The State of Contructed August 2019

After last weekend, without any emergency bans, how is the state of Standard, Modern, and Legacy?

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Standard:

Right now there are only a handful of decks that are top 8ing consistently. One of the older decks in this line up is Esper Hero, which just got more powerful with Teferi, Time Raveler and Oath of Kaya. On a similar vein to that, there is also Esper Dreadhorde, a control deck that tries to use both Teferis, Narset, boardwipes and Command the Dreadhorde. Continuing with a similar color combination, there is also Orzhov Aggro/Vampires which uses Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord to get Champion of Dusk or Sanctum Seeker into play early and abuse the small, powerful vampires. Another aggro deck that is popular is Dinos. Usually played Jund or Gruul, that likes to use the Enrage mechanic to its fullest extent and has a few anti-control cards with Domri, Anarch of Bolas and Shifting Ceratops. On another spectrum there is the one “combo” deck of the format, Scapeshift/Field of the Dead. This deck is insane as it tries to slow down the opponent just long enough to have 7 or more lands in play and cast scapeshift. Scapeshift should look out for the new Ashiok which can leave the deck on 0 lands after casting its combo piece. Lastly, I want to add in a deck that isn’t as consistent with Top 8ing as the others but still deserves to be mentioned - Temur Elementals. This deck is crazy fast when it can land Omnath and Risen Reef on the field and then swing for a bunch. It is definitely one of the decks to look out for after rotation.

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Modern:

Hogaak is still dominating the format. After 5 of the Top 8 decks at Grand Prix Minneapolis played the deck, everyone hoped that there would be some kind of end to the so-called “Hogaak Summer.” Surprisingly the other decks to make it into the Top 8 were Burn (which had two showings) and Humans. Personally, I am surprised that there wasn’t a Tron or Phoenix deck as they are the next most popular decks in the format. While Mythic Championship Barcelona had roughly 50% of the Modern decks as Hogaak, according to mtgtop8 only 13% of the decks that have top 8ed in the last 2 months (and last 2 weeks) were Hogaak/Dredge. Is Hogaak ruining the format or does the meta need to still adapt? Is running 4 Leyline of the Void in the mainboard something that everyone needs to do to fix the problem of unfair graveyard decks, or should something be done about Faithless Looting decks? Will Twiddle Storm or Citadel Storm surpass Gifts Storm as the popular version of the deck? Is Goblins actually playable? Will Jund come out on top after the bannings on August 28th? Only time will tell.

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Legacy:

While Hogaak is crushing Modern, the card isn’t really seeing much play in Legacy (outside of Turbo Depths and Dredge); the card that is the issue is Wrenn and Six. I have been talking about this for a long time and I have been shouting that this card is ruining Legacy since it was printed, but the format still hasn’t found any real answer to greedy 4 color decks that also play Wasteland. 4c Control is one of the biggest decks right now (along with Grixis Control, Czech Pile, Canadian Threshold,Temur Delver, and 4c Snow Control). What do all these decks have in common? Wrenn and Six. This is so painful to see the format go from the occasional “I guess I just die” to death by a thousand cuts. Death and Taxes, Goblins, and Maverick, which all used to keep the control decks in order, have been pushed out of the format and replaced with Control and Reanimator. Sometimes we see the fringe Bomberman Combo or Mono Red Prison deck doing really well, but it is absurd how many control decks there are in the format because of Wrenn and Six. Personally, I have contemplated playing Wrenn and Six in Goblins just for Wasteland abuse and killing Baleful Strixes and Snapcaster Mages.

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In conclusion:

What needs to change? Standard seems like it is in an okay spot because most of the problematic cards are leaving in October with Eldraine, Modern needs a Hogaak ban and unbanning of a few cards to undo the Hogaak issue, and Legacy needs something to deal with the control decks (probably not banning Wrenn and Six in all honesty - but something to make D&T style decks playable again). Modern and Legacy are in a state of fragility, where if something tips the already leaning scale to one side then the entire format is ruined (obviously not permanently) and would need a more immediate change to fix the issues. Modern needs Stoneforge and Splinter Twin as those cards are slower than Hogaak (literally all of the time), and they aren’t as back breaking as having to deal with an 8/8 trampler that can be cast from the graveyard (and dodges removal by being sacrificed to Altar of Dementia so it can be cast again). Legacy needs some cards in Eldraine to deal with Wrenn and Six that are faster than 2 mana or, more drastically, ban Wrenn and Six. Personally, I would like to see a Restricted List for Legacy. Feel free to chime in your thoughts below.