Finally, after months of constant churn, Modern has been solved. No new decks are being built, everyone has figured out what cards you have to play if you want to compete in the format, and heaven help you if you try to brew or play off meta picks. With how undeniably busted the MH2 cards were, it’s been Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and Astrolabe all over agai—
Okay, I jest. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, we’ve seen decks like Cascade, Elementals, Sagavan, and Hammertime take a slight dip, while Control has risen to the top, but it’s still anyone’s game for what to play. We’ve barely had Faithful Mending for two weeks, and while Esper Reanimator and Jeskai Phoenix were clear favorites to house the card, only Aspiringspike seems to be pushing the card with his Resurgent Belief Combo and Esper Mentor lists. With Mending’s predecessor, Faithless Looting, enabling a wide variety of decks like Hollow One, Mardu Pyromancer, Grishoalbrand, and Narset Cannon, it’s only a matter of time before players start reevaluating the graveyard strategies now that we have a solid Looting alternative in the format.
But Faithful Mending isn’t the only recent card not getting enough love. With two sections of last month’s watchlist (part 1 and part 2) dedicated to Midnight Hunt cards, all the playables had to have been exhausted, right? That’s what I thought, too, until I started writing this month’s watchlist, which features four other Midnight Hunt cards as well as yet another MH2 card and a sixth bonus card from a set of yore that has some serious combo potential. With the second half of our return to Innistrad, Crimson Vow, right around the corner, let’s not leave these cards to fade into the shadows of the format’s fringe.
Six Cards to Explore this Month
1. Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
As a Humans player, I’m ashamed to admit that Adeline flew completely under my radar. Not only did I misread her, but I automatically assumed that Wizards would never have printed a card as busted strong as she is, because they always template these cards the same way. “Whenever [creature] attacks, blocks, etc.” No, the key word I missed upon first reading was “you.” Not whenever Adeline attacks, whenever “you” attack, Adeline makes a 1/1 Human token attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. A Human token that triggers Champion of the Parish and Thalia’s Lieutenant, makes Adeline herself bigger, and doesn’t have Decayed like almost every other token in Midnight Hunt. And the vast majority of the time, your opponent is likely blocking your big scary threat that triggered Adeline, so the token won’t get blocked and will stick around for even more fun.
What’s even more fantastic about Adeline is just how good her stats are. She’s often a 4/4, either when she comes down or after combat. She dodges Lightning Bolt, which a lot of three-mana Humans have struggled with (Mantis Rider, Reflector Mage, General Kudro of Drannith, Augur of Autumn, etc.), and with Fatal Push‘s relative disappearance from the meta, it often takes your opponent a bit of setup before they can answer her. Unholy Heat needs Delirium, Prismatic Ending needs three colors, and Terminate is usually a two-of at most. Supreme Verdict doesn’t hit until turn 4, and Teferi, Time Raveler doesn’t prevent you from getting value out of her token generation. If your opponent can’t answer her, she just sits there and buries them in aggro value.
Did I mention she can attack? Oh, and she has vigilance, too. So, while Adeline isn’t the only Midnight Hunt Human seeing Modern play, she certainly seems like the best new toy Humans has gotten in a long time.
2. Willow Geist
Willow Geist was a card that initially slipped under my radar. On the surface, it’s a derpy little 1/1 with trample, and even on closer reading doesn’t seem that spectacular. It’s restricted to a single counter per trigger, no matter how many cards leave the graveyard, which means a Delve card will only give it one counter instead of the amount delved away. As a green card, it’s not really something that Dredge wants, although that deck is good at triggering Geist.
There is, however, one deck that’s particularly adept at triggering Geist repeatedly, and that is Hell’s Kitchen. Both Ovalchase Daredevil + The Underworld Cookbook and Cauldron Familiar + Witch’s Oven loops trigger Geist while also providing solid value engines for the deck. D00mwake has played his version of the deck a few times since Midnight Hunt’s release and done okay with the deck. Another idea that I found among the slush piles on Goldfish was pairing Geist with Wrenn and Six and Klothys, God of Destiny in a Temur Delirium shell. While this specific list could use some refinement, the core idea is solid: put Geist around individually strong cards that compliment and synergize with the little treefolk spirit. Perhaps Willow Geist might ultimately be another Slag Fiend—strong in theory and fragile in practice—yet it’s still a neat card to brew around.
Another aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked is its final ability, which gains you life when it dies. While small Geists won’t be inflating your life total, with the recent rise in Burn, even incidental lifegain can swing the tides of a match. After all, one is not zero.
3. Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
This little Human nearly caused me to write an article about all the Modern-unplayable Humans in Midnight Hunt that people were going to jam anyways, because Humans players have been down bad for a couple years now and we have no self-control. Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is a worse Bitterblossom who makes Decayed tokens (which don’t stick around, so they don’t grow your board) but only if you have no other Decayed creatures (so you’re really not going wide). Add to that the fact that he makes Zombies and not Humans, and I was fully prepared to write him off.
Then came the players who realized the fun timing interactions with Decayed triggers and free sacrifice outlets. Not only do Jadar tokens trigger Champion of the Perished, but they also only die at the end of combat. With creatures like Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder, the lovely new MH2 enchantment Goblin Bombardment, and ye olde Standard staple Mayhem Devil, you’re able to accrue a ton of value off Jadar Zombies. Although Jadar has primarily been played in a Rakdos version of Zombies, there’s a chance that the Grixis version could be tweaked to fit him as well. Whatever color combination ends up being optimal for the tribe, Jadar will have a welcome home among the undead.
Moonveil Regent is another card that didn’t look playable during preview season, but has since surprised me. A four-mana 4/4 that doesn’t have an enters-the-battlefield trigger and dies to Unholy Heat? Not even worth considering… until you take another look. Its final ability is effectively Tribal Flames but for colored permanents, but that first ability is also promising. While discarding your hand doesn’t sound like a fun time, if you’re hellbent (empty-handed), you just draw the cards, and you can also filter dead cards and unnecessary lands to hopefully cantrip into more action.
Regent has shown up in a Gruul Prison build, but I was most impressed by it when I encountered it at my local shop in a Domain Copycat shell. I don’t have the list, but the deck was running strong value cards like Voice of Resurgence, Territorial Kavu, and Omnath, Locus of Creation alongside the standard Saheeli Cat cards Oath of Nissa, Saheeli Rai, and Felidar Guardian, with Teferi, Time Raveler as another solid planeswalker. (We ended up going to time because Griefblade has infinite Solitudes for their combo, who knew.) Moonveil Regent functions as both another must-answer threat and an additional way to dig through the deck to find combo pieces. As I continue working through my own deck brew queue, this one has certainly earned its place on that list.
It’s been almost four months after the official release of Modern Horizons 2, and there are still cards from that set to talk about. Imperial Recruiter was one I initially kept my eye on because I was enamored with the idea of a RW Kiki Combo deck, but it’s since proven its worth in Humans, both the traditional Five-Color build and the new Jeskai version, and Kiki Chord. The ability to tutor for both Felidar Guardian and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is fantastic, but so is being able to consistently find silver bullet hate cards like Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, Kataki, War’s Wage, Outland Liberator, and Magus of the Moon. I’ve been really impressed with the sheer power Recruiter gives to both aggro and toolbox decks—if you’ve never tutored for a Thalia’s Lieutenant with a massive Humans board, you’re missing out. Unlike Abundant Harvest, which I discussed in the August watchlist, Recruiter has very clear decks it slots into nicely. However, I don’t think it’s been really pushed to its limits yet, and I’d be interested to see if there’s a more value-oriented toolbox deck out there, like a “Swiss Army Knife” Taxes-style deck (i.e. silver bullets for everything), perhaps.
6. Shape Anew
Vintage Infect fans, rejoice! Your favorite archetype might be making its way to Modern now thanks to the rediscovery of the Scars of Mirrodin classic, Shape Anew. Buckle up, because this is a fun one.
Although I track Modern results through 5-0 dumps, Challenges, and Goldfish, I also keep an eye on events posted to MTGTop8’s Modern page. While browsing, I found this wonderful Grixis Shape Anew list that took the powerful Grixis Lurrus deck and slotted four copies of Shape Anew into it over Mishra’s Bauble. Well, if you’re not trying to pay four mana for your Baubles, what are you trying to do? Solve the downside of Madcap Experiment, that’s what! Instead of transmuting a Treasure token from Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer or a thopter token off Thopter Engineer into a Platinum Emperion (so you don’t die to Madcap Experiment), the deck is flipping its cheap artifacts into a Blightsteel Colossus to try to one-shot the opponent with Infect damage. (Bonus points if you have Thopter Engineer in play, because then your Blightsteel gets to attack the turn it comes down.)
Blightsteel is a big, indestructible boy that dodges wraths and every piece of spot removal except bounce effects like Teferi, Time Raveler and Brazen Borrower and the exile on Solitude and Path to Exile. Edict effects like Liliana of the Veil are also rare, but with a suite of cheap threats in Ragavan, Dragon’s Rage Channeler, and Thopter Engineer, singular edicts aren’t necessarily the most effective anyways. It’s a potent combo that’s also seen some experimenting in Bant colors, but on the whole it has yet to really take off in Modern. It definitely has legs, though, since Blightsteel is far harder to remove than Platinum Emperion.
One downside to Shape Anew is that, unlike Madcap Experiment, Shape Anew requires a target in order to cheat the threat into play. Since there isn’t much main deck artifact-specific hate these days, Shape Anew won’t struggle too much in game one. But after sideboarding, your opponent should be better prepared to handle the combo, and that means you’ll need to lean more heavily on the rest of your deck. That’s why I like the Grixis version more than the Bant, because it’s basically Grixis Lurrus (which is a really strong deck on its own), and it can cut the combo completely without losing its punch. Of course, you could also explore an Esper build with Faithful Mending and Teferi, Time Raveler for churn and combo protection, backed up by counterspells and heavy discard. Casting instant-speed Shape Anew on your opponent’s end step with Teferi’s uptick would also remove the necessity for haste from Thopter Engineer, a creature that isn’t generically good on its own. But that’s a brew for another time.
Parting Thoughts:
Despite how Modern seems to have settled down, the meta remains open to new deck ideas, both from old cards finally getting their turn in the spotlight and new cards from Midnight Hunt being explored. In just a few short weeks, Crimson Vow will be upon us, and hopefully we’ll get even more fun toys to play with. For now, however, there are still plenty of cards and decks to experiment with, and I’m excited to see what new brews breach the fringes of the format. Remember last month’s pick, Resurgent Belief? Turns out flooping Omniscience and Shark Typhoon into play is really, really powerful. What other watchlist cards are still waiting to have their full potential unlocked?
