Alex Hamilton: Core 2019 in Modern
M19 has brought many changes to Magic. I am here to talk about Modern. I for one am glad that WotC decided to do the completely reasonable thing and unban Stoneforge Mystic. As many of you know this card and I have been very… wait… they didn’t unban Stoneforge Mystic in Modern? Well I guess you can’t expect WotC to make two smart decisions at the same time.
Even thought we did not regain the use of our squire, we did get some interesting new toys in M19. Today we will be looking at a few cards that will probably break through into Magic’s most popular format.
First up will be my friend for hopefully a good long time.
Alpine Moon
For those who do not know, I almost exclusively play Midrange/Control decks. Unless you can give me some Splinter Twin, but I am pretty sure I will not be playing that enchantment ever again.
One thing that most blue Midrange decks tend to have a problem with is any deck playing unfair lands. So this would mean Tron or R/G Scapeshift. These decks attack on a different axis that can be difficult to disrupt. While Blood Moon can disrupt Tron and Valakut, it comes with the need to play a high number of basic lands. This is not a restriction that comes with Alpine Moon.
Let’s take a look at different cards that Alpine Moon disrupts:
- Urza’s Tower/Mine/ Power Plant
- Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
- Inkmoth Nexus
- Inventor’s Fair
- Celestial Colonnade
- Cavern of Souls
Now you might be thinking to yourself, ‘Alex, Alpine Moon only takes away types, it doesn’t change the name of the land, how does it stop Tron?’ Good question. I wasn’t sure myself until I saw the 8th Edition printing of Urza’s Tower:
With this printing they changed how these lands worked. They need to see the type Urza’s Tower/Power Plant/Mine, not the name. So I guess 8th Edition did do something right. I still cannot forgive it for white borders and Blood Moon, but that is neither here nor there.
So this card can disrupt Tron for a time. The trick however is that now they get a land that can produce green mana so they can dig for some of their answers to this pesky little enchantment.
So you will need to capitalize on it and put them on clock so they do not have all the time in the world to find their answers.
Remorseful Cleric
When someone said, “Over time Collected Company will get better as they print more and more creatures that can be found off of it,” they weren’t kidding. Now you can have a card that is a solid flyer and can have an instant impact by exiling a player’s graveyard. Sign me up!
This card will likely see play in Collected Company or Chord of Calling decks that want high impact silver bullets. Especially since the Krark-Clan Ironworks deck uses its graveyard when comboing off.
This would be a welcome inclusion in any of the Knightfall decks and will be a nice sideboard addition to Bant Spirits.
Elvish Clancaller
I am not really sure if this card will break into Modern Elves, but from what I can tell the deck could be in the market for another lord. The most interesting thing about this card is that it can find other versions of itself, albeit at the steep cost of 6 mana. I am not exactly sure what you would cut for it, but it seems to be something that Elves could find room for.
Militia Bugler
Some people have suggested that this slots into Humans, but I think that’s a mistake. Almost every creature in Humans is a piece of disruption or something that gets in damage, and this card does neither. Militia Bugler provides an important lesson to learn about Aggro decks. If it doesn’t address a problem the deck has with something in the format then it doesn’t belong in the deck. While Humans does have a problem with gaining card advantage, it is not one that will be solved by this card. I cannot imagine replacing any of the Restoration Angel/ Kessig Malcontent flex slots with this card. Now, if this card put the card it finds onto the battlefield we would be having a different discussion.
Overall M19 is a pretty underwhelming set for Modern, however it has a handful of interesting cards that could have an impact on the format.
Alexander Hamilton is a grinder from Chicago who is well-known for his love of Legacy. However, if there is a competitive event in any format in the Chicagoland area, expect him to be there playing Magic and making terrible puns, and not necessarily in that order.
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