Welcome back to another monthly watchlist! With New Year’s and Kamigawa Neon Dynasty right around the corner, it’s nice to take a moment and catch up on the cards that might have slipped us by in all the craziness of set releases, meta shifts, and new decks crashing into the scene. Although I’m nowhere near caught up on my deck queue, it’s always fun to add more to the never-ending pile. So here’s five promising cards that have yet to make their impact on Modern.
Five Cards to Explore this Month
Of all the cards I thought I’d be talking about this month, I would never have guessed Dorothea, Vengeful Victim would take the top spot. Similar to how Kari Zev, Skyship Raider had her token made into a now-infamous creature, it’s hard not to draw a parallel to Geist of Saint Traft’s Angel token and Dorothea. Enter Sammii, one of the players in our Modern League, and their ghost-pepper-hot 4c Dorothea’s Vengeance list.
Honestly, this deck is one of the hottest things I’ve seen in a long time. It plays Dakkon, Shadow Slayer. It gets around the exile clause on Goryo’s Vengeance since Dorothea sacrifices herself at the end of combat. It plays Unearth and Dreadhorde Arcanist, because four Unearths wasn’t enough. And it even has main deck Lurrus of the Dream-Den, just in case you didn’t have enough recursion for Dorothea. And if you have multiple Dorotheas? Just Disturb one onto another creature to get a pseudo Geist of Saint Traft on top of your angry Spirit lady. The Tainted Adversary inclusion is sweet as well, since you can pay its “Kicker” cost whether you cast it with Lurrus or reanimate it via regular Unearth or, even better, a free flashbacked Unearth off an Arcanist. An absolute flavorfest of a spicy deck, this list definitely earned Dorothea her spot as the first seed this month.
Despite my best efforts to leave my Soul Sisters days behind me, Wizards has conspired to draw me back into the lifegain fold with such silly nonsense as Trelasarra, Moon Dancer, Scurry Oak and Heliod, Sun-Crowned doing their best Presence of Gond + Midnight Guard impression. This latest ‘roided-up Ajani’s Pridemate, Voice of the Blessed, is actually busted. When paired with the Soul Sisters—Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, Essence Warden, and Auriok Champion—these Pridemate creatures get very big, very fast.
Before, the Pridemates suffered from this teeny-tiny problem of getting infinitely chump-blocked. But now, thanks to Voice, those days are over. Getting to four counters on Voice is a breeze, and with vigilance on top of flying, you’re able to freely swing in with your massive Spirit while also having it available for blocking duty the next combat cycle. If you have a Sister out and your opponent tries to Fury your 4/4 Voice, sad day for them, that enter-the-battlefield trigger grows Voice out of Fury range. Although my updated Torens Sisters deck list is a little rough, I’ve definitely improved it since last month’s article. It won’t sweep any Modern Challenges for you, but it’s definitely fun.
Unlike her fellow three-color walker, Dakkon, Shadow Slayer, (who’s seen fringe play in lists like this Yorion Thopter Sword deck), Geyadrone Dihada has been woefully absent from the league dumps. Considering how well Modern Horizons 2 was designed (whether you agree with the power level they aimed for or not), it leaves me wondering what we’re missing. Her downtick and ultimate care about stealing permanents, and she protects herself with her uptick while slowly draining your opponent (dodging Leyline of Sanctity-style effects as well). Could she have been intended for something like a Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose Prison-Drain deck? Or perhaps a Dreadmalkin + Heartfire deck looking to ‘steal and sacrifice’ opposing creatures and planeswalkers, much like the Standard Jund Oven deck did with Claim the Firstborn and Witch’s Oven or Priest of Forgotten Gods? While sacrificing planeswalkers is much harder, there are plenty of ways to get rid of stolen creatures. So maybe there’s a Grixis version of Jund Sac that could run Geyadrone for some nasty “feelsbad” thievery.
With MH2’s release, Magic received its cutest Ouphe ever, Glimmer Bairn. But underneath that adorable little bee costume hides a heartless monster. Cheesy horror tropes aside, Bairns can pack quite the punch. Being able to sacrifice any token means you can take a Bairn deck in a number of directions. MerynMoon played a more traditional GW Tokens list shortly after MH2’s release, and BoshNRoll played a Jund Fling Food deck submitted by one of their Patreons about a month ago. Ravenous Squirrel looks like it could be a good partner for a Bairn deck, and Rite of Consumption means the deck could stay Green-Black instead of splashing red. Or the deck could play a Red-Green Storm style and get Chatterstorm and Thrasta, Tempest’s Roar. Whatever direction you take, Glimmer Bairns promises to be the Little Win Condition that Could.
The latest “not-quite” card, Undead Butler does its best Stitcher’s Supplier impression. Unlike its one-mana Zombie cousin, however, Butler can salvage a lost creature from the graveyard, which can be useful in CrabVine decks, and more redundancy for Vengevine triggers never hurts. CrabVine already plays Satyr Wayfinder, a card fairly similar to Butler, but as the latter is a Zombie, the tribal support might be better. Not only does it make recasting Gravecrawler easier, it also triggers Headless Rider when it dies, which means it might be time to break out Altar of Dementia again. Also, Butler means CrabVine wouldn’t need to splash green for a main-deck card anymore. True, you lose the ability to hardcast your Vines if you cut the green and Force of Vigor out of the board becomes impossible, but sticking to strictly Blue-Black makes it much easier to run a transformational Mill sideboard. The mana also becomes far more consistent, which makes Satyr’s land clause much less relevant.
Parting Thoughts
Chasing “the best deck” is a losing endeavor. You can play high-powered, well-positioned decks and go 0-X. Or you can perform well and have a miserable time. Magic has a lot of variance: opening hands, mulligans, draws, and the impact of sequencing and card selection decisions, not to mention metagame shifts and matchup variance. A few weeks ago I played Yorion Rhinos, and I’ve never felt more disengaged playing a deck. It was powerful but it only got okay results. Worst of all, winning felt like losing. Not too long ago, I played a RB Grief deck at my store’s Modern tournament because it was a Blood Moon deck I felt was primed to prey on the 4c Yorion mush piles and employed a strategy I favor (see: my Griefblade article). Not only did I lose to the Yorion decks I faced, but I’m pretty sure my only win was against “Bye.”
Contrast that to last Tuesday, where I went 2-2 playing Torens Sisters and had an absolute blast every game I won. (Running into Ephemerate + Solitude + Fury for three straight rounds was the opposite of fun, especially since I didn’t have Void Mirror in my sideboard at the time, but that’s been fixed.) So if you’re going to play Modern, pick a deck you’ll enjoy, even if it’s not “the best” right now. Strong decks aren’t always the most fun, and piloting a deck that brings you joy softens the bitterness of defeat way more than a tier deck that’s “supposed” to be winning because it’s good. Play what you love, and don’t lose sight of enjoying the game while pursuing victory.
