Modern is moving towards combo decks and away from fair decks. One contributing factor is Once Upon a Time tying the big mana strategies together so well. Another is the raw power level of Urza, Lord High Artificer and various Mox Opal decks.
Creatures (8)
Lands (18)
Spells (34)
- 2 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Serum Visions
- 4 Gifts Ungiven
- 4 Desperate Ritual
- 3 Merchant Scroll
- 1 Echoing Truth
- 2 Opt
- 2 Remand
- 2 Grapeshot
- 4 Manamorphose
- 4 Pyretic Ritual
- 2 Past in Flames
Sideboard
Creatures (14)
Lands (28)
- 2 Forest
- 1 Snow-Covered Forest
- 2 Gemstone Mine
- 1 Boros Garrison
- 1 Golgari Rot Farm
- 1 Selesnya Sanctuary
- 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
- 1 Gruul Turf
- 2 Breeding Pool
- 1 Ghost Quarter
- 4 Simic Growth Chamber
- 1 Vesuva
- 3 Tolaria West
- 1 Bojuka Bog
- 1 Slayers' Stronghold
- 1 Cavern of Souls
- 1 Radiant Fountain
- 1 Field of the Dead
- 2 Castle Garenbrig
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Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (18)
Spells (31)
When people are trying to pop off on each other like two ships passing in the night, you tend to want to do the same thing but better. Drake Sasser won SCG Indianapolis this past weekend with Gifts Storm, a deck designed to goldfish faster than the opponent, yet fragile to creature removal and graveyard hate, and to cards that restrict how many cards you can cast in a turn, like Eidolon of the Great Revel or Damping Sphere.
How do you beat Modern when everyone is jamming so many different proactive strategies at you? It’s tough to justify something like Jund or Azorius Control when you have so many threats you need to answer.
My answer is to be more proactive and faster than they are, just like Drake Sasser did.
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Spells (28)
Infect is one of the fastest decks in Modern when the opponent doesn’t interact. It’s fragile to cheap removal and strong against decks also trying to piece together a combo win. Infect’s combo is super-redundant as well as super-fast. It likely has the highest Turn 3 winrate of any Modern deck as a goldfish (while having an occasional Turn 2 win).
Infect has always had a problem drawing the wrong portions of the deck. Too many creatures, too many pump spells, or even not the right number of lands will pose a problem. Infect is very redundant in that the deck is mostly just those three elements, but still, you want an even higher consistency if you can get it.
Pendelhaven acts as a pump spell, while Inkmoth Nexus is a creature. Both are somewhat inefficient in doing their side jobs, but it’s nice to have versatility.
When I’ve felt like I could afford to, I’ve played Serum Visions in my Infect deck to smooth out draws. It requires fetching up a Breeding Pool early, which puts you down to seventeen nearly automatically, but if the metagame is ripe for Infect (say, with a bunch of Mono-Green Tron and Amulet Titan running around), you can afford to spend some percentage points from speed to put into consistency.
Sylvan Scrying has also made Infect lists in the past as a Pendelhaven / Inkmoth Nexus split card. It could get a Dryad Arbor or fix your blue mana in a pinch too.
Once Upon a Time has breathed life into many green-based Modern decks like Mono-Green Tron, Amulet Titan, and Selesnya Eldrazi. Infect is also a perfect spot for a card like Once Upon a Time, as it can find your Noble Hierarch, Glistener Elf, or Blighted Agent if you need an actual creature to get the ball rolling. It also finds the utility lands in Pendelhaven and Inkmoth Nexus that Infect uses to not overcommit to the battlefield.
You often want to pass with mana available after getting in a small chip shot with an infect creature. If the opponent leaves up mana, it’s often correct to also leave up your protection spell until they’re forced to make a move. A hardcast Once Upon a Time allows you to do something on the opponent’s turn that’s using your mana and filtering your draws. This might open up one of your creatures to a removal spell on your opponent’s turn, but that might just lead to a more explosive turn for yourself when you have your full mana accessible.
Is splashing white worth it for mainly Teferi, Time Raveler?
I played Infect with maindeck Teferi, Time Raveler at the Season One Invitational at SCG CON Summer earlier this year. It was somewhat of a gamble that didn’t pay off matchup-wise and at the time I’d wished I’d stuck to straight Simic.
Once Upon a Time finding a white source definitely helps move the needle into Teferi’s favor.
Teferi, Time Raveler solves a lot of problems as long as you have the time and position to deploy him. Problematic permanents like Ensnaring Bridge can be bounced. Your opponent can’t cast removal spells on your turn, which opens you up to freely cast your pump spells without fear of being blown out.
Path to Exile and Rest in Peace are better cards than Dismember and Relic of Progenitus when you can freely cast them. The white mana situation is a touch better than before, so I don’t mind running singleton miser copies to situationally get ’em.
Is Infect not your cup of tea, but you also want to be proactive in the current Modern shootout? People are skimping on graveyard hate and motioning towards more artifact removal in response to Urza, Lord High Artificer and Amulet of Vigor. When the waters are warm and devoid of appropriate graveyard interaction, Dredge tends to do well.
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Lands (18)
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Dredge always gets a card banned when everyone is looking. Then, when the shields are down, it comes back to revive people’s pitchforks.
Dredge isn’t as powerful as previous incarnations, although it doesn’t need to be; it’s a metagame call, as are most Modern decks. Can a new haggler from Throne of Eldraine fill the hole that the departure of Faithless Looting left behind?
Haggle is what we’re looking at here. It does what Insolent Neonate was doing while also functioning at instant speed for surprise value. Discarding first is key, since you can pitch Stinkweed Imp or another dredge card and immediately dredge it back. The regular side of Merchant of the Vale isn’t much to write home about, but I’ve cast my fair share of Stinkweed Imps and Prized Amalgams, and I know that an incidental body in a drawn-out game is a boon.
Dredge is great against Burn and other aggressive decks if people want to go back to Eidolon of the Great Revel and friends for a solid Turn 3.5 win deck. Burn is good against Mono-Green Tron and other over-the-top strategies, so I wouldn’t be surprised at a resurgence. Dredge and Creeping Chill form a nice response to Burn.
Shenanigans and Ancient Grudge are both strong reasons to play Dredge too. You can find your artifact removal somewhat freely without having to mulligan for it. Simply do what your deck does, which is mill your own library, and eventually interaction of an opposing artifact will fall into your lap. These are great tools against the artifact decks.
For the last deck, a different approach to Storm and Burn from what we’ve seen before. I can’t tell just yet if it’s a step backwards, forwards, or both.
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Where did the flappy firebirds go? Without Faithless Looting, there’s no great way to turn on Arclight Phoenix outside of spiking them to the graveyard with Thought Scour. I like how they’ve been omitted from the list.
Pyromancer Ascension and Aria of Flame are the win conditions here. Really, though, is anybody worried about dying to an enchantment in Modern right now? Blood Moon comes to mind, but those aren’t all the prevalent. Some artifact removal spells hit enchantments too, but people are moving more towards more pinpoint answers to fend off Urza and company.
Pyromancer Ascension will win the game if left unchecked, as will Aria of Flame. The Ascension relies on the graveyard, which as I mentioned earlier isn’t being heavily targeted right now.
Remand is your defense against opposing spells and I think it’s a good one right now. People are casting Urza, Lord High Artificer for four actual mana, slamming Primeval Titan as their payoff, and Karn Liberated is trying to come down on the third turn. There are a lot of haymaker spells getting thrown at each other of higher-than-usual casting costs. Remand buys just enough time to get your enchantments rolling.
Thing in the Ice is still good here. Your deck is all cantrips and naturally lends itself to casting as many spells as possible in a turn. Thing in the Ice will often transform on the third turn if there’s a Manamorphose in reach. A couple of attacks and a Lightning Bolt or two and that’s lights out. The old Izzet Phoenix decks had this opening along with the late-game power of Arclight Phoenix. Pyromancer Ascension plays the role of a different axis that must also be dealt with if you’re trying to control the Izzet Ascension threats. It’s a tall ask to put both Dismember and Nature’s Claim into your deck after sideboarding.
We previously announced the next B&R date as Nov. 18. After further reflection on the (very busy) competitive gaming schedule and discussion on implementation windows with our digital teams, we are shifting that next announcement to Oct. 21.
— Magic Esports (@MagicEsports) October 9, 2019
There’s a Banned & Restricted announcement coming Monday after Mythic Championship V. Most speculation leads to action being taken in Standard to better balance the format before Mythic Championship VI in November. Wizards of the Coast may take this window to massage Modern into a more palatable place by banning something like Mox Opal if they feel the need. If so, that’ll open room for other proactive decks that aren’t on people’s radar.
I like Infect, Dredge, and Izzet Ascension in the scenario where a different piece of Modern gets the axe. I like Infect in particular if no action is taken. It has similar qualities to the winning Gifts Storm list last weekend while having favorable matchups against Gifts Storm itself and many of the top decks like Mono-Green Tron and Amulet Titan.
In any case, I like looking into one of those three decks for something strong and different in Modern.