MH2 Modern League Meta Breakdown

In this Modern League there is everything from UR Murktide, to Lantern Control, to Elementals. While Murktide is heavily played compared to any other deck, don’t expect it to be overbearing in the diverse Modern meta.  Other than UR, no deck has more than two copies, and most decks only have one. Giving the meta 23 different decks and 32 lists total, this means that there averaged to be 1.4 copies of a deck meaning this is an incredibly diverse meta and might be the most diverse we will have for a while.

The Decks

Decks with Multiple Appearances

UR Murktide

By far the most popular deck and taking up 19% of the entire league with six copies is UR Murktide. The game plan is to place some threats and play a lot of interaction to back it up, with Expressive Iteration to keep the gas flowing. Its threat suite is leaning hard on Modern Horizons 2, playing 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, 4 Dragon’s Rage Channeler, and 4 Murktide Regent, but some people are also running 2 Dreadhorde Arcanist or 2 Yusri, Fortune’s Flame. Even their interaction is fresh from MH2, playing Counterspell, Unholy Heat, and the classic Lightning Bolt. Mishra’s Bauble makes an appearance to help activate Delirium for Unholy Heat and Dragon’s Rage Channeler.

Elementals

Elementals is one of a couple decks that have 2 copies, the others being GW Heliod, Celestial Kirin combo, and Rakdos Ragavan. Elemental’s general game plan is to play a Risen Reef to get additional value out of playing Grief, Solitude, and Fury, reducing the Evoke drawback. It also runs Ephemerate so they can Evoke any of those and flicker it to get more ETB triggers and a free creature. Ephemerate can also be used to protect a creature on the board being targeted with removal. To finish the game, they have access to Fury, Horde of Notions, and Lightning Skelemental paired with Thunderkin Awakener.

Kirin Combo

Kirin combo is a deck made by Pizza, who is playing it in this league along with Razz. It even won the last Modern League, so don’t count it out. The main goal of the deck is to play Celestial Kirin and then play an Ugin’s Conjurant on 0 to destroy all lands and tokens, a sort of build-your-own Armageddon. If needed, Conjurant can be cast for more to destroy all things of another mana cost. They run Lurrus of the Dream Den in there and can loop Ugin’s conjurant infinitely. They run Aether Vial and Noble Hierarch to operate on 0 lands. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Skyclave Apparition are for slowing the opponent down.

Heliod Company

Heliod Company is similar to Kirin in a lot of ways, being a GW combo deck that has a backup midrange plan. There are far more combos in Heliod. There’s Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Spike Feeder to gain infinite life, and transfers to infinite power and toughness with Conclave Mentor, Heliod and Walking Ballista for infinite damage while also gaining infinite life to bring back the days of Mono White Devotion in Pioneer, and finally there’s Archangel of Thune with Spike Feeder which grants infinite life and +1/+1 counters for your team. They also run Auriok Champion and Skyclave Apparition to stall the game out, which makes a midrange plan possible. Collected Company is particularly excellent in the deck as it can find both halves of the Heliod + Feeder infinite life combo in one shot, while Eladamri’s Call is used to assemble the other combos in the deck.

RB Ragavan

The final deck that there are two of is RB Ragavan. This is a midrange deck with the main threats being Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Dauthi Voidwalker, Dragon’s Rage Channeler, and Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger. Tourach, Dread Cantor, Kolaghan’s Command, and Lurrus of the Dream Den as a companion are used for card advantage. Mishra’s Bauble also lets you draw an extra card a turn with Lurrus out and helps activate Delirium for Unholy Heat and Dragon’s Rage Channeler. The main interaction the deck runs alongside Unholy Heat is Lightning Bolt, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Thoughtseize. This deck appears to be what has replaced Jund and Jund Shadow as the prominent midrange deck of this style.

Decks with a Single Appearance

While I would like to review every deck that there is 1 copy of, I can only do so many. As a result, I will be choosing the more unique or underrated decks. Starting that off is Abiding Martyr.

Abiding Martyr

The game plan here is to use an Abiding Grace to either get back a Martyr of Sands to gain a lot of life or Kami of False Hope to create an infinite fog effect so the opponent’s attacks don’t do anything. In the past, the deck has used Proclamation of Rebirth to do this same loop, but Grace is a clear upgrade. Squadron Hawk can be used to gain ridiculous amounts of life off of Martyr by filling their hand to the brim, as well as providing cards to pitch to Solitude. They run Stoneforge Mystic with Sword of Fire and Ice along with Batterskull to provide some sticky threats to finish off their opponent. Their fastest clock is using Serra Ascendant as a one mana 6/6 Flying Lifelink when paired with the lifegain of Martyr. They also run four Path to Exile and four Solitude for removal. It runs Ranger of Eos and Ranger-Captain of Eos to get whatever one drop they want to get, generally Martyr but they could get Serra’s Ascendant or Kami of False Hope. This also lets them run a small toolbox in the sideboard, and provides much needed card advantage that Mono White normally lacks.

Lantern Control

Lantern Control was a deck that died a couple of years ago, but someone is playing it again with the addition of Urza’s Saga. The main lock it has is Lantern of insight with Codex Shredder to mill their deck whenever they’re going to draw something good, and Ensnaring Bridge to ensure whatever creatures do get through won’t be able to win the game on their own. Interestingly, it runs The Underworld Cookbook to cut down their hand faster for Bridge, and can be tutored out by Urza’s Saga to empty their hand which might be necessary after dumping mana into making Golems. It runs a few other one mana artifacts that help to stop the opponent from doing anything relevant like Pithing Needle and Grafdigger’s Cage. They also run Crucible of Worlds to get back the Urza’s Sagas they sacrificed. In addition, they run classic removal like Collective Brutality and Assassin’s Trophy and paired with the discard of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek to guarantee their lock can resolve. Because they’re a mill deck, they run Surgical Extraction mainboard which helps against a lot of the graveyard decks. They also run Scheming Symmetry as a tutor because it is anything but symmetrical with a Codex Shredder involved.

5c Humans

Humans is a 5 Color aggro deck packed with disruption. The general game plan is to play small creatures that interact with your opponent, such as Meddling Mage, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Kitesail Freebooter and beat their opponent to death with them. To assist in dealing damage, they have heavy hitters like Mantis Rider, Thalia’s Lieutenant, and Champion of the Parish. Although Shardless Agent initially saw play after MH2 was released, Imperial Recruiter has taken over as the heavily contested three drop slot since then.

RB Death’s Shadow

Death’s shadow is like most other RB Midrange decks with a few differences, namely in threats like Death’s Shadow and Scourge of the Skyclaves. To get these creatures big they also shift their removal to include Dismember and more Thoughtseize and less Inquisition of Kozilek. Because they run such massive creatures they also play Temur Battle Rage to push through the final points of damage.

BtL Scapeshift

BtL Scapeshift is a combination of 2 already powerful decks. It has bring to light but instead of getting Niv-Mizzet Reborn like in Pioneer, they get Scapeshift to win the game on the spot if they have at least seven lands by fetching up several Mountains and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. They still retain Omnath, Locus of Creation, Teferi, Time Raveler, and Valki, God of Lies from classic Bring to Light. The one noticeable thing this list is missing is no Dryad of the Ilysian Grove to trigger Valakut without Scapeshift, instead opting for Cryptic Command. Their interaction tends to lean a bit more towards a classic Control deck with Supreme Verdict, Remand, Prismatic Ending, and Cryptic Command. Interestingly, it runs Eternal Witness to create the classic Eternal Command lock with Cryptic Command. It can even play as Tron with a perfect hand, casting a seven drop on turn three by fetching Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter with Bring to Light. It is overall a deck that manages to get the grind from classic Bring to Light with the instant kill of Scapeshift.

GB Yawgmoth Combo

The last deck I will talk about is GB Yawgmoth Combo. The important ruling to know here is that a +1/+1 counter will cancel out a -1/-1 counter if put on the same creature. The combo is Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and any Undying creature will let them draw a card for one life each. Essence Warden keeps them from killing themself. Geralf’s Messenger is the main undying card of the combo because you don’t need anything else other than Yawgmoth in most cases, because for every one life you lose, they lose two. The deck also has a pretty solid midrange gameplan on the fact that a lot of their creatures require two removal spells to kill. They also run Chord of Calling and Eldritch Evolution helps search their deck for whatever combo piece they need. Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons is great for the midrange plan and can create a ton of snakes when paired with Yawgmoth.

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If you’d like to participate in an upcoming UOL Modern League, join our Discord and check out the #modern channel, or see our Modern page. It’s completely free and takes place on Untap.in, a website similar to Cockatrice where you can play any deck for free. You can read more about the League format here.