Remember that the reason you play Languish is not the reason you play Damnation. You play Languish because you want to kill everything BUT Tasigur, Rhino, and Goyf. This means you play it in aggro matchups where you want to go turn two Goyf and/or turn three Tasigur and still need a boardweeper on turn four to stabilize things. If you are relying on Damnation, you won’t have Goyf/Tas as your turn 2-3 blockers. If you use Languish, you can hold the line for two turns with your creatures and then blow everything else up on turn four.

I know that D&T is considered a fringe deck, but it’s consistently hit the Top 8 and won more large events than any other “Tier 3″ and is very well-suited for a meta where Tron and Pod-style decks run rampant make it something worth considering. I made a larger than usual preorder when Dragons of Tarkir hit and one of the eyebrow-raising cards on that order was Collected Company. I feel the same way about Wingmare that I did about that. Outside of D&T/Hatebears will it see any play? Of course it won’t, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a lot of potential there.

Here’s hoping that the new Lili holds value better than Narset did. In all fairness the card did it exactly what I wanted it to in the deck I picked it up to play it in, but man did I take a bath on those.

Is there any way to delete the comment above (and this one)? It was supposed to be a new comment. I’m not sure why it was posted here.

Of the cards in this set, the ones that I’m currently interested in are Day’s Undoing (obviously, though I think a January, if not September ban is a real possibility), Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, and Vryn Wingmare.

I know that D&T is considered a fringe deck, but it’s consistently hit the Top 8 and won more large events than any other “Tier 3” and is very well-suited for a meta where Tron and Pod-style decks run rampant make it something worth considering. I made a larger than usual preorder when Dragons of Tarkir hit and one of the eyebrow-raising cards on that order was Collected Company. I feel the same way about Wingmare that I did about that. Outside of D&T/Hatebears will it see any play? Of course it won’t, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a lot of potential there.

Here’s hoping that the new Lili holds value better than Narset did. In all fairness the card did it exactly what I wanted it to in the deck I picked it up to play it in, but man did I take a bath on those.

Why play the new Angel when you can play Auriok Champion to silver bullet twin and have a good card for other matchups as well?

I think early game, your lands are too important to throw them away to Vortex. Later in the game, you actually make good use of excess land drops with manlands.

If there’s a card in Origins that I think would slot into Jund, it would be Evolutionary Leap in the board. People look at it as an enabler or something, but more than that I think it’s an insane card in any grindy matchup.

I think the Nalaars have enough value to consider playing in modern, but I do not think they replace huntmaster. The ravager mode is just so much more valuable than the flying bodies and potential to sacrifice. And if you manage to flip a ravager back and forth the CA generated is just amazing.

Nalaars will be more for red decks that want huntmaster but don’t play green – if such a deck exists.

I think moonlight plays pretty good in UWx control with snapcaster mage – now I don’t know if the deck wants that effect, but that’s where I see it going if it sees play at all (let’s be honest – esper control). Shadow of doubt is the perfect comparison – it cantrips worst case, but can be a situational blowout. I have never had shadow of doubt cast against me in modern, and I’ve played it sparingly and usually end up cutting it after a few too many “UU draw a card” experiences when I desperately needed something more relevant than that.

Well, if you are only evaluate based on twin match up then the angel not perfect. However, I believe she’s better than you might think against jund, elves, delver, merfolk or affinity if you can drop her early.

I think Harbinger of Tides will be a great addition to Merfolk to firmly entrench it as a Tier 1.9 deck.

And there’s no way I see Pia and Kiran entering the Modern card pool. The comparison to Huntmaster of the Fells is off. Yes if you deal with Huntmaster it’s ‘just’ a 2/2, but it needs an answer otherwise it will run away with the game. You can quite safely leave Pia and Kiran on the table and deal with other relevant threats.

I dont mean to sound like a bad guy, but the article does say: “The moment you realize this doesn’t stop the Exarch/Mite combo is the moment you see this is unplayable in Modern.” regarding Archangel of Tithes.

During the combo, the 100th pestermite/deceiver exarch will tap down your archangel, and the token team will swing to victory.

i am primarily a jund player, so my questions generally relate to the post origins future of the deck:

a) with Molten vortex, are we sure that doesnt slot straight into the jund deck as both early removal and mid game finisher? I completely agree that it alone is not going to make a tier three deck tier 1, but it just seems the type of midrangey grindy card (that can also be played early and used for removal as necessary) that would suit jund. The theorycrafting is that this including will remove the 4cmc threats that rot in your hand while you’re dying to affinity/elves/burn/any linear aggressive deck. My testing (beginning this week) will be +2 molten vortex, +1 life from the loam, -2 of the flex creature spots (huntmaster, olivia, fulminator, kitchen finks depending on your choice), and -1 outpost siege or card advantage engine.

I am probably wrong, but that’s what testing is for.

b) Gerry Thompson’s article today included what he believed is a summary of the format, including “Jund is mostly on the decline,”. I agree we may have seen the highpoint of the jund dominance, but to say it is mostly on the decline?

c) Regarding day’s undoing i am skeptical, but keeping an open mind to me safe. Assuming Day’s undoing is as good as the articles on the site suggest is Jund going to have to lower the curve or die? Or is it time to dust off the merfolk list for the next 3 months until the format polices days undoing hopefully out of existence

As I was reading your article, i thought to myself “this poor man is going to be assailed in the comments section by every nutjob that thinks the format will be broken by one of the cards in the “not quite there” and “traps” section. Thanks for writing the article

My big issue with Moonlight is that it’s in the wrong colors right now. All the decks that might want this effect (Twin, Grixis Control, etc.) just aren’t playing white. The only decent white decks right now are Abzan, Abzan Company, and Naya Zoo/Company. Burn too, but I really don’t see Burn using this over any of the other hate cards. And of those white decks that can use Moonlight, only Abzan can really run it without screwing with some other part of their deck.

Your point on terminology makes sense – now I see what you were going for when you put it there. I would love to see an article on the “stragglers” for Magic Origins. If nothing else, it can identify a couple of cards someone might want to take some low-risk bets on, or ones that may have a chance at elevating a fringe archetype out of the “weird deck” morass.

That is true. I really like this article. Keep up the good work.

Re: the Elite, this might just be a terminology issue. As I mentioned in that section, cards in that category “pop up in events, but they won’t be redefining Modern as we know it”. Elite is going to put in some great work in Elves, but it isn’t going to suddenly make Elves a tier one deck. The deck should still remain tier two. By contrast, I think Day’s is huge across numerous decks, Harbinger actually does bring Merfolk to tier one, and Pia and Kiraan are a huge added threat for Jund. So maybe it’s just a difference of terms, because I do think Elite is quite strong.

For Harbinger, it seems like an easy 2-3 maindeck include for Merfolk, especially taking the GP Copenhagen-winning list as a template. This card’s play against Twin alone is huge.

I might do a followup article (maybe a Saturday article!) on some stragglers I could have talked about here. Most of them aren’t playable though. Priest is cute in BW Death and Taxes, but that’s way too fringe to matter. Sanctum is too slow for Storm and Despoiler costs too much for the dredge decks. Krasis fails the Bolt test, which is a problem when most Twin lists are heavy on Exarch and light on (or totally divested from) Pestermites.

This is true, although as we’ve seen at every event since PT Fate Reforged, there are plenty of times where Titan is not attacking with Stronghold active. Or where Titan is just powered up by Sunhome and not by Stronghold. But yes, that is definitely a situation where Harbinger won’t cut it.