Five Modern Winners and Losers from Zendikar Rising
Vince Ferraiuolo [Twitter] [Twitch]
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Below are my initial impressions as the top winners and losers for Modern with the release of Zendikar Rising. Some of my choices are based on newly printed cards while others are a result of ripple effects. I’ll start with the exciting cards people can’t wait to get their hands on, then I will dive into how the dominos fall to change the positioning of other archetypes.
Winners
#1 Uro Midrange
Four Color Uro was already top tier in the format where it sat on the throne as the king of midrange. Omnath only solidifies this further by slotting in perfectly into the archetype. Omnath makes the deck more explosive, more resilient to aggro and best of all forces people to stop playing subpar Sultai variants. Prior to Zendikar Rising people were playing all sorts of different midrange piles with Uro but I imagine as more time goes on no one will be playing black.
I believe that as this deck gets tuned further it will continue to eat at more of the meta-share. The biggest challenge it currently has is that there are so many different ways to build the deck. This makes building clean mana even more complicated since as soon as you change a few cards you also should be reviewing your manabase in detail.
This strategy continues to make Field of The Dead look absolutely ridiculous. If I was interested in playing this deck my first priority would be perfecting my manabase and finding more ways to be resilient to Ashiok and Blood Moon. I am very fond of both Tireless Tracker and Wrenn and Six in the archetype.
Here are some example decklists including one of my own and some random lists I found on Twitter.
#2 Death’s Shadow
I’ve recently watched the entire Death’s Shadow community virtually rise from the ashes with the release of Zendikar Rising. People are excited to play the one mana 13/13 again and explore a variety of brand new tools.
Death’s Shadow gets a handful of exciting cards with the release of the new set but these are the two most exciting by a landslide.
Agadeem’s Awakening slots in incredibly into the archetype and even gives the deck more ways to lose life. With Scourge of the Skyclave to act as additional Death’s Shadows, I believe the deck got a huge boost of consistency. I can easily see this being my black-based disruptive deck of choice once there is a well-tuned list available. Death’s Shadow has definitive gameplan of going under decks that are larger than it which I think is one of the biggest problems with playing non-Uro midrange at the moment. Death’s Shadow knows what it wants to do and it sticks to its gameplan well. I believe this is more important in modern than ever as many decks struggle to find their sweet spot.
Here is a recent decklist from Grand Prix Champion and Death Shadow specialist Michael Rapp. His content is an excellent place to start if you want to gain more knowledge on the deck including all its variants.
#3 Spell-Based Combo
I’m going to loop together Neoform, Ad-Nauseum and Goblin Charbelcher into one collective group here. They are all unique decks with various strengths and weakness. However they all have a gameplan of doing something that is hard to interact with and typically does not care at all what their opponent is doing on the other side. They all also get to take advantage of cards like Veil of Summer and Leyline of Sanctity to get around disruption.
Here is the initial Goblin Charbelcher list created by Sebastian Stuckl of Germany. If you want to learn about the deck I suggest checking out his channel. This is my top pick for combo decks at the moment. People aren’t going to be comfortable sideboarding against it and many people won’t even know what some of the cards do.
Neoform experts are also experimenting with the new module lands as well. I’m not sure how much depth it adds to the deck, but it sure comes at a low price tag.
For many of the same reasons that I like Death’s Shadow, I think Ad-Nauseum is fairly solid right now. You get to take advantage of busted cards like Veil of Summer and you really couldn’t care less about your opponent playing an Uro. You know what your role is in every matchup and you don’t try to do something your deck isn’t built to do. No matter who your opponent is you execute on the same, linear gameplan.
#4 Humans
If Modern becomes more about casting specific haymakers and game ending spells, then Thalia and Meddling Mage look more attractive than ever. Notably, Humans also has an excellent Death’s Shadow matchup which has a ton of hype right now. With two of it’s worst matchups on the rapid decline, I believe Humans could be a top dog for a little while based on its positioning.
The deck really hasn’t changed a whole lot outside of getting a powerful new general. I haven’t seen this card really swing matchups very much though. I believe that it’s rise is due to other decks changing more than the deck itself getting different tools.
Here are some recent decklists that have seen success from MPL player Kanister. I find the Dark Confidants in the sideboard very interesting and I believe this is a direct concession to spell-based combo being on the rise.
#5 Gruul/Blood Moon Decks
For some reason Gruul midrange has seemed to drop off the map entirely. I used to play against it constantly and I haven’t faced it in quite some time. If I’m correct and the format ends up being a hodge podge of Humans, Death Shadow, Uro and Combo Decks —proactive Blood Moon strategies should be outstanding. This is my top pick for decks that no one is talking about.
Humans, Death Shadow and Uro decks are all going to struggle if not lose on the spot against a quick Blood Moon. If I was playing Gruul I would be playing additional copies of Magus of the Moon to streamline my decks gameplan. I would be less focused on trying to midrange and be more focused on quickly disrupting my opponent’s mana.
Here is how I would build Gruul right now.
Losers
I’m going to preface this section by saying just because your favorite deck is in this section does not mean you can’t play it. I’m a huge advocate for playing what you know. My two favorite decks in modern are both on this list. I do believe there are some ways you can adapt these strategies to be more competitive. However, if you simply want to win and don’t care about any other factors I would personally suggest avoiding these decks in the short term future.
#1 Jund
Jund continues to have the same issues it has faced over the past few years. While new shiny toys come out for a plethora of decks, Jund is often left on the sidelines. We have seen some huge improvements to Jund with cards like Wrenn and Six and Klothys, but it simply doesn’t stack up toe-to-toe with what everyone else is doing.
In addition, Dark Confidant is virtually unplayable due to a variety of factors so your matchup against spell-based combo isn’t even very good anymore. The days of discard into Bob into LOTV are long past us.
That brings me to Liliana of the Veil — oh my sweet queen. Field of the Dead and Veil of Summer have turned this card into an embarrassment in so many situations. It’s so easy for decks that go over the top of you to protect their large threat where previously they were forced to play poor options like Khalni Garden.
However, Jund’s largest issue right now stems from having an identity problem. Since we can’t keep up with the card advantage of the blue decks and we can’t be as mana efficient as decks like Death’s Shadow it presents a conundrum. In addition, the deck typically starts at a pretty low life total and doesn’t get to leverage that into an advantage the same way Death’s Shadow does.
If Humans and Death’s Shadow pick up huge popularity beyond what I even expect then it’s possible to still play this fan favorite. But for the mean-time my preference is going to be to put my favorite deck in the format down.
#2 Dredge
Ever since Faithless Looting got banned I’ve been shocked by how many people still play this deck. I think it’s simply a bad choice. Not only have you lost your most powerful cards, but you also have a plethora of Ashioks and Spellbombs to fight through since Uro is in the format. As long as Uro is a pillar of Modern I don’t see the logic behind playing Dredge. The deck is always at its best when people are unprepared — which simply is not going to happen anymore.
Dredge also used to pray on decks like Jund/Jeskai and other interactive strategies. These decks aren’t good anymore either so you’re pretty much trying to hunt down a house cat with a butter knife.
#3 Tron
Between spell-based combo picking up in popularity as well as multiple decks packing four Cleansing Wildfire — it’s a rough time for good ol’ Karn Liberated. I’ve been seeing decks ranging from Uro Piles to Jeskai to Jund all excited to pack the full playset. In addition, there’s more targeted hate towards lands in general with the rise of Field of the Dead.
Tron has never had much fun against quick combo strategies and to be sweet and to the point — I don’t believe the end of 2020 is going to be all that different. I think if you want to play a big mana strategy you should be looking for decks that can play through disruption well and play a good midrange game. Previously this was Eldrazi Tron before Mycosynth Lattice was banned. Other decks like Amulet and G/W Titan have evolved to the point that I simply don’t understand the logic behind playing traditional Tron. G/W Titan in particular is quite challenging to sideboard against since cards like Tireless Tracker and Elvish Reclaimer can take over a game all by themselves if you side out your one mana spot removal. If I wanted to play a big mana strategy I would be looking at G/W as my frontrunner alternative. Notably, Titan decks also gets to make use of Turntimber Symbiosis if they want to.
#4 Prowess
Prior to Zendikar Rising, Prowess was the deck I faced the most out of any strategy in modern. While I think the shell is still quite strong, I wouldn’t want to be sleeving up lava darts if everyone is excited to jam “money tribal”. Uro into Omnath is going to be beyond a slog and just miserable to play against as a red deck.
That being said, I think you can build a streamlined mono-red version of Prowess that is decent - especially with Blood Moons. However with limited interaction and sideboard options, I believe aggro enthusiasts will be best off choosing a deck with more disruptive elements.
This is the one deck on the list that I believe has the largest chance of me being wrong. Prowess has some really incredibly openings and sometimes it simply doesn’t matter what your opponent is playing. The success of Prowess has proved me wrong before.
#5 Stoneblade
If you keep up with me on Twitch and Twitter you will be aware that Sharkblade has been my favorite modern deck over the past month. It’s interactive, a blast to play and gets to utilize some of the coolest cards of both old and new sets.
Stoneblade is flexible, powerful and adaptive but falls under a lot of the same struggles as Jund at the moment. The Uro decks go well over the top of what you are doing and there isn’t much to get around that. All of my builds start with 4 Field of Ruin and 4 Spreading Seas to be able to combat Field of the Dead and other big mana decks. If you play Stoneblade you are in a strange spot of having to decide your role after you see what your opponent is doing.
I also believe Stoneforge into Batterskull is going to be a lot worse in this format than the last. With less red decks and more combo, this one-two punch loses a bit of its luster.
If I wanted to play Stoneblade right now I would be playing around with Jeskai variants that splash Blood Moon and maybe some other sideboard cards. I also wouldn’t leave home without 4 Shark Typhoon and some additional interaction for combo strategies.
If you have any questions on current modern — please feel to ask me on Twitter. I’ll continue to work on the format as I prepare for the Mana Traders Modern series! I qualified for the Swiss part of the event by going 9–1 with B/G and U/W. If you’re interested in watching my testing or me playing in the event itself — be sure to follow me on Twitch!
