Seeing this late, but thanks for the line! Glad I helped 🙂

Dont give in! Monkey Grow is a great deck name :p We dont name cars Black Family Sports Sedan, or White Electric Subcompact.

Just prepare for Modern’s best strategies and you’ll be fine. I’ve generally found competitive events here and elsewhere to reflect with surprising accuracy what I see on MN’s Top Decks page. For what it’s worth, I play in 2-3 local events weekly and haven’t seen that much Affinity lately. Chord, on the other hand…

Addressing the issue of Modern deck names (which I think are a mess in general) in a future piece. Stay tuned!

The main draw to Seal in my opinion is that it can be cast pre-emptively, such as before resolving Reveler and being forced to dump it. I don’t like that it’s not an instant/sorcery for Delver and doesn’t deal damage.

A major strike against Seal is that it doesn’t open opponents up to surprise tempo swings. I’ve had players slam haymakers like Batterskull or Vedalken Shackles plus activation against me and then get blown out by a two-mana spell trading for their five-mana investment.

In my many kitchen table matches against Counter-Cat, drawing Revelry and losing it after being forced into a position where I need to cast the Reveler, and then losing to Scepter, really stinks. Granted, Counter-Cat isn’t a deck I’d expect to face at an actual Modern event, but this kind of scenario can come up against other decks too.

Ancient Grudge would flash back after hitting the grave, but it doesn’t also hit Rest in Peace, and we only have two slots in the sideboard to disrupt artifacts/enchantments. Seal addresses this issue and I’m planning to try out a pair soon over the Revelries. It’s also possible that a split is correct.

They were great every time I drew them. I love this 75 going forward.

Im not sure how many readers this blog has to have to take one reader’s comments so seriously. Grow is an archetype, and if some people get confused by words outside of their general vocabulary, then its their problem. Ive seen Monkey Grow used dozens of times in articles here in the past year, this is the first time one person complained. Dont need to have knee-jerk reactions here. Its competitive Magic, serious players will understand the intricacies of archetypes, and sub-archetypes. My three cents.

Sorry I probably went a little over board. I didn’t mean to be so harsh. I apologize for that. It is good writing, and the click bait thing was a little excessive. This response was great though. Fantastic customer service. Someone commented saying that giving it a title like “Temur Dever; Monkey Grow” might be more appropriate for the article names. I like that idea a lot. It gives the author room to brand his personal flavor of the build that is a part of a broader archetype. You guys are great. I was an occasional visitor, I will be here much more now. Thanks guys.

Gonna try to clear the air here and clarify a few things. First of all, you are all correct about the history of the “grow” moniker. I’m an old player myself (started around Revised), so I’m familiar with these old deck names and I agree they add character and color to the game. That said, most players are not in my camp, and Modern Nexus (along with most sites) aims to educate and provide resources for new players as well.

As for Temur Delver, it is an established archetype, and Jordan’s is just one build. Not all of them run Hooting Mandrills. While I’m loathe to prevent Jordan from using his own name for an archetype he’s helped develop, I also want his articles to be intelligible and clear. It gets pretty confusing when a deck that’s only one or two maindeck cards off suddenly acquires a new name.

So I hope you’ll understand if we as a content producer shy away from the more esoteric names that require background knowledge. Modern (and Magic) has enough barriers to entry for the new player already.

“Grow” is an archetype that became popular in the late 90s which originally used Quirion Dryad, but can refer to any green-based tempo deck with creatures that grow (with Tarmogoyf favored over the Dryad in recent lists), and “Monkey” refers to Hooting Mandrills which are a key part of the tempo plan with Stubborn Denial. Jordan has been playing, tweaking, and winning with this deck long before Todd Anderson T8’ed with his version. Calling this article clickbait just because you don’t like the name of the deck is pretty laughable. Rage more?

Just chiming in to agree with the sentiment. I like the deck (and the sultai version) but really dislike cute and unnecessary names. To the extent grow is a legit deck name id think it applies to things that get bigger over time – quirion dryad, vinelasher kudzu or some heroic cards. Goyf fits but that alone cant seriously be more relevant than the rest of the deck which is temur delver (delver and lots of instants and sorceries).

For what it’s worth, the progenitor of this deck was called “miracle gro” and ran quirion dryad. This was a very well known deck for a long time and is a legendary piece of magic history, but it’s understandable that newer players wouldn’t be familiar with the name.
It’s always the case that decks get “nickname” nomenclature, but that’s fine! Decks like solar flare, tin fins and boat brew are the stuff of legend.

Don’t fall into the trap of naming all decks “colour: flagship spell” because it’s boring! We need those classic nicknames to make modern a vibrant format.

But if you must make a concession to this, give decks a title;subtitle format such as rug midrange;monkey grow

Editor in Chief here. Your criticism is duly noted. One of our current projects here is to come up with a standardized naming convention for all Modern decks. This will affect our Monthly Metagame Reports, but also titles of articles and basically every other way we refer to a deck. Apologies if you felt misled by the title.