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5 Decks You Can’t Miss This Week

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Journey into Nyx previews may have started, but that doesn't mean we're done with the current formats just yet. This week we've got a couple of awesome brews from Standard to Commander featuring everything from Mill to Uba Mask. From new takes on Birthing Pod to never letting your opponent play Magic, these are five decks you just don't want to miss.


The Standard metagame has continued to move in a direction where Blood Baron of Vizkopa is an absurd trump in a number of important match-ups. Because of that, people have become increasingly incentivized to find the best Blood Baron deck. Until now, that's typically been some Esper or Black-White variant. This week, Brad Nelson may have changed all of that. In a video this week Brad revealed the deck that may have the fastest , most resilient, and most consistent Blood Barons in the format while still having a way to go over the top of Esper. Let's look at Junk Reanimator:

No Unburial Rites, no problem. This deck is very similar to the reanimator decks of last Standard season, except you've traded Unburial Rites for Obzedat's Aid and changed up your reanimation targets. Beyond that, the deck is startlingly similar.

Plan A is to ramp into Obzedat's Aid on an Elspeth or other fatty as early as turn three. Alternatively, you can just ramp up into your cards that cost five or more. You've got enough ramp to race the aggressive decks in the format, and your threats are powerful enough to take over games on their own. The matchup against Esper Control seems a little awkward, but even that deck has trouble dealing with a threat like Ashen Rider.

One thing's for sure, this is one deck I'll be keeping in mind as I look at Journey to Nyx spoilers in the coming weeks.


Last week we looked at a Caleb Durward brew featuring Akroma, Angel of Fury alongside Restoration Angel and other flicker effects to flip it face up. This week, we've seen a couple of takes on Akroma show in in Modern Daily Events. The most interesting take on this new interaction is this Birthing Pod deck built by Lurgold:

There's a couple of interesting things going on in this list, and Akroma plus Restoration Angel is only the first. We've got Sea Gate Oracle over Kitchen Finks to match up better against Path to Exile. We've got Wall of Omens as the two-drop of choice in a field full of Wild Nacatls and Affinity.

Momentary Blink is especially awesome in this deck as a way to dodge spot removal, especially when you're going for your infinite combo. Blink Kiki-Jiki in response to Path to Exile and try to combo again? Seems good. Momentary Blink resets persist creatures like Glen Elendra Archmage to help fight against sweepers and removal. The deck on the whole is more resilient to the most powerful removal spells in Modern: Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile.

Is this going to become the new Standard for Pod decks? I don't think so. I think the straight combo plan is better for Naya Pod and Melira Pod is a much better attrition-y value deck. That said, I love that decks like this can crush events by blindsiding opponents with something they don't expect out of the deck, and Akroma seems like a pretty reasonable backup or sideboard plan against the controlling decks of the format that lean too hard on Path to Exile to fight your combo and top end.


Do you hate combo of all varities? Have no interest in letting your opponents play a real game of Magic? Swanbomb has got the deck for you. It's certainly no Smokestack, but Prison has come to Modern.

No, you can't splinter Twin me. I have a Ghostly Prison and Runed Halo naming Deceiver Exarch. Leyline of Sanctity and Runed Halo on Grapeshot. Nevermore naming Scapeshift or Karn Liberated. This deck has a powerful, hateful enchantment for almost any situation, which makes it perfect for a combo-heavy metagame where a single piece of hate will buy you time to set up additional lock pieces.

The more all-in a deck is on a specific plan, the better set up you are to crush their hopes and dreams with powerful hate cards. The best thing? Your sideboard is full of even more specific hate. Porphory Nodes and Timely Reinforcements for the aggressive decks. Rest in Peace to kill Goryo's Vengeance and Vengevine decks. Stony Silence. There's not a deck in the format that you can't hate out of existence given the time to set up or find a Nykthos.


What's the exciting Legacy technology this week? Uba Mask. Go on, I'll give you a minute. So what is this random Champions of Kamigawa rare doing in Legacy of all places? It's working side by side with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Ensnaring Bridge to shut down the better part of the Legacy metagame. Here's Drew Levin's new take on Tezzeret:

The idea is that Mox Opal is one of the most powerful cards in the format without a real home and that it wants to be played in a shell with Sensei's Divining Top and Ensnaring Bridge so that you can empty your hand quickly and be advantaged when both players are playing off the top. Right now, Ensnaring Bridge shuts down most of the decks in Legacy, sans Tendrils of Agony, Grindstone, and Jace ultimates. Delvers, Goyfs, and Eldrazi alike will not be attacking for damage if Drew has anything to say about it.

But what about Uba Mask? The idea is that this card shuts down counterspells and prevents your opponents from stringing together a series of draw steps that will let them win through your Ensnaring Bridge. If your opponent doesn't have a creature in hand already for their Sneak Attack, they're never going to draw another creature for the rest of the game. If they cast a Brainstorm, they'd best be able to cast all of those cards in one turn.

Uba Mask gives you a sort of inevitability or resilience to the top of your opponents deck while you dig for a way to win the game. Does that mean that Uba Mask is going to take Legacy by storm? Probably not. But it's certainly a card with plenty of utility that may be underutilized in the current format. If you're looking to cast Mox Opal and lock your opponent out of the game, it may just be the time for Tezzeret to shine.


Mill. It's a strategy that is very rarely viable in "real" constructed formats. Not really since the days of Sanity Grinding have we seen a serious mill deck in Standard (no, Nephalia Drownyard doesn't count). In Commander, anything is possible; when Phenax, God of Deception is at the helm, people are going to get milled. That still leaves a few important questions: how do you scale-up your ability to mill so that you can race multiple players? How do you stop yourself from stocking your opponents' graveyard with goodies? These are questions that Psyces has found answers for in his Phenax mill deck:

[Cardlist title=Phenax Mill - Commander | Pysces]

This deck seems awesome. You've got the ability to combo off with Phenax by stealing all of your opponents creatures with cards like Reins of Power and Chamber of Manipulation. You've got Undead Alchemist and other graveyard hate cards to make sure graveyard tricks don't get out of hand. You've got plenty of interactive elements and mill effects like Mesmeric Orb that scale-up to the number of players in your game.

I like that you have plenty of powerful cards like Mind Grind to Fireball someone's library in the late game. I also like that you have the backup plans of powerful, evasive creatures and over-the-top X-Spells like Exsanguinate so that you can win games without going all-in on mill.

What I really miss here are effects like Ghostly Flicker to really jumpstart the mill engine in combination with something like Phenax andMnemonic Wall.I guess Phenax isn't always guaranteed to be turned on, but I still think Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall are enough reason to consider Ghostly Flicker. Maybe even Scrivener is worth a shot!

It may not be the kind of deck that takes a table by storm, but you've got to love unique approaches to the format, and this is definitely one of the most interesting decks I've seen in awhile.


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