Modern is More Diverse Right Now Than Ever

Modern is more diverse right now than ever. The games are interactive, varied, and most importantly, a ton of fun. If you are interested in playing more, are getting back into it, or are just curious about what you're likely to see at a store or on MTGO, then this article is for you. We're gonna go over some of the top decks with short summaries about their game plans and why they are powerful! This isn't going to be an extensive guide of each deck, but will give you a feel for each one so you know what you're up against.

1. Blue Red / Izzet Murktide

Izzet Murktide is a tempo/control strategy based around playing a threat and disrupting your opponent while it kills them. Cards like Ragavan, Dragon's Rage Channeler, Ledger Shredder and Murktide Regent are all played as threats and are backed up by premium interaction such as Counterspell, Lightning Bolt and Unholy Heat. The deck is especially powered up by Expressive Iteration, a spell so powerful it is banned in both Pioneer and Legacy.

2. Creativity ( 5-Color or Jund )

Creativity comes in 2 main forms but both are focused on the same primary goal: cheating Archon of Cruelty into play with Indomitable Creativity. Indomitable Creativity seems like a random effect unless you build your deck to have no creatures or artifacts other than Archon. Additionally, Dwarven Mine, with a mana base with only mountains, is a fetchable land that creates creature tokens to target with the Creativity. The 5-color build has access to powerful spells such as Teferi, Time Raveler and Leyline Binding, which is effectively 1 mana most of the time. On the other hand, the Jund build also uses Persist to provide some redundancy. 

3. Rhinos ( 5-Color or Temur )

Rhinos is a deck that, like Creativity, has 2 main variants. The first plays 5-colors in order to play spells like the previously mentioned Leyline Binding and sometimes even Scion of Draco. The second version plays just blue, red and green to play Blood Moon. Regardless of the build, Rhinos decks are focused on playing Crashing Footfalls via a cascade trigger from Violent Outburst or Shardless Agent. Cascade allows the Footfalls to be played immediately, creating 2 4/4s for only 3 mana. To ensure the cascade will always hit Crashing Footfalls the deck must play only cards with a mana value of 3 or greater. Split cards like Fire // Ice get around this as they can be cast for less than 3 as their mana value is the 2 spells combined.

4. Hammertime ( UW or Mono-W )

By this point it is probably clear that most decks in Modern have multiple different builds. Hammer is no different. Both use a package or Stoneforge Mystic, Puresteel Paladin and Sigarda's Aid to find and equip a Colossus Hammer with frightening speed and efficiency. The deck also uses Urza's Saga to diversify its threats. The two primary versions are mono-white or blue-white. The blue-white version is splashing blue for cheap interaction and hate like Spell Pierce or Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. While the mono-white version uses more effects like Blacksmith's Skill or even Solitude.

5. Rakdos Scam

Rakdos Scam is a midrange deck that can abuse the evoke-elementals to create fast clocks on the opponent. Combining Grief or Fury with an undying effect like Feign Death or Undying Malice to get 2 ETB triggers and a now extra large Grief or Fury on turn 1. A 4/3 Grief stripping your hand of your 2 best cards or a plain 4/4 Double Strike can end games very quickly. This in combination with Blood Moon earned the name “Scam” as it can feel as if you, the person facing the deck, got scammed out of a game.

6. Burn 

Burn is a deck that uses aggressive creatures like Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear in combination with as many cheap burn spells as possible. Lightning Bolt, Lava Spike, and Skewer the Critics will all deal 3 damage for 1 mana. If you can count to 7 this deck should win you the game. 

7. 4-5c Elementals

There are tons and tons of builds of this deck flying around. The core of the deck is using the power of evoke-elementals like Solitude and Fury with Omnath, Locus of Creation. The deck wins by using cards that are purely stronger than the opponents. Solitude can be a free Swords to Plowshares or a 2 for 1 on a 3/2 body. Wrenn and Six is a huge boon to the deck, ensuring land drops and an ultimate that can often just kill the opponent or lock them out of the game. Some versions, like the one that just won LMS Prague, use Keruga as a companion and can drown the opponent in cards getting a free 8th card. It is hard to describe the deck perfectly as the numbers in every deck change with different tech and plans. Many don't even run 60 cards, often running anywhere from 61-80. That topic is a whole other discussion, one I covered previously. 

8. Amulet Titan

Amulet Titan is an all-in combo deck that uses Amulet of Vigor in combination with the Ravnica bounce lands to generate absurd amounts of mana and cast a Primeval Titan and win as soon as turn 2. I won't go into the combo lines as Titan is known as one of the most convoluted combo decks to pilot, but the gist is that if they get a Titan into play with 1-2 Amulets you are likely dying that turn. 

9. Yawgmoth Combo

Yawgmoth is a combo-midrange deck that uses undying creatures, Yawgmoth and Blood Artist to kill the opponent. Without the Blood Artist the Yawgmoth player can still effectively pay 1 life to draw a card. The deck ramps quickly with Birds of Paradise, Ignoble Hierarch and Wall of Roots and can find Yawgmoth or other combo pieces very effectively with Eldritch Evolution and Chord of Calling. Grist serves a strong supporting role in more midrange games and is a tutorable removal spell. I have a lot of writings (here) on the deck if this sparks your interest.

10. Living End

Living End is similar to Rhinos as it looks to abuse cascade to consistently find and cast Living End. Living End essentially swaps the graveyard and battlefield. The deck looks to cycle creatures on turns 1 and 2 to fill the graveyard and then on turn 3 play a Violent Outburst or Shardless Agent to create a very formidable battlefield for very cheap. If the deck isn't being pressured it can easily just keep filling the graveyard until it can kill it's opponent in one fell swoop. It also has very powerful protection in Force of Negation being a free counterspell.

These are the decks most represented at tournaments at the moment however with the diversity of modern there are plenty more to be chosen from. Jeskai Combo Breach did well recently and so has Domain Zoo. If there is interest I'd be more than happy to keep going through the meta. I hope this was helpful and sufficient in preparing you for your next FNM, RCQ or other event!