Modern: A relatively new Magic the Gathering format

Posted by George, gamura collecitalius.

There is more than one way to play the Magic the Gathering trading card game (TCG).  Games can be played as one-on-one duels or in groups of three or more players.  For the competitive player, most game stores hold organized events where you can test your latest deck against the decks of other players from your area.

The way many organized tournaments are constructed, you bring a deck of at least 60 cards from your entire collection.  The current constructed formats for organized play are: 

• Standard
• Extended
• Block
• Legacy
• Vintage
• Modern

Modern is the newest of these formats.  Modern was introduced earlier this year and was featured at the Magic Pro Tour in Philadelphia in early September.  At the beginning of November, local game stores were allowed to start running events in this exciting new format.  Last Wednesday night, my local game store, All Stars Collectibles in Langhorne, PA, ran our first event.

About 6 or 7 years ago, Wizards of the Coast changed the appearance Magic cards, and named the new look “Modern.”  The Modern format not only names the look of the cards, it also defines what cards can be used.  I was not interested in this format initially, because I don’t have a lot of these sets and I am not interested in investing in the cards needed to compete with the decks.  During a discussion with the guys in my play group, however, it was pointed out to me that I already have most of the Modern cards needed to play my favorite deck ever, Mythic Conscription. Given that fact, I decided to give a Modern Mythic Conscription deck a try.

Mythic Conscription is a fun deck that tries to play small creatures early in the game, and then later “conscripts” cards from your library to make a much bigger threat mid- and late-game. The deck should be able to win consistently on the 4th or 5th turn.  I made a few trades for some new, Modern cards and my Modern Mythic Conscription deck was complete and ready to go.  Turnout at the shop was good, with ten players in our first event, which was great for a new format on a Wednesday night. 

Round 1 vs Joel with “Ravager Affinity”

Ravager Affinity is a deck that uses lots of artifact cards and plays a creature called Arcbound Ravager.  Arcbound Ravager allows you to pump the power of an unblocked creature to deal lethal damage to your opponent as early as turn 3 or 4.  This was not a deck that I had seen in action, although I know how it works.  Joel dropped the Ravager early in the first game, and he was able to get the damage through pretty quickly.  In the second game, I sided some cards in that helped slow down the fast attack of Joel’s creatures.  I managed to hold him off a little longer, but I didn’t get enough damage in fast enough.

Loss 0–2

Round 2 vs. Dave with “Elves”

Both Dave and I lost the first round of the tournament and I knew Dave’s elf deck was probably a bit faster and more consistent than my Mythic Conscription deck.  This match ends up essentially being a coin toss, with the player who goes first winning a good percentage of the games.  Both games in this round were over quickly, and I managed to lose both of them by the 4th or 5th turn.  I was beginning to get discouraged, but I knew that I had not been getting good starting hands and there were still a couple of rounds left for improvement.

Loss 0–2 

Round 3 vs Will with “??? Combo”

I knew that Will was playing some kind of a combo deck, but being so far behind the curve on all of the cards in the format, I wasn’t sure how his combo was working.  As a result, I wanted to jump out for an early start.  My plan was to attack as early as I could, and disrupt the combo when it went off.  I missed stopping the first part of the combo in the first game, but was successful in stopping the second part and got a win!  I sided in a few more cards for game two that I hoped would disrupt Will’s deck. Luckily for me, the second game went pretty much like the first game. I missed stopping the early part of the combo, but was able to stop the second part.  Fairly quickly, I had won my first match of the night! 

Win 2–0

Round 4 vs James with “Grixis Control”

The Modern format is pretty fast and most control decks are just a bit too slow.  I thought that this would be a good match up for me because my deck also seemed to be a bit too slow.  I managed to jump out quickly in the first game and get a win.  Games two and three, however, were different.  I had hoped that I would continue to do well, but I had some bad draws and wasn’t able to get much momentum going.  James used some unconventional cards for the format, and that really slowed me down.  As a result, he was able to pull out both games two and three.

Loss 1–2

Overall, the tournament didn’t go that well for me.  I finished 1–3 in 8th place and found out that my preferred deck was not very successful for the format.  I think that I have a lot of work to do on the deck before our next event . . . Wednesday.

The Modern Mythic Conscription Deck:

If you have a chance to try out the format, I recommend it.  It wasn’t something that I was interested in, but even with the losses, it was a great time.

Have you had a good experience with a Modern deck? Or have you had a bad experience with Modern or some other format? Share your story in the comments section.