When preparing for a large modern tournament, I approach my deck choice very differently to a lot of players. People tend to put an emphasis on experience with a deck rather than on making a metagame call in modern. Personally, I think this is wrong. Assuming that you are a reasonably experienced magic player, you should assume that your play is better than the average opponent’s – if you don’t feel confident in this assumption then you either need to believe in yourself more or put the hours in to improve your game on a general level. Of course I’m not going to advocate for going into a tournament with a deck you have never played a match with but after playing 30 or so matches, you should have a decent understanding of how a deck operates; it doesn’t take the years of experience that successful merfolk players have to win games of modern! Furthermore, if you decide on a deck in advance of a tournament based on a metagame call, you can gain a more comprehensive knowledge of the ins and outs of matchups by testing them systematically. Therefore, it seems apparent to me that you should always strive to beat an expected metagame, even if that metagame is a wide open field such as it is in modern.

Taking all of this into account, the following decks are my current frontrunners for the upcoming Grand Prix in Birmingham.

AFFINITY

This is the deck that I have the most experience with on this list. Currently, the metagame is dominated by 3 decks: Grixis Death’s Shadow, Eldrazi Tron and Affinity. Conveniently, Affinity has a good matchup against the first two decks and of course the mirror is 50/50. The problem with affinity at the moment is that the most popular decks outside of the ‘big three’ are all bad matchups. Gifts Storm and RG Titanshift are difficult to beat as they have a consistent turn 4 game plan that is hard to interact with backed up by hate cards like Shattering Spree, Anger of the Gods and Engineered Explosives. If UW control is popular at the Grand Prix, taking Affinity could be a disaster! The combination of Jace, Architect of Thought, Gideon Jura, Supreme Verdict and even Stony Silence out of the sideboard make the matchup practically unwinnable!

Despite this, Affinity has consistently proven itself to be a tier 1 contender in the modern format (even during Eldrazi winter!) and does a good job at consistently executing it’s game plan in order to punish people for stumbling or trying out new ‘brews’/ anti-death’s shadow metagame calls.

UW CONTROL

Similarly, UW control has 50/50 or better matchups versus the most popular decks in the format. Uncounterable mass removal (Supreme Verdict) punishes all of the ‘big three’ whilst providing a catch all answer to various different creature decks. The most recent versions of UW control play both Spreading Seas and Tectonic Edge (and sometime Ghost Quarter), cards which vastly improve the Tron, Eldrazi Tron and RG Valakut matchups. The biggest issue with playing a reactive control deck in modern is that sometimes you lose to ‘drawing the wrong half of your deck’ syndrome as multiple copies of wrath effects don’t look so hot against something like Lantern Control or Ad Nauseum combo. Considering that the only truly bad matchup in the top 8 or so most popular decks is Valakut, playing UW control is a risk that seems likely to pay off.

JUND DEATH’S SHADOW

Looking at the word ‘Jund’ you may think I’m stuck in the past, desperately trying to make an outdated deck work. The reality is that Jund Death’s Shadow is still good. There is a lot less spinning your wheels and taking turns off to cantrip as all of the cantrip effects are free and enable your tutor ‘toolbox’ Traverse the Ulvenwald. This means that the opening of turn 1 discard spell into turn two Death’s Shadow/ Tarmogoyf happens very often and is backed up by a plethora of removal spells and even Temur Battle Rage. This card single-handedly swings matchups into the Death’s Shadow player’s favour. The endless sea of chump blockers from decks like Affinity and Dredge no longer present a problem. It’s impossible to forget that this deck also got a huge upgrade in the Hour of Devastation uncommon Claim // Fame which adds yet another explosive element to the deck as well as a way of effectively playing more threats. The fact that every single threat in the Jund deck can be returned by Claim is huge and the card excels in this deck – unlike in the Grixis version in which the card is only powerful if you happen to draw or mill a copy of Death’s Shadow specifically. The ability to play discard spells and Tarmogoyfs can never be overlooked in any given format and this deck is the best way to do it currently.

EXCAVATOR COMPANY

Moving on to the more weird and wonderful decks, Ramunap Excavator is a card that I find exciting in modern. It pairs very well with a lot of the cards that have already created entire archetypes in their own right such as Collected Company and Knight of the Reliquary. If you add Azusa, Lost but Seeking into the mix, you suddenly have a land destruction machine in combination with Ghost Quarter. Conveniently, both Eldrazi Tron and Death’s Shadow are fundamentally weak to land destruction in this form as they play a very limited number of basic lands and some fairly coloured mana intensive cards (or in Eldrazi Tron’s case high mana cost cards). The Affinity and Dredge matchups are a concern as none of these cards present a particularly fast clock in order to race the Robots and Zombies but I think I’ve found a solution to that problem….

We can just add this 3 card package of Azusa, Excavator and Knight of the Reliquary into the existing Devoted Druid deck! By including a combo kill in the deck, we give ourselves the ability to race the fastest decks in the format while still blowing up our opponents’ lands in the late game. In theory, the game plan seems excellent but as of yet, I have been unable to settle on a concrete deck list that fits in all the cards that I would want to be in the deck – at least not a 60 card one!

RESTORE BALANCE

Possibly the most unusual (and unlikely) choice of deck for a Grand Prix, this deck plays magic on a completely different axis to what we are used to. By combining Greater Gargadon, Cascade spells, Restore Balance and As Foretold, we can consistently blow up all of our opponents’ permanents if left undisrupted. The problem is that people don’t like letting you do your own thing without interacting. Eldrazi Tron and Grixis Shadow can both interact with the deck through Chalice of the Void and Stubborn Denial respectively. Surprisingly, discard spells aren’t actually a huge issue as the deck is so redundant in ‘Balance’ effects which is a huge boon in the shadow matchup. Even counterspells can be slogged through as instant speed cascaders (Violent Outburst) can be cast on your opponents to provoke action and then followed up with a second Balance on your main phase. The fact that the balance deck interacts with Creatures, Lands and cards in hand means that it can deal with every deck in a vacuum. If you can either find a solution to the Stubborn Denial problem (which isn’t even too big of an issue) or dodge the hate cards then Restore Balance is a fantastic choice.

That’s all from me this week. Let me know your thoughts on these decks or even your own considerations for Grand Prix Birmingham in the comments below!