However, Dimir Aggro has found success on Standard since Duskmourn’s release, and that’s reflected in Pioneer. However, I also always mention that decks that innovate and adjust their pieces have more chances to stay relevant. Claim the Fistborn is amazing for creature matchups, same as Mayhem Devil, and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker give you gas enough for playing the hardest attrition matchups.

An aggressive red deck will always be part of any list, whatever the format. Another deck focused on tribes, Merfolk is one of the powerhouses of MTG, and it is still quite powerful until now. With creatures that have a lot of counters and are unblockable, this deck can sneak in some damage to the opponent if the opponent does not have any board wipes. This mean green deck is truly a force that disguises as creatures only used for mana. The mana ramp deck ensures that by Turn 3, you already have an overwhelming board, both in terms of the number of creatures and the power of these creatures. If your opponent fails to contain your first two turns, they will have a hard time dealing with the snowball effect of this deck.

Cards like Parallel Evolution

All you need is the right mix of spot removal, countermagic, card draw, sweepers, planeswalkers, lands, and sideboard cards. For this, Damo da Rosa’s numbers provide an ideal framework to start from. And for Damo da Rosa himself, his victory in 2020 meant everything to him. The final deck highlight is a control strategy at heart, using Wrath of the Skies to defeat Boros and Mardu Energy, so calling it a combo deck is a bit of a stretch. Still, it’s capable of combining two cards to win out of nowhere.

But the potential to combo off provides a new strategic angle to the late game, providing meta mtg a way to go over the top of an opposing Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury. This deck can race Boros and Mardu Energy, and it doesn’t care about their Galvanic Discharge or spot removal. Moreover, an opposing copy of The One Ring doesn’t interfere with its game plan. This suggests that it’s a well-positioned strategy in the current Modern metagame. Although it’s vulnerable to Damping Sphere or Magebane Lizard after sideboard, the list includes Sink into Stupor, Into the Flood Maw, and Wish as suitable answers. NathanOfTheGiltLeaf recently won a Modern Challenge on Magic Online with the deck shown above.

The Road to Magic World Championship 30

While Jund is more popular and has better results, Golgari won the biggest tournament of the month, a French event with more than 540 players. Now, with twelve players making the top 8 in seven tournaments, playing a less-creature version seems to be the right choice. Rakdos dominates the competition; even with two different archetypes in the top 3 most-played decks. Rakdos Prowess and Rakdos Midrange have enough differences to classify them as two different archetypes, without considering the Rakdos Tree, another Rakdos deck with a first-place finish two weekends ago.

I even read once that it may be the closest thing to Birthing Pod in the format, and even if that may sound weird, it has some truth to it. These small changes may be the reason for this and many other decks to succeed or die trying. That’s why I always talk about tweaks, adjustments, and the good habit that is innovating. This was the biggest underperformed during the Foundation’s first week. Finding Elenda is not a problem thanks to the full playset of Bring to Light and Niv-Mizzet Reborn itself. Jund can win without Gilded Goose, or Traverse the Ulvenwald, however, making many more foods thanks to the Goose and Vinereap Mentor can give you many advantages.

Aside from just slinging burn spells towards your opponent’s face, the creatures in this deck are also very powerful with the center of attraction being Symmetry Sage which makes any of your creatures base power 3. Couple that with the counters of Soul-Scar Mage and you have yourself a giant wizard swinging at you almost every turn. It may seem impossible but if you look at what this deck runs, you will find out that there is more to Golgari than just creatures. This deck boasts a control lineup with a lot of spells targeted at removing opponent’s threats on the board and capitalizing on the abundance of spells in your graveyard with Tarmogoyf. The only reason why it is not that high into this list is because it may have a hard time against Burn and Control decks that do not necessarily have any permanents on board.

For example, I discussed Primal Prayers and Gruul Woodland four weeks ago, and I covered Amulet Titan and Grinding Breach two weeks ago. Grinding Breach in particular seems to be doing well against Boros or Mardu Energy. But going deeper, let’s take a look at more fringe combo decks that remain under the radar despite having shown promising success at Modern tournaments this month. If you love combo, then perhaps you’ll get an idea for a spicy new deck to pick up. In any case, it’s always useful to familiarize yourself with their game plans so you know what to expect in your RCQs. Overall, the metagame is strikingly similar to the one from a few weeks ago, so Modern seems to be evolving slowly.

The main difference is how this iteration of Creativity lets you play a fair game of Magic when needed, thanks to many good cards that can give you the upper hand in attrition matches. However, the Domain Valakut deck that Ginp took to a 2nd-place finish at a recent Modern Challenge has a more combo-centric approach. Leyline of the Guildpact turns every land into a Mountain, which means that Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle can trigger easily, with fetch lands, counting as two Valakut triggers. Thanks to Malevolent Rumble, you can easily find Valakut, allowing you to burn out your opponent. As long as you mulligan towards the namesake card or a way to find it, Belcher is generally fast enough to beat the energy decks.

This run during the Calgary Regional Championship is no small feat to any archetype. Nevertheless, playing a deck like this at its full potential is like mastering Amulet Titan or Hardened Scales in Modern. Both decks have at least 12 Duskmourn’s overlords, tools for drawing and keeping the gas flowing in Up the Beanstalk, and amazing removals with Leyline Binding as the best one of the list. Deciding if you play Yorion, Sky Nomad, and Enigmatic Incarnation or not is the question Zur players have to ask themselves every time before a big tournament.

Teferi, Time Raveler was arguably the best card in the format against Temur Reclamation, while countermagic was the best way to stop Jeskai Fires. Finally, lifegain and sweepers gave the deck what it needed to fight Mono-Red Aggro. One way or another, this overview of successful, fringe combo decks suggests that a lot of innovation remains possible in Modern. Whether you like aggro, midrange, control, ramp, or combo—especially combo—there are plenty of great options available in the format.

Slasher is so good on its own and hard to block that playing Bloodletter of Aclazotz is not mandatory. The biggest disappointment during Foundations’ first week was Transmogrify, passing from being in contention for tier 1 to just one player making a top 8 with the archetype in seven tournaments. The basic make-up of the deck is similar to the Azorius/Jeskai Control decks we would see nowadays in Standard, Pioneer, or Modern. Sure, the sweeper of choice in 2020’s Standard metagame was Shatter the Sky, whereas we would use Sunfall in today’s Standard, Supreme Verdict in today’s Pioneer, or Wrath of the Skies in today’s Modern. But such a board wipe is a control staple, and three copies is a typical number for control decks even today.

The Modern Metagame in September 2024

Maybe most importantly, Dark Confidant was adapted as a four-of in the slot formerly occupied by the aggressive, but not always game-breaking Putrid Leech. The ability to play eight potentially game-winning threats (Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf) on turn two quickly became one of the hallmarks of the Modern Jund deck. Selesnya Humans is a powerful deck that boasts its creature-heavy prowess that can duel with any other creature-heavy deck. With the splash of green in this mono-white deck, Collected Company gets activated, allowing massive board advantage in an instant. Artifact decks have been on and off in Historic for the past few metas.