Yesterday was Modern Monday and, with our new format, we now stream the matches live on my Twitch channel on Monday, alerting readers of the deck we’ll be playing and of the stream itself in an article here on NumotGaming.
Then, on the following Tuesday (today), we post the matches for those who missed them along with our thoughts in article form.
Today’s deck put up another 5-0 finish in a League (though these don’t seem to mean much recently) in the hands of Magic Online user ManuGodineau. It doesn’t do anything truly unfair, but sometimes playing a deck like this can be a nice change of pace. I’ve also had some great experiences with Vampire Nighthawk and think the card is underutilized in the format.
Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Vampire Nighthawk
Spells
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Thoughtseize
Lands
2 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Hissing Quagmire
4 Marsh Flats
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Swamp
2 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard
4 Disfigure
2 Dismember
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Nihil Spellbomb
As we mentioned previously, this is a pretty straightforward deck. It doesn’t do anything flashy or exciting; it just plays efficient creatures and spells and tries to out-attrition our opponent. Let’s see if we’re successfully able to do that.
Okay, so I’m not usually one to bemoan my opponent’s luck, but…boy, were my opponent’s lucky. It seemed like every game we managed to strip away their hand and have the win within one turn, only to be on the receiving end of a timely topdeck.
Every so often a Modern deck comes around that’s legitimately miserable to play against. Lantern Control is just such a deck. Despite the fact that we were only a turn from locking away both of those Infect games, but were unable to due to the fact that Infect is also somewhat unfair, the Lantern Control match was straight up not fun. We weren’t even playing Magic so much as watching our opponent play Magic. The games become less about interacting and more about seeing how little fun you can actually have before quitting. I guess the silver lining is that the deck isn’t a larger part of the metagame. On the other hand, maybe it will be not that it can utilize the Sword of the Meek/Thopter Foundry combo. Who knows?
Something I wish our sideboard contained was a Flaying Tendrils-esque card. Something to sweep away swarms of tokens. While token armies aren’t too popular in Modern, a card like that would also be good against things like Elves or Affinity as well. While I’m a huge fan of the card, boarding in four copies of Disfigure simply didn’t seem ideal at times. I also wonder if the deck could use something like Garruk Relentless, a card I’ve always been a big fan of. It takes care of things like Dark Confidant, Blighted Agent, Glistener Elf, Goblin Guide, and more.
One thing I’m looking forward to is the addition of not only Shadows Over Innistrad to Magic Online, but also the implementation of the new bannings and unbannings. I already have a sweet Tezzeret brew in mind complete with Glissa, the Traitor. Full disclosure though, it could be terrible. I have no idea. That’s the kind of thing Modern Monday is for though!
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on Friday with another Magic Minute about my thoughts on the changes to the Modern B&R list and the Shaodws Over Innistrad Prerelease.
Frank Lepore
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