https://moxfield.com/decks/oFnZSfzDgU27Lj_JBToWZw

Decklist above.

Please make the assumption that I had access to all the cards that I would have wanted or needed to work on the archetype. Notably the two scalding tarns (one of these should be any blue fetch) over additional black fetches, the exclusion of the fourth Quantum Riddler and the choice to not include additional shock/surveil lands.

I went undefeated in matches in both the swiss and top 4 (5 rounds, cut to top 4).

The Monthly Metagame Update is here. Highlights include:

• The title doesn't quite do Blink's data justice.
• MTGO is moving towards full consolidation.
• I'm giving up trying to differentiate Weapons Manufacturing decks.

For all this and the data, read the article.

Traditionally I’ve been doing these Monday metagame dumps with charts and conversion matrices in video form, but here’s the raw Week 18 data for people who just want the picture without the noise.

Boros Energy (15.6% meta, 47% WR)
Third week in a row of decline (22.1% → 15.6%). Still shows up everywhere, still hits Top8 in ~83% of challenges, but doesn't win a lot.

At this point, it’s hard to say what happened. Deck is really good, but still flagged as Popular Trap, and maybe it's time for a new format king?

You’re going to play against it constantly (57.3% encounter rate) and slightly underperform against it over time. Nothing about that has changed except the win column getting emptier.

The real story: Broodscale Combo (1.15% meta, 64% WR, n=86)
This is the part that stands out this week.

64% winrate (small sample, but not meaningless anymore at this output)

Yes, the sample is still small. But you don’t usually see a deck at ~1% just and wining challanges.

Even if you regress it heavily, the ceiling interaction is clearly there.

Belcher quietly doing Belcher things
Also 2 event wins this week.

~87.5% Top32 conversion

~16.7% win rate per Top32 entry

Nobody ever respects it until it shows up and just win.

Graveyard (19.4% combined)
This is starting to look less like “an axis in the format” and more like “the format itself”.

Living End: 10.5%, 100% Top32 presence, ~44% Top8 conversion

Goryo’s Vengeance: 5.6%, 91.7% Top32, 50% Top8, 0 wins

Both sit around ~56% WR independently.

The uncomfortable question is no longer “is graveyard good?”
It’s “at what point does this become the thing you have to beat first?”

Ruby Storm continues its identity crisis

100% Top32 presence

66.7% Top8 rate

0 wins over the tracked period

~52% WR overall

It’s clearly strong enough to get into every room… and then just refuses to close.

Domain Zoo (45% WR, stable)
Still the reference point for midrange positioning.

Slightly positive vs Boros (51%)

Roughly even vs Affinity (54%)

Negative into Living End (49%) and Goryo’s (44%)

Graveyard axis is still the prep priority, no real shift there.

Big picture takeaways

Boros is still everywhere, still “fine” on paper, still underperforming in actual results

Broodscale is the outlier spike of the week at tiny meta share

Belcher keeps quietly over-converting

Graveyard (19.4%) is now large enough that calling it “a matchup package” feels increasingly dishonest

Ruby Storm is the most consistent non-closing deck in the format

At what point does 19.4% graveyard with two separate 56% WR decks stop being a trend and start being the thing you have to target first in deckbuilding?

And more importantly:

are people still sideboarding like Boros is the problem, when it might just be the distraction?

https://youtu.be/E83s6zHcLDI?si=wd55ufbTGc8tgK9N

I decided to try the mono black lesson Reanimator. I thought it was a pile when I saw it. Then I tried it and it felt amazing... IT WAS SOOOO MUCH FUN. Learn not only can help you find a card you need but it also can loot away your archon to graveyard for persist. Maybe learn is getting too strong?!

Would something like this work?

What spells am I missing ?

(lands are WIP)

Hello all, I created the esper frog ketramose blink deck, and piloted it to consistent top 8 rcqs and wins. I am back with another brew of mine for this rcq season, which attempts to make esper blink great again. Esper blink has essentially all but transformed into jeskai blink but i still believe in our lord and savior overlord with his disciple psychic frog.

Ketramose essentially got soft banned from the printing of riddler, this resulted in 3 things;

1. you lose 3 white pips in your deck for solitude count

2. losing an extremely fast clock and a decent attacker/blocker

3. making the combo m/u one of the worst in the format

With all of that being said i went about creating this abomination of a deck that has extreme pip requirements due to having not 4 pitch spells but 8! This requires essentially upwards of 20 white and blue pitch counts in the deck. There is also a t2 frog that would like to be played or a t2 NML, so you need all 3 colors available on t2. I have added 4 cards to help increase the pitch count, No More Lies, and T3feri, these serve dual roles in helping combo/midrange matchups and being great pitch fodder.

With frog and riddler you get a minimum of 5 cards drawn in one turn and an upwards of 11, this can lead to an incredibly fast clock and also searching for exactly what you need, usually a pitch spell.

This deck I believe struggles vs aggro the most, and because I cannot run fatal push, I decided on bowmaster as the scapel for those m/us.

Here are the last 2 rcq tournament reports as evidence of the deck performing well.

r1: 2-0 Boros Storm both games frog t2 (i was otp g1 so was able to deploy frog early) g2 i drew 7 cards in one turn turning frog into 7 power i was able to tap out thanks to solitude/sub/fon and a timely nml won me game 1

r2: 2-0 Boros Land Destruction I drew all 3 basics g1, but thanks to counterspells on land destruction and my oppo having some of the worst mana issues ever + frog (i made 3x galvanic in one turn targeting frog dead ) i get there. g2 drew 0 basics , still got there because of counterspells + frog, with final turn drawing 11 cards dumping into frog for lethal

r3: 2-1 Affinity mull to 5 all 3 games from oppo, t2 kappa g1 i couldn't beat in time due to not finding solitude in top 25, had to play extremely tight to win game 2, but a wrath was the final nail, g3 i saw pest and 3 wraths, only cast 2, pitching 1 to frog and 1 to solitude due to mana issues, being able to hold up mystical/nml/phelia/fon/sub definitely helped in this m/u

r4: 0-2 affinity oppo had t1 kappa 0 mull both games, i stopped t1 g1 thanks to a solitude on pinnacle, they still had it t2. g2 i had mystical for the kappa t1 but he had mystical backup.... and even when i went to solitude it t4 by setting up ending on mox t3, he had 2nd kappa + land + rebuke to protect... this oppo high rolled every single game that day winning the entire thing had t1/2 kappa every single game, very sus affinity needs a ban.

r5: 2-1 blue moon i lost to a blood moon g1 bc i was otd, i had basic island in hand and could have fetched basic plains t1 to play around it with ending in hand, my hand was unbeatable if it wasnt bloodmoon g2/3 i played around blood moon and i am blink with frog so how could i ever be out-grinded, g3 I had to be very careful of milling myself so thankfully riddler got me there because overlord would have decked me.

r6: ID

r7: 2-1 BW Ketra Blink they were essentially on blink + ketra/relic, g1 game went 40 min, I stayed it in thanks to bowmaster killing 4 creatures and chumping 3 times, didnt concede bc if i topdecked solitude/ephem I most likely deck my oppo with 9 cards left to my 18 g2 i won bc a otp t3feri is almost impossible to beat for blink, g3 I won thanks to oppo misplaying, his hand was extremely strong and I potentially would have lost if he played perfectly

r8: 1-2 Grixis Wizards Reanimator They had archon/blue emeritus as their persist targets and the wizards, thundertrap, flare package. all 3 games they surveil a archon into the yard for free value. g1, he eventually gets there because I cant find a single draw engine outside of frog, and oppo managed to interact 7 times and then emeritus recall. g2, he kept a 1 lander and I kept a reactive hand + overlord, impended t2, oppo didnt see 2nd land till t5. g3 i kept a 1 lander with solitude, pending, fon, riddler, overlord x2, island, topdeck the fetch for impend t2 find faerie macabre and game is unloseable atp, but bc oppo got the free surveil target he went up to THREE persist targets from a looting, and seized me before persist so i chose to hit 2x archon. in hindsight I should have hit emeritus + archon, take the 3 for 1 from the persist archon and solitude it and I believe i might not lose.

RCQ #2

Blue moon 2-1

Tron 1-1

Titan 2-1

Titan 2-0

ID

Top 8

Titan 2-1

Abzan Yawg/food 2-1

they discontinued winner swag/pins etc so didnt get to beat titan 4 times in one tourney

there were 2 games where i was full control and couldn't find a win con/engine piece to save my life, resulting in winning with phelia mostly backed up by either a 1/4 or a solitude/sub right at the end for a final blow.

there was never a game where i was too much engine.

i always had interaction when i needed it when i was engine gaming

i did lose a game due to a mulligan to 6, resulting in pitching the white card to frog with solitude in hand, and then not drawing a white card off 2 draws, this was still the correct line because it setup for a 12 point frog lethal swing next turn.

this deck cannot kill as fast as frog+ketramose, but it is far more consistent, has better topdecks, and still kills relatively quick if it sees frog+riddler

the common line is frog, pitch whatever to get down to 1 card, riddler draw 2, pitch 2 more, either ephem (pitch another 2 after), or swing pitching 2 more. resulting in usually a minimum of 7 cards drawn in one turn and a 5-6 power frog

the best i have been able to do was 11 cards in one turn

all going into frog for lethal swing

force of negation performed better than sub this event. but i believe they both have their purpose and wouldn't want to go up or down on either

the only match that felt like luck was involved was vs tron, one of my worst m/us i believe (but perhaps this version is better than normal blink?) where the tron opponent had what i felt like a very bad game, and we had the game where we essentially didn't do anything for 10 turns (i did force, nml, solitude) and i won with swinging only a phelia and a 1/4

titan almost felt like a bye

my versions of blink have always been favored vs titan but having 4 copies total of fon/sub made it not scary at all

perhaps in a more open meta the deck needs about 2-4 cards difference for more aggro strategies such as energy/prowess

with 2 rcq semi-finals in a row the deck feels very strong, and i am very convinced this is just a better version of stock esper blink

https://moxfield.com/decks/Zc5ioS8QPkCKHoG5e7LJAw

Hey all,

So I have been tinkering with Nic Fit in modern and came up with this list that I quite like.

https://moxfield.com/decks/tOwTr9MJbkidvxD5nhWxxw

My sideboard needs a little work, but overall the deck feels pretty consistent. My sample size isn’t huge but I have played against Ruby Storm, Blink, Domain Zoo etc… on MTGO. I mainly play friendly leagues and FNM, but would like to see how far I can run with the deck.

The basic idea is ramp to 4 mana on T2. Then stick one of the 4 mana baddies and push through with Hollowmurk. I have lots of hand disruption for combo decks, But have found Dimir to be a tough matchup.

[[Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker]] Puts in a lot of work. Being able to dodge Solitude and Push is pretty sweet.

Anyway I just wanted to get some opinions.

=========================

Thanks for the feedback. I made quite a few changes and put more emphasis on supporting the combo. I also tightened up the mana base and added more 1 drop mana dorks.

I goldfished the deck and it seems alot more consistent now. I‘m going to play some matches on MTGO when I have a chance to see how it performs.

=========================

I saw a list that was running [[Poet’s Quill]] and the paradigm card from SOS [[Decorum Dissertation]] go 5-0. Could the lesson card just be played as a 1-2 of in the main board of midrange decks or is the quill needed to make it work.

The list:

https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/deck-decklist-by-shzockchan-2929511