Is combo viable in competitive modern?
Modern forum
Posted on April 27, 2017, 8:26 p.m. by Entrei
So I have been starting the endeavor of getting into modern. Despite being a hardcore Johny, I eventually decided to look at the top modern decks to I could figure out exactly what my sideboard should look like. Looking at the top decks... almost all of the decks are aggro, with a few midrange decks and a combo deck in the form of titanshift... but other than that completely aggro. As someone who mostly plays semi competitive EDH, I just have to ask... is combo a useable archetype in competitive modern?
Well yeah, titanshift isn't too popular or powerful, but it is the closest thing to combo that's used commonly. And tbh, most combos IMO should be useable even if you can't combo off, as the pieces should be good by themselves.
April 27, 2017 9:21 p.m.
I am as well unsure of what you are looking at because combo is actually a good chunk of modern right now...
Your top modern combo decks, three of which I play, are infect, elves, storm, dredge, valakut, and instant re-animator. On top of those, you've got a lot of other less popular but fully viable decks. Titanshift, realistically, is probably a large chunk less than 1% of the meta. Honestly, I've actually never seen titanshift at my LGS and I've never played against it. And I'm a very active modern player.
Yes, while there is a large listed playerbase right now that seems to play aggro, it's not as overpowering as you might think. Modern is actually extremely diverse right now and is arguably the best it's ever been. If you want to play modern, I highly recommend starting now. The set is at a sweet spot and very balanced.
April 27, 2017 11:17 p.m.
SwaggyMcSwagglepants says... #5
Why is everybody saying Titanshift is bad? That deck is actually very strong against the meta I think. When you can bolt stuff by playing lands, you're looking pretty good.
Storm is probably the most fun combo deck. Infect is still a thing, but it's not too great. My advice is to play a midrangey deck because combo decks do get boring after a while and midrange, while not as spicy, feels fun to play when you get to gain a bunch of value. I play grixis delver: Would 100% recommend, as long as you consider yourself at a level where you can identify the correct line most of the time.
April 27, 2017 11:45 p.m.
Er... what metagame breakdown are you looking at? Ad Nauseam, Storm, Titanshift, and Tron are all pure combo, and they're doing fine. If you expand to aggro-combo, you get Affinity, Dredge, and Elves as well.
April 27, 2017 11:52 p.m.
UWR combo control is still a thing, right? I play this deck with alot of success: Kiki Control
April 28, 2017 5:36 a.m.
NapoleonBonaparte says... #8
Titanshift is 100% viable in modern. The deck can goldfish with the best of them and you have a good matchup against many G/B/X decks. Titanshift is an excellent choice and a good investment. Other combo options include Ad Nauseam, Melira Company, and Dredge
April 28, 2017 6:40 a.m.
OK I am going to give a more in depth analysis of combo in modern because there's quite a few differing opinions and I just want to clear some stuff up and you can decide for yourself. (I didn't do this before because I was on mobile and now I am at work and bored.)
So as mentioned before there are quite a few spell oriented OTK decks.
Ad nauseum is a deck that kills you only with the combo and does it in one turn. It uses Angel's Grace or Phyrexian Unlife and ad nauseum to draw their whole deck and cast Lightning Storm pitching bunch of lands or Laboratory Maniac and a draw spell to just win. This deck was very popular for a time because it can win at instant speed and it just "do these resolve?" Ok I win then. The reason it has fallen out of favor is because any deck running black these days is running 6-8 discard spells and even though it has a lot of card selection it also needs to find very specific cards to combo off. Also if you discard and Surgical Extraction their ad nauseum they literally cannot win. The deck was pretty favored against creature decks but its just pretty darn bad against discard spells.
UR gifts storm this deck is a more recent addition to combo in modern just because it was more of a niche deck but with addition to Baral, Chief of Compliance it has become a lot more consistent. This is another OTK style combo deck that pretty much only wins with a stormed Grapeshot or attacks with a stormed Empty the Warrens. The deck just uses Goblin Electromancer and/or Baral, Chief of Compliance to generate a lot of mana and cast Gifts Ungiven and Past in Flames to recast their graveyard and Grapeshot the opponent. The best part of the deck is that it is pretty skill intensive. It requires a lot of knowledge about the deck but once you have certain situations covered you can do very well with it. The deck is good against discard decks because it can be a bit more consistent with the Gifts Ungiven s but it is kind of slow to go off so fast creature decks especially with interaction for their creatures can stop them.
Cheerios combo deck which is pretty similar to UR gifts because it uses Grapeshot to win. It uses Puresteel Paladin and/or Sram, Senior Artificer, a bunch of 0 mana equipment, Retract and Grapeshot to get a big storm count draw their deck and kill. The deck is very susceptible to creature removal and bad draws but is very explosive. Because its pretty inconsistent though people tend to not play it in tournaments right now because early creature interaction is so common and it can kind of flounder and fail.
Titan shift so there are a couple variations of this deck but I went with one that played both Primeval Titan and Scapeshift. This deck is pretty straight forward you get 7ish lands and cast Scapeshift getting Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and mountains for an OTK. Or you can try to grind them out with Primeval Titan although once that card resolves or attacks its basically game over. The reason I said this is not a common or good deck right now is because "bolting things" is not good enough right now and its bad to discard spells a little bit. The boogeyman in modern right now is deaths shadow aggro in mulitple variations and this deck will just kill you before you can combo off and you cant bolt their creatures. Also in the blue version they play Stubborn Denial and Scapeshift looks pretty bad then. So the deck is mostly good against small linear creature decks which just isnt most of modern right now.
Goryos vengeance combo-y decks the deck here is the one with Goryo's Vengeance Griselbrand and Nourishing Shoal and it uses those cards to draw their deck and attack and Through the Breach in Worldspine Wurm and bolt you with Borborgymos Enraged. So it has a few avenues to win with but they are all pretty OTK style. The deck loses to itself a lot with bad draws and can be susceptible to graveyard hate but is VERY explosive it mostly just loses to fast aggro decks and counterspell heavy decks. Right now people just dont like playing decks that lose to themselves.
So now we will move into the creature heavy combo decks.
Kiki chord this deck is very much a value deck that when it happens to combo it just kind of does. The deck just plays good creatures and sort of a "toolbox" approach with Chord of Calling to try to kill your opponent and out value them. If it can it has the option of comboing them with Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker as mentioned above in Smackjacks UWR kiki control. These decks are fine right now because Path to Exile is pretty good but playing the value game is kind of hard so the combo is pretty useful. I am not sure exactly how they are favored right now but they are not very popular to my knowledge.
Abzan collected company combo this deck goes up and down with popularity as time goes on. It uses Melira, Sylvok Outcast and/or Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit with Kitchen Finks and/or Murderous Redcap and Viscera Seer to gain infinite life or deal infinite damage (or make their creatures infinitely large). It can also play a small value game with their creatures but not nearly as well as kiki combo can because this deck is more set up to combo more often then not. This deck is actually probably pretty good right now but its just not super popular and I am sure there is a reason for that but I dont quite know what that is.
Knightfall this deck is sort of a combo deck so I included it. It uses Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm to make the knight really big in combat and OTK someone. It also plays a value game similar to kiki chord and abzan coco combo but this one is more of a value deck than a combo one because it plays so few pieces of the combo since you cant hit both off Collected Company or Chord of Calling. This has seen a bit of resurgence but mostly in just a couple niche tournaments where it did pretty well I do not personally think is that great because the value game is so much like abzan coco and kiki chord with much less of a combo game to it.
So these are what I personally consider combo decks in modern. "Combo" is extremely subjective and everyones definition is different so take this as you will. Other combo-y decks that people mentioned above are elves, dredge, tron? I have no idea why people think this is a combo deck, affinity also why is this considered a combo deck?
So check them all out see what hits your preferences there are resources to help understand and better play every single one and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. My personal opinion and through MTGO and tournament reports the combo decks I listed and explained are not well positioned because there is so much deaths shadow aggro and discard decks and they just cannot assemble all they need and die too fast because of it. Or they flounder too much and die.
April 28, 2017 6:43 a.m.
Knightfall is the ascendant "fair combo" deck right now because it's the best at winning when it doesn't combo off, which matters against decks like Death's Shadow. It also doesn't scoop to Anger of the Gods or Grafdigger's Cage like Abzan Company does.
April 28, 2017 10:39 a.m.
Yeah. My philosophy on combos is that the pieces should be useful without the combo online. Hence why stuff like knightfall and my personal baby, Rite of Passage+Walking Ballista+Hardened Scales. My EDH is probably showing right now though
April 28, 2017 10:43 a.m.
Necrotesque says... #12
Long time Storm player here. The deck is so much fun, it's a different puzzle every game and it rewards you a lot for knowing what you are doing. Also, the deck is very budget friendly for modern (yes Scalding Tarn is still expensive, but just start with the Khans fetches and you'll do just fine). I recommand it if you like maths and seeing despair in the eyes of your opponents as you gloriously go off.
April 28, 2017 1:54 p.m.
Methinks I'll go with a combination of midrange/combo. Has the power of combo, but works well without it.
EmblemMan says... #2
Im not 100% what you are looking at but titanshift isnt even that popular or well positioned. Pure combo decks do exist and they are kinda hit or miss because they only combo and discard spells can hit it pretty hard. Look up UR gifts storm with baral theres also ad nauseum combo. You can also play saheeli combo with felidar guardian in modern but also with sun titan (2 saheelis and sun titan is infinite titans)
April 27, 2017 8:41 p.m.