At this point, everyone knows how absurdly strong Izzet Cauldron is in Standard. The deck’s ability to apply pressure, generate value, and win the game out of nowhere thanks to the power of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron makes it difficult to gameplan against.
As it turns out, the strategy is so powerful that it’s even making an appearance in Modern! A cool Grixis version using tons of the same tools went 5-0 in a Magic Online Modern League, putting the power of Cauldron on full display. With a Standard ban being inevitable in November, perhaps the deck will live on in infamy in Modern.
Shared Elements
As is typical with the Standard variation, your main objective is to get a copy of Vivi Ornitier exiled with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron. In doing so, any of your creatures with +1/+1 counters on them become insane mana engines thanks to gaining Vivi’s activated ability. Discard outlets such as Fear of Missing Out do a good job setting things up.
Obviously, Cauldron can put +1/+1 counters on your creatures, but it isn’t the only way to do so. Proft’s Eidetic Memory plays an important role. When paired with card draw effects like Winternight Stories, Proft’s Eidetic Memory threatens to grow one of your creatures immensely. That enables a potential huge attack and gives you even more mana to work with.
This excess mana lets you hard cast Quantum Riddler and continue churning through your library. After creating a massive advantage, you should be in good shape to close the game.
On the turn you go off, finding your one-of copy of Temporal Trespass gives you a route to victory before your opponent even gets to untap. As we will see, Temporal Trespass is one of many potent upgrades this archetype receives in Modern.
Premium Additions
As much of this deck’s gameplan overlaps with that of Standard Izzet Cauldron, part of what gives you a chance to compete in a format as fast as Modern are your incredible Modern-legal discard outlets. In the sorcery slot, Faithless Looting is an amazing upgrade. It sets up Cauldron, synergizes with Proft’s Eidetic Memory in an efficient way, and fuels your graveyard for Delirium. You can’t really ask for much more.
That brings us to the other discard outlet that leads to some of your most explosive draws: Psychic Frog. Psychic Frog does everything you want. It lets you discard cards on command without investing any mana. It grows in the process, so once you have Cauldron online, you’ll have a ton of mana to work with. It’s the perfect place to put +1/+1 counters from Proft’s Eidetic Memory since it can gain evasion on a whim. Plus, Psychic Frog is just a great card advantage machine on its own.
Your other two major inclusions that aren’t available in Standard are Dragon’s Rage Channeler and Unholy Heat. Enabling Delirium is easy with so much card filtering at your disposal. Dragon’s Rage Channeler is a decent replacement for Marauding Mako. The upside of having a 3/3 flier for one mana that provides elite card selection with its Surveil ability is quite high.
Meanwhile, Unholy Heat is capable of killing creatures that cost way more mana. In a format ruled by Primeval Titan, Abhorrent Oculus, and other big threats, you won’t want to leave home without this removal spell.
A More Brutal Environment
Ultimately, in the context of Modern, this shell is far from the broken collective it is in Standard. First, there’s way more hate to worry about. Cards such as Surgical Extraction make your Cauldron combo kills less reliable in games two and three.
Second, the format is much faster. Sometimes, your draws will simply be outclassed by other combo strategies, including Belcher of Ruby Storm.
The fact that this deck is popping up at all in Modern really goes to show how good of a job it does attacking from multiple angles. In the face of graveyard hate or answers to Cauldron, your plan of beating down with creatures and growing them with Proft’s Eidetic Memory is legitimate. Psychic Frog bolsters your chances of winning fair fights significantly.
Against decks with lots of targeted removal, Winternight Stories and Quantum Riddler shine. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger works itself into the equation as a recursive threat as well.
The combination of Vivi and Cauldron may not be the banworthy force it is in Standard, but it’s intriguing to see them show up together in older formats. We look forward to watching players innovate and seeing if Grixis Cauldron has what it takes to grow in the Modern metagame.
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