Well, I'm here again with another finals Modern decklist. Once again, it's a deck I built it, but it wasn't me who piloted it. I ended up Top 16 while my friend, Andres Dominguez, made it to the finals. I am having an extremely odd PTQ season full Top 16's, but at least I know I'm on an impressive deck building spree making back to back finals in the last PTQs. People are starting to joke about getting a decklist from me because it will be guaranteed to get second place. Although, I'm starting to get frustrated because it's time for me to start getting the finishes myself. This article will cover the Hateraid Hexproof Bant deck I built, go over key card choices, and give a summary of Andres' tournament report.
Description The deck is a mixture of the Hexproof decks with a bunch of hate cards thrown in for the top decks in the meta. The core is the hexproof creatures with a full package of Geist of Saint Traft. We figured one of the most brutal things in the format is a turn two Geist followed by a turn three Elspeth, Knight Errant. If you lead with a Noble Heirarch that's 10 damage! You have the possibility to deal 20 before your opponent even lays their fourth land drop with that curve. Not to mention the Geist is untargetable.
The Hate
The second part of the deck is the tech cards. Against any normal based strategy, you rely heavily on your hexproof creatures and the Elspeth and Swords but not against some decks. Against various combo decks that don't tend to play fair you have various hate cards. Those include Thalia, Guardian of Thraben mostly. It also includes the full set of Tectonic Edge, which can give Tron decks fits. In combination with the Thalias the Tectonics can be brutal, not to mention the Spell Pierces as well. You also have a one-of Qasali Pridemage to make sure you have an out to random cards like Ensnaring Bridge. Another important card in the deck is Aven Mindsensor. Aven Mindsensor is hilarious; it's brutal against fetch lands, but its main priority is stopping Gifts Ungiven. You can also combo it with Path to Exile to keep them on the land screw plan. This deck can get a lot of free wins off of missed fetches in combination with Thalia and Tectonic Edge. The other tech card of choice is Ghostly Prison. I know, I know, it seems like a terrible card to play main deck. It's one of the only effective ways to stop Splinter Twin while also having a generally playable card. You will side it out many matchups, but I think it's worth it to have a great game one against Splinter Twin, which has been dominating our PTQ's in Texas. It's also a bomb against Affinity, BW Tokens, or various aggro decks and generally can win you the game by creating tempo. Andre even won a game one against Tron by playing it, stopping a Celestial Colonnade attack, and swinging back for the win.
Trinket Mage Package
There are more hate cards in the sideboard with a small Trinket Mage package. Your only targets are Grafdigger's Cage and Aether Spellbomb. I tried cards like Elixir of Immortality, Relic of Progenitus, and Engineered Explosives. I found all of them underwhelming except Explosives, which is worth the addition in hindsight. The reason for such an odd Trinket Mage package is because the deck originally had three Grafdigger's Cage in the board. I realized it was much less effective and efficient than switching it to two Trinket Mage and a Grafdigger's Cage. Then I could get the added bonus of grabbing an Aether Spellbomb against Tron or Splinter Twin. Against Tron it gives you three outs to Iona, and it gives you another way to stop the combo against Twin.
The Sideboard The board is packed with specific cards mostly for combo matchups. The Leyline of Sanctity's are typically for the Lava Spike Deck which has become increasingly popular lately partially due to my friend Green placing well and my last article. You can find that article here. The Leylines also give you a great edge against Storm. Combining the Thalias, the Leylines, the searchable Grafdigger's Cage, and the Ghostly Prisons to prevent Empty the Warrens, this deck has a solid matchup against combo. Like stated before, the searchable Aether Spellbomb is for the Twin and Iona. The Grafdigger's Cage helps against Past in Flames, Dredge decks, Birthing Pod decks, various decks that interact with their graveyard, and even with decks like Martyr with Proclamation of Rebirth. The Grafdigger's Cage is very versatile.
The Beats The main beaters are Sword of Fire and Ice and Elspeth, Knight-Errant. The turn three Elspeth on a hexproof creature can create some unbeatable races. I played an extra Elspeth because I wanted to draw one pretty much all the time. The only time they are subpar is if your opponent is playing Remand. Otherwise, they give the deck a ton of reach. The Swords are needed because sometimes your creatures just need an extra boost, but the real question is why only 3x Sword of Fire and Ice? I believe that Sword of Fire and Ice is just plain better than other swords. It acts as removal in a removal light deck; plus it's great against Delver decks. It's the most all-around awesome sword and can provide a ton of damage and card advantage. It's also because of the Splinter Twin matchup. When you lock them out with Ghostly Prison the game turns into a stalemate. They can't kill you, but unless you have flying they will have infinite blockers to stop you from killing them. So making the swords pro blue/red increases that matchup a ton. So, that's the general overview of the deck. Andre was kind enough to send me his tournament report.
This is a smaller report than usual because this article is mostly about the deck and how it works.
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Tournament Report
Round 1: Splinter Twin This matchup was pretty easy and went just as planned. Game one was won with Ghostly Prison and Sword of Fire and Ice. Game two had a Qasali Pridemage involved but was pretty much the same. Andre's opponent and his friend complained about how he was so unlucky to hit someone playing a deck with Ghostly Prison in the main.
Round 3: UW Tron Game one Andre started off really quick, but his opponent resolved an Iona. He was so low that he had to Wrath his own board, and Andre played a Thrun immediately afterwards which was enough to do him in. Game two was also over quickly with a Thalia start and a Spell Pierce on his Wrath.
Match: 2-0
Record: 3-0
Round 4: Splinter Twin - Will Lowry (eventual winner of this PTQ) Game one Andre was about to win with a Geist of Saint Traft and a Sword of Fire and Ice, but due to a slow start Will killed him by attacking. Many people ended up watching this match up because the round went on forever and the games were very complicated. Game two Andre got a turn four win with a Noble Hierarch into Geist of Saint Traft and a Spell Pierce for his Firespout. Game three Andre landed an early Ghostly Prison but was put at five life due to attacking and Grim Lavamancer. Andre stalled him with Aether Spellbomb and eventually drew a sword which killed Will.
Match: 2-1 Record: 4-0
Round 5: Affinity Game one Andre's opponent had a fast draw and infected Andre to death with Inkmoth Nexus. Game two he managed to win again through a Creeping Corrosion. He had enough burn to get there. After this loss we decided to change Creeping Corrosion to Fracturing Gust.
Match: 0-2 Record: 4-1
Round 6: UW Tron
Game one Andre got a quick win with Thalia. His opponent had two Tron lands out, but could not cast his Signets. So, he scooped. Game two Andre started off quickly again with a Noble Hierarch into Geist of Saint Traft and a Spell Pierce for his Wrath.
Match: 2-0
Record: 5-1
Round 7: GB Rock – David Palmer Intentional draw into Top 8.
Record: 5-1-1
Top 8: Monoblue Faeries Game one Andre had a hilarious start with a turn one Birds of Paradise and turn two Sword of Fire and Ice. Turn three he equipped it, started swinging, and his opponent's deck had nothing to answer it. Game two Andre's opponent stalled him for a little bit with a Vedalken Shackles. After a few Cryptic Commands, Andre resolved two Swords of Fire and Ices and killed him.
Top 4: GB Rock – David Palmer David's deck was interesting; it had a bunch of Strangleroot Geists and Tectonic Edges. Andre saved his best draw of the day for this match and killed his opponent in about thirty seconds. Turn one, Noble. Turn two, Giest. Turn three, Elspeth. That's ten swinging at you turn three, and unless you have an answer you're dead next turn. Obviously, David did not have an answer and quickly scooped it up. Game two David stalled awhile with Smothers, Eternal Witness, and Garruk WildspeakerBeast tokens, but Andre had a Bird equipped with two Swords of Fire and Ices. The card advantage was just too much and that was a match.
Finals: UR Splinter Twin – Will Lowry Here's a little preview of how the finals of PTQ's have been going for Andre. He's placed second twice and has no PTQ wins yet. We call it the second place curse. Both Bernie, who's friends with both Andre and I, and myself have fallen victim to this curse. It means you place second three times before your first PTQ win. So many jokes have been made at Andre's expense, saying he has to get second place one more time, but afterwards he'll be set. Also, Will is another friend of ours who has played on multiple pro tours and is a solid player.
Unfortunately for Andre, his draws were much poorer than they had been earlier in the day, and he suffered from a slow start. It didn't help that Will played his Grim Lavamancers perfectly and killed all of Andre's mana producers. After an eventual Ghostly Prison, Andre caved after not drawing a Sword. Game two was almost identical. Andre had a Ghostly Prison stalling Will, but was unable to draw the Sword during this long-drawn game.
Winner: Will Lowry
After all that, I really liked the deck and wouldn't mind playing it again. The finals consisted of two very solid players which both deserved to win. Hopefully, Andre can get it next time now that he got this curse out of the way. The deck might need to be tuned to whatever decks are popular at the time, but with the core hexproof creatures and hate cards the deck is a contender. See you next time.
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