Since Ragavan and DRC already have a significant effect on how popular Legacy decks are built I expect this to continue to be the case.
The power level of Modern cards will continue to increase and there will be a case for unbans. Without getting into specific detail, there are certainly cards on the banned list that can be given another chance.
Legacy is already being transitioned out of competitive events due to price concerns as there's an overlap between players and collectors. It will retain a cult following for those who happen to have the expensive cards.
I see it in so many Burn sideboards, but it has such a high fail rate. For a sideboard card that deals damage with strings attached it needs to be harder to disrupt.
While we're on the subject of Burn sideboards, be sure to play Lurrus.
Osyp Drives Me to School was a Magic Online clan back in the mid 2000s. It was composed of young Magic grinders including Brad Nelson, Josh Utter-Leyton, myself, and many more. The joke was that PT Champion, Osyp Lebedowicz, would drive the young grinders to school. This was a great environment to foster my competitive drive in Magic.
I like to think if COVID wasn't still going on that he would be driving the next generation of grinders to school.
I have plenty of favorites, but I would have to give it to March 2020 where I made Azorius Stoneblade work in the face of Primeval Titan and Red Prowess. Here's my list I used to top 4 SCG Regionals right before the pandemic began:
Azorius Stoneblade | Modern | Kyle Boggemes
- Creatures (11)
- 3 Snapcaster Mage
- 4 Spell Queller
- 4 Stoneforge Mystic
- Planeswalkers (5)
- 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
- 3 Teferi, Time Raveler
- Instants (18)
- 1 Archmage's Charm
- 1 Dismember
- 1 Mana Leak
- 1 Spell Snare
- 3 Cryptic Command
- 3 Force of Negation
- 4 Opt
- 4 Path to Exile
- Artifacts (2)
- 1 Batterskull
- 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
This was my own take on the archetype. Uro and Field of the Dead were legal, but I stuck with my pals, Stoneforge Mystic and Spell Queller.
That's all I have for today. I think the mailbag format went well and plan to do another one in the future. Follow me on Twitter to appear in the next mailbag article.
Thanks for reading!
-Kyle
