What Did Modern Look Like in 2015?

Modern is the most popular competitive format in Magic and has been for a very long time. However, it looks very different now than it used to. 2015 is sometimes known as the golden age of Modern. Let's go back to this blessed time, long before FIRE design and Modern Horizons changed its face forever!

The pillars of the current format are essentially , , , , cascade strategies, and midrange-control shells. It's completely turned upside down compared to what the pillars were previously, and into these I want to delve deeper here. I do so because a lot of Modern players feel nostalgia and sentiment toward those previous times. It's not just that nostalgia is a strong psychological effect but also that what we played back in the day is no longer viable. Let's explore the decks of 2015!

Aggro

Affinity by Aaron Webster, 2nd at Grand Prix Pittsburg 2015
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I feel compelled to begin with the good old Affinity. For those who did not play back then the name can be a bit confusing. In this list you find literally zero cards with the eponymous keyword ability affinity for artifacts. The deck was sometimes called Robots, sometimes plain Artifact Aggro, but mainly Affinity. The deck was thought to have the best game one win percentage in the format, and that's one of the main reasons people played it. On the flip side, it always had a target on its back, meaning people sideboarding in copious numbers of .

The deck sported fast creature draws with to grow cheap bots into formidable threats. It also wielded , which made every creature a deadly attacker. On top of that, it could often present a combo-esque kill with and , one-shotting the opponent with infect. And all of that was deployed extremely quickly thanks to the low cost of spells and , which sped everything up significantly. Were Opal ever to come back, we could see a resurgence of the deck.

Burn by Arrogancio, Top 8 at Magic Online Premier Event
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. If you've had the deck then, you can still rock Burn just as easily today. Arguably 80–90% of the cards overlap between 2015 and the 2024 versions. The strategy is simple: go face.

You lead with creatures as a recursive sources of damage and finish the opponent off with spells, usually in increments of 3. You can't go wrong with old-fashioned Burn.

Combo

Ad Nauseam by Darien Elderfield, Top 4 at Grand Prix Charlotte 2015
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Back when we had , one of the most popular uses was taking advantage of it in Ad Nauseam, a fully spell-based combo deck. The game plan was simple: draw the whole library via the namesake . Normally you'd lose life equal to the mana cost of each card flipped, but you play and , which make you invulnerable to death. Once the whole deck is in your hands, you produce three red by exiling three Spirit Guides, cast , and using its ability discard ten to fifteen lands to kill the opponent.

All of it could be done at instant speed as well! It was a true menace of a spell-based combo deck.

Infect by Tom Ross, Top 4 at SCG Open Charlotte 2015
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While technically the deck still exists today, it's certainly not as prevalent. Nowadays, Infect is heavily punished by free interaction like, , and . In the past, not only was it not punished by these, but it also had the now banned . It provided the perfect info regarding the opponent's hand and fueled , all for free.

The game plan was straightforward: attack for 10 poison damage, be it in one or multiple attacks. The deck ran infect creatures, pump spells, and protection. Opponents could die as early as turn two if you led on and followed it up with double or and a single .

Control

Grixis Control by Corey Burkhart, Top 8 at Grand Prix Pittsburgh 2015
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My favorite category remains control. Back then you couldn't play such a strategy without . It was the best thing going for control, usually paired with . hadn't been printed yet so why run black? was a proper card, and it killed through Affinity's thanks to the "no regeneration" clause. was another Affinity hedge but also loops with Snapcaster Mage. allowed for versatile cheap interaction early and punished opposing mulligans. Last but not least, was a strong threat and could come down as early as turn two with the help of .

was a nice way to abuse the aforementioned Scour as well and transform on turn three. Should the opponent kill Jace, you could always recur him with Kolaghan's Command. What's worth mentioning is that the whole deck could be played right now, but likely not as successfully.

Jeskai Control by Daniel Fournier, Top 8 at SCG IQ Somerset
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Another control deck that you could fully play today reveals a pattern: Blue control decks have never been broken enough to get anything meaningful banned—up until the modern times with and .

The deck uses Snappy of course and takes full advantage of it with 29 instants and sorceries. One of them that has fully gone obsolete is , sadly. It was so much fun to kill two mana dorks, two , or two infect creatures. There were plenty of really good targets. On top of that, quadruple Snapcaster combined with quadruple created a real late-game treat in classic draw-go style.

Combo Control

My second most beloved category is combo control. I really like the idea of playing a full control game until one finishes the opponent off with a combination of sorts. That's why I've played or in Modern so much.

RUG Scapeshift by Kazu Negri, 2nd at Four Horsemen Paris Relief Charity Event
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RUG Scapeshift was a classic "destroy, counter, destroy, counter, win" type of deck. It contained seventeen pieces of interaction main and paired them with a full set of Snapcaster Mages. It also ran a healthy number of ramp spells in and , which prove crucial in its actual endgame …

Once it's assembled at least seven lands in play, it could fire off a to find a and six other Mountain cards. This created six separate triggers dealing 3 damage each for 18 damage total. If the opponent happened to be at such a life total, they died. If not, an eighth land scaled nicely because now you could find not a seventh Mountain but rather a second Valakut and have twelve triggers. And yes, the deck is still fully legal in Modern.

Splinter Twin by Brian Braun-Duin, 2nd at Grand Prix Oklahoma City 2015
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Something we've all been waiting for: the one and only . Much to a lot of people's disappointment, one cannot play this right now due to the namesake card's ban. But when it was legal, the deck would sometimes play a pure combo, a pure control, or a combo control game, which is why a lot of players loved and hated it. You never knew if postboard the combo was sided out or left in, but you had to assume the combo to be in there and keep removal spells.

Either way, it created what I'd call "false tempo" where your opponent was holding up interaction while you'd be playing your control game, taking advantage of the fact that they weren't proceeding with theirs. After all, they had to respect the possibility of dying out of nowhere. Notably, all the creatures in the deck had flash so you could really mess up the timing for the opponent. You could even be tricky and tap their lands to restrict their ability to interact further.

There have been numerous arguments for unbanning Twin as the interaction has changed. Nowadays we have , , , , —all the colors got strong ways to interact with the combo. Whether or not it'll ever come off the banned list remains to be seen. I know I'd be sleeving up some Exarchs if that were to happen.

Midrange

Junk by Jaberwocki, 1st at Magic Online Constructed League
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Let's pivot to some good honest midrange decks. Junk was the pinnacle of midrange: , , , , and a ton of interaction, including a full set of , which were necessary due to the presence of Splinter Twin.

It was said that few decks could beat the curve of turn one discard, turn two Goyf, turn three Liliana. Discarding Souls to Liliana even put the opponent in a pickle as they had to discard a full card while you just made one of yours cheaper. Again, all the cards are legal. Alas, while the assessment of the deck's power may have been accurate back then, it's certainly not now.

Midrange Combo

Podless Company by Ian Bosley, Top 8 at Grand Prix Charlotte 2015
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With banned, players tried to adapt, adopting both and to make up for it. The deck does run a fair bit of interactive midrange tools such as or , but its main appeal was the infinite combination between three of its creatures …

Basically made it so that your creatures couldn't get −1/−1 counters, so when your died, the creature would simply come back in its basic form. Add to the mix, and you can keep sacrificing the Finks, gaining life, and scrying for however long you wish. If that's not enough, a single copy of provided infinite damage with Melira and Seer. Bear in mind that Company and Chord could find any of these tools, and they still can. All the cards are still legal, though they haven't won a relevant tournament in a while.

Big Mana

Amulet Bloom by Mike Sigrist, Top 16 at Grand Prix Pittsburgh 2015
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Amulet Titan has been in Modern for a long time and remains tier one to this day. However, it changed quite a bit. Back then, it had access to the now banned , which, in conjunction with a turn one , made for a turn two .

The deck also featured another angle of attack, ramping into and casting a pact, in most cases . The pact would be copied, and the opponent would have to pay for it or else they'd lose. Most often they lost. It was a true force to be reckoned with, and there were no s to save you from a turn two kill.

Tron by Joe Lossett, Top 8 SCG Invitational Las Vegas
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Another deck that has been in Modern since time immemorial is Tron. It included a full set of back then to ensure it wouldn't die to fast Affinity draws.

I'd like to say it's still fully legal, but there is one exception: . It's actually a huge exception as this one copy was accessible through four and four . It allowed you to have a nigh-unbeatable endgame as you could basically chain Eldrazi turn after turn.

Goodbye to 2015

This was 2015. It was a wild diverse west filled with multiple decks for each macro archetype. I hope you've enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. And as always—please remember to hold my hand and pass the turn together. Cheers!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.