I first started playing Modern shortly after it was announced in 2011. I immediately fell in love with the format. It didn’t rotate, there were a ton of possibilities for deck-building, and most importantly it wasn’t Extended. It’s not that I hated Extended per se, it’s just that the format wasn’t well supported outside of the PTQ season and felt just like a slightly larger Standard. Anyway, I thought Modern was the bees knees and I immediately started building decks, playtesting, and grinding PTQs.
The first Modern PTQ season I played UR Twin. The decklist looked something like this:
UR Tron 2011-2012
| Creatures (13) 3 Spellskite 4 Deceiver Exarch 3 Pestermite 3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker | Lands (24) 5 Island 2 Mountain 1 Breeding Pool 2 Cascade Bluffs 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Steam Vents 3 Sulfur Falls Spells (23) 4 Splinter Twin 4 Dispel 4 Remand 3 Flame Slash 4 Serum Visions 4 Sleight of Hand Sideboard (15) 2 Blood Moon 4 Ancient Grudge 2 Echoing Truth 3 Spell Pierce 3 Firespout 1 Flame Slash |
Now when I say I played Twin, what I really mean is that I lost with Twin. Despite playing a reasonable number of games before the season started, I felt woefully inept with the deck. I didn’t play around hate correctly, I would wait too long to go off, and I never boarded correctly. While I improved over the season, I never felt like Twin was the right deck for me. Unlike the tempo twin decks of today, this deck had one way to win, and if you were prevented from doing so by Torpor Orb, Combust, or opposing Spellskites, you were out of luck. Beating down with Deceiver Exarch is an arduous process and not one I recommend for people looking to win games.
Just because Twin wasn’t the right deck for me didn’t mean that I was looking to play fair. The following PTQ season I played UR Breach Tron and then somewhere along the line switched to GR Tron:
UR Tron 2012-2013
| 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 |
GR Tron 2012-2013
| Lands (18) 1 Academy Ruins 1 Eye of Ugin 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 4 Urza’s Mine 4 Urza’s Power Plant 4 Urza’s Tower Creatures (2) 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 1 Wurmcoil Engine Spells (40) 1 All Is Dust 4 Ancient Stirrings 4 Chromatic Sphere 4 Chromatic Star 4 Expedition Map 3 Explore 4 Mindslaver 4 Prophetic Prism 4 Sylvan Scrying 4 Talisman of Impulse 4 Karn Liberated | Sideboard (15) 2 Ancient Grudge 2 Combust 3 Pyroclasm 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Seal of Primordium 2 Spellskite 2 Wurmcoil Engine |
To me, Tron felt like a combo deck that wasn’t all in on one individual plan. With Breach Tron, opponents would have to respect an early Through the Breach or a late game hardcasted Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The deck had a proactive game plan and inevitability against the grindier decks in the format. Furthermore, each of the Tron decks had Pyroclasms to combat the aggro/Geist decks and would later adopt Oblivion Stone to further dismantle decks looking to play…permanents.
The problem with Tron is that it is a 70/30 deck. By this I mean, that it has a 70% win percentage over much of the field, but then is just 30% against the rest. The games I played often felt like they were predetermined, and that play skill took a back seat to card interaction. Everytime I sat down to play against Jund with GR Tron it felt like a bye. On the opposite end of the spectrum, every time I sat down across from Scapeshift or Twin, I felt like I was playing an unwinnable match-up that didn’t get much better after board.
I had some totally reasonable finishes playing both UR Tron and GR Tron, but then again I had some abysmal finishes too. During one PTQ, I went 3-5, losing to a Noggle deck which I am pretty sure was a direct port from Shadowmoor Block Contructed, and to a Mill deck, which I didn’t think was possible.
After varying results, I decided I was ready to play fair. Or rather, mostly fair, since I still wanted a combo element in my UWR Control deck:
UWR Kiki Control
| Creatures (14) 4 Restoration Angel 2 Snapcaster Mage 4 Wall of Omens 3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 1 Vendilion Clique | Lands (26) 2 Island 1 Mountain 1 Plains 4 Arid Mesa 1 Cascade Bluffs 4 Celestial Colonnade 1 Desolate Lighthouse 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Sacred Foundry 4 Scalding Tarn 3 Steam Vents 1 Sulfur Falls 2 Tectonic Edge Spells (20) 1 Cryptic Command 4 Electrolyze 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Mana Leak 3 Path to Exile 2 Remand 1 Spell Snare 1 Sphinx’s Revelation Sideboard (15) 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Spellskite 1 Izzet Staticaster 1 Rest in Peace 3 Stony Silence 1 Celestial Purge 1 Dispel 1 Shadow of Doubt 1 Wear 1 Anger of the Gods 2 Wrath of God |
I’ve enjoyed playing various UWR Control lists, with and without Kiki-Jiki, but I haven’t had enough practice to learn the match-ups in and out. While I feel that I am competent with the deck, I don’t think I’m exceptional with it. With a deck like UWR, which seems to be 50/50 against most of the format, small play mistakes will cost you matches.
For GP Worcester/Boston, which once again is more than an hour from Boston, I want to go back to playing unfair. I want to go back to playing 70/30 decks. Ultimately, I’m looking for a resilient combo deck with more than one avenue of attack. I want to play a deck that has complicated lines of play but is relatively non interactive. I am willing to struggle through my bad match-ups in order to cake walk through my good match-ups.
I’ve identified two decks that fit much of this criteria and are within my means to build without spending more money than I have:
Amulet
UW Gifts Tron
What I like about Amulet is that it can win on turn two or three while also being resilient and capable of playing through multiple counterspells. With Tolaria West, you are able to fetch important utility lands, a crucial kill spell in Slaughter Pact, Primeval Titan via Summoner’s Pact, and a counter to protect your combo in Pact of Negation. The deck is capable of winning on the back of Primeval Titan beats or Hive Mind gifting your opponents pact upkeep triggers. The downside of playing the deck is that it requires a lot of practice to play correctly. Land sequencing is really important, as is knowing all potential interactions with Primeval Titan and Tolaria West, oh yeah, and if you slip up during your upkeep and forget to pay for a pact…you lose. The deck is also cold to land destruction and pretty much can never beat a resolved Blood Moon without a Seal of Primordium in play.
My interest in playing UW Gifts Tron is that it combines the big mana power of a Tron deck with the ability to Gifts Ungiven for Unburial Rites and Elesh Norn. This deck has inevitability in the long game but can also shut off combo decks with an early Iona or dismantle aggressive strategies with multiple wrath effects. Gifts Tron does have a Control shell and must interact with an opponent instead of just killing them out of nowhere but still doesn’t seem to be as mentally taxing as playing UWR Control through an all day tournament. Like Amulet, Gifts Tron is pretty soft to land destruction and Blood Moon but unlike Amulet, has multiple counterspells to protect its real estate.
I have both deck proxied up and will be getting in as many games as possible over the next few weeks. If you’re reading and have an opinion on either of these decks, please share in the comments section.
At age 15, while standing in a record store with his high school bandmates, Shawn Massak made the uncool decision to spend the last of his money on a 7th edition starter deck (the one with foil Thorn Elemental). Since that fateful day 11 years ago, Shawn has decorated rooms of his apartment with MTG posters, cosplayed as Jace, the Mindsculptor, and competes with LSV for the record of most islands played (lifetime). When he’s not playing Magic, Shawn works as a job coach for people with disabilities and plays guitar in an indie-pop band.