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We are almost two weeks out from the recent bans in Modern, and there is now enough data to see if anything has really changed. Banning cards like The One Ring and Amped Raptor was an attempt to level the playing field in a format where it seemed as if it was difficult to win if you didn't play those cards. Both cards were two of the most popularly played nonland cards, and it was getting to the point where player sentiment about the format was increasingly poor. Wizards knew that they had to do something, and they also needed to do something that kept things interesting after banning two powerful cards. To keep things fresh, Wizards also unbanned Splinter Twin, Green Sun's Zenith, Mox Opal, and Faithless Looting. This seems to be somewhat reasonable so far. All of the cards light up different archetypes, and this was a clear effort to breathe life into the format. Now that Wizards has made their intentions clear on what they wanted to see out of the format, it begs the question: Has anything actually changed? Most Popular Cards in the Format Post-Bans Although it is refreshing to not see The One Ring as the most commonly played card in the format, there are still some of the usual suspects that round out the top ten most played nonland cards. Long story short, the energy decks are still the most popular, and the cards that are staples within the lists unsurprisingly are the most commonly played nonland cards in the format. Oddly enough, it appears that Mardu Energy has now become more popular than Boros Energy, which is an interesting shift. 

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.

We recently received word that Wizards did not plan on banning Nadu before the next scheduled B&R on August 26th. Some of us hoped that we would be able to start the Modern RCQ season knowing exactly what decks weren't going to be allowed in the format. Some want Grief to be banned, as well as The One Ring. The no-ban announcement left the door wide open for SCG Con to be littered with a heavy Nadu Meta. This ended up being my first modern tournament, and first time playing it in paper, and it went about as well as I expected it to. I ended up dropping out after round five after falling to a two and three record, but I'm not the star of the article this time! I'll go over a little bit of my experiences in the article today, and I'll go over a deck that I believe is incredibly well-positioned. I'll save you a Google Search, and it was no surprise that things went this way. The top 5 decks of the tournament were Nadu decks. Half of the top 16 were Nadu decks. It continues to illustrate the point made by Magic players all over the world that appears to be falling on deaf ears: Nadu has to be banned. Ideally, we wish for it to happen before the Modern RCQ Season starts in early August, but it appears there will be at least three weeks of Nadu tearing up Modern Events until the next B&R. Anyhow, let's go over some other noteworthy parts of the tournament that should hopefully show some good signs to come for the Modern Format.   Reanimator combos are fun in any format - and they're especially fun when we can play them in a competitive environment. The Goryo's Vengeance Deck in Modern accomplishes that, and it makes great use of three of the five elemental creatures. Also, it reanimates Griselbrand, and who doesn't love that?

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

Pro Tour Modern Horizone Three is entering it's final day, and there has been a ton of excitement, some expected results, and some unexpected. The Nadu decks make up half of the field in the top 8. We expected that the deck would do well, and it is effectively dominating, thus augmenting the call for an emergency ban. Some news that I am happy about is that there are also two mono black decks in the finals, and they appear to have an alright matchup against Nadu. The top 8 also has representation from a Jeskai Control deck that was basically made to lock down the Nadu decks. Along with that, we also see a four color Nadu deck that brings in black cards to do win the mirror. Oddly enough, I was thoroughly amused to see that the Mono Black Necro Deck from Noah Ma is in first place so far! So we will be going over this deck today. Also, there are some updates to Standard with a new type of release that we will be getting, and yes there are some crazy cards coming. There was also a judge ruling today that saw a player disqualified for misrepresenting boardstate in what they deemed to be an intentional manner. We will go over all of that, but first let's get to the deck that is on top so far!