Goodbye, Modern Horizons Part 1, U/B and U/R

A Modern Horizons Retrospective and Definitive Primer.

Modern Horizons will go down as my favorite Limited environment of all time, something I think a big segment of the Limited community shares.  In somewhere around 250+ drafts (I lost my stats to MTGO deleting my data, something I'm going to account for in the future), I only got to do 90% of what I think was really possible in the format.  I drafted every mono-color deck multiple times each, and every supported archetype each in the double digits.  Sometimes I milled my opponents, sometimes I milled myself for value.  Cats, Goblins, Zombies, Angels, Slivers, Crabs, Vampires and even Soldiers; I drafted piles of different tribal decks.

Missing for me were a real deck based on Urza, Lord High Artificer, the Good-Fortune Unicorn/Persist/Sacrifice outlet combo deck, an aura deck based around Face of Divinity, and a Sisay, Weatherlight Captain deck; maybe some things I couldn't even have dreamed of, too.  All things I'll keep in mind when flashback drafts role around someday.  I can't possibly overstate how many possibilities existed in this set, even if some of the grandiose vision from the designers never got realized, the possibilities weren't endless but damn close.

In today's article, I'm going to talk about how two of the ten color pair based decks come together, what synergies drive them, and what cards might shine in them that aren't obvious at first glance.   As we look back, I want to reflect on what worked for each archetype and what didn't.  Keep an eye out for four more parts to this series, where I'll get to every color pair in the set.

U/B "Ninjas"

U/B Ninjas is a deck based around cheap, evasive creatures with an end goal of generating value off various combat focused abilities.  Sometimes you'll survive an opposing blocker with an Azra Smokeshaper, or create an Illusion army with Moonblade Shinobi.  When the deck is firing on all cylinders, you might swap a Ninjitsu creature for another, only to put that original Ninja in place of something else.  Your opponents are rarely left with good options aside from sweeping your board with Crypt Rats, Winds of Abandon, or Dead of Winter, all cards that have a large deck building cost.  In general your opponents could stabilize against your cards that are weak on their surface, but they'll be at 0 life before that would happen.  Repeated hits for 3 damage add up quickly, and this deck can easily finish off a low life opponent with its numerous evasive creatures and tempo oriented spells.

Key Commons: Changeling Outcast, Faerie Seer, Gluttonous Slug (Enablers)
Moonblade Shinobi, Azra Smokeshaper, Ninja of the New Moon (Pay-offs)

If you take a look at my pick-order list from a few days ago, one thing you might notice is how high Changeling Outcast and Faerie Seer are listed.  This deck is the reason for that high placement, as Ninja decks with multiple copies of these cards are substantially more powerful than those without.  Not only are these the cheapest evasive creatures in the set at common, but Changeling Outcast is a Ninja for the various cards that care and Faerie Seer will repeatedly set up your future draws with the Scry 2, something that is a nice bonus on turn 1 that turns into a huge consistency advantage as it gets repeatedly returned to hand and recast.  Gluttonous Slug is at it's best here, as having creatures repeatedly enter play will grow it to an enormous size, and an 0/3 menace on turn 2 can put in Moonblade Shinobi on turn 3 in a pinch to get things rolling.  The Ninja pay-offs are relatively self explanatory, as once you have a bunch of enablers your game plan is to repeatedly put them into play with Ninjitsu to generate bonuses and persistent, big hits of damage.

General Pick Order for Ninja Decks: Rare Ninjas (Fallen Shinobi/Mist Syndicate Naga), Ingenious Infiltrator,  Watcher for Tomorrow, Twisted Reflection, Mob, Man-o-War, Changeling Outcast/Faerie Seer, Defile, Moonblade Shinobi, Gluttonous Slug, Azra Smokeshaper, Ninja of the New Moon.

Other common cheap creatures will often be filled in as needed, like Eyekite, Pondering Mage, and Putrid Goblin. Smokeshroud can generally be picked up late and it's pretty great to have the 1st/2nd copy.  Phantom Ninja is awful, avoid playing it unless you have multiple Ingenious Infiltrators or you're short creatures in general.

Avoid splashing in this deck, and expect to play 16-17 lands with 9 sources of whatever color you have more one drop creatures in.  Bad spells like Umezawa's Charm are acceptable in this deck if your spell count ends up really low, as opponents are put under so much pressure to constantly block.

Takeaways

This deck works, but too well for the format's own good.  Playing this deck gives a feeling of constantly deceiving and tricking the opponent unlike any limited deck I've ever played, but being on the receiving end has led to some of the most unfun and tedious feeling games of Magic I've ever played as well.  Any game in which you get to put in Ingenious Infiltrator turn 2 on the play, victory is nearly assured, the snowballing advantage accrued from this point is almost insurmountable barring astronomically poor draws or an insane series of draws from the opponent.  Right after the London Mulligan was introduced, I nearly won a game off of a mulligan to 3 where the hand I kept was Island, Swamp, Ingenious Infiltrator, and if I had just played a bit better I would have gotten there.  The only thing that ended up hurting this deck was its own success, as it remained consistently over drafted for the formats entire life cycle.  With no Infest style sweeper in the format, you often have to kill every single creature this deck plays, or run them over when they have one of their weaker draws.  I'd rate this deck's existence as the biggest blemish on a perfect format, as if the cards here were just a touch weaker it wouldn't suck to play against so much.

U/R "Draw Two"

 

U/R Draw Two is a deck based on cards that get more powerful for each card drawn in a given turn, such as Fists of Flame and Thundering Djinn, and cards that gain an ability once the 2nd card of a turn is drawn, such as Eyekite and Spinehorn Minotaur.  This deck is best defined as an "Aggro/Combo" deck similar to Modern's Infect, as you're generally trying to use pump spells to kill your opponent on an early turn.  Eyekite is your consistent damage source, as it's easy to turn on repeatedly and attack for 3 over and over, while Spinehorn Minotaur excels when going for a quick kill with Fists of Flame.  You'll want both together in multiples as different combinations of draws will ask for different facilitators.  This deck should be made up of as many Eyekites and Spinehorn Minotaurs as you can get with some random aggressive creatures like Orcish Hellraiser and Mooblade Shinobi to round things out.  You're going to want Fists of Flame, Phantasmal Form, and a healthy amount of cards with Cycling as well as cheap removal spells like Pyrophobia and Magmatic Sinkhole.  This deck is generally weak to removal spells, as you're not going to have a lot of threats in your deck in general, and you're very reliant on pump spells to actually kill the opponent.

Key Commons: Eyekite, Spinehorn Minotaur (Enablers)
Fists of Flame, Phantasmal Form, Reckless Charge, Cycling Cards (Pay-offs)

The general gameplan for U/R is to combine Spinehorn Minotaur and Eyekite with Phantasmal Form to kill the opponent quickly over the course of two turns.  Phantasmal Form interacts incredibly well with these creatures, as Eyekite will become a 5/3 and Spinehorn Minotaur a 3/3 Doublestrike with Flying, adding up to an easy 11 damage as early as turn 4.  You'll want to supplement this with cards like Reckless Charge for quicker kills, especially with Spinehorn Minotaur, and as many Cycling cards like Windcaller Aven and Viashino Sandsprinter as you can afford to keep the "draw a card" metric enabled every turn. U/R Draw Two is less reliant on individual pieces than U/B, like one mana creatures, but is never as powerful or resilient.

General Pick Order for Draw Two Decks: Seasoned Pyromancer/Bazaar Trademage, Fiery Islet, Firebolt, Man-o-War, Thundering Djinn, Magmatic Sinkhole(first copy), Oneirophage, Pyrophobia, Eyekite, Spinehorn Minotaur, Red then Blue Cycling Lands, Phantasmal Form/Fists of Flame, Windcaller Aven.

As U/R can struggle with big creatures like Murasa Behemoth or even a large Abominable Treefolk, picking up some snow lands to turn on Winter's Rest is more important here than in other blue decks.  Like U/B, any creatures that are cheap will often find a home here, like Orcish Hellraiser and Bladeback Sliver, and you'll want Pondering Mage in any version of this deck that's less combo oriented and slower.  Rain of Revelation is much better than Fact or Fiction in this deck, so keep that in mind as well.  Generally, take removal highly and stay open, and move in once you start seeing Eyekite/Spinehorn Minotaur late and Fists of Flame/Phantasmal Form late.

You should almost always play 16 lands, as many of your cards will say "Draw a Card" on them somewhere, and flooding out can be pretty disastrous as these decks often lack staying power.  Fiery Islet is unbelievably strong in this deck, as it fixes your mana, turns on your theme, and you're in a great position to not care about your life total too much.  Like U/B, don't splash here unless your playing a controlling version of U/R, as your mana is being stretched to the limit already.

Takeaways

"Draw Two"'s existence is a testament to how flexible Magic can be as a game.  This is the first set where this has been a major draft theme, and not only does it have a lot of built-in support but it plays great as well.  The subtext of this mechanic is that it's trivial to activate during your own turn, but takes a lot more work during the opponent's.  You'll certainly be able to generate some blow-outs with Rain of Revelation after blocks, but it's a rarity.  U/R was my favorite deck in the format, as there was no greater feeling then assembling a creative kill combining Fists of Flame and Spinehorn Minotaur and some other random piece to get an unexpected turn 5 kill.  I certainly wish this deck had access to a card like Dive Down or even Negate, but I think that would have further exacerbated the problems that U/B Ninjas already have and thusly understand the exclusion of a good protection effect.  Admittedly, this deck was a tad tougher to get into than I would have liked, as aside from taking an early Thundering Djinn and praying, only Fiery Islet consistently let me end up in this deck.

Signing Off,
Kevin
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