Modern Power Rankings - Week One

RIP Nadu, long live The One Ring. After our first week of Nadu-less modern, we finally get to talk about what the format looks like way too early, and with the most measured possible and most nuanced takes. For those of you who do not want to read breakdowns, you are more than welcome to go ahead and take a look at the Team Logic Knot power rankings for the top 10 below.

Tier 2: Trash decks that don't play ring good
10. Domain Zoo
9. Ruby Storm
8. Yawg
7. Jeskai Energy
6. Dimir Murktide

Tier 1: Goated Ring Decks
5. Amulet Titan
4. Tron
3. Eldrazi Breach
2. Mardu Energy
1. Boros Energy

Now for a more in-depth look.

We write these pieces with the limited data we have, but also operate with the understanding there are simply differences in online and paper metagames. Most of our online/numerical data will be sourced from mtgdecks.net, and you can use this page as a good jumping off point yourself. However, the ultimate decider in our rankings is usually just based on vibes and theoretical assessment, as well as allowances for things like deck difficulty, metagame dependencies, and other factors highlighted in each profile. In other words, the closer to number 1 a deck is, the more we recommend taking it to your RCQs.

Tier 4: Serious Metagame Callouts

10. Domain Zoo

This prehistoric pile of cards still has some game... but its pronounced weakness to most ring decks leaves a lot to be desired. While its classic (it's like 6 months old, can we say classic?) Leyline of the Guildpact into Scion of Draco start is still nearly impossible for the WRx Energy shells to beat, everything else the deck does is also unfavored in those matchups. However, the deck does shine in a metagame of older or less powerful decks, preying on archetypes like Yawg, Murktide, Wizards variants, and even the Jeskai Control deck to an extent. That being said, I cannot truly recommend this deck unless you plan on dodging the Ring and energy the entire day.

9. Ruby Storm

A "game one" deck in the truest sense, this deck is less of a metagame callout in its matchup spread overall, but moreso in how it is nearly unbeatable unless you pack hate for it. The issue here is that hate is frequent and pops up often enough to make the deck almost nonviable unless nobody expects anything like this to pop up. Its matchup spread is pretty decent across the board, but in an individual tournament you will find it significantly more polarized depending on sideboard configurations - and it only takes one deck to beat you in top 8 to miss on your qualification.

Tier 3: Justifiable, but With Weaknesses

8. Yawgmoth

There are so many different versions of this deck right now it is hard to highlight only one. Still, the tournament gameplan has remained the same for a while. Beat up on the slower creature or blue decks, lose to everything else that goes over the top, doesn't play to the board, or (God forbid), interacts positively with your plan. This deck did receive sidegrades in MH3, giving it alternative dig options such as Chithonian Nightmare, Malevolent Rumble and Birthing Ritual, as well as critters such as Marionette Apprentice giving more viable win conditions which power out your Chord of Callings while furthering your dorky midrange boardstate. That being said, even with all the new cards, none of them really changed what the deck is good or bad against. You still beat big blue package decks like Murktide, can usually hold your own against Energy, and lose to the big mana ring decks (and now Ruby Storm, if you play Yawg pray to dodge that). The only real change is Jeskai now being significantly better against Yawg due to better boardwipes and Phlage. That being said, this is still a deck you can get an awful lot out of with a lot of reps and practice. Shoutout MeatMTG and AwesomPossum on MTGO for contributing to Yawg supremacy in Southern California.

7. Jeskai Energy

This is our first Ring deck, and our only Ring deck that is not in the top two tiers of the list. Why? Well, unlike every other Ring deck, Jeskai is incapable of both powering the Ring out or backing it up with oodles of mana or tons of pressure once it is online. It is still playing behind the Ring with free interaction and Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. That being said, it is a Ring deck, and therefore has a high floor. Its ceiling requires build variance to try and beat either Energy or Eldrazi decks based on what you feel like will be more present in your given meta. That said, Counterspells and boardwipes are still a decent way to get things done, especially with creature decks being prevalent, but as usual with control, you only get to cover so many bases.

6. Dimir Murktide

I like this deck a lot. I play it myself. I even won an RCQ with it.

This deck has a lot of holes. The biggest issue is that it is really good at grinding down to one or two cards, but if those one or two cards are ineffective, you are essentially left trading resources. This play pattern may feel familiar to UR Murktide players, but the issue is significantly less pronounced due to our new friend, Psychic Frog. Frog is the answer to almost everything in the deck, dominating boards, generating card advantage, operating as an excellent topdeck, and often dodging removal and closing games on its own. Unfortunately, the deck is heavily reliant on drawing its win conditions before running dry of resources, or else it often gets out-valued by The One Ring. Psychic Frog is probably the best turn 2 play in the entire format. If you like tempo, I would recommend this deck, because it operates as a tempo deck, but very much on the opposite end of the more aggressive UR shells, being closer to a Jund shell of years past in that your threats often require a lot more commitment than the cheaper UR threats. Outside of that, the deck plays a reasonable amount of classically medium and medium plus cards, which we will call "skill expressive" to make myself feel better about playing bad cards.

Tier 2: Ring-Centric/abusive decks

5. Amulet Titan

This deck suffered a LOT from the presence of Nadu in the format. However, in the Aftermath (analyst), it has found a home again. New builds have been experimenting with an Aftermath Analyst package to go alongside their traditional Primeval Titan package, which gives them a lot more esoteric lines to win the game (I guess, I've never bothered watching them finish it feels voyeuristic). This deck is a strong as ever, abuses the ring in a unique way from other decks, using it to dig for pieces rather than value in and of itself, and also just has extremely explosive starts. That being said, it has very VERY pronounced weaknesses in the classic anti-titan/big mana cards, such as Counterspell, Blood Moon, Subtlety, Magus of the Moon, Dress Down, and the brand-new Harbinger of the Seas. Unfortunately for the Titan deck, all of these cards are very prevalent, but with the Ring in tow, it can play through almost anything as long as it isn't taking lethal damage. This is another deck that comes with a bit of caution: while very very strong, I would not recommend picking this up and going into an RCQ cold. It does take time and repetition to really get a lot out of this deck, less so in learning combo (although you should definitely do that), and more in how to play around things and when to just jam.

4. Tron

Tron good.

Specifically, the additions of Devourer of Destiny, both as a removal spell and new version of Once Upon a Time, combined with the absurd modality and power level of Kozilek's Command and acceleration of Sewing Mycospawn and Ugin's Labyrinth have resurrected the archetype yet again. The biggest difference between this Tron list and those of years past is the ability to power out four drops on turn two, all of which are extremely disruptive or powerful (or both). It is also a Ring deck, and therefore carries the significantly high floor of one, while also being very abusive of the cards you can amass by generating enough mana to potentially cast all of them depending on circumstance. Also, for the first time in a very long time, Tron has a lot of decision-making in its gameplay, lending a high skill ceiling along with the Ring's higher power floor. That said, it is still one of the more straightforward decks in the format, having an easily executed gameplan, which does matter. All in all, I think this is an excellent deck to bring to your RCQs if you have access to it. Also, shoutout Ivan Espinoza for more SoCal dominance, winning the SCG Tampa $10k with this list.

3. Eldrazi Breach

This deck takes the turn two/turn three ideas behind new tron iterations and asks "what if we ALWAYS did the busted stuff on those two turns?" Through the Breach is the linchpin of this strategy, exchanging top-end for turning the combo nature of the deck up to 11. The deck often clears all of your permanents on turn 3, after ramping on turn 2. It also receives a bit of a boost, despite its relative lack of consistency, due to its top end matching up almost perfectly against the Energy decks, often keeping up until it can force someone to sacrifice their entire board to an All is Dust,  Ulamog, the Defiler, or Emrakul, the Promised End. Kozilek's Command also serves an even more powerful role in this deck, often bridging it to hard-cast these threats on "dead" turns by basically doubling mana, thereby actually giving it a pretty reasonable amount of late-game potential despite shaving on so many traditional GTron top-end cards.

Tier One: Decks so good they only play like, Two Rings

2. Mardu Energy

Mardu Energy evolved as a counterpart to Boros energy which was focused on beating Boros Energy (and also Nadu), and still maintains that role. While it is extremely powerful, it is slightly less linear than Boros while also having significantly worse mana. Those two major differences are enough to make it ever so slightly worse, as having more options is usually a good thing, but in this metagame having poor mana can potentially be a death knell when you have to take turn one or two off due to a tapland, or die to Harbinger/Moons running around. That being said, Ob Nixilis, the Adversary is an excellent tool in what would otherwise be a relatively poor control matchup, and Orcish Bowmasters invalidates half of the Boros openers on its own. This deck does operate slightly slower than most Boros lists, but shares a lot of the same lines and potential, while also slotting The One Ring just a bit easier than the Boros lists due to a slightly stronger and more flexible suite of cards. But if it beats Boros, why not play this instead of Boros? Put simply, this deck, due to its flexibility and lack of Blood Moon, can be hard to play. The mana can be tough, this many taplands is a bit hard, you lack the one drops Boros usually has, and overall you are significantly less linear over the course of a given match. While that lack of linearity leaves more room for skill expression, it also leaves more room for failure. And considering how head-and-shoulders above the rest of the format these energy shells seem, I think the value proposition of more expression really only comes up against Boros and the mirror, and therefore, I personally would want the linear gameplan of Boros a bit more.

1. Boros Energy

Boros Energy has been a strong shell for a while now, being one of the few other viable decks while Nadu was around. The energy package (Ocelot Pride, Guide of Souls, Galvanic Discharge, and Amped Raptor) is highly efficient, producing very wide and somewhat tall boards very quickly. Back that up with value engines like The One Ring and Phlage, as well as lock pieces such as Blood Moon, and you have a recipe for a relatively straightforward and extremely strong pile of cards. The deck has nearly no real weaknesses, besides perhaps the Eldrazi Breach matchup, and is highly resilient especially as it packs more copies of the Ring in order to help it refill and maintain velocity. While it is a bit to early to call for bans, I did originally predict post-Nadu ban the next cards to require action would likely be (in no particular order) The One Ring, Grief, and the energy package in general. I think so far, while certainly not nearly as overrepresented at top tables as a deck like Nadu, Boros has certainly earned its crown for the best deck in the format.

#Grixis4Eva

-Kazi Baker