Modern: The Format
Modern is the easiest non-rotating format to enter with the smallest entrance barrier from Casual Play to Competitive Grinding. Modern’s card pool only increases and cards usually increase in value the longer they exist.
Modern is a defined format that continues to stimulate the drive of players through the top tier decks and a liberal banned list that is almost always changing.
A note to always be reminded of is how Modern is defined, The Turn 4 Format. No deck should consistently win before turn 4.
The Top Tier decks are those that hold up a high percentage of deck archetypes being played in the format over a constant period of time. These decks are expected to see play at any REL tournament, whether in the winning or losing tables. Learning how these decks work and how to beat them are one of the keys to doing well in Modern. Learn your deck inside and out, each intricacy and mechanic existent. Learn how to play a deck against others, get an understanding of how the matchup works.
The Top Tier Decks:
Affinity
GBx Midrange
Scapeshift
Abzan Pod
Burn
The underdog of the format, Affinity is looked at as the true aggro deck of the format with elements of both combo and tempo. With low-costed cards that alone are weak, but brought together, synergistically in the piece of this deck are incredibly powerful. Affinity can play under a different list, prepared for any meta, and is powerful whether people are prepared for it or not.
GBx Midrange takes forms under different color combinations with a base in both Green and Black. Known to be the most fair deck in the format, the only known deck to play around grinding out the games and the opponent until there are only resources and ways to win on the GBx players side of the board.
Behind the wall of control, Scapeshift is a combo deck at heart that utilizes Ramp and Control elements to hit the needed amount of lands playing straight into a Scapeshift to ultimately win the game. Valakut, the win condition of Scapeshift decks plays entirely around hate and disruption to be a resilient win condition, proving that Scapeshift is a force to be feared.
An engine around the card Birthing Pod, Abzan Pod is a creature-based utility deck that can play both an efficient midrange game or an extremely powerful combo game through synergy with specific cards (Melira, Sacrifice Outlet, Persist Creature) or (Spike Feeder and Archangel of Thune. Prepared to tackle any game and any style of play, Pod is known for hitting around all different corners with strength to back it up.
Why fight fire with anything else than fire? Let’s count to 17 in an opening hand. That is the correct amount to kill just about any player in Modern. Burn plays the best game at dealing the most amount of damage in the least amount of time. To play this deck is based around the math of the opponent’s Life Total and how to bring it down to 0 as fast and efficiently as possible. Try that with spells and creatures.
The Banned List:
Ancestral Vision
Ancient Den
Blazing Shoal
Bloodbraid Elf
Chrome Mox
Cloudpost
Dark Depths
Deathrite Shaman
Dread Return
Glimpse of Nature
Golgari Grave-Troll
Great Furnace
Green Sun’s Zenith
Hypergenesis
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Mental Misstep
Ponder
Preordain
Punishing Fire
Rite of Flame
Seat of Synod
Second Sunrise
Seething Song
Sensei’s Divining Top
Skullclamp
Stoneforge Mystic
Sword of the Meek
Tree of Tales
Umezawa’s Jitte
Vault of Whispers
Each card on the Banned List would define Modern by a singular card. An outlet that would stall the format in such a way that the format became stale. A multitude of decks that neither balance or overpower each other, but a format that is overpowered itself. To keep this from happening, the Banned List is a force of will for Modern to slow down and balance out. These cards, even with printing in Modern Legal sets, are no legality in Modern, thus they are not playable in the format.
Some cards would enable a limited tier of decks to contend against one another, winning too fast before turn 3 or earlier.
Ancient Den
Blazing Shoal
Chrome Mox
Dread Return
Glimpse of Nature
Great Furnace
Hypergenesis
Seat of Synod
Seething Song
Vault of Whispers
]There are cards that have helped to develop decks that became too reliable, consistent or have the power to limit other decks from existing ultimating stagnating the format.
Ancestral Vision
Cloudpost
Dark Depths
Deathrite Shaman
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Mental Misstep
Ponder
Preordain
Punishing Fire
Rite of Flame
Stoneforge Mystic
Sword of the Meek
Umezawa’s Jitte
Cards that push for time in tournaments to last longer than what a round provides are banned because of the stress and constraints that cards would create during a tournament.
Second Sunrise
Sensei’s Divining Top
Importantly, there is only one card that is too strong for its own good. A complete mistake of printing. This card was banned because of how powerful and broken it is, no matter what situation or deck that card is in.
Skullclamp.
The format is only continuing to grow and develop where new decks have the ability to appear, shake the format and cause people to react to that shift. For each player, a deck is suited for his or her style of playing that has at least made an appearance at an MtG sanctioned event. Because of this, any player with appropriate knowledge can learn them intricacies of playing that cannot be read to them. Appropriate for all players: Practice, Learn and Get Better. And I want to help people do just that.
