Welcome to Gathering Magic's weekly quintet of decks you should be aware of this weekend, whether you're playing a major online event, going to a Grand Prix, or hitting Friday Night Magic. This week, in advance of a Grand Prix in Porto Alegre, Modern's on the mind, with a peek at where Standard's been.

A Working Porto-type

Porto Alegre is a fascinating city from all I'm reading on it. Its Wikipedia page notes that "Regular taxis are colored red, whereas airport taxicabs are colored white, both with blue strips on the sides containing white lettering." So it rides around in Magic colors (fly the friendly Jeskais?). Seems, then, to be a great place for a Grand Prix.

Here's what 4–0'd or 3–1'd in Magic Online Dailies at least twice this week (Bold = won a Daily):

• Zoo: 4
• Four-Color Scapeshift: 3
• Abzan: 3
• Affinity: 3
• Grixis Twin: 3
• Jund: 3
• Tarmo Twin: 2
• Infect, Merfolk, and Naya Burn each won a Daily in their only 4-0/3-1 appearances.

Modern has a lot of possibilities right now; there was a load of one-hit wonders this week, any of which could make a splash at the Grand Prix. Several are things you've heard of, some are intriguing tweaks enabled by a new set, and others are pretty out there.

Some intriguing sideboard choices propelled one player to consecutive Daily placements:

Grixis Twin ? Modern | DeepInTheHops

• Creatures (12)
• 2 Pestermite
• 4 Deceiver Exarch
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

• Spells (25)
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Electrolyze
• 2 Kolaghan's Command
• 2 Spell Snare
• 2 Terminate
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Remand
• 4 Serum Visions
• 4 Splinter Twin

• Lands (23)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Swamp
• 4 Island
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Darkslick Shores
• 1 Desolate Lighthouse
• 1 Watery Grave
• 2 Steam Vents
• 3 Sulfur Falls
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Keranos, God of Storms
• 1 Negate
• 2 Spellskite
• 1 Vendilion Clique
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 1 Flashfreeze
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Pyroclasm
• 1 Thundermaw Hellkite

Buy This Deck

It's been awhile since we've seen Flashfreeze or Thundermaw Hellkite (or Mulldrifter outside a Sun Titan deck). But Grave Titan showing up in Grixis Twin (they even share initials) is nasty. Double-black color commitments aren't what Grixis Twin normally is about, but Grave Titan can make short work of an unprepared opponent. It's also supremely good with a Splinter Twin on it, in the same vein of Tarmo-Twin decks sideboarding Thragtusk for extreme value potential.

PabuBoy also placed in consecutive Dailies, with a Battle for Zendikar reinvention of Scapeshift. Here's his second of the lists:

Four-Color Scapeshift ? Modern | PabuBoy

• Creatures (6)
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

• Spells (27)
• 2 Peer Through Depths
• 3 Cryptic Command
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Remand
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Hunting Wilds
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Pyroclasm
• 2 Scapeshift
• 4 Bring to Light
• 4 Search for Tomorrow

• Lands (27)
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Forest
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Watery Grave
• 2 Flooded Grove
• 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Stomping Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Scapeshift
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 1 Back to Nature
• 1 Creeping Corrosion
• 1 Crumble to Dust
• 3 Dispel
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 3 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Persecute
• 1 Slaughter Games

Buy This Deck

A Scapeshift deck with only two main-decked copies? Well, Bring to Light enables that as long as it's in a four-colored deck. And as the premier ramp deck in the format, Scapeshift's fully equipped to add a color from its usual Temur build. While tutoring for Scapeshift is Bring to Light's primary use, it can fetch a load of other Modern greats represented in the seventy-five. Damnation is in the main deck—when was the last time you saw Scapeshift casting that?—and Creeping Corrosion, Slaughter Games, Persecute, Crumble to Dust, Anger of the Gods, and Back to Nature are in the sideboard. The main deck's Hunting Wilds deserves special mention; it's in here because it can fetch "two Forest cards" rather than two basic lands. All three Forest shock lands in the colors are here, so Hunting Wilds can fix almost any mana problem imaginable. I've rarely been a major fan of Scapeshift, but Bring to Light gives Scapeshift a new toolbox aspect, and in the hands of someone who correctly predicts a metagame, it could be devastating this weekend.

The third list, Sunday's winner, had white instead of black for Wrath of God, Path to Exile, and Timely Reinforcements. And Timely Reinforcements is a worthwhile card due to Thursday's winner:

Zoo ? Modern | _goblinlackey

• Creatures (18)
• 2 Grim Lavamancer
• 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 4 Goblin Guide
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Wild Nacatl

• Spells (22)
• 2 Searing Blaze
• 4 Atarka's Command
• 4 Boros Charm
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Lava Spike
• 4 Rift Bolt

• Lands (35)
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 2 Stomping Ground
• 3 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Wooded Foothills
• 2 Searing Blaze
• 4 Destructive Revelry
• 3 Molten Rain
• 1 Deflecting Palm
• 3 Kor Firewalker
• 2 Path to Exile

Buy This Deck

Hitting hard and early, the sideboard choices reflect the desire to deal as much incidental damage as possible. Not every version shares the desire. The Sunday list had Exquisite Firecraft, Skullcrack, and Rending Volley in the sideboard. The Friday list had Ghor-Clan Rampager, Steppe Lynx, Zurgo Bellstriker, Become Immense, Mutagenic Growth, and Rancor in the main deck and Ancient Grudge, Rest in Peace, and Dromoka's Command in the sideboard. The list above is a middle ground between Burn and Zoo elements. I suspect that the creature-heavy side will be correct for this Grand Prix, if only because Burn is so automatic to sideboard against now and is a nearly unchanging list. The Zoo end has enough options to next-level a metagame, so if the deck shell is reasonably positioned, a seasoned pro could succeed with it this weekend.

One Spicy Metaball

Last month, I wrote that "Collected Company, Return to the Ranks, and Rally the Ancestors all bathe in the same cheap-creature waters, and while there might not be an abstract optimal build with these cards, the metagame might accompany some combination of them for quite some time." This deck from Thursday explores a new combination:

Orzhov Rally ? Modern | Draccon136

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Bloodthrone Vampire
• 1 Pawn of Ulamog
• 2 Cartel Aristocrat
• 3 Zulaport Cutthroat
• 4 Blood Artist
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 4 Geralf's Messenger
• 4 Gravecrawler
• 4 Viscera Seer
• 4 Tidehollow Sculler
• 1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion

• Spells (7)
• 4 Rally the Ancestors
• 3 Return to the Ranks

• Lands (21)
• 1 Plains
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Mutavault
• 2 Fetid Heath
• 3 Marsh Flats
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Disenchant
• 1 Fulminator Mage
• 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Orzhov Pontiff
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Spellskite
• 2 Stony Silence
• 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 2 Thoughtseize

Buy This Deck

Many a deck in an older format has become viable when a new card is similar enough to an old card to give a critical mass of the effect. In this case, Zulaport Cutthroat joins Blood Artist to make a full-blown sacrifice deck. A lot of these parts have been in various Modern decks—Dark Confidant, Geralf's Messenger/Gravecrawler, and Viscera Seer all have extensive resumes; here, they're cheap creatures to help other cheap creatures. Using the reverse-trigger trick, a sacrifice outlet allows Tidehollow Sculler to be Castigate if it needs to be; it's a nice bit of disruption to have available. And while I have distaste for calling decks by their guild or clan colors just because it's in those colors, Teysa, Orzhov Scion lets me call this an Orzhov deck without qualms. Also, with as many ways as this deck has to sacrifice black creatures and make white Spirits for them, good luck getting Splinter Twin off when Teysa's sitting there.

There are several Pro Tour players, like Sam Black, who are fans of Cartel Aristocrat and this deck type, and as the weekend's Game Day reminded me, a deck built around Zulaport Cutthroat–type effects is a slog for several more traditional decks. I wouldn't be surprised in any way for several pros to bring this to Porto Alegre and catch everybody else off-guard.

MOCS the Week

Saturday's Magic Online Championship Series entry was won by Abzan, beating Esper Planeswalkers. Hangarback Walker was in every one of the decks in the Top 8, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar was in seven of them (Jace, Vryn's Prodigy didn't show up at all). While that implies little variation, the sixth-place deck went its own way:

Bant Tokens ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Right2Rule

• Creatures (14)
• 3 Knight of the White Orchid
• 3 Wingmate Roc
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 4 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Spells (16)
• 2 Dispel
• 3 Secure the Wastes
• 3 Stasis Snare
• 4 Retreat to Emeria
• 4 Silkwrap

• Lands (26)
• 4 Forest
• 5 Plains
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 2 Blighted Woodland
• 2 Canopy Vista
• 2 Prairie Stream
• 2 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Archangel of Tithes
• 3 Den Protector
• 2 Erase
• 1 Evolutionary Leap
• 1 Negate
• 3 Surge of Righteousness
• 2 Valorous Stance

Buy This Deck

Retreat to Emeria explains everything this deck wants to do: make tokens and pump tokens. For the former, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Hangarback Walker, Nissa, Vastwood Seer, Wingmate Roc, and Secure the Wastes help out; for the latter, Gideon is the most obvious one, but fetch lands can give +2/+2 to the team on a single turn, while Blighted Woodland can give +3/+3. A freshly dead Hangarback Walker (are robots fresh when they die?) plus Retreat to Emeria and Blighted Woodland is a frightening board state. That's not a thing I ever expected to type, but it's clear that it works. Retreat to Emeria is good enough to be a full build-around, making this something more than your usual Hangarback/Gideon (Walker/'Walker) deck.

Conclusion

Battle for Zendikar is making itself felt here and there, with Scapeshift the known big winner. Is Zulaport Cutthroat about to become the best Ally in Modern? Does the relatively high percentage of Tarmo Twin decks mean anything? Will Lantern Control render these questions moot? Modern has a lot of options right now, and Porto Alegre is likely to present an entertainingly varied field.