The Modern Bible (Part 8 of 8) by Nick Rennard

Conclusion:

The previous 7 articles have the 31-deck gauntlet of Modern completely laid out. If you are looking to get into competitive Modern, then any of those decks are a good start depending on your play style. You should test against all of these decks so that you have a good understanding of how each one of them operates, their strengths, their weaknesses, and how the deck you are playing matches up against them. Personally, I am an extremely competitive player, so I am going to give my top 5 recommendations for competitive Modern.

1. Jund
2. UWR
3. Birthing Pod
4. Tron
5. Affinity

These are the top 5 best decks in Modern. UWR used to be the best deck until Scavenging Ooze was printed, but the printing of that card has pushed Jund over the top since it has such amazing graveyard hate between Deathrite Shaman and the Scavenging Ooze. Jund has the best overall match-ups against every deck in the metagame. The only reason I put UWR below Jund is because UWR has some pretty terrible match-ups (like Bogles). Jund doesn’t really have any ‘bad’ match-ups, which is why I feel more comfortable piloting Jund in a unknown metagame. One of the big reasons that Birthing Pod, Tron, and Affinity are the runners up to Jund and UWR is because they have pretty decent match-ups against those decks. Playing a deck that isn’t good against Jund or UWR is extremely dangerous.

Modern is an extremely diverse metagame. Choosing a deck outside of this top 5 doesn’t mean that you can’t do well in a tournament. I highly recommend you explore every deck that you can in Modern. If your budget is an issue, then try something cheaper to get some experience with Modern, and then work your way up to some of the more expensive decks. This article series contains a ton of different deck choice possibilities to play in Modern, and I still haven’t even mentioned some other decks that have seen niche play such as Izzetron, WB tokens, Dredge Vine, Tribal Flames Zoo, Restore Balance, UB mill, Seismic Loam, Death and Taxes, and more.

As I mentioned in my intro, I have been brewing and playing Modern religiously since it first debuted as a new format. I’m more than happy to answer any questions or work with anyone on a deck they would like some feedback on. Feel free to contact me via any of the methods listed below:

Facebook: Nick Rennard – Oregon State University

MTGO: nrjets99

e-mail: nickrennard@yahoo.com

Thanks for Reading!

-Nick Rennard