How to get into Modern
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 23, 2016, 7:06 p.m. by Homura_Akemi
Hi! I mostly play limited and standard, but lately I have just gotten completely sick of how expensive standard is and how it rotates so much (now slowed down). The idea of investing in new cards that will eventually be worthless seems terrible to me, even though I know all of the cards in the format well. Modern seems like the place to go for me because it looks competitive enough, once you buy cards they won't rotate out (although they could be banned), it has a diverse population of decks, your cards hold value, and it looks appears to be lots of fun.
What I'm trying to get to is how I should start getting into the format.
Is it best to buy budget decks and upgrade them overtime or try to collect all of the pieces of a more expensive deck first?
What decks are best for beginners in the format? I liked the budget Enchantress and GB Zombies on MTGGoldfish, and also the ideas of 8-Rack and Burn (Mono Red, Naya, etc.). Are those (budget decks) even competitive enough?
Would it be good to just start off with a deck, regardless of its cost and competitiveness, and experience what playing Modern is like?
Thank you so much for any feedback and I'd greatly appreciate it for any additional information for getting into modern that I didn't ask for here. Thanks so much again!!!
I started out with a couple different budget decks to start out just to get used to the format. eventually upgrading those to be somewhat competitive. For example: I knew I wanted to play jund when I first started modern, so I built a budget 8 rack deck knowing I'd want to use Liliana of the Veil eventually worked my way to that, just so I could play something affordable and have some kind of chance at winning fnms. finally I got my lili's and relevant black cards. and now I'm moving on to affording goyfs and such. it's taken me a bit of time to build jund because I dipped off into esper because I'm a control player at heart but the goal is still there.
I've definitely played against some budget mtggolfish decks and they're not too bad. if you really wanna piss people off I'd reccomend the RG land destruction deck. i saw it blow out uwr nahiri, 8 rack, and infect a few months ago.
pick your playstyle and find a deck that fits you. if you're not looking at going to any big events outside of fnm there's no real reason to try and be super competitive imo. you can still have some really good games and have a great time without winning!
October 23, 2016 8:11 p.m.
Watch some Star City Games coverage or similar things after you think you like a deck. It took me a long time to decide on what I wanted to do, but it was totally worth it.
October 23, 2016 9:29 p.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #5
What kind of player are you? Control, Combo, Midrange, or Aggro?
There are some really cheap decks you can make that are capable of winning and as stated above some decent build into routes you can take.
What I personally did was build my own homebrew to test the waters of the format. Just playing it was fun but it's hard to have just one deck.
I had some Abrupt Decays and Deathrite Shamans I was using in standard, combined that with Smallpox and it gave birth to my modern deck. I played it while slowly collecting pieces to build BG Rock. Back then Zen fetches and Lilly's were both only around 40 a pop so Goyf was the real challange.
Eventually I combined my first homebrew with my Rock deck to play Obliterator Rock.
Anyway I'd say start cheap and slowly build into what you want, it'll give you a chance to play with some cool, not so competitive cards along the way.
Some of the best options are Mono Green Infect, (turn 2 wins!) Mono Blue Control, Mono Red Burn, Black and White Tokens.
October 23, 2016 9:46 p.m.
Fleetwood-Mat says... #6
A really good modern deck right now is Bushwacker/Zoo, it has some of the storm elements like Burning-Tree Emissary, Manamorphose and the like, so it can get super aggro by turn 2 using Goblin Bushwhacker, as well as Monastery Swiftspear and then add some Zoo pieces like Wild Nacatl and Loam Lion.
You should do research on current modern decks. MTGO has a page that you can look at the best decks in competitive formats (on MTGO), so those are pretty updated decks that you can look through there.
October 24, 2016 1:58 a.m.
Each color in Modern, as well as some two-color pairs, has staple cards that decks in those colors often use in the 75. If you have at least 1-2 colors you tend to prefer, look at some of the top decks in those colors for cards they have in common. These format staples will often be more expensive than anything else in the deck but they also port over to other decks easily.
Slowly acquiring some of the format staples will let you switch between decks for the most part, and then either buy/trade into the remainder or use budget alternatives in the meantime. But do find that core of creatures, spells, and lands you'll use regardless of shifts in your deck.
October 25, 2016 8:46 a.m.
Homura_Akemi says... #8
Thnak you for all of your advice! I took a test which said my playstyle was Lockdown Control, which I can somewhat agree with, and I found the primer for R/W Lockdown on MTG salvation which was beautiful. I want to get a bridgess Nahiri drck now which looks awesome. I did not mention before that my friend and I are trying to establish modern in our playgroup and I will be pretty much one of the first two playing it, so I don't need to be super competitive.
October 25, 2016 3:21 p.m.
Homura_Akemi says... #10
http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=what-kind-magic-gathering-player-are-you
Sorry I just can't link for some reason even though I'm in the top 100 on the site :(
October 26, 2016 7:33 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #11
Thanks & No problem, copy and paste works just fine.
MollyMab says... #2
1) The best thing to do is pick up decks which transfer well in other decks somehow. For example, any blue tempo deck will play Serum Visions, Remand, etc which gets you a good bit of coverage meaning you can branch out from there more easily.
2) 8Rack is very meta specific. Burn is good but doesn't offer much in terms of long term learning. Enchantress and GB zombies don't exist, but fun decks can be built. The closest thing to each would be probably Boggles or Dredge.
UR tempo is generally a strong starting choice as it rewards skill, playing to a meta, there are UW/UB fetches printed recently and none of the cards are too expensive.
3) If can borrow, do borrow, play around, see what you like. The meta is pretty combo heavy so keep that in mind you either need to be the deck racing or the deck packed with answers
October 23, 2016 7:40 p.m.