It has been a busy month and a half since my last post with the holidays and everything they entail. Luckily I have found time to keep my Magic skills somewhat sharpened as we head into the critical few weeks before the Pro Tour. I decided to essentially skip the standard PTQ season, mainly because, for a format I don't love or have a ton of practice in, I didn't want to commit to the travel. The closest PTQs are all happening while I am either in Spain or at GP Sacramento this weekend. Given this, I decided to instead buckle down and get a good amount of Modern games in and to get a few drafts in here and there leading up to the GP.
I started testing Modern with a BW brew, essentially playing all of the good black cards, lingering souls, Sword of war and peace, tidehollow sculler, and Hero of Bladehold. I wanted to play a deck with Dark Confidant and Thoughtseize, but didn't want to spring for Goyfs just yet. The deck did okay, but was clearly not tier 1. Eventually I broke down and bought the green cards I needed to play Junk. I had been perusing the Modern daily event results and noticed Willy Edel was consistently playing a Junk deck that I quite liked the look of. I have since been playing that deck, making adjustments based on his and others lists as the daily event results roll out. It was very encouraging to see that Jeremy Dezani played a version of the deck to a Top 8 finish at GP Prague this past weekend. The deck is certainly for real, and I think has helped me better understand the format. Here is what I am currently playing:
I find the Modern format to be frustrating but also very complex. Which land you play, fetch for, and tap for mana all can be game winning/losing decisions for example. Some decks can nut draw you where you have little chance, but typically there is a good amount of back and forth interaction. This often leads to some long, drawn out games. Given this, it is hard to really jam a TON of games in the format, at least with this deck. Even though I have played with the deck nearly every day, I still feel very under practiced with it and see myself making mistakes here and there. Who knows how many mistakes are going undetected! Probably a significant amount.
As a noob to the format, I kind of scoffed at how good Tarmogoyf was, but now that I have had the chance to really play a lot with it, the card is for real! Two drop kill conditions are pretty hard to come by in Magic and he does a good job of it. Lingering Souls is also quite the card, making chump blockers or a pseudo air elemental to finish the game. The card is critical in the Jund mirror as the games can devolve to a ground standoff, and souls allows you to break those stalemates effectively.
If the PT were to be this weekend, I would definitely play this deck. Of course I haven't had the time or the cards to test other decks, but this one suits my style and plays two of my favorite cards to their max potential, Bob and Thoughtseize. I think it is very likely that I end up playing a version of this in the end because the format is so complex that I feel trying to learn a new deck in a few weeks would be a mistake. I will be meeting up with a group of local qualified players to formally test in Spain, so perhaps we brew up something I am comfortable playing, but I think it is more likely that they will help tune the sideboard and get some more constructive practice games in.
As I said earlier, I will be heading to GP Sacramento this weekend to make use of my three byes and hopefully to cash in on all of the Theros limited experience I have accumulated over the season. I will be quite disappointed to not make day 2 at the event and of course I hope to be able to cash the event as well. I will be tweeting updates throughout the tournament, so if you want to track how I'm doing follow: @bchap55
Thanks for reading!
-Ben
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