THE Modern Format Primer

Modern ChiefBell

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Update (Change 5) —Oct. 21, 2015

Decks Added: Grixis Control, Grixis Midrange

Edited: Delver to include new flavours

Vexton says... #1

I feel like abzan mid range, wilt leaf abzan, and jund are all unaccounted for on the tier list as well as some other interesting lists like through the breach and amulet control.

July 29, 2015 10:51 p.m.

bijschjdbcd says... #2

TheAlexGnan I believe the three modern archetypes for Grixis are Twin, Delver and to a lesser extent Control.

BreachScape is a fair enough call, What is Amulet Control?

July 30, 2015 1:37 a.m.

benelas16 says... #3

No grixis control? It should be up on tier 1 everyone is playing it! I also see no RUG stompy/days and no Coco/elves

July 30, 2015 1:38 a.m.

ChiefBell says... #4

Grixis twin is there.

Jund and abzan are there as BG/x.

We have bloom titan if that's what you mean by amulet control? But I've never heard of amulet control, only amulet combo.

I have no idea what RUG stomp is. The only RUG I know of that actually sees play is tarmotwin.

Elves and grixis control do need adding.

July 30, 2015 3:13 a.m.

Marenkai says... #5

Am I the only one who can't read the rules/interactions section ?

August 1, 2015 4:38 p.m.

ChiefBell says... #6

Nope. It's not up yet.

August 1, 2015 7:03 p.m.

SpartanCEL says... #7

Doom Blade wasn't formatted correctly in the tokens primer.

Fixed it in the doc

August 1, 2015 7:22 p.m.

Captgouda24 says... #8

Should I add the 8 rack sideboarding section? It's pretty simple, just add in Leyline of Sanctity, Loxodon Smiter, Nature's Claim etc.

August 6, 2015 11:12 p.m.

Marenkai says... #9

I think you should add Cascade/Storm spells interactions with counterspells in the rule section.

New players won't immediatly assume that the trigger occured at the moment the spell was cast and not as it resolves.

August 10, 2015 5:56 p.m.

Abubroki says... #10

Kudos for the complex rules interactions part!

On the Protection part, you could perhaps mention the Wild Slash-Master of Waves example for the benefit of new players...[if opponent blocks with the master and you have a 4+power creature AND you wild slash something, the master and presumably all the tokens would die]...

August 20, 2015 10:41 a.m.

filledelanuit says... #11

I don't think Wild Slash is the card you're looking for since it sees literaly zero competitive or semi competitive play. Skullcrack on the other hand is much more relevant. Also you're missing the part where the creature blocking Master of Waves need to be red.

August 20, 2015 10:55 a.m.

Abubroki says... #12

Yes; thanks for the clarification; I haven't played Modern for a while...

August 20, 2015 11:07 a.m.

BobTheSlobbb says... #13

ChiefBell May I say something about Mono- Tron? You say in the section that that the Mindslaver lock enables them to beat the opponent down, while in fact this does not even have to be the case. Once you resolve the combo, you simply declare you tap them out every turn, and do not play any spells from their hand. They will be unable to play, and draw an arbitrary amount of cards, while you simply draw the reset Mindslaver, effectively milling them out. The combo wins on it's own. :)

August 21, 2015 8:56 p.m.

Yes, very cool interactions part. Any other cards you're going to add in the future?

August 21, 2015 9:10 p.m.

Adameus2012 says... #15

Not sure if anyone said this already, but in the "winning against gifts ungiven" deck section I didn't see anything about cards that give a player hexproof. Those stop gifts pretty dead.

August 25, 2015 5:32 p.m.

ChiefBell says... #16

I still have a lot of work to do haha.

August 25, 2015 6:11 p.m.

xzzane says... #17

Do you want me to add more to the rules and interactions bit chief?

August 25, 2015 6:16 p.m.

ChiefBell says... #18

When you can, yeah.

August 25, 2015 6:18 p.m.

xzzane says... #19

Alright, I'll add more to it when I have the time.

August 25, 2015 6:23 p.m.

Adameus2012 says... #20

Oh, please don't take me in the wrong way, I was in no way criticizing. Simply wanted to help cover bases. I think you guys did a beyond excellent job on this, it maybe one of the most concisely written and helpful modern primers I've seen.

August 25, 2015 6:43 p.m.

Abubroki says... #21

fully agree, I have passed it to all modern newbies at my LGS, and thanks again for sharing.

August 28, 2015 7:07 a.m.

Marenkai says... #22

Have you thought about adding a "Match-Up" section for each top tier deck ?

It could help players with sideboard strategies (which MU to improve or which MU to drop) because SB spaces are quite expansive nowadays.

August 28, 2015 8:43 a.m.

xzzane says... #23

I think that could be included in the detailed primers. I have a matchup section in the detailed primer I have for b/w tokens. The in depth primers are one of the things we still have to work on; we're missing quite a few of them.

August 28, 2015 10:40 a.m.

ChiefBell says... #24

Indeed. One day I'll write more of this.

August 28, 2015 10:41 a.m.

phaze08 says... #25

This is a really great primer. I really agree with most everything said here except for the living end part.

If you have discard in your deck, discarding Violent Outburst and Demonic Dread can be useful and instant speed graveyard hate is the best like Rakdos Charm, Hallowed Moonlight, etc. I'm a huge advocate of Leyline of the Void but the problem with all permanent based graveyard hate vs living end is Beast Within.

Also you might add that Grafdigger's Cage seems good against them but in reality it does nothing to their strategy since the cards are exiled from the graveyard before reanimation.

Other than that it looks really great but you might update with a few other archetypes that have rose up like grixis control, elves, etc.

Great work by the way! I've referred lots of people to this page to learn about modern.

August 30, 2015 8:56 p.m.