Modern Musings: Saheeli in Modern?

Hey guys, and welcome to another Modern Musings, I hope you had a good prerelease weekend if you attended an event.  I had some family in town, so I spent time with them instead of going to a prerelease. With the lull inbetween the prerelease and the release of Hour of Devastation, this week I want to talk to you about the potential power of Saheeli Rai in modern.

Why the sudden interest in Saheeli?

I’m always sad to miss a prerelease, and while I didn’t manage to play I still found some time to stop by my local store to sell some boxes of bulk I had accumulated.  While I was waiting for them to process my bulk, I perused the display cases, seeing if anything looked worthy of picking up.  It wasn’t too long in browsing the multicoloured section that I saw Saheeli Rai sitting there with a $5 price tag sitting on her sleeve.  I kind of shrugged to myself, and told the employee that I’d pick up a playset.  I figured that $5 is a pretty decent deal and seemed like a fun card to brew with in modern.  The card already proved itself in standard, comboing with Felidar Guardian, which was good enough that it warranted a ban of the card.  But those weren’t the only reasons I picked up the card as earlier that day a friend of mine had messaged me an unfinished Emeria list featuring, you guessed it, a full four Saheeli Rai.  I immediately was drawn in by this deck due to the sheer synergy Saheeli has with many of the cards in it.

How do you optimize Saheeli?

Saheeli is best used when played on curve with two drops and four drops that have ETB (enters the battlefield) effects.  Finding a four drop isn’t too hard, Felidar Guardian is an easy choice for the four drop slot as it is an infinite combo.  The two drop slot is pretty fleshed out in normal emeria decks, having Wall of Omens, Lone Missionary, and Mortarpod.  Some of the newer decks run Spreading Seas as well.  Of course Felidar Guardian  isn’t the only infinite combo in the deck, as Sun Titan also sets up an infinite combo if you have two Saheelis.

What does this deck look like?

3 x Plains (331)1 x Island (335)4 x Sacred Foundry4 x Hallowed Fountain3 x Emeria, the Sky Ruin4 x Flooded Strand4 x Windswept Heath2 x Lone Missionary2 x Flickerwisp4 x Felidar Guardian3 x Blade Splicer4 x Wall of Omens2 x Court Hussar3 x Sun Titan – Foil – Prerelease Promo

4 x Saheeli Rai3 x Supreme Verdict4 x Path to Exile4 x Spreading Seas2 x Detention SphereSideboard (15)1 x Blessed Alliance1 x Celestial Purge1 x Dispeller’s Capsule2 x Leyline of Sanctity2 x Negate3 x Stony Silence2 x Runed Halo3 x Surgical Extraction – Buy-a-Box Promo

Buy This List

This was my preliminary list, before I did any testing.  A couple things that I was unsure about were the Supreme Verdicts and Lone Missionaries.  Many other versions of the deck run a full four missionaries, while I was only running two, with more shocks because of the red splash.  With Supreme Verdict, I worried more that it might be too much of a nonbo with my more combo-y approach.

The Results

The deck performed pretty well going 4-1 in matches, picking up a loss against Affinity, and beating Bant Eldrazi, Jund, Valakut, and Zoo.  My suspicions about Supreme Verdict being somewhat of a nonbo were founded, but ultimately won me my matches against Bant Eldrazi and Jund.  I think the only change I would make is move a Supreme Verdict to the sideboard replacing a surgical and put in one more Detention Sphere.

Anyway, that’s all for this week guys, tune in next week to see some spicy new brews with cards from Hour of Devastation.