Anybody who has followed Modern recently knows that Grinding Breach is currently the deck to beat. Recent matchup data suggests that Grinding Breach has no bad matchups, but many close ones. If an entire metagame optimizes to target the strategy, there is a chance that it needs to be brought in check… right?
The results of the regional championship at SCG Charlotte this past weekend show that the deck is more than capable of dominating Modern. This is true even when the rest of the metagame is specifically targeting this deck.
Among the ~1300 enrolled players, the Grinding Breach archetype represented the highest metagame share in the tournament at 23% or 310 players. The next most popular strategy was Orzhov Blink at 15.5%/209 players. Six of the top 8 slots were occupied by this strategy, and it unsurprisingly won the whole tournament. March’s ban announcement could not come sooner.
Grinding Breach
Grinding Breach can present extremely fast combo kills, sometimes ending games as soon as turn 2 or 3. The combination of Underworld Breach, Grinding Station, and the various zero mana artifacts such as Mox Amber, Mox Opal, and Mishra’s Bauble makes it quite trivial to present fast wins with Thassa’s Oracle, Grapeshot, or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
The breach archetype has been present in Modern for many years and has gone through many iterations. Similar combo style builds were played during past metagames, but recent changes have pushed the deck to a new level of busted. The added mana acceleration of the recently unbanned Mox Opal, combined with the power & consistency of cards like Malevolent Rumble make the current Grinding Breach deck the fastest, most efficient iteration that has ever been seen.
Beating the Combo Is Not Good Enough
There’s no doubt that Grinding Breach is able to kill quickly, but it’s far from a one-trick pony. This deck is supported by some of the most powerful staples in Modern, which can even win on their own. Worryingly, this puts opponents in an incredibly difficult position, as they can’t just shut down the combo and breeze to victory.
Urza’s Saga and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student are both cards capable of running away with games if left unchecked. The deck can also use Emry, Lurker of the Loch in conjunction with Mishra’s Bauble to draw an extra card every turn, which is powerful enough to win many games of Modern. Emry, in particular, can now reliably be cast on turn one, thanks to the addition of Mox Opal. Usually, this is something we’d expect to see from Legacy, not Modern.
On top of all that, Underworld Breach is also incredibly powerful in a vacuum. Modern players have long been aware of this as it has historically seen play in Izzet Prowess decks. In this archetype, the goal was to use Underworld Breach to cast multiple instances of Mishra’s Bauble, drawing multiple cards, or Lightning Bolts. Even though the core of the deck has changed, these lines are still open to Grinding Breach decks.
An Unfixable Problem
Thanks to the core combo and Modern staples combined, Grinding Breach is an absolute monster. Not only can it kill incredibly quickly, but it’s very difficult to sideboard again since it’s so flexible. If you try and play around one half of the deck too aggressively, then its other elements can easily run away with the game.
With so much going on, it’s basically impossible to have an answer for everything Grinding Breach presents. You’d need hate for enchantments, artifacts, and the graveyard, all in your hand from the game’s start. Even if you have all that, you’re not really playing your own deck anymore, just a deck of answers.
As if it wasn’t resilient enough on its own, Grinding Breach can even play Nature’s Claim, Flame of Anor, and various counterspells to beat hate cards. Thanks to the deck’s easy access to extra card draw, it’s holding up these counterspells more often than not. As such, playing around this deck is an incredibly difficult feat, so it’s no wonder most decks simply can’t.
Community Opinion
Suffice it to say, the present day Yawgmoth’s Will was too powerful for Legacy, too powerful for Pioneer, and is too powerful for Modern. Olin_123 frames it perfectly:
“Breach is uniquely busted. The closest thing that’s legal in modern is probably Gaea’s will, which is a big downgrade.”
There are some who argue for the re-banning of Mox Opal instead, but nobody will be surprised if Breach gets axed in the upcoming MTG ban announcement at the end of the month.
Mox Opal’s re-banning is unlikely because Grinding Breach is the only Opal deck that has reached this oppressive level. DimiPine supports this argument:
“If you think opal should be re-banned, ask yourself what other tier one decks are playing it. None. Energy, Dimir frog, Eldrazi and BWink (Orzhov Blink) are all beating up on other opal decks.”
The addition of powerful artifact hate cards like Meltdown and Wrath of the Skies makes it difficult for other less flexible Mox Opal strategies such as Hardened Scales, Affinity, or Colossus Hammer to take over Modern in the same way.
Modern looks to be a solved format at the moment with the dominance of Grinding Breach. Unfortunately, we still have a few more weeks to go until the ban announcement. Hopefully, at the beginning of April players will be discussing the exciting possibilities of the next Modern metagame.