Now that the Big Bad Bridge is gone from Modern, what should we play? Do we go back to the old best decks, Dredge and Izzet Phoenix? Maybe Hogaak was the love of your life and you don’t want to play Modern anymore. This week I am sure there are plenty of articles of what to do now in this “brand new” Modern format, so this won’t be one of those.
This week we will talk about what not to do now that Bridge From Below is paying for the sins of Hogaak and company. Please do not do any of these things.
Play Derpy Midrange Decks
Our first stop on the bad idea train is playing slow midrange archetypes. Decks like Mardu Pyromancer started to pick up a lot of steam, for example in Team Modern Super League with all the cool new toys from Modern Horizons. They are way too slow to win in Modern, and will waste your time if you pick them up now.
But what about Jund? Isn’t Jund still a solid deck? Well that can be answered with one word. Tarmogoyf. Mardu does not have the clock that Jund has thanks to it’s ever-growing two-drop. Mardu has a bunch of disruption, but the fact the deck can’t close out games is why it will struggle. Big mana decks are going to be coming back now that the format is shifting away from Hogaak, and Mardu always struggles against those decks. Yes, Mardu features Blood Moon and Fulminator Mage, but that never really killed Amulet, Tron, or Titan Shift before. Don’t expect more success this time.
Cut Graveyard Hate
If we are going back to pre-Hogaak Modern, or some Modern Horizons-ized version of that, the best decks will probably be Izzet Phoenix and Dredge. Be prepared to face those decks in a Modern event this weekend. Cutting all of your graveyard hate will hurt you throughout the event. It’s certainly ok to trim on a few, as most decks had five to eight different hate pieces and were even maindecking Leyline of the Void. Go back to four pieces and Surgical Extraction.
Even with Bridge from Below banned, the “Vine” half of the deck still has legs. People have the cards, so they will try to keep playing them. That adds a third graveyard deck to prepare against. Grafdigger’s Cage looks better as well against the Neoform and Devoted Druid that are rising in popularity. So keep preparing for raveyard shenanigans.
Get Too Cute
Removing Bridgevine from the format does not make it open season for nonsense decks. Going into a competitive event, I would not recommend bringing a pet deck or a brew without intensive testing and tuning. The format is still really aggressive and fast; taking a casual approach will come back to hurt you.
I personally loved the deck Death’s Shadow, but it had very bad matchups against the top decks before Hogaak took over. Now that those decks will be back in force, things look bad for Death’s Shadow players. Maybe Death’s Shadow even qualifies as a derpy midrange deck. Your pet deck may have different matchups against the expected field, but you can’t expect to do better simply because the metagame is in flux.
Play Bridge From Below
This is the biggest thing to remember. If you register Bridge from Below in your Modern deck, bad things will happen. Let me know what you choose to register in Modern this weekend instead!
Zack is a SCG grinder with one ultimate goal: getting to the Players Championship. Based out of NYC, you can find him in other cities every weekend trying to hit that goal. When he isn’t traveling he streams. Follow his journey on Twitter!