Modern Is (Surprisingly) Fun to Play Again

For a long time, Modern was dominated by a single strategy that was eventually banned after the RCs and before the Pro Tour. Decks built around cards like Nadu, Breach, The One Ring (and maybe Lotus Field) completely dominated their respective formats, each reaching a 60% win rate. In each era, some decks could beat the tier-zero strategy but eventually lost to the rest of the metagame.
Right now, things appear… different.
Broodscale Combo is de facto the best deck in the format. Its ability to play eight Ancient Tombs, enabling fast Kozilek’s Commands, an efficient ramp plan with Sowing Mycospawn, a “Splinter Twin” package with Broodscale and Sword, and an endgame monster in Emrakul that can come online as early as turn four are enough to crown Broodscale as “the deck to beat.”
The thing is, according to the data, several decks are able to beat it.

Exploiting Broodscale’s Issues

Broodscale usually has issues in the early game and starts putting things into play from turn three onward. The deck plays only two or three removal spells in the form of Dismember, relying on Kozilek’s Command to do the “hard work.” KCommand is awesome, but it obviously tends to get better the more mana you invest in it. Forcing the opponent to cast it on turn two might cause Broodscale some development issues.
Devoted Druid might be a weapon of choice against Broodscale. The deck can win as early as turn two and consistently finds multiple combo pieces with Green Sun’s Zenith, Rhythm of the Wild, and Tyvar.
Druid also has good matchups against most of the metagame, but it’s still badly positioned against decks with Lightning Bolt.

Azorius Control—which should be called “Azorius Prison”—has also emerged as a top contender in the current metagame, exploiting Broodscale’s other weak spot: its inability to play at instant speed.
The new Azorius build, featuring seven or eight copies of Orim’s Chant and Silence, plans to lock the opponent out of the game by looping these instants and eventually shuffling the graveyards back into the libraries with Day’s Undoing. This card, which used to be a fringe win condition when combined with Narset, is now played as a Timetwister, since it doesn’t matter that the opponent has seven cards in hand if the plan is to keep casting Silences.
This deck might be one of the strongest in the format right now, but I can see it performing worse as people prepare for it. For example, I’m starting to see Broodscale adopt Ba Sing Se more and more to pressure planeswalkers through Silence.

Rakdos Aggro is the third deck with a really solid win rate against Broodscale. Like Devoted Druid, Rakdos exploits Broodscale’s lack of removal by developing a strong early game with big creatures. This is also a strong plan against Trinisphere.
Big, evasive creatures are a strong plan against Prowess and Boros, and with the right hand, the deck can deal lethal damage as early as turn three.

The Rest of the Metagame

Affinity is still really strong against everything that isn’t Broodscale. I like to think of it as “the unfairest of fair decks”: it’s not a combo deck, but its turn-one or turn-two Kappa is hard to call “fair.” The deck might be worth looking at right now, especially if people stop playing Broodscale out of fear of the mirror, UW, and Rakdos.
Prowess is my pick for the next-best deck after Broodscale. It has a very aggressive Game 1, which can shift into a slower UR tempo game plan after sideboarding. Expressive Iteration and Cori-Steel Cutter are strong tools that work well in both fast and attrition games. The issue with the deck is that it’s still highly respected, and people have multiple copies of Trinisphere and High Noon in their sideboards. Showing up prepared, as Anderson LeClair did at the LA RC with a list featuring two Murktides and two Spell Snares in the sideboard, plus an extra Iteration, is the path to victory.

Blink decks are the question mark of the format, mostly because there are so many ways to build them and their win rates are hard to assess. Solitude plus Ephemerate is still a good combination in this metagame, and access to as many as four copies of Mystical Dispute and Consign to Memory means you might have the upper hand against Control and enough tools to beat Broodscale. I think they could be an interesting choice now that the metagame is more defined.

Fringe decks

Both the European and US RCs showcased some “fringe decks” that eventually qualified for the Pro Tour. Kethis Combo was the king of the hill in Los Angeles, while in Europe, Anthony Pav piloted Living End to the Top 8. There were even more interesting decks in the Top 32.
Xerk (Wojciech Kowalczuk) and Thomas Munk both finished in the Top 32, earning Pro Tour slots with this new take on Samwise Combo.

This is another good sign for the format. Modern has always been the “expert format,” meaning that if you’re good at piloting a deck, you should probably stick with it rather than play the “best deck.” While this wasn’t true during the Nadu and Breach eras, I’m glad that assumption still holds true now.

The Play Patterns

What makes this format interesting is that the decks attack on different axes. Broodscale asks opponents to respect both its fast starts and its powerful late game. Azorius tries to take control of the game one turn at a time, while Devoted Druid and Rakdos can punish a slow draw before Broodscale gets established. Affinity and Prowess, meanwhile, remain serious options if the field shifts toward decks built to beat the current frontrunners.
That creates real metagame choices. You can’t prepare for Broodscale without considering what that choice gives up elsewhere, and the decks targeting it are vulnerable to different parts of the field. To me, that’s what makes Modern fun again: there’s a clear deck to beat, but no single obvious answer to the format.
Some people might say that the format’s play patterns aren’t great, or are simply boring. That’s partly true: playing against a deck with seven Orim’s Chants isn’t an awesome experience, but I feel the rest is okay as long as you have a good plan against it. Modern isn’t a Tarmogoyf format, but it’s been years since it was. Right now, you can really play the deck that suits you best, choosing from a spectrum that ranges from prison-control to hyperaggressive.
The format is also very skill-intensive, especially in mirrors and in decks that focus on playing one- and two-drops. Finding the right sequence can sometimes be tough, and the margins are very thin.

My guess for the future

I still feel that Kozilek’s Command, Eldrazi Temple, and Urza’s Saga are a bit too much for the format. Those are by far the best cards with no drawbacks, so I wouldn’t be sad to see them go. When it comes to unbans, I prefer to be very careful, and I don’t love the policy of “unban and see what happens.” Still, cards like Ponder could safely return to Modern.
I also really like how some of the new sets are bringing cool designs into Modern. Edge of Eternities brought a lot of cool cards to the format, and Reality Fracture also seems full of interesting strategies and playmakers that might be explored.
Here’s one by Spiderspace on X… we’ll see!