The War is Over: A whole new Modern era

Coverage article: TMR Modern R10k Tournaments in partnership with Outer Limits and Top Deck

Wow where do I start? First off for those of you that’s been living under a rock:

Banned & Restricted Announcement - Shadows over Innistrad

Modern:

• Eye of Ugin is banned.
• Ancestral Vision is unbanned.
• Sword of the Meek is unbanned.

Today I’d like to talk about the implication of these changes and share my thoughts on the bannings in preparation of the TMR Modern R10k League Tournament #3. The January 18 2016 B&R announcement banning Splinter Twin and Summer Bloom, the ensuing Pro-Tour OGW and the Eldrazi hostile takeover left a sour taste in a lot of players’ mouths, and I believe WoTC took a massive step towards redemption with the April 4 2016 B&R announcement.

PART 1 – Eye of Ugin is banned in Modern

Goodbye, au revoir, auf wiedersehen, totsiens. For the past three months, Eye of Ugin has enabled the Eldrazi decks to explode on to the battlefield in the early turns with Eldrazi Mimic and Endless One, allowed them to power out Thought Knot Seer and Reality Smasher ahead of curve all the while searching up more threats in the late game, yea you won’t be missed by those of us that like an equal playing field. Let’s take a look at the potential winners of this ban:

1. .
2. .
3. .
4. .

That’s right folks, everything changes, no single deck necessarily gets better as the Eldrazi deck at full tilt operated at such devastating speed that nothing could really compete. What we can expect instead are less cards like Ensnaring Bridge, Worship, Blood Moon, Fulminator Mage or Supreme Verdict. To really understand what decks stands to gain from the Eye of Ugin ban, instead we need to take a look at another deck that contained this card; GR Tron.

GR Tron was a nightmare for U-control and GB-midrange decks alike and those decks stands to gain the most from the Eye of Ugin ban. What does an uptick in U-control and GB-midrange mean? More interaction, less linear decks, more fair magic.

PART 2 – Ancestral Vision is unbanned in Modern

Blue control decks stand to gain a lot from the Ancestral Vision unbanning but it’s worth mentioning that Ancestral Visions is neither a combo deck card, an aggro card or a tempo card. Combo decks use its cantrips to aggressively find combo pieces, aggro decks use a critical mass of creatures and burn spells to close the game as quickly as possible while a tempo deck uses cheap spells at the beginning of the game to stay ahead and throw the opponent off balance. No, where Ancestral Vision shines is in decks that slows down the pace of the game, trading cards one for one and then recuperate card advantage, eventually winning the game with some resilient threat or once the opponent has ran out of options.

 This is obviously just a sample list, but should give you an idea of the type of deck that Ancestral Vision should excel in. Cards like Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Mana Leak and Cryptic Command are all great interactive cards and promote healthy Magic games.

PART 3 – Sword of the Meek is unbanned in Modern

Now onto the good stuff… The Sword of the Meek unbanning along with the card Thopter Foundry opens up a plethora of deck building possibilities, anything from but not limited to UW control, UB control, Esper control, Jeskai control, Grixis control, UB Tezzeret, UW Tron, 4c Gifts and UW Puresteel can contain this combo, the possibilities are nearly endless and is almost assuredly a net gain for the Modern format as a whole.

What does the combo itself mean for the Modern format/metagame though? Let’s see what it does:

For a total of four mana you can have both of these permanents in play, meaning, barring any mana acceleration, you can have both pieces in play on turn three with a mana to spare granted you made all your land drops thus far.

After this, you can pay 1 generic mana to sacrifice Sword of the Meek to Thopter Foundry’s activated ability, putting Sword of the Meek into the graveyard and putting Thopter Foundry’s activated ability on the stack. Assuming your opponent passes priority back without interfering, Thopter Foundry’s ability will resolve putting a 1/1 blue Thopter artifact creature token with flying into play, gaining you 1 life and putting Sword of the Meek’s triggered ability from the graveyard on the stack, returning it to play and attaching the Sword to your Thopter token. Repeat as much as you like and your mana allows…

Good against:

Good against aggro decks, creatures with one toughness and against Burn, effortlessly making 1/1 flying creatures while gaining life. Decks that are bad against the combo includes Affinity, Infect, Burn and Zoo.

Bad against:

Bad against quick combo decks, bad against graveyard hate, bad against artifact hate and bad against things that can basically ignore 1/1 Thopters. Decks that are good against the combo includes Grishoalbrand, Jund, Storm and Abzan Company.

MODERN TIERS

Without further ado my predicted Modern top tiers:

Tier 1

• Affinity
• Burn
• Infect
• Jund/Abzan
• Abzan Company
• Jeskai Visions
• Uwx/Ubx Thopter-Sword Control

Tier 1 decks are the decks in Modern that enjoy the highest metagame shares , the most played and the ones you can expect to face in any large tournament and should prepare for. You can frequently expect to see these decks in Top 8’s.

Tier 2

• Merfolk
• GR Tron (not a typo)
• Living End
• Ad Nauseam
• Lantern Control
• Kiki-Chord
• UR Storm
• Esper/Grixis Visions
• UB Thopter-Sword Tezzeret
• Grishoalbrand
• Eldrazi (not a typo)

Tier 2 decks are playable but flawed decks, they enjoy a much smaller metagame share than Tier 1 decks. You can win tournaments under the right circumstances with these decks and they make appearances from time to time in tournament Top 8’s.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

While the Eye of Ugin banning was somewhat expected, WoTC threw us the most wonderful curveball with the unbanning of Sword of the Meek and Ancestral Vision, opening up almost infinite brewing space and promoting more interaction due to the buffs given to control decks. I personally can’t wait to start brewing with Sword of the Meek, Thopter Foundry and Ancestral Visions and to see what decks other people show up with at the next Modern R10k.

BONUS DECKLIST