u/ZonkoDeepFriedCraft

I had this idea at work because I remember loving Modern Masters 2017 draft despite the slogfest it was. Modern Horizons was a mistake, so I thoughs "What if they continued Modern Masters?"

My plan was to make an inverse of the set by doing loose enemy color pairs and wedges while still leavinh room for custom strategies people make along the way.

All cards are printed prior to War of the Spark and are all modern legal at the time (including Mystic which was unbanned.) No legacy/vintage cards were shifted to modern per the rules of those set designs back in the day. This cube also has 2 copies of every common and uncommon monocolored card for consistency purposes.

Reprints are based on what was sought after in the modern meta back in 2018/early 2019 as well as cards in dire need of reprints at the time such as the ally fetchlands.

The only cards that break the rules are the enemy Talismans, which I don't think anyone will bat an eye to. It is the inverse of the Signet cycle in Modern Masters 2017.

The strategies are as follows, but you can mix and match different stuff like MM 2017. I did add more aggro though.

Ally pairs have free archetypes you can make yourself. MM 2017 did this but with enemy pairs

Archetypes

WB Go Wide/Midrange

BG Reanimator/Midrange

GU Lands/Delirium

UR Noncreature Spells Aggro/Delirium

RW Tempo/Exert Aggro

ABZAN (WBG) Graveyard Midrange

JESKAI (URW) Prowess Aggro

SULTAI (BGU) Lands Control

MARDU (RWB) Resilient Aggro

TEMUR (GUR) Delirium Midrange

Other archetypes

Rage Extractor Burn (My fav)

Soratami Mindsweeper Mill

Azorius, Izzet, or Temur Exert Untap Cheese

Stoneforge Mystic Batterskull Tutor package

Rakka Mar Token Spam

Please let me know what you think! But my big question is anyone want to draft it?

I've been rocking this deck in higher power pods for awhile now and really enjoy the dynamics of the table by beating the crap out of people. My friend group likes playing against it because they know they don't have to hold any punches with removal and targeting.

But I was wondering if a budgeted version with the same strategy would work?

These decks usually do token spam, but my strategy instead is to loot/rummage on turns 1-3, drop heavy ramp on turn 4, then start playing big monsters which get big with Homura's death ability. Another key factor is the carryover this deck has against control such as some delirium cards and graveyard stuff/utility lands.

My problem comes with sacrifice options, as most are over $5 and they are important to the deck especially on how and when they become dangerous. For example, [[Surtland Flinger]] can sacrifice my commander once it is ready to attack on turn 5-6 and deals heavy damage over the course of the game.

Any help would be appreciated as I sometimes feel like this deck only exists because I owned a lot of the cards 10 years ago when they weren't expensive.

A merchant's hands reflect tonight's moonlit water. These hands have held onto the oar for three decades and three more decades he plots his trade. The nocturnal creature sets sail to the path of the omnivores to save face and to earn his living keep.

At the end of a river was a dock and two guards. Guarding their sulk flanks were the gothic structures of the crowded nobles, and their eyes all met the boat's goods from the window. A family of five set foot to the gravel shoreline - husband, wife, two daughters and their younger brother. Their warming robes gilded an age old status.

It is forever dark and all humanity can see is fire, so torchlamps it was that revealed the looming old man on his even older boat and he stopped at the edge. It was ceremonious for the nobles to watch the transaction.

"Who do we pleasure for this delivery today?" The guard spoke as if he was a friend. The old man smiled back with golden teeth.

"Only your's, masters of the Lockeshires, and all allies under the estates. You've brought my payments?"

"The Lockshires want to see them first."

"As they wish." The man bowed, condensation from the boat gripped his short beard and his spine formed the crescent.

The boat contained a large, beaten cloak with stitches all over. His hand grabbed the seams and he pulled it away to reveal a perfectly round glass dome which glowed from sorcery. The lights grew in and out for show.

Inside the casket were four passed children, perfectly lined together like shrimp in a peaceful, preserved sleeping state. They looked like a warren of feint rabbits.

The nobles' eyes grew wide. The youngest boy drooled.

END OF PROLOGUE

Three hundred years ago, the sun vanished. And as if to witness the final act of humanity's story, the planet did not freeze over. It was a decided deliberation by religious authority. What was once a place filled with people was now cobbled into a single, walled city lived in by nocturnes whose light originates from fire and the moon's blanket.

Farms are rare. Most animals are extinct and those who owned them as pets were the last. And religion turned to ritual, solidaire cannibalism and human factories. Where the sun should have risen instead was replaced by the nightly creatures from beneath the surface and from the secrets of non existence.

Five cults rose from the fallout, and five cults gripped at the last city and to the poor who groveled in alleyways, eating at their own flesh. The ones who crusade for purity. The ones who warp information and the news. The ones who fatten followers for the demons. The ones who predict the return of the sun. And the ones who abandoned hope entirely, instead siding with ambitious lesser eldritch creatures.

Welcome to the city of Grintgath.