Modern

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Contents

Introduction

Modern is a Constructed format that fills the niche between Standard and Legacy (previously filled by Extended). The Modern format consists of all Magic sets printed since the introduction of the modern card frame, starting with Eighth Edition and the Mirrodin block. Card sets do not rotate out of Modern. A list of legal sets and banned cards may be found here.

Eli Shiffrin is maintaining a list of cards that were later reprinted with the "modern" frame here.

Common Decks

Affinity

Aggro Loam

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Life from the Loam: you cannot replace your draw if there are fewer than three cards in your library.
  • Retrace and timing: whenever a spell or ability resolves, the active player receives priority. If the active player casts a spell that has retrace, that player may cast that card again after it resolves, before another player can remove the card from the graveyard. Casting a spell with retrace from the graveyard, moves that card from the graveyard and onto the stack.

Delver

  • Description: a low-curve, aggressive, tempo deck that plays cheap, explosive creatures in conjunction with removal and countermagic, to let these creatures deal as much damage as possible. Its burn spells allow for extra reach.
  • Colors: usually white-blue-red or red-blue-green

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Delver of Secrets: looking at the top card of the library during the upkeep is mandatory. The revealing of that card (if it's an instant or sorcery) is optional. The looking, the revealing and the transformation are linked - once the trigger resolves, players cannot respond to the transformation.

Faeries

Jund

Living End

  • Description: a deck that cycles and landcycles fatties and uses a cascaded Living End (the only spell cheaper than the spells with cascade) to get them all onto the battlefield
  • Colors: black-red-green

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Ethersworn Canonist and Rule of Law: if a spell with cascade is cast with either of these on the battlefield, it will resolve as normal. The cascaded spell cannot be cast, as a spell was already cast that turn (the spell with cascade).
  • Grafdigger's Cage: this does not stop Living End, as Living End exiles creature cards in graveyards first, then puts them onto the battlefield.

Martyr

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Emeria, the Sky Ruin and Felidar Sovereign: both triggered abilities contain intervening "if" clauses. The triggered ability's condition is checked as its owner's upkeep begins. If the ability's condition hasn't been met, the ability doesn't trigger at all. If the ability's condition has been met, the ability triggers and goes on the stack. As the ability resolves, that condition is checked again. If that condition is below the trigger threshold, the ability is removed from the stack and has no effect. If the condition is still satisfied, the ability resolves.
  • Proclamation of Rebirth: if a player activates forecast, that player plays with that card revealed in his or her hand until it leaves the player's hand or until a step or phase that isn't an upkeep step begins, whichever comes first.
  • Serra Ascendant: if it's involved in combat and is dealt 5 or less damage as a 1/1 while its controller is at 29 life, it will be a 6/6 with flying by the time state-based actions are checked.
  • Spectral Procession: its converted mana cost is always 6.
  • Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant: Soul Warden's triggered ability is mandatory. Soul's Attendant's is not.

Melira Pod

  • Description: a combo deck that may gain an arbitrarily large amount of life and/or deal an arbitrarily large amount of damage in a single turn. The combo relies on Melira, Sylvok Outcast’s ability to negate putting -1/-1 counters on persist creatures with enters-the-battlefield triggers (Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap). Sacrifice outlets (Viscera Seer or Devouring Swarm) are used to gain huge amounts of life and/or deal massive amounts of damage, depending on the persist creature utilized. Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling can fetch whatever piece(s) are missing.
  • Colors: black-green-white, but the deck can run others

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Birthing Pod: it can be activated "only any time you could cast a sorcery."
  • Chord of Calling and Wall of Roots: a player could give Wall of Roots a fifth -0/-1 counter AND tap it for convoke. State-based actions are not checked during the casting of a spell. When Chord of Calling has been fully cast, state-based actions are checked and take effect; Wall of Roots would be sent to the graveyard for having zero toughness.
  • CR 716.2 details the procedure taken in creating a shortcut for a loop.

RDW

  • Description: an aggressive deck that uses fast, cheap creatures with haste or damaging enters-the-battlefield triggers, and efficient burn spells, to deal 20 damage to the opponent as quickly as possible (fourth turn is the norm)
  • Colors: usually just red

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Flame Javelin: its converted mana cost is always 6.
  • Goblin Guide: if two or more attack, the defending player will reveal the top card of his or her library once for each trigger, even if it's a nonland card revealed from the first trigger. Players will usually agree to show it just once in this case as a shortcut.
  • Hell's Thunder and Hellspark Elemental: if an unearthed creature leaves the battlefield before the beginning of the end step, it is exiled.
  • Leyline of Punishment: (1) Spells and abilities that would normally cause a player to gain life still resolve, but the life-gain part simply has no effect. (2) If a cost includes life gain (like Invigorate's alternative cost does), that cost can't be paid. (3) Effects that would replace gaining life with some other effect won't be able to do anything because it's impossible for players to gain life. (4) Effects that replace an event with gaining life (like Words of Worship's effect does) will end up replacing the event with nothing. (5) If an effect says to set a player's life total to a certain number, and that number is higher than the player's current life total, that part of the effect won't do anything. (6) Damage prevention shields don't have any effect. If a prevention effect has an additional effect, the additional effect will still work (if possible). Spells that create prevention effects can still be cast, and abilities that create prevention effects can still be activated. (7) Static abilities that prevent damage (including protection abilities) don't do so. If they have additional effects that don't depend on the amount of damage prevented, those additional effects will still work. Such effects are applied only once per source of damage.
  • Shattering Spree and Trinisphere: replicate is an optional additional cost for a spell. If a player chooses not to replicate a Shattering Spree, Trinisphere forces the owner to pay an additional two generic mana. If a player chooses to replicate a Shattering Spree once, the spell's total cost to cast (before Trinisphere) is RR (two). Trinisphere forces the player to pay one extra generic mana, in this case. If a player chooses to replicate a Shattering Spree twice, its total cost to cast is RRR (three), which satisfies Trinisphere.

Splinter Twin

Storm

Red-Green Tron

  • Description: a big-mana deck that uses cantrips and search effects to assemble the "Urzatron" (the combination of Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant and Urza's Tower) as quickly as possible, to power out expensive, game-winning spells
  • Colors: red-green

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Chromatic Sphere and Chromatic Star: Chromatic Sphere's draw is tied in with the mana ability. Chromatic Star's draw comes from a triggered ability, separate from the mana ability.
  • Karn Liberated: CR 714 covers restarting the game.
  • Mindslaver: CR 712 details what can and can't be done to, or on behalf of, a controlled player. MTR 3.15 states that a controlled player's sideboard may be viewed by the controlling player.

White-Blue Tron

  • Description: a big-mana deck that controls the game with countermagic and board sweepers, uses deck manipulation to find Urzatron pieces. and wins on the back of huge, powerful creatures
  • Colors: white-blue

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Condescend: it can be cast with X equal to 0. Even though players are always able to pay a cost of 0, they are not obligated to. (Note that our communication policy states that players are assumed to have paid costs of 0 unless indicated.) Regardless of X being paid or not, Condescend's controller will still be able to scry 2.
  • Gifts Ungiven: note that this spell requires a target - an opponent. When Gifts Ungiven resolves, its controller may reveal up to four cards. Since the spell instructs the player to search for specific cards in a private zone, that player may fail to find as many cards as he or she chooses. If two or fewer cards are revealed, they will all go to the graveyard, as the (targeted) opponent chooses which of the revealed cards are sent there.

Zoo

  • Description: a low-curve, aggressive deck that aims to overwhelm with cheap yet strong creatures and use pump/burn spells as support and/or finishers. It's not unusual to see some builds run more disruptive spells (such as countermagic, discard and land destruction).
  • Colors: traditionally red-green-white, but blue and/or black additions are not uncommon

Deck-Specific Potential Issues:

  • Tribal Flames: in the case of domain, the value of X is not locked in until the spell resolves.

Specific Cards

Dark Confidant

  • If its triggered ability is missed, the infraction is Missed Trigger, not Failure to Reveal. The penalty is a Warning. The fix is to "insert the forgotten ability on the bottom of the stack." However, if the controller puts a card into their hand for Dark Confidant without revealing it, this IS a Failure to Reveal infraction.

Scry

  • There will likely be known cards in the library in a particular order, so remember this when applying fixes involving shuffling.

Split Cards

  • If revealed through cascade, if either side is less than the converted mana cost of the cascade spell, you may cast either side.
  • If revealed through Dark Confidant's triggered ability, its controller loses life equal to the sum of the costs.

Tarmogoyf

  • Spells go to the graveyard after resolution, but before state-based actions are checked. If graveyards contain only creatures and lands when a Lightning Bolt targeting Tarmogoyf resolves, it will be a 3/4 with 3 damage on it when state-based actions are checked.

Urzatron

Be aware that older versions of Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant and Urza's Tower have alternate arts. You could very well see all twelve pieces with twelve different illustrations.

See also

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