Metagame Breakdown

Almost 300 players showed up for our Modern event this weekend, and the decks they brought with them were good for a few surprises. For instance, Affinity was quite underrepresented compared to the turnout a few months back. Dredge, one of the most feared bogeymen of the format, was hardly represented at all. Meanwhile, a version of Death and Taxes combining the usual hatebears like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Leonin Arbiter with Thought-Knot Seer was now among the ten most popular archetypes.

At the top, of course, midrange decks based in black and green still ruled the day, with about three times as many Jund as Abzan players. Infect had climbed to the number two spot, while toolbox combo decks built around Chord of Calling, Collected Company, and even Eldritch Evolution accounted for about seven percent of the field.

Grixis proved the blue control deck of choice, Naya Burn proved to be the deck for today's straightforward aggro players. Urzatron decks appeared in many different shapes, and shades: blue, green-white, red-green, or even completely colorless. Meanwhile, decks killing with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle were all red and green, but were just as likely to use Primeval Titan and Scapeshift as they were to combine the Titan with Through the Breach.

However, all of the deck types listed only accounted for 74 percent of the metagame and only one barely crossed the ten-percent threshold. So, one thing didn't change: Modern was as diverse as ever!