Griselbrand combo decks have been around in Modern for ages. When everything goes according to plan, this can be one of the quickest combos in the entire format. Technically, it’s possible to win games on turn one with this strategy, however, that’s not easy to do nowadays. As a result, a new deck is beginning to rise through the ranks using old strategies.
Neobrand’s Weakness
The most common way to achieve a turn one victory in Modern was using Neoform on Allosaurus Rider to make a Griselbrand. You’d also need a Chancellor of the Tangle in hand to give you extra mana. From here, Nourishing Shoal keeps your life total stocked while Griselbrand draws your deck. Winning the game after reaching this point is trivial.
Thanks to the prevalence of free spells and zero mana interaction, the Neobrand archetype isn’t as reliable as it used to be. If even one part of this combo is disrupted, you’ve basically lost the game. Because you are trying to win on turn one, Neobrand plays a ton of cards that don’t do anything outside of certain board states. If anything goes wrong while you’re playing your combo out (like Griselbrand getting removed while you have low life), the game is likely over. The deck does still have some strong finishes, but luck plays a big role.
Despite NeoBrand falling out of favor, it’s hard not to be enticed by its combo. It’s little wonder, therefore, that a new Neoform deck is back in Modern trying to capitalize on the unique metagame. This new deck isn’t quite as fast as traditional NeoBrand, but it is still incredibly powerful. The deck already has a Modern Challenge top eight under its belt, proving that it can compete with the best decks in the format.
Modern Neoform
Unlike the original NeoBrand deck, this new Neoform deck is less about winning the game in one shot. Instead, it focuses on using the power of Neoform, Birthing Ritual, and Eldritch Evolution to cheat out a series of unbeatable creatures. You won’t win on turn one, but your opponent won’t win by removing one creature, either.
This deck’s combo is comprised of three main elements: haymakers that win the game, cards that cheat the haymakers out, and cards that are sacrificed to be replaced by haymakers. Because the cards used to cheat out larger creatures are the most restrictive, it’s best to start there.
There are only two creatures in the deck intended to be turned into larger ones: Allosaurus Rider and Hooting Mandrills. Hooting Mandrills can be cast for as low as one mana using its Delve cost, while Allosaurus Rider has its alternate casting cost.
Compared to the five targets to sacrifice, ten Birthing Pod effects in the deck turn those targets into haymakers. There are certainly some issues with this distribution here (finding your cheap creatures to turn into large ones may be difficult), so Eladamri’s Call and Elven Farsight are used to find Allosaurus Shepherd consistently.
Finally, this deck runs nine different haymaker targets that you ideally want to find with your combo. Atraxa, Grand Unifier is a four-of among these, so it is probably the card you’ll find most of the time. Because one threat usually isn’t enough to win the game, Griselbrand, Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, and Koma, World-Eater are also options to choose from.
Similar to NeoBrand, this deck uses the Allosaurus Rider and Chancellor of the Tangle package to cheat out a massive haymaker on turn one. More reliably, however, this deck is capable of consistently presenting a game-winning creature by turn three.
A Weird Metagame
This type of combo deck usually falls flat to counterspells and hand disruption, but neither of those strategies can keep up with the absurdly hostile Modern metagame. Grinding Breach completely crushes these strategies, making them obsolete in the format. This has allowed a deck that would normally be stopped by common tempo decks to thrive. You just have to watch out for Death and Taxes decks, with do run some interaction still.
While this new Neoform deck is mostly safe from being countered, it does require counterplay itself. You’ll need tools to beat Grinding Breach, for instance, since that archetype is more consistently quick than Neoform. As a result, you’ll find Force of Vigor in the main deck, which is one of the best cards against breach.
With Force of Vigor, you can kill both Underworld Breach and another artifact or enchantment to stop the combo. While Grinding Breach can play around this with counterspells, all you need to do is buy some time until your game plan gets online. The deck also runs Collector Ouphe as a search target in the sideboard – something that can catch Breach by surprise. Despite this, it looks like the matchup is still unfavorable.
Bans Indicate Trouble
While it’s still early days, this new Neoform deck has already put up some compelling results. Should these continue, the deck may genuinely be able to compete with some of the best in Modern. Unfortunately, building this deck now is incredibly risky because bans are on the horizon.
The current metagame is what allows a bizarre deck like this to thrive. Bans are due for MTG at the end of the month, and there is a very good chance something in the Breach deck will be leaving the Modern format. This will allow common interaction that cripples Neoform combo back into the metagame, making this strategy much weaker.
For that reason, I would be very hesitant to build this deck. It is unlikely to have a long life after the bans occur, but it could thrive depending on what metagame arises. Either way, this is an incredibly fun and unique combo deck for players to try who have the cards.
