Wizards of the Coast recently announced that the upcoming PTQ format will be Modern. I know it’s still Innistrad sealed PTQ season and people have their minds on limited, but personally I love Modern and want to get a head start on next season. Worlds in November is definitely going to have a huge impact on the shape of the upcoming Modern format next PTQ season, but that’s no reason to avoid brewing!
In case any of you may have missed it, Wizards recently banned [card]Blazing Shoal[/card], [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card], [card]Cloudpost[/card], [card]Rite of Flame[/card], [card]Ponder[/card], and [card]Preordain[/card] in Modern. Due to this shake up, in my opinion, Modern is in a great place right now. Nearly all of the established decks have been either banned out of existence or hurt to some extent by the bannings. We’re back to square one with the format and it is again wide open for different decks and strategies.
Urzatron is an extremely powerful deck that I’ve loved since I was just a boy*. Tron wasn’t good enough while Cloudpost was around, but now that the locus are out of the picture, I believe it’s Tron’s time to shine.
The previous known Modern decks that come out of the bans in the best shape are Zoo variants and [card]Splinter Twin[/card] decks. Zoo lost [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card], which is a huge hit, but it remains a solid deck. Splinter Twin lost [card]Ponder[/card] and [card]Preordain[/card] which are easily replaced with [card]Sleight of Hand[/card] and [card]Serum Visions[/card].
With Splinter Twin and Zoo in mind, here is my first crack at UB Urzatron:
[deck title=UB Urzatron by Francis Toussaint]
[Creatures]
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Sundering Titan
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Go for the Throat
1 Doom Blade
3 Remand
2 Dismember
2 Spell Snare
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Damnation
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Condescend
[/Spells]
[Artifacts]
1 Batterskull
4 Dimir Signet
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Expedition Map
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mindslaver
[/Artifacts]
[Lands]
2 Tolaria West
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacomb
3 Watery Grave
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Academy Ruins
4 Urza’s Tower
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power-plant
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Damnation
1 Doom Blade
1 Mindslaver
4 Sudden Death
4 Thoughtseize
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Tormod’s Crypt
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
Radical, eh?
So, why UB? There are a few reasons why I like UB Tron more than UW Tron. First of all, One of the main reasons you would play UW back in the day was for life gain in [card]Baneslayer Angel[/card] or [card]Exalted Angel[/card], but now we have [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] and [card]Batterskull[/card] which are both arguably better than Baneslayer in this archetype. As well, UB gives you access to superior removal and hand disruption than UW would.
Here’s a breakdown:
[card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]
Snapcaster is an excellent addition to Tron. In Tron, the mana intensive characteristics of Snapcaster aren’t an issue. Snapcaster also makes a great Gift’s target because he represents not only another copy of the cards you choose with Gifts, but also [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] itself. Snapcaster has a ton of juicy targets in this deck and represents card draw, disruption, removal and even recursion in [card]Makeshift Mannequin[/card].
Despite how great Snapcaster is in this deck, I elected to only play 2 maindeck copies because the deck already has so many weak cards for the early game and you don’t want to be drawing multiple Snapcasters at that point.
[card]Batterskull[/card] & [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card]
These two cards are examples of the great cards that the archetype has gained from recent sets. These are great because they don’t require any color commitment, they supply desperately needed lifegain and they can be returned from the bin via [card]Academy Ruins[/card]. The reason I suggest playing one copy of each instead of just playing two Wurmcoil is because of [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card]. It’s also worth noting that [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] works favourably with [card]Makeshift Mannequin[/card].
[card]Sundering Titan[/card]
This guy is one of my favourite cards of all time. The Titan is excellent at completely dismantling a Zoo player’s mana base and a quick titan can will take any opponent out of the game. It also works favourably with [card]Makeshift Mannequin[/card].
[card]Expedition Map[/card]
The map is an excellent Gifts target because it represents access to any land in your deck. It works very well with [card]Academy Ruins[/card] for searching multiple lands from your deck. In a pinch, it can be used to search up [card]Tolaria West[/card] which can then be used to search up [card]Engineered Explosives[/card] or [card]Slaughter Pact[/card], if needed.
[card]Academy Ruins[/card]
I like running two Academies because the cost of playing them isn’t that high and it allows for some really greedy Gifts packages. The second Academy isn’t super necessary though, and can be cut depending on your preference.
[card]Gifts Ungiven[/card]
This card is the wow factor that puts this deck over the top. It’s not very often that you will lose games in which [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] resolves. Making Gifts packages is easily the hardest part of the deck and I am still learning all the time when I make them. Here are just a few potential gifts packages for a some different situations:
Completing Tron Package – [card]Expedition Map[/card] + [card]Crucible of Worlds[/card] + [card]Academy Ruins[/card] + Missing Tron Piece
Completing Tron & Mind Slaver Package – [card]Mindslaver[/card] + [card]Expedition Map[/card] + [card]Academy Ruins[/card] + [card]Crucible of Worlds[/card]
Anti-creature Package – [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] + [card]Doom Blade[/card] + [card]Damnation[/card] + [card]Go for the Throat[/card]
Counterspell Package – [card]Condescend[/card] + [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] + [card]Remand[/card] + [card]Spell Snare[/card]
Lifegain Package – [card]Batterskull[/card] + [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] + [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] + [card]Makeshift Mannequin[/card]
Threat Package – [card]Sundering Titan[/card] + [card]Makeshift Mannaquin[/card] + [card]Snapcater Mage[/card] + [card]Mind Slaver[/card]
[card]Tormod’s Crypt[/card]
The Crypt gets the nod over other graveyard hate cards because it can be fetched via [card]Tolaria West[/card], recurred with [card]Acadamy Ruins[/card] and it only hits the opponent’s graveyard. So far, there doesn’t seem to be many decks in which graveyard hate is important, however Project Melira is still a deck and the Crypt works against that combo.
Sideboarding
You’ll notice the sideboard is mainly devoted to Zoo and Splinter Twin. That’s just because those are the 2 decks that pose the greatest threat at the moment. However, as the format develops, Tron’s sideboard will have to adjust.
Zoo/Jund:
IN: +1 [card]Doom Blade[/card], +2 [card]Damnation[/card], +2 [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card]
OUT: –3 [card]Remand[/card], –1 [card]Mindslaver[/card], –1 [card]Crucible of Worlds[/card] (Regular Zoo) OR –1 [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] (Boom Bust Zoo)
In this matchup, you just want to do whatever it takes to survive until the late game. There may be times when it’s correct to chump block with Snapcasters even without flashing something back, just to survive.
Splinter Twin
IN: +4 [card]Thoughtseize[/card], +4 [card]Sudden Death[/card], +1 [card]Doom Blade[/card]
OUT: –1 [card]Batterskull[/card], –1 [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card], –2 [card]Spell Snare[/card], –3 [card]Remand[/card], –1 [card]Damnation[/card], –1 [card]Makeshift Mannequin[/card]
In this matchup, you want to prevent them from combo-ing out at all costs until you’re able to piece together a win with either [card]Sundering Titan[/card] or [card]Mindslaver[/card].
I believe [card]Engineered Explosives[/card] stays in the deck post-board as insurance – even if your opponent counters all of your removal, at least you have another turn to deal with their combo. The Explosives could be turned in to a [card]Remand[/card], but I’m not 100% sure which is correct.
[card]Sudden Death[/card] is your ace in the hole against [card]Splinter Twin[/card] and is without a doubt the best card you have for them. You should almost always slow roll the [card]Sudden Death[/card] in hopes of 2-for-1ing the opponent since there is very little that can be done about it.
Conclusions
As I’ve already said, Modern is once again a somewhat unexplored format, which is great for the any savvy brewer. Take advantage of this opportunity. Flex your brewing muscles and get a head start on the next PTQ season. Or, you could just give UB Urzatron a spin. I won’t judge. Either way, enjoy Modern, happy brewing and thanks for reading!
Francis Toussaint
*It just so happens that in 2007 a 15 year old version of me managed to sack stumble his way in to a PTQ victory piloting UW Tron in Extended. Ever since then, I have had a special place in my heart for Tron right next to Reveillark.