Hey everyone! Welcome to another Modern Musings!  This week we are going to take a step back and look at the current state of Modern.  What was hyped that didn’t end up working out?  What flew in under the radar?  What did Throne of Eldraine do to Modern? Today we are going to look at all of that and more.

 

What Hasn’t Worked Out? 

For the most part, Stoneforge Mystic decks have fallen to the wayside, this isn’t to say they aren’t in the metagame, but it’s a far cry from how a lot of people thought it was going to be.  Mostly it looks like there are a few U/W/X lists running it alongside oodles of planeswalkers.  Interestingly, even Hatebears seems to be shying away from the equipment master.

One reason for this is that while Stoneforge is a good card, it tends to not really be that good against combo, or really fast aggro decks, both of which are abundant right now.  A secondary reason is that Karn, the Great Creator is quite common in the Modern metagame, which definitely puts a damper on many Stoneforge shenanigans.

 

Impact of Throne of Eldraine

I thought with the release of Modern Horizons, Wizards of the Coast would really scale back on printing Modern power-level cards in Standard-legal sets, but clearly they have proved me wrong with Throne of Eldraine.  Here’s a list of cards from Throne that have impacted Modern in a significant way:

Once Upon a Time – A truly dumb card, this has been seeing play in Amulet Titan lists as well as Hardened Scales, which are both decks that benefit from finding key early pieces to have explosive starts.

Oko, Thief of Crowns – I know, I know, you’re probably tired of hearing about the Elk Master, but his addition to the Urza decks has been a huge boon.  He provides extra artifacts for Whir of Invention and deals with opposing threats by elk-ifying them.  While he isn’t universally accepted by Urza players, he seems to be in the majority of lists now as a 4-of.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch – This card sent the Whirza archetype into overdrive as it suddenly gave the deck a huge amount of recursion.  This lets you recast Mishra’s Bauble and Engineered Explosives for repeated value in addition to any other artifact in your graveyard.

Charming Prince has found a home in Humans as well as some Hatebears lists. It gives lots of utility, especially to Humans, since the deck has a lot creatures that have enter-the-battlefield effects.

 

The Top Deck of the Format

If we go by the numbers, Amulet Titan has the most presence out of any deck in the metagame, as Mtggoldfish has it at 5.42%.  Burn hops in at a close second with 4.97%.  Eldrazi Tron and Mono Green Tron are next, with a 4.44% and 3.91% share respectively.  That being said, Oko Whirza seems to be winning an awful lot, and would be my personal choice to enter a big Modern event with.

 

The Underdog

I actually think that a Blood Moon-style deck would be very effective in the current metagame, especially if it packed some artifact removal, maybe in the form of Abrade or Collector Ouphe or something of that sort.  Maybe it’s time to brush off the old Ponza, who knows it could be good again.  And besides, who doesn’t love land destruction?

 

Bans

Honestly if WoTC was going to ban anything in Modern, it should probably be Once Upon a Time.  It’s such a deckbuilding crutch and I honestly just find the card a rather annoying bit of design.  Yes, while I appreciate the flavor of the card, now when I build green-based creature decks I feel obligated to put the card into my deck as there is little cost to it and it smooths out my mulligans.  Is the card actually too high of a power level? Eh, hard to tell, probably, but mostly I despise it as a design.

Ultimately, though, they probably don’t need to ban anything yet.  That being said I think they need to closely watch Oko, Once Upon a Time, and Emry.  I think all three of those cards are dangerous in their own right.  Time will tell I suppose.

 

Anyway, that’s all for this week, what are your thoughts on the format?  Is Oko a problem in Modern too?  Should Once Upon a Time be banned?  Let me know what you think! Until next time, happy brewing!

One Response

  1. Alex

    Oko has broken the format wide open. He makes me uncomfortable bringing burn to FNM. I feel forced to buy more of him as a shoe-in for simic infect, and once upon a time should be thrown in that deck too. Humans feels pretty pushed so i want to play that now.

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