The Top Hate of #PTOGW

What’s up in the world of Modern without Splinter Twin? There are new decks (or, different interpretations of a new deck), but I think that’s due to Oath of the Gatewatch entering the format more than Twin leaving it. The Pro Tour is happening this weekend. We have our Top 8 players and their decks:

• Ivan Floch: Colorless Eldrazi
• Shuhei Nakamura: Colorless Eldrazi
• Luis Scott-Vargas: Colorless Eldrazi
• Andrew Brown: Blue-Red Eldrazi
• Jiachen Tao: Blue-Red Eldrazi
• Patrick Dickmann: Affinity
• Pascal Maynard: Affinity
• Frank Lepore: Processor Eldrazi

Took me a sec to realize Frank’s deck isn’t called “Professor Eldrazi.”

The Top 8, much like Zendikar itself, is swarming with Eldrazi. The fact that the only thing that can possibly save us from total Eldrazi domination is one of the two Affinity decks is damn near like allying with the Phyrexians to save the Multiverse from the Titans and their broods. Affinity has been one of Modern’s most notable antagonists. Now we might actually be rooting for them to win the day.

Can’t say I ever expected Affinity to be the “good guys” but here we are. #PTOGW

— Craig Wescoe (@Nacatls4Life) February 7, 2016

Six Eldrazi decks in the Top 8, and a Pro Tour in which aggro strategies made up nearly half of the field have given ample fodder to the critics, and particularly to the critics of the Splinter Twin ban.

I get the frustration. If this is what Modern is going to look like, I have no desire at all to be a part of it. Maybe the Eldrazi are too format-warping. Maybe WotC made a huge mistake and something needs to be done (i.e., banned) to fix the problem. But it’s too soon to tell. Players need time to adjust to this new deck. There’s not enough data to reasonably draw such conclusions.

I think there’s a reason why all of these Eldrazi decks are in the Top 8: Twin’s banning shook up the format for several reasons which are beyond the scope of this article to describe.

What I’ll say here is that the removal of Twin added an element of the unknown to Modern.

The conventional wisdom when either a major change is made to a format or a new set of relevant cards changes the status quo of a format is to play an aggro deck.

Control decks are attempting to answer questions posed by other decks. If they don’t know what questions to expect, they are likely to bring the wrong answers. Control decks become better once we understand what questions need answered. Aggro decks, on the other hand, are more linear. They don’t have to worry nearly as much about what the other decks are doing. They aren’t trying to find an answer to anything as much as they are forcing everyone else to find an answer to them.

In a format of the unknown, it’s an advantage to know precisely what you’re doing and do it quickly and efficiently while others stumble with their control decks that don’t yet know what questions to answer, or fumble with their new and cool ideas that haven’t had enough time to be thoroughly tested. So it makes sense that the fast and powerful Eldrazi aggro strategies would be so dominant in this tournament.

“But wait! The Eldrazi decks are new! They haven’t been around long enough to be thoroughly tested either!”

They are new, but they are fairly linear strategies based on a strategy as old as Magic itself: play good cards and ways to cast them cheap. When Eye of Ugin plays like Mishra’s Workshop, what more do you need to see?

And the fact that the deck is new gives the Eldrazi players the advantage. A lot of players haven’t seen a deck quite like this before, and therefore lack the experience – and the sideboard – to respond to it effectively.

And this is the Pro Tour. It’s a small and particular metagame, and most of the players care little to none at all about whether a card is cool or fun or interesting. These players just want to win. Let’s relax and give it time so we can see what happens in the rest of the Modern-playing MTG world.

The next few months, with more tournaments featuring a greater diversity of players, who now possess better knowledge of the Eldrazi decks and more experience with it, will shine light on whether Modern is a healthy format, or whether the Eldrazi will consume the format, leaving ruin in their wake.