From Zero to Hero

This weekend may already shake up the Standard metagame a little at Grand Prix Pittsburgh, but the really interesting events will happen the weekend after that.

This weekend may already shake up the Standard metagame a little at Grand Prix Pittsburgh, but the really interesting events will happen the weekend after that. Grand Prix Brisbane and Vancouver will both be using the Modern format! Modern has been under the radar since Aether Revolt came out, so this will be the weekend for new tech to break out.

Fatal Push has seen play in Standard, but was often not used as a 4-of. Modern players will embrace this new removal even happier, as creature costs are much lower in Modern on average and Fetchlands make it extremely easy to trigger Revolt. Killing giant Tarmogoyfs and Death's Shadows for one mana is awesome.

I already talked multiple times about Sram, Senior Edificer and the improved Cheerios deck. With two GPs at the same time chances are good for this deck to show up in the coverage, maybe even on top of the standings, enabling another price spike. Complete your deck before that happens.

Although there weren't many tournament results to back it up yet, maybe players have heard enough about the deck to come equipped with sideboard hate already?

Chalice of the Void is the most generic answer to this deck. Not only can it prove useful against other strategies by setting it to numbers other than zero, but it can be used in every sideboard (due to being colorless) and it can be played on the first turn already. It doesn't automatically win the game, but it will slow the combo player down enough, so you can execute your own gameplan instead.

Chalice of the Void

On the other side of the pond Chalice is in high demand. SCG is sold out of regular copies from Mirrodin and Modern Masters at $55 and $60 respectively. They still have a few foils and Master Pieces in stock ranging from $80 to $90. This is a huge difference to the European market, where Chalices can still be bought below 30 €. I expect the market to follow the American trend, although at a slower pace. Buying now and selling in two weeks should be a reasonable short term plan in general, but could be a great plan if the Grand Prix results come up right. I usually stay away from Masterpieces, but in this scenario they are quite attractive. When I started writing this article, there were Chalice Masterpieces available for 60 €. Now they are starting close to 70 €. Copies are moving fast, which is a good sign.

What else from Aether Revolt do you expect to break out at the Modern GP weekend?