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Main » Articles » The 4+3 Things I Learned Testing Modern Last Week

The 4+3 Things I Learned Testing Modern Last Week

Michael Flores
Posted on March 19, 2019
 Reddit

I turned forty-three last Friday.

Well, Thursday night, first. We had a good great group going. Most famous was Zac Hill, once of Memphis, then Renton, WA and Magic R&D. But farthest afield was young Roman Fusco, late of Los Angeles, California. Roman flew in to hang on my birthday... But also to battle in a big Modern event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over the weekend. If there is a mage who loves Modern Burn more than YT, it's him.

He never wavers. Not since his first PPTQ win, or winning the Modern Regionals with Burn two years ago now. Always with the Inspiring Vantages, that mage.

I was going to write the "forty-three" things I learned testing... But that would have been even longer than this article. So you'll just have to settle for four plus three.

Spoilers!

My daughter wrote me like the sweetest birthday card in the world, and indicated she wanted to spend Saturday finishing our campaign of Betrayal Legacy.

I bought our copy here on Cool Stuff over Christmas, and it has been one of the best gaming experiences of my life. If you're already a fan of one of the other Betrayal series (they even have a D&D port of the ingenious Betrayal engine), you'll love Love LOVE this one.

So I ended up not going to Philly. Honestly, I wasn't feeling it. Which is weird: Normally, I will find any excuse to play Modern - specifically Modern Burn - but my beloved deck is perhaps positioned at its all-time worst. Which is weird: It was not long ago that I felt almost invincible with the addition of the Spectacle cards; that I could only lose to my own mis-plays (with the odd Spectacle, obv).

The problem isn't the leading deck, Izzet Phoenix. I think that's a relatively simple matchup, personally. I think people get it wrong by playing anti-graveyard cards that don't really affect the battlefield. They're all tapping two and dealing zero... And act all surprised when they get brained, three points at a time, from hard-cast hasters.

The problem is the number two deck: Dredge. I couldn't figure out a way to beat Dredge with four main-deck copies of Creeping Chill. That card is like a free Lightning Helix that they neither have to spend a card on, nor spend any mana on (even though there is a hefty four in the upper-right).

Dredge was already a challenging opponent; one that Burn would usually only beat with fortune and tempo... So the combination of Creeping Chill and increasing popularity made me just not want to go. It was a long trip with a ton of travel expenses... But wildly lower performance expectations than I typically have in these kinds of things.

That said... I did a lot of practicing anyway and learned at least seven things I would like to share.

1. In Another Universe, I Played Awesome Blossom

Well, there you have it!

My secret tech!

The last time I wrote about B/R Burn in Modern it was one of my best-received articles here on Cool Stuff; but, I think I really got there with the discovery of Bitterblossom for the sideboard. Bitterblossom just does so many things for the Burn deck.

It's a constant source of evasive, 1/1 flyers (duh). Among other things, it can just lock out a Death's Shadow deck. The br version (versus my old faithful with Chained to the Rocks and Path to Exile) sometimes has problems with Gurmag Angler. Of course (especially in Game 1) you just go around the Angler, but in a direct conflict it has too high a casting cost for Fatal Push.

So you just make guys to hold it (or Death's Shadow) off. It's great! If they send, you Forcefield every turn. If they don't, you accumulate materiel and / or send.

Death's Shadow is one of the easiest matchups when you know what your Spectacle cards do, so that's not even the real thing. It's also a novel way to interact with many of graveyard-advantageous creatures in Phoenix or Dredge. Two 1/1 Faeries may surprise you.

But really... that's still not all.

The actual reason you want to play Bitterblossom is uw.

The single most dangerous card in Modern for Burn is Timely Reinforcements. It's far, far, faster than Lyra Dawnbringer or Baneslayer Angel, and attacks on multiple fronts simultaneously. I think part of the efficacy of this card in the past was just that the Burn mana base was good and people weren't lining their tactics up properly. But still, it's next to impossible to beat. You certainly aren't beating two... Without Bitterblossom.

The Awesome Blossom is indeed awesome here! For one, it is trivial to match the 1/1 action of Timely Reinforcements. For another, you might actually get your life total low enough to deuce the "gain six" aspect of the card.

Another universe, like I said.

2. I Considered a Much Stupider Sideboard Strategy, However

I saw a Naya Zoo deck with four - count 'em four - copies of Relic of Progenitus!

Naya Zoo | Modern | JUANPABLOCALDE

Was this something we could borrow in Burn?

Could I maybe sub out my two Grim Lavamancers (which are not friends with Relic) and run it, or Nihil Spellbomb? Could I go to - gasp - eight copies after board?

I think there is something fundamentally different about playing Surgical Extraction or Rest in Peace versus Relic or Spellbomb. My biggest thought about playing Burn is to not play too many cards - nearly any cards, really - that don't deal damage. I'll make an exception for a card that is both mana efficient and absolutely great on the battlefield (Chained to the Rocks is the best example)... But otherwise I'm only into damage and card draw. To the point that I was favoring Kataki, War's Wage over Stony Silence even back in the KCI heyday. There isn't much point in disrupting the opponent if you just give them enough time to draw out of it.

Relic of Progenitus and Nihil Spellbomb are both "card drawing" cards as well as potentially high impact in the right matchups. If you have some good tempo going, just drawing one of these cards...

Oh, who am I kidding?

The biggest problem for me - for me - is the degree to which these cards change the character of the Burn sideboard plan. I'm all about siding out my face-burn (Lava Spike or Skullcrack back when I had it) for a ton of mana efficient stuff that impacts the board. Grim Lavamancers, Paths, and Chained to the Rocks. In the Affinity matchup I once brought in all the usual Searing Bloods, six one-mana White spells, and not just Smash to Smithereens but a fun-of* Shattering Spree!

All my success the last couple of years has been in picking my spot and having a ton of cards that did what I wanted. Over and over I slayed Humans, Affinity, any and all Tarmogoyfs. I was kind of worried - and this is ironic given the text box on Tarmogoyf - that I might lose if I had Relic of Progenitus instead of Fatal Push and Searing Blood in my 'board.

But I still thought about it.

And for some other mages, I think eight-of overload on anti-graveyard might even be right. Here though? I was a little concerned about not being able to actually deal 20.

3. I Don't Know Why People Even Try to Interact with Tron

One of the decks I spent the most time testing was a rw Control deck inspired by this:

Skred Red | Modern | Kevin Mackie, GP DFW

And this:

Skred Dragons | Modern | Ozzy Kelly, StarCityGames Classic

I'm not listing it because it was godawful. I played it a ton but I think I might have only won one match, where I got beat up by Affinity, played Blood Moon into his Arcbound Ravager on turn three to turn off his Blinkmoth and Inkmoth Nexuses, then cashed in for both Anger of the Gods and Path to Exile (on his all-in Arcbound Ravager) following. I remember being flabbergasted that I survived long enough to make these plays. The net result was just more of me testing this awful deck that you don't want to know about.

My theory was that a combination of four main-deck Relic of Progenitus + 3-4 Anger of the Gods was going to be more than enough to beat Dredge. I don't know if this would have ended up true because no one Online ever battled me with Dredge. I did however get my butt handed to me repeatedly by Tron.

The first time out I landed Blood Moon with a pair of 4/4s in my hand. Great, right? Well.... Blood Moon doesn't turn off Forest. It doesn't even turn off the ability to use the Tron deck's one mana artifact fixers. Forest turns on Ancient Stirrings; and Ancient Stirrings can easily find Oblivion Stone.

It's not just O-Stone (that's just the easiest way out). You can lose to Karn, All is Dust, Ugin... Tons of more expensive options. Or maybe they just use them after blowing up your Blood Moon.

Worse, I managed to lose a sideboard game where I started on Cindervines. That was supposed to beat their Oblivion Stone! It did! I just lost to their next thing. I think it was an Ugin, that erased all my guys as well as my poor Blood Moon.

4. Peek is the Old-New Hotness, Visions of Beyond is Not Very Good

One of the most impressive deck-building tweaks I've ever seen was Richard Feldman's addition of Peek to Antoine Ruel's Pro Tour winning Psychatog deck. I never really liked Mental Note in the original... Whereas Peek was just a perfect twist on an already very good deck. Among other things, it told Feldman when the opponent had a combo deck, or whether that combo deck was likely go off.

Peek seems like a great card to try in Modern right now.

I played it in my list over Serum Visions, which might just be wrong. Serum Visions is excellent with Delver of Secrets, specifically; but it would be the only sorcery speed option in the list. This is the deck I eventually got to, after many, many iterations:

Mono-BlueTest Deck | Modern | Michael Flores

For this matter overall, I thought Deprive was a little challenging to play as a four-of; ditto on Logic Knot, which could sometimes play at odds with Pteramander. 2 + 2 gives this deck a very "Counterspell" feel.

Over the course of testing I tried a lot of different one mana card draw spells. Most exciting was Visions of Beyond. I was playing Thought Scour and a ton of similar spells. Twenty would be no problem, right? I don't think I ever exceeded 14 cards in my graveyard in any game.

TLDR: Delver is great; Pteramander is surprisingly disappointing.

5. Vapor Snag

... Is the most underrated card in Modern.

Go out of your way to try this card. It's awesome! The number of times I've done the last two with a Vapor Snag and a Snapcaster Mage is kind of shocking. Always with the one mana Burn cards, am I right?

6. It's Actually a Great Time to Test Tempest Djinn in Modern

The highest performing Burn deck in Philadelphia 1) failed to make Top 8, and 2) didn't run Grim Lavamancer main. In fact, it ran a sum total of one copy in the sideboard!

The problem for a Mono-Blue deck like this is actually that someone might have the little red wizard. There are precious few ways to permanently deal with a resolved Grim Lavamancer; and a resolved Grim Lavamancer might be death. Any Burn spell can potentially put away the largest creature with an open Mountain alongside to help.

I myself even considered playing Nihil Spellbomb in my main deck over Grim Lavamancer!

Point being, a Tempest Djinn is at least temporarily tough enough. If it's going to be good enough, this is the week. In the future, that might not hold true. Grim Lavamancer is key to both the Affinity and Humans matchups; it only stands to reason that when the format shifts again, the Red Deck's own tuning will adjust to accommodate it. But for now? Enjoy the survivability of your Tempest Djinn. It won't last.

7. You Can Draw Everything You Want and Still Lose

I feel like I should be invoking the poet Jaggar here. Instead?

LOVE

MIKE

* It was fun for me, anyway.

TAGS articles, theory, constructed, analysis, modern, decklist, michael flores, 03192019

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