This past week, Wizards gave us some bans that were desperately needed. In addition to that, we even got some that many would say were not needed. Some of the cards that were on the ban radar came out unscathed this time, with conjecture that they may end up being banned later. We were all positive that Nadu was going to get banned, and the format was suffering while in the waiting room for that. One ban in Modern that we did not expect, however, was for Grief to be banned. It was still a broken card, but with a lot of the cards printed in MH2, it appeared to have been powered down a bit compared to the rest of the cards out there. The good news is that a lot of the decks that played it were able to adapt around it, but what we really want to check on today is how the meta looks in general. Similar to the last article, we will look at the decks that round out the top tier, and what decks we should look to see taking the spot as our best deck for the format. Let's get to the Modern Meta check-in.
What Deck is the Best?
We'll get to that pretty quickly here, and it was also rather obvious - Boros Energy is taking the meta by storm currently. It is able to snowball so much, and has cheeky elements of control that allow the deck to simply do its thing uninterrupted. It is well-rounded and has bunches of life gain. Many decks in the format do not run board wipes, and those decks tend to suffer against Boros. Let's take a look at the list itself.
Boros Energy has multiple top 8 finishes since the recent bans, and this deck particularly won the Modern Challenge on the 27th. It is becoming increasingly popular, and opponents are getting punished by the fact that the deck plays Blood Moon. There are so many decks in the format that run little to no basic lands, that players often get locked out. It is such a unique situation for an aggro deck to be able to lock out opponents from casting any spells, and it ends up being just what the deck needs. Aside from Blood Moon, there are some incredibly powerful engines that help this deck tick.
Relevant Cards
This card is quickly becoming one of the best one mana spells in all of Magic. It sets up multiple engines within Boros Energy, and even has use in other decks because of the life gain and ability to give other creatures flying. It gains life as soon as another creature hits the battlefield, so it immediately triggers Ocelot Pride. Having this card in your hand with Ocelot and a couple lands almost guarantees an instant keep.
Raptor rounds out the perfect curve for the deck, because a lot of the spells are three mana or less, and it simply allows you to just cast all kinds of value spells for free as early as turn two. If you had Guide of Souls on the board on turn one, you can pretty much cast any card in the deck with Raptor. It allows for the deck to snowball on turn two, and if it is on the play, you better hope you have some type of board wipe, because things are going to get out of hand.
Phlage has found its way into a few different decks in Modern. It is used as a win condition in some control decks, and in energy decks, it is an awesome finisher. The deck runs Arena of Glory so that Phlage can be cast from the graveyard and given haste. This can lead to it dealing 12 damage the turn it comes out from the graveyard.
This card is heralded by many as the best removal spell in the format, simply due to the efficiency it can provide. It can hit creatures or planeswalkers, and in many situations, that makes it better than Fatal Push. The fact that it can also hit creatures with a mana value higher than four also makes it ridiculously valuable. The deck is already amassing as much energy as it can, so this just perpetuates the value train that is already in motion.
Lastly, we had to mention Ajani. We couldn't leave out such a legendary planeswalker, even if de-sparked. It is also incredibly easy to have Ajani flip into the planeswalker and start doing ridiculous amounts of damage. There are so many creatures in the deck that demand to be removed, and that can easily get Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger transformed. The amount of valuable one and two mana spells in this deck create a catch-22 for most opponents. It creates a situation where you feel as if there is no good option for targeted removal, which is why it is so important to have a board wipe against this deck.
Other Decks Making a Splash
Eldrazi Breach
Eldrazi Breach decks are absolutely eating right now. They are able to ramp up to five mana very quickly, and put powerful Eldrazis on the battlefield. The deck has multiple top 8 finishes throughout the last two Modern Challenges, and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere. It used to have to worry about Nadu going basically infinite on turn three, now it is the deck that can knock it out of the park on that same turn. Even if it isn't casting a huge Eldrazi on turn three, it can also blow up lands as early as turn three with Sowing Mycospawn. It ends up being pretty ridiculous, because you aren't able to search your library for another land. If you are facing this deck and are on the draw, the turn three Mycospawn can almost be a death sentence. The deck also plays Trinisphere in the sideboard, which cuts off so many of the relevant spells in the meta. Making everything cost at least three mana in a format where everyone is trying to cast spells for either free, or as little as possible creates havoc for those who are not prepared. It also allows the Breach Player to slow down the game and ensure that they get to five mana. The versatility of the quick kill but also being able to slow down the game, blow up lands, and have their say over the board state is the reason that they are starting to call it Eldrazi Control.
I personally played against the person who created this deck in a Modern RCQ in Delaware, and he piloted it to perfection. It was a swift 2-0 victory for him, and others are quickly picking up on the fact that the deck is multiple types of broken.
