How to Hate Modern

Modern Competitive Control Delver Discard Tempo UB (Dimir)

thuzra

Land (20)

• 2x Creeping Tar Pit
• 4x Darkslick Shores
• 2x Island
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 4x Watery Grave

Instant (18)

• 4x Extirpate
• 3x Fatal Push
• 3x Remand
• 4x Rune Snag
• 4x Surgical Extraction

Creature (12)

• 4x Death's Shadow
• 4x Delver of Secrets  ^Flip
• 4x Snapcaster Mage

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Duress
• 3x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 2x Sadistic Sacrament
• 4x Thoughtseize

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Sideboard

Instant (10)

• 3x Echoing Truth
• 2x Hurkyl's Recall
• 2x Spell Pierce
• 3x Squelch

Sorcery (5)

• 2x Drown in Sorrow
• 1x Duress
• 1x Lost Legacy
• 1x Sadistic Sacrament

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Maybeboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Shadow of Doubt

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Or: "Scrubbing Bubbles"

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"It doesn't think, it doesn't feel,

It doesn't laugh or cry.

All it does from dusk til dawn

Is make the soldiers die."

-Onean children's rhyme

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So this Modern format. Its got some interesting things going for it, these days. I dont know about you, but I have a bit of, shall we say, nostalgia a yearning in the core of my being for when the format had some of the older staples running around, like Splinter Twin. Seeing this format running crazy with a bunch of funny looking Standard cards (looking at you, Hollow One, even though I love you), it makes me want to drag everyone back with me a few years. How, you ask? Well, Im very glad you did

A Discourse in Hatred

So what have we, here? A Delver Tempo deck with a ton of discard, Death's Shadow for value, and Deck scrubbers? Oh dear

Yes, the main focus of this deck is to make our opponent discard their most powerful things through Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Duress, then immediately strip them from the game with Surgical Extraction and Extirpate. Plus, we have the added value of Sadistic Sacrament to get some other goodies that might not stick in the grave for us. Not only does this give us a versatile and pre-board grave-hate package, it shuts down so many cards in so many decks, and if they cant deal with having their library slowly stripped away, they will lose purely due to a lack of good or even functional cards in their deck.

Naturally, youre looking at an incredible first-game performance in the face of Combo decks. And, post-board, unless they have Leyline of Sanctity, probably just as good. Control decks can get outpaced by our cheap threats, while we hold them off with our disruption. Aggro can be challenging, but ultimately comes down to the draw. Obviously, theres a lot of intricacy to how these games will play, so keep your wits about you and bring in the cruelest of victories.

The Hate Package

Lets start with the basics. Discard. Nice and easy, very good at what it does, and it obviously sets up our deck-scrubbers with something to eat. Thoughtseize is just the best at what it does. The premier discard spell, if you will. And the life loss is not irrelevant it helps us grow the Death's Shadows. Inquisition of Kozilek is a great catch-most in Modern, snagging the most annoying of early-game interaction and permanents. In the main, I have a single Duress, but more could be correct, or possibly none at all. I suppose it depends on the meta.

Remand is everyones favorite pseudo-Time Walk, buying time and drawing a card. Now, a lot of decks will tend to run Mana Leak, and so did I, for a while, but I have recently become kind of enamored with Rune Snag. In this deck, we want to use them early to stock the opponents graveyard and keep them off of resolving spells, obviously, but it also holds its value through the game, where Leak will tend to fall off sooner, rather than later. Matchup depending, of course. But against the decks for which Mana Leak is backbreaking, Rune Snag will persist in being backbreaking through the course of the game.

Fatal Push offers us a little removal, for what will stick and yes, I know, its not the most nostalgic card in the format. I used to have Smother, but this is just better. Lets be honest. Snapcaster Mage is as powerful as ever, and I dont think thats going to change any time soon. And lastly, but not leastly, our scrubbers. Extirpate is the original deck-scrubber, and is the best at it. It does, unfortunately, require mana to cast, but the Split Second is not to be underestimated. Especially in those tricky matchups, where your opponent will have a lot of interaction. Surgical Extraction is the more favored one, just because it can easily find a slot in the sideboard of literally any deck or the maindeck, if youre a real dick. And just for the added value, Sadistic Sacrament is honestly so powerful, yet so underplayed. Its super good against Storm if it resolves. Ill say that much. Plus, if we kick it

Stacking the Hate

If you thought the maindeck was hateful, the sideboard is even juicier. Squelch is for any matchup in which the opponent has activated abilities that they would like to use. Like, say, on their fetchlands. Hows that a turn two, instant speed stone rain! Its a party, thats all Im saying. One more copy of Duress for those matchups where you really need it. Hurkyl's Recall for those pesky decks with artifacts. Spell Pierce for those pesky decks with noncreature spells. Drown in Sorrow for those pesky decks with creatures.

Echoing Truth is perhaps one of my favorite removal spells in the format, but thats probably just because I started in the format playing Eggs. (Yeah, Im that asshole. Sorry not sorry.) Its mostly meant for two things: the go-wide matchups, featuring tokens and a bunch of other annoying little things, and Leyline of Sanctity. Theres not one good enchantment removal spell in these colors, so we have to get creative. But, once its gone, I can make them discard, the scrub it from the game. Taken care of. Speaking of scrubbing, how about one more copy of Sadistic Sacrament? And one Lost Legacy, just in case.

Top Ranked	Achieved #23 position overall 10 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 4 Rares 9 - 5 Uncommons 9 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.38
Folders	Cool decks, Decks I want, Kool Stuff, Decks I'd like to play, New Modern Ideas, Ideas, interesting, modern, best, Modern decks