MH3 is fresh and new, and really seems to be shaking up the meta in the Modern Format. We are seeing different decks win challenges each day, and we haven't come to a consensus on the "best" deck yet. I was personally very excited to see that a mono black deck had already won one of the challenges. It is already well-known that scamming Grief is one of the most powerful things to do in modern, and this deck is able to do that, plus a lot more. It went 9-1 in the Modern Challenge on June 16th, taking 1st place. Today we will take a look at the deck itself, and see if we think it will hold up after the meta is settled. Also, you might be wondering, "when will the meta actually settle?" Well, we have a Pro Tour that both drafts MH3, and plays modern in the constructed portion of the event coming up next weekend. This should allow us to get a pretty good idea of what the best decks are, and what cards we need to use to deal with the meta.
This deck is riding the wave of opting to use a ton of the MDFC lands so that it has extra cards to evoke with Grief. It is really useful, and makes sure that we can get value at all times, even if we are flooding. It also helps that a lot of the spells that have a land on the other side fit pretty well into the deck. This deck also has ways of generating extra mana, in addition to drawing tons of cards with the new Necrodominance Enchantment. This is supposed to be the fixed version of necropotence, so let's wait and see if this card gets banned too. I know that I'm waiting patiently for a ban before I spend any money on them. Anyhow, let's take a look at some of the key cards.
New MH3 Cards
The new Sorin is surprisngly good in a few different ways. He rewards us for gaining life, and turns into a pretty efficient planeswalker that can either help us gain more life, remove creatures, or he can even steal a creature. It helps the deck to ensure that it almost always gets off to a pretty quick start, even if we aren't able to scam Grief on turn one. It also helps that he triggers fatal push, and that he is a pretty good blocker since he has 4 toughness. At two mana, it's hard to think of a ton of creatures we would rather play in his spot.
All of the new Flare cards are pretty sweet, and they allow for some unique interaction since they can be cast at instant speed for no mana. It is especially useful in paper, considering that people always have to worry about a response, even if the opponent is tapped out. It makes it that much easier to bluff something. We have a decent amount of cheap creatures in this deck, so it is easy for us to sacrifice something small in order to force our opponent to sacrifice their biggest threat.
Ok, I can't make you wait any more. Let's talk about the new most broken enchantment in this set. The best way to take advantage of this card and not actually feel anything from the draw back is to play so many spells in the first two turns that we aren't ever worried about having more than five cards in hand, and in turn we arent affected by the drawback. We can draw tons of cards with it while Sheoldred is on the board, and consstantly turn it into a net positive. The deck doesn't interact much with our graveyard, so we aren't worried about stuff being put there as we go. This sets it up where our ideal start is to scam Grief on turn one, play Sorin on turn 2, play Necrodominance on turn 3, and then turn 4 we get out Sheoldred and basically win the game after that if they don't have answers.
Other Staples in the Format that Make the Deck Work
I think it is still up in the air how many of Dauthi each deck wants to run. I have seen some lists run four, and of course this list only uses one. I think we are still waiting for the meta to sort itself out a bit to determine exactly how many we need. It could also be the case that we want extra in our sideboard. It's also important to note that until everything settles down with the Eldrazi Creatures, this card can generate us some incredible value, as it allows us to cast them for free.
We have learned that pretty much all of the elementals will deliver great value to the game just from hitting the board. Grief is no exception to that, and might be the best example. It allows us to get a pretty powerful creature onto the board on turn one, and not even lose life for effectively using a creature ETB effect as a Thoughtseize. We then use cards like Not Dead After All and Malakir Rebirth to blink it, and then we get the ETB effect twice. We may go down a few cards to do this, but we are taking away up to two key combo pieces in our opponent's hand on turn one, and disrupting anything that they could have going on. Like I said earlier, we aren't too worried about going down on cards, because we are simply going to draw a ton more with Necrodominance.
Our queen is a staple in yet another format, and we will use her to make sure that we never lose life with Necrodominance. She is the final piece to our value engine that can effectively lock out our opponent. The main things we have to watch out for is the opponent having a Sheoldred, or if they have Orcish Bowmasters. Thankfully, we also run four of those, so we do have efficient removal for theirs if it happens.
It will be interesting to see if a deck like this can hold up after the pro tour, because it seems like a ton of fun to play.
