The Lost Caverns of Ixalan releases on Friday, which means it’s time to update our Modern decks for any weekend tournaments. Last week I talked about my thoughts on five of the best cards for Modern from the new set, so naturally I pulled from that list to find some homes for those powerful cards.
Keep in mind that these decks are likely to change as players get more information! With that said, let’s take a look.
Amulet
Amulet actually gets two cards from LCI, Spelunking and the more unassuming, but still powerful Sunken Citadel. Let’s quickly touch on Sunken Citadel before getting to the more impactful Spelunking.
Playing well with Urza’s Saga, and maybe more importantly Tolaria West, Sunken Citadel gives Amulet decks more tutor targets, expanding the ranges that Amulet can go off from.
With just one Amulet of Vigor in play, there are certainly spots where getting double blue to transmute Tolaria West isn’t easy. But not only does Sunken Citadel provide the double blue, but with with an Amulet in play, Sunken Citadel pays almost the entire transmute cost on its own.
The play pattern of turn one Urza’s Saga plus Amulet of Vigor gets a lot better with the addition of Sunken Citadel to ensure you can activate Saga twice instead of just once compared to if your second land was a bounce land.
Meanwhile, Spelunking is the real hit for Amulet out of LCI. There have been plenty of times throughout the life of Amulet decks where Explore has been a “four copies in the main deck” kind of card. Those times are usually when Amulet players want a slightly faster combo win. That said, Spelunking looks a lot like Explore stapled to an Amulet of Vigor.
That statement isn’t entirely accurate because Spelunking doesn’t draw a card, and the untapping clause doesn’t play well in multiple like Amulets do, but Spelunking does add more copies of the Amulet effect as far as finding the first one is concerned.
Similarly Spelunking is a worse ramp spell than Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, but saving deck spots by combining two accelerants into one card is a powerful addition to an already powerful deck.
Asmo Food
Asmo Food comes and goes in waves as far as popularity is concerned. Traditionally good at beating other fair decks, Asmo Food has popped up again recently with the continued dominance of Scam. And now, thanks to LCI, this fairweather meta player has a card that might give it a new edge.
Souls of the Lost caught a lot of hype because of comparisons drawn to Tarmogoyf. But in reality, Souls of the Lost needs a specific shell to accommodate it — unlike Tarmogoyf. Luckily, Asmo Food is just the kind of deck that can turn the additional cost into an upside.
Asmo decks need a certain density of discard enablers to get its namesake 3/3 into play, though not any discard effect will do. Each option still has to be an individually powerful card to survive in Modern.
Souls of the Lost will really help lock up the ground in the early game against aggressive decks or bring needed pressure against combo decks, all while serving as a way to get Asmo into play. Even if you don’t happen to have an Asmo to pair with Souls, discarding Ovalchase Daredevil works just fine as well.
Asmo Food is both a great home for supporting Souls of the Lost, but also a deck that happened to need another large, early body.
Hardened Scales
Hardened Scales gets a couple of new toys in Tarrian’s Soulcleaver and Echoing Deeps to give this deck a little boost in both speed and durability.
Terrain’s Soulcleaver isn’t a particularly desirable card except that you can find it off of the third ability on Urza’s Saga. Beyond that, Soulcleaver makes Hardened Scales plus Arcbound Ravager plus Hangarback Walker deal roughly 100 damage.
Any time an artifact goes to the graveyard, which happens frequently when Arcbound Ravager or Zabaz are involved, the equipped creature gets a +1/+1 counter. Even with one Scales effect, that can easily turn into a win from a pretty low base, which is important when decks with interaction like Scam and Four Color Omnath are popular.
Vigilance also is also surprisingly relevant since Hardened Scales often only has a couple of creatures in play at a time — especially if you’re making a big push with Soulcleaver. Having that big creature also back to block makes racing incredibly difficult for your opponent.
Still, I can’t say I’d play more than one copy of Soulcleaver — but the first one is a very nice addition to the Urza’s Saga toolbox.
Hardened Scales is one of the only decks in Modern that can play Urza’s Saga and effectively support more colorless lands. Again, I’d probably only play one copy of Echoing Depths since Scales does still need enough colored mana to operate.
Scam is arguably the best deck in Modern, Hardened Scales is one of the best Urza’s Saga decks in Modern and Urza’s Saga is one of the best cards in Modern against Scam. Echoing Deeps acting as a second copy of Urza’s Saga after the first has gone to the graveyard is going to win a lot of games in this metagame.
Not for nothing, but Inkmoth Nexus will also end up in the graveyard at some point, and having another land that acts as a threat to potentially win the game out of nowhere is a scary sight from across the table.
End Step
LCI will be upon us before we know it, and I’m thrilled as always to see where players can find success with new lists. These decks will almost assuredly change as players get a better grasp on new cards and how they perform, but these all seem like reasonable starting points.
Who knows? Maybe even more new cards will show up in even more decks! Only time will tell.
As always you can find me on Twitter @RappaciousOne and on BlueSky @RappaciousOne.bsky.social for questions, comments, and feedback.
May your pre-releases go well and your Modern testing be fruitful!
Michael Rapp is a Modern specialist who favors Thoughtseize decks. Magic sates his desire for competition and constant improvement.