The First 3 Weeks: Your Best Bets to Beat Nadu (or Just Win Your RCQ)

Hey y'all! Kazi here, writing for TheLogicKnot. As we all know, Nadu, Winged Wisdom is terrorizing the format and we are likely going to be dealing with it until August 26th at the least. That means the first 3 weeks of RCQ season, and a non-zero amount of premier events (such as MXP LA, holler at me if you see me), are going to take place in a format which has the specter of a ban looming over it. Let's talk about what we need to do in order to take down some RCQs, and what decks we can play that give us the best shots.

Let's break down Nadu just a bit. Nadu is a creature-centric combo deck which has a much better matchup against control than creature combo decks historically because of the amount of card advantage it generates, a highly accessible combo kill, and Urza's Saga. It also presents sufficient roadblocks to stop all-in aggressive decks from running it over. However, it does have a potential weakness to spell combo... although those decks are largely nonviable and the sideboard can be adjusted to beat those as well, if needed.

Overall as a deck, Nadu has been underrepresented online and, I would argue, in paper. Online is not very important to a discussion about paper tournaments, but it's reasonable to say online testing is difficult when the loops are unable to be represented or shortcut, which results in less play. As for paper, the under representation seems to be largely from two things: a reluctance to play the deck out of boredom; an unwillingness to buy into Shuko, a peak $33 uncommon from Kamigawa block, which even now at $10 is probably not worth owning; and most versions being on multiple copies of The One Ring. None of these would be damning on their own, although combined lead to the deck being played significantly less than you would assume the consensus best deck in the format would be. While not the best way to understand data, a couple 64-person 1ks have happened in SoCal since PTMH3, and each of those had less than 6 people in the room on Nadu.

Extrapolating (which is probably bad analysis but whatever, paper magic is weird), I think there are two options, and with them, two deck recommendations for winning an RCQ at the moment. Keep in mind the methodology in this next part can apply to decks beyond the two options I present, although I think these are the decks which best fulfill the outlined criteria.

First strategy: just dodge Nadu. I know, I know, just dodge the bad matchup, play against it in top 8, and then die. But the fact is, you don't get to take shots at invites without making top 8s in the first place. Increasing that number at the cost of your Nadu matches means you are trying to come out on top of variance, which is often a big ask. However, in these rooms without many people actually playing Nadu, it becomes somewhat more viable.

I think the best deck if you are dodging Nadu is Mono-Black Necrodominance with Rings. While the deck seems to be largely abysmal against Nadu itself, the deck also performs extremely well against almost every other deck in the format. While normally decks which lean on a specific single card have consistency issues, because of the massive amount of redundancy here (the deck gets effectively 8 copies of The One Ring), it is extremely hard to keep one of their win conditions from resolving. While each of the cards on its own is not necessarily the best, the massive volume of cards the deck can accrue is just not something any "fair" strategy in the format seems prepared to deal with.

Second strategy: play a deck with a 50% match up against Nadu (which is as good as you're realistically getting) and a high amount of skill expression and customization for a few of the other top decks in your field. Here, I would recommend one of the URx Wizards shells. Below is mine:

Quickly, to understand how I am applying my theory, my field has an abundance of Mardu Energy and Jeskai Control, while lacking Necrodominance, traditional Tron, Living End, and Nadu (to an extent, it still tops every event). Because of the field, I lowered the curve of my deck, smoothed out the manabase, and constructed a list that takes a lot of 50/50s (while having more blowouts in the sideboard), including a few main deck hedges for bad match ups, such as Go-Wide Energy decks. But the flexibility of this shell is the key; if you play against more Necrodominance, you can go up on Narsets and Teferis. If you need to beat Tron, you can play a blood moon build with extra countermagic. If you're worried about Titan, you can slot extra Subtlety, etc. etc. What I am really saying is this list isn't perfect, but it is what I would play in my local RCQs if I decided to go with this type of thought process. You should adjust it as needed, but the only way I think you can get 50/50s against Nadu at the moment is playing shells that start with 4 copies of Counterspell.

I understand Nadu is going to be banned in a few weeks. However, I also think losing 3 weeks of play just to wait for its inevitable ban would be less than optimal considering I have two RCs to qualify for next season. While I was considering taking the time off, after doing some workshopping and talking with other grinders in my area, I decided to attack the format rather than just fold to it, and I think these are some of the best ways to do so, short of experimenting. Stay tuned for any updates! I'm excited for modern season despite Nadu, and I think the ban will likely reinvigorate me further.

#DOMAINTRON

-Kazi Baker