Over the last weekend we had the pro tour for Eldritch Moon. This sprouted many cool deck lists, ideas and gave many cards their time in the spotlight. One card that seemed to shine was Ishkanah, Grafwidow with a lot of pros playing multiple copies. But let’s be honest, were in the middle of the modern PPTQ season, you wanna hear me talking about modern right?

Hi my name is Lewis Marshall, one of the new wave of writers for Troll Trader. I’m a player based in Swindon, recently became a level 1 judge, and spent a lot of times losing PPTQ tops 8’s and win and ins.

So back to the card in hand. Over the last weekend, me and fellow writer, Will Hall, both played Ishkanah, Grafwidow in our modern Jund decks (no, we’re not crazy, there’s method to the madness!). Modern Jund is one of the bigger decks in the format right now. People like rocking out with Tarmogoyfs and the like. So how do we beat the mirror? How do we conquer and crush our fellow Jund players? You go bigger and wider.

Spells Lands Sideboard

In the end I went 3/2. BUT Will won the event with some slight differences! There is a few changes I would make to the 75, but that will take a bit more time, testing and research before I do cement a list for my next modern event. So if your interested there will be a follow up to the list.

So how is this different to your normal Jund list? On the face of it a lot of the numbers seem very stock. To start with we’re not playing Dark Confidant, our curve is a bit higher than normal and the damage starts to stack up a little bit. The 3/3 split on hand disruption is a concession to the recent rise in Bant Eldrazi. The decks average converted mana cost is higher than 3, with all the major threats costing 4+, Thoughtseize seems slightly better than Inquisition of Kolzilek.

A lot of the side was experimental, in the end I was pretty happy with my decisions bringing in every card multiple times throughout the day. The side is the part I’m most working on right now.

But now on to the queen bee, the big kahuna, the big chief itself, Ishkanah! To start with I want to point out that DELIRIUM IS PRETTY MUCH FREE AND EASY! Land, instant and sorcery are effectively free, with creature, planeswalker and enchantment available as the 4th card, your pretty much guaranteed to get delirium at some point.

To work out how good the card is, I would like to steal a theory from the popular podcast, Limited Resources, the Quadrant Theory. When playing magic, the game is generally broken down into 4 sections

1. Opening or Developing. Both players are playing cards from their opening hands, and settling into the game.

2. Parity. Neither player is ahead in card advantage, the boards stalled and your both tussling to pull ahead.

3. Winning. Your up on cards and beating your opponent with a Tarmogoyf or another singular threat.

4. Losing. The same as Winning, but the opposite. You are being beaten down by some threats you can’t handle, and you need an answer fast.

For this we’re gonna ignore quadrant one, because early on Ishkanah is stranded in your hand while you try to enable delirium. If both players are at parity, and the board is stalled, Ishkanah comes down and cements you into the role of more defensive player with or without delirium. Without delirium, a 3/5 is really, really fat and hard to attack past and kill, and it only gets better when she gets to bring along 3 little friends with her. If your winning, well, your winning, and 3 to 6 extra power is just going to help close the game out a lot quicker

So what does old Ishy do when your on the back foot? Well she blocks, really, really, well! 4 bodies, all with the ability to block flyers and with some decent sized health. She efficiently stabilises the board and can quickly turn the game around.

Modern is currently quite slow and grindy with a lot of combo finishes, and Ishkanah is a great tool in to have in your arsenal. I highly recommend testing her! If you do comment below about your results, I would love to hear your feedback and get data points.

That’s all from me for this article!