Modern Musings: War of the Spark in Modern Part 2

Hey everyone! Welcome to another Modern Musings!  This week I want to continue where I left off talking about the rest of the cards in War of the Spark that are worth taking note of in Modern.  As with last week I’ll be grading these cards on the likelihood they will see play in Modern.  This is the scale I’ll be using:

• Very Likely
• Likely
• Not Likely
• Very Unlikely

With that out of the way, let’s get into it:

Dovin’s Veto

A Negate that can’t be countered? Yes please.  This is an automatic include into Esper and Blue-White control lists.  This is the best card to draw in the mirror, and will make cards like Ensnaring Bridge much more valuable as they can still deal with this.  If Control becomes more prevalent then it should be interesting to see what kind of sideboard tech emerges to combat this card.

Rating: Very Likely 

Narset’s Reversal

I’m not sure exactly where this fits in but this is a much more versatile Twincast and a kind of weird Remand.  Interestingly, this is potentially not a bad answer to Dovin’s Veto.  If they try to counter your instant or sorcery spell you can cast this on it, bouncing your spell back to your hand while still getting the original effect.  Still, this is probably relegated to sideboards in control or combo decks.

Rating: Not Likely

Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage

Is this guy better than Hardened Scales? No, he is not.  But he is really good with Ensnaring Bridge.  He might give new life to 8-rack, taking the slot previously reserved for Shrieking Affliction.  So while he isn’t better than Liliana, he is pretty good alongside her.  It’s also possible he might pop up in some kind of esper shell as a control finisher in addition to Celestial Colonnade.

Rating: Likely

Karn’s Bastion

Karn’s Bastion is most interesting as a 1- or 2-of in Hardened Scales.  I’m not confidant it’s better than Llanowar Reborn, Phyrexia’s Core, or Inventors’ Fair, but it’s another option and definitely worth testing out. That being said, having 5 mana out with Hardened Scales is a bit of a rarity, but I’ve activated Inventor’s Fair in the deck a number of times, so it can’t be that awful.

Rating: Not likely

God-Pharaoh’s Statue

God-Pharoh’s Statue is definitely one of my favorite cards out of the entire set, and I’m very interested in making it work. This card is basically two Sphere of Resistances shoved together that also only apply to your opponent.  Many decks in Modern don’t really run that many lands, and if you play it on something like turn 3, then it’s unlikely that they will be able to get out from under it before they die. I already have a couple decks I’m interested in slotting this into such as Blue Steel, and Mono Blue Tron.

Rating: Likely

Bolas’s Citadel

I had to read this card a couple times to make sure that I understood it correctly, and it is insane as it seems.  I expect we’ll see some kind of Standard silliness with it, but there is some chance it sees some Modern play as well.  I’ve already seen a few incarnations with Trash for Treasure, Lotus Bloom, Children of Korlis, and Reshape.  I haven’t yet played with the deck, but since the entire thing revolves around Bolas’s Citadel it’s really weak to existing sideboard hate like Nature’s Claim. Because of this I’m skeptical of the viability of the deck, but it looks to me that it’s just a little weaker than Ad Nauseam.

Neoform

Neoform is already seeing play, so making predictions about it is somewhat moot, but I wanted to finish off the review with what is probably the herald of one of the more degenerate decks in recent memory.  Considering what Arclight Phoenix has done to the format, I consider this to be a pretty strong statement. But why is Neoform so busted you ask?  Well, there’s this card from Coldsnap called Allosaurus Rider, that can be played for free. Then you can sacrifice it to Neoform and go get Griselbrand, draw your deck.

You can use Nourishing Shoal + Autochthon Wurm to keep your life total healthy.  Eventually you have enough lands and Simian Spirit Guides that you can cast Lightning Storm to kill your opponent.  Oh yeah, did I mention you can do this on turn 1? More realistically it’s going to be turn 2, but with Chancellor of the Tangle, it makes it much much easier to either go off or set up to go off very early — especially if the London mulligan rule gets implemented. Decks like this will get much better, as they can sculpt their opening hands to their liking.

Rating: Seeing Play

Anyway, that’s it for my Modern review for War of the Spark. Tune in next week when I go over some new decklists using War of the Spark cards!  Until next time, Happy Brewing!