The 10 Best Cards in Modern

[ ] Perhaps we have found the deck to beat in Modern. [#SCGMKE] was the first Modern Open since the banned and restricted announcement and those 18 rounds of Modern action last weekend solidified something that we all probably already knew – Abzan Company is a very good deck. And really, it makes sense. One of the few decks that could stand up to the Eldrazi during Eldrazi Winter was [Viscera Seer] and friends, and with the Eldrazi more or less out of the picture due to the banning of [Eye of Ugin], Abzan Company is left behind to take on all comers. And it did just that. Three players made the Top 8 of [#SCGMKE] with Abzan Company – Columbus Invitational Top 8 competitor and current Season Two points leader Andrew Maine, 2016 Players' Champion competitor Andrew Tenjum, and [#SCGMKE] champion Joseph Presnell. Why are those names important? Because two of those players in Maine and Tenjum are steadily destroying the SCG Tour and Presnell, the lesser known of the three, hoisted the trophy. All three concluded that Abzan Company was the deck to play in Milwaukee and after seeing their results, it's hard to disagree with them. So what does that mean for [#SCGINDY] in two weeks? To me, it means you better be able to beat [Collected Company] and [Chord of Calling]. There are options available to do that of course, like Joe Lossett's take on G/R Tron or Will Drescher's take on [Death's Shadow] Aggro, but are they consistent enough to get the job done over the course of 15 rounds? I guess a weeks' worth of testing will allow everyone to find that out. — Cedric Phillips, Media Manager [@CedricAPhillips] [Results] [Results] [Joseph Presnell wins Modern Open with Abzan Company!] [Results] [Rob Birdsall wins Standard Classic with Naya Midrange!] [Results] [Zack Witten takes down Legacy Classic with Grixis Delver!] [StarCityGames.com Open] [Editor's Picks] [How To Handle Abzan Company] As I said in the intro, Abzan Company is the deck to beat in Modern. But that doesn't mean it can't be beat. Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir champion Ari Lax believes there are powerful lines of attack against Modern's newest elephant in the room. But is better to try to beat it or join it? [Winners And Losers From #GPToronto] Grand Prix Toronto was won by Esper Dragons but there's a lot more to take away from the tournament than the winning decklist. G/W Tokens was dominant, B/W Control was lackluster, and Seasons Past Control was basically non-existent. Let Ross Merriam break down the rest for you. [Tirelessly Tracking G/W Tokens] It's not often that one thinks they've built the best deck they could have before, during, or after a Pro Tour, but that's where Pro Tour Born of the Gods champion Shaun McLaren stands. He was a huge fan of G/W Tokens heading into [#PTSOI] and that hasn't changed. Read on to check out his perfected list. [Match of the Week] Joe Lossett was hunting for his sixth win on the SCG Tour at [#SCGMKE], but Joseph Presnell stood in his way in the finals. Would Lossett claim the trophy with G/R Tron or could Presnell take down one of the most decorated players on the SCG Tour with Abzan Company? [Match of the Week video] [Announcements] [Announcements] [Check out the StarCityGames Weekly Sale!] [Announcements] [Celebrate Modern Weekend at Grand Prix Charlotte!] [Announcements] [Order Shadows over Innistrad today!] [What I'd Play At The Open Series] Modern is in an interesting place right now. With the removal of the Eldrazi menace, and the unbanning of both [Ancestral Vision] and [Thopter Foundry], there's a lot of space to explore in the format. Last weekend we got to see a wide variety of both experimental and tried and true strategies in action at the Milwaukee Open. Abzan Company took the lion's share of the wins in Milwaukee, and the trophy to boot. That said, there was a lot of diversity in the field, and plenty of different archetypes seeing success. These are my picks for the ten best cards in Modern given the results from Milwaukee. #10 [Death's Shadow] [Death's Shadow card preview] [Death's Shadow] is a card that almost broke out at Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch, though by the Sunday of that event it was clear that Modern was going to be all about the Eldrazi. With the [Eye of Ugin] banning, it's not surprising to see Death's Shadow Aggro back in the limelight. What is surprising, is that the only player who made day two with [Death's Shadow] in Milwaukee cracked the Top 8 of the event. [Death's Shadow] offers incentive to play [Gitaxian Probe] in your aggressive deck, which enables you to sequence with near-perfect information. The other advantage [Death's Shadow] offers is the "combo" finish of [Temur Battle Rage]. The ability to deal 20-plus damage in a single turn forces your opponent to think twice about ever tapping out. #9 [Become Immense] [Become Immense card preview] On the topic of combo finishes, [Become Immense] continues to showcase the power of delve in Modern by being featured in both Death's Shadow Aggro and Infect. Both of these decks put one copy in the Top 8, and Infect also accounted for the ninth-place finish on breakers. There are a good number of playable pump spells in Modern, though none match the efficiency of [Become Immense]. [Vines of Vastwood], [Might of Old Krosa], and [Groundswell] all require some specific cost beyond just paying one green mana to give a creature four additional power, where [Become Immense] will easily be +6/+6 for G in most games. This raw efficiency is great for Infect, and is also the sole card that makes the [Temur Battle Rage] combo viable. #8 [Wild Nacatl] [Wild Nacatl card preview] It's still silly to me to think that [Wild Nacatl] was once banned in Modern, though the card's power level in the format is undeniable. [Wild Nacatl] is the ideal start for aggressive Naya decks in Modern, and now that the format isn't riddled with turn two 4/4s the cat has come back. #7 [Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet] [Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet card preview] While [Kalitas] is more of a Standard card, his Modern applications are very real. Jund and Grixis decks have adopted [Kalitas] as the new top of their curves, with Michael Majors playing three copies in his 16th-place Grixis list. [Kalitas's] lifelink goes a long way in combatting aggressive decks, and the exiling ability disrupts [Melira]/[Anafenza] combo all while generating 2/2 zombies to speed up your own clock. #6 [Scavenging Ooze] [Scavenging Ooze card preview] [Scavenging Ooze] is another card that disrupts interactions involving cards entering graveyards, though [Ooze's] applications are slightly wider. Whether it's a combo that involves the graveyard, [Snapcaster Mage], or [Tarmogoyf], there are plenty of cards that [Scavenging Ooze] disrupts. Control decks featuring green mana and the [Chord of Calling] green decks all feature [Scavenging Ooze] in some capacity. #5 [Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger] [Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger card preview] Joe Lossett piloted Tron all the way to a second-place finish in Milwaukee, and [Ulamog] played a big part in this. Previously, when opponents gained infinite life with [Kitchen Finks] the only way for Tron to win was to restart the game with [Karn Liberated]. [Ulamog] enables the Tron player to just attack a couple of times and to exile the entirety of the opponent's library. Not to mention that [Ulamog's] cast trigger can have a crippling effect on your opponent's ability to play Magic in the first place. #4 [Kitchen Finks] [Kitchen Finks card preview] [Kitchen Finks] is a messed up Magic card. Not only is it part of an infinite life combo, but it also just comes at an absurd rate in fair games of Magic. [Finks] is a four-of in Abzan Company, and is a totally reasonable card to just play in decks like Jund or any deck that can cast it to have as a sideboard card against aggressive red decks. #3 [Lightning Bolt] [Lightning Bolt card preview] [Lightning Bolt] all but disappeared during Eldrazi Winter, and now has returned in force. It remains one of the best removal spells ever printed, and it slots itself into nearly every deck that can produce red mana. Joe Lossett even played a couple copies in his Tron sideboard this weekend as an efficient tool to help him keep pace with the format's creature-heavy decks. #2 [Noble Hierarch] [Noble Hierarch card preview] Infect had a solid weekend in Milwaukee, and Abzan Company had a great one. Both decks utilize [Noble Hierarch] as both a means to accelerate their mana and to generate exalted triggers to make better attacks. This ability to get ahead on mana is not to be understated in a format as efficient as Modern, and the added bonus of making combat easier makes [Noble Hierarch] a deceptively powerful card. #1 [Collected Company] [Collected Company card preview] And then we come to the new [Birthing Pod]. [Collected Company] doesn't allow the consistency nor the inevitability that [Birthing Pod] did, though in many situations their power level is comparable. [Collected Company] gives Abzan Company a ton of play against sweepers, which would usually be very powerful against such a creature-heavy deck. [Melira]/[Anafenza] combo is technically possible without [Collected Company] in the format, though it is the singular card that pushes the deck over the top. When the SCG Tour makes its stop in Indianapolis in two weeks, I expect to see all of these cards putting up results once again. Whether you choose to beat them or join them, these are the cards that should be on your radar for [#SCGINDY]. — Ryan Overturf, [@RyanOverdrive] [Road To The Player's Championship] We got a new leader in the SCG Tour Player of the Year race! While Joe Lossett missed out on his invite to the Players' Championship at the Columbus Invitational, the Miracle Man set out on a mission to do well at [#SCGMKE]. Lossett put in a ton of Modern practice over the past two weeks that paid off as he made the finals of the Milwaukee Modern Open with a retooled G/R Tron list. Though Lossett fell a game shy of winning his sixth Open trophy, the runner-up finish was good enough to launch him to the top of the POY standings, just a point above Jeff Hoogland, while also vaulting him up the Season Two points race. Now not only Lossett sits atop the POY race, but is also in seventh in Season Two, opening up another run to qualify for the [#SCGPC] in a season as well. The other big story out of [#SCGMKE] was Andrew Maine making a second straight Top-4 performance, following up his finish at the Columbus Invitational. [SCG Tour Leaderboard] Maine played Abzan Company into the Top 4 of [#SCGMKE], marking another strong finish with the deck while overtaking the top spot in the Season Two race. Maine's jump to the top of Season Two comes along with a berth into the Top 32 on the POY race, landing in 30th place, which is good for one bye in [#SCGINDY]. Maine is looking to keep his hot streak going by playing the same deck in the Modern Indianapolis Open, and will determine if he is going to make a run at the [#SCGPC] after his weekend in Indy. Caleb Scherer and Emma Handy had decent weekends at [#SCGMKE] as well. For Scherer, a Legacy Classic Top 8 was a good way to get Season Two going after a rough Season One following his Invitational Win in Las Vegas. Handy's Top 8 in the Standard Classic gave her jus the push she needed to jump into the Top 32 on the POY race, locking up a bye for her at [#SCGINDY]. The SCG Tour takes a break this weekend for Mother's Day, but will return next weekend with a Modern Open in Indianapolis. Join us at [twitch.tv/scglive] to follow all the action and stay up to speed on the SCG Tour Player of the Year race! [Game Night] [Cardboard Crack] [Invitational Qualifier announcement] [Join the Conversation] [StarCityGames.com] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Youtube] [If you would like to unsubscribe and stop receiving these emails please click here.] StarCityGames.com, 5728 Williamson Road N.W, Roanoke, VA 24012 [SafeUnsubscribe™ {EMAIL}] [Forward email] | [Update Profile] | [About our service provider] Sent by [donotreply@starcitygames.com] in collaboration with [Constant Contact] [Try it free today]