With the news Faithless Looting and Ancient Stirrings have survived the most recent ban list, it's time to review the decks that are playable outside of those two cards. For me, there are two decks that are primed to perform well in this format filled with Dredge, Phoenix, and Amulet Titan. Now, when you see these cards it will be hard not to laugh but have faith true believer!

In reality these are stand-ins for Celestial Colonnade and Tarmogoyf, but for a long time these decks have been on a lower power level. The bad news is the power level hasn't changed but the format is fairly settled. Once the format is settled it's easier for control decks to have the right answers or for The Rock to shred whatever is presented by these decks.

Starting with Control, this deck has secretly always been one of the best decks in Modern. Sporting one of the highest Top 8 counts among Modern, the only deck that had a better performance recently was KCI. That's right, the deck that was banned. Celestial Colonnade gets a bad rap because the deck is slow, clunky, and completely and utterly unforgiving. The deck has always boasted some of the best answers available in Modern by having the most impactful cards in the sideboard. In recent years adding Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria have given the deck a way to close out the game in short order and not give the opponent the almost double digit turns they normally had to get back in. Field of Ruin also helped this deck interact with the problems of Creature Lands and Tron Lands that the deck had trouble with previously. Really at this point the only thing is missing is actual Counterspell in order to really cement it's spot. Until then the deck is just going to quietly be one of the best decks while being memed on.

What makes the deck good is how well it lines up against most of the format. While Burn isn't being played in high quantities this deck is going to rip apart the creature based decks of the format while having some of the best answers to combo decks as well. Against Phoenix you have all the best answers including Terminus for the Arclights and Path for Thing in the Ice. Getting to play a slow game and setting up and reacting to their linear game plan means you'll know exactly what you need to do at every step. Sometimes the issue with control decks is not knowing when to switch gears but against the top decks it already feels mapped out. Control is always going to excel against the creature decks of the format and when we take a look at what the trends are we can see a lot of decks that look like they fall short to Supreme Verdict and Settle the Wreckage. On the subject of how has been looking recently, I've been seeing several different variants but all without Terminus. While one mana is incredible for a Wrath, without Brainstorm or other cheap ways to set it up Terminus often ends up being a six mana wrath which is way too slow. When Arclight and Dredge can present so much damage so quickly, oftentimes missing the beat on Terminus can be the difference between winning and losing. Playing with Settle gives you an incredible way to interact early enough to make an impact at your own pace. The other option is playing a more proactive gameplan similar to what Harlan played at the last SCG Open (a midrange creature deck that plays similar to Flash).

Kanister's U/W | Modern | Kanister

• Creatures (4)
• 1 Vendilion Clique
• 3 Snapcaster Mage

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

• Instants (18)
• 1 Absorb
• 1 Negate
• 1 Remand
• 1 Revitalize
• 1 Spell Snare
• 2 Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 2 Logic Knot
• 2 Settle the Wreckage
• 3 Cryptic Command
• 4 Path to Exile

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Timely Reinforcements
• 2 Oust
• 2 Serum Visions
• 2 Supreme Verdict

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 2 Search for Azcanta

• Lands (24)
• 2 Plains
• 6 Island
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 2 Celestial Colonnade
• 2 Glacial Fortress
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Field of Ruin
• 4 Flooded Strand

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Vendilion Clique
• 1 Absorb
• 1 Negate
• 1 Timely Reinforcements
• 2 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• 1 Celestial Purge
• 2 Circle of Protection: Red
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 3 Surgical Extraction

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Professional MPL player Piotor Kanister Glogowski picked up Control and achieved a 6-2 record during the Modern Challenge that he played and it has some interesting decision points. It looks closer to a deck that always has something to do with its mana and some ways to gain life to help boost out of range of the Burn decks or Dredge or Arclight. The extra three to six points a game can turn into several more turns which by playing a slower strategy can be the difference between winning a game and losing one. Post board Circle of Protection: Red found its way out of Kanister's Old School deck and into the sideboard as a way to dominate Phoenix and have a better game against Burn. The card that stood out the most to me was Cataclysmic Gearhulk. While already has a good matchup against the Whir deck, Gearhulk is devastating while also being fantastic against Humans and Spirits alike while being difficult to interact with. While Dismember and Reflector Mage lineup fantastic against Baneslayer Angel, it is a wildly different story with Cataclysmic Gearhulk.

On the other side of things, Rock boasts a solid matchup as well against many of the top decks. The combination of Planeswalkers, cheap removal, and discard combined with a fast clock make for a solid deck which can play around anything. I imagine Dredge to be the hardest of those to beat but main deck Nihil Spellbombs is a nice addition that helps quell those graveyard matchups a bit while not being completely useless. The major change for this deck is the addition of Assassin's Trophy and Field of Ruin. Having an extremely clean mana base and a removal spells that doubles as permanent hate means the deck will always have answers. With all these decks in the format trying to rely on a linchpin spell the discard available for the Rock is going to over perform by shutting down what decks are trying to do. Post board this deck has some of the best ability in the format to switch gears and make matchups even better. While most decks have a very linear game plan, the Rock is going to be able to build a game plan to pick it apart. Of course the biggest issue for the Rock is that the power level is a touch below what most of Modern is doing. Because of this, we don't often see the Rock dominating a Modern tournament, but right now I think the deck is well positioned and this would be a fantastic time to rock some Tarmogoyfs.

The Rock | Modern | scenekiid

• Creatures (15)
• 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 3 Scavenging Ooze
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Tarmogoyf

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Liliana of the Veil

• Instants (8)
• 4 Assassin's Trophy
• 4 Fatal Push

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Collective Brutality
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 2 Thoughtseize
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb

• Lands (24)
• 2 Forest
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Hissing Quagmire
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Treetop Village
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Field of Ruin
• 4 Verdant Catacombs

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Collective Brutality
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Damping Sphere
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 4 Fulminator Mage
• 2 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Kitchen Finks
• 1 Languish
• 1 Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1 Nissa, Vital Force
• 1 Surgical Extraction

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Moving forward, I do really like this deck list however I would add is Leyline of the Void to the sideboard. Arclight decks and Dredge are picking up in popularity and having a card like Leyline (or more Surgical) is going to be more beneficial for you against those decks in the long run. We want high impact cards, and having a solid mix of Leyline of the Void amongst some other cheap graveyard hate will cover all the angles and help create maximum effect.

If you're looking to get ahead of the metagame, these two decks are hidden gems that are very well positioned at the moment and I'm not sure that's going to change anytime soon.