Tron Deck Tech

When the London Mulligan rule was announced in June, there was a lot of clamor surrounding how much better traditional Tron would be. For those who don’t know, traditional Tron tries to get all 3 Urza lands (Power Plant, Mine, and Tower) in play on turn 3 at the earliest, which will allow you to generate 7 mana. Once you have your 7+ mana, you can cast powerful colorless spells such as Karn Liberated, Karn, The Great Creator, Wurmcoil Engine, Walking Ballista, or Ugin, The Spirit Dragon. These spells can single-handedly take over a game, which makes Tron one of the most loved and hated decks in the Modern format.

So why play Tron, especially when Hogaak seems to be dominating the meta? First and foremost, Tron is one of the most consistent decks, even before the new London Mulligan. There are so many resources for Tron to use to assemble the 3 Urza lands, while also cycling through your deck. Expedition Map is the best way to ensure your turn 3 Tron. Additionally, you have Chromatic Sphere and Chromatic Star to cycle through your deck and make Green mana to cast Ancient Stirrings, which allows you to look at the top 5 cards of your library and keep a colorless card, which includes lands. Once you unlock your lands, the rest of the game is up to you to control.

The sheer ability for Tron to churn through the deck with value cards to ensure Tron on turn 3 or 4 ensures that you almost always have the answer you need. Karn Liberated can exile any permanent, even lands and that recursive threat Hogaak, punishing players who fail to hit their land drops, empty their graveyard for 1 card, or put all of their faith in a single creature. Perhaps, you have dealing with multiple creature threats; no problem. Oblivion Stone allows you to destroy all non-land permanents without a fate counter on them. Don’t have an Oblivion Stone yet?...no problem. Call down the thunder of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon which goes above and beyond by exiling all permanents with CMC = X loyalty removed from him. This is a great way to deal with recursive creatures such as Bloodghast, Arclight Phoenix, and yes, even Hogaak. No Ugin or O-Stone? Not to worry, Walking Ballista is here to save the day as an efficient blocker, taking out small 1 and 2 toughness creatures, and a great place to dump all of your extra mana from your Tron lands. Still can’t find any of those powerful cards? No need to worry; here comes Wurmcoil Engine. The ability to kill anything (even Hogaak or a big Tarmogoyf) in combat while also gaining 6 life can help you stabilize the game. But wait, there's more! Wurmcoil Engine leaves behind 2 3/3 bodies, one with lifelink and one with deathtouch to continue your opponent’s nightmare…all for the low, low cost of 6 mana.

Tron is a deck that well positioned in the Meta currently because of its consistency, resilience, and ability to answer a wide-range of threats and decks without too much configuration. Being able to play some of the most powerful cards in the game on turn 3 or 4 is a huge advantage against many decks, many of which cannot deal with Tron in Game 1. While there is some Tron hate in sideboards, more people are worried about Hogaak and the plethora of graveyard decks out there, causing players to bring less Tron hate.

So why do you think Tron is so powerful and doing so well in the Meta? Should Ancient Stirrings be banned? Should people worry more about Tron and it’s variants than Hogaak? Comment down below!