What I would play October 15th Modern/Pio

 What I would play articles are not something I think I am going to do much of on this Patreon. I mentioned doing metagame breakdowns and that will often end with some suggestions on what you should be playing.

However with the new modern metagame giving you accurate and good reads on it would be very hard and honestly boarding on disingenuous.

I have assumptions and things I can expect from Yorrion leaving the format but I can't see the future and accurately predicting all the ramifications of this ban is a herculean task. Despite that I do think there is value in talking about decks that I think are strong going into this weekend as having some ideas is better than none.

Modern
I will start things off with I don't think you should play four colors if your main goal is winning the event. You might be a four color lover like myself and you're wanting to get reps in and learn to start innovating. That's totally fine but if you're trying to win your event we are going to need to most likely put the pile down for a bit.

However if you are insistent on playing the deck here are my two suggestions.

First is just old elementals. They can overwhelm fair games. Its also super streamlined. You can play ending over leyline binding if you expect a lot of blood moons. I don't feel super strongly about anything in the sideboard except stoney silence.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5159277#online

Second we have btl scapeshift. While I dont have a build I super love I am going hard in the paint on this and another deck in modern that we will cover shortly. I will post updated BTL lists in the discord. So make sure to check there. For now this is a fine starting point IMO

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5154928#online

paper

Rakdos Scam
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5152287#online

Breach
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-grinding-station#online

Creativity
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-indomitable-creativity#online

Hammer
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-hammer-time#online

I think all of these are great choices for this weekend. I will say I am lower on creativity then most players right now. I think decks that 4C kept down are good vs this deck and even if they are not great people are itching to play things like Merfolk, Humans, Jund etc before they get eventually pushed out of the format again.

Decks I think are underrated right now in Modern.

Yawg
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-yawgmoth-9bd3dc9a-1da1-442e-9b88-6ef2a027e80b#online

Amulet
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/amulet-titan#online

Gruul Midrange
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/red-green-midrange#online

Burn
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/burn-a2dd1132-5301-4882-907a-7b668da3b58a#online

Domain Zoo
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-domain-zoo#online

While I admit Yawg is on the upswing and put up four copies in the last mtgo challenge before the B&R I think the deck is still underrated by many players. So this might be a “hot take” but its def a deck you can play right now and do great with.

Amulet is a classic of Modern. If you're not already an amulet head you're probably not going to pick it up but if you're like me and love this deck. It has my seal of approval. The Murktide MU is bad but a lot of other matchups are very good. While still being a fast deck that can overpower even the worst of matchups.

Domain Zoo and Burn are in similar camps. Burn is often underrated and domain zoo gets a bad name for being clunky burn. I think Domain Zoo will have a harder time in the new format but its threats are very powerful and being proactive is often a great place to be in modern. Especially when there was a recent banning.

Gruul midrange is probably the hottest take here. I have often thought that gruul midrange that only supports blood moon for its cheese game was a strong fringe contender in Modern. Its worst matchup 4 Color is now gone. So we will have to wait and see if it can rise to the top, but my gut says its a strong contender for best midrange deck in the format. Especially any weekend both Karn and Bloodmoon are good.

What I would play. In order.

Rakdos Scam
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5152287#online

Breach
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-grinding-station#online

Jund Saga
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5155460#online

Blue White Control
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/wu-68d6e340-6601-4aab-9a70-4bdccc013e7e#online


Rakdos Scam is one of the best decks in the last few weeks and its absolute worst matchup has left the format. It also sports a good Breach, Creativity, and Murktide matchup just to name a few. Earlier I mentioned how people will probably play there pet deck that was soft banned by Yorrion. A lot of those decks cant beat the card Fury. This deck plays four Fury and all the undying cards which does a great job of simulating the Fury Ephimerate line that was so back breaking for those decks.

This deck looks silly and a little clunky but its very powerful and is just well positioned right now in modern.


Breach is the most “powerful” of these three decks, however it's also the most susceptible to hate. If you think you can battle through the hate I wouldn't play breach. I don't have much to say on the deck outside of this. The supporters of this deck are very vocal and there is lots of great free content on the deck.

Jund Saga is sort of a pet deck of mine. I think Saga, Ragava, and Wrenn and Six are three of the best cards in Modern. The main problem with this deck is that its a Jund deck so it has all those problems without any of the unfair games that Rakdos scam has to steal a bad mu. In exchange you have an incredible late game. I am currently trying to be a bit more proactive with 4 lighting bolt over cards like push and heat. That might be wrong but this deck was kept down by 4 color for so long that it has plenty of room for exploration. It might end up being worse Rakdos but for right now its my dark horse pick.


Blue White control at multiple points over the last year was a great choice except for the fact that 4 Color was a deck. Now I think its back to being a really solid choice. Chalice and RIp are both great cards right now.


Hopefully this was helpful if you have an RCQ this weekend or some tournament you want to win. In the future we will do much deeper dives on the metagame but for now we are in the wild west and it will be interesting to see how things settle.

Pioneer

As for Pioneer there are only two decks I can recommend in good faith.

Rakdos Midrange
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pioneer-rakdos-midrange#online

Mono Green Devotion
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5152784#online

There are other fine decks in the format, like Greese fang, Mono White, Creativity, Atarka Red. The only two great decks are Rakdos and Green as of right now. If your trying to maximizing winning above all else play one of those two decks.

I will go into more detail in coming weeks with Pioneer being the RC format but for today we are being blunt :)