Post by u/mackslc on r/ModernMagic:
The Comprehensive Mono Red Engineer Primer: Trash for Treasure, Graaz, Portal to Phyrexia, and the Joy of Attacking with 5/3 Ragavans! (Modern Challenge Top 8 List)
Primer/Guide
Introduction###
Hey guys, so after four years of Goblin Engineer + Trash for Treasure brews, I’ve finally arrived at a list that I was able to Top 8 last Friday’s Modern Challenge with! Goblin Engineer became my favorite card almost instantly after MH1, and I was posting brews in this sub shortly after the set released looking for ways to make Engineer work. Those early decks were running Mox Opal, Arcum’s Astrolabe, and Faithless Looting, so it’s definitely been a long journey to find a way to make the deck work, but here we are at last!
The deck functions is a midrange combo deck built around artifacts, silver bullets, and some massive bombs that we can reanimate with Trash for Treasure. Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut has finally given the deck a way to end games fast with its pseudo-Craterhoof effect, and Portal to Phyrexia is an immensely strong defensive card and value engine, while Sundering Titan is phenomenal at punishing Triome decks. Haywire Mite was another recent boon, offering the deck a way to answer most arficat and graveyard hate in the format at the cost of a light green splash. The deck is built with a lot of “churn” in mind to help you quickly loot/rummage your way through the deck. Meanwhile the deck can still play a strong value game, with lots of card advantage engines like Experimental Synthesizer, Phyrexian Dragon Engine
, Seasoned Pyromancer, and Goblin Engineer, helping it to grind out long games or just win through fair means thanks to the help of cards like Urza's Saga and Fury.
The deck is insanely customizable with a lot of flexibility and potential, so we have a lot to cover today, so let’s dive in!
Table of Contents###
Introduction
The Deck – Overview and Basics
The Decklist
The Cards
The Combo Pieces
The Value Creatures
Artifacts and Saga/Engineer Targets
The Lands
The Sideboard
What Didn’t Make the Cut
General Gameplay Tips/Strategies
The Matchups and Sideboard Guide
Endstep and Additional Info
Discord
The Deck – Overview and Basics###
Mono Red Engineer is a midrange combo deck built around optimizing Goblin Engineer both as a combo piece and a value engine. The deck is very customizable and flexible, and relies on a high amount of “churn” thanks to running a lot of discard and cantrip effects which allow us to fuel our yard quickly and pivot as needed for each matchup. The deck’s linear gameplan is built around playing a lot of cheap creatures that either serve as a discard outlets and/or help you to build up your artifact count (such as Voldaren Epicure, Seasoned Pyromancer, and Scrapwork Mutt, while Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut serves as a pseudo-Craterhoof to end games remarkably fast.
At the same time, the deck is also very flexible and customizable in nature to pilot playstyle and metagames, and the deck can play a very strong long game as well. Portal to Phyrexia and Sundering Titan are additional Trash for Treasure targets that are phenomenal in specific matchups and circumstances, and Phyrexian Dragon Engine
and Experimental Synthesizer can help Engineer’s role span from anywhere from being an Entomb effect on a stick to an insane card advantage engine. Post board, more copies of Haywire Mite help us to answer most graveyard hate in the format, and we can also play a strong “fair” gameplan supported by Engineer, Urza’s Saga, Ragavan, Pyromancer and Fury.
Overall, you end up with a unique deck with a ton of customizability, a way to end games quick thanks to Graaz, and enough value engines to prosper in the long game. It’s fun as hell to play and now apparently pretty decently competitive!
The Decklist###
Mono Red Engineer
26 Creatures
4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
4 Voldaren Epicure
4 Goblin Engineer
4 Scrapwork Mutt
4 Seasoned Pyromancer
3 Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
1 Haywire Mite
1 Phyrexian Dragon Engine
1 Sundering Titan
4 Spells
4 Trash for Treasure
8 Artifacts
4 Experimental Synthesizer
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Shadowspear
1 The Underworld Cookbook
1 Portal to Phyrexia
22 Lands
4 Cragcrown Pathway
4 Urza’s Saga
3 Copperline Gorge
3 Needleverge Pathway
3 Mountain
2 Den of the Bugbear
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Slagwoods Bridge
Sideboard
3 Fury
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Blood Moon
2 Defense Grid
2 Haywire Mite
1 Damping Sphere
1 Pithing Needle
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
The Maindeck##
The Combo Pieces###
4x Goblin Engineer: The star of the show, finally where it deserves with a whole deck built around it rather than a janky support card. Goblin Engineer not only works as an Entomb effect for our Trash targets stapled to a 1/2 body, but as a value engine or a means to tutor up specific hate cards. If left unchecked, Goblin Engineer can quickly begin generating an insane amount of value thanks to cards like Phyrexian Dragon Engine
and Experimental Synthesizer that pair so well with its effect. But since it’s 2023 Modern and creatures die constantly, it notably can also just serve as an amazing combo enabler that can grab your Trash for Treasure target, or even just grab a Phyrexian Dragon Engine or Scrapwork Mutt to unearth after it dies. So whether it dies instantly or is left on the board unanswered, casting one almost always is a tremendous boost to your gameplan in any game with the deck.
4x Trash for Treasure: Our one-two punch. Engineer + Trash is our version of reanimator’s Unmarked Grave + Persist effect, and what’s historically hurt that idea in the past is that our reanimation targets have been weak. Thanks to Graaz and Portal to Phyrexia, that game has changed significantly over the past few months, and Trash for Treasure has become a much more powerful card as a result. Notably, Trash for Treasure can also be used for some less than exciting means in tough situations – sometimes reanimating a Haywire Mite or a Phyrexian Dragon Engine can be enough to win a game. So while our plan is almost always to use it to bring back a big artifact bomb, it’s worth keeping in mind that sometimes all you need is to recur something small to finish the puzzle you’re solving in order to beat your opponent.
3x Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut: Graaz is love, Graaz is life. This big dumb Craterhoof impersonator is the reason we’re here today. Engineer + Trash has never been short of great targets, but we’ve basically never had anything that can win games absurdly fast (trust me, I used to reanimate Kaldra Compleats and Myr Battlespheres). Graaz fits perfectly into our gameplan of playing a lot of cheap creatures that also serve as discard outlets and/or artifact enablers, and gives us a means to overwhelm virtually any deck in record time. Spending your first two turns building up small threats, into turn 3 Trash for Treasure back Graaz is the deck’s strongest proactive gameplan.
1x Portal to Phyrexia: Portal is a little cast to the side in this version of the deck, but Portal is one of the strongest artifacts ever printed, full stop. Prior to Graaz I was on 3x Portals, and while Portal is phenomenal, it doesn’t end games quick enough and is super awkward if the “sacrifice three creatures” ability lines up poorly to your opponent or they answer it before you’re able to reanimate anything good with its ability. Portal is still the strongest reanimation target in a lot of circumstances and matchups, and there is a lot of merit to running more than 1 copy still, but in such a Graaz-centric list, I’m comfortable having it as a 1 of Entomb target for Engineer.
1x Sundering Titan: Another bullet that’s absolutely game ending in some matchups and circumstances, but isn’t always the best in others. Sundering Titan dismantles Triome-based strategies and is a big enough body that it can end games quickly even when the land destruction isn’t strong enough. Notably you can also sac it to Engineer or a second Trash for Treasure to trigger its land destruction again. Overall, it earns a place as a maindeck mainstay that’s best as a 1-of for Engineer to Entomb for you.
The Value Creatures###
4x Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer: The bane of non-interactive decks and weak mulligans alike, Ragavan is spectacular here both as a way to begin the game proactively while building to your combo, and as a means to ramp mana or generate Treasures as artifact fodder. Attacking with a 5/3 Ragavan is one hell of a ride.
4x Voldaren Epicure: Epicure is one of those cards that is simultaneously underwhelming yet also excellent. It’s a cheap body for Graaz and the Blood token works so well with the deck – it can be a discard outlet when you need one, or an artifact to sacrifice when needed as well. It’s also a fantastic early game blocker when needed, as it feels great to have it block and kill your opponent’s Ragavan or eat a removal spell while you still have the Blood token left over.
4x Scrapwork Mutt: Mutt is an absolute workhorse of a card that may not be as flashy as the other new Brother’s War/Phyrexia additions, but is just an incredible support card in the deck. It does everything we want all in a fairly crappy body – it’s an artifact, a discard outlet, and a cheap threat. Unearthing these is also fantastic to rebound after boardwipes, kill Walkers, or end the game out of nowhere thanks to bringing a few back alongside a Graaz to create a bunch of hasty 5/3s.
4x Seasoned Pyromancer: Our MVP when it comes to fixing our hand, fueling the board for Graaz, or bouncing back from topdecks. Notably Seasoned Pyro can discard a Graaz + another nonland card to create 3 bodies that can all turn into 5/3s with Graaz the next turn. In other builds of the deck, Spyro usually competes with Fable of the Mirror Breaker for the optimal slot, but the fact that Spyro discards the same turn it comes down, works so much better with Graaz, and is a strong topdeck value engine sets it apart for this build.
Artifacts and Saga/Engineer Targets###
4x Experimental Synthesizer: To get it out of the way first, yes sometimes you exile things you don’t want to exile. Synthesizer is a sometimes awkward yet often times amazing engine piece for the deck, because it rewards you for doing everything you’re already doing. It’s a cheap early artifact when you need one but also actively wants you to blow it up with Engineer or Trash for Treasure. Engineer looping 1-2 of these is just absolutely absurd value, meanwhile often times paying 2R to pop it and make a 2/2 vigilant can be strong enough in grindy games. This will likely be the card people will question the most, but after thorough testing with and without the card in the deck since NEO first came out, I’m convinced it’s an essential piece for the role it performs. Even as something closer to a 1.6 for 1 rather than a 2 for 1, it just does so much more in this role than anything else out there.
1x Phyrexian Dragon Engine: Phyrexian Dragon Engine is another card that is just insane with Engineer. In mid-to-late game, Entombing a PDE is basically a challenge for your opponent to kill your Engineer on sight or get absolutely buried in card advantage as you sac it and bring it back over and over – yet even if they do manage to kill your Engineer in that case, you can still unearth PDE for 3RR. When it’s on the board Dragon Engine is a great defensive card that can complicate combat due to you usually being VERY happy to toss the thing in your graveyard, it’s also strong to hitch a Shadowspear to, and becomes a 5/3 Double Striker with Graaz out which is just insane.
1x Shadowspear: Shadowspear’s here to mostly hitch on to Urza’s Saga tokens as usual, but it notably is also excellent to hitch to your 5/3s to overwhelm your opponent. I’ve taken it out of some lists of the deck, but it’s strong enough here alongside Graaz that it just seems non-negotiable.
1x The Underworld Cookbook: We ditch Asmo, but Cookbook is still an extraordinary Saga target, as it gives us a built in discard outlet for it to tutor. Cookbook is also fantastic as a means to hedge against the Burn matchup just by making a Food each turn while stabilizing. One notable tip: if you begin your game with an Urza’s Saga, a Trash for Treasure, and a Trash Target, you can reanimate the Trash Target Turn 3 by playing Saga Turn 1, getting Cookbook with the Saga trigger, and sacrificing the Food token you make off the discard to Trash for Treasure it back.
1x Pyrite Spellbomb: Our humble one-of Pyrite is here as our only direct form of damage/removal in the maindeck, but it works well as a means to answer early threats, while also not being bad just to cycle. Recurring it regularly with Engineer can be lights out for many creature decks.
1x Haywire Mite: The Urza’s Saga tutorable-hate card that’s so good it’s not only worth splashing Green for, it’s worth running in the maindeck. From Leyline Bindings to Rest in Peaces to Relics to Ensaring Bridges to Colossus Hammers, Haywire Mite is an absolute game changer for the deck and earns every bit of its home here. Notably, looping Mite each turn with Engineer or Portal will end games against Hammer and other artifact/enchantment-based decks in quick fashion.
The Lands###
Since the deck is almost entirely Mono Red, our manabase is pretty smooth and consistent without fetches and the incidental life loss they create. I’ve tried more-RG heavy builds with Wrenn and Six, and there’s really no understating just how much smoother the deck feels with only the light splash. That said, the Pathway lands are here largely because there’s zero opportunity cost to play them and they significantly boost Sundering Titan by reducing our Mountain count. The RG Pathway gets flipped to Green frequently to support a Haywire Mite activation or a Boseiju Channel, and while the White could technically be flipped to hard cast a Leyline of Sanctity post board, I haven’t had that come up yet – I mostly just chose the white Pathway land since it’s the only other Pathway with Red on its front rather than back, and I’m dumb and I misclick things often on MTGO.
The deck could honestly probably go to 23 lands pretty comfortably, but 22 is fine also. Boseiju is nice as a flexible spell and another means to answer problem artifacts/enchantments post-board. Urza’s Saga is a powerhouse and works well to crank out artifacts, a discard outlet in Cookbook, or a removal spell in the form of Pyrite Spellbomb or Haywire Mite. I’d honestly like the 4th Copperline Gorge and/or more Den of the Bugbears, but it’s tough going too deep on fastlands in a deck that is so strong in the late game, so 5 Fastlands has felt like a reasonable sweet spot for now.
In closing, it’s worth mentioning how Saga tokens and Bugbear work with Graaz. Saga tokens become base 5/3s that STILL have their +1/+1 for each artifact rider on them, making them absolutely massive with a Graaz out. Den of the Bugbear depends on how it’s activated though – if Graaz is out first and you activate Den, you get a 3/2 that makes 5/3s when it attacks. But if you activate Den first and THEN Graaz (such as if you have a Portal to Phyrexia going off in your upkeep, and you activate the Den before Portaling Graaz back), then you get a 5/3 that also makes a second 5/3. So our lands are also huge resources in pushing through a ton of damage with Graaz, while also being able to pressure opponents on their own.
The Sideboard##
3x Fury: Like all red decks, we reserve the right to Fury our opponents to death at times. Fury does a lot of what it usually does in Modern – it’s a fantastic way to answer problem creatures/walkers postboard while also being an excellent top end in long value games (especially if our opponent overboards for combo hate and we can just start dropping Furies on them). A few cool fringe interactions with the deck are hitching a Shadowspear to Fury, making it a 5/3 double striker with Graaz, and pitching one early to reanimate it with Portal to Phyrexia.
3x Leyline of Sanctity: We’re weak to fast red decks and discard effects, so Leyline is fantastic here. Notably since we are so heavy in looting/rummage effects, getting one stranded in your hand isn’t the worst thing ever. Leylines are definitely meta dependent – sometimes you’ll want all 4, sometimes you won’t want any, but when the meta circumstances line up, Leyline will not only help you protect your combo pieces in hand, but in other cases, help you to live long enough to do your thing.
2x Blood Moon: In addition to Experimental Synthesizer, this will likely be the other controversial card in the deck. Blood Moon and Urza’s Saga have had beef with each other since freshman year of high school, but it’s time they put aside their differences. Because we run so many rummage/loot effects, the downside of running them in the same deck is severely minimized compared to others since we can often ditch a Moon that’s in our hand if we’re focused on a Saga gameplan, or discard Sagas once Moon is out. Moon is extraordinary as always against a lot of greedy manabases and Tron/Amulet alike, and few things scream “free win” quite like Turn 1 Ragavan, Turn 2 Moon. Like Synthesizer, I’ve tried the deck with it and without, and the tension is worth every bit. If you’re more of a purist and hate this idea, I’d encourage trying to run another 1-2 Boseijus in the side, and boarding out some Sagas, but still keeping the Moons.
2x Defense Grid: This was actually my first tournament running these, so it’s a little early to say if these are “must ofs” or not. They worked very well in theory as another early artifact that can also be tutored with Engineer, but that can also serve as an amazing way to protect your combo and Graaz when going off. I think these will likely be a mainstay since countermagic can cause us so much grief at times, but I definitely plan on testing them more.
2x Haywire Mite: The additional copies of Mite come in frequently post-board when we can expect a lot of graveyard hate-based artifacts and enchantments. Mite is just SO good at supporting everything we’re trying to do, especially post-board.
1x Damping Sphere: A great piece of hate against Tron, Amulet, and Storm decks, Sphere is great here. I was originally on two shortly after ONE dropped in anticipation of a lot of Amulet, but since that hasn’t happened, I’m down to 1, and honestly even the one of might be better justified as the 3rd Blood Moon. I didn’t use it much in practice for the tournament, but because my local meta has a lot of Tron I tend to be glad to have a little extra support in that matchup.
1x: Pithing Needle: Another quintessential Urza’s Saga target. Sometimes this can be maindecked, other times you may want 2 in the board. In addition to shutting down all types of problem creatures/walkers, it can also be a great way to turn off something like a Relic of Progenitus or Tormod’s Crypt.
1x: Soul-Guide Lantern: Only one bit of graveyard hate in the 75 currently, but I’m usually happy to up this number or add in some Unlicensed Hearses in the side depending on the meta or how I’m feeling about certain matchups.
What Didn’t Make the Cut###
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar and Friends
I’ve played a lot of different versions of this list that include Asmo, and other players have found success with similar shells with Asmo in them. But I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze overall. We already have a decent amount of clunk in the deck thanks to the combo itself and all the Urza’s Saga tutors. With Asmo and its own “pseudo” combo cards, I couldn’t find a list that felt as smooth and consistent as I’d like it to be. Asmo seemed to fuel the same deck problems that have always existed in Engineer – being able to play a slow, powerful gameplan that’s basically incapable of ending games quick, or bouncing back if you draw the wrong half of your synergy pieces. Plus, Graaz getting printed changed a lot – you need a very large portion of your deck to be small discard creatures with Graaz, and it just feels way too hard to make that possible while making room for Asmo and friends.
More Interaction in General
I think a common question will be why we aren’t running more removal spells in a deck that could comfortable enable Galvanic Blast or Unholy Heat. The basic reason is that we don’t really need it in most cases. The deck relies on being a critical mass deck in both creature count and artifact count, and in most situations we’re either able to ignore most of our opponent’s creatures thanks to overwhelming them with Graaz, or decimate their board with Portal to Phyrexia. The 1-of Pyrite Spellbomb as a Saga target and the 3 sideboard Furies help as added tech in this area.
Springleaf Drum
Honestly most of my lists have run 1 Drum as a hedge against your Sagas dying early when your stuck on lands, but I got pretty greedy here and left it out. It’s most likely worth a 1 of slot in the main over anything else that hasn’t been included in this draft honestly, although you could make a case for Expedition Map, Inscribed Tablet, or Chromatic Star also.
Mishra’s Research Desk and Ichor Wellspring
These are both two great sources of card advantage that work well with the deck’s overall strategy, but just don’t hit the exact right notes necessary. Research Desk offers more control than Synthesizer and can be fetched with Urza’s Saga, but it’s a lot more mana intensive and can’t be looped like Synthesizer can with Goblin Engineer, and it doesn’t reward you for blowing it up like Synthesizer does. Similarly, Ichor Wellspring offers a more consistent effect than Synthesizer, but at two mana, the cost difference is just massive and makes it too slow in most cases.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
Fable and Seasoned Pyro have been in a lot of competition for the three drop discard outlet of choice in my builds. Fable is usually slightly better than the two, but again, Graaz has changed the game to give Pyro a clear edge. Seasoned Pyro allows you to go from an empty board, to discarding Graaz and another nonland card to potentially being able to Trash for Treasure back Graaz the next turn and swing with 3 5/3s. Even exiling Spyro late game for the two tokens can be game winning in a Graaz build. Fable is great also, but overall a slower effect that doesn’t lend itself as well to explosive starts, or the sudden late game card advantage that topdecking a Spyro can offer.
Platinum Emperion/Angel
Emperion actually just got phased out of my sideboard before this tournament. It’s obviously very strong against Burn and Hammer in particular in the current meta, but it again represents a “can’t lose” card rather than a “win the game” card. Burn sides in Smash for Smithereens, Wear//Tear, and even sometimes Path against us, and Hammer can just ignore it by hitching to an Inkmoth or Pathing it as well. Overall it can be a great “gotcha” card but getting your “gotcha” card “gotcha’d” is game losing.
Wurmcoil Engine
Wurmcoil has been a hallmark for the deck for a very long time. Not only is it fantastic against Burn and other aggressive decks, but it can be a nightmare for interactive decks to clean up. I’ve cut it in these builds because I want to increase the Graaz count as high as possible, and because it, like Emperion, can get answered a lot. Going through the trouble to reanimate it just for an opponent to Skullcrack you, or Unholy Heat it in combat, or just bounce it in some way is just too brutal in most cases. It definitely has merit though, so I think there will always be some reasonable justification for running it in the 75.
God-Pharaoh’s Statue
A really strong piece of hate against spell-based decks, Statue can also often feel like too little too late in a lot of matchups. It’s fantastic when you hit it on curve, but really bad when it doesn’t come through at the right time. It’s not in this list, but definitely worth considering for the sideboard if you struggle with spell-based decks in particular.
Ensnaring Bridge
A lot of Engineer lists love packing a 1 of Bridge, but I’m not really a fan of it. It’s another “can’t lose” card rather than a win the game card, and this current build relies so much on being able to attack with 5/3s that it just doesn’t really fit the bill this time around.
General Gameplay Tips/Strategies###
• In most Game 1 circumstances, trying to Graaz your opponent as quickly as possible is the best starting strategy. Make your opponent react to you, not the other way around, at least for most Game 1s. But you have to also keep in mind that plans can change frequently, and you’re playing a deck that offers a lot of ability to pivot quickly with all the looting outlets, so try not to get pigeonholed into thinking “Graaz or bust” as a wincon – it’s simply not that kind of deck that it needs to live and breathe by its most powerful combo play. Be prepared to pivot to a longer value based game.
• Like Twin, often times the “threat” of the combo is greater than the combo itself – your opponent will often avoid answering your cheap little creatures in order to hold up interaction for Trash for Treasure. This is a surefire opportunity to begin beating them down with your little threats, generating value with Engineer, or generating tokens with Urza’s Saga. You can win a long fair gameplan unlike most combo decks, you often don’t need to feel pressured to make “either they counter this and I lose, or they don’t and I win” kind of plays in most circumstances.
• It’s best to almost always cast Goblin Engineer expecting it to die right away. As a result, don’t base your Entomb target around “what would be the best card if I can untap with Engineer?” because that’s a recipe to end up with a stranded Phyrexian Dragon Engine in your graveyard. The basic decision tree for Engineer should be to basically ALWAYS get your ideal Trash for Treasure target with the first Engineer you cast that game, then aim for more aspirational targets with your repeat Engineers. Just like Stoneforge Mystic and tutoring Kaldra, we often want to save our best bullet for the second Engineer on board to tutor, that way you can instantly bring it back with the first Engineer that turn.
• Like many brews that come out of one person putting in an absurd amount of reps with a fringe strategy, this deck will take some practice and patience to get used to. Your greatest strengths in playing it over time will be your familiarity with the deck leading to a good sense of ability to remain agile and flexible throughout games. The deck is also HEAVILY tweaked to my playstyle, so while I think most of the 4-ofs in the deck are pretty non-negotiable, there’s a lot of flexibility in the deck’s 1-ofs and sideboards for what works best for you and your playstyle. It would make me very happy to eventually see other people playing the deck and taking it in very different directions to support their style, rather than my own.
• An Urza’s Saga + 2 other Lands, a Trash for Treasure, and a Trash Target is a Turn 3 combo because you can get Cookbook with Saga to discard the Trash Target. Playing a Saga Turn 1 to fetch a Haywire Mite Turn 3 before you start binning things is also important against Leyline of the Void decks, and Turn 1 Saga also can net you a very early Soul-Guide Lantern. Basically, Turn 1 Saga often feels wrong, but it can open up your options for some really powerful early plays post-board in particular.
• Don’t forget that with Graaz out, your creatures do need to attack each combat if able. Sometimes this will lead to bad scenarios, and may even lead to decisions where you Reanimate Graaz second main to better set up for a stronger alpha strike the turn after. Engineer can activate its ability to dodge combat if you don’t want it attacking, and if you run a Springleaf, that’s another resource for stopping a key creature from getting in combat as a 5/3 if you don’t want it to. But in most cases, the alpha strike is worth it.
• Just a quick gathering of a few of the notes about Graaz interactions in the deck that I mentioned throughout the primer. Phyrexian Dragon Engine and Fury become 5/3 double striker, Urza’s Saga Construct tokens become 5/3s that also get buffed +1/+1 for each artifact, and Den of the Bugbear makes 5/3s with its attack trigger, but will still only be a 3/2 itself if activated after Graaz is on the board (it’s a 5/3 if you activate it before Graaz enters though).
• Again, the name of the game for success with the deck is going to be to practice it regularly and remain agile in your matchups. It’s a complex deck with a ton of different play patterns – the more you familiarize yourself with it and tweak it to your meta/preference, the better you’ll be.
Matchup Guide###
Hopefully I can dive deeper into this in the future, but I want to provide a good working background of what to expect with each matchup in the meantime. I do think this is a deck that tends to operate in the 60/40 or 40/60 range for a lot of the format, so practice and patience is a real payoff. One thing to note, I like to sideboard big with this deck – we’re playing a lot of 1 ofs and silver bullets across the 75, so it’s pretty frequent to sideboard 6-7 cards in most matchups to get to the optimal post-board 60.
UR Murktide
Murktide is probably the toughest Tier 1 matchup for the deck. The right combination of countermagic and early efficient threats can provide a lot of pressure for us. They also pack Unholy Heat as a 1 mana answer to Graaz. So this is a matchup where being all in on the combo can really punish us, but post-board things get more hopeful with us being able to play a stronger, longer midrange gameplan. This was the matchup that gave me one of my two losses in the Swiss and eliminated me in the Top 8. It’s tricky to have the best deck in the format a weak matchup, but I don’t think it’s atrocious postboard – it just takes a lot of practice and tweaking, as well as more practice on my end. You can also run Moons postboard if you’re feeling cheeky, but their Ragavans or even just a 1 of Island into Ledger Shredder can negate that fairly quickly.
Best Trash for Treasure Target: Portal to Phyrexia
Cut: 4x Ragavan, 1x Sundering Titan, 1x Scrapwork Mutt, 1x Seasoned Pyromancer
Add: 3x Fury, 2x Defense Grid, 1x Haywire Mite, 1x Soul-Guide Lantern
Creativity
Creativity has faired pretty well for me as a matchup thus far, but it’s a deck that always requires respect. Graaz is fantastic game 1, since playing to a wide board is a great way to be able to overcome the first Archon. Sundering Titan is always available to decimate their greedy Triomes, and even if you fall behind a Portal to Phyrexia can wipe out a bunch of Archons at the right time (and later steal them). But they are still a very strong and consistent deck, so don’t get too excited feeling like you’re overly favored. Leyline of Sanctity shuts off Archon’s trigger which is nice, but the verdict is still out on if it’s necessary.
Best Trash for Treasure Target: Sundering Titan
Cut: 1x Experimental Synthesizer, 1x Shadowspear, 2x Seasoned Pyromancer, 2x Voldaren Epicure
Add: 2x Haywire Mite, 2x Defense Grid, 2x Blood Moon
Hammer
Haywire Mite completely flipped this matchup around for us. Being able to loop Haywire Mite can mean that we can step out of a combo in many cases and pivot into a control role. Graaz is quite strong here to close games, Blood Moon causes them a lot of misery, and Portal to Phyrexia is also really great if they’ve invested heavily on the board. Just be VERY mindful of countermagic post-board.
Best Trash for Treasure Target: Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
Cut: 4x Ragavan, 1x Sundering Titan, 2x Seasoned Pyromancer, 1x Scrapwork Mutt
Add: 3x Fury, 2x Blood Moon, 2x Haywire Mite, 1x Pithing Needle
RB Scam
Our best Tier 1 matchup. While their heavy hand disruption makes an early combo usually impossible, Scam is a deck built around forcing your opponent into a topdeck situation, and we have an absurd number of 2-for-1s and card advantage engines. We don’t care much about Blood Moon, and sometimes we’re downright glad to get hit with a bunch of discard early, and Portal is very strong against them unless they can K Command it quickly. Post-board Leyline of Sanctity can sometimes feel excessive, but still a great addition. Just be sure to watch for Dauthi Voidwalkers – it’s a card we’re pretty bad at killing Game 1, but if you get your Trash target in the grave early or tutor a Pyrite Spellbomb (or cast a Fury), you can still negate it easily.
Best Trash for Treasure Target: Portal to Phyrexia
Cut: 4x Ragavan, 1x Sundering Titan, 1x Scrapwork Mutt, 1x Voldaren Epicure
Add: 3x Leyline of Sanctity, 3x Fury, 1x Soul-Guide Lantern
Crashing Footfalls
Footfalls functions against us similar to Murktide as another disruptive deck that can develop its own board pretty effortlessly, but we line up a bit better to their threats. Sundering Titan and Portal to Phyrexia are both insane here, and Graaz is great at making even your tiny threats outclass Rhinos. Postboard I do cut back on some of the smaller threats though, since their hate makes it more likely that they’ll have a stronger board established. This matchup is better than Murktide, but their hate is still very strong, so stealing Game 1 is highly encouraged.
Best Trash for Treasure Target: Sundering Titan
Cut: 4x Voldaren Epicure, 2x Scrapwork Mutt, 1x Seasoned Pyromancer, 1x Graaz, 1x Experimental Synthesizer
Add: 3x Fury, 2x Defense Grid, 2x Blood Moon, 2x Haywire Mite
Amulet Titan
Amulet was a nightmare matchup for this deck before Graaz since we had no way of actually ending the game early. Now we have a decent amount of tools available post-board to supplement Graaz as a strong, proactive gameplan. Ragavan is arguably not worth keeping in since they can stonewall it with Grazers and Dryads, but I’m a little too greedy to accept that at the moment just because an unanswered Ragavan is insane here. Most of the sideboard cuts are just about speeding up our deck a bit by ditching some of our slower card advantage spells.
Best Trash for Treasure Target: Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
Cut: 2x Experimental Synthesizer, 1x Seasoned Pyromancer, 1x Pyrite Spellbomb, 1x Shadowspear
Add: 2x Blood Moon, 2x Haywire Mite, 1x Damping Sphere
Burn
My meta is Burn flooded, my playgroup is Burn flooded, and whenever I seem to play in larger tournaments or MTGO, I get hit with a wave of Burn as well. Running Leylines began as a bit of a joke about our local meta, but it’s wound up being an excellent resource in shoring up this matchup as well as a few others. Generally, we can win the long game if we’re able to grind out and leverage things like Shadowspear (even on a Scrapwork Mutt) and discarding a card each turn to Cookbook to gain incremental advantages. I’ve run Platinum Emperion and Wurmcoil Engine at different times as another hedge here, but they’re not really consistently great because they bring in Smash to Smithereens/Wear and Tear against us. So while my early matchups against Burn were usually about trying to rush out a Trash Target that invalidates them, I’ve found much greater success in just playing a slower, value based game with incremental life gain and Leylines to back things up.
Best Trash for Treasure Target: Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
Cut: 1x Sundering Titan, 2x Seasoned Pyromancer, 1x Haywire Mite, 1x Portal to Phyrexia, 1x Voldaren Epicure
Add: 3x Leyline of Sanctity, 3x Fury
Tron
Last but certainly not least is one of my favorite matchups with the deck. Tron vs Engineer is a very wild matchup that often leads to a long attrition battle. While Tron has a ton of cards that absolutely obliterate us, our hate is excellent against them, and we can often rebuild even from stuff like Oblivion Stone or Turn 3 Karn at a rate a lot faster than most decks. Graaz gave us a way to end this matchup fast that cannot be ignored – previous targets have always been pretty miserable in this matchup. So a general gameplan of aiming for an early Graaz but not overextending to die on curve to O Stone is promising, as is just relying on Ragavan backed up by some hate cards.
Best Trash for Treasure Target: Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
Cut: 1x Pyrite Spellbomb, 1x Sundering Titan, 2x Voldaren Epicure, 2x Scrapwork Mutt
Add: 2x Blood Moon, 2x Haywire Mite, 1x Pithing Needle, 1x Damping Sphere
I ran out of room in the post length, but there's some bonus sideboard guides in the comments!###
Endstep and Additional Info###
Congratulations on making it this far! This deck has definitely been a labor of love to evolve and shape over the last four years, and while I’m excited to finally have a decent result to report, I’m more looking forward to the ways in which other players may adapt or enjoy the deck in the future. The deck offers a ton of customization for your meta and playstyle, so I think this list will be at its best when it reflects the playstyles of each individual pilot. I hope this primer serves as a jumping off point for those looking to enjoy the deck, and I hope it also kickstarts conversations on how the deck can continue to find success in Modern.
My Magic time is more limited than I’d like these days, so part of building all of this is about trying to pass this awesome project onto others. If feel inclined to try this deck out at any point, please share your thoughts! Whether good or bad, any bit of insight gained from other pilots will be so appreciated by me, and will allow the deck to continue to adapt and evolve moving forward.
One thing I wanted to mention about the deck in closing is that while I’m writing this primer from a place of (very recent) success, the vast, vast majority of my experience with the deck has been more about trying new things, making mistakes, and learning from them. I got absolutely dumpstered at Star City NJ in January testing out a more unrefined RG version of the list, and instead of giving up, I went back to the drawing board and went all in with Graaz. I came in 33rd in my first Modern Challenge with that build a few weeks back, went 4-2 in MagicFest Philly side events with it, had a few other great local results, then finally got the Top 8 over the weekend. The end message of that is that every brew challenge we take on in this game should always be less about what the deck idea does for us instantly, but how committed we want to be to learning and growing with the deck to find its potential. So tl;dr for the whole primer would be: don’t let your memes be dreams.
Thanks again so much for reading, and happy trashing!
