Ever since the ban announcement back on December 16, more and more players have taken to brewing around the unbanned powerhouses. A recent Magic Online Modern Challenge managed to eclipse 150 players, showcasing the format’s overall appeal within the community.
Modern still has some potentially problematic strategies at the forefront of the format, like Dimir Frog, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a world of opportunity for brewers. In fact, just recently, one player made top 16 of a Magic Online Modern Challenge with a really unique Mox Opal deck.
This deck takes elements from both the dominant colorless Storm archetype at Eternal Weekend and Modern Affinity and blends them together seamlessly. Whether you like to beat down or combo-kill your opponents, this strategy does it all. To better understand what this deck is trying to accomplish, let’s dive in and look at each half of the deck and how they play together.
Affinity Package
- Mana Value: 7
- Rarity: Common
- Stats: 4/4
- Card Type: Artifact Creature- Salamander
- MTG Sets: Modern Horizons 2
- Card Text: Affinity for artifacts. Artifact landcycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Search your library for an artifact land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)
At first glance, this archetype looks very similar to a generic Modern Affinity shell. There are a bunch of cheap artifacts present that help you build up your artifact count. “Free” spells like Ornithopter, Memnite and Mishra’s Bauble pair nicely with the newly unbanned Mox Opal. You’ll also find a full playset of Springleaf Drum to ramp you closer to your payoffs.
Speaking of payoffs, all of these cheap artifacts simultaneously reduce the cost of all of your Affinity creatures. From Sojourner’s Companion to Frogmyr Enforcer, you’ll be able to build out a board of 4/4s in no time.
Even your manabase synergizes with these big threats. Sojourner’s Companion and Frogmyr Enforcer both have a mana cost of 7, which is the perfect number to enable Ugin’s Labyrinth. Ugin’s Labyrinth and Darksteel Citadel make it easier to cast your 4/4s early on. Plus, as we will see in the next section, there are some super impactful cards to play ahead of schedule.
In many games, your path to victory will simply involve attacking with large creatures. In addition to these 4/4s, any Constructs you make with Urza’s Saga are bound to be absolutely massive. Sometimes, you’ll have the luxury of playing Urza’s Saga turn one and following up with a turn two Ugin’s Labyrinth. This way, you get to start making Constructs as early as turn two.
Storm/Eldrazi Package
- Mana Value: 4
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Artifact
- MTG Sets: Core Set 2020, Warhammer 40,000 Commander, The Brother’s War Retro Artifacts, Commander Masters, Fallout, Modern Horizons 3 Commander
- Card Text: You may look at the top card of your library and time. You may cast artifact spells and colorless spells from the top of your library. Tap, Pay 1 life: Exile the top card of your library.
Where this deck starts to differentiate itself from traditional Affinity is with its Storm and Eldrazi packages. Most Affinity decks look to play blue in order to utilize Thought Monitor or Kappa Cannoneer as extra top end. This strategy only makes use of colorless cards.
This may seem a bit odd, but it makes for a consistent and robust gameplan with Mystic Forge. With The One Ring now gone from Modern, Mystic Forge is stepping up to the plate as a colorless card advantage engine.
Thanks to Ugin’s Labyrinth, Mox Opal, and Springleaf Drum, playing Mystic Forge early is trivial. Once in play, you can start casting any of your super efficient artifacts from the top of your deck. With a little luck, you’ll be able to chain together a bunch of spells.
Obviously, this helps you dig for your Affinity payoffs. On top of that, though, if you can stick a copy of Glaring Fleshraker, every colorless spell you cast off the top of the deck now comes with an Eldrazi Spawn token that pings the opponent in the process.
As such, you don’t actually need a typical Storm payoff like Grapeshot in the mix. Glaring Fleshraker is a formidable win condition in its own right. Even in games where you don’t draw Mystic Forge, playing a turn two Glaring Fleshraker off Ugin’s Labyrinth of Eldrazi Temple and following up with a bunch of zero-mana artifacts gives you a pretty big advantage.
The Eldrazi Spawn tokens you generate aren’t meaningless, either. Besides providing a boatload of chump blockers, these Eldrazi Spawn make Kozilek’s Command an incredible card. Kozilek’s Command is extremely versatile.
At some point, if you have a bunch of Eldrazi Spawn tokens and Glaring Fleshraker already in play, you’re free to sacrifice them to fuel a big Kozilek’s Command, creating a lot of tokens in the process and Fireballing the opponent to death. This deck may be a mishmash of different designs, but they all play well together.
Beware of Inconsistency and Hate Cards
- Mana Value: XR
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Sorcery
- MTG Sets: Urza’s Saga, Modern Horizons 3
- Card Text: Destroy each artifact with mana value X or less.
That being said, there are some dangers to look out for if you’re going to give this deck a shot. First and foremost, you are a bit vulnerable to artifact hate cards. This archetype is reliant on jamming a bunch of zero-mana artifacts in order to bring down the cost of the Affinity cards. If you’re not careful, though, this will make you quite susceptible to getting blown out by Meltdown.
Meltdown has grown in popularity in Modern since the unbanning of Mox Opal, and rightfully so. With this in mind, you may need to take a cautious approach in post-sideboard games. Don’t slam your artifacts willy nilly. Instead, it’s in your best interest to wait until you have a big turn to play out your cards.
For instance, if you can find a window to play Glaring Fleshraker unhindered, playing out your artifacts then at least generates you some value. Similarly, if you can cast your free artifacts on the same turn you play multiple 4/4s, you at least insulate yourself against Meltdown a little bit since your opponent will presumably still have the 4/4s to contend with.
Additionally, this deck can run into issues if your opponent can successfully answer your top-end. This shell needs a ton of free artifacts to function, but that does mean there’s a lot of air in the deck. Sometimes, you’ll have to put all your eggs in one basket, and if the opponent removes Mystic Forge before you can go off (say, with Force of Vigor) you may be in some trouble.
The good news is that this deck presents plenty of different avenues to victory that the opponent has to be weary of. Urza’s Saga can win games singlehandedly. Glaring Fleshraker isn’t an artifact, so if the opponent only comes prepared with artifact removal, they’re in for a bad time.
These different lines make the archetype look like a blast to play. If you’re a Mox Opal enjoyer and want something out of the ordinary to bring to your next Modern event, this colorless combo deck delivers.
