by Johnny Cycles, October 17th, 2025
Hello! Welcome to a special edition of Keeping Modern Janky! I’m testing out a deck I got from an opponent a few weeks ago, when I was playing Sliver Tribal. Alas, the sound on our match was broken, so I wasn’t able to post it, but I asked StankyJanky for his decklist, and he was kind enough to send it to me. And boy, let me tell you! It is a thing of beauty!
Before I get to the decklist, I just want to say that the October Schedule originally had Dragons in Pioneer with Nova Hellkite and Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly featured, but I frankly just got distracted by this Magda deck. It’s been so much fun and so competitive that I haven’t been able to play much Pioneer. Contributing to this is also the fact that there is never anyone in the free zone to play Pioneer with, so it’s hard to get single games in to test. But stay tuned! I’ve played a few matches so far and I’ll try to get enough done that I can post an article on it next week, which is currently scheduled as off.
But now to this wonderful, super janky, super fun deck!
Decklist – Changeling Tribal with Magda, Brazen Outlaw
by StankyJanky
Format: Modern
Creatures (28)
Artifacts (3)
| 1 Unlicensed Hearse | |
| 1 Coat of Arms | |
| 1 Eldrazi Monument |
Instants (7)
| 2 Boros Charm | |
| 4 Flame of Anor | |
| 1 Struggle/Survive |
Lands (22)
Sideboard (15)
| 2 Meltdown | |
| 4 Bishop of Wings | |
| 2 Celestial Purge | |
| 2 Demera, Soul of a Spider | |
| 2 Wrath of the Skies | |
| 2 Boromir, Warden of the Tower | |
| 1 Lyra Dawnbringer |
Note: I’m using the online names for the cards from Marvel’s Spider-Man, since that’s how they appear in the videos. However, the image when you hover over them doesn’t work. Blame Wizards…
StankyJanky’s original list had one copy of Throne of the God-Pharaoh in the main. And while I see how great that card can be, I took it out in favor of another land. It’s possible we’d rather have that than Roaming Throne, though. The list also played one copy of Kavaron, Memorial World, which is some cool tech, to be honest, as it gives us another way to tap our creatures without combat. However, coming in tapped and giving us one is more of a liability, in my opinion. Cutting these two cards and a single Mountain allowed me to go up to the full playset of Arid Mesa and a single copy of Meticulous Archive and Thundering Falls respectively.
Deck Tech
Primary Game Plan
We want to play a bunch of honorary Dwarves in the shape of Shapeshifters, stick a Magda, Brazen Outlaw, and either turn them all sideways if we have enough attackers to get to five Treasure tokens before blocks, or use a variety of other ways to tap our Dwarves without needing combat until we have that magic number of Treasures. Then we use Magda’s ability to tutor up one of our finishers, the best of which is usually Coat of Arms. And since we can activate Magda during combat, we aren’t worried about our creatures dying as long as we get the necessary Treasures. This is especially true if we tutor up Eldrazi Monument.
This is our best line, since it is almost always game ending in our favor. However, there will be plenty of situations when we aren’t ready to activate Magda, Brazen Outlaw and we aren’t able to attack without losing our underpowered creatures. That’s where we get sneaky. We have a variety of ways to tap our creatures without having to attack.
Mothdust Changeling and Shacklegeist can both be activated on our opponents turn, which will allow us to stockpile enough Treasure tokens that when we untap, we can attack and likely have the necessary five Treasures to go for lethal. Shacklegeist is also sneaky good. In one of our matches, it would’ve kept us alive against a resolved Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, extra turn and all, had we played it instead of the line we chose. It can shut down Archon of Cruelty or a giant Murktide Regent.
Like I said. It’s sneaky good.
Meanwhile, Unlicensed Hearse gives us a main-deck answer to graveyard decks. Sometimes resolving this on turn 2 against them in game 1 means we get the W, when they were counting on their unfair gameplan to get them the preboarded game.
Finally, Mothdust Changeling is one of our best since it is both a 1-drop and can be used repeatedly.
Secondary Game Plan
As often as we get the sweet, sweet combo win with Magda, Brazen Outlaw, we’ve won via the janky, Shapeshifter beats. I know, I know. It’s hard to believe that this pile of unassuming cards can beat down anyone, but that’s been my experience so far. I’m not sure if it’s just been opponents not running a lot of removal or that our targets are so underpowered or that we are very capable of flooding the board, but going wide and swinging out is our secondary win condition. And it works.
Finally, I have to give a shout-out to Plargg, Dean of Chaos. Well, really, the shout-out goes to its flipside, Augusta, Dean of Order. What an amazing card in our deck! And what a strange set of abilities. It’s almost like it was custom-made for this exact deck. I only got to resolve it once, but it gave me enough leverage to win the game, even without Magda, Brazen Outlaw out. With our Dwarf Lord, we should pretty easily get 10 Treasure tokens and a double Magda activation for the super fun win. I have since done this very thing!
Sideboard
If you thought the 60 looked fun, wait until you get to sideboard with this deck! Being that we’re playing a bunch of Shapeshifters, we have a ton of Tribal options. Bishop of Wings is a thing of beauty in our deck. Not only does it gain us a ton of life for each Shapeshifter we play, it survives Pyroclasm. For more synergy, the creatures we lose to it come back as Spirit tokens, which synergize with Shacklegeist.
Along these lines, I added Demera, Soul of a Spider to draw us cards. The 1-of Lyra Dawnbringer is an expensive Lord effect, but can be the difference between winning and losing in the right match-ups.
Boromir, Warden of the Tower gives us some protection against sweepers and free spells. Note that we’re running two Boros Charms in the main, so bringing in the Human Soldier gives us even more resiliency.
I added two copies of Meltdown to fight against Affinity. Wrath of the Skies is an answer, as well, but it will also hurt us, so bring it in with caution. It feels like a necessary evil, though. When we need it, we’ll really need it.
Finally, Celestial Purge is a clean answer to Rakdos permanents. This spot could be taken by just about any flexible answer in our colors.
And that’s Magda Changeling Tribal! I hope you enjoy the game play!
Match 1 vs. 4-Color Reanimator
Match 2 vs. Affinity
Match 3 vs. Death and Taxes
Match 4 vs. Orzhov Control
Match 5 vs. Simic Emrakul
Overall Record: 4-1
Pretty sweet! I played a few other matches that didn’t record with sound, so our record is a little different (5-2). I also got crushed in a game 1 against Simic Eldrazi, but my opponent didn’t want to finish our match and scooped. It seems like the big-mana decks will give us some issues since they’ll often have ways to clear our board in their maindeck.
A New Direction?
I’ve been itching to try Mox Jasper, but I haven’t found a deck that can take full advantage of the latest mox.
Until now!
With so many Shapeshifters, we ought to be able to take advantage of Mox Jasper and get ahead on mana, which will allow us to combo off a turn earlier.
Other than this change, I added a fourth Unsettled Mariner, one copy of Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant, and two copies of Demera, Soul of a Spider. Unsettled Mariner does a great job of taxing our opponent and slowing them down, but it was just as important to increase our Shapeshifter count. Sarkhan turns into a Dragon, so synergizes with Mox Jasper, though he’ll only ever be a Dragon when we have a Shapeshifter on the battlefield. Still, the Treasure token he brings can help get us ahead on mana, too, or help us activate Magda sooner.
Demera, Soul of a Spider was so impressive out of the board that I want to give her a chance in the main. Drawing cards is always fun, but since we’re a combo deck, it’s super important that we find our pieces in a timely fashion.
Decklist – Magda Mox and Changeling Tribal
by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern
Creatures (28)
Artifacts (7)
| 4 Mox Jasper | |
| 1 Unlicensed Hearse | |
| 1 Coat of Arms | |
| 1 Eldrazi Monument |
Instants (4)
| 4 Flame of Anor |
Lands (21)
| 4 Arid Mesa | |
| 4 Cavern of Souls | |
| 1 Elegant Parlor | |
| 1 Hallowed Fountain | |
| 2 Island | |
| 1 Meticulous Archive | |
| 1 Mountain | |
| 1 Mutavault | |
| 2 Plains | |
| 1 Sacred Foundry | |
| 2 Survivors’ Encampment | |
| 1 Thundering Falls |
Sideboard (15)
| 2 Meltdown | |
| 4 Bishop of Wings | |
| 2 Boros Charm | |
| 2 Celestial Purge | |
| 2 Wrath of the Skies | |
| 2 Boromir, Warden of the Tower | |
| 1 Lyra Dawnbringer |
Deck Tech
Will Mox Jasper finally show its worth? Have we found its best home? Let’s find out!
Match 1 vs. Izzet Affinity
Match 2 vs. Amulet Titan
Stay tuned for more game play from Mox Magda! I have a few more matches that I still need to edit.
Conclusion
Magda Changeling Tribal was so much fun to play. And, not only that, it’s been super competitive! Thanks again to StankyJanky for the decklist. The deck may look like an unassuming one-trick pony, but believe me when I say it is not. The cards synergize so well together, first of all. And second, they are quite capable of winning races without their signature Dwarf on the battlefield.
Thanks for reading and watching! Let me know in the comments what you think. What Tribal cards would you make room for? Are there are any finishers I’m forgetting?
