After my 13–2 finish at Grand Prix Edison (New Jersey) playing Legacy, I had the chance to play in Pro Tour Fate Reforged as a part of Team TCGplayer. While I didn’t have the best performance possible, I certainly learned a lot about Modern and Booster Draft from my teammates.

On Modern

My Modern testing began right after the Grand Prix. I knew that Daryl Ayers had won the Magic Online Championship Series with Scapeshift with Dig Through Time, and I was convinced that Scapeshift with Dig Through Time was one of the best decks possible since it had it all: a combo kill, ways to recover from attrition, and great ways to keep the board under control.

The list that I spent time testing looked something like this:

Scapeshift ? Khans of Tarkir Modern | Jarvis Yu

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

• Spells (30)
• 2 Izzet Charm
• 3 Electrolyze
• 4 Cryptic Command
• 4 Dig Through Time
• 4 Remand
• 4 Pyroclasm
• 4 Scapeshift
• 4 Search for Tomorrow
• 1 Prismatic Omen

• Lands (26)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Flooded Grove
• 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Stomping Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Counterflux
• 2 Nature's Claim
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 4 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Negate
• 1 Dispel

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Fast forward to Grand Prix Omaha, when it was clear that the metagame hadn’t shifted much: The Top 8 was comprised of Birthing Pod, Amulet of Vigor Combo, Merfolk, two U/R Delver decks, R/G Tron, Through the Breach Scapeshift, and an innovative Domain Zoo deck with Siege Rhino and Anafenza, the Foremost in its main deck.

I still believe that the blue-heavy Scapeshift build above would have thrived in that metagame, although the Amulet Combo is a scary matchup because that deck can simply unload a Primeval Titan on turn two.

 . . . Then. on January 19, 2015, Wizards spoke and this occurred:

We had somewhat planned for this, but not completely. I had a few alternative builds of Scapeshift ready to go, namely the brute-force-Scapeshift list again, but it felt underpowered now because we expected many people to find out that Become Immense was actually a strong card and that the matchup against Abzan decks was slightly under fifty percent.

Become Immense enabled several decks to rise to the top, namely Combo Zoo and Infect.

Andrew Shrout built this list of Combo Zoo very early on (even before the bans):

Combo Zoo ? Modern | Andrew Shrout

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Ghor-Clan Rampager
• 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 4 Goblin Guide
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Wild Nacatl

• Spells (20)
• 2 Searing Blood
• 3 Become Immense
• 3 Gut Shot
• 4 Boros Charm
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Mutagenic Growth

• Lands (21)
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Stomping Ground
• 4 Arid Mesa
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (16)
• 3 Dismember
• 4 Destructive Revelry
• 1 Searing Blood
• 1 Searing Blaze
• 2 Chained to the Rocks
• 4 Rest in Peace
• 1 Gut Shot

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I believe Steve Rubin managed to play a version of this to great success in the actual Pro Tour (which ended up splashing blue for Geist of Saint Traft in the sideboard and included the great tech of Phyrexian Unlife for burn decks).

Fast Forward a Few More Weeks

Most of the team ended up arriving on February 2 or February 3 from Grand Prix Mexico City and San Jose, so we had a few quite in-depth meetings and testing sessions on the Wednesday and Thursday before the Pro Tour.

• Boros took the least amount of damage from its lands.
• Mardu had access to Crackling Doom (amazing against Slippery Bogles decks and the like).
• Naya gained access to Destructive Revelry.

In retrospect, I firmly believe that the Naya build was the best one, and indeed, Seth Manfield managed to crack the Top 8 with it (while going 6–0 in Limited as well).

I ended up playing a fairly stock Abzan list in the Pro Tour, and I went 1–4 in the Modern portion after starting 2–1 in Draft (losing to teammate Seth Manfield in Round 2, and he ended up starting an incredible 12–0).

I would recommend playing Jesse Hampton’s Abzan build if you’re looking for a stock build—and Jacob Wilson’s if you’re looking for something to try to crush the mirror and Burn with.

I also had the pleasure of watching well-known Scottish player (and friend of mine) Stephen Murray make a deep run into Day 2 (ending up 10–5–1) with Living End. It was a fantastic choice for this tournament, considering the matchup against Abzan is favorable, whereas the matchup against other creature decks is quite good. The matchup against Burn is unfavorable in Game 1, and it’s passable post-board.

On Booster Draft

A lot of Fate Reforged packs don’t have any really good cards, so take the land out of them. Hope to be lucky enough to take your rare (because it’s sufficiently powerful) or one of the best three uncommons: Temur Sabertooth, Pyrotechnics, or Elite Scaleguard.

Barring that, I favored trying to draft low-curve, enemy-pair aggressive decks (in order of preference, they are R/W, U/R, W/B, G/U, and B/G). B/G is definitely the worst at trying to accomplish this goal since a card like Grim Contest is designed for a deck to turtle up and use.

Barrage of Boulders definitely gained a lot of value because Gore Swine existed in pack one.

Standard Again

So I’m back to examining Standard carefully, and here’s what I’ve been playing in the Magic Online queues since last Monday:

Abzan ? Fate Reforged Standard | Jarvis Yu

• Creatures (9)
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 4 Siege Rhino
• 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
• 3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

• Spells (20)
• 2 Utter End
• 3 Bile Blight
• 3 Hero's Downfall
• 4 Abzan Charm
• 2 End Hostilities
• 2 Read the Bones
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Lands (26)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 2 Caves of Koilos
• 3 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 4 Temple of Malady
• 4 Temple of Silence
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Read the Bones
• 1 Garruk, Apex Predator
• 1 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
• 1 Bile Blight
• 4 Drown in Sorrow
• 2 Glare of Heresy
• 1 Nissa, Worldwaker
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Unravel the Aether
• 1 Erase

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I’ve always been drawn to the controlling Abzan decks that Steve Rubin and Ari Lax popularized. In fact, this is an updated build of it that Dan Musser first made Top 8 of the StarCityGames Open in DC with—and he then later won a PTQ a week later with it.

I also think the Jeskai Tokens deck I played in StarCityGames Open DC is still reasonable (although it needs some changes). From that list, I’d cut the Ephemeral Shields for another Lightning Strike or Magma Jet, and I’d probably retool the sideboard to have a third Negate.

I hope to start recording videos on a more consistent basis as well, so let me know if there are any formats or Constructed decks you’d like to see.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave comments here or on Twitter @jkyu06.

Jarvis