Modern had had a week for people to settle into the Preordain unban and explore the format. While it will take more time to figure out the full ramifications, we can take a look at a few decks and get ready for the new Regional Championship Qualifier season that is starting in a week.
Jund saga
Scam (or Rakdos Evoke) has proven to be one of the best Midrange decks in the format. Its ability to either get an incredibly hard hitting creature in Fury or quickly rip an opponent’s hand apart with Grief — all on turn one — remains difficult to stop.
However, a new Midrange deck has been doing very well on Magic Online. Jund saga is bac— wait, don’t click away! I promise this time it’s different.
All right, so maybe it’s not that different. Jund Saga has been the best Midrange deck at various points in Magic history because it can play normal, grindy cards while using Urza’s Saga to trump all fair matchups. Being a land that produces multiple bodies is incredibly powerful, especially with Wrenn and Six in your deck to help do it multiple times.
This deck is looking to capitalize on Modern congealing around just a few decks. That typically works better on MTGO than in real life due to players having access to more meta decks, but this archetype is still using a fairly strong game plan. It should still be fine!
Breach
The hottest deck of last summer finished off the map halfway through this year. But while Breach has always been a powerful and proactive deck, the addition of The One Ring gave it a whole new combo element. The only downside was how clunky that could be alongside Expressive Iteration.
That’s where Preordain comes in! Since it’s just card selection instead of putting you up cards, smoothing you toward your combo is highly appreciated. That means the value of another clunky, card advantage spell goes down.
Overall, this is mostly the same deck from last year. You gained the Grinding Station plus Emry and The One Ring combo. This lets you just Fog your opponent out every turn while milling them with Grinding Station.
You still present dual game plans that ask a lot of you when it comes to sideboarding, making it also a very challenging deck to play against.
Urza Thopter Sword
OK, so this build only has one Preordain right now — but it can easily go up to two or three copies if needed. Anyway, if you played modern around 2019, this shell probably looks really familiar.
For a while, when Mox Opal was around, this style of deck was the best in Modern! It focused on being more of a traditional control deck, but that was nearly a half decade ago (feeling old?). The archetype has since adapted and become more combo focused.
As for why this old deck that hasn’t done anything recently is surging back in popularity, there are a few reasons.
First, the fair game of just making some Thopters with the thopter/sword combo is actually just good right now. A lot of the best decks at the moment have issues fighting through all the Thopters.
Even if your opponent casts a Fury, you can easily produce additional chump blockers forever. Hammer can’t do anything either without Shadowspear. Rhinos is the best deck against Thopters, but they can still struggle if you have enough of a life buffer, which the combo does help with.
Second (along those same lines), Solitude, Unholy Heat and Counterspell are at an all time low in Modern, making it easier to commit to tapping out for a four mana creature like Urza to win the game.
Finally, graveyard hate is also at an all time low. While Rakdos Scam does use the yard, it’s often not super helpful to hard hate their graveyard the way it is against a deck like dredge. So while there is some hate, it often isn’t quite as extreme as in the past.
So, if you loved this deck back in the day, now is a great time to resleeve your Urza and get down to a good time comboing people.
End step
Modern is in a really interesting place after the Pro Tour and the unban if you’re willing to explore. Plus, with Wilds of Eldraine coming soon, that trend will only continue! In the meantime, we’ll keep you posted on any meta developments through this RCQ season.
Mason Clark is a grinder in every corner of the game who has played at the pro level and on the SCG Tour with Team Nova. Whether he’s competing in Standard, Historic or Modern, Mason plays with one goal in mind: to be a better player than he was the day before. Check out his podcast, Constructed Criticism, and catch his streams on Twitch.