3
Warkite Marauder
Dire Fleet Daredevil
Jungleborn Pioneer
2
Blood Sun
Expel from Orazca
Flood of Recollection
Ravenous Chupacabra
Fanatical Firebrand
Enter the Unknown
1
The rest
Reprints: Negate, Silvergill Adept
This set is pretty heavy on tempting rare 2-drops (Paladin of Atonement, Warkite Marauder, Dire Fleet Poisoner, Dire Fleet Daredevil, Deeproot Elite), but they can't all be good. There doesn't seem to be any good 1-mana spells, which is slightly disappointing (or perhaps expected) after Ixalan gave us Opt. I like Enter the Unknown, but don't think the power level is there.
UG Merfolk is the tribe that will gain the most from Rivals. The lord is the obvious one, but there are a few others that could make the cut like Jadelight Ranger, Jungleborn Pioneer or Swift Warden. I feel like the mana base is pretty weak with 4 Mutavaults and requiring G on turn 1 followed by UU on turn 2 (and 1GG if you're using the new green Merfolk). It's possible that there's a build of UG Merfolk without this weakness. At worst, you could take a mono-blue Merfolk deck and splash 4 Merfolk Mistbinder and 4 Botanical Sanctum.
Blood Sun sounds crazy, but it's nowhere near Blood Moon. When Blood Moon works, it makes your opponent literally unable to cast his spells. It hates on fetches, shocks, Scars/Innistrad duals, manlands, Tron lands, Eldrazi Temple, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle equally. Blood Sun doesn't have the same effect - it hates on a much smaller set of cards, and actually makes shocks and other duals better by ensuring they ETB untapped. Just taking Jeskai for example, Blood Moon hits 19/24 lands while Blood Sun hits 8/24 (12 if you count Colonnade). I suspect Development was aware of this and added the cantrip to compensate.
Card name: number of decks found on mtgtop8 (WARNING: includes MTGO 5-0s, which are not chosen at random)
Ashes of the Abhorrent: 0
Kinjalli's Sunwing: 0
Legion's Landing: 4 Settle the Wreckage: 31
Tocatli Honor Guard: 0
Arcane Adaptation: 0
Chart a Course: 3
Entrancing Melody: 2
Jace, Cunning Castaway: 0
Kopala, Warden of Waves: 8 Opt: 187
Perilous Voyage: 1 Search for Azcanta: 73
Siren Stormtamer: 1
Bloodcrazed Paladin: 0
Costly Plunder: 0
Deadeye Tracker: 0
Dire Fleet Ravager: 0 Kitesail Freebooter: 44
Ruin Raider: 0
Sanctum Seeker: 0
Sword-Point Diplomacy: 0
Wanted Scoundrels: 0
Rampaging Ferocidon: 4
Vance's Blasting Cannons: 0
Carnage Tyrant: 5
Commune with Dinosaurs: 0
Deathgorge Scavenger: 0
Deeproot Champion: 0
Growing Rites of Itlimoc: 2
Kumena's Speaker: 8
Merfolk Branchwalker: 9
Old-Growth Dryads: 0
Ripjaw Raptor: 0 Shapers' Sanctuary: 26
Regisaur Alpha: 0
Dowsing Dagger: 0
Primal Amulet: 1
Sentinel Totem: 0 Sorcerous Spyglass: 22
Treasure Map: 0 Field of Ruin: 58 Unclaimed Territory: 47
Opt is the real deal. Not as good as Serum Visions, but still very powerful. While Sleight of Hand existed in the format before that, only dedicated combo decks were desperate enough to play it. Opt, on the other hand, sees play in both combo decks like Storm and fair decks like Jeskai or Grixis DS.
The card advantage powerhouse known as Search for Azcanta rose to the top of the legendary flip enchantment cycle, beating out the other favorite, Growing Rites of Itlimoc.
The best tribal aggro deck wasn't one of the creature types found on Grim Captain's Call, but Humans. Humans leapt up in tier off just two uncommons, Kitesail Freebooter and Unclaimed Territory. The lesson here is Modern is a synergy-heavy format, and if you have to play a flying Brain Maggot and strictly worse Cavern of Souls to make your deck work, just do it.
UG Merfolk enjoyed some minor success and is set to get better with Rivals.
Field of Ruin saw a good amount of play (58 decks since 29/9/17), though it still lost out by a slim margin to Tectonic Edge (66 decks in the same period). Ghost Quarter remains the LD land of choice (283 decks).
Other cards to make it out of Ixalan are sideboard material: Settle the Wreckage, Shapers' Sanctuary and Sorcerous Spyglass. That's a lot of S's. Like Field of Ruin, Sorcerous Spyglass sees less play than the existing hate (22 decks with Spyglass, 151 decks with Pithing Needle since 29/9/17).
Punisher cards continue to suck, as Sword-Point Diplomacy shows. Don't fall for them.
Jungleborn Pioneer is tempting enough that I think I'll be swapping Swift Warden out for them in my post-RIX UG Merfolk deck. Who needs harder-to-cast, harder-to-time-optimally 3 power's worth of 3-cmc temp-shield Merfolk when I can have easier-to-cast, easier-to-time-optimally 3 power's worth of 3-cmc Merfolk on 2 bodies?
I was actually expecting more support for Dinosaurs. Since nearly everyone I knew just wanted to play dinosaurs to attack and eat things. Dinosaurs really needed a Sol land just for them.
That said I do think Slaughter the Strong is highly playable in a weenie shell. Bob needs this card.
I'm starting to think that Bishop of Binding isn't completely horrid if you're not in Hostage Taker colours. Its pump trigger can target itself, and if you exile Goyf/Delve guy/Primeval Titan/Thought-Knot Seer, this guy already attacks like a boss and can make games swingy. If you exile Death's Shadow with it...hoo boy, time to attack with a 14/14!
1: Merfolk Mistbinder, Jungleborn Pioneer: Yes I'm cheating by putting these merfolk as the joint best cards but both look great for the deck. Mistbinder will probably help cement merfolk as being a top tier deck like humans, and Junglegorn pioneer is great against fair decks since the token is hexproof. Plus Pioneer works super well after any of your 12 Merfolk lords. Expect to see a lot more fish in modern.
2: Warkite Marauder: This card was tailor made for Modern Humans because it's disruption is exactly what humans already want to be doing. Being able to attack on the ground and shrink a Tasigur, the Golden Fang, artifact creature with Arcbound Ravager, Tarmogoyf, Gurmag Angler, Reality Smasher, or Thought-Knot Seer to name a few relevant cards. I expect to see this in the sideboard of human decks at the very least. At the most, this creature might make into tempo strategies.
3: Blood Sun: Another one of the most hyped cards in the set for modern. It turns off the downside of: bounce lands, citp lands and shock lands. Specifically for Tron it turns off Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin. Imho if this sees play it's in Tron to shut off decks that annoy tron and it may see play in a different build of Amulet of Vigor decks that replaces the unique lands for other cards. Looks very promising.
4: Dire Fleet Daredevil: This is probably one of the most hyped cards of the set. I'm not 100 percent sold on the card but it looks really good out of the sideboard. Being able to play against Snapcaster Mage decks for red looks pretty reasonable. I'm not sold on this becoming the next best thing because it's dead mainboard but it looks nice.
Ravenous Chupacabra: This seems really good out of the sideboard is midrange decks. Murder attacked to a Grizzly Bears seems like a nice way for midrange decks.
Jadelight Ranger: This card can do some pretty strong things for a deck with collected company since those decks often have issues with drawing mana dorks in the late game. This also looks good in Saheeli Rai Evolution decks. I have a feeling on this card but I'm not 100 percent on it.
Induced Amnesia: This seems like a combo piece that is waiting to be broken in half. They normally don't experiment with memory jar effects. It's a build around me card that also wants to be ran with stuff like Hatching Plans and Demonic Pact with stuff that break enchantments like Perilous Research, crack the earth, Angelic Purge. This pile of cards is starting to become a deck but it probably needs more.
Thrashing Brontodon: Beefy creature with a naturalize slapped onto it. It looks pretty good for those Mono Green Stompy decks, it's a chord target and hits off of Collected Company. Potentially Maindeckable hate.
Fanatical Firebrand is yet another 1-mana 1/1 Goblin with Haste. It can ping for 1 the turn it ETB, but then it can't attack and it just sacced itself. Will Goblins throw out Mogg Fanatic for it or not?
...
Not a chance. I'd add him to the deck but something less useful than Mogg Fanatic comes out
Slaughter the Strong will probably replace Wrath of God in many decks that are UW. Someone kept his two Wall of Omens and Restoration Angel against my lone Tarmogoyf. Was not a fun game. Seeing how powerful the card can be, I would be surprised if Geist based tempo decks didn't have 1-2 in the sideboard.
I think that Rivals, while not introducing many overtly powerful cards, gave us some potential interesting build arounds that might pop up in the future. They’ll at the very least be fun to brew with. Most of the colored flip lands have some potential.
I think Azor's Gateway might have some use, at least the front half of the card. Ever since Eternal Scourge came out, i was curious to see if it was possible to make a decent/viable control deck that could run both Scourge and Misthollow Griffin as finishers that have no good way to be dealt with. This card seems like it could help a strategy like that, as a cheap source of card advantage, drawing you a card and exiling one of those creatures, which effectively negates its downside. Besides, i always found it funny that a deck like this can potentially run surgical extraction effects like lost Legacy, not only to mess with unfair strategies, but also to effectively "draw" up to 4 cards by targeting yourself.
I think Azor's Gateway might have some use, at least the front half of the card. Ever since Eternal Scourge came out, i was curious to see if it was possible to make a decent/viable control deck that could run both Scourge and Misthollow Griffin as finishers that have no good way to be dealt with. This card seems like it could help a strategy like that, as a cheap source of card advantage, drawing you a card and exiling one of those creatures, which effectively negates its downside. Besides, i always found it funny that a deck like this can potentially run surgical extraction effects like lost Legacy, not only to mess with unfair strategies, but also to effectively "draw" up to 4 cards by targeting yourself.
Misthollow Griffin can never be a finisher, wasting 4-mana on this card is bad even if you can do it reapetedly.
Only reason that Eternal Scourge is playable (though most decks don't run it) is Eldrazi Temple that makes it (effectively) a 2-drop.
I'll be frank, this set feels like the next Mercadian Masques. It's got a few good treasures in it, but the entire set is so weak compared to prior ones (which says a lot given Amonkhet was already a bit of a weak set).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The weird combo/cycle through your deck potential is there with Meerow Reejery, Kumena, Phantasmal Image in addition to any Merfolk. The Deeproot Waters acts almost in the same vein, the secret to this decks success is how lean we can possibly make it. The closer to 18 lands the better, someone also pointed out to me that Merrow Commerce also exists, but I am unsure how much aggro a person is willing to sacrifice in order to make the combo exist.
The weird combo/cycle through your deck potential is there with Meerow Reejery, Kumena, Phantasmal Image in addition to any Merfolk. The Deeproot Waters acts almost in the same vein, the secret to this decks success is how lean we can possibly make it. The closer to 18 lands the better, someone also pointed out to me that Merrow Commerce also exists, but I am unsure how much aggro a person is willing to sacrifice in order to make the combo exist.
Ah, so that's how your testing with Kumena turned out so well--I was suspecting that UG Merfolk would drop nearly all its 3+-cmc Merfolk or perhaps drop them entirely, but you make a good case for generating strong CA with Kumena and other 3-drops. Now I'm thinking about brewing Merfolk Imitating Elves Possibly Badly (Kumena is Heritage Druid if HD drew cards instead of making mana, Merrow Reejerey or Stonybrook Schoolmaster is Nettle Sentinel, I guess Reejerey can also produce mana in a pinch like Kiora's Follower).
In Aggro Folk, I often drew a card a turn with Military Intelligence, and I could pretty much always get Raid for Chart a Course. Since Merrow Commerce makes CA only with Kumena, I think I'd rather stick to the easier-to-generate CA.
EDIT: Turns out that Stonybrook Schoolmaster can't imitate Nettle Sentinel all that well--it needs to be untapped by an ability in order to count for more than two cycles of Kumena tap into cast Merfolk into untap Merfolk.
3
Warkite Marauder
Dire Fleet Daredevil
Jungleborn Pioneer
2
Blood Sun
Expel from Orazca
Flood of Recollection
Ravenous Chupacabra
Fanatical Firebrand
Enter the Unknown
1
The rest
Reprints: Negate, Silvergill Adept
This set is pretty heavy on tempting rare 2-drops (Paladin of Atonement, Warkite Marauder, Dire Fleet Poisoner, Dire Fleet Daredevil, Deeproot Elite), but they can't all be good. There doesn't seem to be any good 1-mana spells, which is slightly disappointing (or perhaps expected) after Ixalan gave us Opt. I like Enter the Unknown, but don't think the power level is there.
UG Merfolk is the tribe that will gain the most from Rivals. The lord is the obvious one, but there are a few others that could make the cut like Jadelight Ranger, Jungleborn Pioneer or Swift Warden. I feel like the mana base is pretty weak with 4 Mutavaults and requiring G on turn 1 followed by UU on turn 2 (and 1GG if you're using the new green Merfolk). It's possible that there's a build of UG Merfolk without this weakness. At worst, you could take a mono-blue Merfolk deck and splash 4 Merfolk Mistbinder and 4 Botanical Sanctum.
Blood Sun sounds crazy, but it's nowhere near Blood Moon. When Blood Moon works, it makes your opponent literally unable to cast his spells. It hates on fetches, shocks, Scars/Innistrad duals, manlands, Tron lands, Eldrazi Temple, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle equally. Blood Sun doesn't have the same effect - it hates on a much smaller set of cards, and actually makes shocks and other duals better by ensuring they ETB untapped. Just taking Jeskai for example, Blood Moon hits 19/24 lands while Blood Sun hits 8/24 (12 if you count Colonnade). I suspect Development was aware of this and added the cantrip to compensate.
Card name: number of decks found on mtgtop8 (WARNING: includes MTGO 5-0s, which are not chosen at random)
Ashes of the Abhorrent: 0
Kinjalli's Sunwing: 0
Legion's Landing: 4 Settle the Wreckage: 31
Tocatli Honor Guard: 0
Arcane Adaptation: 0
Chart a Course: 3
Entrancing Melody: 2
Jace, Cunning Castaway: 0
Kopala, Warden of Waves: 8 Opt: 187
Perilous Voyage: 1 Search for Azcanta: 73
Siren Stormtamer: 1
Bloodcrazed Paladin: 0
Costly Plunder: 0
Deadeye Tracker: 0
Dire Fleet Ravager: 0 Kitesail Freebooter: 44
Ruin Raider: 0
Sanctum Seeker: 0
Sword-Point Diplomacy: 0
Wanted Scoundrels: 0
Rampaging Ferocidon: 4
Vance's Blasting Cannons: 0
Carnage Tyrant: 5
Commune with Dinosaurs: 0
Deathgorge Scavenger: 0
Deeproot Champion: 0
Growing Rites of Itlimoc: 2
Kumena's Speaker: 8
Merfolk Branchwalker: 9
Old-Growth Dryads: 0
Ripjaw Raptor: 0 Shapers' Sanctuary: 26
Regisaur Alpha: 0
Dowsing Dagger: 0
Primal Amulet: 1
Sentinel Totem: 0 Sorcerous Spyglass: 22
Treasure Map: 0 Field of Ruin: 58 Unclaimed Territory: 47
Opt is the real deal. Not as good as Serum Visions, but still very powerful. While Sleight of Hand existed in the format before that, only dedicated combo decks were desperate enough to play it. Opt, on the other hand, sees play in both combo decks like Storm and fair decks like Jeskai or Grixis DS.
The card advantage powerhouse known as Search for Azcanta rose to the top of the legendary flip enchantment cycle, beating out the other favorite, Growing Rites of Itlimoc.
The best tribal aggro deck wasn't one of the creature types found on Grim Captain's Call, but Humans. Humans leapt up in tier off just two uncommons, Kitesail Freebooter and Unclaimed Territory. The lesson here is Modern is a synergy-heavy format, and if you have to play a flying Brain Maggot and strictly worse Cavern of Souls to make your deck work, just do it.
UG Merfolk enjoyed some minor success and is set to get better with Rivals.
Field of Ruin saw a good amount of play (58 decks since 29/9/17), though it still lost out by a slim margin to Tectonic Edge (66 decks in the same period). Ghost Quarter remains the LD land of choice (283 decks).
Other cards to make it out of Ixalan are sideboard material: Settle the Wreckage, Shapers' Sanctuary and Sorcerous Spyglass. That's a lot of S's. Like Field of Ruin, Sorcerous Spyglass sees less play than the existing hate (22 decks with Spyglass, 151 decks with Pithing Needle since 29/9/17).
Punisher cards continue to suck, as Sword-Point Diplomacy shows. Don't fall for them.
What about Rekindling Phoenix ?
Seems like a potentially playable resilient finisher in red midrange decks (like a harder to kill Thunderbreak Regent).
Jadelight Ranger looks promising. Double explore draw two lands or remove two bad topdecks. At worst, it's a 4/3 for 3 mana if you don't want to scry away the top card of the library.
Jadelight Ranger looks promising. Double explore draw two lands or remove two bad topdecks. At worst, it's a 4/3 for 3 mana if you don't want to scry away the top card of the library.
Card is dead unplayable in Modern.
So it's probably an auto include in Mono Green Devotion.
Arch of Orazca sucked in Eldrazi Tron. I kept being 1-2 permanents shy of getting the City's Blessing, and I never got the City's Blessing in testing (not even when I ended the game with this card on the battlefield). I ended up being able to activate Sea Gate Wreckage for profit for several turns in those games in comparison. Back to lands like that instead.
At this point, I predict Arch of Orazca will not be good in G/x Tron, as they use Oblivion Stone too often and they generally stick fewer permanents at a time.
Tilonalli's Summoner was fairly good in the latest Mardu Midrange build, though (the one you see on MTGO with 4 Young Pyromancer and 4 Bedlam Reveler). I replaced the usual 2 Monastery Swiftspear with them (I find this deck can't be the beatdown fast enough to race combo, anyway), and I often had those Summoners nab the City's Blessing for me. Granted, get 5 lands and a Summoner and sink 5 mana into the first Summoner attack and that's 10 permanents by itself. Yes, getting that many tokens wins games, often even with suicide Summoner attacks. The Summoner can be a bit slow and vulnerable, though.
It's sad that I need enablers to make Ascend good, though. Lingering Souls churns out 4 permanents but cannot be my only enabler. Guess Ascend may be stuck in token decks.
I think ascend can work in tokens. I've been looking at twilight prophet as a possible addition as their bob, and I think arch of orazca as a 1 of would be fine in the longer games. Tokens is the only deck I can see reliably getting ascend to work.
I do think tilonalli's summoner is a cool card though and hope it can crack into modern.
What about Rekindling Phoenix ?
Seems like a potentially playable resilient finisher in red midrange decks (like a harder to kill Thunderbreak Regent).
Rekindling Phoenix is an interesting one. It reminds me of Shimmering Glasskite because you need two removals (other than Path) to put it down for good. That said, Shimmering Glasskite is not a playable card, and while Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is, that's because it boosts your whole team. A hypothetical aggro deck that hits 4 lands regularly could use it in the SB. Those decks lose when they run out of gas, and the Phoenix is neverending gas.
Journey to Eternity is way too slow for the ultimate payoff of reanimating something. First you have to cast a dork that can sacrifice itself, enchant it with Journey, then pay 5 mana for your Griselbrand or whatever. Oh, and you need to find a way to dump said Griselbrand into the graveyard too. The one advantage it has over combos like Looting+Vengeance or SSG+Breach is that you can do it multiple times. However, one reanimation is enough to swing the game most of the time, that's the whole point of playing a reanimator strategy after all.
Legion Lieutenant suffers from being in an off color. Merfolk has enough good green Merfolk, but the same is not true of white Vampires.
I don't think they're good either, but at least they're a step above vanilla creatures like Swab Goblin. Disperse with upside always leads to the question "could it replace Echoing Truth?", and the answer to date is "no". If you play it after Empty the Warrens you could make your opponent lose a draw step, but you usually want to play it before Emptying to get rid of the hatebear that's stopping you from comboing off.
Legion Lieutenant being off-color isn't really a problem as we have a multitude of tribal lands (Cavern, U.Territory) now,
and together with Aether Vial you don't even need to splash White in your BR Vampire shell. Skymarcher Aspirant is another decent white vampire 1-drop which has tradinionally been one of the weaker parts of the tribe's curve.
Some more cards tha I think can be playable in Modern are:
#Thrashing Brontodon - decent Qasali Pridemage alternative for non-white decks with a better body than Reclamation Sage.
#Slaughter the Strong - potentially playable removal for control or creature-lite decks like Combo or hatebears/tokens with small creatures.
#Vona's Hunger - in decks that can get to 10x permanents quickly this can be a huge swing with the city's blessing, isn't a horrible card without it as a 3-mana Diabolic Edict. Golden Demise also seems interesting if it can be one-sided in a deck like "WB Tokens" or any deck with Lingering Souls.
#Tetzimoc, Primal Death - an interesting option for black midrange/control decks which offers removal unlike Grave Titan which offers board presence.
#Azor, the Lawbringer - a potential UW finisher (like a bigger Dragonlord Ojutai) though probably too slow and not as powerful as Elspeth, Sun's Champion.
None
4
Merfolk Mistbinder
3
Warkite Marauder
Dire Fleet Daredevil
Jungleborn Pioneer
2
Blood Sun
Expel from Orazca
Flood of Recollection
Ravenous Chupacabra
Fanatical Firebrand
Enter the Unknown
1
The rest
Reprints: Negate, Silvergill Adept
This set is pretty heavy on tempting rare 2-drops (Paladin of Atonement, Warkite Marauder, Dire Fleet Poisoner, Dire Fleet Daredevil, Deeproot Elite), but they can't all be good. There doesn't seem to be any good 1-mana spells, which is slightly disappointing (or perhaps expected) after Ixalan gave us Opt. I like Enter the Unknown, but don't think the power level is there.
UG Merfolk is the tribe that will gain the most from Rivals. The lord is the obvious one, but there are a few others that could make the cut like Jadelight Ranger, Jungleborn Pioneer or Swift Warden. I feel like the mana base is pretty weak with 4 Mutavaults and requiring G on turn 1 followed by UU on turn 2 (and 1GG if you're using the new green Merfolk). It's possible that there's a build of UG Merfolk without this weakness. At worst, you could take a mono-blue Merfolk deck and splash 4 Merfolk Mistbinder and 4 Botanical Sanctum.
Blood Sun sounds crazy, but it's nowhere near Blood Moon. When Blood Moon works, it makes your opponent literally unable to cast his spells. It hates on fetches, shocks, Scars/Innistrad duals, manlands, Tron lands, Eldrazi Temple, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle equally. Blood Sun doesn't have the same effect - it hates on a much smaller set of cards, and actually makes shocks and other duals better by ensuring they ETB untapped. Just taking Jeskai for example, Blood Moon hits 19/24 lands while Blood Sun hits 8/24 (12 if you count Colonnade). I suspect Development was aware of this and added the cantrip to compensate.
Ashes of the Abhorrent: 0
Kinjalli's Sunwing: 0
Legion's Landing: 4
Settle the Wreckage: 31
Tocatli Honor Guard: 0
Arcane Adaptation: 0
Chart a Course: 3
Entrancing Melody: 2
Jace, Cunning Castaway: 0
Kopala, Warden of Waves: 8
Opt: 187
Perilous Voyage: 1
Search for Azcanta: 73
Siren Stormtamer: 1
Bloodcrazed Paladin: 0
Costly Plunder: 0
Deadeye Tracker: 0
Dire Fleet Ravager: 0
Kitesail Freebooter: 44
Ruin Raider: 0
Sanctum Seeker: 0
Sword-Point Diplomacy: 0
Wanted Scoundrels: 0
Rampaging Ferocidon: 4
Vance's Blasting Cannons: 0
Carnage Tyrant: 5
Commune with Dinosaurs: 0
Deathgorge Scavenger: 0
Deeproot Champion: 0
Growing Rites of Itlimoc: 2
Kumena's Speaker: 8
Merfolk Branchwalker: 9
Old-Growth Dryads: 0
Ripjaw Raptor: 0
Shapers' Sanctuary: 26
Regisaur Alpha: 0
Dowsing Dagger: 0
Primal Amulet: 1
Sentinel Totem: 0
Sorcerous Spyglass: 22
Treasure Map: 0
Field of Ruin: 58
Unclaimed Territory: 47
Opt is the real deal. Not as good as Serum Visions, but still very powerful. While Sleight of Hand existed in the format before that, only dedicated combo decks were desperate enough to play it. Opt, on the other hand, sees play in both combo decks like Storm and fair decks like Jeskai or Grixis DS.
The card advantage powerhouse known as Search for Azcanta rose to the top of the legendary flip enchantment cycle, beating out the other favorite, Growing Rites of Itlimoc.
The best tribal aggro deck wasn't one of the creature types found on Grim Captain's Call, but Humans. Humans leapt up in tier off just two uncommons, Kitesail Freebooter and Unclaimed Territory. The lesson here is Modern is a synergy-heavy format, and if you have to play a flying Brain Maggot and strictly worse Cavern of Souls to make your deck work, just do it.
UG Merfolk enjoyed some minor success and is set to get better with Rivals.
Field of Ruin saw a good amount of play (58 decks since 29/9/17), though it still lost out by a slim margin to Tectonic Edge (66 decks in the same period). Ghost Quarter remains the LD land of choice (283 decks).
Other cards to make it out of Ixalan are sideboard material: Settle the Wreckage, Shapers' Sanctuary and Sorcerous Spyglass. That's a lot of S's. Like Field of Ruin, Sorcerous Spyglass sees less play than the existing hate (22 decks with Spyglass, 151 decks with Pithing Needle since 29/9/17).
Punisher cards continue to suck, as Sword-Point Diplomacy shows. Don't fall for them.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
That said I do think Slaughter the Strong is highly playable in a weenie shell. Bob needs this card.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
1: Merfolk Mistbinder, Jungleborn Pioneer: Yes I'm cheating by putting these merfolk as the joint best cards but both look great for the deck. Mistbinder will probably help cement merfolk as being a top tier deck like humans, and Junglegorn pioneer is great against fair decks since the token is hexproof. Plus Pioneer works super well after any of your 12 Merfolk lords. Expect to see a lot more fish in modern.
2: Warkite Marauder: This card was tailor made for Modern Humans because it's disruption is exactly what humans already want to be doing. Being able to attack on the ground and shrink a Tasigur, the Golden Fang, artifact creature with Arcbound Ravager, Tarmogoyf, Gurmag Angler, Reality Smasher, or Thought-Knot Seer to name a few relevant cards. I expect to see this in the sideboard of human decks at the very least. At the most, this creature might make into tempo strategies.
3: Blood Sun: Another one of the most hyped cards in the set for modern. It turns off the downside of: bounce lands, citp lands and shock lands. Specifically for Tron it turns off Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin. Imho if this sees play it's in Tron to shut off decks that annoy tron and it may see play in a different build of Amulet of Vigor decks that replaces the unique lands for other cards. Looks very promising.
4: Dire Fleet Daredevil: This is probably one of the most hyped cards of the set. I'm not 100 percent sold on the card but it looks really good out of the sideboard. Being able to play against Snapcaster Mage decks for red looks pretty reasonable. I'm not sold on this becoming the next best thing because it's dead mainboard but it looks nice.
5: Legion Lieutenant: Already has a deck home in Modern Vampires AND it works with Vampire Nocturnus. This card will do wonders with helping Vampires. Here is a build that Saffron made. (I know that it's saffron but this looks like a decent start for the deck. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/instant-deck-tech-rb-vampires-modern).
Honorable Mentions that may not get there:
Journey to Eternity: Obviously this looks interesting with Sakura-Tribe Elder, but this also looks good with Fulminator mage, Greater Gargadon, Wild Cantor Garza Assassin, Teysa, Orzhov Scion, Insolent Neonate, Liliana, Heretical Healer, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Glen Elendra Archmage, varolz, the Scar-Striped, viscera seer, cartel aristocrat, Yahenni, Undying Partisan, etc. This looks like an interesting build around me card but there doesn't look like there is enough. My gut would be that this wants to be in a more midrangy deck versus an aristocrat deck. I'll be brewing up with this card since I'm a fan of this card in case you couldn't tell.
Ravenous Chupacabra: This seems really good out of the sideboard is midrange decks. Murder attacked to a Grizzly Bears seems like a nice way for midrange decks.
Jadelight Ranger: This card can do some pretty strong things for a deck with collected company since those decks often have issues with drawing mana dorks in the late game. This also looks good in Saheeli Rai Evolution decks. I have a feeling on this card but I'm not 100 percent on it.
Induced Amnesia: This seems like a combo piece that is waiting to be broken in half. They normally don't experiment with memory jar effects. It's a build around me card that also wants to be ran with stuff like Hatching Plans and Demonic Pact with stuff that break enchantments like Perilous Research, crack the earth, Angelic Purge. This pile of cards is starting to become a deck but it probably needs more.
Thrashing Brontodon: Beefy creature with a naturalize slapped onto it. It looks pretty good for those Mono Green Stompy decks, it's a chord target and hits off of Collected Company. Potentially Maindeckable hate.
Silent Gravestone: A card that protects dredge and Living End against random graveyard hate.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Not a chance. I'd add him to the deck but something less useful than Mogg Fanatic comes out
Misthollow Griffin can never be a finisher, wasting 4-mana on this card is bad even if you can do it reapetedly.
Only reason that Eternal Scourge is playable (though most decks don't run it) is Eldrazi Temple that makes it (effectively) a 2-drop.
Azor's Gateway is like a worse version of Search for Azcanta for control decks (it is also worse than Treasure Map and Monastery Siege as far as looting/filtering goes and doesn't fill the GY for snapcaster/tasigur).
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
4 Phantasmal Image
2 Cursecatcher
4 Kumena's Speaker
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
4 Spreading Seas
1 Deeproot Waters
Land
2 Breeding Pool
4 Mutavault
3 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Botanical Sanctum
Artifact
4 Aether Vial
1 Deeproot Waters
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Spell Pierce
2 Unified Will
2 Dismember
2 Natural State
2 Ceremonious Rejection
The weird combo/cycle through your deck potential is there with Meerow Reejery, Kumena, Phantasmal Image in addition to any Merfolk. The Deeproot Waters acts almost in the same vein, the secret to this decks success is how lean we can possibly make it. The closer to 18 lands the better, someone also pointed out to me that Merrow Commerce also exists, but I am unsure how much aggro a person is willing to sacrifice in order to make the combo exist.
We actually already have a card, Resplendent Mentor, although it's far too expensive and fragile for Modern.
Ah, so that's how your testing with Kumena turned out so well--I was suspecting that UG Merfolk would drop nearly all its 3+-cmc Merfolk or perhaps drop them entirely, but you make a good case for generating strong CA with Kumena and other 3-drops. Now I'm thinking about brewing Merfolk Imitating Elves Possibly Badly (Kumena is Heritage Druid if HD drew cards instead of making mana, Merrow Reejerey or Stonybrook Schoolmaster is Nettle Sentinel, I guess Reejerey can also produce mana in a pinch like Kiora's Follower).
In Aggro Folk, I often drew a card a turn with Military Intelligence, and I could pretty much always get Raid for Chart a Course. Since Merrow Commerce makes CA only with Kumena, I think I'd rather stick to the easier-to-generate CA.
EDIT: Turns out that Stonybrook Schoolmaster can't imitate Nettle Sentinel all that well--it needs to be untapped by an ability in order to count for more than two cycles of Kumena tap into cast Merfolk into untap Merfolk.
The question I always have is, if those inclusions are not to "clunky", but I have close to zero clue about Meerfolk.
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
What about Rekindling Phoenix ?
Seems like a potentially playable resilient finisher in red midrange decks (like a harder to kill Thunderbreak Regent).
Journey to Eternity seems like the most playable of the new flip-lands in some kind of midrange-deck like "Abzan Rites" as more copies of the reanimation spell.
It works especially well with: Sakura-Tribe Elder, Fulminator Mage and Qasali Pridemage/Thrashing Brontodon.
Legion Lieutenant can push Vampires to become a real deck especially since they have been getting better creatures in recent sets.
I don't really think that: Expel from Orazca, Flood of Recollection, Fanatical Firebrand or Enter the Unknown are any good for Modern.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
"Explore" just isn't that good of a mechanic.
Card is dead unplayable in Modern.
So it's probably an auto include in Mono Green Devotion.
Arch of Orazca sucked in Eldrazi Tron. I kept being 1-2 permanents shy of getting the City's Blessing, and I never got the City's Blessing in testing (not even when I ended the game with this card on the battlefield). I ended up being able to activate Sea Gate Wreckage for profit for several turns in those games in comparison. Back to lands like that instead.
At this point, I predict Arch of Orazca will not be good in G/x Tron, as they use Oblivion Stone too often and they generally stick fewer permanents at a time.
Tilonalli's Summoner was fairly good in the latest Mardu Midrange build, though (the one you see on MTGO with 4 Young Pyromancer and 4 Bedlam Reveler). I replaced the usual 2 Monastery Swiftspear with them (I find this deck can't be the beatdown fast enough to race combo, anyway), and I often had those Summoners nab the City's Blessing for me. Granted, get 5 lands and a Summoner and sink 5 mana into the first Summoner attack and that's 10 permanents by itself. Yes, getting that many tokens wins games, often even with suicide Summoner attacks. The Summoner can be a bit slow and vulnerable, though.
It's sad that I need enablers to make Ascend good, though. Lingering Souls churns out 4 permanents but cannot be my only enabler. Guess Ascend may be stuck in token decks.
I do think tilonalli's summoner is a cool card though and hope it can crack into modern.
Journey to Eternity is way too slow for the ultimate payoff of reanimating something. First you have to cast a dork that can sacrifice itself, enchant it with Journey, then pay 5 mana for your Griselbrand or whatever. Oh, and you need to find a way to dump said Griselbrand into the graveyard too. The one advantage it has over combos like Looting+Vengeance or SSG+Breach is that you can do it multiple times. However, one reanimation is enough to swing the game most of the time, that's the whole point of playing a reanimator strategy after all.
Legion Lieutenant suffers from being in an off color. Merfolk has enough good green Merfolk, but the same is not true of white Vampires.
I don't think they're good either, but at least they're a step above vanilla creatures like Swab Goblin. Disperse with upside always leads to the question "could it replace Echoing Truth?", and the answer to date is "no". If you play it after Empty the Warrens you could make your opponent lose a draw step, but you usually want to play it before Emptying to get rid of the hatebear that's stopping you from comboing off.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
It is pretty much an improved Flame-Wreathed Phoenix.
Journey to Eternity not only gives you reanimation but is essensially a ramp spells too as it flips into a land so in a deck with mana dorks the 5-mana cost can be rather reasonable.
Here is an example of how the card performs (in a deck built to abuse it) - https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/against-the-odds-four-color-journey-to-eternity-modern
Sure it is pretty slow and rather vulnerable but it has a high ceiling imho.
Legion Lieutenant being off-color isn't really a problem as we have a multitude of tribal lands (Cavern, U.Territory) now,
and together with Aether Vial you don't even need to splash White in your BR Vampire shell.
Skymarcher Aspirant is another decent white vampire 1-drop which has tradinionally been one of the weaker parts of the tribe's curve.
Some more cards tha I think can be playable in Modern are:
#Thrashing Brontodon - decent Qasali Pridemage alternative for non-white decks with a better body than Reclamation Sage.
#Slaughter the Strong - potentially playable removal for control or creature-lite decks like Combo or hatebears/tokens with small creatures.
#Vona's Hunger - in decks that can get to 10x permanents quickly this can be a huge swing with the city's blessing, isn't a horrible card without it as a 3-mana Diabolic Edict.
Golden Demise also seems interesting if it can be one-sided in a deck like "WB Tokens" or any deck with Lingering Souls.
#Tetzimoc, Primal Death - an interesting option for black midrange/control decks which offers removal unlike Grave Titan which offers board presence.
#Azor, the Lawbringer - a potential UW finisher (like a bigger Dragonlord Ojutai) though probably too slow and not as powerful as Elspeth, Sun's Champion.
I don't think that Tilonalli's Summoner is any good, it is pretty much a worse version of Goblin Rabblemaster/Hanweir Garrison
that requires you to sink a lot of mana into it.