I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned my friend and Community Cup mate, Bjorn, before on Modern Monday, but I know I’ve showcased Standard decks that were brewed up by him in other articles of mine. So the other day, Bjorn posts on my Facebook wall and says, “Lol, I’m 4-0 with a spicy Modern brew in Competitive League atm. Thought I’d just go ahead and jinx it by posting here. <3”
Of course I immediately told him that I did need a deck for Modern Monday, and his reply…
“Would you accept a deck with a full playset of a 5RRR Sorcery?”
Would I?! Well, needless to say my interest was piqued. Bjorn did end up losing his last round, going 4-1 one in his League, but that’s still pretty impressive from a deck he brewed up from scratch. And we’re talking about Warp World for crying out loud! Take a look.
1 Avenger of Zendikar
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Eternal Witness
4 Joraga Treespeaker
3 Nest Invader
4 Primeval Titan
4 Wall of Roots
1 Zealous Conscripts
4 Cryptolith Rite
3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4 Warp World
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Khalni Garden
2 Mountain
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Raging Ravine
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Vesuva
1 Westvale Abbey
3 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Sudden Shock
2 Pithing Needle
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Vandalblast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
One of the first things he said to me after sending me the list was how good Cryptolith Rite was in the deck. Yes, the Shadows over Innistrad rare. He elaborated by saying they “make Khalni Garden a two-mana land and Nest Invader a Black Lotus.” I mean…he wasn’t wrong. Nest Invader is capable of producing three mana with a Cryptolith Rite in play and that’s pretty impressive.
I mentioned to him that one of the good things about Modern is that there are so few sweepers. Sure, you’ll run into an Anger of the Gods or a Damnation every now and then, but they aren’t all that common, so usually our mana creatures should end up sticking around. Let’s find out!
Well, of course we mention sweepers and get paired against the U/W Titan deck that plays three of them against us. Ha! Joke’s on them. Ain’t nobody got time for that. I’m just gonna pick up all my lands and shuffle ‘em back into my deck. But seriously, that game was awesome. The best part about Warp World is the same thing that was great about The Great Aurora deck that briefly showed up in Standard. Since your deck is geared toward taking advantage of the aforementioned expensive sorceries, you’re able recover a little bit more than your opponent each time. Maybe the first time you cast one, your opponent gets seven permanents and three spells. Then the next time they get four permanents and three spells. Little by little you keep gaining an advantage on board.
As was evidenced by our matches, we have a pretty rough time against super aggressive decks that can get multiple creatures down underneath us. Considering we never want to block with Joraga Treespeaker before it’s leveled up, we basically have no plays until turn two and even then it’s hard for us to trade rather than simply chump blocking.
Against slower decks that are kind of grindy and trying to attrition you out, it seems like we have a pretty good advantage. We’re just more attritiony and have a better end game with Warp World than the decks without such a powerful late game effect.
Ultimately Warp World is still a blast some ten years after it was originally printed in Ravnica, and it just goes to show you that you can basically play anything in Modern to at least some amount of success. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next week!
Frank Lepore
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