Improving Play: Modern

 

Modern is bigger than it has ever been. Modern Masters 2015 was a huge success, bringing the format to the point where many believe it is the most played competitive format. With a plethora of decks now showing diversity in the format, how do you manage to lift your level of play so that you can conquer the field?

 

Currently, the best decks in Modern show how diverse the format has become, especially since when up to half the Meta was dominated by Abzan and Splinter Twin. Now that there are a lot of decks running rampant, you must know a clear strategy to beating every other deck that you have a chance of having to play against. Knowing to play your deck can often be enough, but to succeed at playing your deck to an even higher level, you must understand all interactions that you and your opponents cards may have. Knowing what you can do in response to your opponent can often lead you to sudden advantages, as well as leaving you in a better play situation than you would intend for. A gauntlet is a list of the current decks in a format, and is a testing ground for brews that you have come up with. It isn’t costly — you don’t need to build the decks with the actual cards — and it leads to much higher understanding of the format. In this article I will lead you through what the best decks are to have in your gauntlet are, and how to build and prepare an efficient gauntlet.

One of the most important things to do with a gauntlet is update it. Update it after every weekend, or at least after every large tournament. Modern’s developments usually result around tournaments, such as when Patrick Chapin brought Grixis to popularity recently, Ali Aintrazi bringing RG Tron to the spotlight, and Merfolk landing two top 8s in the same GP. Updating the mainboards isn’t always as important as the Sideboards. You want all your decks to reflect the current Meta, especially if you are going to an event soon. Knowing a matchup in and out before playing it leads to both faster (and more confident) play speed, as well as gaining an edge in the match up. If you look at the RG Mirror Match in the finals of PT: Dark Ascension, you can see that both Brian Kibler and Paolo Damo Da Rosa have played it hundreds – if not thousands – of times. They are both Professional players, and both have insanely high play experience. The one other thing we learn from this is how important it is to have play experience not only with your deck, but against it. Having such perfect play experience is what leads professional players to often high levels of performance.

Gauntlet Creation

Now, before I lead you through what should be in your gauntlet, here is what I suggest to build one :( You can also do this all online. This will be explained later.)

 

• 80 Sleeves per deck I’d make 8—16 decks, but I’d stick on the lower end. 8 is a great number. I’d recommend Ultra—Pro, as you can use all the same color and buy in bulk for cheaper.
• Access to a printer/printing company. I suggest printing on poster card — the cards last lots longer.
• 640—1280 Bulk cards, to use as sleeve backs.
• 8—16 plastic flip boxes. Use masking tape to cover a sliver on the top of the box, and write the deck name.
• All tokens in the current modern format.

With these, you’ll be able to create the gauntlet.

 

If you have an online play partner, you can always make all the decks online and play against them. It is more expensive if you use MTGO, but you can use Cockatrice or X—Mage for free. This is what I do, and I find it easier to update, but I’d much rather play paper magic. This is also better for those with tighter schedules.

For the actual creation, you will need to find the decks that you need to play against the most, the decks that you have the hardest time against. First, I’d look at the best decks in the Meta. Not online — you can use www.mtggoldfish.com to get a good view of the Meta, but I’d use this for a bigger tournament. Look at your local Meta — go to FNM one night and write down what people are playing, what beat you and what you seemed to beat with ease. You’ll see your Meta, and you’ll be able to write down the numbers for your gauntlet. I’m going to use sample data from a game store I was playing in.

 

Modern deck Meta:

4x Jund	3x Affinity
2x Elves	2x Abzan Company
2x Burn	2x GR Tron
2x Grixis Delver	2x Ad naus Combo
2x UWR Control	1x Grixis Twin
1x Abzan	1x Merfolk
1x UWRb	1x U Tron
1x UWR Geist	1x UR Twin
1x Grishoalbrand	1x Bloom Titan (Me!)

 

There were also some other brews, but this is what I wrote down.

Without taking in to account how I played and how many I won/lost, I can see here that Jund and Affinity will be parts of my gauntlet. Grixis also takes up some of the field, and 3 Twin decks tells me Twin takes up a slot.

 

After analyzing what I had a hard time against, and what was easier for me to beat this is the list of 8 decks that I would place in my gauntlet (for now.)

 

Jund — Clear choice as it takes up so much of the Meta. Plus, it is pretty much a must in all gauntlets, as Jund is the deck to beat in modern.

Affinity — Need to make sure I am sideboarding enough hate no matter what deck I play. Also, aggro decks need to be able to beat affinity.

Grixis Twin — Twin match—up wasn’t too bad, and I think that Twin isn’t the very good, especially compared to this new Grixis variant.

Elves — A new man in the format, getting Elfballed hurts, and knowing how the beat it is important.

GR Tron — This deck often is forgotten about, since it has always been Tier 1.5 until now, where it seems to have gotten a lot stronger, and a lot more played.

Abzan Company — This deck is hard to beat if you don’t understand it. I would definitely put it in any Modern Gauntlet, and playing it also leads to knowing it a lot better.

UWRb — This is a new deck I saw. It was UWR control, with black splashed for lingering souls and Nahiri in the main with Ajani. I watches this brew slaughter some people, and the build made it much more resilient to Jund.

Merfolk — Now that Harbinger of the Tides is in modern, I expect this deck to be a lot better. I’d make sure to update this deck a lot, as the new power that Harbinger brings seems to make it pilot a lot stronger.

 

Now that I have made my list of 8, I’m going to explain why I cut decks that you may want in yours — everyone will run through there own though process, and it is important that you know what will improve your play the most. These are the decks that could of made it, but didn’t:

 

Burn — probably the most “Why not?” deck. I don’t have it in that list because my play testing partner plays burn, and I don’t need (or want) more experience against that deck.

Grixis Delver — I like this deck, but I think that the Twin version is much more powerful. I may need to add a deck to the gauntlet for this one, but I do not currently believe that Grixis Delver is powerful enough to do that.

Ad Naus Combo — this deck is just very uninteractive, and play testing time against it is not as beneficial as it is against other decks.

 

The rest of those decks are not really powerful enough to be introduced in to my gauntlet. Maybe I will need to introduce Goblins in the future, if it makes enough of a splash. Currently, my gauntlet looks balanced. Time to make the sideboards!

 

Making the sideboards for your gauntlet is quite hard. You haven’t played all these decks enough to know the perfect sideboards against the current Meta. This is probably the best time to use the internet. Look at all tournament reports, and make a 20 card sideboard for each deck. 20 cards allow you to more realistically guess at a sideboard for the current Meta. This makes it harder to miss anything, and allows you to make sure that your sideboard covers more of modern. Of course this is less realistic, but I have noticed that the play testing is a lot better this way.

 

Now, the good part. Playing your gauntlet. The best way to do it? Assemble 3 other people and play it tournament style, play all the decks in a round robin style, but make matches 3 without a sideboard and 6 with — introduce new decks that you want to test to the ladder, and make sure to always play test against every deck in the meta. Knowing the meta and being able to know how to beat all decks in it efficiently allows you to become a much superior Magic player! 

 

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your gauntlet!