Modern Musings: Amonkhet Brews

Welcome to another Modern Musings, this week we are going to look at some decks that utilize some of the spicy new Amonkhet cards that we talked about last week.  

Since last week I had a chance to brew up some decks for you guys, and reflect on some lessons I learned while doing so.  You may also notice that I haven’t created sideboards for any of the following decks, this is because I don’t feel that the decks are stable enough to deserve one.  If you guys are interested in sideboards for any particular deck, hit me up in the comments and I’d be happy to make one based on the current iteration of the deck.  Something interesting about my brewing and testing this week is that even after playing with them, I’m still not sure how good the new cycling lands are in modern.  I’ll talk more in depth about that in a moment, but first lets look at one of the more solid lists I produced:

Some quick pros and cons about this deck:

Pros:

-Has a high volume of removal so great against creature decks

-Both Gideons take a lot of resources to get off the board

-Can bury opponent in card advantage

Cons:

-Sometimes has trouble closing the game out quickly,

-Lots of dead cards against decks that don’t run creatures

–Snapcaster Mage sometimes doesn’t have many good targets

I noticed a few other things while playing this deck, like the fact that Cast Out dodges Inquisition of Kozilek is a much bigger deal than I originally anticipated.  This means they can’t protect their Liliana of the Veil, Death’s Shadow, or even Tarmogyf by picking apart my hand first (without Thoughtseize) was huge game.  One of the other things to take away from this deck is the mana advantage that As Foretold generates is big, like really really big.  For example, there was a turn were I was able to cast Supreme Verdict and attack with my Celestial Colonnade…on six lands.  This allowed me to control the board while keeping up pressure.

The next deck that I tried with As Foretold was a Waste Not deck, and I had a bit less success with this one:

Most of the problem with this deck comes from its consistency, or lack thereof.  The deck played pretty well when I was able to go turn 2 Waste Not into turn 3 As Foretold+ Wheel of Fate.  But the reality is, that doesn’t happen very often.  That being said there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a dozen Waste Not triggers on the stack.  I think in the future though, I would replace Reforge the Soul with Faithless Looting.  Finally, while I probably wouldn’t play this at any major tournaments, it’s a great deck to troll and surprise your friends with.

Next, I decided to build my own take on hatebears with a red/white version:

The spicy element to this list for me, is the inclusion of Dusk // Dawn.  When I was building this deck I was worried that my creatures would be outclassed too quickly by those with a higher power/toughness, a problem that the green/white hatebears deck doesn’t really have. Dusk // Dawn solves that problem as well as putting in a bit extra in the late game to refill your hand with gas.  On a separate note, I am unsure if Fulminator Mage should be Avalanche Riders as I’m not sure whether the ability to hit basic lands warrants going from three to four mana.  Perhaps I should keep some Avalanche Riders in the sideboard for the more basic land heavy matchups.

The final deck I’m going to talk about today is Loam Pox, a deck that’s been nearly completely absent in competitive magic since 2015.  So why bring it up now?  The simple answer is Cycle Lands.  These lands allow Life from the Loam to generate real card advantage in the long game.  Plus, it’s an instant speed way to trigger dredge.  Without further ado:

The slots in this deck feel very tight, I really wanted to fit in Collective Brutality, but I feel all the cards in the deck are necessary.  Perhaps Collective Brutality is better than Abrupt Decay, but then again it might be better in the sideboard.  This deck sadly still suffers from the same problem that it has always had, which is graveyard hate.  Unfortunately, this deck gets hit by a lot of incidental graveyard hate intended for other decks.  Still, it’s pretty fun to Ghost Quarter your opponent into oblivion, so if you enjoy that sort of thing, this deck is for you.

Anyway that’s all for this week, let me know what you thought in the comments and tune in next week when I explore some long forgotten Eldrazi archetypes.