It’s no secret that Tron is perhaps my arch nemesis in terms of Modern decks. I regularly bemoan my luck when my opponent manages to land a turn three Karn Liberated into a turn four Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Or perhaps I’m bemoaning their luck. Either way, there’s a lot of bemoaning going on, because that’s a pretty ridiculous one-two punch no matter what format you’re playing.
However there’s another iteration of Tron that doesn’t use all those, you know, broken cards. Instead it also adds cards like Eldrazi Temple to cast, you know, Eldrazi. If you remember correctly, this is a strategy that has worked out favorably for me before. Let’s take a look at the list, piloted by Magic Online user mashmalovsky to a 5-0 finish, that we’re going to be trying out today.
1 Conduit of Ruin
3 Dismember
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Endbringer
2 Endless One
4 Expedition Map
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sanctum of Ugin
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Spatial Contortion
2 Spellskite
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower
2 Warping Wail
2 Wastes
Sideboard
3 All Is Dust
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Bottle Gnomes
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Pithing Needle
3 Ratchet Bomb
1 Warping Wail
Matter Reshaper? Check. Thought-Knot Seer? Check. Reality Smasher? Check. Looks like all the usual suspects are present. Only now we have four copies of the Legacy hit Endbringer as well! The most notable cards missing from the traditional Tron list are things like the aforementioned planeswalkers and things like Oblivion Stone. Otherwise we’re pretty much ramping the same way, only with more Eldrazi Temples now.
The biggest change you actually notice is the lack of Ancient Stirrings. I would constantly try and crack and Expedition Map and wonder if there was a threat I could find with the card. Of course there wasn’t, but on the other hand, the deck does have a much higher number of threats in the form of Eldrazi creatures than Tron ever did, so even if you replace the four Ancient Stirrings with four threats, you’re still way ahead on that front in this version of the deck.
Speaking of threats, cards like Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher are just as good as you remember them being. Only this time Endbringer is also quite good. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see Endbringer in use very often in our matches, but the fact that our opponents made sure to take care of them immediately is pretty telling in regards to how terrifying the card can be with a good deal of mana and an untap step.
The addition of two Wastes are a nice (and necessary) touch considering that Modern is a format that’s heavy with cards like Path to Exile and Ghost Quarter, and the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth seems like a simple way to occasionally prevent taking a million damage from our Dismembers.
While the deck doesn’t have the same explosive openings as it would if we had the planeswalker package, there’s definitely a lot of power behind things like turn two Matter Reshaper, turn three Thought-Knot Seer, and turn three or four Endbringer. Enough so to win the majority of our matches. Thankfully, just like a few months ago, there just aren’t that many effective ways to fight strategies that rely on simply playing huge creatures ahead of the curve.
That’s all we have for this week. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next time!
Frank Lepore
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