Every once in a while, a strategy so strange emerges that catches everyone’s attention. It’s especially impressive when an off-the-wall archetype puts up a strong result in a format as powerful as Modern. Well, just this weekend, a player managed to make top 16 of a Magic Online Modern Challenge with one of the wildest decklists I’ve ever seen.
Utilizing a weird mixture of Vampire and Sliver payoffs, this deck has a lot going on. There are a multitude of cards present that see minimal play in any Constructed format whatsoever, so seeing this mishmash of cards have a breakout performance is really something. To better understand how this deck works, we need to begin by analyzing the role that Morophon, the Boundless plays in helping you close games.
Vampires and Slivers Join Forces
- Mana Value: 7
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 6/6
- MTG Sets: Modern Horizons, Commander Masters, Modern Horizons 3 Commander
- Card Text: Changeling (This creature is every creature type.) As Morophon, the Boundless enters the battlefield, choose a creature type. Spells of the chosen type you cast cost WUBRG less to cast. This effect reduces only the amount of colored mana you pay. Other creatures you control of the chosen type get +1/+1.
In most games, the main goal is to get Morophon into play as quickly as possible. Morophon is primarily utilized in Commander, helping you cast a plethora of five-color Slivers for free after naming Sliver when Morophon enters the battlefield. Believe it or not, that’s actually the main gameplan here as well!
Once Morophon is on the battlefield, you’re free to follow up with copies of The First Sliver or Sliver Legion. If you’re lucky, you can end the chain with Cloudshredder Sliver and attack for a bunch of damage. Even if you can’t, though, your opponent will be hard-pressed to win through your formidable forces.
Obviously, though, casting Morophon for seven mana is not going to cut it in Modern. Luckily, this deck has a way to put Morophon into play as early as turn two! See, Morophon has the benefit of being a Changeling itself. This means that it counts as all creature types, including Vampire. So, if you can find Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, you can cheat Morophon into play no problem.
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Hastily Assembling the Pieces
- Mana Value: GW
- Rarity: Rare
- MTG Sets: Planeshift, Masters 25, Modern Horizons
- Cards Text: Search your library for a creature card, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
For a deck so heavily focused on finding Sorin and Morophon, it’s very important to have a handful of ways to dig for your key cards. Oath of Nissa and Malevolent Rumble both fulfill this role nicely. Malevolent Rumble has the added bonus of fueling Shifting Woodland.
Notably, Shifting Woodland does not work profitably with Planeswalkers (the land doesn’t enter with loyalty counters, so if you go to copy a Planeswalker, your land will go to the graveyard), so you can’t use it to copy Sorin and put Morophon into play. Still, it can be useful to just turn Shifting Woodland into one of your enormous Slivers and start attacking.
Rounding out the elements of consistency, we have a couple creature tutors. Eladamri’s Call lets you go grab Morophon if you have Sorin already lined up. Meanwhile, Summoner’s Pact serves as a “free” way to grab The First Sliver or Sliver Legion the turn you slam Morophon.
Finally, to help in the resilience and speed department, playsets of Teferi, Time Raveler and Delighted Halfling show up as well. Both of these cards do a nice job at ensuring that your copies of Sorin resolve. Delighted Halfling makes it possible to win the game as early as turn two, albeit unlikely. The powerful one-drop can even let you cast your big slivers in a traditional manner in a pinch.
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Fighting the Good Fight
- Mana Value: UU
- Rarity: Common
- MTG Sets: Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Fourth Edition, Ica Age, Fifth Edition, Tempest, Classic Sixth Edition, Mercadian Masques, Seventh Edition, Eternal Masters, Masters 25, Commander Legends, Modern Horizons 2, Dominaria Remastered, Commander Masters, Mystery Booster 2, Duskmourn Commander
- Card Text: Counter target spell.
All things considered, this deck can sometimes feel a bit like a glass cannon. There are a lot of moving parts, and they aren’t particularly powerful on their own. For instance, if you don’t have Sorin, Morophon does very little. You need to mulligan very aggressively and hope that your Malevolent Rumbles cooperate.
Even with access to Teferi and Delighted Halfling, facing down Counterspells can be very annoying. Once again, if Sorin doesn’t resolve, you’re likely to get stranded with Morophon and beefy slivers in your hand. This can make the Dimir Murktide matchup very difficult.
The good news is that this deck can be very explosive. Decks like Boros Energy will have a tough time beating a bunch of haymakers if you get them down early enough. Similarly, Eldrazi strategies may be unable to race your fast draws. Typical removal spells like Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt don’t do much in the face of your giant threats.
The hard part is sticking your bombs in the first place, which can feel nearly impossible in some matchups. This deck’s admirable performance is nothing to scoff at, but it’s quite unlikely we’ll be seeing The First Sliver in the top echelon of archetypes any time soon. Nonetheless, that doesn’t stop multi-color Morophon from being a hilarious shell to break out at your next Modern FNM.
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