Modern’s unbannings have left the actual MTG bans in the dust. No one really cares that The One Ring left the format anymore. Everyone is hyperfocused on the incredible unbans that Wizards of the Coast made for Modern. Due to these unbans, many MTG players now suspect that Mox Opal will rise through the ranks to become the most powerful card in the format.
Thanks to being the poster child of a ton of broken decks from days gone by, the Mox Opal unban has players hugely excited. As a result, Mox Opal card saw an incredible price spike thanks to increased demand upon its unban. So, the card is now the most expensive card in the Modern format, but does it have the power to back up its price point?
The answer appears to be, probably. One particular archetype that existed before the bans has taken a new route thanks to Mox Opal, and is now able to kill on turn two with frightening consistency. Is Modern truly in a better place, or has the format just gotten worse?
The Rise of Underworld Breach
Underworld Breach is banned in multiple MTG formats, and for good reason. Despite not being legal in Legacy or Pioneer, the card remains legal in Modern. Thanks to this enchantment, Mox Opal can now set up for consistent turn two kills.
This kill uses a combo that has been a part of Modern for quite some time. Leveraging the power of Grinding Station combined with Mox Amber, you have the power to mill your entire deck. Here’s the breakdown of how the combo works:
- Have Underworld Breach and Grinding Station in play. Cast Mox Amber.
- Mox Amber enters play and Grinding Station triggers. In response to the trigger, use Grinding Station’s activated ability to sacrifice Mox Amber. Mox Amber enters the graveyard, you mill three cards, and Grinding Station untaps.
- You can now re-cast Mox Amber from the graveyard using Underworld Breach by exiling three extra cards from the graveyard. You can use the three cards milled by Grinding Station.
- Rinse and repeat
If you have a Legendary creature or Planeswalker when Mox Opal is in play, you can tap the artifact for mana of the Legendary card’s color identity. This also allows you to float a ton of mana. It’s technically not infinite since your library is only so big, but floating 15-ish mana is easily possible. Use this floating mana to cast a Thassa’s Oracle, and win the game. Provided you have an extra spot in your graveyard when starting the loop, you won’t have the exile Thassa’s Oracle during this combo.
Speeding Things Up
This combo already worked without Mox Opal, but that artifact speeds things up even further. As some astute readers may have noted already, Mox Opal and Mox Amber have a lot of similarities. Names aside, both are zero-mana artifacts that can tap for mana as long as they satisfy an additional cost. In Mox Opal’s case, that cost is turning on Metalcraft. This means you need to have three artifacts, including itself, in play for Mox Opal to tap for mana.
Running artifacts is already part of Underworld Breach’s game plan. Grinding Station and Mox Amber aside, this deck also uses Emry, Lurker of the Loch. Thanks to all the artifacts already seeing play in the deck, it’s easy to reduce Emry’s casting cost to just one mana. You can then mill four cards, helping to fill your graveyard for Underworld Breach. If this weren’t strong enough, Emry can also re-cast artifacts from the graveyard. This can generate mana with the two Moxen, and find your Grinding Station. Best of all, you can draw extra cards, giving you a powerful plan B.
You achieve this by using Mishra’s Bauble. Another zero-mana artifact, Mishra’s Bauble is, essentially, a delayed cantrip. Because the card triggers the effects of many popular Modern cards, like Dragon’s Rage Channeler, the card sees a ton of play across Modern.
With Emry and Mox Opal, Mishra’s Bauble does even more. You can recur your Bauble turn after turn with Emry, allowing you to draw deeper into your deck. You can also turn on your Mox Opal more consistently in opening turns.
This allows for explosive starts that can easily create four mana on turn two. Since Grinding Station and Underworld Breach are four mana total, winning the game on turn two is frighteningly realistic.
More Unbanned Cards Join the Party
Faithless Looting, another infamous unbanned Modern card, just so happens to help this deck out, as well. The card fills your graveyard, enabling more consistent Underworld Breach kills, but it also has Flashback. This allows Faithless Looting effects that are milled over with Grinding Station or Emry, Lurker of the Loch to be cast from the graveyard, fixing your hand and finding Underworld Breach.
Faithless Looting also helps out a Legendary creature commonly used to try and turn on Mox Amber in the deck. Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student is a powerful Modern Horizons 3 addition to the Grinding Breach archetype. Not only can the creature create Clue tokens to help turn on Mox Opal, but it’s not too difficult to flip the creature into a Planeswalker. All you need to do is draw three cards in a turn, something that Faithless Looting does effortlessly.
Flipping your Tamiyo on turn two is now relatively easy, and playing a turn-one Planeswalker is possible thanks to the power of Mox Opal. In addition to your draw for turn, Faithless Looting satisfies the ‘draw three cards’ clause all on its own.
This means that Tamiyo can draw half of your deck as early as turn four, something that many Modern decks are not equipped to answer.
Is This Too Powerful?
Grinding Breach does appear to be one of the best things to do in Modern at the moment. The first big tournament for the Modern format has come and gone, and Grinding Breach had the best win rate of all the decks in the event. While it did not take down the event, one copy of the deck did make the top eight, and 66% of Breach players went 5-2 in the Swiss rounds.
This is a level of speed that the Modern format has not adjusted to as of yet. Turn-two kills were always a possibility in the format, but they did not show up all too often. With this deck, it seems to be more frequent than what Modern is used to.
Even if Grinding Breach doesn’t get the turn-two kills, the number of explosive openings the deck is capable of is problematic. Creating an early Planeswalker or generating a ton of mana with must-answer threats in the first couple of turns is a reality. If combos don’t win the game, creating a ton of beefy constructs with Urza’s Saga can get the job done.
If you want to beat this strategy, there are two things you can try. The first is graveyard hate. Grinding Breach can play a perfectly reasonable fair game, but this will remove the need to deal with the combo, and should ultimately stop any turn two kill shenanigans.
The second option is Wrath the Skies. This card was already a known quantity before the ban, but it’s absolutely game-ending now. Wrath the Skies takes care of any creatures, artifacts, and enchantments in play, so it can wipe threats, Moxen, and Urza’s Saga at the same time.
Modern needs time to adjust to all of the new decks popping up. Grinding Breach is far from the only powerful thing to do in the format now. Every new archetype promises a new problem to deal with. Grinding Breach has the advantage of being easy to refine thanks to its existence before the bans, so it may be a frontrunner as players figure out what to do. Still, chances are that the rest of the format will eventually catch up to it.
