I’m back with another tournament update: the PTQ at ManaWerx, which, if I may say, was very fun and it was a very good experience, even though I didn’t make top 8—barely. I’m not here to talk about the decks that won or made top 4 or top 8 for that matter, but the decks that did well but were not exactly recognized. Some of you might catch where I’m going if you had played against me at the PTQ or at Amazing Discoveries. I was not exactly playing the best or the tier 1 or even tier 2 decks for that matter, but I did end up going 5-2 at the PTQ with none other than Kithkin.
Let’s take a look at the mono white madness.
Kithkin
| Creatures (24) 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender 4 Goldmeadow Stalwart 4 Figure of Destiny 4 Wizened Cenn 4 Knight of the Meadowgrain 3 Ranger of Eos 4 Cloudgoat Ranger Spells (12) 4 Honor of the Pure 4 Spectral Procession 4 Path to Exile Lands (24) 4 Rustic Clachan 4 Arid Mesa 4 Windbrisk Heights 12 Plains | Sideboard (15) 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender 2 Suppression Field 2 Disenchant 3 Kitchen Finks 2 Day of Judgement 2 Baneslayer Angel |
First of all, give a round of applause to Kithkin because not only did it go 5-2, but it beat some of the top tier 1 decks in Modern. In round 1, I played against Jund, probably the most popular deck in Modern–probably because of how convenient it is. Surprisingly, Kithkin is basically undefeated against that deck; it’s lost once, but Jund had the god hand.
Two of my wins and two of my losses were against Splinter Twin and Melira Pod, two of the top decks in this format. I know a lot of people don’t give Kithkin the chance to be a deck. In reality, it has proven to beat some of the top tier decks and can be built for roughly $100 which in this economy is a good thing.
The next deck I wanted to introduce is something that is kind of a dead deck but I think could be a potential tier deck eventually.
U/W Revelark
| Creatures (22) 4 Revelark 4 Mulldrifter 4 Aven Riftwatcher 2 Sower of Temptation 2 Venser, Shaper Servant 3 Snapcaster Mage 3 Geist of Saint Traft Spells (13) 3 Momentary Blink 4 Mana Leak 4 Path to Exile 2 Spell Snare Lands (25) 4 Seachrome Coast 2 Scalding Tarn 2 Arid Mesa 4 Hallowed Fountain 3 Celestial Collonade 5 Island 5 Plains |
Now I’m sure all of you remember Reveillark back in the day when it was in Standard and how good it was. I don’t really have a build for this deck so if you wanted to change the list you could; there are so many things that can be brought back by Reveillark this list is just off the top of my head. My friend Jason Black also remembers the combo you could pull off using Greater Gargadon. I think that’s still possible, but it seems to slow and an expensive land base, but you could try some build with that.
The reason I didn’t give this a sideboard is because for one, you can build the sideboard based on where you play and also I just don’t know what to put in it, so people so should comment below what they think should be in it.
The next deck I want to introduce is the black white token deck—some people say is a terrible deck, but they also said that about all of these decks so I guess it fits.
Black-White Tokens
I did some playtesting with this deck before the PTQ because I thought I wanted to play it. The problem with this deck was that it got blown out by all of the other aggro decks; it was just too slow. The version above wasn’t what I tested with, but this is a lot better build: the Tidehollow Scullers and the Inquistions fit perfect in this deck. Hand disruption kills a lot of decks like Tron, Splinter Twin and Storm. These decks have some key cards in there deck that make them win, and if you get rid of them early it makes it easier for you to win.
The last deck I would like to talk about is a deck that hasn’t seen a lot of play, but I think has a lot of potential.
Affinity
| Creatures (25) 4 Arcbound Ravager 3 Etched Champion 4 Memnite 4 Ornithopter 4 Signal Pest 4 Vault Skirge 2 Steel Overseer Spells (20) 4 Cranial Plating 4 Galvanic Blast 4 Mox Opal 3 Sharapnel Blast 3 Springleaf Drum 2 Steelshaper’s Gift Lands (15) 4 Darksteel Citadel 3 Gemstone Mind 3 Glimmervoid 4 Inkmoth Nexus 1 Mountain (0) | Sideboard (15) 3 Dispatch 4 Tidehollow Sculler 4 Inquisition Of Kozelik 4 Ethersworn Canonist |
I got this list from the Daily Event on 3/19/12 from TCGplayer.com, so it’s a fairly decent version of this deck. I have seen and lost to this deck when it was playing blue for Master of Etherium. The red is pretty good for Galvanic Blast and finishers like Shrapnel Blast; I’ve also seen it play Whipflare. That’s a blowout if you’re playing against another aggro deck. White for Dispatch is like playing Path to Exile but better, and Tempered Steel is still an option. The black in this deck for the discard is new, but I guess Tidehollow is an artifact.
So there’s tons of ways to experiment with any of these decks, so just try it. Please leave any questions and comments you have down below in the comments and submit us your lists so we can playtest them and tell you how they do.
Peace Out
The Snapcastro Mage