Hello readers,

My name is Josh (war)Monks. You may know me from the Vintage Super League or from the Northwest Magic Community. I’m mainly an eternal player, focusing on Modern and Legacy with an occasional Vintage FNM when possible. enough about me and onto the report on Modern No Banned List (From now on I’ll type MNBL, you can figure out what it stands for).

Last Sunday (August 2nd), Mox Boarding House in Bellevue ran a sweet sweet format called MNBL, The TO, Frank Stanley, described the format as such, “Vintage is like driving a Ferrari, MNBL is like driving a stolen Ferrari”. While I was brewing for the format over the last couple of weeks, I was pretty deadset on playing skullclamp affinity. Artifact Lands, skullclamp, and desciple just seem like they combo too well with ravager to do anything else. I also felt Erayo was absolutely bonkers and I could reliably cast and flip it on turn 2. This was the decklist I was going to play at the event.

The Deck I Almost Played:

4 Disciple of the Vault

4 Arcbound Ravager

4 Arcbound Worker

4 Frogmite

4 Memnite

4 Vault Skirge

2 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant

4 Mental Misstep

2 Shrapnel Blast

4 Skullclamp

4 Mox Opal

4 Springleaf Drum

2 Cranial Plating

4 Vault of Whispers

4 Seat of the Synod

3 Great Furnace

1 Darksteel Citadel

2 Inkmoth Nexus

SB: 4 Mindbreak Trap

SB: 4 Thoughtseize

SB: 3 Pithing Needle

SB: 4 Ethersworn Canonist

My sideboard I tuned to beat all the degenerate decks. I figured I was faster than the aggro decks, and could get under the control decks, but against the combo decks I could get turn 2’ed over and over.

When I got to the event and started building the deck, I scouted a bit and a lot of players had their sideboards up on the table. On average I saw 7-8 cards that completely hosed Affinity, ie stony silence (much more hateful when I have artifact lands), hurkyl’s recall (also more hateful with artifact lands), and shattering spree. I wanted to audible. Luckily, friend and eternal format player Brian Bennett had built multiple MNBL decks and could lend me one. I ended up playing Countertop Miracles. It felt pretty underpowered, but gave me a ton of resiliency and interaction, which as I played through the tourney, made me realize that interaction was actually really important to have.

The Deck I Played:

1 Vendilion Clique

2 Snapcaster Mage

4 Terminus

1 Entreat the Angels

4 Ponder

3 Preordain

4 Counterbalance

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Sensei’s Divining Top

2 Spell Pierce

3 Mental Misstep

3 Negate

2 Dig Through Time

4 Path to Exile

2 Plains

4 Island

2 Celestial Colonnade

4 Hallowed Fountain

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Flooded Strand

1 Arid Mesa

SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus

SB: 3 Remand

SB: 1 Spell Snare

SB: 3 Dispel

SB: 2 Mindbreak Trap

SB: 1 Supreme Verdict

SB: 3 Ethersworn Canonist

Immediately after playing there were a lot of changes I wanted to make. First and foremost vendilion was probably the best card in the deck (and possibly the whole format), and so I want to jump it to 3-4x.

I also was unimpressed with preordain, I think Serum Visions (GASP!) might be better in this deck, as it lets me setup my miracle on the following turn easier. (lets say you preordain and see a terminus and a card you bottom, you don’t get to miracle terminus as you will draw it off the preordain). Compare to serum visions in that same situation.

The Arid Mesa should be a blue fetch, either misty or delta.

The Sideboard should have a set of chalices, which I think is insane vs delver and all the combo decks (except for blazing shoal, which I think is a very easy matchup for this deck). I couldn’t find any at the event and so I had to play canonists and another remand instead.

All of my matchups I felt very far behind, but with proper sequencing and grinding for the long game, I could come out on Top. On to the tourney report!

The Tourney Report:

R1 : U/R Twin – Valentin 0-0



First and foremost, Val is a really great guy, super nice and helpful, and always fun to play against. He is basically on mono-twin in regular modern, and I was pondering on the likely hood that he was planning on making a twin of his modern deck for MNBL. I was correct.

G1 :

Val wins the roll, then asks Frank (The TO) if we were using the new scry mulligan rule. Frank, responded with “Well, this is an unsanctioned event which means I can do anything I want to, including enforcing the new scry rule even though it isn’t in place yet”. Val took advantage of this and mulled for the scry value. I kept my 7, which was 3x lands, counterbalance, top, misstep, and path. Basically the perfect 7 against the field, and against twin.

He ponders on turn 1, and I respond back with top on my turn 1. Just about ready to slam misstep to counter his assumed misstep. He lets it resolve though. Next turn he cantrips and plays a steam vents untapped. I play cb and he pierces, so I use my misstep here.

I float an entreat on top of my library for about 8 turns and he continues to cast pestermites and exarches into it. The game is over quickly due to him not having any creatures to twin.

G2 :

I resolve a countertop, and he grudges my top on my eot. I don’t have a 2 on top, but i have another top and a v-clique. I do the look/spin in response to protect my top and leave a 3 on top. it works out and he attempts to cast another pestermite into my cb and flip clique to counter his 2/1.

As the game progresses, I should have played my second top. Mana wasn’t an issue for me, and eventually we get into a huge counterwar over him twinning an exarch. I path, He uses pact of negation, I dispel, he missteps, i spin top, and he snaps his pact to protect the twin. Because I didn’t play a second top, I have to look on in horror as he makes a million exarches and attacks for lethal.

G3 :

We are the longest match, we have about 12 minutes to finish though, so I’m not too worried. Everyone else was finished and as such everyone was crowded around our table watching us play. Val sadly mulligans to 5 and I have a great 7. he attempts to turn 3 pestermite, turn 4 twin, I negate, he pacts, and then I spin top to miracle terminus. He concedes.

R2 : Hypergenesis – Ricky White – 1-0

I haven’t seen my opponent before, and I knew just about everyone in the room. Because of this I have no idea what he is playing. He wins the roll and we both keep.

G1 :

I play cb on turn 2, and eot he exiles Simian Spirit Guide to cascade. I blind flip a land to hypergenesis. then land a top and float a land for the rest of the game.

G2 :

I have a top, but I also have spell pierce so I want to leave up mana for that in case he turn 2s me again. I counter a hypergenesis with pierce and land a top. I land a jace and start upticking aggressively. For several turns, he just plays a land and passes his turn, I uptick jace, and play a land every turn. The turn before Jace ultimates, he exiles two SSGs and hardcasts terastodon, which my deck actually can’t interact with besides revealing Dig to a counterbalance I don’t have a dig on top, so I have to look on with abject horror as he blows up my jace, counterbalance, and one of my lands. I end step path his terastodon and beat with the elephants for lethal.

R3 : U/R Delver – Greg Mitchell 2-0



Greg is a good friend of mine, and usually lends me decks for legacy/vintage. I knew he was going to play delver and was looking forward to an interactive match of magic.

G1 :

He wins the roll, and plays a turn 1 delver. I play a top and pass back. He flips delver off a ponder, plays a young pyromancer, and probes me. I play cantrips on turn 2 and pass back, setting up a turn 3 terminus. He pierces it, i misstep back, and he missteps back. he makes a million tokens and kills me soon after.

G2 :

I keep a one lander on the play with top, preordain, ponder, path, misstep, and CB. I blank on seeing lands for about 4 turns and he counters my cantrips. I was just a couple turns behind locking him out of the game. The turn I stabilize board and have countertop in play he double bolts me in response to counterbalance for lethal.

R4 : U/W DnT – Michael Reimers 2-1



We both keep our 7. I have three lands, a Top, misstep, negate, and a Terminus.

G1:

He wins the roll, tanks on keeping and eventually plays a vial into my misstep. I land my top and find a counterbalance on top which I play, he tanks for a bit and plays stoneforge. I flip Vclique and stoneforge resolve and tutors for jitte. Next turn he tanks for a bit and attempts to cheat jitte into play off stoneforge. (he puts jitte on the table then taps sfm and pays for it). I have him roll back and give me a chance to flash in V-clique. I take his jitte and leave him with a thalia and some lands. He tanks again and then passes. At this point I ask him to speed up his play as I don’t want to draw and we are already 12 minutes into the round (and 4 turns in to game 1), almost all of the time has been used by him, my turns were just land go pretty much. He picks up the pace from there on out. Eventually he plays Thalia, I hardcast terminus and he concedes.

G2 :

He curves out and I don’t have a lot of interaction. I have top and try to find a terminus. Eventually the board is sfm, jitte with 6 counters, thalia, and revoker on top. I finally draw a path, hit his revoker, and find a terminus soon after. We are both pretty much in topdeck mode, he hits a mangara and attempts to revoker my top. I top in response and find another terminus. I draw it for the turn and clear his board. but he resolves a batterskull and suits it up with jitte and kills me in one attack. In retrospect, I should have conceded this game a long time earlier, I felt I could win, and managed to stave off his aggression and put myself in a situation to win the game, but he drew pretty well in the last couple of turns and managed to finish me off. before I could actually win.

G3 :

He mulligans, and we go to time as he is shuffling up. He keeps his 6. My hand is double path, snap, dig, and lands. I kill all his threats but can’t finish the game in turns. I feel we would have finished this game if g1 went faster or if i conceded g2, but alas, I didn’t and that was match.

Conclusion :

All in all I had an absolute blast. I finished 2-1-1 after unintentionally drawing r4.

The format was a lot deeper than I first thought, and the decks were incredibly interactive. R1G2 vs twin was one of the most complex matches of Magic I have ever played, and a few subtle misplays ended up costing me the game.

I started brewing feeling that miracles was unplayable in the format, but it did much better than I expected. I want to change the decklist considerably. I don’t feel that the miracle spells are very good, and should just be wraths or supreme virdicts instead, as I don’t have brainstorm to reset them if I draw them like I do in Legacy, and relying exclusively on Jace is a risky proposition with how explosive all the decks in the format are. If you get the chance to play the format, I recommend doing so. Mox Boarding House will be running more of these events in the near future, so if you are in the pacific northwest, try to make it out for one in the future!

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