Brewing with Modern Horizons 3

Nr. 5: Eldrazi Stompy by Dominic Fawcett

The Eldrazis are back! Being one of the main themes of MH3, it’s almost certain that everyone’s favorite Magic aliens will be part of the Modern meta once again. This list comes from Dominic Fawcett, and it’s an all-in version of an Eldrazi aggro deck. We can see some familiar “faces” in the list: Eldrazi Mimic, Thought-Knot Seer, and Reality Smasher, bringing back warm and fuzzy memories of “Eldrazi Winter.” Luckily, Eye of Ugin is still banned… or is it?!

Ugin’s Labyrinth is trying to make its best impression of the sol-land by adding two mana to your pool if you can exile a seven-drop when you play it. Dominic is only playing six cards that cost 7, but he’s also playing four Serum Powders, which will allow him to mulligan aggressively to find the perfect balance between threats and lands that produce two mana. Additionally, Devourer of Destiny’s pre-game ability lets you dig for a Labyrinth or any other piece of the puzzle that you might be missing.

This deck ideally curves out by playing one of the two-drops on turn one and a Thought-Knot Seer on turn two. If you don’t have a second Labyrinth or Eldrazi Temple, Eldrazi Linebreaker and Eternal Scourge are there to ensure you use all your mana efficiently. Scourge also has the upside of being castable when exiled with Serum Powder.

Further up the curve (if we even get there), we have Reality Smasher and Devourer of Destiny to smash our opponent’s hopes and dreams. All is Dust is a one-sided super-wrath in most matchups that gives this deck inevitability against midrange decks, and it often comes at a discount because of It, That Heralds the End. Lastly, three copies of Dismember to move blockers out of the way or to get rid of annoying Magus of the Moon or Harbinger of the Seas.

The mana base also features three Cavern of Souls to have an edge against countermagic and ensure red mana for Eldrazi Linebreaker. Gemstone Cavern is an additional way to reach two mana on turn one, and Ramunap Ruins provide some reach for close games.

I’m not going to talk too much about the sideboards of these decks as the meta has not yet settled, and it’s very difficult to predict the effectiveness of specific sideboard cards. Though, I do want to point out the four Chalice of the Void in this sideboard, as they will make life very difficult for any opposing decks that rely on one-mana spells.

This deck looks very aggressive and explosive. With the Serum Powders it almost feels like a combo deck where you try to assemble a certain combination of sol-lands and threats in your opening hand. Of course, that comes with a price and the Serum Powders can get stuck in your hand or additional copies can be drawn in the late game. Nevertheless, I would be scared to play against this deck, and it looks like it will be a lot of fun for players who enjoy the “stompy” playstyle.

Nr. 4: MartyrProc by Thomas Wiederkehr

The next deck couldn’t be much more different from the Eldrazi Stompy list. It’s an ancient Modern archetype that has recently had a resurgence: MartyrProc. Its game plan is to gain a lot of life with its namesake card, Martyr of Sands, and stall out the opponent.

It’s probably safe to say that The One Ring has brought back this almost forgotten archetype, as it grants the deck the time it needs to assemble its soft lock with Abiding Grace, looping Martyr of Sands or Kami of False Hope. In addition to those one-drops, Thomas is playing two Thraben Inspectors and one Novice Inspector as early blockers and card advantage engines. In the two-drop slot, we see a new and very promising card in White Orchid Phantom. Together with Demolition Field, Field of Ruin, and Ghost Quarter, the Phantom is a nightmare for every deck that plays only a couple of basic lands – which in Modern is true for many of the top-tier decks. Aside from that, White Orchid Phantom is also a very aggressively costed creature as a 2/2 flyer with first strike for two mana.

Moving up the curve, we see four copies of Ranger-Captain of Eos. This creature allows us to run a couple of one-offs, as it can tutor for one-mana creatures. It’s also a strong card against spell-based combo decks such as the new Ruby Storm, as it can delay their combo turn. One of the creatures you’re going to tutor for often is Haywire Mite, to deal with opposing enchantments or artifacts. The single copy of Grist, Voracious Larva, not only is a blocker with deathtouch but can also come back as a planeswalker thanks to several reanimation effects in this deck.

The other three-drops are Skyclave Apparition as a versatile removal and Six, which gives you a very strong late game. Six does everything you want in this deck. We’re playing almost exclusively permanents, and looping Rings can be especially strong. It also fills your graveyard for cards like Abiding Grace and Emeria, the Sky Ruin.

We see a playset of Solitudes, which make sure you’re not getting overrun by a single threat even in the early game. The Eagles of the North are a nice way to ensure you always have enough white cards to pitch for Solitude.

Finally, the real endgame of MartyrProc is to have Emeria, the Sky Ruin in play and active. From there, you can loop Ranger-Captain of Eos, Kami, or just get insane value every turn from your ETB triggers.

This deck has a lot of flexibility and can play as a control, midrange, or even a prison deck. It was on the rise before MH3, and I expect (and fear) to see even more of it once the dust has settled.

Nr. 3: U Tron by Simon Eng

As I’m writing this, I’m freshly beaten by this deck TWICE. I just finished a league match against U Tron legend MagicDevil666 while double-cueing in a friendly match against Simon. I’ll just let you know that I lost both matches and my brain is fried.

While U Tron was a relatively small player in the format before MH3 it got a ton of upgrades with the new set. The biggest one probably being Ugin’s Labyrinth. Alongside Talisman of Dominance it makes turn three Rings very real and also just turbo charges the deck in general.

Tron decks are known to be quite linear but U Tron is the exception as it can react to opposing strategies and be flexible. Kozilek’s Command is a new card that fits perfectly into that playstyle since all its modes are highly relevant in Modern. It can produce blockers, ramp, remove a threat, attack the graveyard or search for your own threat.

Ugin’s Binding is another card that screams U Tron loud and proud. While the initial cost to bounce a permanent is quite high, it can be a total blowout especially against creature decks in the late game.

Simon has also included the neat little combo of Dress Down into Nulldrifter. Because the ability of Nulldrifter triggers from casting the card and not on ETB you can evoke it with Dress Down in play to draw two cards and still keep the creature since its evoke ability will be gone. While it is just a 4/4 for this turn, next turn you’ll be able to attack with a 4/4 flyer with Annihilator 1.

To ensure we get two mana from Ugin’s Labyrinth we need more big stuff. Breaker of Creation is a creature that helps you stabilize as it can gain you a ton of life. That’s especially strong against midrange decks which are trying to race you. The actual top end consists of two Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and two Emrakul, the Promised End.

Nr. 2: Blue Nadu by Aleksander

Nadu, Winged Wisdom is perhaps the card from MH3 that has been talked about the most during spoiler season. Is it really as broken as everyone is predicting? Aleksander says: “Let’s find out!” with this blue-centered Nadu list.

I’m sure most of you have heard of Nadu already, but as we’re still relatively early into MH3, I will quickly outline how the combo works. Nadu gives a static ability to all creatures you control, which says that whenever they become targeted by an ability or a spell, you get to either put the top card of your library into your hand or onto the battlefield (untapped) if it’s a land. You can do this twice for each creature each turn, which means that if you have a way to target your creatures for free (such as Shuko’s equip ability or Outrider en-Kor), you’ll generate an incredible amount of value even with only a couple of creatures in play. The lands you hit off Nadu will allow you to play the creatures you put into your hand, which then can be targeted again to keep the ball rolling. Additionally, we have Chord of Calling, Neoform, and Eldritch Evolution to find another Nadu to reset the ability or other specific creatures we need as answers to a problem. This makes it almost certain that you’ll be able to play your whole deck.

For that reason, many people are playing Thassa's Oracle to win on the spot once your library is gone. Aleksander’s approach is different in that he says that Thassa's Oracle isn’t needed. The end stage of the combo involves resetting Nadu with the legend rule and/or having Springleaf Nantuko bestowed onto a creature, creating a token for each land you put into play with Nadu, which will be another creature to target. To keep this article as short as possible, I’ll not go into too much detail here, but once you get there you should be able to do the following things:

• Use Sylvan Safekeeper to sacrifice lands as you wish, then shuffle them back into the library with Endurance. Make sure to stack Endurance’s triggers in a way so that it shuffles itself back into the library.

From there, you should be able to loop your deck and go infinite in a couple of ways:

• Infinite mana from looping the lands.
• Infinitely channel Otawara to bounce the opponent’s board.
• Infinitely channel Boseiju to blow up all non-basic lands.
• Gain infinite life by bestowing Springheart Nantuko onto Haywire Mite and sacrificing it to exile the…
• Infinite map tokens from the Spyglass Siren, which then can…
• Grow all creatures infinitely large, letting you attack for lethal or just pass the turn with…
• Loopable Flare of Denials and Sink into Stupor.

You might say: “Well, that sounds fun but also somewhat fragile!” But this deck doesn’t need to win with the full-on combo. It can also just play a normal, grindy match where Nadu acts as a value engine. Even trying to kill it with targeting removal spells nets a card. Additionally, Flare of Denial really shines in this deck since we have a lot of disposable blue creatures that generate their value when entering the battlefield.

This deck seems to be incredibly strong and at the same time very difficult to play. It will probably be similar to Amulet Titan in that you really have to study and practice all different lines to be able to play it with the highest accuracy. Or (and let’s hope that this will not be the case), Nadu is in fact just broken and the deck will basically play itself.

Nr. 1: Boros Energy by Filipe Sousa

Boros Energy probably includes the highest number of MH3 cards. There have already been several midrange builds floating around in the online community, but Filipe is presenting a much more aggressive version of the deck. With 12 one-drop creatures, you’re almost guaranteed to pressure the opponent from the very start of the game. Fighting alongside everyone’s favorite monkey, we have Ocelot Pride. When I first read this card, it looked kind of underwhelming. As a 1/1, it dies to Bowmasters and Wrenn and Six, but if it goes unchecked, your board will get very wide quickly. You could say that it is similar to Ragavan as it demands an immediate answer and it only costs one mana. It’s also very strong against Ragavan thanks to its first strike ability.

Guide of Souls, on the other hand, is Bowmaster-safe and provides us with a steady stream of energy while also giving us an edge in matchups against other aggressive decks. Its pump ability looks expensive, but this deck can get a lot of energy quickly.

In the two-drop slot, we have another cat, or perhaps THE cat of the Magic universe: Ajani, Nacatl Pariah. This card looks like an aggro powerhouse, providing two bodies and threatening to flip into a powerful planeswalker that can help you transition into the late game. It’s also very convenient that Ajani cares about other cats since we’re going to have a lot of them.

Next up is Amped Raptor, a card that was hyped by some streamers before the set dropped, and I’m only now realizing that they were probably right to do so. Think of it like this: you’re paying two mana to “cascade” into a card that is roughly worth 1.5 mana in this deck, plus you’re getting a 2/1 first striker. Here’s another way to put it: the raptor is free if you hit a two-mana spell, or if it hits a one-mana spell, it’s a 2/1 first strike for one that generates one energy. Since this deck doesn’t care that much about which specific card you play (you just want to play creatures and attack), you’ll very rarely have awkward hits with the raptor. Even if you hit a Galvanic Discharge or a Static Prison, you at the very least get some energy. All of this basically translates to this card being very strong.

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd represents a nice way to get even more value out of our cards as it can trigger the ETB abilities of Ajani, Amped Raptor (just the energy, not the “cascade” part), Guide of Souls, and Unstable Amulet. But it can also target opposing creatures to get a blocker out of the way for a turn or even straight up destroy tokens. A very flexible card.

Sitting at the top of the curve is Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury. This is another card I initially underestimated, and I could certainly see more copies of it in this deck as it can make a difference in grindy matchups and against decks with a lot of removal.

Filipe has just won an SUL premier event with this deck going 7-0 in matches and 14-0 in games. What an incredible performance! This deck looks fast and strong, and I’m very excited to see if it can bring back creature-based aggro strategies.

That’s it! I hope you liked my selection of MH3 brews and I’m looking forward to… wait, what’s that?

"Ach! Hans, run! It's the Nethergoyf!"

I couldn’t really resist to show you my newest take on my favorite deck of all time. So here it goes – Jund Saga featuring baby goyf. For those of you who actually read all of this I’m going to spare you from going through every card choice. You know what this deck does… Jund ‘em out!