If you have watched any coverage of Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3, you probably saw discussion around Nadu, Winged Wisdom. The bird was wildly popular and had an incredible win rate, so much so that many players predict card will be banned in the format before long. Given that the card is brand new, the exact build varied from player to player, and in a sea of Bant Nadu players, there was one deck that made it all the way to the semi-finals with a unique. Long-time MTGO grinder Daniel Goetschel took advantage of Modern's flexible mana bases and added black to the otherwise Bant deck, making it four colors. This decision caught my eye and I wanted to take a look at the deck and discuss how it worked out.
The Core Combo
Nadu, Winged Wisdom is a heck of a card and was the star of the Pro Tour and here's a quick of the combo. Nadu triggers whenever you target a creature you control with a spell or ability. Using Shuko's Equip 0 ability, you can freely trigger Nadu twice for every creature you have on board as long as you have at least two. With Springheart Nantuko on board, you make new creatures with every land you find.
Creature tutors are key as they ensure Nadu hits the field consistently, and this also allows the deck to run one-of utility creatures such as Sylvan Safekeeper, Endurance, and Outrider en-Kor.
You can win with a Thassa's Oracle or by using Sylvan Safekeeper to sacrifice your lands, then use Endurance to put them all back into the deck. If Otawara, Soaring City and Boseiju, Who Endures are among those lands, you can destroy all of your opponent's non lands and bounce all of their non-land permanents to hand as you perform the loop while flooding the board with tokens.
Why the Splash?
Goetschel's main deck only includes two unique black cards in a playset of Orcish Bowmasters and a single copy of Thoughtseize. These cards are absolute studs, of course, with Thoughtseize being great in matches against other combo decks, such as the mirror, and Bowmasters representing efficient removal and early pressure. Interestingly, Orcish Bowmasters also can work in a pinch to trigger Nadu's ability once if you use it for friendly fire.
In addition to the mainboard, Goetschel's sideboard includes two additional copies of Thoughtseize, three copies of Fatal Push, and even grindy powerhouses Grist, the Hunger Tide and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. These sideboard options don't exactly synergize with the Nadu combo meaningfully, but they don't have to If you're reading this, I assume you're an Arena player and you don't need me to tell you that Shered, the Apocalypse can solo carry a game if left unchecked. In this deck, it provides a solid plan B if the Nadu combo is cleanly answered by something like a Surgical Extraction.
What is the Cost?
There didn't appear to be a clear consensus seventy-five for the Bant Nadu lists, so it's tough to say exactly what the four version missed out on with the black splash, but here are a few key pieces other decks included that it did not.
The deck includes multiple creature tutors with Chord of Calling and Summoner's Pact, but the ability to fetch Shuko is a powerful option that Urza's Saga provides. Unfortunately, the cost it asks is the ability to generate colorful mana from one of your lands. Juggling four colors means missing out on colored lands early could really hurt and force more mulligans than you'd like.
Many of the other top 8 Nadu players included Teferi, Time Raveler in their sideboards and Sam Pardee even included two copies in his main deck. Given that the deck is trying to combo kill, protecting the combo pieces from instant-speed interaction is critical in many matchups. Thoughtseize gives you an opportunity to proactively remove those options, but it's still a one-for-one whereas Teferi protects your whole board from multiple threats if he's not dealt with.
As a dedicated Arena player, I'm embarrassed to admit I just learned that Suncleanser existed about a week ago. Removing counters from players is a very niche interaction unless the dominant control deck in your format relies on energy for its single-target removal (Galvanic Discharge) and its primary board sweeper (Wrath of the Skies). Suncleanser fits so neatly into this deck you can Chord of Calling it onto the battlefield in response to a card like Wrath of the Skies to effectively counter it. Given the current Modern meta, having one of these on hand seems wise.
Was the Splash a Good Idea?
The deck clearly performed, and Daniel Goetschel played these cards exceptionally well all weekend netting a fourth-place finish. I do believe version of the deck a viable option for players wanting to play with the Nadu combo because it has interesting sideboard options while still taking advantage of the strongest currently available in the format. It is somewhat poetic, though, that Goetschel was eliminated in the Semi-Finals by Simon Nielsen who would end up winning the event using the more popular Bant Nadu variant. In the final game, Goetschel's starting seven included two Thoughtseizes which he used against Nielsen having to mulligan to five. While this was a very strong start, Nielsen's top decks cooperated whereas Goetschel's didn't.
These Nadu decks have, effectively, ten to twelve copies of Nadu in them due to the tutors, so stripping one out of the opponent's hand just didn't end up being the game-ending blow that it might have been in other matchups and in other metas.
A Word of Caution Regarding Investing in Nadu
This deck does look fun to play, if not fun to against, but this deck represented a huge portion of the field at the Pro Tour. Of the top eight, five players were on Nadu and the entire top four were Nadu decks. Cards that have this dominant of a showing rarely survive for more than a few months in any given format. While Nadu itself might not be the first card to get banned (although I do suspect its day will come), the deck will likely be hit soon. WotC could easily decide to ban Shuko and possibly Outrider en-Kor to break the deck without removing Nadu, but I'll be surprised if they let this deck run rampant in an otherwise seemingly healthy format.
