Deck and Sideboard Guide 2/1/2024

Hello hello hello everyone, and welcome back to Modern. The format has stabilized quite a bit since the banning of Fury and Beans, and the top dogs of the format right now look to be Temur Rhinos, Rakdos Scam, Izzet Murktide, with Amulet being the runner-up.

I will say that I am still quite happy with the Yawgmoth matchup right now. Between 3 Totems, 4 Solitude, 4 Surge, and even a couple Skills post-board, it means we have what I feel to be a favorable matchup at this point. Also, pre-board you can sometimes just run ‘em over. Rhinos, Scam, and Murktide are all still favorable for us as well, so it’s really just the Amulet matchup we need to worry about, which I will address below.

***Disclaimer: make sure to adjust your mid-match decisions based on the specifics of any list you face and use this as a guideline, rather than a hard and fast rule! Sometimes vibes > guide.***

February Deck Configuration

Sideboard Guide

Current Deck Configuration Notes:

-10 Protection Effects: 4 Surge, 2 Giver, 2 Tithe, 2 Skill - I will dive into detail on each one below, but having the ability to swap these in and out based on the matchup and keep them guessing is a nice upside. Surge is the best blanket effect because it does the most game 1 (protecting from not only targeted removal, but also discard effects and burn spells to the face), and Giver has the highest floor of them all, since she is at worst a Squire that carries a Hammer. Tithe and Skill both have their upsides, but in most game 1 scenarios I prefer the Surges and Givers.

****Note that there are almost no matchups where you will want all 10 effects in your 60.****

-0 Strict Proctor - We have thankfully seen a decrease in Amulet’s popularity, because that matchup has become increasingly bad (between the Mycosynth Gardens and The One Ring, plus optimized builds coming). I do not believe the matchup is worth committing 4+ narrow sideboard slots to beat, and your best plan going forward is to try and keep a fast hand and steal some games with a well-timed Tithe and/or Solitude. I believe we are better served by giving up points in that terrible matchup to shore up other matchups instead

-3 Thopter - I once again experimented with maximum Thopters, but ultimately found that drawing multiple thopters was almost always sub-optimal.

-2 Giver of Runes - I tried cutting giver for additional Thopter/Steelshaper Gift to increase the likelihood of fast kills, but as soon as I did, Murktide and Scam picked back up. The card is a reasonable one drop piece of protection, which even in its failcase can carry a hammer. Additionally, it can pitch to Solitude, and trades with an early Ragavan (which has once again become more important)

-Esper Sentinel - Card is often very good right now. It is good against Murktide and Rhinos, and is strong against Scam except against exactly Bowmaster (which is otherwise pretty terrible against Hammer). With no Fury running around, and it continues to choke the mana of decks like Rhinos, Murktide, Scam, and any other control shell. When the card sucks, just board it out.

-Nettlecyst - Cyst is very unimpactful in the fast games, and it has even felt medium against Scam/Murktide due to their adoption of cards like Brotherhood’s End. Card is fine but I would not be registering Cyst right now.

-Cursed Totem - Yawgmoth’s continued popularity has really cemented Totem as a minimum 2-3 copies in the sideboard. Most Yawgmoth decks have a total of ~5-6 answers in their 75, and outside of Grist, their entire deck mostly stops functioning under one. While most Yawg players think totem is a poor approach because they bring in more naturalize effects, we have surges and skills to protect Totem, PLUS the ability to kill them quickly after sticking one.

 **Note that when you board in Totem: Giver, Gingerbrute, SFM activation, Paradise Mantle, and double Inkmoth activations are largely shut off (which is why you will see some more wonky sb’ing than usual).

-Pithing Needle(s) - As the meta has shifted, Needle has become a pretty terrible draw game 1 against most decks not named Yawgmoth. I still like having access to 1 copy in the 75 due to Saga’s ability to tutor one, I value a bit more linearity game 1.

-3 Drannith - The more I tested the Rhinos matchup, the less I liked having 4 Dranniths. Unlike Living End, where Drannith + protection is typically lights out, Rhinos can fight through a Drannith, and even flash in Tidebinders/Subtlety to block them. Drannith is still a great tool against Rhinos, but getting your hand clogged with multiple copies in hand while they put multiple Rhinos into play after answering it. As Living End is seeing a decline again, I am comfortable going down to 3 Dranniths.

-Surge//Solitude split - The more I have played in the current meta, the more I’m convinced that Solitude is mostly a card you want either 4 or 0 copies in at any given point. Surge is dead in exactly 0 matchups, and I’m happy to draw 1-2 copies in most games.

-2 Mana Tithe - There are a lot of decks that are tapping out on turn 2-6, and tithe can truly punish them. It also shuts off the Rhino nut draw of turn 1, Dead your creature, turn 2 Ice your land, turn 3 Rhinos. Now even when they have this nut draw, you get to flip things on their head and blow em out. Generally I like firing off Tithe on the first thing it can hit and just getting value. That said, against Scam and Murktide it also has the upside of being a white card for Solitude. Tithe also gains even more equity in an open decklist tournament, because if people choose to play around it, they play a turn off-curve. If they play into it, you blow ‘em out for 1 mana. Additionally, knowing we have access to 3 unique spells for a single white mana in Surge, Skill, and Tithe makes it even harder for the opponent to play correctly.

-2 Blacksmith’s Skill - With the removal of Fury from the format and more mass destruction (Brotherhood’s End, Supreme Verdict, Engineered Explosives, etc), there are a number of matchups where Skill will outshine Giver, Tithe, or Surge. In these matchups, it is great to have the ability to swap the protection effects around correctly.

-1 Steelshaper’s Gift - I tried anywhere from 0-4 copies of this card, and I like 1-2 copies quite a bit. The card’s value increases notably when you have more utility equipment like Nettlecyst to grab with it, but I don’t think those cards are worth playing at the moment. And as such, I’m happy to have a 13th copy of Hammer that also pitches to Solitude.