My Modern season ended with a loss playing for Top 8 of a TCG Diamond event and a very quick exit from a PTQ. Not the greatest of outcomes, but I feel like I learned quite a lot this season and I do have a PTQ Top 8 to show for it.

Here's the 75 I sleeved up for the Diamond event:

The miser's Tectonic Edge replaced an Island from my previous list, and it's not without its downside, but being able to draw a land that kills Celestial Colonnade, random utility lands and the occasional Tron piece is a powerful effect for such a low cost.

I cut the second Shackles on account of the fact that I board it out against almost everyone, and I don't especially miss it. The deck is solid and is a viable option, but I intend to modify it to try to find the best Delver of Secrets // Delver of Secrets deck I can to prepare for the next time that I play Modern.

It's absolutely true that the reinstatement of the Modern Pro Tour puts more pressure on the Modern ban list, but recent updates suggest that they are much more hesitant to ban cards now. In particular, the unbanning of Wild Nacatl and Bitterblossom suggest that R&D prefer to try to have more decks without outright banning existing ones. If this is the case, then Modern has become a lot more like Legacy, in that you can realistically prepare for an event of either format several sets in advance without seeing major shakeups.

The big reason I would like to continue being a Delver of Secrets // Delver of Secrets deck, despite Delver itself being weak to the surplus of removal played in the format, is that the Delver plan is just too fast for the non-removal saturated deck and the rest of the deck can pick up the pieces in the face of opposing Lightning Bolts and Abrupt Decays. In particular, the inclusion of Snapcaster Mage and Lightning Bolt gives the deck a ton of reach. Expanding on this plan seems to me to be the best way to improve upon my current list.

Arguably the best on-color burn spell that I'm not playing is Searing Blaze. It would be possible to make Searing Blaze work, but it's awkward for a number of reasons. There's the obvious fact that not all opponents will have creatures, but then there's also the fact that this is a land-light deck that often has no interest in skipping land drops to possibly enable a later Searing Blaze, and that double red typically involves playing an untapped Steam Vents to take two damage at least once. It wouldn't be the worst include, but I imagine I can do better.

Jeff Hoogland recently posted a list that I find intriguing:

Four Goremand and no Mana Leak is largely a nod to the fact that this is really just a burn deck, though I'm inclined to say that I'd still rather have Leak over some number of the Goremands. The big advantage that this list has over mine is this bad boy:

If this were just a red card, there's no way that I wouldn't already be playing it. I tried adding some Lightning Helixs for a Daily in the week leading up to the PTQ and tilted off after losing to Blood Moon.

It's an unfortunate weakness, but, more notably, adding white changes a lot of how you play certain matchups and makes building the sideboard completely different. I'm over the weakness to Blood Moon, but I think it was right to not charge in with an imperfect list and rather to play exactly what I know and to plan on brewing for the future.

With the restructuring of PTQs. I'm not sure when my next opportunity to play competitive Modern will be, but I'm sure that it will happen soon enough. At the very least, I imagine I'll be attending the Nebraska GP.

Standard Rotation

As a broader focus, I'm working on getting ready for the coming Standard rotation. I really don't know how Khans of Tarkir will impact Standard, but there are a number of cards I'm working on picking up come rotation.

In the last year of Standard, I made the jump to actually owning my Standard decks, which was something that I hadn't done in years. With some money out of pocket, some trades, and from picking up Mutavaults way back when they were $10, I was able to build any version of Boros Burn or Red Devotion that I wanted to play. Being able to show up to any Standard tournament and have a deck that was personally tuned was a huge improvement for my mental well being with regards to Magic, and in the future I'm going to try to own as many Standard cards as I can acquire within reason.

I don't know how good the mana is going to be when Khans is released. The wedge theme is only for one set, and with three color decks already being commonplace at the Theros Block Pro Tour, it wouldn't be surprising to see non-wedge three color decks be viable in Theros-Tarkir Standard.

I also don't expect WotC to completely disregard everything about devotion. I'm probably picking up way more cards than any rational person should, but here's a short list of tools that I recommend anybody looking to have easy access to Standard acquires before Khans launches.

Lands

This one is obvious, and you'll hear it from any writer on QuietSpeculation. Temples are cheap right now, and they're only going to go up. I could see Temple of Malady take a slight dip maybe, though it's not for nothing that they're not really being drafted anymore. I wouldn't expect Temple of Malady to specifically increase much in price, if at all, but every other Temple certainly has room to grow.

I'm not super big on Painlands, but they're not bad to own by any means. They're easy enough to pick up in trades and it's highly unlikely that any of them will drop below $4. Shivan Reef in particular has seen a decent amount of Modern play, and while it's a bit pricey, it could still easily jump back to being a $10 card if it sees significant Standard play.

If you want to buy Mana Confluence for $10, then now is the time. Don't miss the bus on this one. There were 18 of these in the Top 8 of PT Journey into Nyx. Painlands put some pressure on the card's playability, but two copies in a three color deck or four copies in a two color aggressive deck will likely be commonplace.

Courser saw a significant dip with its printing in a precon, but it's sure to gain a few dollars as it and Sylvan Caryatid show up in literally every green deck. I would minimally acquire a set of both for playing with, though they're not likely great spec targets, as they're both already pretty high.

Aggressive Rares

Firedrinker Satyr, Pain Seer, Master of the Feast, Herald of Torment and Master of Waves are all at prices significantly lower than rares in decks should be.

The black aggro deck made a reasonable showing at the Block PT, and I won't be surprised to see it be a thing post-Khans. I mean, Thoughtseize (you should clearly pick these up as well, if you haven't yet) is going to be bar-none the best card in Standard at that point, so the deck will at least have that going for it.

I really just have no idea what's going on with the price of Master of Waves. I know that nobody is buying into the current Blue Devotion deck anymore, but do people really not believe that anything will happen to make this playable post-Khans?

It just takes permanents with blue mana in their casting cost. It's possible that there won't be an aggressive blue deck, but the deck doesn't have to be aggressive for Master of Waves to be a stone cold killer. I won't be the least bit surprised if Dictate of Kruphix becomes a Standard playable card, and Master of Waves is as good a follow up to Dictate as any.

At any rate, $4 is a laughable price for a mythic rare of this power level.

Goblin Rabblemaster is a card that has already proven itself and is coming from a set that won't be drafted much. I'd scoop up a set of these if you have any interest in playing red beatdown in the coming Standard format. Its appearance at PT Magic 2015 inflated its price somewhat, but availability is pretty high right now. I wouldn't wait, and if you can get them in the $2.50 range or at a similar rate in a trade, they're definitely worth collecting.

Planeswalkers

At this point, it's too late for Xenagos, the Reveler. $15 just isn't going to happen for me, and if there's a Xenagos deck that I simply must play, I don't expect to ever need to pay more than that for him.

I also don't feel good about dropping $35 on Nissa, Worldwaker. If she takes off, she'll easily be $40-$50 and will most likely be in a deck alongside Xenagos. My plan as of now is to not play that deck, but if Xenagos drops to $9-$10, it will be reasonable to trade for and I'd happily spend $25 on Nissas.

Kiora, the Crashing Wave seems a little more reasonable at $14 to me than Xenagos, as she's been at that price for some time without really seeing play and she's from a less opened set. She also plays pretty nicely with Courser of Kruphix. She's pretty niche though, and I have no intention of acquiring more than three or four.

I would sooner die than play a white aggressive deck, but new Ajani is certainly playable and is worth acquiring. Less new, but still new, Ajani, Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is one that I'm actively picking up. Brian Kibler advocates the card even in Modern, and it's definitely a strong Standard player. I wouldn't be surprised to see a $25 price tag on this guy again.

All of the non-Jace Magic 2015 planeswalkers are all but guaranteed to see some play and are reasonable pick-ups. I would wait on Garruk, Apex Predator though. He's good, but he strikes me as the type of card that won't show up a ton. He's basically designed to bust up midrange mirrors, and I don't expect the metagame to get to that point for at least a few months.

The only planeswalker that I currently believe is a slam dunk is Elspeth, Sun's Champion. There's no better six drop as of now, and it would take a hell of a good one to knock her from her throne. At $20 it will be tough to make money on her, but again, you'll probably pay more if you decide that you need to play an Elspeth deck in Theros Khans Standard.

~

This is the part of the year where it's hardest to know what to expect with Magic. Modern season is ending and Standard is about to change dramatically. That said, there's always work to do and it never hurts to look forward, in particular with regard to MTG Finance.

If somebody can give me a good reason why Master of Waves is a bad spec, I'm all ears.

If you want to be ready to play Modern next year, don't sleep on it! Start practicing now. If you want to make money on Theros and Magic 2015 cards, don't sleep on that either! Xenagos, God of Revels is evidence that the window is already closing.

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan Overturf
@RyanOverdrive on Twitter