There are many things I love about Magic. The infinite possibilities that come from access to a diverse card pool, branching decisions trees that spread from one singularity, and the delicate balance of resource management. While each Magic format has its own unique qualities and characteristics, the one attribute of Modern I appreciate most is the importance of mana as a controllable resource, both in deck construction and gameplay.

Below, I’ll define the role resource management plays in Modern, analyze some examples of this principle in practice, and discuss how it applies to Grixis Control, my deck of choice for GP Charlotte. Let’s begin!

[wp_ad_camp_1]

Mana as a Resource

Magic, at its foundation, is a struggle to manage finite resources. Both players start at 20 life, with seven cards in hand (hopefully). Players draw one card and play one land per turn. Life points can be spent and exchanged like any other resource to gain an advantage elsewhere. The same goes for cards, where “card advantage” as we commonly refer to it involves gaining resources or extra value for what we pay (Supreme Verdict vs. a board of opposing creatures). Life as a resource is nonrenewable: once you use it, it’s gone (barring an exchange of resources a la Healing Salve). Cards as a resource is carefully controlled: you only get one new card a turn (barring effects such as Brainstorm). Mana, on the other hand, is given freely. Every turn, on the untap step, the hourglass resets, and all spent mana is refilled, ready to be used again. Whether we have access to two mana or ten, the fundamental rules of Magic allow us to leverage those resources again and again, equal to the amount of mana available multiplied by the amount of turns we play in the game.

We are all familiar with the untap step. What is your point?

The most successful strategies in Magic’s history have been decks designed to maximize mana efficiency at every stage of the game. This is seen all the time in high-powered formats such as Legacy and Vintage, and occasionally in Standard when the stars align. One classic example of this theory in practice is UW Delver, seen here taking 1st place by Yuuya Watanabe at GP Manilla 2012. Capable of deploying fast, cheap threats as early as the first turn, and then backing them up with counterspells and other protection spells made this deck a formidable force, and the consensus best deck during it’s time in Standard. While everyone remembers Delver of Secrets as the tool that beat them, the most important lesson this deck taught its opponents (whether they recognized it or not) was how incredibly powerful maximizing mana-use can be.

At every stage of the game, UW Delver found ways to maximize its mana usage. Pass turn with mana up and opponent plays around Mana Leak? Flash in Restoration Angel. Have an extra mana or two free? Dig through the deck with Ponder and Thought Scour. Have all the mana in the world? Equip a Runechanter's Pike and get to work. While opponent’s were busy scrambling to answer Delver and playing around counterspells plus Vapor Snag, all UW Delver cared about was maximizing its mana usage, using all available mana on every turn, generating small advantages and leveraging them into larger gains in the areas of tempo and card advantage.

So we get an untap step, and we can use all the mana we want. Got it. But shouldn’t we be casting the biggest thing we can turn after turn? Isn’t that the goal?

Sure, that’s the goal if you’re playing RG Tron, and your opponent isn’t set up to stop your unfair things. Look, there’s a reason why big, flashy cards seen flying across the table at Standard FNM’s don’t make the transition to Modern and Legacy. In high-powered formats, the cheapest option for an effect is usually the best. That's why, in Modern, Serum Visions is a stronger card than something like Peer Through Depths or Think Twice. Yes, Peer lets you dig two cards deeper into your deck, but Visions costs one less, which is a really big deal. Why? Mana efficiency! The ability to leverage our card resources faster, with greater ease, and fill in the gaps of our curve will translate into greater advantages later in the game.

Another classic example of mana efficiency is Remand. Sit down against any opponent piloting Big Green Whatever. Both of you have access to five mana, you spend two casting a creature, one casting a card draw spell, and pass with two mana up. Your opponent spends four on a Huntmaster of the Fells, which you answer with your Remand because you’re a Professional Magic Player (a PRO, if you will). Not only did you deal with your opponent’s threat and gained two mana on the exchange (your two-mana Remand for his four-mana Huntmaster), your opponent also wasted a mana by casting only Huntmaster on his turn. Meanwhile, you maximized mana efficiency by gobbling up everything on your plate. Congratulations, you deserve dessert! Keeping this principle in mind during deckbuilding is essential, it’s why I will usually choose a cheap option like Bitterblossom over something like Olivia Voldaren when building decks.

Modern - The Mana Tiers

Whether you’ve noticed it before or not, it bears repeating that Modern is a format defined by mana efficiency. Modern playable spells can generally be organized into four tiers, each looking to accomplish a specific goal. Let’s take a look.

One-mana spells: answers and card selection

With the exception of green, every color in Magic contains a one-mana answer widely played in Modern decks. Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, Thoughtseize, Spell Snare; these highly efficient spells establish the baseline for what we “should” be spending to answer threats in Modern. This is why cards such as Go for the Throat and Hero's Downfall don’t see much (if any) Modern play; there are simply better options available for less mana. Why do Abrupt Decay and Terminate see play then? Flexibility, without a drawback! While excellent, Lightning Bolt only hits < 4 toughness threats, and Path to Exile grants your opponent a free land.

As for card selection, Serum Visions exists as the last man standing for cheap card draw, as Ponder and Preordain are banned. Establishing this baseline for cheap answers and card draw allows us to evaluate rate for individual cards. Ancient Stirrings seems like a weak option compared to Serum Visions, but when we factor in synergy and the “puzzle piece” factor, we might start to re-evaluate cards like Stirrings.

Two-mana spells: threats and more threats

Tarmogoyf. Dark Confidant. Young Pyromancer. Eidolon of the Great Revel. Voice of Resurgence. Two mana in Modern grants you a resilient threat, barring outliers like Monastery Swiftspear and Delver of Secrets. Not counting the hyper-aggressive linear strategies, most threats in Modern are costed around two mana. This is important because, as with the one-mana tier of answers, two-mana threats establishes the baseline for what we “should” be paying for a threat in Modern. This is why creatures like Loxodon Smiter and Knight of the Reliquary don’t see much play, regardless of how many times Brian Kibler tries to make them work. Paying an extra mana for some counterplay against discard or land-based synergies often isn’t powerful enough to justify the extra resource investment, which is why Smiter and friends don’t see wider play. This push towards two-mana threats also has an interesting effect on counterspells in the format. Cards like Mana Leak, Deprive, and Remand see play, but not to the extent of Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile because a lot of things have to go right for these counterspells to be considered “good”.

Take the Remand example from earlier. The PRO player was able to generate advantages both in tempo and mana efficiency because he was able to answer his opponent’s four-mana threat with two mana at instant speed, while using the rest of his turn to accomplish other goals. Mana Leak on Tarmogoyf is acceptable, yet we are still trading two mana for two mana, and not gaining an advantage (a push, if you will). Mana Leak exists as a playable spell in the format because of its broad applications. Similar to Abrupt Decay, it can answer a wide range of threats both early in the game and late. The issue with Leak (and most two-mana counterspells in Modern) is that most threats in Modern are two mana, so it becomes much more difficult to generate an advantage with them, not to mention their inability to deal with two-mana threats while on the draw. Leak in particular suffers from a narrow window of effectiveness, as it cannot answer opposing threats at the start to the game, and can be played around a few turns down the line once mana has been developed. This is why Spell Snare is such an important card, a functional Path or Bolt that can answer Tarmogoyf, Bitterblossom, Terminate, and opposing counterspells even on the draw.

Three-mana spells: card advantage

This category includes cards like Electrolyze, Kolaghan's Command, Liliana of the Veil, Lingering Souls, and Kitchen Finks. If one mana gets us answers and two mana presents threats, it stands to reason that playable three mana spells should offer something more. All of the above cards generate card advantage in some way, either by answering a threat at no loss of card quality (Electrolyze), generating a built-in two for one (Kolaghan's Command), or functioning as “more than a card” through Lingering Souls' flashback and Liliana's resiliency. This trend towards three-mana spells as card advantage explains why things such as Maelstrom Pulse and Detention Sphere see little play. More often than not, these spells function as expensive three-mana answers that don’t generate any advantage (Maelstrom Pulse against Bitterblossom, Detention Sphere against Keranos, God of Storms) where a one- or two-mana spell could have done the job.

On the other hand, this is why Snapcaster Mage is, in my opinion, the best individual card in Modern. Snapcaster functions as a modal spell that can be cast as either a cheap, unassuming 2/1 flash creature for two, or can be cast for three (or more) to rebuy previously cast spells again and with a 2/1 attached. Snapcaster's value appreciates as the game lengthens, which cannot be said for any other card I can think of. On turn three, Snapcaster can rebuy a Lightning Bolt. On turn six, it can rebuy a Cryptic Command. So when it comes to three-mana card advantage spells, the two-mana Snapcaster is the undisputed king.

Four-mana: win the game

Building on the principles established in previous tiers, a four-mana investment should naturally provide something well worth the price. That means Cryptic Command, Supreme Verdict, Shatterstorm, or Splinter Twin. In Modern, four mana often occupies an entire turn’s worth of mana. The prevalence of highly efficient threats and answers in the format, along with counterspells, means if you intend to spend four mana on a spell, it better win the game. It can also generate a significant enough advantage that the opponent should have difficulty moving the game back to parity. In addition, the presence of Splinter Twin strategies along with other fast combo decks work to push curves lower, as tapping out for a large spell can often “spell” doom (sorry: had to) if it doesn’t end the game on the spot. As I said earlier, many players suggest Olivia Voldaren as a possible option for Jund and Grixis decks, but a four-mana 3/3 that takes over the game only if you can untap with it is a pretty large investment risk, especially in a format full of one-mana removal like Bolt and Path. Jund strategies seem to be the only decks that can employ expensive spells like Huntmaster and Outpost Siege (gross) that don’t immediately end the game, because the rest of their deck works to guide the game towards a topdeck war where both of these threats excel at generating advantages and burying the opponent.

As a final note, Collected Company exists as a four-mana card advantage spell that requires lots of support to make it work. Decks casting Company basically have to hit two creatures to not fall behind on-rate. Even then, cards such as Lingering Souls can more-or-less do the same thing without having to jump through hoops. While the ability to dig through the deck has applications as far as searching for sideboard cards and combo pieces go, there’s a reason Collected Company is always seen alongside mana creatures.

Grixis Control and GP Charlotte

With these principles in mind, I began preparation for Grand Prix Charlotte knowing I wanted to find a strategy that worked within these established tiers of Modern mana investment. Grixis Delver was an established strategy that I felt was doing a lot of things right, and Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Kolaghan's Command seemed to add a lot of play to the strategy. The core of Serum Visions, Lightning Bolt, Snapcaster Mage, and Thought Scour was incredibly powerful, and I knew any deck I was going to play would be packing four Snapcaster Mages.

After testing a few games with this deck, I found my Delvers and Young Pyromancers were underwhelming, while Tasigur continued to overperform. As a huge threat that came down for usually one or two mana with barely any conscious work to enable him, Tasigur was just excellent. In Grixis he functions as a black Tarmogoyf that draws cards, can’t be shrinked, and dodges Abrupt Decay. When I started cutting Delver of Secrets in post-board blue matchups and against removal-heavy opponents, I started leaning more heavily on Tasigur. That's when I knew I needed to make a change.

Cutting Delver allowed me to also cut Gitaxian Probe. While a perfectly fine card, Probe puts a little too much stress on our life total and is not something I want to be doing when facing Burn or Affinity, so cutting them was not something I found too painful. While on one hand removing Probe can make Snapcaster slightly worse (running him out turn two while flashing back a Probe is an excellent play) cutting Probe made my draw steps and Thought Scours more powerful. So as far as Snapcaster goes, I’d call it a push. And once you’re cutting Delver and Probe, Pyromancer starts to not look so hot. Remand also becomes less amazing when we’re not looking to apply quick pressure or protect a combo on a pivotal turn.

At this point I knew I wanted to play more of a Grixis Control type strategy, with more Tasigurs and no Delvers. I liked that a lot of pros were writing articles about Grixis, and I was looking forward to blanking opposing Decays in G1’s, and bringing in Blood Moon or Bitterblossom after board. After making some changes and incorporating some ideas from Patrick Chapin’s excellent Sultai/Grixis article (SCG premium), I arrived at the following list.

This list was exactly what I wanted to be doing in Modern, and where I wanted to be for Charlotte. Gurmag Angler as extra copies of Tasigur really brought the deck together and gave it an actual gameplan. Pure control is difficult to accomplish in Modern, as there is just too much discard and too many wacky things to be able to control everything. Shaun McClaren can win with Jeskai, but normal humans seem to have some difficulties. As a result, I wanted my Grixis “Control” deck to be able to turn the corner quickly when ready, and there’s no better way to do that than one-mana 4/5’s and 5/5’s. Bolts and Kolaghan's Command-Shocks also work better at killing our opponent if we’ve hit him for four or five once or twice, and the removal of Delver and Probe allows us to play Creeping Tar Pits, up our individual card quality and settle in for the long game.

Coming off of the Season Two Invitational, big mana decks such as Amulet Bloom and RG Tron seemed like they would be popular due to their recent success. For Charlotte, I expected a field consisting primarily of big mana decks, fair decks tuned to fight the big mana decks, fast aggro decks looking to capitalize on everyone tuning their decks to fight the big mana decks, and Twin. I knew Kolaghan's Command would be excellent against everyone, as the Snapcaster/Command loop buries all the fair decks and Command is an amazing two-for-one against Affinity and Burn as well. Even against the big mana decks, snagging an Amulet of Vigor or Expedition Map is fine and can help us steal a victory. Like most everyone else with access to red, I planned on packing Blood Moon in large numbers to fight Amulet and Tron, both tough matchups. For everyone else, Snapcaster and Tasigur supported by cheap interaction and Kolaghan's Command to keep things going would be strong enough against to give me game in every matchup.

As for the rest of my board, I knew I wanted a trump for the blue mirrors, even if probably not necessary to win games. I didn’t have enough time to test the intricacies of the matchup and wanted something my opponents wouldn’t be prepared for. There is a fine line between “trump” and “too cute”, but I’ve found success by bringing something new to the table that my opponent isn’t expecting. I say all this to preemptively defend my decision to run two Bitterblossoms in the board, as I knew it was a topic of contention while testing on stream (twitch.tv/Architect_Gaming!) and I would have to explain it to salty opponents as well. In a Delverless Grixis Control deck, Game 1’s often ended by with me gaining virtual card advantage due to opponent’s being stuck with semi-dead Decays and Bolts they have to send at my face while I’m clocking them with Gurmag Angler. After board, I expected many opponents to board out Decay, at which point I would be boarding in Blood Moon or Bitterblossom in the blue mirrors and Jund matchups. While my opponents were preparing to settle in for a long game, using their first few turns to play tapped lands of their own and cast some Serum Visions, I was casting Inquisition of Kozilek into Bitterblossom and leaving them dead in the water.

In Charlotte, I went 7-1-1 on Day 1, beating Faeries, Elf Company, Burn, Jund, Little Kid Abzan, Jeskai Control and Grixis Twin, while losing to Affinity and drawing with Amulet Bloom. Most of my matches were not close and six of my seven wins were 2-0. On Day 2, I took an early loss to Etched Champion again, beat another Grixis Twin deck (2-0), then lost two weird games to UW Sun Titan Control and Jund to finish my Day 2 run. My opponents were constantly confused as to the makeup of my deck, and several times I had opponents ask me after the match if I was playing Delver or the combo. Shadow of Doubt is often boarded out after game 1’s along with Mana Leak, but I “got em” a few times over the course of the event, and it does enough against big mana and Chord of Calling that I feel it's earned its slot. I’m not against cutting it either. Many viewers of my stream have suggested Olivia Voldaren instead of Bitterblossom against Jund and other decks. My response has always been the same: I’ll take the cheap, efficient, hard to deal with threat over a four drop that dies to Lightning Bolt everytime.

A few matches into Day 1, I knew my list was a few cards off from perfect. I swapped my 4th Island for a Darkslick Shores in an attempt to support my two maindeck Inquisition of Kozileks, but this in turn made my manabase worse when trying to operate under Moon. This was done in an attempt to play early discard without losing much life against Affinity and Burn, while having another blue dual like Creeping Tar Pit that gets to untap under Choke. But the Shores should probably just go back to being an Island.

I moved a Kolaghan's Command to the board to fit discard in the main, and boarded in the Command almost every time in exchange for the Shadow of Doubt after game 1. This was done under the reasoning that Shadow is really a game 1 card and better on the play, and I often was boarding it out when on the draw (which most of my game 2’s were on the draw over the course of the event). After making the swap all event, I realized I should just cut the Shadow, move the Kolaghan's Command maindeck and free up a sideboard slot to help out a bad matchup.

Dragon's Claw in the board should probably just be Dispel. Claw is excellent against Burn but Dispel is almost as good, gaining anywhere from 3-8 life just like Claw would normally, while allowing me to continue to be immune to Destructive Revelry. In addition, Dispel is excellent against opposing Cryptic Commands, so much so that I’ve been cutting my own Cryptics in blue mirrors that I’d like to have access to the extra counterspell.

Post GP Charlotte Grixis Control

I’d like to close by talking about this Cryptic Command issue a little more, along with some discussion on my updated decklist and how it compares to Patrick Chapin’s 9th place list at the Charlotte. See the list below:

I found myself cutting Cryptic Command in blue mirrors, as I found I was rarely able to use it safely and often had to cast it on turn four to protect a creature, rather than later in the game when I could support it with Spell Snare and Deprive. My reasoning was that I would rather be the player casting Dispel on my opponent’s Cryptic rather than the other way around, and I eventually trimmed down to just one copy for my final list. Pat placed 9th on breakers with a very similar Grixis control list, playing Fulminator Mage over Blood Moon and cutting the Young Pyromancers and Shadow of Doubt for a full playset of Cryptics. Many viewers on stream asked if I would be switching to his list and what I thought about it, so I figured I’d give my perspective here in writing.

First and foremost, Patrick Chapin is an excellent player and I’m probably a tenth of the player he is, which is why I probably wouldn’t do well with his list. Though they are only a couple cards off, Chapin’s decision to cut Pyromancers and max out on Cryptics shows a strong predisposition to stretching the game out as long as possible. Similar to the way a Jeskai Control deck would operate, I imagine all Pat wanted to do over the course of the weekend was find opportunities to cast Cryptic for value, burying his opponent once he was able to fire off two or three. I play better when providing pressure, which supports my decision to retain Pyromancers in my list, and I feel that you can find success either way. I would be much happier to be casting Cryptic Command if I had more Dispels to protect it, and if I decide to cut the Young Pyromancers I would probably replace them with Cryptics for sure.

What do you think? Do you agree with my decision to trim Cryptic Command? What about my classification of Modern’s mana tiers? Is there anything you would change in my list? Thanks for reading and let me know in the comments!

Trevor Holmes
The_Architect on MTGO
Twitch.tv/Architect_Gaming
Twitter.com/7he4rchitect