Pillow Talk MtG 10: Reviewing the Modern Format for Your Next RCQ

Welcome to Pillow Talk, the official competitive Magic the Gathering podcast of Team Pillow Fort! This week, Jonathan and Austin review the top meta decks of the Modern format to prepare you for the upcoming RCQ season. With the competitive scene focused on Standard for so long, this is an essential crash course in choosing the right deck for you that can also win your RCQ. Thank you as always for listening!

Team Pillow Fort's Twitter: https://x.com/TPillowFortMTG 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Welcome to PillowTalk, the official podcast of Team Pillow Fort MTG. I am your host, Jonathan Johnson, aka Tanuki JJ, and with me as always, Austin Walker. All right, Austin. We are in a little bit of a transition phase. Not a lot of big events, and we are leaving the standard RCQ season, which we've been in for a while, a couple of uh different standards with bands and everything. And we are filtering back into modern. So we wanted to talk about what the modern format looks like and give a little bit of a breakdown. Austin, do you want to kind of explain what we're doing and why?

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Yeah, so uh we've got modern RCQs that are starting up pretty soon within the next couple weeks, I believe, uh at the time of posting this video. And um we just want to kind of go over some of the uh different archetypes. We want to talk about you know where where they're positioned, what their win rates are, um, and uh, you know, may maybe give a little bit of insight as to what you should be playing or uh decks to look at if you know you are on X standard deck or Y standard deck, whatever. Um just to kind of help you guys prepare for the upcoming modern season.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Great. So do we just hit the punchline, tell them to play 8-WAC Goblins and call it an episode?

SPEAKER_02 1:36

As as fun as that would be, uh, I think I think there's a little bit more that we could talk about.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

All right. Well, maybe if I get two quick invites, I'll uh bring 8-WAC to an RCQ for funsies.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

I'll build it for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

There we go. All right, so we're gonna start off just kind of going through the top of the metagame, and I think probably the most obvious deck in Modern that you're going to see and see a lot is Boros Energy.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yeah, and Boris Energy has kind of been called the jund of the format uh over the last year or so, uh, maybe even a little bit longer. Um, but it's it's really just like it's got a lot of even matchups, it does a fairly straightforward, fair game plan, um, and uh just tries to you know get get wins through um one for one in your your opponent with the the little bit of spot removal that it has, and then uh using your um your cards like a Johnny and uh maybe an early ragavan to to get some card advantage, and then using cards like Goblin Bombardment to close out the game.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yeah, I I think uh you know, for for those of you who aren't old enough listening to this podcast to remember when Jund was actually a good deck. Um us boomers will refer to that because at one point that mid-range deck was was a reasonable choice. Um but Boros, basically MH3 tribal, you have really good interaction, you have a very pro good proactive game plan, and pretty good disruption. Things like Blood Moon can do a lot of damage in the format. Uh so for decks that are being a little bit greedy, sometimes you can just get free wins by cheesing them out with the Blood Moon. I think it's also worth noting that you get some of the best sideboard cards in the format because you're you're playing white. So you can sort of skew your deck to beat some of your bad matchups. Much like everything else, you can't necessarily beat everything, but if you need to target something that you're worried about, Boros gives you the colors to be able to do that while still being really proactive and getting your opponent dead.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah. Um yeah, I I I think that that uh Boros is is definitely the better of the creature mid-range decks in the format, and and honestly, maybe one of the only ones. Like I'm I'm looking down through, and you know, you could you could make some arguments for some some others being kind of a creature mid-range deck, but yeah, I think that I think that Boros is is definitely toward the top of that list.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Do you think it's the best deck in the format?

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Um I I don't. Um I I I know that that people could argue uh that it is, and and I could definitely see where they're coming from. Um just because it doesn't have a lot of bad matchups, um, but I I I think that people have been playing against Boros Energy for long enough, and it's been doing kind of the same thing for long enough that it probably has the biggest target on its back of all of the decks in modern. Uh, I think that it's really kind of the golden standard of where you have to be when you're bringing a deck to a tournament. Uh I don't think that anybody is really bringing decks that are not good into Boros Energy to their RCQs. So I I think that it it's kind of, like I said, it it is the standard deck to beat right now.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

So what if I don't want to do the math to figure out how many cats I'm supposed to make?

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Well uh I don't recommend you play Oslo Pride.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

The card's so good. Once you get to the city's blessing, it's like, oh wait, how many is this? It's like, oh, this uh this many? And it's so much easier on Magic Online. It's just, oh, I have a bunch of cats. That's how many I have.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Great. Yep, yep. I've got two Oslot Prides and I attacked with a voice of victory. How many tokens do I have? Yep. The answer is I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yep. The answer is however many Magic Online gives me. Um so if your F and M boss or your RCQ in boss is playing Boros Energy, Austin, what are you bringing to try to beat it?

SPEAKER_02 5:28

So uh I I I'm I'm actually not I'm not positive that there's like any one deck specifically that I'm like, yeah, I'm bringing this deck specifically to beat Boros Energy. Um, you know, the the the cards that I'm bringing are cards like Pyroclasm, um, and you know, anything that that is cheap and gets rid of a lot of creatures at one time, uh, I think is a good place to start. Um, but I I don't think that there's really like a single deck that's like, oh, this deck just you know craps on on Boros Energy.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

I think that the thing that you want to be doing is is probably just playing Wrath of Disguise. I think that that's a pretty good card against the strategy. Uh the data shows that the the decks with the best matchups against Boros Energy are going to be Esper Reanimator, so Goryos, uh Tameshi Belcher, and Eldrazi Ramp. So of the more popular decks, it's a pretty small sample size in terms of the data. People really haven't cared about Modern all that much, so I'm not sure how much they're trying, but uh those are the decks that at least in the last you know month or two have had a decent win rate uh against energy.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yeah, yeah. And and I I think if if Boris Energy is something that you you might be looking at maybe getting into, if you're just getting into Modern for the first time and you're like, ah, maybe I'd like Boris Energy. Um I I would compare it to uh probably it's closest to like Demir mid-range from from standard. Uh if if you're a Demir gamer, you like casting creatures on one and two, and then you know landing some type of um you know good threat like Kaido on three, then I think Boris Energy is probably gonna be up your alley. You know, you've got the same type of like play Guide of Souls on one, a Johnny on two, or or Oslot Pride on one, a Johnny on two, and then Fage on three. I think that there are a lot of very similar play patterns, so that's probably what what I would recommend if you know if if you're looking to make the jump into modern.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yep, it's a very good deck. I think it's one that it is rarely going to be a mistake. So it has had points where it's got a very good win rate, sometimes where it drops down a little bit, but it's been pretty unusual for that deck to just be a really poor choice with nobody doing well. I do think that the floor for that deck is very high, meaning if you play it poorly, you're still gonna do reasonably well. Yeah. But the ceiling is also quite high. So the better Boros players do tend to perform extremely well. So there's a lot to be able to learn with it, a lot of sequencing things, a lot to to do. So I I wouldn't just try to take it and then run to an important event. I would try to put the reps in and make sure that you understand the deck well.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah, yeah. But if if you do happen to just pick it up or you know, you're looking to go to your first RCQ and and you know you've got a buddy who has Boros Energy just sitting in a deck box in the bag, um, I think that there's still a lot that you can that you can do. You'll be able to pick up some free wins just by casting one drop, two drop, three drop.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yep, I think it's uh pretty reasonable.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Alright. Wanna move to the next deck? Yeah, um, so it looks like our next deck is Affinity, and uh I man, if if memory serves, you you know a thing or two about Affinity, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I am a Mox Opal enjoyer, one of my all-time favorite cards, and I think Affinity was actually my first real modern deck. I did play some trash before that, but the first good deck that I picked up where I actually was playing something that was top tier was Affinity. Although modern day Affinity decks look quite a bit different than the ones than the Affinity deck did back then. No vault scourge, pretty seldom that you're even playing Ornithopter, no cranial plating. But what you're really trying to do is use the power of cards like Urza Saga for your late game, but early game, you have the pinnacle emissary to turbo out a kappa cannoneer. And there's a lot of ways to kind of go about it, but getting out a turn one or a turn two kappa that has ward four, very hard to deal with, and is usually unblockable because of the the triggered ability with an artifact entering, you've got a lot of artifacts to be able to make that trigger. So the nut draw in this deck is incredibly hard to beat.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Yeah. Yeah, I I think I think that when you're playing this deck, you are definitely looking for a really good clean seven to just put a bunch of pieces of cardboard on the table.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

It definitely true. It's kind of a tough one because you have to understand what hands are in the range of keepable and where they're going to go. But the deck does not mulligan very well. So you can't really go down too far. I mean, I remember when we posted our Mulligan Mondays on Twitter, and you know, we were talking about the affinity deck back before Vegas, and someone quipped, and I thought it was actually kind of funny. He said, It's affinity, you already mulliganed, you just lose. And I will while I don't think that's necessarily true, going to five with this deck does feel much worse than with some others. Now you do get new cards like Krang. Some people have played Thought Cast in the past, but most lists right now are not even playing those cards at all.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

That's that's interesting. Um I've I've been seeing a lot of talk about uh the the new Krang card, um, but I I haven't I haven't played against any affinity recently, so um I I didn't know if that was something that was a a pickup or if that was just kind of you know a fad for a hot minute flash in the pan, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

I I think people wanted to try it. It's a new a new threat, which is obviously nice, um, but it doesn't have any evasion, which is something that affinity's traditionally you know done back in the day. It was with you know flyers and you know a cranial plating attached or um an etch champion or something like that. Now it's Kappa Cannoneer. But you do get uh Emery, which has been in and out of favor with uh with Affinity, but it does give you the ability to just grind value, being able to bring back your Mistress Bobble every turn and basically draw two cards a turn just to try to get towards your end game. And you get weapons manufacturing as well, which is kind of like Pinnacle Emissary but slower, but it creates the tokens to where if you can get rid of them, you can do two damage, so you just get to shock any target. So that can wipe a board from your boros opponent, or it can just straight up go face. So there's been a lot of times where you just find a way to get 10 uh of the munitions tokens, put down an engineered explosives on zero, crack it, and you dome your opponent for 20.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

And there's now in most lists a singleton or two arcbound ravager. So um back in the day you used to put take the arcbound ravager to put it on your ink both nexus and one-shot your opponents. Now you can use it as just another way to eat all of those munitions tokens for free.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Yeah, I remember Ravager being a menace back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

The the Ravager math was what made the deck so difficult to play. You know, your opponents are attacking and you're trying to determine blocks, and a lot of the times you were just dead regardless. So um Right. Now, yeah, the deck the deck is, I think, a little more straightforward than some of those lines before. Um there there are some interesting sequencing pieces to it. It does have the issue of folding to some common hate cards. It's not like Stony Silence back in the day, which shut down your deck completely. Obviously, it would do something, but it doesn't stop a Kappa Cannoneer from from doing some work. But Wrath of the Sky is just really, really good against this deck.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, so much is is just zero mana, and if you can especially if you're the wrath player on the play, um, you know, if if you if you land a a turn two wrath after your opponent has just dumped a million cards onto the table, then it feels like you're you're in a really, really good spot. I I've actually played um Kataki against that deck in the past to great effect. If they have the weapons manufacturing, it's a little bit more awkward. Um, but I think I think that Kataki has been really, really cool as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Kataki is uh one of my least favorite cards of all time. Yeah. I've had many sad moments for that. Um I I do think that you know one thing to keep in mind with this deck, and this is by no means to say that I won't play it, but it is something to be aware of that sometimes the interaction lines up in ways that makes it hard for you to have a whole lot of control over it. So if you're on the draw, for instance, and you're playing against Boros Energy or against maybe Zoo or other decks with you know cheap or free interaction like Solitude, you might have a hand that could turbo out a kappa, but you play your pinnacle emissary in response to your first artifact and your first trigger, they kill it, and your your hand went from looking like you could play a kappa on turn one or two to effectively doing a whole lot of nothing. And that can be a little frustrating. So I think you just have to realize what you're signing up for. There are times where it feels a little bit like a mulligan simulator, but I do think it's a skill-intensive deck. If you pilot it well and understand how to mulligan and how to sequence, you can do really well with Affinity. And I think it's a super reasonable choice for RCQs and for really any big event.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Yeah, I I agree. I think I think the deck is very good. Um as as we've said in the past, um, if if you want to play the lottery, then play Affinity, uh, because you you definitely do have to get lucky. Uh, but it it definitely will favor you uh if if you're winning the matchup lottery and you're you're keeping good sevens, then you you're gonna be in a really good position.

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SPEAKER_00 15:38

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SPEAKER_00 15:50

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SPEAKER_02 15:56

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SPEAKER_00 16:03

So if you want to beat Affinity, what do you bring in?

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Um man, I from from what I understand, some of the more uh linear combo decks like Storm and Titan uh are are typically favored against them, I I believe, just because uh I I think that you know uh Affinity if if they land a turn two kappa um and Storm goes off on turn three, they just really don't have enough interaction to to deal with that. So I I think I think I'm probably bringing a very linear, fast, straightforward combo deck.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yeah, I think uh it it is really difficult to beat Amulet Titan with this deck. Um traditionally I've packed two Ashioks in my sideboard. Uh that's a card that amulet players absolutely hate. And when you finally get to beat your bad matchup and it's because of Ashiok, which is an incredibly frustrating way to lose, it it makes you feel a little bit better for all the times that they just absolutely paced you. So uh Affinity players, if you expect Titan, bring your Ashioks. Sorry, Reed, uh, but that card's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Yeah. Uh speaking of combo decks, next on our list is Ruby Storm, which is definitely making uh more of a resurgence, it feels like, online. At least I've been seeing a lot more of it online. Uh talk to me a little bit about RubyStorm. I hate this deck.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

It's uh oh man. So Storm is traditionally good against all of the things that I like to do. So even when Storm isn't very good, I just lose to it all the time. And it's an extremely powerful spell-based combo deck, and you have a lot of ways to just turbo out really early wins. Uh, I believe there's even ways to technically win on turn one. So you have the gemstone caverns, so on the draw, where you can effectively start off with two mana, ritual out a medallion or a row, and then just start chaining off your spells. Now they use a lot of quote draw effects that are just the you know Ren's resolve types where you exile two cards and then you get to play them. And uh I think that this deck is something that you need to put a little bit of work into specifically for post-sideboard games. Uh game one, it's pretty easy just to be able to combo off, have the cards, and win. But what gets really tricky is playing around hate cards. But this deck is really fast. Um, it it can just kill you on turn two or three quite consistently, like you had mentioned earlier with Affinity. They can rattle off, and they don't really care about your turn two kappa. So you're very good against Affinity, you're pretty good against decks like Jess Guy Blink. You're also uh traditionally supposed to be, I think, pretty favored against Amulet Titan. So you're beating up on a lot of the other decks, but you do struggle with really heavily interactive decks, and that makes it so that the matchup spread, to me, is is not particularly attractive for a really big event. But if you expect something more narrow, RubyStorm does just beat up on a lot of decks.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Yeah, yeah. And and notably if you're playing against people who are not super experienced in playing against Ruby Storm, um, there are definitely some key interaction points that uh your opponent is able to mess up, and it's not always super obvious to people who are not really comfortable with the matchup. Um, so you you can definitely pull out some free wins there as well. Um But yeah, I I I don't know. It feels like my Ruby Storm opponents always have one more uh cost reducer than I have a room removal spell. Or if if I have the disenchant, they always have the row, or if I have the fatal push, they always have the the Ruby, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Um forget that. They just have Aurum's chant, and you've only got one counter magic, and just you just get to sit there and watch them do it, and they're just rolling the dice for for the row triggers and stuff. Oh man. Um I I think if you're a combo deck enjoyer or you love spells-based decks, uh, this is certainly a deck that you can play. I I personally, and this isn't just because I don't like this kind of deck. Um, I'm a big believer that magic is for everyone. So I'm allowed to like the things that I like and dislike things, and that doesn't mean that they're not cool for other people. So if you love this kind of deck, I mean, by all means, specialize in it, uh become you know really proficient with it. I think it's risky to take this to a really big tournament where you expect a very broad meta game because there's just a lot of matchups that are going to be really rough. Your matchup spread is not particularly great, but in a more narrow meta, I think that this is a deck that can really prey on people.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yeah, I agree. Um and and also just just wanted to point out too that RubyStorm, it seems like has uh uh wildly uh varying uh win rate percentages. Um, you know, like w RubyStorm can be 45% one week and and 60% the next week. Um and and it it kind of ebbs and flows a little bit. So um, you know, if if you're the type of person that wants to just stick to this deck long term and and get really, really good with it, then there are gonna definitely gonna be times when you are going to be you know winning all of your matchups, and there are gonna be times when you're winning very few of them. Um so so just just be aware of that. Uh but if if you're if you're somebody who you know moves with the meta, then be prepared to to jump in and out of this deck quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

For sure. Alright. Let's move to something that's a little more my speed. Let's talk about Jess Guy Blink.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Yeah, I love this deck.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Me too. I I Jess Guy colors are my favorite colors. I love is it decks primarily, but if I'm gonna play a different color, it's gonna be white. So you put all of them in there, and you have Ragavan, which is again one of my favorite cards. Uh, I think that this deck is one of the premier mid range decks in the format. And you have the ability to interact. You can interact very efficiently with things like soft. Solitude, you have great card advantage by it with things like Felia and your Riddlers, being able to blink them and cheese out a creature early. And there's just a lot of ways to be able to outvalue your opponents. Now, this deck was falling out of favor for a little while, and people had kind of figured it out post you know uh Houston and Vegas. But what happened is we have a new card, Casey Jones, where you have a pretty good body and the ability to draw three cards. A lot of times you can just play those cards out, so the discard effect doesn't even really hit you, or you can just consign the trigger. So being able to have a replacement for Fable, which is pretty slow, to just get some real raw card advantage and a body that's a little more impactful. Uh I think Casey Jones has brought this deck back to where it's been seeing quite a bit of uh play online and to pretty good results.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Yeah, I think Casey Jones is a really cool addition to this deck. Like you said, having the ability to consign that trigger turns your consigned memory into functionally an ancestral recall, right? Um and and so so yeah, I'm I'm super high on this card for sure. Uh I haven't played the deck yet uh with with this new iteration, but I I'm really excited to to take a look at it. Um but also like you said, it's it's not hard to be just emptying your hand. I mean, if you draw three cards and it's solitude white card ephemerate, then like you can just play those cards out and and you know if it it's it's not hard to go hellbent with this deck at all uh when you're you know pitching cards to to um solitude. So so yeah, I I'm I'm a I'm a big fan of this deck. I think it's really cool. Uh also works very well with Riddler as well. You know, if you draw three and you know, worst case scenario is you have to discard three, but one of the cards that you drew was a quantum riddler, uh then you know, being able to play it for two to draw two more cards, like there are just so many like micro synergies, I guess, with this deck that that just add up to a really potent threat.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

You could also just ephemerate your Casey Jones, too. And you draw three more cards. So with with that trigger, it's the beginning of your upkeep, right? Can you ephemerate it with the flashback first? Can you stack those to ephemerate the Casey Jones before the discard trigger? So effectively you've drawn nine cards before you discard at random?

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Yes, yeah. Um and and uh notably you will still have to discard nine cards, um, but you can time it so that you can uh draw. So let's say you play the Casey Jones uh on your turn, on your opponent's turn you ephemerate it, draw three more, and then on your upkeep, you are able to stack it so that you can ephemerate again to draw the three and then discard. But remember that you will have two discard triggers, so you will have to discard six cards. Okay. Um but but when when you're playing four flages, like that's not terrible. You know, it's it's gonna be pretty easy to to dig for a flage and five cards that you don't care about and just flash it back.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Yeah, I was more thinking cons consigning it because if if you if you're drawing nine cards with four consign in your deck, there's a pretty good chance that you're gonna have the ability to consign that trigger.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Yeah, yeah. And and because of because of the the additional cost on consign, you can actually consign both of them too. So yeah, that's that's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

So uh that that's pretty gross. Uh I will I will take a screenshot and I will post it on Twitter for all of our listeners. The first time that I do that with Casey Jones, I will uh I will post a screenshot. So I I do think that this deck has some weaknesses. Uh it its affinity matchup is not amazing, and I I do think that that's a matchup that's relatively fixable. Uh I did see that Ginger was playing March of Otherworldly Rut Light over Prismatic Ending, which is pretty cute to deal with Urza sagas. Um I think that that matchup is probably not the best. Uh I think historically that you really struggle against Gorios as well is is a pretty tough matchup.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Yeah, uh you really don't have a ton of interaction for Gorios outside of just your four main deck consigns, which which are pretty good, but certainly not like you know game ending or lights out against Gorios by any means. Um and so, you know, you you can you can try to outgrind them, but as soon as they get back their Atraxa and you know functionally draw six cards plus ephemerate to draw another six cards or whatever it is, you know, then you're you're gonna fall behind on cards pretty quick.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah, I think that the the cool thing about the blink deck is that it has game against just about everything, and you can build your sideboard similar to Boros Energy, because again, white has the best sideboard cards. You you can with all the colors that you have with consigns and everything, and all the white sideboard cards, you can do a whole lot to try to fix a matchup if you're worried about one thing in particular, but as always, you can't fix everything. Um this deck, pretty solid. It's not so I will say, unlike Boris Energy, I don't think the floor is very high. I think if you play this deck poorly, that you're not gonna have a good time. Um there's a lot of lines to it, there's a lot of sequencing, there's a lot of you know unique ways that it plays out. I think this is a deck that you have to put the reps in. If you're gonna be a Jeff Sky Blink player, you need to make sure that you're putting in the work. I I would not just pick this up blind and try to go to an event that's important to me and expect to do particularly well.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah. Um, so what do we have next? It looks like we have got Tron next. And we've got a bunch of variations of Tron. Um do we want to just kind of lump Tron in with all of the Eldrazi variants like green red ramp, green red, eldrazi, mono-green eldrazi, whatever variants we have.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Yeah, as long as we talk a little bit about the ramp version, um, I think that that's fine. We can talk about Tron and Big Mana because the the Tron decks are primarily what we used to call Eldrazi Tron. It's not uh so much uh you know, traditional Tron deck where you're trying to carn on turn three and take someone's land. I mean they're still trying to one, two, seven, but you know, now that you have the Ugin's Labyrinth and more ways to ramp, it's not as critical or important that you even have Tron on turn three.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Right. Um yeah, so so these these are your big mana decks. Um, you know, you you are trying to uh uh obviously uh break your your lands by playing uh your your uh three Urza's lands, but also like you said, you have Ugin's Labyrinth and Eldrazi Temple as well that both cap for two mana almost always. And so um, yeah, you're playing cards like uh Devour of Destiny oftentimes. Um you're playing the uh latest Ugin from the uh Dragonstorm, uh which which you know is just kind of a a house by itself. Uh you're still playing Karn, but it's it's the other Karn. You're playing four mana karn, uh typically with with a big Karn wishboard, so that you you've got a bunch of one-of-artifacts in your sideboard, and you know, just kind of toolboxing for for whatever you need. Um Glaring Fleshraker often will make an appearance in some of the more colorless based uh Eldrazi decks, um, just as a way to uh get more mana but also provide a threat that um is kind of unassuming. And then you're also playing in almost all of these decks, you're playing for Coslex Command, which is kind of like one of the cards that really pulls the the weight of the deck, you know, being interact at instant speed.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

That card is very good.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you you haven't been able to interact at instant speed often with these types of decks. So having Coslex Command to do something at instant speed, whether you are disrupting your opponent's graveyard, whether you're just making a bunch of 1-1s with the glaring f flesh raker out to essentially fireball your opponent, or um, you know, being able to just whatever you do, you can also tack on scry and draw a card. Uh so yeah, there's there's just a lot of flexibility with that card for sure.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

Yeah, I think, you know, and this is not this is not in any way meant to be a slight, but I think that this is a feature of of Tron. If you're not a modern player or someone who's just it's just you're you're playing it because that's the format for the season and you want to try to qualify. Tron is not a hard deck to play. So you can pick up Tron, you can learn the lines, and it's reasonably powerful, the matchup spread is pretty decent. You're actually quite good into you know a number of reasonably popular decks, or at least somewhat even. And if you're someone who doesn't want to have to think about just becoming a master of a deck in a format that's maybe not your cup of tea, Tron's a pretty easy pick-up and play deck, and it's not an embarrassing thing to bring uh really to any tournament if you're if you're playing the format.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Now, I I have maybe a hot take, and I'll be interested to hear what your thoughts are. Um, but I think that if I were to compare Eldrazi Tron to a standard deck, I think the deck that it compares closest to would probably be Mono Green Landfall. What are what are your thoughts about that?

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Yeah, I think that that's fair. Um I I think that the differences are are that this is much easier to play. So, you know, maybe it's more like Cub. Um I don't think Cub is necessarily easy to play, but landfall can be really tricky, and there's a lot of sequencing errors and things you can do. Uh the Tron deck is is one 127, right? You know, you're you're trying to play your big dumb things and you're just kind of jamming it into counter magic most of the time, and you're you gotta make them have it. Um yeah. So from that perspective, it it is you're trying to just really go over the top of people uh in terms of what you can do for that mana advantage, and I think that that's pretty similar to the different cub decks, whether that be landfall or uh simic cub, you know, the the rhythm decks.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Yeah. I've had I've had cub players go one, two, seven against me in standard, so it's uh I recall you not a crazy comparison.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

I recall you dying at an RCQ to a crater of demon. I I remember getting a text message, I just died in turn three to a crater hoof. I was like, ah yes. Yep, magic is healing. Yep, I I don't know that healing is the word I'd use, but maybe I I was rooting for you to win that top eight, but I'm not gonna lie, it it made me smile. Uh getting hoofed on turn three in standard. Uh I I laughed. I thought that was pretty funny. And I proceeded to play the same person uh or at least the same deck the following week in a different RCQ.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Right. So um what uh what cards or decks are you looking to play if you are trying to beat Tron?

SPEAKER_00 32:35

So I I know that Amulet traditionally has a pretty good matchup into the red-green ramp decks. I I think it's less less favorable with Tron. Uh a deck like Affinity is usually pretty decent against Tron, as long as they're not for some reason playing like four main deck vexing baubles or something crazy. And uh really linear combo decks like Belcher that also have counter magic are pretty difficult for them to deal with. Because you can easily play lots of counters, you can play lots of consigns, and you just have a fast clock to where if they don't interact with you, you're probably gonna die on turn four. So uh Belcher, if if I had to pick one, would probably be a really good choice. Uh, I think Affinity's got a pretty good matchup there historically as well.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Yeah. So but before we get off Tron uh as a as a whole, um, what are some differences that you think are worth highlighting between the green red ramp deck versus like the colorless uh Eldrazi Tron deck?

SPEAKER_00 33:31

So I do think that the ramp deck is probably slightly less powerful in terms of just what you're going over the top of everyone, but you do have a lot more play. So being able to play the JED, being able to go get an emrakole, you're trying to fill your graveyard to sort of finish by, you know, basically taking your opponent's turn. And it's really fun to take your opponent's turn if you've never done that. Um you can be pretty obnoxious with the land destruction. So a lot of times with the sowing micospawns and um you know all the ways that you can just exile people's lands and and their their stuff. It's a deck that I think you could really learn to play well. It also interacts better early on with small creatures because you get the the uh Kozalex return. So the fact that you can flash that back to be able to wipe a board late, uh it does give you a little bit more play in the sense that you have a a turn to sort of pyroclasm effect that can also be better later. So if I had to pick one of these two, I would probably play the red-green Eldrazi ramp deck. Uh recently they've actually been splashing white and playing Naya for Aurum's chant. So uh I can't remember I can't remember who it was, uh, but in our Discord they were saying whoever whichever one of you told somebody to put Orim's chant in their Eldrazi deck, stop it. Um it's it's a very rude card, but quite powerful.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Yeah. Um so next on our list is Prowess, and as you might imagine, uh has definitely some similarities between uh this and the standard version of Prowess. Very similar. Uh talk to me a little bit about Prowess.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Well, I mean, you've played this deck a lot more than I have. I know last season you were playing it quite a bit, but it does have a couple of my favorite cards in uh Dragon's Rage Channeler. And effectively what you're trying to do is present a really fast clock. It's got pretty good interaction, you've got mutagenic growth, you've got uh good card filtering with your Dragon's Rage Channeler, and you're really just trying to get your opponent dead. So if you are an aggressive player by nature, you enjoy playing the kinds of decks that are just trying to win the game uh pretty quickly, prowess is a great way to do it. I think you have to be a little bit careful because I think in standard, the prowess deck, the floor is a little bit higher in terms of playing it well versus not playing it well. There is a huge difference in my experience in someone who really knows how to play prowess versus not. And understanding when to sacrifice lands with lava dart, you know, when to go all in, when to sort of take your time and wait, maybe put a slick shot on plot, uh, expressive iteration a time or two to try to get that sort of pinnacle turn. You can put a lot of pressure on people just with the the Corey Steel Cutter plan and just kind of come in and kill them all in one shot later. So if you just spew too quickly, I think it can be a big mistake.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Yeah, and and that's been my experience as well. I I remember playing against Prowess before I was playing it, and when you look at Lava Dart, it's so funny because it reads like such a terrible card, you know, like a single mana to deal a single damage is not a good rate, right? And then flashing it back to deal one more point of damage to uh but but you have to sacrifice a land in order to do it, like that that seems horrendous, you know? Like, why wouldn't you just play something like burst lightning, for example? You know, you you get two damage and you don't have to sack a land for it, it's still the same mana investment. But honestly, like what when you start playing the card Lava Dart, you understand why it's so good, and just getting a free spell is so impactful, especially obviously in a deck like Prowess, where you know you you've got so many things that benefit from that, um, but also it being a way to just surprise, put a land in the graveyard for uh Dragon's Rage Channeler to turn it from a 1-1 into a 3-3 is very strong. Um and um, you know, uh again, the the delirium for uh Unholy Heat, Violent Urge, uh some of those other cards as well, uh, very, very strong. And so so yeah, it it it uh so many of the cards in the deck just look so bad. Um, but when you put them together, they they work very well. Um and and obviously, you know, like I said, it's it's got a lot of similar ties to standard prowess. Um, you know, you've got your one mana prowess creature, uh, this one has haste, which is great. Uh you've got your slick shot show-offs, which are obviously uh in in standard right now too, um, and just dealing a whole bunch of damage in the air. Um, so that evasion is very relevant. But then, you know, you've also got like your your preordains, which act kind of like your sleight of hands, and um, you know, you've you've got uh lightning bolts which act sort of similar-ish to your burst lightnings. Expressive iteration is is kind of a two-mana stock up in in a sense. Um so definitely definitely a lot of similarities there. Uh but yeah, this obviously being in modern is just a much faster version of that deck.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Yeah, I think that the the trouble it has is that it does have a weaker matchup into a few of the more popular decks. So it's it's less bad against energy than it used to be. It's not that great against Affinity, it's not that great against Jesguide Blink, and it's not that great against Amulet Titan. But you do have really good matchups into a few other archetypes. So if you're a very aggressive player, uh personally, I would probably play Boros Energy over this. Um it has, I think, an aggressive game plan that's you know a very high power level as well, but I think it's got a lot better mid and late game. Um but if the blue spells are your jam, is that prowess is your thing, and you want to kind of take that analog from standard into modern, it's a very reasonable deck. Uh one that you want to put some some matches into, but it's gonna have a relatively similar feel to it if that's the kind of deck you like to play. So the next deck is an interesting one in Amulet Titan. Uh Amulet Titan is not a deck that you recommend to anybody. Uh it's a deck that I have put time into learning. It is not a deck that I am particularly drawn to at this moment in time. But the people who know this deck are really passionate about it. And they love the deck. It's extremely powerful. I think that the win rate sometimes shows a little bit arbitrarily low because it's very easy to fumble through with this deck and just play it really, really poorly and screw it up. Um what are your thoughts on Amulet Titan?

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Yeah, all of that. Um I have also put in a lot of time, not a lot of time, but I've put in more time than uh I would like to admit trying to play Amulet Titan. And it feels like every time I think to myself, you know what, it's time I just learned how to play this deck. I'm gonna read the guides, I'm gonna, you know, read the matchups, you know, w whatever, and I'm gonna put in the reps, and every time I do, I just oh five a league. You know, I I just I just cannot figure out how to make this deck work the way that it's supposed to. Um and it's certainly user error. Uh I think that this deck is arguably one of the best decks in Modern. I think that it's held the the title for King of Modern for a very long time. Um they talked about it a little bit in the last ban announcement, how they were gonna be keeping an eye on it because its win rates were just so high. Um I think that if you were to if if you are the type of person that likes to specialize in a single deck and you just want to play that deck until you can't anymore, um, then Amulet Titan is where you want to be. Uh it's it it rewards knowing the deck, it rewards knowing your matchups, I think more than any other deck in modern for sure. Uh I don't think that shy of a ban, I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. Um and yeah, I I just think that you know you could do a lot worse if you were looking to specialize in a single deck.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

My friend Andy Wilson told me when I was asking him about playing this deck, he said the best thing about it is that once you know Amulet Titan, you never have to think about what you're going to play in modern. So if you're someone that doesn't like to sit there and wrestle around with what deck you're going to play, this is always going to be a reasonable one. Uh, I'm not gonna try to do the deck justice and explain poorly about how to play it well. I will say that if you are looking for amulet Titan content, it's a deck you're interested in, you want to pick up, that you should check out Team Phillow Fort member Reed Straddling at Reed Q7 and take a look at his content. He puts out a lot of information. Uh, he did a PowerPoint for the team and the people who are interested in it, and just really kind of walking through it. Uh, maybe you could hit him up for coaching or something like that, but he knows the deck. Uh he he's got to be one of the top amulet players out there right now. He's put so much time into it.

SPEAKER_02 42:32

Yeah, yeah, I think so. And even before he joined the team, I I knew Reed Q7 on Moto as you know one of the top amulet guys. He's he's just been that way for forever. Um and so so yeah, he he definitely knows his stuff um much more than me for sure. I don't have a clue how to pilot this deck. I know that you're supposed to play bounce lands and play an amulet, and that's all I know.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

The funny thing is if you're new to modern, you think, well, I can't I can't learn to play this deck, it's you know, I I'm new to the format. It was actually the first deck he played in Modern. Uh so he's just like, I'm gonna pick up Modern, so I'm gonna learn Amulet Titan, and that's what he did. So uh, you know, if if you're thinking that that can't be you, Reed did it, you can do it. But he's put thousands of matches into it, so uh get in contact with him about it.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

Yeah, definitely be prepared to lose a lot if you're picking it up for the first time, but it will reward you in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

So our next deck is one that has gone through some some weird periods where it's done really well and maybe not so well lately, and we do have a couple of people on the team that have been uh domain zoo fans. Uh what do you think of this deck?

SPEAKER_02 43:36

Yeah, um I I think I think this deck uh in what what it what it's trying to do is very powerful. Um I think when it doesn't do the thing that it's trying to do, it becomes much worse. Um and so you know, there there are definitely people who are able to navigate that a little bit easier than me, maybe. Um, but you know, you you're Looking for obviously the the ideal start is um starting with the leyline of the guild pact in hand, making all of your permanents or I guess all of your non-land permanents, right? All colors and all of your lands tap for a mana of any color, um, which works really well with Scion of Draco, uh, which then just becomes two mana by itself and gives all of your creatures a million keywords. Um and so hexproof, lifelink, uh first strike, trample, maybe, and flying is no, flying is not one. Uh anyway, it doesn't matter. A lot of keywords. Uh that that's that's what the deck's trying to do.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

I think you know the the thing with this deck that I've found is every time I play against somebody on Domain Zoo, they always have Leyline into Scion of Draco. And every time I play the deck, I never draw Ley Line in my opening hand. It's always my first draw step. Um Yep.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

So or if you do have Ley Line in your opening hand, you never see the Scion of Draco. Right.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

So it is a little bit polarizing because of that, where you probably have to mulligan a little bit more disciplined because there are some sevens that are really trappy hands where they they look like they can be pretty reasonable, but they're probably not. Your interaction, though, is incredibly good. Um, you do get to play cards like Stubborn Denial, consigned to memory in the main deck. You get ley line binding, which is a great catch-all piece of removal at instant speed, often for one mana, um, and some big beaters. So you can get your opponent dead pretty quickly, you've got pretty good interaction. So even though the mana is technically fragile, it it has some funny things like the fact that if you have a basic land out and you get blood mooned while you have your ley line at the guild pact, well, you still have a one-mana leyline binding because the basic land is all land types because of the ley line.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Right. Yeah, like the the the interaction, like you said, is definitely very, very good. The threats uh most of the time are very, very good. Um, but it it doesn't have a good way, I've found, of uh catching backup if you start to fall behind. Um and so, you know, shy of finding the science of Draco uh if if you already have the the ley line of the guild pact out, it it if if you get behind, it's it's hard to it's hard to pull back.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

Yeah, I I think if you're a specialist, I think you're totally fine to play this deck. If you're looking up to pick something, looking to pick something new up for modern, I I would steer you probably towards Boros or Jesguai over this deck, but I do think it's reasonable.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

Yeah, yeah. It seems like it does some of the similar things to Boros, um, but it kind of has like a pseudo combo kind of ta tacked onto the deck as well. You know, it's it's also a Ragavan Flage deck. Um, so you know, you you are trying to see that turn one ragavan a lot of times. Um and Flag obviously pulls a lot of weight in the mid to late game, but but yeah, I think I think that probably probably Boros is is the better entry point if you're just getting in the format.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

I mean you can you can scam with this too, so you you do get to just like play the flage um you know with your Torporb guy out. Why why am I not thinking of the name of it?

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Uh Doorkeeper Thrall. That's the one.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

So Doorkeeper Thrall, uh, you do get to just kind of cheese out a flage for free, which is pretty nice. So this this deck definitely has some nut draws that I think are better than those two decks, but it it's its fail rate is higher, so it's got a wider spread of, I think, of games that your hands are super busted or they're kind of mediocre. Yeah. Um so I think Boros is just more consistent, Jess Guy less consistent, but a very high power level and really good ways to kind of play catch up. So I think it's a fine deck. Um, it's not one that I would pick up or recommend picking up right now if you have you know other options that you're looking at. But if you're a specialist like some of the guys on our team like Doofer, um then or you know, Trevor, I I by all means play play the deck. Uh you know it really well, and you also probably know it well enough to change your list and adjust it instead of just grabbing a challenge list from you know whenever it recently did well. All right. What about Gorios? This uh this deck our good friend top aided Houston with uh Noe, and he's had a lot of success with it, been playing it, I think, to reasonable success lately. Uh, what are your thoughts on Gorios right now?

SPEAKER_02 48:30

Yeah, I think Gorios is still really good. Um, you know, it's it's obviously trying to do the busted thing of putting a big fat fatty in the graveyard and then casting uh Gorios Vengeance to bring it back. Uh oftentimes trying to use either an ephemerate or a consign to make sure that it sticks around and you you know you have essentially a two-mana uh 7-7 flying lifelink trample, whatever that drew you a bunch of cards. Um so so yeah, that's that's kind of what what the deck is trying to do. Um but it also just is able to play uh a perfectly fair um like blink strategy as well with your solitudes and ephemerates. Um you're able to play Psychic Frog, which is uh always good in the matchups where it's good. So so yeah, I I think that I think that Gorios definitely has a lot of game to it. Uh also I think it rewards people knowing how to sequence your spells, um, you know, when to go for it, when to not go for it, when to operate on plan A versus switching over to plan B. Um so there's definitely some nuance with the deck that I think that uh will reward you for getting some reps in.

SPEAKER_00 49:42

Yeah, I think, you know, I've been saying this about some decks because I'm just trying to be, you know, very uh forthright with people. This is another one that I think the spread between people who know it well and play it well versus those who do not is incredibly high. So you have to put the reps in with this deck. And you're not just gonna have those games where you you know play the sidekick frog, discard the attraxa, you know, Gorios, giggle, you know, ephemerate it, and you do you do the thing. Um, there's gonna be a lot of times where you don't have to you don't get to do that, and you really need to play the mid-range game. You need to be really disciplined with your mulligans and understanding what your game plan is and where you are in the matchup. Uh so I know that Noah wrote it a few months ago, but he wrote a primer on the deck with a lot of really great detail. I'd encourage you to take a look at that. I think this is a really reasonable deck. Um, it does have some matchups that are gonna be a little bit tougher, and you just have to understand how to approach those. So a totally reasonable deck, very high power level. Anytime you're cheesing out a gristle brand and a Traxa, uh, you your deck's gonna be you know sometimes doing some stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 50:49

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um I I think I think that Frog by itself kind of presents this really interesting mini game um that rewards people knowing more about the format. Um, you know, if if I'm if I play out a frog and I haven't discarded any cards and my opponent casts a galvanic blast or galvanic discharge, for example, um, then you know, am I discarding two cards? If if I have a if I have a uh you know a reanimation target, then maybe the answer is yes, maybe the answer is no still. Um, you know, what what am I playing against? Am I playing against Boros? Am I playing against Jess Guy? Uh am I am I playing against Tron and my opponent is you know trying to um block with their ThoughtNot Seer or whatever. You know, that they're all all of these different sorts of things to consider with Frog by itself. Um and I think that card in particular uh definitely rewards people knowing a lot about the format, about your role in the matchup, and um, you know, just knowing what's important and what's not.

SPEAKER_00 51:57

Nothing feels sillier than discarding two cards and then just having them play another removal spell and kill your thing. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

Yeah. So I've had that happen many times. I've also I've also been on the other end of that too, where it's felt really good. I've watched my opponent discard their entire hand and then just cast the solitude and don't care.

SPEAKER_00 52:14

Yeah, I I think that you do get a lot of really good interaction with this deck too, and playing Thotsies and Fatal Push, and uh it has some good matchups into a few of the top decks. So, I mean you you're traditionally pretty good against Boros Energy, you're really good against Storm, you're really good against Blink. It's one of Blink's worst matchups, and you're pretty reasonable into Amulet Titan. So uh this deck has a good matchup spread. It's very powerful. If this is your kind of jam where you've got a reasonable backup plan, but the combo finish, uh, check it out. I would encourage you to play it.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

Yeah. Uh if if you've been playing the Spider-Man deck in standard and you're looking to jump into modern, uh, this definitely would be a consideration. I would I would for sure look into this, as well as uh another card that's going to be on our list coming up pretty soon.

SPEAKER_00 53:00

Yep. All right, let's talk about Blue Belcher. So we have on our team Austin DeCeder, the inventor of the Blue Belcher deck, and he's always iterating on this and making some changes. Austin, how do you feel about uh Belcher in the format right now?

SPEAKER_02 53:15

Um, you know, I would love to give a lot of information about Blue Belcher, but I just really don't have any idea where Blue Belcher is at. I feel like I never have a pulse on where Blue Belcher is at. Um last fall it won the Pro Tour, right? Was it the Pro Tour that it won? It did, yep. That was the one that Michael won. August, September something. Yeah. Um and so so yeah, like that came out of nowhere. I had no idea that that was even on anybody's radar. Um I feel like Blue Belcher is one of the decks that is at its best when it's at its worst, and it's at its worst when it's at its best, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Um, you know, when when people have it on their radar and they're gunning for it and it's the top deck in the format, then it's gonna have a lower win percentage. But when nobody's playing it and nobody's respecting it, it's a lot easier to cheese out some wins.

SPEAKER_00 54:04

I if you're in a meta where there's a lot of linear combo players and you're just sick of losing to them, you can play this linear combo deck and have a lot of interaction and beat up on them. So it is very good against decks like Storm. They have a ton of trouble with it. Uh, if you don't like losing to Tron, that's that's a pretty good choice where you know you can just counter all their stuff. Good against Gorios, good against you know uh decks like Living End. And it's a I think very powerful deck with a couple of significant issues with the matchups. Um Affinity is horrible. Uh, you know, I I know DeCeder was playing this deck the other day and put in the Discord that somebody blind turn one pithing needled him on the play, naming naming Belcher. Um, you know, when you're when you're the guy that's known for always playing this deck, that stuff's gonna happen to you. But in an open deckless tournament like at RC uh that we'll have later this year, you're gonna have to think about that too. So, you know, that that's something to be aware of. The win rate's very high. Um, you're probably gonna struggle with prowess and affinity, and you will likely beat the heck out of a lot of other decks. So uh I think it's quite good. You can build it in some different ways to kind of you know grind for value with like Tameo, or you can get the cheese factor by playing um the Harbinger, because you know sometimes just turning everybody's stuff into islands and then making all their spells uncastable is a pretty good way to win as well, or at least slow them down until you can get there. So it does reward you for the sideboarding is weird for this deck, where unintuitively there's actually a pretty good amount of the time where you board belchers out, not all of them, but you know, some number of them. Uh and the Tameshi lines, like knowing when to go for Tameshi, when to counter stuff, when to bait things to try to draw out their counter spells. Uh, there is some play to it. And I know that Austin DeCeder, who made the deck and iterates on it a lot, also does coaching for it. So uh hit him up if you've got questions and are curious about it. We also have Unban Oko, uh Damien on our team, who's played a ton of Blue Belcher as well. If you look up his magic online results, it's just a whole bunch of you know challenge results with with Belcher specifically. It's a deck you can do really, really well with. And uh I I I could see myself bringing this to a tournament for sure.

SPEAKER_02 56:33

Yeah. I I also think that one of the strengths of the deck is the fact that it just doesn't care about its creatures at all. And so, you know, if if you're going into a room where people are, you know, bringing all of their galvanic discharges and their solitudes and their fatal pushes, uh, then playing a deck like Belcher that just doesn't care about that is is pretty nice.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

For sure. Alright, I'm gonna let you talk about the next one, Austin. I know this is one that you said uh last time on our pillow talk that you were taking at home. Talk about living end.

SPEAKER_02 57:08

Yeah, uh, I've been having a lot of fun with this deck recently. I think that this deck um is definitely not like at its best. It's it's not going to be it's not gonna be winning any tournaments anytime soon, uh any any large tournaments, uh you know, but but I I think that it's perfectly reasonable going into an RCQ season. Um Living End j just got a bunch of new tools with the new elementals. Um so wistfulness is really great at being able to uh just pay blue blue to draw to and put a creature in the bin. Um or if you you know your opponent has some piece of hate, uh like a um you know, like a soul guide lantern or something that you just need to get rid of so that you can start your building of your graveyard, um it it's it's really great at doing that, uh just being able to pay green green to to do it. Um and if if you are kind of operating under the assumption that uh you are going to need to play a mid-range game, you can also just play a perfectly fair mid-range game as well. Um you're a little bit slower, obviously, than the other mid-range decks, so it's not like you know this is your plan A by any means. But if your opponent plays like three pieces of you know graveyard interaction or whatever, and you just start casting your creatures, it's it's really not a bad plan at all. You know, your your opponent goes down cards by trying to interact with your graveyard and then you just don't care about it, so all of a sudden you have the bigger creatures, your opponent hasn't killed you yet. Um so yeah, it's it it's it's definitely got a lot of play. Uh also playing deceit from the new elementals, the new evoke elementals, uh, which has been really, really cool. Uh obviously being able to pay Black Black to look at your opponent's hand and take their best thing or take their one piece of interaction that they have, and then next turn just playing a cascade spell is is is pretty pretty great. Uh also got JED, which is able to put something big in the bin, and then also go look for your uh shardless agent to be able to cascade, so that's a big addition. Um yeah, I I think I think this deck is very, very flexible. Uh I think that one of the mistakes that people make with Living End is trying to build up this really big graveyard and trying to get like all this Uber value out of their um out of their shardless agent. But I found that oftentimes just like turn one cycling an ent into, you know, turn two either a deceit or a wistfulness into turn three, just get back three or four creatures is often good enough to win a game against a lot of the um a lot of the decks that are trying to just outvalue you. Um so you know, you're you're probably not going to win many games like that against Belcher, for example, uh, but if you are if you're playing against like Jess Guy or if you're playing against Esper Blink or um you know Boros Energy, uh being able to wipe the board on three and then bring back like three or four big beaters is really great. I think that the deck is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:08

Yeah, I mean you you do get uh it deceits almost like the grief at home. Uh grief was really pretty gross in this deck. Um again, uh if you're coming from standard and you've been playing the reanimator deck there, you already have a lot of the more expensive cards. Uh because the overlords and some of the new elementals are some of the more expensive cards. You do have stuff obviously like Force of Negation. Uh Flare of Denial being a$4 card now is kind of depressing considering how much I paid for mine. Um but you know, Force of Negation, then you know the fetch lands are probably what's gonna get you. But on a relative basis, if you already have those cards, you could certainly do worse in terms of you know an entry point there. So um powerful deck, uh pretty linear game plan, but a lot of people will find this kind of thing fun. And I have played uh lots of iterations of Litigang in the past. I think it's a super strong deck. Uh I have not played it more recently, and I would imagine that it kind of has the same problem as as Summa in the past. If people really want to beat it, they probably will. But I don't think people are really trying to beat it right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:18

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:20

Alright, so last deck that we'll talk about is Esper Blink. Uh talk to me about Esper.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:26

Yeah, um, so uh one one of the guys on our team, JJ, he uh queued for uh PT Lorwin with Esper Blink. Um and uh we we had him on the podcast a little while ago and talked a little bit about that. Um but this deck is uh a little bit it's it's similar-ish to the Jess Guy deck in that it, you know, you're just really trying to uh outvalue your opponent, but it tries to cheese um some some extra big creatures in ways that Jess Guy doesn't. So you lose cards like Ragavan in your early game, you lose cards like Flag for your mid to late game, but you also get cards like Overlord of the Bailmark, which is just really, really good with all of the blink creatures that you've got, uh with Felia, with Flicker Wisp. Obviously, you're still playing the same type of removal in Solitude Ephemerate, um, but you know, you're you're also you like I I just think that the black card or the black cards provide a different angle of attack than the red cards do. So so yeah, uh really cool deck, really, really good deck. I was on this for a little bit, um, but yeah, uh also Emperor of Bones is really good at uh just like you know getting back one of your things, one of your opponent's things. If you get back something of yours, then you're able to again ephemerate it to make it stick around like a solitude or something. Um so yeah, really, really cool, interesting uh take on the blank strategy.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:53

If you like value, this is definitely the deck for you. It is the epitome of just always having something to do, always having plays to make and ways to sort of generate value and outgrind your opponent. I think it does struggle sometimes at finishing games, where the the finishing power in terms of just ending the game is is not super high. But man, when you get overlords out, when you're blinking stuff with Felia, the flicker with shenanigans, you can do a lot with this deck. I I think it is very difficult to play it well. If I had to guess, I think Jess Guy is a deck that you is not super easy to play. I think the Esper version is more difficult to play. That's my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

And I would agree with that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:37

I I think there are some tricky lines. So it's something where if you are gonna get into this deck, you need to get into it and then just really start grinding it. But if this is your jam and you can be excellent at playing it, I I think it's super reasonable. So I know JJ has put tons of time into this deck, and I've watched him play it in matches that really matter, and just kind of seen him take lines that I didn't see. So a lot of that comes with reps. It's something that if you're a deck specialist, this is a super reasonable one to sort of become a specialist with. If I was entering the format, I don't think it's the deck that I would recommend as sort of a top choice. One, because the the part of the difficulty is the format knowledge and just really knowing how to sort of play to get the most value in certain situations. I think good entry points. If we're talking to people who are just transitioning from standard over to modern, Boros Energy, a great deck to get into. I think Tron is a pretty reasonable deck that's much easier to play if you're not wanting to just really kind of grind that stuff. If you like combo decks, um my choice would be Belcher over the other combo decks. And uh I also think Affinity, if you want to pay$1,700 and buy Mox Opals and the most expensive deck in the format, uh, is is a really great deck too. So um those are kind of my starting points. So Esper, I think there's a lot of cool things you can do with it. I think it's a good deck. If you're a specialist, by all means go for it. It's probably not the deck that I would jump into if I was just getting into the format.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:10

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Um, yeah, and and I I think your assessment is is spot on. I think that if I am trying to advise somebody to um, you know, buy into a deck uh because they're just looking to start playing modern maybe for the first time this season, uh, I think that Boros Energy is one of the safest routes that you can go. Um there's there's not a whole lot of crossover with the rest of the format, but I feel like modern is is at a point right now where it's diverse enough that there really isn't a ton of crossover anyway. Uh if if you buy Flages, if you buy Ragavans, if you buy uh, you know, fetches and shocks, then there i there you can only go so wrong with those cards anyway. Um if you are interested in uh the modern format and you've been playing the Spider Man deck, I think like you said before, living in is a really good choice. Um and you know you're just trying to grind some RCQs, I think that that deck is really cool and can do some really cool things. If you're looking to play, you know, a a serious event, then uh probably pick up Jesky Blink and put uh put in some time. I think that that deck is one of the stronger decks and just has like a a a pretty f a pretty straightforward um matchup spread uh across the board so you know there there's there's just a a a lot that you can do in every matchup I think so so yeah uh Tron again like you said also also a very reasonable pickup uh tron is always going to uh be about where it's at now it fluctuates a little bit but I think that it's always going to be a reasonable choice. I think it's been very rare when we've seen uh since MH3 came out it's been very rare that we've seen that Tron has not been good at all. So I think it's just always going to be a a generically powerful deck. It's trying to do the you know the big mana thing and it does it very well.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:57

Now we know that there are other modern decks that we did not tackle. So we we tackled the top 12 by MetaShare um there are other things to be doing so you know go ahead and comment we hate you you're the worst uh podcast ever you didn't talk about brood scale or whatever my pet deck is uh that's fine uh leave a five star review and a middle finger in the comments but uh Austin it it's time for some pillow talk uh it's closing time who are you taking home um if we're if we're talking modern uh I'm I'm really interested in the Jess Guy Blink deck I really want to try out the Casey Jones tech.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:33

Um so my my choice for modern is definitely gonna be Jess Guy Blink this week.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:37

I am playing Mox Opal so I would pick Affinity I think the deck is very strong. I kind of like the singleton Ravager I like the style of play for it and that that's what I would pick. I I I really am going to try out the Jess Guy Blink deck with Casey Jones. I think it's something that is pretty unique tech so I like your pick there but uh hard for me to put down those moxopals.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

If if you're playing Mox Opal how do you feel about Surveillance Cam?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:02

I uh man I don't know I I think that there's probably a way to break that card and we've played with it we've been messing with it and I I think that it could be good. The versions that I've played that I've seen too much has to go right if I was going to try to play a little bit different version of an Affinity deck I do actually like the uh is it cutter version of it with more Emerys and Tamios and just that value grinding pile. It's more of like a mid-rangy type um moxopal deck. I actually really like that deck. I don't know that it's as good as Affinity and it's probably just a worse choice than just slamming Kappas but it does feel more consistent in terms of being able to do some stuff into the late game. You get to play Riddlers which is pretty cool. I think that deck's actually pretty real.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:54

Yeah it's funny I I have been seeing everybody posting on Twitter how it's the next breach and I have not seen the breach results that I would expect to go with those claims but uh you know I I agree I I think that I think that a lot does have to go right I think that there is probably some version of the deck that hasn't been found yet that would be very very good um but I'm gonna let other people figure that out not me.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:18

The magic Twitterverse if if I lose to a deck that I don't like and they take a really long turn I get to then complain that it's broken and must be banned. So um that that is that is the the thought process behind most of the Twitter world. Y'all are gonna find this out as we talk about BNRs and stuff as they come out. I I'm very anticlimactic with that I I don't like the drama of it I think there's times where bands are obviously needed but more recently when we came up to modern now and everybody's talking about bans I'm like guys there's there's no way they're gonna ban anything there's nothing that needs to be banned. The metagame is relatively broad in terms of how Watsy defines what they want and you know sure you could look at some stuff but I'm actually kind of excited for the RCQ season to do something a little bit different. I might get sick of it quickly and hate it and complain about it, but there's some cool decks to play. There's some some powerful stuff that you can do and I'm looking forward to doing something a little bit different than we've been doing for for a while.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

Yeah I'm just excited to not have to play standard anymore. Standard's in a very healthy spot it's great I'm not unhappy with standard at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:23

I've just been playing it for so long you know Bro you got a pro tour in five weeks you're gonna be playing the crap out of standard once we get some spoilers I know I know yeah yeah we'll uh we'll get through it we will indeed all righty well with that thank you for coming to our pillow talk