GP Indy was a bust. I was playing a format I didn’t love—Standard—with a deck that wasn’t well positioned in the meta—Esper Dragons—and promptly 1-2 dropped. The worst part about my record was that I had a bye. I won one game of Standard all weekend. This of course is only slightly worse than my Two-Headed Giant record for the weekend which was 6-5-1. It was a rough weekend for Magic but a good weekend for hand shuffleboard and drinking so at least there’s that.
With GP Indy out of the way, I can stop thinking about Standard and its four color manabases and continue playing Modern. Modern is undeniably my favorite format and I’m looking forward to all aspects of GP Pittsburgh. I’m ready to begin testing, ready to day two, and even ready for the nine hour drive from Boston through the godforsaken wasteland of rural Pennsylvania. As of writing this I have 18 days until I leave, which means that realistically I can test three nights a week for about four hours each. Using my fuzzy English major math, I’m guessing I have 32 hours of actual testing from here to GP Pittsburgh.
32 hours seems like a reasonable amount of time but after perusing MTGTop8 for about 30 seconds, I can tell you that there are 30 unique decks that range from 1% -12% of the meta. It’s not realistic to get a game in against all of these decks nor is it worthwhile. While I would argue that you should be familiar with the gameplans of all these decks, it’s not time efficient to play against fringe decks like Dredgevine, Mono Green Aggro, or Storm. This is not to say these decks are bad, in fact the best decks in Modern aren’t that far ahead of the lower tier decks (something I love about the format). However, they are certainly underrepresented and chances are, your time is better spent jamming games against Affinity, Twin, and Jund.
With a limited amount of time, and an unlimited number of cards to proxy on, my recommended gauntlet would be this—
- Affinity
- Jund
- Naya Burn
- RG Tron
- Grixis Control
- UR Twin
- Bloom Titan
- Infect
Matt Humpries— Affinity—SCG IQ 10/25
| Lands (16) 4 Blinkmoth Nexus 4 Inkmoth Nexus 4 Darksteel Citadel 3 Glimmervoid 1 Mountain Creatures (28) 4 Ornithopter 4 Vault Skirge 4 Signal Pest 4 Arcbound Ravager 3 Memnite 3 Etched Champion 2 Hangarback Walker 2 Steel Overseer 1 Master of Etherium 1 Spellskite Spells (16) 4 Galvanic Blast 4 Mox Opal 4 Cranial Plating 4 Springleaf Drum | Sideboard (15) 1 Spellskite 1 Torpor Orb 1 Grafdigger’s Cage 1 Welding Jar 1 Relic of Progenitus 1 Rest in Peace 2 Wear / Tear 2 Dispatch 1 Rending Volley 2 Ancient Grudge 2 Whipflare |
I’m still surprised to see [casthaven]Hangarback Walker[/casthaven] outside of Standard but can’t deny the synergy between the little construct that could and [casthaven]Arcbound Ravager[/casthaven], [casthaven]Steel Overseer[/casthaven], and [casthaven]Master of Etherium[/casthaven]. Not all lists have adopted Hangarback but it’s starting to pop up more so keep your Path to Exiles handy. This list also demonstrates a general trend of players not playing [casthaven]Ensoul Artifact[/casthaven] or [casthaven]Thoughtcast[/casthaven], choosing instead to rely on the power of established affinity cards like Ravager and [casthaven]Cranial Plating[/casthaven].
J_Vista8—Jund— MTGO Daily 10/31/15
This is a pretty standard list. Lots of powerful cards to out-grind the opponent. I appreciate the multiple [casthaven]Feed the Clan[/casthaven]/[casthaven]Obstinate Baloth[/casthaven] in the side as Burn is a pretty difficult match-up.
Vagner William Casatti—Naya Burn—GP Porto Alegre
| Lands (20) 4 Sacred Foundry 3 Stomping Ground 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Wooded Foothills 2 Arid Mesa 3 Mountain Creatures (18) 2 Grim Lavamancer 4 Monastery Swiftspear 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel 4 Goblin Guide 4 Wild Nacatl Spells (22) 4 Lava Spike 4 Rift Bolt 2 Searing Blaze 4 Atarka’s Command 4 Boros Charm 4 Lightning Bolt | Sideboard (15) 2 Searing Blaze 3 Kor Firewalker 4 Path to Exile 4 Destructive Revelry 2 Ancient Grudge |
There were 16 [casthaven]Wild Nacatl[/casthaven]s in the top four of GP Porto Alegre which is pretty insane and points to a trend of aggressive-but-fair decks taking over the meta. It’s still a little surreal to me to see the cat warrior has found a place in burn but Casatti took down the whole GP with it which seems like evidence enough to me.
Diego Marquez—RG Tron—GP Porto Alegre
| Lands (20) 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 4 Urza’s Power Plant 4 Urza’s Mine 4 Urza’s Tower 2 Ghost Quarter 1 Forest 1 Eye of Ugin Creatures (5) 3 Wurmcoil Engine 1 Spellskite 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Spells (35) 4 Karn Liberated 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 4 Sylvan Scrying 4 Pyroclasm 4 Ancient Stirrings 4 Oblivion Stone 4 Expedition Map 4 Chromatic Sphere 4 Chromatic Star 2 Relic of Progenitus | Sideboard (15) 1 Wurmcoil Engine 4 Surgical Extraction 4 Nature’s Claim 3 Boil 3 Rending Volley |
Another list from the top eight of Porto Alegre. Pretty standard. Pretty boring. Still need to test against it.
P_Jota—Grixis Control—Modern Daily 10/13/15
This is a spicy one and deviates a bit from the established Grixis Control lists with the inclusion of [casthaven]Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy[/casthaven] and [casthaven]Pia and Kiran Nalaar[/casthaven] and the omission of [casthaven]Gurmag Angler[/casthaven] and [casthaven]Cryptic Command[/casthaven]. While some of the specifics have changed, I run into Grixis Control at just about every PPTQ I play and it’s worth noting the ways in which they can interact with you.
Gabriel Fehr—UR Twin—GP Porto Alegre
| Lands (23) 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Misty Rainforest 3 Steam Vents 3 Sulfur Falls 2 Desolate Lighthouse 1 Stomping Ground 5 Island 1 Mountain Creatures (12) 4 Snapcaster Mage 4 Deceiver Exarch 2 Pestermite 2 Vendilion Clique Spells (25) 4 Serum Visions 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Dispel 2 Spell Snare 4 Remand 2 Electrolyze 2 Cryptic Command 4 Splinter Twin | Sideboard (15) 3 Ancient Grudge 2 Keranos, God of Storms 2 Jace, Architect of Thought 2 Blood Moon 2 Roast 2 Pyroclasm 1 Grim Lavamancer 1 Negate |
With maindeck Dispels this list is pretty much all in on the combo. As a Bloom Titan player, I am terrified of this deck as it’s fast, resilient, and can bring in [casthaven]Blood Moon[/casthaven] out of the board.
LordCommanderSnow—Amulet Bloom—MTGO PTQ 9/19/15
I’ve always liked LordCommanderSnow’s Bloom lists because there is no silly flex creature slot, just a commitment to casting [casthaven]Primeval Titan[/casthaven]. This list seems pretty much perfect to me.
_blade_cn—Infect—Modern Daily 10/7/15
| Lands (20) 4 Inkmoth Nexus 4 Windswept Heath 4 Wooded Foothills 2 Breeding Pool 2 Forest 2 Pendelhaven 1 Dryad Arbor 1 Misty Rainforest Creatures (13) 4 Blighted Agent 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Glistener Elf 1 Spellskite Spells (27) 4 Vines of Vastwood 4 Mutagenic Growth 4 Might of Old Krosa 4 Gitaxian Probe 3 Become Immense 2 Groundswell 2 Apostle’s Blessing 2 Rancor 2 Wild Defiance | Sideboard (15) 1 Wild Defiance 3 Nature’s Claim 2 Dismember 4 Spreading Seas 2 Twisted Image 1 Wall of Roots 2 Spell Pierce |
Our own Kate Donnelly wrote about Infect this past week (though her list is a bit different from this one). I think playing this deck and playing against this deck is a bit of an art. While it has plenty of oops-I-win hands, this deck is pretty skill intensive to play and difficult to interact with correctly. You will run into infect, especially at a bigger event like a GP, and it’s crucial to test some games against it beforehand.
So that’s the gauntlet. What do you do with it?
- My recommended plan for a gauntlet is to test against all decks, with an emphasis on bad match-ups.
- It’s fine to jam some preboard games but most of the testing should be post-board. Not only is sideboarding a difficult aspect of the game but the fact is that in a tournament you will play more postboard games than preboard.
- Play with people you consider to be competent pilots. If you’re worried about the Twin match-up, find someone who has played that deck to some success to test with. If you have a core group like I do, perhaps where nobody regularly pilots Twin, do your best. Talk a lot after the game to try to understand the avenues available to each player and the ways in which the game could have gone differently.
- Spend some time playing the gauntlet decks to help out your friends. While I would love to exclusively play Bloom Titan in testing, it’s not super useful for my friends who have already played quite a bit against the deck and actually need to play more against Jund. If you’re friends are going to the GP with you, make sure testing is lucrative for all parties involved.
In terms of Magic, Shawn Massak is a Modern enthusiast, with a penchant for tier two decks, counterspells, and pre Eighth Edition frames. In terms of life, Shawn lives in Brighton, MA where he works as an employment coordinator for people with disabilities, plays guitar in an indie-pop band, and spends his free time reading comics, complaining about pro-wrestling, and wishing his apartment allowed dogs as pets.