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MTGO 5-0 Modern League Results (03/01/2022)



Results

Full Results

Direct links courtesy of /u/FereMiyJeenyus and their MTGO Results Scraper


Summary

  • Wizards posts 5-0 League drops every Tuesday and Friday, rain or shine. Holidays are the exception.

  • The criteria of decks showing up is a 20 card difference from other decks, per Wizards. So 20 Jund lists 5-0'ing may result in only one or two Jund lists showing in the dump.

  • Don't take League results as true metagame share, as the above removes the # of results.

  • Naming is best guess. Feel free to correct it in the comments and I will edit it in.

  • I will highlight anything interesting, of course depending on time. Old Favorites will have decks that haven't been showing up in a while or classics, Spicy Decks will have new and unique decks, and Interesting Tech will have existing and meta decks that have some interesting new cards.

  • I primarily save my more opinionated opinions for the bottom.


Old Favorites

  • Esper Ad Naus: That's right, with so few copies of Force of Negation in the format right now, it's time for an OG combo deck! Thassa's Oracle replaced the old Ad Naus wincon of Lightning Storm with the banning of the Mana Monke, Simian Spirit Guide. However, with the change to the manabase along with the printing of Counterspell, Ad Naus can protect the combo really well - including - Mana Tithe and Pact of Negation! Spoils of the Vault or Ad Nauseum into win can just win on the spot, so playing cantrips, Profane Tutor, and interaction to buy time is pretty viable if the opponent doesn't keep Force of Negation or a grip full of Counterspell up.

  • GW Heliod N: A few new includes here to the standard list; one-of Endurance and Solitude offer some interaction to let the deck go infinite. The former is especially good against decks that might disrupt Heliod like GDS - and can be hit with Collected Company. Boseiju, Who Endures to blow up the Pithing Needle is basically free but also really helps answer those common answers to Heliod!

  • Rw Prowess (Lurrus) N: So, some notes. It's looking like we can expect RW Burn's list to stay pretty static; keeping the ususal creature package, and for the Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer + Dragon's Rage Channeler to stick to Prowess style lists that better take advantage of them. And, we've seen Rw Prowess show up both consistently in these lists and now in the Challenges - if anything, I think we can call Prowess, in both UR and Rw flavors a deck you can expect to see in larger events, and totally fine to spike a FNM or league.

  • Gwb Elves: Elves! This is the more 'modern' variant, dipping a bit just for Grist, the Hunger Tide and Vizier of Remedies, while keeping the 'play all the creatures' primary plan to make a million mana into Finale of Devastation or Ezuri, Renegade Leader or to play the entire deck off the library with Realmwalker. An interesting sideboard card with Mark of Asylum, too! (Personally I saw three Elves lists on Friday - turns out when no one is packing damage based removal like Anger of the Gods, it's really good to swing wide).

  • GR Ponza: Lots of commentors have mentioned "Where's Ponza?" Well, here it is! Fury as a way to pump the breaks on fast decks offers Ponza a way to buy enough time to Pillage or Blood Moon against more greedy decks. Klothys, God of Destiny is still really good - even with the printing of Prismatic Ending - against decks like GDS, eating the yard and gaining life every turn is really, really good effect. Some interesting sideboard cards as well with Broken Wings to blow up Murktide Regents or Urza's Sagas, and ancient classic Thrun, the Last Troll, to be almost unremovable.

  • GR Titanshift N: The old class, linear, 'yeah you are just gonna die in a few turns' deck. Anyone who has played Modern for a while can probably remember the first time they faced off against Titanshift and immeadietly regretted not putting a singleton copy of Field of Ruin in the deck, or just realizing out right you can't stop the deck. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove gives the deck a way to win even without Scapeshift, and to start plinking down creatures before the Scapeshift. Of special note is the Overgrown Tomb. A new and powerful include in the deck is Hidetsugu Consumes All as a four-of in the sideboard. This deck can struggle against very, very fast aggro like Burn or GDS that can blow up the blocking Steves to present lethal; so a three-mana wipe is probably exactly what this deck needs to compete.

  • U Merfolk N: Fish people are back with a cool list! A split in the main of Dismember and Force of Negation for interaction with four Counterspells in the sideboard; and Otawara, Soaring City as another U untapped legendary land with a cool effect is basically free in Merfolk. It also dodges Boil which is of course way less common these days. Thieving Skydiver to steal a hammer in the side is great tech as well.

  • GW Devoted Druid N: Let's gooooooooo! Old classic Devoted Druid puts up a trophy! For those of you who started playing more recently, Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies to make infinite mana to find Walking Ballista with Duskwatch Recruiter or infinite mana into Finale of Devastation is an old, classic combo that was a T1 deck for a while. Notably, in older Modern when you generally didn't pack the level of removal seen currently unless you were Jund, not having removal or counter for T2 Druid T3 Vizier was generally game. Some cool tech including the Postmortem Lunge to back a hasty Devoted Druid, and new cards like Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth for mana fixing and Boseiju, Who Endures to blow up Cursed Totem or Pithing Needle.


Spicy Decks

  • Mardu Greasfang Vehicles N: Greasefang, Okiba Boss into Parhelion II has been brewed into Pioneer and Historic, to my understanding, but you know what's a really, really good discard outlet? Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar + The Underworld Cookbook! Not only does that offer early threats/removal, dumping back the topdecked Parhelion II in the yard is critical for the combo to be actually good! Otherwise, some pretty standard discard/graveyard deck staples like Stitcher's Supplier and Street Wraith, and just like most food decks, Urza's Saga to find the Underworld Cookbook or make massive food empowered Karnstructs is there. However, there are some cool cards that haven't been seen in Modern like Undead Butler to work as Stitcher Supplier 5-8 and a return to hand effect for Greasfang, Okiba Boss and Can't Stay Away to buy back the Greasfang. A critical line of text that makes Greasfang viable is that it's like Winota - Greasfang doesn't need to attack to trigger!

  • B Urza's 8 Rack: Yes, it's actually 8 Rack! Well, 7 rack. One Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage, two Shrieking Affliction, and four of the actual The Rack. But this is very much aligned with the more classic 8 Rack deck, just with some upgrades. Four Main board Liliana of the Veil and a single Liliana, Waker of the Dead offer repeated discard and strong removal effects, and Tourach, Dread Cantor is an insanely good payoff and effect in a discard deck; dodging Prismatic Ending along with getting bigger off the Lilis gives the deck another threat in addition to Karnstructs. But don't worry - if you like the old Ensnaring Bridge pattern, there are three in the side!

  • Temur Saga (Yorion) N: In a lot of ways, this is similar to Jund Saga, but the addition of U adds the best artifact synergizing creatures, in this case, Urza, Lord High Artificer! Going up to 80 also makes room for plenty of silver bullet artifacts like Aether Spellbomb and Soul-Guide Lantern in the main, and playing Yorion also makes Abundant Growth that much better, which also helps with the terrible three color mana + Urza's Saga problem that Jund Saga runs into. And, of course, U over B gives Counterspell and Expressive Iteration, the latter of which could be viewed as reason enough to play blue.

  • UW Merfolk N: We've seen this in Yorion flavor, but not in 60! Aether Vial decks have historically been seen as poor candidates for Yorion, Sky Nomad as topdecking a vial is pretty much the most feelbad thing you can do. Dropping to 60 however, there is still room for both Unsettled Mariner and Prismatic Ending, easily playable with the Wanderwine Hub fixing the mana while keeping double blue for all the Merfolk. Unsetteled Mariner is pretty much insane in an Aether Vial deck, as well; Responding to Fury cast with a vial Mariner is an absoulte blowout. Force of Negation in the main takes advantage of so many blue cards, and in the side dipping white gives access to March of Otherworldly Light to harm Urza's Saga decks and Rest in Peace against all the graveyard decks.

  • U Urza's Dreadnought N: It's basically 8 Cast and Dreadnought slammed together! Rather than stay pure colorless, going U in Dreadnought adds Thought Monitor, Urza, Lord High Artificer, and Thoughtcast for incredible card advantage and possible mana advantage. It's also a lot easier to crew a Consulate Dreadnought when Moonsnare Prototype makes casting the Nettlecyst easier and buffs it by one - of special note however is the Hard Evidence, usually not seen outside Creativity; to offer both an artifact and a blocker!

  • Mardu Midrange: It's basically Pyromancer for 2022. Grim Lavamancer and Seasoned Pyromancer are great to dump Lightning Skelemental, Lingering Souls, and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger into the yard, and all of them can be gotten back with Unearth, and flickered with Ephemerate! Whereas Young Pyromancer focused decks focused on the instant and socery synergies, this Pyromancer like deck focuses on permanents and ways to bring the back and sacrifice them - very good in a format packing Force of Negation and Counterspell

  • B Coffers Control N: A new itereation of the Cabal Coffers list we saw last week; Just like in Tron, Karn, the Great Creator is an amazing pay off that can go fetch a threat from the wishboard like Sundering Titan, or slow the game down with Ensnaring Bridge. Otherwise, making a ton of black mana gives access to rarely seen removal like Despair and new NEO cards Invoke Despair and March of Wretched Sorrow, both of which can help stabilize the deck, offering both removal and card advantage/life gain. A special note is the full playset of Lithoform Blight to Spreading Seas Titan and Artifact decks.

  • BG Reclaimer Saga (Lurrus) N: Pilots like StormQrow continue to iterate and experiment on the newest Rock like deck; Elvish Reclaimer along with the spell lands like Takenuma, Abandoned Mire and the insane value of Urza's Saga offers a grindy gameplan that can be protected with the traditionally incredible BG removal; Abrupt Decay to blow up Rest in Peace or Chalice of the Void is great; Life from the Loam to pick up those valuable lands has been seen in Assault Loam, but it can't be forgotten that Witherbloom Command is basically direct support to a BG Lands deck. All four modes are strong!

  • Temur Assault Loam N: Speaking of Seismic Assault and Life from the Loam, it's always cool to see Assault Loam on the periphery. With the printing of Wrenn & Six in 2019 almost gave the deck enough legs, it still wasn't quite enough to really let Loam have the consistency it needed. Slogurk, the Overslime however is probably the strongest engine for the deck; offering an additional payoff for spell lands like Boseiju, Who Endures, cycling lands like Forgotten Cave, and Seismic Assault, while also giving the deck another way to get back lands in addition to Life From the Loam and Wrenn & Six. Dragon's Rage Channeler and Tarmogoyf directly benefit from a deck playing all the types, and an unanswered Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer rounds on the threats and offers a way to slam an Assault on T2; dodging the Counterspell on the play.

  • Grixis Sacrifice: Ok, now this is wild! Jund Sacrifice has made a showing, relying on Cauldron Familiar and Mayhem Devil to Jund em out; but dropping G for UW? Who saw that coming? Dropping the curve to play Lurrus of the Dream-Den is also a cool move, except guess what? That's in the mainboard! The deck also plays Emry, Luker of the Loch for a total of six graveyard recursion effects that can buy back both threats like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer or the missing part of the Cat Oven combo. A really cool twist on an established archetype!

  • 4c Creativity Rhinos N: This deck has shown up a few times, and it's still a really cool list; offering two different threat packages by just trimming some Rhinos interaction for the three Archon of Cruelty + four Indomitable Creativity. That being said, it is also technically possible to hard cast an Archon of Cruelty with the treasures from Prismari Command!

  • 4c Reanimator N: Hello! Now, we've seen Esper Reanimator decks, but a deck playing red gets both the insane card advantage of Expressive Iteration and the instant speed discard/draw of Prismari Command to work as 5-6 of Faithful Mending. The removal package is otherwise Esper, but the Darkblast to both mill and recur is some cool tech, but better yet is the March of Otherworldly Light for an instant speed remove Rest in Peace is a fantastic new upgrade to the archetype!

  • UB Rogues N: Last bet certainly not least; Murktide Regent, Snapcaster Mage and the rogues Soaring Thought-Thief + Thieves' Guild Enforcer. Sounds like a way to make the opponent relive the last standard rotation. Into the Story and Drown in the Loch are that much better with multiple effects that mill the opponent, and in the sideboard is a pair of Dauthi Voidwalker to work both as graveyard hate and to utilize all that mill. Early rogue decks got by on just the Snaps and Rogues; but Murktide Regent offers a threat that is both evasive and hard to interact with, and with how much counter and removal this deck, the player's graveyard will fill up fast!


Interesting Tech

  • 5c Elementals (Kaheera): An outright classic build four Lightning Skelemental, and Primal Beyond? It's been a minute since we saw the pre MH2 version of Elementals; and what's really cool about it, aside from not playing very costly planeswalkers is that having no fetches lets the deck play Suppression Field - which turns off an enormous amount of cards in Modern. Including Urza's Sagas, manlands, and planeswalkers! Reflecting Pool helps fix the mana with eight gold lands it can look at to make WUBRG.

  • 5c Domain Zoo (Jegantha) N: Bloodbraid Elf into Mantis Rider? Cool. But what about Bloodbraid Elf into Hidetsugu Consumes All? Awesome! Considering that the Domain decks don't play one drops because they are usually fetching a triome on T1, it's basically free and helps the deck stabilize against faster aggro decks.

  • Temur Liquimetal Karzna N: Some interesting sideboard cards; with a deck playing this many green sources, Esika's Chariot is an easy include, but the Wurmcoil Engine is also interesting, as it's generally only put in Tron because six mana isn't a small ask.

  • Jeskai Lotus Field Control (Kaheera) N: March of Otherworldly Light offering Solitude effects on non-creatures (except Planeswalkers) is probably exactly the card W based control wants to see; and quite possibly a great reason to stop dropping G or GR.

  • Esper Reanimator N: Welcome back, Reanimator; it's been a minute since we saw you! Kaito Shizuki is a new include, but is probably one of the best cards for the deck; offering repeated discard/draw to dump things in the yard and the ultimate can bypass graveyard hate to slam an Archon of Cruelty. Otherwise, it's a familiar list, playing evoke Elementals like Grief and Mulldrifter, Ephemerate to flicker them and the Archon of Cruelty, and Persist to bring anything back!

  • BR Rock (Lurrus) N: A surprising include of Takenuma, Abandoned Mire - considering the increasing prevalence of Magus of the Moon, going down on basics does seem risky, but in a deck packing this much R removal, it's probably fine. Takenuma, Abandoned Mire can bring back a threat itself or snag Lurrus to bring back a threat; representing some extreme grind value!

  • 4c Glimpse Combo N: Chancellor of the Forge had dropped off a bit in these lists, as they started to focus on more 'powerful' creatures like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Iona, Shield of Emeria and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. This is an interesting blend of the two somewhat competing ideas, but most importantly, those big spaghettis are castable with Omniscience, so even if they get stranded in hand, it's not the end of the world and still represents a massive threat.

  • 4c Bring to Light (Yorion): Two interesting includes here; Wrath of God as both a Bring to Light target and as a hard castable card is interesting. Considering that the deck has so many colors, it does make sense that it's there over Supreme Verdict, but it is definitely potentially weaker. The more intriguing include however is the sideboard Madcap Experiment + Platinum Emperion combo! Who brings in artifact hate against a Bring to Light deck? Well, the opponent on game three, probably.

  • R Midrange N: MHayashi playing a MHayashi build, same as usual. The thing is, March of Reckless Joy really feels like a peak 'actually powerful card in the right build' card that MHayashi likes to dig up and center decks around. As one of the quieter but more experimental brewers in the format, it's worth watching him experiment as he does his own thing.

  • 4c Omnath Control (Yorion) N: The pair of Boseiju, Who Endures and Otawara, Soaring City can be expected these days in 4c; the latter to bounce a Teferi Time Raveler while Boseiju, Who Endures can blow up Blood Moon or other artifacts/enchantments. However, The Wandering Emperor has shown up in UW and Bant Control lists, and now is in a 4c list! The thing is, instant speed planeswalker is a really, really good effect; and first striking a blocking Solitude or Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is pretty cool!

  • UW Hammer (Lurrus) N: March of Otherworldly Light here for the mirror and as a Lurrus-able Solitude.

  • W Hammer (Lurrus) N: Best card in Modern Mana Tithe! No one expects it, and plinking a Force of Vigor sounds like an absolute blowout.

  • GR Ponza N: A very interesting include here with a one of Escape to the Wilds; It offers a powerful effect that solves one of the big issues in GR; card advantage. A rather expensive effect, however, so the single copy makes sense. Boseiju, Who Endures is of course an obvious include in an Ponza deck!

  • UB Mill (Lurrus): Some very old style sideboard cards here with Set Adrift; And some cool new tech with Rebuild to absolutely hammer artifacts decks, and Test of Talents against spell based combo.

  • UR Blue Moon: Surprisingly, no Murktide Regent; instead, some Brazen Borrowers and then full playsets of Snapcaster Mage (!!) and Subtlety.

  • Esper Hammer (Lurrus): UW? BW? Why not both? This list is just dipping in those colors for maindeck The Reality Chip and Thoughtseize. The former seems to be an incredible engine for Hammer; I personally got got by it this weekend! Otherwise, sideboard is UW, with the very standard Lavinia, Azorius Renegade and Meddling Mage to prevent free spells and to prevent combos/Titans.

  • UW Artifacts N: The UW Artifacts deck hasn't been showing up quite as much, as it's cousins UW Urza, U Affinity/UW Affinity, and 8 Cast have generally been taking the spotlight, after UW Artifacts brief success at the top of the challenges. However, new NEO cards The Reality Chip and Moonsnare Prototype are really incredible with a deck that can make metric tons of mana with Urza, Lord High Artificer and can shuffle with his activated ability, and have a vast majority of lost cost cards.

  • Jeskai Control (Kaheera) N: The Wandering Emperor is looking like a pretty regular include in W based control lists for the near future. Against decks playing Sorcery speed, it's really, really incredible. However, what caught my eye was the Think Twice - WatOO is usually doing weird things like that, so it's interesting to see someone else try it out! The low cost - compared to Memory Deluge and the ability to rebuy with Flashback aren't bad at all; and with the deck playing Chalice of the Void and no Snapcaster Mage; Opt doens't feel quite as good so the Think Twice makes sense.

  • Jund Goblins: A surprising Krenko, Mob Boss as an additional threat and way to flood the board; combined with the haste off of Goblin Warchief, it offers an additional possible game-ender!

  • RW Lockout (Lurrus) N: This deck has tried a few one drops like Voldaren Epicure to better help turn on Crack the Earth, but Bloodbraid Marauder in place of that is really, really neat! Considering the density and use of one drops in the deck from Crack the Earth to Lightning Bolt to Experimental Synthesizer, getting a two for one off two mana is honestly really strong; Experimental Synthesizer and the eggs help the deck get more card advantage, but Lockout has historically struggled to close games so adding more is never bad!

New Cards


  1. A very cool spread this week of combo, aggro, midrange, and big mana! Something for everybody.


 

Are you a fan of these MTGO 5-0 lists? Got a spicy brew you want to share? Hit us up in the comments or on social media!


 

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