If you’re paying attention to Modern, you know Grinding Breach is essentially a tier-zero deck at the moment. As a result, it’s basically guaranteed that something from the deck will be banned next week on March 31st.
While it’s set in stone that Grinding Breach’s current iteration needs to depart from Modern, it’s less clear what exactly will get banned. Since Grinding Breach existed in Modern before the recent unbans, without being busted, re-banning Mox Opal may seem like a smart idea. Unfortunately, this easy solution might not be enough to fix the problem.
A new enchantment from Tarkir: Dragonstorm has created an entirely different infinite combo with Underworld Breach. While it isn’t as good as what we have right now, this combo could keep Breach being a problem in Modern.
Glacierwood Siege
In a nostalgic return from the original Tarkir block, Siege enchantments have found their way back to Standard in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Depicting a massive battle against clans, Siege enchantments typically offer two different effects named after the side of the conflict you choose. Both effects are quite powerful, but you only get to use one.
Glacierwood Siege depicts a battle between the Sultai and the Temur, with two very interesting effects. The Choosing Sultai is basically just Crucible of Worlds, which is exciting in Commander, but not really anywhere else. Admittedly, Glacierwood Siege is harder to cast than Crucible, but you do get added flexibility.
The Temur side of this Siege is what we’re interested in. Milling four cards whenever you cast an instant or sorcery is an easy way to cause problems with Underworld Breach. The only thing you need is an instant or sorcery that can essentially be cast for zero mana, and you can Escape your way to an empty library.
The Combo
Strike it Rich meets the criteria of, essentially, paying for itself. Commonly appearing as a one-of in Storm lists, Strike it Rich can accelerate gameplans by creating a Treasure token. This Treasure Token could easily be used to pay for another Strike it Rich from the graveyard, provided you have Underworld Breach in play.
With that in mind, here’s the new Underworld Breach combo utilizing Glacierwood Siege and Strike it Rich:
- Resolve Underworld Breach with Glacierwood Siege in play and one red mana available.
- Cast Strike it Rich. Glacierwood Siege triggers, milling four cards.
- Escape Strike it Rich with three of the milled cards and repeat the process.
While this is technically only a three-card combo, in isolation, the only thing it’ll achieve is killing you. Subsequently, you’ll need a fourth card to serve as your win condition, such as Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. On top of this, you may still want the staples of Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Mox Amber, and Grinding Station, for added milling consistency.
Alternatively, you could take a Storm angle with this deck and use a red Ritual like Desperate Ritual and Grapeshot as your way to win the game, so this does open a door for a style of deck that does not use the artifact package at all.
Otherwise, Strike it Rich is still a powerful turn one play that could help accelerate into something larger on turn two. This combo is unlikely to kill people on turn two, but turn three kills are entirely reasonable with a mana generation machine. Notably, this makes it significantly slower than current Grinding Breach decks, which kills on turn two worryingly regularly.
What About the New Mox?
If Mox Opal does end up biting the dust, the new Mox Jasper from Tarkir: Dragonstorm could rise to replace it. It all depends on how easy it is to tap Mox Jasper consistently for mana while gunning for the Breach combo.
Right now, Modern doesn’t exactly have a lot of viable Dragons available in the format, but it does have Changelings. Only one one-mana Dragon exists in Modern, and it is frankly quite terrible. Slumbering Dragon can only start attacking and blocking once it becomes an 8/8, but by the time it gets there, the game will usually have ended. Until then, the card does absolutely nothing.
Instead, Universal Automaton is the best chance of Mox Jasper being viable as fast mana. Thanks to being an artifact, the card synergizes with Affinity and Emry Breach shells. Otherwise, Changeling Outcast and Mothdust Changeling are two other one-mana options that turn on Mox Jasper. These creatures are very evasive, which could have some bizarre synergy with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, but that doesn’t really seem to fit with Mox Jasper.
All this is to say that Mox Jasper isn’t looking too good in the Modern format. For this artifact to be as quick as it needs to be, some major deckbuilding concessions must be made. Players might be better off going a bit slower in exchange for playing with stronger cards across the board. This could change if a strong one-mana Dragon appears in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, but we’ll have to wait and see about that.
The Deck Will Still Be Worse
At the end of the day, banning Mox Opal may end up putting Breach back in line with the rest of the format. The speed that Mox Opal grants the deck is what made it a problem. Grinding Breach existed prior to the unbans, and while it was considered competitive, it was not an issue. All of the combos discussed in this article are less efficient than what Grinding Breach is currently capable of.
What this new combo does offer, however, is an Underworld Breach deck that doesn’t rely on artifacts at all. This opens up a lot of potential slots in the deck, allowing it to play a different kind of game.
That said, if Wizards of the Coast doesn’t want to take risks, they should ban Underworld Breach itself. Underworld Breach is already banned in Pioneer and Legacy. It makes a lot of sense to remove it from Modern. Otherwise, every piece of fast mana printed from this point onwards threatens to ruin the format.
