Containing non-Eternal cards from the release of Eighth Edition in 2003, Modern is one of the most beloved formats in MTG. Between Pro Tours, sudden ban announcements, and Regional Championships, Modern can evolve at an extremely fast clip, making it hard to keep up. To that end, we’ve put together our list of the best Modern decks in MTG.
10 | Ruby Storm
Ruby Storm offers a surprisingly consistent turn 2-3 combo deck that revolves around cost reducers like Ral, Monsoon Mage, or Ruby Medallion. From there, casting a series of fast mana spells like Pyretic Ritual and Impulse Draw spells like Wrenn’s Resolve builds up your Storm count. Then, either by Ultimating Ral or casting Past in Flames, you hit critical mass, Grapeshotting your opponent to death.
Generally, if your opponent doesn’t interact with your game plan, Storm can consistently win the game during the opening turns. Because of this, Storm has a fantastic matchup against Modern’s fairer strategies, like Izzet Affinity and Boros Energy, losing outright if they don’t keep a hand full of hate.
All of that said, Storm does have a fair few pitfalls that keep it at the bottom of this list. If you don’t draw your removal, just one Drannith Magistrate loses you the game. Other fast combo decks, like Neobrand, can also race Storm easily while offering better interaction for the matchup. If that weren’t enough, Storm can, albeit rarely, lose to itself, drawing cards in the wrong order.
Even if this is the case, Storm offers an extremely intricate combo deck that can be rewarding for a dedicated pilot. If you’re feeling lucky, winning any matchup with this deck is possible with some strong draws.
9 | Amulet Titan
Revolving around the Modern staple Amulet of Vigor, Amulet Titan is a land-based combo deck that uses Bounce Lands to ramp out massive haymakers. By untapping lands like Simic Growth Chamber multiple times, you can build up tons of mana, casting Primeval Titan or a lethal Scapeshift early. From there, you can eventually copy your haymakers infinitely with Mirrorpool and Aftermath Analyst, winning the game.
For some time, Amulet Titan was one of the best decks in Modern, but it recently got slapped with a Lotus Field ban. This has made the deck’s Aftermath Analyst loops significantly slower and forced it to rely on Cultivator Colossus to win games. While the deck is still playable, it seems like the nerf was enough to bring it down a peg. It’s still good at beating up slower decks like Boros Energy and Eldrazi Tron, but that’s about it.
8 | Eldrazi Tron
Eldrazi Tron uses the classic Urza’s Tower, Mine, and Power Plant to create seven colorless mana with just three lands. This can ramp out massive game-ending spells like Ugin, Eye of the Storms, or Devourer of Destiny ahead of time.
Urza Tron then combines this with a vast suite of stax pieces, like Trinisphere and Chalice of the Void, to force opponents to play at a slower pace. With Karn, the Great Creator grabbing the perfect silver bullet for any situation, you win the game by stopping your opponent over and over.
Because of this, Eldrazi Tron beats decks like Ruby Storm and Prowess that get bogged down by its hate pieces. Sadly, in the current format, the vast majority of decks don’t really care, with fast combo outspeeding Eldrazi Tron, and other Eldrazi decks not caring about your Stax pieces. Despite this, like many of the weaker Modern decks on this list, Eldrazi Tron can have busted draws, giving it game in different matchups.
7 | Boros Energy
Boros Energy is a fair midrange deck in Modern, revolving around a suite of synergistic creatures that can take over the game with just a few resources. Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride are the titular pair, overwhelming the board with a cat token army. Throw in Ajani, Nacatl Pariah and Goblin Bombardment to flip it, and Boros can control the board while dealing tons of damage.
Since this creature package doesn’t take up a ton of space, Boros Energy can back it up with tons of versatile removal. Galvanic Discharge, for example, can kill opposing creatures while setting up bigger Energy plays with Wrath the Skies. If that weren’t enough, Thraben Charm acts as a Swiss Army Knife, capable of killing creatures, core enchantments like Urza’s Saga, and exiling graveyards.
Because the deck is inherently fair, Boros Energy doesn’t really have any incredibly positive matchups, boasting a 50/50 spread against most of the format. The exception to this is fast combo decks like Neobrand, whose game plan is very difficult for Boros to interact with. Frankly, this deck doesn’t seem too well positioned right now, but it remains the most popular choice in Modern regardless.
6 | Neobrand
Neobrand has made a massive resurgence after Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes thanks to preying on Modern’s vast expanse of fair strategies. The deck offers an extremely fragile combo that revolves around sacrificing Allosaurus Rider to Neoform or Eldritch Evolution. From here, you can cheat any number of game-winning bombs, like Griselbrand or Ureni, the Song Unending to win the game. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant can even cheat Xenagos, God of Revels into play, swinging for 32 Haste damage!
To back this plan up, Neobrand runs a bizarre suite of free spells in the form of Pact of Negation and Summoner’s Pact. With a full playset of Consign to Memory, you can counter these cards’ delayed costs, completely erasing their downsides.
That said, because this combo is extremely fragile, Neobrand is essentially playing matchup roulette. It’s quite strong into fair decks like Boros Energy or fast combo decks like Ruby Storm, but struggles against interactive decks like Control. The current meta, however, has a lot more of this deck’s good matchups, making this a decent choice.
5 | Prowess
Modern Prowess is an aggressive deck that aims to chain together a bunch of cheap spells to power up aggressive creatures. In Modern, you have access to free spells like Mishra’s Bauble and Mutagenic Growth, allowing Monastery Swiftspears to swing for lots of damage early. By combining Slickshot Show-Off and Violent Urge, this deck can often one-shot opponents out of nowhere.
In the past, this deck has been a bit too fragile to see consistent success, but Tarkir Dragonstorm’s Cori-Steel Cutter gave it a major shot in the arm. Now, alongside cantrips like Preordain and card advantage like Expressive Iteration, Prowess can offer both fast starts and consistent pressure. Throw in burn spells that double as removal, like Lightning Bolt, and Prowess can also get rid of combo creatures in a pinch.
Thanks to recent metagame shifts, Prowess is currently in a decent spot. Many of Modern’s most popular decks, like Boros Energy, are incredible matchups for Prowess. The deck’s mix of countermagic and pressure also makes it a decent choice into the swath of new fast combo decks. In exchange, Prowess has a bad matchup into decks that play early threats it can’t deal with, like Izzet Affinity and Slumbering Trudge Eldrazi.
Thanks to this, Prowess is a fairly strong choice in Modern, especially for players coming from other competitive formats, like Standard or Pioneer. The play patterns are extremely similar; they just happen at a quicker clip.
4 | Izzet Affinity
Despite being heavily targeted at Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes, Izzet Affinity remains one of the best decks in Modern. Your goal is to pair a vast array of zero-drop artifacts with cards like Weapons Manufacturing and Pinnacle Emissary, to overwhelm the board quickly. Capable of powering out Kappa Cannoneer as early as turn one, Affinity’s most busted hands are almost impossible to beat.
Thanks to powering out massive boards of threats quickly, Affinity decks absolutely devastate any other MTG deck trying to play fair, like Izzet Prowess or Ponza decks. Add four maindeck Tormod’s Crypts as splash damage for graveyard decks, and Affinity has a particularly strong Goryo’s Vengeance matchup.
Sadly, because Affinity has been this format’s bully for quite some time, every single MTG deck you play against will have targeted hate for your deck. Whether it’s Shatter the Sky or Vexing Bauble, multiple common MTG cards can blow Affinity out singlehandedly. With poor matchups into faster combo decks like Basking Broodscale combo, Affinity’s success is definitely dependent on what decks it hits.
3 | Basking Broodscale Combo
Basking Broodscale combo was creeping up in play rate coming into Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes, and had a breakout performance there. The deck focuses on assembling a combo between its namesake card and Blade of the Bloodchief, making infinite mana and an infinitely big Basking Broodscale. Throw in Walking Ballista or Glaring Fleshraker, and the game ends immediately.
Speaking of Fleshraker, Magic’s broken Eldrazi gives this deck another combo-ish win with Kozilek’s Command. On top of offering incredible draw, ramp, and mana, Glaring Fleshraker essentially turns this card into a Fireball. Throw in a bunch of cheap hate cards like Vexing Bauble and Emrakul, the Promised End as a top-end finisher, and you’ve got quite a strong gameplan.
Basking Broodscale offers a fair few extremely strong matchups, being extremely ahead against Izzet Affinity and Eldrazi Tron. That said, despite coming off a great Pro Tour finish, many of the format’s up-and-comers, like Neobrand and Slumbering Trudge Eldrazi, eat this deck for breakfast.
2 | Goryo’s Vengeance
With the rise in faster combo decks, Goryo’s Vengeance is in quite a strong position in Modern. The deck offers a midrange plan with a combo finish, leaning on resurrecting Atraxa, Grand Unifier with its namesake card. Psychic Frog can get Atraxa into the graveyard reliably, while drawing tons of cards with Quantum Riddler.
The rest of this deck packs strong, free interaction, keeping your opponent off-balance. Force of Negation can counter fast Neoform combo wins, while Solitude can ensure Basking Broodscale doesn’t get out of hand. Ephemerate is the secret glue here, doubling up on Solitude triggers while dodging Quantum Riddler and your namesake card’s downsides.
With Atraxa essentially shutting the game down against fair decks, Goryo’s Vengeance boats a slightly positive matchup against fair decks like Boros Energy and Izzet Prowess. The wide suite of interaction gives it a fair chance of fighting fast combo decks like Storm and Neobrand, too. This, more or less, allows Goryo’s Vengeance an even matchup or better against a majority of the field.
Despite covering a lot of bases, however, Goryo’s Vengeance still has one truly bad matchup. With tons of maindeck graveyard hate, and a gameplan that’s immune to this deck’s midrange plan, Izzet Affinity is extremely difficult to beat. Yes, you have sideboard hate like Wrath the Skies, but just one Kappa Cannoneer is usually enough to beat you. Eldrazi Tron can also cause Goryo’s some issues thanks to its inability to pressure the slower deck.
1 | Slumbering Trudge Eldrazi
After being the most successful deck at Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes, Fight Rigging Eldrazi has continued to put up the highest win rate overall in the Modern metagame. Focused around Secrets of Strixhaven’s Slumbering Trudge, this deck uses cards like Fight Rigging and Mosswort Bridge to power out game-ending Eldrazi Titans as early as turn two.
Even if your opponents prevent you from casting free spells, this deck can often just ramp into your Eldrazi Titans fairly easily. Modern all-stars Kozilek’s Command and Sowing Mycospawn come in clutch here, giving this deck a surprisingly strong midrange plan. Add Fanatic of Rhonas as another mass-ramp piece that synergizes with Slumbering Trudge, and this deck can play both gameplans seamlessly.
Between an excellent ramp plan and some fast wins, this deck has the upper hand against almost everything that Modern has to offer. The exception is fast combo decks like Ruby Storm and Neobrand, whose combo plan is more consistent than this deck. If it weren’t for these matchups being extremely poor, this deck would be difficult to stop, but it’s still the best Modern deck regardless.
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