Treasure Cruise has warped Modern in a big way. I've written about it before, expressing my firm belief that a banning will happen eventually. I don't necessarily want that to happen, as nothing feels quite as good in MTG as drawing a bunch of cards at minimal cost, but I think it probably will.

Still, the question remains: what if it isn't banned? Or what if WOTC decides that it needs to be given much more time before pulling the trigger on such an action? Then the question becomes how one adapts to the metagame that's evolved since Cruise's printing.

That metagame consists of an overwhelming number of B/R Delver decks and Burn decks splashing blue for Treasure Cruise. In response to all these Delver shenanigans, Forked Bolt recently gained about 600 percent in value, as Corbin wrote about here. Given that the card can kill Delver of Secrets // Delver of Secrets, Snapcaster Mage, Monastery Swiftspear, Young Pyromancer, and elemental tokens, it's pretty clear that this massive jump in value was due almost entirely to this new metagame.

So whether or not Treasure Cruise is banned soon, in a year, or never, players have to deal with it in the meantime, and there may be financial opportunities there. Let's talk about some of the cards that are good in this brave new metagame.

Ryan Bushard brought this up not long ago on Brainstorm Brewery, and though I don't know where the card's ceiling is, it's pretty clear that the Duel Deck printing did not completely kill its value. Goremand is in an interesting spot against Delver and Burn decks. On one hand, using this on Treasure Cruise is awesome—your opponent's cards still get exiled, and a lot of times that means there will be no follow-up Cruise the next turn.

On the other hand, Goremand is pretty horrible against the rest of both of those decks. Countering one-mana burn spells accomplishes very little, and against a Young Pyromancer, you may actually be able giving your opponent value by Remanding a spell. When most of your opponent's deck is made up of one- and two-mana spells, Remand is a little underwhelming.

But it's so good against Treasure Cruise, and it's also good against a number of other decks in the format. It also fits into the now-dominant B/R Delver deck, which may increase its amount of play. I don't think a sudden and large spike is in the cards, but this should regain any value it lost upon being reprinted, at least until (and if) we see it Modern Masters 2.

Bow of Nylea is a fantastic sideboard card in this metagame. With one mode saying, "Destroy target Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration" and another saying, "Target opponent discards a burn spell," this is a perfect answer to all the Delver and Burn running around.

The biggest downside here is that it's pretty slow. At five mana for its first activation, Burn decks may have already killed you, and Delver can just Goremand it all day while smacking you with insects and elementals. If you have faster defenses that can get you to this, though, there's a good chance you just win after activating it for the first time.

With copies as low as 21 cents on TCGplayer, the risk on Bow is small and the upside is... well, also probably reasonably small. Being from a recent, large fall set certainly lowers this card's potential ceiling, but it can't hurt to grab copies as throw-ins on your trades.

Speaking of quick defense, Dragon's Claw is becoming a Modern staple, which is hilarious for those of us who have tried to explain to new players why the lucky charms are so bad.

With approximately one million printings and being an uncommon, it's unlikely this does anything crazy. At the same time, you can get a bunch for 10 cents each, and if this becomes a four-of in every Modern sideboard, it shouldn't be hard to double up to a buylist the next time Modern becomes the community's main focus. Brainstorm Brewery's Jared Yost suggests foils might be a good buy, but you'll have to take his word for it—I am not a foil guy.

It's probably about time to start acquiring Scavenging Oozes. The card is at its floor, and though I've hoped for a while that it would go even lower once rotated from Standard, it appears to have bottomed out where it is.

Ooze is good in most green decks, providing main-deck incidental lifegain and graveyard hate on an efficient beater. That incidental lifegain and graveyard hate is especially important in this new metagame, where you are likely to get either burned out or cruised over. This card addresses both of those problems while killing your opponents, and seems like a crucial part of competing with green decks.

Cheap Sweepers?

Three sweepers come to mind as potential foils to this format's boogeymen.

Pyroclasm and Volcanic Fallout deal with Delver's creature suite nicely, killing literally everything in the deck (unless the opponent responds to trigger prowess on Monastery Swiftspear). Pyroclasm is obviously the more efficient card, but Fallout may be the best way to ensure your sweeper resolves.

Engineered Explosives had flirted with $30 before being reprinted in Modern Masters, crashing its prices and leaving it at around $6 now. Casting it for zero mana sweeps the board of elemental tokens and Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberrations, which is significant. Casting it for more can allow you to hit B/R Delver's other creatures, all of which are zero, one, or two mana. This is a powerful sideboard card in Modern and Legacy both and is currently at its price floor (at least for the last few years).

Adapting Until We Don't Need to Anymore

It's easy to act like Treasure Cruise is on the fast-track to banning and not worry about how to beat it. But it could be a while, and if you're interested in beating them and not joining them, you may want to consider your options. I think the above cards have real potential to take back the format from B/R Delver. Cards like Relic of Progenitus and Gut Shot may also be worth looking at, but those seem a little weak for Modern in general.

Only time will tell how this format will turn out after Khans of Tarkir came in and shook everything up. Until then, all we can do is try to figure out how to beat multiple Ancestral Recalls in most of our matches.