Once again we will have all the videos included in this very article for this week’s Modern Monday! Be sure to let us know whether you like this format better or not.
This week we’re going to take a look at a very Genesis Wave-centric deck, revolving around amassing a ton of mana thanks to things like Garruk Wildspeaker and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. The deck was piloted by Magic Online user Lunik to a 5-0 finish in a competitive Modern League. Take a look at the deck we’ll be trying out today.
4 Arbor Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Breeding Pool
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Eternal Witness
5 Forest
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Genesis Wave
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Kiora, Master of the Depths
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Oath of Nissa
1 Primal Command
1 Stomping Ground
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wistful Selkie
Sideboard
1 Ancient Grudge
4 Dismember
1 Nature’s Claim
4 Negate
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Terastodon
Interestingly enough, Lunik removed one Eternal Witness and one Kitchen Finks to add two Tireless Tracker to the deck for a later League which he also went 5-0 in. This tells me that the deck should definitely have some legs. Now I’ve actually played a few devotion decks in Modern and they always end up being pretty competitive. They work more like combo decks than anything, so I’m curious to see how this one fares with new cards like Kiora, Master of the Depths and Oath of Nissa.
I’m surprised to say that the deck actually performed exactly as we’d have liked it to. The one problematic match we ran into was the Jund deck, and that makes sense. As I mentioned, the deck acts as more of a combo deck, and Jund has the perfect amount of disruption and pressure to make sure we don’t have the cards we need to get our engine rolling.
Against all the other decks, I always felt like we were ahead. We were generating a ton of mana as early as turn three or four, which says a lot. Kiora, Master of the Depths was also very good here as a way to search for an Eternal Witness or Craterhoof Behemoth, put cards into the graveyard for Eternal Witness, or to add four mana via untapping an Arbor Elf and a Utopia Sprawled land. She was actually quite versatile and a welcome addition to the deck, despite only providing one green mana for devotion.
Other versions of the deck could have things like Primeval Titan or the Tooth and Nail combo with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Xenagos, God of Revels. This one simply chooses to use Genesis Wave and one Craterhoof Behemoth, which was consistently enough. We also have a good number of Primal Commands to search it out and a good number of Eternal Witnesses to get it back if it ends up in the graveyard. We only ended up using the Kessig Wolf Run once, but I’m not sure it affects the mana base enough to cut it. I think it’s a good tool to have in our arsenal when we can’t find a Craterhoof Behemoth.
The deck was definitely sweet and, as usual, I don’t see a reason why this couldn’t be a legitimate part of the metagame. It seems to struggle against decks with a ton of disruption, but any deck that’s trying to play a fair game, or even other combo decks, we seem to have a good shot at beating. That’s all I have for this week. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch ya later!
Frank Lepore
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