Modern Meta Inspection 2023/09/11

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Before We Start

The meta inspection is planned to be a regular article: barring surprises, one week Modern and one week Pioneer. I play Standard less so I can’t provide much data for it, but if anyone on the team can provide the Standard part, we’ll put that out too.
It’s been three weeks since the last time I posted a meta inspection on my own fan page, so it’s time to update the metagame information.
The metagame information will mainly be based on mtggoldfish, with MITQ deck distributions also taken as a reference, but because MITQ’s coverage is so wide (literally, geographically), it won’t be the main data source.

Meta Changed

First, the meta table at the time of writing.

Below I’ll do a rough survey deck by deck. If a deck isn’t mentioned, it doesn’t mean it isn’t strong, just that it may not have changed or performed especially well in this week’s inspection, so it wasn’t brought up.

Overall

Scam’s usage is still ranked first, with Rhinos, Murktide, and Tron close behind, followed by Omnath, Burn, and Hammer Time. I treat these decks as the format’s tier-1 decks, capable of holding their own against the other tier-1 decks.
Compared with last time, Tron’s usage has dropped, and Burn, which feeds on Tron to climb, has slid down as well.
The remaining decks such as Yawgmoth, Amulate Titan, Creativity, Sagavan, Shadow, and so on are classified as tier-2.

Rakdos Scam

Scam got a small boost in WOE: a stronger Feign Death, Not Dead After All.

Because it doesn’t put a +1/+1 counter, Undying Evil has also returned to Scam lists.

Temur Rhinos

Rhinos looks perfectly normal with not many changes. If I had to name one, it’s the sideboard Drannith Magistrate, which can pop out to ambush in cascade mirror matches.

Its use is naturally to block the opponent’s cascade, and when you bring Drannith Magistrate in, you take out all the Crashing Footfalls. The best timing is when the opponent casts Shardless Agent or Violent Outburst: in response to the cascade trigger, cast your own Violent Outburst, putting Drannith Magistrate onto the battlefield first to block the opponent’s Crashing Footfalls or Living End. Besides pressing down their tempo for a turn, you also get an extra 1/3 creature that won’t be pinged to death by Fire // Ice or the adventure of Bonecrusher Giant. Comfortable.
And for Rhinos, losing Crashing Footfalls doesn’t affect much; just attack with the other creatures.

Also, 4C Rhinos has recently returned to the meta, with Ardent Plea added to follow up greedier opening hands and to be easier to draw among a larger number of topdecks, but the main deck is tight, with four fewer Mystical Dispute, so it’s even worse in matchups against Living End.

Murktide

Murktide’s usage is slowly rising after the boost from Preordain’s unban, but it still can’t escape being ground into the dirt by Bowmasters.

Some people are also trying to put Ledger Shredder back in the deck, seemingly planning to give up on Scam or Bowmasters matchups, but it can’t be denied that Ledger Shredder really is strong, and I may go back to testing the version with a full four.

However, although Murktide’s usage is considerable, its results in the MO Modern Challenges have not been great (in the last two weeks the highest was 13th place, with not a single Top 8), so it may not be a good choice for recent RCQs.

But shortly after I finished writing this paragraph, I was proved wrong when the MO Modern Super Qualifier standings came out :p, with two Murktide in the Top 8.
Both players played 17 lands + 4 Murktide builds. I’ll build it and test it when I have time @@

Hammer Time

Hammer Time steadily feeds on Murktide and Scam to climb. As long as you don’t run into Tron’s turn-3 Karn, the Great Creator, everything is fine.
Recently most people are still playing mono-white. Honestly, apart from the sideboard Teferi, Time Raveler, every other card has a replacement (Surge of Salvation is really strong), and mono-white’s sideboard can hold fiercer things, like a full set of Sanctifier en-Vec and Solitude, which makes certain specific matchups (especially Scam) a lot more comfortable.
Still, some people play white-blue for The Reality Chip or Lavinia, Azorius Renegade and such. Honestly either is fine; it depends on which kind of deck you want to target.

4C/5C Omnath

Omnath is a deck I’m quite bullish on recently, mainly because of this new card:

For one mana I now make a Leyline Binding: it locks away one of your cards and I draw a card. So unfair, I love it.
Or I can discard Solitude to gain an extra card. The resource volume feels staggering, and with The One Ring, a hand overflowing with cards should be the norm.
I expect the win rate against Scam to go up a lot. What all red-black-based decks fear most is this kind of one-for-many card.

Yawgmoth & Hardened Scales

Although the two decks are very different, both are boosted by the same new WOE card, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, so I’ll discuss them together.

One can reuse a Yawgmoth that got removed in the graveyard (I now have four Yawgmoth on my board, so fun), and the other can turn all its creatures into Walking Ballista (push everything and shoot you in the face, so sick).

In Yawgmoth there’s an even flashier play: using Agatha’s Soul Cauldron to eat Grist, the Hunger Tide from the graveyard.

Let’s look carefully at Grist’s text:

As long as Grist, the Hunger Tide isn’t on the battlefield, it’s a 1/1 Insect creature in addition to its other types.

Because Grist has the extra creature type while in exile, every creature on the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter becomes a Grist, so you can put a loyalty counter on them, then mill a card to make a 1/1 Insect… so gross.
Once the board builds up, it just keeps making 1/1s crazily. Even without making a combo, you can simply kill the opponent with a sea of 1/1 Insects.

Hardened Scales can do an outrageous X = 0 Ballista BM on the opponent… I mean manually throw the Ballista into the graveyard and then eat it.
Also, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron can be used to get around Pithing Needle: even if a creature’s activated abilities are locked, you can throw it into the graveyard and then eat it, transferring the activated ability to a creature with a different name (like transferring Yawgmoth’s to a 1/1 Insect), greatly raising the creature-combo decks’ win rate against Pithing Needle.

Jund Sagavan & 5C Creativity

One was recently boosted by Bowmasters, and the other fell because the format changed too fast, and they ended up in about the same place.
But both have the same problem: they win too slowly. Games now easily end, or the outcome is mostly decided, before either does what it needs to do, leaving both with little room to perform.
That doesn’t mean they’re bad decks; for players who like midrange games, these two decks are still a good fit.

Mono-Black Coffers Control

The last deck I’ll mention is Coffers Control, which has done well recently, and now has Beseech the Mirror, which can become any card in the library (although at the time of writing no deck with Beseech the Mirror has placed high), making it much more flexible.

MO Modern Super Qualifier

Finally, a mention of the MO Modern Super Qualifier . The Top 8 deck distribution was:

A bit surprising that no Rakdos Scam made the Top 8, but in the Top 32 it was the most-played deck with seven copies in total, with Murktide and Omnath close behind at four each.
I’ll chalk this result up to Scam having worse luck (?) and OMW not being high enough, but even so it can’t shake its standing in Modern.
And Burn showing up anywhere is of course no surprise. What surprised me more is that two Murktide made the Top 8… could it be that, after all, my practice volume isn’t enough QQ

Local Meta in Taiwan

MITQs started last weekend, and the team reports that in the north this week Rhinos was the most played, followed by Burn and Scam. I expect lots of Chalice of the Void and Engineered Explosives to show up starting next week, so Rhinos should be careful, or simply switch decks: playing Omnath or Tron, or even Burn, to hunt those first two is no problem.

And in the south… there were no events these two weeks and the deck distribution could be anything, nothing would be surprising, but for the events at the end of September and early October you can consider decks with a higher overall win rate and no major weakness like Rhinos and Scam. If you feel the practice load is too high, you can also switch to Merfolk or Hammer Time, decks that play well as long as you have some foundation.

Epilogue

This week we reviewed the changes in the Modern scene over the past two weeks. If I had to pick a deck suited for RCQs recently, I’d recommend 4C Rhinos, which plays a bit more aggressively, but if you’re sure there will be Living End players entering in a high proportion, I’d recommend Omnath, Burn, Tron, or more meta-fringe decks, betting that the opponent hasn’t prepared an answer (though that’s on the premise that you’ve practiced the deck well).
Next week is planned to be a review of the Pioneer scene. Although MIT isn’t until November, getting some preparation done early is certainly good: start collecting cards, adjusting decks, and doing some practice here and there.
I hope this series can continue as a regular article, and if you have any opinions or want to discuss anything, you’re welcome to comment below. See you next week!