Top 8 Modern Decks - November

Modern is an ever changing mess of a format. To try to add some clarity to the situation, every few months I like to take a snapshot of the format. You can see the last snapshot from July. 

8. Devoted Druid Combo

When Vizier of Remedies was first printed, it was all the rage. People were jamming it in as many shells as they could with Devoted Druid, Kitchen Finks, and Viscera Seer. No busted list was found, and people put aside the deck for other hot, trendy choices like Humans and UW Control. Yet, there appears to be something here. In the (admittedly flawed) data collected over several Modern GP’s, Druid decks consistently had solid winrates against the field. Whenever Modern starts to drift toward low interactivity, it might be a good time to pick up a deck that has a pretty reliable, redundant Turn 3 kill.

There are also many different ways to build the Druid deck, and it’s unknown as to whether the optimal build has even been found. There’s the extreme-all-in version with Pact of Negations, the still-pretty-all-in version with Postmortem Lunge, and the midrange build with Knight of the Reliquary. Chord of Calling and Eldritch Evolution are good Magic cards, and allow for a high level of redundancy for this creature-based combo deck.

7. Titanshift

When the uninteractive combo decks and graveyard decks are the strongest in the format, people start filling up their sideboards with Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void, and Surgical Extraction. Additionally, their mainboards drift away from containing counterspells and Meddling Mages. Titanshift is the last of the three decks on this list that could reasonably be played as metagame choices to attack the place that Modern seems to be right now. With people cutting the cards that are good against Titanshift, which has a nice mix of interactivity (especially post-board) and combo, it could be a Prime Time for the deck to return to the top tables.

 6. Tron

Here’s my hottest take on the list: through extensive testing, theorycraft, and mathematics, I’ve determined that a Turn 3 Karn is often a winning play. In the last couple of years, WOTC has printed Alpine Moon, Damping Sphere, Field of Ruin, and Ceremonious Rejection, and Tron still makes regular appearances at the top tables. Tron knows what its plan is and executes that plan with incredible consistency. It gets free wins more often than maybe any other deck, but also has inevitability if games go long. There have been few Modern tournaments over the last few years that registering Tron would be a truly wrong choice. It even gets to run maindeck graveyard hate in the form of Relic of Progenitus, mainboard lifegain in Wurmcoil Engine, mainboard boardwipes in Oblivion Stone and Ugin (who even exiles). It strains Meddling Mage with its large cast of must-answer threats and requires that fast combo decks either kill in the first three or four turns of the game or lose. While people have loved to hate on Tron since Magic was first drawn on cave walls in the Stone Age, it continues to be a cornerstone of Modern.

5. Humans

Humans is in many ways a perfect deck that does it all. It’s five colors, so can play any good Human it wants. It has pressure, disruption, goes wide, goes tall, has great sideboard options, is fast, and can go long. The only thing it doesn’t do is play Turn 3 Karn (at least, not until Karn wins a heart and becomes a Real Boy… or something). Many have argued that Humans is actually a primary force driving Modern toward extremes. Fair decks simply can’t beat Humans because it’s just the best fair deck there is. This has forced players to try to go under Humans by playing fast, linear, uninteractive decks or over the top by playing control decks heavily focused on controlling the board. This shift is what has weakened Humans’ stature in the metagame, but there’s no denying that the deck is still very good. While the meta might be hostile, the power level and flexibility of the deck is high enough that it will continue to put up strong results.

4. Hardened Scales

Arcbound Ravager was always a scary card in Affinity, one of the threats that you had to deal with immediately. In Hardened Scales, it’s just completely busted. It’s already a card that is hard to interact with, and, especially alongside other Modular threats, it grows out of control extremely quickly in conjunction with a Hardened Scales. Since it’s in Green, it also gets to abuse Ancient Stirrings, the best cantrip in Modern. The deck also kills out of nowhere, and, especially against opponents who are reluctant to do math or are unfamiliar with the deck’s explosiveness, steals free wins with regularity. It’s a hard deck to play against, and also a decently difficult deck to play optimally, so it’s worth getting in reps if this is one you’re interested in picking up.

3. Dredge

Creeping Chill has gone a ways toward pushing Dredge back into Tier 1. And don’t get me wrong, Dredge is great right now. However, I also think it’s a bit overrated. Dredge always gets worse when people begin respecting it with their sideboards, and Dredge rarely wins games through a Leyline of the Void or Rest in Peace. In fact, unlike Bridgevine, a late Rest in Peace can sometimes clinch the game regardless of what’s taken place beforehand, if the player has a way of cleaning up the board. The power level of the deck is very high and it’s not as difficult to play as some of the other Tier 1 decks, so the appeal is understandable. However, my belief that it’s overrated and will trend down in coming events is why it’s only at #3 on my list.

 2. KCI

While KCI might take some splash hate from the graveyard decks, the deck is far more resilient than, for example, Dredge. Sai allows for a real, powerful way of winning games where its primary combo is shut off, it gets to abuse Ancient Stirrings, and it is very good at answering hate cards. Many opponents still don’t understand what its combos are, when they should make their counterplay, or what cards they should attack with their hate. KCI is underplayed for how good it is, and that’s largely due to the perception that the deck is hard to play and is truly a solitaire deck. For some reason, not all Magic players want to spend their tournaments just doing a big math problem. For those that do, KCI remains an excellent choice for any event. It has great Game 1’s, can beat the hate, and has strong Plan B’s as well.

1. Bant Spirits

When Supreme Phantom was printed, players excitedly hoped that Spirits would get a leg up in Modern. However, it was often still referred to as “just a worse Humans.” Spirits has proven this criticism wrong with recent strong performances in a string of GP’s. Like Humans, Spirits combines pressure and disruption and can go both wide and tall. However, unlike Humans, Spirits is incredibly hard to interact with. The deck frequently operates at instant speed and its creatures have Hexproof and Flying. You can’t block them, you can’t kill them, and, if Spell Queller and Mausoleum Wanderer have their way, you can’t execute your own game plan either. Spirits wants to race, and if you agree to their challenge, you’re probably going to lose. Spirits has game against most decks in Modern because of its ability to interact on the stack at instant speed. It gets to run mainboard counterspells that attack either before or after they resolve. If I were playing a Modern tournament this weekend, I would sleeve up Bant Spirits.

Ryan Normandin is a grinder from Boston who has lost at the Pro Tour, in GP & SCG Top 8's, and to 7-year-olds at FNM. Despite being described as "not funny" by his best friend and "the worst Magic player ever" by Twitch chat, he cheerfully decided to blend his lack of talents together to write funny articles about Magic.