Modern Horizons 3 completely warped the Modern format, essentially creating a rotation situation. Considering that Standard now has a set that’s going to remain legal for the next five years, this is somewhat ironic.
Either way, because the new cards in Modern Horizons 3 completely transformed the format, players have been waiting with bated breath to see what decks are really the ones to consider. Pro players who commonly establish what the metagame becomes in any format have kept their words quiet for the last few weeks in preparation for the Modern Horizons 3 Pro Tour. The tournament has now kicked off, and the creations of Magic’s best are now available for the world to see. Here are some of the most common types of decks to watch following the events of the Pro Tour.
Where To Find MTG Pro Tour Decklists
For those who are unaware, the Modern Horizons 3 Pro Tour is being hosted on MTGMelee.com. If you want to see what decklists are performing the best at any given time, as well as check out results, all you need to do is click here.
Once on that screen, just click on the name of the deck that you want to see.
If you want a bit more explanation than that, we’ve given some context in regard to what the most common Modern decks registered in the Modern Horizons 3 Pro Tour are trying to do. If you want to understand what these MTG Pro Tour Decklists are trying to accomplish, read on.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom Combo
Coming into the event, Nadu Winged Wisdom combo was considered to be one of the best decks in the format. Revolving around a combo that utilizes Nadu, Winged Wisdom, Shuko, and Springheart Nantuko, the deck is capable of creating a massive board and, essentially, flipping their library with repeating Coiling Oracle triggers gained from Nadu. Shuko triggers all of Nadu’s abilities granted to your creatures, and Springheart Nantuko creates more bodies to trigger whenever a land enters play.
Between Bant Nadu, Four-color Nadu, and one Devoted Nadu deck, 26% of the Pro Tour metagame is taken up by these decks. This isn’t an unprecedented number (Oko, Thief of Crowns was worse), but it is a higher metagame percentage than Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, Eldrazi Winter, or even Rakdos Scam at full power.
The decklist above is piloted by the current Magic: the Gathering World Champion @jedepraz. The deck is mostly stock and is somewhat reminiscent of the Chord of Calling shells used for Yawgmoth Combo in Modern. This is a particularly standard shell that was commonly used pre-Pro Tour, but there are a few changes.
In the main deck, Hex Parasite and Vexing Bauble are uncommon inclusions that can be found from Urza’s Saga‘s final trigger. You’ll generally be finding Shuko with this, but if you’ve already found it, having some versatility can go a long way.
Vexing Bauble hasn’t seen a ton of Modern play yet but is all over the Legacy format. Stopping any spell that is being cast without mana, Vexing Bauble essentially shuts down Living End, a popular deck in the Modern Horizons 3 metagame. Strangely, this deck barely showed up at the Pro Tour. That said, Vexing Bauble can also stop free pesky removal like Solitude that may try to go after your Nadu, Winged Wisdom as you are comboing off.
Hex Parasite can remove counters from permanents, but this is likely another outlet for free Nadu triggers. If Shuko gets stopped via Disrupter Flute, Pithing Needle, or similar hate, you can you life as a resource to target your cards and trigger Nadu effects. You can also dial back your Urza’s Sagas and create multiple Constructs if that plan is preferable.
In the sideboard, we see a ton of new tech to deal with the Nadu metagame. Run Afoul takes out Nadu, Winged Wisdom for one mana without triggering it. Path to Exile is another concession to the need for one mana removal spells in a format as fast as this one. Orim’s Chant can both stop Storm players from going off for a turn and prevent opponents from interacting with your combo.
Finally, Suncleanser can remove Energy from opponents, making it a bit more difficult for Galvanic Discharge to deal with a Nadu. A well-timed Suncleanser from a Chord of Calling can also stop a Wrath of the Skies if your opponent is not careful.
Ruby Storm
Ruby Storm is an old strategy brought to the Modern format in Modern Horizons 3. This is largely due to the reprinting of Ruby Medallion, making the card Modern legal for the first time. That said, the printing of the new flipwalker Ral, Monsoon Mage also helped significantly.
Prior to the Pro Tour, Ruby Storm had the highest win rate on Magic Online post-Modern Horizons 3. This deck takes up just under 10% of the metagame at Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3, making it the second most popular deck in the event.
This Storm list, once again, is rather stock. Some players decide to play Dragon’s Rage Channeler for a boost of consistency, but that lack of that card is not uncommon.
This Boros build of the deck was largely considered the best variant of it going into the Pro Tour. This grants access to tons of sideboard cards that effectively deal with hate that stops your game plan. Static Prison is the new uncommon from Modern Horizons 3 that should essentially stop anything for long enough to give you a window to do your thing.
Storm is the fastest combo deck at the Pro Tour, threatening turn-two wins with a surprising amount of consistency. This deck will go off on turns 3-4 most of the time, but the strategy generally involves casting a ton of spells in one turn to build up to a lethal Grapeshot. Sticking an early cost-reducer like Ruby Medallion or Ral, Monsoon Mage is incredibly important, allowing you to combo off quicker and easier.
An interesting piece of tech that has been seen pre-Pro Tour is Alchemist’s Gambit. This sneaky extra turn spell causes you to lose the game after your extra turn, but damage cannot be prevented during that turn. This beats Protection triggers from The One Ring that can otherwise buy opponents a turn of reprieve. The One Ring also happens to be the most-played card at the Modern Horizons 3 Pro Tour.
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Jeskai Control
Jeskai Control was an emerging strategy coming into Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3. The deck started appearing online and putting up dominant results repetitively. If you’re looking to play a slower strategy aimed at beating the two fast combo decks that are seeing tons of play, this is the way to do it.
With 22 entries, Jeskai Control is sitting at 9% of the Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 metagame. There are a few different takes on this archetype in the tournament, including an interesting Stifle variant that we talked about in some detail.
If you’re looking for a more traditional variant of the Jeskai Control deck, pro MTG player Javier Dominguez is playing the above decklist. These decks commonly have an Energy package to make use of Galvanic Discharge and Wrath of the Skies.
Drannith Magistrate is common sideboard tech against Ruby Storm, and Consign to Memory can stop colorless decks as well as problematic activated abilities in their tracks. Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury is the win condition that this deck really leans on. The inevitability of the new Titan that acts as removal, and lifegain to support The One Ring, is truly powerful.
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Mono-Black Necrodominance
When a card as nasty as Necropotence gets a callback, you’d better be sure that the card is going to be powerful. Mono-Black Necrodominance is a new deck that takes advantage of the Necropotence callback Necrodominance. Even though this card is supposed to be a ‘fixed’ version of the old menace that is even banned in Legacy, Necrodominance is still strong enough to establish its own archetype.
Combined with Soul Spike and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Mono-Black Necrodominance will never run out of gas. Suddenly, instead of losing life for cards you draw, Sheoldred gains you life instead. Soul Spike encourages you to draw more than your five-card limit in an effort to hurl four-damage-draining haymakers at the opponent.
This deck comes prepared to deal with a wide range of different strategies. Force of Despair is a particularly interesting tech, capable of blowing up an entire board’s worth of Nadu creatures if the deck isn’t using Thassa’s Oracle. A lot of the Nadu combo decks have forsaken the fragile win condition.
Otherwise, Break the Ice can deal with Tron lands, Dauthi Voidwalker is one of the hardest cards for Living End to beat, Soulless Jailer stops Storm and gets around Lightning Bolt, and lots of discard and card draw gives this deck legs against control.
Eldrazi Tron
The last deck we will feature today is Eldrazi Tron. This is a variant of Tron that utilizes a mix of Tron lands and Eldrazi lands to power out massive haymakers way ahead of schedule.
Because of the speed of the format, the most successful Tron lists have had prison elements to them. This particular list from Pro Tour competitor David Gonzalez Romaro utilizes four copies of Trinisphere in an attempt to slow down Nadu and Storm strategies. Outside of various prison elements, this Eldrazi Tron list is trying to go a bit bigger than traditional variants, utilizing Emrakul, the Promised End as the win condition of choice. Taking a Nadu or a Storm player’s turn can end in massive consequence for them, with their combos being ruined, or even having them self-destruct to a Grapeshot pointed the wrong way, or an empty Library in the case of Nadu, Winged Wisdom.
5.8% of the metagame is governed by various builds of Eldrazi Tron.
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