The Hobbit cards are now available on Magic Online, and content creators are quickly testing the set’s most promising designs. In fact, Aspiringspike, one of MTG’s most renowned brewers, has already pulled off a 5-0 Modern League finish with a new uncommon card draw engine. It’s still very early, but there’s a lot to like about Key to the Side-Door.
MTG Key to the Side-Door
While Affinity decks in Modern typically lean on assertive threats like Kappa Cannoneer, this Mono-Blue Artifacts shell instead takes a grindier approach. Offering a Legendary theme, Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Mishra’s Bauble does a great job generating card advantage over long games. This pair also synergizes nicely with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, threatening to flip it as early as turn two.
All of these legends help turn on Mox Amber, which, when paired with Mox Opal, can offer blazingly fast starts. Whether you deploy Emry on turn one or sink your extra mana into Tamiyo’s Clues, this strategy heavily punishes a lack of removal. These tools even help you flip Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, which, alongside Force of Negation, can counter a disgusting amount of spells.
While this game plan has always been promising, drawing multiple copies of redundant legendary spells has historically held it back. Key to the Side-Door completely changes this narrative, turning extra Moxen into two fresh cards. On top of never running out of gas, this also allows Tamiyo to flip easily, potentially on turn one. This list even runs extra copies of Legendary lands like Otawara, Soaring City without any downside.
This helps you find Urza’s Saga consistently, whose Constructs function as your win condition. From there, Key can make your Constructs unblockable, helping you close the game through gummed-up Boros Energy boards. Of course, Saga can help find Key as well, making this game plan quite consistent.
An Interesting Position
Moving forward, part of what makes this archetype super intriguing is its flexibility. Naturally, your card draw engines shine versus decks like Esper Blink that take some time to apply pressure. Yet, versus fast combo decks like Ruby Storm, the combination of Erayo and Force of Negation can be a real pain. Flipping Tamiyo then does a nice job staving off pressure from Boros Energy despite your lack of removal.
Where things do get really dicey, though, is when facing down hate cards. Wrath of the Skies, for example, sets you back to the Stone Age if it resolves. While classic Affinity can sometimes sidestep this problematic card with a fast Kappa Cannoneer, this deck has little recourse. Similarly, a turn-one Chalice of the Void can demolish some Mox and Bauble-heavy hands.
Nonetheless, Aspiringspike still managed to showcase surprising resiliency en route to a League 5-0 on his stream yesterday. It’s still quite early in the format, but Key to the Side-Door looks like it could be the real deal.
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