by Johnny Cycles, July 1st, 2024
Pro Tour Nadu, Winged Wisdom…cough, cough…I mean, Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 is in the books and the results were arguably worse than most expected. And most expected Nadu, Winged Wisdom to be busted.
How bad was it? Well, 5 out of 8 of the top decks were Nadu. The final 4 was made up of all Nadu decks, eliminating all excitement and mystery as to which deck would come out on top…
Modern’s meta has fast become those playing Nadu and those trying to beat (and more often than not, failing) Nadu.
Underneath all the Bird dominance, there are several powerful new decks built around MH3 cards. Unfortunately for us here at cyclesgaming.com, Dragons got little love from Modern’s latest set. And while there are still several cards I want to test out beyond Rosheen, Roaring Prophet, as long as Nadu, Winged Wisdom rules the format, I’m not very hopeful of our success.
Yup…these are the Dragons we have to work with (Fledgling Dragon, a reprint, is also in the set). Can an Affinity deck looking to get Furnace Hellkite out as early as turn 2 compete in Modern? What if we use it to resolve Herigast, Erupting Nullkite as early as turn 3? We’re going to find out!
Writing this section made me notice the above similarities between Furnace Hellkite and the art I chose for my custom card, Vornex, Born of Lava. In case you didn’t recognize it when I first spoiled my third wish list card for MH3, I borrowed Chris Rain’s art from Volcanic Dragon.
This month’s Commander article will feature a fun, wacky, but surprisingly powerful deck that I call Triple Keywords. Wizards has been giving more and more creatures multiple abilities like flying, first strike, etc. What happens when we build a deck consisting of only creatures with three keywords?
My first Pioneer article is in the books and it was fun exploring that format once again. I can’t say Pioneer is particularly popular, but maybe more Modern players will give it another try if Nadu, Winged Wisdom isn’t banned soon. Either way, I have a few more decks I’d like to try out there.
Otherwise, I’ve stared my new job and, while it’s technically part time, it’s one of those jobs that you can spend as much or as little time doing. Currently, I’m still planning on publishing an article a week, but if my game play suffers too much from lack of practice or sufficient testing, I may reduce it to every other week.
The Usual Blurb
My goal is to publish an article between Wednesday and Friday every week. I am a stay-at-home dad of three with a part-time job, though, so there may be weeks that life gets in the way. I’ll rotate the topics each week in the following order: Modern-Commander-Pioneer-Fiction. Whenever possible, I’ll publish articles and videos when they’re ready. Now that I am making videos, I hope to upload gameplay of each of the Modern decks I’ve already written about, as well as new ones I’m testing. For these reasons, there will be weeks when more than one article and/or video gets posted. Published articles are pretty time-intensive, hence the once-a-week-schedule, but the matches I play along the way will get posted to my YouTube channel as I go. Be sure to check there if you’re looking for a match but it isn’t yet on the site.
Schedule
July 5th – Dragons in Modern – Affinity Dragons
July 12th – Commander – Boros Triple Key Words with Archangel Avacyn
July 19th – Pioneer Curious – Mardu Aristocrats
July 26th – Fiction – Chapters 21-22 – Charleston and his friends navigate their new roles in New Washington
If there is a topic you want me to write about, a deck you want me to try out, or if you want less of one thing and more of another, let me know in the comments or email me: johnnycycles16@gmail.com. If you enjoy the site, please let your friends know via word of mouth or social media or messenger pigeon, if that’s your preference. This is a new site that needs all the clicks it can get! Also, be sure to check out my Facebook page and YouTube Channel!
Thanks for reading and watching, subscribing and sharing!
