Stuck at home? No better time to play Magic Online! At least, that’s what a lot of great minds are thinking alike. Today, we’ll see what can come of such a think tank!
Midrange, in Black
Black, you say? Why, that’s the defining color of midrange! And for much of Modern’s history, you may have been right. But in 2020, Simic-based midrange decks have taken over as the midrange flavors of choice. Tarmogoyf is as potent as ever in such shells, but it’s Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath that has realigned the midrange paradigm so severely. It has seemed for the last couple months like the only black midrange deck in Modern was Jund, with Bant, Simic, and Temur decks claiming most of the archetype’s results.
So yeah, I’m personally a little excited to see Inquisition of Kozilek again!
Sultai Delirium, EXOTICHERMAN (5-0)
| Creatures (13) 4 Grim Flayer 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath 1 Scavenging Ooze Artifacts (4) 4 Mishra’s Bauble Planeswalkers (3) 3 Liliana of the Veil Instants (9) 2 Abrupt Decay 1 Assassin’s Trophy 4 Fatal Push 2 Stubborn Denial Sorceries (9) 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Thoughtseize 3 Traverse the Ulvenwald Lands (22) 1 Blooming Marsh 1 Botanical Sanctum 1 Breeding Pool 2 Darkslick Shores 2 Forest 1 Island 2 Misty Rainforest 1 Nurturing Peatland 2 Overgrown Tomb 3 Polluted Delta 1 Swamp 4 Verdant Catacombs 1 Watery Grave | Sideboard (15) 1 Assassin’s Trophy 2 Ashiok, Dream Render 2 Choke 2 Collective Brutality 1 Collector Ouphe 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Nihil Spellbomb 1 Plague Engineer 2 Veil of Summer | |
| Buy deck on Cardhoarder (MTGO)Buy deck on TCGPlayer (Paper) |
Sultai Delirium proposes the best of both worlds, splicing the Simic Uro core into the age-old BGx shell. Traverse the Ulvenwald ensures that Uro hits when it’s supposed to, all while functionally doubling up on heavy-hitters like Goyf and Flayer and providing surgical access to Scavenging Ooze, Collector Ouphe, and Plague Engineer during a match.
Inquisition, Thoughtseize, and Denial keep the crippling Rest in Peace from resolving while answering whatever opponents might be bringing to the fray, and are joined by Brutality and Stroke post-siding for additional off-board disruption.
Another interesting tech is Choke, which might steal an edge in the Uro mirror; these rely on Snow-Covered Island, whereas Sultai Delirium is content to draw blue from fastlands. Still, Choke isn’t a totally free include. Since Uro decks tend to run Arcum’s Astrolabe, the enchantment’s role is more to slow an opponent’s mana development than to cut them off a color permanently.
Potential mirror applications aside, Choke is especially great against Tronless big-mana builds of all flavors, which have universally adopted Dryad of the Ilysian Grove—that’s with or without Primeval Titan, Amulet of Vigor, or Scapeshift. Choke makes it so players controlling a Dryad can never untap their lands!
Notably absent are two cards almost always seen alongside Uro in contemporary midrange shells: Ice-Fang Coatl and Arcum’s Astrolabe. The omission of this “snow package” bodes well for Uro’s applications outside of the decks we’ve seen it helm the most; we’ve already seen Sultai Delirium place in a Modern Preliminary since its initial 5-0 showing.
Rakdos Unearth, SOIMBA_AIRWAVE (5-0)
| Creatures (17) 4 Rotting Regisaur 4 Seasoned Pyromancer 3 Lightning Skelemental 3 Dark Confidant 3 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger Artifacts (3) 3 Mishra’s Bauble Instants (6) 2 Fatal Push 4 Lightning Bolt Sorceries (12) 2 Collective Brutality 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Thoughtseize 4 Unearth Lands (22) 3 Arid Mesa 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 3 Blood Crypt 4 Bloodstained Mire 3 Marsh Flats 2 Mountain 1 Sunbaked Canyon 2 Swamp | Sideboard (15) 1 Boil 1 Dreadbore 2 Fulminator Mage 1 Kolaghan’s Command 2 Liliana of the Veil 2 Magus of the Moon 2 Nihil Spellbomb 1 Plague Engineer 2 Rakdos Charm 1 Vampiric Link | |
| Buy deck on Cardhoarder (MTGO)Buy deck on TCGPlayer (Paper) |
Rakdos Unearth makes a case for midrange without Uro. Its secret? Splashy synergies! We saw Unearth decks explode onto the scene post-Modern Horizons, but they were more or less abandoned as better graveyard decks like Hogaak and Dredge took center stage.
Here, SOIMBA_AIRWAVE fully invests in two of the sorcery’s most potent targets, Seasoned Pyromancer and Rotting Regisaur. The former digs through the deck and dumps other targets, while Regisaur applies a ton of ground pressure and also helps put creatures into the graveyard. Collective Brutality helps get the party started without Faithless Looting here to turbo-charge the engine (and buff other decks enough that Unearth isn’t even viable in the first place).
Other players are Dark Confidant, a way to overwhelm the durdly Bant decks lacking Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push, and Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger, another piece borrowed from Jund to hassle midrange. Then there’s Boil in the side, a Choke analogue that beats up on Uro and Titan decks alike.
In Good Company
Okay, so we can’t have people over. At least we’ve got Collected Company to simulate the experience.
Company Humans, THEGAMEROOMPRO (5-0)
| Creatures (32) 4 Charming Prince 4 Dark Confidant 4 Eternal Witness 4 Kessig Malcontents 4 Noble Hierarch 4 Phantasmal Image 4 Seasoned Pyromancer 4 Thalia’s Lieutenant Artifacts (4) 4 Aether Vial Instants (4) 4 Collected Company Lands (20) 2 Aether Hub 4 Cavern of Souls 2 Forest 4 Mana Confluence 4 Reflecting Pool 4 Unclaimed Territory | Sideboard (15) 2 Anafenza, the Foremost 1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation 2 Knight of Autumn 4 Magus of the Moon 2 Phyrexian Revoker 4 Reflector Mage | |
| Buy deck on Cardhoarder (MTGO)Buy deck on TCGPlayer (Paper) |
Company Humans boasts no infinite combos or mana-ramp shenanigans. It’s good, clean, Aether Vial-powered fun, making use of Company to cheat in perfectly fair creatures like damage-dealing 3/2’s. Look me in the eye and tell me you’ve never had a great time casting any of these creatures!
Collected Coralhelm, LOLLYGAGGER12 (5-0)
This take on Collected Coralhelm runs Dryad of the Ilysian Grove itself, acknowledging the card’s potency alongside the old Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm combo. The interaction also works fairly, dealing lethal over a matter of turns, but the enchantment accelerates the process. Of note, Dryad can’t be found with Company, making this build seem somewhat clunky.
The Dregs
Before we go, I’d like to touch on a few more decks showcasing that restrictions really do breed creativity.
Vial Goblins, THEHYDRA (5-0)
If you had to re-read a bunch of those Goblins, you’re not alone. Vial Goblins ports an outdated Legacy deck to Modern in a seriously unconventional way. Between Grumgully, Shusher, Sling-Gang, Expert, and more, Vial Goblins features plenty of black and green creatures. Enough, it turns out, to support Dragon’s Herald.
Herald gives the deck a combo dimension previously lacking from beatdown builds of Goblins. I imagine the very threat of having an 8/8 appear out of nowhere will keep opponents on their toes enough to prioritize removing Herald over other creatures, making the creature similar to another heavily played removal-magnet, Giver of Runes. That Herald is an on-tribe one-drop that benefits from everything else happening in the deck is also huge for its playability; imagine how nuts it would be in those decks if Giver was a Merfolk or a Human.
It’s nonetheless interesting that THEHYDRA didn’t fully invest in Herald, opting to only run 2 copies despite apparently stocking the deck with black and green creatures to make it menacing. I imagine the other creature slots had to be pulling more weight individually, and there was only room for a pair of Heralds in the final build. Which of course begs the question… is Herald worth it?
Superfriends, ASPIRINGSPIKE (5-0)
Next up is Superfriends, a deck that has traditionally been very slow and needed to dip into more creatures to hold its own. Naturally, then, it hasn’t seen much play in Modern. But with the arrival of many cheap planeswalkers, the “pure” strategy is perhaps viable for the first time.
My favorite thing about this deck is that Oath of Nissa becomes Ponder–plus, including both halves of the card (the selection and the shuffle) and only missing Utopia Sprawl (not that players would be likely to choose that one anyway). I experimented with Oath as a pseudo-Ponder before, but was left underwhelmed; Superfriends, though, seems like its perfect home!
Temur Breach, GERSCHI (5-0)
| Creatures (11) 4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 4 Ice-Fang Coatl 1 Snapcaster Mage 2 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath Artifacts (4) 4 Arcum’s Astrolabe Enchantments (2) 2 Blood Moon Instants (19) 2 Archmage’s Charm 3 Cryptic Command 2 Force of Negation 4 Remand 4 Skred 4 Through the Breach Lands (24) 2 Breeding Pool 2 Flooded Strand 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Mystic Sanctuary 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Snow-Covered Forest 6 Snow-Covered Island 1 Snow-Covered Mountain 2 Steam Vents | Sideboard (15) 1 Snapcaster Mage 1 Blood Moon 2 Abrade 2 Aether Gust 2 Anger of the Gods 2 Mystical Dispute 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Veil of Summer 1 Weather the Storm | |
| Buy deck on Cardhoarder (MTGO)Buy deck on TCGPlayer (Paper) |
Last up is Temur Breach, or Not Another Simic Uro Deck. It’s another one, alright, but not your grandma’s—rather than go all-in on the beatdown plan by backing up Uro with Goyf, or swinging full control with more removal and permission, Temur Breach leans combo, including the Breach-Emrakul pairing that has supported so many Blue Moon decks. This build comes to us from Immanuel Gerschenson, a Temur aficionado so enamored by the wedge as to have won GP “Treasure Cruise” Madrid with a set of Tarmogoyfs.
The strategy seems to work given its multiple placings, and even UR Breach is showing up—with a full set of Brazen Borrower!
The Brews Before the Storm
That does it for May’s brews. As we now enter a month of full pandemic lockdown for many countries, we’re bound to see even wilder strategies show up on Magic Online. I’ll see you on the other side!
Jordan is the copy and content editor at Modern Nexus. He has played Magic since 2003, and Modern since its inception. Jordan favors card efficiency over raw power and specializes in disruptive aggro strategies. He always brings tuned brews to events.
