A Modern deck write-up.

Hello! My name is Slark and I am here today to introduce you to this modern deck! Its my current deck at the moment and it’s a standard Modern Wilt Leaf Liege deck.

This deck is rather easy to play, but is rather expensive. However, if you’re someone who suffered the banhammer of Birthing Pod, this  deck can be built relatively cheaply! Especially since Noble Hierarch and Wilt Leaf Liege has been reprinted, their prices have fall significantly! If you have interest in building this deck, I suggest you get the cards NOW. (as of 3/6/2015.)

This deck works as a selesyna beatdown aggro. However, there are 2 variations of this deck. This being the Mana dork one, which focuses on early ramping and beating down fast. There is another version that focuses on discard and control which I will mention below.

Playing this deck is rather simple. Turn 1. Land, Mana dork, Turn 2, start filling up your field, and start whacking away! The dork version listed here is rather aggro-oriented, and can dish out big creatures early game.  Most of the creatures listed here have a lot of value for their cost. With Noble Hierarch, which is a mana dork that provides like 2/3 of the mana you need for this deck’s monsters, not only that, it has exalted, which gives a lone creature attacking + 1/1, doesn’t sound much, but early 4/3 Kitchen Finks can help in the beatdown in the long run.

Loxodon Smiter (or affectionately named, Elephant man.) is a 3 mana for a whopping 4/4. Whats best about it is that it doesn’t just stops there. It cannot be countered, and if your opponent wants to discard it, it comes into play for FREE!

Voice of Resurgence is a 2 mana for a 2/2. That sounds like average doesn’t it? But it probably has one of the best effects in the Ravnica block for a 2 drop. If your opponent casts a spell on your turn OR it dies, it gets a Elemental token that’s Power and toughness is equal to the number of creatures you have.  As a Mana Dork deck, we tend to play a lot of creatures and elementals will big REAL big.  If you get this card on the field early, your opponent has to either get rid of it when you summon it, or it will become rather deadly later in the game, At worst, it summons a elemental token. At it’s best, its Control’s worst nightmare.

Siege Rhino is hands down one of the superstars in Khans of Tarkir. A 4 mana for a 4/5. I fell in instant love when this card came out. 4 mana for 4/5 is a instant above average. But with Trample,  and a effect that drains 3 health from your opponent, Siege Rhino is a versatile creature with a great body. In this deck it can be a 6/7. And also helps yourself against Burn.

Kitchen Finks is a 3 mana for a 3/2. Sounds bad. Doesn’t it? But its effect is AMAZING. When it comes on the field, 2 gain 2 life. When it gets destroyed, it actually comes back with a -1/-1 effect and its “entering battlefield” trigger activates, giving you 2 life.  You can negate this effect with many cards that give you +1/+1.

Wilt Leaf Liege is a 4 mana for 4/4, its average, but its name is on the decklist itself. Why? Because of its pump effect. It gives white creature +1/+1, and green creature a +1/+1. This gives Selesyna creatures +2/+2, which is Loxodon Smiter, Siege Rhino, Qasali Pridemage, Voice of Resurgence and Wilt-Leaf Liege.

The rest of the deck, are removal, typical modern removal. I threw in 2 thoughtseize to counter some combo decks.

Lingering souls- A lot of value packed in this card.  A 3 mana that spawns 2 1/1s sounds bad, but the fact that it has flashback for 2 makes it really valuable. Also, these tokens really fit in nicely with your resurgence elementals.

Now for the Sideboard:

Choke- Huge counters against Blue decks, its fun to shut them down with this.

Feed the clan- I know what you must be thinking, seriously? Feed the Clan?! But I would beg you to think about using this card. 5 life isn’t a mearge sum, and if you have a rhino or boosted creature, you’re getting 10. Its nearly a second chance against burn matchups.

Stony Silence & Fracturing Gust- Both are in my sideboard for extreme affinity hate. If you get Stony Silence on the field, Affinitiy will be shut down for the moment. It should give you enough time to aggro them to death. Fracturing Gust on the other hand may be rather slow, but it literally wipes affinity clean. And also, Fracturing Gust also helps against Bogles.

Dromoka’s Command – Usually, people would like to replace this with Leyline of Sanctity, I think its alright to play this in exchange of some of the sideboard cards here. However, I feel that Dromoka’s Command is an excellent card. The first mode is a Leyline for a turn. The second mode can destroy an enchantment, especially strong  against land tappers and Blood Moon. The Third mode gives a creature +1/+1. It helps to repair finks and also make your creatures bigger. This helps in the beat down.  The last mode is actually removal, but be careful using the same creature to attack!

Sorin, Solemn Visitor: This planeswalker is actually rather relevant to the deck. At 4 mana, you can give all your creatures a boost and lifelink, now this in combo with  Lingering Souls tokens can get you a lot! Sorin also has the ability to protect himself with a 2/2 vampire token.

Zealous Persecution- B/W token’s worst nightmare. It gives everyone a -1/-1, and can wipe some small creatures  and buff yours for a beatdown.  However, its duration is only for the turn  you play it. So be wise when you use it!

Engineered Explosives: Charge it up, and blow up those smallies! Really strong against merfolk, It’s a really nice card but it may be slow on the earlier turns, so be wary of how you use this.

SpellSkite- I actually upgraded and swapped this for Aven Mindcensor, which I will be writing below. Nevertheless, SpellSkite is rather versatile as it can redirect bolts and other kind of spells from your wilts. Heck, a two drop that can survive a lightning bolt sounds REALLY good!

Aven MindCensor- Oh boy, this guy- or bird. Hands down one of the most annoying effects for your opponents when they use fetchlands, it also shuts down tutors and lower their effectiveness, heck it has flash even to the point that your foes wont even see it coming.  A flying 2/1 can also help in the beatdown.

Scavenging Ooze- This card is really good in that it can help weaken your foe’s tarmogoyf, and also become really big overtime, it also helps to clear cards that can come back from the grave.

                                                                                                                                                           

Well, that’s it for my deck, there are many other Sideboardable cards like Inquisiton of Koz. Thrun the Last troll, but the’re more of an sideboard option, till then, I hope to see you guys soon!

Format is still open - A reflection of Mardu (part 1)

I was watching GP Paris last week and this particular GP brings back a lot of sweet memories and time traveled me all the way back to September 2014. 

September 2014:

My current teammate and good friend from secondary school asked me to consider whether to come back to Standard. I was playing EDH all thanks to him as well. I was in the midst of my honeymoon and he was sharing how he won the Khan of Takir's Gamesday. I was also looking at the Spoilers and 1 card really caught my eyes, yes no longer my wife, it was a card:

Nope, if you think it was the ability that caught my attention, you are wrong! It was the art. Look at the lightning and look at the flavor text, how cool that was: "Do not fear the lightning. Fear the one it obeys." After the art and the text, then the ability hits me, sacrifice a creature with the greatest power. I am like, how could Magic create such cards? I had to admit, the last time I touched Magic was Urza Saga to 7th Ed period, and during those period, gold card with specific targeted ability such as this was pretty rare. I may be wrong or ignorance but this card really blow me away.

So this friend of mine wanted to build me a deck so that when I returned, I would already have a ready deck to play with. I told him, a deck with no blue and green (because my EDH was mono-green), see the link from the card above? Alas, with r/w/b, that give rises to Mardu. From then, it was a path of no return.

Our first version as follows:

Bearing in mind that he was doing all the testing while I am still in Europe enjoying life with my wife. He would report his wins and loses for the day that he tested the deck. No matter how he play, he feels that there is still something missing. He voiced out the lack of aggro plays and the deck being clunky and with that comment, here comes Version 2:

Early 1 drops with Swiftspear and Thoughtseize followed up with Skullhunter for maximum hand disruption. After 10 over testing, and with the honeymoon coming to an end, he told me he had enough of testing, and he left the rest to me.

Early weeks of October 2014:
After I returned (yes, it was a 5 weeks honeymoon), I felt that the top curve gets removed easily and I wanted creatures that are more resilience as Butcher of the Horde gets removed or destroyed easily. Hence, I decided to take out the swiftspears and welcomed Wingmate Roc (Mardu clan creature for the win!) with open arms. I figured I can almost trigger raid with Hordeling Outburst and Wingmate Roc can be sacrificed for Butcher if she ever get targeted. The token she created is of utmost importance to the gameplan, and here goes version 3:

I was winning FNMs with the above decklist, however, the removal feels lacking and Mardu Charm(s) feels inadequate at times, especially when the Meta during those time were Sidisi/Abzan whips.

During the end of third week of October 2014, guess what:

Brad Nelson brought Mardu to GP LA and scored a 6th place with it. I examined the deck list and realised what I am missing out. Aggro main + cheap removals (chained to the rock) + synergistic maneuvers (outburst + sorins, outburst for Butcher's fodder to gain haste, prowess trigger with Seekers, etc.) were of solid gameplan that brought Brad to his top 8.

November to January 2015 (right before Fate Reforged):

With the above, I build my deck around his list and produced some good results. I was satisfied with the list, and a lot of guys was still playing Whips, Heroic and Mono-red. The list which lasted me up til Fate Reforged's season was as follows:

It was a matter of personal preference towards Stoke the Flames, and to me, it was of so much value together with Hordeling outburst!

January 2015 - Fate Reforged's release til Mar 15:
 Well with Fate Reforged's release, it was pretty unfortunate that Mardu get the least upgrade. Partially due to the fact that the ability 'Dash' was a little counter-intuitive towards a tempo-based deck like what I used to have. As far as I would like, I always prefer to maintain board presence rather having it back to my hand. With the limited upgrade to the above list, I guess it was still ok, just that I felt like, almost all the other decks got a huge upgrade. And for me, only 2 cards made entry into my list:

The modes on Valorous Stance are also pretty relevant. Imagine giving Rabblemaster indestructible in the late game to ensure 6 solid damage going through the next turn. As this card is so good, almost all decks that has White (hint hint: Abzan and Jeskai) also has this card. Stance also synergise with Seeker of the way, and heck even making Butcher indestructible feels overwhelming!

 Yes, finally Red gets to have a card that gives it some card advantage!  Outpost Seige puts Mardu into similar league with decks that run Courser of Kruphix. Though seldom used, but there were times where I have 3 goblin tokens in play with opponent at a low life count, I chose Dragons mode to close out the game.

As stated above, with Valorous Stance running around, my 5cmc creature have to be tweaked to be more aggressive and evasive towards white spells. Guess what:

I have removed the Chained to the rocks as Valorous Stance seen as a better removal, imagine when playing against Abzan post sideboard, a Mardu player with chained to the rocks played against a Seige Rhino, just to see the Chained get Erase(d) and trigger Seige Rhino's ETB (enter into battlefield) effect again. So much tempo lost!

All in all, the main theme of the deck was still maintained. The upgrades were awesome and I never feel disappointed with deck. There were 8 4-drops and decisions have to be made with which to drop, the following were my thought-process:

1. Am I on the play or on the draw? If I am on the draw with tempo achieved and opponent is of an aggressive deck, I will play either Sorin or Butcher. If opponent is playing a Control deck, I would most likely play an Outpost Seige.
2. What is my turn 3 drop? If I have casted an Hordeling outburst, I would be inclined to follow up with Sorin or Outpost Seige (as outburst tokens can chump-block if necessary). If I played a Rabblemaster, it is likely I will follow up with a Butcher or Outpost Seige.
3. What is the board state? If opponent did not develop board state, I would play an outpost seige. If there is, depending on the creature size, I may either play Sorin for a token or Butcher.

Of course the above thought process were not exhaustive and conclusive, most of the times, they have to be read together and not in isolation. I mean, this is the fun part of Mardu, so many types of play under different circumstances.

With Dragon of Tarkir, most of the Archetypes have been developed, and fortunately, somewhere, somehow, Mardu is still the deck that is embraced by some of the pro-players out there. For that, I will dedicate the next post on Mardu Dragons. Stay tuned!

Deck Preference : Jeskai Ascendancy Combo

I spent last Saturday at a local game shop for my last PPTQ of the season. My season has been a relatively short experience. I only started last October and was fleetingly unsure as to what I was landing myself in. My first six months of competitive play was fruitful. I haven’t won anything yet – the best I did was second place at a GPT with my Jeskai Ascendancy Combo deck.

I have a habit of brewing three different decks (Combo, Control and Aggro) and the frequency of game exposure is dependable on how I ranked my favorites. And since it was the last Standard PPTQ of my season I decided to play Esper Control instead of my usual favorite.

It was horrific.

Not because I dropped out of the competition with a 1-2 record, but because each match lasted an average 20 to 25 minutes. I won my last game in the nick of time, just after the judge called for the last five turns, and that was only two matches played. (I won 2-0 that particular round). What if that game was tied at 1-1? It would have been a draw game after 50 minutes of mind-grinding.

My friend who was also in the competition, told me that’s what I deserved for playing a control-based deck. Sometimes it’s either you have no time to win, or you find yourself losing after playing for an hour. ”You should have played your combo deck. What was previously a win away from Top-8 became a win away from the bottom,” he said.

My friend was right. It just wasn’t my style to drag play, and hence my decision to end my PPTQ early. It was a six-round swiss format and I didn’t want to grind for another 3 hours playing control.

Yes. I was seriously bored playing my own deck and that is not a good sign. It was a bad decision to play something I’m so out of touch with.

I practically took a stranger to a tournament and blew my own chances.

There are times when you go on a date and realized things are not quite right and you just felt that you are wasting your partner’s time as well as your own. You might want to leave right away and not waste anybody else’s time. I didn’t do my research well enough and realized I would be much happier playing my preferred deck even if I had to lose eventually.

Deck preferences. 

It took me nearly two months of deck testing before I finally brewed my own variant of the combo. It wasn’t an easy deck to play against all the odds. People have solutions all over, and the only way I figured out to play this deck as efficiently as possible, was to replicate what card draws was to Storm decks in Modern, with the inclusion of some excellent top-decking luck.

This was Pro player Lee Shi Tian’s version which made its way to Top 4 of the Manila GP 2015:

How this deck gets to win is simple. With a Jeskai Ascendancy and a mana dork in play, a Retraction Helix would enable your mana dork to bounce either the Astral Cornucopia or Briber’s Purse back to your hand. You recast the X=0 spell again to untap your mana source which triggers the Ascendancy and you get an infinite loop to either buff up your creatures to swing for lethal or find yourself an Altar of the Brood for infinite mill.

My luck dries up whenever it comes to Commune with the Gods because I tend to mill my Retraction Helices into the graveyard, along with Altar of the Brood and Briber’s Purses. 

And so I decided to make some changes:

Since I’ve been getting played out by the bloody Communes on a regular basis, Taigam’s Scheming becomes an inevitable choice for me. It is not card advantage at first instance, but it manipulates your next five draw steps and does the filtering anyway.  The slots for Briber’s Purse and Altar of the Brood has been increased for consistency. There is now three times more of a chance that I would get these cards into my opening hand. 

I replaced Tormenting Voices, a single Voyaging Satyr and Rattleclaw Mystic with Defiant Strikes and Anticipates. The one-casting cost Defiant Strike has been crucial in my build-up.  There was this scenario where this card was particularly impressive.

It was turn three. My opponent had just tapped himself out for a Courser of Kruphix and this was a golden window for me. I had three lands tapped out for Ascendancy with an untapped Sylvan Caryatid in play. I had a pair of Defiant Strikes, one Dragon Mantle and two lands in hand.

I proceeded to trigger the Ascendancy with a string of Defiant Strikes and Dragon Mantles, generating six to seven loops and a Dig Through Time to get all my combo pieces for a third turn win. That is at least 18 cards off the top of my library in a single turn. That play would hardly be possible if I had two Tormenting Voices. Perhaps I got lucky that game, but winning a game is also about setting yourself up when you are reliant on luck to get the right draws.

The variant also features a transformative sideboard that enables the combo to convert into a control deck. The underplayed Ojutai’s Command is able to hold off Dragonlords during midgame, null Stoke the Flames and also reanimate your Caryatids at end of turn after a boardwipe by your opponent. Reprisals are cheap removal spells to get the bigger threats out of the way, while Seismic Rupture and Anger of Gods deal with the weenies.

Narset Transcendent is a surprise inclusion during sideboard testing. When the game is running in Control mode, Narset’s first ability helps the extra draws into combo pieces. And if there is an 8/8 dragonlord staring down at you, you could also cast your one and only Retraction Helix to bounce the attack and activate the second ability of Narset to rebound the Helix for the next turn and hopefully combo off with a free trigger on Ascendancy. The final ability of Narset is almost the best protection in the format for the combo.

The Jeskai Ascendancy Combo is not broken yet, but it’s the only deck at the moment that doesn’t bore me to death.

Standard: Meta in a flux - To be decided right this weekend!

As I am writing this post, I have the RPTQ Melbourne showing right in front of me. It was round 5, and 2 Atarka Red blazing the field with each other.

2 newest additions to what used to be known as Mono Red and literally transform it to a more resilient Atarka Red. Atarka's Command provided a 2 for 1 trade with all opponents, a 2 cmc burn similar to that of a Lightning Strike and a +1/+1 pump. The Command also allow the user's creatures to gain Reach which is invaluable in this format of Dragons. With DTK, Boss Sligh in this current standard no longer become a 'cast all gas and pray for the best' deck. It becomes a more strategic deck:

1. How much do I commit?
2. Do i Dash my Zurgo?
3. When do I cast Atarka's Command to gain maximum value
4. How will my plays be, matching up against Control, Mid-range, Aggro, Mirror

A one-of Become Immense allows any 'no-block' from opponent to become extremely dangerous. The delve also give cards like Lightning strike, Hordeling Outburst and Dragon Fodder to add extra value.

Of course, the match ends with the player who brings in Stoke the flame to get extra value from the tokens created.

On the other side of the field, making its presence from GP Krakow - Esper Dragons:

Before DTK, UB control is a force to be reckon with , with the addition of dragons such as Dragonlord Ojutai, coupled with 'hard counter' - Silumgar's scorn, the power level of the deck has just increased to a stage where the lower curve control becomes more efficient and effective, the upper curve's win condition (win-con) provides better value, other than winning.

During KTK, when Crackling doom first spoiled, it was termed as one of the best removal in the format. However, due to its challenging casting cost, unless you are into 'Mardu' (r/w/b) colours, it is almost never see play. Now, with Foul-Tongue Invocation, any hexproof/indestructible creature becomes a viable target. Also, the gain life function allows UB control to 'time-walk' any Boss Sligh decks that normally deals up to 3/4 damage by turn 2.

Interestingly is the splash of white to add Dragonlord Ojutai, referring to the decklist below:

Esper Dragons by Alexander Hayne Winner
Planeswalker 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon Creature 3 Dragonlord Ojutai 2 Silumgar, the Drifting Death Sorcery 2 Thoughtseize 2 Crux of Fate Instant 3 Anticipate 1 Disdainful Stroke 4 Silumgar's Scorn 2 Bile Blight 2 Ultimate Price 3 Hero's Downfall 2 Foul-Tongue Invocation 2 Dissolve 4 Dig Through Time	Land 2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon 4 Temple of Enlightenment 4 Temple of Deceit 4 Polluted Delta 4 Dismal Backwater 1 Flooded Strand 3 Island 2 Swamp 2 Caves of Koilos 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard: 2 Thoughtseize 2 Bile Blight 1 Ultimate Price 1 Foul-Tongue Invocation 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver 2 Dragonlord's Prerogative 2 Drown in Sorrow 2 Dragonlord Silumgar

From above, it can be seen that Dragonlord Ojutai (DL O) joins the rest of the team of 'win-con'. What role does DL O plays in a deck like this?

1. Roadblock, like literally dropping a DL O and not tapping which allows it to have hexproof can put all aggro deck to a halt
2. Constant 'anticipation', with each hit, it allows the caster to dig deeper into the deck for answer to maintain board state
3. Synergise with Foul Tongue and Silumgar Scorn
4. Able to recur with the help of Haven of the Spirit Dragon

Superficially with the above 4 reasons, it is already strong enough reasons to splash for DL O. Not to overlook is Haven of the Spirit Dragon (HotSD). In the past, UB control match ups with Abzan variants tends to drag and grind because the Control decks tend to wait to a point where they can cast Ugin with counter back ups due to Hero's downfall. Now, Esper Dragons can go ahead and tapped out for Ugin due to HotSD. Now, this point can never be overlooked. In competitively plays, the pity to all Control decks is the 50 minutes time limit and because of that, most of their matches end up in a Draw. Speeding up the casting of win-cons without much backlash allows a more aggressive plays and hence more wins!

Well, at this moment, I just finished a match ending up in Intentional Draw (ID) between Abzan Aggro and Atarka Red. Looking forward to the SCG Cleveland and hope to bring all of you the latest updates and plays from it!

Cheers, MT out.

Ten Cheap Unplayed Cards In Modern

The gameplay was getting intense. Two Deceiver Exarchs on either side of the board means it was essentially a draining battle of the blue mages waiting for each other to tap out, or to simply just hold out for draw steps to fill the hand with more counter magic.

With six free lands at his disposal, it is easy to presume that a Splinter Twin can be protected with a cheap two-cost counterspell. He had just cast a Vendilion Clique to tuck my Splinter Twin under the library and knew I had nothing else but a Spell Snare, an unimaginative Manamorphose and three spare lands. He was quietly confident I suppose, even if he didn’t get his way with me he could just beat me down with his existing flyer.

“Splinter Twin.” He places it hesitantly on the table, edging it close to his Deceiver Exarch.

In response, I whipped out my Manamorphose, floated a color each, and topdecked a Swerve.

I slapped the Swerve down excitedly and spoke with new-found strength, “I will change the target of your Splinter Twin to MY Deceiver.”

These were some of the epic plays that I have experienced with some of the uncompetitive cards that most players think nothing of.  I know because I have often been dissuaded against giving these cards a slot in my deck. These cards, are not considered strong or useful enough to warrant play time by the more competitive players but I play these cards because it’s much cheaper than a pair of Cryptic Commands. 

In this article, I will discuss on ten of the cards in Modern that are often under-estimated and left on the sidelines but portrays immense potential to disrupt gameplay and perhaps, gives your deck a surprise element over the netdecks.

I may not be the most qualified player to comment on card plays because I was never on the Pro Tour. Yes I admit I’m not that good.

But then, I also had a couple of other players telling me that I was wasting my time hoarding Spellskites and Leyline of Sanctities two years ago because no one was playing these cards.  So let’s move on!

10. Manamorphose - $3.35 mid TCG

With either red or green to cast, it is versatile enough to be played in most deck setups for Modern. Manamorphose interestingly floats two mana of your choice when you are seeking solutions in response and tweaks your mana when you are in need of the right colors to play your spells.

9. Swerve - $0.37 mid TCG

It does what Spellskite can’t -  Shoot your opponent’s Thoughtseize or Lightning Bolt right back at his or her face. It can also be a sideboard option when you need to redirect counterspells or get your opponents to Path to Exile their own Tarmogoyfs.

8. Extirpate - $3.13 mid TCG

Split Second. As long as you are the first to play it, it becomes a combo wrecker and allows you to browse the library of your opponent with a single mana. Surgical Extraction would have done the job, but Extirpate gets the thumbs up because it is more likely to go through a pile of counterspells with its Split Second ability. The best thing that I love about this card is that it can exile copies of non-basic lands (read: shocklands and fetches) and helps to thin your opponent’s deck.

7. Ghost Quarter - $0.18 mid TCG

And that brings me to this card. Destroys almost every land in sight that Extirpate can possibly exile. Crucible of Worlds allows it to see repeated play. Wasteland is not playable in Modern. Tectonic Edge only works for fourth land or more. Helps tweak mana sources when required, either on your own land or a Darksteel Citadel.

6. Repeal - $0.25 mid TCG

Almost superb in any low cost deck and even against. Bounce an attacking cranial-plated ornithopter with one blue and draw a card, or get your Snapcaster Mage back with three at the end of turn. It can hold out for some disruptive plays, almost similar to the Time Walk feature that Remand offers. 

5. Familiar Ruse - $0.46 mid TCG

This is a cheap way of reusing creatures with Enter-The-Battlefield effects. Although situational, the raw idea of bouncing a Snapcaster Mage or a Spellstutter Faerie for triggered counter magic is interesting for the blue players.

4. Silence - $0.93 mid TCG

Half of an Orim’s Chant and playable in Modern, the card oracle doesn’t target any players and goes beyond the Leyline of Sanctity. Cast usually during the upkeep phase, it can keep your opponents quiet during their turns, and works best when you are gearing up to take the game on your turn.

3. Telling Time - $0.91 mid TCG

End-of-turn plays on this card gives you a two-card advantage in hand and put an unwanted card at the bottom. While Serum Vision and Sleight of Hand are at Sorcery speed, this is one of the few draw spells in instant mode that helps to meddle with your topdeck, stimulating a fraction of what Brainstorm does in Legacy and can be fired off in response to spells like Thought Scour. Also a telling time for Miracles.

2. Noxious Revival - $0.83 mid TCG

This is the reason why I still see Miracle decks realistically having a chance in Modern. Versatile because you can also give your opponent a dead draw for the next turn.

1. Ojutai’s Command - $2.40 mid TCG

This card could be as powerful as the decks playing it. I’ll be particularly impressed with the first choice if I’m playing Bant and up against a red deck. It might also find a place in Blue-White Faeries.  There are quite a number of pesky two-mana-or-less threats we would all like to port back to the battlefield. But it would interesting to see how far it’ll go within the next six months after Magic Origins kicks in.

Have fun decking.