Modern:
[card]Eye of Ugin[/card] is banned.
[card]Ancestral Vision[/card] is unbanned.
[card]Sword of the Meek[/card] is unbanned.

What does this all mean for Modern? As we expected, Eldrazi decks have been neutered. Tron decks are weaker. Two powerful, unexpected blue cards have been let loose upon the format. These are all great developments for blue control decks.

Big mana decks such as Tron and Amulet Bloom have traditionally been a thorn in the side of the various blue decks in Modern. I’ve tried to fend off these opponents with cards such as [card]Ghost Quarter[/card], [card]Crumble to Dust[/card], [card]Fulminator Mage[/card], [card]Molten Rain[/card], and [card]Blood Moon[/card]. After the past two bannings, however, there’s a lot less big mana to worry about, which is a huge relief.

Overall, we can expect Eldrazi decks to be much less prevalent, making way for many of the midrange decks that were not viable during “Eldrazi Winter.” This means more Jund, Abzan, Grixis, and Jeskai. I think we can still expect to see a large representation of aggressive decks like Affinity, Burn/Zoo, and Infect. Green decks like Abzan Company, Kiki Chord, and Elves gained some popularity during the Eldrazi takeover, and those decks will probably continue to hold on to their portion of the metagame.

Many people have mentioned Faeries as one of the decks that benefits from the [card]Ancestral Vision[/card] unbanning. My issue with Faeries (the blue-black version, at least) is that it seems weak against one of the most popular decks – Affinity. Perhaps a Hoogland-inspired version of Faeries with red is the correct way to go. Faeries is also a deck that feels a lot better on the play, and a lot worse on the draw.

With all of that in mind, let’s start with Jeskai, which I haven’t touched since Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch (like almost everyone else, I’ve been playing U/W Eldrazi since then).

Jeskai Control by Alex Bianchi

[deck]
[Lands]
2 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Tectonic Edge
[/Lands]
[Spells]
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
3 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
3 Remand
2 Spell Snare
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
2 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Wear // Tear
2 Dispel
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Celestial Purge
2 Stony Silence
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Engineered Explosives
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

With Jeskai, I’m the most excited to not be playing cards like [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card], [card]Jace’s Ingenuity[/card], and [card]Careful Consideration[/card]. [card]Ancestral Vision[/card] is the clear winner among those options. I love Jeskai’s position in Modern if Affinity, Burn/Zoo, Infect, and Jund are going to be prevalent.

I’ve also considered revisiting Grixis Control, which picked up another new tool since the Eldrazi menace arrived: [card]Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet[/card]. Building Grixis with more discard instead of countermagic makes sense alongside [card]Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy[/card] and even Goblin Dank-Dwellers, which might be good enough now because of its unique ability to cast [card]Ancestral Vision[/card] from the graveyard. Grixis was never lacking in the card advantage department, so I don’t think that [card]Ancestral Vision[/card] is improving the deck nearly as much.

Grixis Control by Alex Bianchi

[deck]
[Lands]
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Spells]
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Kolaghan’s Command
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Liliana of the Veil
4 Serum Visions
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Terminate
1 Thought Scour
1 Thoughtseize
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
2 Dispel
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Vandalblast
1 Countersquall
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Jorubai Murk Lurker
3 Molten Rain
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Engineered Explosives
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

I’m still not thrilled by the idea of facing Burn/Zoo decks, and cutting down on countermagic means that sometimes you’re going to take control of a game but still lose to topdecks or a suspended [card]Ancestral Vision[/card]. On the positive side, having many maindeck answers to [card]Thopter Foundry[/card] is nice.

Speaking of [card]Thopter Foundry[/card], the deck that may be receiving the greatest boost is Blue-Black Tezzeret. The Agent of Bolas has never really had his time to shine in Modern, and I’m excited to see if [card]Sword of the Meek[/card] is enough for him to catch on. I don’t have much input on how to build this deck, but [card]Muddle the Mixture[/card] seems like a card I’d want to try.

Shadows Standard

For now, Standard is kind of on the backburner for me until the next PPTQ season and GP’s in Toronto and NYC, which are, admittedly, coming up fast. I’m tossing some ideas around, but probably won’t be playing many actual games for a couple weeks.

Hangarback Walker, [card]Thopter Engineer[/card], [card]Pia and Kiran Nalaar[/card], and [card]Foundry of the Consuls[/card] make up a nice little artifact package that is being utilized by the red Eldrazi deck. A friend is working on a deck that more fully makes use of artifact synergies with clue tokens and Ghirapur Aether Grid. Here’s my version of his deck, which he’s dubbed “Raging Clues.”

Raging Clues

[deck]
[Lands]
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Foundry of the Consuls
6 Mountain
4 Needle Spires
2 Plains
2 Stone Quarry
2 Westvale Abbey
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
3 Declaration in Stone
3 Ghirapur Aether Grid
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Outnumber
2 Stasis Snare
1 Tamiyo’s Journal
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Bygone Bishop
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Hedron Crawler
3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Thopter Engineer
4 Thraben Inspector
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
2 Rending Volley
4 Cleric of the Forward Order
2 Roast
4 Goldnight Castigator
2 Planar Outburst
1 Tamiyo’s Journal
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

It feels a bit wrong to be playing a white deck without [card]Archangel Avacyn[/card] or [card]Gideon, Ally of Zendikar[/card]. But as powerful as those cards are, this deck isn’t that interested in them – plus, the double white costs are tough on the mana when we already need double red and want to play a lot of colorless utility lands. [card]Stasis Snare[/card] is there so that we’re not completely cold to [card]Ormendahl, Profane Prince[/card], who’s going to be busting out the ceilings of a lot of churches during this Standard format. It’s nice to be able to tutor for the [card]Chandra, Flamecaller[/card] and [card]Nahiri, the Harbinger[/card], both of which give us a way to cycle superfluous copies of Ghirapur Aether Grid.

“End step [card]Secure the Wastes[/card], untap and transform Westvale Abbey” reminds me of Deceiver Exarch-Splinter Twin, in that you can pass your turn with open mana and threaten to punish your opponent if they tap out. I imagine that the best shell for this is white splashing blue for [card]Ojutai’s Command[/card], [card]Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy[/card], and [card]Reflector Mage[/card]. But the beauty of [card]Westvale Abbey[/card] is that it can be played in any color combination.

[card]Duskwatch Recruiter[/card] has been an all-star in Shadows over Innistrad Limited, and I can imagine he’s great in Standard, too. It’s interesting that most of the time you’d rather it not transform, unlike other double-faced cards. He goes well with [card]Collected Company[/card], but this leads me to a bigger-picture question: can Bant Company still exist with its downgraded manabase, or will CoCo decks have to give up [card]Reflector Mage[/card]? I’m not sure of the answer to that.

If you’re a red mage, red-green tokens seems like a great way to utilize the new [card]Arlinn Kord[/card], alongside [card]Nissa, Voice of Zendikar[/card]. I’d be sure to have some threats like [card]Thunderbreak Regent[/card] in your list in order to sidestep [card]Kozilek’s Return[/card], [card]Flaying Tendrils[/card], and [card]Virulent Plague[/card].

It seems like black-white and black-green midrange decks will be semi-popular since it’s easy to construct a pile of solid cards highlighted by [card]Anguished Unmaking[/card], [card]Sorin, Grim Nemesis[/card], [card]Ob Nixilis Reignited[/card], [card]Shambling Vent[/card], [card]Hissing Quagmire[/card], [card]Sylvan Advocate[/card], and of course, [card]The Gitrog Monster[/card]. These decks might have a tendency to be slow against ramp decks, which is where [card]Pitiless Horde[/card] comes in. Consider adding some 5/3’s into your sideboard plan!

There was a lot of initial excitement for [card]Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy[/card] and madness cards, but I think savvy players are starting to realize that Jace is not going to be nearly as good as he once was. When considering which removal spells to play in your deck, it bears repeating that you should focus less on being able to kill a turn two Jace, and more on being able to answer [card]Archangel Avacyn[/card] in combat and not losing to [card]Ormendahl, Profane Prince[/card].

Good luck in these two fresh formats, and may your [card]Ancestral Vision[/card]s never get processed by [card]Wasteland Strangler[/card].