Today, I'm truly excited to be back writing for you, exclusively for Metagame.info, after such a long time. On this occasion, I want to talk about the current Modern meta, analyzing its various facets, both on MTGO and in paper play.

Modern is experiencing a golden age, full of diverse decks and endless possibilities. Of course, the level of play has grown exponentially compared to past years, but this is the normal evolution of things.

Let's dive straight into analyzing the decks that dominate the rankings, exploring their strategies and respective match-ups. My observations come from my direct experience with the paper format and, especially, from the numerous trophies won in competitive MTGO leagues.

Currently, the rankings are teeming with archetypes like Boros Energy, UR Prowess, Ramp, Belcher, Amulet Titan, UB Frog, Domain Zoo, Orzhov Blink, Storm, Reanimator, and many others. Today, we'll focus on some of the most relevant:

Let's start with the frontrunner: Boros Energy. This deck, born and raised with MH3, received almost all of its main engine from this latest expansion. It is an incredibly solid build, focusing entirely on its aggro/midrange plan. Although predominantly aggressive, it's not afraid to win in the later stages of the game, thanks to a range of powerful and versatile solutions. The heart of its strategy lies in assaulting the opponent by leveraging the synergy between Guide of Souls, Ocelot Pride, and Goblin Bombardment. Guide of Souls fills us with life and energy whenever a creature enters the battlefield, thereby unleashing Ocelot Pride which, at the end of the turn, generates an avalanche of 1/1 cat tokens. These, in turn, trigger Guide of Souls again, creating a virtuous cycle. All of this becomes devastating thanks to Goblin Bombardment, which allows these tokens to be sacrificed to deal direct damage to the opponent or remove hostile creatures, ensuring unstoppable board control and advantage.

For the mid/late game, the strongest solution is undoubtedly Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. Used as an upgraded Helix or discarded with Seasoned Pyromancer, Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury can be quickly reanimated from the graveyard thanks to lands like Arena of Glory. Upon entering, it deals 3 damage and gains us 3 life, then immediately attacks for another 3 damage/3 life. This translates into further pressure on the opponent or surgical removals against the most annoying creatures. My judgment of this deck is simple: it's a reliable war machine.

It maintains an almost perfect balance, boasting a 50% win rate against almost every opponent, which is uncommon. It struggles a bit against combo decks, given its limited interaction with them; if a combo "explodes" too early, our answers are scarce, which is why we find Orim's Chant and Deafening Silence in the sideboard. Temur Ramp and the various Eldrazi versions also give us a hard time, especially due to their "wratths" (mass removals), which explains the presence of 4 dedicated sideboard cards (Molten Rain or Obsidian Charmaw).

Immediately after, we find Izzet Prowess, which is undoubtedly my favorite deck. Its unrivaled strength is its lightning-fast speed. Sometimes I've managed to "one-shot" opponents, dealing even 20 damage on turn three with a single creature. Slickshot Show-Off is the unpredictable soul of the deck, capable of killing out of nowhere thanks to the possibility of casting numerous spells in a single turn. This is undoubtedly our main weapon. Cards like Slickshot Show-Off, Monastery Swiftspear, or the Monks created by Cori-Steel Cutter are extremely powerful, supported by an abundance of low-cost spells. A clear example: if we have Slickshot Show-Off "plotted" on turn two, on our third turn we can play it for zero mana and, thanks to haste, it will attack immediately. By casting, for example, 1 Lightning Bolt, 1 Mutagenic Growth, 1 Lava Dart, and 1 Violent Urge (recasting Lava Dart from the graveyard for zero cost by sacrificing a mountain), our "Pigeon" will attack for 28 damage, which, added to the damage from Lava Dart cast directly at the opponent, reaches a total of 30. The same applies to other cards to be used in combination, such as Lightning Bolt or various cantrips.

This deck has always been strong, but in the past, it struggled in attrition matches against midrange decks that relied on removals. Cori-Steel Cutter was the card that definitively revived it, solving precisely this problem. With Cori-Steel Cutter, we will always have constant threats: every turn, on our second spell, we will create a 1/1 Monk token with prowess and haste, thanks to the ability of our artifact which will automatically equip upon entering, also giving it +1/+1. This generates a continuous stream of threats for the opponent, who will run out of removals and succumb. My thought is clear: Izzet Prowess is a deck of unparalleled aggression, perfect if you want to dictate the pace of the game and leave others scrambling for solutions! It's a strong deck in an aggro meta, as we will almost always be more aggressive and faster than them.

Against Boros Energy, we have tons of removals for their strong points, putting them in serious trouble. It's also strong against Ramp decks, which have few answers in the early turns, at least pre-side, because afterward it often becomes a nightmare against cards like Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere. It should be played explosively in Game 1, then pivot to a more midrange approach post-side, often against almost all match-ups, as the opponent will adapt after the first game. We often have to keep one mana open for Consign to Memory to prevent Trinisphere, Solitude that arrive out of nowhere, and Domain Zoo's Scion of Draco with Leyline Binding (which I will discuss later). This latter combination for us means losing 90% of the time, so preventing the Dragon's entry is crucial. We therefore suffer against strong attrition decks like Orzhov Blink, but we play very well against Boros Energy, the main reason to choose this deck. Consign to Memory is an indispensable sideboard card, sided in against almost everyone: Belcher, Ramp, Blink, etc. Abhorrent Oculus, on the other hand, is the solution against attrition decks: tending to run out of resources, they prove to be a deadly plan for the late game.

Another deck featured in our analysis today is undoubtedly Eldrazi Ramp. This archetype is, in some ways, the spiritual heir to the glorious GR Tron: the goal is to generate an exorbitant amount of mana quickly, to rapidly cast our colossal threats. Thanks to MH3, it received key cards like Devourer of Destiny and Sowing Mycospawn. The first allows us to start the game "seeing" 11 cards instead of 7, fundamental for finding what we lack, whether it's an Ugin's Labyrinth or a Kozilek's Command (the latter, in my opinion, the most important card in the deck). The mana base no longer relies on the famous Urza lands, but rather on lands that produce two mana on their own, ensuring greater efficiency in the first three turns without the obligation to find the three specific lands to start playing.

The deck is equipped with solutions for every type of threat: Kozilek's Return for aggro, Sowing Mycospawn for ramping and removing lands in mirrors. Kozilek's Command is a true wild card: it removes threats, exiles graveyards, allows us to search among the top X cards for what we need, or to create X Spawn tokens that provide mana for our larger spells, all at instant speed. Eldrazi Ramp is the ideal choice if you want to control the game to the point of winning it in grand style, perhaps thanks to Emrakul, the Promised End. This last card, once cast, allows us to control the opponent's turn, completely destroying their plans and, in most cases, sealing the victory. Its preferred match-ups are, like its ancestor, Midrange.

Our threats are simply too large compared to the opponent's. Unfortunately, it suffers tremendously against fast combos like Amulet Titan and Storm. Against Amulet Titan the situation is critical, while Storm post-side can be much better balanced thanks to cards like Trinisphere. It's a deck with which I recommend "mulliganing" frequently: finding an explosive hand is vitally important. We must never be slow; the imperative is to cast gigantic spells in very little time. In the sideboard, we have Thought-Knot Seer against combo and control, Nature's Claim against Blood Moon, Stone Rain against mirror matches, and Trinisphere against various combos and aggro like Izzet Prowess, a card that will prove fundamental.

I absolutely love this deck! With it, I've achieved numerous 5-0s in MTGO leagues and even won the RCQ for Prague. Domain Zoo boasts one of the most explosive starts imaginable. It's fundamentally an aggro deck, but with an extra gear: typically, aggro relies on small, fast creatures, whereas here we have creatures that are fast, but at the same time enormous and difficult to deal with. A Territorial Kavu is a 5/5 by turn two; Scion of Draco can become a 4/4 with flying, lifelink, vigilance, first strike, and hexproof; Leyline Binding is an Oblivion Ring for 1 mana at instant speed!

All of this is possible thanks to the Domain mechanic, which relies on having lands of all 5 mana colors. Crucial are the "triomes" (lands with 3 mana types) and the "surveil lands" or "shocklands" of the two colors opposite the triome. This way, by "fetching" correctly, we will have all 5 mana types by turn two and can cast the threats I mentioned earlier.

But now, let's talk about the deck's key card: Leyline of the Guildpact. If we find it in our opening hand, like every other Leyline in Magic's history, we can start the game by putting it directly onto the battlefield. And here the fun begins! Leyline of the Guildpact will give all our lands and all our creatures all land types and all colors. So, a "fetch" will have 5 types, a basic land will have 5 types, and so on. With it on the field, we can cast Leyline Binding on turn one, a 5/5 Territorial Kavu on turn two, and Scion of Draco will only cost us 2 mana, as its cost of 12 will be discounted by 2 for each land type we control, i.e., by 10. The text of Scion of Draco reads a very powerful effect:

"Domain — This spell costs 2 less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.

Flying

Each creature you control has vigilance if it's white, hexproof if it's blue, lifelink if it's black, first strike if it's red, and trample if it's green"

This is why, being all colors, it will simultaneously have all these effects, and yes, it will also grant them to all our other creatures, since they too will be all colors thanks to Leyline of the Guildpact on the battlefield. This is why a Leyline of the Guildpact + Scion of Draco start can win the game by itself against many match-ups. Stubborn Denial is the perfect counter for us, a 1-mana Negate, given that we have many creatures with power greater than 4. Don't underestimate the Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury plan, which, as in Boros Energy, sometimes wins the game by itself.

Domain Zoo is famous for being an aggro deck that beats aggro... No, and I mean no, aggro deck will ever be able to overcome a Scion of Draco - Leyline of the Guildpact combination, but at the same time it plays well against all other archetypes, thanks to counters and removals that also hit non-creature permanents, such as an Amulet of Vigor or a Lotus Bloom at the right moment. It suffers a lot against Orzhov Blink; I have managed to win against them too, but basically it's a very, very tough match-up. Sideboarding 4 Doorkeeper Thrull in a meta full of Orzhov Blink can be the solution.

I'm not a fan of combos, but Amulet Titan has been an unmovable fixture of this format for an immemorial time. The deck's strategy revolves around Amulet of Vigor, the card that gives the deck its name, in combination with Primeval Titan, our primary win condition. The basic mechanic is simple: we need to have an Amulet of Vigor on the battlefield, then play our "bouncelands" which would enter tapped, but thanks to Amulet of Vigor they will untap, allowing us to quickly accumulate the 6 mana needed to cast the Titan. When Primeval Titan enters the battlefield, it "tutors" for two lands and puts them onto the battlefield tapped but, once again, Amulet of Vigor untaps them. At this point, we can search for a land that produces extra mana and one that gives the Titan haste, making it an immediate threat. When the Titan attacks, it "tutors" for two more lands, which can be used to perform incredible tricks, such as searching for and playing other Titans or even winning directly on that turn with Aftermath Analyst, which can create a sort of infinite mana, infinite Titans, and so on.

This is just a general overview of the deck, but believe me when I say that you can't explain everything in a single article, because it is one of the most, if not the most, difficult deck to play. It offers an astounding amount of choices and an infinite number of solutions to find and fit perfectly, which can make the difference between victory and defeat. It's a deck you should never, and I mean never, bring to a tournament without a long and thorough testing phase. There are match-ups it doesn't even see, like Ramp for example... It does excellently against any deck that doesn't interact with it, like aggro... It suffers terribly, obviously, against decks that interact heavily with it through "discard" and counters, like Dimir Frogtide, or even combo decks with 0-cost counters, like Belcher.

Orzhov Blink is a highly interactive deck that makes board advantage its main weapon. A myriad of available "tricks" make it unpredictable and difficult to counter. It can exile a creature out of nowhere with Solitude, for example, cast for zero cost by exiling a white card from hand. All of this is accompanied by Ephemerate which will "blink" it (causing it to leave and re-enter the battlefield), thus allowing for two exile removals and leaving us with a 3/2 lifelink on the battlefield for only one mana. This deck truly has solutions for everything: it destroys enchantments, artifacts, graveyards, opposing lands…

Obviously, it must be piloted with mastery, as the "tricks" must be executed to create small advantages, advantages that will become crucial during the game. Overlord of the Balemurk, a card printed in Duskmourn, practically acts as a "tutor," milling cards from the top of the deck and then retrieving creatures from the graveyard, both upon entering and when it attacks. Cards like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd and Flickerwisp thus become fundamental for "blinking" Overlord of the Balemurk, which will re-enter not as an enchantment but as a creature, re-triggering its effect. Not to mention the White Orchid Phantom which, "blinked" a considerable number of times, can leave the opponent completely landless. The "discard spells" are also very strong, and often, they will remove opposing removals, allowing us to implement our plan knowing the opponent's resources. It's a deck that requires a good dose of skill and patience; haste will not help you. Fundamentally, I don't feel I can identify intrinsically negative match-ups, as it can truly compete with everyone. Its best match is perhaps Belcher, as it destroys and "blinks" their lands which, upon re-entering, will not re-enter as such, being spells in principle. I have played Belcher and found myself with 0 mana on turn four.

Well, let's start with the premise that I've played this deck a lot and, I'll tell you right away, it's extremely fun to pilot! This is because it offers deep interaction with opposing decks. The card I feel I can call the core of the deck is Psychic Frog: not only is it our main finisher, but also an exceptional draw engine that activates whenever it deals damage. And it will do so often, given that it's very difficult to remove and can gain flying by exiling three cards from the graveyard, cards that sometimes it will have helped put there itself thanks to its effect of discarding a card to get a +1/+1 counter.

The deck interacts magnificently thanks to "discard spells" like Thoughtseize or counters like the famous Counterspell or Force of Negation, useful for countering removals aimed at our frogs for zero cost by exiling a blue card from hand. Cards that, in any case, will be returned to us later by our Psychic Frog. Abhorrent Oculus is a true monster of power. If the opponent fails to deal with it, it will win games by itself; it's a 5/5 with flying that will manifest a card every opponent's turn. Manifesting other Abhorrent Oculus or frogs, the situation will become decidedly interesting. Playing Abhorrent Oculus might seem complex, as it costs 3 mana plus exiling 6 cards from the graveyard; that's why cards like Thought Scour are present. One of the most powerful moves you can make is to reanimate an Abhorrent Oculus milled by us or discarded by the frog. To do this, we have Unearth which, for the cost of only one mana, will reanimate our Abhorrent Oculus from the graveyard, being a creature with a mana value of 3 or less.

Consign to Memory is mandatory, as always, and another very strong card against many match-ups: Harbinger of the Seas. The latter is a true Blood Moon on legs, a 2/2 that will turn all nonbasic lands into Islands, making it deadly against multicolored decks or, for example, against Ramp.

Well, here we are at the conclusion. For today, I've offered you a general overview of some of the most relevant decks in the meta, those I consider most reliable to bring to a tournament, be it an RCQ or a simple FNM. The important thing is that you like the deck and it suits your playstyle, but most importantly, that you test it thoroughly, because every deck, when played correctly, will prove to be a force.

As always, I thank Metagame.it for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with you. I hope you enjoyed the article! Perhaps next time we could delve deeper into the rest of the meta or explore possible "outsiders" to consider for a tournament, decks with fewer results because they are less played, and so on… For now, I bid you farewell and see you next time!

GG WP

Andrea Paglialunga